Part 180: Mission 45 - Inheritors of the Legacies - Part 1
After last mission’s massive fragdown, we’ve a more contained stage coming up next. Still 16 squads but Holland, Jiron and Rag are launching as event units. Taking away an Accel user and two Boosters is an evil act so great, even Butcher would think its excessive…off I go to edit half my squads:
- Rand, Roberto, Burume (Government)
- Baldios, Riea, Enil (Esperanza)
- Kei, Maai, Adette
- Getter, Michiru, Tekkouki
- Garrod, Jamil, Pala
- Kouji, Tetsuya, Renton (these two really want Accel and Renton’s pretty much my highest level guy after MAPW abuse)
- Duke, Hikaru, Maria
- Gainer, Sayaka (TFO), Olson
- Big O, Löwen, Roybea
- Apollo, Matthew, Hilda
- Shinn, Lunamaria, Rey
- Gravion, Gain, Gauli (Golem)
- God Sigma, Jun (Double Spazer), Faye
- Camille, Katz (Re-GZ), Quattro
- Amuro, Emma, Sara (Mexbrute)
- Banjou, Kappei, Loran
Location: Pacific Ocean - Trinity City, Kazami’s Lab
Teral regains consciousness, remembering his refusal to leave his sinking ship and wondering what happened. Aphrodia’s right nearby, still out cold, and Kazami steps over once he notices that he’s awakened.
He introduces himself and Teral immediately recognizes his name as the chief scientist studying Trinity Energy and constructor of God Sigma. He’s well-informed, though Kazami would’ve expected as such from a time traveler, and yes, as said expert in Trinity Energy, he’s aware of its potential application in manipulating space-time to cause a time warp.
Furthermore, he deduced the Eldar’s origins after observing the arrival of their new fleet following the Second Break.
Teral praises Kazami's massive intellect, but demands to know if he's aware of just how much warfare his precious research has caused throughout the galaxy.
The Eldar homeworld itself wavers like a candle in the wind that is the Earth's violence, all thanks to the Trinity Energy that he helped develop!
Kazami quickly shushes him, saying he’s far too little time to entreat Teral’s tantrum: he has to focus on saving Earth right now and his research will be needed to do so. And for that reason…
Over by the briefing room, Quinstein has summoned all the ZEUTH to an important announcement and Julie wonders if they’ve made a breakthrough regarding the dimensional collapse.
David has a general idea of what it is but says that the team ought to hear it from her lips directly. That said, he does tell Marin that what he's about to hear will come as a major shock, which presumably links back to Marin's pending dismissal as Baldios' main pilot.
On that score, David tells him he shouldn't worry: he's giving up on that of his own accord after witnessing firsthand how integral Marin is to his team. Raita wouldn't have expected that out of the proud pilot, but David smirks that he was also influenced by seeing how even the notorious stone-headed Raita had come to respect the guy.
With that in mind, he promises to support Marin and co. as Quinstein's assistant.
Faye's also decided to join our team, much to Touga’s delight, though in her team's case it's more a function of having nowhere to return to after violating Federation orders by sortieing on the last mission. So, the Gran Troopers will be coming along to fulfill their purpose of protectors of Earth.
Eiji laughs that she’s actually kinda cute when she’s not wearing that frowny face all the time and Touga says she’s always been cute, ever since they were kids. As Faye’s about to start scolding them, Alex jumps over and reminds her that they need to get along with their new teammates.
He, personally, is hyped as all hell to be part of this group and introduces himself as Lt. Alex Smith…though that rank business is now meaningless, really. He’ll now fight as just another member of the almighty Super Robot Army, Defenders of Earth!
Shinn didn’t get the memo on us being called anything of the sort but Alex is all over the idea: strong men and women, united, bearing the courage to stand tall for the weak against an enormous force of evil! Indeed, this guy’s a /m/an through and through and he loves his Super Robots just as much as he loves “eating natto and gyudon”.
Runa gets all that but begs he stop yelling because it’s getting embarrassing and Tetsuya adds that while enthusiasm for robots is fine, he shouldn’t think our job’s all fun and games. Faye apologizes for his unbridled passion but swears he’s a good pilot.
Quinstein steps onto the scene, with some info she calls indispensable to the battles to come – mind, it could also dampen our fighting spirit.
Holland’s a bit worried that she’s about to reveal that there’s no stopping the collapse but she just says that possibility’s not off the table. But let's go in order, starting with data salvaged from Marin's Pulsar Burn which is what provided the basis for this announcement.
She puts up a map of the world after the Second Break and superimposes the area that would’ve been flooded had the Aldebaron’s operation succeeded. Marin is shocked as he recognizes the created image: an exact map of S-1!
Indeed, Quinstein’s discovery is the fact that S-1 is nothing short of the future of Earth itself after the flood and that the S-1'ians have come all the way across time just to invade their own world. This also means Marin and the Aldebaron folks are also earthlings and it all sounds very unbelievable, but Quinstein says there’s evidence to back it up.
For instance, S-1 takes its name because it’s the 1st planet of its Solar System but Eiji says Earth has always been the 3rd in line…that is, until Mizuki reminds him, that the Second Break got rid of Mercury and Venus. Furthermore, Marin’s also told Quinstein of several aspects of S-1-ian religion and folklore which share many similarities with Earth’s own.
Finally, the fact that their physiology and technology so closely matches Earth's own despite them being from “different worlds” – Julie now sees that this is how Quinstein was able to crack both the Pulsar Burn and Subspace technology so quickly.
Of course, the question is HOW all these time-travelling shenanigans happened and Quinstein hypothesizes that it all comes back to Marin’s report of the S-1 people leaving their world in search of a new one via a Subspace Warp.
She believes that, when they were doing their warp, they were affected by the shockwave from the first Break which caused them to accidentally travel across time and end up on our world. Olson didn’t expect dimensional quakes to have such far-reaching effects and Quinstein presumes the Aldebaron themselves didn’t even realize this.
There’s something Jamil and Camille are wondering, though: the various components of this world originally started out as separate universes and were meant to stay that way, but S-1 is the future of the combined world? Furthermore, we just stopped the operation that was going to flood the world and change it to its S-1 appearance.
The only explanation Quinstein can find for that is that Earth turning into S-1 is only one of many possible futures for the multi-dimensional world, which would have come about had ZEUTH failed.
Oliver asks if this means we’ve changed S-1’s past and Talia remembers the usual science-fiction trope that doing so could, if you’re unlucky, completely destroy a world by messing with flow of events.
Thankfully, Quinstein says that this idea of a single continuity in time is outdated and suggests we think of it not as a future being destroyed by tampering with the past but as new, different future being born because of it.
In other words, Duke surmises, when we stopped the flood from happening, we created an alternate future: a world where Earth did not become S-1.
This explanation behind the possibility of parallel universes being born from a single one also serves to shed some light on the Fallen Angel/OverDevil fight of old and Gwen understands: the Aquarion world and Rand’s original world used to be one during the Black History until they were eventually separated.
Banjou is curious, however, as there’d be an infinite amount of parallel universes if every single different action led to a new future being created but Quinstein believes not every individual difference has the influence to do so.
To create that kind of event, it would take either a special circumstance like the past being tampered with, such as changing the history of S-1, or a level of energy that breaks down physical laws like that of a dimensional quake. The kind of energy to make even space-time itself quake... that could be called “dimensional power”.
Pierre asks if it was this dimensional power thing that caused their world to split off from Gainer and co.’s.
Indeed, considering the commonalities between both worlds’ histories, how suddenly the split happened and whatnot, Quinstein is led to believe that what caused it was a huge dimensional quake that happened at the end of the Black History era. Sounds crazy but it’s the only explanation that makes sense.
Gwen certainly didn’t expect to hear of dimensional quakes happening in such ancient times and Jiron says Arthur never mentioned anything of the sort to them. Mind, the old Innocent leader taught the Iron Gear crew a lot about the history of Zora and the Innocents and Jiron’s sure we can get some more details if we managed to meet up with him.
This comes as a surprise to our crew who always believed Arthur had died at the end of the Innocent War but, nope, he managed to survive through it and even helped cure Elchi of her blindness. Gwen isn’t amused that they didn’t tell us sooner about this important information but Jiron never thought it was worth bringing up since it’s all old history.
Gwen yells that one only needs to take a look at
As Chil asks him not to be angry, Gain tells Gwen to calm down as Jiron’s excuse is more than understandable. Gwen apologizes but Jiron admits that he was a bit slow on realizing that Arthur’s insight would be helpful.
Regardless, it’s pretty obvious to Bright that we should investigate the Black History and this dimensional power that showed up at its demise. Quinstein agrees: there was a Break at the end of the Black History which separated the world so, if possible, obtaining some tech from the era could help our dimensional repair effort.
This could go both ways, of course, but Garrod and Banjou think it’s always best to be positive about things. We oughta meet with Arthur, then, but Dyke confesses that they don’t really know where the guy’s at.
Holland grimaces at this bait-and-switch but Elchi yells that there’s no way to keep track of him with how crazy the world’s gotten. Rag joins in, saying they would’ve loved to see Arthur every day if they could but that’s not how things are, damn it!
Holland’s starting to get intimidated and both Hap and Talho wonders how those two girls are pulling that off…
Turns out we DO have a lead on the guy, though, as Tsukikage and Quinstein inform that, just this morning, Trinity City received a message offering the whereabouts of the “Inheritor of the Black History”.
Sounds fishy to Kei but we don’t really have any other clues to go on. The timing’s a bit too perfect for Olson and, when he asks, Quinstein says the message came from the Black Charisma.
Yeah, this really stinks of a trap to Sirius but, on top of Arthur, the Charisma also said we’d find the “Vodarac priest who knows the truth” at the same location – that sounds like Norb, Hap figures.
Talia and Bright’ve heard that the Vodarac was more of a terrorist group than a religion but it’s all propaganda: Hap says all Vodarac cultists merely seek to live in harmony with nature and, also, to coexist with the Coralians. Of course, this put them in opposition to the government that was trying to eradicate those.
Mind, Stoner concedes that a small bunch of extremists within the religion did resort to terrorist attacks against the Promised Land’s government, so it’s not a mere coincidence that their group’s name is stained with society. That said, Holland notes that the Federation of Predgio Towers always wanted to silence the Vodarac which is what led to the massacre at the city of Del Cielo.
Renton also remembers how Holland and Eureka participated in that very attack but, regardless, we’ve been trying to find Norb to get more Coralian-related information for Dr. Bear so, trap or not, Holland and Jamil agree we need to check it out.
Löwen’s a bit worried of following this lead since we don’t really know what the Charisma’s game is but Holland doesn’t see any other choice – we’ve no time to sit around, either.
Quattro figures we need to take this plunge as it’s the only way to get some answers and, hopefully, Duke thinks we might even get some insight on what the Charisma’s after. When Bright asks, Quinstein says the location indicated was the Atlantic Federation’s Heaven’s Base on the North Atlantic Ocean.
So, we’re going to be assaulting the main stronghold of the remaining Sage Council loyalists and Logos.
: …
: Is something wrong, Roger?
: You got a stomachache or something? 
: No, I was just thinking a bit… Pay me no mind.: (There were some memories about the Fallen Angels within Big O…) : (The Angels’ world was originally one with Jiron and Loran’s, so does that mean Paradigm City was also part of it until it was separated by the Black History’s events…?): (But, then, why do none of the city’s citizens have their memories?): (Maybe the truth I seek will be revealed if I solve the enigma of that era, just as Schwarzwald said…)
Location: North Atlantic – Heaven’s Base
Indeed, Djibril has both men in his grasp and is “requesting” their cooperation. Arthur’s well aware that Djibril plans on using history as a means to control the anxious masses and has no intention of helping with that.
Djibril argues that is the only way to guide everyone in this world and that the people don’t care one bit about whatever the truth is – their only concern is living as best they can. Arthur sighs that the same idiocy that guided Kashim King’s actions is making a return.
Djibril’s certain he can avoid the same end as the guy since he understands how to properly control the populace: you just get enough power to force them to submit and, with that, they’ll have order. And where did all that power go now that he was forced to flee to this corner of the world with his tail between his legs, Arthur wonders?
A temporary setback, Djibril figures, and one he’ll overcome with Arthur’s help: the Black History had weapons far stronger than what we have today and he wants Arthur to tell where they lie asleep. With that much power in hand, the world will belong to Djibril and his cohorts once again.
Arthur repeats the old warning that the Promised Land (this gets Norb’s attention) is forbidden and mustn’t be disturbed by anyone. Djibril’s well aware of that “Promised Land” referring to Inglessa and that ancient warning indicates that there are relics of the Black History tucked away there.
If he knows that much, why is he still trying to get his hands those forbidden relics? Because, as Djibril said, he needs more power RIGHT NOW.
Questioning is cut short by Shagia wandering in with news of an enemy force approaching. Djibril wonders if it’s Federation pursuers or Zaft but Olba says all they could confirm is that it’s a medium-sized group.
Djibril laughs at these people thinking they can conquer Heaven’s Base with such numbers and sets out to the command center, adding an order for Bask to deploy. He tells Arthur and Norb that, when he gets back, they better be ready to tell everything they know.
After the door slams, Norb sighs at how annoyingly loud the barks of this weak dog are and Arthur ponders how Djibril’s filled with an unending desire to dominate others.
Arthur’s assistants, Birin (brown hair) and Maria are already sick of that guy’s attitude and feel sorry for Arthur having to deal with that.
Arthur figures he’s the one to be apologizing for getting them involved in this mess in the first place but, of course, they don’t blame him as it was their choice to be at his side (especially with how jealous Rag looked when they took the job).
Norb is a bit jealous himself and says he wants some assistants as well… perhaps Birin and Maria would like to come work for him instead? They might consider it if he decided to take a bath every now and then…it’s been 40 years since he last had one.
They won’t outright say he stinks but he sees enough on their face to apologize as this might be tough on Arthur, what with him having lived on the Innocent’s acclimatized environments all his life. Arthur says it’s no problem as, having decided to live alongside the Civilians, he’s gotten the necessary surgeries to enable him to survive outside the domes.
That’s good, says Norb, who’s greatly appreciative of the smells of nature and Arthur’s willing to chalk bodily odor as another part of human life.
He explains to Norb how the Innocent stayed hidden among their creations, following the directive of the ancients to be regulators of the world. That certainly isn't being served by being locked up in this base, but Norb tells him not to worry: the wind has just switched and, with it, a change is about to come to their prison...
Mission 45 - Inheritors of the Legacies
Bask and troops have already deployed and he stands ready to defend this base that’ll, certainly, be the staging ground for their grand comeback.
Jamaican confirms that THOSE are ready to be deployed whenever but Djibril’s certain that the number of troops present will be enough to deal with the upcoming assault. Furthermore, worse comes to worse, he’s got a certain trump card that was originally set up to use against the Plants but can be used against these attackers.
Abel is here too and the Frost Brothers “pray” that his Newtype abilities have awakened now and he’s determined not to repeat his failure at Zonder Epta. Shagia quietly sneers that the guy’s fate is already decided, regardless of whether he awakens as a Newtype or not, but Olba figures he’s at least useful to soak up bullets.
Either way, the attackers are on top of them but it’s not Zaft or the Federation – it’s ZEUTH!
As we deploy, Talia’s a bit surprised that Logos still has these many forces remaining but Holland figured a group that’d control the world from the shadows wouldn’t be killed easily.
Arthur and Norb are somewhere inside this base but searching for them would take a long while – thankfully, Eureka says she feels herself being called by some Trapar-like waves and believes that to be Norb.
Stoner’s heard of these “Biological Trapars” which he says are waves emitted by people who are similar to the real thing: these waves are reportedly able to convey such things as emotions, which might explain why the Skyfish gather for large happy crowds.
Anyway, Eureka points out to a building within the base and both Holland and Jiron set out to rescue Arthur and Norb from there.
Elchi asks everyone to cover them and Rag isn’t happy that she’s decided to deploy in the Xabungle.
The Iron Gear and Freeden weren’t suited for an amphibious operation like this so they had to hang back but, of course, Elchi wouldn’t pass on a chance to see Arthur again. Rag sighs that the girl’s so self-centered but Elchi won’t take her sass considering how excited she was once word got out that we were going to be rescuing Arthur.
Jiron tells them both to save this for later as the enemy’s already coming and Talia gives the order to clear the way for Holland and Jiron. Durandal would be quite satisfied if Logos was finished off, so Rey’s ready to go and Shinn, at the very least, isn’t about to let these warmongers run loose.
Jamaican sees from our formation that we’re going after Arthur and Norb and Bask’s dead serious about safeguarding these two linchpins for their plans.
Jiron wants to race Holland to see who can reach the building first but the guy doesn’t really think a Walker Machine can keep up with an LFO. Won’t know until we give it a try and Jiron’s eager to give him a show of a Walker Machine’s potency.
Mission Objective: All enemies shot down
Mission Failure: Any allied ship, Holland, Jiron or Elchi shot down
Skill Point: ???
Skill Point’s hidden but, of course, the timer’s already running – you’ll want to wrap this up by turn 5.
We’ll have more stuff coming but this mission isn’t too difficult, so our main strategy will be to send our western wing up north to deal with Abel and open the way to the building while our eastern wing heads further east to deal with the troops up there (this is important). Once those areas are safe, both groups will converge on the center-NE area where Bask and the brothers are.
Ending Point Alert! - Jiron or Holland reaches the marked building
Finally, Logos has deployed new Euclid Mobile Armors to cover their eastern flank. Like the Zamza-zah and Gells-ghe, they’re equipped with Positron Reflector barriers but, unlike those, rely solely on long-range, pre-movement attacks.
Not the most accurate guys, especially since they’re not piloted by Extended mooks, but a 1-7 TRI attack with 3800 power deserves to be respected. Our eastern wing’s first priority will be to nullify these ASAP.
Thankfully, all five of these are paired with flimsy Daughtresses so we’ll just throw whichever TRIs we have at them.
That’s some not insignificant damage…regardless, Rand’s group finishes both the Euclid and one Daughtress.
Burume takes Prevail L7 out of the deal.
And I sent Roger way into the fray without realizing that I’d taken away his Barrier Field…not the smartest move with all the high-power Mas around.
Well, let’s keep going and Rey switches over to make good use of his post-movement TRI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Y6hAl21do
Damn it, almost (at least a squaddie’s gone)!
Gainer’s TRI knocks another group halfway down and Banjou stomps on their remaining HP.
Gain punts Touga to the back row to get some proper TRI action going.
Amuro’s massive crit skills easily finish the job.
Emma also killed a Windam and, as a prize, learned Rouse.
Quattro’s sunglasses get to work on this Zamza posse and Kei follows it up, depriving it of its squaddies.
Give me more TRI attacks!
Ryouma and Tekkouki step up to make two of these very dead while Duke takes the last.
Jiron and Holland start their dash forward. Don’t worry about conserving their SP so, after Jiron does a quick Gallia Full Power, Holland will follow with a Soul’d Assault.
And there go all three!
Marin ends our turn by weakening a Gells-ghe group by Gain.
Enemy Phase!
And my bad decision quickly bites me in the ass as Roger gets bombarded by the Euclids. He’s forced to defend two attacks to survive but still kills a single Daughtress.
Marin’s target decided to pick on Apollo while he’s just 1 morale away from being able to punch back…
Fine, fine.
Clean-up begins nearby, as Rand, Kouji and Holland take, respectively, a weakened Daughtress, Windam and Zamza-zah.
The named guys aren’t moving just yet.
Player Phase!
Let’s move this along – Holland hops into the building and, just for kicks, slaps Abel on the way in.
Total Ending Points: 8
Holland’s the winner of his race, doing justice to Renton’s admiration, and Jiron admits defeat THIS TIME. As they both head inside the building, Talia tells us to keep routing the enemy until they return.
It’s then that Gidget detects some Federation troops approaching!
It’s Jerid and Mauer with some mooks but they’re not here to attack us – their target is the Logos troops.
Bask’s pissed that they’ve seemingly decided to ride on the coattails of our assault and Jamaican reports more Federation troops attacking other locations of the island. Faye asks Jerid for an explanation but he’s not about to waste his time on a deserter.
Mauer gets in touch and says their objective here is to eliminate the remnants of the Sage Council loyalists so, as much as Jerid would love to, they won’t attack us unless provoked.
Talia won’t add to our problems, though, so she agrees to a truce if only for this one battle.
Jerid’s rather annoyed that he can’t do anything with Camille right in front of him but Mauer says they must follow their orders to the letter in order to gain Scirocco’s trust. Jerid sniffs that the guy is just having them do the dirty work while preparing to head off into space.
Djibril sees that things are going south, so he decides to play his first ace in the hole in order to deal with both groups: a bunch of Psyco and Destroy Gundams and Four’s appalled that they made more. Leading them is a downright insane Sting, yelling that no one’ll beat him now that he’s got one of these.
Four figures the Feds went too far with his adjustments and neither Shinn nor Camille will allow these mechs to continue to exist.
OK, I think this is good enough for today. We’ll handle the rest of this mission on Monday…maybe pick up a souvenir from within the base while we’re at it.
See you all then!