2022-06-21: Corrective Action
- Log: Corrective Action
- Cast: Alexis Kerib, Shinji Ikari, Misato Katsuragi, Alloy Kaas (Alouette "Alloy" Kaas), Rei Ayanami, Liam 7-020, Ouka Nagisa, Guy Shishioh, Asuka Shikinami Langley
- Where: Tokyo-3, OCU Japan
- OOC - IC Date: June 21, 0096 (2022)
- Summary: A massive kaiju appears abruptly on top of Tokyo-3 and immediately attacks. Can the city's defenders fend it off--and where did it come from in the first place?
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
NERV isn't in chaos -- it's a practical, durable institution with a robust chain of command. That's why it had to absorb or liaise with almost every other anti-alien and anti-science criminal project on the planet, you see; its durability is proven and it only becomes more durable by absorbing other chains of command.
An administrator here, an affiliated research lab there, an OCU liaison somewhere else. Assassination attempts, attacks -- the works. The pseudo-national institution persists and continues to function regardless. Is that not the beauty of humanity -- short-lived as it is, it is capable of creating things that survive any individual member?
Just how far can that go, though? When you have a sufficiently large organization, at what point does the chaos have a greater impact than any other issue?
Tokyo-3 has been designed to withstand any assault, or so the common wisdom goes. Its tall buildings and numerous missile stations do seem to suggest there's some reality to that assertion. Even the Angels have merely tested its defenses, not overcome them.
Today, those defenses will be tested again. Tokyo-3 receives no warning. There is no approach to speak of.
One moment, there is nothing. The next moment, a 400-meter-tall crag juts from the Earth. Its silhouette would no doubt hold some familiarity for many members of NERV; this is the fourth documented kaiju of Tsutsujidai, or at least shares its silhouette.
That kaiju had volcanoes, though. This kaiju, on the other hand, mounts -- in those same spots -- enormous cannon arrays, like those you might expect of a battleship. They recall the third documented kaiju of Tsutsujidai, and of the set, its most anomalous; that one, STORAGE classified as potentially originating on this side of the dimensional wall.
On close inspection, the head has changed shape, subtly, as well; this, too, accords with that third, anomalous kaiju, the 'Last Judgmenter.' A slimmer maw; a more distinctly separate head section; a draconic shape, as opposed to the fourth's almost froglike mouth.
Gill'yavec -- a marriage of Go'yavec and Gillvalis, just as its apparent predecessor was between Mecha-Trembulor and Gonglee -- is nothing quite so much as terrain. Even so, that terrain moves. Two enormous cannon shots ring out; a massive foot stomps into the ground and begins to burrow.
How had something of such massive scope snuck into Tokyo-3 instantaneously?
More importantly: what does it hope to achieve?
"It really wouldn't do to let the Fifth feel so confident stomping around in God's domain," Alexis muses to himself, looking out at the ensuing chaos. "We'll see what the rest of them can do, I suppose."
"Mate in... hm... I believe this ought to be roughly forty?" Alexis never did develop the greatest gamesense.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"Is this my fault?" Shinji Ikari asks himself, as alarm klaxons scream. He has long learned how to be smothered by self doubt and get dressed for combat at the same time. Shinji made contact, recently, with an enemy pilot who was visited by the theorized 'Devil' of Tsutsujidai and offered a deal. This information is, as far as Shinji knows, the greatest break in the Tsutsujidai case they've achieved, and he was literally on his way to inform Kaworu Nagisa about it when the administrator was shot.
When everything started to go to hell. What's that they say? Speak the Devil's name and draw his ire? Is all of this, all the wounded, the dead, the damage to the city because he pushed a case too far?
The guilt screams in Shinji Ikari's chest as he looks at the damage: Tokyo-03 is a fortress city but has a very specific battle plan in mind. If that thing goes directly for the buildings as they're still being evacuated, if it burrows into the shelters. All because he wanted to play hero.
"Third!" Big Suzu, one of the technicians shouts, "They're ready for you!"
"Yeah." Shinji says, closing the plug suit wrist seal with a click. "Guess I'll give them what they came for."
The bonding process with Unit-01 is rough; it's been upset with him lately, Shinji somehow knows, and disappointed to boot. The fight on the moon was sloppy, something gnaws into his brain, and we got people hurt. Well nature designed eggs to break, Shinji, who takes a slow, calming breath to try and placate the sudden violent feelings. He knows (has been told) they are his own, enhanced and twisted by the lobotomized but still active brain of the Evangelion. It only feels what he feels, but moreso, and more directly. It's all his fault, in other words.
Unit-01's hand clenches into a fist, crushing a five million gilla restraint coupling like cheap cardboard. The machine flicks the metal contemptuously towards the great 'scrap heap' dug out of the naked rock and covered in battleship class blast shielding technology to hold the damage the Evangelions constantly do to the base. The technicians scurry to work, and with a heartstopping crackle, Unit-01 is launched from the Geofront and into Tokyo-03 itself. The city it was built to protect.
Evangelion looks up at the hybrid kaiju, as a hollow combat building cracks open, revealing Shinji's preferred gattling cannon. Unit-01 straps the leather shoulder brace into place, nano-wave mesh sealing around Unit-01's shoulder to provide support as both hands are used to lift the canon. It spins with an unholy whirring sound as pellets scream from Unit-01 towards the living island.
Shinji Ikari doesn't have any clever combat banter, his hands steady as they press on the controls.
<Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
MIsato Katsuragi has been ready to join the fight. While she can only do so much against an Angel, the fact of the matter is is that the kids are facing way more than just the Angels. They're facing assassins and other kaiju and perhaps most dangerous of all: Improperly prepared birthday parties. So Misato was happy to get the new ship so she could give a helping hand to her team beyond simply a 'you got this!' and some terrain manipulation in Tokyo III. She may be a Lt. Colonel but she feels most at home on the field. It is, after all, where she grew up. She's fine with comfy beds though, they aren't too soft for her.
She expected more time. She was sitting in the ready room, finally placing the finishing touch of a photograph of the Two Kids on the desk, picking it up to study it just like captains do moments before they explode in any film with a battleship commander. She smiles as she recalls the day she took that photo. Shinji made some smart aleck comment and Asuka's scowl deepened 3 degrees lower than normal. She's so very proud of them.
Next to them, slightly more prominently, is a second photograph of Pen Pen giving the camera a salute professionally. Misato salutes Pen Pen back. She opens her mouth to say something to the effigies only for a kaiju to appear with no warning.
"Motherfuck--! We're getting attacked by volcanos??"
NOW
Misato Katsuragi is in uniform on the bridge as the Gill'yavec comes on screen. "Makes the Spiral Moon look like a mosquito." She says to the crew. "Guess this is the perfect test. Let's get out there."
"Lets take a quick shot to get its attention." Misato says as the main cannon glows--
--and fires a quick burst of plasma from its main cannon towards the Kaiju!
She isn't really the speech giving kind of captain so she just says, "Don't do anything crazy," She has hypocritically. "We could still be hit by an Angel attack at any time. It's a big guy so we'll take it down methodically."
KTS: Misato Katsuragi targets Alexis Kerib with Quick-Shot! KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Alexis Kerib with Progressive Gatling Cannon Area Denial! <Pose Tracker> Alouette Kaas has posed.
Alouette had been somewhere deeper inside NERV HQ. A place as ignored as unknown, a crawl space only accessible by removing rusty panels and not being claustrophobic. The silhouette on the tablet reacts at the same time Alouette does when the alarms sound.
"You have your orders."
"Orders received."Alouette closes the secret line and deletes all logs and traces, before unplugging from her line tap. It's a practiced patience that she moves through each step carefully to eliminate evidence, and egress from her position to get to Null-Sigma carefully, not quickly.
""Slow is fast." The old idiom from her beginning time at the firing line runs through her head as she seals the panel and makes her rush to the EVA bays.
Alouette spares no time and cuts no corners getting into her plug suit, checking the fit and connection of her head gear, before exiting the changing rooms and getting into the her Unit Null-Sigma. She looks at the clock.
0 1 : 3 8
It's already been an eternity in terms of battle. Just a few more seconds...
Alouette is running through the checks, cross chatter with the command team in HQ as the plug locks into the EVA. Colors flash and the distinct taste of the liquid changing phase as synchronization occurs. Alouette grips the controls and settles into that spot, the one that feels just right. Every pilot has it. Evangleion Unit Null-Sigma launches, the LCL deadens the G-Forces. She exits through into the bay, and grabs the power connector, hooking herself in.
""UNit Null-Sigma, Online: Connection is Green. Beginning Operations."
Alouette checks her monitors and shifts a few of them around for efficiency, trying as quic as she can to get an idea of whats going on. She opens an analysis window.
""Alouette to all, anyone got data on center of gravity for this thing?"
KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Misato Katsuragi's Quick-Shot, taking 2460 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Shinji Ikari's Progressive Gatling Cannon Area Denial, taking 1050 damage! KTS: Shinji Ikari: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Shinji Ikari begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Rei Ayanami had hoped, one day, to go to the Moon, but this was not what she had had in mind.
Rei has either been unfortunately subdued or has reverted to type, depending on how you look at it. EVA-00 had been loaded into the Spiral Moon for flight operations testings and so on and so forth - the Evangelion *itself* had done most of the work. By being present. An experimental body.
Rei has not said anything today.
The Spiral Moon's bridge, even if well designed, is of necessity not as large as the command center in the Geofront. Rei, in her plugsuit, watches the screens. She sees -- Go'yavec? It's -
She blinks several times. The world seems to come closer into focus.
"Ayanami!" someone shouts. Rei turns her head.
SHIGERU AOBA, GUITAR HERO
is looking at her, wearing a headset. He pauses to shout something down to the cannon energy crew. Then back to her. "You fought that thing, right?"
Rei looks. "..."
Aoba begins to make a disgusted face, though he is polite enough to turn in his seat and check the power flow board before --
"No," Rei says. "It was not like this, before."
Rei folds her arms in front of herself, still seated.
"Yeah?! What's the difference? Did it have a weak spot or anything?" Aoba asks.
"... It's difficult... It did not have the cannon..."
"Unit 01! Unit NS!" Aoba conveys outwards. "Try to flank it."
Rei, thus prompted, starts to dig in unpleasant memories. (The inevitable pop-up view of Lt. Aoba shows Rei, who is pretty easy to spot, sitting in a chair behind him and facing forwards.)
KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Alexis Kerib with Pass! KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Rei Ayanami's Pass, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Last Friday, Liam went to a concert with Lucine--the same one Kaworu would've gone to if he hadn't been ambushed and grievously wounded by an assassin. Lucine had the rough details courtesy of the Nadesico's other crew, and told him after the concert. With her help, he managed to get back to his apartment without shutting down from fear, but he hasn't left for four days.
It feels like the universe is doing its best to make him regret ever leaving the Crucible. Liam is a weapon. He should not fear violence. And yet, he feels deeply, profoundly unsafe.
One of the guards assigned to him suggested simulator training in the Geofront. Under their watchful eye, he settled into the simulated cockpit of a Dark Bushnell and fought other machines until he felt himself going numb. He was cutting an arm off a Tiangong-3 when the alarm klaxons started wailing--all of them.
Liam could only smile a hollow smile as he opened the simulator door and made for the hangar.
Most of Tokyo-3's defensive infrastructure is built with Evangelions in mind, but in this age of combined arms, other machines sortie with them, too. A smaller launch catapult fires deep beneath the city; reinforced blast doors pull apart, and catapult rails extend. The gleaming, gold-and silver form of the Proto Helios rockets into the air, jets burning hot beneath it.
In the cockpit, Liam stands suspended by nanofiber crash restraints attached to his Trace Suit. Coolant cables trail from the back of his neck into the machinery behind him. He keeps his legs tensed, and the Gundam flies, soaring over the buildings towards the colossal kaiju. "Target sighted and engaged," Liam says, his voice still but intense. The Proto Helios twists forwards, and then drops out of the air. Plasma vents from its right heel, forming a burning blue-white aura as Liam falls in a rolling axe kick at the creature's head.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Alexis Kerib with Basic Strike! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Liam 7-020's Basic Strike, taking 1260 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Alexis Kerib <Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
~*Earlier*~
'There are always more candidates...'
A metallic drawer slides open, revealing a folded outfit formed of a material superficially similar to the lycra used in modern wetsuits. As the suit is drawn from the drawer though it is revealed that it is stretched out... comically so - its dark blue and black material apparently lacking any elasticity.
'Well, not everyone can fly one. The are dangerous...'
After the suit is donned, its wearer does as she was instructed and presses one of the buttons located on the wrist. With a hiss, and a rush of air, the material contracts suddenly and snugly around her body! The resulting movement causes her long, straight dark green hair to flourish dramatically across her body. When the swirling mass of tresses finally settles, 'Au1' can be seen written in bright red against the dark blue backplate of the plugsuit.
But this one has been customized, and made just for her. A boxy attachment fits atop the right side of her chest, and leads coated in black run across her chest and around to her back. She can feel the cold hard metal of defibrillator contract plates pressing directly against her skin: One just below her left breast, and the other on her back just below her left shoulder blade. An anterior/posterior positioning... just in case...
'And how long would it take to train those candidates? Make sure their synch ratio is at acceptable levels?'
Aurum-1 dutifully steps into the plug, settling down into the pilot's chair, and at the press of a button the chamber closes around her revealing the letters 'GxD System: Test Prototype' have been stenciled across its door in black. From outside the Pribnow Box, Dr. Cero's brow knits in worry as he watches through the camera as orange fluid fills the vessel within which Ouka has been placed.
'Get them actual combat experience against an Angel?'
The regretfully familiar smell of blood floods her nostrils as she reaches forward to rest her hands upon the control sticks for the plug. Today wasn't a battle test, she knew, but a test to see if she could interface with or control the simulation bodies at all. But as she closes her eyes she thinks back on the battle with Jophiel. The desperate, last ditch struggle against the slow rolling implacable horror drawn forth by skeletal monstrosities. And her small part in the whole affair...
'Or... at all. It's not a quick process.
The test entry plug is activated, Aurum-1's eyes shoot open and in a reflexive gasp she releases the last breath of air she didn't know she was holding in her lungs.
~*Now*~
The tests within the Pribnow Box were just coming to an end, with Dr. Cero just advising Ouka that she would be excused from all further testing for the day, when suddenly alarms start blaring throughout the facility. Before he has a chance to stop her, she is already running from the room and moving toward a hangar. He knows she couldn't have stopped her, even if he wanted to. Nothing short of a direct order from Setme or Koch would have.
She will fight... for Seolla, for Arado, for as long as she still has air in her lungs.
... and even when she doesn't.
Within minutes the First Boosted child is climbing into one of the newer mass produced units supplied to both G-Hound and NERV: The GAT-01D Long Dagger. In this case, given the reported size of the enemy approaching, she has of course opted to have it equipped with the Fortresta equipment which makes the relatively svelte Long Dagger look like and imposing bruiser. Snapping an optional helmet down over her head, Ouka closes the cockpit of her mobile unit and moves toward the launch rail.
In a few instants, the First Boosted Child accelerated toward the battlefield! And at that moment she sees it: The 400-meter-tall moving crag, an impossibly massive being that could be most easily described as a mountain learning to walk just in time to also learn how to hate.
"Aurum-1 reporting to the conflict zone. I am moving to form up with the Spiral Moon and provide assistance as fire support. Streaming incoming hostile data and providing an initial tactical analysis to all nearby units!"
The Long Dagger Fortresta is as big as it is slow, but it is equipped with some heavy duty firepower. Firepower heavy enough... or so she hopes, to be able to do something to take down this beast. Her primary concern though is to maintain tactical uplinks with her allies to ensure none of them are caught in the fury of her assaults.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa arrives loaded onto Misato Katsuragi's combat deck! KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Liam 7-020, Misato Katsuragi, Guy Shishioh, Shinji Ikari, and Alouette Kaas with Awe. KTS: Ouka Nagisa inspires awe, increasing Shinji Ikari's Morale! KTS: Ouka Nagisa inspires awe, increasing Misato Katsuragi's Morale! KTS: Ouka Nagisa inspires awe, increasing Guy Shishioh's Morale!
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
When Guy Shishioh last saw Administrator Kaworu Nagisa, he saw a young man bleeding out - and received some key information. He hasn't yet had the chance to deal with that yet.
And doesn't get it today, either. Guy's up on Orbit Base - doing as a Chief must, making plans and discussing strategy with the 3G Blue team. With Renais electing not to jump straight into 3G Green, he remains the only member. But...
An alarm signal sounds in the Main Orbit Room, and Guy and 3G Blue Chief Shigeru turn as one to look at the front screen. "What's going on, Hana?" Guy calls over.
"Th, there's a signal coming from Tokyo-03! M, m, maximum urgency!" she stammers out. Her gloved fingers fly across the consoles to push the signal up to the main view, and the whole room gasps. "Reports are it just showed up out of nowhere!"
Guy's eyes narrow and cut to Shigeru, who is looking at him much the same way. "Unusual," Guy mutters.
"No good," Shigeru replies.
"I'll head out now. Tell them GaoFighGar will be there right away!" Guy yells, then turns on his heels and dashes for the doors.
"Roger!" Hana thumbs the comm switch and grasps her headset. "Tokyo-3 defense team, this is Orbit Base! GaoFighGar is on his way!"
Mere minutes later, several shapes break what clouds haven't already been scattered: PhantomGao, the Gao Machines, all of them in formation and making a bee line for Tokyo-3. Behind them, looming large, is Division X: Mobile Execution Fortress Wadatsumi, bearing the Branch Order Room and the main 3G operations personnel.
"How did something like that get into Tokyo-3 unnoticed?" Advisor Yang mutters, his eyes narrowing with focus and concern. "Even a spatial warp should have given more warning than this!"
"Intelligence is gathering sensor data for the last four hours now," the old man at the Intelligence station says, then flinches and grimaces. "Ah, my back..."
Chief Shigeru Akamatsu says, "Let us know as soon as you have something, Yamaji. For now, Hatsuno! Has Shishioh--"
Her station lights up, and she sucks in a deep breath. "Ah," Akamatsu says. "There it is."
"Final Fusion approval received! Final Fusion!" Hana calls, swiftly keying in the approval that Guy himself both requested and sent. The individual GaoMachine and pilot trackers switch over to Fusion state on her screen, as she swings both arms up and DRIVES them into the safety plastic, yelling: "Program Drive, ENGAGE!"
An electromagnetic whirlwind roars into being over Tokyo-3 as the GaoMachines fold and dock with PhantomGao. Seconds pass within, before the tornado spins apart, and emerging from it at full velocity is the mighty King of Braves!
"GAO! FIGH! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" Guy screams, as he rears back and drives a spinning Broken fist into the side of the massive mountain-sized Kaiju, declaring his arrival and assault at once!
KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Alexis Kerib with Broken Fist! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Guy Shishioh's Broken Fist, taking 1140 damage! KTS: Guy Shishioh has engaged Alexis Kerib KTS: Ouka Nagisa inspires awe, increasing Alouette Kaas's Morale! <Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Speaking of new features that Gill'yavec has that Maga-Go'yavec didn't:
A barrier of pure light hums to life in front of -- no, all around, upon closer inspection -- the monstrous mountain. It's not unpierceable, but it *is* thick enough that it's much like fighting an Angel -- a stubborn creature indeed, and one that shows no signs of stopping. Barrages of bullets pare down to trickles; beam shots thin and divert, as NERV's new carrier and its Commander's pride and joy take the first shots.
Liam's axe kick slows to a crawl as it has to dig through the barrier -- but does meet head, leaving rubble to fall. Guy fares about the same -- he does make it to the crag and take a chunk out, but there's a lot of chunks.
Alexis receives a text. He remains unhurried, so he mentally reviews it. Hm? Akane wants to have him stop by for...
... dinner?
He can make the time, he supposes, though not right this second. Nevertheless, he mentally sends back a simple:
"Of course. Let me know when you've decided where you want to eat."
For now, though, Gill'yavec lets out a mighty roar as its first maneuver. It'd be easy for people on the ground to assume it's just that: a roar, loud enough to leave a haze through the sky. No sooner has it done that, though, than do the units farther away from Gill'yavec start reporting random targeting tweaks, sensor failures, blown out panels -- the works. For Gillvalis, this was a more targeted attack, able to take *control* of a machine; here, it's just chaos.
It's the two that got *close* that receive the real meat of Gill'yavec's ire, though. The kaiju has two front claws the size of city parks, and it has every intention of using them to stomp its closest aggressors into the ground.
KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Misato Katsuragi with Valis Dominale Shot! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Shinji Ikari with Valis Dominale Shot! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Alouette Kaas with Valis Dominale Shot! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Alouette Kaas with Valis Dominale Shot! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Guy Shishioh with Go'yavec Squish! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Liam 7-020 with Go'yavec Squish! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Ouka Nagisa with Valis Dominale Shot! KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari successfully evades Alexis Kerib's Valis Dominale Shot KTS: Ouka Nagisa inspires awe, increasing Liam 7-020's Morale! KTS: Alouette Kaas's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Alouette Kaas blocks Alexis Kerib's Valis Dominale Shot, taking 4392 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib begins a Formation attack! KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Liam 7-020, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Liam 7-020 parries Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Squish, taking 1920 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Liam 7-020 KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Ouka Nagisa, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Ouka Nagisa fails to evade Alexis Kerib's Valis Dominale Shot, taking 4392 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Alexis Kerib begins a Formation attack! KTS: Misato Katsuragi blocks Alexis Kerib's Valis Dominale Shot, taking 4392 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib begins a Formation attack! KTS: Guy Shishioh's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Guy Shishioh, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Guy Shishioh blocks Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Squish, taking 5580 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Guy Shishioh <Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
Unexpectedly, Gill'yavec simply roars and sensor failors and panels start exploding out of nowhere. Misato grimaces. It's already not looking too great for the Spiral Moon if it's having this much trouble with a Kaiju. Its defenses seem real tough too. Aoba chats with Rei as Misato considers what her next play should be. Aoba provides his own session even as she's studying what screens that remain up. "Alright, Aurum-1 We're going to be heading to the other side. Spread out, hit hard! Doesn't look like it's trying real hard to deter you from getting in close."
The Spiral Moon starts turning, flying towards one of the beast's sides, aiming to take a different route than Shinji who is on the other side. "We'll get you a nice clear view of it so give it your best shot. We won't be this far in for a while."
She looks to a helmsman. "Activate N2 Barrier before the beast shuts down the controls."
She exhales as energy coalesces near the center cannon, firing a sharper burst down the middle as it nears.
KTS: Misato Katsuragi targets Alexis Kerib with Mid Cannon Burst! No channel with that name or alias found.
KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Misato Katsuragi's Mid Cannon Burst, taking 1410 damage! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 74. KTS: Misato Katsuragi has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Ouka Nagisa <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Unit-01 is as graceful and elegant as Shinji Ikari is clumsy and awkward; the killing machine dances between the defense buildings like a murderous ballet, avoiding obvious catches for its power cord and getting behind a shield building just in time for the great Gun Island's cannon impacts it. The building is immediately atomized.
Unit-01 is untouched
"Roger." Shinji says when Aboa gives him some orders, as if he knows a goddamn thing. Shinji obeys anyway, moving Unit-01 to the left in an attempted flanking maneuver, mostly because he is not eager to get close with this thing again.
'Why'. Shinji Ikari whispers in his own ear, green eyes pinpricks of hate, 'We've killed it before. Both of them. It fears us. It is here for us. It hit Misato. Why are you running away?'
"Strategy." Shinji says, aloud, but it's okay, Shinji sometimes just says stuff. He looks up at Ouka's entrance and immediately compensates for her fire, dancing around the predicted range of attacks and bringing the Prog-Gat up again. "Going to try and cripple one of those cannons." It like us up close, Shinji thinks, so just be patient.
His mouth waters and he doesn't know why. Unit-01 raises its weapon and fires directly at one of the beast's cannon-pores, trying to cripple it.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Alexis Kerib with Progressive Gatling Cannon Barrage! <Pose Tracker> Alouette Kaas has posed.
"Null-Sigma copies."
Alouette plunges the EVA from just below the surface to twenty meters. Using the extra appendages for additional propulsion Null-Sigma races towards the surface. Alouette plotted an intercept course to deliver a kinetic impact from a flanking position, charging from depth.
Her charge is cut short, and the EVA is knocked off course. Deflected sixty degrees to the side and keeping her in the water, alarms start blaring with warnings and damage reports popping up all over her periphery.
""Unit Null-Sigma! Damage take from target, maneuver interrupted! Status: Recovered, Engaging enemy from vector one-seven-one pattern Rho!"
Alouette clears alarms and checks, grips the controls tightly. There is a thump. Like a heartbeat. In her chest? In her head? Is it the EVA? There is/was a momentary spin and sense of vertigo. Null-Sigma itself seemed to be reacting to the Kaiju.
In all her combat, in the former Middle East, with Angels, this had never happened before. Something about this creature was stirring Null-Sigma. Alouette squeezes the controls tighter, pulling her EVA closer to herself. The plug feels like it shrinks for just a moment, and then it erupts forward.
Evangelion Unit Null-Sigma, Alouette Kass, Explode out of the water flying twenty, thirty meters in the air like Michael Jordan dunking a ball... And it hits the ground in a fury charge. The appendages hold close to the body, the human arms free as normal to continue the flat out run.
And the charge goes right at the foot of the Kaiju. It may be the size of a park, but an EVA doesn't have a small stride. When Null-Sigma sees it, the Barrier stands between, and Null Sigma itself lets out a scream as it lets out with all appendages, in a spinning attack as it leaps to break through and tear at that foot.
KTS: Alouette Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Alouette Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Alouette Kaas targets Alexis Kerib with Spines of Raking! KTS: Shinji Ikari rattles Alexis Kerib, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Shinji Ikari's Progressive Gatling Cannon Barrage, taking 4130 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Alouette Kaas's Spines of Raking, taking 6380 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alouette Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Alouette Kaas has engaged Alexis Kerib
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
"This data doesn't match our previous readings at all!" Research Operative Tamara calls in the Branch Order Room. "It matches Designation Go'yavec but also has traits from Designation Gillvalis."
Intelligence Operator Yamaji grumbles, scratching his head unhappily. "And their origins should be totally different. They shouldn't have a single source able to merge their designs so completely."
Advisor Yang folds his hands, fingers pressed tight together as he watches the battle play out. "Laser cannons in place of magma launchers. A barrier field. The digital signals encoded in that scream. Not even Bionet could fuse two unrelated entities so completely, so quickly. Just what are we dealing with..."
Akamatsu scowls, arms crossed.
Down below, Guy throws the Protect Wall up in an attempt to divert the tremendous GIRTH flying toward him, but Gill'yavec just has too much MASS for that; he crushes through the layers of warped space with gravity to spare, driving GaoFighGar down to and then into the pavement, Guy screaming from the impact.
It's seconds before Guy rams GaoFighGar's hands into the rim of the crater he's been dumped into, his vision flawed through GaoFighGar's cracked lenses. "It's even stronger than last time," he hisses. "But I won't give up here! There's people who live here!"
He rears his arm back, screaming, "PROGRAM RING! PLUS!" and then as the Ring Projector in GaoFighGar's chest spins forward a floating golden Program Ring, Guy fires the Broken Magnum through it, ring and rocket punch flying to drill deep into Gill'yavec's mountainous hide. "BROKEN PHANTOM!"
KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Alexis Kerib with Broken Phantom! KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Guy Shishioh's Broken Phantom, taking 4230 damage! <Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
As was mentioned previously... the Long Dagger Fortresta is hardly the most agile mobile unit available. It's particularly hard for it to move out of the way of an attack, especially one it can't even see! Still Ouka maneuvers her unit to try and exceed maximum distance while reaching for the Spiral Moon, only for her various displays and even her HUD to begin wavering and sparking. A few display panels burst outward, spraying sparks across the First Boosted Child and her helmet.
Ouka's stays on course though, maneuvering through the streets of Tokyo-3, and even defying her unit's lack of agility to leap up several nearby structures until finally managing to go airborne long enough to land on the combat deck of the Spiral Moon!!
'Alright, Aurum-1 We're going to be heading to the other side. Spread out, hit hard! Doesn't look like it's trying real hard to deter you from getting in close.'
"Acknowledged!" Ouka's unit is careful to adjust its positioning as to not be knocked off while the Spiral Moon turns beneath her.
She waits until the optimum moment, bracing herself further as she aims her 115mm Cannon directly at the massive beast. Truthfully you'd think it would be hard to miss a beast so gigantic. But Ouka knows better. Best to take one lethal shot than a half dozen snap shots that miss...
"Aurum-1, firing full salvo!"
A thunderous rapport rises from the Long Dagger's shoulder mounted cannon as it fires round after roung into the mountainous kaiju. As Misato ordered, she's hitting it with everything she has got...
... she can only hope the captain of her vessel is prepared for the ire that may earn them both.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Alexis Kerib with 115mm Cannon Barrage! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Ouka Nagisa's 115mm Cannon Barrage, taking 2900 damage! <Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
"N2-class barrier, unfurling!" Aoba shouts back to Misato.
Rei Ayanami hears the roar of the creature in a strange double-echo -- the roar as rendered in the Spiral Moon's systems and the faint actual echo of the thing-in-itself.
Rei's eyes flick to the incoming whirlwind - GaoFighGar. The smaller machines moving to support EVA-01 and EVA-NS. She blinks several times. For a moment she wonders what day of the week it is, and if that market will be open --
"Kaas! Try to disable its mobility!" Aoba says in the communication system. "If we can get it to hold still we can rip the barrier down!" This better go into my promotion record, thinks Shigeru Aoba, who has ambitions of making captain almost entirely for the upshift in the housing selection.
Aoba then turns slightly in order to have an animated conversation with missile battery control officers in the Geofront. As he does, Rei turns her head and advances forwards, moving towards what she must recognize as a camera.
It takes her several seconds, and she puts a hand on Lt. Aoba's back to avoid falling over, making him suddenly freeze in mortal terror as Rei says, almost whispers, to the camera.
"Ikari," she says. "Can you hear me?"
"Nagisa," she says. "Can you hear me?"
"The tail," Rei says. "It will kill you with the tail."
Aoba struggles to straighten up, but Rei herself does at this point, leaving Aoba to stare into the camera and say, "-- Do it!" Because he absolutely didn't hear what Rei said.
KTS: Rei Ayanami has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari KTS: Rei Ayanami has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Ouka Nagisa KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Alexis Kerib with Pass! KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The Proto Helios' heel slams into something, and drags. Liam holds the pose, standing on one leg with the other extended; he can see the air shimmering, but it doesn't have the telltale geometric patterns of an AT Field. Whatever this is, it is not an Angel. Small mercies. As the Gundam's foot connects with the kaiju proper, the Trace system feeds back into Liam's cybernetics. A hit of dopamine for a successful strike, with a sharp chaser of adrenaline.
As rock crumbles to the distant pavement, Liam smiles a grim, determined smile.
The Gundam ricochets off Gill'yavec's head, twisting into a mid-air backflip. Plasma trails from its vents like the tail of a comet; it hits ground with a crunch, and the tarmac begins to heat up beneath its feet. The air shimmers around it, a visible heat-haze building already. It looks up--
And Gill'yavec's claw comes racing down, backed by the kaiju's impossible, mountainous mass. Liam's face twists into a look of raw, hollow-eyed defiance. Lights ignite on his Trace Suit as the Proto Helios' electromagnetic bottle doubles, then triples in strength. Nearby magnetic objects--crushed, abandoned cars, municipal piping, light poles--race towards the Gundam, smashed together under tremendous heat and intense magnetic force into... something.
A spear, almost twice the height of the Proto Helios itself. Liam's machine grabs it with both hands, drives it forwards. For a few seconds, the Proto Helios catches that tremdnous claw, and holds it--though the hideous screams of tortured metal indicate it's taking everything it has.
The Gundam skids out from under the kaiju's foot, sparking at the elbows and waist. Liam grits his teeth and fights through the pain, another surge of adrenaline spiking through his head. He throws the improvised spear aside, where it shatters. Vents splay open across the Gundam's back, and a bright shard-like plasma knife ignites in his hand. With a wordless roar, Liam leaps into the air again, trying to jump up onto the kaiju's back--the better to target the cannons with a vicious stab.
KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Alexis Kerib with SUNBURST - Starshard Knife! KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Rei Ayanami's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Liam 7-020's SUNBURST - Starshard Knife, taking 4370 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Alexis Kerib
<Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Shirou Matsumoto is a resident of Tokyo-3, working as a Soba Delivery Boy. It's not his favorite job, but it's one of the few he can get only owning a motorized scooter. He has few other assets, an apartment the size of a closet, and no real prospects for the future. However... today... is a good day for him...
"LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING!?" Snapping picture after picture with his vintage camera from a distance few people would label as safe without necessitating a psych eval, astride his motorized scooter, he exults, "I am going to get SO MANY likes!"
... you see, Shirou Matsumoto is a Kaiju enthusiast, who moved to Tokyo-3 simply for the fact that the fortress attacks. The mere speculation of how well his pictures are going to do on the web is making him giddy.
However... Shirou Matsumoto doesn't know, that right now... the true monster lurks. As a middle school girl dashes up to him, arms pumping. "STOP-" And promptly stops, pivoting on a single leg with a quick hop as, roundhouse kicks him off his scooter. "-RUBBERNECKING YOU LOSER!" Mounting it while still standing, she engages the clutches and shifts into gears, tearing off as fast as she can push the engine. "Also I'm taking this - Official NERV business!"
... it is no longer a good day, for Shirou Matsumoto. As he watches his scooter go, and discovers his camera is now busted up, he rolls over in time to learn the identity of the beast. "Was that... a fucking middle school girl?"
Yes, the true monster, do try to keep up.
"Asuka, where are you!? We're under attack!" Maya announces over her phone, which she has on speaker, "You think I don't realize!? I do have eyes you know!" "How far away are you?" "ETA-5 - have my plugsuit ready for me in the Cage."
When she hits the Geofront... she tears down the tunnel and hits the ground running.
-=-=-
"Evangelion Unit-02 launching." Evangelion Unit-02 launches straight from its cage to the center of the city, shackled to the womb at the heart of NERV. Not having to reorient at all. After all, who could miss that!? The Evangelion starts to run towards it, buildings erupting from the ground like stairs, the crossbow in her hands humming with life. "I cannot." The trigger is pulled. "Believe." Again. "This happens." Yet again. "WHILE I AM ON THE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN!"
Yeah she's a bit upset.
The crossbow bolts fire off in a sequence from afar, so fast they're more like a flash of lightning than anything actually physical.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has deployed in Evangelion Unit-02. POT: Asuka Shikinami Langley is no longer set observer. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Alexis Kerib with Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow Barrage! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Asuka Shikinami Langley's Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow Barrage, taking 3500 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
At the very least, people do begin to overwhelm -- or outright bypass -- the barrier of Gillvalis. Misato's vessel fires a cannon burst that leaves it wobbling; it's Shinji's gatling cannon that leaves real pits in that mountain, though. Its tail comes forward and to one side, moving to block -- that killing tail Ayanami talks about -- but it's not quite enough, even with Valis Luce.
Alouette's Evangelion tears at that foot with its spines, and *really* rips into it; Gill'yavec actually rears back a little, leaving it open in turn to the drilling fist of GaoFighGar. It lets out a low-pitched wail -- and then begins to round on everything else. Valis Luce holds against the Fortestra's barrage -- its full salvo leaves only tiny pits in the dirt. The beast continues to lumber forward and dig down -- toward Terminal Dogma.
It's not an Angel... how does it even know where it's going?
The Gundam Fighter climbing onto the kaiju's back proves a solid plan -- it's more difficult, though not impossible, for Gill'yavec to use the Valis Luce at that range. That stab carves into the earth.
Akane can wait a little longer. Alexis wants to see some pain -- new, interesting pain!
Akane's is getting a little stale. He knows how to reheat it -- but that part of the exercise needs to wait until *after* this one.
The tail orients toward Shinji and humanity's decisive anti-Angel weapon; it's not a spike this time, though.
It's an emplacement.
A heavy penetrator missile -- really more of a slug, at the speeds it travels; certainly there's no warhead, though it has that missile shape -- fires out toward humanity's anti-Angel defensive weapon. Up close, Gill'yavec stays aggressive with Guy; Alouette gets added to its target list thanks to those devastating attacks, and the kaiju moves to crush them with the full weight of its body. (Guy gets it a little less bad; Broken Phantom isn't *as* committal a move, after all.
Liam gets the treatment of a particularly insistent flea; one of the kaiju's limbs comes to try to scratch him off of it. Between swipes, Ouka and Misato receive straightforward, conventional fireball blasts from one of the few volcanoes still volcano-shaped on the kaiju's body. It doesn't *lack* those; there are just fewer, and better-hidden, lava receptors.
Asuka swings in at the last second. All the teal panels on Alexis's face light up, far away; Go'yavec carves off some of the pain of her crossbow bolts with the Valis Luce, though those lightning flashes do manage to set greenery ablaze and pockmark the dirt. She gets the same treatment as Shinji's Evangelion: a blast from the massive penetrator on the tail.
KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Shinji Ikari with Gillvalis Heavy Cannons Penetrator! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Alouette Kaas with Go'yavec Flatten! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Guy Shishioh with Go'yavec Crush! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Liam 7-020 with Go'yavec Claw Swipes! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Misato Katsuragi with Go'yavec Fireball Blast! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Ouka Nagisa with Go'yavec Fireball Blast! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Gillvalis Heavy Cannons Penetrator! KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Guy Shishioh's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Guy Shishioh's Fighting! activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Guy Shishioh, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Guy Shishioh blocks Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Crush, taking 4700 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Guy Shishioh KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib rattles Shinji Ikari, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Shinji Ikari fails to evade Alexis Kerib's Gillvalis Heavy Cannons Penetrator, taking 6060 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Asuka Shikinami Langley, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Alexis Kerib rattles Asuka Shikinami Langley, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to Evade Alexis Kerib's Gillvalis Heavy Cannons Penetrator, taking 7980 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Alexis Kerib roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Liam 7-020, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Liam 7-020 parries Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Claw Swipes, taking 1890 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Liam 7-020 KTS: Alouette Kaas fails to react to Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Flatten, taking 7320 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Alouette Kaas KTS: Alexis Kerib completes the Formation attack! KTS: Misato Katsuragi's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Misato Katsuragi fails to evade Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Fireball Blast, taking 3630 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 7958 KTS: Ouka Nagisa blocks Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Fireball Blast, taking 2900 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
Misato grimaces. That wasn't a light burst of ammo she just unfurled against the Gillvalis. She can only compare its toughness to other kaiju she faced in the past that had a similar build. It's not indestructable but if that's what a middling charge can do, it's going to take a lot more than that to do real damage.
"Unit-2 is coming in. We'll just have to keep it occupied until she can get in close. Let's pull away--"
It's not fast enough. Those fireballs are propelling faster than the Spiral Moon can manuever. Misato hasn't Kyaaaaed since she was fourteen but the blast hits the Spiral Moon hard enough--even puncturing through significant amount of the barrier-that Misato is thrown off her feet. She grimaces as her arm hits the floor. That's gonna bruise. She struggles up quickly, waving off concerned gestures.
Misato instead suggests to Ikari and Ouka, "Avoid the Tail!" over comms just in case they can't hear Rei. It seems like good advice, honestly.
Hopefully it wasn't actually prophecy, she reflects miserably.
Sirens are starting to thrum through the interior of the Spiral Moon. Misato ignores them. "Launch the missiles...!" Misato shouts, screaming helpfully as she slams her fist down onto a big red button, sending a whole slew of them out towards the Kaiju. "You still good, Aurum?" She asks because the viewscreen that showed Ouka's position exploded.
KTS: Misato Katsuragi targets Alexis Kerib with aaaaAAAAAAAAA!! KTS: Misato Katsuragi rattles Alexis Kerib, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Misato Katsuragi's aaaaAAAAAAAAA!, taking 1380 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
'Nagisa, Can you hear me?'
There are two Nagisas of note attending Tokyo-3 Municipal. Of course, Ouka only fairly recently realized that she shared a not all-that-uncommon last name with Kaworu. Though it is only for a moment she thinks that Rei could be reaching out to him, in whatever deep dark place he is currently being held.
'The tail, it will kill you with the tail.'
Just then she watches as the Kaiju's tail fires off a slug directly towards Shinji's unit!! She watches as in impacts Unit-01, even through its AT Field, and delivers what she can only assume was a staggering blow...
~*Earlier, in the Pribnow Box*~
"Can you feel anything through the system, Ouka?" Cero's voice is as always gentle and respectful to his young charge. He is watching her and her vitals through the various screens... watching for even the slightest blip, the slightest aberration.
"I feel... something. It's hard to describe. It's like I have another right arm? It doesn't feel like my arm. But I feel like it's there, like it's a part of me."
~*Present, aboard the Spiral Moon*~
If she could feel the arm that wasn't her arm, does that mean? The implications are pretty chilling to her to say the least. Not that she has an opportunity to examine them fully... as Go'yavec has other ideas. A firey blast from one of its (too) many volanic ports is arcing directly towards her and the ship beneath her unit's feet. Rather than making another attempt at evasive maneuvers, and thus risking her footing aboard the vessel, she instead raises her shield and prepares to weather the brunt of the attack!!
By the time the worst is past, the Long Dagger's shield is glowing red hot from heat and several droplets of molten metal drip from its surface to cool along the combat deck.
"Aurum-1 reporting, condition green. I'll need an opportunity to let my 115mm Cannon reload before attempting another shot. Providing covering fire with my secondary weapon."
Drawing the M703 Beam Rifle from her unit's backplate, Ouka grips the stock of the rifle and pumps the fore-end loading a grenade shell from the magazine into the barrel. Pulling the secondary trigger the grenade is launched along with the missiles launched by THE BIG RED BUTTON, hoping against hope to hit and perhaps even disable one more of those volcanic ports.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Alexis Kerib with M703 Beam Rifle Grenade!
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Kaas has posed.
"Co-*growl of pain and the sound of crunching and crushing and liquid being expelled and choked on*"
Alouette's communication to Aoba is interrupted by the sound of the weight of the Kaiju being slammed into Unit Null-Sigma. The massive being crushing the bones and armor of the Evangelion, and Alouette inside. Whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, the extra appendages are able to protect the girl and her Evangelion from termination, taking critical damage to the pylons and armor, and damaging the appendages as well.
Alouette uses the incredible strength of the combined arms, to give herself enough space to roll out from under the foot, itself stabbed with shrapnel and armor pieces that can be seen falling away.
Every time she tries to take a breath, pain stabs at her and she coughs up more blood and... she doesn't want to think about whatever else it might be. Dammit. She hasn't even begun to resolve the Assassination, let alone who it is that knows about Kaworu. Then anoher non-angel, angel level threat shows up right away, and she is one punctured lung away from out of the fight, or worse in less than ten minutes.
Alouette grabs the controls, rapidly sequences settings to make the LCL more dense. The pain eases a little. She activates the pain medication distrubtion first aid settings, and more still, the pain starts to ease again... she can breathe.
Alouette checks systems, engages a few bypasses. Null-Sigma shudders, and some damaged plates are purged. The Evangelion flexes and the long thick tentacleseach test mobility. It passes checks. Alouette squeezes those controls, tapping and fingering the finer ones at the finger tips, and with a scream from inside the cockpit, bubbles and blood erupting in the LCL...
"You're in my way TRASH! I have to get to KAWORU!"
Evangelion Null-Sigma's jaws open, bloody, and instead of rearing back the head leans forward, roaring at the Kaiju. It's appendages and arms all flare out, maximizing it's size of threat and launches in a frenzied thrashing multilimbed terror of no quit, to rip the stability from under the towering beast. Kraken v Volcano(feet?) Round ??
KTS: Alouette Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Alouette Kaas targets Alexis Kerib with Spines of Raking! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Having carved a suitable--and quite deep--handhold into the kaiju's hide, Liam hangs on for dear life. So far, he hasn't seen so much as a drop of blood from this thing. Is it really animate rock, or is it something more akin to Generonglee? The question is academic, for now, since the Gundam Fighter has bigger and more immediate concerns.
The Gundam starts to sprint. It leaves ionized gas in its wake, a shimmering cloud of superheated air. Plasma vents from its sides and back, and trickles from the main vent in its 'stomach'. It looks up, even though it doesn't strictly need to--and Liam sees that massive claw coming for him again. The Proto Helios leaps forwards, its heels skidding in the dirt. The turf around it blackens to ash instantly, though given Gill'yavec's sheer mass, this is likely nothing more than an irritating sunburn.
'--WHILE I AM ON THE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN!'
"Langley," Liam says, his voice all tension. "Good. Incapacitate that tail."
The claw comes down. The Proto Helios raises both arms; some its vent covers snap loose and attach themselves as extra armor. The very edges of the kaiju's claws catch the machine's guard and drive it back. That it isn't crushed instantly is a testament to Liam's split-second reflexes, and luck as well.
"Core," Liam says, still in that intense monotone. "Does it have a core."
In the meantime, Liam goes for the cannons. The Proto Helios vaults up onto the main dorsal ridge, and launches into a spinning, jet-assisted backfist, trying to slam a plasma-wreathed forearm into the weapon's barrel. It lands in a crouch, and then charges forwards into a burning knee lunge at another.
Liam didn't see Shinji or Alouette or Asuka get hit, thanks to the kaiju's bulk, but he heard it. He can only trust in them, and hope they're okay--that's the most emotion he can afford with his combat instincts in control.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Alexis Kerib with Blazing Strike! KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Ouka Nagisa's M703 Beam Rifle Grenade, taking 3000 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Alouette Kaas's Spines of Raking, taking 7200 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alouette Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Alouette Kaas has engaged Alexis Kerib KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Liam 7-020's Blazing Strike, taking 1620 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Alexis Kerib KTS: Liam 7-020 begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Ayanami's talking.
Shinji twitches, wondering if it's a side effect of synchronization that he can hear her so well. Maybe he's just used to her voice. It's not enough, though, as Shinji Ikari and his Evangelion Unit-01 look down the tail made entirely of guns. Shinji's eyes widen and there's an explosion that can kill the world.
Unit-01 stumbles backwards, entirely through a support skyscraper and straight into a damaged building. Its chestplate has a cannonball shaped impact right at the center, and the great armored chassis has hundreds of long, deep cracks running through it. There is an impression of Something under the armor, but it is not quite visible yet. Shinji looks down at his abdomen, and finds it bleeding. Unit-01 looks down, and finds a massive piece of reinforcement pipeline sticking through the left side of its gut. There's a great surge of LCL, exploding out of the side of Unit-01 and flooding the much abused city streets, crushing newsstands, parked cars, a bus. Unit-01 runs its hand over its face in a strangely human gesture, getting the coolant fluid all over itself in the process.
Shinji licks his lips and tastes a deeper copper than the LCL he's used to. "Tail. Okay. I can do tail." Unit-01 takes a halting step out of the ruins of what Shinji desperately hopes was an empty combat support building, and another step, and just starts shooting.
And shooting.
Shinji was polite enough to turn the audio off but anyone with visual links can see his eyes reduced to angry blue pinpricks as he screams his lungs raw, firing the full payload of progressive anti-xenoform combat shells at the living island's massive gun-tail.
Eventually the gun is white hot and useless, and Shinji hurls it aside.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Alexis Kerib with Progressive Gatling Cannon Chaindump! KTS: [Spirit Defense] Shinji Ikari's Spirit Endurance activates, and the spirit is adjusted. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Shinji Ikari's Progressive Gatling Cannon Chaindump, taking 9600 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Shinji Ikari's Find The Core activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Shinji Ikari completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
Broken Magnum is quite capable of being used at ridiculous ranges, in fact, but in a case like this...sometimes you just use what you've got. GaoFighGar isn't quite able to get away from the behemoth in time. Guy throws the Protect Wall up against the descending behemoth but again, you can't just...turn aside thousands upon thousands of tons of rock. So GaoFighGar gets flattened anew, crushed into concrete. "GHhhaaagh!!!" Guy screams.
"CHIEF!" Hana shrieks. "His vitals...he can't take much more of this!"
"I'll...be the judge of that!!" Guy screams, forcing GaoFighGar back up yet again. "This is you, isn't it, Alexis Kerib!? Only a 'devil' could come up with a 'demon' like this! But I won't let you just have your way, either!"
Something beeps on the Mobile Operator console. "GaoFighGar is signaling for the Gatling Driver! Ushiyama-kun!"
Sueo Ushiyama at the Engineer Operator desk flies into action. "Protect spec, duration...yeah, I get it! OK! She's all loaded! Kit is 09!"
"Right! Gatling Driver, Kit Number Zero Nine! EMISSION!" Hana yells out, and winds her whole body up into a punch to her right, where the Emission pad lights up like a carnival punching game.
GaoFighGar flies skyward - the Ul-Tech Engine blasting it into the air. Guy's a trained pilot, mid-air docking is one of his specialties - so it's no issue at all to intercept the Gatling Driver as it rockets down toward him, Mirror Coating cracking off of it! The interlock completes. ("Dock successful!" Sueo calls out.)
And Guy screams, "GATLING DRIIIIIIIIIIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" as he RAMS the Gatling Driver into the air, and the tines grab on to space, and twist it.
Rapidly. Very rapidly, a visible, distorted form appearing in the air. A....lens!?
"Use the gravity lens to amplify your attacks!!" Guy screams. With proximity, the twisting space should cause some sheering damage to Gill'yavec, too. Hopefully, anyway.
KTS: Guy Shishioh targets Alexis Kerib with Protecting Gatling Driver! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Guy Shishioh's Protecting Gatling Driver, taking 3080 damage! KTS: Guy Shishioh begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
"It's starting to... dig?" Lt. Aoba reports. "Colonel!"
He half-turns to say something important to Misato! "Its sheer mass is almost unthinkable! It might start damaging the armored reinforcement of the Geofront!" He double-takes. "Colonel!!"
Rei attempts to lean towards the camera again, leaving Aoba aghast. "Ugh - shifting to standing work mode," he declares, which makes some computer stuff shift to follow him, and he is momentarily betwixt and between even as Rei takes over his seat.
After this, he shouts, "Keep pouring on damage! Missile network c'mon! Colonel, we're feeding targetting data to the munitions ganglia -- they should be getting the loading racks ready:"
Rei looks at the screen, over towards other screens. Her breath is quickened.
Others.
Kaas. She wants to reach the Administrator.
I too?
Is the enemy affecting them?
"Kaas," Rei says. "Listen."
"Ikari," Rei says, glancing towards his view. "Listen. Breathe. It's important."
"Seven Oh Twenty," Rei continues. "You too. It's important. The enemy has no core."
"Structure," Rei says. "Matter. It is real. But it is a real object with a shape that is like a frame of wire. It is not an animal. I don't know if it even thinks. It -"
What would they understand?
I hate this.
It hurts.
The words are like needles. Needles of pain, and vitality.
There is a brief delay as GaoFighGar makes its strike. It lets Rei feel less as if she is about to die of panic. It is still a strain - she would rather pick up the Second (who is presumably being left to her own devices) and carry her across an African desert - but -
"You cannot kill it," Rei says. "But you can break it. Break it," Rei concludes, the secondary echo trailing off into silence and her abstractly-concerned-but-still-Ayanami-as-heck face gazing into the video pane.
KTS: Rei Ayanami has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari KTS: Rei Ayanami has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Alouette Kaas KTS: Rei Ayanami has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Liam 7-020 <Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Rei had warned about the tail, but honestly she already knew. She was there that day. The heavy cannon on the tail fires, but she's already mid-leap. Pivoting her Evangelion with its monstrous agility she tries to get it out of the way.
... she kind of underestimated the size of the blast though. As it catches her Evangelion right in the torso, it's AT fields inadequate to the challenge. The blast rips against it. Then through it. Then it lights Unit-02's Torso aflame. Right away there's a shriek as her entry plug boils from the extreme temperature, restraint armor plates melting. Also, Eva-02's knocked right out of the air plows into one of the buildings it was using to to catch air.
'Langley, good. Incapacitate that tail.'
For a while there's just heavy breathing... one might expect her to yell at him not to order her around then as Eva-02 stands up... "... Don't need you... to tell me something so obvious. I'll flank it and shut it down."
Eva-02 dashes forward, this time going in the opposite direction of the hail of Eva-01's cannon, "Hey Stupid - you can at least keep it pinned down for a bit right?" The Kaiju is large, but at a full dash, a sprint, she tears across the city, making small leaps in record time. Despite how reckless she's looking, she's trying to avoid its more obvious fields of fire.
This is not precisely easy to do with a Kaiju this large, and with a unit as large as an Eva - but she's making the attempt. "Get me GB-012 - now!" As she slings aside the Crossbow, she waits for the armory to pop up, sliding open. Grabbing it without stopping, as she tries to wind her way around the giant feetsies. The rifle's bayonet folds out as she goes.
As she gets closer, a pylon opens, and she slings a Prog Knife right at the side of the mountain. It's not meant to actually do any damage to that hide.
It's meant to be a piton.
If it takes purchase, Eva-02 leaps, grabbing ahold, swinging to the side. And up and over drive that bayonet right into the base of the tail, really attempting to wedge it in there. Trying to get it good and deep, it needs to be for what she intends. If she can't get the knife in, she tries to do it from the ground and gambles the risk of being crushed.
"Come on... come on."
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Alexis Kerib KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Alexis Kerib with Thunder Spear Bayonet Stab! KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Asuka Shikinami Langley's Thunder Spear Bayonet Stab, taking 1530 damage! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Alexis Kerib KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley continues a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Valis Luce seems almost more powerful on Gill'yavec than it did on Gillvalis. The Spiral Moon's missile barrage gets a scant few missiles through gaps in the barrier, but for the most part, it holds. That tail continues to pivot, looking for an ideal target -- and not finding one just yet, as Alouette strikes with force against its stability. Mountain though it is, it's not *insurmountable*.
The grenade leaves a hole in the landscape from which lava at last starts to 'bleed' -- and into that hole a moment later goes a positively absurd amount of bullets. Shinji's shots are precise, for how many there are -- they dig into that hole and leave Gill'yavec staggered, favoring its side. Liam stops it from engaging in serious counterfire to obliterate some of those bullets by working to disable the cannons.
Guy deploys that dimensional lens, that gravity warp -- and while Gill'yavec staggers back from it, it presents a clear danger -- and one it needs to prioritize as a target.
Asuka's knife gambit proves to be a desperate one -- she wants that bayonet deep in the tail. The instant she brings it up, though, Valis Luce shimmers in front of her -- and pushes her back.
It's shallow.
Alexis watches impassively as Gill'yavec starts to sag. "Well. If Ultraman Geed thinks I'm not up to the role... I suppose I'll have to prove otherwise." He waits for a moment, murmuring, "I really do want to see this give the end mark to them."
Asuka receives the very worst Gill'yavec has to offer: the full of its body weight. One of the kaiju's talons is very nearly the size of the entire Evangelion unit; Alexis's newest pet brings *everything* down on Asuka with full force, the kind of all-encompassing strike an AT Field can barely disperse. With that attended to, it begins its procession through the remainder of its targets.
Gill'yavec swings its tail around toward Shinji again; this means it has to route *through* several of its close-quarters attackers, swinging with full force into Null-Sigma and GaoFighGar. Liam's Proto Helios has a similar experience in the midst of this repositioning -- Go'yavec's frame, regardless of whatever has been bolted on, is passively violent as it moves through the world, and even the repositioning of a single rear foot is enough to threaten someone on the tail.
Those cannons on the tail seem singularly optimized to deal with an Evangelion unit -- as if whatever unknown hand chose this battlefield already knew its defenders, knew the nature of their beasts and what to expect. This time, though, rather than leverage its ability to pierce an AT Field, it leverages its sheer size -- aiming a cannon that simply wouldn't fit on anything else, which rotates into place over the previous cannon and fires.
As that blast fires, Ouka and Misato receive yet another wave of fire-based bombardment, as if Gill'yavec is announcing a premature victory with the volcanic spray of its back. Lava coalesces into balls and rains down toward Spiral Moon and its primary defender.
KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Go'yavec Flatten! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Shinji Ikari with Gillvalis Heavy Cannons Core Shot! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Guy Shishioh with Go'yavec Squish! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Misato Katsuragi with Go'yavec Fireball Bombardment! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Ouka Nagisa with Go'yavec Fireball Bombardment! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Liam 7-020 with Go'yavec Claw Thrust! KTS: Alexis Kerib targets Alouette Kaas with Go'yavec Squish! KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Asuka Shikinami Langley, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley fails to Parry Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Flatten, taking 8460 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has been defeated! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Asuka Shikinami Langley KTS: Shinji Ikari successfully evades Alexis Kerib's Gillvalis Heavy Cannons Core Shot KTS: Alexis Kerib roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Alouette Kaas's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Alouette Kaas blocks Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Squish, taking 3240 damage! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Alouette Kaas <Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Guy demands an answer. Alexis refuses to give him one -- but Alexis always knows when he's called for. From his distant vantage, he regards GaoFighGar with that impassive mask.
... no... the panels twist, deform slightly, in a smile. "I see you've decided to make your nature known, Evoluder... Vessel of Light."
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Liam 7-020's Catecholamine Regulation System activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Liam 7-020, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Liam 7-020 parries Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Claw Thrust, taking 1830 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Liam 7-020 KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Guy Shishioh has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Guy Shishioh's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Guy Shishioh's Fighting! activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Alexis Kerib enervates Guy Shishioh, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Guy Shishioh blocks Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Squish, taking 5580 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Hollow activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Shallow activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alexis Kerib's Superficial activates, causing Deject! KTS: Guy Shishioh has been defeated! KTS: Alexis Kerib has engaged Guy Shishioh KTS: Misato Katsuragi's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Misato Katsuragi blocks Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Fireball Bombardment, taking 3000 damage! KTS: Ouka Nagisa blocks Alexis Kerib's Go'yavec Fireball Bombardment, taking 4800 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Once again, another wave of fire based bombardment... but this time it is even more intense. Still holding her position upon the Spiral Moon's deck the Long Dagger Fortestra raises its shield in and increasingly futile attempt to delay the inevitable. The firey deluge washing over the ship and the combat deck with enough force to send her unit rocking back on its heels!!
But she still stands, despite it all. The barrier she was using now brutally warped and cracked to the point of nigh uselessness. And so she tosses it aside, allowing it to fall from the deck to the ground below. Once again her unit assumes a firing posture for its 115mm Cannon. From within the helmet of her plugsuit, Ouka's golden eyes flick to the readout for the cannon indicating that the breach is fully loaded and ready for another barrage.
She takes in a deep breath.
"Aurum-1 reporting. Condition..." She watches as Go'yavec crashes down on Unit-02 with its full force. Watches the GaoFighGar being pressed past its breaking point with the brunt of the assault. She hesitates. She breathes. "... yellow. My unit's shield is broken and it's unlikely I'll be able to endure another assault like that one. My cannon has finished reloading and I'm attempting another barrage. Stay clear of the blast zone."
'But you can break it. Break it.'
Cracks are staring to show. Lava-like blood is starting to leak. She breathes again...
"Long Dagger Fortestra 115mm Cannon, Firing Full Salvo!!
Once again the thunderous rapport of the Fortestra's shoulder cannon rains down upon the body of the monstrous, craggy kaiju! Still it feels like she is trying to blow down a mountain with her breath...
... but with time wind can wear down even the mightiest mountains to gravel. Let's hope she only has enough time!!
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Alexis Kerib with 115mm Cannon Barrage! <Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Asuka tries everything to get that bayonet through Valis Luce. Up to and including, PUNCHING the butt of the Thunderspear to try and DRIVE it further through. "PUSH THROUGH-!" She demands, but it doesn't get any further. Right when she's about to press the trigger anyway to try to electrocute the Kaiju, hopefully at least stunning it, even if it won't drive the bayonet deep enough down to try and do real damage to the tail itself...
The Kaiju's weight comes up, and the shadow already eclipsing her Evangelion shifts. "You're kidding-!" Asuka actually lets go of the 'Spear', and tries to leap back from the Kaiju, drawing her other Prog Knife. Her exclamation of surprise a poor one in that it vastly underestimates what's about to happen yet still succinctly sums up her disbelief.
Asuka's used to doing everything by herself. Even trying to work together today... she doesn't expect anyone to come to save her. She's new to the concept of teamwork at all. Which perhaps leaves her extra exposed, when the talon of that Kaiju drives past that knife that's nearly the size of a smaller mobile suit by itself - but downright puny in comparison to it - right through its ATField, skewering through its abdomen, just below the core.
The sheer mass of it driving the Evangelion down into the ground, where it slides off the talon, spurting a silhouette of something that's almost certainly not blood... right? The Evangelion ragdolling as it hits the ground at an awkward angle and rolls from the sheer momentum created by Gill'yavec - laying there, unmoving.
She didn't have time to lower her synch ratio - so she doesn't even scream. The pain is too much, and she's out instantly.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Kaas has posed.
Alouette's storm is slowed when she hears, Ayanami.
Listen
Like a frame of wire
Break it
"Break it."
The simultaneous eternity and relative fraction of a second that passes slows Alouette enough to have a sense of motion of the massive tail. It collides with the AT-Field as Null-Sigma is turning into it, but the EVA Unit is swept along rather than crushed. The AT-Field stuggles against the tail holding off terminal structural damage of the Evangleion, enough for Alouette to push up and roll over the girth of the massive mountain limb.
Null-Sigma rolls along the ground, crashing and colliding with trees and anything that isn't already completely mowed down by the tail's swath of destruction. Alouette bleeds, and can't take a breath without sharp pain of several broken ribs and a pnctured lung. She ups the pain management settings further, and gets herself and the Evangelion up, as if she were brushing herself off. Some of the team is down, she has no idea of their status. But she got Ayanami's message.
"Break it."
She can't do it this way. Time is running out. Alouette does a path projection from the side she finds herself on. The riskiest route is also the quickest and avoids the most cannons and lava. She plots it ou and prjects it on the main display.
Alouette punches the purge command and the power cable shoots off the Evangelion.
0 4 : 5 9 : 9 9
The timer begins and Alouette yanks back on the controls and then thrusts them forward, engagin in a run at what her EVangelion can manage as full speed. She jukes in pattern based on the fibonacci sequence to avoid any deflecting fire, and takes a long gainted run up the fastest part of the tail... and EVangelion Unit Null-SIgma begins to tear at the "SHELL" that she understood this thing to be made of. As long as she can, as fast as she can, with one dead arm and one unresponsive tentacle flailing behind her, she still has six extremely strong limbs tearing apart every bit of this thing that she can, all seventy meters of Evangelion Octopus trying to tear away whatever it can grab.
Alarms blare, warning messages. The timer runs down but Alouette can't focus on it. She is just focused on what Ayanami said, on what she is doing, and on getting to Kaworu.
KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Ouka Nagisa's 115mm Cannon Barrage, taking 6380 damage! KTS: Alouette Kaas has activated the Valor Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Guy Shishioh has posed.
The tail comes again. Guy has bought himself a bit of space, but 'a bit' of space from a monstrosity this big may as well be no space at all. He thrusts the Protect Wall out again, trying to avert calamity, but it simply can't do it. Guy's not grounded enough to try some of GaoFighGar's more inhuman feats of strength, either.
He takes it head on, screaming, and GaoFighGar goes into and through a nearby building, sendling it toppling in piles of debris as GaoFighGar lands in an inoperable heap.
Guy, though, still struggles, and the machine quivers and shifts as Guy tries to force himself back in the fight. "I won't....lie here, and--!"
"Chief Shishioh, your vitals are dangerous! Please...!" Hana calls back.
"I can't yield to--!"
"Guy," Dr. Yang says, firmly. "It's fine. If this is who you say it is, if the goal is what I think it is, you'll achieve little more getting back out there but raising our repair bills. Rest, Guy. Let the rest of NERV take it from here."
"I can still--!"
Akamatsu speaks this time: "Trust 'em, Shishioh." He gives the camera, and Guy, a severe glare, edging into a grin. "These kids weren't sitting on their asses while you were gone. You aren't the only one who's got a fire in their belly. Leave it to them for now. You and I both know you can raise more hell if you have to, but that doesn't mean ya gotta every time."
Guy slumps back in whatever white space passes for GaoFighGar's cockpit, and the running lights power down. "...Roger," he says. "I'll...wait for pickup."
KTS: Alouette Kaas targets Alexis Kerib with Bloodboiling Pressure! KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Alouette Kaas's Bloodboiling Pressure, taking 5115 damage! KTS: Alouette Kaas has engaged Alexis Kerib KTS: Alouette Kaas continues a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
Misato Katsuragi says, "Understood Aurum-1." The Spiral Moon is still taking fire but thankfully the shielding holds. "Can we use The Wing Clipper? We need to hit it real hard and we still have the Geofront. Should be okay to draw power we'd normally supply the EVAs."
"Negative." A bridge officer calls back. "Gauge is too low. The N2 Reactor is struggling to fend off that thing's attacks. We're not anywhere near that capacity."
"Even if we drain the ship's reserves?" Misato asks.
"Sorry, Colonel."
Misato sinks back into her chair and cups her chi. The sirens blare. There's not a lot of time before she'll have to make a decision. Try to delink and hope it'll be enough or...
She sees it. Unit 2... She takes in a deep breath. Herh eart is pounding. The EVA isn't moving. Asuka is okay, she tells herself. It'll take more than that to stop Asuka. She overcame so much just to get here, and overcomes so much every day. She's okay, she tells herself. They're okay.
"No. We'll make it work. Lower shields, draw energy from all fueling stations. It should be enough! What kind of time would we use it if not now?! We may already be losing pilots!"
She turns the main cannon of the ship towards the Kaiju.
Aoba tells her that it could through to the Geofront and that is way more valuable than this ship. She says, "Okay you bastard..." softly.
"You mess with my Kids, then you come into OUR TURF? Think you're being CUTE by taking potshots when they're about to go enjoy themselves?"
She draws out a key, turns it in a panel in front of her and it opens up, revealing a bright red button with the NERV logo on it surrounded by an adorable plastic protective casing."
The shields shut down, power drains rapidly from the rest of the ship. Everything but the basic thrusters is pulled into the main cannon.
"I want a crew moving in on Unit 2 as soon as possible...!"
And she waits for it. She waits for the right moment and then--
--She slams her fist into the red button. A hefty eruption of power explodes out from the Main cannon of the Spiral Moon with enough force that it actually propels the ship BACKWARDS as the hefty force of the beam cannon is launched towards the Kaiju, a bright white blindening flash of light erupts from the Spiral Moon---before its systems start shutting down.
"Preparing emergency landing...!" A helmsman shouts as the Spiral Moon tips and tumbles towards the earth. It'll land right side up--but it's not going to be staying aloft any longer.
KTS: Misato Katsuragi uses install KTS: Misato Katsuragi has activated the Detonate Spirit Command, reducing the Spiral Moon to 1 HP! KTS: Misato Katsuragi has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Misato Katsuragi targets Alexis Kerib with The Wing Clipper! KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib blocks Misato Katsuragi's The Wing Clipper, taking 11400 damage! KTS: Misato Katsuragi roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Misato Katsuragi completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
It's difficult to tell, given the way the kaiju is moving, but it's... moving down. Sinking. Digging? Aoba confirms a moment later, and Liam grits his teeth. The Geofront is below, to say nothing of the thousands of civilians huddled in their underground shelters. But even with its weapons disabled, it still has sheer bulk on its side.
'I'll flank it and shut it down.'
"Understood," Liam says. There's no response to Asuka's annoyance, just focus. The Proto Helios, now wreathed in a brilliant plasma aura, scrambles across Gill'yavec's back, vaulting over hills and leaping across gulleys. Its passage is enough to incinerate leaves; it turns trees into matchsticks. And yet, the kaiju is so massive that the Gundam is basically just giving it an irritating itch.
'Seven Oh Twenty. You too. It's important. The enemy has no core.'
"Acknowledged." In dialogue with Rei like this--if you could call it that--the contrast between the two illuminates similarities as well as differences. Rei... is Rei. Liam is animate, but wavering somewhere between rage and fear and nothing at all.
"Break it," Liam whispers, his teeth bared. No core. Something all wire and clay. Liam's mind flashes back to Generonglee's final moments, and the wire skeleton he saw before it disintegrated. Like something someone would build a sculpture around.
Guy shouts a name Liam knows, because Nidaime told him. A 'devil'. Someone Anti is afraid of...?
The Proto Helios skids to a halt, its feet churning turf into plumes of ash and tektite-like granules. It's readily visible from the deck of Misato's vessel, a star burning against the greenery. Its corona is hot enough to melt most metals, and its own armor is starting to melt and deform. But it's still upright.
Guy screams out a name, as well as orders. Liam leaps into the air, his machine jet-boosting up, away from Gill'yavec's hide.
He gets enough air to see--
"ASUKA!"
Fear lances through his brain. One of Gill'yavec's talons comes whipping towards him through the simple action of digging, and Liam whips out a leg to kick at it. The blow glances off, but reorients the Gundam, even if Liam loses armor from that brief contact. Bits of half-molten metal fall like rain. And then--
"CHIEF!" Liam doesn't see that one, he just hears the tremendous crash and sees GaoFighGar's beacon flickering. He's still talking. But--
Liam's eyes widen. His mind flashes back to the Nadesico, when he first heard what happened to Kaworu. After what happened to him... How does he think he can protect anyone? He can't even protect himself. Tears flow from Liam's eyes, steaming as they drip from beneath the polymer heat shields. He opens a channel.
"Alexis Kerib," he says, simply. "If you're there. If you're listening."
"I'll kill you."
They may well be hollow words, but Liam intends to make good on the kaiju, at least. The Gundam reaches the distortion field left in the wake of Guy's last attack, a tremendous gravitational lens. All the apertures on its hands and forearms iris open at once. Plasma streams out, condensing into a bright, spear-like beam. With a mighty thrust, Liam drives it forward. The plasma blooms out, gaining laser-like focus as it enters the field and boring into Gill'yavec's hide. The reactor alarm starts to scream. The coolant is approaching critical temperatures. SUNBURST has attained optimal efficiency.
Good.
Liam keeps pouring plasma into the rift--the Proto Helios is literally trying to destroy the kaiju from the inside out with a giant drill made of star-stuff.
KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Alexis Kerib with SUNBURST - CODE: NOVA! KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to react to Liam 7-020's SUNBURST - CODE: NOVA, taking 6780 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Alexis Kerib <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
THE OLD DAYS.
A woman with electric green eyes and a Mona Lisa smile walks into the operating room. "Look at you. They're savages, really." She runs a hand across your chest, gloves protecting her from the heat. She seems unbothered by the horror of your body. "So much good work and then to throw it all away with back alley butchery. It just shows sloppy work ethic." Delicate fingers touch you in places that have only produced pain for as long as Bionet has allowed you to remember. And then, for a golden moment, the pain stops. The Mona Lisa smile widens. "Look at what a marvel you are, Guy Shishioh. Let's make some magic."
NOW, SOMEWHERE SECRET.
Gendo Ikari watches the fight from a hospital bed, hunched over, his head resting gently on his delicate, gloved fingers. "Shishioh." He murmurs to himself, but his eyes are drawn, regrettably, towards his son.
THE BATTLE.
"Stop it." Shinji's comrades are swatted aside by that massive tail, smashed and crushed and bloody, all because of him, because he learned the devil's name and everyone is suffering because he can't even do his father's bidding right. "Stop it please, I'm right here. Fight me if you want to so badly. Just leave them alone!"
'What are you doing?' Green-eyes says.
"If I give in, it'll just hurt me, right?"
'Does it LOOK discerning? It's crushing that Liam kid right now!'
"So it can shoot me!"
'Us!'
"You're me!" Shinji shouts back, and then the beast takes GaoFightGar out. And then it crushes Unit-02 and Shinji can't even see Asuka under the blubber and fat and steel and Shinji Ikari's hands grip the controls so hard he can feel his bones crack under the pressure. "Asuka! ASUKA!" The cannon shell is charging.
THE SPIRAL MOON.
MAKOTO HYUGA
The other guy.
"Colonel!" Hyuga takes a risk, seeing as they're all in deadly combat and all, "Unit-01, the Third, he's doing that thing again!" Hyuga realizes this is incredibly unhelpful, and looks at Ayanami sitting between them all. "His synch ratio's at a hundred and sixty percent, and climbing!" And then Misato starts the blow up the ship button and Hyuga yelps, wishing he didn't have a thing for madwomen.
Unit-01's legs twitch, and there's a puff of white smoke that screams around the machine as it detaches its umbilical plug and makes an impossible leap into the air, up and above the deadly tail cannon before it can fire, clearing the blast completely!
"Ikari," Rei Ayanami says, gazing steadily ahead even as the screen link flickers as the Spiral Moon's power is diverted. "Progressive Knife; a blade that pierces useless things; save them" and then the link flickers to red SOUND ONLY as Rei glances to the left.
Shinji hears her, despite it all, and draws his prog knife, twisting around to dive wildly at the monster, aiming vaguely at where his friend Asuka Shishioh (Guy Langley?, the oversynchronzied mind thinks, and is furious a thousand times over still.) moving to penetrate the useless thing with the sheer power of the Evangelion. Words are an afterthought.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Assail Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Alexis Kerib with Progressive Knife Thrust! KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib has activated the STrike Spirit Command. KTS: Alexis Kerib fails to parry Shinji Ikari's Progressive Knife Thrust, taking 6120 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Shinji Ikari's Find The Core activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Alexis Kerib has been defeated! KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Alexis Kerib
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Rei feels as if she has woken up somewhat too late. She looks around for a moment --
Even as Aoba grits his teeth... but the Colonel has given an order. "Power cycle everything down!" he shouts. "Get all the capacitors to backflush mode. Full V2V reversal! Everything to gunnery!" he shouts over Rei's head.
For a moment Rei thinks of EVA-00. She could be out there. The Second was. It is sensible that they did not send every Evangelion, but - her eyes go down to her hands for a moment. Something crushing rolls around her as she sees the perimeter of her vision, the destruction, the smoke, dust, dirt, flame; and she sees this from within a ship.
Perhaps lives will be spared; perhaps the retracted shelters will do their duty, although when it has dug this deep...
It feels like something dark and heavy and for a moment Rei feels that floating and loose sensation, that thing so near to --
Rei rubs the side of her neck for a moment. There are still signals. The transmission station coming from the bridge still has power. Rei's attention lifts up to the camera then. Eva-02 is disabled, but there is --
Yes. For the smaller units have withstood, or evaded, the waves of devastation. Null-Sigma is not confirmed defeated. And...
Her head turns for a moment. There he is, furious and distracted. Rei calls to him; the half-melted forms of her thoughts and her heart pour out; the screen flickers out and she settles back, just in time for the lurching of the deck to send Lt. Aoba stumbling into her side, compelling her to cling to the chair of the station!
It is a matter beyond the knowledge of Rei Ayanami; but there is, at least, that mote of light.
<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.
Everyone decides this is flatly unacceptable, and to be fair: it kind of is. Ouka's barrage turns that bleeding hole into a gaping wound -- and the Octopus-like Evangelion can tear into that hole, leaving bigger and bigger chunks lying harmless on the ground.
The Spiral Moon diverts everything to the guns -- a maneuver you can't do in space. The attack enters one hole, and leaves a second, symmetrical hole, on the other side, fully revealing the emptiness inside the kaiju for all to see. Liam dives in, and forms another hole of his own a moment later.
Gill'yavec sags. Strictly speaking, it's accomplished all Alexis wanted out of it -- hurting the people Kaworu relies on. Making clear that Tokyo-3 is no longer a place where he is safe.
Alexis hears someone declare to someone who survived the universe's death and rebirth that he'd kill him.
"Hmm. You are welcome to throw everything into the void," he says. He knows he isn't heard in turn -- but that's fine.
Shinji's blade sticks into Gill'yavec's head. That dive takes him clean through it -- and nails the beast to the ground.
The guns are broken -- the body giving out. With spite, then, it continues what must have been its real goal all along: to burrow toward Terminal Dogma.
These may be death throes of a creature too weak to make it there, though. It'll no doubt complicate the next defense of Tokyo-3 -- it doesn't leave a full, gaping wound in the terrain like it no doubt wanted to, though. It stops somewhere around the eighth layer of plate, crumbling like poorly-sculpted clay -- seeming to melt into the terrain -- then vanishing, all at once.
Alexis receives another text.
'Nevermind,' it says.
"Ah. So much the better," Alexis says -- before he, too, melts into the darkness.
<Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
The Spiral Moon is a mess. It only managed to land because they knew what was to come. If Alexis wanted to make it clear that Tokyo III is no longer safe, he has certainly accomplished that. The Spiral Moon was supposed to be something that could alleviate the pressue off the EVA pilot but even in what would be ideal circumstances for it, it barely survived the encounter--if it can be called that.
Thrusters are down, ship comms are down, sparks from overblown fuses are the only power left in the ship. A brand new vessel has been reduced to an overgrown paperweight in the face of just one of Tsutsujidai's kaiju.
Misato has a bruised arm and a concussion from the Spiral Moon spinning backwards. She tried bracing herself. She didn't brace hard enough. She doesn't know if Asuka is alive. She's not going to know if Asuka is alive for a while. Actually, all the viewscreens are dead too and she's not even sure if the kaiju is defeated or even stalled. When her and her entire crew plus Rei Ayanami don't die in magma after a few seconds, she thinks, first, that maybe they successfully stalled it.
"How much money did this cost to build?" Misato asks.
Then thinking better of it adds, "Don't tell me. God, no, don't tell me."
She pinches the bridge of her nose for a long moment. If an ANgel attacks they won't have the Moon, Unit 2--they kept Rei on standby just for this, but is Unit 1 okay? Kaworu is too hurt.
"Aoba, help me open up the escape hatch." Misato says as she moves to do just that. "We'll have to let the ground crews wheel this back in. Hopefully the Reactor isn't irrevocably damaged."
She is alive, she thinks, at least she's alive. But she won't be able to rest easy untnil she's sure Asuka is. Dislodged panels collapse, wires still attached, from ceiling to floor.
"Hopefully Gendo doesn't fire me." The Lt. Colonel grumbles as she begins the long process of escaping this death trap.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
'I want a crew moving in on Unit 2 as soon as possible...!'
"Acknowledged."
Perhaps the order wasn't directed at her, but regardless it would seem that the First Boosted Child is taking her opportunity to assist someone who ... very likely, would be least pleased to receive help from her. As the spiral moon begins to list and tumble towards terra firma, Ouka Nagisa holds onto one of the un-used umbilical supports while waiting for the best time to disembark. Before the crash landing, preferrably.
Once her eyes have a clear shot towards the fallen Red Evangelion, her unit takes a running leap clear of the craft! Misato knows how to take care of herself after all, surely?
... she hasn't yet seen her blackout drunk yet.
While in mid-air her Long Dagger purges its Fortestra equipment, utilizing the loss of extra weight to provide her with extra lift before nearing the ground and relying on her unit's secondary thrusters to reduce her momentum enough before her feet hit the ground. It is at this moment that she looks off to her side and witnesses the death throes of Gill'yavec. Even after being shot through and violently pinned to the ground the beast seems to be animated by pure spite, burrowing into the ground, leaving a gaping scar in the defenses of NERV. For a moment she considers diverting her movements to help bring it down... but then finally it crumbles, and her eyes once again settle upon the downed Unit-02.
She finally comes upon the downed Evangelion. Its abdomen speared through by the titanic talon of the beast. Out of empathy she feels a deep, terrible pain in her own stomach.
She could feel an arm, that wasn't her arm. Does that mean?
Ouka moves her unit to use her unit to get the Evangelion in a position where she can expose the entry plug, then leaving her Long Dagger locked in a position to prop up the titanic Evangelion she'll move to open her cockpit and jump to the ground. Despite her recent collaboration as a NERV auxiliary, she seems to be very familiar with how to operate the external controls for removing the Eva's plug.
Once the plug is ejected, and the LCL is drained, Ouka reaches forward to grab the handle to the door and pull it out. It takes very little effort for her to work the manual release and pull it aside. Once the plug is open, Ouka removes her helmet so as to see better in the low light and to see what condition Asuka is in.
Second later, the First Boosted Child enters the plug, and then comes out with the Second Child cradled in her arms. She walks away from both of their units to a wide open space where a heli-evac can come to pick them up if it is deemed necessary.
Lowering Asuka to the ground, Ouka raises her hand to the collar of her plugsuit to activate her communicator. "Aurum-1 reporting. I've recovered the Second Child from Unit-02 and requesting immediate medical evac. Coordinates will be transmitted shortly."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Unit-01 lands with a thud. There is no blood, no meat, just dust and clay. The machine snorts like a confused animal, its shoulders rising and falling in the emulation of something taking deep, desperate lungfulls of air.
It stands up, its scarred eye glowing a warlike orange as it looks over the collection of surviving mobile suits. Its hand grips the progressive knife. It keeps breathing, in and out, as if deciding something.
The bigger monster cocks its neck back and lets out a massive, building shaking howl of triumph, a low 'awoooo' that almost sounds like a raid siren from the old Zeonic defense front days. If you lie to yourself, it's utterly inhuman.
The Beast then, inexplicably, starts helping dig its colleagues out of the rubble; it sees that Asuka's been taken, and turns its hideous, glowing eyes towards the Spiral Moon, gently tapping the side of the machine like it was a goldfish bowl.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Kaas has posed.
Alouette finds herself after ravenous tearing of earth riding a complete collapse towards the ground. This perilous in itself, but nothing compared to what she had just been through. Alouette knows, if she stops, if she sits, she won't be able to start moving again.
0 0 : 1 6 : 4 2
Alouette stumbles looking around for where Asuka went down and she pushes what still functions as Unit Null-Sigma running on five limbs towards the last reported position. Relieved when she sees Unit 01 and Aurum-1 assisting Asuka. Alouette breathes a sigh of relief she instantly regrets.
0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0
The interior goes dark, and there is nothing to do now, but settle in. Alouette reaches to her shattered ribs with one hand, and leans back.
"Please, be okay. Asuka Shikinami Langley. I- *wince* need you to be okay. I have to help Kaworu."
There is no one there but her. No comms with no power. But she voices it anyway, despite the pain it causes. Alouette Kaas, pilot of Unit Null-Sigma, The Fourth Child? Her eyes are heavy and she can't fight anymore as they close and she goes unconscious.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The Proto Helios lands on the crater's far edge--it's blisteringly hot in the cockpit, and Liam isn't in a good frame of mind, to say the least, but he's keenly aware of the threat his machine poses to everything nearby. He reaches out and traces something on a control pad. It's warm against his Trace Suit, meaning it would burn instantly if anyone else touched it.
"SUNBURST... Powering down," Liam says, a sudden weariness in his voice. He slumps forward, sinking into a three-point crouch. The aura of plasma dissipates.
A colossal footstep. Bestial noises filter through the external pickups. For a moment, Liam tenses, fully expecting another kaiju--
Unit-01 howls. Liam stands paralyzed, his eyes wide. "...Ikari?" he breathes, into the open line. He's not sure if he's expecting an answer.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
On the Spiral Moon's bridge, Rei Ayanami pulls herself up and gazes at nothing in particular in the dim light. Her arms come up to fold - she will go where directed, but it seems whatever effort brought her out enough to tell the response team about the Go'yavecoid's weaknesses has receded.
Perhaps not entirely.
Even so, EVA-00 is intact, so they wouldn't have to rely on only Eizen, Zoia and a certain undefined person in the event of a crisis.
Though she wishes it were reversed, Rei Ayanami is just fine.
And not far from here - on the far side of where the great kaiju made its trail, and where the spoils of its digging were thrown, in part - two have already come down, and three more list, and a partially skeletonized building is the main obstacle to a further completion of these great residential dominoes.
In Rei Ayanami's apartment, something clatters. A loose pill, rolling off of a dresser, now situated at a four-degree angle. It rolls along the bare concrete, passing through the sun-beam from the five-centimeter crack in the ceiling that radiates down and through the balcony, sparkling in the broken glass of the window.
The building groans, below the registers of easy hearing. A breeze brushes the curtains, even as another loose pills completes its own gravitational journey. Into the crack, and down through the empty apartments...
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
"What are you stupid? ... I'm fine..." can be heard coming over Aurum-1's channel.
Ouka, meanwhile, hesitates before speaking up as well, "Hauptmann Langley is alive, but in and out of consciousness. I'm performing field first aid to check for any external or internal bleeding, concussion, broken bones or other trauma. I'll turn her over to the medical staff once they arrive."
And that's when The Beast decides to start baying. Ouka stares at the machine... no... the Unit as it seems to act more off feral instincts than anything resembling programming. This too is something utterly outside of her realm of experience. She has piloted everything from Arm Slaves to Personal Troopers to Variable Fighters to Mobile Suits, and even prototype Super Robots. Each one of them she has squeezed every ounce of performance out of. Each one she has ground down into metal and dust as needed.
... but now she is being asked to pilot not a mechanical thing... but a bioorganic thing. And one that wants to kill her.
~*Earlier, in the Pribnow Box*~
A critical unhandled fault resulted in the GxD system failing to initialize correctly, leading the plug to initialize a sync signal. The result of which was intense and even violent for the Boosted Child residing within the test plug. Almost immediately the LCL felt less like breathing (admittedly blood scented) air, but choking on a sea of scalding hot blood. Her heart seizes in her chest.
The signal is cut almost as soon as it began, and with the faint sound of coil whine, Aurum-1's body spasms uncontrollably as a shock is sent through her and her heart, helping it restart. The LCL isn't trying to choke her anymore, and she is able to breathe quick panicked breaths. Cero's voice comes over her comm but at first it's an indistinguishable murmuring: "...............nc signal your vitals bottomed out. I've terminated the test. Ouka, are you okay? Please let me know if you're ok."
"I'm fine." The First Boosted Child lies.
~*Now, at the sight of Gill'yavec's defeat*~
'Well, not everyone can fly one. They are dangerous...'
Ouka hand rests against the unit containing the battery and circuitry for the defibrillator which helped save her life earlier. She closes her eyes and sighs. Without reactivating her communicator she speaks aloud to herself.
"If it needs to be done, I'll be the one to do it." Aurum-1 declares with the same fierce determination that carried her to victory over and above all the other Aurum candidates. Her fist clenches the defibrillator unit on her chest as she pictures not herself, but Seolla, being clad in this ... medical vest, to keep the unit she's been ordered to pilot from eating her alive.
"Whatever it takes, however long it takes, I'll do what needs to be done."