This is certainly becoming a long trip, as the Hagane encounters resistance every few islands. The team has Rio as a new pilot, though, which may help a bit. Eita's none too happy about it, as it means he'll have more work to do on the bridge. For a moment, he considers trying to become a pilot as well, since pilots are instantly bumped to rank of Master Sergeant and aren't stuck doing bridge work. Tetsuya's not sure what to make of such comments.
TETSUYA: Do you have a problem with working under me?
EITA: Huh? Oh, no, Sir. I love it when you say "What!?" after you hear the situational report.
TETSUYA: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Seconds later, the Hagane is rocked by an explosion, naturally followed by Tetsuya going "What!?". While this usually means an enemy encounter, this time the explosion came from the ship itself. Rob comes in coughing all the way, explaining that he was dismantling a bomb hidden in Ryoto's Lion. He had expected as much and managed to detach the detonator, not expecting that the detonator also contained a bomb.
Ryoto is immediately questioned about it, but it turns out he didn't know there was a bomb in his mech either. Frankly, he's rather disturbed that his own commander was trying to use him as an unwitting suicide bomber. Tetsuya figures this is a good chance to interrogate Ryoto about enemy bases since his trust in the DC is weakened, but Ryoto requests — and is given — some time to think it over.
Outrage abounds among the other crew members abounds when they hear about this and the way Ryoto was used as a pawn by his own side. Rai counters in a surprisingly fatalistic tone that they themselves are pawns of the EFA brass, which immediately sparks a heated debate with Masaki about the necessity of following orders and the place of personal feelings in war. Ryusei thinks Rai's been acting strange since their encounter with Elzam, but Rai just shrugs it off and leaves.
A second explosion hits the ship, and this time it's a genuine encounter. Eita says they were attacked by long-range cannons on Starbuck Island, which Tetsuya claims is impossible as it's a sunken island due to global warming. Impossible or not, the cannons keep hitting them and the ship is taking major damage. On top of that, the only way to Aidoneus is past this island, so it's time to set course towards the island and take out these impossible cannons.
Ryoto, still in his cell, figures only the DC's new Rhinoceros cannons could deal damage like that and concludes he's done for if he remains there. He's able to unlock the door of his cell, but still hasn't worked out what he should do past that point, and is once again overtaken by indecision.
Cut to Tenzan and Thomas, gloating how they have managed to draw the Hagane towards them with their cannon fire. Thomas figures they wouldn't be able to resist checking out a new enemy weapon, a fact which he has successfully used as bait. Even after approaching it, the Hagane crew still isn't sure what the Rhinoceros is supposed to be.
TETSUYA: It's not a surface boat, and it's definitely not a sub.
INGRAM: It's...a hover ship...or a land battleship...with that thing, they can easily cross the large reef area off of Starbuck Island...
A map almost entirely consisting of water, with just a few patches of land.
Which, once again, means that I can use almost none of my beam weapons. 10 Barrelions, 7 Lion F's, 2 Rhinoceroses, Tenzan's Barrelion V and Thomas' Guarlion Custom. This is going to take a while, and gaining the Battle Mastery for this map is not going to be easy as it requires we kill every last one of them within 6 turns. On top of that, a Rhinoceros has 25000 HP, which will keep my strongest units busy for a while. This is going to require a frantic assault with every unit I've got, and try not to get any of them killed.
The first turn is uneventful, as all I can do at this point is move everyone forward, and the enemy does little more than moving a few units. At the start of the second turn, Ryoto suddenly appears on the battlefield in his Lion, with little indication of whose side he's on. Thomas asks if he wants to come back to their side, or suffer the consequences of fighting them. Ryoto's too scared to reply to any of his questions or mockery, until Rio angrily butts into their conversation and tells him to stand up for himself instead of taking their crap. This was the final push Ryoto needed to reject the DC, and he swears he will stop them.
THOMAS: Well said, Ryoto. I guess I'll just kill you myself.
Ryoto now realizes what he's getting himself into and that he's no match for Thomas or Tenzan, but the rest of the Hagane crew reassure him they've got his back if he intends to fight them. He agrees, and so I suddenly get an extra playable character. He's not overly powerful as he's piloting a regular grunt unit, but he has excellent dodging stats and his railgun still deals a fair amount of damage as long as he's not moving.
As usual, my best and fastest units are the first to throw themselves into the fray. Masaki heads for the lower cannon and Ryusei heads for the upper cannon, both fighting enemies all the way there. When I have the rest of the units take the center, the first thing I do is take out the Barrelion on the little island. The idea here is to put Rai on that piece of land so he can use his powerful Twinbeam Cannon, as it doesn't work while submerged. He's got enough armor to survive for a while, and can act as a giant laser turret taking out enemies around him.
The Hagane is moved to the center of the enemy formation, using Guard to survive an onslaught of enemy fire as it is a popular target. If positioned just right, it can also use its Impact Cannon to hit both Rhinoceroses from the same spot. Aya closely follows the Hagane, as she is equipped with the Repair and Supply Modules. Using the Impact Cannon eats up a lot of energy, and so the ship needs to be resupplied every few turns.
Now that the battle is in full swing, I consider it appropriate to move my weaker units in, mostly taking care of the Lions scattered here and there. Still being careful, as they couldn't take more than a few shots from a Barrelion's railgun. Enemies are losing lots of HP from counterattacks by Masaki, Ryusei and the Hagane, and I send a few more units to help with the cannons: Latooni for the bottom cannon, Irm for the top cannon. Which might actually be necessary in the latter case, as Ryusei has been counterattacking so much that he has already run out of ammo. As he has played his part, I have him retreat for now and Irm does a fine job substituting for him.
I take care not to waste an attack on anyone that can be killed by a counterattack, instead reducing most of them to low health when it's my turn. Now Tenzan and Thomas decide to join the battle, and Thomas in particular goes straight towards Ryoto. This results in a dialogue scene where Thomas explains how Ryoto never had a chance: if he had returned to the DC, Thomas would've killed him anyway. Tenzan, if fought by Ryoto, just notes it was a bad choice to oppose him as Ryoto had never been able to defeat him before.
They have a decent amount of HP, but it's still the same as before, and they both go down without too much trouble. In fact, they turn their heels before they even run out of HP this time. With them out of the way, my main focus is bombarding the two cannons with everything I've got, or using attacks on still-healthy mooks if that's not an option. By now, the Will levels of my characters have risen high enough that even the Gespensts can deal decent damage, and so the remaining enemies are rapidly drained of health, even if they're not defeated yet.
On the 6th turn, practically all their units are ready to be destroyed on the next turn. Now it's a matter of hoping the AI does something fundamentally stupid and attack characters who can kill these units...and it does. They all attack a unit that has an effective counterattack, most of them targeting Rai. Rai just shoots them down one by one, and in the nick of time I am given my Battle Mastery. Actually, I later figured there would've been an alternate way to do this, just in case the AI wasn't stupid. Fortunately, there was no need for that.
Well, let's hope that was it, as this successful attempt nearly drained the SP of most of units, as I had to use skills like Valor and Spirit to deal enough damage. Nah, who am I kidding, of course that wasn't it. A single mech is detected heading towards their location, which is probably reason to worry if the encounter with the Valsion is any indication.
[BGM Change - Dark Prison]
Yep, it's Shu Shirakawa and his Granzon, last seen blowing up the Shirogane. He engages in a bit of small-talk, introducing himself to anyone who wasn't there during the Antarctica incident, and invites them to attack him at will since he's been itching to fight them. The crew are divided on how to respond: Ingram wants to see how well Shu can fight and Tetsuya wants to avenge his comrades, but Daitetsu orders an immediate retreat to prevent the Hagane from becoming toast as well.
At this point, the actual mission objective is to flee, but players who feel up to it can stick around and actually fight Shu. This is not an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination, and he can obliterate most of my units in a single shot using Worm Hole Attack or Black Hole Cluster if he manages to hit them.* He also has a few lines when fighting certain characters, such as Ingram and Masaki. In Masaki's case, they are questioning each other's motives (Shu claims that Masaki would never understand), and in Ingram's case they're questioning each other's backgrounds. Enigmas, both of them.
SHU: You studied EOT without any help from the EOTI...*smirk* Where did you obtain the knowledge to do that?
INGRAM: I could ask the same of you...
Fortunately, a few of my units still had enough SP to use Alert, and it wouldn't cost me that much to sacrifice a few grunt units to these attacks. The Granzon is strong, but it runs out of ammunition very quickly, leaving it to use its significantly-weaker Gran Worm Sword. Here's where the Grungust comes in, as its piles of armor only take scratch damage from the sword. In a long endurance battle, I am ultimately victorious as the Grungust runs out of energy and resorts to using Boost Knuckle to take down the Granzon's last few hit points. Only got a Generator (+50 max EN) for it, but this was worth doing anyway in my experience. Yes, even considering all the unit repair costs.
SHU: It appears you've defeated my Granzon... *smirk* I applaud your efforts...and I would like to thank you for all the data I collected.
And so, Shu leaves without even losing any of his smugness. My mission is still to have the Hagane escape, so I send it off the map and the mission is over. The 11000 in repair costs isn't too bad, considering everything. Most of my units were nearly-dead, but fortunately that doesn't count.
Later, on the bridge of the Hagane, Ryoto officially requests to join their crew as he wishes to make amends for assisting the DC, even though it turns out he wasn't fully enlisted. Daitetsu and Tetsuya figure they can trust him, and grant his request, placing him under Ingram's command. He now gets to meet the rest of the crew on friendlier terms, and they too instantly trust him. Rio applauds him for having guts after all, and he immediately starts acting overly humble as usual. She thinks he shouldn't be so apologetic all the time, a flaw for which he immediately apologizes, to her frustration.
Masaki is once again pissed that Shu managed to get away, with no indication of where he could have gone. Ryoto helpfully informs him that Shu went to Aidoneus, since all the top officers are now gathering there, and so that is where Masaki will go. Which, conveniently, was our destination anyway.
On Aidoneus, there's a brief conversation between Bian and Shu about the test performance of the Granzon, which Shu claims still pales in comparison to the Valsion. That's not why Shu's there, though, and he wonders what he was called for.
BIAN: I want you to remain here and bear witness to our battle.
SHU: *smirk* As you wish, Dr. Bian...
Ooh, foreboding! That's the end of this chapter, but we'll hear more about this later. Still saving most of my money (now a good 80000), though I'm putting the Generator on the Wildraubtier to help Ryusei with his current energy problem. Also, Ryoto is now a permanently playable character, but I don't think I'll be investing too much in him.
