The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars Z

by Brunom1, Dr. Pepper, Caphi

Part 146: Mission 36 (Rand) - Tomorrow Revealed - Part 1

No event deployments this time and we have 11 slots to fill, so here they are:


Make sure everyone has accelerate and get as many groups flying as possible, because we’re going into a vast, dilapidated battleground; keeping Gain grounded isn’t ideal (only have three Minovsky crafts and I wanted Gainer’s group to fly) but Jiron’s Boost will cover that deficiency a bit.
I didn’t think of this at the time but it’s not a bad idea to have someone with Rouse (like Bello) on Garrod’s squad.

Now let’s take a deep breath and move on because, following the OverDevil fight, this one is another dose of bullshit for Rand players…



Location: Northern South Ameria



Jamil gets a status report on the Chiram war from Murrue: North Amerian Federation forces are heading south, having already wiped out most of the Chiram border guards.
Löwen isn’t surprised as, composed as it is of the premiere governments of the various different worlds, the Federation’s military force is too great for any one nation to stand up to. Sara’s heard of the Archangel’s misadventures in Galia after their last encounter with us and wonders how they got info on the Feds’ attack.

Murrue says they’ve been keeping tabs on the war through various journalists world-wide, one of whom has been feeding real-time reports even faster than the UN – this is the one who told them of the invasion. Murrue also had an inkling Enil would be going after us, so contacted her as a means to get in touch with us.
Sara asks if there's even a point in us trying to intervene, since it sounds like the Chiram cities may fall before we can get there and while Murrue agrees, she says that Zaft apparently has sent some troops over.
With the Plants' help, the Chiram might be able to resist the Feds. That said, Murrue adds that, so far, the dispatched Zaft troops haven't been doing much more than observing so things are still up in the air.



Löwen suspects that Durandal is considering trying to ally the Plants with Chiram, which would be a surprising move for someone whom Jamil thought wanted to end the hostilities as soon as possible.
That might be just the reason for this and Löwen thinks that Durandal's waiting for both sides to weaken each other before proposing an alliance. That would avoid much Zaft blood being shed while still giving them another terrestrial foothold against the Federation.
Jamil concedes that victory COULD be the quickest to end the fighting but Murrue says both Zaft and the Feds’s methods are precisely what’s messing up the world even further.

Jamil agrees and since we’re all a bunch of outlaws and pariahs, our group stands ready to stand against such barbarism as simple individuals of this world (though he’s not sure just how much help we’ll be). Murrue’s glad to find out that she wasn’t mistaken in contacting us and says her team’s also trying to do whatever they can to help the world at large.
Both our ships and the Archangel plan to meet in Chiram's capital and prepare for what promises to be one hell of a battle – that said, Murrue’s team has been ready for this since their departure from Orb.



Location: South Ameria – Chiram Capital



Wesley has no good news for the Chiram President: the Federation's new weapons are crushing wave after wave of their soldiers.
At this rate, they'll reach the capital in two days' time and the president orders Wesley to prepare to pull out and to take the dimensional manipulator device along with him - he's sure that's what the Feds are actually after, willing to burn Chiram to the ground to get it.
Wesley bristles at the thought but the president points out that that's just an indicator of the importance of both it and Project D. The president can’t help but laugh at the irony of this being the result of those Federation fools finally realizing just how dire the situation is.

Wesley isn’t surprised, though, since the New Earth Federation includes the always-antagonistic Atlantic Federation, cradle of the Blue Cosmos. Regardless, the president says they cannot allow either Chiram or the world to end and, for that, they have their Project D.
The Chiram’s very survival lies with the Project and, with that in mind, Wesley agrees to personally oversee the device’s transportation.



Olson's returned here as ordered and the president puts him in charge of the capital’s defenses BUT he makes it a point to say that Olson cannot let himself be killed here – if it comes to it, he’s to sacrifice whatever’s needed in order to survive.
While he doesn't doubt his country's science or the dimensional manipulator, he says that it is merely a partial redeployment of the space-time oscillation bomb that broke the world in the first place.

The president has to consider the worst case scenario at all times (just as he did with the Fed attack) and, if the worst comes to bear and Project D fails, it’ll fall on Olson to get together with Kei and do the dimensional repair as Singularities.
He has faith that the two of them won’t let Chiram perish…



Mission 36 - Tomorrow Revealed



Two days pass, with the Federation advance continuing unabated, and, as the worst case scenario becomes reality, the Chiram president is evacuated by Wesley along with the device.
The Chiram soldiers charge ahead to keep the Feds busy while the escape happens, ignoring Olson’s warnings not to act carelessly.








All those gung-ho troops are easily dispatched by Stella’s monstrous new unit, whose indiscriminate barrage has already destroyed huge chunks of the capital.
The Titans’ Bask Om is overseeing the onslaught and is decently impressed by Djibril’s new toy and the remaining Phantom Pain members: “Take a look, Scirocco. I’ll show you how a war’s fought.”, he grumbles.
Sting privately sniffs that even he could easily do this much damage if he was the Destroy's pilot but Neo tells him not to complain, as the choice was made based on who’d be more compatible with the unit. Speaking of, Sting wonders where they dug up “that Stella chick” as she seems rather familiar.

Neo doesn't give him a straight answer, saying only that the orders came from above and need not concern him. He recalls privately how Sting had to have his mind readjusted after the death of Auel.
Stella also underwent readjustment both to correct her instability after her time as a POW and to make her into the Destroy Gundam's pilot. Neither Stella or Sting remember each other and Neo figures it’s for the best, considering what’s to come.
He's sorry he had to break his promise to the Zaft kid, who set Stella free in the first place, never to force her to fight again.





Jamaican quickly detects ZEUTH’s battleships approaching but before Bask can rage at Zaft coming to curry favors from the Chiram, he’s informed that it’s the South Amerian-side of ZEUTH.
Rand and Duke are immediately flabbergasted at this level of destruction, excessive even during war times, and they quickly single out the giant black Gundam as the culprit. Garrod and Jamil didn’t expect the Feds to have built such a weapon of mass-destruction and Roger dubs its ominous shape as befitting a herald of destruction.
Kei sees Olson and Atena’s Devices over by the presidential palace and they’re, thankfully, still in one piece, so he asks them to cover us as we charge the Feds. Olson asks if Kei’s decided to return to the Chiram but, no, he just can’t sit by and watch this atrocity happen.

Jiron and Ryouma agree, finding this unforgivable even from our outcast’s point of view, though Holland isn’t all that surprised that the military see the lives of others as mere garbage. Kei yells to Olson that we fight for no country, only for living people and, in fact, only acting to safeguard YOUR own land at the expense of others is exactly what the Federation’s been doing.
Again, Kei tells them to help out and Atena gets snippy at him trying to give her orders – Kei tells her to listen to her father but Atena’s nowhere close to having forgiven him for the suffering he caused her mother. Olson orders a retreat, though, and Atena’s quick to protest against leaving the defense of their country to others.

Olson says countries can be rebuilt but if this world ceases to exist, then all will be truly over – with that, they leave to join up with the platoon protecting the president and the space-time device. He now understands what Kei’s getting at and only asks to give him some time to think.
Kei asks him to leave this to us, as small repayment for all the times Olson helped him out back in their Academy days. As the two of them leave, Kei quickly explains how Olson, Chiram’s Singularity, is an old friend but that talk will have to wait..



Jamil gives the order to attack, tagging the Destroy Gundam as our primary target and Matthew’s counting on Kira to put on a good show. Kira’s response is a bit shaky and, his skill notwithstanding, Apollo can’t tell from his scent whether the kid’s serious about this or not.
Hayato smirks that Kira’s probably shaken up at having to work with disreputable folk like us but Silvia protests that the guy’s kidnapped a bride, so...yeah.

Cagalli objects to that, saying Kira and the others had no choice at the time and Jun’s immediately blown away to see Orb’s representative aboard the Archangel.
Sirius finds that she’s quite different from this picture he saw in the UN and that’s Pierre’s cue to quip at how he shouldn’t be surprised at meeting a princess that doesn’t live up to her title’s standards. As Silvia prepares to start yelling, Apollo tells them to shut up as this ain’t the place to play around.

: …As this sort of war continues, our world will suffer all that tragedy once more…
: I…I won’t allow it... That’s why I’m…
: Kira…
: (You’re far too gentle, Kira Yamato… a hair’s breadth away from childish naiveté, really.)
: (Show us how determined you are, then.)



Mission Objective: Shoot down the Destroy Gundam
Mission Failure: Any allied battleship OR Kira shot down
Skill Point: Within 6 turns, shoot down all enemies and then the Destroy Gundam

Oi… this wouldn’t be nearly as bad if the battlefield wasn’t so goddamn enormous.
You’ve enemies spread all over the North edge of the map, split in three batches: the NW batch of Marasais, Sting and Gells-Ghes, Bask and two other Garudas plus Stella straight North and Neo, some Gaplants, Asshimars and Zamza-Zahs in the NE.
The plan is simple but executing it can get dicey: we’ll split our troops to the NW and NE, converge on the ships and then move down to the Destroy Gundam; make sure you divide your strongest TRI attacks evenly and give some more “oomph” to the NW side as you’ll need to contend with Sting’s Phase Shift Armor.

You’ll want one full turn to deal with Stella the way we’re going to, so that means rushing past Sting and Neo and onto the Garudas ASAP. Best to leave the small fries weakened as you move in and let them kill themselves in a counterattack.
Speaking of, mooks aren’t THAT plentiful, so managing morale is also important – if needed, liberal use of Spirit and Rouse is recommended (this is why I said Garrod would’ve liked to stick with Bello as I won’t be able to bring him into Satellite Cannon morale in this mission).

Now, let’s take a look at our newest nuisances:


Garuda-class Battleship (Bask Om)
Pilot Skills:
Features:
Bask’s Squad Leader Bonus: Damage -20%
Bask’s Voice Actor: Daisuke Gouri (other known roles: Heihachi in Tekken, Mr. Satan in Dragon Ball Z, Cohen in Getter Armageddon, and MANY others)

Can you say “bulky”? Because that’s what defines Bask. He’s a huge wall of HP and Defense which when combined with his Leader Bonus, 2L size and a decent Prevail, will make that Barrier Field an even bigger annoyance.
Your reals won’t do much here without a barrier piercing and/or size ignoring attack, so I hope your NW-bound Supers have made it in time to swarm him or else you’ll have a hard time downing him in the required number of turns.
Bask and his two ships can ruin your Skill Point run before you even begin working on Stella (I had to restart this once because of him), so don’t underestimate how long it takes to grind them down – if possible, start working on them on turn 4.



Destroy Gundam (Stella Loussier)
Pilot Skills:
Features:
Stella’s Squad Leader Bonus: Squad Movement +1
Stella’s Voice Actress: Houko Kuwashima (other known works: Yurika in Nadesico, Quon in RahXephon, Sango in InuYasha and MANY others)

Always gotta have a big, evil Gundam with a crazy girl at the controls… as you can see from Stella’s skills, she’s not very suited for this machine (regardless of what Neo says) but that’s compensated by the fact that the Destroy’s quite dangerous.
It is bulky all by itself which compensates Stella’s fragility and packs two high-power ALL attacks with massive range – Stella’s deadly accurate with these due to her Extended powers; her MAPW has a blind-spot at point-blank so keep that in mind, as she’ll fire it whenever there are 5+ squads in her target area (make sure to mark that and always keep an eye out because it WILL hurt your reals).
The Positron Reflecter (sic) is also a big annoyance since it’ll block out pretty much all squad attacks and maybe support attacks if we’re unlucky; the thing also packs huge armor and HP, meaning even our barrier-piercing Supers will need to go for broke to tear through her 65k health in one turn as our reals might stop at the barrier.

Rand players have another…issue ( )…to deal with but we’ll get there when we get there.



We’ll start dashing everyone forward and Renton’s leading the charge.












Good sign, opening with a crit.




For the first time in forever, Witz takes to the front so Gainer’s group can finish off that leader Gaplant; Kei follows it up for another kill.



And there goes the last one.








It’s free morale.





Sirius switches over and the nearby Gaplant squad loses its leader under concentrated firepower.

Everyone else is trotting along – Kira’s going to the NW side, mind, as his beam attack will help against Sting.



Enemy Phase!





The Marasais start closing in but only one gets to take a shot at Gain’s group.




Sirius’ Gaplants take aim at Rand…












Sumbitch…that was an 80% shot.
Following that, Rand and Kei’s group trade blows with the two Asshimar packs.

The bosses aren’t doing anything yet.



Player Phase!





The Gekko takes out Rand’s weakened Asshimar and a combine attack from the Archangel, Freeden and Kira takes out another.









As Garrod fails to kill his assigned Asshimar (*grumble*), Renton and Kei bust out their squad-hitting attacks to start working on the farthest Zamza-Zahs.
This is also important because it’ll draw in Neo.



Gainer will follow up on Kei’s barrage.












And there go his squaddies.









It falls on Duke to finish Garrod’s job and, nearby, Roger busts a Missile Party on some weakened Marasais before continuing his trek NW-ward.



Gain TRIs this fresh Marasai squad, leaving it prepped for Marin.










Enil falls just short of killing her target but we can deal with those as they attack.









Ryouma’s Getter Beam oneshots his target and Apollo’s team swarms one of those remaining Gaplants.
Finally, Rand finishes off another of Garrod’s Asshimars.



Enemy Phase!



And here come the lambs to the slaughter.












Uuuurgh…56 HP…







Getter and Baldios get attacked and take a kill, with Tekkouki earning Prevail L5.



Normally, I’m very hesitant to use Big O’s energy weapons because they’re so expensive but not today.












Boom.









Kei and Gainer’s low HP total draws in the AI giving them, respectively, one and two kills.





Of course, it also beckons Neo to attack Gainer but the kid’s too dodgy for him.

The plot kicks in on turn 3 or when someone does battle with Neo (the latter is recommended as you want this to happen ASAP).



: We’ve got another platoon inbound!
: Is that--?!



: Athrun…!
: The Minerva…Zaft’s ZEUTH!
: Kouji…
: The hell…what're you guys doing with the Archangel?!
: Shinn…
: Cpt. Jamil, did the Chiram hire you as mercenaries?
: No, we’re fighting out of our own volition.
: In other words, you’re acting on base impulse – as usual.
: I don’t like your tone, Tetsuya Tsurugi.
: They help the Federation on one day and fight them on the next… you can’t rely on these people…!
: Whoa, hold the phone! What’re ya talking about, Camille?!
: Leave it, repairman! They lost all shred of character after they got in bed with Zaft!
: How they slaughtered those aliens, for instance...
: Shut up! You’re from S-1! As if a guy like you could understand what we went through!
: Enough, Kappei!
: Duke Fleed…I guess we’re now following different paths…
: What are you getting at, Kouji? If there’s anyone who’s changed here, it’s you guys!
: Damn! They really did turn into a buncha dogs!
: What…?! Say that again to my face!
: Stop, Shinn! We need to focus on stopping the Federation right now!
: Loran and Toshiya’s group will deal with the surrounding troops! Meanwhile, we’ll strike at their main force!
: All units: the cornerstone of the enemy force is that black unit. Concentrate your fire on it!
: Wh-what do we do…? Do we have to fight the other ZEUTH?
: Seems like they also came here to stop the Federation, not to attack us.
: Keep an eye out, though. They try anything funny, we don’t hold back.
: What…we’d have to fight our friends…?!
: Settle down, Renton! We’ll worry about it if it comes to that!
: Let’s just hope that it doesn’t!
: Athrun…
: Why…! Why don’t you understand, Athrun?!
: Kira, Cagalli…I…

You government dogs are getting a bit too mouthy for my tastes, Doc!

I'll be watching you...

Expect the rest of the mission by Thursday. See you all then!