Mospeada Ep. 23: Brunet’s Partita

At Reflex Point, the Refless takes on the form of a human woman because her studies have found that a human body is best suited for living on Earth. The Refless examines a map showing that about 2,000 surviving soldiers from the Second Liberation Force are heading toward Reflex Point for an attack. She orders the Inbit to destroy all the humans who are threatening. Elsewhere, Ray and the others see a large battle in the sky, and Stick wonders if they’re survivors from the Second Liberation Force. They head over to the battlefield and find that they’re too late, but Yellow wonders if there might be survivors. Stick takes off in the Eta Legioss to search for survivors and meets up with everyone later after no one is found. A woman in black Bartley ride armor with a camera appears out of nowhere to film an Eager that is spewing out green blood. Jim asks the woman if she’s a military photographer, and she tells them they need to leave before the Inbit return. Ray asks her to answer their questions, and she tells them that she’s Shinobu Takeuchi from a news group on the Moon Base. She says the entire squad has been wiped out, and Stick asks if she took pictures of that. She answers that she did, and he asks if she just watched as all her friends were killed. Stick becomes angry, and Shinobu tells him that it’s her job to send accurate info to the Moon Base. Yellow tells Stick that anyone who photographs so much death would become cynical, and Shinobu calls Stick naive. Aisha reports that the Inbit are coming, and Shinobu tells them to lay down their machines and hide. She tells them to turn off their HBT generators and make their machines appear broken. A large number of Gamos and Eagers fly by and inspect the battlefield as everyone hides in the forest. An Eager knocks over Jim’s jeep, and Mint panics about the Inbit finding them. As night falls, the Inbit finally pull away. Shinobu shows everyone a video of fleets from Mars and Jupiter gathering on the opposite side of the Moon to form the Third Liberation Force. The video includes footage of the new model Dark Legioss, which is designed to hide its HBT signature from the Inbit. Shinobu’s job is to make reports about the situation on Earth, but Stick is still hung up on how she doesn’t fight. He asks when the Third Liberation Force is going to attack, but Shinobu says she doesn’t know. Everyone is forced to hide when a squad of Eagers lands nearby, led by a Gosu with a human male pilot named Fide. Ray is surprised to see a human giving Inbit orders, and Shinobu says the Inbit are looking for a synchrotron cannon. Stick explains that it’s a new weapon developed on Mars that draws power from the movement of protons and electrons in high energy electrolysis. Shinobu mentions that she hid the cannon nearby, and when Stick asks why she didn’t destroy it, she answers that it’s not her job. Stick wants to destroy the cannon, but the area is crawling with Gamos, Eagers and the Gosu.

Everyone makes camp for the night, and Aisha calls out Stick’s name in her sleep. Stick watches over her when she wakes up, and she asks if he’s unable to forget about the woman in his necklace. Stick tells her that if he doesn’t have it with him, he would feel like giving up, so she goes back to sleep. Stick tells Yellow that they need to find a way out, and Shinobu says she has an idea. Later, Yellow says he’s surprised at Stick taking such a dangerous bet, but Stick knows that Shinobu deliberately crafted a dangerous plan. Jim asks what that means, and Stick says that Shinobu probably wants to get pictures of them dying. Elsewhere, Shinobu shows Ray and Mint where she hid the synchrotron cannon. Ray hops into the cannon’s cockpit and moves it to a new position to fire at the Gamos, which Shinobu gets footage of. Ray fires again and destroys several Eagers. The remaining Eagers move toward him, allowing everyone else to get back to the Legiosses. Shinobu tells Ray that her job starts now and drives off in her Bartley. The Legiosses destroy several Eagers, but Fide rallies the remainder to him. Shinobu films the battle, and the synchrotron cannon explodes after the bomb Ray planted goes off. Stick picks up Ray so that he can detach the TLEAD and pilot it. Shinobu continues to film the battle and gets footage of Fide. Stick and Fide fire missiles at each other in midair. Ray join in on the attack, but Stick cautions him not to act recklessly. Ray opens fire and severely damages the Gosu, causing it to crash. Fide crawls out of the cockpit and is filmed by Shinobu, but she gets caught up in an attack from an Eager. She’s sure that she got a picture of Fide bleeding green, and Aisha suddenly notices that a cut on her arm is bleeding green as well. Stick looks at the blood, and Aisha runs away crying. Shinobu tells Stick that they need to look at the facts, but Stick counters that the facts on the surface don’t tell the whole truth. Shinobu then dies from her wounds, and Stick realizes that she was doing her job on the edge of danger. The photos Shinobu took of them fly away in the wind, including a photo of Stick and Aisha.