Mobile Suit Gundam AGE 15

Grodek's task force and Flit venture into Ambat.

Bigger doesn't mean better.

Looking like an ace, slicing through grunts with ease.

Summary:
Woolf, Largan, Ract and the other mobile suits are in charge of protecting the Diva while it is docked at Ambat. Grodek leads Millais, Adams and a few others into Ambat in their spacesuits. Flit also ventures into Ambat in the Gundam and is tasked with destroying the central reactor. Flit flies through the tunnels and runs into Geera Zoi in his giant Defurse mobile armor. Flit loses his beam rifle in the skirmish but Flit damages the Defurse in a sword fight and this prompts Geera to retreat. Having heard that Geera is one of the central culprits, Flit follows him down the tunnels but this is what Geera wants. Geera leads Flit into an ambush in the reactor chamber consisting of several UE mobile suits, but Flit channels the power of rage X-rounder and quickly cuts down the ambush party. Flit destroys the Defurse's sword arms, but Geera opens fire with the scatter beam and takes out the Gundam's left arm. Woolf arrives to back up Flit, and Flit destroys the Defurse with a slash to the chest. Geera escapes before his mobile armor is destroyed and escaped down a personnel tunnel and Flit gets out of the Gundam in pursuit. Woolf tries to follow but has trouble getting his boosters attached.

Hey you, no name. Go out into the open and get shot so we know where the defenses are.

OMG, the UE are made up of people with crazy hair!

Meanwhile, Grodek's task force battle their way through the tunnels. They make it into the control room by disabling an automated defense system. A number of UE personnel are operating computers in the control room and none of them reacts to Grodek's gun-toting task force. Geera returns to the control room followed shortly by Flit who is sporting a pistol. Geera takes off his helmet and the Diva crew are surprised that the UE are actually human. Flit wants Geera dead for the deaths of his mother and Yurin, and Grodek wants revenge for his family. Grodek knows that Geera is Yark Dole and he was responsible for letting the UE into Grodek's home colony. Grodek then demands to know the UE's motivations, and Geera reveals that the "UE" are actually survivors from a failed attempt to colonize Mars. Many colonists died from sickness after getting to Mars, and the Federation covered up the event and told that there were no survivors. The survivors formed a new country called Veigan and Geera is here to carry out the will of their leader. Flit refuses to accept that the UE are human, and Geera dares Flit to shoot him, but Grodek is the one who shoots Geera. The wounded Geera goes to a computer terminal to activate the fortress' self destruct sequence before dying from his wounds. Geera's son Arabei returns and draws his pistol, but Grodek swats the gun away. Grodek tells Arabei that he is the one who killed Geera before leaving with Flit and the rest of his team. While all this was happening, Woolf is in the hallways and finds a dying Veigan man, and the man hands Woolf a necklace before dying. Woolf tries to venture further but his path forward is cut off by explosions, and so he returns to his mobile suit. Grodek and his team returns to the Diva and orders the ship to launch, and Flit and Woolf fly out of Ambat as the fortress is engulfed by explosions.

I activated the self-destruct. My job is done.

Classic flying away from explosion at the end of battle.

After the battle is over and the Diva has made it to safety, Grodek thanks his crew and retreats his office to reminisce about his family. Meanwhile, Emily spots Flit in the hangar sulking by the Gundam. Flit is still depressed over the fact that he couldn't save Yurin and he promises he'll defeat the UE and become the savior. After the Diva returned to Federation space, Grodek gives himself up and takes full responsibility for taking the Diva. Grodek is thrown into prison, and the Federation takes full credit for the successful operation at Ambat. Back at the Veigan's home colony at Mars, the high command is concerned about the setback at ambat but their plans will carry on.

Seems like every Veigan commander must have an unconventional hairstyle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's the end of first part of Gundam AGE with Flit as the protagonist. Flit and his buddies win the battle and learn a bit about the "Unknown Enemy" that they've been fighting for 15 episodes. It turns out the UE are a bunch of disgruntled colonists who are in part pissed off because the Federation left them for dead. We still don't know all of the reasons why the martians are attacking, but it's not surprising given there is still two-thirds of the series left to go. The UE, or Veigan as they call themselves are following the plan of some mysterious leader, and that's all we know for now. Given that, it's hard to guess how Flit's son's story will play out. Hopefully his story line be distinctive enough to be remembered. In other words, it better not be a repeat of how Flit's story went down.

Since this episode wasn't series-ending final battle, it wasn't super impressive. Geera and his Defurse mobile armor didn't really do anything special, and thus Flit didn't need to turn in an exceptional performance to win the battle. I guess the X-rounder stuff will become more and more out of the world as the series progresses, and the same goes for the mobile suits. In the aftermath of the campaign, Grodek is locked away and all the credit gets taken by the Federation. It'll be interesting to see how many characters from the current cast will return after the time skip. Flit will be back as a grown-up, and Decil and Arabei will probably be back as well given that they were both kids in this arc of the series. Let's see how many of Diva crew will make an appearance again.