Missions for Hazardous Pursuits
Feb. 15th, 2013 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
link_to_revivalEvent 1 (Log): The White Chalice is informed by an anonymous source (really Miguel) of a hostage situation going on in the mountainous region of England at the coordinates where the Tritech Lab used to be. Lynn will quietly leave the Chalice at this point in time, hoping she can possibly do something about this and maybe convince the hostage takers to a prisoner exchange since the odds of a successful negotiation are pretty low.
The facility is all but quarantined by the Dullahan Unit, but Lynn is able to use a hidden accessway to slip inside... and almost subsequently get captured. It's here we discover that actually there are two groups that are working together on this hostage situation, Exvoritam Filios and Blitz Valhalla. Negotiations between Cora and the representatives of Blitz Valhalla and Exvoritam Filios go extremely sour, escalating to the point that Patrick puts a gun to Lynn's head and threatens to blow her brains out... and it's here that Lynn finally confronts death head on and realizes she doesn't want to die. Fortunately, Patrick is stopped. As much as many members of Blitz Valhalla would like to see Lynn killed, their leader's off looking through parts of the lab for the reason they came there. On top of that, Exvoritam Filios is EXTREMELY interested in the Linker System, and though they have a single working Node (salvaged from the labs), having their creator would be even better.
Thus Lynn's let off the hook for the time being, with the condition that she'll be treated well if she can get the rest of the lab's surveillance systems up and running again. Not long after she gets the computers up and running though, she is informed through them that she's not alone, and someone wants to help.
With the help of the mysterious AI referring to itself as "R", Lynn gets her bearings regarding the situation and begins to set her plan into motion...
Event 2 (Mission: Return of the Bomber)
The mission proper starts with all of the doors leading into the lab opening up and the players receiving a message that time is of the essence if they wish to save the hostages. This is Lynn and R's doing, disengaging all the locks on the doors in the lab while also setting up all the security feeds onto a loop so that they can charge in. The labs are also big enough to allow upwards of M-size robots. L or LL if people are really intent on sending them on the mission.
At any rate, the entire thing is pretty much a brawl through what's left of the labs, starting with what's left of the Linker System lab after the Icarus Bombing. When the shooting starts, Lynn'll make a break for it with as many of the hostages as possible, also yoinking the Linker System node before keying in the automated delivery command for the lab's security-use VeHA. Intending to only use it to help cover the escape of the hostages, Lynn and R nevertheless gets dragged into the fighting, and the lowly VeHA's preserved-but-outddated knife and handgun don't amount to much.
Fortunately, Lynn is able to hook up the Linker System node to the VeHA, warping in the Penetrator Rifle and maybe the Fragarach to even the odds a bit. At any rate, the mission is just a basic slaughterfest from that point on, though it's worth noting that Patrick Wargraves will take serious interest in killing Lynn now that things have gone tits up and everything. Making use of crazy trick shots with his KMF's weapons, the VeHA will have its head blown off (which destroys its camera) and R'll be forced to open the machine's cockpit hatch so Lynn can pilot. Lynn will eventually kill Patrick by using the Penetrator Rifle to shoot his KMF's cockpit through a tremendous amount of debris.
The mission ultimately ends with George issuing orders for his subordinates still fighting to flee, just as the roof of the labs is blown open. As the Blitz Valhalla and Exvoritam Filios forces escape, we'll be able to see George Volschoft in a helicoptor off in the distance, a small child's body with him. Lynn and Cora will probably end up in a Mexican Standoff as well. Lynn'll ultimately be allowed to stay on the Chalice, but only because of her time spent as a mechanic and because since we're at the labs, her claims of not being responsible for the deaths of everyone in the Universal Alloy and Yasakani Veil labs is easily verifiable. Along with this, she'll be required to pull double duty as both pilot and mechanic.
Enemies for this mission'll mostly be mooks. Exvoritam Filios's forces mainly consist of surplus Sutherland KMFs, Union Realdos, and tanks, while Blitz Valhalla's forces are entirely Glouchester KMFs with two exceptions:
Patrick's Vincent: Patrick's Vincent is pretty much identical to the mass-produced model, aside from some minor tweaks and adjustments in some areas and a massive one when it comes to the Vincent's Needle Blazer weapon. Most Vincents are only able to use the attack at a short range, but Patrick's fires a much more focused, condensed shot that can rebound off of surfaces. He can even adjust the concentration of the blasts to allow for multiple rebounds in case it's a very difficult shot to line up.
Simoun's Gareth: pretty much exactly the same as a normal Gareth save for the fact it has actual hands, and Simoun outfitted additional Slash Harkens to the machine's wrists around its Hadron Cannons.
Event 3 (Mission: A Purging Flame)
This mission needs to take place in some populated area. It doesn't matter if it's in a colony or on Earth, just somewhere that you can find a lot of people. But yeah, Chalice has been in this area for a few days and things have gone by fairly well. About the most notable thing that'll have happened (barring antics of players) will be that someone donated this fancy statue to the city a few days ago.
But it'll change when a specialized bomb goes off in some segment of the city, releasing a massive cloud of grey goo that causes everyone there to die of asphyxiation. As panic spreads, a voice will be broadcast as well, explaining that the city has been chosen to be "tested" for its worth. The first bomb was just to show that the threats are to be taken seriously, and a much, much more reaching version of the bomb that just detonated is also in the city, primed to detonate in a very short period of time and if it does everyone in the city will fall victim to the "Izanami Plague". Everyone in the city is free to try to find it, however, and should even one person be able to disarm it, everyone will be allowed to live. The voice will act like this is a huge conciliatory action on their part, since by all rights only the person who disarms the bomb should be allowed to live. During all of this, Lynn will realize that the speaker is none other than Satoru Takeda and the bomb made use of his long-thought-impossible Existence Engine to detonate.
Panic will naturally break loose, with people trying to scramble and evacuate the city. And as they do so, the voice will condemn them for this just as the "statue" to suddenly start moving and tear into the evacuees and start killing them wholesale. Any standard doomsday group who would be up for rampaging through the city and stopping evacuation efforts would work very well with this canon as well, having formed at least a short-term alliance with Marie.
When we try to help stop Typhon and the other villains/locate and disarm the bomb, Takeda comes out to play in the Ichiryou. He'll have nothing but disdainfor Lynn, and he'll actually state the whole reason the city was targeted was because the White Chalice, and more specifically she herself, were there. Shock about Takeda being alive will be shrugged off, and he'll just say that he'd never been among the dead at the Tritech Labs in the first place. He'll also formally introduce us to Typhon, the "finished model" Retroactive Existence that Dr. Wagner made, which will get R's attention and cause the AI to reveal itself to the villains. Takeda and Typhon'll be curious as to who and what R's identity is, though Takeda will lament that at this point in time he has nothing to go on.
And from there, it's a pretty straightforward battle, though Lynn and R will need to clash at least briefly with both Takeda and Typhon each. Typhon's reconstituting powers will probably be on full display throughout the mission, and Calgard will make it clear that Universal Alloy's the reason for their fantastical abilities. From there someone, if not Lynn, will be able to guess that Blitz Valhalla was somehow able to gain the knowledge to create the material from the Tritech labs, and Takeda will correct them by saying they're not working for BV so much as both they and Blitz Valhalla are working for someone else, someone who will see to it that only the worthy inherit the world.
Ichiryou: An average-sized but sluggish Super Robot, the Ichiryouis Dr. Takeda's creation which uses his Yasakani Veil barriers. The barriers are actually quite frail and thin compared to some shields, easy to breach provided sufficient power is brought against them... but the real use Takeda's found for them is having these thin barriers split atoms, giving it an EXTREMELY powerful energy reactor, the kind that can beamspam pretty much all day. Finger lasers, more powerful arm cannons, a short-range sphere of destructive energy. The barriers can also be used to even split air molecules in a sort of "blender", but this obviously requires a little more time to do. Think of his fighting style as a mashup of Nova and Dr. Doom from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Typhon: Standing at only three and a half meters tall, Typhon is barely half the size of REVIVAL and yet is far, far more dangerous than REVIVAL is at first. Small, fast, agile, and capable of flight, Typhon's entire body is made up of Magcores, a Universal Alloy creation that allows for selective magnetism. So long as Typhon's Strings exist, even if they're scattered to infinite corners of the Universe they'll eventually join back together. Typhon can also freely shape and separate his body's form, which he does to create bladed limbs, countless Bit-like satellites that orbit around him that tear and shoot things into little bits, and even literal waves of Alloy that Typhon can shape into anything he wants (though he mainly opts for animals) to smother and crush foes. Think of his fighting style as a mashup of Strider and Vergil from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
How things play out specifically doesn't matter that much. During all the craziness Lynn will try to help everyone locate the bomb so we can disarm it, and we'll manage to locate it just a few moments before it detonates. If anyone has some kickass way of disarming the bomb, awesome. If not, Lynn will resort to teleporting it away using the Linker System.
The other important thing is that Lynn and R will job to Typhon and Ichiryou at first. Badly. Aside from uber-destructive attacks that can presumably destroy something on its most fundamental level, Typhon will be able to recover from any damage done to him, even freezing and shattering his body, blowing him apart, or dissolving him with acid. He'll freak out if lasting damage IS done however, and electrical attacks will cause his body to be at least momentarily destabilized. Similarly, Ichiryou will just be too powerful for Lynn and R to deal with at first head-to-head, especially since they really don't have the kinds of weapons needed to deal with barriers like that.
However, this will change when the Linker System will inform Lynn that a new series of weapons have been completed. And these weapons? Grenades! Lots of different kinds, including acid, freezing, electrical, incendiary, and pretty much every type seen in Resident Evil. This will help even the odds, and Lynn and R will eventually breach the Ichiryou's barrier by warping in a grenade near it, shooting the grenade to trigger it, and then hammering the Ichiryou with everything they've got.
At any rate, once the bomb is disposed of, Takeda and Typhon will be ordered to fall back. The bomb was detonated and there's no reason to stay. The city still failed its "test" though, so the other villains now get free reign to try to take over/destroy/do whatever they want in the city.
Event 4: (Mission: Cold Vendetta)
Very basic mission on the Hazardous Pursuits side of things. In the midst of some other event, we get attacked by a group of Blitz Valhallan forces led by Simoun. It's very possible to have it be a villain team-up, Simoun and co. are just there to fight Lynn and everything else is kinda secondary. Well, they're there to fight Lynn first of all and secondly show off their fancy new Universal Alloy tech.
Valhallans: highly customized KMFs that use lots of Universal Alloy to make them faster, tougher, and stronger to boot. Otherwise not much to right home about. Pretty much any mass-produced Britannian KMF's possible can be Valhallan-ized and it's really just making them more Elite Mook-tastic.
Cromwell: Now the Cromwell on the other hand, is Simoun's personal Gareth, the one from the first mission. Just upgraded out the wazoo. First, its left arm has been replaced with the salvaged arm from Patrick's Vincent, Needle Blazer included and now capable of rapid fire! Universal Alloy also has provided the Cromwell with an array of miniaturized missile launchers and laser cannons. It also has a rocket anchor-tastic right hand (shut up, I know this is like the Gurren SEITEN but whatev) and can deliver punches with it far stronger than its size would indicate. Think of its fighting style as a mashup of Arthur and Spencer from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Simoun will make it very clear that she wants to fight Lynn, that Lynn is someone she has mixed feelings for but at the same time will see killed In the midst of swapping blows she'll give the Cliff Notes version of her experience with the Icarus Bombing, how it killed her abusive father while he was trying to strangle her, and from that she learned that bad things can still have good consequences and vice versa. Thus, actions are only actions and trying to apply morality to them is pointless. Like it or not, but that's something she learned from Lynn. In the end, Simoun will conclude that people can only be true to themselves and follow their desires, Simoun acting on her sense of duty to Volschoft, her comrades, and wishing to avenge Patrick.
The fight will also be another uphill one for Lynn and R, since the Cromwell carries a tremendous amount of firepower and more mobile than REVIVAL. That is, of course, until R and Lynn decide to unveil a weapon the armory recently opened up to them: a massive rocket launcher called the Durandal. In addition to letting them perform lovely Itano Circuses, the Durandal also has a large revolver stake that can be fired out and is connected to the rest of the gun with a massive chain. This helps turn things in Lynn and R's favor, and when Simoun gets cornered and tries to beamspam with her Needle Blazer, the duo powers through it with a Fragarach.
However, before the final blow is struck, the REVIVAL will get stopped cold by a barrier. It's the Ichiryou, and Takeda's on the scene now, scolding Simoun for going off on her own and to bring her back. He'll be there to also inform the Chalice that it's lost its status as a non-target, since it's inevitable that the Chalice will continue to interfere with their efforts of purging the world of the undeserving. He'll leave afterwards, but not before pointing out to Lynn that Retroactive Existences are supposed to be based on people (albeit not necessarily actual people) and then ask just who or what her partner had for a template.
In the wake of this mission, R will eventually come clean about its original identity as Greta Wagner.
Event 5: (Mission: Live by the Sword, or Not At All)
Another day, another city stop for the Chalice. The city needs to have a large supply of some valuable material, what it is precisely doesn't matter. Maybe it's being transported somewhere else, or maybe the town's built on top of a mine or whatever. Point is... a large quantity of something valuable's located here...
... And without warning, Takeda's voice will come through all the speakers and radios in the city, informing everyone that a crucible has begun! It is their turn to be put to the test of the Izanami Virus, to see if they are worthy of living, and for that matter the resources they've obviously been taking for granted. And Blitz Valhall's bringing the big guns as George Volschoft, the group's leader, makes his arrival, telling Takeda that he's the one in control of this operation.
And what a machine he'll arrive in!
Nemean: Named after the mythological lion, the Nemean is a towering Super robot made from the newest material that Universal Alloy's made a reality, not-Super Alloy Z. Called "Proto-Gleipnir", the material is meant to be pretty much indestructible, with the Nemean a no-selling wrecking machine far faster than its looks would imply. It's also packing large, powerful beam guns and rocket launchers so that even from a distance it's dangerous. It cannot fly, however. Think of its fighting style as a mashup between Nemesis and Hulk from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Accompanying George is Simoun, Typhon (who's looking bigger and bulkier than before), and some Valhallans. Typhon's acting really, really giddy too, with a special little secret for all of us to see. It probably won't take long for Typhon to get the cue to unveil it... all that's really needed is for someone to realize that if the plan is to unleash the Izanami Virus, then where are the bombs?
And to answer... Typhon will suddenly expel clouds of the nanomachines out of its body, aiming for populated areas! His shapeshifting body makes this kind of tactic a reality... the Izanami Virus can be unleashed anywhere on the world now, hidden in any random and innocent-looking statue. And best of all: now the protagonists know that and just how impossible a response against this can be! Once more, a city's being attacked because Lynn was there, isn't that great?
Just as a note, the Nemean's just going to not take much damage during this mission. It's like a bad guy Mazinkaiser, durability-wise. Tanking is its first, last, and middle names. It'll even be able to withstand getting shot by the Ascalon and other armor-piercing weapons. Only the most high-end of attacks will be able to do noticeable damage to it. As such, REVIVAL's going to have a hard time with the Nemean, and although Lynn and R would like a well-timed deus ex machina to give them a new weapon, it's not going to happen.
Typhon will be the one primarily gunning for Lynn and R, but Volschoft will make it clear that he won't accept anyone else killing Lynn other than him. Simoun's free to also take potshots at Lynn too. As far as Volchoft and Simoun are concerned, there's nothing wrong about what they're doing. The parasites in the city have taken what they had for granted and if they die, boo hoo. If they live, they'll have motivation to harden themselves and grow stronger, and there's plenty of life lessons to learn from it all.
The Cromwell can't be destroyed during all of this, we're going to need it later. Getting damaged is fine though, and in fact necessary.
And while all of this is going on, Blitz Valhalla's forces have the supply raid in full swing. Turns out Typhon wasn't just releasing the gas willy-nilly, but to also clear the way for Blitz Valhalla's forces to steal as much as possible.
At some point, ideally near the end, the Cromwell's slash harken arm is going to miss hitting someone, and as it's being pulled back, Lynn'll be able to goop it up with Adhesive Grenades... and since Simoun won't be able to recall the limb, she'll be dragged towards it... giving Lynn the opening to kick the Cromwell right into a cloud of Izanami Virus nanomachines, the damage to her machine causing her to be exposed to them.
Simoun doesn't get a dignified death. She will get Lynn saying that these are the consequences of the life she chose though. Volschoft's going to be fucking enraged from this, in that cold, vicious hatred. Lynn took his son away from him (twice, first by earning his love and then when he died in the bombing), and now she's taken the closest thing he had to a daughter.
At any rate though, in spite of the casualties, Blitz Valhalla's procured enough of the raw materials to retreat, and they do exactly that. We're left with the fact that we can't just react to every attack that Yggdrasill launches since Typhon can depopulate cities on his own, and tracking down a single robot like that would prove impossible. We have to take the fight to them instead. Fortunately, the Cromwell is in decent shape, and though its main computers are encrypted, once we crack it we'll be able to find Takeda's base of operations.
Event 6: (Mission:Mine Shall Be a Utopia of Strength)
The computer onboard Simoun's Cromwell has finally been decrypted, and we finally know the location of Blitz Valhalla's base of operations: the hidden city of Yggdrasill! We have a chance to finally stop Blitz Valhalla and eliminate the threat of the Izanami Virus by destroying the central control tower that coordinates the nanomachines' adaptive nature, that way anything it's not already resistant to can cure people of them.
It's deep within the Alps, and with powerful barriers to keep out the unwanted. However... when we come calling the shields will be lowered. Volschoft's not going to pass up an opportunity to kill Lynn and Takeda's surprisingly cool with it.. Of course, once we're in the city there's no reason not to reraise them, locking us inside for one last, big fight. The city will be surprisingly bare... it turns out that Takeda and company are nothing if not hypocrites: they turned the Izanami Virus on the city's own population to test everyone and see who would be able to develop cures for themselves.
Takeda, Typhon, and Volschoft are there in addition to the Blitz Valhallan mooks. Nothing new to report on there, except Volschoft's given his machine a once-over.
Gungnir: The new, improved, and "true" version of the Nemean. Cosmetically the same as it, the Gungnir is made out of "true" Gleipnir. Just as sturdy as the prototype version, it's also very flexible and stretchy. This allows the Gungnir much greater mobility and dexterity, along with the ability to ignite itself at will without damaging its frame. This is essentially adding some Super Skrull-ness to the Nemean.
Typhon is also going to be really happy to see R again, acting like there's some big secret to tell. At a properly dramatic moment to through off Lynn and R's game, Typhon'll also drop it: that he is Dr. Wagner's 'son', another Retroactive Existence created after R rejected its original identity as the replacement Greta Wagner. So in a manner of speaking, R is his mother, and the cause for all the death and misery he's caused. This revelation is going to be pretty brutal for R, causing it to lock up in disbelief and shock... which is the opening needed for Typhon to stab a hand through REVIVAL's body and then give Lynn a nice blast of the Izanami nanomachines. Lynn will be infected by the Virus and only have a short period of time to live before it kills her, and even less time to move in REVIVAL's cockpit. But she'll make it count.
Just as Typhon is gloating about defeating the two of them, Lynn finally recreates her most infamous moment: the Icarus Bombing. Using REVIVAL's Linker System, she opens up a massive wormhole right above her, and in spite of trying to stop her (and ending up gouging out Lynn's eye), she'll use the Dimensional Blowback to eradicate the majority of Typhon's body, enough of it that his mind is shattered and destroyed. She (and other players) can give R some encouragement to help it get its shit together, and optionally Lynn can be evacuated.
Volschoft's response to this is a whole lot of "good riddance", and R finally gets back some of its fire, talking back to Volschoft about how all his and Takeda's talk of proving people's worth is a load of bullshit. They didn't make their machines with their own hands and they certainly didn't come up with any of the fancy, Universal Alloy-enabled tech. And just as Lynn helped lay to rest a demon connected to its own past by killing Typhon, R vows to kill Volschoft as well.
Fortunately, Lynn left one last gift for R: setting the Linker System to periodically warp-in new weapons for the machine at fixed intervals. And it might be a bitch to do any noticeable damage to the Gungnir by conventional means... but in the end R will trick the Gungnir into doing some kind of melee attack just as a portal opens up. And when it closes, the Gungnir's going to lose that limb and have a huge weak spot to exploit, letting R make good on its vow.
Takeda for this fight will primarily be concerned with defending the Control Tower, intent on protecting it and with it "Her" world. He can optionally be downed, but if we do it'll turn out that nobody is inside the Ichiryou. Otherwise he can flee whenever (and thus in a case of Schroedinger's Cat was inside of the machine). The Tower can be destroyed at any point after Lynn gets infected by the Virus.
With the tower destroyed, the nanomachines cannot coordinate developing immunities to treatments to them, and cures for the virus will actually work more than once.
I leave any other enemies in the mission up to the discretion of the mission runner.
Event 7: (Mission: Light Up The Night)
The mission is set during the events of a meteor shower, one that's been expected and won't be any cause for alam, or cause any damage either. What IS cause for alarm, however, is when the Exvoritam Filios bioweapons are found by someone or some group in space and they barely pass the word on before they're killed. Whatever they're up to can't be any good, so it's time to go and end this once and for all!
A team's sent out, and lo and behold, it's the space station from Mars, moving in for a close orbit around the Earth. Nothing good can come from this and if we just opt to turn and leave the station might relocate. That and a Yasakani Veil is being raised around it too, forcing us to act fast. Thus we go in to try to take it out and get a warm and loving welcome from more EF forces. Devastators, EF Knightmares, and Tunnel Stalkers come out to play, along with two familiar faces and one familiar AI: Takeda, Mongrel, and RE Chips.
It's here we get the Cliff Notes lowdown on what's happening. The station itself almost has the look and feel of some sort of artillery cannon or linear catapult, and ultimately that's what it is with transport tubes all around us. It's the delivery system that EF used to transport machines, supplies, and bioweapons to Earth, like the one we saw at Silent Mountain. As for what the group has left to transport and who to deliver it to... well it's easy enough to crack open one of the tubes and scan the contents to find out... Izanami Virus nanomachines. Entire meteors made out of the things.
It's a twisted plan alright. The meteors will break apart on re-entry but the nanomachines can endure the heat. They'll fill the atmosphere and millions if not billions of people will be forced to find cures. New ones too, because with all the resources on-hand, it was a snap for Takeda to create another relay array. For Takeda, this is all about trying to make a world Marie would approve of. For Mongrel, it's about revenge and making the world burn. As for Chips, its less about why and more about what incentive is there to not do it? He doesn't care at all about Earth and humanity; any longing he could've felt was just the original's sentimental feelings.
In addition to his Ascended abilities (telekinesis, psi-energy weapons like the whips seen in Madrid) , Mongrel's suit is well-armored, extremely mobile, capable of flight, and comes equipped with a scaled-down Durandal. A very destructive SS-sized guy, made worse with RE Chips housed inside of his suit to quickly perform advanced calculations and be the brains of the pair. This makes Mongrel's Durandal much more dangerous than Lynn's, since Chips can precisely set each missile's flight trajectory and get more bang for the buck.
Likewise, Takeda's piloting an improved version of the Ichiryou known as the Izanagi, which features strengthened barriers compared to the previous model, a much more potent energy cannon blast fired from both hands, and can also generate a huge explosion and trap it inside a barrier before throwing it at enemies. He's also more smug than ever, since as far as he's concerned he's won and there's nothing we can do to stop people from dying from this.
During this first phase, people can also attack the meteors as they're primed to launch, sorta like what happened in SRW L's finale where we intercepted the missiles. Just throwing that out there because it becomes more important in the second phase.
At any rate, in spite of their new-fangled toys going for them, Mongrel, Chips, and Takeda are all finally defeated decisively. As he's beaten though, Takeda's calling out desperately, asking for help... pleading to Marie of all people that after all he's done, after realizing her dream for her, that surely a little help now would be acceptable. Of course, Marie's dead... it was just him being loony, right? Mongrel suffers a similar breakdown too upon defeat too, with all of his "superiority" amounting to nothing and trying to beg for his life... not that any of us will really even want to give it to him.
Chips, in contrast to Mongrel, will just be darkly amused... now being given the chance to experience death first-hand, rather than just from extracted memories.
From here all we should really have to worry about doing is get to the manufacturing plant on the station where the meteors are being produced and destroy it, and just, well, hope that the casualties will be limited. But as we enter the huge production area, we're greeted with a tremendously destructive blast of energy from one last enemy, who greets us coldly.
It's Marie. Marie Weiss... or rather, a Retroactive Existence of her. Turns out Takeda didn't want to just create Marie's world, he wanted a Marie to actually be in it too. When the original had died during the Inspector's attacks on Earth, Takeda was absolutely devastated. The safety of their little city was ultimately a lie, so Takeda decided to work on the world scale. Volschoft was easy enough to convince, and a teamup with Ulysses was just common sense at that point.
And the cornerstone of Takeda's plan was to recreate Marie, which he had succeeded in. The imitation Dullahan unit members had been practice runs, and hadn't turned out all that great, but Marie's proud to say she's a perfect recreation of the original, and quite pleased with how everything's gone. After all, in the end it will be her will, her ideals that define the fate of human existence, she'll repeat what Takeda said before: we can try to minimize the damage as much as we want but she's still pretty much won.
Not like we'll just let more Izanami asteroids be dropped though, but Marie has a response to that, as a gigantic wolflike monstrosity comes trotting out. This is Amaterasu, the unison of EF and Yggdrasill's technology... essentially a wolf version of Last Stage that's more durable, has loads of beam weapons all across its body, along with an extremely destructive mouth beam. Marie merges with the Amaterasu, eager to thwart our attempts. Backing her up are yet more Devastators and the last of the Leapers.
Amaterasu's also accompanied by other mooks, namely and it's also extremely agile thanks to the spacious design of the area. There's also possibly the risk of people getting Izanami'd here, though this is an extremely low chance provided nobody does anything really, really stupid.
BUT... as Lynn (or anyone who beats her to the punch) ultimately realizes, the Amaterasu has biological components in nature. Which means it's possible to turn the Izanami Virus on the Amaterasu itself by using those handy meteors being made!
... Except Marie can just send the nanomachines a command to stop trying to harm the Amaterasu. Nice try, everyone, but Marie's the woman who will shape the world's future, she won't be destroyed by her own philosophy.
... Except then, at Lynn's suggestion, we get Amaterasu exposed again. And Lynn's going to be all too happy to remind Marie of the most infamous trait of the Virus: adapting to cures. And just ordering the nanomachines to disregard her totally counts... and now the new batch attacking her will not disregard her. Amaterasu is going to take serious, serious damage from this tactic, and knowing that we have an inexhaustible supply of nanomachines to infect her with, Marie's forced to order a complete, and irrevocable shutdown to all of the nanomachines.
From there on, she's got nothing left except trying to kill us. Marie had to turn her back on her ideals and she's obviously very, very not happy about this. Unfortunately for her, the damage she's sustained puts her at a serious disadvantage now and she'll go down sooner or later... ideally with Lynn and Cora landing the final blows together.
Thus the day is saved, with Lynn's quick thinking stopping the Izanami Virus permanently without anyone getting infected. Additionally, the machines themselves can now be studied safely, with their worldwide, wireless capabilities sure to go a long way in helping speed up re-establishing the Internet. Lynn'll ask that the credit for stopping the virus be given to Cora though, that was she'll have enough leverage to work independently of Britannia and take Dice and Scythe with her.
The facility is all but quarantined by the Dullahan Unit, but Lynn is able to use a hidden accessway to slip inside... and almost subsequently get captured. It's here we discover that actually there are two groups that are working together on this hostage situation, Exvoritam Filios and Blitz Valhalla. Negotiations between Cora and the representatives of Blitz Valhalla and Exvoritam Filios go extremely sour, escalating to the point that Patrick puts a gun to Lynn's head and threatens to blow her brains out... and it's here that Lynn finally confronts death head on and realizes she doesn't want to die. Fortunately, Patrick is stopped. As much as many members of Blitz Valhalla would like to see Lynn killed, their leader's off looking through parts of the lab for the reason they came there. On top of that, Exvoritam Filios is EXTREMELY interested in the Linker System, and though they have a single working Node (salvaged from the labs), having their creator would be even better.
Thus Lynn's let off the hook for the time being, with the condition that she'll be treated well if she can get the rest of the lab's surveillance systems up and running again. Not long after she gets the computers up and running though, she is informed through them that she's not alone, and someone wants to help.
With the help of the mysterious AI referring to itself as "R", Lynn gets her bearings regarding the situation and begins to set her plan into motion...
Event 2 (Mission: Return of the Bomber)
The mission proper starts with all of the doors leading into the lab opening up and the players receiving a message that time is of the essence if they wish to save the hostages. This is Lynn and R's doing, disengaging all the locks on the doors in the lab while also setting up all the security feeds onto a loop so that they can charge in. The labs are also big enough to allow upwards of M-size robots. L or LL if people are really intent on sending them on the mission.
At any rate, the entire thing is pretty much a brawl through what's left of the labs, starting with what's left of the Linker System lab after the Icarus Bombing. When the shooting starts, Lynn'll make a break for it with as many of the hostages as possible, also yoinking the Linker System node before keying in the automated delivery command for the lab's security-use VeHA. Intending to only use it to help cover the escape of the hostages, Lynn and R nevertheless gets dragged into the fighting, and the lowly VeHA's preserved-but-outddated knife and handgun don't amount to much.
Fortunately, Lynn is able to hook up the Linker System node to the VeHA, warping in the Penetrator Rifle and maybe the Fragarach to even the odds a bit. At any rate, the mission is just a basic slaughterfest from that point on, though it's worth noting that Patrick Wargraves will take serious interest in killing Lynn now that things have gone tits up and everything. Making use of crazy trick shots with his KMF's weapons, the VeHA will have its head blown off (which destroys its camera) and R'll be forced to open the machine's cockpit hatch so Lynn can pilot. Lynn will eventually kill Patrick by using the Penetrator Rifle to shoot his KMF's cockpit through a tremendous amount of debris.
The mission ultimately ends with George issuing orders for his subordinates still fighting to flee, just as the roof of the labs is blown open. As the Blitz Valhalla and Exvoritam Filios forces escape, we'll be able to see George Volschoft in a helicoptor off in the distance, a small child's body with him. Lynn and Cora will probably end up in a Mexican Standoff as well. Lynn'll ultimately be allowed to stay on the Chalice, but only because of her time spent as a mechanic and because since we're at the labs, her claims of not being responsible for the deaths of everyone in the Universal Alloy and Yasakani Veil labs is easily verifiable. Along with this, she'll be required to pull double duty as both pilot and mechanic.
Enemies for this mission'll mostly be mooks. Exvoritam Filios's forces mainly consist of surplus Sutherland KMFs, Union Realdos, and tanks, while Blitz Valhalla's forces are entirely Glouchester KMFs with two exceptions:
Patrick's Vincent: Patrick's Vincent is pretty much identical to the mass-produced model, aside from some minor tweaks and adjustments in some areas and a massive one when it comes to the Vincent's Needle Blazer weapon. Most Vincents are only able to use the attack at a short range, but Patrick's fires a much more focused, condensed shot that can rebound off of surfaces. He can even adjust the concentration of the blasts to allow for multiple rebounds in case it's a very difficult shot to line up.
Simoun's Gareth: pretty much exactly the same as a normal Gareth save for the fact it has actual hands, and Simoun outfitted additional Slash Harkens to the machine's wrists around its Hadron Cannons.
Event 3 (Mission: A Purging Flame)
This mission needs to take place in some populated area. It doesn't matter if it's in a colony or on Earth, just somewhere that you can find a lot of people. But yeah, Chalice has been in this area for a few days and things have gone by fairly well. About the most notable thing that'll have happened (barring antics of players) will be that someone donated this fancy statue to the city a few days ago.
But it'll change when a specialized bomb goes off in some segment of the city, releasing a massive cloud of grey goo that causes everyone there to die of asphyxiation. As panic spreads, a voice will be broadcast as well, explaining that the city has been chosen to be "tested" for its worth. The first bomb was just to show that the threats are to be taken seriously, and a much, much more reaching version of the bomb that just detonated is also in the city, primed to detonate in a very short period of time and if it does everyone in the city will fall victim to the "Izanami Plague". Everyone in the city is free to try to find it, however, and should even one person be able to disarm it, everyone will be allowed to live. The voice will act like this is a huge conciliatory action on their part, since by all rights only the person who disarms the bomb should be allowed to live. During all of this, Lynn will realize that the speaker is none other than Satoru Takeda and the bomb made use of his long-thought-impossible Existence Engine to detonate.
Panic will naturally break loose, with people trying to scramble and evacuate the city. And as they do so, the voice will condemn them for this just as the "statue" to suddenly start moving and tear into the evacuees and start killing them wholesale. Any standard doomsday group who would be up for rampaging through the city and stopping evacuation efforts would work very well with this canon as well, having formed at least a short-term alliance with Marie.
When we try to help stop Typhon and the other villains/locate and disarm the bomb, Takeda comes out to play in the Ichiryou. He'll have nothing but disdainfor Lynn, and he'll actually state the whole reason the city was targeted was because the White Chalice, and more specifically she herself, were there. Shock about Takeda being alive will be shrugged off, and he'll just say that he'd never been among the dead at the Tritech Labs in the first place. He'll also formally introduce us to Typhon, the "finished model" Retroactive Existence that Dr. Wagner made, which will get R's attention and cause the AI to reveal itself to the villains. Takeda and Typhon'll be curious as to who and what R's identity is, though Takeda will lament that at this point in time he has nothing to go on.
And from there, it's a pretty straightforward battle, though Lynn and R will need to clash at least briefly with both Takeda and Typhon each. Typhon's reconstituting powers will probably be on full display throughout the mission, and Calgard will make it clear that Universal Alloy's the reason for their fantastical abilities. From there someone, if not Lynn, will be able to guess that Blitz Valhalla was somehow able to gain the knowledge to create the material from the Tritech labs, and Takeda will correct them by saying they're not working for BV so much as both they and Blitz Valhalla are working for someone else, someone who will see to it that only the worthy inherit the world.
Ichiryou: An average-sized but sluggish Super Robot, the Ichiryouis Dr. Takeda's creation which uses his Yasakani Veil barriers. The barriers are actually quite frail and thin compared to some shields, easy to breach provided sufficient power is brought against them... but the real use Takeda's found for them is having these thin barriers split atoms, giving it an EXTREMELY powerful energy reactor, the kind that can beamspam pretty much all day. Finger lasers, more powerful arm cannons, a short-range sphere of destructive energy. The barriers can also be used to even split air molecules in a sort of "blender", but this obviously requires a little more time to do. Think of his fighting style as a mashup of Nova and Dr. Doom from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Typhon: Standing at only three and a half meters tall, Typhon is barely half the size of REVIVAL and yet is far, far more dangerous than REVIVAL is at first. Small, fast, agile, and capable of flight, Typhon's entire body is made up of Magcores, a Universal Alloy creation that allows for selective magnetism. So long as Typhon's Strings exist, even if they're scattered to infinite corners of the Universe they'll eventually join back together. Typhon can also freely shape and separate his body's form, which he does to create bladed limbs, countless Bit-like satellites that orbit around him that tear and shoot things into little bits, and even literal waves of Alloy that Typhon can shape into anything he wants (though he mainly opts for animals) to smother and crush foes. Think of his fighting style as a mashup of Strider and Vergil from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
How things play out specifically doesn't matter that much. During all the craziness Lynn will try to help everyone locate the bomb so we can disarm it, and we'll manage to locate it just a few moments before it detonates. If anyone has some kickass way of disarming the bomb, awesome. If not, Lynn will resort to teleporting it away using the Linker System.
The other important thing is that Lynn and R will job to Typhon and Ichiryou at first. Badly. Aside from uber-destructive attacks that can presumably destroy something on its most fundamental level, Typhon will be able to recover from any damage done to him, even freezing and shattering his body, blowing him apart, or dissolving him with acid. He'll freak out if lasting damage IS done however, and electrical attacks will cause his body to be at least momentarily destabilized. Similarly, Ichiryou will just be too powerful for Lynn and R to deal with at first head-to-head, especially since they really don't have the kinds of weapons needed to deal with barriers like that.
However, this will change when the Linker System will inform Lynn that a new series of weapons have been completed. And these weapons? Grenades! Lots of different kinds, including acid, freezing, electrical, incendiary, and pretty much every type seen in Resident Evil. This will help even the odds, and Lynn and R will eventually breach the Ichiryou's barrier by warping in a grenade near it, shooting the grenade to trigger it, and then hammering the Ichiryou with everything they've got.
At any rate, once the bomb is disposed of, Takeda and Typhon will be ordered to fall back. The bomb was detonated and there's no reason to stay. The city still failed its "test" though, so the other villains now get free reign to try to take over/destroy/do whatever they want in the city.
Event 4: (Mission: Cold Vendetta)
Very basic mission on the Hazardous Pursuits side of things. In the midst of some other event, we get attacked by a group of Blitz Valhallan forces led by Simoun. It's very possible to have it be a villain team-up, Simoun and co. are just there to fight Lynn and everything else is kinda secondary. Well, they're there to fight Lynn first of all and secondly show off their fancy new Universal Alloy tech.
Valhallans: highly customized KMFs that use lots of Universal Alloy to make them faster, tougher, and stronger to boot. Otherwise not much to right home about. Pretty much any mass-produced Britannian KMF's possible can be Valhallan-ized and it's really just making them more Elite Mook-tastic.
Cromwell: Now the Cromwell on the other hand, is Simoun's personal Gareth, the one from the first mission. Just upgraded out the wazoo. First, its left arm has been replaced with the salvaged arm from Patrick's Vincent, Needle Blazer included and now capable of rapid fire! Universal Alloy also has provided the Cromwell with an array of miniaturized missile launchers and laser cannons. It also has a rocket anchor-tastic right hand (shut up, I know this is like the Gurren SEITEN but whatev) and can deliver punches with it far stronger than its size would indicate. Think of its fighting style as a mashup of Arthur and Spencer from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Simoun will make it very clear that she wants to fight Lynn, that Lynn is someone she has mixed feelings for but at the same time will see killed In the midst of swapping blows she'll give the Cliff Notes version of her experience with the Icarus Bombing, how it killed her abusive father while he was trying to strangle her, and from that she learned that bad things can still have good consequences and vice versa. Thus, actions are only actions and trying to apply morality to them is pointless. Like it or not, but that's something she learned from Lynn. In the end, Simoun will conclude that people can only be true to themselves and follow their desires, Simoun acting on her sense of duty to Volschoft, her comrades, and wishing to avenge Patrick.
The fight will also be another uphill one for Lynn and R, since the Cromwell carries a tremendous amount of firepower and more mobile than REVIVAL. That is, of course, until R and Lynn decide to unveil a weapon the armory recently opened up to them: a massive rocket launcher called the Durandal. In addition to letting them perform lovely Itano Circuses, the Durandal also has a large revolver stake that can be fired out and is connected to the rest of the gun with a massive chain. This helps turn things in Lynn and R's favor, and when Simoun gets cornered and tries to beamspam with her Needle Blazer, the duo powers through it with a Fragarach.
However, before the final blow is struck, the REVIVAL will get stopped cold by a barrier. It's the Ichiryou, and Takeda's on the scene now, scolding Simoun for going off on her own and to bring her back. He'll be there to also inform the Chalice that it's lost its status as a non-target, since it's inevitable that the Chalice will continue to interfere with their efforts of purging the world of the undeserving. He'll leave afterwards, but not before pointing out to Lynn that Retroactive Existences are supposed to be based on people (albeit not necessarily actual people) and then ask just who or what her partner had for a template.
In the wake of this mission, R will eventually come clean about its original identity as Greta Wagner.
Event 5: (Mission: Live by the Sword, or Not At All)
Another day, another city stop for the Chalice. The city needs to have a large supply of some valuable material, what it is precisely doesn't matter. Maybe it's being transported somewhere else, or maybe the town's built on top of a mine or whatever. Point is... a large quantity of something valuable's located here...
... And without warning, Takeda's voice will come through all the speakers and radios in the city, informing everyone that a crucible has begun! It is their turn to be put to the test of the Izanami Virus, to see if they are worthy of living, and for that matter the resources they've obviously been taking for granted. And Blitz Valhall's bringing the big guns as George Volschoft, the group's leader, makes his arrival, telling Takeda that he's the one in control of this operation.
And what a machine he'll arrive in!
Nemean: Named after the mythological lion, the Nemean is a towering Super robot made from the newest material that Universal Alloy's made a reality, not-Super Alloy Z. Called "Proto-Gleipnir", the material is meant to be pretty much indestructible, with the Nemean a no-selling wrecking machine far faster than its looks would imply. It's also packing large, powerful beam guns and rocket launchers so that even from a distance it's dangerous. It cannot fly, however. Think of its fighting style as a mashup between Nemesis and Hulk from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Accompanying George is Simoun, Typhon (who's looking bigger and bulkier than before), and some Valhallans. Typhon's acting really, really giddy too, with a special little secret for all of us to see. It probably won't take long for Typhon to get the cue to unveil it... all that's really needed is for someone to realize that if the plan is to unleash the Izanami Virus, then where are the bombs?
And to answer... Typhon will suddenly expel clouds of the nanomachines out of its body, aiming for populated areas! His shapeshifting body makes this kind of tactic a reality... the Izanami Virus can be unleashed anywhere on the world now, hidden in any random and innocent-looking statue. And best of all: now the protagonists know that and just how impossible a response against this can be! Once more, a city's being attacked because Lynn was there, isn't that great?
Just as a note, the Nemean's just going to not take much damage during this mission. It's like a bad guy Mazinkaiser, durability-wise. Tanking is its first, last, and middle names. It'll even be able to withstand getting shot by the Ascalon and other armor-piercing weapons. Only the most high-end of attacks will be able to do noticeable damage to it. As such, REVIVAL's going to have a hard time with the Nemean, and although Lynn and R would like a well-timed deus ex machina to give them a new weapon, it's not going to happen.
Typhon will be the one primarily gunning for Lynn and R, but Volschoft will make it clear that he won't accept anyone else killing Lynn other than him. Simoun's free to also take potshots at Lynn too. As far as Volchoft and Simoun are concerned, there's nothing wrong about what they're doing. The parasites in the city have taken what they had for granted and if they die, boo hoo. If they live, they'll have motivation to harden themselves and grow stronger, and there's plenty of life lessons to learn from it all.
The Cromwell can't be destroyed during all of this, we're going to need it later. Getting damaged is fine though, and in fact necessary.
And while all of this is going on, Blitz Valhalla's forces have the supply raid in full swing. Turns out Typhon wasn't just releasing the gas willy-nilly, but to also clear the way for Blitz Valhalla's forces to steal as much as possible.
At some point, ideally near the end, the Cromwell's slash harken arm is going to miss hitting someone, and as it's being pulled back, Lynn'll be able to goop it up with Adhesive Grenades... and since Simoun won't be able to recall the limb, she'll be dragged towards it... giving Lynn the opening to kick the Cromwell right into a cloud of Izanami Virus nanomachines, the damage to her machine causing her to be exposed to them.
Simoun doesn't get a dignified death. She will get Lynn saying that these are the consequences of the life she chose though. Volschoft's going to be fucking enraged from this, in that cold, vicious hatred. Lynn took his son away from him (twice, first by earning his love and then when he died in the bombing), and now she's taken the closest thing he had to a daughter.
At any rate though, in spite of the casualties, Blitz Valhalla's procured enough of the raw materials to retreat, and they do exactly that. We're left with the fact that we can't just react to every attack that Yggdrasill launches since Typhon can depopulate cities on his own, and tracking down a single robot like that would prove impossible. We have to take the fight to them instead. Fortunately, the Cromwell is in decent shape, and though its main computers are encrypted, once we crack it we'll be able to find Takeda's base of operations.
Event 6: (Mission:Mine Shall Be a Utopia of Strength)
The computer onboard Simoun's Cromwell has finally been decrypted, and we finally know the location of Blitz Valhalla's base of operations: the hidden city of Yggdrasill! We have a chance to finally stop Blitz Valhalla and eliminate the threat of the Izanami Virus by destroying the central control tower that coordinates the nanomachines' adaptive nature, that way anything it's not already resistant to can cure people of them.
It's deep within the Alps, and with powerful barriers to keep out the unwanted. However... when we come calling the shields will be lowered. Volschoft's not going to pass up an opportunity to kill Lynn and Takeda's surprisingly cool with it.. Of course, once we're in the city there's no reason not to reraise them, locking us inside for one last, big fight. The city will be surprisingly bare... it turns out that Takeda and company are nothing if not hypocrites: they turned the Izanami Virus on the city's own population to test everyone and see who would be able to develop cures for themselves.
Takeda, Typhon, and Volschoft are there in addition to the Blitz Valhallan mooks. Nothing new to report on there, except Volschoft's given his machine a once-over.
Gungnir: The new, improved, and "true" version of the Nemean. Cosmetically the same as it, the Gungnir is made out of "true" Gleipnir. Just as sturdy as the prototype version, it's also very flexible and stretchy. This allows the Gungnir much greater mobility and dexterity, along with the ability to ignite itself at will without damaging its frame. This is essentially adding some Super Skrull-ness to the Nemean.
Typhon is also going to be really happy to see R again, acting like there's some big secret to tell. At a properly dramatic moment to through off Lynn and R's game, Typhon'll also drop it: that he is Dr. Wagner's 'son', another Retroactive Existence created after R rejected its original identity as the replacement Greta Wagner. So in a manner of speaking, R is his mother, and the cause for all the death and misery he's caused. This revelation is going to be pretty brutal for R, causing it to lock up in disbelief and shock... which is the opening needed for Typhon to stab a hand through REVIVAL's body and then give Lynn a nice blast of the Izanami nanomachines. Lynn will be infected by the Virus and only have a short period of time to live before it kills her, and even less time to move in REVIVAL's cockpit. But she'll make it count.
Just as Typhon is gloating about defeating the two of them, Lynn finally recreates her most infamous moment: the Icarus Bombing. Using REVIVAL's Linker System, she opens up a massive wormhole right above her, and in spite of trying to stop her (and ending up gouging out Lynn's eye), she'll use the Dimensional Blowback to eradicate the majority of Typhon's body, enough of it that his mind is shattered and destroyed. She (and other players) can give R some encouragement to help it get its shit together, and optionally Lynn can be evacuated.
Volschoft's response to this is a whole lot of "good riddance", and R finally gets back some of its fire, talking back to Volschoft about how all his and Takeda's talk of proving people's worth is a load of bullshit. They didn't make their machines with their own hands and they certainly didn't come up with any of the fancy, Universal Alloy-enabled tech. And just as Lynn helped lay to rest a demon connected to its own past by killing Typhon, R vows to kill Volschoft as well.
Fortunately, Lynn left one last gift for R: setting the Linker System to periodically warp-in new weapons for the machine at fixed intervals. And it might be a bitch to do any noticeable damage to the Gungnir by conventional means... but in the end R will trick the Gungnir into doing some kind of melee attack just as a portal opens up. And when it closes, the Gungnir's going to lose that limb and have a huge weak spot to exploit, letting R make good on its vow.
Takeda for this fight will primarily be concerned with defending the Control Tower, intent on protecting it and with it "Her" world. He can optionally be downed, but if we do it'll turn out that nobody is inside the Ichiryou. Otherwise he can flee whenever (and thus in a case of Schroedinger's Cat was inside of the machine). The Tower can be destroyed at any point after Lynn gets infected by the Virus.
With the tower destroyed, the nanomachines cannot coordinate developing immunities to treatments to them, and cures for the virus will actually work more than once.
I leave any other enemies in the mission up to the discretion of the mission runner.
Event 7: (Mission: Light Up The Night)
The mission is set during the events of a meteor shower, one that's been expected and won't be any cause for alam, or cause any damage either. What IS cause for alarm, however, is when the Exvoritam Filios bioweapons are found by someone or some group in space and they barely pass the word on before they're killed. Whatever they're up to can't be any good, so it's time to go and end this once and for all!
A team's sent out, and lo and behold, it's the space station from Mars, moving in for a close orbit around the Earth. Nothing good can come from this and if we just opt to turn and leave the station might relocate. That and a Yasakani Veil is being raised around it too, forcing us to act fast. Thus we go in to try to take it out and get a warm and loving welcome from more EF forces. Devastators, EF Knightmares, and Tunnel Stalkers come out to play, along with two familiar faces and one familiar AI: Takeda, Mongrel, and RE Chips.
It's here we get the Cliff Notes lowdown on what's happening. The station itself almost has the look and feel of some sort of artillery cannon or linear catapult, and ultimately that's what it is with transport tubes all around us. It's the delivery system that EF used to transport machines, supplies, and bioweapons to Earth, like the one we saw at Silent Mountain. As for what the group has left to transport and who to deliver it to... well it's easy enough to crack open one of the tubes and scan the contents to find out... Izanami Virus nanomachines. Entire meteors made out of the things.
It's a twisted plan alright. The meteors will break apart on re-entry but the nanomachines can endure the heat. They'll fill the atmosphere and millions if not billions of people will be forced to find cures. New ones too, because with all the resources on-hand, it was a snap for Takeda to create another relay array. For Takeda, this is all about trying to make a world Marie would approve of. For Mongrel, it's about revenge and making the world burn. As for Chips, its less about why and more about what incentive is there to not do it? He doesn't care at all about Earth and humanity; any longing he could've felt was just the original's sentimental feelings.
In addition to his Ascended abilities (telekinesis, psi-energy weapons like the whips seen in Madrid) , Mongrel's suit is well-armored, extremely mobile, capable of flight, and comes equipped with a scaled-down Durandal. A very destructive SS-sized guy, made worse with RE Chips housed inside of his suit to quickly perform advanced calculations and be the brains of the pair. This makes Mongrel's Durandal much more dangerous than Lynn's, since Chips can precisely set each missile's flight trajectory and get more bang for the buck.
Likewise, Takeda's piloting an improved version of the Ichiryou known as the Izanagi, which features strengthened barriers compared to the previous model, a much more potent energy cannon blast fired from both hands, and can also generate a huge explosion and trap it inside a barrier before throwing it at enemies. He's also more smug than ever, since as far as he's concerned he's won and there's nothing we can do to stop people from dying from this.
During this first phase, people can also attack the meteors as they're primed to launch, sorta like what happened in SRW L's finale where we intercepted the missiles. Just throwing that out there because it becomes more important in the second phase.
At any rate, in spite of their new-fangled toys going for them, Mongrel, Chips, and Takeda are all finally defeated decisively. As he's beaten though, Takeda's calling out desperately, asking for help... pleading to Marie of all people that after all he's done, after realizing her dream for her, that surely a little help now would be acceptable. Of course, Marie's dead... it was just him being loony, right? Mongrel suffers a similar breakdown too upon defeat too, with all of his "superiority" amounting to nothing and trying to beg for his life... not that any of us will really even want to give it to him.
Chips, in contrast to Mongrel, will just be darkly amused... now being given the chance to experience death first-hand, rather than just from extracted memories.
From here all we should really have to worry about doing is get to the manufacturing plant on the station where the meteors are being produced and destroy it, and just, well, hope that the casualties will be limited. But as we enter the huge production area, we're greeted with a tremendously destructive blast of energy from one last enemy, who greets us coldly.
It's Marie. Marie Weiss... or rather, a Retroactive Existence of her. Turns out Takeda didn't want to just create Marie's world, he wanted a Marie to actually be in it too. When the original had died during the Inspector's attacks on Earth, Takeda was absolutely devastated. The safety of their little city was ultimately a lie, so Takeda decided to work on the world scale. Volschoft was easy enough to convince, and a teamup with Ulysses was just common sense at that point.
And the cornerstone of Takeda's plan was to recreate Marie, which he had succeeded in. The imitation Dullahan unit members had been practice runs, and hadn't turned out all that great, but Marie's proud to say she's a perfect recreation of the original, and quite pleased with how everything's gone. After all, in the end it will be her will, her ideals that define the fate of human existence, she'll repeat what Takeda said before: we can try to minimize the damage as much as we want but she's still pretty much won.
Not like we'll just let more Izanami asteroids be dropped though, but Marie has a response to that, as a gigantic wolflike monstrosity comes trotting out. This is Amaterasu, the unison of EF and Yggdrasill's technology... essentially a wolf version of Last Stage that's more durable, has loads of beam weapons all across its body, along with an extremely destructive mouth beam. Marie merges with the Amaterasu, eager to thwart our attempts. Backing her up are yet more Devastators and the last of the Leapers.
Amaterasu's also accompanied by other mooks, namely and it's also extremely agile thanks to the spacious design of the area. There's also possibly the risk of people getting Izanami'd here, though this is an extremely low chance provided nobody does anything really, really stupid.
BUT... as Lynn (or anyone who beats her to the punch) ultimately realizes, the Amaterasu has biological components in nature. Which means it's possible to turn the Izanami Virus on the Amaterasu itself by using those handy meteors being made!
... Except Marie can just send the nanomachines a command to stop trying to harm the Amaterasu. Nice try, everyone, but Marie's the woman who will shape the world's future, she won't be destroyed by her own philosophy.
... Except then, at Lynn's suggestion, we get Amaterasu exposed again. And Lynn's going to be all too happy to remind Marie of the most infamous trait of the Virus: adapting to cures. And just ordering the nanomachines to disregard her totally counts... and now the new batch attacking her will not disregard her. Amaterasu is going to take serious, serious damage from this tactic, and knowing that we have an inexhaustible supply of nanomachines to infect her with, Marie's forced to order a complete, and irrevocable shutdown to all of the nanomachines.
From there on, she's got nothing left except trying to kill us. Marie had to turn her back on her ideals and she's obviously very, very not happy about this. Unfortunately for her, the damage she's sustained puts her at a serious disadvantage now and she'll go down sooner or later... ideally with Lynn and Cora landing the final blows together.
Thus the day is saved, with Lynn's quick thinking stopping the Izanami Virus permanently without anyone getting infected. Additionally, the machines themselves can now be studied safely, with their worldwide, wireless capabilities sure to go a long way in helping speed up re-establishing the Internet. Lynn'll ask that the credit for stopping the virus be given to Cora though, that was she'll have enough leverage to work independently of Britannia and take Dice and Scythe with her.
