Part 122: Mission 33 (Rand - Ships Route) - To My Distant Friend
Mission 33 (Guard Ships Route) - To My Distant Friend
Gura was definitely not expecting ZEUTH to notice his activities, and orders Dokuganki to sortie and meet them.
Rag is surprised to see an Innocent Dome all the way out here, and Löwen tells her the Innocent had settlements all over the world, not just Zora. This Dome seems to have been long abandoned, and Benkei figures the demons plan to turn it into a base.
Gura tells Dokuganki to protect him with his life as he must get the data he collected back to the Science Fortress Island. Tekkouki recognizes right away who's aboard the Mecha Fortress Demon: Gura, a pivotal scientist from the Hundred Demons' academy of sciences.
He isn't the sort that Tekkouki expects to see on the front lines, and Hayato figures he must have been checking something in the Dome out. Whatever that something is, Jamil doesn't want any info getting back to the main force.
Apollo figures wrecking the Fortress should be just the thing for CERTAIN PEOPLE who've been pissy lately. Rand tells the annoyed Holland to relax and live up to his “god-like and ultra-charismatic” reputation.
Whatever the case, with the loss of some of our people, Sara yells that everyone will need to give 110%. As everyone starts their charge, Tekkouki wonders what is it that drew Gura to this place.
Mission Objective: Shoot down the Mecha Fortress Demon
Mission Failure: Any allied battleship shot down
Skill Point: Shoot down Gura within 3 turns
Not particularly difficult but it requires you to rush some. The small number of mooks will make it difficult to get everyone up to high morale but, at least, all enemy squads carry some piss-weak jets in Center Formation.
No special strategy here, really: spread your troops to kill as many mooks as possible, keep out of Gura’s range to get him closer and, on turn three, throw everything at him.
With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at Gura.
Professor Gura (Mecha Fortress Demon)
Pilot Skills:
- Prevail L5
- Support Attack L3
- E-Save
- Predict
Gura’s Voice Actor: Koji Yada (yes, he voices every named demon that isn’t Burai and Hidler)
Your standard Super Robot boss, really. Predict seems a bit silly but I suppose it’ll boost his hit and crit ratio.
He can take a bit of a pummeling but is certainly not bulky enough to survive being focus fired by all our troops – the problem is we might not have the best morale to drop him quickly so we’ll try to get some hits in on turn two to give us some more leeway (he likes to prioritize Getter).
So, let’s send Gainer ahead to start killing some jets.
Ergh…or not.
Rand and Ryouma weaken a leader Dokugaki (keeping them in TRI just in case) while Holland starts chipping away at a Horned Demon.
Meanwhile, Löwen should leave Gainer’s guy ripe for a kill on the next turn.
Oooh, that was so close.
Everyone else starts moving in.
Enemy Phase!
Getter downs four jets with a nice TRI on a Horned Demon and Dokuganki’s squad, while Löwen’s gets two cheap kills from weakened mooks going for him.
With that, Gauli takes Counter L5 and Daunt (脱力) – reduces target squad’s morale by 10 – and Ryouma gets Prevail L6.
Amidst it all, Holland eats a hit from a Horned Demon but weakens his whole group.
Gura’s moves closer.
Player Phase!
Jamil moves in quickly and cuts this mook down a bit. It’s all good for Apollo to nab three kills.
Or perhaps just two as the thing survives with around 350 HP.
It’s here that I consider the possibility and, sure enough, the demon mooks have Prevail L3.
No wonder they’re bulkier.
Really don’t need to worry about Dokuganki but he’s standing right there.
Eh, it’s cheap damage.
Holland weakens another fresh Horned Demon squad and Gainer takes the two jet kills; the Freeden then swoops in and finishes the job.
Riea takes Counter L5 and Sara gets Support Attack L3 out of the deal.
Help me out here, Ryouma.
Alright, with Tekkouki and Michiru’s assist that was some good damage.
Since Rand’s morale isn’t doing so hot yet, he needs Löwen to bring Dokuganki a wee bit further down and THEN he can move in for the kill.
Get outta here with that shit.
I’LL GET YOU FOR THIIIIIIIIIS!
*BOOM*Enemy Phase!
Löwen’s low HP starts drawing attention of the remaining demons but it gives me a chance to show off his TRI attack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlhAby7yAFw
Very good. On top of these two jets, Löwen also kills two others that gun for him.
Holland snags a kill from a weak Horned Demon and Rand’s TRI takes out two jets, giving Sara Oversense L3 – she can now trigger OverSkills!
Finally, Gura goes after Löwen but he’s bulky enough to hang on while also dishing some decent damage.
Player Phase!
We’re almost out of time, so it’s time to focus on Gura.
Stoner quickly casts Rouse to trigger Gainer’s OverSkill and off we go!
: The energy this mech’s emitting...can it be…!
: Yo, gramps. Dropping your sentences halfway through is a pretty big sign that you’re going gaga.
: I'll give you props for still working at your age but this ain’t something an old guy oughta do! Just stay home and drink your tea, nice and easy! 
: Heheheh… To think this Overman would be with ZEUTH. What a curious twist of fate, no?
: Huh…this demon knows about my King Gainer?: The Devil will awaken soon. If that power’s genuine, then we must obtain it.
: Answer me, Demon! What were you doing here?!: I’ve no time to deal with you right now, Getter Robo!: The truth behind the Black History and the power that manifested at its climax… It won’t be long before it’s all clear to me!
: Aquarion and the Fallen Angels… Soon, I’ll understand the truth behind your battle and the Angels’ slumber.
: And just what are ya gonna do when you figure that out? 
: Sorry, pops, but I ain’t gonna play along with your crazy anecdotes!
And there we go! Mind, Tekkouki also had stuff to say to his old teacher:
: Tekkouki…I never expected you to actually join with the humans…
: Humans have something we, demons, lack. I want to find out more about it.: Your zeal for research is ever present…However, even if you were my pupil, I’ll show no mercy if you plan to interfere with the Emperor’s plans!: This world belongs to us, the Hundred Demon Empire, and Emperor Brai is its sole ruler!
Gura’s in awe that we managed to defeat his hefty battalion but his men quickly detect a distortion in the dimensional walls – there’s something warping in from subspace.
A group of Aldebaron mechs show up and, in our distraction, Gura quickly bails with his remaining troops. Hayato stops Ryouma from giving chase with new enemies right before us but…
Marin quickly deploys right then and, while the power-up isn’t complete, he’s not willing to hang on the sidelines when these guys are attacking – Raita and Oliver are just as pumped as he is to fight back.
Jamie, meanwhile, thinks to Tsukikage and Quinstein that, while it took a long while, those three are finally a team.
One of the Aldebaron, a new model, approaches and reveals himself to be Flick, who’s been waiting a long time to see Marin. Raita assumes he’s coming to attack but, no, Flick gets on the mic and says he’s no intention of doing anything of the sort.
Marin immediately recognizes his voice and Flick identifies himself, informing us that he seeks to defect and to fight alongside us against the Aldebaron. Raita is a bit dubious that this guy’s legit but Marin says he’s the old friend/rival from the UF Musaeum that he told us about.
Flick doesn’t expect us to believe him on good will alone and offers to prove his intentions by helping us in this battle – if we think he’s doing anything strange, we’re free to shoot him in the back.
Jamil's willing to roll the dice, telling Shaia that the ability to believe in others is what makes this group of outcasts so strong.
Ryouma’s onboard with that philosophy and Apollo tells the team’s new member to show us what he’s got.
Flick tells Marin that they’ll fight together to recover S-1’s future from the Aldebaron’s clutches.
Oh, and there’s the Element System triggering.
FYI: Marin's upgrades are actually quite decent, giving Baldios an added 500 HP, 20 EN, 200 Armor and 5 Mobility/Accuracy. Not bad at all.
Now, let’s have a look at our new helper:
Karin Flick (Jolar)
Pilot Skills:
- Prevail L5
- Counter L4
- Predict
- Focus
- Analyze
- Sense
- Spirit
- Faith
- Subspace Rush
Flick’s Squad Leader Bonus: Squad Movement +1, Accuracy +10%
Flick’s Voice Actor: Keiji Fujiwara (Yo, go over there and talk sense into Holland)
Pretty decent squaddie fodder with the added bonus of being frickin’ huge at size 2L.
That’ll give him a good buff against pretty much everything and while he’s not the best at dodging, Prevail is there to make up for it a bit (plus, he can always count on the RNG gods smiling upon his Subspace Rush skill).
His strongest move is his TRI which but, since he’s flying solo, we won’t get to see it.
Most of our groups have already moved but Holland is still there and his group kill one of the transparent UFOs, leaving Flick to move ahead and start to help out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuvgD8jXBFA
Eh, fine.
The Freeden quickly repairs Löwen’s squad to full and we’re done.
Enemy Phase!
The Big Octos don’t appreciate Flick’s shenanigans and two of them attacking him, with the weakened one getting killed.
The third closest one heads for Holland and gets slapped aside.
Meanwhile, on the NE front, Gainer is the first to get picked on.
Good, good.
The remaining two octos trade blows with Baldios while them bubblegum-headed mooks stay far away.
Player Phase!
Talho takes a quick potshot at Holland’s attacker and he moves over to finish it off.
And there it goes (the squaddies are in Wide Formation, so they hang on).
Maai also learns Counter L5 from the level she gets.
Löwen takes two unexpected kills when I was trying to have him weakened a group; following that, Jamil’s group leave this Octo ready for Marin to cut down.
Easy money.
Following that, Flick weakens the last full HP Big Octo and it’s easy prey for Apollo’s double attacks.
Attacking airborne targets isn’t the Iron Gear’s thing but these UFOs are pretty weak.
There they both go.
The Glomar also kills another of the solo UFOs and this triggers the plot.
Several Aldebaron ships enter in rather strange positions but they’re not here as reinforcements - Aphrodia orders them all to overload their subspace engines and force a time-space distortion.
They do so and the area quickly grows unstable but Jabby doesn’t feel like they’re trying to cause a warp…Marin realizes they’re dropping this entire area into subspace.
We’re taken away by the distortion and all our systems are going nuts with the readings. Everyone got sucked in but, since this is subspace, Sirius figures Baldios can get us out with his own Subspace Rush, yes?
Nope, Marin sees this isn’t your average subspace and Flick realizes that the dimensional walls have been sealed – this place is a fully isolated pocket dimension. Aphrodia phones in and confirms his fears, saying it’s impossible to distort these dimensional walls from inside so we can’t escape.
Marin isn’t about to give up on her say-so, though, and tries to cause a breach by having everyone focus-fire on a single spot.
It doesn’t do anything and Aphrodia tells Flick that all this happened because he acted how she expected him to.
She wasn’t sure he’d turn traitor but either he would execute Marin as per his orders or distract him long enough for her to do the job. Marin isn’t amused that she planned on sacrificing Flick from the get-go but the Aldebaron have a policy of “guilty until proven otherwise” with suspects of treason.
Aphrodia tells Marin that he’s only got two more minutes to live before this pocket dimension collapses and takes them all with it. Flick is silent and, after a bit, begs Aphrodia to wait as he doesn’t want to die here.
He says he’ll defeat Marin if she’ll rescue him afterwards – she agrees to give him one last chance to pull this off before the time limit and, if successful, she’ll fish him out.
: What the hell are you doing, Flick?!
: Exactly what it looks like, Marin! I will make it through this… even if I have to go over your corpse to do so!
: What about your pledge to fight with us for S-1’s future?! Was that a lie?!: The situation’s changed, Marin. Just like our friendship once did!: Stop this, Flick! I don’t want to fight you!: Fine by me! You can just die like a dog, then!
: You have to fire back, Marin! He's serious!: No…! I…I—
: What are you on about?! That guy’s trying to kill you to save himself!: That’s right, Marin! You’ll die in this pocket dimension along with the earthlings!: …I wouldn’t be the only one to die if I don’t fight back…: Oliver…Raita…everyone would die because of me…: I can’t let that happen…!
: Marin…: So you’re ready to go, eh?! But I’ll be the victor! My life cannot end like this!: Flick…I still don’t want to fight you. But my friends can’t die here!
: What do we do, Cpt. Jamil?!
: We’ve no way of breaking out of here but we can’t go down without a fight! Return fire!: Come, Marin! You’d best fight for real if you want to help your friends!
: Flick!!Welp, that didn’t take long. Keep in mind that, if it’s the enemy’s turn when you trigger the events, it’ll still count as one turn on the timer so it’s advisable to do so only on our turn.
Nearly everyone’s moved, so Ryouma gets closer to Flick and, along the way, takes out two other mooks.
Enemy Phase!
Got a free kill for Apollo and others.
Pew pew.
Holland and Gainer nab one each.
The bubblegum-heads and Flick start closing in.
Player Phase!
Alright, let’s make this quick.
And there goes half his health.
Couple more hits from Gainer and Marin takes aim to wrap this up.
: Stop it, Flick! We can figure out a way to escape if we think this through together!: Hah, spoken like the head of the UF musaeum. Everything you say is gold, right?
: Flick…: Marin, remember the test to decide who’d take that job? I got the top score!: And, yet, the faculty nominated you for it! Just because your father was a big-shot scientist!: Flick…I never wanted to get the job like that! : But then you lost faith in the teachers and just up and left the Musaeum! : Yeah, I did! That was why I joined the Aldebaron!: And now I’ll finally get payback on you for screwing up my life! Get ready, Marin!: I don’t believe it…! You can possibly have changed so much because of that!
There we go.
: That’s enough, Flick! Stand down!: Are you actually holding back with me, Marin?!: No…I—: This whole space will collapse very soon! I’ll fight to the very last second!
: Stop, Flick! Please!!: I’ll kill you and keep on living, Marin! Die!: My Jolar won’t be bested easily – you’ll have to obliterate it completely if you want to stop me!: !: Let’s go, Marin! It’s time to end this!!: FLICK!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxj3uUe7aNw
: That’s it, Marin...that’s good...
: Flick…: Even if I managed to defeat you and leave here, I would’ve been executed for my betrayal…: I know…you…: Marin…there are those in the Skull Moon Alliance who want peace… You can’t let hatred lead you in battle…: Flick!!: Farewell…my friend…
*Space-time distortion starts.
: Is this--!: That mech’s explosion opened a rift in the dimensional wall!: Everyone, gather around Baldios!
: Impossible…! They returned to this dimension?!: Aphrodia…I will never forgive you Aldebaron for this!!: Retreat! We must leave this area!
: I won’t allow it!
: Grendizer!: You’re not going anywhere, Aldebaron!
: No! He hit the propulsion!: RAAAAAARGH!!
: A-abandon ship! UWAAAAAH!!
: I see you, Aphrodia!*Marin charges after her escape pod.*
Aphrodia’s escape pod couldn’t make it out and crashed nearby – Marin quickly finds her, their first time facing each other since the day of the coup that killed his father.
She fires back that Marin also killed her brother on that day but Marin says that, as a soldier, the guy was prepared to die in battle. Marin's father, however, was a researcher working to figure out how to reverse S-1's environmental woes.
Aphrodia says he deserved death anyway for opposing Gattler's evacuation plan but Marin counters by asking what precisely has Gattler actually done lately, anyway? He’s killed all the pacifists among his own people, tossed those who were left out into space AND picked a fight with the Earth.
Gattler’s doing all this for his own greed, seeing everyone else’s lives as nothing but trash, and there’s no way Marin's gonna let someone like that control S-1's future. Aphrodia isn’t willing to listen to any more of his “ignorant spiel” and tells him to kill her.
“You hate me, don’t you, Marin?! I’m part of the Aldebaron who killed your father and your friends – so, finish me off! But you will not stop us! We WILL exterminate the earthlings and this planet will be the new S-1!” she yells.
“…I won’t kill you, Aphrodia. Far better to have you deliver my declaration of war to Gattler…!” he answers.
Aphrodia’s outraged to be receiving mercy from him but Marin says he’s different from them, unwilling to gun down a living person on a whim – such as Flick said, he won’t let hatred rule his actions. Marin tells her to run off before he changes his mind and while she’ll do so, she promises to make him pay for this disgrace when next they meet.
: Flick…: Are you happy now, Flick…? I…I…!*Oliver and Raita come over.*
: Marin! Wasn’t that Aldebaron here?!: I let her go… to relay my declaration of war to Gattler…
: What?! How could you go and make that call yourself?!: You want to brand me an alien enemy, then?! Go ahead! Do your worst!: Marin, you—: If you don’t, then I…I’ll never forgive myself for what I’ve done…!: I followed Flick’s words and let Aphrodia run off… I...: Damn it, Marin! Shut your mouth!!
*Punch!*
: Urgh!: You feeling better now, you goddamn alien spy?! Do you, coward?!
: We’re not idiots... We know Flick let himself get killed to allow us to escape.: Raita, Oliver...: He was a great man…willing to give up on even his planet and his own life to do the right thing, just like you are!: I’m sure you get that, so how can you hate yourself for it?!: …*Daisuke comes over.*
: Forgive me, Marin… I might’ve been able to save him had I gotten here sooner…: Daisuke…you knew Flick?: He was trying to topple the Aldebaron from within, in the name of S-1’s future and his wish for peace…: That’s what I heard from an acquaintance of mine.: Who is that?: King Vega’s daughter, Rubina…a childhood friend.: She also told me that Gattler had the S-1 refugees put into cryo-sleep.: WHAT?! He brought all the survivors here?!: Then, the S-1 refugees are now also in the alien’s lunar base…: Yes…there are about three hundred million of them…: And if the animosity between Earth and the Aldebaron continues to grow, they will all be caught in the cross-fire.: So that’s why Flick told me not to fight driven by hatred…: I know that’s easier said than done…in reality, these words will hold no sway over those who’ve lost friends and family to the conflict...
: Still, Marin, Oliver, Raita… you’ve managed to overcome that barrier. So, I wish to fight alongside you. 
: Daisuke…rather, Duke Fleed. Will you lend us your strength to save both Earth and S-1?: Yes and, if need be, I’m ready to lay my life for this – just as Flick did…: (Rubina… there are also people on Earth who share in your and Flick's desire.): (So, in the name of safeguarding both this planet and the entire universe's peace and future, I’ll join forces with them…)
Later, Hikaru’s telling us of Duke’s encounter with the other half of ZEUTH in Galia. Sadly, his words seemed not to stir their hearts. In their defense, the other ZEUTH members were in the midst of shock and grief after the human bombs incident.
She informs us of how the Gaizock abducted a bunch of people, planted bombs in them and sent them back, resulting in a string of indiscriminate terrorist bombings. Tsugumi’s appalled that they’d use living people as weapons like that and what makes it even worse is that the Gaizock did it half in jest.
To top it off, one of Kappei's personal friends was among those implanted with bombs and just listening to this makes Apollo ready to punch some Gaizocks. Löwen thinks a bit and figures the other ZEUTH’s alien massacre in Galia was meant as retaliation against the Gaizock’s actions – an unfortunate example of Duke’s warnings of how hatred breeds hatred (those racist government dogs!
). Ryouma doesn't want to think overlong about what the other half of ZEUTH is doing: their path is different from this half, and best to leave it at that. The good news is that this side just got a couple very stalwart allies to help with the outcasts of justice act.
Rand has another thing on his mind: just what were the demons doing poking around in an old Innocent dome? Burume wonders if they could’ve been looking for Blue Stones but Rag can’t really see the likes of them buying stuff off the bazaars.
Hayato has no clue, either, as nothing about it seems to plug into the Hundred Demons' goals of world domination, doppelganger creation, or acquisition of super-energy sources. That said, Reika remembers that they also seem interested in the Fallen Angels, so maybe that dome’s Innocents were studying them or other super-energy sources?
Either way, thinking ain’t Rand’s forte (yup, he’s here to
We can do that but Rand reminds them that we need to stay put until Gain’s group comes back with Renton – at least it’ll give us some more time to think some more on what we know.
Mel’s surprised that he’s so relaxed even though we still have the Federation and Zaft after us but he says that’s not quite it: all we can really do in our current situation is keep standing our ground, come what may.
FYI: the Bazaar’s now selling a Mexbrute Overman, so be sure to pick that up (both paths get to buy this but this one gets it sooner).