2024-12-06: Hunting for Witches
- Log: 2024-12-06: Hunting for Witches
- Cast: Myrmidon Team, Neo Roanoke, Sayaka Yumi, Rose Tritten, Anita Rosetta, Sousuke Sagara, Lilium Valerie
- Where: PLANT Colony Martius Five
- Date: 2024-12-06
- Summary: Peacekeeping forces come together to respond to a distress call from Martius Five and repel a pair of anonymous terrorists flying a new model of psychokinetic wanzer, limiting but not stopping the damage they sought.
KTS: Rose Tritten has deployed in ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior. <Pose Tracker> Myrmidon Team has posed.
All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Traffic control is usually a simple task: cross-reference ID codes and expiration dates on transport permits and cargo manifests. Human intervention is mostly required to supervise automated systems and sort errors. Idir Schultze has a mental inventory of system errors sorted by category and frequency. This is not one of them. He is already dialing PLANT security forces as he is opening a communications channel. "This is Martius Five. You're currently entering traffic control space without transmitting identification codes. Please identify."
He doesn't get a response. He didn't expect one. Those aren't passenger ships in the first place. There's no mistaking it. Those are mobile weapons.
Reindert Zabek, in the cockpit of his unit, adjusts the cuffs of his coat sleeves. He reaches up with a gloved hand to tap at the display buttons. Control band calibrated and holding steady. Quantum brainwaves primed. He exhales. His breath smells of tobacco. "This is it, cowboys. Maiden voyage. May we see each other on the other side." There is no voice transmission. His words are transmitted out of the unit solely as an encrypted short-range text signal.
The mission briefing was simple.
Priority one: Cripple industrial infrastructure.
Priority two: Cripple residential infrastructure.
Priority three: Avoid capture.
Engage security forces only as necessary to fulfill priority three.
He hums quietly along to the unit's radio. An old, old song.
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
PLANT security does not have time to discuss options or policy. The unidentified craft do not slow their approach. The drydock doors remain sealed, and security is hopeful for a moment, as only a small cohort of units approaches without a visible siege weapon to breach the doors. The one that moves forward is only an eight-meter wanzer. It grabs the seam between the doors, and the reinforced alloys crumple in its grasp. Diagnostic sensors pick up anomalous mass quantum foam fluctuation. The eye of the wanzer's Myrmex Engine dilates and spins.
The door parts. Unknown weapons breached. PLANT officers set algorithms in place to determine where to issue shelter-in-place orders. A public distress signal invokes PLANT's signature to various mutual aid treaties, still in place despite recent international tensions.
The craft descend through the bottleneck of the PLANT colony on gravitic jets, tearing through security doors on their way down towards one of Martius Five's two lush habitation biomes. No marks on the weapons identifying allegiance. The front wanzer has a hand-painted white skull-and-crossbones where national colors should be displayed. Its external speakers, instead of sharing any communication, simply broadcast an old, old song.
Come on, baby
"We can be like they are."
KTS: Myrmidon Team has deployed in MFW-2 Solenopsis. KTS: Will Barrier activated! (But will not apply until relevant Morale threshold.) KTS: Myrmidon Team has deployed as a Boss for 3 opponents. KTS: Anita Rosetta has deployed in XVF-25I Svipul <GERWALK Mode>. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Neo Roanoke has deployed in MFW-2 Solenopsis. KTS: Will Barrier activated! (But will not apply until relevant Morale threshold.) KTS: Sayaka Yumi has deployed in Aphrodite Areia. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Aurora Dusk has deployed in MFW-2 Solenopsis. KTS: Will Barrier activated! (But will not apply until relevant Morale threshold.) KTS: Lilium Valerie has deployed in GNX-603T GN-X. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has deployed in RK-91 Crossbow. KTS: Neo_Roanoke has deployed as a Boss for 2 opponents. KTS: Lilium Valerie has deployed in VF-171 Nightmare Plus <Fighter Mode>. KTS: EN Barrier activated!
<Pose Tracker> Neo Roanoke has posed.
Neo had been given the objective. A plan was drawn up. Directives were transfered to the appropriate team. A leader for the mission was assigned.
So why is Neo here now? It's in an unofficial capacity. Or as unofficial as an already unofficial covert ops group can get. He was interested in this new design they had acquired and wanted to see how it performed for himself.
Still, he's not the one leading the mission. He'll leave that to Zabek. Neo instead focuses on experiencing the interesting sensation of piloting the Solenopsis. He's not wearing a control band like the default units, instead he had the mechanisms built into one of the large masks he usually wears.
Acting primarily in a support role for this mission, Neo follows the rest of the covert team towards the PLANT, through the security and into the colony proper. He lets them handle the breaching and even the initial razing of infrastructure as he simply hangs back, his unit gracefully floating down to land on a street at the border of an industrial and residential zones.
The Solenopsis stomps down the street, ignoring the people that are running away from it. It raises one of its arms up closer to it as Neo looks at it, flexing it experimentally. He murmurs to himself, "Hmmm, interesting."
When the team of unidentified attackers is starting to raise hell, it might look a little unnerving to see one just casually strolling down a street. What is it up to?
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
The morning of the attack on Martius Five, the Satellicon asteroid picked up some key intel - unusual movements of unidentified mobile weapons near the PLANTs. Only months after the Break the World incident, and the subsequent nuclear reprisal attack... that's definitely something to keep an eye on, if only to prevent yet another tragedy from repeating.
When the attack actually commences, the Photon Power League's Paralus carrier has already rendezvoused with the asteroid base... just in case Satellicon's intervention is once again needed. Mazinger Z's presence at the Gaia Sabers' nuclear assault has not been so quickly forgotten by the world, and even if these mysterious terrorists don't fly the flag of the Sabers... the logic is the same - righteous fury for everyone's sake.
That's why Sayaka decides to openly fly Aphrodite Areia to provide some unexpected reinforcement against the attack on PLANT. "PLANT security, this is Sayaka Yumi!" She announces herself to the forces onsite, as is polite - while the sleek, feminine form of Aphrodite Areia hovers to face down the strange telekinetic wanzers. "The Photon Power Labs have your back once again."
Seeing a direct attack like this on the PLANTs infrastructure, makes Sayaka think of Shiho. Was she ever able to get away from all the fighting, when her home is constantly attacked like this? The most she can really do, as the Solenopsis attack with those strange telekinesis abilities, is use her energy shield to block some of the debris from hitting escaping citizens. Will it be enough though?
Sayaka also spots Neo's unit, doing nothing of note. "Watch out for that one... the way they're moving, they've got to be up to something," Sayaka warns their fellow defenders, before not exactly practicing what she preaches, as Aphrodite Areia very directly points at Neo's unit. "You're not exactly taking this seriously, are you? If you get some kind of satisfaction from attacking colonies out of nowhere... then I'll be your opponent!"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Anita Rosetta with Caution! KTS: Myrmidon Team's The Will to Power activates! KTS: Rose Tritten targets Myrmidon Team with MMI-M633 Beam Assault Rifle Burst! KTS: Anita Rosetta accepts Sayaka Yumi's Caution! KTS: Sayaka Yumi suggests caution, raising Anita Rosetta's Intuition! KTS: Best Defense! Anita Rosetta successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Caution, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.
Aboard the One Fine Day, patrolling in orbit on the opposite side of the Martius cluster, the three members of the Tritten Team sit in the scramble room, awaiting any call for action. In one corner, Sushila sat, listening to a new Genocore thrash band she discovered last week, while Aspyn was draped over a couch in the opposite corner, frantically tapping away at her phone, pausing to take a cute selfie with her flight suit tugged open just a little bit more than usual. Rose was sitting on the ceiling, engrossed in a new novelette about a fantasy monster 'researcher'.
"UUUUUUUUGH." Aspyn moaned. "Rose, I'm booooooooooooooooooooooored! Patrol duty is so BORING."
"What do you want me to do about it?" Rose asked, gently spinning her tablet in the lack of gravity. "We could be fighting the Vajra again."
"Ugh, no! The only thing worse than domestic patrol is bug hunts, they're icky and gross."
Rose was about to respond, when the room's alert lights bathed it in blinking red light, as the scramble tone kicked up.
"You and your big mouth." Rose rolled her eyes as she kicked off from the ceiling, grabbing her floating helmet before ping-pong-ing off the floor and into the hallway.
The three women rode the hand tow through the short hallway and kicked off into the hangar deck, helmets on and pilot suit seals secure, internal oxygen flowing. The trio entered their custom painted Lilac purple and light red ZAKU Warriors, each outfitted with their preferred Wizard weapon pack. Sliding into the cockpit, Rose quickly secured the seat harness, and began the scramble startup, the numerous steps of preparing electronics, engines and sensors streamlined in a flurry of button presses and switch flicks.
Gripping the controls, Rose's ZAKU lurched forwards and rotated left, the magnetized conveyer belt carrying her forward into the launch tube's airlock. With shuddering CLANKS she could feel in the cockpit, the ZAKU's feet stepped into the magnetic catapult as the airlock cycled, ahead of her, she could see the open hatch cover, and the signal system flashing red.
"Unidentified mobile weapons have entered Martius Five!" The One Fine Day's Mobile Weapons Controller said, her face speaking on the comms display. "Patching in a rapid response route inside, please be careful fighting inside the colony!"
"Understood!" Rose said, gripping the controls as her ZAKU knelt in launch position. "Tritten Team, Rose Tritten! ZAKU Blaze, launching!"
The three lights turned yellow, then green, the magnetic pulse slamming the ZAKU Warrior forwards as the external power violently detached. Rose orbited the One Fine Day for the minute needed for her teammates to launch, first Aspyn, then Sushilla. The Trio screamed towards the fragile hourglass, following the attacking Wanzers inside.
"Sushila, be careful with your beam cannon, we can't risk damaging the colony." Rose ordered over the comms.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be good." Sushila responded, her beam cannon unfolding.
On her hud, red diamonds locked over the unknown mobile weapons, their ID codes showing nothing but question marks. "Unknown units huh..." She said, thumbing her weapon select to her Beam Machine Gun. "Well, let's get the Intelligence guys some good guncam footage!" Her pipper locked onto the nearest MFW-2, and she squeezed the trigger, unleashing a spray of green energy bolts!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
It was just supposed to be a simple patrol - the first one Anita had volunteered for in a while. She needed some time to clear her head, get behind the controls of her Valkyrie and just let space stream behind her for a while.
...All that goes out of the window, though, when her systems pick up a public distress signal nearby. She hadn't planned for anything happening today... but after everything she's been through, that's hardly something she can ignore. Anita exhales, diverting her course. The destination is... Martius Five. She taps at her console, attempting to open up communications.
"This is Magallanica Defense Force pilot Anita Rosetta. I got your beacon - what's the situation?" Anita asks. The XVF-25I Svipul races through space toward the colony. It's not far, thankfully, and the Svipul is fast.
By the time she gets there, the doors have already been wrenched open. Anita grits her teeth. Who would do something like this? Attacking a colony...
...Well, that's probably actually a distressingly large amount of people, honestly. But who specifically?
Shifting into GERWALK mode, Anita makes her way inside. She gathers what information she can from the chatter. A group of wanzers, all the same model... and the front wanzer is broadcasting an old song. Anita sounds out another quick message to identify herself as friendly to the rest of the PLANT's defenders. There some familiar faces here... looks like she isn't the only one who picked up the signal.
"Hey, Doctor. Good to see you again." Anita asides to Sayaka, before addressing the situation as a whole. "Anyone know what they're after?"
She looks over the situation... and spots one of the attacking wanzers down on the street. Whatever these people are up to, it's incredibly suspicious for one of them to be going off on its own like that. Only one thing for it, then.
The Gungnir SC beam cannon emerges over the Svipul's shoulder, and is then drawn from its mount, wielded like a spear. She's usually a sharpshooter, but there's too much chaos for her usual approach. She'll have to wait to start firing until she's sure the way is clear. But for now... a blade of energy crackles to life at the end of the spear as she descends.
"Hey buddy," Anita announces herself to Neo's Solenopsis. The spear is brought down in a thrust - direct, but it's clear the strike is meant only as a warning. "What the hell are you doing?"
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Neo Roanoke with Spear Mode - Thrust!
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Crossbow's systems hummed with readiness. The machine's overhaul might be called comical; having two geniuses hacking away at the RK-91 could have turned it by now into a top-of-the-line machine, if they had enough resources. They didn't, though, even as their stocks rose with sponsorships and successes. Still.
People just never quite expected what "Seagull" brought to the table.
"Sousuke!" Nami's voice rang into the noise of the cockpit, rattling from the diesel engine just below and behind. "You've got a call. Problem up at, uh, the, farm? PPL sent a truck. ...you sure about this?"
"Understood," Sousuke said.
"It's not a problem," he said.
Then, as Crossbow stepped out into the roaring crowd, he clenched his fingers around the control rods. "AL II...let's finish this in one minute."
**
A white and navy machine charges out from the colony substructure. It's small - a colony design that's scaled for Mobile Suits can easily handle an Arm Slave. It's also OLD. It looks like some arena whacko's hobby project, loaded down with a pile bunker and a sledgehammer, and a single heavy shotgun. That's well enough, but an RK-91? This has to be a joke. That thing's so obsolete even its successor's successor is getting long in the tooth. You can kill those for sport with a Ball.
That's until it suddenly breaks into a dead run, far outpacing its hypothetical specs, rocks up to the first attacking wanzer it finds, and blasts it right across the side with a sledgehammer.
"Ur," Sousuke Sagara starts, and trails off. Then, quieter, to the dark of his cockpit's screens, he reports for Satellicon, "Crossbow, Engaging."
KTS: Neo Roanoke engages parry against Anita Rosetta's Spear Mode - Thrust! KTS: Best Defense! Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Anita Rosetta's Spear Mode - Thrust, taking 2100 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Myrmidon Team with Sledgehammer Strike! KTS: Myrmidon Team fails to engage block against Rose Tritten's MMI-M633 Beam Assault Rifle Burst! KTS: Best Defense! Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Rose Tritten's MMI-M633 Beam Assault Rifle Burst, taking 3150 damage! KTS: Myrmidon Team fails to engage charge against Sousuke Sagara's Sledgehammer Strike! KTS: Best Defense! Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Sousuke Sagara's Sledgehammer Strike, taking 3225 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Neo Roanoke has posed.
Neo turns his attention away from simply taking in the experience of this strange control mechanism. It seems the colony's defenders have started to arrive and some appear focused on him. He brings his machine to a stop and waits for them to approach, showing no signs of hostile action for now.
Sayaka engages the lone Solenopsis in conversation first and she gets a response in the form of a text message:
< ... >
Would that be the silent treatment?
It's Anita which engages first with actual weapons, charging in with a beam spear. The Solenopsis raises one of its arms to meet the weapon and an invisible force pushes the energy blade aside, causing it to simply scrape across the armored scales of the tapered limb and stab down into the street, leaving only slightly scorched armor behind.
Sayaka gets another response, one that Anita also gets. And this time it is more than just silence:
< Perhaps you are right. Very well, I will take this seriously. >
The strange Wanzer reaches the same arm that parried the beam spear to touch the physical part of the weapon. And as at does so, the weapon begins to shudder with significant vibrations, as does the VF holding it as force flows into it and threatens to tear the machine apart from the inside out unless it gets away.
All the while, the Solenopsis turns to the Areia and though its lacking much in the way of a head, Sayaka will start to feel like something is staring at her, reaching towards the depths of her mind. Even as it is trying to tear her temporary combat partner apart.
KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Roanoke: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Neo Roanoke targets Anita Rosetta with Internal Disruption! KTS: Neo Roanoke targets Sayaka Yumi with Demoralize! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta engages react against Neo Roanoke's Internal Disruption! KTS: Critical Hit! Anita Rosetta poorly reacts to Neo Roanoke's Internal Disruption, taking 4464 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Neo Roanoke's Covert Operative activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Neo Roanoke's Ace Pilot activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Sayaka Yumi accepts Neo Roanoke's Demoralize! KTS: Neo Roanoke demoralizes Sayaka Yumi, reducing her Morale drastically. KTS: Best Defense! Sayaka Yumi successfully reacts to Neo Roanoke's Demoralize, taking 0 damage! KTS: [Spirit Defense] Sayaka Yumi's Symbol of Peace and War activates, and her spirit is adjusted.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
A distress call had gone out, and all nearby were called upon to answer. No matter their allegiance. For the GSV Dublin, a mostly-unladen military transport on a route that happened to take it past the PLANTs, this posed something of an issue. The Gaia Sabers failing to respond to an attack on the PLANTs would not go unnoticed, but the only vessel in range was unarmed, and had only a handful of pilots--and none of their mobile weapons.
""I KNOW we can't just ignore it, Ensign! But we're unarmed!"
On the vessel's bridge, pure chaos is unfolding. The Commanding Officer--a middle-aged man who, for the most part, had been hoping to avoid active combat--is shouting down a junior officer. A communications operator desperately tries to raise regional command. Other ensigns stare fixedly at their scopes, scanning and re-scanning the Martius cluster for any sign of activity.
The bridge officer, having shrunk back slightly from her superior, stands up straight once again. She throws a sharp salute--"Sir! With all... d-due respect... we do have some mobile weapons! They're not exactly new, and none of the pilots on board have flight hours in them, but they're simple enough units! Considering they have fuel and ammunition available, I would advise we make use of them, sir!" Her commander furrows his brow. "...That's. Not a bad idea. Ensign! Get me a shortlist of pilots on board with experience operating mostly-similar units! We'll put the League into the Saber's debt with this, and get ourselves recognition from high command while we're at it!" He grins.
...
.......
The catapult on the Dublin's deck hadn't seen use for decades. It was downright vestigial--the fact that it works at all is a testament more to nobody having ever bothered to remove it from the ship after it entered the auxiliaries than any commendation of its engineering. Still... it was seeing some use today. Beneath the deck, a team of engineers struggle to reconnect its controls. An unfortunate petty officer in a bulky normal suit walks out to its side with a pair of marshalling wands, glowing faintly against the black of space. And rising up the ancient elevator, inside the cockpit of surplus Variable Fighter being transported to a mothball base, hastily repainted in NUNE colours, a Second Lieutenant out of her depth turns a dial and flicks a switch on the right hand side of its forwards panel. The Nightmare Plus' cockpit was a far cry from the AMBAC controls of the GN-X Lilium had gotten used to... but it was close enough to a Wanzer for her to feel at home. She touches a switch on the side of her pilot's helmet, bringing a tinted visor down over her eyes.
The Valkyrie enters position. Two panels rise out of the deck behind it--this was an old catapult, of course--and a prong in front of its wheels lowers into the groove in the floor. Lilium gives a thumbs-up to the petty officer--who gratefully runs to the nearby airlock--and takes in a deep breath, hands on the controls...
<<Second Lieutenant Valerie! VF-171 Nightmare Plus! I'm... taking off!>>
The force of the old catapult's acceleration forces Lilium back into her seat, and the Variable Fighter is away towards the PLANTs.
........
<<Martius Five control, this Lieutenant Valerie of the Gaia Sabers. We have received your distress call--further response is incoming shortly, but there is a flight of one VF inbound to your position--I repeat, I am inbound to assist!>>
She didn't... have to stress that last part. But she thought it prudent. As the Nightmare Plus slips through the conveniently-open gap in the PLANT's blast doors, and follows the trail of smashed-open security doors down into the biome, she takes stock of the situation--Unmarked wanzers. Little information to go off of. Still, though... this is the kind of situation the Earth Sphere's protectors were trained for. She turns the Fighter to face down the closest craft, and opens fire with its simple machine gun.
KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Myrmidon Team with Standard Light Machine Gun Shot! KTS: Myrmidon Team engages block against Lilium Valerie's Standard Light Machine Gun Shot! KTS: Myrmidon Team successfully blocks Lilium Valerie's Standard Light Machine Gun Shot, taking 1980 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"Roger that, Sagara. Thanks for coming out on such short notice." Sayaka transmits back to Sousuke, as he makes the bold decision to head out in that Crossbow of his. "Good luck out there." She adds - the situation is dire, but she knows he's a professional.
"I could say the same, though I wish it was under better circumstances more often, Ms. Rosetta," Sayaka sighs, regrettable that it's always in situations like attacks on colonies and cities - or horror dragons.
"Without knowing who they are, it's hard to say for sure what they're after... though it wouldn't surprise me if they're inciting anti-Coordinator malice." Sayaka guesses, as Anita goes for a careful thrust with her spear. "No matter what they want, let's make sure they don't get it." Whether that's crippling the PLANTs infrastructure... or simply taking more lives.
Neo's silent treatment is irritating to say the least... do they even have people piloting these, or are they AI-controlled for mass destruction? It's hard to say at this juncture, especially as one of the others only transmits music. Finally, he speaks, electing to take this seriously - striking Annie's VF with an unprecedented amount of force." Aphrodite Areia is a protector, and Sayaka starts to move her to intercept and take some of the heat from Anita...
When suddenly, it's as if Sayaka is being watched. "Ugh, what is-" Sayaka clutches her forehead with one hand, keeping her others on the controls. "Who the hell are you?" She wonders, trying to push through the mental attack to level one of the Mazin's arm-mounted blades towards the Solenopsis. "Take this - Z-CUTTER!
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Anita Rosetta KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Neo Roanoke with Z-Cutter Remote Strike! KTS: Neo Roanoke fails to engage Evade against Sayaka Yumi's Z-Cutter Remote Strike! KTS: Neo Roanoke's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Z-Cutter Remote Strike, taking 2025 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi begins a Formation attack! KTS: Sayaka Yumi repulses Neo Roanoke, preventing his from Charging the next attack!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"Yeah. What are the odds, right? We've really gotta stop meeting like this." Anita replies to Sayaka, cracking a strained grin - but her expression soon goes serious, and she nods. "...Yeah, that figures. Someone's always gotta come hurting people trying to mind their own business."
She nods.
"Right behind you, Doc."
Anita's blade finds the Solenopsis's arm - and her opponent decides he'll take this seriously. She finds her blade diverted, pushed away to minimal damage. And then, it reaches out toward her weapon. There's a physical touch - and then the vibrations kick in. The Svipul's consoles throw up warnings - the kind of warnings usually reserved for when the compensators activate due to experiencing heavy g-forces. She wrenches the Svipul back away from the Solenopsis. The spear body and the arm holding it are still vibrating, and the weapon's blade fluctuates - it's clear that the attack had an effect on it.
"Careful, don't let it touch you! It's got some kind of - thing! It's like it was trying to make the Svipul rattle itself apart!" Anita warns. She grips her spear tightly - but thankfully, Aphrodite Areia swoops in, allowing Anita to pull back and make some space. As Sayaka engages him with arm-mounted blades, the Svipul peppers the Solenopsis with beam vulcan fire - and then strafes around, drawing its gatling gun and opening fire to supplement the attack and further distract and draw attention.
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Neo Roanoke with Wingmate's Gambit!
<Pose Tracker> Myrmidon Team has posed.
The PLANT security officer on duty is cool and composed, even as he's quickly running down strategic assessments to minimize damage. "Received and appreciated, Photon Power, Magallanica, Gaia Sabers." He must have made a point to include all of them, just as Lt. Valerie made a point to repeat her point of assistance. "Tritten Team on site. Send me your ID signal and I'll forward coordination data for all of you." The Crossbow, meanwhile, isn't formally announced as a Photon Power dispatch. The security officer makes a snap decision and includes it in the data coordinating who's where anyway. His priority isn't politics, it's preservation.
The wanzers are a strange model to see, for some responders. They're lanky, sleek, curved, chrome-mirrored. They look more like display models than conventional wanzers. For others who might have shared the battlefield with the MF-1 Myrmecia, they are a dead ringer. Almost the exact same unit.
The wanzer broadcasting music is already standing in an impact crater when the response team arrives, the wreckage of an industrial warehouse around it. It takes its time turning around, enough time for to be peppered by rifle fire from the ZAKU team and the Nightmare Plus. Several shots clink and sear onto the Solenopsis' armor plates, which sends a domino reaction rolling down them, producing an ethereal sound something like a wind chime. Most of the shots from the Nightmare Plus, meanwhile, seem to simply stop in midair on impact and fall, as if touching the Solenopsis instantly robbed them of all destructive momentum. "Having trouble adjusting to the unit, B-2?" Anonymous callsigns for this mission, and again, his message only transmitted as text to Neo's machine. A moment later: "Ah. Not having trouble at all, then."
Reinhert is not ready for the sheer speed of that old musty Arm Slave coming up on him, though. That opens his unit up for the sledgehammer swing, which sends his unit rolling back through the impact crater. It's a deceptively weak looking hit: that hammer hit far harder than a weapon of its size and power should, but invisible kinetic force pushes back to keep the Solenopsis from flying. Reinhert is rocked in his chair. "That's a hell of a thing," he murmurs only to himself.
He has enough time for his unit to draw a common military-make beam rifle and fire off a round of suppressive fire on the ZAKU units. Then he comes charging back at the Crossbow. He throws a sucker punch, which Sousuke's reflexes get him around safely, but continues with an advancing flurry of wild hooks, aiming to push Sousuke back against - and preferably, with a solid hit, launch him explosively into - a control tower spire rising up behind him. If he doesn't crash into the foundation of the spire, fine enough. The Solenopsis presses forward anyway, grabs the spire with a single hand, rips it effortlessly from its foundation if necessary, and then turns and throws it, in a long spearing drive for the Nightmare Plus.
Baby, take my hand
We'll be able to fly...
KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Myrmidon Team: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Myrmidon Team targets Rose Tritten with Standard Secondary Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Myrmidon Team targets Sousuke Sagara with Massive Impact! KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Myrmidon Team targets Lilium Valerie with Gigantic Impact! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Combat High activates Focus and Trick! KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie fails to engage Evade against Myrmidon Team's Gigantic Impact! KTS: Lilium Valerie's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Lilium Valerie successfully reacts to Myrmidon Team's Gigantic Impact, taking 4050 damage! KTS: Rose Tritten has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Rose Tritten engages evade against Myrmidon Team's Standard Secondary Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Rose Tritten poorly reacts to Myrmidon Team's Standard Secondary Beam Rifle Shot, taking 3800 damage! KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Assail Spirit Command and and can now apply defenses across ranges! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to engage evade against Myrmidon Team's Massive Impact! KTS: Critical Hit! Sousuke Sagara poorly reacts to Myrmidon Team's Massive Impact, taking 5060 damage! KTS: Rose Tritten has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Roanoke fails to engage block against Anita Rosetta's Wingmate's Gambit! KTS: Neo Roanoke's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Anita Rosetta's Wingmate's Gambit, taking 2175 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta continues a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.
"Linking in to you Martius command!" Rose responded as she screamed forward. The burst of activity and all the names reporting are a relief... until she hears mention of the Gaia Sabers on site. She grits her teeth, remembering how many of their draftees she turned to spacedust in the attempted nuclear razing of all the PLANTs...
No, just set it aside for now...even if they are trying to make a covert reconnaissance of Martius's shipbuilding facilities.
Her RWR begins to screech, and Rose is just slightly too slow to dodge as the trio of Trittens scatters, beams peppering her ZAKU's right leg. Alright then, I guess it was too much to ask for this to be easy.
Rose makes a wide turn, aiming at one of the MFW-2's facing away and in a spot without too much potential collateral. She shoves the throttle forwards, the two thrusters of her Blaze pack igniting and firing off a streak of blue thrust as she hefts the spiked shield forwards.
KTS: Rose Tritten targets Myrmidon Team with Spiked Shoulder Shield Punch! KTS: Myrmidon Team engages evade against Rose Tritten's Spiked Shoulder Shield Punch! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Rose Tritten's Spiked Shoulder Shield Punch, taking 2610 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Neo Roanoke has posed.
Neo's Solenopsis slides backwards as the flying blade sweeps through its position, the edges scraping across the torso of the wanzer to leave a groove behind. But the near miss doesn't inflict much in the way of damage, the pilot responding quickly to the attack.
On the bright side though, it does provide a good opportunity for Anita's VF to escape the range of the strange machine and its equally strange form of attack.
Neo responds to Sayaka's question, continue to utilize text communication only. Though it's not much of an answer:
< Who we are doesn't matter. Know that so long as there exists corruption in this world, we will be called upon to unleash destruction on it. >
Neo chooses not to respond to Zabek's questioning of his abilities. Which is probably lucky for Zabek because questioning your boss like that could be a really bad career-and life-move. Neo just ignores it though, demonstrating that he clearly has a handle on the machine, even if it's a control scheme he's unfamiliar with. He isn't a great ace of the Gaia Sabers, formerly the Britannian Union, for no reason.
As the Svipul unleashes a barrage of bullets at it, the Solenopsis raises both its arms across each other in front of it. The bullet strike against the invisible barrier of force, bouncing away for the most part. Though if one looks closely, it seems like a few may have made it through to chip small chunks out of the wanzer's armor.
The Solenopsis lowers its arms again after the assault, stretching them out to its side. Cars parked in driveways and abandoned on the street begin to shake. The wanzer then throws its arms forward, the cars flying up off the ground and rapidly arcing towards both the Areia and Svipul at high speed like giant projectiles.
KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Roanoke targets Sayaka Yumi with Massive Projectile! KTS: Neo Roanoke targets Anita Rosetta with Massive Projectile! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi engages evade against Neo Roanoke's Massive Projectile! KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi successfully reacts to Neo Roanoke's Massive Projectile, taking 4320 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta engages intercept against Neo Roanoke's Massive Projectile! KTS: Critical Hit! Anita Rosetta poorly reacts to Neo Roanoke's Massive Projectile, taking 5900 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Neo Roanoke's Covert Operative activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Neo Roanoke's Ace Pilot activates, causing Control Bonus! <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The Crossbow is a hell of a machine for what it is, but surely, surely it's about to get punched to scrap. The first strike is dodged well, and the subsequent ones also account themselves capably, juking, weaving - but Sousuke would prefer to have cut the close-combat component short by now. An extended engagement isn't to his favor, as he finds when he takes a square hit that forces him back directly into and through a wall. Without Al or advanced Mithril battlefield analysis to warn him...he fell prey to an easy tactic.
He scrunches his eyes to help with the ringing in his head. "I'm alright," he reports, and then clambers up to his feet. That monstrous machine PICKS UP the object he's been thrown at, but that gives Sousuke his own opening. "Now, while he's busy!"
He swings back, charge the awkward RK-91 forward, and DRIVE the mounted pile bunker straight at the Solenopsis' core, a massive spike of metal punching right home while Sousuke howls in his cockpit, "HAAAH!"
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Myrmidon Team with Last Stake 99 Puncturing Blow! KTS: Myrmidon Team fails to engage parry against Sousuke Sagara's Last Stake 99 Puncturing Blow! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Sousuke Sagara's Last Stake 99 Puncturing Blow, taking 2775 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
<<ID Code transmitted, Martius Tower! Ready to receive IFF Data!>>
The 171's ID code appears on the officer's terminals, and Lilium glances at her readouts for the response. She doesn't recognise many of the friendly contacts by sight--the most outmoded Arm Slave she's ever seen, some kind of Photon Power Lab unit, and... wasn't that the ZAKU that killed Corporal Saratova..? She grimaces, shaking her head. They'd been doing their job, just like she'd been doing hers. Telling herself that helped. A little.
The Wanzers looked... oddly familiar. Like something she'd seen once out of the corner of her eye, while terrified out of her life. When was that, again..? Was it a dream? Or... hm. The light reflecting off of them makes them a little hard to keep eyes on, at any rate. Still, it's something she can-
PULL UP, PULL UP!
That's odd, she's a pretty long way of the ground... Although that control tower looks closer than it ought to-
PULL UP, PULL UP! PULL UP, PULL U-
Lilium cries out in shock as an entire control tower grazes her airframe, sending the Nightmare Plus spiralling out of control. She fumbles with her joystick for a solid 30 seconds, until suddenly remembering: She's in a Variable Fighter. As she careens towards a lake on the outskirts of the colony's city, the 171's engines fold down, and arms deploy from under its wings. A GERWALK VTOL skims over the water's surface, rapidly closing in on the offending wanzer. It threw a building at her...
<<Urgh... Second Lieutenant Valerie, I'm... okay... re-engaging the target!>>
Bullets.. clearly didn't work, so the gradually-adapting pilot tries a new technique--opening fire with her unit's fixed Heavy Beam Guns.
Lilium Valerie transforms to VF-171 Nightmare Plus <Gerwalk Mode>
KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Myrmidon Team with In-Built Heavy Beam Gun Shot! KTS: Myrmidon Team fails to engage guard against Lilium Valerie's In-Built Heavy Beam Gun Shot! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's In-Built Heavy Beam Gun Shot, taking 1800 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"Well, I think we definitely owe Magallanica a visit in the near future," Sayaka says, of not meeting like this. And while it might be about business, thanks to the plan to attack the Empress... Sayaka would look forward to seeing how the colony has developed since she's last been. But back to the present.. "Yeah. That just about sums up this year, doesn't it?" Sayaka shakes her head, and focuses on the battle.
The PLANT's defense force is quick to acknowledge the Photon Power Labs's support, and Sayaka makes sure to coordinate with the teams evacuating the colony's civilians. But contrary to his initial demeanour, Neo really does mean business... as Anita warns. "With that kind of force, I bet it could even smash apart Super Alloy Z..." Sayaka frowns. "What kind of technology is that?" Something to study back home, she's sure.
The Solenopsis is a force to be reckoned with defensively, too, shrugging off the Z-Cutter strike and the Svipul's bullets with a seemingly invisible barrier. Still, it's enough to buy some time and pull him back from dismantling the Svipul. He provides an answer to Sayaka's question as well, but it's not exactly one that satisfies her.
"I'd say you're the ones who are corrupt, if you're 'unleashing destruction' upon innocent people. Do you really think this will make the world better?" It's seemingly not the Gaia Sabers, seeing as they provided a token defense of their own. The methods they employ are a match for Dawn of Fold's - but not really the target. So Sayaka treats them as their own group. "Don't give me that. You don't believe that, and neither do I!"
But regardless of why he does it, Neo is quite capable of unleashing destruction, sending cars themselves flying at his enemies. They're fast, but so is Aphrodite Areia, so Sayaka tries to weave past them. But it's not enough, the blunt force of the car slamming across the wingspan, and temporary grounding her. "Are you all right?!" Sayaka asks, seeing Anita taking a larger brunt of the damage. "We can't let them continue to wreak havoc like this. I'll cover you!"
Sayaka brandishes the returned Z-Cutter, this time holding it as if it was a curved sword - and charges to engage the Solenopsis in melee combat, with a vicious strike at the limbs. A reckless move for sure, considering what the Solenopsis is capable of... but if they can take it out quickly, they won't have to worry about that.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Neo Roanoke with Z-Cutter Close Combat! KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Roanoke fails to engage Evade against Sayaka Yumi's Z-Cutter Close Combat! KTS: Best Defense! Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Z-Cutter Close Combat, taking 5175 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
PLANT security acknowledges them. Anita nods to herself - that's good.
"Hang in there. We'll do what we can." Anita replies.
"You'll definitely be welcome." Anita replies to Sayaka - and then nods, with a frown. "Yeah, it does... unfortunately.
She, too, has to focus on what's immediately ahead of her. Whoever this pilot is, he's definitely skilled, that's for sure.
"Corruption? What a joke. The only 'corruption' I see is the guys who think they can just wreck whatever they want. These people haven't done anything! They're innocent!" Anita shakes her head, echoing Sayaka's sentiments toward the Solenopsis. "No one's called for you - take your destruction and your self-righteousness and go home."
Technology that can even smash Super Alloy Z... Sayaka asks a good question.
"No clue." Anita says... and then frowns. ...She says that, but... "...But I get this weird feeling - like it's kinda familiar somehow."
Anita unleashes a barrage - but the Solenopsis seems to create an invisible barrier of force. Some seems to get through...
Small victories, she supposes. That's proof it isn't invincible. ...But she certainly isn't, either - which is proven when the Solenopsis uses that same force to chuck a car at her.
"H-hey!" Anita gasps out - her usual cool demeanor briefly broken by surprise. She tries to blast it out of the air, but while she manages to cut through the vehicle, the car chunks still continue toward her, slamming into the PLANT's road.
With a groan, Anita forces the Svipul up.
"I'm hanging in there, but the Svipul's a little worse for wear. ...Thanks." She replies. Sayaka promises to cover her, and Anita intends to make use of that. As Aphrodite Areia engages the Solenopsis in melee combat, the Svipul readies the Gungnir SC again - this time, returning it to its mount as Anita takes aim.
Charge builds in the cannon of the barrel. Usually, this kind of thing might be risky... but she's a sharpshooter for a reason. She knows just how much power she can afford to use without risking damage to Sayaka or to the colony. And when it's ready - the Gungnir SC fires, sending a powerful beam racing toward Neo's Solenopsis!
KTS: Anita Rosetta uses Hyper Reloader KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Neo Roanoke with Cannon Mode - Fully-Charged! KTS: Neo Roanoke fails to engage block against Anita Rosetta's Cannon Mode - Fully-Charged! KTS: Neo Roanoke's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Anita Rosetta's Cannon Mode - Fully-Charged, taking 3675 damage! <Pose Tracker> Myrmidon Team has posed.
Zabek feels an impulse coming, like a premonition. Behind him now. The ZAKU who fired on him earlier. He lolls his head to the side to counterbalance as he lurches the Solenopsis quickly to the side, taking a grinding graze from the spiked shield rather than its full brunt, though it still shears several of the chiming scales off its armor plating. He is busy, though, still reacclimating after that throw and that dodge to boot, and the sidestep instead leaves the central globe protruding from the front of the Solenopsis' torso, like the eye of a cyclops, in perfect position for Sousuke to strike at. Once again, a cushion of force pushes back against the pile bunker. Even so, fractures are left in the surface of the globe, and when the Myrmex Engine spins up, it sometimes appears to skip or hitch briefly. The Solenopsis begins to turn in the direction of the oncoming Nightmare Plus. This is too late: it is already roaring in, charring and scorching its armor with its beam guns, though some shots still flash and sear away against that invisible force.
Zabek's eyes tick warily to the clock on his display screen. The unit is holding up fine, but the objective is not to preserve the unit. It's to do damage. "They're holding me down," he says, another text message encrypted to Neo's unit. "I'm going to try to shake them. Stay clear." He hears the pilots outside demanding justifications and identifications. Naive. "All you're getting is Blue Oyster Cult," he murmurs to himself, while flipping open the lid on a heavy switch. On the display screen: MF-2 Myrmex Engine AUTOFEED SCRIPT ON
The Solenopsis turns and runs. Retreat? Perhaps not, because it's going in the direction of the industrial harbor, where a number of heavy ships are docked, including, no doubt, major military craft. As it runs, however, something... happens. Newtypes might feel a sinking feeling at first. Then it's like seeing a video feed glitch out. A moment later, you realize that the glitched spots are across your vision - even in the cockpit where you're not looking through a screen. Some people taking shelter below feel warmth on their skin and realize they are bleeding from shallow cuts. Then, windows shatter.
The Myrmex Engine simulates quantum collapse on a vast scale, acting as an expansion for the networked human mind to handle calculations in the billions. Then, what happens if you deliberately disrupt the feed? Build a switch into it that partially gates the mind-machine interface, feeding the quantum collapse engine with reams of garbage data instead?
In the vicinity of Reinhert Zabek's unit, far enough to encompass all of his attackers, reality spasms. Sections of space seem to arbitrarily wrench away from one another, suddenly cut away inches to the side. No one "cut" runs too wide, but they add up, increasing in density with proximity to the Solenopsis. They occur inside shelters and active machinery (such as mobile weapons) no less than anywhere else. A few rare anomalies here and there spread all across the harbor to the horizon.
KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Myrmidon Team targets Rose Tritten, Sousuke Sagara, and Lilium Valerie with Psychic Storm! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Combat High activates Wall and Trick! KTS: Rose Tritten engages evade against Myrmidon Team's Psychic Storm! KTS: Rose Tritten successfully reacts to Myrmidon Team's Psychic Storm, taking 4450 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie engages evade against Myrmidon Team's Psychic Storm! KTS: Lilium Valerie's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Lilium Valerie moderately reacts to Myrmidon Team's Psychic Storm, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Neo Roanoke has posed.
< The goal is not to make the world better. It is to eradicate the anomalies that invade it. The cause of the wounds that exist within the world. Whether the world heals or not is immaterial. >
Neo is only half pay attention to what he's 'saying', as he focuses more on controlling the unit he's in and understanding its quirks. And he's been presented with two interesting test dummies with which to explore the Solenopsis's capabilities. In a way, he's thankful they're here.
That might seem counter to the mission objective, but Neo isn't as concerned about that.
As the Areia charges in, the Solenopsis doesn't parry this time, instead sliding backwards to try and avoid the blow. But Sayaka proves that a little bit faster, the curved blade managing to cut a deep groove across the wanzer's torso. The unit appears to stumble for a moment from the blow...
But then rapidly recovers under the pilot's control. It quickly brings its arms up again, similar as it did against the barrage of bullets. Once more the invisible barrier forms and it proves even useful against beam weapons as the energy splashes against it. Most of it is blocked, but some of it surges around the edge of whatever was stopping it to scorch parts of the wanzer's outer armour.
The Solenopsis spreads its arms out once more. This time, the ground itself begins to shake as cracks form in the street. The asphalt breaks apart, bulging upwards and numerous utility cables rise up out of the ground. They quickly whip up to try and wrap around the the Areia, attempting to tie it down and delay it.
Meanwhile, the Solenopsis itself, rushes past, quickly closing the distance to the Svipul.
< The PLANTs are hardly innocent. You simply fail to see the truth behind the moves that they make. >
The Solenopsis raises its arm and swings it down towards one of the half-fighter's wings, trying to smash through it with force beyond what the size and mass of the arm would suggest is possible.
KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Neo Roanoke targets Sayaka Yumi with Entomb Target! KTS: Neo Roanoke targets Anita Rosetta with Gigantic Impact! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta engages evade against Neo Roanoke's Gigantic Impact! KTS: Anita Rosetta's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Anita Rosetta successfully reacts to Neo Roanoke's Gigantic Impact, taking 4050 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi engages evade against Neo Roanoke's Entomb Target! KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi poorly reacts to Neo Roanoke's Entomb Target, taking 3500 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara engages evade against Myrmidon Team's Psychic Storm! KTS: Critical Hit! Sousuke Sagara poorly reacts to Myrmidon Team's Psychic Storm, taking 5699 damage! KTS: Rose Tritten has activated the Valor Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.
Rose lifts the ZAKU's arm to cover the cockpit as it, and the street are rocked by the psychic storm. She can feel a sonic boom inside of her head as her jaw clenches and clamps down roughly. Multiple cautions and alarms begin to scream warnings of damage and shuddering of various systems. As she regains her senses, Rose can feel blood trickling from her right nostril. That can be fixed later. Whatever the hell this guy was, he was the priority target.
"Sushila! Aspyn!" Rose radioed out to her teammates, now screaming in towards her. "Pattern Gamma! We need to try and take this one out!"
Her two teammates acknowledged, and the trio got to work. Rose drew the Beam Tomahawk from the ZAKU's shield and ignited a beam down the head. She put the thrusters back to full and screamed in at Zabek's MF-2, swinging it as she closed in and peppering it with Beam Rifle shots. As she does, Aspyn has already touched down behind him, and follows up in the opposite direction with her beam axe. Contact isn't vital, but appreciated, the important thing is disorienting the pilot and forcing him up, keeping him there with a long burst of beams from Assault Rifles and Aspyn's Hydra Gatling Beam Cannons. In her own cockpit, Sushila looks through her ZAKU's long range targeting sight as her pipper crosses over the MF-2, and her beam cannon charges up, a blinding red and white lance of energy screaming towards it...
KTS: Rose Tritten targets Myrmidon Team with Ace Attack Formation Gamma! KTS: Myrmidon Team fails to engage guard against Rose Tritten's Ace Attack Formation Gamma! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Rose Tritten's Ace Attack Formation Gamma, taking 2325 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
A barrier. Now Sousuke recognizes it. "That's--"
Silence in the cockpit. He curses, then flicks on a comm line. "They have some kind of barrier!" he shouts, probably much too late. The RK-91 is...slow. It doesn't have landspinners like a knightmare frame or even just the enhanced mobility of a M9's new-generation Muscle Packages. When the Solenopsis skates away, he can't keep up. He takes deep breaths. He curses quietly.
He tastes blood, and his eyes widen, pulling a hand up to snub at his nose with a wrist. Bleeding? His head... "Some kind of...electromagnetic...No, it's something else!"
What he would not GIVE for a LAMBDA DRIVER. But that's beyond him now. He can only do one thing, charging in - he nimbly skips and dodges away from slices in the air, then charges, then drops his sledgehammer completely - to pull two OTHER ones off his back? Wait. No.
They're not sledgehammers. Those big, flat heads...those are HEAT Hammer charges! Not the Zeon kind...!
He swings BOTH hammers overhead and SLAMS them hard into the Solenopsis, where both heads EXPLODE, bringing each down like an arm-propelled missile onto that barrier and hoping to shatter the concentration necessary to do this!
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Myrmidon Team with Zeya B3M HEAT Hammer Double Swing! KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Myrmidon Team fails to engage parry against Sousuke Sagara's Zeya B3M HEAT Hammer Double Swing! KTS: Best Defense! Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Sousuke Sagara's Zeya B3M HEAT Hammer Double Swing, taking 4275 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium grips the VF's throttle tightly, bearing down on the unidentified Wanzer with beam guns blazing. She just barely skirts over the artificial ground, accelerating towards the contact at the highest speed the unit can manage, her eyes--it was going to take a while to get used to having a transparent canopy to directly look out of--telling her that her shots were being far more effective this time around. The unit isn't responding to hails, seemingly, but it's taking damage. These things can be destroyed. Why couldn't they be? This was simple, really. Well-armed terrorists, but still just terrorists. Really, there was no problem at all.
<<Martius Control, Valerie--I'm moving in closer! the barrier's--well, it seems weaker to beams..?>>
She closes the distance as well as she can--the Solenopsis might be good at running, but a GERWALK form doesn't touch the ground at all. Even as... reality.. starts to.. crack around it..?
Lilium isn't sure what to make of the anomalies around the enemy unit. Buildings start to fall apart, mobile weapons take damage--but, somehow, she never seems to be there when a part splits off. Some debris does fling into her Nightmare Plus at what would be dangerous speeds, but its pinpoint barrier flickers to life and absorbs it. Perhaps because of this, Lilium doesn't quite grasp the full danger the system poses--and thus feels no qualms about doing something that, in hindsight, is incredibly stupid.
as the Valkyrie closes in on the Wanzer, its nose folds down--wings retracting--and armor plating moves to cover its cockpit canopy as a head pops up from between the two antennae around the middle of its fuselage.
<<Second Lieutenant Valerie, moving in for Pinpoint Barrier Strike! Savage pilot, I'll hit him from the other side!>>
Lilium broadcasts across the shared frequency, the pinpoint barriers convering on its free hand--which forms into a fist, and is driven as close to center mass on the target as possible in the hope of harming its barrier.
Lilium Valerie transforms to VF-171 Nightmare Plus <Battroid Mode>
KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Myrmidon Team with Pinpoint Barrier Melee Piercing Strike! KTS: Myrmidon Team engages evade against Lilium Valerie's Pinpoint Barrier Melee Piercing Strike! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Myrmidon Team poorly reacts to Lilium Valerie's Pinpoint Barrier Melee Piercing Strike, taking 3100 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Sayaka briefly smiles, when Anita says she'll be welcome at Magallanica, wondering how Eight and the others are doing. But what Anita says about the enemy they're fighting... "Familiar? Now that you mention it..." Has a unit like this been deployed before? Maybe that's worth looking into, once they have the time.
Neo almost seems to get philosophical in his responses to her - claiming that it doesn't matter if the world heals or not, just that what must be eradicated is eradicated. "If that's your goal... then you'll never fulfill it." Sayaka responds, though she too, is more focused on how Neo moves than what he says. Though he loses his guard for a moment at her attack, he's able to recover remarkably quickly... despite the precarious position, Sayaka trusts Anita's aim, and that she'll be able to do what she needs to do.
Meanwhile, the other attackers unleash some kind of 'psychic storm', reality cracking at its seams. It's out of Sayaka's range, but the effect it seems to create against the colony itself is horrifying to say the least. They can't allow these weapons to be used again, Sayaka tells herself. But Neo's Solenopsis moves as well, smashing apart the ground where it stands.
Sayaka sees the utility cables coming, so she's able to make sure Aphrodite Areia is mobile enough to not be tied down by the wires, but the sheer force of being struck by them is still enough to crack Super Alloy Z armour. Neither she nor Anita can fight for much longer than this. While Sayaka had been avoiding her energy-based attacks up until now, to prevent further damage to the colony... Neo's forced her hand.
The PLANTs are not innocent... "I've heard enough," Sayaka growls, as Aphrodite Areia's heat sinks begin to glow white, and then red. "I'll burn that false 'truth' of yours to ash. HEART FIRE!" Once her sights are clear from still-evacuating civillians, Sayaka presses the button. From the heat sinks comes a concentrated blast of flame, aimed to wash upon the Solenopsis's invisible barrier and force a surrender or retreat.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Neo Roanoke with Heart Fire! KTS: Neo Roanoke engages evade against Sayaka Yumi's Heart Fire! KTS: Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Heart Fire, taking 5400 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
So Sayaka notices it, too - if it's not just her, then maybe there's something to it. She'll have to shelve that feeling for now.
Anita is, for a moment, struck silent. She doesn't even know how to respond to that.
"...Wow. You're really something else, you know that?" Anita replies. "What gives you the right to decide what's an 'anomaly'?"
As much as she doesn't like his words, he's still a serious threat. She can't relax for a moment. The ground answers to the Solenopsis - and then the machine itself rushes toward her. Anita grits her teeth as the arm descends... and at the last moment, the Svipul slips to the side, raising its shield. The arm descends with greater force than it should be capable - and at the last second the Pinpoint Barrier flickers to life. Between the shield and the Barrier, the force is deflected away... but its still enough to put strain on the machine and knock it to the side.
"Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But me, I'm more of an 'in the now' kinda gal. These people haven't done anything, so far as I can tell - and that's innocent enough for me." Anita replies. "...So I'm just gonna fight for what feels right to me. I don't have the head for that kind of moralizing."
Aphrodite Areia unleashes a concentrated blast of flame and, supplementing that, the Svipul's wing hardpoints open, revealing their stock of missiles. They race outward - but that's just the beginning, as the Valkyrie kicks off the ground to take flight, shifting into Fighter Mode. It strafes through the air, peppering the Solenopsis with beam vulcan fire - and then abruptly changes course, racing right toward it. As it descends it shifts once more, this time into Battroid Mode - and with its hands free the Gungnir SC is drawn and readied once more, blade crackling to life before being driven toward the Solenopsis with the full force of its falling momentum behind it.
Anita Rosetta transforms to XVF-25I Svipul <Battroid Mode>
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Neo Roanoke with Divine Valkyrie Charge! KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Roanoke engages parry against Anita Rosetta's Divine Valkyrie Charge! KTS: Neo Roanoke moderately reacts to Anita Rosetta's Divine Valkyrie Charge, taking 5250 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Neo Roanoke has posed.
< And so long as you close your eyes to the reality you are in, then your goals will go unfulfilled as well. >
The Areia's flames wash over the Solenopsis, the large spread difficult for the wanzer to avoid completely. Its armor soaks up some of the damage, becoming somewhat slagged in the process, weakening it but not yet stripping it away enough to get at the machine's internals.
It's enough to distract the pilot though as Anita unleashes a combined barrage of missiles and beam fire which explode around and pepper the wanzer. Several sections of it have their armor blown away, glowing holes starting to fill the machine. It does seem like the two are finally wearing it down.
So thus Anita goes in for the kill, transforming her VF into robot form and driving the beam spear towards the Solenopsis.
But Neo is not finished yet.
The wanzer raises both its arms to meet the sphere this time, catching it between two telekinetic forces and driving the aim off so it only just slides across the top of the machine's shoulder. Briefly holding on to the weapon, Neo sends:
< You at least seem a little more aware of the world's state. Even if you choose to ignore it. >
The Solenopsis swings the weapon and VF around it, throwing them away with its telekinesis to create some distance. Neo then murmurs to himself, "Let's see what this drive can really do..."
The Solenopsis stretches its arms out once more. And this time the whole area begins to shake. The cracks originally created by the bursting cables quickly begin to spread across the street, reaching houses and rushing up their walls. The buildings begin to break apart, shattering under the immense force. And the pieces begin to float up into their air, forming a cloud of cables and debris chunks around the wanzer.
With a wave of its arms, the debris cloud blasts away from the Solenopsis. Chunks flying and cables whipping out in all directions, limiting means of escape and threatening to deliver destruction across a wide swath of the local area.
KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Neo Roanoke has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Neo Roanoke targets Sayaka Yumi and Anita Rosetta with Mass Destruction! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi engages guard against Neo Roanoke's Mass Destruction! KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi successfully guards Neo Roanoke's Mass Destruction, taking 4845 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Myrmidon Team has posed.
Forty thousand men and women every day
Forty thousand men and women every day
Another forty thousand coming every day
Reinhert Zabek is not a rookie. He has the cool of a veteran. But whatever machine he's been put in, he's just another soldier. His flight to the industrial docks is intercepted by Aspyn, while Rose closes the distance on him from behind. His Solenopsis raises its arms to hold each beam axe back in turn, splitting his concentration and dotting his armor from the rifle fire. He moves as Tritten Team predicted, crouching and leaping up into the air. At the apex of his leap, his unit slows and hovers in midair, and then whatever maneuver he was about to execute is cut short by a beam cannon charge, searing the outside of the machine and knocking it to the roads below. He has no time. Lilium has the devil's luck, or somehow, she makes her own, and she is already bearing down on him. His move to scrabble away is blocked by the path of the RK-91, its HEAT Hammers already in hands held high.
The explosion that follows is spectacular. Transmitted to Neo Roanoke is a speech-to-text transcribed message:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
The unit lies crumpled and smoking. The eye of the Solenopsis is partially shattered, and fire licks out from within. The sound of the old, old song distorts and skips.
A burning hand clenches tight. So does the hand of Solenopsis, around the leg of Sousuke's Arm Slave.
The ground shakes from underneath the feet of the purple and red ZAKUs. Earth and stone buckle under the units' feet and crawls up their legs, grabbing for them as they try to break away. Solenopsis's gravitic jets burn blue and launch it into the artificial sky. It flings the RK-91 like a ragdoll in the rough direction of the Variable Fighter, and follows with a salvo of suppressive fire from its beam rifle, aimed more to limit Lilium's approach vectors than to shoot her down.
"Not yet..." His voice rasps. He can't hear himself over the sound of the flames. "Priority... one is... cripple industrial infrastructure... priority two: cripple residential..."
KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Myrmidon Team targets Rose Tritten with Entomb Target! KTS: Rose Tritten engages evade against Myrmidon Team's Entomb Target! KTS: Critical Hit! Rose Tritten poorly reacts to Myrmidon Team's Entomb Target, taking 4400 damage! KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Myrmidon Team targets Sousuke Sagara with Gigantic Impact! KTS: Myrmidon Team has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Myrmidon Team targets Lilium Valerie with Standard Secondary Beam Rifle Rapid Fire! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Combat High activates Trick and Alert! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta engages evade against Neo Roanoke's Mass Destruction! KTS: Anita Rosetta's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Anita Rosetta moderately reacts to Neo Roanoke's Mass Destruction, taking 0 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie engages charge against Myrmidon Team's Standard Secondary Beam Rifle Rapid Fire! KTS: Lilium Valerie's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Lilium Valerie moderately reacts to Myrmidon Team's Standard Secondary Beam Rifle Rapid Fire, taking 2997 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to engage guard against Myrmidon Team's Gigantic Impact! KTS: Sousuke Sagara poorly reacts to Myrmidon Team's Gigantic Impact, taking 5500 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.
The artificial ground clamps around the ZAKU Warrior's legs, pinning them like an electro magnet. Rose struggles to free her ZAKU, the sounds of rending and breaking metal audible and echoing as her thrusters struggle. She pumps everything into the feet thrusters, and as alarms continue to blare, the rocks shatter as the thrusters overheat and just as they wear out, Rose's ZAKU breaks free. Smoke billowing from the feet and legs of the ZAKU warrior, She shifts everything to the Main thrusters, and closes in, teeth grinding in for the kill. "DELTA VARIANT FOUR! HOSE HIM DOWN!" Rose screams over the comms, prompting Sushila and Aspyn, ZAKUs still pinned down, raise up their beam rifles and unleash a firehose of green beams at the target, hitting and corralling him into Rose's final blow, aimed right at the supposed eye, Beam Tomahawk closing in...
KTS: Rose Tritten has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rose Tritten targets Myrmidon Team with Ace Attack Formation Delta! KTS: Myrmidon Team fails to engage evade against Rose Tritten's Ace Attack Formation Delta! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Myrmidon Team successfully reacts to Rose Tritten's Ace Attack Formation Delta, taking 3510 damage! KTS: Myrmidon Team has been defeated! KTS: Rose Tritten anchors Myrmidon Team, preventing their from Evading the next attack!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium's VF's fist uncurls, the glow of the pinpoint barrier shifting back off of it. She lowers its gunpod to point towards the target.
<<This is the Gaia Sabers! Power down the mobile weapon, and exit with your hands-->>
is as far as she gets before the flaming Wanzer still somehow launches itself into the air--and lobs an entire Arm Slave in her general direction. The Lieutenant sidesteps the thrown mobile weapon--more or less--and powers up the thrusters in the Nightmare Plus' own feet, preparing to launch into the air even as the Tritten Team absolutely annihilate the target.
After all, her job was-ultimately-to make the Gaia Sabers look good in front of a demographic that might... not exactly like them right now, primarily... and she had very specific orders on how to end the fight if any of the unknowns refused to be taken alive. Shifting back into Fighter mode, every missile bay on the VF-171 opens up--and every missile loaded flies out along pre-programmed flight paths, perfectly calibrated by NUNE PR experts to look good in the combat footage.
Lilium Valerie transforms to VF-171 Nightmare Plus <Fighter Mode>
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"You don't keep the largest free energy plant in the world running by closing your eyes to reality," Sayaka disagrees, even as the Solenopsis is tough enough to weather a Heart Fire. "The world is not perfect... and there's a lot I'd change about it in a heartbeat." But it's ours, she and Koji said - when they rejected Goragon. "But it doesn't matter where you decided to attack, really. As long as you threaten people, there needs to be someone who will stand up for them."
Anita then, goes in for her own charging attack - and that seems to have Neo on the ropes. If barely. Sayaka grimaces, as he creates Mass Destruction with what remains of the colony floor. Sayaka doesn't attempt to evade this time, merely trying to weather whatever comes at her, with the strength of the Super Alloy Z and maybe a little bit of force of will, too.
In the end, Areia still stands, but it's worse for wear, the metal of the Super Robot scarred to its very limit. "Can you still fly?" Sayaka asks Anita, and then points one of Aphrodite Areia's fists forward. "Let's end this. Fly, fist of iron!" She decides - the fist making a distinct whirling motion, before soaring from the body through the air to meet the Solenopsis for hopefully one final attack.
"ROCKET PUNCH!"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Neo Roanoke with Aphrodite Rocket Punch! KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Myrmidon Team with Aircraft Missile Array Long-Range Strike! KTS: Neo Roanoke engages evade against Sayaka Yumi's Aphrodite Rocket Punch! KTS: Neo Roanoke's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Aphrodite Rocket Punch, taking 2800 damage! KTS: Neo Roanoke has been defeated! KTS: Myrmidon Team engages block against Lilium Valerie's Aircraft Missile Array Long-Range Strike! KTS: Myrmidon Team's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Myrmidon Team moderately blocks Lilium Valerie's Aircraft Missile Array Long-Range Strike, taking 2029 damage! KTS: Myrmidon Team has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
The barrage lands - but the spear is caught with telekinetic force before it can land.
A little more aware, huh...?
"'Ignore it'. Look at it from a different perspective, maybe." Anita replies. She grits her teeth as the telekinetic force shifts. She doesn't want to let go of the Gungnir SC... which means she's swung, and then thrown. The Svipul hurtles through the air before catching itself - which gives the Solenopsis all the time it needs to prepare.
"...What the hell. That's an anomaly if I've ever seen one." Anita replies, shaking her head in disbelief. The ground itself, houses and buildings are torn up, broken apart into a cloud of cables and debris... and then made to erupt out from the Solenopsis like a shrapnel burst of catastrophic proportions. She grits her teeth - and activates the Visual Link System. She can't avoid all of it, but she can focus on diverting the worst of it, adjusting the Pinpoint Barrier to cover vital components while she trusts her control over it to carry her through. Debris crashes against the frame, stone whips by her head, and the Pinpoint Barrier crackles as objects collide against it as she weaves through the storm...
...And at the end of it, the Svipul is still standing. ...Anita exhales.
"...Yeah. I'm still good, somehow - dooon't think I can do that again, though." She says - and nods her agreement. "Let's make this count."
Aphrodite Areia sends a fist soaring, and Svipul in response leaps backthrough the air. With a slightly unpleasant crunching of metal from the damage it took, the Svipul transforms into Fighter Mode. The Gungnir SC is returned to its mount, and with the Visual Link System active, Anita takes aim.
"Just - stand down!" Anita calls out - and the Svipul fires, attempting to disable the Solenopsis.
Anita Rosetta transforms to XVF-25I Svipul <Fighter Mode>
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Neo Roanoke with Cannon Mode - Aimed Shot! KTS: Neo Roanoke fails to engage evade against Anita Rosetta's Cannon Mode - Aimed Shot! KTS: Neo Roanoke's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Neo Roanoke successfully reacts to Anita Rosetta's Cannon Mode - Aimed Shot, taking 3510 damage! KTS: Neo Roanoke has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The massive explosions cloud Sousuke's vision. It's all it takes. The screaming reaches into his cockpit through contact. But so does the rattling of the atmosphere; the RK-91 is NOT an airborn machine and has essentially zero measures for pilot safety in the air.
A white streak flies across the sky and SLAMS into the ground below, streaks of light searing the ground nearby.
... "D, damage report," Sousuke croaks from the cockpit, which doesn't respond. "gggh," he groans, and forces his eyes open. He peers through a squinted-shut eye at the readings.
"...Doctor," he says, flipping on channel. "Crossbow can't continue combat."
Again. Even with an enemy so hellbent on such destruction...
It just doesn't feel right, anymore. He forces the machine upright, and starts lurching away. He's done what he can.
<Pose Tracker> Neo Roanoke has posed.
Nothing more needs to be said. Especially as Neo gets that transmission from the other Solenopsis. Evidently it is facing its own difficult obstacles. Though the fact that the machines have been able to withstand greater numbers is a testament to their construction.
Or perhaps their pilots.
Either way, its clear that this mission will be coming to a close soon.
Sayaka charges in with a heavy punch with speed behind it. The Wanzer raises its arms again, once more the telekinetic force blocking the impact. But as the two forces clash, Neo struggles to maintain his concentration, as tired as he is. Finally his mind falters for a moment, the same happening to the barrier.
The fist impacts the Solenopsis dead on in the chest, the impact sending it flying backwards a short distance to hit the ground on its back.
Anita takes this opportunity to fire, to try and finish the machine off. The beam slices through the air towards the Solenopsis. It connects with something and there is an explosion!
As the smoke and dust fades, the Solenopsis is... Gone!
Completely.
... There's no debris...
And there's a large hole in the street. On closer inspection, it leads into a set of large utility tunnels beneath the colony's interior surface. It seems the Solenopsis and its pilot have managed to make an escape.
<Pose Tracker> Myrmidon Team has posed.
"Hold... together... priority..." Reinhert Zabek clenches his hand tight. The pain is terrible. Focus on it. Focus and hold together...
The ZAKU Warrior breaks free from its artificial stone shackles. Zabek's unit billows in the sky in a deflated, aimless attempt to dodge the beam fire from her team support. A series of missile explosions rocks its path through the artificial sky, reaching towards the central spire that connects to the colony dock entrance. Invisible force still clenches, deflecting the shockwaves, though they look no less spectacular on footage to be screened later.
It is Rose Tritten who catches up to him in midair, who spears the globe in the center, releasing billowing clouds of smoke. Solenopsis crumples once again, and crashes down, spiralling from the momentum of the blow, far to the land below.
The fallen Solenopsis is recovered by the Space Assembly League from a crash site in artificial farmland near the shore of the colony ocean. Somehow, it is still playing that old song. A small burned photograph of a family lies in the smouldering cockpit, too scorched to make out particulars. No body is recovered.
The door was opened and the wind appeared
The candles blew and then disappeared
The curtains flew and then he appeared, saying...
"Priority three... avoid... capture..."
<Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.
Rose touches down next to the flaming wreckage of her team's kill. At least they can claim that. She reaches up to her helmet and presses the visor slide, which slides up automatically into her helmet proper. Brushing a white gloved hand at her nose to wipe the blood, Rose finally sighs a bit of relief. She watches as APC's full of ZAFT soldiers pull up to the various resting sites of these strange new mobile weapons to secure the wreckage and capture any crew members still alive. The Arm Slave has already started to wander off, but there's still one more machine present that helped defeat these mystery attackers.
The trio of ZAKUs, monoeyes eerily synced focus in on Lilium's VF-171, painted in Gaia Sabers colours.
The tension is palpable. The nuclear attack attempt on the PLANTs still burning at the back of the ZAFT pilot's minds.
Rose opens up a comms channel to the VF. Lilium can see the tension in Rose's face. Loyal allies once, then hated enemies for a day, now awkwardly back to being uneasy allies.
For now. There was a lot that could be said.
"This is Rose Tritten, of the Tritten Team." She says, simply. "Thank you for your assistance, but I think it's best you leave now."
The trio of ZAKU Warriors, having received their recall order, launch up into the colony's artificial sky and follow the path back to the One Fine Day.
Reconciliation can come another day, now it's simply business.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Sayaka and Anita both give everything they have, Rocket Punch flying alongside a beam blast for one final explosion. And then it's over - the Solenopsis gone altogether. They didn't kill him, Sayaka presumes... that pilot was way too skilled. But it's still over. Some of the other machines fall - and aren't lucky enough to survive.
But in a way, the attackers still got exactly what they aimed for. The aftermath is just devastating. It's going to take a lot to rebuild this PLANT... but the Photon Power League have never been ones to vanish without a trace once the battle is over. Sayaka will be happy to pitch in the efforts... once she's not exhausted from battle sitting in the Pilder of a Mazin.
"Areia's seen better days herself... but it seems our enemy's escaped. I'll come by to pick you up in just a moment," Sayaka transmits back to Sousuke, and then moves to retrieve the Crossbow.
"I'm glad it was you watching my back today. Give the Orlodharis and Ms. Lancaster my best, all right?" Sayaka adds to Anita, as well, before flying off.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium flies a rough course over the crash site, her VF's contrails intermingling with the clouds in the artificial sky. She squints her eyes down at the smouldering wreckage--and the ZAKU that touched down next to it. She... definitely recognises those colours... Although she'd rather not recall the details. ZAFT infantry pull up to it, and she levels out--it's out of her hands now. Landing and attempting to secure the wreck site would've been a pretty poor move anyway, politically speaking...
Speaking of which... Lilium's not sure what she's supposed to do now. She was launched somewhat hurriedly, so there wasn't time for a full briefing--her orders had been to secure the site and wait for reinforcements with further orders. Since clearly reinforcements hadn't gotten here in time, was she just... supposed to stay in a holding pattern until they left? Should she ask for landing clearance..?
As she muses over this, a communications window opens on her dashboard. The Lieutenant glances down at it, moving a hand to lift the tinted visor on her head and revealing a similarly-expressioned face. Rose's voice was... definitely familiar, she thinks. It's probably best to avoid commenting on that, though...
<<Second Lieutenant Lilium Valerie, Gaia Sabers.>> She responds, as flatly as she can manage under the circumstances. <<You're welcome--and... I think that's probably a good idea, yes. Martinus Tower? I'm requesting an exit vector--I'd like to leave through a more reasonable path than flying through those holes again...>>
She pulls back on the stick, and the Nightmare Plus sweeps up into the PLANT's 'sky'.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
The smoke clears, and the Solenopsis is gone, completely. ...Anita is immediately on edge. She knows how much power she put into that. It wasn't nearly enough to vaporize a wanzer of that size. And sure enough - there's a hole.
"...He's clever, I'll give 'im that." Anita notes. She exhales, shaking her head. ...Today could have gone worse. It could've gone better, too.
Still, she smiles.
"Same to you, Doc - nice to fight alongside you again." Anita replies. She offers a salute - and the Svipul does the same. "Will do. Take care, you hear?"
And with that, she turns her attention back to the colony.
"Martius Five, this is Anita Rosetta of the Magallanica Defense Force. Looks like this is over. My machine can still fly so, permission willing, let me volunteer to assist with search and rescue." She offers. She might as well - it'll give her something to do while she arranges for repairs.