2023-09-23: Tempest in Azadistan: Continuing Day By Day
- Cast: Elisa Kafim, Seolla Schweizer, Sousuke Sagara, Teletha Testarossa, Mr. Indium (NPC), Xia Twins, Roux Louka, Rain Mikamura
- Where: Azadistan
- Date: U.C. 0097 09 23
- Summary: The Xia Twins have thrown Azadistan into disarray, but when the Shuffle alliance and Celestial Being arrive to stop them, Amalgam arrives to stop EVERYBODY.
And then, the prodigal son returns.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The situation in Azadistan has grown beyond dire. SOMEBODY has stolen an Amalgam lambda-driver equipped arm slave and been raising merry havoc, trashing REA deployment camps, AEU vessels, insurgent facility, Azadi military bases...everyone is blaming everyone else, and when they aren't, they're blaming everyone else's incompetence. The region has become a powderkeg. What might have been a grim but routine power grab has turned into the spark that might just blast apart the Federation into a final conflagration.
The Shuffle Alliance attempted to intervene through simply finding the robot while it was recharging and the pilot resting, but that ran aground on multiple factors, not the least of them Sousuke Sagara abandoning the mission for reasons that are so far just between Melissa Mao and Teletha Testarossa.
Thus, with the Arbalest off the table and everything else at a standstill, Mithril command issued an order to all: They'd have to fight off the attacker in a direct fight.
It is now 30 minutes into that battle.
For a single attacker, this one Codarl's raw speed and lambda driver power has shown shocking resilience. Combined with the fact the battle is in the middle of a city, making it difficult to bring much barrier-busting technology against it, and it's turning into a battle of attrition. Mithril's team is already down a couple M9s, machines shattered by palm strikes that left their cockpits sitting totally exposed while the machine itself simply disintegrated.
Unfortunately...they aren't the only ones with an interest.
It is now 40 minutes into the battle.
That's when Amalgam shows up. Until, Shuffle's brushes with what could be called an organized Amalgam response have been piecemeal, often in a somewhat deniable way, through mercenaries or third-hand assets.
Ten Codarls.
Ten Codarls assemble across the skyline, sitting on rooftops, leaning on executioner's polearms and long anti-fortification swords. "Hyeyeye," giggles the leader, in a red machine with a massive autocannon. "My little kittens have been mighty naughty! A shame I couldn't bring your little rat of a sister with me. I guess you managed to get one up on Mr. Silver? Hehe. Hardly matters."
"Kill everybody."
The Codarls rolls their necks, unconcerned, and leap for the sky, lambda drivers blazing. One leaps farther than the others - heading straight for the rear line and maybe even the battleships in the distance.
Until a spear of light shatters him into steel confetti.
A machine in white stands on another rooftop, melting out of the background as its ECS fades off. White, and navy, and the air flickering around it... "What a piece of junk," Sousuke Sagara sighs, with mild aggravation. "That was an activation, right?"
<<Affirmative. Total garbage,>> AL agrees, lightly.
"Work on your punchlines," Sousuke says, then thumbs a control. "All Shuffle Alliance, this is Uruz Seven. Sorry to keep you waiting."
Arbalest surges into the sky, tackles a second codarl out of the air, and knifes completely through its impenetrable barrier in a single stroke. Another two come for him.
Their weapons shatter against his shield, and then two slugs blow them both away. Arbalest leaps up, taps a light post with its foot, and soars from it higher; a third pursuer crashes completely through the post, its weight far too massive to be held up by such a flimsy thing. An anti-tank dagger pins its neck ones second later, and the explosion takes it out.
Arbalest touches down, light lensing around it as the lambda driver flickers and glows. Its green eyes blaze with challenge, to Amalgam and Yu Fan both.
"What the hell!? WHAT THE HELL!? NO BUT LIKE WHAT!?" the Amalgam attack leader shrieks. "MITHRIL'S LAMBDA DRIVER IS SUPPOSED TO BE INCOMPLETE! Get the new guy out here!! My sideburns aren't conditioned for this kind of stress!!!"
KTS: Roux Louka has deployed in MSZ-006-3 Zeta Gundam 'Strike Zeta' <Mobile Suit>. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has deployed in Lion 500. KTS: Rain Mikamura is now subpiloting for Teletha Testarossa. KTS: Xia Twins has placed a bucket with capacity 3! KTS: Elisa Kafim has deployed in Queadlunn-Inanna. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has joined Xia Twins's bucket! [Entertainment] Teletha Testarossa> time to play a Yukana-voiced character while lazily grinding a game where the main good unit for this specific thing is Yukana-voiced
KTS: Mr. Indium has placed a bucket with capacity 2! KTS: Elisa Kafim has joined Mr. Indium's bucket! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has joined Xia Twins's bucket! KTS: Roux Louka has joined Mr. Indium's bucket! [Entertainment] Zan> Dang. Sekai did watch G Gundam. https://en.gundam.info/about-gundam/series- pages/buildmetaverse/product/3/
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Xia_Twins has deployed as a Boss for 3 opponents.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There's a sense of mild despair permeating in the Tuatha de Dannan. Settled back into the seat of the Captain's Chair, Tessa could do little more but to watch and wait, doing her best to stay calm in such situations. The chatter of her crew was coming through, parsing general directions as they hid in the Arabian Gulf. One moment after another, directing the PRT members who were there in the battle. Local militia in Fantongs that were strangely better organized than most peppered throughout the city, interfering in a fight here and there and retreating when interrogated for names.
30 minutes. 30 minutes of this hell, with no Uruz-7, with no-
Ten.
Ten Codarls.
The chill is palpable, Tessa surpressing a gulp at the news. A quick tap, a quick direct. "Fire the missile here." The sounds of work, of movement and the slow, rattling chill of a missile breaking through the water and accelerating over hundreds of miles towards a marked circle.
There is only a moment's hesitation as the news pour in. "Lambda Driver reaction confirmed!" There's a gasp. A glance over at the Captain. Only when the confirmation of the Arbalest and of Sousuke's voice coming through does the Captain finally relax, tapping a few buttons in response.
"Loud and clear. Treat Uruz-7 as a VIP unit." In other words: If he's down, things are colliquially FUBAR.
"There will be a missile at this location in 20 seconds." Twenty whole seconds to parse the location data, to move as the mini-payload streaked towards the red machine. Direct payloads rarely worked, but the idea of shotgunning shrapnel at subsonic speeds over a small area was a particularly insane idea.
BGM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv2jr9FyMQw - Slapping Fight - Shade
It was time for work. Twenty seconds for the mental clock to tick down before beginning her own thought process in earnest.
"Check on the Codarls! I don't want a single one to escape, if possible!"
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Xia Twins with Single Missile! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Mr. Indium has posed.
Davyd Ratan wasn't really sure how he'd managed to get such a sweet gig. He'd been a Britannian Ranger for a good few years, made a good government salary, sent some home like he was s'posed to, laughed over beer and cigarettes with his buddies, worked up a pretty nice retirement package thanks to his willingness to shoot people from basically every continent and political means.
For many, it was the day of their demagogue's last speech. For him, it was a Wednesday.
He'd learned from some comrades that going PMC had some nice vacation packages, and sent out his resume to some of the better benefits packages. It wasn't too long, then, before he ended up in a deniable unit that was payrolled by a shell corp that fronted for a fake name that fed promising talent into Amalgam proper. Now he was the New Guy.
The Agrissa sprang into the air from its ECS'd transport, landing on a ruined building and skittering forward down the slope.
"As you say, Boss man. Indium here, I'll go ahead and cut these interlopers down to size. Good to finally get a chance to stretch my legs!"
Seolla Schweizer has connected.
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has deployed in Lion 500. KTS: Mr._Indium has deployed as a Boss for 2 opponents. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has joined Xia Twins's bucket!
<Pose Tracker> Xia Twins has posed.
Several days into Yu Lan's continued assault into the Azadistan region and those cowards over at Mithril refused to show themselves, Sousuke Sagara nowhere to be found. Until now, that is.
Even with the Arablest discarded, Mithril issues an all-out-attack. At first, it was effortless to deal with - M9's simply cannot put up any sort of meaningful resistance to the continued use of a Lambda Driver.
40 minutes in. A flash of a red Venom, flanked by nine others, followed by a voice she hoped she never had to hear again lest she cut the tongue it comes out of, and he invokes her sister. "Is that what you were planning? Gates, you bastard!" She shouts, with the most emotion he's probably ever heard out of her. She's safe, though, taking care of things on the ground. She can proceed with her mission. "It's fine by me that you've shown your disgusting face. We'll finally take our revenge for what your organization did to our hometown all those years ago!"
Her little dispute with her former handler is disrupted, though, by the activation of another Lambda Driver, as one of those Codarls shatters into brilliant light. "The Arbalest--" She whispers, wiping beats of sweat from her forehead. "Sousuke Sagara... finally found your spine?" Her own Codarl fires what may as well be the evil eye in its purest form towards the Arbalest, sharp red eyes matching those of its pilot, using the Lambda Driver projection to try and crush it where it stands. "Or perhaps you finally figured out what Sensei was trying to tell you, tiger cub."
"Rest assured, I won't kill you -- or rather I cannot. But your friend in the Lion here won't be so lucky." Gatling Cannons aim at Seolla's Lion 500, firing a full round. "This is our fight, Mithril dog. Stay out of it if you wish to live!"
The ground forces aren't all Mithril has, though, as an irritating submarine missile detonates upon her Codarl's armour, trying to mitigate it with the Lambda Driver best she can. "The damned Toy Box. A ship full of nothing but enemies. I'll finish what Sensei started!" The Gatling Cannons spread even as far out as the waters where the TDD-1 emerges, aiming to puncture holes in its impressive mechanics.
KTS: Xia Twins blocks Teletha Testarossa's Single Missile, taking 990 damage! KTS: Xia Twins targets Sousuke Sagara with Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Piercing Eyes! KTS: Xia_Twins Changes attack to Seolla Schweizer and Teletha Testarossa with AK-87 Gatling Cannon Barrage. <Pose Tracker> Mr. Indium has posed.
[Stitch to prior]
The Agrissa descends the concrete slope of the fallen building, before those legs bend down and spring up, ENACT turbines aiding the leap, the Agrissa lingering in the air for a moment as red circles shrink around the Codarl and the Arbalest, plasma rifle snapping to attention and firing a barrage of shots at both.
"Tough luck, turncoats and Mithril get year-end bonuses!"
KTS: Xia Twins enervates Seolla Schweizer, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Seolla Schweizer fails to react to Xia Twins's AK-87 Gatling Cannon Barrage, taking 7020 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Shoot to Kill activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Eyes of Despair activates, causing Deject! KTS: Xia Twins has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Sousuke Sagara [Entertainment] Zan> Oh yeah. https://darkwolfsabers.com/shop/ols/products/trooper-gundam-wing-lightsaber1/v/TRP-GND- WNG-LGH-NXS-XN3 <-- Yes, it's real.
KTS: Xia Twins has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins's Biorhythm activates Focus and Wall!
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux Louka was not in the initial strike team. No, she was, despite the name of her Mobile Suit, on standby... because she represented the tactical reserve.
For you see, Roux Louka is not piloting a generic beater Lion and trying to exceed her limits using ordinary technology graced by the profound, almost spiritual strength of the Assault Blade and, uh, not a lot of other fancy doodads --
Roux Louka has brought a weapon that would have been a war-winner had it been a couple of years earlier... and which is still, with regular care and feeding and some system updates, *pretty decisive*.
She had left 8 minutes into the firefight.
GOOD NEWS: The Strike Zeta has thermonuclear jet engines. Those are exactly as cool as they sound. More to the point, they run on the fusion power output of the Gundam's reactor - which means no reaction mass for conventional thrusters or consumed fuel. They just run on the regular helium-3 distillate that most other microfusion reactors do.
HOPE YOU ENJOY IT, BECAUSE JUPITER GOT TURNED INTO A LION! OR SOMETHING.
And she's STILL three minutes away when the news goes out -- because despite that atrocious flight power, she still has to worry about crap like REA degeneracy radars and visual-automatic anti-aircraft weapons. So her route has NOT been as the crow flies.
Which does mean, she's not quite there when -- "You're firing a missile after he gets back?!" Roux exclaims, which is the kind of back-sass Tessa has probably had to endure from Roux "Only Confirmed Literate Member Of The Gundam Team" Louka.
The Waverider-mode Gundam shifts form into the Mobile Suit shape while decelerating, the sudden change in aerodynamic profile jolting Roux somewhat as she says, "Alright! Sorry I'm late-- OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT THING!"
Roux immediately fires a pair of missiles from the Strike Zeta's shoulder packs out towards the Agrissa, swerving nearer to the building-top line as she descends. "TDD, they've got reinforcements too. Do you recognize shtis thing? It's like some kind of four legged -- deep sea crab of a Mobile Armor!"
KTS: Roux Louka targets Mr. Indium with Standoff Missile! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The battle rages on...
With the Invisibility Burst going on, it's hard to get proper communiciations about things like this. but one way or another, someone has been paying attention... and that someone arrives, a Queadlunn variant shooting out of the clouds down towards the battlefield.
"Hm hm hm..." A voice comes over the radio. The situation is indeed dire. "Such wanton destruction, without true intent or merit..."
It sails down towards the Agrissa. "You are the interloper here. You do not belong."
Missiles pour out from the Queadlunn-Inanna all around the Agrissa, aiming to force it from its perch.
The voice of Elisa Kafim continues, "I have often enjoyed crab..."
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Mr. Indium with Loom XL-38 Missile Launcher Pods Area Denial! KTS: Elisa Kafim has completed their actions for the round.
KTS: Xia Twins enervates Sousuke Sagara, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Xia Twins rattles Sousuke Sagara, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Sousuke Sagara blocks Xia Twins's Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Piercing Eyes, taking 5500 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Shoot to Kill activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Eyes of Despair activates, causing Deject! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 9400 KTS: Your EN is now 43.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
In trying and complicating times like these, the one thing keeping Seolla afloat is her loyalty.
The storm enveloping Azadistan is utterly outside her ken - rapidly becoming a maelstrom of violently competing interests, within which Mithril's actions are one of the key deciders. Of what? To which end? The actual explanations have...been a little dizzying to Seolla - further complicated by the mysterious disappearance of Sousuke Sagara mid-operation.
-During that time, drenched in uncertainty, Seolla feels validated in her decision to keep Arado away from this, even if, oh so ironically, he'd be capable of pushing through the fog better than Seolla could.
The even more mysterious reappearance of Sousuke is even more proof. This is not a state to bring in new operatives, clearly.
The decision on who to target becomes clear, at least. The red Codarls are distinctive, and their enemy - as is the one challenging the Arbalest. Seolla's never seen these, but she's observed them in reports on especially dangerous terrorist weapons. Patience, clearly, is key, as she hovers high above like a hawk, readying her Lion's rifle, training carefully on the exceedingly agile Arm Slave -
Patience proves not to be key, as suddenly, a hailfire of machine gun blazing pierces Seolla's wings, sending the pale blue bird plummeting down at an alarming rate, the g-forces griping her lungs. <"U-Uruz-11 here, I've been hit real bad, just what the hell is that Arm Slave firing? That should've barely been higher caliber than anti-personnel vulcans but I'm already in real trouble! Tch- I'm firing, be careful, Uruz-7! And - I'm sorry, Captain! Damn it, just who IS this terrorist?!">
Leveling the railgun shakily at Yu Fan - the moment Seolla gets a single shot lined up, she fires over and over, gliding unevenly and getting dangerously low altitude for her speed...
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Xia Twins with FT Railgun Impact Shot! KTS: Seolla Schweizer has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins successfully evades Seolla Schweizer's FT Railgun Impact Shot KTS: Mr. Indium has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mr. Indium has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mr. Indium successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Loom XL-38 Missile Launcher Pods Area Denial KTS: Mr. Indium successfully evades Roux Louka's Standoff Missile
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The blast from Xia Yu Fan's cannon slams into the Arbalest's shield. The executioners' weapons exploded from this conflict, and the two forces still collide with a brightly flaring collision of wills. Lights clash, windows up and down the block shatter. The final explosion of light only ends when Sousuke yields the leap, forced into the air by Yu Fan's raw force. But still, when Arbalest lands, it's nimbly, eyes flashing bright. "She's stronger than the others," Sousuke notes.
<<Mouthier, too.>>
"I know what he wanted me to know. But I'm not that man anymore. I'm not his 'saint of murder.'"
And I'm not Mithril's dog, either!"
He surges back in, light lensing and flexing around him from a permanent repulsion field. On the way down he shoves the Boxer into Arbalest's facial hardpoint, holding the weapon in its 'mouth', and then whips out a monocutter and holds it two-handed, aiming to drive all his strength into Yu Fan's Codarl.
"Be careful! That thing's lambda driver will tear you apart if you let it!" Sousuke barks at Seolla's alarm.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Xia Twins with LD Monomolecular Cutter Close Quarters Combat! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 53. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 35. KTS: Xia Twins parries Sousuke Sagara's LD Monomolecular Cutter Close Quarters Combat, taking 1200 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has engaged Xia Twins! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command targeting Seolla Schweizer
<Pose Tracker> Rain Mikamura has posed.
Rain could have made her way to a different area, but a combination of circumstances meant that it was easiest for her to find her way to the Tuatha de Danaan. While only minimally familiar with the Mithril flagship, she is more comfortably familiar with the one in the Captain's Chair, and Tessa is treated with the respect as she should, even if Rain is the older.
"I've done this often enough in the past, so let me know if there's a second pair of eyes you need on something, Captain." Rain says from wherever she got parked. Sure, a submarine overseeing a group isn't as straightforward as 'staring at the Shining Gundam by herself', but in a sense, it's easier.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Sousuke Sagara <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Leaning back on the Command Chair, Tessa could only watch and vaguely interfere every so often, waiting patiently. It's okay. Sousuke is back. Speaking of...There's a glance towards Sousuke's location. Arbalest, working. She suspected the emergency transit of one particular individual for this, but that thought was shoved off to the side.
"Lambda Driver reaction confirmed." So says a technician keeping tabs on the red Codarl.
"Understood. Mark it as Andra-1."
"Aye, ma'am. New suit on the field, no known IFFs."
"Mark it as Buer-1." It did remind her of a crab...But she couldn't just call it Crab-1.
A minute click of the tongue. Listening. Watching. Sensei? Who? Focus. Focus on this right now. There's too much distance, too much water for the bullets to make a dent. The pockmarks are visible in the light, but the fact that there was no damage to report did twinge happily in Tessa's heart.
Responses. Roux. "Negative, Roux." Wisely bypasssing the exclamation, even if it had earned a small frown from Mardukas. Stickler. "Do what you can and be prepared. We're sending battlefield data as we can."
Seolla is tracked as a member of the SRT, noting the damage. She'll live. That's what's important in this moment. "Copy, Uruz-11. We've recieved reports about a similar suit wreaking havoc every so often, so things may be finally coming to a head. Keep watch, stay down, and rendezvous with PRT members if possible. It's amplifying its attacks, so assume lethal force on every attack it does." ...Was it possible to link up? Most likely not. But the Lambda Driver...
...Leonard...A confirmed suspicion, but there's still a flareup of anxious anger.
"Copy, Rain. Keep an eye on the new suit and relay what you can to their side. The Codarls are also a threat, but..." There's a flicker of a screen. The ARX-7. Arbalest. "I think we'll be fine."
DANA interprets Tessa's next taps on her tablet. Flinging information outwards, keeping the battlefield on observation. Targeting data, unit data, assumptions about weakpoints and joint strain to better coordinate attacks on the Red Codarl.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Xia Twins with Designate L2! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa designates Xia Twins, making them easier to target and opening them to indirect fire. KTS: Rain Mikamura targets Xia Twins with Pass! KTS: Rain Mikamura has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins fails to react to Rain Mikamura's Pass, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Mr. Indium has posed.
"Oh, come on, more mercenaries? So much for an easy day at work."
As the combined swarm of missiles streaks in, Davyd twists the Agrissa in the air, the legs folding in as it briefly enters its Mobile Armor form. Accelerating away, twisting in a barrel roll, the Agrissa leads the missiles on a merry chase, before pulling into a tight Immelmann and spreading out its spider legs, blasting the missiles away with an electric burst.
"Haah... This rush, it makes the payday payoff that much better. Come on, then, if I'm the interloper here, that puts you in my way, and I get paid for pushing things out of the way." The Agrissa crashed to the earth, legs bowing, leveling that high-powered plasma rifle again.
"I don't really care who belongs here or not."
KTS: Mr. Indium targets Roux Louka with Plasma Cannon - Burst shots! KTS: Mr. Indium targets Elisa Kafim with Plasma Cannon - Burst shots! KTS: Mr. Indium has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Mr. Indium's Plasma Cannon - Burst shots, taking 5520 damage! KTS: Roux Louka fails to evade Mr. Indium's Plasma Cannon - Burst shots, taking 5100 damage! KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Xia Twins has posed.
Survived, did she? That Lion pilot has some real tenacity, even managing to put out a shot through all the damage. Yu Fan tracks it, using her driver to force the railgun fire to whirl decidedly off-target. The bullets fling towards the unfortunate pilot of another Codarl - their mutual enemy, their own Lambda Driver failing at the key moment.
"A weak man who cannot use his own weapon." Yu Fan comments, as the remains of that Codarl collapse to the ground. "To say you're no different would be an insult. You have some real tenacity to survive a round from this Codarl. Come... show me your defiance! And don't you dare run away to that Captain of yours." The Lambda Driver crackles, energy enveloping Seolla's Lion - all it does for now is make communications hell to deal with for a few moments... but Yu Fan certainly has her eyes on her prey.
She's far less surprised Sousuke Sagara has survived, but it is a miracle he managed to master that Lambda Driver after all. He denies Sensei's message for him, but... "You're wrong, Sousuke Sagara. A man's soul cannot change so easily... and you can not take back all the lives you've stolen on the battlefield!" She shoots back, as he rushes in melee, slicing with that powered monomolecular cutter. With her own two Lambda Driver powered cutters, she's able to push him back. "If you can't even accept Sensei's message, then all you're doing is running away. That is the difference between you and I." Really aiming to get at his skin, she adds, "Even that adorable little girlfriend of yours is stronger than you, in will and everything else. My sister witnessed it herself, after all. Don't you think she deserves someone who can actually fulfill her wishes?"
She unleashes her deadly monomolecular cutter spinning strike, only made more powerful by the Lambda Driver, engaging the Arbalest in a truly deadly dance! "Prove me wrong, why don't you?"
But the SRT are organized if nothing else - Tessa's designation brings a swarm of M9's upon the Codarl-m. Using her spare Monomolecular Cutter hand, she attempts to fire a round of shotgun fire to get them out of her hair, redirecting them to the oh so rude Mr. Indium of Amalgam.
KTS: Xia Twins targets Sousuke Sagara with Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Dance of Death! KTS: Xia Twins targets Seolla Schweizer with Point Blank Minovsky Particle Chaff Release! KTS: Xia Twins targets Teletha Testarossa with Large Monomolecular Cutters - Rifle Double Shot! KTS: Xia Twins has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins's Biorhythm activates Strike and Alert! KTS: Xia Twins enervates Seolla Schweizer, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Xia Twins rattles Seolla Schweizer, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Seolla Schweizer fails to parry Xia Twins's Point Blank Minovsky Particle Chaff Release, taking 2400 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Shoot to Kill activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Eyes of Despair activates, causing Deject! KTS: Xia Twins repulses Seolla Schweizer, forcing her to disengage. <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Something appears. Something joins them. A voice comes out, crackling in the interference of the stellar malice radiating from Jupiter. Roux glances over as she tenses up, because she knows that voice. She was at her wedding. Roux is about to report it in --
-- when Elisa shoots at the Agrissa instead.
While there is no reliable feed for cockpit video back to the TDD from the Strike Zeta, anyone reviewing the cockpit footage later will get to see Roux's facial expression, which holds for several seconds, and can best be compared to the face you make when you open that container of food in your refrigerator that *looks* fine and discover it is *not* fine, and hasn't been fine for at least a week and a half.
She doesn't say anything, though.
"It's an unknown...? Great," Roux sighs in response to the TDD's message. "I'll try to bait it out! We, uh, we may have a co-belligerent here... Are you picking up that modified Queadlunn?"
At this point the Agrissa shifts into its Mobile Armor form for a moment, which reveals a few things to Roux and to the remorseless recorders of the Strike Zeta. Roux swerves herself but there's something about this damn guy which feels slippery. Why are these people fighting Mithril all frigging weird, Roux thinks as she swerves, jinks, takes several glancing blows--
They're not THAT glancing. Roux sucks in breath through her teeth.
And she sends Elisa a message. <<"Break right,">> she tells the enigmatic sorceress, because Roux herself is breaking left and is answering the challenge of the Agrissa with something significantly peppier than a pair of missiles: a barrage of 60mm cannon fire from the Gundam's head, pausing briefly only when she swerves behind the concrete carcass of a building to break visual line-of-sight for a moment. "Come on," Roux mutters to herself. "Show us where you break --"
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka targets Mr. Indium with 60mm Vulcan Barrage! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: +defend (player or queue number) KTS: [Spirit Defense] Sousuke Sagara's Someone to Protect activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Xia Twins enervates Sousuke Sagara, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to parry Xia Twins's Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Dance of Death, taking 7440 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Shoot to Kill activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Eyes of Despair activates, causing Deject! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 1960 KTS: Xia Twins has engaged Sousuke Sagara! KTS: Your EN is now 48.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Not mercenaries, no."
Elisa finds that her attack is evaded, and 'hmms' a little as she notices the way that the Agrissa moves all around. It's quite mobile....
"But I suppose it's good that you're having fun." A pause. "I do hope the pay is worth it, for what happens..."
And something will happen. The Queadlunn-Inanna rolls and spins next through the attacks, but is unable to dodge the effects of the plasma rifle, which hit hard and nearly overwhelm its barrier. nearly.
"Hm hm hm..."
Elisa breaks right as Roux sends her the message, apparently willing to trust her for the moment. She did go to her wedding. And so she moves.
"This is a Celestial Being Intervention," Elisa announces over a wide band. "Put up your weapons and flee, or die."
"Either's fine."
Elisa, while Roux moves to the end of the building, maneuvers her Queadlunn closer, reaching out with its hand towards the great machine. She only needs to score a single touch--
Shadowy power ERUPTS from her machine's hand, a horrific taste of something dark, cold, and always hungry, with a shriek for the mentally aware.
"Come. Have a taste of power."
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Mr. Indium KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Mr. Indium with Touch of the Void! KTS: Elisa Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to Charge. KTS: Xia Twins enervates Teletha Testarossa, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Teletha Testarossa partially guards Xia Twins's Large Monomolecular Cutters - Rifle Double Shot, taking 6240 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Shoot to Kill activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Eyes of Despair activates, causing Deject! KTS: Xia Twins begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Rain Mikamura has posed.
"... Captain?"
Rain sounds ... inquisitive. Run. "I have been trying to keep up on the reports, but I feel like there's something that I've either missed or there's something that hasn't been talked about. With the whole situation. Admittedly, I am one woman, but nevertheless..."
A pause as she flicks data off her screen straight to Seolla, who she also recognizes through Shuffle shenanigans. She hesitates for a moment, before also passing the data onto the Arbalest. Sure, he might have gone rogue, but it takes a harder woman to not just look between him and Domon and not help.
"... and data is going on, as advised."
KTS: Rain Mikamura has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Teletha Testarossa KTS: Rain Mikamura targets Xia Twins with Pass! KTS: Rain Mikamura has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins fails to react to Rain Mikamura's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Mr. Indium has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mr. Indium successfully evades Roux Louka's 60mm Vulcan Barrage KTS: Elisa Kafim rattles Mr. Indium, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Mr. Indium parries Elisa Kafim's Touch of the Void, taking 510 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Mr. Indium!
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
<"Celestial Being's agent is there, huh..."> Seolla glances over at Elisa's declaration, a cold feeling running through her at the mere sight, as she hurtles and spirals downwards, the Lion's pointy legs scratching and scraping a rooftop noisily. Smoldering and struggling, aim faltering at actually locking onto Yu Fan - not that the mysterious deflection radiating from the Codarl helps her much.
...The worst then comes to pass.
Smoke engulfs Seolla - and the myriad communications she was relying on, the tether to the people who matter most - leaves her alone. The worst place to be. Lost in the fog, the tension clutches Seolla's heart. -What's wrong with running away to her captain? Where else in the world does she have to run to? Sweat pouring down the side of her face-
Then, the <shriek> from the void.
Collapsing to one knee on the rooftop, Seolla clutches her head in agony in the cockpit, her loud, piercing scream only barely fizzling through over jammed communications. The vastness and darkness of that awful power Elisa emits hits Seolla right where she's weakest. Away from the blue of the sky, the green of the earth, the warmth of those she cares about.
"...no...why...why am I always...!"
Knees lifting up, Seolla's breath quivers, the familiar feeling of an abyss clawing at her mind. An enemy like this wouldn't hesitate to kill her in this moment of weakness. Yu Fan wouldn't hesitate to kill everyone here, judging from how she's being even more merciless to Sousuke - to her own former collaborators.
"...everyone who's strong enough to cut through this storm, to save each others' lives...I can't keep failing them, they're going to abandon-"
<<THEY WOULD NEVER DO THAT>>
A meteor clears the clouds in Seolla's heart.
"...they would never do that. They would never do that! I REFUSE to believe they would do that, and I can't believe they'd do that to each other!!!"
The ruined flight module is forcibly ejected from the Lion's back, leaving Seolla a perilous unbalanced ballet dancer upon the rooftops. A gleam of green light flashes within the smoke.
<"You. YOU! Get AWAY from my friend! I'm bringing him back, and I'm figuring out just what's cracking us apart! You HEAR that Sousuke!? I'm getting answers from you AND Tessa and I don't care what I've gotta do to get there!!">
A gleam of silver from within the smoke.
With all her force and speed, Seolla launches like a rocket, blade-first, directly at Yu Fan - her eyes fixed on the Codarl's center where that repulsive light seems to emanate the hardest...!
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Xia Twins with Assault Blade Slash! KTS: Seolla Schweizer has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins rushes into the attack! KTS: Xia Twins successfully avoids Seolla Schweizer's Assault Blade Slash
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
"It wasn't easy," Sousuke answers. "Where do you think I've been?"
She comes at him. Again, they dance, Arbalest 'holding' the Boxer in its mouth hardpoint as Sousuke tries to fend off two monocutters. His field is impressive, now, his heart settled easily even as he is forced back by Yu Fan's violence.
He leaps away, feet coming down against a sign that could barely support the weight of a man, and then vaults back forward, OVER Yu Fan, pulling the Boxer back into hand in one motion. His head vulcans roar, a stream of light firing out of them and vaporizing the arms of an oncoming Codral. Sousuke finish the job by roundhouse kicking the executioner's head off, then coming down hard on the ground.
<<Five,>> AL notes.
"Don't count before I do."
Eyes up, target set.
"You're wrong. I've finally stopped running. Your 'Sensei' tried to curse me heart and soul, but I'm not his to control. Not Sayla's, or Tessa's, or Amit's, either. As for Kaname..."
He brings the shotcannon up, eyes set, certain of his target.
"She's chosen me. But I appreciate your praise. She's truly remarkable."
BLAM, as the shotcannon barrel releases a shell blazing with light fit to blast completely through that Codarl.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Xia Twins with Lambda Shotcannon Strike True! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 59. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 20. <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The Red Codarl rankles her the slightest bit. It's the first real, true confirmation of something else out there. Others out there, yes. But to see it so explicitly in action, to see Codarls shimmering about in action and movement...The worst taste in her mouth. To watch the Arbalest and the Codarl fight, to watch M9s be decimated and routed by a simple shotgun blast filled with so much possibility.
"Route a few towards the other bogey. Keep diversionary tactics on both." PRT fanning out, scrambling and taking potshots every so often at the Codarl from a distance. Cautious. Let Uruz-7 handle it. Let Uruz-11 handle it. Let Roux handle it. Keep the destruction down, and keep the city from going in flames.
"We've had a minor personnel dispute regarding Uruz-7." Tessa's tone towards Rain is clipped, professional, strained as she parses the passed information. "I'd like to say it's simple, but it simply isn't. Need-to-know. Ask Mithril Command for clearance." Uruz-7's reason for being pulled out was still Internal Affairs.
"Copy." It's hard not to notice something that came in with a missile barrage. "If they're not engaging, Roux, treat them like any 3rd-party combatant. We trust your judgement." What.
The thought is briefly interrupted by the wide-band transmission. Of course. That's what's happening here. Something she already knew, something of why Mithril was here in the first place, playing into this conflict. To stifle down the flames of war, as complex as the web lies.
"Confirmed ejection of the Lion's pack!" An update. The scream of answers, of wanting to know things, of wanting to understand...Tessa can't help but wonder when her own time is coming.
"Begin loading chaff with jammers in SSM payloads, push to tubes one through three." Countermeasures. More of them. It's too close to actually launch more missiles, espeically with Uruz-7 so close and Uruz-11 closing in. Keep at it.
"Aye, ma'am. Begin payload setup, tubes one through three!"
And the submarine shifted, missiles loading into place.
"Fire."
"FIRE!"
And three missiles broke through the water, streaking through the sky and exploding ovber parts of the city; Silver chaff, silver glitter in the light to confuse electronics, a jammer pinging with rapidly false signatures as a decoy.
KTS: Xia Twins rushes into the attack! KTS: Xia Twins partially guards Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Shotcannon Strike True, taking 1855 damage! KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Sousuke Sagara and Seolla Schweizer with All-Out. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Mr. Indium has posed.
"Celestial Being...Hah, interlopers fighting interlopers. No one wants your conflictless world, even in this backwater dustbin--we're cleaning up the mess because the people here wanted to fight more than they wanted comfortable lives."
The Agrissa steadies itself out from its heavy landing, then brandishes its plasma blade, protecting the critical components from the Zeta's vulcan fire as it crabwalks oblique to the line of fire. It's an unexpected move from the Queadlunn when it closes the gap, though, dashing in close with a grasping movement. Davyd stabs out with one of the Agrissa's legs, intending to impale the Meltran, suit and all. Unfortunately, this gives Elisa the opportunity she needs.
Mister Indium has marked half a hundred cuts into his knife over his career, but now, the feeling of those faces in his sights...turning to stare back at him. He feels the cold breath on his neck, his heart racing, breath shallow and rapid. It's hardly the Agrissa's leg being touched, so much as Davyd's legs slipping down, down, into the darkness.
"G-get out of my-, the fuck away from me! Who--What are you?!" he yells, the Agrissa rearing back before deploying its plasma field, crackling, hoping the impulse field will just kill the woman outright in her own suit.
Spooked, the Amalgam hitman tries to regain some distance, leaping over the building to where the Zeta and its bullets had disappeared to, swiping at it with the plasma sword.
KTS: Mr. Indium targets Elisa Kafim with Plasma Field -Discharge! KTS: Mr. Indium targets Roux Louka with Claw Leg - Swipe ! KTS: Mr. Indium has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Roux Louka fails to parry Mr. Indium's Claw Leg - Swipe , taking 3040 damage! KTS: Mr. Indium has engaged Roux Louka! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Mr. Indium's Plasma Field -Discharge, taking 3906 damage! KTS: Mr. Indium has engaged Elisa Kafim! <Pose Tracker> Xia Twins has posed.
Seolla, isolated and alone, just as Yu Fan intended... but it appears she wasn't the only cause of it. The power that the witch from Celestial Being wields... it's truly vexing, Yu Fan thinks. But she can't focus to spare a moment's notice on that voided power, as she turns her attention back to the Lion, its wings lost.
As she continues to charge with her Assault Blade, despite everything. But the girl is smart in where she aims, sensing the weakness of the Lambda Driver. Yu Fan uses her best judgement and decides on -
"ECS... activate." And suddenly, the Codarl is now behind its would-be slayer. "You're sharp. But your head isn't in it." The Codarl phases back into sight. There's somehow friction and distance between this girl and Sousuke. Can she use that to her advantage? Yu Fan is starting to find... the Lambda Driver is taking its own toll. No, she can't toy with her targets any longer.
"I may be standing between you and your friend. But you're standing between me and my revenge." She hisses, as the Lambda Driver energy converges and converges into the twin Monomolecular Cutters, each aiming to cut down the wounded Lion swiftly. "I'll put an end to this now...!" She asserts, with strain in her voice.
Sousuke on the other hand, insists he isn't running away - he's moving forward, no longer controlled by anyone. Yu Fan scoffs at his words, forcing herself to think that he is simply deluding himself. "You're not free... you are lost! " Yu Fan insists, rushing towards that Lambda Driver shotgun blast with her own. They somehow tug at her though - when Sensei is gone, will she be even more lost than she is? Overcome by these emotions and placing them into the Lambda Driver itself, she jumps from the rooftop where she attempted to deal with the Lion - a storm of forced conviction meeting the Arbalest in one final execution-style strike, as the Codarl's ponytail blows in the wind. "If rejection is all that remains in your heart for Sensei, then the only thing I have left to offer you is to meet him in the afterlife."
Before the Codarl begins to kneel from the sheer amount of strain placed upon it in this battle. "Move, Codarl, move!" She demands, as the rest of Amalgam's forces press to take back their machine, and kill the deserter inside. Her own Codarl rises, but even she knows the odds surrounded like this...
She hovers her hand over the self-destruct button, planning to take the rest of them to hell with the machine." She knows it's possible to survive a Codarl self-destruct... she probably owes it to her sister to do so.
KTS: Xia Twins has activated the Detonate Spirit Command, reducing the Plan-1059 Codarl-m <Yu Fan Use> to 1 HP! KTS: Xia Twins targets Seolla Schweizer with Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Rushdown! KTS: Xia Twins targets Sousuke Sagara with Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Execution! KTS: Xia Twins targets Teletha Testarossa with Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Onslaught! KTS: Xia Twins has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins's Biorhythm activates Wall and Focus! KTS: Teletha Testarossa orders an all-out attack, raising Sousuke Sagara's Skill! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 1960 KTS: Your EN is now 59. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rain Mikamura has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Seolla Schweizer KTS: Sousuke Sagara's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Sousuke Sagara's Someone to Protect activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Xia Twins enervates Sousuke Sagara, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to parry Xia Twins's Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Execution, taking 8160 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Shoot to Kill activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Xia Twins's Eyes of Despair activates, causing Deject! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at -6200 KTS: Sousuke Sagara has been defeated! KTS: You're out of the fight. Consider using +eject to leave the battlefield. KTS: Xia Twins has engaged Sousuke Sagara! KTS: Xia Twins roots their unit, coming to a standstill and leaving them vulnerable. KTS: Your EN is now 54. KTS: Rain Mikamura has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Sousuke Sagara
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Oh, I actually am a mercenary, Roux thinks. It's weird to think about it, but it's what she put on her tax forms in Jupiter space, anyway. Her eyes turn towards Elisa for a moment as she reveals -
"Celestial Being?" Roux says, with astonishment.
I'm not with her, Roux thinks, even as she pops the Gundam up on a vertical ascent.
Even so, Elisa is able to score a hit where Roux can see that her weapons fire is being -- it's hard to tell at this range how much is evasion and how much is simply armor doing its job in a concrete way. Armor can absorb energy but sometimes it can simply shrug things off, like the early tanks simply *ignoring* small weapons fire... weapons that could tell in some places, but, argh, Roux, she tells herself, stop it!
Her eyes narrow as the man begins talking. Roux feels her mind quiet as this unknown party speaks about Celestial Being and Celestial Being's ideology. A conflict-less world? Roux thinks: it's a nice idea, and maybe most people agree, but they'd have just one or two exceptions...
But Elisa's gotten him spooked. Roux can feel that even if she can't feel just *how*, other than the unsettling feeling Elisa is giving off. The Gundam goes into a slightly lower-slung district, where the buildings trend more towards six stories than eight and have already been shot up. Sweeping down a street, it's easy enough for Davyd to see her.
And the newly minted gentleman of Amalgam does so.
The leg sweeps down -- and the Gundam is sweeping UP with a beam saber. It crackles electrically as the shimmering and glorious fountain of megaparticles suffers underneath the reinforced coating; the Gundam itself is pushed downwards, to the ground, but in its other hand --
The enormous bulk of the Hyper Mega Launcher, already extending its barrel outwards into firing configuration. "Don't encourage her," she says to the Amalgam unit, flatly, before firing two screamingly intense beam shots up towards the belly. Attack the underside? It'll either be the most armored place or the least, Roux figures: and that's going to be intelligence, however the rest of this goes!
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka targets Mr. Indium with Hyper Mega Launcher Doubletap! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to Evade Xia Twins's Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Onslaught, taking 5394 damage! KTS: Xia Twins continues a Formation attack! KTS: Teletha Testarossa orders an all-out attack, raising Seolla Schweizer's Skill! KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer retreats from the attack! KTS: Seolla Schweizer fails to react to Xia Twins's Lambda Driver - Yu Fan - Rushdown, taking 4950 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Whether it is desired or not, a world without war is destiny. They will come to understand in time. But not you."
"No, you have made your choice."
She smiles within her cockpit, sickle-sharp, with an appropriate number of teeth. She is not impaled, as it happens, agile enough to dodge like her ancestors did in such machines, despite her size. But she makes a touch...
"HAHAHAHAHA," Elisa delights in that yell, that apparent confusion and pain. "You did not take my warning seriously."
The plasma field crackles--and Elisa cannot react to it. It slams out through her, burning the surface of the Queadlunn-Inanna, scything into the cockpit--
But still, she comes. Despite the scorching heat, she comes.
Indeed, even as nthe self-destruct sequence behind her starts to rise, she comes through the flames like some sort of devil in Hell, rising into the air. "Come," she says. "Witness your end. Witness that which will hunt you to the ends of the Earth if you persist in this folly."
She rises, and rises, and her machine--scorched, the radios malfunctioning, heavily damaged--is an idol on an altar.
Dark power erupts into all directions, and there is a CRACK in the world before Mr. Indium's machine. Green light shatters, and something grips the side, in an effort to come through. There is, for a moment, visibility--some great, horrid shape that the mind quails to see.
Only Mr. Iridium sees the depth of what is in the Void in that moment, but all who look this direction are privileged should they look to see a reality at odds with theirs in the moment.
"WITNESS! THE FATE OF THOSE WHO WOULD CONQUER THIS WORLD!"
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Mr. Indium with Profane Manifestation! KTS: Elisa Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mr. Indium has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mr. Indium has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mr. Indium fails to evade Roux Louka's Hyper Mega Launcher Doubletap, taking 4350 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
The communications cloud clears, and Seolla's heavy, labored breathing is a focus of desperation.
<"Revenge...revenge, huh? ...heh. I bet when he's been up against the world for so long, he'd become someone worth taking vengeance on.">
<"...I bet...down this same path...someone's gonna think the same of me. Since all I really want...is to give everyone who'd do what was done to me...a one way trip to hell.">
<"That's the way of the world, isn't it? The first time anyone had any reason to hurt another person, we all got caught up in revenge taken upon revenge taken upon revenge. I'd like to say it's pointless and stupid, but it's...it's what I'm doing, isn't it?">
The meeting of swords absolutely does not favor Seolla. Yu Fan's is so much stronger that the wind whipping around it starts shredding her Lion to pieces. It becomes clear a standstill is anything but - eyes going wide, Seolla's furious charge forward becomes a spine-bendingly intense surge rearward. Searing cut after searing cut tears into Seolla's cockpit.
The dust of Azadistan's chaos billows against Seolla's arms.
A sudden cough.
Blood splatters across Seolla's screen. Pain thrashes through her lower chest. If she were an inch closer, that could've been it.
<"G-gaaah. Horrible...you, and that Celestial Being lady too...S...Sousuke, what the HELL have you gotten yourself into with everything...going on here?">
Tears join the blood. Seolla's hands shake upon the targeting grips. It's taking everything she has to keep her mobile weapon upright. It's taking everything she has to stay alive. The corners of her vision are starting to fade.
<"...don't...don't do ANYTHING STUPID LIKE DYING, SOUSUKE! I...I've gotta...get out of here. I'm at my limit. CUT THIS STUPID CHAIN OF REVENGE APART, OKAY!?">
<"...captain. ...ah. ...sorry if I'm not as tough as I tried to be. Sorry if I'm...gone by the time I get back.">
Hurtling as fast as she can towards the TDD-1, only the blinking of a pale light on her monitor guides Seolla - only the sheer force of learned instinct keeps her moving. She might not make it. She knows it's a roll of the dice. But-
<"...no. T...that's not...happening. I didn't move this far forward for nothing...no matter what shape I'm in, I AM making it...back. Gyugh...">
KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Xia Twins with Pass! KTS: Seolla Schweizer has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Xia Twins fails to react to Seolla Schweizer's Pass, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
"I apologize, Uruz-11. I guess I've been worrying you..."
Sousuke looks down in his cockpit, and Arbalest's head follows the motion. "I lost track of what mattered most. But I'm alright now. Knight and Kaname showed me what I needed."
<<I feel I should point out that there is an Actual Witch from Possibly Hell over in the other field.>>
"Tag it with a pointy hat, then! If she's fighting Amalgam she's not our problem!"
Beep. <<Done.>>
The only reprieve he has before Yu Fan is on him again. "I've been lost," Sousuke answers. "I found what I needed and let someone take it from me. I let myself become someone whose life was combat. But I'm not that anymore. I'm someone else now."
All that power from Yu Fan roars through him and toward him, and he hurls his arm up, not with a weapon but with focused strength, the lambda driver field catching that oncoming deathly assault. He stares at the descending strike, blazing light flaring around both of them. Two tempered wills, clashing. It's not, quite, a Psycho-Field resonance, but the streets of Azadistan fill with a light from another world, warring reds and purples and blues crawling up each other, clashing lights that ricochet back and forth and sing a song you feel in your teeth. The shockwave is so intense one of the approaching Amalgam Codarl executioners explodes just from being in proximity, its lambda driver field utterly unable to match the sheer forces of willpower being exerted against each other. Finally, there is a huge flare of light, as Arbalest's feet buckle into the dirt, and the Codarl is forced to leap away.
Another shotcannon blast flies past Yu Fan's head, blowing away another Codarl in a single shot. "Seven." <<Seven,>> AL and Sousuke count at once.
He looks at Yu Fan, positive of what she's planning even before AL muses, <<SDM?>>
"You seem to be under some misapprehensions. So let me make it clear. I'm not some soldier of Mithril. Frankly, I couldn't care less about them. I'm not a dog who goes back to its home when an old man tells me it's time."
He takes a step forward, *power* gthering in the Arbalest's hand. Light lenses and flickers around it, a force with no body to exert it. "AL. Let's try it." <<Roger.>>
He steps out of the crater. "I am student number 41 of class 3-4 at Jindai Nouvelle Tokyo Municipal High School."
He takes a step forward. They've done enough analysis of the Codarl to know what he need to aim at...but more specifically, he knows all he needs to do. "I'm the monitor in charge of waste disposal, and umbrellas."
He takes a deep breath, light lensing around the Arbalest, light barely able to approach the machine through the repulsion field, his focus absolute. "My NAME isn't KASHIM, and it isn't SAINT, and it isn't SERGEANT!"
Like a comet, he streaks across the street toward Yu Fan's barely-functional Codarl, toward the Amalgam executioners standing in shock behind her.
"I AM SOUSUKE SAGARA!!!"
He thrusts Arbalest's fist into the Codarl's face.
Nothing happens. The light goes out. There is silence in the streets.
And then a WAVE of light ROLLS outward - engulfing the Codarl, engulfing the street beyond, roaring outward like an annihilating blast that should erase half the city in its awesome glow.
But when it fades, the Amalgam machines have been washed away, and Yu Fan has experienced the impossible, as her Codarl - every bolt and screw and kilogram of stable but powerful explosive - has been obliterated by awesome light.
Except her cockpit, which now rests gently on the ground.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Xia Twins with Southern Wind! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 48. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 20. KTS: Xia Twins fails to react to Sousuke Sagara's Southern Wind, taking 6975 damage! KTS: Xia Twins has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Rain Mikamura has posed.
"Oh, that's not ..." Rain's gaze flickers across her temporarily assigned screens, and she flicks data off. She's not hoping that Sousuke or Seolla will read them, but instead that the systems will automatically incorporate her attempt to help via the code.
Then stuff goes quite sideways ... and upwards... backwards... diagonally... as the Codarl explodes, and takes a good chunk of everything else with them. It's still standing - but seeing the Arbalest move, she suspects it won't be for long, but what Sagara says...
Rain shifts in her chair momentarily, gaze falling squarely on the Captain's Chair and the woman within it. She doesn't say a -thing- though, just ... stares.
A ping, and finally she glances away. "Incoming. It's Schweizer." Rain notes.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Watching. Waiting. There's a halt in her breath every so often; trying to pace herself without collapsing, her eyes occasionally flicking towards Rain's way. The weight of everything, and the anxiety of watching the people she knows work on her behalf.
Seolla...Pull through. Pull yourself through from this. There's little she can do for her, only to pray to God and to mull over what sort of explanation will pacify her. The way the Red Codarl moves is textbook in her mind. Yes, do this. That. And it works. If only her mind could be better, if only she could push her methods better...
Refocus back onto the conflict in front of her. Note the sudden addition of a witch hat onto one of the units. The way the Codarl is kneeling. The way it shakes. The way it-
Her mouth opens, failing to voice anything before Sousuke's own voice comes through. A twinge. He's...She'll have to figure this out later. Where everything stands. But what's in the moment is something she can't tear herself away from.
The crew braces for impact. The light, the shining light crashing forth into everything...Unscathed. Unharmed. An instinctual release of breath before her mental fugue is snapped, turning towards Rain before nodding.
The thought of openly wondering about Sousuke's declaration does die in her head, breath halting for a moment before immediately refocusing. "Get Goldberry to the hangar." She can't get out of this chair. Goldberry will be there. Textbook response. Settle. Don't get hung up on her. Keep moving. One step at a time, one moment at a time. You won't be gone. I won't let you, you hear me?
...Sousuke. Does that mean you're back?
"Uruz-7. Reconfirm your status."
<Pose Tracker> Mr. Indium has posed.
While the initial mission target is flagging massive catastrophic energy buildup, the Agrissa and Zeta clash in violent colors. The massive crab armor uses its bulk and leverage to crush its blade against the Zeta, finally raising another leg blade to execute Roux, in a manner of fact form. It's only when he notices the burgeoning glow in the Mega Launcher that he flinches--it seems Elisa's magic has shaken him more than his soldier's instincts can ignore. The disruptive plasma field's capacitors are still recharging; instead, he slams his hands on the control sticks, leaning the Agrissa's body away towards the beam saber arm, the Agrissa's plasma cannon glowing in concert with the Zeta's launcher. Both energy weapons crescendo to a resonant keen, crashing against each other.
"If I can't get the kill on that Codarl... damn it. I won't go home empty-handed!"
The Agrissa fires back and endures the destructive heat from the Mega Launcher and the undercarriage armor begins to melt away. Once warning lights begin to pop up on the console, Davyd punches the throttle, lifting away from the Zeta and into the air.
That's when Elisa's invocation to beyond comes fully into Mister Indium's sight.
"What the fuc..." He gets a glimpse of the crack in the world. Something beyond reaches out, reaches out towards the threshold. Reaches out towards him. It's not clear if it's an extremity of a familiar shape...unclear if shrouded in skin, sheathed in scales, or armored in chitin. All he can really tell is that it's not something that his eyes were meant to see. His eyes wander, as the crack widens and clarifies, like the sliding of lenses over each other.
He sees deeper than he ever wanted to, but cannot look away. Something inside...looks back. It knows. It knows he is there. That he is almost in reach.
"No, no, I didn't join up for this shit! Fuck, man, I can't spend my money if I'm dead!"
KTS: Mr. Indium retreats from the attack! KTS: Mr. Indium successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Profane Manifestation KTS: Mr. Indium targets Roux Louka with Plasma Cannon- Close range blast! <Pose Tracker> Xia Twins has posed.
Seolla's words about revenge... Yu Fan considers them. "Aside from each other, revenge is the only thing my sister and I have left." She insists. "Amalgam destroyed our hometown... and Mithril hurt the only man who cared enough to save us. How could we not hate them all?"
She does not pursue, though, as Seolla proves there's nothing wrong with running back to her Captain. "Perhaps I recognized we weren't so dissimilar just from the way you fought. So... go. There's no reason for you to fall any further. I hope you're satisfied."
"Sousuke proves Yu Fan wrong time and time again... was she truly under the wrong impression of this young man? The one Sensei likened to a saintly killer? And worse than that - was all the care he showed her and Yu Lan... just a part of this ruse, this game, to see that look in this young man's face again?
The Arbalest slowly marches forward, evaporating each and every one of her would-be executioners in his path. Yu Fan's eyes widen - unable to muster even a tiny Lambda Driver barrier in her defense with her fading willpower.
All she can do is listen to his assertations, each and every one of them. Although she had a Sensei, she'd never gone to the type of school Sousuke speaks of, yet it's the most important thing in the world to him. Absurd...
She snaps her eyes shut when the light reaches her detonating Codarl, accepting she'll never make it out alive. Does she have regrets? She finds that they aren't related to failing to complete her mission and carry out her revenge. There's only one thing on her mind. "Sis... ter... I'm sorry..."
Until those thoughts are replaced by confusion as she indeed experiences the impossible - the Codarl, gone, her cockpit intact. "Ridiculous. He didn't even finish the job? Some... garbage man.. he is." She removes her helmet and looks up to the sunrise in Azadistan, her pursuers just as gone. "Sousuke Sagara. Gan xie."
The Minovsky interference begins to fade out, too, and Yu Fan pulls out a simple smartphone. "Yu Lan. We have to leave at once. From now on... we do as we please."
As they should, Mithril and Shuffle are far too occupied taking care of their own. It means she can slip out of the city, without too much resistance. But the question remains... where do they go from here, if they're no longer carrying out Gauron's final wishes?
KTS: Xia Twins's Plan-1059 Codarl-m <Yu Fan Use> has been disabled. KTS: Mr. Indium targets Elisa Kafim with Pass! KTS: Mr. Indium has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka fails to retreat. KTS: Roux Louka fails to react to Mr. Indium's Plasma Cannon- Close range blast, taking 5400 damage! KTS: Mr. Indium has engaged Roux Louka!
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The Void peeks its way out from beneath what veils/contains it, called by the will of Elisa Kafim - or perhaps the other way around. Are things written or inevitable? Is time itself a great series of decaying energy states, with the choices of the intelligent beings (so called) that frolic with in it amounting to little more than arranging some sand on a beach when the tide is low?
Roux looks upwards, because she has to track Elisa - whether she likes it or not, she is currently in cooperation with Elisa. Roux does not really look right at the Void -- the presence of these manifestations simply piss her off, on multiple levels - but as she looks, the Strike Zeta's head looks upwards.
AND
There it is, and there it always shall be, looking back at the formless and Void. A machine, predominantly white. A bifuricate fin upon a helmed head. The heart of a star; command of great fountains of energy, at ranges close and long. That shape, those weapons.
There was no historical certainty. Gundams, as a phenomenon - a design concept - are merely the result of the One Year War and Amuro Ray's phenomenal success, building on some pre-existing material. It could have just as easily been the Guncannon, or an earlier-made Huckebein, or the imitation and refinement of the Zaku platform.
Yet somehow, it is the Gundam that shall be there, in many shapes, with many pilots. Perhaps it is not quite Roux Louka who is looking at the violation towards what lays beyond.
BUT
Roux's eyes flick away from there, back to the Mobile Armor (so called). The staticky and fearful words of Seolla -- she seems to be moving away -- Roux looks, the Lion's on emergency thrust. How familiar. But then there is another voice. Light dims --
And then roars back. "Heh," Roux breathes out. "Welcome back... Sousuke."
Roux answers the Agrissa less cheerfully. "Oh, I'm glad I can be here to be your CONSOLATION PRIZE!" Roux shouts back, pushing back on the thruster controls to pull away as the shots come in. It's probably a good thing, because the pure focus of the Hyper Mega Launcher means that in a contest of beam against beam, it's likely to punch through-- and not protect its comrade.
As the somewhat-attenuated but not sufficiently diluted plasma washes over the ascending Strike Zeta, it largely lands on the Hyper Mega Launcher. Sensing damage, the weapon - which has its own independent power source which has a respectable power output in its own right - wisely chooses to break. Well, it'd be more accurate to say 'fail gracefully rather than push the limits' but Roux still gives the weapon a look of betrayal.
I need to get a shield, Roux thinks, but she continues to answer. "You want to sit around here with THAT there? *I'm* immune but *you* aren't, are you? Go on! Get out of here!" To accent her point, Roux fires what missiles remain in the Strike Zeta's shoulder load-out, a slightly 'rolling' barrage intended to build distance. The Hyper Mega Launcher is still held forward-facing -- *he* doesn't have to know it shut down, after all.
(Even if Sagara can pull this out, Roux thinks, how the hell am I going to get these idiots home if they're wrecked? I guess I could destroy anything sensitive with the Beam Saber but I can't do that if this asshole's still here!! Argh!! ... such are the inner thoughts of Roux Louka, in moments like this.)
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
<<You'll leave her?>>
"Her Sensei is dead. If she becomes a problem again...we'll deal with it then."
<<Roger.>>
Arbalest turns back around, watching the continuing battle with Mr. Indiaum. Mr. Kallium is gone - Sousuke's not sure if he obliterated the man or if he just left. That was a lot for one night.
<<Ser.... .... ....Sarge. I have a question.>>
"Yeah, AL?"
<<We've just fought a battle against extreme odds to a total and quite decisive victory. During previous combats, we've struggled to maintain even basic combat capability. Can you explain the reason for our success?>>
"Well..." Sousuke says, thoughtfully, pulling his hand free from the controls and flexing his fist, feeling it. Feeling his body move, his own. "I recently worked through some things, I think. Perhaps that's it."
<<Ah. The personal issues we'd spoken of before.>>
"No," Sousuke says. "More like...our, problem."
<<...I do not understand your response.>>
Sousuke moves his hand over to the main display. "Something for you to think about then." He raps it with his knuckle. "Partner."
Then, he flicks on the radio. "Uruz Seven to all units. Arbalest isn't in condition to continue combat. I'll return via..."
He spots something in AL's video feeds - Kaname, waiting patiently for him down the road. Well. 'Patiently.' She's checking her watch...did she really already have a travel itinerary...?
... "Scratch that," Sousuke says, with a small smile, and drops Arbalest to a kneel. "I'll leave Arbalest here. You should come pick it up before Celestial Being feeds it to a dragon. I have another project to return to."
Uruz 1, Belfangan Clouseau, squawks at him. <<Sagara, what!? Who--what project?>>
Mao and Kurz are, of course, chuckling to themselves.
Sousuke ignores him and clambers out of the Arbalest, finding himself smiling into the sunrise. He climbs down from Arbalest to jog over toward where Kaname is waiting. "I think first," he says to himself, just loud enough to be heard, "I should apologize to Akai Jindai."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Not far away... Not far away at all, there is Light. A brilliant, shining Light. Elisa considers it. She contemplates it.
And then she looks back to her foe, and hears him as he glimpses that crack in the world. She does not need to know his feelings to know what must be. Not until he calls out. Until he retreats.
"Hm hm hm..."
Perhaps something in the Void notices the Gundam, as well. But it does not reach out for it today. Perhaps, one day... Or perhaps...
Regardless, Elisa hears Roux's aggression, and hears her answers. She considers this, too. "Are you?" she wonders of Roux, and it seems like a genuine question. She does not wait for an answer, though. "How fascinating..."
She watches Davyd go. "May the dreams enrich you," she offers him.
Then she turns to consider the source of that Light once more. Even as... he decides to do something else.
Laughter echoes over the radio for a long few moments. "No, Sousuke Sagara," Elisa's voice says, over the radio this time. "We will leave your unit, in honor of your victory. No dragon hungers today." He may or may not hear it, of course. But that's not what matters to Elisa just now. She turns towards Roux's unit again, and says, "Goodbye, interesting one."
Then, a great rift in the air opens once more--
But this time, the Queadlunn-Inanna passes through it, and is gone.
<Pose Tracker> Mr. Indium has posed.
Mister Indium, hired gun of Amalgam, indeed had zero desire to stick around with that there. He prudently breaks away while the Mega Launcher is still breaking past the plasma cascade, Roux's barrage of missiles forcing his instincts to overpower his mortal terror. Barely coming to his senses, he flies on reaction, twisting away and scything the Agrissa's legs through the staggered rockets.
"Miss Consolation Prize--I'm no gentleman, but...A mutual agreement, then. You're worth more Gila in trouble than I'd get." Well, he's at least polite enough to not leave Roux without validation. But he does jet away at the Agrissa's maximum flanking speed.
There is, of course, nobody waiting to pick him up, no transport left behind. Once the Arbalest took the field, his employers made a conservative estimate on the number of survivors: Zero.
At least he made a better showing than those Venom pilots...Hopefully that's enough to get his pay for today.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There's the collective sigh as the twins disperse themselves, watching people finish up their own fight with the other bogey in the meantime. Nothing to it, nothing at all...
"We won't pursue them, Captain?"
"They're a third party to this. We have more important things than to chase down two fugitives."
Mardukas heaves a sigh. "I can only hope they find their own way."
"We can hope."
Mithril was going to complain otherwise, but the fact that the imminent threat was neutralized was noteworthy enough.
"...Copy that, Uruz-7."
"Captain?"
"You know where he'll go."
"Yes, but..."
"Do you have a suggestion for the Arbalest?"
"...No."
"Copy. Start sending ground crew for retrieval of the ARX-7."
What a mess. What a mess...Her heart's still pounding. Waiting for Seolla. Beginning the next step of the process. The mental preparations for anything and everything.
There's a mental note: Two cups of coffee before the next meeting.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Roux bares her teeth at what Mr. Indium calls her, but he can't quite see it, can he? So fair enough. At least he's leaving. Roux's eyes turn towards Elisa who -
Calls her 'Interesting One'.
Then disappears.
"****," Roux says as she slumps back into the Strike Zeta's seat for a moment. Tension is fading, leaving that clammy-sweaty feeling behind it. Her eyes don't get the chance to fully close before she can hear Sousuke.
She knows him, but not well, but he's reporting in. Then there's a pause in his report, and he states he's going to depart independently. Uruz-1 squawks and Roux vectors towards that unit. Mentally classifying this as 'Earthnoid nonsense,' Roux says, "Great work, everyone. I think we won."
Probably??
The Strike Zeta lands somewhere where it can look imposing and/or provide overwatch until they can get the Arbalest secured. Roux gets out a water pack. Another mission complete.