Part 15: Mission 5 (Rand) - Prologue

Welcome back, folks.



In today’s intermission, with the feature enabled, we’ll focus on the workings of the Squad Menu.



Once you get in, the first thing you should notice is that “NEXT” sign up top – that’s the number of squads you’ll be allowed to deploy in the next mission; the limit for the next one is four, which means we have some management to do.

Mind you, the first five slots are saved for event deployment(read: units that have plot in the next mission and need to be there), so we’ll start working on the first four blue squads.
Once you select a squad slot, you’ll be taken to a list of your units and you simply select up to three to fill it out; I like to begin by selecting the leaders first and, then, working on the squaddies.



This is the set-up I’ll be going with:

• Jiron, Rag, Bello
  
• Garrod
  
• Gainer
  
• Gain, Sara, Gauli

Garrod and Gainer are flying units which means they’ll be grounded if they’re paired with any land-based unit; plus, they’re both competent enough that it’d be a bad call to demote one to a squaddie.
Jiron and Gain are both strong enough to lead (at this point) and, being ground units, are free to split the Gauli squad members amongst each other (not using those Trads ever again); mind you, Rag and Sara both know accelerate, so it’s wise to spread them around to equally boost each squads movement range.

Speaking of movement range, a squad’s range is calculated by the average of each unit’s movement rounded DOWN, which means that, despite Jiron and Rag’s movement of 6, the squad can only move 5 due to Bello’s Panther.
To get around that, I’ll purchase a Booster at the Bazaar to bring his movement to 6.



Finally, pressing the Square Button over a squad opens up the squad menu; starting at the top-left and moving down, they are:

• Add Unit
  
• Remove Unit
  
• Rearrange Squad Order
  
• Rename Squad
  
• Clear Squad
  
• Unit Viewer (i.e. status screens of what’s in the squad)
  
• Unit Upgrade
  
• Pilot Training
  
• Change Form (which none of our units can do)
  
• Assign Pilot (I used this to get Burume into the Xabungle, as Rag’s sub-pilot)
  
• Equip Parts
  
• Change Frame

With that done, let’s move with the plot!




Location: Siberia – Bachclone – Bridge



Lioubov is now officially part of the entourage, far from home and determined to stick with Ana through thick and thin.
Gain, for one, extends her a warm welcome aboard and, having heard that she was also Ana’s tutor, asks if she couldn't convince her to help with something. She agrees promptly.
Ana is surprised at how much Lioubov was blushing and Rand can only wonder what is Gain's secret for being so popular. Garrod figures there’s nothing Rand can do as, personality-wise, he’s just too different from Gain.

Rand sighs at the prospect of having to stop being so THE HEAT in order to get a lady; Mel says she’s not complaining, though, as that means she’s the only one who can appreciate him.
Too bad for her, Rand tells the precocious kid that she’s around 10 years short of his striking range. Mel complains that, even if she waited those 10 years, he would be an even bigger old man – Rand sighs, figuring she means he’s just a “regular” old man now.
Gain would rather Rand kept this THE HEAT persona and cuts their bickering short by telling he’s got Lioubov to help the both of them out in searching for clues regarding Mel’s father.



Everyone gets together and the search will start in the Yapan Ceiling's library, focused on learning more about those mysterious dimensional phenomenon.
It turns out that Medaiyu's collector's instincts included books, and some of his collection was actually part of the public library.
Sara came along with everyone else and quickly whips a sleeping Rand into shape seeing how this is all to find his boss. If anything, Lioubov would appreciate if he could stop drooling over the books while napping.



Jiron gets a laugh out of the mighty THE HEAT being brought to his knees by a mere book but Gainer points out that he hasn’t seen Jiron reading anything.
That’s because he has another job, though: putting his muscles to good use hauling books around for the others. This fits nicely Elchi, who has just finished reading a batch of books and asks for another.
Garrod is impressed at how much she likes reading, to which she says it’s part of her greatest mission. Being the Iron Gear’s captain is simple a means to an end, while her actual duty is bringing culture back to Zora in every conceivable medium – song, dance, acting, even cooking.
Lioubov is very impressed and Elchi says that, for her mission, she always takes the chance to learn something new. Jiron remembers that she got said mission from Arthur Rank, former leader of the Innocents, who explained so many things to them during the conflict.



Either way, a few possible clues turn up quickly: the whole Dorothy/tornado/Kansas plot doesn't wash, and neither does a certain story about exiting a tunnel into a snowy nation, with one's parents turned to pigs – just some kind of Yapanese fairy tale.
Lioubov will need more details about the dimensional phenomenon to help narrow the search. Garrod can’t tell her much as, before he even knew what was going on, he was already warped away.
Rand says it’s the same for him and the only thing they remember is hearing some sort of “ringing” noise. It sounds a bit strange but Mel says they can’t really put it any other way.



Coincidentally, everyone hears the same noise right then. Jiron wonders if there’s a problem with the speaker but Rand and Mel know what it is and have already left to check outside.
Garrod tells the confused group that there’s no doubt about it. It’s the same sound as before, which means another warp is happening nearby!