Part 91: Mission 27 (Rand) - Prologue

Frost Brothers kidnapped Tifa and we were all too trippy to do anything thanks to a Kute Coralian…on the plus side, we denied Torres his porn so that was fun.
Garrod, Eureka and Holland are deploying as event units for this one; the game gives us 8 deployment slots, so here’s what we’ll be working with.

• Rand, Dyke (Galapagos), Rag
  
• Gainer, Matthew, Adette (Rushrod)
  
• Baldios, Hilda, Roybea
  
• Getter, Tekkouki, Michiru
  
• Kei, Maai, Riea
  
• Aquarion, Gauli
  
• Gain, Witz, Bello (Dobeck)
  
• Jiron, Sara(Dobeck), Burume (Government)

Make as many flying squads as you can because the next battleground has a decent amount of water.

Now, I hope you’re comfortable because this mission brings a lot of plot.



Location: Eastern Galia



We find our team in some city, asking the local population for clues about Tifa’s whereabouts and coming back with squat. Mimsy’s still working her contacts on the Emaanian information network but, so far, nothing’s come up.
Bello remembers how we were warped away after our encounter with the Coralian and wonders if it might be too late to pick up on the kidnappers’ scent. Garrod’s intent on going on, though, as he’s sure the Frost Brothers are behind this and, as members of the Federation, it won’t be long before the feds force Tifa to use her powers for them.
When Sara asks, though, he doesn’t know WHAT they’re planning on using her for. Gainer and others know she has a strange ability and Bello remembers hearing that said ability is a Newtype power, so he figures that would make her an awesome pilot like Amuro and Camille.

Not so, as Garrod says she’s unable to fly a MS and, from what Jamil told him, it seems Tifa’s power is different from what Amuro and the others have. speaking of Jamil, Gainer’s curious about something as, while searching the UN for clues, he ran into information that tagged him as a Newtype, too.
That’s the first Sara’s heard of this but Garrod says Jamil has long-since lost his powers. From what Gainer’s found, Jamil was originally an ace pilot of the UNE but he’s since stopped piloting Mobile Suits.

Garrod corrects him, though, saying that’s it’s not like Jamil won’t pilot – it’s that he CAN’T pilot. That said, he won’t go over Jamil’s head and tell us the details and he asks what we don’t bring this up with the captain.
Inwardly, Garrod remembers how Gainer and the others came from the same world as them and, as such, he cannot tell them Jamil’s past.



There’s still time before we have to return to the ships, though, so Renton wants to search some more and Garrod calls Bello over to search the Market. Gainer and Sara will head back to the UN terminal to try and gather any relevant information.
As they all leave, Renton checks on Eureka and it seems she’s still having a headache but she insists it’ll pass soon. That said, he does apologize for dragging her around like this and suggests that she head home to rest and let him search the area.
She does so and Renton starts pondering how Eureka’s condition seems related to the Nirvash but, unfortunately, he doesn’t know what he could do to help.



Nearby, Dominic is fretting over his busted motorcycle with Anemone yelling at his ear. She’s feeling all gross with the salty sea breeze sticking to her skin but Dominic remembers that she was the one who suggested this trip because she thought she’d feel better with the breeze.
Of course, he gets interrupted halfway through it by Anemone asking “Is that a complaint…?” which makes him immediately shut up. She decides to rest under a tree’s shade and tells him to get the bike fixed quick-like (even though he’s got no understanding of mechanics).

Renton knows his stuff, though, and comes over to offer some help. The kid doesn’t know who the startled Dominic is but, inwardly, Dominic easily tags him as the son of Adroc Thurston that he saw in his data. Renton DOES recognize Anemone as the rider of the black KLF, yelling out from under her tree for Dominic to stop playing around and start working, which makes Dominic pull out a gun.
Dominic tells Renton to be quiet but he’s not listening, instead asking why that KLF looks so much like the Nirvash and, also, why is she wearing a choker just like Eureka’s. Renton yells that what happened to us is Anemone’s fault and Dominic fires right back, asking if we had any idea of what we were doing.

Renton is a bit surprised and wonders if the army knows something about the Coralian which prompts Dominic to demand to know where he’s heard that name. Renton wonders if there’s something wrong with him knowing the name and asks what the thing is but Dominic yells that he’s the one asking questions here.
He can’t well threaten Renton with a bullet as, then, there’d be no one left to fix the bike and, from the looks of it, it’s a model from their world which means the kid WOULD be able to get it sorted out.

Dominic tries ordering him to fix the damn thing but Renton gives him sass, asking if shoving a gun in people’s faces is how a soldier asks for help.
Renton’s well aware that Anemone’s probably gonna give Dominic hell if the bike doesn’t get fixed and, without a choice, Dominic lowers his gun and politely asks him to help out (not before Renton makes him say it out loud, mind).
Inwardly, Renton sees that Dominic’s not the smartest guy around...



Elsewhere, we find Witz arguing with Tonya: he wants to gather information at the harbor as there’ll be a lot of people coming in and out of town but, seeing how Garrod and the others are already there, Tonya wants them to check the downtown area.
Witz doesn’t buy it, thinking the only reason she wants to go there is to shop around. She doesn’t appreciate him saying nonsense like that when they’re in this kind of situation and Witz decides to head to the harbor by himself.
Tonya’s left fuming, telling him to run to the harbor and just jump into the ocean while he’s at it, but she’s interrupted by the arrival of a laughing Enil. Tonya doesn’t appreciate being laughed at but Enil, apologizing, says he was just amused at Tonya’s cussing.

Tonya also apologizes for her ranting but, regardless, asks if they haven’t met before as Enil’s voice is rather familiar. Neither one remembers, so they exchange introductions, and Enil quickly asks if the man just now was her boyfriend.
Tonya says he’s just a teammate which Enil finds curious, as they seem to be pretty close, but Tonya doesn’t see it. Regardless, when asked, Enil says she got into town a few days ago and, seeing how she seems well-informed, Tonya asks if she wouldn’t mind helping look for a missing person.
Enil agrees, seeing how she’s got a few connections in town and Tonya can’t wait to rub Witz’ nose in it - that said, she’d be more than happy to treat Enil to lunch after their search.



Renton fixes the bike in short order, putting all his grandpa's training to good use, and now Dominic won't have to face Anemone's wrath anymore.
With that done, Renton wants an answer to what the Coralian is but Dominic still says he can’t answer. Renton isn’t amused, saying when he entered that cloud, he saw a bunch of things.
Inside the dream, he met with Anemone even though he’d never been face-to-face with her before, so he wants to know who the girl is. Dominic doesn’t seem inclined to answer but he asks if he only saw Anemone in there – Renton says he saw Eureka, too.
Dominic smirks at this and, calling Renton by name (surprising the kid, as he never gave it), says they’ve both fallen for quite troublesome girls. Regardless, he can’t answer his questions about the Coralian but, as thanks for fixing his bike, he’ll tell him the location of the girl he’s looking for: the island of Zonder Epta.

Renton’s curious as to why he’s telling this as doing so would be breaking a whole lot of military rules but Dominic says he’s free to believe or not. Renton does believe him and, upon receiving Dominic’s name, sets off to find the others.
As he goes, Dominic remembers being told by Dewey to keep tabs on what the Frost Brothers are doing so, by sending the Gekkostate after them, he might get a clue on their true intentions.
Anemone shows up right then, asking if the bike’s fixed, and Dominic says there’s much he doesn’t know about the world but what he does know is that he might’ve met their true enemy today.

Anemone doesn’t care about his philosophizing and tells him that they need to get going.
Dominic does so and, as soon as he revs the bike, he pops a wheelie – turns out Renton didn’t just fix the bike but also tuned it up to eleven. Regardless, Anemone’s rather impressed with his “skills” so Dominic is, if anything, happy with that.



Back with the girls, Tonya’s been told that Enil’s travelling to get revenge on some guy who refused her. Enil won’t go as far as calling it actual “revenge” but she asks if Tonya doesn’t sometimes wish that men like that simply disappeared from the world.
Tonya understands how she feels but Enil confesses that, at times, she wonders if this is what she should do – she figures there’ll be days where she’ll regret traveling around like this. Tonya says the past is in the past and whether you’re happy or not depends only on what one does in the present.
That’s why Tonya lives as she wants to, choosing her own path, and whether she makes a mistake or is successful in her path, whatever happens is her own decision and she can accept that.

Enil is feeling a bit jealous of Tonya’s way of life and she says she learned this because of her teammates. On that matter, Tonya asks if Enil wouldn’t want to come with us.
She says our group just sort-of wanders around, doing our own thing, but everyone’s good people and she thinks Enil would fit in nicely. She’s glad for the invitation but asks if Tonya wasn’t supposed to be searching for someone now and, indeed, Tonya started talking with her and forgot that she was supposed to be searching for Tifa.
Upon hearing the girl’s name, Enil quickly figures Tonya’s one of the Freeden’s crew and starts getting depressed.



Before anything happens, though, Rand shows up looking for Tonya – seems like Witz was talking his ear off, grumbling at how she wasn’t doing her part. As she sighs at his hard-headedness, Rand passes on the good news that Renton found a clue on Tifa’s location.
Tonya’s slightly surprised that the little shop-clerk was capable of something like that and apologizes to Enil for having to take off like this. Still, she says Enil’s free to call her on the Freeden if she decides to join our group and she’ll pick her up.

Rand tells Tonya to go on ahead back to the ship while he takes care of a small errand before returning. As she goes, Enil thanks him for keeping quiet about her and he says it’s his way of thanking her for the help in Fort Severn.
On that matter, he asks if she’s still gunning for Garrod and while she doesn’t give a straight answer, Rand agrees with Tonya in that she should do whatever she wants – that said, he adds that there are some things that cannot be undone and, once she’s past that point, it’ll be too late for regrets.
With Enil deep in thought, Rand heads back while saying that neither he nor Garrod want to fight her.



As we head to Zonder Epta, our people discuss how the area around the place is known as the “Sea of Lorelai”, derived from a legend of the ghost of a woman whose songs led sailors astray.
Tex mentions how the story describing the legend is a remnant of their original world:


Tex and Gain recite an excerpt of the story and the good doctor is impressed that he knows it but Gain says he always had a taste for this sort of stuff. Ana is impressed with the two of them but Gainer grumbles that Gain’s showing off again.
From what Gainer’s heard of the area, several modern-day ships reported hearing a mysterious song before simply disappearing. Sara’s afraid the legend’s legit and Lorelai actually sunk those ships but Witz thinks, as crazy as this world’s gotten, ghost stories are a bit too much.

Tonya quips that his voice seems to be a bit trembly but, no, Witz insists that he doesn’t buy these stories and Roybea’s with him, figuring that, if ghosts did exist, they’d be outnumbering the living after everything that happened in the war 15 years ago.
Silvia remembers hearing from the Freeden and Yapan Ceiling folk that there was a huge war in their world and Pierre also heard that it ended when several colony drops ravaged Earth’s southern hemisphere.



Sara says that, since they lived in the northern hemisphere, they’re not too privy on details but she does know that their Earth, at the time, had its “core” in the southern hemisphere as that was where the government was based.
Tex adds the various continents each possessed their own civilizations: Galia featured Siberia and Zora, North Ameria had the machine-fearing civilization Loran came from, and the Southern Hemisphere contained the remnants of the former civilization that feuded with the space colonists.
Jun knows that it was during this war with the space colonists that the UNE used Gundam Xs like Garrod’s and, as Pierre mentioned, said war ended 15 years ago with a mass of colony drops. Gainer asks Tex if Jamil hasn’t piloted an MS ever since the war and all he’ll say is that Jamil is one of the many survivors whose hearts still bear scars from that day.

With all that said, Ana’s impressed that Gainer knows so much about the history of the Sea of Lorelai and he says he found this information over at this site detailing strange phenomena around the world – Gain’s always amused at everything we can find over the internets.
They’re interrupted when Kid comes in looking for Garrod and Renton.
No one has seen them and Kid, having searched most of the ship, is worried that they might’ve sortied on their own. Gain figures there’s only one place they’d go and that’s Zonder Epta.



Location: The region of Zonder Epta



Renton’s worried that they might’ve been too hasty in launching like that but Garrod wants to rescue Tifa on the double, which is why he wanted to do some recon right away.
He does apologize for getting Eureka to tag along but she also wants to rescue her friend. Garrod tells Renton to wait here while they scout ahead but the kid’s ready to go on after coming this far and, besides, Eureka and Nirvash need him.
Garrod thanks him and figures, with the GX and Nirvash’s speed, they should be able to go in and out without any danger of the enemies catching up to us.



It is then that an older guy, Katokk, approaches and wonders what kids are doing in a place like this.
Garrod says it’s got nothing to do with him but, still, Katokk figures that the kids are planning on setting out to sea. He identifies himself as a fisherman and warns that these waters are cursed with a ghost that’s only waiting to take them all captive.
Garrod thanks the old man for the warning but says we have to go no matter what and, despite not knowing what’s going on, Katokk sees that the kids are serious – as they leave, Renton promises they’ll take care.
Katokk likes the resolve he sees in Garrod's eyes, but he's got his own job to do…one that Garrod won't like.



At the island of Zonder Epta, the boys find a hidden Federation base which is downright suspicious and it’s very likely that’s where Tifa’s being kept. Renton asks if Garrod wants to head in and save her right away but he refuses, remembering that they’re only doing recon.
Renton tries to protest but Garrod says they can’t act too recklessly and wants to gather data on the base before the bad guys wise up to our presence.





As they approach, however, a batch of UNE troops launch but it’s not because they detected us – Garrod sees that this is more like an ambush. The troops’ leader, Abel, confirms that the intel was right and vows to not allow the intruders to escape.
Garrod sees that we’ve no choice but to fight and Abel’s more than eager to give us a taste of his power – the power of a SPECIAL human.



Mission Objective: Shoot down the Rasveht
Mission Failure: Any allied unit shot down
Skill Point: None

Time for a prologue battle and this isn’t difficult at all – especially if you kept both the Gundam X and Nirvash upgraded; Abel is slightly more dangerous than a regular mook but we’re more than well equipped to deal with him and his UNE cronies.



We’ll focus on these guys before Abel gets here. Since this is a prologue fight, feel free to use your SP.














They’re all alone, so this won’t take long.




Eureka moves over and gets working on a Gadeel.



Enemy Phase!



The Frost Brothers are observing the battle alongside the base commander, Aimzat, and ask if the Rasvhet pilot is the man he found. Indeed it is but Aimzat says he hasn’t “awakened” just yet and Olba knows that means he won’t be able to activate the Flash System.
Aimzat is aware of that but knows, from their research, that several Newtypes had their awakening during battle and that’s why he had Abel deploy right now. That said, if the girl the brothers brought over is able to successfully interface with that OTHER system, this’ll all be moot and she’ll be sent to the Moon at once.
The brothers tell Tifa that Aimzat is hoping she’ll use her power to awaken a ghost from 15 years ago…







Both units are attacked, with Eureka killing the weakened Daughtress.



Player Phase!



Abel’s still too far, so Eureka will clean up another weak Daughtress.










Boom.




Following that, Garrod hacks away at another Gadeel.



Enemy Phase!







The last healthy Daughtress gets slapped away by Eureka while Garrod kills the two Gadeels, being hit once.



Abel is finally close enough to attack.












He’s not very good at it.



Player Phase!




Either way, Garrod takes out the last Daughtress.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7RfZOeYM-8
And Eureka will wrap things up. Have we ever seen her Assault attack before?



Abel refuses to accept that he could be defeated and Aimzat tells him to retreat lest they lose his unit.
With that, Garrod and Renton have their chance to escape and, in that case, Aimzat has no choice but to order the use of the Flash System.





The kids hear a singing voice coming from the base and Renton thinks it’s the ghost. Very real mechs deploy right then, though, and even if he doesn’t know what they are, Garrod knows it can’t be good.
They try to escape but the mechs quickly surround and disable their machines. Aimzat is rather pleased to capture both a Gundam and the first LFO, so he orders them to be handled with care.
Olba relates that the Freeden seems to have arrived, having managed to break through the base’s defensive perimeter – Aimzat isn’t worried, though, as he’s already taken measures against them.



The Freeden enters the area with Katokk having led them over. Seems like they broke through the Feds’s troops by having the rest of our people perform a diversionary attack while they slipped by.
That said, Sara’s receiving messages saying that they’re being overwhelmed, with the Iron Gear grounded and the other ships very damaged, so Jamil orders the Freeden to break through the enemy MS and to prepare to retreat once they’ve rescued Garrod and the others. They’re leaving navigation to Katokk but, unfortunately, he’s got other ideas.
He draws a weapon and tells everyone to sit still as this ship’s now under control of him and his men (who have already seized the engine room) – turns out they’re not a fishermen but Federation soldiers. Tonya now understands that guiding us over here was just all part of his plan to capture the ship.

Katokk says his late wife always said there are only two good things about him: he doesn’t drink alcohol and he copes with adversity well.
However, there are also some the bad things about him: mainly, he’s a liar.
Katokk tells Jamil, the so called “Hero”, not to get angry, remembering how everyone in the army called him that in the previous war: Jamil, the hero who would bring them victory. Back then, he was a Newtype soldier at age 15 and even regular grunts like Katokk and company looked up to him…that is, until the colonies fell onto Earth…


Well, frig...things just managed to get even worse.

FYI: This is a pretty big mission, text-wise (they grab the plot from a whole bunch of Gundam X episodes for this one) - expect the next one by Monday.

See you all then!