Ch4 Epilogue "Please Give it to Me."

In another example of Anderson's boundless protagonist endurance Natalie walks in on the debreifing of the persons involved in this little accident only to find Anderson once again up and about not giving a damn about his near death experience.

Everyone's worried over what just transpired, except Keeruu because he's a bro. There's nothing to worry about though, whatever happened has had no lasting effects on Anderson and wasn't injured in his one man army rush on the King Bug so all's fine and dandy.

According to Natalie whatever happened to the Verein Zero has something to do with a virus called SERIKA, perhaps something left over in some overlooked M.I.V.S component still left behind in the cockpit. She requestions some help from Rey to Norton Anti-Virus that stuff right on out.

Normally we'd be interupted by Fiona dropping in on the meeting but if you've been paying attention to relationships and their flags then we get a great deal more dialogue before Miss Beautiful drops by. You need to have either Emma or Jean involved with Anderson.

Anderson will try to apologise to the team for his inability to act against the SERIKA virus. Being nice to Jean will result in her easily forgiving him, she trusts our brilliant commander but she'll forgive him more if he get's her some brand new weapons otherwise it's just a case of "It wasn't you fault anyway."

If Emma was brought along into the combat as a reinforcement then she'll also promise Anderson that if it'll ever happen again she'll stop him (With the power of love hopefully).

Other than these two little d'awww bits the additional cutscene helps explain the beserk like state of the Zero and Anderson's memory black out during the SERIKA take over.

Fiona's arrival to the meeting marks the beginning of the "companies" coup d'etat. They've acted much earlier than anyone expected and Fiona and her Raven are going to have to return to Earth pretty snappy. With the "companies" planning on establishing themselves as the true ruler of Earth though power some of the morally obliged or those tuned into the situation question the G.A.C's involvement.

It's pretty obvious that the G.A.C will remain out of this coup as the "companies" installing themselves as the controlling power on Earth may end up better the economy. Helping the "companies" though would be pretty bad for public image as well. Politics and capitolism! There's not alot else that can stand against the might of the "companies", the Earth Federation are too caught up in their war against Zeon and getting soundly thrashed and the UN are putting all their resources into containing the BETA.

Fiona also gives us a run down on the situation of Japan and it's involvment with BETA and the various super robots deployed in assiting UN forces. After giving us some useful information Fiona says her goodbyes. If we ever end up in Anatolia it might be worthwhile to find her...just as long as we don't end up becoming enemies in this mess.

Yohko's a little miffed that we can't do anything to stop the "companies"taking advantage of an Earth holding on by a thread against all it's enemies. If we've got a good relationship going on with Yohko she'll be comforted by the fact that we've been doing alot of good so far and is glad that she's able to get out there and helping the innocent people.

If we've been ignoring Yohko then she's simply humble with a case of "Eh, stuff happens."

Meanwhile...

It looks like Natalie and Rey may have a more involvement of the SERIKA virus than they first revealed. They're able to completly clear it because for some reason it's not in there at all but Natalie will install a trap system to catch it should it pop up again. Rey will pop the question (Not THE question) as to wether they should let everyone else know about their involvement with SERIKA.

If you chose to work on Natalie's relationship with Anderson over Jean then Natalie will be worried about the rest of the team finding out about the truth behind both her and Rey. Perhaps frightened of involving her new friends with something that might be way out of their league...

Otherwise it's a simple case of "It's not their problem" and the rest of the team don't have to know about anything.

Back on board the Tessaract Idris has picked up a new contract, one from the G.A.C specifically for us. Even though we've been exiled from the Amatsu they only want to deal with us "The G.A.C's only mobile force", at least we know where the rumours are coming from.

It's a really good contract as well, 100,000 in cash and a military market access upgrade and they sound pretty urgent. Consdiering the fat bank roll they're offering everyone's pretty much desperate to do it.

As an even better bonus we're getting our payment for the Rey Varista's test. We're also getting the experimental unit as well, concidering that technically we were the ones that "beat" the King Bug, along with a Maser Blade. If you got the battle mastery all sorted for this chapter then Rey's willing to let us have some additional components probably dripping in Varista brand logos.

A small argument will break out over who gets to use the new Maser Blade. If Jean's relationship with Anderson is pretty good then she'll almost win the argument with some sexual inuendo.

Oh Jean...

After all that's done it's tea time with the Albino Maido and normally that would be the end of the level.

UNLESS YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING YOU HEART AND DOING AWESOMELY WITH EMMA!

Emma will pop by with a suprise for the commander. She's got a photo of everyone during the feast back on Libot which she presents to Anderson. It's a reminder to him that no matter what happens he now has an awesome bunch of friends who'll look out for him. D'awww.

Rewards
- Some money, which has mysteriously dissapeared from the contract.
- New unit Demitris
- Maser Blade

If we cleared the battle mastery conditions we also get
- Sloped Armor
- Dual Mode Propulsors

Ch 4 Combat "Earth Defence Force 2017"

Giant bugs? All those memories from EDF are flooding back to me and we don't have an AF-20RAR between us. Speaking of funky military designations it's our first run in with an Armored Core unit and it is just swimming in abreviations and numbers...

Deployment
Friendly Forces
-Verein Zero
---Anderson
- Noir
--- Unknown Raven (BESTEST MUSIC)

Enemy Forces
-3 x Giant Bugs with Anderson
-3 x Giant Bugs with Raven.

Nothing fancy about the deployment in this stage. It's just Anderson on his lonesome competing against the Unknown Raven.

Win Condition
Trying to beat the Raven in his AC Noir is made pretty difficult by a combination of him being level 15 compared to an Anderson who might be skirting level 10, maybe even level 11 if you grind like crazy. Things are further complicated with the AC Noir being probably one of the best units in game so far with a combination of damage reducing equipment, KARASAWA KARASAWA KARASAWA, and an incredibly high movement rate complete with overboost.

Then everything hits an 'impossible' wall due to phase order as well. Because the Raven is considered a neutral target it goes after getting a full round of counter attacks weakening his set of bugs. Even with you doing the best you can this often puts the Raven a whole phase ahead of you which he'll stretch even further with his ability to reach the second target square in a single turn where it'll take us two unless we start moving early and risk not killing our intial starting targets first.

There's a small chance of earning a phase back when we hit the second square in actions but by then the Raven will of had a turn or a turn and a phase ahead of us.

All in all, don't go busting a nut over trying to beat the Raven in this test. The odds are so horribly stacked against you there's little point in trying. Just focus on the battle mastery.

Engaging
The giant bugs aren't so much of a threat. They're more adorable versions of the Leoships in the previous level except they can really stack up damage quickly a little later on.

It takes about two hits of an average weapon from any of the two available Zero frames to neutralize a bug with a base 100 morale. By the time we're skimming 140-150 with an active attack booster this can get reduced to a single shot/wrecking ball which really helps.

The giant bugs have an effective range of 7 squares, with a combination of movement 4 and a single post-movement attack with a range of 1-3 squres. This single attack is a gentle soothing spittle called acid spit which'll only gently carress the Zero but burns away half the armor value of any hit unit for a turn. Awesomley this effect doesn't stack otherwise we'd be pretty dead pretty fast.

The giant bugs have nothing stealable on them unless you want to outfit the Vereins with giant ant legs or something but I wouldn't recommend that.

Battle Mastery
The battle mastery for this level will require a fair bit of thinking ahead from the start to finish. It's quite possible to get this all cleaned up by the skin of your teeth dead on in 13 turns but just some general thinking will help shave this down to 10 turns or less.

With the Molior it's often better to use your single attack to fire off the grapling hook over getting off a wrecking ball shot. Statistically killing a bug in your phase isn't any different than killing it in it's phase with a counter shot. It's more economic and easier on your energy levels to pull a target to you and counter kill it with the mechanical knife instead.

When we're onto the stage with your additional reinforcements Anderon's role will switch to that of pumping out support attacks. You'll want to have some energy left over for wrecking ball for this or even drop the molior frame for the inexpensive Nibel Dirk attack.

The key is to always think ahead a turn or two, making sure you'll have at least enough targets in range of an unmoved Verein Zero equal to Anderson's Helper level and another target in range for Anderson's attack.

Event 1
Clearing up your first initial set of bugs and moving to the target square will spawn four more giant bugs all around the target square. You'll probably be beaten by Raven to this so you'll know it's coming up.

Event 2
After all the bugs have been cleared up (Raven will help you with this if you're a little too slow. What a show off.) Anderson will admit he's been completly outclassed. The combat prowess of the NEXT and it's mercenary pilot just too much for someone relying on manual EVERYTHING and the age old frame-slot system.

In good old "It's only a simple test" fashion all hell breaks loose when more of the bugs escape captivity and flood into the test zone. A restraining team in clunky old walkers attempt to control the situation only to be obliterated by a ravenous horde of gnashing mandibles.

Things are pretty bleak now that this new massive wave of bugs have popped up and the battle mastery might seem neigh unobtainable. Raven in his Noir however knows what to do and is willing to get into the fray (ammunition costs be damned!) with us.

Event 3
Thinning out the numbers of bugs will trigget the next event, reinforcements have arried in the form of Jean, Ray and Bruno (Emma as well if in a good relationship with Anderson). They're not piloting their original mechs though, they're in the same clunky walkers from before.

The Arophoros are pretty well built units capable of taking punishment. Their only offensive option is a post-movement range 1-4 glue gun that will completly freeze up an ant for a whole turn and as such is much more effective than the collection of shock weaponry available to us in the military market.

More importantly the Arophoros can repair as a post movement so if Anderson's hurting we can get him back up to a much more safer level.

A king bug will also rear it's ugly head out of a nearby hole but it'll sit there smugly watching it's minions get chewed up. Any attempts to attack it will result in a lost action.

Event 4
Destroying the last giant bug leaves us with the King Bug who's pretty pissed at what we've done to it's peons. Raven can't help us due to his AC running out of ammunition (Must have left his laser blade in the hanger) and it's up to the Tsukuyomi Task Force to do it.

I guess I'll help as well. Everything's pretty much on auto-pilot here. If Emma's around you'll get a few extra lines of dialogue. If Emma really likes Anderson then we'll get some extra D'AWWWWW lines mixed in with the extra stuff. Indeed she is the most "adorable jailbait" ever.

Ch 4 Prologue "Left-Wing Politics Could Have Prevented This"

Another day, another gigantic food bill. The girls have spent the last couple of hours out shopping and heav returned to the Tessaract with a pile of Overlord Brooches so the Task Force is now at it's maximum combat potential. Since we're leaving Libot it's also time to say goodbye to Stana...

Rey Varista hasn't been on Amatsu since the opening meeting in Chapter One, so he has no idea what has happened to Anderson but it seems some rumours are flying around that the G.A.C have deployed their own Mobile Force. That doesn't suit the exiled mercenary nature of the Tsukuyomi Task Force at all, sure we're kind of representing the G.A.C but we're not an official military outfit.

With the rumours debunked Rey gives us a more detailed run down on what he wants us to do and the current state of the solar system.

A new kind of mobile weapon being developed in Anatolia reached perfection in the recent months however the head designer, a Professor Jarnefeldt recently passed away resulting in the project's technology being sold to anyone with the money to afford it. Vast numbers of companies have been sinking money into these NEXTs. The companies are growing powerful.

The military forces of countries on Earth however grow weaker as the BETA occupation continues to ravage the planet. The "companies" look to be in a great position to launch a coup and destablish the very existence of countries and borders thus gaining a monopoly on the economy.

The "companies" power to overthrow nations has the team worried as well as Rey and that's why we're on our way to his facility, to guage who's better, a M.I.V.S pilot or a NEXT pilot. Whoever wins gets to take the new M.I.V.S unit and test it from there.

We've got ten hours untill we arrive so it's time to burn that away with some rest. Que freaky dream sequence number three, this time with Shiina as co-anchor.

There is no way our resident Albino Maido is NOT 'servicing' Anderson.

She has to be.

At the Varista facilities Anderson meet's with Fiona Jarnefeldt, the daughter of the late proffessor. Looks like she's the representative for the NEXT mobile weapon but most definetly not it's pilot.

The NEXT pilot's already in the cockpit getting things ready but thanks to security purposes we won't get to meet in purpose. Either way Anderson wishes the pilot goodluck in a sportsmanshiply fashion.

If you've been paying attention to your relationship with Jean then we get a whole extra cutscene that we wouldn't normally get otherwise. If you've been paying attention to Emma as well then she also tags along in the cutscene but otherwise wouldn't be present.

Several of our crew members have snuck away from the Tessaract and are curiously wandering the halls of the Varista facilities. They're all pretty curious as to what the commander's up to apart from poor old Ray who was blackmailed into coming along. This optional cutscene results in this three/four person gang running into a new mysterious character who introduces herself as Alta.