Tenzan still hasn't given up and wants to try attacking the Hagane with renewed manpower, but Adler is understandably skeptical after seeing how Tenzan lost Wake Island to the EFA. He claims he'd be able to beat them if he had some of the DC's advanced Barrelion mechs, which is an equally dubious request considering that Tenzan has treated his troops as expendable so far. He raises a good point, though: the DC could've already taken out the Hagane using one of their MAPWs or satellites. It seems as if Bian has no interest in actually stopping the Hagane, which actually makes Adler reconsider Tenzan's request. He gets permission to use the Barrelions, and is ordered to attack immediately.
After he leaves, there's another conversation between Adler and Egret, this time about Tenzan. Egret doesn't see how Tenzan is anything but an ordinary kid, but Adler assures him his skills are way above average, even without any training or performance-enhancing medications. For some bizarre reason, Adler also considers it necessary to note that Tenzan isn't even an android or supernatural being, as if this was something to be expected.
EGRET: Hmph. So he's a natural, eh?
ADLER: In Tenzan's own words, he's "leetsauce."
EGRET: (What the hell does that mean?)
Aside from Tenzan, he has obtained similarly skilled people, who he refers to as "samples". He intends to use the combined combat experience from all these people to create the ultimate combat AI, which is a plan that could never go wrong in any way. Egret wonders if these new samples are gonna be the new cohort for The School, which is a training institute that is run by Adler himself. He declares these new samples to be way better than any of the School's graduates, since the latter group relied heavily on medical procedures and other enhancements for their performance. As I mentioned earlier, this is a subplot we'll be hearing more about in this chapter.
On the Hagane, the crew has received word that the DC battalion is advancing on Central Europe, which may prove to be a problem since the EFA's headquarters is located in Geneva. For now, the remaining troops in Southern Europe will be able to handle it, but the Hagane will have to hurry to Aidoneus Island to finish this. Irm once again mentions this will mean charging into the heart of the enemy, which is pretty much what we've been doing all along. Masaki thinks he should've gone alone, but the others are quick to inform him he'd never make it by himself. It's probably a good thing the Hagane picked up this fool before he managed to get himself killed acting like that.
Daitetsu explains the current situation: in about two hours they'll pass the Equator, and they should expect an offensive from the DC's missile base on Christmas Isle. There's no other islands along the way, so the Hagane will mostly have to rely on flying PTs for defense. Ryusei is explicitly assigned to the Wildraubtier for plot reasons, even if he doubts his flying skills. Dude, your unit is probably better in the air than on the ground, no need to worry.
Ryusei has left for the hangar, and since he isn't sure about his flying skills he asks Latooni if he can have her F-28 combat data. Whatever this data might be, it's compatible with any mech and plane, it would seem. Unfortunately, she promptly runs away, and Ryusei's first thought is that she hates him. Well, given her reaction my first thought would be "afraid of him", but that works too. This reaction does lead to Ryusei having a conversation with Aya and Rai about her background, as she is one of The School's graduates.
Rai explains that back in the day, learning to pilot a mech would take ages as opposed to the relatively quick training pilots get today. For that reason, this institute would start training pilots when they were infants, leading to some extremely skilled child pilots. To reach this level of skill, they would undergo various physical and mental modifications on top of the brutal training program, down to the use of mind control agents. Ryusei is obviously shocked at this revelation, since he thought she was just a quiet kid until now.
The Hagane has now reached the Equator, and all PTs are deployed in anticipation of an immediate enemy attack. Nothing shows up on the radar, though, so the ship continues onward...until the Hagane is suddenly hit by an unseen enemy, and moments later a group of AMs advance on their position. Whatever hit the Hagane must've been big enough to be a battleship cannon, except there are no battleships in the area. Tenzan now appears, revealing it was the cannon of his Barrelion V that managed to pierce the Hagane's armor. Daitetsu is undeterred by this, basically telling everyone they're gonna force their way through.
This is a fun map, very straightforward mook-smashing.
While all I really have to do to win is take the Hagane to the bottom of the map, I'm going for the Battle Mastery, which requires obliterating every last one of these guys. As noted, there's nothing but water, so unless your units can fly, they'll be at a severe disadvantage here. They're all decently powerful as they're mass-production Barrelions with 7800 HP each, but nothing my frontline troops can't obliterate. Last time I played this, I invested quite a bit of money upgrading Masaki's Cyflash attack, which would've made this map just slightly easier if I had done so this time. Got better things to spend the money on, though.
As usual, I send my best units (Masaki, Ryusei, Irm, Latooni) forward to attack, and as expected, the hit rate of these chumps frequently ends up being less than 5%. I'm not ready to send in the second group yet, as they would be torn to shreds by this wall of enemy railgun fire. I have the Hagane snipe one of them with a torpedo, but it turns out their railguns' range is just as long, leading to the ship taking a severe hit. Better not try that too often. On their turn the enemies try to attack my front troops en masse, causing them to suffer severe injuries from all the counterattacks they receive. Cybuster's High Familiar is a killer here, as it's got decent range and hits each of them for about a fifth of their health. The ones that attack Irm also lose a decent amount of health to his missiles, while he takes 10 damage at most.
The second turn proceeds much as the first, except Rai and Ingram now join the fray. The Hagane's Impact Cannon deals devastating amounts of damage to the enemies, and I keep Aya next to the ship to repair it when it inevitably gets hit by a counterattack. Cybuster's Zephyr Sword is good for chopping up enemies at point blank range too. At the end of the turn, Tenzan decides to kick things up a notch by having one of the submarines launch missiles at the Hagane. The captain protests that this will hit their own troops as well, but Tenzan doesn't care. Can you at least care about the expensive equipment you're wrecking, Tenzan?
Naturally, Ryusei is full of righteous indignation now. Tenzan's not just any villain, he's one that doesn't even respect the lives of his own troops. Tenzan just considers them pawns that he can sacrifice whenever the need arises, clearly insinuating he's still playing a game. Masaki chimes in that this isn't a game and nobody's his pawn, and for that matter they should just kick his ass instead of having a discussion about it.
The main force continue to chop their way through the wall of enemies, while I have my weaker units shoot down the three missiles that have appeared. They are surprisingly quickly disposed of, and it's back to business as usual. By now their forces have thinned enough that I consider it safe to move everyone forward, escalating this into a free-for-all where even the bit characters are granted a few kills.
At the start of the third turn, Tenzan suddenly conjures up some reinforcements, consisting of another two subs and a smaller bunch of Barrelions. Daitetsu decides their best bet is to break through rapidly, but Tenzan is still in the way. Ryusei doesn't think he'll be able to take out that mech with his current abilities...when he suddenly receives a bunch of combat data from Latooni's mech. Amazing, so these things even have wireless data transfer! Somehow, Ryusei is able to use this data to rapidly learn some new piloting skills, and while this all seems ridiculous he is convinced he'll be able to beat Tenzan this way.
Tenzan recognizes Latooni now, and starts talking to her about her background at The School, and the things they did to the pilots there. As expected, Garnet and Giado tell him to shut his mouth or they'll do it for him. Ryusei's indignation once again ignites, and swears to definitely destroy him this time.
TENZAN: No need to act like a hero...don't forget, we're two-of-a-kind, brother!
RYUSEI: I know. And that pisses me off!
Ryusei's now personally fighting Tenzan, whose hit rate is utterly abysmal, even before using Focus. Ryusei's Beam Cannon, meanwhile, takes about a quarter of Tenzan's health each turn. Costs a lot of energy, but fortunately I equipped the Wildraubtier with a consumable Fuel Tank, which fully restores his energy. Giado has once again become the enemy's punching bag, but their numbers have been sufficiently reduced that he can survive this. When one of them attacks Masaki, unfortunately his only available counterattack is his Cosmo Nova, which I never would have wasted on a mook if I wasn't in a hurry to finish the map. It's his strongest attack, but it can only be used once per map, and I generally prefer to spam Akashic Buster anyway.
The Hagane is surrounded by enemies as well now, so I have Daitetsu use his Guard skill and starts picking them off with the Impact Cannon. Come to think of it, it's a move I don't think I've shown yet, which is really a shame given how often I use it.. Aya gets a few counterattacks as well now with her Boosted Rifle, relying on the Hagane next to her for Defense Support. For the rest, I continue to have my troops pound the scattered troops into dust. Aya does have to use her Supply Module to replenish the Hagane's energy, since the Impact Cannon eats a lot of it.
Tenzan is quickly defeated, blaming it on the fact that he's not used to this mech yet and escapes, leaving our team to clean up the rest of the troops. Troops that he once again abandoned, no less. Such a great captain. The subs aren't any stronger than they were in the past, and even though they have 20000 hit points they have almost no armor to speak of. Irm's Darkness Slash works wonders here, and on the 8th turn the last of them is defeated by Ingram's Disk Slicer. As such, I have now earned my BM since the objective was to defeat all of them within 9 turns. Only loot I got for defeated Tenzan was a Hybrid Armor, but it'll make a nice addition to the Grungust.
After the battle, Ryusei thanks Latooni for saving him by sending him the data. Once again, she runs away and he thinks she doesn't like him. Garnet explains that Latooni actually likes him a lot and considers him a reliable person, she's just easily embarassed because she can't express herself properly. It turns out that she's been afraid of people for a long time due to the brutal way she was raised at the School, though she's slowly getting better. Let's hope things will continue in that direction, then.
As previously stated, I give the Hybrid Amor I acquired to the Grungust, and put all the money I gathered into Latooni's mech. Finally maxed out its mobility at great cost, and immediately maxed out its maximum energy at a small cost. The price discrepancy really is amazing in that regard, though some stats are obviously more useful than others.
