Part 49: Irreconcilable Methods

I caught it up and put away my extra saves for the next two routes, so let's just get right back into it.



This time Crowe decides that he might as well go see the stars. The rest of the conversation goes exactly the same way as before.



The Skulls and Meisters are having their own conversation about how the Birth of Calamity and rise of Imperium have caused problems for everybody, especially the countries on the Imperium's warpath. "They're cutting a gash in the world as they travel," remarks Allelujah. And not just a physical one - bitterness and paranoia are ripping people apart in their wake as well, while civilians live in constant fear that they may be swallowed in the blast. Worst of all, the Imperium's forces are a bottomless well of mindless, merciless, and unstoppable DAMons. Imperium spreads fear, terror, and violence in their wake, and leaves a scorched wasteland behind them, just like Limonesia. And as if kicking them while they're down, a nation hit by the Imperium can't even rebuild without being descended on by their neighbors like jackals hungry for easy resources.

Even the superpowers can't stand up to the Imperium. No one can predict where the warship that constitutes it will turn at any time, for one thing. Even if one could, victory is far from assured, and the Imperium's wrath isn't something anyone wants to earn. On the other hand, several governments have approached the Imperium to beg and bargain for their own safety - under the table, of course. But what Imperium plans to do after taking over and/or destroying the world, no one here can say.



"The Imperium is bringing chaos and conflict into the world," declares Setsuna. "So we must eradicate them. It is our duty." Crowe just shakes his head. The truth is, he's as dedicated to his cause as Setsuna is his, in his own way - using the new world order as an excuse to skip on his debt doesn't sit well with his sense of honor, so he's going to keep on piloting the Brasta and following the team looking for trouble. Besides which, his job is hunting DAMons and the Brasta is a machine built for no more or less, so it only makes sense that he stick with the dudes that plan to take on the Imperium. And that's us guys, or Setsuna at least. Celestial Being's on board, and that means Dancouga's along for the ride. The S. M. S. crew won't sit this battle out, and they doubt Jeffrey and the Quarter will either. We've got a team!

So what do you think, Lockon? Am I as good at rallying the troops as your Sumeragi?
Not bad. I almost forgot you're a poor guy with a ridiculous pile of debt.
Yeah, well, just wait until I take down all those new DAMons and their boss.
Wait, if you do that, the Brasta's job will be all over.
Guess you'll be out of a job, Crowe.
...
Shoulda looked before you made that leap, buddy.
All right then. Let's get Crowe fired, guys.
I will dedicate all my resources to this mission.

But seriously, he really did motivate everyone. Now we just wait for the commanders to decide our next move...



The Imperium is parked over Europe, and according to Veda, several nearby AEU territories have reached out to it. The captains guess that these are lands that aim to use the Imperium's shadow to rebel against the AEU's rule. Just one more thing rocking the boat.

Jeffrey changes the subject and asks if Sumeragi won't consider joining the Macross fleet. It's obvious Celestial Being is going to challenge the Imperium, but they'll need more firepower than they have. So the Frontier will step in to offer aid, asks Tieria? Well, Jeffrey wouldn't have put it like that. The Frontier is not an outside force intervening; it's a nation of this planet now and must act accordingly. And while, as Cathy objects, Jeffrey has no authority over the fleet, he must do what he thinks is right, and that's to do everything that is in his power to help. His whole crew is behind him, too.

With that decided, Jeffrey plans to ask the owner of the S. M. S. squad (a private force, if you remember) for his support, and has Cathy draw up a report to the fleet's government stating the Quarter's position as liaison between the fleet and the U. N. They all hope that the appearance of a common enemy will unite the planet, but reality doesn't always work out so cleanly, and it's just as possible that the Imperium will stoke the fires of war...



The alarm warns the crew of an approaching mass - and it's DAMons! Jeffrey orders all units to scramble...


Chapter 24: Irreconcilable Differences
(space route)



Yep, Damons. Just Bulldamons and Damons, though. It's a little surprising that they'd chase us all the way out to space, but maybe Ime just wants Crowe's head that much.



There's just enough room to deploy everyone. Not much point not doing that.



Crowe is always ready to crush some Damons, and the rest of the gang wants to show the Imperium that some of the planet is still prepared to fight them.



So the mission is clearing the pack of Damons in three turns, using that bit of language that says there's more on the way ("wipe out the enemies," not "finish the map").



I guess I'll spread out east and south and then meet back up in the middle.



Luckily, the team is set up pretty well to divide into Celestial Being and Skull teams. I suppose Dancouga should be with Celestial Being, but the S. M. S. is in greater need of Dancouga's firepower (whenever Dancouga comes online, anyway) and Celestial Being of Crowe's support.



And after a couple of kills, Feldt notices a brief blip on the radar. It vanished pretty quickly and isn't doing anything particular. Sumeragi wonders if someone is watching us from the shadows.

The more you hold a human down, the higher they end up flying. Or at least, that's what we do around here.
Don't underestimate us, Imperium! We're going to take you out!



So here's the CB side.




The Damons all move in, but nothing engaging happens.




But see, we've clustered into two definite skirmishes.



Team Macross is really support heavy, so...






Best to use that against the Bulldamons.



Apparently this particular move is called "Formation M. M. Jenius." I like it.






And it works.



Let's start taking out the Damons from the edges inward.



Bobby learns Mercy.



Also, Aoi can keep Michel company. (That's the other advantage to swapping her and Crowe.)





And hey, I almost forgot Ozma gets two turns (because I do not use these people much).




On the other Bulldamon front, Setsuna wastes two at once with both Lockon and Crowe.




The other Meisters also attack with Lockon and Crowe.






And for their hat trick, they both blast the one Bulldamon that probably thought it was safe.



Will they all die?






I... guess not.





Fuck it.



That's all the Damons, but something else is approaching.




It's a squad of the U. N. forces, including OZ's new Tauros suits. They must have been watching this whole time!



Jeffrey tries to explain that they were attacked by Damon and made a truce with Celestial Being to defend themselves, but the OZ commander refuses to hear it. Jeffrey then protests that he's got cover from the Peacekeeping Council to maintain a truce with CB for the purpose of resisting the Imperium. But that's not going to stop the feddies, who have orders from on high to crush any terrorists they run across. In fact, our GOONZ think it's a pretty good bet that they just waited for us to take out the Damons, figuring we'd be easier to wipe up after the battle.

It's a reason to fight if anything is, but Sumeragi holds her forces back. Mounting an attack would reflect badly on Jeffrey's standing with the WPC - and besides, if our real enemy is the Imperium, there's nothing to be gained by picking on Earth's best and brightest.



Unfortunately, the choice is taken out of her hands. But those robots certainly weren't shot down by any of us.



It's more Gundams, and they've got the R-Daigun with them! (It's those guys from the last future chapter.)



The leader introduces himself as the Meister of Gundam Throne Ein, Johan Trinity, and he says he's come to "help us." All of them open fire.

Shoot all you've got, Nena! Don't hold anything back!
Ahahaha! Come on, Mihael, when have I ever held back?

Welp, so much for negotiations. The feddies think we were stalling for our sneak attack, naturally assume the Thrones are GOONZ Gundams, and open fire. I guess we have no choice but to defend ourselves, but we can try to avoid shooting cockpits. Right?



Setsuna's mind is blown, again, to find out that other Meisters exist.



So yeah, kill disable all enemies.



The Trinities are on our side as CPU-controlled allies. Though, as Crowe says, "not that we're not grateful for the help, but with friends like these..."

Anyway, since I'm a dumb with my weaponless battleship, the charge at OZ will have to be led by Crowe and Setsuna alone.

You guys must have a lot of time on your hands to stalk little old us around.
Why don't you spend it fighting the Imperium? We'd be glad to lend you a hand!



This world has no God. That is why I became Gundam.
All who desire war are my enemies!



And that's all CB can offer.



Meanwhile, the rest of these dudes need to intercept the other corner. The NPCs will probably beat them to it, but I can afford each of them a fight or two.

In this world of increasing chaos, these halfhearted methods can no longer bring Aeolia's plan to fruition.
Our mission must be our top and only priority. Everything else is expendable.










You assholes thought you could beat Celestial Being after they got all tired out on those Damons? Well, you were dead wrong!
We're not pathetic softies like they are! Mihael Trinity! Exterminate!

(because I guess he's a Dalek)








One dead guy. Whoops.



Nena and Red Dancouga just move.



Standing Tortoises are actually kind of tough.





But Scopedogs aren't!

(My mission is to defeat Dancouga Nova. I shouldn't be doing this.)







But she can't counterattack.

I hope you're not thinking the Drei's just a support unit, because if you are, you're in for a nasty surprise!
Destroy him! Destroy him!
Hee hee hee! I was going to smash him whether you said to or not!



She can't counterattack either.









Well, right after, Nena gets into a proper duel, so here.



Finally, we get to see the Taurus in action, and...









they're not that impressive.



The rest of them get shot and that's it.



I should probably try and keep some of these dudes from getting murdered.

So here's the thing... I know you guys consider us and the Meisters to be, like, enemies...
But think about who your real enemy is! If you can't figure that out, why are you even soldiers?






(Kurara learns Snipe. It'll probably be useful.)

The Imperium is taking over the world! Why are you wasting time doing this?
Don't you know who our real enemies are? Or are you our enemies too?








Alto's pretty mad.






On the other side, the Meisters take out all those wonderful new Taurus.



Tieria learns Analyze. Nice, and flavorful.



Setsuna and Crowe move in to help the S. M. S. team, though I don't know if they'll make it in time to do any good with the Trinities having a party over there.





And... yep. That's two dead guys with blood on my hands, but that many robots closer to the end of the chapter.




Oh, there are a couple of ATs left. One of them tries to damage Ptolemaios.



The other isn't even that smart.





And one more corpse. The other ones hit Nena, but survived, so I'll "save" them.







See? Perfectly safe.




Might as well end it with some overkill.




Never mind, that soldier's going to live--






NOPE.



Anyway, that's the last of them for real. Jeffrey issues the orders to fire an S. O. S. beacon and then clear out of the area. The Trinities point out that leaving them alive at all, let alone helping them escape, could be dangerous in its own right, but Setsuna glares them down, as does Crowe. Besides, if we're talking about causing problems for us, that started with the Trinities' "help" itself.

Johan requests permission to dock with the Ptolemy, where we can continue the conversation. Sumeragi has some questions for them herself, so let's let them on this once. But the red Dancouga skips the area rather than join the circle.



But there's something wrong with those new Gundams. Veda doesn't know of them, nor did Feldt ever hear anything from her Gundam engineer parents. And they're not exactly ours, either; they aren't Colony-flavor Gundams, but they're using GN Particles, though their solar furnaces are of a different make.

That's why Sumeragi's let them on - she wants to hear their story from their own mouths, and without anyone outside of Celestial Being in the room.



And here they are - Johan, Mihael, and Nena Trinity, a set of young blood siblings and Meisters of the Gundam Throne Ein, Zwei, and Drei, respectively. Nena asks who was in the Exia, and on finding out, moves in for a quick kiss! Setsuna pushes her away, and Mihael threatens to beat his face in as Nena's Haro eggs him on. Johan has to pull him back.



While all this is going on, Lockon's Haro recognizes Nena's as its big brother, but the black Haro doesn't recognize the little one.



But down to business. Johan refuses to answer any of Sumeragi's queries - he says their mission is so secret that he can't. But Mihael does say that it's doing something about Celestial Being's roundabout, weaksauce tactics. Tieria storms out to commune with Veda, and Nena gets bored and wanders off to wander around the ship.



She asks if Setsuna wants to come with her, but Setsuna just glares. For a moment, Nena goes dark and tells him not to make her mad.

Anyway, the new Meisters have the same endgame as Celestial Being: world peace. And whatever happened between us and R-Daigun before, it's on their side now. Well, on their side in the same sense that we're on GOONZ' side, at any rate. Well, if he's going to be cryptic, there's no point pressing further.

But what Sumeragi is really curious about, she says, is how determined they are to end war. Johan says they're just as determined as us; Mihael throws in that we're the ones that would be holding them back. "What about it, ya half-baked lab kid?" he taunts Allelujah, and once again Johan has to shut him up.

But while Mihael may be a douchebag, Johan agrees with his point. Sumeragi's whole interfering-in-war strategy alone isn't going anywhere, so the Trinities are going to implement their own version of it - though we're free to keep doing our thing if we want. We'll see who gets the results Aeolia Schenberg intended. Setsuna wonders if they're "truly Gundam"...



Shit, I guess Setsuna should have kept an eye on Nena. By the time Tieria gets to Veda's room, she's already there. "How did you get in here?" he demands. "The door," she replies, and skips away.



The Macross bridge crew sees the Throne team departing the Ptolemy. They figure the Ptolemy's crew must have been shaken up by the whole thing - especially Setsuna, figures Bobby, since we all know how he feels about Gundams. (By the way, Bobby is Team Tieria. "His makeup looks gorgeous," he claims.)



Tanaka's calling space to check up on us. Truth be told, the surface hasn't been a sunny day either, though. Speaking of the surface, though, there's something down there we've got to see. Apparently, a series of dimensional quakes on the Dark Continent have been coughing up people with weapons from another world into ours, and the Crushers have been investigating them. They might happen up in orbit, too, so he wants us to stay alert. All we know about these foreigners is that they all belong to a group known as... ZEUTH.



NEXT CHAPTER: Did you think we were done with Gundams? Too bad!