2024-09-06: Break The World Side Story: Raise The Beam Flag Of Victory
- Log: Break The World Side Story: Raise the Beam Flag of Victory
- Cast: Rudi Pixyzalto, Alto Saotome, Ruri Hoshino, Rei Ayanami
- Where:
- OOC - IC Date: 09/06/2024 - 08/30 UC 0099
- Summary: Cosmo Babylonia utilizes Break The World as a distraction to take Side 4 as their own. This scene focuses entirely on the lives of civilians during one of those attacks. It matters not what advances there are to warfare, when mobile suits fight, civilians always become collateral. For this scene while this log is credited to these players, the players were all playing NPC civilian non-combatants caught in the attack. Warning: This log is not for everyone. If you're not up for reading about civilians caught in the middle of a Colony attack and dying, then maybe think before going over this one. TW: Senseless Death, Child Death, Crush Injuries, Head Trauma, Decompression Death, Total Party Wipe.
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
For the Frontier Side between the Moon and Earth, very little happens out here. In part, this is due to the electrified shoal zone which makes the journey for importers and exporters hazardous. There's talk of reinvestment, resettlement from accession into the League, rather than merely being a glorified football no one wants being passed around in the hands of NUNE's government but the people here are proud and skeptical it'll be any different from the Federation.
They've heard it all before, but despite all the grand talk, their Colony hasn't seen any real change since the One Year War. The streets and shops have a decisively middle ages vibe of the 19th century-early 20th century in the BU South, worn down from decades of changing hands.
Still they make it work, and despite hardship, the people here stubbornly thrive.
It is August 30th, UC 0099 here on Frontier IV. Today is an extra-special day for those who live here. The local 'Frontier Academy' is throwing a School Festival with a grand beauty pageant for 'Miss Countryside' which makes for a big event in a Colony where they rarely have the budget for anything else. Old Southern BU dress is common, as if indicative of everyone's image of what genteel country is, but it isn't the only game in town. Most dresses were hand stitched by the local fashion clubs, rather than bought.
Banners stretch across the long horizontal windows of the school with support for everyone's favorite contenders. 'Go Cecily!' and 'You've Got This Gwen!' or even the occasional protest of 'NO SWIMSUIT CONTEST=NO JUSTICE!' There's also just simple advertisements, 'Comics Swap 20% off' 'Art Show at Mason Hall Coming Soon! September 18th-29th.' and 'Eating Contest to be held after Miss Countryside!' that tells a story of how important this day is to the locals.
There are other booths of course, most local businesses that can find any excuse to be here are setting up here because there's not going to be much business anywhere but here today. Sweets from the local bakery that's been threatening to close down for years is here, making a windfall. There's also festival food of Yakisoba and Korean Tacos alongside Shiskabobs and Pretzels. The local library is holding a book fair here celebrating 'Banned Books from the Gryps Era.'
The district buzzes with excitement, because this is one day where so many can put their cares aside for fun. Not everyone is here of course. Many people are working so others can be here, but they're cross-Colony at the factories that are away from the residential district, with the few manufacturing jobs that are left. The local War Museum is still open on the other side, but that's because local war enthusiast (his credentials of expertise are a little dubious) Roy Jung can't ever imagine being anywhere but here. The latest One Year War exhibit has a Guntank that's been refurbished and repainted again and again, Roy insists that he could get the cannons working if he needed to, but he has yet to prove that boast.
The MC on stage in the Frontier Academy Courtyard, Dwight Camry, son of the local Garrison Commander grins in his Tuxedo as he steps out in front of a local garage band of students that had been playing celebratory music on stage on stage, "Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. It's time for the festival's main attraction. The Crowning of a new Miss Countryside. The contest accepts not only ladies from our school, but also those nominated by others from all over Frontier IV."
Now the crowds start to saunter over, with younger children running, laughing. A young man dressed like a short order cook from a festival booth is apparently having some kind of lover's spat, because he's dragging over a young woman with fiery orange hair and a gorgeous dress by the wrist, as they argue, the young woman pulls away and starts to storm off, until Dwight calls out, "Cecily! Come up here! The contest's starting!" She yells back, "I won't have people betting on me!" As Dwight, looking put out, replies, "Come on! You were nominated!"
Other girls are filing in on the stage behind Dwight, nudging him, encouraging him to start anyway, perhaps feeling like their chances would be better without her. Their dress shows that while Southern BU is popular, it's not the only game in town. One girl dresses as if she were from the Texas Colony, another as if she were from the Middle East. Each presents themselves as a different form of 'Miss Countryside' based on where they identify with.
-=-=-
The local Side 4 Colonial Guard garrisoned here in the bowels of the Colony are intermingled with a few token Gaia Sabers, but it is colloquially known as a 'shit posting', the kind of place where you're sent if you mess up so that you vanish from your superior's sight. Alternatively it's for people with connections who lobbied to have their kids sent here because military service looks good for their future but they don't actually want them in any appreciable danger. As such, the security here is lax, the old Salamis in the hangars looks nearly brand new despite being nearly twenty years old, just because there's little else to do but maintenance, and rather than the latest GN's, they're given Jegan's that have been modified, and modified again since Char's rebellion.
Which is why when the first Den'an Zon floating silently towards a hangar bay fires a projectile into a shuttle of laborers working outside the Colony, it is entirely undetected. Control rooms full of Guard and Gaia Sabers officers are met with a similar fate. Most aren't even looking outside the reinforced glass, before it bursts, and the room is filled with blood as glass and bodies are ripped out into the silence.
The mobile suits float by the corpses gracefully, they do not even stop to examine their work. These are the 'Van' of the Vanguard, with the mobile suits reminiscent of helmets from the middle ages, the goggles evoking old gas masks. The motifs of harsh, brutal despotism and autocracy that have been seared into the collective consciousness of humanity for centuries in their media and stories.
The dozen mobile suits of similar make follow in behind at a far more rapid, less graceful clip, flying in well disciplined lines, while others skim the outside of this open Colony's 'windows' to search for patrols to ambush.
Within the Colony, the excitement of the big event swells in anticipation of the announcement.
"The judges' consensus is in! This year's Miss Countryside is" A number flashes on a console, Eleven! "... Cecily Fairchild!"
The cheer that goes up among the crowd at the declaration of Cecily as the winner, is interrupted abruptly, violently, by the first actual sounds of battle that were not swallowed by a silent vacuum. An old Jegan smashes into the roof of the school on it's back, which at first looks like it will hold, before with a great din, it crashes through three floors, an HVAC falling off the roof to crush a girl in a pink dress who hadn't yet realized the gravity of the situation enough to get away from the building.
It would be nice if all events were outdoors, wouldn't it? It would make her the lone casualty. But teachers and students alike were setting up in the classrooms for maid cafes and other exhibits alike.
Most do not have to suffer being buried alive.
The Jegan raises its Beam Rifle, only for that strange mobile suit, of a type noone has seen here before to swoop down, and brutally kick its head off in one clean motion. People are running, screaming, another Jegan is flying down in defense, but its shield immediately disintegrates from a beam, the circuitry in the arm holding frying, as it crashes into an adjacent park, knocking down trees.
People narrowly avoid being crushed by mobile suit and trees alike by scampering down a hill in a panic, grabbing children as they go, while the hatch opens and the pilot stumbles out, falling into the park. Dwight stays on stage long enough to start motioning with a hand, shouting into the microphone, "EVERYONE! GET TO THE SHELTER!" The closest shelter is built into that parkside hill, and assuredly it's not full
... but the scared people inside are already heaving the door closed. Even as people outside are are running towards it.
There's a child face down on the ground, a boy no older than seven by the look of him. As people run by the abandoned booths and scaffolding he sits beside, it's unclear if he's alive or dead.
You can always try to appeal to the people inside to try and let you in too. The door isn't closed yet. The next closest shelter is several blocks away, past the War Museum. Everyone knows this from evacuation drills.
A mobile suit of unknown make, two fallen Colony Defenders. In this moment of absolute chaos, what do you do?
OOC Notes for this: The format of this will be 'Choose your Own Adventure' basically. Use your first round to establish what your character is doing before the attack starts, and where they are as it does, then how they respond to it.
It's recommended that the characters gather up in a group, as survival chances are higher. Going off on your own will immediately make the challenge of surviving significantly higher, but do what you think your NPC would do.
There will be dice rolls at times using +roll 1d20, sometimes for the whole group, sometimes to take certain actions. Some are 'saving throws' or 'ability checks' in a D&D sense. The odds of death or awful injury due to a bad dice roll are high. If your character dies, then you may introduce a new NPC the next round near where the main group is.
It's a whole Colony of people in the middle of an attack, so this can be trivially done that they just intersect, it could be that they know someone there, or it could be they don't know anyone. If you want to coordinate your NPCs to know each other, then by all means!
You may all decide, but mostly I recommend if you don't have backup concepts, don't stall the adventure stressing on some big detailed concept! 'Teenager from the local high school, shopkeeper, young Mom, Child who lost their family, etc.' Sometimes a concept only needs a short blurb, and work out from there. The only limit is no soldiers! No 'real' combatants at all! And no FC NPCs that are actually named from F91!
Remember, you're normal people caught in the middle of an attack. You don't have to be heroes, but there may simply just be small acts of heroism you can have them choose to do, perhaps dying in the attempt. The win condition is arriving at some place where you can safely hunker down until the attack is over. It's quite possible that there's a full party wipe, and nobody makes it!
You may also CHOOSE to imperil your character further than the round instructions specify, but please coordinate that at the start of each round if you're doing this. If you need guidance let me know!
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
HELLO!
MY NAME IS
Rob
Rob sits at the counter of the book fair. Being one of the librarians at the local library, he volunteered to be the one to man the stall during the festival while everyone else was off having fun.
It's not like he had anyone to go and do the same with.
Rob sighs from the futility of a lonely life.
He then jumps though as he hears a chuckle from nearby. An older gentleman walks up, apparently seeing right through the man as he says, "Hang in there, Rob. You've still got many years ahead of you. You'll find someone."
Rob is always surprised at how this regular at the library always seems to know what he's thinking. Rob chuckles in mild embarrassment, "Yeah, I know..." Desperately trying to change the subject, Rob looks at the book that the older man is holding, "Ohhh, that's a good choice, Gerald. It's a story about the desperate survival of a man who's caught up in the middle of an attack on a colony."
Gerald mmmms thoughtfully, "Seems a little silly to me, actually. But it's not for me. It's for my wife."
Rob lets out an 'Ah' knowingly. His expression looks a little concerned as he asks, "How is she?"
Gerald shakes his head a little, "The doctors say it won't be long now... She has trouble getting out of bed now. It's a shame too, she was so looking forward to this festival." Gerald sighs quietly, "I never expected she would go before me..."
Rob nods slowly in sympathy as he rings the book up and accepts the money. He then smiles at Gerald, "Tell her I said 'hi'."
Gerald smiles and nods, "Will do." He proceeds to wander off at a sedate pace, looking around and simply enjoying the festival.
Rob watches Gerald walk off and then turns to see another customer waiting. Another familiar face. The girl in her late teens is a common sight at the library. Though she's a quiet one, so Rob doesn't know much more about her than her name. He smiles at her, "Hi, Lucy. I didn't expect to see you here... Would have thought it's not your kind of scene."
Lucy glances up at Rob for a moment, then looks down again as she murmurs, "Had to... My class dragged me into their stupid stall..." She places a few books down on the counter.
Rob starts going through them and entering them into the POS machine, saying, "Maybe you should give it a try? You might make some friends."
Lucy shakes her head, mumbling, "Doesn't matter..." Glancing up, she sees Rob's questioning look. So she explains a bit more, "... Dad's a soldier... We move a lot."
Rob nods slowly in understanding, "Must be hard..." He smiles as Lucy pays and he hands the books back to her, "Don't worry. It might be rough now. But life gets better, you'll see."
Lucy seems doubtful as she takes her books, quietly muttering, "Thanks..." She then quickly rushes off to disappear into the crowd.
Rob sighs again. He told her 'life gets better' though right now he's having trouble seeing it himself. He goes back to staring at the crowds of people walking by, enjoying the festival. Maybe something interesting will happen for once...
Rob yawns out of boredom.
Just as a Jegan goes smashing into the roof of the school nearby. The impact shakes the ground and kicks up a burst of wind. It's strong enough to knock Rob back off his stool and to the ground. Groaning, he gets up and then looks towards the source, staring in shock at the sight of the mobile suit resting on the building...
And then the building collapses.
Rob's eyes go wide. He looks around. People are screaming and running. Another piece of mobile suit smashes into the nearby park. Someone is calling out something about shelters...
Right... Right! He needs to get out of here!
Rob runs out of his stall into the throngs of fleeing masses. He is knocked around by several people as he makes his way towards the closest shelter, only to see they're already closing the door. There's obviously too many people gathered in one spot to fit into a single shelter... Shit! Where's the next one? Oh, right! The War Museum!
Rob turns and starts running, glancing back to look at that strange mobile suit hovering menacingly nearby. Why is this happening!?
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Serena Crow is a middle-schooler from the Academy, with big, black twin-tails all wrapped up in buns. She's here to support Miss Countryside with her very own lemonade stand -- she did everything about it all by herself!
Well, with the help of her shiny black Haro, obviously.
"I can't wait until I can compete," she sighs, elbows on the stand, as she props her chin up and watches the proceedings. "But it's no wonder Cecily got it this year, right...? She's just lucky I haven't caught up yet." She sighs, as she adds, "... but she is pretty dreamy..."
(It'll never happen, Serena. You just keep on dreaming.)
Her head is full of all the nonsense of any young woman, right up until the screaming starts. "Huh?" She blinks, straightening up, when she hears a loud BANG. She looks around -- only to look to the school in time to see the robot crashing through it. "Wh--what the hell?!"
She starts running, only to hear a horrible sound, tearing, SEARING behind her. She turns, and realises that her entire lemonade stand was just obliterated by a stray beam shot. "T...this can't be happening, right...?" She asks, clutching her black Haro in her arms.
"Happen! Happen!" Haro barks, flapping its little ear-flaps in alarm.
When she runs to the shelter, though -- the door is already closed. She sees people banging on it, viciously, desperately, and her mind glances over the way there are scrapes of things against the metal as they pound their hands down. "E--everyone!" She calls, only to be drowned out, at which point she cups her hands around her mouth and yells: "EVERYONE, THERE'S ANOTHER SHELTER!!"
At least a few people look her way, as she waves them down towards the war museum, yelling as she runs: "This way--!"
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
To Rick Abelard, this was supposed to be an easy day. He was happy about that. Indeed, at this moment, he's enjoying a vegetable-heavy shishkabob in a pita wrap. It's healthy, for the most part. Sure, it's got a little grease, but it's just from the chicken on the skewer.
Rick Abelard is wearing an official lanyard over a track outfit. A hooded sweatshirt that hides the gut he can't quite get rid of. Hood back, head shaved bald, dark and sweaty. Already a couple of times he's had to help people find lost children. He's easy to see from afar. Why, people even call him Coach. It suits him. It's even true - usually the track team, and a couple of years, the swim team, too.
He was just too young to get dragged into the One Year War, and he never wanted to get into anything like that afterwards. Rick Abelard has lived a peaceful life.
Now he doesn't.
A Jegan appears, enormous and inconcievable. Coach had been in the process of biting into his wrap when the Jegan smashes into the school. The school where the festival exhibits were setting up. Hell, Coach Rick had helped rig up the lights in the haunted house.
The haunted house on the second floor.
Of the school.
Of the school that --
The food in his mouth tastes like nothing. Another god descends from heaven, decapitating the destroyer of the school. A third is coming. There is the horrible sound of beam fire. A shield disintegrates. He can hear Dwight scream to get to the shelter.
Coach's head tilts down for a moment. The world swims in and out. Sounds seem to come from far away. Screams. Shouting. Words don't mean anything but it all starts to come back into focus when --
He can hear a child screaming. Coach's head turns around abruptly. He looks at the child who's shouting. At the others - the pitifully fewer others -- at that shelter door --
Snap. He throws down the wrap and fishes with a shaking hand for his whistle. "THIS WAY, PEOPLE!" It takes him three fumbles even as he runs like an automatic toy after the girl and the Haro. THEN he blows on it - a single shrill blast. "RUN!" Coming back to himself he looks over his shoulder, urgently waving one arm. His heart is pounding.
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
Poor Rob, he's just a local lonely librarian, his life is lacking excitement and future prospects, sure, but how is this the answer to that? And Serena is a middle schooler with her whole life ahead of her, and dreams for the future. This Miss Countryside contest could be her one day - could be.
That is assuming this isn't the last time it's held.
As everyone rushes for the evacuation, Serena ends up near Rob, them both fleeing, Serena's Haro flapping and bouncing behind her trying to catch up, on occasion being knocked slightly off course by a fleeing civilian before it corrects and rolls after.
Why is this happening to them?
Both of them are nearly overtaken at once by Rick, blowing shrilly on the whistle. It commands attention, and civilians can be seen veering towards him even over the distant thunderous noises, for all know the whistle of authority from Frontier Academy's track coach.
They all tear down the streets, and amongst the throngs of evacuees heading in the same direction, a small girl of probably no older than three, four - stands still, crying, holding onto a plush giraffe, with nary a sign of parents in sight.
Cars rush down the streets of the Colony, tires screeching as they try to veer away from the military trucks that rush out, with mounted anti-armor machine guns, already firing at the suit in the sky.
Another Jegan is checked by the shoulder of the other mobile suit, as it crashes into an old library, and that suit grapples with it, even as the old library starts to crumple from the Jegan thrashing against it. Up close, the strange suit presses its lance at a downward diagonal at the cockpit, as there's a sudden charge of electricity, an unseen projectile causing the hatch to crumple on a downward angle en route to the reactor, and people start screaming.
Everyone knows what happens when a mobile suit's reactor is struck. But - that awful detonation that would consume them all doesn't happen, instead its cockpit seeps blood from the cracks of a crumpled hatch, as the Jegan goes limp against the building.
The machine gun mounted truck, as it sprays fire as its back, is casually kicked over. One man in a Colonial Guard uniform bails out before it's struck. Just one though. The car in the way, with an older woman fumbling for her keys, isn't so lucky.
It takes to the sky, engaging another Jegan, its lancer striking down another into a scaffolding. The girl who was crowned earlier as Miss Countryside is pinned by a scaffolding bar stabbing into her skirt, as the boy that was holding her wrist earlier rushes up to tear her skirt away, as the rest of it comes down towards their position.
They narrowly get away, at least.
Loudspeakers come on throughout the Colony streets, announcing, "Everyone, remain calm. Wait in your evacuation capsules for the time being. Remain calm."
It's a lovely sentiment, unfortunately, you're not in evacuation capsules at the moment, are you?
The local shops have people break into the windows and unminded counters, as they rush out with their spoils - food, primarily.
An alternative route presents itself before your eyes. While the closest shelter is at the War Museum, there's a linear rail line where people are fleeing down the steps to vanish beneath. The entrance is covered in a blue checkered awning, surrounded by parked cars on the street. If it's running, then it might be the fastest way to safety.
And even if it's not, it would get you away from being above ground.
Is getting off the streets safer? In an evacuation technically you're supposed to head straight for a shelter and not stop but, that's when everything is going well, right?
And even closer to it now, the War Museum seems very far away when the streets are full of fighting mobile suits.
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
As the option presents itself, both Rick and Rob will see on an elevated bridge near that awning, the telltale color of a Jegan crouched behind a building, waiting in ambush standing out in the sky.
Rob in particular however, will see that one of the attacking Mobile Suits - with those motifs of authoritarianism that he's seen again and again in so many of his books...
... has already spotted it, despite it's best efforts, and is veering in that direction.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Everything is in a haze, the shock of the situation clouding Rob's mind as he runs. All he can think about is the sight of those people getting crushed. But something cuts through the fog. A shrill sound.
Rob turns his head to look, see a man running past with a whistle. He recognises the school's Coach, though can't recall his name since they've not actually met. But the shrill whistle brings Rob's thoguhts back into focus. He also notices a schoolgirl nearby. He doesn't recognise her.
She doesn't seem the type to go to a library very often.
There's chaos all over the place, people running, mobile suits fighting. A nearby military truck goes rolling. There's so much! Too much! Rob can see more mobile suits fighting, a Jegan getting knocked into a building.
Wait, that's! That's the library where he works! If it wasn't for the festival... Would he still have been in there? Would have he been crushed?
Though a part of Rob does feel a little satisfaction at the sight of the source of many days of boring work crumbling under the weight of a twenty metre tall weapon of war.
Still, they need to get out of here before they're killed.
Rob sees a lot of people making for the rail line. That seems like a good idea, get away from the battle! Rob turns and starts to run that way too...
But then he spots the Jegan nearby, close to the rail entrance, trying to remain unseen. From his position though, Rob can see one of the attack mobile suits already charging in. Rob slows in his run as he realises... If they battle now, there's a chance it my splash over to the rail line.
Rob comes to a stop, but then notices people around him still running that way. He quickly calls out, "Wait! Stop! Don't go that way, it's dangerous!"
Whether they listen to him or not... There's not enough time to make them listen! They need to keep moving! Still, he tries one last time, saying, "We need to get to the Museum!" He then turns, starting to run that way again.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Serena isn't the type to visit the library that much -- but she is on the Track Team. "Coach!" She cries out, as she sees him catch up. "Coach, it's me, Serena!" She's -- trying to keep a hold of herself, anyway. She's never seen an attack this bad before...
Which might be why she shrieks, when a Jegan crashes into one of those libraries she never visits. "No!" She cries out, because even though her grades are terrible, even she knows what happens when a reactor is breached. But what happens instead is -- "N--no way... that's not... that's part of the machine, right...?"
It can't be... blood.
"Pilot error," Haro reports, and if a machine can sound sad, now's the time. "Pilot error."
Serena blinks at her tears, only to see -- "The rail line! W--we can get underground, and -- and we'll be fine!!" And she starts running there, too, only to hear someone call out from behind her that it's dangerous...
... and as terrified as Serena is, she's always had faith in the people around her. She stops, even though it seems like the perfect solution to her, and looks back to the man calling out the warning. (Wait, wasn't he the guy who worked at the library? Her friend Amy made her return a book she forgot she had for way too long, and all the late fees were soooo embarrassing...)
"Th... the Museum," she repeats, to herself, as she runs off that way again. "Right--!!"
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Coach keeps running.
Maybe if they run far enough, it's all going to disappear behind them. His mind had reached already for desperate hopes - a patrol going out of control - maybe a surprise appearance by the colony defense's suits - maybe even a recruitment drive. He doesn't like the recruitment drive but they have a point in this day and age. But a tragic accident with a Mobile Suit... that's something he could, with horror, encompass.
But it isn't that. They're battling. War came here.
To his home.
To --
No, he's here now. "I am GOING," Coach breathes, "to find whoEVER recorded these tapes and I am going to SHAKE THEM until they are FULLY MIXED-- *Miss Crow*! It is GOOD to see you--"
He's speaking without thinking. Hollering encouragement is easy. A reflex actions, one might see. His head turns around, sweeping, searching. Mentally he counts heads against his roster list. That roster list is at least 40% dead. He doesn't think about that. There isn't time. Sweat soaks into his shirt.
There's a girl standing there, crying. Coach leans forwards and speeds up. Ten yards of dashing, no big deal, no problem - "I got you," he tells the girl, scooping her up and holding her close. "We'll find 'em," he says, and he kind of hopes it's not a lie.
He notices the extra effort but he soon enough moves forwards. He blows several more twee-tweets on the whistle. "The train," he says. "Thank God --"
Then he sees Rob. "What the HELL is that fool--" he begins, before turning his head. There's a gasp. Clear enough to hear, no doubt.
A second passes. The thing about decisions in a lot of cases is that very rarely are they the process of reason and estimation. Certainly, you can make yourself do that - even having someone else involved can sometimes guarantee it - but most of the time, your rational mind is there to explain and perhaps recalibrate around what you've already decided to do.
It's hard to say where 'you' really begins.
In that second, Coach Rick Abelard makes his decision. "Miss Crow," he says to Serena, turning around to face her. "I need you to take care of her for a moment. I'll catch up." And with this the weeping child is handed over, giraffe and all.
Then Coach runs towards the train entrance...
... so that he can stand in front of it and turn around. Phwee-phwee-PHWEEEEET! He makes a big X with his arms. He sweeps them forwards in the direction of where Rob has brought up. Towards the war museum. Then he blows the whistle again. Whistle, X, point.
Whistle, X, point.
Whistle, X, point.
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
Some people listen to Rob's warning. Some at least. Other people barrel towards the stairs like people possessed. Coach picks up the crying child, who cries harder at first, hiccuping because - scared and handled by a stranger!
But - when handed over to Serena, she at least becomes marginally more coherent, "Mama - where's she?" She asks, sniffling and hiccuping.
They'll see it now in full, the Jegan standing up, backing up, firing at one mobile suit in the sky with it's beam rifle, only for its left leg, and part of the bridge beneath it to collapse as it's taken out from underneath it from a shot from it's assailant from behind.
It falls, its beam rifle still shooting in a desperate flail, attempting to take out his assailant.
A stray shot melts through a light post, melting through it, as sparks from exposed electrical wiring dance, insulation sloughing off gradually as it moves ever lower towards a parked car.
What happens next is predictable. Even without being fossil fuel powered, the overload of the new Elecar batteries detonate, blasting away the people nearby it, as other nearby parked cars go up.
It becomes too much, as part of the road collapses into the stairwell. Coach for one, gets struck on the shoulder by a piece of flying shrapnel, a piece of a sideview mirror.
The impact may cause old injuries to act up, but it's not significantly disabling, whereas Serena and Rob somehow avoid little more than an ear-ringing aural hell, as the little girl with Serena starts shrieking, overwhelmed by the loud explosions.
"It's all burning! Someone call the fire station!" One woman yells, while another, a father is calling out in a growing alarm, "Josh? Where are you?! Josh!"
There's a shell-shocked tinnitus to everyone still standing afterwards, as the mobile suit descends, pressing its lance against the cockpit again, even as the hatch opens. The pilot in the suit holding that lance, does not spare pulling the trigger, even seeing some semblance of humanity within the mobile suit.
In the distance, they can hear the sirens. A mockery of the idea that someone is coming to save them. Even their saviors are making things worse, but what else can they do? Let this happen?
Run!
Run!
You have to run!
You can see the Colonial Guard and the Gaia Sabers setting up another line in front of the War Museum, several modified Jegans, and one Heavygun brandishing dual artillery cannons mounted on each shoulder like something out of the One Year War.
As they do, the front doors of the museum crumple, as out of the front door, a man in an aviator helm that'd be ancient three centuries ago, stands on an open Guntank hatch!? What? Another local boy named Arthur holds an infantry Bazooka as he rides along, bracing himself on it's head. "These bastards! They think they can underestimate us! I - Roy Jung, of the Roy Jung War Museum will lead this defense! FIRE!"
The shadow of an anxious teen can be seen working the controls inside as twin barrels of the antiquated Guntank rise, before firing into the distance and one barrel simply... detonating upon itself, the mauled cannon. The artillery shell it fired arcing harmlessly in the distance, well, almost so. One of those mobile suits from the attackers spots it, and starts to fly towards them.
"SOMEONE GET THIS CRAZY COOT OUT OF HERE!" One of the Gaia Sabers officers shouts, as the guntank backs up- into the museum again, crumbling a column.
There's a shelter in that museum, of course there is, no war fanatic would do without, but with a mobile suit en route, is it worth making a run for it? While the entrance is partially crumbled, it's dicey whether one can get in that way, there are windows though...
Even as you evaluate the situation, the Heavygun with twin cannons begins firing shells thunderously, the empty casings spilling out onto the streets, bouncing erratically.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Rob was running towards the Museum again but then slows to a stop as he realises that the Coach is STILL running for the rail entrance... And then starts waving everyone off!? What the hell is he doing? He could be killed! Rob looks down at Serena with a questioning look as if asking if she knows. He then notices the child in her arms.
But there's no time for explanations as things play out roughly as Rob had expected. Well, not precisely. But as the Coach is trying to wave people off, a chain reaction ignites a collection of cars. The stairwell collapses, even as Rob raises his arms up instinctively to shield his face from the rush of hot air.
Rob shakes his head as the initial blast passes, though the ringing continues. He looks around at the destruction, the carnage. There's more shouting which he can barely make out. He sees that Coach has managed to survive. He calls out, "Come on! We need to get out of here!" He starts running again.
The sight of the defence line at the museum is both a relief and a concern. If they're still defending it that means the shelter hasn't been locked down yet. They might be able to make it!
Of course the concern is all that military firepower is naturally going to draw in the attention of those attacking.
But they can't keep running around on the streets... Surely the next shelter is even FURTHER away. And they're lucky they survived that last scuffle. They need to get someone safer, NOW.
That said, trying to go through the front is probably just asking for trouble. Especially with those shells flying everywhere. Not to mention that crazy guy in the Guntank looks like he might run over them during the attempt! Instead, Rob points towards the windows along the closest side of the museum, "Let's go through there!"
As Rob runs for the museum, he picks up a piece of broken pipe from amidst the debris littering the street. As he reaches one of the windows, he swings the pipe to smash it. He uses the same impromptu B&E tool to clean away the broken glass from the edges of the frame and then drops it.
Despite his seemingly sedate job, Rob appears to be surprisingly fit as he easily climbs through the window. Once inside he spins around and holds his hands out through the window towards Serena and the girl in her arms, "Come on, give her to me." That way Serena can climb through without issue.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"It's good to see YOU!" Serena cries, and if she's a little too emotional, well --
She can smell it.
When Coach hands her that little girl -- not all that much older than a toddler -- Serena scoops her up, tightly, in her arms. "Coach...?" She asks, as he runs off -- to stop everyone from making the same mistake she almost did. She looks to Rob, her expression tight, as she explains: "He's warning everyone..."
She has someone else to explain herself to, though. "Hey," she murmurs, to the little girl, making sure her giraffe is tucked safely between them too. (Somehow, the thought of her losing such a thing is almost as horrifying as... the things she doesn't want to think about right now.) "We're going to the shelter. Remember how we all practiced? I bet your Mama's right there, waiting for you."
As she's reassuring that small child, she sees, behind her, just why she almost made such a terrible mistake. That stealthy Jegan...
She turns her back to the explosions of those cars, all too mindful of the girl she's holding, now. It would hurt if she got hit -- but she doesn't want this girl to be hurt. Wheeling around like she does just means she's able to see exactly what's happening to that Jegan, though, as that horrific monster-suit bears down on it.
"He's getting out!" She cries, as it plunges its lance into the cockpit. "You don't have to--!!"
Even if they cared, they wouldn't be able to hear her.
They have to run, but the place they're running to...
"SERIOUSLY?!" Serena exclaims, as Roy Jung Jungs it. (This is a common enough occurrence as to be a proper noun.) "This is just like May Day!" They even activated the sprinkler system with that stupid gambit, and her nice new sundress got SOAKED, even though she spent TWO WEEKS sewing it.
Rob suggests they go through the windows, though, and Serena runs after him as he clears one out. She grabs her nice, the-weather's-artificially-turning shawl, and says: "Put this down over it, so you don't get cut by the glass!" It's a shame for it to get ruined like this, but... it would be even more of a shame if they got hurt getting inside.
Hey, wait a second, has she broken in windows before?!
(Nah, she just watched a movie where they did it.)
"We're getting inside through the window, okay?" She makes sure to explain, to the girl (and her giraffe), as she hands her over. "And you get in too, Haro!" The black Haro flaps its little ear-flaps, beeping affirmatively as she scrambles in through the window, and bounces in after her.
"Crime! Crime! Criminal act detected!" Haro chirps, as it bounces on the floor.
"Shh!" Serena hushes it. "Right now, it doesn't count!"
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
He could be, Rob. You're completely right.
Behind the coach there's an explosion. He doesn't look. There is chaos, noise, light flashes, heat, everything. He doesn't look. He keeps to the routine. He isn't sure when things are passing. He recognizes a couple of students in the crowd.
So it wasn't all a waste of time, after all.
The fact that something flies towards him - a sliver of metallized plastic, travelling fast enough to rip a gash in his shoulder as it flies just a centimeter away from where it might have gone into his jaw - the pain - it helps. "Guh!" The whistle falls from his mouth.
But that's why it's on a rope.
After that, he runs. Naturally, he's behind the pack, even if he makes his way forwards. Slower than he was a minute ago, even if the pain of his wound is helping. He comes back into view, clasping his shoulder, but gives Serena a brief, but perhaps heartfelt, grin.
"Mind your business, robot," he tells the Haro as he approaches the window. He vaults into it -- and then he sees the power of the Guntank.
"Damn fool... maybe he's trying to cover for us, driving that old thing out to make a ruckus," Coach huffs. He lingers near the window, to help others through, looking over his shoulder -- he sees the child, gives Rob a (bloody, but we can't help that) thumbs up, and soon enough keeps moving.
Maybe they'll get through this, he thinks. He always was an optimist.
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
The little girl nods at Serena, curling up against her, "I remember." She echoes, "Okay." She seems dubious, in the way young children often are, far sharper than adults give them credit for.
It is fundamental instinct to understand danger is all around you. Her mother is not exempt.
The thrown pipe shatters the window, and the sounds of battle are too loud for anyone to notice, or care. It's easy for them to both get inside.
Through the window they can even see it, a heavy metal door half-way open, with a locking wheel visible on the outside, it's on the other side of the First Floor.
All they have to do is make it. It's right there.
"We're not leaving! I'd rather die on my feet than huddle in some shelter!" Arthur shouts at the Gaia Sabers officer, in the standoff. "YOU'RE JUST GETTING IN OUR WAY!" The man calls back, but to his horror, he realizes that he too, is in the way.
Ordinarily driving around Colony, issuing commands, being King of the World is great, but anyone who's not in a mobile suit... "Driver! Get us out of here!" The Truck backs up, but it's already been marked as someone important in the defense.
Twin machine gun cannons on either side of the lance mow the truck down, as the dying driver loses control, and suddenly slumps with his foot against the accelerator.
The truck plows into the side of the museum, crashing through the lower levels of the museum. This museum is thankfully quite sturdy so the people inside don't get much more than the scare of a truck bursting through the side, showering them with bricks.
No the actual danger comes from the incoming mobile suit, a different design, firing a Rocket Propelled grenade, which the Jegan it's firing at- turns away- as it zips past the defensive line...
Leaving Hope - Nine Inch Nails - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yppksBz-JuI
... towards the War Museum. One entire side of the Museum showers them with deadly debris, taking out the foundation under an old Zaku II on the first floor. Static for years, it begins to topple forward, eighteen meters of restored mobile suit crashing down through an exhibit listing the numbers of people who died in the One Year War.
The people who died in Colonies, from being utterly destroyed by the Zeon armada at Loum, from being the victims of extermination campaigns by seem more relevant than ever.
Just numbers on a memorial.
The museum is ordinarily immaculate, but now the dust from the shattered wall is settling.
Rob and the little girl, whose name wasn't even known to them don't have to suffer. They're both crushed by the falling mobile suit. In the aftermath, only a leg is sticking from under it.
It is perhaps a small mercy, that it is the older boy's.
Serena isn't quite so lucky, buried in a pile of debris up to her shoulders, with her head sticking out, her entire head, hair, dusted white, several bleeding cuts.
She's conscious but, it only takes one look to understand, it won't be long. Her Haro, now a sooty grey, nudges her hand, "Serena! Serena!" It does it again, "Serena! Serena!"
He won't leave, even after it's over.
Outside, that same mobile suit swings around, drawing a Beam Saber, and Arthur atop the Guntank, is frozen. He's not pointing his Bazooka at it. For a brief second, it looks like perhaps it might be an act of mercy, from the pilot of the other side.
That his line is an unprotected teenager.
The beam saber carves through the Guntank's shoulder mercilessly, the severed circuits detonating at once, the boy is flung into the wall of the museum, and slumps to the ground, unmoving and eyes open wide.
The man with the aviator helm, Roy Jung, lies unceremoniously across a pile of debris.
Arthur's wish was granted, he died on his feet. He can't even have come of age yet. The Heavygun pivots, trying to send shells at the suit, trying to perhaps at least, kill his slayer.
The world has gone mad, and Rick is at it's center, it's spinning around him, and one can only realize how truly small one is, in moments like these. He is the adult here, it's supposed to be him that dies, not the children in his care.
The world isn't fair.
You have to go Rick.
Anywhere is better than here.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
"Thanks." Rob says to Serena as she sacrifices her shawl to make it easier for them to get in.
Once inside, Rob takes the girl from Serena. He's not exactly great with children, but he can get by as they visit the library. Though right now it doesn't really matter as her holds her tight, trying to reassure her, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."
Rob looks up at Coach as he makes it to the Museum and joins them at the rear. The blood on the thumbs up is a little unnerving, but nonetheless Rob gives him a shaky smile. It's a miracle they've made it this far, but they're only a stone's throw from the shelter now. They might be able to make it!
The side of the Museum is blown open, debris showering them. Rob tries to shield the child as the debris pounds them. And for a moment, it looks like he might succeed. Until the display Zaku comes crashing down through the floor above. Rob doesn't even see it as his life is suddenly extinguished in the blink of an eye. The young girl still in his arms.
The pilot of the Jegan that had evaded the RPG could only watch in horror at the results of his desperate attempt to save his own life. He squeezes the controls of his machine, "Damn you!"
The Jegan spins around in the air, raising the beam rifle in its hand. It's too slow to save that Guntank, but maybe with the Heavygun's help they'll be able to take this asshole down!
The Jegan fires. But the strange Mobile Suit bursts to the side. The fired beam punches through a several buildings, leaving a glowing hole in each behind it. The aggressor unit then raises its own beam rifle and fires. This shot is more accurate, carving through half the cockpit and out the back.
The shot misses the reactor, avoiding an explosion. But the now pilotless Jegan falls uncontrolled towards the ground. Right towards a group of fleeing civilians.
The ground shakes as the Jegan impacts atop them. All but one are crushed beneath it as it skids across the ground and comes to a stop.
The last survivor of the group, having been thrown to the ground by the close impact, sits up. It's the teen who had visited the book fair stall back during the festival. A time which seems so, so long ago now. Lucy, still shaken by nearly being crushed, looks down at herself and the blood splattered across her clothes. She realises it's from the others who she had been fleeing with just moments ago. She's oddly calm at the sight, though perhaps she's in shock.
Lucy looks up, seeing the blood seeping out from beneath the Jegan. She then looks up a little further, noticing the unit number painted on the mobile suit's shoulder. Her eyes go wide. She turns her head to the partially annihilated cockpit, within which the half vaporised form of its pilot is melted into his seat.
Lucy begins to shake as she stares at the still intact half of the face, "D-Dad...?"
She screams.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"There it is!" Serena cries, as she points, with broad gestures, to the shelter. "Come on! Let's go!" Coach is hurt, but they can patch him up when they get inside--!!
But as she's running -- with a shriek as that truck plows in -- something else impacts, too. She can't even see precisely what it was that topples that Zaku, but her eyes widen, as she instinctively, horrifically freezes.
The crushing feeling of so much debris makes her shoulders sink, after a moment's struggle. "Ha... ro," her glazed eyes focus on her companion, briefly.
Dad brought him for her when she started middle school... since she wanted a pet... and they couldn't have... pets in a colony like this.
He'll be so ups...
---
"Mita? Mita!!"
Tabi Rem Kastel pushes through the smoke of the museum -- because a mom's ears are sharp. "MITA!" She yells, and when she finds Rick, she grasps him by the shirt. "Please, have you seen my daughter?" She ask-demands, all but shaking him. "She's only a little thing, she turned four last week -- she never drops her giraffe? Her father had custody for the weekend, I... I heard her crying..."
There's no good way to break that news.
But when she hears another young woman screaming -- if one older than her own child -- she recognises that noise, too. Distracted from her own horrors, she hurries out to the fallen Jegan, to put a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Lucy? Lucy, sweetie? It's Tabi, from next door. I work at the flower shop, remember?" She has to orient her, somehow. "It's not safe out here," she goes on. "We have to get to safety."
She pauses, and looks back to Rick.
"You're hurt," she adds, brow creased. "Come with us. Don't run off alone." Don't leave us alone, perhaps.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
The explosion is near enough to Coach Abelard that -- well, it doesn't blow his eardrums out. That's the good luck in action. The collapsing makes him cry out a warning, mindlessly. And then --
He turns.
The world has changed, drastically, and so quickly. The dust is settling a little. Where that man and the little girl with the toy giraffe had been standing. Now there's a Zaku II there.
The world swims for a moment. Then he hears a distant tinny sound. Serena. Serena?
Serena!
He shuffles to where the Haro is floating, bobbling. "Oh god," he says to himself. He crouches then, immediately. Game face, he tells himself, though it feels hollow. He takes Serena's hand. "I'm here," he says thickly.
But Serena isn't, not any more.
He stays there for a few moments. His hearing returns more, though he really wishes it wouldn't. He doesn't let go of Serena's hand until he can hear other voices. Someone's screaming for Mita. Who's Mita? There's a girl screaming in the distance. A memory comes back through Coach's mind: If you can scream that loud, it can't be that bad.
He turns his head to look up at Tabi. His eyes don't quite focus. Then they do.
A terrible thought comes through his mind. The root, perhaps, of that social awareness, that friendly manner, that steered him however gently into this role in his life. If he'd done something else... he might not be here right now.
He puts his hands on his knees and, with a grunt, stands up.
"... I saw a girl with a giraffe," he says, looking at the ground. "They were heading for the shelters."
He sucks in a huge breath through his teeth.
"... we're not safe until we get in one too," he says, and he can lift his eyes. Reaching up he takes the school lanyard off his neck, turning to rest it, and the shiny brass whistle, next to Serena. "Come on," he says. "We gotta stay -- clear of the Suits until we find one. There's one in here somewhere but I don't see the man who -- who knew where it was."
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
Three pass on. In a Colony like this, hundreds of thousands are still alive.
A child dies.
Her mother lives.
The world isn't fair.
A man witnesses the death of several children in his care.
And whether it is kinder or not in this moment gives a mother hope.
The world isn't fair.
A man in a Jegan tries to stop this madness. He dies.
His daughter is forced to watch it. A mother who doesn't even know she lost her child, tries to help her move.
The world isn't fair.
How many stories are there like this, on this day? The people here aren't even aware that on distant Earth, a Tombstone is descending.
Their small world is coming to an end.
And they don't even know why.
Who these people are? What they want?
Questions without answers, other than the violence inflicted, other than the lives taken.
They move on. They do not see the boy at Arthur's side, trying to process his death, the same boy from earlier.
They do not see the young mother holding a babe, struck by an empty shell casing of the enraged Heavygun pilot, spitting fire and fury.
'Miss Countryside' runs to the infant, and picks her up.
Your stories only intersect with theirs briefly, on this day of tragedy.
You keep moving.
There are stores of course here, places where one might hunker down in, but even the ones with basements hardly seem safe with mobile suits fighting in the streets.
The edge of the district comes before long.
Over a nearby grassy incline, there is a main Colony thoroughfare, the highway artery that cuts across the central window of the Colony, and while people are evacuating, it's not clogged. A produce truck sits on the side of the road, windshield spiderwebbed with holes, its upholstery drizzled with blood, a kindly old grocer some may recognize unmoving on the ground beside it.
The keys are there still in the ignition and while the cab smells of blood the mostly empty bed could fit everyone, taking them towards the other side of the Colony.
Or one could try to hoof it outside of the main part of the district, an action that would force you to skirt the Colony's bright window that runs perpendicular to the highway, catching the sun's rays reflected in from the mirror. The less urban parts of the Colony are likely to have far emptier and less endangered shelters.
Nothing is certain in this place. Random chance may claim your life at any moment. But a choice gives you a chance.
Make a good one.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Lucy has gone quiet again after her scream, simply sitting there on the ground still. When Tabi rushes up to her, Lucy doesn't even register her there. All she can think about is how her dad is dead. He wasn't a bad person. Sure, he fought people as a soldier... But it was a job. The only one he could get. And after Lucy's mother died, he did it so that Lucy could have a home. And food. And books to read.
Tabi's shaking of her shoulder finally gets Lucy to respond, the girl looking up at her with a vacant stare, "Mrs. Kastel?" She remembers their neighbour.
Lucy rises to her feet rather stiffly. She slowly follows Tabi back over to Rick. She's not on any sports teams, but of course still recognises him. Her voice is rather flat as she says, "Coach..." Thankfully from this angle, Lucy can't see Serena's crushed form.
They begin to move on, Lucy trailing a little as she struggles to concentrate.
Soon enough they reach the highway. Perhaps out here, they'll be a little safer? Not that Lucy seems to care. They find the truck, with the nice, old grocer on the ground nearby. Lucy stares at his dead form for a moment, before moving towards the cab as it seems like they're going to take it.
She certainly can't. She doesn't have her license yet.
As she puts on her seatbelt, Lucy barely notices the smell of blood in the cab as it only adds to that which is on her clothes.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Someone's taking her there?" Tears well in Tabi's eyes -- a small kindness, to let her hope a little longer. "Thank goodness... oh, she must be so scared..."
And then she looks to the buried girl, and her frown becomes more sympathetic. "I'm sorry," she says, gently. "Did you know her well...?" That Haro standing guard... it really tugs at her heartstrings.
But right now, she's got to focus on Lucy.
"Come on," she encourages Lucy. "Let's take the truck, okay?" Ignore George, fallen out there. Don't think about going in on Saturdays to get the groceries. Don't think about the way he'd always make sure to save some biscuits for the kids, even when there were shortages.
And there were always shortages.
She takes a bottle of perfume -- derived from those same flowers she sells -- and spritzes it in the cab, to cover up the smell of blood with frangipani. She climbs into the driver's seat; Lucy's still too young for her licence, and the coach with them is injured, still. "Don't worry," she assures them. "I used to drive these all the time, when I lived in Sweetwater."
How did she get here, then? Certainly not with any official papers.
Chunk, ca-chunk, she pushes the clutch in once they're all -- "Buckle up," because she has to make sure, it's a mom's job to keep the car safe -- ready to go.
Keep cool...
<Pose Tracker> Rei Ayanami has posed.
Oh God, thinks Coach, what's her name. Lucy! Lucy.
He approaches her. "We have to go," he tells Lucy. "Once we're in the shelter we can rest. Any of them are gonna do it. Just keep going. Home stretch. Alright? I'll be with you."
Right?
Coach hesitates for a moment -- perhaps about to volunteer to drive -- but the gash on his shoulder, while the blood is clotting up and isn't exactly spraying or flooding out of him, is pretty bad from the perspective of driving. Could he do it one handed? If he had to. He doesn't have to.
He buckles up, for safety.
And then they begin to settle in. There's enough normality, despite the choking perfume, for him to reach into his pocket - wincing at the pain in his shoulder - to check his phone. It's a forlorn hope and he knows it, given that he's seen at least two Beam Rifles fire in the immediate area. The minovsky density is too thick to push anything through the air.
But he can see the clock.
It clicks over to fourteen minutes.
He slumps back in the seat. His heart's still pounding.
"Out in the parks, we've probably got a good shot," he says, quietly, to Tabi. His head turns then, to watch for Mobile Suits... for all the good it would do. "What the hell are those new suits...?" Memory from an earlier epoch (twenty minutes ago, when he was getting lunch) leaks in... news reports about some kind of space bugs.
He can't think about it. Not now. He looks to Lucy, for a moment, to check on her, and then out to the artificial horizon.
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
Fourteen Minutes, more than enough time for everything to change. More than enough time for so many to die.
Are lives truly worth so little time?
You drive.
The highway has cars running down it, primarily in the same direction as you, but while the atmosphere is tense, the highway isn't clogged, and isn't ruined. The people drive down it at a fast clip, but no one is running the other people over.
It's only about thirty seconds in that you cross to one of the Open Colony's windows, a broad brightly lit chasm, which is mercifully intact.
Overhead you see more of those mobile suits of the attackers flying over the bridge in the direction you came, mostly ignoring the people below, they see no Jegans flying around inside the Colony anymore. Along the freeway you see one, smashed into a suspension bridge pillar with wires frayed and snapped, but the bridge holds.
You see it first, as a reflection of green against the bright glass of the Colony's window. Then rushing by is the jet-like shape of a Waverider, that transforms rapidly, seen in the blur of refraction. It has a strange design, what elements of this mobile suit can be seen from afar, but what can be identified is
Enemy Onslaught - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn8uyNoip2U&
the iconic V-Fin, and panels of gleaming crimson circuitry. It can only be a Gundam, and an unusual Gundam. Despite the propaganda campaign conducted by NUNE, the people out here in the Frontier still know of the Gundam, from the stories of the One Year War era, from the hero Amuro Ray.
Is it here to save you? Save everyone? Why else would it be here but that?
A reflection of a Jegan still outside the Colony can be seen as it starts firing at it, beam rays flashing across the mirror in bright pink. Why's it attacking it?
The Gundam can only be seen next after the flash clears, with two shining sabers out as it carves through the Jegan in an X as it pounds it into the window. Which begins to crack even through all of its protective layers, twin holes of the impaled Jegan melting through gradually.
And then its reactor goes up. The Colony Window detonates in grand display only briefly showering everything near the bridge in broken glass, before the shockwave dissipates, and the flow violently reverses, leaving a gaping hole into the hostile vacuum of space.
Which is pulling you towards it.
Without the filter of the window, the gleaming red circuitry shines even more eerily against the harsh backlight of the mirror, against the darkness of space itself.
It may call to mind the nickname the Gundam was known to the people of Zeon during the One Year War.
The White Devil.
Noone is here to save you.
Only to drag you to hell.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Lucy scrunches her face up a little at the sudden overpowering smell of perfume. She'd gotten use to the smell of blood. This new smell overpowers her senses for a moment. But at least it seems to have gotten a reaction out of her. As she's been pretty quiet and passive since... Even Coach's words simply draw a long look from her for a moment before she glances away again.
Lucy is already buckled up as they start to drive off. She stares out the window as the colony passes by. Coach wonders wonder those mobile suits were, to which Lucy actually responds quietly, "I didn't recognise it... Not one I've seen before. I read a lot about mobile weapons. Dad doesn't like it but..." She trails off again. Perhaps she was interested in them as a way to connect to her father? She looked up to him?
As the giant window out into space comes into view, Lucy stares out it the depths of space beyond it. Silently wondering what's going to happen to her now...
A flash of movement catches her eye. She looks towards it. The familiar head piece design. She murmurs, "It's a Gundam..."
Yet the Gundam is attacking a Jegan. Is it on the attackers' side? Lucy only stares quietly as the Jegan is pinned to the colony window and explodes soon after, taking the window with it.
The sudden pull of the hard vacuum causes the truck to be yanked off the highway and into the air. Lucy herself is pulled out the truck's window, her seatbelt clearly not made to hold a person in against the vacuum of space.
Someone should write a strongly worded letter about that.
Lucy holds on desperately to the door frame of the truck, even as she and it are carried out of the colony to where the air begins to thin. She can't hold on for long though and soon her grip fails, causing her to be pulled away from the vehicle and into deep space.
As Lucy floats away from the colony there's no fear or shock on her face, simply silent acceptance at her fate. The only sign of regret, a tear rolling down her face before it soon freezes in the vacuum of space.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"They're making new ones all the time," Tabi says, her eyes on the road. "But don't you get into one, all right, Lucy? I know all this is tough... but more fighting's not the answer."
Her fingers tighten, on the steering wheel.
"It can't be."
Her eyes are forward -- but even she can't miss that iconic reflection.
"Oh, no..."
... she's from Zeon, too.
"Look out!" She cries, as she tries to swerve away -- but a truck can't outrun a hull breach. She cries out, "NO!", as they're torn from the truck, holding fast onto the steering wheel until it's ripped from the whole assembly.
If her dead-beat ex-husband didn't get to a shelter, she'll kill him--!!
... she dies, at least, without knowing that her daughter is at no risk of becoming an orphan.
<Pose Tracker> Rudi Pixyzalto has posed.
Cars are ripped off a freeway, even as parts of the suspension bridge, already shattered, begin to pull towards it.
Cows and pigs fly, from the back of a truck on the freeway, bleating in their terrible helplessness, trees in the distance, weakened from the battle are ripped from their roots and mooring.
People too, certainly, it is not merely them that meet their end.
Alas, nothing large enough to plug the gap by itself, they are all shunted out into the freezing vacuum of space, where nothing that lived within the Colony can survive.
Hope. It can be such a fickle thing. Some survive, only to die just after. Is there any meaning in it?
Absolutely.
The universe is not so cold and nihilistic.
It is a small thing. There is cruelty, but while the three of them died, and died quickly - in fear. They died together.
Connections made, even in just these shared tragedies. And connections are what can offer life and death meaning when all else is stripped away.
Mere seconds after they're shunted out of the Colony, a mobile suit of the aggressor flies up to the gaping hole, and begins firing a large web of sticky goop, birdlime, which hardens, sealing the hole in the Colony.
It makes no move to attack the Gundam itself, which transforms into a Waverider, and flies away.
In the distance, the strange mobile suits declare victory, by each of them hoisting a beam flag, a stately imperial eagle waving across a flickering field of green, emitting above each of them.
To the people who lived, it does not feel like a victory.
In the weeks that follow, the Colony mirror is patched, a new system of law, tiered for the Upper Class, and the lower class is posted for all to read. On the outside of the Colony, mechanical roller drones paint the symbol of the nation of Cosmo Babylonia so that all who approach the Colony can see their flag.
Those still floating in space see it too, even if they can no longer comprehend the answer to the questions they would never voice.
There is a clean up effort, as commanded by the Ronah family. Salvagers, junkers. Glorified janitorial staff for space are to make the airspace less dangerous for their new empire.
One of them stops, to look at Lucy's floating corpse, expression frozen. This work makes people jaded from all the bodies you find in space, but something about it bothers him.
Eventually he draws her back for disposal.
"Makes you really think, these people didn't do anything wrong." He comments to his partner in crime later over drinks, the woman smacking his arm in retaliation, "Don't you dare go soft on me. You want us to get in trouble with the Ronah family? They're paying us a premium to clean things up around here."
Outside, a handgun goes off, as a Vanguard officer executes a young woman, for being so upset over her dead family such that she dared lay hands on one of her betters.
He takes a long pull and pretends the demonstration knocked such thoughts out of him, "Yeah- yeah."
It's the man's last job for the Ronah family.