Let's Watch Southern Cross! Part 2
All right, the snow is coming down outside, but I'm snug in my basement lair and just finished up disc two. I'll break for dinner and then resume this party from episode 11.
3:54: The Zor carrier is sitting on the ground, but the army can't destroy it once and for all. Rolf orders a retreat, which means we get to see Jeanne take a bubblebath, because we haven't had some bathroom fanservice for three whole episodes, and that is simply unacceptable.
3:58: Jeanne runs into Lana in a cafe and the two take some snarky pot shots at each other's weight, as Jeanne is on a diet and Lana is enjoying an ice cream sundae without reserve. Gawd, they're so GIRLY when they're not fighting giant robots.
4:02: And on the other end of the spectrum, we have the Supreme Commander, who wants to kill something dead in order to alleviate public fears and criticism. But Rolf, ever cautious, wants to form a special unit to scout the interior of the downed ship and capture a Zor. The Supreme Commander reluctantly accepts, ensuring that Squad 15 will be sent, since they're the only ones who have shown any combat effectiveness thus far.
4:04: Squad 15 doesn't take the news well, but after prodding from Jeanne, they decide they may as well give the Zor hell if they're going to die senselessly.
4:08: Jeanne enjoys a parfait on the day before the mission so she won't have any regrets if they don't make it back, and in the same vein, she gives Bowie permission to go play the piano at a nearby jazz cafe, since he always wanted to be a pianist. On the way there, he passes by Charles, who is busy putting the moves on a lady friend with the tried and true "I may not come back alive" speech. To each their own.
4:14: Lana drags Bowie back to the base after he was involved in a fight at the cafe, as the patrons there refused to let him play the piano since then he wouldn't be able to focus on his mission. Although he appeals to Jeanne, she tells Lana to put him in detention for three days, meaning he'll miss the operation. Although he appeals again, Lana hauls him away. Jeanne refuses to throw him into battle until he's realized his dream.
4:19: General Rolf lets his son out of detention so he can join his squad, which he does without hesitation. The main forces attack the Zor carrier and punch a hole in the hull so that Squad 15 can enter, and Jeanne charges forth as episode six comes to a close.
4:24: As Jeanne's team glides through the hallways of the Zor ship, they come to a fork in the road. Naturally, they split off. Louis is beaming visual signals back to the main base so the generals can see what they do, but Squad 15 is also being watched by the Zor. Another fork in the road forces Jeanne to split her team further, and with shutters closing behind them, Squad 15 is caught in a trap. Although why the doors are an obstacle I have no idea, given that they're on giant hoverbikes. With lasers.
4:30: Jeanne, Louis, and Bowie blow a hole in the wall and continue on foot. They find what appears to be a biohuman assembly room, with a vat of arms and hands just floating in a tub of... something. Louis leans against the wall and accidentally transports Bowie to another part of the ship, leaving him and Jeanne flustered when they discover he's missing. Bowie winds up in a room and hears music, so he traces it to the source... a woman playing some kind of piano harp. She's frightened at the sight of him in his armor, but he removes his helmet to try and calm her. And we have first contact!
4:34: And before Bowie can understand her, he's totally attacked by some soldiers. He takes them out, but not before the girl gets caught in the crossfire. She runs and he gives chase, only to discover her leg wound has healed. She disappears around a corner just before Jeanne arrives in her mech to pick him up.
4:39: Jeanne, Louis, and Bowie encounter a Zor city inside the ship. The civilian Zor are shocked to see them, and they make a hasty retreat when Zor soldiers show up. Perhaps civilian cargo is what's keeping the rest of the main fleet in orbit?
4:42: Squad 15 reassembles, but as Charles has guessed, the Zor have let them all regroup so they can be disposed of in a single stroke. The floor opens up beneath them and they fall into the garbage bin. Oh, wait, I know what comes next. Since they don't have R2-D2 to shut down all the trasn compactors on the detention level, Jeanne decides they'll just have to shoot their way out. The laser bounces off all of the walls and breaks through the floor, so they're able to escape.
4:46: Through another stroke of luck, the electromagnetic interference is shut down, restoring Squad 15's sensors. Jeanne and the others are able to escape, but not before most of the nameless mooks in the squad are killed. At the exit, Jeanne clothelines a bioriod, which doubles as the unit they were ordered to capture. Huzzah!
4:53: As I suspected, the Zor are in a similar situation to the humans, as we get our first glimpse of their own military council. Some want to co-exist, others want to wipe them out. They also mention that they've returned and they don't mean to fight, so perhaps this used to be one of their planets.
4:56: Meanwhile, Gloire's technicians have researched the captured bioroid and, with Louis' help, determined that it functions by thought. Signals from the pilot feed directly into the unit's nervous system, which drives it. It's completely different from their own piloted mecha, and Jeanne realizes that's why Red Leader was so tough.
5:01: Further analysis reveals that attacks which cause impact are much more effective against bioroids, presumably because they rattle the cockpit and disorient the pilot inside. The best strategy, then, is to attack the cockpit. Well shoot, anyone could have told you that. Jeanne doesn't like the sound of that, though, as she maintains that the pilots are not actually Zor, and she doesn't want to be fighting humans.
5:04: Jeanne says that there is a separate Zor race modifying captured humans into the biohumans they've been fighting, and claims to have seen it by recounting the story of the lab she found inside the ship. But the hard-heated Supreme Commander Claude Leon refuses to listen and has her removed. She seems to be taking things much more seriously lately as the fighting's gotten more intense. Louis later confirms with Jeanne that her conjecture is likely correct.
5:11: As further confirmation, the Zor inside the carrier decide they need to attack the civilian population of Gloire to obtain more bioroid pilots. That will replenish their forces and give them enough to provide escorts to get the Zor civilians to the space fleet, which now sounds like it's a colonization fleet. Jeanne still doesn't want to fight the attacking bioroids and tells her squad to just disable them. If they really are Gloire citizens, she wants to retrieve them rather than kill them.
5:15: Andrejz's priority is to rescue the civilians being captured, not the people in the bioroids. But Jeanne continues to get in his way, allowing the Zor to escape with their booty. The city has been devastated, and Claude Leon pins the blame on Rolf for refusing to bring down the banhammer earlier. He declares there negotiations are not an option... It just got real up in here.
5:20: So the Zor plan is to turn all humans into biohumans, and by ridding them of emotion, they'll be able to coexist. They consider themselves the pinnacle of evolution and have the responsibility to help the lowly humans reach a stable existence. Been there, done that; something tells me it isn't going to fly.
5:25: Jeanne decides the best way to cope with the brass' brash stupidity is to skip out on patrol and get hammered, a quick reversion to her old self. Bowie plays the piano while a lounge singer does his thing, and a very drunk Jeanne is smitten.
5:28: Using the remnant memories of one of the soldiers they converted into a biohuman, the Zor contact Claude Leon using the military hotline and make their proposal. Not surprisingly, he rejects it, so they decide to bring down another carrier from the orbiting fleet.
5:35: As it turns out, the singer -- George Sullivan -- is actually a technician who calculated the weak point of the Zor carrier to avenge the death of his lover. He arranged a meeting with Jeanne at the club specifically to give her the results of his research, and she races of to join her squad. Meanwhile, up in space, Marie's squad fights off the descending carrier.
5:42: George is killed in the battle and Jeanne fails to destroy the Zor carrier using his data. The descending carrier docks with the damaged one and lifts it to safety, while Charles saves Marie from certain doom as her plane freefalls after colliding with an enemy bioroid. Man, there's been a severe lack of Marie lately, and this is saddening. But in other news, we're going to be seeing more of Red Leader -- now given the name Seifriet. He's purposely left behind by the Zor to learn more about humans. Deculture, indeed.
5:49: Seifriet is captured and strapped to a gurney for study. Rolf is aware of what Claude Leon thinks about the situation, but he's willing to circumvent protocol to learn the things he wants to know. Meanwhile, the Zor are safe in orbit and making full use of the transmitter cells embedded in Seifriet's brain. That way, they'll be able to observe the humans directly. So everybody's on a quest for knowledge!
5:54: Oh snap, is that the sound of Charles x Marie I hear? His plan to deliver flowers to her hospital bedside was stopped bu a nurse, who refused to admit any visitors. Defeated, Charles gives her the flowers instead and walks away. Inside the room, Marie pulls the blankets over her head in a huff. Dawww, they're so cute when they fight.
5:58: The reinforcements from Liberte are finally here, and they consist of... a single large warship... carrying planes... and maybe some other stuff. Hoo, boy. I'm going to predict this ends poorly. And not just because they're French.
6:02: Gloire's troops on the ground receive a message from the Liberte reinforcements and prepare to launch an attack from the surface to help clear a path through. Will any of them be left, though? The Zor were pretty much having their way with those fighters...
6:05: As expected, the Liberte ship is destroyed after all hands evacuate. It is set to collide with a Zor carrier and does so, but the carrier appears to remain intact. The captain of the ship sadly reveals that they're the only help Liberte was willing to send, assuming that Gloire's Southern Cross Army would be enough. Claude Leon is not amused.
3:54: The Zor carrier is sitting on the ground, but the army can't destroy it once and for all. Rolf orders a retreat, which means we get to see Jeanne take a bubblebath, because we haven't had some bathroom fanservice for three whole episodes, and that is simply unacceptable.
3:58: Jeanne runs into Lana in a cafe and the two take some snarky pot shots at each other's weight, as Jeanne is on a diet and Lana is enjoying an ice cream sundae without reserve. Gawd, they're so GIRLY when they're not fighting giant robots.
4:02: And on the other end of the spectrum, we have the Supreme Commander, who wants to kill something dead in order to alleviate public fears and criticism. But Rolf, ever cautious, wants to form a special unit to scout the interior of the downed ship and capture a Zor. The Supreme Commander reluctantly accepts, ensuring that Squad 15 will be sent, since they're the only ones who have shown any combat effectiveness thus far.
4:04: Squad 15 doesn't take the news well, but after prodding from Jeanne, they decide they may as well give the Zor hell if they're going to die senselessly.
4:08: Jeanne enjoys a parfait on the day before the mission so she won't have any regrets if they don't make it back, and in the same vein, she gives Bowie permission to go play the piano at a nearby jazz cafe, since he always wanted to be a pianist. On the way there, he passes by Charles, who is busy putting the moves on a lady friend with the tried and true "I may not come back alive" speech. To each their own.
4:14: Lana drags Bowie back to the base after he was involved in a fight at the cafe, as the patrons there refused to let him play the piano since then he wouldn't be able to focus on his mission. Although he appeals to Jeanne, she tells Lana to put him in detention for three days, meaning he'll miss the operation. Although he appeals again, Lana hauls him away. Jeanne refuses to throw him into battle until he's realized his dream.
4:19: General Rolf lets his son out of detention so he can join his squad, which he does without hesitation. The main forces attack the Zor carrier and punch a hole in the hull so that Squad 15 can enter, and Jeanne charges forth as episode six comes to a close.
4:24: As Jeanne's team glides through the hallways of the Zor ship, they come to a fork in the road. Naturally, they split off. Louis is beaming visual signals back to the main base so the generals can see what they do, but Squad 15 is also being watched by the Zor. Another fork in the road forces Jeanne to split her team further, and with shutters closing behind them, Squad 15 is caught in a trap. Although why the doors are an obstacle I have no idea, given that they're on giant hoverbikes. With lasers.
4:30: Jeanne, Louis, and Bowie blow a hole in the wall and continue on foot. They find what appears to be a biohuman assembly room, with a vat of arms and hands just floating in a tub of... something. Louis leans against the wall and accidentally transports Bowie to another part of the ship, leaving him and Jeanne flustered when they discover he's missing. Bowie winds up in a room and hears music, so he traces it to the source... a woman playing some kind of piano harp. She's frightened at the sight of him in his armor, but he removes his helmet to try and calm her. And we have first contact!
4:34: And before Bowie can understand her, he's totally attacked by some soldiers. He takes them out, but not before the girl gets caught in the crossfire. She runs and he gives chase, only to discover her leg wound has healed. She disappears around a corner just before Jeanne arrives in her mech to pick him up.
4:39: Jeanne, Louis, and Bowie encounter a Zor city inside the ship. The civilian Zor are shocked to see them, and they make a hasty retreat when Zor soldiers show up. Perhaps civilian cargo is what's keeping the rest of the main fleet in orbit?
4:42: Squad 15 reassembles, but as Charles has guessed, the Zor have let them all regroup so they can be disposed of in a single stroke. The floor opens up beneath them and they fall into the garbage bin. Oh, wait, I know what comes next. Since they don't have R2-D2 to shut down all the trasn compactors on the detention level, Jeanne decides they'll just have to shoot their way out. The laser bounces off all of the walls and breaks through the floor, so they're able to escape.
4:46: Through another stroke of luck, the electromagnetic interference is shut down, restoring Squad 15's sensors. Jeanne and the others are able to escape, but not before most of the nameless mooks in the squad are killed. At the exit, Jeanne clothelines a bioriod, which doubles as the unit they were ordered to capture. Huzzah!
4:53: As I suspected, the Zor are in a similar situation to the humans, as we get our first glimpse of their own military council. Some want to co-exist, others want to wipe them out. They also mention that they've returned and they don't mean to fight, so perhaps this used to be one of their planets.
4:56: Meanwhile, Gloire's technicians have researched the captured bioroid and, with Louis' help, determined that it functions by thought. Signals from the pilot feed directly into the unit's nervous system, which drives it. It's completely different from their own piloted mecha, and Jeanne realizes that's why Red Leader was so tough.
5:01: Further analysis reveals that attacks which cause impact are much more effective against bioroids, presumably because they rattle the cockpit and disorient the pilot inside. The best strategy, then, is to attack the cockpit. Well shoot, anyone could have told you that. Jeanne doesn't like the sound of that, though, as she maintains that the pilots are not actually Zor, and she doesn't want to be fighting humans.
5:04: Jeanne says that there is a separate Zor race modifying captured humans into the biohumans they've been fighting, and claims to have seen it by recounting the story of the lab she found inside the ship. But the hard-heated Supreme Commander Claude Leon refuses to listen and has her removed. She seems to be taking things much more seriously lately as the fighting's gotten more intense. Louis later confirms with Jeanne that her conjecture is likely correct.
5:11: As further confirmation, the Zor inside the carrier decide they need to attack the civilian population of Gloire to obtain more bioroid pilots. That will replenish their forces and give them enough to provide escorts to get the Zor civilians to the space fleet, which now sounds like it's a colonization fleet. Jeanne still doesn't want to fight the attacking bioroids and tells her squad to just disable them. If they really are Gloire citizens, she wants to retrieve them rather than kill them.
5:15: Andrejz's priority is to rescue the civilians being captured, not the people in the bioroids. But Jeanne continues to get in his way, allowing the Zor to escape with their booty. The city has been devastated, and Claude Leon pins the blame on Rolf for refusing to bring down the banhammer earlier. He declares there negotiations are not an option... It just got real up in here.
5:20: So the Zor plan is to turn all humans into biohumans, and by ridding them of emotion, they'll be able to coexist. They consider themselves the pinnacle of evolution and have the responsibility to help the lowly humans reach a stable existence. Been there, done that; something tells me it isn't going to fly.
5:25: Jeanne decides the best way to cope with the brass' brash stupidity is to skip out on patrol and get hammered, a quick reversion to her old self. Bowie plays the piano while a lounge singer does his thing, and a very drunk Jeanne is smitten.
5:28: Using the remnant memories of one of the soldiers they converted into a biohuman, the Zor contact Claude Leon using the military hotline and make their proposal. Not surprisingly, he rejects it, so they decide to bring down another carrier from the orbiting fleet.
5:35: As it turns out, the singer -- George Sullivan -- is actually a technician who calculated the weak point of the Zor carrier to avenge the death of his lover. He arranged a meeting with Jeanne at the club specifically to give her the results of his research, and she races of to join her squad. Meanwhile, up in space, Marie's squad fights off the descending carrier.
5:42: George is killed in the battle and Jeanne fails to destroy the Zor carrier using his data. The descending carrier docks with the damaged one and lifts it to safety, while Charles saves Marie from certain doom as her plane freefalls after colliding with an enemy bioroid. Man, there's been a severe lack of Marie lately, and this is saddening. But in other news, we're going to be seeing more of Red Leader -- now given the name Seifriet. He's purposely left behind by the Zor to learn more about humans. Deculture, indeed.
5:49: Seifriet is captured and strapped to a gurney for study. Rolf is aware of what Claude Leon thinks about the situation, but he's willing to circumvent protocol to learn the things he wants to know. Meanwhile, the Zor are safe in orbit and making full use of the transmitter cells embedded in Seifriet's brain. That way, they'll be able to observe the humans directly. So everybody's on a quest for knowledge!
5:54: Oh snap, is that the sound of Charles x Marie I hear? His plan to deliver flowers to her hospital bedside was stopped bu a nurse, who refused to admit any visitors. Defeated, Charles gives her the flowers instead and walks away. Inside the room, Marie pulls the blankets over her head in a huff. Dawww, they're so cute when they fight.
5:58: The reinforcements from Liberte are finally here, and they consist of... a single large warship... carrying planes... and maybe some other stuff. Hoo, boy. I'm going to predict this ends poorly. And not just because they're French.
6:02: Gloire's troops on the ground receive a message from the Liberte reinforcements and prepare to launch an attack from the surface to help clear a path through. Will any of them be left, though? The Zor were pretty much having their way with those fighters...
6:05: As expected, the Liberte ship is destroyed after all hands evacuate. It is set to collide with a Zor carrier and does so, but the carrier appears to remain intact. The captain of the ship sadly reveals that they're the only help Liberte was willing to send, assuming that Gloire's Southern Cross Army would be enough. Claude Leon is not amused.