2022-09-18: The Ninth Angel, Sandalphon (life ⇔ z( birth + x ))
- Log: 2022-09-18 The Ninth Angel, Sandalphon (life ⇔ z( birth + x ))
- Cast: Rei Ayanami, Ouka Nagisa, Eisen Daiwel, Zan, Misato Katsuragi, Lark Straye, Shinji Ikari, Liam 7-020, Kaworu Nagisa, Alloy Kaas, Asuka Shikinami Langley, Mari Makinami Illustrious
- Where: Mt. Asama, Free Japan
- OOC - IC Date: September 18, 0096 (2022)
- Summary: The Ninth Angel, Sandalphon, crawls out of the volcano Mt. Asama to attack... but something about the battle is off.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
In the aftermath of the violation of the Magi, much work needed to be done.
Most of it was routine. The core silicon-based logic that allows the Geofront to function was relatively quick to come back up, slowed primarily by a desire to avoid activating things in the most logical and efficient order. ("It would be best not to show our hands," said RITSUKO AKAGI at the time.) Autonomic nerves; the subtle motions of life and air and power.
After this it was slower. A process of reactivating core processes. Check and double check; confirm results from Matsushiro, or Hamburg, or Pendragon; double check again; confirm service restoration. Life has settled into a routine around the procedure.
Until...
"Restoration step 419," states Ritsuko Akagi. "We have unanimous agreement from all three Magi. Remote check?"
"Hamburg site cross-check... confirm! Pendragon cross-check... confirm! Matsushiro cross-check... majority vote," reports Lt. Ibuki. "Repeating check."
Hearts beat. Once, twice. Three times. "Matsushiro confirmed. Ready for restoration!"
"Restoring now," says Ritsuko Akagi, as she presses a single, but decisive, key on her laptop.
The great map on the Geofront's forward view flickers twice -- and the image of central Japan comes back online, covered in a streak of colorful splotches, as if an angel was neglectful of its paint.
"Damn," Shigeru says: "LOOK at all of that. How much have we missed...?"
"Commence active filtration," Ritsuko responded, tone cool, perhaps cold.
The dots evaporated, gradually. Little tags cataloguing blood types - White, Sepia, Orange, Magenta, Cyan, Indigo, and the Blue for which they all watched - disappeared, as if they were droplets of water on a slowly heating griddle.
"I've only seen this once, but it's routine," Hyuuga told Shigeru. "I think you were offshift when it happened. The Magi are approaching the holistic data environment with a naive mind."
By the time Hyuuga finished his statement most of the dots had vanished.
"That one's flicking White to Blue, huh," Shigeru laughed. "That's the Photon Power people at Fujiyama, right?"
Hyuuga adjusted his glasses. "That's not Fuji," he said.
The map reoriented itself slightly. The shape was wrong. Shigeru felt something grind in his guts as the flicking between Blue and White did not settle towards White. He exhaled when the light spot disappeared.
LEVEL 2 ALERT! LEVEL 2 ALERT!
ANALYSIS COMPLETE
Pattern Analysis : Blood Type BLUE 09
Hypothesized as 9th ANGEL
"Visual lock on the site!" cried Maya as Shigeru turned towards his own console, ice in his spine. "Target is located in the crater of Mount Asama, central Honshu!"
https://i.imgur.com/zQ4WmoO.jpg
"Target is moving!" Hyuuga said. "Primary motion is vertical!"
"Spatial orientation of the Angel!" shouted Ritsuko, already pressing other keys -- the ones that sent silver urgent commands out to the Colonel, the Commander, the pilots.
"Target is on the southwest side of the crater. Negative two hundred meters from surface!"
"Tell the SDF to bomb the crater ridge," Ritsuko said as she picked up the phone. "It should buy us time."
-=-=-=-=-
And indeed, it did.
As NERV gathered its pilots, prepared its transports, and made all haste to Mount Asama - so close and yet so far, a mere hundred kilometers as the bird might fly it - they were greeted by aircraft flying overhead, racing ahead. Flying through the fall sky towards a destination unknown.
A running timer was shared -- of course -- for estimated time of emergency, and at one point it suddenly jerked back 22 minutes. More than enough time to establish a perimeter, except that with a cry of, "It's jumping!" --
It was too late.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UUKKYrMfOk
Two glittering gray-brown arms, or tendrils, crest the northern rim of Mount Asama. (The southern rim is recently demolished, still smouldering. The SDF's bombing could not affect the Angel; but the volcano was less durable.) One of them undulates. Throwing thin claws forwards... gripping... pulling...
The front of the Angel emerges fully. Flattened, like a fish on its side. Projections above; two spots, suggesting a flatfish's eyes, set into that gray-brown plating. Another thrash and the Angel is halfway out of the crater. Once more and it tilts down. The scattered early snows on top of Mount Asama disappear so quickly they could almost be missed, flashing instantly to vapor as the Angel draws its whole length forwards.
The plates behind its head flutter... rise and fall several times. Struggling, perhaps. Then they pump several more times. The air around the Angel grows hazier as it pivots itself, going from north to northeast. One arm thrown outwards. Pull...
And the Angel slides down nearly a kilometer over stone and scrub. It leaves a huge dark scrape behind it. There are spots of flashing black in its wake. Down lower, there are gnarled trees that had grown in the volcano's harsh but rich soil. They ignite like miniscule candles.
Bellows-breath pumping, the Angel begins to move. And...
to
SCREAM,
An echoing, cosmic wail that echoes off the stones and puts birds to terrified flight for miles around.
Intercept the Ninth Angel!
KTS: Rei Ayanami has deployed in The Ninth Angel ~ Sandalphon LARVA. KTS: Rei_Ayanami has deployed as a Boss for 11 opponents. KTS: Zan has deployed in Iron Zanrailer <Orbital Rail>. You are now gagging Big-Scene. Zan transforms to Iron Zanrailer <Ground Rail>
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has deployed in NK-13S Schwarzritter. KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
**School Central R&D Facility - Administrator Koch's Office**
Those who can see great things have always been shackled by those who had been blinkered by conventions. Adler Koch knew this. The ongoing deluge of paperwork for 'audits' from Colonel Khushrenada is another shackle tied around his neck. One day he would pay back that smug, preening fool a thousand fold for every time he had obstructed his vision. Perhaps he would have one of those defective toys of Aguila's be the one to do the deed. But only where he could watch. Ah yes... he would enjoy watching that man broken by the very things he feigned concern over.
Adler is not a fool though. While others may look at Treize's behavior and see concern for Aurum-1 and Bronzo-27, Adler sees cold calculation. The same with Gendo Ikari. Yes, Ikari had expressed concern over the GEIM System and the plans to integrate it with his precious Evangelions. The excuse that the strange space anomaly was responsible for the malfunction had done little to silence NERV's insincere warbling. No, a practical demonstration was necessary.
Such fools. Worse than Setme and Cero, playing with their pets and etch-a-sketch brain engrams. Worse than Feff, who seems to have fallen down the rabbit hole of so many in trying to create his own super soldiers from whole cloth.
GEIM is the future. No more children. No more super soldier projects. No more teaching or training. Just shiny, lethal machines with impeccable algorithms capable of harvesting such irrational notions as 'instinct', 'fear', and 'rage' from their pilots. Or even better... should he be able to crack the secret behind Gendo's Evangelions, perhaps no need for a pilot at all. A Blitzkorps that can be created and mobilized at the speed of manufacture.
His decades long dream is so close to his grasp now. He needs only suffer these fools a bit longer.
... and hope Aurum-1 proves to be less of a disappointment this time around.
** West Pacific School Hangar - Undisclosed Location **
Dr. Cero's concerned expression vanishes as the cockpit block for the Schwarzritter closes around its pilot, Ouka Nagisa, also known as Aurum-1. He had repeatedly checked her vitals and questioned her about her mental condition. He WAS worried about her, in his own way. She knew that he knew just how much stress the GEIM System puts on her. However, that's precisely the reason why she refused to play into his game and declare herself unfit to pilot.
She had to be the one to do it.
Now the machine is being loaded into the launch tube. Water begins filling the area surrounding her machine. With practiced motions, she reaches out to flip toggles and switches that bring the machine comes online. When the switch to engage the primary pilot interface she hesitates, takes a deep breath... she counts backwards in German.
*click*
Her cockpit is bathed in strange purple light, and she can feel the barbs of the GEIM Machine digging into her head. Streams of data are interpreted as physical experience. She feels her body being submerged within the sea water being poured around her. Were the machine able to detect such she might even be able to taste the salt upon her lips.
<Aurum-1 reporting, all-green. Standing by for launch.>
A dull kchunk, a distant hiss, then suddenly the launch tube is a rush of white cavitation bubbles! Rising from the underwater hangar near the 'observation' station, the Schwarzritter breaches in a spray of seawater! Once Ouka confirms she has made it to the surface, she reaches forward to engage both control levers. An unnecessary motion, as the GEIM has already read her thoughts and the Schwarzritter is clad in purple energy as it boosts towards its destination.
Once within communications range, she broadcasts a visual feed to local defenders.
<Aurum-1 aboard the NK-13S Shcwarzritter reporting to the Type BLUE alert. Mission parameters are to support and defend local Evangelion units prior to AT Field nullification and core identification. Moving into engagement zone, ETA 1 minute.>
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
"It's an angel, how much time do you think they'd really buy us? Damnit, this is all Triple Sigma's fault." Eisen bites, as the Carestia sets down a few hundred meters from the base of the Volcano, airdropped one of the many air vehicles that the team has access to. Luckily, Asama doesn't have too many cities right near itself, but the small Onsens and ranches nearby are certain to be caught in the crossfire of this emergent problem.
The Carestia hunches over as it finishes its landing, its wings sharply spreading out as gossamer light begins to form and intertwine between them, forming multiple 'diamonds' of flickering strange light. The machine observing the Angel from a distance, like a predator gazing upon its prey. Both the Evangelion and Eisen sharing a similar looking grimace.
"It's good to have you here by my side again, Carestia. It felt wrong to be gone from you for this long." The youth notes, as he touches the controls, the synchronization rate immediately starting to rise as Eisen gets his head in the game. Watching the trees burn instantly that it gets close to them.
Deciding he will observe for a bit longer, the Carestia draws a leg back and reaches back an arm. One of the wings shifting, almost 'unfurling' some of its metalic prings, allowing a spear to drop from amidst its body like pulling off a pinion, and the entire machine takes an athletic throwing stance...
And then sends it straight towards the target, trying to see whether its A.T. field is still at an early point of development, of if the angel is fully ready to offend this reality
KTS: Eisen Daiwel: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Rei Ayanami with Sonic Glaive Throw! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Eisen Daiwel's Sonic Glaive Throw, taking 2700 damage! KTS: Eisen Daiwel: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Rei Ayanami with Pass! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Ouka Nagisa's Pass, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Zan has posed.
With the problem being so close, there was still one robot that was patrolling. Perpetually fueled nearly and only having to stop on occasion for some oil, water, and a few supplies as he went around Tokyo-3 doing repairs and keeping an eye out. An extra few cars were attached to the rear of his main body that were for supplies for him to use in repairing and rebuilding.
And then comes the call as Zan changes tracks. An empty area is quickly found and the supplies are upended in a pile.
Zan transmits back to NERV HQ. "BT-104 Zan, moving to intercept and engage. Carrying of units available. Do you have a delaying tactic I can employ at this time?"
The blow of the train's whistle as it barrels down the tracks is easily heard as it heads for the mountain.
Zan's Orca body remains attached as the train form barrels for the Angel's position to intercept.
Once closer, the extra cars are released as the train and five of the cars lift off the tracks.
Zan's voice comes out, "RAIL CHANGE!"
The train begins changing in the air as the cars line up as limbs and the engine and a car carrying Zan's Orca form fold and combine. The Orca craft raises up before changing into a head and part of a pair of back thrusters to attach to the main body. Feet and ankles fold out of the legs before they attach, followed by hands coming out of the arms as the giant robot raises it's arms, almost flexing them as it finishes.
"IRON ZANRAILER, GROUND RAIL MODE!" The new form announces.
Then the 60 meter large robot comes downwards at the Angel. Both feet trying to stomp the thing into the ground as a delaying tactic to give the other units time to get there and ready themselves. Especially the Evas.
Zan transmits back to the allied forces, "Iron Zanrailer, engaging in delaying tactics."
KTS: Zan targets Rei Ayanami with Rail Stomp! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Zan's Rail Stomp, taking 3000 damage! KTS: Zan has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Zan roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. <Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
Misato Katsuragi shot a lady. Why did she shoot that lady? Well, when someone shows up on the day of your father's death and your near death looking like they haven't aged a day, you start to get curious and instead of getting helpful answers, she got the answer to a cosmic mystery that the universe is random and what you do has a myriad of random effects most of which you can't predict! Which is true. But also very unhelpful.
Regardless, what she did get out of the mysterious green haired lady was that the people on site that day were not exactly to blame for the disaster...
...But no doubt are making plans around predictions based off that disaster.
Perhaps, Misato thinks, I should have asked more questions before shooting her twice. Oh yes, she didn't shoot a lady actually she shot a lady twice.
But she isn't really confident she killed her either.
So she's pretty distracted when the Ninth Angel attacks as if to say 'Did you think shooting that weird outlier was going to solve anything? Haha nope!'.
Misato has been quiet as the rest of the Command Center works on restoring NERV's systems. And then startles as they start blabbing about the new ANgel.
"Ah, right." Misato says.
A terrifying cosmic wail. Mourning? No, just another Angelic trick.
To most this likely looks like her usual floofiness, but Ritsuko can probabl tell that something is up.
She opens a line to Shinji.
"Shinji." Misato says.
She doesn't say what she wants from him for a while despite saying his name.
Misato takes in a long breath, she lets it out slowly.
"You've got this. You're an old hand at this now and you've got lots of backup. So play it cautious and don't be afraid to rely on the other pilots."
She runs her hand down her face. Why does she have a bad feeling? Her gut is rarely wrong, but was it? She needs to talk to Kaworu but can she trust him anymore?
IT'd be one thing if she knew multiple pilots, but only him? Why does she only know him? She thought they had a good thing going on with how they were handling their duties but how much does she know about him really?
Ugh, this is going to get her nowhere. She should just talk to him and let that be the end of it. Focus on the mission.
"Yeah, you got this." She adds, though this isn't over the comms.
KTS: Misato Katsuragi has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari <Pose Tracker> Lark Straye has posed.
Lark Straye isn't a member of NERV. This usually isn't her primary remit; honestly, she spends more time in space than she does on Earth.
By which she means she's been on Earth a handful of times and she hadn't particularly enjoyed it any of those times.
But she was on Earth *today*, and more importantly, she was in a position to assist. It might not be Londo Bell's primary purpose like it is for NERV, but what was she supposed to do - leave them twisting? As soon as they called the SDF for assistance, they knew they were likely to get outside help.
And it's for that reason that there's a mobile suit deploying to the field. At least, it's probably a mobile suit; it's about three quarters the height of the standard Jegan, and shaped with curved plates and blunt spikes rather than the neat lines of a Gundam and coloured in blues and greens with violently hot pink accents. A broad pair of back-mounted thrusters keep it moving, fanning out when running high and giving it surprising maneuverability. Despite its small height, it feels like it should be hulking, just from the proportionate width of its body.
It is also descending rapidly, having bailed out of a SDF carrier shuttle. The MSA-0120 can't really fly in-atmosphere under its own power, but it can control a fall, firing its absurd space-use thrusters in short bursts. Any more would overheat it.
"<Londo Bell here. Lark Straye, pilot,>" Lark transmits. "<Here for support. If you're calling in bombing, it sounds like you could use a hand.>"
The MSA-0120 actually has two guns. One is stowed, but the other looks like a slightly cut-down Jegan beam gun - which means, on the smaller -0120, it looks a little big. Which doesn't stop Lark from firing a slightly wild spray on her descent, short bursts to keep them under control.
KTS: Lark Straye targets Rei Ayanami with Modified Jegan Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Lark Straye's Modified Jegan Beam Rifle Shot, taking 2160 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Lark Straye's Scars of the War activates, causing Sparkle! <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Another Angel. Another alert. Shinji is quiet, as usual, nervously waiting for orders, nervously taking in orders. He's not trained to handle them like a soldier is. He only gets used to the pressure and stress as a new familiarity. The weight of it is constant: the Ninth Angel needs to be stopped, or people will die. A lot of people could die.
Shinji knows the bombs won't be enough to do much at all. If they could, then his father never would have called him here. He wouldn't be needed. NERV units deploy, Shinji included, grip tightening on the controls of Unit-01 as he steels himself for battle.
They're too late. The Ninth Angel is on the move.
Shinji. He remembers to breathe at Misato's voice. She believes in him still, despite everything -- everything being that he's Shinji Ikari. Or at least believes the others can make up for anything he does wrong. Cautious...
There's no such thing in a battle with an Angel, is there?
"...Understood, Miss Misato."
You got this. He nods to himself. They need to stop it. They have to stop it. It doesn't matter if the world is in a haze of heat so strong that trees burn readily in its presence. They go in and they stop it.
He isn't alone, like Misato says. Other units move in to test the Angel's defenses, to try and immobilize it. Shinji tries to work with that, and take advantage of the openings and information he's being given.
Unit-01's shoulder pylon splits open, prog knife revealed and turning within to expose the hilt so the Eva can seize hold. The edge of the blade hums with energy as Shinji launches Unit-01 into a charge toward the Ninth Angel with uneasy determination as he wordlessly dedicates himself to his strike, trying to puncture its AT Field.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Rei Ayanami with Progressive Knife Cut! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Shinji Ikari's Progressive Knife Cut, taking 2250 damage! KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Rei Ayanami! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The NERV strikeforce is difficult to miss, in transit; the Evangelions not only need transports big enough to carry them, but power infrastructure to keep them operational. There are smaller craft, though, including one carrying both monitoring equipment and a single Mobile Fighter. The Proto Helios stands at rest, secure in its gantry, its feet held down by locking clamps.
In the cockpit, Liam holds his body upright as the Mobile Trace System's extrusion ring does its work. Layers of interface circuitry, insulation, and armor mold themselves against Liam's body with ruthless force. He endures it with stoic silence until the ring reaches his feet; he rips them free, one at a time, and lets the film mold itself into boots. Next come the wires and coolant lines, which snake out from the machinery behind him, linking with his Trace Suit and the ports trailing down his spine. Biocompatible coolant flows into specially-designed loops, the handiwork of one Dr. Spartura.
Only once everything is green--the interfaces connected and fully operational, the panoramic cameras active--does he speak.
"Pilot Seven-Dash-Zero-Seven-Zero reports all systems go. Deploy at will." A pause. Liam switches into a slightly more normal cadence as the gantry holding the Proto Helios slides backwards, towards the rear of the cargo bay. "It was inside the volcano all this time?" That's bad on multiple levels; like Eisen said, they could've caught it earlier if Sigma hadn't wrecked Central Dogma, and if it was incubating inside molten magma...
Well. Liam's going to find out how his Gundam fares firsthand, either way.
The locking clamps retract. The gantry supports detach. Liam steps back, and the Proto Helios falls out of the back of the transport, plummeting towards the volcanic slope below. Blue-white plasma jets erupt from beneath it a moment later, supporting more conventional Gundam maneuvering thrusters. It hits ground with a heavy CRUNCH of cracking basalt, and settles into a crouch. "Acknowledged, Aurum-1. Awaiting AT Field disruption." A pause. The Proto Helios rises, and--
SCREAM
The achingly familiar sensation of fight-or-flight settles into Liam's guts. "Acknowledged, Londo Bell unit. Target capabilities unknown; exercise extreme caution." There's a human in that machine, right? Liam sounds more robotic at the moment than the actual robot here.
As Sandalphon heaves its bulk forwards, the Proto Helios rushes forwards to engage. Vents fly open on its back, arms, and sides. Sun-bright radiance shines inside as the SUNBURST system spools up. The heat-haze it would normally generate is nothing compared to what the Angel is doing.
The Mobile Fighter's chest-mounted plasma cannons iris open. Bursts of bright, superheated star-stuff race downrange at the Angel.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
YESTERDAY MORNING
From atop the Manyoso Hotel, Kaworu stands, hands in his pockets as he faces a certain direction. He smiles, wide but faint, just slightly crooked. He perches just on the edge of the rooftop, his footing dangerously precarious--if he were anyone else.
"I see," he murmurs to no one. "Tonight is the last one, and then tomorrow... What serendipitous timing."
-----
EARLIER
As pilots are scrambled to sortie and face off against the Ninth Angel, Kaworu hangs back calmly in the cage, watching the others. There's a full assortment of both Evangelions and Evangelion pilots; while he's in his black plug suit already, as a reserve pilot, there isn't a need to deploy him at this time.
Rei is passing by, already in her white plug suit, towards Unit-00 when a gruff, deep voice sounds over them:
"Wait, Rei."
Kaworu and Rei both look up towards a transparent panel in the wall overlooking the Eva cages. It's none other the Commander Gendo Ikari, who stares down at them both, expression inscrutably stern.
"You will be on standby this mission," Gendo continues. His gaze, barely visible behind his shaded glasses, shifts to Kaworu. "Fifth Boy. You will deploy in her stead."
Kaworu gives him a brief, considering look. He shifts his gaze over towards Rei. "Is that all right by you, First?"
Rei pauses. She blinks once, and looks at Kaworu for a second and a half. Confusion. It is not a long delay. "Yes," Rei says. And more quietly, "... Good luck." She walks back down the gantry, more slowly than she had approached.
Kaworu watches her go for a moment. Only a moment, though; there isn't time for either of them to linger. Then he looks back up at Commander Ikari. The Commander is already gone.
Kaworu's faint smile grows a hair. Then he strolls over to Unit-00 to ready for deployment.
-----
NOW
Unit-00 lands surprisingly light on her feet considering she was air-dropped in near the foot of Mt. Asama, crouching down with one arm splayed for balance and the other clutching a rifle, umbilical cable spooling at her back. She rises with smooth elegance and peers up the mountainside at the Angel as it scrambles down, as the other pilots rain in and press their own attacks. To see her in even this slow action, it seems odd that Kaworu's sync ratio with her is lower than Rei's, even if only about five to ten points, depending on the day. This probably doesn't help Misato's newfound distrust of him.
Within, Kaworu regards the battlefield. Eisen seems to be showing a bit more caution than usual; Asuka and Mari will be part of the second wave, and Alouette will be here too shortly, no doubt; Shinji (his gaze softens as he takes in Unit-01) is nervous as usual, but moving well nonetheless so far. Ouka's been deployed again despite the... issues... with her last outing in that particular mech; Kaworu frowns, but says nothing yet. Zan has dropped down directly on top of the Angel, and Liam brings heat against heat, while Lark, the Londo Bell pilot, comes in to add her own air fire support.
Kaworu and Unit-00 turn their gaze up--up--up--well past the Ninth Angel--towards an empty sky. Then they slowly retreat backwards, bringing the rifle up and firing not at the Angel but at the volcanic mountainside beneath it, to destabilize its footing and make it more vulnerable to the others's attacks.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Rei Ayanami with Sniper Rifle Aimed Shot! <Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.
Pacing. A thick braid of white bounces off of the back and rear of Alloy, Alouette Kaas as she treads over her own steps again and again. She doesn't have the litany of degrees necessary to understand the details and technical work involved in restoring the Magi, but the experience they went through during it's violent takeover and everything that followed... she just can't relax during todays operation.
A L A R M S
Alloy was racing out of the locker room before the first of the alarm had finished propogating through the diaphragm of the speaker. It was here she had been pacing. She was right. She didn't want to be. Was it self-fulfilling or something else? It doesn't matter. She had been in her plug suit and that much closer to her Evangelion, Unit Null-Sigma. But even as she slipped inside the plug and securing herself inside, even as she waited for the systems to cycle up, and the sync to begin, she wasn't a bottle neck here.
Alloy gripped the controls, and stretched into her cockpit. If Null-Sigma had been free of restraints she might have done the same. Here was the worst part, the wait. Wait for information. Wait for tactics. Wait to deploy. The elevators move and shuffle the Eva's into their positions or launchers. Finally some data starts streaming in about the enemy.
BLOOD TYPE: BLUE. ANGEL: SANDALPHON
Alloy scrutinizes the visual information as more data filters in. Comms start to buzz with active traffic. Combat begins.
"Aurum-One, Unit Null-Sigma Copies."
Alloy plays across a couple displays and gets set up in the launcher.
""Londo Bell-Lark Straye Null-Sigma copies. All support appreciated. Call out any vulnerabities. Null-Sigma, giving final launch notice Time to Target from launch, Two Three seconds. Null-Sigma Launching!"
Alloy and Null-Sigma accelerate via the launch vehicle platform, out of one of the sub surface delivery systems under the bay. Null-Sigma arranges the tentacles close to the body for streamlining, using the ends for continued impulse. The ascent angle changes as it approaches the shore, and the Cephalopod Evangelion rolls onto the surface, before breaking left to the waiting umbilical retainer.
""Colonel Katsuragi, Null-Sigma at point four-nine-one. Pilot Seven-dash-zero-seven-zero, provide cover for Unit Zero-One."
Four seconds to connect, one second too long for Alloy, and the feet of the seventy-plus meter giant makes her move at the newest angel. Alloy adjusts for maximum AT-Field output.
"Unit Zero, Unit Zero One, Crestia, This is Null-Sigma, moving to flank. Zan, provide lift and cover as needed."
Alloy chases for the flanking manuver, grateful the extra limbs give additional traction in the less than stable soil. Additional windows pop up, showing her Shinji had deployed the prog knife, Alloy dashes to make a timed grab for the limb closest to Shinji, that might try to defend or deflect the blade.
KTS: Alloy Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Rei Ayanami with FACULA - Plasma Shot! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Liam 7-020's FACULA - Plasma Shot, taking 480 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Kaworu Nagisa's Sniper Rifle Aimed Shot, taking 1950 damage! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 69. KTS: Alloy Kaas: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Rei Ayanami with The Bottomless Depths! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Alloy Kaas's The Bottomless Depths, taking 3150 damage! KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has deployed in Evangelion Unit-02.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
The voice of Ritsuko Akagi arrives to Carestia's cockpit, crisp and obscurely disapproving. "The Angel's mobility is limited to its arms. Unfortunately, its original environment does not harm it." Carestia draws back a spear from its panolpy and hurls it towards the crawling Angel--
Where it strikes against a scintillant hexagon of light, skittering for a moment as its momentum struggles to find an appropriate vector.
The Angel makes an enormous and oddly piteous sound. Eisen approached from its blind spot, and one of its wide circular eyes trembles... before suddenly lurching, as if swimming through the gray-brown plating, leaving momentary *ripples* in the material, to point towards Carestia. It is at this point that Zan makes his descent.
Zan strikes the AT Field and he has the singular experience of *feeling* it in a way that a human likely never will -- and he lives to tell the tale (probably). The sensation is something like the odd feeling that comes if you place all of your fingers together and flex your hands back and forth; it takes remarkably little time to have a sensation of sliding your fingers along a smooth, rigid surface. Zan lands and, improbably, he hovers -- about ten centimeters over the center point in the Angel's top ridges.
The gill-bellows flutter once as the Angel makes another noise. If it were not so titanically LOUD it might almost seem like a coo; but then it undulates, thrashing and driving free, flopping upwards and landing with micro-earthquake intensity as it screams once more! One of its arms slaps outwards, aiming to wrap round Zan loosely and hurl him towards Carestia, the Angel rising slightly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dohlYd0OL2o
And Unit One is running up the hill. The progressive knife comes up - STRIKES into that glass-the-size-of-a-world feeling and it seems to simultaneously diminish and soften during the downstroke before there is a shearing feeling, a glittering pattern sundered on the diagonal. Lark's beam shots fall downwards against the carapace of the Angel even as Shinji's blade descends towards one of the Angel's blank eyes-- which ripple-swims away from him, but the knife bites into what feels like metal and gouges out a fragment. The gill-bellows flap as the Angel makes a noise something like 'ooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaa' that can be *felt* this close up...
Before it *flips* itself, turning with an agility that belies the hard metal of its exterior or even the flatfish or anomalocarid it vaguely resembles. It is Shinji who first witnesses its grinding roundel of a mouth, which irises open and lunges to grip with a myriad of jagged grinding teeth against Unit One's arm! The air around it grows in haze again. The AT Field, breached, working to reconstitute itself...
The superheated plasma pours in onto the carapace of the thing, skittering off; Liam can see dark marks along the gill arch of the Angel but they seem superficial. A mixture of poor angle and adaptation -- one of the eyes track-slides back to gaze directly at Liam with its almost comical shape. The eye seems to almost be twinkling--
THOOM! A massive precision shot strikes the soil beneath the Angel's rear body, shifting it palpably to Unit One's inconveniencing. The Angel bellows, reaching out with its other armlike organ to scrape against the soil and keep its balance in this chaotic battlefield, gill-bellows pumping desperately-- which is when Null-Sigma strikes, the arm snapping backwards as if it had touched something painful. Its other arm comes forwards, towards the nearest thing to its body... Unit One, clasping it closer, and now, with over two thirds of its body above the soil, precarious and loose, it begins to slide downhill...
Perhaps the Angel panics here, in some way, or perhaps it had been waiting. It is impossible to say, at least, for most of the counterattack force. The Angel slides down towards the gray strip of the Asama-Shirane-Shiga-Sawakaya highway, and something beneath those gills glows a dull red. The rest of the Angel does similarly, at least from its top face.
It slams outwards; thermobaric in its displacement of atmosphere. There is no flame from the Angel, but the superheated air washes outwards, and as it reaches the highway -- a paltry three kilometers away -- the roadbed crackles and melts, smouldering. The forest behind the road hisses and does the same, orange licks of flame breaking out.
Of course, many other people are much closer than that, and they will have the same problem to face:
Endure the blast-furnace heat of the Ninth Angel!
KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Zan with Slamming! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Eisen Daiwel with Smashing! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Shinji Ikari with Gnashing! KTS: Rei_Ayanami Changes attack to Lark Straye, Kaworu Nagisa, Liam 7-020, Alloy Kaas, and Ouka Nagisa with Calcination. KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Eisen Daiwel KTS: [Lucky] Alloy Kaas's Survivor Against The Odds activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Alloy Kaas successfully blocks Rei Ayanami's Calcination KTS: Ouka Nagisa successfully evades Rei Ayanami's Calcination KTS: Lark Straye rushes into the attack! KTS: Lark Straye partially guards Rei Ayanami's Calcination, taking 3150 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Lark Straye! KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Rei Ayanami's Smashing, taking 2280 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Eisen Daiwel! [O-NRV] Eisen Daiwel> The Schwarzritter is the unit that showed during the Sigma / Magi battle as a semi-gundam-alike, yes? [O-NRV] Ouka Nagisa> Yep! [O-NRV] Misato Katsuragi> it's been a while but you can if you are subpiloting use the buff/debuff attacks right?
KTS: Shinji Ikari's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami anchors Shinji Ikari, forcing him into close range. KTS: Shinji Ikari fails to parry Rei Ayanami's Gnashing, taking 2160 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Shinji Ikari! [O-NRV] Rei Ayanami> that sounds right but don't quote me [O-NRV] Jana Cektru> yes
KTS: Liam 7-020 rushes into the attack! KTS: Liam 7-020 partially guards Rei Ayanami's Calcination, taking 5400 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Liam 7-020! KTS: Rei Ayanami rattles Zan, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Zan blocks Rei Ayanami's Slamming, taking 2450 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Zan! <Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
"<Second Wave, Schmecond Wave. Zweite Welle. Why aren't we already engaged!?> Pause, <... Don't answer that one with a song.>"
Asuka complains over the radio to Mari over the fact they aren't already engaged. As they round the bend on the highway, Unit-02 fixates its 'sensors' on the Angel. Asuka gets a good look at the Ninth Angel, ugly, primordial in her eyes.
The blast wave of heat melting the stonework that's shoring up a hill on the side of it. So even despite her desire to charge. She waits, even as the scenery around her carbonizes, the stones melting, everything catching fire, as Unit-02 keeps perched in cover. Deciding the opportunity for a surprise attack was more important than trying to keep the wave from striking the forest. The moment the supreheated wave abates just enough...
... that the Evangelion charges out, bayonet pointed at the Angel as it charges up the smouldering concrete, trying to surprise it with the abrupt appearance of another attacker from its flank. The Evangelion skids to a stop, striking the AT Field with the Bayonet, as she uses the momentum of the Evangelion to try to shove it in as much as she can. "<Hey you know what would be great? Actually TIMELY Cover Fire! What a concept?>"
She may not get it very far through the AT-Field, she understands how difficult it is to drive through the Angel's ATField, so instead she waits, until there's any give, even the slightest, just enough to get the point in. "<I'm going to try to pin it down. Hey - Baka Shinji! You hit it too! Shouldn't just let the Catty Four Eyes hog all the fun.>"
Unit-02 clicks the trigger. And there's a shot like a bolt of lightning that tries to sear through it, the blinding bright flash like actual lightning has struck.
But was it enough to get it!?
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Rei Ayanami with GB-012 Activation! Asuka Shikinami Langley has cancelled her attack.
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Rei Ayanami with GB-012 Foe-Piercer! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley anchors Rei Ayanami, forcing her into close range. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Asuka Shikinami Langley's GB-012 Foe-Piercer, taking 4092 damage! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa successfully avoids Rei Ayanami's Calcination Barrier Off
KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
There is no flame... but even before she sees the roadbed melting or the forest bursting into a conflagration she can feel the heat on her skin. The data streaming from her unit's thermal senses being translated by her brain into the actual feeling of heat. With a thought her unit's visor shifts shades from clear to dark red, the Schwarzritter's violet optics now glowing bright crimson through the screen. Within Ouka's own golden eyes she can now see the curtains of shimmering, shivering heat as she nears the battle field.
And so she maneuvers through the waves of superheated air, her unit maneuvering with incredible speed before she nears the center of the battle. Her unit's visor turns back to clear and she can see clearly as the beast attempts to latch onto Unit 01's arm with its 'mouth' filled with jagged teeth!! Simultaneously the Carestia is being targeted with another unit... Zan! Identifying two defensive targets in peril as the Schwarzritter disengages its boosters, Ouka still leans forward, driving her unit into a rapid plunge towards the angel and its victims!
Bladed wings open, spreading outwards as her unit zips around the great beast like some angry, stinging gnat. At this point she is hoping to provide some distraction while Eisen recovers, and perhaps convince the great flatfish to loosen its toothsome grip on the arm of the violet Evangelion.
<Acknowledged, Unit Null-Sigma, Pilot Seven-Dash-Zero-Seven-Zero.> She hesitates though in acknowledging Londo Bell. Her deploying in the Scwarzritter utilizing the GEIM System is skirting around Colonel Khushrenada's orders to shut down all experimentation utilizing GEIM, she knows. And while Londo Bell and G-Hound are not the same... nor should they be confused for one another, one might forgive her for the anxiety spike she experiences. <Acknowledged, Lark Straye I'll provide tactical support information over local frequencies.
And then the red Evangelion appears. The First Boosted child frowns a bit at that. As is normal she enters the field making condescending remarks towards others on the field. She considers making a comment about it. But then decides not to.
She has more important times to spend her bandwidth on than the Second Child.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Rei Ayanami with Victim Wing!
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
For some reason, hearing Liam calling himself by number has Eisen grimace in a rather bad way for a moment. The Carestia glaring over the way of the Proto Helios in that same moment. Its claws twitching, as if Liam had just personally insulted the enormous Evangelion by saying the wrong thing.
The eyes then turn back forward as Eisen watches how the others are handling this Angel. Letting the information flow naturally to him. Notably, Shinji, as he plunges towards the enormous lobsided trilobyte looking Angel. He wonders what the impact of close range combat is on the purple Unit.
However, the main oddity is Londo Bell reporting to a NERV operation. It isn't an unwelcome sight, or even extremely unusual - this isn't the first time the Federation has responded en-masse on an Angel appearance - but still, there it is. A voice he doesn't recognize.
"Unit-00... Kaworu." Eisen doesn't need an IFF or a pilot signifier for this one. There's something distinctly different about the way Rei and Kaworu pilot the same unit. And then... there's Alouette Kaas. Alloy. Out of all of them, she, he warns; <"Null-Sigma. Be careful about melee combat with this Angel. Something is off."> Eisen proposes to them.
And then there's the Gundam that showed up within Cyberspace, who~ oh, things are happening.
"Understood, Akagi. I figured that it would be highly resistant to flame. I'm worried what that means for the Proto Helios." Eisen notes, glancing towards that particular unit of Liam's once more. At the same time, he throws his left hand forward, pushing the controls. An A.T. field erecting as Zan comes sailing his way. Letting the machine 'slam' partially into the weaker A.T. field, then intentionally letting it collapse and catching the rest of the momentum with his own machine. Luckily, Ouka is providing some cover from any further assault coming his way, so he can concern himself just with dealing with Zan~
The Carestia comes to a grinding halt a few dozen meters back, at which point Zan is discarded abruptly without word, as Eisen takes a deep breath. Then... heat. The sudden increase quickly shows on his sensors, and the A.T. field comes back online quickly. Even at this distance, the Carestia feels it. Eisen grits his teeth as he quickly is reminded that Angels do not play nice by earth science and physics terms. He can feel the heat burning over his entire body, as he dives too deep into the synchronization with his unit, and just... lets the pain come.
Another deep breath, and then... out.
He is not safe at a distance. So this is now just like every other Angel battle. A battle against the clock. He can already hear Asuka complaining about other people in the distance. Time to add more people into that mix!
As the Carestia leans down fowards a bit, and then bursts forwards at high speeds, starting a quick run, its wings shifting closer behind it to not draw as much drag, then jumps in an attempt to land closer to the tail-end of the Angel. <"No view on the Core yet. So~ FIRST STRIKE OF THE DEVIL - ARTERIOLE DISCOVERRYYYY!">
As it brings two claws down in an attempt to pierce through its A.T. field. To pierce through its shell. And to start trying to Peel and Devein an Angel!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Rei Ayanami with Rending Devastation! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Ouka Nagisa rattles Rei Ayanami, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Ouka Nagisa's Victim Wing, taking 1200 damage! KTS: Ouka Nagisa has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: [Spirit Defense] Rei Ayanami's activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Rei Ayanami, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Eisen Daiwel's Rending Devastation, taking 5460 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Deject! KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Rei Ayanami! <Pose Tracker> Lark Straye has posed.
Lark comes on video chat once she's close enough that her systems don't think jamming is going to be an issue. A redhead in a Londo Bell stiff-shouldered normal suit, a mask with a slight backwards sweep at her temples hiding her eyes.
"<Understood,>" Lark says, tersely, before adding, "<I don't suppose any of you know anything about this? ...It looks like a big bug to me.>" It probably makes sense that a spacenoid would not be any good at identifying deep-sea (and extinct) creatures.
The MSA-0120 coasts down the rest of the way, touching down and immediately rolling forward. The beam rifle is away again in favour of a melee beam weapon, kept deactivated on the approach. Which is she is making pretty quickly.
And, as it turns out, not safely. The heat hits her like a battering ram. Lark thought that the time she ended up out in the tropics was hot, but this is worse in her cockpit - and her mobile suit is taking it worse. It spreads every fin and heat sink to the maximum, trying to dump heat, but it doesn't do a whole lot except for interfere with her flight path. The mobile suit wobbles slightly, forced out of its long leap and back to the ground, which it lands on badly and skids -
But then Lark gets it back up, practically throwing her machine at Sandalphon. The beam sword-axe - a Zeonic weapon? - activates, narrowing down from an axe into something like a pick, which she lunges in with. The Evangelions are ripping and lifting; the MSA-0120, comparatively tiny, tries to get its pick in and hit something, then dart back out as Lark tries to get some distance from that terrible heat.
"<I'll get some artillery,>" Lark says, sounding slightly pained. Is she allowed to just unzip her suit? It's not like she has to worry about an atmospheric breach here, but she *does* still have to worry about surviving if her mobile suit gets cracked.
<Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.
There is no consitency between the Angels other than there is no consistency between the Angels. That is to say patterns of behavior or ability cannot be used to predict one from another (Unless one has certain documents that tell you those things, but surely no one would be hiding such things). When Sandalphon reorients itself despite it's size and apparet makeup, it shouldn't be a surprise but such things always are.
Alloy responds to this display still in a state of reaction sans emotion. The tentacles shift to form a shield as the intense wave of heat transverses the air medium, luckily below the threshold of limitations for her Evangelion. As such she isn't slowed. That AT-Field isn't done though. Even with Mari and Asuka jumping in. First, thing first: Help Unit 01.
"Carestia, Unit Null-Sigma, I copy."
Alloy fingers the controls as she grits teeth and brings Unit Null-Sigma around for an inertial heavy swing of long limbs in a combined effort to wrest Unit 01 free of the Angel, while exploiting the AT-Field damage while she can.
KTS: Alloy Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Lark Straye has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lark Straye targets Rei Ayanami with Sword-Axe Penetration Mode! <Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
'Why aren't we already engaged!?'
"Ah-"
'... Don't answer that with a song.'
<"Your wish is my command! In that case, the best answer is...
<3 <"Belohnungsaufschub, Prinzessin~."> <3
Behind Unit-02, Unit-04 jogs at a leisurely pace -- as if for all the world there wasn't a potentially existence-ending threat on the horizon. Within its entry plug, its pilot looks similarly content: Hands crossed at the back of her head, Mari Makinami Illustrious hums to herself as data is fed into Evangelion Unit-04 on the impending threat. She glances at it, her expression one of half-lidded nonchalance; the only shift is the modest lift of her brows as she takes note of the actual sight of the Angel.
The Ninth Angel. Sandalphon. Mari's head cants to the side at an angle of pure curiosity.
"Really? Hum." she muses to herself, before a shrug rolls past her shoulders. "Well, whatever. Even sad things can be dangerous, right...?"
Heat ripples. One of Unit-04's assault rifles is detached from its back as Asuka charges forward. And as Mari is wont to do--
o/` "I'll say it as many times as you need: the world is beautiful
Precisely because you never give up on it
The plot of the final episode may've been set in stone from the very beginning
But just for the moment, here it is. Shine the way you are~!" o/`
She fills the world with song, seconds before she fires off a round of suppressive fire around Unit-02, looking to both give Asuka time to attack -and- with luck weaken that AT Field all the more.
<"You can't rush inspiration, your highness~!">
KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious targets Rei Ayanami with Assault Rifle - Single Fire! KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Rei Ayanami with Mariana Trench Warfare! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Lark Straye's Sword-Axe Penetration Mode, taking 2170 damage! KTS: Lark Straye has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Mari Makinami Illustrious's Assault Rifle - Single Fire, taking 2025 damage! <Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
MIsato Katsuragi says, "Thanks Kaas," as she offers to provide cover. There's not much to add to that.
As expected, the Angel does have trick. In this case, the trick seems to be... HEAT. Heat enough to cause fire in of itself.
She shakes her head, trying to clear her head. Perhaps it's just the time of year...
Misato believes in the Children. She has to believe in the Children, doesn't she? And that includes Kaworu. If you can't put your trust in the vanguard against this world shattering threat, then you might as well not hope for the future in the first place. She says, "That heat is no joke." Misato says, tightening her grip against the console. There's not much point in saying 'don't get melted, Shinji!'.
"Send formation data to... Ikari, Kaas, Nagisa..." Misato says. "Judging from its fire pattern--It uses its gills, and that means there's blind spots! Watch the gills!!"
KTS: Misato Katsuragi targets Shinji Ikari, Kaworu Nagisa, and Alloy Kaas with Coordinate. KTS: Misato Katsuragi coordinates maneuvers, raising Shinji Ikari's Piloting! KTS: Misato Katsuragi coordinates maneuvers, raising Kaworu Nagisa's Piloting! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 14000 <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Alloy tries to defend Shinji from the Angel's dangerous limbs. ...Then it shows its teeth. There's no time to be afraid.
Shinji bites back the sound trying to escape out of his throat as the Angel sinks its rows of teeth into Unit-01's arm. The other shoulder pylon opens, Unit-01 pulling a larger blade free. They're tangled too close for it to work, Shinji failing to pry the Angel off. His arm shakes against the controls, and his quiet, suppressed utterances break into a gasped cry.
Unit 01 is seized. Pulled. Heels dig into the dirt, scrambling, shuffling uselessly. The magoroku blade bites into the earth as a pillar to hold on to, Unit 01's fingers slipping off... one, two, three... gone. Unit 01, and Shinji with it, land in the highway with the Angel. Shinji still has the sense to deploy an AT Field against the way it slams outward, guarding from the immense heat of its attack.
...But only for now, Shinji struggling to get Unit 01 back on its feet, struggling to reassess the battlefield he's been dragged into. He grabs hold of his trembling arm with the other, risking just a moment's time to calm himself, with one eye pinched shut and watering. It's only by Alloy's assistance that Shinji recovers in reasonable time.
<"...K...Kass..."> It was meant to be a 'thank you', but his voice is too rattled. You got this, Misato said. Got this. He can do this. Why can't he do this?
Asuka's snaps all of his attention up. Hit it.
Just hit it!
The prog knife hums again, Shinji calling something incoherent out in the cockpit as Unit 01 twists and plunges its knife at the Angel with both hands, drilling it in as far as it can into the Angel's flesh. Or its eldritch equivalent.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Rei Ayanami with Progressive Knife Drive! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Alloy Kaas's Mariana Trench Warfare, taking 5520 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alloy Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Shinji Ikari's Progressive Knife Drive, taking 5000 damage! KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Misato Katsuragi coordinates maneuvers, raising Alloy Kaas's Piloting! <Pose Tracker> Zan has posed.
The reveal of the AT Field and the oddity of it is something that inexplicably causes Zan to freeze a bit more than usual. That serves to let the Angel throw the immense giant robot at the Evangelion, despite his size being smaller than the Evas by a good 20 meters. The bulky machine only has time to fire it's jets in reverse to slow itself before being discarded.
Turning and firing up into the air, the Iron Zanrailer broadcasts a quick alert, "All pilots. Rapid heat source detected by Angel."
He also makes note of the sensations in a separate file and transmits that straight to NERV HQ. That would be valuable down the line, no doubt.
Seeing what the Carestia is up to has Zan adapt his actions on the fly. Those arms are immensely troubling. Zan calculates before a bulldozer shovel appears on one arm, expanding to cover it as he notices that one of the Evangelions is under the Angel. And another unit that he's not familiar with.
That has the smaller robot jetting upwards and over, doing a full flip forward and a twist before attempting to get under the Angel with the Evangelion and push upwards with the bulldozer shield. To give the Evangelion some extra protection while he is at it.
The Iron Zanrailer may be slightly smaller, but that doesn't mean that it can't make up for it in industrial sized strength. Despite all appearances, the slightly smaller robot is built for something that the Evangelions might be lacking. Physical strength to move something like this. Even if it's dealing with the odd sensations of the AT Field.
It also puts him in perfect position to intercept for the two some of the incoming heat and possible arm attacks as well.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Superheated air rushes like a foehn towards Unit-00. Her one-eyed gaze is impassive--no, perhaps imperious? It's hard to tell on what would appear to be a giant robot, but she simply stares at the incoming heat blast until--fwiiinggg--it smashes against a series of crystalline concentric hexagons and breaks against them. To either side of the orange Evangelion, trees crumple and catch flame; her pilot glances at them, and she glances with them. When the heat wave abates, Kaworu dismisses Unit-00's A.T. Field with a sweep of her free hand. Its remains whoosh violently around and outwards from her, and when it crashes into the treelines, it leaves many of their branches bent and broken--but the flames smothered to death.
Though Ritsuko had already let Eisen know, when Lark sends out a request for more information, Kaworu transmits calmly to the battlefield, "<That is the Ninth Angel. It was born in the liquid womb of the earth, and like all Angels, it's able to defend itself with what's called an A.T. Field--that barrier of light you should have already seen. Such an extreme cradle has granted it many advantages, but easy travel along the earth's solid surface won't be one of them. In other words, it shouldn't be as maneuverable as it would otherwise be.>"
The Ninth turns and savages at Unit-01 with spindly, needle-like teeth, and Kaworu tenses. Ouka, however, is already at Shinji's aid as well as Zan's and Eisen's, barreling into the Angel with force to convince it that there is a more urgent target to be had, while Alouette handles defending Unit-01 on a more personal level by slugging the Angel with Null-Sigma's many added arms.
"<Shinji, everyone, are you all right?>" he transmits while maintaining his own distance. To Shinji in particular, he transmits gently, "<It's all right. It may hurt, but we're all here with you. If you need to fall back, I'll cover you, Shinji.>"
He'd like to tell Ouka and Alloy to be more careful too, but he knows well that telling them not to try to protect others is a meaningless effort. He casts them both a concerned look but accepts them for who they are.
Mari's approach at Asuka's back brings Kaworu's attention, as well as a chuckle to his lips. Her carefree attitude is refreshing as always, and when she sings, he finds himself humming along. Misato patches in formation data and prompts an attack at the anomalocaris-like entity's gills. In response, Unit-00 aims suppressing fire up towards the Angel to help support Shinji in Unit-01 and Alouette in Unit-Null-Sigma, as well as keep the Angel's attention in his direction and potentially make it more vulnerable to attacks from other directions.
High above the battlefield but still well within sight of those upon it, a miscolored distortion begins to snake through the air, as if an inside-out body were trying to pull itself rightside-in...
KTS: Zan has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari KTS: Zan has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Liam 7-020 KTS: Zan targets Rei Ayanami with Dozer Shield Ram! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Zan's Dozer Shield Ram, taking 1200 damage! KTS: Zan repulses Rei Ayanami, forcing her to disengage. Rei Ayanami tosses a coin: Heads <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam notices that pause in the Carestia's movements, the way its claws twitch. A tic, but why? What did he do? In one sense, the Proto Helios is well-equipped to face thermal armaments; its frame is extensively heat-shielded, and its coolant systems are rated to handle the heat output of the plasma running through its frame. At the same time, it's built to run on a razor's edge of viability, and as Liam found out on the moon, it doesn't take much to tip it over the edge.
And in fact, Eisen brings up something along those lines. "Adjusting SUNBURST to compensate," Liam says. "Magnetic containment field enables temperatures well in excess of Earth's core."
Which is more or less declaring intent to play chicken with the Angel--to see which one of them burns to death first.
Sandalphon puts his intentions to the proof in the worst way possible.
"Ikari!" Liam shouts, as Sandalphon's horrid maw comes to bear against the Eva-01. "Commencing sup--" He doesn't finish the sentence. The thermobaric explosion rolls over the Proto Helios like a tidal wave, blowing it off its feet. Bits of its ablative armor rip off and melt; spots over the chest start to run like water.
In the cockpit, Liam braces, and hits the jets. The Mobile Fighter steadies itself, the blue-white glow of its plasma breaking through the Angel's superheated fury. It lands less than two dozen feet from Sandalphon's right flank, its feet sinking into the half-molten highway. Through the heat-haze, Liam sees Zan repositioning himself--a Brave unit? he wonders--and steps into the larger machine's shadow.
The Proto Helios comes out swinging, driving a superheated straight punch right for the Angel's side, near the fin. Liam follows up with a snap-punch from the left, and then a rushing knee strike to put more pressure on Sandalphon.
The Proto Helios' heat alarms start to pulse, gently.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Rei Ayanami with Blazing Strike! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Liam 7-020's Blazing Strike, taking 3200 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Liam 7-020 begins a Formation attack! KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Rei Ayanami with Sniper Rifle Sighted Shot! KTS: Rei Ayanami's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Kaworu Nagisa's Sniper Rifle Sighted Shot, taking 1620 damage! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 81. <Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
As the forest to the northeast smoulders and dries, the Angel's claw comes down to clasp the soil. To find grounding. The fact that Unit One is *beneath* it is not a problem for the Angel, perhaps. It can simply crush or devour the Evangelion. (Do Angels even eat?) But the convergence of Eva-02 slamming up the slope and slamming down the weapon--
The AT Field glows, emanating outwards, blocking as it ripples in chaotic conflict with the pressure of Asuka's rage--
SNAP! With a great arc of electricity the piercing bolt smashes through the thin organ of mobility and manipulation. There is a skitter-spray of some kind of clear compound that immediately volatizes and the Angel
SCREAMS
again, even as the diving strike of the Schwartzritter harries its other arm, which rises upwards, swatting at the flying 'bug' with snapping, flicking motions. The Angel's attention can perhaps only go so many ways, because Eisen is able to get up on the back of the great creature and strike two claws down, sliding into a glacis plate and raising it with a sound like massive ripping cloth--
ANOTHER SCREAM,
even as Lark comes in to harry it. Lark strikes against the outer material of the Angel and it might seem peculiar to those who have a good vision from afar, such as Miss Illustrious sighting in her weapon to beat down the Angel's corpus in the area of the 02nd Princess of everyone's heart. The outer shell seems to be just that -- a shell. Is that how it survived in the volcano? Lark's blows break through-- whatever it is; a webwork of cracks forming even if the intense heat and probable wisdom of not hanging out on the Angel keeps her from simply *digging in*.
There is an immense and almost insectile sound inside of the Angel's pinned limb-- before part of the carapace snaps out and a fresher, damp-seeming, gray-plated version of its claw-arm snaps forwards towards Eva-02 to lash round it, despite that pinion strike! To grasp her and to embrace her. Which might seem tragic, were this not a curling, coiling, stone-crushing armature of a horrid monster.
Shinji, trapped, and Alloi, in assistance, harry the Angel as it seems to pull in on itself. It is a difficult scene for this young organism, perhaps; with carving pain beneath and with a swinging along and up to to the side. Alouette is able to carve long scrawling gashes into the things outer shell; Shinji carves in through --
Are there layers? It feels almost like he's pushing the progressive knife through a stack of-- of-- sheets of cardboard, that's nicer than the alternatives -- before he seems to touch something softer.
The Angel trembles.
And then it rears back from Unit One! Mission complete?
The Angel keeps toppling backwards. Deliberate speed. The aim is simple -- to smash Carestia beneath its bulk against the stone of Mount Asama. As it falls, the grasping arm around Eva-02 sweeps the red machine round to strike it against Null Sigma, and it does something less pleasant yet-- do you recall how its eyes moved, left to right, as if on tracks?
Its arms, it seems, can do the same; and so the moment arm is quite intense when it finally relents, just in time for Zan to come inwards and smash into the Angel's side. This is sufficient to mostly free Unit Two, the Angel's massive form raised up far enough that it seems to take Zan's hint and topples forwards, landing on its belly with another great slam, tail raising and smashing against the ground.
It raises its gill-arches again-- the Proto Helios closes, the paradoxical near-equality in their thermal status playing in Liam's favor for the moment even if he might not want to move into the Angel's immediate neighborhood. The blows ring against the side of the Angel, although a couple of telling blows against something that MIGHT be metal gain that slippery-glass feeling of striking an AT Field (though unlike Zan, perhaps, Liam has more spaces of separation.)
There is something enormous that goes SP-KNGG against the Angel's outer carapace -- reaches into that softer or at least more yielding material -- and the motion of the gills stops. A lucky shot? Has Kaworu managed to defeat the Angel?
The grasp on Eva-02 tightens again. Perhaps not.
One of the Angel's eyes snaps forwards to its most extreme inclination. Laying flat on its belly, the Angel cannot quite look at Eva-00 directly; it is inevitably something of a side eye. There's something plaintive about it. A sense of glittering tears--
They are not tears.
The black pit of the Angel's eye erupts with light--
-- it arcs forwards, trembling slightly from the Angel's own bodily agony, sweeping just a bit --
-- enough to intersect Zan with his mighty dozer blade, as well as the aloofly-positioned Eva-00 --
-- and with the forest behind them.
In a moment there is an arcing sound of discharge as the air is tortured, hyper-intense heat on a wavelength which Zan, at least, has never had the privilege to encounter even in his orbital journeys. And in the forest behind them there is an enormous violet bloom ringed with fire as the forest itself erupts like a tinderbox, the rising fireball and cloud of ash and smoke crested on top by a luminous pillar of light, separating into a cruciform icon visible for thirty miles around.
The Angel's other limb surges forwards, hard enough that the plating around it separates enough to allow a glimpse of some sort of reddish under-material, aiming to sink needle-tipped claws into a leg or the torso of Eva-04; to drag the Evangelion closer. The Angel's foreparts raise upwards, the circular mouth widening. There is another scream, but now it contends with the apocalyptic NOISE of that exertion of energy!
Rend the armor asunder!
KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Ouka Nagisa with Smashing! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Lark Straye with Slamming! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Eisen Daiwel with Thrashing! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Alloy Kaas with Smashing! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Asuka Shikinami Langley with Constricting! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Zan with Cross Beaming! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Kaworu Nagisa with Cross Beaming! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Mari Makinami Illustrious with Smashing! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Shinji Ikari with Calcination! KTS: Rei Ayanami rattles Lark Straye, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Lark Straye blocks Rei Ayanami's Slamming, taking 2450 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Lark Straye! KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Alloy Kaas KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Mari Makinami Illustrious KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley successfully avoids Rei Ayanami's Constricting KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious parries Rei Ayanami's Smashing, taking 1290 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Mari Makinami Illustrious! KTS: Ouka Nagisa parries Rei Ayanami's Smashing, taking 645 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Ouka Nagisa! KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Eisen Daiwel parries Rei Ayanami's Thrashing, taking 1530 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Eisen Daiwel! KTS: Shinji Ikari partially guards Rei Ayanami's Calcination, taking 2025 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Shinji Ikari! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Liam 7-020 with Calcination! KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa successfully avoids Rei Ayanami's Cross Beaming KTS: Rei Ayanami roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Zan has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Zan blocks Rei Ayanami's Cross Beaming, taking 2190 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Liam 7-020 blocks Rei Ayanami's Calcination, taking 5400 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Liam 7-020! KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Alloy Kaas's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Alloy Kaas blocks Rei Ayanami's Smashing, taking 1140 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Alloy Kaas! Barrier Off
KTS: Alloy Kaas has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Zan has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Lark Straye has posed.
Lark eventually decides that sweltering in her suit is probably the better plan, but boy does she not like it. The base that she ends up at after this had better have air conditioning or she's going to riot.
When spoken to, Lark transmits nothing for a few long moments. "<OK,>" she eventually says. "<Giant rock bug Angel. Got it.>" Because what do you even say to that? "<With a field.>" Same as the Evangelions? She'll file that under 'weird, think about it later'. There's a lot in that file.
Lark is not going to stay close in. Honestly, if she'd known it got THAT hot she wouldn't have anyway; the size difference between her and the Angel made it a risky move to begin with, and then there's the rest of it. Bringing out her shield to defend against it flailing is almost comedically pointless.
She does it anyway, the MSA-0120 knocked away further than she'd intended to. Its thrusters fire midair, righting it and making it slowly descend. Lark has traded her sword-axe for the gun - the one that's actually scaled for the -0120, not the modified Jegan-use weapon she started the fight with.
The Angel continues to mess up the Evangelions. It's grabbed one of them and smashed it into another; it's got a - "*Shit*!" Lark interrupts her thought process with volume at the cross beam. She thought this was just a big chunky animal; it's not like it had done anything previously other than 'be hot' and 'move slow'. Well, and 'have barrier'. She's just lucky *that* one wasn't aimed at her.
Coming back on voice: "<Lark to NERV. And G-Hound. I'm presenting a firing line. I don't care how shielded your units are, don't be in it unless you want to test the shield in two directions at once.>" The weapon begins to charge, a faint hum in her ears. Her best bet is when it's attacking one of the others...
(You're just going to leave them? Use them as a distraction? The same way you were, because that was what you were good for?)
Lark's face screws up behind her mask as her thoughts drift. She *could* get a better shot by holding it a bit longer, waiting for it to expose itself again, but the other units... she'd have to let them get battered around some more to wait for it.
Even so, she holds it. The weapon charges, a distinct swirl appearing, energy (and air) seeming to be drawn into it and compressed. The hum is louder, more of a whine, and when Lark aims it it vibrates faintly.
"<Firing!>"
Lark fires the weapon. Early, rather than waiting it for be distracted attacking someone else, but aimed at the (hopefully sensitive) underside with the mouth.
The High-Impact Gun emits a deafening bass *THOOM*, accompanied with a shrieking sound of something solid tearing through air - it's not really meant to be fired in an atmosphere. The kickback is enough to literally knock the MSA-0120 backwards, toppling it and forcing Lark to rise.
The slug, going the other way, impacts with ridiculous force: enough to shatter stone, and if she misses there is going to be a new crater, shards flying out in every direction as it pulverizes the first layer. But ideally, 'the first layer' is the shell of this Angel, or the barrier in front of it.
KTS: Lark Straye targets Rei Ayanami with High Impact Gun Full Charge! <Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
There's a roll of her eyes as Mari starts singing, but for once she doesn't actually complain? In part because Mari actually abided by her request earlier is, she feels like the least she can do is give her THIS, even as suppressing fire peppers the Angel's AT Field.
"<Not bad. Actually on time, for ONCE!>" Before she still grouses at her, "<Wie kommt es, dass Sie die Dinge auf Deutsch noch seltsamer klingen lassen knnen!?>"
Before Shinji charges in with that Prog Knife and- "<Nice. There you go!>" It's not impossible Shinji is confused and wonders who she's talking to, but she's talking to him!!!
The Angel suddenly rears back, and Asuka is forced to extract the Thunder Spear, as she saw how deep the Prog Knife sank in, "<Did you get i-?>"
The grasping arm suddenly tells her no, as Unit-02 is suddenly swept off its feet and sends it hurtling against Null Sigma. Given that she doesn't know if its AT Field is up, she keeps hers down in a split second decision.
Unit-02 crosses its arms and bears the impact best as it can, with a crunch of her restraint armor against the Sigma. And inside the entry plug the 'Princess' is sloshed around so hard she feels like she got minor whiplash despite the LCL, only being released as Zan crashes against it.
"<Ugh - why didn't you dodge that Chuutwo!?>" Unit-02 rolls itself over from its position, and pushes itself up to stare at Sandalphon right as the cruciform eruption happens in the forest, "<Hey Baka Shinji, what's the deal? I saw how far you got that knife in. Did you catch any sign of the core?>"
However, that's the moment she sees a gleam in the under-material. And Unit-02 suddenly charges right towards it. And drops the Thunder Spear. "<So that's the trick huh?>"
Bare-handed the Eva charges, and when it gets in close, both of its shoulder pylons open, explosively discharging so many blackened high-velocity 'nails'. If any sink into the Angel's body... Eva-02 grabs one with one hand. Then another with its other, and starts to just pull, in two opposing directions - to try and RIP the armor apart in the center. "<Let's rip it to pieces!>"
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Rei Ayanami with Pencil Roc Nailgun Surprise! <Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
The issue with acting like a gnat, of course, is that things large enough for you to gnat at will treat you like a gnat in turn. The Angel swipes and swats with its segmented arms, trying to smash her unit into so much metal scrap and ruddy paste. Then suddenly one arm looms over head, she can see the shadow descending upon her. The GEIM system demands she dodge the attack, to try and move out of the way. However part of her goal is to prevent it from striking her fellows.
Just as Kaworu noted... she is here not for herself, but to protect others. And she will stand her ground.
Drawing forth the two thin black bladed swords from its armored skirt, the Boosted Child's mobile unit utilizes both weapons to parry and narrowly deflect the arm from striking her directly. The result of the impact still sends her unit crashing to the ground, landing with enough force that it is temporarily buried up to its ankles in half molten asphalt. Chunks of highway are carried upwards as the unit returns skyward, moving back to a strategic position.
Once again the First Boosted Child intentionally intercedes with her blades to attempt to delay or protect the Evangelions. This time her attentions focus on Mari's Unit-04 and Alloy's Null-Sigma.
It's at that time though that Liam's unit, the Proto Helios, catches her attention from the ocrner of her eye. Even after blocking its recent strike the impact has taken a painful toll on the other unit. His isn't one of the units identified as a primary objective. She should ignore his plight and focus on ensuring the Evangelions can perform their task in neutralizing the Angel.
<Pilot Seven-Dash-Zero-Seven-Zero, I'm coming in to provide close support. I'll focus on providing support for the Proto Helios. Evangelion pilots, proceed with the mission.>
Within moments the Schwarzritter appears by the other unit. It really is startling just how quickly it can move. In the defensive support role it lacks any long range weaponry to continue the assault. Instead it focuses on aiding Liam's unit. Either providing a hand to help it up, or merely serving as living cover by drawing and utilizing the Flugel Schwert as a shield while it prepares to attack.
<Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.
"Unit Zero one... Shinji..."
Alloy finds herself reassuring the Third Child. She had seen it before. Found it curious. But here she was doing it herself. There wasn't time for thinking about it. Besides, it was a feeling. She was just acting, and feeling. Hadn't that she been following that path, to escape the rigid roboticism and lack of self autonomy. This felt right, in the now.
"Shinji, it's ok to be afraid. We are here to do this together. Everyone is afraid some. But that's how we do this, together. We have each other. Trust yourself, and us. You can do this, WE can do this."
Alouette's time for reassurance runs out as the Angel begins lashing out and attacking. A limb comes bearing down to crush Null-Sigma as the Angel fires off a beam attack in response to the other Eva units joining the fray, and the impact the attacks of Ouka, Liam, Lark and Zan lay upon it. The hexagonal pattern of Null-Sigma's AT-Field flashes in irridescent brilliance upon the heavy impact. The multilimbed Kraken Evangelionusing it's appendages in concert to force the blow to yield.
Carestia and Kaworu in Unit 00 seem to be the straws that enrage it further, the being screaming and blasting out. Alloy cries out in effort as she makes every effort, raking and coiling the limb like a spined wrenching predator, with the armored, raked limbs trying to get it infront of it's own beam attacks.
"RRRRRRRRRR, DONT. STOP. KEEP. FIRING!"
KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Liam 7-020 with Prospect! KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Rei Ayanami with Bloodboiling Pressure!
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
Eisen's lips turn to a sneering grin as the Angel scerams. Each time he hears it, it's confirmation that it feels pain. That they are able to harm it. For as alien as Angels are, even they seem to have a need to express their pain, and their expression upon the world!
<"That's right, cry out foul beast! Famine has come to ensure your life passes."> Eisen answers the Angel, as if it could possible even understand him. There's certainly been no suggestion such a thing were the case. Perhaps the glowing presence up above might be able to... but Eisen is thoroughly focused on the current threat.
And the fact that it has reared back thanks to something Shinji and friends just did! <"Whatever you are doing, keep it up, Shinji!"> Eisen calls out from the rear of the angel as it rears up and tries to throw itself back upon the Carestia. The unit immediately moves... in a way that suggests the one within the machine is no slouch when it comes to close quarter combat.
One leg forward, one hand touches the shell, a subtle adjustment of weight coming forward. The legs coming down. The wings suddenly unfurl and each and every 'pinion' stabs into the ground, stabilizing the machine. The ground beneath it cracks and tears, as the Angel falls upon the Carestia, and the Angel engages its own A.T. field to capture the fall, and lets the Angel roll over it, in a circular fashion, until it finally falls to the other side and prepares to engage his allies.
Then moves to the side as Lark warns of the firing solution, stepping 'around' the Angel partially with impatient steps. Like a predator rounding about its prey.
<"Don't you turn away from me!"> Eisen demands of the Angel as the enormous pillar tears through space and erupts in an enormous column of life-denying energy. Right before the right leg of the Carestia CLAWS onto the back of the Angel. Right where he'd ripped a glacis plate up earlier. <"Because I am not done with you yet."> The eyes of the Carestia seem to flash green for a moment as the wings pull up from the ground, and the tail lashes angrily behind it. Two spears falling into its arm, the front of them suddenly buzzing alive as the old prototype Sonic Glaives activate. <"This is why, Asuka. If I dodged, it would put me further away from this Angel. And I am right where I want to be!"> Ah, this is better. A Kaiju that can just be killed. That doesn't require any moral judgments. Kill, or be killed.
<"Now, let's hear it scream some more!"> The Chuuni youth demands, as those Sonic Glaives come down! <"SECOND SEVERING TECHNIQUE! SAWBLADE ANATOMIZER!"> As the Carestia begins to just BORE into the thing. Grabbing with its wings at the shell, using the prongs to lift. Trying to practically walk into the Angel as the twin Sonic Glaives start digging in deeper. Trying to tear chunks off of the Angel, and get to the precious Red Core.
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Rei Ayanami with Violence Ensues! KTS: Rei Ayanami successfully avoids Lark Straye's High Impact Gun Full Charge KTS: Lark Straye completes the Formation attack! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Alloy Kaas's Bloodboiling Pressure, taking 5115 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alloy Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Alloy Kaas begins a Formation attack! KTS: [Spirit Defense] Rei Ayanami's activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Rei Ayanami, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Eisen Daiwel's Violence Ensues, taking 8280 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Deject! KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Eisen Daiwel completes the Formation attack! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley rattles Rei Ayanami, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Asuka Shikinami Langley's Pencil Roc Nailgun Surprise, taking 3740 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asuka Shikinami Langley's Sole Shikinami activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Rei Ayanami! <Pose Tracker> Zan has posed.
With Zan's thrusters firing off to help with the push, he ends up landing again and holding the dozer shield ready. He was expecting an arm... and what he got instead was something else entirely.
The dozer blade is presented as a means to tank the very large cross beam attack.
When it's over, the massive dozer blade is slightly warped together in a not natural configuration not to mention Zan himself is pushed back near where Kaworu is. That's not a good prospect to help the others.
Or is it?
The train robot raises it's other arm as a large barrel pops out. Safety devices click off before a large spike is fired at the Angel's eye in an attempt to stop that cross beam attack from happening again as Zan starts to walk towards it, keeping the dozer shield ready.
KTS: Zan targets Rei Ayanami with Spike Shot! KTS: Zan has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Liam 7-020 KTS: Zan anchors Rei Ayanami, forcing her into close range. KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Zan's Spike Shot, taking 2720 damage! KTS: Zan has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Zan begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
Misato Katsuragi watches the video of the battle. It's fighting back with--another scream? More heat. A rising ball of flame. More and more alien, she thinks.
"Shinji--!" Misato begins but Shinji is already driving his knife into the Angel's flesh. Misato tips her hat down a bit. "Yeah... Just a little more, Shinji..." She murmurs.
But then the Angel shifts, its mouth widens more and more. More and more NOISE. A sound that shakes the heavens.
"Shit--C'mon Shinji! You're almost there!!"
All she can offer right now is words of support but that's what she's got right now. These days, the Pilots seem to be well adapted to the work of fighting Angels. Maybe it's just a new normal, Misato thinks, taking on an Angel, going home, like any other 9 to 5 work though with bigger explosions.
Wouldn't that be something, she thinks ruefully.
KTS: Misato Katsuragi targets Shinji Ikari with Prospect! KTS: Misato Katsuragi assesses Shinji Ikari's prospects, increasing his SP! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Jophiel didn't scream--at least, not in any way Liam could hear. But Sandalphon does, and there is something in it that rakes needles down Liam's spine, tips the adrenal response towards 'freeze' or 'fawn'. The augmentation and regulation systems are trying their best to keep him in the battle-trance, but they can only work with what Liam's brain gives them.
"Shell fracturing," Liam states. "Molting observed. Target less-protected tissue." If he gives tactical advice, he can be useful. Feel useful.
"Engaging enemy." The Proto Helios winds up for another strike, armor dripping off its arm and splattering to the charred earth below. Sandalphon's eye almost meets it, and in that moment, the Mobile Fighter stops for just a second.
It feels different than Jophiel. It feels young, somehow. Burning, screaming, splitting its shell apart as it flops and thrashes. "Engaging enemy."
Liam barely has time to react to the next blast. The Proto Helios' vent covers detach, hovering in the magnetic field to form twin shields at its forearms--but they can only absorb part of the impact, and can do nothing about the rising temperature. The pulse turns into a warbling as the Proto Helios flies backwards, lands, and skids. The cables and restraints keep Liam from slamming into the cockpit wall, but the Mobile Trace feeds him every last bit of pain. His back is flensed agony. He feels like he's been dipped in molten tar.
And then...
"Aurum-1," Liam chokes out, "stay back--" But she doesn't. She helps the Proto Helios to its feet, despite the aura surrounding it, as hellish as Sandalphon's. Despite the plasma now venting openly from several places it's not supposed to vent from. Hephaestus would punish him for this, Liam thinks, distantly. He can't close with it again. Not yet.
The Proto Helios' frame spasms. It extends its right hand--the hand that still has a functional magnetic bottle system--and plasma starts to curl into a knot above its palm. "Engaging enemy." The plasma uncoils, and then whips out like a great, burning streamer to encircle Sandalphon. The Proto Helios pulls its hand back, as if tugging on a rope, and the thread starts to constrict. Sandalphon is enormous, but if Liam can just make more cracks in its shell...!
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Rei Ayanami with SUNBURST - Prominence! <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
"<I'm fine. I'm all right,>" Shinji reports to Kaworu, voice shaken. It's a thing he says because he knows he's supposed to, not because he feels it. There's not another option. Asuka actually praises him in battle, so maybe he actually is all right. At least doing all right. Alloy reaffirms that everyone is here together. Fear and pain are okay.
Not that you'd know, from feeling either one of them.
But it is thanks to the help of his friends and allies that Shinji is freed for a moment of false respite. A chance to breathe once. To let the Angel's screaming and writhing imprint on his mind, burrow in, and take root for nightmares he'll be having later.
Answering Asuka: "<Its skin -- flesh -- um, there's something... softer-->" He's trying not to gag, "<--below layers of its armor...!>"
Blade and beam and bullet send the Angel reeling. Kaworu lands his shot in Unit 00. Shinji holds his breath... ... The Ninth Angel moves.
And then there's light.
"<Kaworu!>"
But it was working. It was reaching something. Eisen encourages Shinji to keep it up, Misato says just a little more... and Unit 01's grip on the prog knife squeezes. Break through its defenses. Pierce in deep, at the reddish material. Destroy it...!
Shinji's teeth grit, grinding as he burrows the prog knife in as deeply as he can. Unit 01 lifts its arm and stabs in again, more force, more momentum. Stab. Stab. Twist. Like the world's most brutal attempt at filleting a stubborn fish, each action urgent in its violence. Sweat drizzles down his brow. He can barely breathe, the heat suffocating, his grip on his controls like accidentally grabbing cookware fresh from the oven.
Just a little more...?!
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Rei Ayanami with Progressive Knife Twist! KTS: Liam 7-020 rattles Rei Ayanami, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rei Ayanami blocks Liam 7-020's SUNBURST - Prominence, taking 2250 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Shinji Ikari's Progressive Knife Twist, taking 5600 damage! KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Shinji Ikari completes the Formation attack! KTS: Ouka Nagisa assesses Liam 7-020's prospects, increasing his SP! KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Liam 7-020 <Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
They can eat.
The Ninth Angel, laying prone upon its belly after savaging through and against an army of foes, side-eyes Unit-00 as if wounded by her gunfire. The Unit herself remains as impassive as only a giant caged in metal can, but within her, Kaworu breathes the faintest of sighs as his head inclines a quarter-inch to the right. "Nothing personal," he murmurs. "For you, or for me."
byew
A great piercing beam of light erupts from the Angel, bursting towards Unit-00 until it swallows her whole, leaving behind only the image of her raising her arms as if in a pitiful attempt at defense. Once it has her engulfed, the beam splits, forming a great and awesome cross in the Biblical sense of the words. Zan is caught in it too, but he manages to get away out of the worst of it; for the moment, it seems as though Unit-00 is entirely gone.
"Unit-00, signal lost!" Lt. Ibuki shouts from within the Geofront, a bead of sweat trickling down her cheek. Information from her screen reflects off her eyes, and she adds, "Wait--not lost; disrupted! The Angel's attack has severed the umbilical cable and seems to be interfering with Unit-00's instruments! Status unknown!"
Up on the commander's seat, Gendo Ikari looks on seemingly impassively, lips hidden behind folded hands. "..."
On the battlefield, the light from the cross beam glitters, then gutters out until it's gone, as if it had never been. The forest fire remains, but it's already raged through in an instant, clearing the way. There, in the crux of its attack...
Unit-00 unfolds. The glittering light of her own A.T. Field shimmers away. There is a patch of untouched earth around her, likewise protected by her A.T. Field. Her armor smokes, melted in some points, but she has made it through.
The same can't be said of the forest around her. She looks to one side, following the gaze of her pilot, towards the blackened remains of one of the trees. Both of them ignore the timer ticking down from five minutes, beeping insistently to Kaworu's right. Following Kaworu's will, she tosses aside her rifle and reaches out and uproots the tree with one hand. The other hand pulls against the grain of its branches, snapping them off to leave a jagged dagger behind. Or... perhaps more like a spear?
As Lt. Ibuki relays Unit-00's fate, Lt. Hyuga gasps at a matter of different import. "An anomalous signal is forming over Mount Asama! Pattern Orange--cannot be identified!" he calls, just before the jagged lines in the sky fully unfurl into a great, glowing cloud of shifting colors, lightning flickering within its depths like capillaries. Over the battlefield it hovers: the so-called Glow Cloud. Despite its abrupt appearance, it makes no move to interfere with the battle. It simply... hovers there.
"So we meet again," Kaworu murmurs. "But this is neither the time nor the place. You should leave at once. Consider this a warning."
Unit-00's feet grip the earth as her knees bend. Then, with a push of his controls, Kaworu bids her launch into a forward sprint towards the Ninth Angel, the blistered tree held like a rapier. As the Ninth Angel bares its fangs to scream at its enemies, they close in--and if the timing, aim, and angle are all good, they will thrust that sharpened tree down its gullet, now reinforced by Unit-00's A.T. Field to give it efficacy. If it works, they'll then attempt to flip the Angel over to expose its underside to the others' assaults.
Meanwhile, Shinji shouts his concern for him directly; Alouette redirects by vocalizing her rage against the Angel. Video windows open for both of them to show Kaworu's gentle smile, as if they couldn't see Unit-00 directly now at their sides.
"I'm fine. I'm all right," Kaworu reassures them both, but his gaze is somehow for Shinji in particular--maybe because of how he echoed him in what just might have been a piece of knowing, pitch-black humor.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Rei Ayanami with Progressive Knife Thrust! <Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
Asuka has a very specific question to ask. Mari's answer, over those booming loudspeakers, is as simple as it is flirtatiously noncommittal:
%<"Es ist Magie~!">
But in the heat of battle, for as flighty and teasing as Mari may seem... her attention is wholly focused on the target before her.
"Hmmmmm."
Behind red-rimmed glasses, Mari Makinami Illustrious' gaze narrows into a predators' thoughtful slits as she watches how much damage the Angel takes -- how much it thrashes and attacks in response. Uncoordinated, noisy. Instinctive.
Her lips press into a thin line.
The Ninth Angel grasps for Unit-02. Mari shouts out a warning, <"Princess, look out--!"> but it's too late; as Unit-02 is used as a bludgeon, its brother unit starts to charge forward that much the faster, the flippancy of its gait replaced with startlingly sharp purpose. A Cross Beam is unleashed with a ripplingly hot 'BYEWWW'; Unit-04 still charges as force RIPPLES against its back.
Sandalphon lunges fir Eva-04, and it is there to meet it halfway, its right Rapidborer locking into place with a hydraulic hiss and an electric whine of spinning-hot drillbits. The Angel grasps. The Eva winds up.
And it is just as that circular, screaming maw is revealed that Evangelion Unit-04 does not try to play defense -- but rather -shoves its entire Rapidborer into the things mouth-.
The motion halts the forward drag of those spindly, needly claw-tendrils dug into its body, gripping and squeezing. It holds them in a stalemate of sorts, for a few precious moments.
Within those moments, Mari stares at that hint of shimmering red with a befuddled blink.
"What are..."
The position is a fraught one, especially with Lark preparing a full charge of her mobile suit's weapon system. Mari, however, having no concept of healthy self-preservation instincts, holds the line as if to keep the shell-wrapped lifeform in place for the others as they attack: for the Carestia, for the Null-Sigma. For the MSA-0120, for the Schwarzritter, for the Helios.
For Mari's own sense of curiosity, as she leans in, confusion fading away into something more... sympathetic?
"... must be rough, with your first waking moments being all or nothing, huh?" she muses quietly to the Angel grasping and gnashing at the spinning borers of her Evangelion. "If that's the way it's gotta be, though -- sorry, but there's no way I'm ever choosing nothing!"
Unit-04's left Rapidborer locks into place. And just as Unit-02 descends, Mari looks to deliver a full-bore left hook STRAIGHT into the body of the beast in perfect tandem, looking to strike it from two fronts even as it uses the blow to - hopefully - knock it into Lark's line of fire and keep them -out- of it.
<"WAHA! You're all fighting so violently, it's inspirational~!">
Mari: a true cheerleader.
It's only after that blue eyes look up, towards that prismatic cloud pulsing with branching lightning. Her - and her Evangelion's - head tilts upward. Her brows lift.
She whistles.
"Oho. Aren't you a looker."
KTS: Rei Ayanami partially guards Kaworu Nagisa's Progressive Knife Thrust, taking 4830 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaworu Nagisa's The Light of His Heart activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 82. KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious targets Rei Ayanami with Rapidborer - Pulverizing! KTS: Rei Ayanami partially guards Mari Makinami Illustrious's Rapidborer - Pulverizing, taking 5040 damage! KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious has engaged Rei Ayanami!
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
VIOLENCE DOES NOT STOP. When Lark brings up the charging gun, she fires upon the Angel, and it is Lark's time to learn something: the AT Field, it seems, has been thoroughly breached, or repurposed, or whatever. The point is that her shot flies as true as it might have against a more conventional target. The bad news is that her angle doesn't rip into Angelic flesh.
What it does do, however, is smash into several of the plates put into motion by the Angel's efforts to grasp at the Evangelions -- and shift them -- into a stuck and bared position.
Others exploit it. Unit-02 avenges its insult with a charging inwards and a leveraging up of that strange weapon built into the Evangelion itself, whose purpose becomes clear with a wet CHUNK that hurls the high-penetration stakes up into the space between the plates necessary for motion. The Angel bellows now - wails perhaps - and flesh tears, something clear spraying outwards over Unit-02's face and upper body.
The wind shifts; the smoke and ash washes forwards from some horrid quirk of the flows of the wind, going against the natural tendency of the ground. In its shadow comes Alouette, surging forwards with a barrage of beam weaponry. The Angel pivots itself, moving backwards with a massive undulation sufficient to THUMP the ground as its eyes move along their hidden tracks --
Eisen moves. In the name of Famine he strikes. The Angel may or may not feel pain as traditionally understood but it certainly acts like it, arcing upwards as he grinds and lifts with his twinned glaives. The Angel doesn't scream but its eyes do whirl about, the contortion bending its spine backwards--
-- Spine?
Does it have a spine?
One of the eyes stops wiggling back and forth, locks, and decides to address the problem of Carestia the same way it just did. Sparkle, sparkle,
STRIKE
A beam that will carve deep, deep enough that it may yet form a second eruption route for Mount Asama, and which, Sandalphon might hope, will take with it the agony of this tormentor.
But even in the face of this, the barrage continues. A spike rips through the belly, its mouth undulating in wordless (and blessedly, soundless) intonation.
-=-=-=-=-
"It's being defeated in detail," Ritsuko Akagi observes to Misato. "Immense bulk taken down by our multi-vector attack... Do you think our enemy's made a tactical error?"
In the rest of the bridge space, Shigeru reports: "Ambient smoke and heat are interfering with the main orbital cameras! Magi interpolation won't hold."
"Use the degeneracy scanner?" Hyuuga suggests. "Check that," he says. "Degeneracy scanner is offline! Threading in the weather radars on the Orbital Ring--"
"Damn degenerate matter! That one was a bridge too far," Shigeru mutters viciously to himself.
Wordlessly, Rei Ayanami watches the holographic monitor as the flame spreads, as the black clouds begin to yield white, jittering shapes of the Angel's form and the machines and Evangelions challenging it.
-=-=-=-=-=-
"ENGAGING ENEMY"
The Angel is wrapped round with plasma. Oh, it's true that the Angel's body must be durable against heat, but with more and more of its flesh being revealed - something that's a curious ultra-dark red, even if it seems to continously seep clear fluid outwards which evaporates. Precipitating? The pressure Liam can bring to bear doesn't crack the exterior further, but it does seem to constrict that flexible body. Maybe it's more of a flatworm. It's terribly hard to say.
Unit 01 surges inwards. The blade stabs inwards. The Angel lurches upwards, and twists, and the blade cuts through that dark red flesh. More clear fluid gushes outwards and there is a suggestion of some sort of tube, a central passageway -- it pulsates, revealing a splendid network of fractally diffuse branches -- and then there is a glimpse of geometrically smooth red, glistening-- yes! It's there! Somewhere in the midsection - it surges upwards but Shinji can open it further --
-=-=-=-=-=-
"Tsk!" Ritsuko's brow furrows as the Glow Cloud is displayed, clear as day from the orbital view. Zooming-in reveals more of its auroral form. "Could it be some kind of gathering attack...?"
-=-=-=-=-=-
The core had moved in the same linear track way that the other portions of the Angel's anatomy had, and as it had moved up to escape, there was the unfortunate intrusion of a huge piece of wood. The still-living stem of the organism called 'tree' stabs into the Angel's mouth like an out-sized toothpick; those grinding and rasping teeth dig in, producing fiery splinters, but the main body of the stout old tree survives long enough to hold something in place.
And lest you fear that this is just some other, unrelated red sphere -- Eva-04 comes round and her Rapidborer punch rises upwards. With her split focus it can 'only' nick what is revealed, but the impact sends ripples that prove the eerie-glossy enchanted-sphere aspect of the Angel's core, an eerie quaver as if from celestial chorus echoing outwards as the Angel
SCREAMS
again...
Sandalphon's Core is pinned! Target its mouth!
The Angel shudders, that swiftly-vaporizing clear fluid splattering outwards. Many of its assailants are beyond the reach of what must be its greatest weapon, and so the arms shudder and it hunches forwards. The two eyes rack back and forth, back and forth -- the GEIM system has time enough to detect a sudden iridescence from this enemy 'ground' station, hopefully time enough to spare Ouka from interception as the Angel's ray strikes upwards--
-- The other smashing all the way to its left, giving Eva-04 a sideeye that sends a streaking furrow of light southwest, far enough to trim eighteen meters from Jakotsudake peak when everything has had its time to settle, the erupting cruciform of light throwing horrid secondary-shadows everywhere.
One arm lashes out -- to tangle itself in the smaller but manifold tendrils of Null-Sigma, to curl inwards, to try and bend the Evangelion around its own skeleton and snap it with a horrid and desperate strength.
The gill covers beat with machine-like velocity, as if fanning some internal flame. It sends a ethereal whistle through the grinder-teeth of the pinned mouth, howling around the edge of the core, but it does its job: Sandalphon begins to glow throughout, the ultra-deep red brightening and the plates doing so as well. Another arm strikes out to lash against Zan, but the ones who are in the deepest peril of this rising incinerating force are the Evangelions *beneath* it. Because they are between the stone and the Angel: there is nowhere for the heat to go.
However well the machine may bear up, Eva-01's umbilical cable *melts*, the purge retro-rockets sending the remnants of the plug careening down the mountain.
KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Ouka Nagisa with Cross Beaming! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Eisen Daiwel with Cross Beaming! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Alloy Kaas with Crushing! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Zan with Slamming! KTS: Rei Ayanami targets Mari Makinami Illustrious with Cross Beaming! KTS: Rei_Ayanami Changes attack to Liam 7-020, Shinji Ikari, Kaworu Nagisa, Asuka Shikinami Langley, and Lark Straye with Calcination. KTS: Rei Ayanami has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa rushes into the attack! KTS: Ouka Nagisa partially guards Rei Ayanami's Cross Beaming, taking 9490 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Eisen Daiwel's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Eisen Daiwel blocks Rei Ayanami's Cross Beaming, taking 5100 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Eisen Daiwel has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Alloy Kaas rushes into the attack! KTS: Alloy Kaas partially guards Rei Ayanami's Crushing, taking 7140 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Alloy Kaas! KTS: Lark Straye blocks Rei Ayanami's Calcination, taking 5400 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Lark Straye! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley successfully avoids Rei Ayanami's Calcination KTS: Rei Ayanami rattles Zan, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Zan blocks Rei Ayanami's Slamming, taking 1470 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has engaged Zan! KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious rushes into the attack! KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious partially guards Rei Ayanami's Cross Beaming, taking 6935 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Shinji Ikari successfully avoids Rei Ayanami's Calcination KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 rushes into the attack! KTS: Liam 7-020 successfully avoids Rei Ayanami's Calcination KTS: Kaworu Nagisa successfully avoids Rei Ayanami's Calcination <Pose Tracker> Asuka Shikinami Langley has posed.
Mari may flirt, and Mari may warn, but Asuka? She'll complain!
"<What was with that warning? Your timing was anything but magical!>"
Somehow she managed to link both an unrelated comment and a warning from Mari together while complaining. You have to admire her commitment.
Asuka privately wonders if Eisen is aware of the fact that moving out of the way can be done in more than one direction. This is unusual for her, to let something go instead of shouting it publically.
Shinji's advice actually helps her arrive at the conclusion she made from her observations. Rip the armor apart.
Don't think she doesn't notice Mari there, as she delivers the left hook straight from the rapid borer in synch with her. "<Heh.>" Mari's enthusiasm actually amps up Asuka's intensity, as she tries to rip and tear the Angel apart further for her borers to grind apart its insides, "<Let's see if we can't inspire it to die quicker!>"
The glowcloud in the sky causes Asuka to look out of her periphery. "What is that? Is it some kind of attack!?"
However, she has other concerns - for one, the core being revealed, pinned near it's mouth. The other is the sudden incinerating force along the Angel's bulk as the heat amps up, Asuka calls out in warning to Shinji and believe it or not, Kaworu too who are both in the line of fire, "<LOOK OUT!>" And Unit-02 raises its AT Field in what might be a futile attempt to keep it at bay.
The heat seethes down at it in the world's most intense hot box, exploding along her unfolded AT Field. Despite herself, she can't fully block it out. Heat still escapes along the edges, trickles along the edges of the Evangelion's body. Parts of the retraint armor... start to drip.
One hand holds up the AT Field, as Asuka's LCL starts to boil. The other reaches towards her open shoulder pylon. Grabbing the Prog Knife within. With a vibrating twang she rips it free, drops her AT Field, and in one motion grabs the Prog Knife with both hands, as the Evangelion leaps, knife extended, to spear through its open mouth like a hook through a fish.
"<STOP STRUGGLING AND DIE ALREADY!>"
KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley targets Rei Ayanami with Progressive Knife Drive! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Asuka Shikinami Langley's Progressive Knife Drive, taking 6480 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Asuka Shikinami Langley's Sole Shikinami activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Asuka Shikinami Langley has engaged Rei Ayanami! <Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
"There it is. You see me now, don't you?" Eisen whispers as the Angel's gaze turns towards him. The sparkles come, and the A.T. field initiates immedaitely. He knows very well taht he's not getting away from what comes next. So the Carestia brings its feet down, and just prepares as the beam TEARS into the Carestia and blasts it back across the side of Mount Asama. Tearing through rock, Eisen's body being heated within the LCL as it bubbles around him.
The youth grimaces in pain. Sparks lashing across his body within the cockpit of the Carestia as he tries to keep the controls pushed forwards. Arms trembling and straining as the A.T. field shatters, comes back up, shatters, and comes back up again, until the beam finally tears him into the volcano itself, and the Carestia's wings finally flare up, bringing it up into the air, stopping it from getting slagged into the Lava.
The turbine on its back has engaged, and the Umbilical is firmly torn apart from the machine being dragged through half a volcano-side. The Carestia jetting back up, calling out; <"Coming in hot from above!"> In more than one way of the word, as parts of the Carestia's armor looks like it's molten off. The body shaking like a reed as it is carried into the air by the massive back-mounted turbine. Those gossamer lights on its wings remaining lit, brighter by the moment as the youth dives deeper rather than running away from the pain.
In a ways... he runs towards the pain. Which may very well be worse.
The youth touches a particular control on the machine to raise the volume of the outside speakers. It whines for a moment, but somehow, it's still live.
But... The core! The core is visible now. In mid air, floating above all of the chaos, he can see it clearly now. <"Nice going, Witchy-Glasses!"> Eisen calls out, befoer adding; <"THIRD MOVEMENT!">
As the Carestia begins to circle up above like some kind of vulture. Circling faster... and faster, as the Turbine's output is raised, and the machine begins to release some of its spears into its hands. <"RAIN OF... SPEARS!"> As the first one is thrown down, stabbing down towards the Angel's body. Aiming close for that Core. <"TRISHULA!"> STAB
<"VEL!"> Another rains down. They start coming down in quicker and quicker order, as the machine above 'spins' faster and faster. <"GAE BULG, LUGH!"> The youth is being pushed into his seat by now, as the centripetal force gets heavier and heavier!
<"RHONGOMIANT, TONBOGIRI."> Right before it suddeny spins around and comes downwards wielding one last spear.
<"AND... THE UNERRING SPEAR...!"> Throwing it down, then slamming its foot down upon it. Crossing its arm as it descends like a tungsten rod being fired down from space.
<"GUUUUUUUUUNGNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR!">
Aiming to plant that last spear tip into the core and either crack it, or at least do some severe damage to the A.T. field protecting it!
KTS: Eisen Daiwel targets Rei Ayanami with Code: Annihilation! KTS: Zan has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Rei Ayanami's activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Eisen Daiwel enervates Rei Ayanami, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Rei Ayanami partially guards Eisen Daiwel's Code: Annihilation, taking 9360 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Eisen Daiwel's Experience This Curse With Me! activates, causing Deject! KTS: Eisen Daiwel has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Lark Straye has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Lark Straye has activated the Trick Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Instead of being caught between a rock and a hard place, Ouka finds herself caught between the frying pan and the fire. That said, the amount of heat rolling off the Proto Helios wasn't enough to discourage her. Even as the machine's thermal readings scream at her, even as the GEIM System twists its barbs within her skull demanding she return to her primary mission and ignore the relatively inconsequential allied unit, Ouka persists.
... not that the GEIM system is the only unpleasantness going on. The sheer heat of being near the Proto Helios as the Schwarzritter attempts to lift it to its feet makes itself known on her physically. The streams of data from the thermal sensors now translating to the feeling of uncomfortable heat. Her body reacts - sweat pouring from every pore. At the very least though it's not totally in vain. Though her body is not, in fact, on fire ... the inside of the cockpit is growing hotter as the exposure to both Sandalphon and Liam begins to overcome the head shielding. The exterior of the unit's armor begins to glow and warp. The visor covering its optics crack.
And so Aurum-1 doesn't follow Liam into his assault against the beast. Instead she decides to retreat and allow her machine to cool down.
It is at that moment that It appears. First the GEIM sends a warning to her through code, and then she quickly turns her head upwards to gaze at the strange cloud floating in the atmosphere. It is strange to see something that appears so much like a nebula floating so close under Earth's sky. However there can be no mistaking it. Immediately her mind is seized by something other than the GEIM:
'The School holds that the malfunction of the GEIM System was due to interference from the unknown entity that appeared alongside ZAFT and Celestial Being forces. We presume it is a weapon designed to prevent the further development of the GEIM System or other weapons technologies.'
<Alert! Hostile anomaly detected within combat field. NERV HQ, please advise on engagement protocols. Confirmed 9th Angel core has presented. Focusing on a full assault to prevent us being caught in a pincer attack.>
With that, Schwarzritter and Aurum both turn their gaze back towards Sandalphon. It is within that split second though that a new warning screams through her unit's sensors. A field of iridescence is building around her! Both GEIM and pilot recognizes this attack. Both recognize what this means.
... but where the GEIM demands she retreat, the Boosted Child instead pushes forward. Driving through the cross beam as it briefly consumes the Schwarzritter!! Then a black blade, cracked and trailing bright purple energy drives its way out of the blast. The rest of the unit follows, its warped armor now cracked and spilling bits of itself as its thrusters engage in full speed not towards the target, but upwards!
<Attack code confirmed. Output generator to full. GEIM uplink switched to maximum. Diverting thruster power to Flugel Schwert.>
The glow of the blade grows brighter, particles streaming from the retreating edge as the entire claymore seems to grow in dimension. At the apex of her climb the Schwarzritter's thrusters cut out, the entire machine - damaged and twisted as it is, managing to utilize the weight of the claymore to spin itself 180 degrees before it begins its descent!
<Core target optical lock achieved!! BOOST NOW!!!>
A bright violet light bursts from the back of the blade, as the unit clinging to it tries desperately to control its descent and aim its violence towards the precious red core of the Angel. It's an all or nothing attack!!! Should she hit or not her unit will continue in an uncontrolled descent towards the ground, with just enough time to cut her generator output back to her thrusters to prevent an uncontrolled crash.
But just barely...
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Rei Ayanami with Flugel Schwert Claymore Crash! <Pose Tracker> Alloy Kaas has posed.
Alouette's attempt to catch the Angel's limb in it's own cross beam was an appalling failure. The comms filter cuts her transmission as she reacts to the crushing grip. At least two of the tentacles had been damaged beyond use in the grab, and there was catastrophic damage to some of the armor to the Evangelion as well.
Alloy is still at full sync, and feeling every bit of the bone breaking grip as she struggles to reach the manual release controls for the Tentacle rig. Her hand shakes as her fingers reach out, desperately, and finally wrapping around the control. She struggles, flipping the toggles for the damaged limbs. A twist and then down ward pull...
The broken, mangled tentacles on the large shoulder module blast away from their connection ports as the explosives go off. The nerve severance tears through the young womans skull. She grits her teeth, fighting the want to scream at the pain. But the move gives her and Null-Sigma wiggle room, and they slip out of the grip of the Angel.
"Unit Zero Four... Null... Sigma... COPIES!"
Alouette makes a run for the mouth. A kind of tunnel vision develops about the target, and Alloy, Null-Sigma, use the maximum strain she can push out of those muscle and sinew within the giant body, racing up the slope. One, Two, Three, Four "hands" of the Evangelion grip the mouth of the Angel and wrench it open. Alloy screams in the plug of the Evangelion, and Unit Null-Sigma, begins to tear open its own mouth, screaming into the maw of the beast.
KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Ouka Nagisa's Flugel Schwert Claymore Crash, taking 6510 damage! KTS: Ouka Nagisa has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Ouka Nagisa roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Alloy Kaas has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alloy Kaas targets Rei Ayanami with Devil's Cavitation! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Alloy Kaas's Devil's Cavitation, taking 6882 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alloy Kaas's Geass Directorate Survivor activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Alloy Kaas has engaged Rei Ayanami!
<Pose Tracker> Misato Katsuragi has posed.
Misato Katsuragi says, "Its mouth! Shinji, if you can--target its mouth!" Would that destroy it? At the very least, it might hopefully stop it from SCREAMING. Its really a win win situation.
She looks to Ritsuko after a moment and then sinks back. She has to hope that'll do it. If Shinji can't get in there, perhaps Asuka can or-- Hopefully the core doesn't start dodging around again.
She looks to Ritsuko for a moment, thinking about it, "...I don't know. It feels more like... just another new trick."
She frowns, cupping her chin quietly in thought. Ritsuko has the best eye for this sort of thing, she trusts her instinct but--
--Can Angels really make tactical errors? Even her understanding of just kaiju have been rocked lately. And then there was that kaiju that was trying to adapt to using an AT Field...
KTS: Misato Katsuragi has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari KTS: Misato Katsuragi has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Shinji Ikari KTS: Misato Katsuragi targets Shinji Ikari with Awe. KTS: Misato Katsuragi inspires awe, increasing Shinji Ikari's Morale! <Pose Tracker> Lark Straye has posed.
Lark lost the thread for a moment there, when she was recovering from being pitched about by the High Impact Gun's kickback. She's only ever fired that thing in space before; atmospheric disturbances and shockwaves were not what she was expecting to happen.
The impact shot hit *something*, at least - hit it with enough force to break stone, and so she can be at least pretty sure that those plates are not going to move back into place. "Damn," Lark says anyway, because she was hoping for a direct hit. She brings the High Impact Gun back up.
Then she lowers it. It'll take too long to charge again and she doesn't know what that kind of internal atmospheric pressure did to the guts of the thing. She *really* does not want it to explode in her hands, which strikes her as a very impressive way to get yourself killed, given how that gun works.
So she redocks it. A third cross-shaped burst erupts; Lark is momentarily disoriented by the strange shadows, and the Glow Cloud isn't helping. She gives it a side-eye - what is it? Is this some kind of side effect of the Angel? - but she's already moving. Back into the heat, pushing her way through flame. The outside layer of the vaporizing armour begins to... well, vaporize, making the MSA-0120 look like it's trailing mist or smoke as the outer layer burns away.
It's not just the outer layer. Lark turns off several of the alarms that are particularly loud or persistent as she rushes in, redrawing the beam sword-axe. What the hell are these Evangelions doing, she thinks: they're ripping bare-handed, or with weapons - whatever Eisen is doing, she doesn't even *want* to know. They're in trouble. She saw -01's cord melt; she saw -02 struggle to keep it away from her. Something twinges.
255:180:5](These kids...)
"<Coming in!>" Lark calls, as she does. Sword-axe in hand, she flares it to maximum length - it looks like the -0120 should really be using a weapon that long in two hands but she makes do in one. (It helps that it's a beam weapon.) As she approaches, she fires all the thrusters, ignoring the heat warnings this kicks up.
The MSA-0120 accelerates in something that's half a jump and half a rocket-propelled leap directly at the 'face' of the Angel, as Lark tries to drive the sword-shaped beam axe directly into it, convert it to an axe, and chop her way down. No trying to climb for her - she can't handle it, she already feels like she's lost five pounds in sweat (not that she really had them to lose) and she's pretty sure her robot would melt.
KTS: Lark Straye has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lark Straye has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lark Straye targets Rei Ayanami with Sword-Axe Execution! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Lark Straye's Sword-Axe Execution, taking 7440 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Lark Straye's Scars of the War activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Lark Straye has engaged Rei Ayanami! <Pose Tracker> Mari Makinami Illustrious has posed.
<"But the wound to your pride has emboldened your spirit so beautifully, Your Highness!">
proclaims Mari Makinami Illustrious, taking absolutely no fault and all credit for Asuka's embarrassing circumstances and subsequent comeback.
<"You're welcome!"> <3
The bespectacled pilot of NERV, apologies (to Angels and not to Asukas (because she clearly helped there of course)) aside, is in her element now. There's a certain, low key wildness to the tone of her voice and, unseen, the look in her eyes...
... or the sharp smile on her lips that blossoms into a full blown, toothy grin as she spies that exposed core.
"Gotcha, you bastard!"
she says, to the Angel she was just sympathizing with. Mari is large; she contains multitudes.
For now, the sight of the cloudy anomaly is forgotten. A problem for another time; she knows these things. Instead, Mari does what she excels at: focuses on the present moment, where Sandalphon's core is exposed and trapped -- and its urge to protect itself has reached a fever pitch that quite literally makes the air around it ripple. Yanking backwards, the Rapidborers -- one slightly crushed enough to expose what looks like... containment plates? beneath the bulk of the equipment? -- slide back into place at Evangelion Unit-04's elbows.
Sandalphon's strange eyes swivel Eva-04's way with that telltale side-eye. Mari Makinami's own eyes widen.
<"What a saucy stare!"> she enthuses. <"How electrifying! Come on, then!! I want to see all of you, baby!! SHOW ME WHAT YOU'VE GOT--">
BYEWW
A streak of light screams into existence, as Evangelion Unit-04 lunges towards it. An explosion of otherworldly cruciform power erupts, broiling the landscape into so much nothingness and slag. And Evangelion Unit-04 --
--can be seen in the maelstrom of fury and light and desperation itself, -punching- its way out as metal peels and bakes and broils off its slender frame, revealing hints of something BULGING and CONSTRAINED beneath once-pristine silver plating.
The Evangelion looks like it might fall apart at any moment. Inside, the entire cockpit boils with bubbling LCL. Mari's body is on fire with a fire man was never meant to feel. Her scream is a bright one; she doesn't try to hide it.
<"--M-MY TURN--!">
Nor does she hide the enthusiasm in her strangled voice as Eva-04, looking like a charred corpse than a functional machine, -collides- with Sandalphon's underside,
-jams- its heated assault rifles into its belly
and fires
and fires
and fires
and does not ever stop firing until its chewed through Angel flesh and core alike or there's nothing left to shoot or those guns overheat and break. All the while --
<"Yayayayayayaaaahahahahahahahahaha!!">
--living in the thrill of the moment.
KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious has activated the Detonate Spirit Command, reducing the Evangelion Unit-04 to 1 HP! KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Mari Makinami Illustrious targets Rei Ayanami with Assault Rifles - Forever Firing! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Mari Makinami Illustrious's Assault Rifles - Forever Firing, taking 8040 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has been defeated! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Ouka could've--should've--just left him there. (He doesn't need help. He could've righted his machine himself.) She didn't. She covered for him. (Does she think he's a failure, too?)
The Proto Helios' filament finally snaps, sending jets of superheated hydrogen everywhere. The machine stumbles back, and as it does, something appears in the sky above it. For a few seconds, the blackened, smoking Mobile Fighter seems fixated on the cloud, and on what Ouka has to say. ...Hostile? Liam's never seen it hurt anyone, even when it had the perfect opportunity.
The Angel's gills beat. Liam returns his attention to the primary target. "No--" he says--hisses, really--and the Proto Helios takes off like it had been strapped to a rocket booster. Acceleration only aggravates the damage, and brings fresh spikes of pain courtesy of the Mobile Trace, but Liam is still conscious and uninjured at the end of the maneuver. The shockwave sears across the ground below him, giving him a few precious seconds to open more vents and purge heat. "Both of us--" Is he talking to the Angel? Either way, there's actual emotion in his voice again.
"I'm sorry." He is wasting breath on the enemy. Worse, because Angels can't even talk, apparently, at least according to the official NERV records.
But the core's exposed. Thermal currents buffet the Proto Helios as it drops out of the sky, thrusters burning. Plasma roars from every vent in its frame, and the magnetosphere scoops it up, curling it into a long, thin spike held in its right hand. A spear. The end forks. Both of those ends fork. The magnetic bottle keeps splitting, like a fractal, the plasma inside growing hotter and brighter until it starts to approach fusion temperatures outside the reactor.
Now, it's Liam's turn to scream, except all that comes over the radio is a soft, muted sob. His body keeps working, though, landing the Proto Helios in front of Sandalphon's maw. It pulls its arm back, and throws the blue-hot, nearly-fusing plasma spear right down the Angel's throat.
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 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 Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Rei Ayanami with SUNBURST - CODE: NOVA! <Pose Tracker> Zan has posed.
There's another arm batting at Zan before he brings his shield up to push back against it. The dozer blade is definitely going to need some repairs. And yet...
Zan's still standing, and marching forward. He eyes the different attacks before deciding that the arms have to go. And pulls out the same hammer he used in cyberspace.
Instead of going into the mouth like the others, Zan's aim is to stop the tracts from moving.
and he has just the tool to make sure everyone else can get into the entire thing as he jets upwards and comes downwards on it.
"IROOOON SPIIIIIKEEEER!"
The immense two handed hammer is brought down on the Angel as he tries to both destroy the tracts and make sure it's not getting away any time soon even with Alloy holding it's mouth open already.
KTS: Zan targets Rei Ayanami with Iron Spiker! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Liam 7-020's SUNBURST - CODE: NOVA, taking 9420 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has been defeated! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Rei Ayanami! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Zan's Iron Spiker, taking 5760 damage! KTS: Rei Ayanami has been defeated! KTS: Zan has engaged Rei Ayanami! GaoGaiGo Team has connected.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Above the battlefield, the glowing cloud does not charge into an attack, or become an attack, as Ritsuko initially fears. When Ouka calls to HQ that it's a hostile entity, Lt. Ibuki follows up by cross-referencing past reports. "Confirmed! This entity has appeared in space before in previous battles, once against the Vajra and once near Luna II, when Aurum-1's recent test flight with the Schwartzritter was attacked by ZAFT and other hostile forces!" she reports. "It hasn't attacked previously, but its intentions are unknown, and Dr. Koch has reported that it was at fault for Aurum-1's... issues with battle last time! Pattern remains Orange!"
"<It isn't hostile,>" Kaworu transmits then, voice even and conversational. "<We can ignore it without risk.>"
Lt. Ibuki hesitates--but this is what a chain of command is for. She turns in her swivel chair towards Commander Ikari. "Your orders, sir?"
"Keep it under observation, but otherwise ignore it," he decrees. "If it isn't going to attack, it's of no concern to this fight."
A bold decision considering that just because it hasn't attacked before doesn't mean it won't attack now... but it pans out. The colors in the Glow Cloud glitter and fluctuate as its lightning-tendrils fork, retract, and fork again, but it makes no movement to interfere with the battle.
-----
But that's over in the Geofront. Right now, the battle is here, between a literal rock (Mt. Asama) and a hard place (the 9th Angel). Kaworu crooks a smile over at Mari as they assault the Angel's fanged mouth in a one-two attack, but it's not enough to take it out completely. There's still one last push that needs to be made... and several of them, Kaworu and Shinji included, are suddenly pinned against molten rock. Shinji's umbilical cable melts away; Kaworu's has been gone for a while now.
A shrill beep resounds in Kaworu's entry plug as the numbers flip down to one minute of active power remaining.
"Shinji."
As the Angel's heat skyrockets once more, Shinji may feel the phantom pressure of a hand on his. It would seem impossible--there's no one in the entry plug but him--except...
Except Unit-00's hand has reached over with all of Kaworu's ineffable calm to calm Unit-01's in her own. It is gentle. It is unhurried. And the brilliant sparks of an A.T. Field begin to glitter before her--perhaps in front of both of them, resonating between the two Evangelions as their pilots assert a bond through them.
The video channel window of Kaworu in Shinji's entry plug projects his image, and his smile contains all the understanding they've developed between them these past few months... and the confidence that they can withstand even this most monstrous of assaults--of the heat of the bowels of the earth themselves, rent unto them and their Units as they're trapped between that and the Angel--
"Together," Kaworu concludes.
It's all that needs to be said.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Shinji Ikari with Awe! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa inspires awe, increasing Shinji Ikari's Morale! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 109. GaoGaiGo Team has connected. GaoGaiGo Team goes home. <Pose Tracker> Shinji Ikari has posed.
Shinji misses that Kaworu echoes him, heaving a sigh of relief once he sees Kaworu unscathed within Unit 00's cockpit. There's no time for further discussion as battle rages around them and the Angel threatens to cook them within their machines.
Keep going. Keep going. Shinji's single minded focus fuels his resolve in every wet stab of the knife, the sensation through Unit 01's controls sending a shudder up his spine. But they're close. He can feel it...! The Angel is screaming before Shinji knows what he's uncovered. Misato tells him to aim for the mouth, and Unit 01 jerks back enough for Shinji to see it. The bright red Angel's core.
Red surrounds him.
Unit 01's alarms shriek over the Angel's chorus, over Misato's shouting, over everyone's voices. Bold, red numbers begin their countdown. It's only a little more. A little bit more... He tries to breathe in, but gets dizziness in return. The air is heavier. Hazier. Panic thrums in his pulse as he can't seem to get a breath in, can't seem to move the controls...
Shinji wonders if he's hallucinating when he feels a hand touch his until he realizes what's happening. Unit 01's hand in Unit 00's. Shinji looks up. Kaworu.
Together.
With no further words spoken, the light of Unit 01's A.T. Field joins Unit 00's, reinforcing its brilliant sheen over both units. The next breath Shinji takes enters his lungs properly. The air's a little cooler.
Enough to think. Enough to fight.
Unit 01's free arm aims a single, focused punch straight into the Ninth Angel's core.
KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Shinji Ikari targets Rei Ayanami with Eva-01 Unarmed Focus Strike! KTS: Rei Ayanami fails to react to Shinji Ikari's Eva-01 Unarmed Focus Strike, taking 5940 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Shinji Ikari's You Can (Not) Advance activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Rei Ayanami has been defeated! KTS: Shinji Ikari has engaged Rei Ayanami! <Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Asuka's progressive knife hits the core - twists - it skitters, throwing sparks.
Trembling.
Eisen pours down his rain of spears, smashing through the back of the Angel. One of its plates remains intact, preveting Trishula from biting in; the others sink into the flesh; and perhaps it is tragic that Gae Bulg does not deal the dolorous blow, but he can feel that skitter-scrape and the core, visible to the others, shakes...
Another blade comes into the pinioned thing. Ouka may not be able to erode the AT Field, but there is the advantage in moving with the Evangelions that such fields CAN be corroded by others -- Ouka can feel whatever-it-is yield just the tiniest bit underneath her sword...
Alouette is the one who sees the first crack. It's small but it's there. Maybe she's too busy screaming to see it. Into that vibratory environment comes a rocket-thrusted beam axe outsized beyond easy reckoning to strike a blow, not for the spacenoids but humanity. The crack becomes a little patch of spiderwebs.
Everyone is converging. It's difficult to know when it happens; when Mari jams her dual assault rifles into the belly of the beast, firing upwards through a rippling set of bloody tissues, rounds coming eventually to exit the front of its head? That is a good guess. Perhaps Liam is a dark horse candidate if only for the refulgent endurance of Sandalphon against heat, but then, screaming fusor power can do quite a bit. Could an Angel live in the Sun? It's best, perhaps, not to consider such things.
The Iron Spiker that smashes downwards, though, definitely expands a number of the cracks. A subtle warbling--
'Together.'
Perhaps it was Evangelion Unit One that did it.
A camera recording would say that the last strike was made by the purple-clad hand of that machine, if machine it truly is.
But was it a delayed reaction? Had it, for instance, already been fatally compromised by the plasma, poisoned by Minovsky particles?
It was all of them, together; that, perhaps, is the real secret.
The core fractures. There's a noise that rises again like an enormous sob from an agonized sea-beast and then--
The column of light erupts, as it so often does; the heat billows outwards, and it finally seems to END, or at least is not providing a positive feedback loop whose intensity might alter weather patterns over Northern and central Japan into the winter. The Angel's form ripples, and--
--perhaps peculiarly, it does not burst into that nameless red compound so many did; instead there is a great smoke and fume, rising outwards as the smouldering remains of the tree trunk Kaworu stabbed into its mouth fall apart, reduced to a cylinder of irregular charcoal.
But it was terribly hot; perhaps HELIOS is built to endure such treatment but other machines will have issues with thermal damage for quite some time. Even the Evangelions bear the equivalent of second-degree burns beneath their armor plating, here and there.
The thermal inversion causes a spontaneous and ragged burst of rain, and so there is a glimpse of the rainbow from the afternoon Sun, which shines as bright as it ever did.
The target is silenced.
All is right with the world.
<Pose Tracker> Lark Straye has posed.
As the Angel explodes, Lark lets out a shuddering breath she didn't even know she was holding. The suit is still airtight, and in any case she still has her helmet on; the fumes aren't what's causing the shudder.
(I did it. I didn't fail them this time...)
It doesn't mean a lot to anyone but her. They wouldn't call her their saviour, because she's not; they did it and almost certainly could have without her. But she didn't fuck up. She didn't freeze up. She didn't get anyone killed on her first real deployment, since then.
She looks down at her hands. They are shaking. And she doesn't trust them to stop, or her voice...
The MSA-0120 comes to a stop, dropping to one knee and, to all appearances, mostly shutting down. With this many warnings going, it isn't a bad idea to do that anyway; when the rainburst hit it, it steams in places. Lark signals with lights: 'pilot okay, unit disabled'.
By the time anyone gets to her, she'll be back to her usual abrasive self. And with her mask, nobody can see slightly red eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
'It isn't hostile...' Ouka hears Kaworu transmit, seeming unconcerned. 'We can ignore it without risk.'
Ouka's unit manages to make a three point landing from its assault - one point being the unit's right foot, the other being its left knee, and the final point being the blade of its sword buried into the asphalt beneath it. It takes her a while to recover from the experience. Not so much the acrobatics or the geforces - sure those were unpleasant, but her body is reinforced to handle that much.
... no the GEIM is pressing ever deeper into her brain again, trying to make inroads, trying to overwrite the parts of her that ignore its demands. She's already nearing the end of her limit and she knows it.
<Acknowledged>
The core cracks, shatters, and bursts - but not into the mysterious red fluid, altogether uncomfortably like blood, but instead into a cloud - a column of smoke!! A final gasp of superheated air goes rushing by over the nearby units, over her unit, left crouching just before the dying angel.
But the unit does not move. Instead Ouka reaches forward to turn off the toggle switch engaging the GEIM system. An action that takes all her focus and attention. Once the system is disengaged she collapses back against her pilot's chair. Gasping, panting in the hot and dry air within her machine. At least now she can no longer feel the thermal warnings as her own skin being on fire. At least she only has to deal with the fact that she is in the epicenter of a heat storm, with no hope of retreat.
And once the smoke clears, and the ragged burst of rain is finished, the Schwarzritter remains in its crouch. Like the knights of old it almost appears to be kneeling before a liege. Though a closer look and one would realize the unit is likely fused into place - its black and gold armor cracked and molten, running down over - into its joints. It's going to be a nightmare to repair. Luckily The School still hasn't lost its Romefeller benefactors.
<Aurum-1 reporting. Schwarzritter has been immobilized due to thermal damage. Signaling recovery team.>
Her voice sounds strained, but otherwise calm. And hopefully that will be enough. Hopefully Koch will be satisfied, and see no reason to replace her in the tests with Seolla or Arado. At this point she can only hope.
Just as she hopes, quietly, that Kaworu was right about the strange anomaly glittering and fluctuating over the battlefield. She watches it through her machine's optics, out of the corner of her eye.
All is right in the world... outside of the Schwarzritter at least.
<Pose Tracker> Zan has posed.
Zan raises upwards after the explosion. The Iron Spiker's made of sterner stuff, so it's fine. His systems however?
It takes a few minutes before he transmits to NERV HQ and the other pilots, "I will be in need of assistance."
"The heat has fused various systems and parts together and is preventing my separation." He explains.
In other words, he's stuck as the big Iron Zanrailer robot for the moment until repairs are done.
He looks around even as he tests his movement by careful walking and the arm movement.
"Is anyone in need of assistance back to Tokyo-3?" He asks the others there.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The wash of heat rocks the Proto Helios back on its heels. Its armor is a blackened ruin, it's venting white-hot plasma from things that are not plasma vents, and dense synthetic-fiber 'muscle' bundles and magnet-ringed plasma conduits are clearly visible. Like the Schwarzritter, it is going to need repairs, but BioNet's perverse design adjustments accounted for expected things, like 'critical overheats'.
Its pilot, on the other hand...
"I'm sorry," Liam says, his voice soft. He cuts the SUNBURST, and the plasma vents abruptly cease. "You wanted to live." He can still hear Sandalphon's screams. To his ear, they sound like the screams that were all but beaten out of him. "P--Pilot Seven-Dash-Zero-Two-Zero reports extensive damage. Basic functionality remains. Can assist with recovery. Moving to aid Aurum-1."
The Proto Helios makes its way across the charred ruin that was once a stretch of highway, to the fallen Schwarzritter. Slowly, it reaches down, and offers the other machine a hand.
(Zan's going to have to help, though, since its endoskeleton is in no shape to bear another machine's weight right now.)
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
The being that would be an Angel is defeated, spraying not core fluid but a puff of gas. Overhead, the glowing cloud lingers for a moment longer; once the battle is well and truly over, it folds in on itself like paper crumbling into a ball, compresses into a point, and then vanishes, leaving behind only a four-pointed star of light that shines and soon fades.
Kaworu doesn't see this physically. He doesn't need to. By the time the Angel's form has been destroyed, Unit-00 has run out of power and slumps uselessly on the ground. She'll need to get carried by someone or something back to base. For now, though, her hand remains clasped in Unit-01's, light enough to be removed for transport, but unmistakably there all the same.
Within the darkness of her entry plug, Kaworu folds his arms behind his head, leans back, and hums Beethoven's 9th softly to the silence.
Title: life ⇔ z( birth + x ) Poster: Mari Makinami Illustrious Date: Mon Sep 19
defeat
An unfamiliar phrase.
strong
A dawning realization.
frightening
A primal spark.
---
Something watches as the battle against the strangely primitive Sandalphon unfolds. Unseen it reaches. Unseen it feels. Unseen it learns.
survive
seed
grows
weak
Something watches as the plaintive and somehow feeble Angel thrashes and struggles against its foes. Against Evangelions, mobile suits, Super Robots. Unseen it learns. Unseen it evaluates.
larva
cycle
not enough
Something watches as the feeble Angel's struggles come to an end. Its core is exposed, Evangelions, mobile suits, and their pilots descend upon a vulnerable creature with fury and sadness and resolve and even pity. Unseen, it witnesses an unceremonious end. Unseen, it encounters complication.
survive
how?
don't understand
understand?
understand
Somewhere, somewhen, it watches. Somewhere, somewhen, it learns. Somewhere, somewhen, long after the fight with the nascent Ninth Angel has ended with a whimper, there is a glimmer of crimson in the air.
understand
learn
adapt
grow
Somewhere, somewhen, the perfect sphere of an Angel's core begins to bubble out twining, liquid tendrils as the tiny octogons of pulsating A.T. Fields surround the growing protrusions. Cage them. Shape them.
reborn
strong
survive
Somewhere, somewhen, it grows something newer. Something stronger.
Past the veil, A.T. Fields sculpt new life out of a scarlet spark.
live.