Difference between revisions of "2022-04-24: Rampaging One Night Stand"
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*'''Where:''' Nagoya Docks and Nagoya Area, Area 11 | *'''Where:''' Nagoya Docks and Nagoya Area, Area 11 | ||
*'''OOC - IC Date:''' 2:32AM, 25 April 0096 | *'''OOC - IC Date:''' 2:32AM, 25 April 0096 | ||
| − | *'''Summary''': '' | + | *'''Summary''': ''Behemoth awakens, and Nagoya burns. A massive titan of a machine bursts out of the harbor and sets about destroying everything between it and the Viceroy's Mansion by simple expedient of stepping on it. No matter their feelings toward Area 11's existence, the Federation must surely rally to save the innocents in the path of the destructive titan. But they are confronted with a problem: Nothing can so much as scratch it. It roars. "NOTHING YOU DO CAN STOP BEHEMOTH!" '' |
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Latest revision as of 09:14, 25 April 2022
- Log: 2022-04-24: Rampaging One Night Stand
- Cast: Sousuke Sagara, Teletha Testarossa, Takuma Kugayama, Milly Ashford, Chienne Argent, Karma Sato, Sho Muramoto, Liam 7-020, Dr. Hell, C.C., Alto Saotome, Sayla Mass, Roux Louka, Kaname Chidori, Riku Asakura, Koji Kabuto, Garrod Ran, Shelby Korts
- Where: Nagoya Docks and Nagoya Area, Area 11
- OOC - IC Date: 2:32AM, 25 April 0096
- Summary: Behemoth awakens, and Nagoya burns. A massive titan of a machine bursts out of the harbor and sets about destroying everything between it and the Viceroy's Mansion by simple expedient of stepping on it. No matter their feelings toward Area 11's existence, the Federation must surely rally to save the innocents in the path of the destructive titan. But they are confronted with a problem: Nothing can so much as scratch it. It roars. "NOTHING YOU DO CAN STOP BEHEMOTH!"
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The biggest thing on the news tonight is the scuffle in Nouvelle Tokyo a few hours ago; armed mecha, a confrontation between unknown forces that exploded briefly, trampled a few buildings, and then vanished back into silence. It's now after midnight in Nagoya, the capital of Area 11, and Nouvelle Tokyo is a precious few hundred miles away.
The second biggest thing on the news for those watching the 24-hour feeds is a police chase of some border-runners that may be connected to the first one.
The Shuffle Alliance has been hauling ass ever since they hit and proceeded to blow completely through the border checkpoint. No time for subtlety, it's time to burn some resources. A few of their allies have peeled off to keep the responding force busy, but the whine of Knightpolice sirens just isn't letting up as the Shuffle transit truck loaded down with whatever smaller machines they could carry runs straight through a roadblock at the border of Area 11, turns the most ludicrous turn anyone's ever seen a transport truck take, and heads directly for the port.
The local regimen has been informed. This is not - yet - a situation that calls for the Viceroy's none-too-tender touch, but the Knightpolice are in for a rude review in the next few weeks.
In the bay of the truck, ARX-7 Arbalest sits in its space-saving kneeling position, Sousuke in the exposed cockpit. "ALERT," his onboard AI says at full volume, broadcasting through internal laser communications. "New destination information from URUZ 12. Direct transport to the BUF George Clinton at Pier 7."
The George Clinton is a huge tanker of a cargo ship. Its papers are all in order. Everything is above board. Nothing remarkable, except for two things:
1) Two M9 Gernsbacks parked out front attempting to scout the place, and
2) The fact that it's suddenly starting to sink.
It emits a horrible, hellacious shriek as its armor is suddenly rent apart like a child playing with tin foil, by a colossal red-armored fist ripping through the side. A few moments later it lists rapidly forward, just before something LEAPS OUT of the cargo hold, a gigantic gorilla of a machine slamming into the pavement. Just the shockwave of it landing knocks out windows a block away. Shipping containers loaded with freight rattle and shift like they were unladen, and the ground...
The ground does not buckle. Not at all. Like a pillow had landed.
And then the destruction begins.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The Shuffle Alliance would have a few favors in an IOU for Mithril.
After all, this was a dangerous breach. A tenuous situation. If this was to be smoothed over without (much) of an issue, then Mithril needed results. After all, they were pursuing this boy on her word. Her own word. Her own actions. The furrows of her brow would gain the smallest wrinkle of experience today; This much was certain.
Tessa was in the front of that transport truck, a tablet with handwritten notes in front of her, overlaying a map of the area around the truck. A headset to relay, and her brain to fill out the holes that regular information could not. There could be worse situations, the sole consolation she gave herself in this trying time.
"We're lucky that there's been a recent Knightpolice command swap..." The small mutter of someone exploiting crucial information, keeping eyes in three places at once: The map, the road ahead, and the tactical situation. Of course...
Luck only ran so far.
BUF George Clinton. Pier 7. As if working on pure instinct, a reroute of the truck's GPS, a quick scan to make sure nothing was in the way, and...
"Attention, everyone. We have contact." The loudest noises were the best assumptions. "Weapons free. Take Takuma alive." If you can. That was always implicit.
A deep breath in. A deep breath out. She had to lean on them. To clean up the mess she had festered into existence.
"Good luck."
<Pose Tracker> Takuma Kugayama has posed.
\The 42-meter-tall Behemoth lands like a gigantic, knuckle-walking ape... and stands upright. Its movement is heavy; there's a moment, between landing and standing, where its angle seems *wrong*--like it should fall over flat on its face.
But it doesn't. Low, distorted laughter issues forth from the Behemoth as it takes its first step forward. "Hnn... I'll... destroy it all...!" Takuma Kugayama's voice broadcasts from the machine, similarly distorted, as fire erupts from the vulcans on the Behemoth's head. They sweep forward indiscriminately, cutting a line to the buildings close by, facades exploding in a rain of shrapnel onto the street below.
Its hand sweeps the ground, grabbing one of the two stunned Gernsbacks... and it squeezes. The Arm Slave folds like an action figure in a hydraulic press; the wrecked mech is pitched into the nearest building, which partially collapses on top of its ruined form.
And then the hand swings back, gripping a sword nearly as long as the Behemoth is tall, *heaving* it through the supports on the nearest cargo crane. The remaining supports buckle, and it collapses on top of the sinking George Clinton, caving in a portion of the bridge.
"BURN, NAGOYA...!" yells Takuma, the Behemoth briefly enveloped in smoke, illuminated by flashes of fire as a hail of missiles streaks out to bombard some far-off point in the city's downtown...
And it moves forward with earth-shaking steps, smoke sweeping back around its upper body as the forces arrayed against it begin to come into view.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
It's too early for Milly to be awake on a Sunday. It is *way* too early for Milly to be awake on a Sunday, honestly. She'd stayed up about three hours past her usual bedtime trying to get travel visas squared away for her mad plan to connect Ashford to several other schools, which means she's in the Student Council building, face-flopped on a pile of papers for the last half hour. Unfortunately, there are few allowances in this world when your familiar alarm clock is replaced with the impact report of a missile.
Despite the... intensity, with which Milly puts people through their paces as Student Council President, few people are more reliable; she's up in under 30 seconds, oriented within a minute, and has her phone in hand within a minute and thirty seconds. She probably can't get a call out on civilian networks if a battle's starting -- but on the off chance conditions remain good, at least she has it.
Her grandfather can handle general evacuation procedures for Ashford; she doesn't need to take charge of that, at least. There's just one issue -- one that normally wouldn't be a problem, but Lelouch was *allegedly* attending to student council business. ('He's probably taking the excuse to go play chess again,' Milly had thought at the time, and that will probably remain her assumption unless challenged.)
She goes into a dead sprint through the student council building. She's briefly *very* grateful to have stayed up; the thought of being further away than this is -- upsetting.
She arrives at Lelouch and Nunnally's room and knocks exactly twice, very firmly. "Nunnally," she calls, through the door, as she keys in. "I don't think that was an isolated attack. I'm here to help Sayoko take you to the shelter." She looks for Nunnally in the room, and continues explaining. "Once we get there, I'll plug our phones into the shelter communication unit so we can try to get a message out to your brother that you're safe. To get there as fast as we can, I'm going to need to push." It's rare that Milly unilaterally makes that decision, but given the circumstances...
Nunnally is fast asleep, in her bed, all plush with blankets; she doesn't get up before the sun does, certainly not on a Sunday. Her chair is parked and braked beside her, ready for a day which won't begin for at least a few more hours. And that's when
the world
breaks.
The vibrations of a missile, in fact, feel much more similar to an earthquake than an attack. Nunnally feels herself lurch to the side, with a brief moment of panic over whether she might over-balance and tumble to the floor. Her hands fumble, on her bedsheets, trying her very best to push herself up as her mind tries to catch up with what her ears have heard.
"Big brother..?! Big brother!" Nunnally cries, into the darkness of the dawn, all alarm. The second name on her lips is -- "Sayoko! Please, what's going on?!" She can hear the evacuation alarm, but she can't -- she can't even find the bedside table, if she could just reach it she could press the alarm to get Sayoko's help --
Luckily, Sayoko doesn't need the alarm to know to come, at a time like this. She hurries in regardless, helping to transfer Nunnally from bed to chair; she's still in her bedclothes, because there's no time for her to change. A sharp knock at the door, and Nunnally looks up, from between dishevelled locks of hair. "Milly?"
Milly offers her own explanation, and Nunnally nods, hands grasping tightly to the armrests of her chair. "All right," she agrees, and frightened as she is, she manages to keep her voice from wavering too, too much.
This isn't the first time... Nunnally's heard mortar fire.
And just like before, there are people here to support her.
Even if her big brother isn't here, this time...
Euphemia li Britannia sees Nagoya under siege. The popular notion of Britannia, of course, is one in which Area 11's leadership would take the field and swiftly put down the rebellion. Optimistically, it'd be to protect the citizenry; it's just as reasonable to see it as simply subjugating anything that sticks out.
In practice, however, Britannia is a nation-state and a military with a line of succession and a chain of command...
... and designated survivors.
Euphemia is about sixty percent of the way from her room to the motorpool of her building when she's stopped by two... four...
... eight...
... staff members. "My Lady," one of them says, giving a respectful -- if short -- bow. "We've come to escort you to the shelter beneath the building." The fact that there are eight people for this isn't lost on Euphemia; evidently, after her little stunt in Nouvelle, they've decided it needs to be legitimately difficult for Euphemia to squirm away in situations like this. (After all: under live fire conditions, Euphemia has been proven to lie to her staff. Oh, sure, it's the type of lie that eventually gets her into a Gloucester or a Lancelot Club. ... it's still a lie.)
Euphemia's brow furrows. Her lips curl into a small frown. "... Very well," she answers, with the precise diction and faint displeasure only a Britannian Princess could offer. "Where are you setting the defensive perimeter?" she asks, as they begin to walk.
One of the soldiers now at her side offers her a tablet computer. Euphemia looks at it, and that small frown turns into a scowl. "... I see," is all she says, this time. She'd almost asked, 'Why so tight,' but she knows the lay of the land. They're not going to risk the bulk of Britannia's garrison ahead of a shrine Euphemia has been twice told to consider demolishing.
Eisen_Daiwel teleports out.
<Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Earlier, Chienne had backed up the Black Knights in an unusual GM III variant... or something like it. She'd fought Sousuke, in the Arbalest, and it ended with her bailing out, her RGM-196 Freedom on fire and half-embedded in a building in Nouvelle Tokyo, where it was likely to explode - not that Chienne had stuck around for it.
The whole experience put her in a bad mood. Chienne in a bad mood takes it out on people. In this case it was Chiot, who took in stride Chienne alternately screaming and slamming her fists into walls and, eventually, a punching bag.
She's still all amped up, and so when they asked her to come back and deploy to help again, Chienne threw herself into a different Mobile Suit and went for it.
The Behemoth is the star of the show, but it's not the only unit around. GB-9700 Gundam Belphagor - a Gundam-style mobile suit, with the characteristic V-fin in front of a weirdly horned face, with enormously overbuilt shoulders and upper arms and legs - is flying behind and above the Belphagor. Yes, in atmosphere, like it's no big deal for a Mobile Suit to do that. It is holding what looks like a heat hawk if the heat hawk was several times as large as it was supposed to be - it's as tall as the Gundam is, with a two-handed grip.
Chienne is in the cockpit, looking much the same as before except with an added wrap around her left hand, covering her knuckles. She is not in much of a better mood than before, but she is anticipatory.
Belphagor's shoulder beam cannons whine before she fires a pair of bolts alongside the Behemoth's path, more or less wildly. She can't even bring herself to get excited. Mass structural damage just isn't doing it for her tonight.
She wants to make someon bleed.
<Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
The crazy robot monster is destroying city, which is why a Burai that has been rebuilt so many times it might as well be called the knightmare of theseus can go so easily unnoticed. Slinging a harkon into a building it ziplines up to the roof and sits for a moment watching the Behemoth do it's thing.
Over the Black Knight channel, Karma speaks up, "This is P-1, watching the Behemoth begin its run, currently keeping track of any flies that need to be swat." The Longshot slides it's rifle over it's shoulder and readies it as he begins to keep an eye for potential targets, otherwise he just gets to sit back and watch Takuma have his fun.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Muramoto has posed.
Sho, since he had an idea of what was to come, had used his private ship to half-way back to his family estates. From there, he had picked up the Spinatio.
It was unknown, it was untested, but it was also quickly fitted with what he sent back to his family servants/allies. Water jets to make it back quickly, for one. Precision sensors to help with the aim. And that had brought the machine back just as quickly thanks to the streamlined armor.
Rocketting out of the water a few docks down from the Behemoth comes a bit of an odd sight. Not a Black Knight, not a Shuffle Alliance. Quite frankly, there's not even an IFF as the samurai looking machine lands.
Tthe machine's right arm deploys an arm mounted bow as big as it is at 16 meters tall, and the left reaches back to an arrow as a crimson energy string flicks on it, pulled back as it's ready to launch.
It leaps again to land a street down and get a better aim, thrusters going off as it precariously balances it's weight so as not to collapse said rooftop entirely, but it's there for one thing. And that's to get the Behemoth's attention from an entirely unexpected angle perhaps.
Inside the machine, Sho sends one small signal and a data packet out in quantum mechanics via his supportive servants and says perhaps something he should have before. "Spinatio Zanbato. Slashing the target."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
A SMALL MOTEL IN CENTRAL TOKYO-03
Subject Seven-Dash-Zero-Two-Zero lies on the pullout bed, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Today has been one tenuous step after another, a careful, fearful walk into an unknown world. He washed his jumpsuit. He showered and shaved. He read some old, familiar stories from his beloved, battered tablet, ate Calorie Marks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and got a tiny civil-defense radio from one of the NERV guards appointed to watch him. It's a little after midnight, and he still can't sleep. The doctors said not to use the tranquilizers until he needed them.
Everything Liam owns occupies a single, small table. The clothing Rei got him has been neatly folded and stacked atop it. The package it came in, with its helpful numbers, rests next to it. Beside that, a refillable metal water bottle, a safety razor and soap in a plastic bag, the battered tablet, and the little radio.
With no warning, the little radio comes to life. Subject Seven-Dash-Zero-Two-Zero sits bolt upright in bed, and whirls to face it as a woman starts to speak. Her voice is calm. Liam doesn't understand a word of Japanese, though he's picked up a little kanji. He stares at it, blankly, until a shrill chime sounds, and a message flashes across the radio's shatter-resistant screen. The text is also Japanese, but it repeats in Britannian English.
Civil defense personnel, report to your duty stations. Prepare for Stage 1 readiness.
For a moment, Liam freezes in place, unsure of what to do. He's with NERV now. He filled out the paperwork. He has an ID. He's their weapon. But the Proto Helios is still damaged--or at least, they haven't told him what they did with it, much less if it's fit to fight again.
The radio chimes again. A lump settles in Liam's throat.
Then he slips on his shoes, grabs his keycards and ID, and bolts for the door. He's already calculated the distance to the nearest military transit station at a running pace.
NOW
The Shuffle Alliance has encountered a small complication: a NERV VTOL flying just inside its sensor envelope. It's the kind they use for long-range recon--essential in gathering on-the-ground data when a new Angel appears--and so far, it's done nothing more than observe the ensuing mayhem. On the other hand, that is definitely an Arm Slave dangling beneath it on deployment lines--an M6A3 in generic NERV colors. As the chase approaches the George Clinton, one of the transport's pilots frowns.
<Getting weird readings off that one,> she says, pointing to the tanker's hold. <Looks like a--> And then a massive red hand punches through the tanker hull like it's tinfoil. <Shit! Recon Gold-Four, we have visual on...>
In the cockpit of the dangling Dark Bushnell, Subject Seven-Dash-Zero-Two-Zero stares at the carnage unfolding before him. His heart leaps with mortal terror and excitement, a sensation that is practically an old, familiar friend. Everything about this machine is familiar, yet so much more. The handgrips feel smaller than they did when he first started training on the old Rk-92, but that's just because he's grown. The torso harness is like a warm embrace.
"Pilot, prepare to deploy!" That's one of the VTOL pilots. "Fall back if you need to, but do your best to try to stop that thing! We'll try to stay in contact as best as we can!"
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V07n2_2gwAg&ab_channel=Bevral (Steel and Scale, Final Fantasy 14: Heavensward 3.5)
Liam smiles. "Understood."
The bolts holding the cables in place pop off, and the Arm Slave is cut free. Liam's body executes the micromotions of a proper fall, tucking his legs into a crouch and bracing for impact. The Dark Bushnell lands in the middle of a street, the pavement cracking slightly beneath its heels. The machine rises. Again, Liam goes through the micromotions of drawing his Monomolecular Cutter, and spinning it up.
"Pilot Seven-Dash-Zero-Two-Zero reports contact with the enemy," he says, toggling the comm to friendly channels with the eye-tracker. "Engaging designated target." He's still smiling.
<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
He had a name once. And a human face. Neither is true, anymore. The five foot tall man now has what people insist must be some sort of mask, a pig like face covering some scarred horror from any of the wars wracking the earth sphere. Mercenary Buta doesn't care about speculation; he does what he's always done, refurbishing machines lost to the wars, rebuilding them into proper killing gear, and making a lot of money hurting people.
Any other kind of dreams were lost when the sky fell.
His machine is a massive tank on two massive legs, with treds replacing any resemblence of feet. The tank's head is a giant forward gun, its back is artillery shells, its arms heavy shielding, its head a machine gun. It looks like a slightly whimsical take on a massive combat wanzer, maybe, or some unique PMC creation cobbled together from several sources.
Doctor Hell is watching, of course, and is unused to playing second banana. Still, there is some value in the data collection.
The Panzermech and Mercenary Buta do not make any speeches or threats. Buta snorts a bit, and moves in a support position, identifying what he believes are military targets (The Brittanians are wily about placement, Buta remembers from another life, but he's not here to blow up hospitals.). Rockets scream out of the machine's back, working to 'clear the way' for the Behemoth, cutting off routes of approach for the suspected Knightpolice defenses.
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
(Tonight's pizza of choice: four cheese!)
Such is the meal that C.C. and Shinichiro Tamaki are sharing in the driver's cab of their disguised truck parked under a soaring overpass, C.C. in the passenger seat reclined as far back as she can get.
"And yer sure we can rely on this totally cuckoo brother and sister?" Tamaki grouses, munching down the crust of his slice impatiently, like a starving dog.
"Rely's a strong word," C.C. retorts, holding her slice up on high and like, drinking up the cheese basically. It's the kind of pizza that rightfully makes a mess, but she's -practiced- at it. "Or rather...it's akin to relying on the rain to fall, or the sun to rise. They will do it, right as rain - but they have harsh limits on what it's possible to do, you understand."
"...Maaan, since when the hell has anyone been able to understand you?" Tamaki huffs.
The signal comes through - not like anyone within five miles of the Behemoth's landing could really -miss- that it's happening. Sirens and car alarms aplenty in the distance, the radios erupting in chaos. The two Black Knights turn into the trailer - where their two Burais are bundled up. One painted in Hideous Zeon Secondary Antagonist hues of Bright Orange and Muddy Green (Tamaki) and one pained in Equally Hideous Slightly Pale Pink and Gray (C.C.), and whir out into the late night streets, darting and dashing between waves of traffic. C.C. diverts to the right at an intersection, and Tamaki goes left - their routes intended to regroup to the west of the Behemoth's path, intercepting any troublesome nosy sorts.
The pink Burai quickly makes it to a medium sized park in the middle of several skyscrapers, the type dominated by a monument to some Britannian attorney general or what have you, C.C. vaguely aware of the clouds of smoke emerging from the distant rampage of the Behemoth.
The orange Burai is almost immediately accosted by the Knightpolice that veer off to pursue Tamaki.
"Shit, shit, shit!! The cops won't get off my ass!! Can't bust through em - damn it! Pizza girl, you're on your own, I'll do what I can to lead them away!" Tamaki blusters through the radio, shortly before clearly getting peppered by machine gun fire from the cops.
A sigh, from the green-haired witch. "Hai, haaaai, how unreliable. ...ne, Karma-kun, how are things looking on your end over there?" C.C. muses.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
-- A Short Time Ago --
Alto stares with wide eyes at the scene playing out on the screen inside the Nadesico's ready room. The live footage from Nagoya showing a large machine tearing its way through part of the city. And it's not showing any discrimination in what its targeting...
The Nadesico is still over the ocean, on the last leg of its journey back to Japan. It's only a stones throw away from Nagoya, relatively speaking. But that's still a considerable distance away... Too far for it to be able to arrive in time to do anything other than pick up the pieces.
Alto clenches his fist as he watches... As the news feed shows the flames of destruction beginning to spread from the large machine's rampage, his mind briefly flashes back to a similar scene. A part of Frontier city on fire all around him. A monster firing wildly...
There's been no orders to scramble. No contract established. No reason to launch.
Alto couldn't do much to help back then, barely able to keep himself alive...
It's a different story now.
"I'm going. Tell the hangar to move my VF into the catapult." He grabs his helmet from the table nearby and runs out of the ready room. The Nadesico might not be able to make it in time. But his Messiah can.
-- Now --
Alto finally eases up on the throttle as he quickly reaches the coastline. Running the afterburners for so long to maintain the speed he needed to get here quickly had drained a lot of fuel. But he had accounted for that as he flicks a switch. The now empty external fuel tank detaches from beneath the VF, silently falling all the way down to the ocean's surface below.
Alto rolls his fighter just a little as he flies over the port where the large monster of a machine had emerged. From his place in the sky, Alto can see the path of destruction it's been carving through the city. His hands tighten around his controls... This might not be his city, but with so many lives no doubt lost... How can anyone see this and not feel something?
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
2:01AM, 25 April 0096: A woman in large, round glasses and a pink power suit drives a massive unmarked transport vehicle, trailers behind it, towards the Nagoya border. . "We're about to hit the checkpoint, Doc. Lane 3's clear."
Sayla nods. "Understood." She taps the comm on her flight suit helmet, moving from the cab to the back of the transport. "Helmets up, people. We're going hot." She taps it, and the opaque black visor goes down. "Gun it, Bunny. Weber, now!"
The border checkpoint explodes from the sudden impact of what might be an explosive round fired from an ECS'd sniper AS on a building back down the round. "This is gonna suck," Bunny Higgins shouts to those in the cab, with some glee in her voice. The transport bursts through the fire.
Now, 2:32AM, Dock 7, Nagoya - The transport, trailing Knightpolice, cuts it's trailers and is on the move, even as the Knight Police are left to split between the trailer and the vehicle.
And then the trailer pops open, and what looks for all the world like someone gave a Bawoo a Gundam Head and a paintjob stands, just in time to see the Behemoth land- with all the lightness of a cat making a small jump. "...What in the world-" She'd seen the footprints left by the Psycho Gundam in Hong Kong, long after Karaba had left. This was bigger, and an AS. How is it even MOVING, let alone fighting. Damnit... Tessa was right to be so concerned about this.
Maybe she should have just killed Takuma when she had the chance...
No, now's not the time. "Anzus, you have command. Bunny, keep them out of fire." ...That may be hard. That thing... just popped a Gernsback. Maybe Tiffa was right. Maybe this IS impossible.
...She really hopes whoever fudges the numbers at GGG is on her side tonight. "Heart-2, Saint Lance, launching!" The Mobile Suit steps off the trailer, moving to get into a position to fire.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
ANOTHER DAY IN THE GLORIOUS (Londo Bell Autonomous) CORPS! Every burger a feast! Every drink a LITE BEER!
For Roux Louka it is in fact a period of professional surprise when her earthside two week rotation comes, not so much from the fact that it's on Earth, as from the fact that it's in Japan. Again. Well, the Japanese archipelago, anyway. The Londo Bell facility is far enough away from the hot zone that at the exact time when she had been signalled, she was on a groundside base, and the Waverider mode of the Z-II was being actively refueled...
The groundside base is honestly a little disorienting. It SPRAWLS. Just how the hell big is Japan? And it's supposed, she knows, to be a SMALL country, isn't it? Looking up at the sky can be awe-inspiring but it's also mildly terrifying to consider that only fifteen pounds or so of air stands between Roux and space itself.
At night, of course, it's easier. Seeing the stars is easy enough, in space.
ANYWAY SO: "Shit! Roux Louka, launching!" Roux declaims as the Mobile Suit's waverider mode is hurled into the air from the Federation base.
A squack from the ground authorizes maximum acceleration. Roux side-eyes the signal and says to herself, "On Earth...? My god, this must be some stuff." Open up the throttle, burn through the patrol fuel-thrust reserves... Get pressed into your seat...
When Nagoya's red fires become visible, Roux says, "Oh."
When the looming form of the Behemoth becomes distantly, subtly glimpsable against the skyline, Roux says, "Oh shit!"
But the flickering reveals other things. The Waverider shines through a star in the night but the red flames are rising. "I can't strafe THIS damn thing - I think it's got an ifield," Roux mutters to herself.
But that other thing. Enormous and bulky. The Z-II unfolds as it decelerates, Roux steering to come to light on top of a nine-story concrete tower with a satellite dish on top, the Mega Beam Rifle held at the ready. She swings out the optics, taking aim...
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname Chidori knows this is definitely the worst place for a civilian to be in this situation. That it would have been smarter to go with Tiffa and Jamil when Sayla offered.
But she can't just sit around and do nothing. Not when Sousuke is fighting for his life, and there's so much on the line... not when her whispers might be able to help.
So she's sitting in the truck with Tessa, wearing a pilot-suit and helmet with the visor down. Getting identified and marked as a terrorist (the fact that her allies are here to HELP notwithstanding) would make it... difficult, at best, to be much help next time Jindai and Ashford do inter-school events.
But even with the disguise, she's keeping her head down, trying to stay safe and out-of-sight as they evade the cops.
She sees it before they actually arrive, towering above the landscape... and immediately, she thinks back to Tiffa's warning. That they wouldn't be able to fight it.
...something like this... was she right?
<Pose Tracker> Riku Asakura has posed.
There was something different about things when it was humans destroying cities. Before here, Riku only had to deal with ONE person trying to do that. One deluded person, who put everything into his father, even his own life. Here, it seems this was far more of an occurrence, and it didn't feel right to Riku.
On the way over, an exhausted Riku, took a nap, after eating an entire ration bar AND the curry that was made for them. It might seem like he was taking it lightly, but it was really just the opposite. He wanted to make sure he had as much strength as he could, and this was like a marathon.
When Sayla called for people to be awake, he snapped awake and was ready. When the Behemoth touched down, he looked shocked and dismayed at the same time. The sight of the Behemoth unleashing its destruction was the first sight Riku had of this city. Snapping out of it, he says, "Standing around doing nothing won't get anything done.." his words more dire than normal.
Riku popped open the door of the still moving transport and jumped into the portal that opened thanks to his Z-Raiser. Inside, Riku inserts a card with his picture, and an ominous-looking face above him, inserting it into the slot on the Z-Raiser. "Riku, Access granted," the Z-Raiser's voice calls out.
This is followed by drawing out three metals from a plastic case on his hip. The face of an Ultraman was on each one. As Riku inserted the metals, "Live! Unite! Up!" he calls out as each metal is inserted. He brings a slider across each metal. "Ultraman Ginga! Ultraman X! Ultraman Orb!" The Z-Raiser's voice calls out. Raising it up into the air, before holding the Z-Raiser over his chest, he pulls the trigger. "Assemble! Glittering Stars!"
The various Ultra's are summoned, flying past as another Ultraman and Belial appear next to him. The two merge into his body as Riku shouts out, "GEEEEEED!" The three Ultraman called out to give their rise power to Riku's own, before the face of Belial appears for a split second.
Energy appears near the transport, as it forms into a person. Soon it's growing into a giant person, as it finally forms Geed. Ultraman Geed is already charging towards the Behemoth, ready to try and stop the path of destruction it's waging.
POT: Koji Kabuto is no longer set observer.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
--- FUJINOMIYA CITY, OLD PHOTON POWER RESEARCH LABORATORY ---
Koji Kabuto couldn't say for sure why his palms started itching watching the broadcast from Britannia, or why he opened his locker with his old pilot suit in, only to be reminded that he hasn't worn that in about ten years and it'll suck to try. A standard-issue Ichinana jumpsuit will have to do.
By the time he's working through the startup sequence for the Jet Pilder, Behemoth's presence on the field is clear.
"Doctor Kabuto? You can't be going out there, sir, you're retired and it's in Area 11, the ramifications - "
"- To hell with the ramifications!" he barks over his shoulder at the scientists behind him. "You know the Britannians aren't going to do anything until that thing's on top of their defensive line, innocent people are dying down there!" He turns to glare at his colleagues. "I'm going, I'm taking Z, and I'll go by myself if I have to. You can either help me from Control, or you can get the hell out of my way, and the least any of you can do is get Yumi-san to smooth things over if you're so worried about the damn ramifications."
--- TEN MINUTES LATER ---
Mazinger Z burns towards Britannian airspace, a golden star low on the horizon. LiSA (The Large Intelligent Systems Agent of Infinity), seated in the Pilder's new copilot seat, tilts her head. "Comm from Control. Mazinger Z is permitted to enter Britannian airspace."
Koji snorts, leaning forward in his seat. "The old man came through for once. Jet Scrander: FULL BURN!"
The Jet Scrander's thrusters roar and the Fortress of Iron blazes towards the Nagoya incident.
<Pose Tracker> Garrod Ran has posed.
'You can't win ... nothing can win against that!'
'Even the Moon won't help this time.'
The memory of Tiffa's prediction loops erratically through Garrod's mind as he sits tight in the GX's cockpit, occasionally gritting his teeth against the bumps and swerves which the transport truck executes. He reached up to make sure his visor was closed and opaqued, but he's been quiet ever since the team set out from their safehouse, how long ago was that again?
Another jounce as they barrel through the checkpoint; Garrod's ridden out worse hits in live combat.
'Even the Moon won't help ...'
While Garrod usually brushes off Tiffa's dire predictions, that one line sticks with him, like an arrow between the ribs. The terrifying power of the Satellite Cannon has always been an ace in the hole for him, even though its use depends on factors he can't control. If that isn't enough --
"Then we'll still find a way to turn the tables," he tells himself, breaking the silence he's maintained so far along the way. Tiffa's predicted the future before, and been proven wrong each time. But it's exactly as Chibodee and Riku and the others, and Garrod himself, said in reply:
They can't just do *nothing*. Especially when so many innocents are going to be in harm's way.
The truck comes to a halt; Garrod can hear his allies deploying, and see them on the camera relays. The Saint Lance, Ultraman Geed; the Arbalest will be joining the fight as well.
"Circle Blue, GX, LAUNCHING!!" Garrod calls out over the radio as he brings the white-and-blue frame of the Gundam X off the truck, onto its feet, and into the fray.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
THEN
The pink-haired young woman was a little intense, withdrawn, and ... sad? There was something palpable to her emotions and thoughts, even if she didn't say a whole lot in the warehouse. But when Kaname Chidori gave her a *good* home-cooked meal made with what was available -- and not made with t'meat or scrapple -- she put her hands on Kaname's and gave her a powerful nod.
A nod of understanding. Of thanks. Of destiny, between those that cook. "Shelby."
NOW
Amongst the blockade runners is one Mobile Suit definitely not on the truck, but following behind the formation as the rearguard; a streak of knockout pink and a black so black it seems to soak up both city and firelight as the invaders cross the checkpoint in a swift-- and violent-- manner. Absolutely a Zeon Mobile Suit but lacking the filigree and decor of the Sleeves, the Jagd Doga is a pristine machine that definitely looks like it not only survived Char's rebellion, but has been meticulously maintained in the years since.
Shelby Korts draws in a breath as her fingers curl a little tighter around the control sticks. According to her displays, the psychoframe is still disconnected, the psycommu systems are online and operating green, and the main display on the console in front of her shows the updates of a system recalibration to operate the mobile suit in-atmosphere. It's a little slower than she'd like, but ... then again, she's driving it while it's running hot and active.
Deep breath in, deep breath out. Ride the wave.
As machines deploy and ultras grow, Shelby stops trying to filter the noise-- she just lets her Newtype abilities unfold to their fullest; opening the doors to the storm and letting thought and form and feeling and idea wash over her to their fullest-- from panicked evacuations to stray thoughts about how cool it was to see some machines deployed to someone thinking they have to record this, to--
-- the Behemoth touching down with a powerful... lack of crash? Shelby's eyes narrow a bit, shifting her weight in her seat. "What the hell kind of machine is this...?"
KTS: Takuma_Kugayama has deployed as a Boss for 6 opponents.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
They gave Kaname a pilot suit, Sousuke thinks. It makes sense, of course. In this situation, it's imperative she not be identified. Her life...the lifestyle he had dedicated himself to protecting, would be in tatters.
It's that sorrow that he finds himself thinking about as the missiles create a curtain of fire further into the city, as he watches it sheer a crane completely apart with a sword the size of a city block. The world, these peoples' world, barely registers. He knows he's supposed to protect it, but--
Captain gives the orders. Shoot to disable. Pilot to be taken alive - unspoken 'if possible', but he knows enough about the shape of this. From what he saw of that boy...it won't be.
Sousuke joins the group leaping out of the trailer, Arbalest's white and navy color scheme nearly shining in the darkness of early morning. The Arm Slave lunges skyward, tumbles mid-air and lands hard on a rooftop. Against the Behemoth, it's so, so small. "It's massive," he breathes. "And it looks heavily armored even for that size. How can it maintain...?"
AL chimes, "All systems are at military power."
"There he is! Uruz-7, engaging!" Sousuke calls, as Arbalest snaps its weapon up. He fires toward the face, rather than the body as he would normally. Maybe if he can disrupt the cameras, he'll achieve...anything.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara's ARX-7 Arbalest has been disabled. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has deployed in ARX-7 Arbalest. Takuma Kugayama has moved to Urban Battle Zone
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Takuma Kugayama with Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell! KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Sousuke Sagara's Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Shotshell, taking 780 damage! Dr. Hell has moved to Urban Battle Zone
<Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
The chittering of the Burai senses alerts Karma to the presence of those pesky flies he was watching for before he hears C.C. over the radio and replies, "This is P-1 to the crazy pizza lover, the Behemoth is doing it's thing and well I think I owe Seina a you were right. Still waiting for the pilot to show what makes it so special."
During all the chatting he has been tracking one of the responders to the Behemoths wrath and smiles as he finds himself a VF doing a fly by. Taking a moment he lines up his shot before he opens fire, and says to an empty cockpit, "Would have been better if you just helped with the evacuation."
The burai Longshot raises it's rifle as it begins to track Alto's VF before a loud bang and the electrified bullet flies through the air to bring it out of the sky.
KTS: Karma Sato has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Karma Sato targets Alto Saotome with Longshot Sniper Rifle Long-Range Aimed Shot! Ryoko_Subaru teleports in. POT: Ryoko Subaru is now set observer.
<Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Well, at least people actually showed up. Not that Chienne is *surprised*, but it does mean that she has her choice of targets. Mazinger Z, who is tempting just for the prestige; an Ultra, same reason.
"Hey, big guy," Chienne sends to Takuma, not expecting a response. "Call me if you need me."
And then she kicks away from him, banking sharply to one side. She sees someone trying to hide up there, taking aim, and the Mega Beam Rifle is something that might actually put a dent in the Behemoth's armour (she assumes; Chienne doesn't really know how the Behemoth works and she doesn't care, either). But it's small enough that she assumes she can smack it around some; Chienne doesn't know if it has an ace in it or not, but it's an attractive target.
So a bare few seconds later, those shoulder cannons fire again, tracing twin lines of energy up at the satellite dish, the Z-II, and anything else that might be up there that she didn't see. The Belphagor takes a long and surprisingly slow (for the Belphagor) circle around the building, firing several more times at the Mobile Suit, or things that might be a second suit backing Roux up. It's night; you can hide in the shadows, but Chienne's approach is to shoot all of them just in case.
Finally, Chienne thinks to herself. Some god damned *conflict*. Without any real intention to, her lips pull back into something between a grin and a snarl.
KTS: Chienne Argent targets Roux Louka with Shoulder Beam Cannon! KTS: Alto Saotome fails to evade Karma Sato's Longshot Sniper Rifle Long-Range Aimed Shot, taking 5800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Karma Sato's Smart Guy activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Karma Sato roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Roux Louka successfully evades Chienne Argent's Shoulder Beam Cannon
<Pose Tracker> Takuma Kugayama has posed.
Ants. They're tiny, thinks Takuma. Inconsequential. There's nothing they can do to touch Behemoth--to touch *him.* His thoughts are a blur. Clouded. He's seeing red, thinking with the mind of a Behemoth... and only two things are perfectly clear to him. A what, and a why.
Nagoya will be drenched in blood... for her. For Seina. His sister.
One of the ants perches atop a building and opens fire... the Arbalest's shotcannon attack breaks like a wave against the shore, impacting near-harmlessly, the only sign of its passing a red ripple in the air as the Behemoth's Lambda Driver shields it from harm. It doesn't lift a finger.
Its head rotates to face Sousuke, erupting in a hail of vulcan fire.
Then it turns its attention to those beneath it. It takes another step forward, sweeping the ground to catch them all in a single strike. Another step, fracturing and cratering the pavement.
KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Sousuke Sagara with Behemoth Vulcan Raze! KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Sousuke Sagara with Behemoth Vulcan Raze! KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Liam 7-020, Riku Asakura, Koji Kabuto, Garrod Ran, and Sho Muramoto with Behemoth Sword Sweep. KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Sousuke Sagara with Behemoth Vulcan Raze!
KTS: Liam 7-020 parries Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Sword Sweep, taking 1650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Takuma Kugayama has engaged Liam 7-020 KTS: Riku Asakura rushes into the attack! KTS: Riku Asakura fails to react to Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Sword Sweep, taking 4125 damage! KTS: Takuma Kugayama has engaged Riku Asakura KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to Parry Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Sword Sweep, taking 4950 damage! KTS: Takuma Kugayama has engaged Koji Kabuto KTS: Sho Muramoto has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Sho Muramoto has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sho Muramoto parries Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Sword Sweep, taking 825 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Takuma Kugayama has engaged Sho Muramoto KTS: Sousuke Sagara successfully evades Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Vulcan Raze KTS: Garrod Ran successfully Evades Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Sword Sweep Alto Saotome uses Propellant Tank
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Assail Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Alto soars through the sky, preparing to engage the Behemoth when his system suddenly alerts him to a threat, "Wha-" He jerks the flight stick to the side, trying to roll out out of the path of the incoming shot. But the alert comes far too late as the bullet slams into the fuselage. The fighter's armor system is able to absorb much of the impact, keeping it from just going right through the machine and all the systems inside. But there's still a hole there.
Alto grunts in surprised annoyance, not having seen the Behemoth actually aim at him. Which means, "It has help!?" Why? Who would do that!? Following his system's guidance back to the source of the shot, Alto watches as a machine atop a rooftop is highlighted. It's hard to see the details of it from this far away, but judging by the accuracy of that single shot... It has to be a sniper.
Quickly going through his options, Alto frowns, "Fine. I'll just deal with that one first!" Alto pushes the throttle forward as he speeds up, pointing his fighter's nose into a dive towards the highlighted enemy. But he's not going to just let that machine get off another shot while he closes in, quickly switching his weapons system over to his missiles. After a quick missile lock, Alto pulls the trigger.
As the Messiah angles down and starts to descend, the four large missiles hanging from its wing attachments drop free. Their engines then kick in, sending the guided weapons dancing through the air as they rocket down towards Karma's Knightmare, threatening to explode him.
KTS: Alto Saotome targets Karma Sato with Wing Mounted Missiles Barrage! KTS: Karma Sato blocks Alto Saotome's Wing Mounted Missiles Barrage, taking 8880 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alto Saotome's The Twinkle Of A Tearful Planet activates, causing Insight L1! <Pose Tracker> Riku Asakura has posed.
The sword the size of the Behemoth itself hits the rushing Geed, causing sparks to fly from the wound and sending the Ultraman back to fall over across some buildings. That was a powerful blow, and something was off about it. The way it was structured wasn't right somehow..? No something worse...something was very wrong here, and more than the obvious!
Ultraman Geed jumps back to his feet, and immediately jumps towards the Behemoth, driving his fists into the machine, before attempting to haymaker the giant machine. He moves around it, fighting it more akin to a wrestling match than a traditional robot.
Oddly, its size makes it a prime opponent for the Ultra, being about the size of a Kaiju itself. "I'm no ant, and I'm taller than you," Riku snaps back. "I don't know what's going on with you, but you need to stop! You are hurting people!"
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The manifestation of the black castle of iron, Mazinger Z, makes Roux Louka look to the side. As does a certain tension in the air, something beyond the vaguely burning-tire scent of this area. It's a feeling, a presence. Someone reaching out? It's like --
That feeling of someone out there (Shelby) made Roux reach out, almost casually. The openness means she picks up something a lot more specific. Something down there, her target! The MS screen! The Belphegor is opening fire and the Z-II answers it by throwing itself to the side!
... Not much of a strategy and it's rough for the building - but the Mobile Suit circles round, even if it's moving faster than Chienne's targetting. Roux sweats down her back, and says, quietly, "So you're gonna open fire like this, are you...?"
And the Z-II brings up-- an elongated octagonal shield!?
With an integrated projector nozzle! With FOUR small barrels on a rotary mechanism!
This technology is immediately put to use in suppressing a military uprising! (Hey, wait. No, this is wh they're paying Roux money.) The jittering magenta needle-prods of beam attack pepper towards the Belphagor as Roux says, "Nice tub you're taking for a walk out there. Did you have demands or is this just about ruining a perfecly fine town??"
But who was that person she felt? Roux wonders, even as the Z-II's feet hit the pavement.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Chienne Argent with Shield-Stored Gatling Cannon! KTS: Riku Asakura targets Takuma Kugayama with Ultraman Wrestling Style! <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
She hears it.
The <open gateway> towering over the streets. C.C. can't help but follow such things - it's like a blinding light flashing in her vision. Thoughts flowing towards a focal point, and passing through.
She sees it.
A machine that stepped straight out of Char's final war, the slightly hulking Jagd Doga - not too far away from the Zeta II, both of them closing in on the position of the strangely off rampage of the Behemoth. It clearly does a lot of damage, yet moves as though weightless and impossibly heavy at the same time...
"Hmm, so you did have a trick. What an odd machine you procured, Takuma-kun..."
The IFF displayed by the mysterious Gundam Belphegor reminds C.C. that it's that odd mercenary type who's been showing up to back the Black Knights and A21, and she quickly radios in to Chienne - <"I take it the Zeta-type is with those who'd stop Behemoth? I'm the one coordinating the Black Knights proper. Zero's personal aide. Please just call me C.C. ... I'll be relying on your Gundam, you understand, and holding off the Zeonic-looking machine that seems to be supporting our opponents. Let me know if you need an assist, or something...">
She turns her attention back towards the Jagd Doga, the pink Burai quickly opening fire on the towering machine, darting in and out of cover all flighty and elusive. It's quite easy for her to feel the mental opening that's so easy to just about fall into on Shelby. And so, the Code Bearer gives a bit more of a direct welcoming.
((Enjoying yourself, I hope?))
((It's terribly rare I come across someone -this- open.))
((...It's terribly painful and unsustainable.))
((How in the world can you sustain that in the tides of war?))
KTS: C.C. targets Shelby Korts with Glasgow AR Shot! KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Assail Spirit Command. KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Riku Asakura anchors Takuma Kugayama, forcing it into close range. KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Riku Asakura's Ultraman Wrestling Style, taking 1980 damage! KTS: Riku Asakura has engaged Takuma Kugayama <Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
The Behemoth gets serious.
Mercenary Buta leans back, firing his machine gun wildly into the air in order to keep the growing enemy support away. He has not been paid enough to die in what, to him, is clearly some sort of suicide mission, if not now, then when the Brittanins get serious and send in the absolutely horrendous guns. Buta is a being of limited perception and perhaps does not fully appreciate the mysterious super ARM Slave's unique place in robotic warfare.
He can shoot though, and does. The hairs on the back of his neck twitch. He remembers a previous life, a life where he believed in things, in people, in hope. In freedom from gravity.
He remembers what killed him. "Gundam." Buta wheezes, a tongue unused to words forming them through sheer force, "Pilot."
Panzermerc's spinal artillery pops open, a handful of missles just screaming Sayla's way as the larger, slower mech moves into a defensive position. "White." Buta whispers to himself, holding his head so hard skin starts to break. "Base. Capture. Capture. White. Wheeeeeeeze."
And somewhere else, Doctor Hell remembers a woman with a soul of iron taking one look at him and pulling a trigger. Apt, he thinks, and observes.
KTS: Chienne Argent fails to Evade Roux Louka's Shield-Stored Gatling Cannon, taking 2850 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sayla Mass with Panzer Spine Launch Narrow-Area Volley! KTS: Chienne Argent has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Garrod Ran has posed.
The Behemoth's sword is traveling along a plane a certain distance above ground level. There's probably a good bit of formal math that computers could crunch through to calculate evasive maneuvers; Garrod just eyeballs it in a hurry, brings his Gundam up into a jump, and lights up the thrusters for extra lift, maneuvering clear of the blade until it's finished its passage. By the time the Gundam X touches down again, Ultraman Geed has already closed in to infighting distance with Big, Red, and Ugly; maybe close combat will do some good, or maybe it won't.
For now, Garrod is going through the solutions he remembers to other problems, like a kaiju that simply absorbed energy attacks. That's not what the scarlet monster is doing, though - he had a decent sight of Sousuke leading off with physical ballistic munitions, and they just sparked off of the barrier - the opposite problem, it would appear.
For now, Garrod takes the GX on a lateral path, bringing the Shield Buster Rifle to bear and firing at the Behemoth, testing its defenses further.
KTS: Sayla Mass successfully Intercepts Dr. Hell's Panzer Spine Launch Narrow-Area Volley KTS: Garrod Ran targets Takuma Kugayama with Buster Rifle - Blast! <Pose Tracker> Sho Muramoto has posed.
Sho eyes the overgrown machine, trying to setup his short. And then well... it swings a massive sword.
At the same time, Sho launches the physical arrow aiming at the head of the unit. Energy barrier or no energy barrier, it's sure to do something he hopes.
And then he has to worry about that massive sword coming at him. The arm bow folds up to a compact form as the samurai machine draws one of it's blades and meets the massive blade head on, being pushed along a good couple of meters before the samurai robot shifts it's grip and actually spins over the blade's swing to avoid being crushed.
Sho, in the cockpit, gives a hum. "Physical size, no edge. Weight crushing weapon. Bow will be useless on shield."
The bow is moved to the back, hooking there somehow as the samurai machine moves back to it's feet, pulling it's second sword.
KTS: Sho Muramoto targets Takuma Kugayama with Overgrown Arrow Shot! Sho Muramoto has cancelled its attack.
KTS: Sho Muramoto targets Takuma Kugayama with Ship Killing Arrow! KTS: [Lucky] Shelby Korts's luck activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Shelby Korts successfully blocks C.C.'s Glasgow AR Shot <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Attacks against Primary Target appear ineffective. Advance continuing," LiSA remarks coolly as Koji pulls Z into a very low attack path.
"Well then we'll have to try and slow it down!" Blue light crackles on Mazinger's horns. "REITO - "
"Incoming attack." LiSA is no more or less alarmed about this information.
"Crap!" Mazinger throws up an arm to deflect the blade but is smashed out of the air by a weapon at least twice its own length, sliding gracelessly along the tarmac. Koji grimaces as he wrests the Mazin back to its feet, light beginning to spill from its eyes. "Alright, buddy, you get that one for free - you're big and you hit hard but you're no Titan G9. Let's do this. KOUSHIRYOKOU BEAM!"
Golden-white lasers split the night, aimed directly at Behemoth!
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Takuma Kugayama with Koushiryoku Beam! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The Dark Bushnell takes off at a sprint, Monomolecular Cutter held tightly in its hand. In its cockpit, Liam surveys the terrain and takes stock of the beacons, allied and enemy. Terrain: densely-packed urban center, not unlike his first deployment zone. His heart tightens as he remembers the last orders his handler gave him: deploy, spool the reactor to optimal, and wait for Britannian response.
People would've died. People like--
Another machine opens fire--another Arm Slave, though Liam doesn't recognize the exact make. The Dark Bushnell skids to a halt, looking up, up, up at the immense figure before it. Its body language speaks to a skilled, or at least talented pilot. It's already bringing its cutter up to parry, reflexively, even though--
How is that thing standing up? Liam wonders.
"Anomalous energy field detected," Liam says. "Recommend--"
He isn't given time to finish the sentence. The building-sized blade comes screaming at him, slicing through three parked cars and then the storefront of a building. It doesn't even slow down. The momentum behind it is impossible.
The two blades meet with a horrible screech of ultradense fiber meeting ultradense fiber. Tension tears at the Arm Slave's arms, and for a moment, it feels like the impact will shear them loose. Stress fractures start to form in the armor. Liam grits his teeth, and--for just a moment--shifts his body forward. The smaller blade breaks the clash. The M6A3 tumbles forwards, sparks flying as it skids over the flat of the massive blade. It lands on its feet on the sundered ground, and immediately steps into a fighting stance again.
And for a defensive maneuver well-performed, the CRS gives Liam the tiniest bit of extra dopamine, as a treat, with an adrenaline shot to ensure optimal performance.
"Testing enemy barrier," Liam says, even though he's not sure who he's talking to. The Arm Slave reaches down and draws a brace of knives--anti-tank daggers, each one an explosive, armor-breaking spike. The Arm Slave hurls the knives at the Behemoth in a single, smooth motion, and observes closely.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Takuma Kugayama with Anti-Tank Dagger Fan! <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
The burai seems the incoming missiles and raises it shield as the entire knightmare gets launched from the perch of the building it was on and through another and another. A loud scrapping sound as it hits the pavement and bounces , who know Burai's could bounce.
Karma groans as he can feel a little blood trickle down his head and he raises his hand to his head holding it. Over comms he adds, " Ok P-1 would just like to know if anyone knew that fighters could fire f'in trucks. " Attempting to right the Burai, Karma notices that the left arm that was holding the shield is inoperable and the shield itself, what remains of it is probably wedged into some building somewhere.
Taking a deep breath he tries to figure out what to do in this situation and uses what is left of a car on the street to brace the rifle. Taking a deep breath Karma finds the VF still in the sky and the moment he sees it once again he fires. It will either be a great shot or it will be the last shot he gets off tonight.
KTS: Karma Sato has activated the Assail Spirit Command. KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Sho Muramoto's Ship Killing Arrow, taking 1050 damage! KTS: Karma Sato has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Karma Sato targets Alto Saotome with Longshot Sniper Rifle Perfect Shot! KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Koji Kabuto's Koushiryoku Beam, taking 950 damage! KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Garrod Ran's Buster Rifle - Blast, taking 1150 damage! KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Liam 7-020's Anti-Tank Dagger Fan, taking 3675 damage! KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Alto Saotome fails to Evade Karma Sato's Longshot Sniper Rifle Perfect Shot, taking 6350 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Karma Sato's Smart Guy activates, causing Designate L1! <Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Shelby's head cants; the pink-haired young woman's head turning to look in the direction of the Z-II. Within a split-second the HUD is giving her the most brief of data-scans on the machine; identifying it's presence and it's transponder codes. But more than that, the pilot ... the pilot is ...
"Who...? Is that...?"
It is, perhaps, the most direct and tangible version of her abilities and prowess being shown: The round shield mounted on the left forearm is lifted into the path of the shots being fired, and the Jagd Doga soaks at least a few of them with varying degrees of pings and pangs and ricochets before the Mobile Suit deftly glides off to one side with a fierce burst of verniers and movement, the weight of the robot rapidly catching up with it: The feet touch down with a crush of asphalt beneath it's feet.
She's always been able to hear the thoughts of everyone around her -- whether she wanted to or not -- but this is ... this is a whole other level. Her brow scrunches with intent.
((How--))
She *knows* where it's coming from -- the direction of the Burai, it's relation to the terrain, to the Behemoth, to herself and her allies, and ... then her face tightens into a more fierce scowl.
((I've survived worse.))
Swinging the gatling rifle around, the barrels chatter away in bits and bursts, trying to catch the Burai in it's wake!
KTS: Shelby Korts targets C.C. with Beam Gatling Gun Burst! KTS: C.C. has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: C.C. successfully avoids Shelby Korts's Beam Gatling Gun Burst <Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Chienne is oblivious enough - closed-in enough around her own core of rage - that she does not feel Shelby. Not really.
Nor Roux, really, but she certainly *sees* Roux, which is good enough. "Why don't you ask him?" is Chienne's response to Roux. "I'm a mercenary. *Why* the Big Guy's doing it is his business. I only care about the what. And the who - in this case, you!"
Chienne doesn't really evade as she finishes the Belphagor's wide banking maneuver, turning at the end of the curve to face Roux more directly. The little shards of beam attack scatter, some hitting Belphagor's arm and flank - Chienne uses its bulky upper limb as a shield to protect Belphagor's head, even though it's strictly not necessary. The head's not exactly the most important part of the robot.
Then she guns the engine. Chienne dives, a swooping flight that brings her low to the ground. Low enough that she can swing the gigantic heat axe two-handed, hard enough to lift the Z-II up with her for a few meters before it inevitably falls off or takes flight under its own power; then she begins to rise again.
She receives a message from C.C. Chienne momentarily debates just ignoring it (how much does she care about making friends with the Black Knights?) but she eventually decides to respond. "<You want me to bail you out?>" There's a pause, just for a beat, then: "<I charge extra for emergency rescues.>"
But she appears to be listening, because her new flight path is taking her towards C.C. and Shelby. She does not leave her back open for Roux, though; the Belphagor flies in a serpentine path, so that she can keep Roux on her flank instead, heat axe at the ready.
KTS: Chienne Argent targets Roux Louka with Giant Heat Hawk Topple Strike! <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
The Behmoth *ignores* a blast from the Shotcannon, and Sayla blasphemes loudly. "Ansuz, what is that thing?" She radios to command, as Geed and the others charge towards it, Sayla's eyes widen. That's.... That's ridiculous. How is this happening?
She starts to kneel to line up her rifle-
'Gundam.'
Only for the flash to cause her to turn at the last second and open fire with the Saint Lance's chest vulcans, blasting them out of the sky. "Who-" A wanzer of some sort, but that size? It looks like an abomination. Either way... "This is Heart-2, I'm engaged by one of their allies. It's in your hands!"
She turns, raising that long rifle at the Panzermerc. The same type used by the Sazabi. She's mostly made peace with it. She's not going to ask her opponent to stand down, that chance was gone long ago. She aims quickly, and snaps off a shot at the Panzermerc's gun chest. Whatever that thing is, whatever the pressure behind the pilot, Sayla Mass fucking hates it.
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Dr. Hell with Saint Lance Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Dr. Hell blocks Sayla Mass's Saint Lance Beam Rifle Shot, taking 2300 damage! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 67. KTS: Chienne Argent rattles Roux Louka, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Roux Louka fails to parry Chienne Argent's Giant Heat Hawk Topple Strike, taking 6120 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Chienne Argent has engaged Roux Louka Alto Saotome has moved to Urban Battle Zone Alto Saotome transforms to VF-25F Messiah <Battroid Mode> <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Alto watches as his missiles explode, sending the enemy machine flying and crashing down to the ground. It looks like a tough opponent if it managed to survive a barrage like that.
Alto continues his descent, altering his course towards to keep on his approach towards what Alto now realises is a Knightmare. His system then alerts him to another shot. Alto is a little more prepared this time, pressing his foot down and snapping his hand to the side.
The Messiah goes into a quick spin, to spiral around the shot. Well aimed, it still hits, but this time the bullet cuts a deep grove along much of the fighter's fuselage before finally its finally broken up. Feeling the shake of the impact and hearing the sound of tearing metal, Alto is definitely going to have to get out of the eyesight of that machine. Otherwise the next shot may finish the job. Alto twists his around and down.
The fighter suddenly transforms in mid air, separating and rapidly rearranging into a humanoid form in less than a second.
The Battroid begins to fall out of the air, the ground beneath quickly rising up to meet it. As it falls it raises the gunpod in its hand, aiming towards the Knightmare sheltered behind that car and fires a rapid stream of bullets towards it. Until finally the Battroid disappears from view behind a building.
Alto quickly presses down on both pedals, causing the engines now in his machine's feet to light up, quickly slowing his fall until he hits the ground with a heavy crunch, cracking the street below. He then has his machine rise and move to press its back up against a building, waiting to see if the Knightmare makes another move.
KTS: Alto Saotome targets Karma Sato with Gatling Shot! KTS: [Lucky] Karma Sato's Beginner's Luck activates, and luck goes his way! KTS: Karma Sato successfully evades Alto Saotome's Gatling Shot <Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
All Tessa could do was bite her lip. To watch it all erupt in front of her, taking in the sights and sounds as if she were an observer without any stake in the fight. How cruel. How insane. With every new rock of the truck from one suit or another jumping off, she settled back in her seat, bright pink suit with a sheer visor to obscure her face. Thank god for pilot suits.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1gVwUDz0Ts
"Acknowledged." Tapping. Scribbling. Writing down engagements as they occur, taking note of strength against strength, drawing on what she knew. Six on that. Four one on ones. She could work with this; Trust in them as individuals.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out. The carnage. The destruction. She could see it with her own eyes, tap tap tapping on the tablet. Here. There. Light bits of acknowledgement as the instigator sat back in the truck, acting as the seemingly impassive observer. Set the guilt for later. Focus on what has to be done.
And what could be done? She saw the Behemoth. She saw its terrible magnificence, the way it towered taller than the Psycho Gundam. She could hear it. The confusion. The scattershot comms. The thing that should not be. She could see it all in her mind's eye, with the sights and sounds used as the template to fill in the rest. "Keep going. Focus on your own fights. Provide cover where needed." Focus. Focus.
Rely on them. Phase out the desctruction, the asphalt being overturned, the fact of innocent people being caught in the crossfire. Focus.
The Behemoth should not be. The abberation stretching into the sky, her eyes scanning upwards at The Behemoth that defied logic. Logic.
And. And.
Then. Then.
She. She.
Thought. Knew.
"...! All units! I repeat, all units!" Pick words carefully. Piece it. Of course it has one. It has that. Otherwise, how could it not be? "The unit is being controlled by a special engine that defies physics! It's extremely heat-ineffecient, but it needs a way to exhaust that heat!" Don't talk about the other requirements. The other things needed. The catalyst of emotions. The slivers that could take this beast down, leaving the rest in darkness.
Hand pressed against her ear, gripping the dashboard as she tried to keep calm. Failing. "Find exhaust ports! Any of them, no matter how small!" That was it. That was the key. Whispering in the back of her mind.
She knew this engine because it was something she had seen before.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
In the chaos of combat Roux does not *see* the Jagd Doga's shield rise upwards, but she feels something -- it's that tickle that would normally suggest to her that funnels are being used, but who would use funnels on Earth? In Nagoya?? Does Britannia even know what a funnel is???
Even so the shape of the Jagd Doga impinges on her peripheral vision. Somehow it doesn't read as a threat to her. Her attention is on the Balphagor. "Hmf!" she answers, but before she can do more to respond to the words from Chienne, is the incoming Heat Axe. It's glowing--
Roux, used perhaps to war past Jupiter, does not parse it as a heat weapon. She brings up a Beam Saber in a glittering fountain of mega particles to parry ANNND it probably puts a nick in that but the enormous weight of the thing smashes into the arm of the Z-II and only the hard work of
NOTORIOUS HERO OF THE MOBILE SUIT DESIGN REVOLUTION
JOB JOHN
does it not just get immediately amputated. Custom layering buffers a shock and instead the Z-II is smashed backwards, its shield swung to the side as it has proven as useful as tits on a boar. Smashing, Roux cries out, jerked violently in her seat, and then looks to see -- an outline in the corner of her eye --
Shelby gets a clear thought from Roux, powered by pain and desperation. A plea for rescue-- <<Glemy!!!>>
It turns into enormous embarrassment a moment later as Roux discovers she is not in fact dead, nor is she even particularly hurt.
The Z-II is less so. It rises up more heavily; Chienne is able to gain time and space both, with electrical arcs coming from the Gundam's arm. Roux discards the beam saber (she has a spare... *a* spare...) in order to heave up the Mega Beam Rifle, firing it at the back of the Balphegor! Well, towards that back -- if she has to keep turning around, she can't close to melee. Right?
And who the hell is driving a Bawoo out here? Roux wonders to herself. "Doga, are you with some remnant group?" Roux half-shouts into the comm, which probably comes out meaner than she had intended, but she's tense.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Chienne Argent with Mega Beam Rifle! <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
((Well, isn't that a terribly straightforward answer?))
C.C.'s Burai proves to be a bit of a size mismatch, to be sure - the spindly little KMF dancing and weaving in between any obstacles it can - more like an annoying mosquito buzzing around Shelby's ear in repeated circles, deftly kicking up cars and large traffic signs to serve as shields between herself and Shelby.
((I remember when I used to feel the same way.))
She ducks behind a subway ventilation shaft, and the inbound beam fire sets ablaze where she was standing...only for the Burai to have used a harken to ascend up the inside, standing perilously perched atop it, deploying the heavier rocket launchers from its backpack.
((But then those things got worse and worse.))
She quickly radios in, to Chienne: <"Oh no, not intending to be bailed out or anything. I can take care of myself in that regard. ...I'm just normally one who lacks in raw stopping power, you understand."> And then, the rockets flare out, spreading out in a fan before fishtailing and diverting back towards the Jagd Doga.
((It stops being interesting to endure pain, just because there's been harsher in the past.))
KTS: C.C. targets Shelby Korts with MULS-P Dual Missile Launchers Blast Volley! <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
"AL, was that--?" Sousuke begins.
AL says, "Unable to verify impact."
Sousuke bites out a noise in his cockpit. Sousuke relays his AI's verdict to his commander: "Ma'am, AL's unable to verify impact! Behavior is consistent with what we saw in Khanka!" Mostly. This one's not ricocheting back, but otherwise. That should be vague enough. Then, a more generally-directed call: "It shouldn't be able to move like that!" Sousuke calls. "Be careful!" The Captain's caution with her words has, at least, convinced Sousuke not to say the two words he's thinking. Not yet. Not until she does.
The mega-sized and double-stacked head vulcans open up, tearing four lines through Sousuke's perch. The Arbalest itself leaps away, the ARM Slave's speed letting it surge out of the path of the fire as the Behemoth's head swings up. Arbalest hits hard on a freeway, kicking up fractured concrete, then leaps again, higher, trying to find a superior position.
Then, he receives the Captain's orders.
"Understood!" Sousuke calls. "AL, find me vents!"
"Roger."
In the meanwhile, he grasps for a clutch of Anti-Tank Daggers, winging them up at the Behemoth's head. If he can get one of the explosives through, maybe he can damage the head vulcans...!
KTS: Shelby Korts's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Shelby Korts blocks C.C.'s MULS-P Dual Missile Launchers Blast Volley, taking 2100 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Takuma Kugayama with Anti-Tank Dagger Fan! KTS: Chienne Argent retreats from the attack! KTS: Chienne Argent successfully evades Roux Louka's Mega Beam Rifle <Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
Lasers! A machine's greatest weakness!
The slow, heavy Panzer holds up its big shield, managing to deflect the hyper accurate laser blasts from the most vulnerable parts, but the hit is dangerous enough to melt crucial layers of armor, exposing naked systems. This is what made the gundams, the new-types so dangerous. They moved like lighting and knew exactly how to shoot your guts out.
It wasn't fair. They were going to inherit the earth!
"Wheeeeeeeeeze!" Buta wheezes, trotters shaking as he tries to refocus as Sayla dances around him. He needs to.
Shoot it. Shoot it!
Panzermerc slowly rises from its crouch, lowering its shields daringly. Its chest cannon moves independently, aiming carefully at the careening Gundam. Blocks are put in place so the shot does not damage the machine, and with a careful aim the chest FIRES.
KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Sousuke Sagara's Anti-Tank Dagger Fan, taking 3150 damage! KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sayla Mass with Panzer War Chest Core Shot! KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Sousuke Sagara, Liam 7-020, and Garrod Ran with Coordinate. KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Liam 7-020's Piloting! KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Sousuke Sagara's Piloting! KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Garrod Ran's Piloting! <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
The recoil of the shot, mixed with the Burai's damaged arm putting the balance off the Longshot slings back and by pure luck avoids the burst of the gun pod and Karma just stares shocked as the car that we was using to brace the rifle is now swiss cheese, that's on fire.
Karma gets the hint that he needs to end this with his next shot or else he is going to be swiss cheese. Switching his targeting sensors to look for heat sources he begins to scan the building he saw the fighter dash behind to hide. "Ok where are you?"
Scanning slowly he has his rifle load the round and braces his knightmare the best he can, as he takes a deeep breath and the moment he thinks he sees the heat signature of the fighter he pulls the trigger to the rifle another electrically charge round ripping through the air and the building to try to pierce the opponent on the other side, casualties be damned.
KTS: Karma Sato targets Alto Saotome with Longshot Sniper Rifle Systems Targeting Shot! KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Sayla Mass fails to Evade Dr. Hell's Panzer War Chest Core Shot, taking 6060 damage! Your unit's HP stands at 8240
KTS: Dr. Hell roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Karma Sato rattles Alto Saotome, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Alto Saotome blocks Karma Sato's Longshot Sniper Rifle Systems Targeting Shot, taking 1920 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Takuma Kugayama has posed.
A21's allies offer and provide support... but to Takuma's mind, it's support he hardly needs. The Lambda Driver makes him invincible, after all...
The biggest of the insects dares to challenge the Behemoth... in a way the Lambda Driver can only help so much to counter, granted. Ultraman Geed grapples with it, stopping its advance--even inching it back, if only a little.
"Fufufu..." That laugh comes through the Behemoth's loudspeakers, distorted and titanic. "That's the point!" Takuma explains, sounding proud. "I'm here to burn Nagoya... I'll make sure the streets run red with blood!" Its hands grab Geed around the waist, to lift him up and throw him!
With the exception of Liam, the rest of the attackers meet a similar fate to Sousuke's shotcannon, blast, with little to no visible damage. Beams scatter away--there's nearly no response at all, save for the ripples of red from the Lambda Driver's shield.
The Bushnell's explosive knives, at least, manage to score the Behemoth's armor.
For their trouble, each gets repayment in kind. Its vulcans sweep the field, tracing a path between Koji, Garrod, and Sho. Its sword swings down onto Liam in retaliation for the damage done...
And suddenly, a nearly-unseen explosion knocks it briefly off-balance, as fire shoots out of the vulcan ports on the left side of its head. Sousuke's knives strike true.
In the cockpit, Takuma's rage rises with confusion as the Behemoth informs him of an ammo explosion that's destroyed both left-side vulcans. He rages to himself. "What? How? This-- no. The Behemoth is invincible...!"
He lashes out at Sousuke. Every missile port on the Behemoth opens up--and every missile is aimed squarely at Sousuke Sagara's Arblest. "rrrAAAH!"
A second volley comes afterward, this one a scattered strike into the heart of the city. The Behemoth stares at Geed as it does.
KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Liam 7-020 with Behemoth Sword Crush! KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Sousuke Sagara with Uncanny Missiles! KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Riku Asakura with Maximized Greater YEET! KTS: Takuma_Kugayama Changes attack to Koji Kabuto, Garrod Ran, and Sho Muramoto with Behemoth Vulcan Raze. KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to Evade Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Vulcan Raze, taking 3680 damage! <Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
'Glemy!!'
Shelby winces -- something that C.C. may certainly sense, or feel; the twinge of something on the edge of the young woman's collective senses as she continues to maneuver the Jagd Doga through the weapons fire and tries to maintain a safe distance from the Burai.
'Are you with some remanant group?'
Shelby's voice is ... strangely calm, and focused. She's been through this kind of thing before. Despite the vague distortions and static borne of Minovsky interference, her voice -- and tone -- are clear enough to Roux: "I'm not with the Sleeves. Is that enough?" She can deal with the fallout of giving away that much information for later.
((This isn't about being interesting--))
Immediately, she is forced to pull the machine into a hunkered-back position, dropping into a squat and attempting to use her shield to defend herself as she inches-- foots-- backward step by step, enduring the missiles as they detonate against both the shield and around her in a successive blast.
((-- and there's worse things than just enduring it!!))
The Jagd Doga's weight shifts, sliding closer to the Burai instead of away, or trying to maintain a safe and careful distance-- but then the canister-shaped objects mounted on it's shoulders suddenly pop and spring free, spinning in the air as they take flight and scuttle and skitter about, flying in sharp angles from on high. Opening up, they start taking from-high pot shots at the Burai!
((How are you even ... in my head?))
KTS: Shelby Korts targets C.C. with Jagd Doga Funnels Basic Formation! KTS: Garrod Ran has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Garrod Ran fails to Evade Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Vulcan Raze, taking 5520 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Riku Asakura with Behemoth Tackle! KTS: C.C. has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Riku Asakura has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 fails to Parry Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Sword Crush, taking 5520 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Takuma Kugayama has engaged Liam 7-020 KTS: Riku Asakura fails to rush. KTS: Riku Asakura fails to react to Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Tackle, taking 6720 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Takuma Kugayama has engaged Riku Asakura KTS: Takuma Kugayama roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: C.C. fails to react to Shelby Korts's Jagd Doga Funnels Basic Formation, taking 3420 damage! KTS: Sho Muramoto blocks Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Vulcan Raze, taking 5060 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Sho Muramoto has activated the Trick Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
There is definitely more than a nick in the heat axe - it's really too big to be a 'hawk' at this point. There's a line cut into it, halfway through the blade; it doesn't carve off a chunk of it but it definitely splits the edge of the blade into two edges, not quite in half (the beam saber went in at an angle).
It still makes an excellent weapon on sheer momentum, as Roux finds out. Chienne snarls/grins in triumph as she almost dismembers the mobile suit - but almost isn't successful, and it's still moving, if sparking. "What's the matter? Can't keep up? Half the pilots around here are real pieces of SHIT, they don't even TRY - "
Belphagor, though, is fast. It didn't look it before, but it could fly under its own power in a gravity well so it must have well above-average thruster output. When Chienne fires at the 'retreating' (more accurately repositioning) MS, though, those thrusters flare.
The sudden surge of G-forces is enough to slam Chienne back in her chair, pressing her down into it hard enough that she feels the pressure all through her body. She clenches her jaw, grinding her teeth until the acceleration cuts out and she practically springs back forward, suddenly able to draw breath again. From the outside, the Belphagor makes a highly inadvisable sharp turn, accelerating at a rate that looks dangerous before cutting the engines most of the way, pirouetting while continuing to fly about half on sheer momentum, then hovering in place.
The top section of the Belphagor slides upwards, adding a couple feet to its height, while a linked panel in the chest slides downward. The net result is to reveal the array for a stomach-mounted beam cannon that matches the two, one on either pectoral, that flip open. They begin to charge, visibly, forming a corona of mega particles. The sound that the array emits is distinctive, and uncomfortable; three not-quite-in-tune whines that make Chienne's teeth itch from the conflicting vibrations.
Then she fires. The blast looks broad for about the first twenty meters, the edges slightly diffuse, then it's more obvious that it's multiple blasts partially overlapping; one of them goes toward Roux as Chienne stops the spin, the other toward the Jagd Doga that C.C. pointed her at.
A third one goes wildly down the street, drawing a line of seared pavement and fire-damaged cars behind it, but Chienne doesn't really care about that one. It's not aimed. It's just kind of there.
KTS: Chienne Argent has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent targets Roux Louka and Shelby Korts with Sonic Smasher Cannon Wide Shot. KTS: Riku Asakura has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka blocks Chienne Argent's Sonic Smasher Cannon Wide Shot, taking 4680 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara fails to evade Takuma Kugayama's Uncanny Missiles, taking 8520 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Sho Muramoto has activated the Alert Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
The hatred of the dead can be a palpable force. Even from something that wasn't a newtype. The opponent was solid, despite the beam rifle's power. She could Ansuz over the comms, as she gives a warning. She finds a weakness. Was it like with Chidori?
Not the time, Sayla. She sees the monster getting ready to fire- she starts to move to take cover, only for the Behemoth to casually destroy the building she was going to move behind without trouble. New plan-
<<Glemy!!!>>
The thought from someone else, screaming across minds, to someone who wasn't here. It's a momentary distraction, one Sayla didn't need. The Panzermerc's shell strikes true, and the Saint Lance goes flying and Sayla lets out a scream over Shuffle Comms, rattled in her pilot seat as her unit goes THROUGH the wall of a warehouse. The helmet does it's best to mitigate injuring herself as she bounces around in her seat. The wall continues to collapse, kicking up dust.
And then, from the dust, a single missile arks toward the camped Panzermerc, on an erratic pattern more like someone flying a fighter than a standard guided missile.The psycommu system causes needs her to focus, but she can dedicate some time to standing. With any luck she'll be in the dark of the building before the dust clears.
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Dr. Hell with High-Explosive Psycommu Guided Missile! <Pose Tracker> Garrod Ran has posed.
Weaknesses. Garrod was *sure* the scarlet monster would have something, even if they aren't in the barrier itself - but Testarossa figured it out, and shares that intelligence openly. Garrod's terse but heartfelt, "Thanks!" is only transmitted back on the Shuffles' operational channel -
And even that tiny distraction costs him, misjudging an evasive maneuver and careening into the path of the Behemoth's bullets. The GX is blown off its feet, tumbling and sprawling into a row of shops; he barely has the presence of mind to hope that there weren't any occupied homes above the storefronts. Then the Gundam has come to a halt, and Garrod hurriedly brings his machine back to its feet, regaining a target lock on the Behemoth and searching for vents.
Too far away for the moment. Getting closer to the Behemoth is the *last* thing Garrod wants to do, but there's no avoiding it; the GX boosts briefly into the air, comes down on a clear street, and continues closing the distance, its pilot searching for the vents Testarossa mentioned.
Garrod's attention flickers again, turning a question over in his mind - something he wonders now and then: while Tiffa can see the future, does she also see the present? Is she 'watching' through her mind's eye as Garrod fights? Or does she close her awareness to the battle as it's waged in the now, having already witnessed a horrible outcome while it was still in the future?
He doesn't know. He doesn't even know how to ask her. But more important than whether Tiffa is watching, he has to make sure that what she *saw* no longer comes to pass -
He's on his way past the Behemoth when he spots what he *thinks* is some of the vents Testarossa mentioned, and squeezes the trigger as soon as he can line up the crosshairs in the right place. It's a lot of bullets, and they certainly won't all get through, but if he unloads enough of them on the right spot then something *has* to get through.
KTS: Garrod Ran has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Garrod Ran targets Takuma Kugayama with Chest Vulcans - Bracketing Salvo! <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Vulcan rounds hammer into Mazinger, plates of Super Alloy Z blasting off its shoulders and forearms, but Koji grits his teeth and pushes through! "Heat issues? Gotcha. Lisa, find me exhausts on the target and we'll break 'em!"
"Scanning. Designating targets."
Mazinger Z takes the iconic stance - right arm raised at the target, left arm bracing, but Koji has a different plan. "IRON CUTTER!!"
Blades sprout from the extended forearm as it launches forwards to slice into Behemoth!
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Shelby Korts KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Takuma Kugayama with Iron Cutter! <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
When the enemy Knightmare doesn't immediately charge out to find him, Alto takes a moment to breathe. It was actually probably the smart move on his opponent's part, being a sniper and all. It's probably waiting somewhere, watching for its prey before taking it out with a long shot. Meanwhile, Alto can't wait around forever. The more he does so, the more of the city is being destroyed. It's his move.
Alto starts to move through the streets. He's keeping himself close to the buildings, using them to stay out of sight of the other machine. Or at least where he last saw it. This goes on for a minute or so, until Alto finally rounds a corner and his system alerts him to the location of the Knightmare.
And sure enough, that large rifle quickly turns to aim at Alto.
Crying out, Alto pushes his machine forward. The Messiah starts to run for the Burai's position, even as its rifle moves to sight in on the Messiah. The latter raises its left arm up. The former fires. The bullet rapidly crosses the distance between the two even as the Messiah brings the shield attached to its left arm up into the path of it. Moments before impact, a circular barrier of light appears just beyond the surface of the shield. The bullet strikes the barrier, appearing to just stop for a moment, before it breaks through and splatters against the shield.
Still operational and still charging, the Messiah swings its right arm forward. The held gunpod is released, sent spinning towards the Knightmare. But it's only a distraction, as its hand reaches over behind its shield, pulling out a large knife. A field of light surrounds the blade of the knife.
The Messiah leaps towards the smaller machine, attempting to tackle it while also plunging that energy shrouded blade into the shoulder of the Knightmare's working arm.
Over the external speakers, Alto calls out, <"Why!? Why are you helping that thing destroy the city?">
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome targets Karma Sato with AK/VF-M9 Assault Knife Pinpoint Lunge! KTS: Karma Sato fails to evade Alto Saotome's AK/VF-M9 Assault Knife Pinpoint Lunge, taking 5310 damage! KTS: Karma Sato's Type-1R Burai Custom 'Longshot' has been disabled. <Pose Tracker> Sho Muramoto has posed.
Bringing his shoulder armor around, the samurai mech ducks it's head to take the brunt of the vulcan fire on it and it's swords before it charges the massive machine.
Pushed back for a moment, the samurai waits for the salvo to pass it before it charges out of the dust cloud caused by it and leaps upwards.
Once near the machine, it spins and begins to unleash dizzying strikes of it's samurai swords on it. A katana strike here, a wakizashi there, aiming at joints and weak points it can spot in the armor as it tries to slice and dice up the red colored giant.
The finally is actually, coincedently, aimed at finding an exhaust port or at least the back of the knee as the samurai robot tries to bring the giant down for the moment.
Sho is still not one to back down right now. Sure he's getting damage to his machine from the vulcan fire, but it's not as bad as Geed who got thrown or the other guy that took a concentrated burst. He'll use them as distractions, perhaps, and in the mean time get the thing's attention to let them finish it hopefully.
KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sayla Mass's High-Explosive Psycommu Guided Missile, taking 4890 damage! KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 59. KTS: Sho Muramoto targets Takuma Kugayama with Daisho Sword Combo! <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Something tightens in Liam's chest as the monstrous machine's pilot speaks. There is something worryingly familiar in his tone--the sound of someone not entirely in their right mind. The knives find their mark, and Liam frowns--he got past the barrier, but whatever that thing's made of is blast-resistant. And everything else-resistant.
Don't show weakness, hisses a voice from his memory. Remain in control. And Liam tries. "Stand down or die," he says. His voice is middling-deep, and maddeningly focused. It's a sharp contrast to Takuma's gloating and fury.
Takuma does not stand down. The massive blade races for the Dark Bushnell, and this time, it's just for Liam. The Cutter's damaged, and so are his machine's arms--another stunt like the one he pulled earlier and he'll lose weapons, or even all offensive capability. He'll be useless.
The Arm Slave whips to the side, narrowly avoiding a strike that would've cut it in two lengthwise. But with a weapon this big, a close hit is all it takes. The shockwave knocks the Bushnell back, into a burning car. A spray of shrapnel and rubble rips into it, shredding its armor. In the cockpit, Liam winces, ever-so-slightly, as lights turn red. He sets his jaw.
"Stand down or die," Liam repeats, as the Arm Slave picks itself out of the cratered car Takuma put it in. Sparks rise from both its shoulder joints, and bits of municipal water line poke out from its broken torso armor. A twisted chunk of car frame sticks out of its left calf. It favors its right leg.
'All units! I repeat, all units!'
A voice Liam doesn't recognize filters through the comm. He listens, and the complex network of cybernetics inside him spools up, much like the Proto Helios' reactor. His heart pounds. Everything starts to slow.
"Pilot Seven-Dash-Zero-Two-Zero, NERV, receives transmission." NERV what now? "Third-party advice evaluated and accepted. Scanning for thermal signatures." The Bushnell's sensors paint an infrared image in a picture-in-picture. Liam draws the GEC-B from its mount and opens fire, targeting points on the Behemoth that register hotter than the rest of it.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Takuma Kugayama with GEC-B 40mm Rifle Shot! <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The sight of a smaller KMF -- but it's aggressing against the Doga? This is baffling, Roux thinks. Why is it baffling! A giant monster-machine is attacking the city! I saw Mazinger Z! MAZINGER Z IS NOT MORALLY COMPLICATED, Roux thinks as the Mega Beam Rifle fires upon Chienne's machine.
"Yes! I'm not mad at you! You could be an ice penguin for all I care, if you're stopping this attack!" Roux nswers Shelby, encouragement in her subtext if not her voice. "Don't let that thick handed one close! She's got --"
The Belphagor swoles up harder, and unleashes screaming ray-death. Roux brings up the gatling shield, crouching the Z-II down behind it - which probably saves her from operational casualty or being reduced to a souplike homogeniate, given that the material of the shield cracks and about thirty percent of it comes off, to Roux's quiet horror.
She hits the 'realign' button on the optics as she shouts out, "Great moves, I *GUESS*, but that thing must have cost you a fortune to put together!" (Please do not immediately prove me wrong, Roux prays to her soulless mercenary god.) "I know quality when I see it..."
"Is that it!?"
Roux pulls the trigger on the Mega Beam Rifle again, this time a discharge of the eight or nine shots in the reactor-linked gun's active capacitor array. The optics realigning are fine, at this range she can just-- shoot it, Roux thinks to herself.
"Doga! Stay focused! Form up with me if you need to!"
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Valor Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Riku Asakura has posed.
Geed has his body wrapped around by the mecha suit. He tries to beat the arms off of his body, but the grapple holds and he's unable to escape. The next thing that he knows is that he's flying through the air at speeds that shouldn't be possible. He skids across the ground, sparks flying off of him the entire way until he comes to a stop. Geed does not get back up right away, very much floored by that attack. The light, normally blueish white on his chest starts flashing red, followed by a sound.
The face of that girl that he told that they'd be alright. That comes to haunt him right now, as he slowly peels himself from the ground. How could this thing be this strong? The pilot, unstable, rants about filling the streets with blood, and Geed lets out a sound. Tessa calls out about a plan, and already see's others trying to get those vents.
Geed knows what he needs to do at that moment. Standing, both arms deploy blades. Red and white energy gather across them as he runs forward towards the giant. He drives both of them ahead of his charge, as that energy flies out in two crescent-shaped blasts, aiming to try and pierce that barrier and do damage to the Behemoth, attempting to get its pilot's attention.
Then he attempts to grapple it as it did him a minute ago. He attempts to grab it, and try and hold it in place long enough for others to follow through on those orders. Even as the light on his chest flashes red, making a curious sound. Indicating his energy was nearly spent. He has to stop this massacre in any way he can. He trusts that Tessa, Sousuke, Garrod, and the two he doesn't know, know what to do.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Chienne Argent with Mega Beam Rifle Volley! KTS: Shelby Korts's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Shelby Korts blocks Chienne Argent's Sonic Smasher Cannon Wide Shot, taking 3190 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Chienne Argent's Chase Down activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Riku Asakura targets Takuma Kugayama with Wrecking Ripper! <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
Karma's luck catches up to him as the knife finds the joint of his unit and slides in damaging the circuitry, the arm goes dead and the rifle is only held by the extra support provided from the mount points in the shoulder. That's ok though, Karma still has those Harkens, now that it was out in the open just a few buttons to go and the console sparks and gives Karma a shock telling him no.
Effectively he was in a dead unit when it came to combat and reports in over the encrypted channel, <" P-1 is disabled, but the veritech doesn't appear to be in much better shape."> There is a bit of frustration in his voice and just leans back and sigh as his fingers begin to move to msucle memory to eject and let the Burai blow up in the Messer's face. That is till the button shocks him and he can't simply run away.
Realizing he may be stuck in his own coffin Karma reacts to the opponents comm finally , figuring if nothing else it will by him time while he rewires the ejection mechanism. <"I just figured that Brittannia could enjoy the same accomodations they provide to the japanese of area 11.">
KTS: Roux Louka rattles Chienne Argent, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Chienne Argent blocks Roux Louka's Mega Beam Rifle Volley, taking 3060 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
"Got it." Buta says, eyes wild, as he remembers a life that was never here. "Got you. Amuro. Mass. Jose. Gundam."
The missile hits the exposed Panzermerc dead on, and there's an awful explosion from the heart of the machine. It's heavily armored and equipped with reinforced, redundant systems and that is probably why it is still functional, its treds on fire, huge hunks of its armor simply blown off.
Buta looks up, an eye missing from the whiplash, spit drooling down his face. Normally this is when he leaves. But this isn't a normal fight. "Gun. Dam." The monster presses on.
Doctor Hell is having his own...moment as Skull Nurse quietly administers some sedative. "him. Him him him its him, in his Mazinger Z I'm not ready I'm not DRESSED destroy him ashura."
"Shhh." Skull Nurse runs a gentle finger along Doctor Hell's regeneration pod. "Shh, teacher. Just relax. You'll have time, soon. We'll make up all of our lost time, so very soon."
"Blot out the sun with my black hole generator, the nations of the world will surrender to ME!"
KTS: Dr. Hell goads Sayla Mass, reducing her Intuition drastically. Your unit's HP stands at 8240
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
((Someone as open as you...how can one -not- be here? You left the door wide open.))
C.C. quickly gets swarmed by the fire from those bits - she can just about see the tether of intent latching between them and Shelby. Part of her wants to reach out and pluck them like a guitar - not that it'd do anything but get her in a heap of trouble. She's got no choice but to leap backward, but the remote weapons keep pelletting holes in her armor, and a landspinner cracks off, sending C.C. veering in all sorts of obnoxious directions.
((It's actually a bit unusual. When I try this, many close up instantly. The instinct to guard one's very soul is strong. How haven't you demanded I left by now?))
C.C. tests out that very prospect, by diverting and 'calling' out to Chienne - someone who -absolutely- is nowhere near as open. Her voice is fainter to the Boosted Child, more like a suggestion, an inkling in an unfamiliar tenor. -(the Zeonic machine will divert south away from your fire)- She fully expects this to be all she can reasonably voice out.
With her mobility shot, C.C. can't exactly keep zipping around all dodgily - so the next Shelby sees of the Burai, it's launching harkens out to plunge directly into the fray, reeling itself in wherever it attaches for a full on body tackle...!
KTS: C.C. has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Chienne Argent KTS: C.C. targets Shelby Korts with Slash Harken Hook! KTS: Shelby Korts's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: C.C. anchors Shelby Korts, forcing her into close range. KTS: Shelby Korts blocks C.C.'s Slash Harken Hook, taking 1080 damage! KTS: C.C. has engaged Shelby Korts
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Alto narrows his eyes as he finally gets a reply from his opponent... Judging by his Burai and his words, Alto is guessing this man is a member of the Black Knights. Alto has heard of the group, though really only through the news. They call them terrorists... Alto doesn't put a lot of faith in the news, preferring to make his own decisions. But given what this man said and the battle taking place around them right now, Alto is having trouble finding fault in that description.
The Messiah pulls its knife out of the Knightmare and backs up a little bit. It looks to still be on guard against any moves the Knightmare might make, but it doesn't go in for the kill. Instead Alto replies once more, <"But all this destruction... Surely there have been Japanese killed here too!"> Alto's not Britannian. He was also brought up in a home with strong Japanese leanings, even if it wasn't actually within Japan. He might not have strong connections to the actual country itself, but he sympathises with the oppression that the people here are facing...
... But still, <"And innocent people who have nothing to do with what has happened!"> Alto thinks of the Britannians he has met while he's spent time in Japan.
<"If you're going to bring down the system, fine! I won't stop you. But this attack is stupid. All you're going to do is make them crack down even more on the ones you're trying to save.">
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
'Don't let that thick handed one close!'
Close enough, anyway-- close enough that despite her best efforts to soak the shot into her shield, Shelby finds herself being rocked from side to side as the Jagd Doga is shaken from the fierce momentum of the shot colliding with her shield-- and also her mobile suit. Armor shears and rips in the diffuse energy, but the machine does not buckle, nor explode.
More than that... her thoughts are too honest for her own good. Even Roux can probably hear some of it:
((BECAUSE I CAN'T -- BECAUSE IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!))
The burst of thought is fierce, and though she extends her hands next to try to almost *catch* the Burai, the tackle is taken straight-on to the chest, sending the Jagd Doga backward with a powerful crash of metal and sending it careening into streetlamps and parked cars and very nearly onto it's back end.
((Why... why are you even... why are you--))
Pushing off with one foot, the Jagd Doga briefly takes to the air as the funnels scurry and scatter away from C.C. and her Burai, from immediate threat as they seem to jolt and jitter in ways that seem practiced and very intentional -- as though she were prepared for anti-funnel combat.
((If you can even hear me, talk to me like this, then ... Why are you doing this?!))
At the same time, ports on the shields mounted on either shoulder of the Jagd Doga click open, missiles firing down at not only C.C., but some corkscrewing to slam down in the path of Chienne and possibly throw her off-balance, too!
KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Arbalest lands, looks up.
And completely vanishes in a curtain of fire. The explosions are apocalyptic; forget the building, the BLOCK he was standing on is just GONE afterward, a crater ripped away that looks like it was hit by missiles designed to obliterate secured bunkers, not laundromats. Water filters in from busted mains.
Which reveals the presence of ARX-7 Arbalest, its patchjob arm not so much cracked off as obliterated, much of the armor scorched, dented, cracked.
"AL," Sousuke coughs. "Status,"
"Target has suffered an ammunition explosion to the left-side vulcans. Unexpected attacks appear to be able to penetrate the barrier. Category B damage across all sectors. Continued combat is not advised."
Sousuke strains, forcing Arbalest upright. Sousuke huffs. "Uruz Seven...alive," he grunts into comms. "Continuing combat. AL, find those vents for me?"
"Roger," AL says, with no further word of caution. A moment later, the AI forwards it to Sousuke's cracked center screen. "...between the legs, is it," Sousuke mutters. "Alright! Then!"
Arbalest charges toward Behemoth. Kaname's in that vehicle with the Captain. The Captain's in that vehicle with Kaname. He couldn't keep them safe in the same situation before. Every time he blinks he sees the Freedom firing its machinegun at the truck back in Nouvelle. Takuma staring at them smugly. That woman on his sensors with a gun at Doctor Mass. The order to withdraw. Where was his mistake. What was he doing wrong? Is it already too late to stop this?
"AL!" he screams, and gets RIGHT UP UNDER the Behemoth, snapping his shotcannon up between its legs, a tiny vent nestled between armored plates. "START THE LAMBDA DRIVER!"
He pulls the trigger!
...and nothing happens except what, to his ears, sounds like a pathetic patoom of the Boxer firing a slug.
KTS: Shelby Korts targets C.C. and Chienne Argent with Missile Spray. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Takuma Kugayama with Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Slug! KTS: Chienne Argent fails to Intercept Shelby Korts's Missile Spray, taking 2400 damage! KTS: C.C. has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: C.C. fails to evade Shelby Korts's Missile Spray, taking 2880 damage! <Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
The Belphagor is... probably expensive, given what it is.
Roux is probably not old enough to identify it, but that machine is *old*. Experimental One Year War tech, never publically acknowledged by the nation that made it; lost in a battle before it could do much. Which means it should be outdated, possibly dangerous in the way that any outdated machine is but not a modern-day threat.
Except this one has been upgraded. Extensively, and not simply by updating the parts straight across. All these are custom-made, custom-designed even. Some are experimental. It probably costs as much as just designing the Belphagor II.
Chienne, of course, paid little for it. It gave a Whispered some valuable experience... and Amalgam funds her, anyway.
The shoulder plates lock back into place as Chienne shuts down the blaster cannon, though she leaves the torso fractionally extended so she can fire it again in a hurry if she has to. "At least you can do one thing right, then," Chienne responds, because she is an asshole who is feeling pretty confident in herself right now.
That's before Roux fires on her. Chienne brings up her heat axe, using it as an impromptu shield while she pivots. A couple of Roux's shots go wide as Belphagor continues to move; several others smash into the flat of the axe, leaving heat-softened glowing divots behind (or, in one case, a hole through the thinner part of the back of the blade).
The last two strike the Belphagor more directly, blasting at its legs, its knees; not a mortal blow, but enough to draw both visible battle damage in the blast-burned segments and a snarl from Chienne. It sounds more like an animal made it than a person.
If she hears C.C., she cannot reply by words. She does snap her head to one side as if trying to figure out where the sound came from. "Fine," she growls, in her own cockpit. Though that information would *probably* be useful to her offensively, she uses it defensively; she knows where the missiles are coming from, and Chienne opens up with head vulcans -
Those aren't head vulcans. Those are wires; thin cables with a tiny rocket-powered blunt tip to draw them taut, where they catch the missiles and either tangle with them or cause them to detonate early. Or that's the idea, and it might even work on a few, but most of them explode too close to Chienne to help her. The machine is peppered with shrapnel and shards, leaving a mazed network of holes and scars across Belphagor's torso.
Given both of them are content to shoot at her, Chienne has to make a decision before Belphagor is too damaged to make it. She decides quickly: C.C. can take care of herself for a moment, as she reorients toward Roux. She's charging in, but she's not using the heat axe - it's too damaged to swing with, Chienne is only holding onto it at this point to be used as a shield again.
Instead, the clamps on the shoulders of Belphagor open, and the second - significantly larger - pair of arms unfolds. They stretch out, each of the arms topped with clawed fingers with some sort of port in the palm. Chienne doesn't use the port; she simply tries to grab the Z-II with the enormous arm and smash it into the road, dragging it to scrape off more chunks. "I'm going to rip you apart for that one!!" Or that's the goal, anyway: it started out 'keep them away from the Behemoth', but it's ending up 'break them'.
KTS: Chienne Argent has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent targets Roux Louka with Strike Claw Charge! KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Chienne Argent rattles Roux Louka, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Roux Louka fails to evade Chienne Argent's Strike Claw Charge, taking 4500 damage! KTS: Roux Louka's MSZ-008 Z II - 'Z Roux' <MS Mode> has been disabled. <Pose Tracker> Karma Sato has posed.
Karma is not even really in his seat anymore, instead he it hunched over and his head is buried looking for the problem to the ejection seat. Trying to do it all with just a multi-tool, it's taking time but his friendly opponent is buying him time so he is happy to keep the clock running.
<" Innocent Britannian, that's an oxymoron."> Karma spouts off as he listens to Alto preach about listening to the children. Listening to Alto say that they aren't going to stop them he expects him to just leave. However if Alto left he might be easy prey for some other would be hero so Karma switches tactics, <"Why are you here today? Why this time?">
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
((A why from me will likely not satisfy someone like you. There's something you push onwards to preserve, even if your heart is tragically easy to scar.))
C.C. is basically playing like a web-flinging hero at this point, rappelling from building to building via harken - it's not doing wonders for her ability to actually contend with inbound attacks, but it's keeping her in the game now that she's down a landspinner.
((I'm doing this because it's easy yet interesting.))
Pushing herself deeper. An illusory flash in Shelby's vision - of C.C. giving that lax, catty, yet distant sort of smile, tipped sideways.
((I feel like being carefree today - and I've chosen you to be my playground.))
Both heavy bazookas deploy over the pink Burai's shoulders, building up light in their barrels...combined with a zipping lunge through the air, right towards the Jagd Doga. A point blank explosion.
((...I told you it'd be unsatisfying.))
KTS: C.C. has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Shelby Korts KTS: C.C. targets Shelby Korts with MULS-P Dual Missile Launchers Barrage! KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Shelby Korts blocks C.C.'s MULS-P Dual Missile Launchers Barrage, taking 3300 damage! <Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
The horrid thing trundles into the warehouse, where the Saint Lance, lights out in the dusty dark, waits. This thing is stronger at range than she is, which is not ideal.
She can hear it calling out for Gundam. For Amuro. For Her. For Ryu.
WShe charges. There's a spark of light as one of the wrist mounted Beam Sabers bursts to life, and Sayla moves to stab for what she thinks is the cockpit from behind. Perhaps a little carelessly. It hit a nerve. "They're gone." Comes a distorted voice, cold and angry, just enough for the horrid soldier creature to hear it. "Amuro when Neo-Zeon when he tried to crash Axis." She tries to angle herself to drive the blade in deeper. "The Gundam was destroyed at A Bao A Qu." She tries to leverage the Saint Lance's weight. "Ryu when I hesitated."
And then she makes the thrust. "Their dead, and gone, like you and all the ghosts of Zabi's hate should be!" She can let out that anger, that radiates from her despite her walls, can't she? This horrible machine and it's pilot won't survive the night. It's fine to let her hate be personal for once.
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Dr. Hell with Ambush Stab! KTS: Dr. Hell fails to react to Sayla Mass's Ambush Stab, taking 4000 damage! KTS: Sayla Mass has engaged Dr. Hell KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 73.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Alto isn't aware of what Karma is up to inside his cockpit. Alto's not here to capture him, so he doesn't really care if the man escapes...
But why IS Alto here? There are numerous reasons that Alto could give. SMS does have an ongoing contract with the Federation, which the Britannian Union is a part of. Or perhaps he's here to protect Nergal's assets in the city. Or simply to stop too many people from dying. But are any of those the real reason? His mind briefly flashes back to the news feed...
The sight of the Behemoth, bathed in the light of the fires raging through the city around it.
The sight of the Vajra, bathed in the light of the fires raging through the city around it.
The sight of the Behemoth grabbing an Arm Slave, squeezing and crushing it in its hand.
The sight of the Vajra grabbing a Valkyrie pilot, squeezing and crushing him in its hand.
Alto tenses as he replies, <"Because that thing is a monster...">
The Messiah puts away its knife, picking up the thrown gunpod. It then quickly transforms into GERWALK mode, engines in its feet lighting up as it slowly starts to rise into the air.
Alto finishes, <"And monsters need to be destroyed."> The Messiah leans forward, legs rising up a little as it blasts away, skimming down the street as it moves to give chase to the Behemoth. Leaving Karma behind.
Sousuke Sagara has cancelled his attack.
KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Riku Asakura's Wrecking Ripper, taking 6270 damage! KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Sho Muramoto's Daisho Sword Combo, taking 2150 damage! KTS: Sho Muramoto has engaged Takuma Kugayama KTS: Sho Muramoto begins a Formation attack! KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Liam 7-020's GEC-B 40mm Rifle Shot, taking 1020 damage! KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Garrod Ran's Chest Vulcans - Bracketing Salvo, taking 570 damage! <Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
The optics come online as Roux breathes out. OK, she thinks. Bring up the rifle and take it down. Hit through the lower torso if you're feeling merciful, Roux thinks, though I guess it's more that a Mobile Suit explosion here is just gonna --
There is a sparkling spike in her consciousness. (The good kind.) She hears what's coming from an unfamiliar voice. The big one. It defies physics? That's cool, Roux thinks. I wonder how much that cost.
Thermal openings. Stop it venting heat. OK, Roux thinks, I can do that as soon as I --
The Balphegor is coming towards the Z-II. Roux stares at it.
For a glittering moment she sees about four ways she could go. One of them was the right one --
It wasn't this one.
Roux raises up the Mega Beam Rifle and the foreshortened shield and steps the Mobile Suit back a pace which is when Balphegor BREACHES the shield completely. At this point there are three different ways it could go, and at least her intuition is correct when she slaps the Mega Beam Rifle down, possibly swatting the Balphegor uselessly in the face or upper torso on the way. One of the incoming arms grabs the Rifle instead of the Z-II; the other grips a shoulder and smashes the Gundam down -
The world reels with sickening speed as the Gundam is smashed against the Nagoya roadways and GROUND downwards, the resilient metals of the head component holding tight as the distorted glitching view fills the panoramic cockpit, Roux dangling from the seat components and screaming without really knowing it's going to happen:
Something enormous goes SNAP and the cockpit goes dark.
Roux closes her eyes.
Most of the Z-II's head sits in front of an Owson outlet (now with a smashed front window), smouldering from friction heat; the remainder, buried about two meters into roadbed, crackles yellow from damage and then sags, motor interlocks doing some combination of 'powering down' and 'going limp'.
Roux opens her eyes about three seconds later, confident, at least, that she isn't dead. (Yet!)
KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama blocks Koji Kabuto's Iron Cutter, taking 2240 damage! <Pose Tracker> Dr. Hell has posed.
CRASHHH.
Sayla nearly gets the cockpit, as the monster groans and its machine buckles under the last scion of Side 3 impales its spinal nerve circuit. The Merenary's self preservation routines kick into overdrive, nanites spreading inside of its brain to suppress memories from a life it never lived.
Almost.
"It is...misery." The pig groans. "Being left behind."
"Being the last." It groans.
The cannon moves into place, but it's a desperation move, firing to force the gundam back so the machine can limp back towards the sea, and hopeful escape. The thing has a sense of self preservation!
KTS: Dr. Hell targets Sayla Mass with Panzer War Chest Blast!
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass blocks Dr. Hell's Panzer War Chest Blast, taking 3900 damage! Your unit's HP stands at 4340
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
'There's something you push onwards to preserve, even if your heart is tragically easy to scar.'
((You--))
Her attention is drawn by Roux's situation first-- shit. Her breath is almost audible to C.C., to Sayla, to Roux herself-- a bracing gasp of worry, as she *feels* the impact, as she *feels* the Londo Bell pilot go down.
Then, pulled right back to C.C., as she sees her. She sees... the smile. Just as much as, and just as clear as, she hears her voice inside her head. The Newtype's eyes widen as suddenly the Burai is just *there*, readying the barrels before the missile launchers start blazing hell right in her face.
The remotes start to bounce to and fro, the Funnels doing their best to maintain their balance in Earth's gravity.
As the explosions rip and tear away, it's becoming more and more clear that her defense is strong enough to ward off at least some of the damage; she's able to defend and protect herself from at least some of the ruin being rained on her through heat and flame and explosions-- and voices. The *voices*. The *noise*.
'They're gone. They're dead, and gone--'
'Innocent Britannian, that's an oxymoron.'
'I told you it'd be unsatisfying.'
The remotes' emitters start to ramp up.
((I'm not--))
Pushing through hellfire and explosions, though the Burai's rapid movement from building to building, the Jagd Doga's single eye shines brightly-- and the left arm extends, sweeping out to gesture at C.C.'s Burai even at *relatively* close range. ((--H-How could you-- even-- I-- That's not-- S-Stop trying to get in my h-head--))
Shots fire from all angles, sweeping in quick, powerful movements that attempt to hit joints from sheer, high angles and hard-to-guard positions, like she's trying to disable the Burai rather than simply split it in half...!
KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts targets C.C. with Jagd Doga Funnels Follow-Up Formation! <Pose Tracker> Takuma Kugayama has posed.
People start to strike at the vents... and Ultraman Geed grapples with the Behemoth to give them the chance. Takuma's breathing quickens, and he grasps the control sticks with white knuckles. Temperatures start to rise, and sweat beads on his forehead--but the Lambda Driver stays cool. It stays functional.
The Behemoth remains invincible.
Takuma laughs, He laughs madly, head pitching back. "What do you think you can do? You can't hurt me!" Its eyes meet Geed's. "You're only delaying the inevitable!"
KTS: C.C. has activated the Wall Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
In the truck, Kaname Chidori's got her face pressed up against the glass.
No...
It's not enough. It won't be enough... not without the Driver.
She jams her thumb into the radio button on her helmet. "Sousuke! You need to will it to happen. Envision it! The bullet piercing through! IMPOSE YOUR WILL ONTO REALITY, YOU GODDAMN BRICK!"
KTS: C.C. rushes into the attack! KTS: C.C. fails to react to Shelby Korts's Jagd Doga Funnels Follow-Up Formation, taking 6840 damage! <Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Chienne breathes heavily once she's ground the Z-II into the dirt.
The Newtypes nearest her - certainly, Shelby, who has gotten a fragment of that rage before - can feel her. *Feel* the anger boiling off her, wrapped around a core of a difficult-to-distinguish pain, mixed with a twisted pleasure. She wants to *hurt* Roux.
But even Chienne has enough self-preservation to not follow through, not in the middle of a battlefield with someone still shooting at her. She kicks one of the closest remnants of the Z-II, rattling the arm, before the Belphagor lifts back into the air. "Don't start something you can't finish," Chienne says, her voice back to sounding more like a growl (this is better than shouting... maybe). "I'm not done here yet!"
And then she tears off again, firing the thrusters. She doesn't red-line the engine, but she does slam herself back in the seat. She breathes in, feeling her ribs creak against the unaccustomed pressure.
The first warning Shelby has is that core of rage-pain-hate, as the Belphagor itself is moving fast enough that it doesn't take very long, all things considered, for it to get from there to here. Apparently Chienne has decided to bail out C.C., or perhaps she just wants to fight someone else; either way, she rockets in from the flank, the shoulder smasher cannons already charging (though she's left the central one locked down) to release a pair of thinner, more accurate shots forward and down. They punch into the ground, drawing a line down the street that she tries to walk into the Newtype.
"YOU FIGHT ME TOO!" Chienne yells.
KTS: Chienne Argent targets Shelby Korts with Sonic Smasher Cannon Shot! <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Arbalest lands, looks up.
And completely vanishes in a curtain of fire. The explosions are apocalyptic; forget the building, the BLOCK he was standing on is just GONE afterward, a crater ripped away that looks like it was hit by missiles designed to obliterate secured bunkers, not laundromats. Water filters in from busted mains.
Which reveals the presence of ARX-7 Arbalest, its patchjob arm not so much cracked off as obliterated, much of the armor scorched, dented, cracked.
"AL," Sousuke coughs. "Status,"
"Target has suffered an ammunition explosion to the left-side vulcans. Unexpected attacks appear to be able to penetrate the barrier. Category B damage across all sectors. Continued combat is not advised."
Sousuke strains, forcing Arbalest upright. Sousuke huffs. "Uruz Seven...alive," he grunts into comms. "Continuing combat. AL, Presuming that thing has a Lambda Driver...what would be an effective countermeasure?"
"Unknown," AL says, flatly.
Sousuke's teeth clamp down. "Failure to divulge the information will result in the destruction of this unit and all commanders on site. I am demanding the information."
"Your demand is received, but the information is still not known."
Sousuke growls to himself, and Arbalest charges toward Behemoth. Kaname's in that vehicle with the Captain. The Captain's in that vehicle with Kaname. He couldn't keep them safe in the same situation before. Every time he blinks he sees the Freedom firing its machinegun at the truck back in Nouvelle. Takuma staring at them smugly. That woman on his sensors with a gun at Doctor Mass. The order to withdraw. Where was his mistake. What was he doing wrong? Is it already too late to stop this?
"AL!" he screams, firing from the Boxer at any seam he can see in the Behemoth's armor, "START THE LAMBDA DRIVER!"
He pulls the trigger!
...and nothing happens except what, to his ears, sounds like a pathetic patoom of the Boxer firing a slug.
He hisses a curse. But...Kaname's calling to him.
Envision it. Piercing through. Impose your will...it's nonsense. But...
But it's nonsense from Kaname.
He doesn't call or demand it, this time.
He just charges. The shot WILL hit. It is not a thing of odds, or probabilities, or physics. It will break through the shield. It will strike the vent. It will strike true! It must! It has to!
Sousuke's breathing grows rapid, but his eyes fixate on that vent AL pointed out. Right between the legs. Small space. Tough shot. But the shotcannon CAN make it. WILL make it!
Arbalest's shoulders and back splay open. The energy that comes from them is mostly thermal, a sudden blast of waste heat roaring out of the machine, but the light that emerges is strange and numinous, a faint blue-purple-white hue to it as Arbalest charges the last few meters and then drops into a slide.
One shot, a bead of light that doesn't look at all like a shotcannon shell, firing upwards. Singularity of purpose:
Defeat the enemy. Strike true!
Sousuke Sagara transforms to ARX-7 Arbalest - Lambda Driver Online
KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Takuma Kugayama with Lambda Shotcannon Strike True! KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Shotcannon Strike True, taking 3200 damage! KTS: Sousuke Sagara: Will Barrier Activates.
<Pose Tracker> Takuma Kugayama has posed.
The Behemoth may be invincible... but even so, Takuma's keeping an eye on the heat. It's going up everywhere else. Everywhere but the Lambda Driver. Is it fate, he wonders? It must be...
But if fate is on anyone's side, it's not on A21's, or Takuma Kugayama's. Below him, a distant gunshot, a rattle, echoes through the Behemoth's massive superstructure. Over the course of the next second, the heat gauge for the Lambda Driver goes from 'nominal' to 'redlined', and the onboard AI announces:
"Lambda Driver temperature critical. Shutting down."
The Behemoth glows faintly red for a moment... and slumps over, nearly unable to bear its own weight as the whole thing lists to the right, weighed down even more by its sword.
"No," yells Takuma. "No! What... NO! THE BEHEMOTH IS INVINCIBLE!" he cries out, hefting the sword and swinging it at the Arbalest with all the finesse and force of a 3-year-old.
"I'll kill you!" he yells, his rage now impotent, firing off a volley of missiles--they go wild, in all directions. No guidance.
Takuma Kugayama transforms to Plan-1051 Behemoth
Takuma Kugayama rolls 5d2: 9.
KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Liam 7-020, Koji Kabuto, and Sho Muramoto with Missile Wave. KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Sousuke Sagara with Behemoth Sword Crush! KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Shelby Korts blocks Chienne Argent's Sonic Smasher Cannon Shot, taking 1320 damage! KTS: Koji Kabuto successfully Evades Takuma Kugayama's Missile Wave KTS: Sho Muramoto fails to Intercept Takuma Kugayama's Missile Wave, taking 5520 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! <Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
Karmic punishment.
C.C. swims irresponsibly in Shelby's mind - and where it can't close her off on that -layer-, the Newtype's capabilities are just as anchored on the physical plane. An intruder in the mental space is under siege in the real space.
((...Well, I suppose this is a completely normal fate to face. Mental-controlled weaponry's really gotten this accessible, hasn't it? That says a lot, then. It's proof, really.))
((...the door isn't just opening in individuals. It's opening at large. The boundary between domains is cracking wider open. ...you may well be able to blame me for that - for many of your misfortunes and pains, as well.))
The Burai is roasted by beam after beam, caught in a spider's web of fire, pushing it to the breaking point, plates of armor falling off, cameras cracking, both arms twisted and contorted.
The ejection seat doesn't go off.
No, instead, C.C. lingers, and lingers - and right at the critical moment, focuses all her attention on that -link- Shelby has with the bits, straining herself somewhat to hold it back from the decisive blow.
By now, there's a vast canyon where the Burai's chest is. C.C. stands upright here, locking eyes with the Jagd Doga's optics. One arm stretches up high. Is it a wave? A call of surrender? ...a literal stretch, because she's terribly cramped up in that cockpit?
"Well, maybe you can also blame me for being terribly stubborn in the moment, just like that Takuma-kun." Her voice is at once clearly actually being voiced from her lips, yet crystal clear amidst the din of battle.
Her free hand clicks a button - and a harken shoots out of the Burai's belly area, seeking to tangle up Shelby as a last ditch strike - and then she's literally slipping out of the cockpit to get out of dodge-!
KTS: C.C. has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: C.C. targets Shelby Korts with Slash Harken Entangle! KTS: Sousuke Sagara's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sousuke Sagara blocks Takuma Kugayama's Behemoth Sword Crush, taking 4920 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Takuma Kugayama has engaged Sousuke Sagara KTS: Sho Muramoto has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Wall Spirit Command. Alto Saotome transforms to VF-25F Messiah <GERWALK Mode>
KTS: Shelby Korts's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: C.C. anchors Shelby Korts, forcing her into close range. KTS: Shelby Korts blocks C.C.'s Slash Harken Entangle, taking 780 damage! KTS: C.C. has engaged Shelby Korts KTS: Alto Saotome has changed loadout. KTS: Liam 7-020 fails to react to Takuma Kugayama's Missile Wave, taking 5520 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Takuma Kugayama's Nothing you do can harm Behemoth! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Riku Asakura with Pass! KTS: Riku Asakura fails to react to Takuma Kugayama's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Takuma Kugayama targets Garrod Ran with Pass! KTS: Garrod Ran blocks Takuma Kugayama's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Strike Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Sho Muramoto has posed.
Sho whips out what looks like a rifle of some sort as the missile barrage starts. At the same time one of the swords is put back in the sheath at the side followed by the other as he starts to one handed shoot at the missiles. He takes a bare few out, but the rest move the samurai machine back.
And well, he's already got it out, he's going to return fire with said gun as well.
Without a barrier, maybe he can hit it better. Rifles are not his preferred means of fighting but the rapid firing and the samurai mech going around one side as it tries to aim at the Behemoth's head is sure as hell distracting to it perhaps. Not to mention maybe he can find an exhaust port from the back side as well now. Hopefully. That thing needs to just die already.
Sho meanwhile is gritting his teeth, "Don't need the spear, I said. Knew I should have listened to the butler." He continues trying to aim and fire despite some of the marks the missiles have left in the samurai-like armor here and there.
KTS: Sho Muramoto targets Takuma Kugayama with Rapid Fire! KTS: Takuma Kugayama's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Sho Muramoto's Rapid Fire, taking 1350 damage! KTS: Riku Asakura has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Riku Asakura has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Riku Asakura has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Takuma Kugayama's Plan-1051 Behemoth has been disabled. KTS: Takuma Kugayama has deployed in Plan-1051 Behemoth. KTS: Takuma_Kugayama has deployed as a Boss for 6 opponents. KTS: Sho Muramoto targets Takuma Kugayama with Rapid Fire! KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Sho Muramoto's Rapid Fire, taking 2970 damage! <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Alto finally catches up to where the battle against the Behemoth is taking place. His Messiah skims around a corner, clearing a partially damaged building and bringing Alto face to face with the sheer destruction that is the main battle site. His eyes go wide as he looks out at all of it.
Alto then focuses his eyes in on the monster responsible for it, glaring at it.
Alto presses a button on his controls, his HUD signalling the switch over to multi-target mode. Alto's eyes then rapidly dart around, briefly glancing at several points across the Behemoth's large surface. The sensor in his helmet picks up the movements, assigning targeting locks to each of the points he looks at.
Once Alto has assigned a lock for each remaining missile he has attached to his wings, he pulls the trigger.
The barrage of missiles detach from the Messiah's wings, blast forward and arcing up towards the Behemoth. They each home in on a different part of the large machine's structure, before detonating and wracking it with explosions.
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome targets Takuma Kugayama with Wing Mounted Missiles Anti-Ship Volley! KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Alto Saotome's Wing Mounted Missiles Anti-Ship Volley, taking 6030 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Missile barrage incoming. Collateral high." LiSA now frowns. "Target appears vulnerable but out of control."
Koji nods, leaning forwards in his seat and tightening his grip on the Pilder's control rods. "Then we need to end this as quickly as possible. If this thing doesn't like heat, we're gonna cook it. Hold tight!" Is he grinning as he says that? Hard to say.
Mazinger Z ducks through the missile barrage unscathed, a sudden burst of movement that is surprisingly graceful for how rusty its pilot is, chest panels beginning to glow with heat. Koji pivots the robot back to standing, arms flexing over its head. "BREAST... FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!!!!"
Pure photonic flame cascades from the chest panels, poured directly into the Behemoth's chassis at close range.
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Takuma Kugayama with Breast Fire! KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Koji Kabuto's Breast Fire, taking 7040 damage! <Pose Tracker> Riku Asakura has posed.
Geed holds the stare of the Behemoth, the two in a state of embrace as the fight happened. For the moment it seemed that it was a draw, or rather...because it was a draw that Behemoth was winning by default. he could only keep this up for so long, and holding the Behemoth here was taking everything he had left. The crystal in the middle of his chest, blinked slightly faster the longer the struggle went on.
Then the Behemoth slouched forward, losing the support of the system that allowed it to be as devastating. The plan worked! Geed was smiling, well...he was smiling on the inside, the Ultraface could not Ultrasmile. He threw his arms out, aiming to break the embrace of the two before the two blades on each arm started to glow again.
The orange energy rang out, slashing into the sides of the machine as Geed moved around it. Each slash aims to try and cut through the Behemoth. Geed stops, with a roar, channeling more energy, before he spins again with both blades, creating a massive disk of energy. This, hopefully, would slice through something important.
"Someone told me that courage can turn the impossible, possible," Geed repeats something Sayla had said the night before. Even if she didn't believe it at the time, Riku was stupid and did. Because Riku is a moron and a dork. He eats that stuff right up.
KTS: Riku Asakura targets Takuma Kugayama with Galaxy Cutting Rapid Strikes! <Pose Tracker> Garrod Ran has posed.
From a distance, it doesn't look like the Arbalest's shot did much damage - but the Behemoth staggers anyway, and Garrod latches onto that. The impossibly massive machine, which moments earlier had been strolling through Nagoya as if it had no weight to speak of, is susceptible to gravity again. And if its own weight is working against it - if the laws of physics apply properly to that scarlet titan - then it should be susceptible to regular weaponry as well.
Garrod spares a glance upwards, scanning the sky for the Moon's light, but he catches himself and brings his attention Earthwards again, bringing the Gundam X's rifle to bear. However many people might have evacuated in the face of the Behemoth's rampage, there are almost certainly still people in the area, and even if there aren't, their homes and businesses still are. Besides, the Brittanians are already plenty annoyed about the intrusion; there's *really* no benefit to be had in wreaking even more devastation.
... and besides, the heat-ray emanated from Mazinger Z's chest is just as impressive. Garrod glances idly at the old super robot, then focuses on his own controls, giving the Breast Fire a respectfully wide berth while he opens up on the Behemoth with the GX's own beam rifle, a series of blasts that seem to be aimed where Alto's missiles didn't go yet.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
There's more-- more, if C.C. chooses.
Linens and silk. Of mahogany and leather, and wood and bourbon and books and all the imagery associated with Britannia, but there's so much *wrong* with it. Spines and volumes that should be stock and standard are blitzed into unrecognizable jargon. Heavy oak doors and brass handles that open into nothing but burning white light. Windows that open into pain.
Screaming. Crying.
It's all an absolute goddamn mess.
Shelby pulls in a deep, heavy breath all at once as she feels the pressure pushing into her mind -- C.C.'s voice, the hooks of it burrowing into her as she starts *feeling* it getting to her, distracting her as the slash harkens attach to her machine and her shield and tangle up it's movements--
"Shit--"
Just in time for Chienne's rage-fury to come in at her all at once like a screaming alarm. Shelby shifts her arms in a one-two motion along the motion tracks, toes of one foot smashing down as her heel pulls back on the other pedal before quick pulsing movements, and thought, and the shield: The shield soaks the worst of the shots from on high, protecting the cockpit block from weapons fire as the cables rip and tear against metal and explosions.
Pain aches in her heart for reasons she can't explain. Maybe C.C. hit a nerve-- or a memory. Maybe she's trying to hold it together, but the presence of the Behemoth and the *feelings* it radiates start to mess with her mind? Her footing plants, trying to detangle itself from the harkens and their cables, twisting away to aim not at a retreating C.C., but at the approaching Belgaphor.
"If that's what you want--"
The beam gatling spins up and starts *firing*, chattering away with furious abandon at the Gundam as her emotions start to knot up!
KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Garrod Ran has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Garrod Ran has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Garrod Ran targets Takuma Kugayama with Buster Rifle - Spray! KTS: Shelby Korts targets Chienne Argent with Beam Gatling Gun Constant Barrage! KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Garrod Ran's Buster Rifle - Spray, taking 6000 damage! KTS: Teletha Testarossa's Sub-Pilot has left KTS: Chienne Argent fails to react to Shelby Korts's Beam Gatling Gun Constant Barrage, taking 4320 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
he Saint Lance brings up her shield just in time to catch the blast from the Panzermerc, and bvy the dust clears, the monster is already in the sea. But she heard what the pilot said.
He's not wrong. Not at all.
The Saint Lance steps out to see the damage. One of the Londo Bell mobile suits has gone down, the other unknowns still fighting and-
And of course Koji is here. Of course he is. They're both real good at this retirement thing. Uruz-7, Miss Chidori... They take it down. "...You were right, Miss Chidori." A message from the retrieval team hits her, she smiles and relays the good news to Ansuz. Sayla hits her comms, to the Shuffles only. "All free pilots! Shoot down that Arm Slave, and one of you be ready to retrieve the pilot! We're going to be leaving hot!" She gets ready to open fire on the Behemoth, only for a flash of anger to hit her. The one that took out the Zeta II. The one that fought Sousuke. The one that made sure A21 retrieved Takuma. And she's attacking Shelby who is already under fire. Fine. "Temperance! Support fire coming your way!"
She raises the Saint Lance's beam rifle, aiming at the Belphegor, charging the beam to full power. She doesn't vocalize anything, or shout or scream. She's not like that.
But she's more than happy to give Chienne a taste of what Chienne gave them.
The charged blast lights up the 3AM sky, as it flies toward Belphegor.
KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Chienne Argent with Saint Lance Beam Rifle Charged Shot! KTS: Chienne Argent fails to Evade Sayla Mass's Saint Lance Beam Rifle Charged Shot, taking 5340 damage! KTS: Chienne Argent's GB-9700-C Gundam Belphagor Chienne Custom has been disabled. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 45. <Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam's brow knits as he keeps up his sustained fire, targeting those spots of heat and unloading with short, controlled bursts from the GEC-B. None of it seems to penetrate. It's a novel problem, Liam thinks, in the small part of his brain detached from the surging adrenaline. An attacker has to breach the barrier in order to destroy the cooling system, and overheat the machine--which would, presumably, render it vulnerable. But how? Was that earlier strike a fluke?
Points of interest register themselves on Liam's senses. One of the air support--a Variable Fighter?--breaks from its engagement, and accelerates towards the Behemoth. The Londo Bell Mobile Suit goes down, and Liam doesn't see where it lands, but he feels the sickening crunch of something hitting the pavement nearby. A tight feeling settles in his chest. He pushes through it, riding the wave of adrenaline. And then--
For a moment, Liam stares at the console ahead of him, hands tight around his handgrips. That Arm Slave. What's it doing?
It makes no sense. Its back splays open, like the Proto Helios', but that's not plasma coming out of it. Instead of a bullet, it's like the thing's fired a streak of light. The Behemoth stops dead in its tracks as the light pierces its core, and it sinks down, stricken.
"Behemoth pilot," Liam says, as Takuma rages once again. "your machine has sustained critical damage. Stand down or die."
Takuma does not stand down.
Never, ever turn your back on the wounded, says a voice from Liam's memories, and Takuma proves just how right that voice can be. The Bushnell is caught flat-footed, and Liam faces a terrible calculus: each missile that doesn't hit him could go streak off into the city, and kill people. The cyborg grits his teeth. In an eyeblink, he throws the machine to the side, twisting in mid-air to present its relatively-undamaged right side. Missiles slam into it, blooming into bursts of flame and shrapnel. The cockpit starts to grow hotter; more red lights ignite on the dash. Were Liam a baseline human, the maneuver would force the breath from him.
When the Dark Bushnell lands, its right side is a smoking ruin. The right arm is hanging on by a few scraps of cabling, and a twisted joint. The armor litters the street. The leg has fared slightly better, being 'merely' stripped of its plating.
The Arm Slave lurches forward. Its left hand reaches back, closes around its Monomolecular Cutter--damaged, but still functional. "Wrong answer," says Liam. The Bushnell draws the weapon, raises it high, and stabs it down at the Behemoth's leg, trying to drag it down the length of the limb. The machine's damaged; the controls feel like they're fighting him. Liam grits his teeth, and puts more weight into it.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Takuma Kugayama with Monomolecular Cutter Thrust! Liam 7-020 has cancelled his attack.
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 Takuma Kugayama with Monomolecular Cutter Thrust! KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Riku Asakura's Galaxy Cutting Rapid Strikes, taking 4920 damage! KTS: Riku Asakura has engaged Takuma Kugayama <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Arbalest is now a white spot on thermal imaging, waste heat blasting out its back and sides enough to make the air waver.
Takuma comes at him with the sword, and Sousuke lashes out - rushing out with his monomolecular cutter as a focus for his will. He grits his teeth, that sword SLAMMING home a few inches from the knife blade. It's Sousuke's thoughts that transform it into physicality, as the concrete cracks underneath him, his machine's joints creak and groan - but eventually it's the sword thrown aside, Arbalest's green eyes flashing in the darkness.
"No," Sousuke says. "You will not. This machine...is no longer a problem."
He levels the Shotcannon, not at any special point. Center mass.
Think. He needs the shot to go th--no. He will make the shot go through. Force it to penetrate. It will penetrate.
He fires, over and over, shotcannon spraying out what looks more like blasts of light than mechshot.
KTS: Sousuke Sagara targets Takuma Kugayama with Lambda Shotcannon Obliteration! KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Liam 7-020's Monomolecular Cutter Thrust, taking 4530 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Takuma Kugayama KTS: Takuma Kugayama fails to react to Sousuke Sagara's Lambda Shotcannon Obliteration, taking 4320 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Chienne Argent has posed.
Chienne fully intends to tear into Shelby like she tore into Roux. She's frustrated - Sousuke already downed her Freedom earlier, which made her angry, and she hasn't yet had her fill of bloodlust to get over it.
She's coming in to grab Shelby with one of those gigantic clawed hands, or maybe to activate the beam saber emitter in the palm; she's reaching as she dives in any case, accelerating the Belphagor to dangerous G-forces.
Shelby's beam gatling works as an excellent anti-air gun. It starts to rip open the holes that Roux put in the Belphagor, turning them from 'dangerous, but doesn't stop operation' to 'dangerous, causing warnings'. They sound in the Belphagor's cockpit, and Chienne pulls up slightly in an attempt to dodge and not provide a clear line of approach for Shelby to fill with blasts.
This, in turn, leaves her open to the charged beam rifle shot. It goes right through the 'elbow' of one of the strangely folded extra arms, causing the thruster array on that side to blow itself apart in a cloud of scrap metal.
With its turbo thrusters only working on one side, the Belphagor goes through an improbably fast roll. Even Chienne, with her Boosted Human level of G-force resistance, threatens to black out from it. She arrests the roll by a complex firing of thrusters, the blackness clearing from her vision. It's replaced on one side by red, and her nose is bleeding too.
With a snarl, Chienne decides not to press her luck. The Belphagor lifts up, up - she did her job, the Behemoth is already in a state that she's not sure she can save it, and she's pretty sure neither of the Mobile Suits can follow her if she flies.
KTS: Takuma Kugayama's Plan-1051 Behemoth has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Takuma Kugayama has posed.
The Behemoth is assaulted from all directions. All that armor only does so much under such a relentless assault--particularly when the armor was meant to stand underneath an impenetrable barrier.
The Messiah hammers it with missiles, and it slumps further. Mazinger Z melts its armor. It flails--and inside, Takuma continues to rage, even as he's barely able to move forward... softened by the previous attacks, Geed's slashes slice deep into Behemoth's middle, cleanly through the armor.
"Nnnrrrgh... No...! Sis... Seina!!" His protests, his begging, falls on deaf ears. Liam's Bushnell slices through the Behemoth's leg...
And Sousuke's shotcannon rings out. Streaks of light pierce into the machine's heart, then out the back. Bereft of a leg, with its internals shredded and mangled, the Behemoth crumbles in the streets of Nagoya. In the city, fires burn. Sirens wail... but the Behemoth walks no more.
Takuma sits in the cockpit, blood trickling slowly over his face, consciousness beginning to fade.
"I'm sorry..."
KTS: Riku Asakura's Ultraman Geed Galaxy Rising has been disabled. KTS: Koji Kabuto's Mazinger Z has been disabled.
KTS: Liam 7-020's M6A3 Dark Bushnell has left
KTS: Sho Muramoto's EXM-A9s Spinatio Zanbato <Sengoku> has been disabled. <Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Behemoth falls. Sousuke watches it happen. He feels himself slowly unclench, breathing slowing.
"AL, cockpit where I think it is?"
"Design principles are consistent with an ARM Slave. The neck is likely."
Sousuke draws his monomolecular cutter.
"Alright, then. Saint Lance, Uruz-7 will retrieve the cockpit block. Prepare for delivery and exfiltration."
And meanwhile, on a rocky beach not so very far away, a bleeding woman in a white piloting suit stumbles out of the water, clutching her side.
Her confidence is gone. She stares at the flames, as her earpiece pings one last time.
She turns, and she trudges away.