Kusuha's returned to normal by now, or at least she's not trying to kill us anymore. She doesn't really have anything to say about what happened, however, because the last thing she remembers is the Aerogaters capturing her in Beijing. Bullet tries to reassure her that nothing happened and that she was safely rescued, but she can immediately tell he's lying. So much for trying to keep her from worrying. Luckily, she doesn't freak out over it, she just apologizes for whatever she may have done while hypnotized, and thanks him for rescuing her. Not that she was aware of that whole scene, but somehow she could still sense it. Those psychic powers sure are neat, aren't they?
Now, the reason we're going to Antarctica is that someone's using the abandoned Coatsland base, and our current job is to figure out the who and why of it. Between the crew's memories of the Granzon encounter and the local temperature, it's hard to find someone aboard who's motivated for this mission. Well, at least Excellen got a few puns about getting steamy out of it.
Aya has also recovered, and reveals some more of her backstory in a conversation with Rai. She apologizes because she feels she's holding the rest of the team back, and mentions she never wanted to be in the military anyway. She kept going because she felt she could use the T-Link system to stay in contact with her dead sister and mother, who both died testing the same system under her father's leadership. Wow, so now it can also be used to communicate with the dead? Impressive. And then there's one more subject that tested the system, Yukiko Date...
AYA: Yes. I only found out recently. She was just like me. But one day, she lost those powers and left the ICS. Supposedly, she gave birth to Ryu after that. In the end, my father used them all, including Ryu. I'm sure Ryu knows about it now, after the inquiry. That's why...I don't know what to say to him...
Well, she doesn't have to tell him anything, since Ryusei gave her a message through Rai, telling her not to worry about it. He can be really mature sometimes, and Aya feels a bit of shame here for underestimating him like that. She briefly angsts about it before Rai tells her to get over it, since they all have painful memories to deal with and should try to focus on the future rather than the past. She agrees and vows to keep up her role as leader of the SRX team, and to fight together with everyone else. Because otherwise Lune and Excellen will make fun of her.
The Hagane's approaching Antarctica now, and something's showing up on the radar. No info on what it is yet, but from the enormous heat signature it looks like a battleship. Sean and Lefina immediately go into speculation mode, assuming some EOT Council members survived the battle in Geneva and are trying to use this base again. Their motive's harder to guess, but they're all cautious since the EOT Council previously tried to establish contact with the aliens.
Karl Schtleseman is still alive, at least, and is trying to get the Shirogane repaired so he can — you guessed it — go and talk to the aliens. In order to get the heavily-damaged ship repaired, he's hired Isurugi Industries, and it is here that we meet its CEO, Renji Isurugi
. The ship's repairs are on schedule, so he's at least reliable in that regard, but Karl rightfully thinks he's still a questionable guy to work with.
RENJI: The pursuit of profits is natural for a corporation. We're not like Mao Industries who hail worthless ideals.
Well, that settles it, then: his only affiliation is with money. He'd probably defect to the enemy straight away if it improved his profit margins, the shrewd arms dealer. He did have one other demand besides the money, and that's to get a ride off this planet himself since he has no intention of dying. It's almost like he's going off a Corrupt Corporate Executive personality checklist. He also expresses his doubt about the equally untrustworthy Nibhal Mubhal, before Nibhal actually bothers responding. They start arguing, before another large heat signature is suddenly detected approaching them.
[BGM change: Trombe!]
And no sooner does the BGM start up or the Kurogane's drill comes bursting out of the Antarctic ice, and Elzam crashes their party. I'm starting to think this guy can just appear wherever and whenever he wants, as long as he makes it look sufficiently cool. While this has to be one of the more absurd things he has done, he was probably in too much of a hurry to do things in a less awesome way.
He questions them about what they plan on doing with the Shirogane, and Karl explains that they're temporarily leaving Earth to negotiate with the aliens. He appreciates their good intentions in trying to prevent a battle, but warns them they'll only make things worse. Of course, it's not like they're going to listen, convinced as they are that their plan is foolproof.
KARL: That's the nature of politics. A military man like you wouldn't understand.
ELZAM: If it means throwing away justice to save my own hide...then I don't want to understand!
Still, Elzam can't do much about the situation since he can't shoot the valuable Shirogane to prevent their departure. Not that he needs to: Aerogater units start swarming in, ready to do the job for him. None of the politicians now have a clue any more what's going on, but really, they should've seen it coming. Nibhal is mildly surprised, but is confident the Kurogane will protect them. Elzam would like to tell them all to get bent, but since he needs the Shirogane intact, he reluctantly agrees to provide protection. He hands command of the Kurogane off to one of the officers and heads out himself, giving him a chance to try out his new Huckebein Trombe.
The Coatsland base hasn't changed any since we last left it. Currently in control of Elzam and the Kurogane, and both of them are none too shabby. I go straight for their ship, inflicting quite a decent hit with Trombe's Chakram Caster. Suddenly, a cutscene starts up with Elzam thinking this small group can't be all of them. He's right, since a moment later they surround him and he's stuck.
[BGM change: The Sword That Cleaves Evil]
And just as suddenly, those bothersome enemies are cleaved in two by another surprise arrival. Sanger joins Elzam's side while chiding him for leaving himself open, and I'm once again put in control, now including Sanger. I can't reach the enemy ship, but I can at least make one of the mooks eat Colossal Blade. Sanger's moves are rather expensive, but they're so cool it's hard to avoid using them.
After one turn the Hagane appears, and I deploy everyone. Some of the crew are surprised to see Elzam and Sanger fighting here, but they get ready to leave since we can take it from here. Sanger has some parting words for Kyosuke and Bullet, which causes Excellen to get a bit offended she's not mentioned, though Sanger claims it's mostly because talking her is so exhausting. Sanger and Elzam certainly seem to have eased up since the last meeting, at any rate. They bid us adieu and leave us to deal with the enemies, who have now increased even more.
Defeating all enemies within 5 turns is the goal this time, and aside from the ship we're exclusively dealing with average mooks. Everyone uses Spirit while leaving enough SP for a Valor or two, and then it's time to protect the Shirogane and storm our way through the gathered cloud of enemies. And once our two armies meet, their forces are tightly packed together, and I have the opportunity to do something quite amusing: significantly shave down all their HP using Cyflash and Psychoblaster. Spent a lot of EN and SP on that, but now the rest of my troops can mop up about half of the enemies in a single strike. Enemy numbers decreased by a whole lot in one turn.
The ship isn't much of a threat, it just has a lot of HP. Another perfect job for my executioner Irm, who still has enough SP to use a Valored Darkness Slash. And for good measure, let's throw on another Daunt or two. Bam, 17000 HP less. And another one after I use Enable, because Latooni isn't in dire need of SP at the moment. You know, I think I'm just gonna make the whole Daunt-Valor-Darkness Slash thing a standard tactic for large enemies in future maps. It works pretty well. Some more enemies die of counterattacks on their turn, and the Shirogane takes a bit of damage. It's a sturdy ship, though, so it's not in danger of being destroyed any time soon.
I focus most of my major attacks on finishing off the ship and a couple of 10000HP-mooks surrounding it, and the rear guard can mop up any remaining normal enemies. Not too tight a schedule this time, since I managed it well within the required five turns. I did have to take out all the mooks first, however, since the map instantly ends if you take out the ship, preventing you from getting the BM. Well, the Shirogane is safe, and it seems that was it...
[BGM change: Femme Fatale]
VILETTA: You've caused so much chaos on Earth...for your sins, you'll pay with your lives!
...But not quite. Viletta appears out of nowhere, and heads straight for the Shirogane. In a single blow, she kills Karl and Renji, and leaves just as quickly as she came. Well, that was unexpected. And what of Nibhal? It seems he escaped some time beforehand, clever as he is. Whether or not he could be trusted will remain a mystery, at the very least he prioritized saving his own skin. And so this stranger heads back to wherever he came from, disappointed that his little game is up and leaving us respective business.
NIBHAL: .....Just like last time. Things got out of hand. Who would have thought? All that hard work down the drain. I have no choice. I have to report the results. I guess for now...I'll let those pitiful wanderers watch this planet.
I wonder what the "just like last time" refers to...? But no time to worry about that, because the Shirogane is once again damaged because of Viletta's attack. Fortunately she only hit the bridge to kill Karl and Renji, and left the other blocks intact. It's still unclear what exactly the Aerogaters' motive was to attack at this point, since they wouldn't go through all this trouble just to show that they won't negotiate. Sean has an interesting theory about this: that the aliens wanted to get the EOT Council out of the way so that the battle could continue, possibly because they want to see humanity at its strongest. As if having deduced the same thing, Laker now gives Daitetsu a call telling everyone to return to Izu: Operation SRW is about to start.
Back on Neviim, Levi gloats about having finally eliminated everyone standing in the way, and is informed that the human forces will likely start their attack soon. She's looking forward to fighting them, but Viletta says that Levi's task is to control something called "Judecca", and that the battle should be left to the others. Levi is about to say she doesn't need Judecca, but is suddenly hit by another one of those psychic headaches. Ominous. Viletta later mentions this in a conversation with Ingram, and he explains this phenomenon as feedback from Judecca, which is difficult even for Levi to handle. So I'm guessing Judecca is something like the R-Series, then.
VILETTA: If something happens to Judecca...then the Adjudicator will rise. In that case, even our lives will be in danger...
Adjudicator? Oh, now this is getting intersting. Apart from that, Ingram and Viletta have been poking around on Neviim to see if they could find any information about it, hinting that they may not actually be Aerogaters either. Sadly, the planet only contains programming data for itself, and none of the hoped info on Balmar civilization. He does agree they certainly have advanced technology, though. With everything going on around Ingram, Viletta, Gilliam and Nibhal, I guess that brings the number of hidden agendas so far up to four. Well, you could claim it's three, since Ingram now also implies that he and Viletta are not merely clones but the same person.
INGRAM: You're not just my counterpart...I'm part of you...even if I die...as long as you live, so will I.
Wow, that's...certainly special. Well, during this stage I accumulated a crapload of money, but I guess I'll save it for now since there's not really an urgent need to spend it on anyone. Might do so once the need arises, or just save it all until the end. We'll see.
