Aboard the White Star, Atad is working on more than just sending more fleets after us; she awakens someone by the name of Gaza Haganer
, claiming that that is his new name and that she gave him a new body. Kinda creepy to think about really, since it implies they've been taking people from somewhere to strengthen their forces. They're sorta like the Borg, but with slightly fewer metal bits sticking out of their skulls. She tells him his mission is to go kill certain people soon, and puts him back to sleep for now. Ingram walks in, congratulating her on her mind-control skills and informing her that they're all set on Earth. She offers to make the same adjustments to the one he just brought in, but he says he'll do it himself, earning him a sneering comment from Atad asking if he's gonna make the same adjustments he made to Viletta. Oh, I like these implications!
Despite the losses suffered in the previous battle, it looks like neither the R-3 nor Aya are beyond repair, so we might be able to use them again soon. Kirk still catches some heat from Rob and Jonathan for talking about Aya like she's a robot, but it's not like being tactful is one of his strong points anyway. It's still an open question why Ingram didn't just destroy the R-3, with the most likely reason being that Ingram intends for us to find him and challenge him, as some characters in this game have done before. The only difference this time is that they're facing an opponent who knows all of their tactics.
As mentioned, Aya is recovering, but so far she's still unconscious. Excellen, Lune and Radha have decided to visit her anyway, and as the plot dictates she wakes up then and there. She thinks that everything that happened with Ingram was a dream, and the others initially go along with it in order to avoid breaking her heart...except for Excellen, who tells her straight out what happened and that they don't have time to cry about it right now. That hit Aya about as well as you would expect. Still, they manage to convince her that the best thing they can do right now is try to find Ingram and confront him. Radha tries to rope them into yoga while they're at it, which is met with much less enthusiasm. Too bad, girls, Radha's gonna subject you to yoga whether you want it or not!
On a more serious note, Kyosuke's been promoted to combat commander since the team has been left without a leader after Ingram's betrayal. He protests that Irm and Aya outrank him, but Irm personally declines because he cracks under pressure, and Aya recommended Kyosuke over herself. Technically, Katina also outranks him, but she declines on the basis that she's not cut out to be a commander. Wow, some actual self-insight from this lady? I'm impressed. On top of that, the reorganization of their forces has caused every Master Sergeant on the team to be promoted to Lieutenant. Hopefully that also means a pay raise.
Kyosuke doesn't even have to wait to try out his new role as reports of incoming Aerogaters once again come flooding in, this time attacking a military base for the first time. Everyone is deployed, and Kyosuke explains that he (Assault 1, as he is officially designated) is in charge now. After some brief congratulations and jokes about his promotion, the battle begins.
Not much of interest here, just some mooks to beat up. Still, the time limit for this map's Battle Mastery is kinda tight, so I'll have everyone charge ahead and fight at full force anyway. Even the occasional Valor might not be overkill to get this done as quickly as possible, but some of the ground units lag behind due to the difficult-to-navigate terrain. It takes a few turns to get to them, at any rate, but once I'm there most of them die within one or two hits. Just the ones in the back require my strongest attacks, and a Valor or two.
As usual, getting rid of these guys was just the start, and another wave spawns...right near the units that were lagging behind, and of course my medics are caught in the middle of it. Dammit, these guys have the worst of luck. Luckily, Bullet is also there in his Valsion Custom, and the enemies are stupid enough to direct most of their fire towards his impenetrable armor. Hooray! Now just to send my main force back there to help them out, although the second-string team can blast a few enemies themselves for some hard-needed experience.
They work their way through this wave, and they're almost done when more enemies arrive. Dammit, how many of these things are there? At least Galuin and his ship came along, so there's at least one interesting enemy among them. The characters think so too, even if it's for all the wrong reasons.
IRM: That blue mech again...it's probably the command unit.
EXCELLEN: I bet it thinks it's better than the green ones.
At first they suspect Ingram may be piloting the command unit, but resident super-psychic Aya doesn't really think anyone is in there. Only one way to find out: beat the crap out of it, like they do with every other problem that comes along. Now the trick is to beat him quickly enough to earn the BM, which is made a bit more difficult by the fact that my troops still need to spend a turn traveling over there. Fortunately, this time I'm getting reinforcements as well!
[BGM change: Time To Come]
Yes, that theme is used by more people than just Irm. The other characters immediately recognize the rare Gespenst Type R that has appeared, and the pilot introduces himself as Major Gilliam Yager. He's one of the six original Aggressors, so he should be more than sufficient backup by himself. He also looks like Ingram with a dye job, though I'm not gonna hold that unfortunate resemblance against him. Russel explains to the others that they used to work together with this guy back on the Hiryu (see other story route) and, in contrast to the usual soldiers on our team, he works for the Intelligence Bureau. Hell yeah. With a One-Man Army spook on our team we'll be practically invincible.
MASAKI: You're...Major Gilliam, right?
GILLIAM: You're the pilot of the Elemental Lord...!
MASAKI: I'm Masaki Andoh. Say, have we met before, Major?
GILLIAM: I don't think so...
Bonus trivia: Gilliam is not entirely a Super Robot Wars OC; his actual first appearance was in an obscure Super Famicom game called Hero Senki: Project Olympus (spoilers, for those who care), which was a more traditional RPG featuring playable Gundam and Kamen Rider characters. Masaki also made a cameo in this game, which is probably why they vaguely recognize each other here.
Anyway, time to beat down Galuin. Latooni mentions she thinks she's seen the way he moves before, even though he's a new enemy. That's something to consider later, though. He's less powerful than I expected, since he doesn't have the usual energy shields or anything like that. He still requires some strong Valored attacks, but he goes down within the turn limit; in fact, I've got some time left to pick off the remaining mooks for XP and money. Irm finishes him off as usual, removing almost 50% of his health in a single blow. Damn, that worked even better than I could have predicted. It was certainly a good investment.
Not a very eventful chapter, but at least I got some good loot out of it. Gilliam is welcomed aboard, and he requests to travel along with us for now in exchange for some supplies he brought along. He won't reveal what his actual mission is since it's classified information, but ensures the captains that he won't interfere with their operations. Well, unless he is asked to, since I can now deploy him in battle as I wish. Kai also greets Gilliam as a fellow Aggressor, although Gilliam disputes the claim that they "the only former Aggressors left in the EFA". Sanger and Elzam's allegiance is dubious, but he's sure they're on the EFA's side.
Everyone gathers around to analyze the combat data from this battle, and now Kai and Gilliam also conclude they've seen the enemy's moves before. They give it a bit of thought, and suddenly Kai realizes the enemy moves like Colonel Kar-Wai Lau, former chief of the Aggressors. Since Kar-Wai disappeared along with his mech during a test flight, they figure there are two possibilities here: either he's personally piloting the mech they fought, or Ingram stole Kar-Wai's movement data.
GILLIAM: I've never met the Major, but if he stole that data...why use Col. Kar-Wai's old data? He had access to more current and refined data...those are questions that need to be answered.
DAITETSU: You're right. It's unlikely that the Aerogaters would use human combat data for their command unit.
The mystery deepens, but Gilliam is certain he'll find some clues once he investigates Ingram's actions further. They all go on their merry way, except for Sean and Latooni, as he wants to talk to her about something. As he thinks a woman her age should care more about how she looks, he gives her permission — an order, even — to wear the outfit she was previously wearing instead of her uniform. Sean, you probably have good intentions, but damn if your orders don't come across as kinda creepy. Not that it makes much difference to us, anyway, since characters in this game are mostly shown through their portraits, but still. She herself has her doubts whether this really counts as an order, but hesitatingly goes along with it anyway. Not much choice in the matter, really.
As Gilliam promised, I got a whole stockpile of weapons and parts to distribute, resulting in additional mobility for a few units. I spend most of my money upgrading Gilliam's Gespenst, since I'll be using him a lot from now on.
