Time to start the actual assault. We've rejoined the rest of the fleet, and the pilots are either busy getting in their mechs or discussing their respective wills. Can't be helped talking about such things in this situation, but the ever-optimistic Garnet still isn't amused. And so, from here on the conversation will assume they'll survive, with Ryoto and Rio agreeing to visit Chinatown again after the battle, but this time just the two of them. Romantic overtones all around, and yet there's still someone who, against all odds, doesn't quite get the hint.
EXCELLEN: Wow! I'd like to see you in a tux!
KYOSUKE: Anything else you wanna add to my will?
EXCELLEN: That's the punch line?
Once again, the commanders are drinking in private instead of hanging around with the others. Well, Daitetsu's drinking, anyway. Tetsuya, on the other hand, is against drinking when he's about to take command, but Daitetsu feels this may be the last time he gets to pour someone a drink. He's lost a lot of men in his career, and has the feeling he's gonna have to answer for it soon, but at least wants to make sure no one else has to die this time. He's sounding rather world-weary all of a sudden, but maybe that's just something that's been below the surface until now. A man with a lot of baggage he's not showing. Being the by-the-book guy that he is, Tetsuya still declines the drink, but will accept one after the battle.
The ships have arrived in enemy territory, and everyone's moved into their respective combat positions now. Operation SRW officially starts without a hitch, and the EFA fleets are all engaging enemy forces now along the defensive lines. The ships ready the nukes, but they're not in firing position yet, which means they'll have to be defended until they can fire. Escort mission it is, then.
Not all that much that they need to be defended against yet.
Most of my units can take these out in one shot, but I'm trying to save as much ammo as I can because obviously they're not gonna present this as the level's major challenge. There are asteroid fields here and there which my units can hide in to boost their defense/evasion, but most of them get by just fine in the open. Point is, I don't know about those yellow ships, so I'm just gonna eliminate all these things as quickly as possible before anything funny happens. Units beyond my control are always a hassle. I start with combining the SRX as usual, which leads to a funny little conversation about releasing the R-3 if things go bad, and Ryusei tactfully makes it sound like Aya is there just because.
RYUSEI: Shut up. Legs are just decoration—I don't need 'em. Worst case, I can handle the SRX by myself. Just make sure to back me up.
Probably not intended like that, but out of context it still sounds rather odd. I'd certainly like to see Ryusei pilot all three units at once, though. I'm certain Musashi would approve. Well, time to get things going. Not too much SP use at first, maybe a Focus here and there to help things along, but on average my army of robots kills each of them in one or two shots. Their counterattacks are largely ineffective, apart from causing even more of them to be destroyed by my troops, though they did manage to hit Bullet once. He does have the weakest mech out of everyone, I think. Even Radha gets to help clean up a unit or two! At the end of this turn, the enemies have been cleared out, and the path is clear.
And here comes the real treat. Suddenly, a surprise barrage of missiles sink two of the ships accompanying us, and a whole wave of battleships appears. Great, so I've been vigorously defending them and then they decide to die in a cutscene. Might as well have skipped step 1, then. These Aerogater battleships are a pain because they have 50000 HP each, there's a lot of them, and I need to finish them all quickly for the BM on this map. Time to get phase 3 going as well, and close in on Neviim for a direct hit with the ship cannons. Meanwhile, the remaining AI-controlled ships will make their way there to deliver their nuclear payload, and our task is to protect them — and, in my case, destroy all enemies before they reach their destination.
I'll admit, I had to replay this part a few times because it's not easy to get rid of a gazillion HP in a few turns. A lot of the time, however, the issue was running out of ammo halfway through. Thus, I filled up any empty storage space on the mechs with spare weapons I had accumulated over the course of the game, giving everyone at least some respectable beam rifles to use as a backup weapon. I also realized that equipping Radha and Rio with repair and supply modules was also pointless if they weren't going to be in the middle of the battle, so I reallocated those to Lune and Ryoto. Makes reloading much easier. I also gave as many mechs as possibly S-grade performance in space, and equipped the SRX with a Solar Panel. Supreme Sword is cool, but it burns up a lot of energy, and this compensates for it a little bit.
The ships themselves don't pose much of a threat, and even if their Metarium Cannons hit, they don't do that much damage. My strongest attacks can deal up to 20000 HP damage to a unit, but the trick is making this last for multiple turns. The problem with using supply modules to recharge is that they cannot be used after moving, so the suppliers need to move into the correct location one turn before they're needed. I try to make some use of support attacks for extra damage, but my units are moving around so much that it's not easy to set these up. One fortunate thing is that, even if a unit with a supply module isn't near, I can move units onto the surface of Neviim for a quick partial recharge. Hooray for extravagant terrain bonuses!
The extra weapons I brought along come in handy for counterattacks, and I end up using all the SP I have on Valor buffs for most units. In this regard, the SRX has the convenience of three pilots, which means I can cycle between the three of them when I need a buff, letting the others recover their SP. It takes a while, but eventually I'm starting to cut through their numbers through a sheer onslaught of raw firepower, since tactics are practically useless in this level.
In the end it was damn close, too. Commander Norman's ship arrives and launches its nukes, which as predicted doesn't do all that much and instead it gets itself shot down for its trouble, taking Norman with it. Didn't expect him to die this way, to be honest. I wasn't finished mopping up the enemies, either, but fortunately it doesn't count until both ships have arrived, and I clear the last enemy out in the nick of time. It seems the second ship was luckier, and all that remains now is sending in the Hagane and Hiryu. Well damn, I left both of them in their starting positions. Gonna have to send them in from the other side of the map now, which is gonna add some turns to the counter. I already have my BM, but still. In SRW games, it tends to be a good idea to keep an eye on that. One uneventful trip later, both ships break through Neviim's defensive lines, and we're ready to continue towards the next stage of the battle.
Meanwhile, Levi is impressed with the results Ingram has achieved in training these humans, but now Ingram is starting to show obsessive signs with continuing to test them. This seems to be the result of Judecca increasing its control over him, although GLaDOS would probably also have been a fair answer. Levi dispatches Atad and Viletta to fight us, while Atad covertly considers this a chance to get rid of Viletta. As long as these people all continue to fight each other, we'll certainly be victorious!
Not much new this time, so I guess I'll just save my money in case I need it later. Mashing all those ships into a pulp was a good source of money and XP, but little else. I'm keeping the weapon configurations I used during this chapter for now, since they were kind of useful and I want to see if they hold up in the next chapter as well.
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