Part 39: Mission 13 - Prologue
Unified Route Chapter 13 Part 1
Last time on Super Robot Wars Z, we saw a kid join up with a paramillitary anti-government group because he had a crush on a girl. Setsuko got a little upgrade for her Virgola now too.
Current Top Aces:
1. Setsuko - 22 Kills
2. Kamille - 19 Kills
3. Shinn - 18 Kills
4. Talia - 16 Kills
5. Quattro - 15 Kills
Now that Setsuko has an ALL attack, she's going to start pulling ahead in kills for a while. Speaking of Setsuko, I figure now's a good time to talk about the less then pleasent stuff that happened. Denzel is dead, 100% dead. He's not coming back. The Virgola 3 has similarly been completely destroyed. Fortunately, the game isn't particularly harsh about losing Denzel. All the money I spent upgrading the Virgola 3 is refunded, not only that...
All the Pilot Points Denzel earned are given to Setsuko, with this she receives a head start in getting her skills set up. That's all for now, on to the stage!
In the Trinity City’s control room, we find Marchino talking to Prof. Kazami, asking the professor about the progress of the Trinity Energy research.
Progress is slow, though, with only one prototype mech currently outfitted with the Charge System; Marchino doesn’t like to hear that, reminding Kazami that he and several others have invested a lot of money on his research.
He has other business to handle, though, but adds that he’s starting to fear that all that investment was wasted; what he needs is to see some results, which should be possible if Kazami just let the Federation be the ones to handle the alien invaders.
With that, Marchino leaves.
Julie isn’t very pleased with Marchino, saying that he shouldn’t think of their Trinity Energy research as mere business.
Once they can fully control its power, it may alter the course of human history! Still, Kazami says that’s how Marchino sees things and they can’t really afford to get on his bad side.
Heizaemon is also present and says that it’s clear that, despite the changes to the world, money is still as powerful as ever but the point remains that the Trinity Energy research owes its continuation to Marchino’s money.
Tsukikage apologizes to Kazami, wishing that Blue Fixer’s budget wasn’t so low that they could send some extra funds his way.
Julie tells him not to worry, adding that their help as an international anti-alien invader group is greatly appreciated, especially their help in bringing their newest teammate over; Tsukikage says that wasn’t his handiwork – it’s all thanks to Sandman’s resources and the influence of a supporter inside the Federation Army that allowed them to keep their independence from the army.
Rie is, at least, glad to see that there are people in the Federation Army capable of seeing the bigger picture and acting on it; as for Sandman, Quinstein says he has been incommunicado since he returned to his castle and the situation in Japan became what it is now…
From what Quinstein's heard, he must be busy using his private channels to study how things are outside of Earth as, thanks to the Rivalry Zones, getting a grasp on the situation in Space has been difficult; however, Heizaemon has heard that alien attacks are still occurring, which points towards them having built some sort of forward base on our planet.
Furthermore, in space we have the Plants, Colonies, the Moon Race and the Anaheim Electronics’ various structures but, despite all that opposition, more alien troops are arriving on Earth – their power is certainly terrifying.
Kazami reminds that there’s also the information brought by that young man from Io.
Gengoroh has seen that information, detailing an enemy that attacked Io and, if that enemy decides to attack Earth next, the situation could get even worse; that’s why Tsukikage and the others cannot stand around doing nothing – why he wanted us to pool our resources together and figure out a way to stand up against the invaders.
Quinstein has run the numbers and the regular army is ill-equipped to fight against this sort of enemy and, currently, we only have the King Beal, Zambot, Kuuraioh, Grand Divas, Kouji and Maria – take all that into consideration and we need to strengthen our power if we’re to keep up with the increasing attacks.
Kazami asks if she means to upgrade the Cataranger and Baldiprize; yes, but it can’t be just a simple power-up: to fight the upcoming enemies, they’ll need something that surpasses the level of our current technology – something completely new.
Setsuko has also arrived in Trinity city and ran into Toshiya who recognizes her from before; she says she’s been searching for Toby and asks what happened since the Break the World.
Mizuki says they arrived in this world together with the King Beal – the Vega and Gaizock troops were also warped together – and, eventually, they joined up with the Blue Fixer folks; Runa says they’ve been working together with them ever since and Setsuko understands: rather than be bound by some country’s agenda, they’re working with an international organization.
Not all’s good, though, as Maria says both Duke Fleed and Hikaru haven’t been seen since the Dimensional Collapse and Setsuko’s saddened to hear this but Kouji tells them both to keep their chin up: he’s sure Daisuke wouldn’t be done in by something like that and Hikaru should be with him, so they’ll both be fine.
Maria also wants to believe that and Kouji also adds that he’s sure Toby will be alright, too; Setsuko thanks him for his words but something seems strange to her: in the other world, the Earth Alliance immediately tried to arrest or use us, so why have they acknowledged their independence now?
Kouji figures it’s because this world is made of so many different worlds that their existence isn’t a big deal anymore but Mizuki imagines there’s someone inside the Federation giving us a hand, too; either way, Kappei says that they’ve been fighting the aliens here and there over these past six months and, in exchange for that support, Keiko sends the data collected from our skirmishes to our friend inside the Federation – it seems they’re using it to refine their anti-alien tactical OS.
Another thing that surprised Setsuko is to find that the Trinity City has been transported from Suruga Bay to the middle of the Pacific Ocean; Toshiya reminds her that it IS a floating city but, right now, it’s less of a “city” and more like our main base.
Another girl is here, asking who Setsuko is and Toshiya tells her.
She introduces herself as Minako Marchino, Toshiya’s “sweetheart”, but he’s quick to tell her not to go introducing him like that; she thinks it’s ok because that’s what she’ll be very soon!
Uchuuta still finds it hard to believe that she’s that guy’s daughter.
A man soon approaches, having been looking for Toshiya.
It’s Kiraken, who says Kazami is calling him as the test will begin real soon; Toshiya thinks that, despite this being their first reunion in a long while, he’s still so busy but Kiraken’s fine with it.
Besides, if Toshiya’s late, Julie will scold them both again (Toshiya does point that Julie’s just a bit intense but he’s a good fella); Kiraken then wonders if Setsuko’s another of Toshiya’s friends-in-arms and she, hesitantly, asks if he’s Raita from the Blue Fixer.
Rather, he’s Kira Kensaku, Toshiya’s friend from Io; both of them were born there, in fact, as their families were part of the first wave of colonists to travel to Jupiter’s moon and Toshiya only came to Earth, prior to the Dimensional Collapse, to be Kuuraioh’s test pilot.
Setsuko asks if he was warped to Earth during the collapse but, before he answers the question, he wants her to call him Kiraken instead of that “Mr. Kira” business; as for the question, he arrived here two months ago via legit travel and that surprises Setsuko as he would’ve had to go through the Rivalry Zones.
He faced the danger head-on, though, as he had an important report to make: the Io colony had been attacked by unknown aliens and completely destroyed.
Details will have to wait, as the alarm sounds, indicating an UFO approaching.
It might be an alien attack, so everyone prepares to deploy as Minako cheers everyone on (especially Toshiya, of course).
Most of Rand’s talk with the people here is used to detail the events that occurred during Setsuko’s initial missions and to introduce new characters and their plot, which is why I skipped most of it.
A few interesting tidbits that can be mentioned:
Toshiya shows a lot of interest in the Gunleon, seeing how he was formerly a pilot of Io’s repair mechs and Rand likes anyone who appreciates his mech; Kappei is also impressed with it, wondering if Rand wouldn’t like to join their team as the Gunleon seems much more suited as a fighter than a repair mech – of course, Rand doesn’t care to destroy anything.
Kouji also likes the Gunleon, quickly tagging it as a bona-fide Super Robot and Rand actually likes the denomination; as he does his THE HEAT introduction, he actually causes Leele to flinch a bit.
He figures the pale girl has anemia or something but Mizuki yells at him to back off a bit as his stifling attitude is suffocating her.
Toga is surprised after meeting Rand, though, as he thought all adult men were intellectual and calm people like Sandman, Kazami and Tsukikage but Rand has proven him wrong; of course, Eiji tells Rand not to get frustrated as he’s always this clueless.
Finally, upon learning of the Zambot kids’ story and their alien origins, Rand can only contemplate what crazy times they live in for him to meet people like them; Kappei is actually surprised to see that he has no problem with their alien blood but, as Rand puts it: “Those who fuss over small details become small people”.
Following that everything proceeds as normal, introducing Minako and Kiraken, and then the UFO approaches.+