The Fleet Protected By God pt. 2

[prismphantom]

[So.  Who's up for more bad news after that stuff with Septuagint and the SSR?]

I hate to say this, but we might not have seen the last of that thing.  Or at least the last of its kind.

Elma?




Thank you Miss Selena.  When I actually got the chance to analyze them, the energy signatures from the Zehirut that we fought alongside the SSR seemed familiar to me.  It seemed odd at first since we've battled many Balmarian machines but nothing captured the same kind of aesthetic as the "Zehirut"...

But then I remembered the Balmarian/Zentraedi fleet battle Selena and I stumbled on!  The one where the Aerogators somehow fielded a machine that single-handedly turned the tide of the battle in a single instant... like what happened according to Kup's story when the Decepticons fought another fleet!



Meaning there's quite likely another one of those things waiting for us inside of the fleet's flagship.  And inside every other Balmarian flagship as well.

Lovely time for us to lose funding, isn't it?

Comments

[stupidhonor]

Have you not defeated one of such foes recently?

Was it... just a stroke of luck?

[prismphantom]

Oh we did, but we needed outside help for it too. And one was more than enough.

You wouldn't like to routinely have to fight Ankaians invoking The Power Within, would you?

[stupidhonor]

No, I would not. I understand not wanting to rely on the strength of others, either.

What will you do, then? In preparation, for when another one comes?

[prismphantom]

First of all, get a sense on how much time we have until we'd have to deal with another. And after that... try to hit it as hard as possible.

[Possibly harder than the Soleares could manage.]

[stupidhonor]

Can you not become stronger somehow? I am not aware of intricacies of Earth's engineering, yet...

[There must be some way, right?]

[prismphantom]

I'll be the first to admit the Soleares isn't a heavy-hitter. No mech can do everything perfectly, and the Soleares is meant for doing more than just fighting.

But as to the Unity Group as a whole... we were caught with our pants down this time. If we worked out tactics to use against them, we could still better our chances.

[stupidhonor]

Ah. I hope this to work.

So this is how you respond to overwhelming threats on Earth. The Ankaian approach would be... different.

[prismphantom]

For their sake hopefully it would still suffice. Those things are quite the trump card...

[Oh that's right!]

... The Ankaians have never encountered the Balmarians before, have they?

[stupidhonor]

[Sielje shakes her head.]

There was Ankaia, and Earth. To learn that there is life on other planets was a surprise for me... why?

[prismphantom]

You spoke of how the Ankaian response would be different. I'm wondering just what it would be like, and how well it would fare.

[stupidhonor]

An Ankaian knight would train, fight and take on great challenges to grow in power, grow strong enough to take on even this threat - or die trying.

How well would it fare...

[Sielje remains silent in thought.]

It would not be easy.

[a_linear_mind]

A self-repairing machine that can destroy an entire Zentraedi Fleet on it's own...and there are multiple of them.

Here I thought destroying that one would be the end of it...

[prismphantom]

Leave it to the Balmarians to have duplicates of their soldiers and of their machines.

Makes you wonder why they even need a fleet in the first place.

[a_linear_mind]

I don't think it ever hurts to not have to use your most powerful weapons.

[prismphantom]

That would certainly explain why Professor Shirakawa's loathe to use the Neo Granzon.

[a_linear_mind]

You don't know the half of it. He has another weapon on the regular Granzon he hasn't used yet.

[It's hard to tell if he's being serious.]

[prismphantom]

Another?

... Is it another devastating energy blast or something different?

[a_linear_mind]

...something like that.

[prismphantom]

Well, leave it to the good professor to never let a thing like redundancy hold him back.

[a_linear_mind]

I guess I shouldn't bring up his emergency land battleship...

[prismphantom]

Emergency ship-

... How many La Gias kingdoms did he bankrupt to make that?

[a_linear_mind]

If there's one thing I've learned about Shu Shirakawa, it's that money is no object.

[prismphantom]

For him, I'm sure. For everyone around him though it's another story.

[a_linear_mind]

Considering how powerful the Valsion was from what I heard, I think the people around him usually find a way to manage.

[prismphantom]

You certainly did at any rate.

[a_linear_mind]

I'm just lucky that I don't have to deal with repair costs. Other than that I'm not anything special.

[sixteenthgun]

So this is Balmar's power...

[More than one...Cobray can't even imagine.]

...In the meantime, wouldn't it be better to allow the SSR to take care of it?

[prismphantom]

If we just let the SSR handle all the high-profile problems, before long we'll be down to just rescuing cats from trees.

And for that matter, besides a handful of machines of theirs, they seem to rely on mass-produced machines. Ones not much -if any- better than what we can bring to the table.

[sixteenthgun]

Hm.

What should be done about the sponsors, then?

[prismphantom]

This isn't the first time we've had funding cut. All we can do is tighten our belts and hope they'll turn around with some persuasion. But I'll leave that to the bureaucrats.

[sixteenthgun]

Yeah.

This isn't the time for competition amongst ourselves, though.

[prismphantom]

... You might be right...

[A pause.]

... And I saw they got the Shirogane up and running again.