Part 23: Mission 7 - The Red Planet of Meetings and Partings

Mission 7 - The Red Planet of Meetings and Partings





For whatever reason, the Jovians who razed all colonies on the surface have not laid a finger on the few survivors who fled underground.
Ines figures they simply have no interest in them.
Ryouko demands to know what Ines was talking about before we got here, and Ines says matter-of-factly that the Nadesico will shortly meet its end in a Jovian attack.
She thinks they can survive in the underground shelter, and tells you all that the only reason you made it this far is the Jovians deliberately holding back to see what Earth technology is like.
Now, the only way for the crew to survive will be to join the colonists in the underground shelter.





As though to underscore this, the Jovians appear in force.



Ines asks for Yurika’s decision and she will not abandon her command and flee -she orders the Aestivalises out.
Akito is among them, preferring fighting over dying.
He angrily tells Gai not to mix him up in his anime-like battle camaraderie, and Izumi points out to them all that the enemy are barking at the gates.



Uribatake tells the Aestis that they can swap Frames at the Nadesico.



Hmm. This could be interesting: 5 Aestis and the Nadesico going up against 4 Jovian Katonbos and 8 Battas.

We’ll be focusing our attention on one ship at a time, the one closest to our right being the first target. Nevertheless, we’ll want to hold back a little and take out the Battas that are gonna swarm us for the morale before going after the big ones.



This should be good enough. I didn’t use Focus with anyone in order to save SP for when we’re deep in the enemy lines (I did use Invincible with Gai).



Enemy Phase!



Those bugs have high movement so most of them will get a chance to take a shot at us. Hopefully, the command auras will be enough to make them dodge everything. Hikaru is the first one to be targeted.














Not bad.



Hrm. I was hoping Ryouko would pull some better dodging numbers but she still evades the attack.



These Katonbos have the same sucky accuracy as ever so I don’t need to worry about them, either.
I won’t show these silly sniping attempts because it’s pointless – they won’t hit.



A bugger decides to give Ryouko another go. Hopefully, the RNG gods will stay on my side. Click the image below to see it.




Very good.
Another pair of Battas also go after Ryouko but she simply dodges to allow the others to get morale.



This one comes after Akito and, hopefully, he can oneshot it like Ryouko. I’ll leave Gai there as a support defend just in case.



: Grr...the person that destroyed Utopia Colony was on the Nadesico the whole time!
: Hey, Akito! Don't lose your head in battle!
: Shut up! You don't understand how I feel!










Good man.



Once more, they go after Ryouko but this one is too far away to be oneshot.
Might as well weaken him some (in hindsight, maybe I should’ve weakened those other 2 Battas instead of outright dodging them…oh well.)










That’s fine.



Player Phase!

No more problems here. Let’s spread our group out a bit and clean up the Battas before converging on one of the ships to the right.


The Nadesico can deal with that full health one.



I’ll have Akito deal with the one up there due to the Flight Frame he and Gai are using.
That Frame adds 1 movement to his total which makes it easier for him to sashay over to the Jovian ships compared to the girls.



Let’s have Gai scoot over some and deal with one of the buggers that Ryouko dodged before.



: As the enemies approach, innocents quake in fear... wooo! If you're not pumped, you can't call yourself a man!
: Come, evildoers! This is Gai Daigouji's shining moment of triumph!










Very nice. Now we only hav-




Jovian reinforcements appear and, while Ryouko hates to admit it, things are turning out just as Ines said.
Yurika feels like she can't pull back here when there are people in the underground shelters that they must rescue, which makes Fukube's expression even grimmer.



Just then, Ruri detects several new mecha entering the area – 5 to be precise.
They’re unlikely to be allies since the Federation has abandoned this place.





Prospector counts five of the lion-shaped units, respectively colored black, red, green, yellow and blue - not a one of them is the fabled mecha-lion of the GGG.

The following SS are all related to the bolded next below but I wanted to take them to show all the new characters:


That’s Kogane.


That’s Kurogane.


That’s Seidou and the one below is Shirogane.


The lions' pilots have only just arrived on Mars, and aren't happy to see the insectoid enemy units greeting them.
They're also puzzled by the strange battleship, apparently not of Federation origin - much must have happened in the Solar System during their incarceration by Galra.



Princess Fahra asks Shirogane which of the two groups ahead would be from his homeworld
He suspects the white battleship is it - though it's not clear if it's really on their side or not yet.



Kogane Akira hails the Nadesico, telling Yurika that he's from Earth.
Prospector is surprised that the people above are humans, while Yurika introduces herself and her ship: she quickly requests their assistance against the Jovian Lizards.



Being that the enemies are “lizards”, Suzuishi figures there must be icky Death Black beasts or the like aboard.
Shirogane figures that supporting the white battleship is the right call after all, though there's still the question of how to explain themselves to the Earthlings.



Raibul tells Akira to quit dragging his butt and request aid for Princess Fahra, rightful heir to the throne of Altea.
Gai leaps to the assumption that some evil empire is after the lion mecha but Akito thinks no such thing is possible – that is, until Raibul says he is glad to see that we’re aware of the Galra Empire and its emperor Dai Bazaal!
Even Hikaru is surprised that Gai was actually right.



As the Jovians turn their fire towards the lions, Hys tells the boys to get it in gear and protect the princess, lest they face her wrath instead.
Yurika recommends that the Earthlings pull together here, and Kogane sees no other way to survive against the large group of Jovians.
He also knows that the Galra are not far behind, so they must find allies quickly.



The five lions assume some strange formation, and Akito and Gai realize in shock that they're about to...!!


: Golion Combination! Leeeeeet’s Gooooooo Lion!




: GOLIIIIIIOOOOOOOOON!

: They combined! I knew they were gonna do that! Aah, it's good to be alive!!
: The Five Lions and Golion…At least it’s easy to understand!
(Go means five in Japanese, so…)



Raibul urges Kogane to show these Jovians what the savior of Altea can do.
Fahra's sulks that Altea is already done for but Kogane tells her not to think about Altea now: they fight to go on living.



Golion/Lion Voltron is a decent robot that gets eclipsed by all the GREAT ones. It’s got good stats (8800 HP, 1600 Armor – his movement is 5 which is kind of low) and attacks but it’s nowhere near being the strongest Super Robot in the game. It’ll do its job well and it’s bulky and filled with pilots to keep it going (and it's song is so catchy that it puts small pox to shame).



I’ll have Golion pummel one of the new Battas and hope for a kill (by the way, while they look different, these bugs are the same as the ones from before – only earthbound).
If not, I had Hiroshi use Alert.



: Long ago, he cut a swath of destruction across the universe, and ultimately challenged a god and fell...
: Now he's divided into five parts and sealed on planet Altea...his name is GoLion!
: Now his power is ours! And we will use it for good!

Click the image below to see it.


Not bad at all!


Down below, let’s have Hikaru deal with another one of the bugs.










Good, good.



Izumi can take the weakened one with no problem.



Enemy Phase!





Even more enemies show up, and the Nadesico crew suspects there's a Tulip, a species of teleportation device, nearby.





Any number of bad guys could potentially Boson Jump through it, "it" being a certain big gadget on the map.
Raibul mentions that Ines explanation was very thorough and she mentions that it’s a hobby of hers.
Either way, the GoLion pilots have to decide whether to fight on here or flee.



Once they hear the Martian survivors are in the vicinity, Kogane and the princess agree that they must not allow the tragedy of Altea to be repeated here.







But more problems show up in the form of a Death Black beastman, one of Galra's agents.





It takes out several of the Jovian Battas in an instant and Gai sees that its grotesque design is certainly in line with its evil name.
Its power is immense enough to menace even Go-Lion, and is used indiscriminately. Nevertheless, it needs to be destroyed now before it can endanger the survivors.




Good thing that Batta went down in one hit. At least one of these ships will miss Golion.




The next Katonbo gets a hit in but we’re still good.


The “good” thing about the Galra Beastman is that it’s considered an enemy by the Jovians and they’ll attack each other.
The bad thing is that it can possibly steal kills from you (thank god this wasn’t a crit).



This one is closer, so Golion can punch it!










Punching a ship is always the right choice.









Ah, yes. If a neutral unit attacks another one and your last attack had the animation showing, it won’t give you a chance to turn it off.



Might as well have Gai take the free damage and weaken it some because we’ll need to rush that Deathbeast before the Jovians kill it.





This is getting dangerous…the Death Hell may be killed before I even get a chance to do anything.



Nothing else to do but dodge.

Ok. Only the Deathbeast has a move left so I can go after him nex-




You motherfucker, you…

*Reload powers, go! *


Player Phase!



FINALLY! After reloading around four times, the thing finally managed to survive. Normally, I wouldn’t do this but this guy has something I want.







Before taking that idiotic Galra, let’s at least take down one of the Jovian ships.



Ok, time to take off the kiddie gloves. Get in there, Gai!













Good man!



Akito should be able to finish it off with a Gekigan Flare.Click the Image below to see it.




Attaboy.



Now, let’s kill this thing. I get Gain, Lucky (self-cast Bless) and Fighting Spirit to finish it with as much prejudice as possible. Click the image below to see it.




GOOOOOOOOOOOOLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!



We get a Repair kit, Dust Filter and an Infight +1 but, sadly, no levels.







The battle wears on as some kind of barrage comes from overhead, seriously damaging the shelter.





It's more Galra, led by Honerva.
It seems that they and GoLion happened to be headed to the same place, and defeating it will make a good prologue to taking over the Solar System in her book.
In the process, she can overthrow the Leo Union that Altea leads once and for all.
Jun figures this must be the Galra Empire that they mentioned and Gai is damn sure about it: they are every inch the prototypical Evil Empire.





Go-Lion is running low on energy from coming to Earth, and matters get even grimmer when more Jovians show up.



Sadak asks Honerva what to do, and the answer is obvious: kill any who would pose an obstacle.





Yurika pleads with them to stop, lest the shelter be destroyed entirely, but just then someone sallies forth in an assault shuttle.





It's Admiral Fukube, but he's not planning to run away as Akito accuses.
Instead, he orders Yurika to take GoLion and get out of the area pronto, lest he shoot her himself.



Yurika's options are either to shoot Fukube and then fall to the combined Jovian and Galra assault, or to pick up our troops and flee.
But flee where? He tells Yurika to use the Tulip, despite the fact that no one has proven humans can withstand Boson Jumping.
Akito once again accuses Fukube of trying to flee in the chaos and foisting his failure off on the rest of you, though he doesn't actually seem to be going anywhere...



Yurika has to decide between protecting the Nadesico and abandoning the survivors, and after a moment she orders the Aestivalises and GoLion to return to the ship.
Kurogane and Suzuishi still want to fight, unwilling to allow Mars to become another Altea but Kogane is willing to comply, telling his comrades that they can't afford to die yet - someone's got to defeat the Galra.





Yurika sets course for the Tulip, and Fukube tells her that she's done the right thing.
Or, if she prefers, she took the only choice he left her, but as she tells him, she did make a choice, as captain.



She then tells him to rejoin them, that the Nadesico - no, she personally - needs him.
He has nothing more to teach her, and says that he's doing this for what he feels is most important.
Akito yells at him not to just up and die, selfish to the end, which Fukube won't dispute.
However, he's sure that our people one one day find something this important to them too.
Now, what he plans to do is destroy the Tulip so the Nadesico can't be followed.





The enemy have realized this too, and open fire, leaving us little choice but to trust in your Distortion Field; Kogane tells Fukube that he won't forget his sacrifice.
Fukube tells the young man to live through this, no matter what, if he's got burdens to shoulder.





As Gai nears the Nadesico and it reaches the Tulip, Fukube muses that he was neither a good admiral, nor a good adult, being selfish like this to the end.
But he can say this: the Nadesico is your ship, with all the rage and love and hate it brings.






The Nadesico's crew regains consciousness, somehow in different parts of the ship than they started.
For reasons she can't fathom, Ines is with Akito, as is Yurika.
Yurika is deeply saddened by her inability to help either the admiral, or the Martian survivors.



What's more Gai apparently didn't make it on board and is presumed dead.
Ines says that it's miraculous that things weren't any worse given the battle you just faced, though.
She tells Yurika not to blame herself, since the people of Mars were presumably doomed either way.



Ruri then calls and asks Yurika to come to the bridge, but Ines tells her that Yurika is still in shock.
As for the Nadesico, it seems to have been thrown to the fringes of Earth’s airspace: the Boson Jump apparently succeeded.



Akito's fury has nowhere to turn except perhaps inward, and Yurika can't even effectively apologize for something that's not her fault...