Super Robot Wars Z Part #264 - Special Disk Mission 4-1

Part 264: Special Disk Mission 4-1 - Merge to Eat

Clearing Backstory: Memory adds a Haro to our list of rewards. This time, we’ll be skipping episode 3 and heading into 4 – Beater Services: Business Journal

By the way, you can still select the protagonist’s birth date. I’m keeping it as the default one now.

Multidimensional Century 10/22/0001.

All the shock of the Federation coup has left even us tired. After the misunderstanding that led us to fight the other side of ZEUTH, we learned the shocking truth about Eureka!
Tired as we were from all these messes, we decided to try to rest at the Tresor Institute, but I can't shake the feeling that something's going to happen here too. It's nice to have more material for my Memory Notebook, but what's going to happen to our world...?
Oh well, no point in worrying about it!

-- Acting President, Mel Beater

Location: Southern South Ameria – Tresor Institute, Lunch Room

When Kei asks, Renton says the local scientists and technicians in charge of the Nirvash’s modifications are currently working on designing the retrofit plans. Doctor Bear is helping out, and work is proceeding at a feverish pace but, even so, the job will take at least two weeks.
We’ll be staying here until then, making use of that time to repair all the damage we suffered when fighting the Zaft-ZEUTH. On the subject of the mission Archangel and Freedom, Löwen says there hasn’t been any information regarding them – with the turmoil of the recent Federation coup, neither they nor Zaft have the wiggle-room to track them down. Gainer has a lot of questions for them that he hopes to get the chance to ask and Daisuke says there's little else to do but trust that their iron will, strong enough to take on the whole world, will carry them through.
With that in mind, Jiron figures the best we can do while waiting is keep ourselves well fed and Apollo concedes that, while the institute’s director talks way too much, the place’s food is pretty dang good. So much so that Rand figures they’re going overboard with how much they’re eating – Roger figures they’ve no qualms about being seen as freeloaders.

Tsugumi herself is enjoying the food a whole lot and quickly notices that Reika’s only having some measly salad today. She couldn’t be dieting, could she? Reika’s always so pretty!
Maybe but Reika confesses that when she stepped on the scale this morning, she realized she’d taken in 900g. Tsugumi doesn’t subscribe to that dread but Reika says watching your physical shape is also part of one’s training – if the balance between mind and body is askew, it could mess up a combination and be potentially deadly.
Silvia comes in as Tsugumi starts getting scared, noticing Reika’s piddly meal. It’s not good for your health to reduce the food intake so suddenly, she warns. Reika grumbles that she knows that but despite her deep frown, Silvia has no qualms in eating as much as she wants.
“…I see… a princess who overate and, soon, grew to be quite stout. And such a sad end, being left behind by her beloved brother...” Rena prophesizes. Silvia starts freaking out but Maai and Gidget are there to remind her that there’s still time for them to win this battle.

Indeed, Mimsy says that a good bunch of ZEUTH’s girls has enjoyed the local food too much and put on weight. Mel and Michiru are determined to face whatever hardships needed to get back in shape.
Tonya’s calling all (female) hands on deck to execute a winning diet plan and Reika vows to use every ounce of her strength.
“Diet Team! Hip, hip, hooray!!” Sara yells and Silvia eagerly answers with a loud “HOORAY!!”

Some time later, things are already going south: Reika is trying (and failing) to empty her mind as to feel no hunger, Silvia is hallucinating about pizza, friend chicken and whatnot, while Tsugumi is daydreaming about swimming in an ocean of chocolate and pudding.
Hikaru is dreaming about fresh cheese on toast, Michiru wonders if it’s alright to eat some konnyaku since its low on calories, Sara wants some more of the tasty sukiyaki she ate in Yapan, Pala is reminding herself that this is to get an even sexier body than Enil’s, while Jamie wonders if S-1 girls go on diet too. Tonya tells herself that she can’t be the first one to quit since this was her idea, Maai and Riea don’t want to cave before the other, Mimsy wants to look her best for her upcoming 18th birthday and, finally, Gidget knows any added weight will be VERY evident when next to the very slender Eureka.
Daisuke marvels that the women are all dieting en masse, but Talho reminds him that not all the women are on this kick. Indeed, Adette says only these undisciplined kids need to do stuff like that and the Freeden’s Sara agrees: they’re like this because they couldn’t control themselves.

Hilda figures the more mature women could cut the girls some slack and, when Chil asks, explains what dieting means. Maeter thinks the whole thing sound stupid as not eating would simply leave you hungry. Ana chides her, saying older girls place a lot more value on their figure. On the flip side, growing children like them should eat diligently!
Mischa endorses her advice and Chil is all over it, wanting to get an afternoon snack. Elchi and Rag, meanwhile, are enjoying some nice cookies and shaking their heads at the suffering girls. They’ll probably stop their fasting once they’re hungry enough and Shaia counts herself lucky that she’s “retired” from being a woman. No need to worry about eating like that.
On that subject, Papty has already noticed Talho’s pregnancy and suggests she go get something, too.

Tifa isn’t taking part of the diet, mind. In fact, Dorothy figures she could stand to eat MORE, skinny like she is. Tifa is aware but she just can’t work up the appetite to do so, despite her wish to gain some weight.
Rena suggests she not tell the Diet Team that, lest she get those girls frothing at the mouth. When Dorothy asks, Rena flashes her fangs and say she gets her nourishment for “other sources”.
As for Eureka, she never gains weight regardless of how much she eats so Rena suggests they go have tea with the non-dieting folks. There’s plenty of stuff left to eat, considering the situation.

Pierre himself doesn’t see the big deal with the little weight gain the girls had; hell, he even fancies a slightly plumper figure on his ladyfriends. Sirius chalks it all up to the pursuit of perfect beauty and Kei says Pierre’s facing this with a guy's mindset - young girls, on the flip side, always want to look good.
Roybea figures, by this point, an exercise in caching the eyes of their respective men has morphed into a struggle to not get looked down by other members of the Diet Team. Whosoever fails the test will have to bear the stigma of it all.
This has been going on for only a day and Mel is the first one to ask for food. Ana reminds that she's got to care for her tummy since her outfit bares it for the world to see. Mel counters with the saying that most women lose weight from their breasts first; Tsugumi, Michiru and Pala have some leeway there, but if she follows that trajectory she'll end up in negative cup sizes.
Hayato and Pierre are very concerned with the possibility of a massive reduction in ZEUTH’s “reserves” – they’ve got to do something!
That's the point when Renton stumbles in with some actual bad news: Tresor’s food supplies are rotting at an alarming rate and we’ve no way of replenishing them!

Over by Atlandia, Futaba has been observing the wingless’ way of life and he’s rather disgusted: we use our sacred mouths to EAT things!
Shilha tells him that such is the cursed fate of their kind, forced for the entirety of their lives to rend and devour the lives of birds, fishes and beasts and verdure. Futaba adds that the mouth is supposed to be for savoring the spirit in the air, for singing in the voices of the world.
Shilha then notices something: it looks like the wingless are coming under attack by the demons…

Sometime later, back in Tresor, Holland’s reporting what Morita discovered: a plague of nanomachines has infiltrated the institute’s food stores and rotted them all. Even plastic-bagged and hermetically-sealed food wasn't spared.
Furthermore, there have been reports of hostile forces attacking this region meaning we’re completely cut off. To say nothing of the fact that any food we brought here would just be destroyed by the nanomachines.
This has been going on for the last five days and Roger reports that many of our folks are incapacitated with hunger. Tex grimly notes that while man does not live by bread alone, he sure as hell doesn't live without it either. Elchi wonders how this happened and Holland says this is an obvious attack against us. Rand wonders if they’ll just wait for us to starve to death but Jamil figures whoever it is will simply wait for us to get weaker before attacking, which shouldn’t be long.

Garrod yells out that Apollo’s eating something and Jiron demands he share it. It’s not food, mind – Apollo’s just chewing on a pebble to take his mind off the current situation. Garrod’s as hungry as the next guy but not enough to eat rocks.
Regardless, Benkei’s sure we can find food once we leave the lab and wants to go right now, but Ryouma speaks against it: we’d carry the nanomachines with us and wherever we went would suffer the same effects. This is why Jamil and the others haven’t left either.
Sirius figures, then, that we won’t be able to solve this state of affairs unless we defeat the foe responsible for it. Apollo, for one, would like them to attack already so we can give ‘em what they deserve.
“Could you do that in your current state?” asks the suddenly appearing Fudou. Chil and Rag ask if he’s brought any food – any food at all – but nope. Apollo demands Fudou say what he’s here for, then, and warns that he’ll kick his ass if it’s something stupid.

Fudou smirks at how agitated hunger has made him – a child, indeed. Still, the enemy he’s to fight isn’t Fudou but someone else. Just then Mel runs in, yelling that the Hundred Demons are attacking!
Looks like they’re the ones behind this and Jiron’s hungry for vengeance.

Special Disk Mission 4-1 – Merge to Eat

Everyone is deploying as event units. Do note that you have loads of PP and cash to spend and you ABSOLUTELY want to do so lest you have one hell of a hard time in this mission. Go into the squad menu before deploying your guys and press triangle over each unit to go to its status menu; pressing square over a pilot or mech screen opens their respective upgrade menus.
Make sure you equip A-Adaptors on Roger and Jiron.

Cotsett is very woozy as he reports the incoming units – Elchi yells at him to speak up but, in truth, she has it just as bad as he does. A large posse of demons attack, their timing making it pretty obvious to Jamil that the attack on our food reserves is their doing.
Holland wants to kick their asses but good and show how worthless their plan was but Rand’s growling stomach begs to differ. Garrod is feeling weak as all hell and Kei sees that you really can’t fight on an empty stomach. Sirius is appalled that such a plan has left us in this sorry state but refuses to allow the likes of hunger to defeat him. Sirius keeping a stiff upper lip is impressive but, again, our growling stomachs aren’t as focused.
Seems like the demons’ strategy has been very successful so Jiron tells everyone to just bring out whatever strength they have left – they haven’t any, as Chil yells.
Amidst Apollo’s cries of “I’M HUUUUUNGRYYYYYYYYYY!!”, we begin our offensive.

Kill everything, don’t lose anyone. This is easier said than done, however, because…

Everyone’s stats are halved, morale is at 50 and you can’t use spirit commands! This is why you really should upgrade your guys as, if not, you’re very likely to lose someone to the oncoming onslaught of Mecha Dokugankis, Tekkoukis and Gyukenki.
If the other SPD missions were pretty easy, this one can give you a legit game over. Hang back, focusing on the fighter jets for as long as you can because you’re in no condition to deal with the bigger foes – lead with the dodgier units because you’ll want the AI to prioritize them over the Supers, who’ll quickly die when focus fired.

Even with good upgrades and the Haro, Gainer is still getting a 12% chance to hit. Those are huge numbers for him.

This is also pathetic damage. Wanna bet how well we’d do against those Prevail-ing big demons?

It takes Rand, Kei, Jiron and Jamil to kill everything in this squad.

Down as many as you can, lest these jets go after the Panther squad. In hindsight, I should’ve just stuck them inside a ship because they’re no more than a liability.

Yo, this is bullshit!
Holland and Matthew kill the survivors.

It’s pretty clear to Renton that we’re not winning like this. Ryouma tells the kid to pull himself together but is interrupted, again, by his growling stomach.
Gura then starts broadcasting over the area, laughing at the Getter’s pathetic situation. Indeed, he developed the food destroying nanomachines and Jiron tells him to show himself and face the music.
Not gonna happen, as his Mecha Fortress Demon also serves as the control unit for the nanomachines. Taking it down means we’d be able to stop losing our food… but can we do that when we cannot even find him? Gura’s equipped his ship with a flawless stealth system which renders it undetectable by any means.
Rand wants to just carpet bomb the entire area but our pilots haven’t the energy to run amuck through the battleground – to say nothing of the fact that it’d quickly drain our energy and ammo.
As Gura laughs at us to languish in hunger, Fudou is just watching it all somberly.

Of course it wouldn’t end this quickly. No, we have to last until turn 3!

So let’s speed this up some because you’ve seen all there is to it. Always stay on the little jets, avoid the big guys like the plague, hide the Panther squad and babysit all your units because even your reals will be staring down a 70-90% chance to be hit.

Case in point. Holland at least has his Lift Technique to pop double image but Garrod made it through this with only 300 HP (and I got extremely lucky with the RNG).
Prevail just doesn’t amount to much when your stats are shit. This mission was the closest I’ve gotten to a game over in a VERY long time.

Silvia’s starting to feel faint from all the hunger and Pala’s now wishing she had stuffed herself full instead of going on that diet. Sara doesn’t want to die this famished.
Jamil fears we must retreat and reorganize but Olson counters that if we don’t end the enemy’s strategy right here, we’ll just starve to death. Still, we can’t go on fighting like this.

: You feel hungry because you want to eat.

: Huh…?

: But that’s obvious! What are ya getting at?

: An empty stomach and hunger are two different things.

: Ah…?

: When you understand the emptiness within… that is when your true strength will manifest!

: What is he rambling about…?

: Hell if I know! I’m too hungry to even think straight!

: “Empty stomach and hunger”…“Empty stomach and hunger”…

: The strength of an empty stomach… I got it! Since time immemorial, people have fasted in order to expand their minds and sharpen their senses…!

: Sharpen their senses… and food…? Aah, the sense of smell!

: Apollo, listen! Smell around this area!

: Smell…?

: Indeed. These demons are still living creatures, so they would require nutrition…! Ergo, their battleship should be stocked with food!

: Alright…!

: Silvia, we must also concentrate and expand Apollo’s abilities!

: Please wait! We…

: Will take care of that!

: OK!

: Those three have been fasting for longer than Apollo and Sirius…

: And, thus… their power is brought to bear.

: Here we go, Reika, Tsugumi!

: Right!

: Go, Apollo!

: *sniff, sniff*… *sniff, sniff, sniff*

: I found ‘im!

: THERE!!

: Attack, Silvia!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCSCVkIiHRc
“Here goes!”
“We…are…HANGRYYYYY!!”

: I-Impossible! How did they see through my stealth systems?!

: Such is the power of humans… or, rather, the power of a primordial instinct of all life forms…! The power of hunger!

: Well done, Aquarion!

: Now we just need to take him out and everything’ll be just peachy!

: Rrrgh! You will not prevail against my Mecha Fortress Demon! What can you possibly do in your starved state?!

: He’s got that right…

: But we’ll get to eat again if we win here!

: Then I shall tell you something else.

: Hunger is the greatest spice of all!

: Hunger is…

: The greatest spice…

: Wise words.

: Come on, people! The best food of our lives is waiting for us! We just gotta wrap this up!

: What vigor is this?!

: This is our wild instinct!!

: RAAAAARGH! I’m gonna eat everything! EEEEEAAAAAAAT!!

: Y’all ain’t gonna like us when we’re hangry! Come’ere!!

And now we run amuck! DIE!!

: Yo, demons! Ever hear that there are seven gods in every grain of rice?

: And you went and trashed a bajillion grains!

: Which means you’ve got a bajillion gods-worth of pain coming right now! When ya get to Hell, y’all have loads of time to see how crappy it is to waste food!!

: Hold on, Tifa! I’m ending these mooks quick-like and then I’ll bring you a plate full of food!

: Heh… kinda sounded like a good ol’ husband there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYgJ07UrpY4
Garrod has a special TRI with Enil and Pala, same as Witz/Roybea, Jamil/Lancerow

: How dare you torment Sara so! She’s turning all skin and bones because of you!

: I’ll destroy you in the name of her beautiful physique! That’s what you deserve!

: Don’t you demons know how much girls love sweets and fine food?

: If you’re here to take that away, then you’ll find Kei Katsuragi raining some righteous fury over your heads!

: You know how much your shenanigans cost the Gekko’s store?! And Talho took it all out on me!

: Get ready! This attack is for all our rotten chicken and pizzas!!

: We may be hostile to each other but going so far as to weaponize hunger is revolting in the extreme.

: I do not enjoy exercising violence…

: But if you’ll impinge upon something as personal as one’s meal, then you deserve suitable punishment!

: RAAAAAAARGH!! I’M GONNA EAT! EVERYTHING!!

: I’ll eat a lizard or a snake or Nattō! I’ll even eat a demon!!

: C-calm down, Jiron! You’ll get a horn stuck in your throat if you do that!

: It was only after coming to Earth that I first laid eyes upon the splendor of nature’s bounty!

: And here you are, rotting it all away! I’ll destroy you down to the atom!!

: You would leave not only us to starve but the innocents in the Tresor Institute and nearby areas, too…?!

: Come, Hundred Demons! You’ll learn to fear this primal fury of humans!

: Taking away all our food… how dare you! You’re despicable!

: We fight for our food! Mess with it and we’ll make you rue the day!

: Food is the essence of life! Hail, food!!

: Si-Silvia…

: Hey, why not? They ain’t wrong, ya know.

: Here we come, demons! I’m bringing the hammer down on you for wasting all that food!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUSyq1OuQcE
Also, here’s a video of the Iron Gear jumping onto a fighter jet. Good thing this is an anime.

: This is the end of your cowardly tactics, Hundred Demons!

: You’ve pushed us too far and now we’ve snapped.

: Go, Ryou! Make them pay for all the food they ruined!!

Gura can’t believe we turned this around after being cornered like that and runs off in a huff.
His defeat means we’re free to eat again and, right on time, Fudou has a suitable reward: snapping his fingers, he summons a DEAVA carrier filled with food. Tsugumi and Reika are overcome with joy and Silvia thanks the commander profusely.

Back in Tresor, everyone is digging right in and it’s so tasty it nearly brings tears to Hikaru’s eyes – as Fudou said, hunger is the best spice.
This food, nature’s bounty, is what gives us the strength to live and both Marin and Daisuke know they must be thankful for it. Apollo tries taking advantage of this distraction to take Daisuke’s share but the guy’s keeping a close eye on it – this spacefaring prince is a hungry animal today, Adette sees.
Rand and Gain are eating a bit more and drinking a bit less today, though Rand still plans on getting tanked later on. “Drink, eat, drink, eat, drink and eat! Nothing beats that combo!”
Gain is convinced and figures some fine sake is just the thing to go with our victory meal.

Pala, meanwhile, is stuffing her face with some really tasty steak which Chil reveals to be a roasted lizard. She doesn’t care, saying she’d eat even a cobra if it tasted this good!
Jiron passes her some shrimp and she’s more than eager to accept, eliciting a chuckle from Enil over the change in attitude from before. Renton is being kept busy as a short-order chef, being badgered by Raita and Matthew to bring their chicken and pizza.
The kid cries that he won’t even have time to eat with their constant requests but, thankfully, Eureka’s made him a sandwich for him to eat on the fly -“Th-thank you! I’ll treasure it forever!” he says. Benkei yells out to the blushing kid, demanding his hot-dog and off goes Renton.
Eureka doesn’t know if her sandwich is worth anything if he won’t eat it and Rena sighs that while his stomach and head are both empty, his heart is full enough. Regardless, Hilda figures everyone’s learned the value of eating properly and Mischa hopes this’ll put an end to that reckless dieting.
Rena isn’t so sure, however. We’ll see what’s what after Silvia, Tsugumi and Reika come crashing back to reality.