Last time, Shine joined the cast, although she isn't a playable character. Well, we've got plenty of those anyway, so we can afford to have a few passengers. In the meantime, the Hagane has miraculously managed to safely reach Japan and is now docking at the Far East Brigade base where we started this whole thing. Mission accomplished, so Laker's got some new orders for Daitetsu, along with some updates on the DC's and UCC's movements.
Turns out they're all gathering in one spot now, giving rise to the suspicion that they've got another stronghold apart from Aidoneus. Laker isn't sure what it could be, but he theorizes the DC has another facility on Earth similar to the Moon Cradle, which is basically a giant cryogenic hibernation bunker on the Moon that will allow a small group of humans to survive the imminent alien invasion. Always good to have precautions like these, even if you don't fear humanity's impending demise. Not that they need to concern themselves with any of that right now, though: the Hagane's orders are to remain at the base until the R-Series and other new mechs have been completed. Well finally, we're getting somewhere with that. So far only the R-1 is even remotely usable, and the other SRX team members must be wondering when they get their upgrade.
Meanwhile, Ryusei's having a talk with Ingram about letting Kusuha off the ship now that they've completed their initial mission. Not a chance of that, given that Ingram's interested in what she can do as a pilot, especially since she's got the same potential as Ryusei. Ryusei correctly guesses that this potential has something to do with the T-Link System, but doesn't get any answers out of Ingram, who claims this is something that Ryusei doesn't need to know just yet. When you just can't keep up the farce any longer, it turns out you can still resort to a simple "not telling you". He's getting one answer only, and that's an order to return to his post since the R-1 and R-2 will have combat exercises soon. At least that means the R-2 is operational now, I guess.
Naturally, Shine's presence is the perfect opportunity to have Latooni engage in more dressing-up, this time with the excuse that she's assigned to be the princess' bodyguard for a meeting with a Tokyo government official and needs to look inconspicuous next to her. They're about the same age so she could reasonably pose as a friend if she dresses up sufficiently royal-looking, and can still be an effective bodyguard thanks to her martial arts training and body augmentation. Also, she needs to lose the glasses because they look too suspicious. Wow, these people really know their stuff.
A bunch of others (Ryoto, Rio, Giado and Garnet) momentarily stop by to check out this whole scene, briefly commenting on it before both couples once again start arguing among themselves as usual. Garnet's off for a shopping trip on which she's dragging Giado along, and Rio and Ryoto are going to Yokohama for a day while they're there. The latter was almost significantly delayed, as Ryoto makes the mistake of talking about martial arts when Rio is present and only manages to cut off the conversation just in time. He's skilled at karate and his family owns a dojo, but he knows she's gonna challenge him to a fight on the spot if he lets any of that slip. That boy really needs to grow a stronger spine. As they're about to leave, they think of bringing Kusuha along to Yokohama, but of course she's not available right now.
In the SRX development lab, Rob is stunned to hear from Ingram that his orders are to start working on a mech called the R-Gun, which is of course also part of the R-Series. He's already got enough of a workload working on the R-2 and Grungust Type 2, and the R-3 hasn't even managed to start yet, so this is not really something he can manage. Ingram assures him Dr. Kobayashi will handle the R-3, so he can focus on this, which still doesn't make things much better since the R-Gun is one of their most problematic mechs to handle.
JONATHAN: He's right. According to the data, it's like a beautiful woman — always unpredictable. But, aren't those mechs the most fun to tame?
ROB: That's not really my style, Sir.
INGRAM: The R-Gun has already been activated by Viletta and Radha. All it needs is a final adjustment.
If those names mean nothing to you, don't worry — we'll meet them later on in the game. As an additional way of taking the load off Rob's shoulders, Ingram has also brought in Kirk Hamill to help with development. Hadn't seen that guy in a while either. Together they figure they can finish the project in time, even though they have no combat data for the mechs...yet. Ingram looks like he's got another one of his crazy plans, and tells them he's got a suitable opponent. Well, knowing him, this oughta be good.
Skip to the training area, where things are being set up for a battle, and Laker and Hans are keeping an eye on things. Seems Hans really dislikes Ingram and the way he does things, especially running tests on unfinished mechs. These objections don't really go anywhere as Ryusei interrupts, declaring the R-1 is ready to go at this point, and Rai chimes in a second later in his still untested R-2. Ingram does his usual mission introduction, and announces he's bringing in another unit not mentioned in the briefing as a form of emergency response training.
Ryusei and Rai figure it's gonna be nothing special, and the new Grungust Type 2 is brought onto the field, revealing that the pilot is none other than Kusuha. Which is shocking to the characters, but at this point I don't think it could've been anyone else given that it's been foreshadowed for at least two chapters now. Cue Ryusei throwing another fit at Ingram, before she reveals she wasn't actually forced into doing this: although scared, she chose to do this because she was tired of being protected all the time, and wants to protect others from this war. As usual, Ryusei doesn't care and thinks she shouldn't get involved in combat, which leads to another fine argument between him and her. The wonderful thing is, she's doing the same thing as him with the same skills and the same motivations, and yet he thinks she doesn't know what she's doing and shouldn't be piloting a mech. Hypocrisy at its finest.
Before any more of this drama can transpire, the base crew detects an incoming vessel of an unknown nature. Once it starts to approach, however, Jonathan recognizes it: it's Kyosuke Nanbu
's custom mech, the Alteisen, and he's coming in fast.
[BGM Change: Steel Beowulf]
He wastes no time on introductions, and immediately lands a hit on Ryusei, even if it's only minor. Two more mechs appear after him, introducing the other two members of the ATX Team trio: Excellen Browning and Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield. Kyosuke's Alteisen and Excellen's Weissritter look pretty fancy, even if they're just heavily upgraded Gespensts. Out of the three mechs, Bullet's Huckebein is probably the most normal of them. For the record, these three pilots are who we would've started out with on the other route instead of Ryusei, Rai and Aya, and this is the point where the routes actually cross. We're supposed to be on the same side, for that matter, but the teams have been pitted against each other as a training exercise.
INGRAM: Ingram here. I'm changing the rules of the drill. All units, load live rounds...the R-1 will take the Alteisen, and the R-2 will take the Weissritter. Grungust. You got Huckebein Mk II. Destroy them. Over.
RYUSEI: Wh-What!? Are you kidding me!?
He's...yes. There is no doubt about it, Ingram is 100% batshit insane. Only he could come up with something like live-fire training against allied units. What's worse, our opponents seem to actually go along with this, and Kyosuke advises Ryusei to get out of the R-1 if he wants to live — Just Following Orders as usual. His warning goes unheeded, of course: if Kyosuke is serious, this just means Ryusei will be punching as usual.
Simple map, 3 versus 3. I can't actually control Kusuha, by the way, she's just there as an NPC. That leaves Ryusei and Rai for a 2 versus 2, although it'll be a 2 versus 1 if I want the BM for this map. There's a way I could probably do it with just Ryusei, but I'm not gonna do that in this instance. It's a shame I don't have my starting Will cranked up high enough to use T-Link Knuckle, because that would've certainly taken care of that. Instead, he'll have to use a piddly G-Revolver to deal 500 damage at a time. On the other hand, fortunately R-1's mobility is so high that Alteisen can't hit it at all. To deal serious damage, though, I'll just have to move Rai forward (using Accel for faster movement) and hit Alteisen with R-2's shiny new Beam Chakram which deals a good 2000 damage per hit. Using Focus and staying in cover, its evasion is high enough to dodge Weissritter's shots.
If you attack an enemy with the wrong unit, you'll get a "I am not your opponent" response from them but fortunately the game will allow you to do this regardless. So now I'm hammering Alteisen with two units, Weissritter is being ignored, and the Grungust and Huckebein are...kinda at a standstill because both pilots feel bad about doing this. Kusuha won't attack a friendly unit, and Bullet won't attack a unit that won't defend itself.
INGRAM: That will be written on your gravestone, then.
This guy would make the average Commissar proud. He orders the Huckebein to destroy the Grungust, but instead Bullet does the honorable thing and weakly pretends that his machine is malfunctioning and he can't continue, even though the crew can obviously see there's nothing wrong with it. He's gonna be in trouble for that one, but I guess he felt he had to take the heat for this. The level of antagonism from the other two is equally transparent: Ryusei and Kyosuke are practically praising each other while trading blows, and Rai can tell Excellen intentionally isn't aiming for his engine. Which he, amusingly, isn't actually pleased with, as it means they can't gather authentic combat data for the R-2 if they're not fighting for real.
After whittling Alteisen's health down some more, I gain my BM for almost depleting Alteisen's health within 4 turns and the game goes into cutscene mode for the final blow. Ryusei and Kyosuke both gain major Will boosts and use their respective finishing moves on each other, leaving both their mechs at critical health. I have to say, I really liked how this was portrayed in Original Generations, but the GBA version is pretty cool too. Ingram considers this as good a time as any to terminate the exercise, which is probably for the best before these people actually kill each other. Now that the fighting is done, Ryusei and Kyosuke once again congratulate each other on a good battle and exchange introductions although Rob still thinks this whole thing was pretty sick.
ROB: Major Ingram, I still don't agree with you on this...what do you think Ryusei, Kusuha and the others are?
INGRAM: Would you be offended if I said "samples"?
Damn, he's scoring popularity points every second. Keep in mind that Hans would actually like to see him discharged if it were within his power, and this chapter has provided some very good reasons for that. It's a miracle he gets away with this stuff anyway, though he probably hides it in excuses. The others do warn him that mechs can be replaced while pilots can't, but he just shrugs it off like nothing happened.
Back at the base, Bullet is glad he got off lightly with a lecture for doing that, but it's guaranteed he'll be thrown in the brig if he does it again. Kusuha is pretty apologetic for getting him into trouble, but he insists he was the one that decided to disobey orders. Excellen thinks the guy's still got a lot to learn, which is probably true, but he throws back that her opponent could immediately tell she wasn't fighting for real. The real question is whether she decides to avoid killing him out of mercy or because she's got the hots for him, because her dialogue here certainly seems to point in the latter direction. And even if it isn't, she makes a habit of seeing this motivation in others, as she teasingly presumes this is the reason Bullet went easy on Kusuha. Which he, of course, denies so vehemently he practically confirms it.
EXCELLEN: Oh, right! I'll keep it a secret, then. *wink* But...you've gotta be cool if you don't want her to find out.
BULLET: Oh, sorry. I'm not very good at being cool.
It certainly seems so. The others have returned from Yokohama in the meantime, and now they too get to meet the new cast members in quick succession. Shine has also returned from her own trip, to Rai's frustration as the first thing she does whenever she returns is go annoy him with her behavior. At first she makes it look like Latooni didn't do her job as a bodyguard because men were constantly chasing her, though Latooni claims it was the other way around — the princess was chasing them. Unbelievable — even at her most royal, she still chooses to act like every other teenager. Excellen still figures her primary target is Rai, though. By the end of the game, I don't think she'll have anyone left unpaired.
Kyosuke is probably the only one not screwing around here, since he's busy fulfilling his actual mission of delivering the R-Gun to the base along with the prototypes they were piloting. Since they need all the manpower they can get, though, Laker decides to assign the ATX team to the Hagane for now. Hans isn't happy with this as he doubts their loyalty, given that they officially sided with the DC for part of the war. Their commander, Sanger Zonvolt, is still on the DC's side and it's not known whether they might try to rejoin him later. However, since there weren't any reports of suspicious behavior from Lefina Enfield (the captain of the Hiryu Custom, where they were stationed), Laker considers them free to join the Hagane. And because they needed more firepower, of course.
To pile on more trouble onto the existing heap, the commanders suddenly receive a top-class alarm about a massive gravity quake in space, and the appearance of an equally massive unidentified object about the size of a space colony. before the mook reporting on this can give any more information, he is destroyed by the Aerogaters' forces. Aboard this vessel which the inhabitants call an auto-planet named Neviim, a trio of aliens observe their approach towards Earth: Atad Shamran, Levi Tolar and Galuin.
LEVI: Judgment day has come, Earthlings...I will show you the real meaning of hell on Earth...
A most ominous sign from a rather goofy-looking alien, and we'll be certain to see a lot more of her in the coming chapters. I got a whole bunch of weapons in this chapter that my weaker units can equip, along with a large amount of extra cash and three new mechs. Kyosuke, Excellen and Bullet have now permanently joined my team along with Kusuha, and since I get a lot of use out of them I'll upgrade their mechs aplenty. Rai finally gets to dump his old mech and upgrade to the R-2...one to go and we'll have the full set. Alteisen and Grungust Type 2 are given max armor upgrade from the money I've got, and the Weissritter and Huckebein get full mobility upgrade. The Grungust gets some spare equippable armor parts, and Weissritter gets the Radar Module I got earlier. This is the best use for it in the long run, since it's a sniping mech from start to finish. Yep, this was what I was saving all the money for, and now I've suddenly got a bunch of very powerful upgraded mechs to make the next few chapters a bit easier.
