Part 36: Mission 10 - The Red and White Demons - Part 1

Mission 10 - The Red and White Demons



At the surface of the ring, only Muu and Youko are left from their respective squadrons.
It doesn't seem that her new Spitfire is proving of much use; Muu's rather peeved too, wondering why the military would toss a supposedly precious Gunbarrel-user like himself into this kind of meatgrinder.
Youko figures the two of them are worth about as much as pieces of gravel to HQ, and is about to blow off this entirely losing battle when reinforcements show up, aboard the Nadesico!






All the Aestis are using their gunnery frames, as befits rear-echelon reinforcements.



Akatsuki's not thrilled about this long-range firing frame, but Erina, formerly Nergal's president's secretary, says it can't be helped.
Even if the Nadesico has been sent to take bullets for the rest of the army, Akito still wants to do his part for the Earth. And, there's a bit of help on the way:









Balzac has assembled a squad of Sol Tekkamen; they start firing in formation and make short work of the Radam front lines.







Moreover, Fuuryuu(The Green one) and Rairyuu(The Yellow one) are also on the scene and are eager to show their strength.
They zoom over the larger Radam and prepare to take it out in one attack.



Youko is greatly impressed at their power, befitting of GGG’s famous Super AIs, but Muu says they are different than the GGG Red and Blue robots.





Balzac has the rest of his squad spread out to destroy the Radam individually and crisply orders Fuuryuu and Rairyuu to accompany him on destroying the nearby enemies.
He quickly (and dismissively) thanks the Nadesico for their covering fire, annoying Ryouko at his attitude; Izumi has heard of Lt. Colonel Balzac and Akatsuki informs that he got recently promoted to his rank thanks to some especially brilliant accomplishment or other - maybe it's only natural he'd be so imperious.



Balzac goes so far as to thank Youko and Muu for their "initial" efforts and tells them to withdraw.
Youko, furious, tells the latecomer to stow his orders, and Muu asks the Nadesico's captain precisely what's going on around here.
Yurika doesn't have time to explain before Corbett breaks in and tells her to hurry up and support Balzac’s raid on Block 6 already.



Prof. Yang is there too, informing Fuuryuu and Rairyuu that they're the manifestation of all the best the Chinese Aerospace Research Division has to offer: the perfect weapons.
He urges them to use their power to defend the Earth, and Yurika adds that the overall goals are wiping out the Radam and reclaiming this part of the Orbital Ring.
Yurika starts droning on that everyone is to attack the enemy, carry out their mission, etc. etc. – her uneasiness is understandable given how the Nadesico has been turned into Balzac's squadron's home base.



Balzac plans to make this operation succeed as the first stage of his glorious rise to power: climbing to prominence on the very backs of the Radam.


This mission is a nice breather after mission 9 (Earth route, mind). Nevertheless, the Radam toss a new bugger at you:



The Radam Mothers are a step above the Radam Monsters; they’re stronger on all aspects (aside from their movement which is still 5) so they’re pretty much on par with the Death Beasts in terms of resilience.
However, they have all those nasty Radam tricks and more.

First off, they’re going to compensate for their somewhat low defense by having a higher regen: Radam Mothers recover 20% HP per turn – that’s 1932 HP.

Also, watch out for their attacks as they both have status effects: the weaker, 2-5 range, pre-movement attack will lower your armor by 30% (!) and it goes without saying that you don’t one of your supers being hit by that or they will suffer if they get mobbed; their second, stronger, 1-3 range, post-movement attack will drop your movement range by 1 which is, admittedly, annoying but not as dangerous as the first one (thankfully, due to Radam AI, they will always prioritize their stronger attack).

Best thing you can do with these things is to swarm them for a quick kill.


Let’s open things up with Youko. She’ll deal with the left and center squads with Mu and the China Brothers will take the right-most group before meeting up to finish the rest.
The Nadesico will grab whatever’s still alive when they get close.








That’ll do.



I Hope you haven’t forgotten about Mu and Youko’s secret!
Mu has 6 kills on his total and Youko has 5 BUT this is your last chance to get Mu those 4 kills and Youko has one more. With that in mind, let’s feed Mu the weakened Radam.










Good man.


Oh yes, I completely forgot to go over Balzac’s “magnum opus”. So let’s check the Sol Tekkaman:



Jesus Christ, this thing’s not good at all. Take into consideration that Balzac got data from Tekkaman, GGG units and the Valhawk and THIS is the best he could come up with? Sure, it’s better than Mu’s Mobius Zero but the Mobius is a grunt mech.
This is supposed to be the federations Elite Mook!

Its stats are poor and its mobility isn’t all that (doesn't help that it won’t benefit from its SS size). Its weapons are weak but at least its strongest attack has long range and that'll keep him out of the front lines and allow him to support attack.
It would help its case if the pilot was worth a damn but it’s not!

Balzac is by far the worst pilot in the ENTIRE GROUP. Go back up there and take a good look at his stats, aside from his Skill stat, all of his stats are lagging behind the Nadesico pilots, Mu and Youko (His shooting stat is on par with Yurika's, for god's sake).

Fuck this guy for wasting all that good data creating the Tekkaman's equivalent to a Taurus. I’ll concede that it’s not as bad as the Taurus but Noin’s unit at least has some utility with its repair module.



With my tantrum out of the way, I’ll move Balzac closer to at least get some use out of his Command Aura. The Chinese brothers are closer but only Rairyu is in range.



: Our Super AI makes us the perfect soldiers!
: We exist to fight. Now behold our might!






That’s decent enough but a big chunk of that’ll be regened.



Mind you, Akito and Akatsuki were moving so slowly in the Ranged Frames that I had to plonk them inside the Nadesico to hitch a ride. The girls were farther ahead so they were fine.



Enemy Phase!



Youko’s Radam start to gun for her.
A total of three attack and get weakened in return.



Sadly, Mu’s crappy Mobius Zero isn’t as dodgy as Youko’s birdman.
Still, he doesn’t get screwed by the RNG gods.



This Radam bugger comes after Rairyu and he already used his Alert effect on last attack.














Shield Block + Robot Kung-fu is always a winning combo.



The remaining pair of Radam Monsters gun after Fuuryu – the first hit is dodged with Alert and the second shows the might of communist fighting style as he dodges an 83% attack.



Player Phase!



I’ve been struck by the realization that I had completely forgotten that I could swap the frames of the Aestis when they’re docked inside the Nadesico.
Let’s get Akatsuki and Akito out of those silly ranged frames and back into the OG ones (my rule of thumb is: OG for Space missions, Air Frame for missions inside atmosphere).



Akito can join the Brothers in taking down that group of mooks.



: (I... promised Gai I'd always fight to protect the world, but the army isn't what I had in mind...)
: (I can't... quite find the words, but... is this right...?)





It works out just fine.



Akatsuki can also lend a hand.

Also, none of the girls were gonna be in range so I set them inside the Nadesico to get towed and to also change frames next turn.





Both brothers move in side-by-side to pummel the Radam Mother.
This thing will go down no problem during our next turn (may have been during the enemy phase but I think it’ll regen out of our kill zone).



Most of Youko’s mooks are weakened but I consider those Mothers a bigger threat. Best to have her weaken it with her Birdmen Squad Attack (again, didn’t all those guys die in the attack?).








That’s good enough, I think.



Muu barely takes it out with a Gunbarrel critical hit; that’s his 2nd kill, so only 2 more to go and that secret is ours.



Enemy Phase!



Hm. The things have regened more than expected.
After this kill, Youko only has one Squad Attack left and the other attacking Radam gets to survive.



The Mother that was sitting at the top of the battlefield comes down for a chat with Mu.



The kids have got her back.












Get away from Mu with your tentacle fetish, freak.




Three other Radam Monsters swarm Muu and one actually gets a hit in – thankfully, Muu’s gunbarrels have long range.




Indeed, the mother regened enough health to be safe for this turn and decides to have a go at Rairyu.
Thankfully, Fuuryu is nearby and his support defense is in place.



Player Phase!






Time to get rid of that Radam Mother up top: Youko moves by Mu uand nabs a support attack, leaving him clear to take her out.



Let’s not forget about the Nadesico girls. Their Frames are swapped to OG and they are good to go.



Ryouko will swoop in and steal the kill of the Chinese Brothers.





Hikaru and Izumi both go in and choose one of the 4 remaining Radam monsters with predictable results.

We still want to grab Mu one more kill so let’s have everyone else stand down.



Enemy Phase!



The game’s AI is hardwired to go after any unit that they can kill so a weakened Muu is the most tempting target on the field.
He does not succeed and gives Mu his 10th kill! Secret get!


Fair warning: you don’t want to kill all Radams on the enemy phase. I’ll have Mu simply dodge now.



Player Phase!



I might as well show this now because this is as much screentime as I’m willing to give Balzac. Here’s his strongest attack: the Fermion Cannon.



: With the Sol Tekkaman, I will seize the glory I deserve!
: If I can prove its worth, I'll get my hands on the Tekkaman data and climb to ever higher heights of valor!








Decent but nowhere near enough to make this unit worthwhile.



Fuuryu confirms the destruction of all Radam targets; with this, they’ve successfully managed to capture Block 6's energy plant intact.
Jun wonders why the Radam would care to capture such a place but Gort figures they need energy as well.
Balzac proclaims that this is merely the beginning of the Federation’s campaign.





He’s interrupted when D-Boy shows up in advance of the Wärter.
Ryouko asks what the hell a “Wärter” is and Ruri explains our newly formed joint team of Earth-protecting organizations, including Golion.
Balzac is all too happy to gloat to him about the Sol Tekkaman power suits, which he designed from D-Boy's data, have easily dealt with the Radam in the area.
D-Boy is furious that Balzac came to the GGG as a spy, but Balzac would prefer he thought of it as an internal investigation of an organization giving the military less than its full cooperation.
Besides, it was Freeman himself who gave Balzac D-Boy's data.





Balzac's men report that they've secured the area.
Further proof for Balzac that with the Nadesico, the Chinese robots, and of course the Sol Tekkaman suits, neither the Radam nor any of the other menaces pose any threat.
In other words, both D-Boy and this so-called Wärter are useless.







How, someone hidden is having a laugh at Balzac for actually thinking his toys would bring them victory..
Ruri quickly detects a Radam squad entering the area and they’re being led by another enemy Tekkaman - someone Blade immediately recognizes.
Balzac hastily orders his forces to fire at the new enemies: victory will be complete as soon as they fall.













No sooner do the Sol Tekkamen get into position, the enemy Tekkaman vaporizes them with a single blast - the real Tekkamen are far more fearsome than Balzac's carbon copies.





Balzac orders the Chinese dragon brothers to support him as he attacks, but Tekkaman Evil blows right past them to face D-Boy.
He’s been waiting a long while to face him and, now that he’s done so, he promises to kill Blade with his own hands.
D-Boy refuses to die until the very last Radam is eradicated, and lucky for him reinforcements arrive:





We’ve quite a large group now and very few spots. With Balzac, the Brothers, Mu, Youko and the Nadesico crew. I’ll leave the decision on who to deploy up to your votes.

Do note that a few restrictions apply:

• Original Clause: Kazuma, being the main character, has dibs on a spot.
  
• 3N Clause: No Noals and Noins. Sorry but their units are just too lackluster to be worth anything.

With Kazuma taking a spot, that leaves 4 slots free for you guys to choose.

Finally, know that Blade, Enryu and Hyoryu have deployed as event units so your available choices are: All Gundam Wing and Full Metal Panic units, Gaogaigar, Big Volfogg and Golion.

Oh, yes. I should probably also ask this: non-Gaogaigar GGG units have two accepted songs. Do you guys prefer “Take off!” or “Ultimate Brave Robot Battalion” as their theme?





I’ll leave voting open until Wednesday evening when I’ll post the results to both polls. See you all then!