Nick of Time Novel Illustrations(*SPOILERS*)

[Illsteir]

*Illustrations are courtesy of Miles Teg (Animesuki)

And yes, N.O.T. is NOT the final novel (dammit Gatoh!). We're still waiting for Animesiki's resident FMP spoiler to, well, spoil us

[Taurec]

Saw them flying by on 4c**n <g>
Need more input...

[Metal Pichu]

So Kurz and Mao finally did it,eh? Took long enough.

Is it true that Kurz dies? :/

[Illsteir]

Spoilers are up (from Hunterseeker):

1. Leonard returns. But now he's completely a madman.
2. What Chidori left for TDD in the HDD was Lambda Driver Canceller, a shoulder unit called as "Fairy's Feather" (the name need further confirmation). But hell, Gatoh watches too much Gundam Seed.
3. Russia had been built a secret Black Technology Research Centre called Omega Sphere, but now it goes berserk and had done something to the new babies. I don't really understand that line, but it probably turns all the newborn babies as Whispered.
4. Chidori is indeed some kind of keystone of that Whisper Link.
5. Yeah, Kurtz and Mao had indeed......meh.
6. The red Eligor pilot is called Casper, Kurtz' master in marksmanship. (Guessed already)
7. Kurtz DIES. The progress is pretty unknown, but it's pretty confirmed.
8. The Omega Sphere's core, Sophia (why not call it Magus instead? ), had been transferred to Chidori in order to save the future.
9. Kalinin is INDEED betraying Mithril in the hope to change the world.
10. The Sophia=Chidori SHOT SOUSUKE AND TESSA. Not pretty confirmed in detail since the next line said it's not killing them in reality. They both live at the end.
11. To help Leonard to change the world (Who built the biggest, strongest TAROS on Melida Island), Sophia=Chidori travels to that place. There will hold the Final Battle.

Edit: It seems that Laevatein had a brief fight with Verial (and the former one seems to be in bad shape already), and during this fight (or the continued fightings before) Kurtz fails to return for evacuation.
@ 7

[Taurec]

No need to hide the spoilers its the vets forums we have to handle it.


1. Just misunderstood.
2.WFT I planned a LDC for a fanfic .. good that means it's canon.
3. Euh? What?
4.O RLY
5. This will be the end of him.
6.We guessed that.
7. Cliche ... Let his death be a glorious one.
8. Euh? What?
9. What why change the world? Whats wrong with it? **
10. In the anime they will be naked
11. Euh? What?


** Earlier its said that Black Technology shouldn't exist, too bad Gatoh didn't try to incorporate that.

[Illsteir]

Addtional info: the oblique shaped equipment in the Laevatein's right shoulder is the Fairy Feather. According to HunterSeeker, it can cancel out repulsion fields, disables Belial from flying etc. Basically it stops anything the LDS can do. The drawback: it drains too much power, the Laevatein itself cannot use its own LDS (thus, prohibiting the use of the 165mm Demolition Gun) and it relies in the pilot's mental status (I wont be surprised if Sousuke ends up like Camille Bidan in the end, using the LDS, switching to Fairy Feather and vice versa can strain his brain ).

I wont accept Kurz's death unless a body is presented (hoping for a scene where he's being nursed back to health by some hotties then Mao comes to smack him ).

And Sophia kinda rings a bell(*cough*Xenogears*cough*).

[Illsteir]

More detailed spoilers from HunterSeeker

This part is read up to page 126.
1. Kalinin's status is raised to Mr. K (but isn't he is already in MMD?).
2. Mr.Cu, Mr.Sn, Mr.Na and Mr.Au are eliminated by Leonard's units because they sent units to attack him from MMD.
3. Tessa sent units to support Mithril remants hidden in Sahara Desert (must be sp), who're from Newbie Training Camp (where Sousuke and Kurtz were in Engage Six Seven). They defeated the incoming Amalgam units, and Laevatein was proved to be effective bysupports from all AI in the unit, compensating its loss of electronics.
4. Chidori, after hurting Leonard in MMD, was locked away alone and he never saw her again. She's also being transferred around the word, putting more pressures upon her mental conditions.
5. From Lemon the loli-con/Tessa-con, she gets know of important intelligence in Soviet Union, but she has to be there in person, so she picked Sousuke and Kurtz as bodyguard.
6. During the meantime, Kurtz had finally.......with Mao, probably because of alcohol. FIVE TIMES IN TOTAL, 3 at night, 2 when they got up. Bugger.
7. Wraith and Lemon were spotted by Leonard, but before that they're surrounded Soviet police. However Leonard, together with his Verial, scares the police away and captures Lemon while Wraith escaped.

This time, up to page 187.
1. Tessa brought Sousuke and Kurtz, together with their AS in 2 helicopters take off from TDD, travelling through North America to Soviet Union. (.......WTF?) When they arrived at Bering Sea upon a ship for resupply, they finally meet with Hunter and Miller (indeed, the girl who Sousuke saved in BMG and helped to build ARX-8). Afterwards, ARX-8 had Fairy's Feather mounted, which was made by Miller again.
2. Lemon was forced to tell the true intelligence to Leonard by some kind of medicines, and while he's about to be disposed, Chidori shows up and stops Leonard, but was slapped in the face in return.
3. When Wraith was heavily injured and fell unsconcious, KGB was about to catch her, but an officer from GRU (another Soviet Intel Organization) saves her, and revealed that he's Wraith's commander in the past.
4. Tessa and her friends arrived in the deserted "Secret City Yamsk 11" (my crappy translation), of which was told that the secret of Whispered was lied within. What's more, all who arrived in this place are given a sense that, even though they hadn't gone to those place or met with those events, they'll feel that they had been gone there or did so.
5. Only Tessa and Sousuke infiltrates deeper while the rest are standing by. During their infiltration, she said that Sousuke is the Saviour sent by the God to save all Whispered. (......WTF?)

Up to page 319.
1. As the 2 moves on, Sousuke's sense mentioned earlier got more and more serious. Tessa found out that this factory is emitting some matters that will pollute one's mental conditions, and what the city is researching about is Omni-Sphere, and the destruction/desertion of this city is all because all the researchers and guards are all meltally polluted.
2. Now we know more about Omni-sphere, which, when at its strongest level, is a kind of mental status that surpass time and space, such as forseeing the future, or controlling another person's brain like what hackers do to a newbie's computer.
3. Amalgam units arrive, including Leonard, Chidori, Kalinin, wounded Lemon, some grunts, 6 helicopters, the red Eligor and Verial. Talk about tense.
4. Kurtz, who's guarding outside, was spotted. He shot down some enemy units (including teh copter which carried Chidori and Lemon, WATCH OUT DAMNIT!) unitl the red Eligor comes up. Later, Kurtz know that the pilot of this AS was his master Casper, and because of no chance to win he falls back.
5. That copter falls into the research facility where the 2 were now, but Sousuke and Tessa are forced to part with each other. Fortunately, Chidori and Lemon are able to escape from Amalgam because of this.
6. Chidori and Lemon are wandering around in the maze-like facility and finally met up with the lonely Tessa and they start to escape.
7. On the other hand, Sousuke, who're in search of Chidori, had a small Skirmish with Leonard. They both can't hurt each other, but when 4 (I don't really understand this part, either grunts or Alastors) came as reinforcements, they're destroyed while sealing the exit, so Sousuke and Leonard are force to ceasefire and work together to dig for the exit. It seems that they're still arguing during the work.
8. Sensing gunfights nearby, Chidori immediates wants to find Sousuke, but Tessa and Lemon are able to tell her to stay, and together they'll head for the deepest part of the facility to uncover secrets lies within.
9. During the talks between Sousuke and Leonard, the later revealed that Chidori is the main reason of the chaos in this world (reason in page 293, which hadn't been written). He mentioned numerous times that Chidori survived the hardest crises, and it's not luck but destined to work that way. "She's the cross-point of Reason and Result. We can say, because of this chaotic world, she has come to this world, or in the other way that because of her presence the world has become chaotic. After these, I'm afraid that......even I didn't tell her to do it, she'll still go to the deepest part of this 'ruin' and meet up with the dead spirits. At there, she'll merge with a power that can stop the world history, and will become teh 'Keystone' to create a world that past, present and future doesn't exist."
10. Teh trio arrived at the deepest part of teh ruins and saw the earlist TAROS, and unlocked the secrets of Whispered: Professor Varflog (crappy translation), who received help by the government, gathered scientists from all countries to this place in order to resarch about Omni-Sphere. Finally, using brains of thousands of Dolphins (!!!!) and in order to keep them active, they created the earlist TAROS.
18 Years before------Greenwich time 11:50pm, 24/12/1981, this TAROS had worked for 3 minutes continuously, but then some accidents happened and mental waves are leaked from it. There're several kinds of waves leaked: "I" wave (Iot, 9th of Greek Alphabet), which will decrease in power when the distance increases, so this place has been destroyed because of those people in this place are polluted by this wave and kill each other in the process. Another is "T" wave (Tau, 19th of Greek Alphabet) which won't harm normal people nor decreasing in power when distance increases, so this wave will travel around the world. However, even it's not harmful to normal people, it's the force to convert newborn babies into Whispered.
(Afterwards, soemthing funny happened. Because there're no proof that why babies are becoming Whispered by T wave, so Tessa tells Chidori to lend her future baby to her for researching, but obviously she tells her to born one for herself. Then Tessa said taht she'll be alone in this life, but she'll indeed born one for herself, if she can lend Sousuke to her for a few days......DAMN IT GATOH! WHAT ARE YOUR WRITING!?
Ahem. Actually, they can just "share" him afterwards.....remember taht Islamic people can marry more than 1? )
11. After collecting these data, Tessa concluded that Whispered is a kind of "terminals" that receive information (Black Technology) from soembody in the future, who decided to change the history. (Guess, parallel worlds? Tessa mentioned a word of "original history", saying that without Whispered and Black Technology, the Cold War may be ended, and becoming our present world?)
12. Lemon can't hold any longer under the intense I wave, so the 2 girls take him far away before walking to the centre of the TAROS together......
12. Leonard's real intention has revealed. He worked to change the world back to what it should be (Without Black Technology, Whispered, AS, etc......ie, teh same world as ours), and so the 2 started an intense debate. In the progress, Kalinin's reason of betrayal is also revealed: He also want to change teh world back liek Leonard wants to. Initially he doesn't believe him, but Leonard told him that they'll use teh Solar Wind to commense their attack (forseeing teh future), so basically speaking, when teh attack upon Mithril commenced, Kalinin had started his betrayal. Sounds pretty mean to me.

[Taurec]

12... ** okay .. he did listen to me.. <g>

Speculation:
Kaname will die..

[Circle]

Woah, so much spoilers! After reading the first post, I don't want to read anymore :p. But I'm glad the info is out there.

Poor Kruz.

[Illsteir]

part 4 of Hunter's spoilers:

Now it's till the end directly.
1. Obviously, those supplies left for TDD after the attack of Melida was left by Kalinin. But then why he did it?
2. After digging up the exit, Sousuke and Leonard went on separate ways.
3. The 2 girls walked into the center part of TAROS and found a white, fixed female dead body in a container. Tessa explains that she's one of teh female being researched 18 years ago and her body should had been rotted, but teh white-ish wax covering her body was teh "crystal form" when her mental power interferes the material world, and taht she's called the "Whisper" (sort of). All "Whispered" are the listeners, but this "Whisper" is the one who talks to them. And the objective of her coming is the destruction of this body.
(As such, the Testarosa brother and sister's intentions are clear. Tessa wants to destroy this "Whisper" to convert all Whispered into normal human, while Leonard wants to wake up thsi "Whisper" and use some methods to convert this world to the form of without Whispered's existance.)
4. After placing explosives near the Whisper, Tessa suddenly feels something is strange with Chidori------she takes away the trigger, grabs hold of Tessa and walks away from the center, as the crystal form of body breaks up.
5. Sousuke founds Lemon who're waiting outside of the room, and knows that both girls are inside, but he can only shout from outside since teh strong I Wave prevents his entrance without harm. As the 2 girls are moving out, Sousuke immediately runs towards them (guess, a hug or a kiss?) but was stopped by a gunshot near his leg from Chidori's side, who also said that she'll kill Tessa if he comes up. After some moments, Sousuke still chooses to move up but then Tessa was SHOT IN THE HEAD IMMEDIATELY! The shocked Sousuke was also shot, and even though his pilot suit protects him from most shots, he was also BLAM IN THE HEAD!

.......

6. After regaining consciousness, Sousuke founds that it's all illusions, but as he talked with Lemon he said that he also saw that scene! As they talked more, they concluded that it's the sense mentioned earlier to do this trick. And teh possessed Chidori runs away after shooting Sousuke and Tessa as, even it's just illusion, she treated these as reality.
7. Sousuke then brings along the wounded Lemon and unconscious Tessa out of the facility from its backdoor while fighting against the attacking forces. Meanwhile, the possessed Chidori meets with Leonard and told him that both of them are killed, as such they escape via the frontdoor.
8. Kalinin are deploying forces to pursuit the trio in the facility, while hiding forces at the backdoor as well as calling up Mr.Sn (Casper) to help. At the same time, Sousuke contacted with Kurtz and called for his help or they'll be surrounded.
9. A fantastic sniping fight starts (will write in detail once got full translation), and because of the result will be judged in seconds, and Kurtz is longing to help the trio, he showed a weakpoint and was shot! Being judged that no chance to live. (The AS is crawling, but the coming shot goes through the head, so normally speaking he can't live)
10. Casper arrived with the Amalgam forces, longing to capture Tessa alive. At this moment, Sousuke received a call from Kurtz, which seems undead for now, asking him to lure the pilot out of the cockpit. As such, Sousuke starts yet another favourite trick of "Negotiation" and finally lures Casper out of the Eligor. From 1650m away, Kurtz cause a direct hit at his heart before suscumbed into darkness for himself. (IMO, he should had his lower half of body crushed, so he won't live long due to immense blood loss.)
11. Mithril copter waiting nearby finally drops the Laevatein, and after Sousuke boards it and finishes all infantry, Verial emerges and attack. Because the machine's power is outclassed without advanced electronics, Sousuke uses the Fairy's Feather to disable all LDS device within a few hundred metres, banning Verial from flying around by LDS. The 2 clashes in a fierce battle, but the Fairy's Feather overloads and nearly destroyed by the immense heat created, Sousuke is forced to retreat together with other Mithril units, leaving Kurtz/his dead body behind.
12. Because Soviet Army are also arriving at the scene, Amalgam units are also forced to retreat. Meanwhile, Chidori cries for killing Sousuke, Tessa (who're only being killed in the illusion) and Kurtz.
13. Leonard brought Chidori to the place where the biggest, strongest TAROS is being built.
The place is an island, called Melida.
Where once it was Mithril's West Pacific Battlion's base.

NOT ends. Guess, we still have to wait for the release of another novel.

Gatoh's shortened last words for the story:

1. The next novel will be the CLIMAX of the whole series, and the contents are so abundant taht a single volume may not contain them all.
2. Even though the main story ends, there're still chances to write side stories.

Looks like there will 2 more books before we get to the ending.

[cullenk]

I don't know whether it is more depressing that the story just keeps getting darker and darker for a group of characters I really like, or that is going to take forever to get this translated and published for we poor monolingual fans? You'd think profit motive alone would be enough to inspire the licensees to get in gear and get the translations out while interest is still high...

But I digress...

In all of this sturm and drang, does any of the FMP humor ever surface?

[Taurec]

2 books of angst and fear ......
Still if Kaname is the key to a normalized universe, I think she "sacrifices" herself.

[Moonshadow]

Well, if Kalinin and Leonard get their way, things should reset themselves to line up with our current universe, right? If that happens, Kaname will have never been a whispered, the cold war will have ended, Mithril will have never formed, Tessa and Leonard's parents will still be alive, Kalinin's wife may be alive, and it is quite possible Sousuke will never have been in that plane crash that started his life as a child soldier. It's just a theory, of course, but I could see it going that way if Kaname did, as Taurec suggests, sacrifice herself. Whether or not they'd retain any memory of the FMP storyline is also hard to say. I suspect they would in some way or another.

Just throwing that out there.

[cullenk]

I have wondered myself if things weren't heading for one of those "RahXephon" type endings, where everybody wakes up in an entirely new reality. It might be the very reason FMP is set in an "alternate" reality.

I think I would prefer it if things weren't resolved that way. To me that is sort of hitting a literary reset button and rebooting the whole thing. I guess the advantage to it would be that some of our favorite characters who, apparently, buy the farm could be brought back to a happier ending.

Also, if this thing ends without Sosuke and Kanami winding up together, I think our favorite author might have to go in hiding from enraged shipper fans.

[darkbane]

So two more books... it's not over yet again... but damn, what the heck is Gatoh smoking. The story is getting really depressing but more importantly really cheesy Isn't this supposed to be a light novel for teenagers?!