S4E19: In a Mirror, Darkly

'''The General's Sayan project is nearing completion. In only a few short weeks' time, The General will unleash the deadliest enemy upon the Multiverse. In a desperate attempt to prevent this, the Sayan Squad is sent to try and find a possible failsafe on Earth M745. If they can exploit it, then perhaps, they can stop the project before it begins...'''

...But what they find may prove to be a fatal discovery.

Plot Summary
Three days after the Baur mission, Amadeus summoned the Sayan Squad for another mission. There, he reiterated the conclusions he made at the end of the previous episode, now backed up by High Command. That every dealing with the Sayans, from their encounter on their own Equestria to the Earth M573 incident to the recent assault on worlds like Baur was a prelude to invasion. It was believed that The General would have his Sayan project ready within a few week's time, or a few months at most. Something would need to be done, and be done quickly.

An image of a brown, dead world appeared over the holographic projector. Amadeus said that throughout all of the incidents, there was always one common thread that bound them all together: The General's Head. Every Sayan encountered so far could be traced back to the Head, and every planet visited by the vessel over the past several months also had a Sayan. Whatever The General was planned, it was reasoned to assume it would involve the Head acting as a delivery service. But, despite its immense size, it is incapable of carrying an entire species aboard it. Therefore, The General must have had a source point where he was keeping the Sayans to be picked up by the Head. If it could be found, the invasion could be potentially stopped before it even began.

Amadeus introduced the planet as Earth-M745. Over the recent period of months, The General's Head was reported to have made frequent visits. Additionally, the planet was a complete dominion of The General's. This was unusual, as The General tended to avoid taking control of Earths unless there was something particular he desired. Lastly, listening outposts have indicated some sort of top-secret project of The General's being worked on that world. If the project was indeed the Sayan project, then they would know what the Head was doing there. This was the Sayan Squad's mission: Investigate Earth M745 and determine if was the source point for the Sayans. If so, they were to retreat back to base, and they would then return to M745 with the full support of an RAG attack fleet.

On the way towards the Vulture, Olyn and Saiyo held a friendly conversation. Throughout the briefing, Saiyo had stayed away from Jack over his actions back on Baur (something the others did as well). Olyn tried to comfort Saiyo, but Saiyo quickly turned the conversation around. Olyn herself was still trying to cope with the idea of Hood, even if it was not her own Hood, working for someone like The General. Saiyo tried to convince her that everyone must have had a reason, suggesting that maybe he was even being forced, but this was quickly shot down by an arriving Oneiros. Saiyo managed to tear Olyn away from Oneiros before he could tear her optimistic suggestions apart any further and thus making Olyn feel even worse.

Over Eath M745, the Vulture prepared to descend through the planet's detection grid, but the bridge Operator reported that she had detected a sub-dimension that could possibly comprise an alternate route. Activating the warp drive, the Vulture found itself amongst a sea of clouds high above a chunk of land seemingly ripped from the main universe. This chunk of land was found to be protected by a one-way barrier, with many enemy signals within. However, there was no detection grid, and as such Amadeus ordered the Vulture to land on the border of the land chunk. Inside the dome, the sky was replaced with polluted air and smog from The General's machines. The land chunk was, much to the shock of most of the Sayan Squad, revealed to be an alternate Gensokyo, now under the iron-fisted rule of The General along with the rest of the planet.

Gensokyo had been completely stripped bare, with all of its previous landmarks replaced with refineries. What was once the Misty Lake was now instead a massive mine where all of the slaves were digging up something. Also interesting was the presence of youkai. Conscious youkai. The General was known for lobotomizing non-human creatures so that they don't go rogue with their special abilities, however here this was not the case. The initial sight of Gensokyo left even those unfamiliar with Gensokyo shocked into silence. Nevertheless, Amadeus pushed them to head for the mine to see what they were digging for.

En route to the mine, the Sayan Squad came across a residential area, where humans and youkai alike lived together in cramped metallic boxes. It was noted that the youkai never stayed in the homes; they simply flew in and back out. The "roadways" occasionally had tall monitors that bore an alteration of The General's emblem, with eight strange markings surrounding the main logo. It was theorized that the monitors were used by the Supervisor as a public announcement system as well as possibly be utilized for propaganda, however Amadeus noted that propaganda usage was unusual for The General. Normally the sheer threat of being pulverized by his military was enough to keep the slaves in line.

At the mine itself, the Anathemites gave the rest of the team an illusionary covering that made them appear more haggard and beaten; more befitting of slaves in order to gain access to the mines. The Sayan Squad found themselves arriving just as a shift change was taking place, and they went in with the new set. Within the mines, they found that the youkai did not change shifts, and instead kept working, apparently being denied the right to rest thanks to their augmentations. Also while in the mines, Oneiros' camera that was sending video data back to the Vulture began to malfunction, and as such the crew was unable to get a glimpse of what The General was mining. The Sayan Squad themselves, however, reporting that the slaves appeared to be digging for a special kind of crystal.

Ketsueki tried to more closely examine one of the crystals, but was spotted by one of the mechanical drones that watched over the mines. It did not recognize his face, and sent an alert throughout the mines. This prompted the guards to line all the miners up while more drones took pictures of everyone's faces. Even trying to hide their faces set off warnings. The guards demanded that the unknowns step forward and announce who they were. The first was Yeshaida, who ignored every question presented to him. Instead he fell to the ground as he gave himself a fever. The second was Kanako, who pretended to have amnesia. This highly displeased the guard, as neither were forthcoming with answers.

Terminos was the last one to step forward, who played the role of a slave caught in a mix-up. While he kept the guard distracted, he telepathically urged the others to make a break for it. The Sayan Squad attacked the guards, felling most of them but putting the mine on red alert in the process. Knowing they had been infiltrated by Rebels, The General's forces tried to hunt them down. The Sayan Squad barely escaped the mine, but a Pacifier had begun to pursue them. It was mutually agreed that leading the Pacifier back to the Vulture was a bad idea, and because of this Amadeus was reluctant to send G Squadron's Mimics or Kanako and Arachnos' armors to them unless it was absolutely necessary for fear of their origin being detected. Instead, he urged them to run and hide.

The Pacifier tried to fire on the team from afar, but when it discovered that was ineffective, it dispensed several mechanical infantry units. These robots, identified as Z-class machines, were armed with artillery weaponry mounted on their backs. The robots attempted to attack and destroy the Sayan Squad, while they remained close to the ground.

A mysterious figure beckoned the Sayan Squad follow them into the burnt and dead former Forest of Magic. Seeing very little option, they did so, prompting the Pacifier to dispense new robots. These machines were modeled after human-sized spiders, and were far more effective at continuing the pursuit of the Sayan Squad through the tree husks than the Z-units would have been. Armed with explosive flechette launchers and unhindered by the uneven terrain, these spider-like machines attempted to corral the Sayan Squad to the forest's edges, where the Z-Units had taken up positions.

Hiroto of G Squadron managed to realize that the machines were susceptible to blunt force impacts, and managed to keep them off the Sayan Squad. The mysterious guide also set the dead forest ablaze to try and hinder them further. Seeing this, the Pacifier pulled ahead and unleashed an even larger spider-like machine. This machine was armed with a warp cannon capable of massive devastation as well as a pulse cannon. The robot effectively halted the Sayan Squad's attempts to flee, and so Amadeus had no choice but to send in the Mimics and armors. As a result, the Vulture had to flee and lay low for a while, so the Sayan Squad would be without their support for a time.

With their full combat equipment, the smaller machines were little more than a nuisance to the Sayan Squad (especially G Squadron), allowing them to tackle the large machine unhindered. Once it fell into a pit of its own making, the Pacifier prepared to sacrifice it if it meant destroying the Rebels. It let loose a massive wall of cannon fire that absolutely obliterated the ground. Their strange aid led them further forward, ducking into a small alcove just up ahead. As the wall of death arced forward to pursue them, Ketsueki smashed the entrance to make it big enough for a Mimic to fit, and everyone piled in just in time.

Inside the cave, they found humans and youkai, and the identity of their rescuer was revealed to be a cybernetically-augmented Patchouli. The Sayan Squad had many questions about what had happened to this world and why it was what it was, and Patchouli told them all to sit down for a long story.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Main Theme (Sonic: Time Attacked)
 * 2) Briefing - Main Theme: Reprise (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron)
 * 3) The General's Gensokyo - Quartz Quadrant (Bad Future) (US version) (Sonic CD)
 * 4) The Mines - Tidal Tempest (Bad Future) (US version) (Sonic CD)
 * 5) Initial Pursuit - Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar / Lambda Core (Half-Life/Half-Life 2)
 * 6) Second Wave - Apprehension and Evasion (Half-Life 2)
 * 7) Halted - Penultimatum (Half-Life 2: Episode One)
 * 8) The Resistance - Electric Guitar Ambiance/Escape Array (Half-Life/Half-Life 2)
 * 9) Ending Theme - Dream a Dream (Pop It Don't Drop It edit)

Trivia

 * This episode's title is a reference to the two-part Star Trek: Enterprise episode(s) of the same name.
 * In both cases, the name is a passage taken from the Bible. However, it is not applicable to either story.
 * SDM notably forgot to play the briefing music until halfway through the event, as well as forgot to show the episode's name.
 * Aurion joined the episode mid-way through. In order to accommodate his difficult schedule, SDM has declared that G Squadron's presence or absence will no longer be noted in order to allow Aurion freedom to be there or not without breaking the flow of the story. In other words, if he shows up, the characters are to act as if G Squadron had been present the entire time, and if not, then it will be said G Squadron was not present only after the fact.
 * SDM likewise forgot to inform Kanako and Arachnos of this before the run began.
 * The eight-bladed flying cameras are known as Kiters. "Kiting", also known as "ballooning", is a method some spiders use for airborne locomotion, by using their silk as a makeshift "parachute".
 * The spider-like machines that pursued the Sayan Squad through the dead forest are officially known as Huntsmen, named after the spider species.
 * The large machine faced at the end of the episode is known as a Harvester, named after a Combine Harvester (see below) and Opilione arachnids, also known as harvestmen.
 * This episode drew a lot of inspiration from the Half-Life series, Half-Life 2 in particular:
 * The monitors in the residential areas were a nod to the Breencasts.
 * Kiters are a fusion of both Manhacks and City Scanners from Half-Life 2.
 * The Huntsmen were references to the Hunters from Episode Two (albeit modified to fit the spider motif), even sharing their weakness.
 * In the same vein, the Harvester was a shout-out to the Striders, also modified to fit the spider motif.
 * The name "Harvester" is also a reference, taking the name from "Combine Harvester," a piece of farm equipment. The antagonistic force of the Half-Life series is known as the Combine.
 * Given that The General was in part inspired by the Combine, SDM wanted to pay homage to the Half-Life series through him.
 * This episode marks the debut of the Z-24 mechanical infantry armors, the precursors to the X series seen throughout Hellgate 2 Part III and The Hellgate Gaiden. They are noticably different from the X series, in that they are armed with heavy artillery weaponry rather than the plasma blasters and mechanical sabers used by the X units. This makes them more useful against large targets but less effective against single units, such as Mimics.
 * Unlike the X-series where the number denotes an overall iteration, the number for the Z-Units represents an internal change. As such, the numbers do not necessarily go in consecutive order.