Part 52: Mission 17 (Galia Route) - Hellish Relay Race
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The crowd goes wild as the race begins and Gainer and Gain are the first runners. Gain notices how the kid seems to be giving his all for Sara but Gainer’s not about to let his words throw him off.
As they keep going, we find Kona telling Gain to make him eat his dust while Ana tells Gainer that this is his chance to surpass Gain. Cotsett notes that the race seems to be a huge hit – every Exodizer came over to see it – and Gwen admits to be impressed with Gain’s skill as the results of his plan exceeded our expectations.
They’re already reaching the next leg of the race and, from the looks of it, they’ll be passing the baton at pretty much the same time. Ichitaro and Kappei are up next and their family is rooting for both.
Kappei’s already at it, telling Ichitaro that there’s no way he’ll beat him in a foot race but Ichitaro reminds him that we’re in a relay race, so one person alone can’t win the day. he promises we’ll show him the error of his selfishness.
Chil’s surprised at how they’re at each other’s throats and Jabby thought this was supposed to be a recreational activity. Captain notes that their spirit is like they’re in an actual battle and Mome notices, up ahead, that it’s Kei and Mimsy’s turn.
Kei tries to be friendly but Mimsy’s having none of it – he’s her enemy and she won’t speak to him!
Sounds like a challenge to Kei and he reckons, whoever wins, gets to call the loser out on a date. Kei proves to be faster and starts leaving Mimsy behind, taunting her to keep up.
As a pissed off Mimsy gives chase, a brooding Sley asks what the hell Kei is doing and Shaia suggests that he should’ve joined in on the race. Leeg agrees, saying that one must show energy in times like this.
We’re reaching the last legs of the race and Gwen figures it’ll come down to them – the crowd is going wild!
Rand is up next and he tells Mel to ready her camera – THE HEAT is gonna set this snow on fire! Toby tells Setsuko to give it her best as Glory Star’s representative and, inwardly, she tells him to watch as she runs for him and for Glory Star!
Some explosions start rocking the area and Elchi figures someone jumped the gun with the fireworks.
Sadly it’s an attack and everyone needs to rush back to the ships.
The responsible arrives in an Overman which Gain recognizes as a commander unit of Saint Reagan: the pilot is one Asuham Boone (
x90) and he speaks out to Gain.“I have long waited for today: THE DAY WHERE I’ll LAY JUDGEMENT UPON YOU!”, he yells at Gain to face him if he has any shred of honor. Maria asks if he’s challenging Gain to a duel and Kouji says that’s what it looks like.
Mamadou now understands everything: the Saint Reagan forces weren’t fighting for real because they were under Asuham’s orders to wait for Gain’s return.
Gain figures he couldn’t well stay back after Asuham came all the way here. Seeing how he answered the call, Gainer figures they must know each other.
Indeed, Asuham says it’s been too long but, by accepting his challenge, Gain has shown that he still has honor. Gain hasn’t done anything of the sort, though, as he merely wanted to give Asuham what for after he screwed up our event.
Either way, Gain tells him that, if he wins, Asuham will have to withdraw his troops. He agrees, though doubts that will happen.
Kappei’s about to deploy to help but Gain stops him – this IS a duel, after all. “That’s right! I will strike you down in the name of Karin and her daughter!” Asuham yells(Gain does a double-take at that “daughter” bit).
Shaia asks what to do and Heizaemon says that, since this a personal problem of theirs, we shouldn’t interfere – still, he reckon everyone should wait on alert. The people, at least, are enjoying the show and take the time to cheer for Gain.
: You wish to bear witness to this? Very well! Behold the last moments of your contractor!!
: Hey! Hold on a minute, Asuham!: Come, Gain Bijou! This white earth will be your tomb!!
: Still as pig-headed as ever, I see. Then I guess I’ve no choice but to drive you into the ground!
Oh, Asuham…you’re so amazingly over the top that I can’t help but like you…shame that you’re such a pain in the ass.
We need to take him down and it’ll require a bit of cooperation from the RNG because, with focus and a couple of upgrades to the Gatchiko, you can expect an 80%/25% spread on your chances to hit and be hit (expect worse numbers as Asuham’s Prevail gets going).
Unless you’ve upgraded the Gatchiko’s HP/Armor, he CAN be oneshotted if Asuham gets a clean hit.
: This takes me back, Asuham! So you were warped to this world as well, huh?: I didn’t come here to reminisce with you! : I have only one goal: TO PUNISH YOU!!: Hey, hey! Isn’t a commander of the Saint Reagan supposed to stop the Exodus?!
: That comes after this! DIE, GAIN BIJOU!!
FYI: that nearby forest offers a slight bonus to evasion, so I should’ve moved Gain in there with Hit & Away; always keep some room between him and Asuham as you need to use his Black Southern Cross attack to win before running out of SP.
Now, before anything else, let’s have a quick look at our new friend:
Golem (Asuham Boone)
Pilot Skills:
- Oversense L3
- Prevail L3
- Counter L3
- Predict
- Commander L2
- Photon Mat
- OverSkill - +300 to Armor when morale over 130
Asuham’s Voice Actor: Glorious Takehito Koyasu
As I said before, Overman pilots are some of the more annoying bosses in the game and Asuham exemplifies that perfectly: he’s a great pilot, has a barrier that’ll reduce ALL incoming damage by 1300 which, paired with the Leader Bonus and Prevail, means he’ll get real tough, real fast.
Predict also joins up with the Leader Bonus to make him quite accurate (on top of the usual Oversense bonuses), so you should have yours real robots approach with caution.
His attacks also have long range (1-7, for his strongest, non-TRI attack), so keep that in mind when trying to drag him to your troops.
Finally, he ALSO has a second Barrier Field equipped and that’ll give him another 1000 damage reduction!
Enemy Phase!
Asuham closes in on Gain but doesn’t attack.
Player Phase!
Gain takes another shot and leaves Asuham barely hanging.
I finally notice the forest to the south and move Gain over there with Hit & Away.
Enemy Phase!
Frig…he got enough morale to use his strongest attack and I wasn’t out of range.
Still, a 24%/60% spread isn’t bad, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy3BmNUKhqc
“You've got a lot of nerve showing your face in front of me, YOU DAMNED WOMANIZER!!”
Is this a bad time to say that I didn’t make any quick-saves…?
OK. We’re back and, this time, the RNG didn’t screw me over.
The duel’s over and, as the victor, Gain tells Asuham to fulfil his promise and withdraw his troops (though, he still wants to ask about that “daughter” business).
Asuham, however, does not intend to show him any mercy.
His troops enter the area but it’s not just Siberian enemies – there’s a Breaker landship in there.
It’s Hola’s posse, who’s so glad that Jiron came back to Siberia to get destroyed by him. Rag realizes that they wagged their tails and got hired by the Saint Reagan, which would explain why he has a better landship now.
Geraba cries out to his bro that the cat’s out of the bag but, more importantly, Hola figures if Geraba is going to be yapping so much, he should be calling him CAPTAIN now that he has a ship again.
Either way, Shaia wants to know what’s with this huge army and so does Gain: wasn’t this a one-on-one duel? Asuham’s explanation was that their duel was a personal matter – this is to fulfil his duty as a commander of Saint Reagan!
Sara thinks that’s a bullshit excuse and Gauli gives the order to deploy. Asuham isn’t about to let that happen and orders his troops to take us down before that happens.
“That’s not very fair”, a hidden voice proclaims.
This just keeps getting better.
It’s Roger, who enters the area on his own goddamn TRAIN and deploys the Big O.
Rand recognizes him and Roger finds it very curious that they’ve met here. When Mel asks, Rand tells of how he met the guy in Paradigm City.
Curiously, Joseph remembers seeing something similar to the Big O, when he and Cid investigated the Lost Mountain. Asuham cuts in, asking if he intends on obstructing the work of Saint Reagan and Roger introduces himself as a negotiator before answering.
Kejinan isn’t buying it, saying that he’s one of the Blackmen, the outlaws that use the Siberian Rail’s tracks to travel the land. Norman says that’s incorrect, though, as their train is perfectly capable of travelling without rails - that spells freedom for Roger.
Kejinan still thinks they’re lying as they DID use Siberian Rail tracks before and Roger admits that they “borrowed” their tracks for a little bit but it was merely so they could reach their destination as there was no other way around.
While Enge says that doesn’t mean he gets a free ride, Roger has already moved on to answering what’s his objective in coming here and but he’s interrupted by a confused Gach, who thought he was a jack-of-all-trades. Indeed, Roger says that he’ll undertake the mediation, discussion and settlement for any case: he is a jack-of-all-trades NEGOTIATOR.
Gain figures they hired Roger in hopes that he’d be a bodyguard during our absence and Roger thought he was being hired to conduct a negotiation. It doesn’t matter to Asuham who, upon realizing that Roger’s working for us, orders Zakki to open fire.
Norman asks what he’ll do and Roger says he’ll fight that “unfair man”. It’s a shame but negotiations broke down before they could even begin.
Dorothy chalks it up as another failure but Roger says, this time, most of the blame lies with the other party. He tells Norman to take Dorothy to safety and, when asked about what he wants for dinner, Roger says he’s tired of borscht and asks Norman to make something different.
After they leave, Asuham asks if Roger is intent on resisting until the end – his wish is only to fulfil his contract with Yapan’s Ceiling and that’s what he’ll do. However, he says he won’t be Asuham’s only foe.
The rest of our troops deploy and Maria thanks
Mind you, Kouji corrects her saying that, since it’s only him, he’d be the BlackMAN. Either way, Adette and Sara yell to leave this talk for after the battle and tag into Gain’s squad.
When he asks, Sara says the enemy commander is still gunning for him and, Adette says, since the duel’s now meaningless, they’ll be lending him a hand. Gain won’t complain, psyching himself up since he’s being helped by two beauties.
This actually gives Rand an idea and he figures this can be an extension of the race and Jiron’s up for it: the team who gets the most kills wins! Roger doesn’t know what’s going on but figures we’ll need a judge and he volunteers to do so.
Asuham isn’t amused, yelling that he won’t be defeated by people who are playing around and Gain tells him that, if he underestimates them because they’re playing, he’s in for a world of hurt.
Asuham yells at him to shut up as he’ll now make him realize his TRUE power – he, the Blackmen and Wulgusk’s Exodizers will be crushed by his hand!
Mission Objective: Asuham’s Golem destroyed.
Mission Failure: Any allied battleship destroyed
Skill Point: From Big O’s arrival, beat the scenario in four turns.
Asuham’s the same, only with more HP but let’s take a look at his right-hand man:
Under Golem (Zakki Bronco)
Pilot Skills:
- Oversense L2
- Support Attack L2
- Cooperative Attack
- E-Save
- Photon Mat
- OverSkill – Mobility +10 when over 130 morale
Zakki’s Voice Actor: Takashi Nakamura (not a career voice actor, his main focus is as an animator, having worked on Macross DYRL, Akira, Tetsujin 28 and several others).
Zakki is pretty much tailored as a supporter but his main issue is that his Under Golem’s range isn’t very good; the lack of Prevail and other defensive skills, mean he only has Photon Mat to protect him and that won’t do much when his HP is so unimpressive.
Get him out before he reaches 130 morale you should have no problem – if he does get there, though, watch out for Mach Band Shaker attack as it has a debuff that’ll cut ALL of the target’s stats in half.
Oh, yes. One last thing before I forget:
Adette’s new Dobeck is a step up from her old Dogozzo but it certainly isn’t that much of an upgrade: it’s got a bit more defense and HP but that’s pretty much it.
It won’t amount to anything more than a squaddie but Adette herself is a pretty good: her stats are nice and, more importantly, she knows both Accelerate AND Bless (祝福) which will double the amount of money the target earns from the next attack (cast it on someone who’s going to kill a boss or throw a big MAP, of course) – it’s a bit expensive now but we can fix that with SP Up.
We’ll get her something much better to use, eventually.
Everyone’s still closing in but Gain is able to get just close enough to take a potshot at a Breaker group.
Adette, without Focus, misses the Trad-11 but the bulkier mooks are weakened.
Enemy Phase!
I had Roger leading the charge and a squad goes after him.
“Though it is not my preference, I will force my way through!”
Gain also gets jumped but he can easily deal with Breakers.
Might as well take this chance to show off Roger’s Chrom Buster!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv8sViy7a7w
Geraba also attacks him but, he’s rather dodgy now so I just had Roger defend.
Everyone else moves closer (Asuham and Hola are going after their respective nemeses, mind).
Player Phase!
Elchi snipes away at the weakened Government’s squad, nabbing a kill; I figure the King Beal’s laser would be enough to finish off the Caprico but he barely hangs on.
Jaboli is closer but, since we’re talking about Kei, it’s preferable to have him go after Kejinan.
Not bad, not bad. He killed one of his squaddies.
Jiron falls just short of finishing the job, only killing the other squadmate.
Loran can take this kill and, maybe, Miashey will get a crit.
Damn, so close!
Gainer leads the charge against Jaboli, killing one of her squaddies and learning Sense from a level up.
Let’s see how Adette deals with her former underling.
: Now that's amazing, Jaboli! You, out here in the front lines?
: I am not the same Jaboli you knew! I’m now fighting for Lord Asuham!: You changed this much just because of one UNE guy…?! Oi…that’s just like you!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZXPJFU-t-g
The new you isn’t any better.
Jaboli isn’t happy to lose and fail Asuham’s expectations.
Still, she isn’t willing to die here and retreats.
A quick attack from Roger takes away both of Enge’s squaddies.
Meanwhile, Kappei moves ahead to weaken the last batch of Breaker mooks that’s at full HP.
: Uchuuta, Keiko! Follow my lead!
: Kappei! You're still going to fight as if you're doing this alone?!
: That’s right! Didn’t you understand what Ichitaro said?!
: Aw, shut it! I’m the main pilot of the Zambot 3!: You two should just do what I say!
Alright, alright.
Might as well have Rand weaken Geraba, too.
: The Crusher! So you also came back to Siberia!
: Ya stubborn ass… every time you taunt me with that, you go back home a broken mess. D'ya get your jollies outta that? 
: O-Of course not! I’m not with my Bro because I wanna get beat up! 
: No, no, it's cool! I see how you like it, so I’ll lend a hand! 
: I’ll wreck you over here and, after that, you can get your ass kicked by your Bro!
Bello took a bit of a beating there but he’ll be fine!
Enemy Phase!
Rand gets attacked by a pair of Walker Machines, killing one, while Gainer gets ganged up by three different squads, where he takes two kills.
The generic Under Golems get in range and the first group goes for the King Beal.
Crap…
Geraba goes after Jiron this time and they trade blows.
Enge snipes away at Gainer but Kejinan fails to account for his range.
Whoops.
Kejinan isn’t happy that things turned out like this even after the trouble he went to get this new Dobeck; either way, he has to pull back.
Adette did have stuff to say to him, mind:
: Kejinan! Do you really think you stand a chance against me?
: Uoooh! Ma’am, I will beat you and that’ll prove that I am a strong man!
: Do it, if you can! Show me your guts!
Zakki is dodgy enough to avoid Kei’s barrage but his squaddies aren’t so lucky.
Asuham’s still closing in one Gain’s squad while Hola’s...slowly dragging his ass towards Jiron.
Player Phase!
Might as well have the Glomar do something useful.
I’ll take it.
Following that, Heizaemon takes away Zakki’s squaddies; Gain switches to the front and TRI attacks a batch of Breakers (moving out of Asuham’s range with Hit & Away).
Bye, Geraba!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3wVjm7KqIo
Boosh!
Geraba knows that, if he returns like this, Hola’s going to scold him again; he has no choice but to cry that things would’ve been so much better if we hadn’t come back.
Rand gets a nice triple kill out of the Glomar’s Under Golems while Jiron cuts Zakki down to size.
He took a bit of a pummeling, though, and Hola’s dangerously close. So, to be safe, I have Maria heal him up a bit.
What little HP remains for Zakki is taken away by Loran.
He drops the Apogee Motor he had equipped, too.
Zakki sighs, saying this is the result of Asuham mixing his personal feelings with his mission; he retreats to rethink their strategy.
Kei will easily take Enge out and I don’t think we’ve seen the dynamic finisher of his Full Volley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DKED9-6iEw
Good man.
Enge decides to retreat while he still can, lest the unit get destroyed and the expenses deduced from his salary.
Adette also had words with him:
: Stop this, ma’am! Now that the Saint Reagan is here, this Exodus is as good as over!: Tell me something, Enge! Since when did the guards of the Siberian Rail become dogs of the UNE?!: Th-that’s…: If you're a real man, don't get wrapped up in status or influence - follow the path you can put your all into! Just like Yapan’s Ceiling! 
Zambot attacked a nearby group of Dogozzos to pass the turn and, to save on King Gainers EN, Kouji switches in and TRI attacks Asuham.
Enemy Phase!
This lone Trad guns for Jiron.
It doesn’t work.
Meanwhile, Elchi gets attacked by a couple of Breakers, killing the leader.
Hola decides to go after her and, at that range, she can only defend.
The last Dogozzo barely avoids getting oneshotted by Loran.
Ah, Asuham is finally in range of Gain and he’s PISSED!
: You’re slipping, Asuham! Going so far as using these dirty tricks to carry out your mission?: It’s all your fault! You’ve ruined mine and my beloved sister’s life!!: Oh, don't be such a drama queen! What happened between me and Karin is none of your business!: DO NOT SPEAK MY SISTER’S NAME SO CASUALLY, YOU BEAST!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja94DJxq2Vw
“GAIN! THIS IS FOR MY SIIIIISTEEEEEEEEEEERRRRR!!”
Player Phase!
To make room for our attack, Elchi quickly tosses the Dogozzo aside.
Now, this is annoying: Asuham moved right inside Chrom Buster’s blindspot and neither Roger’s Melee or Sudden Impact can hit aerial enemies.
So, I’m forced to rely on old eye lasers.
Make sure you cast Analyze on Asuham and try to get a placement bonus.
: Blackman! If you’ll disrupt the Siberian order, you'll have to answer to me!
: While I certainly appreciate the color, I resent receiving such a villainous name.: Furthermore, an unfair man such as yourself has no right to use words like “order”.: SILENCE! I’ll teach the righteous power of the Siberian law to you too!
: Very well. Then, I’ll face you under my own laws!
: What’s this guy's relation to Gain...?!: Dreadlocked Overman! If you’re getting in the way of my battle with Gain, I’ll simply crush you first!
: King Gainer would never be bested by someone who fights for a personal vendetta!!
Yeesh!
As you can see, Asuham gets real bulky once he gets all his skills going; I wanted to give this kill to Gain, so I needed both Jiron and Kei to lower him under 2000 HP.
Take him out!
Finally.
We also steal his Barrier Field for good measure.
FYI, Jiron did have stuff to say to Hola but he was too far away for me to care (plus, he went for the Iron Gear after I set Jiron right near him):
: Not bad, Hola! Seems like you got a slightly better Landship than your old one!
: Zip it! If it weren't for you, I'd be captaining the Iron Gear right next to Elchi!
: What, you’re still hung up on that?!
: Shut up! GIMME MY LIFE PLANS BACK!!Setsuko has no pre-battle lines whatsoever, mind.
Asuham is very annoyed but knows that he can’t go on now that so many obstacles have entered the area.
Of course, it was him who called in for backup in the first place but that’s beside the point: “NEXT TIME! Next time, I swear I will avenge Karin!” he yells as he runs off. Gain sighs, saying that his misguided anger is the same as ever.
Either way, Sara taunts the Saint Reagan troops, yelling that we won’t lose to the likes of them. Furthermore, Adette says that Siberia is our land and UNE boys won’t have an easy time keeping up with us here.
Gainer’s impressed at both women’s determination and Kei asks Roger for the tally of the fight. “Judge Black” proclaims Adette’s team to be the winner, eliciting another “Captain Adette BANZAI!” scream from Kei and Burume.
The winning team wins a bonus 50 PP for all members. Aside from that, there’s no major difference in the story.
Mind you, it IS possible to get a draw (whereupon no one gets anything) and, despite Loran’s proclamation that we all gave it our best, neither woman is happy – BECAUSE we gave it our best, someone needs to be declared the winner or its all meaningless!
Sara raises the point that they still hadn’t run their part of the Relay, however, and Adette agrees to run one more leg to settle the race once and for all.
Ichitaro can’t believe she still wants to run but Adette shushes him, saying the Adette Squad doesn’t give up that easily. Of course, Maai doesn’t remember getting the memo that we’re her subordinates.
Either way, Sara agrees to settle everything in one race and, inwardly, Kouji knows that we won’t be able to stop them as both women are completely fired up. Gainer also realizes that they’re both cut from the same cloth (though he keeps that to himself).
Aboard the Bachclone, Gach extends his welcome to “Blackman” and, first off, Roger requests that he doesn’t use that misconceived name from here on out.
Mamadou apologizes and says that, as we’ve seen the level of his skill over the past battle, they’d like to formally hire him as a bodyguard. Unfortunately, Roger isn’t very willing to solve problems through brute strength.
Mamadou apologizes again, saying that all they knew came from reports floating about the UN, so they didn’t know much about Roger himself. Roger laments how the UN's ease of use also leads to unsubstantiated gossiping.
Dorothy isn’t helping by pointing out that "where there's smoke, there's fire" but, either way, Roger will still accept to work for them but he’ll do so as a Negotiator. Mamadou accepts and extends his welcome.
Roger had heard much about Exodus in general but confesses that ours is much livelier than he expected. Mamadou says it’s just the usual joy of life that our people feel and, inwardly, Roger muses how different this place is from Paradigm City.
Dorothy pokes Roger that it’s time to wrap up the Relay and they decide to wait by the finish line.
The race is already on and both Sara and Adette are yelling at each other to give up while constantly trying to punch, kick and tackle each other.
Cotsett notices that the girls seem more focused on stopping one another than running as fast as they can. Gwen notes that, to them, this isn’t about just winning – they want to completely crush their opponent.
Kihel is impressed by their resolve but wonders if this is really okay…
: Youth is everything in a race like this!: As if a kid would best these well-trained legs of mine!
: Sara! Keep at it!!: Adette! Show me your womanly spirit!
: Fight, Sara!
: Don’t lose, Adette!
: Hang in there! The finish line’s right there!
: !
: !
: EEEEEEEEELCHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!*
Maximum Fatman Speed! *
: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!
: Yay! Fatman’s the winner!!
: !: Well done, Fatman! You ran the whole thing by yourself? Nice!
: Amazing, Master Fatman! That was really cool!
: Truly, a strong man…no, a SUPER man!
: Indeed! Your masculine form is worthy of every praise.: ~~~*
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: W-what...that’s...: This…is how it ends…?
Gainer is in his room, having somehow found his way back to Yapan’s Ceiling after months of absence.
His reminiscing is quickly interrupted as someone enters the room, freaking the kid out. It’s Adette, who chides him for yelling so girlishly – isn’t he a MAN?
Gainer asks what she’s doing in his room but, sadly, she says it’s been given to her as she needed a place to stay. Gainer wonders what he should do but Adette sees no problem in them sharing the place – it was his room, after all.
The kid doesn’t get a lot of time to think as Adette complains that, while this suit is easy to move in, it’s also very hot – so, she just starts to take it off to head into the shower; inwardly, Gainer tells Sara that he’s having too much excitement having just returned to Yapan’s Ceiling.
He wonders what’ll happen to him…