The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars Z

by Brunom1, Dr. Pepper, Caphi

Part 123: Mission 34 (Rand - Ships Route) - Prologue

Gainer and Sara are deploying as events, which means we’re screwed out of having all full squads. Considering the upcoming mission, here’s how I got my 8 groups set up:


Aquarion can run solo here because his primary job on this mission won’t be mook hunting – he and Rand’s group will have an unique assignment (make sure Rand’s squad has an Accel user and give both these units movement boosting parts).



Location: Central South Ameria



We find Jun at a local arcade, on a 4-win-streak in Overman Battle and real excited about his newfound talent. Tsugumi’s worried, though, considering they were sent here to buy some supplies but he argues that, since Gainer and co. are also playing some stuff here, they can afford to relax for a bit.
Jun’s all hyped to win his fifth match but promptly gets tossed aside by a “mysterious girl” – she says he’s decently skilled but not enough that he can go acting like hot stuff. Jun concedes defeat but says his friend would mop the floor with her, were he here.
Bring him on, she says, so she can give him what-for instead.



Gainer actually shows up right then and Jun wastes no time in asking him to show them his mad skills and shut this cheeky girl up. Sara shoots him down, though, reminding Jun that they didn’t come here just to play around and Gainer knows Hilda’ll get mad if they don’t get back soon.
The girl asks if Gainer is running away, but Sara hotly informs her that they're in the middle of something far more important than gaming. The girl grins and asks what Sara is to Gainer, and after some stuttering she says that she's his "comrade". “Just that…?!” Gainer thinks.
The girl complains that it took so long for them to finally meet, so she at least wants to take a souvenir picture at a nearby booth – it’s not always that the Queen and King are in one place, right?

Yup, Cynthia Lane introduces herself and apologizes at their failed meeting in Catez. Tsugumi doesn’t know who that is so it falls on Jun to explain how she’s Gainer’s MLG Pro rival.
Hearing Cynthia mention Catez, Sara quickly guesses she was Gainer’s mystery date back then and Cyntia asks if they couldn’t have that today? Gainer agrees and Sara, angrily, tells Tsugumi to go ahead without her as she’ll be accompanying Gainer to keep him out of “trouble”.
Her story doesn’t fly with Jun but he’s certainly not man enough to say that to her face – Cynthia also agrees, figuring it’ll be more fun.



Within the Agate Crystal, Asuham's crew have sent word that they're on the trail of the Black Southern Cross, and Kids tells Angel to let them do whatever they want, wanting to make use of Asuham's obsession.
Timp’s impressed that Kids’ put together such a large offensive just to crush ZEUTH and it’s all part of his plan to recover the Siberian Rail’s honor – they might not be able to go after the Exodizers now that it’s finished but he can make an example of those who enabled it to happen.

Timp and FORMER Chief of Operations Kashmir are being sent to deal with the main fleet, and Kashmir really wants his old job back should he succeed. That's fine with Kids and Kashmir eagerly swears to grant him a crushing victory.
That said, Kids tells him to take it easy as he came in person for more reasons than just overseeing the ZEUTH business. He won't clarify what it is just yet, except to say that it'll begin Siberian Rail's domination of all the world's continents.



Cynthia returns and she seems in a good mood – still, Kids tells her to get ready to sortie very soon.
She promises to do her best and Kids orders the Agate Crystal to start moving: it’s time to lay judgment upon ZEUTH!



Back in the Iron Gear, Gainer and Sara got seriously chewed out for foisting the shopping off onto Jun and Tsugumi but Rand's pleased that Gainer a big enough man to skip on his work to drag his girl all over town.
He raises a toast to the growing kid and Ana quips that he always seems to find a reason to chug a drink, which Rand takes as a compliment. That kind of tranquility only comes from making it past 20, but the drinking part is a bit gloomier for Gain's absence.

At least there's still Gauli and Adette to join him but Holland's in way too foul a mood to make good company. Ana knows what he’s talking about, missing her playmate Chil but Mel figures Tifa and Mimsy are feeling even lonelier with their men away.
Elchi isn’t really listening but she’s not thinking about Jiron either…



She suddenly gets up, having had some sort of epiphany: she's been pondering why the Hundred Demons would be checking out the Innocent Dome and reached the conclusion that they're trying to learn from their culture.
This sounds kinda stupid for some people and both Rand and Cotsett ask why they'd be after the Innocent culture in particular with so many others in the present society to choose from.

Elchi points out proudly that the Innocent are the descendants of a much older civilization that was destroyed in the ancient Cataclysm and that their devotion to that lost past must have caught the demons’ eye.
Löwen doesn’t take the demons to be that romantic or they would be much more approachable. Elchi gets in his face for doubting her theory provoking the usual frightened reaction, and she apologizes for forgetting that quirk of his.



Anyway, if Elchi’s theory is correct, that’d make the demons kinda like Ana’s father in her eyes: not because he's a demon but because he also has a keen interest in antiques.
Indeed, Mel’s heard that Duke Medayu’s a rather big collector of ancient relics like paintings, statues and even Overmen. Those antiquities, including Gainer's mech, date all the way back to the Black History (era of the original Meeya’s first Exodus and Zora’s Cataclysm), some 12000 years ago.

Ana remembers Lioubov telling her that there are still plenty of mysteries surrounding that era but it appears there were some Overmen back then that held unimaginable power and Mamadou had wondered if King Gainer was one of those.
Elchi finds plenty of romance in the notion of a distant age, shrouded in mystery and shadow, but Rand doubts those shadows hide anything too romantic.

That talk’s quickly interrupted, though, when a giant object starts plummeting from the sky right on top of us!

Expect the rest of the mission by Wednesday.