2025-06-19: Shared Fate
- Log: 2025-06-19
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Shiiko Sugai, Rikka Takarada, Lianne Moren, Flay Allster, Kira Yamato, Knight, Lunamaria Hawke
- Where: Pacific Ocean
- OOC - IC Date: U.C. 00100 06 19
- Summary: The Gaia Sabers unleash the first of their new Akane-powered kaiju upon the United States of South America. An all-out battle ensues.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The United States of South America (as the revolutionary group's manifesto declares itself and all its claimed territory, in a series of snubs to Britannia) has massed a significant percentage of its forces in the Britannian Administrative Region of Peru.
The Gaia Sabers have been trying to change this. Yesterday, there was a report of a kaiju at one revolutionary forward base, seemingly there and gone in less than 22 minutes. It's led to some international phone calls; the USSA needs materiel it simply doesn't have to fight such a thing. Feelers have been put out everywhere -- Dawn of Fold, Terminal, the Grand Glorious Guard, OCU Intelligence, former OAC states...
Whether anyone's bit on that is a different question, of course -- and if so, /who/. Getting involved here means sitting on a powder keg. The USSA has offered generous trade terms -- both tangible and intelligence-related -- to any organization that will help them fend off both the kaiju and an incoming Britannian/Gaia Sabers joint counteroffensive, and what information on the kaiju they have besides.
It's a familiar one, in many respects. A quadruped, with many heads -- one with a glass dome with deceptively-charming googly-eyes for a head, another with a long neck and horns like craft wire, one massive worm-like head with a gaping maw, one mechanized dragon head...
It's not quite the same, by the same token, though. That kaiju -- seen first in Tsutsujidai's walled garden -- had been larger, with its body borrowed from the massive Go'yavec. This one is a hair smaller -- though at this scale, 'smaller' still leaves it to dwarf even many battleships. It is also missing the long, spindly rear legs of that kaiju; in their place are the ones from the 'base' kaiju, an ankylosaurus-like monster with dragging back legs and a pair of yellow horns jutting out of what appears to be its own head.
'''''''''''''''''''''''
This required the creation of a longer Loading Knuckle. Not that difficult a task -- theoretically, nothing has ever stopped anyone from creating a longer Knuckle. Annoying, though, that they seemingly can't extract enough from that woman's memories to make a combined capsule that works properly.
The silver-haired man holding the Knuckle is not particularly fond of the kaiju he's received, either. Something about using them itches at the back of his mind. The design sensibility, perhaps -- too modern? Whatever strange, familiar comfort he derived from the use of the Ultimate Gundam's capsule, from Ace Killer, from Eleking -- whatever sensation that he was reclaiming something he'd simultaneously always wanted and always had -- isn't there.
Still: Alteur is a practical man.
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Seven capsules into the longer Knuckle. The Alteriser swipes over each, and each time, it reports.
"Ghoulghilas."
"Devadadan."
"Gonglee."
"Mecha-Ghoulghilas."
"Gaiyaros."
"Scorban."
"Skydon."
A gong sounds. The Alteriser reports, again.
"Deiwardas II."
/////////////////
The kaiju appears again, closer to the USSA base than anyone expected. It lets out a high-pitched, shrill, familiar cry -- but one that's rapidly overridden by a deeper, more forceful one a moment later.
The blue-and-pink head arches back, letting several fireballs out. Strangely, rather than explode on impact, they bounce, their arc a lazy volleyball's lob.
KTS: Rikka Takarada has deployed in RX-90 Mu Gundam <Red Umbrella>. DEBUG: Special Technique L1 - 224 DEBUG: Will Powered 10 DEBUG: Will Powered 10 DEBUG: Special Technique L1 - 224 DEBUG: DEBUG: old max HP = 16625, new max hp = 16625 DEBUG: DEBUG: scale factor = 1.0 DEBUG: DEBUG: new current hp = 16625
KTS: Flay Allster has deployed in GAT-X105E IWSP Strike E Gundam.
KTS: Shiiko Sugai has deployed in NX-603T GN-X (Custom).
DEBUG: Part Solar Panel add 16 to RX
DEBUG: Special Technique L2 - 1821
DEBUG: Permissions {}{"Space Assembly League"}
KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has deployed in ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior. DEBUG: Part Solar Panel add 16 to RX DEBUG: Part Beam-Resistant Coating add 20 to Beam Wall
KTS: Beam Tomahawk Strike: 3700 Melee,Beam KTS: Beam Tomahawk Thrust: 4300 Melee,Beam,Penetrating KTS: Beam Tomahawk Combo: 4700 Melee,Beam KTS: Hand Grenade Toss: 3500 Ranged,Physical,Missile KTS: Hand Grenade Cracker Grenade: 4000 Ranged,Physical,Microtarget KTS: MA-M3 Heavy Blade Disorienting Blow: 3700 Melee,Physical,Rattle KTS: MA-M3 Heavy Blade Strike: 3300 Melee,Physical KTS: MA-M3 Heavy Blade Combo: 4600 Melee,Physical,Finisher KTS: MMI-M8A3 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun Suppressing Fire: 5000 Ranged,Physical,Accurate,Spread KTS: MMI-M8A3 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun Burst: 3800 Ranged,Physical KTS: MMI-M8A3 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun Maneuver Shot: 4000 Ranged,Physical KTS: MMI-M8A3 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun Blitz: 5500 Ranged,Physical,Spread,Penetrating KTS: MMI-M8A3 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun Barrage: 4600 Ranged,Physical,MAP KTS: Spiked Shoulder Shield Flat Slam: 3800 Melee,Physical KTS: Spiked Shoulder Shield Punch: 4000 Melee,Physical,Rattle KTS: Spiked Shoulder Shield Pummel: 5100 Melee,Physical,Finisher KTS: Spiked Shoulder Shield Hook Punch: 4600 Melee,Physical,Penetrating KTS: Kira Yamato has deployed in ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam. DEBUG: Part Beam-Resistant Coating add 20 to Beam Wall DEBUG: Part High-Precision Sensors add 5 to Mobility DEBUG: Part High-Precision Sensors add 10 to Sight ["Beam Tomahawk" -> 47, "Hand Grenade" -> 5, "M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon" -> 1716, "Multi- Dazzler" -> 83, "Spiked Shoulder Shield" -> 1512, "Standard Secondary Beam Rifle" -> 2]
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
Aboard the Girty Lue-class stealth battleship the Formidable, located in the Pacific Ocean and just outside of Area 6's range. Commander Shiiko Sugai is briefing her squadron on the coming mission. Area 6 is attempting to leave the Union of Solar Energy, and this rebellion poses a tremendous threat to Britannian sovereignty. So, to bring peace back into the region, the Gaia Sabers have been called upon to bring these traitors back into the fold.
KTS: Lianne Moren has deployed in GNY-005 Gundam Syken.
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
"Our task will be to bomb these locations." Commander Sugai says, as her table lights up with a mix of military and civilian targets across Peru. The various pilots under her command crowd around to see where they've been assigned to. "We'll be striking them fast and hard, before they can scramble to meet us. Destroy the hangers and any response forces first before moving onto other targets. Questions?"
One pilot raised his hand. "Sir, why are we hitting civilian targets? I'm seeing some neighborhoods, shopping complexes, even hospitals as targets..." Sugai pauses before responding, making a note on her clipboard. A Britannian pilot takes the silence to cut in. "What, are you afraid? The damned 6's are rebelling you're-"
"Ensign. That's enough." Sugai cuts in, and the Britannian pilot tsks. She then turns towards the original pilot, with a soft smile. "We're merely treating the citizen's a taste of what it will be like, should they stand alone. It's no different from teaching a child that the stove is hot. If they are to leave Britiannia, leave NUNE, they ought to know what it's like without the Saber's protection." The pilot hesitently nods. "That's it? Good. To your units."
Enroute to the rebel base now, the Sabers are flying in an arrow head formation. At the tip is the tricolor GN-X. They just begin to spot the base, as Sugai feels a flash, then a loud crack. <<Scatter!>> Is all she can get out, before a kaiju appears underneath- around them, forming like an explosion.
Her comms are chaos after that. <<What the hell was that?>> <<A kaiju?!>> <<I'm taking it down!>> <<Hold Fire! Formidable, get Pendragon! A kaiju just dropped on our location and->>
A chime for attention from the Formidable. <<We received word from Pendragon. Continue the mission. Work with the Kaiju.>>
Sugai groans as chaos erupts once more. This was the plan all along, wasn't it? She hates surpises. <<What is Command talking about?!>> <<We need to go, now!>> <<We're all going to die!>>
<<Cut the chatter!>> Sugai cuts in, aiming to regain control. <<We know the dance, we just have a new partner. Stay out of the kaiju's way and focus on your mission. Mamamajou, engaging!>> Sugai punches her mobile suit foward towards the USSA base. After a moment's hestiation, her squad is sufficiently cowed and joins her, each calling out as they begin engaging as well.
KTS: BSYS: Akane Shinjo has adjusted their bucket to a capacity of 5. KTS: Shiiko Sugai has deployed as a Boss for 2 opponents. KTS: Akane Shinjo has deployed as a Boss for 3 opponents.
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
Rikka Takarada is still reeling from... everything. Akane's death and that feeling within her that tells her that she's still alive out there somewhere, and a meeting with one of her friends left her feeling angry and frustrated. But not matter how she's feeling, no matter what she's going through, the world goes on - and right now, she has to focus on where she's needed. The USSA has requested help fending off a kaiju that has attacked them once and may do so again. It's a dicey situation. It's practically acting for Gaia Sabers opposition, given who's asking. But they can hardly just leave people to die to the kaiju.
And the kaiju in question... Rikka reeled when she saw it. It's composed of familiar parts, all mashed together into a kaiju chimera... many of them, Akane's.
Her expression is undescribable.
It's like a cruel reminder, shoving her unaddressed feelings into her face like that and forcing them to be used for... this. It's like they're puppeting her -
No. Don't say that. Don't think that. She's not -
---
Now.
The kaiju, Deiwardas II, appears... and the Mu Gundam, which has been waiting for this opportunity, takes off - but as she does, she sees the movements of the Gaia Sabers.
"...Really? They're doing this now?" Rikka says, shaking her head in disbelief. "There's better things for them to be doing."
Still, she has to be diplomatic - even if she has frustration to spare for them right now, she has to keep it in check.
"This is Chief Rikka Takarada of 3G Red to everyone in the area! We're here to put a stop to the kaiju attacks!" Rikka announces. "We request your cooperation in preventing harm."
But the kaiju... It's closer than she expected... closer than she'd like. This close, even if they manage to stop it they run the risk of the base getting damaged in the crossfire...
"Draw its attention away from the base! We can't let anyone get hurt!" Rikka calls out. She focuses on Deiwardas II. "As for you..."
She focuses her will sharply.
"Funnels!" Rikka calls out. The funnels blossom out from the umbrella-shaped funnel rack on the Mu Gundam's back - a mix of flashy toyetic ones and plain, standard-issue ones. The more toyetic funnels dance around Deiwardas II as the Mu Gundam begins to strafe along its side... and as they try to draw its attention the plain funnels move in, trying to flank it from a blindspot with a volley of beam fire. She seems calm and in control, despite everything... but her hidden thoughts are reflected in the way her funnels move, channeling the frustration she can't let out.
KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Akane Shinjo with Flanking Maneuver! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to engage guard against Rikka Takarada's Flanking Maneuver! KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Rikka Takarada's Flanking Maneuver, taking 3675 damage! KTS: Rikka Takarada begins a Formation attack! KTS: Knight has deployed in Gridknight. <Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Lianne takes a deep breath in. Deep breath out. It's so bright outside - brighter than any day she'd seen in her side 4 colony. And so blue! Those things stand out to her the most. It's odd. Her first deliberate combat deployment should be so scary, but she's calm.
[Your welcome~]
Maybe the sims she's been doing are making a difference? Not unwelcome. Better than freezing at the controls, especially when she is airborne. She looks over the battlefield. It was definitely what one would call a 'target rich environment', but there was definitely a single target that stood out far more than the others. And she wouldn't have to think too hard about shooting at it, either. "Gundam Syken, kicking things off."
Above the battlefield, the distinctive green sparkle of a true GN Drive in the sky announced another combatant. Lianne launched off an IFF handshake to the other non-GSB forces so they knew not to shoot her, and focused on her target. The Syken's bits launched from it's back, forming a phalanx around it as it landed lightly on a rooftop in firing range of the kaiju. How on earth did the Gaia Sabers get their hands on a monster like that!? As an opening salvo she elected to fire a spread of beam rifle shots, testing for weaknesses.
KTS: Lianne Moren targets Akane Shinjo with Scattershot! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to engage evade against Lianne Moren's Scattershot! KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Lianne Moren's Scattershot, taking 3150 damage! KTS: Lianne Moren repulses Akane Shinjo, preventing her from Charging the next attack! <Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
It wasn't long after the outbreak that Terminal received word of the escalation of conflict in southern Britannia, with many of its members deciding to break off and form their own bloc: The United States of South America. On one hand, Terminal isn't like the former Celestial Being was - they're far more keen to keep a steady eye on the situation before acting. On the other, the Gaia Sabers' aggressive response sets a bad precedence for what will happen to anyone else who doesn't fall in line with NUNE. Perhaps less pressingly, the United States of South America could prove to be a valuable ally when the time comes to liberate Orb from the Gaia Sabers.
As such, Terminal has made their decision to intervene in this conflict, before it spreads like wildfire into something even they cannot stop. On a personal level, Flay feels conflicted when she reads the reports about the conflict. Just a few months ago, this must've been an operation she would have supported and participated in without a second thought - because that's just what happens if you try to oppose something as powerful as Britannia. But now that she can see it from the outside...
She can't believe that this is what she was supporting that whole time. "This is insane... they really did bring out a monster!" Flay comments, as someone who's never really seen a kaiju this close. Unless it was a really well kept secret, she had no idea the Gaia Sabers just... had these things at their disposal. "If this is what the Gaia Sabers really are then I guess.. this is taking responsibility." She sighs, doing her pre-flight checks. "Strike E... engaging!"
The Strike E is a familiar sight to any of the Gaia Sabers on the scene, as one of their own... at least formerly. Now it flies behind the Freedom Gundam, with a collection of Murasames and other mobile suits Terminal sent to intervene against the kaiju. "...Kira. The Gaia Sabers are going to want to make an example of the woman who betrayed them more than anything. I know it's dangerous, but... I'll keep them off you."
The Strike E breaks off from the Freedom towards the Formidable, scanning the GN-X that broke away from its own ship. That insignia... 'Death Will Have No Dominion.' Could it be...? Despite everything, she doesn't take the first shot. It just doesn't feel right.
KTS: Flay Allster targets Kira Yamato with Dream!
<Pose Tracker> Kira Yamato has posed.
"Kira Yamato, Freedom. Moving out!"
Getting a call for assistance with a kaiju is, relatively speaking, reassuring. It's not as messy as human conflict. Fighting used to be terrifying, but that's long behind him at this point - now there's a placidity to it. A sense of place in the cockpit. It's like riding a very high-G bike.
Unfortunately, the situation he actually arrives to is chaos.
"Yeah... this is terrible." The Gaia Sabers are all too eager to pounce on a vulnerable position, and with the Freedom's descent, there's one reflexive moment, helmet glinting with IFF data, where his hands close around the trigger -
And then the Gundam turns, eyes glinting at Deiwardas. "Thanks, Flay. Don't let them draw you in too deep, okay? Make sure I can reach you if you need backup."
The kaiju is the more serious threat to people's lives right now, and he has backup to keep the situation under control. With any luck, driving this monster off will give the Gaia Sabers second thoughts about this engagement, too. If this thing is built like the Tsutsujidai kaiju --
The Freedom's shoulders glow with crackling energy as Kira feeds structural data from those old incidents into the targeting systems. It's not exactly the same, but hopefully it's close enough that he can cripple the thing in one shot.
KTS: Kira Yamato accepts Flay Allster's Dream! KTS: Flay Allster shares a dream with Kira Yamato, increasing his SP! KTS: Best Defense! Kira Yamato successfully reacts to Flay Allster's Dream, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Akane Shinjo's Awakening activates! KTS: Kira Yamato targets Akane Shinjo with 'Balaena' Plasma Beam Cannon! KTS: Akane Shinjo engages block against Kira Yamato's 'Balaena' Plasma Beam Cannon! KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully blocks Kira Yamato's 'Balaena' Plasma Beam Cannon, taking 2850 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato completes the Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"That kaiju. . . it's so familiar . . ." Second remarks from her post at the Gridknight Alliance's dinghy, watching Deiwardas II tower overhead.
"..." Knight's only response is silence. It is familiar. But now's not the time to dwell on memories. They've put those behind them. No more getting attached. He has a job to do, and he's here to do it.
Knight crosses their arms and takes a deep breath, and with a glow of red light, Gridknight rises up, falling out of the sky. He takes only a second to examine his surroundings. It's a gathering of Mobile Suits, including one very familiar Gundam - don't think about her don't think - so Knight presumes they'll need his help.
Gridknight's eyes glow, and he rushes at Deiwardas II with an opening strike.
KTS: Knight has activated the Assail Spirit Command and and can now apply defenses across ranges! KTS: Knight targets Akane Shinjo with Gridknight Martial Arts! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to engage guard against Knight's Gridknight Martial Arts! KTS: Akane Shinjo moderately reacts to Knight's Gridknight Martial Arts, taking 2610 damage! <Pose Tracker> Lunamaria Hawke has posed.
Atmospheric entry in a mobile suit cockpit is never pleasant, even if the suit itself is inside the hangar of a state-of-the-art battleship when it does so. But the USSA had called for aid--and while ZAFT couldn't formally intervene with its conflict with NUNE, Captain Gladys apparently saw no issue with a spot of monster hunting.--and her FAITH position gave her the authority to declare the Minerva was getting in on it. So, Lunamaria had to put up with it--and at least she'd be able to stretch her legs on earth afterwards. Even if the horizon always gave her a headache for the first couple hours...
The Minerva breaks through the clouds over the Atlantic, and Meyrin's voice comes over the radio.
<<ZAKU Warrior, please move to the starboard catapult!>>
The cockpit lurches, and the Minerva's systems start to move Luna's ZAKU into position. She flicks some switches on her dashboard,
<<Condition Red has been declared! Mobile suit team, prepare for launch!>>
The airlock seals, and Luna's MS is fixed to the catapult. She unhooks her helmet from the side of her chair, pulling it over her head and firmly sealing it to her Normal Suit.
<<Please equip the Zaku Warrior with the Gunner Wizard!>>
The distinctive ka-thunk of the Wizard System connecting rocks Luna's suit, and she places her hands over the control levers. Meyrin's face appears on one of her side monitors for a moment--she's opened a direct line.
<<Good luck out there, Big sis!>>
The launch bay fills with light as the hatch opens, and the Linear Catapult extends.
<<ZGMF-1000, ZAKU Warrior, please take off!>>
Luna leans her ZAKU forwards, firing the rear thrusters, before opening a line to the bridge herself:
<<Okay! Lunamaria Hawke, Gunner ZAKU Warrior, Off I go!>>
She presses down on the pedals, the various red lights on the display board turn green--And her ZAKU is away, power cable detaching smoothly as it soars through the skies towards the battlefield below.
Luna lands somewhat gracefully on top of a building she's pretty sure has been evacuated, sliding down to the ground with her Long-Range Beam Cannon levelled towards the mysterious Kaiju. She charges up a shot, targeting the Devadon head--
<<This is Meyrin! Big Sis, intelligence reports that GN-X wing was launched from a vessel over the pacific that matches the description of Bogey One!>>
<<Ehhh??? Out here??? Now???>>
She tears her gunsight off of the target, instead narrowing in on the GN-X with the tricolor paint job.
<<The GN-X Wing are enemies! Mobile Suit team are to engage them immediately! The Minerva is already moving to Bogey One's last reported position!>>
<<You don't have to tell me twice--You got it, Meyrin! Lunamaria Hawke, engaging!>>
It takes Luna a moment to line up her target... but it seems the GN-X hasn't seen her yet, so she has time. She breathes in, diverting power to the Orthos...
And a red and blue energy beam slices the sky in two, targeted directly for Shiiko's machine.
KTS: Lunamaria Hawke targets Shiiko Sugai with M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Burst! KTS: Shiiko Sugai engages evade against Lunamaria Hawke's M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Burst! KTS: Critical Hit! Shiiko Sugai poorly reacts to Lunamaria Hawke's M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Burst, taking 4400 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Alteur notes the forces present in this operation.
He's sure this can be a diplomatic incident later.
As the semi-familiar form of Deiwardas II staggers across the battlefield, the strangled cry of its central head smothered further and further by a deeper and more forceful voice, something becomes apparent about its design. The first Deiwardas had had black, empty eyes; these, conversely, have a mix of colors. The Skydon's eyes are a bright, shining blue, but everything else...
... is the same bright red as the component kaiju.
This could be nothing.
The Mu Gundam is the first to fire on the kaiju, funnel fire pounding into the mass of heads. After a few moments, the Devadadan head cuts in between the beam fire and the others, offering its beam defenses to the group at a whole.
Deiwardas II is nothing if not easily led; as Rikka continues to pelt it with funnel fire from every angle, it rounds on her and starts forward.
It opens one of its maws to fire a ray of energy -- but is immediately punished for the attempt with a spray of beam rifle shots that momentarily destabilize the massive kaiju. Gundam Syken's attacks find their mark -- and a moment later, the plasma beam cannon of the Freedom Gundam finds purchase as well. The shots at least keep it from advancing on the USSA's position; it has more immediate threats to contend with.
Yet again, it raises Ghoulghilas's head to spray fire --
-- and immediately that head gets a series of blows from Gridknight, one after another, sending the shot way off course.
Years ago, now, this foe faced Gridman and his allies while Gridknight and Rikka fought off the monster in Akane Shinjo's heart. Now, it comes for them first. Tentacles disgorge from the body, starting to whip at the Mu Gundam; Gridknight, meanwhile, gets a big, round fireball from the head he struck moments ago.
That's not to say that Freedom and Syken go unscathed -- indeed, far from it; the worm-like head flails around until it eventually draws a bead on the Syken, firing a beam straight out of its gullet. Freedom, meanwhile, receives a shot from the neck of the Devadadan head -- a familiar high-intensity, sweeping beam.
At the very least, the monster can't provide direct fire support for the Gaia Sabers now.
KTS: Akane Shinjo has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Akane Shinjo has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Knight with Ghoulghilas's Fireball! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Rikka Takarada with Gonglee's Tentacles! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Lianne Moren with Discarded Kaiju's Beam! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Kira Yamato with Devadadan's Beam! KTS: Akane Shinjo's New Order activates Trick! KTS: Knight has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Knight engages evade against Akane Shinjo's Ghoulghilas's Fireball! KTS: Best Defense! Knight successfully reacts to Akane Shinjo's Ghoulghilas's Fireball, taking 0 damage! KTS: Lianne Moren fails to engage Evade against Akane Shinjo's Discarded Kaiju's Beam! KTS: Critical Hit! Lianne Moren poorly reacts to Akane Shinjo's Discarded Kaiju's Beam, taking 4182 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Stimulation activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Rikka Takarada engages parry against Akane Shinjo's Gonglee's Tentacles! KTS: Best Defense! Rikka Takarada successfully reacts to Akane Shinjo's Gonglee's Tentacles, taking 1700 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato engages evade against Akane Shinjo's Devadadan's Beam! KTS: Kira Yamato successfully reacts to Akane Shinjo's Devadadan's Beam, taking 2800 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
Shiiko is overseeing the battle, using her beam rifle to hit square several USSA suits trying to sortie against her squadron. "This is going rather smoothly..." She murmurs, to herself as she watches the base begin to go up in flames, her attention shifting back and forth from the base to the Kaiju. She is, however, distracted and didn't expect a response so fast. So much, she snaps back to attention as she gets hit from a stray beam. No, wait! A ZAKU Warrior is up there. And another... Reinforcements, a true GN Drive somewhere, even the Freedom is here! And, her heart stops for a moment as she spots the Strike E.
<<Bandits, all over us! Secure Air Supremacy! Never mind the Kaiju, it can handle itself!>>
With her orders, she begins to climb rapidly. She fires a few shots the ZAKU before firing her grappling hook at the Strike E as she aims to close the distance as fast as she can and regain lost ground. "You should never have come here, Allster! I'll be repaying your betrayal in full today!"
KTS: Shiiko Sugai has activated the Accel Spirit Command and and has gained Terrain bonus! KTS: Shiiko Sugai has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Shiiko Sugai targets Lunamaria Hawke with GN-X Beam Rifle Burst Fire! KTS: Shiiko Sugai targets Flay Allster with This Pressure... It's Incredible!!
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
Knight is here, too.
"Knight..." Rikka starts. Her voice goes unsteady as she sees him silently enter the fray. Their presence is a reminder to both of them as to what they've lost - as is the kaiju that stands before them now.
...She doesn't know what to say. What can she say? If she told him what she was feeling know, what he think of her the same way Marusan did? She considers that, considers the possibility -
- and decides that she can't risk losing her ties with him, too.
Tentacles emerge from Deiwardas II's body, lashing out at the Mu Gundam - and its defense rod is drawn in an instant, lashing out to strike them away. Some of them still bash it around, knocking it this way and that - but the Mu Gundam restabilizes quickly.
"Assembled Gundams - if you'll accept it, I'm sending you the data we have on that kaiju. We're... very familiar with most of its parts already." Rikka says. "And Gridknight... Thank you."
Kira and Lianne's Gundams will receive a transmission a moment later - and if they accept it, they'll receive data that should help them have an easier time reading its defenses. And for Gridknight... she offers her heartfelt thanks, and hopes that this isn't the last time.
KTS: Flay Allster fails to engage guard against Shiiko Sugai's This Pressure... It's Incredible!! KTS: Flay Allster's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Flay Allster successfully reacts to Shiiko Sugai's This Pressure... It's Incredible!, taking 960 damage! KTS: Shiiko Sugai anchors Flay Allster, preventing her from Evading the next attack! KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Kira Yamato, Lianne Moren, and Knight with All-Out! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: [Lucky] Shiiko Sugai's Survivor's Guilt activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke fails to engage Guard against Shiiko Sugai's GN-X Beam Rifle Burst Fire! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke successfully reacts to Shiiko Sugai's GN-X Beam Rifle Burst Fire, taking 2960 damage! KTS: Lianne Moren's On a roll! activates! KTS: Lianne Moren accepts Rikka Takarada's All-Out! KTS: Rikka Takarada orders an all-out attack, raising Lianne Moren's Skill! KTS: Best Defense! Lianne Moren successfully reacts to Rikka Takarada's All-Out, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato's SEED activates! KTS: Kira Yamato accepts Rikka Takarada's All-Out! KTS: Rikka Takarada orders an all-out attack, raising Kira Yamato's Skill! KTS: Best Defense! Kira Yamato successfully reacts to Rikka Takarada's All-Out, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
Gridknight chops at one head, but doesn't make much of a dent. As he hops backwards, the same head fixes its attention on him with glowing eyes. Knight tries to ignore those eyes. Fire burns in its mouth, and-
Don't think don't think don't think- NOW!
As it hurls a fireball, Gridknight tenses up, arms out and disappears in a flash of motion, his form blurring as the fireball passes right by, making no contact. Knight reappears immediately afterwards, focusing back on the kaiju - until Rikka calls to him. Knight stumbles for a second.
"I-"
They don't finish the sentence. Thanks? Thanks for what? Knight doesn't know.
He snarls and charges at the kaiju again, leaping, spinning, and twisting in an arc to bring both legs down on the head of Deiwardas II.
"Teyah!"
KTS: Knight has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Knight accepts Rikka Takarada's All-Out! KTS: Rikka Takarada orders an all-out attack, raising Knight's Skill! KTS: Best Defense! Knight successfully reacts to Rikka Takarada's All-Out, taking 0 damage! KTS: Knight targets Akane Shinjo with Gridknight Martial Arts!
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Lianne dashes to the side to evade the oncoming beam, but not fast enough. The blast hits her side on, vaporizing one of her Swarm Bits and charring the Syken's armor. Lianne grits her teeth as damage reports fly across her screen, but nothing critical yet. Not ideal, but a message come in just as she was wondering how best to approach this situation. She accepts it, the data flowing into her systems... there's definitely a lot of it, but she's able to mostly filter to the key parts. "Oh? Thanks, miss! I won't let it go to waste!" she replies. Always good to be polite, even on a battlefield.
Time to get to work, then! She launches her swarm bits to do their namesake work, spreading out around the kaiju. "Come on, come on..." This was her first time actually using these for combat... Using the newly gained information for targeting, Lianne has them go for whatever vital points they can find, attempting to lock it down long enough for someone to go for a heavier blow upon it. It was a good thing these Bits were so intuitive - all she had to do was picture the scene she wanted to assemble in her mind and the Bits would try and make it reality.
KTS: Lianne Moren has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Lianne Moren targets Akane Shinjo with Omni-directional Assault! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to engage evade against Knight's Gridknight Martial Arts! KTS: [Mirage] Akane Shinjo's Discarded Kaiju's Instant Movement activates, and she slips into a mirage. KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Knight's Gridknight Martial Arts, taking 0 damage! KTS: Akane Shinjo accepts Lianne Moren's Omni-directional Assault! KTS: Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Lianne Moren's Omni-directional Assault, taking 5130 damage! KTS: Lianne Moren begins a Formation attack! KTS: Lianne Moren anchors Akane Shinjo, preventing her from Evading the next attack!
<Pose Tracker> Kira Yamato has posed.
The Freedom slips to the side, circling the kaiju as a beam sweeps out towards it, tilting away from the roaring beast, suffering only a little superficial scoring as it settles back into a firing position.
The 3G transmission arrives, and Kira passes it through, the scroll shining off his eyes as he feeds it through his FCS. It gives him a moment's pause, seeing Gridknight and this monster in battle - it's felt lately as though there's been a concerted effort to dig up the past to no good ends.
"Thanks. Making my approach now."
The plasma cannons swing back, making room as the Freedom converts its momentum into a charge, a pair of flashing beam sabers seeking to hammer into any structural weaknesses presented in the data.
KTS: Kira Yamato targets Akane Shinjo with Dual Saber Assault! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to engage guard against Kira Yamato's Dual Saber Assault! KTS: [Mirage] Akane Shinjo's Discarded Kaiju's Instant Movement activates, and she slips into a mirage. KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Kira Yamato's Dual Saber Assault, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato completes the Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
"Thanks... but you be careful, too, okay? There's something about that kaiju..." Flay replies to Kira, before flying off into her own engagement. Being unfamiliar with the Tsutsujidai Incident, she couldn't actually say what it is, with that kaiju, but she'll just have to trust Kira will be okay as long as he's in the Freedom. For now, it's the Gaia Sabers that keep her attention, as the battlefield gradually becomes more and more chaotic with each arrival.
A familiar grey and red battleship flies over the Atlantic to join the battlefield, and Flay instinctively raises her guard - it's hard to say which side a SAL contingent will be coming in on. It becomes a little clearer when the red ZAKU Warrior beam screams out towards the GN-X squadron. "I've spotted the Minerva! It looks like they're engaging the Gaia Sabers.. for now." Flay reports to the Terminal forces, and marks Lunamaria as a friendly for the time being. "I wonder if that means Shinn is out there fighting, too..." She comments, more to herself.
With all the marvels of mass-produced GN particle technology, Shiiko closes in faster than Flay was prepared for. The grappling hook doesn't look like much, especially when she's got Phase Shift Armour... but she's studied up on how the Witch of the One Year War fought when she was in training. She knows that's only the beginning of her dangerous Stigma Attack. And the Commander's reaction... well, that should be what she expected when she chose to act as a decoy to draw away the Gaia Sabers.
"How could I not! Can't you see how many people's lives you're risking with this?" Flay replies to her former Commander. "Aren't the Gaia Sabers supposed to keep order in the Earth Sphere? This is just.. total chaos!" She raises her shield in attempt to try to 'catch' Shiiko's grappling hook, before aiming its gatling barrel for her GN-X, and trying to aim a shot to follow up on Lunamaria's successful one.
"But if it's revenge you want... then I'm right here." A steady stream of bullets flies from the Gatling Shield, aiming to keep Shiiko's GN-X off-balance. Flay knows what it's like to live only for revenge. Is Commander Sugai that kind of person, too?
KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Lunamaria Hawke has posed.
Luna's shot lands a solid hit, thankfully, and she breathes a sigh of relief--before the hazard detectors warn her of the incoming beam shots. She's able to move her Spiked Shield mostly into the line of fire; but not quite fast enough.
Beam impacts sizzle against the bright red ZAKU's exposed arm. Unfortunate, but tolerable for now.
With the other GN-Xs occupied with the USSA forces, Luna sights in more thoroughly on the lead unit... and notices something. An emblem. "And Death Shall Have No Dominion..?" That seems... specific.
And to the intelligence officer in her, specific is identifiable.
Which means it's time to call Meyrin.
Brrring, brrrring...
Back on the Minerva's bridge, a window opens on Meyrin's console.
Communications
Outrange
Device
Connector
C.O.De.C. System v.15.3
A little portrait of Lunamaria's face appears on the right side of the window, with Meyrin's own facecam on the other. Both are a little flattened for M-Color transmission.
<<This is Meyrin! Big sis, what do you need?>>
<<Meyrin! I spotted this emblem on the lead GN-X!>>
An image of the witch drawn on the GN-X's shoulder appears in the center of Meyrin's screen--likewise warped by the M-Color broadcast, but the fine details are still... as recognizable as they would be at that resolution anyway.
<<I'll see what I can do. For the moment, be careful!>>
The call disconnects.
Back on the field, Luna has already sighted in the unidentified unit for another shot--or this time, a barrage of High-Energy Beams.
<<Alright, then... let's see how you like this!>>
KTS: Flay Allster targets Shiiko Sugai with 30mm 6-Barrel Gatling Gun Blitz! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke targets Shiiko Sugai with M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Covering Fire ! KTS: Shiiko Sugai engages guard against Lunamaria Hawke's M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Covering Fire ! KTS: Critical Hit! Shiiko Sugai poorly guards Lunamaria Hawke's M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Covering Fire , taking 4085 damage! KTS: Shiiko Sugai engages evade against Flay Allster's 30mm 6-Barrel Gatling Gun Blitz! KTS: Shiiko Sugai poorly reacts to Flay Allster's 30mm 6-Barrel Gatling Gun Blitz, taking 4324 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Rikka takes the time to play support rather than directly assault Deiwardas II, giving it a momentary reprieve -- which it, of course, intends to use to the fullest.
... granted, it's not much of a reprieve. The two other Gundams and Gridknight redouble their efforts here instead, now that they have lavish 3G telemetry data on a kaiju similar to this one.
It continues to stomp through the rainforest around it, repositioning slowly but surely. (One can only reposition so fast at this scale, after all.) Gridknight sweeps in with a vicious kick --
-- and Deiwardas disappears. It reappears roughly 180 meters to the side, leaving the kick to hit empty air. It lets out that eerie double-layered-then-many-layered cry again, leaving itself open for that omnidirectional assault from Lianne's bits. It's at this point that it begins its new assault in earnest, with the Mecha-Ghoulghilas head opening its mouth --
-- only to be shoved aside by Devadadan's head, which fires beams at both the Mu Gundam and Syken. Perhaps, even as these kaiju share fate, they don't seem to share agreement on what attacks when.
The creature teleports again, this time to Gridknight's side; it aims a claw at his upper body, swiping. Unlike the original design (if one can call this hideous amalgam a design), this one has weak back legs and practically drags itself along the ground; as a result, it's lightly destabilized simply by the act of swiping with one of those limbs at all.
As a result, it's not really in a position to hit the Freedom Gundam with fire from any head, as it rights itself. Yet again, it blinks out of existence in response to the whirling sabers headed for it -- but when it reappears to the side, it's still destabilized. Instead, thus, Kira gets the tentacles this time, those enormous yellow appendages attempting to swat the Freedom out of the sky heedless of the armor that will make it difficult for them to find purchase.
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Kira Yamato with Gonglee's Tentacles! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Knight with Instantaneous Claw! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Rikka Takarada with Devadadan's Beam! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Lianne Moren with Devadadan's Beam! KTS: Akane Shinjo's New Order activates Focus! KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Lianne Moren KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Kira Yamato KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Knight KTS: Lianne Moren engages evade against Akane Shinjo's Devadadan's Beam! KTS: Lianne Moren successfully reacts to Akane Shinjo's Devadadan's Beam, taking 3150 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato engages parry against Akane Shinjo's Gonglee's Tentacles! KTS: Kira Yamato's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Kira Yamato successfully reacts to Akane Shinjo's Gonglee's Tentacles, taking 700 damage! KTS: Rikka Takarada fails to engage evade against Akane Shinjo's Devadadan's Beam! KTS: Rikka Takarada successfully reacts to Akane Shinjo's Devadadan's Beam, taking 2800 damage! <Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
Sugai similarly spots the grey and red battleship, recognizing it as certainly not friendly. <<Formidable, we have a ZAFT ship crossing the battlefield, prepare to engage!>> She yells into her comms. She raises her shield to block Luna's beams as she attempts to evade Flay's gatling, using the swing of her grappling hook to move into Luna. Unfortunately, it just isn't the Witch's day as she takes both hits, the beam hitting her arm and the gatling being able to track her well. <<Don't you see what you're doing, Allster?! If Area 6 leaves Britannia, order will keep deteriorating! This is what it's like without the Saber's protection. We're the first and last line between order and chaos!>>
However, she still managed to make it in okay. Sugai engages the Strike E first, launching one of her trademarked Stigma Attacks, spinning around and getting her beam rifles in position. They point towards the Strike and fire, before immediately returning to the GN-X.
<<Red ZAKU! You think you can just take the Red Comet's colours, maybe that skill will rub off on you? Ha! You don't have a fraction of his skill!>> Sugai is a fair bit meaner here, wrapping around Luna's Zaku as Sugai reloads her rifles faster. She does one more circle to execute her next Stigma Attack. <<Try and handle this! Even the Red Comet couldn't dodge this one!>>
KTS: Shiiko Sugai targets Flay Allster with You Aren't The Chosen One!! KTS: Shiiko Sugai uses Hyper Reloader KTS: Shiiko Sugai has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shiiko Sugai targets Lunamaria Hawke with Even The Red Comet Couldn't Dodge This!! KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster fails to engage parry against Shiiko Sugai's You Aren't The Chosen One!! KTS: Critical Hit! Flay Allster poorly reacts to Shiiko Sugai's You Aren't The Chosen One!, taking 5720 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Shiiko Sugai's Newtype Killer activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Alert Spirit Command KTS: Lunamaria Hawke fails to engage Evade against Shiiko Sugai's Even The Red Comet Couldn't Dodge This!! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke successfully reacts to Shiiko Sugai's Even The Red Comet Couldn't Dodge This!, taking 4960 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Another blast and another warning alert. This time, though, Lianne sees it coming, and with that classic GN-Drive burst of horizontal motion manages to evade the worst of it. "That all you got!?" she says with a fierce smile - huh, that kinda just slipped out. She shakes her head and shakes away the headache. Adrenaline highs must have had a weird effect on her. Can't be losing it now, especially not seeing that weakness of the enemy, the way it became so destabilized as it moved.
Lianne dashed forwards, beam daggers deploying from the Syken's hands. "Hey, other Gundam, let's try that one again! I'll try and set it up and you can try and take it down, yeah?" she calls through her comms, before launching a sequence of attacks meant to push the monster off balance and stop it from evading a follow through.
KTS: Lianne Moren has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Kira Yamato KTS: Lianne Moren has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Knight engages guard against Akane Shinjo's Instantaneous Claw! KTS: Best Defense! Knight successfully guards Akane Shinjo's Instantaneous Claw, taking 3075 damage! KTS: Lianne Moren has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Kira Yamato KTS: Lianne Moren targets Akane Shinjo with Break!
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
Gridknight crashes into the ground as Deiwardas II disappears in a haze.
"Ghk-?" Knight impacts, leaving a crater in the dirt and toppled trees.
"Anomalous properties. . . Anosilius! I need more information!" Just as Knight is regaining their balance, the kaiju teleports again, swiping at the giant with a claw. Knight only has enough time to cross their arms in front of them in a defensive position, minimizing the damage but pushing them back. Their massive legs squelch against the wet ground, sinking into it a little.
"This terrain is a nuisance!" Knight barks. "Can you summon it?"
"Not currently!" Second responds from the ground. Knight snarls in response.
"Fine, then how about this!?" Gridknight puts one arm out and draws a circle, a whirling energy buzzsaw forming out of thin air.
"Gridknight Circular!"
KTS: Knight targets Akane Shinjo with Knight Circular Straight!
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
Rikka sees the way Knight falters when she thanks him. ...Was that her fault? Should she have even said anything...? For a moment, she falters, and that's enough time for her to lose track of Deiwardas II as it teleports to avoid Knight's kick. The sight of such a large thing being there one second and then gone the next forces her to snap back to reality.
"It vanished... Be careful, it might still be nearby." Rikka warns. It begins to attack, Mecha-Ghoulghilas head opening its mouth - something that always gives her pause, from how devastating the original always had been in her fights with it - but Devadadan's head shoves it aside and fires a beam. Despite her earlier distraction, this action is enough time for her to try to dodge out of the way. The beam sears into the Mu Gundam's armor, causing it to recoil back as it fails to avoid a direct hit - but it's enough to avoid damage to critical systems.
"They're all a part of the same body, but... those heads aren't cooperating. They're not a cohesive whole..." Rikka considers. What would Akane say about this, if she saw it...? She knows she'd have opinions about seeing her kaiju shoved together like this... She thinks hard, trying to channel her for a moment. Even if it hurts to think about her. "Whoever created this, they didn't think about how they'd act as living creatures, just... what they can do in a fight. We might be able to use that."
"...Right, Akane...?" She whispers the last bit to herself. She considers Deiwardas again - and charges. She's already seen that it can be distracted so she rushes it down, now. She focuses on movement, accelerating past it to draw the attention of its heads, then double around it. And then she goes over -
And trusting in her instincts she rushes in, defense rod at the ready. Electricity courses through it and she lashes out. And if it tries to teleport - she can predict that, too.
KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Akane Shinjo with Foresight! KTS: Akane Shinjo engages guard against Lianne Moren's Break! KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully guards Lianne Moren's Break, taking 3750 damage! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to engage evade against Knight's Knight Circular Straight! KTS: Critical Hit! Akane Shinjo poorly reacts to Knight's Knight Circular Straight, taking 5500 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Knight's The Results of My Training activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Knight's Unwavering activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Akane Shinjo engages charge against Rikka Takarada's Foresight! KTS: Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Rikka Takarada's Foresight, taking 4136 damage! <Pose Tracker> Kira Yamato has posed.
Kira's swords come down a little too slow to account for the monster's strange movement - but his instincts serve him well as the Freedom's wrists twist into a spin, batting away tentacles that slap against his Phase Shift Armor without much effect. Keeping it tied up like this has limited the amount of destruction it's been unable to unleash, but every crossfire is a long list of variables he can't control. He feels the tension rise, the eagerness to drive forward and use all of his strength here and now--
The comms beep. He takes the chance to take a breath. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Mr. Waltfield's said it once. It's working. The kaiju is flailing, losing control of the situation - so just keep it up and bring it down. "I hear you. I'll be right behind you. We can do this!"
He watches the other Gundam go in, locking in his follow-up maneuvers. The blades buzz in his hands again as he charges in behind. His swipes batter through the tentacles as he drives in towards the core of the monster - doing his best to keep his eyes forward, and not on the chaos behind him. Flay's strong enough to handle this.
KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kira Yamato targets Akane Shinjo with Dual Saber Assault! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Kira Yamato's Dual Saber Assault! KTS: Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Kira Yamato's Dual Saber Assault, taking 4680 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lunamaria Hawke has posed.
Luna breathes a sigh of relief as her bombardment successfully repels the oddly-painted GN-X. There's something on that unit's arm, but she's not sure what... And for the moment, she has other concerns. She repositions herself, jumping across to a slightly less dilapidated building and sliding down its side. "Alright, let's see how--hm?"
Brrring, brrring...
<<This is Meyrin! Big sis, we've got trouble! That's the personal marking of Shiiko Sugai!>>
<<Shiiko Sugai?>>
<<Don't you remember her, Big Sis? She was in all the textbooks at the academy! They say that she was a Super Unicum during the one year war--One of the only ones the Federation produced!>>
Luna's face adopts an expression of vague perplexment.
<<Ehhh? Super Unicum?>>
<<A Super Ace Pilot, with over one hundred confirmed kills! They called her the 'Witch'! You've got to watch out, Big Sis--she could strike at any moment! Abby says her 'Stigma' technique is still a mystery to this day...>>
Luna frowns. This was bad news for her---A proximity warning!
Luna turns her attention back to her immediate surroundings just in time to hear Shiiko's taunt. <<I just think Red's a nice color! And it's totally a different red, anyway! His was more--Gyaaaah!>>
An impact alert. But no shot--she's coming around the side! Even a GN-X shouldn't be able to move like--
Luna diverts full power to the thrusters, desperately trying to get out of the way--and manages to save herself from what might've been intended as a direct cockpit strike. Unfortunately, other parts of her ZAKU weren't so lucky--the bottom half of her spike shield is gone entirely, and her left arm has lost a significant proportion of its range of motion. And that nice red paint is totally ruined.
But the Witch was close now--and her shield still had its spikes. Luna charges up her thrusters, leaping into the air shoulder-first and charging directly towards Shiiko--<<Why, yoooou..!>>
KTS: Lunamaria Hawke targets Shiiko Sugai with Spiked Shoulder Shield Pummel! KTS: Shiiko Sugai engages parry against Lunamaria Hawke's Spiked Shoulder Shield Pummel! KTS: Critical Hit! Shiiko Sugai poorly reacts to Lunamaria Hawke's Spiked Shoulder Shield Pummel, taking 5100 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Despite Flay's arguments, Shiiko is a true believer in the cause - and she has the skills to back it up. Even as both her gatling cannon and the ZAKU's beam cannon each make their mark, it doesn't force her back one bit. Flay knows what's coming next, as the GN beam rifles dance around the Strike. Unfortunately, knowing about it doesn't mean much. The rifles are now far too close to evade in any meaningful way, and the Phase Shift Armour won't do anything to protect her from beam weapons. It's no wonder she managed to rack up so many kills with this technique in the One Year War...
"I know what you're saying...!" Flay calls back, igniting one of her beam boomerangs, in a desperate attempt to cut the rifles from their tethers before they can fire. "I justified myself with the exact same words on every single mission with the Gaia Sabers." Her defense comes far too late, the crimson beams of the GN rifle searing the Strike E's armour, close enough to nearly overheat the machine... "How could it not feel that way, with every single thing this world takes away from us?" She admits, wondering if this is the shot that will be enough to kill her.
Perhaps Flay can count herself lucky that she isn't the only target Shiiko has to fire at, as those beam rifle tethers redirect themselves for an even more impressive strike on Lunamaria's ZAKU. She decides to take advantage of the moment to reposition herself, but the entire world just feels so heavy around her. Every massive step that kaiju takes reminds her of Heliopolis's ground structure caving in on itself. Every beam firing reminds her of the ship her father was on splitting and exploding. And reminding herself Kira is out there fighting desperately against that kaiju, too...
"But the world you're talking about... just isn't the world I want to live in. And... it isn't the future I want to protect!" She reasserts herself, drawing one of the IWSP's anti-ship swords. The only way she's going to get around another Stigma Attack is if she closes the distance even more... so she charges in with the blade, trying to overwhelm the Witch in combination with Lunamaria's own melee attack.
KTS: Flay Allster's SEED Factor activates! KTS: Flay Allster targets Shiiko Sugai with 9.1m Anti-Ship Sword Cleave! KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Flay Allster <Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Once, long ago, Akane Shinjo told Guy Shishioh that if she didn't care about aesthetics and just wanted to win, she'd shove everything she had together and just huck it at Orbit Base. Fortunately, she does care about aesthetics.
One wonders what it says, then, that both Alexis Kerib and Alteur Steinbeck have taken her kaiju to do exactly that.
The kaiju finally manages to right itself in earnest, just in time for the GN-powered Gundam to come in with its beam weapons and rip into it. It doesn't quite fully destabilize -- it is very much larger than the Gundam -- but it does arrest its movement.
The assailants begin to descend on it before it can get itself back together, and it seems it's worn out its capacity to teleport for the moment because the Circular takes a vicious gouge out of it, revealing a hideous mix of wire-and-hollow cognitive kaiju innards and very real, very meat Skydon insides. Rikka follows up in the same area, beating that hole wider still with her defense rod, finally starting to find some real purchase within Deiwardas II's guts. The kaiju is definitely starting to sag, at this point -- though that isn't going to stop it from continuing to fight. What are a few holes in such a massive entity?
The Freedom Gundam pushes in toward the core in melee, making it deceptively hard to react to and to hit. When something is this big, all it can really do when you're this close is flail its body around as you make cut after cut after cut.
Flail it does, though. It's the head that whips toward Kira Yamato eventually; the oversized Skydon's jaws attempt to seize the Gundam and bite down. (Were this the same as the original model, the jaws would have been a hybrid of Diriver's head and Gonglee's lower jaw -- but in this moment, it's simply Skydon's.)
The Mecha-Ghoulghilas head whirls around, knocking the other heads around for long enough to let it get its hits in; the mouth opens again, and this time, Rikka's worries about the heat ray are validated -- it sweeps it across everyone present, trying to make some difficult...
...
...
...headway.
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Kira Yamato with Diriver's Jaws! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Rikka Takarada with Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Lianne Moren with Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray! KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Knight with Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray! KTS: Akane Shinjo's New Order activates Focus! KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Flay Allster KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Kira Yamato KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Lianne Moren KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Lianne Moren KTS: Shiiko Sugai has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Knight KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Kira Yamato KTS: Rikka Takarada engages block against Akane Shinjo's Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray! KTS: Best Defense! Rikka Takarada successfully blocks Akane Shinjo's Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray, taking 3050 damage! KTS: Knight engages evade against Akane Shinjo's Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray! KTS: Best Defense! Knight moderately reacts to Akane Shinjo's Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray, taking 0 damage! KTS: Shiiko Sugai engages evade against Flay Allster's 9.1m Anti-Ship Sword Cleave! KTS: Shiiko Sugai poorly reacts to Flay Allster's 9.1m Anti-Ship Sword Cleave, taking 5400 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato engages evade against Akane Shinjo's Diriver's Jaws! KTS: Kira Yamato's Physical Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Kira Yamato moderately reacts to Akane Shinjo's Diriver's Jaws, taking 0 damage! KTS: Lianne Moren fails to engage Guard against Akane Shinjo's Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray! KTS: Lianne Moren successfully reacts to Akane Shinjo's Mecha-Ghoulghilas's Heat Ray, taking 4880 damage! KTS: Akane Shinjo rattles Lianne Moren, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Focus Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
"What the - organic? Are you seeing this?" Knight asks their partner.
"I'm seeing it! I don't know what this thing is, but there might actually be something of it left over that we can study," Second responds.
The kaiju winds up a heat ray, and Knight tenses again. In another flash, he vanishes, reappearing in midair with hands out.
"Calibur," Knight says. Red lightning dances between their fingertips, and a gleaming red blade appears in between. Grasping the handle, Knight turns it upside down and drives it downwards onto the kaiju.
KTS: Knight targets Akane Shinjo with Calibur Heavy Slash! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to engage guard against Knight's Calibur Heavy Slash! KTS: [Mirage] Akane Shinjo's Discarded Kaiju's Instant Movement activates, and she slips into a mirage. KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Knight's Calibur Heavy Slash, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kira Yamato has posed.
Kira sees the massive jaws swing down, reinforcing the massive size difference between this beast and a mobile suit. Freedom's hands come up, driving the sabers together into their halberd formation, creating a wall between it and the lunging kaiju. Thrusters spark and it jets up, twisting with grace uncharacteristic for a Mobile Suit as it hovers into Deiwardas's sightlines. Hanging there, eyes locked with one of its many quarrelsome heads, the entire frame of the Gundam glows in the backlight of five crackling barrels. Inside the cockpit, firing systems designed for mass engagement are adjusted on the fly to slice the monster into pieces, categorizing its weakest structural points as Kira pivots over the beast, each lock-on chirping as it finds its home on an overstressed joint.
"I have it! Pin it down, one more time!"
Beams rake the ground as he hammers down on the kaiju, pushing the machine's output to its limit.
KTS: Kira Yamato targets Akane Shinjo with Full Burst Mode! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Kira Yamato's Full Burst Mode! KTS: Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Kira Yamato's Full Burst Mode, taking 5280 damage! KTS: Kira Yamato roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
Sugai lights up as both of her techniques hit their mark! She attempts to counter the charging ZAKU, but is far too slow and results in taking critical damage, the suit cracking underneath the pressure, leaving a bad impression in her lighter armour. Damnit! She can't keep taking bad hits like this! She attempts to leverage her speed as Flay arrives to grant a devastating slash. But she just isn't fast enough, the slice cuts through her legs clean through. They fall to the ground below. For a moment, Shiiko is reminded of her son. Of that beautiful night sky when her life ended.
<<Damn it!>> Sugai smacks her console with both hands as her cockpit lights start to blare red. She's getting backed into a corner. She can still dash away, planting another rifle for the ZAKU. She then prepares her machine for her all-or-nothing attacks. <<Like I care, ZAKU! This isn't your fight. You should've ran while you had the chance!>> The rifle fires behind her as Shiiko grabs herself onto the Strike E now.
If the Witch is lucky, (which she hasn't been), she might be able to get one down at least. And who better than Allster? <<You aren't the Chosen One, Allster!>> Sugai rounds the Strike E <<The world needs the Sabers! Otherwise people will keep dying. Another tragedy, another event that makes Earth a little worse from yesterday. We need to be united! We need a tomorrow! For the sake of our children, the next generation!>> She dashes, again, and again. Her rifles pointed at the Strike, her saber ready to tear a hole right into it. <<You're naive! It's us or another colony drop!>>
KTS: Lianne Moren has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Lianne Moren has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shiiko Sugai uses install KTS: Lianne Moren has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shiiko Sugai has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shiiko Sugai targets Lunamaria Hawke with Die For Me... Newtype!!! KTS: Shiiko Sugai targets Flay Allster with Even The Red Comet Couldn't Dodge This!! KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Flay Allster engages charge against Shiiko Sugai's Even The Red Comet Couldn't Dodge This!! KTS: Flay Allster poorly reacts to Shiiko Sugai's Even The Red Comet Couldn't Dodge This!, taking 6200 damage! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke fails to engage Charge against Shiiko Sugai's Die For Me... Newtype!!! KTS: Lunamaria Hawke successfully reacts to Shiiko Sugai's Die For Me... Newtype!!, taking 5220 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Okay, maybe now it's getting rough. Lianne tries to brace against the heat ray, and manages to somewhat mitigate the damage, but warning lights are flickering on across the cockpit as the Syken stumbles - a crater had melted in the concrete and asphalt around it's feet. . This little...! Or, big, but still- Ow ow...
[Hahahahaha! You know, I kinda like when it puts up a fight!] The voice in Lianne's mind cackles. She winces sharply with a headache.
The Syken points towards the kaiju like a martial giving the order to attack, and it's bits respond like good little soldiers, aggressively buzzing about the beast and trying to bring the kaiju down to it's knees (literal or proverbial) to give the others an opportunity for a decisive strike.
KTS: Lianne Moren targets Akane Shinjo with Omni-directional Assault! KTS: Akane Shinjo engages charge against Lianne Moren's Omni-directional Assault! KTS: [Mirage] Akane Shinjo's Discarded Kaiju's Instant Movement activates, and she slips into a mirage. KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Lianne Moren's Omni-directional Assault, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
The kaiju they're fighting is a lot more... meaty, than Rikka expected, and it almost causes her to recoil back. She's more used to the exposed wires and hollow interiors, and there's certainly some of that, but... it speaks to what kind of creature this is.
It doesn't stop her from fighting it.
"She'd hate this." Rikka mutters to herself.
But it's flailing. They're making progress on it, even if it's giving as good as it gets. They just have to push forward, so she won't have to look at... this anymore.
The Mecha-Ghoulghilas head whirls around, sweeping a heat ray out across them.
"Watch out!" Rikka calls out. She readies her shield, bracing herself. The ray burns - but the Mu Gundam's shield takes the brunt of it. It heats up red-hot, but not enough that she has to discard it.
"Funnels!" Rikka calls out. The Red Umbrella's funnels disperse again. They dart to and fro, but rather than distracting, they're getting into position. She directs them all, trying to cut off its angles of escape. "...Now!"
The funnels act as one - firing beams in tandem with the each other across and within Deiwardas. There's a lot of kaiju to cover - but she'll trust the others to handle the rest.
KTS: Rikka Takarada uses Lucky Charm KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Akane Shinjo with Together as One! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Rikka Takarada's Together as One! KTS: Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Rikka Takarada's Together as One, taking 4640 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lunamaria Hawke has posed.
<<Shut up! Your ship stole our Gundams first!>>
Lunamaria's Zaku starts to fire its thrusters again before it even hits the ground, jumping off of the slope of a ruined building to fly back towards Shiiko.
The M1500 swings back under the Red ZAKU's arm, folding out and pointing towards the GN-X. <<And the Chairman wants those back! We want them back!>>
The remains of her shield are placed forwards, absorbing some of Shiiko's beams--the rest of which Luna shrugs off. Vino and Yolan's problem, provided she can avoid losing anything she needs to keep moving.
<<So why don't you surrender Bogey One, and STAND DOWN?>>
The Orthos' barrel (ideally) makes contact with the GN-X's drive.. and then Luna fires.
KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Lunamaria Hawke targets Shiiko Sugai with M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Point-Blank Blast! KTS: Shiiko Sugai has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Shiiko Sugai engages parry against Lunamaria Hawke's M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Point-Blank Blast! KTS: Shiiko Sugai moderately reacts to Lunamaria Hawke's M1500 'Orthros' High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon Point-Blank Blast, taking 3639 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The kaiju has started to gain its capacity for teleportation back -- as Knight learns firsthand when the creature disappears into thin air one moment and reappears nearer to the Mu Gundam than Gridknight the next. It's clearly starting to reach a level of desperation that it didn't have before, willing to exhaust itself doing this -- as the Syken comes in again, it yet again disappears.
Unfortunately, wearing itself out means it's a sitting duck when Kira and Rikka come in for it. Kira's multi-lock finds purchase, identifying weak joints and spots invulnerable to beam fire, avoiding the latter and hammering into the former. It tries to defend itself with Devadadan's head, but even that gesture proves futile -- it means that it's not ready for Rikka's funnel fire, taking it directly beneath its many, many necks.
The creature sags. It's almost down -- there's no two ways about that. The best it can hope for is to try to take at least some of its opposition with it, as futile as that may be. It lets out a primal screech, and one by one, every head readies itself. Maws open; eyes align; throats disgorge heat-ray cannons.
Everything goes off all at once. There's a massive spray, barely heedful of much of anything; even some of the Gaia Sabers ground forces find themselves subject to the assault, let alone intended targets like the USSA and -- of course -- the Gundam-types and Gridknight who are actually fighting the beast in question.
'''''''''''''''
Alteur nods to himself. This is a good, successful first test; what had initially been a chance capture in a tense situation has more than paid off in terms of the Gaia Sabers' force capacity. Even without some of the kaiju from their records that he could have hoped for access to, this is a more-than-successful test drive.
He starts to move to depart. Doubtless by the time he's in the air, the kaiju's work will have finished.
KTS: Akane Shinjo targets Rikka Takarada, Lianne Moren, Knight, and Kira Yamato with Many-Headed Blast! KTS: Akane Shinjo's New Order activates Focus! KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Rikka Takarada has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Lianne Moren KTS: Lunamaria Hawke has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Lianne Moren <Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
The Strike E managed to get a good hit in with the anti-ship sword, sending Shiiko's GN-X on a retreat. Flay allows herself a short sigh of relief, wondering if that means it's finally over - and wondering how things are going against the kaiju. She's only given that single moment of respite, because even still, Shiiko fights like every battle could be her last - that sensation of a grappling wire latching onto Phase Shift Armour returning.
And both her Strike and the ZAKU get everything Shiiko's GN-X has left, and once again, the Strike E can offer little defense against a Stigma Attack. So instead, Flay leverages that lack of defense into offense, using the IWSP's impressive thrusters to charge forward and fire her own beam rifle, even as Shiiko is firing hers. "I know! I'm just one person!" She shouts, even as the Stigma Attack tears through the Strike - dealing significant damage to the Striker Pack in particular due to her positioning. "There's no such thing as a chosen one... not when our lives are this fragile." The Strike continues moving forward, even when the beam saber cores through the last thruster of the IWSP.
She finds herself struggling with Shiiko's words just as such as she is with her mobile suit - and she can barely keep fighting at this rate, anyway. "How is this going to bring unity? It's like Heliopolis and Orb all over again... all you're doing is taking away people's homes and families." A quiet anger sets in, as her failing cameras zoom in on the tri-colour GN-X. "It's the same thing over and over... again and again!!" Her argument begins to lose its coherence a bit, as a familiar haze sets in... her pupils dilating into that perfect focus. The Strike E, heavily damaged and now without a Striker Pack, dashes for the GN-X, to take one last shot with its beam rifle.
KTS: Flay Allster targets Shiiko Sugai with Strike High-Mobility Attack! KTS: Knight engages evade against Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast! KTS: Critical Hit! Knight poorly reacts to Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast, taking 7950 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Stimulation activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Akane Shinjo roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Rikka Takarada fails to engage evade against Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast! KTS: Rikka Takarada poorly reacts to Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast, taking 8025 damage! KTS: Akane Shinjo roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Lianne Moren engages evade against Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast! KTS: Critical Hit! Lianne Moren poorly reacts to Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast, taking 9225 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Stimulation activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Lianne Moren has been defeated! KTS: Akane Shinjo roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Shiiko Sugai has activated the Accel Spirit Command and and has gained Terrain bonus! KTS: Shiiko Sugai fails to engage evade against Flay Allster's Strike High-Mobility Attack! KTS: Flay Allster enervates Shiiko Sugai, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Critical Hit! Shiiko Sugai poorly reacts to Flay Allster's Strike High-Mobility Attack, taking 6960 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Flay Allster's Fight Until You Die activates, causing Deject! KTS: Shiiko Sugai has been defeated! KTS: Kira Yamato engages guard against Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast! KTS: Critical Hit! Kira Yamato poorly guards Akane Shinjo's Many-Headed Blast, taking 7725 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Akane Shinjo's Stimulation activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Akane Shinjo roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
The kaiju disappears in front of Knight just as he's about to strike again, and he growls as his sword implants in the muck.
"Damn thing!" The group's attacks strike the kaiju though, and it appears far more weakened.
"It's almost down! Knight, finish it!"
"I know!"
Knight hefts the Calibur again, but before he can do so, it blasts a massive spray of beams. Knight tries to dodge and fails badly, being bowled over by the assault.
"Ngh. . ." The Hyper Agent's timer begins to pulse.
"Knight, are you okay?" Second asks.
"I'm fine! I'm gonna finish this thing now!"
Knight grabs his sword once more and fires his rear thrusters, rocketing into the air. He brings the blade up over his head as it crackles with energy.
"KNIGHT- CALIBUR- END!!"
KTS: Knight has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Knight targets Akane Shinjo with Knight Calibur End! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Knight's Knight Calibur End! KTS: Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Knight's Knight Calibur End, taking 6930 damage! KTS: Knight roots their unit, coming to a standstill and leaving them vulnerable. <Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
The kaiju is weakened - they can see that. But... right now, when it's threatened, is also when they're often at its most dangerous. Rikka hears that screech, sees those heads get ready.
"Incoming! Brace yourselves!" Rikka calls out. Heat rays erupt from Deiwardas II, and the air itself is filled with beams. Rikka does her best to try and dodge - but she can't dodge them all. Eventually, she's caught. The Mu Gundam goes tumbling, opening itself to further beams, and then it's sent crashing to the ground. It's still for a moment... and then, hauls itself up.
"Is everyone alright!?" Rikka calls out sharply, a bit more fear in her voice than normal. Except for Gridknight most of them might be strangers to her, but that doesn't mean she wants them to...
She arrests her train of thought, and then jumps up. The Mu Gundam's flight system sputters for a moment but kicks back on shortly.
"It must be low on energy after that... We need to finish this before it gets its second wind." She says.
The Mu Gundam's on its last legs too, though... She grits her teeth.
"Come on... you're still there, aren't you? One last push..." She murmurs. The dispersed funnels shake... and then, pick themselves up off the ground. It's hard to focus now, and that reflects in the way they move. She went into this tired and angry, but even that well feels close to empty now.
She directs them forward. This time, the funnels don't disperse. They fixate on a single point, circling around the Mu Gundam in mid-air before unleashing a burst of concentrated fire onto Deiwardas II.
KTS: Rikka Takarada targets Akane Shinjo with Concentrated Fire!
<Pose Tracker> Shiiko Sugai has posed.
<<What? What are you talking about?>> Sugai is at least able to shift in time for the hit to not so critically hit her GN Tao Drive straight on. Her confusion is resolved with a quick connection. Thank that Newtype brain of hers. She heard about Phantom Pain's 'prize' last time she was at base. <<You got the wrong ship! Do you see any of your Gundam's deployed?! No!>> She spins and rounds the ZAKU for another strike. <<This isn't your fight, ZAKU! How about you stand down?!>> She's running out of energy fast. She needs to make this count with her second to last Stigma Attack pointed at Lunamaria.
<<Do you think I enjoy this, Allster?! Killing, and killing again? I do this so people may live! It's not my fault they don't understand this is the only way...!>> Shiiko gets a bit shrill, but it's too late. Her swing made herself predictable. The GN-X takes a solid beam to its arm, completely shattering it. The force and direction Shiiko was already going made it too late for her to adjust and she's sent spinning out of control, her rifles harmlessly missing.<<No! No! I was so close!>> The Kaiju starts sputter out as well it seems..
There's nothing to it anymore. The Formidable off in the distance pops flares. Red. Blue. Green. <<We've taken enough punishment. All Sabers, RTB.>>
Sugai, no. Shiiko feels like she's about to cry. Another state breaks away and the unity she fights for so dearly slips a little further away. Even then, she has a responsibility to her men. She goes in low to the ground. <<Sabers, follow me! We're making it out of here! Avoid that damned Kaiju as we retreat.>> With that, her GN-X complement disengage and return to base, defeated. Damn Allster. Damn that Zaku. Damn every last solider who keeps Earth from being united.
KTS: Shiiko Sugai's NX-603T GN-X (Custom) has been disabled. KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Rikka Takarada's Concentrated Fire! KTS: Akane Shinjo moderately reacts to Rikka Takarada's Concentrated Fire, taking 4860 damage! <Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Lianne cries out as her mech is viciously scoured by the rays of energy, the mech physically knocked back and into a building by it. It takes her a minute to get up, and there's red blinking lights everywhere in the cockpit. Luckily the mech can still move fine... but she can't spare any more GN particles for her weapons if she wants to be able to make it back.
"Heck of a first deployment... I can't fight anymore, I'm sorry!" She reports to the others who were on comms, taking her damaged mech and putting some distance between herself and the kaiju before it decides to finish her off.
KTS: Lianne Moren's GNY-005 Gundam Syken has been disabled. <Pose Tracker> Kira Yamato has posed.
Kira snaps his shield up, but his position is exposed like this, and the Freedom's shield arm rattles as beams wash over it, the coating stripping away in layers as the Gundam's front is scorched. Still, he has the presence of mind to notice the flicker of the other Gundam's IFF, and he tilts the Freedom towards it, hoping to create enough of a barrier to prevent catastrophe - all the while, couching the Freedom's beam rifle behind the battered slab of its shield, nearly fused to the arm plating. It can't be allowed to let off another blast like that. With so much of its outer shell scraped away, the internals are exposed... rather than risk forcing a full charge through the systems, a single well-placed shot is the safest option. This is the moment!
KTS: Kira Yamato has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kira Yamato targets Akane Shinjo with 'Lupus' Beam Rifle - Aimed Shot! KTS: Akane Shinjo fails to react to Kira Yamato's 'Lupus' Beam Rifle - Aimed Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Akane Shinjo successfully reacts to Kira Yamato's 'Lupus' Beam Rifle - Aimed Shot, taking 3675 damage! KTS: Akane Shinjo has been defeated! <Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Everything begins to circle around Deiwardas II; while it manages to find solid purchase against the Gundam with the GN Drive... that still leaves three more opponents, all of whom seem to have its number. The Mu and Freedom loop in from opposite sides of the monster, finding a firing solution; the concentrated blast gets straight to the heart of the matter, while Freedom's beam rifle seems to execute the same idea from the other side. It finds no escape route to the left or right --
-- which means, of course, that the center is where it's assaulted in earnest, Knight bringing the Gridknight Calibur down on its body. He cleaves the whole way through the monster, dragging the sword through -- and of course, like any good kaiju under sufficient assault, it explodes.
Many of the heads fall as cognitive kaiju trash, all wireframe and empty pieces; the Skydon section, however, very much leaves a (very large) Skydon's expected worth of bone and meat and tissue. ... It'll be a lengthy cleanup job, to say the least.
'''''''''''
Alteur watches from the sky. Insufficient performance, but it's shaken several hornet's nests. Satisfying in that sense, if nothing else. Besides -- who knows what he'll be able to extract from the OCU, SAL, or Orb as assurances that they're not advancing the interests of a revolution within Britannian borders.
KTS: Akane Shinjo's Deiwardas has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Flay can't even argue with Shiiko. She understands exactly why the Gaia Sabers might feel force is the only remaining away, after all the absurd wars that took away so much of the Earth Sphere. All the same, she can't stop firing her own rifle until the e-cap is finally empty, scoring a hit on the GN-X's arm. By now, she still prepares herself for her next attack, trying desperately to make sense of what the head cameras are showing her. "Where...?!" But...
It never comes, and it takes a precious few moments to process the Formidable's signal flare. Soon after that focus slows, and wanes... until the only thing Flay can feel is just how heavy her breathing is, the adrenaline rush disappearing. Why couldn't Commander Sugai have just listened to her? Surely even she can see that letting a kaiju run rampant is way too far? ...It's way too late now. The Formidable is gone, but she played her role well enough in ensuring the Gaia Sabers and the kaiju couldn't put up a united front.
As the Strike E moves to exit the battlefield, Flay flips her radio back on, once the static of the GN Particles begins to clear. "...Kira, the Gaia Sabers are retreating. The Minerva are probably on their way out, too... how are things going against the kaiju?" After that, she opens her cockpit and falls silent, just taking in the full extent of the damage that kaiju, and the battle as a whole, caused to the city. The kaiju's rampage was bad enough, but Flay can only wonder if Shiiko was right that their intervention only made the fight more chaotic.
<Pose Tracker> Lunamaria Hawke has posed.
One of the aforementioned hornets, Luna trains her High-Energy Beam Cannon on the retreating Witch... but folds it after a moment, shaking her head inside the cockpit.
The Minerva passes back over the Horizon, Impulse and White ZAKU Phantom on the flight deck.
A call comes in--No C.O.De.C. this time, the Minovsky Particles are dispersing again.
<<This is Meyrin... That w.. wasn't... Bogey One...>>
The Minerva fires its own Retreat Flares, and Luna turns to jump back onto it.
<<...Sorry, Big Sis... you can come on back...>>
Reaching the Minerva's deck, the red ZAKU turns about to survey the field. To see the other MS that had been fighting the witch... the Strike-type. And the Freedom over by the remains of the Kaiju...
<<...Meyrin. Were we told the Freedom was active again?>>
She sighs, tugging off her helmet as the elevator lowers her into the hangar bay. Her ahoge springs free.
<<...Shinn's not gonna be happy about this...>>
<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.
It's a difficult fight... but finally, the kaiju is down. Rikka exhales. And now, all that's left is the kaiju's remains...
...Rikka looks away sharply. She doesn't want to think about that right now.
"Thanks for your help, everyone. This could have been a lot worse." Rikka says. She tries to keep the shakiness out of her voice. She doesn't quite succeed.
"Gridknight, I..." Rikka starts. ...She doesn't quite know what to say. "...You still have my number, if..."
She trails off.
"...I'm heading out. If anyone needs a hand getting out, let me know." Rikka says. The Mu Gundam begins to fly off, steadfastly refusing to look at what remains of Deiwardas's Skydon section.
<Pose Tracker> Kira Yamato has posed.
"Flay," groans Kira, the embarrassment clear in his voice, "It was pretty rough, but we all pulled through. They're not gonna be thrilled when I bring the Freedom back, though. I think I'm a little out of practice..."
A tired grin touches his face under the shade of his visor. There'll be more difficulty to come... but there will be people who show up to make things right, too.
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Lianne sighs as the fight finally winds down and she is not in fact blown up. She slumps into her seat, letting the Syken hover some distance from the battlefield in that ethereal way GN Drive mechs do. She taps the comm on again. "Sorry I had to bug out near the end there. Thanks for finishing the job." She kinda wants to introduce herself, but it had been hammered in that she shouldn't - Satellicon is an illegal organization, after all. The gundam darts away, soon fading to a green sparkle in the distance.
<Pose Tracker> Knight has posed.
Deiwardas II flops to the ground as a limp piece of meat, and Knight stands triumphant.
"Rikka Takarada . . ." Knight doesn't say much else in response to her. What is there to say? The giant watches the Mu Gundam fly off.
Gridknight's timer flashes, and he disappears, landing in the rainforest - and getting his suit rather dirty. Second walks up as she stares at the corpse.
"Well, it'll probably be a bit until any security teams get here. I'll take a sample."
"You do that."
The two Hyper Agents have completed their work for the day.