Battle Mastery: One Megillot reduced to 5%HP, all others destroyed within 2 turns
The chapter starts with Arado having a flashback to a conversation with Seolla about their new assignment to Colonel Van Vat Tran's unit. They make a promise to stay alive and stick together to find the other survivors of The School. He wakes up in the Hagane's sick bay: he'd survived because he couldn't eject in the previous chapter. His whole cockpit had been thrown clear of the exploding mech, an explosion that would have killed him if he'd been flying around in an ejection seat. Excellen says he must have Kyosuke's luck and asks if he wants to start a magic show escaping from various things. She even has a bunny suit.
On the bridge, Irm and Captain Daitetsu discuss their prisoner: he's apparently drugged to the gills, mostly steroids and some hallucinogenic drugs. He's a lot stronger than he looks and healing quickly. He also needs a proper psych evaluation and no one onboard is qualified. Questioning him is probably futile since he's just a grunt and may not even know the DC's real plans. And, you know, drugged all the time. Kai would like to try to convince Arado to join the Hagane crew, like so many former enemies. Ryusei calls Kai a wise old man, but gets slapped for it: Kai may be a father, but he's only in his 30s.
New orders have come down for the Hagane: She is to redezvous with the 23rd Hybrid Mobile Division in Ethiopia or the Middle East for an attack on the Earth Cradle. Operation Mole Hunt is about to start. Also, units have been disappearing in the L2 space sector. The Hiryu is investigating.
In the L2 sector, Captain Lefina deploys her handful of mechs to find the cause of the disappearances. Katina is still a hard-ass, Leona is still keeping Tasuku on a short leash, and no one has any upgrades. They encounter a dozen AGX-01 Bugs, the basic alien mooks from the last game. Captain Lefina orders the Oct squad to capture one Bug for research. You have two Gespenst Mk II Ms, a Guarlion, and the Giganscudo Duro to accomplish this.
This BM is a bit tricky since your units aren't the best around. However, Sean on the Hiryu has the Mercy spirit command that leaves targets at 10HP if the shot would have killed them. Everyone charges forward and starts smashing Bugs. Even the crappy Autocannon on Leona's Guarlion is enough to destroy one of these. One Bug drops an Energy Taker, but my comments about status effect immunity on bosses still stands.
On turn 2, there are 3 Bugs left, one at 140 HP, and that has the BM pretty much in the bag. And once it is, reinforcements show up: more Bugs, Rangzen space fighters, and even a few Huckebein Mk II Ms. The human machines are using the ID codes of the disappeared units, but they're not responding to communications. Captain Lefina wants you to capture one of the Huckebeins.
This part of the mission is a bit trickier, since the Rangzen have pretty good accuracy and dodging. Giganscudo Duro's MAP attack could easily smash them, but Tasuku's Will is still pretty low. I pull back everyone close to the Hiryu, especially the Gespensts. One Rangzen drops a Thruster Set, which boosts Space performance. The Huckebeins are pretty durable, but they won't move until turn 4, running right into Leona and the Hiryuu's guns. By turn five, three Huckebeins are left, one within Hiryu's range where I can hit it with a big gun and Mercy. Leona and Tasuku take care of the rest.
After the battle, the Hiryu crew discovers that the Bugs and Huckebeins weren't being controlled by the Aerogaters. In fact, the Bugs are copies built by someone else, and the Huckebeins were piloted by Bioroids, artificial humans.
Back on the Hagane, Arado is eating prodigious quantities of food and saying it's much better than what the DC gets. Bullet says it's up to him whether he wants to join the crew or get shipped off to a POW camp since he isn't some sort of hardcore fanatic. Arado figures it'd be easier to meet Seolla again on Hagane than any other ship.
Finally, we cut to the President's office. President Midcrid receives the Hiryu's report from Laker and his adviser Graien disapproves of not using proper channels. Mitsuko Isurugi's also here, along with Nibhal Mubhal, as part of an inquiry into how the DC remnants are being supplied. Mitsuko makes excuses for her company and tries to pin the blame on Mao Industries. Graien pushes for the incident to be recognized as “Case E,” which I assume means alien involvement, and mobilization for war. Mitsuko thinks she sees major business opportunities here. Of course, she's the mysterious Rose passing intel and supplies to the DC remnants that we saw in the shadows.
Finally, Dr. Kobayashi is opening up that White Star fragment in his lab. It's definitely the core of the “White Death,” and Aya think “She” might be in there, the former commander of the Aerogaters. The chapter ends with you receiving an A-Adaptor, a Booster.
The intermission goes back to the Hagane crew, so there's no chance right now to upgrade the Hiryu or Octo squad. Up next is a route split between going to Ethiopia or the Moon. I'll be staying on Earth to work on Lamia's kill count.
