Preparations for Operation SRW are in full swing, but even so we're still screwed: the difference in firepower between the Aerogaters and humanity is about 12 to 1. To at least improve these odds, it's a good thing the EFA can now also mass-produce Lion units, which is left in the hands of Isurugi Industries instead of the EFA's usual supplier. It feels a bit odd to the commanders to depend on the mechs that the DC used to fight them, but it's the best they got since the production lines for Gespensts are a lost cause at this point. Even in peacetime, logistics are a nightmare.
Jonathan and Rob are evaluating the state of the R-Series for the first time since the end of the DC War, and they have to conclude every one of them got seriously trashed so they'll be spending some time completely overhauling them. Gives them a chance to install some prototype parts at the same time, which aren't quite functional yet but Ingram wants to put them in anyway. If anything, he's a man who likes taking risks; good thing this is a super robot universe where he can get away with such things.
For the pilots, this is a bit of a beach episode so far, which is kinda pointless as the lack of graphics prevent us from seeing any of the swimsuits that the scantily-clad characters are talking about. Some of them are not even that into the whole thing: Aya had Garnet pick her swimsuit to everyone's amusement, and Rai isn't even undressed; he's the usual guy sitting fully clothed at the beach reading a book. On Japanese tea ceremonies no less, so it's not even a very exciting book. For that matter, Lune isn't having a whole lot of success with getting a guy like Masaki to admire her in a swimsuit despite explicit attempts, and eventually he decides to humor her with an obviously insincere compliment. Ouch...well, it would be, if Lune didn't take it seriously. She's got her love goggles strapped on tight.
The SRX team doesn't get to enjoy as much time off as the others as Ingram calls them in for a briefing to discuss a new technique called "Formation OOC", which is the official name for the R-Series' combination sequence into SRX. Which is neat and all, but Rai isn't convinced yet that this can be useful in any way. Not to mention quite dangerous, since this formation only has a 30.2% success rate so far and his mech is packing a Tronium engine. Aya doesn't have much faith in it either, worrying that her mastery of the T-Link System will not be enough. Their mission, as Ingram puts it, is to somehow make this work. Yeah, good luck with that, guys.
Ryusei's pretty much the only one who's happy with this, for no other reason than that having a transforming robot is awesome. Not like I was expecting a more sophisticated reason than that, anyway. He's so enthusiastic, even, that he has decided to use "Variable Formation!" as a battlecry during transformation. Because as any mecha nerd would attest, shouting "Formation OOC!" just doesn't have the same punch. Right now the team is underway to a training area where they'll get to test it, and in the meantime the other characters talk a bit about the crew members' love lives...until, of course, they're suddenly interrupted by the enemy alarm.
Then again, this time they don't seem to be after us; instead, they are heading towards Beijing, which is still sufficient cause to deploy everyone into battle. The R-Series will take a bit longer to deploy because they were still working on the whole combination thing, which will have to wait for now. Kusuha will have to wait as well since her Grungust is malfunctioning, which puts another sizable dent in my available firepower and (as Excellen claims) a dent in Bullet's chances to show off in front of her. Oh well, still got plenty of top-tier mechs to deploy.
Lots of weak enemies, lots of cover.
They're almost making this too easy, but I'd still like to avoid getting hit because they're all equipped with annoying status-effect ammo like Energy Takers and Spider Nets. I'm sending everyone forward into battle for now, barring the super-weak units like the medics. These things still take a few hits each to take down even if they're not a threat, but within a few turns their numbers start to dwindle rapidly. I'm mostly trying to decide who's going to get the killing blows, since this is an easy way to let underleveled characters catch up.
Once I'm done plowing through the last of these guys, a second wave of new enemies spawns on the other side of the map, mostly weak drones accompanied by a humongous ship. According to Tetsuya, it's the same ship that attacked us way back at Antarctica. That'll give us a nice opportunity for revenge then, because that thing's going DOWN. The rest of the enemies are a new type of mech, but they're about on the same level as Spiders anyway, so nothing to fear even though there's lots of them.
RYOTO: It's the same size as a PT or AM! Does that mean—?
IRM: Personal Troopers and Armored Modules were designed as an answer to the Aerogaters' human-shaped units.
RYOTO: ...So we already knew they had those things!?
They may not be that powerful, but I still left my healers wide open right there, along with the Hagane. Thus the healers retreat downwards and the Hagane throws itself into battle using Guard, while my actual troops make their way back up the map. Flight and Accel really come in handy here, it allows an almost instant response to a threat anywhere on the map...which is probably one of the reasons Irm rakes in pilot points by the dozens.
At least the SRX team is once again available, along with Ingram and Kusuha supporting as NPCs. A bit odd, that. Initially I was thinking of letting them hide in that pool of water to protect them from the enemies' beam weapons before I discovered that the SRX team was in no danger whatsoever, and their mechs had a B-rank for underwater combat anyway. That terrain rank does make a huge difference, and Ryusei quickly scores a few kills. Incidentally, this finally gives him enough PP to learn SP Regeneration, which I had been trying to do for the last few chapters.
Will still take a turn or so before the main force gets there, so Russel will have to bear the brunt of their attacks for now. Luckily this guy has a very high defense and can use Guard real cheap, so it's not exactly like he's doomed, although the accumulated damage after one turn makes it clear he wouldn't have kept that up for long. From here on it's once again a free-for-all brawl in taking out legions of mooks, to the point where the number of kills allows the entire team to reach maximum Will in no time at all. Takes a bit longer to get rid of this wave, but they soon bite the dust, until only a few of them remain along with the ship. Then things get a bit strange...
INGRAM: (It's time.) Ryusei, Rai, Aya...assume Formation OOC, now.
What Ingram actually wants here is for them to wipe out all remaining enemies at once using SRX so he can test if it works, as he originally intended. As the SRX team points out, it makes no sense to use it right now, especially since this is a real combat situation and it's dangerous to try something like that without testing. Nonetheless, Ingram manages to talk them into doing it by questioning their confidence in their own abilities, reassuring them that they're ready for it. And so, the SRX team momentarily retreats to do their combination sequence, while the rest of the pilots continue holding off the remaining enemies.
AYA: TK Field on! Tronium engine at full capacity! Transform!
RYUSEI: OK...Variable Formation!
They transform and fly into position to combine, their mechs sliding into one another to form the mighty SRX...which promptly breaks apart, and hurls their mechs all over the place. Realistic, I suppose, but a rather unspectacular first impression. Ryusei and Rai are still in one piece, at least, but Aya's unconscious. Ingram decides to finally interfere and rushes towards her as she starts to regain consciousness...and then shoots the R-3. I'll just echo what all the others are saying at this point: "What the hell!?"
[BGM Change: Messenger from the Void]
Ingram explains to his horrified subordinates that Aya was a failed experiment as far as telekinesis was concerned and that he didn't need her anymore, so he decided to get rid of her. Kyosuke thinks he's a traitor, but Ingram corrects him: he never really was on our side, in spite of leading us to victory for most of the game now. Well, certainly does explain why he's been constantly getting his pilots involved in plans that almost killed them.
INGRAM: Don't you get it? I AM an Aerogater.
Turns out he was sent to Earth as a spy to assess our level of technology, and never actually gave a damn about any of the crew. Well, there's a shocker. His character has turned around VERY rapidly now, referring to them as insects and to his former "test subjects" by number rather than name. Of course, Ryusei is completely pissed now after seeing the disregard Ingram has for human lives, and Ingram manages to care even less than usual what Ryusei thinks.
INGRAM: Hate me if you wish, boy. You could use the focus. None of you serve any real purpose.
He summons backup once again, leaving my medics once again wide open. They just can't catch a break wherever they go, can they? It's not the mooks I'm the most concerned about, however. Ingram is now our enemy as well, and he's piloting nothing less than the R-Gun. He's not that tough, but his boss stats are still fairly decent. For the sake of getting this map's battle mastery, I'll wait with finishing him off until I've gotten rid of all other remaining enemies.
For the second time this episode, I have to rush all my units to another side of the map to help out the scattered R-1 and R-2, making liberal use of Cyflash and Psychoblaster to mop up remaining enemies from the second batch. The ship that remains can wait, I'm using all of my firepower to deal with the third batch of reinforcements. Rio almost bites the dust, but fortunately they're not focusing all their fire on just one unit, and Radha takes some of the hits as well. Oh well, they can still heal next turn.
Fortunately Ingram attacks Kusuha, only dealing minimal damage to her Grungust. These new grunts go down slower since they've got 10000HP each, but once I'm blasting them at full firepower their numbers dwindle at a reasonable pace. I've left a few units behind at the aforementioned ship to start damaging it a bit already, dishing out their strongest attacks at about 5000HP each. Not too bad, even though this thing has 50000HP it should go down soon. Even after I've taken all those down, this map STILL isn't done with sending reinforcements. We're gonna be seeing a lot of this nonsense in later stages, folks. Another ship appears just like the one I just destroyed, with another 50000HP...
[BGM Change: Trombe!]
...or it would, if the Kurogane didn't suddenly show up and decide to plow its drill right into this stupid thing. Hell yes. What's more, the Kurogane is playable right now and its Titanic Drill does ridiculous damage if I have Elzam use Valor, and the Hagane's Tronium Cannon doesn't do a shabby job against a big slow target like this either. Now that he's no longer working for the DC, Elzam has also stopped pretending to be our enemy, though he won't join our team directly. Daitetsu appreciates the support, even if Rai doesn't.
Once that final ship has been destroyed, it's time to take on Ingram himself. I'm having some of my own units retreat by now since they've run out of both SP and energy, and those still capable of fighting mostly focus on draining Ingram's weapon energy (and thus his shields) by making him use Metal Destroyer as often as possible. By the way, good thing Russel was both using Guard and defending there, because normally this is an attack that deals a few thousand points of damage. Once I have him around 19000HP and no EN it's time to finish him off with the usual strategy: hit him with an Armor Breaker, Valor both Grungusts and crush him with a combination attack before he flees. Didn't manage to do enough damage the first time around; had to equip both units with Dustproof first to give them S-rank ground power. This time, however, it was more than sufficient. He compliments me on my victory, I get a Battle Mastery and a Custom CPU as loot, and he beats a hasty retreat.
Not before he has some of his units grab Kusuha and abduct her, however. Viletta arrives to pick all of them up, and they are gone in a flash as they warp away. Everyone is just left standing there, contemplating how they've been played like fools up to this point. Ryusei and Bullet get an extra shock once they realize Kusuha is gone as well, and Ryusei swears mortal vengeance against Ingram for what he just did. Well dammit, that's one excellent character I lost there. Luckily Aya is still alive, but she's unconscious and her R-3 is busted up.
Back on the Hagane, Ryusei and Bullet have a go at each other, asking why the other failed to save Kusuha. As Bullet points out, they both had their hands full, and neither of them would've been able to save her. Of course, he still doesn't neglect to take a jab at the SRX team's failed combination attempt as a possible cause, escalating the fight further. Giado and Kyosuke separate them, suggesting to instead direct all this anger towards the enemy and save her. At least Ingram didn't manage to escape with the R-Gun, even though it's currently damaged beyond use. All this damage will take a while to repair.
Spent some money maxing out the HP of my units, but the bulk the money this time was spent on upgrading Darkness Slash. Since I had to restart this quite lengthy level due to lack of damage-dealing capability, I'm making sure it won't happen again. Also gave Ryoto the Custom CPU I got, since his dodging seemed to be a bit weak this time.
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