2024-06-29: Detected and Caught
- Log: 2024-06-29 Detected and Caught
- Cast: Trem Firmal, Elan Ceres, Yuliana Kafim, Seolla Schweizer, Soma Peries, Emilia Eschonbach, Flay Allster, Lilium Valerie, Elisa Kafim, Teletha Testarossa
- Where: Lagrange 1 Resource Satellite Sveaborg
- OOC - IC Date: June 29, UC 0099 (2024)
- Summary: Sveaborg, a former third-tier Federation military installation, has been a remote resource satellite used in construction for ages. Its output is low, but it doubles as a secondary purpose: a prison for political dissidents. Katharon, an anti-NUNE insurgency, found out that several of their people are among the prisoners. They're making a move on Sveaborg, with requests sent to their allies in Satellicon. Unfortunately, that information was leaked as part of a Gaia Sabers plan to capture or neutralize the would-be rescuers. A fight scene between Gaia Sabers vs. Dawn of Fold and Satellicon!
<Pose Tracker> Trem Firmal has posed.
Sveaborg is a resource satellite orbiting L1. In the UC 0060's, it was an asteroid mined for the construction of the Sides. During the One Year War, it was a minor military installation used by the Federation. Afterward, it fell out of favor; an ugly, forgotten lump of nickel-iron asteroid that had a small facility on it. Naturally, NUNE took that over.
It was a perfect place for a facility best not mentioned. NUNE's media control made sure that Sveaborg was forgotten -- rarely mentioned, rarely discussed, simply not worth coverage in the news or online discussions.
Katharon's intelligence was found by direct infiltration: inside Sveaborg, political dissidents are made to do hard labor in smelting steel, in half-again the normal gravity (by virtue of a centrifuge). It was hard-won; the spy who brought word died of her wounds a day later.
Now, there is a trio of shuttles flying towards Sveaborg. Inside one of them is the mustachioed German man who organized this. Hardiker, one of Katharon's agents, reached out to allies in Dawn of Fold...
...and sent word to Satellicon, too, for good measure. "We're getting close," he says over tightbeam. Thanks and pleasantries have been done away with; they can come for later. "Look out for any escorts -- and cover us, as we get our ground teams in, recover the prisoners, and escape."
The three shuttles' thrusters fire. Bright points of light -- and they shoot ahead, towards Sveaborg's docks.
- * - * -
Onboard the Aion, in the ready room, Gaia Sabers pilots are seated. There is a large screen, displaying an image of Sveaborg. It shows the asteroid, rotating; it also shows the shuttles, movng in. This vessel is under the command of Kathras Fari, but the Mobile Suit team today is under the command of a different individual.
Lieutenant Commander Joao Romero, second-in-command of Chimera Team, stands at the front of the room in his normal suit. "This is a live feed," Romero says. "We're launching in five minutes. Our mission is simple: neutralize the escorts, then isolate the shuttles. Destroy them if you have to, but we have orders from command."
He is a tall, thin man; he is balding early, in his early thirties, and his mustache is thicker than the top of his head. "The Captain of my team said we're cleared to employ a new pacification weapon, for insurgents," he says. "We'll be testing it. Unfortunately... the Captain couldn't bother to show up."
He lets out a long suffering sigh. "You'll be supporting Chimera Team on this. And..." He turns, and looks at a young woman with pinned up light pink hair. Trem Firmal sits there, in her normal suit, still and focused.
Her silver eyes are distant
"...Firmal is tasked with delivering the weapon. Captain's orders." Romero groans. "I'm a babysitter, again."
His eyes flick, accusingly, to the young man seated next to Trem, with his helmet obscuring his face. "Twice, today."
He looks around. "Any questions?"
- * - * -
"Gh..."
Inside the Sveaborg, it's sweltering. The heat is nearly enough to make someone collapse -- and inside normal suits, it's worse. Each step is halting; each step takes so much effort, to move. A trio of men push forward a crate full of scrap metal.
Each heaves, and grunts, and then there are two men. One collapses, breathing heavily. "Hey--hey, come on," another says. "Get up!"
A guard turns, looking accusingly at the fallen men. Then, though, there is a loud THUD through Sveaborg's entire structure.
- * - * -
The three shuttles set down, docking. The airlocks open; Hardiker watches on a screen, as a dozen of his operatives in normal suits fly with their jetpacks, rifles raised. Then, he speaks to the Dawn of Fold and Satellicon Mobile Suits accompanying them.
"Our teams are in," he says. "We're giving them six minutes to get as many out as we can. Then we go, and--"
"Hardiker!" a young man cuts in. "We've got company!"
"What!?"
The sun gleams off the hull of the Aion, as it rises upward. Then, there is a burst of red-orange particles -- the improved GN Tau Drives, developed over the last year to minimize cellular damage.
"This is it," Hardiker says. "Here they come... comrades! We're relying on you!"
A trio of GN-Xes shoot forward, one with a fin on it.
"Enemies sighted!" Romero says, rocketing towards an old Jegan near the shuttles -- this one repainted a blue color, signifying its Katharon allegiance -- and starts firing beam rifle shots.
"Fan out and bring them down!" he commands.
A little behind the GN-X, an olive drab and grey Mobile Suit -- with an orange visor -- shoots forward. In its hands, it has a large solid-state halberd and a large shield. The Zowort Heavy rockets forward, with a shoulder-mounted cannister on the back.
Trem sits up, in her cockpit. Her breathing is even. Her eyes are forward.
"Zowort Heavy," she says, "Callsign Snake-3... engaging the enemy. Dragon-4, I'm going in."
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Chimera Team normally has three members: Lion-1, Goat-2, Snake-3. Today there is a fourth: Dragon-4, reported to be a new transfer from the AEU. He hasn't given a name besides that callsign. The Captain has assigned him to accompany and protect Trem, callsign Snake-3. He has come already in his normal suit, whose visor is one-way reflective, and whose voice transmitter is slightly distorted. His identity is thus obscured. But it is known, at least to Lt. Commander Romero, that he is about the same age as Trem--that is to say, a teenager.
He doesn't react to Romero's groan or his reference to babysitting. Then again, in this outfit, one would be hard-pressed to notice any kind of reaction without it being overblown, and this young man apparently doesn't do those.
He also apparently doesn't do questions. He is silent for the entirety of the briefing. He merely absorbs what his mission is: neutralize the escorts, then isolate the shuttles.
The nature of the weapon Trem will be utilizing isn't presently his concern. As he told her yesterday: he has his orders, and she has hers.
Soon enough, the shuffles approach and dock on Sveaborg. Chimera Team launches from the Aion, and so Dragon-4 does as well in a Zowort Heavy of his own. It flies straight and steady, and it carries a number of ranged weapons as well as a beam saber--just in case. Within its cockpit, its pilot is also calm and steady.
Romero issues orders. "Roger," Dragon-4 responds in his somewhat distorted voice. "Zowort Heavy, Callsign Dragon-4, supporting Snake-3."
Dragon-4's Zowort Heavy shoots forward and to one side of Snake-3's, simultaneously fanning out and being prepared to move in to defend as needed. He opens covering fire on the shuttles ahead, with the intent to help clear Trem's path.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana did put in a good word for Satellicon with the Prince. It's hardly the only thing which swayed him to a friendly disposition, but it's always good for him to know where his people stand, vis-a-vis the various forces of the world. And, for now...
The Salamis Kyo-class 'Shandor' is here, responding to Hardiker's call. It delivers warriors from the Dawn of Fold -- including Yuliana, in her newly-repaired Da Xukong 0, here in her role as one of the Dawn of Fold's heavies. She's not really suited to retrieving victims; her skill-set is far more violent.
Her organisation isn't the only one which has noticed this, though -- which might be why she invited her wife to come along. With a little reasoning, she was able to justify how they could do it without scaring their new friends off too quickly.
And they're here to defend the shuttles. And if Yuliana gets a chance to blow the plant up once those six minutes are up, well...
... unfortunately, it looks like they've already got -- "Company, huh," Yuliana transmits, across friendly channels. "We've got you. Stay behind us." 'Us'? She has a rosy view of her wife's intentions, apparently.
Da Xukong 0 jets through space with momentum-adjustors on its eight legs; they move not entirely like legs ought to, in the senseless void of space, which just means she has a surprising amount of agility to her. It's defending those shuttles, which means it doesn't wreak immediate havoc.
Still -- there's no mistaking that scorpion tail, or the fact that this machine has eight legs instead of four.
It's her.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Every minute of hearing about it made Seolla's blood boil. The report from an agent who sacrificed her life to unveil injustice - a grueling and backbreaking penal labor facility seemingly designed to amplify suffering. Every image she saw of Sveaborg during the briefing just made her want to crush that asteroid with all her might. Knowing it was going to be well defended was just the bitter edge to it - that the suffering was the purpose of this. That the suffering was worth fighting for - worth dying for, to some of them.
...It's why it was hard to go in and out of the TDD-1's employ and actually stick with her apprenticeship at Mao Industries. Knowing things like this were happening, and letting them, for what? Something as vague as her own future?
As Seolla thumbed the trusty Lion's control sticks in the Tuatha de Danaan's hangar, the mere thought of it made her skin prickle with sweat.
((How can I just abandon the future of everyone in there?))
((...Arado...Lat...Ouka...you'd probably hate how I think that way.))
Someone she promised she'd share a brighter future with. Someone given no choice but to seize such a future for herself. Someone who might never have one, and would want Seolla to take one for herself.
"...That's all of us here, huh? Stuck between doing the right thing and wanting what we deserve for ourselves...I wonder, Sousuke, wherever you wound up. Are you able to find that, after a long time of sacrificing yourself so much?"
A click of the tongue later, a descent onto the TDD-1's catapults, and a sharp cry of <<Uruz-11, beginning operations! I'll pursue the enemy ship's escort! ...Captain, I'll come back safely, I promise.>>
Rocketing through the cosmos in front of Sveaborg, Seolla's Lion ascends upward into a cloud of smaller asteroid debris, sights aimed on the four members of Chimera Team, picking apart their tactics as best she can from just five seconds of observation. If "Snake-3" is the seeming forward of the team, then it's clear "Dragon-4" is the bulwark of support. Take that down, and the captain's exposed.
"Target identified. I'm engaging...!" Seolla radios to her allies - from her perch amidst the stones barely any larger than her own PT, her trusty main railgun blazes several bolts of opening fire towards Elan's Zowort, immediately preparing to move from position to position. Never stay in one place for long, she's always learned - a doctrine utterly at odds with the role of a sniper, but one demanded of Seolla to master all the same.
...She can't hold back. Aiming a transmission Elan's way, Seolla shouts, "Do you know what they're doing in there?! If you do, and you still accept it..." She lets the threat go unsaid.
KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Elan Ceres with Burst Railgun Shot! KTS: Elan Ceres engages evade against Seolla Schweizer's Burst Railgun Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Elan Ceres moderately reacts to Seolla Schweizer's Burst Railgun Shot, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
Within the ready room of the Aion, Soma Peries is one of those pilots that is seated. She had been directed by command to join in on the ambush, though only her. It was deemed overkill to send her entire squad along with her, given this is Chimera Team's mission. Soma sits with her arms crossed, listening to the briefing. The plan is simple enough. Perhaps too simple. Soma wonders if this Romero might be underestimating the enemy. But it's not her place to speak out so she simply remains quiet at the prompt for questions.
Quickly glancing at some of the other pilots in the ready room, Soma recognises a couple. But Trem and the one called Dragon-4 draw her attention. The former given the mission to release the new pacificaiton units. The latter already in a helmet with reflective visor to boot. Soma doesn't think too much on it though, the Gaia Sabers are known to have some quirky individuals. Though it does make trusting them difficult to trust.
The mission starts, the Aion revealing itself and beginning to launch its units. Soma's own is next up on the catapult, <"Soma Peries. Advanced GN-X Rosen. Launching."> The customized Advanced GN-X rockets away from the Aion, its GN Beam Rifle in hand. It accelerates through space with its trail of crimson particles blasting out behind it. It rapidly approaches the Katharon forces, but stops well short of reaching them. Letting its allies continue on, the Rosen raises its rifle and starts making long ranged shots towards the shuttle escorts, providing covering fire at a distance. Initially it's going well, as they have the advantage of surprise.
But as Soma sights in on a new target, the distinctly strange form of the unit instils a deep sense of familiarity in Soma.
It's her.
Soma glares at the zoomed in image of Da Xukong 0 in her sights, her jaw clenching, "Dispersal..."
It's too dangerous for you to fight her.
I won't run away!
You know what she can do to you.
Don't you want to end her reign of terror!?
I... Don't know...
Well you better decide quickly. Or else we'll both be dead.
Soma's hands tighten on her controls as she resolves herself to this. She settles her aim on the Da Xukong 0 and pulls the trigger. The crimson GN particle beam lances out across the great distance of space towards Yuliana.
KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim with GN-X Advanced GN Beam Rifle Far Horizon Shot! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim engages block against Soma Peries's GN-X Advanced GN Beam Rifle Far Horizon Shot! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Yuliana Kafim successfully blocks Soma Peries's GN-X Advanced GN Beam Rifle Far Horizon Shot, taking 2050 damage! POT: Yuliana Kafim is no longer set observer. <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
It's been about a week since the Dawn of Fold made their debut on the world stage. Today is the proof that they won't be a flash in the pan.
Z4 Squad were representing the Sleeves contribution to this mission. Which meant arriving on the Shandor.
Only the squadron command, Oscar Kalo, had left the Sleeves assigned waiting area, for coordination reasons only.
"Berliner, I want you coordinating electronic warfare and scrambling enemy comms. Peri, cover the transports."
Toni Peri snorts. "Sure, give me the fucken boring job."
Kalo moves on, ignoring her. "I'll be running close range escort when we close," he comments. "Eschonbach, you're running interference."
"Y-Y-yes, sir." Emmy responds, as calmly as she can.
Peri rolls her eyes. "Oh so the Psycho gets to have fun with it." Emilia shoots her squadmate a look, eye alight with rage. That just seems to make the squad sniper smirk.
"Keep the hostility for our enemies, and get to the catapults."
'Gray' Berliner crosses his arms. "Does this thing even have catapults, or do they just use the tentacles for that?" He mutters, getting a snort from Peri.
----
Once again, the Black Swan is at the head of the Zaku IV squadron, ahead by a significant margin. Peri is already set up to provide supporting fire upon the GN-X's, and the other two members of Z4 move to support the transports. The Black Swan, however, doesn't move with them.
"Eschonbach- take out that Zowort." For all Oscar's calmness, the sudden order makes sense. It's not like Spacenoids have bad experiences with mysterious cylinders carried by Earthnoid oppressors.
"Aye!" Emilia calls back, and the Zaku IV surges towards Snake-3 at full speed, raising both beam machineguns at Trem's Zowort Heavy, filling the space between them with a barrage of beams- and not slowing down for a second. Dragon-4 is supposed to be clearing a path- but Satellicon have him covered and the Zaku IV moves to surge past him. "D-Die!" She shouts, inside her cockpit.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Trem Firmal with Standard Beam Machine Gun Barrage! KTS: Trem Firmal fails to engage guard against Emilia Eschonbach's Standard Beam Machine Gun Barrage! KTS: Trem Firmal moderately reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's Standard Beam Machine Gun Barrage, taking 3486 damage! <Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Sveaborg, in the slums of space, is not a place that would catch the eye of an aristocrat like Flay Allster. Why would it? Even the Federation didn't care about it. Or so it seemed.
Joining the Gaia Sabers gives one access to a lot of information they wouldn't have otherwise, and yet...
"Why did they put me on standby?" The red-haired girl demands, of a fairly unremarkable military man, in the hallway leading to the temporary private quarters of the Aion. "I'm more than capable of piloting the Strike at this point! What, do you think I'm just going to be a liability?" She points an accusing finger.
"No, Miss, it's just... we weren't aware you were so passionate about this mission. Your role today was to be one of pure support, I thought that was clear." He looks taken aback, and looks to the professional-looking woman besides him.
Flay crosses her arms and glares at the man. "It's my job to fight Dawn of Fold and the rest of them, too!" If she doesn't have that, then what else is there? "So... let me do it!" She pleads.
The woman nods, her cold expression belying any emotion. "Then show us what you can do... Miss Flay Allster." Flay doesn't say another word, as the storms off to the pilot briefing room. The man doesn't look happy, but he shrugs. "It's time that prissy brat finally learned how the Gaia Sabers really operate."
---
The briefing is pretty straightforward, and while ambushing them over something like a prisoner exchange doesn't fully sit right with her... she's able to push it down.
It's when Captain Romero mentions a 'new pacification weapon for the insurgents' that she tilts her head. "Excuse me, sir, but..." She raises her hand, when Romero opens questions. "Um... what kind of weapon is it? No one told me anything about that." She asks, her hands shaking. And why is some student from Asticassia in charge of it, she doesn't ask.
Soon enough, Dawn of Fold and Satellicon both arrive in their various mobile weapons to rescue the insurgent prisoners. The GN-X go in first, spreading their GN-Tau particles in a brilliant orange light. The dull grey Strike E Gundam follows, the green Launcher pack set up in the linear catapult.
"Flay Allster, Strike... launching!" The imposing form of the Strike roars to life, Phase Shift colouring it a bright green to match its weapons pack. It's her first time using anything but the Aile pack, and the extra weapons certainly make it more heavy... but her late addition means she's mostly been relegated to artillery support.
Granted, the Strike is very good at doing that. "All Gaia Sabers personnel," She transmits, over tight-band, so who needs callsigns? "This is Flay Allster. I'm about to fire the Agni... so stay out of my way!!" She warns, aiming her targeting scope at the Queadlunn-Inanna, letting loose a large red burst of sheer death that misses the Zentraedi-use machine by a scrape.
Unfortunately, she is not aware that she has just fired upon a veritable witch.
KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster targets Elisa Kafim with Agni 320mm Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannon Warning Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"A Lion, huh...?" Yuliana transmits, to Seolla, as they get into position. "... nice pick. I'm fond of them myself, you know." Her Masquerion might be getting on in years, a little, but she still keeps it in good maintenance. It's too sturdy to scrap!
That's a machine she recognises -- but there's another, coming onto the field, which has clearly seen improvements. "Is that... a GN-X?" She asks, peering at her visor as it reads out the target data. "Designation 'Rosen', huh..."
She intersperses her wanzer in a hurry, letting its unnatural green Abyssal Veil absorb the brunt of those shots -- and giving the pilot something else to worry about, evidently. She's in defensive position, so she doesn't dodge that crimson beam, though her fingers fly down the console as she toggles a series of switches to reinforce the armour harmonics and support her strange barrier. Luckily, her efforts see the green Abyssal Veil absorbing most of the blast, though the Da Xukong 0 rocks back in space from the force of Soma's determination.
Yuliana switches her comms to public broadcast, so she can speak to her foe. "Then keep your eyes on me," she says, grin audible, as she sets her wanzer to jet forward in space on those horrible insectoid legs. "BECAUSE I SEE YOU, 'ROSEN'--!!"
She grasps her Cleave Axe, as she rockets forward, and swings it down on the larger machine with a great chop. Unfortunately for Elisa, she's aiming at its arm and not its cockpit, but can Elisa really blame her wife for playing with her food?
(She's not terribly worried that someone is shooting at her wife, for much the same reason.)
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with MULS-P Cleave Axe Topple Strike!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
In her seat around the middle row of the Aion's ready room, Lilium (Having been sent 'upstairs' for zero-G combat experience) stares up at the projection on the screen. This was... An asteroid that as about to be invaded by terrorists?
Whatever it was, she was going to be sent out as part of the first wave to it in... five minutes. She brings up one arm to set a timer on her watch, before glancing around at the others seated with her--her gaze eventually landing on Firmal, and the rest of her team.
Teenagers... license-holders, presumably. Whatever new weapon they were deploying, it wasn't her business--not after it was delivered, at any rate. Getting it there, while making sure the shuttles were isolated... that was her business.
She shakes her head to the Lieutenant-Commander's request for questions--This was simple enough, surely--and simply stands, salutes, and departs for the hangar at a... brisk pace, normal suit helmet under her arm.
It isn't long before Lilium is packed into her GN-X's cockpit--"Lilium Valerie! GN-X Long Barrel! I'm taking off!"--and flying out through open space. Hm. Space...
She can't help but turn her gaze towards the earth below for a moment.
So beautiful from up here... something worth fighting to--is, unfortunately, that's about as far as her train of thought can get before the shooting starts, and the orders start coming in
"Moving, sir!" is her only response to the Lieutenant Commander's instructions, and Lilium picks a direction and turns her rifle upon it. She'll need to deal with whatev-
A large shadow cuts its way across her field of view.
At least one mobile weapon--whatever her targeting computer marks it as, she doesn't notice--shoots off of its catapult.
Who designs a spaceship to look like a submarine? Spacenoids...
Shaking her head, Lilium's grip on her controls tightens. This was going to be an... issue. She takes in a deep breath, lining up her Long Rifle for an opening shot, and keys her radio:<"Lieutenant Valerie. Engaging... enemy vessel!">
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Six minutes," Elisa Kafim confirms. "Very well."
She is calm at the matter of having company, not immediately springing into action. Elisa would not ordinarily be here; it is her way to command from afar, to send operatives or support her wife from a distance. But not today. Not after her wife so graciouslly invited her. ...And after her conversation with Kaworu Nagisa, perhaps it will be just the thing.
"You may rely on me," Elisa says in her smooth, too-calm voice over the radio. "I shall work for this."
Her machine is a beast of a thing, not a human mobile suit at all but a Meltrandi power armoor. She is larger, with an agular body and long limbs, along with a great cannon on her back--but more elaborate, more filigreed, more more than a typical Queadlunn-Rau. The Queadlunn-Inanna is a deep green adorned with black, and it comes with a strange shield module on its left arm. "We shall protect them?" Elisa says over the band, but it is meant for Yuliana. "Very well."
Someone aims at Yuliana. Elisa reflexively begins to extend a hand, the Queadlunn-Inanna moving with her body--but she relentts.
"My darling," she says. "I shall trust your prowess."
She has something of her own to contend with a moment later. Artillery is fired upon her, and Elisa feels the heat of the beam as it passes her--but does not hit. She smiles, at that. "It would seem I have an opponent. Six minutes... Very well."
The Queadlunn-Inanna engages its thrusters and begins to fly towards the Strike. She regards the Phase Shift armor thoughtfully, but that is not really what influences her.
"Pilot," she says as she approachees Flay. Missiles pour out from her shoulders, trailing thruster residue as they crash towards the Strike's limbs, not cockpit.
"Your machine looks powerful... Do you have a powerful 'will' to match it?"
Her voice echoes, as if it is not only the radio over which she is speaking.
"Can you destroy me? Can you hunt a 'witch'?"
KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to engage evade against Flay Allster's Agni 320mm Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannon Warning Shot! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Elisa Kafim successfully reacts to Flay Allster's Agni 320mm Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannon Warning Shot, taking 2775 damage! KTS: Flay Allster rattles Elisa Kafim, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Flay Allster with Loom XL-38 Missile Launcher Pods Barrage! KTS: Soma Peries engages evade against Yuliana Kafim's MULS-P Cleave Axe Topple Strike! KTS: Critical Hit! Soma Peries poorly reacts to Yuliana Kafim's MULS-P Cleave Axe Topple Strike, taking 5470 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Teletha Testarossa with GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. <Pose Tracker> Trem Firmal has posed.
"That's classified, Allster," Joao Romero answers Flay. His tone of voice is flat. "I'm not aware of the details myself. But let me give you a piece of advice..."
Trem looks at Flay, for a moment. Then, her eyes shift -- they catch Soma's, for a moment. She smiles her way; it looks nervous, perhaps.
Romero keeps speaking. "...The Captain has an Autonomous Action License. They tell us to do something, and we do it. High command doesn't hand those out too often."
- * - * -
Trem's silver eyes dart across her screen, to and fro, as she takes in the covering fire that Elan's Zowort Heavy puts out for her. That keeps an old Flag at bay, which fires its verniers to keep back.
A lance of GN particles shoots through space but a moment later, from a GN-X flying inward.
Trem exhales. It looks like Elan has her back. Not quite what she expected, when she went to Peil House.
It's quickly chaotic. She registers the Da Xukong 0, in the distance; she sees the flash of a Lion's railgun, for Elan's Zowort Heavy. Then, her screen lights up -- flashes of alerts of detected gunfire, and the Zowort Heavy turns, raising both arms.
Beam rifle fire from the Zaku IV slashes through it, several smokingholes cut through the ablative armor and glowing red-hot for a moment before they cool. Trem sucks a breath in, before she leans forward.
"So... you plan to get in my way," she says of Emilia.
The Zowort Heavy lifts its huge, blocky shield. Emilia can just see the glint of sunlight on the cannon's barrel, before it fires. A golden lance of energy explodes from the barrel, hurtling across space and for her Zaku IV.
And then the Zowort Heavy turns, thrusters firing, and comes rushing a little closer.
- * - * -
On his shuttle's bridge, Hardiker watches the monitors. Watching as the Advanced GN-X and Da Xukong 0 come crashing together; as the battle begins to play out. "Ground teams!" he calls out, into the radio. "Any update?"
"We're almost to the prisoner block!" a voice comes over the radio, crackling with low-level Minovsky interference.
"Roger," Hardiker says. He reaches to his side, checking his sidearm. "We need to hurry this up. I'm not sure we have six minutes. We're going to secure your exit."
Hardiker turns, glances at two of his fellow soldiers, and nods.
KTS: Trem Firmal targets Emilia Eschonbach with Beam Cannon Shot! KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to engage Guard against Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Teletha Testarossa successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot, taking 2850 damage! KTS: Flay Allster engages intercept against Elisa Kafim's Loom XL-38 Missile Launcher Pods Barrage! KTS: Flay Allster's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Flay Allster successfully reacts to Elisa Kafim's Loom XL-38 Missile Launcher Pods Barrage, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There's a long, heavy sigh as Tessa mentally reviewed the briefing. The Gaia Sabers were always a group that she wasn't weighing the highest opinion of, but this latest intelligence...A frown on her features, something unknown to Executive Officer Mardukas, but coming with more and more regularity. Sveaborg. Political prisoners who's only crime was disagreement. Innately disagreeable in of itself, the impossibility of such an isolated asteroid only filling her with the taste of disgsted nausea.
"...We're going."
"Mhm. The nature of this call implies they are wanting for assistance."
"Of course. With what we've been able to prepare, it should be possible..."
"Captain?"
"Mardukas. Have you went to space before?"
"Yes, a few times...Back during the turbulence of the One Year War, I shifted about. ...Are they done?"
Tessa merely shifted that serene smile slightly upwards.
The engines hummed with coolant, the most effective problem of heat disappation taken care of.
The hull shimmered with the seals and added reinforcement, minute hydraulics playing with the shifts in the engine thrusts. Some things, unfortunately, required real-world data for fine-tuning.
"Out in space is a slightly strange feeling..." Taking cue from regulations and militaries who had braved the rigors of space, the control room crew (and everyone else, thankfully) wearing space suits with helmets slung down. Tessa in a high ponytail, leaning back on the Captain's chair for a moment, the bright blue suit highlighted with orange strips. Visibility of the head of the TDD-1 was paramount, color taste aside. "But it's not a bad one." ...Even if she had lost a bit of weight.
"Captain. Are you sure about keeping the codenames?"
"As much as our feigned deaths worked for us, no one can mistake what the Tuatha de Dannan looks like. There's no indication that Amalgam has infected into this particular asteroid. Keep an eye just to make sure."
"Aye, ma'am."
The closing of eyes. A deep breath in. A deep exhalation. Back to the front. The submarine floating through space, the deep black melting into the cosmos proper. The hatch of the beast opening, vomiting out its contingency of units, Uruz-11 included.
<<Copy, Uruz-11.>> There was no need to wish for one to come back alive; It was an innate order, forever and always.
"Company!"
"Begin interception. Maintain radio silence. The main objective is the safe retrieval of prisoners." The objective afterwards was left unsaid.
The TDD-1 thrummed, DANA tweaking, working, acting as a command center and relay through the emptiness of space. Pinging various units about, marking them, attempting to discern the layout of the battlefield. Units innately sorted through the indescipherable algortihms, beaming over a few extra scans of the environment for manuverability purposes. An eyebrow piqued upwards at recognition of the antiquity of some of these units, but...Glass houses, people living in them, she's one of them.
Sit back, watch the board, and hope for the best. Even for those black-bagged eyes, Tessa's lips kept the smallest of upward twinges. Six minutes. More than enough time. Fingers tapping along the armrest. Patience. Pati-
"Contact! GN-X!"
"Maintain course. Pitch fifteen degrees."
"Aye, ma'am! Pitch fifteen degrees!" The submarine rocked for a moment before pitching on it's side, the incoming beam pinging off of the hull. Damage, but glancing.
"...One GN-X, out of everything. Keep an eye on it, and prepare tube 1."
"Aye, ma'am. Prepare tube 1!" The submarine floated through, as if seemingly unpreturbed by such a shot. Only the slow tilt along, pushing forward through the recesses of space.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Seolla Schweizer, Elisa Kafim, and Yuliana Kafim with Coordinate! KTS: Seolla Schweizer accepts Teletha Testarossa's Coordinate! KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Seolla Schweizer's Piloting! KTS: Best Defense! Seolla Schweizer successfully reacts to Teletha Testarossa's Coordinate, taking 0 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim accepts Teletha Testarossa's Coordinate! KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Elisa Kafim's Piloting! KTS: Best Defense! Elisa Kafim successfully reacts to Teletha Testarossa's Coordinate, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Dragon-4 doesn't pay Soma any mind. He certainly doesn't offer any answers to Flay on what an Asticassia student is doing here. Because it's definitely just the one.
A Lion--not Lion-1--zips out through the space debris to perch on a rock, then unleash railgun blasts towards Chimera Team, specifically Dragon-4's Zowort Heavy. Its pilot looks up within the cockpit, but his hands are already on the controls. As the beams rain down towards him, the Zowort Heavy blasts to one side to evade, dodge, and weave, drawing the enemy fire further and further away from Snake-3.
This is apparently exactly what the enemy was plotting, though. While Dragon-4 distracts Seolla, Seolla is also distracting him--allowing Emilia in her Zaku IV to rocket right past him towards Snake-3. He moves to attempt to intercept her, but before he can open fire, Seolla lets loose another burst of attacks, forcing him to dodge again. He might not be taking any damage of his own, but that can hardly be called a victory given what his purpose here is.
"Snake-3. The enemy Lion's suppressing fire prevents me from returning. I will eliminate it, then engage your enemy Zaku," he transmits to Trem. (He clearly does not have experience as a bodyguard--just a body double.)
Dragon-4 sends the Zowort Heavy diving to one side behind his own space debris, before grabbing a hold of it, spinning in mid-space, then twisting around to use the asteroidlet as a shield while drawing a beam rifle with the other arm. He aims for the Lion.
A transmission from the enemy unit reaches his comms. Does he know what they're doing in there?
"No," the distorted voice replies.
The beam rifle fires, launching its own hail of blasts at and around Seolla, designed to guide her into at least one of those attacks. Perhaps it's here that Elan will witness her unusual sniper tactics.
KTS: Elan Ceres targets Seolla Schweizer with Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Beam Shot! KTS: Elan Ceres's Enhanced Person No. 4 activates Wall and Focus! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages charge against Trem Firmal's Beam Cannon Shot! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Emilia Eschonbach successfully reacts to Trem Firmal's Beam Cannon Shot, taking 2700 damage! KTS: Seolla Schweizer engages guard against Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Beam Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Seolla Schweizer successfully guards Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Beam Shot, taking 2700 damage! <Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
A simple compliment to Seolla's choice of PT, from the allied forces of...well, Seolla's never been sure who exactly those two from the Silent Calling align themselves with. "It's a model I'm comfortable with," she replies to Yuliana. "...Works a lot like an aircraft. It's at home up in the air, and so am I. ...It's...a little fragile, though. ...Elisa there could attest to that."
Memories of that difficult day in Azadistan come flooding back - for all her ferocity, it was one of many times Seolla stared down the barrel of death against a merciless enemy. ...That power of the Void troubled her too, and yet, whenever those two appeared, it felt like they were fighting for shared just causes...
"You're strong," Seolla states simply. "Both of you are. I'll do what I can to match you, so we can get everyone out of here. I'll be as merciless as I have to to save them."
The moment Seolla hears that the TDD-1's engaged with a mobile suit, she sucks her breath in and prepares to ask about pulling back - but instead, she's sent the usual diligent transmission of combat intel, and she knows that Tessa would only order her to fall back if she was needed.
Now's the time for all the chaos of the world to fall away. To go silent. Potshot after potshot engaged at distant ranges with "Dragon-4" becomes Seolla's world - slowing her breathing and translating the Lion's debris-analyzer to give herself a clearer sense of what she can use in the space she's in. Space is different from the sky - familiar in some ways, difficult in others. Asteroid after asteroid crumbles to bits as Seolla hides from one to the other - but she underestimates the size of one planned shield, and Elan's fire cuts straight through it, searing the Lion's wing-like hip to a red hot glow.
"They're rounding up all sorts of prisoners and sentencing them to cruel, dangerous, life-threatening labor," Seolla says simply to Elan, preparing a feint with her railgun's positioning towards him. "Nothing's changed. People are still being destroyed, treated like machines you can push until they break. I won't let their lives burn away here - they didn't allow mine to be wasted on something so awful!"
Twisting in place and blasting a rock into countless shards for an impromptu smokescreen, Seolla guides out the smaller automatic M950, unloading a full clip through the shroud Elan's way, wound as tight as violin strings with every push and pull of g-forces she exerts.
KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Elan Ceres with M950 Machine Gun Suppressive Fire!
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
The Advanced GN-X is able to get off a couple of more shots at range as the Xukong rockets towards it. But between the small machine's agility and that strange barrier, it's not to much effect. As the AC comes rushing in, Soma lets out a breath and says, "Don't get us killed..."
The Da Xukong 0 closes the distance to the Rosen, swining with its axe. It's a quick strike, threatening to take the Rosen's arm. It has no choice but to sacrifice the weapon it holds, putting the GN Beam Rifle in the path of the swing. The axe cleaves through, bisecting the weapon but as a result, missing the Advanced GN-X's arm. The energy within the weapon goes out of control and causes it to explode between the two units, creating a brief moment of reprieve.
Soma sighs quietly, wondering to herself, "Why would you put me in this situation?" Not wasting any time on an answer that won't come, she switches her radio to public comms and says, <"Yuliana... Kafim..."> Yuliana will naturally recognise the voice. Though the tone is a little softer than usual, <"I don't have anything personal against you... But... Your actions are too destructive.">
The Rosen reaches for the prototype GN Lance attached to the weapon mount on its shoulder. Soma then says, <"Forgive me..."> Though Yuliana may get the sense it's not directed at her.
The Rosen then blasts forward, bringing the long melee weapon around in a sweeping arc to try and smash the Da Xukong 0.
KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim with GN-X GN Lance Smashing Blow! KTS: Elan Ceres fails to engage evade against Seolla Schweizer's M950 Machine Gun Suppressive Fire! KTS: Best Defense! Elan Ceres successfully reacts to Seolla Schweizer's M950 Machine Gun Suppressive Fire, taking 3060 damage! KTS: Seolla Schweizer rattles Elan Ceres, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Yuliana Kafim accepts Teletha Testarossa's Coordinate! KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Yuliana Kafim's Piloting! KTS: Best Defense! Yuliana Kafim successfully reacts to Teletha Testarossa's Coordinate, taking 0 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to engage evade against Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Smashing Blow! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Smashing Blow, taking 3280 damage! KTS: Soma Peries rattles Yuliana Kafim, making her next maneuvers more difficult. <Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
A glancing hit. Lilium pulls up an image of the impact site as she ducks behind an asteroid for a brief moment. The ship... the boat, assuming the submarine resemblance was deliberate, had pitched slightly to absorb the shot. The impact site was visible, glowing faintly against the dark grey hull, but... well, all that really showed was how little it had done
The GN-X reappears from behind its rock a moment later. GN Drive Tau whirring into overdrive once again, spewing a heavy trail of orange-red particles out behind her.
Another shot, then.. assuming she could land it, it'd be worth making sure the boat being entirely unfazed by the first hit wasn't just a fluke.
<<Alright-how about this, then?>>
Lilium forces her control sticks forwards, and her GN-X raises its Long Rifle once again--before a beam slices through the not-unsubstantial space between its position and the bow of the Submarine-like vessel.
KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Teletha Testarossa with GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Focus Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The Zaku IV's pilot sees the glint of light- and doesn't even entertain the thought of changing course. Instead, she charges into it, counting on the Black Swan's Beam Coat to do what it does best. The Beam Cannon slams into the Zaku, blasting away some of the armour- but it doesn't deter Trem's opponent.
Now closer than she had reached so far, Emilia focuses on the quasi-psycommu. "...H-H-H-Harkens!" She shouts, and from the Swanfeather Unit on back a pair of large slash harkens- wire guided, unlike those used in KMFs, and scaled for MSes. A weapon associated with Britannians- or Black Knights. They launch, aiming to wrap around the Zowort Heavy- her goal to lock it down and hold it in place.
It's at this point, Emilia opens her comms, exerting as much control over her voice as she can. "<The Dawn of Fold are. Here. To destroy everything you hope to achieve.>" It takes effort to control her voice that well, and without Rapunzel's AI autocorrecting, it makes communications even harder. But she said her piece to the world. The rest is just for Trem.
"<N-Now... get ready to d-d-die, Gaia Saber!>"
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
The Lion pilot's tactics are indeed interesting. Moving quickly from spot to spot, rather than defending a single location from which to open sniper fire... She'll be a troublesome enemy. Even more troublesome than her battle tactics imply, as it turns out.
Seolla informs him of what's going on with the captives on the Sveaborg. She informs him with passion, declaring in no uncertain terms that she won't let people be treated like disposable machines--that she was saved from a similar fate.
"...."
She aims her railgun his way, but instead of firing at him, she shoots a nearby rock, reducing it to dust that gums up visuals for a key moment, then using it as a shroud to mask the bullets that shred through it into his Zowort Heavy. The armor isn't destroyed, but it is heavily pocked. In response, Dragon-4 uses the momentum from the physical fire to add on to his thrusters, swinging that space rock he was previously holding out to in several circling arcs, then hurling it towards the Lion like a discus throw.
In its wake, he'll adjust his own position, zipping up and around in search of a weak point on Seolla's Lion.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Elan Ceres targets Seolla Schweizer with Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Grenade! KTS: Elan Ceres's Enhanced Person No. 4 activates Wall and Strike! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Trem Firmal with INCOM Harken Grapple! KTS: Trem Firmal engages parry against Emilia Eschonbach's INCOM Harken Grapple! KTS: Trem Firmal successfully reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's INCOM Harken Grapple, taking 2700 damage! KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to engage Evade against Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Teletha Testarossa successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot, taking 2850 damage! <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"We're working to the same ends, today," Yuliana assures Seolla. "I cannot abide the treatment of these prisoners, and so my wife will do you no harm here. Isn't that right, my darling?" Of course she puts Elisa on the spot!
Thanks to that friendliness, though, the Toy Box offers her some assistance. "Copy that," Yuliana transmits, back to Teletha's TDD-1. "Mark."
She can't do too much more smoothing over, though -- which means she leaves Emilia's violence undefended, in favour of focusing on Soma's Rosen GN-X. (She notices that 'DIE', though.) The pilot recognises her -- and names her. "... Soma Peries," she confirms, in turn. She's investigated her, evidently. "You've nothing personal against me? Tch -- you really should be thanking me, you know."
For what? Destroying their base?
The GN Lance sweeps out, carving into the Abyssal Veil and scoring a blow against the metal within -- though it's shallower than it could have been, without her protection. "Don't beg forgiveness from the woman you're fighting," she advises her. "If you draw your weapon, mean to use it!" And instead of getting distance from the Rosen, the Da Xukong only draws closer -- close enough for Yuliana's stifling aura to trouble her even without raising her crest.
Her tail stabs out, to gouge into the GN-X's armour and pour in flame -- though it's aimed for the machine's hip, rather than anything vital.
And to her allies, she transmits: "I do like your passion, Black Swan. Listen to her, darling! She's so fired up!" Oh, no. She's encouraging Elisa to notice her.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with Infernal Arachnid Injector Gouge! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Soma Peries KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries engages parry against Yuliana Kafim's Infernal Arachnid Injector Gouge! KTS: Soma Peries's Force Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Soma Peries poorly reacts to Yuliana Kafim's Infernal Arachnid Injector Gouge, taking 2100 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
"Classified? But..." Flay crosses her arms, unable to really think of a counter. Though her glare meets Trem, sizing up the autonomous action license-holding student. The mysterious 'Dragon-4' also gets a look from her. What makes these people so special that they have the authority to do whatever they want? "...Fine then. I'll support the Chimera Team best I can." Despite her attitude, it's hard to get out of her head the possibility of what that 'weapon' could be.
---
The battle lines are drawn, and the massive blast of the Agni beam is enough to catch the ire, or perhaps it's more accurate to say - interest, of the Queadlunn-Inanna and the Meltrandi operating it. Not inclined to see the bigger strategic picture of a battle, rather than keeping her sights open for other enemies in range, Flay further orients on the Queadlunn-Inanna, drawing closer in turn.
Those missiles come in on full blast, warning signals blaring from the Strike's OS. "Missiles... missiles, I see them!" She murmurs to herself. "If I power the VPS to the limbs, it should be okay..." Her mastery over the controls is still a touch panicked, rather than assured, but the arms glow...
And the majority of those missiles bounce off them as if they were made of plastic, only a few breaking into the armour itself. With a defense so perfect, Flay feels like she should be confident with this engagement... so why does she feel such a cold pressure?
"Of course I do!" Flay answers Elisa, but it feels... strange. Like she's responding to someone who's right behind her, yet not there at all. The Agni is a powerful cannon, but it needs time to charge.. so she can't just fire it again.
Instead, the Launcher Strike, having shaken off those missiles, pursues closer, Flay aiming the shoulder-mounted anti-ship vulcans at the larger unit. "I finally have the will to tame this machine... and I'll show you!"
Elisa introduces herself as what she is, and Flay squints, keeping her eyes on her machine. "A witch? Tch, does Cathedra have a bounty on you or something? Do you think you can get away with that just because they're not watching?" She taunts, as if to brush off that unsettling feeling Elisa exudes, as her voice echoes. "Who do you think you are, anyway?" The vulcans, heavier than your average head-mounted ones fire, aiming to pepper even through the Queadlunn-Inanna's powerful armour of its own.
KTS: Flay Allster targets Elisa Kafim with 120mm Anti-Ship Vulcan Dash!
<Pose Tracker> Trem Firmal has posed.
"Roger that, Dragon-4," Trem answers Elan. She hesitates for a second. It would be awkward, if he was shot down out here. "I'll handle this Zaku. Maybe I'll be finished before you're back."
She looks at the Zaku, as she rushes in -- then she sucks a gasp in, and a curse escapes her breath. Harkens! They come rushing in, wire-guided, and around the Zowort Heavy from both sides. On the left, they slash along the waist armor -- sparks exploding and flying, where they cut into the heavily armored unit.
On the right, they slam into the heavy shield -- and then Trem forces the shield out, slamming them backward, as her opponent speaks.
"Dawn of Fold," she repeats, opening a transmission to Emilia. Her voice is distant. Hazy, almost. "I won't let you."
The halberd suddenly ignites. A beam axe explodes out of the crescent moon; a beam spike erupts out of the top. The Zowort Heavy shoots forward, the rest of the way; the Mobile Suit rattles around Trem, the damage that Emilia has done so far, causing parts inside to rattle unevenly.
Then, she swings the beam halberd down -- the Zowort Heavy grabbing the haft with both hands -- and tries to slash the beam axe into the midsection of the Zaku IV.
Trem speaks over the radio to Emilia, her voice firmer. "The future that we want... I won't share it with someone like you!"
KTS: Trem Firmal targets Emilia Eschonbach with Beam Halberd Slash! KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to engage block against Flay Allster's 120mm Anti-Ship Vulcan Dash! KTS: Elisa Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Elisa Kafim successfully reacts to Flay Allster's 120mm Anti-Ship Vulcan Dash, taking 2925 damage! KTS: Flay Allster begins a Formation attack! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages charge against Trem Firmal's Beam Halberd Slash! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach poorly reacts to Trem Firmal's Beam Halberd Slash, taking 3700 damage! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Her mind works in parallel, muttering to herself every so often as fingers work at the attached seat-panel. A few taps, a few manual entries to focus and reprioritize the maneuvers of the entire ship. Not exactly cybernetics, but the tapping is familiar and comforting. The GN-X is marked; Priority target.
After all, its targeting her ship.
"Another shot coming in." The crew member in charge of surveillance is calmer. More secure. Space is just water with nothing in it.
"Pull up."
"Aye, ma'am. Raise subjective altitude!"
And the submarine shifted, engines thrumming as the vehicle shunted upwards, taking another glancing blow of that beam rifle. Another shot, another successful ding.
"Fire tube 1." Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay quiet. Stay down.
"Aye, ma'am. Fire tube 1!"
And a hatch on the top of the submarine opened; A singular torpedo retrofitted for the rigors of space flying out, the shining light piercing the sky...before thrusters on its side forced the sudden turn of that self-same missile, blasting it towards the attacking GN-X.
One eye on retaliation. One ear on comms. Dawn of Fold with the same ideology. She can...emphasize. Destroy everything they hope to achieve. ...A bit much, but there's nothing she can outwardly voice...The next line, the familiar stutters, bring her a bit of pause.
With a hint of silence, the Black Swan is marked as a point of defense. Another acquaintance on the battlefield. How time flies. How time flies. How... "...Prepare tubes two through eight."
"Aye, ma'am! Prepare tubes two through eight!"
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Lilium Valerie with Precision Strike! KTS: Seolla Schweizer engages intercept against Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Grenade! KTS: Critical Hit! Seolla Schweizer poorly reacts to Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Grenade, taking 3800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elan Ceres's Happy Birthday to-- activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Lilium Valerie engages intercept against Teletha Testarossa's Precision Strike! KTS: Lilium Valerie poorly reacts to Teletha Testarossa's Precision Strike, taking 4950 damage! <Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Fragile, is it? I suppose so." She acknowledges Seolla. And Yuliana says they'll not harm her so, "Of course, my darling. Today, we are allies."
It's wise of Yuliana to make sure.
But Seolla speaks to them further. A pause. "Yes. Show us your 'power', Seolla Schweizer. Show us you have the strength to make your ideals true with your own hands."
The Toy Box's assistance amuses Elisa, but she will make good use of it. As for Emilia, "Yes. Black Swan, if your might matches your fury you shall be deadly indeed. Let us destroy their hopes together."
She's doing her best not to interfere in Yuliana's battle. She should get a medal for that.
Elisa notices the way her missiles essentially bounce off. That strategy will not work after all. An ordinary pilot might be dismayed or a least annoyed, but Elisa instead says, "Fascinating."
Anti-ship vulcans ought to tear through this machine's armor, and they do. The strange distortions around it ensure that none of those blasts hit anything vital, but th beautiful machine is already marred.
"They do," Elisa says of Cathedra. "I do not mind if they watch. But it would be inconvenient. Today, I wish to understand human 'weakness.'"
"It is part of your individuality, I am told. As much a part of you as your 'strength.'"
"Show both to me."
Who does she think she is? Elisa pulls a beam saber, and it ignites, strangely green. She darts forward, hacking once, twice, three times to test Flay and the Strike's defenses.
"I am Elisa Kafim, of the Void."
"I am one who will not be denied. You cannot destroy me. But you can save your life, if you destroy this armor."
"Will you?"
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Flay Allster KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Flay Allster with Green Fold Saber Combo! KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
A married couple on the battlefield. If there's real power in that synchronicity -
...Isn't it exactly what the School had hoped upon hope they could stoke with Seolla? With so many of the others? That they'd become bonded for life, two halves of a whole in every sense of the word? To 'marry' her to another in so many senses of the word?
--but they kept getting |_lost| stitched together and ripped apart over and over
"it's |YOUR FAULT| that you couldn't keep them alive! that blood all over you is ==yours==--"
Seolla coughs over the airwaves. Dry physically - full of bile mentally. "...Isn't it hard to fight together like that...!? ...why would someone like me even say that...The power I'm supposed to have isn't one I can seize without someone else's hands in mine...but here I am, way apart from everyone else..."
Everyone was made of thorns, and yet there was something cold about fighting alone like this. Seolla's eye briefly turns back to the Tuatha de Danaan - what feels most comfortable to her than anything in the world is to be a piece on the captain's board. Surrendering something that was too heavy to keep.
What was far worse to Seolla than the knife-sharp words omeone could wield...
"...Are you just going to clam up on me there!?" Seolla grunts, before she takes a hurled meteor to the face, the wings on her Lion crumpling in so many place, legs impaled through the crust.
"...Of course. Just don't think about it. Just never, ever think about it. When you can choose not to do that, it gets so much easier, doesn't it?!"
The misshapen colors of countless discarded memories flash across Seolla's eyes, as she ignites her thrusters to full burst, riding that same asteroid back towards Elan's Zowort. It'd seem like a straightforward ramming attack...
But just moment before impact, Seolla leaps free from the back of the rock, brandishing her blade and whirling it in an arc towards the Zowort's upper body.
"...It'd be so much easier. So go ahead! Feel free to do everything in your power to just decide what I said isn't happening! I know how necessary that can be!!!"
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Elan Ceres with Assault Blade Grind! KTS: Flay Allster fails to engage parry against Elisa Kafim's Green Fold Saber Combo! KTS: Flay Allster successfully reacts to Elisa Kafim's Green Fold Saber Combo, taking 4214 damage! <Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
Soma Peries... Not exactly. Though she says nothing to it. Instead responding to something else Yuliana says, <"... Thank you."> For what? Destroying their base? No, that's not it.
<"Still, I cannot overlook all the harm you cause.">
The Da Xukong 0 charges in again, bringing that tail to bear. Two of the funnels attached to the Rosen's back break away from their unit. Seemingly undisturbed by Yuliana's strange effect on Newtypes, they operate freely. Placing themselves between the Advanced GN-X and the Xukong. Crackling energy forms beyond them as rectangular shields...
... Which do absolutely nothing to stop the tail from reaching the GN-X, the stinger passing through the energy and penetrating the Mobile Suit's frame. However, as Yuliana attempts to pump those flames through and into Soma's machine, the energy does appear to interfere with that, keeping the heat from entering the GN-X.
<"Hence why I ask the Lord for forgiveness in trying to take your life.">
Having served their defensive purpose, the two active funnels proceed to go on the offensive. They try and chase down the Xukong, approaching from either side and projecting those barriers to try and catch the AC between them in order to send the electromagnetic energies coursing through it.
KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim with Rosen E-Shield Funnels Duo Formation! KTS: Elan Ceres engages parry against Seolla Schweizer's Assault Blade Grind! KTS: Best Defense! Elan Ceres successfully reacts to Seolla Schweizer's Assault Blade Grind, taking 1900 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to engage react against Soma Peries's Rosen E-Shield Funnels Duo Formation! KTS: Best Defense! Yuliana Kafim successfully reacts to Soma Peries's Rosen E-Shield Funnels Duo Formation, taking 0 damage! KTS: Soma Peries begins a Formation attack! KTS: Soma Peries anchors Yuliana Kafim, preventing her from Evading the next attack! <Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Both more and less awkward than Trem thinks.
"Roger, Snake-3," Dragon-4 replies. If she can handle the Zaku by herself, that would be ideal. He is reasonably confident that he can defeat the Lion's pilot--less confident that he can do so before the Zaku might cause Trem significant problems. That's fine, though, because Seolla is very determined to cause Elan plenty of problems all by herself.
It's startling, really, how much his silence angers her. How much it draws her out of her ranged fire to leap off that asteroid and sweep a beam sword towards the Zowort Heavy. Dragon-4 sees the attack coming and trades rifle for beam sword just in time to parry the attack; the force of her fury nonetheless pushes him back a significant ways. Her momentum cannot be denied, even if her attack doesn't find the purchase she desires.
For whose sake is she screaming? The more she shouts at him, the more Dragon-4 gets the impression she's talking about herself. About the things she's experienced, perhaps. About the hatred she has for those who did this to her. About the part she had in it herself.
It's not just startling. It borders on unsettling.
So Dragon-4 doesn't respond. He is a naturally quiet person anyway, and it seems to him like not saying anything would upset her and put her off her game more than dignifying her rage with a response. She's not wrong, anyway.
The Zowort Heavy's thrusters activate just as it twists its beam saber to one side, attempting to throw off Seolla's momentum and build some of its own. Should it be successful, Dragon-4 weaves a series of blade strokes aimed for the Lion's arm joints and the hinges in its armor in an attempt to weaken it for the next maneuver. The final stroke will attempt to shove the Lion away and allow the Zowort some space to create a more reasonable distance between the two of them.
KTS: Elan Ceres targets Seolla Schweizer with Whirling Blade Advance! KTS: Elan Ceres's Enhanced Person No. 4 activates Wall and Strike!
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The complement on her passion comes through clear, and Emilia feels... discomforted. But she's not supposed to ruffle feathers- according to her squad commander, her commander, and their benefactor. Years of browbeaten politeness kick in over that passion. "A-Acknowledged, M-Mrs Kafim." Still... such open praise feels... almost taunting. And knowing how Yuliana feels about the Sleeves, maybe it is. But that's not Emilia's problem right now. It's Elisa's further praise that seems to get under Emilia's skin. "...Th-then let me. SHOW YOU!" Emilia responds, anger rising. Th
Her Harkens cut up the Zowort's shield, but they don't find their mark, failing to entangle and retracting into the Swanfeather. At the same time, Trem swings the Beam Halberd down into the Zaku, and once again Emilia doesn't try to dodge, letting the blade score down the Black Swan's side, carving through the heavy armour of the Zaku IV sending some of it scattering into space. But Emilia isn't going to give up her close quarters edge- damage is more than acceptable to hurt her enemy further.
"<I d-d-d-don't give a damn about y-your. Future!>" Emilia shouts back to Trem. "<I-I'm here f-for MY future! And I'll r-rip you apart to m-make it happen!>" The Swanfeather bursts to life again, and from it's side one of the Circle Zanber's flies out to drive into the Zowort from behind while Emilia keeps her enemy up close an personal- and she's aiming to kill. There's no room for mercy against these people. No room for kindness. "<SO DIE ALREADY!>"
----
"Chief," Gray comments quietly on a secure line. "Should I cut out the Kafims from Eschonbach's feed?"
Oscar's voice is controlled even as he fires shotgun blasts towards the GN-X's hassling the transport. "Let them rile her up for now, but monitor it. If she seems like she's going to lose focus, then reorient her, but it's fine for now."
Peri, meanwhile, lines up a shot. "...Gonna just let the fucken psycho off the chain, Oz? Bags not bringing her back in if you do."
"Managing her is my responsibility, Peri, not yours. Focus on your job."
"Aye aye," Peri grumbles. "Not even a fucken chuckle." She mutters, presumably to herself.
"...I cut that to the squadron commander, Toni." Gray mentions, quietly.
"Appreciate it."
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Trem Firmal with INCOM Circle Zanber!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"... you're not as angry as you were," Yuliana realises, her own voice quieting to something more serious. "We... did destroy that Institute, right?" She adds, in something almost like concern: "Are they... doing something to you?"
Would even the Wild Bear... do that?
... he's an upstanding military man in the REA, after all.
The electromagnetic energy of the Rosen's E-Shield Funnels meets the Void energy of Da Xukong's Abyssal Veil; with a horrible, wrenching feeling, the scorpion-machine slips those barriers. (And yet, they've still managed to mark her, haven't they?) Da Xukong's legs latch onto the Rosen, as it scuttles onto Soma's back, latching tightly, tightly...
"Are you as enviable as you appear, Peries?" Yuliana wonders. "My wife is watching, so I ought to stab you in the back right now... but you're different. First, tell me!" And her grip is tight, but she doesn't stab her in the back, not yet. "I'll have plenty of time to catch up to the Black Swan's carnage after that!"
Despite staying her hand a moment, her positioning is no accident -- though she doesn't know just how clever it is. Soma begged forgiveness for trying to kill her, and it would be difficult to kill someone in this position.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with Prevent!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
The GN-X darts between rocks, its pilot gritting her teeth to cope with G-Forces she still wasn't quite used to. Lilium stops her craft abruptly in space, flicking switches on one control panel frantically to bring up a cutin image of the second shot's impact site.
Another insubstantial hit. She could do better than this, surely?
"They're angling themselves to... absorb the shots..." She muses to herself, continuing "Sort of... like a tank, but with more possible angles... The way we dealt with those was--"
A chorus of alarms echoing through her cockpit shakes her out of her strategising. Without the luxury of a bridge crew, Lilium has to dedicate her full focus to her engagement with the unknown submarine-like vessel--meaning she misses much of the greater context.
She has to keep this ship occupied until she's told to retreat, or one of them sinks. It's like being back in the trenches, really, just with less places to hide.
The GN-X shifts back to high speeds, trying--and failing--to shake the missile.
"Oh, to hell with this-" Lilium calls out, halting the GN-X once again and turning its Beam Vulcans towards the missile; Lilium remembering her training perfectly. She targets the.. missile that looks suspiciously like a torpedo, accounting for the target's speed, the influence of gravity, air resistan--oh.
Oh, no.
The Second Lieutenant manages to avoid... some of the impact damage. Which is to say, her long rifle and cockpit survived, and the unit is still operational. She grits her teeth for a different reason this time, and accelerates to position herself directly before the strange vessel
"Those pods on the side are... probably important... so a.. higher-power shot dead-on towards one would... they wouldn't be able to pitch out of it, and if they yawed it'd either not hide it or I'd be able to connect the shot to a... flatter part of the bow!" She exclaims, seemingly having forgotten about the concept of 'roll'.
<<Second Lieutenant Valerie! Going for another pass!>>
Her mobile suit's GN Drive whirring into high gear, Lilium aims her weapon, focuses her breath, narrows her eyes...
And takes the shot.
KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Teletha Testarossa with GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Sub-System Targeting Shot! KTS: Trem Firmal has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Trem Firmal engages charge against Emilia Eschonbach's INCOM Circle Zanber! KTS: Trem Firmal successfully reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's INCOM Circle Zanber, taking 4620 damage! KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer engages charge against Elan Ceres's Whirling Blade Advance! KTS: Seolla Schweizer poorly reacts to Elan Ceres's Whirling Blade Advance, taking 4600 damage! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries accepts Yuliana Kafim's Prevent! KTS: Yuliana Kafim prevents Soma Peries's maneuvers, reducing her Skill drastically. KTS: Best Defense! Soma Peries successfully reacts to Yuliana Kafim's Prevent, taking 0 damage! KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to engage Charge against Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Sub-System Targeting Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Teletha Testarossa successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Sub-System Targeting Shot, taking 4175 damage! <Pose Tracker> Trem Firmal has posed.
Trem's eyes narrow, as she sees what her hit managed. The Zaku IV is heavily armored; it's not something to be overcome with brute force alone. And the Zowort Heavy is, at the end of the day, a well-equipped but ultimately standard machine.
It isn't, really, like the GN-X's ordinarily used by Chimera Team.
"I won't die on request."
Her eyebrow twitches -- and then she feels herself start to grin. Her heart starts to pound. It's that same familiar emotion; the one she didn't expect to feel, watching Suletta Mercury duel Guel Jeturk.
The same thrill.
The Zowort Heavy bursts forward, just as the circle zamber smashes into its back. One of the thrusters on the backpack explodes, flame gutting out and slagging the thruster cone; that throws Trem forward, hard enough to rattle her bones and send an ache through her back.
"Gh--" But the Zowort Heavy rides the explosion, even as black smoke gouts off it. The shield slams out, smashing at the midsection of the Zaku IV. "You--"
Heat starts to enter Trem's voice. "--didn't LISTEN--"
Then she fires the grenades on the bottom side of the shield; the recoil slams the shield again, at the midsection of the Zaku IV. This covers the way that the beam halberd whips around.
"--to me," she snaps. "I didn't talk about my future. I'm talking about the future! And someone like you... can't EVEN SEE IT!"
Trem slams the beam halberd's axe-head for the Zaku IV's neck. Then, the hand of the Zowort Heavy twists -- red warnings flash across the cockpit, cascading alerts about the damaged thrusters and dozens of other systems -- and then tries to tear it free in a most messy fashion.
"Now, get out of my way!"
KTS: Trem Firmal has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Trem Firmal has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Trem Firmal has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Trem Firmal has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Trem Firmal targets Emilia Eschonbach with Chimera's Snarl!
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Absolute silence. Absolute lack of remorse. That's all Seolla can take away from the cold lack of response.
It makes her see red. Against a world of iron-hard injustice, where pain is just how the game is played. Turning away is how 'normal people' live their lives. And it's one of the many, many reasons Seolla couldn't possibly live among them. ...How can they talk about something so meaningless, when all that occupied her thoughts was the eternal task left endlessly unfinished?
It shouldn't be a surprise that the enforcers turn away too. That's the conclusion Seolla draws. That's what her blinding hot anger at it all tells her.
...maybe if she could take just a single breath in to 'listen' another way. Maybe. Just maybe, Elan's own apprehensions could even start to reach her. But in this moment, all there exists are the clashing of blades, grinding and sparking against each other in the coldness of space. They collide and tear at each other in turn, shearing off each others armor like vicious wolves. It's a losing exchange for Seolla, though, the longer she stays locked in pitched swordfighting with Elan. The Zowort's armor is just heavier, and she can tell her skill up close isn't up to par with this pilot's.
The chill from being detached all the way out here takes its toll. Selfishly, Seolla can't help but dial in to call Tessa, and pointlessly report, "This is Uruz-11, my chosen target is more durable than expected. I can keep going, but I may need to fall back in due time..." She didn't need to tell Tessa that. ...But the point was to share her voice. The point was to hear her voice back. The point was to rely on her. The point was to be relied upon.
...And that's the little shot of medicine that sharpens Seolla's eyes. The searing hot fury twists into something as cold as the distant sky. With a kick to lash backwards from Elan's Zowort, Seolla swaps her blade for the railgun, the tip's apertures widening and reading a shotgun-like burst of ammunition Elan's way at near point-blank range, as she gives herself more and more distance.
"They need me in there. I gave you the one chance. You won't get another."
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Elan Ceres with Burst Railgun Burst ! KTS: Elan Ceres has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The radio squeaks, again and again. Listening in, mentally jotting down notes in the endless caverns of the mind. A deep breath as her foot taps the floor. Steady. Steady. Keep steady. Block out and fall back, watch from a distance. Uruz-11 will be fine. Dawn of Fold will be fine. Keep pressing. Emmy...will be fine.
Mentions of the future sends a click of the tongue on sheer instinct. There's more pressing matters at hand, forever and always.
"Incoming!" Again. Again and again. There's a minor hint of appreciation at the way the shot comes, and-
"Engines forward."
"Aye, ma'am! Engines forward!" The submarine squeals with the sudden burst of energy, pushing its way through the black folds of space as the shot crashes in. Direct hit. Sizzling, piercing through the metal and hitting underneath. Sealant pours out, a supply pouring into space as the beast figuratively bleeds before it seals back up.
"Hit confirmed. We're good for now."
"Keep going."
The submarine sails forward. Straight forward, surging for the GN-X proper, right under it and-
"Fire tubes two through five! Timers, two seconds!"
"Aye, ma'am!" Fire tubes two through five! Timers, two seconds!" The hatches pop open, and out surge missiles; missiles which immediately detonate outwards, charged blasts focused away from the TDD-1, a brazen mix of shrapnel and sharp microdebri reliant on the sheer inertia of weightlessness to pierce and shotgun the attacker.
"You. GN-X attacking us." Her comms open, that high-pitched voice of the Captain sounding out. "Why are you here? The asteroid is nothing more than a deathtrap for dissidents."
KTS: Elan Ceres engages evade against Seolla Schweizer's Burst Railgun Burst ! KTS: Best Defense! Elan Ceres moderately reacts to Seolla Schweizer's Burst Railgun Burst , taking 0 damage! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Lilium Valerie with Fragmentation ! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages evade against Trem Firmal's Chimera's Snarl! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach moderately reacts to Trem Firmal's Chimera's Snarl, taking 300 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie engages guard against Teletha Testarossa's Fragmentation ! KTS: Lilium Valerie poorly guards Teletha Testarossa's Fragmentation , taking 4050 damage! <Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
In a normal combat situation, those anti-ship vulcans might have battered a machine to an extent that the engagement was essentially over. This is not a normal combat situation.
Those bizarre distortions almost seem to rearrange each individual round, in a trick that's not really any more underhanded than her own Variable Phase Shift Armour... but it defies explanation all the same. The Strike's OS certainly doesn't seem to have any data on it.
Elisa considers Cathedra a mild inconvenience, but it's what she says next that registers to Flay. "Human weakness...?" She repeats, watching for any sudden attacks from the Queadlunn-Inanna. Rather than a statement about understanding human nature... it registers as an insult. A personal slight. How could it not? "Shut up!"
Elisa requests she show weakness and strength both, and Flay watches as Elisa closes in with her beam saber. It's a smart move - the Launcher Striker is excellent from a distance, but Flay let Elisa get to her and came in way too close - its melee options are next to none, save a pair of tiny combat knives.
And that's not an ordinary beam saber, either. Flay gauges that her only option is to knock the saber hilt from the Queadlunn-Inanna's hands with the Armour Schneiders - but Elisa strikes thrice. The first thrust removes the left knife, the second the right, and the third piercing through the Strike's armour itself.
Those warning signals once again blare as the Strike is pushed back from Elisa's 'test'. And then, Elisa introduces herself formally.
"Elisa Kafim. That Elisa Kafim. No way... no way! This can't be real..." Flay breathes, with the tone of someone who's realized she's outmatched and way out of her league. She feels completely alone - whether that's due to Elisa's influence or the coldness of a cockpit of space.
Of course, the Gaia Sabers know all about the Kafims and their otherworldly powers. So, armed with such knowledge, what can Flay show Elisa Kafim? They say fear is often the most powerful generator of adrenaline.
"I'm Flay Allster," She introduces herself in kind, though it may mean little to Elisa. "And I'll send you back to that Void of yours... where you belong!" Is what she answers to Elisa's challenge, selecting the Combo Weapons Pod on the OS - armour-piercing grenades for the rounds... and letting the targeting scope loose on the Queadlunn-Inanna, Green Fold Barrier or not.
KTS: Flay Allster targets Elisa Kafim with Grenade Launcher Barrage! KTS: Elisa Kafim engages intercept against Flay Allster's Grenade Launcher Barrage! KTS: Elisa Kafim poorly reacts to Flay Allster's Grenade Launcher Barrage, taking 5430 damage! KTS: Flay Allster completes the Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
<"You were... Very thorough, in destroying the institute. And any of those who escaped that destruction were publicly outed and subsequently dealt with by Colonel Smirnov. Nothing remains of it except those of us who were its victims."> Us? Victims? Is Soma saying there's more than one super soldier from the program out there?
The Da Xukong 0 attaches to the Advanced GN-X's back, which does put it in a difficult position for the Mobile Suit to attack with its weapons. Still, the GN-X rotates its arm to reach towards its back, possibly in a move to grab hold of the AC.
With some sadness, Soma says, <"So long as we live, the legacy of those horrible experiments will never truly be gone.">
The clawed fingers of the Advanced GN-X's hand open as they go to grab at the Xukong. And seeing that, Yuliana may just remember one of the more unique aspects of the GN-X line that she's seen in the past.
<"Still. I choose not to dwell on what's been done to me... I prefer to look to the future. Which I cannot let you deprive me of.">
GN particle fields form around the claws of the GN-X, significantly increasing their penetrating power as they go to squeeze the Xukong's frame.
KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim with GN-X Claws Penetrating Hand! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim engages parry against Soma Peries's GN-X Claws Penetrating Hand! KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X Claws Penetrating Hand, taking 3780 damage! KTS: Soma Peries completes the Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
It's one way to interpret Dragon-4's response, or lack thereof. But that's the convenient thing about silence, isn't it? You can apply whatever meaning you like to it. But that's also its weakness--you can apply whatever meaning you like to it. As long as Elan doesn't speak, Seolla will never understand what's in his heart.
Of course, he isn't aiming to be understood. But he certainly understands her far better at this point than she understands him.
Like him, Seolla forces herself away to create distance to better open fire on her opponent. She's faster than Dragon-4 in this regard; she's already got her weapon traded out, already firing that railgun on him. But this ends up working out in Dragon-4's favor. It isn't beam fire, which means when those physical rounds blast out, his beam saber sears up, left, right, at blinding speed to destroy those bullets before they can reach his mobile suit.
He doesn't speak. But sometimes, actions speak louder than words. In this case, that this is an action no normal human being could possibly take.
Within the Zowort, Dragon-4 glances to one side over at Trem and Emilia's battle. Trem seems to have picked up the pace--but she's not actually doing much better against her foe now that she has. His mission is to protect her; he cannot continue to dally with the Lion's pilot. He focuses back on Seolla and lets another action speak for him.
Like the action he takes when he sheathes that saber and retrieves his beam rifle. Like the action of targeting her with it--of locking on to her cockpit. Of how, at this range, there is no possible way that Seolla could miss him doing that.
"Neutralizing the target," Dragon-4 transmits, distorted voice lacking all the passion Seolla's brims with.
His finger squeezes the trigger, and...
...hesitates.
He remembers her voice: Nothing's changed. People are still being destroyed, treated like machines you can push until they break. I won't let their lives burn away here - they didn't allow mine to be wasted on something so awful!
He remembers her voice: People shouldn't hurt other people... that's what I think.
"......."
In real time, it's only a heartbeat or two long. But in that pause, the lock-on cancels, and the barrel of the Zowort's beam rifle rises from the Lion's cockpit to its head. Now it fires--a single decisive blast meant to shred through the Lion's visual feed and disable it from battle.
'Neutralize' is itself a very neutral word, isn't it? You can apply whatever meaning you like to it.
KTS: Elan Ceres targets Seolla Schweizer with Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Sighted Shot! KTS: Elan Ceres's Enhanced Person No. 4 activates Wall and Focus!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa smiles within her cockpit at Emilia's outburst. It is not so pleasant as hr wife's rages, but it does show her something pleasing in somone else. hat's worthwhile enough.
Yuliana, though, mentions that Elisa is watching, and so Elisa smiles once more. "Do as you like. Remember, my darling, you have two hands."
But she does like backstabbing.
But Flay repeats her statement. "You do not like it?" Elisa wonders of Flay's 'shut up'.
"Ahh, yes. So your people know of me. I have come to watch over this mission for myself. Not with one of my dragons, but with a unit made for me..."
Elisa does not know Flay, or her late father. The name is meaningless except insofar as Flay is able to infuse it with meaning, boldly pressing forward despite her reaction.
Armor-piercing grendes slam through the Queadlun-Innana. One seems to impact the cockpit, though a strange ripple prevents that damage from reaching Elisa within. Her efforts to use missiles to overwhelm Flay's grenades simply do not work nearly well enough.
But it is not yet time to be finished.
"Hahaha... Yes," Elisa says. "Yes. Show me your hatred. Show me your terror."
"Destroy this armor if you can. I see it in you, Flay Allster. You interest me."
"Shall I show you something of interest to you, too...?"
The Queadlun-Innana approaches, its thrusters taking it up into melee range with the Strike too quickly. The mecha's hands reach out to grasp the Strike as best it can, only needing to touch for this. Dark lightning crackles about her hands. "For you, I will go beyond what is 'human.' I will show you what is sublime."
The energy of the Void floods the area around Elisa and her mecha. Above all it is cold, but it is not only cold. It seeks to crush the will, to force submission, from electronics and spirit alike. It will push through Phase Shift Armor to the very heart, if she is allowed to touch Flay's machine.
"Come. And witness. And if you survive..."
"Show me 'weakness' too."
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Flay Allster with Calamitous Grasp! KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Wall Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Hear that, darling? That Allster woman is going to banish us to the Void!" Yuliana calls, from her position on Soma's back. "But we've not yet packed," she says, her pout audible, "so it would be terribly rude to usher us out here, wouldn't it?"
Of course she refers to 'us,' when Flay was talking to her. ... then that must be her wife, in the wanzer. Dear God, they're both here.
But Soma answers her -- in a fashion. (She's no less suspicious of the Colonel, hearing that.) When the Rosen's arm rotates back to catch the Da Xukong, its pilot will find that the wanzer's tail stabs into its palm -- because Yuliana does, in fact, remember what she saw.
She thinks it will stop her.
"So you think... it lives on inside you?" She's less cheerful, eyes narrowing, when she focuses on the answers coming out of Soma's mouth. "Then you're telling me Dr. Devi's work persists so long as I live! I don't accept being some monument to her legacy--!"
Unfortunately, the light builds, anyway. Those GN Particles conduct through the Da Xukong's tail, into the depths of the machine, and Yuliana swears a string of vile words as she kicks at her protesting cockpit. "Tch! Goddamn, you--!!"
Something which isn't beam weaponry builds, between the coils jutting out from Da Xukong's shoulders. It is like black, with terrible hints of something green, and it blasts at point-blank between them, finally freeing the Rosen from Da Xukong's grasp as it backs away to a ranged position again.
(Or is it Da Xukong, fighting for freedom?)
"I won't let you make us into monuments of our despair!" And it's the sort of unhinged screaming which could have come from Yuliana at any point, isn't it? If she has two hands -- that's one free to throttle Soma.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with Abyssal Coil Point-Blank Blast! KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster fails to engage guard against Elisa Kafim's Calamitous Grasp! KTS: Best Defense! Flay Allster successfully reacts to Elisa Kafim's Calamitous Grasp, taking 5250 damage! <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"<Y-your loss.>" Emmy responds, coldly.
Doesn't she have the same attitude as Trem, there? Doesn't matter. Trem chose her side- and Emilia can't give a damn about the wants of monsters.
It might be comforting for Emmy to know that someone out on the battlefield is out there. But... she can't hear the voice of the commander of the TDD-1- and her focus hasn't given her enough time to realize that it's the same ship yet.
Let her tunnel vision on her target recede.
The shield comes for the Black Swan's midsection and the Black Swan moves- not like an MS, but with the movements of an Arm Slave... or even a human. The Zaku IV catches the shield blow, the damage running up her arms and scraping some of the beam coat off the unit. Emilia takes the opportunity to push off it, flipping up and backwards as the grenades fly where she was, detonating with force that could have torn open even the Black Swan's cockpit, the thrusters on the Swanfeather adjusting her course so she's above Trem. The Halberd is still in reach of her head though- and swings for the neck. It's coming at her blindspot, too-
The blind spot everyone she trains with knows about. The blind spot everyone she's trained against has exploited.
he one she's trained to defend against. Emilia activates her verniers to turn her out of the path of the blade, the cut scoring a glance against the Zaku IV's head leaving a scar- but little more in the end.
"Of c-course I didn't l-listen! The w-words of a person who th-thinks there's only one future a-are WORTHLESS!"
Now, she dives forward, thrusters bursting to get *under* Trem's Zowort. "I don't want to s-s-see your future! AND I'LL MAKE S-SURE YOU DON'T!"
She pulls free the hyper hammer, spinning it's chain before hurling it up at the Zowort, the rockets activating the accelerate- and guide- the massive spiked chunk of metal toward the Trem's Zowort. It's as though she's trying to drive it up *through* Trem's machine, as though trying to core it from below- cockpit and all if she has her way.
KTS: Seolla Schweizer engages evade against Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Sighted Shot! KTS: Seolla Schweizer successfully reacts to Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Sighted Shot, taking 3760 damage! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Trem Firmal with Hyper Hammer 200 Guided Hit! KTS: Trem Firmal has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Trem Firmal engages block against Emilia Eschonbach's Hyper Hammer 200 Guided Hit! KTS: Best Defense! Trem Firmal successfully blocks Emilia Eschonbach's Hyper Hammer 200 Guided Hit, taking 2800 damage! KTS: Soma Peries engages react against Yuliana Kafim's Abyssal Coil Point-Blank Blast! KTS: Soma Peries successfully reacts to Yuliana Kafim's Abyssal Coil Point-Blank Blast, taking 4764 damage! <Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
This was not in the plan. This was not even remotely in the plan.
Lilium only has a second to try and figure out what happend. Why didn't it even try to dodge? Was the armor plating in that area thicker--no, it went through--damage control must have taken care of the breach, that's not something you usually have to worry about in land-based armored warfare--why is that submarine getting closer?
Yes, yes it was.
Lilium's monitor lights up with all sorts of brightly-coloured alerts as four different hatches pop open, and flash with the distinctive light of a missile launch.
As she instinctively brings the GN-X's arms up to cover what she assumed were its vital areas, Lilium just barely has time to say "Oh, that's not go--GYAAAAHH!!"
Lilium's helmeted head collides with the cockpit console; the impact mostly absorbed by an airbag, but not quite enough to keep a loud THUNK from sounding, and her visor from cracking slightly.
She rubs at her forehead, grimacing as her vision clears.
System integrity monitors report... everything is at least a little damaged.
"...Damn rude..." she grumbles, taking stock of her situation. Communications coming in on an... open channel?-
<<..Oh, so that's why we're here.>> is her main response.
Is that an... ensign aboard the submarine? Even if that was the case, she sounds... well, some people just have high voices. <<I'm not... entirely sure of what high command considers to be the real mission parameters, but I don't think you understand whichdissidents this asteroid is-->>
She cuts herself off, realising she was about to say a little too much. Maybe she was concussed. Annoying.
Equally annoying was this--The submarine had, presumably, consciously taken something of a risk by placing itself within close range willingly, even for an attack.
It would be easy for a pilot skilled with a beam saber to make a dash from the boat's bridge, even if the hit dished out had made something of a mess of things.
Unfortunately, Lilium Valerie was not a pilot skilled with a beam saber. In fact, this was a closer range than she would ever have willingly entered. Did the submarine's captain guess that? Was she that easy to read?
Her eyes narrowing, Lilium spins up the GN Field and defense rod on the GN-X's shield, drawing it back--ready to bash the unknown vessel with it and then retreat as quickly as possible under its influence.
<<I'm just a soldier, though--I'm here because here is where I'm need to be, for the sake of protecting this world's Justice!>>
KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Teletha Testarossa with GN-X Shield Retreating Bash! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Focus Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Seolla's hand is right on the trigger to eject the moment she realizes the Lion's cockpit block is directly in Elan's sights - that her armor isn't enough to withstand a shot like that, that she doesn't have the space to retreat or deflect this. She shouldn't wait until the last second - trying to squeeze every second of combat time from her PT until she can't anymore...but that's exactly what she does, peppering Elan with occasional autocannon fire right down to the wire.
...why...?
...Pushing oneself to the brink to squeeze a little more combat performance from a mobile weapon, and risking her life in the process. She wouldn't question why this mandate of the School's stuck with her - it gave her the appearance of being oh so gutsy to the rest of the TDD-1's SRT, who all fought with every ounce of what they got...
It's something Seolla wouldn't question, right up until Elan switches targets to the Lion's head, and blasts the entire monitor module clean off, plunging her cockpit into a darkness of error messages and emergency low quality camera feeds.
...It's only right then and there that Seolla's hands remove from the eject trigger. Her PT rattling and creaking around her, a massive fissure forming around the top of the torso - this is when a sensible pilot would eject.
But she still has power. She still has something she needs to do.
Cut off from everyone else like this, plunged into the absolute silence of space, Seolla's arms feel like they weigh twenty times what they normally do, slamming a panel at her side and manually rotating an auxiliary camera on the shoulder. That hazy, static-y blob was Elan's Zowort, wasn't it?
The vicious death throes of a blinded falcon refuse to let go. With a single click of the trajectory arc reconfiguring - all done with an agonizing amount of unintended manual override on Seolla's part - the heavy railgun on the Lion's shoulder screams out one last shriek of defiance before Elan can get away.
"I won't get 'neutralized'...by any of your kind...not as easily as that...!"
...Seolla's radio is cut off, so it's entirely breathed to herself, and now - she's frantically trying to wrangle out her actual vector of escape from this dire wreck of a Personal Trooper she's in, so far away from anyone else in space, surrounded by enemies...
KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Seolla Schweizer targets Elan Ceres with FT Railgun Full Fire!
<Pose Tracker> Trem Firmal has posed.
"How did she--"
Trem already started to think this Black Swan was interesting. The same way she thinks Suletta Mercury is interesting. It magnifies then, despite her anger; the way she catches the shield blow, overcoming her use of the grenades, and push it backward.
And the way her halberd doesn't find that famous blind spot, and the Zaku IV rises up above her machine. The Zowort Heavy looks up, golden visor aglow with flashing lights.
And the Zaku IV drops down, then rises up. The hyper hammer swings out -- and Trem only just swings the shield into place. The massive ball smashes into the shield, each blow distending and bending it. The right arm bends, the forearm warped slightly, and sparks explode from the damaged joint.
"You... you make me think twice about what people can do," Trem says to her. Her voice is soft for a moment. "But there isn't time for that...!"
The Zowort Heavy's thrusters fire. The is swung up in front of the Zowort Heavy, to protect it -- the beam cannon is bent, too badly to fire.
"Dragon-4!" Trem says, her voice pitched with concern, mid-flight. "I'm moving in. I don't know what this thing does, exactly, so--keep an eye out. I'm unsure of the recoil."
Towards the shuttles. Trem sucks in a breath; the machine turns around, looking down at Sveaborg; at where shuttles are docked, a long, relatively flat building. The device over the Zowort's shoulder lifts.
Then the whole thing fires off, separating into four different, hexagon-shaped canisters. They crash down into Sveaborg, above the hangar, and the fix in place there. After that, there is a flash of red -- welding torches, for someone familiar with space engineering -- and then the canisters push forward, as something inside is dislodged. Or shot out, pneumatically.
Inside of Sveaborg's main hanger, Hardiker steps out of his shuttle's bay. He has a sidearm in hand; to each side, two men walk with assault rifles. And, ahead of them, there are four other men with rifles approaching -- followed by bedraggled, bearded, and exhausted prisoners, their normal suits ash-stained and battered.
"Keep your helmets sealed," Hardiker orders. He looks up. "Those could be gas cylinders. As long as the environment is sealed..."
The man nods to him, then waves ahead at the escaping prisoners. "Brothers! Sisters!" he shouts. "This way! All of the comforts of the Silent Castle await!"
"Finally!" one cries out. "We're almost out of this hell!"
The ceiling begins to glow red. A line of glowing red -- and a second, then a third, and a fourth to make a square. Molten metal drips onto the floor, as Hardiker watches. His eyes widen; he and the man next to him look up, raising weapons. The cut-away portion of ceiling falls down.
They both open fire before getting a clear sight. Their bullets bounce off a large, armored box that drops down from the ceiling. Three more follow, slamming into the floor; the plating buckles when it hits, as panels pop off, and four legs emerge -- each ending in wheels.
A red sensor turns on, glowing, looking right at Hardiker.
Then the ball turret-mounted machine guns open fire. The rounds shred through the man next to him, bullets tearing through his normal suit. Blood splatters on the ground behind him. "No!" Hardiker shouts, taking aim and firing.
His shot ricochets off the armor, again. The other three automatons turn, their ball turrets swiveling -- and the prisoners and rescuers alike scream, as the machine guns open fire. Bullets rip through them; glass helmet plates shatter, blood splashes onto the ground, and limbs collapse as they're torn through.
"Shit!" Hardiker shouts, firing his pistol again and again. The red camera eye turns. It gleams, reflecting in his helmet's glass.
It shatters a moment later, as the bullets rip through his body. He crumples to the ground. His eyes stare, lifelessly, as the drone rolls past it -- and into the opened shuttle. The machine gun roars to life again and again, as the drones begin to advance into the shuttles and Sveaborg both.
The screams and gunshots echo over the radio.
Trem is silent as she watches -- and as she listens to her handiwork.
KTS: Trem Firmal targets Emilia Eschonbach with Pass! KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to engage Guard against Lilium Valerie's GN-X Shield Retreating Bash! KTS: Best Defense! Teletha Testarossa successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's GN-X Shield Retreating Bash, taking 2925 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie repulses Teletha Testarossa, preventing her from Charging the next attack!
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
The point blank shot from the Da Xukong 0 blows off a good part of the Rosen's back armor, also inflicting some damage to the GN Drive Tau that's there. Crimson particles begin to leak out of the Advanced GN-X at a hastened pace, which will reduce its operating time. Retreating now may be a smart move.
The Rosen stays though, as Soma spins her machine around after being separated from the Xukong to face Yuliana once more, <"We cannot change the past or what has been done to us.">
The Rosen brings its GN Lance to bear again, this time raising its point towards its foe.
With care not usually found in Soma's voice, she says, <"But if there's any chance of seeking a lasting happiness, we must come to terms and accept what has happened. Or it will forever haunt us.">
The Rosen charges forward, attempting to drive that lance through the Xukong and then pull the trigger on it, causing the emitters spread out around the weapon to fire rapid GN beam blasts to follow up. Though the aim appears to be intentionally off from a killing blow.
KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim with GN-X GN Lance Pierce and Unload! KTS: Elan Ceres has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Elan Ceres fails to engage evade against Seolla Schweizer's FT Railgun Full Fire! KTS: Best Defense! Elan Ceres successfully reacts to Seolla Schweizer's FT Railgun Full Fire, taking 4118 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim engages evade against Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Pierce and Unload! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Pierce and Unload, taking 3760 damage! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach accepts Trem Firmal's Pass! KTS: Best Defense! Emilia Eschonbach successfully reacts to Trem Firmal's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has deployed as a Boss for 2 opponents.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
One of the other enemy combatants is screaming. Elan had not been paying attention to the other transmissions across the battlefields, only the motions of the combatants within it, but it's impossible to ignore Yuliana's shouting--not when she's shouting about being the product of some doctor's work. Not when she's shouting about monuments to despair.
As a result, it's easy to hear the screaming Trem and Emilia are making back and forth about futures. About their futures, about the future, about many futures. About how they'll kill each other to make sure the other one doesn't get to have a future.
It's all honestly such a hea(rt)dache. Nothing ever changes, as the Lion's pilot said.
And none of it matters. Because he doesn't have a future, either.
He is his own monument to despair.
Just as Seolla is her own monument to her stubborn, defiant hatred. Even with the main cameras of the Lion destroyed, she wheels around an auxiliary camera and uses its feed to open fire with that railgun. From Hell's heart she shoots at him, and Dragon-4 is caught off-guard by how utterly relentless she is. Shards of armor go flying off into space; one of his own auxiliary cameras is destroyed, and one of the arms is taken halfway off its joint.
...but he survives, and she's in no position to keep up the fight. More importantly, Snake-3 is signaling to him that she's about to fire that new weapon of hers--has fired it--is watching the canisters it drilled into the asteroid drop their payload. Dragon-4 engages the Zowort Heavy's thrusters and leaves Seolla behind to her fate. Trem and her enemy in that Zaku with the eerily human-like movement are his priority now.
As his mobile suit sails over, the results of Trem's weapon make themselves known to everyone on the battlefield. Even without visuals, the screaming and the bullet fire are unmistakable. His trajectory remains smooth, but within the helmet of his normal suit, Elan's eyes widen a hair as he's forced to swallow down bile. He is as silent as Trem is. She said she didn't know what the weapon did. Was that true?
Does it matter?
It doesn't matter.
He has his orders. And so does she.
The Zowort puts on a burst of speed, then rapidly brakes in time to get in between Snake-3 and Black Swan. As he does, he trains the beam rifle on the Zaku and unleashes a series of blasts, meant to contain her and give her nowhere to escape that won't get some kind of hit in. Not only should it do some form of damage, it should rip her attention off of Trem and onto him.
"Dragon-4, moving to assist and defend Snake-3," he states, distorted voice even flatter than before.
KTS: Elan Ceres targets Emilia Eschonbach with Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Rapid Beams! KTS: Elan Ceres's Enhanced Person No. 4 activates Trick and Focus! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages guard against Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Rapid Beams! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach successfully guards Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Rapid Beams, taking 2368 damage! <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I know... I know I can't change it!" Yuliana cries. "I know I can't just change the past! If it were that simple, no one would suffer in this world--!" There's unusual care in the voice Soma's using now, but Yuliana's all worked up. "But I've accepted it, haven't I?! More than you! I see that the Republic is my enemy, now--!"
Da Xukong retreats from the lance, but it follows her, stabbing through the Abyssal Veil into the scorpion's systems. As it sparks, Yuliana snarls, reaching out to grab the lance with her machine's claws. "What's with you?!" She demands, voice rising to a fever pitch. "What's WITH --"
Despite the GN Particles which brutalised her stinger, Yuliana still cranks a lever to rise it up, threatening to stab it in again. The results of trying to channel plasma through the weapon now might be deeply inadvisible, with the damage it's taken, but Yuliana is distracted from her violence --
-- as she looks to the hanger --
-- and realises what was done.
"What the fuck," she says, her stinger lowering as her tentacle sinks down. She scans the hanger with her sensors, and her stunned voice is chilled. "Unmanned drones. Civilian-sized... unmanned drones. Toybox," she issues, to Teletha and the TDD-1, "are you fucking seeing this."
At that scale... can she even...
"Get off of me!" She snaps, as she shoves the Rosen away, freeing her from that stabbing lance. Her wanzer is large, but it is small amongst giants; she jets to the hangar, and begins stepping on the automatons Trem released, the smallest amount of force she can muster.
She can't very well open fire, with the prisoners right there. But she can issue, through her speakers: "The shuttles! Go!"
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with Pass!
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
'You don't like it?' Elisa asks, and Flay grits her teeth. A question as alien as she is, but Flay has no idea how to even answer it. No one likes admitting their weakness... especially not her. A different voice chimes in though, inserting herself into Flay's insult. "That must be your wife, isn't she? How sweet it is that you fight together..." She smirks perhaps for the only time in this entire operation.
Instead, she focuses back on her fight against Elisa, hoping to press the advantage after that storm of grenades struck as true as they could, considering Elisa's defenses. But Elisa demand that she show her hatred and terror... and Flay has those in spades. "I don't need your interest! I'll destroy that armour, because..." She responds to Elisa's challenge, but the words fall short.
Flay knows that dark lightning that Elisa wields is something dangerous, something she cannot allow to reach her. The Strike attempts to pull away, but it is not fast enough, and it is overwhelmed by that void lightning. At first, those warning sirens attempt to blare again, but they are silenced, as the cockpit goes pitch black, overwhelmed by this power.
It indeed melts through Phase Shift Armour to its core - the system deactivates altogether, the Strike returning to its dull grey colour scheme. "It's so cold..." Flay whispers, feeling an overwhelming dread and numbness both. "Am I going to die?" In the face of Elisa Kafim, is she just as powerless as she girl she started as? "I don't want to die."
By the time that lightning subsides, the first radio channel that returns is the Gaia Sabers' own. She tries to communicate anything, but all she hears back is the sound of...
Death. Screams. Gunshots.
Once she gets visuals back, she sees it all go down in Sveaborg. Men mowed down by machine guns, triggers pulled from inhuman drones. She sees Hardiker crumple to the ground. Somehow, it almost feels more horrifying than the touch of the Void Elisa had just shown her. She covers her hands over her mouth in her cockpit. "W-Why? This isn't..."
The Agni cannon is fully charged, and while Flay has all the targeting data she needs to try and blow the Queadlunn-Inanna to bits one last time... she can't pull the trigger to that weapon.
The Strike all but remains motionless in space. It's up to Elisa Kafim what happens next.
KTS: Flay Allster targets Elisa Kafim with Pass!
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
"Hit confirmed." The recital of such a line only brought a knowing nod from the Captain. Nothing more to say, only to wait for what comes next.The sealant underlying the entirety of the TDD-1 helped with structural integrity, but there's still the knowledge of that this was a ship that needed repairs. Upgrades. Space-faring was one thing; Truly space-faring vessels that could stand the test of time were another.
Another thing to keep track of, she supposed.
Tessa could only lean back on her steel throne, fingers absentmindedly playing along the panels. Seolla's call came in, and she ignored it. A mental talk for later. "Prepare for emergency medical. Multiple, if needed."
"Aye, ma'am." As always, one had to prepare for the worst.
<<"And which dissidents are on the asteroid? Ones that disagree with NUNE? The Gaia Sabers? Someone else entirely? Surely, this isn't an asteroid filled with Spacenoids, is it?">> Direct and plain, piercing back at the heart of the matter. The expectation for a response was...not high, even with the few arrows slung along.
Her eyes twinkle with the endless smoldering of conviction. Its still alive. Still wriggling. Still a slight eyesore, so close to her ship. What would she do? The obvious. "Brace for impact. Load torpedoes on tubes one through three."
"Aye, ma'am. Brace for impact! Load tubes one through three!" The impact of the shield is an expected one; To take the blow full force and be pushed back, thrusters lightly activating to counteract inertia as the submarine drifted. Perfect.
Its only with a sick revulsion that Tessa listens to those comms, to listen to the gunshots and- <<"Loud and clear and angry, Yuliana. We're coming in broadside. Yell what you need, we're sending electronic ordinance in once the shuttles are free.">> "...Full speed to the asteroid."
"Aye, Ma'am. Full speed!"
The engines thrum. DANA pings the opening.
Back to the thread at hand. <<"Justice? Leaving people in an asteroid to work to death, to kill them at first notice is Justice?">> Her voice shimmered into hard steel, the distaste spat through comms. <<"I disrespectfully disagree with that, soldier. The justice of this world isn't something so simple.">> A sigh. <<"Fire tubes one through three.">> The comms cut.
"Aye, ma'am! Fire tubes one through three!" Three hatches. Three missiles streaking off as the submarine races by, aiming to swing broadside along the hangar opening.
"Begin loading EMP missiles. Manual detonation."
"Manual?"
"There's always survivors. Life support can hold for a bit, but drones..."
"Aye, ma'am. Load EMP missiles, all tubes!"
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Lilium Valerie with Coup De Grace! KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie engages evade against Teletha Testarossa's Coup De Grace! KTS: Critical Hit! Lilium Valerie poorly reacts to Teletha Testarossa's Coup De Grace, taking 7800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Teletha Testarossa's Lugh's Sleg activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: Lilium Valerie has been defeated! KTS: Soma Peries accepts Yuliana Kafim's Pass! KTS: Best Defense! Soma Peries successfully reacts to Yuliana Kafim's Pass, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa cannot see or hear Flay grit her teeth. She hears hr words about fighting together, but to that she smiles, and it is almost audible in her voice. It is an unpleasant thing. "Yes. She calls me her battle companion. I will do anything for herr."
She does't need her interest. But she has it. Elisa waits, and she does hear that whisper.
Elisa Kafim has the correct number of teeth.
But the gunshots begin. Elisa turns, looking at her displays, before she feels it. The weakening of the barrier...
Yes. There is great suffering here.
And Yulianna is snarling. "Darling," Elisa says. "...I shall do as we promised."
The Queadlunn-Inanna begins to turn, and jets off towards the hangar, barely hanging together as it stands.
But it is enough, for now.
She does not attack the Strike. But her voice echoes within Flay's cockpit. "...This is the nature of victory, Flay Allster. Your team has won the day."
"Savor it."
Elisa reaches the hangar and abandos her armor, floating down in vacuum towards the shuttles and the automatons there.
"It is not My will that all of you die today," Elisa says.
"Those who are yet alive..."
"We shall aid you."
"The promise shall be kept."
But she says, "Darling," over the shared communication band. "Prepare to withdraw. The day is lost. Save who you are able, and I shall do the same. But then, we go."
"We shall extend our aegis..."
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
<"So long as you choose to continue hating so much, there will be no room for other feelings.">
The Da Xukong 0 pushes the Advanced GN-X Rosen away, freeing itself from where it had been pierced by the larger machine's weapon. It then makes a mad dash away towards the station hangar.
The Rosen doesn't proceed to follow, as Soma too is looking at the window on her display showing a view of the carnage that is taking place within the hangar, watching with dismay, "This... Is too much..." She closes her eyes.
As she opens them again, Soma glances around to take stock of the situation. She clicks her tongue, "Lost the rifle..." But she then glances at the video feed for a few moments. Then she notices that one of her allies isn't moving, seemingly distracted. Soma calls out, <"Focus, Allster! We have a mission to complete. The prisoners made the decision to forfeit their lives when they chose to try and escape. Something we cannot allow. Otherwise any action they take, any harm they bring in the future, the responsibility for it falls on us for failing to stop them.">
Some turns her GN-X towards the shuttles once more, intending to close in and continue the mission.
Until an alert pops up on her display, warning her of a low particle count. Soma's eyes go wide, "What? Already!?" Glancing at the damage display, she sees the particle leak created by Yuliana. She frowns... She can't continue combat like this.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach uses Lucky Charm KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Kicking the rear hatch of the Lion open, pressure seals snapping and unlatching - Seolla keeps watch of the distant Zowort first through the quickly-fading cameras - then through her own eyes. She's prepared to operate this thing's weaponry by hand if she must - there's ways to make an autoturret fire by hand if you're desperate enough.
...Is Seolla desperate?
The movements come automatically, before she stops herself - just in time for the Zowort to depart wordlessly.
In a breath that doesn't escape her helmet, Seolla fumes out, "I can't believe you'd just give up like that. Damn you, damn you, damn you!!!"
...and then, after she's let that out - after she hasn't fought to the death after all, the heat spills from her heart, and Seolla makes the logical decision to reboot what's left of her Lion's thrusters, rewiring the radio to work off an auxiliary antenna - all the familiar ways you survive stitching together the wreck of a mobile suit.
...Her sensors, once rewired, lock onto the TDD-1 and the events at Svaeborg alike...the colors falling from her eyes at the unfolding travesty of countless automatons gunning down the prisoners they wanted to save.
Despair freezes colder than ever. Vengeance burns even hotter than ever. In this current moment, helpless to do much but watch as atrocity is only mitigated by Elisa and Yuliana, Seolla just whispers to the Tuatha de Danaan, "...Uruz-11 reporting. I can...make it back to the ship. Just barely. ...Kh..."
Setting the smoldering wreck of her PT on a careful guided course back to the ship's hangars, Seolla spends much of that flight of shame with her knees curled against herself.
"...Sometimes it's like we're fighting something that's lost all its humanity...I should stop trying to wonder if any of them have any of it left." Seolla muses to herself-
...tragically ignorant of just what exactly she truly crossed swords with up there.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
She is so focused on destroying Trem that it means she is out of position when the weapon fires. "Wh-wh-what are-" She retracts the hammer to her hand, reaching for her beam machinegun, firing at the weapon- but it's out of effective range before the gun is up. She's too slow. Too late.
The canisters slam into the facility. Why the facility...? Do they plan to gas it? To-
And then she hears it. The screams. The bullets. Tearing into the mass of enslaved humanity. Blasting senselessly. She knows those sounds. Those screams.
DECEMBER 0097
She had abandoned all pretense. Her visor covered her eyes, and her bullet hit it's mark in the throat of a Britannian soldier. She grabbed his rifle and ducked for cover. The GUTS students... they were running, right? Leina was taking care of them, she knew what to do. Kallen was positioned outside in her KMF. Zero was-
She heard them. Screams. Shouts in Japanese. Bullets ripping through flesh. Death gurgles. She leans around the cover, and sees people running. She moves, covering fire. Enough to draw the Britannian's attention. "O-O-Ochinobite!" she shouts, desperately, running out in front of them, aiming down sights to fire in rapid succession. Two Britannians drop and Emilia dives for cover again. Was it enough? It was enough, right?
The Britannians are regrouping, laying down suppressing fire.
She looks behind her. There are footprints, imprinted on the floor in the pooling blood from the assorted bodies. Anyone who could still run, did at least. But her eyes fixate on one small pile in particular. A family. Gunned down from behind.
And not even the parents lives were shields enough.
All because they dared to hope that things could be better, for once.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y." She can't even shout. She tries. But she can't. She grabs a flashbang from her belt, and hurls it forward- then charges as soon as the blast is clear.
Four bodies coat the floor in blood. One tries to crawl away, but he can't outrun Emilia. She walks, slowly. She wishes she could drag this out.
But there are others in danger. She presses the rifle to the mans gut-
She can still make it hurt.
NOW
"Y-y-y-y-y-y. You. You...." Her voice is shaking. Her squad are trying to contact her. She can't hear them. Yuliana is spreading comms. Emilia can't hear her. She can't hear anything but the pounding in her chest, the blood in her ears. She can't see anything out of her one eye but a blinding red rage.
"YOU MONSTER!" She screams, charging for Trem, her voice broadcast to those in range. "I'LL K-K-KILL YOU! I'LL B-BURN EVERYTH-TH-THING YOU LOVE! I'LL RIP YOU. APART! I'LL C-CRACK OPEN YOUR HEL--MET AND LET VACUUM F-F-FREEZE YOUR L-LUNGS! I'LL KILL YOU I'LL KILL YOU I'LL KILL-"
The blast from Elan's rifle slams against her Zaku, and Emilia spins to face him, even as it scores through the beam coat and leaves a hole in the armour. "YOU TOO! I'LL KILL. Y-Y-YOU TOO. DIE! D-D-DIE! DIE Y-Y-YOU BRITANNIAN SCUM! D-DIE HERE, AND SUFFER ALL TH-TH-TH-THEIR PAIN!"
She charges toward Elan, the Hyper Hammer clutched in the hand of her machine. She doesn't even throw it. She simply grips it in her hand and moves to smash it repeatedly into Elan's Zowort. The head, the cockpit, the body, the shoulders- it doesn't matter where to Emilia. All that matters is that she destroys it, wholly and utterly- until there is nothing left but scrap and blood.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Elan Ceres with Hyper Hammer 200 Power Swing! <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"My wife loves my hatred," Yuliana snaps back, to Soma. "It's part of me!"
She has to wonder, though -- what makes up Soma, if she's so different, now. She tries to think... has she spoken like this before? Surely not like this.
She doesn't have time to focus on that soon enough, though. It's lucky that Soma's GN Particle count is so low, because she's distracted, trying to crush those automatons like so many insects under her own insectoid claws.
"Do we even have anything at this scale?!" Yuliana ask-yells, when Tessa asks what she needs, and there is real frustration coming through Teletha's radio. She really doesn't like what's happening here. "Just -- just get here! You've got medics, right?! They'll be all full of holes!"
Of course Elisa is a doctor, but Yuliana isn't about to volunteer her wife to treat other people so casually.
Perhaps that's better for everyone.
She works on clearing the automatons from around a shuttle, so the survivors, protected -- protected? -- by Elisa have somewhere to flee to. (They can't survive in vacuum.) "We'll cover you!" She transmits, to that shuttle. "Just go!"
She looks to the battle still raging, on her overhead visor. "Nngh..." She growls, through grit teeth. "Elya, Black Swan's lost it," she can recognise being lost to the battle-haze, even standing outside it for once. "Let's not leave her behind, either."
She has so much mercy today... but at least she's mostly extending it to her allies.
<Pose Tracker> Trem Firmal has posed.
Trem feels her hand shake on the controls. She thinks of the briefing -- replays it in her mind. What her superior told her:
'We need weapons to demonstrate that our will is what they will bend to. I know you won't hesitate.'
She concentrates, her hand's shaking stopping. It isn't different than the times before, she tells herself. She had her orders and she followed them.
Besides...
Emilia's scream pulls her back to reality. Trem smiles, coldly, at being called a monster; she looks up, eyes widening, and she swings up the badly damaged shield, ready to intercept.
Elan's beam rifle shot slams into the Zaku. She looks at his machine, with a hint of surprise.
"Snake-3," she transmits, "engaging the enemy!"
The damaged Zowort Heavy rockets back in close for the Zaku IV; as she comes in, she takes aim -- and the quadruple-mounted beam vulcans on the head of the Zowort open up, peppering shots of beam energy down at the Zaku IV. "Gh--!"
She hesitates. "Dragon-4," she says. "My unit will need to withdraw soon. If we can disable or distract her..."
- * - * -
When the Da Xukong 0 slams down inside the hangar, the ground rattles. The automatons turn -- there are two there, firing on a group of prisoners that managed to make it behind a chunk of asteroid rock, being chipped away.
Then, its foot smashes down onto one. Then, another; they explode apart into so much debris and plates, machinery shooting outward.
"Thank God!" one of the prisoners shouts, before he starts running -- bolting for the shuttles, and past the Da Xukong 0's feet.
A few, though, slow as they see Elisa descending -- in all of her glory and terror. One young woman stumbles. She swallows.
Then, they keep rushing into the shuttles.
KTS: Trem Firmal targets Emilia Eschonbach with Heavy Beam Vulcan Rush Shot! KTS: Elan Ceres has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Elan Ceres engages parry against Emilia Eschonbach's Hyper Hammer 200 Power Swing! KTS: Elan Ceres moderately reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's Hyper Hammer 200 Power Swing, taking 4805 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium exhales slightly as the response comes back in. She hadn't accidentally alerted the Dissidents she was fairly sure the death trap had actually been intended for to its purpose, thankfully. That was good
What was less good was her current situation. Bravado aside, it'd be a miracle if Lilium could get her GN-X back to the Aion safelyin this condition--she hadn't fully registered it after the impact, but her long rifle was practically melted; the GN-X's head was missing three of its four 'eyes', the dome atop it was shattered, the unit's forearms were, at this point, mostly shrapnel holes...
Not an ideal situation. The Second Lieutenant shifts out of the way of the oncoming submarine, lining up what remained of her rifle directly between the missile hatches, just fore of its sail.
"Get pumped... get PUMPED..!" She repeats to herself, gritting her teeth as a tiny bit of blood trickles down her forehead. Evidently she hit it a little harder than she thought.
As the roar of the GN Drive above her grows deafening, and her rifle starts to glow far too bright, Lilium keys her commline again and says;
<<"Oh, I'm sure they're mostly Spacenoids--Earthian Spacenoids, maybe, but you don't do things like what they did, or Submarines unless there's some Spacenoid brain in--oh.">>
Whatever doubtlessly fascinating tirade Lilium was about to embark on is cut short by the severing of the line, and the realisation that the wild cacophony of the GN-X's cockpit alarms had once again been joined by the missile alerts.
As the unknown vessel makes its escape from her, Lilium struggles to evade its final gift of missiles.
She dives out of the way of one, which streaks past her and into a floating piece of debris, but is distracted for a moment; suddenly processing the nature of the broadcast from within the asteroid--in the eyes of high command, the bait had evidently played its part to completion. They deserved this. This was for a united, peaceful world. This was the right thing to do. Nobody would ever have to know. We're doing it right this time we're doing it right this time we're doing it right this--
The two remaining missiles slam into her mobile suit. One hits the GN Drive Tau directly, and the other takes its head off as it spins out immediately afterwards.
Second Lieutenant Lilium Valerie of the Gaia Sabers slams a fist down on her console. As her cockpit separates itself from the unit's lower body, making a rapid egress from what was about to be a sizable explosion, she manages through gritted teeth; "Damn it-God DAMN IT!!"
The lights in her cockpit dim, and the peacekeeping enforcement officer is left with a faint red glow, a throbbing pain, and the sound of distant screams
Her pod simply floats there, waiting to be recovered.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages charge against Trem Firmal's Heavy Beam Vulcan Rush Shot! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach poorly reacts to Trem Firmal's Heavy Beam Vulcan Rush Shot, taking 4100 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie's GNX-603T GN-X has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Dragon-4's gambit is successful: Black Swan is fully distracted from the heavily damaged Snake-3 and focuses a massive, unrelenting attack on him instead. He trades weapons for the beam saber in time to deflect some of the incoming hammer smashes, but if Seolla's fury had seemed incandescent to him, Emilia's is the molten core of the Sun. He has no doubt whatsoever that she means to kill both of them; the rapidly erupting warnings on the inside of his Zowort Heavy, the reverberations of each attack as they smash into him, all make that clear.
At the end of it, the Zowort is heavily damaged, its one arm fully gone, the other sparking dangerously, a leg smashed off at the knee, the head halfway smashed in. The cockpit armor is still in decent condition due to his swordwork and at least some of the cameras are still live, but he and Snake-3 both are not in a condition to continue to fight against an enemy that not only wants them dead, but has exceptional defenses against their respective main weapons.
He doesn't respond to Emilia's screams--certainly not to her assumption that he's a Britannian. Trem's beam Vulcan fire helps him, but it also opens her up for reprisal as the Zaku's pilot clearly intends. He transmits back to Trem on an encrypted line, "Withdraw now, Snake-3. We're at a tactical disadvantage and the mission is done. I'll cover your retreat."
Even if that means he gets killed. Because protecting her is his mission.
For now, he launches the only non-beam weapon he has: explosive grenade ordnance fired from shoulder cannons, aimed for the Zaku's head and meant to destroy or at least scramble its visuals and targeting systems. This isn't out of a sense of mercy, but of practicality; if he can destroy its sensors, then that gives Trem a better chance of escaping. They'll zip through the airless air, spinning gracefully, until they light up in oranges, golds, and whites.
KTS: Elan Ceres has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Elan Ceres targets Emilia Eschonbach with Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Grenade! KTS: Elan Ceres's Enhanced Person No. 4 activates Focus and Trick! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach fails to engage Charge against Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Grenade! KTS: Best Defense! Emilia Eschonbach successfully reacts to Elan Ceres's Standard Beam Rifle with Grenade Launcher Grenade, taking 3000 damage! <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
<<"Copy, Uruz-11.">> She can't offer words of consolation to Seolla. Not when there are more pressing matters at hand. The medic will help, but... "Take a few of the people off of standby. Have them start up triage camps and start preparing the bands."
"Aye, ma'am." Mardukas did not have to repeat as such. The ship worked on proper assumptions and plans.
"Confirmed hit. Bogey has been destroyed. Cockpit ejection confirmed."
"Leave them to it." The individual units should be able to pick up their own. So Tessa hoped.
Emmy's voice distorts in and out as the submarine nears, going, pushing. "...Emmy..." A slow mutter to herself. To imagine that this was where they'd see each other, one blind to the other. There's nothing she can do. Not right now. Only a mental note to pass by another time.
"We're already preparing medics." Yuliana's question is answered with a restrained voice. There's malice in that voice, not directed towards the one screaming. Stay calm. Stay centered. Think. "Triage and such." SRT was already preparing themselves on the hangar bay to potshot at the drones, along with the medics (and other personnel) readying themselves. "Do what you need to do and we can EMP the place."
The TDD-1 swings broadside, tophalf of the submarine opening to recieve the shuttle. There's a few Armored Core and M9s with long-range weapons, taking careful aim to fire at the straggling drones.
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Elisa shows the mercy she is capable of - though it isn't just for Flay, but also for the prisoners the Gaia Sabers have so cruelly sacrificed to the slaughter. 'This is victory', is the parting wisdom Elisa leaves her. "There's nothing to savour about this." She mutters to herself, eyes glazing over.
It's Soma who tries to snap her back to reality, if only a little - explaining why the Gaia Sabers made the decision they did. <"I-I get what you're saying, Lieutenant Peries. I'm sure they were dangers to the Earth Sphere. But they were powerless the moment they became prisoners. Was there really no other way to stop them?"> She takes a breath, realizing she's coming dangerously close to questioning a 'superior officer'. "...It's just not right." She makes her own conclusion, off the comms.
Aside from a few stragglers, like Emilia in the Black Swan against the Chimera squadron, the battle is largely over - the Gaia Sabers achieving their 'victory'. Flay finally opens a line back to the Aion. <"...This is Flay Allster. Most of Dawn of Fold and Satellicon are retreating, and the Strike is in no shape to keep fighting. Please, give me permission to return to the ship."> She sounded so eager to fight before, but now she just sounds.. exhausted - the shock of what she saw never fully subsiding.
The Strike Gundam turns back - and it's arms are also intact enough to pick up Lilium's GN-X escape pod if no one else does.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"You said you were fucking managing her, Oz!" Peri yells, continuing to hassle the GN-X's haranguing the shuttles. "Little Princess Psychopath does not look fucking managed, does she? Jesus fucking Christ, Commander Sauper is gonna fucking kill us, fucking hell!"
"I don't think she can hear anyone right now. I tried blasting noise through her speakers and she didn't even blink."
Kalo's voice is hard and cold. Colder than usual. "...I'll sort it out." He says.
"You'll fucking sort it out, will you Oz? This is a fucking shitshow! We've got the fucking mission and she's fucking cracked it! You saw what she did to fucking Kaz like that, and he could feel it in the fucking sims. Fucking hell."
"Peri, Berliner, support the Kafims and Satellicon I will deal with it."
If he didn't... if she died here... Well. It didn't bear thinking about.
With her back turned to Trem's Zowort as she hammers on Elan's, Trem takes the free shots at her back. It slams through, disabling one of her thrusters and gives Elan the opportunity to fire a grenade and get away, that blasts away more of the Zaku's armour and sends it backwards through space, for a moment, it looks like she's stunned. Maybe this is the opening. Maybe this is what can get her to stop-
But inside that cockpit, deaf to everything else, Emilia is focusing. That quasi-psycommu that she's trying to wake up. "K-k-k-kill them, Swanfeather! KILL THEM!"
And the Swanfeather unit awakens. The cluster missiles fire off first, going for both Trem and Elan, as the seven incom wires extend. The tailfeather Heavy Beam Cannon fires alternating shots at both units as the Harkens fire out in opposite directions, one for each Zowort, Emilia clearly hoping to pull them closer together by firing all her thrusters to pull them backwards as the Harkens try to retract them closer. As soon as either is close enough, the Sea Serpents firing out in a spider web pattern to hopefully catch them both and trap them for the dual Circle Zanbers to slice into them as Emilia charges again to cut- and cut and cut and CUT-
Until it is done. Until they escape, she misses, or there is nothing left. There is no mercy left in Emilia, even as the quasi-psycommu taxes her hard to use this aggressively. But her rage is what carries her now, with everything she has.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach uses Hyper Reloader KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Trem Firmal with Black Swan Pas de Deux! KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Emilia Eschonbach KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Elan Ceres with Black Swan Pas de Deux! KTS: Trem Firmal fails to engage guard against Emilia Eschonbach's Black Swan Pas de Deux! KTS: Best Defense! Trem Firmal successfully reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's Black Swan Pas de Deux, taking 4500 damage! KTS: Trem Firmal has been defeated! KTS: Elan Ceres engages guard against Emilia Eschonbach's Black Swan Pas de Deux! KTS: Best Defense! Elan Ceres successfully guards Emilia Eschonbach's Black Swan Pas de Deux, taking 5340 damage! KTS: Elan Ceres has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The prisoners would not thank Elisa for her ministrations. And she does not reassure, when she sees fear. She is no angel to forestall fear. Instead, as they rush past, she steps forward into the facility. "I shall protect you. Go."
The fear that woman has for her is reasonable. After all... "Human weakness," she muses. "And human strength, interlocking..."
"I believe I may begin to see it."
But Yuliana cautions her of their ally, the one whose rage caught Yuliana's attention. "I shall reach her."
"...Black Swan." There is no undercurrent of Power to her voice now, save that it cuts through radio; only the words of a calculating womman. "I praised your rage. But now is the time for prudence. You cannot achieve your vengeance if you are dead, and if we stay, it is our forces that will be overwhelmed."
"Nurture that hatred. But make it serve you. Now, come. We shall tend to the survivors."
She says no more to Flay for now. But she will remember her name.
There has been much to learn today.
<Pose Tracker> Trem Firmal has posed.
"Roger that, Dragon-4," Trem answers Elan. She still hesitates, for a moment. She remembers the thrill of battle, not a moment before.
But, there is the mission; there's the words (and the screams and the gunshots) that echo in her ears.
"I'm--"
Emmy pleads with Swanfeather. Trem's eyes widen as the unit's missiles come in. Some strike the shield, as Trem swings it around -- blocking those, until the explosions make it crack apart.
Then the harkens whip out. She gets cut into, dragged outward, and then the Circle Zanber slashes through the left arm, cutting it away, and then slashing out the right leg. "Helvete!" Trem swears, her hands shaking.
"Snake-3! Dragon-4!" Romero -- Lion-1 -- calls out over the radio. "Get out of there!"
Red-orange GN particle beams tear through space. His GN-X flies in, its beam rifle firing. The circle zanber on Trem's Zowort is hit -- knocking it away. Trem breathes out, then hits the thrusters.
"Dragon-4!" she says. "It's time to go!"
She looks at that Zaku IV -- a few GN beam shots coming close to it -- and her eyes narrow. This one...
...she's someone to remember.
The mangled, battered Zowort Heavy bursts off towards the distant Aion, leaving a trailof smoke and flame in its wake.
- * - * -
With the Da Xukong 0 guarding them, the last of the prisoners hurry along. One of them slows, though, as he runs. He looks down at Hardiker, lying in a pool of his own blood -- then around the devastated area. Bullet holes pockmark the ground; bodies are littered all about.
The prisoner shakes his head, before he hurtles in.
Drones explode, here and there -- M9's and Armored Cores holing them through with rifles. As tough as they are, for small arms, they aren't built to deal with a full-fledged mecha.
After a moment, the shuttles lift up -- beginning to fly from Sveaborg, towards the TDD-1.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Faster, the Zaku IV kills, kills. The cluster missiles, the Harkens, the Sea Serpents, and finally the Circle Zanbers--were it not for the timely interference of Lion-1 and his beam rifle's suppressing fire, it probably would have been the end of Dragon-4 and his Zowort. As it stands, it's a smoking heap barely still functional, and even with that suppressing fire, it sacrifices its other leg to break away from Black Swan.
She's a force to be reckoned with, to be sure. But that much was obvious even from a distance.
"Roger," Dragon-4 transmits to Romero and Trem. Thereafter, there's only silence. His own Zowort Heavy follows Trem's back to the Aion.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
They've been torn apart. Now to make sure. Now to confirm the kills. Now to make them-
A voice cuts through the rage, not cold in tone but with all the effect of a sudden, freezing wind. A voice that even her rage cannot ignore.
It's enough to make her take notice. She wants to scream back, to roar, and yet-
The rest of the world comes flooding in. Kalo ordering her to retreat. The rescue efforts for the prisoners. Requests for acknowledgment across her comm screens. The call to retreat. The incoming GN-X beams that she has to avoid. It takes her a few moments to regain control.
"-" She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She tries again- but she can't speak. She reaches for her console. and presses a few buttons quickly- a ping that reads simply acknowledged, sent to all on the same frequency. The Swanfeather's incoms return to the unit, and the Black Swan turns, making a beeline for the Shandor.
She's in no place to face the prisoners right now. She's in no place to process the TDD-1, as much as she will hate herself for not contacting them- for trying to find out if the others made it there. She's in no place to talk, to speak, or think.
And she's definitely in no place to notice the slight, brief light from the bracelet under her pilot suit.
----
"Acknowledgement received. She's coming back to ship."
"...Peri, cover her, and regroup towards the Shandor. We're boarding again as soon as we get the single the transports are out and mission is over."
"I'm not going into the same fucking room as her, Oz. Not until you get her back on lead."
"...understood."
For once, Oscar Kalo does not dismiss his sniper's request.
"...fucking hell. I missed when we were a squad of three. Not a squad and a rabid fucking dog."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Get to the Toybox," Yuliana instructs the shuttle, as she lifts off alongside it, to cover it from the Gaia Sabers' wrath. (What of it remains, in any case. At least some of their enemies seem taken aback.) "They've got medics standing by. They'll help you." As much as she'd love to take all the credit -- they don't have the doctors on-hand to handle something like this.
And she does want the prisoners to survive. It's just not generally her job to worry about that.
She notes that Emilia's enemies, specifically, are retreating -- and she says, over her radio, "Leave them! It's time to go!" ... and miraculously, there's an affirmative ping.
Once the shuttle has docked with the Toybox, she'll regroup with the Shandor, too -- because the Da Xukong is in no shape to get revenge all on its lonesome.
(She's not worried about Elisa. The world ought to worry about her.)
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium hardly notices when the Strike initially grabs her pod, having curled into a ball slightly, face buried in her knees.
Notably, she's thrown off her helmet at some point. More of the visor seems to be chipping off, so that was probably a wise decision
Muffled sounds that might be sobs escape her, and as she's carried back to the Aion she whimpers one, single thing;
"I'm going to sink that Whale."