Battle Mastery: All enemies defeated by turn 4 except Guarlion Customs
Archibald's submarine is approaching Hawaii with ASRS active, meaning the EFA can't detect them. Dr. Cero, the Earth Cradle representative from last chapter, introduces two new pilots with portraits: Seolla Schweizer and Arado Balanga. For some reason, Seolla has a distinct resemblance to Yzack from Gundam SEED, though I believe that SRW Alpha 2 (the game she's originally from) came out first. They are very young pilots and they have the tsundere + clueless guy thing going on, but they're graduates of The School, the ominously blandly named pilot training program the EFA ran that killed a lot of kids. In the previous OG game, Latooni is referred to as another graduate. Dr. Cero and Dr. Aguilla Setme (you'll see her later) are former employees who took a few students to the Earth Cradle.
At Hickam base, Latooni and Raidiese are working with Kai Kitamura as the new Aggressors to test some new mechs. Garnet also sent Latooni a swimsuit, but it's too big. Rai and Irm are on the phone discussing which prototypes might get stolen. It seems that Nibhal Mubhal was involved with reactivating Projects PTX and ATX. Finally, Ryusei will be getting a prototype mech of his own to test in Japan.
Latooni begins testing the Wildfalken (based on the Weissritter) on the beach with the DC lurking offshore. There's some angry banter between Seolla and Arado while they wait and Carla thinks they must be an item. Carla shoots down the redshirt Lions on the perimeter, but Kai managed to dodge, while four DC Lions restrain Rai's Huckebein Mk II M (for Mass-produced). Seolla attacks Latooni, they recognize each other's moves, and you're given control.
The Lions surrounding Rai will defend for now, but you might as well start flailing about with the plasma sword now. Kai can cast Focus and go engage the Barrellions, but he can't take too many hits. Arado will move up to attack him.
During Turn Two Enemy Phase, Seolla manages to Gundamjack the Wildfalken but tries to talk Latooni into joining her and Arado.
The Shirogane crew finally shows up at the start of turn 3 and you're given a chance to do some last-minute equipping before deploying. Also, the low down dirty trick of revealing the BM requirements with one damn turn to go comes back. I hate these guys.
Before starting this fight, I equipped the Water Jet on the Huckebein Mk II. The thing has serious mobility problems in water. The Alt Eisen's just fine and the other two fly.
Everyone moves towards the little cluster of units near Carla and Yuuki in the southeast. Rai can handle four Lions on his own once they start attacking him. Arado drops a Servo Motor when he goes down, and I earn the BM when Rai takes the last Lion on the Enemy Phase. Again, Carla and Yuuki bail out around 10K HP.
Lee is an asshole to Kai over the prototypes getting stolen and reveals that subordinates are no more than pawns to him. He pretty much outright accuses Latooni of being a spy and drags up Ingram's betrayal from the last game. Nonetheless, the DC's intelligence-gathering has been uncanny the last few stages and even Kai thinks there's a traitor somewhere, possibly in the higher brass. Excellen tells a ridiculous story about the relationship between Weissritter and Wildfalken, the soap opera “While Knight Sisters.” Then Rai gives a proper explanation and Lamia notices that this world is different from the one she knows.
On Archibald's ship, he decides to set course for the Far East to investigate certain old family legends while Yuuki decides the Major is just a poseur when it comes to tea. Seolla berates Arado for getting shot down and lets slip that she saw Latooni.
So, Kai has joined in a Gespenst Mk II M, Rai has the Huckebein Mk II M, and Latooni is in an F-32C Schwert X jet for now. You also get Repair and Supply modules that will make life a lot easier from here on out.
Kai gets SP Regen; he has Attacker naturally, so I'll add four levels of Infight and leave the last skill slot empty. If Kai gets 55 kills and is level 33 by stage 33, I can get a Gespenst Mk II S, which is rather stronger than a normal Gespenst Mk II and has the memetic Gespenst Kick if I remember right. I just might go for it this time, though it's not really a top-tier unit.
Rai has Hit & Away naturally, so SP Regen, Attacker, and Gunfight 4 for him, leaving one skill slot empty. I also swap him into the Huckebein Mk II and Bullet into the Mk II M because, well, I like Rai better. They also trade the Mk II's Chakram Caster and Mk II M's Rectangular Launcher.
Latooni gets SP Regen and Attacker, and one skill slot left empty. Her jet will be the repair/resupply unit for now since its weapons are easily the weakest available.
Lamia gets her Air and Ground performance ratings upgraded to S.
Kai's Gespenst will get the Servo Motor since Kai can use a little help dodging. Other than that, the new units just get a few points of Mobility and nothing else. They're just temporary filler.
Lamia kill count: 18
Kai kill count: 10
