Part 42: Mission 11 (North America Route) - Prologue

Kazuma notes for the ship's log that everyone is heading to Salt Lake base under a cloud - a cloud of Freeman's making.
Giving the army enough data to build the Sol Tekkamen has let Balzac get an inflated ego, and just handing D-Boy over to the military without so much as a protest doesn't sit well with the people who now have to deal with Balzac - And that includes Kazuma himself.
In any case, the plan is to retrieve D-Boy by any means necessary.



The news of a Tekkaman who does not obey the Radam has reached Pasdar's ears: possibly the key the Zondarians need to subvert the Tek System.
And since that Tek System is the main method the Radam used to avoid Mechanization, anything to combat it is worth the effort.
Pasdar orders his henchmen to capture D-Boy and unlock the secrets of his Tek Set, and Pizza is granted the job.



Penchinon warns him that the interlopers are already on the move, and Pizza welcomes any chance to take down "that cyborg" and his friends.
Pasdar warns that with only a pittance of Zondar Metal left, time is of the essence – they must succeed in creating the Zondar Metal Plant ASAP.



Predictably, Corbett refuses Taiga's request to turn D-Boy over.
Corbett fumes that D-Boy should have been disposed of on the spot for all the damage he did to the Orbital Ring, but figures he's got at least a little scientific value left.
Taiga knows that while the goal of defeating the Radam and their new Tekkaman sounds noble enough, it is plenty excuse for him to conduct all manner of experiments on D-Boy in an attempt to unlock his Tek System.
Corbett figures that D-Boy no longer qualifies as a human after he lost control of himself, and conveniently ignores the fact that the voice of his comrades brought D-Boy back to his senses.



Corbett as much as dares Taiga to try to stage an attack under the aegis of the Executive branch: that will be all the excuse Corbett needs to order Balzac's team to suppress the Wärter as rebels.
Taiga is in the middle of telling him that this is no time for humans to be quarreling among themselves when a shadowy figure Corbett calls the "Chairman" cuts him off.



The Chairman's heard that Corbett's picked up an intriguing item, one that "Mister Silver" is interested in too.
Corbett's got GGG America's Professor Liger working on deciphering the data - perhaps not the safest choice for him, but Prof. Yang's got his hands full tuning up his Dragon Brothers.
Besides, Corbett knows that the Shishio brothers are always at each other's throats, and Liger in fact asked for the job as a way to tweak Leo's nose.



And if that's not enough, he's got Kanzaki Michi from Intelligence working as one of Liger's assistants.
The Chairman doesn't approve of a product of the Comprehent Project getting the job - a project that's been going on in secret for the last decade since George Glenn's recommendation.



This girl, already a chief engineer at age 16, is the inheritor of everything this project to produce improved humans has to offer.
The Chairman gets peevish when he hears that this girl has undergone genetic manipulation, making her just like the "space monsters".
He's well aware that she's vital to the current operation, but makes it clear he wants her disposed of as soon as that operation is done.
As it is, the Chairman would rather go home than see the girl's face - he orders Corbett to keep working on understanding the Tek System, so that the Federation army can protect the pure blue Earth.



Speaking of Michi, she is working with Liger and is voicing doubts that what they’re are doing is right.
Their data already proves that D-Boy's psyche is human, making it unthinkable that they should use him as a biology experiment.
He asks if she's saying this is unethical, and she responds by asking if the rumors of his use of illegal cybernetic technology are true.
He regards her a moment, then states that the rumors are true: he did what he had to, then as now.
Liger tells her that he's doing what he must to help mankind defeat the Radam, and to help D-Boy himself.



Before he can explain, Stallion comes in with the results of Isaac's calculations. Everything, including the Next Stage affair, is going exactly as Freeman predicted.
This is even more mysterious, but Liger laughs it off as just a little debt repayment to Freeman for the Radam data he provided.
That repayment is why Liger is studying and treating D-Boy in the very latest military medical center, and the chain of events that created the Sol Tekkamen even gives Liger a good cover story.
Michi now realizes that Liger and Freeman planned to save D-Boy from the outset - he's indispensable to mankind's hopes of defeating the Radam, after all.



Liger knows how cruel D-Boy's destiny is, and merely hopes to offer him as much support as he can - and he'll stop at nothing in the attempt.
Michi tells Liger that she's misjudged him, but Liger's attempts to woo her are interrupted by Stallion's news that the Wärter are on the inbounds.
With some evident reluctance, he hurries to make ready for his guests as Michi gets back to work.



Noal has to hand it to the bold Taiga for sending your forces into a Federation army base.
Taiga's longtime friend Hyuuma smirks and tells Noal that Taiga is in fact thoroughly pissed off at Corbett - a major contrast with Freeman, who didn't even see the troops off as they departed to fix the mess he created.
Hyuuma seems to know what’s up but isn't in a good position to set the record straight, and with the Valstork running interference outside, the infiltrators need to hurry.
Liger's disabling of the base's security will only last so long, and since he doesn't have the password to the base's maglocks, it seems you're going to have to start making noise to proceed any farther.



But to your people's surprise, the door before them unlocks, and the nearby panel flashes up the message "SAVE D-BOY".
Only Freeman could have hacked the base's main computer so effectively, drawing some very grudging admiration from Noal.
Hyuuma's known Freeman a long time as well, and assures Noal that he's far more sentimental than his poker face suggests: and entirely competent to boot.
Well, misunderstanding cleared up, path ahead opened, and all well on the Western front...




...except for a certain young man whose presence none of you detected in advance; it's Shinya, unimpressed that puny doors like these are enough to impede human progress.
Aki momentarily mistakes him for D-Boy, which comes as no surprise.





Of course it's Tekkaman Evil, who Teksets and thanks you for showing him the way to where Blade was hiding.
Hyuuma yells to Noal and Aki to go ahead while he, Duo and Heero delay Evil.
Since there's no telling what lies ahead, he has Gai accompany them; Gai hesitates to leave them alone against a Tekkaman buy Hyuuma yells at him not to underestimate his ability.
He's brought his special ID Suit with him, remnant of the days he was part of the legendary ID5 team as Silver Hyuuma.



Evil is slightly impressed at this act of self-sacrifice in face of an overwhelming opponent.
However, Hyuuma says he has no intention here – he and the Preventer agents only need to delay Evil!