Super Robot Wars Z Part #62 - Mission 18 (Pacific Route)

Part 62: Mission 18 (Pacific Route) - Prologue

Pacific Route Chapter 18 Prologue

Last time on Super Robot Wars Z: Interplanetary racial tensions abound. Just because you're an alien doesn't mean you're evil. Remember this moral kids.

Current Top Aces:

1. Setsuko - 45 Kills
2. Kamille - 27 Kills
3. Roybea - 27 Kills
4. Marin - 26 Kills
5. Toshiya - 25 Kills

Setsuko has almost hit Ace Status! Oh and if it isn't obvious, characters start the game with some kills already, so Marin did not actually get 26 kills last stage. Roybea continues to stay on the list despite being a squadmate. Seriously tempted to just teach him Hit&Away and use him as a leader.

Event squads ahoy. I am just not having any luck with actually being able to make my squads am I. I can make two squads, but the main thing is "Who is Kamille's Squadmates" and "Who is Quattro's Squadmates"

Kamille, Emma, Roberto
Quattro, Apolly, Reccoa

Also I really need more Mobile Suits. Gundam characters make up the vast majority of the squadmates and it'd be nice to have some variety.

Next, I head down to the Bazaar. I haven't done much with it, mainly because I'm worried about not being able to afford the big stuff. This time, however, I really want a part. Namely the Screw Module. The Screw Module gives a unit the "Underwater" type and makes their water ranking S. Z doesn't have a ton of big water stages but this is one of them.

Baldios gets the usual catch up upgrades, bringing him up to my accuracy standards.

Shinn is a big part of the next stage, so the Impulse gets two more upgrades. I also give him one of the the Screw Modules, while Setsuko gets the other one. Roybea gets the Minovsky Craft passed on to him so that the Garrod event squad can fly.

Quattro gets the Sensory Helmet, which increases mech accuracy by 20.

I got myself a Barrier Field. This is an item that gives any unit a barrier that reduces the final damage done to the mech by 1000, at the cost of 5 Energy. So the question became who to put it on. I know, the biggest tankiest unit I have! A perfect plan if I do say so myself.

Location: United Emirates of Orb – Chief’s Residence – Conference Room

Talia and Bright are meeting with some Orb reps and have just been told that the country isn’t willing to accept Plants’ request for cooperation; along with Cagalli, we have Yuna Seiran who says their nation’s founding principle is of non-intervention in other countries’ conflicts.
Bright points out to Yuna that the Federation has a proven track record of dragging neutral powers into the fold by force under the name of maintaining order in the Earth sphere – at the rate things are going, Orb WILL get involved in the war sooner or later.

Yuna’s father, Unato, asks if he means that they should join with Zaft and battle the Federation.
Talia says that’s not what they want, as Durandal is aware doing so would go against their principles but, as a neutral nation, the chairman would like to request permission for Zaft to use part of their docks to resupply when necessary.
Yuna still refuses, though, seeing this as a ruse to slowly bring them to Zaft’s side; Talia asks if he also believes the story that Junius Seven’s drop was Zaft’s handiwork but he says, since their own representative was present at the time of the incident, they’re well aware of the details.
However, the truth of that event is now inconsequential as the reality is that the Multi-Dimensional world came to exist and Orb must find a way to survive in it; inwardly, Bright analyzes Yuna Roma Seiran, eldest son of the Seiran Family – one of Orb’s five noble houses – and, while he’s heard the those families had tremendous power, Yuna’s attitude is as if he runs the whole damn thing.
Either way, Yuna says Orb’s future has already been decided by the parliament and Cagalli hesitantly confirms; Talia silently wonders what happened after Cagalli’s return to Orb that made the girl change so much – she notices that the Seiran family controls the Orb parliament and Cagalli’s role as the representative appears to more like a figurehead.
Unato says that they only allowed Bright and Talia to dock this time as a special favor for looking after Cagalli a few months ago; however, now that negotiations are deadlocked, they want the Zaft forces to leave as soon as possible.

As Talia and Bright start to leave, Cagalli apologizes for being unable to help them and Talia asks about “Alex’s” whereabouts.
Cagalli is silent but Yuna says he’s resigned his position as her bodyguard and is no longer affiliated with their country; Talia finds that odd, seeing how “Alex” and his friends, after the previous war, wouldn’t have any other place to call home aside from Orb.
Either way, Yuna almost forgot to tell them that Orb will be having some sort of celebration in a few days but, when Bright asks what the occasion is, he says it’ll be officially announced soon – still, he thinks it’ll surprise everyone.
As they leave Unato thinks Durandal must be desperate ever since the Earth Alliance joined the Federation and became an even greater threat – Yuna figures that’s why Zaft joined forces with the AEUG; the “Break the World” greatly boosted the Anti-Plants sentiment in the common folk, too.
Yuna says Durandal’s move came too late, though, as the world and Orb are changing incredibly fast – Cagalli tries to protests but Yuna shushes her, saying that matter has already been approved by the parliament.
She still says that it’d be going against Orb’s principles and Unato asks if she’d rather the country burn again like it did with her father – they won’t, though; Yuna tells the dejected girl that Orb WILL change and unite with the world.
Other than that, he asks if she’s chosen her dress as the big day is almost here - she needn’t worry about anything else anymore, he says; either way, Yuna thinks the entire world will be surprised when they announce both his marriage to Cagalli and their nation’s entry into the New Federation.
Unato says those AEUG and Zaft captains won’t be here to see that day, though, and, inwardly, Cagalli asks where Athrun is – things have gotten far outside her control…

At one of Orb’s naval ports, Talia has just run into Maria, the pilot of the Morgenroete carrier we helped the other day.
They exchange introductions and Talia notices that Maria seems to be in charge of the Minerva’s repairs, finding it quite the curious coincidence; Maria asks if she’s okay with entrusting it to their care, seeing how that’s Zaft’s newest prototype ship.
Talia says a captain’s duty to have his ship run flawlessly supersedes any other and Maria quite understands prioritizing the ship’s safety over protecting its secrets; both women agree that, since we don’t know what’ll happen down the road, its best to do just do what you feel right for the moment.
Maria says that even if they figure out, in the end, that their choice was wrong, they can cry and get angry but they’ll still need to face onwards; either way, Maria says she has a letter to deliver to Talia.
It reads: "The pawn surrounded by black pieces will be knocked over and become black itself. Escape while you still can, Minerva."; when Talia asks, Maria claims not to know who the message is from, but she was also told to drop a certain name if she doubted its veracity: "Andrew Waltfeld".
That would be the fabled Desert Tiger, one-time commander of the Zaft's Africa troops and later a staunch defender of Orb; Talia thinks this is quite the mysterious country, housing both the Freedom and the Desert Tiger, but Maria says it’s no Paradise and the shadow enveloping the world is going to swallow it whole…

Elsewhere in town, Quattro has just been told by an informant that Axis has started traveling towards Earth from the asteroid belt.
The Break the World also had a large effect in outer space but they should manage to get here in due time; Quattro asks what Haman is doing but his informant couldn’t get anything clear – it’s unlikely she’ll play ball with the New Federation’s plans, though.
Quattro remembers how Axis is home to the last Zeon remnants so that’s only natural.
Either way, the informant also has a file for Quattro to read: it contains information related to Axis’ Psycommu research, which was radically advanced after discovering some sort of structure adrift in space – a relic from a world that held similar ideas as them and managed to perfect the technology?
Regardless, thanks to that discovery, the goal of their research – the Psycoframe – is almost completed and, with that in mind, Quattro asks if the informant has found anything about that private matter he had him investigate.

Indeed, he confirms that a person matching the man’s description does exist in this world however it seems he’s currently apprehended by the New Federation.
Quattro’s surprised, seeing how he heard that the man had been given a reasonable amount of freedom in their previous world.
The operative word here being “PREVIOUS” because, while details are hidden, it seems the New Federation in THIS world has decided to gather Newtypes to perform various experiments on; Quattro scowls and notes that the mingling of the worlds seems to have stolen what little morals the Federation once possessed.
He tells the informant to get more precise information, since he may well end up busting this someone out of whatever prison they're in; the informant confirms to the "Colonel" and leaves.
Inwardly, Quattro thinks about this “colonel” bit and wonders that neither he, nor "that man", seem able to escape the curse of the One Year War...

ELSEWHERE, we find Luna, Rey and Kamille looking for Shinn – no results so far and he’s not answering our calls.
Emma is with them and remembers that Shinn was born here so maybe he wants to be alone for a bit; Reccoa agrees, thinking we should make use of our hard-earned free time to have some fun in town.
Kamille worries, though, as Shinn seemed to be very distraught about being here and Luna still feels bad about going over Orb’s history without thinking of his feelings; indeed, Rey thinks the wound caused by the death of his family has yet to fully healed and Kamille wants to keep searching, as leaving him alone could be dangerous right now.

They’re interrupted when an Orb captain called Todaka comes over and recognizes them as Zaft.
He introduces himself and explains that he’s seen a boy wearing an uniform like ours by the memorial at the beach; Kamille and Luna immediately head there and Rey apologizes for cutting the conversation short and goes with them.
Emma and Reccoa stay behind and apologize for their companion’s attitude but Todaka isn’t offended – he just wanted to ask about Shinn; he would like to know why a Zaft soldier would be visiting the memorial dedicated to those who died for Orb.
Reccoa tells Shinn’s story and Todaka seems confused - inwardly, he remembers thinking the boy was the spitting image of someone else.

His train of thought is interrupted with the arrival of Kai Shiden, who had been looking for him.
He’s been following Todaka around but the soldier tells him that he was nothing to say; Kai says he’s knows he won’t talk about military movements but figures there’s no harm in Todaka telling him a bit about the Cagalli/Yuna romance.
Todaka irritably tells him to wait for the official announcement in a couple days; Kai, like the self-respecting reporter he is, won't give it a rest and Reccoa quickly recognizes him; both are surprised to run into each other in Orb.
Emma asks who it is and Reccoa says its journalist with whom she worked together on a solo assignment following the Break the World; regardless, he remembers that they’re AEUG now and suggests that they leave the country ASAP.
When Emma asks why, Kai says that, very soon, this won’t be a peaceful country anymore…