2023-07-01: Into the Blue
- Log: Into the Blue
- Cast: Sousuke Sagara, Teletha Testarossa, Gauron, Kaname Chidori, Shari Loom, Chienne Argent, Spike Spiegel, Gary Biaggi, Naoko Suzuki, Neo Getter Team, Seolla Schweizer, Knight, Kallen Kozuki, Jezebel Richens, Emilia Eschonbach
- Where: Pacific Ocean
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-07-01
- Summary: Gauron and his crew seized the Tuatha de Danaan and used the ship's compliment of missiles to threaten the whole world. But from outside, it might just look like Toy Box has gone mad. Now, the ship is firmly back under control thanks to her Captain and crew, but not before it's gotten into the crosshairs of the Federation, Celestial Being, and just about everyone else who has an opinion about who gets to shoot guns.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Something's gone terribly wrong. For the last several hours, the Toy Box has been engaged in a game of cat and mouse with responders; firing waves of missiles inland, some even seemingly aimed to damage the Orbital Elevators, an act that would cause worldwide damage if not a full-on cataclysm.
Celestial Being sortied Lockon Stratos to handle the renegade missile...and now another team is on its way to 'deal' with the fearsome threat of an awesomely powerful battleship that has slipped its leash. Of course, others also have cause to intercede: Just about every arm of the Federation has been alerted to stop this by any means necessary. Of course, more than a few bounties have gone out to that tune, as well. Something this violent, every hand that can hold a gun has reason to attack.
As for Amalgam and the Black Knights, they know quite well what's going on...because they started it. Or at least, Amalgam did; the Black Knights, put on the hook to assist by some material assistance from Amalgam's leaders, have had to wait for a moment when they could intervene, one way or another. One of their own is aboard the ship, hopefully still alive.
And the Shuffle Alliance has until now had little ability to do anything but watch as one of their own vessels, bearing hundreds of Shuffle Alliance personnel and many of their highest-ranking staff, has seemingly run amok.
The Tuatha has been speeding into the heart of a storm, currents and waves rattling the high-speed submarine, but it can't outrun attackers forever. Especially not when it, all of a sudden, sees fit to surface.
And open its armored deck, bearing its unarmored flight deck.
======
In the hangar, Sousuke Sagara is in the ARX-7 Arbalest. Where would Garuon and Chienne go after fleeing the Bridge? As the PRT poured out of the hangar, scouring the crew half of the vessel? Like negative pressure, the answer is obvious: Right into the gap.
Fortunately, the Danaan's spirit is with them. Guided by Kaname's knowledge of all that occurs aboard, Sousuke and his friends have managed to get to their machines before Gauron could start a massacre.
The elevator siren thunders in the chamber, despite nobody being on it.
"Kaname," he whispers, and knows her plan. He lunges for Gauron, swings his Venom around, and shoulders him onto the loading elevator.
"Seolla! Kallen! The elevators!" he calls, and runs to stand over Gauron for just long enough...
======
....for the elevator to rise into view on the flight deck.
ARX-7 standing ready, its full attention on the red Venom also on the elevator.
A battle has broken out in the very belly of the Tuatha de Danaan. The ship can't break free of this mess until the snakes in its gut are expunged.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Gauron with Wire Entangle! KTS: [Lucky] Gauron's Not that easy. activates, and luck goes his way! KTS: Gauron successfully Blocks Sousuke Sagara's Wire Entangle
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There was only one stray thought in her mind as Tessa sat herself down on the Captain's chair, using a napkin to wipe off as much blood as she could from her front. The nosebleed had stopped, her throat was dry, and an eye certainly had a burst blood vessel from the strain. Goldberry would have words for her later, and she'd listen to every single word of her lecture for these circumstances she found herself in.
Unfortunately, the long day had not stopped. Allowing herself one deep breath of relaxation as the crew began to pepper off. Units in pursuit. The world taking notice. The raging storm around the ship. The fact that Kaname was inside the Lady Chapel, controlling everything. The destruction and reckless wrought by one man and his dalliancies.
What a day, what a lovely day.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyWRUZIwmSo - (ISOLEUCINE)- -Branched- - Yoshimi Kudo
"The flight deck is opening!" One of the more composed members of the bridge crew yelled out, quickly tapping to halt the procedure. Failing. Again. Three times. "It's not responding!"
"That's fine." Tessa's voice echoed out in the bridge, a barely composed edge as she noted it. Gauron. In the middle of the storm, to expose him up there...It made sense. Follow your instincts, and know them to be true.
The crew was peppering off. Reaching out sonars, reading out known pings from above and below as the turbulence raged around, the dull thuds of crashing waves onto the TDD-1 mutely reverberating throughout the submarine. Pulliung a screen up and assembling her own conclusions on the data involved, flicking them off to Kaname. To know that her sub, the vessel she had taken, crafted, redesigned, planned, upgraded, poured her heart and soul into, taken to fire off a missile at the Orbital elevator, to raze such destruction by the whims of one man who wanted to say hello...
"This is my ship." A muted mutter under hushed breath.
No one will take it from me.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Kaname Chidori with Prospect! KTS: Jezebel Richens has deployed in F90 Gundam F90 Unit 1.
<Pose Tracker> Gauron has posed.
Gauron hasn't won yet, but it feels close to him. He has made pariahs of Mithril, tormented Sousuke Sagara, and soon, will slaughter everyone here.
Inside the red Arm Slave, Venom, Gauron shifts the controls forward, having grabbed a heavy assault rifle. "KASHIM! You just can't get enough of me! Come, embrace me!"
The Arbalest pushes the Venom onto the elevator, and as it lifts, Gauron is actually NOT put off. He begins laughing, clashing knife against wire to force Sousuke back.
"Ah, yes! Let the world see our show! Great idea, Kashim! Let them revel in the death and fear!"
Lifting up the AR, Gauron fires it in a wide barrage at the Arbalest and Guren, Venom shifting forward as bullets go flying across the deck.
"Come on, now. Let's dance."
KTS: Gauron: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Gauron targets Kallen Kozuki and Sousuke Sagara with Heavy Assault Rifle Barrage. KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to Evade Gauron's Heavy Assault Rifle Barrage, taking 4160 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The Tuatha de Danaan cuts through the sea like a blade, speeding away from the engagements that have been hounding her, beneath the roiling tumult of the surface. But she knows she can't run forever, not like this--not when the virus of mutiny still dwells within her body.
Sousuke Sagara runs through her. She whispers to him, directing him to where he needs to be... her cameras track the Arbalest and Gauron's Venom as they clash through the hangar, toward the elevator... suddenly, everything tilts astern.
A blade's tip pierces the whitecapped water's surface from below, and the colossal form of the Tuatha de Danaan--the Toy Box--breaches, lifted upon a wave, smashing into the water belly-first. A woman's form superimposed over it, faintly visible to the psychic, seems to tip with the vessel onto the water before disappearing. There is a presence here. The Toy Box seems to be more than she appears.
The submarine's bow splits lengthwise and separates, baring her flight deck. It seems a baffling decision to make--what could possibly launch in such conditions? The floodlights illuminate the deck as the elevator reaches the deck, delivering three mecha to the surface.
She rolls and rocks on the stormy seas, slowed significantly, but still making her best available speed within the storm, adjusting her course based on the captain's data. Streaks of smoke erupt from her missile bays, heralding a missile strike upon her aggressors--but they detonate in midair, near but not upon them, a warning shot powerful enough to singe but not destroy.
KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Spike Spiegel and Gary Biaggi with Diversionary Distraction. KTS: Kaname Chidori rattles Spike Spiegel, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Spike Spiegel fails to intercept Kaname Chidori's Diversionary Distraction, taking 2160 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari Loom wasn't even supposed to be here today.
She's supposed to be studying for finals. But no, Celestial Being needs her, and since Celestial Being is what makes the voices stop, among other things, Shari will go. She is part of the next 'team' to deal with the powerful battleship, and while it's a little unusual to be deployed alongside the Federation... It's fine.
So, right off the Salamis Kai that took her here, the 'Loom Custom' Alto charges into battle, towards the TDD-1. As per Celestial Being protocol, she doesn't bother announcing herself. There's no need for words when she intends to destroy them. ...And maybe she should feel bad about that.
But she's hopped up on caffeine and adrenaline, the Crystal next to her in the cockpit, and she fires off missile after missile towards the TDD-1--but it's moving away too fast for her missiles to take action.
"Look, man," she says to Parminder over the radio, "This thing won't stop--"
"Oh, there it goes," Shari says, and then, "Spinning Wheel, engaging."
Shari starts blasting away at the TDD-1!! But she doesn't count on an extra defender...
<Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Where would Chienne and Gauron go after fleeing the bridge?
Really, there's only one place that Chienne would choose to go in that situation: directly back into the fight.
The flight deck is opening, and on the elevators is another unit besides the two smaller ones - a large one, folded as tight as it can just to fit inside the Tuatha, a purple and blue machine with too many points and a flight system mounted on its back, its shoulder emitters stylized to look like snarling wolf heads. It outsizes the Arm Slaves by a significant margin, and was in fact packed in too tightly to fully open up.
That saved the interior of the Tuatha de Danaan, in fact, because Chienne - whose machine this was - was not able to actually engage the HMP cannons in the position they'd packed the Kerberlion Present in without firing directly through large portions of the machine's torso. Chienne might be reckless, but she isn't THAT reckless.
But as soon as the elevator hatch opens, and she sees sky, the Kerberlion Present rockets straight up with a blaze of blue from its Tesla Drive-based systems. It unfolds from its hunched-over crouch all at once like - well, like a bat (wolf) out of Hell, spreading its arms and the attached drills (?) wide as it stretches.
"Now to find those runaway birds," Chienne growls, mostly to herself. She reaches to her console and triggers a couple switches.
---
Two similar machines have been in the vicinity of the Tuatha de Danaan for the last while, causing additional chaos. While they're on an outsweep at the moment, the signal sent by Kerberlion Present causes both of their consoles to light up, insistently.
"Finally!" The pilot of one, a burly man with a bandana, looks like he's about to fistpump but, in the close quarters of his cockpit, does not. He's only speaking on the Argent line. "I knew she had a plan!"
A younger voice, in the other: "Yeah, but you'd think she could actually do *a* plan without making us clean up after it?"
"I can hear you, you idiots," Chienne cuts on, but her voice has slightly more warmth in it than it has at any time over the last day. "Chien, Chiot: with me. We'll show these assholes who they're messing with. The Hounds of Hell are loose!"
The two other Kerberlions - Passe and Avenir - bank sharply, heading toward the Tuatha themselves from their outriding to rejoin the fray.
<Pose Tracker> Spike Spiegel has posed.
"Spike," Jet Black's voice crackles over the Swordfish II's radio, "this thing has a huge bounty."
"Guess that happens when you shoot a missile at an orbital elevator," Spike Spiegel answers. The red MONO Racer soars through the skies -- though low enough to the ocean's surface that it leaves a wake after it. Better than being up high and easier to see, perhaps.
"Yeah," Jet says. "Something's off about this, though."
"I'll keep my eyes open," Spike answers.
He watches the submarine surface in the distance. The flight deck is visible -- and the missile bays. Spike's eyes narrow -- and then he fires his autocannons by instinct, rounds shredding through smoke -- but not missiles, as they explode nearby.
One of the shockwaves pitches the MONO Racer hard, to the side, and it banks about tightly. "Shit--!"
The Swordfish II does a tight turn, assisted by the ball-mounted thrusters, which send it in for a close pass. "Federation units," Spike says, "this is Spike Spiegel. Independent contractor from the Bebop. I took your bounty. What the hell is this thing?"
He fires the autocannons again. Rounds explode out from the wing-mounted cannons, and the shells strafe across the flight deck of the TDD-1, as the Swordfish II buzzes by.
KTS: Kaname Chidori rattles Gary Biaggi, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Gary Biaggi fails to intercept Kaname Chidori's Diversionary Distraction, taking 2160 damage! KTS: Spike Spiegel targets Kaname Chidori with Machinegun Rundown! KTS: Teletha Testarossa assesses Kaname Chidori's prospects, increasing her SP! KTS: Kaname Chidori fails to react to Spike Spiegel's Machinegun Rundown, taking 4920 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
'Take the ship'
These were the orders given out to the federation task force which had a certain Lieutenant Biaggi participating in. They wwre under orders officially to attack the Tuatha de Danaan and do enough damage to sink it. This way the Federation coulld come along a little later and pick it up for use later.
As the ENACT comes in to attack range Gary keys in a few buttons as the plane like form drops from it's high altitude shifting into its mobile suit form and hovers over the water. It is a very cool and showy manuever, perhaps that it why Gary didn't notice the incoming missiles. The auto tracking on the machine gun turret built into the chest of the ENACT kicks in but they are to late, in fact for a moment it appears Gary is about to be swimming home. Instead luck is on Gary's side as the missile blow up infront of him.
The shrapnel of the missiles pierces the ENACT but nothing to bad, the concussion wave though definately doesn't help as it forces Gary to have to spend time realigning the thrusters keeping his suit from taking a bath. Gary looks at the submarine and scowls before raising the Blade Rifle, and the missiles underneath launch forth toward the Tuatha. "Two can play the missile game."
KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Kaname Chidori with Blade Rifle Attachment - Missile Launcher Barrage! KTS: Kaname Chidori successfully intercepts Gary Biaggi's Blade Rifle Attachment - Missile Launcher Barrage
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko, a.k.a. Nova Stellar, doesn't have to worry about finals. This is almost like old times for her, catching some bizarre war development happening somewhere on Earth by seeing it on a television. Lots of memories of seeing that sort of thing. Memories, but not much in the way of strong feelings. These things always felt so far away, oftentimes not even real. She had trouble even conceiving of them affecting her directly in some way, and she was never proven wrong in that belief. Only now is she starting to realize how lucky she'd been in that regard.
This time, things are different. For one thing, she wasn't watching this from the comfort of her own home. She saw it on a TV while she was at a store, for a snack run of all things. That's when she heard the news. And for the first time, she found herself having strong feelings about it. This isn't right. Something's strange. The Toy Box... she may not know much about it, but she simply can't believe the reports are as clear cut as they're being made out to be. They're with the Good Guys, as she understands from how the lines were drawn in the past. They wouldn't just launch an attack like that out of nowhere. And besides... its captain, whoever it is, they believed in her.
'Do your best.' That's all Tessa said to her. It's enough. To her, any encouragement is worth its weight in gold.
Another important difference from before: she now has a giant robot. Her Friends balked at her choosing to charge into a fight that had nothing to do with her, of course. Ariel displaying concern for her well-being, Uriel just sighing about her picking the dumb option again. To which she responded:
"I prefer 'heroic option', but whatever suits you. I can count on you two, right?"
>"Mumu... I trust you, Nova."<
>"Yeah yeah, not like we have a choice!"<
In spite of everything, Nova grins, right before opening a channel to the TDD-1. "This is Nova Stellar, of--" She briefly hesitates stating her affiliation, wondering if that might cause others trouble. But eh, her IFF is showing that much already anyway. "...of the Three Ships Alliance! Toy Box, please flag my Arm Slave as friendly, I'll do what I can from here!"
Actions speak louder than words, and Nova doesn't tend to think for very long before taking action. The first thing she comes across is Shari's Alto and she sees it's about to fire in the TDD-1's direction, so she immediately sets in a charge directly for it, aiming for a high-speed tackle.
"Like I'd let youuuuuu!"
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Shari Loom with Knuckle Slam! KTS: Shari Loom's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Shari Loom blocks Naoko Suzuki's Knuckle Slam, taking 1050 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Shari Loom!
<Pose Tracker> Neo Getter Team has posed.
The seas churn. The winds whip. The sky overhead is blackened with clouds, illuminated with flashes of lightning. The crash of thunder almost drowns out the crowing of the madman in the red arm slave.
Wait - there, in the clouds lit by that last bolt - silhouettes? Three jets, in formation?
What kind of idiots would fly straight into a storm like this?
====== SHORTLY BEFORE ======
"It looks like the Toy Box pathed directly into that stormfront. The Machines took the least damage from chasing it and they're the only vehicles we've got fast enough to keep up with it - not to mention the safety precautions on the plasma reactors make us the best choice to weather the storm."
"Keep the home fire burning, 'Lou-chan. We'll be back soon."
====== ======
Out of the cloudhead dive three custom jets - one bulky and black-green, followed by a sleek blue craft and then a streamlined magenta-red machine.
Neo Getter Team have caught up. "Looks like we're not the only ones crashing this party," Go Ichimonji observes with a grin, taking in the various combatants approaching through the storm at a glance - he's grown very comfortable with this cockpit in a pretty short span of time. "Looks like some big-deal Fed types, out of our league."
"Assess the situation and respond as necessary," Sho sums up. "Gai, lead us in!"
"My kinda plan!" Gai Daido yells as the machines line up mid-dive. "CHANGE GETTEEEEER THREE!!"
Neo Bear, Neo Eagle and Neo Jaguar dive straight into the ocean next to the Toy Box. For a moment, the seas are still - then a bolt of plasma spikes upwards towards the clouds, a massive plume of water cascading up as Neo Getter Three surfaces, smashing its heavy fists together.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
The nightmare twists from paralysis to chaos.
The little moment outside the computer core was the sole instant of rest Seolla's had all day since this incident began. She's so running on fumes by now, clinging for support in the halls of the TDD-1 with every shake and rumble. She's reaching limits she hasn't been able to break since she's recovered from her tenure at the School.
Drenched in sweat by the time she makes it to the hangars, Seolla can feel it setting in. All she wants to do is hide in some closet and pass out. But if she doesn't pull through, who will?
...So she gives in. Shakily laughing, Seolla grips the little pouch she's kept on hand for a rainy day. In it, a single tiny, violet-hued syringe. Is she really going to do this? Shouldn't she have gotten rid of this long ago? Dr. Goldberry is going to have some choice words for her.
"...well, so are you three, you damned dogs...ahahaha!" Lining it up with one vein, Seolla plunges that reliable swirly liquid into her forearm. Pupils dilating. Gravity lightening. The textures of the world simplifying into flatter colors. It's so wonderful to be able to do anything you have to, just ne more time!
The re-opening of the flight deck amidst the stormy seas and the mounting chaos of a world focusing against the Toy Box makes Seolla's heart race. She's flown in worse before. She's GOOD at flying in worse. Thunderclouds that'd strike any eagle down feel oh so manageable with Aguilla's last 'gift' flowing through her veins. Behind the wheel of a flight-pack equipped Nemo, Seolla rockets above the Tuatha de Danaan - briefly beholding the illusory sight of Kaname echoing across its hull. "...we're both gonna shine tonight! We're all gonna seize our future together!"
The glint of a beam rifle immediately finds the Cerberlion Present, not a moment's hesitation between finding her target and firing. <<"You three! Guess what. I'm more cowardly than ever before! I wonder, did you all keep any of those really, really good combat enhancers Koch and Setme used to give us? I bet you didn't. Good! You're so strong for that. Unfortunately, I'm probably gonna struggle to hear your voice in a bit, just because...it's my only way out of this mess.">>
<<"I'm sorry I couldn't save you.">>
All the while, Seolla's emitting the constant IFF-standard signal as a request for aid - whether to any nearby Shuffle Alliance forces, or even just to convince those attacking the TDD-1 to stand down for just a bit.
...Or maybe, it just feels like the time to desperately cry for any and all help.
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Chienne Argent with BR-M-87 Beam Rifle Skirmishing Volley!
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
Knight wasn't supposed to be here today, either.
He is not of the Federation; neither is he associated with the conspiracy of Celestial Being. Indeed, for all he is adjacent to so many conspiracies, he is initiated to none: Rain Mikamura treated him, when he was afflicted by the Devil Gundam's Cells, but she didn't tell him who she was with. Neither has Leina; neither has Sayla. He is surrounded by secrets, and demands not a one.
He is an independent young man. Or, from another perspective: he's an outside cat.
And he fights for his own reasons.
Like this: "Sousuke Sagara," Knight says, as he lifts his head, as he looks into the sky. That young man has always had an obscure heart. Even so, it's beating. The danger... he can't have imagined it.
He leaves the Second to guard the Villa, and he leaves, for the coast. He does not delay. He moves through the world, still, as a human does, if a touch faster than they would. He reaches the shoreline this late --
No, Gridknight reaches it. A flash of light from his eyes through to his form, and a Giant of Light rises up. He leaps, and he seems to jump from the waves, as he charges into the ocean blue.
"I'M HERE!" He roars, as he leaps off of a ship to charge, foot-first, towards the Kerberlion Present; his soaring, flying kick crashes in with all the violence of those capital words.
Why the Kerbelion? Well, it's as they say...
... cats and dogs don't get along.
(Let's call it that, and not the way Seolla's heart is crying out, with her inability to save them.)
KTS: Knight targets Chienne Argent with Gridknight Rush Attack! KTS: Kaname Chidori has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kaname Chidori has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer rattles Chienne Argent, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Chienne Argent partially guards Seolla Schweizer's BR-M-87 Beam Rifle Skirmishing Volley, taking 1575 damage! KTS: Chienne Argent fails to Parry Knight's Gridknight Rush Attack, taking 4590 damage! KTS: Knight has engaged Chienne Argent!
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The Danaan presses onward. Her eyes are manifold, seeing across many spectra, taking in the whole battlefield at once. For Kaname Chidori, the girl at her heart, the girl wearing the Tuatha de Danaan as her body, such an awareness would have been unthinkable just yesterday. But now, the art of battlefield analysis, all of the processing that makes the TDD-1's advanced command & control capabilities possible, feels as natural as breathing.
But her awareness, her focus, is on the Enact and Swordfish, undeterred by her insistent and explosive warnings. There's little she can do in the time it takes Spike to open fire. Bullets ping across her hull, piercing her armor. She'd wince, if she could feel pain.
Gary's Enact moves in for a strike, and the Danaan responds promptly, launching decoys. They arc through the air away from her, leading its missiles astray with enticing noise. New missiles rack into place; she speaks to them, tells them just where they need to go and wishes them godspeed. Two streak into the air, their torch-tails burning blue, splitting away from one another to strike at the Swordfish and Enact.
She's heartened, as well, to know that among the arrivals are defenders, as Nova blocks the Alto from striking at her. As long as they can keep her safe until Gauron is handled... it'll all be okay.
KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Spike Spiegel with Single Missile! KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Gary Biaggi with Single Missile!
<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
The Guren was thankfully intact when they found it. It hasn't been messed with, either by Mithril or the insurgents. Though that does unfortunately mean it still shows the light damage from its showdown against the Special Response Team. Definitely an issue for fighting these two... Once she's settled in, a moment is taken to set up some minor reroutes and configurations to compensate for damage and lowered energy reserves. "Guren active and ready to dance. Engaging threat... NOW!" And so with the familiar vreeeen of landspinners, the Guren surges forth, driving at high speed to make sure she's on the elevator in time to support Sousuke.
Previously enemies on the battlefield, now commited to their alliance against a maniac who would see them all burn. Though unfortunately, solidarity and friendship cannot quite make up for the lack of maneuvering room in an elevator, when faced with a lunatic spraying bullets without a care. For no matter how agile her efforts, she finds herself struck head on. A few shots in particular burrowing into the prior damage and widening those gaps. From her throat comes a sound of mild annoyance, with herself mostly. "We'll coordinate tactics, tell me what I need to do."
Something that won't be an issue, thankfully. While they might have been on opposing sides until now, they've been friends for even longer. So it takes a minimum of explanation, to get the plan across to her. It's not going to be easy getting that far... Gauron is, at the end of the day, a highly effective, dangerous, and deeply unstable man. And an experienced killer. The chances they end this without him taking either of them down are low... but they'll see him expunged, one way or another. So what's her opening move... If he's equally deadly at all ranges, she'll just have to improvise on the fly. Starting then, with a shot from the arm cannon as Guren bursts forward, aimed overtop the Venom. It's a grenade, primed to blow at head-height on the Codarl, as opposed to her usual low shots meant for mobility-crippling. This one is more to be disruptive to his visual and audio field. Something Sousuke might be able to take advantage of.
KTS: Spike Spiegel successfully intercepts Kaname Chidori's Single Missile KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Gauron with Arm Cannon Grenade Shot! KTS: Gary Biaggi blocks Kaname Chidori's Single Missile, taking 2475 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: [Lucky] Gauron's Not that easy. activates, and luck goes his way! KTS: Gauron enervates Sousuke Sagara, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to evade Gauron's Heavy Assault Rifle Barrage, taking 5720 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Gauron's Jiu Long - The Nine Dragons activates, causing Deject! KTS: Gauron's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Gauron blocks Kallen Kozuki's Arm Cannon Grenade Shot, taking 1170 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Spike Spiegel has posed.
There isn't a good answer as to what this is. Spike frowns -- and then he opens up a transmission to the TDD-1. He doesn't know if they'll answer.
"Hey," he says. Maybe his voice crackles over the bridge -- or the heart -- of the Tuatha de Danaan. "You might want to surrender. I'm just one bounty hunter. I'm pretty sure the entire Federation agrees about blowing you out of the water."
%Another missile comes up after him, hurtling for the Swordfish II -- right for its tailpipe -- and then Spike slams down on the controls, and the VTOL thrusters swivel to fire it downward. The missile shoots over the MONO Racer.
And the autocannons fire, shredding through the missile. It explodes into fire and smoke -- and the MONO Racer shoots through it, flame and smoke trailing after, as it banks around.
The Swordfish II is customized. It is continuously customized. On each wing is a new, smooth cannon -- painted red, but with a little divot at the barrel -- which came from, originally, a GM III's beam rifle. It was bought off the grey market, modified, and attached to the MONO Racer recently. Spike lines up his shot.
Then, two lances of mega particle energy fire, slashing down for the TDD-1's side.
KTS: Spike Spiegel targets Kaname Chidori with Beam Cannon Snapshot!
<Pose Tracker> Jezebel Richens has posed.
The rock of the wind rattles the against the frame of the dwarf Mobile Suit, piercing through the storm. It's a bit of a nightmare up here; stealth says to fly through the clouds, but that's as blind for them as it is for her, so she's been relying on instruments for navigation. That's fine, though. Her scopes are good, and - war is loud. War is really, really loud. For a second or two, it's loud enough that maybe she could close her eyes and hear it, still; it's closest she's ever been, you know? Of course it's the closest she's ever been.
<< "Inbound, one. Arrival ten seconds. Friend, TDD, do not fire, do not fire." >>
Her voice is pretty choppy - conditions are just that bad out here. And, that aside, she's actually wrong about her time. Or maybe she's lying? Nah. She's just faster than she thinks she is. From the sky, her Gundam whips into place, rifle in hand. Target ident is easy; she's here to put down the rabid dogs, right?
That's gonna be hard. Snap fire, cover her entrance with sprays of rifle fire, a keening peal snapping through the air. It's 'inelegant', but that's not a problem.
<< "On station, engaging." >>
KTS: Jezebel Richens targets Chienne Argent with E.B. Rifle Rapid Fire! KTS: Chienne Argent partially guards Jezebel Richens's E.B. Rifle Rapid Fire, taking 3300 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Speaking of heroic options, Shari finds herself suddenly tackled in the Alto, or at least, in an attempt at the same. "What in the shi--"
Shari's black Alto turns suddenly, pressing its shield between the two mecha and being shoved backward, even if she doesn't actually fall as a result. "Hey! You could hurt somebody with that thing!"
That is, of course, the idea. "What are you doing defending a thing that's trying to blow up the Orbital Elevators, anyway!?" Not that she cares that much, but she's surprised all the same.
The Alto pulls a beam saber next, rearing back a step to ignite it in green, a strange force emitting from it that isn't quite beam particles, that isn't any known technology at all.
"Wait, you're..."
Something. Something familiar. It echoes in Shari's mind. "Gh--" She hears it, hears it, hears it--
"Aaaah shut up already!!" Shari shouts at Nova, and hacks outward, slashing center mass for the other mecha, the blade scintillating in its appearance like a wound in the world.
Her knuckles are white gripping the controls.
KTS: Shari Loom targets Naoko Suzuki with Green Fold Saber Slash! KTS: Naoko Suzuki parries Shari Loom's Green Fold Saber Slash, taking 1020 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Shari Loom's Instant Mastery activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Shari Loom has engaged Naoko Suzuki!
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Until very recently, Emilia had been waiting on a transport as the Rapunzel received repairs. She'd heard nothing back from the Black Knights yet, but the transport had been following something at a safe distance. And then the Toy Box had surfaced.
Now, with a Water Jet mobility pack fitted, the Rapunzel dove towards the toybox. The Kerberlions had been following too- but Emilia didn't have the run time or flight capability they did.
She fumbled through particular Black Knight frequencies- hoping she can latch onto something before the minovsky interference gets too thick.
"Q-1, th-this is R-2. D-d-d-do you read? Q-1, r-r-respond! K-Kallen, p-please answer-"
Unfortunately, she doesn't get answer. She gets something else. She hasn't reacheed close enough to the Tuatha to see that Kallen is fighting against Gauron.
Because she sees it combine instead.
Getter Robo.
Her chest becomes tight. It wasn't the same as the machine that destroyed New Yark.
But it was still Getter Robo.
And it was heading after the submarine. The submarine that had Kallen prisoner.
Getter Robo was going to take someone from her again.
Inside the cockpit, she screamed.
Suddenly, the Water Jet fired upwards and the Codarl burst from the water like a leaping dolphin- a pistol drawn, firing Desperately at Neo Getter-3, before falling back under again.
She had to destroy it. She had to keep it from getting close to Kallen.
No matter what. Even if someone who had been kind to her was piloting it.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Neo Getter Team with ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Snapshot! KTS: Neo Getter Team blocks Emilia Eschonbach's ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Snapshot, taking 1050 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
"Multiple units in the area! Federation, Celestial Being, unknown...Gundam!" Another crew member yelled out as they sorted out the reams of information supplied by the submarine. Even if there were inordinate amounts of trust in Kaname, jobs were jobs, and things had to be done. A mental map of the area as naturally as any computer, flicking the 3D space around as she planned and coordinated, silently flicking over predictions and assurances out into the Lady Chapel.
There's a click of a button. Open comms. << "This is the Toy Box. All hostiles are recommended to disengage immediately. It'd be in the best interests of everyone to escape without any more loss of life." >> There's an audible breath on the comms. << "Unfortunately, I do not expect that. Everyone, do your best. You'll be contacted through the usual channels after this." >> Comms closed.
There's movement in her mind. The undulations verberating through the psychic sphere, reinforced by the posession of the TDD-1. Seeking, pushing for escape, the mind as tumultuous as the sea.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command targeting Kaname Chidori
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
<<Updating field map with surrounding contacts.>>
The screen dedicated to the battlefield summary FILLS with blips.
<<Golly.>>
"Don't need the lip, AL," Sousuke mutters. It's a familiar pattern, but today his patience is strained, because...
'COME, EMBRACE ME!'
Sousuke tries to surge to the side, but there's so little room on the Danaan's flight deck...he can't, not without splashing aside. The fire rakes down Arbalest's armor, and Sousuke grimaces. Can he....no. He has to. He has to.
Seolla's depending on him. Kallen's depending on him. Kaname's depending on him. Tessa's depending on him. He just. must!
Kaname...she's piloting now, isn't she... "...sorry," he says to nobody, but perhaps the combined linkup reaches her anyway. "I didn't...want you to have to face this."
Then he looks up. "Guren," he says, calling her by the machine name rather than her own. He keeps his secrets. "Watch out. That machine has an armament that can project forces."
And...Gridknight! His gaze tracks up. "You're here," he echoes, and...some tension eases from him. This is bad...but people are coming. Nova's arrival similarly shows him that the Shuffles know and are coming to help. It helps him square up.
He whips out his monomolecular cutter, charging Gauron fast. Focus. Penetrate. An image....an image...!
A light, penetrating all....as Arbalest's back and shoulders rotate out their heat dispersal fins, and unearthly light erupts from behind him.
<<Lambda Driver activation confirmed.>>
Punch through...!!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. Sousuke Sagara transforms to ARX-7 Arbalest - Lambda Driver Online KTS: Sousuke Sagara: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Gauron with Lambda Monomolecular Cutter Slice! KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Sousuke Sagara, Kallen Kozuki, Jezebel Richens, Knight, Seolla Schweizer, and Naoko Suzuki with Caution. KTS: Kaname Chidori charges into the attack! KTS: Kaname Chidori partially guards Spike Spiegel's Beam Cannon Snapshot, taking 3010 damage! <Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
"Tsk", Gary can't help but be a bit disappointed as the missile fails to find its mark. Gary would never be one to directly blame it on the suit, but well the ENACT just didn't hold up in todays combat environment in comparison to the newer fancier things. Even briefly Gary can't help but wonder if the submarine housed any better suits that would be an improvement to the ENACT.
In some ways it is a bit obvious that Gary's head just isn't in the game, whether that he hasn't moved in to take advantage of melee options against a giant target that probably wouldn't defend well in close range, or its the fact that he doesn't notice the incoming missile till it is to late. The ENACT is able to raise its shield just intime to take the brunt of the impact of the missile, but well perhaps it will be enough of a wake up call to Gary to get his head in the game.
The ENACT flips backward to recover it self from the explosion of the missile before it begins to speed up to continue chase of the target. Over open comms Gary finally speaks up, <" This is Lieutenant Biaggi, under federation orders you are to power down and surrender or, well I think adding 'or else' is a bit cliche but you get the idea."> The ENACT of course follows this up with a warning shot, straight at the target.
KTS: Gary Biaggi has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Kaname Chidori with Blade Rifle - Sighted Shot! KTS: Teletha Testarossa suggests caution, raising Knight's Intuition! KTS: Teletha Testarossa suggests caution, raising Sousuke Sagara's Intuition! KTS: Teletha Testarossa suggests caution, raising Kallen Kozuki's Intuition! KTS: Gauron rushes into the attack! KTS: Gauron's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Gauron partially guards Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Monomolecular Cutter Slice, taking 1080 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has engaged Gauron! KTS: Kaname Chidori charges into the attack! KTS: Kaname Chidori successfully avoids Gary Biaggi's Blade Rifle - Sighted Shot KTS: Teletha Testarossa suggests caution, raising Naoko Suzuki's Intuition!
<Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Chienne is expecting return fire. Why wouldn't she? She's making a target of herself by rising up like that - and made a target of herself to some people earlier. People like Seolla. Who, if she's being honest, she was hoping would deploy.
It would give her a good release outlet.
"<The baby bird speaks!>" Chienne was hoping to be able to engage Kallen - she wouldn't go so far as to call her a traitor because Chienne never really trusted her (Chienne never really trusts anyone, aside from her brothers), but she's too close to Gauron and she knows better than to shoot at Gauron. She'll have to settle.
But that's okay. She's fine with this.
"<Going back to what Setme gave you... it's like I said. You don't have the GUTS to stand on your own two feet! You're right, you're a coward. You got away from me last time but even with this, you're too WEAK!>" Chienne's voice rises, increasingly direct -
And then Anti flies up at her. Chienne manages to snap the Tesla system's switch into place, and Anti actually hits a shimmering blue hemisphere hanging in front of the Kerberlion Present - but it apparently passes through a fair bit of impulse, because he still slams the flying armoured module back, the hemisphere flaring to white near the impact point and looking like it's about to buckle inward. Only her bracing the Turnail on her side of the barrier reinforces it.
"<Where the hell did YOU come from,>" Chienne asks, as the barrier fades. "<And what the hell are you?>" She drives Kerberlion Present back forward while striking with the Turnail, the point of one drill opening up into a four-bladed 'claw' as the entire weapon begins to spin. It doesn't just drill - it also shreds, and the 'claw' makes it hard to get away.
The other Turnail also opens up, but she begins to fire a concealed railgun from behind the point at Seolla. "<Get out of my way, you purple asshole! I have someone who DESERVES this drill!>"
The other Kerberlions aren't idle. Jezebel engages the two of them as they approach, and they split, one going left and one going right. She manages to connect with Passe, the bulky one with brown highlights, but it hits another barrier like Chienne's; a bright flash, and the Kerberlion Passe is a lot less badly damaged than anyone who took a direct hit from a beam rifle really should be.
"<I got 'em,>" Chien says to Chiot. "<Go back Chienne up, would you?>"
"<Ugh,>" Chiot groans, but Avenir - the green-highlighted one - swerves toward the Anti-Chienne-Seolla dustup. Passe, on the other hand, literally charges the flying Gundam; Chien's only got one Turnail but it does the drill thing just as well as Chienne's two, and with the Tesla Drive blazing full blast - enough to leave a bluish, electrically tinged contrail behind it - it makes *remarkably* good air speed for a flying mobile unit.
KTS: Chienne Argent targets Seolla Schweizer with Peak Shooter Snapshot! KTS: Chienne Argent targets Knight with Turnail Drill! KTS: Chienne Argent targets Jezebel Richens with Tornado Charge! KTS: Chienne Argent anchors Knight, forcing him into close range. KTS: Knight fails to parry Chienne Argent's Turnail Drill, taking 5000 damage! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Knight!
<Pose Tracker> Gauron has posed.
As Sousuke and Kallen respond with knife and grenade, respectively, the Venom has reached the flight deck. The grenade detonates, but the Lambda Driver is turned on, blocking most of the negative effects of the blow and instead doing minor damage - as the knife comes in. Rushing forward, Gauron's Venom deflects the brunt of the blade's force with his hand's Lambda Barrier, before grabbing the Dark Edge again, applying the Lambda Driver to the tip, and using it to pierce the Arbalest's barrier and get in there with a powerful gouge.
As this is happening, the other hand is pointed at the Guren, blasting off a shot of pure Lambda force straight for the Gurren's center mass to push and rattle it backwards, damaging spreading across the frame instead of concentrated.
"Kashim! Red! You're taking me seriously. Good. That'll just make it even more fun to bring you to Hell."
KTS: Gauron targets Kallen Kozuki with Lambda Driver Force Blast! KTS: Teletha Testarossa suggests caution, raising Seolla Schweizer's Intuition! KTS: Seolla Schweizer fails to react to Chienne Argent's Peak Shooter Snapshot, taking 3420 damage! KTS: Gauron targets Sousuke Sagara with IAI Dark Edge Monomolecular Cutter Ripper Gouge!
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The Tuatha de Danaan can't help but be impressed at Spike's flying, as he manages to shoot an incoming missile after it's locked on behind him. Tessa's assurances give her confidence, and her predictions are added to the vessel's own, with predicted movement cones narrowing accordingly on the contact displays.
She senses low-wavelength electromagnetic interference. Profile matches an I-field. Attention is focused on the source--Spike's Swordfish. The ship's rudders turn hard to starboard, tipping Gauron, Sousuke, and Kallen's battlefield. She can't exactly turn on a dime, especially in these waters, but taking into account the predicted attack vector, she manages to angle the ship just so to mitigate the damage with a partial glance.
The rudder turns five degrees back toward center as the Enact takes aim... and the shot pings off her hull more or less harmlessly.
The pair's attacks are answered by another barrage of missiles, this one more aggressive.
Piss off already!
KTS: Kallen Kozuki charges into the attack! KTS: Gauron enervates Kallen Kozuki, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Kallen Kozuki partially guards Gauron's Lambda Driver Force Blast, taking 5060 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Gauron's Jiu Long - The Nine Dragons activates, causing Deject! KTS: Gauron: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Spike Spiegel and Gary Biaggi with Multi-Missile Barrage.
<Pose Tracker> Neo Getter Team has posed.
"Picking up an all-bands IFF ping," Sho reports from Neo Jaguar's cockpit. "standard 'pilot or vehicle in distress' emergency broadcast. Coming from that Nemo over there."
Then, on their radio:
'This is the Toy Box. All hostiles are recommended to disengage immediately...'
"Who are they kiddin', after the shit they've been pulling?" Go snarks, flicking switches to optimise Neo Getter Three's reactor flows.
"Unless the change in behaviour means a change in - " Sho starts theorising -
"LATER!" Gai yells as a new Arm Slave explodes up from the water way to close to them for comfort. Turbines churn and Neo Getter Three spins in place, raising its colossal arms to catch most of the pistol fire.
"That all you got!?" he yells at Emilia's Codarl, "Then it's our turn! HARPOON TORPEDO!"
Hooks sprout from the tip of one of the blue drill-like pylons over the machine's shoulder before it rockets forth on a sturdy cable. This is a weapon designed to grapple Mechasaurs - against a target as small as an Arm Slave it's more likely to smash it into pieces - but Gai makes a couple deft tweaks to the rocket thrusters, so that instead of punching through and latching, the projectile spins around the Codarl to wrap it up in the cable before pulling it in!
KTS: Neo Getter Team targets Emilia Eschonbach with Harpoon Cannon! KTS: Chienne Argent enervates Jezebel Richens, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Jezebel Richens fails to Parry Chienne Argent's Tornado Charge, taking 6240 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Hound of Hell activates, causing Deject! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Jezebel Richens! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach successfully Evades Neo Getter Team's Harpoon Cannon KTS: Sousuke Sagara parries Gauron's IAI Dark Edge Monomolecular Cutter Ripper Gouge, taking 720 damage! KTS: Gauron has engaged Sousuke Sagara! KTS: Spike Spiegel has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Gary Biaggi fails to evade Kaname Chidori's Multi-Missile Barrage, taking 4940 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaname Chidori's Everything Is Gonna Happy activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Spike Spiegel retreats from the attack! KTS: Spike Spiegel successfully evades Kaname Chidori's Multi-Missile Barrage
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Nova Stellar cares not for shields! As long as she crashes into something, that's good enough! ...Look, there's a time for tactics, and this wasn't it. If the gun had been aimed at her, that would've been a different story, but for now all it takes is a good shove to achieve her immediate aims. She can't help but chuckle to herself. If the pilot thought she could hurt someone now, just wait when she brings out the club!
She's taken out of the groove by the following accusation, prompting her to clarify her point of view. "I don't blame you for believing everything they say on TV - I used to be the same way. But believe me, this isn't what it looks like!" She doesn't immediately press the attack, thinking it would be nice if she could actually settle things through talking, for once. She's not betting on it, she doesn't exactly have proof, and there's probably orders involved and thus no real choice, but... she can hope.
Just for a moment, she feels as if that might have actually worked. Sure, a beam saber was brought out, that's fair, but there's an odd pause. Maybe, just maybe...
Aaand she's told to shut up. Figures! Igniting her unit's... hands(?), she meets the saber strike with the flat of the Sukeban's superheated palms, proving an even match for a Beam Saber.
"Heh! You'll have to do better than--"
Two things stop her, in this moment. It's as if there's some sort of... echo from the other pilot. She feels it too, now. Something familiar, that she can't place. It doesn't affect her quite that strongly, other than a realization. But then, compounding that, she senses something from further away. Sousuke's Lambda Driver activation. That also hits her with a feeling of familiarity, in the same sort of puzzling way. Her mind is dangerously close to wandering...
Tessa's voice over the comms snaps her out of it. She can't let herself be distracted, they're counting on her! Breaking the stalemate through a quick boost backwards, she does the first thing that comes to mind. "Fine! If that's how you want it... Saucers! Psycho Ripper!"
As the machine's shoulder-blades detach and speed towards the Alto like twin buzzsaws, she unknowingly makes things that much worse for Shari. Controlling those involves using her mind. With this, the echo - the noise - is certain to become a lot stronger still.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Shari Loom with Psycho Ripper!
<Pose Tracker> Spike Spiegel has posed.
Spike frowns, as Tessa tells him to disengage. That, unfortunately, isn't how bounties work.
"That's not going to get them to call off the bounty," Spike says. Ah, but what of not taking the bounty? Well... not taking the bounty doesn't put food on his table.
Another missile comes for him -- and another, another, another -- and there are twisting trails of vapor in the air. The Swordfish II cuts upward, ascending sharply, then comes around in a 180-degree loop. The missiles can't keep up as the MONO Racer speeds away -- and they slam into the ocean behind the Swordfish II, as it straightens out.
He looks ahead, lining up a shot -- his thumb flickers over the control sticks at each side -- as he gets the TDD-1's port side on his sensors. Then, he presses down.
The hardpoints on the Swordfish II's wings ignite, as vapor blasts outward from the launch of four missiles. They drop off, before hurtling for the side of the submarine, and the Swordfish II banks away after firing them.
KTS: Spike Spiegel targets Kaname Chidori with Shake It Up! KTS: Shari Loom has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Shari Loom fails to retreat. KTS: Shari Loom fails to react to Naoko Suzuki's Psycho Ripper, taking 4278 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Shari Loom! KTS: Kaname Chidori fails to evade Spike Spiegel's Shake It Up, taking 4600 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
As the Danaan turns even just five degrees it allows the ENACT to come in closer, just into Gary's prefered range, close quarter combat. As he hears the voice of who he can only expect is the captain as he just shakes his head, " Yeah yeah yeah, disengage and let us just continue doing what we want yada yada yada. " Gary shakes his head as he then hears the beeping of the missile incoming.
The ENACT does its best to climb vertically and get out of range but the missiles catch him before he can even move to far. A downside to being in such close proxmitiy.
Gary shuts off the warning alarms about damages to the suit before he speaks up over the comms to the captain of the toybox , <" Sorry lady, my boss is a bit of a hard ass and really pressuring me to sink you."> Gary then kicks up the thrusters of his ENACT to get as close as possible as his rifle shifts into it's blade mode and he works to slash through the damn submarines armor. All he needed was just one little hole.
KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Kaname Chidori with Blade Rifle - Sword Combo! KTS: Kaname Chidori retreats from the attack! KTS: Kaname Chidori successfully avoids Gary Biaggi's Blade Rifle - Sword Combo <Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"I'm GRIDKNIGHT!" Gridknight yells, as he backflips away in the wake of his crash-in-kick-hello; he feels some satisfaction at seeing the way that houndish unit staggers back, too, even if he landed on a barrier instead. (He will fight into a human's barriers quite happily, not that he'd put it that way.) "I came from Tsutsujidai, and now I'm here to kick your ass!!"
That shredding-drilling claw isn't so easy to get away from -- so Knight doesn't try to weave past it; he grasps its arm, with his hands, to try and move the attack and the both of them away from a more severe injury. What he's not expecting is how fierce that claw is -- it shreds at his arms, screaming long metal gouges through them. "Guh!" Knight yelps, and the way his teeth set is audible, even if his suit doesn't reflect the expression. "So what, she deserves it?! Seolla Schweizer tried to make sure those humans had something to drink, back then! I saw what they did! Even if she was driven away..!!"
He spins into the Kerberlion Avenir's personal space, now, to slam up into the shoulder-jaws of that ravenous hound with a flat-palmed strike. "I don't know what the hell's going on here," he growls, "but right now, I'm in your way!!" Sousuke -- of course Knight is worried for him. It's his unsettled heart which brought him here. But he feels that Sousuke is punching through his problems, and he'll trust Sousuke to fight his foe.
Just as the TDD is trusting him, alongside the others. (He won't let Tessa down; he's never much talked to her, but he can still fight.) He hears that the Gundam F90 is identified as a friend to the Toy Box, though he doesn't so much see it on a screen; he is a Giant of Light, and he understands these things, a strange being who has come to their battlefield. "And you are?!" He demands, directly, before flowing right into: "Three of them will overwhelm her! Don't let it crush you!"
KTS: Knight targets Chienne Argent with Gridknight Martial Arts!
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The Codarl is a small, fast target. Maybe that's why, when the Harpoon moves deftly to entrap the Codarl, it dives suddenly. Had it connected as plan, ther Codarl wouldn't be going anywhere.
But the Harpoon has nothing to pull back this time, and the Codarl reaches for it's other pistol.
Her grip on the controls is knuckle tight, every slight movement translate tenfold to the Arm Slave's limbs. It's not like an AMBAC suit, with her stabilizers. She has to keep control.
"<Why. Are you here!?>" Comes a modulated voice, somewhat staccato. It sounds feminine, but it's hard to tell. "<Why are you. In. My Way!?>"
She breathes in, as she lines up the pistols. Against something this big she needs to target carefully, pick her shots. She sees what she hopes is her opening, and fires a round from each pistol, one for the eyes of Neo Getter-3 and one more center of mass.
"<Get out. Of. MY WAY!>" She yells at the facsimile of her nightmares, as the shells dicharge into the water around her.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Neo Getter Team with ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Aimed Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Normally, the sound of Chienne's voice would be enough to send Seolla dizzy. To send her wings plumetting down to earth, a lone bluebird spiraling and spiraling into the abyss of the maelstrom. But today, right now, all thanks to her resolve to give everything up-
-Even herself-
"A bird isn't supposed to be strong, Chienne. Haven't you ever noticed? They're so fragile that they only live in the highest branches, away from the rest of the world. The instant one of their wings breaks, they may as well die. So isn't it just the right thing, to do anything, ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING - to stop that from happening, no matter how many I've got to rely on?"
"Like just now, all I do is call a little bit, and then I'm not alone...!"
A breathy voice sputters in over the radio as Seolla does her best to weave around the opening salvo, though one of the Nemo's thrusters is swiftly blown to bits. <<"Hi, you two. I'm Seolla, thank you for helping me. ...yes, Gridknight, I remember you. I remember your voice, pushing me onwards. As for you, in the Gundam...hahah. I'm talking a bigger game than I've got. I've been trapped in the Tuatha de Danaan for the past few days since our mysterious guests here hijacked it, and I'm...running on fumes, so badly. If I topple into the ocean, don't mind me. Just make sure the TDD-1 is safe. Promise me. Promise me, please.">>
Her slightly delirious sounding voice belies just how well she can navigate, flying as far upwards from her former 'siblings', deep amidst the crackle of thunder in the clouds. Her hailfire of beams, even from this distance, is her comfort zone - aiming towards a future as distant as can be is the only place she's ever reached for it.
KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Chienne Argent with BR-M-87 Beam Rifle Sniper Shot! KTS: Chienne Argent's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Chienne Argent partially guards Knight's Gridknight Martial Arts, taking 1312 damage! KTS: Knight has engaged Chienne Argent! KTS: Chienne Argent's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Chienne Argent fails to Evade Seolla Schweizer's BR-M-87 Beam Rifle Sniper Shot, taking 4100 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Jezebel Richens has posed.
Just too slow. She's just too slow. Obviously, she turns to the beam saber when something bad is happening, but - she's just too slow to deal with that. The worst is that she realizes she's too slow just as it actually slips past her - frankly - clumsy counter slash. Dumbass. It's a drill point. What were you thinking?
She braces herself, and rocks back with the blow. Bad hit. It's a real bad hit. "Shit--" And now it's on top of her. Adjust into it. She still has her beam saber, so all she can do is rip down with it. Her fingers grip against the yoke, pulling back and shifting the shield to cover the armor scarring as best it can, ducking aside to slash up into Passe's waist. It's inelegant, again, but that's because she's realizing that she made a mistake.
What the hell did she come all this way for?
<< "Understood. Won't die." >>
Her voice is shakier, now, because she isn't sure all of a sudden.
KTS: Jezebel Richens targets Chienne Argent with Gundam Beam Saber Strike! KTS: Chienne Argent's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Chienne Argent parries Jezebel Richens's Gundam Beam Saber Strike, taking 990 damage! KTS: Jezebel Richens has engaged Chienne Argent!
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Not gonna happen," Shari reports back over the broad frequency to the Toy Box's request to disengage. "Though you knew that, so I'm not sure why you bothered asking. The decision goes that you can't be allowed to continue. Blame yourself, if you want."
But there's something... movement. Shari grits her teeth, as she feels something pressing at the edges of her awareness. "Not--now--"
"I'm not talking about what's on TV!" Shari counters Nova as she rushes with her saber. She notices the superheated palms. "I don't care what it is or what it looks like. I already know what I need to know."
She can't place it, either. It's familiar, and strange. And it's affecting her worse and worse; the stronger that resonance gets, the more she feels...
"What kind of a name is that!?" Shari complains about 'Psycho Ripper', and the Alto is hit hard, the saws buzzing on through its barrier and forcing Shari's unit back a few more gigantic paces. "Gh--"
It is worse. It's much worse. Shari is an ocean, too. And in her ocean something watches.
"Idiot! Moron! Fool!" Shari hisses. "What are you doing!? If you keep this up--"
"If you keep this up She'll see you!" She hisses again, her voice distorting, probably from the technology meant to obscure her identity. "You're so loud. So loud, so loud, so loud--"
The Crystal at Shari's side flickers, green light dancing within. "Time. Time isn't time, now isn't now. The end is in the beginning. I am elsewhere." Her fingernails start to dig into the controls, rocking back and forth in the cockpit as much as she can in the restraining safety harness. It's all wrong.
"SHUT UP!"
She stows the beam saber and pulls a pistol, blasting away shot after green shot, each one a rent in the air, to try to get into a better position.
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Naoko Suzuki's Guarded Mind activates, and the spirit endures. KTS: Shari Loom has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Naoko Suzuki KTS: Shari Loom targets Naoko Suzuki with Loom A17 Beam Pistol Positioning Shot! KTS: [Mirage] Neo Getter Team's Open Get! activates, and they slips into a mirage. KTS: Neo Getter Team fails to evade Emilia Eschonbach's ARCADIA Auto 57mm Heavy Pistols Aimed Shot, taking 0 damage! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach begins a Formation attack! KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully evades Shari Loom's Loom A17 Beam Pistol Positioning Shot KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Alert Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Things aren't going well on the flight deck. There are allies coming in, but also enemies. She doesn't need visuals to know that. But those are a distraction. And the range she would need for radio contact with most of them just isn't possible. Too much interference. So she's blocking out those readings. Blocking out signs of everything outside This moment. This fight to survive. Gauron attacks her again, striking the air, but causing... something. She doesn't know what it is, precisely. The Lambda Driver's workings aren't exactly a detail she's been given. But she knows it's going to be painful, and her without proper maneuvering. So the best option she has, is just to close in toward it, try to mitigate damage at the moment of impact. Guren's chest CRUMPLES, closing in on her from all sides in a way that makes her feel almost claustrophobic.
Her heartrate has gone through the roof, her eyes are pinpoints, and her breathing is rapid and heavy. She knows she's close to losing it. But... she has to stay composed. Has to keep her sense of self. If she goes to that place again. Now. They WILL die. That place might make her a merciless, effective tool of murder, but it can't stand up to the thirst for blood and carnage this man possesses innately. And... she doesn't know if she'd be able to come back from it, on top of that. So, she purposefully steadies her breathing. Drawing in deep, but slow. Then exhales. Clear... survive. Survive with your friends. They're counting on it, the same way you're counting on them.
While for her, it may feel like hours pass, it's only an instant. A scream her allies here heard, and the abrupt calm a moment later. Followed by a rush of HEAT, and the rain sizzling off Guren's body. "I'll pass on that offer... There's only one vacancy in Hell today, and it's reserved for you." Guren... the crimson lotus. And while normally one arm stands out in contrast to that, at this moment it matches the rest of the body from the raw heat of the Wave Surger at full capacity.
A short message goes just to Sousuke and AL. "Arbalest, I've taken heavy damage. I'll set him up, so... finish this. I'll survive it." The Guren might not. But they'll figure something out. Rakshata probably won't be too angry, when she gets the report on what she was up against.
And before any response can come, she cranks the landspinners to full throttle, half-crushed KMF racing toward Gauron so obviously that it HAS TO be a feint. But it isn't. And it's not a suicide rush either. Kallen is perfectly calm, calculating their best chances in the moment. And for that, she's giving her all to this singular point of assault. To the explosive, irradiating force packed inside this one arm. Latching onto the Venom, to squeeze down as the Wave Surger releases its entire stocked cartridge in an instant. With absolute trust in Sousuke and Kaname, to finally put this monster to bed.
KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Gauron with Wave Surger Eruption! KTS: Gauron has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Gauron has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Gauron fails to rush. KTS: Gauron partially guards Kallen Kozuki's Wave Surger Eruption, taking 6903 damage! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Gauron! Neo Getter Team transforms to Neo Getter-1
<Pose Tracker> Neo Getter Team has posed.
The Codarl vanishes under the water as the harpoon retracts with nothing to show for the firing. Gai grunts in annoyance, turning and sweeping the sea for any sign of the hostile craft. "Sho, Go, stand by."
If I were flying something that fast, against something like this... He takes a deep breath, shifting to rest a hand on Neo Bear's docking-release lever.
'Why are you. In. My Way!?'
"We're trying to figure out what the hell's goin' on here!" Go yells in response to the enigmatic communication. "Whose side're you supposed to be on, huh!?"
Gai, meanwhile, watches his sensors like a hawk, his bulky body still with anticipation. Any moment now.
The Codarl explodes out of the water again, lining up a perfect shot at the Getter's faceplate. In the span of a shared heartbeat, the three Getter pilots yank on their release levers - and with a flash of plasmic discharge and a cry of "OPEN GET!", Neo Getter Three comes apart, the precision shots passing through empty space where it had stood only moments before.
The three Neo Getter Machines flash past the Rapunzel, forming up behind and above her - this time with the blue jet in the lead.
"Looks like we need some heavier firepower for this one, Gai!" Go yells. "CHANGE: GETTER ONE!"
The blue machine hangs in the air for a moment, foot thrusters stabilising it. It's at a disadvantage in this environment, and they know it, but they have enough training between them to stay in the fight. "CHAIN KNUCKLE!" Go roars, pulling Neo Getter One's right arm back - but it's the left arm's fist that rockets forward on a chain to strike at the Rapunzel with a wild, distant haymaker!
KTS: Neo Getter Team targets Emilia Eschonbach with Chain Knuckle - Sucker Punch!
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Oh, Sousuke's blade punches through, but then he has to deal with Gauron. Gauron wards off Sousuke's attack, and then immediately replies in kind. Sousuke brings his own monocutter up, and the rippling power fields again collide with an explosion of unearthly colors. "Wherever I'm going," Sousuke seethes, "I won't be going there with YOU!"
Gauron proceeds to demonstrate to Kallen just how strong of forces it can project, and he shouts, "GUREN!" as she's flung away. Damn it...
He whips around, the tip of his monomolecular cutter exploding with light. Kallen rushes back in.
Sousuke draws in a breath. Pierce. PIERCE. "Affirmative," he replies to Kallen.
Then he rushes forward toward Gauron again, knife tip blazing. "OVER HERE, GAURON!" he screams, trying to drive it right through into the Codarl's belly, severing all sorts of critical links.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Gauron with Lambda Monomolecular Cutter Pierce! KTS: Gauron parries Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Monomolecular Cutter Pierce, taking 1380 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has engaged Gauron! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach fails to Charge. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach partially guards Neo Getter Team's Chain Knuckle - Sucker Punch, taking 2706 damage! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There's the sense of being watched; not from afar, not from any particular thing in general. The creeping sensation of the eyes on her ship, the eyes in and around, the eyes wanting to keep track of the people inside. It's a mildly comforting thing, an anchor to reality writ large: There's nothing else than here and now, nothing but to weather the storms.
If only they'd piss off. She does concur with that, language aside.
There's the mental sparks of affirmation, of disagreement, of using it as mental support and as a wall to deliberately inflame themselves. Words have power, as they say. Comms. << "That's my only order. Do not die. >> An open broadcast, to be sure, but the inflection is directed towards the F90 in general. But an order was an order, generalized enough to ring out into the roiling seas frothing with the white wakes of turbulence.
The sounds of the fighting aboveboard are distinctly louder; There's thumps, scratches, every step on the floor echoing out into a dull, muted thud in the bridge itself. Metal carried power, metal carried sound, metal carried the force of the fight above with the precision engineering of the ship. There's a hand gripping at the Captain's chair. Holding tight, the mental reassurance that they'd make it through.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Kaname Chidori
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Spike's slick maneuvers keep him safe from missiles, but Gary's Enact takes them straight on--and earning a scrambled targeting system as his reward.
The Danaan launches another short cascade of countermeasures in reply to the Swordfish's missile assault, but the rockets are undeterred, slamming into her armor and leaving ugly black pockmarks where they land. She's managed to keep them clear of the flight deck, but one stray missile there...
Gary lands on her hull. There are microphones all over her, enough that it's easy to pinpoint just where the Enact is standing...
The missile hatch underneath the Enact's feet flips open rapidly, depriving it of footing and propelling it seaward. This, along with every other hatch, issues forth another cascade of smoke and flame. She flies each by wire, each taking a difficult-to-predict path, pushing her mind further in an attempt to get the Cowboy and the soldier off her back.
The Whispers thrum at her heart, rippling through psychic space, touching Shari and Nova as they wash over them. Once again, ever so briefly, a woman's form is superimposed over the vessel, swimming on her back, a hand outstretched as she directs her missiles to their targets.
KTS: Kaname Chidori has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kaname Chidori has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kaname Chidori has activated the Strike Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Chienne has never in her life been to Tsutsujidai, and though she knows a bit about it she wasn't expecting it to come out and fight her like this. Not that she minds, really; it's only the timing that makes it anything but a joy.
"<You don't know much about her, do you.>" Not that Chienne knows the first thing about Gridknight either. "<Well, you'll learn! You'll learn that she's a weak coward! It's a miracle she's not dead - but if she keeps talking to me like that she's going to be pretty soon!>"
Gridknight spins over to Avenir. Chiot has a barrier of his own, and he uses it immediately, hunkering down. His style is completely different than Chienne. Chienne would have struck into the blow, trying to deflect or hurt Gridknight in turn; even Chien would have tried to bull through it to put himself in a more advantageous position, not that Knight has encountered Chien. Chiot, though, merely tries to withstand it; whether it's cowardice, inexperience, or simply a very defensive style is unclear.
If Gridknight has advanced sensors, he might realize that he's being probed pretty intensely right now by the rig on Avenir, but probably more worrying is that Chiot's barrier doesn't fade like Chienne's did. It stays up when he begins to move forward after being pushed backward - and the two wolf heads on the shoulder suddenly open with a grinding noise, revealing the shield emitters inside.
The shape of the barrier begins to change from a hemisphere to a pointed wedge as he tries to literally carve into Gridknight - striking, then whirling back to strike again in a reverse that looks like it he should be experiencing severe whiplash to even try it.
"<Aah, you're something new,>" Chiot says. He sounds about fourteen, maybe, and suddenly interested. "<It's about time she dragged something exciting home. Let's see what you can keep up with!>"
Chienne, left to herself, focuses on Seolla for a moment. "<You want to trust some people you've just met? That you've never heard of? You're not just a coward - you're an idiot!>" Chienne tries to press Seolla, charging into the hail of bolts - but instead of grabbing with the 'claw', she drives it in further, penetrating before spreading it wide and beginning to shred. "<Call your 'friends' if you want, you're just going to hurt yourself! And when you try to fly away, little bird - I'll hunt you down!>"
Chien, in Passe, is engaged by the Gundam. He literally backhands the beam saber - something that would be an extremely stupid thing to do if his arm wasn't protected by the field. While the others have only used full-body shielding, his appears to be a bit more precise; it focuses along one arm, deflecting nearly as well as an I-field.
"<Heh,>" he says to Jezebel. He sounds exactly like he looks: big, burly. If you heard his voice you'd guess it came from someone who was built a lot like him. "<Not much, are you? Nice Gundam though, but there's two things you gotta learn around here: I'm Chien Argent, of the Hounds of Hell... and I don't lose.>"
He fires his own Peak Shooter - the railgun concealed in the point of the 'drill' - before beginning to back up. He's heading toward Kerberlion Present and Avenir, apparently intending to meet up with them - but it gives him some maneuvering room too, and the ability to charge right back at the Gundam if he needs to.
KTS: Chienne Argent has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent targets Seolla Schweizer with Turnail Shredder! KTS: Chienne Argent targets Knight with Pinpoint Break Field Strike! KTS: Chienne Argent targets Jezebel Richens with Peak Shooter Snipe! KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Gary Biaggi with Itano Circus Missile Dance! KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Spike Spiegel with Itano Circus Missile Dance! KTS: Gary Biaggi fails to intercept Kaname Chidori's Itano Circus Missile Dance, taking 5280 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaname Chidori's Everything Is Gonna Happy activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Gary Biaggi has been defeated! <Pose Tracker> Gauron has posed.
"Aw, you don't like the heat? Too bad." Gauron says, as Kallen's own heated radioactive Guren hand comes to fry him to death. Rolling his shoulders, he puts the Lambda Driver at max defense, preventing himself from being cooked or crushed, even as the Venom takes massive damage.
The Venom stops moving. But, you can't trust it. The second Kallen stops unloading, Gauron responds with eerie calm.
"Bang."
A massive burst of force explodes within the Guren, rattling tthrough pipes and cables. It won't detonate the cockpit, but with it already claustrophobic and being focused on the center of mass, it may as well disable the Knightmare Frame completely.
And then, he wildly begins laughing. Sousuke is coming in to tear into him, and Gauron parries with his knife, feeling the pain. He can't keep this going - one false swoop and he's dead.
There's a click inside the cockpit, right as the Venom gouges into the Arbalest once more, trying to grapple close.
"Self-destruct initiated! It's time to die together..."
There's a mad grin on his face, as he presses closer, trying to knock the Arbalest closer towards the center of the sub, even as it rocks back and forth.
"KASHIM!"
Gauron has no eject. No plans to eject, either. He's going to blow them all apart.
KTS: Gauron targets Kallen Kozuki with Bang.! KTS: Spike Spiegel has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Gauron targets Sousuke Sagara with IAI Dark Edge Monomolecular Cutter Ripper Gouge! KTS: Spike Spiegel fails to evade Kaname Chidori's Itano Circus Missile Dance, taking 4840 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaname Chidori's Everything Is Gonna Happy activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Knight has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent enervates Knight, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Knight partially guards Chienne Argent's Pinpoint Break Field Strike, taking 4800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Hound of Hell activates, causing Deject! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Knight! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Gauron enervates Sousuke Sagara, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Sousuke Sagara parries Gauron's IAI Dark Edge Monomolecular Cutter Ripper Gouge, taking 720 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Gauron's Jiu Long - The Nine Dragons activates, causing Deject! KTS: Gauron has engaged Sousuke Sagara! KTS: Teletha Testarossa suggests caution, raising Jezebel Richens's Intuition! <Pose Tracker> Spike Spiegel has posed.
Spike knows the rules of dogfighting. The longer someone keeps shooting at you, the more likely they'll hit. The TDD-1's crew are professionals -- to put it very mildly -- and he is being put through the paces. Those paces, eventually, can't keep ahead.
Kaname directs a missile, wire-guided, and it comes near the Swordfish II. 'Near' is all it needs; Spike makes the MONO Racer juke to the side, but the thruster's burn hits the warhead. The missile slags in a blink of an eye; the explosive is exposed as it's melted away in midair. Molten silver rains down, until it's engulfed in a fiery explosion.
"SHIT!"
So is the Swordfish II. It slams down for the water, without hitting the water. The VTOL thruster swivels down, fires, and sends a watery spray as the now-blackened and burnt Swordfish II rises up, heavily trailing smoke.
"Enact pilot," Spike transmits, "firing in your direction! Get clear or get toasty!"
The Swordfish II levels out -- and arcs of lightning erupt across the plasma cannon on its underside. Some arcs strike the water, with flashes of light. Then, there is a loud hum -- and then a loud POP, as the plasma cannon fires. A beam of crackling blue-white light explodes across the seas, hurtling off for the Tuatha de Danaan's side. Water is flash-boiled away from its passing.
KTS: Spike Spiegel has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Spike Spiegel has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Spike Spiegel has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Spike Spiegel has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Spike Spiegel targets Kaname Chidori with Plasma Cannon! KTS: Gauron enervates Kallen Kozuki, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to Evade Gauron's Bang., taking 6138 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Gauron's Jiu Long - The Nine Dragons activates, causing Deject! KTS: Kallen Kozuki has been defeated! <Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The Danaan's awareness turns to the flight deck as she intercepts Gauron's communications. Self-destruct... that'd likely sink her, and kill most of those aboard.
And definitely kill Sousuke.
She can't allow this. But what can she do? It'd be insane to send a missile at her own deck, especially when one is so close to the Arbalest, and she doesn't exactly have arms of her own...
But she does have something.
How can she tell him, though? It takes her a few microseconds to think that through. The TAROS, the pod her body--her real body--sits in, operates on a psychic level. If she tries, if she wills it...
The floodlights behind the catapult tracks turn on, and in their light, Kaname Chidori appears amid the driving rain that pours over the flight deck. She hovers just above the end of a track, launch system charged. She speaks, but no words can be heard.
KTS: Jezebel Richens retreats from the attack! KTS: Chienne Argent enervates Jezebel Richens, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Jezebel Richens fails to evade Chienne Argent's Peak Shooter Snipe, taking 6000 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Hound of Hell activates, causing Deject! KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent enervates Seolla Schweizer, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Seolla Schweizer parries Chienne Argent's Turnail Shredder, taking 1680 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Hound of Hell activates, causing Deject! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Seolla Schweizer! KTS: Kaname Chidori charges into the attack! KTS: Kaname Chidori partially guards Spike Spiegel's Plasma Cannon, taking 5775 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Getter Robo splits into three in front of her, and her shots- aimed perfectly as they were- fire clean through the gaps. The Getter changes shape and...
hat's it. That's the shape she sees in her nightmares. The last still shot of Getter Robo pulling out it's reactor. Holding it aloft to kill the dinosaurs. To kill New Yark.
And as she gets close enough to the TDD-1, she hears a scream.
Her eyes go wide.
"Pilot heartrate dangerously elevated," comes Rapunzel's simple AI, robotic as ever. "Secondary systems active in thirty seconds."
Emilia can't hear it. All she can hear is that scream. All she can see is Getter-1 in front of her. She charges- but falls for the feint, and a fist as big as her ARM Slave crashes into her, and sends her tumbling through the water.
"<Get out. Of MY WAY! I. Have to. Save. Her!>" She slams a pistol back into it's magnetic holster, and draws the monomolecular cutter, and the chainsaw blade spins to life. "<I WON'T. LET YOU. MONSTERS. TAKE ANYTHING ELSE. FROM ME!>"
It bursts from the water again, this time diving at Getter-1, planning to drive the knife into the heart of the of Humanity's best hope against the Dinosaur Empire. "<WHY. DO YOU. STILL EXIST?!>"
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Neo Getter Team with IAI Dark Edge Monomolecular Cutter Ripper Gouge! KTS: [Mirage] Neo Getter Team's Open Get! activates, and they slips into a mirage. KTS: Neo Getter Team fails to parry Emilia Eschonbach's IAI Dark Edge Monomolecular Cutter Ripper Gouge, taking 0 damage! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has engaged Neo Getter Team! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
The ENACT is torn up by the missiles of the Tuatha de Danaan, and Gary gets shaken up pretty badly from it all after getting tossed into the ocean. Still there is a silver lining to it all as he takes a moment to reflect on what is happening. It is at that time he can detect the energy build up of a nuclear device. Gary begins to laugh and shakes his head, "Someone on that boat sure is stupid."
It takes a couple of minutes but Gary is route enough power to the most vital systems and gets his ENACT back into flight mode as he retreats to a safe distance. In the end, he looks forward to the fireworks.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"Don't you dare fucking drown," Gridknight tells Seolla, and it's easy to imagine there's no sympathy in the sharp words. Just as when he addresses Jezebel, tone harsh: "If you're talking like that... you'd better not be a liability!"
He is an antagonistic force in his heroism; the pressure he applies, to save a life, generally hurts.
At least he can appreciate Tessa's orders, talking like that.
"You say she's a weak coward --" Knight snarls, turning to look to Chienne's unit briefly, "-- but you've come to kill her three on one! It's PATHETIC!" He needs to address these odds, and he does, meeting the Avenir. Another barrier; that's fine by him.
Except -- "Damn!" Gridknight snaps, as the shield becomes a weapon. He reaches out to grasp it, but once again, the might of the Kerberlions makes it difficult for him to redirect their force. He can guard against one angle -- but the second, whirling in from an unexpected angle, catches him soundly in the back. He stumbles forward, and his movements are strangely human, for all he's fifty metres tall. Or... humanoid, anyway.
His sensors, such as they are, are so much like the hairs prickling at the back of his neck. He is not quite a machine, though he wears all the trappings of one; he is a Giant of Light who comes from that world of data, built up to meet the threat of kaiju. Not quite organic -- neither inert.
"Yeah," he says, and his breath comes a little more laboured. "I'm an irregular being, in this world... what about you?"
He disengages a step, and his head snaps up, around, to Gauron. "Sousuke Sagara!" He yells, bristling. "Look out!" With the danger roiling from the Codarl-i -- and the dangers his allies are in -- Knight knows he has to press harder, now.
He turns back to the Avenir standing on the waves, to bring his hands up. "I'll see what's inside your heart. Knight... Circular... End--!!!" As he invokes the name, his hands swirl, to bring a downright magical blade into existence -- a circular blade; one might call it a saw, if one were so-intentioned. It glows, and crashes towards the young Chiot and his barriers, stronger than the blow he'd issued before.
KTS: Knight has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Sousuke Sagara KTS: Knight targets Chienne Argent with Knight Circular End!
<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
Maybe Gauron thinks he's funny. Maybe he just doesn't know. But even disregarding the Wave Surger, Guren runs inhumanly hot. Kallen is, among the Black Knights, the only pilot they've found who CAN handle the blistering heat of sustained operation. She's checked. She's done tests with other people trying it out, just for curiosity. It doesn't work. It's suffocating.
'Bang'. Before it impacts, she already knows Guren can't take it. But getting away at this range, with this damage? Not happening. There's another scream, this one prolonged, as systems short out and connectors separate, briefly electrocuting the cockpit. The scream cuts out when the radio dies.
Guren is totaled, and every last system in it goes dark. Whatever is left vaguely looks like the infamous Red Queen, but fixing it... Rakshata would probably have an easier time just building another one. It would probably be faster too, were it anyone else's design. Were it not her baby.
The pilot however, is not yet unconscious. Bleeding profusely, yes, and definitely with frankly horrifying injuries she's just too injured to properly feel and process. But... she's still watching. Staring out into the storm from the gashes torn into the KMF's body. So she can see the phantom figure. Kaname, standing out there. Silently she squeezes a hand around her headband, making a wish for her and Sousuke's triumph.
KTS: Chienne Argent partially guards Knight's Knight Circular End, taking 5985 damage! KTS: Knight has engaged Chienne Argent! <Pose Tracker> Neo Getter Team has posed.
Neo Getter One's arm blades catch the molecular cutter. It's not enough to prevent the saw from grinding through the arm completely - polymorphic alloy's shape-memory properties make it mutable but not necessarily durable.
There's three heads in this machine, and three hearts, too. "Go, I'm cutting the foot thrusters," Gai says, and Getter Robo falls away from Rapunzel, twisting in midair, and again: "OPEN GET!"
The Neo Machines break away and form up again a fair distance from the Rapunzel, the magenta machine in the lead. "CHANGE: GETTER TWO!"
The graceful, feminine shape of Neo Getter Two hovers in midair. It should have a drill mounted on one arm, but both are bare - brassy, spindly appendages that _could_ reshape into drills, but are tipped now with clawed manipulators.
"Gai - tactical analysis!" Sho barks.
"Something's heating up on the deck of the Toy Box - the red Arm Slave is going to self-destruct! If that sets off the submarine - "
"... Catastrophe." Sho's eyes narrow. Not as catastrophic as New Yark, but...
Didn't she promise: Never again?
"Gai. Route everything we have into the thrusters and watch that Codarl. I want a live interception trajectory for its movements." She wishes Alouette were backing them up - those kinds of calculations would be a lot easier with the 3G Blue Operator helping. She opens a channel to the Codarl, running the numbers.
"... Okay. If you want to save her: Go." She doesn't even know who the pilot means, but... she can watch, and be ready.
Neo Getter Two scoots back another couple of metres, riding the wind deftly.
They have only moments.
KTS: Neo Getter Team targets Emilia Eschonbach with Pass!
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
A crackle of lightning splits between Seolla and Chienne - as though marking the rift betwee the way they've chosen to live.
The imposing goliath that is the Cerberlion and its menacing clawed lance, clashing over and over with Seolla's humble, yet sharper form, the light from her beam saber fizzling in the howling rain, determined to hold its form.
"Isn't it AMAZING, Chienne?" Seolla breathes, pupils widening, a tremble in her sweaty hands before sheer grit forces them to stabilize at her controls, flicking backwards and strafing at the kind of g-forces that strain her lungs. (More,) she demands. (Give me more. Stop holding back like I'm anyone else. Let me prove just this once that I've chosen something right.)
"I've met so many people. I've seen so many places. I think what was killing me was that I always wanted more. So much more! I've had a little drink of the fresh air outside my cage, and I got addicted. Isn't it the same for you?" Seolla gasps at the realization, tipping forward in her seat. "...Aha! We're not that much different, huh? It's just a matter of who we found first to save us. Right now...right now...all I can feel...is that we'd be having this exact same conversation no matter who we threw our lot in with."
There's an unusual ferocity in Seolla's slashes, making up for her flitting, unreliable range with sheer intensity, coughing up a storm with every dart backwards away from the Turnail. She's decided - she'll be just as vicious as Chienne. She'll go straight for the kill, just like Chienne. Maybe then they can talk as equals.
"Fine, I'll rescind what I said, Knight. I'm starting to feel a little better! If I fall into the water, it's only to dive-bomb towards a precious fish." Her eyes are gleaming at the sight of Kaname rising and echoing across the TDD-1. "...does it feel good to you too, Kaname? To take your future by the throat? ...Good. Good. I'll never forget how I fought for you to reach this point. You're a natural at it."
KTS: Neo Getter Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Getter Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Getter Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Chienne Argent with Nemo Beam Sabers Strike! KTS: Chienne Argent's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Chienne Argent parries Seolla Schweizer's Nemo Beam Sabers Strike, taking 810 damage! KTS: Seolla Schweizer has engaged Chienne Argent!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Nova frowns at the notion of 'already knowing what I need to know'. That sounds awfully familiar. She herself used to be pretty sure she knew everything about the world that mattered, before everything went topsy-turvy. For her that happened at the same time as being forced to pilot, but maybe things went differently for this girl. She can't help herself from trying to figure out where the common ground is, see if they can reach some kind of understanding.
But ultimately, it seems like they need to do this the hard way. Not ideal, but perhaps it's alright. People have a way of being more receptive once they can't fight anymore. All she needs to do is stop this machine from moving, then she can try again.
That's all she was thinking, when she unleashed her remote weapons. She had no idea what else that would cause to happen. She gets yelled at for her foolishness, which isn't new, but Uriel never lays into her that strongly. She also has no idea what the reason is. Taken aback by this, the Saucers respond and pull back, reattaching to their original positions. What was that just now? Keep this up, and...?
"...'She' will?", she repeats the words that seemed to come out weird. She's loud? What is she talking about? What is happening over there?
>"Nova!"< Uriel's voice snaps her back to attention. >"Be careful! They're doing something weird! Don't listen!"<
Naoko, too, has something at her side. A protective presence. Trying their best to protect her mind from outside interference. Usually, doing so passively by simply being in close proximity is enough. But nothing like this has ever happened before, and what more they can do is limited. Even if they can't identify the threat, they can identify when there is one. They can warn her. But the rest is up to her.
...They also had no way of knowing that in this very specific case, their mental 'voice' carries far enough to where Shari can hear it, too. As if there weren't enough voices in her head already.
Unfortunately, this also backfires. It's made Naoko more aware that something's going on, on a deeper level. Telling her not to listen makes her more prone to doing so, consciously registering things that she normally does not. The voices... what are all these voices? Why can she so clearly feel this other pilot? Why does she feel a connection with the TDD-1, as if it were alive...?
In the wake of this, the way the Sukeban moves has significantly changed. Every shot that comes its way is dodged with precise timing. Not due to piloting expertise, she just knows, knows when every shot is coming. It's all so clear in her mind. It feels almost as if... as if she were the one firing at herself. And unlike Shari, who's getting more and more angry... Nova panics.
"...Get away... Get away! Don't come near me!!"
The Arm Slave abruptly sets its thrusters to full reverse, leaving in its wake a shower of Vulcan fire as cover. Its pilot doesn't know how to mentally distance herself, so she's doing it in a physical way. Not that she's even really thinking about what she's doing, at this point. All that matters now is not being anywhere near whatever it is that's making her feel this way.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Shari Loom with Vulcan Spread! KTS: Shari Loom's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Shari Loom blocks Naoko Suzuki's Vulcan Spread, taking 960 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Jezebel Richens has posed.
Another hit, just as bad as before. Now, the F90 is screaming at her. Red alarms and a thin smoke fill the cockpit - she wasn't ready for this. That's what she's learned. She wasn't cut out for this. Sure, she's good at aiming and flying around, but she's just getting cut to pieces. An alarm repeats, over and over, the mistakes she's made. Suit surface compromise. Coolant leak, reactor heating up. Electrical malfunction. Emergency coolant expended.
Her suit cannot handle this beating - no, it isn't like that. It isn't a failure on the part of the F90; she's not using it right, because she doesn't know how. There's just no way she can stick around. The next hit is going to disable her for sure, and there's no way out. But, it's okay. --- She doesn't have to win, this time. That isn't her order. If she doesn't have to win, then she can focus on living, and as long as she isn't dead, that's enough? Is that how she wants to view this? It's more like... 'this is the best she can do', right?
In the end, she doesn't answer the other pilot. His shot ripped through some vital coolant, and now her Gundam is on a clock, before the miniature reactor pops. That'll kill her. She'll die. She's dying. Trying to line the shot up - she realized she's shaking. Is this what he felt, back then? Her eyes close, and she lets herself sink for a second. There won't be a miracle, but she's going to try to make her last shot count for something.
<< "Jezebel Richens," >> She finally replies. << "You beat me." >> And, then, of course, she redlines the reactor, and the barrel of her beam rifle extends, and she just tries to shoot him in the back.
KTS: Jezebel Richens has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Jezebel Richens uses Auxiliary Calculator - Strike KTS: Jezebel Richens has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The Danaan's attention is suddenly dangerously divided, as she projects herself onto the flight deck. There's some small measure of relief as she delivers news to the bridge that the ENACT is disengaging. But her divided attention means she's unable to predict the Swordfish's next move.
The flight deck tilts to port as she attempts to mitigate the incoming hit, but it only does so much. The beam lances directly through the Danaan's hull.
Damage control's status display lights up in red, and the ship's automated PA system announces, "WARNING. HULL BREACH ON HANGAR DECK. ALL PERSONNEL ARE INSTRUCTED TO EVACUATE. BULKHEADS WILL SEAL AUTOMATICALLY IN THIRTY SECONDS." They seal early, though; the hangar's been completely evacuated by now.
Shit. That'll be a lot of water if the damage control teams can't seal the breaches. Probably not enough to sink them, but definitely enough to make escape difficult, not to mention complicate Sousuke and Kallen's return inside...
Another cascade of missiles erupts from her, all focused on the Swordfish, as she wonders what it'll take to make the risk outweigh the reward. This assault isn't as twisty as the last--but it is certainly *aggressive*.
KTS: Jezebel Richens targets Chienne Argent with E.B. Rifle Heavy Piercing Shot! KTS: Chienne Argent partially guards Jezebel Richens's E.B. Rifle Heavy Piercing Shot, taking 3537 damage! KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Spike Spiegel with All Out Attack! KTS: Spike Spiegel has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Spike Spiegel retreats from the attack! KTS: Spike Spiegel fails to evade Kaname Chidori's All Out Attack, taking 6120 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There's a visible slump for a moment from the Captain; Fatigue, the emptiness after an adrenaline rush, and the innate nervousness of believing in others. No. Not yet. Not yet. Not when the figurative finish line was so close.
"Confirmed retreat!" Another crew member. The sonar tech playing double duty as overwatch and scanner. His word rung true. Good.
There's a distinct sense in her movements, a natural synchronization between her and Kaname. The subtle twitches, the lightly grandiose movements to direct missiles to and fro, to assist in the innate. Direct the actions like this. Know like this. The sense of a Whispered to know without learning, to stare into the mind and realize there are additional rooms to excavate after passing by millions of times through one's life. Reinforcing those waves, acting as the beating heart of the body, acting as the guidelines for force.
All thoughts are dispelled on hearing the very obvious warning. To route Gauron's comms through the Arbalest, to hear it said so succinctly inside the bridge, to instinctually understand what he was saying. Ah. I should've known from the start. He was suicidal with my ship. He was apocalyptic with the missiles. Garuon is absolutely insane to the point of nihilistic suicide.
There's an innate scream from the soul at the conceptualization of the damage such an explosion would merit. One bursting from on pure instinct, ripping out from the Tuatha de Dannan and roaring towards the sky, a psychic wave of pure frustration, of pure malice, of purehearted will.
THIS SHIP IS MINE.
I AM THE ONE WHO BUILT THIS.
I AM THE ONE WHO MADE THIS INTO WHAT IT WAS.
AND I AM IT'S CAPTAIN.
LAUNCH GAURON OFF MY SHIP.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Sousuke Sagara KTS: Shari Loom has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged. KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Sousuke Sagara and Kaname Chidori with Coordinate.
<Pose Tracker> Spike Spiegel has posed.
"Shit, shit--!"
Spike swears up a storm, with no time to feel some relief at scoring such a hit on the TDD-1. Missiles are exploding towards him, a veritable swarm of them that promises to drive him backward. The MONO Racer accelerates, thrusters firing and slamming Spike back into his seat.
He hurries away from the TDD-1, speeding as fast as he can. Several missiles come rushing in despite those movements. He cuts past one -- then jukes to the left from another, and then drops past a third.
A fourth, though, slams into the armored underside of the Swordfish II.
It's only thanks to luck that Spike isn't killed in an instant, at that point. The missile hits, but doesn't penetrate the armor -- it crumples against it, then explodes in a massive fireball that hurls the Swordfish II through the air. It tumbles over itself, before the thrusters fire and get it moving.
Spike glances at the Enact, in the distance. He feels nothing; none of Kaname's presence, none of Tessa's rage. One eye on the present, one eye on the past.
He opens a line up to the TDD-1. "Nice shooting," he says. "Stay alive, yeah?"
Kaworu said it's not his time to die, yet -- and with the Federation starting to fall back, this seems for the best. The Swordfish II banks around, trailing smoke, and then boosts away from the battlefield.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Sousuke Sagara's Piloting! <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke dares to hope that the Radiation Wave Surger does its job, but...he knows. He's survived it before, after all.
But all he can do is finish his attack as Gauron, with a wave of his hand, *shatters* the Guren. "KALLEN!" Sousuke screams, turning to watch the parts fly.
<<Pilot life signs detected,>> AL says.
Sousuke's teeth grind, but he has to put his attention back on Gauron or he won't be able to defend. Gauron slams the knife aside...
And then ups the stakes.
"SDM," Sousuke croaks.
<<Standard payload is 200 kilograms,>> AL reports.
What can he do...even if he could get the Lambda Driver to project a kinetic field like Gauron does, Gauron *does it better*. He'd probably just end up flung back himself. There's nothing he can...what can he possibly...!?
Something....something. His head shakes, but he finds, despite the danger, that he looks to the side. To the launch catapults. To the floodlights. To Kaname's apparition. His mouth goes dry. He blinks and she's gone, but...
"AL," Sousuke says, wanting some kind of explanation. "Do you--"
<<It should work,>> AL replies, rather than explain.
Sousuke breathes, and then turns his attention on Gauron. Knight calls out to him; the Colonel roars in a way AL can hear.
"You're not someone I want to die with," Sousuke says, words low in his throat. What a ridiculous notion. People like him don't get to choose that. And yet, he means it.
Despite those words, what he does is lash out with his tow wire again, lashing around the Venom and YANKING it closer, so Sousuke can try to wrestle him the ground and pull toward the catapults.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Gauron with Wire Grapple! KTS: Kaname Chidori targets Sousuke Sagara with Insight L2! KTS: Gauron's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Gauron fails to react to Sousuke Sagara's Wire Grapple, taking 2000 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari, of course, doesn't know Nova. Right? Of course she doesn't. She couldn't. So that familiarity has no meaning to her. Is there a common ground at all? ...Maybe.
But the hard way is how it is, for now.
"She! SHE!" Shari screams it at Nova over the radio, her throat hurting from the way it rips out. Shari hears the words, too. She hears another voice, a voice not her own, a voice not hers and she flinches at it. The crystal beside her flickers and crackles and hums with green power. "I'm not doing anything! Get out of my head! Maybe she should listen to ME instead!"
She feels a connection to the TDD-1, too. It's strange. It's unwelcome. It's terrible.
The Sukeban dodges precisely, and Shari feels herself... move. Nova panics.
Shari grows more aggressive. "It's your fault! YOUR FAULT! YOU'RE THE ONE CALLING HER!"
Shari throws up the shield to block some of the Vulcan fire, and fires up the jets to get herself some space. It's as if she can predict Nova's movements, and her own are utterly careful, completely controlled as she moves as one with the machine she rebuilt.
"You think you can push me around and then act like you're the one in pain!?" She starts to lift her Alto's beam pistol again, pointing it straight for Nova's Arm Slave. "All is null. My very being is borrowed. You, too, will see."
Bolts of green energy crash towards the Sukeban as the Loom Custom barrels backward at high speed, trying to keep that space between them open now, marching back in perfect time.
Then that wave of intentionality. A psychic tide...
Shari screams into the radio longer than she realizes.
KTS: Shari Loom targets Naoko Suzuki with Loom A17 Beam Pistol Full Charge! KTS: Naoko Suzuki fails to charge. KTS: Naoko Suzuki partially guards Shari Loom's Loom A17 Beam Pistol Full Charge, taking 3849 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Gauron has posed.
As Kallen goes down, Gauron smirks. "Good hustle, but you're weak. Stay in school." He doesn't move to finish the job, because they're damned anyways.
As Sousuke goes to grapple him, Gauron allows it, as the two Arm Slaves entangle on the ground. Venom pulls Arbalest close, limiting movement, as he begins speaking loudly.
"Twenty."
"Nineteen."
"Eighteen!!"
This keeps going for a bit, as Gauron tries to force Sousuke into a lock on the deck.
"Fifteen! Fourteen! Come on, KASHIM!"
"Remember the good ol' days and pray to God, because he's not here anymore!"
Sousuke has almost no time. If he launches Gauron in just the right second... he can save everyone. How will he pull it off, though?
KTS: Gauron has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Sousuke Sagara KTS: Gauron has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Sousuke Sagara KTS: Gauron targets Sousuke Sagara with Pass! <Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Jezebel fires on Chien - and there she finds out one particular trait.
The barriers? They're not spherical. They really *are* hemispheres, just like they look. Her beam just coasts through without interruption as she shoots him in the back, causing him to lose a significant amount of height when she damages the Tesla Drive flight pack.
"<Damn!>" Chien wrestles his controls, pulling up before he hits the water - he was flying pretty low by the end there, and the Tesla Drive - with its electromagnetic 'exhaust' - does not function *at all* in the water, if he falls in there he's not getting back out. This keeps him busy for a few moments, but he recovers, using his built-up momentum to bounce away from the F90 and then up, up, up.
Elsewhere, Knight speaks to Chienne... and she actually barks a laugh.
"<You think I need them to beat her? No. They're here to keep people like YOU out of my hair! Because her partner? She abandoned him! Just LEFT him! So now she's got to pull randos like you in here to save her dumb ass!>"
Seolla is pressing her. *Seolla* is pressing her, something Chienne never thought would actually happen. She thinks of Seolla, when she thinks of her at all, as the soft squishy mascot of Bronzo Class; half the team they trot out to show that, look, the School works, and the 'students' in it don't seem entirely broken if you don't look too closely. Something Chienne never seemed; Argent was the School's attack dogs, never shown, always hidden away so that uncomfortable questions weren't asked about them.
It's how she got her name, such as it is. The one she made her own, no longer Argent-1.
Chienne actually has to exert herself to keep the sabers away from Kerberlion Present, using both Turnails to parry and, for a moment, nothing to attack. She lets them push her backwards, almost weightless on the Tesla Drive's support as Seolla darts in and out, and for the first time Chienne actually feels something new about the battle: a little flicker of concern.
"<SHUT UP! I'm nothing like you! Do you hear me? You let everyone push you around! You're WEAK! If you're going to seize the future by the throat, I'll do it first - Chiot!!>"
Chiot, for his part, is simply not up to fighting Knight by himself. He's a decent pilot. By the standards of Federation troopers he's actually pretty good. But he's also a support pilot; he runs the scanners, he coordinates maneuvers and operates comms, he hacks. He's not a duelist.
The saw carves into the barrier - through the barrier - into the shoulder wolf and its emitter. A large portion of the wolf's head is literally carved off by the Circular End, and the left-side emitter bursts in a shower of sparks, overloaded. The right side appears to still be working, but it makes the barrier wispy along the entire left side of Kerberlion Avenir... and the explosion's also damaged the arm with a cry from the pilot.
If Knight had gotten a slightly better swing, it would have been able to continue right into the cockpit, and Chiot is panicking. The sensitive can feel it.
Chienne feels her heart pump. Her vision shades to red. "<You hurt my brother,>" Chienne growls. Chiot, one of the only people who ever really cared for her. Chiot, one of the people who dragged her away when - she pushes that memory down. But even so, she howls, "<GET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM!>"
Chienne dives directly toward Knight's back. Her own barrier pops into existence, focusing toward a singular point with both wolf's heads opened wide; so intense is it that it begins to shade from blue to red. But she doesn't just try to strike him with it - she drives her Turnail *through* it, pushing the barrier along with it, forcing it to a drill's point that spins as fast as the Turnail beneath. It rips, a kinetic field along with the drill.
And then both shoulders simultaneously emit a shower of beams, shards of barrier and high-energy pulses ripping into Knight from point-blank range as she simply tries to tear him apart.
On top of that, Chien's frenzied ascent comes to a peak as he simply tries to drive through Seolla from beneath. He's not sure if Chienne will yell at him later for getting involved in her fight, but right now he doesn't care - Chiot needs Chienne to help her, and that means *he* needs to help Chienne. The three of them all move as if they're linked, as if they know exactly what each of the others is going to do at every turn, with every movement.
Maybe this, too, is a form of love.
KTS: Chienne Argent has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent targets Knight with Sonic Destroyer! KTS: Chienne_Argent Changes attack to Seolla Schweizer and Jezebel Richens with Break Field Repeated Fly-By.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Her blade passes through the empty space where Neo Getter-1 was, and Emilia splashes down. She can't keep losing time like this.
But Getter Robo doesn't strike back. Instead, it bids her go.
For a few seconds, Emilia is speechless. Sho was... really letting her go...?
There's no words as the Codarl surges forward. Towards the TDD-1. She has to make it on time. She has to.
"Warning. Unit Codarl-i self destruct initiated. Stand clear."
"S-s-s-self destruct?"
She can't do anything but push the Water Jet to her limits. She has to get Kallen. She just has to.
But time is against her here. She's simply not close enough.
KTS: Chienne Argent enervates Seolla Schweizer, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Seolla Schweizer fails to react to Chienne Argent's Break Field Repeated Fly-By, taking 6760 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Hound of Hell activates, causing Deject! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Seolla Schweizer! KTS: Jezebel Richens has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent enervates Jezebel Richens, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Jezebel Richens blocks Chienne Argent's Break Field Repeated Fly-By, taking 5720 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Hound of Hell activates, causing Deject! KTS: Jezebel Richens has been defeated! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Jezebel Richens! KTS: Knight fails to retreat. KTS: Chienne Argent enervates Knight, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Knight fails to react to Chienne Argent's Sonic Destroyer, taking 7920 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Hound of Hell activates, causing Deject! KTS: Knight has been defeated! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Knight!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Nova rarely understands the full scope of anything she gets involved with. But right now, it feels like she doesn't understand anything. Not just what is happening. Where she is. Who she is. Reality feels like it's falling apart around her and she just... doesn't understand.
There was a time where all she wanted was to know there was someone else like her. Now it feels like she's found someone like that... and it absolutely terrifies her. She just wants to run... but Shari won't let her.
"No, no NO! What are you doing?! I told you... I told you!!"
Her friends can't reach her anymore, drowned out by a force stronger than them. Shari's words, too, aren't even registering. All that's registering is that anger, the refusal to just let her leave. And without her realizing it, that anger is bleeding into her. "What about this is MY fault?! You're the one coming after ME! YOU'RE DOING THIS TO ME!"
Just like that, the Arm Slave stops retreating, stopping for a fraction of a second, before charging directly into the hail of beam fire. She's already seen the damage her machine is going to take in the process. It won't be enough to stop her. The Sukeban's right hand glows a dangerous red. "You... youuuuuu! If you won't stop, then I'LL BREAK YOU IN HALF!!"
The Sukeban's fist thunders forth in a single, mighty strike, as she attempts to make good on that claim... but regardless of the result, the single strike is where it ends. An even more powerful intent stemming from the TDD-1 completely overwhelms her, and in its wake there are only screams of agony, on both ends.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Shari Loom with Buster Knuckle!
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Gauron's Codarl grabs the Arbalest tight, entangling them both. Sousuke ends up underneath, arms grappled to his side, staring up at the Codarl's gleaming eyes. Seconds. He has SECONDS. But still he struggles - shifts with his shoulders and legs, shimmying the entwined Arm Slaves closer and closer.
"I don't need a God to answer my prayers, bastard!" Sousuke snaps.
Finally, after what feels like a thousand years, he slams his foot against the launch catapult."DO IT! KANAME!" he screams out.
Click.
The catapult FIRES, sending both Arm Slaves screaming down the distance. Those kinds of G forces, you shouldn't even open your mouth for, but Sousuke nonetheless screams in frustration and anger as he and Venom both roar to the edge of the flight deck. With the chaos, Sousuke's able to shrug a shoulder free, lash out with his wrist at one of the deck supports just as they reach the end--
And then both Arbalest and the Codarl soar off the side.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Gauron with Pass! KTS: Shari Loom fails to evade Naoko Suzuki's Buster Knuckle, taking 4275 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Shari Loom!
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
Knight Circular End would have been able to go straight through the cockpit, technically speaking, yes.
Even so, it would not.
He's fighting a human opponent.
But he has always traded on the IMPRESSION that he would -- even if he's fighting flesh and blood. His attack is forceful and terrible enough that it is easy to assume he would not have flinched. "You're finished!" He snaps, to Chiot, over the sound of his beating heart.
He sees Chiot's heart... and more than his, too.
Gridknight turns, to Chienne -- but not fast enough. She is lightning on the wind, darting in towards him, and he cries out. "Nguhhhh--!!" He staggers forward; he stumbles to the side. The drill carves deep, deep holes in his Vessel.
What bleeds from it is light, not liquid.
And soon this too is obscured, in the sheet FORCE of her beamshower, an array of explosions as if to herald the promise Gauron holds over them all. If they need proof that he is not entirely an organic being, at this size, it is this: he's still standing, in the wake of such a horrific sequence of blows.
He sags, though. He grasps at one of those deep-cut holes, hollow into him. "Damn... I..." His laboured breathing is an affect of his voice, more than his existence; one existence, mimicking another.
"Tch," he spits breath, as if through his teeth. "You want me?" He issues, sharp, to Chienne. "You want to kill me, now?"
He staggers back -- and begins to take flight, away from the Toy Box, away from Seolla, away from Sousuke.
"THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO CATCH ME!" He screams, over his shoulder, in a final desperate ploy.
(His flickering Energy Lamp is proof that he doesn't have much time for this; as soon as he hits land, it might get very, very hard to track him, because he won't be large any more. And would they know to chase after a single young man, if they follow...? ... he'll worry about that one if it works.)
<Pose Tracker> Jezebel Richens has posed.
There; one good shot. That's all she can contribute from here. For a second, it looks like maybe, against all hope, there actually was some small miracle, and he wasn't going to peel back out of the ocean. That would be the only way she could hope to win, actually; downing him through something like that. There just wasn't time for anything else. Of course - she isn't that lucky, right? That's okay. Really, there's no need to be upset by that kind of thing. If anything, having done everything she can - having done anything at all - is a relief. There's a little laughter in the cockpit, when he makes it out. Ah, well. She did her best, right? Her best wasn't very good. Maybe bringing the F90 down was a mistake. Maybe it wasn't, because it bought enough time. That's all that matters, right? Jezebel relaxes in the cockpit, having slowly tuned out the whining of the machine. It's all fine. --
"That's my only order. Do not die."
There are eyes on her. If she dies here, it means that the Captain will see her having 'expensed' her life for something as petty as buying time for some stranger. Maybe that's not the worst way to die. Maybe that's a 'worthy' death, but - this is the first time she sortied, right? She has time to get better. There's still something to be gained from this. The Gundam, already falling apart, swings its shield to try to do anything, but that's not the point. It's just a cover to bail. To grab her bail-out bag, and then wait for the suit to fail around her, so she can live through it.
That was her order. That's okay for now. If she lives, she can make it worth their time. That's all she can do, though. Maybe there will be a chance to get out of the robot and run. Maybe not. Maybe she can't survive, even if she tried, but she has her orders. So she'll do her best to follow them.
<Pose Tracker> Gauron has posed.
"Goodbye, Kashim." Gauron roars in laughter, as the two launch over the deck. Even if he's not going to blow up the sub...
Ah. Goodbye. He could try and eject, or stop the self-destruct, or something, in the fraction of a second. He could do anything but what he does.
He closes his eyes and smiles.
The Codarl explodes in a brilliant flash of 200kg of explosives. When the massive cloud fades, it's gone. There's only a splash to cover it, but the water's rippling in general, so exact destination is unclear.
They won't find remains, no matter how hard they look.
<Pose Tracker> Neo Getter Team has posed.
Sho has no idea who the pilot of the Arm Slave fighting them is, but if her goal is to save lives - even just one - then they don't need to be enemies.
She watches the Codarl burn away towards the submarine, where two other Arm Slaves grapple near the charred wreckage of another machine. Is it fast enough? There are only moments to spare, and so many machines and pilots here in distress - she can't help anyone, much less everyone - unless...
"Gai, I want our booster output at constant burn. Overclock them if you have to. We'll have to make exact course corrections for this to work. Go..." He managed a Getter Change first try, without relying on data or procedure. "... I trust your gut." She grits her teeth, shifting Neo Getter-2's position in the air. Vents open on the massive boosters mounted on the magenta machine's back, venting plasma and steam as they begin to hum ominously.
The original Getter 2 could achieve incredible speeds with Hayato at its helm - blistering past faster than the human eye could follow. Can this plasma-powered successor achieve that same speed?
Can Hayato Jin's successor handle it?
... ... ...
She almost misses the two Arm Slaves launching off the catapult of the Toy Box and the crimson one being catapulted safely clear before its detonation occurs. The shockwave of the explosion shakes Neo Getter Two, knocking Sho out of the laser focus she'd worked herself up into.
... Maybe those questions can be safely answered another day, she thinks to herself, slowly closing the boosters' throttle again and powering down.
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The Danaan fires its catapult, carrying both Sousuke and Gauron off the edge into the wine-dark waters below. The explosion buffets the ship... for a moment, there's silence. The question of Sousuke's survival hangs in the air.
All at once, every screen on the TDD-1's bridge lights up with a message in a handwritten font.
Don't Worry, Everything is gonna Happy <3
Briefly afterward, the message is replaced with Kaname Chidori's smiling face.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
-Maybe it's because they're so similar that they never could get along.
It's been like this for SO much longer between Seolla and Chienne. That's why on some level, Seolla knows. Chienne hated her when she was too attached to her partners. Chienne hated her when Seolla survived and her partner didn't. Chienne hated her when they worked together perfectly. Chienne hated her when she failed. Chienne hated her when she succeeded.
All the while, Seolla couldn't bring herself to do the same.
At the same time she wants to finally go in for the kill out of fear, Seolla's wishing it could have been different. That's why Chienne's genuine, earnest expression of concern for her true siblings - Chien and Chiot, who they've always been together with - that's why it leaves Seolla stunned. She isn't looking down below, at the frenetic charge of someone trying to save a loved one.
The impact tears Seolla's Nemo to shreds, gasping and screaming in desperation in her cockpit, tumbling head over end and hitting her head on the ceiling with a dizzying thump.
"H...hah...the three of you always were...so in sync...y-you know, Chienne. I always envied you. Did you know that? I envied all three of you. Because even if you were the bottom of the barrel, you always had each other. You got out together, without leaving anyone behind. I'm jealous of you, and you hate me. So I've been so stupid."
"It was STUPID of me to ever think you'd want to share the same space as me!"
The air begins to burn around Seolla - the electrical charge of the thunderstorm cloaking her sputtering, smoking Nemo. Arms creaking into place - she still has her rifle. That much she can always rely on. As long as she can shoot just one arrow...
"...Somehow, you've found something that counts as happiness, huh? Then who am I to make that decision? Maybe...maybe I shouldn't even expect you to want to help. It's greedy to care about so many people - Chien and Chiot would do anything for you, and you...would do anything for them. That's all you ever needed, huh?"
"...Looks like I'm falling after all, Knight, but not before I make sure they know just how jealous I am."
And just before Seolla splashes down into those stormy waters, emitting countless distress and retrieval codes in the process, everything her Nemo has goes into one last blaze of thunder.
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Chienne Argent with BR-M-87 Beam Rifle Continuous Stream! KTS: Chienne Argent fails to react to Seolla Schweizer's BR-M-87 Beam Rifle Continuous Stream, taking 5850 damage! KTS: Chienne Argent has been defeated! KTS: Seolla Schweizer roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
She would have been too late.
But the Tuatha de Danaan and her crew saves themselves.
But there's still something closing. It's dived deep, to avoid the explosion, but now it's rising, trying to pick up speed.
As it breaches the water, aiming to land on the Tuatha, the loudspeaker opens. "<Not here. To fight.>" That staccato voice voice again, but there's something in it. The modulation doesn't hide the worry or the fear. The purple Venom moves to land right next to the mess of the Guren- no weapons drawn. Instead it reaches to pull out the cockpit block of the machine- and fully tear open a side before moving it as close to the Codarl's cockpit as it can manage. There's not a lot of room inside the Venom's cockpit- but this one is airtight. The Guren's sure as hell is not. The Venom pilot's outfit covers the lower half of her face with a hood, the upper part with a visor, and a hood covering her hair. All that's obvious, from the momentary glimpse, is that she's small- but strong enough to haul Kallen into her cockpit. "P-p-p-please... be o-okay." Emilia whispers, too quiet to be heard.
And then she hurls the empty cockpit block into the sea, and grabs what remains of the Guren. The KMF almost seemed a part of Kallen. She wasn't leaving it to these people.
And then she dives again- but as she does a laser opens to the retreating Neo Getter, maybe to slow to reach that Getter Vision powered machine. "<Thank. You.>"
It seems hard for her to say.
And in a few seconds, the second Venom is gone.
<Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Chien isn't going to chase down a bailing pilot, not without a damn good reason. Chienne might; even Chiot might, depending. But Chien isn't, so Jezebel can bail out without any particular problem.
Well, any particular problem from *him*. There's plenty of dangers here: water everywhere, a firefight that's still going on. But his only contribution is to buzz the water low enough when he pulls up to cause some waves, and even those are going to be washed out by explosions in the water, and the movements of the submarine.
Chienne, on the other hand, does not give up so easily. If Knight *had* killed Chiot, nothing short of her own death would have pulled her away from him; as is, Chiot is alive, his armoured module functioning if not functioning *well*. One-armed, one of its emitters broken... and a long slash down the torso.
Knight had no intentions of cutting any deeper than he did. But Chiot doesn't know that.
So Knight actually staggers, then flies, and Chienne pulls up. She doesn't chase him but fires shot after shot from the Peak Shooters. Most miss. If she gets very lucky, one might clip him, but it's more to send a message than to shoot him in the back. She growls, low in her throat, a feral sound.
Which is where Chien comes in. "<Chienne! The Venom exploded. We don't have any reason to stick around and join in with the losers!>"
Chienne makes a noise more than a word. She's not seeing red quite as literally anymore, but her jaw hurts from clenching it, and her nose is bleeding. Did she hit it, in some of the whiplash movements she's made? She doesn't remember.
She takes a breath, and Seolla fires.
It's more than a shot; it's the words. Chienne wasn't speaking but nothing was wrong with her ears. Her rage, if anything, returns, burning bright. "<Shut up! You - >" The shot strikes home as Chienne jerks her Kerberlion to the side. It doesn't hit the body; it doesn't hit the weapons; it doesn't hit the shield emitters.
It hits the flight unit, which explodes a cloud of flame and smoke.
Kerberlion Present drops like a stone. Chienne fires all the other thrusters - hip, thigh, what remains on the back - at full force, but without the Tesla Drive handling the weight all she manages to do is slow down a little, until -
Chien catches her, grabbing her Kerberlion by one arm. His flight unit was damaged by Jezebel too, and the two of them keep descending, but slowly. A moment later, Chiot rises from underneath, taking the weight onto *his* functioning unit.
The three of them, together, can't rise. But they can avoid falling.
"<I'LL KILL YOU!>" Chienne rages - at Seolla, at Knight, maybe at Jezebel or the Tuatha de Danaan or even Gauron, who is already dead and gone. Her unit shifts, nearly making Chien drop it, but he manages a better grip a moment later.
"<I got you,>" Chien transmits, to Chienne alone. "<We're goin' back. You got what you wanted. We can kick up the second part of the plan. And then - you *can* kill her, if that's what you want.>"
"<Lot of effort for one girl,>" Chiot says, before Chien knocks his machine with one of Passe's feet. Gently, but enough to make the sound carry into the cockpit.
The three of them begin their own retreat, a cluster of units, barely functioning.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
A phenomenal, roaring detonation, a massive blast far, FAR beyond what's needed to obliterate an ARM Slave. Yet Kaname's assurances linger in the quiet on the bridge, throughout the ship...
...as Arbalest still manages to claw its way back up tot he deck, hanging on by the tow cable attached to the deck support. One arm up, hauling itself up by a main strength a human form doesn't have, even as Tuatha rocks violent.
<<I think that was a good bit more than standard,>> AL speculates, calmly, despite the chaos. <<Incoming target. Marking.>>
"Not like I can do anything about it," Sousuke grits, exerting his whole fatigued body up to slump on the deck. He sits in his cockpit, breathing in heavy gasps, eyes on the rippling waves. Kallen's alive but it barely penetrates his senses. The Venom leaves, but all he can think of...the words pounding in his heart...
"Kashim..." Sousuke seethes. "Kashim...!! DON'T CALL ME THAT!" he yells, at a man who he hopes is FINALLY a ghost. He drives his fist into the launch deck's plating, hard enough to reverberate throughout the ship. "WE'RE NOT FRIENDS, YOU SHITHEAD!"
An awkward silent persists, before AL pipes in, making full use of his mechanical ignorance of social custom, to note, <<Preferred mode of address noted, Sergeant. The elevator is ready for you.>>
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Every click, every jolt of her ship is etched into her mind, the instinctual familiarity of what was happening above; THe launch catapult, the sudden acceleration to fling both off the edge. The scrape of metal against metal, however minor. Wear and tear will buff out, but one's heart won't soon recover from the emotions of this day.
To brace herself in pure instinct, to feel the brazen sense of relief as the pressure wave of that explosion course through the TDD-1 in earnest, the water splashing over her ship.
Everything is gonna happy. There's a stifled giggle over that. Everything's going to be fine, isn't it? They have each other. That counts for more than any slimy person could boast about.
"...Venom confirmed neutralized." It's a dry update from the sonar tech, pinging the area again and again. Nothing. Nothing at all in the turbulent waves, something that could hide something small...but after this? No, there's no certain way to check. There was only...
"SECOND VENOM SPOTTED!" There's a sense of high alert, of jolting in place for whatever may come...Only for the declaration of non-combat to put everything in the bridge to a puzzling pause. To watch closely, carefully. Just that. The Guren, dumped. The person inside, taken care of. A grim stare from the Captain, keeping quiet as that Venom left. "...Venom retreat confirmed." Kallen...Please be okay.
There's another pause. A longer one. It rings out in her mind. Shithead. So Sousuke had moments like these...Moments that proved that he was just a normal human, with emotions, with things that angered and displeased him. She couldn't help but stifle a smile. It's something.
"We're taking on water!" There's no time to dwell over things. Other immediate priorities are at hand as the fighting winds down. The hole borne by the plasma cannon, ripped in by a singular bounty hunter. The worst of all things for a submarine: A hole. A singular massive hole with strained, heated, warped metal around the fringes. There's no ability to dive like this. No escape.
Unless.
There's a tap of a button, routing a call to the center of the submarine, down to the Lady Chapel proper. << "I know we've had tests, but do it. It's not the only way, but the quickest." >>
Theories were theories, tested. Again and again and again, locked, checked, reconfirmed, peer-reviewed internally, adjusted, tweaked, taking in the very minute details of input thanks to material availability and adjusting for it properly. Theories had their basis in reality, but real-world testing had to be done.
<Pose Tracker> Neo Getter Team has posed.
Neo Getter Two has not yet left the battle zone. Sho watches the Codarl so similar to the one that just blew up retrieve the other pilot and the wreckage of the Guren - and notes the Arbalest dangling off the side of the submarine.
"Storm and Minovsky interference are gonna scramble anything we have to say, if there's people listening, Sho," Gai points out. Go makes a 'tch' in the back of his throat. "Barely sending anyone to help. Typical."
Sho is silent for a moment, then steers their machine closer to the Tuatha de Dannan for a secure transmission. "Designation 'Toy Box', this is Neo Getter Robo. Seems like you've been going through a lot, huh?" Some kind of power struggle, spearheaded by that pilot who was so eager to die, maybe?
She doesn't know - but it's been obvious enough that this has been much more complicated than a sudden indiscriminate attack on Federation infrastructure.
She thinks over what she's going to say next. "... Be advised: These seas aren't safe. Standby for data package."
After a moment, the comms on the bridge ping to alert the transmission of a file: Footage dated for the 26th of June, depicting a massive crimson turtle shell rising from the ocean and sinking an OCU cruiser, before rounding on and approaching the camera.
"This unidentified Mechasaur is still at large. If you encounter it..." There's the note of a wry grin in Sho's voice. "You know who to call."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The Danaan is briefly alarmed at the arrival of a new Venom--but she recognizes it, from the mission where this all began... it's safe enough to assume this is Kallen's friend. The other Black Knight... she hopes so, anyway. There's little else she can do.
Now is the time to make their escape. And with both a hull breach and Federation units present, things are...
Complicated.
She'd wince, if she could, as Sousuke slams her hull. There will be time for comfort later...
Their best chance... it's just as the captain says. She'd come to the conclusion already--they really are in sync. In the engine room sits a machine, freshly-installed. The heart of a system meant to be tested on Merida, in controlled conditions, before any of this happened. But circumstances, it seems, have forced a field test.
The Tuatha de Danaan--Kaname Chidori--is confident in it. Utterly so. She knows this machine intimately, better than anyone else on the planet.
After all, she designed it.
The machine hums to life. A faint haze, just barely visible, coats her hull; the water stirs around her, a disrupted flow that excites the water into so much mist at the surface. Her wake is a stark, foamy white, visible even among the stormy seas.
Her nose tilts up, slowly, beginning to hold steady even amid the waves... the gaping wounds left by the Swordfish's plasma cannon rise above the waterline, gushing seawater. And then, as if unmoored, she begins to rise. Water pours off of her sleek hull as the submarine begins to fly. Anyone with the right sensors and a familiarity with warship flight will recognize the principle instantly--a Minovsky Craft system, though such a thing is unheard of on a vessel as small as the TDD-1.
The shell closes up around the flight deck, ensconcing the Arbalest within as the Danaan continues to rise. She disappears as her ECS activates, leaving the stormy seas empty behind her.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari understands. Shari understands perfectly. It's all falling apart, and soon, soon, She will be here.
"LIAR!" Shari screeches back at Nova. But she sees that hand glow. Her eyes dart towards the part of her panoramic display that shows it, and she moves to attempt to evade--
But the Alto is caught full-on by the strike, and the Alto tumbles toward its side, almost falling outright before Shari engages its maneuvering systems to prevent the fall into the water. That powerful intent, overwhelming, stops her for a long moment, too.
Only for another moment. And then--It's a feedback loop. Anger feeds anger. Until--suddenly--it doesn't.
Until for Shari, and perhaps for Nova, all is cold. It's like plunging into icewater, and it deadens sound, deadens noise, deadens sight. The senses black out for half an instant--
And in the darkness, a great pair of eyes watches.
There is one word: 'MINE.'
A portal gashes open behind her, a terrible hole in reality all in green energy. It's like nails on a chalkboard to psychic senses; it's like a scream issuing forth from the jagged tears in space.
And the Alto abrubtly floats backwards into it.
With finality it closes, and disappears as if it were never there.
The Alto's cameras catch the flight of the Toy Box. But Shari doesn't notice in the moment.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Following her brief incapacitation, Nova finds herself staring straight up at a gap in the world that strikes her silent, extending her incapacitation for an entirely different reason. All that anger immediately vanishes, once again replaced by pure fear. What... did she just see? And feel? After all she's been through today, what else can she conclude but...
"Monster...!"
She turns back to the TDD-1, seeing it, impossibly, fly and then vanish. Couple that with that horribly malicious intent she sensed earlier, and she can't help but feel as if she made a terrible error in judgment.
"They're all monsters...!"
With nothing left to keep her, the Sukeban doesn't stick around a moment longer. Firing all thrusters, Nova flees the scene, now terrified of a whole host of things that she can't quantify. And unable to shake the thought...
If they're monsters, yet they felt so familiar, so similar... then what does that make her...?
<Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
There's a clear view of everything that proceeds after the Guren is laid low. Though clear as it might be, the one watching sees it all through a film of red. Watches Sousuke take Gauron skyward. Sees the explosion. She doesn't necessarily see the Arbalest's survival... but she doesn't need to. How could he not be alive, after that?
The only sound after that, for what feels like hours, is the storm itself. And then... some jostling. An engine. And something more familiar, as she's pulled from the Guren. She has the presence of mind to wrap an arm around the person she's laying against. When she speaks, it's a little gurgly and strange. "...I told you. I'd be alright." Words Kallen must have a strange definition of, because the pilot here, without any medical training needed, can see clearly this girl is covered in her own blood. Has several gashes from fragments of the frame that tore into her. And that's really only what she sees immediately. If there's more, she certainly can't tell yet. But... Q-1 is alive, and that was the goal she set out to ensure.
Mission Success.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
The stormy seas toss Seolla's Nemo every which way as it sinks and sinks. Her sensors at least are strong enough to read that Chienne, Chien, and Chiot are limping away from the field - and at that moment, all the tension leaves her body. Though the weather doesn't quite behave, the storm feels almost tranquil rather than violent. By that point, the stimulants have run their course, and Seolla's oh so tired out. All she wants to do is sink.
-but how can you sink, when a miracle is rising right next to you?
The Tuatha de Danaan unveils itself. By all means a submersible and aerial warship isn't anything too crazy, but Seolla had no idea this one was equipped to that extent - and the half-wrecked Nemo is sucked right towards it, draped out in a heap over one of the side fins.
The sky won't give Seolla up so easily, it seems. All she can do is laugh tiredly as the now soaring submarine (it can't be called a submarine any more, really!) lifts off below her.
"...You all really did it, huh...we all really made it out. How in the world do so many of you keep making miracles happen over and over...?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Speed, 20 knots. Course locked in. ECS, steady... Minovsky slipstream performance, nominal. I'll let you take it from here, DANA.
At the Tuatha de Danaan's heart, in Lady Chapel, Kaname Chidori opens her eyes, the TAROS' cover lifting off of her. She sits up and looks down at herself, taking inventory of her limbs. Two legs, two hands... two eyes, two ears. Standard human body, standard human senses.
She looks up at the dome's ceiling, rubbing her arm. It feels... not like she's missing something, but... like she's something a little bit more than she was before.
After a long few minutes, Kaname stands and makes her way to the door. She has a captain and a sergeant to hug.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
...It's real. It's up in the air. Her submarine. Her pride and joy. Up. Flying. So much for this day. So much happened in this day. It was a sensation to keep herself steady, the subtle shift of outside pressure as DANA worked her magic; Pressure equalization. Power rerouting. Proper air distribution. On and on, the many minutae of air travel sorted out. It was...electrifyingly joyous, to know that the theories all worked.
The small stiffening of her back as she heard those footsteps, sitting up on the chair. She thought herself a mess; The stained front of her uniform. The eye stained with red. The occasional fugue of tiredness. Nearly there. Nearly home.
Waiting for that door to open. And when it did.
"Welcome back, Kaname. Welcome back, Sagara."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The armor seals just as Arbalest slips far enough down the elevator that it won't clip the head. Emergency crews are already at work in the hangar - that damage...they won't be able to get very high with that.
Still. "AL, I'm getting out."
<<I do not recommend departing the cockpit at this time, Sergeant.>>
Sousuke sits the Arm Slave down in its parking spot. The hangar's a mess - massive vehicles that hadn't been properly locked down in the chaos, flung around wildly by the insane movements of the last few hours. But his spot is there. He kneels.
"Get my sealed helmet out, then. I have to go see them."
A moment passes. <<Roger,>> AL concurs, and the hatch pops.
Still clipping the sealed environment helmet in place, Sousuke hops down from the cockpit and makes for the bridge.
He needs to see them. Even if just for a moment, before they must return to crisis stations...he must.