The tie-in release of the Gundam Sentinel OVA
The two episodes of 0VA combined were almost two hours long. When the heavy symphonic music of the ending theme song rolled off the screen along with the mechanical dismantling of line art, the four people in the room remained silent.
The fat man stroked his chin. "This film is definitely not in the same tone as ' Gundam Wing. ' It's depressing to watch, but the mobile suits move so solidly."
"Still not satisfied, huh?" Ishikawa bent down and pulled out two large, yellowed videotapes from the cabinet under the TV. "Watch this too. It's Sunrise's 'Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories' from a few years ago, and even earlier, ' Mobile Suit Gundam Z.' The background of the pre-war arc is right next to these two shows, and many of the power struggles in them are introduced from these."
The videotape was switched on, and the scene jumped to the battle to seize Gundam Unit 2 and intercept the falling space satellites.
While the film was playing, A-Watari laid out a cutting mat at the other end of the low table.
He pulled out a hobby knife, Mizuguchi cutters, and sandpaper from his pocket and began tinkering with the plastic parts of the S Gundam.
Kenta sat cross-legged on the floor, listening to the roar of the TV as Kou Uraki piloted the GP03D Dendrobium to confront Noye Gil in space, while he turned the GP2 back on.
"A-Watari, you just said that the design concept of the Deep Striker was borrowed from battleship-class equipment?" Kenta stared at the preparation screen for the second level on the handheld console.
"Yes." A-Watari carefully scraped away the burrs on the back of the part with a penknife. "It's because the Federation first created monsters like the GP03D, stuffing entire MS into large arsenals, proving the feasibility of a single unit destroying a fleet. Later, the Anaheim project..."
"When the designer was designing the S Gundam, he simply copied the blueprints for the Deep Striker Gundam."
Kenta nodded thoughtfully.
His handheld game progress had just reached the main story level of 0083.
The turn-based strategy map on the screen shows the final trajectory of the colony satellite as it crashes into Earth.
In the conventional approach to clearing the level, players usually send their main force to besiege Noye Gil, piloted by Gato, or forcefully annihilate the remaining escort ships of the Delaz Fleet, relying on high kill counts and money to clear the level.
However, the victory conditions for this level are clearly stated: in addition to annihilating all enemies, there is another condition: within eight turns, you must capture the control center of the colony and activate the reverse thrust engine.
Kenta glanced at the GP03D, whose armor had just been destroyed on TV, and then looked at the map grid on his handheld console.
"If Noye Gilles blows this thing up in two hits, how much will it cost to repair?"
Kenta muttered something to himself, choosing not to command the main force to press forward and trade blows with Gato.
He piloted the GP03D piloted by Kou Uraki, advancing at full speed close to the outer wall of the satellite. Using the long range of the main gun, he shattered the interceptor mines and mobile suits of the Delaz Fleet along the way. With his health bar almost depleted, he managed to bring the machine directly to a stop within the coordinate grid of the satellite control room in the seventh turn.
A dialogue box popped up.
[The colony's propulsion system has successfully activated its nuclear engine! The crash trajectory has been corrected!]
[The remnants of the Delaz Fleet retreat!]
The system settlement screen lit up, Kenta was surprised to find that, because they hadn't engaged in a war of attrition with the enemy's main force and had modified the colony satellite in its crash orbit, preventing the Bask from activating their Solar System, the GP03D's mobile suit not only didn't trigger the scene in the original work where its external armor was destroyed, but also had a new green status indicator in the post-battle maintenance list:
[The large mobile weapon platform RX-78GP03D was recovered intact and is now in storage by the Albion technical team, awaiting further orders.]
"It actually survived?" The fat guy leaned in, munching on an ice pop. "Back when I played Super Robot Wars on consoles, this thing would always force a story-driven armor breakage after completing this stage, forcing you to switch back to the regular GP03S."
Kenta didn't stop; he continued frantically pressing the A button.
The next day, Kenta advanced the story to the Gryps War phase, and a branching option for choosing a faction route popped up on the screen.
Option 1 is for the team to return to Earth Sphere with the main fleet to quell the rebellion; Option 2 is for the Albion to receive secret orders to escort supplies to the asteroid base Pezun and assist the local counterinsurgency operations belonging to the Alpha Task Force.
"Since 0083 and his gang are staying, let's continue taking Albion with us." Kenta didn't hesitate and directly selected the second option.
The next three encounters all took place in the Pezun Fortress.
The newly joined S Gundam exhibited extremely high base stats; its main cannon not only boasted astonishing attack power, but its accuracy correction during counterattacks was also maximized by the ALICE system.
To conserve ammunition for his main force, Kenta simply used Lloyd Lutz's S Gundam as Pioneer, unleashing a full counterattack, taking down an enemy soldier with just two shots.
After clearing three consecutive levels, Liao Luz's kill count soared from zero to over twenty without him even realizing it.
The ending theme song for 0083 on TV has finally finished playing.
A-Watari had just finished assembling the legs of the S Gundam when the clips clicked together with a crisp sound.
"Where are we?" Ishikawa turned off the TV, walked over, and picked up his teacup.
"The final stage of this preliminary battle: the suppression of Pezun Base." Kenta stretched his stiff fingers and pressed the attack confirmation button.
The screen should have displayed the unit sortie selection screen normally, but the background music suddenly stopped.
A cutscene that was completely out of the ordinary suddenly popped up.
Albion's technical mechanic's portrait appeared in the dialogue box.
[Reporting to the Captain, the Alpha Task Force has submitted an extremely high-intensity assault operation request. We have found the previously intact GP03D propulsion components and large MEGA Ganon, as well as spare parts for the I-FieId generator, in the hangar. Combined with the S Gundam's core movable frame, the Anaheim's modification plan is ready for practical implementation!]
Immediately afterwards, a picture of Liao Luz with a lazy expression popped up.
[Hey, are you kidding me? Welding all these tens of thousands of tons of warship parts onto my machine? Will this thing even be able to fly?]
The text prompts from the ALICE system forcibly covered half the screen:
[Autonomous computing core connected to external fire control system----All thruster nozzles calibrated. Strike clearance confirmed.]
At the top of the sortie list, the blue and white S Gundam icon has disappeared.
Instead, there is an icon entirely covered in red and dark gray armor, with a volume marked LL.
Unit Name: [MSA-0011(Bst)303E Deep Striker]
The weapon list prominently displayed a line of extremely domineering data:
[Extremely long-range Archangel class beam Ganon, range 2-11, attack power 5800.]
The attributes in the machine's characteristics are also very unreasonable:
[1-Field generator is active, causing saving throws for damage below 2000, and reducing damage above 2000 by 30%.]
[Large radar activates full-area target acquisition; friendly units within 3 tiles gain +20 accuracy.]
A-Watari's Mizuguchi fell to the cutting mat with a "clatter," without him even checking if the jaws were damaged.
Ishikawa nearly choked on the mouthful of barley tea he had just taken a sip of, leaning over the edge of the table and staring intently at the handheld console's LCD screen.
"This—you actually managed to do it!" Ishikawa reached up and scratched the back of his head. "How did you do it?"
What did you choose?
The only sound left in the room Super Robot Wars rousing electronic music from the GP2 speakers, which was playing again.
Kenta blinked and recounted his playthrough of the past two days. "In the 0083 mission, I didn't wipe out the entire Delaz Fleet. Instead, I directly captured the point and converted it into a colony. I didn't activate the Solar System. When I split into different routes, I followed Albion, and then—I found the S Gundam useful, so I let Ryo Lutz get a few more kills."
Ishikawa froze, slamming his right hand on the table twice.
"First, secure the GP03D for spare parts; then, select Albion to provide a technical crew; finally, prove the pilots can withstand the overload of this monster with the number of kills—"
Ishikawa gasped and slapped Kenta hard on the shoulder.
"What incredible luck you've got! This is definitely a hidden mech that the production team kept at the very bottom! There are probably less than ten people in all of Japan who have gotten their hands on one right now!"
Kenta gripped the handheld console, his palms slightly sweaty as he stared at the steel monster on the screen, its massive main cannon unleashed against a cosmic backdrop.
He moved the cursor directly to the coordinates of the enemy flagship in the center of the map.
Range coverage.
The instant the launch command was pressed, the entire Sharp color screen was completely engulfed by a blinding white beam of light.
A bright white light flashed on the small LCD screen for a full two seconds.
The ultra-long-range beam pierced through the grid of the wargame, instantly vaporizing the two Musai class cruisers blocking its path.
Immediately following, the large MA deepest part of the enemy camp
-- AMX-100 Zod-iac enters battle animation.
"Zod-iac has locked onto the Deep Striker!"
Ishikawa Kenji even forgot to put down his water glass, squatting down next to the low table with his nose almost touching the edge of the screen.
The enemy flagship's main gun charging icon started flashing wildly.
In the original novel of "Gundam Sentinel," the Federation task force could only rely on special attack tactics to save its lives in the face of this behemoth, and ultimately paid a heavy price to break the deadlock.
On the screen, Zod-iac unleashed a devastating MEGA Ganon barrage.
Kenta's thumb hovered above the B key, his palms sweating profusely.
The instant the beam struck the Deep Striker attack, a line of green system text popped up on the left side of the screen:
[The I-Field generator is overloaded, negating 2000 points of damage!]
[Damaged by overload, mech armor value decreased by 4200 points!]
[Alert: Large deflection field coil melted; I-FieId system detached and damaged!]
The flames died down.
The massive main gun barrel of the Deep Striker was belching black smoke, the auxiliary fuel tank on its lower abdomen was blown off, and the machine's durability bar was reduced to almost nothing, stopping abruptly at the last 800 health points.
"We made it through!"
The fat man nearly dropped the popsicle stick from his mouth onto his pants, then slapped his thigh hard, "It didn't explode! The mech didn't explode!"
The counterattack judgment of Deep Striker has been triggered.
Liao Luz's image popped up, his expression showing a hint of ruthlessness.
Repairing this cannon will cost me half a year's salary—sink it!
The second Archangel class beam Ganon slammed directly into Zod-iac's cockpit.
The critical hit number popped up: 99999.
The Zod-iac's massive Famicom disintegrated and shattered in the vacuum, transforming into a huge explosion animation.
The cheerful music for customs clearance and settlement started playing.
Ishikawa Kenji slumped onto the tatami mat, scratching the back of his neck and muttering repeatedly, "Motoharu isn't dead—"
In the original work, all the suicide squad members who crashed into the ship survived. This is a completely independent new route.
A-Watari even forgot to fix the parts in his hands, turning sideways to stare at the screen. "The battle damage calculation is out, quickly check the mech's status!"
Kenta pressed the confirm button and switched to the post-battle preparation list.
I initially thought the overloaded and damaged Deep Striker would be forcibly dismantled and recycled, but instead, an unprecedented prompt window popped up on the screen:
[The autonomous computing core ALICE took over the power pipeline the instant the force field collapsed, successfully preserving the cockpit and the core block.]
[The ALICE system has completed its self-reconstruction because the core computing module and the pilot's brainwaves resonated to a critical threshold.]
[Special maintenance complete: MSA-0011(Bst)303E Deep Striker enters maintenance rack, ALICE's self-disciplined personality becomes permanent.]
Kenta opened the Deep Striker pilot's profile card, scrolled down to see the portrait of Lorraine Lutz, and a silhouette-style female figure appeared on the screen, codenamed [ALICE].
A list of mental commands specific to the passenger seat appeared on the right:
[Accelerate], [Must Flash], [Sensitize], [Love].
"Holy shit!"
Ishikawa Kenji couldn't help but swear, rubbing his cheeks vigorously. "Double-seat psycho commands! A real-type mecha, equipped with a super-type's unique two-seat psycho library!"
The fat man threw the cassette case aside and stared intently at the command icon that read "love".
In the current Super Robot Wars system, "love" is the top-tier composite spirit, which includes acceleration, guaranteed hit, guaranteed dodge, passion, and spirit convergence. It is usually only configured in the final combination attack of male and female protagonists in super mecha anime.
"That's not fair, is it?" the fat man grumbled. "Liao Lutz is piloting a Gundam, and he gets a fully-equipped AI as his wife in the passenger seat for free?"
Kenta didn't say anything, but pressed the A button to enter the next episode's dialogue.
The screen switches to the rest area of Albion warship.
Liao Luz, who was originally carefree and always complained about the food, was leaning against the vending machine in the corridor.
The communication light on the pilot's helmet glowed with a faint yellow light.
A dialog box popped up.
Liao Lutz: [Hey, that last shot almost sent us both back to Earth. Next time you decide to overclock your heatsink, can you at least let me know beforehand?]
The passenger's avatar lit up, a crisp electronic notification tone came through the earpiece, and text slowly scrolled out:
ALICE: [Calculations show that the survival rate of the organism at that time was 12%. Intervention is the only solution. In addition, Lieutenant Lutz's heart rate reached 145 when the force field melted. Is this a fear response or a dependence response?]
Liao Luz: [Stop arguing, that's from being burned by the high temperature! Hurry up and finish the main gun data calibration, we have to go into the meteorite zone tomorrow.]
ALICE: [Received. Data locked. By the way, according to Lieutenant Lutz's physiological indicators, your caffeine intake today has exceeded the limit. It is recommended that you replace it with drinking water.]
Liao Luz: [----You're really meddling.]
ALICE: Protecting the pilot's life is the most basic and fundamental principle. Goodnight, Lieutenant.