Part 7: Mission 3 (Rand) - Law-Breaking Saviors - Part 1
Mission 3 (Rand) - Law-Breaking Saviors
Gauli reminds his men that failure here means that death will rain down on Yapan's Ceiling.
Garrod asks and Sara says that’s the adopted name of the residential unit. Bello is still marveling over how, with Garrod and Gainer, their Contractors include such young kids: younger, in Garrod's case, than Sara herself.
Garrod says that after the disaster of fifteen years ago, even little kids had to fend for themselves in South America. He’s not sure precisely how he ended up here in Zora, but he doubts it is mere coincidence.
In fact, figuring out the reason behind those kinds of incidents is Rand's main motivation for traveling in the first place, which tells Gain that it must also have something to do with Mel.
It's as good an excuse as any to get out and see the world – still, there’s no time to talk about this as Rand notices the enemy incoming.
The Siberian Rail folks have hired help from the Breakers, including a Landship: at the helm is Kid Hola, who grandly announces the beginning of The Hunt.
Adette smirks and tells him that if he keeps posing with the window open, he's going to freeze his snotty nose solid. Kejinan figures the desert-dwelling Breakers are in for a rude awakening of Siberian weather and, while Yassaba hired these folks, Jaboli is a bit hesitant to trust their skill.
Geraba asks his "bro" if he's gonna keep letting their employers talk about him like that, but Hola is more irritated that Geraba didn’t call him "Captain".
Geraba apologizes (almost calling him “bro”, before correcting himself). Hola then starts ranting about how he, once a mighty instrument of the Innocent's will, has been reduced to utter poverty by that melonheaded buffoon and his posse! But here in Siberia, the battlefield belongs to him!
Geraba promises his bro that he'll work hard for their return to the top, earning him another tongue lashing and making both Garrod and Enge wonder just who the heck they're dealing with.
Rand tells everyone that the Kid Hola posse has made a modest name for themselves in Zora, and that they've apparently gone fishing for new masters after the Innocents' downfall. Geraba recognizes the Gundam X and points it out to Hola as the one who they couldn’t swipe at the Bazaar.
Hola thinks he can have revenge on the Gundam that so besmirched his family honor, which Adette finds amusing coming from a country bumpkin.
Rand says he and Garrod will take on the Landship, leaving the rest of the goons for Gauli's men to tussle with. Gain notices that Yassaba is nowhere to be seen...and wonders where he could be.
- Victory Condition: Shoot down all enemies
- Failure Condition: Sara or Gain shot down
- Skill Point: Destroy Hola’s Buffalo by the end of the 3rd PLAYER PHASE.
We’re on a tight clock here – Hola is in the back row, between Geraba and a Breaker; as Rand said, he and Garrod can deal with him easily but they need to get there quickly or they’ll miss the time on the Skill Point.
Before we move in, let’s take a quick look at Jaboli and, more importantly, Hola:
Dogozzo (Jaboli Mariela)
Pilot Skills:
- Oversense L1
- Backup Attack
- Support Defend L1
Jaboli’s Voice Actress: Maki Tamura (other known works: a few other small parts but the most significant one is dubbing Niki Sanders in Heroes)
Nothing sets her apart from Enge or Kejinan, so let’s skip to the bigger enemy on the field.
Buffalo (Kid Hola)
Pilot Skills:
- Prevail L2
- Counter L2
- Resolve – This pilot gets a +5 to his base morale
- Morale+ Damage
- Commander L1
- Very Lucky
Hola’s Voice Actor: Issei Futamata (other known works: Alan Gabriel in Big O (more on him later), General Helmut in Dancouga, Ohtaki-senpai in Ah! My Goddess and MANY others)
Kid Hola is a surprisingly good pilot despite his wacky antics (though he’s not the biggest Xabungle-related annoyance…); it’s a good thing that his Buffalo sucks so much or this Skill Point could’ve been more difficult.
None of his attacks are particularly powerful but, as you can see from the Leader Bonus, he can be decently accurate so keep Garrod protected with Invincible.
Nothing’s in range, though, so we just charge straight ahead.
Enemy Phase!
A Trad and a Dogozzo attack, respectively, Rand and Gain. Both make sure they don’t live to regret it.
One last Dogozzo attacks, this one going after Bello.
I tried to see if he had a cut-in like Sara and Gauli but nope. I guess he’s insignificant like that!
Everyone else, except Hola, starts moving closer.
Player Phase!
Garrod runs towards Hola, taking time to cut this Dagger down to size.
Good, good.
Meanwhile, Gain punches another Dagger.
I try to have Bello weaken Enge a bit but it blows up in his face; Sara proves herself to be more competent, though.
Gauli wouldn’t be able finish him off, so we moves over and takes Jaboli down a nice bit.
Rand can’t reach anything else, so we might as well have him take out Garrod’s buddy.
This attack has a unique “miss” animation, where Rand fails to grab the rebound on his wrench! I’ll try to show it off sometime.
Enemy Phase!
A suicidal Trad guns for Rand, who happily obliges him.
Furthermore, I overestimated the power of Gain’s weakest attack and he ends up leaving a Dagger barely alive.
A Siberian mook takes aim after Gauli.
Good man.
Another faceless mook and, this time, Bello plays ball.
And here’s Geraba, looking to get some payback from Garrod.
: You’re that brat from before! Hand over that Gundam and we might left you keep your life!
: Get real! Last time we kicked your ass so hard, YOU had to run off for dear life!
: Urk...!
: We’re both just doing our jobs; so, if we have to fight, let's not hold grudges.: That said, I ain't about to die before getting back to Tifa!
Alright, that’s not bad.
Hola moves a bit closer but just enough to seal his fate.
Jaboli tries to give Gain what-for but only succeeds in getting herself shot down.
She sees that, as expected, she’s not really suited for this sort of job.
The only option left is to eject.
Squaddies receive less experience and PP than the leaders but this part helps mitigate that; the Strategy Manual (戦技マニュアル) allows the equipped unit’s pilot to receive exp/PP as if he was the leader.
Enge decides to get clever and snipe at Rand. Sadly for him, Rand’s absorbed some of Garrod’s luck and dodges!
Kejinan finally attacks something.
No problem for Gauli, though.
Eeeh…would this be a bad time to mention that I had completely forgotten that Adette was there and Gain doesn’t have focus?
Nice.
Player Phase!
Sadly, Adette’s position is a bit of a bother: her being there stops Rand from getting in range of Hola.
So, we need to take her out with both Gain and Sara (I would’ve liked to keep Gain around as an extra attack but Garrod and Rand should be enough to do the job).
Adette is very annoyed that a group like ours could defeat her.
Still, she figures things are still going according to plan and retreats.
We’re almost out of time, so Garrod moves past the opposition and heads after Hola.
: Let’s do this…! I’ll make my comeback in Siberia and, someday, Zora itself will be mine for the taking!: And, for that, I'll use this job to get in good with the Siberian Rail! 
Alright, that’s good enough!
Get in there, Rand.
Skill Point get!
Even Hola isn't so deluded as to believe that his ancient Buffalo can carry the day here.
But since he's fulfilled his contract, it's time for a “strategic advance to the rear”.
Sara starts celebrating our victory but Gain warns her not to relax – the Breakers were only trying to keep us in place.
Yassaba confirms Gain’s feeling and jumps our group from behind.
He quickly grabs Sara and drags her far away, though he notices that the Overman stolen from the Medayu household isn’t here.
Garrod doesn’t know who’s this machine that’s vastly superior to the other Siberian mooks and Gain explains: that’s Yassaba Jin, commander of the Siberian Rail Guard, and his Overman Rushrod.
Yassaba gets in touch with the people of Yapan’s Ceiling and says that he’s personally come to see this Exodus stopped and everyone involved executed!
Sara, isn’t about to sit there and let this happen; her attitude and beauty impresses Yassaba, who asks I she’d like to join his squad.
She refuses, so Yassaba prepares to kill her first.
However, he’s blindsided by King Gainer and thrown away.
Sara gets very happy, thinking Gainer came over to help her but he only say he still has a debt to repay to Gain (making Garrod shake his head that the kid’s still not being honest).
There’s another problem, though, in the form of Breaker reinforcements – a second stage in Yassaba’s plan with Hola.
Hola will handle the rest of us, while Yassaba focuses on King Gainer. Gainer is a bit surprised when he realizes that his enemy is another Overman but Yassaba is already calling for an Overman Battle.
Sara tries to stop Gainer, saying that he’s no match for a commander of the Siberian Rail but he tells her to stay back – if we're taking Overman Battles, there’s no way he and King Gainer are losing!
Inwardly, Gain wonders how the kid’ll do and Yassaba yells that he’ll smash him up while Adette is watching!
Quickly now, Bello tags Kejinan with a crit and takes him out.
Kejinan promises to remember this, saying that he only lost because he wasn’t feeling too good.
Either way, he ejects.
A BB from Gauli also takes out Enge.
As Enge retreats, moping that this broken machine is going to be deduced from his salary.
Now, before we move on to deal with Hola’s new posse, let’s take a look at Yassaba.
Overman Rushrod (Yassaba Jin)
Pilot Skills:
- Oversense L3
- Prevail L1
- Counter L2
- Resolve
- Photon Mat
- OverSkill (more on this in a bit)
Voice Actor:Hisao Egawa (other known works: Hyuuma/Goldymarg in Gaogaigar, Killer Bee in Naruto, Falco Lombardi/Wolf O’Donnel in Star Fox games and a whole lot of other stuff)
Yassaba’s pretty dangerous and is the first example of many Overman enemies that you’ll face in the game. Thankfully, he’s not the sturdiest enemy around but that Photon Mat paired with that Leader Bonus will make him the most resilient enemy we’ve faced thus far.
His attacks are all post movement and have good power behind them and that Oversense will boost his accuracy, so watch it.
Swarm him and take him out quickly.
Enemy Phase!
The weakened Dagger suicides against Garrod and Gauli takes out the last Siberian mook on the southern side of the map.
Hola’s group is too far away to attack anything but Geraba trades blows with Garrod (who was protected).
Yassaba steps forward to attack Gainer and those numbers do NOT look good at all.
The best thing to do here is just to have Gainer dodge.
: I’ll slaughter anyone who tries to do an Exodus! That’s my mission!
: Whatever! I hate both those people and the Siberian Rail!
Yup. Yassaba’s got a giant bellows in his Overman.
Player Phase!
: This guy's strong…!
: Not bad at all, kid! Then, I don’t think I have a choice but to get serious!
: What is he doing?!: Take this!!
: What’s that?!
: I’ve never seen a beam like that before…
: AHAHAHAHA! DIIIEEE!!
: UWAAARGH!!: What happened, kid?! You didn’t even try to dodge!: I-It’s not like that! W-what happened to me…?
: Gainer! You have to dodge those beams! That’s what stopped your movement!: How are those stopping his movement?!: It’s an OverSkill…
: Huuuuuuuh?! 
: Over-what?!: That’s right! This is Rushrod’s OverSkill: Time Stop!: Time stop?! How the hell can he do stuff like that?! : No one knows how they work! But that’s his OverSkill!: Tch! Fighting an Overman is a huge pain in the ass!: WAHAHAHAHAHA! No matter how you try to fight back, I can stop you in your tracks with the Rushrod’s OverSkill! : Here I come, Dreadlocks! You're going down!!
: !
: The Stop Beam struck a direct hit! You can’t move anymore!!
: Gainer!: It's OOOVEEER!!
: Wh-What?!
: Cease fire! I think that’s good enough for now.
: Don’t you think we actually went a bit overboard, girl?
: Well, we took our sweet time to arrive, so we need to get to work ASAP, right?
: Rand, Mel! The Iron Gear is finally here!
: Nice timing, Jiron!
: It’s been too long, Jiron! And the Iron Gear crew, too!: Are those the friends Rand said he was going to call?
: C-Commander Yassaba! They’re dangerous! Really, really dangerous!: What about them, Hola?! : These are the outlaws that defeated the Innocent! All violent freaks from Zora!
: What are you doing here, Hola?
: Seems his business ain’t been doing too good since the Innocent disappeared.
: So he came all the way to Siberia to find some work?
: Still, we can’t really say anything about him.: Yeah. We tried reopening Elchi’s courier business but we were always in the red. 
: Man, talk about a depressing story!: The great Iron Gear crew, the ones who defeated the Innocent, are so poor that they can’t even afford decent units!: We’re almost out of gas for Xabungle and Galia, too.
: Which is why, when Rand told us that there’s money to made over here, we came right over!
: That’s right, Elchi! And you can start by helping us kick these guys’ asses!: You haven’t changed at all, Rand! Instead of a mechanic, you’re always more like—: Don't, Jiron! You know how Rand hates to be called The Crusher!
: Y-you just said it, Chil…
: Good helpers, as you can see, we’ve a bit of a situation here! Lend us a hand, would you!
: Got it! We’ll do anything to go on living!!: And, Hola! If you don’t want to get hurt, I suggest you go back home to Zora!: Aargh! So you got some helpers? Big deal! This Exodus will still be crushed!! : But, first off, you with the dreads! I'll be ending you myself!
: Gainer, run! Leave the rest to our new allies!: I won't!: Huh?!: I came here to save Sara! Not to be rescued by someone else again!
: Well said, kid! : Brat! Then, I’ll grant your wish – right here, right now!: King Gainer is also an Overman!!
: Then it should also have and OverSkill!!
: Don't mess with meeeee! GO, RUSHROD!!: THIS IS THE KING GAAAAAAAINEEEEEER!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xePCNxm8Htc
: W-what?! How is it fast enough to dodge all of Rushrod’s attacks?!: How’s that, Siberian Rail?!: Whoa, nice! That guy’s got some guts!
: We better give it our all, too, or we’re gonna get fired quick-like.: B-bastard! I can't be defeated right in front of Adette!!
: As you saw, the Overman completely turned the table by using his OverSkill.: Never forget to confirm the enemy Overman’s OverSkill!: Got it!That’s SRW speak for: check the enemy's status screen to avoid being blindsided.
: …: Gainer…!: …They were killed…: Huh…: My parents were found dead with an anti-exodus flier in their hands!: But I just stayed in my room for 27 days, playing games! I didn’t even try looking for the killer!
: …: That’s why I hate Exodus!: Then, I’ll send you to where your parents are – along with all other members of this Exodus!: However! I hate people dying more than anything!!