Part 106: Mission 29 (Setsuko) - The Burning Sea - Part 2
Enemy Phase!
Shinn finishes off a Windam once attacked and Athrun takes out two other weak mooks.
Make yourself useful, Joseph!
Good man.
Uh, oh. Here comes Stella.
: Stella! That's you in there, isn't it?
: Just who are you?: It's me! Shinn! Don't you remember me?
: Shinn... Shinn?
: What's going on? Did she forget who I am?: I guess I’ll have to take down the Gaia and stop this fight!
Bah…at least he took out her squaddies.
Reccoa picks up a ship approaching, one that isn't broadcasting a known IFF. A friend?
No, it’s the Archangel crew. While everyone wonders what they’re doing here, Cagalli (in the Strike Rouge) sees the Orb troops openly assisting the Federation.
Lacus prompts her to "express her wishes," and Cagalli calls the Orb troops and orders Baba to withdraw his entire squad; though she may be away from her homeland, she remains Orb’s representative and, as such, commands them to obey as per their country’s ideals of non-intervention in other nation’s conflicts.
Yuna calls over right then and tells them to disregard that order; he says that, while that girl IS piloting the Strike Rouge, Cagalli’s unit, there’s no way to confirm that it’s actually her aboard.
Furthermore, as her husband, he knows her voice and says that it’s a fake OR, maybe, she’s being forced to say those things – so, he orders them to keep supporting the feds and shoot down the Archangel.
Hearing that, Neo has his troops do the same.
Cagalli’s distraught that they’re not listening to her and Kira says it's pointless to continue this.
Sadly, it appears they’ve no choice but to fight back so he tells her to retreat while they handle the situation their way. (The Strike Rouge is not actually going to appear in this game, you see.)
Talia's not sure what's going on, but it's the chance we’ve been waiting for: she orders the Tännhauser fired up to open a way for us break through the enemy lines.
But she's wrong - Kira shoots the Tännhauser, rendering it totally inoperable.
Toshiya asks why the hell he’s attacking us when the Feds are the ones actively shooting at them – seems like the “enemy of my enemy” thing doesn’t apply here, Julie thinks; Kira mutters that he will eliminate all ability to make war, so it seems we're back to fighting everybody at once!
Athrun demands Kira explain, but Heine stops him: "If you hesitate now, you will only be making the same mistakes again."
Anyway, the Archangel may be fighting Neo as well, but his troops are still prioritizing ZEUTH (as per their orders).
Seeing that no one is about to step down from this battle, Kira SEEDs up, prepared to stop the fighting even if he has to take on everyone to do it.
Oi…here’s our other task for this mission:
BIG Secret Alert! - Shoot down Kira
- Shoot down the Archangel
Kira seems hardwired to go after Neo, so he’ll dash away from our troops but we can catch up to him (and he’s not very resilient, just dodgy/accurate). As for the Archangel, it’ll be the perfect job for your lone Super Robot.
Ignore Waltfeld because you have more important things to deal with.
At least this activated on the right time.
Shinn gets attacked by Auel and Sting, wrecking two more squaddies.
Apolly learns Prevail L3 from that.
Neo decides, instead of potentially killing the kid, it’s best to go after Kouji.
: (The mission of the Phantom Pain is the destruction of ZEUTH...): (But even a victory here won't let me discharge Stella, Four or any of them.)
: Damn it...! This war…humanity…it’s all too much!
Hey, that works for me!
Four goes after Camille but he’s ready for her.
: Four! Is that you inside that thing?
: How dare you! You're the one making my head hurt like this!
: It's me, Camille! Don't you know who I am?: Camille Bidan... pilot affiliated with ZEUTH... uses the Gundam Mk. II...: Four...
: Camille! You have to destroy that machine! The Psycommu is controlling the pilot's mind!: But...
: Camille, aim away from the cockpit!
: See how big it is? Just shoot for the body and the head will come out without a scratch!
: Touga!
: Right! I'll avoid the cockpit completely!: You...
: Fight with all your might and you won't have any regrets!: We're all still with you! Let's do it, Camille!
: Right!
Every bit of damage helps…
Shinn’s getting harassed by some Orb troops and almost dies after a TRI attack…
Hey, the Archangel took the bait!
: (If we have no choice but to fight for the world we want...): (Then I won't hesitate! I'll fight for the man who fought for the same thing... for Muu!)
Good, good.
Yup, there goes Kira after Neo.
: He's... he's good!: (Why... why do I feel like I know that mech and that pilot?): (Are they somehow connected to my missing memories?)
Thanks!
Player Phase!
A quick cast of Faith from Boss gets Shinn’s group back to full.
Kappei takes a shot at the Archangel with help from Heizaemon, leaving it heavily injured.
Got Loran nearby to finish it off if this isn’t enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG8DwaUOe6k
He barely makes enough damage, though.
Might as well take the time to show the fireworks from destroying it!
Murrue orders her crew to do whatever possible to contain the damage and find a way to keep fighting (healing her ship to full…).
Arthur’s surprised at their resilience and Talia decides that we can’t deal with that right now – best to focus on the Phantom Pain.
Yup, Kira’s plot armor extends to his entire team. You gotta waste time and resources to grab those secret points and don’t even get them off your hair…
I suppose you could farm them for cash but it’s not like you don’t have a lot of things to do already.
Let’s keep grabbing those secret points, so Arthur gets Analyze on Stella…
Kouji and Amuro then cut her down to size.
And Quattro profits, gaining a level in Newtype!
Alright, go and have words with your girl, Shinn.
Yeah, that’s it.
Stella’s ready to keep on fighting but Shinn gets in touch and tells her to stop.
He says she’ll die if she keeps going and, once again, asks if she wants that; as before, the girl starts freaking out and Shinn does her best to tranquilize her: “It’s alright, Stella! You won’t die! I’m here and I’ll protect you!”
The girl’s confused as to whether it’ll be Shinn or Neo who will keep her safe and runs off in panic; Shinn tries in vain to call her back as Rey observes.
Talia and Bright both blast their targets into oblivion.
And Toshiya moves forward to start working on Sting and company.
Yuck…that VPS Armor is stronger than I remember. Still, his squaddies take good damage.
Tetsuya takes care of those, Reccoa learning Support Attack L3, and Athrun quickly slices a weak Windam.
Four’s next in line, so we’ll send Gravion over to start things out.
: ZEUTH is our enemy... I must destroy them...
: The pressure is even more aggressive this time...
: She's been reconditioned...!: Come on, Camille! If you want to save her, you've got to do something!
And there go 9k of her HP.
Setsuko switches over and doubles Four for some extra damage.
Enemy Phase!
Oh, yeah. Kira auto-casts Focus.
Tetsuya quickly swats aside a would-be attacker and Kouji does his best impression of an enemy magnet: a Windam, Auel, Sting and Neo all go after him and take loads of damage in turn (the Windam gets wrecked).
He’s getting at low-ish HP but that only serves to gets his Prevail running nicely…as Neo’s quickly realized.
Meanwhile, Four’s still going after Camille and Setsuko.
Good, good.
Bah…Kouji can’t hit back at that range.
: The acceleration on that Mobile Armor... it should be more Gs than a normal human can withstand!: Whoever is piloting it must be a Cyber Newtype!
: I will destroy those who would make the sky fall! That is why I fight!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfALEKwNxLU
Haw, haw!
Uh, oh…
: War is for warriors... I won't let these Cyber-Newtypes or Extended take over this battlefield!
Whew…could’ve been worse.
Ben and Bright trade shots with each other and, following that, an Orb trooper attacks and gets blown away.
Repeat the same result for when another pair goes after Tetsuya and Zambot.
Athrun’s also picked on.
His TRI attack tears through all of the enemy’s squad.
All this killing pushes Tetsuya to activate Mazin Power.
Murrue’s wasting her time attacking Zambot and Kira sticks with Neo.
: I'll follow this path, no matter how hard it gets...
: For the world we want!
Hold right there. Look at the health on the Windams. That’s not the damage calculation being sassy.
You see, Kira’s now 100% in his holier-than-thou mode and, as such, actively REFUSES to kill anyone – all his attacks have the Mercy property, meaning anything he would otherwise kill will, instead, be left with 10 HP.
This isn’t a big deal now because he’s not our problem to deal with but, in another mission…
Player Phase!
Two turns left on the clock and now we do clean-up duty. First in line is Neo and Kouji’s ready to go.
Boosh!
Neo drops an Apogee Motor and everyone levels up – Maria learns ESP L5.
Neo can’t go any further, so Buran tells him to pull back and let him handle the rest.
With an apology, Neo does so.
Next in line is Four and, following shots from Kappei, Shinn Talia and Heizaemon, she’s already down to critical health.
Do your thing, boy.
He barely makes it.
Four’s head feels like it’s being torn in half and Camille yells at her to get off the Psyco Gundam as that’s what’s hurting her.
He says gentle people like her shouldn’t be fighting and repeats his request – Four says she can’t do it, though, and will continue to fight in order to get her memories back.
As she runs off, our people now understand the reason why she’s doing all this.
Quickly, Bright blasts Auel into the red.
And Loran walks over to finish the job.
Nice and easy.
Auel isn’t pleased that he can’t fight any longer and is forced to eject.
Finally, Toshiya and Quattro make short work of what’s left of Sting’s HP and he unceremoniously ejects.
Athrun, talk some sense into him – one moron to another.
: Stop, Kira! What's the point of this?: Don't you understand, Athrun?: There's no logic to what you're doing! And now you've put Cagalli in danger too!
: So you don't understand... our world is on the path to...: Kira!
Ah, well. Guess I’ll have to kill him.
Gravion does the job and Luna takes Prevail L5.
Kira will not allow his plot-armor to be pierced yet, though, and finds the strength to carry on.
Athrun seems impressed with his drive and Kira vows to go through with his chosen battle.
Eh, we might as well try to grab Baba because I’m not going to waste my time dealing with Ben.
Ah, just a wee bit short. No matter, he’ll attack on this next turn and get killed.
Enemy Phase!
Two mooks attack Tetsuya and get easily dispatched.
Rosamia and Ben attack, respectively, Loran and Heizaemon who can’t fire back. Athrun gets attacked by Buran and, following a lucky dodge, hits him back for decent damage.
This gives him a level in Support attack, too.
Two of Orb’s troops kill themselves against the King Beal and this posse goes after Quattro.
And there go all of them.
Bye, Baba.
Baba’s done all that he can as a soldier of Orb and needs to pull back.
Meanwhile, Cagalli is left wondering why they wouldn’t listen to her.
Oh, hey! Totally forgot you were there, Waltfeld!
: I'm not quite as talented as Kira...: So I can't afford to hold back!
Surprisingly, he scores a 27% hit but Buran’s squaddies are on the job.
God damn it, Kira, GO AWAY! If Katz dies because of this, I swear…
Player Phase!
Last turn to wrap things up, so I get a quick analyze on Buran and Rosamia.
Slight miscalculation on my part made Toshiya too far away to TRI anyone, so we’ll need to have Bright and Athrun deal with Buran’s squaddies.
Now Toshiya can go in.
Almost done…
Buran drops a Booster and, from a level up, Miashey takes Support Defense L3.
Buran’s Asshimar explodes and he’s dead for real - not a single person around here says anything about it (I guess Neo would if he was still here)!
Now for Rosamia. Kouji pays her back for all those potshots and—
1)
2)
3)
Aaaah, what a GLORIOUS sight! Kouji’s the first character in both sides to complete his spirit list and learn the wonderful Valor (literal translation: Hot Blood!) which, when cast, will double the damage done by his next attack – it does have hefty SP cost, mind.
Pair that up with Mazin Power and he’s by far our strongest guy right now.
We’ll see it in action later but, for now, Touga TRIs Rosamia and gets rid of her mooks.
Wrap this up, Amuro.
Rosamia can handle being focus fired by all three units and goes down (she drops a Sensory Helmet which ups your hit rate by 20)!
Rosamia starts freaking out about the sky falling as her mech explodes.
No, she does not eject.
The Phantom Pain’s routed, so it's time to turn our attention to the Archangel but, with the fight finished, it’s already moving to retreat!
: Heine!
: I can’t just keep watching from the bridge anymore.
: But your mech is—: I’ll at least pin them down! Setsuko, with me!
: R-roger!
: Enemy units, approaching fast!: Evasive maneuvers! Hurry!
: Oh no, you don’t!
: That Mobile Suit’s fast!: This is no ZAKU! No ZAKU!: The next attack will end you…!: !*Kira charges after Heine!*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKTUAAc-BPY
Caphi says: no, Heine, you still can't talk.
: Heine!: Damn it, get real! I won’t be beaten by something like this!: Freedom, this battle’ll be over once I take you down!: Heine…!
: Energy reading coming from above! It’s an attack!
: What?!
: UWAAAAAAARGH!!
: HEINE!!: Ah…: Kira, let’s pull back!: Quickly! Something’s descending right here!
: No…Heine’s…: Head’s up, Setsuko! The enemy’s coming!
It looks like Diana Counter mobile suits, but there are others with them. Horace reveals that this is not the Diana Counter but the Ghingnham Fleet.
Has he seriously deployed his forces under Diana Soreil's nose, thinks “Kihel”?
Our commander today is Swesson, who barks to his troops that this is NOT a training run; “Let's ring in our first battle with some fireworks!", he says as they start blasting everything in sight.
Despite the alliance between PLANT and the Moon, they don't seem to be picky about who gets caught in their fire - and when Ben calls for the Federation forces to retreat after the loss of their commanders, Swesson seems happy to take us on instead, ignoring the Minerva's hails.
Talia sees no other choice but to fight back and Loran’s pissed, wondering why these people are doing this after all the trouble it took to get together with PLANT; eager to enjoy a battle with real live humans, Swesson's guard moves into "line formation" - perfect for some more fireworks!
Alas, poor T.M. Revolution...
Well, now we have even more crap to deal with and our SP's depleted, too.
Rest of this mission will be posted on Saturday.
See you all then!