Part 138: Mission 35 (Setsuko - Border Patrol Route) - Prologue

Setsuko Route (Border Patrol) Chapter 35 Prologue


Last time on Super Robot Wars Z: Racism. Also Setsuko has nearly twice the kills of 2nd place.


Location: Lunar Surface – Skull Moon Base – Bandock


Teral leads his forces (with Jeela and Leets) into the Bandock to reclaim his prisoners, and he leaves a message for Killer the Butcher - if he wants them back, he'll have to take them back the hard way.
Jeela assures him that none of the remaining prisoners appear to have been, uh, "altered." – seems like all the ones who have already been operated on have probably already been sent to Earth.


Mr. Dan approaches Teral - prompting a cry of insolence from Leets, but Teral feels he owes this man an apology: it was his failure as a commander that led to these captives being stolen out from under his nose and turned into bombs.

Kozuki asks if that means they can just go already. Jeela's not amused with the “threat to the Universe” giving Teral sass (Kozuki finds those to be rather hypocritical words coming from the group who attacked us in the first place) but once again, Teral stops her before she gives him what-for. He adds that they deserve at least the humans' anger, for now.

Anyway, Mr. Dan believes Teral is a man of honor, and he and Jane thank him for the help.
Teral insists he was only keeping a promise - a promise to an Earthling who, like this man, respected him as an honorable foe.

It's as good a time as any for Teral to explain to Leets the implications of that new Cosmosaurus from before - and the fact that it was sent from Eldar central command.
That they warped one here just like that shows that they grow impatient with the continued failure of the assault; all they need to send an entire second wave over is for the dimensional walls to weaken, and Command believes that chance will come soon considering the current situation of Earth.
When the second wave comes, it will be under the command of a man who all three leaders are very terrified of indeed. They HAVE to eliminate the Trinity Energy before that happens.


Jane leads Kozuki and Michi away, but Michi can't find Aki anywhere! Kozuki says she was taken away from them a few days ago. She couldn't have been... right?


Location: Southern Galia – King Beal


Anyway, Gengoroh and Mizuki are explaining to Ichitaro that there wouldn't have been any point trying to "extract" information on the Alliance from Teral: if Toshiya's even a bit right about that man, he'd probably die before coughing up his own military secrets.
That just leaves the Diana Counter, but they've decided to let the Minerva and Argama worry about recovering the Queen. Does that mean Durandal changed his mind about letting the Moon Race handle their own matters? No - Athrun made the decision himself.
Uchuta's surprised he had it in him to defy the Chairman, but as a FAITH commander, he certainly has the right if he sees it fit.

Where does that leave us, then? Heizaemon says we're to be in contact with Sandman, who has something he wants us to know.


In fact, that very Sandman calls to ask us to come meet him in person, at a property of his in the former Monaco. If whatever he has to say can only be told in person, muses Heizaemon, then he's finally worked up the courage. Indeed, Sandman replies that the Zeravire's attacks only grow more fierce, so he has no choice now but to reveal the truth.

Mizuki is eager to hear it at last, but can't help but wonder why old Heizaemon seems to know what he's talking about already.


Location: Monaco – Sandman’s Villa


Anyway, everyone goes to see Sandman. He's happy to see Setsuko's moved forward a bit, and tells her to keep confidence in herself. And he's disappointed to hear Kazami has locked himself away to work - he wanted to see the Professor again, too.
Meanwhile, Boss's gang is bowled over by the decorations, any one of which could pay for five Boss Borots - "we could even get flush toilets into each one with change to spare!" woops Boss.

Either way, Sandman’s also proud of the Gran Knights’ steady progress is mastering the God Gravion and, as Touga thanks him for the praise, Eiji notices that Leele and Eina aren’t here – Sandman said this was something important but he didn’t call them over as well?
Sandman says that he's leaving Leele out of this (and Eina is with her) – Runa finds it odd considering Leele’s one of us but Sandman says we'll understand why eventually.
He signals to Raven, and a crystal orb appears, something Sandman calls a recording device, if it makes it easier to understand.

"I will now show you a story of the distant past, on a planet far, far away..."


Chapter 35: Rosary of Grief


ZEUTH is shocked for a moment, thinking they've been warped again. Luckily, it's just Sandman's device projecting some kind of pocket space.
Toshiya already feels like something's "off" about the cityscape before them.
Sandman explains that this is because it's another planet, called Llambias, and several hundred years ago at that. Perhaps most important, it's Sandman's home planet.
No time for anyone to be stunned as there's more coming.


The Zeravire appear and begin destroying the entire city. It’s a grievous sight but Sandman insists that ZEUTH not turn away. "I must confess my sin."


A robot that faintly resembles a variation on the Gran Kaiser deploys - Sandman names it the Gran ∑, the prototype for Gravion itself.


Sieg, the Sandman in the projection, confesses to his flabbergasted partner he destroyed the Genocidron control unit on accident.
Sandman says that Sieg is indeed himself in the past, and the Zeravire were originally the Genocidron System, created by his brother-in-law, Hugi Zeravire.
It was meant to end the war between Serius and Llambias; Serius was originally an emigration from Llambias, but when Llambias' environment began to collapse, they looked to Serius to save them. And by save them, we mean they wanted to take the planet for themselves, and so began the war.

It was Hugi Zeravire who conceived the Genocidron System, a military force that would destroy its enemies with no human intervention; the idea of exterminating their fellow humans is appalling to Maria but Hugi believed that the thousands on Serius were an acceptable sacrifice in order to save the hundreds of millions who lived in Llambias.
Minako’s outraged but Julie, looking at it objectively, can kinda see the reasoning behind this choice IF Llambias truly was beyond saving.

"There was another solution..." says Sandman. "But it was too late."

The projected people exposit that "Gran ∑, the Creation Engine" should have been able to restore Llambias, making the war unnecessary, while Sieg laments that Hugi wasn’t willing to wait for its completion.
Sandman continues to narrate - that day, he had an argument with Hugi over the Genocidron System which culminated in an enraged Hugi trying to shoot him; that sounds a bit excessive to Eiji but Hugi blamed him for supposedly expediting the demise of his sister and Sandman’s wife, Lufira.
Sandman says she was pregnant with his child and under Hugi’s care at the time - however, she was born with a weak body and the burden of labor was too much for her to endure.
This is why Hugi blamed him for her early death.

Anyway, Sieg summoned the Gran ∑　to defend himself from his brother-in-law, but in doing so, the machine accidentally destroyed the central Genocidron control. Without any direction, the Genocidron turned on all life.

There was only the ∑ to defend against them and it certainly had the power to fight evenly against them for a while; in fact, had it been perfected, it would’ve had enough power to create even stars.


Sadly, it wasn’t complete at the time and the Zeravire eventually overwhelmed it, Sieg cursing his inability to shield his world, his people or even his family; he begs Lufira to forgive him as he overloads his machine.


Back in the real world, Sandman finishes by saying that Hugi died under the falling debris, both Llambias and Serius were wiped out, and he alone survived, escaping to Earth only to live with that sin on his soul for hundreds of years.
The G-Factor he's infused his body with made him immortal (and turned his hair from blond to purple, by the way), so that he could bear his burden and do what he could to keep the Genocidron from visiting tragedy on another planet.
When he arrived on Earth, he found others who were like him: these were the Beal, the ancestors of the Jin families. Heizaemon confirms - the ancestors' encounter with Sandman is written in their records, and he himself was in contact with Sandman since raising the Beal ships.
That's why Sandman stood in support of Zambot - especially as he says that he owes their lineage a debt.

That answers all of the questions Mizuki had in her mind, for the moment (she figures he's the Count of St. Germain that’s depicted throughout history, as well).
Like the Beal, Sandman integrated himself into human civilization, and following their lead, he used his resources to secretly build the completed God Gravion in order to have the power to oppose any eventual threats to this world.
Sandman believes that the Zeravire are attacking Earth through dimensional tears, and they will attack harder the weaker the dimensional walls get; that's why he judged that we absolutely had to know what we were up against as he could not ask us to fight any longer while keeping us in the dark.


All Kappei got was that Sandman's an alien and the Zeravire are all his fault; Ichitaro and Runa argue that he’s not responsible for the things’ attack on Earth and that, despite his origins, he’s still the man we know. Kappei’s not listening, though, and runs out.
Kappei's dad and grandparents all know that the kid has been through a lot, and it won't be easy for a child to just get over that stuff - Keiko and Uchuta go after him.
Sandman figures the kid’s anger is understandable but the Gran Knights are still on his side: he's become immortal just to try to make up for what he's done and Eiji and Touga are sure Kappei will come around eventually.
Sandman’s thankful for their words but confesses that he’s still keeping some secrets and Mizuki figures it’s got something to do with Leele…


The adults were right - Kappei's not hateful, just confused as to what’s right anymore.
His train of thought is interrupted with the arrival of Toppo; last time they saw each other was in Siberia, and since then, he's separated from Kozuki's gang and taken a job helping someone else...


It's Sunbro with his assistant, Reika Sanjo...


...and his self-professed future girlfriend, Beautiful "Beauty" Tachibana.


Banjou has some business with Kappei, though - he sends all three of his assistants off to get in touch with the lady (who? ). They're even willing to take her in themselves if they have to.

: ...
: Sorry for all the noise, Kappei.
: Your name's Banjou?
: That's right, I never actually told you.
: My name is Banjou Haran. I'm friends with the owner, so I'm just visiting.
: ...
: What's the matter?
: You know Sandman's an alien?
: It came up.
: And you're still his friend?!
: He's still Sandman. That's all I care about.
: If someone you were friends with turned out not to be from Earth... or not to be a human being, would you just stop being their friend?
: ...
: Be honest with yourself. That's your strength, you know.
: My strength?
: When you're mad or happy, hateful or sad...
: You let it show, and that makes you human more than anything.
: That's kind of weird, but you're gonna embarrass me like that.
: ...
: I know, I know...
: I'm not supposed to hate Sandman or Daisuke just because they're aliens...
: But when I think about Hamamoto being turned into a bomb...
: Anger and sadness like that are a part of being human.
: But don't forget, Kappei, that you're a warrior. A warrior changes things by fighting.
: You mean... beat the Gaizock?
: Exactly. And you have to grow up into a man, too.
: A man who doesn't just rely on emotions, but has the wisdom to tell what's right and what's necessary.
: Okay! I can't really tell what's right like you said just yet...
: But I know I gotta go tell Sandman and Daisuke I'm sorry.
: Yep.
: It's so cool how you always show up and help me out right when I need it...
: And you're Sandman's friend, so you must be super rich, and you've got those super hot assistants!
: You can have all of that if you work at it.
: But you also have a lot of things that I've lost.
: Like what?


In a definitely unrelated plot thread, Uchuta and Keiko finally find Kappei, and he proudly introduces his buddy Sunbro, Banjou Haran. Kappei's told them all about him.


Ichitaro also catches up - the Phantom Pain's called them out! Kappei's only too happy to play ball - actually happy this time.
Ichitaro thanks Banjou for what he did for Kappei, and Banjou serenely replies: "You're the ones protecting him, not me."
Kappei grabs all his family and runs off, excited to battle without the weight on his shoulders.
Banjou watches him go.

: Kappei, you have a mother and a father. All the friends and family I've lost.
: Never forget how precious they are. They'll give you the most strength of all.