Battle Mastery: Kurogane arrives at destination within 6 turns.
Shu Shirakawa must have packed half the cast into the Kurogane: Rob and Kirk are also here to help patch up your mechs after the pyrrhic end of Operation Plantagenet. Leona returns the Huckebein 008L to Ring, and the mechanics get down to work. Robert also brought the G-Impact Stake and Neo Chakram Caster, powerful melee weapons designed for Super Robots like the Grungust series that have been miniaturized to work on more conventional mechs. The Neo Chakram Caster has 7 range, good power, and runs on energy if I remember right.
Radha has examined Seolla in sickbay and she seems to be doing fine. She hadn't received anything major adjustments lately, just mind control, thanks to Dr. Cero. Radha hints she had something to do with these crazy mental science experiments; I think she worked at ICS for a while. Seolla seems to be on the nice side of her tsunder character today: she's so happy that she remembers Arado through the mind control that she doesn't hit him for saying her stubbornness was useful for once. Or that her memory's as huge as her breasts.
Dr. Radom has rebuilt the Alteisen into Alteisen Riese (“Scrap metal Giant” in German, according to this wiki), with more armour and an even bigger Pile Bunker, the Revolver Bunker, big enough that it unbalanced the original Alteisen. She slaps Tasuku when he says she hadn't been thinking when she designed it and threatens to shoot him the next time he said something like that. The Claymores have been enlarged, an extra stabilizer fitted on the back, and a Tesla Drive added to help it stand up.
The Gespense Mk II Type S has been delivered to Kai, something Ratsel received from Ring after the L5 Campaign. It's an old model, optimized for close-range combat, which suits Kai perfectly (or will once I've upgraded it a bit). The Hagane will head to Ratsel's base (wherever that is) for repairs; Kirk Hamil is presumably being sent along to supervise. Tetsuya assumes that Ratsel will be the Kurogane's captain again, but he has a new Trombe now and Tetsuya is pushed into the chair. He takes over as “acting” captain for now and pretty much inherits Captain Daitetsu's old set of SP commands (Guard and Guts have a slight discount).
In the briefing room, the captains and Sean reveal the details of their next operation. The EFA, Neo DC, and Inspectors have retreated to their respective strongholds in the face of Einst attacks. These two ships will take advantage of this chaos to attack their enemies, fighting the Einst on the way if they have to. The Hiryu will attack the Moon Cradle, which in in the Inspectors' hands, while the Kurogane will attack the Earth Cradle. I'm heading for the Earth Cradle because that's where the final showdown between Sanger and Wodan takes place.
On the Kurogane bridge, Eita's well enough to resume his duties and Tetsuya declines the captain's chair for now, saying he feels Captain Daitetsu's spirit still there. Once the ship arrives in Africa, Tetsuya decides to approach the Earth Cradle from the direction of Lake Victoria, which means crossing some desert (in the game world; I'm not sure there's one there in the real world). Good thing the Kurogane can move underground, eh?
In the Earth Cradle, Ouka is being subjected to more intense mind control by Dr. Setme since she's started questioning things because of Seolla's departure. Dr. Feff insists his Machinery Children are superior because they lack real personalities and emotions, and that Thurisuz's Ax-Crazy tendencies are just a variation created to test something or other. Also, he plans a future “Ing” series of Children. Dr. Setme declares that personality and emotion can create great things far beyond any puppet's stats.
On the Kurogane, Sanger has asked the former Neo DC members about Dr. Sophia Nate. No one has seen her, and Dr. Feff has been running things. Magus in the Central Block is a black box to junior officers like Yuuki, so it looks like Sanger will have to break into the cradle to find out what happened to Dr. Nate.
Ratsel tells the story of why the Bransteins and Garsteins want Archibald's head over tea. It all happened at Elpis, where terrorists took Cattleya hostage and loaded a docking bay with poison gas. They left the hostage with the gas and a few bombs. Then Archibald released the gas while locking open all doors to the dock, meaning the colony will be slowly poisoned. Cattleya insisted Elzam destroy the docking bay to save the colony, even if it meant killing her.
I finally get to see the map somewhere near the cradle. The Kurogane strikes a minefield right beside a Neo DC task force fighting Einst. Yuuki and Carla are automatically deployed, but I can probably get them through this alive even without upgrades.
I use the Battle Preparation menu for the first time on this run because the game has shuffled everyone around and I don't think a Schutzwald is a good choice for this map. So Radha takes the Wildwurger L for now and I shuffle weapons around. This is the down side to the OG games allowing weapons and pilots to be moved between (nearly) all mechs. Unlike most SRW titles where weapons are practically bolted on and most pilots have a single mech to pilot (and small pools for those who can move), this gives a great deal of flexibility at the cost of every route split and party change playing merry hell with your personal setup.
Anyway, once I get my troops sorted out, Tetsuya asks Yuuki and Carla for directions. They have about twenty minutes after the Earth Cradle is alerted to get there before the Gate of Magus retreats underground and the Cradle becomes inaccessible. So for this map, you have to run to the northwest corner in eight turns (six for the BM). There's a line of Neo DC at the western edge of the map and Einst scattered over the northern half. My party is big and well-armed enough to punch through them pretty easily... I hope.
Eita, your new XO has Accel, which is great for this stage. So, everyone charges forward into the Einst and I try to give Tasuku a kill or three since I haven't really used him and the Giganscudo since they were mandatory.
By turn three, the Kurogane is getting close to the destination, but a line of Barrelions bars the way... not for long if I can get my troops up in time. I only have to take out a few of them to clear a path, but those railguns hurt. Once I move the Kurogane close to the destination, more Einst pop out of nowhere to block it, Gemuet and Einsteisen. Nothing I can't take down the next turn, though. Yuuki and Carla board the Kurogane because their mechs are practically sitting ducks. I don't know why, but the Barrelions don't bother trying to shoot. Also, the Kurogane has her shields up and the Einsts' stun weapons just bounce off.
Once I have a clear path, one casting of Accel will get the Kurogane off the map. If I hang around to blow up Einst and grind cash, at least one more wave of reinforcements will warp in. It's probably best to just push on even though I have two more turns to claim the BM. The Einst are constantly defending on my turn, which greatly slows farming and I don't want to risk the “one more hit” problem clearing a second path. Tetsuya takes the chance to kill one last Einst with the Titanic Drill on the way out.
During the intermission, I give the Huckebein Mk III T some more energy and mobility since I'll be using it for a least a few more chapters. I still don't upgrade Yuuki or Carla's mechs; the money would be better spent on improving weapons used in combination attacks.
It's a bit late, but this might be a good place to explain where the title of this liveblog came from. This video
has various funny lines from Lamia in the latest OG game, and that line appears around 1:37.
According to one FAQ I looked at, 35 BM is the magic number for getting the True Final Boss, so I can relax a bit now. Just one easy BM in the next seven stages and I'm good to go. Probably.
