Part 4.3: Evil won't triumph, but Good is still DumbWe finish up our turn with
Roanne getting to use his big gun, and wait for the enemy to charge into our guns again.
I forget to have Calvina cast focus, and the enemy again use their accurate melee attacks, but she manages to dodge and respond.
However, their preferred target is still the massive Combattler, which with the Blue Earth supporting can easily weather the storm and unleash hell in return.
The Nadesicos constant use of the Gravity Blast catches up with it, and its reduced to using missiles while it waits to recharge. It recharges 10% energy each turn, but that doesn't help as much when you're burning through about that much with each shot. Luckily their flanks are thinning out and where won't be as many to jam themselves up the gun barrel.
One of the few remaining grunt units
attacks Mazinger from too short a range, and gets punished with one of its stronger attacks.David takes a hit meant for Sayaka, who then flubs the counterattack. Not really her fault, since Karla is a Layzner boss, and missing them is hardly a rare occurence.
...Didn't they have basically the same conversation last level?
Because I'd forgotten Focus, I had to have Calvina evade this attack. We have to be careful with attacking Gale until we pull off the ordered Convince.
My turn again, and I send in the Layzner Team to clean up the last of the SPTs while the others beat on the stubborn battleships.
You've already fired three shots....
Not much hurt, but still a favorable outcome.
The Buldy is a handy unit with than gun of its, but since the gun needs a fair bit of energy, you're usually better off conserving it and having Roanna focus on repairs, only using the gun to counter. However, the enemy far prefers to attack David. Hmm....
The Nadesicos may be big compared to the tiny SPTs but its still got the stats to have a decent chance to hit. Shame about the damage on the missiles, though. They just don't compare to the massive output of the Gravity Blast. But hey, we need to conserve energy for a few turns.
Making up for being brutalised last mission, Izumi takes out Karla, gains two levels thanks to Meluas Cheer, and gets some interesting drops.
Hikaru triggers a formation attack, but again, the enemy D-fields really take the edge off of it.
Combattler beats the other ship near to death, and
Calvina finishes it off with her weakest attack. Dunno why I chose it, just felt like showing it off I guess.
Once again, Mazingers attacks fall short, but this hit triggers his Mazinpower, so maybe now he'll improve.
The ship attacks the Nadesico, and our mothership has just enough EN left to fire a fatal counter.
Gale attacks Calvina again, probably because I forgot to get anyone else close to him. I keep forgetting how short-ranged SPTs, even the customs, can be.
I use Davids turn to reload the Nadesico, and fill up its EN again. It means he can't move, however, so the Laynzer Team have to split up for a while. Thankfully we should be able to deal with things this turn, giving us time to get the gang back together.
I use Roannes Scan command on Gale to make him easier to hit. Kinda presumptous when we haven't tried talking to him yet, but since Roanna doesn't have any other spirits, its not like its a waste or anything.
Anyway, lets see what words can do:
If Star Trek has taught us anything, its that mixed-race people will always be torn between both cultures and unable to function without being obsessed with the non-human one.
"Ben and Jerrys or Haagen-Daas, Eiji!! Choose now!!"
This bit of terminology confusion seems to be a japanese language thing, with 'Ningen' (Human) being a seperate term from 'Chikyujin' (Earth-person). It comes up in a lot of series, even Gundam where there are no aliens (other than those T-1000 things in the last movie), as a point that just because people from Earth and people born in space are going to invariably be different, they're all still people and should try to get along.
But Gale isn't in the mood to listen a pile of Otaku bullshit like that.
Hmm...There it is again, the idea that Earthlings are just dumb monkeys now, but in a hundred years they'll be marauding across the galaxy like a pack of drunken Glaswegians in a minicab. [spoiler]The SRW Original Generations games play with this idea a bit: Its heavily implied that if the Zuvorg hadn't given Earth its Black Hole tech, and the Balmarians hadn't begun experimenting on them with the Neviim and the 'gift' of ExtraOver Technology, then Earth might never have become the ludicrous danger zone for everything extraterrestrial that it is by the end of the second game.[/spoiler]
Anyway, diplomacy has failed, so obviously the best thing to do is to shoot him in the face with Gravity.
That doesn't quite kill him so I decide to
let Gai have a shot at him, and shockingly, he manages to pull off the hit!! Gale is down!
He drops an interesting part: A HE Radar extends the range of a mechs weapons by a square. It doesn't affect Map Weapons though, or attacks that only have a 1 Square range anyway. Still, handy for units that would otherwise be unable to counter some enemies.
Again, we see that Gale really has far better standards than everyone else on the Grados side.
I couldn't capture it, but explosions blossom all around Gales wrecked Greimkaiser.
Again, more explosions I couldn't snap in time, and suddenly Gale's icon is yellow, implying he's a nuetral unit now!
Man....I know they had to show that the Gradosians are the bad guys, but this dickhole is so cartoonishly and pointlessly evil, it throws me out of the game. Its like if Cobra Commander and Hannibal Lecter had a baby.
...Huh. So, now we're debating whether saving the only enemy we have that isn't insanely sadistic, laughablely incompetent, or both, is a good plan, hmm?