Super Robot Taisen K
Walkthrough by Mark Neidengard
mneideng at ugcs dot caltech dot edu
Version 1.0
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Super Robot Wars K, as of this writing the latest installment of
this playable cross-over (official) fanfiction franchise.  This guide is
intended to be one-and-a-half steps removed from a full dialog translation,
intended to allow those not fluent in Japanese to grasp the story that
surrounds the inter-series combat.  Those looking for strategy guides, menu
translations and the like are referred to other documents on GameFAQs or
similar sites.
Those familiar with other SRW games may find the "Partner Unit" system of
some interest.  It is a scaled-down version of the Squad System, permitting a
maximum of two mecha per squadron.  Also of note is that this game heavily
emphasizes terrain and size-based modifiers in combat, and that it uses
"Skill Parts" to confer new pilot abilities instead of the familiar Pilot
Points purchasing mechanism.
Please send all comments or questions to the address listed above.  Now with
no further ado, on to the game!
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1. The Wedding Bell Tolls for Battle
One very confused Mist wakes up in the hospital.  Has he "missed" anything?
Hard to say, given the game's only a minute or so old, but at least someone's
here to fill our poor main character in.  That someone is Rin, who hastily
summons Shigusa and the principal(!) over.  Shigusa has a broad grin as he
tells Mist he's lucky to be alive, after collapsing on the side of the road and
whatnot.  Lucky for him the principal found him and brought him here, "here"
being none other than Japan's first line of defense against the "Mimetic
Beasts": Dannar Base!
How's that again?  Hayashimoto describes it as a cross between the police and
the fire department, except that they don't get dispatched for crimes or stuff
burning down.  Dannar Base is all about the Mimetic Beasts, end of story.
Oookay...  Mist is more baffled than before, but also less unconscious, which
reassures the principal enough that he's headed back to his school.  He
admonishes Mist never to let life get him down, no matter what, and leaves him
in Shigusa's capable hands.
Mist can't readily remember _why_ he collapsed alongside the road, though it
may have something to do with not having eaten for three whole days.  The
reason: no wallet.  Mist seems to recall what actually happened to the
erstwhile billfold, but instead of speaking the (embarrassing?) truth, he
instinctively lies that he's an amnesiac.  The sort of amnesiac who at least
remembers his own name: Mist Rex.  Incredibly, Mist's hosts buy this load of
malarkey, and Shigusa tells Fuyuko to bring a big bowl of food on the double.
As she hurries off to grab the food, Professor Kiriko steps onto the scene.
She sounds rather skeptical at this tale of her guest wandering in an aimless
stupor until felled by malnutrition, but quickly comes up with a suggestion for
what Mist can do with his life.  The mechanics have been needing an all-purpose
gofer, and Mist is grateful for any sort of employment.  As of now, Mist is
officially on the payroll as Dannar Base apprentice staff, and Kiriko tells him
to go out and bust ass in return for a roof over his head and three square
meals a day.
STORYTIME!  "Several hundred years after the fall of human civ-"  Wait,
where was I?  Oh yes *ahem*:
It was a time roughly one hundred years into the future, shortly after the
inauguration of the "Stellar Calendar".  Mankind had just awakened from its
old cultures, having progressed to building metropolises in space.  Optimism
about Earth's future was universal.
It was at that moment that the Earth was plunged into the depths of a lengthy
war.  Mankind had already faced the onslaught of empress Himika's "Great Jama
Empire" some fifty years previous, followed a decade or so later by the
invasion of the "Mimetic Beasts".  These creatures, foretold by Professor
Aoi Tatsuya, were accompanied by a rash of disappearances and abductions --
more than enough to instill fear and distrust of the unknown in mankind.  It
was during these decades that the schism between the genetically optimized
"Coordinators" and unmodified "Naturals" grew too large for society to
ignore.
The Great Jama Empire's advance was halted that half-century ago by
mysterious barriers called "Zones", which trapped the Jama on Kyuushuu.  The
Mimetic Beasts also disappeared at the climax of the five-year War of the
Titans.  With these menaces past and Earth's cities rebuilt, everyone assumed
peace had returned to the world.
Yet in the shadow of the recovery, relations between Naturals and
Coordinators had worsened to the brink of open warfare.  That war finally
erupted between the Earth Federation Army and the Zaft, secretly spurred on
by the evil Doctor Hell's machinations toward world domination.  It took two
years, and the death of the ringleaders on all sides, to quell the fighting.
A half year has passed since peace returned, and the scars of war are still
fresh upon mankind.  The people are doing their utmost to hang onto their
peace, so hard won, and spending their days quietly.  It is Stellar Calendar
year 105, and no one has realized that a new terror is approaching head-on...
In the two months since darkening Dannar Base's doorstep, Mist has been
following Kiriko's admonition to a "T".  Portraying himself as a cheerfully
dense strong-man, he now specializes in hauling stuff.  Now, if he would just
haul the _correct_ stuff, he wouldn't get yelled at as much by the "old man".
Who isn't, in fact, old at all - it's just a term of endearment, sort of like
the "master" of a pub or the "general" of a sushi joint.  Shigusa had been
chewing Mist out for not cleaning up after everyone' scrap metal, but a new job
presents itself when Kiriko phones him about a pearl necklace she left behind.
This is a very unusual request, largely because of where she wants the necklace
brought: the Eastern chapel.  That building is only used for weddings or
funerals these days, and the thought of weddings has Rin all aflutter.  Like,
doesn't every girl dream of wearing a white wedding dress and walking the
"virgin road"?  To quote Hans Zarkov, "Let me think a moment."  Result: NO!
Shigusa doesn't take this blather for long, ordering everyone back to their
places if they value their paychecks.
In fact, Kiriko is _not_ getting married in the school chapel.  The wedding is
her daughter Anna's, and given Anna's still in high school one has to assume
she's in a major hurry.  Kiriko and Anna both badger Sayaka (good-naturedly)
about tying the knot with her boyfriend Kouji, celebrated warrior and defeater
of the nefarious Doctor Hell.  Mind, he didn't do that alone: plenty of people
chipped in, busting their butts to mop up after the war with the Plants.
Their discussion is interrupted by Shinobu, who's come looking for Gou.  He's
quite dazzled by the sight of Anna in her wedding dress, but Kiriko hustles him
outside in short order.  She figures Gou's busy visiting a certain grave, and
assures Shinobu that he'll be back shortly.  Shinobu heads off to look for the
erstwhile Gou, just as Mist arrives with the necklace.  Mist's inner monologue
now reveals him as not the moron he claims to be, with plans of his own for
what to do with this place once he gets a moment's peace.
For the time being, he's got a wedding to navigate on the way to the good
doctor.  Kouji spies him wandering around and calls him out of the line of
fire, giving him directions to the bridal prep room.  He figures out fast
that Mist must be the new Dannar Base recruit, and tells Mist not to forget
the name "Kabuto Kouji".  Good advice methinks.
While the makeup continues, Anna tells Sayaka about all the fun she's been
having in her school's robot club.  Piloting a mech has been her lifelong
dream, and her mom assures Sayaka that the only thing Anna's lacking is
experience.  That'll change as soon as she graduates and enters Dannar Base
for real.  Speaking of whom: Mist shows up with necklace in hand... in two
hands actually, both totally covered in grime from the machine shop.  Good
thing the necklace was in a case, or else it too would be covered in the
goo Mist didn't think to wash off before heading over here.  Anna still
thanks him for taking the trouble to bring it over anyway, cause she's a good
kid.
Mist is blown away when he realizes who Anna is, and that she's getting married
as a high schooler to the "much" elder Gou.  He quickly apologizes for blurting
this out, but Kiriko admits that there's some truth to it: Gou's newbie days
are now a good five years in the past.  The spaced-out man he appears to be now
wouldn't be recognized as one of the heroes of the War of the Titans by anyone
who doesn't know him personally.  Never mind the fact that he directly saved
Anna's life.
Mist hasn't heard of this War of the Titans, or of the Mimetic Beasts it was
waged against.  He nearly lets it slip that this "planet's" history eludes him,
but he quickly changes that to "the past few years'" history.  Anna marrying
her savior is like a "crane's repayment", an Earth colloquialism which eludes
Mist completely.  At least he realizes how clued out he is, and figures he'd
better redouble his studies of Earth before the jig is up entirely.
That's the point when Shinobu returns with Gou.  Kiriko tells Anna it's time to
go get married, admonishing her that a wedding is like a war.  She's got to
"shoot" her groom-to-be before he "shoots" her.  Whether it's peace on Earth
or peace at home, first impressions matter.
At about that time, the Dannar Base command center gets an emergency call from
Cosmo Base.  Twelve Mimetic Beasts have appeared, for the first time in five
years, and their signature has reached all the way to Earth.  Kagemaru orders
the G-Gunner made ready for battle, though Gou is nowhere to be seen.  Kouji
wonders if they really ought to face the Mimetic Beasts without him, but
Shizuru doesn't want to rely on his help on today of all days.
Meanwhile, Boss is grousing to his lackeys about not receiving a wedding
invite, which he assumes must have been due to some sort of postal error.  His
teensy little brain has concocted a brilliant plan to win Anna's favor: crash
her wedding in his Borot!  Knowing her robot mania, he figures he can at least
parlay his walking scrap-heap into an introduction to one of Anna's cute
friends.  Fortunately, this plan gets disrupted by one of the Mimetic Beasts
falling right into Boss's path.
Boss tries to show how bad-ass he is, and in a way he succeeds: zero coolness
points, and zero success against the alien menace.  Kouji and Shizuru will
surely fare better, but as they're getting ready to fire they suddenly I.D.
their foe: the Club Mariner, vanished five years ago along with its pilot.
Parasitized by the enemy as it is, there's no telling if the Club Mariner's
pilot is alive or dead.  Nevertheless, Kagemaru orders the two to protect the
city no matter what.
As Kouji and Shizuru throw down with their unwanted guest, Mist has somehow
gotten himself roped into attending Gou and Anna's wedding.  He wonders aloud
if shacking up with a high-schooler is a jailable offense, as Kouji (Mazinger,
not Godannar) mumbles that he hasn't even gone out with anyone for real yet,
much less made plans for knot-tying.  What is Sayaka, chopped liver?  Ayup.
Well _that_ doesn't go over well with Kouji's long-time partner.
Now, there's a reason people are asked to silence their cell phones in church,
and that goes double if you're the reason the church service is being held.
Gou apparently didn't get the memo, which is why he gets interrupted by a call
from Shizuru right before can complete his wedding vows.  His pleas to save it
for later quickly dry up when Shizuru shows him what has become of the Club
Mariner.  Kiriko gets a similar report on _her_ cel phone, and the stampede is
on to return to base.  Anna tries to get Gou to finish his sentence, but her
own mother tells her that this kind of thing goes with the territory for any
aspiring mecha pilot.
Now, Mist isn't any sort of aspiring pilot, so Kiriko tells him he's got the
rest of the day off.  As he gapes at all this, Anna indeed steels her resolve
to be a mecha pilot's bride... not by waiting patiently at the altar, but by
running after her man to join in the fray herself!  This involves absconding
with Shinobu's bike, natch.  Kouji's thanking his lucky stars he rolled up to
the wedding in Mazinger Z (!), and hurries off with Sayaka to make sure Gou
doesn't do anything stupid.  This leaves Mist and Shinobu to watch the battle
from the church...
Said battle isn't going so smoothly.  The enemy has the pesky habit of getting
too close for the Dannar Base pilots to safely use their Strong Buster.  In
fact, they narrowly miss catching Anna in the crossfire, but her scrambles for
cover turns out to be a stroke of luck: she spies a robot lurking in the
base's... umm... basement.  Lucky indeed, since the Mimetic Beast manages to
cripple the Dannar Base's unit with its next long-range strike.  Shizuru tries
to hold out until Gou arrives, but her Core Gunner is badly outmatched.
Still, Gou's got a talent for arriving just in the nick of time.  Shizuru's dry
wit is about the last thing still intact, so Gou tells her to take Kouji and
leave this monster to him.  That doesn't work so well, and Anna realizes she's
got to do something fast.  That something means firing up a mech that's under
permanent mothball orders: the Neo-Okusar.  Kiriko quickly orders her daughter
into battle, but Gou just as quickly orders her amateur butt to get off the
battlefield.  Nothing doing, see: remember that "in sickness and in health"
bit?  Marriage = serious business.
M-m-married?  That's news to Gou's colleagues, and would be a severe shock if
there were time to get shocked.  But since there ain't even time to bleed,
Kagemaru orders Gou to let Anna help.  He's every bit as stubborn as she is,
and tries to settle things on his own.
The last thing he's going to allow is for the Club Mariner to lay waste to
the city and the people it once helped defend.  And the last thing Anna will
do is let her husband come to harm.
The next round, the Mimetic Beast's friends show up, reducing the situation
from "dire" to "totally hopeless".  That is, until the Mazingers show up.
They're not sure how rusty Gou is, but he assures them in no uncertain terms
that he's still got what it takes.
Kouji's pretty sure that no beast, Mechanical or Mimetic, can mess with his
uncle's robotic masterpiece.  Sayaka is more playing the part of the jilted
wedding-goer.  Both of them make good inroads against the new invaders, but
unfortunately they haven't seen the bottom of the enemy's cannon-fodder
reserves yet.  Kiriko orders Gou and Anna to combine, but Gou is dead-set
against it.  He initially objects that Anna's a beginner, but what he's
really worried about is her being put in danger.  _That_ was never part of
the master plan.
Watching from the sidelines, Mist knows full well that the entire crew are
about to get their asses annihilated.  Muttering to himself about breaking his
vow of never fighting again, he rushes off to go save his friends.  He makes
off with Shinobu's bicycle to do so, leaving the kid totally stranded.  He
boots up his Revlias and disengages its camouflage, creating quite a stir when
he arrives at the battlefield.  Wasting no time, he demonstrates an Attack
Combo sequence, earning him at least the temporary trust of Kouji and the crew.
He won't stand for seeing any _more_ of his companions die.  And for a while
it looks like he won't have to, after the bitch-smacking his mech deals out.
He's about to break down and tell Kouji his real name when one of the Mimetic
Beasts revives and beats him to within an inch of his life.  Kagemaru repeats
the order for Gou to combine, but he shouts back that he never wants to lose
someone he loves again!  He throws a full-blown temper tantrum until Anna
tells him to grow some balls and consider using his mech to defend more than
just himself.
That seems to get his attention, and he cries out for Godannar to combine.
The results are, in a word, spectacular.
Mist tells everyone that he'll reveal his name when they all "return" to base.
Meaning at the least that that's where he's from.  He's figured out that he's
not the only one on this planet who doesn't want to repeat a past loss, and
reckons he might as well help out.  Lurking in the bushes is a boy named Daiya,
who's been eagerly waiting for an "armored" monster to appear.  He just knows
it'll happen sooner or later...
Predictably, Mist's big reveal causes a major commotion.  Not only does he
claim to be an amnesiac still, but an amnesiac with a robot of unknown origin,
which he's obviously highly skilled at piloting.  Of course this is suspicious
in the extreme, but Mist manages to deflect the conversation onto Gou and his
cradle-robbing ways.  Kouji and crew can't decide what to harp on more: the age
gap, or the fact that he didn't even tell most of the Dannar Base folks in
advance.  And by the looks of it, he's going to take shit from them about it
for quite some time to come.
Mist has his reasons for keeping his identity hidden, and he's got his work cut
out for him keeping it hidden when Kiriko starts questioning him.  Meanwhile,
the other Kouji is back to his usual fiery self in sick-bay.  Shizuru tells him
to get some rest for now, adding the report that Gou went and got himself
married.  To whom, Kouji wonders, someone cute?  Shizuru thinks a second and
rates the bride as an "S" on the cuteness scale.  "S-class cuteness" plus "high
school girl" equals "Kouji is SO THERE", or would be if he could stand up
without stabbing pain all over.
This wasn't the only big event to occur after he left the battle, but Shizuru's
briefing gets cut short by Shigusa.  He tells a much-relieved Kouji that the
G-Gunner can be repaired after all, but that it's being converted into a
single-pilot unit at Kiriko's recommendation.  Tatsuya'll get to pilot that,
while Shizuru's Core Gunner will be fortified and made pilotable by her alone
as well.  This means more overall warpower for Dannar Base, which as today's
fracas showed is desperately needed.  This suits both pilots fine, and as
Shigusa leaves Shizuru follows him out, cutting short her socializing before
Kouji's mild flirtation actually makes her start falling for him.
Now, about that grilling Mist was in for.  All things considered, Kiriko barely
pushes at all -- she reckons Mist must have a pretty good reason for not
leveling with her.  She does tell him in no uncertain terms that he's just
promoted himself to Dannar Base pilot, and that his mech is now her people's
responsibility.  Of course, he'll still be on lackey patrol in addition to his
pilot duties, but that's what any rookie would have to go through.  Mist sighs
to himself that he must be fated to have to fight, and decides to put the best
face on it he can.  It wouldn't do to lose the Earth now, after all it's given
him.  Kiriko then gets a summons to the medical room, and sends Mist off to
help with maintenance in the hangar.  She knows full well that no call to the
medical room can portend anything good...
How right she is.  From the cockpit of the former Club Mariner were extracted
the bodies of Mira and Max, comatose but apparently alive.  Testing all the
way down to the genetic level has revealed nothing amiss, but their presence
here raises plenty of questions all by itself.  Such as: how did Mira get from
the cockpit of the Go-Okusar to the cockpit of the Club Mariner sometime in the
past five years?  For that matter, how did the two _survive_ over those past
five years?  Kiriko wants to wait for them to wake up on their own in the hopes
they know something about the enemy, and strictly tells Kagemaru not to let Gou
know his two former comrades are here.  After all: Gou just got married --
letting him know the woman he once loved and since gave up on is alive might
be... disruptive.  And might result in the titan they just woke up going back
to sleep.  Kagemaru clearly isn't happy with that, but will follow the
directive if it's Kiriko's order.
For what it's worth, she apologizes to him before he returns to the bridge, but
privately Kiriko admits that she's not doing this for Gou at all: she's doing
it for Anna.  Bad though the decision might be from a command sense, she can't
bear the thought of her daughter's expression if she found out about her new
husband's attachment to another woman.  Besides, there could be something dire
behind these two reappearing _now_ specifically...
2. Visitor From Another World
Daiya may be good at lurking in the bushes, but he's not enough of a ninja to
escape his mom's scrutiny without making her worry.  And worry she does,
according to Daiya's friend Naoto.  Who informs his intrepid friend that he
needn't have schlepped to Dannar Base to see the Mimetic Beasts: they're all
over the news.  Naoto's also understandably skeptical that Daiya's "armored"
monster even exists, and asks if it might not have been just another kind of
Mimetic Beast.  Daiya doesn't care what it is -- he just wants it to show up so
he can get another look at the mechanical dragon that saved his life.
Mechanical... dragon?  Yeah, and he even got a memento from it.  He's shown it
to a parade of experts, and none of them can tell what it was actually built
for, or even _how_ it was built.  To Naoto's amazement, Daiya tells him that he
actually received the trinket from one of the dragon's crewmen, after the
dragon saved him and his father from a monster assault on the high seas five
years ago.  He was even taken _aboard_ the dragon when he and his father became
separated, and the crewman in question promised him that the day would come
when he too would become a warrior and fight those obnoxious aliens^Wmonsters.
Plausible?  Hell no, and Naoto isn't shy saying so.  But since we're on the
subject of unbelievable stuff anyway, Naoto suddenly notices that the trinket
has suddenly grown hot.  This turns out to be a presage of the bad guys showing
up, which is the boys' cue to head home at long last.
Already planning to head home are Kouji and Sayaka, who are in the Dannar Base
command center saying their goodbyes.  Kiriko doesn't want to mix them up in
fending off the Mimetic Beasts, and even when the alarms sound it seems she
won't have to today: the newly-minted enemy aren't Mimetic Beasts at all, but a
different kind of mecha-critter that Kiriko recalls are from the Darius Army.
The Mazinger pilots think they can help trounce them, but Kiriko orders the
'Zinger pilots to stick to their original plan of returning to the Photon Power
lab.  No more borrowing their services without their boss Yumi's permission.
Why not, Kouji asks, just call up Yumi and _ask_ for permission?  Good idea...
Yumi's already tracking the new beast incursion from his end, and has concluded
that it and the Mimetic Beast incident are proof of a major new menace
threatening the Earth.  And how better to combat it than to have the Mazingers
join Dannar Base's forces?  How conveeeeenient for them.  And lest Kouji and
Sayaka worry about leaving their boss in the lurch, he tells them that he's
already made other arrangements with Representative Asuha from Orb for the
Photon Power Lab's safety.
When Kagemaru orders everyone to head to the scene, he means _everyone_,
including Anna.  How else, Kiriko tells a scandalized Gou, is Anna supposed to
build real-world experience?  Everyone also includes Kouji, still convalescent
but apparently healthy enough to fly solo.  Mist is also present, though his
teammates are a bit hesitant to count on him and his unproven track record.
Still, there are bad guys to fend off, and their leader Suspage doesn't seem
terribly worried.  Her forces are burdened with a "Steel Beast", but she
reckons it should at least serve as a sacrificial pawn.
Daiya and his mom both recognize these beasties: they're identical to the
ones that sunk Daiya's dad's ship.  Naoto's now got his incontrovertible
proof that armored creatures do exist, and Daiya yells that he's been saying
that all along.  He's bound and determined to be the one who reduces these
menaces to so much scrap metal, and tells Naoto to take his mom with him and
skedaddle.  Just how he plans to fight the several story-tall critters is a
separate question...
On the very next round, the Daikuu Maryuu shows up.  Kouji wonders if the
thing is another one of Dr. Hell's flying fortresses, but captain Garis
informs the "surface warriors" that he too is fighting against the Darius
armies.  Gou and the troops aren't sure what to make of this, but Kiriko is
an old friend of the good captain and quickly promises him that her troops
will help him make short work of the bad guys.  Kagemaru's orders are good
enough to dispel any immediate doubts the troops have, and Mist is privately
amazed at the diversity of mecha he's seen on Earth already.  Of course,
Daiya is overjoyed at getting exactly what he wanted...
Daiya is all urging the dragon to let him fight by its side when a blurry
voice of reason is beamed at him in return.  The voice tells him to get
the heck out of Dodge before he gets caught in the crossfire, and Daiya
recognizes it as belonging to a girl he met the last time, with eyes like
the deep ocean [which he nearly drowned in, come to think of it.  Plus there
are sharks and poisonous snails and Portuguese men-of-war.  That's like,
scary and stuff.]  Daiya may not be smart enough to be scared, shouting back
to the girl that there's no way in hell he'd flee at a time like this.  Not
with all the mysteries of the last five episodes^Wyears about to be revealed!
Such as, what's her measurements^Wname, anyway?
This is so important to him that it looks like he spontaneously combusts.
No, seriously: you flick, you flame, UASH and whatnot.  Charbroiled brat is
a staple of the draconis diet, so Garis has the girl _eat_ Daiya with the
Daikuu Maryuu.  In a twinkling, Daiya finds himself in some kind of cockpit,
elected as the dragon-chosen who gets to pilot the Fire Giant.  Also known as
Gaiking, the bit of the dragon battleship that until a moment ago was its
head.
Suspage is now starting to get worried, but a colleague of his phones up
new orders.  The Daikuu Maryuu can be defeated any old time, but Suspage's
real mission can't afford any delays.  To soften Suspage's disappointment,
the mystery man sends in a little present to keep the Federation forces busy.
Bringing up the rear is normally Suspage's job [;)] but he'll have to make an
exception here.
The new arrivals display a Mimetic signature, but it doesn't really matter
what type of enemy they are: no menace to society is welcome in these parts.
Garis sends in Pulia and Lee, and reluctantly adds Yanma and friends in their
rickety Crab Bunker.  The first words out of Pulia's mouth are to tell Daiya
to shape up his shoddy piloting.
The end of the battle finds Daiya marveling over how much ass his mech just
kicked.  He tells Garis that he's waited for this day a long, long time [also
defined as "five years"], and Garis tells him to carve the names of the Daikuu
Maryuu and Gaiking into his heart.  Figuratively speaking.  He then tells the
baffled Dannar Base crew that his ship is not of the Surface, but rather from
another land within the Earth's center called "Darius".  Full details will
have to wait until the Daikuu Maryuu is led back to base, and Daiya re-docked
with his new mothership.
It's even harder to believe in Otherworlders from within the Earth's center
than it would be if they were just garden-variety aliens.  But Garis and
co. are indeed from this inner world called Darius, whose armies are now
raising hell all over Earth.  Seems they made their way through something
called a Deathcross Point in India, which the bad guys can open nearly at will.
Dannar Kouji makes the intuitive leap that these Points could let Surface
folk travel the other direction and assail Darius, which Garis calls "harder
than it sounds" but not impossible.  He'll be happy to take the team to Darius
whenever they want, except that they first need a plan.
Turns out that the Daikuu Maryuu has busting ass for quite some time keeping
the Darius army from pestering the Surface.  For whatever reason, the army's
gotten frisky lately, and Garis' crew are slowly losing their grip on the
situation.  If the Darius armies were to mount an all-out assault, the Surface
folk would bear the brunt of it, and Garis is hoping for a plan to head that
off at the pass.
Gou whines about having yet more enemies to deal with, though Kiriko points out
to him that _he_ hasn't been fighting squat for the past five years.  Doh.  In
any case, Kiriko reveals that she's one of only a few people on the Surface who
had been informed of Darius and the Daikuu Maryuu's existence.  Many of those
people are colleagues of Garis, and as one of them Kiriko pledges her forces
to help hunt down the Darius Army forces that escaped.
As Garis prepares to return to his ship, Kouji, Mist and most of the rest of
the pilots plead with him and Kiriko to go and sightsee.  Kiriko doesn't want
her forces acting like a bunch of sixth-graders, but Garis is more than happy
to show off his baby.  Mist is especially glad of the chance to do some more
fact finding, but one person who won't be joining the field trip is Anna.  Gou
has something very important to discuss with her.  That leaves bridge bunnies
Momoko and Konami to deliberate about why no one asked about Garis and his
mask.  Is it merely a question of good breeding not to pry into a man's
presumptive dark past, or fear of what the guy might do?
Daiya finally gets to reunite with the sea-eyed girl: Lulu by name.  Shizuka,
in charge of the Daikuu Maryuu's hangar, tells Daiya that Lulu's going to be
his precious partner from now on, assisting him from the bridge during combat.
Shizuka adds that everyone aboard the Daikuu Maryuu has been waiting for Daiya
to show up for a veeeeeeery long time [longer than five years, one hopes].  She
hopes he's up to being the Savior, cause that's what his special linkage with
Gaiking makes him.  Daiya was BORN READY for that kind of mission, and ready
to rock'n'roll ever since the boating fiasco five years prior.  He's still got
the weird doohickey Lulu gave him, which she calls a "Flame Greeter".  It's
kind of like a walkie-talkie that can only be used by people with strong
fire powers, and the thought of it reuniting him with her has fuelled his whole
life.
Well, that and the hope that he can save his father, who did _not_ die but
instead got captured by their beastly assailants.  Lulu will tell him what
their deal is, only after warning him that once he finds out there'll be no
turning back.  "Back" isn't even in Daiya's dictionary, so Garis steps in for
the big reveal.  Before that, he foists the tour group from Dannar Base off
on Shizuka.  Let storytime commence...
Suspage's new orders are to head Southwest into the heart of one of the Zones,
giant barrier areas dotting the Earth.  There's someone inside the Zone that
Suspage's superior wants as an ally for the invasion of Earth, and Suspage is
to join forces with them.  The superior tells Suspage to phone home when he
reaches the Zone for more orders, and if there's one thing Suspage can't stand,
it's being bossed around -- especially by an "outsider".
Garis isn't surprised at the notion of Daiya's father being hauled off as a
source of info on the Surface.  He's careful to remind Daiya that a "non-zero"
probability of his father being alive does _not_ equal a 100% chance that he
can be safely rescued once the Darius Army is defeated.  He'd rather steel
Daiya for the worst-case scenario up front than have the kid blindsided down
the road, and adds another heavy thought to the mix for good measure: to fight
the Darius Army, Daiya will have to leave the Surface.
NOW we have a problem: after his father's disappearance, he's been living alone
with his mother... he's all she's got left.  Pulia has been listening in, and
isn't impressed with some little brat who sounds like he's still nursing his
mom's tits.  Daiya recognizes her voice as the one that berated him during the
battle, and she tells him grandly that _she_ is the pilot of the Daikuu
Maryuu's *main* weapon, the Stinger.  She can't believe a little kid like
him is Gaiking's pilot, and her lackey friends are quick to agree.  Daiya
fires back that there's nothing wrong with a kid having concern for his
parents, and Garis concurs.  He gives Daiya three hours to go talk things over
with his mom, during which point his people will try to locate the fugitive
Darius Army units.  Daiya doesn't need to be told twice, and hustles straight
off home.
Gou's brought Anna back to the church for a little true confession session.
He tells her plainly that his strident objections to her fighting were born
from fear of losing her.  But seeing her fight, seeing her unwillingness to
give up just reminded him all the more why he decided to spend the rest of his
life with her.  _He_ might as well have been the one to die five years ago,
but now he wants only to fight by her side.  He makes her promise him this one
thing: that under NO circumstances will she die before him.  You betcha!  She
vows to stick by his side even when she's old and gray, and he tells her it's
time to truly combine.  He extends a wedding ring, saying that he expects that
they'll probably fight each other and even make each other cry at times.  But
he will _never_ betray her -- he, Saruwatari Gou, pledges to her his lifelong
love.  BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, one supposes.  The priest, watching from the
sidelines, is most glad of the sight of the two of them kissing -- humans are
not the sort of creature meant to fight alone.
Daiya delivers his mom and Naoto the news of his decision to fight aboard the
dragon.  Of course his mom isn't initially inclined to let him, but Daiya
reiterates his belief that his father wasn't killed at sea back when.  So uh,
take care and keep the home fires burning!  With promises to return one day,
Daiya bails and heads back towards the ship.  Lulu phones up and asks if he
had a proper conversation with his mom, and while "proper" may not be the word,
Daiya tells her that he said everything there was to say.
As he runs across town, the Dannar command crew fret over those pesky Darius
forces, still nowhere to be seen.  Kagemaru worries they may have dived under
the waves, in which case they might not be detectable until they surface
again.  But just then, an unsolicited message comes in from Build Base...
3. Build Up!  The Legend Reborn
The tour group finally reaches the Daikuu Maryuu's bridge, and Anna's group
rejoins just in time to take in the vast open space.  It's nothing like her
mom's command center, and nothing like any culture's tech that Mist is familiar
with.  Shizuka slyly introduces First Officer Rosa as a terrifying figure,
which may not be that far from the truth for those she can order to swab the
deck.  Very much like Kiriko, as Anna would be the first to admit.  In any
case, Kouji is especially interested in the ship's power source and armor
composition, part of a long-range project to raise himself from knucklehead to
first-rate mecha engineer like his father.  While his teammates debate what
kind of magic mushrooms he must be on, Shizuka tells him that the Daikuu Maryuu
and Gaiking run on a type of fire-based energy called Hydriude, and are armored
with an alloy called Zolmanium.
None of the Dannar folks have heard of these before, but then again amnesia-boy
Mist hadn't heard of the fabled Ultra-Alloy Z or Photon Power either.  He sure
has a funny kind of amnesia if he can remember his own mech's name but not its
power source...  Before anyone can grill him on this point, Kiriko phones up
and recalls the team to base -- something urgent has come up, and nothing to do
with the Darius Army.  Mist bails at warp speed, a sure sign to even a dunce
like Boss that he's hiding something.  Kouji doesn't particularly care what,
and apologizes to Shizuka for skipping out mid-tour.
Kiriko tells Mist that he and the others are to fly with Gou to Kyuushuu, due
to an emergency call from Professor Shiba of Build Base.  This facility, in
Nagasaki, is devoted to studying the Zone that encircles all of Kyuushuu.
Zone? asks Mist.  Kind of like a thick cloud of energy, which has kept Kyuushuu
effectively cut off from the outside world for the past fifty years.  Something
has been stirring over the past few days that leads some to suspect that the
half-century exile of the Great Jama Empire is about to end.  That's the last
thing Kouji wants to hear when he catches up to Mist, and just as quickly as he
came, he turns around and dashes to the hangar.  Anna follows in short order,
cutting off whatever Gou was going to tell her about combination fighting.
Kiriko has just enough time to tell Mist who this Professor Shiba is: an
archaeologist and leading mecha authority.  He's also one of the top two
scientists in Japan, and Kiriko sternly warns Mist against disrespecting the
guy.
As a somewhat dazed-looking Mist runs off, a call comes in from Selene McGriff
of the DSSD.  She's an old friend of Kiriko's, and currently in charge of
shuttle launch operations.  With so much that could go wrong, she's
understandably nervous about the reports of Mimetic Beasts on the loose.
Kiriko asks her to sight tight while Cosmo Base checks out the area around the
launch pad.  She has the launch coordinates sent to Rue, who reports utterly no
Mimetic activity in the vicinity.  Kiriko hopes the tests on the "401" go
smoothly, completed AI or not.  This is the GSX-401FW, a mobile suit created
for deep-space exploration and equipped with a solar-wind-driven "Voiture
Unit".  This is supposedly capable of endless acceleration and arbitrarily long
range... if it works.
As Gou and the others race towards Build Base, the situation on Kyuushuu is
deteriorating rapidly.  Shiba issues orders to all observation personnel to run
one final diagnostic on the autonomous observation system and then hightail it
away from the Zone.  He also phones up Hester to check if all the civilians
have been evacuated (they have) and if the army is on the way (they are).
Hester reminds Shiba that Build Base has been given full authority concerning
the Zone so that they can keep a lid on it, and tells him to call back if
anything changes.
Shiba tells a worried Cagalli that the Zone may in fact be about to expand
again, and might swallow Build Base itself if his worst fears are right.  Her
companion "Alex" tells her that they've got to leave before that happens, lest
they get stuck at the Base and leave Orb in the lurch.  Cagalli protests that
Festoom may be inside the Zone, and if it is it's got to be stopped before it
can wreak another tragedy like the one Orb's neighboring nation suffered.  Alex
is about to protest when Mist arrives on the scene...
...and promptly mistakes the grizzled Professor Shiba for some kind of monster.
When he realizes his mistake, he then falls all over himself trying to
apologize, making himself look more the fool but less the insolent whelp to the
old bird.  Luckily, Mist is the only idiot in the Dannar Base lineup, and
moreover Shiba knows most of the rest of the pilots from their past exploits.
This many stalwarts will sure come in handy when the Jama break free, which
Shiba reckons is merely a matter of time.
Mist is still waiting to hear what this Great Jama Empire is all about, and
Shiba peevishly explains that they're a crew of demons who poured out of
Kyuushuu fifty years ago.  They're all about the usual domination of mankind
stuff, but lucky for the world they never got the chance to fully execute their
plans.  Sometime during the battle, a strange mist began to boil out of one of
Kyuushuu's mountains, trapping the whole evil posse on Kyuushuu with no hope of
escape.  The same can be said of the hapless people who were actually living on
Kyuushuu, whose fate is now unknown.
The Dannar folks are shocked to realize that Orb's princess is among Shiba's
guests, given how dangerous this place is.  To Alex's relief, Shiba reminds
Cagalli that he's detected no sign of the Festoom and sends her packing before
she can get underfoot.  No sooner do Alex and Cagalli leave the bridge than
word arrives of some sort of vessels approaching the Zone.  Those vessels turn
out to be from the Darius Army, which Shiba remembers all too well.  What no
one is prepared for is the Darius battleship _entering_ the Zone through a hole
that just appeared.  Shiba realizes this must be due to the Darius' control of
Deathcross Point tech.
Once inside the Zone and away from prying eyes, Suspage is confronted by
Empress Himika, who disconcertingly knows his name.  Seems a certain mutual
acquaintance who awoke Himika from her slumber has clued her in on recent world
events, telling her to join forces with the forthcoming General from another
world if she wants to make the world hers.  Himika's loyal servant Ikima isn't
having it, sure that his power alone is sufficient to slaughter mankind.
That's quite a boast, and Himika tells him to take the Haniwa Phantoms and
Magura and show her what he's got.
Outside the Zone are those aforementioned troops, apparently quite unprepared
to face the impending menace from their textbooks.  Mudy isn't even enthused
for battle if it doesn't involve the Coordinators, but she gets motivated
quickly enough by the sight of most of her battalion getting blown away in
one shot.  Michio is quick to order a retreat, given the obvious lack of
firepower and disparity of information.  He's also mindful of his instructions
to let Build Base handle things if worse comes to worse, and Sven certainly
thinks he's making the right decision.  Ikima certainly thinks he's won, and
orders his men to lay waste to all the human civilians in sight.
Meanwhile, Kyou has called Kenji out to Team Shiba's test track for a little
contest.  Their team owner has said that one one of them can represent the
team in the next race, and told them to figure out among themselves who that
rider will be.  Kenji has no objections to a little showdown action, but it
appears that Kyou has the edge in discipline.  Which makes it odd that Kyou
stops cold after taking the lead, until he explains that he just felt an
earthquake.  Kenji can feel it too in short order, and they needn't wait long
until the source of it comes into view.  It's a Haniwa Phantom, and it's headed
straight for Tsubaki's shrine.
Kenji races off to the rescue, but Tsubaki's nowhere to be found at the
shrine.  Instead, he runs into an older lady named Michi, who leads him
deep underground to a cavern containing a monstrous motorcycle.  Michi gives
him a little handbag and tells him to hop on, promptly vanishing from sight.
Good thing it's a hot-ass bike, since he's got those Haniwa critters shooting
at him from all directions.  His missing girlfriend radios in and tells him
to head straight for a certain cliff up ahead, and once there to "Build Up".
This requires help from Tsubaki and Yagyuu Mitsuko, both flying in in the
nick of time.
Kyou watches from a distance as the tableau unfolds.  He thinks to himself
that Kenji really _is_ a phenomenal rider if he can handle the "Raikoba" cycle
so well his first time out.  Tsubaki flies up and has him put his two fists
together, initiating his cycle's transformation into the core of the Steel
Jeeg.  Kenji can be excused for feeling a tad confused at all this, but give
him credit for being quick on the uptake: when Shiba phones up and yells for
him to become the Defender of the land, he doesn't hesitate to start raising
hell.
Tsubaki isn't going to leave Kenji to duke it out alone in this fight, which
echoes the fracas from fifty years ago.  Kyou has a head for history, and
doesn't plan on it repeating.  Tsubaki's also more than happy to represent
the Build Angels and their fabled aerobatic prowess.
Kenji doesn't actually do badly himself, especially for a first-timer.
That's not to say he isn't glad when reinforcements show up.  The Dannar Base
crew marvel at seeing the legendary Jeeg on the field of battle again, noting
in passing that little details seem to have changed.  The new arrivals don't
do anything for Ikima's mood, especially when Mimashi, Amaso and even
Suspage start taunting him.  Suspage tells Ikima to let him take him back
to Himika to regroup, and the disgruntled warrior grudgingly complies.
Shiba radios in to notify the troops that the remaining Darius Army forces
aren't to be underestimated.  Kenji reckons he can pummel this sorry lot
regardless, but Mitsuko reminds her enthusiastic charge not to get _too_
carried away.  After all, as Gou points out the main goal here isn't bad-
guy stomping, but rather protecting the city.  And _this_ time, Mist is
determined not to fail.
Back at Build Base, Shiba is very nonplussed when Cagalli (and Alex) rush into
the command center and demand to know what's going on.  Can't they see the
20-foot screen up front?  It's showing a full panoramic view of the Darius
Army, a group every bit as bent on world domination as the Jama crew are.  The
battle has moved into the downtown area, which is not quite as thoroughly
evacuated as one might have hoped.  Wouldn't you know it, those pesky bad guys
just _had_ to take a pot shot at them... and Mist throws himself recklessly in
the line of fire to defend them.  He manages not to get totally blown away, but
the situation is still grim.
Even the combined might of Jeeg and Mazinger Z may not be enough to protect
the civilians, so "Alex" steps up to the plate, not as an Orb representative
but as an individual warrior.  Cagalli doesn't sound convinced, but there's
no time to debate semantics just at the moment.  His Murasame makes a very
grand entrance as he trashes the closest of the demonbeasts, though Cagalli
warns him not to be overconfident.  Alex knows very well that his interference
in the battle will probably have repercussions later, but he can't bear to
sit idly by when he's got the power to help save people.  He quickly gets
integrated into the rest of the formation, with the reminders that there
are repair and reprovisioning mecha handy.  Oh, and let's not forget the
Transform command either.  That would be bad.  And just to make things more
lopsided yet, the Daikuu Maryuu joins the fray.
Alex has to wonder how a simple fact-finding mission turned into all-out
throwdown.  Vexing, but not as vexing as Anna's realization that all this
warfare has kiboshed any hope of a real honeymoon for her and Gou.  Hey,
them's the breaks when you're a mecha pilot.  Mist thinks this is his chance
to "burnish" the bad name he's earned for himself, to which Shiba snaps
that it's _good_ names that get "burnished", and bad names that get
"banished"  -- has this guy even got two functioning brain cells?
Answers to this and other pressing questions await back at Build Base, which
is why Shiba wants Captain Garis to head there before staging an ill-
informed assault on the Jama home base.  The good news is that the Jama
and Darius forces aren't likely to go anywhere, what with the Zone all
around them.  Garis agrees, and as he recalls his forces Kenji spies Kyou
near the battlefield.  Kyou congratulates him on fighting so well, and
promises some serious explaining once back at base.
Before Mist can return to the ship, he gets a personal call from... Angelica!
He's astounded to learn that she's working as an operator for Build Base,
and she's equally astounded to see him here _and_ fighting in the Revlias.
Seems the two of them have plenty of catching up to do, and Angelica tells
Mist to get his butt back to base this instant so they can begin.
Back at base, Gou launches into a belated lecture for Anna on combination
fighting (no, he hasn't forgotten).  Unlike ordinary battle formations, this
entails two units acting as one joint squadron: one in front and one as
support.  The supporting unit can assist with attack and defense, and the
chief benefit to the combination squad is that it's harder for both of them
to get damaged.  There's also the side benefit that, _specifically_ during
squad motion, the supporting unit gets to move as the primary unit does,
including the ability to fly over obstacles.  A ground-bound support unit
can't actually aid a flying squad leader in battle.  Units in the same squad
can, of course, also combine any old time they want, but they can _not_ use
Attack Combos.  Unfortunately for Kouji, the pilots themselves don't get to