All hell has broken loose, and the Divine Crusaders are rapidly conquering territories across the globe. Meanwhile, diplomat Nibhal Mubhal
and EOT Council president Karl Schtleseman are worrying about the current situation with the Aerogaters, since humanity effectively declared war on them thanks to Shu's actions in the last chapter. Not only are they now at war, Bian also told the world about the existence of the aliens. Nibhal wonders who's going to take responsibility for this mess, but Karl assures him that they can censor the media to avoid any public knowledge of an alien invasion. Which should be easy, since no one on Earth must've had any idea what the hell Bian was talking about when he made his speech.
Karl says the DC rebellion is a minor problem, since the EFA can easily crush a faction of that size. Nibhal doesn't think so: what Karl hasn't considered is that the UCC is sympathing with the DC because they don't like the EOT Council or EFA. Seems they think the EFA and EOT Council are planning to use this incident to take control of space, but Karl says this is an army matter and the EOT Council has nothing to do with it. Nibhal says he'll tell his superior about these concerns, and leaves.
Not being a particularly subtle person, Karl calls him a pig as soon as he's out of the door, and gets to discussing the Antarctica incident with the commanders. The Shirogane and the Coatsland base are toast, and Albert Grey has been wounded. He'll live, though, so that's not really an issue. In the time between the incident and the current conversation, the EFA has tried to invade the DC headquarters on the Marquesas Islands, but has been pushed back by a DC counteroffensive. In some miraculous fashion, the most organized military on Earth is getting trounced by a rogue faction. Those certainly are some tough rogues. Aside from Bian Zoldark, Maier von Branstein of the UCC is identified as a major enemy in the current war, for the reasons mentioned above. Must be fun when the Bransteins have family gatherings, given how they're all playing different factions.
At the Far East Brigade headquarters, we learn exactly how powerful the DC is: the East Asia Brigade and Chinese Brigade have officially been defeated today, after the DC entered Vietnam a month ago. The EFA base on Okinawa has fallen as well, and soon they'll be invading China and Japan. Hans, seemingly trying to save his own skin here, suggests that they align themselves with the DC but Laker will have none of it. Very practical, Hans, but you couldn't look like more of a Quisling if you tried. There's no guarantee the DC won't attack civilians, so the EFA will have to protect them. The two are interrupted by sudden news of DC forces attacking their bases, with the Sasebo and Kasuga bases in particular calling for backup. Time to get this show on the road: DEFCON 3 is a go, and the PT platoon and air squadrons are scrambled.
The SRX team soon receives word of all this, and is ordered to sortie right away. Rai has his doubts about deploying PTs in a non-alien battle, especially since they pilot test models, but Ingram tells them they can't be selective about who they deploy in a situation like this. What, are humanoid robots only effective against alien opponents or something? Really not following the logic here, unless the Aerogaters are specifically weak against humans. Justifying the use of mechs in a military setting is always hard, but in this case it looks even weirder the way they try to justify it. Aside from the PT shortage, another concern is that the enemy might bring along a mech again, like they did when we fought Tenzan. Makes sense, given how many jets I've already taken down using these things.
Cut to the battle at Sasebo, where we re-meet the group that passed by our team at the end of episode 3. Garnet, Giado, Latooni, and their team captain Kai Kitamura are the only people still alive and fighting. Garnet and Giado do a bit of back-and-forth bickering about the current situation, and Giado concludes Garnet must be fine if she's still "givin' [him] lip like dat". He concludes that the enemy has more firepower and better-trained pilots, but as is usually the case with these people, that does not deter him from continuing to attack, and Garnet follows him. Latooni, however, is specifically told by Giado to retreat, leaving her confused why he would say this.
GIADO: An elite of da School shouldn't die in a place like dis. You're too young.
What exactly the School is, is part of a subplot in future missions so I'll be leaving out a description of that for now. Can't just go dumping exposition left and right when they deliberately do this kinda thing for dramatic tension, now can I. Anyway, Latooni is having none of that and decides to continue fighting, as she feels she might be useful. I'd say this is more than true, given that she consistently turns up among my favorite characters during playthroughs. Very good evasion stats, and if you put her in a fast mech she's practically untouchable, even in the endgame.
Tanks and infantry are all wiped out at this point, and Kai tells his troops to retreat. Not out of cowardice, though; in true Aggressor fashion, he tells them to leave it to him and his PT. The mooks retreat, but our trio of playable characters obviously doesn't, though they do remind Kai that PTs are a bit too valuable to risk in a fight like this. Kai mostly wants to see the DC's new weapon, which seems as good a reason to join a battle as any.
At this point I'm in control, with four units total against a small swarm of planes. Planes don't have a lot of power in terms of guns or armor, but they're fast enough that dodging is practically as good as armor. I myself have three F-28s, plus Kai in his Gespenst. He's rather slow, though, so most of the planes are eliminated by the other three because they're fast enough to instantly reach the enemy. Another advantage of having flying units: they can completely ignore terrain effects, and thus are not slowed down by different types of terrain either. It's definitely a reason for me to have as many flying units as I can. A few homing missiles, and almost all of the jets are either destroyed or near-death.
As expected, these mooks are all fairly weak, and I could've theoretically finished them all off with a single character. Still, after two turns of fighting these things, the SRX team arrives as backup...and they immediately get funny looks from the other three pilots. Rai and Aya focus on the jets, but Ryusei is once again freaking out as he enters battle, earning him some mockery from Giado and Garnet for being obviously green. Along with a serious case of PT envy, that is. Everyone wants to pilot one of these things, but few people get to do it. Rai unsubtly tells Ryusei not to waste a PT if he's gonna be a coward. Once again, Ryusei is furious, but Rai suggests pointing this anger enemy-ward. Ryusei can see this is a case where people are going to die if he doesn't fight, so he obliges. Well, people are also going to die if he does fight, but those are different people.
With the addition of these reinforcements, all enemy forces are completely obliterated within a measly total of 4 turns, and I get another BM. Giado notes the enemy didn't even bring out their new mech, as if he was expecting a bigger challenge. Not a mech this time, pal, they've got something worse. Ingram orders all troops to retreat as soon as possible — an enemy submarine has launched a MAPW (Mass Area Pre-emptive Weapon) at their location. Bit of a forced acronym there, but in gameplay terms MAP weapons are basically area attacks. We'll get a few of them when we gain new units. In this case, however, the MAPW is a non-nuclear missile that'll obliterate the entire Sasebo base.
Ryusei's response, as usual, is not retreating. He intends to stop the missile by shooting it down because they can't just abandon the base. Rai tells him they won't be able to do that with their current mechs and especially not with Ryusei's piloting skills. Another fight between the two ensues, and Rai retreats as ordered before Ryusei ultimately does as well, under protest. A flash of light and an explosion follow their departure, wiping out the base and everyone still in it. Well damn, we didn't even have to bother playing this entire mission, did we?
Back at the Far East Brigade base, Ryusei and Rai are physically fighting this time, with Ryusei basically calling Rai a soulless monster for obeying orders like that. Rai's position is that it's what he does: he's a soldier, he follows orders. Which is an excellent policy to follow, I suppose, as long as it doesn't end up with you standing trial for war crimes. Rai, meanwhile, is deflecting his attacks with only one arm, which Ryusei assumes is further mockery on his part. Aya is about to point something out about Rai's left hand, but Rai says one arm is all he needs to fight an unskilled pilot like Ryusei. Not that anyone is listening to Aya at this point anyway. She tells Ryusei that Rai was also hurt by this entire incident, but Ryusei doesn't buy it and leaves.
Sakae and Laker are now getting really worried about the threat that the DC poses, and it's becoming clear to Kai this is not something the EFA can win through sheer numbers when the DC has technology that is so much more advanced. This is something they'll prove to the DC, and for that reason they have summoned Daitetsu to the base. Here I am missing a bit of a link in the conversation, because I don't see how a ship captain's gonna eliminate the technology gap unless he's also a secret scientist. Perhaps they mean something else, but we'll have to wait and see.
Before we reach the intermission screen, we are informed we have received a Water Jet, Repair Module and Supply Module. The first one increases an unit's mobility in water, but I don't use it much. The other two are going to be essential throughout the game, though, since they allow me to repair units in the field and restock their ammo. The unit equipped with these modules just needs to stand next to them and use the ability: presto, free healing/refills. Garnet, Giado and Latooni are also playable characters now, and all three of them brought along their F-28s.
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