There's not a whole lot of concern among the crew about the upcoming operation; in fact, they've decided to throw a big party before they're off to the final battle. Excellen is by far the most enthusiastic about it, as it to be expected, although Russel quickly sees that she just considers it an excuse to drink. Still, the crew needs to have fun once in a while and it might be good to bolster the team spirit before they're going to their final battle, so food and drink it is. And not just any food: the crew members have decided to have a multi-cultural food festival where they all cook something from their own country. So Rio makes a Chinese dish, Leona a German dish, Eun a Korean dish, and so on. I'll bet they're all looking forward to that Branstein Bratwurst.
In the SRX lab, the scientists are still figuring out how they're gonna make this thing run properly, and even Kirk — designer of the SRX — thinks the circuitry is too complex to solve this problem. That's a feat in itself, really, successfully designing a system that's too complex for yourself to understand. They sound like they're about to give up when dr. Marion Radom
walks in, offering them a new type of servo motor she invented for the Gespenst Mk. III, which turns out to be precisely what they needed. Now, most of the time this lady is a rival of Kirk (mainly because she thinks mechs should be designed without involving EOT) but in this case she figures bigger things are at stake than her personal pride, and so agrees to give them a hand.
For that matter, they're equally surprised by her cooperation as by the fact that she's alive, since they assumed she hadn't survived the attack at Langley Base. This is her first appearance in this route, but otherwise we would've seen her earlier in the game. Jonathan also has one last surprise for Rob, though it's common knowledge to the other two: Kirk and Marion haven't just been rivals since their time at Mao Industries, they also used to be married. That would explain the general bitterness between them, rivals or not.
In other news, Rishu Togo also survived the attack. He's the martial arts master who taught Sanger everything there is to know about being a samurai, which is probably why Sanger now acts so weird. Oh, and he also acts as an advisor for the development of the Grungust's sword. While he's here, he's decided to check up on Bullet's training progress, and chats a bit with Ryusei, who has decided he wants to learn sword combat from Rishu. Despite his Old Master appearance, Rishu does have a weird appreciation for Ryusei's attack naming habits. He thinks "Supreme Sword" sounds cool, at least. Awesome old guy, even if he's just an NPC.
In the meantime, the others have gotten the party running and food's about to be served. Some of the crew members provide entertainment in their own way, with Giado doing some singing, and Excellen and Garnet posing in Playboy Bunny outfits. Neither of which we get to hear or see, mind you. Everyone certainly likes it, anyway, and evokes the classic anime response from Bullet. Great. The reactions to the food are varied: Radha's curry makes Rai frantically search for water, and upon tasting Leona's whatever-it-is, Tasuku spontaneously falls over unconscious. I think Leona's cooking should instead be employed as a weapon, it seems very effective.
The captains are also joining in on the fun, but in their private room, where they are having a drink. Since Excellen has quite the nose for booze, she and Garnet burst in a moment later to join in. Daitetsu still promised her that sake from Kyoto, so he doesn't really have any other choice but to give in. But really, his only fear is that there will be none left if Garnet joins in as well. Still, a promise is a promise, Captain. The only one who doesn't get to join in the party right away is Eita because the bridge crew remains important, though Tetsuya is willing to give him 20 minutes leave to mingle a bit. Lefina joins Tetsuya on the empty bridge, and they talk a bit about each other's backgrounds. It's no surprise they have such a high rank at a young age — Lefina graduated with top honors, and Tetsuya was second in his class. Well, Tetsuya had good scores, but he admits he's no good under pressure.
Well, no more time to waste on chitchat — the enemy has once again arrived to give us our daily drubbing. No chance of a breather episode at this point! Facing us this time are Gaza, Galuin and a whole of common enemies. Not particularly weak ones, either, most of these things have more than 10000 HP each, and the area is swarming with them. That's not as much of a concern as the fact that our crew is now drunk, however, and they have to waste a bit of time doing situps until they're sober enough to fight. Should've thought of this beforehand, people.
Lots of buildings that allow me to regenerate HP/EN. I'm gonna need it. I'm gonna deal with Gaza and Galuin first, since they're the most difficult part of this map. Taking down the henchmen shouldn't be too much trouble, and can be partially dealt with through counterattacks. It takes a few turns to get over there in the first place, and Bullet's so weak that his mech almost gets torn to shreds before he reaches the evasion-enhancing buildings. Is there anything those structures can't do? I keep Aya in reserve because she can cast Attune, which often turns out to be a better use of her SP than direct involvement in combat. Alas, unconsciously relegated to support character again. Maybe Ingram was right after all.
It's not easy wading through a forest of enemies towards my target, and buildings provide no bonus to flying units. I could make them land, but them most of them would be sitting ducks. Oh well. Gilliam, Irm and Leona arrive first and let loose a few early shots against Gaza, making him waste a bit of energy on his Oruga Cannon attack as well. Not that it matters much at this point in the game, because practically any boss has HP and/or EN regen to some degree. Still, it looks like I'm making good progress in lowering his health. Irm is attacked by pretty much everyone and loses about half his health in one turn, which doesn't mean much since he has tons of it can easily regenerate it.
Yeah, that quickly lowering health bar was too good to be true. Halfway through, another cutscene plays, and he buffs himself like crazy. The characters do notice he kinda sounds like Tenzan, but rule out this possibility because Tenzan is confirmed dead. Excellen briefly tries to come up with a theory, but that doesn't really get anywhere once she has to explain why Tenzan would have an alien twin brother. Yeah, we can safely assume it's him. Now he's starting to play dirty, and not caring any more who dies, he sends in a rain of MAPWs. Oh, I hate these things. I will freely admit, I save scummed a bit at this point because it wasn't easy to deal precisely enough damage to disable them without accidentally rolling a critical and destroying them. You blow up one of them, instant game over.
What's more, some of my attacks suddenly deal 0 damage to Gaza! He's got a whole of points in his Prevail skill, and nothing but my strongest moves are gonna damage him. I slice off a bit more health using Cosmo Nova, and then it's a matter of hoping Darkness Slash will do enough damage. In the end, I decided to spend money to upgrade it to maximum, which definitely paid off here. And hooray, it does the trick! Down he goes, on to Galuin. This guy's slightly more problematic because he's on a HP/EN regen tile from which he refuses to move, so I'll actually have to make haste in draining his HP.
Same tactics as before; start with weak attacks, then when Prevail kicks in use the strong attacks. Sadly both of them are immune to Armor Breaker, or this would've been finished even sooner. At least Energy Taker still helps with draining their shields. Killing the henchmen through counterattacks also isn't going exactly as I had expected, since most of them keep aiming at Kyosuke, who has long since run out of ammo. Gotta move him off the battlefield next turn. Galuin is fortunately still subject to the same killing techniques, and after a short delay he also bites the dust.
Now it's time for the big clean-up: because of the great multitude of enemies, I decide to soften them up a bit by using Cyflash and Psychoblaster a few times, good for a few thousand HP each. That really ate up their EN, though. I was worried I wasn't gonna make it, but their forces thin out quicker than I expected. I'm soon in the majority, and I'm right on track to get this done within the required 10 turns. Had a look to see if the Giganscudo's Giga Burst map attack was any good in this situation, but it missed every target. Never mind then. Once the enemies are cleared out, Bullet takes out the last missile with the weakest attack in his arsenal, and I get my Battle Mastery with a spacious 10 turns.
Once the battle is done, the commanders all get together to discuss what just happened. Not only was Gaza almost certainly Tenzan, but Gilliam deduces that Galuin is actually Colonel Kar-Wai. It certainly seems more plausible now that people on their team have already been kidnapped and brainwashed, and the data gathered points towards this being the case. The ships continue their return to Izu, and the briefing on the final mission is about to commence.
EXCELLEN: I don't have anything witty to say here...
RYUSEI: Wait...that would imply that you have before.
Yay, I finally get to freely use and upgrade the SRX! That's where I'm dumping all of my money into, then. The R-series mechs can be cleared of any extra parts now, since only the parts equipped on the combined SRX matter. Next chapter, we'll get to see the real power of the ultimate invincible robot!
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