The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars Z

by Brunom1, Dr. Pepper, Caphi

Part 86: Mission 26 (Rand) - Prologue

Last time, ZEUTH’s more relaxed groups decided that they had enough working under Zaft’s directions and, now, we’ve lost half our Super Robots and deployment slots because they’re sheep working for THE MAN!
Since we only have 8 squads to make, here’s what we’ll be using (Eureka’s launching as an event, mind):


Gave Adette’s old Dobeck to Sara and bought a second one from the Bazaar for Bello; I should’ve done this WAY sooner but I held off on it because, for whatever reason, I never figured out that PLA attacks being used by squaddies are exempt from pre-move/post-move limitation and just assumed that the Dobecks wouldn’t be able to shoot on most occasions.
Doc corrected me and, as such, only Gauli’s still stuck on the Panther but, being with Aquarion, movement range doesn’t matter much.

Let’s get this going!




At an undisclosed location, we find Dominic asking Anemone why she’s in a bad mood when the man she’s been awaiting for such a long time is finally coming over.
Dominic tries to get her to come with him to where the man’s at but she refuses and punches him away. Of course, he doesn’t know why she did that but the girl starts yelling about how she feels something leaking from her head.
She demands him give her some medicine and Dominic tries to get her to calm down, adding that she’ll suffer much more later on if she exceeds her current dosage. She doesn’t care about that and yells that she needs her meds NOW.



Her mood completely changes when Dewey appears, happy to see “his Anemone” and hoping that his absence wasn’t painful. Either way, it’s been three years since he’s last seen her, so he calls her closer to get a look at her face.
She happily welcomes him home and, though this is far too quick for his tastes, he requests that she lend him her strength once again – he needs her to deploy for an assignment soon. Anemone’s more than willing to do anything for him.



She wants to bring her pet, Gulliver, along and he sees no problem with it (the little guy IS her friend, after all).
Dewey gives Dominic the job of tending to it and, as soon as the thing gets in his hands, he realizes that it's VERY heavy. Anemone happily says Gulliver gets heavier when he’s in a bad mood and, while Dewey had forgotten about that ability, the pet will stay on Dominic’s care.
As Anemone leaves to prepare for deployment, Dewey asks about the Gekkostate’s location and Dominic reports about their travels in Galia with half of ZEUTH. Dewey asks for his estimate of their unit’s strength and he says, even with the loss of the Zaft and AEUG groups, our still has significant strength with our combination of Emaanian, Breakers, Mobile Suits and Super Robots.

Dewey sees that a group like this isn’t something the regular Federation army’s equipped to deal with, despite our hostile actions, and figures he ought to thank the Gekkostate for bringing things to such a point – it’s because of them that he was released.
Dominic figures he’s using Anemone to take them out, then, but Dewey corrects him, saying that the Ageha Squad’s true objective isn’t the destruction of the Gekkostate. With that in mind, he’ll leave Dominic and Anemone to deal with us while he focuses on that true mission.
Inwardly, Dewey’s eager to see how much of a fight Holland can’t put up.



Location: Eastern Galia – Gekko Go, Living Room



We find Renton telling her sister of their separation from Zaft and the AEUG: he ponders Holland’s dislike for military-types and he’s sure something happened to cause this (probably connected to Eureka, seeing how he left the army because of her).
He always sees Eureka suffering because of her past and wonders what he can do about it. That said, he realizes that he doesn’t know much about anything: not about Eureka, Holland or even the world in general.
His monologue’s interrupted by Garrod telling him to stop daydreaming and Moondoggie remembers seeing him muttering to himself and staring off into the distance every now and then. Gidget asks if he's fantasizing about all the stuff he could be doing with Eureka which makes the kid yelp panickingly (that said, he inwardly admits that he can’t well say it ISN’T true).

It falls on Gainer to remind Renton that we’re in the middle of a meeting, so he needs to keep his head focused. Renton, if anything, is thankful for his “bro” for treating him as a grown man.
Not quite, Gainer’s asking him to pay attention because the Gekko’s store is under Renton’s management, so this is important to his job…upon realizing he’s just the “part-timing kid” in the others’ eyes, Renton’s back to being disappointed.



Either way, the main task at hand is figuring out a way for our group to make money. Our decision to quit our job with Zaft, who had been supplying our folks up until now, means that we’ll have to pay for our own food and stuff from here on out.
Roybea wonders if we can’t ask Löwen for some help but Matthew and Mimsy veto it, as taking on a debt like that would mean we’d be under their leash when push comes to shove, effectively rendering the reason why we split off from Zaft moot.
Still, Kei thinks we’ll manage, as money travels all over the world, so all we have to do is get on that flow. Maai’s impressed with how Kei’s thinking like an Emaanian but he figures the concept of “no work, no dinner” is the same no matter what part of the world you’re in.

Of course, Ryouma says that our objective is still to follow the movements of the aliens, Fallen Angels and demons but the point remains: will anyone be paying us enough to eat if we do that? How can we survive?
Ryouma’s got no answer and Hilda figures doing as he says will need to be taken care of after we get on our feet. Hayato’s starting to wonder if they made a mistake in coming with us but Pierre is sure that the Fallen Angels, at least, will always be gunning for the Aquarion.
As for the aliens, Raita figures they’ll come after us so long as Marin’s over here and, yes, he means it like Marin’s spying on us and Earth for the guys. Marin wonders how many times he’ll need to tell him that he’s not as spy before Raita gets the hint but, of course, no spy would say he’s a spy.



Jamie jumps in to stop them both and Matthew adds that everyone in the ship wants them to quit bringing their mutual bitching aboard.
Raita tries to protest and Gain says, if Marin’s really a spy, then Raita either presents proof or lets this go - he doesn’t have anything NOW but promises to expose Marin sooner or later. Benkei thinks his suspicion of Marin’s a bit overkill but Oliver says that’s probably at least half pride by this point: he’s come too far in his accusation to back down.
Roybea asks for his opinion on this and Oliver’s still keeping his guard around Marin. He figures you can never be too careful and Roybea is impressed that he fights so well with Marin while keeping that mindset (that said, it’s not like a lot of ZEUTH members didn’t also keep each other at arm’s length).

Setting aside the Baldios team’s continuous arguments, Rand says we’ll need to get some cash sooner or later and Jiron has an idea: we’ve got all these ships over here, so it wouldn’t be too difficult for us to make deliveries, yes?
Rag sees where he’s going and asks if he wants Elchi to run that courier business into the red once again. Indeed, Burume’s sure that they could burn through 50k blue stones in one week if they did business following Elchi’s guidance (not even the Emaanians could cover for that).
Rand and Mel have their own idea, though: everyone joins the Beater Services as repairmen and we can even change the ZEUTH’s name to that (with Mel as the CEO, of course).

: I’m gonna have to pass on being ordered around by some wet-behind-the-ears kid.
: Besides, with Rand over here, we’d probably get a lot more requests to do the exact opposite of repairing stuff.
: Hey, Ana…what’s the exact opposite of repairing?
: That’d be destruction. In other words, breaking things.
: AHAHA! That’s exactly like Uncle Rand!
: Really, she IS right!
: O-oi…girls… you hurt “Uncle Rand’s” feelings when you talk about him like that...
: Uncle Rand, your hands are shaking!
: Talk about being patient...
: It’s not easy being a grown-up, eh, Rand?

No respect…as always…



Either way, Tsugumi knows we’ll be in trouble if we don’t do something about it and Silvia can only sigh, figuring our other half is having no such issues with Zaft’s funding.
Hayato thinks they’re probably off living the good life, considering they’ve Sandman’s help too, and Michiru wonders if DEAVA couldn’t give us a hand. Reika and Sirius say Fudou told them to do something by their own power and to consider this self-sufficiency as training.
Tekkouki is much more direct and says if there’s something we want, we should just take it – a simple solution for all our issues. That’s the demon way of solving things, of course, and Hayato suggests that, as a scientist, Tekkouki should strive to be better than these simplistic methods.
Tekkouki agrees and, since he’s trying to abandon the way of the demons, says he’ll try his best to think of a way to make money (Tsugumi’s surprised that he sort-of seems like a good man demon). That said, Apollo agrees with Tekkouki and says if you need food, you should just take it from somewhere.

Silvia doesn’t appreciate his suggestion that she and Sirius should lower themselves to thievery and Apollo figures, in that case, she’d do well to start eating less as she’s starting to pack some weight. As Silvia yells at him at quit bothering her, Pierre has the idea of the Elements using their ESP powers to get a circus going.
Sirius, of course, refuses as his swordsmanship wasn’t honed to be used as a party trick but Pierre figures, with his fiery shots, Jun’s x-ray vision and Silvia’s super-strength, they’ll get loads of customers. Reika and Tsugumi can be his assistants, in these bunny suits that he just happened to have handy.
Roybea is all over that idea, saying those clothes would suit them quite well, and Kei agrees, adding that they could also have Mimsy, Adette and/or Sara handle this – mind you, when Gainer gets worried, Kei says he’s talking about the Freeden’s Sara (Gainer’s Sara isn’t amused that he doesn’t think she could pull that off).



Sirius says none of the women have to accept this vulgar joke of his but Roybea figures this circus thing isn’t a half bad idea: Tifa could make quite the name for herself as a fortune-teller.
Garrod vetoes the idea to use her power as a spectacle which makes Rand figure that, indeed, our only option is the repairmen option – all they need to make a nice buck is a smile and a hard-working attitude!

: Right, Fatman?
: !
: Urgh, stifling! And lame, too!

Ryouma is still insisting that their priority should be to work towards world peace but Matthew yells that that’s next in line. Apollo’s had enough discussion and wants to start eating already, which prompts everyone to start ordering food for Renton to grab from his shop.
The kid can hardly keep track of all the orders at once and Gainer figures, considering what we were talking about, maybe we should cut back on what we eat to save stock. Apollo quickly shushes him, saying we’ll think about that when we don’t have any more to eat and Sara says that irresponsible attitude would get them killed.



The argument gets interrupted when Holland enters and tells everyone to shut up.
He says, if we’ve got the time to argue with each other, we should be getting ready to go outside: some really good waves are coming over! Moondoggie and Renton are hyped to get some righteous Lifting going after all this time and Pierre is interested enough that he wants Renton to teach him.
Garrod also wants to give this a try and, as everyone leaves, Gauli wonders if this merriment is appropriate. Gain sees no problem as they chose to go their separate ways from the Zaft group precisely because they preferred this sort of ambiance.

Rand agrees, thinking we all wanted to leave that war behind us, so we might as well enjoy life now. Holland calls him and Gain to go grab some lifting and says nothing beats having a beer on top of a Trapar wave.
Eureka stays behind, silent, and Tifa asks if she’s not feeling well. She says he’s got a bit of a headache but Tifa knows Eureka will still go…because the “Gate” is waiting for her.



A bit later, our group sees something ahead that looks like an egg amidst a whole bunch of clouds.
Rag wonders if it’s got anything to do with the Trapar waves Holland was talking about and Jiron sees the Gekko heading right towards it.



Renton is blown away by the humongous object inside the clouds but Holland tells him to settle down.
Ken-goh is quite surprised that they found it, even if by chance, and Hap confirms: it’s a Coralian. Moondoggie and Matthew cannot believe their eyes, that they would find one so suddenly, but Renton has no idea what that even is.
Hap explains the waves we detected are all flowing towards that object in the center of the clouds: the Coralian itself. Talho asks what we’ll do, then, and Holland seems hesitant to answer.

She presses him and Holland says if they lose this chance, they don’t know when they’ll get another. Stoner realizes that he’s really going ahead with it and, when Holland asks, Renton says Eureka’s with the Nirvash.
Talho has noticed that she doesn’t seem to be doing too well and Mischa is surprised to see her worrying about the girl. Regardless, her exams have shown that, physically, Eureka’s fine so Mischa figures her problem is psychological.

Talho wonders if Eureka’s got a weak mind but that’s got nothing to do with it: a person’s mind can get exhausted even from something as simple as a cold. That sounds pretty complicated and Mischa says that the issues she’s been having properly linking-up with the Nirvash are likely the cause of her mental stress.
Renton didn’t know that and, when Talho asks, Mischa says the problem’s more likely to be with Eureka than with the Nirvash. Still, Holland knows there’s a way around it and that’s to have Renton accompany Eureka to the Coralian.
“If anything happens to her, though, I’ll kill you…” Holland growls.


At the Freeden, Sara informs Jamil that the Gekko is launching its troops to investigate the situation ahead, so he has everyone else to do the same and follow Holland’s orders.
Tonya wonders if it isn’t too dangerous to go near something they know nothing about and he concedes that possibility. However, this is also a chance to get some insight on what the Gekkostate’s up to.
Sara agrees that there are several parts of their objectives that we’re not privy to but, right then, Tifa enters and Jamil asks if she’s feeling something from what huge cloud. “The butterfly is spreading its wings” is all she says and Jamil remembers her previous prophecy that the butterfly would fly towards the future.
Those clouds have something to do with that? She doesn’t know but she IS feeling something. Jamil wonders what that butterfly represents and how it all intersects with Holland’s goals.
Inwardly, Tifa tells Eureka to be careful…