Part 247: Mission 51 (Zaft Route) - The Crimson Path

We open with the same convo between Sirius, Touma and the Fallen Angels from ZEUTH 50. After that, it’s over to Trinity City where Teral and co are being informed of ZEUTH’s return to Earth.
Tsukikage says they’ll be converging with the Freeden and Iron Gear before setting out to their next objective. Everyone sends their regards but Kouzuki’s a bit miffed that they couldn’t even stop by to say hello.
Arthur has been briefed on how D.O.M.E. revealed the truth of the Black History and that, in turn, has set our sights on a new objective; meanwhile, Jane has heard of Kazami’s betrayal and Quinstein matter-of-factly states that this man who’s discarded scientific ethics in pursuit of power is no longer the peer we knew. Now, he’s Earth’s enemy.
It’s a strange parallel, Kouzuki thinks: we’re getting along with Teral and, on the other side, Kazami and the Eldar are teaming up.
Regardless, Teral expects Gagarn to intensify his offensive now that he has the professor on his side which means a massive invasion of Earth is likely. Michi sees that this prospect worries Teral and Aphrodia and Jane understands: an all-out invasion would mean many deaths on both sides of the conflict.

Tsukikage and Arthur inform Teral of our newfound determination to create a new, better future after D.O.M.E.’s lecture and, thus, they believe the galactic war in Teral’s future will also be averted.
The rest of this scene is like ZEUTH’s 50, with them discussing the parallel worlds, Tsukikage and Quinstein’s plan of releasing the two commanders in hopes of them acting as our messengers to the aliens and Teral’s convo with Aphrodia concerning her doubts.
Fudou’s absurd “I CAN’T REACH ZEUTH!” scene is omitted and, instead, Quinstein informs that they’ll handle transporting them to the moon and Teral vows to see his task through in the name of peace for Earth and the Universe.



From ZEUTH 48, Dewey explains the Limit of Questions and the Ageha Project to Dominic. Afterwards, our people have given the Earth-bound crew the rundown of everything that happened in space.
The follow it up with the scene from 49, concerning Reika’s worry that she could’ve stopped Sirius from running off and how our people don’t really care about petty stuff like “wings” after all the craziness this world’s seen. Reika wants to sever her own misfortune and apologize to Sirius.
Follow it up with 48’s scene concerning Norb and Holland explaining about the Vorada Shrine, what we’ll do there and whatnot.

Ryouma, while he understands the importance of all this, is worried about what the Hundred Demons and OverDevil could be doing – Cotsett and crew were trying to gather info on their movements during our absence but didn’t find anything significant. Jiron figures everyone’s massing their strength to go for the gold in one move.
Rena takes Kazami’s place in explaining how the enemies themselves will be gunning for us since we’re THE group to beat for any would-be world conqueror and how we’re at the crux of the Black History events, as show at the moon.
Pierre is all over that idea, eager to deal with all those problems, and Ryouma figures those groups will likely make their move by the Vodara Shrine if they noticed our return to Earth. Jiron’s ready to take on all comers and Rena quickly pulls Apollo over to predict that Sirius will be coming over during the next battle.



Mission 51 (Zaft Route) – The Crimson Path



Our people arrive at the shrine and Gainer doesn’t see anyone living there – from what Norb’s told Holland, all of the Vodarac priesthood set out to travel the world after the first Break.
This strikes Kei as odd as the standard is for believers to SEEK their holy land, not leave it behind, but Roger remembers Tiptree, way back in Siberia, saying that all of the Vodarac’s people wanted was to live in accordance to the “flow” of nature.
More importantly, Marin has noticed a small distortion in the dimensional walls inside the shrine and Julie figures that’s to be expected from a place said to house a hint towards communicating with the Coralians.
We gotta get Renton and Eureka in there to see what that is but Norb sees some uninvited guests coming.



It’s the Ageha squad and they’re not going to let us reach Sakuya easily. Olson notices Chiram troops with them and, like before, it’s the revenge-seeking Henry.
As in ZEUTH 48, Dominic launches the Assault Aquarions and our people deploy to intercept. Pierre is riding with Apollo and Reika and that Vector Omega that replaced Mars is working fine (though he’s a bit embarrassed over that Aquarion Angel name).
Silvia wanted to be out there with them but Apollo cuts her complaints short as the battle begins. Cue the Jurgens, Anemone and Dominic convo from ZEUTH 48 and Renton/Eureka lead the charge towards the shrine – anything to stop the Black History from becoming a reality.


Mission Objective: Shoot down the Aquarion Alpha
Mission Failure: Any allied battleship or Aquarion shot down
Skill Point: Clear the map in 5 turns.
Not difficult, if you know what’s coming. We’ll have enemy reinforcements behind us, so don’t rush too far ahead.
Victory in here hinges simply on destroying set units, so build your morale as needed and, when you’re ready to end things, take out the enemy leaders.



Pass enough time and in come the Hundred Demons, with Hidler very eager to finally get payback on us.
Our people aren’t taking his bravado seriously but Glenn is reacting to them: it’s due to the sins of humanity, says Sirius. He shows up with Moroha and we have both his spiel from ZEUTH 50 as well as the demons gloating of their enhanced soldiers from 48.

In the end, Sirius deems that humans have no point or right to exist and he and Moroha decide to ignore the demons and Feds in the interest of taking us out first. The demons are all over that but Dominic wants to pull back lest things blow up in their faces.
Anemone isn’t having it, though, as that’d risk Dewey thinking that she isn’t useful anymore and Dominic has no choice but to rescind his order and tell their troops to keep fighting ZEUTH. Toshiya isn’t happy that they’re all ganging up on us and Talho tells everyone to focus on the leaders.
Sirius yells that mankind will perish within this unending battle they’ve created but Apollo ain’t about to lend his ear to a traitor. Gainer isn’t too keen on fighting the guy but Apollo argues that that’s only another Fallen Angel there.


The mission objective changes to shooting down Hidler and either Sirius, Moroha or Glenn.
As before, destroying Moroha will get you one ending point while Glenn will take away one. Plus, if you want the Assault Aquarion, make sure you down the Aquarions Delta and Omega before taking Moroha out.



Take out Moroha and everything from mission 50 plays in one sweep: Glenn wakes up and kamikazes him while Silvia tells Sirius off.
With the Assault Aquarions done, Dominic deems it’s too dangerous to continue and orders all troops to pull back – all that’s left now is to deal with the demons.



Wreck Hidler and tells Gura to run and finish his dimensional manipulator. Our people hear this and try to capture the fleeing scientist but Hidler flings his ship against the Gekko in order to hold us back.
Those guys having the capacity of manipulating dimensional power paints a grim picture to Ryouma but, from what we can tell, their device isn’t perfected yet. We gotta take them out before it comes to that.



We get little time to think about this as a bevy of Megadeus Archetypes show up all around us.
Roger quickly explains of these mechs being found in Paradigm City’s underground and while he doesn’t know what’s up with them, they’re clearly moving to attack us. Our resources are dwindling after the previous battle, so Holland sends Renton, Eureka and Norb into the shrine while we hold the line (Tifa quickly reminds Eureka not to fear change – it’s a natural thing for her, us and the entire world).


Same convo from 48, with Renton, Norb, Eureka and Sakuya.
Once the kids make it back outside, Sakuya does her thing but with the Archetypes this time: “Vanguard of the Great Power, asleep within the miniature garden… you may well be just as worthy of pity as the Fallen Angels…”, she says before warping them away.
Alan Gabriel takes this opportunity to jump from the shadows and kidnap Dorothy. He quickly introduces himself but our attention is diverted…



The OverDevil enters the area and Alan figures the “monster of the Black History” was also drawn here by the Great Power.
As before, Gainer tries rescuing Cynthia and gets absorbed by the thing before it runs off – Alan also escapes, laughing at how we’re, unknowingly, caught in the Great Power’s maelstrom.
We’ve now lost two of our own and the question becomes what to do about them.


Gura relates Hidler’s death, how his research is nearly complete, etc.
What changes from ZEUTH’s 48, however, is his research’s next step: he’s detected (and confirmed in today’s battle) that one of ZEUTH’s machines is using Dimensional Power. That machine needs to be captured which only makes it more evident to Brai that they’ll need to dispatch us in order to solidify their dominance.
He orders all troops on alert and ready to strike at ZEUTH as soon as their fortress island is airborne.



The Assault Aquarion event is largely unchanged but Tsugumi also pitches in her speech from ZEUTH’s 50.
After the pilots are assigned their new Vectors, Silvia is no longer moping and stands ready to fight against anyone – even Sirius. Apollo is a taken aback of she tells him not to worry, what with her also being a fully-fledged ZEUTH member.
Apollo bounces back and tells her to give everyone a show of her brutish strength come our next fight and she balks that the Getter Team would be so much more supportive to each other.
Quietly, Pierre laughs at how clumsy Apollo can be with his words. Still, Reika sees that both Silvia’s and her fighting spirit have been rekindled – whether or not Apollo is the Wings of the Sun, his inner light has managed to touch all of them.