Review by Chris

February 14, 2003

Mutterma and Kagatie report to Maria that the final adjustments have been made to Angel Halo and they are ready to test the psycommu system on the psychickers. Maria goes over to Angel Halo's control ship and enters the control room to begin the test. Mutterma and Kagatie send out a Zoloat squad equipped with psycommu sensors to study the effect of Angel Halo's psychic waves on people. Maria focuses her power and prays that people forget war and remember peace. The rings of Angel Halo begin to resonate and emit psychic waves throughout space. On the White Ark, Uso feels the effects of Angel Halo and suddenly finds himself swept up in a memory of Shakti doing laundry in Kassarelia. He then comes back to reality and is disoriented. As he walks through the ship, he is caught up in other memories of being on the Camion transport and of Odelo and Warren peeping while Shakti takes a bath in a river. Each time he breaks out the flashbacks he feels stranger. He tells Marbet that he's going to get ready, and Elischa asks him if he feels all right. As Uso gets into the V2 Gundam, he feels that he doesn't want to fight anymore and that children shouldn't be in the army. The White Ark launches, and Uso says he needs to take off and get booster parts. Marbet asks what parts he means, and he says they need to prepare to return to Earth. Uso takes off and heads for Earth, and Marbet orders Tomache and Odelo to catch him. They chase Uso and deploy wires to capture the V2 Gundam and stop him. Uso thinks he is on Hiland and sees Warren giving Martina flowers. Odelo smacks the V2 Gundam and asks Uso to remember what his mission is. The three Zoloats appear and suddenly attack. The squad leader sees that they have gathered enough data on Angel Halo's affects. He knows if they stay around too long they will lose the will to fight, but if they defeat a Gundam they will be rewarded. He presses the attack, and Uso comes to his senses. The Zoloats capture Uso with their beam strings, and he tries to break free with his wings of light.

Maria asks the psychickers to make soldiers remember their pain and suffering so that they may forget war. Uso uses his beam saber to break free from the beam strings, but he stops moving when he feels more wave coming in from Angel Halo. He remembers the deaths of Helen, Mahalia, Kate, Peggy, Junko and Oliver in horrifying detail. He lashes out and slices one of the Zoloats apart with his beam saber. Maria feels that he is resisting and concentrates harder. Uso begins to panic as he relives all the suffering he has experienced throughout the course of the war. As the Zoloats continue to attack, Uso hallucinates and can't tell who his opponent is. He believes he is fighting Cronicle and hears Cronicle telling him that they will evolve the world and change it into a world of motherly love. Uso feels more despair and doesn't know if he's fighting a Zoloat or Cronicle's Contio. The illusion shifts, and Uso suddenly finds himself fighting with Katejina. He thinks Katejina is telling him he doesn't understand Maria's love, and he imagines Katejina's Zollidia dragging him through the streets of a city. He shouts out that those are not the things that Katejina from Woowig would say. Meanwhile, Tomache and Odelo try to hold off the remaining Zoloats while Uso remains immobile. Tomache's Gunblastor is damaged, and he pulls back to protect Uso. Odelo detaches his Gunblastor's booster binders and allows them to be hit by the beam strings to destroy them. In a flash of swirling color, Uso sees his wings of light. He suddenly snaps out of the illusion and attacks. He flies at the Zoloats and slices them both to shreds with his wings of light. Maria has a negative reaction, and the psychickers become confused. Kagatie looks at the test results and sees that Maria is becoming tired too quickly and must be replaced. Marbet holds Uso and congratulates him for escaping the illusions. She wonders what would happen if all the League Militaire were affected by Angel Halo, and Uso says they would die. That is why he wants to rescue Shakti and destroy Angel Halo as soon as possible.

The first tests on Angel Halo begin here, and we can see that it has a devastating effect. As a Newtype, Uso seems even more susceptible because Tomache and Odelo weren't affected during the battle with the Zoloats. The power of Angel Halo almost completely overwhelmed Uso and had him ready to give up and return to Earth. He managed to break out of that this time, but can he do it again? Also, if Shakti is as powerful as Maria says, could she create an illusion that Uso won't be able to escape?

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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