2022-03-26: Catch a Star

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<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.

The space around Luna has been on edge the past couple of months. The Sleeves have played no small part in it.

The raids have, on their own, not been crippling - but they've come out of nowhere. Sleeves cells have ambushed ships plying the starlanes from randomly-dropped cargo ponds, dealing damage and escaping into the night. That in itself would not have been a problem, if not for the fact that finding the ship that's dropping the pods has been a challenge. Countless heavy transports travel space - and none are exactly advertising their Zeonic connections.

The attacks have had one key effect. They have forced Federation garrisons on Luna to deploy more ships and patrols into open space - and less around the ostensibly well-defended cities.

Places like Amman Shipyard, a surface-based shipbuilding facility near Von Braun City. Irish-class battleships are built here. One of them, the good ship Winish, is not far from her commissioning ceremony, sitting in drydock ready to go. A few bulk transports come and go, guided by indicator lights to docking berths on land, mostly shipping product for other ships on the line.

Traffic is modest today. The largest ship on sight - the bulk transport Ontarian Lyra, out of Riah - is maneuvering its way to a berth.

Until her hatches suddenly burst open and disgorge what is decidedly not cargo.

Mobile suits suddenly flood out of the huge cargo vessel. Beams abruptly spill through Amman as Zaku IVs, Gelgoog IIIs and a few Dom IIIs launch en masse, backed up by a few Geara Zulus. It's a large Sleeves force, and they're going straight for defensive emplacements.

A flash of lilac is among them. The completed Varguil boosts ahead, maneuvering towards the docked Winish.

"Cover the insertion teams and eliminate defensive emplacements. We must take the vessel quickly," Saraven orders, voice quiet but steady. Her thoughts are already pushing outward to digest the situation. It had been a mark of good fortune for her very first broad-scale strategy that nobody had identified the Ontarian Lyra as the carrier of choice, but the attack is still dangerous.

The Varguil whirls and pops off a rifle shot, ripping apart a construction Ball. Behind the lilac machine, an escort team is descending on the Winish - three Gaza-As equipped with cargo packs suitable to carry technicians and spec ops people, and a Low-Zack carrying a large cutter. Tools to break through the ship's airlock and insert a team to seize the ready ship. A tactic Saraven borrowed from Trevor Teach.

She closes her eyes for a moment and exhales. The ship would be a breakthrough in and of itself - a cutting-edge warship perfect for the Sleeves. But there's more.

        If anyone knows what Laplace's Box really is and where it would be, it would be Federation commanders. If this ship's computer has files on it.... 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.

As part of ZAFT showing its support to the Sleeves in return for their own, Lily has offered to return to space to take part of a special cooperative operation. Her EWAC Zack is still in repairs, having taken such significant amounts of damage in her first deployments. Though she's started to wonder why it's been taking this long by now.

Instead, she has remained in her assigned Zenith unit. Wires stick from every part of her pilot suit as she navigates right out of the Ontarian Lyra along with the others. She doesnt' follow right after the Lilac machine however. Instead, it lowers its body further down towards the surface before scattering a large amount of chaff in order to play a defensive role for the Zaku IVs and Gearu Zulus and the like at first. Remaining in the back lines throughout the first deployment of the operation.

The Armored Core then finally lands on the surface, barely standing out as an Armored Core, and begins to thrust rapidly forward to adjust its position towards the Winish. From a distance, using its Longblade Rifle to take out the head of a Guntank as it comes out. The arms following moments later. The girl has gotten a bit better since Saraven last saw her.

The Zenith jumps, jump pack engaging, making small micro-adjustments as the pink colored unit 'flies' as much as its pilot is capable of doing.

    It has been too long since I've floated in space like this. The moon's gravity is not as oppressive as that of earth's
KTS: Murrue Ramius has changed loadout.
KTS: Eight York has deployed in Clop-class Cruiser Ra Mari.
KTS: Eight York has changed loadout.
KTS: Anita Rosetta has deployed in VF-25 Messiah Rosetta <GERWALK Mode>.
KTS: Anita Rosetta has changed loadout. 

<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.

It was nice to vary piracy with some good old fashioned banditry for a little while, but returning to something more familiar is a nice feeling, too.

Among the swarm of familiar Sleeved mobile suits is a decidedly *un*familiar Sleeved mobile suit. In fact, it looks as though this particular machine's Sleeves are a brand new addition. The machine, white and green, had been spotted at least once among these Zeonic rebels, but one or two engagements familiarity does not make. Anyone who would have spent more time near the Asteroid Belt, out in and around Vespa, would likely recognize that insignia emblazoned across its chest, though.

A buzzard, wings spread wide. The emblem of a notorious group of pirates-slash-salvagers, the Vespan Vultures...!

Trevor Teach, pilot of this foreign machine, humms a star-sailor's ditty-- a song sung by generations of Belters, each time drifting just a little from its mournful, sardonic origins. Trevor's is... Distinctly jaunty. The Isadore pulls a lazy roll as it unfolds from its hidden compartment, wings spreading wide.

"But of course, dear Sara. Hit them hard, hit them fast, get away in time for afternoon coffee!" Trevor laughs cheerily, a beam of focused laser light scything across defensive positions from the Isadore's cranial mount. Soldiers scream as their skin is flash-scorched, several others have the misfortune of looking the wrong way at the wrong time, their retinas scorched at a glance. "And if take whatever isn't bolted down if you can carry it. No reason to go home with empty hands if we can't help it!" 

<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.


        The click of boots echo far down the empty passage ways of the ship. The intelligent lighting algorithm she designed for the rebuild and refit of the Archangel was working beyond her efficiency expectatns, something Commanding Officer Murrue Ramius was proud of. Smooth tracking that dims and turns of lights behind and brightens and turns on lights as she moves into an area, allows minimal power systems aside from repairs and Murrue doesn't have to deal with a minor nuisance every time she moves.

        The echo through the long passageways though, that reminds her of the solitude, and of the losses suffered that put the Archangel here. Something punctuated when passing through the damaged areas, or viewing them through larger viewing areas. Murrue begins going over the names, alphabetically once again, of those lost as her hand reaches up to brush the scar on her head.

        High price paid, on both sides, trying to stop the Sleeves, and their new ship. Was it worth it? Had it made the difference? Everything Murrue has been working on in the redesigns, were based on the lessons learned from that fight, but not everything is about hardware. She finishes the names, and enter's the lift to the bridge. Time to run the daily diags.

        Loud in the empty silence, the lift opens and Murrue steps forward. Long glance across the whole bridge. "Rien."

        "Yes. Captain." A digital voice replies.

        "Bring up all the updates. Begin todays system diags. Let's see where our efficiency and integration drops are today."

        As she makes her requests, a new system of holo displays appear, and follow the Captain, remaining in the same peripheral context wherever she turns and looks.
Gary Biaggi 

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.


"Maybe my luck is turning," says Roux Louka as the familiar gray landscape of Luna turns beneath her. "This time they didn't actually sound the alarm while I was in the bathroom..." In this case she is speaking to herself, but it isn't particularly tense because she is in a comfortable seat - her familiar Normal Suit - the operating system correctly re-versioned - and the Z II has been repaired fully, and as far as Roux can tell it is working just as planned.

Until she feels something - smells something - while approaching the contact zone. Roux frowns slightly. "Is that...?"

Yeah, Roux thinks, seeing a lilac flash. Yeah, it is.

"Fingers crossed," Roux says, taking a hand off the controls to do exactly that, "that this is their big push...!"

BECAUSE --

"Wait a minute," Roux says to herself. Her eyes narrow. Then they widen.

"I knew something was up with these tactics," Roux announces. This one is into the Londo Bell tactical network, however tenuous it may be. "A bunch of renegade Zentradi who ran out there to crush and kill and rob! I've fought them before!" (Once, at standoff range, Roux doesn't mention.) "I guess they're showing their hand... Are they the ones behind all this 'Sleeves' activity?" (Someone squawks at her to stop rambling; Roux doesn't respond, but does frown, even as she reaches for the targetting interface.)

And that, dear reader, is why Roux Louka opens fire on the Vespan machine, even at what is a pretty marginal range for a beam rifle. But what if it were instead a *Mega* Beam Rifle? Perhaps that will make the difference.

KTS: Roux Louka targets Trevor Teach with Mega Beam Harassment! 

<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.

What is a 'marginal' range, anyway? It's a joke! Everything can be used at any range for better or for worse as long as you're clever about it!!

A beam of high-energy charged particles lances through the Lunar void, the first of many that would crease the silvery face of Earth's sky this evening. Its colors are almost lost in the overwhelming haze of the moon's argent glow...

But it is absolutely not missed by its target, who is definitely not distracted by images of fine booty dancing in his head. Warnings flash red and yellow across the pirate's displays, but even a split second before then, he's got a curse on his lips. The Isadore's thrusters fire, sending it into a tight, rolling maneuver that absolutely would have worked just fine if it were dodging an ordinary beam rifle.

But this... is a MEGA beam rifle.

"Damn!" Trevor hisses, the peripheral cone of charged particles super-heating its shoulder, melting through the armor plate protecting the joint underneath. "Hah! It looks like they've got a heck of a sniper on their hands!" (This may not in fact be true, maybe you should stop dreaming of loot before you've got it in-hand, Trevor Teach!?) The a flash of violet light erupts as the Isadore's beam cutlass ignites, the frame's thrusters sending it hurtling right at Roux to slap her Z II's waverider mode right across the belly!!

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

It looks like Anita's time to relax is over, it seems, as distress calls regarding a Sleeves ambush reach her. She'd been able to avoid responsibility for a while, but with Londo Bell's relative short-handedness it means that sometimes, things are going to fall her way.

"Anita Rosetta's VF-25 Messiah, launching." Anita calls out, hopping into the cockpit of her trusty machine and tossing a red ball into the passenger seat behind her. It's not just any ball - but a Haro, this one equipped with combat calculation programs. It's a project she's been working on in her spare time. And so, the VF-25 Messiah launches from the deck at high speeds, unfolding into GERWALK mode as it flies and settles just out of range of combat.

"They've got a lot of numbers on their side... Let's see if we can pick out who's special." Anita comments, scanning the area.
KTS: Trevor Teach targets Roux Louka with Cutlass Charge!
KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. 

<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.

Something fast comes cruising in. The Hyperion wasn't actually part of the contingent assigned here, but her captain spotted something in the movement of ships that gave her pause. And so, the good ship Helios comes shooting in, the high-speed escort firing engines at full power and entering the field at high speed, before launching the very best pilot the Hyperion has to offer:

Its Captain.

Sophia's Union Flag surges forward in flight mode, plasma engines surging it even faster than the speedy Helios. "On approach. Move yourself out of engagement range unless you intend to help, Helios."

"Helios shall get out of the Minovsky field and attempt to signal for reinforcements," the Helios' captain says, and Sophia's lips flatten out, unimpressed, as the Helios performs a quite nimble little turn and jets back out of the combat zone. "Of course you will," she says.

The Flag pops open, legs folding down and arms folding up, grabbing its rail rifle as it sweeps into position.

She spots the Varguil, guarding a small team of hijackers. "Ah, so that's your game!" she calls. "Banditry, is it!"

She accompanies that one by leveling the linear rifle at Varguil and squeezing off a shot, the high-speed projectile shining in the night. 

<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.

Saraven had plotted the attack meticulously. The Archangel's presence at dock was noted, but she figured the ship would be under refit and unable to assist in the defense. Apparently work had progressed more than she thought.

Below, the Gaza-As drop towards the Winish, covered by a couple of Gelgoog IIIs. The Low-Zack lands ahead of them and plunges its cutter into the neck of the ship's command tower. Sparks fly as it rapidly carves open the hull, allowing the Gaza-As to clamp down and begin to unload troops. It'll take them time to get going - the Sleeves may be armed, but even a ship under construction has a skeleton crew aboard to defend her.

The Federation forces have time. Time to try and run off the attackers and prevent the capture. But Saraven's not inclined to let them make the most of it. The Varguil ghosts towards the target battleship, monoeye darting from target to target.

Some of them familiar targets. A node of pressure registers through the scratchy pane of Saraven's mental focus well before her sensors pick up the VF-25.

The Varguil cocks its head, and its funnels go soaring off their racks and whirl outward in an erratic pattern. A passing Jegan comes in heroically and gets cored by one of the funnels for its trouble. In mid-launch, Saraven's mind picks up something else. A pressure she recognizes only tangentially--

The Varguil angles subtly backward - and Sophia fires. The projectile tears a line through the lunar void, and Saraven adjusts her controls to turn the tilt into an outright lean. The lilac mobile suit doubles back in a dramatically arched pose as the round sails over it, through the space its chest once occupied, before Saraven taps a control stick and segues into a backflip, up and away, then changing direction with a pulse of thrust to orient forward again.

"...This isn't a game to us," she answers the transmission, quiet and empty of emotion as ever. "If you don't surrender this vessel, we'll take it anyway and probably hurt a lot of people on the way out. Please don't get your people killed trying to stop us."

The funnels come converging in even as she finishes the sentence. Shots shower towards the Union Flag as Saraven tries to herd Sophia away from where the insertion team is working on the Winish. Another couple of funnels range further afield. They dog Anita, trying to catch the Messiah in a crossfire.

"...It's you again," Saraven murmurs. "Where's your captain...?"

KTS: Saraven Vai targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan and Anita Rosetta with Funnel Sweep.
KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Saraven Vai's Funnel Sweep, taking 5640 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 49.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Foresee Spirit Command.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to evade Saraven Vai's Funnel Sweep, taking 4230 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 87.

<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.



        Time slows down and for a moment, lights near by stretch long, infinite, and hang there an eternity. The holo displays suddenly shift in information and a chill moves through Murrue.

        An explosion. Another. Murrue's fingers move in the air but she is interacting as quickly as she can filtering through information, data, memories, feelings. So much at once. Her hands reorganize the displays and continue dancing.

        "Rein."

        "Yes Captain."

        "Begin cycling, prepare to sever shore connection as soon as possible, minimal emergency conditions."

        "Captain, this goes again-" "OVERRIDE! Command Authorization, Ramius Murrue Romeo Seven Delta Two Tango Tango!"

        "Override Accepted. Charging In Process. Power levels increasing."

        "Rein Do we have any missiles stored?"

        "No Captain."

        "Whatever we have, target the non IFF suits and fire now!"

        Unsynchronized fire from partially powered systems of a few guns start firing from the incomplete build of what some may recognize as the Archangel.

KTS: Murrue Ramius targets Lily Jung with Igelstellung' 75mm Automatic Multi-Barrel CIWS!
KTS: Lily Jung has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
KTS: Lily Jung has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.
KTS: Lily Jung fails to evade Murrue Ramius's Igelstellung' 75mm Automatic Multi-Barrel CIWS, taking 2250 damage!
KTS: Lily Jung has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.

Lily watches with a certain level of mesmerization as she feels this 'awakening' upon Luna. It's been a long time since she's spoken or even been around Saraven. And she seems to only have become more amazing. She also remembers meeting Trevor Teach for a short stint just before her deployment to Egypt. She's observing them from low on the surface, pressuring the area with chaff while the Sleeves forces are doing the harder work.

"Warning, Lily! Warning, Lily!" Kuma suddenly declares, as a signal on her HUD pops up. She'd spotted a few battleships that were moored and largely lacking enough manpower to be a threat for this short strike. But one of them has just gone active!

"I see it, Kuma. Spin up the rest of the generator and let's see if the weapon daddy wanted me to test out is a bit better than the older model." Lily answers the Haro as she presses her feet to the foot controls and adjusts the angle of the Zenith, jumping up from the surface and letting the low gravity carry the unit with just a minor thrust, trying to remain below the level where any defensive emplacements would find her easy pickings.

>"Sleeves forces, this is the Zenith! Battleship activation detected. Please be careful of the fourth operation quadrant. Running interference."< Lily declares, just as the CIWS manages to target her Armored Core. The violent bullet-scatter ripples across the metal armor of the Zenith, pushing it back and forcing Lily further to ground before she can properly get control again.

Her heart is beating fast. She has to get used to fighting in Low-G again, and fast. This is a battleship she is up against. And who knows how many support staff it might have available to it. It grips its Longblade Rifle and begins to 'ride' along the surface, kicking up more dusty across it, then speeding back into the dust while distributing more chaff, with the hopes she can disrupt her opponent -- right before getting a lock on the CIWS turret that just shot at her, and firing a violent purple beam of light for it with aid from Kuma on her targetting. The wires across her body begin to light up, and multiple monitors behind her start showing various graphs and status lights as something seems to come to life within the Zenith... slowly.
KTS: Lily Jung targets Murrue Ramius with Miniaturized Longblade Rifle - Attuned Shot!
KTS: Murrue Ramius blocks Lily Jung's Miniaturized Longblade Rifle - Attuned Shot, taking 3240 damage!
KTS: Lily Jung begins a Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

A quick sweep of the battlefield reveals... yup, the Lilac Gale is here. Not unexpected. Anita isn't keen to take her on on her own... but fortunately, it looks like she isn't alone here. She sends a quick message over to the Union Flag.

"Ensign Rosetta, here to help." She broadcasts. She's seen the Union Flag in action before - she figures she's probably in pretty good hands here.

It's surprising, though, that not long after she receives a message from the Varguil - along with a volley of funnel fire. The Messiah twists and turns, but ultimately she's forced to hunker down and raise her shield defensively. The beams still prove rather effective, however. Anita 'hm's to herself briefly.

"That's right." She confirms, and then pauses. "But, uh... no offense, do you really think I'd tell you that?"

Anita presses a few quick buttons on her dashboard.

"But, hey - stay still for just a second. I've got a present for you." She says. The 'present', as it happens, is a signal broadcasted from her machine - one packed full of system-jamming interference to mess with the Varguil's aim. 

<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.

"Indeed? You roll around in the cosmic dirt for the nobility of it?" Sophia snaps back. "At least these soldiers have a cause to die for!"

She pays for her smart mouth; Funnels are hard, and Sophia's skill isn't quite enough to get her out of their sites. Onboard computers chirp in alarm as armor is scorched and pummeled. But she holds on.

"I'll grant you the strategy of it wasn't half bad. Now let's see it's ending!"

She surges, juking hard to the left as she brings up the Linear Rifle. She flicks the charge toggle, then her eyes cut up, a brief image of a bird flickering in her eye. But no, she senses nothing. She's got to rely on her computers and her own marksmanship when the charge hits the red line and she snaps the linear rifle up to snap off a highspeed shot that screams for the Varguil's heart.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Saraven Vai with Linear Rifle Charged Fire!
No channel with that name or alias found.
Incoming attacks:
1: Sophia_Mayhew_Castellan attacking with Linear Rifle Charged Fire (Physical, Ranged, Penetrating)

KTS: Saraven Vai successfully evades Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Rifle Charged Fire

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.


Trevor's thesis has validity -- in a technical sense!! Roux herself would have to admit it - but weapons DO have ranged for which they are OPTIMIZED - and Roux was on the edge of it. Even so, it was a clean hit, despite particle spread.

She pokes out her tongue silently as Trevor hisses, before reorienting as ground is closed and oh wait he's coming towards her and ah shit, Roux thinks, he's not deterred or going to cover! Is it a Zentradi kill-commando!? Are they growing them in tubes!? But no, Roux thinks, if he's coming towards them and isn't part of a larger detachment he must be a military officer, a commander, but--

He's too close!!

The Z-II pivots away at the last moment. This mostly keeps Trevor from getting a crippling or frame-killing blow. He cleaves off nearly a ton of metal armoring and cowling and much of an entire structure with some kind of ammunition in it; it flies off, smashing into the ground as Roux panic-pulls the transformation lever. (The severed chunk explodes, several seconds later.)

The Z-II shifts round -- something hitches and Roux's heart skips a beat - but then all-clear signals as the machine's Mobile Suit mode is achieved. An error message suggests maybe not trying to do it the other way right now, and also -

This close, Roux reaches back to pull out the Clay Bazooka, firing it at the Isadore; the shell bursts to release a shower of submunitions! ANTI-PIRATE submunitions. "Go back to the Belt!" Roux shouts at Trevor, even while swerving to try and pull away from the improvised Federal lines. ("Damn, damn, are those warehouses empty? Please say yes--")

<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.

"Lily, please be cautious," Saraven advises as a transmission comes through. Her tone's as quiet as ever.

When Anita answers her, Saraven dips her eyelids ever so slightly. "I suppose I don't," she murmurs, only to raise her eyebrows sharply as her sensors suddenly choke with the haze and crackle of Anita's jamming. Outwardly quiet, she reacts by pulling her machine back a little and trying to gain a bit of room.

She pushes out with something other than her radars. With her mind. Closing her eyes, she draws a slow breath, then lets it out.

        ...I \see it...
                ...I can see time...

Again Sophia lines her up, but there's a sudden flicker of movement as the Varguil whirls and sweeps to the right - a split-second before Sophia pulls the trigger. Her trajectory was perfect for a Varguil that was a few metres to the right a couple of seconds ago. The lilac machine had the shot scouted, somehow. The round rips past, narrowly missing, and Saraven rips past with a boom of thrusters.

"...I don't understand why you think there's any dirt here. You're the one defending the oppression of space," Saraven transmits, voice still level even as the Varguil drops towards the Winish's upper deck, then rebounds towards the hull of a medium transport docked nearby. Back aboard the battleship, the Gaza-As have docked. The pair of Gelgoogs stand guard, firing a few shots at passing Jegans but counting on Saraven to protect the insertion team.

Saraven presses her lips together. Her sensors are useless through the jamming; she relies on feel. The mental beacons of Sophia and Anita pulse in the haze of her thoughts, images of birds projecting out in front of her like ghosts as she raises the Varguil's beam rifle. "So long as the privileged few continue to impose their will on the many who live in space, the Independent Principality of Zeon will be needed," she murmurs, voice picked up over the comm. "That's why we're taking this ship. You don't deserve to turn this weapon on spacenoids anymore."

She fires, once, twice, thrice. Magenta energy lances etch sharp paths through the shipyard, two aimed to try and catch Sophia and a third to try and punch through Anita's VF. They're shots aimed at forcing them to the outsides of the theatre, away from the Winish.
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Anita Rosetta with Long Beam Rifle Shot!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Long Beam Rifle Tracking Shot!
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Anita Rosetta fails to evade Saraven Vai's Long Beam Rifle Shot, taking 3200 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 80. 

<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.



        The light arc of the CWIS is brief as it only contained the remaining rounds that were left in the system, and the magazines were emptied for the repairs. Murrue watches the enhanced image ofthe strike on the mobile suit. It's a type she is unfamilier with, and there's no satisfaction in it. Murrue doesn't wait to see what happens, she's already moving for the next step.

        "Rien gimme something."

        "Captain I am optimizing the startup for severing shore power, I can-"

        "Rien stop- I don't want or need explanations and excuses. Are there enemies on your sensors?"

        "Yes Captain."

        "Get me something stop them."

        Rather than a voice prompt, some of the displays shift on their own, and a targeting window prompts. Automatic targeting is down, so it's up to the Murrue, to try her hand at gunners mate. She tosses herself firmly into her seat and brings up the targeting controls. "Good girl Rien." Murrue hits the firing sequence and the computers cross wiring of systems blasts out at the unfamiliar suit and the Lilac leader.

<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.

ANTI-PIRATE SUBMUNITIONS!?!?

"What the heck!? Where did you get those!?" Trevor shouts, apparently... recognizing... the style of submunitions exploding out of Roux's bazooka shell. Again he goes to try and evade, but this time he doesn't even manage a bare dodge. A barrage of heavy, metal globes slam into the Isadore's frame, tearing chunks out of its armor. Sparks and flame begin to gutter from the gaping holes, the mech grasping at its wound as if it had been struck by some manner of BANE WEAPON.

...

Anti-Pirate Submunitions... probably aren't real. They probably can't hurt you, right?

R-right??

"Ugh, I'm gettin' careless! I haven't seen warcrimes like that thing since-- how did you know!?" Because she's a cop, and they had a near miss once upon a time, and his general demeanor absolutely screams 'HI I'M A PIRATE.' Like, look at his cut-in mugshot, he's literally wearing a patch over his left eye! Notably, he's... not green? Aren't all Zents supposed to be green!? (No, but he may or may not have been born in a tube regardless.) "What are you, some kind of spacecop from out near the rim? Are things so bad in here that the Feds are pulling in the space highway patrol now!?"

Despite its accumulating damage, the Isadore is absolutely still in this fight. A snub-nosed weapon launches into its free hand. A keen eye would recognize it as being some kind of heavily modified beam spreadgun.

...With what appears to be an E-Cap magazine. And a flared, snub-nose barrel!?

"I'm not here for sightseeing, you damn blueshirt!" Trevor shouts, his weird gun glowing like a baleful sun. He... Absolutely does not disengage while it charges, instead surging in closer, into what Roux would call effective range for some kind of shotgun.

Because that's what this is.

This is a beam shotgun, pirate style.

...At least the pirate seems to be trying to avoid ploughing directly into some of those warehouses? Maybe he suspects that they're full of lootable treasure...!?
KTS: Trevor Teach targets Roux Louka with Beam Spread Snapshot!
KTS: Trevor Teach rattles Roux Louka, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Roux Louka fails to evade Trevor Teach's Beam Spread Snapshot, taking 5330 damage!
KTS: Trevor Teach begins a Formation attack! 

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Hmm. So that's what you're after, huh?" Anita murmurs consideringly in response to Varguil. "...Sure sucks for all the people you're killing to get there, though."

The Varguil's weapon fires three times - twice for the flag, once for her. Anita tries to dodge out of the way, but it manages to clip her wing. The pinpoint barrier system comes along just in time to prevent damage to the wing itself, but the energy draw is no joke. Anita frowns to herself in her cockpit.

"...Right. Chart a course, I'm closing in." She says. The red Haro behind her chirps in response.

"Get 'em! Get 'em!" It responds, and movement data floods into the Messiah's system. She follows it to the letter, briefly folding back into Fighter mode to accelerate and close the distance between herself and the Varguil at high speeds before unfolding and drawing her combat knife in a swift, sweeping motion - an acrobatic pirouette designed to keep the enemy guessing and off balance.

KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Saraven Vai
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Saraven Vai with Acrobatic Sweep!
KTS: Saraven Vai retreats from the attack!
KTS: Saraven Vai successfully avoids Anita Rosetta's Acrobatic Sweep

<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.

>"I won't let you down, Sara! This is important to you and your people."< Lily answers Saraven with that same bright light she's come to be used to when interacting with Lily. The girl's upbeat nature seems not to have changed much, even if it's been strained by war. But the potency at which she answers Saraven on that level as a NewType seems to have increased noticably. She was always a bright light, but something seems to be enhancing her 'voice' regardless of the distance between them in that moment.

Of course, this unfortunate claim of not letting Saravai down is followed up by the enemy ship firing its large beam weapon suddenly charging for a wide position. On the ground as she is right in that moment, she has limited evasive options. Either go up, or go to the sides. Backing up is not an option when it comes to beam weapons! But against all of those, she picks another option.

Kuma alerts her of a limit of angle of the incoming weapon charge, so the Zenith 250 suddenly hits all of its thrusters! The heavy suit around Lily puffs up like a full body airbag. Each part of her body covered as it suddenly rockets forward at its top-speed, as Lohengrin's blasts irradiate the area with their powerful beams. The girl grabs hold of the shield her unit carries and tries to bring it forward to halt part of the blast as it skates under the attack. Part of its armor melting from the sheer force of the ship-scale weapon, before her unit seems to 'disappear', the reactive-armor shield detonating and disrupting the area while chaff detonates out!

This puts her momentarily in the blindspot of the Archangel, while the girl is panting and shivering. She's reading all of the damage readouts. Just a few km/h short, and she would have been a goner. She touches her chest for a moment, her heart racing, her suit slimming down again as she approaches closer to the port and then finally presses down - pedal releasing, and the unit bursting up into the air as its body spin-twists.

For a moment, the unit flies. The spin creating a beautiful display as the intakes of the thrusters pulls dust and debris in, creating the shimmering display of silver sand against the glimmer of the sun. Its silver 'wings' of mist showing but for a moment as Lily lets out a breath and tries to release her stress...

"Let's make true on our promise." As the unit suddenly darts straight down, under the scope of the CIWS, and the unit's Longblade Rifle activates and shows why it's the LongBLADE Rifle. The powerful beam weapon cutting as she attempts to tear off its power generation coming from the ground, before it bursts up again in another twist of movement. Another burst of the verniers, as Lily shows that the Flamingo is starting to learn how to fly...

And uses its other arm to take out a second miniaturized Longblade Rifle and fires straight down in the position she'd just cut, the purple warping beam powerful enough to bend metal.

"Don't let them focus on Saravai. I have to make myself a bigger target, Kuma."
KTS: Lily Jung targets Murrue Ramius with Miniaturized Longblade Rifle - Blade and Beam - Combo! 

<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.

Sophia snaps her Defense Rod up this time, and the rotating staff on her Flag's arm bats away or disrupts the beam rifle shots, scattering them into (comparatively) harmless clouds of particles. "Is that how you see it?" Sophia wonders. "Fighting in the name of ghosts. Not even in the name of their true ideals! Merely the trash they fed the masses! Weakness!"

And, seeing the way Saraven is driving her, she takes a gamble. She flicks a button, starting a slow charge on one of her linear weapons, and then whips out the sonic blade from its forearm compartment, shining metal in the night. She boosts forward at speed, charging toward Saravai's machine with weapon drawn back. "You'll never claim what you desire with so frail a dream!!" she roars!
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Saraven Vai with Sonic Blade Drive!
KTS: [Lucky] Saraven Vai's Clutch Foresight activates, and luck goes her way!
KTS: Saraven Vai successfully evades Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Sonic Blade Drive

<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.

Saraven's battle plan clearly underestimated the functionality of the Archangel.

With her instruments still struggling to reboot through a haze of jamming, Saraven has to rely on her thoughts to keep ahead of the waves of firepower. The ship below sends blasts her way, and she maneuvers through a few of them, but two more rip past and slice into the armour covering the Varguil's right leg. Another shot pelts the machine in the shoulder, sending it into a sickening spiral. Closing her eyes, Saraven focuses and moves her hands.

Her instincts see her through. The Varguil recovers from its spin adeptly. The lilac machine pivots, just in time for another presence to push into her thoughts.

"...People die in war," she answers Anita quietly. "What's unforgivable is...."

She can't finish the sentence; the VF is on her. Anita jabs with the combat knife, and the Varguil is forced to give ground, darting back and juking from side to side to keep Anita from stabbig it in important parts. Chest verniers fire as Saraven gains distance, whirling and pivoting away, finally ducking a knife swing with millimetres to spare and jetting past Anita to let the other woman's momentum work against her. The Varguil catches a chunk of debris - what's left of a Jegan - and shoves it in front of itself to slow Anita down a little more.

"...the people who have died because of the Federation's actions," she continues. "Starving spacenoids with food production quotas. Using nuclear weapons on Junius Seven. That's why I don't understand you." She doesn't sound angry, nor even fired up. "You said you're from space... but you fight to preserve your own oppression.

"Why?"

Her plans to go on at length are cut short when Sophia comes at her, full of fire and defiance. With her focus split, it seems for all the world like the Union Flag will score the hit its pilot deserves. The other machine bears down, sonic blade reaching out.

And at the very last second, Saraven *reacts.*

The Varguil brings its arm up and rolls. As if in slow motion, the Union Flag sweeps past it. The Varguil's backpack actually scrapes the Flag's shoulder as Saraven spins with improbable grace and reaction time.

And then she's bursting past, thrusters aflame as she chugs out to regain distance. She lets out a soft breath, sagging slightly in her seat.

"...You hate Zeon, don't you," she transmits, focus on Sophia. "I don't know how we hurt you... but I can see how much you hate. I'm sorry. I don't hate you."

As she pivots, Saraven finds herself at a point roughly equidistant between Sophia and Anita. She closes her eyes and unloads, letting her funnels come back into the fray - from outside the pincer.

The attack comes from behind and from the flanks, a surprising burst of firepower tearing at Anita's VF. Funnels, speeding in to try and blow past her like a gale, then continuing on to try and catch the flag in a crossfire. Saraven draws the Varguil back to add a couple of rifle shots. Her eyes open again, steady and calm. "Maybe hate makes it easier... but I don't feel things like that."

Below, the insertion team keeps working. Flickers of light can barely be made out against one of the Winish's portholes. A firefight going on inside.
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Anita Rosetta with Funnel Strike!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Funnel All-Range Attack!

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.


"From your mother!" Roux answers Trevor on pure blind antagonism as the shell discharges. It isn't a kill, damn it, she thinks as the Z II's thrusters fire, gaining the air quickly in Luna's weaker gravity.

"Do you even know what a war crime is?!" Roux continues, laden with hot blood. As a signal comes in on the interfaced comms, Roux's own does too - her helmet hides her long hair but the look of a woman with disgust in her eyes is clear. (Disgust comes easily to Roux Louka, somehow.) "I'm not a COP, jackass, I'm a contractor and YOU are a pirate AND ALSO I've figured out your entire scheme! You vultures are - hgnh-"

A passing wave of PRESSURE from a funnel - not looking at her but in the area - shuts Roux up. She then spots -- Ah, and she realizes what happened even as the Z II brings up an arm that, notably, does NOT have an adapted Jegan shield on it.

THWACK! With smouldering spots on the armor plate in six different places, the Z II slams downwards, moving to ground between two warehouse structures on the outer fringes of the shipbuilding zone.

That long rifle is still in the Z II's hands; it comes up and pops off several shots at him. Full power shots! Wait, shouldn't the E-cap be getting drained?! Aha, that's why it's mega-- direct reactor linkage. (To herself, Roux mutters, "Yeah, I can do that TOO, you pirate --")

KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Trevor Teach with Mega Beam Rifle Volley!
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Anita Rosetta's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Anita Rosetta fails to evade Saraven Vai's Funnel Strike, taking 3630 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 112.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan blocks Saraven Vai's Funnel All-Range Attack, taking 4840 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 155. 

<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.



        The blast wreaked more havok on the Archangel than the damage elsewhere. The force of the single lohengren provides so much thrust that the Capital ship destorys its moorings, flying back until the walls of the dock itself provide enough resitance to stop her. The angle was high enough that none of Von Braun City was damaged beyond that.

        The Archangel is another story, repairs are permanently set back. The ships systems crash into darkness, and Murrue is at a loss. "Rien!"

        "RIEN!!"

        No answer. Murrue pulls out a physical input display and begins checking system. "Shore power was cut. Ships reserves are... Dammit."

        Murrue pours over a console, setting up an automated program, and estimating a time. She takes a few breaths before activating the timer. A count down pops up and she races for the ladder, avoiding the lift.

        The countdown continues as Murrue is hurrying into a dark, deliberately opaque space suit. It's a struggle, hurrying while trying not to screw up, and that's why drills are run over and over.

        Zip.

        Clip.

        Shunk.

        Hiss.

        Murrue checks her device once more, trying to be sure which ship they seem to be after. "Ok Rami, Distance. Trajectory. Lets do it...." With the minimal of thruster use, Murrue maneuvers to some scrap hull, and once under cover of it, she connects her device to the cameras of the dock, to use as her eyes.

        Captain Ramius propulses herself as scrap, over to the Winish as the countdown finishes, and the Archangel lets of a last barrage, blowing out it's remaining systems with explosions being seen all across her open scars.

        The beautiful warrior lady, wounded mortally, keels over in the dock, and lays dead... burning. Murrue Ramius can't look back to her ship, the stealth helmet of the suit hides any emotion even from herself.
KTS: Murrue Ramius has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
KTS: Murrue Ramius has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
KTS: Murrue Ramius has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
KTS: Murrue Ramius targets Saraven Vai with Archangel Increased Barrage! 

<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.

"I am pretty sure I know what a war crime is!! I'm an EXPERT at crimes!!" Trevor shouts in angry reply. This is, actually, a pretty comfortable situation too. Not being shot at or anything, because that is absolutely NOT comfortable. But Roux is blasted away! She slams into the ground. Amidst a plume of dust, Trevor almost slaps himself across the face when, in a fit of madness, asks: "Did that do it...?"

Nope!

In a strange mirror of one another's unfortunate fates, Trevor, too, is blasted by a flare of beam-based buckshot. The beams lance out of the swirling dust, turning grey ash to so much glass. The pirate's eyes tighten as he goes to maneuver, but too late. Again, beams carve into the Isadore's body. Again, it seems to stagger...

And then its blue optics flare red with anger. The machine, for a moment, feels angry. "And for the record, I'm not a pirate!" Trevor answers, somehow overhearing that self-whispered quip. Roux can tell exactly why. This sensation, this pressure, the not-pirate... is a newtype!! A weird one, though. For a moment there, it seemed as though there were actually two newtypes aboard that green-white mobile suit. But now, there's just one. One, still brandishing that beam cannon.

...One which has been loaded with a fresh E-Cap.

One, which is glowing along the seams in a manner that suggests it's absolutely burning through the entire capacitor in one shot. "I'm Trevor Teach, TREASURE HUNTER!!"

(And wanted pirate)

(Also he's shooting a column of charged particles that looks capable of punching a hole straight through the hull of a battleship, straight at the Z II! How rude!!)
KTS: Trevor Teach targets Roux Louka with Hullbreaker Shot! 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.

In the end, there is no way for a small Zenith 250 to remotely keep up with a capital ship that has decided to activate its thrusters and perform some kind of last-farewell kind of attack aimed at Lily's allies, as much as she'd like to.

SARAH

Lily's shout may not push through the Minovsky radiation over the Radio, but it doesn't have to. The girl's loud NewType presence pushes out to try and warn Saraven while the Archangel is still charging its weapon, before a new Laser link can even be established!

Luckily, it seems that the Archangel's attack deactivates the ship for the time being, allowing her to rejoin her allies, the Zenith returning towards the battlefield while grimacing at the fact that she failed to draw its attention as she'd wished to do. 

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Are you justifying that to me, or yourself?" Anita replies casually. She listens as Saraven continues, then - taking a moment to respectfully duck around the wreckage of a Jegan as its interposed between herself and her target, even if it stalls her attack.

"...Really putting the spotlight on me, huh?" Anita comments. "...I'm not going to sit here and say the Federation is perfect and spotless. Junius Seven was..."

She trails off, shaking her head. She doesn't really need to say anything further on that subject.

"...But that's ignoring all the people inside who are trying to make things better, day by day."

The Varguil begins to move and Anita has to pause for a moment to track its movements.

"...And, sorry, but nothing I've seen from your Zeon makes me think they'll be any better for us, either." Anita says.

The funnels come for her again. Anita tries to dodge, but they're too quick, too pointed - she winces as the beams sear across her barrier.

Long-range combat doesn't work. Close-range hasn't been the greatest, either, but that's where she's had the most luck so she charts another course before charging in again. This time, she doesn't do anything fancy - the shoulder-mounted beam cannon unfolds and begins to charge as she closes in, unleashing a blast at close range.

<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.

"Tcheh!" Sophia scoffs, as Varguil swerves. SHe had her dead to rights, but...Shaking her head, she swings her Defense Rod again, but against an all-angle Funnel assault, the clever Defense Rod is of minimal use. She manages to cover some angles, but she's still battered afterward, with little to show for it. With the charge complete, the Flag shifts postures, legs swinging up and arms crunching in as it blasts away at high speed, zooming off! Is she retreating?!

"Zeon? I can't say I hate Zeon," she says. "But I do hate the cowardice of hiding behind a failed name! What Zeon was is gone! Submit yourself to reality or vanish like dust!"

The Flag whips around, flipping a fairly high-G turn to line up a shot not from the nose-mounted linear rifle, but something under what amounts to one of the wings.

And then the entire thing slows down from the force of firing a LINEAR CANNON, a massive accelerated ROD firing from the underbelly of the Flag toward the Varguil!
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Saraven Vai
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Saraven Vai with Targeted Beam Cannon Blast!
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Attune Spirit Command.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Saraven Vai with Linear Cannon Precision Shot!

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.


"That's exactly what a pirate would say!" Roux answers Trevor. But --

-- this pressure, she thinks. It's not the Lilac, it's him? Her eyes widen for a moment. There is a sense of a sort of faltering. Roux is rallying to say something. Perhaps a plea for peace, but it's a moot point because he's shooting downwards at her and Roux throws the Z-II to the side --

And the entire left leg disappears!!

Well, not the entire thing; consider it to be 'the foot and part of the shin' - but the heat transmission vaporizes more metal and the resulting damage echoes upwards with several loud BANGS on the cockpit structure as the Gundam's panoramic cockpit flickers, sizzles, and in some places peels slightly.

Roux struggles with what thrust remains as the reactor shuts down, which mostly means that the Gundam ends up smashing down sideways into a loading dock lot, grasping onto the Mega Beam Rifle with both hands. It is a forlorn and surreal thing, if it wasn't for being key to modern warfare!

This is also when a squad of local infantry vault out of the loading dock, landing partially athwart the MS. One of them has an anti-MS rocket launcher, which fires another submunition cluster upwards.

There may be some minor farce when they get the cockpit open and Roux has her sidearm out, but in Roux's defense, at least, she's never been in THIS situation before.

KTS: Saraven Vai has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Saraven Vai successfully evades Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Precision Shot 

<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.

"I mean, I am also a pirate," Trevor answers over the blinding glare of his gun. "But when you say it, it just sounds like you're calling me garbage or something, and that just ain't polite," there's a moment of attempted contact. An instant where, across the void, two souls nearly make some kind of connection...

And then they both have something more to deal with. Roux, the work of dodging out of the way of an anti-battleship shot. Trevor, the panic of hurling his overheating E-Cap into the void of space for it to explode (relatively) harmlessly. "Ugh. These repairs ain't gonna be--" Also a thing Trevor needs to deal with: some goons shooting an anti-MS bazooka at him! "Ghh-- Come on, you ingrates! I'm not so craven as to shoot a lady when she's down!"

The marines don't care. Trevor is forced to leap back away from the cloud of submunitions, lifting that claw-mounted arm in a defensive maneuver to absorb the worst of the incoming blast. Still, it serves its purpose, the pirate is driven back...!

"Sara," he calls over tightbanded comms, "How're you holdin' up? I heard a big boom back there, everything good?"

<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.

She can't entirely focus on other fights, but from the way the Archangel seems to be in the process of exploding, Saraven's pretty convinced that Lily's come far.

She's also pretty convinced that the ship has quite a few guns on it. Guns that are making her life significantly harder. She presses her lips together, darting and pivoting to try and elude the hail of blasts rising from the damaged ship, but even seeing the time comes to naught. The crossfire catches her, a solid hit sending the Varguil tumbling and blowing a plate off its waist. Sparks dance through the lunar vacuum behind it.

Saraven jolts in her cockpit, wincing as she's slammed back in her seat hard enough that the back of her helmet strikes her headrest hard. She winces as pain shoots through her, but tenses to try and push it aside. The mental shout across the battlefield rings through her mind.

        I'm alright... I'm alright.

With her radio alive with hostile chatter, Saraven has little time to carry on a brain conversation. The Varguil's sensors steadily wink back into full function as the machine's OS overcomes the worst of the jamming, leaving her to track both Anita and Sophia with both systems and mind. She bites her lower lip and pinwheels off to one side, but the hits from the Archangel catch up with her; one of the Varguil's verniers sputters, and she winces as she's again hit, this time by Anita bearing down into close range. She's rocked back in her seat again as the VF's blast carves a scar into the Varguil's upper left shoulder.

She gives herself a shake, orienting away a moment before giving Anita's machine a pensive look. "Do you honestly think," she asks quietly, "that I wake up in the morning thinking that I would like the world to be worse? Because if the world were not what it is, Zeon could die in peace."

She shakes her head. "But so long as the people of space are trapped by Earth's gravity... I have to fight." It's as much to Sophia as it is to Anita, even as the Union Flag pulls off a dizzying turn. In Saraven's mind, what takes place is almost mathematical. An intuitive understanding of how momentum and gravity work in space. A knowledge of how hard that turn must be on the human body. An awareness of how fast a human can react. And the Varguil...

...tumbles forward. It almost somersaults in space. As if to flip over Anita's VF.

It creates an unfortunate triangulation shadow: Anita is suddenly in Sophia's line of fire. The shot veers just wide. It couldn't not. To aim closer would be to hit a friendly. Saraven tumbles through the Anita-shaped shot shadow, sparing herself a hit before jetting out to the opposite side of Anita and blazing off into open space again. Descending, she drops towards the target she's really got in mind.

The deck of the Winish. A deck that is beginning to come to life. The ship's thrusters pulse - and as she begins to inch forward, the docking clamps holding her in place strain and begin to tear off their moorings.

The Zeon crew have the helm. They are beginning to launch the ship.

"A defending ship was disabled," Saraven answers Trevor. "We need to cover the target. If we can get it out of here, we may learn something about the Box...."

Even as she reports, she's bringing her rifle around and lining up the target that's yelled the loudest at her. Sophia. She can see the blurred shape of the Union Flag extending before her. Possibilities lining up in her vision, projecting out possible futures.

She picks just one. Fires two shots, placed right where she presumes Sophia will be. Swings to put another one towards Anita's Messiah.

"I came to the Earth Sphere to create a new reality," Saraven says, once again transmitting to the pair. "That's why I exist. The one vanishing like dust...

"...will be the Earth Federation's tyranny."
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Long Beam Rifle Charged Shot!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Anita Rosetta with Long Beam Rifle Tracking Shot!
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Anita Rosetta's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Anita Rosetta fails to evade Saraven Vai's Long Beam Rifle Tracking Shot, taking 4680 damage!
KTS: Anita Rosetta's VF-25 Messiah Rosetta <GERWALK Mode> has been disabled.
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 102. 

<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.



        Contrary to what some may believe, an officer in the Federation doesn't just have blanket access to each others ships and quarters. However there are means and ways of access. Murrue Ramius has skills of her own as it were.

        Now the young Commanding Officer of Twisted Metal is a stowaway aboard a stolen ship. She tries to think of some, Hail Mary play. Blow the suits of the deck in an emergency purge, anything. But she hasn't got one.

        Murrue tries to make her way unseen to the med bay. She has one idea, just one, if she can get there unseen... Murrue begins taking off her rank insignia, ditching the space suit as she goes.

        Almost there...

        DUCK!

        Breathe slow...

        Left... left... straight

        It's right down the hall, two more doors. 

<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.

"I'm pretty beat up, but intact. In decent enough shape to pull escort duty," Trevor tightbands. It's a very, VERY near thing. The Isadore is, frankly, holding on by a thread. But it's going to have to retreat /anyway/, so doing so while using their new ship as cover/covering their new ship's own retreat isn't a terrible idea.

Sparking, armor shot to hell, the Isadore's optics fade once more to a gentle light-blue as it moves to alight inside the Winish's AA window. "You get home safe too, alright? Don't want to pick up a boat just to find the Lilac Gale isn't filling our sails."

Its beam cannon might be wrecked, but the Isadore has other tools available to it. What looks to be an oversized rivet gun, for instance-- and that overpowered targeting laser.

This time... it looks like he's going to have to go without a trophy. But that's fine. They've got one hell of a haul to bring home anyway. 

<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.

Saraven has her dead to rights: Sophia, for all she talks like a smug extremist, indeed does hold her shot that precious millisecond to avoid hitting a friendly, and it's a heartbeat that costs her the hit. Sophia hisses, preparing another shot, but...

Saraven spears her; once on the underbelly of the machine. The Flag swerves wildly aside. The Defense Rod can't help in flight mode; she goes tumbling, a dizzying aileron roll before she regains control. Her sensors screaming at her that combat must be concluded.

She closes her eyes, grabbing for the flight controls.

...she doesn't reply to that one. The Flag's engines flare, and it fires off away from the field.

She opens a channel. "Helios," she says. "Notify command we lost the Winish."

"Already done, Captain~" the captain of the Helios all but trills, causing Sophia's eyes to lid. Oh good, he's going to be smug about it, she thinks. 

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"I don't think I said that. I'm sure you think you're doing the right thing. I just don't trust your Zeon, is all." Anita replies with a shrug. "...Though really, I don't know what you think. You're, like... impossible for me to read."

She's generally pretty good at reading people. ...But, she's no psychic - someone like Saraven is difficult for her to get a bead on.

She feels momentarily proud, though, that she manages to land a hit - even just a scar.

Unfortunately, the rest of the fight doesn't go so well - there's a gulf of experience between them that's difficult to cross, and eventually, it makes the difference - Saraven's aimed shot strikes the Messiah dead-center, sending the VF reeling back. Anita grits her teeth.

"Danger! Danger!" The Haro in her passenger seat warns... and, the little robot is right. The pinpoint barrier system is offline from that last shot and, what's more, the Winish is starting to move. She gets the feeling it's probably not because the crew fought off the attackers.

"That's why you exist, huh...? Then what happens to you when that's done, I wonder...?" Anita considers. She doesn't wait for an answer. Instead, the machine flips backward out of range and into Fighter Mode, speeding off in a retreat. 

<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.

Lips pressed together, Saraven watches the Union Flag pull away from the field. She doesn't feel particularly good about it.

One could end that sentence at 'she doesn't feel.' Saraven looks down at herself a moment, then up once more with a slow breath through her nose.

        Their emotions are always so intense.
        If I could feel like that, would I hate them too...?

        'You're, like, impossible for me to read.'

Saraven looks out after Anita, saying nothing. She can feel the spark of frustration as the VF retreats. The experience gap is far greater than age could imply.

She knows all too well why it is. She doesn't want to think about it. She just watches the VF retreat, lowering her head and closing her eyes with a slow breath.

"...Trevor, Lily, they're giving us a window," she finally transmits. "We need to take it."

The Varguil descends, coming to a landing on the Winish's foredeck. The ship's thrusters rumble - and with a sickening twisting of metal, the mooring arms holding the Winish in place tear out of their mounts. Torn wires and the remnants of airlock struts hang from the ship as it begins to ascend. The insertion mobile suits cling to her spine like parasites even as another few Geara Zulus come to landings aboard the ship, covering her retreat.

The Ontarian Lyra ascends after her. The ship took several hits in the fighting and is visibly pouring smoke from a huge gash in her side. The damage is one thing; the anonymity is another, entirely lost in the operation. Mars Zeon's discreet freighter has lost its cover in exchange for a battleship.

A ship that's leaving with unexpected cargo.

Murrue will find the crew aboard to be mostly rough-around-the-edges Zeonic folk. The skeleton crew from the Federation shipyard are mostly dead or injured and imprisoned. The Archangel's captain isn't recognized.

She will, at least, be able to catch a snippet of a conversation as a Zeon officer moves to the command chair. "There aren't any comm codes. Tapping into their network won't be possible," he reports.

The communication is visual. On the screen, Murrue can see the Lilac Gale taking off her helmet to reveal a girl of perhaps eighteen or nineteen, dark-haired and outwardly emotionless. "Do you have access to the database?"

"Yes," the bearded officer reports. "It'll take some time to go through it."

"Prioritize it," the Lilac Gale says quietly. "We need to know more about Laplace's Box."

The Winish continues on her way - in Zeon hands, yet with Murrue Ramius aboard....

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