Part 35: Episode 22 - Violated Wishes

Chapter Twenty Two: Violated Wishes

Music: Intermission



Welcome back. Last time we finally got rid of Ned, and afterwards witnessed a showdown between Zephyrs, Jimmer and Bolozof which resulted in the former being shot and left to die. However, not checking the body may have been a grave error on Jimmer’s part.

On the BIS side, Razma seems to have a plan in mind that’ll help to track down the missing children, so without further ado let’s dive straight in.

Music: Every Day



: We’ll work your fingers to the bone later, trust me. Until then, leave it to us.

: Hey Razma, I’m done with the antenna adjustments.

: Hey, nice! You really come through at times like this.



: Heh heh. Just kidding. We all count on you all the time. You’re always calm and knowledgeable.

: That might be taking it too far. But anyway, I’ve always done what I want, however I want.

: Hey, that’s the best way. There are tons of people in the world who haven’t figured out what they want to do.



:…am I going to do? I wonder if things will ever be as they were…together with Ares…)

: Stop worrying so much, son.

: No, er…I wasn’t…

: In my case I happened to grow up in and around the TV Station. Because of that, I was exposed to the world of grown-ups, their thoughts and their works, and that encouraged me to pursue my own hobbies and interests.



:…was so inevitable, I even regret parts of it. But as my father says, ‘One cannot truly hope for complete happiness’.

: What? But Mr. Yukito, you have done so well…

: Everyone has their dilemmas. For you, they are still in the future. After all, we are all free.

: Free?



: Ready anytime.

: Okay you two. Will you explain everything to us now?

: Yeah. You been working silently as if you were in a hurry, but you done now, right?



:…we are hacking into Earth’s surveillance satellites to figure out where they are.

: Whuh?!

: That’s actually possible?



:…board. It is a powerful model that has since been banned by the government. With this tool it is possible, although we do no have much time.

Uh…wasn’t this meant to be a civilian transport ship? Why does it have military grade communications equipment? I guess Twede and Robin could have had it installed later, but from the conversation it sounds like it came pre-installed.

: This just goes to show that old is not necessarily bad. And how much time do we have?



: That’s it?! How we gonna find anything in that time?

: Exactly. Not even the military are able to find them. I think that we know the outcome of this before we even try. I cannot agree to putting ourselves at risk, and making waste of what Mr. Deckson worked his whole life to achieve!

Wow, that’s a pretty big statement coming from Phil. He’s really shown some development in this route. It’s hard to imagine the Phil from the first half of the game asserting himself like this.



: Of course.

: Heh heh heh…actually, there’s one of these on Jojo and the other’s shoes.

: That’s…your prized tracer!



: But if we had an ‘eye’ that could see a large area for us, we would be able to trace it in a split second.

: Razma…you…

: Heh heh. Impressed?

Semyl slaps Razma all of a sudden!



: You sicko! It’s one thing to go chasin’ skirts, but I can’t believe you’d do that to…to children! And even family!!

: Hunh?!

: R…really? Mr. Razma, I must say that I am deeply disappointed and disgusted in you as a human being!



: Er…um…I think he was just trying to be prepared for something like this, because of what happened last time.

: Last time…what, with Bolozof and the explosion?

: Mmm-hmm.



: Of course.

: Hee hee…For you, that’s a very intuitive motive.

: Oh, give me a break. It wasn’t even my idea. It was the boss’.

: Deckson’s idea?



:…’If there is something you need to protect, protect it with all you have.’

: Deckson would say something like that.

: Razma…I’m sorry…I was wrong…



: Mr. Razma! I am so touched! I respect you so much as a human being!

: You know Phil…

I like to think Phil is actually making fun of Razma here.



: Good luck!

: (Now we’ll find out where you really are. Wait for me, Myona.)

Unfortunately, before that can happen fate intervenes.

Music: Tension



: What happened?

: It’s an enemy! And it’s headed this way!

: They’ve caught us completely off-guard. The camouflage should be up…



: Take care of the satellite stuff.

: Leave it to me.



This should read ‘Violated Wishes’.

Music: Black Ops



:…me. It’s like an enormous coffin.



: Heh heh. I suppose the answer would be BAHRAM. Does that answer your question?

: What?! Then you are…?!

: Oh my. Look who it is…Heh heh heh. Well. Somebody who understands the trials and tribulations of those at the top. What do you think? Should we take this opportunity to talk business?



: You should know better than to become emotional. That will only allow your opponent to control you.

:…Did BAHRAM really put you up to this? If not, order your group to disband at once…

: This situation is not something I planned for. You are partly to blame for this…after all, you did not frame Zephyrs as you should have. On top of it all, Vale…or as you people would call him, Ares…At any rate, had he not gotten so confused, things would have progressed much more smoothly.

Yeah, we know exactly what would have happened if we had been successful…



: Such a terrible accusation. They acted freely and of their own accord. I merely helped them along.

: What’s that supposed to mean?!

: Ten years ago, a ship crash landed on Mars due to a manoeuvring error, killing everyone on board. Officially there were no survivors, and the case was dismissed as a common accident. But in reality it was anything but. It was a contact accident which occurred as a result of a weapons test conducted by a military scientist from Earth.

: And that scientist was…



:…incident, a brother and a sister. Zephyrs took them both and used them in his experiments. The siblings grew up and began to plot revenge against him.

: Siblings? You’re not saying…

: Ares and Myona…



: What?!

: Pharsti…Shatner?

: The same name as our Pharsti…this can’t be a coincidence.



:…Ares and Myona.

: Ares and Myona…are brother and sister?

We already knew quite a lot of what Jimmer is telling us from the previous route, but the information regarding exactly how Ares and Myona came to be part of Zephyrs’ experiment is only revealed here. It clears up a few points such as why Ares holds Zephyrs responsible for the deaths of his parents.



: You got rid of him…

: Eliminating the root of evil is a fundament of good business, after all. His ‘Animus’ series is actually quite well-made for an Earth project. In fact, it could have been used against our interests in the future…so we needed to eradicate that risk.



:…down the Animus series before it was too late. Now I have gotten everything I wanted. All that’s left is the frosting on the cake. Heh heh…my plan worked out perfectly. It’s almost frightening how flawless it was.

The Self-Binder chime sounds.

: (What’s that sound?)

No sooner does Cage think about it than Bolozof suddenly appears!



:…killed meandering around like that.

: Bolozof!! How did you know where to find us?!

: Heh heh. Cage! Wherever you go, I am always watching…and hearing the collective screams of the Animus!

The chime sounds again.



: The lamb can never outrun the wolf. Prepare yourself!

: We have begun our intrusion into the satellite network. Please hold the fort until we are able to clear all of the security firewalls – we need another 176 seconds.

: That’s about 3 minutes…okay!



: Prevent the enemy from drawing too close!

: Right-o! I’ll give it my all!!

:…Cage, I…

: Pharsti. You are you, and nobody else. For now, we need to guard Saoshyant and find where they all are!



: Heh heh. I’m in the way, it seems. I shall watch from afar…

Jimmer withdraws and the mission begins in earnest.

Mission Map:



Player Phase Music: Offense and Defence
Enemy Phase Music: Impact

This is a pretty fun mission even if it does involve babysitting the Saoshyant again. The enemy is fairly spread out but dividing your forces to deal with them all at once carries more risk than it did before. The enemy squads activate sequentially, or when you choose to attack them, so staying put and weathering the storm is probably the best option. Bolozof is hanging out in the south western corner with a group of Ifrits, but luckily he doesn’t move for the first few turns. You’ll also notice that Vjaya is absent, which leaves a nasty gap in our defensive line.



I do nothing for the first turn and let the enemy come to me. The two northern Raptors are the only units that move; all the other enemies remain where they are.





Mebius and Cage bring one of them down.





Thanks to Double Action Cage attacks the second Raptor as well, with Warren delivering the finishing blow.

On the next turn most of the enemy units begin to move towards our position, although Bolozof and the Mummy Heads remain where they are. We also get a brief scene.



: We held them off somehow…now…

:…

: What happened? We’re almost in, right?

: Unfortunately we have failed. The password was changed just moments before login.



:…No.

: But you’re not going to give up, are you?

: It’s no use. Since this password doesn’t work we would have to try an infinite number of combinations to attempt to hack into the system.



: Dana, be realistic.

: I’m not ‘Dana’ anymore. How many times do I have to tell you that? Move. I’ll do it.

: H-hey!

: Start collecting data on prominent UNSF technicians. Nobody beneath at least supervisor rank. And go get my bag. Come on! Hurry!



: Everyone! Can you hear me? There’s been a complication! Give me 3 more minutes and I’ll make it work somehow!

: O-okay!

: What could you possibly do in that time?



:…users. Watch and learn.



Control is returned to us at this point. Our group is currently being menaced by four Cyclopses, two to the south and two offscreen to the north. The northern ones will take another turn to arrive, so I can focus on taking out the southern ones right now.





Yukito scores a lucky critical hit which allows Phil to take the first Cyclops out.





Cage hauls ass down to the second Cyclops with the help of Double Action. Razma nails it between the eyes right after.



On the AI’s turn every enemy starts moving towards the Saoshyant, including Bolozof. The enemy has apparently decided it’s time to step things up a notch.







Phil, Razma and Yukito team up to take out the southern Mummy Head.





Cage and Warren destroy one of the northern Cyclopses.



Mebius damages the other, but unfortunately Semyl doesn’t have the range or movement to finish it off.





All of the enemies move up and the Ifrits are now dangerously close to the Saoshyant. It’s time to destroy all the northern enemies so I can reroute some units down to the south.



Semyl takes out the wounded Cyclops from last turn.





Cage and Warren kill the first Mummy Head in the north.





Thanks to Double Action he can also help Mebius take out the other Mummy Head.



Meanwhile in the south Yukito takes off half an Ifrit’s HP. Unfortunately no one else can help him.





On the enemy turn the Ifrits attack, though only Razma and Phil take hits. Hilariously Phil tanks it far better than Razma does. I should probably upgrade the latter’s armour. At the end of the turn we get a scene.



: The password is…’Jonathan’? I wonder if they took it out of a favourite novel…or perhaps it is the name of a pet bird?

:…How on earth did you do that?

: Humans will favour certain things depending on their age, sex and environment. That could be a lover, a car, a pet…These things are governed by trends. I based the search on that data, and found some patterns. Nothing complicated.

I’d like to laugh at this but it happens far too often in real life.



: What are you talking about? If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t have gotten this far to begin with. My data provided the last kick. This is our victory. Or do you not want to share?

: No, not at all. Very well done, Robin.



: Thank you!

The Saoshyant retreats.

: Okay, now we just have to finish these guys! Ready?!

: Whenever you are!



Nadia appears to the west.



: Nadia?!

: This time I will not let you go!

: Do we really have to fight?



Fortunately since we no longer need to defend anything there’s no longer any reason to hold back or stay in a rigid formation.



Yukito finishes off the Ifrit he damaged last turn.







Mebius, Phil and Semyl focus their fire and kill another.





Razma and Cage take out a third.



Unfortunately doing so leaves the injured Razma vulnerable to the other Ifrit, which promptly demolishes him.



Thankfully he’s the only casualty, and Double Action means we can murder the approaching Bolozof in a single turn.





Doing so nets us another scene.



:…tell me these fools have gotten stronger…It’s not possible! I refuse to believe it!

: I became stronger so I could protect everyone! I’m different from someone like you, who became strong only for himself. That’s the difference!

Before Bolozof can run off with his tail between his legs as usual, Jimmer shows up again.



:…cretins – you, Vale, Zephyrs…? Ah, well. It can’t be helped. Bolozof! Come here!

: What?! Who do you think you are?! And who do you think you’re talking to?!

The Self-Binder chime rings yet again!



Bolozof’s Grafficane flies over to Jimmer!



:…too?!

: Heh heh…Good answer! It WAS quite obvious, but even so. You are suffering from overexposure to raw Metatron from test-piloting the Bizac and Iblis prototypes, with their unstable systems. Just like that Radam Levans…

This demands some explanation. ‘Radam Levans’ is actually a mistranslation of Radium Lavans, the protagonist of the OVA ‘Zone of the Enders: 2167 IDOLO’. He also appears in the TV Anime ‘Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i’. Radium was a member of BAHRAM and the pilot of the first ever Orbital Frame, Idolo. Without revealing too much of the plots of either anime, as Radium continues to pilot Idolo he becomes increasingly unhinged and violent, eventually losing his grip on reality completely. This change is eventually revealed to be a result of overexposure to the unshielded Metatron laced throughout the Frame.

In Bolozof’s case, his exposure to Metatron makes him vulnerable to the influence of the Self-Binder, which is ironic as hell since he never seems to have considered the possibility that what he did to Nadia could be done to him in turn.



: Heh heh heh…I can control you easily just by pressing the button lightly. Like this…







Bolozof proceeds to repair and power up.

: There has been a change in the enemy frame…I feel an abnormally strong energy…



:…You are such a comic character! I thoroughly enjoyed it.)

:…Jimmer, which one…do I destroy? Give…me…y-your…command…

: And another wonderful pawn is born! Now, Bolozof, destroy all of them! Every single one!



: You used the Self-Binder on him too?! Do you have no respect for humans?!

: The weak lose. It’s a very simple concept. Heh heh heh…My era is about to dawn…And soon those who dropped me to the status I am at now will regret what they did.

: Oh God…are you going to betray BAHRAM using Zephyrs’ experiments?



: Heh heh heh…I am busy. I shall leave the rest to him and tend to my duties. Good day, everyone.

Jimmer retreats.

: He ran away?



He sure did. Bolozof is now to the north, and it’ll take him a while to get to where we are.



His eyes are red in his status screen portrait, too. Funnily enough he’s also forty points below Nadia in his Battle and Shoot stats despite being four levels higher than her.







Mebius, Semyl and Yukito destroy the final NPC Ifrit, leaving just Nadia and Bolozof behind.



The AI can’t shoot anything so it simply advances. In Nadia’s case, right into our guns. If Cage attacks her a short scene plays.



: There is no meaning in a dead person…Deckson or Fraser!

: But don’t you care what happens to you?! What is the reason for us fighting, then?!

: I am Bolozof’s hands and feet. As long as he is alive, so too will I live!







Semyl strikes the finishing blow, taking Nadia down for good.



: Nadia! Escape!!

: The…ejection device has been removed from this Frame. I was able to serve…Bolozof until the…very end. Farewell. UGGGHHH!!!





: Nadiaaaaa!! Dammit, if only I had been more careful…!

: No, Cage. It is sad, but she chose this ending for herself. She gave her life…for the one she loved.

:…It was her choice…



Anyway, it’s about time to wrap things up.



It doesn’t matter how much you power up if your opponent is getting six attacks to your one, Bolozof.





Cage and Semyl combine their firepower once again and take Bolozof down.



: Jiiiiimmerrrrr!!! How could…you…do…this…to…me…To me!! I’ll make…you…re…gret…this…!! Aaaaaaagggghhhhh!!!



: That’s all of them…They were a tough enemy to beat, but we came out of it alive.

: Information as to Miss Myona and everyone else’s whereabouts should be available. Let us hurry back!

: Yeah…



BIS retreat and the screen fades out. But after they’ve gone…



:…hee…

Hmm! An individual who is most definitely not Amante was observing the battle. Unlike the previous route she’s been keeping a very low profile. What is she up to? We’ll find out in due time…

Music: Every Day



:…member?

: Seems like it…but he didn’t appear to be following direct orders from BAHRAM either.

: There’s something else that bothers me. Something about Myona’s real name being ‘Pharsti’.



:…have asked him directly…

: He said they took care of him…or something like that. And he got busted out of the military too ‘cuz there was some trouble, right?

: In any case, we’ll have to go out there. No matter who or what she and Testament are, at the very least, they’re one of us now.



: The results are in! The location is…

: Explain on the way! There’s no time to waste, and I’m worried about Myona and the children. Let’s go now! Twede!

: The flight path has been set, Cap’n Robin.



: ‘Cap’n’ makes it sound as if I have a peg-leg! Say ‘Captain’!

: Hunh? Uh…Roger, Captain.

: (Though I never said it didn’t take effort…)



The scene fades out, and when it comes back we’re in the hangar with Cage and Pharsti.



:…Miss Myona?

: Yes.

:…Cage, are you not curious? Why Miss Myona and I have the same name, ‘Pharsti’?



:…No.

: Pharsti, you have always been there to help me out whenever I needed it.

:…That is my job.



: Cage…why? If you are placed in danger because of it, it would render meaningless everything I have stood for.

: I have fought against many people…and destroyed them. We have been sharing these crimes, and these days, with each other all this time.

: Cage…I am a computer. Besides, I was designed to utilize humans as a weapon, just like the Ifrits…



: Hee hee…sometimes you say things so confidently even when you have no proof. At times it makes me question the validity of my thoughts. But now that makes me feel better. It is very strange…

: We’re the best partners that ever were!

: I agree. Cage, let us remain partners from this point on.



The screen fades out and the mission ends.





Well, that’s that. Nadia and Bolozof are out of the running and our heroes are on track to rescue Myona and the children from Marleblanke Dite. The hook about Zephyrs’ survival has yet to be addressed, however, and we still have one more mission before the final one…