Lots of plot!

And it thickens.

We need to go back and forth between the HQ and the city. We'll be waiting on Dennis to talk to an old friend named Wei. Wei is a reporter who'll sacrifice his own life to get the full story on whatever he's chasing. This time, it's a possible lead on Lakov. This'll take us to a bar in a city a bit out of the way. Dennis and Wei once spent many a night here, but he'll take us to his house shortly after we arrive. And then we'll be kicked out. Dennis and Wei used to be very close friends, but something happened to split them. This trouble begins to boil, and Dennis leaves. The team follows him to the bar, where we overhear that an unknown assailant wants to kill Wei. We, minus Dennis, inform Wei of this information, and he's not surprised. It's the nature of his work. Wei, ignoring the danger, decides to go for a walk. He's quickly attacked, but a nearby Dennis shoots the DHZ agent. Because Wei now owes Dennis, we get the information. Both men suspect this is the last time they'll ever see each other.

It has something to do with a man named Bal and genetic engineering. Bal once worked at Orisa Lab before he became a DHZ ambassador. Emma looks like she knows something, but only the players realize it. There's no link to Lakov, but I doubt this is worthless information. Regardless, we all return to HQ.

Eventually, another branch informs us they have a strange person of interest. We head out to meet them, and Emma gets weird. He met a man named Ivan, and he's an escapee from Bal's new lab. We learn they created the Imaginary Number units here. IN are engineered soldiers who tend to not last long. Especially the failures like Serov from last night. Suddenly, the compound is attacked. Can you guess by who?

Jarad, who we met last night, and the girl who attacked Li, Rosavia, are Imaginary Numbers. They followed Ivan, a failed experiment, to dispose of him. Ivan fights back, and I don't think the game engine likes it. It makes for some cool fight moments, though, as he floats across the battlefield. Ivan refuses to die, but eventually goes mad and starts shootings randomly. Jarad sees this as a fine opportunity to kill Emma. But Ivan comes to his senses and jumps in front of the bullet. Now Emma starts to show her teeth as the battle begins.

Take out the units opposite of the INs. There's no need to take on the bosses first here, as they'll hang back. The scariest guys are the two launchers in the other corner. They know the Salvo skill, which allows them to launch all six of their rockets at us. This will totally devastate your wanzers. Ultimately, the two bosses aren't hard, and they're pretty passive. Afterwards, Emma is still mourning Ivan. She hears his dying words of hope, and we return to HQ. Why was she slave Leia posing before Ivan's wanzer?

Kazuki finds Emma at the bar thinking about Ivan. She's never met him, but she felt a strong connection between the two of them. After this, we'll get more information that links everything together. I don't remember how, but the group figures out that Lukov, Bal, and the Labs are all connected. Wanting to waste as much time as possible, we plan a raid on Shanghai. We'll attack through Wuhan because every other route is bad. We'll need to split into two groups now. We're the distractions, and the rebels are in charge of finding the RAF HQ.

We need to go to Yuping first, and we'll be attacked en route. Two members of the Wulong Mercenary group try to ambush us. They're easy, but reinforcements arrive when you kill one. The survivors leave, and we have to fight Hei Fong Liu. There's nothing special about him. He did attack our backup, so we retreat to figure out what happened.

We'll stop by the village of Zhenyuan because Emma and Yun are exhausted. Kazuki meets a woman named Lixian, and she lets us rest at her place. We get to know each other before we head out to the bar. Everyone really loves Lixian, so we let her know. We also get more information about her adopted brother, Kwang. He was the sole survivor of a plane crash, and this information makes Li uncomfortable. We head back to the bar for some reason and get more information about the crash. The then vice-chairman of DHZ was on that plane, which is why Li's squad blew it up. Then the crazy idea that Kwang was the vice-chairman's son is tossed about. He just so happens to be serving Marcus a beer, so we'll ask him about it...

...tomorrow!

Why was the second most powerful person in China on a commercial airline?