Well, the DC war is now officially over, but there's no time to rest yet as the world is still in pieces from the damage the war caused. It'll take time to restore everyone's forces and get the government back up and running, but at least we're free to move around again as multiple members of the EOT Council were killed in the attack on Geneva. Regardless, Ingram decides the best thing to do right now is to secure the area in case any Aerogaters show up. Not that we won't retreat in the case of a serious assault, since there's no way we'd survive otherwise.
The R-1 needs to have its hand fixed anyway since it's seen too much hand-to-hand combat, even though that's what the R-1 was designed for. Not really a solid plan there, but I suppose that's what prototypes are all about. Fortunately, Latooni shows off her hidden skill at giant robot repair and concludes it can simply be replaced with the hand of a Gespenst. Well, that is certainly convenient, not to mention probably pretty cheap maintenance. Latooni's turning out to be more and more useful. In a rare show of kindness Rai offers to help him, but Ryusei's nearly done anyway. Still, nice gesture.
They talk a bit about Shine leaving and how well she fit together with Rai, as he'd be the perfect "prince on a white horse" for her. Rai's rebuttal is simply that, unlike Elzam and Leona, he's not into horseback riding. Irm is following these conversations intently from a distance along with a few others, which he claims is because he's keeping an eye on his subordinates and totally not spying for his own enjoyment. Not that he's doing anything too privacy-infringing anyway, he's mostly interested in how the shipping between various characters is working out, and the relationship between Bullet and Kusuha seems to be going well. Minus their collective cringe when Bullet actually accepts her offer to make him an energy drink, that is.
The Earth Federation has decided to set up a temporary headquarters in Paris since this one got destroyed in the previous mission, and has appointed Brian Midcrid as interim president while they get all this stuff worked out. Sean claims that Brian is a pretty bold choice, though he doesn't go into any further exposition why. I'll take his word it, then. As far as the Hagane and Hiryu are concerned, Norman Slay has lifted the ban on attacking the Aerogaters since the opposition has effectively been wiped out by the DC...and not a moment too soon, as Aerogater attack alerts start coming in left and right: Osaka, Shanghai and Melbourne are suddenly under attack, and Geneva soon follows as gravity anomalies indicate Aerogaters warping in at our position.
All hands to battle stations it is, and everyone is redeployed on the same map as the previous chapter
, which makes sense given that we're still in Geneva. In the end, I decided to let Bullet have the Valsion Custom, since he appeared to be the one with the most underpowered mech. Ryoto and Latooni are still doing really well in their standard-issue mechs, so he could use the boost the most. It's strange that they would attack early after imposing a 30 day deadline, which Daitetsu blames on bizarre alien psychology as they hadn't actually said they wouldn't attack before the 30 days were up. That, or they're just plain liars — whatever's the most plausible.
EXCELLEN: We've been in a lot of battles lately...I wish they'd think about us ladies.
GARNET: I know what you mean. We all have things going on.
And, of course, they refuse to explain further when Kusuha asks what things those are, claiming she's too young too understand. These girls really are experts at dodging awkward conversations they themselves bring up, I bet they do this all the time just to see how far they can go. Ingram gives the order to attack, though Katina wonders about the enemies flying in a strange formation...hiding something, perhaps?
The Battle Mastery for this map is pretty straightforward — defeat all enemies with 4 turns — but this still means I'll need to hurry. I'm not even facing strong enemies, they're just regular old bugs, but I'll spend quite some time making my way to the other side of the map to actually defeat them. So, have everyone who has it use Accel, turn the transformable mechs into jets, and make a beeline towards the enemy. I don't normally do this, but I'm even having some units use Valor just to make sure I'll kill enemies in a single hit instead of leaving them with a sliver of HP, which happens occasionally. Even Irm's fairly weak Wing Gust lasers are able to take care of them instantly, so in principle it shouldn't be a problem. In return, they fire their paltry Ring Laser attacks that weren't a threat at the start of the game. No need to play defensive, then.
Most of them attack Leona during their turn, who is just outside their counterattack range right now, which I hope will not throw a spanner in my plan. Once the bulk of my forces get over there, however, they drop like flies with only a small group still standing after a single turn of fighting. Everyone present eliminates one enemy, leaving a single enemy alive at the end of turn 3. As planned, he attacks the nearest unit which is the Alteisen, and he goes down hard as he gets a Revolver Stake to the face for his trouble. Yay, Battle Mastery obtained in the nick of time!
Of course this level isn't so generous that it would just let us punch around some bugs and call it a day. No, now the reinforcements arrive, consisting of a single ship called a Vayyikra that's "bigger than the Giganscudo". Which still tells us very little, but whatever. It's big enough that it was probably designed for attacking strongholds, so it's got firepower to spare. On top of that, it's emitting energy waves of some sort that give Aya her worst headache in ages, and Radha somehow recognizes the recorded energy pattern from somewhere. This is something for later, though, as they have to focus on the ship itself for now.
As a matter of fact, Ingram thinks we should just retreat: as they possess warp technology, he suspects this might be a decoy and they'll obliterate us with MAPWs while we're busy fighting this thing. Purely a guess based on current data, of course, he's just smart like that. Daitetsu's having none of it and insists on protecting Geneva, and so orders everyone to attack. Some of my units actually still have Valor active from mopping up the bugs, and despite the fact that this ship has tons of HP, it has low defense and thus goes down rather quickly. It flees anyway after reducing a fraction of its health, so most of that HP was just for show in this case.
Well, enemy defeated quicker than usual...but it appears Ingram's guess was correct. Suddenly, hundred missiles warp in above Geneva, and within 4 minutes they'll level the entire city. Time to move everyone back into the ship and get out of there, which I have 3 minutes to accomplish by the time I'm once again in command. Great going, commanders, all this blabbering cost us a minute. Fortunately I haven't scattered my units too far across the map, and I can retrieve the majority of them with 2 minutes remaining. Once again it's a matter of using every possible movement boost, this time in the other direction while I move the ship closer to them as well. The last units get on board with 30 seconds remaining, and the Hagane gets out of there with all haste before it becomes rubble. Daitetsu's not happy with this as it means he's forced to retreat again, but it's not like this was a battle they could've won anyway.
Geneva's not the only city that was hit just now, for that matter: aside from the three previously under attack (Osaka, Shanghai and Melbourne), Birmingham and Rio de Janeiro also got hit hard. If they're gonna keep this up, they might as well nuke the planet and save us some time, really. Strangely, however, no major EFA bases apart from Geneva were hit. If the Aerogaters wanted to eliminate humanity's military, that's what they would have done, but alien psychology works in strange ways. We'll have to wait until later to learn their motives.
Aya is still recovering from her headache, but at the moment she's mostly interested in the familiar energy she felt earlier. Fortunately Radha recorded the phenomenon, so she can analyze the wave patterns at her leisure. However, rather than proving answers, this data just raises further questions...
RADHA: (These wavelengths...they resemble the data Viletta used to adjust the R-Gun. The data came from Mai Kobayashi, Aya's sister, at ICS. I heard she died in an accident a few years ago...I should do some research on her and the institute.) Access denied? Top secret...? Rights held by Major Ingram Prisken. What's going on here?
The plot thickens! Whatever's going on here, it seems a lot of EFA people have a hand in it. Ingram definitely knows more than he's willing to reveal, which may indicate where he's getting the data to make a "lucky guess" like he did earlier. Regardless, currently the focus is more on striking back against the Aerogaters than on such mysteries, and in 15 days mankind will throw everything in its arsenal at the White Star. This all-out assault shall be called...Operation SRW.
On the White Star, Levi returns from her earlier test run where she mentally remote-controlled the Vayyikra, though she admits she felt some feedback. Neat, seems both sides get a psychic headache when they interfere with each other. If Aya can do that again later, it'll be a big help. She also receives a positive report from one of her subordinates...Viletta Prisken? Wait, she's on their side? And wasn't her last name Badam instead of Prisken? This is getting weirder and weirder, and it seems as if everyone in the EFA has a secret of some sort. Anyway, she's ordered to put some more pressure on us and is given some forces to do so, which we'll probably see soon enough.
Invested money in HP upgrades for my heavy-armor units, and equipped Latooni with an Armor Breaker I didn't previously notice I had acquired. Had to dump some weaker weapons like the M95 to make room for it, but those weapons are practically useless at this point in the game anyway. Besides, I'm gonna need this thing later on.
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