Part 270: Special Disk Mission 5-2 - The Executor - Part 1

And we’re all back together (sans most secret characters)! Insert another forty minutes of HR work and this is how we’re going with our twenty slots (many are the same I used for the finale because I couldn’t be bothered to change it):

• Rand, Rag/Birin, Corin (Eagail)
  
• Baldios, Riea, Enil
  
• Duke, Hikaru, Maria
  
• Getter, Michiru, Tekkouki
  
• God Sigma, Holland, Carris
  
• Sol Gravion, Yzak, Faye
  
• Roger, Jiron, Roybea
  
• Gainer, Adette (Rushrod), Sara (Jinba)
  
• Zambot, Matthew, Yassaba (Golem)
  
• Kouji, Tetsuya, Joseph
  
• Banjou, Katz (Re-GZ), Witz
  
• Kei, Olson, Atena
  
• Kira, Athrun, Muu
  
• Garrod, Pala, Jamil
  
• Shinn, Luna, Harry
  
• Camille, Quattro, Four (Dijeh)
  
• Setsuko, Toby, Denzel
  
• Loran, Maai, Emma
  
• Amuro, Poe, Lancerow
  
• Sandman, Gain, Gauli (Mexbrute)

The loss of Haman paired with Aquarion and Nirvash’s absence gave me enough openings to give Sandman his own group. The Glory Star’s also staying together to get that extra damage on the TRI.



Everyone’s gathered up and ready to hear Banjou’s intel. First off, though, Kappei wants to know what he’s doing here instead of going to Mars like he said he would.
Turns out Banjou had a little errand to run before heading to Mars, so he was working with Roger and Fudou. The Negotiator himself has expanded his operations beyond Paradigm City and was very eager to answer Banjou’s request.
Tetsuya asks if Banjou’s errand is connected to all that’s going on and, as fate would have it, yes. It was by seeing to this matter that he came across a few bits of info regarding the army of drones. Garrod and Renton wanna get things rolling ASAP, so they ask him to abridge the story and get to the good bits. Fair enough.
First off, Banjou reminds of what we already know: the drones are all relics of the Black History. Shinn asks if Banjou’s about to reveal that he found information on that era and, indeed, he confirms. Jamil wonders how that’s possible, however, seeing how D.O.M.E. is still asleep and, as Jiron relates, Arthur couldn’t find any details in the Innocents history books.

Roger points out that the info we sought wasn’t brought into the present via detailed accounts. Rather, it took the form… of a novel. Yes, Gordon Rosewater’s Metropolis and its depiction of the end of the Black History. While they couldn’t get their hands on the book itself, they did manage to get in touch with someone who’d read it.
Banjou wanted to know what happened after the Black History came to pass, how the world was restored in the aftermath of the dimensional collapse that happened. They wanted to know what was written in the epilogue of the novel.



“The new world, born of the Great Power’s maelstrom, was gripped by chaos. And, thus, the surviving peoples made preparations for the time when such a calamity would happen again. The Restoration that follows Destruction… The Executor that rescues the ruined world… The night ends and dawn arrives; once more, the sun emerges from the land of the rising sun,” Roger quotes.
That’s the information they found in the epilogue of Metropolis. Those drones were all left behind by the Black History folks in order to help the future world? Indeed, Marin ponders, from what was told, it seems they were left as a counter to the chaos that would follow the dimensional collapse at the end of a Black History cycle. Was it a coincidence that made them awaken following our Dimensional Repair?
Banjou doesn’t think so, figuring the event still fell within the system’s pattern: the Black History started, rolled into the outbreak of a massive conflict and, at the end, the dimensional walls all stabilized. That stabilization is the key, in that the system figured the collapse had come and gone and it was time to get to work.



But hold on, says Eiji, those drones are out there attacking cities. Toshiya agrees in that something like that can’t be said to be working with the interest of the world and its peoples in mind.
Duke figures it’s not that simple; it’s possible the drones’ attacks are no more than part of the Executor System’s directive. “Destruction and Restoration… This would be the former, then…” Kira ponders.
Banjou concurs, figuring there’s probably another step that’ll occur after the drones are finished destroying everything – something that’ll carry out the “Restoration” part of the plan. But what could be restored by destroying the entire world? Earth itself, Quattro suggests.
Remember, their respective universes, the planet Earth was greatly polluted by human activity. Looking at it from another angle, it could be said that the presence of humanity is an obstacle to the restoration of the dilapidated world.

Shinn freaks out at the idea that this means the Executor System wants to eradicate humanity to get that ball rolling. Quattro, however, argues that since we’re dealing with a man-made system, it probably doesn’t wish our complete obliteration. This might be a cull or, perhaps, the System might simply be trying to kick humanity off the planet.
Bright remembers the old Er-ism philosophy, in that Earth is sacred ground and, thus, humanity must leave it untouched and move to space. Essentially, the Executor System is using force to put this in practice.
Amuro can kind of see the concept behind it but he certainly doesn’t approve of the thought of long-gone humans imposing an arbitrary decision upon others.



However, there is proof that such a system ran in the distant past and Diana knows what he’s getting at: the world of the Moon Race and the Innocents (Rand’s).
At the end of the Black History, the Turn A used the Moonlight Butterfly to reduce all civilization to sand. As the world slowly recovered, humanity eventually split into different camps: ones swore off technology in order to safeguard the environment, others went on to live on the Moon and in Space until the world had fully recovered and others chose to purposefully brave the harsher environs of the planet.
That accounts for the Moon Race, the low-tech civilizations in North Ameria, as well as the peoples of Zora and Siberia. All of them examples of the world being restored from scratch after it all came crashing down.
We had assumed that the Moonlight Butterfly and the OverDevil’s OverFreeze were simply anti-Fallen Angel weapons but Roger now thinks they’re all tools of the Executor System with which to trigger the “Destruction” step. The system’s activation explains why the Turn A went crazy…




But it does not explain what happened to King Gainer. It’s a special kind of Early Overman, so does that mean it possesses a power similar to the OverDevil’s?
Banjou is at least fairly confident that neither mech will go astray with someone at the controls, which is a bit of a relief. Gainer has a sinking feeling that there's more to King Gainer but can’t figure out what. With all that information delivered, Diana asks where their informant is right now and Roger says the man is away, wanting bear witness to the fate that awaits the world.
Sochie starts figuring out who the informant is but Diana decides to let this slide – at the very least he disliked the future he read, so he helped us in order to rewrite it.

Regardless, now that we’ve a pretty good idea of what the Executor System is up to, Bright says it is imperative we bring it to a stop ASAP. Heizaemon figures that, judging by the nature of its objective, it is possible the system could have some sort of WMD that’ll affect the entire planet. With that “land of the rising sun” part of Metropolis’ text and the fact that Japan hasn’t been attacked by the drones, it’s very likely that whoever is controlling the Executor System is over there.
Thus, Holland and Shaia surmise, if we take that person out, we pull the plug on this whole thing. Banjou suggests we start with the Kushiro Marshlands, in the Hokkaido prefecture; the area has a Mountain Cycle, so investigating there could point us in the right direction.



Still, Tsugumi and Jun fear the mastermind has already moved off Japan and that the trip will be a waste of time. Apollo counters that it’s always best to work instead of worrying – even if the guy has already left, we might find a clue. The suddenly-appearing Fudou agrees.
Apollo, at last, isn’t taken by surprise by his shenanigans and Fudou sees that he has grown: “Through the cycle of success and failure, destruction and restoration… It is by overcoming various trials that both man and the world progress towards the next stage.”
Sirius asks if he’s talking about the Executor System but Fudou simply shrugs. On that note, Apollo gets annoyed that while Fudou seemingly knows everything that’s going on, he’s deliberately holding stuff back. Does he get a kick out of watching them flail about?

Fudou counters by asking if Apollo rejects the idea of the cycle of Destruction and Restoration being the gateway towards higher evolution. Apollo answers with a resounding “fuck that”, as something like that would cost the lives of loads of people.
“I dunno jack ‘bout evolution or whatever but there’s gotta be other ways to reach higher levels!” he says.
In that case, Fudou tells him to put a stop to the phantom of the Black History – the distant pain that burdens this world.

(This whole final bit is quite the very distant foreshadowing, especially for Z3.2).



Special Disk 5-2 – The Executor



Our people arrive at their destination and it also shows signs of the Executor System being active – a big hole in the middle of the Mountain Cycle tells that some drones came out from it but the units themselves are nowhere to be seen now.
Amuro figures, since the core of their system is assumed to be here in Japan, the units must have gathered somewhere to keep guard over it. Joseph and Loran see quite a lot of similarities between this place and the Lost Mountain in Galia and, thinking back, it’s very possible those Overmen over there were also part of the Executor System.

When Sochie asks why, he says that since those units are tasked with seeing to the restoration of the world’s environment, they’re likely equipped to deal with nuclear threats. When the Breaker fired that nuke, the Overmen awoke in response and went to neutralize it.
But, either way, our people came here also hoping to provoke whoever is controlling the Executor System to try and take action against us. And that plan pays off big time, as a bunch of mooks pop out of the woodwork – the abundance of units proves to Shinn that the core of the system is somewhere in Japan.

: Urgh…!
: What’s wrong, Gainer?!
: King Gainer’s being called… drawn to some huge power!
: Gainer! Over there!







: Another King Gainer?!
: No, the details are different! It’s something else!
: A Black Overman…
: Ghck…!
: What is it, Gainer?!
: It’s him…
: Huh?
: It’s that Overman that’s calling King Gainer!
: What?!



: Argh…!
: What’s going on? Talk to us, Gainer!
: I…see it now…! That Overman is the core of the Executor System!
: Then…!
: The pilot of that unit is the mastermind behind all those attacks!
: All troops, focus your attacks on that Overman!
: …



: Hey! He’s running away?!
: Looks like he’s well aware of his importance as the leader of the operation.
: He’s likely moving to a secure location while his defenders keep us pinned.
: Then we need to break through these and get in pursuit.
: Yeah! We finally found the guy – we can’t let him escape!
: Open fire! We’ll clear out the drones ASAP and give chase to that Black Overman!
: You’re up, Reika, Pierre, Rena! Kick their asses and we’ll show pops what for!
: You got it, Apollo! Here we go, girls!
: I am ready. We must all give this our all.
: They cannot be allowed to rain any more misfortune upon the world…!
: U-Urgh…
: Are you alright, Gainer?
: I-I’m hanging on… somehow…
: (I know… what that Overman really is… I’m sure of it…!)



Destroy everything, don’t lose any ships or the Assault Aquarion. As before, we’ve been left with a bevy of pretty much every non-alien faction mooks to deal with except, thankfully, no Overmen. They’re in larger quantity than in the previous mission but it still isn’t enough to compensate for the huge upgrades our guys have.
Feel free to spread out but make sure you keep Loran away from the SE corner. It’ll make your life simpler.

Here we go!











































Once you destroy twelve enemy squads, the meat of the mission kicks in.

*Ping!*

: This signal… it can’t be!
: We’ve other units on approach! They might be more of the Executor System’s drones!
: Hold on! Look at the squad lead!




Nooooooooo!

: The Turn X!
: Is it also equipped with the Executor System?
: Wrong! It is I who controls it!
: Gym Ghingnham?!
: It has been a while, hasn’t it, Diana?
: It’s that war-crazy moon general!
: But we all saw him be enveloped up by the rampaging Moonlight Butterfly in Atlandia…
: And, yet, I did not die! Both I and the Turn X had far too much to do in this world, you see!
: Why are you here, then…? Don’t tell me you’re the mastermind behind this whole thing!
: “This whole thing”…? You mean the Destruction and Restoration of the world?
: He knows of the Executor System, I see…!
: Before, a psychic wave reached through the Turn X and asked me: “what is the meaning of human existence?”!
: The meaning of humans…?
: And answer, I did: “combat is the meaning of human life”!
: This freak hasn’t changed one bit!
: And my words seemingly resonated with the will behind that psychic wave, for it entrusted me with command of its army.
: It bid me and the Turn X to assist in bringing about the Restoration that follows Destruction!
: The Turn X’s awoke its Moonlight Butterfly System before, so the Executor wants to use it as a replacement for the Turn A…!
: He was scouted by the Executor’s manager, then?!
: Open your eyes, Gym Ghingnham. You still haven’t realized the folly of your actions…?! By using that forbidden power to sate your ambitions, you’ll only bring the Black History’s conflicts to bear!
: Is your mind slipping, Diana? You ought to know that that is precisely what I desire!
: So you did not learn anything, even after all that fighting…
: I am so pleased to have met you in the field of battle once more…! Still, how about I start with a small appetizer?

*Gym charges after the Gekko*

: He’s coming after us!
: The light of the moon belongs to Diana! It is a villain who dares lay claim to its name and, thus, it falls on me to tender your execution! (Gekko is 月光 which is, as he said, moonlight.)
: Run, Talho! You can’t take that monster on!
: Evasive maneuvers, Doggie!
: Roger!

The Gekko and Gym run all the way to the SW corner.*

: You are far too sluggish!
: We can’t shake him off!
: Urk!



: I won’t let you put even a finger on them!
: Renton!
: He launched in the 909?!
: HAAAAAAAAAH!!

*Renton goes after the Turn X*

: You idiot! You don’t know how to fly the 909!
: But I’m still going for it, as a member of the Gekkostate!
: Eureka, Talho and her baby are in the Gekko too!
: Calling out the name of a lover while on the field of battle?! Boy, you ought to know…
: That is the act of a warrior seeking succor at his final moments!!
: Renton, run!
: STOOOOOOOOP!!



: A warp?!



: That’s--!
: Indeed, I’m certain!
: It’s the Aquarion!
: I-I’m detecting a High-Dimensional Quantum Reaction! It’s—
: Come, Wings of the Sun… We have awakened from our brief slumber and, now, we shall lay judgement upon the demon who poisoned the Tree of Life.
: Touma!
: The Machine Angel, controlled by a Fallen Angel…? Now that is a far more interesting opponent!
: Poison-spreading demon, I have united with the Wings of the Sun… do you truly think yourself to be my equal?
: Hey! You don’t get to talk like that!
: The Aquarion belongs to DEAVA – to all of humanity!
: UOOOOOH!



: What?!
: Aquarion! To us!
: AAAAQUARIOOOOOOOON!!





: It split up!
: That’s…

*The Vector Sol and Mars head up to the Gekko.*

: Let’s do this, Sirius!
: Yes!

*Both Vectors switch to their head-only modes*

: Wings of the Sun…! You still care for your reincarnation and Celianne’s half?!
: And we shall be taking the Luna back as well, Touma!
: Go, Sirius! I got your back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqJF7TPuBgc
I’m very surprised they actually animated the transformed Vectors, even if it’s a basic attack!



: Urgh, damn it!
: Curse you!
: What are you doing, Apollo?! This isn’t the time for that!
: But—!
: What fun you’re having! I hope you don’t mind if I partake in it as well!

Gym jumps right between the Vectors.

: Away, your battle-crazed beast!
: It is the essence of humans to be ruled by combat! The same applies to the lot of you!
: What?!
: You are fine, indeed! Men who lose themselves to combat are the ones truly fit to cross blades with me!
: We…
: Lost ourselves to combat…
: That’s correct.





: Nirvash!
: She also returned to this world?
: Have you all forgotten of the miracle that was born of your meeting?
: That’s…
: On that day when, for the sake of granting the world a new beginning, we…
: She’s right! We all rose above the lines that separated humans and angels and became one!
: We…
: And nothing but destruction awaits us if we forget that!
: Oh, bearer of such a warm aura…

*Touma goes over to the Gekko*

: Huh?
: Could you should it to me once more?
: Show me the miracle that is the union that transcended wingless and angels.
: Yes!



: Apollo, brother!
: Aye, aye!



: Genesis…!
: Combination!
: GO! AQUARIOOOOON!!







: Hm…
: Wingless… rather, humans. I leave the Wings of the Sun in your hands once more.
: Touma…
: I shall observe your battles from the space inbetween dimensions.



: Touma… he came to understand us.
: Thanks, guy…
: Hrrm! He lost his will to fight?! Fine, then…!
: He’s coming for us again…?!
: Away with you, boy!!


*Renton is sent flying out the 909.*

: GAAAAAAAH!!
: Renton!
: He’ll be alright.

*Eureka surfs on over!*

: Put out your hand, Renton!
: Eureka…! You’re here!
: Let’s fly together again!
: Yeah!



: WEEEEE CAAAAAAAAAN…!
: FLYYYYYYYYYY!!



: Nirvash… You’re gonna help us out, eh?
: Thank you, Nirvash. We can all fly together again.
: Uurgh, brats! You won’t make a fool out of me any longer!
: Whoa, there!
: You ain’t gonna do jack to them!

*Both Aquarions tag in with the Nirvash.*

: Guys…
: Let’s get to it, Renton!
: We gotta show this kill-crazy old man that there’s a lot more than that out in the world!
: Right!
: Both the Nirvash and Aquarion have returned…
: I guess they all love this world too.
: And, so, here they are… Lending their strength in order to protect the life in it!
: Do you see, Gym Ghingnham? Such is the strength of those who fight to defend something. You must now acknowledge the pettiness of fighting solely for one’s greed and pride.
: How dare you, Diana!
: Ghingnham… if my words can no longer reach you, then…
: Then I will strike you down in the name of all living beings!
: You will not stand in the way of my era, Diana, ZEUTH! This world will be destroyed and, then, reborn!
: No, it won’t! Not while we’re here to protect all the many lives that live in it right now!