View source for 2022-03-04: Badguy's Festival 01: Goodnight, Knightpolice

*'''Log: 2022-03-05 Badguy's Festival 01: Goodnight, Knightpolice'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Emilia Eschonbach]], [[Character :: Hathaway Noa]], [[Character :: Suzaku Kururugi]], [[Character :: Karma Sato]], [[Character :: C.C.]], [[Character :: Orpheus Zevon]], [[Character :: Kallen Kozuki]], [[Character :: Sophia Mayhew Castellan]]
*'''Where: Naka Ghetto, Area 11''' 
*'''OOC - IC Date: 4 March 2022 (0096)'''
*'''Summary''': ''Big waves are created by small waves - and it's with this saying that Mafty Erin proposes to the Black Knights they start by dismantling the enemy's lowest level apparatus for enacting their will in the Areas they make their haunts''

 <Pose Tracker> Hathaway Noa has posed.
<poem>
    Big waves are made from small waves.

That was the advice that Mafty Erin had provided not long ago to Jude Espella, as a response to her eager enthusiasm for enacting change. It was something he wholeheartedly believed in, after all - not every operation was going to shake out to be a Day of Dakar. No, to maximize the efficacy of their movement, they had to build momentum, and that would only be done by starting with something they could realistically achieve. Testing out the waters of the combined military capacity of the Black Knights and the AEFM together had yielded results that were ultimately, still just not favorable enough.

Even with so many of the anti-earth federation organizations banding together as they had, they couldn't best the overwhelming logistical support and firepower of a soverign power such as the Britannian Union. Hence, a change in overall strategy that both Mafty and Zero had agreed upon after a series of strategy meetings.

"To begin undermining their position, we must first dismantle the lowest levels of their apparatus'; the organizations through which they exert their authority. While one of our previous operations to target their supply line had been a shaky success, the Knightpolice have continued operating with impunity within the Naka Ghetto and because of that, our movement is being greatly constrained."

    "To put it a second way..."

"The objective of tonight's raid is to annihilate their headquarters. Despite calling themselves a police force, it is effectively a staging ground for Britannia's military arm should it be necessary - by eliminating their brass and setting off demolitions at the precinct and motor pool, it will become impossible for the government to enforce any kind of action inside the ghetto, as far as actual work on the ground goes."

"All of our recent operations have been close shaves, and our revised strategy will work to mitigate that. This operation will be carried within five minutes or less, at which point we will scatter to our designated extraction points."

This debriefing occured about an hour ago over the secure channels shared by Karaba, AEFM MAFTY, and the Black Knights.

The time was midnight, and the moon hung high in the sky as a gently waxed crescent. Most of the citizenry at this hour, wouldn't be caught up in their battle - at least, Hathaway hoped that would be so. "Mission start." he declares, and the tractor trailer that had been dragging his concealed Messer allows it to unfurl. Raising its finger to the sky after it stands and takes cover behind a busted in high-rise, the digit clicks open and fires off a multi-colored flare to signal to the others that they were to move into position.
</poem>

 KTS: Hathaway Noa targets Suzaku Kururugi with Goad!
 KTS: Hathaway Noa goads Suzaku Kururugi, reducing his Intuition drastically.

 <Pose Tracker> Suzaku Kururugi has posed.
<poem>
The Naka Ghetto Precint

This is not the place that you want to work right now, not least of all because a major shake-down just happened. An old Japanese police building had essentially been commandeered for the purposes of housing the new authorities, which actually does contain a mix of the old police who didn't flee -- it's simply easier to incorporate these people into the power structure than it is to get rid of them completely. They're on the bottom rungs, and they're not strictly trusted, but that's how it goes sometimes.

A parking garage adjacent to the precinct has largely been converted into a space for the motor pool and the Knightpolice's frames. Additional walling was constructed in order to prevent casual observation, but it's still a parking garage, and some floors are more vulnerable both to breach and observation than others. The second floor and next-to-top floor are both outwardly walled off, suggesting high-value targets there. The rest contain fairly mundane motor pool items.

The Knightpolice largely do not just mill around. The cost of running Knightmares is high, and Naka Ghetto specifically is a place where the rebellion was largely quelled on account of Clovis's forces killing an inordinate amount of the people here. The local people who were willing to fight, largely, have died. The good news is that it means Naka Ghetto really isn't a defensively prioritized position.

The bad news is that it's theoretically a cushy post for important minor nobility, which might result in some unexpected problems.

The precinct ITSELF is a bit of a problem because of the continued presence of Elevens working here. It's not respectable work for an Eleven, but there's a minimum of  collateral that you want to avoid.

(OPTIONAL): Hamstring the Knightpolice without endangering Eleven beat cops.

Heat signatures do suggest Knightmares being 'exercised' inside the parking structure. It's probably just to keep surplus units from literally rotting in a parking space, though.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
<poem>

        With the briefing over and the green light given, the sound of harken's being launched echo through the night sky. The building had already been marked, as a single burai flies through the air bracing itself as it impacts into the building and holds itself there. The longshot makes a few automated adjustments the moment it is in contact with the building.

         Days before all this Karma had found a decent building for a vantage point and had begun to work out the majority of the calculations needed for shots from here. Pre-programmed the adjustments, adjusted earlier for the weather and all that just saved him the moments that would normally be needed to figure out the shot from such a high up spot.

         Karma had drawn the short straw and on top of being the spotter for more trouble, and he does see that trouble through his monitor as he goes over the comm, &lt;"I think they have something more then the normal cop suits there."&gt; He considers shooting at the unknown suit, but first he had one other target, the nearby power transformer to knockout power for the station. &lt;"Going dark in ...3,2,1 "&gt; The sound of Longshot's rifle goes off as the electricly charged bullet flies towards the transformer.
</poem>

 KTS: Karma Sato targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Longshot Sniper Rifle Systems Targeting Shot!
 
 <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
<poem>
Tensions are high amidst this oh so critical operation. Spirits are high too, but this is the kind of high stakes operation that has most people on edge in their preparation. Radios are quieter than normal - many just hope to listen to the miracle of Zero or the firm strategic confidence of Mafty.

As per usual, C.C. is the exception to that. She's rather lax awaiting in her position, filing her nails casually, while her Burai lurks in an unassuming warehouse garage, and chiming in during radio silence to ask utterly mundane questions. "Have any of you managed to see that upcoming stage production about the Red Comet? I think it's just called 'Casval!!'. With two excalamtion points, naturally. We might cause a bit of a stir here, so be careful not to damage any theaters, yes?"

Things like that. Depending on who's hearing things, she's either adding much needed levity or being a huge pain in the ass - but she falls quiet whenever anyone important signals, so at least she's not actively causing a problem. (she may be disappointed that this is so exceptionally serious)

        &gt;'Mission Start.'

&gt;"Aaah, very well then. C2, engaging. Q1 and R1 are both here and reliable...hmmm, that other one's P1...ah, there's one I've not coordinated with yet." C.C. specifically dials Emilia on the comms, and lazily inquires, "Tell me how you enjoy engaging, and I'll think up a cute callsign for you later down the road, yes?"

With little else for fanfare, C.C.'s rapid assault Burai lunges forward, busting a hole in her chosen hideout's garage door and making a bee-line right towards the police precinct's HQ. The garage full of heat signatures is identified, and C.C. prioritizes launching an assault on the ones that -don't- seem to be moving, to hamper the prospect of making any reinforcement too easy. Already piloted KMFs can respond, but one that's unoccupied and under attack is liable to be harder to get people towards. See, she can think tactically, she knows what she's doing!
</poem>

 KTS: C.C. targets Suzaku Kururugi with Sustained Fire!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi blocks C.C.'s Sustained Fire, taking 2400 damage!
 KTS: C.C. has engaged Suzaku Kururugi
 KTS: C.C. begins a Formation attack!

 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        Emilia had listened to the briefing with nervous energy, in the most secure place she could find on campus. It did the trick. Five minutes to destroy a motor pool at midnight. It seemed ambitious but frankly, Emilia didn't care. It was hurting Britannia, however little. If small waves create big waves, then perhaps this will start the tsunami that swallows Britannia- and Grandfather- whole.

        Now, she sits in the cockpit of her custom Burai, in her yellow and black 'pilot suit'. Her hands are on the controls and she's ready, waiting. Tense and coiled up like a spring. She's been waiting for this. The chance to make them hurt. To break something. The talk of musicals however. "...Who cares about that." It's not a question, just an outlet for anger. Though... Zeon is a touchy subject for some reason/

        The flare fires, and the side of the truck holding her Burai folds up and the Burai Close Combat Custom 'Jack' speeds out on it's landspinners, the ridiculous ARM Slave scale hammer held on with the weapon support arm. Do as much damage as possible, destroy as many KMF's as possible. She can do thay. She looks for a support beam, something that can cause a collapse on the nightmare police. And C.C. tightbeams her. "Close range." She responds. She is the tactician here, she needs to know, but Emilia isn't a great soldier. "You'll see soon enough."

        And then she fires two of the eight harkens on Jack at the support beam, and tries to tear it down. She's not caring particularly about the optional objective. Elevens know when to run, right?
</poem>

 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Double Harken Hook!
 
 <Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.
<poem>
        &lt;"Codename: Oz. Initiating mission objective."&gt;

        In the dead of the night, the flairs fly into the sky, painting it in an array of color. The Black Knights filling the darkness with an array that illuminates the midnight moon. The mission objective as simple enough, guerilla warfare tactics in order to quickly and efficiently dismantle the enemy base without suffering losses. In truth, such a strategy was something that Oz was more familiar with during his time as a PMC. When going against those with greater military might than oneself, it was most often than not the objective to simply cripple a source of power than to dismantle their numbers head on. It was simply the way things were for those who didn't have the resources to fight against Britannia head on.

        Such is the way that they have to fight, emphasized by the Burai units to deal with the transformers, all but disengaging the power within the area for a more covert mission. "Confirmation of destruction of transformers. Proceeding to engage."

        Karma has set the stage, momentum, just as Mafty had put it earlier is what they need if they wish to proceed forward into this fight. For this mission, that entailed this white KMF of the Black Knights to proceed into the garage area and begin smoking out any and all targets within floor by floor.  It would be one thing for them to simply destroy the entire police precinct and the garage next to it, but killing Elevens too? Surely not a good look for the Black Knights. For this reason, he's been tasked with a more surgical approach to dealing with the enemy by mowing down the enemy KMF first so that a proper finishing strike could be provided when needed.

%In regards to tactical approaches, C.C. begins her assault on the un-moving and un-manned units right away. A reasonable enough idea, though likely leaves her open to any sort of return fire by those who might have quick to respond. Those are the ones that Orpheus finds himself preparing to take out. As the Byakuen comes in just as quickly through the new opening in the garage, the arm component swaps out for a canon component and in doing so proceeds to start shooting down, or simply just giving disorienting shots to nearby enemy KMF that seem to have their sights of the green-haired woman's Burai.

        &lt;"Let's do this quickly. Also, I do hope you're referring to someone else as R-1. . ."&gt;
</poem>

 KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Suzaku Kururugi with Precision Shot: 70mm Liquid Sakuradite Explosive Cartridge!
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon rattles Suzaku Kururugi, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi blocks Orpheus Zevon's Precision Shot: 70mm Liquid Sakuradite Explosive Cartridge, taking 3600
 damage!
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon completes the Formation attack!

 <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
<poem>
Kallen Kozuki has been sitting in on those myriad meetings of late. Despite a general view that she's not exactly the strategist type. Certainly in a fight she's much more the type to charge in, metaphorical guns blazing... but truthfully that's been less than satisfying for her. Something starting to take a more hands-on, vocal approach has helped immensely with. It's simply more mentally stimulating. But also eases an itch in her brain that's always been there. One she'd ignored until recently.

While she'd been waiting on the signal to go out, she'd brought along a small snack and drink. It's far and away too easy to dehydrate inside the Guren, with how sweltering it can get... So she's just polishing those off when the flare erupts in the sky. "Roger that, Guren, taking the field!" Though with her mouth still about a quarter full of food it may come out a bit muddled. Thankfully she's getting used to C.C.'s radio chatter as well, or that woman might have made her bust out laughing during the wait, and cause a mess Rakshata would have flayed her alive over.

The crimson, almost avian-looking Knightmare bursts up from an old, obsolete maintenance tunnel, ripping a hole through a chunk of the motor pool on its way out! She hadn't heard any people above her planned entry point, so to her knowledge the first level ought to be presently devoid of people. Harkens further expedite her exit, wrapping around some of the unmoving frames and pulling the Guren into closer-range, where it's at its most useful. She's in agreement with several others here, on avoiding casualties anywhere possible. There's no way of telling without radio contact, if the Knightpolice might send some of the Japanese forces remaining here in first, to serve as cannon fodder or propaganda fuel.
</poem>

 KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Slash Harken Hook!
 
 <Pose Tracker> Suzaku Kururugi has posed.
<poem>
You know what sucks?

Getting bombed out of nowhere sucks. Fortunately for the people in the garage, their level is hardened enough that the explosions that follow are not absolutely devastating for them. A sound of alarm can be heard from within, followed quickly by scrambling. There's an opening into the building -- and it leads straight to clusters of Knightmares that definitely aren't manned. A couple have been hit directly and are smoking, but probably aren't outright disabled.

Somebody is lying on the ground in front of them, unmoving.

Another explosion rattles the building as Orpheus comes in right behind and nails some of the vulnerable Knightmares; there's an interesting fact to discover here with a closer look: There are fewer Glasgows in here than might be expected. It looks like the Knightpolice might have been in the process of upgrading to Sutherlands. It's not the majority of what's in here, but still...

The resistance from inside is proportionately feeble, but one of the Knightpolice Sutherlands starts up and seizes a weapon from a fallen unit next to it. It raises the bazooka and fires towards C.C.'s Burai.

A Glasgow starting up behind the Sutherland presses forward around it and draws something... familiar. An orange-hot grindblade roars to life as the Glasgow presses in on the Byakuen. It's quite similar to the melee weapons designed for the Holy Swords, though it looks just off enough to guess that it might simply be a similar idea somebody whipped up for a Knightpolice that suddenly expected more trouble than was previously evident.

OUTSIDE...

There is an unwelcome intrusion. One of the single-Knightmare VTOLs that Britannia is known for is soaring overhead in the dead of the night when the lights go out below. The vehicle pauses for a moment, and then disengages the unit attached to it. A distinctive whirr can be heard as it fires a slash harken and disappears from its drop trajectory. The explosions happening nearby drown out its sound profile for a short while.

A Zenith 250 in blue-and-gold hooks around the side of the building that Hathaway's Messer is hiding behind, a gleaming red blade in its hand swiping down in a quick slash aimed at nothing in particular.

A voice is projected from the Zenith's externals, "Surprise attack on inadequate defenses after dark, eh? Not bad. Not bad! And whom do I have the honor of addressing?"

This is absolutely not the sort of unit that anybody has projected would be here. First the Sutherlands, now this? Has intelligence leaked?
</poem>

 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets C.C. with MULS-P Clay Bazooka Barrage!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets Hathaway Noa with MVS Dual Swords!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets Orpheus Zevon with MVS Dual Swords!
 KTS: C.C. has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi anchors C.C., forcing her into close range.
 KTS: C.C. fails to evade Suzaku Kururugi's MULS-P Clay Bazooka Barrage, taking 3910 damage!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has engaged C.C.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon successfully evades Suzaku Kururugi's MVS Dual Swords
 KTS: Hathaway Noa has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Hathaway Noa fails to evade Suzaku Kururugi's MVS Dual Swords, taking 3617 damage!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has engaged Hathaway Noa

 <Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
<poem>
BATTLESHIP HYPERION - TACTICAL PLANNING ROOM

Sophia Mayhew Castellan's gloved fingers run along the lines of the map, considering the shape of recent activity.

"G-Hound really does work just about everywhere, huh?" comments her XO, green-haired Amata, who is in a seat and filing her nails like this is a private chamber. It nearly is; the crew compliment is small and only a few other people would be able to enter the room anyway. "Still, figured we'd be spending a little less time out in the Numbers, eh?"

Sophia replies with a grunt, her eyes defocusing a little as she tries to see the connections between these places.

Which is when she suddenly stands up and marches for the door. Amata blinks up at her. "Ah, caught a scent, huh? Have fun~" she calls, wiggling her fingers.

Sophia taps the comm console on the door frame. "Liese, get my Flag ready for launch."

WHICH IS WHY:

There's no scheduled air support. The G-Hound battleship Hyperion, which has been in the vicinity of Area Eleven for a few days now, is off menacing some other enclave. But nonetheless, something darts out of the night, a Union Flag in Flight Mode flashing past the moon. It transforms - in the night air the relatively quiet mechanical clunks and whirrs of transformation sing loudly, before the Flag drops onto a rooftop, scanning around with the glowing plate of its visor.

Inside, Sophia scans around with the internal mapper, trying to sense what could be happening. Then: Mayhem bursts forth.

Karma's clean shot knocks out the power. Emilia's Jack rips the supports out, bringing chunks of ceiling down on a set of Knightmares. Then the Guren roars forth, tearing itself out into the lowest levels of the parking garage, ready to cause mayhem.

The Flag's thrusters fire, keeping it aloft as Sophia clicks the linear rifle to standard charge. "Ambush. I knew I saw something. So this is the way of the Black Knights, is it?!"

She sweeps the rifle, firing piercing shots into the base of the structure to lure Guren out of hiding, then with a loud buzz and bang, another railrifle shot smashes toward 'Jack', the overencumbered KMF easily identified.

While she's doing that, the shins slip open, launching a missile off into the distance to pop that sniper. She can trust that to the targeting systems! Probably!
</poem>

 KTS: Karma Sato rattles Sophia Mayhew Castellan, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to react to Karma Sato's Longshot Sniper Rifle Systems Targeting Shot, taking 3260
 damage!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan successfully avoids Emilia Eschonbach's Double Harken Hook
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 71.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan successfully avoids Kallen Kozuki's Slash Harken Hook
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Emilia Eschonbach with Linear Rifle Standard Fire!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Kallen Kozuki with Linear Rifle Standard Fire!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Karma Sato with Onboard Missile Rack!
 Incoming attacks:
 1: Sophia_Mayhew_Castellan attacking with Linear Rifle Standard Fire (Physical, Ranged)
 ----

 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach blocks Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Rifle Standard Fire, taking 1058 damage!
 Your unit's HP stands at 15392

 KTS: Karma Sato fails to evade Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Onboard Missile Rack, taking 3428 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sophia Mayhew Castellan's I See Your Sins activates, causing Designate L1!
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki charges into the attack!
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Rifle Standard Fire, taking 2575 damage!
 
 <Pose Tracker> Hathaway Noa has posed.
<poem>
At first, everything seems to be going well - C.C.'s levity aside. Casval? What a tacky thing to make.

Of course, everyone had the right to dislike the man. But he, perhaps, had more bias than most.

Oz knocked out the power and the others breached the perimeter and have begun dismantling the motor pool in earnest. Longshot's got spotting covered, and Kozuki has deployed successfully. As long as we take care with our targets, we should have minimal unwanted casualties .. though, I'm sure Britannia's news agencies will paint as as terribly as they can, regardless.

Word gets back to him through the shortband that a shocking number of Sutherlands were present among their target's ranks. It was concerning information that was corroborated by the train heist prior - it meant that the Knightpolice had indeed been moving to increase their standing military might with next generation weapons and platforms.

When the Zenith is dropped from the sky, Hathaway is already maneuvering his Messer before the proximity klaxon could even resound in his cockpit, as if he'd seen the attack coming. That didn't stop the blade from biting into his mobile suit's shield as he kicks back, dust spewing along the cracked blacktop as the sub-flight systems in the Messer's legs allowed it to dash backwards, a trail of sparks roaring from the gash mark left in the thick, armored slab covering its arm-mounted gatling gun.

Before addressing the sudden enemy, Hathaway uses the shortband to address his allies as Mafty, "Four minutes remain - enemy reinforcements are beginning to arrive, but if we keep up our current pace, we should still meet our goals."

Failure here would be a horrifying blow to their morale and even the scale of their future operations, and one that he would hope they could avoid at any cost.

This guy .. that's for sure a customized Zenith. What's such a high performance unit doing here? A Flag just sorties from elsewhere, too .. could they have been expecting us? I'll have to see about finding any loose lips, later. he grimaces.

Hopefully they didn't have a mole in their midst, if they did, then how much else had been slipped to the enemy?

The purple-and-pink Messer reaches over its shoulder and draws on its beam saber, a new model favored on some test types throughout the Federation. The brightly colored particle blade flashes to life in tandem with the Messer's mono-eye zeroing in on the Zenith. "My name is.."

    "Mafty Naviyu Erin."

The Messer dashes forward, firing the numerous vulcan pods lining its head to suppress the un-named pilot's Zenith while it closes in so that it can bring its saber down sharply in a vertical slash. Based on his manner of speech, it must be a noble from the Union ..

"Is it not customary to introduce oneself before asking another for their name?"
</poem>

 KTS: Hathaway Noa has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Hathaway Noa has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Hathaway Noa targets Suzaku Kururugi with Beam Saber 100 Slash!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi parries Hathaway Noa's Beam Saber 100 Slash, taking 930 damage!
 KTS: Hathaway Noa has engaged Suzaku Kururugi
 
 <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
<poem>

        The alerts are coming in throughout the cockpit about an incoming missile as Karma kicks at the antiquated system, "I KNOW!"  Grumbling he does the only thing he can do which is release the harkens from the side of the building. As the Longshot drops from it's perch to the street below the missile follows and help the knightmare reach the ground quicker through exploding.  More alarms and alerts and annoying pop ups grace Karma's vision as the system tells him things are damaged and he hit the ground hard and that he has to be up in six hours for work.  The only thing that would anger Karma more is if he knew those missiles were only aimed with the targeting computer.

           &lt;" P-1 got knocked off it's perch, moving to intercept the enemy." &gt; Dashng through the street the Longshot is already moving its rifle to point upwards towards where the Flag was last seen. From one intersection to another it speeds along.

         Finally  Karma can see the damn unit that shot him with a missile and his anger gets the better of him. Rapid shots from the sniper rifle are fired, Karma's temper getting the better of him, one could call them even barely aimed as he just tries to put a bullet into the Flag.
</poem>

 KTS: Karma Sato has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Karma Sato has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Karma Sato targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Longshot Sniper Rifle Quick Shot!

 <Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.
<poem>
        The amount of retaliation they had received thus far has been abysmal to say the least. Though perhaps that was to be expected given just how undermanned this precinct was. Though, something gnaws at the young man as the operation continues. The notice of one person already down upon the floor. . .Had that been one of the casualties they caused? What's more there had been the lack of Glasgow's as well. For now though, there really wasn't much time to ponder the thought.

        &lt;"Looks like they've finally come out to greet us."&gt;

        The Sutherland leads the assault as it prepares to engage with C.C., while Oz ends up having the pleasure of dealing with the Glasgow that pulls out what could only be described as a blade similar to that of the Holy Swords. The sound the blade makes like a vicious chainsaw that likely pierces ones ear just as violently as the blade itself could have. It was definitely an interesting weapon though, having it actually hit was an entire matter entirely. The Glasgow on its first charge would realize that as the Byakuen employed it's greater maneuverability against the outdated machine. As it lunge, slash, or however it planned to strike the Byakuen simply evaded. Reacting at the last moment to maneuver itself into a favorable position as the white KMF would reposition itself outside the arm of the Glasgow wielding the knife. Though without even opting to switch to a close-range option the moment that an opening presented itself, the Byakuen pressed the barrel of its gun to that of the Glasgow, the heat from the barrel so close that it could practically sear the paint job of the machine. Though there'd be much more to worry about as the close range shot was fired right at the enemy. &lt;"Understood, attempting to rise to the next floor. . ."&gt;

        While he might have still been engaged with the Glasgow, or perhaps that shot had taken it out quickly enough, their were more enemies to deal with, and supposedly higher level targets in the upper regions. To be halted here simply because of one enemy would have been inefficient for a guerilla attack. After all, they did in fact have an objective so if that be the case. . .The moment his shot gave purchase, The Byakuen would continue traversing up the garage while being somewhat vigilant of assault either from the next floor or from behind.
</poem>

 KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Suzaku Kururugi with Precision Shot: 30mm High-Initial-Velocity Tungsten Armor-Piercing
 Ammunition!

 
 <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
<poem>
A little applause, over the airwaves, for Mafty's dramatic introduction. "He's mastered the feeling of gravitas well enough, at least," C.C. muses plainly, while doing her best to weave around retaliatory fire from her initial attack - though they very quickly bring out explosive weaponry, and C.C.'s rattled around in her seat with little more panic than a somewhat forceful sigh. "I thought this was faster than what I've felt so far...I guess there's only so much pushing you can get out of an outdated Knightmare Frame. Useful little machines, but a little inflexible in how much you can squeeze out of them..."

Keeping a note to indeed assess how exactly Emilia will perform, C.C. follows through on her slightly whimsical tactical designation of Orpheus - by sliding in from a side alley, guns-ablazing at the Glasgow trying to cut the Byakuen. &lt;"R1's fitting for you. After all, you make a good forward anchor locking in the positions of what's possible in the board, and you don't seem averse to bearing the brunt of the punishment. Hmhm, I wonder which direction you're unsatisfied. Do you fancy yourself a mere pawn, or the king?"&gt;

After whirring her way with astonishing agility past some of the other flimsier front-liners, C.C. hurtles through an opening into the multi-story garage, right into the belly of the beast - where she continues plunging forward, blasting countless missiles in every direction. She'll play the suitable part of a bishop for now - slicing into the awkward and difficult locales at a moment's opportunity...it'd be best to disrupt the enemy at large if two aces have now appeared on the board. The role of those, after all, is to be supported by the masses and kettle their opponents into favorable positions. The spearhead desires the foe to be pressed against a wall, after all - so it's best to start crumbling any walls.
</poem>

 KTS: C.C. has activated the Attune Spirit Command.
 KTS: C.C. targets Suzaku Kururugi with Long Range Missile Pod!

 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        Emilia, frankly, isn't a skilled pilot. The only real warning she has is Guren being shot at first. She manages to catch the blast with one of her spike shields, and it sends Emilia spiraling backwards, turning wildly on her landspinners before she recovers. And that's not even full power...

        "Damn it! Get down here!" Her factsphere glances around rapidly, looking for the attacker. There! On the roof!  "Damnit, I won't let you get away with that!" The anger is furious, but also fairly impotent. She retracts the two shoulder harkens, and this time fires all four of the chest mounted ones to try and wrap Sophia, and pull her in so she can charge.

        In fact, she's already charging, getting ready to jump for the roof, or just haul the Mobile Suit down to her level. If she can ever pull a pilot like this down to her level.
</poem>

 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Lockdown!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi successfully Evades Orpheus Zevon's Precision Shot: 30mm High-Initial-Velocity Tungsten Armor-
 Piercing Ammunition
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi blocks C.C.'s Long Range Missile Pod, taking 3360 damage!
 
 <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
<poem>
In this case, the Guren isn't difficult to lure. An active assailant firing on them is a problem. One that's in the air is even worse. As Kallen is right in the middle of shredding an unmanned Knightmare the shot rings out, causing her to go for an acrobatic rush to get out of sniping range. Poor judgement on Kallen's part as she's lead directly into the attack, taking it directly across the front of her machine.

She's not easy to take out or discourage however. So the smoke and debris from the attack gives way to what looks like a flying Guren. Not true flight mind, the Knightmare is merely using its Harkens as a method for launching. Digging into a building and shooting itself at the Flag. The Flag's camera is no doubt filled with the imagery of the Guren's wicked, silver claw, held out to drive into the mobile weapon's armor like a wedge. From a tactical standpoint, this might be a mistake. Maybe she should have sent out the Harkens to try and drag it down instead. But the Harkens are easier to weave around or entangle in one another if the Flag is as maneuverable as she believes it is. An entire Knightmare being shot at it on the other hand...
</poem>

 KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Sophia Mayhew Castellan
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Iron Nail 'Drill' Slash!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan successfully evades Karma Sato's Longshot Sniper Rifle Quick Shot
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to parry Kallen Kozuki's Iron Nail 'Drill' Slash, taking 4700 damage!
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach anchors Sophia Mayhew Castellan, forcing her into close range.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to evade Emilia Eschonbach's Lockdown, taking 3700 damage!
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 70.
 
 <Pose Tracker> Suzaku Kururugi has posed.
<poem>
"Mafty Naviyu Erin! I do not regret my assignment to this place," The Zenith pilot sounds positively elated at this. He is a bit of a lunatic and holds his ground in answer to the Messer's suppressing fire, waiting until the mobile suit has approached its engagement range -- there IS a disparity in their reach, after all -- and then steps in. It would be suicide for him to parry the blade with the kind of weapon he's wielding. So what he catches against his blade is the hand of the Messer, and the hilt of the beam saber.

It's enough to halt the momentum and dart to a flank.

"I am Sir Fulgencio Teodoro Serrano, Knight of Honor! Since I am here, let us say that I am Inspector Serrano! I hope you'll forgive my rudeness, but I was asking a pilot in a mask who he was! An answer cannot be e xpected," Inspector Serrano barks with laughter, his Zenith dancing to one side. A single hip-mounted slash harken fires -- it's an aftermarket addition, and one that seems to fit to a custom mount -- and connects to the ruined high rise, while the other fires to entangle the Messer's weapon arm. The Zenith jumps -- more acrobatically than a Zenith usually WOULD jump -- and kicks a section of the wall it is hooked onto, dislodging it and swinging it about towards the Messer's head.

He made a meteor hammer out of a chunk of ruined building.

ELSEWHERE...

The Glasgow attempting to engage Orpheus's oncoming fire hooks a ruined Knightpolice frame on the ground with one of its harkens and throws it in the way of the shot. The ruined frame shatters into further pieces on impact, during which time the Glasgow hooks another weapon -- one of those bazookas, from the looks of it -- and aims it at the ramp that Byakuen will have to ascend at the fore. It fires, spreading adhesive across the ramp. There's ways around that of course, and the Glasgow gets ahead of Orpheus by ''''immediately'''' resetting one harken and using it to ascend to the next floor itself.

It's quite a few floors to the second covered section, but there's plenty of vehicles to trash in the meantime. Some of them are definitely just impounded. Others are light military vehicles of the sort Britannia likes to use to deploy Eleven infantry.

The Sutherland that had been paired with departing Glasgow ducks behind a support column in response to the missiles that were fired its way, getting clipped as it goes but substantially mitigating the damage that would have been done to it.

It abandons the weapon it presently has in its off hand in favor of snagging another of those heat-chainblades off the rack with a slash harken, charging C.C.'s Burai and bringing it about in a heavy blow aimed diagnolly across its body.

</poem>
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets Hathaway Noa with Slash Harkens Entangle!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets C.C. with MVS Heavy Strike!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets Orpheus Zevon with MULS-P Clay Bazooka Pellet Spray!
 KTS: C.C. has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi rattles Orpheus Zevon, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon fails to evade Suzaku Kururugi's MULS-P Clay Bazooka Pellet Spray, taking 3317 damage!
 KTS: C.C. fails to retreat.
 KTS: C.C. fails to react to Suzaku Kururugi's MVS Heavy Strike, taking 6082 damage!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has engaged C.C.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi anchors Hathaway Noa, forcing him into close range.
 KTS: Hathaway Noa blocks Suzaku Kururugi's Slash Harkens Entangle, taking 4210 damage!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has engaged Hathaway Noa

 <Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
<poem>
Sophia's Flag is rapidly humbled; Guren blurs toward her at top speed, and even pulling out her Sonic Blade she can't quite get it into position to knock the full-speed Guren aside in time. The Flag's tools aren't made for that kind of attack! And while she's dealing with that, Emilia's harkens wrap her up and drag her down into range. Sophia's jaw sets but she betrays little; wrapped up as she is she doesn't really have a way to avoid all of Karma's shots, even as she rips herself free enough that she doesn't get immediately carved apart. That's a trick she knows about!

She does have the Sonic Blade out, though. "Nimble," she says. "What I'd expect from such little things." Standing just shy of 18 meters, a Flag's full height towers over a KMF, after all. Tying it up like Gulliver is the obvious choice.

Which is why the blade suddenly ignites, a wave of excess plasma boiling out of the Sonic Blade to turn it into a pseudo-beam saber, which she swings at the Gurren in a bid to ward it off, then whip it around to drive it blade-first into Emilia's Jack.

Then with her other arm, she whips the Linear Rifle up, the machine buzzing with unexpressed charge, before she fires one, two, three shots downrange to baffle Karma's approach!
</poem>

 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Foresee Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Kallen Kozuki with Plasma Blade Sweep!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Emilia Eschonbach with Plasma Blade Strike!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Karma Sato with Linear Rifle Stagger!
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach parries Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Plasma Blade Strike, taking 876 damage!
 Your unit's HP stands at 14516

 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has engaged Emilia Eschonbach
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan rattles Karma Sato, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Karma Sato blocks Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Rifle Stagger, taking 3807 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sophia Mayhew Castellan's I See Your Sins activates, causing Designate L1!

 <Pose Tracker> Hathaway Noa has posed.
<poem>
If he had the luxury of being embarassed - then C.C.'s appraisal would have assuredly left him like a quivering, red tomato.

    Did I lay that on too thick? Gh..

The Zenith's newly identified pilot shows a shocking degree of aptitude as a pilot, Hathaway realizes, when his strike is parried at the wrist. If this were Knightmare to Knightmare combat, he probably would have lost the hand then and there.

So he's been assigned here as an inspector. Then - have they been receiving an internal overhaul? At least in this Area.. - regardless, if I can put him down, then that'll be a big swing in our favor.

    "Perhaps so," he responds.

His Messer zips after the agile Zenith by dashing along the ground, weaving between ruined buildings to provide it with a sense of cover as the two tango deftly between the concrete monoliths.

Hathaway is the one who comes out ultimately on the short end of the stick, as his Messer's head is caved in by a makeshift meteor striking it dead on. "Tch!" he clicks his tongue while the panoramic view fizzles and fades out, leaving him only with his own sense of awareness and the backup cameras to guide him.

Pointing the end of its shield at the ground, the Messer releases a violent burst of concentrated gatling gunfire, kicking up a storm of dust and grime as lead shatters the pavement and scatters the smog into the air.

This, purposefully, is to obscure the Zenith's visuals. It did not have a factsphere like a Knightmare Frame, at least as far as Hathaway knew, which meant that a smokescreen like this would be much more effective than it otherwise would.

    You're .. - there!

Locating the inspector with his mind's eye, Hathaway hurls his beam saber at the Zenith, intent on skewering the other unit with it as he guns his backpack thrusters and rises to the occasion in order to shoulder check Fulgenico's unit and retrieve its armament in one go.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to have you deeply regret being sent here..!"
</poem>

 KTS: Hathaway Noa has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Hathaway Noa targets Suzaku Kururugi with Formation NexT 100!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi parries Hathaway Noa's Formation NexT 100, taking 1770 damage!
 KTS: Hathaway Noa has engaged Suzaku Kururugi
 
 <Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.
<poem>
        In a rather blunt manner Oz speaks up to C.C. at her remark, "I've already told you before what my designation is. You'll be causing confusion if you simply call people what you wish out of whimsy during a mission. The next reminder might not be as pleasant. . ."&gt; A long sigh had escaped his lips, already having been trying to ascend the garage. This woman always seemed to be the rather peculiar type that was for certain. "Though if she's. . ." If she was what he thought she might have been, that was all the more reason to think so. Still, in the meantime there was another reason, one that he ends up obliging to inform her of,  &lt;"The Rook is the castle, the walls that protect. It represents the fortification of one's home. . .It seems rather unfitting for the one amongst your group that's simply 'contracted' help, to be the one that could act as the castle that protects your King. I imagine quite a few of our comrades might deem it disrespectful for an outsider to be considered the one that 'protects the king' or their homeland, don't you?"&gt; There's less a coyness to the remark, but just a questioning affirmation in his tone.

        Speaking of castle walls, the Glasgow finds a way to protect itself is through the use of another KMF in the field to take the shot for it. An effective maneuver for sure, though truly the most tedious in the moment is the bazooka fire that releases the adhesives in his path, the Byakuen caught in the initial strike buffeting the unit back before it regains its bearings. Clicking his teeth, &lt;"All units ascending the garage path, avoid trying to go up the second floor through Path A. Obstructions have been placed. Prepare to scale the building if need be. . ."&gt; The Byakuen can already see that the Glasgow's gotten the initiative and blocks its path once again. There's really not much for the Byakuen to do at this point beyond attempt to catch up. There's the option to try and trail back up using the vehicles as cover, but with that adhesive. . .And if the vehicles still had any sort of fuel in them. . .Even he'd like to avoid that outcome. So he opts for another idea as Byakuen raises its canon once more though rather than aiming for the Glasgow itself, attempts to aim at the concrete at which its Slash Harken was connected. A hope that by puncturing it, it might be able to dislodge its slash harken and have it reel back to the current floor. Though with the flames from before, there's slight obstruction to his aim that even now has him feeling the heat. Still he'd do what he could all the same. After all, they were on a time limit. . .

        "Nearing three minutes and not even up the second floor yet. . .Tch."
</poem>

 KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Plasma Blade Sweep, taking 2915 damage!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan repulses Kallen Kozuki, forcing her to disengage.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Suzaku Kururugi with Semi-Automatic: 30mm High-Initial-Velocity Tungsten Armor-Piercing
 Ammunition!

 <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
<poem>
''How far am I willing to go for your little game, Lelouch?''

''Isn't it a little ridiculous to be in so deep?''

''I suppose I ask myself this every time I'm here.''

''In the end, I guess I only know this way to live.''

''...So ridiculous.~''

C.C., in her hyper-risky plunge deep into the heart of the enemy's compound, with Orpheus backing up her rear instead this time, faces the full brunt of Britannia's law cleaving a deep gash through the chest of her Burai - leaving a scar through which she can peek, and bringing her to hunker down to evade cameras catching direct sight of her. She's played it fast and loose with being where she shouldn't be - but it's likely for the best that the Britannian brass doesn't know that their target from the Shinjuku incident is indeed sticking with the Black Knights.

/...though they likely already know.

C.C. grapples with her controls to try and keep this rapidly falling apart heap of junk afloat, the joints creaking and smoking from so much sustained damage. She's about to resign, with a bit of a sigh, to bowing out yet again after a rather poor showing. After all - she only really agreed to start gallivanting in KMFs to prove a point to some of the others getting snippy about her seeming to be a do-nothing layabout. It's rather a pain in the butt, even if it's a touch exciting.

Of course, with her rather intense attunement to fiercely resonating emotions...she senses that brief flaring in flustered-ness from Mafty up above, and gets a cheeky little grin ear to ear.

&lt;"C2 to R1 and...hm, I'll think of something for you too, Mafty. I'm blasting my way up and making myself a Path C. Watch out from below, but I'll be careful~ ...and hm, do you take defenders to act out of true loyalty, R1? In the end, the staunchest guardians are simply the ones who have been incentivized the strongest. The king's most reliable men are the ones he pays the most, you know. Besides, in my case - I enjoy playing fast and loose with anything that's supposed to 'protect'. After all, depending on one's perspective, the castle melts and re-raises about quite a lot."&gt;

C.C. grips her controls tighter, flipping switch after switch to engage the countless missiles and rockets lining the Burai's body, becoming the center of an explosion that repulses the Glasgows on her level of the garage...and bores a hole upwards through the remaining floors, in enough of a volley to blast outwards and towards the Zenith and disrupt all of Inspector Serrano's self-assurance...!

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
<poem>

        Raising it's shield the Longshot is knocked around like it's a ragdol and pushed into a wall with a thud. Inside Karma was getting shakened like he was a martini in one of those classic spy movies.   He even gets rather mad as he lets out an annoyed scream of frustration.

        Taking a deep breath Karma does his best to calm himself down as he realizes he is letting his own anger get the better of him.  A very long second passes as Karma tries to figure out another approach before he slides the sniper rifle over Longshot's shoulder and retrieves the light machine gun.  Taking a serpentine pattern of approach towards Sophia with the shield raised, Longshot continues it's approach towards the Flag.

        Approach the Flag, Longshot would fire off bursts from the machine gun, attempting to spray in a cone like pattern. This was of course all intended to  land something upon his opponent at the moment, or at the very least pin the opponent down for someone else.
</poem>

 KTS: Karma Sato has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Karma Sato targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Glasgow MG Spray and Pray!
 KTS: C.C. has activated the Attune Spirit Command.
 KTS: C.C. has activated the Attune Spirit Command.
 KTS: C.C. targets Suzaku Kururugi with Firing All Weapons!

 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        Once the Harkens are in place, that weapon arm lurches forward, hauling the hammer into position in her hands. It's obscenely large in the hands of a KMF like the Burai. Slow and heavy. Which is why it's no less than a miracle that Emilia brings the hammer's head up in time to defend herself. A stab that would have pierced her cockpit insted sears through a piece of shoulder armour. The sheer heft of the hammer provides her a bigger area to defend with. But Emilia is painfully aware of how close she came to dying at that moment. Her eyes are wide. She's shaking. She'd like to lie and say it was all with rage, but it's mostly fear.

        Fortunately, the two are fine bedfellows. "I won't... I won't die here to you! I'm going to take you down! I'll make you feel it too!" It's a good thing Emilia's broadcasts are short range. She's really not doing okay.

        Rapidly, she cocks the hammer twice, loading two explosive charges into it, before taking one wild swing at the Flag, aiming to drive the hammer towards it's leg and hip, using the detonation of the explosive, wherever the hammer hits and hurriedly releasing her landspinners to turn her away and pull Sophia off balance even more, before the hammer swings back around to meet her. It's heavy and clumsy, and if that first swing hits the ground or wall instead, well, she's in trouble. But her opoonent is locked down and off guard. She has the advantage, right?

        The mission is unfortunately, no longer the priority.
</poem>

 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Zeya B3M HEAT Hammer Double Swing!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi blocks Orpheus Zevon's Semi-Automatic: 30mm High-Initial-Velocity Tungsten Armor-Piercing
 Ammunition, taking 5640 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Orpheus Zevon's Precision Attacker activates, causing Nullify!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi blocks C.C.'s Firing All Weapons, taking 2010 damage!
 KTS: C.C. roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.

 <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
<poem>
Kallen spots the blade as it releases, considering in a split-second her options. She could try to parry it with her own blade... but the force of the blow would push her back regardless. So then, is it better to risk a more severe hit, for the shot at evading it completely and keeping in close? In her mental debate, the chance at maintaining pressure is definitely worth the risk, and so she maneuvers the Guren into a handstand on the Harken wires, to flip over the Flag. She made a mistake.

The severe height difference between them was a grave miscalculation for the Guren, leaving it open far too long and giving Sophia ample time to tear into the Knightmare, knocking it away for a moment. But only a moment, as the machine rebounds back by using a grenade shot in mid-air with early, self-inflicted detonation. It's an exceptionally dangerous trick, riding her own explosion to keep at the preferred range of engagement and strike back by tearing into the flight unit. But if it gets the target down quickly and ensures a successful mission, it's worth every scratch and moment of internal system warnings. As an added bonus for the team, it's difficult to imagine an explosion not immediately grabbing the Flag pilot's attention... Whether it helps her compatriots get in their own shots or not, she can't predict. But she'd like to hope.
</poem>

 KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Sophia Mayhew Castellan
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Iron Nail Core Shredder!

 <Pose Tracker> Suzaku Kururugi has posed.
<poem>
Who is Fulgencio Teodoro Serrano, really?

That is something that Mafty is able to examine in detail as the fight continues. Serrano's intent is naked and honest; he bears no hatreds, he has no interest in killing in and of itself. But he burns on this battlefield, like a bonfire in the night. He does not love war. Men do not raise arms for their own reasons within a war. He does not love the political oppression of this place; he finds it distasteful, for much the same reason that he does not love war. Too often there is someone on the other side of the blade that doesn't deserve it, or doesn't know why they're even there.

Fulgencio Teodoro Serrano knows why Britannia wants him here. He is here because it is dangerous. He is here because it is where men fight with a cause, and know what that cause is. It's not his own men, either. His admiration of his opponents is bare enough; it is not possible to make him shrink away or regret being a part of it.

There is no shame, being struck down by a man blazing in the midst of battle for a cause that he is passionate about. But he is numb to feeling that. He is not a Newtype. Perhaps he is as awakened as any other, and perhaps he is not. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because he is fluent in the language of battle itself. The pulse of the world. The thrum of engines. All of it makes a sort of sense to him, which is strange even to him, because he did not grow up any more harshly than any Britannian noble did. Which wasn't to say none WERE raised harshly.

The Britannian Zenith 250 pushes into the gunfire on purpose, its pilot understanding that it is not the true Danger. It swings his blade to bat aside the actual danger of the thrown beam saber against all rational logic and crashes in through the chaff. It does not swing high-- it lowers itself to the ground as far as it can as it charges, sweeping towards one of the Messer's legs in a great charging cleave.

The Glasgow pursuing Orpheus has the great misfortune of being shot closer to the connection point than to the actual harken's anchor area. Its hip on that side explodes and sparks, and the arm carrying its ranged weapon goes scattering across the ground. The pilot makes certain to keep hold on the blade that it's carrying however, and as it descends sweeps it down towards Byakuen, apparently not at all intent on attempting to maintain the high ground.

Back with the Zenith 250, it reels in its slash harkens, grabs hold of another segment of deteriorated wall, and pulls it in the way in reaction to the oncoming missiles. They slam into the structure thunderously, and although they pepper the Zenith head to foot-- a decisive blow is not done. It stands there, sooty and tarnished, its gold trim a pale bronze beneath the muck.

The Sutherland that C.C. had engaged moves towards her-- but the Zenith 250 waves it away. It turns and goes to join Orpheus.

MEANWHILE (AGAIN)...

Minutes have passed. The heat signatures of the first reinforcement machines beginning to power up can be heard, and there is a momentary scramble above when police can be seen checking what blew a hole in their floor. The buzz of chatter carries below, accompanied by the occasional noise of anguish by somebody clearly hit by the missile volley.

The Zenith 250 points at C.C.'s Burai, and the voice of the Knight within answers, "Good! Very good! You don't have the fire the others do for this place, do you? But for these people, eh? Or something else? Tell me, if you like! But you've given me your best and so--"

His slash harkens fire. The Britannian Zenith 250 rockets across the intervening distance to the parking structure, hooking buildings in passing with alarming rapidity. Its final leg of the 'leap' sees no harkens deployed. It plows forward into the parking garage, swinging its blade towards C.C.'s Burai.

It bounds at the end of the charge, slipping out the other wise. The CHNK of slash harkens hitting the side of the parking structure can be heard, and then the Zenith is uncomfortably out view.

</poem>
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets Hathaway Noa with MVS Heavy Strike!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets C.C. with MVS Heavy Strike!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi targets Orpheus Zevon with MVS Dual Swords!
 KTS: Hathaway Noa blocks Suzaku Kururugi's MVS Heavy Strike, taking 6082 damage!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has engaged Hathaway Noa
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan blocks Kallen Kozuki's Iron Nail Core Shredder, taking 4140 damage!
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to parry Emilia Eschonbach's Zeya B3M HEAT Hammer Double Swing, taking 4300 damage!
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 61.
 KTS: C.C. fails to retreat.
 KTS: C.C. fails to react to Suzaku Kururugi's MVS Heavy Strike, taking 6082 damage!
 KTS: C.C.'s Type 1RHM Burai High Mobility has been disabled.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan blocks Karma Sato's Glasgow MG Spray and Pray, taking 5690 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Karma Sato's Smart Guy activates, causing Designate L1!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon parries Suzaku Kururugi's MVS Dual Swords, taking 797 damage!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has engaged Orpheus Zevon

 <Pose Tracker> Hathaway Noa has posed.
<poem>
Will you now? But - I have no intention of just being another piece on Zero's board, Hathaway thinks to himself at C.C.'s cheshire promise, before issuing an actual reply with words, " - curious, that out of R1, Q1, and P1, your callsign is the one that sticks out."

It wasn't actually all that curious, no more than any other fake name was. Whether it was a name she gave herself, or just Zero's callsign for her, she was not an analogy for any of Chess' traditional pieces, and that meant that Zero probably valued her more than the rest of his organization.

Well, that'd be the implication, but he did get the feeling that Zero perhaps cared about his men more than he might have thought he did. So maybe the way he picked out his callsigns like that was meant to deceive others into believing otherwise - for some, unseen purpose.

    Or maybe, Zero just really liked chess.

 - what? Hathaway blinks once, his eyes drifting to the side. The only thing that met his eyes was the blacked out panoramic monitors, of course, but what he was looking for was something past what his two eyes could perceive.

"Longshot, Q-1, be mindful of your fellow pilot - she's in your capable hands."

She's slipping into a fugue. She's furious, terrified, excited, and all of that emotion is swirling inside like a bubbling cocktail setting her heart on fire. If she's left to her own devices, she'll run herself roughshod. Hopefully those two can pull her back if it gets to that.

C.C.'s assistance with her Burai is very much appreciated, as it gives his Messer time to boost up and catch its saber - even though it has lost its right leg in the pricess of doing so. Twisting with poor balance in the air, it firmly plants its remaining foot against what was formerly, an insurance office and pushes with a bent knee to spring back towards the Zenith in a rocket powered, gravity assisted dash as C.C.'s Burai hits the bricks.

This guy .. I'm not sure if I hate him more, or less than the average Britannian noble. In the end, he's basically the same kind of person as Kenneth Sieg, hm? Hathaway realizes, able to draw the comparison easily. Although they served different powers, just like Kenneth, the inspector was a man who did not take personal pleasure in battle, yet would not regret trading blows with those who truly believed in their battle.

He was also a spry and preternaturally capable pilot, despite his lack of psychic powers.

We've only got two minutes left .. if that. If I can't bring this guy low here, we'll have to pull out as is. Oz is still going strong, and the other three seem to be doing well enough..this isn't a foregone conclusion, yet.

The Messer drives its saber in a stabbing motion, preparing itself for the Zenith to parry it at the wrist again by cocking its other arm at the elbow to unleash a volley of point blank gatling gunfire should that prediction prove true, in order to suppress the Zenith and give Hathaway the opportunity to swap his Messer's grip into a reversehold on the saber and drive it down for a second, overhead blow.
</poem>

 KTS: Hathaway Noa targets Suzaku Kururugi with Formation NexT 100!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi fails to Parry Hathaway Noa's Formation NexT 100, taking 7670 damage!
 KTS: Hathaway Noa has engaged Suzaku Kururugi

 <Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
<poem>
Wired down by Emilia mostly defines her responses, here. Nearly sawing the KMF in half doesn't stop her - with that HEAT Hammer she's got an ample weapon, even against a much bigger machine like the Flag. That hammer would ''obliterate'' her Defense Rod, so she swings out with the Sonic Blade to try and knock it aside. She misses the timing; one hit rattles the Flag's entire chassis.

The second dents in the front of the cockpit block. Sophia sucks in a breath. But she doesn't yield here, either.

She surges to one side, whipping up her Defense Rod. The spinning speed-matching stick is ''designed'' to counter bullet fire, but that much from the Glasgow defeats its capabilities and the Flag takes a whole clip to the chest. More of her machine's readouts turn red.

But she forces it further anyway. Her eyes cut to the side, where a meter is filling. Not yet. Not yet...

Kallen returns at what feels like the speed of light. "That fast...!" Sophia hisses, stunned by the ingenuity of that return. A claw rip through her systems. But also, rips through the bindings holding her down. Instantly, the Flag bursts away, thrusters blasting it straight upward. Sophia considers abandoning the fight entirely, here. It's frustrating, but she wasn't prepared for that much power coming her direction.

But she can give it, too. She docks the Linear Rifle. The whole time, a whole-ass ''second gun'' has been mounted to her machine's side, and she disengages it now, the capacitors buzzing to life.

She finds the tallest spot on a standing building and lands on it with a sharp thunk. Warning sirens blare. But she whips up the weapon - the kind of massive linear cannon usually used by Flags that don't even have the flight pack - and sights.

"I believe it's my turn now, girl," Sophia says, coldly.

"I hope you don't mind."

The sky fills with the BZZZZAP of capacitors discharging, firing gigantic 200mm shells toward the three Knightmares that would quite neatly obliterate any of them.
</poem>

 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Attune Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Emilia Eschonbach with Linear Cannon Maximum Charge!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Kallen Kozuki with Linear Cannon Maximum Charge!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Karma Sato with Linear Cannon Maximum Charge!

 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach blocks Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Maximum Charge, taking 6556 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sophia Mayhew Castellan's I See Your Sins activates, causing Designate L1!
 Your unit's HP stands at 7960

 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
 KTS: Karma Sato fails to evade Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Maximum Charge, taking 6556 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sophia Mayhew Castellan's I See Your Sins activates, causing Designate L1!
 KTS: Karma Sato's Type-1R Burai Custom 'Longshot' has been disabled.
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
 KTS: Kallen Kozuki fails to Evade Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Maximum Charge, taking 6556 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sophia Mayhew Castellan's I See Your Sins activates, causing Designate L1!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.

 <Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.
<poem>
        The Glasgow finds itself propelling down as his hit lands, the Glasgow even in its free-fall seemingly prepared to strike. Giving up the benefit of the high ground was definitely a saving grace. Maybe the loss of its ranged weapon made it reconsider its options, perhaps there were no more ranged weaponry prepared in the higher floors? Or perhaps in the heat of battle, the pilot simply decided to charge? All reasonable assumptions about what could have been occurring, and all that in the long run still didn't mean much when it came to the mission at hand. They needed to continue on and quickly. Two minutes were on the clock. It was almost as if they were a chess player in time. Having to quickly pre-plan their moves, adjust to the situation to squeeze out every moment they had.

        Oz had yet to fail a mission for the Knights, and he hadn't intended to do so just yet. So as the Glasgow descends with the blade in hand, the Byakuen prepares its retaliation to be swift, the cannon finally finds itself pulled back into the component before two blades clasp out like a claw from the same appendage, clamping down on one another before creating a larger blade. As the unit descends, the Byakuen at first avoids the crash down from it before attempting to close the distance. There's so little time left that honestly. . .He has to make a choice. &lt;"You're one troublesome woman. . .Always trying to get the last word in. . ."&gt; He says that but can't help to smirk in his cockpit just a bit,  &lt;"I'll be borrowing your path C!"&gt;

        The next moments would need to occur swiftly. A transition from attack to maneuver all at once. Knowing the Glasgow's assault wouldn't stop using the combined blade, Orpheus attempted to parry the arm to break the unit's stance, to create an opening. Using it's only arm left as a guide, it'd skim about the surface of the Glasgow's arm, sparks flying as the blade skid across it's armor before attempting to slash in at the joint, fully intending to strip the Glasgow of both arms. While it wouldn't be completely out of the battle, it'd at least hopefully give him the time he need to continue to the next floor of the garage. It's Slash Harken intending to take the same path created by C.C. in order to ascend once more. Though from there it'd be a question on whether he'd be able to notice the new arrival that appeared.
</poem>

 KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Orpheus Zevon targets Suzaku Kururugi with I'll Tear Through!' Combined Blade Component!
 
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi blocks Orpheus Zevon's I'll Tear Through!' Combined Blade Component, taking 6820 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Orpheus Zevon's Precision Attacker activates, causing Nullify!
 KTS: Suzaku Kururugi's Zenith 250 has been disabled.

 <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
<poem>
"...ah. I suppose this is a fair punishment for pretending to be diagonal for the day. Something really irresponsible got into me, didn't it?" C.C. murmurs as she gets gouged at the knees by the Knightpolice, her Burai starting to detonate in a flurry of sparks. She absolutely has gotten an ejection system...but she's deep in the labyrinth of a police compound, and the blocky module crashes halfway before getting anywhere near the outside.

It's a crumpled wreck that only has a narrow window between ejection and being surrounded by whoever is left spare in this building, guns pointed at the compartment...but when one of the Britannians finally pries the cockpit open, it's completely empty. In the midst of this most crucial operation, C.C.'s seemingly vanished like the wind.

Atop a nearby rooftop, a witch can be found lying on her side, letting out a deep breath and fanning herself beneath the moonlight. "...could have played it off better than that. I suppose it's irresponsible to play forward lead tactician when Mafty's around. The idea sounded a little bit fun, but in the end it's a little bit of a mismatch with what I can do. A shame, really."

"But it's always been that way."

At least she bought the space for Oz and Mafty to make the decisive blow, and in C.C.'s circumstances - you take whatever solaces you find and wring them for all they're worth.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Suzaku Kururugi has posed.
<poem>
This time around the Messer lands its blow. The Zenith 250 leaps backwards as the blade cleaves into its shoulder and downwards, avoiding being properly bisected largely by giving ground at the correct moment. The pilot is adrenaline-filled and surprised, and severs the connections in the right hand of the machine and the rest of it-- the legs, thankfully, remain properly interact.

The Britannian Zenith 250 rapidly seizes its blade from its left hand to avoid dropping it altogether, firing a harken into the precinct building and reeling itself backwards in anticipation of what the one that was in the parking garage might do. He's not certain, now-- though he knows that if he can wrap it up with Mafty, he'll have forced them to change priorities.

He waits. What will it be, Orpheus Zevron?

But Orpheus Zevron isn't coming after him. A Glasgow gets both of its arms chopped off nearby, backing up to the edge of the garage and firing its ejection seat.

Fulgencio Teodoro Serrano sighs. One of his slash harkens angles to the skies and then fires. He looks down towards Mafty's Messer, securing his blade on his back.

"'Til next time," Sir Serrano says. The harken above is caught by something-- ah, it's his VTOL.

The Britannian Zenith 250 ascends into the sky, re-engaging with its VTOL and disappearing into the early morning sky.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
<poem>

        Karma sees the shell coming at him and does  his best to get out of the way, but is not nearly fast enough as his weapon arm is ripped off.  The rest of his suit is beginning to freak out at the whole missing arm thing and Karma has to override the ejection system before he ends up losing another Burai. At least it wasn't an Eva's spear this time.

         Over the comms Karma reports in to the others &lt; "Longshot has to withdraw, else I am going to end up on the scrap pile. "&gt; Longshot begins to withdraw as he switches over to a private line to Emilia, &lt;"Hey, make sure you slag this one."&gt; It's like helping Emilia to control herself right?
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
<poem>
The Guren spins toward a block of cover the moment electric sparks fill the skyline. Fast the machine might be, but not fast enough. There's nothing for it, Kallen had been thinking about what Mafty was saying about Emilia, and planning to try and snap her back to herself. In the end Kallen has to rely on the Guren's significant armoring to cover for her mistake. ...Worse, she didn't even take advantage of the situation! If she was going to take the hit anyway, she could have maneuvered in closer. Nothing for it, she'll just have to carry through and cover all their bases. She shouts over the Black Knights' personal frequency, more specifically dialing up Emilia in her Burai 'Jack'. "Jack, listen to me and breathe! You're going to be fine. Now coordinate with me and disable that machine, then we can fall back with Longshot. Two aces down in addition to a successful mission... They'll feel this, I promise they will."

Kallen has no idea if this will actually work to bring her back to her senses. But it's all she can really do in the situation. She's not a Newtype or any kind of person who can connect to minds directly. She's just Kallen Kozuki, Q-1. Captain of Squad Zero. And she's going to punch through that flying pain in the ass, now that it's pulled out a frankly ridiculous heavy cannon, and the pilot is no doubt reeling from their survival of what should have been a sure-fire three kill sweep. Truthfully, the Guren's a little low itself, so it's a bit slower to approach than the prior moves. But it shouldn't take much more than the teamwork between Emilia and herself to finish this.
</poem>

 KTS: Kallen Kozuki targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Iron Nail Slash!

 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        "Take that!" Emilia yells, satisfied and angry as the hammer hits. That'll show them. That'll show him. If she's so damn useless, how is she taking down a Flag?? The Union's new hot weapon of oppression. "You're done!"

        But Sophia isn't done. The flag tears free of her harkens, and she swears and hits the cable release. They're a tangled mess now, a liability. She still has four of them, that's enough. She starts to charge forward,  It's a rookie mistake. She sees the cannon, and drops the hammer. She can't pull off the evasion in time, she overcommitted. So she pulls up the shields on her arms and braces.

        The impact sends her Burai hurlting backwards, and she's bounced around in her cockpit.She releases the controls to shield her head- the correct move at this point. She doesn't have the skill to make a recovery from that. Fragments of her  Burai's left shield- and left arm- scatter across the ground. Everything below the shoulder is gone. Half a shield remains on the right arm. She's got enough to punch and defend with... just. Barely.

        And then she hears P1 come over the line and she lets out a frustrated sound. She's got blood on her face, but it looks like it's from her arm. Lucky. "I don't need you to tell me that! We still have to finish the mission! I'm not leaving here a failure we've still got over a minute!" That's not enough time. But she has to finish it. She has to be useful so they don't throw her out and shoot her. Or worse.

        She can't close that distance, her hammer is way over there and her anti-personnel guns won't reach.

	But she still has two anti-ship harkens from the Giantkiller array. Q1 comes over the comms. That's an order. She can follow orders. "I'm fine. I'm fine. I can... I can provide one shot of ranged support from here. Take advantage of it." She's not actually fine. She's not calm. She's pretending at it. But she can aim. "...I'm going to pull you from your perch you damned hawk!" Both large scale harkens fire straight for Sophia. She's pushing her range. She loks her wheelspinners, and prepares to reverse suddenly and fiercely. She just has to unbalance her, and bring her down to the hard, harsh ground. Even if she can't finish her, Q1 can. Q1 matters, she can finish the mission after it all.
</poem>

 KTS: You have commands:
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Beanstalk Pull!
 KTS: [Lucky] Emilia Eschonbach's The Misfortune of My Birth activates, and luck goes her way!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to evade Emilia Eschonbach's Beanstalk Pull, taking 6960 damage!
 KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan's SVM-01 Union Flag Sophia Custom has been disabled.
 KTS: Emilia Eschonbach roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
 KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 39.

 <Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
<poem>
The linear cannon pulps that sniper-type machine, and blasts apart some of the shielded Burai's defenses. But shields, parts, those are replaceable. Expensive, maybe. Bleeding them is possible, providing their backers aren't too wealthy. But getting the pilots is how you end a fight.

They'll be thinking that too. Her jaw sets, watching the Guren come in. The linear cannon is discharged completely. She doesn't even really have an option, here.

But that Burai's shipkiller harkens get there before the Guren. They swerve in a way she's not expecitng and saw completely through. The Flag's systems are still recovering from anchoring to fire the cannon; the legs get shorn completely off...

Which means the locked components are off. She's free. Before the Guren even gets there, Sophia flicks the transformation lever and the Flag shifts into Flight Mode and burns ''straight up'', rapidly blasting away from the zone.

Once the G forces settle down, she thumps her head against the back of the cockpit seat. "This is Castellan. I've downed one of the mongrels attacking the Knightpolice for you," she says to local dispatch. "Might I suggest speeding up your responses? G-Hound won't always be in the sky to protect your people."

She flicks the autopilot on and the Flag starts to cruise away.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Hathaway Noa has posed.
<poem>
    " ... next time, huh."

Through the fuzzy view of the backup cameras, Hathaway watches the Zenith retreat with a breath. While it wasn't a kill, repelling him from the area was still good. Let's see .. C.C. is down, but .. where is she? She's - there. he locates her by feeling out her presence, and knowing that she would not need a rescue made that situation not nearly as unfortunate.

P-1 was retreating, Q-1 and Jack had defeated the Flag, and Orpheus was meaningfully chewing through his opponent. Things were..

    " - working out well, for once."

Shakily, Hathaway breathes out once again, before enacting a breath exercise to calm himself. There's about a minute left. With this, we can finish up and extract.

"Oz - make sure to grab one of those new swords the enemy was fielding," - clearly, the ones with the resemblance to Rakshata's work - "I want it looked at by our resident specialist."

Rakshata will be able to tell for sure if that's a repo, or just something made under the same premise. If it's an accurate, to-spec reproduction of her sword, then it's likely the blueprint was fed to the enemy. If it isn't, then they have some very apt engineers. Overall, I'd take the latter over the former.

Reaching out to its wayward leg, the Messer grasps onto it, intent on preventing it from being captured and studied.

"With the time we have left, thoroughly trash every piece of equipment you can get your hands on in the motorpool; the more attention they've paid to renovating a floor, the more value they're probably placing on what they want to store there, so prioritize what you can and be prepared to extract in t-minus fifty seconds."

With his final orders issued, the severely damaged Messer retreats to the truck that had originally transported it there. Once the container had folded up over the unit, Hathaway disembarks - no longer dressed as Mafty, but speedily swapped into a worker's jumpsuit and flatcap, an apt disguise for him to slide easily into the driver's seat and begin driving off.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        As much damage as they can, huh? That's easier said then done. She buzzes forward to the heat hammer, and ejects the clip of explosive charges. She slings it into the support arm to carry it, and charges as it locks into place. They only have a minute or so, and he destrctive potential is limited. But not entirely diminished.

        She throws the charges, detonating them with gunfire as best shge can as she goes. It's not as clean or precise as Mafty might hope, but she'll do what she can, eye on the timer.

        It feels good though, devastating the Knightpolice. Messing up Britannian forces. Wrecking things Grandfather is so proud of. Yes. That feels good... right? That's how it should feel. Maybe it just wasn't enough this time.

        At t-minus 48 seconds, she starts her retreat, using her remaining harken to clumsily descend, before scattering as ordered. "...That should be good enough." She says, quietly to herself. They have to keep her after that.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Orpheus Zevon has posed.
<poem>
        &lt;"Understood."&gt;

        With the retreat of the Glasgow, it seemed for the most part the battle was over. At least on his end. Though considering what the situation was. . ."Looks like we sustained some heavy damage as well. . ." After picking up the enemy blade, looking it over from his monitors he really can't help but feel there's a rather uncanny similarity to it. Almost unsettling. . .

        &lt;"Q-1, I'm leaving the main objective to you. . .I've got a feeling if I don't sink my fangs in now, we might lose something important. . ."&gt; At that remark, the Byakuen, now unimpeded for the most part truly began to climb up higher and higher into the garage. While the original objective might have been to handle dealing with dismantling the precinct, but now. . . With the top most level being so well fortified, it was clear something at the top level was being hidden. Even if he had to drill his way in, he planned to see what was hidden and if he was lucky. . .Possibly take into their custody anyone who might have had knowledge on the blade. "If they already knew we were already evacuating. . ." The sight of the dead man at the floor comes to his mind again, as well as the missing Glasgow. . .

        It's one of the few times that Oz ends up making a request, no, an order(?) &lt;"Mafty, near the first floor there was a body. I don't think it's a casualty from us. If possible we might need to have it examined. . .In the meantime, I'm planning to see what these guys were hiding in their little penthouse garage spot. . ."

        With that remark, whether he could access it normally, or through just the use of force, Orpheus intended to make his way into the upper area of the garage and find what it was they were hiding.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
<poem>
Momentarily, C.C. feels that ping outstretched on that layer she seems to halfway live upon in moments like these. It's as real to her as an actual hand grasping on her shoulder. Ever so subtly - she lets it confirm her presence, then brushes it away from lingering there.

A little microphone swings down over her mouth and much more tangibly responds, &lt;"Just so it's clear, you won't need to concern yourselves with rescue when it comes to me. If nothing else, my talent is taking care of myself in that regard, yes? I am perfectly intact and safe."&gt;

It's a little bit brusque-sounding. C.C. intended for it to be, even as part of her thinks of the practical utility of being more diplomatic about it. Such is the difficulty of being so mismatched to this movement.

In the moment, C.C. thinks little of the triumph against the law - though she certainly never got along with authority. Right now is the liminal hour of the moon overhead, its lights consistent in contrast to the burning fires and flashing lights taking place down below. Certainty and chaos bounded by the abstraction of the horizon. All of her attachment to reality is in simply floating here, halfway between it all, in this little corner up above, untouched by anyone.

If she wasn't careful, this moment might slip into eons.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Kallen Kozuki has posed.
<poem>
The Guren watches their damaged enemy fly off as she's en route. ...But that's just fine. Despite what the pilot believes, for Kallen, killing the pilot isn't the first resort, merciless as she may be to their machines. Even though she has the Wave Surger, frying people isn't something she enjoys. As long as they're alive, there's an opportunity to see through the propaganda and fight to improve the world. Once you kill somebody, that's it. That person doesn't have those chances any more. Sure, there's people who are too far gone. People she'll never get through to. She won't refuse to kill, but she also won't jump straight to it. Maybe she's too soft-hearted deep inside, beneath her flame-scorched shell... But she's still committed to this rebellion and the justice she's looking for, even then. Even if the whole Earth Sphere is against them.

As she's wheeling into the building to finish the primary objective, Oz sends out a request. "I'm on it, I'll clear out the targets and make a clean break." If need be, she'll get the corpse for Mafty as well. If his Messer isn't still working well enough to handle it.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Hathaway Noa has posed.
<poem>
And so it was that the Black Knights made off into the night, beaten and battered, but a victory under their belts. While most of the fighting taking place on the second and top floors of the motorpool contained a lot of the damage and prevented what would otherwise have been egregious collateral, they'd still utilized high yield explosives and ran amok all throughout it. It's no wonder then, that among the dead Britannians were also a number of beat cops - former Japanese policemen - caught in the crossfire.

It was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, though, and that is certainly something that the terrorists could take solace in.

The top-most floor had been largely unable to scramble during the battle, and once the Byakuen had made its way back up from the hole C.C.'s Burai had earlier made, Orpheus found a surplus of Sutherlands - likely the replacements for the Glasgows down below, and sure fire proof that the Knightpolice having an improved arsenal had been no fluke. With a golden opportunity, and liberal use of explosive charges, they wind up being reduced to scrap with the rest, for the most part.

As for Kallen Kozuki, she is unimpeded in attacking the upper level of the preceinct and reducing its offices above ground level to rubble - it's a real turkey shoot as to whether or not there were high priority targets there, but between this, the motorpool, and the power outage, the entire emplacement had been sufficiently crippled by their raid that further attempts to utilize the location would be a massive sink of time and funds, that would also come at the cost of more possible attacks during re-construction. Not that Britannia was one to rebuild, either way.

With that, the Knightpolice's ability to be an active presence in the Ghetto was reduced to nill - and within days, the Union's mainland news agencies were reporting the situation as tragic, that the poor elevens stuck there were now devoid of the Knightpolice's protection and tender support. With the attack itself having little to no photographic or video evidence, the puff piece largely hinges on highly out-of-context cuts taken of life in the ghetto.

As if the Knightpolice had ever done anything to fix that.

Even so, the Naka Ghetto could now be used by the Black Knights as a staging ground once more, to provide their people easier ground access and movement in the area, and on the PR side of things, the lowered presence of the patrols meant that the locals lives had gotten just a little bit less violent, even if no less unkind.
</poem>

[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Phase 1]]
[[Category:Phase 1, Turn 1]]