Battle Mastery: 4 or more enemies defeated within 2 player turns
Something mysterious is floating in a technicolor space with big crystals around it. It says there's a problem, two roots, unwished world, chaos, confusion, remove guardian deities, the usual semi-mystic gibberish that will make more sense in a couple chapters.
Back on Earth, Archibald is discussing the Earth Cradle's new mechs: Mass-produced R-1s, though he'd heard nothing about such a thing earlier. His ship will be heading off to Shandong, China, where he believes something important is hidden. This is a province in northeast China with a prominent peninsula pointing straight at Korea. Archibald claims that an ancient Mechanoid lies buried there, and a Dr. Makoto Anzai had spent many years searching for it. A Grims ancestor supposedly came into contact with it and the event may have led to the family's fall from the aristocracy. The LTR (Lost Technology Research) institute is currently excavating something.
Seolla and Carla are talking in a room somewhere, talking about why they're in the DC. Carla's family was killed by the Aerogaters during the runup to the L5 Campaign and the DC saved her, while Seolla seems to believe in Dr. Bian's ideals. Seolla's not feeling well, and Dr. Cero brings medicine and he's very worried about her mental state. That meeting with Latooni may have knocked something loose.
At Izu, Lamia checks the disk Echidna gave her, but her decryption module was damaged in the crash along with her other communications gear and she has no spare parts. Looks like she's on her own for now.
In a briefing room somewhere, Ryusei and the ATX team are gossiping about Rai's visit to Kyoto and possible meeting with Princess Shine. Rai took some leave to visit his family's grave there, specifically, his sister-in-law Cattleya's. Lamia thinks it might be Elzam's, but no one else thinks he's dead, just missing. Excellen suggests he's camping in the mountains with Sanger. The Hagane launches to pursue DC submarines heading for China, and Rai will join them en route.
In China, Dr. Eri Anzai's excavation at Cheu Hill has come under attack from DC mechs. Carla gets an odd feeling, like cold air blowing from the ground, and Yuuki shares it. Archibald shows off how much of a bastard he is by bombing the camp, much to everyone else's disgust.
The Hagane arrives, and Excellen and the telekinetic guys get the same feeling Carla had. The BM here is strangely specific, but not terribly difficult with a little luck. The terrain is very rough, granting good defensive bonuses but slowing down most groundpounding mechs, but the only enemies near you are 4 Lion Fs and 4 Barrellions. They fly and will approach fairly quickly.
On turn 2, the Lions Fs are in range, and Rai downs the most distant in one shot with a Magna Beam Rifle. After that, I just move in and blast the rest for a quick and easy BM. There's not much point to engaging the Barrellions just now since they're ridiculously durable.
After I end my turn, the Hagane detects some strange gravity distortions that Lamia claims are teleport signatures. But they don't match the readings of whoever she works for. Instead, a bunch of creepy skeletons and robed tentacle things warp in. Excellen and Kyosuke hear a voice saying “ I won't let you awaken,” but no one else does. Archibald is sensible for once and bugs out, leaving the Hagane troops to handle fifteen or sixteen of these Unknowns.
The Unknowns have a German theme to their weapon names and have one especially irritating energy-draining weapon that has long range and high accuracy. Other than that, they're pretty fragile and go down quickly. Oh, and they regenerate about 10% HP every turn. Even though the characters don't know what they're called, the game reveals that the skeletons are Einst Knochen and the robes are Einst Glied. The Einst Glied has a Beam Coat ability, but that's easily gotten around.
The Einst come in one large group to the south where your units start, extending west across the map, and a smaller group to the north. The Knochen will charge, but the Glied hang back for a few turns. I send the Angelg west to take out that group of Glied while everyone else sits tight to take care of the Knochen before moving north for the last few Glied.
After the battle, Dr. Anzai boards the Hagane to thank Captain Daitetsu for rescuing her. Irm knows her “Hollow Earth” theory... which is actually her father's, and Misaki mentioned something like it when he showed up. Dr. Makoto Anzai has been missing for several years. Dr. Eri Anzai thinks the Unknowns are ancient demons attracted to the Mechanoid buried in the hill and Ryusei geeks out about the possibility of an ancient super robot fighting demons.
Finally, Rose and Archibald discuss the Mechanoid. It seems Rose will use other connections to acquire it from LTR.
Hmm. Latooni has been moved back to the Huckebein Mk II M for some sort of plot-y reason, so I give it some of the Mk II's guns and put Bullet back in the Mk II.
Lami kill count: 25
Kai kill count: 16; level 11
