2023-06-23: IV. I Wanna Hear Your Voice
- Log: IV. I Wanna Hear Your Voice
- Cast: Leina Ashta as Puru-1, Sayla Mass, Teletha Testarossa, Kaname Chidori, Sousuke Sagara
- Where: A Chaotic Battlefield.
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-06-23
- Summary: The Shuffle Alliance catches up with Puru-1 on the battlefield, as Sayla Mass deploys in the Shuffle Heart and the Teletha Testarossa commands her first battle in space. While Puru-1 tries to resolve herself against her the people in her life, she finds herself sorely tested and shaken by the feelings they bring to bear. Can they convince her from abandoning her quest to kill the Beast of Possibility?
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
The brush against the Dawn energy was still something she was trying to get out of her system. The sickening seductiveness uncomfortable in ways she still refused to admit. She simply judged that Elpeo didn't like it. After their experiences against Char Aznable, Elpeo hadn't even tried to reach out to Ennil in the same way. There's a prominent feeling of fear within the miasmic cocktail that Puru-1 was trying to calm down, like a big sister trying to soothe a younger one that was clinging to her terrified in the dark. She allowed it. She always allowed her to cling as hard as she'd like. It was the least she could do for her.
"A world where flowers bloom." She repeated Lucine and Liam's words after a moment, ruminating on the idea with this dark sense of humor. She remembered her readings on Ere-ism as she watched beamfire lance through the void on this chaotic battlefield, illuminating the obsidian of the Norn every so often as some come closer than the others. It didn't matter if Earth needed to heal, they'd still cling to it to the end. They'd send their battleships to oppress the people who did leave it. They'd choke them dry economically and send them all into desperate poverty. Every time she thought about it still it just made her so ANGRY about how much fighting was done over that stupid pale blue dot.
Zeon Zum Deikun really got it wrong in every single way. What good was considering the future of humanity when they're caught on the mobius strip, always running back to the same place? Without much thought she brutally started bashing the unfortunate Jegan that had stood their ground when their fellows had fallen. The edge of the Armed Armor DE becoming an effective bludgeon as she shredded a limb, sheared off its head. Resistance faltered as its cockpit finally hurtled out into space, consigning himself to the mercy of their ability to recover them after.
She'd created a tiny shoal zone of their squad. From there she looked down upon the trio of Dogosse-Giar battleships, focusing on the closest one with a baleful gaze, as if it were representative of everything that's gone wrong. Martha Vist-Carbine betraying her. Earth continuing to control the destiny of Spacenoids. That pale blue dot where flowers bloomed that Neo-Zeon fought for under the pretense that they were 'polluting' something sacred.
It didn't matter that she thought people should submit to the status quo, should stop fighting, should live their lives as best they can so they didn't die fighting for change that a rigged system would never allow. She was still just, so angry. That rage spiked into a flare of azure thrusters, carving contrails as the Norn hurtled itself in the general direction at one of those distant battleships. Still out of range of the Dogosse-Giar's anti-air cannons, the Norn's Beam Magnum was still unmistakably pointed in its direction.
It was a clear route there the battlefield was still clogged by things threatening people she cared about. Thin them out, make their attempt at annihilation much more difficult, then slay the Beast of Possibility. It was the only plan her mind allowed in this wretched state. Her fury a vastly growing, unmistakable pressure for those with the senses to feel such things.
OOC Note: This scene takes place on 06/23, after Insurrection but before Aphelion. Attending it does not lock you out of Aphelion or Re: I Am. You will have four rounds to engage with the Banshee Norn before the nature of the large, chaotic battlefield interrupts the engagement.
Note, due to the nature of this plot, the majority of csys damage will be interpreted as emotional/fatigue damage due to the marathon slog of battles out here. You are encouraged to do the same, especially in the event you are KO'ed, to keep it realistic about surviving on the battlefield against so many NPC forces.
KTS: Puru-1 has deployed in RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn <Unicorn Mode>. KTS: Puru-1 has deployed as a Boss for 4 opponents. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has deployed in Tausendfuessler Lugh. KTS: Kaname Chidori has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Teletha Testarossa! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has deployed in ARX-7 Arbalest. KTS: Sousuke Sagara arrives loaded onto Teletha Testarossa's combat deck! KTS: Kaname Chidori has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Teletha Testarossa!
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
https://youtu.be/KlRxAIYy-WU
She could feel her.
On hte bridge of the Tausendfussler Lugh, an outdated vessel, Sayla's supervision had been largely quiet, there mostly to provide advice and ensure the crew were handling space okay. That was until now, when a sudden gasp escaped her.
"Leina..." She shook her head, and looked to the vessel's young CO. "...Captain Testarossa, I have a request. But it involves going into that battlefield. I understand if you refuse." This was only supposed to be drills, after all. The Tausendfussler was hardly equipped for a battle like this. "Leina's in there. I know it. Please, all of you. Help me get through to her."
----
As they closed, Sayla stepped into the hangar in her normal suit. There was no MS Armament, just a few Arm Slaves. It wouldn't be sensible for her to go out in one of those. So, in the middle of the hangar, she raised her hand. "Come out!" She snaps her fingers, the sound audible in the still sealed hangar. "Shuffle Heart!"
BGM: https://youtu.be/uvs9nDDPixY
And from the Orbital Ring, something launches, leaving a pink streak across the stars.
----
The Shuffle Heart's Mobile Armour form blazed across the stars, Sayla sitting in the transformable cockpit, a psycommu headset atop her head. It hadn't seen battle in years- not since Master Asia's betrayal. But right now, Sayla didn't need the raw destruction that the Hi-Nu could bring. She needed a strong heart.
The pink streak darts through the battlefield, the Heart Cloth trailing behind it, transmitting viruses to those Federation suits that have the misfortune of being touched by the beam weapon. And as soon as she is in range, the laser comm bursts out. "Leina!" What can she say, here and now?
"...Leina, I'm here. Please. Talk to me."
KTS: Sayla Mass has deployed in Shuffle Heart <Mobile Armor Mode>.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The unfortunate truth of the matter was: The wrong place at the wrong time. This wasn't the Tuatha De Dannan. This wasn't her beloved ship, this wasn't her fight, this wasn't anything that Mithril truly sanctioned or disagreed with in any formal capacity. Laplace's Box was just that: A Box. Just the coincidence of learning about space, learning about maneuvers, putting words inscribed on paper to genuine practice here and there. Slow, careful adjustments, slowly loosening as the rigors of space demanded a different touch of the helm. Blows, dives, the careful turns, the consideration of more intertia, physics of memory rewritten and established bit by bit.
And yet. The wail of the Banshee was not to be ignored. Even with a skeleton crew, weapons only known on paper, and untested tuneups coating the ship.
She could only glance wordlessly at Sayla's gasp, Tessa's gaze firm with the obvious answer before the question could be vocalized. "After everything, do you think I'd say no?" It was only polite to do so.
"Begin combat operations." The tone of the Captain is firm as ever. First combat operation or a hundredth, first shot or a thousanth, first bellow or a millionth, there was still a crew. A will. An objective. The Casus Belli to report and document this operation afterwards.
They had to try. Diving into the scarred battlefield, Tessa setting her jaw in relative silence while taking in the grusomely beautiful painting of war armaments serving their dues. Where. Where. WHERE. Where was she- "Banshee spotted!" The flick of a screen, the pullup of a zoomed-in segment.
An explosion nearby; The crew had begun their sacred duty of keeping the carrion away, a blessing and a curse.
Leina.
Open comms. A breath. Formality? With her? ... "Leina. It's Tessa. I hope you've been well enough, even if the circumstances are strained." Emotional disarmament. Push. Tweak. Deescalate. Even with the informal language, she was still prodding away, feeding Uruz-7 the data he needed. Ignore everything. Ignore the furor of war, ignore the clashes around. "We haven't talked in a while, have we? There's so much to catch up on, so much to plan." A normal teenage life. Isn't that what they both wanted?
A breath. There was only one objective.
"I picked up a few things in these past few months, you know. Both of us are lucky in love, aren't we?"
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Puru-1 with Shock! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa shocks Puru-1, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Puru-1's Never Let You Go activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Puru-1 with Pass! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname Chidori feels out-of-place on the bridge of a spaceship. She's an Earthnoid at heart, most comfortable with the firm gravity of Earth beneath her feet... if not for being dragged along during her father's political hobnobbing when she was younger, she'd most likely have never gone out past the Orbital Ring.
But here she is now. The system she's developed--the one that will allow the Tuatha de Danaan to slip the bonds of sea and sky, the one that started out scrawled on a page at a sleepover in a trance--is moving ever closer to becoming a reality. The Lugh is their learning experience, the way to feel for themselves how a ship moves in space. So she occupies a station on the bridge, a cascade of blue hair splaying out weightlessly behind her.
It's all very serene, she finds.
Until it's not. She's suddenly acutely aware of the vacuum outside, the fact that all that separates them from death is the ship's armor. She takes in a deep breath, then slowly lets it out. Then once again.
"Good luck, Heart-2," she nods to Sayla... then, they wait. The callout draws her attention to the main screen.
"Leina..." she murmurs quietly. This is the chance to bring her home. "Right. Standing by for orders, Captain Testarossa!"
KTS: Puru-1 fails to react to Sayla Mass's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 46500 <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Why on Earth are Sousuke Sagara and the Arbalest not on Earth? Sousuke's simple enough, of course: Having the SRT's best pilot on hand for a run like this was an obvious move. Why bring his entirely land-bound Arm Slave instead of a mobile suit? Orders: it was becoming increasingly clear the Arbalest was Mithril's greatest asset against increasingly awesome powers being wielded by other powers, between NT-D Psycoframe mobile suits and other forces that had discovered the lambda driver. Thus, it was determined that Sousuke Sagara and his machine should accompany the mission, to get better experience with low-gravity combat with ship support.
Which is why, when the mission profile changes abruptly, it's not even two whole minutes before Arbalest clamps on to the deck.
"We're just keeping the ship safe, AL," Sousuke notes, plodding out to the far end of the deck. They're not here to engage the Federation. The Three Ships Alliance...Tessa hasn't ordered him to protect them. In fact, aren't they effectively supporting--
No point in worrying on that point. AL replies, <<Roger.>>
But the AI's thoughts reveal themselves as a callout zoom pops up on his monitors as soon as AL can resolve the image. "She's here," Sousuke observes, and racks the Boxer. A flex of his thumb shifts the ammo feed to slugs.
<<Affirmative. The ARX system must operate at peak function for this battle, Sergeant.>>
"Don't get passive aggressive with me," Sousuke says flatly, and his eyes track the readout. Beams lance past illuminating the distant Banshee.
He doesn't begin with a transmission. Tessa's started one, he hears. His own thoughts still fumble.
But perhaps the Arbalest's gaze is enough to announce the two hearts awaiting her on the deck.
"Uruz Seven," he says, and flexes his fingers. Arbalest's drum on the shotgun. "Ready to begin operations."
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Puru-1 with Pass!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
It is a quagmire of negative feeling that surrounds Puru-1, the Norn as Shuffle Heart launches and approaches, and at first it's like Puru-1 simply doesn't sense it as anything but an enemy to reflexively react to. The Beam Magnum, once pointed at the Dogosse-Giar shifts automatically to point at Shuffle Heart on its intercept course. The ReZELs and Jegans making up the defensive line suddenly more hesitant to engage. Perhaps because they feel it is better to let anything that comes into contact with the Norn to simply let them be wiped out.
The Norn doesn't stop at first, until with a sudden shift of AMBAC rebalancing, it swivels about in space to turn and regard the Shuffle Heart. For a time, silent upon the commsm before it eventually breaks.
"There's nothing to talk about. You think showing up in Shuuji's old hand me down is going to convince me that anything has changed?" A beat pause, "You have no obligation to keep me as a part of your life any longer, Doctor Mass." As she coldly calls her something she hasn't called her to her face for years, "Go home. Move on properly. It won't take long for you to realize how much better off you are."
Despite it all, she hasn't fired though. Perhaps the words are enough in her opinion.
The approach of the Tausendfuessler has the Norn sharply turn the Magnum towards it warily, even before the comm contact is made, "Tessa!? Why are YOU here?!" It's as if her mind can't even grasp the idea as to why she would be here.
Then she stops, and listens for a moment, quiet as she parses what Tessa imparts to her, "It has been a while." She admits, quietly. Sounding suddenly tired, "The last time we spoke, I told you I'd let you see me as I really am one day. Honestly, I was hoping back then, that you never would have to see me like this."
While she won't admit it, trying to fill that household, trying to get the people she cares about together in her life, while once it was a matter of course...
... the moment she began her life as Puru-1, it became her trying to make certain all the people in her life was taken care of. That they could find happiness. It was her own way of saying goodbye, "Lucky at love... I'm glad, I could learn that much." She admits to her quietly. Her gaze focused upon the old battleship as if looking straight at Kaname as well, and perhaps at AL, in wonder. Even if it is not confirmation.
However, Sayla, Kaname, and Tessa them might senses a cold shift, an imminent sense of looming betrayal within that twisted resolve. These feelings clinging to her with a white knuckled grip. Something within her realizing that all of them are a distraction she could ill afford right now when it comes to her ultimate aim, "Maybe now you can all focus on a more worthwhile pursuit than the FANTASY of a world without war!"
A cylinder mounted on the Beam Magnum turns, and a warning salvo of missiles is sent towards the Taunsendfussler, raining down upon it and its combat deck at the Arbalest even as blue thrusters flare as the Norn moves in a flanking pattern, as if its ultimate aim were simply to disengage from them and continue onward. "Get the HELL off my battlefield!"
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Sayla Mass's Spirit Endurance activates, and the spirit is adjusted. KTS: Puru-1 has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Sayla Mass KTS: Puru-1 targets Teletha Testarossa and Sousuke Sagara with Revolving Launcher BOP Missile Salvo. KTS: Puru-1 has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Puru-1 fails to react to Sousuke Sagara's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 46500
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"...Thank you. All of you."
With the beam magnum pointed at it, the Shuffle Heart gets ready to evade- but the Banshee seems to be tracking automatically. How in control is Leina here- versus the banshee itself?
But she turns it away, firing past her. Sayla's nerve holds. Just.
It's the words that sting though. That drive into her heart like a nail. Shuuji's hand-me-down. She wasn't wrong. "...It was never an obligation, Leina. Not once." She shakes her head. "The fact that you feel like it was..." She trails off. "It was unexpected. It was challenging. But not once were you an obligation. Not once. Please, believe that if you can't believe anything else."
She bites her lip. "Things haven't changed. Home isn't home without you. That will never change."
She sees the bop missiles coming out, and the Shuffle Heart surges forward- and past Leina, aiming to simply tag her with the Heart Cloth. Not enough to do damage. Not enough to leave a mark. Just to make contact and send something through the Heart Cloth to impact the Banshee's reactor systems for a moment.
Still, a connection is a coommunication that cannot be shutdown. "You have every right to be angry with me. But if you are, please be angry for yourself. Not for the banshee. Not for Elpeo. For you."
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Puru-1 with Prevent! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass prevents Puru-1's maneuvers, reducing her Skill drastically. KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 46500 KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to Evade Puru-1's Revolving Launcher BOP Missile Salvo, taking 3600 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara successfully intercepts Puru-1's Revolving Launcher BOP Missile Salvo <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Cordial. Light. Keep the words flowing. Keep the conversation going. Words were action all the same. It was all she could do, ashen eyes flicking, keeping mental track of the battlefield. "Keep everyone else off our tail." A lone ship drifting into the battlefield shouldn't be much of an issue, considering the circumstances. Best to be careful.
"We all have sides we don't want anyone else to see." The minute pang of how keenly aware she was of that statement, managing a small smile despite the circumstances. "Do you remember? Back then, I said you were a demon. I refuse to recant that statement. It takes one to know one, and I'm not allowing you to abandon your post so easily." There's still the veneer of officer formality, a woman on duty doing her best to pull someone back from what they're doing.
The hairs on her neck bristle at the matching gaze of the Nord, refusing to break eye contact (however figurative) of that metallic beast. The shift in temperature is palpable, Tessa instinctually stiffening up with a hardset jaw. The fantasy of war? Of course. That was obvious.
You think I'm fighting for that?
"Evasive maneuvers. Bearing Zero Six Five."
Missiles. Trajectory within expectations. Three. Two. One.
"Now."
A harsh thrust as those engines roared to life, the palpable sensation of most of those missiles crashing against the hull. The bridge rocks; A successful hit or two, crew immediately stating they were within expectations. Nothing to it.
"Release missiles one through five! Fire!" "FIRE!" And out they went, a retaliatory volley coursing through the stars, the Captain lashing out the demonic explosions towards a friend.
"Your battlefield, Leina? YOUR battlefield?" The quick tap of instruments; Start reloading. Start preparing for the next volley. Ready CIWS. Make it out alive. "You know what I am, Leina. That fantasy can be made a reality, and I'm not planning on losing anyone else to it. The world may be at war, but I don't want to indulge in the fantasy of a world without you as a friend."
... "The same goes for your boyfriend. The same goes for your girlfriend." There's no world that's worth the loss of people. "And the same goes for mine!"
The harsh suck-in of breath. "Kaname! Start checking on movement patterns! Three to five minutes from now, predictions!" There's a faint hope to stop Leina now. Every instinct said otherwise. But if there was a chance to nudge, to push her for one critical second.
"If you're going to proclaim yourself a demon, I'll help be there to drag you down through the depths and out to the other side of the world."
"And then we'll all go home."
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Puru-1 with Ship Fixed Missiles Area Denial! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Puru-1 has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Puru-1 successfully Intercepts Teletha Testarossa's Ship Fixed Missiles Area Denial KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Teletha Testarossa with Caution! KTS: Kaname Chidori has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaname Chidori suggests caution, raising Teletha Testarossa's Intuition! <Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname purses her lips as she hears Leina talk about the relationship she helped to spur like she's on her deathbed. She flips down the mic on her headset, "Dammit, Leina. Quit talking like it's over. Do you have any idea how much I want to go on a double date with all of you? How much I want another sleepover? I--I never got to really thank you for what you did for us..."
There's a long, slow breath out. "Aye-aye, ma'am." Keys clack, fingers sweeping over the touchscreen. After a few moments of deliberation between Kaname and the system, contact and camera displays both are overlaid with prediction cones for surrounding ships. "Right--we should be clear, unless someone pulls a Crazy Ivan..."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke doesn't sense it. AL detects....something, a disruption in the Omnisphere the TAROS can just perceive - like cosmic rays, interfering with a totally unrelated sensor. <<Operator Chidori, please examine file Zulu-7 when able,>> he broadcasts on the combat support line.
And then the Banshee Norn goes off. The missiles rain down and Arbalest's head vulcans fire up, sweeping across the dark night at the highlighted box in Sousuke's feed. Everything angled at Arbalest erupts in spherical flame, while the machine in white itself gleams in the darkness. It takes several steps.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," Sousuke says, opening his own line, and Arbalest whips forward - its tow line angling to grasp the Banshee. The winch pulls tight, YANKING back toward him. "I've been betrayed before. For money, for ideals, for fear. This should be no different. I agree."
His eyes narrow. His breathing steadies. A billowing blue-white light erupts from Arbalest's back as the lambda driver engages and the force on the line increases a dozenfold.
"But it is. I can't stop thinking about it! I don't want things to end this way! AL has told me you're a gifted tutor. You'll have to explain it to me!"
Sousuke Sagara transforms to ARX-7 Arbalest - Lambda Driver Online
KTS: Sousuke Sagara: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Puru-1 with Wire Entangle! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Puru-1 successfully Evades Sousuke Sagara's Wire Entangle
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
The Heart Cloth moves swiftly, tagging the Banshee Norn enough that it catches momentary hold near the reactor. It shifts in flight to compensate, before yanking off the Armed Armor from its back to its arm before making an upward motion as it purposefully snags the Heart Cloth with an arm, for a moment willingly using it for leverage.
"'Things haven't changed'? Would you even LISTEN to yourself? That only means you still trust me less than people who are barely even ACQUAINTANCES to you!" The Psycoframe enhanced strength of the Banshee suddenly tugs tigheter, and pulls, thrusters compensating on this tie that binds them. "You think I don't understand what it means that you sent the man who dropped AXIS after me? In the end - all I am to you-"
With one suddenly hellacious yank, a greyish Mounted Saber sprouts on that same forearm, as she slices down, trying to cut into the Shuffle Heart with a precision strike, "-IS A MESS YOU FEEL THAT COMPELLED TO CLEAN UP!"
Even without the NT-D active, the sorrow, the despair, and the anger prickle Sayla like so many fingers that wish to cling to her, even as she tries to sever those ties.
The retaliatory volley comes, and either attached to Shuffle Heart, or not, she suddenly viciously swings around, as the revolving cylinder suddenly clicks over. A cartride launches, and vanishes in the middle of the intercept course even as her Vulcans start to spew fire.
Missiles start to detonate mid flight as Micro Hide Bombs she'd just clustered all over the missile trajectory erupt and collide with her salvo, "MY battlefield!" She tells her former Commander without any hesitation, "You talk a good game, but Banagher and Mineva are TARGETS of the powers that be, and you're POWERLESS to change that! Vist-Carbine sent the Federation flagship as their own personal execution squad! If this fails, what do you think she'll do next?"
She tells her bitingly, "There's only one way out, and it's putting the Beast of Possibility down before it draws anyone else into this CURSED QUEST!" At that moment the Armed Armor DE swings up, a blue spherical blast erupting out the built in Mega Cannon of it straight towards the engines of the old battleship, "Then she'll have no incentive to pursue them anymore."
Kaname speaks too, about thanking her, and her breath raggedly pants, as she replies to both her and Tessa, "It IS over! There's no going back for me! Thank me!? What is even wrong with all of you! I BETRAYED you!"
And yet, it's like the sentiment is still getting under her skin, despite her best effort, like the grip of the fingers loosen just subtly. Because it's harder and harder to deny that she had at least some role in the warmth she brought to their lives.
It's almost a relief at first when Sousuke likens the betrayal to past experiences, but the subtle undercurrent prickles at her intuition just subtly as to make her uneasy, what is he suggesting? Even she can't fully contain her surprise when he says he doesn't want things to end this way! That AL has told her she's a gifted tutor, "What!? You-!"
She would have thought at least after how it went that Sousuke Sagara at least would be willing to process her betrayal, to make her his enemy. It would have been a profound RELIEF that someone has, and yet denied that solace, her breath seizes, "Sagara-! SOUSUKE! How! How can YOU of all people say that!?"
Finally tearing herself away from Shuffle Heart's cloth despite the damage it did, azure thrusters fire as she suddenly cuts a sharp flanking course as she twists around his tow cable, shooting a ReZEL at a holding pattern in the distance with blinking blue Ordnance. It flares abruptly, in a flashbang that illuminates space brightly from just the right angle as to briefly create her own 'Sun' at her back to fight in. The Norn seemingly vanishing, using the light to obfuscate what she's doing.
In just a moment, the Arbalest will find itself surrounded by all those clustered Micro Hide-Bombs, as if she'd used the distraction to mine their space and give them little breathing room to so much as move without risking them blowing up.
As for where the Norn is, it seems to have reoriented itself near a field of mobile suit debris, using a larger piece of armor for cover as she points the Beam Magnum down the avenues of approach, "What part of the lecture would you like explained to you? The whole section speculating your 'preferences' was rather inspired I feel."
Is she telling a joke? No. However, she is perhaps trying to fluster Tessa, Kaname, and/or him as a distraction.
KTS: Puru-1 targets Sayla Mass with Beam Tonfas and Sabers Rush! KTS: Puru-1 has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Puru-1 targets Teletha Testarossa with Armed Armor DE Mega Cannon Shot! KTS: Puru-1 targets Sousuke Sagara with Revolving Launcher Micro Hide Bomb Launch! KTS: Puru-1 has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass fails to Parry Puru-1's Beam Tonfas and Sabers Rush, taking 3600 damage! KTS: Puru-1 has engaged Sayla Mass! KTS: Puru-1 begins a Formation attack! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to Charge. KTS: Teletha Testarossa partially guards Puru-1's Armed Armor DE Mega Cannon Shot, taking 3444 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sousuke Sagara blocks Puru-1's Revolving Launcher Micro Hide Bomb Launch, taking 2800 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Despite a desperate attempt at fancy flying, the scraf is pulled aside and Sayla's attempt to yank it back fails. The blades score one of the Shuffle Heart's verniers, and controllihng it becomes that much harder. The Shuffle Heart makes a long turn, trying to get back to the battle.
Even though Sayla knows that so much of this is caused by Murasame's work... there's the real hurt there. The betrayal- all caused by being so desperate as to put her hope in her brother.
The words fly through the comms, as she hears all these moments Leina had, all these bonds. Tessa, swearing she'll pull her through the other side. Kaname, talking about how much she wants to go on a double date. Sousuke, begging her to make it make sense.
She can't do this flying around with fleeting contact. She has to face Leina face to face. Puru-1's hands grip her. Leina's hands. After all, if these are just her memories.... Fine. Let her cling as tight as she needs to, today. Sayla can endure it, this time.
She pulls a lever, and the cockpit recedes, and opens up. She removes her helmet, and casts it to one side.
As the Shuffle Heart unfolds, the ring that deploys the mobile trace suit lowers over Sayla, she lets out a slight gasp of pain. The mobile trace suit fitting isn't an easy process. But she's focused enough to talk.
"You're right. I sent the man you hate more than anyone else in this world after you. To bring you all home." The words are forced out, under the pressure, as the sharp tip of the Shuffle Heart extends out to become legs and feet, and the majority of the outer shell becomes massive wings. "But I should have gone with him. Maybe then..." She shakes her head. She can't change what happened, desperate as she is to.
The suit finishes it's fitting, and the mobile trace system speaks to life, and the Shuffle Heart drops into the same Munzo Colonial Forces CQC stance that she had help teach Leina so long ago. "You're not a mess, Leina! I would never think of you that way! No matter what you've done, or what you think you've done, that doesn't change who you are to me!"
She flings an arm forward, and she Shuffle Cloth darts forward- then jerks to the right under psycommu, aiming to circle around and enwrap Leina again, keeping the two together in battle. Even as her movements are impeded by the hands grabbing her, she guides it with her mind.
"Tris... Max... Nassius... Alan... Shuji..." She mutters under her breath, to memories of a those long gone. Her once stalwart companions. The man who once defended the world in this Shuffle Heart. "Please, help me get through to her."
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Puru-1 with Heart Cloth Entanglement! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Puru-1 with Heart Cloth Entanglement! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass anchors Puru-1, forcing her into close range. KTS: Puru-1 parries Sayla Mass's Heart Cloth Entanglement, taking 900 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 45600 KTS: Sayla Mass has engaged Puru-1!
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The armrest of that Captain's Chair is home to an increasingly white-knuckled grip, the woman herself keeping her breath deliberately steady. In. Out. In. Out. The talk. The self-depreciation. It rings a familiar bell, touching a familiar raw nerve. Nothing to do but to toss yourself in, to drown in the deep current of your emotions.
"Thank you." Next move while listening to Leina's voice, working in parallel. Fingers tapping out coordinates and movements, managing power and divesting as best she could. The crew work as they've been trained, the occasional yell about stray beams and missiles coming from the hellscape.
"Leina." The voice of someone barely hiding her emotion. "You don't think I'm not targeted? That Kaname isn't targeted, that Sousuke isn't targeted?" The targets of the Powers That Be? Yes. Yes, she knows them well. Yes, there's people out there who'd love nothing more than to look at her brain without the skull. "We're just lucky." Lucky that the world does not know of the Whispered. Of the technology that eludes them so. "None of us want any of you to die!"
"BRACE!" The shi's barrier flickers to life, the CIWS doing its damndest to stem the beamflow as best it could. The energy splashing across the surface, the ship pushing through it akin to a rock through water...Superheated water that sacrred and warped the surface, that warmed up the engines to the minutest bit of slag inside, but liquid nonetheless. Success on one front, however minor.
That's the game. That's it. It's near foolproof at first glance. Murder the King and Queen, and the rest of it falls. The Unicorn won't activate. There's so many holes in her plan. So many. "You know they won't stop there. Are you willing to commit yourself to solitude? To be apart from everyone else? Are you aiming to become the next Phenex?" ...A soulless husk damned to swim along the stars?
"AND SO WHAT IF YOU DID?" A raised voice, quickly bolting that lid of emotions back down. "I know you well enough to know that is not the Leina I knew or ever will know!" The girl who served alcohol and sparked the embers of being alive, of being normal, like this? There's a perverse acknowledgement of this; Neither of them were normal. Neither of them would ever lead normal lives. And yet. AND YET.
The sight of the mine field brings her pause. A singular second before glancing over at a bridge member. "Prepare CIWS! Full power, frontal cone!"
"CIWS ready!"
"FIRE!"
And the daemonic ship reinforced with Whispers spewed its energy across the field, energy output whirring to life as those guns fired scattershot across the cosmos, aiming for the Norn.
"What lecture do I want!?" Simple. "Simple. Tell me about how you plan to deal with your boyfriend and girlfriend. Tell me what you'd do the night after with or without them. And tell me how you're going to tell your brother what you did the day after when he sees you." Request upon request.
"Tell me when I can see you smile again."
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Puru-1 with Ship Heavy Physical CIWS Sustained Assault! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Puru-1 has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Puru-1 successfully avoids Teletha Testarossa's Ship Heavy Physical CIWS Sustained Assault KTS: Kaname Chidori has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Teletha Testarossa KTS: Kaname Chidori has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Teletha Testarossa <Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname winces as Leina yells, even as she pulls up the file AL mentions. She can't make sense of it--not right now, as the call to brace goes out and she holds fast to her station. "Shit," she murmurs.
"Maybe you did, Leina, but we're not giving up on you. What you mean to us is more than whatever's driven you to feel this way." She looks at Tessa, and smiles a little. "She's right. We're being targeted too. I'm being targeted, for sure, and they'll stop at nothing to try and have me. But that means I'm going to fight back. If they want me, they're gonna have me kicking and screaming and biting their FUCKING hands off!" Her voice echoes through the bridge.
"I know I'm special, Leina. I'm not gonna roll over and hide. It might be hopeless, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna fight back with my last breath... and the Leina Ashta I knew understood that!"
She updates the path predictions. "Movement predictions coming in for the Banshee! 15 seconds at best!"
KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Teletha Testarossa with Caution! KTS: Kaname Chidori has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaname Chidori suggests caution, raising Teletha Testarossa's Intuition!
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Tch. That ReZEL going off blinds Sousuke and AL enough that the targeting is off; the tow cable flies out until Sousuke reels it back in.
<<Sergeant,>> AL warns, and highlights the surroundings. "Right," Sousuke says, and thrusts Arbalest's hand down at the deck. The hide-bombs go off, but a rippling dome of light surrounds Sousuke, revealing scarred decking and no harm to the Arbalest.
"I don't know!" Sousuke snaps at Leina. "I have all the justification I need to abandon you! But I don't believe it! I can't stand the thought of it! Someone so committed to a doomed course doesn't work that hard for a fool and a machine! So explain it to me!"
And then Arbalest LEAPS INTO OPEN SPACE, the Lambda Driver flickering around it as a visible bubble as it moves for better position on the Norn.
<<On the subject of your slide decks, I do have some additional data I think you'd find compelling, Leina,>> AL notes, as placid as ever. <<But, we can discuss that at another juncture.>>
<<I have a different question.>>
Arbalest levels the shotcannon at a chunk of degree between it and the Norn.
<<You speak of destroying Banagher Links' Unicorn Gundam. A Beast of Possibility, you say. Destroy the object of conflict. My data indicates it is viable approach to a difficult scenario.>>
<<But this nihilism you display surpasses your supposed concern for Banagher Links. No less than Martha Vist-Carbine, you have been brought to fear a world of change.>>
Astute. Incisive. He is, after all, meant to support the world's foremost human brick.
<<Supervisor Morauta's final message promised I might one day grow to similar stature. A vehicle for possibility. Tell me, Leina.>>
arbalest fires, a shotcannon blast that punches through the intervening debris and might just obliterate it completely as if the blast were dozens of times larger.
<<Will you deny me, Leina? Would you come for me, to silence Operator Chidori, and Captain Tetstarossa, and my Sergeant?>>
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Puru-1 with Lambda Shotcannon Strike True! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Puru-1 charges into the attack! KTS: Puru-1 partially guards Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Shotcannon Strike True, taking 2624 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 42976 KTS: Sousuke Sagara: Will Barrier Activates. <Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
Shuffle Heart transforms, and drops into a familiar stance, the piece of debris she was using for cover is suddenly gripped by the Psycoframe reinforced arms and hurled into the path of its Heart Cloth. A hair of a second too slow, and it snags around it and catches part of the Norn's arm.
The words however are what truly attracts her attention, "You should have come too!? He ruined EVERYTHING! If not for him I could have - I could have recaptured them! I could have FIXED THIS!"
Her tone is so pregnant with desperation, as if she'd been denied so many avenues towards a kinder solution, boxed into a corner like a rabid animal.
"If not that, then WHAT?" Utilizing her free arm, she points the Beam Magnum right at Shuffle Heart, it's barrel with a crackling sphere of red, before at the last second she twists it diagonal. It fires at that moment a crimson column surrounded by a penumbra of auroral blue only attacking Shuffle Heart only with the indirect heat of the blast, "Just what the hell am I to you then!?"
A sense of apprehension just grows the moment that question leaves her lips, as if she's terrified of the answer, despite the anger which led her to saying those words without thinking. Such questions were always fraught with eggshells.
She has to focus. She has to FOCUS, Tessa's comment is like a splash of ice water back to her face, bracing in that sense, "You say that as if I already haven't committed myself to that life." Tessa may realize to in that moment how chillingly prescient the hypothetical in her statement truly was, "If that's what it takes in the end, the Phenex has already taught me that trick."
The CIWS fire, and the Norn utilizes the piece of debris that Sayla bound to her as cover, interposing it between the hellish fire of the demonic ship, scattershot blasts rendering it quickly to something akin to Swiss Cheese, then disintegrating it to less than that, even as it takes off from behind it at an inverted stance.
Despite the situation, Puru-1 has to admire Tessa for holding it together in space. Most Earthnoids can't instantly adapt to the rigors of Space combat, and yet she's doing well. But it's ultimately frustrating, because this is not the life she wants for her. For any of them.
"You're wrong! This is how I've ALWAYS been!" She tells her, but the denial seems, weaker, somehow in this moment. Why? Did the implication of suicide by pyre actually shake her in ways she's not even saying?
Still, Tessa challenges her to tell her, and that comment lends to a sense of, abstraction perhaps, distance as if she's moving further and further from herself just to contemplate this future, "I'm not going to tell any of them anything. I'll carve the cockpit out of the Unicorn and shred the rest so small to deny everyone the means to pursue the box. After that? Vist-Carbine won't care enough to pursue him any longer."
Even though she'll have destroyed something bonded to him, maiming him spiritually. She understands she'll hurt him terribly doing so. Maybe then he'll finally cease in his fruitless quest to stop her. That's not a full answer though is it? "As for Mineva, I'll just keep my own counsel on that." She certainly has a plan though, a desperate, stupid plan, that may not give her the life she wants.
Kaname predicts the Banshee's coming trajectory, and indeed she's correct, right at the fifteen second mark, the Norn does a fly by over their battleship, Vulcans firing at point blank range to try and shred one of their CIWS turret. For all of her tough talk, she has far more deadly means of dealing with the battleship.
Why isn't she using them? Perhaps while she has so much resolve to fight, she has so little when it comes towards taking the lives of any of them.
"You won't have to, when it comes to her. She doesn't know about you." Wait, she doesn't? Is she saying she didn't tell her about Whispered? Or does she only THINK she didn't? "Either of you. You think if she knew, she wouldn't have tried to have you both ferried away to some Anaheim Black Site?"
She sums it up simply, "This is why I wanted you AWAY from all of this! Just get out of here! Keep your heads down and pray she never FINDS OUT!" She understands that they're targets, it's just that she believes with her whole heart.
It could be SO MUCH WORSE for them both if the powers that be could OPENLY hunt them, using the full might of the Federation.
It's strange, just a few short months ago she would have been delighted to hear words like this from Sousuke, this idea that despite it all, he can shed the pragmatic battlefield logic he lived his life by. Right now though, it angers, it frustrates her, "I can't! I can't explain it! I can't know what NONSENSE is going through your head where you'd treat me as ANYTHING other than your enemy! The situation feels like it should be OBVIOUS to you!"
Her self loathing just seems too vast perhaps, that she can't assign any worth whatsoever to the idea of someone exerting effort for her sake, misguided or not.
Facing down the shotcannon, there's a moment of quiet anger and frustration as AL asks his question. For the moment, she halts her assault, committing to this standoff, shaken from this myriad of angles all of them are coming for her at emotionally. "Afraid of change. You think... I'm afraid of it?" There's a hollow, bitter laugh, "I was willing to commit my life to change AL-! To create a world that didn't shape, and mold children into becoming like Sergeant Sagara or Commander Testarossa! A world where they can simply BE! And their biggest concerns were homework, or dates-! Not dying in AXIS! Or being spirited off to some secluded LAB!"
Then all of a sudden, it deflates out of her, flooding her with that sense of emptiness and desolation, the moment the Arbalest fires. "But I was only deluding myself." The Norn is already moving, but the blast strikes true anyway, scoring the Norn with the prismatic energy of human possibility, the Banshee having to course correct in its flight as its blasted further away mid-flight, before streaking back towards the Arm Slave.
Suddenly it's trying to loom over the Arbalest and keep pace with it, a good three times larger in size, "Oh AL. I think so much better of you than that. Than being constrained to some destiny assigned to you by your creator. You can be so much more than a fiction sold to us to keep us docile."
Suddenly ripping a saber from the opposite forearm, it ignites into an eerie grey, which then takes on a second color in harsh blue Psycoflame, as she tells him, "But don't worry, you'll live more than long enough to figure that out in your own way." It is a desperate thing, bringing that Saber down in a quick brutal succession of swings towards one of its arms then twisting diagonal to try and catch its legs too, "Because I very much doubt that your AI core is inside your arms and legs."
KTS: Puru-1 targets Sayla Mass with Beam Magnum Focused Burst! KTS: Puru-1 targets Teletha Testarossa with Fixed Vulcans Dash-and-Fire! KTS: Puru-1 targets Sousuke Sagara with Beam Tonfas and Sabers High-Output Combination! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass fails to rush. KTS: Puru-1 enervates Sayla Mass, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Sayla Mass partially guards Puru-1's Beam Magnum Focused Burst, taking 5775 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Puru-1's Hands Meant For Holding activates, causing Deject! KTS: Puru-1 completes the Formation attack! KTS: Puru-1 enervates Sousuke Sagara, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to parry Puru-1's Beam Tonfas and Sabers High-Output Combination, taking 6160 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Puru-1's Hands Meant For Holding activates, causing Deject! KTS: Puru-1 has engaged Sousuke Sagara! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to Evade Puru-1's Fixed Vulcans Dash-and-Fire, taking 2700 damage! KTS: Puru-1 has engaged Teletha Testarossa!
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"No. It wouldn't have fixed anything." Sayla speaks with certainty, somehow. "Murasame was already planning to take you and Rikka, and Martha was too focused on the box to notice it. If you'd gotten back you'd be dead or worse- and it would have shattered those of us left behind." She knows Leina can't fight her conditioning. But maybe she can plant some seeds for when she can.
"...I've acquired all Murasame's records. We know he was planning to sell on his process, and keep the two of your for experiments. And if it weren't for Akane and Alouette, he would have, and Martha never would have tried to deliver on her end!" The calm she was trying to keep in her voice vanishes as she speaks. She can't be calm. Not with Leina in front of her like this.
Leina's question rings in her ears. She knows the answer top that question. She's known the answer for nearly a decade now.
But she's never dared say it to Leina. Never dared broach the topic, for the fear of how Leina would react. It was a term Leina had such fear for- and how could she not based on what her life had been like before.
"...You're the closest family I have. Someone who deserved better than me lying to her out of fear. Who deserved better than all the secrets I kept." She can feel the hands tightening. This part of her, this Elpeo of Leina's memories, already knows what Sayla's going to say. They clawed so desperately for what Leina had. They fought Char for her. "I'm not going to lie to you anymore."
She draws her hand to her chest, and the Shuffle Heart follows suit. Tessa, Kaname and Sousuke had risked themselves to give Sayla this chance. She hoped desperately it would work, somehow. "...You're my daughter. That's what you are to me."
And wordlessly, she extends her hand to the Banshee. Tactically, it's an incredibly stupid move.
But for once, Sayla is thinking with her heart, not her head.
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Puru-1 with Pass! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Puru-1 fails to react to Sayla Mass's Pass, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The reinforcement of someone set in their ways. It's a chillingly familiar statement that she's heard from soldier after soldier that keeps coming back on tours of duty. I can't go back. I can't leave the place that'll be my grave. The gaunt faces. The resignation. "...That's how I know you're not going through with it, Leina." The circumstances of the Phenex were unique. Possibly replicable, but still...
The psychological shot in the dark. No one who said such things goes through with it. No. That is not the danger zone. It's the ones who act as if everything's fine. As if everything will disappear in a few hours. No one screaming like this will do it suddenly.
If Leina smiled while she said that, then she knew all hope was lost.
The harsh rejection only serves to brings her lips up the slightest bit. A cornerned animal hungers. It gnaws. It grows scared of comfort offered, of warmth. "I don't believe you. Not for a moment. Not at all." Always. It's a loaded word. "What you've given me with your warmth has changed me for the better, Leina!"
There's a flicker of imagination in her mind. Sitting in a warm grove with the sakura blossoms. Kaname's words meld in her head. A double date. The six of them. None of them are normal, yes. But they're alive and in the moment.
The silvery flame of emotion flares. Listening to Leina. She's planning on abandonment. The incalculable weight of shouldering everything on her own. The blinders willingly equipped, the non-realization of how other people would have to explain what she did, how she did it, and how she disappeared.
"...You're going to abandon them both." The voice that blared from the comms is straight. Calm. Controlled.
The ship forges ahead, firing away at the Norn and attempting to evade, to push away the incoming missile of self-inflicted fury.
"Starting to hit caution levels of malfunctions." Fine. "Prepare to leave! We've done all we could."
The ship bursts to life, the ship slowly turning, bit by bit. A deliberate broadside turnaround to face the Norn so blatantly, so openly.
There's so many words to sum up what she just heard. So many. There are only two words that come out.
"...You COWARD."
The sharp inhalation of breath.
"Do you think we don't know? Do you think we aren't AWARE of the possibility that Vist would learn about us? Do you think that we aren't aware of the possibility, of the NEAR-CERTAIN probability that Vist, the Federation, Sleeves, anything and everything would want to learn about us? Not if, but WHEN." Every harsh syllable is stressed, every constonant spat out with the furor of a friend seeing another go astray.
"I can't pray anymore than you can, Leina! I can't do anything other than be on this ship and do what I can! Is that enough!? I don't know! Here's what I do know!" The voice. Rising. A crescendo of emotion, the lid of restraint having long cracked and beginning to shatter.
"I WILL NOT BE ATTENDING YOUR FUNERAL, LEINA ASHTA! I'M GOING TO SEE YOU PLANETSIDE SOON!" Not today, for sure. But soon. Sooner than Leina could ever dare think of. "I'LL SEE YOU AT THE MASS VILLA! WE'RE GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER PARTY! WE'RE GOING TO EAT, DRINK, BE MERRY, KISS OUR BOYFRIENDS, KISS OUR GIRLFRIENDS, AND FOR ONE NIGHT, FOR ONE, SINGLE NIGHT IN THIS WORLD-"
An inhalation to fill out a submariner's lungs.
"WE'LL BE PERFECTLY NORMAL GIRLS!"
Her white-knuckle grip on the armrest refused to cease, completely unaware that she was standing, leaning forward...And tears in her eyes. A moment of clarity as she sat back down, exhaling.
"Retreat. Before the Federation or the Sleeves know we're here. See you again, Leina. You know where to find me."
And she cuts the comms, doing her best to avoid the gazes of the bridge crewmembers.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Puru-1 with Pass! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname's silent as Tessa reaches a crescendo. She can't hold back her tears. The emotion behind those words is so perfectly clear to her... she wants it, too. She wants them all to have that time, the chance to be normal, to be... everything the world won't let them be.
The world may be cruel, but that doesn't mean they have to be.
She switches to the squad comm line. Her voice is shaking. "Heart-2, Uruz-7... withdraw. I'm sorry. We can't stay out here any longer."
A tap of a key, and she returns to the Banshee's line. "We'll see you soon, Leina..." and, with utter certainty beneath the uneven tremolo of her voice, she adds, "We'll hold you to that date."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke sees the blades igniting. He gets the monocutter up - and the flickering light of the Lambda Driver clashes with the Psychoframe's burning light. But ultimately, however else the systems and pilots match up, Sousuke's weak mastery of the Labmda Driver loses him the clash; a blade slices clean through one of the arms, though Sousuke's own mastery does prevent her from fully disabling him. He lashes out to retrieve the drifting shotcannon, whirling around, but...
<<That sounds like a beautiful place, Leina,>> AL says.
Sousuke's mind turns to the young woman he saved over a year ago, chewing on her nails in a desperate attempt to convince herself she was still real. He watches the Banshee and remembers the pulse of the sedative injector in his hand as he knocked her out for recovery. Mira Kudan...where is she now...?
"...I see," he says, something in him turning. She doesn't know either, huh? "What you describe...sounds agreeable."
The retreat order goes out. Sousuke stows the Boxer immediately. "...but it appears my Captain has indicated an upcoming mission," he says, and lashes out with his arm, the tow wire latching on to the Lugh and pulling him away.
<<Leina Ashta,>> AL says, as the white machine drifts away. <<I believe your current course is causing you undue stress. I have seen this behavior before. You should consider listening to music or engaging in a 'hobby to release tension.>>
<<When we meet again, I believe you will find the gazemap I have collected from the Sergeant's comunication sessions telling.>>
"AL!?"
Arbalest hits the deck. Sousuke turns his eyes up, Arbalest's green eyes gleaming across the distance, as the Lugh begins to peel away. <<As a further note...Be advised that tactical objective "rescue" does not require the consent of the target.>>
<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.
When Sayla tells her the truth, that he planned to abscond with all of them. There is a bristling across the Psychic plane, like she was upset, irritated at the implication. And then it sinks in, deeper and deeper. Alberto said the same thing too, she'd assumed it was a lie but...
"That bastard. That-!" For a time the comms cut and it's like she is cursing in silence, her fury just rising, but when the moment is over her incredible self-loathing just rushes in to replace it. It doesn't matter that she was trying to make deals for their release with Vist-Carbine, he was always planning to double cross them on the sly.
For a while she just has to breathe. She has to let herself breathe, as that touch of the Banshee's Psycoframe just causes her to drown within those feelings. Despite the stress, there's something comforting about it. There's no struggle to swim against the current any longer.
She can just let herself sink.
She's still just breathing when Sayla starts telling her what she is to her, and it's hard to say for a time who those fingers are clinging to between them. 'I'm not going to lie to you anymore.'
She almost says something hurtful, reflexively lashing out, but the impulse remains only something that might have been, because of what Sayla says next.
The waters she's swimming in recede, just subtly, just subtly. "Sayla?" Puru-1 utters, in shock, and despite her lack of ability to focus on other people in this state, she forces herself to push through it just enough to understand in that moment.
She's telling the truth.
Speechless, she takes one breath, then another, the warm saline stinging her eyes as she chokes out a half sob, "H-How could you-!" The girl tells her, and Sayla might wonder if she'd hurt her worse than ever before, telling her this.
To some extent this is true, but perhaps not in the way she might think, as she struggles to force the words out, "How could you- DO- this to yourself!?" As if Sayla making herself her mother was a profound act of self-harm. "You deserve... so much- SO MUCH better than that!"
Thoroughly shaken, and overwhelmed, she looks at the hand Sayla is offered, retreating from it as if it were a viper. Yet Sayla might understand in that moment, that it's Leina herself who thinks of herself as the Viper, and that by taking that hand, she'd only envenom her.
She's still so shaken that when Tessa calls her out on the fact that she wouldn't do it, that she can't even field a denial. Because Tessa's right, when Rita offered her that means out, that means to escape her suffering. She didn't take it. The thought filled her with unspeakable panic. Called out on her cowardice, she takes a deep breath, eyes squeezing shut, as she forces herself to take refuge in the embrace of those fingers, to let herself sink, because it feels like her resolve is cracking.
And that's the only way out, "Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!" In a growing crescendo of panic, "What do you think bravery will GET YOU!?" And then more despondently, she asks a question which seems more to herself than them, "What did it get them?" She whispers, thinking of the crew of the Nahel Argama. How victory destroyed her brother. How he tried to save so many people, but only ended up saving one girl. In this erratic state, not occurring to her that she might have no idea who she's talking about, "They fought and fought and fought and WON and all it did was CRUSH THEM! You think you have an answer THEY DON'T!? You think you can FORCE the world to CARE?"
She can't muster even half a defense against the rest, the tide of positive things that Tessa wants to experience, believes she'll be there for, to Kaname affirming it, trying to hold herself to that date, "Just... go. Just let yourself live for once." She doesn't say 'for me', because in the end, she believes she simply isn't worth the effort. "Don't wait up." She adds, almost absently, as if she were almost considering it herself on some level.
'A beautiful place.' AL calls it, and in that moment she replies with a bitter distance, the fatigue catching up to her after so many battles, "Fantasies always are..." There's, exhaustion as if she can't even envision it, exhausted, "... agreeable." That shift from AL's word to Sousuke in that moment, one might swear it's a joke. But it's really a rumination upon how even Sousuke Sagara can even perhaps enjoy the thought of such a world.
Why can't she? Impossible as it feels to her? She always knew it was impossible before. And she still tried anyway. For that one in a billion, one in a trillion odds that it could happen. That she could help make it happen.
Why can't she feel that way anymore?
"Undue stress..." She utters, realizing distantly that AL is telling a joke, teasing her, making fun of her. An echo of her belief towards Sousuke being stressed when she approached AL, "... may be right about that." See each other again? "Just... go, get out of here." She repeats again, without any real force.
AL's parting words. It hits harder than she'd like to admit. She wants to deny she needs rescue, but she remembers that she couldn't look Akane in the eye and deny that either. In the end, them leaving is exactly what she wants. She doesn't stop them from going, and the Federation doesn't close in to try and kill these interlopers so it's just Sayla and her. It's how it was for nearly half her life, and the Norn floats in space a distance from that outstretched hand.
Thoroughly emotionally drained from the emotional high to low. Looking at the hand, there's temptation, there's such temptation. She knows from her time in the Banshee that her touch can only hurt those she cares about. Still, some part of her wants to take it.
And suddenly the Norn pivots, replaced the Armed Armor on its back, Sayla will recognize how much more power and speed it gives its thrusters, "... This is goodbye, Sayla." She can't even bother to pretend to call her Dr. Mass again. The distance just, always falls away under pressure. Everyone means so much to her, and she's not a good enough actress to pretend the only people in her life mean nothing to her.
All the thrusters of the Armed Armor fire, taking her away from Shuffle Heart at speeds she can't possibly match in short order. The RX-0 models are abominably fast, in a way that might make her curse Anaheim for their existence. "Would have been better for everyone - but you especially - if you'd just, never found me all those years ago."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
She can only stand there, hand outstretched, and hope.
Tessa's anger flies past her, and Sayla can feel it. Her desperate intent for that day as normal girls. Kaname's insistence that they'll see her soon. AL's request for a beautiful place, and Sousuke's assent.
But her eyes are on the Banshee, her hand and the Heart's hand still outstretched.
'H-How could you-!'
It hurts. It hurts knowing, how Leina feels in this moment. She feels it more vividly than ever before. She doesn't try to raise her walls. She doesn't try to stop these feelings. "Leina..."
What can she say to that? The mother-daughter relationship meant something so different to Leina. Sayla had the blessing of two sets of good parents. Leina, on the other hand...
All that hurt Leina unleashes on Tessa, as Kaname calls the retreat. That hand still reaches out to Leina, even as she leaves. "Hasta luego, Leina." She wonh't say goodbye.
As Leina leaves, and the Federation give them a few seconds of mercy. "Lugh, this is Shuffle Heart. Returning to dock."
Judau, Banagher, Mineva... You could feel her too, couldn't you? If you can hear me... Please, bring her home. I'm counting on you.
The Shuffle Heart lands back on the Tausendfussler, she needed to get to work. That Vernier had to be repaired so she could move at any time. She'd need to be ready to go at any second, the second she got word that Leina was safe.
But before all that... she needed to check on the bridge.