Part 5: Mission 2 (Setsuko) - Eyes Full of Rage

Setsuko Route Chapter 2

OK then! Let's get to this!


This here is the Intermission Menu, you'll be spending plenty of time here. So get used to it. Right away we see some stuff. Denzel's face there means that he's our top ace, having the most kills of any unit in our army thus far. We also see a lost along side him of the other four members of the top five. The top five people will get a +5 bonus to Will at the start of every stage. That's pretty handy.

Current top Aces:

1. Denzel - 8 Kills
2. Toby - 7 Kills
3. Setsuko - 3 Kills

Not very exciting right now, but we'll see who comes out on top as the game goes on. No onto the menus! I'll cover what it is when it comes up. For now, however, I'll just select the first option, "Mech Commands", and then go to "Mech Upgrades."


Here we see the Mech upgrade menu. We can spend the money we earn to upgrade the base stats of our mechs. They are, from top to bottom.

* HP: How much damage the mech can take before dying
* EN: Energy, used to power some weapons as well as flight
* Armor: Reduces damage taken
* Mobility: Increases the chance to dodge attacks
* Accuracy: Increases hit chance. Always upgrade this. Buy it for everyone, never stop buying accuracy.
* Weapons: Ups the base power of the mechs weapons. I rarely spend money on this, actually. vv



I spend the money I got last mission on giving each of the Virgola's an evasion boost. That takes up the bulk of my meager funds right now. But don't worry, Z has no problem chucking tons of money at you. There's nothing else I can do right now, so let's head on to the next mission! Selecting the bottom option in the menu, it's time for time to continue and Setsuko's hilarious dimension hopping adventures!



In a territory called Armory One, "Princess" Cagalli has come to ask Chairman Gilbert Durandal of the PLANT Supreme Council (whew), for what sounds like the hundredth time already, if he could please stop doing military operations using ORB technology, and also the ORB people he, admittedly, graciously gave safe harbor in his domain. The war is over, she presses; the Federation and PLANT signed the Junius Pact, and Naturals and Coordinators are finally learning to coexist. What's the point of weapons development now? And she, representing ORB, certainly can't overlook the involvement of ORB's citizens in all this.



Durandal certainly agrees that there's no reason to wage war. In fact, he's glad she feels that way. That doesn't answer the question, especially since with a new model of ship soon to be unveiled and loaded with new models of mobile suits. Durandal says that peace and prosperity must be backed by power. "Even a princess should be aware of that. Especially a princess, in fact." Also, she seems to be laboring under the impression that ZAFT's charter is fighting against Naturals. No, ZAFT serves in defense of PLANT, to protect its peace and prosperity against invaders. Cagalli seems to have forgotten that there are threats to PLANT other than the Federation. Aliens, for example.


"Chairman, this is no time for jokes! I'm here to discuss real issues! We can talk about sci-fi stories of alien invasions another time!"

Durandal reminds her of Evidence 01. Cagalli is in no mood to theorize about rocks, but Durandal claims the space whale fossil (I'm told this is a real thing in Gundam SEED) is clear evidence for extraterrestrial life. Cagalli retorts that humanity's been out in space for over 50 years and sent manned crews out as far as Jupiter without finding a single sign of actual aliens. Also, she would really rather he stop calling her "Princess."

Fine, says Durandal. Let's talk real. He has no intention of stopping the people of ORB, his new citizens and charges, from using their skills to make a living in their new home. Cagalli protests that that kind of power will be the seed of war, but Durandal responds that they need power because war is inevitable whether they have it or not. Again, if the citizens of ORB want to help their new home however he can, he doesn't find that objectionable in the least.

Speaking of ORBians doing their part, some of them have found their way directly into ZAFT. For instance, Cagalli's assigned bodyguard is a Coordinator...


This guy, Alex. Wait, what?


In another part of Armory One, a girl named Stella laughs and twirls and dances through the streets, to the consternation of her friends Auel, and Sting - though they can't deny she has something to be happy about. Whatever it is, it's about to start!


Her twirling takes her into the path of a boy named Shinn, and they go tumbling. Shinn apologizes over and over, but Stella only mumbles that his hand is on her choh come on. She springs off him and runs away.


His own friends, Vino and Yolan, congratulate him. Nope. I'm not doing this.

Luckily for me, a high-pitched noise rings out through through the city...


Chapter 2: Eyes Full of Rage



What are these guys suddenly doing here? Denzel calls for a report, but there's none to be had. Toby can recognize that they're on some Colony, but given they were just on the Moon, that raises more questions than it answers.


The Virgolas are new faces around Armory One as well; Shinn's buddies ask if he's got any clue, being a MS pilot, but all the information he's got is on the Second Stage tech, and these mechs aren't anywhere in there.


These two, pilots of ZAFT, are trying to figure out if the mysterious new robots are threats.


ZAFT deploys its mobile suits to intercept, and these non-suspicious people decide that whoever the blue machines are, they must be their allies if ZAFT's mobilizing against them.



The presence of a Zaku, not a Hi-Zack, in the ranks suggests the Glory Star has made it to a Zeon colony, but that makes even less sense.


Denzel sensibly elects to call the ZAFT commander to sort all this out; he introduces himself and explains the situation. Unfortunately, claiming to be of the Federation Army doesn't make ZAFT any less suspicious of their sudden appearance within their walls...



And an explosion at a Second Stage manufactory just convinces them that we're some kind of Federation stealth unit aiming to jack their new boat. Fine; Denzel declares that if it's come to this, explanations won't really help, and our first priority is to protect the Virgolas. That means don't shoot for cockpits.



OK then! Our mission is simple, defeat all the enemies here, non lethally as possible according to Denzel. The Battle Mastery is also a simple one. We have two turns to do it.



Two turns for three units to blow up four. Plus, it's going to take us a turn to get into their range, so we effectively have one and a half turns.



So let's get to that, move Glory Star up to the front!


Naturally the ZAFT mechs all begin to move up to target Glory Star. A lot of the "Beat in X Turns" Battle Masteries aren't near as tough when you realize that a "Turn" means both the player and enemy phase. Now if they say "Beat in X Player Turns" then you start to worry.


The GuAIZs aren't that big of a threat, especially since Setsuko has Denzel's Command Aura supporting her.






As you can see, we can pretty safely two-shot them.




The prelude to action, and the results, yet not the action itself. Denzel is art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnefXX0R_f4

And here's Toby Goomba stomping a GuAIZ, fun times.



Denzel then easily handles the Zaft Armed Keeper of Unity (I'm betting the country is named ZAFT just to make that acronym).



On to the second and last turn we have for this BM. Moving Setsuko off to where she could hit every single mech, I target this GuAIZ.



It goes well.




Meanwhile Denzel smacks the Zaku down.



Cagalli and Alex are knocked off balance in the crossfire; they're not hurt, but Cagalli calls Alex "Athrun." "I'm Alex Dino now," he says. "I gave up that other name." And as Alex, protecting her is his mission, so he says. But silently: "Kira, I swear I'll protect Cagalli..." He starts leading her somewhere; they're separated from Durandal, but he'd rather do something than sit still and wait to die...


We interrupt this drama to bring you a bunch of weirdos from nowhere blowing up your troops, sorry Cagalli.


Enemy phase with only one weakened GuAIZ left! Glory Star's got this one in the bag too from the looks of it.



Yup.


The Glory Star has successfully fought off ZAFT's guard, but it's going to be tough now to smooth things over and explain what really happened - assuming they don't just shoot on sight now. And Toby's still curious about that explosion...


We may get our answers; three new machines emerge from the ruins. Their heads seem Gundam-ish, but the models are unfamiliar; between this and that Zaku, what's going on in this colony?


It's these guys, and the mechs are ZAFT's new models; looks like they've jacked them.


The Gundams start wrecking their surroundings; Setsuko intercepts a communication confirming that those Gundams have been hijacked. It dawns on the Glory Star that they're unwitting accomplices to Grand Theft Gundam!


Cagalli isn't sure their Zaku's up to this battle; without ZAFT's guard, they're up against six high-performance mechs. Athrun repeats that it's safer than remaining sitting ducks. "I will not let you die."


Fortunately for Athrun, Shinn's been ordered to deploy in a single mech of his own, the Impulse.


Shinn's support operator, Meyrin prepares the Impulse's Sword Silhouette for deployment from their ship.


Arthur, second in command, questions the wisdom of sending Shinn out alone, but his Capitan, Talia, says they have no choice. They can't let their enemies get their hands on the Second Stage machines.

There's also the deeply concerning matter of the other three robots, the ones that mysteriously appeared in the middle of their colony. How did they do that? What's the Federation's secret new weapon?


Cagalli was worried about Durandal, but he seems to be quite safe, having had the Minerva (the ship we're on) take him in. Anyway, he knows those three aren't Federation mechs, and he orders the Minerva to focus on not allowing the three Gundams to escape.


Auel is pretty sure he can handle a single ZAFT mech. Athrun pulls out some sick moves and dodges all the bullets, but even so, he doesn't think Cagalli's body can handle those evasive maneuvers.


Sting rushes his Gundam in and grabs Athrun, but...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYcUDTcleDY

The Minerva's catapult fires out the components of the Impulse; the jet-like Core Splendor strikes Sting's Gundam, giving Athrun a chance to escape, before combining with the other parts to form a Gundam. Shinn is pretty pissed that some assholes are trying to start another war.


Meanwhile, the Glory Star weighs their options. Toby sees a chance to get out of Dodge, but Denzel is interested in maintaining a shred of credibility with the locals, and gets to choose between leaving the Colony and capturing the hijacked Gundams. For our purposes, he chooses to stay and fight with ZAFT; this way, they'll get more credit when they go to explain themselves.
SECRET ALERT: You want to pick the second option, "Capturing the Hijacked Gundams"


He calls Shinn and quickly explains that they were defending themselves and aren't here to fight. Shinn says the same thing the other ZAFT soldier did, but Athrun calls "the ZAFT pilot" and tells him to step off (explaining that he's an ORB citizen assuming emergency use of his mech). Their orders are recovering the stolen Gundams, not concerning themselves with the mysterious mechs, however suspicious they may be.


Before Shinn can protest again, he gets a call from Talia confirming those orders - priority one is to take the Chaos, Abyss, and Gaia back. (Could you think of more evil names for your robots?) ZAFT is out of units anyway, so they need all the backup they can get.


Sting is pretty pissed to find out that the Glory Star isn't on his side after all, and tells his buddies they're going to crush their way through all five of our robots.


Auel seems fired up. Stella doesn't.


Right, in order to win all we need to do is defeat one of Sting, Auel, and Stella. Tragically, we lack any method of blowing up all three at once.


Geez Athrun, you really let yourself go since SEED. Also, "Alex", could you at least put on a pair of sunglasses? You're a disgrace to people throwing away their old identities everywhere.

: (ZAFT used to use stolen Mobile Suits from the Federation...)
: (And this time it's ZAFT's mechs being stolen.)
: (Does this mean that war's going to repeat itself?)


However, he handles it well enough. Unfortunately I ended up skipping the animation, not realizing it was of minor import. Oh well, it was just some minor attacks.


Meanwhile it's time to play Gamble with Toby! Will he avoid Auel's attack! Will he hit with his ultimate attack, Barley Carver? Find out below!

: Perfect! You can be our first live-fire test!
: If you're not on our side, there's nothing holding me back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht-8fPf7ViE

Lousy Shield Defense!


Then Stella targets Shinn, all Shin can do at the moment is fire his vulcans... which will be utterly useless against the Gaia's Variable Phase Shift Armor. So I just attempt to dodge...


:It's another Second Stage mech! I won't let it beat me!




Good job there Shinn! His Blocking skill kicked in, just flat out negating the attack with his sword.


Player phase starts with Denzel casting Strike. We're going to blow up Auel.


Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
Auel Neider - ZGMF-X31S Abyss
Voiced by Masakazu Morita (Japanese), Brad Swaile (English)

Skills:
* Extended (Level 1) - Hit rate, critical chance, and evasion rate increased.
* Blocking - If the mech is equipped with a shield and/or sword, can use Sword Block and Shield Block. Sword Block will neutralize melee and missile attacks, while Shield Block will reduce damage taken. Activation rate is based off the skill stat.
* Counter (Level 1) - When targeted by an enemy, the pilot has a chance of attacking first.
* Focused Attack - The damage penalty for performing ALL attacks on multiple units is reduced.
* Battle Spirit - Starting from the second turn, will gain 3 Will every turn.

Squad Leader Bonus
*+10% Accuracy rate +20% Critical rate

He's the defensive one of the latest incarnation of Gundam Team Rocket. Not a big deal right now, but Extended, Counter, and Blocking are going to make him very annoying later on. Especially since, like all Cosmic Era Gundams, it's equipped with Variable Phase Shift armor, which drastically reduces any attack that isn't a beam.

Still, that's the future. Right now he has a meeting with the Ray Straight Turret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyK1gIFXCE4


Next, Shinn casts Focus.


With a Support Attack from Athrun he should be able to take him down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSwP22bNYiA

Like so!


Finally defeated, the spies just turn tail and flee.


Before anyone can go after them, the entire colony rumbles and quakes; something must be firing on it from outside. These guys must have some powerful backup, but who?


Talia orders Shinn to retreat to their ship, along with the Zaku and the other three. They'll pursue those Gundams with the Minerva itself.

----

Extra Dialogue

Sting vs. Glory Star
: Whoever the hell you are, I don't have time to play with you...
: We've got to win, every time!

Stella vs. Glory Star
: If I succeed, I'll make Neo proud of me.
Anyone who tries to stop me can go die!