2023-12-13: The March to Struggle
- Cast: Yurika Misumaru, Ryoko Subaru, Rin Naujakaite, Alto Saotome, Ruri Hoshino
- Where: Ragna
- Date: U.C. 0097 12 13
- Summary: The Nadesico and Quarter intervene in an SOS sent by an exiled family - and collide with the might of the Boazanian Empire, in a battle that ends in tragedy!
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Just two days after the surprise attack on the Nadesico by, of all people, ZAFT auxiliary forces...
An emergency call reaches the Macross Quarter from Ernest Johnson, the captain of Ragna's Chaos division - after Arad Molders had assured him the Quarter and Nadesico were unlikely to be Zuvorg spies, and after further contact with the Quarter's crew especially, they'd established mutual contact and sent them on their way.
The subject? A diplomatic crisis in Ragna's orbit, with the hopes that a 'neutral party' could resolve tensions between a Boazanian enforcement fleet and asylum-seekers...but, Johnson warns to be duly prepared for a firefight, and insists that if it comes to blows, the Elysion will compensate them for repairs.
One Fold later...
The standoff in Ragna's orbit is brazenly uneven. On one side - a colossal silver skull-shaped flagship, crowned by a towering castle - and flanked, on either side, by a dozen saucer-shaped attack ships in rigid formation. All ready to open fire on what looks like little more than a mid-sized cargo freighter, lightly armed and sending an immediate SOS.
Aboard both the Quarter and Nadesico, their communication opens first - at the helm of the smaller ship, one woman, hair tied in a neat bun - and an older gentleman with a somewhat unkempt beard. "Thank you for responding to our distress signal - My name is Mitsuyo Go. ...The Boazanian Empire has been after me and my three children ever since they were born, owing to a dispute they have with my husband. We've lived all our life on Ragna...but the Boazanians' increasing pressure on Ragna kept pushing us to escape. ...if at all possible, we would be deeply grateful if you were to grant us asylum, as I've heard you come from the Earth I remember from long ago." Despite the clearly dire situation for Mitsuyo and the others, she remains calm and firm, a steely stare in her eyes...
A second call over over open transmissions - this time, from the Boazanian ship. A princely, horned man with orange hair and two arcing horns stands with an intense glare. "Interlopers. I am Prince Heinel of Boazania - and you are interfering in our kingdom's business. This is the family of traitors to our land, and they have cowered on this world for too long. Leave at once, or we will open fire on the lot of you! Our kingdom does not fear the inferior weapons of hornless Earthlings!"
...on the bridge of the newly refurbished Nadesico, Yurika can only sigh in resignation. "...Isn't this...way, way too much force to bear on a mother and her children? ...Muuuu, I can't stand to see this. How are they even a threat to you all, especially on an out of the way planet like this?" Yurika channels over to the Quarter, "...We don't know the specifications of these ships, but honestly, given what I've seen everywhere else, they can't be that dangerous, right? The Elysion alone's been holding off the advances of these Boazanians for years and years. ...I really think we should stand our ground and keep these people safe...!"
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has deployed in Skullrook. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Mobile_Weapons_Team has deployed as a Boss for 4 opponents. KTS: Ruri Hoshino has deployed in ND-001 Nadesico Y-Unit. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Alto Saotome has deployed in VF-25F Armored Messiah. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Rin Naujakaite has deployed in Naujakaite Flying Circus. KTS: Ryoko Subaru has deployed in Aestivalis - Zero G Frame (Ryoko Ver.). KTS: EN Barrier activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
"What kind of weird mess did we get involved in this time?" Ryoko says, scratching an itch at her chin which is really more her way of dealing with anxiety while waiting in her Aestivalis, "Why is a feud against ONE family so important they'd send a whole army led by Prince SKULLship!?"
Izumi Maki, was still guffawing about it, "Hornless? More like hornlust! Underestimate the depravity of our crew at your peril!"
"IZUMI!" As her screen suddenly started shouting in her face, "STOP making this so weird!"
Izumi just cackled more under her breath, seemingly unperturbed by Ryoko's yelling.
The Aestivalis team was launched already once they got into Ragna space, but were mostly in holding pattern.
"Well, I'm not sure what the hell kinda capabilities a floating SKULL has, Captain, but - if that's your decision..."
Ryoko may sound a touch non committal at first, but then there's a hint of the actual fire in her belly, "... then we'll send these bullies packing."
<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.
"To be honest with you," comments LOUIS LIONCOURT, currently the representative of LIONCOURT SIGNALLERS in this section of the cosmos, "I'm getting jealous of you, Starking."
Rin, used to this after years of knowledge, does not object. "Why tho," she says. She takes a bite out of a fruit bar from the local procurement trip.
"He's incredibly eager to die," says Samantha, who is also eating a fruit bar. The group is watching the situation update from their seats in the VTX-assigned go-room in the Nadesico.
"I am not eager to die," Louis grumps. "I just mean that it seems as though this is an authentic military threat, and for once it's not either a case of total ambush as with your raid situation,"
Rin tilts her head and raises her bar in acknowledgement. (This far from Earth, rifts may not have disappeared, but they have contracted; and time has passed for them to scab, if not heal.)
"or all wrapped up in, well, politics-- and I mean, I have almost as much experience with a Knightmare Frame as you do with... whatever it is you were doing with the -- er-- Rebellious groups."
"But we don't have any KMFs," Rin points out. "Also, they're not great in space."
"Obviously, yes," Louis sighs.
"You could talk to them," Samantha says.
"And talk them out of this blood feud they're shouting about?" Louis sighs.
Samantha lowers her fruit bar. "No," she says. "Not like that."
SOON:
As Rin goes through her pre-flight start-up sequence, a voice rings out through a secondary antenna. The accompanying image is a video feed of a young man with black hair, casually wearing a uniform jacket bearing seven decorations, worn open over a black shirt. Evenly lit in an ominous magenta, this young man looks down towards the camera.
"You... FOOLS!" thunders Louis. He sweeps a hand across his face, dramatically. "The error you have wrought this day has brought you to a thunderous and horrific end. These so-called, 'hornless Earthlings' of whom you speak... are the treasured vassals of..."
(From behind the camera, Samantha gestures upwards. Keep going, keep going.)
"COSMIC BRITANNIA!" Louis thunders.
(Samantha makes a cut-cut gesture, but it's not seen.)
"By the sacred blood of our immortal gene-imperatrix, DY-CORNELIA, you shall repent of your sins or perish in obscurity! Repent and flee in your abjegation or my indestructible AIR-DOGS OF WAR, granted to my command by Her Holy Flesh, shall smash your skull as the First Emperor smashed the skull of a pig to feed His First Tribe!"
WHILE THAT'S HAPPENING:
Rin launches out of one of the non-Aesti emergence vectors, flanked by her robot friends in their recently-repainted Ghost bodies. "Soooo hi," Rin tells Ryoko and everyone, quietly, on tactical interlink. "I think Sam's going to try singing at them, did we get any feedback on singing? Like do these guys have a history?"
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The Macross Quarter receives comms from the two parties. And then a third from the the Nadesico. This sparks a bit of a discussion on the bridge.
"Is it really our place to interfere in the policing of other nations?"
"That IS a lot of firepower for what looks like a simple freighter."
"What if it turns out they're actually bad people though? We can't know for sure..."
"We're here on the official request of Ragna and the space around their planet remains their jurisdiction. We have the right to intervene."
"Did he seriously call us 'hornless'?"
"Hey, am I launching here or what?"
That last one comes from Alto who is currently in his Messiah, decked out in its heavy Armored Pack. His VF is currently sitting on the Quarter's flight deck, waiting for permission to take off. He's staring impatiently at the screen showing one of the Quarter's operations, Ram, who is currently looking uncertain.
Ram replies, "Ahh, we're currently not sure... The situation is a bit chaoti-" She stops herself though as another signal comes in. This time from the Nadesico.
Apparently from the treasured vassals Cosmic Britannia?
Alto blinks in confusion for a moment, before groaning and leaning his helmet into a gloved hand. He can hear the commotion on the Quarter's bridge from the original screen.
"Wha-what the hell? Someone kill that transmission!"
"We can't! It's not coming from us!"
"Great, some idiot is going to drag us into a space war. Again."
"Skull-4, you're cleared to launch. Protect the transport until such time as their request for asylum can be deliberated."
Finally, Alto muses to himself. <"Skull-4, Messiah. Launching."> He pushes his throttle forward, the engine nozzles of the Messiah narrowing as flames burst out of them. The VF is propelled down the Quarter's flight deck, following the holographic launch markers until it's finally clear and out in open space. Alto angles the heavy laden fighter towards a point between the skull led fleet and the transport.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"The connections were never built for the Nadesico!" Uribatake's face appears in a window, on the bridge. There may be a diplomatic incident going on down there, but there's an engineering incident going on up here. "You're lucky you can even USE those Phase Transition engines!"
"Do your best, Uribatake-san," Ruri Hoshino, systems operator and one of the few people who understands just why the head engineer is so frustrated, responds stoically. "I think the Captain is involving us in another intergalactic incident."
"YOU'D BETTER NOT! WE ARE STILL TRYING TO BOLT THE COUPLINGS DOWN PROPERLY!!" Uribatake yells, before his window unceremoniously cuts off.
"Oopsie," Minato Haruka, helmswoman, smiles. She, of course, is naturally on the side of helping this family out, and she's not above a little underhanded tactics to make sure they help.
"Captain, the Nadesico stands ready to intercept," Ruri reports, dryly. (Perhaps she's resigned herself to her fate.)
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
"Then we've made our decision!" Yurika calls out, staring Prince Heinel right in the eyes. Something about his imposing demeanor almost makes Yurika...stiffen and temper. It's not just the fact that they're protecting a vulnerable family - it's ...it's competitive, almost? "All hands - we're retrieving that ship and de-folding! I WON'T allow you to bring harm to a mother and her children! Ryoko, Rin, I'm counting on you! Show those dingy UFOs what we're made of! Ruri-chan, how worried are you that the Gravity Blast might be unstable with the Y-Unit still in progress?"
Aboard the Skullrook, Prince Heinel sneers imperiously, hands on the hilt of his sword. "Foolish. A kingdom in dispute does not allow exiled heirs any quarter. We saw right through what Chaos would attempt - to use these children to press claims against Emperor Zambajil. Show these hornless fools no quarter!"
At his side, a burly red-skinned Boazanian, a scar across one eye, steps forth, kneeling loyally. "My lord. The Beast Fighter is ready. Shall we show them what has built our empire to its magnificence?"
"...Of course, Jangal. I'm leaving command of Baizanga up to you." Heinel sweeps his cape out imperiously. "For the pride of Boazania, and the security of our throne's future! Crush the dissidents first!"
The legions of saucers at the Skullrook's side do just that - fanning out in formation to encircle Mitsuyo's transport, opening fire first and foremost on the little ship, which fights back as valiantly as it can with just a handful of turrets to its name. Inevitably, a gaggle of them diverges to dogfight Rin's Ghost Fighters, identifying the enemy's drones as a primary threat - in the meantime, from the Skullrook's eyes, a barrage of missiles begins to hail upon the Nadesico itself!
And then...
The colossal mouth of the ship isn't just for show - it yawns wider and wider...and from a hangar bay in its maw, a giant minotaur-like machine stomps out, holding two chain-link hammers, letting out a loud, mechanized roar.
"Behold, the pride and joy of Boazania's advance! Go! Beast Fighter Baizanga! Crush that flimsy Variable Fighter, and spare no mercy to that strange Heavy Metal!" -In the latter case, Jangal's pointing at the Aestivalis, which Baizanga lunges at first, its eyes flaring bright and sweeping an oscillating beam towards Ryoko. The hatches on its pectorals open wide, and a salvo of missiles arcs towards Alto's Messiah - while they can't compete with the number of missiles on a Variable Fighter, each one of these explosives threatens serious damage...!
"...Professor Hamaguchi," Mitsuyo strains to ask as her ship is bombarded with the Fighter Saucers' assault, "...Please. Take the children to the escape pod we readied for just this occasion. We knew it'd come to this..."
The oldest of the Go siblings, a teenager with a shock of dark hair, bolts upright, sweating bullets at their dire situation. "...Mom, what are you talking about? Don't tell me you're-"
"Kenichi. ...Your father entrusted your safekeeping to me. Above all...the three of you must find safety, and work with Professor Hamaguchi to complete it. Kentaro's dream...Voltes V..." Mitsuyo's eyes turn briefly to her worried children, before snapping back to the difficulty of combat...!
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ryoko Subaru with Beast Fighter Ray! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Alto Saotome with Beast Fighter Missile! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Rin Naujakaite with Fighter Saucer Scramble! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ruri Hoshino with Eye Missiles! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Ryoko Subaru has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Ryoko Subaru has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Ryoko Subaru fails to Evade Mobile Weapons Team's Beast Fighter Ray, taking 5208 damage! KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Alto Saotome blocks Mobile Weapons Team's Beast Fighter Missile, taking 1260 damage! KTS: Rin Naujakaite fails to charge. KTS: Rin Naujakaite partially guards Mobile Weapons Team's Fighter Saucer Scramble, taking 3608 damage! KTS: Ruri Hoshino's ND-001 Nadesico Y-Unit has been disabled. KTS: Ruri Hoshino has deployed in ND-001 Nadesico Y-Unit. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ruri Hoshino with Eye Missiles! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Ruri Hoshino successfully intercepts Mobile Weapons Team's Eye Missiles
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
"Right Captain, we'll get this sorted out and that family safe in no time flat-! Aestivalis wing-!"
LOUIS attempts their bluff, and Ryoko sees the video playing in her cockpit, for a moment she raises an eyebrow as if like 'what is this'.
Then- 'COSMIC BRITANNIA!'
Stunned into silence, Ryoko hits the comms after a moment and, "... Well Captain... we're coming back. Because-" Her volume just increases as she becomes increasingly huffy, "THERE IS NO WAY I AM FIGHTING FOR 'COSMIC' BRITANNIA! EVEN AS SOME STUPID BLUFF!"
Her Aesti is still gesticulating excitedly when the Skull ship opens its maw and releases BAIZANGA!
An oscillating beam suddenly raking across her Aestivalis, as there's a sound of an explosion as her Aestivalis is rocked and a shout, "AAAAAAAAAAAAKYAAAAAAAAA-! You blind-siding JERK! How DARE YOU FORCE ME TO-"
Suddenly her Aestivalis swivels around out of the Spacesplosion, darting out with it's Rapid Rifle at the fore, spraying projectile fire at the Baizanga.
"-FIGHT FOR BRITANNIA!"
In her heart of hearts she knows it's more for the family being bullied but - right now her pride as a Spacenoid has taken a critical hit and must be returned in kind.
"Ruri! Ruri don't record anything about this fight! Noone can find out about this!" Izumi cracks up as her own Aestivalis engages, "Record... how the tables have turned."
KTS: Ryoko Subaru targets Mobile Weapons Team with Semi-Rapid Rifle! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team blocks Ryoko Subaru's Semi-Rapid Rifle, taking 1080 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"The Gravity Blast Cannon should be operational," Ruri says, after a delay of 1.25 seconds as she checks the connections with her own connection, "but I don't advise using the Y-Unit's armaments, Captain."
She listens to their brave declarations, and her eloquent response...
"We're under fire. Intercepting."
Protagoras wept.
The missile bays at the Nadesico's nose open, and their missiles meet the Baizanga's Eye Missiles; the explosion echoes, in space, except of course for how no one can hear explosions in space.
"Captain Go's ship has just released an escape pod," Ruri reports, without much emotion in her eyes. "Now moving to intercept."
"We'll pick 'em up!" Minato adds, cheerfully.
And so, Ruri looks over the various window captures of the battle, and...
"Is it normal for Britannia not to record their battles when nobody's looking?" Ruri wonders, innocently. "I guess that's one way they get away with it... okay, I won't record anything."
Looking straight into the camera, she transmits for everyone's sakes: "All hail Britannia... or something like that."
This is truly the darkest timeline. Omoikane, please just fire some missiles and end this tragedy.
KTS: Ruri Hoshino targets Mobile Weapons Team with Seeker Missile! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The Prince of the skull-shaped ship is not backing down.
What a shocker.
Alto watches cautiously as the other vessels begin to move and try to surround the transport. That's concerning. What's worse, the mouth of the skull ship opens and a new unit exits. Looking like something out of a movie set. It proceeds to open it's mouth in an effort to roar.
Of course all Alto hears is silence. Given they're in space and all that.
The minotaur rushes out, going to Ryoko first. But it doesn't leave Alto free to do as he pleases as it launches a salvo of missiles his way. He narrows his eyes a little as his system tracks the incoming warheads. He starts weaving his fighter through space. As weighed down as it is, Also doesn't imagine being able to outmaneuver the missiles. But all he needs to do is avoid a direct hit. Everything else is up to the reinforced armor and pinpoint barrier.
Sure enough, the missiles start exploding in proximity to Alto, blooms of fire lighting up and briefly engulfing the Messiah. But then the fighter comes blasting out of explosions, its surface still crackling from the power of its pinpoint barrier. There are some scorch marks, but otherwise the Armored Pack is living up to its name.
What was that about threatens serious damage?
Alto snorts, <"You call those missiles?">
Several compartments that make up the Armored Pack snap their covers open, revealing the payload of micromissiles beneath.
<"These. Are missiles!">
A bloom of three dozen missiles blast away from the heavy fighter in a dizzying display of smoke trails. They rush outwards, spreading out as they fly off to target not only the Baizanga but also the other vessels trying to harass the transport. In the hopes of giving them something else to worry about.
Alto doesn't mention anything about his own machine's suite of data recorders.
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome targets Mobile Weapons Team with A Lot Of Micro-Missiles! KTS: Alto Saotome has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team charges into the attack! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Alto Saotome's A Lot Of Micro-Missiles, taking 2340 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Ruri Hoshino's Seeker Missile, taking 2800 damage! <Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.
Rin's eyes turn over the presentation of oppressive enemy forces -- in this case, mini-saucers. Scorn lights them up with radar and the squadronlette turns to the side. Huh, Rin thinks, seeing them. Are they unmanned?
And then -
"Louis! Nix it!"
ON THE OPS STATION:
"Oh God," Louis says with a sudden spike of concern. Does he KNOW Ryoko? No. Not really. Does he know OF Ryoko? "Kill the mic!" Yes -- and if she's really going to--
"NO," says Samantha.
There is disorder in the broadcast space. Cosmic Britannia facts do not get transmitted further, not immediately.
(Somewhere, Charles zi Britannia smiles, for a child has said the words.)
MEANWHILE, IN THE ACTUAL FIGHT:
"Beast Fighter Baizanga, huh," Rin says as she leans back in her seat and takes a deep breath of the recycled suit air. Her lips thin. "That's a heck of a name."
Her eyes flick to the side.
"I don't have an awesome name like that for this fighter," Rin continues as she accelerates into the swarm of saucers. Beams trickling inwards with a sparkling cascade of light, flash-scoring metal as Rin grins through the fear, twisting away. She's not shooting at them yet. "I'm just somebody or other who ended up in a cockpit!"
Wow, Rin thinks. It looks like a minotaur.
Rin subvocalizes some terse commands, and then her finger shifts as the VF-171 makes its way through the cluster, twisting in the air without forward acceleration.
"But my comrades have names," Rin continues, "and I hope you're not going to complain if they bite. I don't know what that's supposed to be on YOUR planet:" Pull the trigger and fire a streak of staccato beam-fire at the saucer-drones even as
SHRAAANKKK!
SHRRAAAANK!
-- the other, bigger drones (despite their own share of scattered hits and a flash of Rancor's pinpoint barrier here and there) activate their Mauler Beam Cannons, defining a space of horrible incineration.
"But on my planet, we raise creatures like that. For food."
BACK AT THE OPS STATION:
A feed-in to the Nadesico's bridge. It is a plain black screen with red text: SOUND ONLY. "uhhhhmmm I'm going to sing at them. Make requests" over the background of someone having a melodramatic breakdown.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Mobile Weapons Team with Mauler Beam Cannons Sweep! KTS: Rin Naujakaite has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
"C...Cosmic Britannia?!" Yurika blanches on the bridge at the bizarre...takeover? Is this a spiritual takeover? She has to shake Ruri a little by the shoulder. "D-don't just listen to them so straightforwardly!" Looking left, then looking right, Yurika whispers, "...you kinda gotta get wary of how they get so zealous! People are a little crazy when it comes to Britannian patriotic fervor...!"
The mysterious song request only makes Yurika sputter in surprise, and Yurika's immediate first instinct is, "Uhh go with My Boyfriend Is A Pilot! If it made the Zentradi stop fighting maybe it'll make these guys stop fighting! ...maybe having cool songs is exactly why the Elysion isn't as bothered as they are by all the space empire stuff??" ...Yurika, unknowingly, is partially sorta-kinda right!
...Of course, Heinel can only leer overhearing all this. "...Hmph. It's useful to keep an eye on one's opposition, to learn the way they think, but I assure you, that is the only reason I've kept this insipid chatter in my sight. The enemy flagships are comparable in firepower, but woefully disorganized. Gunners! Ready the rapid response cannons! Take down those pesky flies - and as for that battleship, launch the Molecular Ray!" The battery of guns beneath the Skullrook's 'castle' start to engage - autocannons flickering and puttering against Rin's drones - and from a port between the eyes, an oscillating wave of ring-shaped beams billows against the Nadesico, intercepting a handful of missiles, though plenty of them batter against the iron shell of the Boazaian ship.
"Hmph. I'll admit - while most of you Earthlings are obnoxious, some of you have good spirit," Jangal grumbles, overseeing the port on the Skullrook's towers that commands the Beast Fighters. "Hmph, here I thought the sheer strength of Boazanian munitions outweighed the Variable Fighters, but in space theaters quantity over quality works better. Baizanga! Tangle that obnoxious insect and cease its buzzing about! As for you, the shouty one - you won't endure Baizanga's superior strength with a pitiful rifle like that! Squash her!"
With a valiant roar, Baizanga's fists clasp together, hammering down on Ryoko's Aestivalis - then, from the beast's 'mane', dozens of needles spread out, coalescing into a web that tries to constrict Alto's mobility...
From Mitsuyo's ship, Professor Hamaguchi and the Go siblings argue at the door of the escape pod, with Daijiro, the burlier middle child, holding Kenichi back. "...You've gotta listen to mom here, we're running out of time...these people won't stop firing on us!" Alarms blare through the ship, and Hiyoshi, still a short eight year old, clings to Hamaguchi's leg.
"...I won't forgive the Boazanians for this...!" Kenichi scowls, and the airlock hisses closed...
"Good. They're in." Releasing a sigh of exhaustion, Mitsuyo chimes in to the Nadesico, "...I've bought them a little bit of time. ...No mother wants to entrust the safety of their children to strangers, but we're in dire straits, and the Boazanians will stop at nothing to kill us. ...I can tell, however, that your ship is a place of caring, even if it is...erratic. I'm counting on you." The pod launches free, taking a long arc in the narrow window of space Mitsuyo's ship has clear from her position to the Nadesico...
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Alto Saotome with Beast Fighter Volley! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ryoko Subaru with Beast Fighter Tackle! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Rin Naujakaite with Forehead Autocannon! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ruri Hoshino with Molecular Ray! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Ryoko Subaru parries Mobile Weapons Team's Beast Fighter Tackle, taking 1440 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has engaged Ryoko Subaru! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rin Naujakaite charges into the attack! KTS: Rin Naujakaite retreats from the attack! KTS: Rin Naujakaite fails to evade Mobile Weapons Team's Forehead Autocannon, taking 2970 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team rattles Ruri Hoshino, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Ruri Hoshino fails to react to Mobile Weapons Team's Molecular Ray, taking 3999 damage! KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Alto Saotome partially guards Mobile Weapons Team's Beast Fighter Volley, taking 2430 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Rin Naujakaite's Mauler Beam Cannons Sweep, taking 1215 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
"Thank you, Ruri-" However her thanks shifts MID-STRIDE, "-DON'T HAIL BRITANNIA!"
Ryoko can't believe it just looks like a stupid Man-Cow.
(No she doesn't remember the Minotaur. She slept through ancient civilizations.)
(Would recognize the Zakrello in an instant though.)
"Captain, really? Is that request some kind of 'wish fulfillment' for you?"
Is Ryoko's hypocritical response, because it's totally wish fulfillment for her too. Heinel leers at them, but Jangal seems to admire them some, but Ryoko is still chafing about fighting for some weird Space Britannia.
Even as Baizanga comes at her, there's a sudden rush as the Aestivalis rises to meet it's hammer fist down. It bangs against her distortion field, even as the Aestivalis smoothly brings out it's Immediate Knife, dropping the field in that exact moment, as it slices down the side of its arms, and up towards the mane, stabbing and stabbing over and over again as she tries to cut an inexorable path inside.
"I'll show you SPIRIT!" She cries as she moves to try and slash into the suit over and over, "Think you're some tough guy!? Harassing a family on the run? LET ME SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT I THINK OF THAT!"
KTS: Ryoko Subaru targets Mobile Weapons Team with Rather Immediate Knife! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
And, as stated, the Nadesico picks up the escape pod.
Ruri rattles, when she's shaken. "Captain," she explains, patiently, "that's called a joke. Excuse me." She opens up a window to Izumi's Aestivalis, and requests, calmly: "Izumi-san, please explain what a joke is to the Captain."
"Jape the bloke with Jack's jocular kinsfolk," Izumi rattles off, immediately, "and invoke the folk's spoke --"
"Thank you," Ruri says, and cuts off the window.
"Jerk my yoke..." Izumi sighs, crestfallen.
But will a reassurance like that really comfort Ryoko...?
"I like that song," she adds, helpfully, when Yurika suggests My Boyfriend Is A Pilot. She might have commented on the melodrama, except --
"Incoming," Ruri switches to reporting, instead. And those Rays rock the Nadesico, attacking on a wavelength the Distortion Field can't defend against -- but though there's clear damage to some sectors of the ship, it's still standing, once the attack passes.
"They're a serious enemy," she reports, still quite stoic. (Will even Alto's amount of missiles be enough, she wonders...?) "Captain, should I start charging the Gravity Blast Cannon?"
Once she has confirmation, she lays in the commands: "Now charging...", as she presses her IFS-enabled hands to her console, cycling the engines to get as much power as they can.
KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Resupply Spirit Command. KTS: Ruri Hoshino targets Mobile Weapons Team with ND-001 Nadesico - Now Charging...! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.
FROM THE OPS CENTER:
"Are you ****ing me?" Samantha demands. Two seconds later: "Fine."
It takes thirteen seconds for Louis to find the relevant track on his phone. And so tinny secondhand phone instrumentals accompany...
"ugh..."
"god.."
"i guess it's historic--"
"AHEM:"
"Kyun, kyun. Kyun, kyun. My boyfriend's... a pilot."
It is the least enthusiastic and most irritated rendition of the war song classic ever.
Will it work?
PROBABLY NOT:
Autocannons rake over the broad shapes of the Ghosts -- powerful drones, yes, but they represent quality over quantity and perhaps that has its flaws. But it does mean that they can take more damage than the little guys. Even as the FLYING SKULL-SHIP begins to subject the Nadesico to bombardment --
"So you guys don't honor escape pods, huh?"
There is a surge of genuine agitation in that voice.
"Alright -- enough of THIS. Rancor, Scorn! To me!" And Rin puts one hand on the throttle as the Ghosts pivot around, in Rancor's case executing a high-G maneuver to get on the wing. And then Rin jerks back the throttle and afterburners engage.
"ScornkeepbusybracketbracketsetupIJS" Rin says in unnaturally accelerated talk. The cluster of VFs begins to break off. The first one is indeed Scorn, identifiable mostly by fatter radar domes, whose blank nosecone turns towards the Baizanga, portentiously.
"Thanks for the compliment... but I don't need it from the likes of you!" Rin shouts. She is definitely deliberately hyping herself up. She begins her own turn although this is one of those big, swooping maneuvers.
Scorn, however, has something for the Baizanga.
The something is missiles. Several of them: a half-dozen of the fast, high-impulse ones that are so useful for gorgeously filling the skies, followed by two heavier radar-guided ones.
IN THE OPS ROOM:
"I thought this radar thing was a fad," Louis says quietly into the line into the Nadesico's comm system, "but it's really paying off out here. I suppose it's the lower frequency of heavy Minovsky interference?"
"OR I AM RAD, LOUIS" Rin crackles over his comm gear.
(The song hasn't stopped, either.)
KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Mobile Weapons Team with Scorn - Staggered Arrival! KTS: Rin Naujakaite has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The Macross Quarter has been hanging back for now, providing long range artillery support for the Nadesico. But as the transport proceeds to launch an escape pod and it pops up on the Quarter's scanners, Captain Wilder orders, "Provide cover fire for that pod."
The Quarter's heavy beam turrets turn at the direction of the bridge's weapons operator. Their barrels aim towards a point in space between the transport and its pods, and the attacking Boazanian forces. They then fire, a barrage of beams rushing out to ward off attempts of those saucers from chasing.
Meanwhile, Alto is peripherally aware of what's happening, but is busy finding himself under assault by a large number of smaller... Things. Forming some kind of web. A little cautious about getting his fighter caught up in it, Alto chooses to pre-emptively transform.
The Messiah switches over to battroid mode, raising the reinforced shield on its left arm up. The craft's pinpoint barrier focuses over it, producing a stronger field as Alto tries to break through the obstruction.
<"Some great empire the Boazanians appear to be. Sending an entire fleet after just one family! What are you going to do next, launch an orbital bombardment against an orphanage?">
Managing to significantly reduce the damage as it breaks through, the Messiah rushes in to try and take advantage of Ryoko distracting their target with a knife and a missile barrage from Rin covering the approach.
And attempts to smash the into the Baizanga's back with said pinpoint barrier reinforced shield!
Of course, Alto then groans as now someone is trying to sing to the enemy. To which he shouts back, <"THAT ONLY WORKS IF YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOOD AT IT!">
KTS: Alto Saotome targets Mobile Weapons Team with VF-25F Bulletproof Shield Bash! KTS: Alto Saotome has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Ryoko Subaru's Rather Immediate Knife, taking 6240 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Ryoko Subaru's In the End All I Do Is... activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has engaged Mobile Weapons Team! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Ruri Hoshino's ND-001 Nadesico - Now Charging..., taking 320 damage! KTS: Ruri Hoshino begins a Formation attack! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team charges into the attack! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Rin Naujakaite's Scorn - Staggered Arrival, taking 1218 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team parries Alto Saotome's VF-25F Bulletproof Shield Bash, taking 315 damage! KTS: Alto Saotome repulses Mobile Weapons Team, forcing him to disengage.
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Yurika, of course, has a terribly cold feeling as Mitsuyo sends her children off - and shakily says, "R-retrieve that pod no matter what! If we can't spare anyone in the Hinagiku to retrieve them, I'll take an Aesti myself if I absolutely have to-!" Luckily, it doesn't come to that-
Because Goat Hoary is calling in with a gruff, "Already launching, Captain!" and taking off in the shuttle like his life depended on it, rocketing out to pick up that pod in this narrow window of time. It's all hands on deck to try and secure the escapees before a platoon of Fighter Saucers can catch up, but the pod skids into the hangars noisily just in the nick of time...!
"The utmost threat to any line of succession are stray claimants. Is this dishonorable work? Perhaps. It is the inevitable stain on any crown - the blood of those who would steal it, and plunge countless more through bloodshed in the process." Heinel's unwavering at the accusations - then, grimacing at the unenthusiastic attempt to dissuade him through song. "...What cacophony is this? If this is your means of mocking me, accusing me of being so uncultured as to fall for such pathetic song, then I'll not stand for it. We're ending this! Engage all reactors - we're wiping this insect off the map, and crushing their capital ship!"
The Skullrook's mouth opens wide again, gathering plumes of violet energy in its center - before belting out a wide, cosmos-filling ray across Rin's Variable Fighter...then, if that weren't enough, the cannon aperture inverts, forming into the grotesque sight of a gigantic drill erupting from the Skullrook's throat. It does ram in Rin's direction...but the destination is clearly the Nadesico's bridge...!
"Is that what qualifies as a sword among the hornless Earthlings? Pathetic." Jangal growls as Baizanga's hammers swing in circles, wrapping around Ryoko's knife before hurling the massive spiked maul at the end towards the Aestivalis - then, from its wide-roaring mouth, flames billow and spew, boiling hot even in the vacuum of space, matching the kind of high-volatility spread to try and utterly melt the Messiah's shield - and the pilot along with it!
"...You've retrieved them, then. That's a relief..." Mitsuyo settles back in her seat for just a moment. "Kentaro...forgive me for this. I know you'll return to us some day...when you see these children fighting for your cause in the Voltes we dreamed of..." As the Boazanians' fevered pitch only escalates the fight, Mitsuyo has one point in her gaze - the gleaming parapets of the Skullrook's castle...and she asks, in a fit of grim determination, "Please give me an opportunity to end this, before they send in reinforcements. No matter what, I'll do what it takes..."
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Ruri Hoshino KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ruri Hoshino with Colossal Drill! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Rin Naujakaite with Destruction Ray! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ryoko Subaru with Beast Fighter Hammer! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Alto Saotome with Beast Fighter Cannon! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Naujakaite retreats from the attack! KTS: Rin Naujakaite fails to evade Mobile Weapons Team's Destruction Ray, taking 5670 damage! KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome partially guards Mobile Weapons Team's Beast Fighter Cannon, taking 3015 damage! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Ryoko Subaru retreats from the attack! KTS: Ryoko Subaru successfully avoids Mobile Weapons Team's Beast Fighter Hammer KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Ruri Hoshino's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Ruri Hoshino blocks Mobile Weapons Team's Colossal Drill, taking 3780 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has engaged Ruri Hoshino!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
Ryoko almost volunteers outright to go pick up the pod, but Goat has it, and indeed perhaps the best thing she can do right now is to distract this enormous Beast Fighter.
Kyun Kyun~ Kyun Kyun~
Ryoko certainly wishes her boyfriend was a pilot. Instead as the Jangal swings the Hammers around in circles, the Aestivalis suddenly lets go of its knife, sacrificing it so that her Aesti can suddenly thrust down at a sharp diagonal, then cutting away from that swinging MAUL that eclipses her Aestivalis almost killing her outright.
"It's called a KNIFE dumbass! All this 'hornless' talk, from such a big man feels like you're compensating for something!"
Just a bit longer, as she hears the children and their Mother over the pods...
The Aestivalis suddenly surges forth, fist crackling with the energy of its distortion field.
"But I'll show you! All I need is my FIST to take you out!"
The Aestivalis suddenly surges in to try and punch the Beast Fighter, sending that distortion field energy surging into the gap her knife made before.
And while she's not saying it over the comms-!
(rurifirethebiggunpleasefortheloveofgodicantholdhimoffmuchlongeraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
(idontwannadiefightingforcosmicbritannia)
KTS: Ryoko Subaru targets Mobile Weapons Team with Stop Calling it the Gekigan Shoot!! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The nobility...
<"Actually I think these guys would get along well with the Britannians."> For good or for ill. Probably the latter.
Hot, roaring flames-probably plasma-pour out of the Baizanga's open maw. It blasts against the combination of the Messiah's shield and pinpoint barrier. While the heavy armor reinforcements help, the Messiah can only take so much. So Alto kicks his machine into its third mode, transforming into GERWALK.
The Messiah's legs fold up to point forward, the engines in its feet lighting up to push the craft backwards away from the Baizanga. As it does so, the wing mounted rocket launchers come to life, spitting out a wave of their armor penetrating rockets to try and break through the Baizanga's strong defenses.
As he's essentially backpeddling in space, Alto hears the family's mother talking. And she raises a good point, <"Quarter! Are we going to be able to fold out of here before we get overwhelmed out here?">
Ram's face appears on screen, looking a little unsure. She glances to the side for a few moments, before saying, <"Uhhhhh... Maybe? The experimental drive doesn't like spinning up so soon after arrival... But we're trying! Just hold on. You all can do it!"> She gives a thumbs up.
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome targets Mobile Weapons Team with 200mm Anti-Armor Rockets! KTS: Alto Saotome has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri's face appears to the Skullrook, in the wake of their talk of successions. "But you're not considering their feelings," she says, flatly. "They didn't ask to be heirs to the crown. They might not even want it. Don't you think you're just making sure they'll resent you?"
(She doesn't know. She couldn't know.)
That communication window dies soon enough, though, as Ruri reports: "Brace for impact." It's the world's greatest understatement, as that drill GRINDS into the very heartland of the Nadesico. Ruri doesn't even have to request all power to the Distortion Field -- Omoikane does it picoseconds before she thinks to.
If it breaks through, his best friend will --
If Ruri is afraid, seeing that drill assault them so directly, it doesn't show on her face -- and barely reflects in her eyes. The drill does not pierce the Distortion Field; they are not reduced to what happens to anything exposed to a drill. "Distortion field... working adequately," Ruri says, in light of it.
"Captain," she adds, dryly, "Captain Go is requesting an opening."
And Minato jumps on the comms, to scream into the Go's ship: "YOU IDIOT! You think you can settle this on your own?! That escape pod has your children in it, doesn't it?! I won't allow you to turn around and do something sacrificially MORONIC just so--!!"
"There's a solution," Ruri cuts her off.
"E--eh?" Minato looks up from where she's bodily grasping her communication window, as if to shake Mitsuyo Go through it.
"We'll defeat the enemy now." As if she's heard Ryoko's pleas in her heart -- and perhaps she even has -- Ruri's eyes glint, with the light of the IFS console below her hands. "All hands, please clear a path. Gravity Blast Cannon... firing."
And the great jaws of the Nadesico open, something deeper than darkest space gathering, between them. The Gravity Blast Cannon weaponises gravity itself -- and it fires, at full power, directly at their terrible foes.
KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Resupply Spirit Command. KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Ruri Hoshino targets Mobile Weapons Team with Gravity Blast Cannon - Gravity Blast Full Power! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.
FROM THE OPS CENTER:
"EXCUSE YOU" ah the performance is over. Perhaps a relief to all.
IN THE SPACEWAYS
Rin keeps driving forwards, building up relative positional energy. She hears Heinel's statements and something about it grinds in the back of her neck. Something tenses up in her even as she sets her teeth. She doesn't snap back, because that beam is forming -- and it's shooting towards --
In a moment Rin can spot the vectors, the trajectories. It's going to intercept her and then burst onwards towards the Nadesico. She's attempting to calculate the right way to swerve given the probable sweep of the beam -- there's no singular target other than the Nadesico but --
Rin does not *have* to react. What happens ultimately is Scorn; the Ghost does a barrel roll, aborting a follow-up run upon the Baizanga and instead SMASHING into the VF-171. "Gahh!!!" Rin shouts, even as she looks towards the far off point where Rancor is just now turning--
There is a flash of pinpoint barrier light.
Rin only counts off one heartbeat before it fades, but her retinas don't clear any faster than usual, whatever other neurological acceleration she has to deal with. For a horrid, gelid moment she wonders if her friend was vaporized...
And then there's a signal on her board.
Her shoulders sag.
"... guys," Rin mutters to herself. "Can you do it? Are we go for IJS?"
mssle_payload 27/44..... ok
A pause. Perhaps two seconds.
> ppb uptime max 1.3s
> thermal overload
> intruder detected intruder detected intruder detected intrud>A
> balancer...........
> ijs_OK
Wow, Rin thinks. I'm actually going to do it. It's going to happen here, in the high skies above Ragna; and I'm doing it for some lady I never met and her kids.
She smiles, perhaps improbably. She draws in a breath.
"In my father's country," she answers the Skullrook, "They said... the man in his garden is the equal of the king on his estate. Because..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djXI1eC4qCQ
�
"The only person you can truly rule over... is yourself!!!"
(OPS ROOM INTERLUDE: "... what game is that from?" Louis comments quietly. Samantha has stopped singing; she peers forwards, as if striving to remember.)
"Scorn, front! Rancor! It's time."
Rin's eyes widen. With some amount of flop-sweat and a somewhat greater measure of profound satisfaction, she says, "Execute the INTERSTELLAR JET STREAM ATTACK."
IMMEDIATE FULL WAR POWER: The string of fighter-chasses, however battered, immediately whip straight back down the line of excited space that the aftermath of such a hideous beam cannon must inevitably build. (Maybe they fly overhead of Alto as he says mean things about their definitely-authoritarian, probably-fascist, absolutely-autocratic giant imperial home state. Rin's Britannian status is somewhat questionable right now.)
The front is Scorn. The EWACs-specialized drone is also specialized, it seems, in being a fat bird full of missile-fruit, and those missiles are all thrown forwards. Four (count 'em) radar-guided ones, a few scintillating streaks of lasers that ionize the massive amount of rocket exhaust, and a full four packs of disposable terminal-guiding missiles. This makes a relative 'target' clear - if we consider the Skullrook as a, well, "skull," this bombardment is aiming towards the left eye-socket.
The flight closes from long-range to medium. Scorn breaks off and Rin's mauler beams streak forwards as she says, "You arrogant jackass! THIS is my sword!! I'll sever your ambitions from the eyeball down!" Except she too breaks off, veering left at almost the last moment which leaves...
Rancor. The reinforced Ghost had only one missile pod, mostly as a just-in-case and can't-have-enough-missiles kind of thing; this got discharged, in fact, at the same time as Scorn's bombardment, blending into it. But Rancor's already wobbling --
Because going THROUGH isn't in the cards. The Interstellar Jet Stream attack might not be able to sink a spacecraft of the Skullrook's size and magnitude. But pivoting to the side, aiming for the 'orbital bone' of the Skull...
THAT much the high-speed meteor, saved from damage by a straight-ahead burst of the Pinpoint barrier (unfortunately, enough to burn out the emitter) might be able to do. Win, lose or glancing hit, Rancor breaks off in turn.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Mobile Weapons Team with Interstellar Jet Stream! KTS: Rin Naujakaite has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to rush. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Ryoko Subaru's Stop Calling it the Gekigan Shoot!, taking 3362 damage! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has engaged Mobile Weapons Team! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Alto Saotome's 200mm Anti-Armor Rockets, taking 6050 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alto Saotome's The Twinkle Of A Tearful Planet activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Alto Saotome completes the Formation attack! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Rin Naujakaite's Interstellar Jet Stream, taking 5035 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team blocks Ruri Hoshino's Gravity Blast Cannon - Gravity Blast Full Power, taking 5550 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
It's not Yurika's first time dealing with having ships in close quarters by a long shot - but then, a giant grimacing skull with a drill sticking from its throat is kind of a bewildering and intimidating sight no matter how many times you look at it. "Ugh ugh ugh, why are they so HIDEOUS - I can't believe they're so much tougher than they look. I underestimated them..." The Distortion Field certainly keeps everyone safe, but the impact still is enough to send a jolt through the normally silky-smooth flying Nadesico. "...But getting in close is your biggest mistake! Yes! Gravity Blast, FIRE!~"
The void ripples from the Nadesico's hull - surely enough to send that overgrown tin can crumpling...but before it does...
"All hands - brace for impact! Deflection barrier to full! Show these cretins why a single Boazanian landing castle is more than enough to conquer entire planets!" Heinel commands, and the colossal horns of the Skullrook start alighting with energy, generating an electrically pulsed field that deflects the brunt of the Gravity Blast, and drastically slows down Rin and her three-fold tackle's momentum to a halt. Amidst the smoke and the smoldering lightning, the Skullrook's skeletal grimace looms large, and Heinel can't help but laugh oh so high on his horse...
"My lord," Jangal interrupts. "We should finish this. The Beast Fighter is at its operational limit soon - while their ships can't hold a candle to ours, their mobile weapons far exceed any Heavy Metal we've fought." The brutish general grimaces as, indeed, the towering Baizanga has a hole ripped straight through its core with Ryoko's gouging fist - a gap quickly filled to the brim with armor-tearing missiles. A vast explosion ripples across space - that's the Boazanians' ace in the hole ripped to shreds, but-
"It's no matter. Our ship is more than capable of severing them. Retreat six spaces - charge the Destruction Ray to full wide burst! We won't allow the dissidents to topple our rule!" The Skullrook fires a veritable mountain of verniers at Heinel's command, all as that drill reverts back into the form of a thunder-surging cannon - but just before it bellows a rain of thunder over the entire battlefield...
"...Thank you. ...Prince Heinel...you and Emperor Zambajil will never know peace for your oppression, for the hell you turned my husband's homeworld into." Mitsuyo's ship rockets through the din, tears building up below her eyes. "My children...never stop fighting for your future! Never let their relentless tide of slavery and conquest go unforgiven! You've grown up to be so strong, Kenichi, Daijiro...take care of Hiyoshi for me."
By now, the siblings have made it to the bridge of the Nadesico, breathless and frazzled, and Kenichi can't help but shout, "MOM, YOU CAN'T DO THIS-!"
But before he can even finish, that freighter's collided with the helm of the Skullrook's castle, leaving a smoldering crater and throwing the bridge of the Boazanians' flagship into chaos...
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Ruri Hoshino, Ryoko Subaru, Rin Naujakaite, and Alto Saotome with Destruction Ray.
KTS: Ryoko Subaru fails to react to Mobile Weapons Team's Destruction Ray, taking 6930 damage! KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Naujakaite charges into the attack! KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Alto Saotome blocks Mobile Weapons Team's Destruction Ray, taking 5830 damage! KTS: Rin Naujakaite retreats from the attack! KTS: Rin Naujakaite successfully evades Mobile Weapons Team's Destruction Ray KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Ruri Hoshino's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Ruri Hoshino blocks Mobile Weapons Team's Destruction Ray, taking 3975 damage! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Ryoko Subaru
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
The Destruction Ray fires, and once again, Ruri calibrates the Distortion Field to absorb the attack. More importantly --
Minato screams into her communications window, again. "YOUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING, YOU SON OF A--!!"
Whatever she was going to say is cut off by the inevitable stop at the end.
"The Skullrook was not destroyed," Ruri reports, dispassionately.
What, then, was her sacrifice for?
She'll figure out how she feels later.
"Now targeting missiles," she says, instead.
And fires.
KTS: Ruri Hoshino targets Mobile Weapons Team with Missile Barrage! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
The yelling, the shouting - it's so much, Ryoko hopes Minato got through to her. Yet, even as the Beast Fighter falls back, Ryoko shouts at him, "You get back here! GET BACK HERE!"
It doesn't matter, he doesn't obey her certainly, his charged blast suddenly showering the battlefield with thunder, and despite her attempt to jerk her Aestivalis out of the way on it's thrusters.
She finds her systems fried for the effort, beyond even the effort of her distortion field to fully protect her.
Still sparking, she watches then, the ship of the Mother rocketing through it all. "Don't do it... DON'T DO IT!"
The frieghter however crashes into the castle, leaving a crater, and Ryoko's shoulders shake, over the suppressed nasally inhalation.
"... they need you..."
Her voice is so soft, for just a moment, so pathetically defeated, the weight of another Mother dying and leaving their Children behind an infection of the spirit.
Then the gauge on the IFS system just rises, as the Rapid Rifle swings up. In an instant all the safeguards are removed.
Ryoko's breath seethes through her teeth, with a look that could kill as her nanomachines track every single point on the Beast Fighter that's damaged, over hissing sparking screen.
And then her rifle begins to spit fire, at a rate of fire that would put most 'Full Automatic' settings on mobile suit weapons to shame.
There's no battlecry, no grunt of exertion, nothing more than the simple determination to kill this opponent with her nearly crippled Aesti and the equivalent of a 'pop gun' in comparison to the Beast Fighter's massive size.
Raining spent shell casings into space, as those damaged areas of the Fighter are struck again and again and again...
Until...
Clickclickclickclickclick...
... Empty...
Certainly not the only thing that is right now.
KTS: Ryoko Subaru has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Ryoko Subaru targets Mobile Weapons Team with Alarmingly Rapid Rifle! KTS: Ryoko Subaru has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Ruri Hoshino's Missile Barrage, taking 2475 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Ryoko Subaru's Alarmingly Rapid Rifle, taking 7320 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Ryoko Subaru's In the End All I Do Is... activates, causing Insight L1! <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
<"Ah! The fold drive is ready to active!">
The announcement comes from the Quarter's operator. It is then quickly followed by Captain Wilder, <"Captain Misamaru. I suggest we prepare to fold out as soon as possible. Before any possible reinforcements arrive, as suggested by that brave woman. We should not let her sacrifice be in vein. Not while we must safeguard her children.">
Meanwhile in the battle with the Baizanga, Alto is already thinking the same as he calls out to the other pilots, <"Ryoko, Rin! Let's finish this one off and get the hell out of here.">
The Messiah transforms back to its fighter mode, Alto planning to use its greater speed in order to get back to the Quarter and Nadesico before they fold. But he's not planning on letting the Baizanga off the hook. Not after witnessing the event that just occured...
The loss of a mother stings Alto hard.
<"Bastards. If it wasn't for you!">
The Messiah charges the Baizanga head on, the machine guns in its wings spitting out a rapid stream of bullets at the Beast Fighter, joining Ryoko's barrage to try and fill the thing full of holes.
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome targets Mobile Weapons Team with ES-25A High Speed Machine Guns Concentrated Barrage! KTS: Alto Saotome has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Alto Saotome's ES-25A High Speed Machine Guns Concentrated Barrage, taking 6240 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alto Saotome's The Twinkle Of A Tearful Planet activates, causing Insight L1!
<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.
Rancor's last-chance power-drive deflects off of that barrier - the sword's stroke, perhaps not broken, but --
The pinpoint barrier sizzles and pops.
Okay, it's broken, at least for now.
The group regroups. Banking, turning. One rarely flies straight and level in any kind of combat. Only the endurance factor of the human body - and Rin's body, while human, is certainly able to take more than the statistical average - limits how hard you can change orientation. The big problem is when the multipurpose design has a big thruster on the back.
Rin comes around and --
She sees the collision and she hears the plea.
Rin's eyes saccade violently for a moment.
OVER A DECADE AGO.
'You're old enough, now,' said Mom in Chinese, 'that I knew you would be able to understand. And you've always agreed with us, and you've never seemed upset, so... it's a reward, I suppose.'
'Bout what?' said a young Rin Mei Starking, with her hair in pigtails.
'About Opal,' Mom said. 'You know you're not really twins.'
'Yeah, but... you an' Count Starking said so.'
Mom picked up a black leather folder. 'This is why Count Starking has always asked you to feel comfortable calling him that.'
Rin looked; the photo was smart-paper, slightly glitching. In the light, it cycled through a second of a man with light-blond hair and gray eyes smiling. Behind him was a pine tree, Rin thought, and snow on the ground.
'This is your father,' Mom said.
'... What's his name?'
'His name was Emilis,' said Mom, before taking a deep, sharp breath through her nose. 'Emilis Naujakaite.'
'... Is he gonna visit?'
'He--'
NOW
Mother isn't at home.
The two robots are old companions, in their many forms. They communicate wordlessly, sensing, perhaps, the distress of their creator. Rin does not speak for long seconds and to electronic minds, even more so than Rin's own overcranked mutant brain, seconds can be eternities.
With the Pinpoint Barrier destroyed, there is no distinction in what the two of them can do; a brief dispute and an overruling rules out one tactic. It's Rancor that banks towards the VF-171 and sends several interrogatory signals.
"Huh?" Rin says, distantly, before startling up --
Scorn has already pivoted around to reorient with faceless-face towards the Skullrook. But perhaps somewhere in a recently-repaired logic block, the creature - once a toy, then a bird, and now one of the greatest birds of the sky - can feel something of sympathy.
Of motivation.
Of *revenge*.
The Mauler Beams fire about a half a dozen times, and if each shot is towards something that damage control crews on the enemy vessel would have *really* liked to not get shot -- well; that's simply too bad. That is what Scorn would think, but of course, a drone would do no such thing.
"-- Good follow-up," Rin says, a lot more quietly than she was about ten seconds ago.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Mobile Weapons Team with Scorn - Eye of the Raven! KTS: Rin Naujakaite has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Rin Naujakaite's Scorn - Eye of the Raven, taking 4125 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Minato's abject grief at the tragic display of Mitsuyo's final moments floods Yurika with a cold feeling down her spine - to see her normally so warm and collected helmswoman have an outburst like that...an unusual grimace crosses the captain's lips. She can see it, though - that momentary collision with the battleship's command towers throwing the Boazanians just off enough that everyone's able to break through. ...It's a bit of a weak gesture, Yurika knows - but she hurriedly retrieves a milk tea and sets it into Minato's hands. "...I-it's going to be okay..."
It's a tall order when both Kenichi and Hiyoshi are bawling against Daijiro - and Professor Yamaguchi's needing to hold all three of them. "...Mitsuyo...we promise we'll fight back, for the chance you gave us. ...We promise we won't let your bravery be in vain," he breathes carefully...
Countless explosions rock the bridge of the Skullrook, its energy reserves sparking catastrophically, smoldering from its eyes and mouth. Amidst the panic, Heinel commands, "Fall back, fall back-! The brats aren't worth our lives. This is a stain on my honor...kghhh..." He thinks of just how he plans to report this failure to Emperor Zambajil - and breaks into a sweat, a pang of fear striking at how maybe, just maybe, dying may well be preferable to the Emperor's wrath.
But no - both fleets prepare their fold exit, too damaged to risk a single following exchange of gunfire, scrambling to withdraw all fighters, damaged or no. At the very least, if the Boazanians have something resembling 'honor' - they don't open fire during this phase, saucers converging on fallen ships, salvaging what they can of the ruined Beast Fighter.
Behind Ragna, the system's sun peeks over the horizon, illuminating a battlefield of bitterness and tragedy...