Ingram wants to have another shot at killing us, or testing his samples, as he insists on calling it. Levi's not entirely pleased with his endless testing, and I'm guessing she wants to get things done sooner rather than later. Being evil is not a problem, but he can at least try to be efficiently evil. He was hoping to meet with Viletta while he was at the White Star, but he speculates Levi is keeping them apart on purpose now because she suspects they may be plotting something. Atad certainly does, and she tells him as much once he's done with Levi.
He can try to claim he has no idea what she's on about, but she notes that he didn't tell Levi there was something weird about Excellen, which he would definitely have noticed. If he keeps this up, he'll end up in a situation where both sides consider him a spy — and who knows, he might well be. Given this, the implication follows that he's probably using Viletta as a spy as well. Without any definitive proof, however, she just lets him go on his way for now.
It's not like he's the only one on our case, either; Aerogater attacks on EFA troops have been continuously happening for days now, and the commanders are getting worried the presence of the Hagane and Hiryu may attract more enemies towards the Izu base. On the other hand, they're to be protected because they'll be the core of Operation SRW, and can't suffer any damage just yet. Regardless, they may be used as decoys to prevent an impending attack on the EFA main fleet, since the captains have grasped by now that the two ships are what the Aerogaters are really after, rather than the EFA fleet. It's a risky plan, but the admirals concede that even if this is the enemy's plan, they'll have to take the bait.
TASUKU:...So that's why our ship is in this odd location.
Not that many of them are concerned about that, the focus is mostly on saving Kusuha. Especially Ryusei and Bullet are getting antsy about this, but they're reassured the entire team will cooperate in saving her. Which isn't gonna be easy either: one option is disabling her mech's T-Link system to break her mind control, but since it's located right next to the cockpit it'll take a nigh-impossible shot to hit it without killing her. The other option is equally difficult, as it involves getting up close and pulling out the mech's entire cockpit block. Whatever option will eventually be decided on, Bullet's willing to risk it for her. Good man.
The bait strategy turns out to be quite successful, since we're attracting enemies already. Since it's only weak mooks so far everyone's still on their toes that it might be a decoy, but now that they're deployed they might as well go check it out. The only other weird thing that Aya and Bullet notice is that headache again, which by now functions as their plot-sense. It soon passes, however, and once again they all focus rescuing Kusuha, who is likely to pop up any moment now. They've got experience with that sort of thing by now.
Wide open map, almost nothing but desert.
A few waves of weak mooks, so yeah, it's obviously a decoy. Get everyone geared up with Spirit and Accel where applicable — don't need to use Focus or anything for these guys, they're weak enough. Everyone forward, and I can almost skip the first line of bugs by just sending Lune forward and having her use Psychoblaster. It does scratch damage against most late-game enemies, but it remains a great sweeper for situations such as these. Spiders aren't much more of a challenge, at most being able to lower my units' movement with Spider Nets.
I'm only halfway through their numbers when Aya once again feels something, and we're informed of incoming enemies from the east. It's Ingram in an R-Gun of his own, and as expected, he brought along Kusuha and her Type-2. Oh, and a huge amount of average-level mooks. There's some more banter about his betrayal, and Aya asks him why he didn't just kill her then and there if he's indeed decided to betray them. He still has a use for her, which only serves to offend her more when she sees how he thinks of people as tools.
INGRAM: Exactly. You are but a supply tank for the SRX's TK...for the battle device known as Ryusei Date. Just as Kusuha Mizuha is to Brooklyn Luckfield.
Speaking of Kusuha, she's gotten even nastier, mostly due to being controlled by Ingram. She tries to play out Ryusei and Bullet against each other, and tempts Bullet by going on about she doesn't like Ryusei at all compared to him. Fat chance, Ingram, they're still both set on saving her and won't let themselves be distracted by rivalries. Ryusei takes the initiative by telling Bullet to go save Kusuha while he himself handles Ingram, rather than getting in each other's way. Kyosuke orders Bullet to disable the T-Link System, since calculations show that tactic has the highest chance of success, and we're ready to continue the battle.
We're not gonna bother with any of them, however; in order to get the Battle Mastery for this map, I need to take Ingram down before the end of the 7th turn. In hindsight, one hell of a task, and eventually I spent all the pilot points that my characters had saved to make it happen.The mooks aren't particularly dangerous, and generally can't shoot worth a damn, so I can get busy on removing his 50000 HP. Unfortunately, I need to waste a turn getting to him first, since the first wave of enemies appeared at the top of the map and this new wave appears on the bottom. I can try shooting at a few enemies on the way there, but they all have large amounts of HP, so it's not like I'm gonna take one down in one turn. I also fire a passing shot at Kusuha, whose only visible target is Bullet and doesn't bother with anyone else. Gotta be careful not to deplete her HP, since her mech needs to be disabled without killing her.
On the next turn, it's time to cut loose against Ingram. He's got an energy barrier, which slows things down a bit, so I try to make him waste energy by forcing him to use Metal Genocider as much as possible. Not entirely sure if it helps, but I have Latooni hit him with an Armor Breaker anyway, and have everyone use their best possible moves with Valor on top of it. I have people save SP here and there by letting Aya and Radha cast Attune on them instead of letting them cast Strike themselves, and I kept Excellen in reserve to have her cast Daunt on Ingram twice. It's an expensive ability, she needs the SP. Darkness Slash does its job as usual, managing to deal 18000 damage in a single hit this way, and the others aren't that far behind. Masaki, Rai and Ryusei all have dialogue when fighting him, though I find his conversation with Gilliam to be the most interesting. They seem equally confused by each other, and Gilliam hints at the truth behind things:
GILLIAM: You and I share a similar fate...to wander a parallel world...
INGRAM: What...!?
GILLIAM: ...But our paths go different ways...I know it.
Sounds like their characters are as similar as their portraits! Anyway, the R-Gun goes down, and...it's not over? No, in fact it's just beginning. Ingram is done warming up and reveals his mech's true form, the much more powerful R-Gun Rivale. It's basically the original design of the R-Gun, enhanced with Balmarian technology to get the most out of it. A life bar that breaks the HP counter, barrier, blocks most status effects, regeneration, and devastating attacks. Now it's time to really get things going, and I'm not gonna hold back on using any spirit commands or items at my disposal. Even finishing moves with Valor/Fury chip down his health by a tiny point, but eventually it at least drops below 99999 HP so that I have an indication of how I'm doing.
Another cutscene starts, and Ingram targets the R-1, instantly blowing away all its armor. The R-1 is almost completely non-functional now, and Ingram mocks him for not having the power to defeat the Aerogaters. Of course, Ryusei wouldn't be Ryusei if he gave up at this point, and another psychic flash happens as he attempts to continue fighting.
???: ENEMY LEVEL HAS EXCEEDED STANDARD VALUE. THE PILOT'S SAFETY REMAINS TOP PRIORITY...TRANSFER THE T-LINK TO THE URANUS SYSTEM.
And it seems the R-1 has some previously unknown functions hidden in its systems! This surprises even Radha, who knows it inside out, although her surprise is mostly that a prototype like the R-1 should be unable to do whatever it's about to do. Ingram, on the other hand, looks like this is exactly what he's been waiting to see. The R-2 and R-3 suddenly feel their engines stabilizing as well, and the mysterious voice tells Ryusei that this situation requires unlocking Pattern OOC. Rai and Aya are ready to give it another shot after last time, and after a moment's hesitation about this being another one of Ingram's traps, Daitetsu gives his approval. Time to combine!
AYA: TK Field, on! Tronium Engine, full drive! Initiate the transformation sequence!
RAI: Roger, releasing the Plus parts!
RYUSEI: Let's do it! Variable Formation!
In other versions, this would be accompanied by a combination FMV with its own theme, but in this game we'll have to settle for SRX's own theme, "Soul of Steel".
RYUSEI: The ultimate super robot!!! S!! R!! X!!!!!
Yes, the machine they've all been waiting for, the Super Robot X-Type, has finally arrived! Unfortunately it doesn't work perfectly yet, and the psychic load that combining puts on Aya means that they'll have to break formation after 3 minutes, but that's more than enough. This thing has three pilots (Ryusei, Rai, Aya) and any spirit commands they use apply to it, so that can be used to buff it quite a bit. It's got some very powerful attacks like Supreme Sword (see below), Blade Kick and Dominion Ball, and for now they're the SRX's primary asset. You see, despite it being a great machine in theory, its armor is practically cardboard. I'll upgrade it as soon as possible, but for now it must avoid getting hit since even normal mook attacks bring it to the edge of destruction. I got REALLY lucky at one point, as the SRX would reach 0 HP with another hit, and then rather implausibly dodged four shots in a row. Saved me from having to retry the stage once more.
Right, time to use Valor/Strike/Alert/Focus/whatever else I've got and give this thing a spin. Supreme Sword is clearly up there with my Darkness Slash in terms of damage, and if it continues this way we'll be ending the level on time. It costs a lot of energy though, but everyone makes a good contribution, and within another turn I've got the R-Gun Rivale down to 80000 HP. Were it not for that damn regeneration bringing it back up, I might've stood an even better chance, but at least it's not an endless battle. I thought about finishing this with the SRX, but it seems I no longer have the energy to make another attack. Well, it comes down to the others, then.
With one turn remaining, I realize I'm not gonna end this in time without using some special means. I sacrifice my SP Drinks in order to let Latooni use Enable (give extra turn to chosen character) on Irm, allowing him to shave off another section of Ingram's health with his last bit of energy. In the end, it comes down to exactly 7 turns, with Masaki as the final character bringing Ingram's health below the critical level with an Akashic Buster. In the nick of time, but I did get my Battle Mastery. Of course, Bullet wasn't available at that moment since he had his hands full getting Kusuha out of that Grungust, even taking a hit to get within range.
Ingram escapes for now and takes all his troops back with him, so now all that matters is Kusuha. Ryusei considers it suspicious that Ingram would just let them take her, but he can't think of any possible motive for that. A bit later he meets Bullet in the medical bay when he goes to visit Aya, since Bullet was there to visit Kusuha. There's a brief tension in the air that the Love Triangle problems are going to spark up again at this point and Bullet is quick to apologize without being prompted, but Ryusei thinks he himself should be the one to apologize. He entrusts Bullet with watching over Kusuha, and takes his leave. Still, the others can tell he's not quite alright, and practically read his thoughts of fighting a duel to the death with Ingram.
GIADO: Ja, there are more people here than just you and Bullet. Stop tryin' to do everything on your own.
He makes a vain attempt to deny it, which is kinda hard to begin with when that IS what you're thinking. Mostly, however, they want to reassure him that they're all fighting along with him. He's not gonna be able to fight with his new super-machine for a while anyway, since the last battle pretty much broke it for a while. An analysis reveals that combining is wearing the mechanical parts out way too quickly, and since it's a prototype they were lucky this stunt lasted 3 minutes to begin with. It was cool while it lasted, but it's back to using regular mechs for now.
RYUSEI: Yeah, I could tell the SRX was a dangerous machine. Besides, I'll have Masaki and Kyosuke at my side. The real "transformation" is all of us, right?
The Hagane gets moving again now that this incident is over with, and once again heads to the Coatsland base on Antarctica. It's been abandoned since the Shirogane incident, but there have been reports that something's happening there. So, time for us to go check it out.
Not that much loot this time apart from a bunch of money and a Z.O. Armor, so I'll just keep the money for now and give the armor to the Type-1. I think I'll leave the weapon/pilot configurations from this chapter as they are for now, since they worked out well overall.
