Once again, the chapter opens with a little scene of our three characters hanging out at the base, discussing a problem Ryusei seems to be having with his mail. Neither his mom nor Kusuha have responded to anything he's sent, and he's wondering why that could be. Turns out his letters mentioned he was now a test pilot for a new mech, and thus they got censored. He's lucky, since normally he'd be severely penalized for this. Really, common sense isn't something that this guy has in abundance. He actually has to remind himself he's in the army now, and that he's got to be careful with classified info. Rai berates him over this situation, triggering the usual back-and-forth bickering.
Before Aya even bothers stopping them as usual, the three of them are summoned by the Chief of Staff, Sakae Takanaka
. He's got special orders for them: they are to be test pilots for the earlier-mentioned Project SRX. The brief explanation Ingram gives is that this is a project to develop humanoid-type mobile weapons to fight the Aerogaters. Once again, gotta wonder what government official thought this would be the best way to fight an alien invasion. Eh, probably part of the pork in the defense budget. Ryusei wants to know who this enemy faction is, and makes the following leap of logic that leaves everyone present stunned for several seconds by its inanity:
RYUSEI: Oh, space invaders like the ones in robot anime, right?
Aliens or not, Ingram doesn't think their identity is what's important right now. What matters is whether the three of them can handle the test models that have been developed, and as such they're introduced to their future mechs, the R-Series Personal Troopers. For this mission, the pilots will be referred to as the SRX team, which is also what I'm gonna call the three of them from now on. Continuing to ask silly questions, Ryusei wants to know what SRX stands for, but Ingram says the answer will have to wait until later. Damn this guy runs a tight schedule, can't even explain abbreviations. He gives them the mech specs and control manuals, and tells them to familiarize themselves with the material within 3 days. Despite complaints from Ryusei, they get right on it, and Ingram is summoned to the Commander's room by Sakae.
For this mission, the team has been literally Reassigned to Antarctica, because the Earth Federal Government is having a secret meeting there. They'll cover it up by claiming it's to celebrate the completion of a new ship, the Shirogane, and to unveil the EOTI's new mobile weapon. Yeah, that's much less suspicious, guys. Sakae is confident nothing bad could possibly happen, but Ingram thinks something bad is guaranteed to happen, since EOTI's been screaming for a war. The mission was specifically given to them by major admiral Norman Slay, the man that set up Projects SRX and ATX. (Note: if I was playing the other route, I'd have the team working on Project ATX, which is a similar mech project under different supervision.)
Besides, Laker thinks this is a good opportunity for the team to observe their future enemy's weapons, since they'll have to deal with the EOTI sooner or later. I say, these people are thinking ahead. It's clear how they got their ranks. And thus the SRX team is sent to Antarctica, with only a vague idea of what they're supposed to do other than observing the ceremony. It seems pretty bearable, though, since all Ryusei complains about is that they have stand around like that with nothing to do. Their mechs have efficient heating, I guess. Cue Aya shouting at him as he decides to open his cockpit hatch because he wants to take a picture of the Shirogane, thus revealing he still doesn't entirely grasp the concept of "classified info". Once he's back in his mech, he fanboys his teammates' ears off about this new ship. Him and Rai discuss it for a bit: this ship can operate in air, space, and water, and has a modular bow that can be changed to 1 of 3 different types.
Ryusei also wonders what the EOTI's new mech is going to be, but Rai says they don't have any info on that. Ryusei considers it strange they haven't heard anything about this, and for once Rai has to (quietly) agree that Ryusei is right, leaving him to wonder what the hell's going on here. The only thing they know is the name of this new mech, which is the "Granzon". Ryusei thinks the mech has that going for it, at least, because that is a totally badass name. Have to agree with him here, it's got a good sound to it. And of course, at this exact moment the Granzon makes its actual appearance.
RYUSEI: Wow, the name sure suits it. It DOES look like a bad guy.
Meanwhile, aboard the Shirogane, its commanding officer Daitetsu Minase and executive officer Tetsuya Onodera are making sure the Granzon is moved in place. So that's where you've been since chapter 1, captain. Now they're just waiting for things to start, which leads to Albert Grey asking them if the area has been secured. He's there as an EFG official, and if something happens to him the talks are off. They're doing their best, and that's really all they can do to protect him.
Suddenly, bridge officer Eita Nadaka reports that a gravity anomaly has appeared, which pretty much looks like a giant expanding purple circle in-game. A ship has teleported onto the scene, which turns out to be the one the officials had been waiting for. The meeting starts, and all units are told to secure the perimeter. What they're supposed to look out for isn't clear, but they'll do as they're told. That's the spirit, team. The ship that has appeared is identified as an Aerogater battleship, though Albert objects to the use of that name, as he prefers "our guests". You know, Albert, 'benefactors' also has a nice ring to it. Ryusei is wondering if the ship is from Earth, since the people coming out of it look human. Rai finally grasps this is some sort of meeting, but can't figure out what for. If the soldiers are kept in the dark to this extent, it may well explain their confusion over what they're doing at this meeting.
The "guests" and EFG officials enter the base, and the meeting begins as planned, but something's bothering Eita. The EOTI's observer, dr. Shu Shirakawa, is nowhere to be found, even though he was in the conference hall a moment ago.
???: *smirk* The stage is set...now, let's put an end to this farce!
Yeah, no guesses who this mystery person is. Without warning, a high energy reaction starts emanating from the Granzon, and a moment later it fires at the alien ship. It takes a huge amount of damage but is far from destroyed, and the only real effect is that it now releases a swarm of bug mechs to attack us. Finally, it's obvious to our team that it's an Aerogater ship, and they slowly start figuring out what the purpose of this meeting was. Aboard the Shirogane, the crew is going crazy after witnessing this sudden act of treason from their side, and they try to deduce who's piloting the Granzon. Only one possibility here, and that is clearly Shu. They try to contact him, but he's not responding. Their first point of concern at the moment, however, is fending off the bugs that are attacking their ship and allies.
Here is where I'm put in control. The map's got plenty of buildings, which raise defense and restore HP/EN. Not that I need it, but it's a nice bonus nonetheless. The yellow allied enemy units are pretty worthless, though, and since I want the Battle Mastery for this map I'll have to charge straight into their formation so they'll attack my units instead of the tanks. My team can kill these things far quicker, you see. They're just bugs, and I can make short work of them in a turn or two, which is precisely how much time I have to do this. The only thing to watch out for is their main ship's Legion Eraser at this point, really. Fortunately, by using Evade instead of Counter when it attacks, I managed to avoid getting hit both times. My units' strongest attacks pretty much instantly reduce the bugs to dust, which is sufficient for this map as the main ship then disappears and I've earned my BM.
The Aerogaters have retreated, but we still have to deal with Shu. He appears at our location and effortlessly wipes out all allied units. He takes aim at the Shirogane, and Daitetsu considers raising the shields for a moment before he decides to ready the cannons instead in the brief amount of time that he has. If they manage to shoot down the Granzon in time, defense is not a thing they'll have to concern themselves with. No such luck, boys: the Granzon fires, and the Shirogane is destroyed in a single shot. In terms of units on the map, that leaves...the SRX team? Eep.
Aya is thoroughly confused by what she's witnessing, and Rai is trying to get Ryusei to pull himself together, since he's completely freaking out over the destruction of the Shirogane. And everyone aboard, of course. Shu himself is still as smug and stoic as ever, acting as if this is an everyday thing for him. And who knows, it just might be.
SHU: Just as I thought...this is the best you can do.
RYUSEI: Wh-What did you say?
SHU: You're not worth being used by me...or them.
Shu's about to finish Ryusei off when he notices something strange. Something is quickly heading towards them, and now a bunch of new characters appear: Masaki Andoh and his familiars, Kuro and Shiro. Shu recognizes Masaki's mech, and addresses Masaki by name, asking if he followed him all the way here. Masaki asks Shu if he intends to destroy Earth like he destroyed Langran, but according to Shu this was just to teach them a lesson for trying to use him.
At this point, a little note has to be made, since Masaki mentioned Langran. Masaki will explain a lot of this later, but I'll just say it now. While this game begins at the beginning of the classic SRW timeline, Shu and Masaki debuted in a game that took place even before that, where Masaki was the protagonist and Shu was the main villain. While Masaki is originally from Japan, he was transported to the (supposedly) underground world of La Gias, of which the kingdom of Langran is a part. The reason for this is that he was the chosen by Cybuster, the Elemental Lord of Wind, to be its pilot. This is far from an ordinary mech, as it's made of equal parts of technology and magic. Most of Cybuster's power comes from being blessed by a wind god, and it's picky about its pilots.
Anyway, Masaki's still hunting for Shu, and loudly vows to stop him. Shu, still his deadpan self, wonders if Masaki never gets tired of this. He hasn't got time to waste on him, though; Shu has to visit Bian today, and he pretty much leaves before Masaki can do anything. Kuro wonders if Masaki's not going after Shu, but he's more interested in this Bian person. They set off to look for further leads, and disappear pretty much just like Shu.
A confusing turn of events, but Ryusei is mostly rendered mute by the fact that he was only seconds away from death there. So mute that his teammates start to wonder if he's still alive, even. He ruminates some more about how easily he got beaten, and the scene changes to the Far East Brigade HQ, where people are equally hysterical. This is not even the end of their problems, as Bian Zoldark just started broadcasting a message worldwide: to fight off the aliens, he declares an armed unification of Earth under the rule of his secret faction, the Divine Crusaders. He calls upon people to join his side to fight for the future of mankind, and more such advertising of his secret faction. Ingram sees it as a declaration of war upon the EFA, and supposes this is what the EOTI has actually been developing mechs for. Well, no surprise there at this point.
