Part 262: Special Disk Mission 3-3 - Unearthed Graveyard

Glory Star Report Chapter 3


Location: Western Galia


In Gwen’s room, Cid has just called with news of a bandaged man who suddenly appeared during a Mountain Cycle dig in southern Galia. He then approached Cid and spoke: "If you seek the truth, seek the history buried in darkness."
That would obviously be the Black History, many of whose relics are indeed buried in the Mountain Cycles. Whoever the bandaged man was, Gwen believes he can bring about societal revolution if he can only get his hands on the power of said era. That’s the reason why he’s sponsoring Cid’s digs all over the world.
Cid warns that, due to the vastness of the world, he can't guarantee excavating anything of use on any given timetable. Gwen is well aware but wants him to keep trying; with that done, Cid sends asks him to send his regards to Joseph and signs off.


As Gwen ponders the relics of the Black History, Mikhail comes in with Joseph and Horace.
He tells them of his conversation with Cid and adds that, while busy, the guy is doing just fine. As Cid’s assistance, Gwen has a request to make of Joseph. He’ll need Horace’s assistance, too, as he’d like them to poke around a nearby Mountain Cycle.


Loran, Sochie and Gavane have been brought along and are very impressed with their first visit to such a place. It feels quite different from the Heim Mine in Vicinity.
Horace explains that Mountain Cycles are found throughout the world but this one seems to be a unique type – despite the time he spent investigating these things for the Diana Counter, he hasn’t seen anything like it before.
Indeed, Setsuko’s feeling something special about the aura of this place.
Horace comments on how the general consensus defines a Mountain Cycle merely as a plot of land wherein relics of the Cataclysm (that is, Black History) lie. However, he doesn’t think all these relics being concentrated in singular places to be a coincidence.
In fact, Horace believes that those relics weren’t simply stored underground but were gathered with a purpose in mind. That is to say, the Mountain Cycles themselves would be a legacy of the Cataclysm – ruins of some kind of facilities.
Sochie wonders if that would be the reason for why this place is covered in snow despite it being around Galia. Horace can’t well explain that but admits that it’s certainly unnatural.


Gavane apologizes for their dragging Setsuko along with this but she doesn’t mind – she had time to kill. Miashey knows that she’d normally be using that time on the combat sim but that was precisely why Sochie forced her to come with.
Setsuko is thankful, as this makes for a nice change of pace. Things aren’t all fun and games, though, as we’ve to look around this area. If we can find any units like the White Doll, it’d be a boon to ZEUTH.
That being said, this place already looks like it’s been excavated by someone else – and recently, too. Still, Gavane and co. have their orders, so they’ll look around for whatever’s interesting.


Nearby, Joseph is freaking out. When Loran asks, he says that he’s just realized where they’ve been sent to. It’s no regular Mountain Cycle but, actually, the Lost Mountain – a forbidden place.
Many times Cid spoke of this area to Joseph and how no one who set foot within came back alive. In fact, an old acquaintance of Cid once perished here.
How does he know it’s that Lost Mountain? Because of a “mysterious” symbol on the wall which makes the one place no one must enter.
Loran quickly recognizes it as the universal "nuclear" symbol.


The search goes well into the evening and Sochie asks Gavane if they shouldn’t be heading back? It’s getting pretty cold here.
Gavane loans Sochie his coat, a sort of half-proposal of marriage (Don’t ask me) which she figures is coming way too much out of left field. Of course, between warps, so many enemies and whatnot, these days are all full of surprises. So, he’d rather not risk leaving this a loose end.
Sochie doesn’t know what to answer but he won’t press her to do so – this wasn’t a formal proposal just yet. That’s for after things have settled down.
And it won’t happen soon, as an explosion rocks the area. Looks like someone else has their eyes set on the Mountain Cycle, so Sochie and Gavane move back to the others.


Special Disk Mission 3-3 – Unearthed Graveyard


Outside, Loran is quietly checking his sensors and isn’t detecting any radiation in the area. It should be safe around here for now.


The enemies, a bunch of Breakers, arrive guns blazing and they’re not happy that some folks decided to loot their treasure trove while they were out. Well, no more! They’ll just quickly relieve us of our valuables before tossing us into some ditch.
Miashey doesn’t appreciate their atti5tude but Loran can understand that they’re angry with folks trespassing into their dig site. Maybe we can explain the situation and try to work out a solution?
Loran tries and earns some led as the Breakers’ response. They don’t wanna talk, so Gavane figures the only option is to fight our way out of this.
Horace has already taken shelter, so Gavane leads the charge. He seems a bit more driven today, Loran thinks.


Right, we got some Breakers spread out around. They're not even that hard for the Borjarnons and Kapools to handle.


: Heh, I got myself another goal beyond the restoration of Luzianna!
: And that means I can’t get dropped here! I’m gonna survive this hand-in-hand with Sochie!!




: (He really wasn’t joking, huh…?)
: What are you doing, Sochie?! Pay attention or that’ll be it!
: R-right!
: (Gavane meant what he said… Well, now I’ll need to give him an answer – regardless of what it’ll actually be!)
: (And, so, I cannot afford to let this be the end! I must give this 110%!)







Invincible is handy.
















https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spsc6fcRlp0


Things are starting to go south for the Breakers but, then, Joseph spots something on the back of the Galapagos – a certain marked thing.
Setsuko gapes upon realization that that Breaker is holding a nuke, though no one but her and Loran actually knows what that is. The Breaker figures it’s a big ol’ bomb and moves to use it on us. Setsuko yells that he’s going to blow everyone – himself included – to bits but he figures she’s bluffing.
Miashey and Sochie ask what’s going on but that’ll have to wait for later – Loran asks everyone to get as far away as possible. Once that thing goes off, this entire region will go up in smoke.
The Breaker gloats at our fear and is about to fire the nuke when Gavane jumps in and grabs the guy.


He tells everyone to bolt while he keeps the Breaker pinned – he’s a duty to protect Sochie.
Loran and Setsuko yell at him to come back, as staying here’ll mean that he won’t escape the explosion. Gavane knows, which is why he’s gonna try to steal the thing. Do that and not only will everyone be safe but they’ll have accomplished Gwen’s request to find any interesting relics.
Loran protests that that weapon is forbidden and mustn’t be used by anyone – it could poison the land for centuries! The Breaker decides to just throw caution to the wind and fire the thing.




It’s at this point that the Turn A reacts to something and Setsuko spots things coming out of the underground: three Black Dominators.


The Breaker’s nuke is firing but we needn’t run, as the Dominators surround the Galapagos and do something to it. The bomb goes off but the explosion and radiation immediately disappear, leaving everyone safe. Looks like they neutralized the nuke somehow and the Breaker isn’t happy.
Loran recognizes the Black Dominators as being the same type as the one we fought in Siberia. They quickly turn their sights upon Loran and Joseph sees that they’re going to attack. Face these things, the Breakers decide to cut their losses and run off.


What now? Joseph has no idea but these Overmen came from the Lost Mountain and that makes them dangerous. Gavane calls everyone to form up as we’ll need to focus-fire in order to win against these.
Loran tries getting in touch with the Black Dominators but they’re not responding – are these unmanned? Makes no difference, if they’re attacking, Gavane figures.
Setsuko’s receive confirmation that ZEUTH is coming over to back them up, so they just need to hold on for a minute. As Sochie prepares to go for broke, Loran ponders if these Overmen are also relics of the Black History…


And so we have some Dominators to deal with now. Joesph and Gavane tagged with Loran, and Sochie and Miashey huddled with Setsuko. A bit suboptimal, I would have put one Kapool and Borjarnon each. Oh well.


: There’s no one aboard this Overman…? Is it running on auto-pilot?
: These units awoke from within these ruins, neutralized the radiation and moved to attack us…
: Did all this happen by accident or…?








: The White Doll knows these Overmen…!
: What are they…? A different, special type compared to the other Overmen?











In comes the cavalry, with Löwen confirming Setsuko’s safety. Seeing the Dominators, Kouji wonders if they’re friends of the one that attacked us in Siberia; Loran doesn’t think so, considering there’s no one aboard.
Joseph says they’re more or less ghosts of the Lost Mountain – ghosts of the Black History. Gwen is interested.
With no other way to deal with them, Bright orders everyone to bring down these unknown Overmen.






2




















Once they’re all confirmed gone, Talia wonders what the hell we were just fighting against. When Gwen asks, Joseph confirms that they came from the nearby ruins and tells him of the Lost Mountain – the forbidden land.
Whatever this place is, Quattro says those Overmen were different from anything their group has fought thus far. Camille adds that the things appeared to be fully autonomous.
Still, Gwen is considering the possibilities if he could just make that power his own.
Diana (as Kihel) appears worried and, when asked, Tells Gwen that this is a forbidden land. What lies here is pitch black darkness, a power that man mustn’t have.
Deep in thought, she ponders the Black History – the past that mankind sealed within the dark. Destruction is all that awaits us if that power is unearthed.


Back in Gwen’s room, he now wants Cid to head over to Siberia. The Overmen are obviously significant amidst the relics of the Black History, so he wants Cid to study them.
Siberia is a pretty wide place but, thankfully, Gwen already knows where Cid is to begin: Wulgusk, Gainer and co.’s hometown. He’ll be sending Mikhail and Horace to rendezvous with him; once they’re together, they’re to start digging around while making their way to the city itself.
Depending on what happens, Gwen says he might have Cid meet with Duke Medayu in his stead – the guy’s a well-known collector of antiques and was even the owner of Gainer’s Overman.
Cid sighs gravely, telling Gwen that while he’s excavated many Mountain Cycles, he’s now rather ill at ease over what he’s been doing. Does he mean the Lost Mountain? That’s part of it, Cid admits.

All this time, they’ve been digging up and using relics of the past, unknowing of their true significance or purpose. Many of those relics, like the ones in the Lost Mountain, are not meant for man to use and, yet, we seek out their power, emboldened by our ignorance.
He fears that, someday, this might backfire on them big-time. He won’t outright say that Gwen is a fool for seeking them but still…
Gwen assures him that it’ll be fine: everything he does, he does with the betterment of society in mind. And he means to apply both the Black History’s relics and ZEUTH towards that goal. Suffice to say that Cid’s doubts don’t seem assuaged.