That headache must've been a major setback for Gaza, because he's still complaining about it back on the White Star. Regardless, he's determined to take his time killing us even if it means the headaches continue. Suits me fine, he can do it as slowly as he likes, makes killing him a bit easier. He'll still have to wait his turn because that's something for a later chapter; right now, Atad wants to have a shot at fighting us, or at least collect a sample she's got her eye on. I wonder who's gonna be the victim this time...?
In the meantime, our team has managed to decrypt Ingram's files, revealing his data on Mai Kobayashi. He used her as a test subject since she was a child, so there's a lot of data on her, although she's said to have died during testing. The strange thing is, the dates seem to be all wrong: she's Aya's younger sister, but her listed birthday would make her 6 years older than Aya. Furthermore, she didn't die as public records claim: after an explosion, she was put in cryogenic sleep along with another test subject called Jennifer Fonda. That either means Ingram's records are wrong, or Aya is a liar. The easiest way to resolve this, as Radha proposes, would be to ask dr. Kenzo Kobayashi, but he's been taken into custody after this whole mess. At the very least, the kind of data collected has revealed what kind of man Ingram is.
GILLIAM: People like him always leave hints behind. ...Of course, they're usually traps, too. However...it almost looks like Ingram is trying to help us.
Given the amount of times that scenario has come up in the game so far, it would hardly be surprising if that were the case. That said, the way Gilliam puts it makes Ingram sound more like the Riddler than an ally, even if he makes his riddles as transparent as possible.
Fortunately the SRX team investigations are now over and they can all be deployed again, which should help things along a bit. They still don't get why Ryusei was questioned, since he's got no obvious motive or connections that would make him a likely spy, so for now it's just assumed by them that it's just a precaution on the part of the investigators. It doesn't seem like they're actually going to ask, but since Ryusei himself's pretty down about everything that he just heard, Latooni's gonna try to cheer him up. Such a sweet girl. She still had to ask Giado and Garnet for advice about that as she's pretty new to the whole sympathy thing, but nobody's perfect.
When she joins him, Ryusei's thinking about how Ingram betrayed all of them, and how he must've been planning this for a long time if his mother was involved in the same experiments. He mentions all of this to her, wishing he could've seen this betrayal coming sooner. Not much she can do about that, but at the very least she's got some advice speaking from personal experience.
LATOONI: We all have things in our past we have to get over...but, the future is for you to decide...
RYUSEI: (That's what my mother always said!)
LATOONI: ...That's what I had to do, anyway.
He'll get over it, I'm sure. Also, since we've had more than enough of enemy surprise attacks by now, Daitetsu is sending out the Cybuster, Valsione and Weissritter as scouts. They're fast, they can fly, and are generally able to escape quickly should they run into an ambush. Excellen just thinks this is a perfect moment for some more Masaki/Lune shipping, and she would've liked Kyosuke to come along as well for that matter. He's gonna need some more Tesla Drives before his Alteisen can fly, unfortunately.
They deploy, and wait around at a designated spot to see if they'll draw any enemies. As expected, Excellen's not gonna bore herself to death by just waiting, and opens a private communication channel to Lune to discuss the state of their relationship. At first Excellen thinks she's getting the standard He Is Not My Boyfriend routine fed to her, but has to conclude there's really nothing going on when Lune explains that Masaki is simply too dense to attempt a relationship with.
Their conversation is quickly interrupted by Masaki shouting at them to pay attention to the incoming enemies. Not Aerogaters this time, however, but...Shu and Bian? The Aerogaters just won't let good villains stay dead, it would seem. Masaki and Lune have their doubts if what they're seeing is for real and argue a bit with their respective rivals to determine what's going on. Since Cybuster isn't reacting to the Granzon as usual and because Lune knows Bian is being OOC, both of them quickly realize they're not quite the real deal. Excellen, however, isn't seeing any of this and wonders who Masaki and Lune are talking to, definitely settling that this is all an illusion.
Here we can technically start fighting, although it's a waste of energy.
Shu and Bian are invincible, and all I could do right now is pick off that bug down there. Excellen doesn't need to move far thanks to all her Radar Modules and Snipe skill, so I'll do just that and wait for now.
ATAD: Heh...Cybuster, right into our trap...nobody'll mess with me if I can bring that back with me.
EXCELLEN: Masaki! Lune! The Granzon and Valsion aren't here!
ATAD: ...Who is that woman, anyway? My mind control doesn't appear to be affecting her at all...and she doesn't see the Trauma Shadow.
She must be so much of an airhead she doesn't have a mind to control. At least I've got something to shoot at now, although I've got to make sure I'm out of her firing range. Those weapons would roast the Weissritter, but this distance does reduce my hit chance to about 50%. Thankfully, I hit Atad on the first turn, which results in a direct hit to her mind control device, and revealing Shu and Bian to be simple Bugs. Her trap is busted, and now she just resorts to summoning a whole lot of enemies. The Hagane arrives at the same moment, so I'd say we're still about evenly matched.
This time the challenge is to finish everyone within 7 turns, which can get a little tricky because Atad has a decent barrier that needs to be depleted first. She's the most important one to take out compared to the grunts she brought along, so I have everyone buff themselves up to maximum and start pounding away. I do try to make her use her Oruga Cannon attack as much as possible so it'll drain her EN faster, as well as making good use of Latooni's Energy Taker missiles. Unfortunately Leona is not one of my strongest pilots, because she's the one that actually has a shield-bypassing spirit command. For now, I'm letting all the others swarm my troops as much as they like, until I'm done with Atad.
After a few turns she's empty, so it's time to use everyone's super-attacks, as well as Valor where applicable. Attacks like Darkness Slash and Cosmo Nova quickly bring her HP down, and she goes down without any problem. At least it's not one of those bosses who run away at low HP this time. Since lots of enemies have now gathered in our vicinity, it's the perfect time to quickly clear them out with Psychoblaster and Cyflash. Man, I love those sweeping attacks. Well, it doesn't clear out a lot of them, though it significantly reduces their health. Now it's just a matter of picking them off one by one, so I send each of my units to deal with one enemy, the fastest units dealing with the ones farthest away. In the end, I had to burn up my SP for most of my troops since there were still enemies with a lot of hit points, but ultimately I made it in time and I got my BM. I have to admit though, in case I hadn't nailed that first shot I would've simply restarted because it's at the start of the battle anyway and every turn counts for this BM, but I got it on the first try so whatever.
Atad and her lackeys have been sent running, and everyone returns to the Hagane. It's confirmed now that the Aerogaters are actively targeting the Hagane crew since all of them are valuable samples, but they might be waiting until the pilots have reached a certain level of strength. The plan for now is for all of them to act as bait, and attack when the Aerogaters take the bait. Once the captains' meeting is over, Excellen comes in with a very peculiar question for Daitetsu...
EXCELLEN: Well, I know I'm asking for a lot here, but...would you be willing to share that wine you're saving?
Tetsuya is really bad at keeping secrets, doubly so after drinking with Excellen. Daitetsu shrugs it off, mostly concerned whether Excellen will be able to hold her liquor, and poor Lefina is completely lost here. This gets even worse when Sean and Daitetsu start talking about drinking traditions, and the implications start dawning on her.
LEFINA: (So...now that I'm a captain, I start drinking...?)
Not that much loot aside from the money this chapter, although I did get a Hyper Jammer, which I give to Leona. The money is spent on armor/HP upgrades all around, and one upgrade point for Darkness Slash. I think I'm just gonna max it out eventually since it's proven so very handy each chapter.
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