Battle Mastery: All enemies defeated except for Rathgrith and Thrudgelmir within 3 turns
In the Earth Cradle, Graien is explaining the plan for Operation Plantagenet to Colonel Van Vat Tran: With the Neo DC and EFA working together, they can strike both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America at once. The colonel says the plan depends on the success of Operation Harpe, but he's willing to join forces against the Inspectors. Elsewhere, Mitsuko and Graien continue scheming and say that General Garret will be securing Izu for their little coup d'etat, with some insurance on the side.
The Machinery Children report to Egret, who is unsuccessfully trying to get Magus to design a mech more powerful than Thrudgelmir. She might just dislike him or something. Dr. Setme wants to capture the Hiryu and Hagane for more “research material.”
On the Hagane, the crew gets their first look at the R-Gun Powered's pilot, Mai. Katina and Kusuha think she looks familiar. Princess Shine and Arado try to befriend her and offer a tour of the ship. Viletta tells Captain Daitetsu that the HTB Cannon has been disabled for work on the connection between the two units, and the captain continues grumbling about keeping Mai's identity secret. He thinks that they've had so many former enemies join that one more won't be a problem.
In the command center, Garret starts the coup, taking Laker and Sakae prisoner. Soon, there's fighting all over the base. Garret asks about the whereabouts of the Kurogane, which is still missing. Captain Daitetsu orders all hands to battlestations when the ships lose contact with the base. The Shirogane arrives as the Shadow Mirror flagship with a bunch of mechs in tow, including Echidna and Wodan's units. The Hagane deploys mechs, but Lamia carries out her orders from Lemon to seize the bridge. Lemon and Vindel warp in and Vindel gives the usual villain monologue; this one's about war driving progress and so on, the usual rot from those who can't find something to do in peacetime. After some debate, Lamia rams the Angelg into Vindel's mech and activates Code ATA. He and Lemon are forced to withdraw with the Shirogane and the actual fighting begins. Lemon picks up something before leaving.
There are a lot of targets to take down in 3 turns, and the Randgriths have long-range weapons to boot. Anyway, there's little choice except to charge forward and try to build enough Will to get a couple shots of MAP weapons in good spots. By turn three, the R-Eins that had been hanging back are still alive and mostly undamaged, and very few other enemy units are still going. An attuned Cy-Flash (Seriously, Masaki needs some fucking glasses) severely or fatally damages about half of these, and Aya's TK Missiles knocks a good chunk off the rest. The last unit goes down for the BM and Kusuha's ace badge: EXP +10% and something labeled def sup 10% corr, which I assume means she takes 10% less damage when taking a hit for an ally.. Echidna and Wodan retreat once they're alone; Garret sends the Hagane and Hiryu in pursuit.
President Midcrid decides to surrender in his office. There's nothing he can do here, and there are better things to do than argue about who's in charge.
On the Hagane, the crew are taking the revelations about Lamia pretty hard. Her self-destruction in Vindel's face is a bit puzzling, though. Oh, and Mai might be another spy since she looks so much like Levi Tolar, or so Katina thinks. Irm believes that the truth will come out sooner or later: the nature of the Shadow Mirrors and Lamia's true allegiance.
Kusuha learns Hit & Away since the Ryukooh has very weapons it can use after moving. Captain Lefina learns the same skill.
I boost Mai's Sky and Ground performance ratings to S and dump some PP into evasion and accuracy. SRX takes the Mega Booster because that thing has terrible movement otherwise. The next stage will be a doozy.
