Ch 7 Prologue "Force Recon"

We've been using the time the Tesseract and the Nirvana have been using trying to locate the Pillar of Autumn crashsite by giving Idris a crash course lesson in piloting one of the many UNSC Longswords in our hanger. We've got more than enough Verein units and spare Zakus in the hanger with more than enough equipment to arm two or three to the teeth but we really need more capable flying units since we haven't got the flight upgraded AG-01 or the UFO and the Leoship comparatively sucks...

Easy come easy go. Dan has a gut feeling that there's something very wrong with the ring like structure we're currently on, the Tesseract and Nirvana unable to properly locate the Pillar of Autumn's crashsite. He has no real option other than to cut loose and go out on a solo man operation to check the ring world on his lonesome leaving the rest of the team to continue the rescue operation without him. Easy come easy go...

There is an upside though, he's leaving Rin in our care whilst he's out. Our own fairy, now we'll never be alone! Captain scientist will call for a mission briefing as Idris continues to work on locating the crash site .
John's still a little butt hurt about the Jackie affair back on Amatsu but someone needs to inform the Master Chief about how a bunch of kids in hastily put together mechs fended off an attack all on their lonesome. At least he's a realist but if he wasn't so confrontational about it maybe he'd be a little more popular.

Idris has managed to locate where the crash site is and with an adjustment to the two ships' course we should make it in about four hours. The conversation then moves onto what should be done about the ring world and the heavy Covenant presence.
The thought of blowing the whole place up makes Jean let slip a piece of information she shouldn't know. Master Chief will grill her a little on where she aquired this information but she's been sword to secrecy based on her honor as a mercenary for hire. Magno eventually joins the briefing as well via a communications link and is about to be brought up to date on the plan when Hotariko decides to throw a few questions she's been meaning to ask Dan.
Rin's habbit of being all moe and speaking in one word sentences acts as a cockblock buffer but Hotariko still manages to extract what she wants to know with a bit of psychological analysing. The sly devil...nun. There's a multitude of cute new facial expressions for Hotariko here as well.

The rescue operation will involve a scouting team who'll be responsible for actually locating our downed allies and make sure the place we find them in is secure enough for the ships to move in on. It's going to have to be small so as not to draw attention to itself. Magno is commiting a Dread to the operation, whilst Natalie decides Emma, Ikarane, Jean and Keeruu will be best for the scouting unit as well.

If Emma doesn't have the highest possible relationship so far with Anderson then she'll be really worried about being left in an almost all girls team with Keeru around and will be replaced with Hotariko. Otherwise...
Emma's a good girl who want's to rescue Anderson even if it means having to put up with Keeruu for the next few hours. With the debriefing over if you picked up the battle mastery from the last mission the Natalie will request Tenea and Master Chief's help in putting together a new frame for the Verein Zero, not that it'll be ready any time soon.
Ramuiko, Anderson and Caile have currently set up camp, trying to get a hot meal down their throats as Keyes, Gaiablade and the prisoner scout out a Covenant position blocking their way further down a valley.
The meal comes to an abrupt end when the scouting team return with a covenant patrol coming after them. With the jig being up it's time to head out and meet them head on, Anderson will tinker a bit if Keyes took the Warthog so that it's rear mounted LAAG can be fired from the driver's seat without a rear gunner. Even the grunt prisoner we've caught seems to be fired up, more due to a desire to stay alive than to fight his friends since he's now pretty much conidered a traitor for what he's done.

Sub Mission 6 "Boarding Action"

What's that? What's that glimmer? That tiny light in the distance coiled in obsidian? Is that...it is! A glorious update after an uneasy tide of silence. With it a vast number of updates from new gameplay features to new improved graphical updates and even another chapter. Since there was no sub mission 5 we move onto the fifth sub mission, numero six which'll probably lead to nothing but confusion later on. Oh well.

When we last joined the task force we were in a pretty sorry state. We've lost Ramuiko's Zeon team, the Pillar of Autumn and even our loveable commander to a long drawn out engagement with Covenant forces. There's a rescue operation drawn up to get whoever's still alive on the ring like structure back into the saftey of the Tesseract so almost everyone's going about their daily buisness...however some people are affected by the ordeal a little more than the others...

Jean's in a pretty bad way, without her favorite walking talking plush toy out and around on deck to bug about the huge number of miscellaneous contracts that are piling up (I guess the poor lass forgot we're now in the ass end of nowhere). She's left with a big massive void of time to wallow in an Andersonless enviroment but worry not, help is at hand.
The two female characters who are the most desperate for Anderson's love in a game mechanics sort of way short of Albino maido sharing a room together can't be good... Or as it turns out maybe it is. With someone to room with Jean gets to unload a little of what's weighing her down on Emma who turns out to be pretty understanding, as to be expected of the greatest girl next door character.

If Anderson's been charming the socks off Jean whenever possible then when she mentions an incident involving him walking in on her after a shower she goes into a little more detail.
Nothing happened though but it's revealed the Anderson's pretty comfortable around Jean's company, even if she is sopping wet and naked. The commander's a pretty cool guy, walks in on naked girls and doesn't afraid of anything.

After this short exchange the first flag based off battle masteries will kick in. If you've been a good boy scout and endavoured to accomplish every little task then Jean will be hit by an excellent idea, the possibility of her own Aer frame, putting to use that useless Leoship we have but it looks like she's going to need Emma's help.

MEANWHILE. In Keeruu's and Bruno's quarters.
Not good, not good at all. Here we get another conversation based on past events. If Yohko gave Keeruu a sound beating over being a jerk with the quiz in sub missions past then she'll attempt to patch things up between the two. Keeruu's a bit of a blockhead though and messes up Yohko's mojo a bit. You can feel the love.

If however you beat the rest of the boys in the quiz then it's just a simple house call to get Keeruu off Emma's back with all the latest teasing. Just outside the room Natalie will run into the group and will announce she intends to board the Nirvana to properly introduce herself to our new allies. Keeru, Bruno and Yohko agree to tag along only to get interrupted by Emma and Jean arriving on the scene, they want to come along too. If Jean's bright idea popped up in her head a little earlier though you might be prompted to make a choice.

All the way back in sub mission one whatever you decided to do will effect the possibility of getting an upgrade for Jean. If you decided to keep the UFO and the reward then the friendship sparked up between Natalie and Jean will get you the option of upgrading the AG-01 to a full flight mode. If you did anything else then I'm afriad it's going to be up to the commander when he gets back.

With all that done and dusted it's time for the group to head over to the Nirvana for general introductions and it looks like Tenea and Idris are coming along as well.
Damn aliens and their football pitch sized bridges. From here on though everything's pretty linear as the small group of Verein pilots, Anderson's "Pets" and Captain Scientist trade calling cards. Oddly enough though amongst a ship almost entierly crewed by women Keeruu and Bruno want to talk to the Vanguard's pilot and are taken to the brig where the males onboard are being held.
The guys in the brig have some pretty extremist views about our women. Hotariko maybe, but gentle little Emma? Tenea feeding off entrails? There's a vore guro doujin in there somewhere.

After the girls have finished up their meeting it's revealed that the Nirvana crew could be from the future or even from another dimension. It's the only real explanation that would make sense. With nowhere else to go they agree to assist us as their own independant organization seperate from the G.A.C officially at least untill they can find a way home.

The crew of the Nirvana are all formed up on the bridge for a full introduction of the Nirvana crew. It takes a bit of effort to drag Keeruu and Bruno away from the Nirvana bridge, but nothing good old Yohko can handle.
Back onboard the Tesseract Jean and Emma endavour to tell everyone else who wasn't present about everything that's happened onboard, Natalie and Tenea will go about ship buisness and Bruno runs off for some exercise leaving Keeruu and Yohko alone for an akward moment if their relationship has started.

From here it's pretty much buisness as usual as we prepare to enter the atmosphere of the ring world. Nothing else changes in the dialogue but for the final moments we get Jean attempting to break the ice with Mr Stoic Master Chief, Joel (Remember him?) ending up as unofficial ship bartender and another new nickname for Anderson's pet.
Reward
No real major reward here unless you got the chance to upgrade the AG-01 in which case...
- Upgrade AG-01J to AG-01J FLY