Let's Sperg Super Robot Wars Advance Portable - A PSP remake of one of the hardest SRW games ever

[GethN7]

Been putting this off for awhile cause holidays, but some neat information concerning both Nadesico and Gundam 0083.

A canon plot point of Nadesico often used to springboard it into the plot is that Nergal built the ship the Earth Federation wanted for their own purposes (generally for a war effort of some sort), Nergal initially stiffarmed them, the EF went full retard and tried to seize it, and after the initial trip Mars ended in disaster (the details vary, but the Nadesico is always forced to flee), Nergal changed it's mind and decided to cooperate with the Federation anyway, but generally because the initial Mars trip was to cover Nergal's ass at the time, essentially a smokescreen to make sure certain facts about Nergal would NOT get out to Federation, and by the time it was obvious the Feddies were none the wiser, Nergal changes it's mind and lets their ship get drafted along with the crew, generally saying "our mission to rescue people on Mars ended in failure, we have no reason to refuse to help the Federation now".

The exact wording of this changes depending on game, but this is how the full Nadesico cast joins the team in most games.


Gundam 0083's main hook is the theft of the GP-02 by Zeon, the exact how's and why can vary past this, but this is how 0083 shows up in the plot. The use of the nuke cannon by Gato to hose over the Feddie Naval Review will usually play a role, but not always (it never came up in SRW3, Gato instead turned the nuke on his own team when he was pissed to discover they were selling out to the alien forces and later would join your team in the Neue Ziel), and past that, the plot can be cut up and reassembled with whatever bits and pieces the writers find convenient.


Finally, let's cover the Aestivalis frames.

In series, they had five frames:

0G (Zero Gravity): Default module. Good in space, meh in air and ground, crap in water.

Aerial: Outstanding air mobility, crap in most other terrains.

Ground: Good on Earth and sea, crap elsewhere, cannot fly at all.

Launcher/Artillery: Generally best on Earth, these are the heavy weapons versions. Slow, but loaded down with cannon fire weapons.

Lunar: A modified 0G frame that was made for punching holes in ships and overwhelming Distortion Fields. Most games tend to compensate for them being pretty OP compared to the other frame by gimping the free energy restore effect they get while within the Nadesico's command radius, usually by making sure their weapons are not energy based and have limited ammo.

 

[GethN7]

Going to resume this soon now that Christmas is over, but excellent SRW translation news.

SRW EX finally got English translated!

Even better, Gideon Zhi (the same man who did that and other SRW translations) is going to backport all the improvements from that game into his old SRW 3 translation soon, which even he admits was pretty rough, both in terms of accuracy and in terms of things like the font looking good.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 10 [Operation Stardust Route]: The Winner

Note: Name of stage based on first OP song of 0083.

Note 2: Go to the "Mods" in the game menu and switch all Aestivalis pilots to 0G frames, the aerial frames perform like ass in space.


We show up at Von Braun City on the Moon, Anaheim's Factory to be exact. Boss is bugging Astonaige to give his Borot a Mazinger style rocket punch, and Astonaige is all "the recoil alone would rip the shoulder right off". The Breast Fire style idea is shot down too, as it would melt the weaker structure of the Borot long before the enemy, and the Double Blizzard style fans of the Daimos would wreck the superstructure of the Borot too.

Bummed, he turns to Nina to see about crossbreeding Gundam tech into his machine, and Nina shoots him down too, as the parts would not be compatible and since the Gundams and related machines specialize in interchangeability, his machine would have to be rebuilt from the ground up using Anaheim specs to even BEGIN to use Gundam tech.

Boss stomps off, sulking, and when he finally does, Nina does asks Astonaige what CAN be done with the Borot, asking if it uses any special parts.

Astonaige has to fight to keep his snark under control as he remarks the parts are indeed "special", including what looks like things from vacuum cleaners.

NOTE: For those who don't follow Mazinger, the Borot was literally cobbled together with crap from a junkyard.

We then cut to Kouji and Sakaya, admiring the view of Earth from the Moon as well as wondering how Daisuke aka Duke Fleed from Grendizer is doing. They then decide to talk a walk around Von Braun, but Kyoshiro warns them the Moon is under Giganos control, so they need to be careful.


Before we go on, bit of an explanation here: To allow the Gundam 0083 plot and Gundam stuff to flow parallel to the Metal Armor Dragonar plot, they had to come up with a viable way for places like Anaheim to do business and remain technically neutral, so they adapted the same excuse Anaheim used in the Gundam series of being nominally pro-Federation while in truth selling to damn near everyone while paying off the right people in high places to not give a shit about their shameless war profiteering.

In this game, they basically managed a tenuous truce with Giganos, essentially cutting them in on this deal in exchange for Giganos not giving them grief, which means the Federation can still do business with Anaheim, even on the Moon, but off the grounds of Anaheim's own facilities, they risk being shot at by Giganos forces. And, since the Federation is being run by corrupt assholes like Miwa who are happy to look the other way so long as Anaheim is funneling them goods, the Federation is not asking too many questions either, even though this whole tenuous truce business is suspicious as hell to anyone with a modicum of common sense.

And as a further nod to realism, Kazuya advises they carry their Feddie citizen ID cards, which serves to let Giganos forces know they are just visiting from Anaheim and will at best be considered tolerated visitors so long as they don't start shit, much like how it works for embassy officials in a hostile country that is still showing some level of respect for diplomatic courtesy, which, thanks to the deal Anaheim has with Giganos, is currently in effect.

Also, minor mistranslation as we shift back to Nina, who calls the Full Vernier parts for the GP-01 the "Full Burnier" parts.

Verniers are the thrusters used to control pitch and yaw of an airborne craft, which would obviously need some modification for space use, as the stock GP-01 was only fit for piloting on Earth or in a controlled atmosphere like a space colony. Astonaige also asks about the G-Defenser, an addon module/sub unit that can strap extra weapons on the Gundam MK-II, upgrading it to the Super Gundam.

Ryoko is still pissed, however, at the idea the Nadesico may still be considered an enemy despite the deal Nergal cut with the Feddies (as the Nadesico crew haven't all gotten the memo yet), and here we deviate with canon as she stomps off.

In the source canon of Nadesico, Ryoko Subaru's father was a disgraced member of the Federation forces who deserted their post, and Ryoko never got over the shame it brought her family. To tie Nadesico more to Gundam, they modified it to make him a disgraced former Titans member, which, after the events of Zeta Gundam, was the equivalent of being seen as having leprosy on one's military career (equivalent to the same disgrace Ryoko's dad got), even if you were forcibly drafted into the Titans (like many EF soldiers were).

We also find out Kou stomped off, still emo, and worse, the dumbass is still wearing his Feddie outfit instead of civilian clothes, which is just gonna serve as a "let fuck this asshole up" beacon to any Giganos goons who happen to be in town.

The rest of the Aestivalis pilots and Shiro offer to to look for them, and Izumi cracks a horrible pun about rocketing him back to Von Braun (the name of the German V-2 scientist whose work proved vital to the early US space program).

Sure enough, we cut to somewhere in town where some Giganos goons are roughing Kou up, but Boss and Ryoko get him out of the slugfest. They are hiding in a junkyard in Von Braun, whose owner decided to be neighborly and helped them out.

The owner is a one armed guy named Kelly, and for those who don't follow Gundam, I'll explain: He's Kelly Lazyner, a former Zeon soldier from the One Year War who got drummed out after losing an arm, and despite wanting to prove his valor still, his handicap made them say "appreciate your courage, but with one arm, it'd be hard for you to pilot anything."

I'll cover more next part, need to refresh my Gundam 0083 memory in the meantime.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 10 [Operation Stardust Route]: The Winner [Part 2]



We resume, with Boss, Kou, and Ryoko none the wiser at this point Kelly is former Zeon, and small note about the original scene in 0083.

Someone on the staff must have been a big fan of bromance, because the original scene where Kou met Kelly came off psuedoromantic in nature. The effect is not the same in SRW's version of events, though.

Anyway, Kelly, thanks to Boss being a big mouth, pieced together all three of them temporarily went AWOL in effect, and Kelly tell Kou, when called on it, to either do it completely and permanently or man the fuck up and get back in the damn robot when he starts waffling on the topic.

The subject abruptly changes when Kou notices an old mobile armor from the One Year War Kelly has been working on, and despite attempt to push them away and get them to leave (tough love on his part, he doesn't want them to get in trouble with their superiors if they change their mind), they insist on sticking around because her obviously needs some fixing the thing, and they spot the biggest issues off the bat for him.

He eventually relents, and we cut back to the Argamma where we find out Astonaige DID manage to upgrade the Borot for Boss.

Note: Only if Boss got five or more kills prior to this stage do you see this.

Astonaige managed to reinforce the Borot's shoulder with parts sturdier than shit ripped off old washing machines, hence the change was easy to do. Everyone else wonders where their three AWOL pilots went, Kou especially, with Nina wondering if his balls have actually dropped.

We cut to where Shiro and the Aestivalis pilots are about to give up, but Lamia (who tagged along) says she'll keep looking.

Or rather, this serves as a cheap excuse to meet her mystery contact, who calls her W17, and asks why she didn't report to "Mistress Lemon" on time. Lamia explains the circumstances and gets her next orders, and in the process we learn the courier is someone much like Lamia herself (a bioroid, to be exact).

We then cut to where Cima Garahau is hanging around Von Braun, commenting on Anaheim's shameless war profiteering. We cut later to where she visits Kelly, noting one arm hasn't slowed him down and how useful his MA will be for Operation Stardust (we also find he's got the rank of Lieutenant). One of the Zeon soldiers with her snidely remarks they just need the MA, not a cripple (Kelly), but Cima tells the jackass to shut the fuck up.

As Cima and company leave, Kou and the others reappear, having figured out Kelly's true affiliations. Kelly admits it true, and points out he never asked them to help him, and that they are free to leave knowing the truth, he won't stop them.

Boss and Ryoko ask him why he, a retired man with one arm, is still wanting to go into battle again, and he remarks it's for personal reasons, basically wanting to prove his handicap did not make him any less a warrior, and while he could live a quiet life, the only thing he really wants to do is fight again, it where he feels he belongs.

To his surprise, Kou and the others feel the same way, and since they know they'll likely have to fight Kelly but they are all technically on neutral ground, they agree to help him finish the Mobile Armor, knowing full well they may have to fight him, but his reasons for wanting to get back in the fight they can't help but respect, and due to that, they want to give him his chance to toss the dice with fate even if it means they may be enemies when that happens.

We cut to later where everyone on the Argamma is REALLY worried now, but Ryoko turns up, is a tad evasive about where she was, but confirms Kou and Boss will be back later.

We cut back to them as they finish helping Kelly, who accidentally drops Gato's name, and while Boss almost freaks out, Kou realizes it was nigh certain Kelly and Gato would be his enemies, and that to shrink away from that would mark him forever as a coward, so he tells Kelly he and Boss are reporting back to duty.

Kelly sadly reminds him they will enemies when that happens, but holds no grudge against them, asking he send his parting regards to Ryoko as well.


We cut to the battle map after this, and Bright remarks the Preventers sent them info on the Zeon op they are calling "Operation Stardust". Kou shows back up around this point, and that's when Kelly shows up in the Mobile Armor he just finished repairing, calling out Kou specifically.

Kou calls it the Val Walo, though most translations call it the Val Varo (either name is technically accurate), and Bright realizes the longer they stick around Von Braun, the higher the chance it gets shot at, and Kelly confirms if they don't send Kou out, he WILL fire on Von Braun.

Kou, Boss, and Ryoko deploy (her in the 0G Frame), and just as they ask Kelly why here and now of all places, that when Cima shows up with some Zeon and Giganos forces (this is their backyard after all), wondering if he's lost his mind.

He explains before he joins up with Zeon, he wants a duel with the Gundam, this is NOT some attempting at handing his MA over or anything like that. Cima shrugs, figures she can test her Gerbera Tetra here too, and decides to join the fight too. Nina seems to recognize Cima's machine, but when pressed, acts like she was mistaken.

NOTE: She's lying. The Gerbera Tetra is a Zeon refurbished version of the FOURTH machine made by the same project that produced the GP-01, GP-02, GP-00 (a failed prototype codenamed "Blossom"), and GP-04, the last of which was sold to Zeon and they refurbished it into Cima's current ride.


The Super Gundam deploys and you can sortie your other units now as well.

Map time:

The only real surprises are Cima and Kelly's machines, the others you've seen before.

Cima is not too much stronger offensively than a Gelgoog, but the Gerbera Tetra is VERY speedy and busting out Strike to hit her is nothing to be ashamed of.

Kelly's machine tends to laugh off beams and he's outstanding in ranged combat, not to mention has a painful MAP attack, but in close he's weak, so dogpile his ass.


Before we begin, some pointers:

1. The Super Gundam can turn into the G-Flyer, which gives Kamille some added ranged and flying mode in exchange for limiting his weapons to two, but can switch back at any time.

2. The Aestivalis can only autoheal EN in the presence of the Nadesico, keep them close to the Argamma to dock and resupply when they bleed low on ammo. Keep them next to each other, they can do combo attacks above a certain amount of WILL combined.

Kelly will get special dialogue if he fights Boss, Kou, or Ryoko.

3. The GP-01Fv has the Long Barrel Rifle now, which is a powerful long range beam weapon.


Once you defeat Kelly, unlike the show, he doesn't die here, he just promises to do this another time.

If Cima falls below 70% HP, they will retreat.

Once all foes are defeated, Bright announces you are heading for the Solomon Sea (the area around Solomon/Konpei Island) to pursue the Zeon Forces.

Bright reasons, correctly, that area would a prime target for the GP-02 gives the strong Federation presence around what used to be one of Zeon's biggest strongholds during the One Year War. Along the way, another Aestivalis pilot and a Nergal executive will be picked up as well, part of that Nergal/Feddie deal.

We cut to the bridge sometime later, where we meet Nagare Akatsuki, our newest Aestivalis pilot:

I'll be blunt, he's a bit of a prick, but in SRW J, he helped Mu La Flaga on the good guy team in being one of the tard wranglers, mainly because he's one of the most level headed if highly cynical members of the team, but he's also something of the "token evil teammate", even in his own source canon, and if you can figure out why long before the story gets to that point, congrats, you're an experienced anime tropes nerd.

Meet Erina Kinjo Won, a Nergal executive and an even bigger bitch than Akatsuki. In show, she really had it out for Akito, and it's hinted in show she always had a thing for Akito's dad she was never able to spit out and was bitter she never got the chance.

Akatsuki notes Amuro is onboard (he's apparently kept current on war news) and find an excuse to go get his luggage while being a douche about it, making everyone wonder what stick got up his asshole. Bright and Amuro, on the other hand, have reason to suspect Akatsuki is much more than he claims, and Noin promises to look into it for them.

We cut to the hangar, where Akatsuki is looking over the Angelg, and both Nina and Erina have a bit of barely civilized catfight (their companies ARE business rivals).

We then cut back to the bridge, where Lady Une has an update on Lamia.

Apparently, Giganos met her first in space prior to the meeting she had on Earth with the Getter team, and based on the timing, not to mention the fact Giganos know jack shit about her either, this sets off alarm bells for Bright and Amuro, though they concede to Une that Lamia hasn't done anything overly suspicious yet either.

We cut back to Lamia, who realizes that even though she got her new orders, the reader for it is busted, meaning she has to wing it AGAIN.

We cut to the Garden of Thorns carrier, where Kelly and Gato reconnect as the stage ends.

 

[GethN7]

Before we do the next level, one I'm sure will give @Jaimas a hardon, some notes.

1. While it follows most of the basics of the original 0083 episode where Gato cooks off the nuke, the crossover nature of the game will result in several deviances from the canon afterwards, though the major plot points will proceed like usual.

2. The next level has a severely complicated set of steps that MUST be done in exact order, or no recruiting Lalah Sune and getting her Elmeth. If you do those steps correctly here, you will need to follow it up in the next stage, but doing it right in both stages will mean you get her and her mobile armor at the same time. Otherwise, you lose out on both.

3. The Giganos side of things will take precedence after the majority of 0083 events play out, this is because they altered canon so that this is POST-Titans, and since 0083 was the prequel to Zeta Gundam, that means they needed 0083's true string pullers to be filled by other parties.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 11 [Operation Stardust Route]: Atomic Bazooka


We begin as as the Argamma team confirms that Solomon/Konpei Island is one of the Earth Federations few strongholds in space, as the others are either under alien or Giganos control, and it's loss would be a blow for the EF. The Feddies are massing a fleet for a strike against Giganos at Solomon at present, but all this does is convince Amuro shit is gonna go down there.

He does, however, realize one thing about the nuclear warhead Zeon has that bothers him: While powerful, the Mk-82 warhead wouldn't be able to level ALL of the Feddie forces at Solomon, and even if wiped out a majority, Zeon would have no more trump card to play, meaning that unless Zeon is run by lunatics (and they can't be, this was planned too well so far), this is not their only play at striking a blow against the Federation.

We cut to the Garden of Thorns, where Delaz is telling all his officers, Char included, he knows they are taking an extreme risk of being wiped out by committing all their troops to the field for this fight, but given the payoff if this all goes well, it's a high risk equals high reward gamble, and thus they are taking the risk.

While Gato is pumped and Char advise Gato restrain himself, impetuousness can lead only to folly (something he knows too well), Cima says she'll go on ahead as the advance screen, but Gato ignores this, ruminating on Char's warning.

We cut later to the Nadesico bridge, where they go over the scene where they met Inez from the other route, which I won't belabor here.

We then cut to Solomon, where the Feddies have no idea how fucked they are:

Cue Gato:

And just as the Argamma shows up, Gato fires the nuke:

One blast of light later, Feddie souls all over Solomon have become light, and as the light fades, Solomon has been well and truly raped by the nuke.

And Gato lets you know how much you failed:

And that's when the Delaz Fleet deploys on cue, and in a nod to the source, they even brought up Gato buddy Karius Ott from 0083 anime for this shindig, and he even has a spare nuke for Gato to use (apparently, Zeon was hoarding some since the Antarctica Treaty was signed)

Kou, the Aestivalis pilots (Akatsuki included) are forced deploys, as is Amuro.

As we are about to deploy everyone else, Lamia notes it seems like space was distorted briefly, wondering if "this side" has that technology too.

NOTE: FOLLOW THE BELOW TO THE LETTER IF YOU WANT LALAH SUNE AND THE ELMETH!

Sayla MUST deploy, and both her and Amuro must FIGHT both Char and Lalah ONCE. Do NOT destroy them until both have done this to both Char and Lalah. Doing too much damage to either will cause them to withdraw, which can cause you to fail as well.

You can deploy whomever else you want, but the above must be obeyed in this stage for Part 1 of getting Lalah and her MA.

Not going to go into too much detail about tactics after this save producing a map below, but bear in mind the following:

1. Gato has a spare nuke, and he WILL fire it if he gets a chance. It covers a very wide area, does obscene damage to everyone in it's area of effect, and you will want to take him down before then.

2. He can only fire it at 120 WILL or higher. To prevent, use Izumi's Exhaust skill or let the GM Custom (when fully upgraded) land hits on him, this will sap -10 WILL from him per hit.


That all aside, your objective it to take down all enemies:

After a turn, Lamia will warn Bright of a "spatial distortion", and this turns out to be the Nadesico, which will appear in the middle of your formation:

Everyone on the battlefield is all "Wut?", and Erina seems to privately recognize how the Nadesico arrived as something called a "Boson Jump". However, before the Nadesico hauls ass in panic, Akatsuki contacts them, relaying orders from Nergal HQ, and while Yurika is bit shocked to hear Nergal wants them to chop to Bright's command ASAP, Prospector acknowledges the orders Akatsuki sent as indeed being from Nergal.

This of course means they are now formally enemies with Zeon, and Gato says they have no choice but to consider the Nadesico a dog to be put down.

At this point, Akito and Gai (if you saved him) will launch, and now all Aestivalis can recharge their energy per turn so long as they are in the operational aura of the Nadesico.

As the good guy team gets their shit together, Bright quickly realizes Yurika's is still a bit emo, so he asks her to do a V sign (peace sign), which raises her spirits and Prospector notes Bright is certainly someone who has his shit together when it comes to keeping morale high.

We resume the fight now, but look at this:

The gold area is the area which Aestivalis recharge in. It will expand as the Nadesico levels up, but for now, keep them tethered to this to recharge energy.

After killing some Zeon goons, Ruri will warn of Jovian Lizard unmanned units:

At least six "Bugs" will appear to the south:

As you can see, they aren't too nasty, but still, don't let them shoot you in the ass.

Once all foes are defeated, Bright is not happy this was a tactical victory yet a strategic defeat and plans to dock in what's left of Konpei Island to quickly resupply and follow up on the enemy forces, as this clearly isn't all they had planned.

Afterwards, we cut to the Nadesico bridge, where introductions are made, Uribatake and Astonaige hit it off, Gai is hotblooded as usual, and we got some levity as Akito tries to pretend he nothing special but Burning notes he's more competent in battle than he acts like and promises to drill him hard, cueing everyone else to utter a prayer for Akito, Burning clearly misses drilling the hell out of the Dragonar guys.

Later, Bright pulls Yurika aside and asks her to be frank with on what happened on Mars. Prospector, Inez, Noin, and Amuro join the discussion, and while most of the information from the other route is summed up, Amuro gets the feeling Prospector is hiding something.

But we have no time to dwell on that or the fact the Jovians are using the same tech as the Nadesico because Sayla has some horrible news.

Zeon has a colony prepped to bitch slap Earth.

And that's when the real objective of Operation Stardust becomes clear to you all.

Zeon played everyone for fools since Torrington, the nuke was just the opening move in Stardust, meant to reduce the Federation presence that could stop Zeon's real plan, which is to smash a colony on Earth, which is now unable to be intercepted by anyone from Solomon since the nuke raped the Federation forces for one of their few space based strongholds.

And that means aside from Londo Bell, Zeon has no one to oppose their plans to finish Operation Stardust.

We then cut from where Londo Bell is hauling ass for an intercept course to the Lunar Laser Base, where Giganos commander Dorchenov is firing his lazers:

Cima appears, as it seem Giganos has been aware of Stardust since the beginning and has been secretly helping it along, and they just used the laser base on the Moon to kickstart the colony they plan to drop so it can hit Earth.

But, as Dorchenov admits to Cima, he's not exactly doing this with Marshal Guiltorre's approval, but the chance to fuck over the Federation is just too tempting to pass up, and while he couldn't give a shit what Zeon wants, he does know that Cima (who leaked Stardust objectives to him) is not happy with her own side and thus gave him a chance to use Zeon's plan for the purposes of helping Giganos, and thus they had a mutual interest in dicking over their foes.

As they agree that is cool by them, we cut back to the Argamma, where Amuro pulls Lamia aside and notes her comment about the "spatial distortion", and just as the questions get really pointed and Lamia's ability to bullshit out of it is about to vanish, she's just barely saved as Astonaige tells her to haul ass over to her Angelg before Uribatake takes it apart due to his mecha boner about to blow it's load.

Amuro lets it go at that, but decides to huddle with Noin and Bright to compare notes concerning Lamia instead.

We cut to the Nadesico bridge, where Bright is getting the rest of the details of the abortive Mars venture from Yurika, where Yurika hates how she had to make the hard choice to activate the Distortion Field to save the ship while sacrificing the refugees lives.

Prospector is about to ask Bright to take command of the Nadesico since Yurika seems to be overwhelmed by shock, but he instead tells Yurika while she made the right choice to save her ship, she did fuck up by getting into the situation that led up to that decision, telling her that her ship served as a beacon inviting enemy attack, and approaching the refugees put them in the line of fire for said attack.

Ruri then notes when Bright was in a similar situation during the OYW at Zeon HQ A Baoa Qu (now known as the Gate of Zedan), and Bright tells Yurika her second mistake was stopping her engine in enemy territory she had not scouted out prior, as she just left herself to be outflanked and overwhelmed.

She's still upset she can't bring back those who died due to her errors, but Noin points out if they don't stop the upcoming colony drop, the death toll will make Mars look tiny by comparison, and Bright tells Yurika she can't afford to fall apart now if she doesn't want more deaths on her conscience, so she needs to be the commanding officer her crew needs now.

As Bright manages to get Yurika to be the badass the situation demands, we cut to the mystery people discussing the Solomon nuking:

They reprise the conversation from the other route about 99% chance of success, and 1% chance of failure as the stage ends........

 

[GethN7]

Stage 12 [Operation Stardust Route]: Stardust Memories


Alright, time to begin the final part of the 0083 arc, where we must save Earth from the colony drop.

Few notes:

1. If you did all the steps to get Lalah last level, SHOOT CHAR DOWN FIRST BEFORE TRYING TO CONVINCE LALAH TO JOIN YOU WITH AMURO! If try to do so before Char dies, he'll cockblock Amuro, and you can't get a do over.

2. This level forces you to a strict turn limit to win, so work fast, and throw caution to the wind. This will likely be the first hard level with a strict time limit, and in a way, it's a training wheels version of the final boss level, so if you get through this level relatively well, keep that performance up for future turn limit levels.

3. You will get some help for this level not too far in, but you'll be doing most of the work yourself.



We start as Noin informs Bright they will JUST BARELY arrive in time to interdict the colony drop, and Nina informs you all that the colony propulsion engines could possibly be adjusted to prevent the drop, assuming there will be enough left by the time they take the field. Bright wonders if they couldn't pull the Nadesico's teleport trick to get there faster, but Inez explains last time, they duped the enemy into using their teleporters to do a "Boson Jump", they currently have no idea how to replicate the experience.

We get a rundown on the Earth route situation as well, and then we cut to Inez and Erina off in Erina's quarters, where Inez notes Nergal really doesn't give a shit about how the refugee rescue attempt went down, and Inez lets the subject drop, all but calling Erina a heartless bitch and her superiors by extension. Besides, Inez know that was just a cover for Nergal's REAL goals.

We cut back to the Argamma bridge, where Fa reports they have an hour before they are screwed, and Bright orders everyone to get ready, they're gonna get jumped by Zeon forces anytime now.

We then cut to a Zeon Gwaden carrier, where the Zeon forces realize Londo Bell is closing in, and Char, Gato, Karius and the Black Tri-Stars plan to intercept them, but Char realizes Cima is AWOL, and that can NOT be good news.

We then cut to Earth at Preventer HQ, where Lady Une is about to shit herself trying to patch in to Londo Bell, but that's when a mystery man shows up and offers to throw her a rope dealing with the colony drop:

He points out the colony, if separated into sections then forced into a alternate course via the propulsion engines, that would be ideal, but since they'd need some slick bastards to sneak past Zeon and Londo Bell currently has no experienced operatives in that field, they'll need to call in some experts ASAP.

Une gets what 'Wind" means.


We then cut to the battle map, and Delaz has the colony well guarded on it's orbital descent course.

Ruri informs you that you have to take down all enemies within 9 minutes, or you will never gonna get everything done in time, and as you deploy, the team guess that Federation HQ in South America (Jaburo) is the target is disabused by Gato:

Sounds like an odd target, but since Earth's resources are still stretched thin following the events of OG Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Gundam Wing as well as the current war with Giganos and the alien/underground forces, Gato elucidates Stardust's horrifyingly logical end game.

Zeon wants to stretch Earth's ability to feed itself beyond the breaking point, and by impact detonating a colony on one of few primary food producing areas of the Federation, Zeon plans to face the Federation with inevitable starvation. That is, unless they beg the space colonies for help, meaning Earth either swallows it's pride or dies of hunger.

Either way, Zeon's defeat during the One Year War will be avenged.

That is, unless we stop them:

Looks pretty simple, but don't be fooled, you will have more foes to fight, and the faster you kill the enemy, the better.

After a turn, Ruri reports more units incoming, affiliation unknown due to intense Minovsky particle interference.

By turn 3, they arrive, and they consist of both Mobile Suits and Metal Armors.

Led by Cima Garahau.

No prizes for guessing what she's gonna do here.

Cima tells the shocked Char/Delaz/Gato not to worry, the colony is still gonna drop, but Giganos is going to take over here.

Gato asks why drag Giganos into this, especially since Delaz points out Guiltorre has refrained from assisting Zeon, and Cima explained not everyone in Giganos is on the same page as Guiltorre, much like she isn;t on the same page as the Zeon forces she's now backstabbing.

Delaz is pissed, she was a good Zeon officer in the OYW, but Cima epxlains that's EXACTLY why she's doing this, and she gives a summarized version of her reason for hating Zeon, which I will elaborate below.

During the One Year War, she was loyal and when given orders to gas a colony, she was told it was sleeping gas, meant to knock out the residents of the colony so they wouldn't have to be witnesses to a Zeon slaughter of Feddies off their doorstep, and THAT she was cool with, if they got to sleep through the worst of it, fine by her. Thing is, she was duped, that was POISON gas, which she only found out later, meaning she was guilty of the very mass murder she wanted to avoid, and ever since then she decide Zeon could go fuck itself if they were going to put that guilt on her conscience. She's also pissed that Zeon pinned all the blame for their dirtiest wet works on her when they lost and tried to save themselves by getting rid of her.

In the original 0083 source, that's why she helped the proto-Titans doublecross Delaz at the end of the show, while in this AU, she's doing the same with Giganos, as she doesn't really care WHO helps her fuck over Zeon, just so long as they pay for what they tricked her into doing.

The Londo Bell forces aren't privy these conversations, but it's pretty obvious while they aren't Zeon friendly reinforcements, they aren't going to NOT shoot you either. However, more forces are detected coming from Earth as well.

Thankfully, they are on your side:

Meet Zechs Merquise/Millardo Peacecraft, thought to have died in the final battle of Gundam Wing (on the enemy side) as well some of the other Gundam pilots who were on the good guy side then and now. Zechs aka "Wind" as well as Duo Maxwell in the Deathscythe Hell Kai and Quatre Raberta Winner in the Sandrock Kai here to help stop the colony, so Bright's asshole unclenches a little, they aren't here to make the Londo Bell's life worse.

NOTE: I was a bit unclear due an ambiguity in the fan translation, Lucrezia Noin is supposed to have the Preventer alias "Fire" in the original source, but earlier lines seemed to indicate she was called "Water" a few stages, this may be an error in the translation or simply bad editing of the original lines, though it's probably the latter.

Anyway, your new allies are:

He's somewhat more powerful than in Alpha Gaiden, even has a MAP attack version of his Mega Cannon.

Due to space limits, they couldn't render the full name of the Deathscythe Hell Kai in the English translation. Also, Duo is somewhat better off in this game, as unlike other games, he retains the evasion bonuses from earlier versions of the Deathscythe it's Endless Waltz version usually doesn't have, probably done to increase his survivability in this hard as hell game.

Like in other SRW games, the Sandrock Kai is a tank that can take shitloads of damage and laugh it off.

As we resume, Cima's troops will focus on Delaz's troops, and they will also shoot you, whichever target is more oppurtune.

Either way, keep killing enemies ASAP.

If you recruited Lalah successfully, Amuro will ask her what's the point in causing more death, and she'll join you if Char has been defeated and you did all prior steps.

Once you take down Kelly, Boss/Ryoko/Kou all beg him to eject, but he tells them all he will die with no regrets.

Once everyone is dead, Ruri confirms you're the only forces in the area, and with that the GW guys go to work making ingress into the colony.

We cut to inside the colony, where everyone who can operate a computer worth a damn, Nina and Ruri included, make their way inside, and as they head for the propulsion engines, the GW guys set this colony to blow up.

Some Zeon soldiers are found in the control room, apparently willing to risk dying in atmospheric entry to make damn sure Stardust succeeded, but Kazuya punches them unconscious.

Gato is also there, and Nina asks Gato to stop already (they used to date, they parted on reasonably amicable terms). Char is also there, and he tells Gato to withdraw, him dying here would make everything Delaz did to this point meaningless, and Gato concurs.

As they leave, Nina has a breakdown and Ruri attends to her while everyone else continues to sabotage the colony.

We cut to an escape pod, where Karius notes to Gato the colony has blown in two, it's pieces now outside the gravity well of Earth, and as Gato curses the finale of Stardust crapping out, Karius notes Char isn't there, he may have died as the colony exploded in twain.

The Black Tri-Stars are in the pod too, and they ask Gato what to do, they don;lt have shit to fall back on now that Delaz is dead, and Gato says they'll fall back to Axis, Haman Karn is still around, she runs the biggest Zeon crew around besides Delaz.

However, as they leave, Gato is pissed. Cima was a traitor, Kelly and Char have fallen, and Stardust failed it's ultimate goal.


We cut back to the Argamma, where Bright is relieved the worst was avoided (in 0083 canon, the colony drop SUCCEEDED), and as Amuro is sure Char isn't dead and everyone is dreading Miwa's next bitching and moaning session, Lamia makes this telling remark about Miwa's intentions had they NOT succeeded in stopping Stardust:

We then cut to the hangar, where Zechs is already about to leave, citing to Noin (who always had low key feelings for him) it's not his role to be on the front stage. Duo and Quatre leave too, but Noin is sure they'll all be seeing each other sooner than later, shit is just gonna worse.

We then cut to Kou and Nina, where Kou asks Nina how she knew Gato, and as she's about to answer, we cut to the mystery people who wanted the colony to drop.

They are pissed, and the apparent leader says they must be directly involved, and Axel is told to stand to for further orders. We also find out, on top of still trying to get Lamia her next orders, they find it interesting 'this world's" Earth Federation chose to mass produce the D-Weapons instead of the Gespent.

We cut back to the Argamma, where they plan to meet up Banjou as the routes will dovetail together, and they also give a summary of events for those who didn't play the other route.

We also cut to Sayla saying she's gonna leave the Argamma, Amuro asks if she's sure, and she is.

This means she drops out of the game entirely at this point, so if anyone invested time in leveling her up, it was wasted. If Lalah was recruited, she shows up briefly to confirm this.

The routes merge at this point, and I'll cover everything else after this in a new post.

 

[GethN7]

Before I continue, let me just get something out of the way concerning Gundam 0083 and why I'm glad Super Robot Wars usually excises the worst of the stupid from the plot when they use it.

Gundam 0083 has one moment in the show that Nina Purpleton become a total lolcow, so much so I'm sure @Jaimas took one look at her bullshit and decided to drink an entire bar to deal with it, because, holy shit, woman did some horrorcow level bullshit.

Early on, it becomes obvious her and Gato dated awhile back, and while it's over and she's trying to start over with Kou Uraki, we got a bit of internal conflict with her ashamed she hasn't told Kou while at the same time really not wanting to see her old and new flame come to blows. Gato, for his part, parted with her and isn't really hung up over it, but she is, and the way she deals with this internal conflict towards the end is so insane I wanted to shoot her on the spot.

Kou is just about to stop Gato from dropping the colony, when Nina backstabs him and HELPS GATO COMMIT A FUCKING WAR CRIME!

Thanks to her interference, Stardust succeeds, the Titans form as a result, and not only does the bitch get off scot free, KOU HOOKS BACK UP WITH HER IN THE EPILOUGE!

Super Robot Wars never lets this happen, either derailing the plot before it gets that far, having Gato tells Kou they dated, they parted, he doesn't give a shit if Nina hooks up with his rival, and generally every iteration of SRW keeps Nina from ever getting to the point of doing that epic stupidity.

If anything, they could have excised the attempt at a love triangle from the original plot since it led up to moment of WTF mentioned above and not have hurt the original story, but SRW usually keeps it, but changes things so Nina doesn't go full horrorcow and help Gato commit mass murder because she can't get over herself.

 

[GethN7]

This LS will resume very soon, left it fallow due to IRL crap, but in light of losing a friend (his name was Ralph, no relation to any internet person, he was not someone who used the internet for anything), I'd like to resume this if only to keep myself busy, and I even used to run military stuff by him since he was a veteran, even asked him how plausible the scaled up physics of some military anime would work IRL since he was in the army (he was kind enough to sperg on that subject with me, for which I will greatly miss), so I will continue this LS, only now I'm rededicating to Ralph's memory as well.

 

[Forever Sunrise]

If you manage to get that far, I'll be very interested to see how you deal with the final mission. I've never beaten it.

 

[GethN7]

Alright, time to cover some more post first route merging, just as a warmup for later.

Once both routes merge, Erina wants to head for Kursk before they pick up the Nahel Argamma, the upgrade to the Argamma (in truth, it's more a new class of ship, but for gameplay purposes will be considered a linear upgrade), and when Bright is all "didn't the Kursk Industrial Region get blown up?", Prospector says yes, it did, but only what was on the Earth's surface, the underground facilities survived, and it would be really good if they could stock up on Aestivalis specific parts.


Two things: This is a nice nod to realism, as Prospector accurately notes while they have no shortage of Anaheim parts, Aestivalis units cannot make any use of them. Second, the Nahel Argamma was called the "Near" Argamma in some early English translations, likely because Nahel sounded like butchered Engrish and the translators chose a similar word that started with an "N" as a mistaken replacement.


Bright concedes the point and tells Ruri to lay in a course for the Kursk region. She informs him they will be an hour off their original ETA, and Bright's cool with that. He then pages Astonaige, and finds out from him and Uribatake they should be done with all repairs in 3 hours, though Uribatake had to make do with whatever he could spare to fix the Aestivalis units, further underscoring the need for more spare parts being a good idea.


We then have the D-Weapon team be all "it'll be time for us to part with our units soon" since the next resupply layoff will have the registration reset for their units, and Burning is sour he didn't get to put them through his new training regimen, prompting Kaine, Light, and Tapp to brown nose themselves into a frenzy to keep on Burning's good side, though it doesn't work and Burning says they'll still be working their asses off till then.

We then cut to where Linda Plato and Sayla Mass are talking, and Sayla tells her Dragonar counterpart she's getting off this wild ride for good, and while her reason amounts to "I couldn't save my brother, so screw this", Sayla implies she believes he's not dead but she's not sticking around either way to find out.


NOTE: Sayla vanishes from the plot after this, much like she did after her VA couldn't reprise her role in future Gundam shows after the original. Some SRW games will let her stick around post OG Gundam, but these games either have to recycle archived voice clips or have no voiced dialogue between her and Char for any point afterwards.

SRW GC's plot allowed her and Zeta-era Char to interact, and OE also allowed this, but given how those games involved creative canon bending and/or time travel, this still meant they had no voiced post OG Gundam dialogue interactions.


Anyway, we cut to later where, Bright's annoyance Yurika decided to pop off to do some impromptu baking aside, they decide to catch everyone up to speed on their current threat board.

First off, Giganos is still a threat, though the MP Dragonar "Dragoons" have been evening the odds for the Federation quite a bit. It's still a possible threat that the Psyco Gundams/Berserker System could fall into Giganos hands for mass prouction/deployment, either would be bad.

However, Giganos' true trump card, still in play, is their Mass Driver.

The Mass Driver is essentially a giant rock launching railgun that can literally fire giant rocks at the Earth, like shit out of the diseased mind of Brianna Wu except it's a legit threat, and aside from destroying the driver, they have no real defense against it since rocks leave shit for a trail to follow for interdiction before they hit a target, not to mention their kinetic energy gives them such speed shooting them down would be a miracle in itself.

However, it has two weaknesses thus far: The ability to aim it precisely is nonexistent, so it's accuracy is dogshit, and two, Giganos has been reluctant to use it on the Earth for apparent political reasons, which, so long as they hold out, will mean it's not a front burner concern so long as Giganos still deems it a last resort weapon. We also find out it was a converted linear catapult system used for space mining that was reworked into a weapon by Giganos, and Inez clarifies it's use of extremely high electromagnetism makes it something neither Nergal nor Anaheim would ever collude with Giganos on for technical reasons, both companies try to avoid generating mass amounts of electromagnetism because it fucks with their equipment hard, meaning Giganos would be shit outta luck if it broke.

They then address the fallout of Operation Stardust, noting the Delaz Fleet is gone as a threat, and while Gato escaped, Char didn't, so the Zeon remnants will be too mortally wounded to do anything nasty for quite awhile, though Amuro quietly remarks to himself Char cannot be dead at this point, at least he wouldn't die in such a punkass fashion by mistake.

Prospector then turns their attention to alien/underground forces, and while the Hyakki, Boazians, Campbellians, and Mycenean forces are all apparently working together, likely under the auspices of a bigger sponsor affiliated with none of the above, the Bharmians are apparently doing their own thing.

The Gaizock are also brought up, but their allegiances and goals are unknown. As for Meganoids, Akatsuki pointedly asks Banjou his take on things, but aside from their withdrawal to Mars, it's unknown what their laying low means save monitoring the Jovian Lizards, and the Devil Gundam is another wild card they can't really fathom at this point.

And that's when Ruri interrupts with some bad news.

Bose particles were detected in the Kursk region.

"Bose" would be the shortened form of Boson, meaning Jovians may have just appeared where you are heading. "Bose" is also a word of Scottish origin that means "empty/hollow", which is appropriate given how Boson technology allows for teleportation.

A battleship of some sort, IFF unknown, was also detected entering Earth's atmosphere, but Ruri foresaw shit would hit fan and has the D-Weapon squad doing recon, leaving Bright impressed at her foresight.

We'll cover the actual level next post.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 13: Shadow Mirror


First off, this level is teeth gnashingly HARD. So much so, I'm going to give a strategy to cheese past the hardest part as much as possible, and in one respect, SRW J did this level in a less insane manner, and honestly, I liked SRW J's version, which was much easier but still challenging if you did stupid shit.


Anyway, we start as the Argamma get broadsided out of nowhere, with a hit powerful enough it's forced to emergency land (and makes it useless for further use). The blast came from Kursk, and it's severe enough the Nadesico is forced to maintain a good distance away itself with the Distortion Field up to avoid a sequel.

We cut to the Argamma MS bay and we find out some gun battery from hell is shooting anything it can target, especially if it's in the air. The D-Weapon squad gets back and reports some weird mechanism has taken over the Kursk region and is shooting the shit out of any targets it can snipe. Worse, the Jovian Lizards found the spare Aestivalis units in the area, hijacked them (with unmanned units), and is now using them as their own forces alongside the cannon from Hell.

Lamia is noted to be absent at this point, in sickbay to be exact, apparently Yurika's cooking did not agree with her.

We cut to sickbay, where Lamia basically goes through a scene that would be cut and pasted in SRW Original Generation 2/Original Generations. She wonders if she was purposely poisoned (not really, Yurika's cooking just sucks that badly), and then we cut to the level itself.

That big purple thing, for those who never watched Nadesico, is the "Walking Stick", what the Federation codenamed the Jovian gun battery from Hell. The other purple units are the hijacked Aestivalis now under Jovian control.

Before we continue, while autonomous, the AI controlled Aestivalis cannot replenish their energy in this level, but unfortunately, any you deploy cannot for the same reasons, so conserve energy.

Shiro Amada and his Ez-8 Gundam is a forced deploy as he's the field commander Bright designates for this level, and you can sortie 14 more units.

1. You will want a resupply unit or two. Dragonar-3 is a great choice. A healing unit or two is also good.
2. Prioritize units with lots of ballistic ammo or ranged attacks that cost no energy, energy conservation is tight this level.
3. SPEED is a must. I recommend having Getter-2 be the one to get the goal for this level, so drop boosters on it so it can reach the goal with time to spare.

Also, unless you're dumb, follow this advice to the letter:

You have 7 turns to land a unit on the "Walking Stick" or automatic game over.

This level is gonna suck a ton of dick for two reasons: Getting a unit onto the main area of the gun battery is a hassle, as the quickest route is through all those high evasion Nadesico cockbags who laugh at beam weapons, and part 2 of this fight has a boss that shows up in the upper left you'll want to save energy for, they are a cunt to kill.

Anyway, here's the strategy:

Hayato will be the point man for getting on the gun battery, just have everyone else cover for him while conserving their energy and health.

That's basically it, because Getter-2 is one of the few units with enough terrain advantage to cover wide swaths of land and water while having enough dodging to usually avoid getting killed. All other units with sufficient movement have to fly, and they will get one shotted.

The enemy Aestivalis are about as bad as a regular good guy version with regular equipment, so don;t worry about any other special crap from them.

Ideally, this will happen about Turn 5.

The cannon dies at this point, and everyone is all "now let's just kill the remaining goons" as Lamia finally pops out of the infirmary, ready to sortie.

And that's when another spatial distortion happens.

It's not any enemy you've fought before, and it's goons leave Astonaige in shock:

Remember, the Federation has Metal Armors and Gundams. The Gespenst never made it past three test models before they scrapped it as a mainstay unit.

Meanwhile, Lamia has a private call with the guy who showed up with the Gespensts:

She explains her transmitter was broke so she couldn't get the memo to be sure, and Axel mentions 'Lemon" is overestimating Lamia's worth. Londo Bell starts to get suspicious, so Axel, who wants to see if Londo Bell really is as strong as "before" and to keep Lamia from being found out, tells her to act normal and fight his ass with the rest of Londo Bell.

The Gespenst are beefy douches, though thankfully these are based on the second generation mass production model, meaning they are basically no more dangerous weaponry wise than a mid tier Gundam unit circa 0083-Zeta Era.

They do like to support defend for each other, but for the sake of doing damage, this can work to your advantage.

But Axel is piloting the Vysaga:

This jackass has mile high evasion, hit rate, and can do a hell of a lot of damage, though it's generally short range.

It will be a bastard to kill, though.

If you want to end the level with a minimum of agony, pour your focus on beating Axel retarded and ignore everyone else first. If you are feeling ballsy or cheated your ass off, try to kill everyone save him first.

The first is likely for basically nearly all players.

BTW, the Shadow Mirror theme (called, appropriately, "Chaos") in this game is honestly one of the metal remixes of that theme if you ask me.

FYI, you can fly now.

That all said, consider this level a test of your skill: If you are getting buried and have to restart multiple times, it gets worse. If you manage to eke out a victory the first time, the next few levels won't be as bad.

I do recommend murdering Axel (or forcing him to retreat, which is likely to happen first) before his Will gets too high, he can do shitloads of damage at high will and tear bloody holes in Daitarn 3 then, because his critical hit rate will shoot through the ceiling then.

Axel will flee under 20,000 HP, having just come to assess Londo Bell, telling Lamia he hid her transmitter nearby before leaving, to which Lamia will darkly muse she's really just an order following puppet.

Bright will ask for confirmation the enemy is fried, and as everyone wonders who the hell the guys using Gespensts were, you get some bad news.

Some asshole has fired the Mass Driver at the Kursk Region (though not your immediate position).

As we cut back to the Nadesico Bridge, what's left of the Kursk region is a giant crater, leaving your team all 0_0.

Worse, their next shot seems to have hit around the area you were supposed to resupply.

We then cut to Hayato and the pilots discussing recent events, and he still insists Lamia's background is shaky as hell and needs further inquiry. We then cut over to where Akatsuki is, away from everyone else, and he's laughing his ass off at the true identity of the Jovian Lizards.

We then cut over to Giganos Moon HQ, where Marshall Guiltorre is NOT happy to learn the Mass Driver has been used:

Dorchenov takes responsibility, explaining it was done to reassert their tactical foothold on Earth, which is, in his defense, pretty dogshit at the moment. Guiltorre is still pretty pissed Dorchenov used the Mass Driver without his say so anyway, and Dorchenov covers his ass admirably by adding that Londo Bell was in the area and he figured killing two birds with one stone would catapult Giganos back on top strategically.

Guiltorre eases off a little, seeing Dorchenov does have a sound military point, but then asks him what he thinks their long term goals are.

Dorchenov gives the obvious answer: Victory over Earth.

Guiltorre then asks Dorchenov to look out the window at Earth and says the view of Earth is beautiful, and it's to preserve that view he has restrained use of the Mass Driver as he'd like to win by doing as little damage to Earth as he can afford to avoid because Earth itself is the primary prize, and if they bomb the shit out of it, they will have won a Pyrrhic victory.

He does, however, concur most of it's inhabitants can fuck right off unless they come around to accepting Giganos as their masters, but as Dorchenov is all "then we agree, don't we?", Meio Plato shows up and chides Dorchenov in not understanding Guiltorre's actual point. Guiltorre recalled Meio back to Giganos HQ after the recent losses for morale reasons, which Dorchenov is privately not happy with, he was really hoping Meio would have gotten his ass shot off like David had Uriah killed in the Bible.

Dorchenov gamely tries to keep his dignity by insisting (after realizing Meio Plato is Guiltorre's current favorite and shit talking him openly would be stupid) they need to press their advantage with another shot with the Mass Driver, and Guiltorre does concede his point that wars are something to be won or lost, though the aftermath of victory is also important to keep in mind, hence his veto of further Mass Driver strikes.

With that, Meio asks Dorchenov to leave, he has private matters to discuss with their mutual boss, and Guiltorre tells Dorchenov to leave as well, and thus Dorchenov has smoke trailing out his ears as he does so, pissed Meio Plato had the gall to treat him as inferior, especially with Guiltorre's blessing.

We cut back to the Nadesico, where they are having a merry time trying to wedge the machines of both the Argamma and Nadesico teams onto one ship, and in nice nod to realism, Banjou is asked to keep his Daitarn outside on autopilot, it's too damn big to fit with the other units.

FYI, Daitarn is HUGE, like 100+ meters, especially in full profile, so given how even the Nadesico is screaming for space as is, it would need to be a clown car to fit anything else. They had to do something similar in the first SRW Alpha too.


Note: Hilariously, SRW D just didn't give a shit and let the GETTER DRAGON (from Getter Armageddon) pile into the carriers, even though it's so damn huge it IS the size of a carrier. SRW Z2 onward was more sensible and made it fly outside, though Daitarn could still pile into the other carriers.

 

[GethN7]

Could use some backstopping by @Kiwi Jeff and @Jaimas on any details I missed or got wrong before I continue, some politisperging about the differences between Zeon and Giganos, should be useful for those unfamiliar with either.

Zeon was basically Nazi Germany in space, more or less. Giganos was a more nuanced take on the original concept, with Giganos being less"'racist" and more "elitist", in many ways the prototype for the Cosmo Babylonia/Zanscare seen in the later Universal Century, who both were like "the elite should be saved, everyone else can go fuck themselves".

Zeon and the Federation signed a treaty limiting use of WMDs because both sides were sane enough at the time to realize some limits meant staving off total destruction of their own people. Giganos signed no such agreement with the Federation, but all they have is the Mass Driver (so far) and unlike nukes, which are a weapon of war no matter how you look at things, the Mass Driver was a converted peaceful device reconfigured for wartime purposes, but it's still far less dangerous in damage and accuracy than a nuke in the long term, so Giganos can get away with using it so long as they exercise some restraint, and Guiltorre has every reason to enforce said restraint.

Also, by this point, the Federation is run by insane asshats BEGGING for the ability to use WMDs, and while they nominally still honor their commitments to the treaty with Zeon, it's ultimately a powerless skiff of paper at the end of the day, it's just the Feddies refrain from bombing Giganos because they aren't in an ideal position to nuke their asses. Besides, Anaheim is located next door, and since the Federation is still handing them wads of cash for military shit, bombing Giganos is a bad idea even if they really want to because Anaheim will get hit, and shooting one of their primary war material providers even by accident is just killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

In effect, Giganos and the Federation are forced to do a replay of the One Year War, where Mobile Suits/Metal Armors are gonna have to be the main strategy for kicking the other side's ass for the most part.

 

[Jaimas]

Could use some backstopping by @Kiwi Jeff and @Jaimas on any details I missed or got wrong before I continue, some politisperging about the differences between Zeon and Giganos, should be useful for those unfamiliar with either.

Zeon was basically Nazi Germany in space, more or less. Giganos was a more nuanced take on the original concept, with Giganos being less"'racist" and more "elitist", in many ways the prototype for the Cosmo Babylonia/Zanscare seen in the later Universal Century, who both were like "the elite should be saved, everyone else can go fuck themselves".

Zeon and the Federation signed a treaty limiting use of WMDs because both sides were sane enough at the time to realize some limits meant staving off total destruction of their own people. Giganos signed no such agreement with the Federation, but all they have is the Mass Driver (so far) and unlike nukes, which are a weapon of war no matter how you look at things, the Mass Driver was a converted peaceful device reconfigured for wartime purposes, but it's still far less dangerous in damage and accuracy than a nuke in the long term, so Giganos can get away with using it so long as they exercise some restraint, and Guiltorre has every reason to enforce said restraint.

Also, by this point, the Federation is run by insane asshats BEGGING for the ability to use WMDs, and while they nominally still honor their commitments to the treaty with Zeon, it's ultimately a powerless skiff of paper at the end of the day, it's just the Feddies refrain from bombing Giganos because they aren't in an ideal position to nuke their asses. Besides, Anaheim is located next door, and since the Federation is still handing them wads of cash for military shit, bombing Giganos is a bad idea even if they really want to because Anaheim will get hit, and shooting one of their primary war material providers even by accident is just killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

In effect, Giganos and the Federation are forced to do a replay of the One Year War, where Mobile Suits/Metal Armors are gonna have to be the main strategy for kicking the other side's ass for the most part.

When it began, Zeon was unquestionably in the right, beginning an uprising against a corrupt establishment that had basically been using and abusing them for ages. Zeon Zum Deikun was their original leader, and was generally considered both capable and upstanding. Even the Federation had a fair bit of respect for the guy. However, Zeon Zum Deikun was the sort to negotiate even in the middle of a war, which he did, and a bunch of hard-liners in Zeon saw an opportunity, with one giant bald prick in particular siezing his moment.

Degwin Zabi assassinated Zeon and wound up succeeding him. The first thing he did after declaring himself lord was appointing his kids to positions of authority, and this is basically where Zeon shit the bed hard enough to damage the building's foundation: Every one of the Zabis was a grasping power-obsessed shithead. Gihren Zabi, the one with the most obvious allusions to Adolf Hitler, is a racist power-obsessed asshole. Garma Zabi was a status-obsessed up-and-up glory boy and daddy's favorite, willing to waste everyone's time and resources it if made him look good or come out on top. Kycilia Zabi was a merciless opportunist who would fuck over anyone, figuratively or literally, if it meant pushing her agenda, and Dozle Zabi is the only sane one, who was an actually good person despite his appearance, and the first one to pick up on the fact that Char was a backstabbing shit.

So with the Zabis in place, Zeon's hardliners were getting their way, and what started as limited war that was originally intended to tell the Federation to fuck off and leave Zeon space the fuck alone turned into a war to break the Federation through blitz attacks and enacting a scorched earth campaign to ensure that the Federation, which economically and infrastructure-wise, was much better off than Zeon, couldn't possibly respond. The solution? Drop several space colonies onto Earth and use them to cripple and destroy Federation operations. Had Zeon succeded, the colony drops would have effectively destroyed the Federation capital and ended the war there, but the Federation managed to slightly redirect the colony drop so it just destroyed 20% of Australia instead.

At this point the Federation and Zeon went full fangs out in the conflict and launched every fucking WMD they had available at the time at one another at the battle of Loum, including chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. The Federation deployed viral agents against Zeon, which responded by deploying fucking nerve gas, at which point both sides escalated to fucking nukes and didn't stop until Side 5 was scorched debris.


A pair of soldiers during the treaty meetings from different sides both realize their commanders are fucking retarded.

The sheer loss of life on both sides - tallied in the millions from military personnel alone - in the Loum conflict was bad enough, but the destruction of multiple space colonies in such close proximity to Earth, plus the fucking colony drop that did strike the planet, wound up permanently fucking up Earth's ecosystem and roughly one-fifth of the human population of Earth fucking died. At this point most of the higher-ups on both sides realized what every grunt on both sides had long since realized: That this shit was insane - and so they declared a t temporary truce and put into place the Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty stipulated that WMDs were disallowed, colony drops were off the table, prisoners of war were to be treated humanely, and that the the neutrality of other colonies that wished to remain out of the war would be respected by both sides.

Neither Zeon nor the Federation liked this deal much and both actively immediately tried to find ways to subvert it. On the Federation front, they were constantly worried that Zeon was going to esclate to colony drops and nukes again, and kept their stockpile as a purely defensive measure, but soon hard-liners in the Federation were pushing for active deployment of newer WMDs intended to circumvent the treaty against Zeon, ergo beginning something of a secondary arms race that ended with Gundam Physalis, which, after the one-year war, was stolen by Anavel Gato, who proceeded to use it to remind the Federation why the treaty was signed in the first place. On the Zeon Front, they were terrified that the Federation was just going to disregard the treaty and start nuking the shit out of their forces, leading to them desperately trying to find any edge they could find to make use of them on their own side.

TL;DR: Both sides are assholes. Gigantic, flaming, screaming assholes. The Federation were assholes first, then the Zeon were bigger assholes, which in turn led both sides to be, impossibly, even bigger assholes.

 

[GethN7]

When it began, Zeon was unquestionably in the right, beginning an uprising against a corrupt establishment that had basically been using and abusing them for ages. Zeon Zum Deikun was their original leader, and was generally considered both capable and upstanding. Even the Federation had a fair bit of respect for the guy. However, Zeon Zum Deikun was the sort to negotiate even in the middle of a war, which he did, and a bunch of hard-liners in Zeon saw an opportunity, with one giant bald prick in particular siezing his moment.

Degwin Zabi assassinated Zeon and wound up succeeding him. The first thing he did after declaring himself lord was appointing his kids to positions of authority, and this is basically where Zeon shit the bed hard enough to damage the building's foundation: Every one of the Zabis was a grasping power-obsessed shithead. Gihren Zabi, the one with the most obvious allusions to Adolf Hitler, is a racist power-obsessed asshole. Garma Zabi was a status-obsessed up-and-up glory boy and daddy's favorite, willing to waste everyone's time and resources it if made him look good or come out on top. Kycilia Zabi was a merciless opportunist who would fuck over anyone, figuratively or literally, if it meant pushing her agenda, and Dozle Zabi is the only sane one, who was an actually good person despite his appearance, and the first one to pick up on the fact that Char was a backstabbing shit.

So with the Zabis in place, Zeon's hardliners were getting their way, and what started as limited war that was originally intended to tell the Federation to fuck off and leave Zeon space the fuck alone turned into a war to break the Federation through blitz attacks and enacting a scorched earth campaign to ensure that the Federation, which economically and infrastructure-wise, was much better off than Zeon, couldn't possibly respond. The solution? Drop several space colonies onto Earth and use them to cripple and destroy Federation operations. Had Zeon succeded, the colony drops would have effectively destroyed the Federation capital and ended the war there, but the Federation managed to slightly redirect the colony drop so it just destroyed 20% of Australia instead.

At this point the Federation and Zeon went full fangs out in the conflict and launched every fucking WMD they had available at the time at one another at the battle of Loum, including chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. The Federation deployed viral agents against Zeon, which responded by deploying fucking nerve gas, at which point both sides escalated to fucking nukes and didn't stop until Side 5 was scorched debris.

View attachment 657500
A pair of soldiers during the treaty meetings from different sides both realize their commanders are fucking retarded.

The sheer loss of life on both sides - tallied in the millions from military personnel alone - in the Loum conflict was bad enough, but the destruction of multiple space colonies in such close proximity to Earth, plus the fucking colony drop that did strike the planet, wound up permanently fucking up Earth's ecosystem and roughly one-fifth of the human population of Earth fucking died. At this point most of the higher-ups on both sides realized what every grunt on both sides had long since realized: That this shit was insane - and so they declared a t temporary truce and put into place the Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty stipulated that WMDs were disallowed, colony drops were off the table, prisoners of war were to be treated humanely, and that the the neutrality of other colonies that wished to remain out of the war would be respected by both sides.

Neither Zeon nor the Federation liked this deal much and both actively immediately tried to find ways to subvert it. On the Federation front, they were constantly worried that Zeon was going to esclate to colony drops and nukes again, and kept their stockpile as a purely defensive measure, but soon hard-liners in the Federation were pushing for active deployment of newer WMDs intended to circumvent the treaty against Zeon, ergo beginning something of a secondary arms race that ended with Gundam Physalis, which, after the one-year war, was stolen by Anavel Gato, who proceeded to use it to remind the Federation why the treaty was signed in the first place. On the Zeon Front, they were terrified that the Federation was just going to disregard the treaty and start nuking the shit out of their forces, leading to them desperately trying to find any edge they could find to make use of them on their own side.

TL;DR: Both sides are assholes. Gigantic, flaming, screaming assholes. The Federation were assholes first, then the Zeon were bigger assholes, which in turn led both sides to be, impossibly, even bigger assholes.

The funny part about all this is despite all of Degwin's evil bullshit, he finally started getting a conscience attack around the time Garma Zabi died, and as his other kids either went completely batshit or died off too, his conscience just kept getting louder.

He came to outright fear his son Gihren, outright calling the man Hitler (which Gihren considered a COMPLIMENT), was scared of what his daughter Kycilla would be capable of, and while he didn't have much bad to say about Dozle, that's because he knew Dozle was the least nutty of the bunch. Garma was his favorite, but that because Garma was the one who tried the hardest to please him and of the four, was the one honestly the most innocent (in terms of knowing how the world worked), and Degwin saw him as the hope of the family, as the rest had already learned the world wasn't a black and white place, though to Dozle's credit he tried to maintain some scruples like honestly giving a shit about the lives of his men and protecting noncombatants, and even Kycilla was sickened enough that Gihren killed their father by the end of the show she killed him for the crime of patricide.

It's what finally prompted him to get to the point he said "enough already, even I'm getting tired of the bloodshed", and had he lived long enough after that point, he would have confessed to Zeon Zum Deikun's murder to Sayla Mass' face.

And it's this that brings us full circle to their Dragonar successors.


Marshall Guiltorre is fighting from what is mostly a legitimate point, as both in the source and this game the Federation really is a group of insane asshats who don't give a shit about the people who don't live on the planet, and most galling to him, they don't give a shit about Earth itself despite LIVING ON IT.

It's why he deems the leadership of Earth worthy of death or them wising up and realizing Giganos would be better masters, he'd pick either if possible. This is also why he restrains use of WMDs, he really wants to avoid more damage to Earth as possible and is trying to limit things to breaking Earth's military to the point they throw down their weapons and surrender to Giganos. Or he just destroys said leaders and Earth throws it's hands up in the air and surrenders, that works too.

He's basically Degwin with a built-in conscience, basically a fusion of Zeon Zum Deikun and the original Degwin, with more of the original Zeon for most of his morality.


Dorchenov is Gihren 2.0. While less a rear echelon motherfucker who actually is willing to get his hands dirty directly, Dorchenov is still an opportunistic POS who will use anyone, even those on his own side, for his megalomaniacal schemes, and as opposed to Guilltorre, he lacks any scruples on how to achieve victory.

If anything, SRW AP just makes his brutality and lack of morals even more apparent.


Meio Plato is Char 2.0.

While Char was the son of Zeon Zum Deikun who wanted to rise up inside the Zabi controlled Zeon to destroy it from within (partially as revenge for the murder of his father), Meio actually is loyal to Giganos, at least Guilltorre's vision of it, and as we have seen, he still retains some scruples like trying to avoid shooting civilians and trying to keep things a military conflict where soldiers fight like soldiers, not like thugs.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 14: "The Challenge of Genius Scientist Aizam"


Okay, this stage brings us back to some Daimos, and it's also one of the last before Mushashi lives or dies at the end of Stage 15.

Get Ryouma up to 15 kills by that time, Mushashi lives, consider this stage one of your last chances to get the needed kills.

NOTE: Mushashi usually dies in Getter in some manner, usually by sacrificing himself like a badass, but SRW usually gives you a chance to let him live (save SRW Alpha 2, which did let you save him, but the canon chosen for SRW Alpha 3 was the route he died on) provided you meet a certain condition.

Also, this stage is gonna cover something that people who bitch these days about LGBT representation need to watch, Daimos did a damn fine job of representing what was in effect a gay relationship, or at the very least the implications of one, and did it nicely and respectfully, and did this shit decades before modern day assholes had to fuck up modern media with overdoing it.


Anyway, we start this level with Rain and Chibodee noting the sudden increase in earthquakes in the region. George notes the OYW colony drops were so bad it actually fucked with the rotation speed of the Earth, and Argo grimly notes war is shitting up Earth something hard.

We cut to the Bharmian base on Earth, where Richter is hearing a siren and wondering what the hell is going on. Raiza explains why:

Going along Daimos' theme of racism, while Miwa and a lot of Earth are pretty bigoted to Bharmians, the Bharmians are not much better in some ways, taking humans captive and forcing them to do grueling penal labor, generally doing work they don't want to do. In the long term, though, this pales compared to some of the shit Miwa would eventually do.

She eludicates the instability has been caused by the colony drop that addled Earth combined with the recent Mass Driver strikes have been aggravating tectonic plate activity something fierce, to which Richter disgustedly notes we humans are too quick to use WMDs to the detriment of our own planet.

Considering the Bharmian world is destroyed, and they were hoping moving to Earth would be a better place, man has a point.

Balbus shows up with a worse report: The prison camp is being flooded by an underground aquifier the quakes popped loose, and despite Richter's earlier claims of disowning his sister, she's the first name off his lips as he tells Balbus to get the breach sealed.

Sure enough, we cut to Erika where the water had busted into her cell and carried her off.

We cut back to an appropriately aghast Richter.

Back on the Nadesico, Kazuya seems to sense Erika's presence, and as everyone is all "you okay?", he shakes it off and they resume discussing recent matters.

Bright mentions they need more Getter and Mazinger parts as well Aestivalis parts, and that when they pick them up, two more pilots will be joining them.

Noin explains the first:

AKA, Astonaige's girlfriend circa Char's Counterattack.

She'll be bringing along a mass produced Zeta Gundam, the ReGZ (Refined Gundam Zeta). Unlike the original, which is decent even in MS form, the ReGZ is a POS outside of Mobile Armor mode, but outstanding while in it.

Bright explains the other one:

AKA, Char Aznable in shades and an aviator jacket doing a bad job of claiming not to be Char that no one will be fooled by, though everyone present does not as yet know this.

Bright explains Quattro was transferred to Earth from the Feddie base at the Luna II asteroid, and when Ryouma sensibly points out it's weird the data on Quattro is sparse, he mentions records have been a clusterfuck due to all the war damage, then adds, though he never said this officially, the EFF is poor at records keeping in general.

Before we continue, he's not wrong. Hell, they are so bad at keeping track of their own troops Anavel Gato snuck into Torrington with a fake ID and a stolen Feddie uniform and no one noticed until he was halfway through cutting the GP-02 out of the base hangar to run off with it.

Lamia then gets called on the fact the enemy appears to have communicated with her in battle, but she just says they were just shit talking her into fighting.

NOTE: Original Generation 2/Original Generations changed this somewhat, she was somewhat better concealing her conversations with her employers in battle, but circumstances in that game gave them a better chance to cover their and her ass better.

It's notable that Yurika flat out fucks up and spells out Lamia is under a shit ton of suspicion because her mecha looked similar to the one that Axel was using (though they all don't know his identity yet), and Lamia plays like the badly disguised sarcasm flew over her head.

Bright gets the conversation back on track and tells everyone to get back to their posts and remain on standby for now.


We then cut back to Richter and friends, and he assumes Erika died cause easier for his grief to process, then gets a report from Balbus the breach was fixed, but they lost a lot of prisoners for penal labor, to which Richter bemoans will cause Grand General Olban to get pissed at any delays and that they need to find more ASAP, and at Raiza's suggestion they suggest raiding a nearby Earth military installation.

We cut back to the Nadesico where the base in question informs them that the Bharmians are attacking, and we cut to the battle map.

However, Kayru Su and some Feddie Dragoons are on hand for defense.

First off, here are the AI controlled Dragoons:

Stat wise, they are a mix of the 3 D-Weapon units, and they only need hold out with Kayra until Londo Bell shows up.

Kayra's unit:

Discount Zeta Gundam, more or less.


After a round or two of trading shots with the Bharmians in which all you can do is have Kayra stay in place and fire potshots of her Mega Beam Cannon, you can deploy:

Kazuya, Akito, and Gai are forced deploys. Kazuya trades words with Richter, who tells him Erika died, Kazuya thinks he's full of it, but Richter (who actually believes it) gets pissed because he has no reason to lie about that.

Kayra asks about more reinforcements, but launching all the units wedged into the Nadesico docks is taking some time, so that will be a few more turns, and Quatrro isn't here yet either.

A turn or two later, you can launch ten more units.

Richter, Balbas, and Raiza are basically the same as before, and so long as you don't get the Nadesico shot down, you're good, so take your time.

Once you kill Richter, he's about to ram your team with his ship, but a new unit approaches.

This is Aizam, a buddy of Richter he didn't expect to be here, and as he saves Richter before his ship goes nova, he says hi to Londo Bell, says he's not here to kick your ass today, but he left something you can fight in his stead, a Mecha Warrior he designed.

However, just as he deploys about six of his new mecha then withdraws, someone else arrives:

HI CHAR!

FYI, Nina's comment is a bit of a paradox, as Char had a hand in the design decisions behind the Zeta Project, with the Hyaku Shiki/Type 100 he's piloting being based off his own design notes, but since he WASN'T a member of the AEUG in the Zeta backstory for this game, it was either designed independent of his input or he was secretly feeding Anaheim blueprint ideas, which, given how Anaheim works, would be pretty plausible.

Either way, Char's on your side now.

Amuro and Lalah will immediately realize who is behind the crappy disguise, but "Quattro" makes it clear they must be mistaken, and the fight resumes:

The Hyaku Shiki is pretty good in most respects, including a good MAP attack, but he's gonna get buried trying to fight everyone by himself, so help his ass out.

These things are mostly defensive HP sponges, so if you kicked the Bharmians asses fairly easily prior, these aren't too hard.

Once you break all of Aizam's toys, the stage ends.

I'll cover the rest next post, but FYI, Aizam and Richter had a massive bromance that was all but basically Aizam spitting out he loved Richter in the original show, and Richter was all too willing to reciprocate.

We'll get to see quite a bit of said bromance next few levels.

 

[GethN7]

We resume back at Bharmian HQ where Aizam is chiding Richter (albeit gently) for still be just as reckless and hotheaded as they were when they were kids.

Balbus has no idea who Aizam is, and Raiza gives Balbus a look that could kill small animals as she's all:

"He's one of the smartest scientists Bharm has ever produced, how the hell could you NOT recognize him?"

We also find out he was Richter's first ever friend.

We cut over to the old friends, where Aizam informs Richter that Grand General Olban (Bharmian General who is directing Bharmian grand strategy) has issued orders for Aizam to have Richter recalled while Aizam take over for the Earth invasion force.

A little Bharmian politics aside for those who didn't see the show: Olban was the guy who succeeded Richter's dad and was one of the guys who flipped out when Grand General Leon died of poison and demanded Earth blood for his murder, and while Richter is crown prince, Olban effectively runs the entire military establishment, and even Richter is subordinate to him under Bharmian law.

Aizam adds that Olban sent him to request Richter's relief politely, but if Richter wants to make an issue of it, Aizam is free to kill Richter for insubordination.

Balbus is understandably shocked, and Richter wonders why Olban would doubt his loyalty, but Aizam has no intention of icing Richter for defying orders.

Instead, he tells Richter to kill him.

Richter nearly gags on his shock at this, but Aizam, cool as dry ice, just repeats the request.

He adds, still calm, he can just let Olban known Aizam died before he could assume his post due to getting his ass shot off prior by Earthling forces.

Ricter is still having a hard time swallowing this, and Aizam explains this way Richter keeps his post, and Aizam has no intention of being party to a screwjob that involve him making Richter's life harder.

It's at this point, Richter realizes the box he's in. Olban is either playing a mind game to get Richter to not get himself killed and thus remove who is effectively the face of the Bharmian people from the battlefield and using Aizam as the trigger, or Olban is a seedy asshole trying to flex his nuts and is willing to use Bharmian military law to bump him off.

Either way, this ends badly for him, so he swallows his pride and accepts Aizam taking over.

He does, however, ask the new commander for a farewell assignment before he leaves, and Aizam's all "fair enough, let me help."

FYI, before we change scenes, Aizam was dead serious, he would have let Richter kill him with a smile on his face.


Anyway, we shift gears to the Nahel Argamma, and after some confirmation Astonaige and Kayra are dating, Quattro formally introduces himself, and while even Bright can see A CHAR right in fromt of him (bonus points to those who get the reference), Quattro is all "Lady Une should have sent notice I was assigned to you all", which Noin confirms.


NOTE: Bit of a Gundam mythology gag here. Lady Une already welcomed Gundam Wing's Char back onto the good guy team, why not do the same for the original?


Bright does make the slip of calling Quattro Captain (like Char), but Quattro clarifies he's a Lieutenant.

We cut to the others enjoying the new ship has more space, then talk segues into Kazuya, who is now moping about Erika since seeing Richter again, and Domon is still all "either talk about me finding Devil Gundam or I don't care".

Speaking of Erika:

Turns out she got rescued and is on an EF submarine, and as she fears the worst, this happens:

They, both Feddie and Bharmian personnel, confirm they are part of what is called "The Peace Liberation Army".

We cut away from Erika's utter confusion back to the Nahel Argamma.

(see this scene only if you saved Lalah Sune)

Lalah Sune corners Quattro, tells him she's not fooled by his terrible disguise, and asks Char why he's on this side now.

He's willing to drop the act in private, but otherwise remains tight lipped about his reasons for switching sides, but tell her to keep watching to see why if she really want to figure it out.

(end scene)

We then cut to Kazuya, who is all "Erika not dead" to himself, and while everyone else admits that may be true, Lamia is all "if's she not alive, you might want to move on", to which she just ignores, Ryoko calls that a cowardly way of thinking, and Lamia just can't find the urge to disagree for some reason.

We cut back to Erika, who finally gets some answers:

Turns out Relena, along with sympathetic elements in the Federation and Bharmians, have been trying to salvage what went wrong in the initial negotiations, and since said elements think the current war is fucking retarded, they really want to try to prove Earthlings and Bharmians can get along, and in the process end this dumbass war.

They even want to invite other races besides those two to join them if this takes off.

Relena offers to help Erika get in touch with her people if she'd like to help out, and Erika can't agree fast enough, and later, she's boarding a ship to take herself offworld, where the Bharmians they'll be meeting will link up with them in the asteroid belt past Mars.

As we end this intermission scene, here's the Nahel Argamma:

It retains all upgrades the previous Argamma had, and is essentially a better version in terms of stats.

BTW, @Jaimas, more Captain Fuhrer next level.

 

[Jaimas]

I want to see interplay between Captain Fuhrer and Gihren Zabi

 

[GethN7]

I want to see interplay between Captain Fuhrer and Gihren Zabi

Unfortunately, he's dead in this game, and they have yet to write a story where they would ever meet in SRW, and given the Hyakki hate humans on principle, it's unlikely they would team up.

They kinda bent the rules and had Dr. Hell from Mazinger work with Zeon in the first Alpha, even though Dr. Hell would just as happily wipe out Zeon, but at the time, Gihren wanted to annoy the Federation, Dr. Hell wanted to piss them off too, so it was a really reluctant and temporary enemy mine situation.

Interestingly, in the first Alpha, Gihren Zabi and Jamitov Hymem worked together (albeit indirectly, Cima Garahau served as a go between), but it was again one of those really reluctant temporary alliances both had every intention of breaking later and both knew it, and both only did so as a power play against rival elements of their own factions.

Most of the time, when it comes to alien/underground forces, they are aware of Zeon (or Giganos when appropriate), don't have anymore respect for them than they do the Federation, but they are happy to at least not shoot at each other until their Feddie/player aligned foes are dead, though not always, they will shoot each other if they are in a seriously shitty mood.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 15: The "G" Gathers


Alright, two things this level, two Getter Robo secrets are available. First one involves keeping Mushashi alive, just have Ryouma have 15 kills before the level ends and you're good on this.

The second lets you recruit another Hyakki to defect to your side, just keep their unit alive during this level, you get them and their mecha.

Also, Kouji, Ryouma, and Lamia are forced deploys.


We start as Tekkoki at Hyakki HQ is asking Hidler when he can kick Getter ass and Hidler tells him to chill, his chance is coming:

Tekkoki really is tired of hearing that as is about run off, order or not. Hidler is about to get pissed, but Burai shows up to mediate.

He tells Tekkoki "Look, I understand, and I want to watch you kick their ass, but if you go against the entire Londo Bell force, you will get killed before your get your chance, so I have a better way you can get your jollies."

Tekkoki: I'm listening, sir.

Burai: Getter is going to have to return to their lab soon, they'll be alone. That will give you a chance for the one on one duel you wanted so badly, and no chance Londo Bell will shoot you in the back in the process. We'll let you know when that is, and when we do, have fun, we'll be rooting for you.

Tekkoki: Wise point, my lord. Thanks for looking out for me.


We then cut to Burai making a call to Ankoku Daishogun, and Burai is getting a bit annoyed at all the alien assholes who don't know what the pecking order is on this planet, and both Dr. Hell and Daishogun concur. We also find out they realize that the Campbellians and Boazians are backed by a third party.


We then cut back to the Nahel Argamma, they are heading over to the Saotome Institute, where Prospect had the Aestivalis parts they need shipped. We then get a bit of comedy as Yurika visits to check out the new ship and hilariously asks Bright if she can try his comfy captain's chair.

FYI, there is a good reason. The Nadesico does not really have a comfy captain's chair. Hell, Yurika basically has to stand up whenever they are in combat because Nergal heavily automated the Nadesico bridge and scrimped on chairs.

Bright is all o_0 at her request, but lets her sit in his chair.

She squeals like a schoolgirl, prompting him to facepalm, and Noin saves him from further goofiness as Noin informs him the Preventers have put out feelers to the Nanbara Connection and Big Falcon labs to see if their Super Robots can help out Londo Bell.

These are the labs that made the Combattler and Voltes V mecha, both series also made by the same guys who made Daimos.

However, Bright still needs his chair back, but Burning shows he's got a sense of humor:

Amuro, Quattro, and Banjou are all "why don't you go captain the Nadesico, we kinda like your replacement", to which Bright gets a "do I really have to put up with this shit?" look on his face as he asks for his chair back a little more assertively:

We then cut away to see the Getter and Mazinger teams discuss how their mecha need heavy duty maintenance back at their respective labs (Astonaige can do basic to moderate repairs, but serious checks and re-calibration require exert service their points of origin can only provide), and they plan to sally on ahead to expedite that, and the others are all "go ahead, we'll keep the ship safe for you". Lamia finds an excuse to tag along, just in case they need help along the way, but it's really so she can get another look at the Shin Getter.

Hayato seems to realize this as we cut back to Hyakki HQ.


Tekkoki gets a heads up from Hidler that Getter is on the move, and he says that the Hyakki forces will be tailing behind to prevent any ambush crap while he throws down with the Getter.

But he's lying:

Regardless, Tekkoki meets up with the Getter:

They point to Hidler's goons behind him are all "One on one with them behind you?"

Hidler is all "Ve are here to make sure zis duel isz not interrupted.", and with that, the Getter guys shrug and figure they might as well do this.

Kouji notices Ankoku Daishogun tagged along with Hidler and tells him not to interfere, and Daishogun is all "It's a duel between two combatants, honor demands I don't."


As they are about kick each other's ass, we pan back to the Science Fortress Labs where Jun informs Kenzou Kabuto what is going down:

Tetsuya is a bit of a dick when it comes to fact Kouji got all mixed up in this, prompting Jun to punch him for said dickery and after Jun reads the riot act for being an insensitive asshole, and as Jun heads off to help, Kenzou tells Tetsuya he knows why Tetsuya's an asshole:

"I get it, you're insecure because I adopted you and Kouji's related to me by blood, but I love you both regardless as if that doesn't matter, and it doesn't. Now act like the blood relative I've always regarded you as and follow Jun's lead already."

He even offers to strap the Great Booster (a combination super jet pack/mega missile addon for Great Mazinger) on Tetsuya's ride to get him there faster.

We'll cover the actual fight next post, but for those who remember the Alpha Gaiden LS where Tetsuya was a dickhead, I apologize for the deja vu.