Part 70: Mission 20 - A World Without Lies - Part 2
I really don’t like these kind of reinforcements: aside from Jaboli and Enge, most are bulky Breakers and, to make it worse, they’re in Wide Formation…
The game isn’t done throwing curve-balls at you, though, and this one is called Timp:
Emperor Custom (Timp Shaloon)
Pilot Skills:
- Prevail L6
- Counter L6
- Predict
- Attack Again
- Ignore Size Difference
Timp’s Voice Actor: Banjou Ginga
I hate this guy - whenever he shows up in any game, he’s nothing but trouble.
I’ll say this right now: Timp can be quite dangerous! He’s a monster of a pilot, has a bunch of deadly skills and pretty much everything he does has a high chance of getting a critical hit due to that leader bonus stacking with Predict and a high Prevail.
All his stats blow Kashmir’s out of the water and you should be thankful that he likes to prioritize ALL attacks on his turn, because he can easily double attack a whole lot of our guys (even the likes of Amuro, Kei and Gainer might not be safe once his Prevail L6 gets going).
Him being on a battleship is both good and bad because it means he won’t be dodging attacks but he'll also be VERY resilient, so surround him with your strongest units and make sure your Reals have some sort of protection.
As expected, he’ll make a beeline for Jiron, so keep that in mind.
But we’ll worry about the bosses later. For now, we have a lot of mooks to kill and Toga’s just in range to punch a weak Dogozzo.
Easy enough.
Kappei and Gainer both choose a squad and start wearing them down; I’m bringing Gainer over here to draw Kashmir closer.
Baldios is flying solo, so let’s have him hunt down whatever’s left of the original group.
Frig…
Fine, then. Quattro and Holland both take out that one and another weakened mook.
Well…screw you, too, Witz.
Take that thing out, Toshiya.
Thank you.
Enemy Phase!
Kei gets jumped but counters and shoots the enemy down, while Gainer’s accosted by Kejinan, a landship and two groups of Breakers.
The Breakers manage to make 10% and 14% shots connect, dealing not-insignificant damage to Gainer and Adette.
Toshiya doesn’t give a damn about Breakers hitting him, though.
One of the generic breaker ships snipes at him but it does piddly damage.
This one squad gets clever and decides to go after the Minerva.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luAUB_WAYkA
At least I should give this Breaker props for uppercutting a battleship.
A group of Dogozzos goes for Shinn and he slaps them away with a TRI attack that kills their leader; meanwhile, Witz is forced to rely on his Vulcans to save EN.
Here comes Kashmir, going after Gainer. I’m having him dodge but, just in case, Adette is set to support defend.
Thankfully, his OverSkill isn’t running yet.
: YOU! How dare you make me listen to that disgusting confession!
: The cry of my heart wasn’t for someone like you to listen to!
: It was for one person in this entire world: SARAAAAAA!!: Rrrgh! You little punk! I'll make you pay!!
Whew…
Player Phase!
Might as well get to work on Jaboli since she was kind enough to jump into the crossfire: Roybea and Camille lay waste to her squad.
Time to put your new toy to use, Athrun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4iz4F2colk
Nice and easy.
Jaboli’s starting to realize that she’s not cut out for this job...
Amuro moves ahead (in a fucking Rick Dias…) and cuts down a weakened Galapagos – Sochie and Miashey get to work on the squaddies.
Time for Loran to slice and dice.
Alright.
Marin’s still at it and, this time, there are no surprises; Quattro starts dealing with whatever HP Kejinan has left.
Might as well give Heizaemon something to kill.
Uuurgh…these Breakers are far too bulky!
Nearby, Shinn and Talia are wearing down on, respectively, a group of Dogozzos and the closer Breaker landship.
That’s enough out of you, Kejinan.
Boosh!
Kejinan, while running away, yells to Adette that he will not give up.
Too bad for him, she’s not about to go kissing any frogs.
Once again, Adette was out of range but she had words for him:
: Ma’am, why won’t you listen to me?!
: Your smug confession is nothing compared to Gainer’s heartfelt yelling!
: Let’s see how you do in a real fight without those illusions!
Toga moves south and finishes off a Caprico; Gainer’s group, meanwhile, switches to Gain to attack and move straight into the Iron Gear.
With Kashmir having activated his OverSkill from all the enemy deaths, leaving them out in the open would be dangerous.
Toshiya’ll handle this other Dogozzo.
Might’ve been a bit overkill.
FYI: both the generic breaker ships and Timp’s emperor have a blind spot at point-blank range.
Enemy Phase!
Camille’s jumped by a suicidal Government.
What the shit…that was another 15% hit. Is the RNG messing with me?
Seems like I forgot to cast Focus with Loran and that makes him and Joseph eat some damage from a newly-arrived squad.
At least Garrod takes out the last Government and learns Prevail L5.
Do your thing, Amuro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzC6VULxixY
Alright, that’s decent.
Giving Amuro kills has an added bonus in Setsuko’s route, mind.
Secret Alert! There’s a secret Zeta Gundam unit to be obtained and it has two steps to it:
- Zeta Gundam’s Secret Unit – 1st Step: The levels of ALL Zeta Gundam pilots must be an average of 25 by the end of mission 25 (Amuro, Camille, Bright, Apolly, Roberto, Emma, Reccoa, Quattro and Katz)
- Zeta Gundam’s Secret Unit – 2nd Step: Amuro AND Katz must have an average kill count of 25 by the end of mission 25
Katz starts with 0 kills, so Doc has some work to do!
Athrun and Shinn both score some easy Dogozzo kills; Loran, meanwhile, is forced to dodge his group because I was too afraid he’d be shot down.
Amuro has no problems with that, though, and Camille scores a nice counter-hit on Enge.
You sumbitch, you…I tried persuading Kashmir to attack one of the many units in his way but he decides to snipe at Loran.
Thankfully, Gavane can support defend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMaK8aoeWnM
Of course he does it twice but Gavane can cover that, too.
Player Phase!
Oho! Looks like Shinn just got the last bit morale he needed to trigger SEED.
Timp’s gonna be close enough to attack soon and I’d rather not have this double-movement prick around when that happens; so, Keiko casts an Analyze and we’ll get going.
First off, we need to get rid of his Alert so Heizaemon shoots some missiles at him.
Let’s do this!
: Another annoying brat?!
: Don’t poke fun at me, old man! I’ll tell you some more of my thoughts about Tifa if I have to!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu2vW8huUjw
: Adette Kistler! I will personally see to your punishment, traitor!: Let's see you try! Don’t think you can have your way with us like one of your schedules!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug0fHMv_KO8
Didn’t expect that to pierce his barrier but it’s always amusing to see the Dobeck bounce off it like that.
: This man…! Is he the one who yelled those vulgarities?!
: And what’s so bad about yelling what you want to eat?!
: I eat what I want and live how I want!: I can't stand such disorderliness!!
This’ll be a good time to show off the Nirvash’s TRI attack.
: This kid was panicking just a minute ago and now he’s got all his energy back!
: It’s thanks to Gainer…thanks to my bro! He gave me courage!: Let's do this, Eureka - you, me and Nirvash!
: Renton…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOg-gILv2So
Ow…
: And what do you think you can do with that busted Silhouette Machine?!
: So long as I have one bullet, I can take a person’s life. Care to be that one person?
Yeah, I was reloading over and over to get all those on tape.
Now it’s for real and I’ll surround him on all sides with the Supers!
: You there... you’re hiding something from that girl, aren’t you?
: Huh?
: Just you try and say it…and I'll do more than just dismantle you!: W-what’s up with him?! Such killer intent…!: Don’t mess with me, ya tricky bastard! Even I have some things that I gotta protect no matter what!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TehUQZ7vms
Kashmir drops an Sleep-Learning Device (睡眠学習装置)…Heizaemon, have you been selling your alien tech at the bazaars?
Adette also gets two levels and learns both Prevail L3 and Invincible.
Setsuko and Kei (forgot about him!
) also had lines against Kashmir:
: How…how dare you look into my mind!: Ah, I know about you…you've a crush on--
: QUIET!!
: The fact that you’re disgusted by words of love proves that you haven’t had any of your own…!: Silence! I’ve dedicated my life to the railroad’s schedule!
: In that case, I’ll dedicate mine to all the girls around the world! And that’s why I cannot lose!
Kashmir is very annoyed that everything got screwed over because of Gainer.
He promises to remember this, to defeat us and put an end to the Exodus.
He retreats, leaving the rest to Timp, who sniffs that, after all, Kashmir’s job is to simply keep the trains on schedule – he should leave the fighting to professionals like him.
And we’re back to our regular Breaker hunting, with Loran and Roybea cutting a squad down to size.
Enge’s been sitting there with piddly HP, so let’s give that one to Toga.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ymJsjTnLg
Damn those squaddies…the damage spread left them barely alive.
Enge knows that, if his unit this destroyed, he’ll be due for a pay cut – it’s far too late to save it, though.
Camille wrecks the weakened ship while the Iron Gear bombards two damaged walker machines.
Time for Shinn to take out Enge’s squaddies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ix7ufB-z1U
No problems there.
Those FINALLY kills bump Toga up to 130 morale and Sandman gives the OK to combine.
Amuro’s TRI blows a hole through a Dogozzo’s squad, while Talia does a whole lot less damage to some walker machines.
Let’s see what Toshiya can do about that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC7f5GGwjEE
Eh, fine.
Also, surprisingly, it seems Riea’s demonic possession wore off…is it because she’s not with Kei and/or Maai?
I REALLY don’t feel like going after the other breaker ship, so we’ll just clear up whatever other mooks are available before going for Timp in the next turn.
This also gives the chance to show off Athrun’s strongest attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vxYZqmDKJ8
Very good.
Enemy Phase!
Toga and Gainer are the first targets with Gainer scoring a nice one shot kill.
Don’t let me down, Roybea.
Alright.
Timp, as expected, decided to hit Rand and Jiron with artillery fire.
Jiron pulls a nice dodge and Rand can easily take that on the chin.
Player Phase!
Roybea and Camille’s squad handle the last bit of clean up and we’re good to go.
: Hola and Geraba are scrounging for pennies but you look like you're doing quite well!
: 'Course, pardner. I’m pretty good at making them “life plans”.
: My one blunder was getting bogged down on a guy like you. : Big words for a guy who killed someone’s parents!: You’re STILL trying to get revenge for that? You gotta learn to let things go, pardner!: Sure, my parents are part of it but, even without that, I still can’t stand a guy like you!
: Well, ain’t that a coincidence! I don’t very much care for you either!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz-eEesE1J8
Timp drops a High-Spec Radar and we’re FINALLY done!
By the by, here’s Quattro’s Mega Bazooka Launcher, taken from my Setsuko save:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1zJk9NlT6I
Timp notices that Jiron and the others seem to be harbingers of bad luck for him. However, he insists that it won’t be like this when next they meet.
Holland sighs, thinking that they ended up getting dragged into another mess in the end and we didn’t even manage to catch any skyfish. Still, Matthew isn’t complaining because he had a whole lot of fun today.
Eiji’s the first to give Gainer a verbal high-five, admitting that he thought he was just some regular gamer-guy and not the super passionate man we saw today. Indeed, Julie says his confession was very entertaining once he got past the initial shock and awe.
Finally, to wrap it all nicely, Garrod and Tifa notice something…
It’s a HUGE crowd of skyfish shows up and Eureka is very confused: up until this point, they’ve never found more than one at a time.
Kei figures it’s due to Gainer’s confession making everyone so happy and Adette already calls the kid to get to work – once we grab these for Shaia, she can sell the film to the Gekkostate!
Unfortunately, Gain's Gachiko is a total loss: he won't be entering combat for a while.
Gainer certainly concedes that, for such a strange man, Kashmir was a very strong enemy but Gain sees that that’s not what Gainer should be worrying about – an even stronger foe is coming over.
: …Have you said your goodbyes, Gainer?
: Sa-Sara…did you really hear that…? But then, you’d be avoiding me, right…?
: With that head of yours, you’d probably go looking for me all over Yapan’s Ceiling if I didn’t come over!: “Where’s Sara?! Where’d she go?! Let me kiss you! Let’s kiss! Let me hold you!” You’d look everywhere, wouldn't you?!: So I had to swallow my embarrassment and wait for you or you might've done something even worse! YOU AWFUL BOY!
: I'm sorry!!
: Gainer! My bro!!: Renton?!: What “bro”?! Outta the way, Renton!: No can do! Gainer’s guts totally won me over!: Huh…?!
: I thought I was your bro, Renton!: You’re still an awesome bro, Doggie! But my bro Gainer here gave me courage!: That was an amazing declaration of love! I was all like “WHOA!”! Respect!
: This boy’s—: You were blown away by it too, weren’t you, Sara?: …: Dude, the chick’s beet red…
: Looks like he hit a bull's eye.
: Sara…: Bah, fine! Considering that you were able to push that Siberian guy back with that, I’ll let you off the hook!*Sara stomps away.*
: Ah…Sara…: Heh…looks like Sara isn’t very upfront, either. : It’ll be alright, bro. She’s just embarrassed.: Really?: But you really jumped ahead of the competition with this.: “Jumped ahead”?: We better bust our asses if we don’t our bro to leave us in the dust, Renton!: Yeah! After fighting with the Nirvash, I can absolutely pull this off!Moondoggie and Gidget are fine with him doing whatever he wants but, right now, they need Renton’s help getting the reflection film in place, lest Talho give them all hell. If anything, Renton’s eager to hear Eureka’s thoughts about his fighting today.
Moondoggie figures the kid’s as happy as can be and Gidget thinks, at this rate, the skyfish are gonna flood this place.
At the Gekko’s hangar, we find Eureka pondering today’s battle and Nirvash lending its power to Renton.
However, she feels something different with it and wonders what it could be. The kids are worried if their mama is hurt, suggesting that she go see Mischa – Eureka tells them she’s alright, though.
Tiptree shows up, noting that Eureka is finally able to smile and, when the kids get closer, she realizes that they’re the same kids from “that day”.
Holland comes running, though, telling Eureka to get away from her. He’d heard that the Vodarac cultists had moved to this land but he didn’t expect them to be living so close by.
Regardless, he won’t allow her to lay a single finger on Eureka.
Renton shows up right then, asking what happened but Holland shoos him away, saying this has nothing to do with him.
Tiptree calmly tells him not to raise his voice as he’s scaring the kids and adds that Renton is quite relevant to this whole thing. After all, the changes in Eureka are because of both him and the three Del Cielo kids, no?
Renton remembers hearing that name, the Vodarac’s holy land, and after the attack from the Federation of Predgio Towers and the combining of the worlds, Tiptree and her fellow Vodarac cultists have decided to travel back there.
Thus, as they were hitching a ride on the Iron Gear, the Gekkostate showed up. Holland’s a bit dubious that she wasn’t actively searching for them but Tiptree says she bears no grudge against the red-eyed witch or the white demon (Renton figures she means Eureka and Nirvash).
Tiptree says all they’re interested in is searching for ways to help the future of the world. Holland glares, asking if she’s looking for Norb’s whereabouts and, while she is, she notices that Holland doing the same.
Tiptree tells him that he needs to study the world more if he intends to pass through Del Cielo’s “Gate of Choice” with Eureka – she’s sure Norb would have said the same if he were here. Holland asks what he should do but the scene fades before we get an answer.
Back at the Minerva’s briefing room, all commanders have reached an agreement: we’re going to join forces and support Yapan’s Ceiling’s Exodus to Japan.
Elchi’s quite excited and hopes everyone will do their best (plus, she knows that, while they’ll be out of a job once the Exodus is finished, they’ll have plenty of nice connections for further business). Talia is the first to thank Holland for the Gekkostate’s cooperation but he says it’s not necessary – they’re helping us for their own reasons.
Inwardly, he thinks that our group is always involved in battles, so sticking with us should help him understand more about the world, as Tiptree said.
Kazami reminds us of the rumors that there are unknown enemies in Japan, so recommends that we take prepare ourselves for any eventuality.
Gwen isn’t as worried, though, thinking we’ve nothing to fear with all the power we’ve gathered and, inwardly, he ponders that with this, taking Inglessa back should be quite doable.
Elchi is a bit curious if Shaia’s really okay with helping the Exodus but she says they’re going back to the Emaanian nation and Japan’s right along the way, so it’ll be safer for them to travel along with us (and it’ll allow them to deliver Kei with no problems).
For the sake of convenience, Heizaemon decides to christen our entire organization as “Z Emergency Union of Terrestrial Human”, a.k.a. ZEUTH.
Gwen understands the purpose of the main bits but asks what the meaning of that “Z” is and Jamil and Kazami figure it out: it’s a third variable, outside of “X” and “Y” and they figures it’s appropriate considering the state of things. Elchi isn’t all that hyped for that Z business and, if anyone has a better suggestion, Heizaemon will take it (i.e., you can change the squad name either here or from the Options menu – we’ll stick with ZEUTH for now at least).
Despite it seeming like we were bound to each other by fate, Talia and Jamil aren’t the least bit worried about this. Holland, however, isn't as joyous, feeling more like he’s a piece that someone else put in place.
With that done, our people will now focus on repairing and resupplying everyone, while also getting in touch with Löwen, and that sounds like business for Elchi and Shaia – they’ve a lot they can sell to Zaft and AEUG.
Inwardly, Heizaemon ponders how ZEUTH came together from groups with various agendas and wonders if they’ll be capable of fighting together to the bitter end.
If you’re on Rand’s path, the next step to a secret is available in the bazaar.
We find Renton accompanying Gainer, wondering what’s the connection between Eureka, Holland and the Vodarac.
When Gainer asks, though, he says it’s nothing and apologizes for daydreaming after Gainer called him over to the Bazaar. Moondoggie is also there and wonders why he called them and it’s because of something he wanted to sell: his first issue ray=out magazine.
Gidget is blown away that he has something so rare and Gainer’s happy to see that it’s as valuable as he hoped. As for why he’s getting rid of it, Gainer already got what he wanted off the magazine and he wants to see if he can’t trade it for something equally as valuable to give to Sara.
Gidget’s quite eager to help and promises that they’ll help him pick a nice present.
Secret Alert! - Rand’s Secret #3 – 2nd Point: Purchase the Signed CD
Also available at the Bazaar is a Promeus Walker Machine, so we grab that as well.
Gainer later gives his present to Sara: a Lacus Clyne CD.
Vino and Yoran see that it’s autographed and they wonder how Gainer managed to get his hands on something so incredibly rare (he inwardly thanks Gidget for that). Sadly, Sara isn’t interested as she’s seen “Lacus” on the UN and found her to be far too sexualized for her tastes.
With that done, Sara would like to ask for Gainer’s help to make some repairs on Yapan’s Ceiling and the kid can only mumble silently that the trouble they went through to get the thing was for nothing. Sara and Gainer leave to meet up with Gauli and Bello, and Yoran notes that while the present was a no-go, Sara did seem happy.
Vino wonders about how Lacus is right now – is she losing her popularity?
Yoran figures it’s due to her big image change but he personally has no problems with it and Vino’s the same, especially with how “upgraded” her figure got.
Her popularity in the rest of the world notwithstanding, she’s still THE pop-star in the Plants and Vino would very much prefer to be enjoying one of her concerts than be shoveling snow here in Siberia…