Mario never faced an APC

Chapter 9 was rather plot heavy with a relatively small mission.

During a grand gala (not of the galloping variety), the queen announces in an unenthusiastic tone that will be joining forces with western Europe to not only drive out the invading east but to conquer them too. This is odd considering that the independent country the story takes place is normally strongly neutral to both sides, and has no interest in merging or expanding it's territory.

It's soon revealed that it's all a plan by the west to take over everything, and the queen did not approve but was bullied into it by her advisers. Then in an odd move the ambassador of the west tries to kidnap the queen, and Welkin's squad has to save her. If he had just left things going as they were the west would have controlled the country without opposition within a matter of time, but the kidnapping ruined the unification plans and set back any future attempts at a union. The mission was pretty straight forwards, it only took me a couple of tries to figure out the movements of the APC the queen was in and then send a couple of gunners to shoot out it's engine.

After that a new side story unlocked where the main characters went to the beach to relax, with equal parts character advancement and fan service. Also a new menu section opened for the metals and awards collected during the game, I guess it was meant to be like Achievements before the PS3 had trophies.