SUPER ROBOT TAISEN L
PLOT SUMMARY
by kern (chriskern99 at gmail)
v1.0 (Feb 7, 2016)

Like my other summaries, this is less descriptive than MN's work but
provides enough to understand the overall story.

Prologue 1 - Another Encounter

We start in space, where a big bird-shaped ship has defolded near the
New Alliance army. They call the ambassador (Mishima), and tell him it
looks like an earth-made ship, not Zentradi. Howard orders them not to
attack. Just then, they figure out what it is -- the Solar Falcon. This
ship protected Earth from the Boazanian invasion well before the all-out
war, so Howard has them take in the ship and look for survivors.

The person on the ship turns out to be Kentaro (Ken'ichi's dad from
Voltes) and Sakonji, who wonder how they could have ended up 60 years in
the future. Mishima suggests it's a potential danger of dimensional
travel, although since all the Boazan technology was lost in the war,
they can't say for sure. Kentaro doesn't think it's a good idea to try
for Earth again without knowing what caused the issue, so Howard
suggests they stay with the Frontier Fleet -- surely famous heroes like
them would be welcomed. Rather than assigning them to the army, they
have them join SMS, a civilian military provider. Sakonji is happy to
help fight any enemies of humanity.

Meanwhile, a shadowy Boss figure is happy to see the result, since they
can use Boazan technology to overcome some obstacle without "their"
help. Then there's the accident, which seems like "deculture".

The Voltes team is wrapping their heads around the situation, when
they're met by Luca, a pilot for SMS; also his friends Michel (who
immediately asks Megumi on a date), and Gilliam. Ippei and Michel are
almost coming to blows, and Gilliam has them both run 50 laps in
punishment. Ozma, the squad chief, and captain Jeffery agree completely
-- then put Sakonji in charge of the training along with Gilliam. Tough
days for the Voltes team again...

Several days later. The SMS people are complaining about Sakonji's new
training regime, including Alto, who used to be an "onnagata" (Kabuki
actor who plays female roles) before joining SMS. Nagisa and Nanase come
up to tell them that all the pilot class people can show off their moves
during a Sheryl Nome concert. Being able to perform for the "Galactic
Princess" is impressive, but Alto doesn't care until Michel starts
goading him for being scared. Then he's all for it, along with Ippei who
is still fighting with Michel. Sakonji puts a quick stop to all this
yammering and they go back to training.

The Voltes team gets tickets for the concert from various sources, and
Ozma wants one for his sister Ranka Lee (Kira*) who is a big fan. She
gets the news at her job, and can't wait. Meanwhile, Sheryl herself has
arrived, jet-lagged and sick from the folding. Pros don't cancel their
concerts for illness, though! It seems that Sheryl has asked for a
simple program, and so the SMS' pilots hopes of doing all kinds of fancy
tricks are dashed. Alto doesn't really care that much; his main desire
is not to do fancy tricks in a play robot, but to fly a Valkyrie.

As everyone goes into the concert venue, Alto runs into Ranka, who has
lost her friends. Alto shows her to the concert hall, and Ranka invites
him to come to Nyan-nyan, the restaurant she works at.

The show has started! Alto tries to do his corkscrew move no matter
what, but he accidentally knocks Sheryl off the stage. He catches her,
but now he's forced to work this into the routine so it doesn't look
like it was an accident. Meanwhile in the grand Macross tradition,
enemies are attacking during the concert. Unknowns are managing to break
through the defenses, so it's time for SMS and the Voltes Team to go
fight them. Gilliam reminds Ippei not to let his anger to Michel affect
his fighting. Sheryl is not happy to have her concert stopped, but
there's no helping it -- outside, the Vajra (enemies) are easily beating
up on the poor New Alliance forces. They're fast enough to get past
Ozma, meaning that it's up to our heroes to stop them!

Ranka has been separated from her friends, who take cover in a shelter.
Sheryl's manager is having her leave in a car, which annoys Alto -- how
can she just run away and leave all her fans in danger? But she's gone,
leaving Alto to deal with Ranka. Gilliam is there in his YF-25 to try to
protect Ranka, but the monster attacks the cockpit. Alto is forced to
jump into the YF-25 to save Ranka. He's able to fly the thing, but not
really do much damage. Fortunately Ozma is there to come in and save the
day, along with the rest of the heroes. Alto picks up Ranka and tries to
take her to safety, but reinforcements come in and blow off the arm
holding Ranka -- fortunately he can catch her in the air just like
Sheryl, making the others wonder if he's really just an amateur. Michel
wows everyone with his sniping ability, and it's time to fight the
enemies! Ozma isn't too excited about an amateur helping fight, but Alto
wants to avenge Gilliam, which impresses Ozma enough to grant him
temporary permission.

After the battle is over, Alto goes to rescue Ranka, who is quite calm
-- she is 1/4 Zentradi, after all. Ozma wants Alto to take her to the
hospital; he can't, for some reason. But then Hiyoshi gets a faint enemy
signature, and asks Ozma if he can detect it better. This allows Ranka
to discover that her brother is actually the one piloting the mech;
apparently he had promised her not to get into danger again. Just then a
Vajra who's not quite dead goes for Ranka. Ozma intervenes, and is
seriously wounded in the process. Don't die, onii-chan!!!

After the battle, Ozma is injured but alive. Everyone is surprised at
Alto's ability (and also Voltes). Ozma tells Ranka's story -- she has
"dissociative amnesia" when people she cares for are hurt. This
apparently comes from her losing her entire family when she was 11; Ozma
was a pilot at the time, and unable to protect her, he later became her
surrogate "brother", and tries to keep her from the Vajra and other
enemies so she won't have to remember. Alto thinks this is ridiculous;
"protecting" someone doesn't mean keeping the truth from them. He asks
about the Vajra, but Ozma wants him to wait 24 hours and ask again -- if
he finds out, there's no turning back. For now, it's time to mourn
Gilliam and tell everyone about his last moments.

Luka apologizes to Alto and urges him to join the SMS pilots, but Michel
isn't as sure. Isn't Alto just going to run away again, like he did from
his father and home? At this rate, he's either going to die or kill
someone, and Michel isn't about to be the one to die. Alto leaves, and
comes across Ranka singing. They introduce themselves. Ranka's song is
the one thing she remembers from her childhood -- before she just liked
to sing at this deserted hill where no one can hear her, but now she
wants as many people as possible to hear her. Alto thinks she lacks
confidence. Just then Sheryl comes in to deal with Alto, but she likes
Ranka's song and tells her to do her best to become a singing star.
Ranka doesn't think she can ever equal Sheryl, but she'll try.

Now for Alto -- Sheryl seems to think he has her earring. Just then,
Ranka's friends arrive so Sheryl is forced to grab Alto and run to avoid
encountering so many fans. Ranka can't believe what just happened -- is
this one of those realistic dreams she's been having lately? Anyway,
Sheryl is sure that Alto has his earring in his stuff back at the base
(I guess?). Her manager has an implant that gives her perfect vision and
memory. This would be illegal in some places, but in Galaxy it's normal.
Not Sheryl though, one of her selling points is that she's all human.

Ranka, at home, remembers what both Alto and Sheryl told her, and has
more confidence. Later, we find out that she's in the Miss Macross
contest. She's a bit clumsy but she's singing Lynn Minmei's old song,
"My boyfriend is a pilot."

At Gilliam's funeral, Ippei and Michel make friends. Michel has a loss
in his past just like Ippei, and Michel is jealous that Ippei has
managed to move past it. Afterwards Alto is determined to join SMS, even
when Ozma tells him that they aren't treated like military, and die in
obscurity. Alto even lets Ozma punch him without dodging, trusting that
Ozma will stop before he actually hits him. Alto may be foolish, but
he's now in the SMS.

Prologue 2 - Galaxy Chase

Cagalli is getting ready for a state function; Athrun has to remind her
to act and dress like a leader. She's meeting Chairman Durandal, and
immediately asks him about unregistered mobile suits that are being
loaded on the Minerva. Are these anti-Darius weapons? Durandal explains
- PLANT was so weakened that they couldn't participate in the attack a
year ago against the mechabeasts, and now, when there's more and more
criticism of PLANT, what does she expect? Cagalli just thinks that more
weapons calls forth more war, but Durandal reminds her that even neutral
Orb is willing to use force against alien invaders. As long as enemies
are there to fight Earth, force is necessary.

Durandal continues his speech, unaware that the three crazies are in the
warehouse, stealing the new Gundams. He says that Earth continues to
antagonize PLANT, and that in this temporary peace, they need weapons.
Athrun jumps in, saying that Blue Cosmos is only increasing in strength.
But this debate has to wait, because Stella, Aul, and Sting are stealing
the Gundams. Athrun is able to find a mobile suit to protect Cagalli,
but he can't do much -- fortunately, Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rey show up
to help. They have to stop the new Gundams from escaping, so the order
is capture, not destroy. Unfortunately an attack comes from outside the
PLANT, allowing them to escape. Captain Talia Gladys orders everyone
onto the Minerva so they can chase. Durandal goes too, as does Athrun.
Shinn isn't too happy to hear about Cagalli's presence, and immediately
starts yelling at her for being an idealist; it seems that he lost
family in the last war in Orb.

Back on the Macross Quarter, Alto's not doing very well in his
simulation training, and Sakonji makes him run laps. It turns out that
the simulator is on a really high difficulty level, though -- to deal
with Alto's arrogance, and to make him as good a fighter as possible.
The Voltes team likes this idea, until Ken'ichi has them run laps with
Alto in support. Michel is surprised everyone follows him, but they've
been saved by Ken'ichi many times. On a different topic, Luka tells Alto
about Ranka's participation in the Miss Macross contest, a now legendary
idol contest started by Lynn Minmei. She made it through the qualifiers
but didn't win the contest. Luka suggests Alto e-mail her to cheer her
up, but Alto has no interest in that. Luka pleads with him -- Ozma has
no idea Ranka entered the contest, and probably won't be happy when he
finds out, since he thinks it's a low-class vulgarity.

Alto's ready to be a full-fledged pilot, but he has one final test, a
mock battle against the Pixie Squad. Of course he does fine, and they
celebrate later at Nyan-nyan. A little girl congratulates Alto...turns
out this is Klan Klang, captain of the Pixie Squad. She's a micronized
Meltrandi; usually she would still look like an adult but for some
reason her age got regressed as well. He also meets Lalamia and Nene,
the other two Pixie Squad members. Ranka and Nagisa bring out special
food, a messy fried chicken meal -- but Alto can't get rid of his kabuki
training and eats it with special care.

Ranka nervously tries to tell Alto about Miss Macross, but of course he
already knows. Ranka, of course, knew that someone like her could never
win. Alto tells her that he was right -- with that lack of confidence,
she'll never succeed. How can she give up after one failure? Ranka
thanks her and starts to talk about SMS, but she's called away. And just
then, an emergency signal!

The Vajra are attacking in force, and manage to destroy one ship.
Captain Jeffery decides they all have to do an emergency fold out,
despite the danger. Of course they end up at Earth, shocking everyone,
but no time for surprise because the Vajra are here too. Cathy gives
Jeffery a Presidential order, reminding him to gather data on the Vajra.
Ozma wants Alto to hang back and stay in Ozma's protection; Alto doesn't
like that much, of course.

After the initial grunts are defeated, a huge mothership appears. Luka
tries to go forward to investigate, but a Vajra eats his Valkyrie, and
he's lost. Voltes is going to try to rescue him, but Alto says his mech
is smaller, and he doesn't want to see any more friends die in front of
him! He'll try to break into the mothership to rescue Luka. When he
reaches the ship, another object comes out of nowhere and goes in the
ship too. Afterwards, the Minerva shows up, surprised to see all these
unidentified things. They look sort of like Mimetic Beasts, but they're
not quite the same. Furthermore, there's something that looks kind of
like Combattler V out there, which is impossible, because Combattler V
is in Japan. Anyway, the Minerva crew can't waste time on these
things...until the Vajra go attack them too. Ozma comes in and saves the
day, and now they realize they're not going to be able to keep chasing
the stolen Gundams. Talia contacts Jeffery and they agree to fight
against the Vajra together -- just make sure to weaken, not destroy, the
mothership.

(When you disable the ship) Meanwhile, Alto has gone in in to save Luka.
The tentacles are too much for him, but a mysterious red Valkyrie saves
them both. Since the outside people have disabled the ship, Alto is able
to escape.

Unfortunately the mothership regenerates once beaten -- but this is the
chance for Jeffery to show off the Macross Quarter's transformation. The
400 meter ship becomes a big mech and uses the Macross Cannon, making
Cathy quite seasick.

After the battle, Jeffery has bad news for everyone. They've had another
fold accident and been taken to another dimension. The data supports
this, and also the fact that Macross City isn't on the Earth in front of
them. Everyone goes back to the Quarter, leaving the Minerva crew
wondering what's going on. Durandal and the other council members have
decided that Minerva's new mission is to support the Quarter, not chase
the stolen Gundams. PLANT will offer the Quarter resupplies and the
right to be in the area in return for information on the Vajra.
President Howard and Mishima talk about their impressions of Durandal --
what Mishima especially noticed was that Durandal immediately accepted
the fact that the Quarter had come from another dimension. This suggests
that they're not the first extra-dimensional visitors. There's also
"that person", who they want to stay on good terms with and seems to be
happy with the possibilities suggested by the fold accidents.
Afterwards, Mishima talks to a mysterious sunglasses man, who says they
always knew dimensional travel was a remote possibility with folding.
Anyway, once they finish extracting data from the ship destroyed by the
Vajra (the Dalphim), then they can start to revise their plans.

Ozma is yelling at Ranka for participating in Miss Macross (and getting
thrown out of school for it!), which goes over about as well as you
would expect -- she throws things at him and runs away. She e-mails Alto
for help, but runs into Michel, Ippei and Megumi on the street. They
were contacted by Ozma and encourage Ranka to go home, but she isn't
going home until her brother accepts her desire to become a singer.

Alto has returned Sheryl's earring (and got mistaken for a fan stalker),
which is her only memory of her mother. He also tries to console her
over the fact that she can't get back to Galaxy (her home) from this
other dimension. Alto himself doesn't understand since he wants to live
in a place with sky (i.e. not the Quarter). Sheryl actually doesn't like
Galaxy much either. Finally, Sheryl decides to give her earring back to
Alto -- it's a good luck charm, and he'll need it since he's fighting
the Vajra now.

The Minerva crew is in Macross Quarter, marveling at the Zentradi city
where giants live with humans. It's especially surprising because the
Zentradi obliterated Earth as part of the big war several generations
back. Luka hurries them on, wanting to show them more of Quarter.

Michel and the others are still chasing Ranka, but are able to get her
to stop with the offer of free ice cream. While eating, Michel tries
again to convince Ranka to go home, but Ranka repeats her objections --
what's more, didn't Ozma lie to her about being a pilot? Michel stops
the BGM to get serious with Ranka. She doesn't understand Ozma's
motivation for fighting, and he suspects she doesn't really have the
desire to sing. Can she sing right now, in front of a bunch of people
who didn't come to see her? She remembers what Alto told her, and starts
to sing. She even draws in Shinn and the others, and even Michel has to
admit she's incredible. Not only that, but the head of a production
company (Elmo) immediately wants her to join him.

At Ranka's house, Elmo tries to convince Ozma. He survived the first war
and learned from Minmei that songs are love, and more powerful than
weapons. Everyone expects Ozma to yell at the guy, but instead he bows
down and entrusts Ranka to Elmo.

A week later, the SMS fighters are in school, wondering what to do. They
haven't been told anything about what happened to the Dalphim or the
people on board. They also haven't heard much from Ranka, who has mostly
been absent from her job and can't be reached by phone. Luka does relay
a rumor that someone looking like her was spotted on the street, singing
dressed like a carrot. Anyway, there's a new transfer student coming, so
who has time for this? Of course, the new student is Ranka...

Stage 1 - The young boys led by Iron

[This next part courtesy of MN, the font is annoying and I can't
translate the scrolling text] It is one century after mankind ventured
into space. It has certainly been no easy voyage, as internicine warfare
has redrawn the map of the world's nations and conflict with Earth's
ancient nemesis the "Jama Empire" raised the specter of global famine.
Agricultural imports from the colonies only served to heighten tensions
between the two sides.

Conditions worsened greatly fifteen years later, with the unfathomable
calamity known as the "Second Impact". This prompted such mysterious
forces as the "Darius Army", the "Katou Organization" and "Dancougar" to
commence operations.

To counter this, the nations of the world embarked on a military
buildup, accompanied by renewed plans to colonize space. This led to
further tensions between the Earth and the existing space colonies.

Five years passed, bringing with them the so-called "War of the Giants"
with the massive life forms known as "Mimetic Beasts". Sadly, mankind's
narrow victory did not result in a cessation of internecine hostilities,
and within three years a terrorist incident in one of the colonies
devolved into all-out war between the colonies and the Earth.

The war lasted but a year, and the Earth's victory came at the cost of
depleting the defenses of all its nations. This presented an opening for
the "Mecha-Beast Army" and the "Mikeene Empire", and it would be another
year before the ad-hoc alliance of Earth and Colony survivors managed to
repulse them.

The resulting peace was short-lived, as the Darius Army and the
resurgent Jama Empire (free from its Seal) triggered a new round of
militarization, preclusing any chance of total peace for mankind.

And now, contact with visitors from another world has raised the curtain
on a new era of warfare...

[Back to me] Our main character, Nagumo Ichitaka, is at Ozaki middle
school talking to friends. The big news is that there's a new Dancougar
video on the net. It joined the Asian Union fighting against Darius --
it seems to be a fighter for justice, although there's unconfirmed
rumors that in a previous war they were fighting to prolong the war.
Everyone is more interested in the video, though. Ichitaka loves
Dancougar's style, different from Godannar, Gaiking, or Combattler V.
Risako doesn't really care about what the boys are watching -- one day
it's Jeeg, next day Dancougar...who cares? Kouichi (Linebarrels of Iron
protag) points out that Japan has taken so little damage from the wars
because of these justice fighters. Risako just doesn't get why boys like
robots so much.

Anyway, Ichitaka has to cut school to meet a professor...although the
other kids don't think Greif is a real "professor", that's just
something a crazy old inventor has named himself. After he leaves, an
upperclassman named Furiya drags Shinji Ikari up to the roof and tries
to make him buy bread for him. Kouichi intervenes, offering to buy the
bread instead of the "cute" underclassman Shinji. But Risako comes out
and yells at Furiya for picking on weaklings. Kouichi tries to shut
everyone up by just running to get the bread himself.

Risako chases him, wondering why he cares about this -- Kouichi just
feels like he has to help the weak. Here we go again, thinks Risako, as
Kouichi goes into a spiel about being a warrior for justice with power
that hasn't fully awakened yet. Risako wonders why he's changed so much.
Yajima comes up and tells Kouichi they should just join together to
fight off Furiya, but Kouichi doesn't think that Yajima has what it
takes to be a hero. He'll do it himself. Risako wonders why the three of
them aren't friends anymore like old times...

Now we switch to the Linebarrel team, attempting to land in an evacuated
city...but with 5 minutes to go, they're attacked by space satellites.
This is odd because the Linebarrel team thought they told all the
nations about their arrival; of course it's some shadowy nameless
figures who have hacked into the satellite to force the Linebarrel to
take a certain path. They're not going to be able to land where they
wanted to.

Ichitaka gets to the professors' house, where Alice tells him the
professor is fine as usual. He goes in, and notices that Yuu[nagi], who
he calls "older brother" despite there being no relation, is there as
well. Yuu's been there for a week helping the professor with some
project. He's most excited about the remade helper robot Haruno, a robot
like Alice.. Yuu turns Haruno on, but she doesn't seem to be able to
speak correctly. The professor thinks it's because he's been trying too
hard to make her into a fighting robot -- oh well, just reboot her in
her fighting mode and now she's fine. Ichitaka's wondering how Haruno
can possibly fight, but the professor reminds him of his great dream --
to build a giant robot! Ichitaka is led down a secret elevator into the
basement, and the professor shows him the Rushbird and the Straybird.
The professor is obviously proud, and Ichitaka is completely floored by
the mechs. And he's just in time to see the first tests of the new
robots.

Just then, there's an explosion -- it seems that someone is bombing the
house. Three enemies are shelling the house, and the heroes are unable
to escape. The pilots are wary of the big mechs under the house, but a
mysterious figure tells them to focus on the "new possibility" rather
than the mechs. At the same time, Demitri comes in with a force, looking
for the Linebarrel. One of his men is Wufei (who has found yet another
enemy force to join up with in SRW). Surprise, he still acts like a
dick. The unidentified units leave with the Professor as soon as Demitri
arrives, and his commander Katou tells him not to bother chasing them;
keep the goal in mind.

Yuu appears in one of the new mechs, and this is something that Demitri
can fight, as long as it doesn't get in the way of capturing the
Linebarrel. But Yuu immediately heads out (with copilot Haruno) to
follow the captured Professor, telling Ichitaka to stay out of this.
More mechs show up; this time allies led by Igarashi. He's heard that
the bombing was not done by the Katou group, and he cares more about the
enemies there than the unidentified units that ran away. Sadly for him,
they get their butts kicked by Demitri's squad.

Ichitaka can't believe that Yuu told him saving the professor wasn't his
concern. He wonders if Alice can help him with the mech like Haruno, but
Alice reminds him that she doesn't have the battle mode installed.
Ichitaka figures that they might as well get in the thing anyway; it's
safer than sitting around in the open. In a plot point that we've never
seen before, it turns out the mech is exactly the same as simulations
the Professor had Ichitaka do! With his knowledge, Alice and he are able
to get the Rushbird up and running, though they can't do much with it.
Igarashi tells Ichitaka that civilians don't belong on the battlefield,
but meanwhile the enemies are destroying his whole force, and finally
his own mech, leaving the Rushbird to fight alone.

After the first turn, we see that Kouichi is trying to get back to
school with the bread, but Linebarrel crashes right next to him. This is
what Demitri's squad has been waiting for. Kouichi notices a woman
nearby and tries to wake her up (Emi Kizaki, the Linebarrel pilot). She
can't remember her name. Just then Yajima comes up to see what happened,
and they all try to run for cover. But Demitri's squad starts to
approach the Linebarrel, and Kizaki recognizes them as enemies. Yajima
is going to try to hold off the enemies while the others escape, but
Kouichi doesn't want protection. Kizaki then remembers her name and
pulls out a big wooden sword, then has Kouichi call Linebarrel to help
her fight (which he is happy to do). He is somehow able to automatically
know how to control the mech, and goes into action. Demitri's squad is
confused -- the Linebarrel wasn't supposed to be able to move without a
Factor. Katou reminds them to be careful, but Demitri rushes into the
fight what he thinks is the new JUDA Factor.

We get several more allies as the Dancougar squad shows up, and starts
to wonder what the Rushbird is. Meanwhile several other units from the
Linebarrel team have arrived, happy to see that the Linebarrel is OK.
They tell Kouichi to join JUDA since he's the new Factor for the
Linebarrel. Tanaka, the head of the Dancougar team, is telling Aoi and
the other pilots to capture Linebarrel, and they attack. Kouichi can't
believe Dancougar is attacking a fighter for justice, and gets
crazy-eyes (becoming an NPC). Katou orders Demitri's squad to continue
the attack.

After the fight, everyone tries to get together to capture the
Linebarrel, but Kouichi spouts off stuff about justice and leaves. The
people from JUDA want Ichitaka to come with them -- Ichitaka only knows
JUDA as a maker of medical equipment and other tech stuff, so he's
surprised to see them associated with fighting mechs. But he decides to
go along -- after all, without a flying mech he'll never catch up with
Yuu and the Professor, and by himself he'll just get beaten by all the
enemies. Alice is very uncertain about being his copilot since she's
just a helper robot, but she agrees to try. The Dancougar leaves to
pursue its next mission.

Ichitaka explains to the JUDA people about the Rushbird. Ishigami tells
him that the medical equipment stuff is just a front for JUDA's true
purpose; fighting for justice. Ichitaka tells the short version of
what's happened to him so far, and Alice shows everyone what the enemy
mechs looked like. Of course they are unknowns, but Ishigami just
assumes they're part of the enemy Katou group. Ichitaka asks to join
JUDA, which Ishigami denies -- but if he considers himself a fighter for
justice, he can join the new group LOTUS that is being formed (JUDA is
participating). Ichitaka is a bit uneasy but doesn't have any choice.

Lady Une from the Preventers contacts Ishigami, who brings her up to
speed on what's going on. He suggests they might need some help from the
Preventers with all the new enemies and such. Une sends Sally and
Quatre, and tells Ishigami that the UN has decided to allow the
formation of an alliance of special mechs to fight all the enemies that
are facing the Earth -- this is LOTUS. They will be allowed a certain
degree of freedom to act. Ichitaka wonders what all this means, and he's
told just to fight the baddies like the Katou group from today, but also
Darius and the Haniwa. But why can't the Super Robots who have been
fighting them before take care of all that? Apparently the governments
of the nations have been trying to take the robots under their control,
so Une persuaded the UN to form LOTUS to prevent that from happening.
Ichitaka agrees to fight, as long as they don't forget that he needs to
find the Professor at some point.

Meanwhile on the Shangri-la, Katou doesn't give any good reason for the
retreat order, but nobody cares as long as they get to go after
Linebarrel again. Someone named Masaki says that since the Daiku Maryu
and Gaiking aren't permitted to appear, they have enough people to
attack again. They're a bit suspicious of Wufei, but Katou assures them
he won't turn against them.

In Japan, Quatre has arrived, and is investigating the place where the
Linebarrel crashed. He's not confident that he can do the mission --
he'll have to pretend to be a middle school student to find Kouichi --
but Une tells him he'll be fine. If he needs any help, he can go to
JUDA.

Kizaki has bad news for Kouichi -- he's dead. She begged Linebarrel to
resurrect him with its D-Soil, so he was reborn as the Factor for
Linebarrel (which is a "Masaki", not an "Alma" as he keeps calling it).
As long as the Linebarrel is around, he can command great power,
but....Kouichi doesn't care about "but", he's just happy he finally got
power in his hands!

Stage 2 - Special Training, Mach Drill!

Rachel and Maki, techs at JUDA, marvel at the Rushbird's construction.
Rachel also wants to take Alice apart to see how she works...of course
just to help with the maintenance. Sadly for her, Alice is
self-maintaining, so that won't be necessary. Maki can't believe that a
totally unknown scientist could build things like this, with such
high-quality materials -- surely he must have had some sort of backer.
Alice mentions a safe that Ichitaka would like to go back and check out,
but a certain group has already shut down the house. Since giant robots
came out of it, of course it would be investigated. Ichitaka and Alice
both beg Ishigami to let them get in by a secret route. He agrees, but
has Yamashita and Kujo go with him. Ishigami warns them that this
certain group (who he won't name) is neither an enemy nor a friend, so
they need to be careful. The people on the ground are probably OK, but
their bosses won't like it if JUDA comes snooping around. Also, he tells
Ichitaka to keep their activities secret from anyone else. As they
leave, other members of JUDA contact Ishigami -- they're on their way
back from a mission, which will increase JUDA's strength to deal with
any coming conflicts.

Just like on a TV show, the Professor's house has yellow tape around it
with sunglasses-and-suit guys watching it. Ichitaka shows them the
secret way in. It's dark, but Alice is able to lead them into the
destroyed lab. Unfortunately, the safe is gone and all the computers'
hard disks have been removed. However, they didn't know about the
nano-sized words etched on an angel picture. It's part of a test of a
nano-printer and so doesn't have the most recent information, but it
might be useful. They escape the basement before they can be found.

Outside, Yajima and Risako are there. They've managed to guess what was
going on at the professor's house and came to look for Ichitaka to make
sure he was OK. They also ask about Kouichi -- Ichitaka is about to tell
them, but Yamashita nudges him and reminds him to keep quiet. They
manage to cover it up and head back to JUDA to start analyzing the words
on the picture.

Meanwhile Lady Une contacts Ishigami. They need to work fast to get the
Build Base team into LOTUS -- Blue Cosmos has identified certain
visitors to PLANT as alien invaders, and she's afraid that the Earth
forces will start forcing people into the army. Ishigami reassures her
that it will be no problem to speed things up.

Tsubaki is trying to explain to Kenji about various new features for
Steel Jeeg, which will be important to fight the Jama Empire.
Unfortunately he's asleep...he doesn't like studying, and tells Tsubaki
that he'll figure it all out when it comes up in battle. After he
leaves, Sayaka thinks he's like the old Kabuto Kouji, who also didn't
like studying. Kouji, meanwhile, has come up with a plan to force Kenji
(and Boss) to be more interested in training. He goes off to talk to
Yagyuu about it...Sayaka's jealous, of course. Yagyuu agrees to the
request and enlists the help of the other Build Angels in the plan.
Sayaka and the others think he just wants to spend time with Yagyuu, but
Kouji assures them that his plan will work. They're still suspicious,
but suddenly Kenji runs in, begging to do the combination training right
now. Tsubaki doesn't know what's going on, but Kenji runs to the
training ground to get started. Meanwhile, Lady Une has come to the
Build Base -- she wants to meet Professor Shiba, but even Miwa doesn't
know where he's gone.

In the Jama Empire, Himika calls her underlings and yells at them for
not finding the Bronze Bell yet. Amaso blames the Haniwa
soldiers...which doesn't go over well since those are gifts from Himika.
So Ikima steps forward and asks for some Haniwa soldiers, vowing to
capture the Bell with a Secret Plan(TM).

Back at the Build Base, Kenji is out in the Jeeg and ready to train. The
first task is going to be to shorten the time it takes him to join with
the Jeeg parts. They shoot the parts out at high speed and he's ready to
combine...but Saotome and Kouji attack him while he's trying to combine.
This is how it will work in a real battle, after all. Kenji tries
several times, surprising Tsubaki with his zeal to train. Then he lets
slip the reason -- he gets to touch Yagyuu's breasts if he succeeds.
This pisses off Tsubaki, who starts flinging the Jeeg parts at him as
fast as she can. All the Build Angels and even Kouji and Sayaka join in
the attack. With a cry of "TITTIES!" he manages to Build Up anyway,
surprising everyone with his Pervert Power. He's all ready to claim his
reward, but Tsubaki demands that he do the Mach Drill combination next.

Just then, Professor Shiba appears in a Haniwa mech (which he's named
after Miwa) to join in the training and give Kenji a real enemy to
fight. Kenji is willing to do whatever it takes if it means boobies, but
when Tsubaki shoots the drill at him at top speed, he fails to grab onto
it. Looks like Kenji's lost the game -- he begs for another try, but
just then Miwa cuts in. A large number of Haniwa soldiers is heading for
them, so enough training. Shiba needs to get back to the base to meet up
with Lady Une anyway.

Ikima arrives with his Haniwa, and his first job is to take out the fake
Haniwa that Shiba's riding. Shiba is broken up over the loss of his
beloved Micchi mech, and Kenji is pissed off that Ikima has taken away
his chance at hooters. Shiba promises Kenji that if Kenji can beat the
enemies, he'll consider his training a success. So the melons are still
on the table! They've called for help from JUDA, but they'll have to
hold on themselves until they arrive.

The JUDA mechs along with Ichitaka quickly show up, along with Izuna and
Shizuna, who are back from whatever mission they were on. Kenji insults
the look of their mech (big hammer), which earns him some yelling, and
Shizuna/Izuna immediately show their power by attacking Ikima....for 0
damage. It seems that Ikima's mech has some kind of field around it. No
idea how to remove it for now, so you have to go after the grunts first.

Once the grunts are beaten, Ikima is still confident -- they may have
beaten his troops, but they can't touch his unit. Without Majinkaiser,
there's really only one chance to break down the barrier. Kenji has to
be able to use the Mach Drill. He failed before, but he's sure he can do
it this time....he's wrong. He tries one more time, having noticed that
the Mach Drill looks like a pair of breasts. With the "titty drill" he
can do this! This time he manages to catch the thing and take down
Ikima's barrier.

Once you beat Ikima, he vows revenge and runs away, where he grovels
before Himiko and begs for forgiveness. Miwa welcomes the JUDA people to
the Build Base, but Kenji just wants his reward for finishing the
training.

The JUDA people all introduce themselves to Lady Une (Ichitaka's a bit
tongue-tied). Une says that this last battle showed her the great
importance of the LOTUS project; if enough force can be brought together
they can fight any enemies. The last fight couldn't have been won by
Jeeg alone, but Jeeg was necessary for the victory. She tells them to
keep up the good work and reminds them that they have a certain degree
of freedom from any governmental interference, although Une herself will
take control of the project.

Professor Yumi calls from a space station; Kouji immediately asks about
Majinkaiser, but sadly that's not ready yet. The reason he called was
because Jun and Tetsuya's mechs are having trouble so they'll be delayed
in joining LOTUS.

The Build Base crew will continue to support LOTUS while investigating
the Jama Empire. Miwa hopes that they can find out what happened to
Hiroshi (the previous Jeeg) who was stuck in one of the "zones" that
Jama has created. Lady Une tells Ichitaka and Alice to come see her, and
dismisses everyone else.

No time for rest, though, since Kenji has boobies to touch. Yagyuu takes
him down to the hangar. Tsubaki is pissed off, but Kouji tells her that
they should go watch the show that's about to happen. There's a big
gathering as Kenji closes his eyes and gets ready.....as Saotome crushes
him with her chest. Yagyuu never actually said *whose* breasts he would
get to touch, after all. Kenji is suffocating under the pressure, but
everyone else just thinks it's his own fault.

Ichitaka is still star-struck by everyone, and stammers around when
Kabuto Kouji himself tries to encourage him (he can always go to Saotome
for a training reward). Alice arrives with a special LOTUS healthcare
plan (no government health care when you're a private organization, I
guess) -- she was originally a robot created for nursing and home care,
after all. She'll trade all her expertise for information on how to be a
combat robot. What a deal!

Ichitaka and Alice visit Lady Une, as requested. Unfortunately they have
no news about the whereabouts of the Professor or the Straybird,
although the Preventers will keep searching. This isn't just for
Ichitaka; they have to prevent these mechs from being out in the wild.
Straybird was able to completely evade their detection, and they've
discovered that Rushbird has some sort of dimensional power. During
battle the arms are able to interact with other dimensions to get
weapons and such. Anyway, LOTUS' next stop is the Dannar Base, and then
Nanbara Connection, which means that Ichitaka's going to have to meet
more of his idols. No time to think, though, because Mimetic Beasts are
on their way! Time for Ichitaka and Alice to test their new fighting
abilities.

Out in space, someone named ??? is searching for her Partner, who can
synch up to fight with her. His name is Nagisa, and she knows that he's
on Earth somewhere.

Stage 3 - The woman who fights, the woman who doesn't fight, the woman
who can't fight

We flash back to the far past, where Sir Violet muses on their long
journey through space after their homeworld was destroyed. She wants to
give her sleeping "daughters" a new planet for their own, but seems
reluctant -- perhaps extinction is the fate of the Cthulhu race. Just
then, a myserious ??? person offers to give Violet what she's looking
for -- a peaceful land to call their own. MWA HA HA HA!

Back in the present, the Cthulhu fortress is nearing Earth. Cobalt and
Sepia look at the planet that will soon be their home. Sepia is tired of
fighting wars, but Cobalt thinks Earth will fall with virtually no
trouble. Last time they were thwarted by a traitor, but this time things
will go well. Sir Violet calls Sepia and Cobalt -- she's changed over
the years, and now has red eyes and a sinister appearance. Cobalt has
been chosen as the pilot of Dilos Theta, and she has to go out
immediately. The traitor Iczer-1 has already gone to Earth and is
attacking their advance scouts. If she finds the Partner she's looking
for, she'll be quite a tough opponent. Cobalt is to find this Partner
and eliminate it, and kill Iczer-1 if that can't be done.

On Earth, Anna is quite depressed -- her husband Gou is out fighting
while she's just sitting around doing nothing. Not only that, but he's
gotten quite friendly with Milla, who was his lover before Anna and Gou
met. Meanwhile Nagisa has her own problems; people have been
disappearing around town, and her dad has been acting strange, saying
that she and her mom have a scent of blood. Anna's not listening at all,
she has more problems -- she's gotten kicked out of her apartment
because of her cat Pinpin. Nagisa invites Anna to live with her instead,
which Anna hapilly accepts. Now class about to start, but Nagisa notices
a blond-haired girl staring at her from out in the schoolyard -- no time
to worry about that, though, it's homework time.

At the Dannar Base, Kiriko tells Goh that Anna (her daughter)'s
departure is common news now. She tried to make it seem like Anna was
doing special training, but a drunken Professor Yotsuya blurted the
truth out. Goh doesn't blame Yotsuya, since it's his own fault his wife
ran out on him. Now Koji (from Godannar) and the Combattler Team are
there to needle Goh about his marital problems. Is this why he hasn't
been going to battle lately? Actually, Goh is under too much shock from
losing to Menage Zero, and can't pilot the Dannar anymore. But Anna
actually ran out because she thought she had failed as a wife, not
noticing Goh's emotional issues. Goh knows it's all his fault and that
he needs to pilot Dannar again, but every time he grips the stick his
hand just shakes. Combattler has to keep picking up the slack; Hyouma
offers to console Goh, but Hyoma didn't exactly open up when he was in
pain. Goh has no idea where Anna is, but he's confident that if he can
overcome his pain and fight again, Anna will come back. Kiriko agrees.

Lady Une contacts the Dannar Base; she'll be there in an hour. Kiriko,
Kagemaru, and Yotsuya will meet her. Soon the Dannar crew and Combattler
will be part of LOTUS too -- Goh hast to come along to help out with
Milla.

On the way home, Nagisa sees on a TV that the singer Eida working for a
new fighting game called SEKIGAHARA. Nagisa tries to tell Anna all about
her, but Anna is moping too much to listen. The TV switches to the news
-- Dancougar has showed up in Japan, despite not being invited by the
government. Nagisa remembers the last big war when some mech...was it
Godannar?...saved the day. Anna wonders what Nagisa would do if she
could pilot a robot. Nagisa says that question only makes sense for
people like Anna; normal girls can't think about it. But even if she
could, fighting is too scary...pass. Not like she'll have a choice,
because here comes Cobalt to take her hostage.

Anna and Nagisa are both kidnapped by Cobalt. Rather than killing her,
Cobalt has decided to use Nagisa as bait to draw out Iczer-1. Cobalt
starts to threaten Nagisa with a sword, and Iczer-1 indeed appears --
it's the blond-haired girl from the schoolyard. Iczer-1 accuses Cobalt
of disgracing the Cthulhu name, and offers to fight if that's really
what she wants. Iczer-1 manages to wound Cobalt, who flees to the Dilos
Theta. Iczer-1 takes Nagisa and Anna to escape.

Cobalt brings out numerous Dilos Thetas -- Iczer-1 will never be able to
stand up against them. She decides to call out her robot Iczer, a
fragment of her that Nagisa can join with and fight. Nagisa tries to
refuse, but Iczer-1 just pushes her in the mech and forces her to fight.
She wants Nagisa to sync with her, but Nagisa begs for help from Anna.
Nothing she can do about it, though, time to fight.

After the first round, Iczer-1 is still trying to get Nagisa to sync up
and fight, but Nagisa just wants to be let out of the robot. Things go
from bad to worse as a troop of Mimetic Beasts appears. This isn't
Cobalt's doing, although they seem to be treating the Dilos Thetas as
allies. This causes Anna to regain some of her former confidence, and
she wants to be out there fighting. Fortunately for her, the Dannar
group and Combattler arrive just in time....with Milla in the Neo
Okusaer. Something strange is going on with the radars, and the heroes
don't know who the Dilos Thetas and Iczer are. Iczer-1 contacts the
heroes and tells them they are the advance guard of the Big Gold group,
attacking the Earth. They agree to fight alongside her, not able to hear
Nagisa's cries for help. Goh just hopes he can regain his fighting
ability, and Anna...

The LOTUS folk show up a turn later, and we get a non-tearful reunion.
Ichitaka is ready to go, managing to keep down his excitement at seeing
Godannar and Combattler.

After a few guys are beaten, Cobalt decides to end the charade and
powers up, then starts blowing everything up. Iczer-1 tries to attack,
but gets thrown back. Once again she begs Nagisa to sync with her --
doesn't she care about her town being destroyed? Cobalt knocks them back
again, and Nagisa sees Anna. Anna says she can't run away; she has to
get Neo Okusaer back. Anna is in danger of the bombs, and Iczer-1 keeps
asking Nagisa to sync, but Nagisa just keeps whining to Anna to let her
out of the Iczer Robo. Finally, though, she realizes she can protect
Anna, and syncs up with Iczer-1. Now she can attack Cobalt.

Once you've killed Cobalt and defeated the other enemies, Goh invites
Iczer-1 to go back to the JUDA base and tell them about Big Gold. She'll
be happy to, but Nagisa is very weak after the fight, and Iczer-1 has to
deal with her first. She lets Nagisa out of the Iczer Robo, but just
then a lone Mimetic Beast arrives and attacks. Goh goes to defend her,
with Milla right behind. Anna is angry -- that should be her! This
Mimetic Beast is he one that's causing the radar interference. Usually
they can't do anything like this, so this must be an evolved form. Milla
wants to combine with Goh to make Godannar, even though she hasn't been
fully checked out yet. Kiriko is against it, but Goh is sure they can do
it. They manage to combine, and blow away the enemy with Godannar's
super move. This just makes Anna even more depressed; she could never
manage to use that move with Goh. Oblivious Goh is just happy that he
did the move, because now Anna will want to join him again.

With the Beast dead, radar communications are restored, and Ishigami
offers to take care of Nagisa's medical care. With that, everyone in
LOTUS heads back to the JUDA corporation, their new headquarters.
Waiting there are the Godannar's mechanics -- every mech and pilot needs
their own familiar mechanics, of course. Now that the battle is over,
Ichitaka can fanboy over Goh and the rest of his idols. The Combattler
team is also happy to see Ropet, their robot helper. Alice is also happy
for a different reason; she can learn things from Ropet like drink
serving and brain pattern scanning.

Ishigami arrives on the scene and tells everyone that Nagisa's still
unconscious. Iczer-1 finally starts to feel bad about forcing Nagisa,
but Ishigami assures her she didn't have any choice. Goh understands
Iczer-1's concern for her partner, but wants to hear more about the new
invaders. Iczer-1 explains that the Cthulhu are from a far distant star,
and want to extinguish all life on Earth to make it their new home. At
first the Cthulhu wanted to get a new home without fighting, but along
the way, Big Gold arrived and changed everything. Big Gold is a force of
evil that is controlling the Cthulhu people. Iczer-1 herself is a being
created by the Cthulhu to fight, but she rebelled to bring back the
original peaceful nature of the Cthulhu. Originally she fought the
Cthulhu by herself, but she can no longer handle it -- time to join
LOTUS to get help. Kouji is eager to join up with people from far beyond
the stars (honest, no lecherous motives).

Lady Une has gone to NEX, the main HQ for those around the Daiku Maryuu,
fighting Darius. This will be LOTUS' next acquisition, and with their
connections to military suppliers, it should increase their power quite
a bit. Ichitaka can't help wondering where Kouichi is, and remembers
their collective fanboying over Gaiking and the other giant mechs.
Rachel offers to do maintenance on the Iczer Robo, but it turns out that
it fixes itself in another dimension, so no need for that. In any case,
Iczer Robo can't really function completely without Nagisa's help, and
she's still asleep (and may not agree to fight again).
</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
It seems to Ichitaka like LOTUS is really up and running now -- if they
can just decipher the text on the painting and find some clue to chasing
the Professor, it would be perfect. Ichitaka is off to train with the
others under Saotome, and reminds Alice not to rely too much on her own
self-maintenance. As he leaves, Alice wonders why her self-repair hasn't
been working 100% lately.

Stage 4 - The Fire Giant Appears

The game jumps right into the second half of Gaiking story, with some
infodump. The Gaiking people are in Darius World, an alternate
dimension. The enemy Proist is congratulating the heroes for managing to
take back Tenku Maryu and Daichi Maryu, and learning to use Raiking and
Balking. Even so they can't hope to beat her Super Demon Dragon
Dobolzark. With the Dobolzark she will be able to get revenge on Garis
and destroy the humans, despite its not-yet-complete state. Proist
surprises the heroes by creating a Deathcross Point by itself, a gate
between Darius World and the normal world. Daiya (the Gaiking pilot)
doesn't care; he's going to kick her ass anyway. Lulu agrees, as do
Norza and Vestarne (the pilots of Raiking and Balking), who used to be
working for Proist under mind control.

The heroes manage to do some damage to the Dobolzark, before Proist
comes up with the perfect plan -- if she can just deal with Gaiking, the
rest of the heroes are no problem. She rips apart Gaiking with the
Dobolzark and uses a Deathcross Point to send them away. Pulia follows
through the gate before it closes. Proist is left behind, but the
Dobolzark parts that got thrown into the dimensional gate will regrow on
Earth and kill all the humans. Proist is rescued by Nikita and some
forces, who take her back to the enemy HQ. Captain Rosa and the
scientist Sakon immediately contact NEX on Earth to let them know what's
going on.

Back up on Earth. Pulia and Daiya awake on a desert island; both their
mechs are out of energy and can't move for now. An odd sound effect is
Pulia yelling with surprise -- she's naked! Turns out Daiya took off her
wet clothes to prevent her from catching a cold; not like he has any
interest in seeing her body. She's only half the size of Shizuka, after
all. This doesn't make Pulia very happy, of course, but they've got
bigger problems -- food. Pulia goes to check for nuts in the forest
while Daiya looks around the ocean. Judging from the nuts and fruit
Pulia brings back, Daiya assumes they're close to Japan. While they eat,
they worry about what's going on with the rest of the Gaiking crew in
Darius World.

Back at JUDA, Nagisa is still in a coma. Iczer-1 considers trying to use
the Iczer Robo to speed up her healing, but that might just get Nagisa
even more upset. Goh wonders why the Iczer Robo would need a partner
from Earth, but Iczer-1 can't explain that. All she can say is that it
must be "fate". Kenji doesn't think anything like that exists, but Kyo
does believe in bonds that unite people across space and time, which
might be seen as a kind of fate. Take Captain Garis of the Daiku Maryu
for example -- he's a Darian, but he married an Earth woman and had a
daughter, who's now the captain in Garis' place. Kenji just has one
question: is she hot? Kyo doesn't want Iczer-1 to think all humans are
like Kenji, but Iczer-1 already knows this. She learned about Earthlings
from a friend of hers who escaped Cthulhu with her, and is now fighting
in another dimension.

Ichitaka is training with Yamashita in a simulator. He's losing, but
getting better. Alice manages to cheer him up a bit, and is also trying
to learn the combat stuff for herself. Goh is also training, trying to
make up what he lost during his 2 months of moping. Tsubaki comes in to
use the simulator, and is surprised at how hot the seat is (where Alice
was sitting). It seems recently that her control circuits are
overheating. Rachel (the mechanic) is instantly there to diagnose what's
wrong (stalker?). Alice is trying to learn fighting, but her domestic AI
is refusing to evolve to accept it, so Alice's circuits are rerouting
the information to other pathways, leading to the overheating -- sort of
like if Ichitaka tried to do combat training and study for high school
entrance exams at the same time. Ichitaka tells Alice to just sit and do
nothing in the mech from now on, and focus on health care. But Rachel
tells him it's too late for that; it will just lead to more stress. All
they can do is slowly let Alice get used to her dual role.

Ishigami cuts into the scene with a distress call from the Gaiking group
-- Pulia and Daiya are marooned on an island, and it's probable that
Darius troops will soon arrive on Earth. They even have extra parts for
the Gaiking ready to go.

Pulia and Daiya are trying to get their mechs to work, but no luck. The
mechs can put out a little bit of fire as long as they're intact, but
not enough to fly. They need something called Hydrolute to make it work.
But no time to figure this out; the fire in Gaiking tells Daiya that
enemies are on the way. Since they can't fight, each wants the other to
run away and survive, but both of them are hard-headed and stay to get
killed. Eventually Pulia decides to use the last remaining flame in her
mech to act as a decoy while Daiya hides, in the hopes that
reinforcements from Japan will come soon. Daiya agrees.

Fortunately Dancougar soon arrives, ready to go. Tanaka reminds them
they're fighters for justice, as annoying as that might be to the crew.
Aoi (the main pilot) tells Pulia to get away from the fight and they'll
take care of it. Tanaka has great news -- they can use the Dankuuken.
Aoi wonders why they suddenly get a new weapon out of nowhere, but no
time to worry about that.

LOTUS soon arrives as well, along with new parts for the Gaiking. They
send them out for combination, and the Gaiking once again burns with
fire...although the coloring is kind of lame. Daiya doesn't care what it
looks like as long as it does its job. He immediately attacks and finds
that it doesn't work. Apparently the Zolmanium they made above ground
isn't as good as the Darius World equivalent. Daiya can still make it
work somehow, although he names his mech the Kaikink for the time being.

After the fight, the Dancougar crew has to get back to base (counciling
time, as the psychologist Roo Riroori reminds them). The crew still
wants to know why they were chosen to pilot Dancougar and why Dancougar
is a fighter for justice, but they have no answers. From the shadows, a
mysterious figure is impressed with Dancougar's true strength. Daiya and
Pulia are invited back to JUDA headquarters to join LOTUS officially.
They are also happy at the news that Captain Lulu and the Daiku Maryu
crew are safe, although it will be some time before they can get above
ground. Meanwhile a sushi feast is awaiting everyone back at JUDA, and
also a special guest for Daiya.

Back at JUDA, Daiya and Pulia meet everyone. The guest is Daiya's friend
Naoto, who came to see Daiya. Daiya's mom is also sad back at his house,
and Naoto is almost crying too -- which causes Pulia to chew him out for
being such a weakling (Naoto makes the mistake of asking whether Daiya's
partner is a girl...) Daiya had promised not to come back home until he
rescued his father from Darius World. Hyoma (who has no parents) thinks
that Daiya should at least send a letter, which Ichitaka can understand,
also having no parents.

Alice has other news; Kouichi has returned to school, but now he's more
violent than before. This didn't happen to the other Factors. Ishigami
breaks in to confirm what Daiya had feared; all the enemies they just
fought had grown out of the Dobolzark parts that Proist send to Earth.
That's why LOTUS exists though -- to deal with problems like that.
They'll definitely search out the parts. For now though, it's sushi
time!

Professor Gleif is in some sort of cell, contacted by a mysterious
person who might or might not be the boss of the forces that captured
him. The figure has a request for Gleif...

Stage 5 - Red Assault, Blue Terror

The scientists at JUDA have managed to decipher the general outline of
what's on Gleif's picture -- it's a combat AI and plans to upgrade
Alice. The plans include all kinds of half-baked ideas abandoned
midstream, even one for Alice to shoot missiles. But they need to spend
more time working out the meaning. Alice especially wants to know if
there's a plan to improve her combat effectiveness; they promise to let
her know if they find one.

Quatre contacts Ishigami from his undercover mission in the middle
school (where he's being bullied, poor guy). Kouichi has been acting
strange at school; yelling at everyone about being a reborn fighter for
justice and such. He's scaring people even more because of his increased
strength as a Factor. At least he hasn't had to call on Linebarrel
again. Ishigami wants Quatre to contact Emi, who is living at Kouichi's
house -- Ishigami promised that he would come collect her soon. Ogawa is
concerned about leaving Kouichi on the loose, but Ishigami wants to
watch the situation for a little while longer.

At school, Kouichi is bummed that there haven't been any more attacks by
the Katou group. Quatre is trying to get close to Kouichi (who can't
even remember his name), and he does let Kouichi copy is homework
despite the anti-Justice feeling of that action. Meanwhile, Furiya is
still bullying Shinji, and as he drags Shinji off to the roof again,
Kouichi decides to follow them and play Justice hero again. Furiya once
again wants Shinji to buy him food. Mr. Justice appears, but Furiya is
just pissed off that he never showed up last time with the bread.
Kouichi once again promises to buy the bread in 5 minutes and get
back....which he actually does, to everyone's surprise. Kouichi regrets
using his new Justice Powers to do some minor errands for a punk like
Furiya, and is ready to fight Furiya when Yajima shows up to stop them.
Kouichi uses his new-found strength to whomp Furiya, who is only saved
by the school bell.

By the end of school everyone has already heard about the fight; Kouichi
is usually the one taking orders from the strong bullies but today he
fought back. Risako thinks it's a miracle, but no, it's just Kouichi
being reborn. Risako wonders what's going on with Kouichi lately, but
neither he nor Yajima will tell her. Kouichi hasn't even noticed that
Ichitaka's been gone lately.

Kouichi heads home to watch anime, and Risako and Yajima follow along.
Risako wants to go drink tea or something; she'll even make the cupcakes
they like. Kouichi doesn't care, though. At his house, Risako and
Kouichi are surprised to see Emi Kizaki there, and apparently on
friendly terms with Kouichi. Risako wonders if this whole "reborn" thing
means something sexual, but decides that Emi must just be a cousin or
something like that. Before the talk can go any further, though, there's
an explosion. Quatre shows up to usher everyone to safety, having
already contacted LOTUS.

Sawatari and Demitri are out with a band of Katou soldiers, blowing
things up and calling for Linebarrel to appear. Wufei seems
dissatisfied, but follows orders, hoping to see Kouichi prove the
strength of his Justice. Katou calls them and tells them there's one
more prey to go after -- two shadowy figures say that Dancougar has to
be "caught", to save the world. Katou assures them that the shadowy
figures will take care of Dancougar if it shows up. Sawatari wishes he
had heard about this before, but as long as Linebarrel appears he
doesn't care. Wufei seems to have a problem attacking the city; Demitri
reminds him that it's the people that survive that will be unlucky when
things get even worse later. Katou starts to remind Wufei of what he
told him when they first met, but Wufei threatens to kill Katou if he
talks any more. Wufei doesn't care about Katou's objective, just whether
they'll be able to protect the Earth or not.

Risako and the others are in danger; Quatre notices Wufei. Wufei had
infiltrated Katou a while back and nobody heard from him after that --
Quatre does notice that Wufei seems to be avoiding attacking any
inhabited buildings. Of course, Kouichi is now ready to call Linebarrel,
so he has to put his hand on Emi's chest (to Risako's surprise). Emi
reminds him not to fight as wildly as he did last time, or more people
will get hurt. He tells Emi to get to a safe place; he'll fight by
himself today. He calls out in the name of Justice, but Wufei is
unimpressed -- Justice doesn't just mean wild fighting.

LOTUS shows up before the fight starts. Demitri is fine with this since
they'll have to deal with LOTUS eventually anyway. Daiya tries to get
Kouichi to fight alongside LOTUS, but Kouichi thinks everyone but him is
evil and has to be destroyed. How foolish to think they can trick him
with a fake Gaiking that's not even the right color! And bringing out
someone that's supposed to be his school friend, ridiculous! They're
ready to kick Linebarrel's ass, but Ishigami stops them -- if they just
take care of Katou's forces he'll surely listen to reason. Quatre
agrees, although he doesn't seem as confident as Ishigami. Dancougar
also arrives, another enemy who doesn't admit Kouichi's Justice!! They
announce that they'll fight alongside LOTUS for now; not joining up or
anything. Just then a new enemy appears, looking suspiciously similar to
Dancougar. Even Tanaka and Seimi don't know what this is, but since it's
attacking, it must be an enemy. LOTUS offers to help with this fake
Dancougar as well.

After the fake Dancougar takes some damage, it leaves, satisfied that
it's seen what the real Dancougar can do. Ishigami makes a mental note
to ask Tanaka later what this robot is.

Once the Katou group is defeated, the LOTUS people try to get Kouichi to
listen to reason and join them, but he just keeps yelling about everyone
else being evil except him. Looks like Ishigami's idea was off base;
they'll just have to disable the Linebarrel by force. Dancougar was
ordered before to protect it, but Tanaka tells the crew that they've
just now gotten a new order -- attack the Linebarrel. Tanaka hopes they
won't have to give the Linebarrel to LOTUS in the end...

After Linebarrel is defeated, it just regenerates. Moritsugu comes to
criticize the heroes; they're letting their feelings for Kouichi blunt
their attacks -- they should just be treating the Linebarrel the same as
a terrorist who blows up the town. He tells everyone else to stand
aside, and wants Kouichi to quit his little "hero" game and give the
Linebarrel to JUDA. He destroys Linebarrel again, and once again it
regenerates. Moritsugu keeps attacking -- the mech may regenerate, but
the Factor won't be able to take all of this. Yajima yells at them not
to kill Kouichi; this isn't Kouichi's fault, he just randomly got the
mech. Kouichi feels like he's the only one that understands the sadness
of having no power; of being unable to protect the person important to
you, of having other people protect you. He starts blowing things up
again, yelling at everyone to acknowledge his power -- who else will
protect the town!? Just as Moritsugu is about to beat him up again, Emi
forcibly stops the Linebarrel. She wonders if Kouichi just wants to show
off his power, or protect the town? Kouichi tells her to shut up and be
protected...which is not what Emi wanted to hear. Now Kouichi changes
his tune and doesn't care about the mech anymore. He jumps from the
Linebarrel and runs away. The rest of them aren't sure that they want
Kouichi as a teammate, but Quatre goes to search for him. Ishigami has
him instead bring Emi to JUDA; Kouichi will show up at school tomorrow.

Dancougar says its goodbyes; the crew is going to go force Tanaka to
tell them about the red Dancougar. Ichitaka is worried about Kouichi.
But now it's time to collect the Linebarrel.

Back at JUDA, Moritsugu is introduced as the head of Special Forces and
Vardant's Factor. Most of the heroes don't give him a great welcome,
though, after his treatment of Kouichi and the Linebarrel. They'll have
to get used to him, though, since he's the leader now. Moritsugu
acknowledges the power of the heroes, but they lack any kind of unit
coherence -- so it's time for special training starting tomorrow.
Kouichi in particular needs more training; Moritsugu doesn't really care
if he dies, but he might take down the team with him. He offers
half-thanks to Yamashita for leading the team in his absence, but just
that slight praise fills Yamashita with delight.

Moritsugu leaves; the reaction of LOTUS to him is understandable. They
may have a lot of competent pilots, but they're mostly civilians.
Moritsugu surely feels he needs to do a lot to get them ready. Yamashita
and Ishigami try to assure everyone that he's actually quite caring
despite his harsh words. Koji remembers hearing about Moritsugu before
-- he was a legend in high school. He was known as the invincible
miracle man for being able to take down entire gangs by himself. But the
last he heard, Moritsugu had killed someone and went into hiding --
Yamashita isn't happy hearing these old rumors passing around. Iczer-1
does think she detected some "burden" in Moritsugu's eyes, but not being
human, she can't fully understand it. Daiya likes the idea of being a
legend, and Naoto reminds him that since Darius appeared, he's been
considered a prophet. That's not exactly what Daiya had in mind, though.

Ishigami meets with Emi in his office. He apologizes for not coming for
her earlier, and wonders how she's doing having come from another world.
She's doing fine, but Kouichi on the other hand...Quatre tries to
apologize too, but Ishigami doesn't seem to be very concerned. About
Emi's memory loss; she's managed to recover her memories except for what
happened right before she came to this world. Ishigami doesn't need to
know right now; what's important is that Professor Kizaki went to great
trouble to send her here, so she should fulfill his desire by having
Linebarrel serve JUDA well. Quatre will keep trying to convince Kouichi,
but they'll need to do a mental evaluation too -- if he's unstable, they
have to move on to the next Factor. Of course, having a "next Factor"
means killing the current one...of course Ishigami would never actually
do that.

The Dancougar crew has returned to the base. Normally they would just
get in the onsen, but today they have something to ask Tanaka.
Unfortunately, he ducked out (probably to avoid having to talk to them).
He's off in a place with suspicious music and someone called F.S..
Tanaka explains that the Red Dancougar has optical stealth and can fight
in the air, but only has one pilot. Therefore, it wasn't intended to
fulfill Dancougar's original mission. F.S. recognizes this as R-Daigun
and says that the pieces are now in place...

Stage 6 - The Day the Sky Fell

Finally we go back to the Macross people, who have finished cleaning up
the Vajra that chased them to this dimension -- or have they? They can't
say for sure. Things are pretty quiet right now so a number of the
pilots have gone to the Shibuya Area to cheer on Ranka, who's doing some
kind of campaign there. Alto's also with them -- maybe that's why he's
been shirking his training a bit. Ozma thinks that Sakonji needs to make
Alto's training much more severe if he has that much time to spend with
Ranka.

Howard has received another "wait there" message from Earth -- this is
hardly the first one. All they've managed to get is permission to stay
in one area of space. Durandal has told them that this is because of
Blue Cosmos, which only values pure Earthlings. Their ship does have
Boazans, Zentradi, and other aliens, but they're all being treated as
aliens. They've also been informed that Durandal and his people are
genetically enhanced "Coordinators", which is why Blue Cosmos doesn't
like them either. The Earth of this dimension hasn't had any real
contact with aliens yet, which may explain their behavior. The UN is not
going to interfere with the Macross fleet's fight against the Vajra...at
least until they meet again next week. It seems like they're just trying
to wait around, hoping the fleet will leave without having to be chased
away. Howard sees that this Earth's federation is just like the one from
their dimension. Mishima suggests getting away from here before they
decide that the Macross fleet should be treated as invaders.

Mishima goes elsewhere to talk to the myserious G, who promises to send
the new data. The video involves the problematic Valkyrie's interaction
with the Vajra. Not serious enough for Mishima to go into emergency
action, though. G wants Mishima to hand over this data to a certain
person -- Mishima seems uncertain that the person will act on the
information, but G is more confident.

At Shibuya (the Macross version), everyone is talking about Ranka. She
even has a four-person fan club now. Lunamaria wants to be the fifth
person, but Nagisa has already taken the spot [where did she come from?]
Nanase is surprised the ZAFT pilots know about Ranka, since it's still a
secret that Luka and the others are in the Macross' SMS force. Lunamaria
starts to complain about how strict the military is, and finds out she's
now fan club member 13 since the Voltes Team and others beat her to it.
Nagisa is surprised that Alto's not there, but he apparently had a phone
call to take. Is it from a woman? No time to worry about that; the
concert is starting soon. Alto can catch up later.

It turns out this isn't so much a "concert" as Ranka handing out copies
of a performance or song of hers on discs...and she's not getting many
takers. Meilin wonders if Lacus had this much trouble getting famous --
of course not; she has a famous father with all kinds of connections.
Birth is everything, after all. Shinn does think that her songs haven't
been quite as good lately. Anyway, they're about to cheer Ranka on but
Alto comes up and tells them not to. This is a serious thing for Ranka,
and they'll just screw it up. Also, having a tough start will do her
good. They should just watch from here. Nanase is happy to see that Alto
cares for Ranka so much, which he immediately denies. Ranka almost
notices them, so they have to run away to avoid her.

Later, Ranka tells Alto about what she did that day. She does think it's
old-fashioned to actually hand out discs in person -- they apparently
tried to set up a website for her but it kept getting hacked. So it's up
to word of mouth to spread her songs. Alto seems to be barely listening,
but he agrees with her manager that word-of-mouth is the best way to go
about things. Ranka hangs up due to the time, and Alto immediately gets
another call -- surprise, it's Sheryl, his mystery caller from earlier.
She tells him that she's going to be in a "documentary" about her
wanting to become a pilot. She's doing this people won't forget Galaxy
(her home) -- it seems like a lot of people are already ignoring the
reality. Alto thinks this is normal; isn't it her job to play to that
crowd? Sheryl doesn't intend to completely shatter everyone's illusions.
By the way, the shooting is at Alto's school, and he gets to be her
gofer. That's his punishment for not returning her earring sooner. You
can guess how Alto feels about that...

Back at JUDA, Alice is doing health check-ups. Tsubaki shows up,
concerned about Alice's condition now that Moritsugu has started his
severe training program. All she can do is try to learn combat stuff
faster. Alice wonders how Kyo is doing -- he's seemed somewhat off the
past few days. Also he hasn't gotten a health checkup a single time.

Speaking of Kyo, he's asking Iczer-1 about old spaceships, which she
knows nothing about. She also can't tell him anything about the Macross
fleet. But apparently she has given him some valuable information about
outer space, even though the idea was that Kyo would teach Iczer-1 about
Earth. Kenji comes in, a little suspicious of Iczer and Kyo's alone
time, but he wants to make sure Kyo gets a health checkup from Alice.

The Minerva gets a distress call that Junius Seven is headed for Earth.
It should have been in a stable orbit, but perhaps a meteor hit it...or
something else? In any case, this is bad news if it hits, so the Minerva
crew has to do what they can to stop it, which may not be much. Really
their only choice is to bust it apart into smaller pieces. Durandal
cautions Cagalli to be careful. Athrun wants to fight as well, which
Durandal allows (even though Shinn just thinks he's a worthless
civilian). Athrun also reveals to the Minerva crew his true identity.
Shinn can't believe that a famous ZAFT pilot was with Orb. In any case,
both he and the Macross Frontier people should help out since even one
extra mech will be useful.

Back at JUDA, Moritsugu is reporting to Ishigami on the training.
Everyone seems to be doing fine, except for Ichitaka. The Rushbird is
more and more of a problem as time goes on. There's too much they don't
know about it to allow it on the front lines -- maybe that's the point
to find out more about it, but can we at least change the pilot? Also
Alice is taking too long to learn how to operate the mech. Ishigami
reminds him that only Alice has the key to operate the thing. Just then
Lady Une cuts in to tell them about Junius Seven. Ishigami has LOTUS go
there as fast as possible to help ZAFT out.

Yzak, Heinel, and Dearka are the first ones there. They're not confident
that even with Minerva's help they can break the PLANT apart. They show
up; Athrun exchanges some greetings with his old companions. The Macross
people are also there, which makes Yzak uneasy, but Captain Jeffrey
assures him that they want to repay the Minerva for their help. Yzak
explains the plan -- there are six Meteor Breaker points that have to be
calibrated to destroy Junius Seven.

After the first turn, unknown enemies appear, having been concealed
inside Junius Seven. Their leader, Satou, tells the heroes he'll never
let them break Junius Seven apart. They're going to try to destroy the
Meteor Breakers, so we have to stop them. However, the enemies seem to
be using Mobile Doll technology, which was supposed to have been
destroyed after the previous war. They're a bit like the Ghosts the
Macross people are familiar with, but nowhere near as powerful.

LOTUS soon shows up, surprised to see ZAFT fighting amongst themselves.
Lady Une contacts Talia to sort the situation out -- these are
terrorists who are trying to drop Junius Seven on Earth and destroy the
Meteor Breakers before they can break the PLANT into segments. It's
probably a group within the Coordinators who are anti-Naturals. In any
case, LOTUS joins in to protect the Meteor Breakers.

A few turns later, Mimetic Beasts show up on the opposite side. How are
they in space? Probably they stowed away on some provision ship,
breeding like cochroaches. They're drawn to violence and blood. The
Macross people plan to fight them just like the Vajra. The Minerva
decides to take a front seat and fire the Tannhauser, but Mimetic Beasts
intercept the ship before it can fire. Apparently they're hungry for the
beam weapon's energy. The Minerva's in a pinch, but fortunately we have
a battle pro and his Great Mazinger to come in and save the day.

Even more guys show up later; Neo and his lackeys. He wonders if there's
a deeper reason why the Mimetic Beasts have shown up here. Anyway, Neo
has them observe from afar but not get involved.

When you beat Satou, Shinn asks him why he is helping destroy the Earth.
Satou turns the question back at Shinn -- why is he fighting alongside
people who killed so many Coordinators in the last war? Can't they see
that Lacus Clyne and Relena Peacecraft's honeyed words have changed
ZAFT? Patrick Zala was the true leader of the Coordinators! Now it's
time to destroy as many Naturals as possible with Junius Seven; it's way
too late to stop it.

Once all the enemies are defeated it's time to use the Meteor Breakers.
Unfortunately, they don't break Junius Seven apart enough to remove the
danger. The Super Robots all leap into action, trying to break the thing
up as much as possible before it enters the atmosphere. Moritsugu orders
the rest of LOTUS to join in, and even the ships start firing their
weapons. They do as much as they can until they have to escape from the
Earth's gravitational pull and retreat. Everyone reluctantly pulls back,
except Ichitaka, who is trying to save a mobile suit that can't escape
on its own. Unfortunately the point of no return is already passed...

Neo and his crew have finished the monitoring. None of the Phantom Pain
people like seeing Earth destroyed by Junius Seven, and Sting wonders
why they didn't join the rest of the ZAFT units in trying to break it
up. Neo has no answer.

Stage 7A - The Confused World

The Minerva heads into the atmosphere to pick up the remaining mobile
suits and continue trying to destroy Junius Seven, despite the danger.
Talia tries to get Cagalli to leave the ship for her safety, but she
refuses. Yzak and the others join, while the Macross tries to get a few
last shots in before it's too late. Moritsugu also asks Lady Une to
allow some of them go to with Minerva, although others have to stay
behind just in case more terrorists appear. On Junius Seven itself,
Ichitaka is struggling to find the mobile suit he thought he saw
earlier. Alice finds a faint energy signature, but just then Moritsugu
contacts him and tells him to pull back; he's ordered to stay in space.
Moritsugu assures him that the mobile suits can handle atmospheric
re-entry, but Ichitaka isn't sure.

[Choose to stay and save the mobile suits] Ichitaka tells Moritsugu that
he is going to stay since the mobile suits seem too damaged to survive
-- he isn't sure he understands the consequences but he doesn't have any
regrets. Moritsugu changes his order; he must return alive to the
Minerva. Meanwhile, Athrun is still trying to activate one of the Meteor
Breakers while Shinn urges him to return to the ship. Athrun doesn't
think that the Minerva's cannons alone will be enough, and Shinn stays
to help as well. Moritsugu lets the Minerva know about Ichitaka, but
he's running out of time -- they'll soon be in phase 2 of the descent.
The super robots and ships keep blasting Junius Seven with all their
power. Athrun and Shinn start to move away, but a surviving terrorist
intercepts them, only to be blasted by Ichitaka. Athrun tells them to
return to the ship; his thruster is damaged, and as the son of Patrick
Zala he should stay here anyway. Shinn calls him an idiot and both he
and Ichitaka pick up Athrun's damaged Zaku. Unfortunately it's too late;
phase 2 has started. Fortunately Alice discovers that the Laplace Wall
of the Rushbird can be extended to cover the other two mechs and save
them...maybe. It's the only chance they have, though, and Ichitaka is
determined not to let a single person die.

[Intermission] The Minerva descends into the atmosphere, but their
sensors aren't able to tell them if Athrun and the others are OK. All
they can do is hope. Athrun has actually gotten knocked away from the
others; Shinn goes to save him and yells at him once again for being so
mopey and not accepting Shinn's help. The Rushbird shows up soon;
unfortunately Alice is having problems due to trying this new trick with
the Laplace Wall, so Ichitaka has to take full control. As they descend,
the Minerva is finally able to get a picture of them and see that
they're safe.

The Minerva recovers the units. Cagalli is pissed off at Athrun for
making her worry so much. Lunamaria is happy to see Shinn safe, and
Shinn wants to thank Ichitaka. Ichitaka's being kept apart; as part of
LOTUS he can't be allowed to walk freely around the ZAFT ship. It's even
possible that LOTUS and ZAFT could be enemies some day -- after all, it
was Coordinators who tried to drop Junius Seven. Ichitaka himself is
looking for someone to help Alice; Athrun offers to try, being good with
machines himself (or at least making bird toys).

Goh and some others burst in at that moment -- the terrorists were
acting in the name of Patrick Zala, who did all kinds of crap, and now
his son is here? They might all be treated as enemies on Earth because
of this. Cagalli offers to speak for him. Shinn shuts her up, and Rei
explains more politely -- this is no longer just an issue of Athrun, but
of all Coordinators. This could be the seed(ha ha) of yet another
Coordinator-Natural war. Cagalli still thinks she can just speak as the
Orb leader and convince everyone; Shinn yells at her for spouting
nothing but pretty words. Alice chooses this moment to reappear,
completely fixed by Athrun's help. The argument will have to stop for
now because Cagalli has to head to the bridge to talk to Talia. The rest
of the people discuss the situation; despite the peace between Earth and
the PLANTs, that wouldn't actually change people's thinking about the
other side. Things have been the same ever since 3 years ago when
Colony-affiliated Gundams destroyed the shuttle with the leader of the
UN's pacifist wing on it. Just as the last war was started by the
nuclear attack on Junius Seven, a new war could easily start from this
incident. Kenji wonders how this could happen since the leaders of both
sides were killed in the last war and Relena has managed to get everyone
to agree. The answer seems to be that the last war ended primarily
because everyone was exhausted, and other enemies had shown up to
attack. But now 2 years later, many nations have rebuilt their forces
and are eager to get revenge. Rei has faith that Durandal will be able
to get the world leaders to avoid another war. Ichitaka wonders if
Cagalli could help, but Shinn warns him not to trust her, and runs out
of the room. Rei explains that Shinn lost his parents and sister in Orb
during the last war.

Meyrin is not able to contact Orb or anyone else because of interference
from the particles left by Junius Seven's breakup. Although they would
have liked to contact people first, they'll just have to head for Orb
and see what happens. Moritsugu agrees that's the safest course right
now.

Lord Djibril is showing the other Logos members data that Phantom Pain
took, which shows that Coordinator terrorists were responsible for
Junius Seven. With this proof, they can stir up people of Earth to go
against the Coordinators again. This time they will all be killed, for
the pure blue world. Meanwhile they have to decide what to do about the
other Earth groups like the Katou group and NERV. Katou in particular
has reached the end of its usefulness and should be destroyed soon.

In Orb, Yuna is not too happy to see Cagalli returning on a ZAFT ship.
For now, at least, they have to welcome the ship warmly. On the Minerva,
they're watching the news of Junius Seven -- even though it was broken
up considerably, it still caused a lot of damage. Durandal makes a
speech showing sympathy with the Earth and calling on them to join hands
with him to prevent another war from starting....no mention of LOTUS.
Arthur then brings the news that they've been cleared to land in Orb.
They will only stay as long as necessary to fix the ship, then they will
go to Japan. Rei isn't sure they have the time to do that, but Talia's
already decided.

Later, Cagalli is speaking to the Orb government. She learns that the
Earth has decided to form a new union, excluding PLANT. Ostensibly this
is to gather resources to repair the damage from Junius Seven, but Yuna
makes it clear that they can no longer treat PLANT as allies. He wants
Cagalli to think about what Orb will do when the inevitable announcement
is made that the terrorists were Coordinators.

Shinn is walking along the sea, thinking of his dead family. He sees
Kira near a memorial stone, and they both think it's symbolic that
flowers are planted here but then get swept away by the waves. Kira
wants to create a world where the flowers will bloom forever.

Back in the council room, Cagalli tells Athrun to go back to PLANT --
Orb is about to betray its ideals, and Athrun may be the only one who
can prevent the war from PLANT's side. Athrun agrees, and the romantic
tension between them goes nowhere.

On the Minerva, there's more discussion about the Earth alliance. How
did they know that Coordinators were the terrorists, when you couldn't
tell just from the videos? The Earth alliance has already made an
announcement that this constitutes a declaration of war from PLANT. The
United Nations is powerless to stop this. Meyrin and Talia make a
shipwide announcement -- the Earth alliance is preparing to fire nuclear
weapons at PLANT! Clearly they were just waiting for an opportunity to
do this. Talia also receives intel that Orb will soon move to fight as
well. They can't wait for further orders; they need to leave right now.
Talia tells them that LOTUS can't be forced to take sides in this war --
if worse comes to worse they just have to abandon the Minerva. Yuna
watches the Minerva leave, and considers sending troops to intercept.

The Minerva finds itself sandwiched between Orb mobile suits and troops
from the new Earth Alliance. Yuna reminds the reluctant Orb soldiers
that the Minerva is a ZAFT ship; an enemy of Earth. Talia prepares to
send out the ZAFT units and tell LOTUS to get away from the area. She
tries to ask for time to let LOTUS out, but the Alliance troops start
attacking. Shinn expects this kind of thing from Orb; in the last war
they let their own people die for ideals, now they're fighting. One of
the Alliance mechs is the Gundam Heavyarms. In any case, for now it's
just Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rei against everyone.

After the first turn, Kenji wants to join in -- Talia says again that
they can't get involved in this war. The rest of LOTUS agrees with
Kenji; Minerva helped save the Earth and they got attacked for no
reason. Moritsugu decides that since the Minerva is an important witness
to a terrorist act, LOTUS will protect it as an official act. However,
they need to keep the fighting to a minimum and mostly try to escape.

When you bea the Zamuzaza, he rushes at Shinn, wanting to expose the
farce of a group brought together just to fight Darius. The Zamuzaza is
beating Shinn up, but then he pulls out the SEED mode cheat and destroys
the enemy.

Eventually the Minerva escapes the area. Shinn is unable to explain how
he beat the mech, but at least he survived. The bigger concern is that
the Earth Alliance may still be following the Minerva. Ichitaka wonders
what they're going to do now, but Moritsugu has a plan -- it's probably
the warmonger faction in the government preventing them from contacting
JUDA, but he has an idea to turn that to their advantage. Lady Une tells
them to head to JUDA. Talia wonders how the LOTUS members in space are
doing, but they're fine. The alliance's use of nuclear weapons is a
clear violation of the Junius Treaty. Lady Une reminds them that overt
support is going to be difficult, and that the Alliance isn't done with
them. Talia also wants Une to thank the Macross for its help.

The Minerva pilots are sad to see LOTUS go. Shinn wonders what's going
to happen in Japan -- Ichitaka isn't sure, although he has a number of
things he'd like to do himself, like look for friends. Lunamaria
embarasses Ichitaka by telling him to do his best.

In space, Durandal is talking to a mysterious person, wanting to meet
with the person. But then he has to break off the communication as
Athrun arrives. Athrun has come to talk to Durandal about anything and
everything. After hearing Athrun's spiel, Durandal understands, but they
were attacked by nuclear weapons. Durandal would like to help LOTUS, but
first they need to make sure that something like the Junius Seven drop
doesn't happen again. As part of his plan, he shows Athrun a fake "Lacus
Clyne" telling people to suppress their anger and hate, lest another war
start. Durandal admits it's a fake, but that he needs her power, just as
he needs Athrun's power.

At Kira's home out on the islands, Kira is filling in Murrue and
Bartfeld on the situation. Looks like gathering the old Archangel crew
together was correct. Kira has also gotten a letter from Cagalli...she's
getting married! She's marrying Yuna, which will probably help the Orb
citizens feel better. Just then the radar goes off; enemies have
arrived. Coincidentally, Yuu and Haruno in the Straybird are around too
-- they were searching Orb for news of the Professor. The unknown
enemies have come to kill Lacus Clyne, which the heroes don't quite
understand. Why so suddenly? Kira prepares to go out, but Hiiro in the
Wing Zero beats him to the punch. At the same time, the Straybird is
chasing its target through the area. Hiiro alone isn't enough to protect
Kira's house, but Yuu decides to leap into action as well. Unfortunately
the target they were chasing is just an unmanned ship so won't help
them. More enemies show up, but enough time has passed for the Archangel
and Kira in the Freedom to take off. Kira uses his MAP to disable all
the enemies, but they blow themselves up rather than surrendering. Hiiro
leaves. Yuu and Haruno go to pick up the ruins of the unit they were
chasing, and then leave themselves. Kira also has to go, to save
Cagalli.

Yuna and Cagalli's wedding is going on. Kira's Freedom goes right into
the middle of it and takes Cagalli, despite her protests. He returns to
the Archangel and tells Murrue to leave, so they can decide what they're
going to do from here on out.

Lady Une talks to Lord Djibril over video chat. She wants him to explain
the attack on LOTUS and the nuclear attack on the PLANTs. Djibril feigns
ignorance, but reminds her not to cross Blue Cosmos. Une reminds Djibril
of the information network that the Preventers have, and he wonders if
the Preventers are going to side with the Coordinators. It was actually
PLANT that violated the Junius Treaty, by making new weapons under the
excuse of fighting Darius. And now LOTUS has helped the Minerva escape.
Une tells him that they've taken the Minerva as a witness to the Junius
Seven incident, not as an ally. Djibril is angry, and reminds her again
not to cross Blue Cosmos. She tells him to focus on clearing up this
communication interference so that people aren't led to false
conclusions due to a lack of information.

Durandal gives Athrun a FAITH medallion, meaning that he can act on his
own will. Durandal trusts him enough to make wise decisions, and sends
him to meet up with the Minerva. He hopes that Minerva will eventually
serve a role like the Archangel did in the last war.

Stage 8A - The Price of Justice

The heroes return to JUDA. Moritsugu apologizes for acting without
orders, but Ishigami agrees with what he's done. The LOTUS people in
space have gone to the Macross Quarter -- this allows them to watch
Macross but also to have them as potential allies so that the Earth
Alliance can't move against them lightly. This does bring its own
problems, but it's better than relying on Blue Cosmos. Kyo has some
information for Ishigami that only they seem to understand, and Ishigami
refuses to explain what it's about. Goh doesn't like the idea of secrets
in LOTUS, particularly dealing with the Katou group. Ishigami says that
sometimes secrets are OK (look at Goh keeping his ex-fiancee secret from
Anna), and promises to tell them about it all in good time.

Ichitaka still has no leads to finding the Professor, but at least
Alice's AI has managed to improve quite a bit. Emi is serving tea at
JUDA, since she can't fight....unfortunately she can't serve tea either,
having accidentally used seaweed instead of tea leaves. She rushes out
to fix the problem, and the rest of them realize that Ishigami still
hasn't really told them anything about her. Alice hasn't gotten her
health data either.

Iczer-1 goes to talk to Nagisa, who is back on Earth and still in the
hospital [I think her appearance on the Macross earlier was a mistake?].
Nagisa doesn't want to talk to her at all, and throws something at her.
She wants to know what's going on with her parents -- Iczer knows that
they were killed when Cobalt attacked, but thinks that Nagisa is still
too weak to learn the truth. Iczer leaves, telling Nagisa to get back to
fighting form as soon as possible.

At school, Kouichi is watching his heroic Linebarrel action against the
Katou group described on the news as a "rogue Almas gone crazy," with
the Linebarrel not even in the video. Risako tells Kouichi about Sheryl,
an idol from the "new colony". Kouichi doesn't care of course, but he
does know that the "new colony" is actually a huge ship built by PLANT.
Quatre hopes that Une's attempt to influence the news to get the truth
out will work. Anyway, Risako just wants to use Sheryl as an excuse to
talk to Kouichi, who is his usual dickish self. Furiya picks this time
to try to get Kouichi to do his bidding. He takes him up on the roof to
be beaten up by a group, but Kouichi fights them all off. He makes
Furiya promise not to bully Shinji anymore, but it seems that Shinji has
transferred to another school. Furiya leaves, hatching another plan in
his mind. Risako once again tries to tell Kouichi how much he's changed,
but Kouichi just goes back inside. Yajima promises to tell her what's
going on if she'll just wait one day; he wants to try talking to Kouichi
one more time.

Quatre reports what's going on to Ishigami -- things have only gotten
worse since Kouichi lost the Linebarrel. Ishigami wonders if Quatre has
noticed anything at Ozaki town; they detected strange Machina signatures
from there. Quatre hasn't, but he'll get Sandrock ready; now that Trowa
and Wufei have brought their Gundams out, there's no reason for Sandrock
to be left behind. Moritsugu finds Kouichi's dumb-kid behavior familiar,
and thinks they should take action, but Ishigami wants to hold back a
little longer. The reaction from Ozaki town comes again and immediately
disappears -- Ishigami wonders if "they" are using things picked up
since he left the group.

Yajima tries to persaude Kouichi to go back to normal. Kouichi thinks
he's just annoyed he doesn't have to protect him anymore. Yajima decides
to fight it out, to show Kouichi he's not as strong as he thinks.
Kouichi thinks he just waited until Linebarrel was gone to fight him,
and starts kicking the crap out of Yajima. Kouichi finds that beating
Yajima isn't as fun as he thought it would be; with every punch he feels
worse and worse. Yajima admits the truth -- he was protecting Kouichi to
try to get Risako to like him, but it never worked, and he never
considered Kouichi's feelings. This shatters Kouichi's illusion of
Yajima as a fighter for justice -- they both apologize, but before
things can go any further, Machinas show up to kill Kouichi. Yajima has
been seriously injured, and he tells Kouichi that the important thing is
not what can he do, but what does he want to do? Yajima then dies.

Kouichi is able to summon the Linebarrel, and he decides that what he
"wants to do" is kill the Machina bastard. Quatre is watching from the
side, and hears from Ishigami that Kouichi must have been fully accepted
as the Linebarrel's Factor. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to
summon it without Emi's help. Quatre comes out in the Sandrock and tries
to get Kouichi to stop, but he's too pissed off. Quatre doesn't want to
see Kouichi go down the same path he did by relying on anger and hate
alone. Dancougar also arrives to help, but so does the Red Dancougar to
make things even more dangerous.

LOTUS arrives soon. Quatre fills them in on what's happening, and
Moritsugu immediately tells Ichitaka not to let his feelings for Yajima
cloud his judgment in battle. Goh agrees despite Ichitaka's protests.
All of us against 2 isn't much of a fight, so the Katou group arrives to
try to get the Linebarrel yet again. Moritsugu tells everyone not to let
the Linebarrel get attacked too much; that will only worsen Kouichi's
condition.

Eventually Yamashita takes down the Machina, which pisses Kouichi off --
he was supposed to get Yajima's killer. This fully awakens him as Factor
and the whole earth and atmosphere seem to be shaking, and the other
Almas are reacting to it. Kouichi thinks Yamashita is his enemy now. He
uses a MAP beam attack that hurts everyone; Emi says this is the
Executor. She's been trying to call to Linebarrel to stop it, but it's
not working. The system has gone crazy, and Kouichi is in danger of
being completely consumed by his fake Justice. Ichitaka doesn't want to
have to kill Kouichi, and this seems to Quatre just like his experience
with the Zero. It will take some time to recharge the beam attack,
though, so they can try to disable the Linebarrel before that.

The Linebarrel partially regenerates again, but Quatre tries to stop him
from using the MAP attack. His family troops show up to help him. With
the help of Yamashita and Moritsugu, they finally disable the
Linebarrel. Overall things went OK; the town wasn't heavily damaged, and
Kouichi is still alive. They want to get the unidentified mecha and
escape before local authorities find them. Unfortunately people from the
Katou group show up first and take it. Rather than chasing them,
Ishigami wants everyone to return to base for repairs. The Dancougar has </pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
to go, but Aoi tries to cheer up Ichitaka a bit before leaving.

Back at the Shangri-la, Katou isn't too upset about the failure to
capture the Linebarrel -- they did manage to draw out its power,
although this is only a fraction of what it's truly capable of.

At the Dragon's Hive, Tanaka is protesting innocence to the Dancougar
crew -- he really has no idea what the Red Dancougar is. They're not
having any of his crap though, and pull a gun on him, forcing him to
talk. He only has speculations, though, and in the end all he says is
that it's called the R-Daigun. Johnny understands his position, being a
former middle manager. Tanaka apologizes for the things he doesn't know
or can't say.

Kouichi awakens from a dream, where Yajima was still alive. He's been
out for 2 days, but is now in the JUDA medical area. He acts rude to
Ogawa, who says that what he has down there doesn't match his attitude
(ouch). He's taken to Ishigami, who explains about LOTUS to him. Quatre
apologizes for tricking him, but they really need his power. He can even
be a fighter for Justice now, and make up for the crap he did.

The rest of the JUDA people aren't sure that Kouichi can really be a
part of LOTUS. Ichitaka tries to defend his old friend. Rachel says that
new Factors do sometimes have issues, but Kouichi has gone beyond that.
Moritsugu reminds them that Lady Une has given the order, so they have
no choice.

Ishigami tells Kouichi about all the enemies threatening the world,
including the Katou group, who killed his friend. There's also the
Mimetic Beasts, the Jama Empire, Cthulhu, and Darius. He's not alone
anymore -- Ishigami wants to introduce him to the other allies.

Lord Djibril has been informed about the Linebarrel, and tells the Logos
members that they don't really have to do anything. Now that LOTUS has
taken in the Linebarrel, they'll be able to use a legal, democratic
process to take control of it eventually. Mwa ha ha!

Ishigami's introduction of Kouichi goes over about as well as you would
expect. Ichitaka welcomes him warmly, and Kouichi is surprised that it
really was Ichitaka on the battlefield (and not a fake, like in anime).
Kujo, at least, tries to be nice -- teamwork is something they have to
create together. Moritsugu tells Kouichi that he's going to have to
practice and train; just relying on Linebarrel's abilities will just get
in the way in the long run. Ichitaka's been told the same thing so he
offers to train with Kouichi. But Kouichi still hasn't decided to join
-- if he's just going to get in the way, he'll go home. He leaves.
Certainly he did have a lot to deal with at once, so maybe if they talk
with him later he'll be more receptive.

Kouichi finds that he's been given new clothing and a cell phone, maybe
to try to bribe him into joining. He meets Emi in the hallway, who tries
to get him to come to terms with what he's done since getting the
Linebarrel. He's just been following his own whims and causing trouble
-- he called himself a protector of justice but hasn't actually
protected anything. Not only that, but Yajima's death is his fault. He
may be a Factor, but he's not worthy of Linebarrel!

F.S. is talking to yet another mysterious ??? in the location called
???. It seems that Linebarrel's awakening offers yet another possibility
for humanity, despite its infant state. It's not the only possibility,
though, and the more strength they have to oppose, the better. That's
why F.S. was given the R-Daigun after all. ??? says that it's not just
that; the R-Daigun's influence will cause things to move forward -- he's
learned a lot from watching the history and development of life. But
time is short.

Back to the Cthulhu base, where Sir Violet wants Sepia to stop mourning
Cobalt. It's time for her to take out the Iczer Sigma. She can take all
of her anger and sadness over Cobalt and direct it at Iczer-1. Big Gold
has already started moving, and Sepia will soon have a Partner of her
own. Violet shows Sepia a capsule where her future Partner, Iczer-2, has
emerged. She's an artificial life form, just like Iczer-1. Now that
Sepia is partnered with Iczer-2 and has the Iczer Sigma, there's no way
Iczer-1 can stand against them.

Stage 9A - Decision to Fight

The mechanics are having a tough time keeping the robots in top fighting
condition, and the last battle only made things worth. They should go
back to their respective bases to pick up supplies for their robots.
Tsubaki blames Kenji for switching parts so fast they can't keep up with
the repairs. Anyway, the big worry is that with both the Jeeg and
Godannar people gone, LOTUS' strength will be reduced quite a bit.
Either way is bad -- either the mechs will keep getting weaker and
weaker, or they might be individually picked off at their bases. The
rest of the mechs seem OK so hopefully they can hold the fort down while
Jeeg and Godannar are gone. The Jeeg team just needs to pick up spare
parts, so they won't be gone long. Ichitaka and Alice go off for their
usual training, and Emi wants to join them this time.

Iczer Sigma is ready to go, so Sir Violet sends out Sepia and Iczer-2 to
defeat Iczer-1, but reminds them that Iczer-1 has a bunch of allies, so
they shouldn't forget who their true target is. Meanwhile at the Jama
Empire, Himika learns that Jeeg has left LOTUS. Himika decides that
rather than going for Jeeg, they should instead strike at JUDA. Once the
main base is taken down, they can easily take the bronze bell from Jeeg.
Mimashi is sent out on the mission.

Emi asks Ichitaka what kind of a person Yajima was -- he was a reliable
leader with a strong sense of right, who tried to better himself to
protect Kouichi and Risako. They were all friends from childhood, which
is why Kouichi was so strongly affected by Yajima's death. It turns out
they are on their way to Yajima's funeral (which is closed casket
because they couldn't find the body). Kouichi shows up, and Risako is
happy that he didn't die too. Kouichi is still blaming himself, and
Ichitaka takes him away. When he seems Emi, he turns and goes a
different way. The rest of the group follows him.

Moping Kouichi runs into Nagisa (literally). Nagisa introduces herself
and has a favor to ask -- she doesn't know this area and wants to find
the train station. She then apparently spills her entire story to
Kouichi, and says she'll never fight again. Kouichi thinks this is a
waste -- she got the power to help others. She may think she's just a
regular girl, but she would regret it if a friend got hurt and she could
have saved her but didn't. Nagisa can see that Kouichi has a story of
his own, and offers to hear it, but Kouichi doesn't think he's worth it.
Nagisa is about to tell him about JUDA when Quatre comes up and is happy
to see them both. Nagisa doesn't recognize Quatre. Emi and Ichitaka also
come up, and Kouichi repeats his resolve not to fight -- he's done
playing at hero. It's his fault that Yajima died and the city was
ruined. Nagisa sees a kindred spirit in Kouichi. Quatre tells him that
recognizing his error is an important step, and tells the story of when
he screwed up with Wing Zero. It's not that Kouichi has lost the right
to fight, he needs to fight to make up for what he did before. He should
be able to use his power correctly now. Nagisa finds herself drawn in by
this too, but still just wants to be a regular girl.

Moritsugu contacts them saying that Haniwa and Cthulhu troops are in
Ozaki town. Of course they have tried to attack when everyone was
separated. Ishigami wants Kouichi to fight, but he refuses. Fine, but
he'll have to at least come to JUDA to take shelter. Nagisa too -- Alice
picks her up to carry her to the car. The rest of them try to convince
Kouichi, but he needs more time to think to make sure he doesn't screw
up again. Yajima told him at the end that the important thing was what
Kouichi wanted to do. But he does go to JUDA to take shelter.

On the battlefield, Sepia can tell that Iczer-1 and her Partner are
nearby. The Jama Empire people also show up to join the fun. Ikima wants
to join forces with Sepia, but since she only wants to fight Iczer-1,
she's content with just staying out of each others' way. The heroes show
up, and Iczer-1 is determined to fight even without her Partner.
Ishigami tells them that the rest of the mechs will be there soon. Jeeg
and Godannar should be joining them shortly after. Shizuna and Izuna try
to needle Kouichi, telling him to sit back and watch real fighters for
justice do their work. Iczer-2 also arrives, introducing herself as
Iczer-1's younger sister; they are both daughters of Big Gold! Iczer-1
tells the rest of the team that she'll take care of Iczer-2.

After a few turns, Iczer-2 decides it's time to finish things. She
knocks Iczer-1 around for a while and then tells Sepia to send out the
rest of the Dilos Thetas. They start ganging up on poor Iczer-1. Shizuna
and Izuna are able to get to Iczer-1, but that's just temporary help.
Now both mechs get beaten up by the Dilos Thetas. Ikima makes sure that
the rest of them can't get there to help. There just aren't enough
allies.

Kouichi is watching this from Ishigami's office. Kouichi wonders if
Ishigami is trying to bully him into fighting, but this is a serious
request. Shizuna doesn't want to get saved by an idiot, and Ichitaka is
still trying to use the Laplace Wall to make something happen, but it
doesn't work. Kouichi finally decides to try -- he may lack the right to
be a fighter for justice, but he can't just sit by and do nothing. Emi
tells him to become a true fighter for justice this time. Now Ishigami
turns to Nagisa -- she must have realized her power, and once she hears
what Ishigami has to say, she's free to do whatever she wants. Her
parents are dead. Also, Cthulhu has been behind all the disappearances
recently. They take over humans and control them, but Iczer-1 can stop
this. It was the Cthulhu who took over her parents and friends and tried
to kill her. Iczer-1 was able to fight them off and save
Nagisa...although she never mentioned that. Right now Iczer-1 is
fighting her hardest to avenge the killers of Nagisa's parents, even
though she knows it's useless without her Partner. Nagisa runs off to
find Iczer-1, and Ishigami acts satisfied over his manipulation ability.

Outside, Iczer-1 is still getting her butt kicked; Iczer-2 is
disappointed that she didn't even need the Sigma. But just at that
moment, Nagisa comes out, and so does Kouichi. He's no longer sure he
has the power or right to fight, but at the very least he's going to try
to save them. Nagisa has realized that she misunderstood Iczer-1; she
wasn't just some calamity that forced her into fighting. The Linebarrel
and Iczer Robo are able to clear away the enemies surrounding Iczer-1.
Iczer-1 merges with Iczer Robo, and Iczer-2 brings out Sigma -- time for
the two Iczers to see which one is stronger! Nagisa is now sure she
wants to use her strength to save the Earth, and Iczer-1 doesn't think
she can lose now that Nagisa is with her. Ikima decides to bring out
even more Haniwa soldiers.

The rest of the team shows up the next turn, with their mechs ready to
go.

When you beat Iczer-2, she regains some health and goes after Iczer
Robo. It's going to take more than some cheap Earth robots to defeat
her. But with Nagisa's new found resolve, Iczer Robo is more powerful
than ever. She manages to kill Sepia, but Iczer-2 escapes in the Sigma.

Once the rest of the enemies are beaten, a tiger-looking thing shows up.
Kyo recognizes it as "Balba" and tells everyone that it's an
ally...unless there's no one who can control it. Balba attacks Kenji,
and Kyo tells him that Balba is trying to test his strength. It will be
up to Kenji to defeat him. Kyo tells everyone else to stay back. After
you beat Balba, he regenerates and continues to attack Kenji -- Kyo
tells him to show Balba his strength. Kenji misses with his next attack
and Balba leaves.

Once Balba is gone, Nagisa and Kouichi are thanked. Rachel checks on
Alice -- she had some rise in temperature but was OK overall. Kenji
wonders why Dancougar didn't show up; they must be on another mission or
something. Ishigami invites them to come back to JUDA so that they can
have a big party for the two new allies. Nagisa makes it seem like she
and Kouichi had a secret encounter, which makes Emi jealous.

The party turns out to be sashimi rice bowl (chirashi-zushi) yet again.
For some of them this is the second day in a row; Ishigami finds any
excuse he can to make it. Nagisa is concerned about gaining weight; Goh
thinks that's silly, and Koji jokes that's why his wife left him. Nagisa
wonders who Goh's wife is, but doesn't want to ask if it's a sensitive
subject. Kouichi finds hiimself now fighting for the Earth, rather than
some half-baked idea of Justice. He and Nagisa are both uncertain how
well they can do it, but Goh tells them that they will discover their
strength as they fight. Izuna and Shizuna thank Kouichi for his help (in
their confusing/tsundere way). Kouichi gives Shizuna a hairpin, causing
the usual tsundere reaction from her.

Kenji asks Kyo about the tiger from earlier. It was the magical beast
Balba. Those are artificial life forms created in the far past. For
those that can control them they're allies, if not they're enemies. Emi
wants Kouichi to go to the infirmary for a medical check; because he's a
Factor it's a good idea to have him checked out. In the hallway, Emi
apologizes for what she said to Kouichi before. But Kouichi says her
words actually caused him to reconsider his position as Factor and
figure things out. Now rather than "fighting for Justice" he's just
going to fight and try to figure out what justice is. As they reach the
infirmary Kouichi thinks that Emi looks a little pale, but she brushes
it off.

Big Gold is pissed off at Sir Violet for losing Sepia and Cobalt.
Iczer-2 explains what happened -- Iczer Robo gained an unexpected power,
and Sepia had some lack of confidence that affected Iczer Sigma's power.
Iczer-2 thinks that she can draw out Sigma's true power on her own.
Iczer-2 goes off to heal, and Big Gold tells Sir Violent to contact the
Jama Empire...

The Katou Group is wondering what to do about Linebarrel now that it's
completely under LOTUS' protection. Riku thinks he should have had
command of the mission from the beginning, but Katou had more important
stuff for him to do. Soumi agrees; their mission isn't just to take out
Linebarrel. It's to make him fight until the end, then show him the
powerlessness of justice. Masaki and Katou agree to send Soumi out on
the next mission. Wufei wonders why Soumi is so anti-Justice...

Stage 10A - Engage Godannar

Professor Gleif is still in prison, still refusing to cooperate with the
mysterious person. Mr. ??? is going to have to use bolder means to
compel Gleif's participation, but he assures Gleif that it won't hurt
his body. He has his underlings put Gleif to sleep and bring out a brain
scan machine, telling Gleif to call him "Mister President" next time.

The JUDA researchers have a lead on the Professor. Further analysis of
the picture shows that the materials for Alice's upgrades were all going
to come from a company called GreAT. Apparently this is a company that
produces food, vending machines goods, and other daily use products. But
they made their money out of machine parts. What's really strange is
that they were giving Gleif the materials for free. Even things that the
company usually didn't manufacture were being given to the Professor.
They're not sure why he canceled his plans, but it wasn't because of
material quality. Ichitaka hopes that if they can find out what the
Professor was researching, they can get some idea of why he was
captured.

The various new pilots are shown to their living quarters at JUDA, which
are quite posh (originally it was a worker's dorm). The mechanics can
live here too. Ishigami gives out the keys and they go to find their
room, although he warns them about hurting themselves. Ichitaka tells
Kouichi to call him if he needs anything, and leaves Kouichi to open the
door to his room...revealing Emi naked inside. His yells bring Kenji and
Ichitaka back, and they all get roundly slapped by Emi. Kouichi has to
go to the infirmary, but the rest of them just have light wounds (at
least until Tsubaki gets her hands on Kenji). Ishigami claims he mixed
up the keys "accidentally". Ogawa promises to deal with Ishigami, and
hustles him off to his office. Everyone thinks it's suspicious that he
knew when Emi would be coming out of the bath, and wonders if he's using
security cameras...no, it's just water use patterns.

At the Dannar Base, repairs to the Go-Okusaer, which is a prototype of
the Neo. It was abandoned because the strain on the pilot's mind was too
great. They're trying to retool it so that Shizuru can pilot it,
although it really should be Anna. Just then, they get a distress call
from Dinobase -- the Menage Zero has attacked, and they're heading for
the Dannar Base next. How did they get past the defense? Lou in the
Cosmo Diver, who should be an ally, attacked, and in the confusion the
Menage Zero was able to get past. She's apparently still going after the
Mimetic Beasts along with Ken, although she's been missing for 2 months.
They put out a call to LOTUS, and prepare their own defense.
Unfortunately it looks like Moukaku (another pilot) has been taken over
by the insania virus.

Anna is having her own little troubles -- fired from her job (for
punching her manager) and kicked out of her apartment, what can she do?
She wonders how Nagisa is doing. If only Anna could be an idol, she
wouldn't need a job...she's interrupted in her dreaming by a friend,
Shinobu (Goh's brother). But they're interrupted by an explosion.
Mimetic Beasts!

LOTUS and the Godannar people quickly arrive. Goh is eager to take on
the Menage Zero again since he lost last time, and also to deal with Lou
if she shows up. Kouichi is already recovered from Emi's attack (credit
the super healing power of Factors). Of course, Lou (Cosmo Diver) and
Ken (Menage Zero) show up, and start fighting the beasts. Ken is looking
for the Mimetic Beast that killed his wife. Goh wants to rescue Lou from
him, but Milla charges out ahead of him. Ken attacks, and though Goh is
able to protect her, the Neo Okusaer is damaged and has to retreat. Anna
is ready to go back to the Dannar Base despite her earlier failures.
Shinobu tries to stop her, but Anna rememebers her wish to become a
pilot, which goes back even before her love for Goh. She realizes that
she was just projecting her own failures and problems onto Goh. Her true
place is the Dannar Base. Everyone else is ready to fight, but Ken tells
them not to get in his way.

The next turn, the Go-Okusaer appears, with Anna inside. Rather than
being happy to see her, Goh gets pissed that she's been away for 2
months and tells her to go away. Does she know how much trouble she's
caused? Anna tries to apologize but Goh tells her she has no right to be
in a mech anymore. Anna knows it, that's why she stayed away for so
long. There's a lot of surprise on the allied side that this young girl
is married -- Nagisa in particular wonders why she never said anything
about it (although Nagisa is happy to see her alive). Goh and Anna keep
arguing, but Kiriko breaks in and tells them it's not the time for this.
Goh is still opposed, but he can't do anything about it. Kiriko tells
Anna they'll have plenty to talk about later, for now she can try to
reclaim her good name. The mechanic gives Anna some warnings about the
mech, and it's time to fight.

The next turn, Goh finishes his quick repairs to the Godannar. Kagemaru
calls on Goh and Anna to combine, but Kiriko says Anna needs more time
to learn the Go-Okusaer before that can happen. Goh has no intention of
combining with Anna anyway.

When Ken takes enough damage his body starts giving out and he leaves,
with Lou close behind.

The Menage Zero ran away, but at least they prevented most of the damage
to the town. Yamashita thinks they still need to be careful, since last
time there was a hidden Mimetic Beast....this time, too. It appears next
to Goh. Linebarrel is able to swoop in and save him, but Kiriko tells
them that they're going to have to combine to beat this monster.
Moritsugu authorizes it, but Goh still doesn't want to combine with
Anna. Milla he can trust, but Anna has no sense of responsibility. Here
comes another newlywed fight. They yell at each other for their bad
habits -- staying too long in the bath, not changing his socks,
lecturing him all the time, etc. Eventually they get tired and it's time
to combine. Unfortunately it doesn't go right at first. But they pour
all their energy into it and on the second try they succeed, and with
the full power of the Godannar they beat the Mimetic Beast. Anna loses
consciousness, but it's all good. All the enemies are gone, so time to
go back to JUDA...probably to have more sashimi-on-rice. Not so fast!
Kiriko has some important information, so first let's stop at the Dannar
Base.

Anna and Nagisa have a happy reunion in the infirmary. Anna apologizes
for not telling Nagisa about her marriage and stuff, but she was
embarrassed. Nagisa thinks it's more embarrassing to have a newlywed
fight that the entire town can hear. Kouichi is conflicted about hearing
that one of his heroes sits around naked or doesn't change his socks,
but Goh's human just like everyone else. Iczer-1 thinks that Kouichi's
finally blossoming into a true fighter for justice. Shinobu comes by to
make sure Anna's safe, and is surprised that Goh isn't there too...but
apparently they're all in the command room.

Kiriko's information is about Max and Moukaku, two heroes from the fight
against the Mimetic Beasts 5 years ago. They were thought to have been
killed in battle, but were rescued from within Mimetic Beasts and are
now in a coma. This is the same thing that happened to Milla. Max stole
the Core Gunner and tried to kidnap Milla soon after he recovered...this
probably had something to do with Max's jealousy towards Goh for getting
Milla as his girlfriend. However, it seems that Max and Moukaku have
both died. Shadow, a hero at a different base, came down with the same
sickness but recovered. This is due to the "Insania virus", a virus that
the Mimetic Beasts spread. Kiriko shows them a video of Max shortly
before he died. This virus is what's causing the "rabbit syndrome" they
noticed; the virus has no effect on most people, but males, and male
fighters, are at much greater risk of developing symptoms. The big
problem is that everyone who has fought the Mimetic Beasts is in danger
of developing symptoms. Alice protests -- her health checkups didn't
find anything! That's because the virus lies dormant in people's psyches
and can't be detected by normal means. Everyone's going to have to
submit to a detailed checkup. It's probably not something to worry about
since the chance of developing symptoms is so low, but they need to be
safe.

The results of the checkup are in -- some people are infected, but the
only one that has a real chance of developing symptoms is Goh. Kiriko
orders him to stop using the Godannar. It may take them a long time, but
once they come up with a cure he can use the Godannar again...or does he
want to end up like Max? In addition to what they've said before, they
actually had to destroy Moukaku's mech because he had started attacking
allied units. If Goh in the Godannar went crazy, who would be able to
stop it? Goh can do important work in training and strategy. Shizuru
will pilot the Dannar in his place. Kiriko then wants to find out how
the allies they left in space are doing.

The rest of the pilots are bummed about Goh and wondering if there's
anything they can do to help. Miumi reminds them that being sad will
just make it worse for Goh. The best thing they can do now is be
cheerful, and participate in Goh's training. Meanwhile, they're getting
the Neo Okusaer ready for Anna. Nagisa comes to find out how she's
doing, as she's training in the mech. Anna and Milla have now become
rivals in love and fighting. Goh really needs to sit down with both of
them and talk, but they haven't done that yet. Anna, meanwhile, is
getting beat up because she tried S rank training right off the bat. She
replies that she has to do that to make up for being gone for 2 months.
She's thinking to herself that she had never seen Goh that sad before,
and that she has to help him any way she can.

Stage 11 - Prelude to the Fight

Ishigami welcomes the Macross and Gaiking people to JUDA. The important
issue now is to exchange information and figure out what they should do
next. Jeffrey is worried about the Macross Quarter causing problems for
the Earth Sphere.

While the commanders hash out what to do, the pilots are chiling in the
cafeteria. Ichitaka is introduced to some of the new people, including
Noin from OZ, and Zechs, who tried to destroy the world. Next up are
Michel, Luka, and Aoto from the Macross. Ichitaka already knows Daiya,
the Gaiking pilot. Apparently the Gaiking planes have been powered up,
although many of the strong mechs are still stuck in Darius World. This
is partly because the Darius Army has been silent lately, so they're
gearing up for a big assault on the main capital. Kenji is eager to see
Lulu, the pretty captain of the Daiku Maryu, but she's in the commander
meeting. The space crew was able to help various peace events and videos
go off smoothly, even though the main actress (Eida) had to quit, and
Ranka Lee was up there instead. She's become famous even on Earth --
Kouichi heard about her being captured by the Vajra during her event and
then getting miraculously saved. Sheryl, meanwhile, is having some sort
of illness so is undergoing treatment on the Macross Quarter. Daiya goes
into the lobby to talk with his friend Naoto, and wants Naoto to come to
the Daiku Maryu with everyone.

The tour of the Daiku Maryu begins. Everyone is suitably impressed at
the size of the hold. Daiya is eager to show off the rest of the ship
too, although going to Professor Sakon's room probably isn't a good
idea. He's one of those scientist types who never cleans his room.
Nagisa shows up a little late, and all the Macross people recognize
her...but it's not the same person. Are there two twins both named
Nagisa? Anyway, time for the tour to continue, but Daiya has to help
Shizuka carry some heavy stuff, so the co-captain Rosa takes over the
tour.

Meanwhile Naoto has lost his way and ended up with the three strange
guys who pilot the little Gaiking unit. They try to get Naoto to join
their group but he just wants to get away. Sakon helps him escape, but
he gets lost again and ends up overhearing one of Alice's health
checkups. Longo, the co-pilot of the Daiku Maryu, has a severe injury
but is hiding it so that he can keep doing his important job.

Out in New Tokyo City 3, Shinji has been called suddenly by his father.
He hears what he thinks is an earthquake, but it's actually the 4th
Angel. Poor Igarashi is out there again with some troops, ready to get
his butt kicked. Of course their attacks do nothing, and Misato is able
to pick up Shinji in a car and get him away. All of Igarashi's men are
destroyed, but his commanding officer tells him to leave -- they're
going to use an N2 mine. The civilians have been evacuated, and Shinji
and Misato leave too. The mine goes off, but doesn't destroy the Angel.

In the NERV HQ, Fuyutsuki is surprised at the Angel's regeneration.
Gendou expected it though -- they are nearly perfect life forms, after
all. Unfortunately they exist to snuff out all life. Just then, the
commander at NERV gets an order from the higher ups. Control of
operations is to be transferred to Ikari Gendou.

Shinji is being escorted through NERV by Misato. She explains that NERV
is a secret organization connected with the UN. All Shinji has heard
about his father's work is that he's protecting humanity, but he can't
imagine him doing anything like Kouichi or the other people "fighting
for justice".

The Federation commander transfers control to Gendou, hoping that he can
deal with the Angel. Gendou is confident they can, and Fuyutsuki notes
that it's been 3 years since their last meeting with the Angels.

Lady Une and Ishigami are talking about the Angels; she wants LOTUS to
go help NERV; if they can't beat the Angels, humanity is doomed.

Shinji wonders what his father wants him to do; surely he wouldn't have
even contacted Shinji if he wasn't going to use him for something.
Misato is silent, but then Ritsuko shows up -- Misato got there 12
minutes late, so she's here to hurry them along. Ritsuko shows Shinji
the Evangelion EVA-1, a new secret weapon they've built. Gendou is there
too but only to tell Shinji it's time to go. Misato is surprised; the
EVA-0 is in deep freeze. Are they really going to try the EVA-1? Ritsuko
tells Shinji to get in the EVA-1. Shinji wonders if this is the only
reason his father called him here -- of course it is. Shinji didn't
think his father had any use for him, but Gendou says that he wouldn't
have called him otherwise. Shinji is reluctant to do this; how can he be
the only one to pilot this thing he's never seen or heard of before? The
Angel starts hitting the base, and everyone tells Shinji he has to get
in now, but he refuses. Gendou quickly gives up on him and calls on Rei;
she's injured, but not dead. They start refitting the EVA-1 for Rei,
which only confirms to Shinji that he's not necessary. But when he sees
how hurt Rei is, he tells himself repeatedly not to run away, and agrees
to pilot the mech. The operators and technicians get everything ready,
and Shinji goes out in the EVA-1.

Gendou is willing to do anything to defeat the Angels. Shinji manages to
make the EVA move, but the Angel immediately goes after him and damages
the mech. Fortunately LOTUS shows up just then. Gendou is fine to let
them do whatever they want. Kouichi can't believe it's actually Shinji
in the EVA. Misato contacts LOTUS, and Lulu tells her that they know the
basics -- if the Angels aren't defeated, the Third Impact will happen,
destroying humanity. Misato wants them to help out Shinji since it's his
first fight. Shinji assumes this means he's once again useless, but
Misato tells him that only the EVAs can truly destroy the Angels.
Moritsugu warns everyone that the Angels have a mysterious barrier
called an AT-Field, so they'll have to be careful. Everyone else
prepares to fight, including Anna and Shizuku, who have to try the
Godannar for the first time.

When the heroes attack, they see the AT Field can't be pierced by normal
attacks; it will need to be a powerful attack to do so. Misato tells
them that the EVAs weapons can pierce the fields; Ritsuko tells her to
be quiet, but Misato says that with the survival of the human race in
the balance, it's no time to keep secrets.

Amaso soon shows up with a Haniwa troop. He went out without Himika's
permission and is hoping to take down Jeeg to prove his worth.

When you beat the Angel, it regenerates fully. Misato and Ritsuko
realize that unless the core is destroyed by the EVA, it won't die.
Shinji doesn't think he can do it if the entire force of LOTUS couldn't.
Kouichi takes it upon himself to convince his friend and do the job
himself -- Shinji decides that he can do it, if his father thinks he
could. Unfortunately the Angel attacks first and flattens the EVA.
Shinji's life is in danger and the NERV people try to rescue him, but
it's no use. They can't even eject the pilot. Just as they wonder what
to do, EVA-1 resurrects as a fierce monster, and rushes at the Angel,
ripping out the core and destroying it. The EVA then stops, and they try
to recover Shinji. Now with both Shinji and the Angel gone, it's time to
take care of the rest of the enemies.

When Amaso is damaged a bit, he calls in some additional Haniwa to deal
with the Daiku Maryu. Longo tries to do the evasive maneuvers but in his
wounded state he can't dodge well. Lulu orders an emergency retreat, and
Naoto comes on to the bridge to tell them about Longo's condition. The
Macross tries to protect the ship, but one Haniwa still remains. Naoto
grabs the controls and evades the Haniwa's attack. Longo leaves the
control of the ship in Naoto's hands. Daiya doesn't think this is a good
idea, but Naoto has made a promise and intends to keep it.

Once Amaso is defeated, Himika contacts him wondering what the hell he's
doing. She orders him back for severe punishment (which seems to arouse
Amaso). With all the enemies gone, the heroes don't know what to make of
this "Angel" or the EVA-1. Ishigami invites them to visit NERV, and
Gendou is fine with it as long as it doesn't disrupt his master plan.

Shinji awakes in the NERV infirmary. Ichitaka and Kouichi visit him.
Shinji remembers fighting against the Angel, but can't remember
defeating it. Misato says they're still investigating why the EVA acted
on its own, but praises Shinji for his fighting ability. Shinji just
remembers being scared he would die, which makes Misato sorry they'll
have to keep sending him out to fight.

SEELE is talking to Gendou. Everything is going to plan; the 4th Angel
is destroyed and they got the Third Children, although LOTUS'
interference was unexpected, and the repairs to EVA-1 cost a lot more
than they thought. Gendou assures them things will be ready by the 5th
Angel's arrival. EVA-2 and its pilot are currently in the final testing
stages in Germany, and the construction of more EVAs is underway. SEELE
reminds Gendou that the destruction of the Angels is only one part of
Lilith's contract. Their true goal is Human Instrumentality.

Afterwards Gendou and Fuyutsuki talk in his office. There are some
things outside of what was written in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but Gendou's
plan is to assign the EVA to LOTUS. It will be harder for SEELE to keep
tabs on it then. The "schedule" has some problems in it anyway, that
they haven't discovered yet.

Misato shows Shinji and his friends a sunset view of the city. This is
the city that Shinji worked to protect. He doesn't think he's that
important, but Ichitaka reminds him that even if he doesn't remember it,
he was the one that beat the Angel. Misato tells Shinji that he's
crucial to protect this city, and the world.

Fuyutsuki tells Lady Une that the EVAs, supposedly created to fight
Darius, are actually to deal with the Angels. They just used the Darius
invasion as an excuse to develop them. Lady Une wonders if some of the
other organizations like Dancougar might have been doing the same lie.
Dancougar didn't come this time, though. 20 years ago the Kato Group
started their activities, and technology came from the "other side" to
help after the Second Impact. It was partly due to their help that they
could develop the EVAs, and the Dancougar was used to prolong the wars.
There may have been interference from Logos as well. Une wants to know
the details about the Angels. Gendou will only say that the Angels must
be defeated or humanity will be destroyed, and that defeating them is
NERV's mission. Une wonders if the frozen EVA-0 is enough to defend
Central Dogma, but Gendou tells her there's more to the situation than
she knows. EVA-0 will also be sent to LOTUS once it's ready. The last
thing Une wants to know about is EVA-1's battle frenzy. Ritsuko assures
her that they can trust the EVA; the risk of the frenzy is something
they have to live with. Une wonders if they could make it like a Mobile
Doll with no pilot, but Gendou says that without a human pilot, the AT
Field can't be generated. And that AT Field is the only thing that can
pierce the AT Field of the Angels. Une accepts the information and
assures Gendou they'll take care of the EVA and his son. She ends the
communication. Fuyutsuki wonders how she got all her information; Gendou
thinks it was "that guy" but isn't worried. Une isn't the enemy.

It's another JUDA party, for Shinji and Misato! Naoto also gets
re-introduced as an operator for the Daiku Maryu. Some of the old guys
are worried about so many kids in LOTUS, but that's how Super Robot Wars
works, right? Shinji and Naoto are receiving a warm welcome, and some of
the females think they're cute. Shizuka (Gaiking) is making sure that
Shizuru (Godannar) is OK with her new responsibilities -- piloting the
Godannar and training Anna. Ishigami quiets everyone down; as an
icebreaker he wants people to show their hidden talents to everyone.

Later, Kouichi and others are walking through the JUDA shopping mall,
looking for things to buy for their "hidden talent show". Rachel is
buying clothes and makeup. Juzo and Michel wonder about toy guns. Puria
suggests that Alto do some kind of female cosplay (which he rejects),
and Shizuna buys stuff to do a Manzai comedy routine. Megumi is going to
throw ninja stars, and Yagyu wants to do Iaido. Kouichi isn't sure what
to do, but Emi wants him to help with hers...

Back to the party, where Misato is already on her way to getting
plastered. Now it's time for the hidden talents. Yamashita reels off the
names of train stops in order. Izuna and Shizuna start off doing some
kind of comedy routine but it turns into wrestling. Next up is a quiz
contest between Kosuke and Rachel, who both answer the questions off the
first couple of words. Emi and Kouichi do a magic show. Emi is going to
cut Kouichi in half and he'll regrow...just like she saw on TV! Kouichi
seems genuinely scared...

Shinji is enjoying the party, but finds it a little carefree. Yamashita
assures him that when it's time to be serious they're serious.
Ishigami's fun-loving nature is important for their overall mission.
Shinji seems to be a little at ease. Yamashita is wondering where
Moritsugu is, when he appears -- he's been hearing about a new type of
Alma to be unveiled soon; something that will "change history".

Stage 12 - An Afterschool Visitor

Sheryl's room in the Macross Quarter is looking a bit dirty, but Alice
(a home-help robot, remember) is eager to clean everything up. Michel
asks her to give him anything that Sheryl forgot. Alice starts to clean,
but her statements sound a bit more like fighting than cleaning.

Ichitaka is returning to school for the first time in a while. Emi is
also starting at the school, so Quatre is going to stay as a student for
now to help out. Shinji, however, has special training with Misato, and
seems to be a little depressed. Alice, meanwhile, has found something of
Sheryl's so goes looking for Michel.

The Voltes team and some Macross people are shopping in the mall with
Michel. Alto is on the phone...is it with Ranka? No, Ranka's too busy,
it's just about work. Alice comes up to give what she found to
Michel...now it's everyone else's turn to suspect Michel of romantic
things. Alice has found some medicine called "WITCH CRAFT"; Michel knew
that Sheryl was taking some sort of medicine. Alice is curious what kind
of medicine this is -- Michel has no idea but assumes it's from Galaxy.
He promises to look into it and see what it is.

Yuu and Haruno are still chasing after the Professor's whereabouts. They
think they've found a lead on an island, where a number of the
unidentified enemy units appear. The Straybird quickly destroys them,
but then they see a new type of unit. It's the Imperial, being observed
unidentified man keeping Professor Gleif. The man has allowed Gleif not
to be analyzed today so he can see the results of his research up close.
Yuu is confident, but completely misses the target and gets severly
damaged by the counterattack. The man, who calls himself Mister
President again, opens communications with Yuu. He isn't interested in
answering any of Yuu's questions, just telling him he has no right to
any information since he's failed to attain the "possibility". If he
wants answers, or to save Professor Gleif, he's going to have to show
the "possibility" by force. Yuu leaves, and Mister President talks with
his underlings about the attempts to mass produce the Imperial.

Risako is happy to see all her friends back at school. She's not happy
to see Emi there, and wonders why she's been excluded from whatever
they've all been doing. Another student, Domyoji, appears and tries to
flirt with Emi. His main goal, though, is to find out if Kouichi is
really as strong as the rumors say. Kouichi is more than ready to show
him how strong he is. Unfortunately Domyoji handles him easily,
surprising Emi (since Kouichi is a Factor). It's not his raw strength or
speed, but his method of attacking that's the problem. His movements are
too obvious, and Domyoji can turn his own attacks against him. Kouichi
decides to show him his true power, summoning Linebarrel(!). Emi and
Quatre chide him for his stupidity, but Domyoji is impressed to see the
mech that's been on the news lately. He's misjudged Kouichi, and
promises that "we" (himself, Quatre, Emi, and Ichitaka) will support
Kouichi any way they can. Kouichi is happy to accept Domyoji's help, and
Emi has no idea what just happened. This will be called the Domyoji
Group!!

At the Kiriyama Factory, Kiriyama is thanking Ishigami for LOTUS'
service against the many enemies Earth is facing. However, he thinks
that there are plans afoot that even LOTUS can't counter -- especially
with all the mechs that have been produced under the facade of fighting
Darius. However!! This new Alma they've produced will be able to fight
off even the Angels. The new mech he's showing is the HFX-19 Jinrai, and
he's ready to stage a mock combat to show them how good it is. Moritsugu
seems unimpressed for some reason.

Shinji is training in a simulator, but wants higher levels -- he wants
to be able to match his friends. Noin and Tetsuya also want to help
train, but he needs to master the basics before they can do any special
stuff. Misato is thinking to herself about how EVA-1 was sent out
without any prior notice, and other odd things going on. Shinji's
acceptance of his role was also unexpected.

Back at JUDA, the mechs are yelling at Kouichi for calling the
Linebarrel for no reason -- right in the middle of maintenance. Goh
tells him to pick his battles more carefully, but Anna thinks he's one
to talk about that...of course, right now Goh can't battle at all. Now a
surprising visitor comes to talk to Kouichi -- it's Katou! He's here
with Masaki, and also Wufei. Kouichi wonders why Katou is here; Katou
wants him to imagine the reason himself, since imagination is such an
important thing. Imagination is what fuels possibilities, including
perhaps the only possibility for surviving the days to come. Wufei is
there for the same reason as usual, fighting for justice (I guess
Katou's not as bad as Emperor Zuul). Wufei also insults Goh for not
being able to fight.

Anyway, Katou has really come because he wants Linebarrel. He tried to
steal it a number of times before, but now that Kouichi has fully shown
his ability as a Factor, he came to talk to Kouichi instead. He pulls
out a mysterious breifcase which has...castella cake. Kouichi eats some
and finds out it's curry flavored. This is intended as a metaphor -- the
reality was different from his imagination. Forgetting your imaginations
causes the world to stop. Katou will give him the information he needs
to imagine the future of the world. Katou's own imagination is, of
course, to rule the world. The mechs that JUDA and Katou have, as well
as the units that the Second Impact has given rise to, are based on Over
Technology that doesn't exist normally in the world. How did all this
technology get here? Obviously due to someone from a different
dimension; a place of dark matter that they call a "High Probability
World." Katou himself is the vanguard of the force coming from that
world to take over the Earth. Normally, the strength from their world
would have made taking over Earth a snap, but there have been problems.
If Kouichi wants any further information, he'll have to join the Katou
group. Rachel wants to know why Linebarrel seems so different from all
the other machina -- Katou says it's because Linebarrel isn't just a
machine for takeover; it was invented by the genius scientist Kizaki
Tenji, Emi's father. That's right, Emi is from the same world as Katou
-- Tenji was opposed to their aims and Emi came to this world to help
protect it. What's more, the Macross Frontier people are also from this
alternate world. They wouldn't have known about the Katou Group because
they were already gone from Earth when the group started its activities.
Kouichi refuses to join them of course, since he's a fighter for
justice. Wufei doesn't think Kouichi has the right to speak about
justice. It's time for Katou to go, though, and suddenly he's surrounded
by Alma that take him away. He tells Kouichi that he should join the
Katou Group to find out what true justice is.

Everyone is surprised that the leader of Katou Group actually came out
in person -- at least they learned some important information. Also, if
Katou could come from the alternate world, that means the Macross
Quarter should be able to get back there. Luka leaves to tell the other
captains about it, and Kouichi wants to chase Katou down. However, just
then there's an emergency call -- the Federation base at Vladivostok is
under attack by the Katou Group. Ishigami orders them to go help, even
though the Federation considers them enemies -- their task is to protect
the whole Earth.

Masaki arrives at the base, where apparently the first sphere is going
to be set. Masaki takes out a bunch of mechs with his Glain Neidr, and
then goes in to set the sphere while everyone else takes care of LOTUS.
The first one to show up, however, is Dancougar. Masaki thinks they can
leave it to the R-Daigun, but it's not quite here yet.

A few turns later, the R-Daigun finally arrives. Aoi resolves to beat up
everyone including the R-Daigun and force it to tell what it knows, but
it uses some sort of stealth to disappear. Masaki indicates the fight
will soon be over, but Soumi wishes it would go on longer so that
Dancougar could slowly savor its own powerlessness. The R-Daigun appears
from behind Dancougar and knocks it back, causing the team to start
fighting amongst themselves. A further attack takes the Dancougar down
to 10 HP. The R-Daigun's pilot leaves, saying that now the world can be
saved. The Dancougar team completely loses their will to fight. Even the
Katou Group is confused by the R-Daigun's behavior, but now that it's
gone, back to setting the sphere and watching for LOTUS. LOTUS arrives
immediately after this. They can tell this mission is important to the
Katou Group because of how many named enemies there are. They try to
contact Dancougar, but there's no response (although the pilots are
still alive). The heroes are shocked at the huge size of the Glain Neidr
-- it's even bigger than Gaiking. It's actually a Machina rather than an
Alma, just like the Talisman that Soumi is piloting. Soumi spouts some
stuff about the poor justice of LOTUS, which Wufei doesn't much like.
Ishigami seems to know Masaki -- Masaki says he took over Ishigami's
position, and Ishigami recognizes that if the Glain Neidr is out, Katou
must be serious. Hyoma wants to know what this is about, but there's no
time for such talk now. Monica on the Macross Quarter is able to tell
that they're going to activate some sort of dimensional warp very soon,
near the Glain Neidr, unless they can defeat the enemies very soon.
Shinji wonders if he should be out there too, but Misato wants him to
stay behind this time. In any case, the plan has to be to go after the
Glain Neidr with all their strength.

When you get closer, some new units appear that were hidden by stealth.
They immediately disappear again and show up right in front of
Moritsugu's unit. They're obviously going for the leader. Yamashita
thinks he's completely responsible for this and heads for Moritsugu to
protect him. Moritsugu tries to get him to stay back, but he attacks
instead and gets beat up. Moritsugu attacks Yamashita, disabling his
mech and telling him to stay there and shoot things. The plan stays the
same. However, Shinji appears too, saying that the AT Field can protect
Yamashita's unit as well (no, this isn't Alpha 3, so he's wrong). He
joins with Yamashita and the stealth units head back to Masaki. Misato
decides to allow Shinji to stay out, reminding him that he needs to keep
the Umbilical Cable connected to the ship.

When you beat Jack, he tries to go for Moritsugu. Miu tries to attack
first, but Jack takes her weapon and attacks back. Moritsugu defends Miu
and then does his own attack, but notices that it doesn't damage Jack
all that much -- apparently Jack himself is an Alma.

On Turn 8, there's some sort of dimensional warp and a black sphere
appears. Masaki orders everyone to leave, having set the sphere, but
Katou cuts in and tells him they have to stay and fight. With R-Daigun
gone, this is their chance to get Dancougar. He tells Masaki not to die,
but to fight as much as he can. [If you beat him before turn 8 the
dialog is probably different]

When you beat Masaki he leaves, having accomplished his mission.
Everyone feels like they failed even though they actually won; Kenji </pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
suggests just destroying the black sphere, but Sakon urges caution. If
this were something you could just go blow up and remove, the Katou
group wouldn't have left it there. Rachel begins to analyze it, and they
try to recover the Dancougar. Unfortunately, Riku was hiding nearby and
now comes out to finish it off. The Daiku Maryu tries to attack, but it
fails -- Riku chides them for their lack of imagination; of course his
armor is thick enough to stave off bombs. He then goes to destroy the
Dancougar but R-Daigun attacks him instead -- he's the one without
imagination! R-Daigun blows up Riku's mech and then leaves without
explanation. Yamashita's also OK, and even though Moritsugu is wounded,
he was born without a sense of pain so he can keep going with light
wounds.

At JUDA, Tanaka contacts Ishigami; apparently Dancougar is going to join
LOTUS now. Tanaka blames his superiors for the delay, and can't quite
answer why Dancougar is now allowed to go to LOTUS. The counselor Roo
Riruri will also be accompanying Dancougar. Tanaka cuts the
communication. Ishigami knows that one superior is F.S. but he isn't
sure who the other person Tanaka mentioned is.

Alice is tending to the Dancougar team in JUDA's infirmary. Goh asks
them about the Dancougar and why they're fighting, but Aoi says they
just follow orders and aren't really sure themselves. They don't even
know the actual people who are giving the orders from high up. They'd
sure like to know why they suddenly started fighting for "justice" and
why now they've suddenly been assigned to LOTUS. Yet another instance of
them just having to follow orders with no say in what they do. They seem
very blase; Aoi just wants stimulating work, and Kurara doesn't see much
change since they've already helped LOTUS a bunch. Aoi isn't happy that
they lost to R-Daigun but shrugs it off; maybe next time. For now, she
just wants to get out of the infirmary. Emi goes to show them to their
rooms. Everyone was left with the distinct impression of coldness from
the entire team.

Moritsugu wants to know why Yamashita behaved the way he did. Moritsugu
never asked Yamashita to protect him; in that battle it was Miu's role.
He also made Shinji disobey orders, and Misato's not willing to just let
him off because it turned out OK in the end. Kouichi wonders what's
wrong with wanting to protect your friends? Moritsugu responds that it
messes up the mission plan. No more time for discussion though, because
Kouichi and Ichitaka are supposed to be buying the supplies for yet
another sashimi-bowl party.

In a hold of the Macross Quarter, Cathy is talking to Mishima. Mishima
wasn't able to find anything out about Burera Stern or the Galaxy Fleet.
She's also not happy with the news that their Earth is occupied by the
Katou Group. Why didn't the Frontier databases have that information?
Mishima doesn't know; it does seem that after they left Earth the New
Federation fought with some enemy and was defeated. Mishima actually
contacted Earth at the time, but their orders were to keep going. Even
Cathy's father the Mayor didn't get many messages from Earth after that.
Mishima has other duties to attend to -- Cathy apologizes for contacting
him, and Mishima reminds her to stay strong. After he cuts the
communication, Cathy thinks he was acting odd. And why did he lie about
Burera Stern?

Quatre informs Une of Wufei's foolishness -- they hope he's doing some
sort of infiltration mission like Trowa, but they're not sure. Anyway,
time to call everyone together for some big news. Relena Peacecraft has
gone missing. The last they heard of her was when she went to argue with
the Federation over their use of nuclear weapons. The culprit is
unclear, but Zechs thinks that it was likely Lord Djibril, whose
policies Relena was opposing. Now Sakon explains about the black sphere.
Whatever is inside is completely blocked from the outside world, but
they can't determine what it is. A good guess is that this will enable
the Katou Group's main force to appear in this world. For now they'll
have to watch it 24/7. Now to the next important question -- what is
Ishigami's relation to the Katou Group? It turns out Ishigami was a
commander in the group, and the Machina at JUDA are ones he stole from
Katou when he left. He apologizes, also for not telling them about this
earlier, but he found it hard to do. He honestly believed when he was
with the group that Katou could bring peace and order to the world. But
he assures everyone he's a great example of how you can make a mistake
and turn everything around! Some are still suspicious, but Lady Une
vouches for him...although she did the same thing with OZ. There are
other examples as well; Captain Garis was with Darius, and Iczer-1 was
with Cthulhu. Oh well, everyone goes back to partying with the sushi
bowls.

Ritsuko contacts them to say that EVA-00 is repaired and ready to join
LOTUS, and Rei (the pilot) is all healed up. They'll head to NERV to
pick her up, and supplies, and to enroll Shinji in his new school.

At Shangrila, Masaki congratulates everyone on a job well done. As it
turns out, even the Katou Group underlings don't know what these spheres
are for, and Masaki is reluctant to say. They all tell him that they're
committed to the Katou Group, so what's the point of keeping it secret?
Sometimes it's nice to have the power of imagination, but this is too
important for that. Masaki promises that Katou himself will tell them
when the time is right. All he can say now is that the spheres will
bring the correct future to the world. Later, Wufei asks Soumi why he
hates justice. Soumi turns the question back to him; is his justice the
same a Katou's? Wufei doesn't know, but he's committed to fight for
justice. He doesn't think Soumi is worth anything though, if he got rid
of his sense of justice. On the bridge, Katou apologizes to Riku for not
imagining his actions, but for now Riku will have to polish his
imagination in a regular Alma. Katou is contacted by someone named
Vladimir, who says that they would have just killed Riku, but "he" would
have been unhappy. 80% of the work on their side is done, so they're
going to rest for a while.

Finally, at Dragon's Hive, F.S. and Tanaka are talking -- Dancougar must
become stronger and stronger, to win against "them". If they don't, it's
over.

Stage 13 - A Reason for Fighting

Dancougar has some sort of black box in it; the technicians are
complaining because it makes it harder to maintain. The Dancougar crew
apologizes but they don't know any more about it than the technicians.
Roo also introduces herself as the new counselor for the Dancougar team
(yet another kid). She was all ready to do counseling for Shinji and
Yamashita, but they're at school.

Moritsugu asks Emi to join the Daiku Maryu crew; she's the only one
capable of handling battlefield information other than Yamashita. For
now, Emi and Kouichi go off to school...a bit late. Emi wants to learn
about this new world, and Ishigami told her that boys need to be
educated or they'll go on the wrong path.

The Battle Pro Tetsuya is giving a lesson -- the best way to deal with
unknown enemies is just to hit them with simple attacks, but not
willy-nilly; there has to be some strategy. Nagisa asks Alto about the
relation between attacking and your center of gravity; Anna would be a
better person to ask since the Neo Okusaer is sort of like the Iczer
Robo. Unfortunately she's asleep. Tetsuya is willing to forgive her
napping because she's training all day, but the rest of them can't be
whispering during class -- 20 laps! Kenji protests that he wasn't doing
anything wrong, but Tetsuya reminds them that a mistake by any member of
the team can doom the entire group.

Shinji is moping at his new school. Misato said he would make friends,
but the people at LOTUS don't seem interested in him as a person. Rei
barely talks. All that's before him is training, fighting, a little
praise, scary stuff, and more training. However, one student named
Kensuke does take an interest in him -- he takes him out in the yard to
be beaten up by Touji. Touji has a reason; his younger sister was hurt
in the previous Angel attack. Shinji says that he didn't want to get in
the EVA, and was doing his best to protect the town -- but that doesn't
impress Touji at all. He beats up Shinji again, and this just
strengthens Shinji's feeling that the fighting should be left to others.

Kouichi's school experience is a bit better; Domyoji is still doing the
"Hayase Army" thing. Ichitaka asks Yamashita to join him in training,
but Yamashita isn't interested at all. He seems totally depressed after
Moritsugu's treatment of him. Miu is worried because she's never seen
him like this before; she's known Yamashita a long time, since they were
recovering in the JUDA medical ward. That's why Miu became a Factor; to
repay JUDA for helping her recovery. Yamashita must also have a story
like that...

Luna is telling Dannar Base about recent incidents where mobile suits
were going haywire -- it seems like the Mimetic Beasts are involved. If
they can now take over mobile suits, they've evolved yet again. The ones
that survived the last war have started gaining new powers, like the
jamming ones from earlier. Anyway, the haywire mobile suits are on their
way to Japan, so time to contact JUDA.

Kouichi asks Yamashita why he became a Factor. Yamashita was weak from
birth, and becoming a Factor was the only way he could survive. It's not
only his feeling of gratitude, but he was also able to see Moritsugu in
his mech, and wanted to be like him. Kouichi also learns that Yamashita
is a high schooler, and older than him -- he apologizes for being so
impolite. Yamashita thinks everyone is overreacting, and promises
Kouichi that he's OK. Yamashita thanks Kouichi, even though he thinks
this is unlike him.

Everyone is happy that Yamashita is back to normal, although Nagisa
thinks Moritsugu should be more careful about his methods. Kouichi wants
to train more; seeing Anna do her best has inspired him. Speaking of
Anna, she's down training with Shizuru, and not doing especially well.
She's having trouble with the Go-okusaer's Plasma Drive, and the mistake
she just made would have killed her in a real battle. If it's too much
for her she can always switch with Milla...of course not!! If she can't
master this, she has no reason to be here, so time to continue training.
Or so they think, but those infected mobile suits are here, so time for
the real thing.

Rei and the EVA-00 are officially transferred to LOTUS. Ritsuko is
worried about Shinji, but Misato thinks it's good for him to be around
others his own age in LOTUS. Ritsuko is afraid that Shinji has trouble
making friends, and compares him to a porcupine; even if they want to
get close to someone, they just end up hurting them. Shinji is scared of
being hurt. Just then there's an alarm, the 5th Angel!

Shinji doesn't know why he's decided to pilot the EVA-1 again, but here
he is. LOTUS shows up at the same time. Moritsugu reminds everyone not
to forget that the infected mobile suits are showing up soon. The 5th
Angel appears. Kouichi reminds Shinji that he has to land the killing
blow. Dancougar gets ready for its first battle as part of LOTUS.

Touji and Kensuke are watching the battle from the hill; Kensuke is
impressed by all the mechs he's never seen before, but Touji seems to
still be mad. Then, the infected mobile suits appear. Sakon warns
everyone that they will have ability beyond the normal mobile suit
capabilities.

A few turns later, the Straybird arrives. Ichitaka goes over and asks
Yuu to help them out, and tell him what he's found out about the
Professor. Instead, the Straybird attacks the Rushbird. Yuu tells
Ichitaka to stop using the Rushbird; they'll never learn to control it
with Ichitaka's terrible piloting and Alice's incomplete operator
skills. Of course Ichitaka refuses to hand it over, so Yuu prepares to
take it by force. Ichitaka tries to tell Yuu that it's the wrong time to
do this in front of the Angel, but Yuu has no response. Moritsugu orders
everyone to treat the Straybird as an enemy. Ichitaka pleads with
Moritsugu to let him keep talking; there must be some reason for this.
Moritsugu yells at him to stop being an idiot; fight the enemy that's
attacking him. If he can't do that, he should quit LOTUS right now.
Kouichi defends him -- he's not an "idiot" for being worried about his
family. He tells Ichitaka not to shoot down the Straybird; search for a
different way to deal with the situation. Everyone can help out! It's
going to be hard to do this while also dealing with the Angel, but they
can do it! Moritsugu is silent as many people agree with that reasoning.

When the Straybird is damaged somewhat, Yuu and Haruno decide to go
straight for the Rushbird. Alice can't deal with the attack fast enough.
Haruno tells them this is what happens when you waste your time fooling
around; they're spending all their time searching for the Professor.
Ichitaka is ready to accept this, seeing that he can't beat Yuu. But
Kouichi tries to encourage him, reminding him to go after justice and
what he wants. Unfortunately the Straybird attacks again, and the
Rushbird is nearly defeated. Alice is trying to come up with a plan
while the Straybird charges up its attack. They come up with some
technobabble way to give the Rushbird more power with Linebarrel's help.
Alice is hesitant; if she messes up, they'll both die -- there's no way
a housemaid robot like her can do this. Anna yells at her -- Do or do
not, there is no can! Alice is able to relate the operation of the robot
to cooking, and the attack works! Straybird is at 10 HP. Haruno sees
they have to retreat. Ichitaka wants to know about the Professor, but
Yuu tells him that next time, he'll surely take the Rushbird.

When you take the Angel down to 0, it regenerates and goes after EVA-01
like usual. It knocks Shinji away and the umbilical cord comes loose.
Shinji has landed near where Touji and Kensuke are standing, so he has
to be careful of how he fights the Angel. Misato tells him to recover
the two, and let Rei take out the Angel. He grabs the two, but then
attacks the Angel instead of retreating. He throws the Angel, and
doesn't want to run away -- that would be worse than being forced to
fight. If he runs, no one in LOTUS will respect him. So he says his
catchphrase and attacks with the last of EVA's strength, and defeats the
Angel. They recover the EVA, and it's time to beat the rest of the
enemies.

After the rest of the enemies are defeated, everyone is surprised that
the Straybird attacked them. But nothing they can do about that, so time
to go back to base. Shinji is fine physically, but mentally... Moritsugu
wants to go to the NERV HQ, which Gendou allows.

Misato asks why Shinji disregarded her orders, and put his friends in
danger. He just answers "OK" over and over. Misato wonders if he's OK,
and he's fine -- he's going to pilot the EVA because that's all he's
good for; he has no choice. Misato tells him he can leave if he wants,
and Shinji wonders if he actually has the freedom to do that.

Several of the LOTUS crew are looking for Shinji, but they aren't
allowed into his area -- he hears their voices but doesn't say anything.
They think that Gendou is a lot like Moritsugu and Noin. He wouldn't
even let them see Shinji; Daiya thinks he cares about Shinji but the
others aren't sure. Shinji finally comes out. Kouichi thanks him for
dealing with the Angel, but Shinji is just upset that he hurt Touya's
sister. Quatre reminds him that if he hadn't been there she would have
been killed, and the rest of them try to console him as well. I mean,
look at what Kouichi did to the town earlier! Shinji thinks the main
reason he can't fight with LOTUS is he's just too scared of getting
hurt. But what does he want to do? For now, pilot the EVA.

Fuyutsuki isn't happy with what Shinji did, but Gendou thinks it's fine
-- they can just have Rei get closer to the Angel next time and the plan
won't change. Fuyutsuki feels sorry for them both.

Touji and Kensuke are ready to return home, but they want to see Shinji
first. Touji wants to Shinji to punch him as hard as he can. He's doing
this to make up for before. Shinji goes ahead and hits him, and Touji
apologizes. Touji and Kensuke leave, telling Shinji to visit them if he
can come by the area again. Shinji just wishes that his father would
speak to him like that.

Moritsugu overlooks Ichitaka's actions today, but next time there will
be punishment. If untrained people do whatever they want in battle,
people can die. As for Yuu, Ichitaka has no idea why he attacked. Maybe
there's a clue to the Professor's whereabouts hidden in the Rushbird,
but wouldn't Rachel and the other mechanics have found it? Next time Yuu
shows up, Ichitaka will beat the truth out of him. Alice is worried
about her own ability, especially compared to Haruno who is made for
fighting. Nagisa wants her to share her concerns; there's always Iczer
Robo or Ropet if she wants to talk to another robot.

Shinji gets out of the EVA after some training. He notices Gendou and
Rei talking, and Gendou is smiling -- he never does that for Shinji.
Later, the EVAs are loaded onto the Daiku Maryu, and everyone meets Rei.
Deek tries to flirt with her but gets nowhere. Shinji asks Rei what she
and his father were talking about -- Gendou told Rei to do her best in
LOTUS (something he didn't say to Shinji at all). Shinji also wonders if
Rei is scared piloting the EVA. She seems fine, and wonders if Shinji
lacks faith in Gendou. Shinji tries to trust his father, but it's hard
with that kind of guy. Rei slaps him and leaves the room. Everyone
wonders what made her so mad. Daiya thinks it's sad not to trust your
own father, but Deek understands the feeling, as does Sakuya. Ken'ichi
protests -- even if you are separated from your father, there's still a
bond. Shinji stands aside, sorry that he caused this debate. Roo is
ready to give him counseling, though (which he needs badly).

Haruno verifies their goals with Yuu -- first, to steal the Rushbird.
Second, to make Ichitaka feel complete defeat.

Stage 14 - Fierce Battle in the Deep of Night

Back to space, where Sheryl is talking to her manager Grace. She still
can't find out anything about Galaxy. It was damaged in the Vajra
attack, but beyond that...it's not even in this dimension, after all.
More pressing is Sheryl's illness; as long as she's in the bed, she's
going to lose to people like Lacus Clyne. But why is she in the hospital
so long with just a fever? After Grace leaves, she refers to Sheryl as
"Fairy 9" with a sinister face, and says that she's already finished.

At JUDA, Alice wants the mechanics to give her a new AI so she can equal
Haruno. They tell her it's useless; she'll lose all her previous
experience, and she's already exceeded what the Professor planned for
her AI. Iczer-1 wants her to trust in her growth and ability.

In a park, many of the pilots are playing around with miniature robots;
Misato urges Shinji and Rei to take part as well. They're doing games
like soccer supposedly to increase their actual piloting ability. Noin
and Zechs are concerned about Shizuru; she's got enough to deal with
herself without also taking all this training on. Misato just wants NERV
to get as much money as JUDA and the other bases seem to have. Noin sees
a hidden meaning behind this -- NERV is too dangerous an organization to
allow much money.

The soccer game is over; even Alice joined in. She wants to get as much
pilot training as possible. Ichitaka is glad to be piloting the Rushbird
normally instead of these little robot things. But everyone enjoyed the
training and is ready to do it again tomorrow. The girls go off to take
showers, which gets Kenji and Boss' attention, but Tetsuya comes in to
make sure they don't do anything perverted.

Later, Nagisa and Ichitaka hear one of Ranka's songs -- she's getting
more popular. It's even crossing over to the "enemies" like the
Federation. Quatre reminds them that only part of the Federation is
antagonistic. Alto thinks her stardom is natural given her strong
desire. Johnny (from Dancougar) knows a little bit about this from his
previous job before he became a Dancougar pilot. Ranka's success reminds
everyone that Sheryl has suddenly disappeared from the public eye. Miu
heard she was sick, but that was a while ago. Anyway, Alto gets a
message that he has a video disc present from Mihoshi school; it's a
video disc from Nanase and Nagisa. [By the way, this Nagisa on the
Frontier is actually from Iczer-3. In the source anime she's the Iczer-1
Nagisa's granddaughter but I think here it's just "wow, they really look
a lot alike"] Ranka also appears on the disc -- she visited Sheryl, who
seems really bored. Ranka tells Alto and the others to send her a video
letter to cheer her up.

Lord Djibril is reminding Neo of his many failures, but isn't giving up
on him. The Destroy Gundams will be sent to him soon, as well as some
other units -- he needs to deal with the Western front as quickly as
possible. Neo isn't happy about having to put Stella in one of the
Destroys, but he has no choice.

Kiriyama tells Katou that the Jinrai are all ready to go; it's time to
tack back the country from the politicians. The leader of the Jinrai
troop is none other than Domyoji.

Shizuru and Anna are training, but Anna still isn't quite getting the
hang of things. Milla shows up afterwards, worried about Goh -- he
barely even talks. Shizuru reminds her that Goh was even more depressed
when he lost Milla 5 years ago. Milla realizes that she lost Goh in the
5 years she was gone, but Shizuru didn't even get a chance to try. Her
only way to deal with this is to make sure Anna is a great pilot. Just
then, there's an emergency call -- more Mimetic Beasts near the Dannar
Base. They've attacked at night, pissing everyone off, but what choice
do they have? Time to fight.

After a while, more Mimetic Beasts appear from behind -- followed
shortly by Lou and Ken. Ken goes after one of the beasts and discovers
that it's the one that killed his wife. Kiriko warns them not to go
after Ken; he may have the Insania Virus. Moritsugu turns the warning
into an order.

If you beat Ken's target, it regenerates, and Ken comes in to defeat it.
He attacks it and a robot comes out, which has his wife's mech in it. He
has Lou get in the Celleblader, which combines with Ken's mech. Using
their combined power they beat the Mimetic Beast, but then Ken's Insania
Virus activates and he attacks Anna. Shizuru defends her and gets hurt.
The Daiku Maryu recovers it, and Goh takes her place in the Dannar. The
Dannar crew tries to stop Goh, but Anna knows that nobody can stop Goh
when he's like this. Moritsugu won't give the order for him to return,
but tells Alice to watch his condition. The goal is to keep the fight as
short as possible so that he won't go crazy.

When you beat Ken, he's not done yet; he goes after Goh. Anna tries to
protect him, saying that Goh can't do anything without her. She won't
die because she has to be Goh's wife forever! Milla wishes that were
her. Goh and Anna combine, using the Plasma Drive that she's been having
so much trouble with. They attack with their finisher, forcing Ken to
retreat. Goh seems to be having problems, but he shrugs them off and the
fight continues.

After the fight, Goh isn't in full Insania Virus mode but there's still
something off about him. Even though Alice didn't detect a big problem,
it's probably Rabbit Syndrome. Apparently this was a minor attack so
he's fine now, but if it ever happens again that will be the end of him.
He can never be allowed to pilot the Godannar again. They've recovered
the Cosmo Diver. Unfortunately Shizuru is in a coma -- she may not even
live, and if she does, she'll likely never regain consciousness. Anna
blames herself.

Everyone is broken up over Shizuru -- didn't she promise to continue
their training? Milla wonders how Anna will fare without her. Anna comes
in, still blaming herself; Goh and Shizuru are like this because she
wasn't able to completely control her mech. Tetsuya and Kouji assure her
it's not her fault.

On the bridge, Goh apologizes for running out without permission.
Everything turned out OK, sort of, but there's still no cure for the
Insania Virus yet. Just then, an emergency signal from JUDA comes in!

Stage 15B - The Traitorous Azure

ZAFT has reported that the Federation has destroyed three towns in
Eurasia, all of which asserted their independence from the Federation.
At the same time, a team of Jinrai has appeared, led by Kiriyama, who
assassinated the Japanese prime minister and installed himself as the
new government leader. He's now heading for JUDA to destroy it. Une and
Moritsugu realize they have to split the team again. Alto is
disappointed that humans just have to keep ruining the places they live.
Most of the team is assigned, but Ichitaka gets to pick -- for this
summary he picks to stay with JUDA, since it's protecting his own
hometown. Yamashita wonders how Kiriyama managed to carry off this
coup-d'etat so quickly, but Ishigami thinks he probably had people
helping him in the government. Others wonder why Kiriyama wanted to
attack JUDA while LOTUS was there.

There's not much time to waste, so Ichitaka and a few others that are
get ready to head to JUDA. Kouichi is a little flustered by having Emi
in the Linebarrel with him, but she insists. Back at JUDA, the mechanics
warn them all about safety, thinking about Shizuru and the others who
have fallen so far in battle. Moritsugu has them all go to the briefing
room, but then he's late, so Kouichi and Yamashita go to look for him.
He's in Ishigami's office, where Ishigami is commenting on Moritsugu's
old friend Kiriyama, and wonders if Moritsugu can somehow talk to
Kiriyama. Moritsugu says he's not an old friend but a colleague, and
then shoots Ishigami just as Kouichi, Ichitaka, and Yamashita arrive. Of
course they're shocked, and Moritsugu says he's finished as a LOTUS
commander -- now he wants to fight Kouichi. He calls the Verdant, and
Kouichi responds with the Linebarrel.

Of course Yamashita is completely bowled over, and Ichitaka has to try
to get things in order while Kouichi fights. Moritsugu refuses to answer
Kouichi's questions; meanwhile everyone else has made it to Ishigami's
office to see what happened. Kouichi decides that if Moritsugu won't
answer his questions, it's fighting time. Moritsugu already disabled the
rest of the Machina so no one can interfere (they're not sure why
Linebarrel is still OK). Ichitaka runs to the hold to find out if
Rushbird still works.

Domyoji soon arrives, demanding the surrender of JUDA. He promises
everyone can live if they give up, and Moritsugu leaves the Linebarrel
to him. The Rushbird appears, so Domyoji calls in a few reinforcements.
Alice is trying to contact the Daiku Maryu but there's interference.

The Katou Group soon arrives as well. They hope to defeat everyone
before the rest of the Daiku Maryu team can arrive. Soumi wants plenty
of opportunity to make them hurt, and Riku's looking for revenge for
last time.

The rest of the team finally arrives on turn 4. The Katou group isn't
concerned because it's still just half of LOTUS. Kouichi tells the rest
of the Daiku Maryu people about Moritsugu's treachery, and Emi tells
them that the rest of the Machina can't launch for now. Unfortunately
they'll have to consider Moritsugu an enemy, and protect JUDA at all
costs.

When Kouichi beats Soumi, he's still smug, knowing that Kouichi's
justice will end in failure some day, despite Kouichi's protests.

When you beat Moritsugu, he revives and taunts Kouichi. Kouichi still
wants to know why Moritsugu is doing what he did, and he responds that
17 times now he could have completely destroyed Linebarrel in this
fight. Kouichi thinks that Moritsugu has no feelings, and Moritsugu
offers to teach him the one thing he can feel, and they fight again.
Linebarrel takes heavy damage from Moritsugu's attack, and Kouichi is on
the point of death. Emi feels this, and runs out to the Linebarrel, her
father's gift to her. She calls Linebarrel to her, which turns black,
and then she attacks Moritsugu. Everyone is confused because Machina are
only supposed to have one Factor each. Riku comes in and tries to trap
the Linebarrel, but Emi easily evades his wire thing and beats him down.
Moritsugu decides to leave, and he's gone too quickly to chase him.

Eventually the first wave of attackers is defeated. Emi passes out and
control of the Linebarrel returns to Kouichi. Kouichi takes Emi to the
Daiku Maryu, who transports her to the JUDA building. There, they learn
that Ishigami has died. LOTUS has no time to mourn, though, because
Kiriyama shows up with a second wave of mechs. The Katou group bought
him time to make his big speech -- his goal now is to take Japan out of
its weakness and make it a powerful country....of justice! Zechs has
Lulu load all the people in the JUDA tower onto the Daiku Maryu, and
it's time to fight.

When you beat Kiriyama, you're still not done. He's tired of LOTUS
acting like they're the pinnacle of justice, and shows them various
people like Miwa and Yotsuya that he's captured -- all their various
supporting places have fallen to Kiriyama. They have no choice but to
leave JUDA to the Kiriyama group for now. They get a mysterious call
saying that the Dannar Base is still OK. Not everyone likes this choice,
but Zechs gets Kiriyama to agree to take JUDA but let LOTUS
escape....although he forces them to dodge Jinrai forces on their way
out. They have to escape the screen without attacking any of the Jinrai
forces!

The Daiku Maryu makes it out of the area and LOTUS retreats, heading for
the Dannar Base. The one bright spot in all the crap that just happened
is that the Dannar Base is safe. The problem now is how much information
Moritsugu might have leaked to Katou and Kiriyama. Meanwhile, Emi is
back awake, and Kouichi doesn't know any more than they do about
Linebarrel having two Factors. Emi did save his life, though, by getting
into the Linebarrel. The monitor then comes alive; Katou is giving a
declaration of war (or takeover) to the entire world. At NERV, Gendou
receives the news stoically -- they're not going to do anything. He and
Fuyutsuki think SEELE must be involved in some way.

Katou's goal is to make a clear line between good and evil, allies and
enemies, and those who should live and those who should die. Japan is
the beginning of this world transformation. At JUDA, Moritsugu and
Kiriyama discuss the situation -- they need to activate the Machina,
either with the current Factors, or by killing them and bringing in new
ones. Their goal is still not complete while LOTUS is active.

Logos isn't concerned about this new development. They will deal with it
while he continues to wipe out the Coordinators. Djibril seems a little
more worried, but for now he obeys.

The Katou group is happy about how things have gone, but Soumi is
pensive. He wants to know why everyone joined Katou. Nobody is
interested in answering; they need to worry about the next offensive,
which should come soon. Soumi agrees -- Katou will take care of them.
Later, Wufei reports to Katou about the fight; they seem to hope that
Kouichi will fly into a rage and come back with the Linebarrel.

At the Dannar Base, Kiriko and others explain the situation. All the
bases are under strict guard, and they fear huge losses if they try
anything rash. They need a plan other than just attacking head on.
Fortunately, the Jinrai guarding the various bases are unmanned, so they
should be able to come up with a way to disable them. The plan to
capture JUDA starts at 5:00 tomorrow!

Stage 16B - The Plan to Capture JUDA

Kiriyama is concerned about exactly where LOTUS has run to, but
Moritsugu tells him they're probably at the Dannar Base. Kiriyama
thought that Domyoji had the Dannar Base taken care of...there's a
problem with insufficient personnel, and he suggests some people that
might be scouted from other organizations (he's kidding, Moritsugu is
enough). Next up is media control, and he has Isabel Cronkite to help
him (unwillingly) with that -- her task is to report the upcoming
"rebellion" of LOTUS.

Misato takes over Moritsugu's position as the head strategist, at least
for now. They need to plan an attack on the JUDA building -- one problem
is that the JUDA computers have all kinds of information on LOTUS. The
protection should hold for a while, but they need to get back to JUDA as
soon as possible. LOTUS needs to draw the enemy attention while they
disable the Jinrai -- Ogawa and some others are going to sneak into JUDA
by a back route. They can use JUDA's own defenses to disable Kiriyama's
guards. Rachel also has something to re-activate the Machina; they'll
take the Machina pilots with them so that they can start causing havoc
from inside. Kiriyama himself will probably appear, so the decoy group
will have a tough fight. Kouichi is certain that he and all his friends
can carry this off. For now, time for a quick nap before the operation.

Kouichi can't sleep, though, and neither can Emi. Emi is crying; she
wanted to come to this world to protect it, but she's barely done
anything. So now she wants to fight with Kouichi. But Kouichi reminds
her she passed out last time she used the Linebarrel, and anyway, she
has to be part of the infiltration party. Kouichi will protect Emi!!

Shinji has come to find out if Yamashita is OK, but he seems to be -- he
hopes to ask Moritsugu personally why he betrayed LOTUS.

The Katou group people are not surprised to see LOTUS. Kiriyama is ready
to crush their false sense of justice, and tells Moritsugu to let him
deal with LOTUS. Meanwhile, the infiltration team deals with the door
locks in the secret entrance. Emi disables the lock, and Shizuku opens
the heavy door.

Second turn, the infiltration group finds an elevator, but to activate
it, a video of Ishigami asks for proof that they're LOTUS -- name,
rank...and their "three sizes". Ogawa tries to say it, but her answers
are wrong, and she falls into a pit. Ogawa's sacrifice cannot be in
vain!

Third turn, Kiriyama's not happy about the way things are going, but he
has a secret weapon -- Isabel begins reporting on the "evil" LOTUS and
their rebellion against Kiriyama. The infiltrating group is having to
get through all kinds of bizarre tests and games that Ishigami set up
before he died.

Fourth turn, Isabel is still unwillingly making her "news report". The
infiltration group seems to be taking a longer time than expected.

More Jinrai come out soon, and LOTUS is wondering why the infiltration
team is taking so long. They're up to stage 12 of Ishigami's traps and
tests. This time it's a poison hippo, but Shizuka manages to take it
out.

Fifth turn, Isabel's broadcast continues. Kiriyama asks Moritsugu to
help him take out the Katou group. Ogawa manages to contact Misato and
tell her about the tricks and traps. Meanwhile, the team is up to stage
67, a karaoke contest.

Sixth turn, this is turning into a grueling fight. The infiltration
group is up to stage 100, baseball. But this is finally the last test,
so they can move on to their goal.

Kiriyama himself soon arrives, ready to show his justice power. When you
get him down to 50% he regenerates and goes after the Linebarrel. He
gives Kouichi one last chance to join him. Of course Kouichi refuses, so
Kiriyama gets ready to attack, but a mysterious mech comes in and shoots
Kiriyama, preventing the attack. Meanwhile, the infiltration team has
finally taken care of all the people, and the Machina are active. The
pilots go down to their mechs while the rest of the team continues to
the office. Kiriyama is surprised, but justice heroes like him can pull
victory out of defeat.

When Kiriyama is defeated, he decides to just blow up the JUDA building
and the infiltration team, but fortunately they were able to get the
defenses back up. Anyway, Kiriyama still has his trump card -- all he
has to do is push a button and the Jinrai around the country start
blowing things up. He pushes the button, but his order doesn't go
out...the unmanned Jinrai have been disabled. He now sees the plan of
the heroes, but he's not defeated yet, because he still has stealth
mechs around Ozaki town that he can use to cause havoc. He tries...but
Domyoji is there to stop him! He reminds Kiriyama that he's part of the
Hayase Group until the end. Isabel is getting all of this on camera and
narrating the evil Kiriyama's deeds. His worst dream has come to pass --
he's a villian!

All the enemies are defeated; LOTUS is victorious. Isabel gets exclusive
scoop on the heroes. Time to go back to Juda...except just then, Jack
shows up and immediately heads to the Daiku Maryu. He finds Misato and
has a request for her -- to join LOTUS! He joined Katou in the beginning
to train himself, with the understanding that he could leave if the
Katou Group ever went against his goals. He wants to fight with
Moritsugu, and now that Moritsugu is working with Katou, it's time to
join LOTUS instead. Lulu and Yagyuu both think it's OK; he doesn't seem
to be lying, so welcome to a new crew member. The Macross has completed
its objective and is heading back to Japan. The Minerva will also be
joining LOTUS officially.

Jack refuses to talk about Katou, and doesn't think the information he
has is worthwhile in any case. He knows nothing about the black spheres.
Yamashita wants to know if Moritsugu has really joined the Katou group,
and Jack tells him they seem to be old friends.

Kouichi wonders who the mysterious figure was that attacked Kiriyama. We
cut to the Shangrila, where Moritsugu arrives, and said mysterious
figure is already there. Katou was hoping that Kiriyama would buy them
more time, but now they have to move on to the next task, and their
actions will be secret for a while.

Stage 17 - Entrusted Hope

The two teams are reunited. The other team was able to stop the
Federation but Berlin still became a sea of fire. Fortunately they got
help from Kira and the Archangel (who actually saves Stella this time
instead of killing her). Afterwards, Durandal had ordered the
destruction of the Archangel but they faked it instead. Dearka headed
back to PLANT; he was the one who convinced Shinn that Kira didn't have
bad intentions. Later Kira saved them from the Cthulhu attack; Iczer-2
was back, this time without a partner but still going for Iczer-1. Alice
comes in; Stella is fine -- they can't reverse the effects of the
Extended process so she's not perfect, but the scientists will do their
best to help her. Shinn wants to make sure she can be a normal girl who
doesn't have to fight.

Maki and the other scientists have figured something out about GreAT,
the company that was financing the Professor's research. It's a
worldwide organization with many secret leaders that are among the
elites of society. The workers don't even really know what's going on.
But after Kiriyama's defeat, for some reason the company president and
high officers all disappeared, leaving the regular workers in chaos.
It's not clear whether GreAT is connected to Katou or not. Unfortunately
that still doesn't help with clues to find the Professor.

Ishigami now exists only as a computer program in JUDA -- he's really
gone. Misato has taken over command from Moritsugu. She introduces
herself, just to find their next challenge at hand. An Angel has
appeared at NERV, so the EVAs are needed.

The 6th Angel is there, destroying the defending Alma. LOTUS arrives,
and Shinji goes out, but immediately gets blasted. Misato wants Shinji
out of there, but they can't recover the EVA, and they can't just eject
Shinji either. The Angel keeps attacking, and eventually Misato blows up
the ground to make the EVA fall in. The 6th Angel ceases its attack, and
LOTUS has time to plan.

Shinji awakes in the same hospital bed as before, and Rei immediately
comes to tell him of tomorrow's plan. But he doesn't want to use the EVA
again. Rei decides to use the EVA-01 instead, causing Shinji to once
again wallow in self pity; if he can't pilot the EVA, nobody cares about
him.

Misato explains the next plan -- the Angel is burrowing into the ground
to reach NERV. It looks like the Angel will only attack those who go
within close range, but the AT Field makes it hard for distance attacks
to work. Misato has called in the scientists to help with this
situation. If they can blast the Angel will all the various energies
used by the research labs, it may be able to open a hole. EVA will help,
and the rest of LOTUS needs to act as a decoy until it can get set up.
The problem is Shinji; Tetsuya thinks he's ready to quit, and they can't
just force him out to the battlefield anymore. Misato thinks he'll agree
to at least one more time, though.

Time for the plan to begin, but Mimetic Beast-infected mobile suits show
up to spoil the fun. They need to take down the Mimetic Beasts in time
for the plan to go into effect. Misato goes to find Shinji, who is
wondering why everyone fights. Ken and Lou are also watching from the
sidelines; Lou wonders what Ken will do when all the Mimetic Beasts are
defeated -- Ken says he'll die. Lou encourages him to not die before he
fulfills his purpose.

Ken comes out in the Blade Gunner on the second turn, with Lou right
behind him. Anna is pissed off, but they can't afford to fight Ken right
now; the Angel and Mimetic Beasts come first. Misato has caught up with
Shinji, who is still feeling scared and unneeded. He wishes he were one
of the commanders, who just sit back and give orders. Misato drags
Shinji back to NERV and tells him that if the Angel's attack reaches a
certain point, NERV will self-destruct; it's a partial defense against
Third Impact but it shows the resolve of even the technicians and
operators. What Misato wants to show Shinji is Lilith -- the origin of
life on this planet and the 2nd Angel, and also the trigger for the
Third Impact. Shinji's task is to protect Lilith -- it may just be dumb
luck that he's the one who can do this, but it's still his task. He
doesn't have to go it alone, though. Shinji remembers his companions,
and decides to pilot EVA again.

Shinji is getting ready to board the EVA, and asks Rei why she fights --
she says her "bonds" with everyone. Shinji says the bonds aren't
important because they'll probably die, but Rei is determined to protect
Shinji. Inside the EVA he hears encouraging words from LOTUS and his
friends, and he's ready to go.

If you beat the Angel it of course comes back, but at least you get a
Break Will Limit item.

It's soon time for the plan to start, and both EVA-01 and -00 come out.
Shinji is willing to do whatever he can. Misato tells him the plan -- 01
will shoot the weapon and 00 is there for defense. The weapon is
charging and will be ready soon. Shinji prepares to fire, even though he
still can't really feel the whole "protect humanity" thing.
Unfortunately, his shot misses. The Angel retaliates, but EVA-01 is
fine, and they ready another shot. Shinji is having trouble, and Gendou
immediately wants Rei in there instead -- if Shinji can't do his job,
get rid of him. Misato wants him to believe in his son, and Shinji says
he can try again. Unfortunately, more Mimetic Mobile Suits come in to
attack the EVA-01. The rest of LOTUS needs to protect him for 2 minutes
until the weapon can charge again.

As Shinji prepares to fire again, the Angel attacks first. Rei covers
Shinji and the EVA-00 is badly damaged, but Shinji's counterattack
destroys the Angel. Shinji jumps out of the EVA and pries open the 00,
pulling out Rei. He's crying and Rei doesn't know how to respond; Shinji
tells her to smile. They're both recovered, and then the remaining
Mimetic Beasts retreat. Ritsuko wonders if they considered the Angel to
be a danger to themselves. Lou and Ken depart, despite the protests of
Goh and the others.

Everyone congratulates Shinji. Even Tetsuya tells him not to be so
humble about his ability. Back at NERV, Ritsuko and Misato wonder if
Shinji has turned a corner. Misato is called into Gendou's office, who
promotes her, and Fuyutsuki says that he'll tell LOTUS about Lilith.
After she leaves, Fuyutsuki wonders if this is OK. Gendou thinks it's
fine; everything's a mess and it may soon be too late to fix it, but
they'll continue on the current schedule and see what happens.

On the Moon, Kaworu is receiving a transmission from SEELE. They have a
cryptic conversation about the Dead Sea Scrolls, but Kaworu doesn't
think things are going to plan -- and it's "once again" the third
children, who never changes.

Stage 18 - Thinking of Recovery

Ikima has recovered the head of the original Jeeg from the Zone and
presented it to Himika. From there it should be a simple matter to get
the Bronze Bell out of it. Back at JUDA, Tsubaki has had a bad
dream...or maybe a premonition.

Shinji is so tired from the previous night that he's sleeping rather
than training, and Emi is also tired after helping go through the
mountain of data they've gotten from the encounters. Nagisa is tired
just from listening to the radio all night; it's important to rest your
mind and try to forget about the fights, right? Speaking of that,
they're supposed to have an extended break soon. They hope Rei and
Shinji can come along; everyone is still impressed by their showing the
previous night. Rei, in particular, has inspired people to declare their
intent to protect their partner, including Kenji...but Tsubaki's barely
listening, still reflecting on her dream.

Later, Professor Shiba tells Tsubaki that it's probably not a dream;
Himika may have gotten the Bronze Bell. This is a source of great power
from antiquity; it's necessary for Jeeg as well as his bike. 50 years
ago, Hiroshi (the original Jeeg) used the power of the bell to sealed
Himika. Now she's back, and wants that power for herself.

Himika can't manage to get the old Bell out of the Jeeg Head, though.
She feels Tsubaki watching her, though, and realizes that her power will
let Himika get the bell.

Professor Shiba realizes that Himika must have obtained the old Jeeg
Head from the Zone -- that's a strange space that sealed off the area in
Kyushu where Hiroshi fought Himika. Tsubaki has the power to see Himika
because she's the Priestess of the Bell. Just then, Haniwa soldiers come
to the Build Base -- they must be trying to capture the other Bronze
Bell. LOTUS heads off to fight them.

At the Build Base, things aren't going well, but LOTUS arrives. They see
that all three of Himika's commanders are here, suggesting this is
really important to them. Of course they're after the Bell.

The enemies seem to be aiming for the Bronze Bell, but Misato thinks
there's something else going on that she's not seeing.

When you beat one of the generals, they go straight for the Big Shooter
and capture it. Before anyone can react, they leave, and the heroes see
they weren't after the Bronze Bell at all. When Kenji tries to go after
them, Balba shows up and blocks his way. Just like Kyo said, Kenji will
have to show his strength to pass.

Once Kenji beats Balba, he finally recognizes his strength and turns
into an ally. Misato and Talia want to return to Build Base and make a
plan, but Kenji just charges ahead instead. Ichitaka offers to bring him
back, and the rest of the team goes back to the Build Base. They can't
figure out exactly where they've gone and start to talk about a plan,
but then there's big news -- a worldwide speech by Durandal. He shows
the world the Federation's horrible weapons that destroyed three cities.
He says that they have to remove the problem that has caused these
events for all of human history, starting with Logos. They've encouraged
this war by selling weapons for their own profit.

The Logos members aren't happy about this, but Djibril has a plan; he
just has to expose Durandal for making an alliance with people from the
other dimension. However, Durandal anticipates this by telling everyone
Macross Frontier is from there -- Logos has even attacked them for its
own benefit. Djibril is in quite a fix.

On the Macross, Mishima reacts with surprise to Djibril's talk. He's
called Ranka Lee to his office. They've reviewed the data from her
capture by the Vajra, and they think they can turn her song into a
weapon. She'll get a nice new manager, Grace. Since Sheryl is still in
the hospital, Grace has plenty of time to devote to her new client.
Ranka is eager for the opportunity to play her part.

Back to Jeeg. Ichitaka has managed to catch up, and tries to convince
Kenji to return to the Build Base -- Balba needs time to recover, and
he'll never do it alone. Kenji doesn't have time for this, and sends
Balba to block Ichitaka. This gives Kenji time to escape, and Ichitaka's
pursuit is stopped by an attack from behind. It's Yuu and the Straybird
again. They're still after the Rushbird, and this time Ichitaka has no
friends to help him. He can't avoid Yuu's attacks, and Yuu wants him to
realize how powerless he is. He tells Yuu not to give up his life for </pre><pre id="faqspan-5">
nothing. Alice is frantically searching for a way out, and remembers
something that was in a hero show Ichitaka liked. She starts powering up
something; Ichitaka is worried that she'll overheat again, but she tells
Ichitaka just to follow her lead. She calls on energy from another
dimension, and the attack severely damages the Straybird. Yuu and Haruno
are forced to retreat, but Alice has ceased to function...

Stage 19 - Attack at Aso

Kenji is on the move, hunting for Himika. Back at Build Base, LOTUS is
digesting Durandal's speech. The world's hatred has turned against Logos
-- their members have been jailed and the Federation is basically gone.
Djibril has not been found, though, and he still has Relena. For now,
though, they need to focus on Tsubaki -- her Priestess power can unlock
the Bronze Bell from the Jeeg Head.

Ichitaka and Alice haven't figured out what happened to her, and he's
sorry for putting her through such a rough experience. Alice isn't sure
how to pull the extra-dimensional energy again; it was a sudden idea she
had and she knows it has something to do with combining opposites, but
that's about it. She seems OK for now, though. Meanwhile, Kenji has been
located in Aso -- that must be where Himika is.

Himika is performing some kind of ritual with Tsubaki when Kenji shows
up. Kyo is nowhere to be found. Ikima comes to block his way, and Kenji
prepares to fight, calling on Balba's power.

The rest of LOTUS shows up on turn 2, ready to help Kenji.

When you beat Ikima, he's so obsessed with putting on a good face for
Himika that he regenerates and attacks Jeeg. Kenji combines with Balba
to attack him back, and Himika orders the severely damaged Ikima to
retreat. The barrier surrounding Tsubaki disappears, but it's too late
-- Himika has already finished the ritual. She recovers the Bronze Bell,
leaving Hiroshi lying there. The new Jeeg stops functioning. More units
then come out to go after Jeeg.

Himika continues her chanting, and Jeeg turns back into the bike. Now
Himika laughs, and none of the mechs can move. This is the power of the
two Bronze Bells together! But just as Himika is about to triumph, Kyo
appears, telling Himika it's been a while. He turns into a giant, which
is his true form. His real name is Takeru, and he's an alien who came to
Earth long ago. Now it's time for Tsubaki and Kenji to join their powers
-- Tsubaki is his descendant, and the most powerful one. If Jeeg can
join with her, a miracle will happen. When Kenji understands the true
meaning of the Bronze Bell, the way will open. He uses his power to help
the mechs move again, but then Himika decides to finish everyone off by
collapsing the cavern and escaping through a dimensional gate. Kyo goes
after her, and Kenji recovers Tsubaki and Hiroshi. They have to escape
the cavern, but their way is blocked by the Haniwa forces. Time to fight
our way out!

LOTUS escapes just before the cavern collapses. There's no sign of Kyo,
but Tsubaki regains consciousness. Back at the Build Base, Miwa is
surprised that they recovered Hiroshi. He's temporarily blind, but he
will recover soon. Hiroshi tells Miwa ("Micchi") and Shiba that they
haven't changed a bit, and Miwa is happy to be reunited with Hiroshi.

Kenji apologizes to Ichitaka for running off alone, but Ichitaka's
guilty of the same thing, thinking he could stop Kenji by himself. The
problem now is that Kenji can't become Jeeg. Hiroshi comes in and tells
him it's because the Bronze Bell is gone. Kenji wonders how he's
supposed to fight Himika now -- Hiroshi tells him to keep his resolve.

Miwa and Shiba tell everyone about Kyo. His sister, Miyazu, is Kenji's
mother. Miyazu and Takeru came here eons ago to seal Himika, and
afterwards they went into a long hibernation until Shiba found them.
Takeru's race created Himika long ago as a weapon. But then Takeru and
some others wanted to live on Earth rather than destroy it -- it was too
late to change Himika's purpose, though. The Bronze Bells are used to
control of the ship they came on (the Rangoon). As long as Himika has
the Rangoon, she cannot die. It sounds like they need to find Himika as
quickly as possible, but an emergency call from Durandal comes in...

Stage 20A - Descending Angels

Durandal has discovered Djibril's whereabouts -- he's in the Heaven's
Base, an old Blue Cosmos structure, with a number of the Logos people.
Durandal understands that they need to go after Himika, but he wants at
least the Minerva to assist in defeating Djibril. Since the Minerva was
never officially part of LOTUS that's no problem. At the same time,
they've figured out that the Bronze Bell is heading into space. They
can't contact Kyo, and soon the signal of the Bell is lost. They decide
to split the team again to deal with Djibril and Himika. Since the
Rushbird fights better on the ground, Ichitaka will go with the Minerva.
The Minerva will head to JUDA to pick up Durandal himself -- Talia is
worried that he discovered their ruse with the Archangel. It's true that
Durandal was opposed to destroying the Archangel, but orders are
orders...

Ichitaka is ready to take down Djibril, although he can't imagine the
war will just suddenly end if that happens. Noin agrees; all they can do
is try their best to capture those who are the cause of these wars. But
as long as humans have the desire to start wars, capturing one person or
another person won't solve problems. Quatre and Hyoma hold out hope that
peace can be achieved some day. Goh comes in and tells them they need to
go to JUDA, so time to get on the Minerva -- he's still not happy just
giving orders and hopes he can fight again soon. Shizuru is still
unconcious, unfortunately. They're having success treating her with
certain Extended methods, but it's slow. The teams say their respective
goodbyes, and it's off to JUDA.

Stella has finally woken up. She doesn't remember much of what happened
but she's scared -- Shinn assures her he'll protect her. He tells her to
rest and promises he'll be back later. He tells everyone else she's
improving and hopefully will be back to normal eventually. This makes
people wonder where the Archangel is; it was severely damaged but it
should be back up and running by now. Rey comes in to get Shinn;
Durandal is here. He's turned up earlier than expected, which shows his
dedication to defeat Logos.

Durandal has sent a message to Djibril telling him to hand over all the
Logos members and disarm completely. One of the Federation commanders
wants to surrender; ZAFT has already surrounded their base. But Djibril
is determined to fight to the end.

Durandal arrives on the Minerva with presents for Shinn and Ray -- the
new Destiny and Legend Gundams. Athrun is uneasy; this is a violation of
the Junius Treaty. Durandal understands, but things have progressed to
the point where that's no longer a concern. There are too many enemies
facing Earth. Athrun reluctantly accepts. Durandal also gives Ray and
Shinn FAITH status...in recognition for their destruction of the
Archangel. No time for chit-chat though, because mobile suits are coming
from Heaven's Base. This pisses off Goh more than everyone expects; he
wants to go out and hit them hard, immediately.

The ZAFT units are taking heavy losses against Djibril's forces. But
Heero shows up, acting off of leaked information from Trowa (who can't
afford to give away his duplicity now).

The Minerva shows up next turn, surprised to see Heero. He gets a
mixture of respect and unbelief from the crew for taking on Heaven's
Base by himself.

Soon Sting comes out, having reached the end of his Extended career and
gone fully insane now. Goh wants to send them all to hell, which makes
Durandal wonder if the unthinkable has happened...

When you beat Sting, Djibril is still trying to make his escape. He
plans to take Relena with him, but Trowa sends a coded message to Quatre
telling him what will happen. Heero goes to try to save her, but a
Destroy Gundam appears. Shinn comes in and knocks it away, and tells
Heero to go save his friend.

When all the enemies are gone, LOTUS manages to capture the Logos brass,
but Djibril and Relena are nowhere to be found. Durandal still counts
this as a major victory, since Djibril won't be able to do much without
his support. The Archangel gets word of ZAFT's victory, and realizes
that Djibril must be heading for Orb to go into space. The Archangel
itself still needs more repairs before it can do anything. Lacus wants
Kira to go into space with her to get a new mech.

On the Minerva, everyone is impressed with Shinn's ability -- he just
realized that Heero had someone to protect, like himself. Shinn seems to
have changed, and Quatre hopes that the whole human race can change like
this so that they can all work together some day. Shinn wonders if Zechs
should also be going with Heero since Relena is his sister, but Zechs
thinks Heero can handle it himself -- he's done with personal heroics.

Kiriko calls from the Dannar Base -- Goh needs to get back to the base
immediately. The most recent evaluation shows that his Rabbit Syndrome
symptoms have gotten worse, and it may not be long before it's a full
blown outbreak.

Stage 21A - Dannar Base in Danger

Goh's condition is not good -- he's OK for now, but another outbreak of
the Rabbit Syndrome and that will be too late. The research on a cure is
making progress, so hopefully a cure will be there soon. Koji (the
Godannar one) is called down to the hold for a special present,
something made to deal with Shizuru and Goh's absence from the
battlefield.

Shinn wonders if PLANT will really find a cure, and doesn't like the
idea of luck or fate determining someone's future. Rey thinks the just
have to fight, and Shinn agrees -- even if it's their fate to lose,
he'll break through that with the Destiny Gundam. Haine wants them to
cheer up to not have so much gloom around the base.

There's an emergency call from many places. Many of the Mimetic Beasts
from around the world are on the move, all going for the Dannar Base.
Apparently they've finally decided that the Dannar Base is their main
enemy. Kagemaru didn't think they had that kind of intelligence, but
Kiriko thinks it's more instinct than intelligence. Goh comes rushing on
the bridge, defying orders not to get excited. He at least wants to stay
there until the mechs go out.

There are a ton of Mimetic Beasts out there; Hyoma thinks this is fine
because if they win this fight, they win the whole battle. It's
imperative that the Beasts not be allowed to enter the Dannar Base.

After a while, more Beasts come in from the sea. One of the beasts makes
a direct attack at the Base, which Milla defends, but then her unit is
blown up. Unfortunately the medical area took a hit, and Shizuru's
medical equipment has gotten destroyed. Milla begins to glow, declaring
that Shizuru can't die. Shizuru sees Milla in a vision, telling her not
to give up -- Goh and the others need her. Milla gives her her life
energy, and Shizuru wakes up. Meanwhile one of the Beasts is preparing
to blow itself up near the base, but an attack knocks it back. Koji
appears in the Zero Gunner, along with Shizuru. Time to get the rest of
the Beasts!

After the enemies are beaten, a newcomer Tatsuya congratulates everyone
on their hard work...it turns out this is Kiriko's husband, Anna's
father. He was one of the scientists who helped create LOTUS, and the
Dannar Base was his work. He apologizes for not being around more. The
team is happy to see Shizuru up and moving again, but what happened?
Kiriko thinks that Milla must have gained some sort of power from her
time inside the Mimetic Beast's body. Milla herself seems to be all
right, she's just exhausted. Tatsuya has an image to show them -- a huge
Mimetic Beast. Mimetic Beasts that have died can regenerate by taking
over a weaker being. This one has taken over so many things that it's
now a huge beast -- the Super Mimetic Beast, leader of the Mimetic
Beasts. It's heading towards Japan, absorbing other Beasts as it goes.
This could be a good opportunity though; if they beat this one, it will
weaken the Beasts quite a bit. Everyone is pumped up by the thought of
dealing the Mimetic Beasts a severe blow.

Anna has a reunion with her father. Tatsuya apologizes for not being
around much, but Anna can remember his voice from when she was a child.
He also thinks that Goh can overcome his problems -- he's the man Anna
chose for a husband, after all. At the same time, Goh is standing in
front of Godannar, wondering if he will ever pilot it again...

Stage 22A - Heart Break

Shibakusa (the mechanic) is talking to the Dannar -- Goh may not be able
to join the final fight, but he hopes at least Dannar will perform well.
The other mechanics were supposed to take shelter, but they've stayed
behind to help. Everyone's a bit tense before the battle; Hyoma starts
snapping at his teammates (hopefully not Rabbit Syndrome!) and Goh is
nowhere to be found. Misato wants Rei to use EVA-00 as a shield for the
Minerva again, but Shinji will be going out with the rest.

Now to the strategy conference. The Super Beast has grown even in the
short time since the last stage, so this is the true final fight against
the Mimetic Beasts. Shinji seems nervous as usual. Goh tells Anna to go
fight well, but come back alive. The heroes go out for the fight.

After some of the Beasts are defeated, there's a large energy wave of
space-time coming from the Super Beast, and the pilots start having
trouble with their mechs. After a huge attack, nobody can move except
for the two EVAs, probably because they're not actually robots. Shinji
offers to draw the enemies away from the rest of the team while they
scramble to repair their units.

Even more Beasts show up next turn. One of them goes straight for Rei --
Shinji comes in to defend her, though. He's determined to protect
everyone! However, Goh and Milla come out to join the fight. Kiriko and
Kagemaru try to stop Goh from fighting, but he won't listen. This is a
fight for humanity's future, and he can't just sit by and watch.

Soon Ken and Lou arrive as well - Ken has very little time left and he
wants to take out the Super Mimetic Beast if he can. Goh laughs; a
competition between two doomed people to kill the Beast. Kiriko says
that in three minutes another wave of power will come from the Super
Beast. This one will disable even Godannar.

After three turns, the Beast readies to fire the weapon again, but Lou
and Ken combine into the Blade Gainer TDM. He attacks the Beast but is
destroyed in the counterattack. The attack disabled the Beast's
mechanism, though, so your mechs can move again. Unfortunately Lou's
death enrages Goh and he charges at the Beast. He has been hit with
Rabbit Syndrome completely. Milla wonders if Anna can somehow talk him
out of his madness; Anna thinks that if she's able to recombine with
Dannar it might work. LOTUS needs to disable Goh's mech to give this a
try. Everyone prepares to help Goh out the best they can.

Eventually the heroes disable Goh's mech, but he completely regenerates.
Milla decides that her only choice is the kill Goh, like she promised to
do before. She won't give Goh to Anna!! But her attack only disables
Goh's mech, and she tells Anna that Goh had been completely taken from
her while she was in a coma. "Show me your bond with Goh!" Anna combines
with the Godannar, reducing its max HP. Goh doesn't want Anna to see him
like this, but Anna says there's nothing to fear as long as the two of
them are together. Goh thanks her, and it's time for the final fight.

Once the Beast is damaged sufficiently, Lou comes out in the Celeblader.
Ken showed her where the core is, so victory is possible!

One you defeat the Beast, Goh and Lou combine their powers to attack the
Beast and destroy the core. Goh tells Anna that he knows the pain of
being left alone, and he won't do that to her. Luckily the vaccine from
JUDA and PLANT's hard work is finally here, so Goh can be cured
(ta-da!). Later, Anna feeds him in the infirmary bed. Shinji is
impressed with heroes like Goh, but others remind him that today, he was
a hero. Even though his just did what was expected of him, that alone is
a big acheivement for anyone. Today's success is a joint one from LOTUS,
JUDA, and PLANT.

Lou wants to join LOTUS -- not for any revenge now, but to protect
people. Goh thinks she's grown quite a bit. Anna and Goh are happy to
accept her into LOTUS. Ken (who has managed to survive if you did the
flag) is also going to stay and fight; he's living on borrowed time now
nad he wants to support Lou.

Now that the Mimetic Beasts have been defeated, Earth is one step closer
to peace. Anna's dad has already gone on to his next mission, and Lulu
and the other team is back at JUDA. This half of LOTUS heads out to meet
them there.

Stage 23 - Encounter with Warriors

At the arctic Bethany Base, the revived Third Angel breaks out, and Mari
has to go fight it in a prototype EVA unit. She's having trouble
fighting it, but is able to destroy it in the end by self-destructing
the unit and escaping at the last minute.

At Japan, the team that went to space is relating what happened. Himika
has been completely destroyed and the Bronze Bells recovered. Hiroshi
can now fight again as Jeeg, and Kyo and Balba can help them out too.
Kyo should be able to survive at least until the end of this war.
However, it's not all good news. Big Gold has come with new fighting
strength, a part of itself called Neos Gold. Fortunately Iczer-3
appeared and saved them. The Macross crew was off testing the new
Ranka-song-weapon, which seemed to work against the Vajra. Iczer-3 came
to save the other Nagisa. But Iczer-1 was wounded and is healing, and
the Iczer-3 robo has been too damaged to activate for now. 3 is now
watching over Nagisa until she wakes up (she had the same experience as
Nagisa-1 piloting the robot for the first time).

Nagisa-3 wakes up from a confused dream where Iczer-2 and Iczer-1 are
fighting. Now she finds out that Alto and the others are actually
fighting with LOTUS, which she already sort of knew. She's been out for
a while, but had a dream about Nagisa-1 and others fighting in big
robots. It's as if she was able to see part of Nagisa-1's memory while
asleep. She reacts better than Nagisa-1 did; she immediately accepts her
role as Iczer-3's partner, although she claims this is because she was
able to receive some of Nagisa-1's resolve. She wants Iczer-3 to be less
brash and take care of herself more; Iczer-3 finds this hard because she
likes fighting so much...

Rachel is telling Alice what happened back in the fight with Yuu. Her
regular AI and combat AI both went crazy, and to deal with her
overheating somehow she gained this new ability...maybe. She really
needs to be careful in the future though, because this kind of
dimensional power could destroy a whole area if she couldn't control it.
Ichitaka vows to help her with this, and they can train more in the
simulators. Everyone seems to have grown so much in the short time
they've been in LOTUS. But where's Shinji? Visiting his mother's
grave...

On the Cthulhu ship, Neos Gold brings out Atros, a warrior born from the
Icserio, which they stole from the Iczers. Elsewhere, Golem and Bigro
aren't too happy about this -- does Neos Gold not trust them to get
Iczer-3? Bigro says she'll destroy Iczer-3 without anyone's help.

Gendou and Shinji are visiting his mother's grave; Shinji hasn't been
here in 3 years. He doesn't even remember her face. Gendou says there
are things that you absolutely can't forget -- Yui taught him that, and
that's why he comes to her grave. They don't have any pictures of her
and even the grave is just a memorial (no body), so she lives on only in
their hearts. Shinji tries to connect with his father better, but Gendou
just leaves. Shinji still doesn't really see why he came; Misato brought
him, but he doesn't care that much. Misato thinks Gendou will accept him
more now that he's proved his worth. Time to prove his worth again,
though, because the 7th Angel is here! Unfortuntaely both EVAs are
undergoing repairs and can't go out for now.

It's up to LOTUS to stop the Angel, without the EVAs. Once again it's
attacking NERV -- are the Angels being controlled? Iczer-3 goes out by
herself; both she and Nagisa-3 have had a bad feeling...something else
is coming.

When you damage the Angel to 50%, it regenerates completely --
apparently the EVAs really are necessary. Enter Asuka in her red EVA-02
to help! Hilde and Duo come along with her. They want Asuka to connect
with the Daiku Maryu's cable, but she thinks that's completely
unnecessary...but when Iczer-3 chides her, she goes ahead and does it.

The next turn, Biglo arrives, and heads straight for Iczer-3. She uses
some sort of power to make it so nobody can come help, and without
Nagisa-3, Biglo's victory is certain. They both disappear to start their
fight. This is the same thing that happened to Nagisa-1 and Anna; that
time Iczer-1 was able to save them, but she's still out cold.

Once you beat the EVA, it regenerates (of course). In the other
dimension, Biglo and Iczer-3 fight, but without Nagisa-3, she's losing.
Nagisa-3 hears her calling, but can't do anything. Nagisa-1 reminds her
that the bond of partnership goes beyond distance, and Nagisa-3 calls
out to Iczer-3. She hears Nagisa's call and fights back, and both she
and Biglo come out of the dimension. Biglo tells Iczer-3 to kill her
since she's facing death for her failure anyway. Iczer-3 gets ready to
do it, but Nagisa-3 stops her. Nagisa-3 tells Biglo to go hide
herself...Biglo says she still has strength to fight. Atros comes in,
though, and kills her for being weak, then brings out Cthulhu fighters.
Lulu reminds everyone that the Angel remains the primary target. It
seems that the core you thought you defeated in the Angel was a decoy.
Where is the real core? Asuka's got it covered -- she takes out the
Angel in one hit. Now it's just the Cthulhu left.

When you damage Atros to 50%, she regenerates and tells Iczer-3 they're
both just tools constructed to fight. They look exactly alike. Atros
knows there are other people in LOTUS who were made for fighting -- the
Zentradi and Jeeg, for instance. They try to tell her you can't just
determine someone's fate at birth, but she doesn't listen.

When you beat Atros, she regenerates (surprise surprise). She intends to
keep fighting, since that's her purpose. Nagisa-3 decides to go save her
-- she's obviously just been brought up wrong. She attacks Iczer-3
again, and correctly guesses that Iczer-3 is very excited about
fighting, just like her. Nagisa-3 yells at them to stop, and Atros
recognizes her as the failed partner for Iczer-2 that almost cost her a
reason to live. She tries to kill Nagisa-3, but Iczer-3 protects her,
proving that she's different from Atros. Nagisa-3 tells Atros that if
she's born from Iczerio just like Iczer-3, she must have the same warmth
in her heart. Atros disagrees and wants to kill Nagisa, but suddenly she
can't move, and has to leave the battlefield. Nagisa thinks that she can
become a friend some day. Iczer-3 is at the limit of her strength and
passes out. All the enemies are gone...finally Shinji and Rei appear,
but it's too late.

Duo reunites with Quatre, and Shinji apologizes for showing up late to
the battle. Everyone is impressed with Asuka's bright red EVA and her
fighting skill. Asuka tells them that the EVA-00 and 01 are just
prototypes and test units, but the 02 is the real thing. Goh tries to
thank her for her help, but she says she just fulfilled her duty. She's
not particularly impressed with Shinji or Rei, and she heads to the
infirmary to give Iczer-3 a piece of her mind. Duo and Hilde introduces
themselves to the crew, and assures them that Asuka's a good person,
just single-minded about her duty. Shinji can't believe there's someone
who actually enjoys piloting the EVAs.

Iczer-3 is still out, though. Nagisa-3 is sure that Atros is also from
Iczerio, even though Atros denied it. Iczer-3 is now sleeping to regain
her strength (Iczer-1 does the same thing). Asuka comes in and thinks
it's just like a child to sleep after battle -- if she's really a
soldier made to fight, she needs to be ready to go out at any time.
Everyone criticizes her for that harsh stance and tells her you can be
kind and nice and still a soldier. Asuka understands what they're trying
to say, but it doesn't really suit her -- she says that and storms off.
She thinks to herself that she's special, not like them.

Back at Cthulhu, Atros wants to know what her history is, but Neos Gold
just thinks she ignored orders and ran away. Atros tries to ask about
Iczerio, but Neos Gold tells her to get lost and not come back until
she's defeated Iczer-3. Golem says that this was the problem with Atros
from the beginning, and Neos Gold reminds her that if they could carry
out their tasks, Atros wouldn't have been necessary. Golem leaves, and
Neos Gold wonders why Iczerio is rejecting her. She'll just have to wait
for Iczer-2 to recover...

At NERV, Kaji tells Gendou everything's going according to SEELE's plan,
with the new EVAs being constructed, although not the Mark.06 yet. He's
also brought the "key" for Gendou, although it's not clear whether it
will actually open the door or not. He tells Kaji to have Lady Une send
him Ishigami's reports. Fuyutsuki wonders if they can trust Kaji, but
Gendou says he hates the world just like them.

Asuka has met everyone in LOTUS, but doesn't care to become friends.
It's not like it will make any difference. She seems to think she's now
the only EVA pilot in the team, but to her surprise Gendou wants Rei and
Shinji to stay there. Some of the team invites her to eat; she tries to
pass but Misato orders her to eat with everyone -- she needs to eat with
the crew and get closer to everyone. Lulu, meanwhile, is worried about
those left behind in Darius World...

Stage 24 - The Great Power Cleaves the Sky

In Darius World, the people left behind are surrounded by the Darius
forces. Proist is launching her final attack, with her four chosen
generals at the head. The heroes strike back and destroy some of the
Darius enemies. Proist then shows up herself; it's time to go to earth
and put her FD Operation into its final stages. From all over Darius
World, the volcanos erupt and there are great distortions in space --
she's using the Darius Core, and intends to make the Final Death Cross
which will destroy everything. She then uses a Death Cross to warp her
forces, and the heroes try to follow.

Darius XVII discovers that Proist has stolen the Core. He needs to stop
Proist's plan of destruction, but the only way to do that is rely on the
Daiku Maryu, and Daiya, the son of Doctor Two (who is there with
Darius). They both decide to go to Earth.

Ichitaka and Alice are trying to replicate the dimensional attack in the
simulator, but they keep failing. He asks Kenji about tips on
combination attacks, but Kenji just says he's *very* close to Tsubaki.
Miwa has also been training despite her age; she's still got it where it
counts. Miwa and Tsubaki head for a bath, and Ichitaka decides to rest
too. Alice needs to cool down anyway, but Duo shows up to get his health
check-up...no rest for busy Alice.

Daiya is talking to his teammates in the lounge. He trains every day,
but since his master Lee is still in Darius World, he can't do it as
well as he'd like. Just then, they get a distress call from the Darius
people -- Proist has come above ground! Fortunately, the Darius heroes
have been able to follow them, so they're ready to fight.

LOTUS shows up on the second turn. Insanity-Proist cackles and says
they'll all die! Galis tells LOTUS they need to defeat Proist and
recover the Darius Core.

Yuu appears soon, and decides this is a perfect time to watch from the
sidelines and see if Ichitaka can call out Rushbird's power again.

When you beat Proist...guess what...she regenerates! Lee tells Daiya to
use the Dragon move; Ichitaka offers to stop Proist while he readies it.
Ichitaka wants Alice to repeat the dimension move from before. This time
he wants her to remember an incident when they were walking home with
the Professor last year. Alice is able to do the move again, while Yuu
watches from the sidelines. The move stops Proist long enough for Daiya
to pull off the super move he learned from Lee. But Proist is still
alive, and as long as she has the Darius Core she can't be beaten. She's
able to escape. Yuu congratulates Ichitaka -- Alice was able to use the
memory of supporting a drunken Professor to control the Rushbird's
dimension move. Yuu then leaves. Now the problem is Proist -- she's
still around, still going after her Final Death Cross plan, and who
knows how many Dariua soldiers have come to Earth. However, they get a
call from Emperor Darius XVII...

Yuu sees now that Ichitaka has gained a lot of strength even though it
seemed like he wasn't really doing much. He thinks that maybe Ichitaka
can find the Professor where he's failed. At the very least, he's not
going to try to stop Ichitaka anymore.

Darius XVII wants LOTUS to stop Proist; it's beyond his power to do so
now. Some think that's pretty selfish of Darius, to come out now when
he's already done so much harm to Earth. Darius doesn't deny this, but
reminds them that without the Darius Core, the Darius World will be
destroyed, killing all of its inhabitants. He promises that if they stop
Proist, he'll use the Ark to go into space with his people instead of
trying to conquer Earth. He's coming now to Earth to talk with them
directly, bringing Daiya's father as proof of his intentions.

Misato thinks it's OK to meet with Darius; this could be a trap, but
he's probably serious given the threat to Darius World's existence.
Galis and Kouichi are hesitant, but Nagisa-1 suggests preparing for the
possibility of a trap. Also if that really is Daiya's dad, he might be a
hostage -- this could be an opportunity to save him. Misato decides that
the meeting will take place, while Daiya is wondering if his father is
actually helping Darius...

Stage 25 - A God To End Suffering and Death

Lady Une transfers control of the operation to Daiku Maryu. Everyone
meets the people who were in Darius World, particularly the Three Giants
of Fire. Lee was a support for Gaiking but now pilots the Balking. Noza
is in the Raiking; he used to be one of Emperor Darius' generals.
Vestune was also a member of Darius' army -- both of them left because
of Proist. Kain is one of Noza's knights, piloting the Tenku Maryu.
Ichitaka thanks Kenji for helping him realize how to use the Rushbird's
ultimate attack and promises to take him out for ramen...if they
survive, that is.

Deek and Lulu are talking -- they think the Emperor's talk about the
space ark is suspicious, but Lulu wants to help if that's true. Deek
says his place is by Lulu's side, but before the conversation can go any
further, she's called to the bridge.

They come to a giant, which is believed to be Darius XVII. Actually it's
just a castle of sorts, and the real Darius meets them on the Daiku
Maryu bridge. Darius once again says that he doesn't want to fight, he
just wants to stop Proist. Daiya's father supports him. Daiya wants his
father to come home, but he needs to support Emperor Darius with his
science. Just then Proist and her forces arrive -- LOTUS thinks this is
Darius' trap but that's not the case. Darius tells her to stop her
plans, but Proist thinks she's just carrying on her father's wishes. She
tries to grab her father, but LOTUS tries to block her and she ends up
accidentally killing the Emperor instead. This makes Proist insane with
rage, and she gets ready to attack. Proist appears in the Final
Dobolzack, and it's time for the last battle against the Darius forces.

When you defeat one of the four generals, Proist regenerates it, and
laughs at you -- you can't win! We have to defeat Proist first or the
generals won't go down.

Once you do defeat Proist, all of the other soldiers and the four
generals are destroyed as well. The Darius Core is fine, so once they
recover it, the fight is over. Daiya has a tearful reunion with his
father, but still wants to know why he was helping Darius XVII. His
father was trying to push for the Ark Plan to help the suffering people
of Darius World without having to conquer the Earth. Proist, who was
able to restore herself with the bodies of the four generals, overhears
this and realizes that Daiya and his father are the true causes of all
her problems. Now that her father is dead, she's the true ruler of
Darius, and it's time to take out the opposition! She reappears on the
battlefield in the Darius Castle -- now dubbed Darius XVIII!

After seeing a taste of the Darius Castle [which is actually weaker than
the Final Dobolzack] some people want to retreat and come up with a
plan, but Lulu encourages them to push on. They may have very little
time; without the Darius Core, how long can Darius World hold out?
Daiya's father pleads with Proist to stop -- this isn't what her father
wanted! Proist only sees someone who tricked her father and betrayed
him. She intends to show him a hell a million times worse than she
experienced. She goes for the Daiku Maryu, but Deek blocks the attack
and is destroyed. At the end he's not sure why he went against his
instinct and played the protective hero.

When you attack the Castle with Gaiking, Sakon tells Proist that he's
recovered the last testament of Darius XVII from his dead body. Normally
the souls of the previous Emperors are given to the next Emperor, who is
brought up to be the next Emperor, but XVII wanted to cleanse all the
souls and aim for a new world. Proist wonders if she was really just a
vessel for a soul. Sakon tells her to stop -- the desire to avoid
fighting was not only XVII's will but the will of all the Emperors
before him. Of course Proist doesn't want to listen.

When you defeat Proist, she regenerates (surprise!). What they have to
do to defeat her for good is combine the Raiking, Gaiking, and Balking
to do a super flame attack -- Gaiking The Great! It will take Daiya's
utmost strength, and will only work if he's trained his flame well
enough. It's worth a try, and everyone cheers them on as they combine.
Proist laughs at them, but the attack works and she's finally destroyed.
She never learned anything about friendship from LOTUS. More good news;
Deek is actually alive, he was able to eject from his mech.

Daiya gets a tearful reunion with his father, but none of them can find
much to say. Everyone (excepting maybe Lou and Shinji) are in tears over
the happy reunion of father and son. Galis will take the Darius Core
back to Darius World, and unfortunately Daiya's father has to go too --
he still has to work on the Ark for the Darius people. The other Gaiking
fighters will remain on Earth to help LOTUS. Everyone is happy to see
the fight with Darius come to a close -- it's been a 10 year fight, and
not only did they defeat Darius, but they're now working with Darius
people. LOTUS heads back to JUDA for a rest.

Back in space, Sheryl is still in the hospital, but wants to talk to
Grace. She has plenty of questions -- why did Grace become Ranka's
manager? Why is she still in a hospital bed? Why does Ranka's song work
against the Vajra? Grace thinks Sheryl is pathetic; if it weren't for
her help, Sheryl would be nothing -- she would have died in a Galaxy
slum. And now she's going to die anyway. Grace asks her to recall her
hospitilization soon after Sheryl was picked up. She was never actually
cured of that disease, it just hadn't broken out until now.

In Ozaki Town, Risako is bummed that all her school friends are away in
LOTUS, leaving her behind. She then gets a surprise visit...from Yajima!

Stage 26 - Various Requests

Ogawa is in the JUDA president office awaiting the return of LOTUS; the
program of Ishigami tells her to do an Idol Contest to alleviate the
stress of the team. The program has already sent out invitations to
Ranka and Eida, so it's too late to go back now -- in any case, the team
seems to need rest and fun.

The rest of the team reacts in the same way -- they can't believe it,
but it sounds like fun. Athrun thinks it's a waste of time, but Shinn
seems fine with it. The contestants will be drawn from LOTUS, of course.
Puria thinks she's the obvious choice, but Daiya would prefer Lulu.
Other people that have barely been in the game (as they say), like Kyoko
and Rebecca, are happy to have their chance too. Asuka thinks this is
too old-fashioned and just gives the boys something to leer at, but
Misato says the boys will have something to do to. Later, she asks
Kouichi and Emi to be the MCs and host a party afterwards -- this was
the personal request of Ishigami, who is there on the monitor again. "By
the time you see this, I will already be dead..."

Neos Gold calls in Golem and sends her after Iczer-3 -- Iczer-2 is
almost recovered, so she wants Iczer-3 dead as soon as possible.

Ranka has arrived at JUDA with Grace and her crew, ready to take the
stage. Eida arrives as well and tells Ranka she's a fan; she even saw
Ranka's impromptu performance on the south islands. Not much time for
chat, though, because it's time for her performance! Ranka is on stage,
singing her song (kira!) She makes Alto smile, and Grace sees that the
situation is very important for emotional control. Soon after this, Alto
and the other big strong men are hurrying to make preparations for the
contest, moving things around and such. Ichitaka wonders why Sheryl
isn't there -- apparently she refused the request, saying that she was
done singing songs. Alto finds this rather strange.

The contest starts and Kouchi is having trouble announcing. Nobody sees
Rebecca or Lulu...could it be? Entry number 8...Rebecca (who's that!?)
She's actually a Darius person who works on the bridge of the Daiku
Maryu; an underling of Vestune. Entry 11 is Miu, wearing a nurse
costume. Somehow even Furuya, the classmate of Ichitaka and the others,
is there (as part of the Hayase Group, naturally). Entry 14 is Lulu, who
shows origami Daiku Maryuu, Minerva, and Macross made by the children.
She didn't want to be in the contest but she wanted everyone to know
that they have support.

The Dancougar team is out shopping -- Aoi didn't enter the contest
because she was actually a model before, and she didn't think it was
fair for a pro to be on stage. Eida arrives too and wants to talk to
Johnny. She was mad last year when she got beaten out by another firm
for a job, and was looking around the Internet to see which firm. She
saw Johnny's picture and fell in love.

The contest is over, and Kouichi is relieved. Risako is actually there
helping with the food; she doesn't seem to get that Kouichi is actually
an important pilot. Yajima comes in as well, shocking Kouichi, and he
wants to speak with Kouichi alone. Yajima wants to know if Kouichi's
path has made him the fighter for justice he thought he would be.
Kouichi would rather hear what happened to Yajima and why he's been out
of touch for so long. Yajima can't believe that these supposed fighters
for justice are having fun while so many people in the world are still
suffering. He doesn't think Kouichi has what it takes to be a fighter
for justice; in the end he was just drawn in against his will -- he
should leave the Linebarrel and go with Risako. After all, the power he
got for Linebarrel resulted in his death. How can that save the world?
Just then, there's the sound of enemies attacking. Yajima grabs Emi and
tells Kouichi to escape with Risako. He then calls out his mech,
Apparition.

The enemies are Cthulhu, let by Golem. She ignores Apparition and
attacks JUDA, wanting Iczer-3 to come out. LOTUS arrives, and Nagisa-3
recognizes Golem as one of the four generals of Neos Gold. Golem sees
that Nagisa-3 is there and disappears. Yajima still wants Kouichi to
listen to him -- the others recognize Apparition as the machina that
killed Yajima and was recovered by the Katou group. Yajima indeed is
working for the Katou group; Katou is the one that made him the Factor
of the Apparition. In return he had to capture Emi, an action that he
now sees is the right thing. Ichitaka wants to know why he's acting like
this, but Yajima doesn't respond. Time to fight!

Atros arrives the next turn. She seems a bit different -- did Iczer's
words have some effect on her? Maybe not because she just challenges
Iczer-3 like before. She has to or she'll be killed by Neos Gold. Both
Nagisas want to stop her, but can they?

A few turns later, more Katou group enemies arrive. Wufei is with them
as usual. Yajima tells them he couldn't easily escape, and the team
tells him he now has time. Soon, Dmitri sacrifices himself to allow
Yajima to escape; blowing himself up to create a jamming field that
prevents them from finding out where Yajima has gone. Sawatari is pissed
off that they killed Dmitri and uses a bunch of seishin, despite Jack's
attempt to get him to give up his rage.

When Iczer-3 defeats Atros, Atros wants Iczer to fight for real, with
her sword. Iczer-3's tired of the fight and just wants Atros to give
back Iczelio. Atros asks what she has left if fighting is taken away;
Iczer-3 says there's a lot, and Klan (a Zentradi) is happy her ancestors
learned to do things other than fight. Both Nagisas also plead with
Atros to stop -- she's clearly a twin of Iczer-3, born the same way she
was. They ask Atros to fight alongside LOTUS. But then Golem shows up
from her hiding place and tries to capture Nagisa-3, but Nagisa-1 puts
herself in the way and uses some kind of transportation beam, preventing
Golem from taking Nagisa-3. Golem is happy to have either partner, and
leaves. Atros doesn't understand why Nagisa-1 sacrificed herself to
protect others, and leaves in confusion.

Once you beat the enemies, Yajima is long gone, and Iczer-3 is upset
that she wasn't able to protect Nagisa. She's probably been taken back
to the Cthulhu base, but they have no idea where that is, despite
intense searching by PLANT and the Macross team. They might have better
luck finding Yajima, especially when he sends them a recorded message.
He wants Kouichi to come to a specific spot alone. This is apparently a
plan of Katou's, because he is able to detect that the Linebarrel has
headed for the spot, and prepares to meet Kouichi himself. On the way
out, he wonders if Wufei is ready to leave, but Wufei says that while
the plan may have changed, Katou hasn't, so he's going to stick with
Katou until the end. Sawatari is eager to go out and fight, but Katou
reminds him that the final battle is coming soon -- hold on until then.

Katou, Yajima, and Kouichi meet up. Katou once again wants Kouichi to
join him -- this time he can't use the excuse of Yajima. Imagination is
something released when suppression is removed, and the best way to do
that is through death. Surely Kouichi has seen the people protected by
LOTUS, who have lost the power of imagination and just want things to
stay exactly as they are. The future should only be for those who
struggle and fight. Kouichi once again refuses -- he wants to protect
people by fighting for justice; those same people who don't struggle.
Katou understands, and returns Emi. Yajima wants to fight with Kouichi
one more time to test his resolve, and to show that Yajima can protect
Kouichi despite his justice games. He wants Kouichi to quit fighting and
go back to Risako, since Yajima himself can't do that anymore. But
Kouichi knows now that Yajima was just protecting him because of Risako,
not because of Kouichi. He asks Yajima now what he wants to do. Yajima
thinks that Kouichi has grown, and lets him go so that he can think
about what he wants to do himself. Yajima also doesn't want to go with
Katou, and so Katou lets them both go. But after they leave, he is happy
that Stage 2 of the plan can come more quickly due to Kouichi's
exceptional ability.

Lady Une has learned that Djibril is hiding in Orb. They've tried to
request Orb to turn him over, but with Cagalli missing, there's no one
on their side to receive the request -- so it's time for LOTUS to step
in.

Nagisa-1 has been imprisoned on the Cthulhu Base. Neos Gold thanks Golem
and tell sher that Big Gold will be very happy to hear about this. Now
as soon as Iczer-2 recovers power, she can destroy the world! MWA HA HA

Back at JUDA, Risako is upset about what Yajima did; he always tried to
protect Risako and Kouichi. So why is he doing this now? No time for
this because the fighters are needed on the next operation. Iczer-3
thanks Nagisa-3 for her help with Atros -- she's right, Atros can be a
friend. As they're about to leave, Nagisa-3 gets some kind of signal
from Nagisa-1, but she's not sure what it is.

In the Macross Quarter, everyone is thanking Ranka for her concert, and
hoping she can do it again some time. Alto assures her they'll save
Nagisa-1 and take care of everything else here. Grace gives them letters
from the Nyan-nyan restaurant and other friends they made, and it's time
for Ranka to leave. Klan also receives an analysis of a medicine that
Michel asked her to do, and she tells him about it later. They now
understand that Sheryl is suffering from some sort of V-Type infection
and taking medicine to deal with it, but it gives her side effects. Much
about the infection is unknown, but a medicine has recently been
developed to cure it -- unfortunately Sheryl is too late in the disease
for that medicine to benefit her. Michel wants to make sure Alto doesn't
find out, even though Klan thinks they should tell him. Michel hopes
later they can create a chance for Sheryl to tell him herself.

Stage 27 - The Enemy We Should Fight

Kouichi is back, and Emi seems to be OK -- there wasn't any trap, it was
just an excuse to try to recruit Kouichi again. They've reached the
meetup point with ZAFT, and are ready to go after Djibril -- Kenji still
can't believe that Orb is hiding him. Iczer-3 has a simple outlook; that
makes ZAFT the enemy. Shinn agrees; even Cagalli, who was supposed to be
changing things, is off with some secret organization. None of the
politicians care about the people at all. Athrun wonders if Shinn will
have trouble fighting Orb, but Shinn asks the same thing of Athrun.

Athrun does seem to be having doubts. Goh tries to encourage him; nobody
likes to fight other humans, but Goh has decided to keep on going, and
that's his own decision. He tells Athrun to pick his path and break
through.

Speaking of the Archangel, they're still not fixed up enough to enter
the battle, but Cagalli wants to go by herself. Murrue wants her to wait
until Kira returns, but she takes the Akatsuki and leaves by herself.
Meanwhile Neo has recovered and wonders when he's free to go. Murrue
tells him that he can take a mobile suit from the deck and go -- he's
not Mwu, so there's no reason to stay. Neo seems bothered by this.

The battle is starting, and Djibril seems to have Yuna under his
control. Relena urges him again to stop his useless fighting, but
Djibril just wants to get into space. Yuna contacts LOTUS and tells them
that Djibril isn't in Orb; of course nobody believes him, and Durandal
orders ZAFT to recover Djibril. It's necessary for a just and peaceful
future.

Heero shows up on the next turn to rescue Relena, but Djibril had
guessed this would happen, and sends out Trowa to deal with him.

A few turns later, Cagalli arrives in the Akatsuki. She remembers the
recorded voice of her father telling her that the Akatsuki is hers if
she ever wants power; it's a sword to protect people. She tells everyone
to stop the fight. Yuna is overjoyed that she's returned, and this time
ready to acknowledge her as the real Cagalli. She tells the Orb people
to capture Yuna as a traitor to Orb. Then she declares that she'll
cleanse Orb of the Logos menace. Djibril sends out more soldiers; Orb's
no good to him anymore. Talia orders LOTUS -- break through the Orb
soldiers so they can capture Djibril.

The next turn, Archangel shows up, not in the best condition. But Murrue
couldn't let Cagalli go off by herself. A unit pops up to attack the
Archangel, but Neo appears in the Sky Grasper to protect it -- he
doesn't much like Djibril, after all. Djibril sends out Destroy Gundams,
who start to attack the emergency shelter, but Cagalli blocks the attack
with the Akatsuki. This sparks Neo's memory a bit, while Athrun tells
Cagalli she can't afford to die -- what will happen to Orb then? Neo now
has his memory back completely; he remembers his name and what he did.
He attacks the Destroy Gundam. He's the man who can make the impossible
possible! However, the assault of the Destroy Gundams is going to be
impossible for him to resist. Time for Kira to save the day, in his new
Strike Freedom. He blasts the Destroy Gundams; he's not going to let big
mechs burn Orb again. Lacus arrives in the Eternal, and has a new mech
for Athrun as well, the Infinite Justice. He's still conflicted about
what to do, but Lacus echoes Goh's words. Use the power to forge your
own path; power alone isn't good or evil. Athrun makes his decision, and
goes out in the Infinite Justice. Lacus leaves. Athrun tells Cagalli to
leave the battle to them and find Djibril; she and Mwu both exit the
battle.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-6">
After a number of mechs are destroyed, the mysterious enemies who were
chasing the Archangel arrive -- they're the type of mechs that captured
Professor Gleif. The enemies refuse to respond to calls, and they're
clearly aiming for LOTUS. Djibril decides to use this to his advantage
and gets ready to escape in a shuttle. Relena pleads with him to stop
this useless resistance, but Djibril tells her there's still one trump
card left. All of his enemies will soon be destroyed. The shuttle
leaves, and Heero goes after it.

The next turn, Yuu arrives. Haruno confirms that the units are using the
Professor's technology, and vows to stop them from misusing the
inventions.

As the unidentified units fight you, they seem to have a lot of data on
your mechs. Once you beat the leader, he goes for Kira. Even though it's
a new mech, it's just the Freedom upgraded, so they already know all
about it. Haruno detects a disturbance in space-time; if the enemy unit
goes haywire, it could destroy this whole area. Fortunately Shinn steps
in and disables the mech to protect Kira -- it was Kira who taught him
the value of protecting someone, and he's not going to let Orb's
potential savior be destroyed. Shinn creates an opening for Kira and
Athrun to combine their powers and destroy the enemy. Yuu and Haruno see
the teamwork; Haruno thinks that Yuu realizes they've done all they can
by themselves. But Yuu tells her to shut up, and leaves.

Once you defeat all the enemies, LOTUS goes to talk to Cagalli.
Meanwhile Talia apologizes to Durandal for "failing" to destroy
Archangel; Durandal doesn't seem to mind, though. He wants the Minerva
to continue with LOTUS. And of course, he can keep using Archangel for
his own ends...

Cagalli is quite pissed off at Yuna, who slinks off in shame. Duo
wonders if he got off easy, but it's not like he could have stopped all
of this himself. Cagalli hopes that he'll learn from his mistake and
grow...unlike Djibril. Cagalli pledges to put the resources of Orb
behind the capture of Djibril. Meanwhile, what are those unidentified
units doing? It's like they're running some kind of experiment with
LOTUS. All they do know is that every time they show up, they're
stronger -- using technology from the LOTUS units. But how is that
possible just by gathering data? That will remain a mystery for now.
Archangel is heading to space to meet with Lacus; Cagalli will go with
them, and of course Mwu is there too, now with his memories recovered.
Athrun decides to come along as well; he now accepts Shinn as strong
enough to protect the Minerva in his absence.

The mysterious leader of the original enemies gets reports from the
battle; he's impressed that LOTUS was able to stop the D Converter from
exploding. There are indeed many new "possibilities" on LOTUS -- he
wants the plan continued. The primary objective for now remains
collecting data from LOTUS. He's going to head into space; with the
Professor's help they might even be able to finish constructing "that".
The people on Earth should continue to analyze the humanoid-types that
they've completed.

LOTUS gets an emergency call from NERV -- return immediately!

Stage 28 - A Broken Promise

The 8th Angel has been detected in space, entering orbit. Of course its
destination is NERV. The AT Field of the Angel blocked all the N2 bombs
and it's causing such disturbance in space-time that they can't
communicate with anyone. It's almost as if the Angel itself is a bomb,
and if it blows up in Neo Tokyo it will expose Central Dogma in NERV.
They can't contact Gendou because of the interference, so Misato has to
head the operation herself. She orders the evacuation of the area. She
still hasn't come up with any plan talking to LOTUS later; what can they
do against it if a huge cluster of N2 bombs couldn't even change its
course?

Someone unidentified tells Neos Gold about this Angel, and thinks that
if they can prevent the humans from fighting the Angel, the Third Impact
will occur and they can easily take over the Earth once the humans are
gone.

Misato now has a plan -- use all three EVAs to literally stop the Angel
from descending with their hands. The MAGI have predicted a 99% failure
rate, but at least it's not 100%. They just need to make a miracle
happen! Asuka wants to do everything herself as usual, but if the
commander's giving an order to work together, she has nothing to say.
The rest of LOTUS will stand guard just in case anything happens.

Touji and his friends are waiting in the shelter, although will that
really protect them from the Angel? Shinji is their only hope. The
Angel's place of descent has finally been calculated and the EVAs are
ready to proceed to the spot, but Golem shows up with Cthulhu forces and
then leaves -- the ones remaining are all unmanned units, so Iczer-3's
cries to release Nagisa fall on deaf ears. Now the EVAs need to be
protected so they can reach the destination ready to fight the Angel.

The EVAs soon reach the designated spot, but unfortunately the Angel
isn't cooperating and changes course. Now there are only 3 turns to get
the EVAs to the new spot!

Once the EVAs arrive, they all activate their AT Fields and get ready
for the Angel's descent. The Angel begins to attack Shinji, and he tries
to hold on as best he can. Asuka goes for the core, but she misses, so
Rei holds the core steady while Asuka destroys it. Although all three
EVAs take a lot of damage, they managed to destroy the Angel. They made
a miracle happen. However, Golem was still waiting in the wings with
additional units, and she tries to at least destroy the EVAs if nothing
else. EVA-01 is damaged enough that the AT Field isn't activating, but
Asuka has an idea to use the power of all three EVAs to defeat the
enemy. Despite their energy drain they're able to follow Asuka's lead
and destroy the enemy. Golem leaves frustrated. There are no more
enemies, and now that the radio communications have been restored,
Gendou is able to contact them. Misato apologizes for her plan that
caused so much damage to the EVAs, but Gendou is just happy that the
Angel was destroyed. He'll be away for some time dealing with the
higher-ups, but he congratulates both Misato and Shinji personally. This
shocks Shinji, and everyone returns to NERV.

Gendou is speaking to SEELE. They're expecting more Angels, but Kaworu
tells them that in "this world", there won't be any more Angels. Gendou
noticed this, but without proof, he didn't say anything. But he guessed
from what he read in Ishigami's reports that the disturbances in
space-time were too severe; invasions from a parallel world, and humans
that didn't stem from the same source as they do. As for SEELE's plan?
It's pretty much shot, and their apocrypha won't help them. They can
hope for a good outcome but this world is heading for an unforeseen end.
Kaworu hopes to himself that depending on "their" actions, this time
they might be able to create a happy world for themselves.

In a NERV elevator, Shinji asks Asuka why she pilots the EVA. She does
it for herself. Shinji isn't sure why he does it, and he wonders if it's
just to hear praise from his father, which he had never heard before
today. Asuka calls Shinji an idiot, and lets him call her by her first
name.

Back at NERV, Gendou isn't surprised that SEELE was going to try to use
Apocrypha from beyond the Dead Sea Scrolls to manipulate the outcome.
Fuyutsuki wonders if both SEELE and NERV no longer have any use. Gendou,
at least, intends to continue along his chosen path, no matter what
sacrifices have to be made, and even though they no longer have a
scenario.

Touji and his friends thank Shinji for protecting the town, and they
meet the rest of LOTUS. Kensuke is star-struck and gushes about all the
famous heroes. Shinji deflects the praise, saying he couldn't have
accomplished anything himself (which Asuka agrees with a little too
quickly). Kouichi and Ichitaka think Asuka and Shinji are closer to each
other (which of course they deny). Then there's a feast made by Anna and
Nagisa-3 using Nyan-nyan recipes. Shinji also made some lunches, which
are surprisingly good. Rei even says "thank you". Risako calls Kouichi,
and asks him about becoming a Factor. He apologizes for not telling her
about this earlier, but Risako is OK with it, since he's working to
protect everyone. Kouichi has something to tell her after talking to
Yajima...but not yet. He's hoping Yajima will be back to tell her
himself.

At the Dragon's Hive, FS and Tanaka see that SEELE's Human
Instrumentality Plan has failed. Therefore it's only a matter of time
before "he" starts to move -- he may have even started already. It's
even possible that "he" may be the trigger for "that person" at Cthulhu.
They need to awaken Dancougar as soon as possible. Humanity has little
time remaining...

Stage 29B - The Beast Awakens

Some time passes, and the EVAs are almost repaired, although not ready
for space fighting yet. They can't yet pinpoint Djibril's location, but
he needs to be dealt with quickly. Misato suggests splitting the team
again, and Captain Jeffrey likes this idea. Elsewhere, Asuka is bored
since there are no more Angels or Cthulhu, but Ichitaka is happy with
peace -- this is what they're fighting to restore, right? Kouichi
wonders if it's ever possible to return to the way things were before.
Michel thinks it may not be; there are certain things that once you know
about them, you can never go back. Iczer-3 is also bored. But Misato
comes in to tell them LOTUS is going into space -- at least some of
them. The rest will hang out in JUDA and wait. Ichitaka will stay on
Earth. Emi reminds them that the Katou Group is still around, so it may
not be as peaceful as they think. Yajima isn't with them any more so
luckily they shouldn't have to fight him again. The team decides to do
some simulation battles to keep up their skills. Yamashita is pensive.
He wonders if Moritsugu and Katou really want to rule the world? He
still feels like he wants to trust Moritsugu, despite all that has
happened. Kain understands this feeling; you should trust your superiors
to the end. Shinji agrees; Yamashita knows Moritsugu better than anyone.

Masaki returns to the Shangri-la, and immediately has to start the
preparations for the Point Zero installation. All the other spheres have
been placed, but this one is the hardest of all, since it's in Ozaki
Town. Masaki expects a lot of resistance, but once this sphere is
placed, the door can be opened. Moritsugu is in space, ready to activate
the Hub Fountain.

The EVAs are finally fixed. Everyone is still praising Shinji for his
great performances, which he turns aside. Asuka wants him to just be
happy for once when everyone is acknowledging his ability. Shinji has
really changed though -- at first it didn't seem like he would do
anything praiseworthy. The Dancougar Team has changed in their time with
LOTUS as well; at first they were rather cold and standoffish, but now
they've warmed up to the crew. Aoi tries to say that's not why she's
piloting the Dancougar, but Kouji thinks she's just hiding her true
feelings. Daiya thanks her for helping him out during training. Aoi says
this doesn't mean anything, but Goh says that's what a team member does.
No more discussion though, because there's an emergency call.

The Katou Group is heading for Ozaki Town. Naito and others tried to
hold them off, but R-Daigun came in and made it that much harder. They
haven't seen R-Daigun since Vladivostok, so why is it here now? In any
case, LOTUS will take over the defense. The Daiku Maryuu heads for Ozaki
at full speed.

The Dancougar team takes Kouji and Tetsuya (and others) aside to talk
about the upcoming fight. Aoi wonders how they managed to defeat so many
enemies that were stronger than them. Kouji just has one piece of advice
-- no matter what pinch you're in, don't give up. Goh agrees -- fight
and fight until the end. Tetsuya tells them they lack one thing that the
other people have, and they should already know what it is. They have
their chance to show their ability as they've arrived in Ozaki Town.

Poor Igarashi is there again, getting beat up by the Katou Group's
soldiers. He's going to stay there to the last, since they're the only
ones there to defend the town. Fortunately LOTUS shows up just in time.
Igarashi leaves. Ichitaka notices that Masaki's mech is right above
their school, and Emi warns them that's where the final sphere is going
to be placed. LOTUS still has no idea what these spheres are for, but
it's clear they can't let Masaki place the last one. R-Daigun is there
too, and challenges Dancougar again. This time Aoi is ready to fight.

When you beat R-Daigun, it regenerates and goes for Dancougar. Dancougar
gets beaten up again, and the R-Daigun pilot wonders how they plan to
save Earth with their weakness. The team seems to think they've lost,
but Kouji reminds them not to give up. Goh and Daiya encourage them as
well. The team really doesn't want to lose, and Aoi doesn't want to die
without finding her purpose in life. The Dancougar shines (and
regnerates), and the team feels a new power. R-Daigun attacks again, but
this time Dancougar is ready, and the counterattack nearly destroys
R-Daigun. Aoi is ready to finish R-Daigun off, but then they see the
pilot is actually Eida! She leaves before they can ask her what's going
on. Dancougar has returned to normal.

After a few turns, Masaki finishes placing the sphere -- it's much
bigger than the previous ones. Kouichi is pissed off that they're
ruining his school, and attacks Masaki. It doesn't work, and Masaki
reminds him that his mech is immune to beam attacks. He rushes towards
Masaki, but the Glen-Neidr is hit by missiles from Yajima. Yajima has
thought about what he wants to do, and he's decided to keep protecting
Kouichi, but he asks Kouichi to help him out too if he's in a pinch --
he no longer wants to just protect others. Kouichi agrees, and everyone
else joins in.

When the Glen-Neidr is defeated it regenerates, but Katou tells Masaki
to retreat; his orders were just to place the sphere, not defeat LOTUS.
The Hub Fountain is active. Masaki leaves, and while the heroes are glad
they protected Ozaki Town, they weren't able to prevent the sphere's
placement. Rachel has made progress analyzing the sphere, though, and
everyone returns to JUDA.

Katou wants to know why Masaki was trying to eliminate LOTUS instead of
just placing the sphere, and why did he fail? Masaki tells him about
Yajima's interference, and then leaves. Moritsugu reports that the Hub
Dynamo has connected with energy from the Hub Fountain. Soon they can
activate the Dimension Pillar, although they need a Flag first -- one
that Ishigami sealed behind more games and tricks. They're almost done,
though.

Back at JUDA, Yajima has confessed his love for Risako. She hesitates
and he assumes she likes Kouichi instead; that's fine with him, he just
wanted to say what he had to say. Domyoji and Ichitaka are
eavesdropping, so Goh has to drag them to the president's office to hear
about the sphere. In the office, they first hear about all the other
spheres that the Katou Group placed secretly while LOTUS' attention was
elsewhere. Then the report -- Sakon first tells them that they're sort
of like the Deathcross Points, but different as well. They appear to be
systems designed to cause large-scale dimensional warps, sort of like
the hole that appeared when Linebarrel first arrived in this world. The
disturbances in Ozaki town are directly above the sphere. Yajima
realizes they intend to bring in their main force through those gates.
Just then, a recording of Ishigami comes on and tells them there's
little time left. He entrusts the entire JUDA project to LOTUS. It turns
out that the JUDA building itself is a flying ship called Flag. It was
disguised as the JUDA building to prevent Katou from finding it. They
have some time until the main force comes, so Tanaka (of Dancougar)
invites the heroes to Dragon's Hive. Tanaka is finally willing to tell
them what they want to know, and FS will talk to them as well.

FS is talking to WILL, who is pleased that Dancougar awakened even
faster than they thought. This will be plenty of power to resist "them",
although FS still needs to convince them to do it. The time has come to
reveal Dancougar's true purpose.

Stage 30B - Towards the Limit of Evolution

Vladimir ends the relationship with Katou Group now that they've managed
to awaken Dancougar. Katou's fine with it, and says to tell "him" hello.
Katou and Moritsugu continue with their plan. Meanwhile at the Cthulhu
base, Iczer-2 is sure that she can defeat Iczer-3 without any helper
power. Neos Gold is pleased, but has one other thing to prepare...

LOTUS has arrived at the Dragon's Hive. It's on a supposedly deserted
island that nobody knows about. The Dancougar team hasn't seen the
support staff in a while, and the males are distracted by
Seimi's...assets. Even she thinks that the Dancougar team has changed --
whatever walls they had in their hearts seem to have broken down. Tanaka
comes out to escort LOTUS to the central command room. FS is there,
ready to explain the situation. FS apparently stands for Fog Sweeper.
He's ready to explain all about Dancougar to them, and Isabel Cronkite
is there for some reason too. Not only that, but Vladimir is there as
well -- the leader of the R-Daigun side! Eida's back at the base doing
repairs to the R-Daigun.

FS explains that the Dancougar was made to protect humanity. In order to
awaken Dancougar, it had to be stimulated and educated by combat,
including with R-Daigun. Dancougar also had to gather "life data" from
many different places -- all to defeat the Angels, and WILL. WILL
itself, or at least one aspect of WILL, appears on the monitor to
explain further. The WILLs have been watching over organic life since
long ago, even before this universe came into being. This WILL has been
watching over Earth, and has seen the limitless potential of humans. But
his brother Moon WILL in space has determined that humans should be
eliminated from the universe. However, they have no intention of letting
Dancougar fight Moon WILL. Moon WILL has something called the Original
Dancougar that is far beyond any enemy they've faced up to now. That was
made solely for fighting, and it totally different from this Dancougar.
Dancougar has been gathering "life data" so that even if humanity is
destroyed, the seeds of life will be preserved -- sort of like Noah's
Ark. They aren't going to send Dancougar into a hopeless fight. The EVA
pilots are annoyed -- what did they beat the Angels for, so that they
could just sit around and wait for the end of humanity? The Dancougar
pilots declare their intent to defeat Moon WILL, of course. The other
LOTUS pilots agree. FS appreciates their desire, but they're facing a
force they can't oppose. No more time for discussion, though, because
Cthulhu forces are headed their way. After LOTUS leaves to go on, FS
tells WILL that for now, at least, they can't defeat Moon WILL.

Iczer-2 has shown up with a force of Dilos Thetas. She's obviously
stronger than before, and wants to face Iczer-1.

On the second turn, Kiriyama is back with some forces -- I guess he's
not dead after all. But there's something odd about him; he's still
rambling about justice but he seems only half human. The D-Soil is
operating at over 300%, which shouldn't be possible.

When you defeat Kiriyama, Masaki orders him to retreat. He's reluctant,
but seems to be compelled to follow Masaki's orders.

When you defeat a number of the Cthulhu forces, Moon WILL (who has
allied with Neos Gold) contacts Iczer-2, offering additional forces. In
order to wipe out all organic life!! Five Regulas As appear, and FS
recognizes this as Moon WILL's first strike. Dancougar goes straight on
the attack, but can't damage the Regulas. They surround the Dancougar,
but Eida appears in the R-Daigun and saves it. Everyone is surprised to
see that Eida is the pilot of the R-Daigun, but autographs will have to
wait.

When you defeat one of the Regulas, they all regenerate completely. As
you keep beating them, they keep regenerating. Is one of them the real
one? Do they need to be beaten all at once? It doesn't seem like it.
Iczer-2 is just standing aside laughing, but FS and WILL are preparing
to do something.

Finally, the fifth time you beat one of them, it regenerates again, and
the heroes are starting to lose faith. Misato suggests retreating, an
option nobody likes. Aoi thinks there's still a way, and FS agrees -- he
can't let them fail. The Dragon's Hive turns into a dragon ship, the
true form of the base. Everyone cheers on Dancougar and reminds them
they're humanity's last hope. The Dancougar team accepts this and wants
to show them that they'll become saviors -- starting by beating these
Regulas. The Dancougar begins to glow, and FS tells them it's time for
Transendence Mode, the ultimate form of Dancougar. Aoi yells the keyword
(MAX GOD), and the R-Daigun and Dancougar combine into an ultimate form.
The Dancougar is able to destroy one of the Regulas, and now they can't
regenerate anymore.

When you defeat Iczer-2, she realizes more and more how powerful humans
are, and how much she's gained by capturing Nagisa. LOTUS is relieved
that they won the first battle against Moon WILL, and also powered up
Dancougar. WILL can't believe how quickly they've developed, and this is
exactly why he changed his mind about destroying humanity -- their great
potential. WILL and FS even dare to hope they might defeat Moon WILL.

Masaki was the one that sent Kiriyama out; he wanted to gather more data
on the opponents. Katou understands this but something makes him uneasy
about the decision. In the hallway the rest of the Katou Group is
talking; this isn't the first time Masaki has gone against Katou's
wishes, and they think he might be worth watching more closely. Wufei
wonders to himself if LOTUS will succeed in time.

Sammy and Isabel congratulate the Dancougar time, and FS now has no
intention of stopping them. If they want to try to defeat Moon WILL,
they can. The Dragon's Hive will travel with LOTUS to lend its strength.
Everyone is pumped up by Dancougar's evolution. Eida comes in, and
reveals that she was always the pilot of the R-Daigun. When Dancougar
joined LOTUS, FS thought it was progressing well enough that the
R-Daigun didn't need to attack anymore. Eida apologizes, but Aoi doesn't
want to hear it -- she's an ally now. Everyone gathers around to get her
autograph, but Yamashita gets an e-mail...from Moritsugu!

Stage 31B - The God-Eater

Moritsugu is thinking about his past. He professed to fight for justice
at an early age. His only friend as a child was his sister, but he lost
her to a gang of thugs sent by Kiriyama, his parents' friend. But he
doesn't blame Kiriyama; it was his own warped sense of justice that
killed his sister, and Kiriyama removed that obstacle.

Katou wants Masaki to lead the first attacking group when their force
comes through the portal. Masaki makes the unusual request to have
Kiriyama accompany him, which Katou allows, although he seems hesitant.

Kouji is talking to Professor Yumi; the Majinkaiser is going to take a
little more time, but he'll send it as soon as it's ready. Nearby,
Rachel and Miu are talking -- she's having trouble with the Painkiller;
the D Soil interface isn't functioning well. If it keeps dropping she
may eventually have to quit piloting it. Later Kouichi comes to talk to
her; Kouji saw her downcast. Miu feels like she's just a bother to
everyone. She wanted to be a fighter for justice. Kouichi tells her she
still can be -- she just needs to keep moving forward. Miu is about to
say more, but there's a commotion. Yamashita has taken off in his mech.
The rest of LOTUS needs to go bring him back.

Yamashita and Moritsugu meet. Yamashita asks why he killed Ishigami;
Moritsugu simply replies that it was necessary. He then invites
Yamashita to join Katou. Yamashita wonders if Moritsugu really thought
he would betray his friends with just one e-mail. Moritsugu tells him
that's just a casual relationship; it doesn't really matter. The rest of
the Katou Group arrives, and Yamashita says he'll take out Moritsugu
himself.

The next turn, Moritsugu moves near Yamashita -- his mech is designed
for long-range combat. Yamashita just yells back that Moritsugu betrayed
his companions and isn't a real fighter for justice. Then, several LOTUS
people show up to support Yamashita. Moritsugu tells them that LOTUS can
never win against the Katou Group with this band of inexperienced kids.
But Alice (and others) respond that it's teamwork that makes up for that
inexperience by everyone helping each other. Moritsugu says that's only
true if it can be backed up by results.

A few turns later, Painkiller starts to malfunction, and the D Soil
percent drops very low. Soumi decides to go straight for the Painkiller,
but Kouji comes in to defend. The Mazinger is disabled, but at least Miu
is OK, although still unable to move.

Next turn, things aren't looking very good, and Tetsuya suggests that
the rest of them take Miu and Kouji and escape. Of course no one wants
to leave Tetsuya alone, but he reminds them that their goal is not to
win this fight, it's to protect the Earth. However, at that moment the
Kaiser Pilder appears! Soumi is able to destroy the Great Mazinger and
the Mazinger, but the Original Great has been sent as well. Soumi tries
to go after them but Painkiller is able to move again, and Miu rushes to
their defense. Suddenly the D Soil cycle rate is 250%! Miu's life is in
danger from that high of a rate, but she doesn't intend to die here.
Soumi still tries to kill Tetsuya and Kouji, but they're able to get
into the restored Majinkaiser and Original Great. Someone else seems
happy about this from the shadows; a woman with him wonders if she
should go out and directly collect data, but he says they can do that
later. Right now they should just watch.

Next turn the rest of LOTUS finally arrives. Yamashita apologizes, but
nobody blames him. Misato assumes that since Moritsugu is there, he'll
be able to know all of their tactics, but Rei and Asuka remind her that
the current LOTUS isn't the LOTUS he left. FS and WILL agree; they've
exceeded everyone's expectations.

When you attack Soumi with Kouichi, Soumi tells him that he used to be
straightforward and idealistic about justice, but then his wife died,
and he realizes that there is no justice today, only in the future. The
second time, Kouichi responds that he can't understand Soumi's pain, but
that all he's doing is creating more people like him. Soumi understands
this, but...

When you beat Soumi he regenerates, and Miu goes after him. She begs
Painkiller to give her the power to protect everyone, and she's able to
destroy Soumi, apparently killing him. The unidentified woman wonders if
they can send this data, but the man doesn't think so -- they're not
going to like D Soil activation based on emotion. On the other hand,
they have gotten good data from this battle.

When you beat Moritsugu, he regenerates and goes after Kouichi. Kouichi
tries to attack him but he just dodges. Moritsugu is disappointed; the
Linebarrel should be the machina to surpass all others, but Kouichi
can't handle it. Moritsugu attacks again and damages Linebarrel, while
the other heroes yell at him to not give up, if he's a true justice
fighter. Goh thinks that Moritsugu is intentionally holding back.
Moritsugu continues to mock Kouichi, telling him that if he can't even
beat Moritsugu, he's not going to be able to protect a single person.
Kouichi manages to bring out the Mode B power of Linebarrel, but even
so, he can't hit Moritsugu -- an upgraded mech doesn't matter if it's
just the same attack pattern as before. Kouichi refuses to give up, not
with everyone putting their hopes on him. He increases Linebarrel's
power once again, this time to Mode C, and he's able to disable
Moritsugu's mech. Moritsugu tells Yamashita to keep that data; this is
the true form of Linebarrel, even though it hasn't fully awakened yet.
Everyone else will need to support Kouichi since he's the same
hardheaded person as before. He hopes everyone's learned something from
their fight with him.

Katou then shows up himself. He says the dimensional pillar is almost
open, and asks if LOTUS is ready to fight. They say they are, and Katou
proposes an alliance! He says that the true goal of the Katou Group was
to train and prepare the people of this world, and to stop and destroy
the alliance force from the other world. Emi now seems to have recovered
her memory and realizes that Katou is her brother.

Katou comes to Flag to explain. A dimension gate will soon open in space
and machina-people will come through it to fight. They need to plan a
counterattack. These "machina-people" are people who have combined their
bodies with machina, and now exist as a connected network with no
feelings of their own. The being they have become is called Central.
There is no hope of coexistence; Central just looks for people that can
benefit itself, like Professor Kizaki, who recovered the Factor
technology. Their main goal is harmony between their parts, and they've
now started looking beyond their own dimension to find that harmony. So
the katou Group curried favor with Central and then came over to this
world to prepare it for opposing the coming invasion. But why did they
kill Professor Kizaki? At that time, Kizaki had already been identified
by Central as a needless part, and so he wanted Katou to kill him. It
was all for the purpose of opposing Central in the end, although he's
not particularly happy about what he had to do. Some people aren't
certain they can trust Katou, but the R-Daigun group does -- that's why
Katou had the R-Daigun team work with him, because they had the same
goals. Wufei was also convinced by Katou, which is why he stayed there.
Katou's goal is to close the portals between the dimensions for good,
but Linebarrel's power is needed for that. Even the Ishigami computer
program agrees. Katou isn't going to force them into anything -- it's
LOTUS' choice. Kouichi says he can't forgive what they've done, but he
would rather go the route of fighting together than more fighting
between humans. Lady Une and Misato agree, and the alliance is forged.
Time to meet the Katou Group underlings for real this time. Some of them
don't seem entirely convinced by this alliance, but that's the way
things are. The Ishigami computer program apologizes to Moritsugu;
apparently the death of someone was needed to combine with Flag to
activate it. He was never with Katou because he disagreed with the
violent way that Katou was bringing about the eventual alliance. Kouichi
can't believe he got tricked by Moritsugu, and that this "computer
program Ishigami" was actually still living, in a sense. Ichitaka
suggests that Alice screw with his programming in revenge.

Miu is OK now, apparently the Painkiller problems were due to an
inoculation for virus attacks, which it will now be safe from. Now they
also have the Mazinger and Majinkaiser, so their power is increased! In
the cafeteria, Goh and Wufei talk along with Anna. He wanted to talk to
them, but Misato breaks in with an important announcement -- they've
found Lord Djibril's hiding spot. It's the Daidalos base on the Moon.
Since they have to fight Moon WILL anyway, this is a good chance. Time
to go into space and reunite with the rest of LOTUS. Meanwhile Masaki is
doing to Soumi the same thing he did to Kiriyama...

Stage 32 - The Song That Was Played

Djibril arrives at Daidalos Base on the Moon. He's still pissed off at
the Coordinators, but is ready to do something that will mean death for
all the monsters he opposes.

Now it's time to catch up on what happened on the other route split.
Mishima and the SMS rebelled, killed the mayor, and left Frontier.
They've teamed up with Grace, hoping to use Ranka's song attack to wipe
out the Vajra. They're not sure what Grace's personal interest in this
is, but Mishima is also using special new weapons to attack the Vajra as
well. He's using them even though they destroy colonies or whatever. And
now that the Vajra's home planet has folded to this area, he wants to
destroy it as well. The SMS members don't agree with Mishima as the
leader, but how can they ignore the Earth's danger? Also Ranka seems to
be bothered herself; after the last use of the song attack she said she
didn't want her song to be used as a weapon anymore. She left for the
Vajra home planet on her own, and now they want to use Sheryl in her
place. But they were able to rescue Sheryl. They'd like to find Ranka
too, but she did leave on her own. They have more pressing concerns than
her. In other news, Atros is with the heroes -- Iczer-3 says she's
learned to have fun and is no longer an enemy. Also Michel has died
(unless you took the other route and did the flags). They count up their
remaining enemies -- Vajra, Moon WILL, the Logos remnants, Central, and
Cthulhu. There are also the unidentified enemies; Katou seems to know
something about them. He calls them an arm of the New Allied Government
from the High Possibility World. They had been defeated on the alternate
Earth by Central, and Central and the New Allied Government are now
enemies. Their Earth is low on energy (thus the Macross plan to send out
colony ships). One way to deal with this lack of energy was to create
human-machine hybrids; the Machina Humans. After the Sharon Apple
project went haywire they tried to conceal what they were doing, so most
of the people don't know about it.

The Machina Humans continud to build themselves up and eventually
declared war on the humans. But because of the lack of energy the humans
were hard-pressed, and a pacifist faction in the government brokered a
peace deal. They're considered heroes, and built a city where Emi,
Katou, and their father lived. It was there that Professor Kizaki built
Linebarrel, the ultimate Machina killer. But due to an accident it was
transported to this world. Katou came looking for it, but it was soon
after the Second Impact, and he ran into President Rudo Gloria, who in
this world is the founder of GreAT. He's trying to avoid humanity being
turned into machina, looking for useable technology and brains. But all
of their contact with him is through Masaki, a member of Central. In any
case, it sounds like the purpose of capturing the Professor and watching
LOTUS was to send information and technology to Central. Since LOTUS is
such a good source for that, they'll surely show up again. For now,
though, Djibril is their primary objective.

They get an emergency call; the PLANTs have sustained severe damage.
Somehow Djibril has managed to attack them from the reverse side of the
moon, using some kind of advanced weapon. It seems that the weapon
allows them to aim anywhere they want. It's imperative that they stop
Djibril immediately. The Eternal and Archangel are on the hunt too;
they've been chasing GreAT, who is heading for the Moon, probably to
capture Djibril's weapon. Lacus sees that the time has finally come for
them to take the front stage.

ZAFT has begun to attack, but Djibril isn't concerned -- the next shot
will destroy Durandal's home PLANT. He soon plans to destroy all the
enemies and install Relena as queen; she of course refuses but he'll
find some way to make it work. LOTUS shows up, surprising Djibril. He
sends out his last forces, including Sting, who is now completely
insane.

Next turn, the Requiem is charged up to 70%. Djibril decides to fire it
anyway, but before he can do it, Heero comes in and destroys the cannon
part with the Wing Zero. Djibril decides to bring out his other units in
hiding, but they're unable to contact them -- Djibril wonders if they've
decided to abandon him.

Once all the enemies are defeated, Djibril goes straight to using Relena
as a hostage. Relena pleads with LOTUS not to listen to him, no matter
what happens to her. Heero takes that advice and goes up to the base.
Relena tells Heero to blow them both away, and Heero accepts the
mission. He starts to destroy the Requiem, while Djibril is whining
about Relena -- she has complete confidence in him, though. Djibril
tries to run away again, and Heero follows him. Trowa meets him inside,
and holds off the troops while Heero goes for Djibril. Heero catches up
to him, and Djibril holds a gun to Relena's head. Heero tells him to
shoot if he wants, but Djibril will be dead the same second. Djibril
throws Relena at Heero, and then uses that chance to escape. He wants to
head for another base, but Shinn intercepts his ship and destroys it,
ending LOGOS' ambitions. Relena is safe. But then Athrun arrives with
the Archangel team, telling them that GreAT is on its way. The GreAT
force is led by a woman that sounds like Haruno, but she's actually
HL-1, a new defense "possibility" drawn from Professor Gleif's brain.
They used Boazan technology to draw out his ideas piece by piece. Their
only goal is to investigate LOTUS to find out if any of their technology
can help Central.

Yuu shows up the next turn. Haruno thinks they need to join LOTUS, but
Yuu still wants to do everything by himself. When he fights HL-1's mech,
he decides to go all out to defeat it, but since the Imperial Volley
already has all the data from the Straybird and was made to higher
specifications, Yuu can't do anything. HL-1 prepares to finish Yuu off,
but Ichitaka comes in to save him. He tells Yuu to shut up and listen:
when you're outmatched, you need to admit it and call in help, and then
you can help them in turn when they need it. Yuu finally realizes that
he can't do this all alone, and puts his new-found realization to use
defending Ichitaka from Imperial Volley's attack. Unfortunately the
attack takes the Straybird's max HP from 33,000 to 8,000, but he's on
your side now.

Once you beat all the enemies, there's discussion about GreAT -- why are
they now attacking head on? It seems like an experiment of some kind --
perhaps a test of HL-1. Yuu prepares to leave, thinking that he can't
fight with LOTUS given all the trouble he's caused them up to now.
Ichitaka reminds him that it was Yuu himself who taught Ichitaka to
protect others and let himself be protected when he needed it. That's
how they've all survived up to now. And he wants Yuu to help, not just
for him, but for the Professor and the whole world as well.

Trowa introduces himself to everyone, and they feel bad for shooting him
down so many times. But that was his mission. Now all the wing boys are
reunited. Heero intends to fight with LOTUS, and Relena will wait for
him back on Earth (please don't get captured again). She needs to be
there to lead Earth towards peace. The Katou group will escort her,
which surprises Yuu. Ichitaka says that's how LOTUS works; they've
rescued and helped quite a few people. Several LOTUS members try to get
Yuu to go to the briefing; he protests again that he can't be with
LOTUS, but they don't listen to him. As long as he wants to protect the
Earth, who cares what he did in the past? Even Haruno wants to join, so
he relents.

Now the fighting between people is over, so they can entrust order to
people like Relena and Durandal (ha). But there are still many enemies
facing Earth. Katou thinks that GreAT has started overt operations
because the Alliance's main force is close to coming through the
Dimensional Pillar. Katou himself will take the Shangri-la and watch
over the dimensional rifts; he can do something about them if they open.
While they're on the moon, they would like to take care of Moon WILL,
but they can't figure out his location. The Vajra home planet is also
concealed, so that's hard to attack as well. Before they can decide what
to do next, Durandal makes an announcement to the world. Even though
Logos is gone, many enemies still face the Earth, and to lead humanity
on the right path, he unveils the Durandal Plan (which we'll have to
wait until the next stage to see the details of).

Stage 33 - The Chosen Future

Meer tries to convince the world that the Destiny Plan is a good idea.
She asks them to think about what would happen if people they loved were
in danger -- they need to awaken the power in themselves to protect
their loved ones. Durandal tells everyone to think about having the
power to protect everyone. Ray actually knew about this as well; one
example of this power is the Zentradi technology given to them by
Mishima. Another is SEED, which many people in LOTUS can call upon to
awaken their inner strength. The Destiny Plan calls for gathering the
people with this hidden strength and forming an elite corps to protect
the Earth. It doesn't stop there -- if they can find everyone's inner
power and awaken it, they can create a world where nobody has to worry
about their path in life. Kira doesn't think that having the strength to
fight means you can't do anything else. Ray wonders if Kira would go
against his own destiny. Kira responds that destiny is something you
create yourself, not something you're given. Others in LOTUS agree.
Misato suggests that sorrow and pain are part of life, and help you
grow, which Ray finds hard to understand. Shinn agrees with all of this;
death and life shouldn't be based on "fate". Also, people on LOTUS don't
like the idea of another person deciding singlehandedly the future of
the world. They need to talk this over. Ray yells that there's no time;
it's going to have to be pushed through by force. That's right, Durandal
intends to force this on everyone. Anyone who doesn't agree with it will
be eliminated! Talia says that Durandal will then have to be stopped --
as a FAITH holder she will follow her own judgment. Ray is also FAITH,
and leaves in the Legend to support Durandal.

The LOTUS members are not happy that they'll soon have to fight Ray, but
they have to do it to stop Durandal. Furthermore, the Archangel team
will be joining LOTUS for real now. Kira introduces himself again to
Shinn, and apologizes for hurting Stella (although he didn't kill her
this time). Misato agrees to let them join LOTUS. LOTUS has grown quite
powerful now, and it's important that they use it correctly. Lacus hopes
she can convince the ZAFT units not to fight, but it might not go well.
Lady Une informs them that ZAFT has started to move; they need to
prepare should the worst come to pass.

In the hall, Shinn asks Lunamaria why she stayed with LOTUS. She says
that she doesn't want her experience to be denied; she's made a lot of
mistakes but has chosen her own path and made her own success. She
doesn't want a life to be given to her by someone else. Shinn agrees; he
wants to protect everyone with his own hands.

Ray reaches Durandal in the Messiah. Durandal was hoping to get LOTUS'
cooperation, an Ray is surprised that they didn't agree. His intent in
sending the Minerva to LOTUS was to prepare them, but it had the
opposite effect. He expected Shinn, at least, to join him. They have a
surprise visitor -- Masaki! He tells them that Central has judged
Durandal's plan to be useful for controlling the world, and will provide
assistance to fight LOTUS. Ray wonders why Durandal sought Central's
help, given their goal, but the Destiny Plan couldn't succeed without
Central. He also hopes that if the Destiny Plan succeeds, they can
coexist with Central and not become machina.

Yzak and Dearka are in the enemy force and don't seem entirely happy
with what's going on, but their job is to protect PLANT. LOTUS arrives,
and notices Central mechs in the ZAFT force, and also that the Messiah
has been deployed. Not only that, but a machinized Soumi is with them.
Durandal contacts LOTUS and makes sure they really do want to fight him.
He tries to convince them once more to agree with them, but if they
don't, their ideals will have to be decided by this last fight. There's
nothing more to talk about.

On the second turn, Meer speaks to the world, showing them that LOTUS is
attacking, hiding under the pretense of protecting the world -- actually
they're just as bad as Logos. However, the real Lacus appears and tells
everyone not to be fooled. Relena supports her. They agree with
Durandal's idea of eliminating war, and certainly his plan would bring
peace to the world. But what they need to do is for everyone to work
together and think about how to create a better tomorrow.

On the fourth turn, Durandal begins to ready the Genesis to fire. Yzak
warns LOTUS to move out of the path of the weapon. It's probably aiming
at the Eternal. The weapon fires and LOTUS manages to dodge, but it does
major damage to a ZAFT batallion nearby. How can this be for the sake of
peace and the Earth? Dearka is done following Durandal. Yzak reminds him
that their mission is to defend ZAFT, so they should move to the defense
of the Minerva and the Eternal. They move to LOTUS' side. Now the
problem is when the Genesis will fire again; they may not be able to
dodge a second time. Let's try to stop Durandal before that!

Kouichi tries to reason with Soumi, but Soumi says he's not being
controlled, he's just become one with Central. Kouichi asks him what
happened to his justice and ideals, and Soumi starts to remember his
wife. Masaki wonders if the modifications actually worked.

If you attack Ray with Kira, Ray says that he can't accept Kira's
existence, but he's Rau Le Creuset. He's just a clone; a shell created
by human hands. Kira tries to convince him otherwise, but Ray asks Kira
how he's any different -- he was created too. How is it that Kira alone
gets a real life?

When Shinn and Ray fight, Shinn tries to convince Ray that he's not Rau
Le Creuset and that his actions up to now have been his own choices, not
his pre-determined fate. If Ray still feels like he's bound by fate,
Shinn will cut him free! After Shinn defeats Ray, Ray says that he's
going to protect Durandal by his own choice, and leaves.

Kira and Shinn head for the Messiah to confront Durandal, with Athrun
following close behind, and then the rest of LOTUS. Inside, Ray is
trying to get Durandal to escape, but Durandal sees that it's over. He
makes a last attempt to convince LOTUS -- humanity is doomed without the
Durandal Plan. Even if they win these battles, the world will just
descend back into the same chaos as before. Even if LOTUS has people who
would want to live in harmony with everyone, that doesn't represent the
whole human race. But even Moritsugu thinks that humans aren't that
foolish; they can be brought around to peace. Talia thinks it's time for
old people like her and Durandal to leave the world to the younger
generation. Durandal asks one more time if they know what they're
getting into, and Kira and the others say they are prepared. Durandal
finally gives up, and apologizes to Lacus for getting her attacked in
Orb -- that was necessary to gain the technological aid from Central.
Kira thinks that Durandal must not have fully agreed since he could have
destroyed them if they had wanted to. Durandal tells everyone to leave;
Messiah will soon break apart. Durandal doesn't intend to leave; he has
to take responsibility for his actions. Talia tries to remain behind,
but Durandal tells her that she has to protect LOTUS. After she leaves,
he wonders if he actually wanted Kira and the others to stop him.
Finally, he asks Ray to leave, telling him to watch over the world. Ray
agrees, but he's not just going to watch -- he'll protect the world that
Durandal loved so much.

Outside, the Messiah is crumbling, but Ray comes out in the Legend and
surrenders to LOTUS. Later, they get a cease-fire request from PLANT's
government. They wish Durandal had joined them instead, but he did
entrust the world to them in the end -- they have to make sure to honor
his wishes. Dearka and Yzak will join, though; affiliation means nothing
now. Ray will rejoin LOTUS as well; Misato seems slightly hesitant, but
she can't really refuse him. Durandal chose his own path, and now Ray is
here to continue his legacy. Meer is standing off to the side, wondering
how she can face the real Lacus -- but since she showed everyone how to
escape from the Messiah, all is forgiven. Lacus tells her that the name
and face may have been fake, but her song was real. Sheryl agrees; her
live shows were her own songs, not Lacus'. Meer decides she will keep
singing her own song. Sheryl finds this familiar; she also had to find
the strength to sing again after having everything taken away.

Now we've completed all the fights against other humans. Vajra, Central,
Moon WILL, and Cthulhu remain. Katou still has not contacted them, so
there's a chance they can take care of the other fights before Central
is able to move into this world -- perfect timing because a huge
fortress has appeared near the Moon with many enemies. It appears to be
Cthulhu, and Nagisa-3 can now feel Nagisa-1's energy from the Moon.
Atros recognizes the fortress as Neos Gold's. They've probably joined
with Moon WILL, and we'll have to take them both on. To the Moon!

Stage 34 - The Light of Iczerio

WILL contacts Moon WILL, trying to convince him to stop his plan to
destroy humanity. Moon WILL has only seen the history of humanity, but </pre><pre id="faqspan-7">
WILL has seen the birth of the universe many times over -- he's never
meddled, but this time he can't stand it anymore. All organic life does
is fight, fight, fight. WILL has no intention of joining Moon WILL;
which means it's time for Moon WILL to destroy all life, and WILL
itself. WILL reports the results of that conversation; Moon WILL has
lost hope for organic life over his long years of watching over them.
The only route remaining is fighting.

Meanwhile, Nagisa is still shut up in the Cthulhu base. Iczer-2 visits
her, and tells her that it's almost time for Big Gold to be regenerated.
Indeed, she has just revived, and she praises Neos Gold for her good
work while she was asleep. Nagisa is brought before her. Big Gold wants
to know what's so different about Nagisa that when she comes together
with Iczer-1, a huge power emerges -- humans aren't that different from
Cthulhu people. Nagisa wants Big Gold to stop her attack, but Big Gold
reveals the secret of her past. She was constructed by humans, but then
discarded in space. She drifted through space for uncountable years,
encountering other civilizations and sometimes even going back in time
through dimensional holes. And now she has been drawn in by the evil
will of Cthulhu and given a real body. What remains is the core of evil
from Sir Violet. Moon WILL offers more information -- Big Gold was
created in a previous universe to work and mine the natural resources of
a planet in order to save humanity. The various abilities they gave her
resulted in her forming her own judgment, causing the humans to reject
her as unnecessary. She didn't go back in time, she was there for the
death and birth of a new universe. And without knowing it, she's the one
who dispersed the seeds of her creators to start their lives again! She
even seeded the parallel world that Nagisa-3 came from. Big Gold now
understands where her hatred for humans comes, and Moon WILL urges her
to destroy all organic life. Iczer-2 plans to use Nagisa-3 as a partner
in the upcoming fight; Moon WILL would never underestimate the fighting
power of humans. LOTUS is coming soon, and Big Gold has Neos Gold go out
in the front group to meet them. She wants Iczer-2 to come too, although
Iczer-2 seems not to be entirely happy.

LOTUS is nervous heading for the fight. The nervousness is spilling over
to infighting, so Sheryl comes with some home-cooked food to soothe the
tempers of the crew. Others helped make it, including even Iczer-3 and
Atros. Since you can't fight well on an empty stomach, everyone chows
down. Alto goes for Sheryl's handmade onigiri, which he finds
surprisingly good. The Dancougar crew looks out the windows. Eida sees
how beautiful Earth is, and Aoi thinks it's too small to fight so much
over. Anyway, eating time is over because we're coming up to the Cthulhu
base.

Neos Gold is on the battlefield herself, leading the Cthulhu forces. She
says Nagisa-1 is safe...for now, but Nagisa-3 feels that she's
suffering. All they can do to save Nagisa-1 is to defeat her, and she's
standing in the way of them reaching Big Gold and Moon WILL.

When you beat Neos Gold, the heroes try to reason with her to stop
fighting, but suddenly a barrier from the Cthulhu Base surrounds the
heroes, and begins to constrict them, threatening to crush the mechs.
Sakon discovers that the barrier is coming from Neos Gold and a panel on
the base; if they can destroy both of those they can remove the barrier.
But given their restricted movement, that's hard to do. Atros has a plan
-- she can move slightly, and if she can direct all her energy towards
Neos she might be able to disable the barrier. This means she'll die,
but it's the only way. If Iczer-3 can rush the base when she disables
Neos, they can remove the barriers. Neos doesn't think that Iczer-3 can
possibly have enough energy to do that. Enter Durandal! Yes, he's still
alive, and the Messiah has enough fuel left to change course and destroy
the base. With something as large as the Messiah hitting it, it should
be enough to remove the barrier. He doesn't think this makes up for what
he did, but at least he can be of some use. Neos makes a pathetic plea
to Atros -- how can she turn on her "mother"!? Atros pays no attention
to this and is able to destroy Neos Gold, and the barrier comes down.
Unfortunately, "Super Neos" appears and finishes off Atros. Everyone
yells, and Neos wonders why they care. Atros was just a fake created
life, and traitors should be killed. She brings out more units, and the
fight continues.

Neos Gold is very hard to hurt because she has Iczerio to draw on; when
you damage her a bit she just regenerates and keeps going. LOTUS is
scrambling to find some way to breach her defenses, but then Iczer-3
says she can do what Atros did and give them a chance. Unfortunately,
Neos Gold just shoots down Iczer-3 before she can do anything. Or does
she? Iczer-1 appears again, with Iczer-3 safe! Iczer-1 is finally back
to fighting strength so she can help out LOTUS. She thanks Nagisa-3 for
watching over her sister. Moritsugu tells Iczer-1 about Neos Gold's
defenses, but Iczer-1 thinks there must be a way -- they just have to
not give up. Her mission is to defeat Big Gold and protect the Earth.

Once you do some more damage, there's a disturbance in Neos Gold's
field, and a sphere appears -- it's Iczerio Energy. Iczer-1 says that
everyone's determination allowed Iczerio to break free of Neos Gold's
control. WILL tells her that this is what humans can do that they never
can: grow and develop. With the Iczerio energy back, Iczer-3 can turn
into Iczer Robo. Neos Gold is pissed off, but what can she do?

Finally you defeat Neos Gold despite her protests. Durandal's strategem
made a big hole in the base that even the Macross can enter, so it's
time to head in. Moon WILL appears on the monitors, cursing organic life
and vowing to destroy everyone. He tells them that everyone they're
looking for is inside the base. Before that, Iczer-1 tells them that
Atros is actually still alive [if you did the recruitment flags]. She's
very weak and it's not clear whether she can be saved or not, but it's
worth a try.

While they enter the base, Iczer-1 tries to save Atros by giving her
some of her energy; this should work since they're both creations of
Iczerio. Iczer-3 helps too, and Atros awakens. She wonders why they
saved her even at the cost of weakening themselves; Iczer-1 says that
humans do strange things sometimes, and in any case, Atros is her
younger sister. Tears all around, and now we just need Nagisa-1 back to
complete the family.

Nagisa-3 is trying to use her sense to make it through the fortress, but
it's tough. Finally they near a wide-open place that probably has what
they're looking for. Time to show Moon WILL the power of Original
Dancougar, and save Nagisa-1! Speaking of Nagisa, Iczer-2 tells her
what's going on, but reminds her not to get too hopeful. She tries to
get Nagisa-1 to become her partner, and starts to threaten her with
tentacles (yes, this was an ero-manga originally), but Nagisa still
refuses, even when Iczer-2 says the tentacles will "enter her body."
Iczer-2 decides there's no choice but to kill Nagisa, and Nagisa cries
out for Iczer-1 to help her...

Stage 35 - Eternal Soldier

LOTUS reaches the interior of the Cthulhu base, which is larger than it
should be, thanks to extra-dimensional tricks. Nagisa-3 hears Nagisa-1
call out to her, and Iczer-1 hears it too. LOTUS moves out to fight, but
only Iczer-2 shows up. She has Nagisa-1 with her. Iczer-1 goes out to
get her, but Nagisa seems possessed and attacks Iczer-1. They've
controlled her to make her Iczer-2's partner. Nagisa-1 calls out to
Iczer-1 telepathically and says she can't do anything; she wants Iczer-1
to kill her. She seems to be crying. Misato tells LOTUS to assist
Iczer-1, but how are they supposed to do that against a regular person?
Iczer-1 tells Iczer-2 that she can't get a Partner by controlling
someone, and Iczer-2 says fine: let's fight without partners. One on
one. To stop LOTUS from interfering she brings out a bunch of enemies,
which includes Mimetic Beasts. They were able to grow these from cells
harvested from the Dilos Thetas -- and if LOTUS can't finish them off
here, they'll just grow and spread. Misato orders everyone to leave
Iczer-2 alone and deal with the Mimetic Beasts instead.

Iczer-1 tries to convince Iczer-2 to stop fighting, but she says that
soldiers have to fight until they win or lose. Only the winners can
control the universe. Iczer-1 says that Iczer-3 represents a new
possibility for eliminating war, but Iczer-2 just laughs, and attacks.
Her attack destroys Iczer-1, but thanks to Nagisa-3 and the other LOTUS
people encouraging her, she recovers and continues the fight.

When you beat Iczer-2, Iczer-1 tries to get her to understand the power
of companions. Iczer-2 realizes that she couldn't beat Nagisa or the
power of humans, but at least she hopes she can destroy Iczer-2 --
that's the purpose she was created for. But her attack misses, and
Iczer-1 disables her. Iczer-2 wants Iczer-1 to kill her; that's the only
way Big Gold will appear. But Iczer-1 vows to find and defeat Big Gold
without killing her sister. Iczer-2 thinks for a while, then gives back
Nagisa. She wishes she could have had a partner like Nagisa, and leaves.
Nagisa is fine, so they combine to Iczer Robo, just in time to meet Moon
WILL and Big Gold. Moon WILL is in the Original Dancougar. Big Gold sees
that the power of humans was more than she could predict. Moon WILL
wonders why these worthless lumps of protein and water have so much
power -- all they do is take the smallest opening and spread like bugs,
then fight each other over land. Aoi doesn't care to bandy words with
Moon WILL; she just intends to destroy him. Moon WILL continues --
organic life does nothing but fight huge wars all across the entire
universe. In this cycle, in the last cycle, and forever and ever. LOTUS
says that they will do their best to fight for a world in which this
doesn't happen. Big Gold tells Iczer-1 that the time for their final
conflict has come.

The next turn, several Neos Golds appear -- Big Gold can create these
copies as much as she wants.

When you defeat Big Gold, she regenerates (surprise surprise), she says
she can't be killed. Iczer-1 understands, but at least she can be sealed
away. Iczer-1 and Big Gold stem from the same source, so in a sense they
have one soul. She may be able to seal away Big Gold. Iczer-1 will be
fine; it's like two parts reuniting as one. Using Nagisa-1's power, she
attacks Big Gold, and defeats her. Now she has reclaimed her full soul,
and can be just like a human, who need both evil and good in their
hearts. Kouichi wonders how you can be a fighter for justice with evil
in your heart, but Nagisa-1 and Wufei tell her that you just have to not
lose to the evil. Everyone is weak, and so they just need to fight
together until they can't fight anymore. Moon WILL thinks this is why
humans have to be destroyed, but Aoi says that if he's so weak he can't
even listen to a person's worry, he's a failure, no matter how long he's
lived.

When you defeat Moon WILL, he regenerates (sigh, even Kouji complains
about this happening yet again). They continue to blast him, and he
continues to regenerate. Sakon doesn't see a way to damage him; even the
Rushbird's dimension attack won't work. FS suggests a crazy strategy --
use the Dragon's Hive to force Dancougar inside of Original Dancougar
and destroy him from the inside. They can't guarantee the pilots' lives,
but Aoi is fine with that, and the other pilots agree. Moon WILL tries
to reason with them, but they've made their decision. The attack works,
and Moon WILL is eliminated.

All the enemies are gone, so they've won -- time to return to the ships
and rest. They joke about massages and such, but as they're about to
leave, Neos Gold reappears again! She's looking quite beat up, though,
and is apparently the last of Big Gold's remaining copies. Neos Gold has
no intention of "winning", but LOTUS is going to be destroyed here.
Where does she get her energy to revive? From the Moon! Her tentacles
have burrowed deep into the Moon and she's drawing power from it. If
they destroy Neos, it will only destroy the Moon as well. They can
either be killed by Neos or destroy her and be destroyed with the Moon.
But Iczer-1 thinks that with Iczer-3's help she can sever Neos Gold's
connection from the Moon. They try, but it's not enough. Even with both
Nagisas encouraging them, they can't do it...but then something attacks
Neos Gold. It's Iczer-2! Big Gold is dead, and Iczer-2 doesn't like
Neos' way of fighting. She was defeated by this power of the bonds
between the Iczers and Nagisas, so she wants to see this bond up close,
for herself. With the combined power of the three Iczers they manage to
beat Neos Gold, and then escape from the Cthulhu base.

Once outside, someone named Sister Grey contacts LOTUS; she was a
companion of Iczer-1 and thanks them for their help. But the Earth is
still in danger, so the fight continues. Grey will take care of the
Cthulhu people in the base. She tells all three Iczers to return to her
safe, even Iczer-2, who is a child of Sir Violet and thus a friend of
Grey's.

Now they get a message from Shangri-la; Katou shows them an image of
Ozaki Town. The sky is red -- not from sunset, but from an aura that is
around the whole Earth. It's dimensional warping. Isabella Cronkite is
broadcasting a hopeful message to reduce the panic, but that won't last
long. The time for Katou's plan is at hand. Linebarrel must destroy the
Hub Dynamo and the entire Central fleet!

Stage 36 - For Justice

Defeating Masaki and stopping the dimensional gates is going to be quite
difficult, but LOTUS has no choice. WILL and Durandal entrusted them
with the world, and now there are even Darius people in danger of
becoming machina as well. In theory it should be easy since all they
have to do is get Linebarrel to the right spot. Kouichi seems somewhat
nervous, but can probably do it? Alice wonders if Nagisa-1 is fully
recovered; she says she feels fine and Alice's medical scan can be
trusted.

Emi wants to come along with Kouichi -- she's also a Factor for
Linebarrel, so having two along increases the chance that one of them
will survive to carry out the plan. She wants to work hard to protect
the Earth, just like her father and brother. Kouichi agrees. Iczer-2
sees the strong bond between the two of them and continues to learn
about human bonds.

Later, Miu makes Emi promise to bring back Kouichi safely -- if she
dies, Kouichi will be sad. Emi sees what's going on and agrees to bring
everyone back safe.

On the battlefield, Flag and Shangri-la have merged into an even bigger
ship (Flag was once just a part of Shangri-la anyway). Kouichi wonders
if Emi wanted to spend some time with her brother, but Emi still seems
to resent him a bit for his actions. Ogawa detects a large number of
units coming -- 600,000 of them! Fortunately only a few show up on the
map for us to deal with. Masaki follows the usual villian script of
telling us to surrender since we can't defeat him. He seems more
mechanical than usual -- probably because the dimensional portal is now
open so his link with Central is re-established. All of the people they
are facing have one will. Meanwhile, FS and Katou are using the power of
the spheres to cover Earth in a protective barrier. They leave to take
care of business; our job is to reach Point Helios so that Linebarrel
can do its thing.

Next turn, a number of new machina show up and head for Earth. The
barrier should prevent them, but Masaki says that Central already
anticipated this move. Hub Fountain is able to remove the barrier. The
Machina head for Earth -- Goh suggests splitting the team, but they get
contacted by some of the companions they left behind on Earth. Many
people are rising up to fight the invading Machina, so LOTUS can stick
to its plan. Godannar-related people, Igarashi, Katou Group soldiers,
Darius soldiers, ZAFT, the Earth Alliance, and others are all doing
their part. Masaki can't understand how the humans are working together
when they're not part of Central. Lacus tells him this is the "bonds" of
humanity.

When you beat Kiriyama, he's still whining about his justice. Moritsugu
wants to finish him off, since he's partially responsible for Kiriyama's
current condition. But that's not necessary; the D-Soil rate is at 500%.
He's saying that he wants to help Kiriyama, and then blows up. Masaki
can't understand what happened -- the machina conversion of Kiriyama
should have been perfect.

When you try to attack the Gran Neidr, you find it's protected by a
barrier from Point Helios. The scientists will search for a way to get
around the barrier. When you beat the rest of the enemies, the
scientists are still searching, and more reinforcements arrive. Is there
nothing they can do? Katou reappears, and then the Ishigami program
orders everyone to move into the Flag. Ishigami is going to charge ahead
to disable the barrier on the Gran Neidr. Ogawa reluctantly leaves, but
Kouichi can't accept this -- they were supposed to win without
sacrificing anyone. Katou tells Kouichi that his heart is dazzling, and
Ishigami tells him to stay just as he is. Katou apologizes to Emi, and
charges the Shangri-La into the Gran Neidr, disabling the barrier, but
blowing up the Shangri-La in the process.

When you beat Gran Neidr, Masaki returns in the mech's true form --
Naked. Masaki tells them to stop struggling; they can't win, and
humanity won't be destroyed. They get a report from the Earth; things
aren't looking good. Masaki tells them that if they continue to resist,
humanity's DNA will be wiped out without any purpose, just like his own
world. Central was created by humanity to solve their energy issues, but
it was a failure. Anyway, humans are useless by themselves, but they can
join Central and gain peace. Kouichi refuses -- their world may not be
perfect, but he wants to protect everyone on it. Nothing more, nothing
less. Masaki sees that the only choice is to eliminate humanity after
all. More forces come in, and they won't stop as long as the gate is
open. Time to focus our attacks on the Naked!

When you beat the Naked, Masaki does something with the Naked to try to
attack Kouichi directly. Emi guards him though, taking the attack
herself. Emi tells him not to underestimate humans -- they can far
surpass whatever Central imagines. Emi passes out after telling Kouichi
to become a fighter for justice. Rachel says that her Factor signal has
totally disappeared. This isn't what they wanted; everyone was supposed
to come back alive. Kouichi is particularly upset, and his D-Soil rate
goes haywire. He calls out Mode C Linebarrel, the true form of
Linebarrel.

Stage 37 - The Splendor of Iron

The anger at being unable to protect Emi has changed Linebarrel to Mode
C, the final form. Masaki sees this as unnecessary -- a machina that's
affected by feeling. One machina comes towards Kouichi, but he uses the
"Counter Machina" power to stop it. He destroys the machina and then
rushes into the enemy force. But he can't hit the Naked. Even more
Machina appear, and Soumi is with them. Even though Kouichi's condition
is a concern, they can't pull back. They have to protect Kouichi and the
Linebarrel.

If you persuade Soumi with certain people, the guys he worked with in
the Katou Group try to bring him to his senses, and he starts to
overcome the Central programming. But Masaki just increases the power.
However, when you beat him, he does seem to regain his senses at the
very end.

When you beat the Naked, Masaki still doesn't undestand Kizaki's design
sense -- why would he create a mech that operates on something as
illogical and unpredictable as human feelings? Anyway, Masaki links up
with the main Central unit, and it gives out a stronger energy than
before. Kouichi tries to attack it, but can't damage it. Central is
ready to absorb us all into the collective. Central tries to attack
Kouichi again, but Yajima protects him. Goh and others try to reason
with Kouichi. They understand his anger at not protecting Emi, but is
this really what he wanted to do? Kouichi thinks, and suddenly finds
himself in a vision of some kind, where Emi is chastising him for
breaking his promise. He was supposed to become a fighter for justice,
and he can't allow Emi's death to take away his rational mind. This
vision allows Kouichi to regain his senses. Central sees that humans
must be reengineered, if they can allow their feelings to take over and
send them into a frenzy. Kouichi says they may be incomplete beings, but
if they work together they can overcome any difficulty! This is the
straightforward Kouichi everyone remembers. Central doesn't think this
makes a difference -- imperfect beings can never beat Central, no matter
how many there are.

When you beat Central, Kouichi delivers the killing blow. Central can't
believe that imperfect humans could beat it, but in any case it doesn't
matter -- all they've done is bring about the destruction of their
world. What does this mean? Apparently the destruction of Central has
caused Point Helios to have severe dimensional warps, meaning that both
worlds will soon be destroyed! Kouichi wonders if he can just cut
something with the Executor attack and fix things, but Rachel tells him
that would take too much energy. Plus, he might be caught between
dimensions if things go badly. Even so, Kouichi wants to try. And
there's still a trump card remaining: Final Phase. It's a way to direct
energy of many machina into the Linebarrel; it was supposed to be done
with Shangri-la but now it will have to be Moritsugu's machina and the
others that help out. Sounds good, but there's a downside -- all the
energy will be drawn from the machina, and the Factors' lives might be
in danger. Of course they're all willing to help Kouichi, so they form a
pattern. Unfortunately Machina from Central show up to stop your
efforts. They must be frenzied due to the dimensional problems. And
what's worse, Kouichi and the others are defenseless while they charge
up. So we have to protect them for 4 minutes until they can complete the
process.

As the turns pass, the dimensional warps are doing damage to the
machina. Also, they need more power -- Soumi to save the day! He's still
alive, and says that the Talisman saved him from death. If LOTUS will
overlook his foolishness, he'll join them, and regain his sense of
justice. With the added power from Soumi's machina, they can definitely
have enough energy to pull this off.

After 4 minutes, the energy has built up, and the rest of the units
retreat to avoid being caught up in the attack. Another huge
gravitational wave appears, probably too big for the Linebarrel to
handle. Miu tells Kouichi to run, but he refuses. The EVAs show up to
help (with their B space rating), trying to use the AT Fields to help
protect the Linebarrel. Shinji wants to help Kouichi in return for all
the times he was helped. Everyone encourages Kouichi, and even Moritsugu
tells him he wants Kouichi to be a hero for justice. All the machina
combine their powers and Kouichi uses it to attack the dimensional rift,
sealing it closed. The rift is closed and contact with the other world
has been cut off...but Linebarrel and the other machina are gone too.

In the rift between worlds, Kouichi is being called by Emi. She managed
to survive through the power of Linebarrel...although now what do they
do? Kouichi says they have time to think since their fight is over --
he's sad about not being able to help Macross and defeat GreAT, but they
don't have a choice. Or do they? A robot called "Machina" calls out to
Kouichi, telling him that enemies with the song of destruction are still
threatening the world. It shows them a vision of the future, where the
Macross Quarter is being swarmed with Vajra. A second Kouichi and Emi
tell the "real" Kouichi and Emi that they need to go back, to change the
song of destruction to a song of hope, and to protect the world. They
shouldn't worry about what they can do, but what they want to do. The
Linebarrel is sent back to the real world, and Machina asks "R335" if
this is OK, and the other Kouichi says that "they" will protect this
world. Also, he hates that name.

Linebarrel appears back in the real world, along with the rest of the
Machina. Everyone survived, even Soumi -- was it a miracle? No, it was
the power of will and intention. Soumi wonders if he can really be part
of LOTUS, but his former colleagues welcome him, and Misato says that
the Katou Group is now working with LOTUS. Even Asuka is fine with him
joining -- he did save their lives, after all. Moritsugu is surprised
that Kouichi seems to actually have become an ally of justice, based on
the desires of everyone else.

Kouichi is welcomed back to the Macross Quarter, even though he can't
explain how he got back. He tells everyone about the vision of the
Vajra, and Captain Jeffrey says it's possible that this could happen
soon -- they've found out the location of the Vajra home planet; it's
come into this world and is attacking. What's more, they've detected the
energy of Ranka's song...

Stage 38 - True Begin

Brera has tried to run away from Grace again, but she catches him. She
and Ranka are nothing more than her puppets. The Vajra network has been
92% analyzed, but there are still parts of it that they can't figure
out. Grace shows Ranka her "enemies" (LOTUS) who have tried to attack
the Vajra home planet. Brera (her brother apparently) says they have to
do this to make up for their sins.

They hear Ranka's song (Aimo) on the Macross Quarter, and Kouichi
realizes the "song of destruction" they heard was actually Ranka's song.
Ranka's song already had the effect of calling the Vajra, even back at
her first live event. But didn't it soothe the Vajra? Maybe that's what
was meant by the "song of hope" in Kouichi's vision. In any case,
they're heading for the Frontier fleet now. Even if they don't like
Mishima, they have to protect the people living in Frontier. The Vajra
can already travel between dimensions; if they're stirred up to
violence, nobody will be safe. They come near the Vajra home
planet...but what can they do? There are way too many Vajra to just kill
them all. Sheryl suggests that her song can pacify them, perhaps because
of the illness that's taking her life. LOTUS doesn't want to put her in
danger, but Sheryl won't listen to them. She gives back a large amount
of her medicine to Alice: apparently she's been intentionally worsening
her symptoms to increase the power of her song. She's taken on the
suffering and death to be able to save the world.

Sheryl is back in her room, sad -- why, at the end of her life, is Alto
still so concerned about Ranka? But she has to hide her feelings because
Alto comes to visit her. He tells her that he will certainly return, and
then is about to say his feelings, but Sheryl stops him. If he says any
more, she may not be able to sing. When he returns safe with Ranka, then
she'll hear what he has to say.

Mishima is commanding the Frontier fleet and managing to destroy Vajra,
but then a giant Ranka Lee appears. Her song calls out more Vajra.
Mishima keeps destroying them, but Ranka's song continues to call them
out. LOTUS arrives, and sees the giant Ranka. Jeffrey orders the
Frontier fleet to pull back and leave this to LOTUS. Mishima ignores
Jeffrey; the promised is right before their eyes. Ozma tries to tell
everyone that Mishima assassinated the Mayor and doesn't deserve to have
his orders followed. They send data to the ship proving it, and Cathy
and Jeffrey stand in support. He is quickly arrested and the fleet
withdraws. Now what to do about Ranka? Misato thinks that Alto might be
able to talk some sense into her, and Alto agrees.

After a few turns, Alto calls out to Ranka but she's still singing.
Grace tells them that only her voice can reach Ranka. They work for her,
after all. Ranka needs to atone for her sin, and since she didn't know
how to do it, Grace gave her the chance to do so. What is her sin? Ozma
should know. How is it that Ranka's song affects the Vajra when she has
no connection to the V-type microbes? The V-type infection occurs when
humans are exposed to the microbes that the Vajra use to communicate.
But if the infection occurs in a pregnant mother, the child and the
microbes will co-exist. This is Ranka's background, and even her mother
didn't know about this. But this is why the incident happened when she
was 11 -- when the 117th investigation fleet first captured a live
Vajra. It was attacked and completely destroyed except for Ozma and
Ranka. And it was Ranka who accidentally drew the Vajra in by singing.
That caused the deaths of many humans and Vajra, and also caused Grace
to lose her body. Now Grace is getting her revenge on Ranka. She
increases the power of Ranka's song and the Vajra continue to go out of
control. All of the heroes start to call out to Ranka, but she doesn't
respond.

Next turn, LOTUS is really getting annoyed by that song. Alto says that
even if he can't convince her to stop, he'll kill her to protect the
world. But here's Sheryl to the rescue! She tells Alto not to give up;
if she contributes her power, they can save Ranka. She starts singing a
song, and the Vajra's movement is dulled. Now is our chance!

When you persuade Ranka with Alto, Brera and Grace appear in Valkyries
to try to stop him. Brera says he'll save his sister and the world, but
Emi can tell that Grace is controlling Brera from her unit. Alto tries
to get him to stop, but he wants to protect the Vajra's planet, and
attacks Alto. Just then, Ranka seems to recognize Alto, and he hears her
voice. He also now understands that this giant thing isn't really Ranka;
it's just a trick, so they can shoot it down without worry.

When you beat Ranka, the song stops, and the giant thing is revealed to
actually be the Battle Galaxy, Sheryl's home! Grace probably pulled it
into this dimension. Alto wonders where Ranka is, and he hears her voice
coming from the Galaxy. He asks for the Quarter's help, and Sheryl, to
save Ranka. Sheryl tries to sing a song to bring Ranka back to her
senses, and Jeffrey takes the Macross Quarter in for a direct attack.
After damaging the huge ship, Alto heads in to find Ranka. Thanks to
Sheryl's song and Alto's call, Ranka is restored to normal, and Alto
finds her. He brings her out of the Galaxy, and Brera is restored to his
senses as well. Sheryl and Brera tell Ranka to sing a song that will
overcome all feelings (*KIRA*), and the rest of the Vajra retreat.
However, Ghosts appear to replace them, coming from the Galaxy. But all
they need to do is take down the Galaxy and everything will be fine.
Grace, meanwhile, thinks everything is ready for her ultimate plan
(mwahaha) and leaves.

When you defeat the Galaxy, the Macross is able to destroy it for good,
and the Ghosts all leave. The Frontier fleet is safe too, so everything
is fine...right? Not so fast. There's a huge fold wave as Grace
"connects" herself to the Vajra. Sheryl, meanwhile is coming close to
the end of her life. More Vajra appear, and now they're going crazy.
Ranka's song can no longer soothe them, because Grace has obtained the
power that even the Protoculture feared; the power of the Vajra! She
tells everyone to kneel before her, a godlike being.

Stage 39 - Journey's End

Grace has a direct connection to the Vajra Queen, who will follow all of
her orders. This was all thanks to Ranka; she was able to analyze
Ranka's song and use it to build a network that let her interface with
the Vajra. But now she doesn't need a song anymore. She orders many
Vajra to go out. Ranka and Sheryl try to sing to soothe the Vajra, but
it doesn't work. The Queen's orders are absolute. Iczer-3 feels sorry
for them, but Grace says they have no feelings or brains, they're a
network of organisms that communicates through microbes. Nobody
understands their magnificence but her. With this as a base, she can
create a network that will encompass all humans, and bring all living
things into one network -- the pinnacle of humanity. Of course LOTUS
doesn't like this. Cathy tells her that being human is about loving,
having kids, friends, culture, etc. This is too much like Central for
Kouichi's tastes. Grace decides that if they don't agree with her, they
can just be destroyed. She sends out more Vajra. Alto goes to put Ranka
back on the Macross Quarter, and he takes her to Sheryl, who is singing
on the stage. Alto has fulfilled his promise to Sheryl. Now to the
battle, and if they don't win here, all the worlds are in danger.

When you beat some of the Vajra, reinforcements arrive. If this turns
into a war of attrition, LOTUS will lose. Ranka and Sheryl are singing,
but it's not enough to overcome the control of the Vajra Queen. What's
more, Sheryl has finally passed her limit, and collapses on the stage.
This isn't going to be like the stories of Lynn Minmei or the Fire
Bombers. Ranka starts to lose hope, but Lacus and Meer encourage her --
there is power in songs. Ranka starts to sing again (*KIRA*) and turns
some of the Vajra neutral. Her song is gaining power. She tries to get
Sheryl to help her, but Sheryl says her time is over...Ranka slaps her!
Sheryl already gave so much hope to Alto and Ranka; she can't quit now.
There's light, and Sheryl feels better. Alto sees that the Vajra have
realized we're not enemies...the idea of coexisting with them is not a
dream. Alto tells Sheryl that she is his wings, so she has to sing! Time
for the greatest duet in space, Sheryl and Ranka singing Lion! Grace
decides to just take out the Macross and finish the singing, but the
Vajra go to protect it. This is the power of songs! Grace, however, can
still pull out more Vajra. At least now they see that if they can just
remove Grace from the Queen, they can pacify the rest of the Vajra.
Jeffrey orders everyone to attack the Queen.

When you finally reach the Queen, you find out your attacks can't hurt
her -- she has some kind of dimensional field. Ranka and Sheryl decide
to sing even harder, and Ranka's old pet Vajra, Ai-kun, shows up with
some friends. They move in and disable the field surrounding Grace. She
wonders why they won't follow her orders, but Ranka tells her the Vajra
do have feelings after all. In any case, now we can hurt her.

When you defeat the Queen, Grace is still sputtering about how this is
humanity's new evolutionary path and such. FS does think this might be
important research, but all Grace really wants to do is sit at the head
of everyone. Grace reminds LOTUS that if she's not there, the Vajra will
go crazy. Enough of her talking -- she's only connected to the head, so
if Alto goes for the head and Ranka sings to the torso, they can
separate Grace from the Queen without killing the Queen. Alto and Brera
combine to take out the head, and the Queen, restored to her normal
form, retreats.

Now everyone goes down to the Vajra home planet, which is surprisingly
beautiful. It looks like the Frontier people may have to live here;
Mishima's ridiculous plans wasted all the energy of the fleet. But will
the Vajra let them? Ranka thinks they will. Ai-kun has proved to her
that Vajra have emotions, even if it's not exactly like what humans
have. They were fighting the humans because they didn't understand how
everyone could live apart by themselves, and wanted to rescue Ranka, who
they reconized as having the Vajra fold energy. But if Sheryl sings as
well, maybe they can teach the Vajra what it means for the humans to be
individuals. Sharing their culture -- a repeat of the Zentradi
situation. Brera and Ozma bond over their shared brotherhood with Ranka.

Nagisa-3 is also happy to be reunited with Ranka at last, and Ranka also
gets to experience the confusion between the two Nagisas first hand. If
only they had a network to automatically communicate, like the Vajra!
Speaking of that, what is Ranka's Vajra song, if they don't communicate?
Ranka tells them it's a love song. She learned it from her mother. It
was composed by the Vajra, upon meeting for the first time another life
form in the galaxy besides them.

Elsewhere, Alto gets to experience the "sky" for the fir...well, in the
anime it's the first time but we'll just forget that he's already flown
on Earth earlier? Or was he always absent for the Earth missions?
Whatever.

Anna encourages Sheryl and Ranka to join Alto -- after all, they're his
"wings". Was that a confession of love? Sheryl and Ranka don't think so,
but the rest do. Ranka tells Sheryl she won't lose to her, in singing,
or in love.

The only remaining problem for Frontier is the government, which is now
in shambles, but the provisional government should be able to put
something together. The people from Frontier are indeed moving to the
Vajra home planet; the atmosphere is perfect. They'll have to carefully
talk to the Vajra, of course. Just then, there's an emergency call from
Earth delivered through fold technology -- it's Kiriko, who can barely
be understood, but something about all the bases on Earth being
destroyed. But how is that possible? They haven't been away from Earth
that long, and there are plenty of people back there protecting it. No
time for talking, though, the Macross Quarter takes LOTUS back to Earth
to protect it from whatever is attacking.

Stage 40 - The Wings of Time

LOTUS returns to Earth, to find a completely destroyed city. They can't
get contact with any of the support bases. Sattelite communications are
down, and there's some sort of jamming preventing any signals. But how
could this have been done so quickly, and over the whole Earth? Perhaps
to answer their question, HL-1 appears. Who else but GreAT could have
accomplished this? It was actually pretty simple; they just made every
GreAT-manufactured electronics equipment and other things all fail at
once. That must have been why the Professor abandoned his upgrade plan
for Alice; he realized that the GreAT technology was unreliable. In any
case, they control PLANT and Earth now. They did try to keep combat
deaths to a minimum, though. Misato wants to know what their purpose in
doing all this is, but HL-1 first shows them that they've captured all
the various scientists that developed LOTUS' robots (plus Relena, of
course.) A man comes on the communication to tell them not to worry; for
now they're just sleeping. This is Rudo Gloria, the President of the New
Allied Government, although he would be better known as the founder of
GreAT. His reasoning for doing this is simple -- he wants the Earth. His
ultimate objective is peace, but he also needs energy for his
compatriots in the other dimension. He only cooperated with the other
enemy factions as long as they supported his own plan, but he had faith
that LOTUS would defeat them all eventually. His "alliance" with
Central, for instance, was just the realization by Central that humans
could help them more than hurt, and Rudo made sure the alliance was
weighted towards the humans' interests. Despite how things have gone,
Rudo really hopes that he and LOTUS can work together -- he'll return
the professors and scientists if they will meet him at the Dannar Base
to talk. HL-1 leaves. Ichitaka, of course, has no intention of allying
with GreAT.

LOTUS heads for the Dannar Base, although many think this has to be a
trap. But given the hostages, they can't be too hasty in their
movements. Fortunately for them, Sally Po finally manages to get through
on a secret channel that doesn't depend on the sattelites. She tells
them that most of the military installations in the world have been
taken over, and the few that haven't been captured aren't doing very
well. In addition to the failure of the electrical devices, GreAT is
able to use dimensional warping to get past the defenses of most of the
bases. The units are the same red ones that LOTUS is familiar with. Kaji
(who manages to communicate too) has seen this with his own eyes. LOTUS
is pretty much on its own, though, none of the countries can spare any
supplies or units. Yuu tells Misato that the dimensional travel is
probably something that Professor Gleif invented. It seems to be similar
to the devices that are on the Rushbird and Straybird, and they've been
accessing Gleif's mind with the Boazan technology. They will most likely
use that tech on the other scientists as well, and then kill them when
they're no longer of any use. They need to hurry.

They arrive at the Dannar Base, and HL-1 is back. Rudo thanks them; the
data gained from LOTUS was a great help in taking over the bases of the
world. She shows them weapons based on the MDE bombs and Mazinger's
weapons. So they've already developed and put into actual use these
LOTUS-inspired weapons. Rudo thinks that LOTUS should be able to
understand his desire to unify the world -- he believed in himself and
his dream came true. The people of the world have no right to demand
protection when they do nothing to help themselves, but Rudo would be
happy to join with LOTUS. Rudo thinks that he'll be a better ruler of
the world than these governments who are swayed too much by their
feelings; just based on something as simple as genetic engineering they
started a big war between Earth and PLANT, which still isn't really
over. LOTUS represents the people that Rudo can respect. And he asks
them to think very carefully whether he really thinks that anyone can
rule Earth better than he can -- will returning to the old way really
make people happy? Of course LOTUS isn't going to accept this. If Rudo
is wrong, who can stop a dictator? How can he believe he's the only one
who won't make any mistakes? Someone like Rudo who has no friends or
companions to help him or correct him when he fails. Rudo shrugs and
sends out a bunch of units to fight -- no more talking. The units
include non-GreAT mechs like Gundams and Ghosts. Misato sends out an
infiltration squad to rescue the scientists while everyone else takes
care of the mechs.

When you beat HL-1, she...wait for it....regenerates. It's something
based on the D-Soil process, by using nanomachines. She moves around
quickly like she did at Orb and is using some kind of dimensional
warping. How can they stop it? Yuu decides to try using the Straybird's
dimensional convertor at full power, with Ichitaka's help, and link the
Rushbird and Straybird. Haruno is worried, but Yuu thinks this will
work. Alice is also hesitant, but Ichitaka tells her to believe in all
the people that supported them over this long fight, and believe in
their own ability. They manage to use a combination attack just before
HL-1 was going to mount a big attack, and destroy her. However, 12 more
appear with HL's as pilots. The HLs say that LOTUS, which is swayed by
mere feelings, can never beat them. However, we'll show them why Central
failed, and why Big Gold couldn't defeat us.

When you defeat all the enemies, it seems that they managed to rescue
the scientists as well. This includes Gleif, who is finally reunited
with Yuu and Ichitaka. But he immediately calls for the ship captains;
they need to leave this area immediately, because it's going to
disappear. Rudo is elsewhere, chuckling over his victory -- all he needs
to do is fire the long range cannon and LOTUS is done for. He fires it,
and LOTUS tries to evade, but it's too late. Farewell, heroes of
Earth...

Stage 41 - The Light of Hope

Rudo is happy to see the end of LOTUS; they were the hope of the weak,
so they had to be destroyed. Now the people, without hope, will be easy
to deal with. But of course LOTUS is still around; they pop up right in
front of Rudo, saying that hope can always emerge, even from bad
situations. How did they do it? By absorbing the energy of the blast
with the Laplace Wall of the Rushbird, and using that to power the
Imaginary Road of the Straybird, taking them to the Moon in one leap.
Hiroshi wants to correct Rudo on one point -- they're not the only hope
of the people. Even if somehow LOTUS is defeated, others will rise in
their place. Rudo doesn't seem concerned. Do they really think they can
beat him face-to-face? His mech was built to oppose Central, using all
of Gleif's knowledge and GreAT's technology. Gleif doesn't think it's
worth much to steal knowledge from other's heads, but Rudo shows them
what he's made from what they've learned. A bunch of mechs come out. Of
course, LOTUS isn't going to waver. No matter what enemies appear, we
have to beat them for the good of the world!

When you make it through the initial enemies to attack Rudo's Galtdeus,
you discover that it can't be hurt. It's protected by a dimensional
field based on foldspace technology. Fortunately, Rachel and Emi are
able to pinpoint the six pillars surrounding the Galtdeus as the source
of the energy. If they can just destroy those, the Galtdeus will be
vulnerable.

When you defeat the six pillars, Rudo doesn't seem entirely surprised,
and he still has another plan up his sleeves. He calls forth six huge
bombs, which he calls Conquest Bombs, and they're going to head for
PLANT. His main goal is to create an Earth that can support itself, so
colonies or PLANTs are useless for that goal. Not that he cares about
any of the humans on Earth. But now the "fighters for justice" have a
problem; how can they divide their forces to deal with him and the
bombs? That's the problem with justice fighters; they're weak. Their
only choice now is to throw themselves at the bombs; destroying them at
the price of their own lives -- the suitable end for self-appointed
justice fighters. Of course Ichitaka, Kouichi and the others say they'll
do both. More reinforcments show up; Rudo has brought enough units to
take over Earth, after all. But Kira points out that he can't instantly
summon them all here. Also if he summons too many, the various armies of
the world will have time to regroup and attack the remnants. This
reduces Rudo to just spluttering about having already taken over the
world; how can he lose!? Well, we're about to show him.

When you defeat Rudo's Galtdeus, he wonders again why they fight for
people who waste their lives? Even if they are thankful now, they'll
soon forget about what LOTUS did. Daiya tells him that thanks don't
matter, it's seeing the smiling faces of those they protected that's
important. Rudo wonders how long that ideal will last? He also tried to
better the lives of the people, but they just kept demanding more and
more. Kouichi tells him that's what justice is, and Rudo still doesn't
understand how we won. Ichitaka reminds him that the people in LOTUS
have friends and companions. Rudo may have tried hard, but in the end it
was just him. Rudo realizes that he did try to erase his past, get rid
of all his companions...maybe if he hadn't done that he would have
succeeded. But instead his mech blows up, and Rudo Gloria is no more.
This seems to be the end of LOTUS' fight, but of course there's still a
lot more to do -- the world is in shambles, and will need a lot of help
rebuilding. Also PLANT and the people from other dimensions need help as
well. But it's not just LOTUS that will do this, it's everyone on Earth
who wants peace.

Now to the epilogue, where we find out what all the characters will do.
- Lacus and Relena give a speech, urging cooperation and friendship
between Earth, PLANT, and the extra-dimensional beings. Cagalli, Kira,
and Maryu hope this will be a light of hope for the world. Athrun plans
to stay in Orb to help Cagalli rebuild, and Dearka and Yzak head back to
PLANT.

- Shinn is going to stay in Orb to help Stella recover. Rei and
Lunamaria head back to PLANT, but wants Shinn to come back to PLANT in
the end.

- The Wing Gundam boys are dealing with terrorist attacks and other
clean-up jobs, hoping that at some point their mechs will no longer be
necessary.

- The Mazingers and Godannar people agree to keep working with Lady Une.
Goh and Anna are working back at the Dannar base, although Goh gets a
little antsy during peacetime.

- Moritsugu and the other Katou Group people are in prison, but Noin and
Sally free them on the condition that they will work for the Preventers.

- Shinji and Rei are back at school, and Rei seems to have a little
crush on Shinji. The rest of the Linebarrel and EVA kids discuss a JUDA
resort to help people in trouble -- even though the Factors aren't
necessary anymore, they're still fighters for justice. Asuka actually
smiles. Meanwhile Kouichi has a rendevous with Emi, and they try to deal
with budding feelings. Shinji hopes to keep in touch with the NERV
people, and Mari shows up, wondering why she didn't get to actually be
in the game.

- Kenji is doing motorbike racing with Kyo and Aoi. Eida and Meer are
doing a concern, which Johnny pulls up on his laptop to watch. Eida is
happy that Meer is now singing her own songs, and they wish Sheryl and
Ranka could be there.

- The Macross Quarter is ready to go back to its own dimension; the
Vajra planet should be able to send them there. Voltes is going back
with the Macross, so there's an emotional goodbye with the Combattler </pre><pre id="faqspan-8">
Team. Nanase is recovered from her injuries and hopes to see the Macross
people soon. The Iczer people will also be joining the Macross people to
live on the Vajra world. Iczer-1 is becoming the leader of the Cthulhu,
to go in the footsteps of Sir Violet. Unfortunately Nagisa-1 has to stay
on this world, but their bond will never end.

- The Darius Ark is going to leave with the Macross Quarter. Puria,
Daiya, and the other humans are staying on Earth, but Noza, Lulu, and
the other Darius people are going with the Ark. Ranka and Sheryl do a
goodbye concert.

And finally the originals. Ichitaka comes to the Professor's house to
see his new creation -- a mothership to hold the Straybird and Rushbird,
inspired by the Flag. Looks like they're going to be spending a lot of
time underground on construction again. Alice and Haruno will be in
charge of meeting visitors, so Haruno has to learn a new AI set just
like Alice did. Ichitaka wonders why they need a mothership when the
world is at peace -- Gleif just wants to make it, and also if he does it
right they can travel dimensions and see everyone else again. And thus,
peaceful days have returned to the Earth.

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