Part 47: Episode XLV (Part 2): Fei and Citan Disrupt the Workplace

Episode XLV (Part 2): Fei and Citan Disrupt the Workplace

Music: Invasion (Really...we’re going to a dungeon and you’re STILL gonna play this track...? )


We’re just going to have to overlook that pesky “realism” thing for a bit if we’re planning on continuing the story. Welcome to the Gear Dock we shall now proceed to raid, as per the chapter title.


Citan has decided we ought to be stealthy now because...look, I think Dr. Uzuki is just kind of shitty at this whole planning thing. But he hides it REALLY well. Case in point:

A pair of workers wanders out to chat briefly...


“No doubt... That last champion looks like he's been matched with the beast.”
“Now that's something. Let's get this work done and go check it out.”
“Yeah. We need to do that, we've been workin' too much lately.”

The workers then swipe a keycard and leave the area... Guess what the rest of the dungeon is going to be about... That’s right: finding another keycard so we can enter that same door. If we’d just jumped those two guys and karate kicked ‘em in the teeth as soon as they’d entered, we could have skipped fifteen minutes of tedium.


Citan says we cannot just waltz in the directions the guards hailed from, as there are more people back there. So up to the air ducts we go. Terrific!


Err...alright...I take back what I said about Rico and the absurdity of him being able to fit in the air vents. With a little more head room I think we could stuff Weltall down these things. Good grief.


Said massive air ducts are patrolled by Rico sized mutant Mechanics that are more annoying than dangerous. They can do a lengthy combo that does 75-100 HP of damage. Which is a decent chunk of damage. But the damn animation lasts like 12 seconds and they do it nearly every turn.


But they make up for this by throwing giant novelty wrenchs occasionally for the same amount of damage. So I can’t hate them too much.


Anyhow, the path through the vents is a rather straightforward north to south route. But, we can stop and take a look-see down some convenient open grates for a few clues and goodies.




First up, we see a series of Gear elevators cycling through different models of Gears. It seems Weltall is being kept in the leftmost one on the western side of the hangar. Let’s just keep that in mind.




A brief box pushing puzzle lands us in another layer of oversized ducts. This time we just travel east to west. Grate peeking reveals:


One of the workers left his wallet in the break room...


A soldier in the security office is mighty interested in something at his desk...


And in the same hangar Weltall is being kept are elevators leading out of the facility. All are good things to keep in memory.

Fei and Citan eventually reach the end of the air shafts and overhear another conversation...




That could be useful. Or we could have just punched out the first guy with the key and saved ten minutes. Thanks, Citan.

Another worker bursts into the room...


“Oh, it's already starting. There's no way we can miss this.”
”Beast? They’re making Rico fight another brightly colored hairy dude? Kislev is weird...”


The workers all run off, allowing Fei to nab the Master Key. Really, it’s the only key to this facility. So ‘master’ is a bit redundant, no?


"What's wrong, doc?"
"This is a part that allows a Gear to recover 30% of its HP. If you have this equipped, you can activate this during battle. It is a highly useful item but the drawback is that you will use fuel, so you must use it with caution."
"That really doesn't matter unless we get back the Gear, doc. There's no one here so let's hurry up and get out of here."
"Uh, oh yes. My usual habit... Well, we should take it anyway since we have the chance."
”Don’t most Gear parts weight like...a LOT, doc?”
“Do not sweat the small details, Fei.”

So yeah, we get a Frame HP30. 21 and a half hours into the game and we can just now heal Gears in-battle for the first time. Neat.


Now that we’ve received the Master Key, Citan gives the okay to just run through the corridors of the base and lets us beat the crap out of any soldiers in the way.




Kislev storm troopers apparently all subscribe to the RPG school of “sword beats gun”. And they’re right, as usual. Aveh soldier’s firearms did 20 HP of damage, tops. A combo from a Kislev Swordsman takes off upward of 70 HP a turn. On the plus side, they possess fairly low HP and deal out twice as much XP as those Mechanic jerks.


Anyhow, along the way backtracking through all the areas we spied on earlier, we can steal that mechanic’s wallet from the couch...


And nab a toy Minigear from the security office of that soldier. Though, the latter takes a wee bit of offense from our theft.


”Err...”


”...’Sup?”
“My super ultra great delicious excellent dynamite bomber special DX beautiful wonderful ultimately rare buy complete merging undefeated transforming I was going to put in a glass case in my home priceless Minigear!!”
”...Wha?”
“Thief!!”


Fei and Citan must fight for their right to steal people’s action figures. There’s no point to stealing the Minigear, other than to be a dick. But Fei is WAY behind on his asshole antics quota. So anything will do at this point. Plus, the subsequent battle drops an Evasion Ring (guess what that increases) so that’s a nice bonus.




Eventually, we circle back around to the first room and this brief, sucky little dungeon comes to an end.


There is no boss fight or really anyone at all guarding Weltall. We just need to cycle the appropriate elevator, as seen in the previous spying section, to reclaim our Gear. Sorry, Citan. You’re going to have to go on foot. Giant Robot protocol dictates, unless it is a comical escape sequence, only women get to ride shotgun in a single seater mecha suit.




Before we leave, we can hit up a Repair Gear on the far side of the hangar that sells a shiny new Frame upgrade for Weltall that boosts its HP over 5000. It’s definitely worth picking it up since my RPG battle senses are picking up another boss rush in the near future.


Welp, let’s get out of this sorry excuse for a dungeon and see how Rico and this “beast” are doing topside.

Meanwhile, in the Battling Arena...


”I mean battling, sure. But Battling?! Absurd.”






“What's...this vibration?"
”I really hope there’s just a Beach Boys concert the next arena over...”
"A Gear doesn't vibrate like this... It can't...be."

Music: Steel Giant




Bwahaha! Okay. Kislev might suck in general. But their method of execution for treason is hilarious. What sort of staff meeting comes to the consensus that the best form of capital punishment should be fighting a dinosaur unarmed? Is the Empire’s high command twelve years old?


“...Gear!?"








Weltall dashes over and shoulder checks the shit out of the Rankar. Alright, this is two redheads in a row we’ve saved from being eaten by dinosaurs. If another one shows up and is attempting to eat Dan, I quit.


In any case, it is time for a rematch between giant robot and dinosaur. This is the “Rankar R”. I have no idea what the R signifies.




Other than perhaps “runt”, as it goes down in about two hits. But that makes the score:

Fei Fong Wong – 2
Goddamn Dinosaurs – 0



After the battle...


"To get this back. It's not that I came here to save you... The elevator I happened to use to escape put me in the arena. I saw you were getting attacked. That's why I saved you...nothing more than that."
”Plus, come on. Kicking the shit out of a tyrannosaurus with a Gear is never going to get old.”
"For a coincidence, that's a convenient story..."
*shakes head*"It's up to you what you think of it... So, what're you gonna do now?"
"...Do what?"
"I barged into the arena.”
”And killed Capital Punishment Barney...”
“We're also fugitives...that's why we must escape. If you stay, they'll probably make you fight that monster again. This time you're gonna die... Is that what you want?"
"..."


“But in your state of mind..."
"Silence! Shut up! Twice. That's twice you've... If you want to escape from the Empire, do it now. I have no intentions of leaving. Even if this is going to be the end for me!!"
”Huh... Seeing someone else pulling this whole mopey spiel kinda puts into perspective what a tool I was being earlier...”





”Did they already release more dinosaurs or what? How many of those things do they have around here?!”
*shakes head* "This vibration... That's...no? It's not coming from the ground. Is it the...vibration in the atmosphere?"


”Why do I get the feeling I’m not gonna be able to take that nap I wanted...?”

Over the skies of Nortune...

Music: Steel Giant




And right on cue, Gebler is here to nuke the capital. Terrific timing...










“Fei Suggests” Concept Art – What IS Fei suggesting? Let me hear your thoughts.