Stage 14 (Gundam X): Is The Moon Out?
Alright ladies, gentlemen,
@Jaimas,
@Kiwi Jeff and
@Cubanodun, it's time we started the Gundam X side of the story.
We've chosen to go directly to Fort Severn, so when we cut back to Biel, the conversation on the Moon Route is basically the same, except he notes you headed straight for Fort Severn.
Stuff in the Bazaar is the same on that route split.
We cut all the way to somewhere in the northern reaches of Ameria, where Shingo Mori, helmsman of the Freeden, is announcing they lost their pursuers.
Jamil rogers that, then he tells his two guns for hire, Witz Sou and Roybea Rou, to patrol the perimeter.
His XO, Sarah Tyrell, she logs that, and then Tonya Marm, his ship analyst, she notes Jamil has gone to a LOT of trouble to protect a girl.
The crew is a bit confused as Jamil's endgame here, but they are sure he's not digging up mobile suits or something like that.
Note: In Gundam X, what would be called Breakers in Xabungle are Vultures in Gundam X. The two are roughly identical in story function, except Vultures are much more freelance operatives.
They also remark on the Gallians crossing the ocean and note the weirdness of that, as well as the Moon Racer and Mountain Cycles.
We then cut to another part of the map, where Kamille, Quatre, Roux, Four, and the Combattler Team are trying to maintain a low profile.
Resident kid genius of the Combattler team Kosuke has activated an ECM (eletronic counter measures) device of his own invention to mask their position from detection,and it's holding so far, including from the sensors of the Freeden, which they are quietly observing. They are also trying to clean a crapload of dust out of their exhaust ports as well.
Meanwhile, a young man named Garrod Ran is currently attempting to gain ingress to the Freeden to retrieve the girl currently under Jamil's protection.
On his way in, he nearly bumps into Tonya:
He sneaks by as Sarah affirms they need more water, confirming the Freeden is not very efficient at recycling internal water usage.
Apparently, Tonya was almost naked around the time of this talk, and as tempted as Garrod was to linger around to stare, he's got important shit to do. In fact, hr decides to pop open the ship safe to do a five finger discount, and instead of money, he discovers a mobile suit control unit and figures it's better than nothing.
Note: A control unit is basically the master control key for a mobile suit, looks like a detachable futuristic gearshift as depicted in Gundam X.
He then decides to head for his target as we cut over to Kid Salsamille, kid genius chief engineer of Jamil's landship, and he's conferring with the boss about busting out the digging equipment, a mobile suit is rumored to buried around here.
Note: The Gundam X "Kid" will be referred to as such, to distinguish him from Jotaro "Kid" of Braiger.
Kid tries to get the reasons for this out of Jamil, but he's tightlipped.
And that when the ship medic, Tex Farzenburg, heads on over:
He has an idea of what Jamil is after (a very good idea), and Jamil affirms the mobile suit in question is pretty rare since the last space war, and he affirms this was a major Innocent staging point then, so he's sure one is around this region.
He also remarks Tiffa senses "Power" here,which raises Tex's eyebrows, as their earlier searches were dry holes. We get a clue, though, it was a mobile suit named 'X", one of the most feared weapons by the Innocent.
We also find out Jamil has been keeping tabs on Innocent tech, and it seems not only has their tech level been getting dangerously close to reverse engineering the "X" for their own purposes, they've dug up Mountain Cycles themselves.
Jamil remarks he's been searching for about 15 years as the cutscene ends, and I feel the need to explain something.
The timeline of Gundam X was slightly staggered to accommodate Turn A and Xabungle, and canonically, Jamil was pretty fucked up with PTSD for awhile after the 7th Space War, which gives the writers a few years extra to begin the Gundam X plot in this crossover, and since Jamil is around his early forties by this point, it allowed the writers to have some wiggle room to keep the show canons from conflicting.
And then we cut over to where Garrod finds Tiffa Addil, the girl under Jamil's protection.
Being shy, he trips over his own tongue a few times, but finally manages to get out he's here to save her.
To his surprise, she quietly replies she's been waiting.
We then cut to where Kamille and the crew are, and as they done affirming all their machines are combat fit, Quatre returns from doing recon.
He found a town 50 kilometers away, but that's it.
No sign of the other Preventers, but he relays how he saw mobile suits being dug up all over the place.
Everyone is all 0_0 over this, and it confirms for them they are in the future, and once they decide to not dwell on that concept until they find everyone else, Juuzou asks the same question the other did in the other arc:
"Can one use something that's been buried half of forever?"
Quatre reports the terrain of the mobile suit sites seems to be special terrain according to overheard rumor, but this line of thought is unable to be pursued as they hear the sounds of flying MS nearby.
Before we go on to the main battle, I feel the need to mention the Gundam X first episode was somewhat glossed over, so here's the basics:
Garrod is commissioned by a Vulture to hunt down Tiffa because she's the apparent key to finding a mobile suit, and and his employer played nice guy and said he wanted Garrod to liberate her captors so she would be free of being their puppet.
What Garrod didn't know is said Vulture was the very bastard he claimed to oppose and wanted Garrod to retrieve Tiffa from Jamil, who is actually the good guy of the story.
He takes the job and doesn't ask too many questions, but he soon discovers he was set up to be expendable by his employer, who didn't want Garrod to figure out his real motives after the 'rescue".
This stage glosses over those details, now you know.
We then cut back to where Kid's metal detector picked up one hell of a reading for Jamil, and they hit paydirt.
Sarah then yells they've got bogie MS incoming from 2 o'clock, and it's the bastards who were after the Freeden earlier and were agents of Garrod's traitorous employer.
Jamil tells Sarah to recall their hired guns back to the Freeden, but Tonya interrupts with the news Hatch #4 of the cargo bay opened.
It's Garrod, in a craptastic Jenice with Tiffa with him as the nicely rendered instrumental version of Gundam X first OP song "Dreams" fires up.
Garrod then calls the Freeden to go "trololololol" (he is an immature fifteen year old), and that's when Shagia Frost is nearby with a Jenice squad, saying Garrod made it right on time.
Note, again, they condensed some Gundam X details. The Frost Brothers were ultimately the ones trying to manipulate Garrod through surrogates to keep their involvement hidden in the show, but for the purposes of condensing the plot, they cut out the middlemen and had the Frost Brothers be more direct.
Garrod then draws a blank on why Tiffa turns green on seeing Shagia Frost, and she freaks, sensing Shagia is an asshole Garrod would be fucking idiotic to trust.
Garrod is a nice kid underneath the immaturity, and if a girl freaks out in the presence of some guy, Garrod assumes her reasons to fear the bastard are legit, so he decides to haul ass away from Shagia. He of course doesn't take to kindly to Garrod telling him to shove his job offer where the sun doesn't shine and orders his Jenice squad to shoot Garrod down, while avoiding cockpit shots, as he wants Tiffa alive.
And that's when Garrod gets told by Tiffa to head for what will be out Skill Point if you get there in four turns. He wonders why she wants him to park near a northern mountainside, and she tells him a priceless power that will alter his fate is there.
He doesn't get it, but he's following her lead, and since Jamil overheard this through the Jenice leaving the channel open, he orders the Freeden to cover Garrod's egress. This confuses them, but he points out Garrod is less an enemy to Tiffa than the bastards even Garrod told to piss off, so they are all "yes, sir".
Here's your map:
The Preventer team is nearby to the northwest, the Freed is in the southeast, and the Jenice with Garrod is just north of the Freeden. Your objective is a spot between the small and large mountain to Garrod's direct north.
To get there, this is a race against time and avoiding getting killed by the Frost Brother Jenice squad.
Here's your Gundam X landship:
The Freeden is not all that great as a combat vessel, TBH, but it does have the advantage of being very agile on land, even on somewhat rough terrain, which there is a lot of. Jamil here will later sub out of being it's main pilot, but even without him this ship had a good spell pool thanks to Sarah, Tonya, and Shingo.
Anyway, to get the skill point, protip: Have the Freeden trail Garrod so Garrod benefits from Jamil's Command aura, it's boosts his stats. As for Garrod, head due north three turns, then end at the goal on turn four, do not deviate.
After turn one ends, you'll notice two things. The Preventers aren't moving YET, and the status menu shows the Moon lit up. THIS WILL BE VERY IMPORTANT.
Tiffa will remind Garrod of the goal, and the Preventers notice Garrod being ganged up on, and while they aren't sure if they should help for the most part, Kamille and Four sense a Newtype with Garrod.
On Turn 3, Four and Kamille recoil as Tiffa senses them, and she telepathically tell them she's a friend and she needs help. Roux Luka is the co-pilot of the Super Gundam with Four, and she also has enough Newtype power to hear Tiffa as well, and when the non Newtypes hear the Newtypes say "child in danger", they decide it's time to start murdering Shagia's band of thugs.
Both Shagia and Jamil are 0_0 at the newbies, but Tiffa tells Jamil and Garrod they are friends, which is good enough for them.
By turn 4, you should end up right here:
Shagia however doesn't let Garrod have a moment to chill before he heads over to take his ass out.
One attack by Shagia next, and the Jenice is a worthless shitheap. Both Tiffa and Garrod hop out before it explodes, and Tiffa then leads Garrod to a nearby spot next to the mountain while Shagia is still looking at the fireball he created, and that's when the ground shakes as the "Power" emerges.
Said power is a Gundam, and it's one that Jamil's blue coat nearly turns brown upon him seeing it.
It's the GX-9900 Gundam, and Shagia's actually pleased, he was looking for it,and as Garrod is figuring out how to make it move, Shagia figures he can score Tiffa and the GX in one shot now.
That's when Garrod remembers he swiped a mobile suit controller, and most euphoric atheists might be a bit amused by his next line when he tries to use it:
It works like a charm, and as it powers up, Jamil asks his crew if the Moon is out.
They have no clue why he cares, and he gets downright autistic screechy in his insistence on an answer to the question.
But as you'll see, he has good reason.
You regain control at this point, and first things first, you have to shoot Shagia down,and if the Freeden or GX die, game over.
The Jenice are still a threat, so bear that in mind, and funny thing, they are piloted by Moon Race pilots, which is rather appropriate, as the Jenice was the Zaku II of Gundam X's version of the Principality of Zeon.
Good news is that Shagia will generally turtle up, and if you are fast enough, you can dogpile it, interdict the incoming Jenice, and Garrod and Tiffa have enough Focus and Alert between them to keep them alive unless you're a total retard.
If Shagia fights the Freeden, he comments he knows who Jamil is, and Jamil has an idea who he is too.
In the show, they weren't as familiar with each other, there is a reason for this though.
Good news is that you can win simply by reducing Shagia's HP by about over half, and that's when two more Gundams show up,piloted by the Witz and Roybea mentioned earlier.
Garrod immediately assume they aren't friendly, and that's when he decides to try bluffing them with crap about his Gundam having a secret weapon.
They aren't buying it, but Jamil knows Garrod is actually not wrong by a long shot, and he tells Sarah to get those two retards to back the fuck off Garrod for their own safety.
Garrod uses this chance to flee, and Jamil clarifies he stands by letting Garrod go for now and says he wants to chat with the unknown machines who helped out as the stage ends.
I'll cover the rest next post.