Stage 3 - His Name Is Eiji
This is when the game is going to introduce Blue Comet SPT Layzner, and before I go on, bit about it.
First off, it's a series with some weird things about it, even in-universe. First, it's set in 1996, the Cold War is still going on, and according to some people, it went on far too long for it's own good, as the aliens wind up winning for awhile and running Earth like Vichy France during WWII, which tends to be worse received in terms of execution than the other aspects of the plot, mainly for how it pads out the show.
SRW tends to portrays it one of two ways: Either they cut the Vichy Earth parts and re-sequence the rest to fit a crossover (SRW J does this), or they use aspects of the Vichy Earth plot alongside the other parts of the plot if the darkness of the overall plot would make it work better.
SRW 64 and GC/XO went this route, which fit their darker themes nicely.
Otherwise, it ticks off a lot of real robot tropes Gundam and other real robot show watchers should be long familiar with.
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We start this level with Kouji wondering why the bridge is oddly deserted, and Ruriu explains the bridge is so highly automated it can run with a skeleton crew. We also find out no more news from Earth since the Nergal comms node on the Moon is now out.
An enemy attack happens, but Ruri is not panicking, it's a grazing fire from a really minor Jovian scout and the Distortion Field shield of the Nadesico laughs it off.
We cut to the hangar, where Calvina confirms she NEEDS a co-pilot, or the Granteed won't move. It uses a brain-wave reader similar to the control system of the Combattler called the Cytron Control, and only the Powerpuff Girls and the ones who had them as captives can use it.
Calvina makes it clear she's still kinda emo, so she'll fight in the Granteed, but she's not all that attached to her life, so they better not expect her to do anything to keep their asses alive.
Gai shows up to ask her why so emo, and she bites off using his IRL name and tells him to piss off. He points out her BS story has a hole in it in response:
Basically, if she doesn't give a shit about living, why is she risking her ass on the Mars mission?
She says she's emo, but she's not callous enough to drag other people into her death wish, and shoots down any further attempts by Gai to get to have a better reason to live.
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Another note: By this point in Nadesico, Gai was no longer in the show, but SRW usually lets him live a bit longer, but since he never actually met the Mars Angels, his dialogue with them is kept to a minimum.
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Anyway, we cut again to the hangar where the Powerpuff Girls and Calvina share an awkward bonding moment over having painful past memories they'd rather not dredge up.
We then fast forward to halfway to Mars, where Yurika is hunting down Akito, and she stumbles on him and Gai in the rec room crying manly tears over Gekiganger protagonist Joe dying protecting his friends (THIS IS FORESHADOWING!).
We cut later to the bridge, two weeks after leaving the Earth Sphere, about to enter Mars atmosphere. We also find out Mars atmosphere was seeded with nanomachine colonies in order to give it an Earth-like atmosphere and terraform it be livable for humanoids.
Another attack happens, but the enemy force isn't laughable scouts this time. Everyone sorties, the Gravity Cannon of the Nadesico is put on standby, and Gai annoys everyone with his being a hotblooded dumbass.
Regardless, everyone makes it through that scrape okay, and we find the enemy has apparently killed everything as far as scanner can detect. Prospector suggests checking the underground Olympus Mons shelter for survivors, and it doubled for a research facility for "It", discovered thirty years prior, but Prospector can't elaborate as the more important news of actual survivors grabs the attention of everyone else.
They detect a transmission from Elizabeth Clareby of the OSDG, and she supposed to be in charge of something called the Cosmic Culture Club.
We cut to meeting her:
Only six people survived, and when Akito asked if the colonists in the nearby city survived, Simone here says nope:
David, Roanne and Anna fill more blanks:
This is Arthur, resident pessimist coward of the group:
We then get a report from Uribatake that they recovered an enemy mech that has a kid inside with a gun, and he's not letting anyone in.
However, before anyone panics, the other rescuees speak up for the mystery man, saying he defended their lives with said mech.
It's a machine called an SPT, named "Layzner", apparently half Earthling, half-Grados, the aliens who attacked,but he chose Earth over Grados.
We cut to later,where everyone gets caught up to speed on Grados and that they are apparently the Jovian Lizards. We also find out that Combattler is set post-series, so Professor Nanbara, who proposed the Jovian Lizards were actually humans awhile back, he's already deceased.
We find out, oddly enough, recent Gradosian attacks have been with manned weapons instead of the usual unmanned weapons, hinting at a change in their strategy, and that the guy in the mystery mech is named Eiji.
Akito is still pissed Gradosians murdered his parents and wants to slug Eiji, but David holds him back and Eiji, now out of the Layzner, explains things.
Mom Gradosian, Dad from Earth.
Noal is all "once a traitor....", but Aki tells him to shut up, and Eiji explains the Grados strategy, and it's coldly effective in its simplicity: Send out unmanned weapons as the vanguard, wait until humans exhaust themselves fighting each other, then send in the main force to finish things.
Given how Earth is already fulfilling part of the enemy plan on their own, shit went from bad to worse.
We then cut to the Utopia Colony, where we meet Inez Frassange, a Nergal employee who is an in-universe meme for delivering exposition at the drop of a hat.
She reveals a mere hundred people managed to make it into the underground shelter underneath the Utopia Colony before everything went to hell,everyone else the enemy has been relentlessly sending scouting parties to kill off.
As we cut later to the Nadesico, we find out Inez also drew up the basic plans of the ship itself, but even though it's proven surprisingly combat capable, she's a pessimist who figures they are screwed and that death is inevitable. She's also rather blunt and condescending to anyone who feels otherwise (and we learn from Eiji the Tulips don't appear Gradosian in origin).
And that's when an enemy attack occurs, and Yurika is given a sadistic choice: Deploy the Distortion field to protect the ship and everyone on it and have the resultant pressure wave kill all the ground survivors who haven't boarded yet, or don't do it and they all die.
Yurika, through gritted teeth, chooses the former.
It saves the ship, but the engines still need some repair work before leaving the atmosphere again, so you have to take on the enemy until then, and Eiji recognizes the commander of the SPT force incoming. His name is Gale, pilot of the Gremkaiser.
Everyone launches, and Katia joins Calvina in the Granteed.
We cut to the battlefield, where, after deploying, we find out the Gradosians plan to blitz your position, and that Gale is Eiji's brother-in-law.
Gale offers to try and get Eiji some leniency for jacking some SPTs and linking up with an enemy forces if he convinces said enemy force to stand down with him included, but Eiji declines, despite Gale's attempts to convince him otherwise:
Eiji stands his ground, and the attack begins.
The goal is to kill all enemies while remaining alive, and I recommend all Aestivalis have artillery packs equipped, they can shoot down many foes from long range that way. In fact, your ranged units will be getting a lot of kills here.
You will have two waves of enemies, the first led by Gale and his subcommander Karla will be first.
The enemy forces are a mix of Batta and Katonbo, which you've dealt with before. Skullgunners, which are unmanned, slightly tougher Batta statwise. Braver, which are only marginally stronger than the Skullgunners, Karla's Dimage, which is strong but crumbles before a stiff assault, and Gale's unit, which is about the same.
Note: Eiji must use the Persuade command on Gale at least once this level for later secrets.
I'll go into more detail on your own SPTs in the next post, but Eiji's Layzner is a speedy assault unit, the Buldy is best at support and resupply, and Roanne's unit is an artillery and healing unit, deploy as appropriate.
Take heavy advantage of the Mars Angels and Gai/Akito's combination attacks and keep them close the Nadesico to take advantage of free energy refills a turn.
The enemy will focus on the slower units on your team, your ship especially, but the Nadesico is incredibly well equipped to fend off most minor assaults, and your other super robots (Granteed counts) will be good defenders, dock anyone in need of serious healing if need be.
Once you take down Gale, all his forces will withdraw.
As he does, Eiji's SPT warns him more are inbound, and they are, led by this asshat:
Gosterro is a fucking asshole and he only gets worse, consider this due warning.
He also has the hots for Eiji's sister Julia, who can't stand his ass.
Anyway, Wave 2 has more of the same pricks you've fought before, save Gosterro's Bulgrenn, which hits hard, but like most SPTs can't take too much damage.
Just kill everyone you can until the battle is over. You can just take Gosterro down by 2/3 health instead of killing him, but you'll lose out on a Chobham Armor part if you do.
I'll cover the rest next post.
