Part 89: Welcoming the Victors Home

It's time to finish upgrading ZEXIS, I think.


Scopedog (Chirico Cuvie)
Skills
???
Precise Attack
Prevail L9
Ammo Save
Attack Again
Dash
Spirits
Focus - 15
Sense - 20
Snipe - 20
Fury - 20
Soul - 50
Traits
-
Weapons
Varies
Ace Bonus: +300 attack at 130 Will.
Full Upgrade Bonus: +10 crit rate.
Custom Bonus: +30 crit rate to all weapons.

I'm not convinced Chirico is capable of not scoring criticals at this point. Anyway, he'll be using the RM for this chapter; the key to winning it is as shallow a Will ramp as you can get, and while the RM has no Assault Combat (!), its Solid Shooter is more powerful to make up for it and has no Will requirement.

If you want to be really rude about Chirico, attach a Sniper Kit for another 20% critical. You can get the LRS pack's Assault Combat up to a base chance of 85%, before Chirico's own Skill stat and Prevail.

"Fury" is a worse name every time I see it, since it's mostly used on pilots who are the very opposite of "fury."



Gawain (Zero, C. C.)
Skills
Tactics
Command L2
Morale
Break Will Limit
Hit & Away
EN Save
Spirits
(Zero)
Analyze - 20
Strike - 20
Invincible - 15
Panic - 50
(C. C. - SP Regen)
Scan - 1
Bless - 50
Focus - 20
Mercy - 10
Exhaust - 45
Traits
Jamming Unit
Weapons
Slash Haken (12 ammo)
Hadron Cannon (40 NE, 110 Will)
Hadron Cannon (MAP) (60 EN, 130 Will, size)
Ace Bonus: Radius of Tactics effect +2.
Full Upgrade Bonus: +1 weapon range.
Custom Bonus: +100 EN.

I'm never sure what Gawain is in need of, but as a cannon machine, as usual, range is a good default. There's a different bonus for Zero's new robot in the next game that just breaks it in half, though.



Brasta (Crowe Brust)
Skills
Offensive Support L2
Chain Attack
Fortune
Hit & Away
Attack Again
Spirits
Focus - 15
Sense - 20
Snipe - 20
Assail - 25
Valor - 35
Traits
Shield
EN Regen (S)
Weapons
Bunker Break (15 EN)
Eagle Shot (10 ammo)
Bayonet Spiker (30 EN, 105 Will, mobility)
Clutch Sniper (6 ammo, 105 Will, barrier)
ACP Phi (4 ammo, 115 Will, size)
SPIGOT VX (70 EN, 130 Will, barrier, size)
Ace Bonus: +25% earned money, 1.1x damage dealt at 130 Will.
Full Upgrade Bonus: +1 weapon range.
Custom Bonus: +1 movement. Gain EN Regen (S).

Finally, we come all the way back around to our old friend Crowe Brust. This right here shows how far he's come, and to be honest, how far I've come as well. Anyway, range aids Crowe on every level, and the Brasta's own bonus makes him faster already.

I'll do the same for ZEUTH in the next couple of chapters; fourteen "main" units from ZEXIS are now fully upgraded (leaving out Renton and Watta). This is leaving out a lot of non-main units, including several sidekicks, but notably and unfortunately also Celestial Being, the Colony Gundams, the S. M. S. squad, and the Black Knights (well, mostly Karen).



Takeru is still worried about Zuul's last words.



But he can't tell Rose, or anyone else. Besides, he believes Zuul died. Right?

We've cleaned up the Earth Sphere and now we've taken care of the threats in space. All that's left is to return to Earth as heroes and deal with the last threats there - the puppetmaster and the Imperium.



Crowe's actually getting nostalgic. If you think about it, it's actually a long series of coincidences that all of us are fighting together. This would never have happened if only space hadn't shattered. If only Simon hadn't dug up out of his village, if Nia hadn't been disowned. If Kouji hadn't stumbled into his grandfather's legacy. If another twist of space and time hadn't summoned the Frontier fleet, or ZEUTH. For that matter, it's a miracle of its own that Celestial Being, the Black Knights, and Dancouga Nova managed to get together instead of waging war on each other. (In another future, Celestial Being may easily have targetted Dai-Guard, too.)

Loran says that it's because we all have the same noble goal, but we all know very well that it's not that easy to get people to put aside their differences. In fact, practically speaking, you would have to engineer a common enemy. It's fair to say GOONZ exists because humanity has no lack of common enemies. The beastmen, the Gishin, the Vajra and the Invaders... and finally, the Imperium.

Loran still doesn't believe that people can't work together without something to fight against, and neither does Simon. Jiron and Akagi admit it may be true, but it doesn't matter what brought them together as long as they stay together, working for good. It would be nice if Zero and Sumeragi felt the same way and don't start their own war when this one's over. Not because they don't believe in peace, though, points out Crowe. "Because peace, and good, mean different things to different people. They'll fight for their own definition of peace."

Right now, though, we should worry about the Imperium. What comes after, we can deal with after.



And the bogey siren goes off. We're still pretty far out from the Earth, though? Whoever it is means business, and that means only one thing: the Imperium.


Chapter 47: Welcoming the Victors Home



We're jumping right into it; there's a cluster of Damons coming at us.



Oh boy.

For the first time, the King of Destruction, as we still know him, asks us to call him Gaioh. It seems like a bad arena for a final battle, though...

Nah. Just satisfying my own curiosity.
What?
I'm here to congratulate you for winning the games and making it to the finals.
What are you talking about?
We wouldn't understand anything the King of Damons says anyway!
So the final round of this tournament of yours is our battle with the Imperium, right?
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. You only just won the semifinals.
The finals are coming up, but first, I'm here to put you in an exhibition match.
That's stupid! We'll fight you right now if you're ready!
You have three minutes.
Three minutes?
My buddies here will fight you for three minutes. Show me what you can do.
No way! We don't have time to play along with your stupid games!
Just so you know, I'm pretty busy myself.
That's actually why I came out here for you guys.
What do you mean by that, Gaioh?
I don't care for answering your questions. Just for fighting.
Why, you...
Yeah, unload that anger on these things.
See you in three minutes. I can't wait.



Gaioh leaves, and his Damons begin to charge...



But GOONZ is all too ready to respond! The Damons will only engage for three minutes, so we're free to pass if we can hold out until the fourth turn - but actually defeating them within Gaioh's little time limit is worth an SR Point and intact pride.



Correspondingly, the enemy force is a pack of Rhinodamons. And for the record, nothing is going to happen this chapter. No talking, no reinforcements, just playing Gaioh's ridiculous little game.

It's actually to my advantage to allow them to come to me for at least a turn.





With strong enemies and a short time limit, Will is at a tremendous premium and low-Will weapons are valuable.



And so GOONZ takes up a formation I like to describe as "come and get us".





And so they do.



I was wrong about the Rouse Spirit, by the way.



In this game, it adds +5 Will to every unit in the four immediately surrounding squares.



It's mainly for support pilots and subpilots, of course.



Crowe learns Courage, his last Spirit. It's a fairly cheap version at 55 SP, too.



And it really sucks that I won't be taking Karen into endgame, because she learns her own last Spirit, Soul. It doesn't stack with Valor, by the way.



Akagi also learns Courage, filling in the last of Dai-Guard's Spirit slots.



Anyway, the Rhinodamons up here are not faring well against the bulk of GOONZ, but...



The team dealing with the bottom half of the map need reinforcements, I think.



Cathy has Trust now.

We've brought 20 units and we're down to nine Rhinodamons with turn 2 ending.



Three up here, moderately wounded. Maybe two attacks each.



Two here, moderately wounded.



Same.



And finally, this idiot.



All in all, I probably imbalanced my forces, but I'm pretty sure I can deal.



After all, this is the kind of stage Assail was made for, letting units hit enemies from nearly 20 (or, in Aquarion's case, easily over 20) squares away.




One more enemy phase, and crunch time. This is when all the Valor and the last few Drives come out.





Raaaaaaaagh!





I guess this stage is kinda fun.





If the idea was to just crush the hell out of what were once the most annoying enemies in the game, I guess it's working.




It helps that my units are like 100%/7 upgraded, of course. On a first play through, this stage is just a slog.





But this doesn't seem like nearly as much of a pain now that I remember how much SP I have lying around.





I guess even Chirico can't always get criticals on enemies as nasty as Damons, though.




That's enough of me babbling.

Gaioh doesn't even come back to congratulate us. What a jerk! He must have only come to taunt us - to let us know what's waiting for us when we come back to Earth. He thinks he we can't handle it? We'll have to show him.



The guys from ZEUTH haven't fought him like GOONZ did, just the once; they don't realize he's got the bite to back up his douchery. When we fought him in the ruins of Limonesia, he kicked our asses. But that was a long time ago; we've fought a long series of powerful enemies since then, and we have more friends by our side, too. Gaioh's arrogance may once have been deserved, but now we've got the power to take him down a few pegs.



To celebrate our victory and our safe return, Runa suggests throwing a party! It'll help raise our spirits and affirm our teamhood for the battles yet to come. Kouji and Eiji go to let the commanders know, while Runa, Karen, and Leele get planning. 21st Century is pitching in too - the younger GOONZ aren't wrong...



But Crowe's too pensive to be excited along with them. Gaioh seemed to imply that the finals of his "tournament" wouldn't be with the Imperium, but then...