Battle Mastery: Map completed within 10 turns. (All enemies defeated)
In the Earth Cradle, Lemon and Vindel are discussing Operation Northern Cross, which seems to be going well. Lemon would like to test the first batch of mass-produced “puppets” against the Hagane. Echidna will be in command.
In the command center, Archibald learns that his unit has been chosen to accompany Vindel's special force. Yuuki is being sent along to keep an eye on these newcomers.
On the Hagane, Captain Daitetsu and the others are discussing the same topic. The EFA's African forces are in disarray or destroyed and the presidential office in Paris may soon be threatened. Irm suggests that Isurugi and other corporations are supporting the DC. They simply have too many mechs popping out of nowhere. The discussion is interrupted when enemy ships are sighted in pursuit of friendly forces.
Ok, three Rhinoceros land ships are trying to make a run for it when the Hagane appears. They're escorted by a batch of Randgriths, with fighters and hover tanks in support. If any Rhinoceros makes it to the west side of the map, you lose. Fortunately, they move very slowly in water and woods.
Everyone charges south to block the Rhinoceros' path, and I take out the first one on turn 3. It dropped a Chobham Armor. Once the first Rhinoceros is down, a bunch of Gespensts warp in, along with Yuuki and Carla in R-Schneiders. Echidna is in command in the Rathgrith. The Gespensts are piloted by more “Model W” pilots, with orders to execute code ATA (Ash to Ash, which is also the name of Lamia's leitmotif) if downed to prevent the enemy from knowin what they are. They appear on the western side of the map, with the commanders in the northwest corner. I ignored them to keep working on the battleships. Counterattacks from the Hagane are more than enough to take them down with a turn or two to work.
Once the second Rhinoceros goes down, Carla charges in to defend the last one, but Bullet blocks her. This makes Yuuki zoom across the map to save his partner. For me, this takes place around turn 5. Echidna finally starts moving towards the fight, but it's too late to save the last Rhinoceros: Captain Daitetsu takes it down with a Torpedo. I loved the Hagane's torpedoes in the last game, where they were something ridiculous like range 7 post-movement. But they've been nerfed and can only be fired underwater while stationary.
Interesting fact: unlike enemy pilots in a lot of other SRW titles, these Model W guys will use support defense even when it's suicidal. At the end of turn 6, Yuuki, Echidna, and two Gespensts are the only enemies left. I should have plenty of time to work on bringing the bosses down. As usual, Yuuki retreats at 10K HP, but this time he introduces himself to Bullet.
The Rathgrith is basically a repainted Randgrith with more HP and bigger guns. Echidna will talk to Lamia, telling her to continue the mission and that a replacement speech module will take more time. Echidna retreats at about 20K HP and I earn the BM around turn 7. The Hagane's engine is damaged, but it can still move to rendezvous with allies.
After the battle, the crew finds that the Gespensts were unmanned. At least, no trace of a pilot can be found and no ejection seats were activated. During the battle, everyone thought they moved like robots, but this is a bit much. The Gespenst = ghost line is trotted out again for the fourth or fifth time, but I never mentioned it before.
Kai brings news that Excellen, Ryusei, and Katina have returned with the Hiryu. They encountered more Unknown enemies on the moon (not Einst) and the Wildfalken was shot down. The Hagane receives orders to meet the Shirogane (and Captain Asshole) at Muta Base in Egypt, where the remains of the EFA's African forces have gathered.
At the Earth Cradle, Lemon considers the test results to be positive despite the loss of all units. She also wants to break out another model, one that can nearly fill in for Axel's firepower and ability.
Lamia kill count: 43
Kai kill count: 28; level 16
