I wonder what the MCs' rides were.
Not mentioned at all! Probably Batalla or Pez Batalla. Less likely the MP F91, but I can't put him in Kincade's ride, so prolly not. If he ever gets into a OG game, I expect him to be retconned into a Geshpenst or Huckie pilot, because the OGverse has had a history of squadrons of these getting toasted.
Anyway, next update in about... 12 hours?
Both Kato and Pops have heard the pretty-much-confirmed rumor that Operation M was a decoy.
But it enabled the Yamato's mission, and that, Pops goes, is enough for him and his late platoonmates.
Ryoma remarks that for a laid back guy, Kambei sure has some baggage.
Pops retorts that its better than having his face stuck in a perpetual frown because of being thrown in jail.
Ryoma's mad, but there's actually no problem with joking about this.
Pops means, it WAS a false charge. Plus, at least in this universe, where nobody knows anyone called Ryoma Nagare - who the hell cares?
The Super Robot pilot ought to lighten up just like the 70s.
Ryoma... actually likes our MC's attitude.
Now, Kambei goes, if he could actually smile less like a DOOM Protagonist.
It looks like the group are ready to go back for the party (seeing that everyone is ribbing everyone right now), so Kato practically pulls rank and orders the lot back to the mess hall.
And yes, upon Pops questioning him, he was sent by the brass to pull them back.
For asking such a silly question, Kato belays that order specifically for Pops - and instead has Pops go look for Akira and Susumu.
Kambei protests - he doesn't know where they are and would have to comb the whole ship.
That's HIS problem tho, goes Kato. And he'd better start now, because the line crossing festivities are almost over.
=== Yamato Workboat ===
Susumu is with his former instructor, boatswain Isami Enomoto, helping to conduct maintenance on the workboat.
Enomoto had voluntarily chose to remain on duty to give the young'uns some time off.
Given that the festivities are finishing, he elects to have him and Susumu clean up here and let the recruits do the rest.
Enomoto leaves the scene, but not without remarking that he's seen a change in Susumu - Susumu's much better with women these days. :3
Akira's around too - and she doesn't mind remaining on duty. Like about... more than half the crew, her family is all dead.
Just remember why Kato was overprotective of her in the first place, mind.
She used to have a brother, squadmate with Kato. And she can fly just as well as her brother could.
But Kato didn't want her to share the same fate as her brother, so never let her join the Carrier Space Wing as anything other than a mascot.
In any case, yes, she has no one to call back in the Solar System.
Goes Susumu - yeah, he has nobody left back there either...
=== One of the many, many corridors in the Yamato ===
Because our hero was sent on a snipe hunt, he's now... quite lost.
He runs into Captain Okita, who asks why he isn't in the mess hall.
Kambei is on orders to look for people - and quite fine to be sent off looking for people.
The noise of the party was getting to him anyway.
Okita tries to, at this point, apologize for what happened to Lunar 25th - one of the forces under his charge.
Kambei doesn't mind. His mates were proud to be part of Operation M.
And by the way - they knew damn well what the operation was supposed to do.
As Kambei leaves, Tokugawa catches up - because it was Okita himself who got bored of the festivities and ditched, leaving the party to the younger crewmembers.
That's getting old for them: They can count the number of young soldiers who have died so they can live - and need to avoid actually counting, because people's lives are not statistics to anyone in command.
Well Tokugawa would drink to that, he's got some good ol' sake from Sado's collection.
Fine time to have a drink, actually. Okita offers his quarters...
=== Yamato Observation Deck ===
Susumu didn't go back to the party - he's holed himself in the observation deck instead.
Yuki's around too, wondering if Susumu has had his turn contacting Earth yet.
He didn't. His whole family is dead - and this is the first time Yuki in particular's heard of it, making the discovery of the
Yukikaze on Enceladus even more poignant.
(Of course, this plays out differently in the modern retelling. In the 70s Yamato original series, we had a shot of Susumu spending his alotted 5 minutes curled up in the comms chair - because he genuinely has no one left on Earth.
Some scenes are still done better in the original.)
Anyway, what about Yuki?
Yes, she did call back, but same as Susumu - she has no family either.
You see, she's an amnesiac. Still is. She does not remember anything prior to joining the UNCN.
That's just a little more than a year ago.
(Probably got fast-tracked by her foster parent Hijikata. I think...)
By the way, goes Yuki. There's a strange question he asked on Enceladus - about anyone telling her she looks like an alien princess.
She knows she is a dead ringer for the late Sasha, who bought the last component needed to complete the Wave Motion Engine.
There's a reason for that, she thinks.
Because another Iscandarian princess was on Earth before Sasha.
Remember back in Episode 1, I mentioned some other Iscandarian came to Earth first with encrypted blueprints?
That's Yurisha Iscandar, another Iscandarian princess.
You see, Yuki knows Yurisha *personally*...
=== The Sirius System ===
The crossing party having ended, the Yamato's next warp takes it 8 light years away from Earth.
Humans have entered the Sirius star system for the first time.
=== Yamato Bridge ===
The Yamato is doing further and further jumps in progression, so the next warp distance is slated to be 12 light years.
The target is Gliese 581. If you're up on your real life astronomy, the Gliese system has a certain significance...
Anyway, leaving that for later, the ship is currently at the maximum range that the Yamato's onboard VLBI telescope can see the Earth at a decent resolution.
Any further and light from the Sun will hide the Earth completely.
On that note, Okita orders Sanada to train the scope at Earth and bring it on holodisplay.
The bridge crew get a glimpse of a pure blue Earth, as it looked years before the planet nukes fell.
This is EXTREMELY CLEAR for a VLBI at 8 light years away. IRL we have NEVER imaged an exoplanet at this distance, at all.
One can be impressed by how far humanity has come over 200 years.
Even if some of the physics in this universe is cartoon physics, light from the Earth still takes 8.6 years to get to where the Yamato is right now.
Okita orders the crew to take a good look - because *that* is their mission objective - the pure blue Earth, once again.
Then he orders Shima to prepare for the next warp...
=== Bridge of the Le Chevalier ===
Schultz, our current enemy who fled Plato, has a daughter waiting for him back home.
We are going to assassinate someone's dad. Um.
Schultz himselfs predicts he won't survive this episode...
He is interrupted by his helm crew telling him that the Yamato has Geshu Tam'd out-system.
He orders the crew to trace the wake.
He'll follow the Yamato, then when the opportunity presents itself, strike with the weapon assigned to him by Goer...
=== Yamato Captain's Quarters ===
The ship is in the Gliese 581 system. Niimi is currently in the room, for one reason.
This system has a potentially habitable planet, and she would like to organize an expedition to take a look.
(Gliese 581 actually has 3 candidate potentially habitable planets of more than 0.8 Earth Similarity Index I believe...)
Unfortunately, Okita vetos that. They simply don't have the time to.
Niimi protests, saying they need a backup plan. Explore all possible options for humanity's survival.
But, goes Okita, they are not following the old Izumo plan - where Earth finds a new world for its people to resettle - anymore.
Before the discussion can continue, the ship shakes, and the alert klaxons come on.
=== Yamato Bridge ===
Okita asks for a status report as soon as he enters.
The ship has just been hit by something, and some electronics are misbehaving.
Nothing's really broken tho, thanks to the ship being shielded.
The Analyzer detects charged particle waves. Sanada comes to the conclusion that the Yamato has hit a plasma wave from the red dwarf Gliese.
In colloquial english, that would be a solar storm. (Technically, it isn't. We're not near Sol anymore. But we don't have a new word yet, so we use what we know.)
That said... this is no normal solar storm. Earth only has theoretical values of the storms generated by a red dwarf.
The values Analyzer are getting are many times higher than human estimates.
It can only mean one thing - the solar storm was generated artificially.
Right on cue Yuki detects gravitational waves - a sure sign of ships coming out of warp.
...It's the base commander that escaped from Pluto and whatever remains of his forces.
Before anyone can quote Admiral Ackbar, the enemy flagship has fired a torpedo, prompting Susumu to call all AA Pulse Laser and Torpedo fire on it.
They succeed in intercepting the munition... or did they?
Episode 7: Cosmic Crossroads
=== Gliese 581, as in the star itself ===
Warning: Enemy Reinforcements Have Arrived
Gaiderol "Le Chevalier" x1 /Spawn
Destroia x2 /Spawn
Polmeria x3 /Spawn
Melanca x9 /Spawn
There's... quite a lot of gas from the explosion of the torpedo thats strangely unaffected by the close proximity to Gliese 581.
...In fact, its not just unaffected, its absorbing the star's plasma flares.
And it's growing!
The gas has surrounded them - and the only way out?
Right into the sun.
=== Meanwhile, Back in the Throne Room of the Great Gamillas Empire ===
We learn that the OPFOR just hit the Yamato with a terraforming weapon that's named, naturally, after the Great Leader Dessler himself.
For it is Dessler that predicted that they'd head to Gliese.
I don't know if he actually went through Terron historical records and realized that humans would actually LOVE to get a close look at the star they call Gliese 581, or not.
What the game mentions is, he did some course analyses during his free time, made a bet, and it paid off.