Part 48: Episode XLVI: Fei Fong Wong and the Battle Over Nortune

Episode XLVI: Fei Fong Wong and the Battle Over Nortune

Music: Steel Giant




Anti-air fire fills the Nortune night sky as the Gebler Hecht bomb ships begin their assault on the capital of Kislev. This is a terrible night to be a resident of Nortune. First the public execution by dinosaur is stopped due to a giant robot’s intervention and now Aveh is trying to blow up the city.






The AA fire manages to take down a couple of the Hecht cruisers. Unfortunately, downing airships filled to the brim with explosives over populated areas isn’t exactly a great outcome...




“They really are intent on attacking the Imperial capital..."
"What!? What about the civilians?"
”You and I have met the same Gebler operatives, have we not...?”
"They plan on directly attacking the Imperial capital, Nortune...oh my god!"


“Most likely that ship is their main line of attack! If they drop something on the reactor...the whole Imperial capital will...!"
"...Be blown away!"
”These jerks couldn’t have waited like another day or two...? Sheesh!”


"Yes, however..."
"Doc, I'm gonna try. We can't just...turn and run away."
”I suppose me and Weltall could use some practice besides stupid mini-games. It’s been WAY too long.”
"...Alright. Be careful now."
”Got it. If I let another town I’m visiting explode, then people might start talking.”


Citan runs off to once more put on the appearance that he’s helping whilst actually doing fuck all again. Yeah, I see through your ploys Dr. Uzuki. Don’t think I’m not keeping track of all the times you’ve bailed out on the action now.


Meanwhile, Rico continues to mope for a bit, despite everyone knowing he’ll get his shit together and join in the fight before the update is over.

Over the skies of Nortune...




"!? That's......... Fei! What the...!?"
”...Why do I get the feeling I’d be better off filing a restraining order sooner rather than later?”


"He seems to follow us everywhere!"
"What's with this guy? A little too persistent, perhaps?"
"Third times a charm! Let's get 'em!"
"Ah! Wait!"
”At least fight him all at once this time! He’s just going to dominate you all again if you continue that absurd sparring in waves tactic! And...there they go... Not listening to a word again. Great...”

The Wandknight flies in front of Elly’s Gear...


"From our last incident, I can tell that you're friends with that Gear's pilot. But, there's no way we can stop. It doesn't matter that we're escorting the Hecht. I wanna fight him, not as enemy soldiers, but as rival competitors... We're the Gebler special forces and we won't be beaten!"
”He’s already beaten you twice...”
”That was just practice!”
“...Right.”
"Sorry, I'm gonna have to kick his butt. Any objections?"

The Wandknight flies off.


Welp, Elly decides it’s best to just hang back and wait for Fei to inevitably beat the shit out of all her comrades again. I think Citan and Elly are neck and neck for being the worst ever at their respective jobs.

Elsewhere...










”Or... Or...? Oh, for the love of god... REALLY?!”
“... What... you again!?"
”Am I going to have to hop out of my Gear and bicycle kick each one of you in the teeth individually to make you go away?! I’ve had this Gear back like five minutes and I’ve gotta fight you idiots again?! Argh!”




Yep. Time for a third boss rush match against the Gebler Goobers! We’re now facing “Aegisknight R”. I believe I can now safely say the R in “Rankar R” as well as these upcoming fights stands for “Recycled”. It’s the same damn fight all over again.




The only difference is now they do about double damage compared to last time. But, other than that it’s basically an identical set of match-ups defeated by an identical set of Heavy + Level 1 Deathblow combos.




Even Fei is getting fed up with this filler. You’d think at this point he’d at least attempt to straight up kill a few of these guys, instead of just letting them run away at the end of a battle. We’re a few thousand feet up. Just tear off their engines and punt them off the side of the Hecht already.




Swordknight R and the last couple of Gebler Goobers do have some decent damage output. But, unlike the previous ambush with the semi-bullshit match-up with Vierge after fighting these bozos with no break, we get our health and fuel topped off before taking on the main event. As such, it’s not a bad idea to flip on the Booster to take these guys out as we’ll run out of HP long before fuel resources.

After the second battle...


Everyone proceeds to ignore Citan as they’re more than capable of running to safety on their own. Though Hammer does dash over to speak with the doctor.


”Well, I mean THEY are doomed. But still. This ain’t good!”
"Don't give up, Hammer! Fei is fighting too! Fei...no longer wants to watch innocent people lose their homes, their town, those that are important to them..."


"Hmph, don't make me laugh. Who gives a damn about this crap town..."


Spoiler: He does. But only here in Kislev.


I think the filename says it all.

Back in the skies...




”You guys aren’t even remotely interesting! Why do you keep coming back?! At least Grahf has stupid dramatic speeches with poor research into synonyms for the word ‘power’. The hell do you guys keep coming back to fight me for?! Is the pay good?! Do you get frikkin’ hazard pay each time I halfway scrap your Gears?! WHAT?!”




Booster. Heavy hit. Level 1 Deathblow. Repeat twice. Dead.




”You’d think they would have figured out that it would be best to team up altogether to stand a chance. But at the rate they’re going , it’d probably just result in mid-air collisions...”

Rico and Stier out of fucking nowhere!


"Rico?"
"I don't need a reason to beat the crap out of anyone who pisses me off. And of course that means you too."
"That's also, one reason."
”Whatever floats your boat, big boy. Though...where the hell did you get your Gear from?”
“The C Block Arena is left nearly unguarded at night. Battlers are free to come and go as they please in order to perform maintenance on their Gears. They hadn’t revoked my access yet. Why? Did you go in a different route...?”
“...I hate you so much, doc.”
"Shut up, let's go."




Time to take on a pair of Wandknight R Gears. Stier has now joined the party for some head smashing to even the playing field. Once more, Boosters on and the same method of attack. Only Weltall and Stier are best off double teaming one of the twin Gears at a time to take it out quickly.




Unlike Rico’s on-foot performance, Stier isn’t all that bad. It’s pretty much the Gear equivalent of a tank. It hits heavy and hard, defense and armor are rock solid. And it is slow as hell. Even with Booster, Weltall usually gets two turns for every one Stier picks up. But Rico’s Gear can dish out 400-600 HP of damage with heavy attacks and 800+ with Level 1 Deathblows. So, the wait isn’t nearly as bad as on-foot Rico fighting.


”Wait, there is one more enemy Gear.”
“Eh? Naw, there’s only five of those Gebler losers. This is like the third fight I’ve been in against them.”
“Well there are six if you’re counting the big pink girly thing at six o’clock.”




"What!? You've come this far and now you're scared?"
”Look, it’s complicated. And kinda stupid...”
"I'll catch up, I promise. ...Please."
"...Well, even without you, I can make do by myself. Then...I guess I'll go on ahead."

Stier flies off alone...


“I thought you agreed to get out of the military!"
”No... You just muttered something about how the military look didn’t suit me. Though you liked my uniform...”
“Ahaha! You err...heard that...huh?”
"That's asking for too much! I'm an officer of the Gebler forces!"
"Then, you're saying this is also one of your duties!?"
”Man, who’d you piss off to get babysitting duties for these jokers?”
“H-hey!”
*lobs a Hadoken* “EAT A DICK!”
“Nooooooo!”
"Yes! My duty is to escort the Hecht. And to eliminate all enemies that get in its way... So you better get out of the way... Cause if you don't move then I'll have no choice but to eliminate you!"


Vierge flies over and does a really weak ass slap that doesn’t even connect. You can tell, because there’s no cartoon hearts flying out from the blow.


“How can you say that knowing where that ship is headed and what the outcome may be...?"
"..."
"C'mon, Elly! Say something!"


"Then..."
"Change. How I wanted to change... I've thought of changing, but I couldn't... I don't have the freedom like you do!"
"Freedom? Me?"
”You obviously don’t know me that well...”


“To be able to fight alongside those who believe in their own cause... Even if you have much more anguish to deal with... At least you have the freedom to choose your own path! Unlike me...!"
”Are you kidding me. Elly, I had a bomb strapped to my neck for the last week. A defective bomb that could blow up at any minute cuz the doc broke it. I had to go through sewers and deal with frat boy rat people and got beat up by Blanka from Street Fighter II and fought ANOTHER friggin’ dinosaur. And I finally got my Gear back and was gonna bail on this town and this crap happened. So stop talking about how you can’t go do whatever and...”
"Then why don't you do that too, Elly!?"
"If I could, I would already be doing it! But I can't... This is my place. And that's how it is here! So...please, understand..."
"Elly..."


"Huh?"
"...Bart and crew, even their whole ship, are all missing... They disappeared after the battle with Gebler. So, I don't have a place to belong to anymore..."
”And even then I was just kinda just going along with it because I had nothing better to do...”
“Really... Then, why are you fighting now? Who are you fighting for...?"


”Eh? Having long, awkward conversations about our places in the world in the middle of battle...? I cannot say I am really a fa—“
"Barging into someone else's country, and destroying the place... Dragging innocent people into becoming victims... Do you enjoy fighting that much!? Is it that much fun for you to watch people die!?"
"Don't be ridiculous! I would never find pleasure in that!"
"If that's the case...then come with me!"


Fei decides to take Weltall over and give Vierge a big ol’ hug. No, Fei! Bad touch!


"Just forget everything and come with me!!"


"Ouch! What?"
"Just come!"
”Only if we get out of this black screen. People are going to get the wrong idea from this sort of dialog!”
“What are you...? Oh... Ahahaha...right... Err...let’s land over there...”


Fei and Elly land their Gears and our hero drags his love interest out to chew her out for being a jerk.


“Does the word, 'duty' justify all of this? Does it!?"
“...”
"Elly!"


"You're still saying that?"
”After this war is over, that shit ain’t gonna hold up at Sky Nuremberg and you know it!”


Fei considers slapping the taste out of Elhaym’s mouth, but thinks better of it.

Music: Lost... Broken Shards


“If you don't want to then don't do it. You shouldn't have to force it just to have a place to belong..."
"..."
"What was I fighting you for just now? ...... You wanted to know? I don't really know. I know I was helping Bart and the others. But I still don't know what I should do. Maybe I'm just looking for a place to fit in. But I think it's better to fight than do nothing. If fighting helps you or your friends even a bit,
then it's worthwhile. That's......not nothing......it's something."
”...I think. Look, I dunno what I was going for there. The point is, I’m gonna get back in that Gear and go punch things until they stop killing innocent people cuz that’s the right thing to do.....or something!”
"Fei!"


"No! You can't! Dominia is not like the other soldiers! She is an elite within the Gebler elite. She's one of the Elements, Ramsus' personal guard! You won't stand a chance!"
"Still, I have to stop this."
"Fei..."
"Citan and Hammer have nothing to do with Kislev...but they're trying desperately to get the civilians to safety. Even Rico, who must hate this town, still stays with me. That's why I have to go."
”And yes, I know two out of those three names means nothing to you. I told you, I’m not good at this kinda stuff. The point is, it’s 22 hours into the game and my party is an even BIGGER sausage fest than the last time we spoke. So if you wanna join up already, that’d be cool. Or not... Whatever... I gotta airship to go bicycle kick.”

Fei re-enters Weltall and flies off back into battle...












Stier Concept Art