Once Vanguard's fuel meter has been emptied for the fourth, and final, time in the game, Maiboto will start moving forward of its own accord, as the text "THE FINAL MISSION!!!" appears on the screen; you will now have to move to the right as you come to four Jirai that are floating back and forth in front of you. Once you have fired enough bullets at each of them to kill them (they cannot be driven over because they will explode), you will have to move to the left, then move back to the right, as you come to four more Jirai that are floating back and forth in front of you - and once you've fired enough bullets at each of these to kill them (again, they can't be driven over), you will have to choose either the western or eastern path. If you chose the western path, you will come up to a ninth Jirai, that is floating back and forth in front of you; once you've fired enough bullets at this one to kill it (once again, it can't be driven over), it will explode. However, if you chose that eastern path, you will come to two more Jirai, that are floating back and forth in front of you - and once you've fired enough bullets at both of these, to kill them (for a different third time, they can't be driven over), they will explode. You will then have to move to the right if you chose the western path (or left if you chose the eastern path) as you come to an eleventh (or tenth) Jirai that is floating back and forth in front of you; once you have fired enough bullets at it to kill it (yet again, it cannot be driven over), Maiboto will crash into the gate of a big building in front of it, which will vibrate for a few seconds before exploding. The image of the exploded building will then fade out into monochrome as the game's ending theme starts to be heard from the Yamaha YM-2151 - and you will first be treated to a passage from the unknown writer's In the Cold Morning of August, followed by a list of schematics for Vanguard, and finally the game's staff roll, before that image of that building fades back out into colour again:
After the credits have finished, the game will go into high-score mode; your score will most likely be the highest one on the cabinet to date so you should enter your name (up to eleven characters) at the top of the table with pride. Once you have done so, the speech sample "You're a General" will be heard from the DAC (for those of you who do not know it, this game used five different military titles - "Private", "Sergeant", "Captain", "Colonel", and "General", to reward players' accomplishments on its high-score table), and the tank-like logo above the table (which says "THANKS"; it also says "RANKER" when the table is displayed in the game's attract mode, and "CHARGE" on the game's start screen) will then fire a shot as the word "GENERAL" appears on it.