Part 47: Gathering Power
Kappei thinks Crowe would get along well with their hot-headed, but sometimes stuffy, pal Rand. Crowe objects that Rand sounds like the complete opposite of his ice-cool self, but Gain still feels like they should sit down for a beer sometime. (Crowe is a drinker, though he can't say much for his fortitude. Also, did you know he's only 22? I'm older than Crowe and that's terrible.)
Jiron and Chil, and the rest of the Sandrats, are loving the meat around here. They trade notes on the weird but tasty animals from their respective worlds (salamanders, Jiron?). It seems to the Sandrats that the two worlds are pretty good matches, but the Gurren Gang explains that the Dark Continent is actually an isolated oddity in a larger world stage that's much more advanced in both technology and bureaucracy.
Jiron and friends are well aware that it won't be easy to get back to their universe, so it's a good thing this planet has a lot of interesting sights to see. As long as they're stuck here, they might as well have fun! That eternally sunny attitude is what turned their setting upside-down, and Leeron is hoping that the same thing will happen here on the Dark Continent. Speaking of whom, Kamina's warmed up to Jiron too, and makes him his official little buddy.
Kitan returns from scouting to spoil the party. Remember how Kitan and Dayakka have been busy? Well, their network reaches across the island, and one of their contacts sighted a skirmish involving some unknown Ganmen. He didn't get all of it, but apparently, one of them has "a moustache."
The Sandrats recognize that characteristic description immediately...
Meanwhile, far away, another group of strangers is recovering from a battle with some strange big-faced robots that attacked out of nowhere and wouldn't respond to hails. And it's the same story as Jiron and Gainer - they were all doing their own thing in disparate places (some of them on the moon!) only to find themselves in their robots, on the Dark Continent, and under fire. Besides which, Loran Cehack's had buried his robot a year ago. Weird! Or did the dimensional flow deliberately choose former members of ZEUTH? In any case, it's no time to relax. Some of those overgrown face robots managed to escape, and there's no telling when they'll call reinforcements...
Tifa, resident psychic, catches the mental scent of hidden beastman spies. They show themselves, freaking out the party, and introduce themselves as human exterminators, and they're starting with the girl who so rudely gave them away!
Garrod Ran leaps to her rescue, but that just gets the Beastmen fighting mad. Realizing that these humans are as strong as the other warriors they've fought, they decide to come back with their Ganmen, but of course, we have robots too...
Chapter 26: Gathering Power
(WPC route)
The small squad of Beastmen approaches.
Witz sees the full moon and urges Garrod to wipe them out with his Gundam's Satellite Cannon (more on this in a bit), but since we all forgot, the moon's not the only thing that powers the strategic weapon. It's the microwave charging facility placed on the moon that transfers power to the mobile suit, and this being a different universe, it's sort of a different moon. It looks like we'll have to defend ourselves the old fashioned way.
Nothing interesting here, just a five turn stage clear.
Gundam DX (Garrod Ran)
Skills
Prevail L7
Will+ (hit)
Block
Fortune
Spirits
Invincible
Focus
Traits
Blade
Shield
Weapons
Head Vulcan (20 ammo, mobility down)
Breast Launcher (10 ammo)
Buster Rifle (8 ammo, beam)
Hyper Beam Sword (15 EN, beam)
Ace Bonus: At 120 Will, casts Luck at the beginning of every phase.
Yeah, yeah. You can unload now.
I know Garrod's fallen pretty far since Z, but I've always just found him a mediocre Gundam with the misfortune to share a team with a lot of great robots with functional gimmicks. Right now he has nothing to his name but standard Gundam weapons that are slightly stronger than baseline.
Anyway, I like him. He's a cool guy.
Gundam Leopard Destroy (Roybea Loy)
Skills
Prevail L4
Offensive Support L2
Chain Attack
Spirits
Alert
Snipe
Strike
Traits
-
Weapons
Head Beam Cannon (5 EN)
Wrist Beam Cannon (10 EN)
Shoulder Beam Cannon (15 EN)
11x Missile Pods (8 EN)
Twin Beam Cylinders (4 ammo)
Ace Bonus: Earns +20% money. Range of non-MAP/range 1 weapons +1.
The Gundam X sidekicks were really good squadmates, but in this game I have main characters to worry about. Anyway, Leopard is the bombardment Gundam, and (why am I still surprised by this) its pilot doesn't have Hit & Away. He is well built to support, though.
Gundam Airmaster Burst (Witz Sou)
Skills
Prevail L5
Resolve
Hit & Away
Spirits
Accel
Vigor
Focus
Traits
-
Weapons
Head Vulcan (10 ammo, mobility down)
Buster Rifle (8 ammo)
Booster Beam Cannon (20 EN)
Nose Beam Cannon (40 EN)
Ace Bonus: Earns +20% money. Movement +1.
The airborne forward assault Gundam. Naturally, this pilot has Hit & Away.
You know what was annoying in Z? I always wanted to put the Airmaster and Leopard in a nice squad, but Leopard is a walking Gundam and Airmaster is a high speed flyer.
That's all I have to say about sidekicks.
Garrod!
Don't worry, Tifa! I don't know who they are, but I won't let them lay a finger on you!
No matter where or when, I'll defend you, Tifa! You're what I'm fighting for!
"I'll tear off that stupid 'stache!"
Stuff gets warped around every other day in these multiworlds, but it still sucks to get tossed around yourself.
And we're fighting right out the gate. We just don't get a break!
Damn it all! That stupid dimension shock sucked me in! All right, I'll fight! I'm not gonna die out here away from my home universe!
Now for the Turn A guys.
∀ Gundam (Loran Cehack)
Skills
Offensive Support L3
Defensive Support L2
Block
SP Regen
Spirits
Sense
Focus
Mercy
Traits
I Field (barrier)
HP Regen S
Blade
Shield
Weapons
Knife Hand
Beam Rifle (8 ammo)
Gundam Hammer (4 ammo)
Beam Saber (15 EN, 105 Will)
Beam Drive System (30 EN)
Militia Charge (2 ammo, 100 EN)
Beam Rifle High Power (50 EN, 120 Will)
Ace Bonus: Regains 5 SP each ally phase.
So basically, Loran has super SP Regen because his Ace Bonus stacks. His Focus is 15 SP, so that means he can have it up all the time. There is no reason not to have Loran Focus every round he's not casting another Spirit (say, Sense against bosses).
He's also everybody's friend, with the ability to support everybody all the time and the Mercy Spirit. Has anyone had Mercy so far? It makes sure that the enemy survives your next attack, leaving them at 10 if they would be killed, but it only works on an enemy with a lower Skill than the user. It's for sharing kills, I guess. At least it's cheap. Loran's Skill rating isn't exactly stellar so it has limited usage. Ironically, Turn A is our first robot with enough weapons to go to a second page.
I guess the White Doll, as a combatant on its own, is supposed to be hard to kill with its magical future nanotechnology repairing it all the time, but I've never seen it actually have the fortitude to pull that off. Its I Field barrier only works against beam guns, absorbing 1000 damage from them. Like the Jiron and Sara, Loran has his supporting cast as an attack, in this case Miashei Kune and Sochie Heim in their little Kapools.
The Moustache Gundam has also fallen pretty far, though. It's missing its signature move, the extremely powerful and armor-stripping Moonlight Butterfly, and of course its wide-reaching and very destructive MAP version. In its place, Loran seems to have the Kapools and the ability to overload the Turn A's beam gun.
Sumo Gold (Harry Ord)
Skills
Block
Counter L6
Offensive Support L2
Predict
Spirits
Focus
Sense
Accel
Snipe
Traits
I Field (barrier)
EN Regen S
Blade
Weapons
Hand Beam Gun (10 ammo)
Heat Fan (5 EN)
IF Bunker (40 EN, 100 Will, pierce barriers)
Ace Bonus: Accuracy +15%. Critical rate +15%.
Harry is all business. Counter and Predict are the marks of a real ace pilot and his stats and spirits are good too. The Sumo, however, has only decent speed and really poor range.
That reminds me, I haven't been keeping dudes posted about who can share what mechs. Many of the Gundam pilots can switch around.
Get in there, Loran! We're ZEUTH! We saved the world! We can't let them beat us!
But m'lady, we don't know anything about our enemies. We should... This is no time to hesitate! These are monsters who will jump on us if we show a hint of weakness!
All right... I'll try! (But remember, m'lady Sochie, that I'll protect you no matter what!)
As m'lady Diana's bodyguard Harry Ord, I cannot perish here without her leave! I will die by my lady's side, and not until I am there again!
"That one's gold! I bet I could sell his shards for a good price!"
So that's all our new ZEUTH robots.
Of the eight Ganmen, just one falls on the enemy phase.
I give them this turn, tops.
Let's waste some energy showing these guys in motion.
Anyway it's turn 2 and stuff is dying.
Witz gets piled on, but makes it out with Invincible.
Garrod does have Luck autocast, for all that's worth.
Last Ganmen down, and it's only turn 3. I wonder...
Yep, more Beastmen... and a familiar looking Xabungle knockoff! The ZEUTHdams recognize Timp's robot, and he lets them know that Gainer and Jiron came with him. Though he doesn't know or care where they are now.
Viral reminds Timp that he's in charge now, and willing to run a blade through him if he does any funny business. Well, Timp's on board with his new bosses, and he has is own beef with us too. All sides brace themselves for a fight...
But suddenly, Invaders!
Viral has orders not to interfere with the Invaders, but that doesn't mean he has to like having to let them crawl all over his land - nor be so dishonorable as to use them against his enemies. Timp is used to winning in any way he can, and chafes under a commander with outmoded ideals of honor. The Beastman force leaves.
That leaves us with the Invaders, but Tifa hears something psychically calling out to her. "Someone sleeping on the moon..." Whoever it is, it'll give us its power - specifically, power for the Satellite Cannon.
Trusting Tifa, Garrod charges, fires, and blows a swath through the Invader swarm!
Despite the animation, Tifa insists that the thing on the moon isn't the DOME the Satellite Cannon needs, but it'll work just as well. Thanks, sleeping man on the moon!
There are still a lot of Invaders, but more help is on the way! I brought Zambot because this stage is about the moon. It seemed right.
Like Jiron, Garrod blurts out that he hopes Renton and Eureka are happy together. Watta identifies the new ZEUTH mecha as the other world's Gundams.
The map continues.
So here's the Satellite Cannon.
By base power, it's the most damaging attack in the game. And yes, that MAP attack has a range of infinity, though the actual area is somewhat limited. It's also very expensive (the MAP version costs 100 EN and requires 140 Will), but that's not the only thing holding it back.
The Satellite Cannon only works on stages with a full moon, outside of which Garrod falls back on his slightly powered-up sword and gun. And even when there's a full moon, the cannon takes three turns to charge, after which it can be fired once in either of its configurations before it has to charge up again.
Which brings us to what Garrod left behind in Earth-Z1. The DX may still have its Satellite Cannon, but when it was docked with its support unit, the G-Falcon, it could load up two charges of the Satellite Cannon at once, and each one only took two turns to charge. (It also came with a second pilot.)
So that's that.
Anyway, I figure I'll send a team to deal with that annoying pack up in the northwest, and otherwise just carve a path through the rest of the formation.
So here's the split team.
And here's the main team reaching out to take in the worn-out Gundams.
Now turn 3 part 2 begins.
Roybea is the target of the turn.
And these other top squads of Invaders run around pointlessly.
By the way, heads up, nothing else is happening this chapter so here's another video of me unnecessarily using powerful attacks.
Invaders suck so GOONZ summarily rips through the wall of them.
In the process, Kappei learns Accel. Aoyama learns Mercy.
These dudes don't put up any more of a fight. Garrod actually learns Luck, the Spirit he gets cast on him for free by his Ace bonus. Go figure.
On turn 5, just a few Invaders are left. A couple are even wounded.
I like throwing out some high numbers to take shots of every week if I can.
(Hayato learns Analyze. That's pretty good.)
Finishing with gold.
Jiron is surprised to hear Timp has signed on with the beastmen, and both sides are surprised to find Gundams in the other world. Which reminds Gainer that while the Turn A and Double-X are Gundams from his original world, other Gundams from still another world transferred in during Z, piloted by Shinn Asuka and Camille Bidan. And now even more Gundams here. What does the name "Gundam" mean, exactly?
Garrod's been filled in on the parallel worlds thing, but he's still shocked to see that this Renton looks exactly like his bud. But he says he wants this Renton to be his friend to - an entirely new friend, irrespective of Renton 1.
Tifa feels the same way about this Eureka. Yes, even though she knows what Eureka is, she assures her, but Eureka just runs away crying.
Renton assures her that Eureka has just been through a lot. He tells Tifa to leave her alone for a while and try again later. He really would like them to be friends. In return, she tells him to accept her "no matter what happens." Whatever that means, Renton promises.
But with each passing guest from ZEUTH, the mystery grows deeper. There's no way this is a coincidence, not at this point, especially since the dimension shocks very neatly seat each member in their robot of choice. Loran and Harry are more worried that their mistress, Diana Soleil, may have been drawn here as well. If she has, she's in great danger...
Elsewhere...
Heh heh heh. The descendents of aliens who fought for the same humanity that persecuted them. The fugitives who quested for a home, and the free whose home showed them cruelty... and now the Gundams that destroyed the world. All bearers of the Stigma... this is an interesting mix of ingredients. He should be drawn here as well. I should go welcome him. I will return you to your unending hell, Accursed Wanderer...
Lovely! See you next chapter.
Oh, and full disclosure: I've lost my fork save for this path, so the current file is locked in, but after next chapter the Space and 11 routes are picking up after I replay from the GOONZ reunion to the introduction of Gaioh. I doubt anyone is into this for the statistical continuity, so it shouldn't affect anything, but it doesn't hurt to be transparent.
Also, like I was saying, the X and Turn A pilots can all switch robots freely within their shows.