Mr. Punchy

The token American arrives!

After being betrayed by the ambassador, we decide to get answers. Fortunately, a fellow USN commander already has him corned. We stroll up to the embassy, but we never get in. From behind us comes the inevitable ambush Kazuki knew was coming. Four helicopters fly over the buildings, but one is shot down by a nearby tank. The group wonders why a traitor would be with the ambush, but it's actually the USN commander who called us. The team ignores him, but he'll be a guest character in this battle.

We're against two punch wanzers, a tank, three people, and three helicopters. The tank uses the same tactics as Han, so do whatever. Grenades seem questionable. Even if our allied tank dies, the battle continues, but we are penalized. I didn't have any problems.

The commander is missing, and we worry about the ambassador. Then the embassy explodes! We've lost our lead, but the commander comes back in his own wanzer and has all the information we need about Lukov. He's heading to DHZ via the Futai Tunnel. We try to ditch the commander, but he's a charismatic man. His name is Marcus Armstrong, and he joins the team. He seems to be forming a mentorship role with Kazuki and Ryoji (especially), but we'll see how far that goes.

Between us and the tunnel is downtown Taipei. It's oddly empty, but another ambush hits us. There's a neat, new mech in this battle that looks like a four legged strider from Half Life 2. All three of them are launchers with machine guns for close range defense. They're accompanied by four basic tanks. Once we win, Kazuki wonders if what we're doing is right. Had we not come here, "these people" would still be alive. Either Marcus or Dennis reassures us that stopping Lukov will save more people than doing nothing.

At the start of the Futai Tunnel is another ambush. Ryoji feigns confidence until Marcus encourages him to fight alone. This stops our gung-ho friend, and Yun says something about having tactics. Marcus tells her he does think, but he does so in a strange way. Is Marcus a creep?

Anyway, let the two wanzers on the high ground make their way around to you. They both use shotguns, so don't stand next to the edge of the overpass.

Halfway through the tunnel is another fight. A train brings five wanzers with it. It also shoots missiles at us. Keep track of HP, and you'll be fine. Yun took more damage than I expected and blew up.

As expected, there's a battle at the end of the path. Yun takes note of the observation windows next to us. Futai Tunnel is the longest underwater tunnel in this world, and MISSILES BLOW THROUGH THE GLASS!!!

We're against a group called Imaginary Numbers, led by Griffin. There are only four of them, but their bodies have nearly 800 HP. Two of them spend the first two rounds taking out the handrails between us. Use this time to get sorta close and do damage with Emma's launcher. I only saw it once, but Griffin has a defense skill that negates any damage lower than sixty. This got spicy, but all my characters lived, and I got all three of the mechs. Emma informed us they fought like Lukov, so cogs are churning in my brain.

We'll leave the tunnel and meet up with a DHZ resistance group member named Kwong. Fighting against China makes him suspicious of everyone, so Kazuki gets mad. I kinda hate our MC. Dennis has ties to the Hua Leon leader, Huong, so Dennis convinces Kwong to take us to meet him. Reluctantly, he does. After an introduction, when Kaz gets mad at reasonable authority again, we can ask Dennis some questions. Dennis helped form the rebels by saving Huong a while back. Kazuki starts yelling again because the Hua Leon lack the resources to gather information to save Alisa. Huong gets a call informing him that their oil tank is being inspected. Rather than be noble or sane, he asks us to kill the inspectors. Just makes sense... The oil rig funds the group, unofficially, so legitimate people need to be taken care of. But we'll become the bad guys...

...tomorrow!

I haven't used Marcus, but I did upgrade his stuff. I should do some training.