Part 187: Mission 50 (Moon Route) – Two Suspended in Time - Part 1

Mission 50 (Moon Route) – Two Suspended in Time



Our people have already made the trip into Space and the Moon comes into view.
From this far away, it seems unthinkable that the forces of evil could dwell there; Noal says it best, wishing that nothing but bunnies dwelt there.
Kurz says he prefers his bunnies in tights which annoys Ryouko that Kurz is still spouting nonsense so close to the battle.





Ruri orders everyone to deploy and prepare to start the assault.
From D-Boy’s encounter with Sword, it’s clear that the Radam are expecting us; as such, there’s no reason for us to try sneaking any closer.



Yumi remembers her epiphany on how D-Boy’s “D” stands for Dream and does her best to stand firmly but this strikes a question from Horis: What does J’s “J” stand for?
Hikaru says it must be for Japan, Izumi figures it’d be Joke, Gai Shishioh imagines it’d be either Judgment or Justice; Renée asks but, inwardly, J thinks that he actually has no idea what his name means
Either way, Aki promises D-Boy that she will help him throughout his entire battle - Blade thanks her, saying that her being here is all he could wish for.
Regardless of what happens, he promises not to forget her name or any of the memories that they’ve shared together.
Aria is quite saddened watching those two, never having felt emotions like that in her heart – Shihomi says that they all share those feelings and Kazuma knows that the best they can do is help them get through this battle.







The conversation is interrupted when Regulate detects incoming Radam troops from the moon.
As expected, it’s Tekkaman Sword with a bevy of Alien Tekkamen and she was, indeed, expecting both Aki and Neo-Wärter; Blade isn’t about to let her stop his advance towards the moon but Sword is determined to use all of her being to protect Lord Omega.





Sword powers up (getting 150 morale and auto-casting Alert and Focus) and Aki inwardly says that Sword isn’t the only one fighting out of love.
Hiver also realizes that neither side wants to lose, because we’re all fighting for the sake of someone important; Blade is ready to burn his whole life in this battle, if is what it takes for them to reach the moon, and Ruri orders the attack to begin.



Like before, most of this first turn is spend moving ahead but Aki does manage to get in range of a Radam Mother.














Yuck…throw that goop at someone else.



Enemy Phase!



Blade swats a Monster that tries to attack him.



A couple of Mothers gun for Valzacard.


















Come ON…7 HP?!
At least the other Mother (the one Aki weakened) died in one go.



Player Phase!



One thing to keep in mind: aside from auto-casting Alert and Focus, Sword will also cast Vigor at the start of our turn (restoring 30% of max HP – on top of her natural 10% HP regen).




Kurz takes an assist from Ryouko and does some nice damage on another Mother.



Another Dynamic Kill that I never got around to showing off (because I also forgot it existed! ) – here’s Dead’s cool Tek-Lancer kill.





With that out of the way, Orgun will chain that pack of Monsters and that 7 HP Mother.














Two out of three - very good.






Izumi and Hikaru move ahead, each one killing a Monster.



We’ll have Gai move farther than most to draw the Alien Tekkamen in.
















Get wrecked, kid.





Ryouko weakens the last Monster and Sousuke, traversing slowly through a small meteor field, gets just in range to shoot it down.

One thing to keep in mind now that we’re going for the Alien Tekkamen: there are two new types on the field – another type of Alien Tekkaman and huge Radam Warships.
Each one of them has a Commander L2 and will boost the nearby troops, so expect them to be dodgier and more accurate than usual.



Still, they are a bit farther away and we don’t want to get into Voltekka crossfire.
As such, we’ll our way in from the sides.














We should be able to take the lesser Tekkamen down without much trouble.





Sommer and Yumi finish the first one.



Valzacard is slowed due to that Mother but Accelerate/Assail fixes it.












Aw, so close.



Fine, Aki needs the morale.



Enemy Phase!



Here’s the Radam Warship flexing its long-range Voltekka muscles.







It’s still very inaccurate, though.



And here’s the new Alien Tekkaman – it has higher stats all around but it’s the same as every other models.









You ain’t getting through here.
Gai keeps getting sniped by others but either dodges or blocks out the damage.



This one isn’t so clever, though.


















Good, good.



Couple of Aliens try chaining into Sommer and Hiver but those stacking friendship bonuses negate their extra accuracy.



Sword decides to take a shot at Valzacard – mind, she still has Alert so there’s no point in counterattacking.



: You wanna talk love? Get rid of all your Radam trees!
: They're making billions of people suffer down there!
The Radam trees are Lord Omega's desire! I will lay down my life for him!
: Is this... love between male and female?
: Oh no, Aria, that's not an example to learn from! Real love is supposed to make everyone else happy too!
: Being single sucks, but this is one flavor of love I'd pass on!








Ah, should’ve just defended.



Player Phase!



You need to get that Lambda Driver going, Sousuke.












There ya go.






Yumi teams up with Blade to take out another Alien Tekkaman, while Youko leaves one barely hanging.



Gai Daigouji can handle it.








Or not…*grumble*





Izumi takes the kill and Hikaru starts chipping another down.



You’re up, Sommer.


















Stab!



Yikes…I didn’t think David and Natasha were so far behind on levels.
Either way, he learns Multicombo L3.



Orgun kills another Alien and the southeastern Radam pack is finished.




Kazuma slashes away a large chunk of HP off a new Alien.



Good enough for Ryouko to take it down.








One less Command Aura is always good.





Aki and Yumi get working on another of the newer models.



This one’ll go to Vesna in order to enable some Double Voltekka goodness.














That’ll do.



Both Natasha and Goliath nab two levels, with him learning Rouse.




Blade tags Genichirou in and they both take a swing at one of the Warships.



This makes Blade go super sayan.



We don’t want this alien regenerating, so Dead takes him out.



Mind, the Warships will also regen but Gai will compensate for that with some extra damage.


















Good man.



Enemy Phase!



Of course, the Warships have MAPs of their own.






Neither of them has good accuracy, though.



An Alien tries to tag a shot at Valzacard and gets blasted into oblivion.



How about you?














Bah. Fine!



Stacking our own command auras and friendship bonuses makes it so everyone can dodge Sword’s MAP safely (even without focus).
Of course, Gai will just block the shit out of anything.



Player Phase!



Might as well take these two ships down before going after Sword.


















As always, the broken size modifiers mean that their defenses aren’t up to snuff.




Kurz takes an assist from Mao and quickly takes down the last Alien Tekkaman.



We’ll have to get rid of that Alert sometime, so…



: Eviluder! It seems even after you're duplicated, your enmity with us, Radam, remains!
: This isn't about enmity - it's about protecting what's precious to us!
: The same reason you fight, Tekkaman Sword!










Heeey, nice parry.






Dead grabs some help from Kazuma and takes a nice shot at the other Warship; Youko also contributes…a bit.



Now we get serious.
















Much better.



Sommer chose a really good time to learn Love.




Ryouko and Valzacard bring the first warship to its last legs.



Get to it, Gai.












That’s more like it.




Vesna gets help from Blade and the last warship is nearly dead…at which point I completely forget about it and go after Sword!



That Command Aura boosting her numbers isn’t helping but…



: How can she fight so hard?
: I fight for my love for Lord Omega! You will never stop me!
: Love?
: I don't understand, but I can't afford to fail either.




















At least Sousuke gets lucky and hits.



You’re up, Yumi.



: You raise your sword for Blade, knowing he will never return your feelings, little girl?
: Mr. D has the Chief. I've... I've let go and moved on!
: But I'll never give up on Mr. D's dream! That's why I'm not backing down!












Gotta be careful now.



Don’t go crazy on this next hit, Gai.



: You know love! So why do you fight for the Radam?
: My love belongs to Lord Omega alone! It doesn't know human or Radam!
: If your love is so twisted it makes others suffer, I have no choice but to destroy it!


















Perfect.





Dead claims that Sword’s resistance is only an annoyance but she isn’t willing to be defeated just yet – for Kengo’s sake, she will endure!

By the by, I don’t know if this happens if you kill her before you cross the event threshold (which is, I think, reduce her under 30% HP).
I assume she heals up anyway but I didn’t want to risk it.





She calls out to all available troops to stop the advance of Blade and his allies.
Her call is answered when a large pack of Alien Tekkamen deploy and many others are headed our way, from all the corners of the Moon; they are intent on keeping us from reaching our goal at any cost but Milly detects an energy signature headed our way and it’s just started opening fire.
David figures it must be a pincer attack but…







The attack was launched upon the Radam reinforcements, killing a handful of them.
Mihiro IDs the attacking unit as a Federation ship which strikes our people as odd – they figured those crazy jarheads wouldn’t be here right now.
As it turns out, it is Bernard who is glad to see all the boys and girls again, asking if we enjoyed his "present"; Youko is surprised to see Bernard here, having figured he had died in battle against Plant.



Noal is skeptic as to why the Federation would help us but Bernard says he’s here of his own volition.
Indeed, he was originally attached to the forces that are attacking Plant, but events over there have turned too messed up for his own taste and Bernard figured he and his battalion would do a whole lot more good helping us stop the Radam invasion.
He points out that the Federation army isn't entirely the Blue Cosmos's tool, and tells us not to give up hope: this isn't the right place to stake our lives on battle; he and his troops will keep the other Radam around the moon from causing further interference on our battle.



Blade doesn’t remember Bernard any more, but appreciates his help anyway.
Bernard is a bit dejected at this but re-introduces himself as “Bernard, the drunkard” – still, not ringing a bell to Blade; Aki tries to explain but Bernard says that there’s no need as Freeman had already told him the whole story.
Kazuma still tries to jog Blade’s memory by reminding him of when they helped Bernard on the Orbital Ring but Bernard tells the Trailer Kid to leave it for another time.
Bernard is here to help us get to the Moon and that’s all that matters to him!



Sword is now pissed at us, she will not allow us to lay even a finger on her Kengo.


And that’s all for today.
Come next update, we’ll wrap things up with Sword and continue on our path to the Moon.

Had we deployed Bonta-kun, you would find that Sword has a much different attitude towards it:



: Fumo, Fumo, Fumofu!
: I...I will not be fooled! My love is only for Lord Omega!

See you all then!