False alarm, the DC fleets originally headed our way are instead massing towards Geneva. Which is actually an even bigger problem, so we give chase with all possible haste and prepare for battle. Geneva's normal defense forces are gonna have a hard time with this as the DC have launched all their remaining mechs, from mass-production AMs to Valsions. Everyone on board is worrying about how they're going to fight this...except Excellen, who is rebuked for her light-hearted comments. Guess there's a limit to her humor after all. They have at least guessed that the DC may have put the princess in one of the Valsions, but there's no way for them to be sure yet. Hint: this is totally going to happen.
Bullet worries about possibly meeting Sanger again and wonders whether he's really on the DC's side for our sake, and if he'll eventually return to our side. Wishful thinking in his own opinion, although Kusuha supports these thoughts, arguing that it's important to trust people. Kusuha certainly is quick to assume good faith in people, though she may be right in this particular situation. Things will become clear soon enough, as the carriers have almost reached Geneva at this point.
Lefina goes over a final tactics discussion with Sean, and they decide that the best thing to do after launching the PTs would be to have everyone focus on the Valsions; if those are destroyed, they predict the tide will turn and the remaining forces will soon be scrap, especially once reinforcements arrive. Which still means taking down multiple Valsions, but at this point we should be able to handle it. The last one we took down was pretty simple, so this should be no different.
Geneva itself is currently under heavy attack as the DC has reached the final defensive line, and Tenzan is destroying EFA forces left and right with his Valsion. Albert Grey is shown attempting to flee — after learning Karl Schtleseman had already escaped without telling him — but Tenzan shoots him without any difficulty. So much for negotiations, then. The power his new mech gives him significantly increases his lust for battle and briefly wishes Sanger would see this, but then casually decides to just kill him when this is over, making it seem like a very good thing they don't send Tenzan on too many missions these days.
TENZAN: Heh...this Valsion is a lot more than a pretty face! Bian should've sent this unit into Geneva to begin with.
LILY: (Not that they would have understood Bian's cause...which is why Commander Maier entrusted the final mission to me.)
The Hagane and Hiryu arrive, I deploy my units, and Tenzan goes into the same kind of blank-eyed mouth-foaming rage as Tempest. Well, this should certainly be fun. Unfortunately the EFA headquarters has already been blown to smithereens, but it's implied there's still civilians around. The ones that Tenzan is "crushing like bugs" anyway, which goes even beyond what Ryusei had seen of Tenzan up to now. Even so, he's still hesitant to outright kill Tenzan, even if Ingram tells him to do so and berserker Tenzan is crushing people under the feet of his giant robot. It doesn't take much to get him to concede there's no other option, and the battle commences.
Plenty of cover, which will really come in handy during this mission.
I leave Tenzan alone for now, focusing my assault on the various Lions he's brought along, thinning them out a bit with my main force before bringing in my weaker force to mop up any enemies that are almost dead. It's certainly a good way to let them catch up in levels, as long as they don't get too deep into the action. Even Aya, who's normally more useful as a support unit, scores a few kills with R-3's Strike Shields.
After a few turns of doing this Adler arrives along with more enemy reinforcements, once again proving it's never this easy. To his surprise, he can't see Sanger anywhere on the battlefield, even though he should already have arrived. It would certainly bode well for Bullet's predictions if Sanger decided not to come, although his previous statement that he'd meet us here pretty much says that's not gonna be the case. A minor setback, but he still has one final trump card to play.
SHINE: Valsion...Custom...ending startup sequence...
And there we have it: Brainwashed and Crazy Shine piloting the other Valsion we were going to meet, with her brain running some futuristic version of Windows. Since she is the pilot, this complicates things a bit, so they'll just have to disable her machine without hitting the cockpit. Can't kill an ally, after all. On top of that, the GEIM System will completely drive her crazy in about 4 minutes, so we're working under a time limit here. Not that it matters much normally if her HP is depleted, but for the Battle Mastery on this map we need to reduce it below 10% without destroying the Valsion.
EXCELLEN: I hope everyone put on their lucky socks today...
KYOSUKE: The deck's already been fixed, so cross your fingers.
Luckily some of my troops lagged behind; since she appeared on the other side of the map, they can already start fighting her. At first it's a matter of dealing as much damage as possible, throwing Valor-boosted attacks like Heavy Claymore and Darkness Slash at her, which fortunately does lots of damage since these mass-production Valsions have no barriers. Once she has a few thousand HP left, it's a matter of performing an attack that does enough damage to stop her without destroying her. Aya's beam rifle seems to do the trick just fine, shutting down Shine's mech and giving me my BM. That was simple enough, although Rai needs some healing after being hit by one of Shine's Cross Smashers.
Adler is now completely flipping out after his GEIM System was destroyed without us breaking a sweat, and decides to go on the offensive himself as he would sooner die than lose. He's not going anywhere, however, as Lily has had enough of his crap and has her ship open fire on Adler's Rhinoceros. Between this and all the in-fighting, it's getting kinda hard to see who is on whose side again. Unfortunately, that was not enough to stop Adler, and her fate is sealed when he returns fire against the turncoat. Strangely, as her ship goes down her final words consist of thanks towards Sanger, and asking him to take care of the rest. And take care of it he will: Sanger now makes his belated appearance, briefly eulogizing Lily before turning his attention to Adler, who tells Sanger to take down our forces himself.
SANGER: Silence! A traitor will face the consequences. Same goes for you, Adler!!
He's not having any of it either, stating that this was not the DC's mission and that he will do whatever it takes to restore it to its original purpose. First point of order: have his Colossal Blade send Adler on a one-way trip to hell. He figures his team won't forgive him for his actions so far, but at least wants to help take down a mutual enemy...and thus, for the first time in the game, Sanger becomes a playable character. This guy's Grungust Type 0 is pretty awesome, it can take hits like crazy and his attacks deal plenty of damage. Shame they all cost a lot of energy, so I can't use them too much.
Adler, Tenzan and some submarines/Rhinoceroses are all that's left now that all the small fry have been dealt with, and Sanger will take care of Tenzan since they're the closest to each other. I'd have him fight Adler, but that would mean making his Grungust walk halfway across the map for dramatic purposes. Sanger's Colossal Blade attack depletes Tenzan's hit points like crazy, which probably explains why it costs so much energy to use. For dramatic purposes, however, I'll let Ryusei deal the finishing blow.
RYUSEI: It's over, Tenzan Nakajima!
TENZAN: Ha ha ha ha! All I have to do is hit "continue"! At least my HP will fully recover!
Yes, instead of the usual villain speech, he trails off into delusional video game logic while dying, and says he'll rule the world after he level grinds for a bit. Alas, the poor sap never once realized he's not a player character, in which case this die-and-grind tactic would actually work. In that sense, you could argue that Tenzan is not only a reflected image of Ryusei, but of the player as well when it comes to things like these. Probably overthinking this though. Remarkably, even after all that Tenzan has done, Ryusei still briefly mourns him. What a guy.
The other units apart from Adler aren't too hard to deal with since they can't aim worth a damn, but still take a while to finish because they have tons of HP; I'm actually using some of my strongest attacks here just to get it done quicker. Convenient targets for my weaker units to gain some XP, though. They're probably the ones profiting the most from all these cover buildings. Eventually Adler's Rhinoceros is the only one left, and even though he's slightly better than the average pilot I can swamp him with all my units, leading to a very quick demise. Still wish I could've let Sanger finish him, but as I said, that would've taken too long. Amusingly, it's only at the moment that Adler dies that he realizes all of his troops had already deserted him, as he was counting on their help in order to escape. Kinda fitting, really.
With his death, practically every important member of the DC has been wiped out, and Sanger claims the Earth Cradle will not fight while Sophia's in charge. Everyone is ready to welcome Sanger back as a teammate (and in the case of the ATX team, as their commander) but he declines on the basis that his crimes were too great for him to join them, even if he didn't turn out to be a real traitor. All that's left for him is to do his own thing in this conflict.
SANGER: That is all. I have nothing left to teach you. Now, simply follow the path you believe in. Don't let anything stand in your way.
And so, he flies off into the sunset once again after being playable for half a chapter. Aww. Back at the Earth Cradle, Sophia receives the news that Adler has been killed in battle, and she considers this a good time to go into cryogenic hibernation. Before she goes to prepare herself and seal off the Earth Cradle, she sends a message to both carrier captains that all remaining DC troops will be handed over to the EFA, which unfortunately does not result in any extra manpower for us.
Shine has been returned to the Hagane, where she wakes up completely un-brainwashed and grateful for her rescue. Not that it came as a surprise to her, as her precognition had revealed this would happen anyway, but that doesn't decrease the value of the crew's rescue actions in the slightest. She's especially glad that Rai is there, to the point of crying happy tears, and so the others leave the two alone for now.
Oh hey, here's a scene I didn't get to see before! Must be because of the Battle Mastery I obtained on this map. Radha, Ryoto and Ingram are examining the mech that Shine was piloting, which they brought in since it hadn't been destroyed completely and was still sort of usable. They figure all the important parts can be fixed, and I'm informed that I've obtained a Valsion Custom. Score! This thing is looking pretty awesome, though I still have no idea who I'll give it to. Almost everyone's piloting their own super-mechs already. Still, I'll certainly be using this, and it's kinda neat to see bonus scenes like these.
Meanwhile, Shine's the only who doesn't seem to be happy with the defeat of the DC, since it means she'll have to return to Riksent instead of tagging along on this adventure. She insists on fighting along with the crew at first, but gives in when Rai makes it clear she has a responsibility as the ruler of Riksent, just like they have their responsibility in fighting. Don't worry dear, you'll get to be awesome again in the sequel!
Spent some money upgrading various mechs to their limit without particularly focusing on any of them, and gave the Giganscudo the Orichalconium armor I acquired during this stage. Who to give the Valsion Custom to? Choices, choices...
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