Part 112: Mission 31 (Rand) - Prologue
Last time, Eureka melted into some Scub Coral-laden cave…there’s no more happiness in the world.
Now, Holland’s (once again) going ballistic and forcing us to meet up with the Chimera Squad in hopes that they’ll have a way to help her; we’ve 8 slots to deploy with Rand, Holland and Renton going as event units:
- Aquarion, Rag, Dyke (Galapagos)
- Gainer, Gauli, Adette (Rushrod)
- Baldios, Hilda, Roybea
- Getter, Tekkouki, Michiru
- Gain, Matthew, Riea (Team Yellow!)
- Garrod, Jamil, Witz
- Kei, Maai, Bello (Dobeck)
- Jiron, Sara (Dobeck), Burume (Government)
Location: South America – New Earth Federation’s Salta Base
Salta’s a city in Argentina, the NW region.
Löwen extends his warm welcome to everyone but Holland tells him to cram it.
The reason he came here is because he knows the Feds have the Vodarac tagged, and wants to see a man named "Norb" if they know his whereabouts – the guy is a high-ranking monk or some such.
Löwen asks him to hold his horses as the Vodarac aren't really the Chimera's department but Holland doesn't want excuses: “You said you wanted to work with us, so get to it right now!”, he yells.
Löwen’s frown indicates his patience is quickly running out but Holland’s tone changes and he PLEADS with him to lend us a hand.
Rand and Gauli are blown away to see him acting like that but Adette figures this Norb must be real important to warrant this.
Apollo’s never dealt with the Vodarac before, so Hap and Stoner give him the rundown: religious group from their world, with some extremists having resorted to terrorism against the government. The Freeden’s Sara asks whether the terrorist acts came before or after the Feds started cracking down and, with a pause, Stoner says that it no longer matters.
Gain does wonder why Holland’s needs one of such people right now –it’s gotta be connected to Eureka, judging by how frantic he is, though.
After some reflection, Löwen agrees to help Holland by having Schlan break into the Feds' internal database. Holland says he'll do anything in return for meeting this "Norb" (surprising Talho), and Löwen asks everyone to make themselves at home in the Chimera base while his people get to work.
Shaia thanks him for everything but he says it’s nothing: as he said, the Chimeras were going to call them over anyway. On this subject, Jamil's inwardly ponders why the Chimera's commander wants to meet them all herself…could she be after Kei, too?
Garrod’s gone to the Gekko’s sick bay to ask after Eureka, and Mischa gives him some bullshit excuse that the stuff covering her is just mud from the cave (I guess medical degrees don’t cover “lying 101”).
Of course, Garrod quickly tells her to come clean with him as that’s certainly not mud: Holland’s going crazy, Renton’s all depressed – what the hell happened to her?! Tex is here, too, and quietly asks him to calm down as his attitude is likely to make Eureka’s kids even more agitated.
Tifa’s doing her best to calm them down, saying that Mischa told her Eureka’s going to be OK…but, then, why can’t they see her? Maurice is worried that she left the Gekko back then because she was angry with them but, no, Rena says Eureka simply returned to where she was born for a bit – just like when she gave the kids succor when they were sad or worried.
But it’s alright now as Renton managed to bring her back to us. Maeter wonders if Eureka was hurt because of
That said, the kids don’t believe he’s strong enough to protect Eureka, not like Holland: “That’s not true. I’m sure Renton will keep her safe,” says Tifa.
“Yes…he’s not doing much now, but someday…” Rena adds.
Inside the Salta base, Gainer’s gotten Löwen’s OK to use the local UN to search for anything related to the Vodarac.
Sara and Jiron remember our run-in with Tiptree back in Siberia but she certainly didn’t strike them as a bad person and that’s what pushed Gainer to try and learn more about her group. Sadly, his UN search comes up empty and Ryouma wonders if it’s due to the fact that the UN is still relatively new and, therefore, prone to problems.
Michiru figures there isn’t much that can be done about these issues, considering how quickly they implemented the UN after the Break the World and, on that subject, Jamie remembers how the Chimera’s boss was the one who led the development of the whole thing.
Löwen shows up right then and Mel quickly asks if he’s found that Norb guy.
He says Schlan is already taking care of it and, as such, he came here to wait for his report alongside our people – he asks Holland if that’s OK and the guy only grunts a slight affirmative. Benkei asks if Edel’s really coming here and, indeed, Löwen confirms she wants to meet us in person.
Hayato’s rather surprised that such a big player from the Federation would want to meet with wanted men like us but Rand isn't one to turn down a date invitation from a woman as beautiful as her. Silvia is surprised that he knows her but Rand explains that Gainer showed him a picture that he found on the UN.
Mel’s rather irked that they were poking around the internets together again but Gainer says using the UN to find what you want is the whole point of the thing.
Sara cuts in, saying that the UN isn’t the problem, just the people who use it.
Löwen sides with Gainer, though, saying that Edel’s vision for it was exactly as he said. Her whole goal in building the UN was stabilizing people's everyday lives in the new multi-dimensional world by bringing them information.
Reika and Mimsy see how people could grow anxious by not knowing what was going on around them and this solution seems very sensible. As they get a bit too close to him, Löwen stammers that Edel thought of only what was best for the populace of this world while she developed the system to grant anyone free access to information.
Kei sees that his gynophobia’s as bad as ever and he, Pierre and Roybea offer to coach him into getting over his fear. A panicking Löwen quickly tries changing the subject, asking how our other half’s been doing.
Renton says he’s tried sending our folks some e-mails before but it doesn’t look like they received them – Löwen figures there must’ve been some UN instability here. Still, he suggests that we could always search over the UN for the other ZEUTH.
Jun agrees, figuring someone out there must’ve seen a group as large and impressive as that and, if they’ve UN access, it’s very likely they’d have posted about it online – we need only search for it and we might get an idea on how they’ve been.
Apollo tells him to get to it, then, a Jun starts searching for anything related to ZEUTH, Zaft, AEUG, Super Robots and Gundams…and his search quickly pays off!
The news aren’t good, though, as the first result shows ZEUTH, “Zaft’s special forces”, destroying the Garnahan base and attacking civilians who were working there, too.
Kei really doesn’t think they’d commit such an atrocity but the videos posted paint a rather clear picture, showing both Shinn’s Impulse and Loran’s White Doll – and Shinn’s attacking the base directly.
Renton’s sure there must be some reason for all that but Holland snaps at him to shut it: he and Roybea figure our other half joined Zaft for good after we split off and, as soldiers, they’ll follow their orders above anything.
Garrod is outraged they’d do something like that even with orders but Jamil tells him to calm down. As Garrod bristles at his intervention, Jamil adds that, no, we're not condoning said actions.
As Tsugumi wonders how Shinn could do that, Sirius asks for Jun to bring up the next results.
This one brings news of ZEUTH slaughtering aliens who were starting to immigrate to Earth and it clearly shows the King Beal leading the attack.
Löwen wonders if they were lashing out against aliens because of the persecution the Jin family suffered due to their origins – still, that was far too much and Matthew is rather aggravated at the sight; Marin’s especially pissed at the notion that the Earthlings are seeing any alien as an enemy invader and asks Raita if this kind of massacre is acceptable even against enemies?!
Not even Raita can justify it and, despite the fact that it’s war and that they were probably following orders, Sara and Silvia find these actions appalling; Pierre also points out a report that, apparently, Zaft’s been performing experiments on POWs which were captured by none other than ZEUTH.
(We haven't seen either of these events in Setsuko's route yet, as this group is farther ahead time-wise - probably because we spent a whole lot of days getting halfway across the world to escape Emaan.)
Tsugumi is starting to feel sick and Witz sees a very clear picture: the other ZEUTH has been completely assimilated into Zaft and they’re now doing their dirty work. Ryouma isn’t willing to believe that Kouji and the others would do something like that, though.
Holland argues that, in the army, the thoughts of the individual are of no consequence and that’s the reason that led to us splitting off in the first place. Furthermore, Stoner suggests that the chaotic state of the world makes it much more likely to dull people’s sense of morality.
The fact remains that, apparently, our friends are not who we once knew and Tekkouki ponders that, just like there are demons with a heart, there seem to be humans with a demon inside them.
Apollo seems convinced and tells Gainer and Jun that those guys ain’t our friends anymore – if he sees them again, he’s got a fist with all their names on it.
Gainer tries to calm him but Jiron also agrees, saying what they’ve done is unacceptable – Jamil does raise the point that, if the other ZEUTH was acting on Zaft’s orders, we might end up having to fight the Plants for real.
Of course, Kei says that’s not a big change for us considering we already bumped heads with Zaft and both Garrod and Gain aren’t willing to be taken out without a fight.
The news gets worse yet: Schlan can't find anything about this "Norb" guy.
Either the Feds actually don't know where he is, or the information is hidden so deep that even he can't find it. He was, however, able to find info on where another high-ranking Vodarac monk is: imprisoned by a certain group of Chiram who plan to take them back to the motherland tomorrow.
Schlan says they’d like ZEUTH to rescue the monk as leaving someone of his patent in the hands of a group like the Chiram isn’t something the Chimera Squad desires (hinting to Holland that Schlan and co. seem privy to some details about the Gekko’s world and the Vodarac).
Holland accepts on the condition that, when the monk’s rescued, he’ll take care of our problem first.
He quickly turns to Jamil, Shaia and Elchi and warns them that the Gekkostate’ll take the job alone if they has to, but none of other leaders will deny their friend some help at a time like this (Holland does apologize for pushing this onto them) - with that done, Schlan passes the monk’s location to us.
Renton isn’t sure about all this, though: in aiding the Federation army, isn't this half of ZEUTH the same as the other half that's doing what Zaft tells them to?
What's the point of running errands for the army when Eureka’s in that state? If they’ve time to do this, they should be taking her to a bigger hospital or— he doesn’t finish…
: Brat...!*Holland punches Renton.*
: Urk!: Talking like you know everything… Who the hell do you think you are?!: Bite me! All you say is “brat, brat, brat”! I’m a member of ZEUTH, too!: Hell, I can even handle piloting the Nirvash!: And since when is the Nirvash yours to use?!: Eureka said so! She said it’d be better if I piloted it!: Shut your mouth!!*Holland punches the kid again.*
: Argh…
: That’s enough, Holland! You’re going too far!: Don’t stop me! This cocky brat’s gotta learn his place!
: Say what...?! You’re just pissed off and taking it out on him!
: This isn’t like you, Holland. If even Gainer’s calling you out, then you know you're being really immature. : What the hell do y'all know…?! Don’t you dare act that high-and-mighty with me!
: Oi…cut it out, man. Your tantrums are really starting to get old.: Move over, Rand… I got something to tell him...: You…: You think you’re so great just because you’re the leader?! SCREW YOU!!: I’ve had it up here with little “knight” act!
: It’s not an act! I WILL be Eureka’s knight!
: You keep yelling all that bull but you can’t do jack! That’s why you’re a brat!!
: Darling...shouldn’t we stop them?
: Let them be…this ain't any of our business.
: This has been a long time coming…now it needs to run its course.
: Indeed, this is something both Renton and Holland need to do.: But…: And we have our own things to worry about. Look at this, Mel…
: An UN ad...?: “…regionally famous repair shop: reliable service, with a smile”! Is that—
: It may well be the guy who beat the smile onto me...Cielo Beater.
: Daddy…! It’s him…!
: Yup…! We finally found you, boss!Good news and sort-of bad news, I guess.
And curse those Zaft-ZEUTH sons of bitches! I knew they were in with THE MAN!
