2023-11-17: Hell on Gallia IV

• Log: Hell on Gallia IV
• Cast: Alto Saotome, Rin Naujakaite, Riika Sheder, Rita Bernal, Yurika Misumaru, Hikaru Amano, Brera Sterne, Grace O'Connor, Balance T Moid
• Where: Gallia IV
• OOC - IC Date: Nov 17 0097
• Summary: An engineering team is escorted to a wreck to salvage important cargo. But they come under attack by a force of unidentified Variable Fighters.

---

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        When one of the scout teams reported the discovery of wreckage of a
 partially submerged transport, there wasn't much fanfare. After all, there's
 been a bunch of wreckage found since the expedition started looking.

        However, when the ID of the transport was identified, there was a
 sudden flurry of activity. Plans were hastily put together to send a salvage
 team ASAP. The mission was marked as high priority, leading to the assignment
 of a number of the expedition's pilots to act as security.

        The real question is: Why? No one knows. The higher ups are being
 rather tight-lipped about it. All they're saying is there may be 'important'
 cargo on board that should be acquired at any cost.

        Add to that the fact that the Zuvorg Alliance's academy on the planet
 has just happened to send some of their students along for what they are
 claiming is a 'training mission' and there definitely seems to be something
 going on.

        Whatever it is though, there's a mission to be completed! That is
 protecting the engineering team that has been organized to perform the
 salvaging. The team's shuttle is currently on final approach to the crashed
 transport. As described, the wreck is partially submerged in a marsh. Much
 like the Global near the expedition camp, the wreck is quite overrun with
 local vines.

        The shuttle proceeds to land on a relatively flat and level section of
 the wreck. The engineers climb out and find access into the ship via an
 emergency hatch. They begin to make their way through it, hauling their
 equipment with them. The team is heading straight for the cargo bay, whereupon
 they find it almost entirely empty. And most of that which is left has been
 destroyed by years of exposure.

        All except for one thing. A large secure vault anchored in the center
 of the bay. It looks heavy duty, utilizing super-magnetic locks with backup
 deadbolts.

        Does the engineering team have the access keys for the vault?

        Nope.

        Do they have a means of overriding the vault's security systems to
 force its doors open?

        Nope.

        So what do they have?

        A really powerful laser!

        How powerful is it? As the team begins setting up the stationary laser
 in front of the vault door, one of the engineers warns, "Careful! You got the
 settings wrong. Run this thing with those settings and you risk a feedback
 loop and overload!" Still, it's probably going to take a little while to cut
 through.

        While the team is working, Alto is flying in the air in his fighter.
 He's making a wide circle over the mission site as he patrols the skies.
 Though for what exactly, he's not sure. The expedition has been here for over
 a month now and there's not been a sign of even one Vajra. And the only other
 people on the planet are agreeable enough. They're even here helping!

        Speaking of which, Alto opens comms to the joint frequency they're
 using and asks the academy students, <"So is this a typical training mission
 for you lot?">

KTS: Alto Saotome has deployed in VF-25F Messiah <Fighter Mode>.
KTS: Yurika Misumaru has deployed in Aestivalis Lunar Frame.
KTS: EN Barrier activated!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has deployed in Naujakaite Flying Circus.
KTS: Hikaru Amano has deployed in Aestivalis Lunar Frame.
KTS: EN Barrier activated!
KTS: Rita Bernal has deployed in RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 03 Phenex <Unicorn Mode>.

<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.

Yeah, Alto! They're helping!

Maybe it's just that rearing in the highly efficient yet curiously louche
 Britannian educational system for the place where the descending nobility meet
 the upwardly mobile commoner, but even now, Rin Naujakaite is - quietly -
 suspicious of the Zuvorg.

Has she kept it to herself? Yes.

Has she even thought it super hard around the Zuvorg? No.

Is she letting it get in the way of her work?

NOPE:

Thanks to a generous grant from the credit account of VTX Industries, Rin's
 dark dreams have, sort of, become true. She is in one modified VF-171
 Nightmare Plus, which has been helpfully given a full repainting and an
 arbitrary if potentially-fortunate call sign of "Ringtoss," and this Variable
 Frame is supported by two AIF-7S Ghost airframes, which are a lot more
 patchwork looking, because they were bought used. Nevertheless.

Right now, they're mostly turning right in a big circle. The two Ghosts appear
 to be behaving themselves, although one of them kept pulling ahead until some
 OTA updates got applied.

<"Yeah!"> Rin echoes after Alto speaks. <"I'm really curious what your school
 curriculum is like! Or your fun traditions... School is the time when youth
 blooms into the hopeful young adult that builds the future, you know!">

Heh heh, Rin thinks as she glances off to the side during another bank, looking
 down at the central relief point where the engineering team is working.

Is this what military piloting is really like? Rin thinks silently to herself.
 Silently, her phone (which has been on Travel Mode for the last month, which
 has at this point bricked all her mobile games) calls to her from where it is
 stowed in a flight-suit pocket. Maybe I could do mahjong against the AI...
 or...

No, Rin thinks. If I do that, Sakurai's gonna make me chug.

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika Sheder, being on the mechanics and engineering team for this trip, is...
 well, she's with the mechanics and engineers! What did you expect?

Riika has done her share of salvage and recovery before, and getting entry to
 the transport wasn't an issue. Nor was poking around inside; Riika's
 particular job appears to involve taking a lot of notes on an audio recorder,
 for later. Every once in a while she takes a picture of something in situ, but
 given the transport itself is a known unit she doesn't have to do that very
 much.

And now she's part of the team setting up the laser.

Riika has spent a lot of time working on lasers lately; a lot of study before
 she was able to build Svalinn Haze, and then a lot of practical experiments
 and experience getting things to work just right. Perhaps due to having this
 experience, she's been working on the laser systems and has been heavily
 involved in getting them set up just right.

Actually, she volunteered just to bring the Schlieren down and get it in a rig.
 Then she vetoed it because nobody wanted to carry all the colloid canisters,
 including her. Better to stick with a more practical laser cutter.

"I've got it," Riika says, crouching down the laser to make some adjustments on
 the underside of it. "We're still a bit from overload but we do need to do a
 bit more work with the focusing array before it's quite ready. But I can make
 those changes, too - better safe than sorry!"

She's also listening into the military comms, too; Riika is not in a mobile
 suit, but as a pilot she's volunteered to be their contact with the engineers
 in case it's necessary. She smiles slightly to hear Rin up there, but doesn't
 interrupt.

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

From her corner of camp, the Phenex has silently watched the salvage
 preparations. She offers no reaction. All the same, as the shuttle takes off,
 the golden Gundam shines with inner flame and lifts into the air.

If these people need to be protected, Rita will do her part. The Phenex soars
 calmly behind the shuttle. There are no thrusters, no sound of engines. The
 Firebird simply flies through the air as she wills, haloed by blue fire.

As the engineers begin their work, the Phenex flies in slow circles around the
 bay. She is seemingly at ease, silently listening as Alto speaks in the public
 channel. Rita will listen to the students' answer carefully.

<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.

        By this point, the Academy students in question have been getting
 rather used to being liasons to and from the Nadesico and Quarter! Of the
 three - it's Kirius who's by far had the easiest time just getting along with
 everyone on board - even if the noble warrior thing is a little stiff, he has
 a bit of a way with words. Array...is of course the least engaged, largely
 keeping to himself playing games. And Izo?

        FROM THE NADESICO'S KITCHENS, a gaggle of applause and squealing
 commences as Howmei and her assistant chefs watch Izo impeccably flip a wok
 full of rice, bandanna tight around his forehead, sweat glistening off his
 brow. Wouldn't you know it, the fiery manly energy missing from the kitchens
 was right there all along! Several of the cooks are making "you've got to stay
 with us!" noises at the soooomewhat awkward Izo, scratching at his forehead at
 the sentiment.

        "It's kinda just a hobby of mine...is cooking this way really that
 impressive back on Earth...?" Izo murmurs, before expertly cracking an egg
 with the side of a spatula, to ever more awe-struck cooing.

        -----------

        "It's just not the SAAAAAAAME-!!!!" grouses Yurika from the bridge,
 arms folded over a console. She's been informed of the Phenomenon at the
 kitchen. Wouldn't you know it, captain? Another fiery pilot boy's making it
 big down there, so surely... "He's just not my type at aaaaaaaaaall! That
 delinquent sorta vibe he has going on, the way he's so dispassionate until he
 gets ramped up, it's just, noooo!" Yurika sighs out oh so dreamily, rolling
 onto her back (still on a console).

        "Well, then that's that, I suppose," Mr. Prospector assesses, getting
 back to the clipboard on the transport's retrieval that he's been oh so easive
 describing. "Matchmaking's never been my forte! About the expedition team
 then-"

        "The love of my life needs that sense of tenderness and a heart
 vaster than he's able to contain despite his dearest efforts to shelter it
 and I need to be sure he does it out of passion and hope and that secret
 sense of caring and aauuuuuu..." ...Poor Yurika's still not living it down,
 is she?

        "...Captain, please- I was just about to say that while we're able to
 talk with those Ovid pilots from the Academy, we're short on shifts for our
 own pilots, so we may need to reassign Amano's duties fo-"

        "Oh, I'll go with her." Yurika stands up shockingly plainly, walking
 out at an unnaturally brisk pace from the bridge. "I've been dying to get out
 there anyway, and I am on the list for backup recon, so what's done is done-!"

        A few leafed pages leads to Mr. Prospector adjusting his glasses
 confirming that, indeed, Yurika herself's right on the personnel list for
 these types of operations. "...When'd that get changed...?"

        -----------

        And so, alongside the three Academy students' Ovids, Yurika herself
 takes to the skies in the still somewhat experimental Lunar Frame Aestivalis,
 pursing her lips a little huffily about how they didn't have time to make them
 ~special~ or ~personalized~. "...I did make sure to get a handle on the
 simulations for these, but hmhmhm...Are they handling a little stiff for you,
 Hikaru-?" Yurika chimes in, landing with a careful, practiced thud about half
 a kilometer off from the crashed vessel. It's certainly...a first, seeing her
 in that clingy bright red pilot getup!

        "Rin Naujakaite...Forgive me if I've misremembered your name, but truer
 words have never been spoken," Kirius oh-so-elegantly calls forth, helping
 load a trailer onto a medical truck. "Bonding and testing our horizons is oh
 so critical, so we often take journeys into the wilderness, camping and
 foraging for ourselves. This planet is rather ideal for it - since outside the
 habitable belt you run very quickly into extreme conditions. We have sheltered
 from the cold together - we have staved off the scorching heat together. Such
 ordeals harden the spirit like the hammer of a forged blade."

        "...What the hell are you on, Kirius-?" Izo can't help but grouse, his
 own Ovid clearing away any larger boulders in the path of ground based
 transit. "No, this is a totally normal thing to do, especially back home in
 the Polyhedron. You can't go ten feet without some downed merchant vessel
 smoldering at a lost planet, especially since King Dizelmine's so on edge
 about Kiss and Posaydal alike. Honestly, what good's this whole Zuvorg
 Alliance business if you can't trust half of these kings aren't about to try
 killing each other any day now...?"

<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Amano has posed.

The Zuvorg are, without a doubt, an Empire from faraway space. Probably
 multiple! They even got like, princesses, and stuff. But are they an EVIL
 empire? Well, Hikaru knows it isn't always like the shows. There's nothing
 wrong with having some hope, either!

Indeed, the trip has gone without much of... any incident. Which means that
 Hikaru's role as 'one of the Nadesico's ace pilots' has gone (thankfully?!)
 unplayed.

That doesn't mean there's nothing they can do though, and flying escort for a
 group of engineers trying to excavate a neat little long-long-lost ship is
 perfectly fine work, too! Besides, it lets Uri-pea and the rest of the
 Nadesico's engineering crew do boring things like 'measure the new Lunar
 Aestivalis model's output, power supply, and deployment time without a live
 combat situation'.

As usual, she's not flying alone - but her wingmate today is a little different
 than usual! "Hey, come to think, they do move a little weird... all this
 equipment kinda bogs down the experience. But at least it isn't bad as the
 Heavy Frame!" She answers Yurika cheerfully, face popping into her cockpit.
 "Could use a little more cat-ears, though~"

"Say, this is your first time outside the sims, isn't it? I'm a little
 surprised you showed up just for this... but I'll never complain about
 company~" She lands just ahead of Yurika's Lunar Aestie. "Geez, it's a good
 thing Ryoko-chan isn't with us right now... she's so strict about the
 landings!" Hikaru shakes her head. "Gotta say, it's still a little weird to
 see you in the pilot suit... but I guess I've seen you in weirder!"

Hikaru's seen some of the academy students around the Nadesico already... but
 some people take the opportunity to ask them questions. "Oh, I have one!" She
 raises her hand, and so does the Aestie. "What do you guys do for fun?
 Constantly training and studying sounds like way too much!" When Rin asks
 about traditional fun, she nods. "Yeah, like that! Oh, but the way you put
 it... that's soooo cheesy."

<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.

        ~ BEFORE ~
        
        "Brera, I've got something I need to talk to you about."
        
        So Sheryl had told her bodyguard--technically Ranka's bodyguard right
 now--once she'd had a chance to pull him aside and speak with him in private
 in her living quarters. She wasn't smiling; her eyebrows were furrowed; there
 was a certain tension in her cheekbones.
        
        So Brera listened. "What is it?"
        
        She sat down on one of the couches and gestured for him to do the same
 opposite her. Brera preferred to stand, but saw no reason not to sit, and so
 sat.
        
        "We haven't seen a lot of you around the campsite. You've been flying
 around Gallia IV, taking a look here and there, right?"
        
        "Yes." It was part of the mission, after all. Other motivations aside.
        
        "Does anything about this planet seem... familiar to you?"
        
        Brera paused. It--did. But... "How did you know?"
        
        Sheryl took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "So, hear me out.
 Ranka says she's been here before, too. She's also missing her memories from
 her childhood. Both of you know Aimo. And while the Vajra attacked the
 settlement here, we know that there were some survivors who managed to escape
 the attack." Sheryl locked eyes with him. "Brera. I think you might be one of
 those survivors. I think you and Ranka might have known each other when you
 were little."
        
        A subtle shock jolted his heart, or what passed for it. A great
 understanding opened in his soul, as vast as the starry night sky and just as
 beautiful and frightening. Brera hardly felt anything at all, so this
 feeling--this emotion--surged up and threatened to overwhelm him.
        
Aimo, aimo-- He played his harmonica while a girl sang cheerfully next to
 him. Nedel lushe--
        
        Vajra folding into the sky
        
                pushing a girl into an evacuation pod
        
The agonizing tear of mandibles through his flesh
        
the blinding light at the center of a circle of faceless persons, their scalps
 and faces masked in blue
        
                                                                and then--
        
        He clutched his cranial implant, hunching over himself. Everything
 throbbed. It hurt. "I... why..."
        
        "Brera?" Sheryl hurried up and over to him, clutching his arm and
 shoulder. "Are you going to be okay?"
        
        On the other side of his implant, the other side of the galaxy, Grace's
 attention sharpened. The shock that had been stirring within him died
 stillborn. His emotions smoothed, flattened. The Colonel released him, watched
 him carefully from the world only those like them could see. Brera slowly
 released his head, he looked over at Sheryl, also watching him with pursed
 lips and upturned brows.
        
        "I'm. Fine," he said flatly, the lenses in his eyes shifting focus.
        
        
        ~ NOW ~
        
        He was fine. And that was why he had left the salvage mission to the
 others, instead remaining on the Macross Quarter to watch over Sheryl and...
 Ranka... as they continue to work on the collaboration they started with the
 Princesses Yurikano and Laffinty, chatting gaily as they work out the melody
 and fit the lyrics so far to it, Sheryl on piano, Ranka on vocals. They're
 both very lively.
        
        Brera feels... something as he watches them from the doorway. He's not
 sure. It doesn't show on his face. Even if it did, his mirrored panorama
 shades shield his eyes.
        
        Alto is in the air. Brera is keenly aware of that, too. But outwardly,
 he remains stoic. Everything is as scheduled so far. Brera pays little
 attention to the songwriting process itself, though his harmonica necklace
 weighs on his chest. He has other things on his mind.
        
        ~~~
        
        Overhead, Alto and other pilots patrol the area from above. It's a
 sensible idea. Who knows who might decide to barge in and do whatever they
 want? They might be getting along with the Zuvorg Alliance so far, but one
 never knows what dissidents might lurk out of sight.
        
        The first warning is a series of sparks high in the atmosphere. An
 instant later, several Variable Fighters sweep down at close to supersonic
 speed to barrel through everyone's formation, potentially damaging and almost
 certainly scattering them and definitely ruining their fun conversation
 before it gets to even properly take off.
        
        Despite this reckless approach, the VFs make pinpoint stops, then shift
 rapidly from fighter to Battroid modes, raising beam rifles as they do. In the
 instant before they spray laser fire in semi-circles, circling with their
 backs to each other in tight formation, Alto and friends will get a decent
 look at them.
        
        They look just like Brera's Variable Fighter, a cutting-edge model
 called the Lucifer. The main difference is that they're painted purple instead
 of red--and that there's a team of several units, instead of one single elite
 unit. Also, Brera's Lucifer is in the Quarter's hangar, as anyone aboard would
 be able to confirm.
        
        Who are they? Where did they come from? And what are they after?
        
        To find out, first you must survive.

KTS: Brera Sterne has deployed in VF-27 Gamma Lucifer <Battroid Mode>.

<Pose Tracker> Grace O'Connor has posed.

"These annoying pests."

Certainly not the words of Grace O'Connor, who has an ironclad alibi for
 remaining present in the Earthsphere right now. And yet, an immaculately
 dressed woman, adjusts her glasses, her ruby lips breaking into a smirk.

"Do you truly enjoy digging up the past this much?"

Holographic displays suddenly appear all around her, isolating her off from the
 world in an onslaught of information, which she effortlessly navigates, diving
 into it with all the ease of a technological demigoddess.

Colonel Grace Godunwa gives the order, as another unfamiliar variable fighter
 flies in, a translucent outline that most would have trouble seeing, it does
 not even appear on their sensors.

"It is too early for you to obtain such a prize."

She chides to everyone, the condescension dripping from her words.

The Variable Fighter, 'Ars Goetia' announces its entrance by spitting warning
 machine gun fire from a separate direction from that of the Lucifers,
 appearing only briefly enough to spit fire. It's appearance white with violet
 stripes, before it seemingly melts back into translucence and vanishes into a
 thin outline.

This ghostly Variable Fighter will certainly be a problem, amidst all the other
 far more obvious ones, if it's not dealt with. The problem is that even Rita
 has trouble sensing it.

Is there truly not anyone piloting it?

KTS: Grace O'Connor has deployed in YF-27-5 Shaher F Custom 'Ars Goetia'
 (Fighter Mode).

KTS: Brera_Sterne has deployed as a Boss for 4 opponents.
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Alto Saotome with Gutshot!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Rita Bernal with Gutshot!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Yurika Misumaru with Gutshot!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Hikaru Amano with Gutshot!
KTS: Grace O'Connor targets Rin Naujakaite with Goad!
KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Foresee Spirit Command.
KTS: Rita Bernal fails to Evade Brera Sterne's Gutshot, taking 3825 damage!
KTS: Hikaru Amano has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Hikaru Amano's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Hikaru Amano fails to evade Brera Sterne's Gutshot, taking 3680 damage!
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Alto Saotome fails to evade Brera Sterne's Gutshot, taking 4600 damage!
KTS: Grace O'Connor goads Rin Naujakaite, reducing her Intuition drastically.

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        The engineers are appreciative of Riika's assistance. With it, it
 doesn't take them much longer to get the laser drill set up and activated. The
 tool comes to life, projecting an intense beam that strikes the secure vault
 and starts cutting. It's surprisingly fast, given the heavy duty nature of the
 vault. One of the engineer guides the laser to cut through the door's anchor
 points so it will fall free. He lets the others know, "This shouldn't take
 long."

        Alto was a little surprised that the Nadesico's Captain herself had
 decided to come out for this. Did she know something about the transport that
 the rest didn't? It would make sense, otherwise why would she be out here?

        Then Alto remembers this is Yurika... Sense is optional.

        Alto then feels a little doubtful at Kirius's description of their time
 at the academy here. Some of it makes sense... Yet Alto agrees with Izo, the
 way Kirius words it is just a little weird. Is that really the kinds of things
 they've been experiencing? He murmurs, <"Kind of glad Mihoshi wasn't like
 that...">

        The various banter is suddenly put on hold as Alto becomes rather
 concerned. His system reports incoming unidentified contacts from presumably
 high orbit.

        Vajra!?

        No... The signal patterns don't match. Is it more students from the
 academy? No, they would have said something over the radio and been using an
 IFF.

        Besides, these contacts are coming in AWFULLY fast! Alto warns
 everyone, <"Heads up. We have fast incoming! No ID."> He switches to an open
 channel and radios, <"Incoming craft, this is Skull-4 with Strategic Military
 Services. Identify yourselves.">

        One of the unknown craft rapidly approaches Alto's location and he is
 forced to quickly bank in order to avoid an impact. The craft flashes past the
 canopy of his cockpit in just a moment.

        But Alto could swear he's seen a shape like that before!

        Sure enough, the various craft come to a stop, letting Alto getting a
 good look at them, <"What the hell!? Those are VF-27s! A design out of Guld
 Works corporation... What are they doing here?"> Alto has only seen one of
 them before... And it SHOULD be still on the Macross Quarter back at the
 expedition camp.

        The answer comes quickly enough as they open fire with their beam
 rifles. Alto quickly goes into a spiral to try and avoid the shots, though one
 of them glances across the side of his fuselage. That could have been a lethal
 shot if he hadn't moved!

        Alto is naturally rather upset about this. So he swings his nose around
 to point it towards the formation of Lucifers. He doesn't know why they're
 trying to kill him, or even how they got to the Gallia system. But he radios
 the rest of the expedition team, <"Fine. If that's how it's going to be...
 Let's take them out.">

        Alto pulls the trigger, letting the machine guns in his wings spray a
 barrage of bullets over the hostile VF formation.

        As the formation of Lucifers and single Shaher Custom draw the
 attention of the expedition's security team, another contact appears on scans.
 This one coming in low, having been using terrain and stealth systems to hide
 its approach. By the time anyone from the expedition notices, it's too late.
 The small shuttle fires something. Somewhat larger and shaped somewhat
 strangely compared to a normal missile, it nonetheless rockets towards the
 transport. It quickly reaches and... Thankfully there is no explosion! The
 object just buries itself into the transport's structure.

        Inside the cargo bay, the engineers have heard about the attack, "What
 do we do? Do we bail?"

        Another says, "We can't. We were told this cargo is high priority! Let
 the mobile weapons handle it. That's what they're here for."

        Another then asks, "Wait, did you hear that? Sounds like something
 struck the ship..."

        Not too far away, partially buried through the wall of some random
 storage room is the object that hit the ship. A hatch on it suddenly busts out
 and a young man in a black bodysuit climbs out. His cyborg eyes quickly adjust
 to the low lighting conditions. In his mind he brings up a map of the
 transport, identifying his location and the shortest path to his destination.
 The cargo bay. He pulls a handgun from its holster and then begins to move
 through the ship.

KTS: Alto Saotome targets Brera Sterne with ES-25A High Speed Machine Guns
 Closing Assault!

KTS: Yurika Misumaru's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Yurika Misumaru partially guards Brera Sterne's Gutshot, taking 4370
 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.

<"You nailed it,"> Rin tells Kirius as the VF-171 levels out. <"... Hmm~m! I
 didn't think of that. You'd be able to get to better conditions easily... it'd
 be harder to get lost given the whole sun thing. And even on the hot side you
 could just put up a shelter so you wouldn't die. It makes a lot of sense!">

She answers Izo, too. <"Huh! Wild. You guys have a lot of traffic control
 issues, or is that just like -- search and rescue.">

Rin considers for a few moments longer, but before she can have something else
 to say - a signal warning on the canopy of the VF. She glances upwards then.
 Is it meteors coming in? But when they sweep downwards, Rin actually yelps in
 surprise. By sheer idiot chance, she and the two Ghosts are on the far end of
 that attack formation; one of the drones swerves slightly, but they aren't in
 the line of fire.

Rin looks upwards, with a sudden squirt of worry and alarm. And for just one
 second, there's something up there - a brief vision of an aircraft. It's
 actually a little less than a second, in actual time.

But Rin Naujakaite is built different.

In that, let's call it .7 seconds, Rin experiences a subjective 1.8 seconds --
 long enough for the shape of that aircraft and an idea of its markings to sink
 into her fervid teenage brain.

Then it disappears.

But sure as hell, it WAS there, wasn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OmVYzcBJDc

Rin can feel a strange but not unfamiliar sensation up her spine. A mixture of
 mystery and heroism. A sense of something *special*. Something that only *she*
 could do. It's not expressed in those terms; it's a flash sensation, a gut
 reaction. It may yet prove to be a bad one.

But instead of diving on the Battroid, Rin says -- <"There's one up high!"> and
 she pulls back on the stick, with the Ghosts pivoting to join her a moment
 later. To the hidden and silent colonel, this may look pretty bad: it's a
 squadron! Of course, two of the objects are somewhat junky-looking Ghosts.
 Even so.

Rin lapses into a clipped and cryptic slang. It involves horrible gamer terms
 and occasional weird inflections stolen straight from her mother's
 pronounciation of Taiwan's dialects of Chinese. A translation: "Scorn get a
 lock on that thing."

                        SCORN
                EYES OF MY DISDAIN
        THE SHARP TALONS OF MY INTELLECT
                        ATTEND ME

One of the drones begins emitting wide-spectrum radar sweeps. It's silent,
 though certainly detectable, especially to a VF which is doubtless configured
 with less Minovsky-battlespace orientation.

Rin flicks open a trigger cover on her flight stick. (VTX doesn't believe in
 age-locking weapons controls!) In regular sociable English, Rin says, to
 herself, "Buddy, did you pick the wrong dig site." There is no self
 congratulation, but one hand comes up to touch the pocket that holds her phone
 -- and also a small and battered medal.

KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Grace O'Connor with Designate L1!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite designates Grace O'Connor, making her easier to target and
 opening her to indirect fire.

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

"Great!" Riika steps away to give the technician actually handling the cutting
 some space. "I've heard some of the real good vaults have anti-laser coatings,
 and while we'd be able to get through it, it'd slow everything down. But it
 looks like this one doesn't have any of that."

In an aside, "<We've got the cutter running and it shouldn't be too long,>"
 Riika breaks into the military chat for a moment, before things get real bad.
 Just so people know.

Of course, that's before there are unauthorized incoming - and by the sounds of
 it, armed. Riika tenses, even though she's nowhere near a mobile suit, and
 doesn't have an easy way to get to one. Svalinn is safely in a docking bay,
 which is unfortunately not here. Plus, she'd feel awful abandoning the other
 technicians.

Riika pushes her glasses more firmly up. "I didn't hear it, but I was listening
 to the pilots," she admits. "It sounds like they've got a number of attacking
 units - not alien, either, but Earth Sphere." And how's *that*? There
 shouldn't be anyone from the Earth Sphere here except them!

She hesitates only a moment before saying, "Keep cutting. I'll keep an eye out,
 and an ear." She's listening in on the combat chatter - it sounds like
 something might have fired on the ship, but not done much damage. Riika gives
 a quick once-over of the laser cutter and its progress - not looking right at
 the cutting line, she doesn't want to blind herself - before looking around
 again.

Why would you attack this operation? Two reasons: you think it's a good chance
 for an ambush, or you want something on the transport. The first - well,
 they've got enough units out there that the first isn't true; this is a bad
 time to ambush the Gallia expedition. So it must be the second.

Riika kind of hates that she's getting so suspicious about this kind of thing.

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

Awareness flashes before Rita's consciousness, startling her out of her placid
 circling. Despite her half-second's advanced knowledge, it isn't enough to
 spare the Phenex from one of the Variable Fighter's attacks. They've simply
 appeared too quickly.

Whoever these unknown opponents are, the Firebird doesn't care. They've fired
 on her, and her companions, and she will shoot them down for it. In a burst of
 sacred fire, the Phenex turns to face her opponents, her wing-like shields
 rising from her back.

You've made a mistake.

Rita broadcasts her voice toward the enemy craft. Perhaps they'll be able to
 hear her -- perhaps not. It doesn't really matter.

Both wings rise from the golden Gundam's back, encompassed with azure radiance.
 With an outstretched hand, the Phenex sends them racing toward two of the
 approaching VFs, and the weaponry answers her call. Accelerating to near
 impossible speeds, the shields seek to strike Rita's enemies, perhaps hitting
 hard enough to sheer off one of their limbs.

An odd sound begins to come through the shared communication feed. Digital
 beeps, long and short, broadcast in a clear pattern.

.. .----. .-.. .-.. -.- . . .--. -.-- --- ..- ... .- ..-. . .-.-.- ..
 ..-. -.-- --- ..- -. . . -.. .... . .-.. .--. --..-- -.-. .- .-.. .-..
 / -- -.-- / -. .- -- . .-.-.- / .. .----. .-.. .-.. / .... . .- .-. / -.-- ---
 ..- .-.-.-

As if to prove her words true, Rita brings one of her shields back, then sends
 it soaring toward Yurika. It orbits her machine, glowing all the while, and
 will attempt to block any attacks that come Yurika's way.

KTS: Rita Bernal targets Brera Sterne with Phenex Kite Shield Dual Strike!
KTS: Brera Sterne fails to react to Alto Saotome's ES-25A High Speed Machine
 Guns Closing Assault, taking 3600 damage!

KTS: Alto Saotome has engaged Brera Sterne!
KTS: Brera Sterne successfully avoids Rita Bernal's Phenex Kite Shield Dual
 Strike

<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.

        "Aaaah, Ryoko's so strict in times like these, you two are more skilled
 than you give yourselves credit for, keeping up with her all the time!" Yurika
 sighs out, the feeling of the actual soil beneath her feet...not actually
 that far off from how it felt in the simulators! "...Hmmm. This isn't as
 hard as I thought it'd be, actually! It's good to learn the ropes on a laid
 back day like this. Hikaru, know any Aestivalis Calistheni -"

        The alarms blare loudly, as alerts of an unknown fleet of fighters
 calls over the airwaves, and immediately Yurika's heartrate spikes. When and
 where would these be coming from, and why-? There's a glance over at the
 downed vessel - a connecting of dots, considering how evasive some people have
 been about this whole operation.

        And she says it! "...Ah, this is Captain Yurika down here afield.
 Bridge crews and salvage teams - I'm thinking these mysterious hostiles showed
 up because we came here. They're Variable Fighters...we're not disrupting
 property of one of the Macross Fleets in the area, right? The Elysion's
 closest, but - flag their IFF codes just to be safe, but I doubt it's them,
 given what we've heard..."

        She's so busy thinking of the tactical reality of the situation that
 she's just about tossed backwards from the sudden salvo of fire, hunkering
 down and clutching the Aestivalis's railgun. "Ow ow ow ow - oh! Thank you,
 Rita, I'm only five minutes into my first sortie and already I owe you one-!"
 Thumbs flicking at her consoles, Yurika grips the IFS interfaces tightly, that
 circular sigil shimmering on the back of each hand - aiming her sights at the
 dubious pink bird. The railgun's not ideal for targets so distant and nimble -
 but she's letting loose a salvo of shots all the same, just to test the waters
 on how good she'll handle this thing. "...The recoil's more than you think on
 a gun like this, huh? Keep it steady...keep it steady...ah, and tell the
 salvage team to keep going, especially if our 'friends' here aren't inclined
 to tell us what their problem is with us taking a look!"

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        The sounds of battle outside reverberate through the transport's hull
 and corridors. Thankfully it seems like the enemy isn't targeting the
 transport directly. Which also probably confirms Riika's suspicions, as
 otherwise the vulnerable engineering team would make for an easy kill. Still,
 is the enemy's plan to simply try and drive them away with mobile weapons?

        A screeching sound comes from further within the ship. It doesn't sound
 like weapons fire from outside. Nor a simple random piece of debris shaken
 loose. There's something here...

        That something reveals itself in the form of gunshots blast out of a
 dark corridor. They rain down on the engineering team. One of the engineers is
 winged in the shoulder, crying out in pain. They all dive to take cover behind
 some cargo crates and wall panelling, "Shit! Where'd that come from!?"

        Another replies, "I don't know! Just don't lose focus on the laser, you
 might burn it out!"

        The first, thankfully controlling the laser's aim by remote, replies,
 "R-Right."

<Pose Tracker> Grace O'Connor has posed.

The radar sweeps certainly catch Grace's attention, as she smirks at what she
 hears over the comms, in a single moment she switches over to the same dialect
 and speaks a proverb in flawless Chinese, voice changed with a synthesizer.

"Think Thrice before you act."

The Variable Fighter sweeps around the Nadesico in full, making a smooth turn
 using its bulk to try and briefly evade the radar, before it banks down and
 around.

The next time Rin sees the Ars Goetia Shaher, it is the muzzle flash of the
 gatling spinning, as it buzzes one of her flying circus, the gatling turning
 to fire tracking shot after tracking shot at one of her Drones.

There is perhaps, a taunt to the Phenex over the comms, voice similarly
 synthesized.

"A child, a ghost trapped within the shell. You must think you're quite
 impressive with your little tricks of light." Again, that condescension,
 deliberate and cutting, "All I see is a lack of imagination and wasted
 potential, confined within a pretty gold cage."

The Shaher 'Ars Goetia' vanishes into translucence again, but it would perhaps
 be easier this time for Rin's radar sweeps to pick it up.

KTS: Grace O'Connor targets Rin Naujakaite with Machine Gun Tracking Shot!
KTS: [Spirit Defense] Rita Bernal's When I'm Reborn Again... activates, and the
 spirit endures.

KTS: Grace O'Connor has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Rita Bernal
KTS: Yurika Misumaru targets Brera Sterne with Rail Cannon Burst!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: [Lucky] Rin Naujakaite's Prior Preparation activates, and luck goes her
 way!

KTS: Rin Naujakaite charges into the attack!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite retreats from the attack!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite fails to evade Grace O'Connor's Machine Gun Tracking Shot,
 taking 3450 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Amano has posed.

"Ehehe... we'd both be in real trouble if we couldn't keep up with her!"
 Hikaru laughs, scratching her cheek. "Yeah, it's not too bad on the ground
 really? Way less directions to worry about!" She nods.

"Hmmmm, we could start with practicing some combat posture exercises and poses!
 I mean, the second part's totally optional I guess, but-" She blinks as the
 airwaves rumble, and sirens blare. "...Huh?"

Hikaru kinda figured that if they were attacked on their little trip, it'd be
 by those pesky Vajra bugs, or maybe some members of the Zuvorg Alliance who
 weren't so pleased by the idea of "mutual cooperation".

This... decidedly isn't that, as the team of purple Lucifer VFs open fire!
 "Hey, what gives? We're kinda too busy for a surprise live fire pop quiz!"
 Hikaru sighs, but her combat instincts are far sharper than they look.
 Whoever's in those VFs? They're out for blood.

"-Captain, get back! I'll cover you!" She warns, as her hand glows with the
 light of the IFS, pushing the Lunar Aestivalis. It's not like she was trying
 to show off or anything, but it might even look a little cool - until she
 stumbles headfirst into the gunfire that is.

"Ack! I definitely coulda dodged that one in my regular Aestie... probably.
 Well, I always make sure to say my prayers to the Distortion Field~" She
 smiles, letting the gravity barrrier take the rest of the shots.

"Aha... you okay, Yurika-chan? I guess the Phenex is looking out for us even
 this far out..." The Nadesico makes foes to allies quite often, huh?

As Yurika levels the railgun, Hikaru pushes her hands forward, aiming to take
 as many targets out with one shot. "Whoever you are, don't think you can run~
 Aestie Missiles, hunt them down!"

Missiles, the small variety, and not the giant anti-ship one, launch from the
 Lunar Frame, aiming to catch the Battroid Lucifers in their assault!

KTS: Hikaru Amano targets Brera Sterne with Missile Fire!
KTS: Brera Sterne fails to react to Yurika Misumaru's Rail Cannon Burst, taking
 3680 damage!

KTS: Brera Sterne fails to react to Hikaru Amano's Missile Fire, taking 4840
 damage!

KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Hikaru Amano's I'll Introduce Myself! activates, causing Jam
 L1!

<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.

        Between the Ars Goetia and the stealth transport, there's a reason why
 the VF-27s are coming in so hot, so fast, so aggressive. They make for an
 excellent distraction from the sneaker things going on.
        
        But just because they're big and flashy doesn't meant they're
 communicative. Alto sends out a request for ID, and it is thoroughly ignored.
 So, too, is Rita's psychic warning, though it's unclear if they could hear it
 at all or not. No ping for if anyone tries to check if their codes match
 anything from the Macross Elysion, either, as Yurika suggests. It's like
 they're ghosts. Yes; that is how it's going to be.
        
        Alto returns fire with the machine guns in his wings, bullets spraying
 across the purple-painted units. Where they impact, they leave deep grooves,
 not quite shredding through the machine but certainly making their mark. The
 impacts alone will affect their flight efficiency, make them slower. Because
 of that, when Rita sends forth the Phenex's wings at blinding speeds to try to
 shred them apart, they can only just manage to avoid getting cut to shreds.
 One absolutely loses the tip of their foot. A small thing for now--but if they
 get any slower, they'll be in trouble.
        
        Which in turn means that they can only keep up the brutal assault. One
 of the purple Lucifers breaks off from the others to zero in on Alto's
 Messiah. We'll call it Purple-1. Purple-1 shifts back into fighter mode even
 as it moves, zipping up into his face as if to leer at him in contempt. But
 it's a machine, and it has no face, and surely it has no soul either. That
 much is made clear as it sprouts arms, shifting to Gerwalk mode, to stab a
 VF-sized knife--maybe more like a short sword--towards the Messiah's
 undercarriage.
        
        The Messiah's upgraded armor will no doubt keep it from being a fatal
 shot. But it certainly won't be for lack of trying. However that hit lands, if
 it manages to land at all, it will definitely be clear there was lethal intent.
        
        Two more of the unidentified Valkyries likewise shift back to fighter
 mode and split off from the group. Beyond that, the two we'll call Purple-2
 and Purple-3 stay together, soaring in towards the Phenex in a curving arc to
 maximize the distance between them as they approach. One goes high, one goes
 low, and both of them unleash a rapid burst of beam fire searing towards the
 golden Gundam's cockpit. ...They're quite serious. At least they don't offer
 taunts like the cloaked Ars Goetia, though. For now.
        
        The remaining Lucifer, imaginatively dubbed Purple-4, remains in
 battroid mode as it turns towards the two Aestivalises with its beam rifle. As
 Yurika unloads a salvo of shots on it, it returns fire, accepting the blast of
 shots as they blacken and blast its armor, apparently content to take damage
 if it means they can also dish it out. The shield that Rita sends flying over
 to Yurika might make that harder, though, and once their mutual salvos are
 over, it'll switch to fighter mode to try to close the distance. Hikaru's
 missiles meanwhile sail out not just towards Purple-4 but also Purple-2 and
 Purple-3, and the explosions that follow scatter them, sending them zipping
 off and away and around from Rita and Yurika. They'll be right back, with
 Purple-4 in particular loosing missiles of its own to give as good as they
 got, but it will give them all a few seconds of breathing room.
        
        All but Alto, anyway. Sorry for your life, Alto.
        
        ~~~
        
        Brera, still stationed outside the room where Sheryl and Ranka (and
 also Lan, but Lan doesn't matter to Brera (sorry Lan)) are working on writing
 that song Yurikano requested, narrows his eyes behind his shades. It's not
 just a microexpression of disgust.
        
        ...though it is that too.

KTS: Brera Sterne targets Alto Saotome with Calculated Precision!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Rita Bernal with Phlox Bloom!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Yurika Misumaru with Rifle Burst!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Hikaru Amano with Missile Array!
KTS: Yurika Misumaru's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Yurika Misumaru fails to evade Brera Sterne's Rifle Burst, taking 4230
 damage!

KTS: Hikaru Amano's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Hikaru Amano fails to intercept Brera Sterne's Missile Array, taking 3075
 damage!

KTS: Alto Saotome retreats from the attack!
KTS: Alto Saotome successfully avoids Brera Sterne's Calculated Precision

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika is trying to think not like an engineer or technician at the moment but
 like a soldier.

It's not like it's unknown to her. She did take all her schooling at a military
 academy, and while she was never exactly expected to be infantry, mobile suit
 pilots do occasionally end up in dangerous situations without benefit of a
 mobile suit.

She hears that screeching sound, and part of her thinks 'cut metal' while
 another part thinks - "Move!" Riika calls, just a moment too late as the sound
 of bullets fill the air. She's worried about a ricochet - everything in here
 that isn't a person is hard and most of the transport's structure is tough
 enough to deflect a round unless it's *really* high penetration.

Riika herself scrambles behind the cargo crate - but unlike most of the others,
 she's been in firefights before. She reaches into the pack of equipment back
 there (not hers) and pulls out a can of quick-set spray patch. It's designed
 to fill in gaps with a sticky, quickly drying foam, and while she's used to
 seeing it as something to quickly make something at least sort of air-tight
 again after it gets holed, it has its uses as glue on terrestrial missions.

Riika pops up from behind the box and flings it like it was a grenade - almost
 exactly like it was a grenade, she's hoping that the opposition thinks it is
 one and takes cover, at least for a moment. Because the truth is, it's
 completely harmless. It won't even spray the foam unless the opposition does
 something stupid like shoot it.

"Try to stay under cover," Riika says, to the others. Because all of this gives
 *her* cover to run out from the boxes she's behind - aggressively, not to save
 herself but to get in a position where she can see what's happening without
 getting immediately shot, taking cover closer to. Riika is even armed; she has
 a pistol, and though she has used it maybe twice in her life in foot combat it
 does mean she's slightly better off than not having it. And she's *fast*,
 which she is absolutely also taking advantage of.

<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.

The response - in synthetic but perfect Chinese - startles Rin. Even with her
 accelerated awareness she has nothing to say in response for nearly a full
 second of actual time, before she finally responds in the same language:

"You assume to think I didn't!"

Shit, Rin thinks, even as the Shaher's muzzle flashes. She is not fast enough
 of eye to see bullets, at least at this distance. Scorn banks abruptly to the
 side, moving criss-cross applesauce relative to Ringtoss-1 -- rounds pepper
 the Ghost, two or three getting on the VF-171 as well as Rin hisses at the
 dreadful sound of hail. But the bullets don't hit the cockpit: and nothing is
 screaming at her. She tightens the turn...

The force is enough to make Rin grimace even if her heart, pounding, is able to
 keep up with it: but during this period of extended discomfort, Rin tries to
 think of another plan. Her eyes turn upwards.

Rin breathes something in her cryptic tongue to herself. It is voice commands.

                        RANCOR
                GUARDIAN OF MY FURY
                        CLAWS OF RAGE
                        SLAY MY FOE!

"Get her," Rin concludes after the designation phrasing, and there is a sudden
 scream as the OTHER Ghost's afterburner thrusters ignite, suddenly hurling it
 forwards. It is acceleration that would stun even a Coordinator, or possibly
 Jesus Himself, but the pilot of THIS drone is neither: it is a logic
 cartridge, firmly mounted in a black casing in the low shape of, broadly
 speaking, where the cockpit might have been.

And then the drone aims to ram the Shaher.

It is not quite that simple, but in many ways it *is* that simple -- perhaps
 most notably, the pinpoint barrier system flickers to light. Yes! They took
 one out from SOMEWHERE - maybe the VF-171 itself? - and put it in the Ghost,
 at god knows what amount of precarious kludging.

But that's *Rancor's* problem. *The Colonel's* problem is a kamikaze-esque
 strike attempt from a Ghost.

KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Grace O'Connor with Rancor - Pin Point Death Drive!
KTS: Rita Bernal successfully evades Brera Sterne's Phlox Bloom
KTS: Grace O'Connor has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Grace O'Connor has activated the Alert Spirit Command.

FPT: Lightly Loaded Bonus=18
Alto Saotome transforms to VF-25F Messiah <Battroid Mode>

KTS: Grace O'Connor partially guards Rin Naujakaite's Rancor - Pin Point Death
 Drive, taking 3990 damage!

KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rin Naujakaite's Punishment activates, causing Insight L1!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rin Naujakaite's Yomi activates, causing Designate L1!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has engaged Grace O'Connor!

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        Rin reports another VF in the vicinity and Alto frowns. This isn't
 right... They're supposed to be fighting the Vajra. Not each other. What do
 they want here?

        Alto receives a transmission containing... Morse code? Thankfully his
 system is able to translate cause he doesn't have time to figure it out
 himself. The messages offers help... Alto doesn't need it. Or so his stubborn
 self thinks. Still, that Phenex continues to be as unusual as ever.

        Yurika raises the question of this force of VFs being from another
 Macross fleet, but Alto says, <"I doubt it's the Elysion. And there are no
 other fleets in this part of space. They could be independent... The 27s ARE a
 new design but it's possible someone got their hands on some.">

        That said... These pilots appear to be very good at flying them! One
 suddenly flies in close, almost as if declaring their greater skill. It then
 transforms, threatening Alto with that knife.

        Alto has skill too though, as he also transforms. The Messiah splits
 apart in mid-air, rapidly losing its aerodynamics and thus inertia as the air
 slows it down. The knife passes through thin air as the Messiah slows and
 descends towards the ground in Battroid mode.

        As he lets himself fall, Alto calls out to the Lucifer that's trying to
 kill him, <"Bastard!"> A missile lock appears over the purple unit on Alto's
 HUD. He tries to return the favor.

        A barrage of micromissiles blast away from the additional FAST pack
 components attached to the Messiah. They dance through the air towards
 Purple-1.

KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Alto Saotome targets Brera Sterne with CIMM-3A Micro-missile Launchers
 Multi-directional Assault!

KTS: Brera Sterne has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Brera Sterne has activated the Strike Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

Don't worry. If you need to turn back, do so. You must not be lost, Yurika.

Having turned away some of the fire headed Yurika's way, the Phenex's wing
 returns to the golden Gundam. Her fiery blue gaze scans the battlefield. As
 she searches for her next target... someone speaks.

A synthesized voice, with no soul waiting in its cockpit. Rita can only barely
 sense the speaker's presence in their cloaked machine. In unison, the spirit
 and Gundam tilt their heads.

Who are you to speak to me? Coward, who won't set foot on the battlefield,
 sending out your soldiers to die while you wait far away. Pathetic.

Can the pilot of the invisible machine even hear her?

You don't know anything about me. All I am is what was meant to be. The
 Phenex is my wings.

Fire seems to catch along the Gundam's armor, reflecting against her shining
 gold. Blue and radiant, the Firebird pulls her wings in close, spinning in the
 air as she soars higher, beautiful in her ephemeral glory.

I am the Phenex!

A psychic shriek echoes across the battlefield, like the cry of a great bird.
 Whoever the hidden speaker is, they have sparked the fervor of the Phenex's
 belief. The Light of Possibility echoes around her, sending waves of pressure
 across those nearest to the Gundam.

Though her attack missed the Valkyries, Rita is unphased. She flies counter to
 the enemy machines, laughter echoing as she matches their speed. One goes
 high, one goes low, and--

The Phenex soars forward. In an unreal display of strength, she moves faster
 than the beam fire coming toward her, flying through the center of the twin
 attack whole and undamaged. The fact that they aimed for her cockpit is noted,
 though, and the joy of the Firebird darkens to something close to anger.

As her anger slowly wakes, Purple-2 and 3 pull back, giving Rita and Yurika a
 moment to plan. The Phenex raises her arms above her head, then lowers them to
 her sides, sending each of her wings flying in a different direction. One
 returns to Yurika, and one begins to orbit Hikaru.

She won't need them for this.

Light builds at the Phenex's back for precious seconds. Then -- it bursts,
 sending another wave of psychic Presence across the battlefield, sending the
 Firebird racing after her attackers. The Light around her builds, builds,
 builds, burning bluer than the sky.

Soon enough, the Phenex catches up to the Valkyries, then overtakes them,
 shooting past and arcing up to return to the side of her companions. As she
 does, fire falls from the Gundam, striking the three attacking machines like a
 hail of missiles, otherworldly fae noises accompanying her presence.

You don't have to do this. You have a choice. If you ask, I will save you.

Each drop of flame brings a new word, spoken in Rita's breathy, sweet voice.
 Perhaps the pilots are sensitive enough to hear if her words are carried
 through physical contact. Perhaps not. The speed the Phenex picked up from
 this maneuver seems to make her fire burn all the brighter. She is gathering
 strength, preparing for a far greater attack.

KTS: Brera Sterne charges into the attack!
KTS: Brera Sterne partially guards Alto Saotome's CIMM-3A Micro-missile
 Launchers Multi-directional Assault, taking 2900 damage!

KTS: Rita Bernal targets Brera Sterne with Magnetic Midnight!
KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Yurika
 Misumaru

KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Hikaru Amano

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        The engineers on the team technically also have combat training... But
 definitely not as much as Riika as they only received it as a supplemental
 course when they joined up with the expedition. So for the most part they are
 happy to let her take point in this situation. One is looking a little scared
 though. No surprise, they aren't exactly military personnel after all.

        The foam canister is thrown and may very well look like a grenade to
 most people. Unfortunately it seems that Riika's foe is sharp, as his eyes are
 able to spot the object clearly and support programs in his mind immediately
 identify it for him. His arm reaches out, catching the harmless device.

        Still, the distraction proves enough for Riika to move cover. And her
 attacker responds in kind, diving out of the corridor and behind his own empty
 crate. Riika will notice his actions to be quite precise, but they could also
 be called graceful. They also hint at his cyborg modifications as he rapidly
 clears the distance from the doorway to the crate in a time most normal people
 would have trouble with.

        A voice then comes from the attacker's direction, though it is
 distorted by a voice synthesizer, "Surrender." Just the one word.

        But one word is enough... As the panicked engineer starts to rise. One
 of the others near him tries to stop him, whispering, "What are you doing!?"

        The panicked engineer quietly complains, "I didn't sign up for this
 shit!" He rises, raising his hands and saying more loudly, "I surrender. Don't
 shoo-"

        A gunshot echoes through the cargo bay and the engineer slumps down to
 the ground, still.

        Apparently this person is not interested in prisoners.

<Pose Tracker> Grace O'Connor has posed.

A Ghost comes in with a Kamikaze Strike, trying to ram right into the Shaher.
 The Colonel smiles behind her screens. "Clever girl." Grace adjusts her
 glasses, complimenting her as she might a tiny cat for the cleverness of their
 play, or perhaps a pet raptor.

Indeed the Shaher, translucent as it is, takes an impact. Yet in that same
 moment, it transforms. A hand reaches out to grasp the Drone in mid-air, as
 it reappears, a knife in hand. Abruptly it stabs the drone once, before a
 grapnel suddenly fires out of it.

One of Rin's other drones lists as it suddenly has additional weight, in a
 blink of an eye the Battroid is on it. Assault knife slashing with a finesse
 of a trained killer.

"Did you?"

Grace spares little actual attention to this act, instead checking another
 screen with rainbow coruscating waves of Brera's brain activity.

"How amusing." She speaks to herself, catching perhaps the depth of his
 attention upon one Variable Fighter in particular, "My adorable little pawn
 fancies himself the knight? Why it's nearly enough to set my maiden's heart
 aflutter." Her perfectly manicured nails point at her chest, "I suppose some
 instincts are too deeply engrained after all. Go then Purple-1."

With a lift of her chin, she is a maestro controlling so many of the Lucifers.

"Plunge both of their hearts into deepest despair."

Unfortunately for the Phenex, the pilot cannot hear her. There is no spirit to
 reach out to in this machine, or perhaps... any of them. The accusation
 falls upon deaf ears, for it has them not to hear her. And thus she receives
 no response, at least when speaking to her in that voice.

Why then, did the pilot speak to her at all over the radio?

It is perhaps, a mystery.

Grace O'Connor transforms to YF-27-5 Shaher F Custom 'Ars Goetia' (Battroid
 Mode)

KTS: Grace O'Connor targets Rin Naujakaite with Dancing Knife!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite retreats from the attack!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite fails to react to Grace O'Connor's Dancing Knife, taking
 5200 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.

        Bundling with frustration as the organized fleet of mystery fighters
 doesn't let up, Yurika's head is racing with the thoughts of who might be
 affiliated with these fighters, running back and forth with Mr. Prospector and
 the rest of the bridge crew back on the nearby Nadesico, before-

        "Captain. Captain-! Please get it together. Your job isn't to solve
 mysteries here - it's life or death out there for a pilot." Minato's stare is
 firm and focused over the holo-screens - a little more serious than she
 usually is, enough to make the scatterbrained Yurika tighten up suddenly!

        "...Y...you're right. I'm sorry everyone, for putting my life in your
 hands like this so suddenly - let's see. S...since I need all the luck I can
 get, and since it's a bit of a ritual among the pilots these days - ahem.
 A-hem! ...~Gekigan...Missile?!!~" Arms spread wide, a cloud of missiles swarms
 from hatches all over the biceps. "...Hikaru, did I say it right, or does
 being really big and bold and confident actually activate the luck factor...?
 ...And - don't worry, I'm not running away! ...Okay, no, I'm not saying that,
 if things get really bad I'll absolutely run away actually, whatever's in
 this wreck isn't worth my life!"

        -----------

        It hasn't gone nearly as well for the Academy students thus far.
 Array's been too reckless and mindless of his own limits - in trying to keep
 up with the 'ghost', he well exceeded safe g-forces, and his Ovid careened to
 the ground like a tumbling cloud. Kirius had the exact opposite problem -
 closing in and waiting for the VFs to close in with that blade of theirs, only
 to be utterly outmaneuvered and cut down.

        "The hell - the two of you talk such a big game all the damn time, and
 you go down like chumps?! Have you even tried to listen to Yurikano?!""
 ---Among the three, Izo's been the one taking their senior's lessons from hell
 the most intensely. Maybe it's a bit of a crush. Maybe it's admiration - the
 way they first met, her swordplay outdoing his, leaving him with that faint
 scar on his forehead.

        Either way, among the three, it's his Ovid that's standing now,
 peppering the closing-in Goetia with just enough suppressive fire, sweat
 dripping down his brow. "They're for real out here, Rin - I don't know what
 their problem is, or if they're seriously about to kill us - but it's us or
 them until they let up, so I'd better not find out you're getting all
 mercy-like on them!"

KTS: Yurika Misumaru has activated the Prospect Spirit Command targeting Rin
 Naujakaite

KTS: Yurika Misumaru targets Brera Sterne with Missile Volley!
KTS: Brera Sterne successfully evades Rita Bernal's Magnetic Midnight
KTS: Brera Sterne successfully evades Yurika Misumaru's Missile Volley

<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Amano has posed.

Score! Hikaru's misssiles strike clean through up to three of the Lucifers,
 keeping Yurika and Rita out of harm for a little while.

...But it's not long before the rev right back up. "Geez, these guys are
 persistent!" Hikaru remarks, as 'Purple-4' in particular tries to shake her
 off with some missiles of its own. "And not particularly chatty either... I
 guess that's fine. Still-!"

"Distortion Field, activate!" She calls, raising it as a shield, hoping to let
 it absorb the brunt of the damage... but it doesn't wholly pan out, the
 experimental Lunar Frame not quite able to raise it in time. "W-Wow... not
 bad! I might even have to use another percent of my power..."

But the news that they have nothing to do with the Elysion.. is troubling.
 "Independents? For a bunch of randos, how in the heck do you explain these
 piloting skills?" She shoots back to Alto. They pilot like they all got IFS
 implants of their own, and even then... it can't be.

But Yurika's with her, an expert Captain she might be, but she's still a total
 novice to piloting. Hikaru can't let her down, not when their opponents are
 this ruthless. And the protective wings of Rita perhaps embolden her just a
 little bit, to do something terribly reckless herself.

"I'm going in!" Hikaru transmits, with a wink, as she swaps out her railgun for
 the heavy electromagnetic Field Lancer.

Not standard equipment for the Lunar Frame, but it equips just fine... and it
 helps for situations like this! The Lunar Aestie, orbited by Rita and the
 Phenex's wing-shields charges, and Hikaru aims to skewer Purple-4 in
 particular, for turning its wrath on her.

Bringing the motions down upon the machine herself with the power of the image
 feedback system, all that's left to do is shout: "Let's go! Nekketsu-Giri~!!"

She beams when Yurika, too, calls her attack. "Ehe, it's perfect! That's
 exactly what it is, isn't it? A good luck charm, through your own voice..."
 She wonders if Akito felt that way while piloting... but she supposes they
 might never fight together again. It's kind of sad, but he, too, made his
 choice...

As for running away... only a fool never weighs that option! "I don't blame
 you, Yurika-chan... I'm supposed to be the ace here, and even I'm scared." She
 admits. "What's so great about a sunken ship that these guys are coming
 swinging anyway??"

KTS: Hikaru Amano has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Hikaru Amano targets Brera Sterne with Field Lancer Thrust!

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika would honestly be more surprised if they *weren't* scared. She's scared,
 and she's the one who's actually been combat personnel before.

The canister does its job as a distraction even if he doesn't precisely take
 cover from it. (Though Riika is not entirely sure about the 'he'.) It tells
 her more about him, too; he's fast, but probably not a Coordinator. It looks
 like there's cybernetics involved, or some kind of exosuit she's not familiar
 with.

He calls for a surrender. Riika doesn't even consider it, but one of the others
 does - "No! Stay down! If there's a second it will make you a target - "

There doesn't even need to be a second.

The sound of the gunshot galvanizes Riika. She comes up with a horrible plan,
 all in an instant - horrible because it will be unpleasant, not because it's a
 bad one - and acts bare moments later.

Vaulting the box she was hiding behind, she makes herself a target for a moment
 as she makes a perfect silhouette, but then she hits the ground and she's
 sprinting flat-out for the cybernetic attacker. Riika doesn't make a point of
 showing off her Coordinator physical capabilities (rather the opposite; she
 prefers to not make a point of them) but right now she goes as fast as she
 can. Which isn't superhuman, quite - but is much better than it looks like she
 can do from an awkward vaulting start.

She rushes him, firing her own pistol as she approaches. Her aim is not great
 because she's running but she's trying to force him back, toward a different
 set of crates to take cover behind. They'd be great for it, and in fact give
 him a pretty good place to hunker down. It looks like a tactical error.

KTS: Brera Sterne partially guards Hikaru Amano's Field Lancer Thrust, taking
 5520 damage!

KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Hikaru Amano's I'll Introduce Myself! activates, causing Jam
 L1!

KTS: Hikaru Amano has engaged Brera Sterne!

<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.

Scorn finds his wings burdened. The drone reacts quickly, attempting to execute
 a barrel roll and dump the interloper off to fall to her death (or, perhaps
 more plausibly, to reverse the transformation and take flight again) but
 instead the knife stabs downwards. Carving deep into the back of the Ghost, it
 immediately begins to trail smoke as fuel lines are cut, as engines are
 damaged, as electronics are cleaved. The ailerons stutter for a moment, and
 then it begins to tumble. One engine flares out entirely.

And then the Battroid moves on to Rancor. Rancor has something Scorn apparently
 did not - though Grace moves with surety and raises upwards, she will find her
 knife striking against a pinpoint barrier even as her thoughts fly out towards
 Brera. The other drone struggles even so; engines pulling upwards, it is, to
 say the least, neutralized right now.

What about the central plane?

"Scorn?" Rin says in a small voice.

There is silence for a moment as the enormity of the situation imposes itself
 upon her. Guilt and shame. She should go save Scorn. No, she can't. She'll
 take out Rancor too. They can be reloaded from the backups but --

-- it's not --

It's Izo who reaches Rin in this momentary awareness of just how vast the realm
 she's in is, and how small she and her little robot friends are.

Rin swallows and sucks in a sharp deep breath. "Oh," she answers him, "don't
 worry."

Come on, Rin thinks to herself as she grips on the throttle: Super soldier.

The first thing is deceleration. It's all relative at these speeds and these
 altitudes, so it's difficult to distinguish. The VF-171 turns slightly to face
 the Battroid. Wing flaps flutter for a moment --

-- and so do Rancor's, as the two aircraft's relative velocities come to almost
 nothing. The mauler beam cannons on the VF-171 open fire, suddenly, screaming;
 THEN Rin slams the throttle forwards, as if trying to race her own barrage
 against the Shaher. At perhaps the last reasonable moment she banks right,
 abruptly peeling into a sharp rise at the same time. (Rin actually yelps at
 the sudden sharp sensation; the cartilage in her rib cage cracks, loud enough
 to startle here, even if it doesn't-quite-hurt right now.)

KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Grace O'Connor with Mauler Beam Cannons Full Focus!

<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.

        Alto drops fast, fast enough to evade that would-be stab, and fires a
 barrage of missiles towards Purple-1 as he falls. The enemy Lucifer isn't
 fazed; it shifts from Gerwalk to full Battroid again and falls after him,
 microexplosions bursting in the air around it as it speeds up. Because of that
 acceleration, even with that lock-on, it manages to avoid some of the
 explosive bursts, sweeping past them just before they ignite the air. Alto
 will soon see what they have in mind: they aim to crash into him, and then RAM
 him with a massive punch to send him hurtling out of control into the ground
 below. Should they succeed, they'll use the momentum of the hit to rocket
 themselves back up and away from him, watching with cold contempt as they
 watch him either crash--or scramble to avoid a crash.
        
        But... there's something about that pause, too. If Alto didn't know
 better--neither this VF nor the others have shown any mercy--but there's
 something... hesitating about it.
        
        My adorable little pawn fancies himself the knight? Why it's nearly
 enough to set my maiden's heart aflutter...
        
        ~~~
        
        "Ngh..." Brera clutches his cranial implant as his lips twitch into a
 faint grimace. He glances over at Ranka--not Lan, not even Sheryl, but
 Ranka.
        
        Sheryl had told him she thought the two of them knew each other in the
 past. Since then, he hadn't thought about it for some reason, but this--
        
                this-----
        
        Go then, Purple-1. Plunge both of their hearts into deepest despair.
        
                        --it isn't that he wants despair for Ranka.
        
        But he really can't stand Alto for having the nerve to stand by her
 side when he doesn't even have the strength to protect her.
        
        ~~~
        
        Purple-1 draws its beam rifle, beads on Alto's Messiah, and begins to
 charge a blast...
        
        Meanwhile, Yurika looses her own barrage of missiles. She lacks the
 flight experience that Alto has, though, and their more haphazard flight paths
 are easier to predict, and accordingly, to avoid. Purple-4 sweeps, dives, and
 arcs to avoid those incandescent blasts. In doing so, though, it does buy time
 for Hikaru to swap out her weapons and get in close. She observes correctly
 that these Lucifer pilots ("pilots"?) are far too skilled to be random mooks.
 Their movements are precise, their attacks without mercy. Even when she rams
 and skewers Purple-4, it manages to turn and mitigate some of that damage by
 providing a narrower target, allowing her to cleave through the robot's
 midsection but not quite take it out.
        
        And in doing so, it means Hikaru and her Aestivals are--right--there.
 One of the hands of the Battroid's arms shoots forward, fingers positioned
 like a blade, in an attempt to jab clean through the Aestivalis's throat.
        
        Nothing ventured, nothing gained. That seems to be Purple-4's
 philosophy.
        
        As for Purple-2 and Purple-3, it's truly tragic: those within the
 purple Valkyries--are there any within those Valkyries? It's genuinely
 difficult to tell if there are minds or only machines within them--cannot hear
 Rita's sweet voice in the fireballs that hail towards them. They cannot hear
 that offer of mercy, much less salvation. All they hear is violence and a
 strange keen as the Phenex shoots past. Purple-2 and Purple-3 take evasive
 maneuvers accordingly, their flight paths synchronized and almost beautiful in
 their symmetry. Heat scalds as fireballs pass by, leaving behind scorch marks
 even without any direct hits; it's easy to imagine that if there were, there'd
 be a least one less fighter by now.
        
        Just like Hikaru, they too have gauged the skill levels of their
 opponents. That's why the two Lucifers soar in towards Yurika to briefly
 charge and fire off a pair of beam blasts--and then split in a synchronized
 circle to attempt to pincer the Phenex and bombard it with a truly staggering
 number of missiles. If they don't hit her directly, then they may well
 interfere with her visuals.

KTS: Brera Sterne targets Alto Saotome with Twin Strike!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Rita Bernal with Evasive Crossfire!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Yurika Misumaru with Angle Shooting!
KTS: Brera Sterne targets Hikaru Amano with Threaded Execution!
KTS: Grace O'Connor blocks Rin Naujakaite's Mauler Beam Cannons Full Focus,
 taking 3989 damage!

KTS: Rita Bernal blocks Brera Sterne's Evasive Crossfire, taking 2580 damage!
KTS: Brera Sterne repulses Rita Bernal, forcing her to disengage.
KTS: Hikaru Amano's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Hikaru Amano parries Brera Sterne's Threaded Execution, taking 1590 damage!
KTS: Brera Sterne has engaged Hikaru Amano!
KTS: Brera Sterne roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him
 vulnerable.

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        One engineer dead. Another nearby, staring in shock at the sight.
 Another desperately trying to stay focused on using the laser without screwing
 up and making this whole mission... And the loss of one of their own... A
 complete waste.

        Sure enough though, the laser finishes cutting through the last of the
 vault door's bolts. He calls in in surprise, "It's done!" The large vault door
 proceeds to keel over, crashing down to the ground with a loud bang against
 the cargo bay's metal floor.

        The distraction presents a good opportunity for Riika, who rises and
 sends somewhat inaccurate shots flying. But accuracy is not quite that
 important in this case. The hostile cyborg quickly darts from one cover to the
 next, firing off his own shots in Riika's direction as he goes.

        While the two are exchanging fire, the remaining engineers take the
 opportunity of not being targets to dash for the vault. They reason it's
 probably somewhat bulletproof, provided they start out of direct sight of the
 opening. Once inside, they find just a single sealed container. Roughly about
 the size of a suitcase.

        One asks, "Is this it?"

        Another replies, "It bloody well better be... Fuck. Why did he do
 that!?"

        "Focus! We need to get this out of here..." It looks like it's going to
 take two of them to get it out of here... But they can't do anything while
 that cyborg is still out there.

KTS: [Lucky] Brera Sterne's Rival of Ares activates, and luck goes his way!
KTS: Alto Saotome fails to rush.
KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Alto Saotome partially guards Brera Sterne's Twin Strike, taking 4830
 damage!

KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Brera Sterne's Target Lock activates, causing Designate L1!
KTS: Brera Sterne has engaged Alto Saotome!
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained
 proficiency bonus.

KTS: Yurika Misumaru's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage.
KTS: Yurika Misumaru partially guards Brera Sterne's Angle Shooting, taking
 2900 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        Alto can guess what the Lucifer pilot is intending as he charges after
 Alto. But Alto's not just about to sit back and take it. He presses his feet
 down on the pedals in his cockpit. The engines in the Battroid's feet burn
 bright, slowly Alto's descent and causing the two VFs to close each other even
 faster. Alto is intending to punch this pilot first!

        Unfortunately it seems the other pilot is able to predict the move. The
 two crash together and the Lucifer lands its blow, sending the Messiah
 crashing down towards the ground in a far more uncontrolled fall.

        The cockpit around Alto shakes during the fall. He groans as he
 struggles to maintain any sort of control. But with some focused bursts from
 his thrusters he's able to stabilize himself. The Messiah's feet engines fire
 again, combined with the thrusters in its back it's able to pull out of the
 fall and skim along close to the ground facing upwards.

        Alto takes a moment to breathe from that near impact. He has no idea
 what the other pilot is thinking... All he sees is someone trying to kill him.
 And doing a damn good job of it too.

        It's almost like this person doesn't like him? It makes Alto wonder
 briefly... No. He's not that crazy... Right?

        Still, Alto reports, <"This isn't going well... How about you guys? ...
 Wait, shit!">

        Alto notices the Lucifer charging its beam cannon to fire at him. Alto
 quickly raises the gunpod in his hands, aiming it at the other VF and holding
 the trigger down to send a constant stream of bullets to try and make the
 Lucifer think twice about taking the shot.

KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Alto Saotome targets Brera Sterne with Gatling Full-Auto!

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Good news for Riika: she's drawn the attention of the cyborg attacker, and the
 engineers can take cover in something that is definitely bulletproof: the
 interior of the safe chamber. Hopefully they can stay safe - she can't even
 call to them without drawing attention to them and probably getting someone
 else killed.

Bad news for Riika: she's drawn the attention of the cyborg attacker, and *she*
 doesn't get to hide in the safe.

Without cover while she's convincing the hostile cyborg to reposition, one of
 the shots clips her side. It doesn't lodge, she doesn't think, but the pain is
 very sudden and immediate and she stumbles in her running from the impact.
 Riika lets out a whistling sound from between her teeth as she bites back
 anything more than that.

But even with the pain she doesn't let herself stop, half-tumbling behind the
 laser cutter itself. For the moment, it is off, having finished cutting
 through the bolts, and it and its support structure makes an acceptable cover
 for Riika.

Or that's what she's hoping the cyborg thinks.

Pushing aside the pain again, Riika drops her gun as she half-rises, staggering
 under the weight of the laser cutter. It's supposed to be moved by two people,
 and the only reason Riika - five foot zero in her boots, not exactly muscular
 - can manage it at all is because she's a Coordinator. It's also supposed to
 have some time to cool beforehand; the only way she's able to grip it, she's
 almost certainly burning her hand.

Riika drops it down with a thump, hopes like hell that the reflectors and
 focusers didn't get knocked out of line when she dropped it, toggles it over
 from mobile cutting to drilling, and manually powers it up at maximum
 intensity. She closes her eyes when she does this, and she's got one further
 advantage:

Even with her eyes closed, Riika can still see just fine, through her glasses
 uplink. It's too bright for her to make out details, but it's like looking at
 a pure white screen in the dark; it might give her a headache, but she's not
 going to cause herself any permanent damage by taking it under manual control
 without a welder's mask.

She also has it aimed directly at the center of the crates the cyborg attacker
 is hiding behind, and edges it slightly to one side. The metal of the supply
 crates almost skips red entirely, going straight to white.

<Pose Tracker> Grace O'Connor has posed.

The Battroid suddenly releases its grapnel hold as the VF-171 comes at the
 Battroid, letting itself fall. The Mauler Beams scream against it, even as
 its pinpoint barriers move to intercept it's blast. The Beam energy is
 dispersed agains, and again, and again, even as it chips away at the armor
 along the edges of the Variable Fighter.

And there is just chiding laughter over the comms, distorted by the voice
 changer. "My, it is an impressive setup you have there. Do you show all of
 your little friends at school? Or are they not aware of your 'extracurricular
 activities'?"

That does feel like decisively a threat, from someone who knows too much,
 doesn't it?

As the last beam falls, the Shaher, suddenly transforms again, taking off at an
 abrupt lateral, it's form melting away into translucence, as it performs a
 sudden aerial turn, back around as it reappears almost immediately. It's
 gatling beginning to turn at absurd RPMs, spitting fire so quickly that it's
 barrel becomes bright red in short order.

It traces the entire form of the VF-171 with absurd precision, but then again,
 at this rate of fire... perhaps precision is the wrong word.

It is an all encompassing bullet hell, the likes of which Rin has only seen in
 the worst shooters ever to come out of the OCU.

-=-=-

Ranka gives Brera a sudden look, she does not see his grimace of pain, but she
 sees him looking. In that moment she offers him such a smile.

It is a familiar sight for him, nostalgic perhaps in all the ways his memory
 cannot trace. But it is there, and it is there for him. Perhaps in a few
 moments she goes back to song writing with Lan and Sheryl...

... but for one moment, he has her attention.

-=-=-

"It is rare that I meet a man of talents such as yours." Grace comments idly,
 not over the comms, but to someone beyond her holographic displays, "Now that
 this is all but wrapped up... shall we discuss the continuation of our prior
 arrangement?"

KTS: Grace O'Connor has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Rin
 Naujakaite

KTS: Grace O'Connor has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Grace O'Connor targets Rin Naujakaite with Gatling Full-Auto!
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite blocks Grace O'Connor's Gatling Full-Auto, taking 2040
 damage!

KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        The cutting laser, now a laser drill, whines up before unleashing its
 beam of intense light out towards the cyborg's cover. It quickly burns
 through... And through, as the beam punches into the side of the cargo bay...
 And through, out into the air outside.

        Clearly the ship's hull was not built as heavily as the vault.

        Once Riika turns the laser off, there is silence. There's no signs of
 movements from behind those crates that she just pierced. No signs of
 gunshots. Riika could go and have a look to make sure if she wants to. Though
 it might not be a pretty sight...

        The silence does seem to draw the attention of the engineers, who poke
 their heads out of the safe, "Is it over?" Two of them begin to haul the
 sealed container out, while the third says, "Let's get the hell out of here...
 Just in case another one of those shows up." Don't jinx it!

<Pose Tracker> Balance T Moid has posed.

Beyond Grace's screens, a pale man with pale orange hair steps into the light,
 his eyes slanted nearly shut and his lips curled into a fox's smile.

"Yes," Moid says, most pleased. "Just a small bit of intelligence to show you
 my sincerity. I think you'll find what I have for you quite interesting. It
 might sound like a fairy tale, but I assure you it's quite real..."

"...a story about the demons called Vox."

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

Sacred flame rains around the Valkyries, doing little damage. Rita doesn't stay
 close enough to witness this, already arcing back toward her companions.

With her zealous fire reaching a fever pitch, the firebird floats between her
 companions and the attacking machines. Her arms begin to raise -- but before
 she can summon her strength, another flash of warning crosses her disembodied
 awareness. Rita pulls her wings away from her allies, closing them before the
 Phenex, just in time for the incredible amount of missiles to impact against
 them. She is saved from most of the damage, and blessedly, has no eyes to be
 blinded by the explosions.

That's enough!

Though her enemies cannot hear it, Rita's voice echoes across the battle. The
 fire shrouding her whirls and brightens, ever so faintly warping the space
 around the Phenex. Her head tilted back in radiant happiness, she laughs,
 extending her arms up and forward.

All at once, the fire surrounding the Gundam leaps toward the Valkyries.
 Intensely bright, fiercely hot -- perhaps those seeing through the Valkyries'
 eyes can see snippets of other Possibilities. Kinder ones. Crueler ones.

KTS: Rita Bernal targets Brera Sterne with This Life Isn't All There Is!

<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.

        It hasn't gone well for Yurika on her grand debut on stage, has it?

        "Owawawawawaaa, I wonder if Sheryl was feeling this when she tried
 flying for the first time..." Yurika's hunkering behind the protection of the
 Distortion Field, but its protection is far from absolute, and it's flickering
 the longer it comes under such relentless fire from the Lucifers. In this
 confining cabin of very real danger to her life, Yurika breathes in amidst the
 din, trying to calm herself, before professing, "I really really really
 underestimated how crazy this would be! I'm so close to seeing how this works
 - ...but I honestly thought I'd be a little cooler before I hit my limit!!!"

        ...It's a little bit pathetic, but that's how it is when you have a
 newbie at the helm during an attack. "...How do some of these people do it,
 hopping in a robot their very first time and driving away a problem? I thought
 I'd feel this sort of sparkly...Thing. I did all this to understand it.
 ...But...I'm really sorry, this escalated too much- I'm retreating, everyone!"

        Over the comms network, a somewhat beleaguered Minato hastily overlays,
 "Absolutely, you are. We've scrambled everyone else who was on standby - you
 get back here safely, Captain." Indeed, from the nearby hull of the Nadesico,
 two added blue Aestivalises are hurtling from the catapults, drawing fire away
 from Yurika as much as possible as she makes her wet dog of a retreat.

        ...privately, Yurika's phoning into Hikaru with an oh so determined,
 "Next time I'm impressing you, and everyone around, that's a PROMISE. You
 didn't see anything today, for sure! I'll do the real first-sortie-miracle,
 just you wait!" ...Yurika it doesn't really work like that-

        ...Of course, Izo's not faring much better, and in his case, he's got
 even less reason to put his neck on the line for this. Long past the limits of
 what are effectively trainer jets, Izo's eyes have long since gotten wide -
 and his frustration with being shown up is a lot more fiery. "Damn it, damn
 it-! ...If I find out Taira's watching that, he's never gonna let me live it
 down, but what the hell am I supposed to do against these ghosts? ...Listen,
 we came here as an exercise in recon stuff, no damn WAY are me and the other
 guys getting ourselves killed over whatever you're after here. Cover us, we're
 going back to the Academy!"

        Supporting his two fallen comrades in either arm, Izo's retreat into
 the sunset is a lot more desperate - and so much more frustrated. After all-

        He's got someone he wishes he could impress out there too.

KTS: Yurika Misumaru targets Hikaru Amano, Rita Bernal, and Alto Saotome with
 Awe.

KTS: Yurika Misumaru inspires awe, increasing Rita Bernal's Morale!
KTS: Yurika Misumaru inspires awe, increasing Hikaru Amano's Morale!
KTS: Yurika Misumaru inspires awe, increasing Alto Saotome's Morale!
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Alto Saotome targets Brera Sterne with Gatling Full-Auto!
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika shuts down the laser cutter as soon as it goes through... well, the outer
 hull. That might get someone's attention; it will certainly leave a mark and
 she can only hope she didn't take out anything vital they needed to retrieve.

She absolutely does not want to go look, with one hand planted firmly on her
 still-bleeding side; she strained the wound and now she is pretty sure she is
 overdoing it with adrenaline. Plus, she doesn't really want to see it. She
 knows what that would do to a human body, though admittedly not a cyborg.

She goes anyway, at least to confirm that he's down, so that the other
 engineers can be confirmed safe. "<We had someone get in,>" she says on the
 radio, where the military staff can hear it. "<He's, uh... he's dealt with. I
 don't know that you're going to get much identification from them. One team
 member dead, one wounded.>"

Riika can't really count that as a success. She feels horrible - once again,
 someone else has died under her watch - and never mind that it was technically
 not *under* her watch, she feels responsible and she let them down. Just like
 the squad killed by Britannia, who died solely because she was their commander.

At least this time it's probably not because of her. But it doesn't make her
 feel any better about it.

KTS: Alto Saotome targets Brera Sterne with Gatling Full-Auto!

<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Amano has posed.

"Yeah, no kidding, these guys are good. The Nekketssu-Giri is supposed to be a
 certain blow!" And while it says enough that Purple-2 survived such a clean
 blow, they're bold enough to immediately go for a brutal counter-strike.

It's just as well that Hikaru still holds the Field Lancer, the only thing
 between the Battroid Lucifer's arm-blades and the tiny Aestivalis. It holds...
 but the blow destroys the electromagnetic mechanism of the lancer, making it
 far less effective.

"Ahhh, oh no, you got me..." Hikaru laments, lowering the Field Lancer, what is
 now just a really big stick... just for a split second, as the blade edges
 closer and closer to the Assault Pit...

...Because all she does next is to lift the Distortion Field, forcing the
 distance back between machines. "Sike~!" If there's one thing Hikaru's extra
 good at... it's giving enemies the slip!

Rejoining her comrades, she hears Alto's transmission first. "I'm hanging in
 there! But geez... just trying to deal with one is making my head spin!" Yes,
 the communication window shows anime stars over her head. "You don't sound
 like you're doing so hot yourself... does that one really have it out for you
 that bad?"

Just in time, Yurika makes her retreat, too... "Go on ahead! I'll cover you~
 that was one heck of a first sortie, huh?" Not that Hikaru can barely remember
 what her first battle was at this point.

...But ah, isn't that determined expression so cute? "Hehe, you're really
 committed to the piloting thing, aren't you? I mean, they probably want you on
 the bridge, but..." Hikaru considers, all while switching back out for the
 Rail Cannon. "Yeah... I'm looking forward to it! We'll show you our special
 Formation attacks and everything, too! It'll be great!!" Not everything is a
 Nadesico-level threat, so it's reasonable to have that training after all.

But for now, Hikaru focuses her aim... as the rest of the Aestie corps fly in.
 Purple-4 took a heavy hit from her Nekketssu-Giri... even a pilot that skilled
 shouldn't be able to compensate for that much damage.

Loud and energetic as she can be, Hikaru is absolutely silent as she focuses
 the Rail Cannon... this is a totally new weapon, so her aim has to be perfect.
 "Rail Cannon..."

"Maximum power!!" The cannon fire is set loose, literally weaponizing gravity
 itself, loud booms piercing the skies with each shot. The engineers sold it as
 a "minaturized Gravity Blast" at full power... let's see if that's true!

KTS: Hikaru Amano has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
KTS: Hikaru Amano has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
KTS: Hikaru Amano targets Brera Sterne with Rail Cannon Strike!
KTS: Brera Sterne partially guards Rita Bernal's This Life Isn't All There Is,
 taking 6825 damage!

KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rita Bernal's Destined Meeting activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Rita Bernal roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her
 vulnerable.

KTS: Brera Sterne partially guards Hikaru Amano's Rail Cannon Strike, taking
 5320 damage!

KTS: Brera Sterne partially guards Alto Saotome's Gatling Full-Auto, taking
 8400 damage!

KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alto Saotome's The Twinkle Of A Tearful Planet activates,
 causing Insight L1!

<Pose Tracker> Rin Naujakaite has posed.

The Mauler Beams scream but they do not penetrate; they do not destroy. And the
 other party laughs at her. Rin's eyes narrow downwards.

"School?" Rin asks.

Her vision feels - strange. She can't define it. It's like her world is getting
 simultaneously dimmer and brighter. (Rin doesn't know it's because she's
 getting genuinely, gut-level angry. It has never been this bad.)

She shouts a response, "SCHOOL!?"

And then the Shaher is breaking off and melting into the air and for a bleak
 moment Rin thinks: Oh god, what if I got pulled off? What if she was the
 distraction? What if -- the gatling gun is starting to scream and Rin turns
 the VF-171 to the left abruptly, slamming her way out of the first fraction of
 the barrage and closing her eyes for a moment. Another sudden surge upwards
 with a distant lethal patter of metal against the wings of the VF. In her
 mind's eye, she can still see the gatling weapon and see how the train of
 death is flying towards --

---

Deep in cobbled-together software, almost more grown than written at this
 point, something pulsates through a range of mashed-together and chopped and
 re-chopped neural AI models:

> protect

Resources are connected to the thought. They are marshalled swiftly and without
 hesitation. A course is laid in.

---

The other drone - Rancor - sweeps intercedingly. The airframe is put between
 the VF-171 and the storm of metal. Rancor has the Pinpoint Barrier as well,
 and it is deployed well and ably, but it can only handle so much and for so
 long and with a flickering spark it fails; six cannon shots smash into the
 underbelly of the Ghost and it staggers in the air, falling away, trailing
 smoke. It is not downed yet but it is wounded, and that shield is broken.

Rin feels her jaw work for a moment.

A weak signal flickers through her cockpit. A chime.

It isn't exactly a target lock, but it is a lateral radar sweep... from the
 scraped-out space where the other drone crashed, with barely enough control to
 land on its belly, and to turn partway.

Back towards the battle.

Riika's voice comes over the frequency. He's dealt with. Lack of identification.

One member wounded... and another dead.

"This isn't school any more you" Rin says, drowned out afterwards by the
 chorus of screams as the solid-fuel motors of micro-missiles ignite and scream
 forwards, forming a thick nest of smoke trails directly in front of the
 VF-171; it banks to starboard, struggling slightly where one wing has damage,
 finishing off the last of the missile-load afterwards.

And the missiles twist and they trail and they spread out. They cannot see the
 target; at best, there is that distant digital awareness that something was
 there in that great vault of sky, at least a couple of seconds ago, before the
 power failed.

It's a pretty big sky, after all.

But there's an awful lot of those little guys.

<<"Think -- it's breaking off -- Saotome, hey, Izo, are you guys--??">>

KTS: Rin Naujakaite has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
KTS: Rin Naujakaite targets Grace O'Connor with Micro-Missile Array Itano
 Circus!

KTS: Grace O'Connor blocks Rin Naujakaite's Micro-Missile Array Itano Circus,
 taking 4275 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Grace O'Connor has posed.

"Rest assured, I am a great admirer of fairy tales." Grace says with a smile
 that is half-smirk, on the edge of her ruby red lips.

As the Rancor Drone runs interference, blocking the hail of metal, the edge of
 a single eye twitches, and she adjusts her glasses. The girl's fury is
 certainly heard, but goes unanswered, the hail of micromissiles suddenly
 testing Grace's real time ability to control the pinpoint barrier to the limit.

In the end, the Variable Fighter loses an engine to a hail of micro missiles,
 and Grace utters a sigh, looking up. In real time the Variable Fighter
 abruptly switches back to translucence and Rin suddenly will have difficulty
 tracking it even with radar sweeps.

Grace makes a few quick assessments, and raises both of her arms in a shrug.
 "All forces withdraw." As she adds an addendum, given the spark of unforeseen
 initiative in her pawn, "That includes you, Purple-1."

The holographic displays are suddenly swept aside with a hand, as they
 dissipate one by one. "Our collaborator in the fleet can put in some work for
 once." This assault will of course, ensure that he is part of the
 investigation in short order.

As she turns now to face the pale man with orange hair, "Now that you have my
 undivided attention ... Do go on."

<Pose Tracker> Brera Sterne has posed.

        Ranka smiles at Brera. He doesn't smile back--but in that moment, he's
 overwhelmed with something he can only call a positive emotion. It's too much
 for the normally stoic cyborg. He can only stare back at her from those shades
 that hide his rapidly, constantly shifting eye lenses from her, lips breaking
 into a faint, faint part.
        
        He is abruptly certain that Sheryl's right.
        
        He has no idea what to do with this.
        
        ~~~
        
        Above the Messiah, the Lucifer looms. Light charges in the muzzle of
 that beam rifle. If Purple-1 doesn't pull the trigger, surely it's because the
 rifle hasn't charged fully yet. And surely, when Alto whips around the gunpod
 and opens fire on the other Variable Fighter, it's skill and not distraction
 that allows him to get just the right shots to lay into its midsection,
 shearing away pieces of armor until the top blows off the cockpit and sails up
 and away.
        
        There's no one in the cockpit.
        
        Nonetheless, the controls are moving.
        
        On the other side of the battlefield, Hikaru knocks Purple-4 back with
 her Distortion Field to create some distance and unloads the Rail Canon. They
 have indeed taken a lot of damage with that last attack, so evasion isn't an
 option. Instead, they thrust an arm out, activating a Pinpoint Barrier to soak
 the worst of the attack. The Valkyrie is consumed in light--
        
        --and are left smoking, sparking, clearly heavily damaged--but still
 alive.
        
        Purple-2 and Purple-3 attempt to evade the fire that whooshes out from
 the Phenex--but those flames are not simply flames, but the Light of
 Possibility. Purple-1's cockpit may be empty, but there's no guarantee the
 same is true of these ones... and even if it is, there's no guarantee there
 isn't a heart on the other side. Whatever the case, their flight patterns grow
 abruptly more erratic as they bathe in that heat, breaking pattern for a
 moment as the edges of their VFs' armor gently, gently melts.
        
        But--and this is important--when that light fades, their balance
 reasserts. They turn and keel and whorl around. Purple-4, too, stands their
 ground. As damaged as they all are by now, they are all still able and ready
 to continue the fight.
        
        (Did Sheryl feel that when she piloted for the first time? It was
 no picnic, that's for sure. Live combat is a world apart from training,
 especially when you aren't actually prepared for it, or you engage in it on
 what is functionally a whim. Still, with the other Lucifers busy with other
 parts of the battle, Yurika's left to retreat safely.)
        
        Purple-1, too, continues to hold that beam rifle, finger still on the
 trigger--
        
        --on the trigger--
        
                --on the trigger--
        
        All forces withdraw. That includes you, Purple-1.
        
        "...Understood."
        
        Abruptly, Purple-1 pulls the rifle back and warps into fighter mode.
 The blasters erupt to life, and it sails off and up into the dusky sky.
        
        Likewise, Purple-2 and Purple-3 suddenly roll to one side, away from
 the Phenex and towards Purple-4. Purple-4 puts away its weapon and likewise
 shifts to fighter mode; with the support of its fellow fighters, the three
 units blast off in Purple-1's wake.
        
        They've retreated.
        
        And you don't know why.

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        Alto's shots manages to tear into the Lucifer. A surprise in and of
 itself given the skill it has shown before hand. But no where near the
 surprise that follows as the cockpit's armor is blown off revealing the
 interior. Alto has his camera zoom in on the cockpit, half expecting to see
 the face of a certain Lucifer pilot...

        What he was NOT expecting was to find no one. He asks, surprised,
 <"It's... A drone?">

        That doesn't sound right to Alto. As Hikaru points out, it seemed like
 the thing had a personal grudge against him, <"I... Don't know."> At this
 point he's thoroughly confused.

        Thankfully though it seems the engineering team have succeeded, despite
 hostile interference. And the Lucifers proceed to retreat shortly
 afterwards... Their mission in the transport failed, so they're not sticking
 around?

        Perhaps it wasn't personal after all...

        -----

        Everyone is able to land back on the Nadesico, which begins to make its
 way back to the expedition camp. But of course, no doubt a number of people
 are curious about just what exactly it is that. A bunch of them have gathered
 in the Nadesico's hangar, around the engineering team's shuttle ramp, where
 the sealed container has been offloaded.

        There are a number of murmurs about what's inside. Some points out,
 "It's got an electronic lock... Anyone know the passkey?"

        Uribatake snorts and replies, "I've got your passkey right here!" He
 reveals a crowbar.

        With a bit of elbow grease, the container's lid is forced open with a
 hiss. Everyone leans over to take a look, waiting expectantly as the storage
 gasses fade...

        Revealing an array of shining purple stones gently placed in a
 cushioned material. They're quite pretty, smooth and rounded. Off to one side
 there is also a data storage device.

        Someone asks, "What are those?"

        A cough comes from behind the group, before Mr. Prospector explains,
 pushing his glasses up his nose, "Fold Quartz. Though unlike those we found on
 the Global, these are far higher quality."

        A few in the group jump at being busted breaking into the container.
 But thankfully it doesn't seem like it's a big issue... Mr. Prospector steps
 up to the container and reaches in, pulling out the storage device. He hands
 it over to one of the engineers, saying, "Get this to Miss Hoshino. We must
 confirm the data is still intact." Then to everyone else, he asks, "Don't you
 all have work to do?" The group begins to break apart, the other two engineers
 closing the container's lid in order to move it.

        Some distance away beside his Messiah, Alto had been listening in. He
 catches mention of fold quartz again... Idly fingering the chain around his
 neck. There's been a lot of interest in the material lately... But no one he's
 talked to are actually aware of what it is, or what it's for.

        Just what ARE they hoping to find here on Gallia IV?