Difference between revisions of "2023-08-18: World of Filth"
(Created page with " *'''Log: World of Filth''' *'''Cast:''' Character :: Angelo Sauper, Character :: Banagher Links, Character :: Enba Rezza, Character :: Rena Lancaster, Char...") |
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*'''Where:''' Outside Industrial 7, Side 5 | *'''Where:''' Outside Industrial 7, Side 5 | ||
*'''OOC - IC Date:''' U.C. 0097-08-18 | *'''OOC - IC Date:''' U.C. 0097-08-18 | ||
| − | *'''Summary''': ''A good lesson ends where it begins. At Industrial 7, those who have followed the La+ Program find their final stop... but a young man desperate to raze away this filthy world makes one final gambit to keep them from their destination. ( | + | *'''Summary''': ''A good lesson ends where it begins. At Industrial 7, those who have followed the La+ Program find their final stop... but a young man desperate to raze away this filthy world makes one final gambit to keep them from their destination. (NOTE: ICly takes place just before the events of [[2023-08-18: The Curse First Spoken As A Prayer]], [[2023-08-18: Another Cosmic Glow]], [[2023-08-18: Scorched Earth]] & [[2023-08-18: Over the Rainbow]].)'' |
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Latest revision as of 05:42, 12 August 2023
- Log: World of Filth
- Cast: Angelo Sauper, Banagher Links, Enba Rezza, Rena Lancaster, Leina Ashta, Trevor Teach, Anita Rosetta, Sayla Mass, Marida Cruz, Naoko Suzuki, Suberoa Zinnerman, Liam 7-020, Lucine Azul, Rapid Reaction Squad, Mobile Weapon Team, Ruri Hoshino
- Where: Outside Industrial 7, Side 5
- OOC - IC Date: U.C. 0097-08-18
- Summary: A good lesson ends where it begins. At Industrial 7, those who have followed the La+ Program find their final stop... but a young man desperate to raze away this filthy world makes one final gambit to keep them from their destination. (NOTE: ICly takes place just before the events of 2023-08-18: The Curse First Spoken As A Prayer, 2023-08-18: Another Cosmic Glow, 2023-08-18: Scorched Earth & 2023-08-18: Over the Rainbow.)
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
' The Past
He has grown so used to this bed.
It isn't a good bed. The quality is poor; the sheets are ragged and filthy. But he has grown accustomed to it.
He can't count the amount of times he's laid here, staring at the chipped, water-stained ceiling above him. Every day ends like this. Every day begins like this. And every day he has the same thought.
He hates this. He hates these sheets. He hates this life. He hates this world.
He squeezes his eyes shut, and he quietly he prays. He gives into a single, yearning hope. That someone will come. Someone will come for him. A god, or a devil, it doesn't matter which. Someone will come...
... and help him burn down this filthy world.
*thmp* *thmp*
Purple eyes blink open at the sound of something heavy thudding against the ground. They turn, with detached confusion, towards the door.
The door cracks open. A lifeless hand flops on the floor as a man with long, buoyant blond hair steps through.
Angelo's eyes widen in wary surprise.
"Who... are you?"
The Present '
A good lesson should end where it begins: with the point.
Side 4, where the ostensible colony builder known as Magallanica has remained in all its nondescript simplicity, attached to one end of the battered but standing colony of Industrial 7. When you want to hide something, do it in plain sight. When you want someone to learn before they reach you... send them out into the world without knowing one day they'll return. In that respect, perhaps it could only have been here where the journey for Laplace's Box ends.
Because this is it. The final destination. The last coordinate of the La+ System brings Banagher Links and his allies here, to his former home -- and where all of this began, in so many different ways. And it is just as they are on the cusp of their destination, the distant sight of Industrial 7 within reach--
Warning signs alarm as particle fires from a ship alight the tiniest segments of space, burning past the vessels of the Three Ships Alliance.
Enemy IFFs register swiftly thereafter as distant silhouettes are recognized and identified: the Musaka-class The Charne, flanked by two Endra-class ships. And a whole host of Sleeves mobile suits that are rapidly launching out of them.
They've been followed.
---
The battlefield is a violent, but not insurmountable one; the forces the Sleeves commit to this attack on the assembled forces aligned with Mineva Lao Zabi and Banagher Links are modest, composed of Geara Zulus, Geara Dogas, Jagd Dogas, and a slew of mobile suits refurbished and restored from the First Neo Zeon War. None of them are particularly cutting edge, but they fight adamantly. Desperately.
Violent, but not insurmountable. Yet...
The way they fight. The amount of forces they've deployed. It doesn't quite feel like an all-or-nothing, last stand. What if...
At some point during the battle, someone may well notice: the Sleeves' flagship, the Rewloola, is nowhere to be found on the battlefield.
Full Frontal is nowhere to be seen.
They weren't just followed.
They're being delayed.
Every single Sleeves here, fighting to make sure...
Full Frontal reaches the Box before Banagher Links.
KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has placed a bucket with capacity 3! KTS: Angelo Sauper has placed a bucket with capacity 5! KTS: Leina Ashta has deployed in RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn <Destroy Mode> Awakened. KTS: Lucine Azul has joined Angelo Sauper's bucket! KTS: Trevor Teach has deployed in JR-777 Isadore. KTS: Leina Ashta has joined Angelo Sauper's bucket! KTS: Trevor Teach has joined Angelo Sauper's bucket! KTS: Sayla Mass has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Leina Ashta! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has placed a bucket with capacity 3! KTS: Rena Lancaster has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket! KTS: Anita Rosetta has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket! KTS: Liam 7-020 has deployed in ZGMF-575-F CGUE II-L Liath Macha (Striker Pack). KTS: Lucine Azul has deployed in Dianthus Mk. 3. KTS: Lucine Azul has changed loadout. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has deployed in NS-1 Sukeban. KTS: Liam 7-020 has joined Angelo Sauper's bucket! <Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
There's never enough time.
A month of recovery, a month of watching over Leina, is more than Banagher thought he'd be given, and even so... Standing back aboard the Ra Mari II, feeling the Unicorn's presence, he knows he isn't ready.
"Captain York." The young Key to Possibility says, his shoulders squared, his golden eyes sharp. "The location of LaPlace's Box. It's back home, in Industrial 7 -- inside the Colony Builder, Magallanica."
In another life, he called it the Snail.
"Please support me one last time." Banagher pleads, trusting in Eight's promises, despite the enormity of the task before them.
---
"I know you're sure about this, Leina. I trust you." Keeping his own promise, Banagher doesn't try to keep the woman he loves from boarding the Banshee Norn, even though it tears at his heart. With his helmet under one arm, Banagher leans in to kiss Leina -- quick and sweet. "I'll stay by your side the whole way. This is almost over."
As warning signs illuminate the inside of the Unicorn's cockpit, shortly thereafter, Banagher swears under his breath. Right away, he notices Full Frontal's absence. The Ghost of Char must be close, with how he burns in Banagher's consciousness, but he hasn't taken to the battlefield. Unusual, for the commander of the Sleeves. When has Full Frontal ever missed a chance to show off?
Banagher wants to scream, watching the remnants of the Sleeves fight so desperately. There's no way any of his words will reach these pilots. If they're dedicated enough to go to war with the Three Ships Alliance over the Box, Banagher won't be able to talk them down.
All he can do is wait to launch, watching the Banshee Norn from across the hangar, clinging to his bond with Leina. She comes first. Before any war or Box. The Unicorn, bristling with weaponry, hums around him. It's her heartbeat, the whirr and thrum of engines, synchronizing with Banagher's own.
<"Banagher Links, Full Armor Unicorn Gundam, launching!">
As the Beast of Possibility rockets into space, she glows green, transforming with nothing more than a thought from her pilot. With Full Frontal missing, Angelo must be in charge. If Bangaher can find him, maybe he can end this!
Rage and sorrow echoes from the young pilot at the thought of his encounter with Angelo. Permanence... Banagher's hands tighten on the Unicorn's controls. Today, he'll avenge Permanence's death!
Staying close to the Ra Mari II until the Banshee launches, the sister Beasts fly together. The Unicorn's shields hover at her shoulders, and she wields her Hyper Javelin with both hands. Sleeves machines approach, recognizing the distinct coloration of Banagher's Gundam, and with a snarl, he charges them.
<"STAY AWAY!"> He shouts, spinning his weapon into disarming the first combatant, then shattering the next's cameras. No one will get close to Leina. Not after everything she's been through. As Banagher slashes another machine's arms from its body, the Unicorn's shields fire, taking out another -- careful not to damage the cockpit.
A breath. Stay calm. He can't lose himself, not here -- not with the Unicorn this strong. Banagher grits his teeth, then calls, <"Angelo! Where are you? I know you're here!">
KTS: Banagher Links has deployed in RX-0 Full Armor Unicorn Gundam - Destroy Mode. KTS: Will Barrier activated! (But will not apply until relevant Morale threshold.) KTS: Marida Cruz has deployed in NZ-666 Kshatriya. KTS: Banagher Links has joined Angelo Sauper's bucket! Enba Rezza have disconnected. Enba Rezza have connected. <Pose Tracker> Enba Rezza has posed.
Captain Enba Rezza sits on the bridge in their chair, eyeing the viewscreen ahead as they consider what must be happening here. They remember: Eight told them the location of the Box, gleaned from Banagher, impressed how important this was to her that they can resolve this matter:
So there are many here who Enba won't be letting down.
All the way back, to a former home...
%Particle fire comes, but the Ra Mari II's bridge crew are already at their battle stations. "Charge all particle cannons," Enba directs. "Attack pattern Delta Five Two. Focus on granting our mobile suits cover."
Then, over the radio, "Mobile wings of the Three Ships Alliance. Deploy at will."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena Lancaster promised Banagher and Leina that she would go with them. But, so did the Three Ships Alliance, and she isn't the only one here. The white Gaia Gear Alpha flies through space, in its waverider mode. The machine that could have been piloted by Char Aznable.
But it wasn't. It was left behind, the Sazabi chosen instead.
And now, it's here, to find another legacy that has been abandoned.
The beam rifle on the underside fires -- slashing through a refurbished Gaza-C, its large beam cannon on its arm blown off. Then, the Gaia Gear Alpha shifts -- legs and arms unfolding -- and the head comes free, both eyes blazing green.
"Banagher, Leina," she transmits. "We're with you. Don't worry, okay?"
Rena looks about, then frowns. "Kakapo Squadron," she says, "Keep your eyes open. There's something wrong about this... no sign of the Rewloola. Or Full Frontal."
She makes a face. "I have a bad feeling about this."
KTS: Rena Lancaster has deployed in A000-0001 Gaia Gear Alpha. KTS: Will Barrier activated! (But will not apply until relevant Morale threshold.)
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
There's never enough time, save for those who are beyond it's reckoning.
BGM - Requiem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ZHxpbUk94
She wasn't there at the start of the lesson, so she doesn't feel the feelings that might result of turning back here save through their bond. However, the lesson was never for her. She looks at it, and feels something entirely different. The 'snail' the Colony builder, that defines the finite dimensions of every Spacenoid's world.
Once, that had been so large. Yet after she left, she realized how truly small her world had been. Only for more, and more, and more people to try and make her life smaller. Quantifying and defining it with labels. 'Lady of Neo-Zeon' for instance.
Or Puru One, for another, more recent example.
For her to become smaller, to have finite dimensions herself, on the whims of the people who tried to control the people of space from that blue dot. She could see the hope the Colony Builder represented. She could also see precisely how it got twisted around.
The lesson was never for her, she can suspect why it in place having seen most steps of the journey after, and she resents it. She resents the weight they are placing upon the shoulders of someone she loves, and cares about.
History repeats itself, even in that.
As the IFF signals go off on the ship, she need not dress, she's already suited up for the role she is to play today. She doesn't know precisely how it was going to go, but she knows she was going to need to be here.
You must be there when the rainbow appears
No pressure. There's a weight upon her too. She would have trouble justifying being here without it. The moment she realized she would need to rely upon the people in her life is the same moment that she realized it would have to come to an end before she was ready. A month and change of hypnotherapy? She certainly doesn't feel ready, yet she has to be. Sayla will be with her too, as part of the plan, reassurance that she won't go astray. Still, there's pressure there too. It's not just her life on the line in the Banshee Norn.
A squeeze of a hand, and a kiss far too brief for her liking, "It's going to be okay. I know you're all with me." A smile, "I won't go astray." The tension is still thick, as she goes to the hangar. She can feel it. So much anxiety and fear, some of it directed her way. Still, in most of that she felt worry for her. And in that, comfort.
"More sure than ever." She tells him, on the way.
It wasn't so long ago that she looked upon the Norn and saw it as a feat of scientific necromancy, now seeing it, she marvels at the trust the crew of the Ra Mari put in her by repairing it, after all of that, that Captain Eight gave her. She thinks upon it now as her feelings lingering in the machine... but it isn't her. A curse, now a curse broken. Once upon a time, there was never a question as to whether she'd see her off on something like this without the answer being in the negative. Now? Now, it feels like she would, like she is, even if she isn't there and even that makes her feel lighter.
It isn't her, but she's with me.
The ascent lift takes her up, as it looms closer and closer, and despite herself, the weight, the fear, the anxiety just begins to dissipate.
She wants me to be happy.
Lighter, and lighter. Guilt and regret feel so distant, as if to find release instead. A hand touches a console, and she feels fingertips on her spirit, like a light, uncertain touch on her shoulder.
"I'm back." She tells the broken curse, "Sorry if I kept you waiting..." A smile as she snaps her helmet on, "...but I needed the time to be reminded of something, important."
A glance towards Sayla, and a smile in her red shaded helmet, another at the Unicorn, the Gaia Gear, the Kshatriya, and so many other Mobile Suits here that were here for her.
She'll be there for them right now.
-=-=-
"Leina Ashta and Sayla Mass, in the Banshee Norn, launching!"
Almost immediately upon being catapulted out, she swerves as a Jagd Doga's funnels target her. Feeling the tug, she coaxes down upon it, trying to guide it rather than submit to it. "This'll probably be pretty uncomfortable, your first time, so hang on Mom..." She warns her, again, probably the fifth time ever since she presented her plan to be in here with her.
And then her pilot seat shifts backwards, the screens becoming aglow with the shimmering warning of the NT-D. Injector needles slide in for both herself and her copilot. The Norn shifts, armor plates opening to show off gleaming Psycoframe, it's Armed Armor DE unfurling like petals - the XC like a mane. It's a moment of adjustment, because the feelings become strong again. And then she asks a question.
Who do you belong to?
It is perhaps a more polite way of phrasing a foregone conclusion that many here had heard before- M I N E.
The NT-D transmits the questions as a pulse of psychic energy, and suddenly the funnels freeze as if trying to discover their answer to the selfish question. Then they turn around, firing as it carves the Jagd Doga apart limb by limb, before swirling about to come back in formation around the Norn. "... Don't worry Renalle, I can feel you. All of you. I won't forget that."
The funnels won't last long without having a place to return to. There's something sad about that, but she can't consider it.
Instead she has them fire at three other Sleeves mobile suits, dueling them, even as the Norn's revolving launcher fires out missiles to resolve this as swiftly as possible. And even as Banagher calls out to Angelo, Leina answers.
"We can't get bogged down Banagher! They're trying to hold us here!" She presses, perhaps worried about the consequences of giving Full Frontal that much of a head start.
KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Marida Cruz!
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
It's all come full circle.
The job that officially brought Trevor into the Unicorn's orbit had to do with finding this damned box. The brick which had apparently served as the cornerstone of the fate of all known space was always his target, the thing he was bought and paid to find. It's only right that he's present to finish what he'd started.
Just, not on behalf of the people who first signed his contract.
He works for the Ra Mari and the other ships in the Alliance now, after all.
"You too, huh?" Trevor beams over toward Rena. The JR-777 Isadore rocks gently from side to side as it sails into the battlefield, rounds an asteroid-- and unceremoniously carves clean through the business end of a Big Gun Set as its IFF Jammer hisses off. "Everything about this is screaming at me. They're trying to delay us, but more than that..."
Isadore draws its bolt thrower and fires, neatly coring the modernized Zaku-II's midsection with a hypersonic spike, "I dunno about you, but I can't shake the awful feeling that they're leading us into a trap."
In the corner of his vision-- that is, off to the side of his machine that isn't cloaked in self-imposed blindness by his eyepatch-- he catches sight of the Banshee sailing by. Should she really be flying already...? It took him weeks to properly recover after that whole business, and he just drank a quick sip from the firehose that was Leina Ashta's Brain.
Well, whatever.
If Banagher's fine with her being out here, then clearly she's good to go.
"Damn shame about all this, though. Still doesn't sit right, fighting old friends," Trevor mutters, kicking off and sailing back into the frey as his IFF vanishes again into a hiss of static. "Not like we've got much choice though. Hey Cap'n Zinnerman, any chance you could talk some sense into these morons before they get themselves killed?"
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Banagher had earnestly requested help from Eight and the Three Ships Alliance. Well... he's a good kid, and Anita's seen so much of his journey already. She might as well see it through to the end. She hopes that wherever this leads, it leads to good things.
Anita sits back in the cockpit of the XVF-25I Svipul, currently in Fighter Mode, shutting her eyes for a moment and exhaling. This is the Big Moment. This isn't going to be easy. She hears the launch orders, and her eyes open.
"Right. Anita Rosetta, launching in the Svipul." She announces. The Svipul races out of the Ra Mari II's hangar, flipping through the air as it transforms into GERWALK mode.
"I'm gonna give you some cover fire." She announces to her allies. The Gungnir SC beam cannon emerges over her left shoulder, and her helmet's visor lowers over her eyes as she engages the Visual Link System. She can see through her Valkyrie's eyes to scan over the battlefield - and with that combined with her skills as a sharpshooter, she fires a trio of quick shots into the distance. Three of the enemy mobile suits find themselves incapacitated in short order. But as she does that... Rena makes an observation.
"...Huh? Then... where are they, d'you think?" Anita considers, then frowns. "...Guess we don't have the luxury of worryin' about that just yet. Let's keep an eye out, though."
KTS: Anita Rosetta has deployed in XVF-25I Svipul <GERWALK Mode>. KTS: EN Barrier activated! <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla had been dreading this day. She had known that however soon it was to be was to soon. Sayla had hoped hoped that Leina would have finished her treatments, that she'd be back to full strength.
The ambitions of Full Frontal weren't that kind.
Sayla looked up at the Banshee, repaired from when she'd coaxed Leina out of it's cockpit nearly a month ago. The weapon that those monsters had shoved her daughter in. The thing that Leina felt she had to be here, to make sure she didn't lose anyone she cared about. That she had to perform a miracle with.
She resented these facts- but there was no way in hell she was going to let Leina go alone.
She watches as Banagher and Leina share a kiss, a moment of tenderness before they go into battle again. At least this time they're on the same side. She'd be counting on Banagher to fight alongside her.
Sayla's role, selfish as it was, to make sure Leina was able to stay herself. But as Leina goes closer, Sayla can feel the difference. Not the terror and exhaustion that she felt from Leina. Not the crushing weight of Puru-1. Something all together... lighter.
"Ready?" She asks quietly, as Leina joins her at the ascent lift, even though she already knew the answer.
She falls silent as Leina speaks with the Banshee, and gives her a nod when Leina's glances at her with that smile. Warm and calm. It wouldn't stop her worrying... but she worried a little less.
"Alright," Sayla responds, before the injector slides into her flesh, and the sudden introduction of the drugs gets a gasp, even as Sayla tried to prepare. She grips the side of the seat, as the Banshee begins to move. She has to fight not to throw up, such is the intensity that the Banshee moves at.
But she can hold out until she adjusts. "Do what you need to," she pushes out. "I'll support you and everyone else I can."
She keeps one eye on the Banshee's readouts, while the other scans the space around them, lowering her battered walls. They needed every edge- and she needed to be able to feel any changes in Leina.
And as much as there is worry radiating from Sayla, so too is there faith in her daughter sitting next to her.
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida braces herself in the cockpit of the Kshatriya as the crew of the Garencieres Junior prepares for launch. If they hadn't before, they were definitely going to be committing treason against Neo-Zeon now. If things went badly, then her, the captain, the entire crew...there was no going back.
Her hands tighten around the controls.
There was already no going back.
The Sleeves were a concern for Marida Cruz.
And she was...
"Marida Zinnerman, Kshatriya, launching!"
The four massive wings of the Kshatriya spread, thrusters rocketing her out into space to join with Banagher and the others. There was Angelo Sauper, but no Full Frontal. This was a stall. Surely Full Frontal was already getting ahead of them, and every minute they spent fighting his lapdog was time lost.
"We've got to make this quick..."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko remembers well the incident that saw the alliance with the Sleeves broken. When the gunshots started going off, she locked herself in her quarters and cowered until the fight spilled outside of the Ra Mari II, where she thought she could make a difference. Perhaps she did, she certainly aided others in doing so. But it also didn't go nearly as well as her perfectionistic nature would need it to be in order to consider it a good showing. Spending a few days unconscious following the last encounter with Angelo didn't teach her a lesson so much as it motivated her to do better next time.
Once again, she sorties along with other members of the Kakapo squadron when so prompted. She's more used now to the Sukeban's improved handling in space, following the adjustments she'd made. This time, for sure, she'll perform more on par with how a Miracle Worker should. As is commonly the case when in a group formation, she brings up the rear to start with, casting a wide scanning net for a general overview of the battlefield. She too frowns, when Rena points out a conspicuous absense.
"Strange. Nothing on long-range... either the Rewloola isn't here or they're jamming my signal." The way it was conveyed to her, this battle was going to be a crucial one, and the Sleeves were expected to show up in full force. Where's their capital ship then?
For now, the battle is joined. She judges that Rena and Anita are perfectly capable of handling things for now, so she elects to support her teammates by sending them regular updates on enemy positions. With the Kshatriya joining up with the squads, she expands the data broadcast to include Marida as well. Should there be any significant developments in the battle situation, they'll be the first to know.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Rena Lancaster, Anita Rosetta, and Marida Cruz with Insight L1. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
In times like these, even a minute of peace, however hard-won, is to be cherished. A month almost feels like an unasked-for blessing.
Still - there is, yet, need for these young souls who have been through so much to step into the maelstrom of battle once more - and the responsibility of the older souls to safeguard them as they seize their destinies.
Suberoa Zinnerman has once more taken a place on the bridge of the Ra Mari II, monitoring the status of the Zentradi warship's flight wings as they launch.
"I fear, Mr. Teach," he replies to the self-proclaimed pirate's inquiry, "that those among their number inclined to side with the Princess already made that choice during the confrontation. These forces will be loyal to Lieutenant Sauper and Full Frontal."
It sits ill with him, too - some of these people they're going into battle against he knows, as fellow survivors of the One Year War - but he can no longer lie to himself about who and what he believes in, and who he'd rather follow.
"Banagher," he says now to the Unicorn, as two Geara Zulu with orange stripes (visual IFF for the Garencieres Team's mobile suits) fall in as the RX-0 Gundam's escort, "We're with you. Gilboa, Alec: Cover him."
"You don't need to tell us twice, boss," Alec replies from the portside Zulu, raising his shield and moving just ahead of the Unicorn's flight path to block incoming fire. "Yeah," Gilboa Sant adds, spinning up his custom machine's beam gatling gun, "We've come this far together, right?" He unleashes a torrent of fire towards an incoming Sleeves squad, forcing them to scatter.
Zinnerman nods, moving his attention to the Kshatriya. "Marida," he says, after a pause to process her calling herself 'Zinnerman', "Recommend forming up with Kakapo Squadron. Synchronizing squadron frequencies."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"<Acknowledged, Captain Rezza. This is Liath Macha, deploying.>" With those words, Liam's machine lifts off from the Ra Mari II's flight deck, launching gracefully into the void. The machine's dazzling color scheme--greys, black, white, silver--gleams in distant sunlight as it orients itself. Liam keeps one eye on his IFF, reminding himself that his comrades are here. It's been a rough week, after the fight against Duma, and the horrors he saw on the Barilar ranch, but he's never forgotten the Vists, or what Banagher, Leina, and Mineva are up against. If Banagher and Mineva are good to deploy, so is he.
He just wasn't expecting Leina to join them, much less in the Banshee. "<Leina--!?>" Liam was not clued in on their plan--that much is obvious from the startled little squawk. He didn't know they'd repaired the Banshee. He would've understood, completely, if Leina never wanted to touch it again. But... didn't he do the same thing with the machine that very nearly killed him? He has to trust. Her mother's there with her. "<You've both got this,>" he says, a moment later. "<And we're here for you, too. Right, Lucine?>"
The enemy sweeps in, but not with the force the Sleeves could hypothetically muster. The others are right. This is absolutely a delaying action. "<Punch through,>" Liam transmits. And punch through he does. Liath Macha's beam glaive drops into its hand, and the machine swerves hard right to flank a Geara Doga. Another sharp turn, and it drops the blade to cut the machine's right arm clean off, and its beam rifle with it. It spins again, the beam emitter turning spear-shaped as Liam JAMS it through the head of a second Geara Doga.
Something dark curls up in him, satisfied by what he's done. Liam denies it the kills it desperately needs.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki shares insight with Anita Rosetta, making her next attacks more accurate! KTS: Naoko Suzuki shares insight with Rena Lancaster, making her next attacks more accurate! KTS: Naoko Suzuki shares insight with Marida Cruz, making her next attacks more accurate! KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman targets Marida Cruz, Rena Lancaster, and Naoko Suzuki with Caution. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman suggests caution, raising Rena Lancaster's Intuition! KTS: Marida Cruz has joined Mobile Weapon Team's bucket! KTS: [Lucky] Naoko Suzuki's Miracle Worker activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully accepts Suberoa Zinnerman's Caution KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman suggests caution, raising Marida Cruz's Intuition! <Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine knows little of what Laplace's Box could be. She once theorized that it could be a weapon of such power that it had to be sealed away until someone responsible enough to handle it, or destroy it. However, what would rate as more powerful than a giant gun that could destroy the Earth in one shot? Because that happened. She's seen the perfectly spherically hollowed out landscape of a weapon that could be considered 'weaker'.
Maybe, it's a fault of her imagination that she can't think beyond weapons and suits-- simple objects whose value is determined by how much harm they're capable of.
She wants it to be something more than that, to justify the way this battlefield plays out. The weight of it drags down the part of her that is thrilled by the tactics and precision needed for dog-fighting in four dimensions. Lucine is also aware of the presence of Leina on the field, piloting the... Banshee. Like Trevor, the idea of it makes Lucine pause. She wants to contact Banagher, to see if this was as planned, but decides against it. He knows Leina way better than Lucine does.
Liam voices his support, and Lucine smiles. < ".... Right. We'll supply all of you guys with everything we got." > Her soft voice carries the threat of hidden steel; Laplace's Box has no importance in her mind, but her bonds to her friends are worth everything.
The Dianthus weaves around, bright magenta shining against the black stylings of its chasis. Five glowing unfold from its back, delivering energy to disperse and shake any crowds that get too close. Rushing, retreating, dancing on a knife's edge. Its glaive stabs into a Jadg Doga twice the Dianthus's height, having taking advanatage of it being distracted by another fighter.
She tries not to think of the damage she causes, or the likelihood of death if she stabs the right systems. She can't deny being soft-hearted; it's the only heart she can bring with her in battle.
But, at the same time, she recognizes her opponents as equals, fighting for their all. To give them anything less than her best... would be deadly, for one. An insult, even.
< "Banagher." > Lucine says his name, like she intended to distract him from his emotions. < "Do you want me to scout around? I may be able to slip through and gain intel on where Full Frontal may be." >
She won't get a chance to, but it's not as if Lucine can peer into the certain future.
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
There's something littering the battlefield.
It'd be easy not to notice them: they're so small, easily lost between the drifting detritus of space -- and far from a priority when life-or-death combat demands the lion's share of one's attention. But they're there, just floating into place along the outer perimeters of the battlefield:
Bits, their violet armor casings made to look like the eloquent petals of a rose.
Innocuously drifting on the chaotic fringes of unfolding war.
~*~
"Where is he..."
It's space debris both real and manufactured that conceals the presence of a trio of Sleeves Mobile Suits. Two of them are the Geara Zulus of the Royal Guard.
The third is larger, colored in a distinctive violet.
Away from the battlefield, he watches. Away from the battlefield, he waits. Purple eyes narrowed. Gloved hands clenched tight. Lips drawn to a thin line of concentration. He waits.
Waiting it out is what he's known his entire life. He can be patient. He can take however long he needs to find that perfect opportunity...
"--There!"
... to strike.
Purple eyes widen. Gloved fingers rapidly work through the cockpit controls of that large, violet mobile suit. Lips tug into a sharp, violent smile.
He feels the strain of an dangerously overclocking Psycho-Frame suddenly bearing down at the back of his mind like water raging against a dam as the holographic screen in front of him scrolls out,
< PSYCHO-JAMMERS >
< ACTIVATE >
But he can deal with the pain.
"Hh-- Go, now!"
It, too, is what he's known his entire life.
~*~
Rose-shaped Bits innocuously drift on the chaotic fringes of an unfolding war. And just as realization might settle in, just as priorities might start to shift towards disentangling and reaching that not-so-distant goal waiting at the finish line...
Angelo! Where are you? I know you're here!
They activate.
Thin blue lines like tethers suddenly lash out across the outer field of the battle; that thin blue line attaches one rose-shaped Bit to another, announcing their presence as they form a great, geometric shape in the debris-studded blackness of space. And as they connect...
Anyone who uses Psycommu, or Psycho-Frame, or any form of technology that bolsters quantum brainwaves will feel a sudden and violent
r e j e c t i o n
as all those technologies begin to shutter and fail.
Like something was actively blocking their use.
The trap is sprung.
<"None of you are going any further than this! Filth like you don't have the RIGHT!">
And the architects of it soon make themselves' known as Angelo Sauper's seething voice broadcasts over open communication lines and a large, heavily armored purple Mobile Suit suddenly PUNCHES its way through the battlefield. Thrusters flare with the muted roar of a raging demon as that large machine twists expertly through the bounds of space, PUNCHING past Liam's Liath Macha, Lucine's Dianthus, and Teach's Isadore. But that doesn't mean they're excluded from its pilot's contemptuous violence, oh no.
As it blows past, the tri-tipped claws of the Rozen Zulu detach, wires spooling out under the guidance of its backup Quasi-Psycommu in segmenting threads that see both hands zig-zagging through space directly behind the violet machine. Barrels glow a seething green.
And every propulsion-induced juke through space is accompanied by a burst of green mega particle fire in triplicate, searing across the battlefield as they seek out Liam, Lucine's, and Trevor's machines in precise, relentless strikes...
Before both claws converge towards the black silhouette of a Mobile Suit line that Angelo has come to loathe with all his being.
Space alights with Angelo's fury as the Rozen's INCOMs unleash a cycling strike on the Banshee. But the machine and its pilot has one target in particular it doggedly, obsessively flings itself towards. The mega particle cannons on its shield ignite, a trio of bright, churning green beams curving across the vast expanse of space...
<"I've found you...!!">
... towards the Unicorn.
BGM START: Bios - https://youtu.be/c8I4iu7Qvyg
Within the cockpit of his Rozen Zulu, Angelo Sauper's eyes widen with a fury that amplifies through his machine's Psycho-Frame into the stifling waves of the Psycho-Jammers.
He scarcely notices the little trail of red bleeding out of his right nostril as he bears down on the object of his hatred.
<"BANAGHER!!">
(OOC NOTE: If you have any technology that uses quantum brainwaves, they're currently being actively interfered with by the Rozen Zulu's Psycho-Jammer system! This is mostly a narrative conceit, so have fun playing with it as much as you might like!)
KTS: Angelo Sauper has deployed in YAMS-132 Rozen Zulu. FPT: Lightly Loaded Bonus=4
KTS: Weapon: YAMS-132 INCOM Claws KTS: Weapon: YAMS-132 INCOMs KTS: Weapon: YAMS-132 Mega Beam Shield KTS: Claw Skewer: 5000 Physical,Melee,Penetrating,Crushing KTS: Claw Rake: 4500 Physical,Melee KTS: Claw Shove: 4000 Physical,Melee,Repulse KTS: Danse du Feu: 7200 Beam,Ranged,Finisher,Barrier Breaker,Crushing KTS: INCOM Storm: 6000 Beam,Ranged,MAP,Penetrating KTS: INCOM Cage: 6500 Beam,Ranged,Accurate KTS: INCOM Ambush: 5500 Beam,Ranged,Initiation KTS: INCOM Assault: 4500 Beam,Ranged KTS: Mega Particle Cannon - Burn All Filth: 6900 Beam,Ranged,Finisher,Ship-Killer,Barrier Breaker KTS: Mega Particle Cannon - Scorched Earth: 6000 Beam,Ranged,Barrier Breaker KTS: Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion: 4000 Beam,Ranged,MAP,Rattle KTS: Mega Particle Cannon - Pulsation: 5000 Beam,Ranged,Spread KTS: Jam: 0 Ranged,Passive,Debuff,Jam L1 KTS: Scatter: 0 Ranged,Passive,Buff,Scatter L1,MAP KTS: Pass: 0 Ranged,Passive,All-Range KTS: Angelo_Sauper has deployed as a Boss for 5 opponents. /-----------------------------< SRTMOO +attacks >------------------------------\ | 1: Claw Skewer Pwr: 5000 40 EN | | (Physical, Melee, Penetrating, Crushing) | | 2: Claw Rake Pwr: 4500 25 EN | | (Physical, Melee) | | 3: Claw Shove Pwr: 4000 30 EN | | (Physical, Melee, Repulse) | | 4: Danse du Feu Pwr: 7200 85 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Barrier Breaker, Crushing) | | 5: INCOM Storm Pwr: 6000 50 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Penetrating) | | 6: INCOM Cage Pwr: 6500 49 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Accurate) | | 7: INCOM Ambush Pwr: 5500 38 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Initiation) | | 8: INCOM Assault Pwr: 4500 25 EN | | (Beam, Ranged) | | 9: Mega Particle Cannon - Burn All Filth Pwr: 6900 83 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Ship-Killer, Barrier Breaker) | | 10: Mega Particle Cannon - Scorched Earth Pwr: 6000 48 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Barrier Breaker) | | 11: Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion Pwr: 4000 30 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Rattle) | | 12: Mega Particle Cannon - Pulsation Pwr: 5000 33 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Spread) | | 13: Jam - 10 EN | | (Ranged, Passive, Debuff, Jam L1) | | 14: Scatter - 10 EN | | (Ranged, Passive, Buff, Scatter L1, MAP) | | 15: Pass - 0 EN | | (Ranged, Passive, All-Range) | \---< HP: 61612/61612 EN: 165 (+33/round|0 comm) SP: 50 Morale: 100/150 >----/ I don't understand that. Try this instead: +attack lucine=incom assault with
KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Lucine Azul with INCOM Assault! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Trevor Teach with INCOM Assault! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Liam 7-020 with INCOM Assault! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Leina Ashta with INCOM Ambush! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Banagher Links with Mega Particle Cannon - Pulsation! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 184. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 125. KTS: Angelo Sauper has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Rapid Reaction Squad has posed.
One Geara Zulu, white as innocence and floating in the abyss beside that rosen machine, twitches here and there. Just so -- just a little -- just the evidence of a young man eagerly tapping his fingers against his finely-tuned controls.
Zechst Abe's machine is responsive and reactive, all the better to fit the talent he has forced through himself, all wound like a tightened spring around the desire to prove himself worthy of his mentor's kind attention. He understands the world through this veneer of opportunities -- the opportunity to do better by his superiors, by his community, by his...
(Here, a deliberate lacuna where a mother's face would dwell.)
Do not doubt of course that he is a careful and attentive student; but anyone would be excited, where he's standing, don't you think?
Of course, of course, all they've worked for within grasp.
Of course that is also true.
But more important than that is this, for Zechst's heart. He can tell that Lieutenant Sauper is... nervous? Nervous, perhaps, in the wake of their coming victory. A man like that should never be concerned with anything. For this reason, it's Guardsman Abe's duty to ease his heart by destroying anything which would get between him and --
The Rozen Zulu launches into violence, and with an affirmative bark, "Lieutenant!", the Geara Zulu to his right starts its engines just the same. "The Lieutenant's targets..." Zechst murmurs, to himself, quiet to reverence as he watches that purple mobile suit tear through the crowd.
If they were flesh and blood, the blood might show all too easily, on his own stark machine.
But he's so much STRONGER, in here.
<"Then -- I'M YOUR OPPONENT!"> Another voice rips through the battlefield, as he swoops into the Kshatriya's space to stop its advance, his Beam Tomahawk thrusting through space. He calls out to Bato, though his voice can be heard near and far: <"Guardsman! We've got to keep this traitorous filth off of the Lieutenant, no matter what--!!"> He wheels on the Sukeban, now, and grasps his Lange Bruno, as the gun launches a beam at her smaller machine. <"I KNOW YOU'RE HELPING THEM!"> He screams, to Nova specifically, betraying his close attention to his sensor data despite the battle in front of him.
He'll keep them away from the Lieutenant's battle, whatever it takes.
Since the Lieutenant is fighting with the faith Full Frontal has in him, too.
KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has deployed in AMS-129 Geara Zulu (Guards Type). KTS: Rapid_Reaction_Squad has deployed as a Boss for 2 opponents. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad targets Marida Cruz with Beam Tomahawk Thrust! KTS: Leina Ashta fails to Evade Angelo Sauper's INCOM Ambush, taking 5580 damage! KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad targets Naoko Suzuki with Lange Bruno Standard Output! KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has deployed in AMS-129 Geara Zulu (Guards Type). KTS: Mobile_Weapon_Team has deployed as a Boss for 2 opponents. KTS: Banagher Links's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Banagher Links blocks Angelo Sauper's Mega Particle Cannon - Pulsation, taking 2350 damage! <Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.
In the vaults of heaven, a single eye opens.
Bato Panserinos breathes heavily in his normal suit.
It is the only real sign of stress that has cracked the tan and stolid face of the Royal Guardsman in the last few weeks. He has faced the strain of conflict by moving into himself. Someone has to do it. Someone has to be the one where the buck rests. The one who can resolve the issue.
It might be, should be, Angelo, but Angelo has his own role to play. Bato has many good sides, but he has never had much of a reaction to the phenomena of the Newtype.
The Geara Zulu's reactor had been banked, quiet, quiescent, silent. Lurking in the chaos of war. Bato had heard the cries of his comrades, and he had stayed silent. He had heard their confessions, their wails. He knew he didn't really feel it but he could imagine some of them. What could it have been like? Quick? Slow? Both? What would it be like, to die in a Mobile Suit?
Such thoughts do not come to him often or swiftly, but that's the kind of thing waiting can do to you.
But that was THEN.
This is NOW.
The panoramic cockpit lights up. Bato looks around for just a moment, and somewhere inside he apologizes, a little, to the people who died while he was waiting. But it's brief, because there's a greater plan at work, and even if he has regrets, his faith hasn't faltered.
The enemy is pushing forwards. Are they actually Federation? A deniable asset class? Whatever: they're the enemies of Full Frontal. Bato's eyes inevitably flick to the Unicorn Gundam, and it makes his jaw tighten, but then they turn forwards anew.
Bato breathes again. He can't recognize the 'Sukeban' for what it is, but the Gaia Gear's outlines... his jaw tightens for a moment. The Kshatriya in its rectilinear glory.
Supported by a Variable Fighter-- Zechst is moving. Exhaling, Bato accelerates, moving left to Zechts' right, their exhaust trails momentarily intertwining as Bato rises relative to them and opens fire with hot streaks of superheated magenta - "Don't waste your breath, Ade," Bato finally speaks.
Nevertheless, the Gaia Gear... something about it *rankles* him. "Bringing a relic like this to the battlefield... your flight line's become that depleted??" Bato continues, half to himself, as the same weapon streaks towards the VF. A more civilized weapon, perhaps, for a more civilized time. But either way:
It's the enemy.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Anita Rosetta with Beam Shotrifle Diffuse Mode! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Rena Lancaster with Beam Shotrifle Diffuse Mode! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has completed their actions for the round. Alto Saotome teleports in. POT: Alto Saotome is now set observer.
KTS: Marida Cruz has joined Rapid Reaction Squad's bucket! KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Trevor Teach fails to Evade Angelo Sauper's INCOM Assault, taking 5720 damage! KTS: Marida Cruz has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Naoko Suzuki's Guarded Mind activates, and her spirit endures. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad enervates Naoko Suzuki, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Naoko Suzuki fails to evade Rapid Reaction Squad's Lange Bruno Standard Output, taking 3480 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Disruptor activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Enervator activates, causing Deject! KTS: Marida Cruz's Beam Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad enervates Marida Cruz, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Marida Cruz fails to parry Rapid Reaction Squad's Beam Tomahawk Thrust, taking 2860 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Disruptor activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Enervator activates, causing Deject! KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has engaged Marida Cruz! KTS: [Lucky] Anita Rosetta's Serious Mode activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Anita Rosetta successfully Blocks Mobile Weapon Team's Beam Shotrifle Diffuse Mode KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster successfully evades Mobile Weapon Team's Beam Shotrifle Diffuse Mode KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul fails to evade Angelo Sauper's INCOM Assault, taking 5200 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 blocks Angelo Sauper's INCOM Assault, taking 3639 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
The Kshatriya attempts to deploy a beam saber to intercept the tomahawk, but the attack comes just a bit too fast for her to react, the thrust making contact and pushing her back. Her sensors jam up as she clicks her tongue. The Royal Guard...at one point, Marida might have made a model candidate for the Guard. Now, even the idea brought bile to her throat.
"Better a traitor than a tool!"
The Kshatriya's wings spread to their full span, dropping her payload of funnels to surround her. Several dart forward, attempting to match Zechst's movements and fire at him.
KTS: Marida Cruz targets Rapid Reaction Squad with Funnel Binder Blast! KTS: Marida Cruz has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I read you, Captain Rezza," Rena answers Enba. "Be careful out there. We'll do the same." Then, she glances about the field. "Yeah," Rena says to Anita. "They're not holding anything back otherwise." She glances at Naoko, then she nods. "Nova, if you see anything... let us know, okay?"
She frowns, as Trevor observes they must be heading into a trap. Her eyebrows furrow -- then she nods. "They might," she agrees. "But... even if so... this is where Banagher led us. Miss Zinnerman--" That would be Marida. "--is right. Let's push through, everyone!"
She doesn't quite notice the bits. Rena is observant -- unfairly so, at times -- but she can't quite see unmoving bits in the middle of a fight. Then, though, the thin blue lines of light erupt. The Gaia Gear Alpha jerks near the Svipul.
And then the motes of green light that trail after it...
...stop.
Rena's eyes go wide. "What is--SAUPER!" she shouts,her eyes widening. "Annie! Nova, Miss Zinnerman! My Psychoframe, it's disabled, I don't know what he--"
She feels that sudden impression of aggression from two Geara Zukus. Her head turns -- towards both Bato and Zechst. Rena sucks a breath in: "We've got company!"
Magenta light erupts, hurtling for the Gaia Gear Alpha. It moves, but it moves so slowly, Rena thinks -- no different than other machines she used, before, but there's no Psychoframe to take her thoughts and make them reality. The white Mobile Suit shoots just to the side of the blast of light.
"This unit may be old, but it's no slouch!" Rena calls back to Bato. "You have to stop this! Can't you see? Full Frontal is just going to do the very thing the Federation was!"
The Gaia Gear Alpha draws its beam rifle off its backpack, taking aim for Bato's Geara Zulu. Then, a bolt of golden light flies from the barrel towards his Mobile Suit.
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Mobile Weapon Team with Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Rena Lancaster has completed their actions for the round. Milly Ashford teleports in. POT: Milly Ashford is now set observer.
KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad successfully evades Marida Cruz's Funnel Binder Blast <Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
"Damn, I guess we'll have to do it the hard way, then," Trevor sighs. Deep down, he knows Zinnermann is right. But he just can't shake the guilt.
...He absolutely can't shake 'being dead' though, so he cuts a Geara Doga in half and sails on. "Push through indeed. The faster we break through, the better--"
Something flashes through the void.
"What?" A geometric shape erects itself around the battlefield. Trevor's eyes widen as his controls abruptly seize. "Damnit! Izzy--" Then, again, a sense of utter and absolute rejection. It's like a punch to the gut. A one-two combination that, for a brief and crucial instant, renders the pirate immobile.
And yet so painfully aware of who's responsible, and of the sizzle of evaporating armor as a broadside of mega particle beams rake across the Isadore's armor.
"God-- damnit, Sauper!" Trevor hisses, clouds of vaporized armor swallow the mobile suit up in a makeshift and involuntary smokescreen. "I knew you'd be waiting, you damn lapdog!"
And yet.
He can't do much of anything until he--
Slams a fist into a console.
"Isadore! Wake up! This is no time to be nursing a headache, 'less you want us both to sleep with the space fishes tonight!" Something deep within the machine crackles and pops, coming alive. Its eyes burn bright behind the visor, deep within the fog. It hurls itself out of the plume of its own smoke, beam cutlass blazing like a torch as it races towards the Rozen Zulu, "You've caused enough heartache, Angelo! Time to pay the piper!"
KTS: Trevor Teach targets Angelo Sauper with Beam Cutlass Slash! KTS: Trevor Teach has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"...Good question." Anita comments with a frown to Naoko. ...Suddenly, a trio of the Sleeves' strongest break through the battlefield. Anita spies them as they fly, thanks to Naoko's data - and she only has a moment to shout out a warning.
"...Careful! They're here!" She announces. She can't feel that sense of rejection emanation from Angelo's unit - but something seems to have affected the Gaia Gear. Anita grits her teeth, concern briefly flashing over her face.
"Really? Damn. You gonna be okay, Rena? Lemme know if you need some cover." Anita offers.
The Geara Zulu attacks, and Anita raises her shield quickly. Magenta beams strike her shield, and the Pinpoint Barrier flashes to life for just a second - the light diffusing off of it, scattering away and leaving burnt trails across the Svipul's paint job. The damage is superficial - for now, at least, but it's easy to recognize how dangerous that could've been if she was a second too late.
"I'd be careful with that line of thinking. Get too complacent and things could be bad, you know?" Anita suggests. She's seen what Rena's relic can do, after all. She whirls on Bato's unit, opening up with a spray of vulcan fire, aimed to force him into a position more advantageous for her allies.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Mobile Weapon Team with Vulcan Barrage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team blocks Anita Rosetta's Vulcan Barrage, taking 2625 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta begins a Formation attack! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to charge. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team partially guards Rena Lancaster's Beam Rifle Shot, taking 3444 damage! KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Angelo Sauper blocks Trevor Teach's Beam Cutlass Slash, taking 2050 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 59562 KTS: Trevor Teach has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Your EN is now 184. <Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
The Rozen Zulu's psycho-jammers activate, and that pulse through the psyches of the pilots relying on quantum brainwave technology makes Zinnerman press fingers to his temples, grunting in sympathetic pain.
The immediate effects are unmistakeable: The Unicorn and the Banshee shudder and shrink back to their weaker forms, their psycoframes dulled; so too the Gaia Gear's light dwindles, and some of the Kshatriya's deployed funnels go limp before firing, unresponsive to Marida's mental commands.
"Marida, miss Lancaster," he says to Kakapo Squadron, "without your psycommu you'll have to make up the difference with your training and experience. Miss Stella, miss Rosetta: You'll need to keep the Royal Guard occupied. Standby for tactical analysis."
"Here he comes!" Gilboa yells, spotting the Rozen Zulu incoming and tracking it with gatling fire - to little avail, given the violet suit's sheer speed. Alec tries his best to bring his shield into play to deflect that megaparticle blast, but all he achieves is losing his suit's shield and left arm in totality, barely able to mitigate the beam's effects on the Unicorn.
"Crap! Gilboa, I'm going to have to fall back!"
"Understood, Alec." Gilboa's own custom suit falls in to a defensive position near the Unicorn as Alec's Geara Zulu falls back to the Garencieres Junior.
KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman targets Marida Cruz, Naoko Suzuki, and Anita Rosetta with Coordinate. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Banagher Links KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Banagher Links KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Banagher Links KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman coordinates maneuvers, raising Anita Rosetta's Piloting!
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Voices call out to Banagher, each one bolstering his resolve. <"Rena, thank you! I'll be depending on you!">
He hasn't forgotten the afternoon he and Rena spent together. Going out of her way to check on Leina, and still have energy for Banagher afterwards... Rena is a true friend. They're all better off for her presence.
Alec and Gilboa fall into formation with the Beasts of Possibility, and Banagher manages a slight smile. <"Thanks, you too. Be careful out here, Angelo is -- vicious. I can't imagine his men will be any better. Please keep an eye on us all, Captain!">
<"If you can, Lucine, please do!"> Banagher calls, wheeling the Unicorn around to catch a shot aimed at the Banshee. It scatters to nothingness against the white Gundam's I-fields. <"I'm glad to have you both here, Liam.">
<"Leina's right! They're just trying to slow us down!"> Banagher broadcasts to his allies. <"I'm going to try and get the Unicorn and the Banshee closer to the Magallanica! Full Frontal has got to be ahead of us, we can't let him --!">
The young pilot of the Unicorn cries out in alarm, feeling perfect, patient hostility radiate across the battlefield. Before he can identify where or what is causing it, rose-shaped Bits whirl around Banagher and his allies, and the Unicorn's valiant glow gutters out.
"No -- no, no--!" Banagher, panicked at the dread washing over his spirit, speaks aloud to his machine as it stops responding. "Unicorn! Stay with me!"
As the Unicorn comes to a shuddering halt, transforming back down into her diminished form, Banagher is wracked with wave after wave of rejection. What is this? It's different than the feeling of Yuliana's Void, cutting him off from his Newtype abilities. Banagher's enhanced senses are still here, just -- picking up something terrible.
Lucine, Liam, and Trevor all take damage from the rapidly-approaching Rozen Zulu. Banagher, again, cries out, seconds too late. <"Look out --!">
It isn't until Angelo rounds on the Banshee that Banagher grows truly frantic. With a desperate motion, he yanks the Unicorn's arm in, catching the Rozen Zulu's Mega Particle Cannon's fire and leaving his Gundam mostly undamaged.
Without the NT-D... Banagher grits his teeth. It doesn't matter, he has to protect Leina, and everyone here! He has to reach the Snail and stop Full Frontal!
<"ANGELO!"> The young pilot shouts in response. Hatred, fury -- it bears down on Banagher, nearly overwhelming the sensitive young man. If it wasn't for his own powerful emotions rising to counter Angelo's feelings, this battle would be over. <"STAY AWAY FROM HER!">
Blue thrusters fire, and the Unicorn lurches forward -- at half her usual speed, as if tethered back by Angleo's Psycho-Jammers. Banagher snarls, sheathing the now-useless Hyper Javelin and pulling forth the Beam Magnum.
<"You're sick... If you want to fight someone, at least have the decency to make it me!"> The shot is lined up -- but Angelo's Rozen Zulu is fast. The Unicorn, her main systems hobbled, can't lock on to the target. <"This doesn't concern anyone else!">
Even so. Even if they're not locked on -- Banagher fires. Once -- twice -- thrice. Each shot goes astray, not even scorching the Rozen Zulu's armor, though a nearby refurbished Sleeves' suit explodes in spectacular fashion, having flown just a bit too close to the Unicorn's beams.
<"It wasn't enough for you to kill someone?! Someone you and Full Frontal should've protected?"> Banagher shouts. <"You talk so much about protecting the downtrodden, but when it really comes down to it--! We all know who you truly are!">
Rejection, rejection... It echoes in Banagher's heart. Its source is clear now, with Angelo so close. Though the loss of the Unicorn's amplification renders his Newtype abilities much weaker than they should be, Banagher isn't blind. This feeling... Despite himself, the young pilot wonders how Angelo could have come to radiate such true, desperate rejection.
<"Coward..! A coward, too afraid to face his own heart!">
Banagher Links transforms to RX-0 Full Armor Unicorn Gundam - Unicorn Mode
KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman coordinates maneuvers, raising Marida Cruz's Piloting! KTS: Banagher Links targets Angelo Sauper with Pass! KTS: Banagher Links has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Ready? What a question, and yet Leina offered Sayla a smile. Is she ready? Probably not, but she feels as ready as she's going to be, and she feels better about the weight of it. The pressure.
"I will." Leina tells Sayla, and there's a certain sense of confidence, perhaps in so much at least in her ability to fight. "I've got this, Mom." It's usually an embarrassing thing for someone's mother to be a backseat driver, but in this moment, it's not embarrassment. She knows at the moment, that despite her confidence...
... she needs her back there.
"<I know why you'd be worried but- I have to be here, Liam.>" Is what she tells him quite calmly, as he exclaims over the comms.
It is only at the last second, that she senses the danger. After all, even if they found common ground, Angelo never really let her in. In the end, the common ground was only that they were both filth, in an unclean world.
The Blue lines form a cage, and it's only at the last moment that she realizes what they are, "That's- NO!" After all, she'd sat in on the briefings about the efforts to capture the Phenex, saw it in action on Metis, even carved the incom emitters in twain, she can only see the widespread scope as the blue lines cascade.
Replacing the Armed Armor DE on its back, she makes a desperate attempt to fly, but she is immediately cut off by Angelo's ambush, trying to swerve to avoid the fire of incoms even as its swirling blasts nick and score her. The blue thread of a three-dimensional cage catches up with her, and that sense of rejection repels her from the edges of the cage, right back towards the center.
The Banshee Norn shrieks, as it's shining Psycoframe finds itself being jammed, the mobile suit reacting by starting a forced shift back towards Unicorn mode. It's V-Find becoming a horn, and it becomes smaller in this world of Angelo's making.
Within, the static within her mind grows stronger, as she grinds her teeth and tries to bite back the scream. The wail of panic within the entity within the Banshee at the rejection becoming almost unbearable. She keeps trying to tell it she's there, but it won't listen.
But against Angelo's feelings, it was inconsolable. Sending it to twitching in this moment of disharmony between pilot and machine. Even as he could feel the sheer ferocity of his intent upon Banagher. She knows what he means to do, and here she is, nigh-helpless to stop him. "<Banagher- I'm-nnngh- Don't worry about me, you're- you're his target-!>"
And indeed as he sets upon him with all of that killing intent, Leina can't help but feel angry, "<YOU-!>" She says reflexively, before it shifts into something more desperate. Banagher's own anger is immense as he yells at Angelo, and in a sense so is hers, but back when she was in that dark place... she understood, just a little, just enough, "<Angelo. ANGELO! Listen- LISTEN TO ME!>" There's intense strain in her voice, like it's painful for her, but there's desperation too, "<We're not the ones- the ones you need to be worried about! You know why he's inhuman-! But who set him down this path!? The kind of filth you despise the MOST!>"
She tries. She tries even knowing at best it might just be a distraction away from Banagher. "<You know- You KNOW they'll come to collect, and try to dirty everything about- about his intentions! How are you going to protect him when that happens!? What- really- MATTERS to you?>"
The sense of rejection is so strong, she tries to even steer the Norn around, but is caught within the static of such harsh rejection. The Norn is wailing, she can feel it, so strongly. Rejection is one of the things it hated the most, and now it's being forced to face it so soon, so strongly.
Trying to bring her weapon systems to bear, the Norn's arm tremors and spasms, and doesn't quite make it. "Nnngh- Mom- I- This is-! I can't-!" It's a jolt of panic, because it's hard for her right now too, to anchor on others, when her own brainwaves are being interfered with.
She knows she's not alone, but try telling that to her feelings amidst this awful wave of rejection. It's not just the Banshee that this is difficult for. And so, in this moment of feeling this way, she reaches out to someone close to her, someone nearby, for help, especially with Banagher being distracted in this life or death struggle.
"He's going to-!"
Because the only other option is to drown in Angelo's rejection, and she refuses to go down that path again.
Leina Ashta transforms to RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn <Unicorn Mode>
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
In the middle of a chaotic battle, it would be easy to miss those bits floating about. But Nova Stellar - or Naoko Suzuki, as some actually know now - was actively scanning for unusual signals, and those definitely qualified. She just had no idea what to make of them. They didn't appear to be active threats, so she just filed them away as points of interest, rather than particular direct concern. When the Royal Guard shows up in their wake though...
"We've got incoming! Royal Guard Geara Zulus, and--" She pauses. No data...? Well, her instruments may claim that, but the colors give at least something away. "It's Angelo Sauper, in an unknown MS!" Sure, she could add that it's going after the Unicorn, but anybody could guess that. Which means the more direct concern are the other Royal Guard, soon proven when they peel off. "They're here to block the way! We've got to--"
Her breath catches in her throat, as it feels like she was just punched in the brain. Naoko relies on her mind to communicate directly with her 'friends', and through them, the Sukeban. As it turns out, the psycho-jammer is quite capable of interfering with that, causing a feedback pulse to suddenly give her a massive headache. And at the worst possible time, too. The Royal Guards are upon them, and Naoko isn't able to regain control over the Arm Slave in time to avoid the beam fire sent her way.
"A-ahh! What... what's going on?!" Rena reports her Psychoframe being disabled... surely this must be related. It seems it's time to practice what she preaches... a Miracle Worker's greatest strength is to improvise. "Switching to manual! Help me out, Uriel, Ariel!" She can still make do this way... it's suboptimal, but she can move, at least. Little choice now but... keep them occupied, sure, that's one way to phrase it.
"Don't take me lightly! You caught me by surprise, but it won't happen again!" With that, she charges the Royal Guardsman, launching into a volley of rapid-fire punches with superheated fists to keep it on the defense. Naoko was certainly expecting to have to deal with a very angry man today... just not exactly this one. But, again, improvising!
KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman coordinates maneuvers, raising Naoko Suzuki's Piloting! KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Rapid Reaction Squad with Heat Harrier! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Pass! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Bright blue lines ignite across the vast black void. Liam sees the pattern immediately; alarm bells go off in his brain as he puts the structure together. A net of tremendous size, enclosing the entire battlefield.
'Filth like you don't have the RIGHT!'
Liam recognizes Angelo's voice, even if he doesn't recognize his new Mobile Suit, or the two Suits next to it. (They're definitely dangerous if Angelo trusts them to watch his back. Are they surviving Guards?)
INCOMs. Liam was never trained on those, and relies solely on reaction time. Liath Macha's shield drops into place, clamping onto its right forearm. The Mobile Suit jets down and twists forty-five degrees left, putting its second-strongest defense between its body and the onrushing beam fire. Angelo's fury hammers glowing, half-molten craters into Liath Macha's shield and right thigh, but the armor holds for now.
Like Anita, Liam can't sense the Rozen Zulu's overwhelming aura, but he can see its effects--the Gaia Gear suddenly turning sluggish, Isadore suddenly stopping entirely. "<Some sort of jamming?!>" he tightbeams, to Lucine--his barometer for this sort of thing. But none of the other machines are Angelo's main target. "OH NO YOU DON'T!"
Liath Macha's jets ignite behind it, and Banagher's fear and rage only spur Liam on. The Mobile Suit grips its glaive in both hands, chasing after the Rozen Zulu with breakneck speed. A Jagd Doga tries to intercept, only to meet with the machine's shield. There's a tremendous, shrieking shudder as the Sleeves machine's shoulder staves in. Liam grits his teeth through the impact, feels the weight of G-forces settle on his chest, but he keeps talking. Keeps 'wasting his breath', as Hephaestus would put it. "You could be BETTER THAN THIS!" Liam roars. "Are you really in this just to KILL ANYONE WHO'S HURT YOU?!" He's not sure what's broadcasting the field--Bits, maybe?--but that's the Garancieres' job. Right now, he has to keep Angelo's claws off his friends' throats.
Liath Macha drives its glaive at the Rozen Zulu's back, a broad slash to cut through the armor and hopefully disable a jet or two.
You're wasting your breath, he thinks, guessing what his 'mentor' would say. There's no talking with the Zekes. We've tried.
Liam twists the glaive around, and goes for a second, disabling slash. "Do you think that's going to make the pain stop?!"
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Angelo Sauper with JS-F03A 'Gae Buidhe' Beam Glaive - Slash! KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round. /-----------------------------< SRTMOO +attacks >------------------------------\ | 1: Claw Skewer Pwr: 5000 40 EN | | (Physical, Melee, Penetrating, Crushing) | | 2: Claw Rake Pwr: 4500 25 EN | | (Physical, Melee) | | 3: Claw Shove Pwr: 4000 30 EN | | (Physical, Melee, Repulse) | | 4: Danse du Feu Pwr: 7200 85 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Barrier Breaker, Crushing) | | 5: INCOM Storm Pwr: 6000 50 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Penetrating) | | 6: INCOM Cage Pwr: 6500 49 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Accurate) | | 7: INCOM Ambush Pwr: 5500 38 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Initiation) | | 8: INCOM Assault Pwr: 4500 25 EN | | (Beam, Ranged) | | 9: Mega Particle Cannon - Burn All Filth Pwr: 6900 83 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Ship-Killer, Barrier Breaker) | | 10: Mega Particle Cannon - Scorched Earth Pwr: 6000 48 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Barrier Breaker) | | 11: Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion Pwr: 4000 30 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Rattle) | | 12: Mega Particle Cannon - Pulsation Pwr: 5000 33 EN | | (Beam, Ranged, Spread) | | 13: Jam - 10 EN | | (Ranged, Passive, Debuff, Jam L1) | | 14: Scatter - 10 EN | | (Ranged, Passive, Buff, Scatter L1, MAP) | | 15: Pass - 0 EN | | (Ranged, Passive, All-Range) | \---< HP: 59562/61612 EN: 179 (+33/round|0 comm) SP: 125 Morale: 121/150 >---/
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
< "... He's coming!" > The warning comes too late; Angelo's violet Mobile Suit crashes through the scene, ripping through with green attacks that shake the Dianthus. "... Shit..."
The alarm and confusion of her companions jerk Lucine back into the battle, along with Liam's voice. < ".... I think so... it feels like it... We need to buy the others time; I don't know how many of us have suits without psycommu weaponry..." >
Banagher's voice, in particular, hurts to hear. The feeling of helplessness as someone you love is attacked... Lucine can say she's felt similar, if not with the same context as Banagher does with Leina and how he nearly lost her.
A sympathy is all she needs to latch onto. Yellow eyes flash in the reflective light as Lucine guides the Dianthus over, attempting to intervene in Angelo's path as it curls back towards Banagher.
The humanoid suit unfurls its petals of five, radiating from the back like the odd-numbered notched wings of a surreal bird. Or, well, a flower.
Power flows out to the tips, and are released in a sharp bellow of energy, meant to rattle the metal and teeth of whatever it hits.
< ".... My Dianthus has no weapons you can affect that way. Neither can you catch me, despite that lucky first strike." > She's bluffing; it's a coin's toss whether this suit can compete with the full might of whatever technology was behind the creation of the Rozen Zulu. < "..... It's a shame to attack your new suit of yours; I rather like some of the style choices...." >
The warnings on Lucine's screen remind her that this is the wrong position to be in.... but she just needs to deflect his trajectory a little, and retreat back to avoid feeling the brunt of Angelo's rage being denied by the most minute measure of time.
In the language of flowers, the rose and the dianthus have their myriad of meanings depending on the culture and book a person looks at.
Lucine would just hope one of those meanings isn't that of mourning.
KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Lucine Azul targets Angelo Sauper with Lunate Crown v.2 Howl! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Banagher Links's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 59562 KTS: Your EN is now 179. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Leina Ashta's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 59562 KTS: Your EN is now 179. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Angelo Sauper parries Liam 7-020's JS-F03A 'Gae Buidhe' Beam Glaive - Slash, taking 1080 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 58482 KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Your EN is now 179. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Lucine Azul rattles Angelo Sauper, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to evade Lucine Azul's Lunate Crown v.2 Howl, taking 1500 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 56982 KTS: Your EN is now 174. <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"I know you do." Sayla says, reassuringly. She'll trust in Leina, even as she struggles with the power of the Banshee. Leina reassures Liam, as Sayla tracks everything else.
And then it happens. She was there when the Phenex was captured. She's seen them before. "Leina, you have to-"
She's too late. Inside the full psychoframe suit, Sayla can feel it. The overwhelming rejection. Trying to silence the things that only newtypes can use.
This rejection... being channeled through the psychoframe of the Banshee.
Leina tries desperately to reach Angelo, and she cnan hear the desperation as she rights herself, her walls reforming- but not completely. She has to make a choice. She could protect herself by closing herself off.
But it's not about here. In this moment, she's glad she's not as strong as Leina or Banagher. Her hand reaches up to Leina's shoulder, and squeezes- "Leina. We're still here. We're on the battlefied. You need to focus." She pushes against the wave of rejection. She can't fight the Psycho-jammers effect on the Banshee. But she can fight the effect on Leina, pushing on their own bond with physical connection. With her voice. "We're here. We're together. All of us."
Her other hand goes to the comm. "<Banagher, don't get reckless! I'll take care of Leina! You have to focus on yourself right now! Don't you dare do anything you can't come back from! Focus on taking out those bits!>" She starts falling into her old role. Comms. Keep everyone connected. "<Liam, Lucine, I need you to keep him occupied! Leina and Banagher are in danger as it is!>"
She drops it, as she pushes as best she can against the rejection. "It's that weapon that's pushing you away. Not the Banshee. Not Elpeo. We need to fight defensively, okay Leina?" She would love to offer more calming words. More protection. But Leina's the pilot here. She needs to fight. "We need to come back from this alive, remember? There's still things you need and want to do, right?"
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Leina Ashta, Banagher Links, and Lucine Azul with Caution. KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Leina Ashta's Intuition! KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Leina Ashta KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Lucine Azul's Intuition! KTS: Naoko Suzuki anchors Rapid Reaction Squad, forcing it into close range. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad fails to evade Naoko Suzuki's Heat Harrier, taking 4840 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Rapid Reaction Squad!
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
As Zinnerman assesses the situation, he'll see -- those Bits, scattered across the battlefield. So many of them, connected together. Connected to the Rozen Zulu. All of them, broadcasting and amplifying a tremendous amount of quantum brainwaves. It's so much -- too much.
Too much for any one person to do without risking themselves in the process.
---
He isn't used to this feeling.
It isn't a good feeling. This intense pressure, throbbing at his skull as an uncapped and dangerously overworked Psycho-Frame amplifies his brainwaves across a myriad of rose Bits. For someone who has stayed so inwardly focused, someone who avoided any sort of Newtype-use Mobile Suit like a plague, this experience... is unusual. Uncomfortable. It isn't the pain.
He told Banagher once, the reason why he never piloted a psycommu unit was to avoid being made into the Unicorn's puppet; a practical answer, but it wasn't the entire truth.
The truth is, deep down, part of him was deathly afraid of this feeling.
The feeling like he's opening up a nerve, even as he closes all others down.
He pushes past it. He ignores it, just like he ignores the thickening pool of crimson gathering at his upper lip. Fortunately, the heat of battle and the contempt in his heart do wonders for something to focus on instead.
Things like the Isadore, crashing towards him just as he lines up a second shot on the vulnerable Unicorn; wide, furious eyes snap towards the side as Trevor's mobile suit punctures through its own smokescreen to come swinging at the violet form of the Rozen Zulu with that burning, blistering cutlass.
And just before it can reach the Rozen Zulu, the violet war machine's shield SWINGS in the way, the clash eliciting a massive FLASH as beam blade meets the invisible bloom of the Rozen's I-Field, dispersing so much of its energy across the broad flat of its purple bulwark.
<"How dare you..."> mutters Angelo, head lowered, gloved fingers trembling. His voice stutters in a brief slur, the strain of what he's attempting here briefly cracking through.
<"A t-traitorous bastard like you... helping to belabor all this conflict just because of your own selfishness...">
The triplicate barrel of the mega particle shield's cannon crackles with mounting radiance.
<"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO LECTURE ME!">
And all three barrels ignite at point-blank range, the generation of mass particles causing the Isadore's saber to flicker briefly before all that beam fire POURS out in a blinding deluge, I-Field diffusing and twisting the beams to create a wide, horrifying sweep.
<"... Cuh-call me lapdog. I don't care. It never mattered what I was... and blights like you would never understand why I believe in him. Why would you? You never CARED to.">
The Unicorn fires at the Rozen. But without the NT-D, with all that interference crushing down on Banagher, there's no chance; the second that the white, horned mobile suit opens fire, the Rozen Zulu is peeling away from the Isadore, thrusters igniting as it weaves between the powerful pulses of the Beam Magnum that once obliterated one of Angelo's subordinates - one of his comrades - just by grazing near his Geara Zulu.
He feels no joy in the stark difference, now. No elation.
Just strain. Stress.
Anger. Fear.
<"I'm tired of your RIDICULOUS nonsense!!"> Angelo barks at Banagher over those open lines of communication, the scramble of static just helping to underscore the fury in his words. <"This isn't about YOU."> He forces the denial out through gritted teeth, rage making up for a lack of conviction. <"It was never supposed to be! You've twisted everything! Just like every disgusting -Gundam- before you has! All of you... Conditioned to think that you're making a difference when it's people like YOU who have been THE BIGGEST PERPETUATORS OF THIS ENTIRE, DISGUSTING SYSTEM!">
The Rozen Zulu's clawed INCOMs sweep up, particles aglow.
<"ALL OF YOU NEED TO BURN--">
Within a second, the Liath Macha is upon the Rozen Zulu, roaring in from behind. Within a second, that glaive swings down like an executioner's stroke.
Within a second, those INCOMs have aborted their assault on the Unicorn, jetting behind the Rozen to intercept Liam's weapon between a pincer of claws.
<"'Better than this'...? ... Hah,"> Angelo exhales shakily, dry, bloodshot eyes hooding as a belabored, contemptuous laugh rolls past his lips. Like a fatigued counterpart to the one he barked at Liam in the elevator.
<"You still don't get it. Do you?">
Those claws strain, the glaive just barely digging a shallow wound into the thick, violet armor of the Rozen Zulu's back.
<"None of us are BETTER than THIS!">
A second later, the INCOMs' thrusters IGNITE, PUSHING that glaive aside. The Rozen Zulu wheels around --
And just before it can attack the Liath Macha, the Dianthus' attack unloads upon the Rozen Zulu, blooming petals scoring blasts of power across the broad side of its great torso. I-Fields help disperse the energy in semi-transparent shimmers around Angelo's Mobile Suit, but it's more than enough to -knock- it to the side as it wheels around to face Lucine's floral weapon.
<"... I rem-member you,"> he mutters, teeth gritting as he takes in the sight of that machine. His eyes narrow as she speaks. 'It's a shame to attack that new suit of yours; I rather like...'
<"It's a SHAME,"> he begins. The Rozen Zulu's shield swings up. <"That you're -here-. I told you what would happen. Coming all the way here from so far away, you should have been on our side! But instead you just choose to keep enabling the same things that put your planet in the position it's in! Y-you're worse than just filth -- you're a fool.">
And those barrels ignite in a sudden discharge of power, difracting off I-fields into a radiant plethora of green that showers down upon the Liath Macha and the Dianthus both.
<"... I have... NOTHING... to say to fools.">
And with that, the Rozen's attention turns. It fixates.
Angelo Sauper's eyes narrow as he takes in the sight of the two struggling Unicorns, and hears Leina's voice.
<"Shut up.">
The Rozen's INCOMs snap back into its forearms. Thrusters burn.
<"I thought you understood. ... I thought someone finally understood. But you didn't. No one d-does. It doesn't matter who sent him down this path. It doesn't matter who wants to use him! He'll rise above it! He's more than the Red Comet! He's more than Zeon and all its petty, despicable trash! He's more than all of us! More than ANY OF US! And if ANYONE tries to get in his way--">
And the Rozen Zulu PROPELS forward, blast after blast from its clawed cannons unloading upon the struggling Banshee even as it tears towards the Unicorn beyond.
<"--I'LL BE THE TRIGGER TO WIPE THEM ALL AWAY!">
It's all he's good for. ... isn't it?
The stray thought is caught and smothered as the Rozen SLAMS into the Unicorn, looking to impale into it with both claws. Like before.
Like before, those barrels begin to glow.
<"... from the moment we met, I couldn't stand you."> They glow brighter, and brighter. <"Crying over wuh-one death. How many people have died -- just to GET you here? At least she was able to CHOOSE the way she died! It's a luxury most of us will never know! That woman -- that stupid, STUPID woman--">
Why did she have to--
<"I'll send you to meet her RIGHT NOW.">
/-----------------------------< SRTMOO +attacks >------------------------------\
| 1: Claw Skewer Pwr: 5000 40 EN |
| (Physical, Melee, Penetrating, Crushing) |
| 2: Claw Rake Pwr: 4500 25 EN |
| (Physical, Melee) |
| 3: Claw Shove Pwr: 4000 30 EN |
| (Physical, Melee, Repulse) |
| 4: Danse du Feu Pwr: 7200 85 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Barrier Breaker, Crushing) |
| 5: INCOM Storm Pwr: 6000 50 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Penetrating) |
| 6: INCOM Cage Pwr: 6500 49 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Accurate) |
| 7: INCOM Ambush Pwr: 5500 38 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Initiation) |
| 8: INCOM Assault Pwr: 4500 25 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged) |
| 9: Mega Particle Cannon - Burn All Filth Pwr: 6900 83 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Ship-Killer, Barrier Breaker) |
| 10: Mega Particle Cannon - Scorched Earth Pwr: 6000 48 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Barrier Breaker) |
| 11: Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion Pwr: 4000 30 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Rattle) |
| 12: Mega Particle Cannon - Pulsation Pwr: 5000 33 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Spread) |
| 13: Jam - 10 EN |
| (Ranged, Passive, Debuff, Jam L1) |
| 14: Scatter - 10 EN |
| (Ranged, Passive, Buff, Scatter L1, MAP) |
| 15: Pass - 0 EN |
| (Ranged, Passive, All-Range) |
\---< HP: 5698261612 EN: 164 (+33round|0 comm) SP: 125 Morale: 128150 >---
KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Banagher Links with Claw Skewer! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Leina Ashta with INCOM Assault! KTS: Angelo_Sauper Changes attack to Liam 7-020, Lucine Azul, and Trevor Teach with Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 204. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 150. KTS: Angelo Sauper has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta partially guards Angelo Sauper's INCOM Assault, taking 2340 damage! KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Banagher Links's Intuition! KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper rattles Trevor Teach, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Trevor Teach fails to evade Angelo Sauper's Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion, taking 5640 damage! KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links fails to Parry Angelo Sauper's Claw Skewer, taking 6840 damage! KTS: Angelo Sauper has engaged Banagher Links! KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Trevor Teach KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Trevor Teach KTS: Lucine Azul successfully evades Angelo Sauper's Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 successfully Evades Angelo Sauper's Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion KTS: Banagher Links has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Trevor Teach KTS: Trevor Teach uses hyper reloader KTS: Trevor Teach targets Angelo Sauper with Keelhaul! KTS: Trevor Teach has completed their actions for the round. Ruri Hoshino teleports in. <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
The light is blue, as the Ra Mari II glows, a beacon in the dark.
Light which spreads across the field...
Light which resolves, around Angelo's hand, into fingers calloused by years of abuse.
A stupid, stupid woman.
You've carried so much, for so long...
Permanence Pasternak's voice carved in through his skin to his soul, then. He couldn't expunge it, not even when he tried to purge it all from his body. He killed her. He killed her, and...
... there is no blame, in the light.
But though you bore this burden alone, there were others, beside you. Look, Angelo. Those people fighting for you... that young man who believes in you so fiercely...
It is not by Angelo's will that his cameras cut to a feed of the Geara Zulus, now.
They're the same as those fighting against you. It's not dirty, Angelo. I know that filth is the worst thing you know... but what is wounded can be made whole again. Dirt washes away. Don't abandon them. Don't leave them to that same fucking isolation... confused and cursing. Even in a cruel world, their hearts resonate with each other... as wonderful as the man who saved you.
Her hands spread; she drifts away. A mote of light, she vanishes...
... or does she?
I'm glad you're alive, that light communicates, to the Kshatriya. Live, Marida. This world still holds infinite promise, for you.
If this is now your path, walk with your head held high, the light embraces Isadore and Trevor. Nothing is more important than your ability to choose where you sail.
When the light embraces the Garencieres Junior, this too is a subtler thing, with the distinct impression of approval for its choice to make its own path. And as it settles on Anita and Liam's machines, it is subtler still, but no less kind: Permanence believes in them, even if her voice isn't loud enough to each them in so many words. Perhaps it is the same as the hope which settles over the Guardsman's Geara Zulus, on the other side of the battle.
Your soul is flowering, isn't it? Is the question which echoes through the Dianthus, as that light reaches Lucine.
They can't silence your heart, Permanence assures the Gaia Gear, as the light bathes Rena's machine. Thanks for... for giving a shit about little old me. I'm happy.
And to Nova, and her friends, the light emanates: I still believe in your miracles.
There is light, still, for the Ra Mari II, though it's where the light came from. You were my light, Captain, a vision of that woman appears, in front of Eight. A light that gave me a new life... let me light the way for everyone, now. No one's fighting this battle alone...
And that light resolves in the bridge, as Permanence stands in front of Licia Chovan, now. Hey, tell the Acting Captain I'll be standing down, now. I don't think they can hear me well like this... but you know, that's not a bad thing, either. This is the best I can do, now... you think they'll take the shot?
Before she leaves, though, she has one more thing to say.
This time, when the blue light comes to the Banshee Norn, it is in no position to offer judgement. Sayla is powerful enough to see that impression of an older Zaftran woman, too, as she appears in front of Leina. Her words, though, are for Leina: It must be hard... fighting so soon after that. I know I'm asking a lot of you... but please, look after Banagher. Hold him close. If you don't, he might...
Finally that blue light settles over the Unicorn, as if to calm the heat in Banagher's veins. There is nothing she can say with words to calm a boy so troubled -- it is her PRESENCE, instead, which bolsters him. She offers him strength --
She offers them all freedom.
<Pose Tracker> Rapid Reaction Squad has posed.
The Kshatriya's funnels could not have touched Zechst, now, in the field Marida fights. The suppressive effect the Lieutenant has spread across them all interrupts her, too. <"You fool!"> He crows, easily evading those funnels which still attempt to fire. <"You can't hope to challenge the Lieutenant's powers...!!">
He is shortly knocked out of his crowing by the Sukeban charging the line, as the smaller Arm Slave proves that Nova doesn't need a psychic connection in order to punch his Geara Zulu. <"Gh...!! Why, you--!!"> He reels back in space, before he re-orients, his sensitive controls bringing his machine back into synch. <"Ugh... you're right, Paserinos... they don't deserve a single breath!"> He grasps his Lange Bruno, and fires a suppressing volley of beams at the Sukeban and the Kshatriya --
Only for him to see that light, just the same. <"What the... what are they doing? WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO THE LIEUTENANT!?"> He isn't open enough to hear her, though he feels -- enough. Hope...
He's afraid of it. All he has, all he has to hold on to --
<"Lieutenant--!!">
KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad targets Naoko Suzuki and Marida Cruz with Lange Bruno Suppression Fire. KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Alert Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.
Bato's jaw tightens at Rena's words. There is a little bit of a 'hngh' from his comms followed by a snap of, "You don't understand the first damned thing about the Colonel!! Unless you mean that the Colonel's going to spread his wings around the entire world and GRIP IT BY THE THROAT -"
The VF is opening fire! A barrage of rounds, moving too quickly and too diffusely to do much about beyond blame himself, or a god that has abandoned the people of space. A raising of the shield protects the Zulu's head components, and an abrupt last-minute maneuver prevents Rena from making Bato an object lesson of this sin.
It does still streak along one of those spiked pauldrons, vaporizing half of a spike and leaving a glowing divot that cools swiftly, radiating heat into space.
"Fine!" Bato shouts out. "What do you want -- compliments for your flying?! All of your talent might as well be piss on a wall if you're using it to try and stop the Colonel!!"
"Even with the traitor backing you up -- hah! You're getting a taste of what the Lieutenant has for you," Bato continues, and he's talking because he has to *decide* what to do. And when you're deciding in battle, you're losing. But Bato did not win his position on looks alone -- none of them did, however fair they may be to the eye. Gritting his teeth, Bato's eyes turn upwards.
And that over-powerd thruster pack, equipped on the Geara Zulu, proves its worth -- flaring to sudden life and driving the Mobile Suit in an improbable direction, hurling its shoulder towards the high-speed form of the Variable Fighter!
"Lieutenant--" Bato says, his attention turning momentarily up towards Angelo. But his voice is small, and Angelo's fury is vast. A kindling inferno. Something tickles at the back of Bato's mind as he turns his attention down to the Gear Gaia Alpha. His jaw tightens again.
Another gun -- this one held in the other hand. A different gun, and its shape might make Rena, or the computers on her Mobile Suit, sense 'incoming physical shell,' but it isn't that; a tight streak of megaparticles, nearly laser-like in intensity towards her suit.
Bato's eyes widen. "What the hell are you doing to him!?" Bato cries out, even as he gives Rena a second beam for good measure.
Ruri Hoshino teleports out.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Anita Rosetta with Forearm Shield Shoulder Check! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Rena Lancaster with Lange Bruno Sniping Shot! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Marida Cruz has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Marida Cruz has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad enervates Marida Cruz, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Marida Cruz fails to evade Rapid Reaction Squad's Lange Bruno Suppression Fire, taking 4290 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Disruptor activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Enervator activates, causing Deject! KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster successfully evades Mobile Weapon Team's Lange Bruno Sniping Shot KTS: Naoko Suzuki successfully evades Rapid Reaction Squad's Lange Bruno Suppression Fire KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Mobile Weapon Team's Forearm Shield Shoulder Check, taking 3720 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has engaged Anita Rosetta! <Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
Permanence - the woman he never got a chance to speak to (she was probably avoiding them) before she spent her life to save Banagher's - he can feel her presence. Zinnerman looks up and over to where her image might hang in Chovan's eyesight, offering her the grim nod of one old salt to another.
The battlefield seems a little less heavy, now. "Gilboa: Those violet bits across the battlefield, they're projecting this jamming field. You know what to do."
Gilboa nods and clicks his radio twice for 'affirmative', changing his targeting algorithm for smaller targets and spinning up his gatling gun again, slipping away from the Unicorn to get a clearer angle to fire as he lets rip, a number of the petal-shaped bits torn to shreds by the rapid megaparticle barrage.
The pressure is lessening, now. Zinnerman runs his hands across the bridge console, providing targeting telemetry to Kakapo Squadron to point out the known weaknesses of the Geara Zulu model. "Coordinate fire on these points to maximise damage," he says, gruffly. "Marida, focus, I'm with you."
KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman targets Marida Cruz, Rena Lancaster, and Naoko Suzuki with All-Out. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman orders an all-out attack, raising Rena Lancaster's Skill! KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Marida Cruz KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman orders an all-out attack, raising Marida Cruz's Skill! <Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena smiles a little when Banagher says he'll be depending on her. She remembers that afternoon, too. She smiles at his cut-in on her display -- then she nods.
She has the royal guards to contend with.
"I... I'll be okay!" Rena answers Anita, though she doesn't sound completely convinced of that. It feels a little like one sense being torn away. It's one of the Gaia Gear Alpha's strongest tools, and it proves silent.
"Gaia Gear," she says, not transmitting. "Come on..."
Then she flips her transmitter back on -- and she nods. "I understand, Captain Zinnerman. I'll put it to good use!" She hesitates, though, when she sees Nova's movements sutter. "Nova--are you okay over there?"
She's still worried, after their recent conversation.
"Grip it by the throat and choke the life out of it!" Rena says to Bato. "It's no different than the Federation! It's just a change of who is doing the choking and who struggles to even breathe!"
Rena sucks in a sharp breath as Bato charges for Anita's VF. She tries to send the Gaia Gar Alpha flying forward, but the Geara Zulu fires two blasts of energy -- and the white Mobile Suit jukes to the side, blitzing away. She can't get to her.
The Psychoframe won't answer. She feels frustration bubbling up. "Annie!"
It's a familiar, warm light that settles over the battlefield -- and briefly, over the Gaia Gear Alpha. Rena's brown eyes widen; that frustration vanishes. "Permanence...?" she asks softly. "I... I understand. I'll do my best...!"
And the Gaia Gear Alpha explodes with green light, as Rena's consciousness races outward. Past the Gaia Gear Alpha, across the battlefield, and throughout her Mobile Suit at the same time. A tide of green motes of light explode out of the white Mobile Suit, raining down after it.
Data floods across her screen. Rena's eyes, alight with reflected green light, track it with an eerie speed. "Thank you, Captain Zinnerman. I won't let you down!"
A breath, then: "Funnels," Rena cries out, "GO!"
The back of the Gaia Gear ignites. Streams of vapor erupt as a dozen cannister-shaped funnels erupt outward -- and with Permanence there, her mind grips them. She feels them -- and sends them careening towards Bato's Mobile Suit.
Three shoot around him, at different angles, and fire -- lances of beam energy slashing at the Mobile Suit from a trio of different directions.
Another three rush out for Zechst. They circle around him, gleaming brightly. Then they fire, and lances of beam energy come crashing down for him.
"Hopefully... they'll help Lieutenant Sauper understand!"
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Rapid Reaction Squad and Mobile Weapon Team with Funnel Pod - Dawn Formation. KTS: Rena Lancaster has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team successfully evades Rena Lancaster's Funnel Pod - Dawn Formation <Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
The funnels won't be any use here...The Kshatriya abandons them and pulls out its beam sabers. Angelo couldn't jam melee weapons. This would have to do.
Marida engages evasive maneuvers against the suppressing fire, but the jamming of her psycommu seems to make her reaction time just a bit more sluggish and she takes the brunt of the attack. "Ghhh! Damn Angelo..."
And then the light of the Unicorn overtakes the battlefield. Zechst may not be familiar with it, but Marida has seen it plenty. Plenty enough to not get distracted.
"And I with you, Father! Always and forever!" The Kshatriya rushes forward and delivers several swings from multiple beam sabers, aiming at the points on the Geara Zulu that Zinnerman pointed out.
KTS: Marida Cruz targets Rapid Reaction Squad with Beam Saber Multiswing! KTS: Marida Cruz has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman orders an all-out attack, raising Naoko Suzuki's Skill! <Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Sayla recognizes the position Lucine and Liam are in. < "... Already on it. I'll do my best." > Lucine's lips thin out into a line.
She'll buy them precious seconds, but she'll need to ride that line between risk and reckless a little closer than she's used to. They don't need martyrs, right now. Permanence was enough.
Anger flares as Angelo attacks that sore spot in Lucine; it's not as if she hasn't felt like she's helped enable that apathy towards any conflict outside of Earth and its immediate surrounding colonies. But before Lucine could give voice to those feelings, she's forced to disengage, instinct and memory commanding the Dianthus to evade back rather than hold some semblance of a line.
Permanence's voice echoes through the Dianthus, and Lucine glances up in awe. "Permanence..." She can't let her death be wasted on hot words and angry gestures.
To take Angelo as a simple arrogant sycophant would be foolish, indeed. The man sprung this trap upon them, and operates seemingly at the end of his abilities, if the strain radiating from him was of any indication.
He was willing to explain his convictions to her that day; his passion and anger stem from a deep well. Lucine's words lose their bite. Her actions, however, do not lessen in turn. < ".... I remember you too. The young man who looked after roses. Garden roses are capricious plants; they won't respond to just anyone." > Even she had trouble, in the same way someone who finds everything easy finds her first challenge.
It takes a person with a particular passion to make one flourish.
< ".... Perhaps that's what draws you to Full Frontal. You respond to him." >
The Dianthus unhooks the Arbalest and aims as Angelo races to Banagher, firing a powerful shot straight at the Rozen Zulu's back while its pilot is distracted.
KTS: Lucine Azul targets Angelo Sauper with Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Aim! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
"LEINA!"
Despite the ocean of rejection pushing Banagher away from the young woman he loves, he can still feel her agony, reflected in his own heart. Helpless, furious tears drip from his eyes, and he takes one hand from the Unicorn's controls, clutching at his heart. It hurts -- it hurts so much, and if he's feeling it this strongly, it's got to be ten times worse for Leina.
But Leina and Sayla both call reassurances, and Banagher... tries to calm himself. He's mostly unsuccessful. Even without the NT-D looping his anger back into his heart, there's too much at stake here. Everything has become too personal.
<"I'll stop those bits!"> Banagher promises, to Leina, Sayla, and even the Banshee. <"Nghh -- just hold on!">
Distantly, he's aware of Leina, trying to reach Angelo despite the suffering the man is putting her through. Normally this would fill Banagher with inspiration and love, bringing awe to his heart at the wonder and goodness of his girlfriend, but now, in this moment? It breeds resentment.
<"You're so SELFISH!"> Banagher yells at Angelo, pushing the Unicorn to her limit. <"If you took even one second to look around at all the people reaching out to you..! But no, it's not good enough! It doesn't matter unless it's from him!">
Feeling his pulse pound in his ears, Banagher shakes his head, trying to clear the angry red mist from his vision. This is the first time he's ever been this angry, without the NT-D's encouragement. It's terrifying, but there's an undeniable part of him that wants to give in. Everything he's suffered, everything the people around him have suffered... It's not wrong to want justice for that!
Hands shaking with anger-hate-fury, Banagher aims for one of the bits forming the cage around the Unicorn and her allies. A year ago, he wouldn't have the skill to make a shot that distant, but now-- As the beam magnum scorches across space, Banagher feels confident in his chances.
Even as his earlier shots go wide, at least they drive the Rozen Zulu away from Trevor. <"It's never been about me! I told you that -- from the start! It's about making a better world for everyone!">
Banagher has said these words many times before, but never in such a snarled, furious voice. He sounds terribly distant from the young man who began this journey.
<"Don't you dare even talk to her!"> A shout, as the Unicorn struggles to fly to her sister. Angelo fires on the Banshee, and Banagher screams, terror breaking his voice. How much of this can Leina take?!
<"FULL FRONTAL IS EVEN WORSE THAN YOU ARE!"> Banagher shouts, frantically trying to pull Angelo's attention away from Leina. <"I've seen inside his heart! I've seen what was done to him! They carved everything out and left him an empty, rotten--!">
Banagher isn't ready for Angelo to slam into the Unicorn. He deploys and raises a beam saber moments too late -- the Rozen Zulu's attack sending it spinning off into space.
Both mobile suits crash together, as if this were a schoolyard brawl. Grappling at the Rozen Zulu, the Unicorn's armor cracks and breaks, only heightening Banagher's emotions further. He can't be stopped here. He has to reach the Box!
<"Shut UP!"> Banagher bites out. <"I'll -- keep crying over everyone who dies! Everyone -- everyone!"> His voice breaks on a sobbed out little sound of fury. <"I don't trust someone who never cries! And -- her NAME IS PERMANENCE!">
Certainly, Banagher has not summoned her just by speaking her name. Permanence is far too free a spirit to be called and beckoned like a common dog. Perhaps, even in the midst of his rage, Banagher can sense that familiar blue light -- touching the hearts of those on the battlefield, the same way she touched his own. And though she has no words for him this time...
Banagher's fury dissipates, like a fever broken by a cool wet washcloth.
<"G--guh..."> He leans forward, heaving in breath after breath. <"Permanence..? I...">
She doesn't want vengeance. Banagher blinks away the tears in his eyes, all the fear-born-anger in his heart replaced by a sense of peace. If Permanence can reach out to Angelo, even to the man who killed her, then what is Banagher doing? Screaming like an idiot, wasting his shots?
<"Angelo."> Banagher's voice is soft. <"I'm sorry. I've said... awful things to you. What you're doing is wrong, but I still -- I'm thankful for the training you gave me.">
The Unicorn, with all her weapons, clings to the Rozen Zulu. Even so. Even so, Banagher has to keep Angelo away from Leina, Trevor, Lucine, and Liam.
<"It doesn't have to be like this. Leina's right, listen to her."> Banagher's heart opens wider, immediately hit with a wave of rejection that sends him reeling. <"N--nhh... Angelo, if we work together, we can save everyone, even -- even Full Frontal!">
It's too painful. These Psycho-Jammers -- they're hurting Leina too much. With a few taps of the Unicorn's screen, missiles lock on to several of the bits forming the cage around the Beasts of Possibility and fire.
<"It's not too late."> Banagher murmurs, just loud enough for Angelo to hear him.
KTS: Banagher Links targets Angelo Sauper with Full Armor Unicorn Missile Launcher Telemetry Shot! KTS: Banagher Links has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Rena insists she's okay. She doesn't sound convinced - but, Anita can't blame her. She doesn't know what that must feel like. So for now, the best thing she can do is...
"...Alright. Don't forget - I'm with you, alright?" Anita assures.
Zinnerman sends data her way, and Anita takes a brief second to look it over.
"Gotcha. I'll do my best." Anita replies with a nod, offering an appreciative thumbs-up.
...She can't help but notice, though, something seems to be going on with Naoko, too.
"You okay other there, Nova?" Anita asks.
And... a subtle light settles on the Svipul. She can't hear the voice... but maybe even she can feel that belief in her, just the same. Anita looks up, just briefly - and then turns her attention back to the battlefield, a satisfied look crossing her face.
As for her opponent...
"Sure, I'll take that." Anita replies to Bato with a nonchalant shrug. "I'm just sayin'... we're not doing this half-way either, y'know? If your Colonel is gonna seize the world's throat, then we're gonna bite and claw as much as we have to."
Bato - actually shoulder-checks her, and Anita grimaces and pulls hard on the Svipul's controls as the Variable Fighter is shoved backward through space, forcing the machine back under control.
"I'm okay!" Anita calls out for Rena's sake. The Svipul reaches up, then, for the beam cannon over its shoulder. It draws the Gungnir SC from its mount, a spear blade crackling to life.
"Alright, if this is the way you wanna play." Anita says. The Svipul accelerates forward, thrusting the beam spear toward Bato's Geara Zulu.
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Mobile Weapon Team with Spear Mode - Piercing Strike! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Bana-Banagher...!"
The physical hand upon her shoulder grounds her, as she takes a breath, listening. She is here with her. That's true. She knows that's true, it's concrete. She reached out to her. It's there like the spirit in the Banshee always was, except more tangible, with more warmth and kindness, she can feel her in this way.
She tries to ground herself upon her. 'Not Elpeo.' She knows, it's not her now, but perhaps she needs the reminder, with her feelings in chaos. For some reason it helps to hear the reminders. Then.
"Si, muchas cosas." Leina tells her quietly, "And I- I want want you there for every moment of them."
It's hard to shift to a defensive position right now, with this, and yet as Angelo yells at her, as the Incoms come, she manages to have the Norn grab it's Armed Armor, steadying its twitching arm, as the beams split upon the I-field, scoring the Norn time and time again under his assault. Banagher shouts for him not to talk to her, but despite it all, she forces herself to talk back.
"<I understand- I understand that you're putting- TOO MUCH on him-! And a WALL between him and you-!>" She tells him as her Incoms press her, as the Banshee's head jerks to avoid a swirling beam breaking off from blinding it, "<Angelo-! It doesn't WORK-! Trying to turn someone into a VESSEL! In the end, you can't CUT out their humanity- it's just, denial!>"
The is a shine, of such blue light near the Norn, and Leina shakes her head against the terrible rejection, to focus instead on the kindness, the validation. There's a nod, as her eyes squeeze out tears, because she knows that she wouldn't be here today, if not for a prediction of the future. A future that needed her here.
"Permanence...? You were coming to save me... when..." When she died. Through misty eyes, she nods quickly, again and again, overwhelmed. It's hard to think of someone who went through all of that losing her second chance to fighting to get to her, "... I will. I promise- It's why- it's why I came. I wish." Her eyes fall, "I wish- I'd had more time, to know you better."
She knows it's unreasonable, selfish. An expectation that she'd been there for all of them equally, everyone she helped save from that Institute.
When the light dims, she reaches out a hand, "Please-" For just a moment longer, she wants to be selfish, "-don't go."
In the end, it's what she offers, isn't it? Freedom, freedom from the burdens of guilt and relief. An offering of validation from a life she helped touch. There is a moment's pause, as she takes a breath, before something swells about her, like a building energy, an aura of power that rises up from her, and then reaches out with the freedom she offers for...
c o n n e c t i o n
The Banshee shines, as the sense of rejection is slowly but inexorably shoved away from it. A glowing maelstrom of psyco energy, it shifts back into it's form despite every attempt at interference from the Rozen Zulu. Everyone with a connection to her can feel it so clearly.
Banagher I'm with you. He won't come between us again.
And then the Norn, aglow, charges right at the Rozen Zulu, as if no amount of rejection can keep her away from Banagher, and it's becoming harder and harder for Angelo to do the same. The Revolving Launcher is put away in favor for a Mounted Saber, as it flies at his flanks. Even as Banagher insisted that the name of someone who died was Permanence, so too does Leina insist upon something different...
... but where once there was a plea, there is now resolve, as if she understood in this moment, that since Banagher was tearful, she needed to be show resolve, to be strong in a different way in this moment, to push back against Angelo's worldview in a different way.
"<His name is Thorean Dillon-! Not a vessel, not something inhuman, but a man!>"
The Norn shines more brightly as it commits to this strike, intending fully to commit to doing what she came here for, to keep Banagher alive.
"<And he NEEDS more than your childish FANTASY that he can SHOULDER THIS ERA ALONE!>"
It is also perhaps, some of the strongest evidence that she has been affected by Banagher's place in her life, to say something like this.
Leina Ashta transforms to RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn <Destroy Mode> Awakened
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Shining Advance! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Aim, taking 4464 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 52518 KTS: Your EN is now 204. KTS: Angelo Sauper retreats from the attack! KTS: Angelo Sauper successfully evades Banagher Links's Full Armor Unicorn Missile Launcher Telemetry Shot KTS: Your EN is now 204. <Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Being limited in maneuverability just means you have to make sure the enemy doesn't get to target you in the first place, so goes the philosophy of Nova Stellar. Which is a fancy way of saying 'really in their face and don't let up'. A tactic which works out, yet oddly... as taxing as using her machine's unique piloting interface can be, she finds not using it is more taxing still. The manual controls are just so unwieldy, she'll never understand why, given the choice, anyone would ever elect to pilot things that way. She won't be able to keep this up for very long at all. What she needs is... a miracle.
And a miracle indeed does occur, in the form of Permanence's appearance. While they only got to very briefly converse, this yet has a profound effect. No one had ever expressed such a pure, unquestioning belief in her miracles before. And even now, from beyond, that belief continues to echo forth. She blinks back the tears forming, resolving, "...I won't let you down... my first fan!"
Away with these manual controls! With renewed focus, Naoko mentally pushes back against the unseen barricade between her and the Sukeban. It's been weakened, she can tell. Weakened enough to push through, and reassert standard control - well, standard for her, anyway. And not a moment too soon. When the Geara Zulu slips away from her and fires, she absolutely needs the ability to instruct the machine's movement through thought in order to do that quickly enough at that close range. A smaller miracle, but it counts.
"I'm fine!" She finally answers Rena and Anita's earlier question. "Right now, I'm absolutely fine. We need a Miracle, don't we? Then, don't worry about me - count on me! This is where I shine!" The Sukeban takes its massive club in hand, pointing it towards the Royal Guardsmen.
"All that suffering, only because your leader rushed to judgement! Well then, Nova Stellar will pass judgement on you - you're nothing but a bunch of bullies! And I know exactly how to deal with bullies!"
With her club, of course - which generates an electric current as she swings it towards her previous assailant.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Rena Lancaster KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Anita Rosetta KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Rapid Reaction Squad with Electro-zap! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Leina Ashta's Shining Advance, taking 6820 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 45698 KTS: Leina Ashta has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Your EN is now 199.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Angelo's voice comes over the communications. All that anger and hate. All that belief in a hollow copy of her brother to... purge the filth. Sayla's instinct is to jab at that belief. He's already so angry, it would not take much more to push him into careless action.
But that's not what Leina's doing. Leina is trying so hard to reach him. A kindness Sayla wouldn't have offered. "Leina..."
Fine. She won't undermine that.
And then a ghost appears. A woman Sayla saw briefly, at that briefing on the Ra Mari. One of those who died in the battles trying to reclaim Leina. Wordlessly, she tightens her grip on Leina's shoulder. She feels like an intruder, an eavesdropper. As she did in her dreams when she was with Amuro. She doesn't interrupt, watching Permanence's ghost as she speaks to Leina.
And then the rejection is itself rejected. The psycho jammers fade, and the Banshee reawakens. She firms herself up.
"<Lieutenant Sauper. Right now that man is walking a path that leads to the same place it lead Char Aznable. A hollow, empty end- and he will not have the same way of cheating death that my brother did.>" The memories of Char's final moments before the miracle come to mind. "<Is oblivion the end you seek for him? Or would you have him chase something more?>" She pauses only briefly. It's familiar, somehow. Angrier, more violent, but there's a familiar strain there. A tinge of yellow from deep memories.
Her message sent, she quickly adjusts. "<Leina, Banagher, you need synchronize your attacks. If that forces an opening, Liam, I want you to take it. You can't afford to hold back.>"
More quietly, she speaks to Leina alone. "Are you sure you can keep trying, Leina?" There's concern in her voice. "...Not everyone's heart can be forced open." A warning of the risk.
But Leina has always been a kinder, gentler person than she is. Even now, she can't deny that trying to save even Angelo is a part of who Leina is.
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team blocks Anita Rosetta's Spear Mode - Piercing Strike, taking 6480 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has engaged Mobile Weapon Team! KTS: Anita Rosetta completes the Formation attack! KTS: Sayla Mass targets Leina Ashta, Banagher Links, and Liam 7-020 with Coordinate. KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass coordinates maneuvers, raising Banagher Links's Piloting! KTS: Sayla Mass coordinates maneuvers, raising Leina Ashta's Piloting! KTS: Sayla Mass coordinates maneuvers, raising Liam 7-020's Piloting! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"<Anita does,>" Liam says. Isadore stalled. Nova shouted in surprise. That makes three against... far too many. "<We're the screen, then.>" A memory wells up, and bursts like an acrid bubble. The Phenex, held in a cage like this...
"<It's like what Luio used to kidnap Rita,>" Liam says, and his stomach tightens. Sayla's voice reminds him of what's at stake, though, and he focuses on it. She's a doctor, but she's like his mother, and Koji, and Sayaka, and Swan, not the ones he knew. "<Understood, Dr. Mass!>"
Liath Macha pushes back against those INCOMs, but Angelo's guard holds. "No," Liam says. "And that's why you hate Banagher so much, isn't it?" Liam forces himself to breathe. Liath Macha jets backwards, and the Rozen breaks off, its opening foiled by the Dianthus' attack.
'... I rem-member you.'
There's something in Angelo's voice that isn't right. The way he keeps slurring and stammering. "<That Suit,>" Liam tightbeams, to his allies. "<Is it--doing something to-->" He doesn't finish the sentence. A hail of beam fire rains down on him and Lucine both. Liath Macha darts out of the way in the nick of time, twisting around and above the Rozen Zulu. Liam grits his teeth, pulls through the pressure, but Angelo's already--
"<ANGELO, STOP!>" Liam barks. He's too late. In his mind's eye, he sees those beams carving through the defenseless Unicorns, one after another--
A blue light. Tears prickle at Liam's eyes as a soul he knows only secondhand reaches out to him. "...Permanence...?" he breathes. She didn't even know him. She believes in him, anyway. She believes in all of them. Liam's wounded heart beats that much stronger for it.
'Lieutenant--!!'
'What the hell are you doing to him!?'
The other Guards are panicking. The screen's weakened enough for the afflicted Suits to fight back. "Angelo!" Liam cries, "power that thing down before it cooks your brain!" That's what's not right, isn't it? An experimental suit with horrible systems, just like Jona's-- "Please!"
Liath Macha pulls up, aligning with the Dianthus instinctually. "<Understood, Doctor,>" Liam says. He'll take the shot, if it happens. He'll burn Angelo out of that horrible suit if he has to. The CGUE II draws its beam rifle, sights on the Rozen Zulu's flank, and starts peppering it with suppressing fire. Beams flash through the void, trying to push it away from the Unicorn and Banshee. Even then, Liam grins as Banagher and Leina reassert themselves, bit by bit.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Angelo Sauper with MA-M21G Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Angelo Sauper partially guards Liam 7-020's MA-M21G Beam Rifle Shot, taking 1530 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 44168 KTS: Your EN is now 199. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Trevor Teach's Keelhaul, taking 8520 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 35648 KTS: Trevor Teach has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Your EN is now 199.
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
"'Traitorous?'" Trevor hisses, barely restrained plasma coruscating from the basket hilt of his stylized saber. Isadore's visor catches in the arcing sparklight, illuminating for a flash of an instant the face underneath. "The Sleeves are supposed to stand for spacenoids, aren't they? All Spacenoids?! The same ones you and yours stabbed in the back aboard the Ra Mari, all for what? One man's blind ambitions!? You-- nngh!"
The concentrated i-field surrounding his blade can't match the output of the Rozen Zulu's barrier. As customized as the cutlass is, it is still at its core a bog standard blade. With a final flash, the field loses cohesion and bursts, sending the Isadore reeling back, its hand smoldering from the plasma burn.
A blaze of light. He sees the triplicate cannon flare to life, and goes to throw the controls into last-minute sidestep, but the response is sluggish. A moment too sluggish. At point blank range, the Isadore is swallowed by a cascade of mega particles, disappearing into a haze of light and sublimating metal. Trevor's scream vanishes into the boom of radiation pressure and particle-particle annihilation.
And amidst the blossoming cloud of mobile suit detritus, all is quiet.
...
...
Sparks illuminate his face. Trevor leans up with a groan. His head is pounding. All around him, computer monitors are filled with chaotic static. Rejection. Rejection. The haze of emotion grips his brain in a vise. "Damnit... Izzy. I know it hurts. I know this hurts, but--" He reaches, grasping for the controls. "W-We've got to move. We need to-- we can't die here. Not yet. Come on...!"
He pulls. Nothing. The screens flicker. One by one, shutting off. Closing up. "I know it hurts," Trevor rejoins again. "This much-- emotion. I can barely handle it either, but-- you stay with me here, Izzy. Come on." He feels it. Something falling away. Closing itself off from the pain, reeling from an overwhelming onslaught of thought. Withdrawing. Withdrawing.
He's losing them. And out here, that means--
"I thought you were supposed to keep me alive, damnit! Don't leave me now! We promised, didn't we--" Three screens. Two. One. "Please, buddy, don't. At least... At least let us go out with a bang...?"
The screen flickers.
Shadows swell. The glow of the screen... fades...
Too much. Too much pain. The pain of wounds. The pain of lost limbs. Anguish. Rejection broadcast directly into the brain. He leans against the last, darkening console and closes his eyes.
And hears-- a voice. One familiar and unfamiliar. He had barely spoken to her, just passing souls in a crowd. But.
If this is now your path, walk with your head held high. Nothing is more important than your ability to choose where you sail.
His breath hitches. Trevor leans back, his hands finding the controls. "Nothing is more important, huh...?" He mutters, squeezing tight. "...Freedom. Freedom, is it...?"
"...There's still something we can do, Izzy. But... you let me handle it. This time... I'll take point." His hands tighten even further, until it hurts. It has to hurt. He needs something to anchor him while he does this. While he...
Opens. Throws himself into the bonfire of Rejection and Hatred. Screaming, he exposes his soul to the scalding pressure. Casting a shadow, protecting-- something else. He's the one who can take it. He's the one who stared into the darkness in Leina Ashta's heart and was nearly swept away by it. He survived that. He will survive this. Stronger, ever stronger, scar upon scar. As long as he doesn't look away--
--He can be Isadore's eyes--
ATTACK! BGM CHANGE: https://youtu.be/ZhhrQkDISk0
"As if you ever tried to tell anyone!?" Trevor bellows. The Isadore's shattered frame erupts from its second debris cloud of the evening. Its armor is all but gone. One leg, vaporized entirely. The frame underneath is skeletal, a hodgepodge of missmatched parts surrounding a blocky core, all burnt gunmetal black. But enough of it remains. Its claw hinges open on its one good arm. Half its face is gone, eye nothing more than a memory. That's fine.
Trevor only needs the one.
"How dare you!? Acting like the victim here-- how many people died because of your precious Commander's dream!?" It races forward on a thruster column now liberated of approximately half of the mass it was meant to carry. Acceleration tears at him, bruising soft tissue and bone alike. Isadore's broken frame charges, lunging at the Rozen Zulu to grab hold of something, anything. And then it tears, ripping whatever it might find away-- only to round again, with...
With... an explosive-tipped mining bolt grasped in its other hand, gripped tight between middle and ring fingers and braced against the palm. He thrusts, aiming for an eye, for a joint, for whatever he can find. "Calling me selfish... I can feel it, Lieutenant. Your fear. Your terror... You've got the balls to say I've never tried to learn about you-- when you're so afraid of being SEEN that it crushes everything else! You've given your everything to that man, turned yourself into a slave to his will, hiding in his shadow and given him your agency so you don't have to suffer the pain of choosing-- of being seen to choose, of having SUBSTANCE! And you've got the gall to call me a traitor, call ME selfish!? Fine! I don't hide it! I'm a selfish, traitorous bastard whose only compass is his own heart! 'Ideology' is nothing but fancy words! But--"
"At least I've got the agency to make that choice!" Trevor's voice splits with rage, with pain. Isadore's one good eye blazes-- and for an instant, Trevor's one exposed eye shares in the glow.
...As he draws back that closed claw...
And slams it into the back end of the bolt, driving it in, and detonating the explosive at point blank...!
KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad partially guards Rena Lancaster's Funnel Pod - Dawn Formation, taking 6500 damage! KTS: [Lucky] Marida Cruz's Newtype Flash activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad fails to parry Marida Cruz's Beam Saber Multiswing, taking 4140 damage! KTS: Marida Cruz has engaged Rapid Reaction Squad! KTS: Naoko Suzuki rattles Rapid Reaction Squad, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad blocks Naoko Suzuki's Electro-zap, taking 2520 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Rapid Reaction Squad!
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
His heart is pounding in his chest in erratic, chaotic beats. His throat feels dry, like he hasn't had water in days. Lights dance like little sparks at the peripheries of his vision.
He doesn't deactivate the Psycho-Jammers, even for a moment. Every second is precious. Every second brings the Colonel closer to achieving everything they wanted.
In the face of that, his wellbeing means nothing.
And sacrificing it means more than it ever had just keeping it.
Grappling with the Unicorn, Angelo's fury is obsessive and focused down toward one, irrational point. In the end, Liam isn't wrong. What is Banagher, that Angelo feels compelled to put every fault, every wrongdoing, every failure and mistake on his shoulders? What is he, that Angelo could hate him so singularly?
He's possibility.
And what has possibility of tomorrow ever been to him but<"DON'T SPEAK ABOUT HIM!">
The particle cannons burn brighter within those INCOMs. They reach an apex, even as Angelo's voice shutters, cracking with a little, quivering hitch as he speaks.
<"Why...? Why you? ... Why does he need YOU...?">
Banagher shouts Permanence name, but it's a distant, muffled thing. Her name. Of course he knows her name. How could he ever not--
A moment of hesitation. A moment of doubt. Of fear. Of guilt. A weakening ebb in the Psycho-Jammers.
And light pours through the figurative crack on Angelo Sauper's armor, until calloused, spectral, warm fingers layer over the taut tension of his hand.
"Wh-what--"
Angelo blinks. Behind the visor of his helmet, bloodshot purple eyes widen.
"W-what is this--?"
The visuals of the Rozen Zulu's panoramic cockpit suddenly shift as a voice he only heard so briefly yet can never forget echoes in the gaping wound of his heart.
"Bato--" he breathes out, and for all he keeps everyone at such a remove,
"Zechst--!"
Past the anger, past the confusion, past the fear -- it's a worry that sears brief through his straining tone like a flash in the pan when he sees those Geara Zulus, fighting, struggling.
And for what?
... So they can share the same miserable fate as him?
"S-stop it," he hisses, and for a time the whole world seems to pause, to winnow down to that moment between himself and Permanence.
"The dirt never washes away," he mumbles, bangs falling limp over his right eye. "... All that's left beneath the filth is nothing." His hand trembles, feeling another around his.
... It feels warm.
Why is this warmth so familiar...
Particle fire lances across the battlefield from the Garancieres Junior. And as they consume Psycho-Jammer after rose-like Psycho-Jammer, more cracks begin to form, synaptic connections spilling through towards a space beyond time.
In a shimmering violet landscape,
A young boy stands between his parents.
His hands in theirs, his smile bright and
beaming. Though surroundings are featureless,
countless sheets dangle all around them
as if on a laundry line, fluttering in the wind.
They are so white and pure the world
seems illuminated by their presence.
"--!"
Angelo. I'm sorry.
Angelo's reaction is immediate and visceral.
"Don't..."
His body trembles, bending forward in his seat.
<"DON'T YOU PITY ME!!">
Despite how powerfully the Unicorn clings to the Rozen Zulu, the Rozen is a large mobile suit, and has tricks of its own up its sleeves. INCOMs detach from the Rozen's forearms, propulsion igniting to shove the Rozen Zulu and Unicorn backwards and -away- from each other, as if repelling one another as literally as they do figuratively. It's a fight or flight response that sees Angelo trying to get as much distance from the Unicorn as humanly possible. As he does, those comm lines open up directly to Batos and Zechst; Angelo's voice tries its best to hide the frantic, fatigued strain. To try to sound authoritative, firm. It only manages to suppress -most- of the tremors as he transmits to them,
<"Batos -- Zechst -- withdraw from here immediately and tell The Charn to give the order to retreat! Y-you've done enou--">
And it's only then that panoramic viewports reassert themselves, and Angelo notices an explosion of rippling heat roiling across the battlefield's outskirts as the Unicorn's missile volley engulfs several of his Psycho-Jammers. His eyes widen.
And it's only then that he sees on his sensors, so many more of them failing. So many. So many--
"No," he heaves. "No!!"
The Psycho-Frame -amplifies-. The transmission REDOUBLES across those Psycho-Jammers remaining as Angelo ignores Liam's pleas and pours all of himself into the system he was entrusted with, the thing he must obsessively see through.
Even in a cruel world, their hearts resonate with each other...
"A-and it amounts to -nothing- --"
The Dianthus' shot EXPLODES across the Rozen Zulu's back. I-Fields shimmer and diminish the overall damage, but it's enough to send the large, violet machine shoving -forward-, unsettling it and its pilot enough that the Liath Macha's followup shots pepper across the Rozen's front. More and more distance is pushed between the Rozen Zulu and the two Unicorns...
But it is the Isadore, first, that closes the distance with the Rozen, as Trevor Teach's voice booms over the communication lines. Angelo blinks -- and he grasps onto the familiar sensation, fury reigniting and helping him shove the concern and vulnerability deeper down as he turns his seething gaze towards the Isadore.
<"When have you tried to listen!? How easy and convenient it must be, to just pretend the Colonel is some villain, to pretend we were trying to exploit and betray that filth on the Ra Mari! They rejected us! They conspired against us! All we did--"> his voice breaks, a coughing fit overtaking him, spittle striking the glass of his helmet as he shakes his head and heaves past it,
<"--All we did was BEAT THEM TO IT--">
The Rozen attempts to outmaneuver the Isadore. But at this point, even damaged as the Isadore is, the Rozen's pilot is in such disarray that Trevor manages to catch up to it seconds before it can escape out of range. The Isadore GRIPS-- TEARS--
And DRIVES that mining bolt into the one of the Psycho-Jammer launch bays with surprising force.
The explosion is booming. It ripples outward, a plume of rapidly dissipating force and heat. And in the aftermath...
... The damage is there, that large, purple, petal-like pillar at its shoulder a sputtering, malformed wreck.
He wants to say something, anything, to Trevor. But he can't. All he could really say is he appreciates the honesty, appreciates not having to deal with some false front...
... but any words are stifled as he sees something horrifying.
"... no."
The Banshee Norn, blooming into its fully, terrifying golden form once more.
"How..."
And not just the Norn. The Gaia Gear, the Kshatriya... all of those suits, regaining control of their functions. He feels it. He -feels- it.
He feels his Psycho-Jammers -failing- --
<"How-- HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS?!">
The Norn charges the Rozen. The Rozen, out of sheer, panicking frustration, charges the Norn. All Angelo can do as Sayla and Leina speak the truth to him, speak of the reality of Full Frontal, is shout, <"HIS N-NAME IS COLONEL FULL FRONTAL! THE VOICE OF THE DISPOSSESSED--">
But the resultant collision is uneven at best. The Norn CRASHES into the Rozen Zulu, CARVING into the other bay for the Psycho-Jammers. It sparks, and BURSTS --
<"Why... do you keep doing this...">
Just as the Rozen Zulu -shoves- that shield right in front of the Norn.
<"Why do you keep trying to steal our voice?!"
why do you keep trying to steal the only person that matters to me
The INCOMs detach. And they, and the mega particle shield, all fire all at once, at maximum power. I-Fields twist and distort in beautiful, shimmering reflective fields that disappear and reform around the Rozen Zulu...
... as countless green beams scour the battlefield, twisting and twining in difracting, bending pathways until they fill the battlefield like a thousand, thousand rose vines.
So consumed is Angelo that he doesn't even notice...
... how the seams of the Rozen Zulu begin to glow with shimmering, violet light like a heartbeat of resonating Psycho-Frame as the Psycho-Jammer system completely collapses.
/-----------------------------< SRTMOO +attacks >------------------------------\
| 1: Claw Skewer Pwr: 5000 40 EN |
| (Physical, Melee, Penetrating, Crushing) |
| 2: Claw Rake Pwr: 4500 25 EN |
| (Physical, Melee) |
| 3: Claw Shove Pwr: 4000 30 EN |
| (Physical, Melee, Repulse) |
| 4: Danse du Feu Pwr: 7200 85 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Barrier Breaker, Crushing) |
| 5: INCOM Storm Pwr: 6000 50 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Penetrating) |
| 6: INCOM Cage Pwr: 6500 49 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Accurate) |
| 7: INCOM Ambush Pwr: 5500 38 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Initiation) |
| 8: INCOM Assault Pwr: 4500 25 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged) |
| 9: Mega Particle Cannon - Burn All Filth Pwr: 6900 83 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Finisher, Ship-Killer, Barrier Breaker) |
| 10: Mega Particle Cannon - Scorched Earth Pwr: 6000 48 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Barrier Breaker) |
| 11: Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion Pwr: 4000 30 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, MAP, Rattle) |
| 12: Mega Particle Cannon - Pulsation Pwr: 5000 33 EN |
| (Beam, Ranged, Spread) |
| 13: Jam - 10 EN |
| (Ranged, Passive, Debuff, Jam L1) |
| 14: Scatter - 10 EN |
| (Ranged, Passive, Buff, Scatter L1, MAP) |
| 15: Pass - 0 EN |
| (Ranged, Passive, All-Range) |
\---< HP: 3564861612 EN: 199 (+33round|0 comm) SP: 150 Morale: 150150 >---
KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Trevor Teach with INCOM Assault! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Liam 7-020 with Danse du Feu! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Leina Ashta with Mega Particle Cannon - Scorched Earth! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Lucine Azul with Danse du Feu! KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Banagher Links with Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 91. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 150. KTS: Angelo Sauper has completed their actions for the round. Banagher Links transforms to RX-0 Full Armor Unicorn Gundam - Destroy Mode
KTS: Banagher Links has activated the ROuse Spirit Command. KTS: Banagher Links: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Banagher Links's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Banagher Links's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Angelo Sauper rattles Banagher Links, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Banagher Links blocks Angelo Sauper's Mega Particle Cannon - I-Field Diffusion, taking 960 damage! KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Trevor Teach blocks Angelo Sauper's INCOM Assault, taking 2600 damage! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta partially guards Angelo Sauper's Mega Particle Cannon - Scorched Earth, taking 3015 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 successfully Evades Angelo Sauper's Danse du Feu <Pose Tracker> Rapid Reaction Squad has posed.
Permanence's light -- radiating not from the Unicorn, in the beginning, but the Ra Mari II -- is here for everyone, though it may be said that that last mote of light settles back onto the Zentradi Monitor, pulling into the background again. She is no dog to be called, but she is Banagher's friend, her presence here to soothe and aid him.
Zechst is not so easily soothed.
<"I don't care if you all choke! You're just -- FILTH, just like the Lieutenant says! You were never worthy of standing beside us--!! If you're saying you'll bite and claw, surely you're no better than animals, by your OWN ADMISSION!"> But the accursed Gaia Gear's funnels are working again, and they come to blast Zechst, too. From every which way he is peppered by fire, and several holes in his suit are his reward. (None near the cockpit; Rena has far better control than that.) <"Ch -- Panserinos! Look out for her! That light... she's using it to subvert all the Lieutenant's efforts!"> Is that what Rena's doing? It's what Zechst accuses her of, anyway.
He's rattled by Permanence's light of hope, though, even as her encouragement makes a home in his bones. His tomahawk can't metch Marida's slashes, all targeted by Zinnerman's keen eye; their teamwork sees him forced back, a long gash down his innocence-white machine. He launches himself forward, with a mighty swing back towards the Kshatriya's wings, as if to carve off her own funnels before she realises how that blue light is harming Lieutenant Sauper's efforts to curtail them.
But he has to bring his shield up before he can carve in too fiercely, because a Miracle's arrived. <"Bullies?! How DARE you call the Lieutenant something like that! The bully's my own father, running me out of my home! Leaving me with nowhere to go! Do you know who saved me, then?!"> He RAMS his shield into the Sukeban, sailing in shoulder-first. <"You don't know a thing about what you're saying, so just GET OUT OF OUR WAY!">
Just as Trevor says... Zechst never said this to anyone, while he was on the Ra Mari II.
Indeed, he never said it to Trevor or Zinnerman, either.
But Zechst is younger than Angelo; he has not had as many years to close himself off, to shut himself up. It is not quite the same titanic effort, for him to scream the truth to them. Perhaps it's sad, that for all of that he still cannot hear the first time Angelo says his name.
It's not until the comm link opens --
<"Lieutenant! Of course I'll tell them to pull out -- but -- but, I -- I can't leave you to fight them all alone!"> He sags forward, in his harness, his swoopingly round hair bouncing forward to brush the inside of his helmet. <"Please, let me help a little more! You're burning up...! It's not supposed to be this way, is it?!">
The light is purple, not red, but is it any wonder he'd be afraid?
He thought Angelo was... so blessed.
(And that young man, so consumed with concern for Lieutenant Sauper, may for once in his life need Bato's help fulfilling his orders.)
KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad targets Marida Cruz with Beam Tomahawk Combo! KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad targets Naoko Suzuki with Forearm Shield Shoulder Check! KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Rena Lancaster KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.
Bato feels something choking in the back of his throat. Is it whatever -- happened there? Feedback of some kind? Anti-anti-psionic equipment? He can only speculate and he can't do much of that even as he feels the impact of the Geara Zulu's shoulder against the VF.
"Gh-- you-- you're daring to compare the Colonel to THEM," Bato chokes out but even this feels somehow incoherent. His heart is pounding. His head feels swimming, inside of the helmet of his normal suit. Sweat is pouring off his skin. He feels the nearness of something. Like some kind of black epiphany, and --
Much has been said and written of the binding power of love. That, and other noble emotions, have indeed performed wonders. It seems to this historian, however, that all too little has been said of the effectiveness of pure hate as a cementing material.
-- the heat rises upwards -- and he answers Rena.
"To understand WHAT."
His eyes widen. That sense of choking, of congestion, is clearing up. It's liberating. A rising sensation from deep within the adrenal system. "To understand the law of force against force?! All of your blathering is nothing more than an effort to appeal for mercy! Even now, arrayed with your damn stolen ships and your prototypes and your Variable Frames and your damned white horse come anew over there, even NOW you fear us -- you fear the Colonel --"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuVnZZ1sFIc
"BECAUSE YOU KNOW HE'S RIGHT AND YOU'RE TOO GUTLESS TO ADMIT IT!!" And with that, Bato s c r e a m s and it's liberating, really, especially when he begins to accelerate forwards. He's weaving and jinking and it really is quite arbitrary, almost impossible to read because he's not even THINKING about it.
"You might HATE him you might OPPOSE him maybe you're full of military honor maybe we blasted one of YOUR comrades and that doesn't change a single thing about the situation at large!! You maniacs should have JOINED US, but instead you're just throwing your weight behind the Federation, however much you lie about it to yourselves!!"
And then Bato's head turns slightly at another voice. "Oh, you need a miracle now?! You need a miracle to overcome us? Hanh? What about -- what about JUSTICE! Or your -- your -- ghh!! This isn't fucking Tarabaman!!!" And that is when Bato suddenly vectors inwards, aiming to swing round his beam tomahawk and carve pieces from the Gaia Gear Alpha while screaming without words.
At this point Anita intervenes; the Variable Fighter smashes into the side of the Geara Zulu, smashing it out of its assault range as Bato curses and reaches upwards to try and grasp onto the Variable Fighter with one of the Mobile Suit's hands - "Play?! This isn't play!! Do you think we're screaming like this because we're having fun!?" Unfortunately for Bato, it's rather hard to get a grasp at this angle.
However, he does have an alternative plan, which is to bring round the beam tomahawk and reverse its grip to stab downwards, followed by a cruel inwards slash, to try and carve the wings off the VF.
"Lieutenant Sauper!! They're afraid of you!!" Bato cries out. From his tone it is a thing of glory. IS it a thing of glory, ultimately?
But what the Lieutenant is saying is -
"Retreat?!" Bato shouts. "But -- these -- Where are we retreating --" That thrill of malice is too close and too fresh. It probably spares the other members of this task force from a beam rifle spree -- small favors. "Damn it - Zechts, what's happening to him--!?"
KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Rena Lancaster with Beam Tomahawk Combo! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team targets Anita Rosetta with Beam Tomahawk Thrust! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad enervates Naoko Suzuki, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Naoko Suzuki parries Rapid Reaction Squad's Forearm Shield Shoulder Check, taking 930 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Disruptor activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rapid Reaction Squad's Enervator activates, causing Deject! KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has engaged Naoko Suzuki! KTS: Rena Lancaster's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Rena Lancaster parries Mobile Weapon Team's Beam Tomahawk Combo, taking 1350 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has engaged Rena Lancaster! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Mobile Weapon Team's Beam Tomahawk Thrust, taking 1800 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team has engaged Anita Rosetta! KTS: Marida Cruz has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Marida Cruz retreats from the attack! KTS: Marida Cruz's Beam Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Marida Cruz fails to react to Rapid Reaction Squad's Beam Tomahawk Combo, taking 2250 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul successfully evades Angelo Sauper's Danse du Feu
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena smiles a little when Banagher says he'll be depending on her. She remembers that afternoon, too. She smiles at his cut-in on her display -- then she nods.
She has the royal guards to contend with.
"I... I'll be okay!" Rena answers Anita, though she doesn't sound completely convinced of that. It feels a little like one sense being torn away. It's one of the Gaia Gear Alpha's strongest tools, and it proves silent.
"Gaia Gear," she says, not transmitting. "Come on..."
Then she flips her transmitter back on -- and she nods. "I understand, Captain Zinnerman. I'll put it to good use!" She hesitates, though, when she sees Nova's movements sutter. "Nova--are you okay over there?"
She's still worried, after their recent conversation.
"Grip it by the throat and choke the life out of it!" Rena says to Bato. "It's no different than the Federation! It's just a change of who is doing the choking and who struggles to even breathe!"
Rena sucks in a sharp breath as Bato charges for Anita's VF. She tries to send the Gaia Gar Alpha flying forward, but the Geara Zulu fires two blasts of energy -- and the white Mobile Suit jukes to the side, blitzing away. She can't get to her.
The Psychoframe won't answer. She feels frustration bubbling up. "Annie!"
It's a familiar, warm light that settles over the battlefield -- and briefly, over the Gaia Gear Alpha. Rena's brown eyes widen; that frustration vanishes. "Permanence...?" she asks softly. "I... I understand. I'll do my best...!"
And the Gaia Gear Alpha explodes with green light, as Rena's consciousness races outward. Past the Gaia Gear Alpha, across the battlefield, and throughout her Mobile Suit at the same time. A tide of green motes of light explode out of the white Mobile Suit, raining down after it.
Data floods across her screen. Rena's eyes, alight with reflected green light, track it with an eerie speed. "Thank you, Captain Zinnerman. I won't let you down!"
A breath, then: "Funnels," Rena cries out, "GO!"
The back of the Gaia Gear ignites. Streams of vapor erupt as a dozen cannister-shaped funnels erupt outward -- and with Permanence there, her mind grips them. She feels them -- and sends them careening towards Bato's Mobile Suit.
Three shoot around him, at different angles, and fire -- lances of beam energy slashing at the Mobile Suit from a trio of different directions.
Another three rush out for Zechst. They circle around him, gleaming brightly. Then they fire, and lances of beam energy come crashing down for him.
"Hopefully... they'll help Lieutenant Sauper understand!"
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Strike Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"A-All right!" Rena answers Anita. There's still a hint of worry in her voice. But, she believes in her; she has to remind herself of that much.
Then, she looks at Naoko -- blinks -- and smiles, a little. "We could use one if you've got one!"
She grits her teeth at Zechst's words -- and Rena shakes her her head, sharply. "Stop calling us filth! How can you help spacenoids, help anyone, if all you can do is see yourselves as better than them?"
She feowns at what Zechst says -- a pang of sympathy -- and then she tenses. And then Bato shouts at her -- screams -- and her eyes narrow. "Full Frontal," she says, her voice tense, "isn't right... and it's what he is willing to do to people that scares me!"
The Gaia Gear Alpha draws a beam saber. The blade of energy ignites, a brilliant gold like the Hyaku Shiki's, and then swings it up. It slams into the beam tomahawk; lightning leaps between the beam blades, as she only just holds the weapon backward.
"And the Federation turned on us... just like you did!" she says. "The answer can't be, 'Join us or die!'"
She shoves backward with the beam saber. Then, a burst of green motes explodes up around the fist of the Gaia Gear -- and the beam saber, until it's a field of green light. The white Mobile Suit rockets forward, even as Bato lays into Anita's VF.
"Open your eyes!" Rena shouts. "And see what's really happening here!"
Her beam saber slashes for the head of the Geara Zulu, trying to chop through with a single stroke -- and leaves a trail of brilliant green light in her wake.
KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Mobile Weapon Team with Beam Saber Cleave! KTS: Rena Lancaster has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Leina's voice reaches Banagher, easing his heart just as Permanence's presence did. Golden eyes widen at the Banshee's glow. <"Leina..."> He breathes -- this time, the pure, loving awe coming to rest in his soul. <"We're never alone.">
Banagher hasn't heard Full Frontal's name before. It's... oddly normal. Hearing it is uncomfortable, somehow. <"I saw, in his own memories! Full -- Thorean was just a man they performed surgery and conditioning on! He's no different than you or me!">
Illuminated by the sunlit radiance of the Banshee, the Unicorn comes back to life. Her missiles have done their job -- the Psycho-Jammer's cage is broken. Verdant green light rises to match her sister, and as the Gundam folds out into her full stature, she lets out a psychic cry. It echoes across the battlefield, now a herald of possibility and hope, where once it represented rage.
<"I'm ready!"> Banagher replies to Sayla. The Unicorn holds out a hand, and the Hyper Javelin flies into her grasp. Holding it across her body with both hands, the Unicorn charges toward the Rozen Zulu, no longer impeded. Blue starlight trails, pursuing Angelo, implacable and unstoppable.
Banagher doesn't have to tell Leina his plan. She knows. They're in perfect harmony, now, united to a new degree by the light of Possibility shining from their Gundams. A new level of depth to their bond, a shimmering, beautiful connection spurred on by the wealth of Psychoframe surrounding the two Newtypes.
To pilot a Unicorn is to be changed. If he must be changed, let it be with her. They'll go together.
<"He doesn't need me!"> Banagher calls out, light glimmering within his cockpit, just as it glimmers without. <"If anything -- he needs you, Angelo, someone who can guide him back to the light! You're the only one who loves him enough to save him!">
Even as the Rozen Zulu retreats, the Unicorn charges after it. This has to end. Banagher feels the finality of the moment deep in his soul -- almost as though he's carried along by the tide of fate. Hyper Javelin gleaming, the Beast of Possibility trusts in her sister to provide an opening.
Angelo's INCOM's fire, fire, fire, but the Unicorn is undeterred. Her I-fields turn the weapons away, leaving only minor scorches against her admittedly-damaged white armor. Taking advantage of the opening the Banshee will, surely, provide...
The Hyper Javelin is stabbed forward, spurred on by the speed of the Unicorn's flight. She aims for the Rozen Zulu's shoulder, seeking to sever it from Angelo's machine entirely.
But that purple glow... It intertwines with the green radiance of the Unicorn. Connected by Banagher's weapon, a bridge forms between the two machines, and their two pilots.
Buoyed by the calm and love of Permanence of Leina, Banagher lets his eyes slip closed. The Unicorn does not attack again. With all the kindness he can muster, Banagher spiritually reaches out to Angelo, appearing before the other man in a shining green form.
Lieutenant Angelo. You're killing yourself in that machine -- please, stop. You don't have to fight anymore. We can figure this out together. We can find a way to save everyone.
A hand stretches out, green and perfect. Banagher's eyes are so soft, so entreating and earnest.
Take my hand. You don't have to be alone. We can change things!
KTS: Banagher Links targets Angelo Sauper with Hyper Beam Javelin: Totality! KTS: Banagher Links has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team parries Rena Lancaster's Beam Saber Cleave, taking 675 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has engaged Mobile Weapon Team! KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Banagher Links's Hyper Beam Javelin: Totality, taking 6100 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 29548 KTS: Banagher Links has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Banagher Links roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Your EN is now 91.
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
Angelo calls for his Guardsmen to retreat. Zinnerman frowns, opening communication lines to the Geara Zulus.
"Ade. Panserinos. Your loyalty is commendable, but I suggest you heed your Commander's orders. He needs you both alive."
No, that's not right. Zinnerman pulls up the readouts of the Rozen Zulu, watching that aura rise from it. If Liam is right...
"He means to sacrifice himself for Colonel Frontal's sake. The Federation might celebrate such a fate... but I would grieve it, and would the Colonel even acknowledge it?"
He grunts. "Hate is no way to live - it is merely a drive to seek an end." It was for him, after all. "I would much prefer none of you died needlessly, and found something better to live for - and saved him, too."
KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman targets Mobile Weapon Team and Rapid Reaction Squad with Shock. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
The Kshatriya's wings angle forward to push Marida back out of the way of the beam tomahawk, the attack grazing her front. She's getting used to the jammer, but she's still a bit off. As Zechst speaks of his relationship with the Lieutenant, it rings...so true to Marida. He's where she used to be.
"Zechst Ade. I understand your situation all too well. I had even less than you before I was saved by the Captain. But to repay the saving of your life by turning yourself into a tool is a waste of that life they worked so hard to save! And anyone who would want you to do that never cared about your life in the first place! Zechst Ade! Live for yourself!"
Four beam sabers eject from the Kshatriya's wings, grabbed by four small arms to join the two already in the unit's main arms. It leans in and lunges forward, angling its wings in such a way as to cause a natural rotation, spinning faster and faster, all six sabers held out in a whirlwind of blades and rushing into the Geara Zulu to deliver a flurry of slashes.
KTS: Marida Cruz targets Rapid Reaction Squad with Beam Saber Corkscrew Drive! KTS: Marida Cruz has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
'I'm alone.' 'And I deserve to be alone.'
It wasn't so long ago that she said that, and suddenly a certain sense of joy swells in her heart, as if it feels more clarion clear than ever, that it's true, that she can ignore the insecurities they programmed within her own heart. "<... Never.>"
It's a subtle thing, how Sayla's advice refocuses her, now that she can feel Banagher again more clearly, can feel everyone. How she begins to shift to adjust to complement him in this fight. Yet, she asks a simple question. Is it worth it to keep trying?
"I saw his mother's face, after- it was clear something horrible had happened to her." She comments, softly to Sayla, she is not making excuses, merely telling her why she feels she must, "He's been hurt so much by the horrors of this era."
She doesn't know by which specific things, but she doesn't need that knowledge to understand that Angelo had been hurt by the state of Spacenoids. It's small wonder he would lose hope on anything inhuman to fix things, when humanity has so much filth within it. She's seen it.
She's thought she was one of those filthy things, but she understands now, no matter how much she feels that even now- it's not true. It was a false bill of goods. Leina can feel his disdain, his disbelief, as the Psyco-jammers fail, "<BECAUSE I HAVE TO!>" She shouts, in reply, as if it encompasses everything about this day. When she should be at home, recovering.
And instead she is fighting a battle such as this. Part of her thinks of the First War, with Judau on Side 3 and her on Earth. Watching, worrying from afar after everything he had been through. Yet she never asked him to come home, never asked him to give up, never articulated those feelings.
She cheered him on to the end.
Why does she keep doing this though? Why does she keep trying to steal 'our' voice!? Because she feels it more clearly. It's not really 'our' is it? Angelo has no feeling of solidarity with the filth.
"<You have a voice of your own Angelo! USE IT! The only thing I'm stealing from you is DELUSION!>"
The Incoms detach, and the Norn sees it, in time it twists around, in spiraling flight using the Armed Armor, as its countless green beams pour over it, the full Psycoframe unit devouring many, even as others scour it across its armoring, the Beam Saber vanishes, even as she twists in flight, drawing the Revolving Launcher.
"<I am telling you the same thing now - that I was really telling you back then. If he is important to you then- PROTECT HIM! What's more important to you, HIM? Or your MAKE BELIEVE of what he is?>"
Banagher and her are most certainly in synch, but she doesn't need a verbal warning, he just feels the moment, the right moment to act, he understands precisely what she intends to do.
Banagher. Now.
The Norn pulls the trigger, and in that moment, Angelo will see spherical shapes hurtling right for his Rozen Zulu from the cylinder, far too quickly, and far too close. If he doesn't move fast, they will attach to his shield, blinking ordnance, telegraphing what will happen next.
"Look away, Mom." Leina tells Sayla verbally however, since her helmet's shading isn't quite as good. When they detonate, it is a flare of light, point blank in the Rozen Zulu's sensors, an explosion that aims to consume his shield outright.
More important however is the flashbang of light, meant to blind Angelo just enough, just momentarily. Since he closes himself off to everyone, certainly he will be blind to the intent too in predicting it beyond his more mundane senses tell him. She knows precisely what Banagher will do next with that Hyper Javelin...
... which is why she knows that after the attack, he will reach out his hand. And her feelings support him, by reaching out as well, even if it is his hand that is being offered.
You're not filth Angelo, and you never were. This era just hurt you, you and your mother.
There is a sorrow in her feelings, but there's a distinct lack of pity. They come from someone who knows what it is like to get hurt, to be hurt. To push past those feelings that take one into the pit, and to push one's self forward for the sake of the people in her life.
You can do better, for him, for both of you. You just have to take the first step.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Revolving Launcher MGaP Flash Barrage! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Angelo tries to rebuke them, deny their words, as he pushes himself closer and closer to the brink. Driving the Rozen Zulu further and further. He feels deaf to them, as his whole plan collapses.
Leina lays out her reasoning. He's been so hurt by the era, huh? It makes sense then, why Leina would keep trying. "...Okay. I'll support you. Just... be careful, alright?" That hand of hers has stayed on Leina's shoulder. An anchor, a bolster both- and for Sayla a reminder that Leina is still there, and still her. The grip is for her just as much as it is for Leina. "Keep trying. I'll let you know if I think you should stop."
"<No one person speaks for the dispossessed.>" Sayla's voice is calm, and controlled. She can hear Angelo's stammering, the way he's pushing himself. "<No one voice can carry all the pain and hurt in this world. There's too much of it.>" Leina wants so badly to reach him, even as Sayla fears it's far too late. "<Addressing the world's hurts is slow, harsh work. What will you say to the dispossessed who come from his goals? I'm not talking about even the Earthnoids. What about the spacenoids he leaves behind? Or is it only those who join the Sleeves who matter?>"
She doesn't think it will work. Banagher tries desperately to reach him. She can feel it, radiating off that green lit unit. "...Banagher..."
She is interrupted when Leina asks her to look away, closing her eyes as she does so. The flash grenade goes off, and she can see the light through her eyelids, even if it's dulled. But... it's too cautious now. They are losing time. Sayla shakes her head. "Leina. The only chance you have to reach him is if he survives this. Right now, he'll fight us with everything he's got." Maybe she's too cynical, or giving up too early.
Maybe she simply just values Leina's survival over Angelo's. It would hardly be a surprise.
Maybe she's worried Banagher is going to get himself killed fighting. Also a fair conclusion.
"<Aim for the limbs, and sever the incoms,>" come Sayla's orders over the radio to Liam and Lucine. Her coice is cold, with that steel that has come from experience. You can't save everyone. She'll try to give them the best chance...
But when it comes down to it, Angelo and the Royal Guard aren't the people she's here for.
"...I'm sorry, Leina. This fight needs to end now. We can't draw it out any longer. Try and disable it."
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Leina Ashta, Liam 7-020, and Lucine Azul with All-Out. KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass orders an all-out attack, raising Leina Ashta's Skill! KTS: Sayla Mass orders an all-out attack, raising Lucine Azul's Skill! <Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Something's happening, beyond the Royal Guard that block the way. Though she can't entirely identify it, Naoko can feel that things are not under control there. That Angelo is losing it, moreso than usual. Whatever the reasons for it, she can't really bring herself to consider that any less than good news, as things stand. Whatever he was doing to cause trouble for her and others has fallen apart. She can fully move properly again.
Still, the Guard persist, and dig in their heels to defend their leader. Admirable loyalty, perhaps. But misplaced, in Naoko's estimation. She's not unsympathetic, learning the misfortune of the man she's fighting. She has a complicated relationship with her parents herself, but as it isn't a hostile one, she considers herself fortunate by comparison. But it doesn't change anything. The reasons for following the wrong path don't make the followed path any less wrong.
Held sideways, the Sukeban's club forms an effective barrier between the Arm Slave and the Gear Zulu's shoulder-shield. Though forced back by the impact, it yet remains in close proximity. As for getting out of the way, "I refuse!" Now that she's free to use her full arsenal, she calls upon her remote weaponry: "Saucers!" The Arm Slave's own shoulder-shields detach upon the command, spinning rapidly as they fly towards Zechst's Geara Zulu, chasing and harrying the machine as Naoko speaks.
"I know exactly what I'm saying! Your story isn't unique or surprising, it's always the same one: you were bullied, so you became a bully yourself! You don't know any other way to feel big except to make others feel smaller! Is that really something to be proud of?!"
The Sukeban's remote weapon assault grows in intensity as they add beam fire to the mix as well, though the biggest danger is still the physical impact with the buzzsaw-like weapons. Naoko is ready to pull back if the enemy will, but until then... "Repent and do better, or face HEAVEN'S FURY!"
KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Rapid Reaction Squad with Heaven's Fury! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayla Mass orders an all-out attack, raising Liam 7-020's Skill! KTS: Leina Ashta rattles Angelo Sauper, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Leina Ashta's Revolving Launcher MGaP Flash Barrage, taking 5500 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 24048 KTS: Your EN is now 91. <Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
"That's just it! THAT'S THE PROBLEM!" Trevor shouts. Anger is easy. So, so easy. Especially when you're shoving your face directly into the psychic equivalent of a power sander. Or an explosion. Speaking of:
Isadore's spike explodes. Being in the immediate viscinity, Isadore itself is blasted back, clear out of range.
"When have I tried to listen...?" Trevor snarls. "When have you? Those people aboard the Ra Mari, most of them are spacenoids too! All of this, the damn mutiny, all of those deaths, could have been averted if all of YOU had listened! The rest of us did! We shared their pain, helped them when they needed it-- and for that, we were welcomed. You were rejected because you never tried to see them as equals. Every other Sleeves officer on that ship acted like they were the only real spacenoids in the solar system! How could that attitude not cause friction!? There wasn't even an attempt to reach across the gap-- and we were guests on THEIR ship! They came to save Palau, we owed them and then spat in their face, of course they'd hate us, they had every reason to!"
"So tell me, Lieutenant-- if the Colonel is some champion of the downtrodden--" Beams ignite. The Isadore dances, its movements lighter as the psychic storm abates. Even then, it can't dodge a field of fire this dense, but what it does do is redirect the damage. Push it to areas that can still take it. Trevor's brain burns, he grits his teeth until it hurts, even as the Psycho Jammer comes apart at the seams. "--Why does he shit on anybody who doesn't kiss the ground he walks on!? I don't need to pretend a single damn thing. Full Frontal has acted like an ass, and too many people following him have acted like asses, and you're here complaining about being hated? What have you done to give them reasons to like having you around? 'Oh, I didn't kill them in their own house!' 'I let them see what a True Spacenoid looked like!' Fuck off!"
Beams rake across Isadore's armor. The mobile suit lunges into it, absorbing the shots with the thick plating of its pockmarked claw. "I've had it up to here with that elitist bullshit! I'm from the stardamned Asteroid Belt! We're about as Spacenoid as you can get without being from Jupiter, and somehow that's still trash to your Colonel-- just because I decided I didn't want to be a dick!"
His honesty is-- Refreshing, Angelo might think.
Honestly, Trevor just feels like he badly, BADLY needs to get all of this off his chest. But if that knocks some sense into Angelo's head, then maybe it's worth it.
The scissor unhinges. Vents across Isadore's body burn blue as its reactor goes into the redzone, overcharging what capacitors aren't already burnt out. "Maybe Banagher is right, maybe you can get better. Fine! Step one! Look good, long look into a mirror--" Its claw hinges open, and it lunges--
Not to crush. Just to grip.
And then, to discharge a truly prodigious quantity of electricity into the Rozen Zulu. "--And get over this asshole self-image you've built yourself into! FIGURE YOURSELF OUT, ANGELO SAUPER!"
KTS: Trevor Teach targets Angelo Sauper with Plasma Scissor! KTS: Trevor Teach has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman shocks Rapid Reaction Squad, reducing its Morale significantly. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Trevor Teach's Plasma Scissor, taking 4371 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 19677 KTS: Trevor Teach has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Your EN is now 91. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Marida Cruz rattles Rapid Reaction Squad, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad fails to evade Marida Cruz's Beam Saber Corkscrew Drive, taking 5720 damage! KTS: Marida Cruz repulses Rapid Reaction Squad, forcing it to disengage. KTS: [Mirage] Rapid Reaction Squad's Advanced Mobility activates, and it slips into a mirage. KTS: Rapid Reaction Squad parries Naoko Suzuki's Heaven's Fury, taking 0 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Rapid Reaction Squad!
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Angelo orders his subordinates to retreat, and for a moment, Liam hopes that Permanence has gotten through. She has, but Angelo has responded by doing what he does best: doubling down on everything. The Rozen Zulu endures punshing fire, losing both of those rose-like bit racks in quick succession. The suppressed machines are flaring back to life, and then some.
And as the Psycho-Jammer field falls, Angelo unleashes hell. Brilliant green beams twist through space, forcing Liath Macha to jet off. The machine is blisteringly fast, and it needs every last bit of speed as it races the unfolding I-fields. The beams come alarmingly close at least thrice, but the CGUE II stays one step ahead, until the field is relatively clear. Liam takes a full breath, and shakes his head. His ribs ache.
Thorean, Liam thinks. Where did he hear that name?
"<I hear you, Dr. Mass.>" He hears that steel in her voice. It reminds him of how Guy spoke when he told him about how he had to kill the Zondar, all of them, because they were dead-set on their objective.
"<Lucine,>" Liam says, "<we need to cut him out of that thing before it fries him! It's overloading!>" A pause. "<No--it's like what happened at Ra-Shalom!>" A Psychoframe resonance.
"<Angelo, we're getting you out of there! Hold still!>" There's nothing he can say that the others haven't said, so he feels. Raw determination floods through Liam as Liath Macha jets forward and down, dropping at the Rozen Zulu from above. It holds its beam glaive--spear-shaped, and tremendously bright--with both hands. The machine drives the weapon at the Sleeves machine's wounded left shoulder, first to stab--and then, as the blade shifts--to carve away the limb, the back jets, anything Liam can cut through.
KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Angelo Sauper with JS-F03A 'Gae Buidhe' Beam Glaive - Run Through! KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Suberoa Zinnerman shocks Mobile Weapon Team, reducing his Morale significantly. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Rena answers her. She's still worried - that much is evident in her voice. For now, she just has to be here for her. ...And if that means fighting extra hard so she has something to latch onto, then... that's fine.
Naoko says she's fine - so Anita nods. If she says that, then she'll trust her for now.
"Sure do. We're counting on you, Nova!" Anita replies.
Zechst counters her statement, and Anita shrugs. She does feel some sympathy for what he says... but right now, she can only let that go so far.
"It's only natural, isn't it? When someone threatens you and what you care about, tries to control you... You fight back, with everything you've got. Nothing's more human than that." Anita replies.
Anita crashes into Bato's Geara Zulu - and he retaliates by grabbing on. The Svipul twists in his grasp, arm raised to intercept the Beam Tomahawk with its shield - and so too does the Pinpoint Barrier flare to life. Shield and barrier flicker dangerously as the beam tomahawk bites into both, digging and cutting deep into armor. It's dangerous - but not deep enough to clip her wings.
"Nah." Anita says. "I think you're screaming 'cause the blood's rushing to your head. If we fear your Colonel, it's only 'cause we think he's a dangerous man who really needs to be stopped."
She shakes her head.
"But if you want me to get serious... That, I can do." The Variable Fighter spins to break the grasp and retreats back, opening fire with vulcans to give herself some space. As she moves, the Gungnir SC is returned to its mount before the machine flips backwards. The missile hardpoints reveal themselves - sending a wave of missiles. It's another distraction, giving her enough time to draw her gun pod. She takes aim - and simultaneously peppers his general area with gatling fire and bursts from her mounted beam cannon.
"If you wanna retreat... that's fine with me! I ain't gonna stop you." She calls out.
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Mobile Weapon Team with A Little Bit of Everything! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Liam 7-020 anchors Angelo Sauper, forcing him into close range. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Liam 7-020's JS-F03A 'Gae Buidhe' Beam Glaive - Run Through, taking 5610 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 14067 KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Liam 7-020 roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Your EN is now 91. <Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
< "..... they're.... down." > It may be odd that Lucine only notices that the psycomm-jamming has now stopped; she's been too focused on the battle itself. Of dodging through the treacherous space growing tighter with every turn.
Of the battlefield, covered in the spectral roses of a single soul that screams over the injustices done to him, and what he (Full Frontal) deserves.
Of a field of violet, where a young boy is with his parents, where the sheets flutter painfully white in a breeze.
Tears pool at the corners of her widened eyes.
She's not alone in this sentiment. Banagher's heart weeps gold, as Liam's cries from resonant phantom injuries. She feels them through her focus on her connections to them both, then Leina's sense of resolution. Sayla's grim resolve to see things through.
The young woman who not too long ago stood in the way of an Angel (and paid the price for it in morale) does not hesitate. A mobile suit's arms are replaceable. A human's... less so.
The Dianthus swoops in, silver glaive at the ready, held raised over its antlered head.
She slices down, on one of the Rozen Zulu's arms.
Any good gardener knows to cut away the rot to enable the core of a plant to possibly survive.
< ".... Too wrapped in the thorns of your anger to see the garden your steps have created... " >
A rose is no exception.
KTS: Lucine Azul targets Angelo Sauper with CL0-V3 Glaive Shine! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to react to Lucine Azul's CL0-V3 Glaive Shine, taking 3975 damage! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 10092 KTS: Lucine Azul has engaged Angelo Sauper! KTS: Your EN is now 91. KTS: Mobile Weapon Team retreats from the attack! KTS: Mobile Weapon Team fails to evade Anita Rosetta's A Little Bit of Everything, taking 4500 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
There is still skill behind the movements of the Rozen Zulu's INCOMs, but it's different. Panicked. Angelo strives doggedly for a certain level of elegance in the way he fights that often conceals the savagery of it. But this?
This is like an animal backed into a corner, choosing to fight as the most primal instincts kick in.
But that doesn't mean sense has left him. No...
-- but -- but, I -- I can't leave you to fight them all alone!
... it's still painfully, palpably there.
"..."
In the lull between the firing rate of the Rozen Zulu's weapons, Angelo closes his eyes. The INCOMs float, still unspooled from their limbs, as he tries his best to get his breathing under control. He tries his best to look presentable. But in the end...
Please, let me help a little more!
<"... What on earth are you talking about? Help me? By spitting in the face of my orders?">
He can't bring it under control.
<"You CAN'T HELP ME if you can't even follow ORDERS. FALL BACK IMMEDIATELY!">
As angry as Angelo Sauper is, he has always tried to treat his subordinates well, if always from a remove. But now... now...
<"I -- I have... no use for you here! Do you understand that?! I don't WANT you here! LEAVE!">
... He doesn't have time to treat Zechst with the respect he deserves. Not when every bit of experience is telling him one thing:
The tide has turned. They've lost.
So why does he not retreat, too?
...
Perhaps the answer is in that Gundam in the distance.
That Gundam he hates as much as he fears.
These are those last, lingering moments before the Psycho-Frame within the Rozen Zulu begins to shine. It's a dull ebb, at first, like the first little water spouts popping out of the cracks in the concrete. He doesn't notice, as the mono-eye of the Rozen swings around, trying to get an idea of where its enemies are. The voices of Leina and Sayla crackling over the comms draws the mono-eye's attention upwards.
Leina talks about him having a voice -- and the response she gets is a bitter, queasy laugh. As if the very idea was preposterous. As if there was no way someone like him could ever be anything than what he is.
But it's as Sayla questions his Full Frontal -- questions his commitment -- that violet eyes narrow.
His lips part to decry her. To decry anyone who doesn't see Full Frontal for what he is. To Angelo, now? The rest of the world can burn. Nothing in it is worth saving. No one. ... no one...
But as those lips part...
What's more important to you, HIM? Or your MAKE BELIEVE of what he is?
Angelo's eyes widen.
For a moment, he is stuck, unable to process the complex knot of emotions those questions leave with him.
... And that moment of indecision costs him, as the Banshee Norn unleashes that flash bang.
<"What--?!">
There is a burst. A blinding flash of light sears at already weakening eyes, blinding Angelo even as the cockpit starts to rapidly dim to compensate. <"Damn you--">
And then he feels it. A pulse of purple sentiment, drifting across the battlefield.
You're not filth Angelo, and you never were. This era just hurt you, you and your mother.
<"--hgk--!">
The violet light of the Rozen Zulu's Psycho-Frame brightens, and pulses, like the beat of a shining heart. Within its cockpit, that violet light illuminates Angelo too, working past the haze of his blinded, teary-eyed vision.
The fake skies of Globe City are above you. The Federation
soldiers are upon you. Your father is the first to go. You
don't see it, but you hear it. Loud thunderclaps of sound
that hurt your ears. The sound of something wet and meaty
collapsing. Your mother manages to hide you. She's not so
fortunate.
The father fades from the landscape. The boy
clings onto his mother's hand with both of his.
Her grip is weak.
"What... what is h-happening--"
And like the first domino pushed, everything else comes within a matter of moments.
Trevor's scathing words and harsh truths rail numbly against the back of Angelo's mind, felt and heard as the Isadore lunges and grips upon the Rozen Zulu. Electricity discharges through the Rozen, shorting systems, making holographic alarms pop up in a panicked flurry of flashes. All Angelo can make is a strange, strangled sound straddling the line between confusion and fear as that light pulses brighter still.
"... don't..."
Liam and Lucine are next. One assures him he'll be saved in a way that makes Angelo flinch with kneejerk revulsion and distrust. The other offers understanding in a way that Angelo cannot help but connect to even when he does not want to. Together, they work to carved away one of the Rozen's arms, driving so deep down into that armored, I-Field sheathed limb that it barely hangs on, rendered limp and useless.
Upon contact, the space beyond time bleeds through more, another spout popping past the cracks.
You have a new father now. That's what your mother says. Her
words are empty and distant. Her stare is hollowed out.
Whenever you try to speak to her, it's like she cannot hear you.
She cannot understand the words you are saying.
Your new father is so very tall. Like a great terrifying tower,
casting his inescapable shadow over you. When he is unhappy, you
know it. And he is rarely happy.
The mother drops the boy's hand. Her hand falls
limp and lifeless at her side. No matter how hard
he tries to grasp onto hers with both hands, her
fingers always slip out of his.
The violet glow grows brighter still.
"... don't look at me..."
... And then the Unicorn approaches.
Angelo Sauper's eyes widen.
The Rozen Zulu starts to back away. Something trembling out of his lips, a panicked gasp as he tries to retreat, firing the Rozen's last remaining INCOM at the glowing, green form of the Unicorn. That spectre -- that abomination -- that thing that's cost him everything -- that thing that dares to say her pilot can have everything Angelo never could and more--
The Hyper Javelin of the Unicorn PIERCES through the shoulder of the Rozen, skewered past its I-Field into that mechanical join and severing that limb from its body. And the moment it impales that weapon through -- the moment the javelin sinks into metal and circuitry and fear and loathing --
they connect
Between every purple pulse in the Rozen Zulu's cockpit comes a green one. Awash in sentiment and connection, Angelo shrinks back into the seat of his cockpit.
"--I don't want you to look at me--!"
You try to reach your mother. But she is a shell of herself.
Still you try to care for her. To support her. To be there for
her like she was for you. Because maybe she'll get better. Maybe
she'll be the mother you remembered, and save you from all of
this.
She won't. Her funeral comes and goes without event. And all you
feel is something breaking in you for the last time.
The mother fades from the landscape. There is
only the boy among sooty sheets, staring forward
with hollow eyes.
No more violence comes. A hand is offered, instead, across the vast gulf between hearts, shining and green and offered freely. Angelo Sauper stares at that offered hand, his eyes wide, his bloodied lips parted, like he simply can't make sense of it. It's so achingly familiar.
It's so terrifyingly dangerous.
"I-- I--"
The dam bursts. And in it, Angelo is completely exposed.
You run. Staying with him will be the death of you. Foster
service would be no better. So you run. You survive.
Surviving. It's difficult at first, just surviving. Just
scraping by to tomorrow. You see things you should never
have had to see. Do things you never should have had to do.
And in the end, you gain nothing.
Just give up parts of yourself to see another day of the same.
Give up parts of your body, parts of your soul. Why?
Tomorrow is never better. It's always worse.
The boy, now a young man, sits alone in shimmering
space. Knees curled to his chest. His only
companion is a purple rose, cradled in his hands.
The countless sheets are tattered and tarnished.
In the end, Trevor's claim holds true: Angelo must look in a mirror. But when someone has avoided that mirror all their life, buried their reflection deep under a mountain of self-loathing and hate and hopelessness...
... when someone has spent their entire life trying to avoid connection, only to have themselves completely exposed at their most vulnerable...
How can Angelo Sauper see that hand as anything more than a threat to him?
"I don't want you to see me!!"
The streets of Globe City are merciless in their indifference.
Someone offers a roof over your head if you do something for
them in return. You know they'll just use you. And so what?
So does everyone in this disgusting world.
You accept. You've stopped trying to hope for a better tomorrow.
A tomorrow you can survive is all you have.
So you work for them. Every day, different people, the same bed.
The same sheets. You are not treated well. You rarely are. Just
used. Exploited. Waiting for the next day of the same to come.
Deep down past the hopeless apathy, you start to feel something
else.
Anger at all this inescapable filth.
The emotions flow, out of control. They're showing so much, too much, too fast, all of it spilling out of Angelo in a way he can't control however much he tries to. He has to make it stop. He has to make it STOP. He doesn't want this. He doesn't want them to see--
Within his cockpit, Angelo looks towards that shimmering, green sight of Banagher links, purple eyes wide with fear and desperation.
He reaches out, with trembling hands.
You lay in your bed. You feel nothing anymore. But there is
still a little kernel inside of you. A blistering core of
anger, buried deep down. A searing desire to burn down
this filthy world.
The young man curls up amid tattered sheets.
But you can't. You're as weak as the rest of them. Worthless.
Used up. You need something more. Something greater. Something
that would not mind your filth, because it had surpassed all
concepts of humanity. Under such a thing, maybe... maybe then
you could return to that cleanliness... that warmth...
that happiness...
The kindling of every passing day and every passing injustice
feeds that impotent flame. But all you can do is wish.
Please... someone... anyone...
But there is a spark in the emptiness.
The sound of bodies collapsing lifelessly fills your ears. You
can feel him before the door opens. A man stands before you, a
man of golden hair, eyes hidden behind sunglasses. He holds out
his hand.
Pushing past the sheets, a hand reaches out--
You reach for it--
Within his cockpit, Angelo Sauper reaches out.
Reaches past Banagher.
And takes hold of something unseen with both hands before drawing it towards his breast.
His eyes squeeze shut.
"Colonel..."
Colonel...!
Anyone...!
save me
S C H R R R P P P P
BGM: Liquescimus - https://youtu.be/dVHBgsZSRFU
The sound of the Rozen Zulu's remaining INCOM, summoned by Angelo Sauper's desperate psychic compulsion, fills his ears with a horrific metal scream that drowns out all else as it punches past the Unicorn Gundam and impales through the chest of the Rozen Zulu on its way to shredding through the Psycho-Frame circuitry laced within it.
The sound never reaches the depths of space. There is only silence as the connection between the Rozen Zulu's pilot, the Unicorn's, and all others is suddenly severed.
Nothing but blissful silence.
~*~
"Oh, hello there. Did you want to help me with the garden today?"
A woman with long, pale white hair pauses in her work on her garden as she looks back on the little boy lingering at its entrance. The boy jumps. His tiny fists rise up to his face as if scarcely containing an urge to gush. He nods once, energetically, making his way into the garden, and begins to help as best he can.
"Wowwww. They're so pretty!"
His mother laughs, shaking her head.
"Haha. Aren't they? I spend too much time on the roses, I think, but I can't help it. They're my favorites."
He stares at those roses with wide, wondering eyes for the longest time. Shy fidgeting gradually overtakes him.
"Ummm... ummmmm!"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Why are they purple!"
"Why purple? Mm." The woman considers. And, as she talks, she reaches for one of those roses, drawing it forward as she catches the stem between her clippers. "Well, it's because purple roses stand for pride, dignity," snip "and elegance. But most important of all..."
She holds that rose out towards her son. The color is a perfect match for his big eyes as he beams with blushing pleasure.
"... They remind me of my precious Angelo."
~*~
Its once-violet splendor scorched and blackened, the Rozen Zulu lurches limp in front of the Unicorn Gundam.
Within, its pilot remains curled.
Basking in that blissful, damning silence.
KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Angelo Sauper's YAMS-132 Rozen Zulu has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
Anger is a powerful thing. The way it blows past all else, barreling forward like a charging bull. Inexorable. It's an emotion with momentum. But.
Though the Psycho Jammer has flickered off, Trevor has not stopped Seeing. Forcing himself to see. Spreading his wings as wide and as broad as he can to shield the thing within that cannot, yet, understand the maelstrom of emotion.
He can't help but to see. As the world washes out purple. As he witnesses the life and times of Angelo Sauper.
The Isadore hangs in space. A skeletal, ruined mess inexplicably still capable of movement. But it does not move. It stands vigil.
He sees.
He sees a little boy, a family full of joy. He sees war strip it away, a family ruined by conflict and a broken heart. To summarize further would be meaningless. Trevor sees.
His anger does not abate.
But nor does he continue to let it barrel forward unchecked.
Instead, as the Rozen Zulu impales itself upon its own claw and goes utterly still, the Isadore turns towards the Lieutenant's lieutenants. And transmits.
"Bato. Zechst. Your choice," he was never too familiar with them. Angelo and his cadre were... cloistered, to say the least. But still, they were once comrades, after a fashion. So. Trevor-- the Isadore-- gestures at the Zulu's wreckage. "Obey your captain's command and leave. Or disobey, stay, and be by his side when he wakes up. I think he could use some company. And I don't think these kind folks will be letting you all run off with him, now. So."
Isadore shrugs, as if to leave the question open. Trevor goes quiet, and as the screens crackle to life all around him, he can't help but wonder...
...What it must be like, having a mother.
...
Well. Not much he can do about that now, is there?
<Pose Tracker> Rapid Reaction Squad has posed.
<"I -- I don't know,"> Zechst responds, to Bato, an edge of panic in a voice which they've only heard angry. <"It must be a Psychoframe thing, but the Colonel wouldn't... there's no way, this was Lieutenant Sauper's special gift!"> He doesn't believe it, can't believe it. <"It must be that light! That light from the Ra Mari II, it's hurting him--!!">
He yells, to Rena: <"My eyes ARE open--!!"> But there's something about what Rena and Anita are saying which...
Perhaps he's too focused on the contradiction -- the reason which Anita and Rena are speaking. Nothing's more human than...
He's too busy listening to them, when the Kshatriya carves in.
<"Nghh--!!"> Zechst grunts, as he's forced to hear Marida's words, too. <"You don't know anything about me! What I had, what I didn't have -- don't talk like you know me! You could have never been one of US!"> The Royal Guard, that is, an elite squadron surrounding the very best of humanity.
<"Live for myself..?!"> Zechst demands, as he carves himself free of the Kshatriya. <"You're telling me to live for myself while this is happening to the Lieutenant?! You -- you really are FILTH!"> Angrily, he yells, to the Garcineres Junior and Zinnerman: <"I'M NOT LEAVING HIM! And my insubordination is NO LONGER YOUR BUSINESS, traitor!">
But something about Nova's declaration spurs him to greater fury -- and neither her buzzsaw nor her remote weapons reach him, as his Geara Zulu sweeps away. <"Don't you LOOK DOWN ON ME! Telling me my life's 'generic'?! You cruel little CRETIN!"> Zechst... he's certainly copied his style of insults from somewhere. (Somewhere close by.) <"It must be nice not to have to LOOK AT OTHER PEOPLE when you can just JUDGE THEIR STORIES!">
He tears his attention from these worthless, filthy creatures -- he could think of them in no other way, when Angelo surely would be proud of him for doing so -- because he's busy listening to...
<"L...Lieutenant...?"> Lieu-ten-ant, more clearly, each syllable drawn out with exquisite care, that first sound redoubled with his shock. In the gaps of the word are the wounds Sauper digs, into his flesh, and he knows he deserves every one.
All he can do is watch -- as they cut into him, slice into him, all manner of violence visited onto him, through him, until all he is bleeds out. Even Zechst -- not much of a Newtype, for a Spacenoid -- can feel it; he shakes his head, violently, grasping at his helment. <"No! I don't want to see this! The Lieutenant wouldn't want me to see this! Not now, of all times--!!"> If he were a better man, he'd -- leave. He'd leave, right now.
Lieutenant Sauper gave him his orders.
He gave him his orders, and he doesn't need him, anyway.
Even so... even so, he...!!
<"LI--EUT--EN--A--NT--!!!"> And all the syllables are broken, as Zechst's voice tears and screams, his mobile suit lurching forward in mirror of the way he slams into his controls. His roaring, screaming, howling sobs...
There is no transcription for them.
Does he have a choice, Trevor?
Did a man with nothing -- do men with nothing --
Ever have a choice?
The Guardsmans' Geara Zulu surges forward, to grasp the gutted Rozen Zulu from behind, no weapons in its broad hands now. <"S--STAY AWAY!"> He sobs, as he drags the hulking wreck through space. <"Don't look at dishonourable filth like me... someone who can't even obey a simple order...">
Those arms only clutch tighter, as he uses his back thrusters, instead, to bring them down. <"Luh-lieutenant... even if you have nnn-no more use for me... even if you don't want me any more... I, I-I still need you, so please, p-please, don't...">
His breath hitches; nothing comes out.
Let nothing else but this be true: he's leaving, just as Angelo told him.
Just... a little... too late.
Enba Rezza have disconnected.
Enba Rezza have connected.
<Pose Tracker> Mobile Weapon Team has posed.
"What's - what's happening is you're doing something to the Lieutenant! Call off the damn Gundam, if you're --" Bato answers Rena, agitation having replaced that moment of transcendant fury. Though his reflexes are still sharp; the beam tomahawk, erupting with megaparticles, swings upwards, catching the beam saber even if its sweeping motion means that it is able to recohere, a long glancing wound instead of a brutal one. "Ghh!"
Someone's speaking to them. Zinnerman--
"-- Of course the Colonel would," Bato answers him.
That was hesitation.
Bato is not an open book in the way that Angelo is now, nor the way Zechst may be, but it does not take a Newtype to discern things like that.
Surely Full Frontal would miss Angelo Sauper of all people. Truly a profound longing. And Bato, perhaps, has had little cause to complain for the role that loyalty has won him.
Even so...
"Gh--" A barrage of weapons coming in from Anita. Missiles burst against the Geara Zulu, though its armor holds; Bato breaks off from Rena, the thruster pack pushing backwards before it too takes a hit and is jettisoned, the Mobile Suit staying on that vector.
There is a silent wave of antipathy from Bato to Anita, but--
-- they're --
They've lost?
He's screaming at them. Reiterating and underline his orders. Bato finds himself cringing back on a subtle level. He looks towards the glowing Rozen Zulu for a long second -- "... Zechst..."
"... take care of him," and he slams the throttle back and the Geara Zulu accelerates to cruise speed, away from the battle, away from this.
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
The resonance effect ripples out - all the way to the Ra Mari II and the Garencieres Junior in the distance. Zinnerman jerks in his seat at the psychic tsunami, Lieutenant Angelo Sauper's memories unspooling against his will for all of them to see.
The artificial sky of a colony could appear identical to any other's, to the unfamiliar eye, but its residents who turn their eyes upwards would grow deeply familiar with every idiosyncracy - the way, for example, that panel there is just a second slower when the image updates, the clouds stuttering as they cross over the seams.
So we can say with certainty that Suberoa Zinnerman knows the old skies of Globe City like they're part of his own soul. The rest of Angelo's past cascades through and past him, but that single image is all he needed to understand.
He lets out a ragged breath, bowing his head and closing his eyes. Tears fill his eyes, and he allows them to be shed, quietly.
"Captain." It's Flaste Schole's voice in his ear, from the Garencieres Junior. "Was that..."
Zinnerman grunts - a wordless affirmation. Flaste considers that noise carefully. "What do we do?"
"We'll have to figure that out," the guerilla captain replies, watching Zechst and Bato peel off to grab the Rozen Zulu and retreat. He draws in another breath and opens the broad comms again. "All pilots... report in, please."
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Visions and memories rise to meet Banagher, and in this exposed, spiritual form, the young pilot has no defense against them. All of Angelo's pain pierces through Banagher's heart, stabbing and tearing away at him as if he was experiencing them first-hand.
It's difficult not to get lost. For what feels like years, Banagher is suspended in Angelo's memory, feeling the other young man's suffering in ways he couldn't comprehend before this moment.
Mother. This concept harmonizes between their hearts, entwining them. Visions of Banagher's mother flash before his eyes. Walking away from the Vist mansion. Working endless, endless jobs. Providing, protecting, and then finally --
Her funeral comes and goes without event. And all you feel is something breaking in you for the first time.
But Banagher never had to run, even in his worst days of survival. He never had to be used, or give up pieces of himself. In contrast, Banagher disconnected from the world, hiding away from the noise.
He isn't supposed to see this. Newtype bonds have never been like this.
But Angelo reaches out, and Banagher endures the violet-hued pain of the other young man, pushing himself just a bit further to connect with Angelo, who is in such need, and such pain...
Reaches out, but not for him. Banagher's hand grasps empty space. Angelo calls for the one he loves most, and a sick, desperate feeling makes Banagher's heart start to sink. A half-moment before the Rozen Zulu moves, the pilot of the Unicorn senses it, eyes flying wide with distress.
WAIT!
Metal rends metal, the Unicorn pulling away from the Rozen Zulu at the movement, protecting her pilot above all else. Angelo flickers out of Banagher's awareness, and he is left stunned, staring at the empty space where those visions had been just a moment ago. The green radiance of his spiritual form vanishes, and golden eyes open within the Unicorn, already wet with tears.
Banagher doesn't interfere as one of Angelo's comrades comes to pull the destroyed Rozen Zulu away. He can only watch, stunned into silence, tears falling down his cheeks. Angelo is alive. That's all Banagher can know in this moment.
<"I'm okay."> Banagher replies to Zinnerman, though his wrecked voice reveals his lie. <"I -- Leina and I... We're coming back to the ship."> Banagher pilots the Unicorn toward the Banshee, reaching out to take the sister Gundam's hand in his own. No words are said, not in this physical space, but deep in their bond:
Are you okay? It's not your fault. You were amazing. I'm so proud of the person you are. I love you. Let's go back.
Concepts, more than sentences. Love and worry, irrevocably wound together. Being near Leina helps. Feeling she's safe... It's a balm, to Banagher's heart.
But even so...
He could've saved him. If he'd been smarter, or faster. If he hadn't got caught in that stupid cage. How could he have said those hateful things to someone who suffered so much? Why didn't he ever ask -- all the hours they spent together training--
There's never enough time.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"<It's the Psychoframe!>" Liam says, to Angelo's subordinates' denials. "<There's Psychoframe in that machine! It's hurting him!>" As the Banshee Norn and the Rozen Zulu close with each other, the violet light intensifies. Liam braces for emotional impact, even as his body moves, operating Liath Macha's controls. The CGUE II and Dianthus damn near take the arm off, but as it hangs there by threads, Liam feels little triumph--only grief, and the crushing realization that he was right about Angelo.
Tears bead in Liam's eyes, and he blinks them away, to float in his helmet like salty, glimmering stars. He wants to reach out and save that little boy. He wants to tell him he's not alone. The images keep getting worse, and worse; Liath Macha goes still for a moment as Liam grounds himself, breathing between deep gasps. Angelo had no one. No one, until--
Realization dawns on Liam a fraction of a second too late. "<NO!>" The INCOM is already burying itself on the Rozen Zulu's torso. Liath Macha reaches for it, but Zechst gets there first, and perhaps that's for the best. "<Get him to,>" Liam chokes out. Is--is he even alive? Against his will, his mind thinks up what an INCOM would do to an unarmored human body. He feels sick. <"Help.">
And against his better judgment, Liam pulls off his normal suit's helmet, releasing his tears into the cockpit. He mutes the comm, and cries. When he turns the comm back on, he's a bit more honest than Banagher. "<Reporting. Emotionally raw from presumed Psychoframe phenomenon. Lu, Banagher, Leina, Trevor. I... can you still--feel him?"> A pause. "<Returning to the Ra Mari II. Mission... accomplished.>"
KTS: Anita Rosetta's XVF-25I Svipul <GERWALK Mode> has left Anita Rosetta teleports out. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It's understandable that Sayla would be concerned, all it would take is a momentary lapse while reaching out to spell the demise of both of them. "I will be." Yet despite putting in the effort, she understands one thing. As much as she feels Angelo Sauper, she has no intention of dying for him, for Full Frontal today. Perhaps that is selfish of her.
She doesn't care, empathy only goes so far. The people in her life are counting on her to come back. She'll be damned if Judau has to mourn her after pouring himself out to get her back.
"... the moment I go too far, let me know." As she has said, she trusts the people in her life.
However, Sayla's words ring true, in a sense, Angelo is desperate, cornered. And he has to survive to change. In a sense, it would take a miracle, however... if she's been taught one thing about all of it, it is that the truest miracle of her existence were the people in her life. When she was at her worst, they reached out to her.
She has to at least try to reach out to him. But, when Sayla tells her it needs to end well, she takes a deep breath, almost like a soft sigh. She wonders how many times Judau felt this way, reaching out to people in Neo-Zeon.
She wonders where his line would be, when he would have given up on Angelo Sauper.
And it happens, the Psycho-frame resonates, and she sees it. She sees all of it, amidst Angelo's confusion, his sadness, his terror. She feels all of it, and perhaps it can be said, be careful what one wishes for.
Self-denial makes for
I hope this will be
I'm such a bad girl
It's my turn to be happy
Less leaks out from her, it feels as if it were a trickle before Angelo's own pain, fragmented by her experiences. Or perhaps it is simply the fulfillment of her wish. She wanted to understand Angelo Sauper. She never demanded he understand her. Yet one thing does clearly.
A little girl listens behind a door, as two parents argue over the loss of the father's job. Her mother has been barely out of bed in weeks, she's crying now.
It's left two siblings more and more to fend for themselves when she isn't able to get out of bed, and so they have. She'd been trying to clean when it started.
A mistake is what she calls her.
And she knows she isn't referring to her older brother.
She wished to understand Angelo Sauper, she felt a responsibility for him ever since she read between the lines on his beliefs, on his faith in the Colonel.
Be careful what one wishes for.
You might just get it.
Every moment, she sees of Globe City, feels those moments with his mother. Her misfortune, the crime of the Federation against her, her decline. A step-father's cruelty. A funeral.
'... don't look at me...'
She understands why. She's been through hell herself, but she's made to understand there are worse hells. This is something she knew on an academic level, and yet- there it is. Tears start to flow, even as Angelo stares at the offered hand, so raw and vulnerable and exposed.
'I don't want you to see me!!'
There are countless things Leina herself does not want to see, does not want to experience. She feels them anyway, with a sob, she breaks down with a vision of him in that bed, a hand against her head.
"Stop-! Stuh-STOP!" She sobs in the cockpit.
It's not Angelo she's asking to stop. She's asking herself, she's pleading with the Banshee, to stop this. It's going too deep, too far, it's knowing a person to a point where they should not be known.
She still wants to reach out to him, she still wants to save him. Just not like this. It's too much. For them, for Angelo himself. When he asks for someone to save him- for one moment, she dares- she dares-
-to hope. Until she feels it.
DON'T!
It's cut off, by the sight of Angelo shredding the cockpit, the Psycho-frame brought low by his own actions. Eyes widen with shock, and horror. Speechless, with tears in her eyes. She watches as one of his men comes for him, she knows from the words tonight, he feels more for him than he lets on.
When Sayla's arm encircles her, she leans against it, for a moment, fingertips lightly hanging on. "Did... did we make a mistake?" She murmurs quietly in the cockpit. She composes herself slowly, letting Banagher speak for her over the comms. However, when he reaches out.
I'm still here. I'm still with you.
Is her simple response, to Banagher, and there's so much love in that feeling.
We'll finish this together.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"......." So this is...
... what it's like, to fear the shadow of a man you must call father.
To look at your mother, and stare at a spirit that is broken. And when the spirit is broken, all that is left is for that body to cave in on itself.
To escape to the cold of the outside world by your own volition, to order to escape the burning hell that would consume you.
To be consumed by the streets, piece by piece, instead.
To be boiled down to the barest parts of yourself, until the blood red bud of your anger is all that's left, as well as your horror at the dirt your being has accumulated.
She understands, but understands this is only a smidge of what it's truly like, in the same way the bright light reflecting off the moon could seem like a blinding sun to someone who's never known better.
In the same way Full Frontal would be like the Sun itself, coming down to save your wretched soul.
And then, those memories, like seeing a play off the surface of still lake, ripples into nothingness.
Her words Angelo's footsteps, come back to her and Zechst and Bato retreat with Angelo.
And again, with a wince Lucine reflexively recalls back to the fresh memory of that brush with Angelo's psyche.
< "..... ........ Is everyone okay?" > Her voice is tired. She acknowledges it, owns it. If she felt these things, the others in the area have felt it even further. She hears Banagher's affirmation.
In the middle of all that, Banagher had reached out and resonated with a young man who tried to kill him, just as he had reached out to Leina, trapped in the depths of her brainwashing.
< "..... Banagher. I'm beginning to see yet another reason... why you're the pilot of the Unicorn." > Lucine smiles, her head falling back against her headrest. < "... Those things I saw... it must have been because you connected with him. You reached him, Banagher. It was enough." >
Wait. Liam felt it too? Lucine's head cranes towards the speaker. < ".... Liam, we'd... better both get back to port. There's nothing we can do here; we have to trust that he's in good hands. They won't let him die on their watch. Banagher, Leina; call either of us for the next push." > She feels it's okay to speak for Liam there. < ".... Let's go, Liam." >
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
In the end, it's not the Banshee or the Unicorn that put an end to the Rozen Zulu. It's the Rozen Zulu itself.
In the cockpit of the Banshee, Sayla's breath sucks in sharply. Once again she intrudes on memories of someone else's life, hard and brutal. Cruel and sharp. Memories she has no place seeing, but she sees them anyway.
History repeats after all, the steps all too familiar.
Would Full Frontal weep for Angelo, the way her brother wept for her? Or had he forsaken those parts of him?
<"...Let them go.>" Sayla transmits. She doesn't have any actual authority here, but she can remind people what they're here for. "<They're not in our way anymore.">
She reaches to wrap an arm around Leina's far shoulder, gripping her tightly. She knows Leina feels these so much more strongly- and the chances of the pilot surviving an impact like that are... low, to say the least. "...I'm sorry." She says, pressing her helmet gently to Leina's.
She reaches for the comms again with her hand. "<Ra Mari II, this is Leina Ashta and Sayla Mass, Banshee, reporting.>" Her hands move quickly, changing targets again. "<...Banagher. Don't blame yourself. You did what you could. You can't reach everyone. That's not your fault.>"
Sometimes, 'now' is far too late.
Sayla shakes her head. "No. You didn't make a mistake." She says quietly, as the unicorn moves to guide the Banshee back to safety. "Sometimes... Sometimes we can't fix things." She holds her daughter as close as she can with the arrangement of the seats. "Keep on trying, Leina. That's all you can do."