Part 78: Mission 22 (Mars Route) – Returners From the Past - Part 1

Mission 22 (Mars Route) – Returners From the Past





On Mars, Yamasaki notes with some sorrow that the Galra have returned to the Earth Sphere - not what he wanted to see right after excavating a certain fascinating item.





Meanwhile, Saburouta informs his captain Genpachirou that their losses have passed 50%, forcing the captain to order an orderly retreat.
Saburouta protests that this is their last line of defense: if they withdraw, they'll have to withdraw all the way to Jupiter.
Genpachirou asks what Saburouta would do, then, and he suggests charging the enemy and detonating the flag ship in their midst; Genpachirou is having none of it, though.
A retreat today can be followed by a counterattack tomorrow, but there is no tomorrow for the dead.





Our people quickly arrive on the scene and Fahra recognizes the Death Black beastmen of the Galra.
It quickly dawns on us that the Galra are making another push into the Solar System and it seems they’ve chosen to pick a fight with the Jovian Lizards this time.
Genpachirou recognizes us as Earthlings and sounds slightly sorry that the Nadesico isn’t among us; regardless, he opens a comm channel to us.



He introduces himself as a member of the Anti-Earth Federation unit of the United Jupiter Sphere (including Europa, Ganymede, Callisto and other satellites): Captain Akiyama Genpachirou of the Yumemizuki.
Bless responds with a similarly verbose title ( *breathe in* Captain Blessfield Ardygun, adjutant commander of Wärter – Defense Squadron of the Earth Federation’s United Nation’s Executive Branch (including GGG, The Preventers, Mithril, Space Knights and Altean Royal Retainers)); Kazuma criticizes his father for doing this “synchronized communication” thing on the Jovians but Shihomi figures it’s more of an attempt at intimidation that anything else.


Genpachirou is wise to such tactics, and he and Bless quickly agree to shorten each other’s organizations' names to Wärter and Jupiter Union.
Kouji figures it’d the Union of the Jovian Lizards but Sayaka quickly chides him seeing how they are obviously human and not lizards.
Genpachirou allows that insofar as the Jovians share a common ancestor with modern Earth people, they could be considered "Earthlings" as well - though until very recently they saw Earth's people as an inimical race, i.e. as the enemy.



Ryouma wonders what happened recently to change their opinion but Genpachirou doesn’t have time to explain it right now; he predicts that Earth and Jupiter are about to become allies, though.
It's not clear what's been happening on Earth during our journey to Mars, but Bless decides to take him at his word for now.
He tells a dubious Kazuma that whatever the truth may be, it's clear that the Galra are the common enemy of all "Earthlings" here.
This allows Genpachirou to make his orderly retreat - at least until the main Jovian fleet arrives.
Silently, Saburouta protests that this’ll leave the ruins unattended but Genpachirou figures it won’t be for long, so it should be fine.





Bless promises to provide cover to fellow Spacemen and, as the Jovian battleship leaves, our people marvel that not only were the Jovian Lizards manned, but manned by earthlings.
We've got to help the remaining Jovian Battas and Katonbos and clean out the Galra interlopers and Kazuma says it feels weird to be helping them out; it make sense to Kogane, though, as the Galra are enemies of all living beings in the Solar System.
Gekiryujin tells Chouryujin to wait just a bit longer – once the Galra are defeated, they’ll be back on their trip to Jupiter!



Most Galra are too far away right now, so everyone will move forward; while that happens Mike will begin boosting Kouji.






That’s all we can do.



Enemy Phase!



The Galra Fighters start closing in. This one wastes its attack by going for Kazuma.



A whole bunch of Galra fighters zoom after Golion, attacking it from afar.





Golion countered them all with his missiles.




This one assumed that going after the Battleship would’ve been a better idea. It was actually worse.





Every now and then, a Fighter decided to stop acting like a dick and came into Golion’s melee range.
My appreciation took form of a giant robo-fist through their cockpits.



This gave them all (except Fahra) a level and taught Alert to Kurogane.



Among the way, I wondered if a Fire Tornado would get the necessary crit to oneshot a Fighter.












Nope.



Gekiryuujin was even farther ahead than Golion but I guess most mooks know better than to willingly attack a GGG unit.












Sadly, without being attacked, his morale is too low to actually oneshot (a Melee attack might’ve gotten a critical but it was too far away…).



Player Phase!



I’ll see if I can show off Disc X today. Before that, though, Mike needs to get his killing done.



Two side-by-side weakened Fighters will be perfect for Gai.








Lovely, indeed.



Volfogg nabs another of the nearby weakened Fighters.



And Getter will do the same.








Now, if only Golion could kill so reliably…





Upstairs, Sayaka is repairing Golion a bit and profits a level for her work.
This grants her Support Request L1 (which I’m sure I’ll forget to show off, like Sousuke’s).



When was the last time we had the Blue Earth do anything? We might as well give Aki some screen time.








Thank you, miss.



Boss also steps up to heal Golion some more but, unlike Sayaka, there’s no level up.



There’s only one more easy kill left and it goes for Tetsuya.



That doesn’t mean we’re out of Fighters, though. There’re a couple left at full HP and we have someone that doesn’t give any fucks about that.








Get out of here.



Only a couple of Garushias and Death Hell Beastmen left.
This one is the closest, so Blade opens up on him.



Hopefully, Kazuma is strong enough to take him out now.














Enemy Phase!



Mr. red-HP there tries his best to be semi-useful before getting blown up.








He misses and is, unceremoniously, disintegrated.
The other two Death Hells also attack and get slapped away.



Both Kazuma and Mihiro profit with a level but she also learns Snipe.



The southern Garushia finally gets close enough to attack something and he goes for Big Daddy.












This would’ve been unimpressive if not for the fact that he pulled an uppercut at a capital ship.
The last fighter also suicides against the Valstork.





Down below, ALL the Jovian Battas pull a mass suicide run against a single Garushia.





This has the adverse effect of leaving the entire job at the hands of two Katonbos and they aren’t exactly powerful.
Still, all those bugs did manage to weaken the Garushia to a decent point.



Player Phase!

Remember that Garushia that punched the Valstork?










More morale to the Rock God.





Aki and Sayaka make themselves useful and heal most of the damage that Bless took.



Tetsuya is unlikely to take these guys out in one hit but that’s why Kazuma is there.


















With no more nearby assists, it falls to Volfogg to weaken the other Death Hell (I’m being very careful to not use Murasame Blade lest he pull lucky crit-kill again…).



This should be no problem for Blade.










Like so.



We can’t let these Jovians steal a kill from us!
Hayato quickly swoops in and takes the Garushia from under their noses.



Up there, I remember that I still have Boss: he moves in and heals Golion.



I just noticed that there was a Garushia veeeery far away.



Gai is just able to reach it, so we’re in the clear.










And that’s that.



As the last Galra falls, Yamasaki is duly impressed by our prowess.
He figures that "he" must be lurking in the bushes, pleased as well.
Kouji thinks this whole thing was pretty miraculous – fighting alongside Battas and all that.
Now that Akane takes a closer look at them, she kinda wants to keep one as a pet and Mihiro sighs at her sister’s taste for weird things; Horis now understands and promises not to give her any more lame things like flowers.
This earns him a new “Stupid Horis” by Akane, who said she didn’t mean it like that.
Regardless, our people are beginning to suspect that this is where the Galra who fled Dr. Hell's place ended up, and everything looks under control...





That is, until Mikoto detects a large energy signature above us; Bless quickly warns that it’s an attack and orders everyone to protect themselves.
All Jovian troops are destroyed and the Eviluders show up en masse.



Rang, their leader, is duly impressed with us for having survived that last attack.
Milly notices that there’s a guy that looks like Orgun and Blade tags him as the Head Detonator – the Eviluder’s front-line commander.
Rang says this is his first battle in this star system and hopes we’ll provide him with a good challenge; Bless quickly realizes that there’s no point in trying to reason with the guy and orders everyone to intercept.
Right then, Shihomi detects a high-speed object entering the area.






It’s Orgun and Rang is glad that he came – it saves him the effort of mounting a search.
Orgun seems a bit surprised that Rang also came to this star system; Benkei is surprised that the two know each other but Hayato thinks that, from the looks of things, they seem less like friends and more like warriors that knew one another – it doesn’t seem like battle can be avoided, though.



Rang brands Orgun a traitor and promises to execute him with his own hands.
Orgun, however, says he cannot die yet; he plans to protect what he's discovered in this system, at least until he finds the other "him".


Oooh, boy! We can finally take direct control of Orgun; we’ll see if we can make good use of him before the plot picks up again.

There just may be other craziness waiting to happen around the corner but I’ll keep the suspense going for now .

See you next time!