2023-08-20: Vigilante

• Log: Vigilante
• Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Rita Bernal, Zoltan Akkanen, Shelby Korts, Michele Luio, Kelva Zilorn, Ellic Hugo, John Hanna, Ferolio Addir, Mei Mori, Ray Mal Zern, Parminder Chaudhri
• Where: Denver Colony - Helium-3 Fields
• Date: 2023-08-20
• Summary: Rita Bernal and her allies travel to the helium-3 tanks before Jona Basta can get there; Yuliana Kafim's plan is to remove the tanks before he uses them to destroy Earth. Unfortunately, the Federation and the Republic of Zeon have found common ground in a black ops mission to crush the Sleeves and their control of the helium-3 tanks... and though they're all there for their own reasons, they're all massacred when the ghosts of Denver wake. Yuliana manages to save her allies through her strange powers, but most of the fighters aren't so lucky -- including Ellic Hugo, who finds herself dead at the hands of the very Cyber-Newtype she was set to manage. (CW: Death)

---

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Deep in space, Jona Basta breathes.

        Soon, he will reach the helium-3 tank field which the Sleeves moved behind the hollow bones of Denver Colony, unseen amidst so many raucous crimes. When he lights there, bird to roost, the world ends.

        The world ends in blinding light and screaming pain, as so many nearby colonies are reduced to projectiles by the ignition of a field of helium-3 tanks, and the psychic powers of a den of hungry ghosts flood across the planet.

        Physically, spiritually, completely.

        The world ends.

        Four powers reach for Denver, now. The Sleeves, claiming squatter's rights. The Federation, who through Londo Bell sees the Sleeves' movements. The Republic of Zeon, heeding Princess Zabi's decree. And, slinking in behind them all...

        ... vigilantes.

        Before Jona settles in Denver, Rita Bernal and her allies are going to remove those helium-3 tanks -- and avert the need for a miracle.

        Yuliana Kafim has a plan.

        ...---...

        It's less a fight, and more a massacre.

        The Sleeves... had control of the helium-3 tanks. They're an important energy source, and that's why the operation was moved, recently, hiding behind the Denver colony. With Londo Bell occupied with anything other than this, it was the perfect time for the Sleeves to claim it all for themselves.

        Yes, the Sleeves are dwindling in power. They had enough power, still, for this.

        Until today.

        The Federation and the Republic of Zeon, today, are working together. Call it the miracle of Laplace's Box, if you like -- but more pertinently, it's the miracle of Ten Kal Zatu, one of the Sleeves' own former ace pilots. He came to the Republic of Zeon with the Sleeves' plans, and when the Republic of Zeon reached out to the Federation, they found that Londo Bell was already quite aware of the disturbances in their backyard.

        Two plans became one. Two forces became one.

        And the Sleeves...

        "You bastard!" Cries Jaiya Kas Kemt, shortly before her Geara Doga is blown to pieces. Jaiya fought alongside Ten in so many of their battles; the two of them subjugated Earth's Africa, together, supporting the damn moderates in ZAFT. She is not the only pilot who recognises his Geara Zulu, now flying under the Republic of Zeon's IFF. She is not the only one who curses his name, before he and his new friends end their lives.

        "This is how it has to be," Ten replies, as he focuses his cameras on the last remaining Geara Doga. "You heard Princess Zabi, didn't you? There's no place for our cause in the world that's coming. It's better for everyone if you all... disappear."

        "And you survive, you rat goddamn bastard?!" Yu Zem Tava demands, as he charges Ten's machine with his beam saber. It's not Ten who cuts him down; it's a member of the Federation, firing her rifle from afar.

        "I adapt," Ten agrees with what must be his corpse. He turns his frequencies to his allies -- both Federation, and the Republic of Zeon. "I don't sense anyone else here," he assures them, smooth-voiced. "We're clear to move through and claim -- !!!" Suddenly his head jerks up, and his Geara Zulu lurches forward with the way he heaves into his controls. "No, what is that?! It makes no sense! Something's comin--!!"

        That 'something' might well have been Yu's beam rifle, lifted with the last of his strength, firing straight through his cockpit. "... rat... basta..." He mumbles, through the blood in his lungs, before the black operations squad fires on him again and finishes the job.

        Ten's quite dead, now, too. Whether that's better, for the future...

        ... but is his death really what he was sensing?

        ...---...

        "They're already here," Yuliana transmits, on the frequency band they've tuned for themselves. Rita, Zoltan... and, sigh, Shelby. They're all here, with Michele and Parminder assisting from operations. "Looks like they're distracted with themselves, though... might be we can sneak in. Stay close, I'll keep you covered. Most of you," she asides, with a light snort. "Can't do anything about Rita."

        With Da Xukong 0's crest raised on its head, like the fan of some mighty dragon, the nothingness around Yuliana spreads wide -- wide enough to capture them all in the abyss. It's certainly uncomfortable, but... it's one way to hide.

        That arachnoid wanzer jets through space, ports on its eight legs (that's too many legs) hissing as they perform course correction through a different kind of endless emptiness. "If they take notice," Yuliana goes on, "you're on point, Zoltan. Give them a show. Now -- you remember what I showed you?"

        Da Xukong 0 lands, lightly, on one of those helium-3 tanks, and places a sickly green medallion onto one end. Skittering to the other end of the tank, she places a matching medallion -- and in a flash of green light (wretched-feeling green light), the tank disappears, whisked away to a distant location. Da Xukong 0 is left floating, there, with nothing to rest its skittering feet upon. "Two matching medallions. Place them at either end of the tank, and they'll do the rest. This energy won't ignite the helium-3, so there's no danger of a reaction. You should all have enough... but move fast. I don't think we have much time."

        The fight on their radars, after all, is petering out. The last of the Sleeves -- killed in action.

        And that's when active sensors fall on them.

        "Shit!" Yuliana barks, as her wanzer alerts her to the ping. "They see us -- no more sneaking around! All of you, get moving!"

        But even if Zoltan does his best to distract the Federation and the Republic of Zeon...

        ... it's doubtful that the rest of them will be able to work in peace.

<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.

There's the small hum through the comms; In the realm of nothingness that Yuliana oh-so-happily subjected them to, it was everything he could do to not just snap back and ask her what the hell is up with that damn sphere of silence. Uncultured bastardization aside, its nice to fall back on some good, lovely classical tunes every now and then. Was a fugue really appropriate for this?

The Sinanju Stein shifted as easily as ever, just like the simulations to keep his own training on. Perfectly average, useful for only piloting a singular thing. There's little he can do but to walk down this path that was carved out of circumstances, and where else would he be right now? Dead, probably. Just keep one foot in front of the other. Keep moving. Bit by bit. That's how people survive, that's how he can get his own revenge later.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. They're still running over the Sleeves people, so anyone who talks about Char gets a giant target on their back." Evoking the next coming of Char. Full Frontal has ceded his throne. He's the only one left, other than the man himself.

Take that, you empty vessel freak.

There's only a few moments of "peace" and "calm" and "being obscured while people die around them", par for the course. "Trust your damn sensors next time!" He's already gunning for the front, the silver streak of damnation and frustration beginning to pump its thrusters, shooting out in front.

"Oi, Federation goonies! How's it all going, enjoying wiping up Full Frontal and his bloodstains along Side 5!?" Openly provocative on all channels, the rifle already out and ready. Hostility. Intent. The anger and frustration of having to deal with all this garbage. Finally, some stress relief!

"I'm sure you all are smart enough to think two paces ahead of you, but don't think Full Frontal's the only idiot who's got his mind rearranged by that Char nonsense! You want to get your rewards and go home to suck on some teat in a Britannian resort, right!?" Yeah, that's it. Come on, look. "Ask any Sleeve who I am. The name's ZOLTAN AKKANEN!"

And a shot across the battlefield to goad, 'discreetly' aiming for the suit with the obvious callsign. Too damn easy.

 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Ellic Hugo with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Single Shot!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo blocks Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Single Shot, taking 2000 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

The Phenex hangs back from her companions, careful to stay out of range of Yuliana's enhanced veil of silence. No one will be able to hear her until they've gotten some distance from Da Xukong 0, but that's alright. They all know the plan.

Both of the Phenex's hands are held closed, containing many of the... objects... Yuliana brought them. Rita does not like them. They feel disgusting, even brushing against the armored hand of the Phenex, like something crawling against Rita's spirit.

But this is to save Jona, and the Earthsphere. Rita has committed so many sins already, she can hardly stop now.

Opening her fist, Rita allows dozens of medallions to float before her. With an outreached hand, she guides them to the tanks in pairs. She purposefully does not think about where they might be going, or what Elisa might do with them. Anything is better than their current trajectory.

Flash, flash, flash. Helium tanks vanish. Even with the amount Rita has taken care of, the field stretches out endlessly before her. Is this really going to be enough to make a difference?

Rita doesn't have long to worry. A flash of awareness flickers across her spirit just before Yuliana calls out in alarm. Dropping the rest of the medallions, the Heart of the Phenex guides them into place even as she soars to catch up with the Sinanju Stein.

Perhaps there is enough distance between Yuliana and Zoltan and Shelby now that they can hear Rita's voice.

It'll be faster to take care of these stragglers before we keep attaching the medallions. I'll keep you all safe.

The third Unicorn sister, gleaming gold in the darkness of space, gazes over the assembled Neo-Zeon and Federation forces impassively. As ever, she hovers with no sound of engine, nor ignited thrusters -- illuminated by radiant blue flame as she moves. The wing-like shields at her back rise up to circle around her.

You should not have come here. The Princess' message of hope was not meant to lead to more death.

Zoltan has chosen his targets. The Phenex's wandering gaze lands on the nearby Nightmare Plus. She finds it particularly annoying, among its companions. Perhaps its the color scheme. Perhaps its something about the pilot. It doesn't matter.

I hope you find a better path in your next life.

Raising her arm, the Phenex launches her shields toward the Nightmare Plus. They soar forward at incredible speeds, attempting to crash into the enemy machine's center. There's no reason to draw this fight out by going for less-vital areas.

<Pose Tracker> John Hanna has posed.

        John wasn't the happiest person in the earth sphere, he totally couldn't believe that he was having to fly with Zeeks. The orders had came down and he had tried to argue it with his the commander but well he just refused to accept it. John could do this all by himself.

          John's Gustav moves through the vacuum of space as they approach the helium tank. Of course he makes note of the Sinanju, but that isn't the mission. <" I will leave the Sinanju to you guys. I will go secure the tanks."> John could see it now, while the rest were dealing with the sleeve remnants he would secure the tanks and get all the credit.

        As the Gustav floats through the helium tanks the sensor alerts go off bringing John's attention towards some spider bot. "Well well well, looks like they have a few bugs crawling around here." The Gustav raises its beam rifle and takes a quick shot at the Da Xukong. Even before the shot reaches its target he is already claiming credit, <"Once less sleeve down.">

<Pose Tracker> Ellic Hugo has posed.

Ellic Hugo killed the part of herself that argued with calls like this.

She killed that part of herself a long time ago, because working for Monaghan meant that had to happen. With the Box revealed, the Sleeves couldn't be allowed to have the helium-3.

Simple as that.

And so, she finds herself at Denver Colony. She isn't in her customized Geara Zulu; she took a Gustav Karl, supplied by the Federation forces, and rams the beam saber at the cockpit of a Geara Zulu not like her own.

A voice crackles. "Lieutenant Hugo! Please! I followed you, I believed in--"

The young woman's voice is cut off. Ellic rams the beam saber through the cockpit, then tears it back.

"It'll buy Zeon the future we need. It just changed," Ellic says. "It's one without any of you in it."

Then, she picks something up. Units, incoming; headed for the helium-3 tanks. Her eyes widen -- and the Gustav Karl's head turns, in their direction. "That's..."

Her eyes widen more. Zoltan can feel her, then; the recognition of the Sinanju Stein, the knowledge of who he is. He can feel who she is, even if she can't do the same. Oldtypes could only appreciate physical phenomena.

"Zoltan!" she cries out. "You... you're showing your face here!?"

The beam rifle shot slams into the Gustav Karl's shield, dispering across it -- and leaving a large crater, glowing red hot, where the armor ablated and burnt away in layers. Ellic's teeth are bared, as she takes aim, and a pair of shots fire from her beam rifle for the Sinanju Stein.

 KTS: John Hanna targets Yuliana Kafim with Jegan Beam Rifle Shot!
 KTS: John Hanna has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Rita Bernal targets Ray Mal Zern with Phenex Kite Shield Dual Strike!
 KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Zoltan Akkanen
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shelby Korts
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern fails to charge.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern partially guards Rita Bernal's Phenex Kite Shield Dual Strike, taking 1739 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.

        Vigilantes-- and here for a purpose.

        The cockpit configuration was a little unfamiliar but it didn't take long for her to adjust to the controls; a few tweaks to the AMBAC response, updating some of the user settings, making sure the drivers for the weapons were good to go -- she's not an engineer but she learned enough from being close to Anser Vulpecula for so long to pick up at least one or two things.

        The seat's a little too hard and rigid for her tastes, though.

        Crouched on a base jabber that looks at least a decade too old to be used, the stock paint-and-loadout MSK-008 Dijeh cuts the rider's thrusters and slides through space with a bit more maneuverability than it would on it's own, affixing medallions on the tanks with a look a litt more on the suspicious side. This was a Yuliana plan. How do they know this is going to work? Or not send all of them to that weird dimension?

        She doesn't have too much time to think about it -- not as all hell breaks loose.

        Shelby's mouth tightens into a flat line; the flat cargo box bolted to the machine's upper back suddenly feeling far heavier when it becomes clear that they'll have to fight their way through.

        "Ngh. ... Here we go," she murmurs to herself, dropping the gold-tint reflective visor on her borrowed helmet.

 KTS: Ellic Hugo targets Zoltan Akkanen with Jegan Beam Rifle Shot!
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Kelva Zilorn has posed.

        That fateful day eighteen years ago. The hopes and dreams of all spacenoids were carried in the grip of the Zabi family - and one Kelva Zilorn, short, unassuming, and barely finished with her technical course in high school - gave it all up to follow them.

        The true followers were all that was truly left by the battle of A Baoa Qu, as the world collapsed. Gihren Zabi had by then made his betrayal of Degwin clear - a man who'd made it clear that he saw all this purely as a means to his own end.

        For less than an hour, the commander Kelva looked up to had the world in her hands, until the moment of her fateful demise ...

        ...Eighteen years ago.

        At the faintest hint of the lines in her face reflected on her helmet's glass, she can't help but wonder why she's still here. A world that's seen more Gihrens rise than true stalwart leaders - more short-sighted power-grubbers than anyone who's genuinely believed in the future. Maybe she's just waiting. As the lights rise at Denver Colony along with the rest of the Zeon fleet, Kelva twists the thrusters on her Lion a little awkwardly. Even mobile suit design's changed so much - but somehow, even though by all means this is faster, better, and more agile than the Zakus and Gelgoogs she spent most of her career with...somehow, it's stiffer, too?

        <"...Kelva Zilorn. Zeon Co-Operative Response Squad 2 is moving into position on the ventral side of the colony. ...Insurrectionists spotted and targeted. Confirming IFF...unregistered hostile. ...Engaging.">

        The railgun on Kelva's left side hisses faintly - before launching a bullet across the cosmos, arcing right towards the Jabber-mounted Dijeh.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn targets Shelby Korts with FT Railgun Shot!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Ray Mal Zern has posed.

Learn from the past, to avert its tragedies. And what Ray Mal Zern has learned...

"If we leave them be," she says over the radio to the others, "We'll only see another crisis rise later."

She's said that before, but she means it. And now, as there's suddenly other here--

That voice. She 'hears' it, in her heart but not in her radio, and she narrows her eyes quickly. That... thing.

"And do you expect that message to just come true on its own, without action? You know that they'll ust raise armies in her name if left to themselves. We've seen it, again and again."

The shields crash into the Nightmare Plus, and Ray quickly learns that this is a life or death battle. The Pinpoint Barrier saves her this time. She tries to charge ahead to the Phenex, but doesn't manage it. Instead, her unit is rocked by the impact.

"What stake does some thing have in our future anyway!?"

"This 'next life' shit--I'm going to make things better in this life!"

A beam cannon loads up and rockets its payload outward, particles charged crashing towards the Phenex.

"And we don't need freaks like you to do it!"

 KTS: Ray Mal Zern targets Rita Bernal with Erikon Beam Cannons Shot!
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Foresee Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Michele Luio has posed.

It's time to get rid of those helium tanks. Michele Luio is not in the battle directly, but is nearby, handling comms and ops. She's right inside Minovsky range with her craft, but is hiding behind enough debris to make the connection.

Her first order of business: scan the IFFs of the Federation attacking them, and cross-reference against her 'black book' of data.

Her first comm goes out to Yuliana, as she gets the IFF locked there first. "Kafim, that's John Hanna. He thinks he's God's gift to the Federation, best damn pilot there is. I'm sure you know how to take advantage of that."

She'll keep reading the IFFs of others, but it'll take time. For the moment, Michele grabs targeting data and tosses it to Rita, allowing her to coordinate the Phenex with Michele's intel.

Michele leans back in her chair as she does so, intaking a sharp breath before private lining to Rita. "Be careful out there, alright?" One bad shot and they're screwed.
 KTS: Michele Luio targets Rita Bernal with Coordinate!
 KTS: Michele Luio has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Michele Luio coordinates maneuvers, raising Rita Bernal's Piloting!
 KTS: Rita Bernal successfully Evades Ray Mal Zern's Erikon Beam Cannons Shot

<Pose Tracker> Ferolio Addir has posed.

        Corporal Operator Addir did not want to be here. His hands shook as explosions bloomed around him. It was...completely different, seeing the screens from the middle of the cleanup. His chair, his desk, his screens... The distance made it take longer for their deaths to sink in. Still, there... There was no one else left to sortie from his unit. So he...chose this. It was painful, being unsure who was ally and who was enemy, but... He had lived and died by the screens. When his princess made her call through compromised screens that should never have been able to receive a signal.

        Beams lanced through the field, and his eyes darted around before he calmed himself and confirmed the field of friendly IFFs.
                <"Gustav 'Able', this is Addir, I am m-moving to support! Hang in there!">

        The Lion accelerated towards the approaching Sinanju--there was no way he wouldn't know the capabilities of that machine. But...but!
                <"G-get away from the tanks! I won't let you have them!"> he shouted, leveling the Lion's railgun but unprepared for its recoil.
 KTS: Ferolio Addir targets Zoltan Akkanen with Burst Railgun Burst !
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen successfully Evades Ellic Hugo's Jegan Beam Rifle Shot

 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen fails to Evade Ferolio Addir's Burst Railgun Burst , taking 3075 damage!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir begins a Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Mei Mori has posed.

"Focus the anger, please." A soft voice murmurs within range of Mal Zern. Behind them in a sub-seat is a young adult of Japanese descent, fingers ghosting along her own watch and items she is keeping an eye on.

"I'll pass on what information I get. Be on your toes; I don't think this is going to be easy."

Mori pushes the data forward, gaze drifting to the golden Phenex, a frown tugging at the edge of her lips.
 KTS: Shelby Korts blocks Kelva Zilorn's FT Railgun Shot, taking 2050 damage!
 KTS: Mei Mori targets Ray Mal Zern with Coordinate!
 KTS: Mei Mori has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Mei Mori coordinates maneuvers, raising Ray Mal Zern's Piloting!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has joined Zoltan Akkanen's bucket!
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to evade John Hanna's Jegan Beam Rifle Shot, taking 2370 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.

He can't help but sport a smile on this loveliest of days, clearly exposing himself as a target for everything. Some took the bait, some didn't...But really, it didn't matter. Only that the discs got smacked on. "Good luck with that, Pheneeeex!" Ah, the fire in his blood was stirring aflame, after such a period of being dorment.

It felt good to toss himself into something after languishing!

"Yeah, that's right! How's it feel being free from your crappy job!? Did they transfer you to some spot you wanted, or are you sticking your nose up some other idiot's business again!?" Ellic, Ellic, Ellic. So nice to finally meet again under such circumstances. If she died, it was only the cost of an oopsie if a beam did hit a cockpit. No one could blame him for doing something that he's thought about a few times.

There's only the slightest bit of lunacy in those tweaked motions, shunting himself to the side and allowing Ellic's beams to pass by harmlessly. "Seems like your aim is the same as eve-"

And boasting was the height of folly, clipped along the shoulder by Able's railgun. Mildly worrying, clicking his tongue at the new unit that decided to fire. "Oi, oi, you too!? You don't look like a Sleeves, so that must mean..."

"YOU'RE JUST SOME PUNK FED!" Slow. Steady. 'Steady', he thinks. To start those thrusters burning hot, streaking along the battlefield, upwards from the hydrogen tanks. Here. There. Come on. COME ON.

There! A few shots towards Ellic's damnable machine, flicking the underside barrel open and careening around in a lazy arc, a grenade shot bursting forth. It's target: Ferolio.

"To think you're working with the Federation now? What happened to that spirit that the Sleeves had!? The Sieg Zeon everyone loved to say!? Or are you that much of a coward to just wave the white flag!?"
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Ferolio Addir with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Underslung Grenade Launcher!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Ellic Hugo with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Burst Fire!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo fails to evade Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Burst Fire, taking 4050 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        What's up with that damn sphere of silence? It's the damn thing keeping them all off of the Spacenoid's radar, Zoltan, now shut up.

        (Yuliana does not have this conversation with him, because Yuliana is markedly and emphatically not psychic. ... not THAT kind of psychic, anyway.)

        Yuliana might have volunteered to adjust Shelby's Dijeh for active combat. Well, she could have volunteered to adjust Shelby's Dijeh for active combat. She had the capacity to volunteer to adjust Shelby's Dijeh for active combat.

        ... Yuliana did not adjust Shelby's Dijeh for active combat. She is an engineer, but she's spiteful, still.

        What is Elisa going to do with these helium-3 tanks? That's a question it may well be worth not asking; whatever the Void Witch's intentions, they must surely be better than the worldwide destruction Rita has Seen. The tanks are safely whisked away through the assistance of those medallions, at least -- each pair creating their own ad-hoc magic circle, all the better to teleport the helium-3 somewhere else.

        It is, at least, working. The tanks are disappearing, off to who-knows-where, away from Jona's forseen trajectory. Miraculously(?), none of the medallions have banished any of the party to the Void, despite what Shelby might be thinking right now. (That's not what they're designed to do.)

        Zoltan screams off to make a spectacle of himself -- and for once Yuliana is glad of it; she's relying on that bombastic nature to draw attention, now, as the Da Xukong skitters from tank to tank. One medallion, two, and engage -- off it goes, in a flash of sickly green light. Yuliana thinks it is reassuring. She may be the only one to think so.

        She listens to Ellic's voice, on the radio, and thinks back to the advice Zoltan gave her when they first met in Denver. The person with a gun trained on her...

        Well, in her case, it was Cascade Wattana.

        But what about him?

        Yuliana clicks her tongue to her teeth -- really, Zoltan ought to sue her for copyright infringement -- as Michele's voice comes over the radio. (Parminder is, of course, happy to help her dig up dirt. This is his favourite thing. He loves gossip.) "Is that the story?" Yuliana replies, acrid. "They're all God's gifts! God, I must have been insufferable!" Well, for that and many other reasons.

        Da Xukong spins in the air with a jet of pressure from half of those skittering legs, another tank disappearing underneath it. Unfortunately, that means the wanzer is the only thing left to take that Beam Rifle shot -- though it's arrested by a green light which flares in response to the assault, slowing and defracting the beam by the time it hits something like a spider or a scorpion or whatever other thing no one wants in their sleeping bag at night.

        "Who are you calling Sleeves?!" Yuliana demands, as she jets forward. Above Da Xukong 0, its scorpion's tail lifts, firing a short gash of plasma at John's Gustav. "You think you're so hot -- how long have you even been flying, huh?"

        Her face splits to a savage grin, all textured by the scar down her left eye, covered by the green fanned helmet of her normal suit. "As for me, it was nine years... before the REA betrayed me. Clock's ticking, Johnny!"

 KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets John Hanna with Infernal Arachnid Injector Ignition!
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

Are you so sure humanity isn't ready to change?

Gracefully, the Phenex arcs away from Ray's beam fire. She turns as she moves, 'grabbing' the shot with her radiant light as it races by her. Rita holds it in place until it gradually runs out of energy and dissipates. It's a display of unnatural strength, yet performed so casually. It'd be disastrous if a stray shot reached the helium tanks, after all.

It could happen, this time. You don't know.

A 'thing', Ray calls her. The Phenex doesn't seem to react to this, but those who are particularly sensitive can feel a wave of slowly-increasing annoyance radiate from the Gundam. It's like the concept of a gradually deepening frown.

Princess Mineva will not need armies. Do you think any of your machines can match a Unicorn? My sisters are aligned with the Princess' wishes. Do you think people like you have a chance of standing against them?

Rita's voice is soft, and sweet, despite her words. The Phenex's shields return to her, having finished their attack, and orbit around the golden Gundam once more.

I'm not a thing. Or a freak. Once, I was like you. Both of you.

Mei, perhaps, will feel the weight of Rita's awareness around her, but it eases as Rita is distracted by Michele's call. The data is useful, even to a spirit who flies between worlds, but Michele's voice is even more so. It's a reminder of why they're doing this to begin with. Rita can't reply in a way Michele will hear without splitting her focus, so for now, she simply taps her communications on and off in a simple pattern.

- .... .- -. -.- -.-- --- ..- -- .. -.-. .... . .-.. .

We can agree it'd be bad if the tanks exploded, right? Neither of us want that. So why don't we fight a little differently?

With a brilliant burst of light, the Phenex soars in toward the Nightmare. She circles around her enemy, regarding them almost-curiously.

Would information help you? Fighting a Unicorn in a mass-produced machine is going to be very, very hard. Even though you have support, this won't be easy. Let me help you.

Quick, darting motions bring the Phenex in close. She touches the Nightmare's shoulder, and the screens within light up with information on the RX-0 unit. Nothing they wouldn't already know from the Federation's databases, but perhaps it will be a boon to have it in front of their eyes.

My name is Rita Bernal. I am the Phenex. I am here to save my friend, and the Earthsphere, too. My sisters are very, very against killing others.

And out again. The Phenex stays in melee range, but flits back and forth with a grace more befitting a small bird than a Gundam.

I used to mind it. I don't anymore. The people you're serving changed that about me.

For all the lightheartedness of her voice, something... angry, wells up in the depths of the Phenex's Heart. Memories flicker around her, half-visible things, like visions seen in firelight. Perhaps Rita has been away from a true battlefield for too long, resting in the Secret Lab. Perhaps she's lost some of the armor around her soul, guarding her from malice and negativity.

Perhaps, that specific shade of blue on the Nightmare Plus has awakened some old, old sorrows.

I've been so patient and kind. So much more than people like you deserved. If you're going to get angry... Then I can get angry too, right? Ray, and Mei? It's only fair.

With her shields folding in again at her back, the Phenex begins to glow with miraculous, prismatic light. A rainbow -- though one that shines very differently than the last one to grace the Earthsphere. Both arms reach out, and the Phenex's brilliance folds around the Nightmare Plus, pulling it toward the Gundam and, impossibly, burning away at its armor.

 KTS: Rita Bernal targets Ray Mal Zern with Eos!
 KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Foresee Spirit Command targeting Ray Mal Zern
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Rita Bernal anchors Ray Mal Zern, forcing them into close range.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern parries Rita Bernal's Eos, taking 600 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rita Bernal's Destined Meeting activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Rita Bernal has engaged Ray Mal Zern!

<Pose Tracker> Ellic Hugo has posed.

"The Phenex!?" Ellic cries out, trying -- and failing -- to follow the golden Mobile Suit, as it soars on past, with the helium-3 cylinders vanishing in her wake. "Roger, John," she says. "Let's mop them up fast. Zern, be careful of the Phenex."

Then, she looks ahead. "Roger that, Addir," she says. "Be careful of this one... he's unpredictable."

Is he different? Ellic isn't sure -- and then she settles on 'no.' He could never change.

"Who are you to talk?" Ellic asks him, though there's a thread of anger in her voice -- at being called out, perhaps. At the way he is right. "You... you aren't the person you were supposed to be. And you turned on us! And you've sided with the damned Phenex, Zoltan!?"

The Sinanju Stein's beam rifle fires -- and the energy blast clips the left arm, just above the elbow, and sheers it off. There's a fiery explosion, which the Gustav Karl tears through. The beam rifle is stowed; Ellic draws out a large rifle, taking aim. A machinegun, in this case.

She fires, rounds shredding through space and coming in towards the Sinanju Stein. "I'm no coward. I'm not like you."

Her anger is cold. "I can focus. I'm not a defect."

 KTS: Ellic Hugo targets Zoltan Akkanen with Improved Bullpup Machine Gun Barrage!
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: John Hanna blocks Yuliana Kafim's Infernal Arachnid Injector Ignition, taking 1800 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.

        Alarms and sensors sound off at the same time a prickly feeling creeps up the back of her neck. Shelby's head twists to look to the side; instinctively bringing the large swooping right shoulder around to guard against the shot with supersonic impact and force. Sparks fly, outer layers of armor shred and shear, and the bullet punches a hole through the base jabber. With the transfer of inertia, it spins out, sending the Dijeh off the platform and into a hard two-axis spin.

        In the momentary blur of utter darkness and the blazing light of the sun ninety million miles away, Shelby manages to apply a few selective bursts of movement from the thrusters, trying to counter-spin and bring herself under control. Probably should've tried to get adjustments made or a better space flight pack installed, she passively thinks to herself.

        Blue eyes hold steady, twitching from lingering movement, as she gets her bearings and lines up on the Lion-- still a great distance away, she starts flying toward Kelva's unit, hefting a clunky bazooka. A tweak to the firing mode and the bazooka fires a rocket that has both a bit of spin and trails a liquid vapor in it's wake en route to the Lion -- but once it gets into close enough range, the shell does not detonate on a theoretical impact... but instead explodes just before reaching it, a mess of flak and shrapnel and concussive force rippling out from the blast.

        Shelby's voice on comms is modulated: Rough, scrambled, a little deeper than it actually is.

        <"Withdraw for your own safety.">

 KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Shelby Korts targets Kelva Zilorn with 300mm Clay Bazooka Blast Shot!
 KTS: Shelby Korts has completed their actions for the round.


 KTS: Shelby Korts rattles Kelva Zilorn, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn fails to evade Shelby Korts's 300mm Clay Bazooka Blast Shot, taking 4670 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Michele Luio has posed.

The 'thank you' means a lot, even if it's simple, as Michele flawlessly translates the Morse code.

Rita's in direct combat. She gets angry and serious, but her combatant has real skill. Michele fires up the comms again. "Rita, I assume you already got a name. Here we go...Ray Mal Zern's family owns a water treatment plant, could probably use some threats to get her real pissed and off-game. Until then, she's gonna be a challenge."

A small laugh. "Or I could try the threats. I've always been better at angering people, right?."

A twinge of memory, as Michele remembers how she abused and manipulated Jona just to see Rita again. She caused all of this. She has to be the one to help fix it.

Tapping a few buttons, she continues the data stream to the Phenex, putting her care into curating the best data - the closest people in her life are out here in space, and she can't slack off.
 KTS: Michele Luio has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Rita Bernal
 KTS: Michele Luio targets Rita Bernal with Dream!
 KTS: Michele Luio has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Michele Luio shares a dream with Rita Bernal, increasing her SP!

<Pose Tracker> Ray Mal Zern has posed.

"...Fine," Ray answers Mei. "I'll be waiting for your input." No, it won't be easy. Not with something like that.

"This is how humanity changes. Not through idle hopes, but through blood and action. We see it, over and over, what happens when we just 'wish' for change--nothing happens!"

But it's true. SHe doesn't know. Princess Mineva? "Whether she needs them or not, these people will just use her as an excuse to keep fighting. That's why we hav eto end it now."

Once, she was like them...

"...Right. We can't ahve the tanks exploding." Pause. "But 'once'. The things that made you what you are--aren't there only going to be more of those, if this war continues? ...You get it. You're not 'opposed' to killing like your sisters." Her blood is cold, but not from cruelty; this is a foe well beyond her. She knows it. But even so...

"So you know how it is. The world won't change just by wanting it to. You have to take it into your own hands!!"

The Battroid focuses its Pinpoint Barrier into a line, using that energy to deflect the light of miracles itself. That prismatic light, that beautiful rainbow, pulls the Nightmare Plus close--but does not damage it nearly as much as it should, does not burn away at armor but instead at will.

Then she advances, her machine moving in for a strike with that same Barrier on the Phenex's center mass.

"If you want to 'save the Earth Sphere', then leave us alone!"
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has activated the Enable Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern targets Rita Bernal with Pinpoint Barrier Melee Strike!
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> John Hanna has posed.

        The Gustav raises it's shield as the plasma collides with it and begins to eat away at the shield, eerie green flames lasting a bit longer then they should in space. As John tries to shake the green flame off his shield a little confused why it won't fade right away he responds back to Yuliana, a little distracted <" Sleeve, terrorist, whatever you want to call yourself doesn't matter. When you are nothing more then ash floating through space no one will be able to identify you."> .

         Finally the distracting plasma goes out and John begins to move the Gustav in a serpentine pattern while on approach towards the Da Xukong. <"It doesn't matter how many years you've been flying, it's all going to mean nothing when I am done with you. Those nine years were a waste of your life." > John totally isn't going to mention he has only been piloting for two years.

         The Gustav draws its beam sabers and begins to spin them forward creating almost a shield of whirring blades as the Gustav charges directly at the spider bot, and at no point did John ever even think about the fact that his name was said and he never gave it. Perhaps it is because he truly believed everyone knew who he was.
 KTS: John Hanna targets Yuliana Kafim with Whirling Blade Advance!
 KTS: John Hanna has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim parries John Hanna's Whirling Blade Advance, taking 465 damage!
 KTS: John Hanna has engaged Yuliana Kafim!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir fails to evade Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Underslung Grenade Launcher, taking 3600 damage!
 KTS: Rita Bernal parries Ray Mal Zern's Pinpoint Barrier Melee Strike, taking 1110 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Kelva Zilorn has posed.

        <"Withdraw? And leave the remnants of the Sleeves to do as they please?"> Kelva grouses, surging her thrusters in a tighter orbit around Shelby, constraining a pained growl of frustration as clouds of shrapnel rattle her Lion.

        <"Nobody was ever sure of what happened that day. Why it all fell apart. Nobody cared to think too hard, not when the likes of Haman Karn were too busy doing what they pleased with the flame of Zeon. Not when the Red Comet was the brightest star for people to follow.">

        Kelva can't help but spit slightly, scowling as she ruthlessly bares her blade, the surface of Denver Colony erupting. <"...you people who cling to his legacy don't know that he's surely the reason Zeon was taken over by such madmen! It was surely him whose hand was on the scale in betraying the Zabis as the worst possible moment! Who else would have assassinated her...">

        The point surges forward, aimed not at Shelby herself...but at the jabber beneath, Kelva's breathing ragged...
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn targets Shelby Korts with Assault Blade Slash!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Mei Mori has posed.

Rita dumps info. "HEY!" A pause, as Mei promptly downloads it and shoves it back to base. "... that's my job..." She adds after a moment, deflating. "I'm not a good pilot, at least let me do what I can... Why are birds so... bird?"

What does that even mean?

"Anyways, if she's going to put you in melee, take advantage of it." Mori mutters as she rapidly goes through the data. "She moves faster than we do, from the looks of it, but make your moves. Hope for parries, not evades, I think; any damage to get through is better than giving her the space to completely disappear. She's been in space for so long, this is her playground. We need to disrupt it."

"Just watch out for that to blow back up in our faces, yeah?"

 KTS: Mei Mori targets Ray Mal Zern with All-Out!
 KTS: Mei Mori has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Mei Mori orders an all-out attack, raising Ray Mal Zern's Skill!
 KTS: Shelby Korts rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn enervates Shelby Korts, reducing her Morale significantly.
 KTS: Shelby Korts partially guards Kelva Zilorn's Assault Blade Slash, taking 5400 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kelva Zilorn's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject!

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

Michele speaks again. Rita, spiritually, tilts her head back and forth. Since being given a hard-light body to inhabit, she's started to pick up on living-human mannerisms again. Rita isn't sure how she feels about it yet -- especially after noticing herself mimicking Zoltan's humming one lazy afternoon.

-. --- - .... .-. . .- - ... -.-- . - --..-- .--. .-.. . .- ... . .-.-.- -... ..- - --. . - - .... . .. -. ..-. --- .-. -- .- - .. --- -. .-. . .- -.. -.-- .-.-.- .. -.. --- -. .----. - .-.. .. -.- . .... . .-. --..-- --- .-. .... . .-. -- .- -.-. .... .. -. . .-.-.- --- .-. .... . .-. ... ..- .--. .--. --- .-. - . .-. .-.-.-

Is communicated back to Michele. Rita doesn't particularly want Ray or Mei to have to die afraid for their loved ones, but if the battle turns against Rita's friends, it's a useful tool to have. Too much is at stake here to worry about feelings.

Transmitting data to the Phenex is an odd thing. It is accepted as computerized assistance, and immediately translated by the Gundam into spiritual information. For Rita, it's as simple as switching between familiar languages, but it must be odd for Michele to transmit successfully to a deactivated computer system...

Did you not see the Rainbow, Ray? It was only two days ago.

People say Axis Shock didn't change humanity, but Rita knows it did. Some for the better, many for the worse. Will this Rainbow be any different?

Let me show you.

A vision is broadcast to Ray and Mei -- and depending on the openness of their hearts, they will share in the Phenex's memory. From a vantage point above Industrial-7, the hellish streak of the Colony Laser, Gryps II, races across space. It impacts a line of mobile suits, nearly breaking through--

Until one mobile suit, one in brilliant, valiant white, begins to glow with auroric radiance. The laser is extinguished in the face of this Rainbow, and soon after, the vision ends.

Things will change. We simply don't know how, yet.

The Phenex continues circling the Nightmare Plus, fae noises emanating from her frame as she moves. Princess Mineva has been used to inspire war for more than a decade. Why would it be so bad if that continued? It's not like that will be changing.

I'm so glad you agree. If these tanks go critical, they will destroy the entirety of the Earthsphere.

The Phenex gestures back to the helium field with one hand.

They're too close together. The reaction would destroy Possibility. And that cannot be allowed to happen.

Lightning-fast, the Phenex's shields rise in front of her, catching the offensive-aligned Pinpoint Barrier and turning it away. There is damage to the shields -- some of their golden armor cracks. It seems even a Unicorn can be bloodied.

I can't leave you alone. I started you on this path. I have to see it to the end. Isn't that what you would do? See your mission through until it's complete, one way or another?

What must it take for the scion of a water-treatment family to join the military? Rita isn't interested enough to take the information from Ray's memories, but it tells her enough to allow Rita to come to some conclusions about the woman.

I'm sorry. I'll leave the information to you from now on.

Rita can't help but laugh at Mei's distress. It's a gentle sound -- not mocking at all, despite the timing -- as if Mei has done something unbearably cute. It seems calling Rita a bird has earned Mei some points. A bit of the anger radiating from the Firebird eases.

Wanting to make this world a better place is very honorable. I'm so sorry you two were chosen for this mission. You really do believe in what you're doing, don't you?

Awareness flashes across Rita's mind, guiding her attention to Shelby.

Shelby! Hang on!

Suddenly disengaging, the Phenex soars to her friend's side, placing a hand on Shelby's battered machine. One of her wings breaks away from her back to circle around the battered Dijeh. The other, almost as an afterthought, races toward the Nightmare Plus.

If it's too much, fall back into the field of tanks, please. I'll take care of the rest. You're too important to risk, Shelby.

Wreathed in that same sacred blue energy, the Phenex's shield tries to smal into the Nightmare Plus with all the same force as it did earlier.
 KTS: Rita Bernal targets Ray Mal Zern with Phenex Kite Shield Strike!
 KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shelby Korts
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shelby Korts
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Shelby Korts
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern fails to evade Rita Bernal's Phenex Kite Shield Strike, taking 2750 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rita Bernal's Destined Meeting activates, causing Sparkle!

<Pose Tracker> Ferolio Addir has posed.

        The Sinanju arced out of the tanks' plane, Z-positive, and bristled with both aggressive words and advanced weaponry. The grenade burned through space, impacting the Lion oblique and sending it into a spin. Vertigo pulled Ferolio's stomach up to his throat, and he clawed at the controls until the computer forcibly took control and straightened the thrust vector out.

        The orange firelight of explosive power still crossed his eyes... After all this, the blaze of combat has found him.
                "No, no, that's not, that's not right... I chose this... Oredan, and then Kei, I chose to be here! I can't turn back! I have to use the power that I have!" The roiling anxiety emanating from the Lion was joined by a fearful resolution.

        His eyes caught up to the IFF data scroll, and the rush of surviving the first shots of combat carried him forward. That Gustav's pilot, Hugo, was right--it was an extremely unpredictable machine! But its firing range still has to be limited... Its movements had to be tracked somehow.
                <"This-this is Addir, I'm still up! 'Able', er, H-Hugo, you have T of 5.6s with a minimum damage approach vector at plus-seven degrees minus-zero-point-five yaw from current heading! G-go get him!">

        To make sure that the Sinanju wouldn't be able to bring its full armament to bear in that window... He had to force it to look at him!
                <"In, Insur, Unidentified Insurrectionist! This is Corporal Addir of the Federation-Republic Task force! Cea-cease fire and stand down!">

        He had never heard of someone listening to such a statement--not in this, the Unified Century... but he had to protect the people he could, so he leveled that railgun, and lined it up--even if it didn't land, it might let that Gustav have one extra second...!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Ellic Hugo
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Ellic Hugo
 KTS: Ferolio Addir targets Zoltan Akkanen with FT Railgun Impact Shot!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "A terrorist?" Yuliana replies, laughter in her voice. "Hahaha... yes, these days, I suppose I am. Yes, even when I was still with the Federation..."

        But in the Gustav weaves, and it will find that through those eight crawling legs the Da Xukong still has two arms -- arms which bring a Cleave Axe up to match those spinning strikes. It faces a hurricane of blades as the Gustav closes in, but that horrible green shield is still with the wanzer; where Da Xukong's reflexes aren't quick enough to match each whirling blade, its Abyssal Veil flares and slows the saber's entry.

        (Being clear: she's showing off. If Michele is right -- and Yuliana has no reason to doubt her intel, for all she can cast doubt on so much else about Michele -- then demonstrating her own capacity is surely the best way to shake this ace pilot.)

        It scores light scars across Da Xukong's chest, where the Abyss Engine coils around its breast and arcs out across its shoulders. A single drop of something black -- please, please don't say it's blood -- slicks out from the deepest cut.

        But just as Yuliana shakes her foes, she is easily shaken.

        "A waste?" Yuliana repeats, angrier, now. "A waste?! The sacrifice of all my humanity to the altar of vain progress?! You! Perhaps I'd believe it, if not--!!"

        She grasps her throttle more tightly, now, as the tentacles to either side of her work the mobility of her suit. With all his experience, John may well be able to tell that her wanzer moves with too much specificity for what must be manual controls; she simply shouldn't have enough hands for the pinpoint motions of her robot. Is someone else in there, with her?

        (Yuliana is never, ever alone.)

        "Perhaps I'd believe it," Yuliana says, grappling something calmer from her anger, "if not for what I gained. Bear witness." She toggles a switch, tunes a dial, and thrusts a stick inward.

        Across the Da Xukong's humanoid shoulders are twin coils, arcing out from each shoulder like the horrific images of wings. They do not light. Rather it is the opposite of light which comes from them, builds in them, before the building power of the Void explodes in his face. Somehow, the darkness is still... so... green.

        Sensors don't report it as beam weaponry. It's not a gravitational attack, and it isn't plasma, like what fired from her tail before.

        It's the worst kind of assault:

        'No data.'

        What it does is separate the two of them again -- giving Yuliana the space she needs to jet through space and land on another of those helium-3 tanks, slapping down one medallion before skittering to the other end to slam down another. In a flash of light, it's gone.

        "Fuck that," Yuliana's voice rips through comms, to find Zoltan. "Are you going to let her talk to you that way?! She doesn't get to call you defective! If the point was to create Char, getting you instead was a rousing success!"

        A beat,

        "By comparison."

        Heaven forbid Yuliana try to say something nice about a Newtype unqualified.

        Yuliana saw the Phenex flashing, though, and she uses the fact that her wanzer's claws are free again to sign a quick: < SHE DESERVES IT >

        Oh, no, Rita. Yuliana approves of your actions. This is terrible.

        (Would it be terrible if Shelby spun out into open space? Yuliana could go help her too, she guesses. Anyway.)

 KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets John Hanna with Abyssal Coil Point-Blank Blast!
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen successfully Evades Ellic Hugo's Improved Bullpup Machine Gun Barrage
 KTS: Ferolio Addir rattles Zoltan Akkanen, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen fails to Evade Ferolio Addir's FT Railgun Impact Shot, taking 3920 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.

        The Dijeh reaches for the base jabber, spun out and away, getting a grip on the rocket sled's support handles and managing to get it to swing back down to a position where she can remount it in a crouch-- keep her footing, reconnecting to the system as the Lion starts moving toward her at high speed. Shelby tightens her jaw; her face scrunching. "That's not--"

        Keep your head on a swivel. Don't let the medallions scare you. Don't let Yuliana see you sweat. Keep Rita in the back of your mind, even as it already swims with stray thoughts and too many voices to count-- even as Denver itself stares at her from the outer periphery of her innate senses. <"Char was an IDIOT--"> her distorted voice says in no small amount of distorted anger.

        The base jabber tilts and leans before the Dijeh stands tall on it's panels, rushing the Lion in turn-- but even as the beam naginata carried in hand starts taking a swing, the flyby Assault Blade tears through the platform and causes it to detonate right under her feet. Shelby lets out a startled cry as the Dijeh backflips into the void, armor shredded from heels to massive rends in the skirt armor; sparks snap aggressively from exposed innards from heels to the mech's backside, scorches pock-marking the armor around the knees.

        Shit. She's good, Shelby thinks to herself in the fractions of time between seconds. She's really good. How did she even-- like...

        Still, she stays close, kicking the legs of the machine out straight and using them to help spin-flip itself over-- and then the hand of the Phenex clamps down on the machine to help steady her out, and give her some support. Looking to the Phenex and seeing only the face of a long-lost friend, Shelby catches her breath. Rita's presence-- and even that of the psychoframe-- seems to calm her down a bit, slowing down racing thoughts and a blur of minds and memories.

        Sorry... Yeah-- I will. I'm -- I'm okay. I've got this. Just be careful, all right?

        "And as for you," she murmurs to herself, seeking to pull away from the golden machine, slinging the bazooka over it's shoulder to a hardpoint... and devoting both hands to the naginata.

        Twisting as she thrusts forward, jetting low relative to the Lion and shifting grip on the weapon, Shelby swings horizontally, seeking to cut the machine right across both of it's legs with a swift strike!

 KTS: Shelby Korts targets Kelva Zilorn with Dijeh Beam Naginata Slash!
 KTS: Shelby Korts has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Michele Luio has posed.

Michele puts her notes on Ray to the side, and grabs the rest of the pilots. She sends out their information separately.

"Zoltan. Addir's barely piloted a day in his life. You'll probably run circles around him, but don't get too cocky - inexperience doesn't mean uselesnesss. He's smart enough to get you when your guard is down. You already know about Hugo so I'll spare you the details, just be careful. Or don't. I'm not your mother."

A switch to Shelby, aftewards.

"Dijeh. Kelva's already given her life story, but as a Zabi fanatic, you can probably just goad her real well. But as an OYW vet, she's gonna be scary. Watch yourself."

Finally, a data stream is hooked into Rita again, blasting environmental intel to manipulate. She coordinates an offensive, allowing Rita to move and use the surroundings to get in there.
 KTS: Michele Luio has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Shelby Korts
 KTS: Michele Luio has activated the Enable Spirit Command targeting Zoltan Akkanen
 KTS: Michele Luio targets Rita Bernal with All-Out!
 KTS: Michele Luio has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: [Lucky] Rita Bernal's Miracle Child activates, and luck goes her way!
 KTS: Rita Bernal successfully Accepts Michele Luio's All-Out
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn fails to parry Shelby Korts's Dijeh Beam Naginata Slash, taking 2900 damage!
 KTS: Shelby Korts has engaged Kelva Zilorn!

<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.

The lazy arc is perfect; Pulling them away from the main force, keeping them busy and practically cackling in glee as Ellic's goaded on.

Ellic's charge is met with a smirk of pure derision and glee. Perfect. Pull people away from the main force. Others are engaging, but the important thing stands: They're not going for the discs, which was the important part of all this. "Who the HELL am I supposed to be, then!? You idiots can't use a damn good thing when you need it, and you kept some blustering blonde at the head because he looked nice and could imitate his voice!"

Not like me, she says. Not a defect. Yuliana's comm chatter blasts through. "What'd you know about making Char!? Stop thinking about Char and pick up some charcoal instead!" A rousing success? Him? Don't make me laugh. The comparison is noted. "No one calls me defective, and that includes you!" It's not appreciated.

Flicking about with cocky ease, attentions redirected to Ferolio. "Corporal Addir!? Corporal!? I've heard a few in my time, but you better actually do something!" Skipping over the fact he got a hit before, right over that. Michele's own trace gets a grunt of approval; THe fact that she switches off means there's room to snap back. He doesn't want a mother at all, anyways. He traces a reticule over that pesky commmander; One, tw-

GODDAMN IT, ANOTHER HIT; A clip across the lower leg, scoring across the thigh of his Sinanju Stein. "You, you...!" His free arm snags the bazooka from his backside, pulling out that bazooka launcher and firing with impunity. One shot, a singular perfect one aimed at where he should be.

A slowdown before blasting away, switching another rocket into the bazooka. There. Perfect. And that payload sent off to Ellic, the bastard hound!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Ellic Hugo with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka Cluster Shot!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Ferolio Addir with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka RPG Round!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Ray Mal Zern has posed.

"I'll try, but I can't parry it when she throws shit!" She appreciates the advice all the same. Doing what they can, instead of letting her just disappear... "I don't want ot talk about birds right now!"

The vision comes... That radiance. "I saw it," Ray says. "But I'm not going to sit back and wait to see what happens! I'm a living person!" It's not that she doesn't see it, after all. But after all this, how can she just trust in some miracle?

"'Possibility!? What does that even mean!?"

She's having trouble keeping that anger in. But she can't leave them alone, because... "I'm a person, and I'm alive! Of course I'll see my mission through!"

She's sorry they were chosen..

"Don't talk like the outcome's predetermined!"

The wing smashes into Ray's unit with great force, but she isn't inclined to ive up this time. She charges her maneuvering thrusters forward, and starts a combination of strikes. "Focus on me while we're fighting, damn you!"
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern targets Rita Bernal with Pinpoint Barrier Melee Combo!
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: [Spirit Defense] Ellic Hugo's Belief activates, and her spirit endures.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen enervates Ellic Hugo, reducing her Morale significantly.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo fails to react to Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka Cluster Shot, taking 5460 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Zoltan Akkanen's You Think I'm Not Good Enough!? activates, causing Deject!
 KTS: John Hanna fails to retreat.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim rattles John Hanna, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: John Hanna fails to react to Yuliana Kafim's Abyssal Coil Point-Blank Blast, taking 4620 damage!
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim repulses John Hanna, forcing him to disengage.
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Foresee Spirit Command.

 KTS: Rita Bernal rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Rita Bernal partially guards Ray Mal Zern's Pinpoint Barrier Melee Combo, taking 3853 damage!
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has engaged Rita Bernal!

<Pose Tracker> Ellic Hugo has posed.

It never occurs to Ellic that she's being goaded away. But, Ellic Hugo killed her feelings a long time ago.

Ellic Hugo is also good at lying to herself.

Her eyes narrow, as she looks at those discs -- and then focuses back on Zoltan. She tells herself that it's because he would stop her from getting there. "That--" She tenses for a moment. "You couldn't have done half of what Full Frontal did!"

She sees the bazooka shots coming in. Her machinegun opens fire; two of the shells are clipped, exploding in the space between them. Another two fly in. One slams into the right leg, exploding in a fiery blast that slams Ellic back in her cockpit. The leg isn't ripped off, but it's reduced to a mangled mess of metal. Armor and frame, burnt and twisted, are indistinguishable.

The other smashes into the side of the armor, exploding against the chest; it doesn't penetrate, but the explosion throws Ellic hard into the gel padding, and she feels the crack of her ribs. "Ngh...!"

She takes a shaky breath. "Addir, breathe," Ellic says, her voice tight. "I've got your data. I'm heading in!"

The one-armed, badly damaged Gustav Karl surges forward. It draws forth its beam saber, and then swings it down with three rapid, hacking slashes at the Sinanju -- two as brief, brutish diagonal slashes, and then an upward, horizontal slash across the Sinanju Stein.

"What do you even want, Zoltan!? Just sewing chaos?" Ellic snaps. "I look at what I can do, what I can CHANGE!"

 KTS: Ellic Hugo has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo targets Zoltan Akkanen with Twin Beam Sabers Combo!
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> John Hanna has posed.

        John saw it on visuals, this weird attack of the arachnid bot was right there being charged up but his sensors told him nothing was there. Still its not like he had only just climbed into the cockpit for the first time. He was an ACE, he knew exactly what to do. First disengage and then ...

         All of John's over thinking led him to getting exactly what he wanted in the worse way. Yuliana's attack forces the Gustav away as it rips away several panels and exposes systems that probably should not be exposed to a vacuum. It is probably a good thing that John decided to wear his pilot suit.

         John curses to himself as he bangs on the console, "Get it together John." The frustration is obvious as he works to right himself before taking a deep breath and shouting at his opponent, <"Listen here you spider freak. I don't care what you think you are doing here today but I know... yeah I know... that you are nothing. If you really were a pilot for the federation and ran off its probably cause you were scared or just some spacenoid lover.">

         As John lashes out irrationally the Gustav moves back to trying to focus on a more ranged approach as the Gustav begins to fire his beam rifle at the Da Xukong almost randomly, never actually taking the time to line up any shot at all.
 KTS: John Hanna targets Yuliana Kafim with Jegan Beam Rifle Rapid Fire!
 KTS: John Hanna has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully avoids John Hanna's Jegan Beam Rifle Rapid Fire

<Pose Tracker> Kelva Zilorn has posed.

Flashing of sword against beam alights the background of the growing chaos, as Kelva's voice escalates at the simple assertion. "Then what exactly am I supposed to believe about you terrorists, acting the way you do so often and following the same star the Red Comet pretended to be?"

        Shelby's naginata sloughs off a sizable chunk of the Lion's shoulder in the process, sending Kelva hurtling backwards against the colony wall, feet automatically magnetizing to the surface and sending her hurtling 'upright' in a dizzying motion - fist slamming down on a volley of missiles to cover herself in a crisis.

        "What exactly are you all still pulling stunts like this for? Is space just doomed to be a conflict zone forever because nobody is willing to stand behind someone with a vision? Do we just hold our fingers in our ears and pretend like it isn't already dangerous as hell out here? Of course, all the shrapnel gets to float off into the abyss, sight unseen. Tragedies stop happening so fast up here. Ughhhh..."

        Clutching her head in pain as the roaring of darkness and hatred alike from outside her cockpit - as well as her own disdain for the state of the world, Kelva's missiles don't hold back, blinded with regret and struggling to assess just what exactly Shelby even represents out here...
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn targets Shelby Korts with Cask Missile Pod Volley!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Mei Mori has posed.

If Mei has any inkling of being a Newtype, she's buried very tightly down into the bottom of her soul that not even Rita can pick through in a single fight. She sees, but does not understand. Or perhaps, more truly, she sees, but is too frightened to try to comprehend.

So the image is accepted, mulled over, thought, and then, with a radiance of science war psychic, disregarded.

"If we're not strong in our thoughts... then why would we be here?" She asks of the Phenex, curiously. "... that's why you're here, right? Your belief in this future... it's so strong that you are here."

"Ray Mal Zern, if you're even half the pilot I am, then I know you can parry what she throws at you!" Comes the scolding tone from her, like Mei just used in protest of Rita's data dump. "You can do this - we all can do this. Move!"
 KTS: Mei Mori has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Ray Mal Zern
 KTS: Mei Mori has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Ray Mal Zern
 KTS: Mei Mori targets Ray Mal Zern with Coordinate!
 KTS: Mei Mori has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Mei Mori coordinates maneuvers, raising Ray Mal Zern's Piloting!

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

Once Shelby is settled, the Phenex gives her a nod (the image of Rita mirroring it, of course). With another flare of radiance, she leaves Shelby to her fight, returning to her own combatant.

Along the way, Yuliana is answered swiftly: < THESE PILOTS ARE EASY. LAUGHING. >

Of course, Rita may be having an easier time of things than her friends, but there's no reason she can't sneak in a little trash-talk with her bestie. It's one of Yuliana's favorite pass-times, after all!

Information courses directly into Rita's spirit, guiding the motions of the Phenex as she charges the Nightmare Plus. With one wing dedicated to protecting Shelby, the other can only partially protect the Phenex from Ray's combination attack. Shimmering golden armor falls once more, heralding a substantial crack down the center of the Phenex's shield.

Everyone has the Light of Possibility within them, the same light my sister used to stop the Colony Laser. If you opened your heart, you could work Miracles of your own, Ray.

Is the outcome predetermined? Of course. Even if this path has been lost to Rita's sight, it's still a path that exists, and thus must have already happened. Though this battle was not foreseen, Rita already considers Ray and Mei, and all the others here, dead. It's the only way forward. It's what must be.

Again, the rainbow light wreathes itself around the Phenex. She seems to hesitate, looking down at the Nightmare Plus. This battle has already lasted too long. They must return to banishing the helium tanks before Jona makes his way to them, or Denver Colony awakens.

You could be strong, if you found the right path to it. That can never be, now. It doesn't matter anymore if you were, or are, or could be. I cannot stop.

Rita's voice echoes with causality. As she says 'stop', the word splinters into Possibility itself, expressing it in several different grammatical tenses.

Will happen, happening, happened.

What difference is there?

Beginning to lose her patience, the Firebird stretches out a hand, again engulfing the Nightmare Plus in mystical fire. It's a gentler attack than she has offered thus far. The majority of that miraculous energy stays around the Phenex, and seems to grow in power every moment.

If you have anyone waiting for you. Now is the time to say goodbye. I cannot wait any longer to finish this task.
 KTS: Rita Bernal targets Ray Mal Zern with Magnetic Midnight!
 KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern fails to rush.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern partially guards Rita Bernal's Magnetic Midnight, taking 1860 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rita Bernal's Destined Meeting activates, causing Sparkle!
 KTS: Shelby Korts retreats from the attack!
 KTS: Shelby Korts fails to evade Kelva Zilorn's Cask Missile Pod Volley, taking 3675 damage!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir successfully intercepts Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka RPG Round

<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.

        With the speed and force of her strike, Shelby follows Kelva to the surface of the colony wall; legs hitching to the surface with a little less strength than it likely should given the circumstances-- but she's able to rebalance herself while Rita's wing sticks close.

        Michele is in her ear: Taunt her, pick at those old scars and use them against her. <"Negative,"> she replies firmly, expression behind the reflective gold visor going stern.

        Missiles. More missiles. All of the missiles.

        While she does have the golden wing to protect the most sensitive areas of the Mobile Suit, Shelby still needs to defend herself a bit. Her weight in the seat tips back; her heels dig in and her arms pull back hard on the control sticks, jumping the machine into the air to try to get herself away from close range-- but still finds herself caught in some of the blast spray, ascending as a chunk of the Dijeh's left leg is torn straight away, nearly down to skeletal chassis.

        Comms tweak back to Kelva, voice distorted all the same.

        <"These tanks cannot remain here. This is-- it's too big to understand. Explain. But there are lives that need to be saved. Things we... I... have to do.">

        The Dijeh descends again to the colony wall, staggering steps as the machine struggles to stay balanced under magnetic clamps and the colony's rotational force-- but she keeps it steady enough.
        is denver staring at us
        <"And we don't have enough time.">

        Lunging at the Lion, the Dijeh again pivots to one side, nearly sliding across the colony surface while using it's more-intact leg as a pivot. She swings low again, looking to cross the machine's legs with a powerful horizontal slash before striking out both with an upswing and a downswing-- doing her best to take the machine's arms and legs off in swift, brutal strikes!

 KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Shelby Korts targets Kelva Zilorn with Dijeh Beam Naginata Combo!
 KTS: Shelby Korts has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn rushes into the attack!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn partially guards Shelby Korts's Dijeh Beam Naginata Combo, taking 2070 damage!
 KTS: Shelby Korts has engaged Kelva Zilorn!

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "Why, you--!!" Yuliana snipes back at Zoltan. "'Pick up some charcoal'?! There's no language in which that metaphor means anything! GET BETTER INSULTS, ZOLTAN!"

        Just in case anyone was under any illusion that Yuliana appreciated Zoltan overmuch, here she is yelling at him now.

        (... even so, there was an opening for her to tell him she's judged him defective, and she doesn't take it.)

        < LAUGHING, > Yuliana agrees, with a rough signed gesture. < STUPID PEOPLE, TOGETHER. > She must not think much of the alliance between the Federation and the Republic of Zeon who represent Rita's main issue, right now.

        The best she can say for Shelby, meanwhile, is that she somehow manages to bite down on her instinctive reaction to tell her to stop agreeing with her. Well, obviously even Shelby hates Char, but why does she have to make it sound like they're on the same side??? ... not that they're on different sides right now. They're working together.

        Well, Rita would be a pain if Yuliana stabbed Shelby in the back, anyway. She'd never hear the end of it, so even if the thoguht does cross her mind, she just notes how the Dijeh is wheeling through space. ... in case Shelby needs help. Yuliana isn't enjoying seeing her struggle with the foreign controls, or anything.

        (At least, no one can prove she is. ... perhaps excepting Michele, who isn't trying to transgress into her mind, but is using statistics and data to see the path forward. Unfortunately for Yuliana, Parminder thinks it's very funny to point out how helpful she isn't being to Shelby. Curse his sudden yet inevitable betrayal.)

        John knows to disengage -- and the fact that he does is a great boon to his survival. "I am nothing?" She responds, sharply, as she darts to another helium-3 tank. "You cannot COMPREHEND the sheer weight of nothing which shrouds me. Your insult is the highest compliment!"

        The Gustav fires randomly -- and Da Xukong skitters with unnatural speed to the other end of the tank, to send it disappearing into the aether. It's quick enough that none of the beam rifle shots hit the tank -- in this sense, he misses completely.

        But Yuliana knows enough to recognise his lack of strategy for the strategy it is. So focused is she on getting the helium-3 tank out of the picture that the random beam rifle shots inevitably land where she's moving; while that green barrier stops the worst of the assault, he still scores holes in the wanzer's armour.

        "Damn it," she hisses, turning back to him. "I just can't lose you, can I? Even though I have something important to do--!!" Her fist impacts on her console, and Da Xukong 0 lilts in space with her jerking movements. "I have no love for Spacenoids in the slightest, you fool! But it's not just Colonists who'll be damned by what's coming to these helium-3 fields! If we don't clear these tanks out, we'll need a miracle to save our Earth, and I'll be damned if I rely on a Newtype's miracle! A miracle that will burn her to bits...!"

        She pushes her thrusters forward, and her stinger fires another wild salvo. "I'm TRYING to do something GOOD, damn you! Just get out of my way! It will work! It will work!!" But if she's so sure of that, why does desperation tear her voice so? Why is she growing more and more erratic, despite her own ability...?

        ... perhaps it has something to do with the empty space where Denver's soul should be.

 KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets John Hanna with Infernal Arachnid Injector Flare Display!
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Ray Mal Zern has posed.

"Possibility, 'could', 'can't'! You don't even talk like a person does!"

The Firebird may outstretch her hand, but that strange fire does not need to 'reach'. Ray tries to rush into it, but can't find a good angle--except that she manages to place herself between the Phenex and the tanks, at least, for the moment. Which opens up her options...

"Leave the living world for the living, monster. You think I haven't read about how many people you've killed? How many lives you've destroyed!?"

Mei has a good question... but she has a better scolding tone, for the moment. She can do this, she says. They can do this, together. SO that's that. "Right, I'm on it!"

She takes a breath--and then, her back to the helium tanks, starts her targeting sequence. With Mei's help, that's a lot of targeting. "A monster like you doesn't belong in our world!!"

Missile after missile suddenly courses off of the Nightmare's body and limbs, firing over and over and over again in a rush of propellant until the cloud of projectiles might well blot out the Phenex's light entirely, if only for a moment.

 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern targets Rita Bernal with Micro-Missile Array Itano Circus!
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern has completed their actions for the round.

<Pose Tracker> Kelva Zilorn has posed.

<"Too big to - don't give me that!"> Kelva coughs, disengaging the magnetism to 'hop' above Shelby's low sweep, before stabilizing them again with an electrical crackle to plant herself in place, her blade meeting Shelby's with more anchoring this time around, pressuring backwards, relentlessly keeping up the charge.

        <"Everyone committing two-bit crimes gives me that one! I bet they told you to say this one, huh? Helping out two well known terrorists who gave you a line to say for anyone who starts asking you questions?">

        -Kycilia wouldn't have stood for this. Everything has an explanation. Everything has a place. If you work hard enough, you can seize the truth, and act on it with your own hands, rather than relying on the lies others feed to you. She was the only one who saw that, who realized that ideals were just wrapping paper disguising the poison that upends stability.

        The railgun levels, right at the Dijeh's face. <"You get this warning shot. Tough luck doing much when you're blinded. Then you turn yourself in, explain what's happening here, or else I dispatch you and move on to the others."> Kelva's hand is steady, certain, locked at the Dijeh's head. Only for the strange aura emanating from the colony beneath her feet to throw her off. That's Shelby's opening if she can take it - Kelva's aim is just a little off, firing too soon as her head starts to pulse in pain.

        "T...the hell is this place...?" she gasps...
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim rattles John Hanna, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: John Hanna fails to evade Yuliana Kafim's Infernal Arachnid Injector Flare Display, taking 2340 damage!
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim repulses John Hanna, forcing him to disengage.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn has activated the Assail Spirit Command.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn targets Shelby Korts with Burst Railgun Sniper Shot!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Rita Bernal retreats from the attack!
 KTS: [Lucky] Rita Bernal's Miracle Child activates, and luck goes her way!
 KTS: Rita Bernal successfully evades Ray Mal Zern's Micro-Missile Array Itano Circus
 KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
 KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
 KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn enervates Shelby Korts, reducing her Morale significantly.
 KTS: Shelby Korts blocks Kelva Zilorn's Burst Railgun Sniper Shot, taking 5390 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kelva Zilorn's You Don't Have To Be Brave Anymore activates, causing Deject!
 KTS: Shelby Korts has been defeated!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

You don't even talk like a person!

It makes sense, doesn't it?

The Phenex circles around the Nightmare Plus once more.

I'm not a person. I'm dead.

A vision of the inside of the Phenex is projected to Ray and Mei -- displaying an entirely empty, dark cockpit.

How many people has the Phenex killed? How many lives has Rita ruined?

It's been a long time since she stopped counting.

I gave you a chance. Goodbye.

Anger, hot and pure, radiates from the Gundam once more. Ray's rush of missiles seem to be driven off-course, bursting around the Phenex in a spectacular display of light. Is this the Possibility Rita spoke of?

Another kind of light, brilliant with the promise of more, reaches its apex. The Phenex makes a sharp gesture with her right hand, and every bit of gathered fire races forward. It leaves an aurora-like trail behind as it goes, blazing against the emptiness of space itself.

This life isn't all there is.

Shimmering, kaleidoscopic flame wraps itself around the Phenex's enemies. Special attention is paid to the Nightmare Plus and the machine that is attacking Shelby. This battle must end. They've wasted too much time.

<Pose Tracker> Mei Mori has posed.

"I mean... we can, can't we?" Mei asks, in a sense of irony.

(She was a drama kid in her high school.)

"I've got everything I can, but it's ..." A pause. "I don't want to give into the crap she's dropping on us, but it really is like the world is warping for her, what the hell was that dodge?" Mei Mori is legally not allowed to say fuck, as the saying goes, but here she is.

A cough, soft, discreet. "... But what can we do?" She asks, "Only what we are."

<Pose Tracker> John Hanna has posed.

        The Gustav continues to strafe and fire, totally without any strategy or plan, as it tries to evade the stinger missiles and runs into a good chunk of them. "Stop moving yourself into the path of the damn missiles, you stupid machine." There is more frustration and anger as he blames it all on the machine.

         < " I never lose, which means you will never lose... me that is. You know what I mean. Damn it!> John is slowly losing it as the Gustav is slowly torn apart piece by piece. Still its not like John doesn't have any last ditch tricks up his sleeve. Nope, because John would absolutely not be as great as he was if he ran out of tricks so easily. <"Look you crazy psycho I've been nice till now. Hell had you begged I may of let you live your life in a cell. Now though, you are absolutely going to die.">

         The Gustav begins to fire barrage of missiles, intending to drive the Da Xukong into a corner where it will open fire with the beam rifle. No one ever survives this technique.
 KTS: John Hanna targets Yuliana Kafim with Jegan Beam Rifle Trick Shot!
 KTS: John Hanna has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Rita Bernal targets Ray Mal Zern and Kelva Zilorn with This Life Isn't All There Is.
 KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Mei Mori targets Ray Mal Zern with Caution!
 KTS: Mei Mori has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Mei Mori suggests caution, raising Ray Mal Zern's Intuition!
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage.
 KTS: Ray Mal Zern fails to evade Rita Bernal's This Life Isn't All There Is, taking 5500 damage!
 KTS: Rita Bernal roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
 KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to John Hanna's Jegan Beam Rifle Trick Shot, taking 3900 damage!
 KTS: Kelva Zilorn partially guards Rita Bernal's This Life Isn't All There Is, taking 4550 damage!
 KTS: Rita Bernal roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.

<Pose Tracker> Ferolio Addir has posed.

        It's a straight line between Ferolio and his destination. Ferolio is a sub-par pilot, his ability to dodge and juke is rather unremarkable--the most he's used to dodging is beer cans. Kei...
                "D-d-damn it! I'm not suited for all this! Why'd they have to go and di-die, and leave me to the field! It's, it's not fair! Kei! Oredan! Charlie!"

         The Lion's sensor suite isn't anything top-of-the-line, and Zoltan's rocket doesn't have a hard time tracking Addir's movements--maybe that's a blessing, because Ferolio knows where he's going, too, and he pulls out the machinecannon, clearing his way from the well-aimed rocket.
                Zoltan's provocations, however, hit their mark. <"Do so-something? I never wanted to do anything! I n-never wanted any of this! I'm the, the, the only one left and the war didn't even matter! It didn't even matter, I can't DO anything even if I want to!"> Thanks to Zoltan's deliberate positioning, the stray shots zip off into the distance, instead of lancing into the field of tanks. The Lion charges after the Gustav Karl as it's pummeled.
                  <"No, Hugo! I'm coming! I don't want anyone else to die!">


        Wisps of ethereal fire begin to swim and waver in the Lion's wake, swelling as they close the distance.

 KTS: [Mirage] Zoltan Akkanen's External Propellant Tank activates, and he slips into a mirage.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen parries Ellic Hugo's Twin Beam Sabers Combo, taking 0 damage!
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has engaged Zoltan Akkanen!
 KTS: Ellic Hugo completes the Formation attack!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Ellic Hugo
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Ellic Hugo
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Ellic Hugo
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Ellic Hugo
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has activated the Foresee Spirit Command targeting Ellic Hugo

<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.

        The Dijeh is caught dead to rights -- and Shelby tries to react. The large shield mounted to the right shoulder is turned toward Kelva's weapon, and wrenches the shield right off it's mounting to try to hold it up in front of the Mobile Suit's face. It's too close. Rita's wing can't get there--

        The shot punches through the shield like it isn't even there.

        The Dijeh's face catches the blow on the left side, but the impact and blast is enough to core a hole through most of the center. It comes apart with an explosive pop, and plunges Shelby's cockpit into the faux-darkness of screens turned on, but with no signal. Not even the error messages flicker to life at the corners of the cockpit's panels-- the Dijeh hits the wall of Denver with a crash, sliding across the skin of the colony wall in a cacophany of metals screaming.

        The airbag deploys to catch Shelby as the impact throws her back and forth, fingers going tighter around the sticks. Main cameras are out. Backups are blown. Her head is spinning as the airbag deflates and retracts into the console.

        She doesn't see what Rita does next, but... she can feel the Phenex all the same.


 KTS: Ferolio Addir targets Ellic Hugo with Dream!
 KTS: Ferolio Addir has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Alert Spirit Command.

<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.

There's a happy cackle at the sight of Ellic being smashed in two; Oh, how nice it felt to get a form of revenge on someone, as low on the totem pole she was! Oh, how utterly delightful! This would be the part where the orchestra would start to soar, to sing...! ...Like a bird? Che, she's rubbing off on me.

"THEN GET A BETTER BRAIN, YULIANA!" He's not one for wordplay. There were other things in mind.

"You're changing NOTHING, Ellic! Look at yourself! You can't even accept that your dream is damn well over, you can't accept that here is the end, you can't accept ANYTHING! Only to fight and be the same damn idiot that humanity is! Pushing forth and being a total bumbling idiot even after multiple near-death experiences, and still thinking they're WORTHY!" That flash of anger only serves to heighten his reflexes; The rifle used to smack those diagonal swipes away on each end, before sacrificing the bazooka. A feint, the explosive components of the final bazooka round serving as a flashbang for Ellic.

There's a cackle as he notes the other unit running away. Addir, huh. Nice name. You get that much. The rifle is raised up, a moment of stillness before pulling the trigger. One final grenade shot; Not even the 'accolade' of being a target of his wrath.

And as the makeshift flashbang fades...... "You were always the same! Sucking up to others, regarding me as some thing. What sort of hell have you been through, huh!? Look at where you are, look at where you'll never be!" His hand already grasping a beam saber, swinging it around in a controlled motion. "Now shut up and BE QUIET!"

One swipe downwards. One swipe upwards. And a final jab to the cockpit, straight and true.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Ellic Hugo with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Beam Saber Twin Swipe!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Ferolio Addir with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Underslung Grenade Launcher!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has completed their actions for the round.
 KTS: Ferolio Addir shares a dream with Ellic Hugo, increasing her SP!
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
 KTS: [Spirit Defense] Ellic Hugo's Belief activates, and her spirit endures.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen enervates Ellic Hugo, reducing her Morale significantly.
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen rattles Ellic Hugo, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
 KTS: Ellic Hugo fails to react to Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Beam Saber Twin Swipe, taking 4810 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Zoltan Akkanen's You Think I'm Not Good Enough!? activates, causing Deject!
 KTS: Ellic Hugo has been defeated!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has engaged Ellic Hugo!
 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen begins a Formation attack!

<Pose Tracker> Ellic Hugo has posed.

Ellic's Gustav Karl soars forward, even as Ferolio cries out. Ellic leans forward as she hears him call out. "Addir! I won't be stopped! Not now!"

She shoots ahead of Denver Colony, a streak of grey and blue against the colony cylinder and the helium-3 canisters all around, with her beam saber drawn. The Lion surges after her, and Ellic sees the data across her screen.

And her beam saber slams into Zoltan's. Lightning crackles between the -- and then the Sinanju's lashes out. The right arm is slashed off; a slsh across the chest causes parts of the panoramic cockpit display to explodes, fragments of glass raining against her helmet.

She sees warnings flashing across the damaged screen -- and Ferolio's cry echoes. She makes the Gustav Karl shoot to the side.

"You're... you're just something we created," Ellic spits at him. "THAT'S ALL YOU CYBER-NEWTYPES ARE!"

Something awakens at those words. Something, now, is looking at Ellic with anger and hatred. Something, now, is looking at Zoltan with a sense of camaraderie. A sense of brotherhood.

In the distance, the closed-type colony is rotating, slowly. Its lights are on, no longer the flickering and uneven mess that they once were. Denver Colony has been largely forgotten by the Federation, in the wake of several near-brushes with the apocalypse.

Almost a year ago, its experimental nuclear fusion reactors -- offline since Anaheim Electronics abandoned it in UC 0092 -- came back online, and caused a significant disturbance, which interfered with communications. In the wake of investigating that, the Federation, Sleeves, and Celestial Being found that it had been an Anaheim black site. It developed Cyber-Newtypes; it also developed Psychoframe technology. When its life support failed, it was abandoned.

So were the people inside, who couldn't get out.

The reactor was stabilized by a miracle, created by the Phenex and the Gaia Gear Alpha's Psychoframe. That helped quiet the ghosts of those still inside. But, in the aftermath of the wars here, the Federation presence dwindled. It was largely forgotten as the war moved on.

That made it a remote and secured site. Perfect for the helium-3 cylinders, one would think.

Except, of course, that someone -- no, several someones -- are inside Denver Colony. That awareness spreads, now, Those with the abilities of a Newtype or other heightened awareness can feel them: an awakening, a slow dawning of something paying attention to all of them. It feels like eyes, looking at them; it feels like an immense pressure, from all inside the colony.

It stops mattering whether one is a Newtype or not. Anyone can feel those eyes.

The attention shifts. It is angry; vengeful, perhaps, on those who came here to kill. Rita, Yuliana, Zoltan, and Shelby are noticed -- but the attention is then on the Federation and Republic strike force. There is a sudden pressure. A sudden repeating, in their minds, of the voices of the Sleeves who died.

'And you survive, you rat goddamn bastard?!'
'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't--'
'Please! I followed you! I believed in you!'
'This can't be how it ends...'
'No, no, I don't want to die--'

The eyes are on them. They do not speak, nor do they address them. But they can be felt, and Ellic Hugo has the only time she feels a presence without seeing it. Her eyes widen.

Her Gustav Karl jukes to the side, and Zoltan's beam saber thrusts through the shoulder. Electricity shoots out of it.

"What's... what's happening?" she asks. "Is that..." She sees a glimmer. Inside of their cockpits, motes of pale, sickly green light rise up around her. "...Psychoframe?"

She hears a click. She feels a click, echoing through her helmet -- and then sees the screws that held the faceplate of her normal suit's helmet float away. The faceplate, then, also starts to float away. Ellic's eyes widen, as she hears a voice echo in her mind. No, several voices, all laid atop over each other.

We hate you.

More warnings flsh across her panoramic cockpit display, though they're cut apart in places by the wicked gashes and crumpled sections from the damage Zoltan inflicted upon her. She reaches her hand out, as another line appears: the outline of her cockpit hatch, as it begins to open to hard vacuum. The motes of Psychoframe light dance around her.

Her gloved fingers hit the handle of the hatch and brush off the steel. It opens and the tears in her eyes begin to boil. Ellic screams, but the vastness of space swallows the sound.

Her eyes catch onto the Sinanju Stein; onto Zoltan's. But they're soon unseeing.

<Pose Tracker> Ray Mal Zern has posed.

"That's right. You're dead. And you should've stayed dead."

There's not really any more they can do; that rush of missiles goes completely off-target... and she speaks of 'giving them a chance'. There is much more light. And Mei questions. They can...

"Just what we are," Ray agrees with Mori. "...And I may be dead, but I'm going to go out as a person, doing what I thought was right."

The flames press in. Blazing against the emptiness of space, the Nightmare Plus has its arms and legs battered, its missile tubes impacted, its cannons nearly destroyed.

But it's still intact. ...Only for a moment, though. Only for a moment, before those voices come, and Ray is well aware of them.

"Damn you!" she calls. "All you dead things! We were going to LISTEN to your history! We were going to make sure it DIDN'T HAPPEN AGAIN--"

The ruined Nightmare Plus only needs a little push to start breaking up, for the remaining fuel to encounter its explosives.

It is said that all men die alone, but it is not true for Ray Mal Zern. In the ensuing explosion, however...

She is one of the very ghosts she cursed with her last words. The Nightmare Plus bursts into a fireball, and her voice rings out no longer.

 KTS: Zoltan Akkanen enervates Ferolio Addir, reducing its Morale significantly.
 KTS: Ferolio Addir partially guards Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Underslung Grenade Launcher, taking 4800 damage!
 KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Zoltan Akkanen's You Think I'm Not Good Enough!? activates, causing Deject!

<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.

Sacred flame is exhausted, and the Phenex returns from the ecstasy of her union with the resonant plane. The joy that usually accompanies her back to her in-between place extinguishes almost immediately as Rita feels a Presence.

A Presence that should be many, but is instead one.

Ice-cold fear replaces the incandescent rage of the Firebird.

< Y U L I >

The Phenex folds her wings in, heedless of the exploding Nightmare behind her, and races as close as she can come to Da Xukong 0.

Perhaps her head turns, ever so slightly, to look back. Did Ray mean it? Were they really going to protect--

No. It doesn't matter now.

The Phenex's hands hands fly, signing quickly enough that her words blur together, but Yuliana is a professional. She can understand this.

< GET EVERYONE AWAY S H E L B Y NEEDS HELP AWAYAWAYAWAY RUN >

This spirit that should be spirits should not have awoken. Not now. Not ever. The deaths of the combined Federation and Neo Zeon task force means little, now. Rita can hear the voices of Denver Colony as brilliant across her vision as a lit flare. Their hate is dangerous. At any moment, it could turn on Rita's friends.

Relying on Yuliana to understand and take action, Rita soars between the battlefield and Denver Colony, stretching her arms out protectively.

You must return to sleep. There is nothing for you here but suffering. Sleep, dream of the life to come, where there will be no misunderstandings.

The Phenex tries to make her voice soothing, her awareness partially turned to watch her friends' escape. Will it be enough..?

Perhaps for now. But they have failed. There are still far too many helium tanks in the field. With Jona on the way, and Denver Colony awoken, Rita can do nothing but flee.

<Pose Tracker> Mei Mori has posed.

"Oh..." Is the first signal that Mei is aware something is wrong. Then a second, softer, 'oh'. "... We're being watched." She says, simply, right as that awareness of the ghosts really sinks in, for Newtypes and Naturals alike. Some of the stuff Rita said. what she's shown, flickers back into her brain again, and Mei gets it.

"... you've been warning us this whole time, haven't you?" She asks of no one (Rita) in particular. "... I see now. But that is the way, isn't it? The saying 'too little, too late'... it's well known for a reason." A pause, and Ray, too angry, frustrated, yelling defiance to the end - Mei smiles, as she Gets it.

There is a blossoming awakening of someone that has been hiding it, and the saying rings true, as Mei reaches out in a pyschic, desperate attempt for a hand to hold. Too little, too late; the light flickers, then dies.

<Pose Tracker> Kelva Zilorn has posed.

        The interloper retreats - and Kelva Zelorn finally can breathe, so focused on what's right in front of her that the 'miracles' taking place are out of her field of view.

        One step at a time. When you're a fighter rather than a leader, you pull back when you're exhausted to battle another day. All she can think of is the next day - the next problem to overcome, so that maybe, just maybe, one day she'll be there for someone worth fighting for.

        One breath in-

        And the world goes up in flame around her. A flame not of air and volatiles, but of memory and disdain. The hull surrounding Kelva starts to crack, to buckle, to shear away bit by bit, like a stone being devoured by a sandstorm. Whirling left and right, wracked with fear, she gasps, "T...that golden Gundam...that strange thing that they've spent so much time trying to hunt...why?! Why must you always be there at the center of disasters?!"

        Yes - that's what Rita is to the many, isn't she? A being that's always there for calamity - and thus must be the cause of it, surely...

        Kelva reaches out with her manipulators, but to no avail - the searing flames have already torn her limbs free. So she reaches out with her bare hand, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. Why? Why did she have to conceal that these forces whirl through her so freely?

        ---the moment that the Federation and Zeon alike worked so hard about the idea of the 'Newtype' was when she had to lie to herself, to keep herself safe. Every last one of them, crammed into horrible weapons and shipped off to their doom. She wasn't someone's destiny. She wasn't someone's hope. She had to keep moving until someone needed her.

        And now, the purest voice in the cosmos is roaring in hatred and disdain, coursing through Kelva's senses, the anger that echoed all the while in Denver. Pulling at her normal suit - sliding open her helmet, the briefest moment of being able to see the stars with her naked eye soon taken from her through blinding, evaporating tears.

        Hands quaking while the vacuum steals her last breath, all she wants to do is call one name - but her lips move aimlessly, sound stolen from her as well, the stars claiming her candle flame of agony.

        ) ) ) . . . of course. Decrying everyone else for fighting for a lost cause... but I never stopped for the most lost cause of all. You, who history will never bother vindicating. ( ( (

        ...It's protocol to hold tight and still when ejected into space, to maximize slim chances of survival as much as possible-

        -but the fight leaves Kelva's spirit long before she withers into a dessicated husk.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "MY BRAIN IS FINE, IDIOT!" Yuliana's been better at wordplay, but right now, Zoltan's not even the most flagrant offense in front of her eyes.

        The Gustav, too.

        "You're not putting me back there," Yuliana yells, as she darts away from John's missiles. "I WON'T GO BACK THERE!" Diameters, nine feet. Sixty-four square feet. Weight at her ankle. Rifle trained on her head --

        Perhaps she is a little unstable. She forgets to even specify she's talking about that cell.

        And it's in that action-reaction that the beam rifle catches her, a berserker with no intuition to warn her of dangers to come. That green shield arrests the momentum of the beam -- and it's what stops the shot from scoring straight through her cockpit. Surely he meant to kill her; surely he meant to, but she is protected, here, in her sacred generation platform.

        The shot blasts through her machine's shoulder, instead. "Gh-- you're going to push me--?!" Yuliana demands, as she slams a warning light on her console to tell it to shut up.

        She hears Ellic's insults, and her teeth set in a line. Even if Zoltan's -- even if he's one of those --

        -- they're both

        (don't make her finish the sentence.)

        She sees what is happening, and doesn't see so much more; she cannot hear the hungry ghosts, cannot hear them howling. But she sees Ellic's deconstruction at Zoltan's hands, and she knows enough of his carnage to recognise where the work isn't his, at least. "That's... what's going on?!" She demands, whirling about to face Denver. "What comes hence! You?! Emptied, emptier! Tear through, the eyes--!!"

        She can't hear a thing, but she's still not normal about it. Parminder points it out to Michele; he's the one who advises a swift retreat, from where they've hidden themselves away.

        Which just leaves them.

        Which just leaves Shelby, cracked and broken in the maw of the beast. "Ought I damn you to the embrace you desire?!" Yuliana cries, slamming her fist against her console, again. No, she can't --

        There, there she is. Yuliana can see her, even if she can't hear her -- can see Rita's words, carried through the bulk of her Gundam's hands.

        < GO >, her wanzer's demand, sharply. And one finger points to her shot-through chest, before something Shelby might recognise as the horns gestures outwards. It means: < I GO >

        "No!" Yuliana snarls, as she forces her thrusters forward, and the crest atop Da Xukong 0's head clicks up, and up, and up. With it -- with the way her fins raise under her helmet, carried through to her machine through sensor clips and wires -- her empty existence spreads out, just the same. The nothingness about her spills out past her grasp, but it's Shelby who will find herself closest to it, as Da Xukong stabs its stinger into a non-critical part of her chassis and drags her with it. "ZOLTAN! With me! The dead hunger! Do you think them yours?!"

        She'll be trying to fly in to meet up with him -- dragging Shelby all the while, as she makes a swift exit. She can't do much if he runs from her, of course, but as unpleasant as it is beside her...

        ... she's never been someone the dead can touch.

        And as the others are ejected into space, hands reaching out and curses uttered, her wretched abyss may well be the safest place here.

<Pose Tracker> John Hanna has posed.

        As John moves in to go for what he has been convinced was the killing move ever since he saw the damn arachnid bot, his anger and rage continuing to build that this stupid robot was not doing what he want and just dying. How dare this pilot just decide not to die. Of course in all his rage and anger he can't see what is going on around, as the cockpit seems to pulsate in rhythm with John's rage.

         As the Gustav raises it's beam cannon and finally John takes a moment to breath and take aim with the beam rifle. The Gustav pulls the trigger.

CLICK

 BOOM

        John's Gustav explodes as apparently there was an energy buildup that caused the beam cannon to backfire and cause an energy feedback through the entire Gustav. As the cockpit begins to erupt into flames John blinks for a moment as he finds a moment of clarity through the emotions, "But... but ... I am the best." The cockpit explodes around him as he becomes the space ash that he had threatened to turn Yuliana into.

 KTS: John Hanna's FD-03 Gustav Karl has been disabled.

<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.

There's the glee in his voice as those strikes hit home. The clash. The push. The elation of establishing something in his existence that wasn't just some damn premonition. That's all he was? Just some Cyber-Newtype? Like hell he is. Just. What a word. What a damnable word. His mouth opens, attempting to retaliate back. Yuli's insult is appreciated in the tender care of someone who doesn't care.

And then it all goes to hell.

He could feel it before it manifested. To jerk his head towards Denver Colony, to click his tongue as the wave of the damned came. Sights. Sounds. Sensations that prickled the skin and forced his breath out, refocusing on the woman he so scored.

To watch as those screws popped. As the unit visibly opened...

And for Zoltan to witness the carnage of a body subjected to a vacuum. The sight of a cold, dead body was nothing new. The view of someone dying in front of him wasn't. One could call his upbringing a tempering to the gruesome nature.

A childhood filled with pain tempered the sights of anguish.

He stared at the body for a few moments, barely cognisant of the chaos around him. Raising that beam saber...and swinging downwards to incinerate the body into ash.

"Hopefully your next life is better than this hellhole."

Back to business. "OF COURSE NOT, YOU DAMN IDIOT!" Turning on his heel and kicking that once-piloted unit, the thrusters immediately engaging as he springboarded off of it. Gunning for that sphere of damnable silence, to plunge himself inside the dome. Faster. Faster. How long until he gets another taste of spiritual hellfire? Once was enough.

<Pose Tracker> Ferolio Addir has posed.

        Ferolio Addir's Lion burns hard, angling towards Denver Colony while planning covering fire for Ellic Hugo's Gustav, when Zoltan levels the rifle at him, and that explosive package buds from the Sinanju's High Beam Rifle.

        ("I don't want to see someone die again... Is all of this a waste?")

        The thought comes strong, before fears and plans alike are overwhelmed by a single, crystalized feeling:

                ("If only we could have understood each other!")

        Then... Then the world...slows down. The grenade stops moving. The frantic readouts on the Lion's screen spill out slower than Ferolio can read them. There's a moment of calm, like waking up in a quiet morning, when everything is peaceful, because the world's agonies hadn't yet set in.

        Even his breathing, still panicked and rapid in real time, seemed to pause, and for that instant, the universe whispered promises of Possibility.

                Ferolio opened his heart to it.

                        And now he was no longer alone.

                                T h e y   w e r e   h e r e   t o o .

        It was not the quiet morning of peace. It was the silent sunrise of a massacre. The surging mass of souls pressed against the edges of Ferolio's consciousness, seamless where it should have been separated, a dozen minds like fingers, fused into a writhing psychic mass. Those fingers, those souls whose names--and the numbers that replaced them--had been long lost, scraped and dragged at his sense of self. His extended awareness, newly born, demanded his full attention, and the lingering, languid moment in time returned to motion.

        Zoltan's grenade struck the Lion at its flank, flame and metal flowering for an instant, shrapnel piercing through the cockpit block. Sparks and smoke jumped from the console, and the vacuum of space exerted its pull even faster than they could gutter themselves.

        Ferolio scrambled to unbuckle himself and grab the patch kit, pulling hard on the throttle to set a course for Anywhere But Here, Fast, and it was with dumbstruck awe that he felt the stick simply... disassemble in his hand, the screws and pins zipping towards deep space before he could even raise the polymer spray.

                                O u r S   n O W      n e W   t h O u G h t s      N O t   f o r   L o N G      c O m e   s h a r e   o u R   P A I N

                ("No, nonono, I don't want to be here with you, I don't want to die here!")

        The raw impulses of the spirit mob clung to him, suffocated his awareness, and stripped away at his memories. He saw them, reaching for his normal suit, demanding it give up on the body inside and release the soul to join them. The cockpit opened itself, and his helmet loosened, and somewhere in his instincts, a flash of inspiration--the polymer patching spray in his hand. He turned it on himself, obscuring his vision but keeping oxygen in his lungs for one, two, ten more long seconds, now physically blinded to the matter around him, still psychically blinded but for the smallest of glimmers--something nascent, hopeful, yearning, one hand reaching out, beyond the thousand hands of Denver.

                ("I don't want to die, but i don't want to die a coward!")
                ("...I'll die a Lion.")

        He had nothing left but to leap into the vacuum of space, his spirit thrashing against the engulfing grasp of Denver just to grab onto that extended hand.

        He even almost reached it, almost grazed that outstretched heart with his own, but fire claimed its due, and all he grasped was emptiness, and all he could sense was the rat king of souls, Denver Colony.

        The physics of vacuum found the gaps in his patch job, and the air in his blinded helmet grew thin. His heart pounded, his chest heaved, body trying in vain to find a source of life.

                ("My friends... At least I can finally... see you aga-")


                         n O   f R e e D o M      O u r s   n O w.

        That was the last thing Ferolio Addir perceived.

        Now, there was only a droplet of anguish and sorrow amidst all the rage.

<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.

        Something's wrong. Something is so wrong. Shelby slams her hands against the console, trying to coax the Dijeh into getting it's comms back online, to allow her to say something -- scream something --

is it looking at you
        or does it see me inside you?
                do not look inside it

        Screaming, again, as the console sputters with dying light.

        "I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOU--"

        Her head feels like it's tearing itself in half. Reality glitches. Her vision muddles, her hands shift on the sides of the console as everything starts to spin. She turns in her seat with abject horror on her face as she hears all

        "Psychoframe...?"
        them
we
        them
        "All you dead things! We were going to LISTEN to your history! We were going to make sure it DIDN'T HAPPEN AGAIN--"
        them
hate
        them
        "... you've been warning us this whole time, haven't you?"
        them
you
        all of them
You, who history will never bother vindicating.

        Shelby's mouth opens wider, eyes wider, everything inside her tensing as her fists ball up against the Dijeh's console, letting out one more loud scream of frustration before her head thunks against the console in the dark-- overwhelmed, frustrated, and exhausted.

        Yuliana will have to gloat later.