Part 19: Mission 6 (Rand) - Night of the Festival
Mission 6 (Rand) - Night of the Festival
Outside, Rand and the others are counting their blessings that Loran obliged the Iron Gear's crew by bringing food, though Rand wishes it consisted of more than just bread.
Mind, it's some REALLY tasty bread so everyone's wolfing it down...except Gainer: he finds it hard to eat given how his unwilling Exodus has somehow turned into an intercontinental voyage.
Garrod figures Gainer’s attitude is understandable, seeing how he was just as frightened when he was warped to Galia.
Elchi asks Garrod if this is really Ameria as, from what he told her, she was expecting a much more arid place than this.
Garrod explains that the great deserts (where he comes from) are mostly in the southern part of the continent. Mel figures this place looks more like some tranquil countryside.
From what Garrod's heard, most of this part of North Ameria is rather isolated and under-mechanized; Rag finds it strange, seeing how you’d find Mobile Suits if you went south.
Garrod doesn’t understand this place, either, but says there’s almost no danger here seeing how the bands of Vultures dare not enter the region.
The reason for that is a legend that says there’s some kind of "Demon" sleeping in North Ameria.
Sara wonders if it’s true and Gain at least believes that there must be some kernel of truth to it to keep so many fortune-seekers at bay.
Either way, Rag figures that it’s very possible the people would start panicking if they found machines like ours showing up out of nowhere and that makes Dyke even more curious about Loran: despite living in a place like this, he acted normally. Furthermore, Jiron remembers Loran first talking to us like he thought we were part of some “Moon Race”.
The thought of people on the Moon seems almost ludicrous to the Galians, but Garrod assures them that plenty of people left Earth behind to live in space.
Elchi remembers a comment Arthur Rank made about the Innocent descending from the Moon, but he was in a highly privileged position and one of the few people that knew that.
In any case, Rand figures Loran mistook us for them and is a bit curious about how this seemingly simple “country boy” knows this Moon Race.
Gain figures we’ll just have to ask him about later but Rag is worried if it’ll be ok: what if he rats us out? Burume wonders if that’d even be an issue, seeing how this ain’t Siberia…even if we still have to keep an eye out, Gain doesn’t think the kid will be a problem.
It’s just his intuition speaking but he saw that Loran had some very honest eyes and doesn’t think he’d tell someone about us.
Chil points out to the distance, seeing something happening at the other edge of town – most likely that festival Loran told us would be happening, Jiron thinks. Burume is, to say the least, annoyed that we have to stay hidden inside a mountain, eating bread, while there’s a party outside.
Speaking of bread, Rand is too hungry and decides to start eating, which causes Jiron to start pushing him away in order to secure his “cut”. Gainer sighs, thinking our situation is tense enough without a food fight.
We won’t have to stay here long, though, as Gain plans on speaking with the town’s mayor right in the morning – hopefully he’ll be able to explain everything and figure out a way to, quietly, get the Iron Gear back en route to Siberia.
Loran and Sochie’s rite is already underway, with her telling him to hurry it up.
Loran is more than a little sheepish but Sochie insists that this is how the ceremony goes and even her sister has already done it. Loran still hesitates, making the girl complain that this is embarrassing to her, too.
The problem is that Loran doesn’t understand how letting leeches draw blood off Sochie’s back and using it to draw marks consists a coming-of-age ceremony…
She explains that the markings are in honor of the mark the White Doll – the nearby statue - has on its back. Since she and Loran are representing all those going through the ceremony, she wants him to make it quick.
However, their rite is interrupted when they hear a noise coming from the direction of Nocis and, soon, Loran gets worried. “My Lady! Please, put your clothes on quickly! That’s—!” he yells…
A standoff has rapidly developed between an advance military detachment from the moon, and a platoon of Earth units.
The moon troops' commander, Poe, had been led to believe that this area had no mobile suits, meaning that these foes must be from the United Nations Earth (UNE). The soldiers ask what to do and the orders are not to fire first lest they engage the UNE forces in an area currently outside their jurisdiction.
However, the UNE troops quickly open fire on them.
Poe figures the local militia's so-called peace negotiations were just a trap – she orders the troops to fight back and show the earthlings the power of the Diana Counter.
Problem is, Sochie’s home, with her father inside, is caught in the crossfire between the troops.
After the UNE troops are destroyed, Poe commands her troops to suppress the locals and guard against ongoing attacks - anyone who resists is to be shot.
The Moon forces set up their perimeter and start firing in all directions, striking dangerously close to the areas where the Iron Gear, Loran and Sochie are hiding.
Poe soon detects something on her scanners – a metallic object hiding in the hills and wonders if it could be another enemy.
On the opposite end of town, Cotsett sees the enemy getting closer and figures we’ll soon be discovered.
Elchi doesn’t know what to do and Rand asks Garrod who are these guys – didn’t he say there were no machines in this area?
Garrod has no idea but he's sure these guys will treat us as hostiles and attack if we get out there. Of course, Gain figures it makes no difference as they’re already attacking everywhere.
Back at the White Doll…
*Crumbling sound.
: L-let’s get out of here, Loran!
: Please wait, my lady! The White Doll is crumbling…: W-what…?! A machine that looks like a person…it was inside the statue?!: …The cockpit is open…? Can this thing move...?: Where are you going, Loran?!
: My lady, come over! I’ll try to make it move!
: Alright…this should be good enough to quell any intention they had of resisting.: All units, follow me. I’m going to investigate that metallic signature.
: 2nd Lt. Poe! We’re detecting movement by that mountain! This size…it’s a Mobile Suit!
: What?!
: A mustachioed unit?! It’s different from the UNE models!: What’s going on, Loran?! The White Doll isn’t stopping!: I-I can’t do anything! It’s acting on its own…!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGmKlqKYdT0
: Ack! It burned through the WaDom’s nanoskin armor?! : Did the White Doll do that?!: Y-yes!: All units, attack that mustachioed doll!: 2nd Lt. Poe, another movement detection! The signal is the size of a battleship!!
: The Iron Gear people!: You know them?: Yes…I met them just yesterday…
: As I thought…that Loran kid is piloting the mustachioed MS!: Y-yes.
: We owe you one for that bread, so we’ll lend a hand!: But…!
: No need to thank us. Those guys are already gunning for us!
: And we couldn’t just ignore a violent bunch like this!: Rrrgh, damn that Inglessan mayor! Not only did he call the UNE, he also hired a group of Galians?! So much for the “Promised Land”!: 2nd Lt. Poe…!: Alert the main army! Tell them the local militia has shown that it intends to oppose us!: We’ll destroy the enemy’s forces before the troops arrive!!
: Loran…!: Do I have to fight with the White Doll if I want to protect the town and my lady…? 
Victory Condition: Poe’s WaDom shot down.
Mission Failure: Iron Gear or Loran shot down.
Skill Point: Defeat all enemies (Poe last) by the end of turn 3’s PLAYER phase.
Ready for another hard-ish Skill Point? This time limit is VERY tight due to two facts: the enemies are spread out in a wide area and, more importantly, you are now facing enemy squads.
I forgot to zoom out to see the entire battlefield but take my word on it: we have Poe and two solo WaDs (acronym for Walking Dumpling) slightly to the NE of our group; behind her you’ll find two groups of WaDs: one has three Center Formation squads and the other has three Wide Formation squads; due to the time limit and squads, Accelerate/Boost and post-movement TRI attacks are key.
Jiron and Gain will be our go-to guys for this and you NEED to make use of them or you won’t make it in time.
Everyone needs to move as far as possible, always using accelerate if available; I have Rand take on this solo WaD because he’ll be tagging out for Gain real soon.
: Jeez! We were just being nice tourists, minding our own business! 
: Y'all were the ones who started shooting the place up and dragged us into the crossfire! Brace yourselves!
Rand has a unique battle-line against military-types before he attacks: “Don’t care if I gotta tangle with the army – I do what I want!”
Gainer was set inside the Iron Gear to get a wee bit of extra movement; aside from that, everyone else just moved forward.
Loran is a priority target to the Diana Counter soldiers, so I bring him closer to our troops to bait the enemy into closing in.
Now, before we get to the enemy phase, let’s look over Poe and Loran:
WaDom a.k.a. Walking Dome (Poe Aijee)
Pilot Skills:
- Support Attack L1
- Resolve
- Backup Attack
- HP Regen (10%)
- Magnet Coating (Mobility +10%)
Poe’s voice actress: Yumiko Nakanishi (other known works: Meeya Laujin in King Gainer, Gushoushin the Elder in Descendants of Darkness and a some others).
Poe is around the same level as Geraba and Hola in terms of danger – she has an ALL attack with decent range and her TRI attack has good power but, by herself, she’s no threat whatsoever.
Her Leader Bonus and Magnet Coating may make her a bit dodgier than the other mooks here but it doesn’t save her; she’s the first enemy we see with HP Regen but, having only 7800 max HP, she won’t make much of it.
∀ Gundam (Loran Cehak)
Pilot Skills:
- Support Attack L1
- Support Defense L1
- Blocking
- SP Regen
- Sense (20)
- HP Regen (10%)
- I-Field Barrier – Reduces incoming beam damage by 1000 – costs 10 EN per activation
Loran’s voice ACTRESS (of course): Romi Park (other known works: Akane Owari in Dangan Ronpa 2, Edward Elric in Full Metal Alchemist, Naoto Shirogane in Persona 4 and MANY others.)
Welcome the second member of the “Magikarp Power” club: Loran is not very good pilot right now (Gain and Gauli way back on mission 2, had higher stats than him) and Turn A only has two weak attacks – stick with him, though.
Loran will grow to be quite dependable and, of course, the Turn A won’t be limited to those two attacks; eventually, you’ll have a unit that, while not the strongest around, will perform well against both mooks and bosses throughout the entire game.
That SP Regen alone already gives him a nice boost since, like Eureka, Loran will eventually learn Focus.
Enemy Phase!
As expected, the closer WaD platoons run straight after Loran; Loran’s aim is rather low so, to avoid misses wrecking my chances at the Skill Point, I had him cast Sense.
The WaD’s are as threatening as Torrads but the Turn A is forced to use his weak-ass melee attack at this range…
: What’s going on?! Who are they?! Where’s my dad?! Is my family safe?!: Please be a little patient! I’m sure Lady Kihel has taken care of them!: Loran!: We’ve no other choice right now! Please do something, White Doll!
A second WaD squad also attacks, with two attacks connecting for little damage; this time, the leader is blasted by Turn A’s Beam Rifle and gets oneshotted.
Poe isn’t hardwired to go after Loran, preferring to attack whatever’s in range.
: I don’t know who they are but there’s no way I can stomach these guys' roughhousing!
: And I have to thank him for that tasty bread, so I’m gonna give this all I got!!
Jiron is as surprised as everyone else when he dodges a mobile suit: “Oh? That's all a MS's got?”
Player Phase!
The WaDs will still make a beeline for Loran but, if they can’t reach him, they will attack whatever’s closer; so, we’re going to make something of a wall in their way to force them to attack our TRI/ALL-equipped units.
: These guys ain't Vultures…! They’re military-trained!: Where did they come from? What do they want?!
Two kills and we can be certain the third one will die to a counter.
Time for Gain to be tagged in and sent after one of the farthest groups.
Since they’re in Wide formation, though, it’s unlikely we’ll kill them all.
: We get warped to Ameria and this is the first thing that happens…
: Oi…life sure is keeping things interesting!
Indeed, the two squaddies survive with some 1000 HP.
Center formations can be easily dealt with but Gainer still needs morale; so, he moves to pick off one of the WaDs.
: I don’t know what’s going on but I can’t just ignore what these men are doing!: Why is it that, wherever I go, there are people who do stuff like this like it's no big deal?!
Hrrrmm…sumbitch…
Jiron moves ahead and TRI Attacks another Wide Formation squad, killing the leader.
The Iron Gear moves to the front, with Strike cast, to hopefully draw the attention of some mooks.
Enemy Phase!
The WaDs start taking the bait, with Garrod taking three easy kills.
From those, he gains a level up and learns Prevail L3.
Following that, Jiron wipes out an entire squad with his TRI attack.
His whole group gains a level and Jiron learns Sense.
Gainer is also jumped by three groups.
That’s three single kills for him; sadly, he didn’t get the morale to use his OverSkill attack.
Oh? We have a clever one here. This WaD decided to move towards Loran and take a potshot at the Iron Gear.
I'll keep this song on the ship because I think it'd be a waste to keep it exclusively on a unit that's probably not going to lead anymore.
It doesn’t pan out.
Poe moves towards Loran but doesn’t attack.
Player Phase!
I have Jiron weaken Poe just a wee bit in order to feed this kill to Loran.
This also has the added bonus of getting him out of the way, allowing the Iron Gear to bust out its MAP attack!
A MAP attack, as the name implies, is an Area of Effect attack that strikes on the battlefield; they usually don’t have much power behind them and may carry varying degrees of requirement s and limitations: in the Iron Gear’s case, it needs 110 morale but the attack only has 2 shots (and it has jack for accuracy, so Rand needs to Attune them).
Mind you, only a handful of MAP attacks don’t have friendly-fire turned on, so you need to watch your own squads.
: Tri-Barreled Delayed-Burn High-Temperature…Spreading? …High...? ...POTAN CANNON, FIRE!
Everything dies!
Also, I figured I’d rather not chance Loran leaving Poe barely alive, so I had Gainer take a quick swing at her.
Now, get to it!
And that’s that.
As a reward, we steal her Magnet Coating and seize our Skill Point.
Poe quickly retreats to meet up with the main army.
While Loran is flabbergasted that the Moon Race is actually returning, Sochie finds herself in awe that this machine was hidden inside the White Doll all this time. Gain cuts in, telling Loran that they need to get out of here.
Rand reminds him that, as they told him yesterday, we were all warped here and our folk would rather leave before getting tangled up in more trouble. Gain tells Loran to come with them as he’s sure it won’t be long before more unpleasantness arrives.
Loran thinks a bit and asks Sochie to get off the unit. She hesitates and, raising his voice for the first time, Loran TELLS her to hurry and get out.
As our group leaves, inside Nocis, Olba and Shagia were watching everything. Olba notes seeing something very interesting.
Shagia agrees, surprised that they would run into the GX again in such a place. Olba asks if it’s “him” piloting it and, judging from the units’ movements, Shagia is 90% sure that it is.
Gwen is with them and he is very annoyed, having watched half a year's worth of negotiations go up in smoke and angrily asks why things had to turn out like this.
Still, Shagia assures him his plans include this turn of events. He and Olba say they’re here to defend, not just Inglessa, but the entire continent against the Moon Race.
Gwen doesn’t seem very confident with his new allies, though…
Location: Nocis – Bostonia Castle
Gwen is not happy with all that’s happened and he wants to know why the hell Shagia and Olba had their troops intercept the Moon Race scouts.
Shagia answers that it was all according to Gwen’s wishes but, of course, he has a hard time seeing that considering they screwed up all the negotiations he had worked on. Does Shagia mean to say he wanted to sabotage himself?
On the contrary, Olba suggests, this actually gives Gwen leverage in the long run. Kihel doesn’t understand what they’re saying and Shagia explains that the Moon Race's negotiators likely never expected Inglessa to pose a serious military threat before.
Regardless, Gwen certainly didn't ask for the UNE to send these two in order for them to intrude on his policies and reckons that today's engagement was actually a loss for his side.
Olba tells him not to focus on today's outcome, but on the fact that the Moon Race is now on the defensive.
Besides, Shagia says the United Nations Earth has plenty more firepower to put into the project, though Gwen sniffs that his city has plenty of ways of defending itself without their help: there are structures in this region called Mountain Cycles which house several objects of interest inside.
Though his people's forefathers forbade excavation and use of said objects, Gwen doesn't plan on putting off progress any longer.
Shagia has heard the saying "The Promised Land is the Forbidden Land; let no man touch it", which accounts for the relatively un-mechanized state of this area.
However, in the face of the Moon Race's return, Gwen will quite happily re-mechanize for the sake of his people.
Olba wonders, then, if it was by his orders that the white mobile suit was excavated around Vicinity but Gwen denies.
Though he imagines that machine WAS slumbering in a Mountain Cycle, he was not aware of it and didn’t give such orders. Furthermore, when asked by Shagia, he also professes no knowledge of the Galian battleship and has Militia forces pursuing it now to ascertain its purpose here.
He hopes to gain our aid and, adding the excavation of the Mountain Cycles, hopes to make his town truly self-sufficient in terms of defending themselves. That would mean Inglessa would then expect to deal with the UNE on equal grounds, of course.
Granted, Gwen doesn’t plan to ignore the wishes of the UNE: if they mean to be part of the solution, he'll happily welcome their aid too. Shagia is slightly impressed with his political acumen and Olba figures coming here might have been worthwhile.
Their talk is interrupted when Col. Michael enters, informing Gwen that he Moon Race has gotten in touch and is requesting dialogue.
As Shagia suggested, it seems today’s fight has made them more cautious and Gwen fully intends to capitalize on this turn of events: his plan is to show the Moon Race just what sort of culture the Earth holds and he will need Kihel’s help to do this.
Elsewhere in the castle, there is another guest: Garrod’s girlfriend, Tifa Adil; Olba enters, wishing that she would’ve gotten used to them by now.
Shagia tells her to relax and enjoy the scenery – it’s certainly more pleasant than the desert landscapes she was treated to aboard the Freeden.
Regardless, they plan to take her to the UNE, but there’s a little business to take care of first. Tifa asks if they mean Garrod and, as Shagia expected, her Newtype skills have shown her that he’s nearby.
It doesn’t matter, though, as Olba is sure that her voice can't reach him from here; Shagia plans to force her to use her powers for their sake instead, so that they can tap into the power slumbering within Garrod's land.
“What do you want…?” asks Tifa, and their answer is simple: “To enact revenge against destiny”.
quote:
Information Corner – Topic: Militia
Military forces maintained by Inglessa and Borjarno; the city affiliation is commonly added as a prefix, as in "Inglessa Militia".
Most of their weapons include biplanes, cannons and other gear reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution era. However, after contact with the White Doll, their equipment shifted towards mobile suits, which started to be excavated from Mountain Cycles in quantity..
Added Cotsett messing up the Potan Cannon name (taken from a rerun of the mission):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WayLQFSizo