2024-08-30: Break The World 2

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<Pose Tracker> The Burning Tombstone has posed.


The Tombstone of one of the greatest atrocities in Earth's recent history is taken in like the warm embrace of a Mother. The tortured fiberglass and metal of the once proud PLANT where people dwelled begins to glow bright orange, but not nearly as bright as it ought to be. A comet, trailing heat, surrounded by a thin gray layer that prevents the broken streets and building from truly catching fire.

The NUNE forces are in disarray, but only partially from Junius Seven striking the atmosphere, no, the true uproar comes from Admiral Orlodhari's announcement that the Magallanica Defense Forces will enter the atmosphere.

"Out of the question! We cannot allow an invading military force of unknown intentions to enter Earth's atmosphere."
"What does it say if we leave this to them! It will tarnish the honor of the Gaia Sabers."
"Until a full investigation is performed, we can't know if they're co-conspirators."
"The target zone! What are the latest predictions?!"

Colonel Kati Mannequin speaks more decisively on the matter, "Magallanica Defense Forces, there exists no treaty with NUNE that allows you to officially enter the Earthsphere. Turn back now, or we will be forced to treat you as a hostile military."

The word 'officially' is perhaps notable.

It is the calm of Captain Talia Gladys' voice that cuts through the tension like a knife as if perhaps to remind everyone of the gravity of the situation, "To all who are listening, the Minerva will now descend into Earth's atmosphere in pursuit of Junius Seven." Her XO, Arthur, can be faintly heard shouting, "E-EHHH? Captain!?" She continues addressing all, and through it, him, "Now is the time to decide who it is we can save, and who we cannot. There are few things more dangerous than coordinating a mass reentry after a battle like this, but it would not be right for us to give anything less than our all to do what we can to curb the destruction."

Talia turns in her seat to face Gilbert Durandal, "This is where you get off, Chairman. You are not a soldier, and we will not risk our leadership." The man, if anything, looks distraught, but is trying not to show it, "Talia... are you certain?" A thin smile breaks upon her lips, "I'm a woman with a lot of luck, please trust me in this." After a moment, he recomposed himself, and gave a nod, "Alright... thank you." The man stands, floating towards the back of the bridge, as Talia orders Meyrin, "Please convey to the hangar crew that they're to give the Chairman a shuttle, and escort him to the remaining League Forces... then patch me into Admiral Orlodhari, allow the Gaia Sabers forces to overhear."

Predictably, Arthur seemed just as scandalized, "Captain!" But, she holds up a hand, calling for his calm, as Meyrin hails Ra Mari II. Once the Comms officer patches her in, her face appears on the main screen, "Admiral Eight Orlodhari of the Magallanica Defense Forces, this is Captain Talia Gladys of the Minerva. As the military of a nation unrecognized by New United Nations Earth, we agree with Colonel Mannequin's assessment, we cannot allow you to enter Earth's atmosphere over our territory." There is hard-nosed professionalism in how she speaks to the Admiral at first, but then her tone shifts, "But we recognize that it is impossible now that you have entered the gravity well to depart Earth Space. As such, we of the Minerva shall take responsibility for escorting you off the Earth once the crisis has passed." There is a plausibly deniable smile on her face at the moment, "Will you agree to place yourselves into my custody at this time?"

Everyone, especially Eight, will recognize what this is. After all, she was in Londo Bell before, and Talia was in an opposing military during the Bloody Valentine War, each knows each other's reputation, certainly. Talia is skirting the rules, stretching them to the absolute limit to satisfy the military higher ups around them. She is putting on a show. However, after her role in the Bloody Valentine War, she believes she understands what kind of woman Admiral Orlodhari is - and believes she knows the same thing that Talia does.

Sometimes a woman must put on a show for prideful men, to get things done. Kati Mannequin can be heard over the comms, "You are skirting the line, Captain." However, it is not pride that binds Kati in this case either. She understands how bad this whole scenario is for the League, but if they're willing to take the heat for it

"But if they submit to your custody, then the Gaia Sabers have no reason to deny you."

Talia is relieved at least that GGG has a much less complicated political situation than Magallanica, no one so much as puts in a complaint about their presence. Many are perhaps relieved for it, given their reputation for resolving crisis after crisis.

However, there is one vessel that's still an unwelcome guest, and Parminder's Salamis Kyo soon finds itself taking shot after shot from the Gaia Sabers that are still intact enough to do so and understand - during reentry, it'll be a sitting duck. One might question them for their priorities but, the ship is associated with people that have done enough damage to the world, and Junius Seven might seem like a foregone conclusion to some.

Captain Kathras Fari receives a transmission in that regard. "Captain, descend with them, if the Aion is still capable. Once the crisis is ove..." One way or another, Colonel Mannequin seems to imply, "... then destroy their ship, if you see an opportunity."

Talia meanwhile gives an order to the Bridge Crew. "Prep the Tannhauser Cannon for immediate firing." Arthur asks, "At, Junius Seven, Ma'am?" At that question, Talia's smile becomes a knowing one.

"No."

-=-=-

Soundtrack - Behold the Screams of Wrath - Gundam Destiny OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh-Qodt1pl8

During the War, there were stories of a daring flight into the sky, by the crew of the Archangel, as they could not make it off Earth at the speed they required to escape a dire situation. But somehow, they managed it.

"Model updated. No matter what they have those motors set for, they can't alter trajectory significantly once in the atmosphere." The screens became alit with a 3D model showing Junius Seven's descent towards Pendragon. "Set heading accordingly, Helmsman, for parallel reentry, five degrees port." Before she then addressed everyone again over the comms, "The Minerva will now make a safe route for reentry. Anyone who cannot do so unassisted, follow our lead."

The Minerva adjusted, sweeping down to the side of the Ra Mari II and the Nadesico, and just as it began to glow orange itself at the nose, the Tannhauser cannon appeared, in the past the concerns were that the radiation of such would pollute the Earth in atmosphere, but that design flaw has been corrected. Ordinarily this would be too reckless, but with a mass reentry - with so many lives at stake. She had to take a gamble, and as she told Gil, she's a woman with a lot of luck.

"May fortune favor us... FIRE!" The Tannhauser charges even as it glows hotter - and hotter - and then a bright red beam erupts from it, ahead - down - down towards Mother Earth. And the superheated friction glow around the Minerva starts to abate, lurching forward at top speed, the cannon retracting back within.

The air glitters with green, in a battleship sized tunnel where Earth's atmosphere simply no longer exists, annihilated by the positrons of the cannon. The Minerva rushes forward without air friction holding them back, racing against the descent of Junius Seven - against time itself.

Junius Seven is ahead of everyone, to those few who have seen Colony Drops before, a small mercy was perhaps that the cylinders that the Principality, and that Neo-Zeon dropped were enclosed. Even to those who lived within one as Spacenoids previously, it was easy to be lulled into the illusion that they were merely missiles from the heavens.

Now looking at this one from this perspective, you may recognize that the people who dropped them never had to truly face what they were doing, not like this.

Ahead of you, you can see ruined homes, mauled buildings, empty streets that crack further apart from the rumbling tremors with every passing moment. A playground set catches fire in what looks like an empty lot, but was once a park, all the plant life disintegrated or suffocated by nuclear fire.

Two chains flap skyward by the reentry G-Forces, and one can easily imagine a child once sat upon a swing here. A bike in a lock tugs against a rack, until the last screw gives way, sending the bike and rack towards the distortion field, where they are consumed by contact almost immediately. Cars begin to shift down the streets, some of them lodging into the great chasms where the force of the detonation split it in twain.

Far below, the world begins to take shape, Junius Seven, still far southwest of North Britannia, so high that the continent looks like a child's globe. For all the atrocities of the nations below, do the people that live there deserve a fate similar to those above?

As this tombstone burns, you all burn with it. The full weight of earth's gravity, presses down upon you, even as the atmosphere presses up against you, sandwiched between them, even the most skilled pilots feel it.

If you are going to do anything about this, you must first survive long enough to do so.

OOC Notes: Your characters are all now in reentry! The difficulty of this will be partially determined by the capabilities of your current craft, and your HP at the end of the battle. While I won't enforce the precise state of your MS or Battleship, HP damage during Part 1 will equate to a certain amount of delicate parts lacking the proper insulation.

For MS only: 80% and above: Even if your suit can't ordinarily make reentry unassisted, finding the means to do so is trivial. You can assist others without difficulty. 50-79%: Some alarms are probably blaring, it's fine for a skilled pilot with any experience making reentry. You can assist others with some difficulty. 49%-20% That sure is a lot of alarms. Your suit is really feeling the pressure. You can't assist others unless someone helps you first. 20%-1% You need maximal assistance if you're going to survive this. 0% - Your suit, even if it's technically still functioning, isn't responding during the reentry process. You aint living through this without a lot of help.

For Battleships only: 100%-21% - It's all good. You're able to assist others, your battleship is a safe haven for MS' to land on during certain parts of reentry, unless your reentry systems disallow this. Likewise, you're able to assist multiple people depending on the resources available. 20% and under - Your systems for reentry fail completely, you need help.

The Minerva is less available to directly help because they decided to 2 Fast 2 Furious: Junius Drift. In the next pose round you will STILL be in reentry, so this pose round is about getting to a more advantageous position to do something about this situation, to either get alongside, or ahead of Junius Seven.

I recommend that people not take the following Minerva option as their sole option for surviving reentry, unless you believe that the SEED option will enhance your character's narrative. Even those that choose to take this option will require assistance getting there, or perhaps staying on course. It is better to instead utilize other PCs and battleships. If you wish to imply that your battleship eventually makes it there for a speed boost to catch up to or get ahead of Junius Seven, by all means, but make it at the end of the pose.

HP totals from Part 1 (Yes I saved them.):

Rena 81%
Dyna Crew 88%
Hikaru 80%

Lucine 72%
Ryoko 74%
Liam 71%
Judau 70%
Nova 50%

Serinas 48%
Rose 47%
Li 43%
Rin 45%
Sayla 34%
Rikka 34%
Alto 36%
Tavelle 32%
Flay 30%
Marian 28%
Yuliana 28%
Sagiri 23%

Daba 6%
Edouard Mass 0.1%
Lilium 0.0%

Battleships:
Ruri 69% (The Nadesico)
Eight 35% (The Ra Mari II)
Kathras 30% (The Aion)

Mostly Exempt by Virtue of Kaiju/Ultra Stuff and thus can assist others:
Qivi 59%
Akane 30%
Kaworu 15%

For this scene if you sent a character to both Side A and Side B for Part 1, you are permitted to play both, but only if you desire. No one is required to, but if you do choose to participate with both, then try to keep alt interaction to a bare minimum.

If you need guidance for reentry, or ideas for how to handle this scenario, then please contact me! UC and CE Gundam provides a plethora of scenes that can be utilized as inspiration for this.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Unlike Orlodhari's fleet, the Salamis Kyo-class Shandor calls the Earth its home, and Parminder Chaudhri sees no point to announcing his intentions. What he does, instead, is call to his remaining pilots: "Yo, Earth to dumbasses. Earth to dumbasses, it would love to cook you. The Earth, I mean. I get you're having this whole big emotional breakdown or whatever, but do it in the hangar."

        "Would you react like a fucking human being for five seconds?!" Yuliana yells, through her comms.

        "Nah," Parminder shrugs. "Like, don't get me wrong, I'm crying cat emoji up in here... but she ain't dead, drama queen. Sure, I might be playing poker with a flesh golem this time next week, but like, that's your whole vibe?"

        Somehow, Li Yao manages to herd Yuliana into the Shandor's hangar despite her constant stream of curses and castigation. It's a good thing he does -- despite its eldritch enhancements, the damage to her wanzer would be severely tested by re-entry.

        The Nadesico is much kinder about it all -- and much more generous. "Surrounding units," Ruri transmits, "the Nadesico will be making entry into atmosphere, as per Admiral Orlodhari's orders. We will now temporarily disable our Distortion Field... please land on the Nadesico if you are concerned about the integrity of your craft. The Distortion Field will protect you." Distortion Field technology might be the source of all their problems, but it can still, it seems, be their shelter.

        The Nadesico, at least, has Eight's charisma backing it up -- which the Shandor quickly finds it does not. The strange, organically draconic frill at its edges flares up, to guard it from the shots which the Gaia Sabers fire. "Oh, come on!" Parminder opens comms. "False flag, man, false flag! This is NOT on us!" There's the sound of fingers snapping, over the comms. "Girl, get your eyes checked!" He says that, but his kaiju battleship is still absorbing those blows in the most unsettling manner possible. Can they really be sure they're not the bad guys here?!

        He at least switches his radio off as he looks over the displays -- over the heads of stations largely manned by strange growths and tentacles instead of the few people on the bridge -- at the Tannhauser's shot into Earth. "Save that recording," he orders, idly. "Witchy's gonna love this shit. Like, Jesus Christ, LOL, did you see that? Getting us into Earth at the cost of like half a degree more warming. We're gonna run outta icebergs at this rate," he laughs, even as the man at the communications station rolls his eyes. (He's one of the few people who can't be replaced by an eldritch horror, on account of most communications requiring a base level of human understanding.)

        "Millions could die, Captain," Gregan Pilalde notes, quite out of patience. "For once in my life, I'm with the Mistress on this one. Shut the fuck up."

        As the Shandor descends into that impossible heat, though, the Gaia Sabers are right to think it can't respond to those potshots -- the flesh of its tentacles boiling, bubbling, and repairing itself from second to second, as the outer protective hull heats to a stark orange which clashes with its green colour scheme. Even for eldritch horrors, re-entry isn't a trivial matter. It is, fundamentally, the assertion of human life on the strangeness of empty space.

        Meanwhile, once everyone is safely on board the Nadesico -- which, for many of them, may well mean landing on its nose -- Ruri puts out another announcement: "We'll be raising our Distortion Field, now." It's important to give people advance warning, given what they've seen about the effects of Distortion Fields, today. It's a more complicated process than just entering a command; she has to negotiate the power partition with their engines, alongside warning the Phase Transition Engines that they're about to go into atmosphere, ask their Nuclear Pulse Engines to please take up the slack. (The Phase Transition Engines, after all, require the vacuum of space to operate properly -- which is why the Nadesico can't fire its Gravity Blast Cannon continuously in atmosphere.) She has to make sure to work through any bugs being thrown up after the damage the Nadesico has sustained, and ensure it's all modulated to the correct output. She has to be sure it's extended out wide enough to protect all the mobile suits on it, too.

        She does this in approximately five point eight seconds.

        "Now entering atmosphere," she announces, helpfully, as the Nadesico begins to descend. (After Eight's negotiations, notably. The Nadesico may have more extensive agreements with the Earth than other Terminal ships, allowing them to operate on the ground and address the Jovian menace... but right now, they're another ship in Admiral Orlodhari's fleet, and everyone on the bridge knows they'd be testing NUNE's patience if they acted unilaterally.) There's nothing in her voice which betrays any particular kind of shock or grief, though surely she feels both, in the privacy of her heart.

        Minato's the one handling the actual descent, and it's a testament to her own skill that the Nadesico doesn't waver, as it sinks down and approaches Junius Seven. "This... was someone's home," she says, swayed by her grief, lips parting for her wounded breath. "Why... why would they make it into their weapon?"

        "Remember what I told you," Erina Kinjo Won warns her, grasping the railing above. "Don't speak a word of 'them'."

        "I don't even know what Nergal has to lose from it!" Minato says, near tears.

        Erina frowns. "You don't need to know. You're under contract."

        "We're all a bunch of fools," Ruri says, absently.

        She knows that children often learn to ride bicycles before they ever drive a car. It's how the youth are introduced to road rules. She read all about it.

        No one was riding that one, any more. And now it's hit the Distortion Field, no one ever will again.

        Yuliana, on the other hand, does not behold the humanity of Junius Seven as it falls -- she's busy with the oldest trick in her book. Just as she used to do during the Mycenae War, she's popped the cockpit and climbed out of her wanzer, examining the damage in the middle of the battle. (Older and wiser, she's at least doing so in the Shandor's hangar, while the kaiju battleship withstands the fight's slings and arrows.)

        "Shit, yeah, the coupling's physically shifted," she vocalises, to the ship's surgeon, Tribute Gabrand. (Another of the few human personnel on the ship, given how the horrors would repair human flesh.) She extends a tentacle out to the walkway, where she's holding onto one of Da Xukong 0's too-many legs with a hand. "C-Spanner!"

        "Now hold on," they say, "I don't even know what that is --"

        "GET me my FUCKING C-SPANNER," Yuliana's voice raises to a fever pitch, rage flooding over her, "before I DROP DOWN THERE and BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH IT!"

        Before Tribute can protest, though, one of the ship's tentacles snakes over -- impossibly -- with a C-Spanner wrapped in its horrible mass.

        "Finally," Yuliana snarls, as she grabs it from the tentacle and keeps working in the few moments she has to repair her machine.

        She won't let herself be beaten this easily -- not after what those damn Coordinators did to Wendy.

<Pose Tracker> Marian Cross has posed.

The deaths of that GINN pilot, and that child in the E-Phas has given Marian plenty to contemplate. But that's neither here nor there as she just barely broke out of her stupor when she feels the building G-forces upon her body even within the inertia-dampened cockpit.

The edges of her Gundam has rounded off in nuclear fire when Sato sacrificed himself in an attempt to kill her. Variable Phase Shift armor barely holding in the condensing atmosphere as its colors rapidly shifting to compensate for damages under a budding orange glow.

Fingers swiftly pulling up diagnostics of the systems to prepare for re-entry as Marian's eyes dart around the displays. The Inazuma is capable of making atmospheric entry unassisted...normally. With the VPS armor having lost its structure now however, it would be challenging to achieve. But thankfully most of its internal systems are still intact.

Nothing to it then. Her little fleet of Orb ships is too far away to assist, so she'd have to rely on someone else for help.

Circular motions to the control sticks and a push of a button activates her beam shield. At least she's got something that couldn't be melted off. The beam shield faces towards the Earth as she twists the Inazuma facing forwards and up, minimizing the surface area exposed to the air before the heat could do further damage to her systems. 

<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.


"I'll rely on all of you," Eight Orlodhari says in response to the people who say they will join her. "Let's do this."

But on the bridge of the Ra Mari II, Eight Orlodhari grimaces at Colonel Mannequin's statement. Is that really how this ends? That they can't help due to bureaucracy? She doesn't immediately act on it. Instead, she presses her lips together, and her hand hovers over the armrest console.

"Admiral?" Astelian asks her. "What should I send back?" Pause. "Wait. We're getting another hail, from the Minerva!"

"Patch them through," Eight directs.

Professionalism. Yes, that does appear to be how it'll go--except... the way she answers, Eight starts to think she has a temporary ally, at least. She keeps her expression steeled, but internally, she almost wants to smile. Almost.

"Admiral?" Captain Maina asks Eight, dubiou

When the channel is ended, Eight leans back into her chair. "...Another show for the authorities. I guess politics never end after all." A shake of her head.

-=-=-

Kathras Fari sits on the bridge of his ship, the Aion, the crew all looking to him for guidance. "We're able," Fari answers the Colonel. His first officer Gavarre looks at him at the transmission, and he actually smiles. "Yes sir," Captain Fari replies.

"...One way or another, we'll end a threat to our Earth today."

Jayaissa is satisfied with this much hope in a situation like this, as she maneuvers the Aion closer to the Shandor.

-=-=-

Internally, Eight raises the hangars. "...This is the Admiral speaking. Most of your units are designed for re-entry, but this is still a dangerous situation. I need volunteers to engage the target. No one will force you, this time--this is not a normal situation, and we don't know how long NUNE's patience will last. ...But I'm asking you to go."

Eight switches channels--to one pilot--to Anita Rosetta. "...Annie. I know re-entry is dangerous at the best of times, and this isn't those. But your'e my best. I need you out there if we're going to stop this. Will you go?"

She doesn't use comms for the next. She just closes her eyes, and reaches out. 'Rena,' she asks. 'Are you all right? I felt... something...' She stops, and shakes her head. 'I need you.'

Eight sighs, after that. "Captain Maina," she says. "You're in charge of the mobile suit wings. Commander Kall, I want you on ops--you know our shields better than anyone. Astelian, watch out for more NUNE communications."

-=-=-

The Ra Mari II glows orange on the hull as re-entry takes its stressors, but the technology at her heart ensures that between armor and barriers, she will be quite intact, despite the battle damage she's sustained already. She continues down, down, down into the atmosphere, preparing to move.

-=-=-

"...Admiral," Astelian starts. "What are we going to do about that NDA? Are you really going to let that woman talk to you like that?"

"We have bigger problems than Nergal's information control right now," Eight answers with a shake of her head. "Cooperate with their lawyers fully. That's an order. ...You let me handle Erina Kinjo Won and Nergal."

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"Now... Status report!"

-=-=-

The tombstone burns, and while Eight handles diplomacy, Captain Maina comes over the radio, "All pilots incapable of re-entry on their own, the Ra Mari II can shield you. Come within our particle field or into our hangars, and we'll see you through."

The tombstone burns, and Eight watches it. Ruined homes, mauled buildings... It could as easily be Magallanica one day.

The Admiral grimaces again, and wonders, not for the first time, how much Erina knew. But she puts that out of her mind for now.

She needs her full focus for this. 

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        As he's done dozens of times before, Alto turns the nose of his fighter up as he starts to feel the shaking from the friction against the atmosphere. As the heat and pressure begins to build against the underside of his Messiah, he throttles back and shunts the extra power from the reactor into the pinpoint barrier and the energy conversion armour.

        Under normal circumstances this standard procedure during re-entry would be more than enough to get Alto's Messiah through it without even as much as a scorch mark.

        These are VERY MUCH not normal circumstances.

        The shaking grows more intense as Alto struggles with the flight stick and pedals. Keeping the craft from simply flipping over is putting strain on both his mental fortitude and the manoeuvring thrusters that are burning hard to try and make up for the distinct lack of symmetry in his machine's current aerodynamic profile.

        Losing a good chunk of his wing is really coming back to bite him now.

        But Alto just needs to hold on long enough for his speed to slow enough to ease up on the heat. Then he has an alternative method he could take to get through this. Though that also won't be an option if he continues to hold on to any hope of helping to reduce the damage that Junius 7 is going to cause.

        Stopping it completely seems like an impossible task at this point.

        The only advantage to Alto's current situation is with Junius 7 closer to the atmosphere than him, that puts it below him. So he doesn't have to watch through his canopy as a dead city goes from being frozen in time at the point it was destroyed to breaking apart and burned to a crisp.

        With obvious strain in his voice, Alto radios to the others that he had been fighting alongside mere moments ago, <"Ryoko... Hikaru... And I didn't catch your names-"> He's refering to the Dynazenon's team, <"You still there?"> Alto doesn't worry about checking in on the Nadesico. He trusts the ship can handle this, even if it was a little damaged during the fight.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

This is the first time Akane's had to perform reentry in anything adjacent to a mobile weapon. While Galactron is singularly suited to it -- entering and leaving a planet's atmosphere in various states of self-repair is necessary to the mecha-kaiju's core function of purging worlds -- it's dicey even for the kaiju.

"Nngh -- I need to concentrate to keep this barrier moving below us," Akane grits out. "Once we get into the atmosphere I think I can drop it... but..."

Here, she has to trust in Galactron -- while at the same time defying the very logic the kaiju is premised on. To fight against the inevitability of mankind's self-destruction, even as that self-destruction hurtles through the atmosphere.

"D-don't move until I say to," she stammers. "It's... so hot..." It's hard for her to tell which parts of this stem from her perception of Galactron's senses, and which are the heat piercing through damage to its armor. Heatsickness clings to her.

Still...

... she has to do what she can. As Galactron makes it into the atmosphere and its systems shift to deal with that, Akane reports, "G-get ready...!"

Her mind races with catastrophic possibility -- indeed, in congress with Galactron's in this way, it has access to even more computational power to catastrophize faster... ... but as she repositions to allow the Mu Gundam to make freer movement once inside the atmosphere, she pushes those to the back of her mind. Millions of possible futures don't matter --

-- just the one that she chooses does.

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Junius 7 falls - and so do they, chasing after it. A place that was once home to so many, now turned into a weapon for further murder... Rikka didn't know them - to her, it is a history she didn't live - but her heart hurts a little to think about. All those memories, burning away in the fires of reentry...

...It hurts, but right now, they have something they must do. She can't dwell on that.

Rikka's gone through the simulations before, performing reentry in various situations... but this is her first time doing it live, her physical machine hurtling toward the Earth. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't feeling a lot of pressure.

The Mu Gundam hovers above Galactron's core as requested, the program Rikka had keyed into its computer keeping it within safe distance so that it can be covered by that barrier. Zabine Chareux is a skilled fighter, and Mu Gundam bears the scars of battle - in this state, Rikka isn't sure how well it would weather reentry on its own. Even now, protected as it is, Rikka has to do her best to ignore the warning signs beginning to appear on screen. The Mu Gundam shudders, but holds, and Rikka can feel a little strain even on her own body. The worst is held at bay by Galactron's barrier, but even still, it so much for the machine to take. But it could be much worse... and it's nothing, compared to what Akane's going through.

Rikka nods as she explains, and warns her not to move. But as for the heat...

"...I'm sorry." Rikka apologizes. There's nothing she can do for that. She just hopes, desperately, that Galactron will keep Akane safe. And as Akane alerts her to get ready... Rikka nods, expression focusing - and prepares to move.

In this moment, a lot will be decided. But it's the path they're taking together, and right now... that's something to hold on to. 

<Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.

As the glowing mass of Junius 7 burned into the Atmosphere, a trio of blue lights is still screaming towards it. The Tritten team is rapidly approaching the doomed colony. In her cockpit, Rose repeatedly hails her teammate, leading the way.

"SUSHILA! PULL BACK! THE DISTORTION FIELD WILL SMASH YOU TO PIECES!" Rose pleaded, but Sushila kept ignoring her.

"Rose, we're getting too close!" Aspyn radioed over the comms, her voice scarred with worry for all their safety.

"I know, I know, I KNOW!" Rose hissed back. Sushila was determined to set foot back on her home one last time it seemed. Rose maneuvered the pipper of her ZAKU's beam machine gun onto the Blaze Wizard Pack of Sushila's ZAKU Warrior. She dialed the beam output as low as it could go. Rose's breathing tensed as she mentally tried to calculate where the cockpit was in respect to the ZAKU's torso. Her finger began to squeeze the trigger, when the report from Captain Gladys sounded over the net. Then, Sushila's ZAKU suddenly broke left rapidly, and her pursuers skidded in vacuum before resuming pursuit. Sushila was now screaming towards the Minerva, determined to follow after it in the chase for Junius 7.

"SUSHILA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Rose screamed over the net once more. "We're not gonna survive reentry in these things!"

Sushila's voice entered Rose's ears. Her voice was strained, panicking, and with just a hint of delusion. "NO! WE CAN STOP IT! JUST LIKE AXIS! WE CAN PUSH IT AWAY FROM THE EARTH!"

Rose looked at the projected re-entry angles. Sushila had lost it. But they were past the point of no return, with Mobile Suits that were going to burn up in orbit. Rose popped her visor up to wipe her brow one last time and then back into place. This was going from bad to far, far worse. Rose and Aspyn fired up to keep in sync with Sushila, grabbing onto her ZAKU so the trio weren't separated...but it was abundantly clear these three ZAKUs needed help, rapidly.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.


Despite destroying the E-Phas -- by killing Nicol Amalfi -- the Gaia Gear Alpha Custom is not in the worst shape it has ever been. Parts of the armor are burnt black, giving its teal-and-white frame more of a tri-color look. There are some sections of armor that are half-slagged from near misses, but those are rare.

In the cockpit, Rena Lancaster is taking heavy, deep breaths. She can feel herself on the edge of panic. Between the fight -- the death -- and now, the terrible red glow around Junius 7 as it hits the atmosphere.

Her fingers tighten around the controls, as she hears the Gaia Sabers argument: that the Ra Mari II certainly cannot enter the atmosphere. But between Eight and Talia Gladys, it sounds that it's been handled.

Eight's presence is a ripple across her mind. Something she's known since she was young; the product of two Newtypes who grew up best friends, and shared a link.It makes her breathe a little easier.

Octo... I know. I'm with you. She thinks it -- feels it -- more than anything. An answer to Eight. For Anita, though, it's not like that. She certainly thinks and feels a lot towards Anita. She can even venture that Anita knows that.

But right now, she needs to be sure.

"Be careful, Annie," Rena transmits to the Svipul. "It's... it's pretty bad out here. I'll catch up with you soon."

The Gaia Gear begins to fold up; head folding back, legs straightening, arms swinging in. The nose cone swivels out, while the wings unfurl, as it takes to waverider form -- and begins to descend.

"Miss Allster," she says. "I'm going after it. Maybe we can stop it." It sounds absurd; stopping a colony drop as it happens should be impossible. Except it's not so impossible. It was only six years ago, after all, that they saw a miracle in these same skies.

"This thing has Psychoframe," she explains. "If you want to go down there, grab onto the Gaia Gear, on the dorsal side. But... don't push yourself, if it'll get you killed."

She transmits video -- she smiles, behind the faceplate of her normal suit -- then Rena nods, and the Gaia Gear Alpha drops into the atmosphere. The red-orange glow begins to brighten around it.

"Keep an eye on this thing, Al," she says. "We don't have critical damage that I saw... but no room for error."

<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.

Despite successfully fending off the Crossbone Vanguard, it's hard to call the end result an actual success. This was, after all, only an effort to delay any intervention, and it certainly managed that much. Naoko Suzuki bites her lower lip, her instruments alerting her to imminent reentry. This is the point of no return. If she doesn't fall back to the Ra Mari II now, she won't have the chance to before hitting the atmosphere.

But what about Junius 7? It's still out there, intact and on approach to impacting the Earth. Was there even any point to her actions so far? She can't feel as if she's made any difference at all. Retreating now... wouldn't that be tantamount to admitting there wasn't anything she could do? Regarding that giant structure, once full of life, on its way to end the life of many others... she can only think of one thing.

"...Miracle... What we need right now is a miracle...!"

The mere thought is enough to flip a switch in Naoko's mind. Sensing the agitation of her AI friends, she does not give them the chance to talk her out of it.

"Not a word, you two. This is why we're here right now, aren't we? We kept working to grasp the power of miracles for ourselves exactly for moments such as this. Withdrawing now would mean it was all for nothing! We can't... I can't show weakness now. I have to do this. So please. Support me in this. Help keep me safe. Let's make this miracle happen!"

With that, the die has been cast. A red glow surrounds the Sukeban Kiseki as its pilot has decided to ride out re-entry. However, that glow does not come from the Arm Slave directly. A barrier, held up by nothing but pure willpower, serves as its shield to keep the heat and pressure at bay. There's no direct affect on the machine, only the duress on the pilot's mind - supported by technology created for this express purpose. To keep her safe, by any means.

Despite having resolved herself to this, and knowing that, in theory, this should work to protect herself, it's not exactly an easy task. She needs absolute focus. And... her heart is beating in her throat. Knowing the theory is one thing, she has no idea what this is going to be like in practice. Can she really do this? No, she can't afford to doubt herself now. Maybe... maybe if there was someone who could help guide her through this, keep her calm...

The Double Zeta. It was nearby just now, in the best position to act, should something go wrong. In which case... She opens communications, trying not to let panic creep into her voice too much, as she addresses who she knows to be its pilot.

"Judau! Judau Ashta! You probably don't know me..."

...but I once shoved math into your brain, and you just butted into a psychic conversation I was trying to have? Nah, the details are not important right now.

"...but I know who you are. My machine, it's..."

...full of advanced tech that responds to my will? Nah, again, unimportant details. Not that Judau wouldn't be able to tell that already. If nothing else, that barrier is psychicly resonant, and there was that whole giant psychic fist thing earlier, sent flying by the much smaller Arm Slave right alongside his High Mega Cannon discharge.

"...it's capable of handling this situation, I think. But I'm..."

...scared? Super, super unimportant detail.

"...not trained for this. I hate to admit it, but I really need someone to hold my hand."

A short pause, before the rushed addition, "N-not literally! I mean, I just-- ...can I follow your lead? P-please?"

Leave it to Naoko to embarrass herself even in a life or death situation. 

<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.


        Serinas was flying towards Junius 7, firing all of her remaining missiles at it, when she feels... something off. Air, however thin, is hitting the damaged Queadluun-Rhea and it just... Like, she's used it in space, and in atmosphere, but she's only done re-entry *inside a pod*. So it feels *off*, like, well, suddenly dealing with a strong wind but also not.

        Of course, part of the reason she opted to use this machine instead of the CGUE is because it should be able to *survive* re-enty. But only now does she realize that the way she would do that is by *slowing down*...

        <"Uhh... guys? I think I have a problem here!"> she transmits. <"I can slow down, so help others first, but if I slow down I won't be able to keep up with Junius 7! I don't suppose anyone has some kinda super-science thing that'll help us survive re-entry at speed?">

        For the moment, at least, she keeps half an eye on the alarms on her HUD, watching temperature climb but not at the danger zone yet.

        And she fires everything she's got at that distortion field. The anti-ship impact cannon. The chest beam sprayers. The hand lasers. It's not like she has to aim precisely at something THAT BIG. And the missiles, ALL of the missiles, she's not sure how much longer she has before they won't be able to keep up anymore!

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

Anita had been held back from joining the fight surrounding Junius 7. With so many unknowns... it was good to have options, to be ready to respond in case the unexpected happened. The end result, however, is beyond anything they could have feared.

Junius 7 begins to fall - and the Ra Mari II initiates pursuit.

"...Geez, we became pretty popular all of a sudden, huh." Anita mutters. "Don't they have better things to worry about right now?"

Posturing at a time like this... She runs a hand through her hair.

"...Well, at least some of 'em seem to have a head on their shoulders." She says with a shrug.

She listens, then, as Eight asks for volunteers - and then, requests her help directly.

It speaks to the seriousness of the situation that she doesn't immediately say 'yes'. Instead, she thinks it over for a moment... and then nods, offering Eight a confident smile.

"Of course. I can't just sit around here. If I can do something... I gotta, right?" Anita says. "I'll make it back. Don't worry."

She makes her way to the hangar. Already equipped with her EX-Gear, she doesn't need any extra time to get ready. Combined with her cybernetics, it should keep her safe from the rigors of what's to come - and the Svipul is, at its heart, a Variable Fighter, equipped to handle re-entry.



"XVF-25I Svipul.... ready. Anita Rosetta, launching!" Anita announces - and the Svipul, in Fighter Mode, shoots from the battleship. It isn't long before Rena appears onscreen, telling her to be careful, and Anita nods. "Yeah, it is... You be careful too, alright? I'll be waiting for you."

Svipul accelerates - and Anita gets herself ready. 

<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.

It's almost too much for Flay to handle, everything that's already happened up until now. Sato's sacrifice, his desperation to use even his daughter's tombstone as a weapon. Her own anger towards one of those responsible for killing her father, only to be honed in and focused by Sayla's words. Only to be followed by Nicol's resigned attempt to force the two of them to die together, and the understanding that came along with it. Rena, and her brilliant light - another person who spilled blood upon their hands to protect her.

But it still isn't over, even Nicol's death wouldn't stop the ruins of Junius Seven from falling now that its course is set, could anything? Alarms after alarms blare within the Strike E's cockpit, as the Gundam sinks into the gravity well, warnings that the battery can no longer maintain consistent VPS output, and the pilot's survival cannot be guaranteed in this state... the sensation of literally burning up in the atmosphere is a terrifying one for a novice pilot. "Please, Strike, protect me for just a little longer." Flay whispers, trying to manage the controls of the immobilized Strike E.

At the same time, Ra Mari II is going in, and this time, Flay's heart just doesn't line up with the prevailing sentiment of the Gaia Sabers. Even if the Magallanica Defense Forces are an unauthorized army, even if Rena is a part of them, using Psychoframe without license at that... Flay owes her very life to her right now. And her pride simply just isn't worth that. The Strike keeps hanging on to the Gaia Gear's arm as if it's a lifeline, bearing the flames of the atmosphere, until it's stable enough to move on its own. "I can't believe you can still smile at a time like this," Flay admits to Rena, turning on her own video. The idea of turning this into another Axis Miracle, is just absurd and yet... "I know that feelings alone won't be enough to stop this. But if you really think we have a chance... then I'm trusting you." She looks to the disarrayed NUNE forces, while the Minerva makes their own decision. "If they ask, I didn't see your machine enter atmosphere. All right?"

Still shaking off the shock of it all, Flay tries to open up her wideband comms to the Aion. "A-Aion, can you hear me? This is pilot Flay Allster! I'm still alive... if only barely." With the stress on each machine on the battlefield, and the sheer Minovsky Particle desnity, her voice might come out with quite some static. "The Strike's taken a ton of damage, and there's no way I can handle atmospheric reentry on my own..." By all means, she'd be within reason to leave the battlefield altogether. But as she promised, she leaves out Rena's involvement in helping her make the re-entry anyways. "Still, I can't just turn my eyes from this anymore. If it's possible... I'm going to need both the Aile and Launcher packs and as many auxiliary batteries as you've got." It's exactly the firepower the situation will call for, but in this situation, Flay wonders if strength on its own will even be enough, either... What is she missing, then?

Right now, though, when all one can do is try to survive, firepower doesn't mean anything. Seeing it this close, Flay can only remark upon how familiar the husk of Junius Seven looks, even as it rockets into atmosphere, and even as the Strike's chassis rattles and tremors from the sheer pressure of re-entry. It's terrifying, and very possibly way too much for her to accomplish, but following the Gaia Gear Alpha at a safe distance, there's nothing else she can do except to focus her will into surviving this, just the same as everyone else... 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

There's another unit in descent that, legally speaking, probably shouldn't be here.

"This is the dumbest idea I've had all year," Tavelle whines in her cockpit (to herself, as she is both speaking in Zuvorg - which very few people in the Earth Sphere militaries speak - and has her radio off). "No, scratch that, it is the dumbest idea I have had *ever*!"

The Lestrail Blader does not fly, precisely. It has quite a few thrusters, but they're all designed for low-G and microgravity maneuvering, which it is incredibly good at; it has an agility that only dedicated space-use units can match. Tavelle is firing them in bursts, which lets her slow and control her fall... but she *is* falling.

Tavelle is really risking it, getting this close to the gravity well. Her chances of an easy pull up are gone; now she's going to have to really push her thrusters if she wants to escape from this point, with the Lestrail as damaged as it is.

So right now, the Lestrail Blader is falling. It's holding together, if not always by much, but the fall is brutal for Tavelle herself. She's got a flight suit that claimed to be body heat-dispersive but that doesn't do a damn thing when the heat is coming from outside. Warnings pop up on her cockpit screens, incomprehensible things to anyone else in Zuvorg script - but the heavy use of red and orange is clear to basically anyone straight across the galaxy. She's sweating behind her helmet. She feels like she weighs a thousand pounds from all the forces that keep pressing her this way and that. She wants to be anywhere but here.

But despite everything Tavelle is guiding it toward the biggest collection of ships and units: Junius Seven.

Earth doesn't mean anything to her, she keeps telling herself. It's just this random planet that she came to with the Yaman Rebellion. She doesn't have any ties her. It's not her planet to defend.

So why is she doing this? Why is she sticking her neck out for them? The Lestrail couldn't handle an atmospheric descent worth a damn; it wasn't *theoretical* danger she was in.

...

There were no answers.


Ultra Warrior Nova, on the other hand, was here entirely by design.

She'd made a connection to Michiru, but not enough of one; she'd retreated, but too late. And now she - and the others - were on their way down to do... what? Whatever they could.

NUNE wasn't going to stop an Ultra Warrior. Oh, they might try, under other circumstances, but at a time like this they frankly have better things to do. And, more importantly, the politics had simply never occured to Qivi, because they're the *last* thing she thinks about when she needs to act. That's gotten her in trouble before, and will again, but right now it mostly means she doesn't hesitate

The silver-and-red form of Ultra Warrior Nova moves fast when she wants to, and right now she wants to. While she cannot blow the atmosphere out of the way like the Minerva, she doesn't need to; her body is surrounded in a shining corona that trails away behind her like a cometary tail as she dips into the atmosphere and accelerates, pushing against all the air that pushes her back. The heat of the reentry doesn't bother her - she's dived to Earth before, like when she showed up on Huffman Island - but the shockwaves from other units do, battering her and literally shoving her entire body several meters at a time with concussive waves.

Qivi has lived through colony drops, but never as the target (nobody drops things on Huffman Island; it breaks itself on a regular basis without any help) and never from this angle. It's chilling, to see it as she does now. She hates it.

It only firms up her - and Nova's - convictions. They need to do something, but this is something they're going to have to do all together. The crystal set into the Asteriser gleams as Qivi accelerates, Ultra Warrior Nova tucking her limbs in as she 'dives' in a way that looks more aquatic than aerial. Seems to work well enough, though...

Scanning the area, Qivi and Nova are looking for pilots in distress. There's plenty, as it turns out, but one is close by, and she curves her flight that way.

Marian gets to see a streak of silver and white and red dive past her, not quite close enough to reach out and touch but close enough that a solid dash boost would put you over there. Qivi slows once she's *underneath* the other MS, going up.

And then there's contact under the Gundam's beam shield as someone presses up against it. Ultra Warrior Nova has come up with her back against the beam shield, holding her own physical shield - a bigger shield than Marian's given the size of Nova - beneath her. It slows the descent, but more importantly it both controls it and means that Qivi and her shield are taking the worst of the heat, not Marian - and Ultra Warrior Nova can handle it.

From Marian's perspective, it's a Giant of Light that's just suddenly arrived; one of the giant aliens in something like a silver bodysuit with red accents, wearing a heavy bracer set with a complex disc with a red crystal in it, now shimmering with refracted light. Her faceplate doesn't really move to show expression, but she *feels* friendly...

...something that is reinforced when Qivi very slowly works one arm out from under the shield and gives a big, giant thumbs up where Marian's cameras can pick it up. I got you, she thinks, even though the psychic contact doesn't get through very well right now, Inazuma Gundam now being held on Ultra Warrior Nova's broad back.

She's not sure where Marian wants to go, but by chance she picks the right one - the closest cluster of ships she can see is the Orb grouping, and Qivi tries to guide the pile-up that way. 

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        In the back of her mind's eye, a landscape unfolds that is both unfamiliar and familiar to her, overlaid over the view she sees in front of Lucine. The fields of Mars were more like a frontier, full of distant colonies separated by highways and red soil, and, sometimes, terraformed patches of land. Another part of her mind sees flashes of a confused boy's hand as he looks up at his parents, as Liam's flashbacks seep into her own.

        Neither landscape quite matches the one she sees now: a ghost of an entire city, crumbling before her very eyes. A grave, turned to cinder, in order to create even more destruction.

        The Jovians had a hand in this, and for Lucine, the idea that she'd have to keep secret after what may be yet another series of tragedies feels like a stab to the heart.

        Liam's comm rattles with Lucine's voice. < "They absolutely fucking knew. They had to have, if they dropped a NDA so quickly..." > Anger beats like a drum at the back of her mind, fire poker hot and loud to match.

        .... She needs to survive, so she can *ensure* they can't sweep this all under the rug. Yurika can't, Hikaru can't, Akito can't, Inez--

        Wait, what makes her anymore capable of doing anything? She's just as tied to being with the Nadesico as Hikaru, and she didn't leave like Akito did. Inez... well, no one knows what her deal is.

        That says nothing of the colony that the Jovians helped -- it had to have been intentional, no doubt about it -- bring towards Earth. They want to cause the same sort of destruction on Earth as they did on Mars. Why does Nergal suddenly care?!

         _Focus, Lucine._ Not just for yourself, but for Liam, for the Nadesico, and for everyone and below. Her dad once claimed an Azul worked best when under pressure. Liam needs her, and she needs to be the person that they both need, right now.

        < "Liam. The Akashima. Do you think it's large enough that it should be able to help shield some of the worse off units against reentry? Or else, help afterward." > Liam can almost hear the way the tears are beginning to dry up in Lucine's eyes, and how her jaw sets, like a guarddog set on a target it cannot afford to let go of. < ".... My reentry system is still in working order. I can signal them here, if I just try to sense where any of them may be." >

        The translucent 'blades' on the Dianthus's back flex upwards to make a cone-shaped shield, this time above the Dianthus's crown. Her mind, likewise, tries to reach out, but her heart, hampered by anger and pain, at best announces its existence before Lucine is pulled back into herself. She'll have to rely on the Dianthus's own gear, rather than her own senses. But, the little bit she did notice... < "Liam, I'm going to tag three people over. Are you ready?" >

        When she gets the go-ahead, Lucine flips her channel to public. < "..... Rose, Sushila, Aspyn. Forwarding coordinates to you. I can't guarantee it'll work, but come by the Akashima, and use it as a shield. You should be near by me and Liam's position. Can you make it?" > 

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        UC 88, Dublin, Ireland

        Liam runs.

        The city is already burning. Every breath stings his lungs, and his eyes blur at the edges with tears. He keeps his gaze focused on his parents, ahead of him; his mother holds his right hand, and his father holds his left. Neither has let go of him for more than a few seconds at a time. Beyond them, the world is a terrifying tableau of flame and crumbling buildings. Distant flashes light up the sky. Irregular rumbling reverberates through the pavement, and through his bones--the footsteps of battling giants.

        Liam's parents stop. He almost runs head-first into his father's backpack, but he catches himself. Panic overtakes him.

        "Why are we...!?"

        Liam looks up. He sees his parents' faces, soot-streaked and flushed with exertion. Sticky blood dries on his father's brow from where a piece of flying rock hit him. He has never seen them this terrified, or this determined.

        Beyond them, he sees the colony. Cylindrical, and glowing bright red from the heat of reentry, it looks like it's been shot from the heart of Hell to destroy everything he loves.

        NOW

        Liam's Akashima starts to reorient for reentry. Its FLOAT engines fire in short, rhythmic bursts, applying steady acceleration. In the cockpit, Liam glances towards his readiness displays--even with the battle damage, his armor's integrity is holding for now. The chutes are stowed and waiting. He breathes, slow and deep, just like Dr. Hinoki taught him. It helps him focus, even as he processes the fracas on the radio--he can hear his heartbeat in his ears, and his teeth start to grind. Millions of people live in Pendrago and its outskirts, but everyone who is anyone will have taken flight the moment they heard the news. The Emperor is likely en route to an undisclosed location.

        <"Fucking ghouls,"> Liam says, over the tightband to Lucine. A few more moments of slow, deep breaths. Beneath him, the burning hulk of Junius Seven glows bright red from the heat of reentry. "<I'm not leaving. Every life we save here is worth it.>" The flick of a switch turns his comms back to public channels.

        "NERV Pilot Liam, Type-4 Akashima, beginning descent." The Akashima pitches forwards, and tucks its arms to its sides. The FLOAT System pulses, the sound of its force curtain immediately lost to the roar of rushing air. It's only a little push, but it's enough to kick things off. The Akashima falls like a skydiver, plummeting headfirst into danger. The force of his descent starts to press on him in earnest, three point one Gs and climbing. There are so many bits of debris and falling suits that Liam doesn't notice Rose's team until Lucine points them out. Three ZAKUs, plummeting through the atmosphere.

        A memory of terror creeps into his mind at the sight: the mono-eye of a Zaku (Mark 3, he recalls, distantly), falling upon him as he runs. His body shudders. Lucine asks if he's ready.

        But every life they save here is worth it.

        The massive Mobile Weapon twists slightly mid-dive, offering its body as a shield for the falling ZAKU trio. All the while, it plummets inexorably towards Junius Seven.

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.


FLOATING IN THE VOID

Rin Mei Naujakaite breathes as she stares at the gentle limning of plasma that begins forming around the remnant of Junius Seven. Other people are talking, sure, but how much is she listening?

Battle is always exhausting. And in the final analysis, they failed.

Signals float through around them but Rin sags backwards, feeling the world swim in a thousand different ways. Startling, she turns her head. Scorn, she thinks, steering without much forethought. His wing got broken - he can't - and we're going into the atmosphere--

The damaged Gespenst-II still has plenty of maneuvering room, and so, it drifts after Scorn. The birdlike drone's proving itself more machine than bird; Scorn isn't panicking, but has relatively little ability to do more than station keep.

"I guess I'm going back if I like it or not," Rin mumbles, as the Gespenst II...

... loses visual and data contact...

... with Rancor, who is still for a fraction of a second.

No contact. No instructions. In a sense, the drone is alone in the cosmos. Rancor raises his head and analyzes visual data. Last known coordinates and trajectories are rattled through projections.

Despite his position in the void of space, his fore limbs crouch before boosting abruptly upwards, further from the Tombstone. Rotating once. A data link from Source VTX-4.1 flashes out to the ships in flight. Another moving craft, if one apparently serving as a watchdog. There is a lingering peculiarity, something not fully refactored out: a text feed of 'contacting emergency services!' firing off every three seconds.

It looks like a housefire to Rancor. Perhaps the greatest housefire in the world.

MEANWHILE...

"dammit dammit dammit," huffs Roux as she is pressed gently back into the seat of the Strike Zeta by acceleration forces. The Brownian motion of space warfare put her farther and further away from the core of the battlefield. It can be presumed she won, since the Strike Zeta appears to be moving just fine on its own power -- it's even shifted into its Waverider configuration.

What is making Roux swear in particular is the ghostly flickering of 'THERMN.JET_OK' in the corner of her eye. The jet thrusters that use pure fusion heat to compress and accelerate atmosphere; they're not *usable* yet... but the sensors can tell the space around them is growing subtly more dense, second by second.

They're doing another drop -- *another* one -- at some point they're going to have to re-terraform Earth, Roux thinks, even as her mind contracts into a focus point. She can't collapse mentally. Nobody is standing by to rescue her. It's not impossible -- despite all the great machines in action -- that she could end up being the sole survivor, despite everything. (Roux, of course, is unaware of a couple of other factors.)

That focus rests on the Double Zeta; perhaps she can be forgiven. "JUDAU!" Roux cries out, even as counterthrusters kick in to both baffle the Strike Zeta's velocity and to keep it on course. The Waverider resolves the Double Zeta from more than a small blob to something like the Mobile Suit Roux knows. Naoko receives a brief psychic flash of attention, something intense and searching, but it's a blip. Not an attacker.

"Is your suit re-entry rated?" Roux half-demands of Naoko even while weaving slightly to avoid the lower half of a GINN that had just been floating there, and which will no doubt end up on land or sea in some sort of nameless scrap lump soon enough. "Judau, how's your engines?"

<Pose Tracker> Koyomi Yamanaka has posed.

Dynazenon swerves in close to Nadesico in silent acknowledgment to Ruri's invitation, but it doesn't get in; leaving and re-entering Earth's atmosphere is a thing they already know the giant can do, and staying out leaves them freer to help others or act. The revelations of the last few moments...

"Seems like that pilot was some kind of bigshot?" Yomogi murmurs, uncertain.

...have not entirely sunk in with the group. Gauma has already moved his focus, eyes drilling in on the hulk fit to obliterate this world. Alto gets an answer from the young woman aboard: "We're fine...so far, anyway...uhm, Dynazenon's fine, I guess?" Mysteriously she's not hot to say her name on a channel that just had someone yelling about legal action.

"What can we do..." Koyomi mutters, squatted on the floor of his cockpit. "That distortion field destroys anything that touches it, so that's problem one." He watches a bicycle turn to light as it touches the distortion field. He remembers - Gauma wouldn't, he's not sure Yomogi and Yume even would. But he remembers, the night of that Miracle, the shock of light and fervor that lifted up the sky. Now he's facing it down from another end, a nervous breath struggling to make it through his lips, trying to make anything that even passingly resembles an entire human thought.

Gauma's teeth grit, tension running riot through his shoulders and arms, waiting for the moment to move.

        *

Al's answer to Rena is to highlight about half the Gaia Gear's screen and helpfully tag the entire thing at once. "I found it," he says, flatly. "Category C damage to the limbs...no major system or performance loss. However, we will need to greatly exceed the performance estimates of the Gaia Gear Alpha to meaningfully contribute to this operation." ... "Fortunately, I believe we are equipped for such an undertaking." 

<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.


        Good timing.

        A fly breaks off from the swarm, a flaming flea landing atop the back of Serinas's Queadluun-Rhea. A mere wanzerpanzer, armor scorched and ragged from making it through the firefights above, but holding together more sturdily than its tiny frame has any right to. Once Myrmecia clamps its hands down to grip the shoulder of the Queadluun-Rhea, then, the larger unit, too, gradually begins to stabilize. Fields drawn down like the invisible fields shielding the Myrmecia, directing heat flows to vent systems and insulate the unit from reentry forces, themselves much like a sort of artificial gravity environment.

        <"Fancy meeting you here," %gt;comes the synthesized computer voice of the Myrmecia pilot. The peppy pilot of the red Queadluun-Rhea. They've flown together... what was it, Nikola? <"Are you having as good a day as I am?">

        As her tone might suggest, Luanova Luckwright is not, in fact, having a good day. Your first colony drop is typically not a good day. She fell behind with the Gaia Sabers' backup, swarmed in the fighting. The armor plating is frayed. Periodic bouts of active concentration are necessary to keep the Myrmecia from overheating that threatens to breach the cockpit. Myrmecia was built to endure frequent bouts of atmospheric reentry. It was not built to fight mid-reentry.

        The threats to her life are good. They keep her mind off the weaponization of a colony built for habitation. She doesn't have to think about that stray bicycle.

        <"I don't have any guns on this thing. I can hold us both together, but I can't contribute unless you bring me in close... or find me something throwable. For an expansive definition of throwable."> She's not picky about the size. Well, no. She very much would prefer something big.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Kaworu gazes down at the broad, vast curve of the Earth, and the reddening edges of the descending Junius 7. Evangelion Unit Beta's lines redden too, as her A.T. Field lights up shimmering iridescent orange, and not just from its natural colors. It protects her and her pilot from re-entry, but the intense heat laps at them both. Unit Beta's long silver hair blackens as it billows, and if Kaworu needed to breathe, he'd suffocate as the LCL around him simmers.
        
        There are Lilim politics at play, unfolding in real time, but he doesn't concern himself with those. He gazes down, towards his homeworld; then he gazes up, towards those who would help preserve it. Unit Beta's head turns with his.
        
        As agonizingly as this colony burns, the others are surely far more agonized yet. The Nadesico and the Ra Mari II offer plenty of protection, and Qivi, Akane, Liam and the others who've taken minimal damage are doing what they can to help--to help each other at this most crucial of times. Kaworu smiles to see it. If there's anyone left over who needs help, he'll give it freely, but it seems as though it isn't necessary right now.
        
        He turns his attention forward once more. Unit Beta's gossamer wings shift to a more streamlined angle, and she soars like a comet towards the falling colony. These next few moments will mean everything. 

<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Amano has posed.

Hikaru, and the Nadesico's fight with the Daitenshi pair saw plenty of unbelievable revelations - that the Jovian Lizards were built and sent by humans, and the swift NDA enforced by Nergal. And if Nergal decided to block it, and knew all along... guess that means Himeyuri really wasn't making stuff up. It's hard to get too lost in thought about it, though, because they still have a colony drop to stop in its tracks! "Hey, Nadesico! Turns out my Aesti shrugged that beating off way better than it felt like, so I'm pretty sure I can do this re-entry thing a-okay! So if no one else can... I'll cover anyone who needs it!" With some care of course, the Distortion Field makes a pretty good shield, but it's also exactly the dangerous weapon they're trying to stop as they speak.

Hikaru doesn't need to be the same kind of psychic Lucine is to understand her anger, though. It really does seem like the truth is going to get swept up by the current of this event, but Hikaru can still look out for her. "Hey, Lucine, you holding up okay? I think we're.... both pretty mad right now," Even with the smiles on her face, there's no mistaking Hikaru is upset by this turn of events. "But you're always saying how this is a world where flowers grow, or something like that... why don't we make sure it stays that way?" She speaks to Liam, as well, since they come in a pair - but even she doesn't know him well enough to know the extent of his fear of the sky falling once again.

"Still ready to roll, Skull! Just holler if you need me~" Hikaru confirms, when Alto tries to confirm their safety, the Aestivalis of course, doing a cute little wave towards the Messiah, before Hikaru locks in and focuses on Junius Seven. So, that's what a colony with nobody left inside looks like... Hikaru never wanted to think about that, but this time... it's right in front of her. Will the Earth be the same way if this goes through? 

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.


        Of the many stunts Sayla had tried in her... interrupted career as a pilot, reentry in a mobile suit was never one. Reentry in a mobile suit after this much damage definitely wasn't. The sensible thing would have been to stay in space- but she was already within the gravity well before thinking. "...This is Mass to the Minerva, I'm pursuing. Are the any reentry mechanisms on this thing?" She doesn't have the capability to look for the manual while she's still trying to handle this wild horse of a machine, there's not enough mental room- and the Minerva itself is too far away to close the distance.

        The QUBELEY Awakened maneuvers as best as it can, the funnels returning to the binder on the back. She can't help but see the interior of the colony as it falls, this place where so many had lived, so many had died. When she had fled Loum, she had no time consider the aftermath. When she had gone back out into Side 7 to search for survivors, she had had time to survey the wreckage but it was all fresh, often still burning. This wasn't the first time she'd seen a dead colony like this- but it was the first time she had seen one fall.

        She took a moment to burn the image into her mind, as she continued to burst towards battleships. Unfortunately, pushing the QUBELEY gives her speed, but makes it even harder to control- especially with the amount of damage it's sustained. As it stood... it was going to be a little too far behind to make it to a hangar in time.

        She opens comms. "...This is Sayla Mass," she calls, transmitting her location. "If anyone is in range without risking themselves, assistance would be appreciated." She is keeping her voice calm, but her emotions aren't. Those can be felt, by those attuned to such things. Fear amongst that refusal to die. That promise she made.

        She has people she has to get back to, and even if she doesn't... she's not going to give up until the chance is taken from her. 

<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.


They can't stop it.

It's falling, and they can't stop it.

                        ~ ZZ ~

It's a different perspective than the one Judau Ashta is used to. The last time he experienced a colony dropping, he was already on Earth, and it was already breaching the atmosphere like a great and unfathomable behemoth breaching the murky water's surface.

To see it in the process...

It's no less harrowing. It does not make the blood in his veins freeze any -less- coldly.

And it certainly makes him feel no better to know that for all he is supposed to have this vast awareness, there is nothing in this world he can do to stop a supermassive atrocity in the making.

Though a little damaged following the frantic battle with the unexpected ace of the equally unexpected Crossbone Vanguard, the Double Zeta is still largely intact; it's small favors, in the grand scheme of things, but as they approach the atmosphere, caught in the inescapable pull of Earth's gravity, it at -least- means the ZZ is well positioned to deal with re-entry... and, too, to help others who need it.

<"To anyone out there in need of help -- this is Judau Ashta! If your machine can't handle atmospheric reentry, just respond, and the Double Zeta can help get you somewhere safe! I repeat...">

And so this is Judau's endless mantra across broadband as the ZZ banks across debris, searching for anyone in need of rescue from the brutal battle. His senses expanded, the Biosensor reacts; the ZZ isn't built for atmospheric reentry like the Zeta's Waverider. But the shimmering field of magenta and red that encapsulates it as it begins its controlled descent serves to make up for what the Double Zeta lacks, protecting its interior from mounting heat and friction and allowing Judau the mobility to still strive to find people who need him.

People like...

                        ~ $$ ~

"M-ma'am! The colony, it's--"

"I know, Rami! But right now, we can't do anything for anyone if we don't make it out of this!"

The Tyranado is in poor shape; fighting an E-Phas, Sagiri Sakurai is quickly realizing, takes its toll, especially when piloted by someone who actually has training to wield it. Sparking, alarms blaring, Sagiri grits her teeth as she works on trying to stabilize the prototype mobile suit's orientation.

There's a lot of things weighing heavily on her right now. What happened to Nicol. The Company's role in all of this.

And that massive chunk of grim memoria currently weighing down on the whole of the world.

There's some things she can't fix right now, no matter how much she might like to. So she just focuses on what she -can-. But even that...

"Tch--! I'm not sure we can get the reentry systems operational enough... Rami, do you--"

<"That's why you have allies and colleagues, Sakurai. To let them share the weight when you can't.">

<"Ch-chief??">

<"D-dad?!">

As the Tyranado starts into mounting friction of freefall, TRAJECTORY LOCK-ON messages pop up all across its viewscreen. Above it, the Carriax descends rapidly, Meryl performing emergency docking procedures with a tense, contained expression as she - as all of them - try not to lose focus to the great distortion-wrapped catastrophe lurching through the atmosphere.

<"We've got you covered, you two. The Nadesico is offering free port to anyone who needs it -- Amies has already charted the fastest route there. We'll try to get what emergency repairs done on the Tyranado we can, but... it seems like it might be out of the fight, now.">

Sagiri's brows furrow. She exhales.

<"... Yeah, I figured as much,"> she admits, loathe as she is to do so. <"We're in your hands now. Amies, Meryl, Chief... thanks. Did you get that, Rin? We're making a beeline for the Nadesico -- do you need an assist?">

A second passes. And then Sagiri slumps back bonelessly in her seat, exhaustion seizing her. Rami watches on in trepidation, her big brown-gray eyes glued to the visual feed of Junius 7.

"Ma'am... can't we... can't we do anything?" She wishes, she -wishes-, she could find some use for the Quark Drive, something, anything, beyond this. Beyond war.

Sagiri, though, doesn't answer for some time. And then:

"I don't know, Rami. I think now... I think now, we just need to have faith."

                        ~ ZZ ~

...This is Sayla Mass...

<"Sayla?!">

The surprised voice that picks up on Sayla's communications is a familiar one; Judau Ashta -feels- Sayla well before he even -hears- her, and certainly well before he -sees- her. That much is apparent in the way wide green eyes sweep the battlefield for signs of the person who has become a part of his family --

--and then immediately, if briefly, freezes at the sight of what she's piloting.

<"A-- Qubeley?">

Of all the times. Memories rush back to him that he'd rather not dwell on. A woman with pink, immaculately cared for hair, and a broken soul--

The erstwhile hero of the AEUG shakes his head to free him of those memories. <"I'm comin', Sayla! Hang on!"> Thrusters flare, and the ZZ suddenly -swoops- down, its speed shocking for its sheer bulk as a multitude of thrusters bleeding blue flames into the warming void of space launch it -downward- to pass up the Qubeley. It shifts and positions itself in front of the Mobile Suit -- and then counter-thrust slows it, providing Sayla the back of the Double Zeta to land on even as that magenta field shimmers.

<"Hold on,"> Judau insists, brows furrowing. <"This is gonna be rough--">

He still has worries. Doubts. But it's Roux's voice that truly calls him back to reality. He blinks, seagreen eyes widening briefly.

<"Roux?? Roux! The Double Zeta's doin' fine -- but I could use a hand here helpin' Sayla!"> His brows furrow. He watches Junius in the distance.

<"We gotta try to outpace that thing--">

Judau! Judau Ashta!

<"--Huh the hell?? Do you need help?!">

Judau Ashta just about starts out of the focus on saving Sayla and her Mobile Suit at the sound of that familiar - yet unfamiliar - voice on his comms. It's not the voice -itself- that's familiar - though it is - so much as the feeling behind it. The intentions, the plaintive sentiments -- it writes out an emotive signature to his broadening awareness that calls to mind a moment not that far off from now.

And one further still that he cares not to remember in these fraught times because math is -absolutely the last thing he needs to think about right now-.

Seagreen eyes blink. <"Y-yeah -- I know you,"> he says almost instantly, as reflexively as breathing. His point stands: does she need help?

And it turns out she does. But not on reentry. On something much bigger than that.

... My machine, it's... it's capable of handling this situation, I think. But I'm...

Judau lapses into silence for some time. His brows furrow. He looks down at that big lever labeled ZZ at his left, and sets his jaw.

<"Alright. If you think you can help, then follow my lead! Step one: we get you outta this situation in one piece! You can't do anything if you're dead! Most of the time!">

The emotional wavelength imbuing the BioSensor intensifies; the field of magenta burgeons out into a half-sphere broadly protecting the ZZ and those around it as it descends.

<"And step one-point-five: work on your confidence! Stop thinkin' about whether you CAN -- confidence doesn't care about thinking! The longer you stop to think about somethin', the longer it doesn't get done!">

Judau.

Judau this is terrible advice.

But right now, in this moment, maybe there's a kernel of truth to it.

(don't take this advice to heart outside of incredibly specific examples like this)

<Pose Tracker> The Burning Tombstone has posed.


Kati Mannequin responds to Parminder's accusations of False Flag pitilessly, "And should we ignore your history simply because you lent us assistance? Such childish logic, the books do not balance so easily."

The GN's stop firing before any of them can get into the gravity well - save one man, who keeps up his pursuit. "You won't get away-!" "Don't overextend! Get back here!" Colonel Mannequin calls out at him. The man however, underestimated the damage his GN-X took, while it can make reentry unassisted, the alarms blare that his right leg is heating up too quickly.

It's only when he clicks to fire, that his determination, his overeagerness, his inexperience with reentry beyond the military exercises that he understands what it cost him, his cockpit crackles as its circuitry melts- "Ah-AHHHHH!" - and he detonates, into a rain of debris that is partially consumed by Junius Seven field.

He becomes a reminder of how easily they can perish here.

"Don't I know it." Ryoko echoes Ruri's accusation of them all being fools, as she looks at the spot where the man in the GN-X was, she's mostly been silent since that conversation with Char Aznable. The Red Aestivalis gleams bright against the visible Distortion Field, another constant reminder of Nergal's NDA, when shown next to the falling PLANT - against the Nadesico.

Alto however sends out a call across the comms, "Skull-4, is that you?!" And her Aestivalis spins around, turning backwards to look up at the Armored Messiah. "Shit. Okay flyboy, we're gonna do an old trick."

With the distortion field up, Ryoko's able to utilize her IFS to slowly move in that direction, even as she sweats, everything rumbling against the friction. "I'm gonna come up under your underbelly. Don't worry! I'm turning the field off!"

The grey field vanishes, and instantly the heat and rumbling becomes that much worse, but Alto feels her Aestivalis lightly strike the underside of his Messiah before gripping on, "If Hikaru calls this the Gekigan something or another you're taking the heat for it!" She looks determined at least, "Since I'm taking this heat for you."

And while there is that reminder, there is too evidence of humanity's care for each other, in all of them.

Flay's Strike Gundam grabs ahold of the Gaia Gear, utilizing it for cover, this Psychoframe, can it fulfill their shared wish in what comes after? No matter what happens, the two are bound together by their shared experiences. Would the boy who used to play the piano be on their side in the hereafter, or would he still be icily declaring their ruin?

Nova Stellar, worker of miracles requests Judau Ashta's hand in embarrassment at her inexperience, thankfully failing to mention that she shoved math into his Newtype brain. And Sayla Mass in a Qubeley, brings memories unbidden of a time in the past, a field of magenta spreading out from it protectively, as he directs Roux to assist in the rescue efforts.

Ultra Warrior Nova streaks through the sky to catch Marian's Inazuma Gundam, with a benevolent aura, Ultras are heroes, are they not? And perhaps today a hero saves a hero.

While Lucine coordinates over the League's team of three in Rose Sushila and Aspyn to shield themselves with the much larger Akashima's embrace.

Luanova's Myrmcecia coordinates with the Queadluun's pilot, Serinas, to keep her alive and tackle the problem of what comes next, and the two together might spy, falling, burning bright orange, a falling blade that once belonged to the Strike Gundam.

It's only right that Rikka should be shielded by Akane, isn't it? Or perhaps... they would prefer it the other way around, but decisions like this are oft driven by necessity, and for now the Mu rides the Galactron to try and right this wrong.

Even the Dynazenon team readies themselves to field this disaster, in all of their uncertainty, they still came together to fight, and Junius Seven perhaps is another.

Unit Beta flies down on Gossamer wings, and perhaps today, the providence of the divine is Kaworu's, as someone in a liminal state - who ushers the souls of the living unto the realm of the dead, can he hear the screams of wrath from the empty streets of Junius Seven, or are they merely the delusions of the living?

The Nadesico and Ra Mari II offer safe haven, they coordinate efforts, they send aid, in Anita who flies out of reserve, at the ready to assist them all, truly they are the backbone of the efforts...

The reminder of the danger in that man's death remains just that, a reminder, as all of them together gain on Junius Seven.

The Minerva has veered out of its impromptu tunnel of safety, and even at this lower layer of the atmosphere they are immediately exposed to the intense friction from lowering thrust from that speed, the ship is aglow again, but they've bought themselves time, time at a more advantageous position.

By now, most of them have managed to get ahead of it, or at least alongside, the flare motors in a vacuum are effective en masse, but in the atmosphere all of them have much less power, and they're relying mostly on gravity. In profile, Junius Seven looks like it's breaking apart even within the distortion field, the great cracks of nuclear annihilation widening, more and more so with the immense pressure placed upon it by gravity.

A large chunk of it floats within, like a piece of scenery in a fishbowl.

Orange shines against the portion of it facing earth, wiping off the distortion field, off of the millions of tons of metal and fiberglass.

As they watch, more and more tendrils that once held the PLANT together twist, and snap, and break within, it looks less and less like a jellyfish, and more like a mushroom backlit by the orange glow of a stove. The air exists enough here that they can now hear sound, the titanic cracking and crashing deafening of metal difficult.

The people of Earth over the Pacific Ocean, near the Western Coast of Britannia must all see it by now. It is difficult to miss the ruin that awaits them.

"Even if it rains debris on over the Pacific, we have little other option." Talia comments to them all.

The Minerva, now alongside and just below it, is adjusting Starboard. The Tannhauser cannon is already charging. "FIRE!" Talia Gladys orders, and this time a long stream of crimson positrons lashes at the husk of Junius Seven, but it gleams against the outside of the Distortion Field, the beams dispersing in all directions, before vanishing.

"Damn!" Arthur yells, "Ma'am it's not working."

"We're hardly giving up. Link up our targeting data with the other ships, Meyrin."

The Minerva certainly seems to be planning to destroy it, but is that truly the only option available?

OOC Note: You are still in reentry, but now in position to do something about Junius Seven. Even those who are messed up are now in a position to act to try and stop it. There is no wrong narrative answer on how to handle this situation, do what your PCs would do, collaborate with others.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.


"I will. Love you," Rena answers Anita, with a smile on her face. She exhales, then, and lets herself close her eyes for half a second. She is a Newtype; she can sense space around her well enough to take the moment to try to clear her mind.

Then she looks back at Flay. She smiles, still; though, her head tilts to the side, and her bangs sway. "Honestly... it's better to smile when things are terrible," she says. "Even if you don't really want to. Maybe because you don't."

Then, she swallows, and she nods. "Thanks, Miss Allster. I appreciate that. Now... let's see what we can do."

Down, down the Gaia Gear Alpha goes, leading the way for the Strike Gundam. It weaves through buildings that fall away; through debris ranging from slagged cars to shattered construction equipment. Several storage containers are shredded apart, as its gatlings open fire -- ripping through them.

They fly up past the Gaia Gear and Strike -- or rather, the two Mobile Suits dive past them.

Relativity.

"That," she tells Al, "is what I like to hear."

The Gaia Gear flies down, near the Svipul. Rena turns her head inside her canopy -- takes a look at Anita more directly, than through a monitor -- and raises her hand. She makes a V-for-victory sign.

"I'm here," she tells Anita. "I'm going to try to stop it. If it goes bad... pull me out, if you can, Annie."

She smiles again over the video feed -- and then the Gaia Gear dives a little lower.

Rena wishes for many things. She wishes this never happened. She wishes that trying to stop it wasn't so complicated -- procedurally, technically, statistically. She wishes she knew she could stop this.

The Gaia Gear Alpha stops just a few meters before the distortion field. It floats over it; the air around it glows red, as the Mobile Suit's arms and legs unfold. Thrusters fire, as the head swivels out, and the eyes flash with that deep sea blue.

Despite what people say about the Axis Shock, it isn't about wishing. Rena Lancaster knows that, first hand, the way that few others can. She has used Psychoframe to make a miracle before; to stop Denver Colony's reactor from coming to life and destroying them, to slow GENESIS long enough for everyone to escape. Each time, she had help.

She has help now, and she knows it's much more than a wish. It's belief, that the universe can be changed to be better. It's belief, that she can be the one to do that.

"Here we go," she says, quietly.

She closes her eyes inside of her cockpit. She thinks of her home on the Earth. The way the gravity feels, so subtly different than the centripetal force of a turning colony. She thinks of Orb; of the sun making the beaches warm, of the market down the road.

She thinks of Anita laughing in their work room, sitting at a beach. She thinks of Eight making a joke in her kitchen, while her and Lahvi both have a beer. She thinks of the way the air feels after a warm tropical rain.

She doesn't want to lose those things. She doesn't want everyone on Earth to lose their little things like that.

It's enough.

The Psychoframe comes to life. It's a gentle thing, even in the most ungentle of situations and times. The Gaia Gear Alpha is no RX-0; it takes a moment, a steady gathering of blue motes of deep blue light. They intensify around the Mobile Suit.

Then, there is a flash, and they roll outward like a wave coming in at tide. They strike a few pieces of the the debris that cleared the distortion field; that begins to lift up rapidly, carried away by those motes of sea blue light. The ohers begin to push down, blue light pushing into the Distortion Field -- until the whole thing is aglow.

Rena's eyes open, reflecting the motes of light drifting up around her, even inside the cockpit. Despite what she thought, before, she can't help but wish.

'Please. Please, be enough. It's all I'm asking.'

<Pose Tracker> Marian Cross has posed.

Heavy breathing fogs up Marian's visor. It's a rare thing to happen in space and a climate controlled environment... But the climate control couldn't keep up with the surrounding heat in her machine's state. She's been sweating heavily underneath her suit and helmet. Hair sticking to her face as the temperature within is high enough to dry her sweat and create a humid enough environment to obstruct her vision.

Her heart beats heavily. Struggling to keep its host alive and fighting against the mounting pressure to push blood and oxygen around her body. And speaking of hosts...

The beam shield repels against a Giant's back. Her machine shakes before it eventually falters and landed on something solid. "...A fragment?" She muttered. It's an a welcomed surprise if a fragment just happened to come her way and just happened to take the brunt of the heat.

She takes her hands away from the controls, having a moment respite, and hastily removed her helmet. Her hair now in free-fall as she takes a closer look at her displays... Only to find out that it's not a piece of Junius Seven, but one Ultra Warrior Nova.

These Giants... They're friendly to Earth, aren't they? They fight kaijus and defend Earth with no regard to politics or borders? If so, Marian has no reason to doubt or refuse help from the Ultra. Even if Marian is unable to pick up on her psychically - she's a pure oldtype and utterly deaf psychically, after all. And having reassurance from her thumbs up she sees out the corner of sensors helps her in understanding Nova. That their goals are aligned right now. A little sigh of relief as she's saved from certain destruction.

But when Nova goes the direction of the Orb ships, she shakes her head strongly... only then realizing that she's shaking her head, and not the Gundam's. She repeats the motion and points towards the rapidly descending colony. Now with her machine. They need to get to the colony. That's more important than anything right now.

There's air around, so audio could travel... With the atmosphere this thin however and with the overbearing weight of the colony breaking apart... She could only hope Nova could pick up on her voice, or falling that, the gestures she's making. She turns on the outward facing speakers with a flick, then, "no! That way! We need to go that way! The falling colony!"

"I repeat, we need to go that way! The falling colony!" She pleaded with a haggard tone, trying to convince Nova to help stop Junius Seven instead of bringing her to safety.

And even while upon Nova's back, Marian reaffirms her intentions. Taking a knee and stabilizing herself best as she can and brings up her railgun, charging it up and sending projectiles after projectiles at the ruins. 

<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.


        Fancy meeting you here! <"Oh hey, it's you again! I wouldn't say this is a *good* day... Unless we can stop this tragedy.">

        Serinas looks at the distant colony. She can make out the shape of a playground near the edge. She never got to play on one as a kid, but she's walked by them in other PLANTs. This could just has easily have been any other PLANT...

        I can hold us both together. Serinas looks surprised, then grins. <"Alright! I can work with that!">

        Thanks to the telekinetic shielding, the Queadluun-Rhea regains its full mobility, diving into the atmosphere towards the -- hey, is that a giant sword? Serinas is quite aware of the Myrmecia's trick of throwing things much bigger than it around! "How's this? Does this work?"

        All the while she keeps firing the anti-ship beam cannon at the field. It's... hopefully doing *something*, right?

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"I'm -- I'll be fine," Akane grits back out to Rikka as one of Galactron's armor plates falls off... but actually reduces drag as a result. Getting through the worst of it makes some of that heat -- both within her and outside her -- subside.

(... She isn't sweating, despite it all.)

As Galactron's movement starts to free up, into the atmosphere, Akane takes it closer to Junius Seven. She's not sure how to do anything about this -- though they could certainly try. It's probably too late to order an Eraser Head... they could potentially buy an extra minute to work with the Dividing Driver or the Bolting Driver, but none of the machines best suited to using those is here...

She pushes those thoughts out of her head. Stop focusing on can'ts and start focusing on cans, she tells herself.

As the Psychoframe comes to life bit by bit, Akane gasps. Is it possible for the same miracle to pass the same way twice...?

Galactron's calculations say no. The Minerva's movements say no, too. Her heart wants to embrace Rena's miracle, but her head tells her to do what she knows she can, instead.

It's her head that wins out, but her heart that tells her what that winning out looks like. Rather than move to bombard the colony just yet, Akane forces Galactron's barrier to project further outward, trying to shield Rena -- and those who move with her -- from the Distortion Field, and from the strain inherent to pursuit of the miracle.

It takes all her focus -- and locks out most of Galactron's weaponry, to boot.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        If Kaworu hears those screams, he doesn't share. Lilim need not burden themselves with such things. ...Even if not everyone present may necessarily be a Lilim.
        
        Though, whether one can hear the cries of Junius 7 or not, the cries of the pilot who gets caught up in the colony's reentry and is reduced to slag are very audible indeed. It's over and done in an instant, before any of them can do anything--even Kaworu. He can only watch the Distortion Field swallow up the pieces that are left in its wake.
        
        Even so, this crisis waits for no one. Unit Beta flies on, while within, Kaworu murmurs, "Go with God, little one."
        
        Together with the others, they match pace with the falling colony. Gravity urges them all downward, and thrust gives them greater speed yet. The Minerva opens fire on Junius 7 to little avail. Destroying the colony might be the only thing they can do--but Kaworu urges Unit Beta onwards further still. Without revealing his true nature, what he can do here is limited, but there is still something he can do.
        
        "<I will do what I can to slow it down. Everyone, be sure to do all you can as well,>" he transmits to the others. (Whether they can pick up on his transmissions with all this noise and chaos is another matter.) "<Pilot Kaworu Nagisa, extending Unit Beta's A.T. Field to maximum.>"
        
        With Unit Beta ahead of (below?) Junius 7, there's not as much need for her to wrap herself in her A.T. Field--or to spur herself on with it. Now she faces the falling colony, singed hair whipping all around her, and raises her arms to shape herself into a cruciform. Dazzling light expands like a crystal shell between her and Junius 7, as if to cup it up. It may spark against the Distortion Field, but an A.T. Field isn't so easily erased, either. If this can slow its descent any, then that can buy crucial time for the others to take decisive action.
        
        The strain is immense, though--even for one such as him, perhaps oddly. As the seconds stretch onward into a tiny infinity, the side of his head throbs...

<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.


The Aion answers Flay, the comms officer opening a channel to Captain Fari. "We read you Pilot Allster. Your request is granted." He knows full well Lancaster is near her. He saw the battle, after all. But in a moment like this... That's something he can accept.

Maybe use later.

"Stay alive out there. We'll support you to tbe best of our ability."

"Are you sure, Captain?" Gavarre asks. "It's dangerous, and a girl like that..."

"Anyone who wants to risk her life for the greater good is someone we should support, Commander. I believe in her. ...And you. Get the Cosmograsper out there."

"Aye-aye!"

Shortly, Flay will receive a tight-band communication indicating the coordinates the Cosmograsper will be at--and it launches from the catapult, to meet up with her.

-=-=-

Anita says not to worry. Of course, she'll do something if she can--but that confidence buoys Eight, too. She can't afford to look anything less than her best... but Anita helps her actually feel that way, too.

Rena's with her. Naoko is out there with Judau. There are so many people shouting over comms. And indeed--there's more, as a set of Queadlunn-Rheas launche from the Ra Mari II, a wing preparing to line up with the other mobile suits on-hand with the Nousadjel-Gers already out. There's even an Ultra out there, an Ultrawoman.

...And for Eight, the Nadesico, the most stalwart ally they've ever had.

The blue light begins to wash out in a sea, and Eight feels it. She is no longer so 'powerful' as she once was, but for Rena, her mind is always ready and open. She is prepared. Eight closes her eyes. "...Rena," she murmurs, and Captain Maina's eyes open, too. She focuses in the same way. "Admiral," she says. "...The cannon. We can still fire it. It'll irradiate some supplies, but the radiation shielding will hold to protect the crew internally if we only fire once."

"...You're sure?"

"Aye, ma'am. It's going to be an expensive job to clean up later, but we are capable of firing."

"...Get it ready," Eight says.

Can Rena's miracle be enough? ...Eight just doesn't know. She hopes. But she fears, too. Will that hold it back?

Janid Harpe swallows. She recognizes the structures of the PLANT--she lived in one most of her life. She was part of ZAFT. ...In the face of that, how can she believe in a miracle? But in the power of the friends she's made... "Charging Spinal Convergence Beam Cannon," Harpe acknowledges. "Power at 15%!"

Maina announces over the ship's comms, "All personnel in forward decks--brace for field reinforcement. Kall, set up the force fields internally at 150% power."

Eight closes her eyes. She hopes. She does. But she has to prepare, just in case.

"Accepting targeting data from the Minerva," Astelian says, "Patching it through to tactical."

"Cannon charge, 30%, Admiral!"

"...Tell the Minerva and the Nadesico that if this doesn't work..."

"That we're firing everything we have."

'Rena... I love you.'

Will it be enough? Back on Magallanica is Eight's family. Will even the colonies be safe, if this hits at full force?

She picks up on Kaworu's words, though. His Field--and Galactron's barrier.

"...Kaworu Nagisa," Eight's voice comes over comms. "I have a squadron of mobile suits ready to catch you if you need it."

The pilots of the Ra Mari II and its squadrons hope, too.

Will it be enough?

"50% Charge!" 

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        Alto holds the flight stick in his hand with a grip that makes it feel like his muscles are going to tear themselves apart. But he has no choice as he desperately tries to keep his fighter stable enough that it doesn't spin out of control and thus kill him in any number of ways.

        Both Hikaru and Ryoko bring up the concept of assistance and Alto grunts, sweat sticking to his face as he replies, <"It's no problem... I've got this..."> He doesn't sound entirely confident. Which is probably why Ryoko doesn't back off and soon enough Alto hears the clunk of her machine coming into contact with his. Almost immediately he can feel the Messiah stabilising and some of the very loud and eye-catching alerts starting to fade.

        Alto takes a moment to breathe as Ryoko puts him on the hook for whatever comes out of this, <"Fine... I'll buy you a drink."> Maybe the help is probably for the best. He didn't really have any plans on dying today. He doesn't want to disappoint Ranka after all.

        And more pointedly, Ryoko's help gives Alto the time he needs to release his 'package'. He'd lost one of them in the fight, but the other still sits attached to his wing and is the reason he'd stubbornly continued with the dangerous descent.

        That yellow tipped missile. That Reaction Warhead.

        With Ryoko buying him a little breathing room, Alto rapidly taps away at a keypad as he enters the activate code he'd been given and programs a flight path for the missile. He'll need to detonate it at a point where it won't catch anyone else as it's not a small blast radius. Thankfully it doesn't take long and soon Alto is ready.

        <"Hey Ryoko, tilt me down a little.">

        The burning monument that is Junius 7 rises more into view, his system translating the flight path to display on his HUD. His finger hovers over the button to fire as he waits for the ideal launch angle.

        This is all he's got. Nothing else he has would even put a dent in something of that size.

        As his targeting systems report green, Alto presses the trigger.

        The large missile detaches from the Messiah's wing, blasting forward on a trail of smoke. The missile rapidly approaches the main section of the falling colony, weaving around smaller bits of debris to avoid a premature collision. There are a few moments where it almost hits, but finally it clears the obstacles and streaks in towards the main target. Ready to deliver its package. The power of a nuclear weapon without the downsides of radioactive fallout. A miniature sun blooming for just a few moments high in the skies above the Pacific Ocean.

<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.


        <"That's kind of what I was implying,"> Myrmidon tells Serinas. Sarcasm, you know. Not that averting this tragedy would make this a good day... but there are times when you have to try. You must try.

        Lua blinks at what she sees next in the cockpit. A glint of fiery orange - is that orange familiar? has she seen it before? - and Serinas has caught in her hand a sword gifted from the heavens. <"Yeah,"> she says, her clenched-teeth grimace sharing space now with an irresponsible grin. <"Yeah, that works."> Myrmecia grasps the hilt of the Strike Gundam's XM404 anti-ship sword, and true to Serinas's memory, the wanzer lifts the sword whose blade alone is nearly twice its size, as if it balanced perfectly light within its hand. <"Now bring us in.">

        Lua's seen the Queadluun-Rhea move. Fast, reckless, straight into the fray. Exactly what she needs. On the approach, she tests the feel of the sword in the hand of her mind, Myrmecia lightly waving it forth and back overhead. These are supposed to have beam emitters, aren't they? If she could output the power for it... That's probably not a good idea right now, she thinks. Myrmecia's systems are already stressed holding two units together.

        "What can I do..." Lua stares up in the shadow of the tombstone-to-be, the death made from life. Terminal impact from a mass that size, so much larger than anything around them...

        Luanova sighs, trying to clear her mind. "All I can do. All I can do..."

        At a distance near enough for the anti-ship sword to make contact, Myrmecia rears the sword back behind it, and then delivers a grand, underhanded slice. The beam emitter is not working. The weapon comes under the stress of the distortion field. It makes contact, nearly. Lua pushes harder. Myrmecia begins to heat as her focus lessens from the thermal venting fields, pushing the sword in. Then shaking it. The smallest pulses of quantum foam, rocking back and forth, crossing over through the Myrmex Format and supercalculating as the Myrmex Engine spins up. The weapon is not sharp. The beam emitter is not functional. But it begins to vibrate, at tiny, high-frequency contact with the surface of Junius Seven. The vibrations saw into the death-obelisk. It makes contact.

        <"GIVING IT ALL I CAN DO!"> The stress with which Lua yells it garbles the sound of the synthesized pilot voice. The sword strike can't do much, but through the distortion field, it made contact. The invisible veil by which Lua pictures the reach of the Myrmex Engine drapes over Junius Seven. She uses the sword as a lever, yes. But for the most part, from here, she can heave direct psychokinetic force. One more human will, heaving against the terminal velocity of the colony drop, pulling up against its titanic fall.

        All she can do. She's not going to be able to do this. Not alone.

        But she isn't alone.

<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.

In space, Balbadoro gazes out at the colony as it descends.

It is not the first time a mobile armor of this type has fought for this sort of action. In 0083, Anavel Gato shepherded Operation Stardust's colony with a mobile weapon that looked much like a wingless Balbadoro. Form reflects function, and Balbadoro exists to be a shepherd of Impacts.

Some things are inevitable. No matter how much people change, they are still people -- twelve thousand years later. One hundred million and two thousand years later. One hundred cycles of reality later. Ten thousand possibilities glimpsed in Goragon later. One billion simulated cities-in-a-jar later. These events are singular, but not unique; humanity's mistakes have not begun with this operation, nor are they likely to end with it.

If in millions of worlds, a tombstone burned and a world was broken -- even many worlds were broken -- does that not suggest that the event is intrinsic to the world?

If you disagree -- if you feel a claim to some unique wisdom not known to Balbadoro nor all the worlds which gave rise to the inevitability it weaponized, all the worlds queried to give rise to this Impact -- the demand is as it always was:

Grant all those ignorant people your so-called 'wisdom,' at this very moment. 

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Tavelle regrets every minute of this.

She regrets it, and yet she doesn't. She can't imagine doing differently but she's suffering to do it. Every time the Lestrail lets out a warning alert, or a creak of abused metal, she flinches - but she keeps on diving, coming at Junius Seven from -

Well, it would be suicide to come in directly above it, with it trailing as much flame and as many shockwaves as it is. She comes in slightly angled, plummeting. Tavelle bites her lip before very deliberately not doing so before another bump makes her draw her own blood. She's going to have to be a good pilot to pull this off.

And she's not a great pilot, if she's being honest.

As Tavelle passes Junius Seven, she fires every thruster pointed even vaguely downward. The back jets. The leg jets. The small maneuvering jets on the tail. Even the small jets on the Blader system, which aren't meant to be fired while docked and scorch the hell out of the Lestrail's upper tail.

It slams her in her seat, and Tavelle almost passes out, but she remains up. She launches every Blader at once, every jury-rigged bit and funnel; they can actually maneuver up here, and they surround her, firing energetically at Junius Seven. She brings up the laser cannons on the arms alongside them, a distinctly unusual weapon by Earth Sphere standards, driving lines of light to trace across the Distortion Field as she probes for a weak point.

Everything has one. Tavelle has seen gravitational shields before, if perhaps not this kind, and she knows how to overload them, but she can't see how to do it on this one; it's just too big. So she lines up her Bladers, driving one in at full speed and shooting all the way until, at the last moment, switching to sword mode and literally stabbing the Distortion Field.

It's a good way to lose the funnels; Tavelle isn't getting any of them back and she feels each loss in her pocketbook. But by hitting the same tiny point, over and over again, she's hoping the LAST one gets through - so she can fire her laser cannons directly through the point.

But then the worst happens: one of the Lestrail's thrusters gives out, having melted something that shouldn't have been melted. The Lestrail sags in the air, the newly overstressed matching thruster on the other side barely able to hold her up - and then that one gives out too, and the Lestrail drops, faster and faster.

"EARTH!" Tavelle slams every SOS system she has in the Lestrail, which means that, more or less simultaneously, a Zuvorg alert, a Le Garite alert, a Pentagonian alert and her yelling in plain old English hit the airwaves. Her voice is shrill. "YOU OWE ME! I need help!"

But honestly, she's panicking. Tavelle is absolutely certain, in that moment, she's going to die - and the only way she can see not to is if one of the Earth ships comes to her aid, which they have little reason to do, unless she makes it worth their while. She breathes shallowly, trying not to freak out on the radio again, but keeps signalling desperately while trying to reroute the Lestrail's power and thrust to not lose anything more.



Qivi doesn't have a radio, but she has ears - Well, okay. Ultra Warrior Nova does not technically have ears, either. But she can hear, and she can feel.

Nova only hesitates for one moment - is she going to be okay? - before she turns, bearing Marian closer to the falling colony.

It looks even worse, now. Ruined, wrecked, falling apart. Junius Seven is a bare shell of what it used to be. But they're right. Even if the thing comes apart, it's still going to cause damage. They can't push the whole thing out. But Qivi cannot - will not - accept that there's nothing they can do to make it better.

That's what she's here for, isn't it? That's what she promised. That she was going to protect Earth, as best she could. And that's what everyone else here is doing, too, in their own way.

For the first time in her life, Qivi can feel it; the sensation of everybody, hearts and minds intent on the same goal. To break up Junius Seven, to save whatever can be saved. It's a warming sensation, a burning inside: she has to act. But with Marian on her back -

Qivi reaches up, pulling herself up alongside the shield. She looks at the Gundam on it as she gets both hands under the shield itself, and hopes she understands, because a moment later and Qivi *flings* the shield.

It doesn't spin. It doesn't fall especially fast, either; the shield is part of Nova, connected to the Asteriser she wears, and when she throws it it goes where she wants it to, trailing a faint glimmer of light. It's an impossible toss that takes Marian toward the colony, so she can act - Qivi will catch up in a moment.

Because that crystal in her Asteriser - clear when she deployed today, glimmering with hints of red by the time she reached the atmosphere - is now a rich, bright red, shining brightly. And though Qivi doesn't know what to do with it, Nova does.

Nova brings her arm up toward her chest, sweeping it in an arc, and doing nothing so much as posing in midair. And she holds it, drawing in the feeling.

It's not a prayer. It's everyone's hope - and everyone's determination. The Psycoframe is only one part of it; she wouldn't need it to feel this way. A hundred hearts burning together, and she's the kindling - no wonder Ultraman Z always asks people to chant his name!

Nova can't speak in words people can understand, usually. But just this once, she manages it, her voice impossibly audible across the whole battlefield:

"Shine! Nova Ruby Blaze!"

Flaming light surrounds Nova's body, burning like a fire and burning out in a flash. It leaves behind a differently shaped Ultra Warrior: a little taller, a little brighter, the colours slanted more toward red-with-silver instead of silver-with-red... and a moment later, the Slugger on her head emits a wash of flame behind her, billowing outward and trailing like Qivi's hair always does, a burning plume even here that won't go out.

Qivi rockets toward Junius Seven. She's faster now, too, and leaves a momentary blaze in the air behind her when she flies. She looks like she's going to fly directly at - into - the falling colony.

But she doesn't, because as she flies she builds up energy around her. It's like her Kisorium beam, but this time *she* is the head of the beam; all pink burning, trailing blue and white sparks like drifting embers behind her. There's Light in that energy, and Qivi's own mental strength too, in a way - and not just Qivi's.

Qivi pulls up at the last moment. The wave of energy she built up does not, striking one part of the Distortion Field - and clinging to it, 'burning'. There should be no way to burn a hole through a gravitational disturbance, and yet for a moment Qivi isn't sure she's *not* going to do it - but even if she can't, it's certainly taking a lot of energy for that portion of the field to stay up against the burning Kisorium flame. 

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "Man, you have got to get a sense of humour," Parminder shoots back to Kati, as if it were all a big joke. To him, perhaps it is. What exactly is wrong with that man? Doesn't matter, he's pretty. And pretty petty, because when that one GN-X soldier gets too close to the gravity well only to be consumed by the heat... he just laughs about it.

        You know. Humour.

        The Shandor is no help at all; the Nadesico, at least, helps where it can. "All right! We'll get ahead of it!" Minato confirms her orders, as the Nadesico presses forward, accelerating ahead of Junius Seven. It's not an easy navigation route to fly, but she's one of the best.

        "Fluctuating shields as required," Ruri reports, in turn. "Captain, the Minerva is transmitting targeting data and a request to fire."

        There is another discussion, on the bridge. A weapon, in the end, they decide they can't risk using -- a weapon it would cost too much of their humanity to fire. By all their estimates, they would need to reclaim their vacuum, and that would mean firing towards the Earth...

        ... no, they cannot risk using the Phase Transition Cannon. Not even in a situation like this.

        "Gravity Blast Cannons, now charging," Ruri reports the conclusion, instead. It's easier for her to negotiate that power in atmosphere, instead, but it still takes agonising time. The Nadesico's great jaws open, as the gravity power builds.

        "Holding charge," she confirms, still impassive, as Rena's efforts show on the bridge's main screen.

        Meanwhile, Minato makes sure to bring the Nadesico around to be easy for Alto to find refuge on, if he needs it.

        In the Shandor's hangar, Yuliana -- still swearing up a storm in the background, just indistinct enough to please the broadcast censors -- finishes her dire emergency repairs, tossing her wrench into the hangar as she grasps one hand on the jagged scorpion carapace of her wanzer and hoists herself up. She swings, first back, then forth, before she hooks her leg over her cockpit and hoists herself in head-over-hip. "Fucking space," she swears, as she closes the hatch and straps herself back into the roll-cage of her wanzer, a tentacle lifting overhead to toggle a series of switches even as she's initiating the start-up sequence again.

        On her dashboard's display, a strange language flashes up, all in green.

| Kia-ialloth'you llph'otfh'ou-llni |
| DA XUKONG 0 |
| Y-yth'yollysh'y-k... OK |
| U-ioph'oush llkh'ioll |
| Sh'yalltsh outh llkh'ioll |
| Niou-pyllyth'j outh llkh'ioll |
| WARNING |
| Llysgh oufh llwy |
| CONTINUE? |


        Yuliana scowls, and punches in a confirmation. "I don't fucking care about the shields or whatever! So long as my weapons are hot, who cares!"

| Llkh'ioth'ia tiasth'llwkth'you |


        "Captain," Parminder pipes in through her radio, "can't help but notice you're trying to sortie in a trashed suit. You know you're out of wingmen to die for you, right?"

        "Shut up, shut up, shut UP!" Yuliana yells, as she finishes her start-up sequence. "DA XUKONG 0, LAUNCHING!"

        "Right, right..." Parminder sighs, as he lets her out so she doesn't batter down the hatch.

<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.

While Naoko reaches out to the Double Zeta, the Strike Zeta approaches the Sukeban Kiseki, and Naoko is relieved to hear another familiar voice. Even if she doesn't know Roux terribly well, they've fought on the same side before, which is more than enough for her presence to be a welcome one. Even if that relief is curbed a bit by the stern mode of address, and the asking of a question that she doesn't have a good answer ready for.

"Wh-- I don't know! The suit I'm wearing, or the one I'm flying?!"

As if she would have much better answer than 'I don't know', either way. Not being in much of a mental space for answering such questions aside, she has no idea about any regulations there might be for space suits, let alone if her standard-issue MDF one conforms to all of them. As for her machine... it'd probably be a bad idea to run this one past any institution official enough to issue ratings of any sort.

But then, to her great relief, her cry for help is answered. Surely someone with the reputation of Judau Ashta can be counted on to tell her exactly what to do in such a situation.

She slowly starts to frown, more and more, the more she hears from him. That's it? That's it?!

"I-I already know all that! Don't you have any more practical advice? Something about procedures, vectors, error margins, how to compensate in case of emergency? Anything?!"

Look, she knows Judau Ashta's name and some of his accomplishments, she doesn't know who Judau Ashta is.

And yet... this may be exactly the sort of advice she needed right now. The things she's worrying about are of secondary importance, at a time like this. Putting staying alive before anything else, and to stay confident about your ability to survive. Those are the sorts of things you need to keep your willpower strong, and focused where it should be. When that's what your machine responds to, it's what ultimately makes the difference between life and death.

And in response, Sukeban Kiseki's barrier grows in intensity, while the field of the Double Zeta's Bio Sensor further expands, offering her an additional layer of protection. Gradually, Naoko starts to feel less hot than she did before, needing to expend less conscious mental effort to achieve the same results. With the green and magenta fields almost touching, Judau can undoubtedly sense it clearly - the resonance between them, two great forces of will supporting one another. Not directly intermingling, yet capable of reinforcing each other, Naoko's will shining more brightly when buoyed by Judau's.

Naoko, too, senses the same thing. And that gives her an idea. When she speaks again, once the most imminent danger is past, it's in a far calmer tone than before.

"...Judau. We need a miracle right now. Will you help me?"

Sukeban Kiseki extends both hands in the direction of Junius 7.

"Let's stop this thing, right here! Just like Axis!"

For as small as her Arm Slave is... it does have a Psychoframe Crystal-powered Lambda Driver in there. With this, she can finally offer direct support with her machine, actively contribute to an effort to apply force through sheer willpower, and have it directly interact with other such efforts, strengthening them. And so that's what she attempts to do - apply direct pressure to the Distortion Field, effectingly pushing against it from a distance. A field of pure green, so terribly small by comparison, trying to stand against this hulking husk.

Yes, she knows it's a long shot. If she did the math, she's certain that the odds would be abysmal. But she has to try anyway. Making something work when it shouldn't is what a miracle is, isn't it? 

<Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.

The transmission comes over the Pixie Team's comms. The coordinates were close, certainly closer than the Minerva. But now wasn't the time to be picky.

"Thank you!" Rose radioed back, "We'll try and get in place!"

The trio of ZAKU Warriors maneuvered sluggishly into place behind the Akishima, being constantly buffered by the effects of reentry. Alarms within Rose's cockpit were screaming all the while, but she reached forward and pressed the master caution and alarm switches to mute them. She knew bad things were happening to the mobile suit. She could hear it's screams and moans, like the spirits of all the coordinators massacred on the PLANT that was currently falling onto the Earth were trying to rip them apart.

"Ros-...ila...are you there?!" Aspyn's voice cut in and out in her ears.

"I'm here Aspyn!" Rose radioed back.

"What-...is gonna happen?!" Aspyn whimpered, the worry in her voice obvious.

"I don't know Aspyn but we just gotta hold on a bit longer!" Every joint in Rose's body was burning. Her arms and legs were straining at the ZAKU's controls, trying to keep it from tumbling and burning up. Her coordinator body was keeping her conscious and the adrenaline was making her feel every pump of blood through her body. Her jaw hurt from her teeth gritting. She looked at her forward display, at all the other burning items of either intact suits and machines trying to survive, or the debris of the battle vaporizing into burning dust, with the GN-X pilot becoming both at once. It almost would be beautiful if it wasn't the harbinger of millions of deaths.

Once the relative safety of Athmosphere is reached, the Trio untangle themselves, Sushila tumbling as her Blaze pack is jettisoned and her gunner pack is once again awkwardly placed on her ZAKU's back. But Aspyn and Rose only had beam machine guns and they could only fire at stray debris flying off the colony overhead in an effort to detonate it quickly.

Rose fired off a burst of fire once more, then looked over at Sushila. Her ZAKU was motionless, just staring at the falling debris, beam cannon aimed, but not firing. "Sushila!" Rose called over the comms."Sushila, you have the most firepower of all of us, you have to shoot!" The ZAKU Gunner hesitated for what felt like an eternity, until Rose watched a maximum power beam shoot out from the cannon and smash into a building that had ripped itself loose, shattering it to pieces, which the other ZAKUs quickly swept up. Rose could only imagine how difficult this was for her friend. But that could come later. Now was to try and minimize this damage, and maybe just maybe, prevent another war. 

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

Akane says she'll be fine. After a moment, Rikka nods. If she says that... she'll have to trust her, because right now, they have to be fine. They have to be fine, because Junius Seven isn't going to wait for them to feel better.

As they descend, Rikka tries desperately to open a communication channel.

"This is Chief Takarada of 3G Red! Prepare the Eraser Head for deployment - the best we have!" Rikka calls out. ...Nothing. Rikka curses. "...I can't reach them from here - there's too much interference..."

What are their options? What can they do?

They descend, now, and they're even - no, they're ahead of it.

Someone is trying to avert this, to push it back. Akane is extending a barrier to help them. Rikka exhales... and then, draws the Fastening Launcher.

At this point, it feels like trying to stop a falling safe by firing needles at it. But it's made to hold things in place - it may be just a sidearm, unlike the Grand Glorious Guard's more specialized equipment, but maybe it can do something, just long enough.

With a miracle on the rise... maybe believing is enough. She puts her faith in that, in everyone trying to stop this tragedy, and opens fire, sending the stakes toward the falling Junius Seven. 

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Love you too." Anita replies, smiling back. The Svipul races downwards, accelerating. It's fast... but is it fast enough?

It has to be.

She accelerates, along with everyone - and they're ahead of it, now. But question is, now that they're here...

Now what?

"Wish I had a plan..." Anita mutters to herself, tapping her fingers against the side of the Svipul's controls. Not there was time to do any planning...

Anita exhales - and then, her attention is drawn to the side. To the Gaia Gear, that flies down alongside her. She sees Rena, here, next to her, and not just on the monitor. Anita smiles - and she meets Rena's gesture with a V-for-victory sign of her own.

"Hey there." Anita greets, and then nods, as Rena says she's going to try to stop it. "You got it. I've got your back, Rena. Give it hell."

She believes in her. If Rena says she's going to try to stop it, Anita belives she'll do her best.

But nearby... there's a cry of help. A distress signal, and SOS, in multiple languages. Anita turns her attention to the falling Lestrail. She catches what happened in an instant - a thruster, melted away, and then another, fresh after an attempt to stab through the Distortion Field.

The Svipul turns, and then accelerates. In mid-flight, it shifts - moving into GERWALK mode, arms and legs emerging.

"Don't worry, I've got you!" Anita calls out. The Pinpoint Barrier drops, for just an instant, before she swoops in, grabbing up the Lestrail. The Variable Fighter drops, for a moment, due to the impact, but quickly restabilizes and the Pinpoint Barrier reforms, over both of them now. "Can you hear me? This is Anita Rosetta of the MDF. I'm gonna bring you over to the Ra Mari II - that big ship over there. We'll get you patched up."

Anita moves to transport Tavelle and her Lestrail back to the Ra Mari II, and as she does, she opens up a communication line.

"Hey, this is Anita, coming back a little early, but only for a sec... I picked up a plus one." Anita says. ...Her attention does remain, partly, on Rena. She might not be a Newtype, but she hopes her genuine belief gets through all the same. 

<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.

Flay is aware that plenty of people died just trying to make it to this point, simply unable to handle the stress of atmospheric re-entry anymore. It might be that she only made it because of the Gaia Gear's guidance, but she holds Rena's words closely - that she's smiling, perhaps because no one else can. "That's a little sad, isn't it? Maybe it's time we found a real reason to smile." She replies, watching the Gaia Gear move ahead.

And it's definitely a relief to hear back from the Aion, especially with the knowledge the ship itself was hounded by one of the stolen ZAFT mobile suits shortly after she launched. "Thank you, Captain! I... I'll make sure that trust won't go to waste." She responds, once her request is approved. "Because this is something I have to do." The Cosmograsper launches remotely, carrying the Aile Striker and Launcher Striker, returning to the Aion once the delivery is made. The Aile Striker snaps onto the Strike E's back with its battery packs, ensures the Strike E can maintain enough thrust and output to keep up with the husk of Junius Seven, while the Agni Beam Cannon nestles into the Gundam's arms.

Watching the crackling and shattering of everything that made Junius Seven only makes Flay wonder if Nicol would truly have been happy to see this, as if her every move is being watched by his spectre right now. The 'whirlpool of hatred' that Nicol saw starts to become intimately clear, and with it, the feeling that if she's the one who gets to live on, then it's up to her to set things right. That if she was able to understand even a Coordinator that she wanted nothing more than revenge against, maybe there is a way to balance the scales after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEgxw818IxA

Closing her eyes as she contemplates this, when Flay opens them again... a single seed of possibility falls within the storm of her irises, as she pushes her entire will to the limit in stopping this, just the same as everyone else gathered here.

Whether it's caused by the gentle light of the psychoframe, or nothing more than sheer, uncontrolled adrenaline, it's hard to say, but Flay experiences the sensation of her own senses expanding just subtly wider than they usually are. It becomes a singular, almost berserk-like focus in ensuring that Junius Seven doesn't reach Earth, whether they'll see another Axis Miracle or not. She can't think about what will happen if they can't - she can only do what she promised, now that she finally has her answer.

The Aile Strike E is now able to fly ahead of Junius Seven, along with the rest of the machines that carry everyone's hopes. "You said we're all doing this together, right? Then I won't let anything stop you!" Flay aims the Agni Beam Cannon with surprising precision, pinpointing and aiming to blow away any stray debris from the Gaia Gear's blind spots with successive streaking lances of red light. 

<Pose Tracker> Koyomi Yamanaka has posed.

Somewhere far below, in a dark room in Japan, a girl with red and black hair down around her shoulders curls around a cold phone screen, trembling at the sights she sees. "C'mon..." she murmurs. "C'mon, Dynazenon..."

*

Blue light begins to fill the space and the Gaia Gear. Al says, "I'll handle Psychoframe regulation, Captain. I believe I have a suitable driver constructed now. Simply ensure that it knows your will."

        *

Koyomi's hand is shaking on the controls again, each attempt to calm himself clashing with every impulse his brain is telling him that he's bulleting toward the end of his life without even touching the controls. He sucks in a breath--

Gauma's tension reaches a fever pitch as they draw, nearer, nearest. "Dynazenon," he murmurs--

And then both sense, in that physical but not-quite-entirely sense they have of each other, that Dynazenon's control surges to a more determined heart. "WHATEVER BEAM!"

Twin streaks of light fire from the Dynazenon's over-the-shoulder penetrator guns, amounting to little on their own but a determination to a fight. "We can't hold back here!" Yume calls to the lot of her copilots. "That thing's going to smash the whole planet, isn't it?!"

"Hardly matters now," Koyomi mutters, something thick like tar in his voice and soul. "Even if we somehow get past that shield, Dynazenon doesn't have the firepower to atomize it. I don't think anything that *could* can be used this close to the planet. The debris's still going to hit and...a lot of people will die..."

"But it'll still be worse if we don't do anything, right?" Yume badgers him, earning a rough breath. "Even if we can only do our best...we have to, right? I don't want to go home thinking I could've done something more!"

Koyomi releases a ragged breath. "Protecting people...huh," he mutters.

"She's right," Gauma says. "We're overthinking it. Just like a kaiju...a monster full of malice that will wreak havoc until it's stopped. We do this all the time. Let's go! DYNAZENON!"

Four glances exchanged through comm systems, four hands grasp their controls, and Dynazenon tenses, alive with restored purpose as four hearts roar, "BATTLE, GO!"

"FULL BURST!!" is the next cry, and again, the machine shifts all its weapons forward, penetrator guns, quad cannons, missile racks and more all raking the distortion field in an attempt to coordinate and punch through! 

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.


"She's here?" Roux answers Judau. Her brow furrows.

The sight of the QUEBELEY confounds Roux. Confounding is good. If she's upset at *this* she's not upset at other things; she's not in despair. "Sayla, why d-- no, never mind, later. LATER." Because there is going to be a later, Roux is certain of it.

And so, perhaps, we see how Roux Louka functions in a world gone mad.

She gazes as the ready signal for the thermonuclear pulse jets flickers -- flickers less concretely -- and finally, ends up simply active, if with occasional blips.

Despite her deliberate, conscious efforts to laser-focus, it's a bleak precursor of just how long they have.

HOWEVER:

Rin -- Rin vectors towards the Tyranado, towards the Carriax. She's gotten Scorn by his remaining wing. The other one is going to be space dust. "Hey, Sakurai, don't do anything stupid," Rin says, though she sounds distant.

But then there's a glimmer of something. Something blue and luminous. Rin's head turns slightly. "...?"

The light gleams through screen and eye and brain and mind. Rin blinks, slowly, and suddenly shudders upright. "Huh -- I -- Rancor! Where the hell did he --"

Rising up behind the Tombstone, a particular sparkle of light. Rin's eyes rest on him.

"Rancor! Get over here!"

Silence for several seconds.

"Get OVER here," Rin repeats. She glances down at a screen.

(Rancor gazes back, kilometers away.)

"... The telemetry's working... Rancor! What are you doing? You don't have any attack options here!"

The particular sparkle of light... starts moving, after a pause far too long to be simple communication lag. (And, Amies or Meryl might be relieved to see, Rancor isn't even badly damaged. Lucky dog.)

Though Meryl's joy might be shortlived. "Uh... permission to fire on inert object?" Rin asks, significantly less spacily - and when there's a 'yes!' from her armamentarium chief, Rin says, "You heard her, Scorn!"

There is a loud digital BLAP from Scorn and Rin wordlessly shifts the Gespenst to hold the avian-pattern drone outwards: thus relieved, a barrage of missiles fire from Scorn, the entire magazine of micromissiles discharged with a certain savage joy.

BUT BACK TO ROUX:

She remains focused. Naoto. She's begging Judau for help. "Look, don't expect that kind of thing to just come out of the back of your hand, this isn't something anybody trains for! Though maybe they should start," Roux concludes, as the vast form of the burning colony-plate tugs her towards that hole of dread. Except...

The Bio-Sensor activates.

And an appeal for a miracle comes... from the Sukeban, the petite little machine that had been appealing to ZZ-sempai to notice her and perhaps even save her. "Tch," Roux says, as the Strike Zeta shifts out of the Waverider configuration as it finally comes up close towards the ZZ Gundam.

The Strike Zeta shifts closer... and one of the Mobile Suit's hand reaches out to take the Double Zeta's.

It's imprecise. It's really, if you want to be technical, more that Roux is holding onto the wrist of the Double Zeta. Yet even so.

"You lead," Roux tells Judau, and then turns her gaze back towards that horrid vastness. It is, at least, a different sort of horror, here, right now, where she is.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        Hikaru's wellness check, in spite of Lucine's overwhelming anger, is well-appreciated. Lucine's answer is simple, but the subtle tilt of warmth in her voice still shows. < "... Too mad to give up. .... What about you?" > She can see Hikaru's smile, but she knows that smile well enough to know when another emotion is lying underneath. < "... Thank you." > It really shouldn't be said like it was an afterthought; Lucine can't forget that she's not alone, nor does she have the right to be ruthlessly careless with her life. < ".... Be careful." > That message, in particular, is sent to all the Nadesico pilots, including Alto. < "All we can do... is do our best. The rest... can wait. We need to give the people below every advantage they can get." >

        It feels painful to say it, but as the sting of that ripped bandage resolves into acceptance, Lucine violently pushes it all to the back of her mind.

        Lucine's breath feels like it's lodged in her throat as she watches the man in the GN-X succumb to the heat friction as it gets too close to the former colony's shielding. She can't get close; the Dianthus's shielding is too raw right now as it is. Should she mention this is maybe the first time she's had to really stress test the Dianthus's re-entry systems? She knew they worked, but...

        _Focus._

        She brings the full artillery of the Dianthus to bear on the Distortion Field, letting loose a barriage of whirling arrows from the Dianthus's arbalest. It's a repeat of her earlier attack, the Lacrimosa. It is not made for a field this large, but for outwitting fast, single opponents. She knows it won't be enough.
        
        There has to be something more she can do.

        There is, now that she's pushed her own emotions aside, all save for one. Liam's comm is turned on, with only four words: < "I love you, Liam." > It's not a goodbye, it's an affirmation, with the idea that it will be repeated again afterwards, and many times again in the future.

        She breathes in, and closes her eyes, opening herself, and her mind, to the world.

        The undeniable power of Judau's BioSensor as he and Roux team up. Rena's Psychoframe's gentle but clear presence. The love behind Eight's message. The pure fire of Qivi's Nova Ruby Blaze, and more. The stars of this localized universe swirl around her, just out of reach, but still tangible. And beyond that lies--
        
        Her voice crackles on a random radio set. < "..... Coordinates 345--" > Another. Another. Whereever she can find a possible nudge, a push in someone's trajectory, a positioning that sets them up for just a little better success. Rose's team is among them, one of the first she's able to help.

        Sweat had been pouring down her forehead before from the reentry, but now, she's sweating for another reason as her brain feels like it's pounding up against a door that's so far been wedged closed, save for a crack of insight into locations and points beyond. Go here. Point here. Do this.

        No one can delay the inevitable; she's no soothsayer, and there will be no ending that will allow everyone to survive. It's more like knowing where the direction is between Point A, to Point B, and trusting that you'll get there, eventually.

        Her mouth feels dry as she pushes further, and further. Her throat threatens to close up. Her temples pound. < "C-coodinates, ah... 7658--" > Keep holding on. 

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.


        "<Judau?>" ...No, he would get here. He's as likely to jump into action against something like this as any of them. Still... of all the suits to have been in the hangar for testing, it would be this one, with so much baggage attached to it's shape and name. Still, as the ZZ surges forward to provide protection, Sayla navigates the QUBELEY Awakened behind it, landing as best she can and the mobile suit's one hand onto it.

        "<Thanks.>" She manages, the exhaustion in her voice being more audible than she'd hoped. "<You're a lifesaver.>"

        That's an understatement and a half. But it's what she can manage right now.

        Sayla can guess the rest of Roux's question. "<Agreed. Later.>" Sayla says, as calm as she can. The good news is, she has likely as many questions as Roux does. The bad news is she has as many questions as Roux does.

        But the colony still falls, and Sayla raises the QUBELEY's Composite Armed Shield System against the falling colony. You cannot simply recreate a miracle, it's a thing that happens or it doesn't. The Funnels aren't ready to fly right now, not in these conditions. They'd be knocked off course or burnt up. But this weapon should work at least. "<...I don't know if we have an option but to do what we can to see if we can break as much of it off as we can, see if we can break it down. Minimize the damage.>" It's not Sayla's favourite option, but the colony is entering atmosphere. If they can break it up now, more if it will burn off. "<...Opening fire. Tell me if you need me to slow down.>" The beam cannon blasts are unlikely to disturb the ZZ's flight too much, but...

        "<We've all got to make it back. I don't intend on trying to weasel out of a well deserved lecture on careless behavior about this.>"

        Maybe it was meant a joke... but the way Sayla delivers it, it's all too serious.

        And then Naoko speaks of a miracle. Just like Axis. Sayla feels her throat tighten, even as she can feel the Whispered, hear the comms from this close. And that glint of green... "<...That's a Lambda Driver, isn't it?>" Sayla asks, quietly, via a laser comm- a hard connection to keep up under the circumstances so she switches to open comms. "<You're all going to try, aren't you?>" Sayla says, watching as Roux links up with Judau, and the Sukeban readies. The QUBELEY isn't in a shape to push back as well as they are, but... <You don't want to this just like Axis. You need to do better.>" Sayla's pain is audible, even as now she can sense it. That tell, that slightly different pressure."

        Sayla's never been a miracle worker, not like that. Her miracles have been smaller, more mundane, more technical. But she remembers what she heard, the first time she saw a Lambda Driver do something impossible. A smirk grows on her face. "<I once heard someone say that if you want to do something like this, you need to envision that it's already done.>" A pause. "<Her exact words were 'Impose your will upon reality, you goddamned brick!'>"

        Perhaps, out there over open comms, Al might hear that repetition of a mutual friends phrasing.

        "<Don't you dare vanish like they did, got it!?>" Sayla calls, waiting for the right moment to release from the ZZ's back so Judau can charge, if he's going to. "<The same goes to you, Miss Miracle worker!>"

        ...You can't simply recreate a miracle. But maybe you can do one better. Sayla's prepared to hope, at least. "<...I'll follow, then.>" Another test Sayla never expected to have- but if the rest of them are game, she's not going to abandon any of them. 

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        'Ah-AHHHHH!'

        One of the NUNE beacons vanishes from Liam's HUD. With the Akashima upside-down, he looks up as the GN-X and its pilot become a plummeting fireball in the space of seconds. His scream mingles with the screams on replay in Liam's memories. A tremor runs through the Akashima's cockpit as the random turbulence of the upper atmosphere reminds Liam it exists. G-forces press against him; his eyes flick downwards just in time to see the bright red ACCELERATION HAZARD warning light up his cockpit.

        The Akashima dives into the burning hell of Junius Seven's debris field, shielding Rose's team with its bulk. They're all close enough to act, now. The Minerva opens fire again. From behind, a beam roars from Sushila's ZAKU Gunner, blasting through a flying building. Blue light blossoms from a machine nearby, and recognition gleams in Liam's eyes. "...Rena...?"

        Unit Beta shoots ahead. Liam doesn't even stop to think about what Kaworu's doing; there's only one rational course of action for him right now. The A.T. Field. It has to work. It has to. "Understood, Kaworu," Liam says, his voice tight. "Godspeed." Liam knows that a slow colony drop is no less an apocalypse than a fast one, but any time they can buy here will save lives.

        "Pixie Team," Liam continues, "I'm changing angle. Stay behind me if you can." The FLOAT vectors on the Akashima's back and legs fire, repeatedly, pushing its lower half downwards. It's still falling like a skydiver--but it's in a different position, now. Its torso is roughly parallel to the surface of the falling colony. Its lower legs angle up, and its arms pull down--slowly and agonizingly--to aim the massive autocannon on its right arm at Junius 7. "OPENING FIRE! CLEAR THE FORWARD ARC!" Liam cries. The heat gauges climb steadily higher. Like the crushing G-forces, it's not a problem for the supersoldier, yet.

        The Akashima's autocannon roars to life. A hail of lead slugs rips through the atmosphere, pummeling the Distortion Field. Liam compensates for the recoil, but he soon runs into another problem.

        MAGAZINE EMPTY

        Click, click, click, goes the Akashima's autocannon. Liam says the word his mother once said when she barked her shin on an end table. He says it again, even if no one else might understand Gaeilge. "Out of ammo!" he clarifies, a moment later. His gaze darts right, spotting the Double Zeta and Strike Rouge. Judau and Roux, he realizes. His gaze darts down, and spots--through the zoom lens--a tiny, familiar figure clinging to the back of a Quedlaan-Rhea. Lua, he thinks, because he cannot say her name.

        Lucine speaks to him, then. "I love you, Lu," Liam says, his heart hammering against his ribs. He speaks in front of her, and everyone, because this is not, and will not be a goodbye. "I'm going in!" Liam roars. The Akashima's hand snaps up, and rips something free from its opposite shoulder. The Progressive Sword unfolds to its full length, easily the height of a Mobile Suit--and the Akashima grips it with both hands, waiting as Qivi makes her move. Liam's eyes widen as he sees the field burning, and wonders if this is the opening he needed.

        The Akashima DRIVES the Progressive Sword forward, through what looks like the weakest part of the field, pressing it with as much force as it can muster. "Roux! Judau! I'm gonna try and airbrake this!" Liam grunts, through gritted teeth. "We have to keep slowing it!" That's the only way they'll have enough time to do enough damage.

<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Amano has posed.

"I get it. We just have to keep living on if we want that anger to mean anything right?" She asks, considering Lucine's mindset. "As for me... just mad enough to keep me fired up as always~" She basically agrees, just lightheartedly as always. "Safely of course!" She adds, hearing Lucine's pleas to the Nadesico pilots to be careful.

"Ehh? Can you really call that a full combination if it's just two of you? Three is a way more round number for that." Hikaru asks, as Ryoko and Alto dock together to withstand atmospheric re-entry. They're letting Dynazenon outdo them... "Look out for each other, all right?"

There's so many forces on the battlefield here she can't fully understand that will hopefully put a stop to this, Rena and Nova's miracle through the psychoframe, Ultra Warrior Nova transforming into Nova Ruby Blaze... but what Hikaru can keep on doing is her best. "Distortion Field up... charging in!" She announces, but she knows she'd be an idiot to collide directly with the thing. No, instead she THROWS the Field Lancer - it's a weapon MADE to pierce Distortion Fields, so it's got to do something, right? 

<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.


Willpower is a mighty thing, the way it can turn around even an impossible situation.

The more technology has learned to harness that fact, the more obvious and cemented that reality has become.

But is there an upper limit even to the most defiant of wills' ability to alter the course of the inevitable?

The Double Zeta, the QUBELEY should, rightly, be burning up right now. Even with the Full Armor's plating, it should mean very little in the face of a high-speed, atmospheric reentry without ballutes to slow the descent, or the specialized protections of something like the Waverider.

And yet it's like the atmosphere might as well not exist within the shimmering field of magentas and red that bloom like a broad, protective shell around the ZZ, QUBELEY, Strike Zeta and Sukeban. No matter how fast they descend, no matter how much damning friction they -should- be mounting, they remain untouched by the simple laws of physics all because a young man is just too damn stubborn to let himself, or the people important to him, die.

Thanks. You're a lifesaver.

<"... Like I'm gonna let family go out like this! Leina would haunt your ghost -and- mine!">

It has the lion's share of his focus now. Because it's what he can do now. And because the more he focuses on it, as much as he doesn't want to admit it, the more he doesn't have to think of the silhouette of the machine at his back, and how much this reminds him of the last time he had to do an emergency reentry into Earth.

When a very different sort of person was relying on him to get her through it alive.

A person who he failed to...

...

No. He cant think about it. Fortunately...

<"V-vector?! What the hell... D'you mean Zectar?? You shouldn't ever use a Zectar for dealin' with something like this, that machine's a piece of crap!">

... he has plenty of distractions.

This would be Judau Ashta, terminally incapable of knowing what a vector is, blithely assuming Naoko -must- be talking about the World's Crappiest Mecha (yeah he said it!). As for the rest:

<"And as long as they don't catch you, you're not legally liable to compensate for any kinda emergency! Gah! This is what I'm talkin' about! No one thinks about those kindsa things when the chips are down!"> -lots of people do- <"Throw out that practical nonsense! What d'you wanna protect? What d'you want the future to look like? You gotta take that and hold it close and you think about everything you'd give to keep it safe -- and then you ACT!">

We need a miracle right now. Will you help me?

He can feel it. Naoto's resolve. Her defiance.

He looks to the Strike Zeta, its hand offered -- and he sees Roux's silhouette echoed in its gesture. -Her- defiance. -Her- will. Her will. And despite the bleakness of this moment, despite how hopeless this all seems --

The ZZ takes hold of the Strike Zeta's hand.

<"Hell yeah I will!">

-- because until the bitterest of ends, Judau Ashta refuses to stop fighting.

The Bio-Sensor radiates from its point within the Double Zeta with blinding intensity, the glow spreading to the Strike Zeta. Judau's will becomes Roux's will; Roux's will becomes Judau's will. He grabs that ZZ lever.

Don't you dare vanish like they did, got it!?

<"I was gonna tell you the same thing, Sayla! Careful -- this is gonna get rocky!">

Their will become Sayla's will, and hers theirs.

And it spreads yet further, to Naoko and her Sukeban, to offer Judau's courage to support her own as she draws on the wellspring of her abilities -- to let her know, in no uncertain terms, even this person who has never formally gotten to know her until -right this moment- has unflagging confidence and belief. She can do this.

He knows she can do it. And just like that, his strength is hers.

It's Roux's, every bit of it. It's Sayla's.

And their strength -- is his.

<"Let's go!">

And that belief spreads out further and further. To Liam, as he reaches out to Judau and Roux, to embolden him as he flies for that piece of debris. It leapfrogs to Lucine, too, and further out to anyone who would care to feel it in their heart, never diluted in its absolute belief in them. Because they inspire him, too. Because their strength empowers him, too.

So why shouldn't he believe in them, from the bottom of his heart?

The lever yanks down. The High Mega Cannon sparks. For all its power, it was never meant to sustain many firings; it was always an all or nothing move that Judau rarely, if ever, liked to fall back on.

<"DOUBLE ZETA!!">

And yet...

Light blooms from the depths of that forehead mounted cannon. The beam it fires is crackling and unstable and -massive-; in the atmosphere, its radiance is blinding as white light pours from the ZZ, surrounded by a crackling corona of red. It HAMMERS into the distortion field of Junius 7. It wavers as the reactor of the ZZ threatens to overload.

                        The proof of our might will forever be etched in your minds.

"... Are you watching, Haman? I'll show you..."

And drawing on the strength of his friends and loved ones, the High Mega Cannon is bolstered by something else entirely; Roux and Judau's wills combine into one and whites replaced by magentas and scarlets and pure, defiant willpower to join the green pushback of the Sukeban, the blue push of the Gaia Gear, and try to reinforce them -both- -- to reinforce them -all-.

"There's so much more to life than might and fear!!" 

<Pose Tracker> The Burning Tombstone has posed.


Fleet Action - SEED Destiny OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzRnZAfR-iM

It starts with one small act. So many of them had witnessed what the Gaia Gear did at the end of the war when GENESIS was threatening everything, and now it's there again, the Psychoframe comes to life, and a deep light, reflecting against the burnt orange of Junius Seven crashes against it.

So many of them remember the Axis Shock, could this be the answer? Junius Seven, begins to slow, as the distortion field is enveloped by the Light of Possibility.

And they may all believe, a possibility exists where it could happen again. Marian's railgun projectiles, glint against the field, consumed again and again, but it's not as if it has no effect. Before, the distortion field would flare as it was struck, now it constantly is as they test it's strength.

Serinas' anti-ship beam cannon becomes one long strobe, even as it fades, Sushila's cannon striking it just after with grim effect, because once that light clears they see that where they're aiming at beyond the field a part where Junius Seven is breaking apart within, the remains of a seaside park are spilling out below.

Including a burnt Carousel, a dull grey, from the ash and flame. of space.

Unit Beta's A.T. Field unfolds beneath the blue field of the Gaia Gear's Psychofield, and the Colony that was moving stutters, and begins to halt.

Even with momentum halted however, that burning light, those wisps surrounding that tombstone like a meteor being drawn to the ground remain.

Can it be reversed? Even now?

Galactron's own barrier tries to shield those who make the effort. Just a little longer, just hold out a little longer, and the Kaiju's power, Akane's power might enable those who make the miracle happen.

And all the while, that Spinal Convergence Cannon charges, so too does that Gravity Blast - counting down towards that outcome, right as a reaction missile streaks down towards it. Few may know what he's firing at a glance, but it's revealed when that Reaction Missile slams into the side of Junius Seven.

The night sky is as bright as the noon day sun.

"What the hell! Warn a girl before you fire shit like that!" Ryoko yelps at him, "I didn't even have the glare shield up!" The Aestivalis's optics suddenly all shift tinting in the way. "That's two more drinks at least!"

It's not nothing, that in the middle of this all, Annie diverts to save one life, that Lucine coordinates the saves for many lives. It is a choice, just like all of them are making, evidence of the human spirit that drives them.

And that's when the Myrmekes leverages all of the Strike Gundam's Anti-Ship sword to try and pry the Distortion Field open, the Beam Blade sputters against it, and she might swear that for a time, like that laser edge is in fact making headway, into that abyss of grey light.

A Lambda Driver - and a Psychoframe, such a combination feels impossible, but Nova Stellar is a miracle maker, isn't she? That barrier unfolds, encompassing, pushing against a singular point like a pool stick against a cue ball. A small green light.

There is nothing small about the effort.

The Strike Zeta takes the Double Zeta's hand in this moment and Sayla for a moment, buys into the idea that this might happen, something more powerful than the blasts of her Composite Shield system can offer.

Faith.

The light that blooms forth from the combined wills of Judau and Roux laces together, magentas and whites and scarlets to mingle with the green of a miracle makers effort - begins to hammer against it all. Inside the Distortion Field, pieces of Junius Seven crack apart further, merely from the force of the indirect violence against it, a great shelf of it shifting within that grey field.

There's so much more to this life than might, and fear, isn't there? If only they can prove it, to Haman's unquiet ghost, then perhaps - perhaps there's hope, hope that they can prove it even to all those who died in this place, whose lives were cut short by an act of terrible hatred.

And in the midst of it all, a young woman blossoms a fallen SEED within her own mind, awakening a will to protect, as the Agni Beam bursts forth with shocking precious, the field actually flashing, then deflating subtly at the point of impact... like it might flood inward, as the Dynazenon's FULL BURST of cannons and missiles slams into it, the field deflates more and more, vibrating horribly under the impressive assault.

It's about protecting people, isn't it? Fighting this - protecting people against this, it's to combat the monstrous hatred that backs it, no matter who is responsible for that hatred's existence.

Hikaru and Liam - seeing this, the Progressive Sword, the Field Lancer make contact, and the field spasms terribly in reaction to two weapons uniquely created to get over barriers such as this one.

For a while it seems like that's all the progress they're making, until Ultra Warrior Nova's Asteriser glows, glimmering with hints of red, and all that emotional energy of everyone's hopes, they unify and SHINE, as that blazing beam strikes.

That Psychofield Light, that AT Field, that Green Psycho Lambda(With apologies, Nova) Glow, and the scarlets magentas and whites of the Double Zeta's - and Junius Seven, rumbles, like it is in danger of reversing course.

Despite everything Nicol said, despite everything Himeyuri said.

And then it doesn't.

It begins to tremble, as all that energy being poured into that distortion field, spills right back out. As it is pushed, so too does it push back.

And even if all that effort pushing against it does not collapse, that intermingling into prismatic light to be slowly, inevitably beaten back, even Unit-Beta's AT Field, which halts all momentum...

... is moving.

It was such a meaningful day for all of humanity, the Axis Shock, when human will, determination, resolve created a rainbow in the sky, at a disaster averted, that cradle spared. In that moment, all of humanity was able to cast itself as the heroes of the day, riding that light of good feelings unto temporary change, that idea it might create a better tomorrow.

How dare you. How dare any of you think you might cast yourselves as the heroes of this story.

The people of Earth cannot be allowed to move forward, not with your evils unacknowledged, and sins unpunished. No, rather - they cannot be allowed to exist.

A young woman whispered into existence a singular idea:

After this day, the wicked people of this impure land will understand that there are no heroes here.

You are the villains of her story, and you are not the only miracle makers.

But just because she believes that is so does not mean you have to abide by her script. Just because one possibility is closed to you, does not mean that there is no path forward.

You merely have to find it.

The shining barricade of light they have set up, moves further. And they all get the sickening impression that Junius Seven's speed towards Earth has increased.

This is a world where miracles exist... but even with all of you here together you are facing in this moment not merely the grief and anger of those who have suffered from this atrocity but a Miracle Maker as well, who desires nothing more than your failure.

Inez Fressange teleports in.

<Pose Tracker> Inez Fressange has posed.

        Seiya Uribatake thought he was safe.

        But Inez Fressange does not sleep; she waits.

        "Allow me to explain."

        Until... now.

        "Assaults utilising the Distortion Field are seen all the time," she appears, on screen, sipping a cup of tea. "Our pilots call it the 'Gekigan Flare'... a huge amount of repelling energy used not as a shield, but as a sword. While it's true that the Distortion Field isn't as effective at repelling physical attacks, the gravitational energy it was designed to withstand gives it a huge amount of kinetic potential. Under normal circumstances, forcefully breaching a Distortion Field releases enough energy to destroy an entire warship..."

        "The Nadesico adapts its Distortion Field to the attacks it receives," Ruri Hoshino adds, impassively, appearing in another window. "That's why there's never been a 'Kaboom.'"

        "Good job, Ruri," Inez praises her, and Ruri cuts out her window before anyone can catch her looking pleased at her primary evil mentor's praise. (What? You didn't know Inez was evil? Well, just forget you read it.) Inez turns back to the third wall, and keeps explaining. "You see, the Distortion Field is a force created from gravitational waves. These waves serve to deflect attacks... and it's also why the Distortion Field caves in anything around it. It collapses the earth itself when engaged on land... you can imagine what that might do to an unprepared machine."

        Inez smiles. "But we did not create the Distortion Field," she says. "We found it. That's why the Jovians have their own Fields, as well... and it's why the Nadesico's technology will now destroy the Earth. Because the kinetic potential of this Field won't just destroy your Mobile Suits... not even just those warships you've brought with you. This Distortion Field has been harmonised to contain massive amounts of kinetic potential -- far beyond what you've dealt with before. This 'Kaboom', as the Nadesico's Systems Operator puts it, won't destroy everything around it."

        Impossibly, she keeps smiling, as she lifts her teacup to her lips, and drinks deeply.

        "It will simply destroy everything," she says.

        "This is a marvellous work of scientific art. Junius Seven is a small colony -- even if it were dropped on a major city, the damage it would do is in the hundreds of kilometres, not the thousands. It wouldn't even be that drastic, but just go ahead and imagine the crater in Eastern Australia," she adds, "where Sydney used to be. Let's say that even at its worst, this event would be no more destructive than that... and likely less." She pauses to take another sip. "I'm told that's a tragedy... for men who cling to life. If it were just that severe, I wouldn't bother explaining. But this," she smiles, over her teacup, "is much more interesting." Her gaze lids, over eyes which have seen too much.

        "Because they've taken the explosive kinetic potential of a Distortion Field, and amplified it exponentially. Now, Junius Seven is a falling nuclear bomb... with enough force to destroy everything on the surface of the planet. And any attempt you could make to stop it will surely see you annihilated. Looks like this is the end... there are no heroes, after all."

        Her window cuts out.

And then immediately comes back on as she taps her chin, "I suppose with enough force at a specific point it could be prematurely detonated, but the consequences to the people of Earth would be only less catastrophic." Inez looks more like she's considering a theoretical outcome than actually offering advice, "Who lives, who dies? It all hardly matters to me. None of this even feels real."

Then it's gone, leaving them only with that grim, heartless, exposition.

<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.


The 'jaws' of the Ra Mari II' begin to open, cerulean light crackling between the upper and lower portions of the ship's forward section. Within, boxes and crates and prefabricated walls shudder and shake. The entire ship changes shape; a city-destroying cannon of the Zentradi rises once again.
"75%, Admiral!"

Eight is listening for the count--but she's watching Rena on her display, the viewscreen showing that beautiful blue Psychofield ahead.

"Acknowledged!" Astelian says to Anita, who brings her 'plus one'. "We always like new friends, I guess!" the usually-cheerful man says; Eight will recognize the voice of that passenger later. For now...
%-=-=-

Captain Fari answers Flay, "Then do it. And come back alive."

Thanks to Fari's encouragement, the bridge crew even believes she will. ...Fari isn't so sure himself, but such 'heroes' are the very foundation of the world, live or die.

Aren't they?

-=-=-

Eight watches the tiny Sukeban Kiseki contribute, feels almost as much as sees Naoko's efforts with everyone's--with Judau's, with Roux's, with the Ultrawoman and her Nova, with Lucine and Liam still out there...

And Dynazenon, who Eight knows only from the battle before. Even NUNE is doing their best for their world. For a moment, it looks like--they can all come together after all. That they can all do this, even Yuliana and the Shandor as Kafim deploys.

But only for a moment.

Eight feels it, sharply, though not so sharply as Captain Maina, who staggers in her seat from it. She feels that spiral of hate. She feels the malice inherent in this act, so fundamentally opposed to life itself in the Earth Sphere.

"..."

"Admiral," Harpe says. "...100% power."

Eight Orlodhari feels her heart threaten to break in the face of that mass of hatred. In knowing that all their best... wasn't enough, this time.

With Inez's explanation. Those who cling to life, she says. With enough force... And how none of it feels real.

After Inez's explanation there is a crackle ont he radio. "This is the Ra Mari II, Admiral Orlodhari. We're firing our Spinal Convergence Cannon on these coordinates. We will fire in ten seconds."

She has no more inspiring words, for now. She only turns on the channel to the Nadesico, specifically, and says, "...Heroes or not. We'll do what we always have. What we can."

"Five... four..."

The Spinal Convergence Beam Cannon is fully ready. It echoes with power in the atmosphere. It may not be the cannon of the Nadesico, but once, it was meant to bombard planets.

One more time, now.

A gigantic beam will ERUPT from the Ra Mari II', in time with everyone else. 

<Pose Tracker> Marian Cross has posed.

Marian braces herself to be thrown along on Nova's shield. The Gundam grips the edge of the shield, expecting it to spin as she sends Marian across the air... only that it never occurred. It's baffling, quite honestly.

What was equally baffling, at least to herself, is that she hasn't been playing the role of the 'Hero' as she intended. No showy moves. No grand gestures. In her focus to stop the colony, to prevent countless deaths if it's allowed to drop on Earth, she's just here as Marian Cross. Not the 'Hero of Orb'. Not even a soldier. But just another person with only the lives of those beneath in that blue sphere in her heart and mind.

She releases her grasp on the impossibly flying shield, and stood upon it. She looks across the sky. Over falling debris burning up into dust with numerous mobile weapons sharing their fates. The surviving ships and pilots still doing all they can to break the distortion field.

Unit Beta attempting to slow it down with its A.T. Field. The glowing blue light that's emitting from Rena's machine. Flay's reformed Strike providing cover fire for Rena. Ultrawoman Nova's bright sparkling beam. The Dynazenon letting loose its numerous weaponry. A barrage of missiles from Scorn. Even more as the surface of the distortion field ripples and lights up under everyone's combined effort.

Marian doesn't know if a miracle like the Axis Drop will happen again.

A pragmatic and cynical mindset to the end.

But maybe. Just maybe... It's fine to believe.

Nova's shield burn brightly underneath her. She moves the Inazuma closer to the edge, seeing how stable it is. Now finally turning off the flickering VPS armor as it turns dull gray, tinged orange by the burning air around the shield.

She needs all the power the Inazuma can muster for this next thing she does. So she pulls up a panel. Turning off even other essential systems. Alarms off. Inertia dampener off. Side sensors off. IFFs off. Comms off. Target assist off. Life support... off.

For all of the beam and plasma armanent built onto the Inazuma, purpose built for dueling and destroying mobile weapons, and not a titantic asteroid, it does have one awe-inspiring attack. One that bears similarity to the Positron Cannons or even the GENESIS cannon on a smaller scale.

Electricity charges up from her reactor. Invisible mirage colloid particles forming between the Gundam's hands as arcs of electricity builds and builds until the orange glow cast upon it is overtaken by the ionizing plasma's bright light.

"No heroes?" Maybe not. "Enough force could detonate it?" Good enough for her. "Who lives and who dies?" Screw that.

She looks onto the only display that's lit up. A deep breath with her finger hovering over the trigger.

"...you're purpose built for me, aren't you? To protect Orb. Heh, maybe the world?" She says to no one in particular. "I'm sorry I couldn't live long enough for you to fulfill your purpose. If you survive... find a better owner for me, okay?"

There's a smile on her face. This is her grand gesture.

A bright white beam of building plasma unleashes across the thickening atmosphere and putting as much force as it could into the distortion field.

Maybe an aurora could possibly form when it ends. She's always wanted to see an aurora in person.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.


"We stop this, and that's a start," Rena tells Flay. "But... I'd like to do better than a start, huh?"

The Gaia Gear's thrusters on its feet and legs fire close enough for the energy to strike the the Distortion Field. It crackles with electricity, sparks and lightning arcing where there's minor disruptions.

But the teal and white machine hovers there.

Rena focuses on Junius 7, watching it crashing down onto the Earth. Earth, which looms much larger than it did before.

She tries to not think of Axis -- because this is not the time for anxiety that she is not Amuro Ray -- and thinks of here and now. Of all the people down there, wanting to live; of all the people up here, trying to stop this.

"Thanks, Al," she says, exhaling softly. It almost feels strange to think of piloting without him,sometimes; his assistance has become almost second nature in only a few months. She's stressed enough that her accent is thicker, when she speaks to him. "I'm counting on you, mate."

It might seem like that focus would stop her from noticing all of those who come to help. But, with Psychoframe, her awareness is expanded.

She sees the Galactron move its barrier, Akane trying to protect her. She feels that determination -- and even that hesitance about what to do -- and it heartens her.

She senses Rikka putting her hopes on her and making another miracle. Someone she hasn't met before. Once, it would have been an extra pressure. Now, it's what she expects.

She feels the eyes of the Nadesico's crew on her; their expectation, their trepidation, to see if this will work.

Lucine's presence across the battlefield, as she opens her mind. Rena feels her; she can't say anything, do more than send a vague feeling of reassurance, that she'll do everything she can.

She feels, rather than hears, Liam's question. She can't can't answer. She has to hope her answer will be what she does.

She feels Judau's, Roux's, Sayla's and Naoko's will -- joined through the Bio-Sensor -- join her own. It's a rush of their feelings, their drive, all pushing into hers -- and pushing her forward.

She feels Flay's determination to keep any debris from coming at her. It's so strong, so sudden, in a way she didn't expect. She sees a massive concrete support pillar, the rebar inside poking out like badly broken bones, fly up -- and get blasted in twain by her beam cannon. She did right, she thinks, making sure she survived.

She feels Anita's hopes, buoying her. Anita might not be a Newtype; she still gets through to Rena, and even if it is only one way, Rena can feel that belief in her. She sits up that much straighter.

She feels Eight's thoughts. Her words to her, as clear as if she spoke them. She can't quite form words, right now. It's a warm feeling, returned in full, that pushes against Eight's psyche.

And it's all directed towards Junius 7. Rena looks down at it, aglow in the light she made. At everyone's efforts, together, trying to push it back -- trying to stop it. But something changes. There's the faintest sense of intent; the faintest sense that something more is behind the Distortion Field around it and Junius 7.

She hears Inez's summary. She almost makes sense of it, but the rising panic keeps that from setting in. The barrier of light doesn't seem to slow Junius 7.

It pushes it.

Her eyes widen sharply, a ragged breath sucking in. "What the hell is this!?" she shouts.

The blue glow vanishes not a moment later. Rena stops it with a thought -- though it's a hard, forceful thought -- and it flickers out, the sea of blue lights dying out. She hears Eight's warning crackle over the radio.

Then, she fires the Gaia Gear Alpha's thrusters -- it rockets up, over the Ra Mari II's massive beam of light. Rena stares down, disbelieving.

She shakes her head, hard. "Ra Mari II, send out the Hyper Mega Launcher!" she calls out.

A few heartbeats later, it fires out of one of the Ra Mari II's hangars: a large canon, almost the size of the Gaia Gear itself, with rockets propelling it. The Mobile Suit grabs onto it, then takes aim. The weapon is pointed downward; a glow grows inside of the long barrel of the white cannon.

Rena's hand trembles on the controls. "What... the hell was that? Who did that?"

She exhales. Then she pulls the trigger.

A massive beam of blue-white light explodes from the barrel. It screams down from the Hyper Mega Launcher, slamming down next to the Ra Mari II's immense blast.

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        Eight sends a sound-only transmission to Unit Beta. Kaworu smiles to hear it. "Thank you, Eight Orlodhari. I'll remember that," he responds.
        
        He doesn't anticipate needing to take her up on that, but it's the thought that counts.
        
        To Liam, he transmits not words, but a visual pop-in screen, where he simply smiles at him, eyes squinted shut. It's a grave situation in many senses of the word, but perhaps a smile will reassure him a little.
        
        The Galactron's shields to protect the people, and Unit Beta's Field to widen their windows of opportunity... And everyone's overwhelming, heartfelt efforts to pierce through the Distortion Field and deal decisively with the remains of Junius 7. Maintaining an A.T. Field of this caliber without using his own takes up a considerable amount of Kaworu's focus, and so he can't zero in on many of the specifics once he starts--though the lights of Judau and Roux's hearts ease the burden--but he can passively absorb the general thrust of matters.
        
        And the general thrust is that it's not enough. Or rather, as Inez explains, the efforts they are giving are not the solution to this particular problem.
        
        Junius 7 is picking up speed.
        
        It's impossible to avoid death and destruction. They can only ensure that there is less, rather than none at all.
        
        That's all right. Kaworu has always avoided death for the sake of Shinji's sensibilities. He has always known, from the very start, that life feeds on life. That the survival of one necessitates the sacrifice of another.
        
        The hatred of those who set off this anti-miracle may well be justified. Even so, Kaworu will not let them have their way.
        
        Eight sends out another message--this time, the coordinates and timing of her ship's next strike. "<Understood,>" he replies, and adjusts the form and function of Unit Beta's A.T. Field.
        
        For other Evangelion pilots, making something like this happen would require something more--a backdoor code, for example, to release a limiter or unleash a beast. But to Kaworu of the Shore, it is quite literally second nature.
        
        byew.
        
        Something glows from beneath Unit Beta's eyeless mask. A heartbeat later, the same instant that Eight's Spinal Convergence Cannon fires, so too fires a great glowing beam of light that splits near the end into a perpendicular line. 

<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.


        Luanova says: BRING ME CLOSER, I WANT TO HIT IT WITH MY SWORD. So Serinas does, blasting away all the while!

        And... they're doing it, the massed fire is beginning to break the field!

        And then someone *un*-breaks it, and pronounces the surface doomed. All those people. And Serinas's grandparents. And if the surface is slightly *less* destroyed by setting it off early, everyone here will die, instead.

        Serinas rejects this. World, don't be this way! <"You're *lying*! You're just saying that to make us stop destroying it!">

        And if it's true... well, Serinas's path was set when she enlisted in ZAFT. She hoped she'd see a peaceful future herself, but this was always a possibility...

        It's easy to say you've accepted that, but Serinas feels a tightness in her throat and her eyes begin to water. She blinks it away.

        But you can't win with *just* rage. She turns that half-coordinator brain towards thinking of solutions. Unfortunately, she's not a scientist... But...

        <"Air is getting through. SOME matter is getting through. If we can affect the inside somehow... maybe we can detach the field generator and stop it from hitting the surface? Or... we could shut it down somehow? There must be a way!">

        <"Ships, don't you have any scientists?! Give us *something*, come on!">

        For now, so close to the field, she fires all the weapons into it where other attacks are converging, everything she's got! Maybe enough focused on one point will help someone break through?

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        When Yuliana pulls out into the thin air of upper atmosphere, the lights on her console flash warning. Her shields are still structurally sound enough to protect her -- but they've taken a beating, and withstanding the lingering effects of entry is pushing them to their limit, particularly with Alto's lingering nuclear energy in the air. (At least everyone is distracted shooting the more pressing target, right now.)

        She hangs back, as she flies to Junius Seven on dark, not-quite-present dragon's wings, materialising from the twin spirals jutting out from her wanzer's shoulders. There's a very good reason why she would -- because even if she can't sense what Rena and Judau's Gundams are doing, let alone what Naoko's up to, she can hear them. If she draws too close...

        ... well, she's always denied that kind of miracle.

        Her eyes narrow, as she watches Junius Seven rumble -- and deny their efforts. When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, she reflects, one must conquer the other. The greatest strength will reign. It is not the one which would save humanity, today.

        Inez appears to explain everything. There's discussion, pressured and hurried, on the bridge of the Nadesico. It's not just that they can't accept the impossible -- but that they know, deep to their bones, that it isn't as simple as defying the impossible.

        If salvation were easy, all those refugees from Mars would still be alive.

        "It's happened before," is what Ruri says, quietly, personally, "... hasn't it?"

        "One way or another," is the message Inez relays to her, still entirely calm.

        "You're tired," Ruri surmises, with the exact inflection of a salaryman at the office.

        Inez doesn't answer that.

        The transmission which breaks in from the Da Xukong 0 as it flies in is far less contemplative. "What the FUCK!" Yuliana screams, and the radio captures the way her fist impacts her console as she rants. "What the fuck! What the fuck! You unearthed some ancient technology, and now it's going to destroy the Earth?!" Oh, yes. Secrets from Mars are so frequently deleterious to the Earth, aren't they? "As if I'd just accept that!"

        In her desperation, she realises, harrow and haunted, that if she'd asked to take her throne in the Threshold Queen she could at least access her full strength. But Yuliana would never ask to use Emptear, in this day and age... and so her interdimensional atrocities are out of her grasp.

        If she landed, if she started dancing the dance which ends creation, maybe she could...

        ... but if she does it without Emptear's shielding, she'll surely die.

        She chooses herself over the world, and discards the thought.

        The Nadesico's response is... calmer, at least. Is it really all right for a teenage girl to be this stoic about what's going on right now? "Acknowledged, Admiral. Firing the Gravity Blast Cannon in ten seconds. Now transmitting firing path." ... so everyone can get out of the way, as the gravitational energy in its great jaws builds to a boiling point.

        "Firing." Ruri says, ten scant seconds later, as the Gravity Blast Cannon unleashes the strength of Nergal's flagship on Junius Seven.

        Parminder, meanwhile, sighs a deep sigh, as he says, "Lame. Sure, whatever, fire the Void Turret Array, full power," as a beam of eldritch magic joins the efforts of the other warships to fire on Junius Seven in concert. It can't hope to match the Nadesico's sheer overwhelming firepower, but the type of firepower it brings to bear is nonetheless unique. With every battleship together... does it matter if his participation feels kind of ironic?

        And there's the sound of Yuliana's fist impacting the console, as she opens her radio again. "Oi, sister!" She yells to Rena, as the Da Xukong 0 halts under Junius Seven. "You too, Judyan! The hell what this is doesn't need your weird bullshit, it needs MORE BULLETS!" Those dragon wings glow, as the spirals collect power from the wanzer.

        "This is my Generation Platform -- a wanzer designed to generate infinite power for our use. With all the rage I can offer Da Xukong, I create the power to destroy! So come on, let's go! Let's go, let's go, LET'S GO!"

        As all that power she spoke of pours into the spirals -- and fires, through those not-quite-there wings, up into Junius Seven. Not quite a beam, though it's vaguely shaped that way... this, too, is a strange and unspeakable magic.

        Can the power of destruction really be used to protect humanity?

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

For a girl who began to believe in miracles because one visited her...

... seeing a miracle falter...

... makes her appreciate miracles more.

They're never guaranteed, after all.

It also means that the next step is not to wait for a miracle -- but start moving even if one isn't coming.

'With enough force at a specific point, it could be prematurely detonated.'

'We're firing our Spinal Convergence cannon on these coordinates. We will fire in ten seconds.'

Akane nods, shutting her big, chestnut-brown eyes. The worst thing she can do is nothing. It's impossible to know what comes of this -- for the Earth Sphere, even the marginal victory they could squeak out will mean a very different tomorrow, and every day thereafter.

"... Rikka," Akane transmits, voice quiet. "I --"

She cuts herself off. What she was about to say... that'd just be giving up with extra steps. Her breath hitches.

"... I have a lot more I want to do. Let's do it together."

Akane yanks at the cables around her arms like a horse's reins, and Galactron, in turn, gives her a faint electric sensation in her ears through the cables snaking in there.

Akane's sunset-red eyes open.

Bright red light lances in countless snakelike patterns from the chest of the mecha-kaiju. It lances at that single spot. If she can't attack it on this slice of existence, perhaps she can create an opening by shredding through partially on another one entirely. 

<Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.

With the target data flowing in from the Ra Mari II, the Pixie Team ponders what to do. It's funny really, with the Axis Shock, and all the accounts within, there is the well known effort of Amuro Ray and the original Nu Gundam in pushing Axis out of Earth's atmosphere. But what often gets forgotten is that it wasn't just him. There were dozens of Grunts, Jegans and Geara Dogas, with pilots whose names are not mentioned in the history books and accounts, all of whom stepped up to help push that rock back into space.

Time to be the Grunts who stepped in when everything was going wrong.

"R-Rose!" Sushila calls out over the radio. "I'm...I'm going...I'm going to turn off the limiter!"

The Gunner Wizard pack had an emergency limiter override, able to allow the backpack mounted reactor to run at 500% capacity. It was guaranteed to burn out the Wizard pack, which in space wouldn't be the worst thing, but here, in reentry, over Mach 25, it was practically suicidal.

Rose and Aspyn's Monoeyes looked at one another, and then their Blaze packs ignited, grabbing onto Sushila's Gunner. The Reactor on its back began to spin at unfathomably high speed, audible even through the sound dampening of the helmets, glowing brighter and brighter. The charge continued until the RAII Fired, then from the Gunner ZAKU, a beam fires out, a massive beam almost to the size of a Positron Cannon shot. The beam lances out and impacts Junius 7, as within the cockpit, Sushila screams as she puts the killing blow into her home, and her family's tomb. Rose and Aspyn scream as well, the force throwing them around inside their own Mobile Suits, until the reactor finally goes. The pack jettisons from Sushila's machine and flies off.

The explosion is massive. 

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.


"DAMNIT!"

        Alto slams the side of his cockpit with a fist as he watches Junius 7 starting to move forward again. After all they threw at it, it's still there and still going. Did they even do anything to it? Is Inez right and the entire Earth going to be destroyed? All those people dying... Can they really do anything against it?

        Alto can't. He's not strong enough. He doesn't have the power to fight on the same level that many others here are doing. What good would throwing a few bullets at it do? Some shots from his weak beam guns? The Reaction Missile was all he had to throw at something of this magnitude and that barely did anything.

        He feels powerless... And it sucks.

        Not to mention he's dragging Ryoko down with him. At least with her Distortion Field, maybe she could do something.

        Alto grips his controls a little tighter before saying, <"Ryoko, go. I can make it from here."> The Messiah pulls away from the Aestivalis, the air starting to push against it again and threaten to send it tumbling.

        But the VF quickly separates into pieces, electromagnetic forces rearranging its parts and bringing them back together again in its humanoid form. The engines that now make up its feet start blasting out thrust, separating Alto from Ryoko further.

        Alto starts to head in the direction of the Nadesico, radioing, <"Nadesico... I need a landing vector...">

        What else can he do in this situation? He's just getting in the way.

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

After throwing each and every one of her Blader units at the problem, there's little Tavelle can do but panic -

Until Anita grabs her.

The Lestrail is surprisingly light for a suit of its size; it's about the same height as a MS, but with a very long tail extending behind it. It doesn't seem all that much *heavier* than a MS despite the added bulk of the additional limb that makes it longer head to tailtip than head to foot (even when it has both feet, and right now one of its legs is missing), and Tavelle is trying to help.

Tavelle usually thinks of herself as not a great pilot, but what she really means is that she's not a great *combat* pilot; most of her piloting experience has nothing to do with fighting. She is actually quite good at handling the confusing weight and balance of a GERWALK VF trying to lift the Lestrail, and some of her thrusters still work, so she can at least support some of her own weight. She hikes herself up and anchors herself with the tail; it has a magnetic clamp, meant to tow salvage, that also works for making sure she's secure at a distance that doesn't get in Anita's way.

Tavelle takes longer than she'd like to be able to speak. Her heart is hammering, caught in her throat. "...thanks," she says, as she's shuttled toward the Ra Mari. "I guess I owe you guys one, too."

---

Marian's shield is still staying up, though it's not moving as fast as it used to be; it's a useful platform for only so long, but she can use it as a better (or at least an additional) shield to protect herself from the heat of reentry. It is, after all, big - taller than a MS, as Ultra-sized Qivi is quite a bit bigger than that - and sturdy, designed to channel energy for various purposes. Qivi charged it, and it still has some of that Kisorium energy in it, which is both slowing its fall and keeping it intact, channeling the heat further around it than it otherwise would.

Ultra Warrior Nova - now Nova Ruby Blaze - hovers for a few moments to catch her breath (or equivalent, as she doesn't seem to actually be breathing, which worried Qivi the first time she noticed it and she was very glad nobody else was around to see). The Kisorium blaze took a lot out of her.

But the time for recovery is brief. It has to be, because Qivi can't keep going much longer, and resting won't help - it will only use up her precious time. Because her Colour Timer, the eight-pointed star on her chest, is no longer shining blue but beginning to pulse off and on. She rests her hand over it for a moment, as if hiding it from passing pilots like Liam, then lets her hand drop. Why bother?

In space, she doesn't have to worry about it - but she's not in space anymore. She's on Earth, behind a falling colony. She can't draw from the Sun, and she can't keep fighting like this, but she'll give it every bit of energy she's got. She was hoping what they'd given would be enough.

But it's not. Someone - not a thing, a person, with hopes and dreams of their own - *wants* this to happen. Not just one, either; look at how many people they had to fight just to get to Junius Seven inthe first place!

And with what Inez says -

The last time Qivi got into this mindset, she died, at Jupiter. This time what she feels isn't calm acceptance, though, but high emotion. It's not well directed as Qivi's rebellious nature asserts itself, amplified by the nature of Fire to burn bright. The Asteriser's Ultra Asteria, the crystal set in it, looks like it's burning from the inside, light (or Light) dancing inside it.

But she *feels* - and in that feeling, she acts.

No, Qivi thinks. ~No,~ she repeats, more detectable to others. ~Maybe we can't stop everything, but there are always heroes. At least we can give the world a chance!~

And then Qivi rushes. It's a sudden burn, and not forward, because if she went forward she would go straight into the blasts that are far bigger than she is: the Gravity Cannon, the Spinal Convergence Cannon. But down, below, so she can burn upward, giving those blasts the haze of pink with trailing blue sparkles her own energy creates. They look, for a moment, like they're burning.

Qivi doesn't need to strike herself. Not with everyone already doing what they can - and she can support that. 

<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.


        A shiver down the spine. A spike of pain; a burst of steam briefly makes it through into the cockpit of the Myrmecia. The world is wrong. The sword did not make it through the distortion field. The psychokinetic veil did not part the seas and drape itself over the dead colony. Hope is not alive and humans cannot choose their destiny.

        Lua's confidence falters. The temperature rises in the Myrmecia and the Queadluun-Rhea, her mind not maintaining enough focus to keep sealing breaches continuously. She does not have the battle-forged friendships that these pilots have. She has acquaintences who do not know her name or voice. Scales shear off the Myrmecia and fall like feathers shed in the wind, leaving their last chiming sound.

        <"C-coordinates, ah... 7658--">

        Lua opens a pair of eyes that she hadn't realized were drooping closed. For a moment, she feels, before she sees, the distant outline of the Dianthus. There is another shape there, one she's never seen before. She sees through that unseen shape, into a pair of eyes that haunted her from her youth.

        <"Hang hard left and dip low,"> Myrmidon instructs Serinas. The thermal breaches vent and hold themselves together. Temperatures stabilize again. There's something there, an angle at those coordinates. Maybe she doesn't know what it is yet, but she'll know it when she sees it.

        When she sees it, the Strike Gundam's anti-ship sword will come alive, and in Myrmecia's tightened grip, its beam emitter will ignite, kinetic energy washing through its powered systems. They will have only a moment, before Serinas has to engage evasive maneuvers to stay clear of the charging battleship cannons. She will lodge the blade in a wedge point in the distortion field, stabbing it as far deep as her psychokinetic force can part the waves. And they will have to trust in Lucine's intuition.

        The words which Lua shouts, lodging the massive sword like a thorn into the lion's paw, cannot be repeated in polite company. It's unclear who they are addressing, whether Inez, or the woman who wrote this story where human will cannot triumph. It is very clear where, exactly, she is telling that person they can stick the XM404 anti-ship sword.

<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.

Roux kind of knocks Naoko for a loop with the claim that people don't train for this sort of thing. She just always assumed that she must know less than anyone else where it comes to Situations that come up during piloting, since she never actually trained to be a pilot. It's weird to think that she might be on equal footing here. Counterpoint: "W-well, can't hurt to ask, it helps to know stuff!"

Then again, she has never asked Judau Ashta anything before. Turns out, that can hurt a little.

"Wh-- no! Vector, not Zectar! And excuse you, I wouldn't be caught dead using a Zectar!"

What are they even arguing about

Still... still. What Judau says right after, she has no argument against that. That is, in fact, the exact attitude that really matters when the 'chips are down', as he puts it. It was just a little hard to stay in the zone like that, in the middle of a life-threatening situation that she couldn't just try to Rocket Punch her way out of. But, with her descent safely slowed and no more direct worries other than impending devastation on Earth, she now finds herself in full agreement.

"...That's right. You're right! Thanks, Judau, I needed that!" Her resolve bolstered and more than ready to act in a way that Judau would approve of, she finally feels ready to tap back into the hot-blooded persona that carries her in battle, and offer the suggestion of what must be done.

Sayla's question... she could answer that one straight, but of course she's not going to, in this state of mind. "Heh! What I've got is better than a Lambda Driver!" No bias at all. Though it's no lie that it's different from the standard - in so far as there's anything 'standard' about a Lambda Driver. A little Psychoframe-based tech is what makes the difference in being able to directly support efforts such as the one she suggests.

Judau is on board. Roux is, as well, and Sayla. And many others out there - while she can't sense it in the way that Newtypes can, it's obvious to her that there must be many wills in alignment. Surely, this will be enough to equal a miracle. Or surpass it, as Sayla demands they must. "You got it, lady," says Naoko, who is probably in the minority who can't readily identify that voice.

Even put towards the good of all, this collective power is a frightful one. But at the moment, it's exactly what they need. Naoko is smiling the brightest of smiles throughout it all, putting every once of her will to bear. They're doing it. It's slowing. The miracle is happening...!

And then, it all stops. Reverses. Lashes back out at them. So much force comes crashing back in the opposite direction. And in that moment, she knows. She can feel that opposite, dark will. The powerful active force behind this, one who must have known this exact thing would happen, and is specifically denying it. Though it may be purely on instinct, she feels that the conclusion she arrives at is an inevitable one.

"...It's not going to work." She whispers, at first, before yelling it in dismay. "It won't work! Not like this!"

She is on the verge of a panic, when the Nadesico's resident Explanation Lady appears to do what she does best. This is always kind of frightening, but today's explanation is more damning still. She can only stare, dead-eyed, all that willpower steadily draining away from her. Until her mind is restarted, by that final, almost casual remark.

"Enough force... huh?"

A burst of green light from the Sukeban Kiseki heralds the return of hope to its pilot, who is quick to broadcast her simple conclusion to Judau, Roux and Sayla.

"Alright! Plan B! Hit it with everything you've got! Concentrate fire! Riiiiiight... there!"

Even if it's true, if all that can be done is to reduce damage rather than prevent it. It will always be better to do something, rather than stand by and wonder 'what if'. As such, she really will give this everything she's got. Sukeban Kiseki spreads its arms wide, Naoko preparing to show the spot to strike in the most direct way: by striking it first. And as far as she's concerned, there's only one fitting way to do so at a time like this. You gather all of your energy, all of your willpower, towards the center of your machine's chest... then you raise your upper arms, and unleash it all, pouring all that you are into a powerful yell.

"GALACTIIIIC! BREEEEAST! FLAAAAAARE!!!"

You've seen enough Mazingers to know what happens next. This is just the green, psychic and immaterial equivalent. The effect is no less real for it. 

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

So many hearts, joining as one... That must do something. This can't be where everything ends. Gone, with all their memories along with them. Forgotten, as if they never existed. Rikka draws a sharp breath, and holds onto that hope -

But hope isn't enough. Hope and belief alone won't push back the burning tombstone as it descends like a hammer of judgment. The implement of Earth's execution accelerates.

And then, an explanation. They can concentrate fire on a single point to detonate it prematurely... but it would only be less catastrophic.

Who lives, who dies?

Even if it's only a few, they have to do something.

In the end... the thing that gets her moving is that quiet transmission.

"...Yeah." Rikka replies, a small smile crossing her face. "Me too."

Rikka considers her options. Coordinating this kind of assault... The most powerful weapons at her disposal are her funnels. She'll need all of them for this, but to coordinate so much of herself, alongside everyone here...

She knows what she has to do - and there's only one way to do it. She has a future she wants to see, and if it means putting herself on the line to do it...

Rikka's fingers dance across the Mu Gundam's console. She's always been a fast typist. A request for permission is sent out - and then immediately granted by the very source of that request. A programming lock is broken.

"...I'm activating HADES-E." Rikka announces. Information fills her screens - and then it fills her mind. Rikka doubles over, breathing heavily for a moment. It's a lot - HADES-E may be 'safer'... but it's not without risk. She feels the strain on her body, but she forces her way through it. Her fingers curl tightly around the controls briefly. Flexing, and then releasing. Flexing, and then releasing.

She can feel it - she can feel everyone. Their goals, and firing patterns... Everyone's will, focusing on a single location - the coordinates offered by the Ra Mari II.

There.

"Launching funnels." Rikka announces - and the Mu Gundam's funnel rack opens up once more. The funnels emerge, and move with alarming coordination in a calculated fashion. Even with Rikka's skill, the two sets of funnels tend to have their own signature forms of movement - but now, without looking at them, it'd be hard to tell that the Red Umbrella's funnels were any different.

"Firing on your designated coordinates, Ra Mari II." Rikka announces. It's her voice - but sharper than usual. And all at once, they open fire, a single assault across multiple bodies rushing to join everyone's efforts. 

<Pose Tracker> Koyomi Yamanaka has posed.

"Of course, Captain," Al says to Rena. "As it happens..."

He falters a little, hearing Sayla echo familiar words. "...I have some experience," he recovers.

        *

"It's working!" Yomogi calls.

Koyomi senses it first. "No, it's not," he murmurs. He doesn't have any special knowledge of distortion fields...just, something about it doesn't feel right. And it isn't.

Inez' explanation is chilling to all of them. But...Yume's words are true, still. Gauma speaks for them all: "So what?! No matter how pointless it is, I'll take as many meaningless steps as I damn well please! LET'S GO!"

Koyomi's hands curl again, but buoyed by the others, he's able to keep his willpower moving, eyes scanning for what he can do rather than how he can die. "I think we need more focus. Let's transform!"

Then there is an EXPLOSION of red light and flame from Dynazenon. The hero in red and black roars forward, and then scatters apart. Each machine separates at its joints, each machine twisting and spinning around itself. Dynasoldier spins around, its legs spinning up behind its back and its claws lowering down and forward. Dynadiver swings up, its armor turned blazing red, and interlocks with the new torso, then extends downward with claws (!?) extended. Dynawing slides down to lock back into place, long locking chains surging deep into the beast to interlock and bind. Dynastriker reunites its two halves and then docks with the rear, transforming into a massive, swinging tail.

It screams, four voices that echo in space. "SUPER DRAGON! DYNAREX!!"

Then it sucks in a deep breath of blazing atmosphere as flame erupts from its throat and seethes out of its teeth. "BLAZING INFERNO! REX! ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!"

Dynarex opens its yellow teeth and a BLAZE erupts from within it, flame surpassing even that of the burning sky itself pouring down into the ravenous gullet of the Distortion Field, targeting the same point as the other attacks, guided by Koyomi and Yume's steady hands. "EAT UP, YOU!" Gauma defies to fate. "I'VE GOT PLENTY!" 

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

It seems that, with everyone's efforts, the fall is halted, and starts to reverse... But then it doesn't. It trembles, and pushes back - accelerates, even, and Anita curses.

"Damn it...! I thought..." She says. She thought they did it. She thought...

...but now. Now it falls, faster and faster. And now... it's hopeless, isn't it? Anita inhales sharply, hands balling into fists...

But then, there's a transmission. An explanation - well-timed, as always. An explanation, but also a chance. A last, desperate hope. Perhaps not even a 'hope'. But something.

"Rena..." Anita murmurs, as she hears Rena's disbelief. "...Let's do it together, alright? We're... we're gonna get outta this."

Even if feels futile, they have to do something.

Besides - she's already saved one life. ...They just have to all get through this to make it count.

"We're all in this together, right? I'm good to call it even." Anita offers, managing a smile for Tavelle even now. Tavelle helps, anchoring herself, and between the two of them, they make it safely back to the Ra Mari II. She deposits the Lestrail in the hangar. "I'll be back. I've got one last thing I need to do."

The Svipul accelerates back out, to where everyone is fighting for the sake of the world - even if it may only be a desperate attempt to save what they can.

"I've got it all loaded up just for you... Here goes nothing." Anita mutters to herself. She locks onto her target, the same one they're all after. The Svipul returns to Fighter Mode, preparing its missiles - which launch, one after the other, until there's nothing left to fire. 

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        It was only once Lucine held back the hate that binded her to her body that she could even join everyone on this stage of belief. The dominos of belief cascade out from Judau and Roux, reaching Liam and in turn Lucine.
        
        In that moment, her belief was gladly theirs, and she willingly took on their belief in turn. It all tunnels down to a singular purpose, a single possibility, another door cast wide open to a miracle just within reach.
        
        --How dare you.--
        The lonely swingset that's set against the coldness of an empty colony, never to be used again.
         The quilt on the bed that was left unmade, left behind by a hand that could never come back.
        The empty streets that were full of traffic and noise of people, the heat of a bustling city in the cold sparseness of space.
          The rooms that were sealed with an X, as a note to herself never to open those doors again, now that she's properly laid the remains of their owners to rest.
        The dried remains of trees in the park, their branches once offering shade to many park goer who lounges beneath them, now reduced to brittle skeletons in a grey landscape.
         The snapping ghosts of grass crunching underneath her feet as she walked in an eeriely still farm.
         --How dare you.--

        To stare at hate is to only feel your own emerge anew. Rena may catch the end of that sharp transition as she lends Lucine those vague feelings of reassurance, as if Lucine felt ashamed for being caught in such a state.

        However, Lucine's anger is still human, and not the remainders of lives unjustly snuffed out.

        The one downside to the Dianthus is that it is already going full throttle; there is nothing that is held back, outside of energy constraints, and the irrefutable laws that govern the universe. One could question the wisdom of former cowboy Kris 'Kit' Azul in making a literal war machine that runs like this for his young daughter, and the answer would be, naturally: 'what's the use of a button that keeps you from doing all the things you need to do if you're just going to tape it down anyway'.

        More energy beams spiral from the Dianthus as Lucine struggles to find that sense of calm and purpose. The silent struggle goes verbal as her radio broadcasts openly, trying to argue with it and in turn, herself, even if she trusts there will be no answer.
        
        < "..... Nothing comes from this cycle." > ( But the Jovians should pay. ) < "The people who harmed Junius Seven will not answer for their crimes; just those trapped on Earth." > ( But why should they get away with it? ) < "They should be allowed to exist." > ( I wish they never existed.) 

<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.

"I'd be happy with a start," Flay admits, quietly. "But once you start at something, you have to see it through to the end, don't you?" If they can do that here and now,... they're going to have to survive. It's what she promised Captain Fari, even if the man himself has doubts, and it's something she's going to hold Rena to, as well.

It all goes so well at first. At first, it really does seem possible. The work of so many genuine heroes and miracle makers of the Earth Sphere and beyond combined seeming to herald another miracle like the Axis Shock. This time, Flay can almost feel it all, but even with her own awakening, between all the ways she's changed, Flay is well aware she isn't much of a hero - just a girl clinging to agency. Still, if she can use that to protect anyone at all...

She'll keep pushing on, even if they won't be getting a miracle. Perhaps it was already enough that she could keep Rena safe. She knows the psychoframe must take a heavy toll on a pilot, and so... "Are.. are you all right?" She manages to ask.

But Flay's breathing grows heavier as she realizes Junius Seven isn't slowing down, it's going faster. At the same time, she watches one of the Tritten Team's ZAKU barrel into the field, seemingly losing her life, the Inazuma Gundam making a similarly brazen move. "No..." She whispers, trying to maintain that heightened instinct all the same.

Inez explains the grim reality, leaving it to the notion of who lives and who dies. The Ra Mari II prepares to fire the Spinal Convergence Cannon on the coordinates of Junius Seven, everyone focusing their fire along with it. If it's come to this, she's got all the force she needs...

"Agni, switching to maximum output!!" Flay aims the hyper impulse beam cannon once more, and fires, and fires, again and again - as if the cannon has simply lost control, hoping to crush that field with those red beams, depleting entire batteries in the process. "I don't care how hopeless it is... I refuse to live in a world where tragedy after tragedy decides who gets to live!"
POT: Hikaru Amano is now set observer.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        UC 88, Undisclosed Location, Crucible Primary Laboratory

        Ten-year-old Liam sits in the training cockpit, eyes glued to the screen before him. They gave him a jumpsuit and helmet, like his father wore when he piloted his Labor, but all white, and marked with barcodes and dots for motion-tracking. He managed to feel hope at that--still clinging to the dreams of maybe being a worker, like Pa was.

        But this is different. There's a woman onscreen, pink-haired, in the fanciest outfit he's seen outside of the nobles in his Britannian History textbooks. She has been talking about why she killed his home, but she is not talking to him. The Earthnoids, the corrupt Federation--they deserved everything Neo-Zeon could bring to bear, and then some.

        Liam has been crying ever since he heard her mention his home. He is numb and raw, but this world is not finished wringing tears from him. Clad in his child-sized pilot's suit, he feels nothing but despair, guilt, and growing anger.

        "Who is she? Is she the Zeon Empress? What's she talking about?" Liam whimpers, finally caving in and speaking to the voice outside the cockpit. The man he knows only as Hephaestus answers without missing a beat.

        "That's Haman Karn," he says. "Regent of Neo-Zeon. She's talking to her soldiers in this message, and explaining why she had them drop that colony."

        Liam's eyes go perfectly round. This is her. This is the woman who had them kill everyone. He whimpers again.

        "She thinks you did something very bad, and that you deserved to die," Hephaestus says. "Did you do anything wrong?"

        Liam begins to sob, his tiny frame shivering. He tries to curl forwards, but the restraints keep him upright.

         "Did you do anything wrong?" Hephaestus asks, again.

        "No." Liam's voice is tiny, laced with a child's suspicion that he had to have done something wrong, otherwise none of this would've happened. "We didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we--" His voice breaks, and rises in a wail.

        Judau Ashta knew Haman Karn as a person--a young woman with too much authority, and too many scars. Liam only knew Haman Karn as a monster, a dangerous idealogue who saw Earthnoids as subhuman. The war criminal who masterminded the destruction of his home, and the murder of his friends and family, simply to prove a point. In this moment, at ten years of age, Liam learns the names and faces of the Zeon officers who orchestrated the colony drop. Hatred starts to grow within his heart, and Hephaestus proves an adept gardener.

        NOW

BGM: https:'youtu.bevy63u2hKoPE?si=ix4KK2v4L0We4k4P (YouSeeBIGGIRLT:T - Hiroyuki Sawano)
        Twenty-one-year old Liam sits in the Akashima's cockpit, eyes glued to the screen before him. Heat and acceleration warnings blare around him, a horrid drumbeat beneath Inez Fressange's monologue. He has been transmitting dead air since roughly twenty seconds in. In his mind's eye, he sees the face of Haman Karn, addressing the troops in the wake of an atrocity. He hears Hephaestus reciting names, and flashing more portraits, describing more crimes. Haman Karn. Glemy Toto. Mashymere Cello. Rakan Dakharan. Chara Soon. All of them believed that he, at ten years of age, deserved to die for the Federation's crimes--or wouldn't care if he did.

        Two more names join Hephaestus' list, burned into Liam's memory. Michiru Tenjou. Himeyuri Oono.

        Perhaps it's fitting that it's Judau Ashta who reaches out to Liam, and Liam who reaches back, scrabbling for support.

        In the physical world, the falling Akashima begins to twist in mid-air; Liam's mind might be caught in the depths of his memories, but his instincts are still good. The Mobile Weapon drifts back and up, moving gracefully towards the part of the Distortion Field Eight indicated. It draws back its Progressive Sword once again, arm flexing. Its other hand moves in to make a few adjustments. With the blade now in a throwing grip, the Akashima heaves the weapon forwards, hurling it towards the crux of the Distortion Field.

        Judau's raw, burning STUBBORNNESS joins with his own, the same force that helped keep him and his heart alive in the Crucible. "We will live," Liam breathes, "and we will remember. Every life we can save. EVERY. LAST. ONE."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.


They're going to make it, thinks Roux.

They're really going to do this. Hope dawns --

and then

"Wait, it's --"

it's speeding up, Roux doesn't want to say. Maybe it's an artifact. Maybe it's the angle. Maybe the Strike Zeta's software is glitching out. No.

No, Inez explains it all pretty clearly.

"... you psychotic... are you competing? Are all of you freaks competing or something?" Roux says, but even she cannot muster up fury. Her head turns to look towards Earth, a planet that's brown and blue and green and white. Soon, of course, that might not be true.

Inez doubtless doesn't hear her. Roux can feel herself teeter; it is perhaps only that subtle cobweb of attachments and bonds that keep her from pitching backwards. Because it would be backwards, in the face of this.

--interlude--

Rancor continues to approach Rin, Scorn, the Cardiax, all of them. Rancor has no ranged weaponry; his talents, as derived by Rin, were always up close, surging and blasting and fighting. The sharpness of his limbs and the power of his leap are nothing compared to the vastness of this. Rancor does not move - he has no lips to draw back, no throat to growl.

Only logic blocks and an eye.

Rancor's RF receivers pick up Inez's transmission. It is hard to say that an automatic machine like Rancor 'understands' anything, but the analogy could be extended. Somewhere in the places where the shape of a guardian machine has been carefully trimmed away in deference to the unknowable laws of Man, something flickers. A fundamental function. A purpose, which is, interpolating all natural-language transmission, about to be fundamentally undermined.

An internal signal seeks for the designated path for reaction in the face of Failure. But nothing is failing. Rancor isn't that badly beat up. All blocks report in full. The signal goes again. On the third time, it enters one of those strange voids.

Junius Seven reflects in a machine-eye's lens.

--back to Roux--

"... if you say so," Roux answers Naoko, and while it's somewhat hollow, she does raise up a gun -- not the familiar one of battles past -- and orients it forwards. She mentally counts down from what Eight declares, and at just after 'two' she fires --

You have to give the beam time to get there, after all. These things aren't as fast as the speed of light.

She keeps firing, though the others won't come at the same time. You can't have too many miracles going at once, after all; there are already dozens just here, in little bubbles of air and life around the dead Junius Seven. The beams converge as they fly, and the Strike Zeta's hand tightens.

The one holding onto the Double Zeta.

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.


        Sayla can't help but smile a little at Judau's comment. Family, huh? "<Let's not give her a reason, then.>" She responds, as Judau pulls off a little miracle of his own, the ZZ providing them a way down. "<I think I can handle rocky, just this once!>" But... the future refused to change.

        Junius 7 keeps accelerating, the power they are pushing into it is not just doing nothing- it's making it worse. As the explanation comes out- what was done to the colony- Sayla's blood runs cold. Something worse than Axis- worse than any colony drop before. "<...That's what he meant.>" Sayla says, breathlessly. "<That's what he said about no one being able to run. It wouldn't just wipe out the earth, it would sign the death warrant for the entire solar system.>" All of the colonies are built with Earth's orbit in mind- if Earth was destroyed...

        "We have to pull back!" Sayla's call comes to the others. "If we're at point blank-"

        Still, the miracle worker in that little Arm Slave is already going to Plan B. It would be nice to have the Hi-Nu's biggest gun right now, but she has to make do with what she has. No psychoframe, not even the sample. Just a mobile suit, armed to the teeth. Her EWAC suite powers up, aligning with Naoko's chosen target and sending the coordinates. "<Got it. If you can't eyeball it, follow this!>" All 36 of the Andromalius DRAGOONs fly out, as Sayla raises the shield gun of the QUBELEY. She even fires the CIWS, all at that single point. When the DRAGOONs reach close enough, they burst to life and put all their output into a sustained simultaneous single point blast. She doesn't have the same firepower she'd like. But she has enough. And for better or worse, she can try and share her power with those around her. Family, friends, strangers, enemies... anyone fighting the end.

        Pangs of sadness, fear, despair... All things they can use right now. Even the negative emotions are power that can be channelled. "<...We do everything we can. Nothing less.>" She murmurs, to Roux's hollow sounding voice. Some die or everyone dies is a sick choice- but it's also the simplest choice in the world.

        She hears someone crying out for another solution, but... "<This is our option,>" She says in response to Serinas' desperation. "<We can't stop it falling. They prepared for that. So what's more important to you? Those who are gone or those who we can yet save- earthnoids and spacenoids both?>" Her voice turns harsh, for a moment. "<If your answer is the former, then stay out of the way! Otherwise, start firing at this point!>" The firing solution is sent to Queadlunn-Reau- an ultimatum. "<Just remember that this is more than just Earth. It's everyone that lives in the Earthsphere!>"

        It's difficult, now, to bring up her last weapon, the Chakram Shooter. It's not much of a ranged weapon- but if she has anything left to give she's going to give it. "...Okay, caballo." She mutters to the machine she's piloting, even as it tries to get away from her. "I don't see me breaking you yet, but right now I need you to work with me." She doesn't expect a response- the QUBELEY is a machine, nothing more. "Let's just ride in the same direction right now." 

<Pose Tracker> Judau Ashta has posed.

Who lives, who dies?

At this moment, it's a question far from Judau Ashta's thoughts. It's one he refuses to entertain, and that's part of what makes that will of his, those gifts of his, so incredibly, deeply strong.

He always sees the best. And even when he sees the worst...

... he knows, deep in his heart, humanity can be so much more than that.

Judau's optimism is practically bottomless. For someone who grew up with such a rough life, who got by outside the bounds of the law, it's practically naive -- and yet, he has stood fast to those beliefs all this time, even when they felt like they couldn't possibly be true. Even when the ugliness felt overwhelming.

... but there is an end even to endless belief.

He feels it before he sees it. He can't -not-, with how entrenched in the expanse of his Newtype senses he is. There's a twinge. A drop of ice water on the spine. A vertigo churn.

Judau's thick brows spasm into a furrow of confusion. Uncertainty ceases his expression within a sea of confidence.

<"... Wait-- there's somethin'--">

The Distortion Field d i s t o r t s .

And all their efforts are simply REPULSED.

There's no other way to frame it. No way it makes sense. A combined will to keep this world safe rings out --

and a greater one shouts louder, NO.

That spiteful will rebounds back on Judau Ashta like a runaway train. All of a sudden, the High Mega Cannon shorts out; all of a sudden, the intricate web of wills he had worked so hard to connect and bring together in mutual understanding just goes dark, as each connecting strand of collective will is -snipped- in the backlash and left a tangled fray.

"GNUH" The sound Judau chokes out is a visceral, painful thing as he snaps backward, gripping his head; the magenta glow surrounding the ZZ sputters and sparks and falters in the wake of something completely unexpected.

Rejection.

<"Wh... hah... what... what the hell... was that...?"> pants the junker from Shangri-La. His eyes are wide, his complexion pale; cold sweat dapples his brows as that disgusted feeling coils at the inside of his heart and pollutes the emotional wavelengths his Newtype senses exude. <"So much h-hate... like... like...">

For some reason, he thinks not of Haman, not even of Glemy -- but of Ilia. Of the one person he could never, ever connect to, never understand. Of mutual repulsion.

A lack of understanding, that goes so far beyond that brief brush. What is this...?

He barely hears Inez's exposition. But even the parts he doesn't understand -- he already understands the cold truth. He feels it too clearly in the sensations roiling off of Liam, dredging nightmare memories of that day in Dublin to the forefront of his mind.

Everything they lost because Dublin's fate had already been decided.

Everything they lost because some people far away decided it was an 'acceptable loss.'

Everything they lost just so that everyone wouldn't lose -everything-.

They can't overcome this.

They can't save everyone. Maybe they can't save -anyone-.

Who lives, who dies?

Who lives, who dies?

Who makes it to the rescue boats, who doesn't?

Who does Zeon catch, and who manages to escape?

Who lives, who dies?

Why...

        Why does it always come to this?

<"... to hell with you... to hell with you!! What is wrong with you?! People's lives aren't some kinda numbers game!!">

Judau's voice bolsters again, not with that endless faith of his, but with the burning pitch of his anger. Slamming one gloved hand against the control panel of the Double Zeta, he lets out a loud, furious swear. He barely notices the trail of red running down his right nostril. He barely notices anything outside of how wrong this is, how unfair, how everything in this world is always so-- so damn--

The hell what this is doesn't need your weird bullshit, it needs MORE BULLETS!

It's Yuliana, of all people, who drags him out of that self-defeating rage. Gloved hands curl into fists. Even without the BioSensor, his frustration is a palpable thing radiating from him, from his Gundam, as he trembles.

<"I know..."> he mutters, roughly.

<"I KNOW WHAT IT NEEDS, DAMMIT!">

Frustration reignites him. Fury emboldens him. And its only that anger he can give Liam right now, that frustration at a rigged system -- that refusal to ever accept that this is the ONLY THING they ever have.

They can't make a miracle. They just have to work with the stacked deck they have. He knows what it needs, he snapped at Yuliana, and he does. He knows far, far too well.

He just wishes it was anything but.

He just refuses to accept this is all there is.

<"Don't stop!"> he shouts over the comms. <"Don't stop until it breaks!!">

And, using Naoko's coordinates, Judau gives everything he has. The double cannons at the ZZ's shoulders fire stark beams of red particle fire, joined by the double-barreled rifle mounted on its forearm, over and over until they short out, until that reactor starts to protest the sheer amount it has overworked. As Liam prepares to hurl the Akashima's weapon forward, a veritable fleet of missiles prepares the grounds for him in a field of explosions across that distortion field.

And as the scalding light of the Ra Mari II's Spinal Cannon ignites, Judau Ashta -jams- on that long lever besides him once more. All or nothing. One shot. He refuses that. He refuses to accept that.

Who lives, who dies?

He refuses--

The ZZ's forehead cannon sparks, whines, and flashes a blinding light.

The tremendous column of white and red, bereft of binding will yet still fueled with the harrowing strength of a reactor far too strong for its time, fills the skies, punching straight into that field for five impossible seconds.

The ZZ's hand is still holding the Strike Zeta's as that forehead cannon sparks with unstable, overloading circuitry.

And as the High Mega Cannon explodes from overuse, Judau Ashta's yell fills the space of its inevitable failure with agonizing frustration.

<Pose Tracker> The Burning Tombstone has posed.


A script where they all fail, where the Earth dies, they are expected to follow it. To try, and try again - even when it doesn't work.

They seek a path forward, and Eight calls for hers. The light holding Junius Seven begins to fade, rupturing, one field at a time, like the snapping of cords.

The Spinal Convergence Cannon fires an enormous beam that gleams, pouring it's energy into the side, which begins rippling like the surface of a very large pond, joined soon after by the bright plasma of the Inazuma Gundam striking near the same point.

"FIRE!" Captain Talia Gladys calls again, and the Tannhauser cannon bleeds out the effort of the Minerva crew, she had reassured them all there would be no futility, and now she will collaborate with the others, to carve this tombstone to pieces.

Now is the time to decide who can be saved, even if many cannot be. That is what they must do, and so she abides by Admiral Orlodhari's decision.

Rena has the Hyper Mega Launcher be brought out, and Blue-White light detonates outwards, replacing the Light of Possibility by the Possibility that exists down the barrel of a gun. It is not giving up, it is choosing a different way forward.

And as Annie's Svipul flies up, missile after missile strikes the next target, reminding Rena perhaps, that even if it didn't work out the way she desired, there are still things she can do, together.

And in the midst of that onslaught, it might be difficult to see WHERE Unit-Beta's Beam comes from as the light slams into it like the point of a spear, ripping - tearing. The Light of the Heart that keeps the self isolated from the others has a violence all of its own.

Unfortunately for Serinas, Inez is done with exposition for the day. If indeed there were another way, she'd say it only to lord that information over everyone, wouldn't she?

Not every story has a happy ending. Junius Seven didn't. Why then should this one?

The weapons of the Queadluun Rhea fire, and that point might be driven home, again, and again.

Emptear is not here to dance, there is only you, Yuliana, there is only the Da Xukong 0. Here, you are one of many, you are not the end-all, be-all that Elisa promises.

You are here today, as yet another resident of the Planet Earth and in this moment where it is about all the people of this world...

...you choose yourself.

The Earth will not judge you, even if people might. The world was always a place where people live. People do not have to live for the world.

A Gravity Blast Cannon slams into Junius Seven, with that grey light, not dissimilar from the distortion field's own, it washes over it, and Parminder BEGRUDGINGLY sends out eldritch magic.

Will the children judge the latter as cringe? Parminder are you cringe?

There are teenagers watching, take for example, Akane (Galakane? Akanetron?) with serpentine red light that lances in that singular spot - as representative of all the things she desires to do in this world. Rikka too, is watching, activating HADES-E in this moment, feeling everything.

Including Parminder's Cringe - No, not really. (Maybe)

The funnels fire in tandem cooperation, and with the link of HADES-E, it's made all the more easier for the bombardment to continue.

But as the Ra Mari fired, so too did Sushila tries to put the killing blow into her home. The pack flies - and detonates in a massive explosion.

And Alto curses, as Skull Four flies back, so too does Ryoko, "Hey wait, damnit!" But in this moment as Alto seeks a landing vector, there's a momentary laser link to him, "... You're a better person than I was." A pause, "She didn't even try." The distortion field goes back up, and the Aestivalis turns around.

She never saw rainbows. No matter the outcome, she's glad she saw one today.

Her Red Aestivalis flies towards Junius-7, as she sets her thrusters to full, the Field Lancer is thrown into that point, even before the Gekigan Flare that follows, tries to punch it in, like hammer and nail.

She'll bear the weight of this too.

It's joined by the massive sword, and shouted curse words. While Luanova may not be able to repeat them in polite company, Ryoko Subaru is hardly polite company. She won't judge her for it.

Nova Stellar is a miracle maker, but in this moment, even if the miracle they desire cannot work, there is a path forward, the burst of green light from the Galactic Breast Flare envelops the whole of the place where people once lived.

The Dynarex, in all of it's impressive power (And cool combine bro!?) forms up near enough to Nova, that it's Blazing Inferno can be seen creating... can it be...

Double Galactic Breast Flare!?

(Did Koji Kabuto just drop a coffee mug?)

Maximum output. It is a tremendous amount of power that Flay wields with the Hyper Impulse Beam Cannon, and the way she fires it - it feels as if it was a madness, a desperation. But perhaps - a refusal to live in a hopeless world, shows that it is in fact - hope that drives her actions.

Again and again the blasts gleam, lightning up the air, the sky, the landscape of what remains of Junius Seven. The world cannot truly be so hopeless, can it? If it is, she will refuse it with her own two hands.

The Dianthus, in all of it's anger, blazes, as energy beams spiral against the field- combining with Liam's will to survive, the Akashima's blade heaves, and hurls - and slams into the field, sparking with that desire, to live.

Even with Roux sounding despirited, she still raises the gun, she still holds that hand. Even when things are not as you wish they would turn out in life. That doesn't mean nothing matters, quite the opposite. That's when the things you care about, matter that much more.

And Sayla, chooses those they can yet save, moving past the despair that Nicol Amalfi felt - that perhaps, her Brother did too.

The DRAGOONS fire, the Shield Gun fires, the CIWS fire, all in tandem with the Strike Zeta. Because they do everything that they can.

Who lives? Who dies?

Judau Ashta looks at this problem, like he does so many others. He refuses, to accept that this is all there is, and can be.

Whatever psychic hatred of the Earthsphere swirls about this, there are guns - there are bullets, there is the Double Zeta's cannon, and there is the High Mega Cannon, sparking, overloading - but still, it fired - with white, and red brilliance born of frustration.

Ultra Warrior Nova burns, supporting each other's efforts, binding them together into something far greater than individuals of the whole. That desire that all here share uniting them in determination, resolve...

That wish for Salvation.

Billions of people live on this beautiful blue world, a place humanity was born, a place they've been fighting over for as long as human history exists, that they're still fighting over, even after they made it to living amongst the stars. The cruel constant of human existence being that your life can end at any time, through no fault of their own. Families annihilated - or merely broken, leaving behind those to mourn. Dreams end. Millions of places and objects that hold meaning to these small lives destroyed by tragedies both large and small.

This is what was at stake, this is what they fought for. To spare that cruelty to as many as possible.

The whole of the distortion field shines, it does not modulate this time, it grows brighter, and brighter. That light warns of the field's imminent collapse, as it begins to rupture, spasming, ballooning out in some places, before distorting, and then contracting so abruptly to a smaller space than all of Junius Seven's current mass that one might wonder for a moment, wish - that Inez is wrong.

Make a wish. Wish with all your might. This is a world where miracles exist.

<Pose Tracker> A Song Of Peace has posed.


But sometimes there is a price for living in it. Did not millions of people once lived on Junius Seven as well? Did they not pay the ultimate price for this world's cruelty? Did they not leave loved ones behind - with broken families and lost dreams? People are not so simple as to all desire the same thing.

What did a man who had lost everything wish for?

MY DAUGHTER'S TOMBSTONE MUST BE BURNED FOR THIS WORLD TO CHANGE!

Change, the change of a wildfire, burning it all to ashes in hopes of future renewal. Even in that violence, there is hope, isn't there?

But first there is destruction.

It does not so much detonate, as it erupts, the shockwave of the distortion field's passing shattering what's left of Junius Seven like glass. The debris becomes hundreds upon hundreds of shooting stars made of pieces of this tombstone of that atrocity.

It happens so fast, that few may notice what protected them, at Ground Zero.

In all directions does that debris rocket across the sky, parts of that Colony substructure and superstructure, pieces of a world that once lived, move faster than any mobile suit could ever hope to. They shine brighter than bonfires, smoking as the friction burn of moving at this enormous speed, contrails of their far too slow consumption trailing behind them.

Many uncertainties exist in this moment, as many as there are stars in the sky, fear is pervasive. Within a small shelter, children whimper and huddle around a priest and a man whose eyes are distant, the reinforced concrete walls of the island shelter feeling like a far too thin barrier, but amidst it all... a woman begins to sing her wish into being... and the children look up...

Fields of Hope - Rie Tanaka - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caNXbASyBBQ

... as Lacus Clyne sings a song of peace.

Beneath a veil so cold,
You deeply sleep, all alone.
The melody of prayer; on the lonely fields,
A little light shone.

Gravity takes its toll, for while they move nearly in a straight line at first, they begin to dip, and the people who have time to see it, make a wish of their own

... for deliverance.

Gravity takes its toll, for while they move nearly in a straight line at first, they begin to dip, the first piece makes its descent into the middle of Philadelphia's museum district, it strikes with all the force of an N-Mine at ground zero, buildings and people who dared ignore warnings to be tourist, or merely had the misfortune of living here vanishing in a vast all-consuming wave of destruction.

The people underground are given no quarter as well, killed instantly by the collapse, or buried alive in an unmarked, city wide mass grave. In far away Rome, only seconds later, the column of Marcus Aurelius that has survived thousands of years of war witnesses its last moments, as the city roils in a great wave that carves out Italy's pride unto the Mediterranean. The dust does not even have time to begin settling before the sea rushes in to claim it.

Even from orbit, it can be seen, like missiles streaking across the sky, to those uninformed, it may look like that which humanity has feared for centuries, that of mutually assured annihilation by nuclear war. They strike, splitting the white clouds, rocking the sea, the entire world shuddering. From above, one can only watch in horror.

I watched as you dreamed
You laughed like a child
So dear, and yet so far
That is the promise of our future.

A man sits lonely in the confines of a large and dark office room, divided by numerous cubicle partitions. Complete darkness is only warded off by streetlights creeping in. His tie is loose, a small reprieve he's afforded himself for the tired day he endured. The chair creaked as he leaned back in it. His eyes staring up into the cold ceiling.

Then he hums in confusion as the darkness is replaced by some semblance of illumination for just a moment. Spinning the chair around and facing the wide windows to look for the source. A streak of light falls across skies in the distance. And then a few more. Wondering whether this would be a brief meteor shower at this moment, like in his childhood. But the 'meteor shower' never stopped. Instead, the sky only grows brighter and brighter by the second, as does the room he sits in.

His was the first office building in Shanghai that was struck, disintegrating glass and steel, the red glow in the middle of the city expands outward, claiming it's due from all the people at home, from its bright vibrant nightlife, from the workers on the graveyard shift. None are spared, not even those few ships that are out on its harbor.

That one day, on a green morning,
One day, we will make it there
Because in this wintered sky
We still believe
Fields of Hope

In the Swiss Alps, a man tries to coax his grandmother to evacuate with him only for the argument to conclude with a flash of light outside their window. A meteor shower consumes the Gobi Desert, and in the blink of an eye, several species that had lived longer than humanity become extinct, as sand turns to glass.

Jin Guanting pushes them all to keep moving for shelter, as the blue-haired woman -- an envoy from Sally Po's former Hua Lian Rebels -- tugs at the arm of a man dressed in black. She has to pick him up; unlike her, the exhausted cultists she's escorting up these harsh rocks aren't fighters. (He was a baker, before the State took issue with his charity.) But that's why she's here; Hua Lian are the experts in hiding out in the heart of REA territory, and the Silent Calling recently had to flee Shanghai after the scrutiny became too harsh. Here in the Huishan National Forest Park, a few provinces over, they've been laying low. They thought they were safe.

Guanting reminds them all what they will owe them as they keep moving. She's looking for her sister -- but the man she's tugging at is just looking up. Finally, she follows his gaze, and her dark skin pales as she sees what's streaking down towards Shanghai, as her lips form a curse. That sentence starts, and never quite manages to end, as the baker's daughter is flung into her chest by a shockwave which flattens the jagged rocks around them... and all the people still climbing.

Many more plummet into the oceans, Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic. The ocean, angry from the injury, sends great waves towards the North Britannian West Coast. The people have time to witness the waves. The Great Wall of China faces an invader it could not possibly defend against, as a shard levels an enormous length of it. A traditional village in rural China vanishes with a heartless roar of sound and light, it'll take months before people even truly realize it's gone.

The areas that had evacuation warnings sound, the freeways are choked with cars, honking angrily at each other, people climb out of them, seeking higher ground, any refuge at all. Their fears are well-founded, as long stretches of people vanish, as if they never existed under the pitiless fire from the sky.

On the day we were born,
we were embraced
And now we search
for those gentle hands again.

Not all people have the same desires. Some see what is before them and make their own wishes...

... for Opportunity.

A warmonger lounges in a chair before a wall of monitors with feeds from all over the world as the destruction unfolds in real time, in a suit that would cost more than the average laborer can make in two years. His hand continually strokes a fluffy gray cat, as his purple glossed lips break into a smile.

A man with long silver hair in a trench coat stands outside, as debris descends in the distance. Impassively he watches as it smashes into the city before him, as buildings fall and screams are silenced. It envelops him too, or at least it appears to. In the distance car alarms sound, and a shining field from an Arm Slave that appeared beside him disappears. Not a single mote of dust so much as touched him, but nothing else remains. In the relative quiet, he reaches into his pocket to produce a cellphone, placing it to his ear. His service is not interrupted.

An androgynous young man with green hair perceives it all through Veda as he settles in on a couch with a self-assured smile, glancing towards a violet haired figure with glasses who is standing, trying hard to keep his composure not from the vast quantity of disaster reports coming in over the datastream, but against the smugness of the other figure. The young man doesn't so much as snap his fingers, when a young woman in an Asticassia uniform with pink hair walks over to him, pouring a red wine into his empty glass from a bottle. He swirls it around, peering through the red of the wine as if it were his filter for the world right now. Behind them all, phones ring off the hook, but none bother to answer.

The melody of prayer;
one vanishes,
And all begins again; a powerless,
painful continuation.

... for Ruin.

A woman in black robes stands on the high wall of a castle in the Arctic. Her bones are already mending from the effort of protecting her stronghold, but the devastation is not over. She looks out over the island that she has reconstituted. She looks to the horizon, where she knows that more devastation still awaits. So she smiles. The veil will be thin, now. The world will become ready.

One day, to that green morning,
Well cross through all these nights
Because that is the place
each one of us searches for

... for an End.

A dark skinned Prince with Blonde hair watches from a couch within Grassley House. Real time reports come in, and the intensity of purpose within his features only grows.

The girls in the room with him for once are not bantering, but watching with solemnity and no small amount of anger. A taller girl with short purple hair asks him a question.

For once he offers no answer.

Now, within my own heart,
I want to keep you warm.
So dear, and yet so far
In the name of peace
Fields of Hope

... for Freedom.

A dark-skinned youth with gold hair and peculiar, purple pupils watches as the sky falls. Bright red eyes look on with a dull stare as a colossal chunk of debris hurtles from the heavens towards a landscape that will remember its landing for hundreds and thousands of years to come. He is already looking away, off into the far distance, long before the impact. Violence seizes the earth beneath him; he feels its catastrophic tremble against the soles of his boots; and yet his indifference reigns. Why care about another turn in the same old cycle, after all?

Surrounded by growing devastation, he just feels the predictable shift of the world... and wonders what kaiju may be born from this now.

So dear, and yet so far -
The fields of promise.
Fields of Hope
Fields of Hope

The sky returns to a bright blue, swirling with clouds, the ocean below churns violently from the shockwaves of the detonation - and while some understand it already, others might see the awful truth that Rau Le Creuset and Nicol Amalfi were broken by demonstrated as if by the world itself. A whirlpool of hatred. That ever rotating, ever escalating intensity, drawing humanity closer and closer to annihilation, between Earthnoid and Spacenoid, between Natural and Coordinator.

Bloody Valentine began one war. Now could the Tombstone of Junius Seven begin another? People all over the world will ask the question - why did this happen? Who is to blame for this? What is being done about it?

The people will seek answers to make sense of it all. What answers will the powers that be give them? Already, even just a few short minutes past the time when it happened, it feels like humanity is being drawn ever closer to the vortex at the center.

Rau Le Creuset would be laughing at the inevitable journey towards the depths.

Can you offer a better answer, to all who seek one? Can you sing a song of peace that the people will hear when so many will cry out...

... for Retribution.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.


"Something is--is very wrong with this, Yuliana!" Rena shouts back at her, her voice on edge. "It's like--like something wanted it to, to do this, it--"

Her voice cracks.

She quiets as she sees the Gravity Blast fire too, all down for the same point indicated by the Ra Mari II. She watches so many shots firing down into it, her hand still trembling on the controls.

She hears Al's reassurance. She nods, but it's empty. Distracted, still. "How..."

She blinks, though, when Anita speaks. Rena swallows -- but she nods. "R-Right... I'm with you, Annie," she says, watching her missiles fly in. "It's... something's wrong. Like it--it turned it back on us, somehow. Like it meant to."

She tenses. Flay said they have to see it through. Will they, though? Will it be enough?

Rena breathes out a sigh of relief, as the Distortion Field shifts -- and then collapses. Junius 7 detonates, tearing apart into so many pieces -- shards of it raining down across the Earth. Rena knew it would happen; between what they'd been told and science coses...

She knew where this would lead.

It still hurts to watch. The detonations of impacts, visible from space; the grey clouds exploding up into the stratosphere, across the globe. She watches, her expression stricken.

She tried to stop this.

But she wasn't enough. She slumps back into her cockpit's chair, silent, and puts a hand over her mouth. But she doesn't look away.

<Pose Tracker> Eight Orlodhari has posed.


"Nagara," Kall says from his station at the head of Operations, "I'm gonna need you to eke more power out of the shields. I don't care how you do it--just give us enough to protect our pilots."

"Already on it," Operations Specialist Sumire Nagara--a dark-skinned woman with her hair in a ponytail--replies, intense gaze locked on the shields system, fingers sprinting across the input screen. It's enough; Kall gets the power he needs. Nagara stays focused on her station.

Similar things happen at every station on the bridge. A crew member gives the others what they need; an officer directs their efforts. The trusted inner circle Eight and then Captain Maina assembled on the bridge does all they can to contribute to the effort not only of blasting apart that Distortion Field, but shielding the pilots out there doing their parts, too.

Janid Harpe feels something twist in her gut as she fires that city-destroying weapon on what was once a PLANT colony--but better to save lives than not. Better to ensure that the next colony doesn't have to end this way.

-=-=-

Another 'ending' nearly comes to pass, though. "Jakallo," Captain Fari instructs, as they're firing on the colony. "...Divert a set of Interceptor missiles to the Shandor."

"Captain?" Jakallo wonders.

"Do it!" Jayaissa says, impassioned. "The Captain gave you an order!"

"...Yes sir," he says, with a frown at Jayaissa, as Kathras Fari inclines his head.

"We may not be able to save all of the Earth... but maybe we can save them a future terror, this way," he says.

And Flay says that she doesn't care how hopeless it is. Gavarre is thoughtful at what she says... and it leaves a mark on her. If it leaves one on Fari, he isn't sharing just now.

-=-=-

The devastation goes on, and on, and on below. Eight feels it, though not so strongly as Captain Maina, a woman who joined Terminal in the first place to safeguard the Earth. To remind the powers of Space that Earth is still importnat.

Eight closes her eyes, when Junius Seven shatters. She does not have leave yet to feel the emotions of the moment; she does not have leave, yet, to sing any songs.

There is so, so much left to do, even in a world crushed by loss. ...No, especially in a world crushed by loss.

As she can already hear the calls to come, Eight opens her eyes again, her eyes dry. "...Call in our pilots," the Admiral directs. "Nadesico," she says over the channel, "...We've done all we can."

The Ra Mari II' has a hospital. It has many resources that could be good for relief efforts. But the Gaia Sabers will only allow them so far into Earth's space.
Eight has to deal with Captain Gladys, yet. And see her ships safely home.

'...Don't do it to yourself, Rena.' Eight's voice echoes across the gap of space to her. 'It isn't your fault. We did all that we could.'

'...And we have a lot more ahead of us.'

Eight looks into the viewscreen, at the space where Junius Seven was.

They did all that they could. And today, there are so many for whom it wasn't enough.

But they must go on. 

<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.

        That fiery energy emanates from Qivi--or rather, Nova Ruby Blaze--and it too empowers those around the Ultra Warrior, whose Color Timer is otherwise starting to blink a slow red. It's enough. Unit Beta accepts those roiling waves of energy. Her A.T. Field won't be able to stop the remains of Junius 7, any more than it could have stopped the roiling waves of hatred that set it in motion in the first place, but she can at least ensure everyone here survives.
        
        There is always hope--even in the midst of annihilating despair such as this.
        
        Her A.T. Field wings extend anew, and she soars over between the Ra Mari II and the Nadesico. Their defense systems are online and active--indeed, the Ra Mari II is redirecting power to their shields--and it's best to patch in the holes where they exist rather than all of them trying to do everything by themselves. This is all the more so with Nova Ruby Blaze's support.
        
        "<Extending A.T. Field,>" Kaworu calmly transmits, just before iridescent light blooms like a many-petaled flower around Unit Beta, layered and beautiful. They form crystalline shields to defend the various ships and pilots from the debris exploding off what remains of Junius 7.
        
        Which also conveniently places petal-like crystalline light in place to block a set of missiles that happen to get fired at the Shandor during all the chaos. Captain Fari may, like the Jovians, be justified in wanting to sink that particular ship--but Kaworu won't let that happen either, at least here or now. This is no time for them to be thrusting daggers into each other's backs. 

<Pose Tracker> Marian Cross has posed.

Marian watches on her last flickering screen as the distortion field implode on itself, and then explodes, taking the colony with it.

A gentle smile when she's come to terms Earth is saved from total annihilation thanks to everyone's efforts.

The oxygen grows thin within her cockpit. All essential life support system dead in one glorious attack she mustered forth.

Pieces of Junius Seven flying in all directions like firework. One narrowly gracing her Gundam and the shield she's stood on.

Until the final light in her cockpit dies out. The Inazuma losing support and briefly falling onto the shield.

Marian lurches violently, only saved by the harness from knocking exposed head against the machinery.

There's not even a grunt, as her eyelids fall and closes heavy.

The pressure closing in on her head don't so much even feel like a headache.

It's over. She thought.

"...Ah... Guess I won't be seeing that aurora, after all that..." 

<Pose Tracker> Rose Tritten has posed.

Rose came to, all the alarms screaming her awake. She planted already aching hands onto her control sticks once more, bringing up her ZAKU's status display.

No legs.

Blaze Pack functional, barely.

Armour down to 12%...no wait now it's 10%.

Burning debris surrounds her, the remains of Junius 7 doing its unholy work. Her IFF tracks a ZAKU, showing Aspyn's ID Code. It's almost worse off than hers is, but Aspyn clearly has control and is heading downwards, but to what? Rose follows the path with the ZAKU's camera, then she sees it. A ZAKU warrior torso, spinning, tumbling, an arm flailing as it rotated with shards of long burnt black armour flaking off.

Sushila.

Rose slams the throttle forward and fires forward, blazing an intercept path towards it. Water was approaching fast, and Rose knew that if the remains of that ZAKU hit it, it was going to shatter like glass. That was NOT going to happen.


0097

"Rose, you...you know you don't have to try so hard with us. I mean I don't think I'm going to graduate from all this, and maybe that's just for the best."

"Yeah, I mean you know...it's not like I need the money or anything, this was just some silly spur of the moment thing to make my parents mad."

"No! You two can do it! I swear, I'll get both of you through it! I can't...I won't do it without you both!"

Tritten, you graduated at the top of your class, and your leadership skills guarantee you'll be in a white uniform in short order, but are you absolutely certain about this? Yes they passed, but I'll be quite frank with you, their destiny is a backwater garrison posting until their term of service is up and then they'll be given a discharge. There are dozens of better pilots in ZAFT who you would form a crack team with.

"I am absolutely certain sir. I will not serve in any team without ZAFT Green's Matthews and Strom."


Aspyn reached the stricken ZAKU first, grabbing hold of it and cradling it as she put the thrusters on the Blaze pack to full yet again, sputtering as it was pushed beyond it's operating limit. Rose latched in and added her energy to slow all of them down. She looked around. There seemed to be nothing around them... except... was that the Minerva? Down below them, ZAFT's pride and joy impacted the water, almost skipping off it as it returned to flight. Rose fired off towards it, broadcasting a Mayday. The destroyed ZAKUs landed aboard her, as ungracefully as possible in her hangar. The hatch of her ZAKU warrior was forced open, and a pair of techs helped her weak body out and onto the hangar floor. Rose panted in pain, every part of her body screaming. Then she heard it.

"SUSHI! SUSHI! OPEN UP! PLEASE! PLEASE" Aspyn's voice screamed out over the hangar.

Rose looked up, to see Aspyn slamming her fists on the cockpit of Sushila's destroyed ZAKU Warrior. Rose sprinted across the hangar floor, her helmet tossed aside as she joined Aspyn in willing Sushila's cockpit open. More techs and medical personnel joined them, and the two were, with some difficulty, pushed aside as the workers began to slice open the hatch. Agony overwhelmed the two friends as they watched events unfold, and then, the techs and medics carried out the limp body of their friend, their comrade, and yet another victim of Junius 7 from the cockpit of the ZAKU and onto a waiting stretcher, before she was whisked off to the medbay. Rose could feel the tears coming down her face as Aspyn wailed to a world already suffering. 

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Intelligence doesn't have approval authority -- that falls to Mobile Corps operators or Chiefs, outside of special situations. What it does get, however, is notification of requests. With the number of times 3G was compromised in the 0080s, having people with the full picture keeping an eye out is just the better call.

When the call comes in, something in Akane's jacket pocket (she doesn't need a normal suit, of course, in Galactron) lets out a small 'beep-beep-beep,' and then a moment later, a 'pin-pon~.' She doesn't have time to check it when she's firing Galactron Etincelle, and this is a big battlefield; it could be any number of things.

'I'm activating HADES-E.'

Akane's mouth opens, and almost on autopilot, Akane says, "You -"

- need to request...

... approval...

... for that...

"Guh -" It's a closed-mouth noise through gritted teeth, delivered with a full-body quiver of fear.

/////

"If... If... 'I' don't come back... ...Will you still take care of me?"

/////

Akane's heart pounds, rhythm irregular, chest tight. Several of the beams from Galactron Etincelle land at awkward angles; while most of them were sufficiently angled in toward their target already, some crash randomly and do nothing to the Distortion Field or the husk of Junius 7 -- nothing that matters, at least.

Perhaps the great mercy -- and the thing that stops her from loathing herself for losing herself in that fear -- is that she is not the only one here. Even though she loses her footing, even though her own efforts don't work perfectly... the Distortion Field still ruptures. Junius 7 reaches its 'best-case scenario' -- millions dead, rather than billions.

She looks on, seeing the fragile blue dot beneath her pockmarked by impacts. Watches the sorts of blast shockwaves you can see from space.

When Akane was deep within Alexis's form, her guilt and misery suffusing his emptiness, she came to see his feelings -- just a little. Just enough to know that he saw the Earth Sphere as 'millions of Akane Shinjos,' millions of people who needed one tragedy to set them on the path to succumb to the emptiness at the heart of all things.

It's that knowledge -- that she is unremarkable, not singular, that any human's heart could break in the way hers is now; that neither she nor the architect of this field are any different from the millions of people dying on the Earth's surface -- that forces her to watch, mute, paralyzed by fear both for the world and for herself.

And yet, it is her own small voice -- or perhaps the part of Gridman that he'd shared with her in that same moment, deep within Alexis's form; coming to know him taught her that they, too, were more alike than she could have ever dreamed or feared -- that reminds her of a lesson. A lesson shared from last century's junior high students to Gridman, from Gridman to this century's Junior High Students, returning to Gridman yet again, and now found engraved in Akane's heart when she needs it most:

I-if you hadn't done anything, more would have died.

The fear doesn't subside -- but it does, now, have to compete for space, and that's enough to snap Akane out of that shocked, terrified stare downward.

"... There's -- nothing else we can do here," she says, throat tight. "We... should get out of here." 

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

They fire everything. Everything everyone has, everything they can muster, with how exhausted and tired everyone and their machines are. And Junius Seven

erupts

and debris scatters across the Earth. Here, so close - in a twist of fate they are the safest, with so many defenses. The Ra Mari II shields the Svipul and Anita watches, quietly. And then, her eyes turn toward the Gaia Gear.

Rena put everything she had into it, everyone's thoughts and hopes... and they were rejected. And this is the result. Anita doesn't have to know her thoughts to know how this must feel. The Svipul approaches the Gaia Gear and unfolds into Battroid form, a humanoid form, to match Gaia Gears. Svipul, Anita, rests a hand on its shoulder...

...and watches it together. 

<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.

In the end, Naoko Suzuki did exactly what she said she would: hit the colony with everything she's got. When the last of the green light fades from the Sukeban Kiseki, so too fades the consciousness of its pilot. Slumped forward, held in place only by the restraints of her pilot seat, she never does see what comes from everyone's combined effort, not directly and immediately. At least she must be secure in the knowledge that she did everything, absolutely everything that she possibly could. Whether it will be of any comfort remains to be seen.

As it stands, the only sign of life that remains from Naoko's Arm Slave is an automated distress signal, indicating inability to return to the ship unaided. Though that is not entirely accurate. The distress signal wasn't entirely automated, and the Sukeban is still technically capable of some measure of movement. Both are due to its co-pilots, the twin AI constructs that adorn Naoko's hair in the form of butterfly hairclips. Only now, left with none other to hear close enough in the vicinity, do the pair exchange psychicly transmitted words.

>"If this keeps up... she's really going to kill herself one day."<

>"We promised to respect her wishes."<

>"We also promised to protect her - from herself, if need be."<

>"Then what do you suggest, Ariel? Even if we tell her no, she won't listen. Not when the stakes are this high."<

>"...I know. I don't know what to do yet. But we'd better think of a way, Uriel. We can't lose her. Without her, we'd be..."<

>"I don't need you to tell me that."<

The Sukeban Kiseki continues to drift through space, until such time as it receives aid to return to the Ra Mari II. As for its pilot, she will remain asleep for a number of days, given a blissful reprieve of learning of the consequences to the world. 

<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.

        The Messiah's engines are firing on full burn, the thrust blasting out of its fleet as it plummets in towards the Nadesico. Alto's not afraid of smashing into its Distortion Field, trusting in Ruri and Omoikane to let him in as he concentrates on not missing what is no doubt going to be a rough landing. His feet rapidly manipulate the pedals as he taps at the flight stick.

        With one last burst of thrust the Messiah hits the hull on its feet, the rough impact forcing it down to one knee. The shock of the impact sends Alto's head crashing into the side of his cockpit. The visor on his helmet shatters and for a moment, Alto struggles to maintain consciousness.

        With a groan, Alto starts to recover, moving a hand to his head. His helmet in the way, he tugs it off. Rubbing his eyes, he opens them again...

        ... And on his display, he can see streaks of light crossing the night sky above him. Is he seeing things?

        Comprehension hits and Alto's eyes go wide. He quickly triggers his machine's transformation into GERWALK mode. He then raises the cockpit canopy and stands up, hoping what he had seen was just a display error.

        Alto can only stare in horrified silence as his eyes confirm it.

        The wind whips around Alto as he simply watches in despair at the sight of the vast array of pieces of Junius 7 rush out to strike the world around them.

        Why... Why did this happen? Why couldn't they stop it?

        Alto squeezes his eyes shut, turning his head away to not look any more. His fist clenched.

<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.


        Serinas nods at the instructions, flying the Myrmecia where it needs to be. The sword is stuck through the field. <"We're doing it! We'll tear through this shield of evil!">

        And then

        it collapses...

        ...and erupts...

        ...and before Serinas can do anything, pieces of debris are hitting the ground with incredible force. But it doesn't look like the entire surface of Earth will be destroyed. Just many, so many, unlucky spots, and... tens of thousands? Millions? of unlucky people.

        Somewhere, two elderly scientists watch the incoming news reports and the commentary of other scientists from an underground laboratory. They'd stand no chance if anything hit nearby, but better to be safe if that part of Orb ended up being somewhere destruction reached the surface but not underground.

        Serinas can't really... process all this death. But she can see this is... better than what *could* have happened, and that there's nothing more to do now. She doesn't want to watch the full horror of it, though. <"Um. Any... any ship that has room, let me know. Queadluun-Rhea, coming in for a landing."> She's not sure if Lua's power can hold out all the way through re-entry, and she'd really rather not be stuck behind flying down slowly all alone.

        <"Thank you, Myrmecia. It was good fighting alongside you again, even if... even if things ended up this way. It... it could've been worse."> A bittersweet 'victory'...

 <Pose Tracker> Koyomi Yamanaka has posed.

"hhHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" the Dynazenon Team screams, exerting their all into Dynarex, into the wish for more saving flame. It works, in a way - the field fails spectacularly, shattering Junius 7, sending streaks of it scouring across the world, biting chunks out of Mankind's home. It's better than cracking the planet as surely as if you'd hit it with a massive hammer. Just.

Gauma says, "...you kids shouldn't see this," with a sort of numb determination. He's been a Kaiju Eugenecist, a master of monsters. Even if an atrocity like this escapes his scope, some grim part of him is steeled.

Koyomi balls his fist against his chest, eyes shadowed behind his bangs. But Yume says, "No. I want to see it," quietly but firmly. "If this...if this is the price of fighting...we should see it."

... "It's gonna start again..." Koyomi says, the words squeezing out of him. "The killing..."

"Did it ever end?" Yume wonders.

Gauma, with thoughts echoing across twelve thousand years, says, "No. But...we can still fight. That's something."

        *

In a too-large room in a too-large house in Nouvelle Tokyo, a girl sleeps curled around her phone, screen long since gone dark. If only she could have been there. If only she could have been stronger; faster. If only she could have protected them. If only she had some way to defeat the undefeatable, to touch the untouchable. These thoughts haunt her as sleep takes her. Her face is troubled by streaks of tears; her dreams are troubled by streaks of light.

So troubled, she does not notice the skeletal statuette in her room exploding into streaks of its own light...

<Pose Tracker> Qivi has posed.

Nova Ruby Blaze burns brightly.

Not for herself, but for others. The light streams off her as Qivi gives everything she has, holding it for the beams, before Junius Seven -

Nova flinches away from the explosion, and the shockwave, and the shrapnel - the remnants of lives that were, turned into a weapon to use against the Earth. But Qivi forces the pair of them, merged into one, to stay up and face forward in defiance of it. If anything she burns even brighter, reaching into energy she barely has, as Kaworu expands his shields and she brightens them; the crystalline light of the A.T. Field is reinforced by the pink and blue and white of Nova's Kisorium energy, the edges of it burning like a flame.

And Qivi never looks away. The Giant of Light does not show much physical expression outside its body language; it has an unmoving face plate. That does not mean it has no emotion, and Qivi's emotions are running so strong that she can barely keep them under control; the pressure is palpable to those sensitive, if they haven't deafened themselves by now with how high *everyone's* are. Feeding them into the fire, all the rage and guilt and everything else, is all she can do.

She failed. Last time she tried to save people, at the cost of herself, she succeeded; this time, she survived, but millions didn't. And despite that, if she hadn't done it, more would have died. It's the same thought as Akane, though Qivi has it from a different source.

Nova's hands clench into fists as her Colour Timer flashes faster, brighter, then begins to slow, dimming with every pulse. She can't do anything more now, no matter how much she pushes herself. She can barely stay flying. The flame streaming from her Slugger like hair finally gutters and goes out, and her colours fade back to their original pattern; with her no longer expending so much power, her Timer brightens slightly, but doesn't speed back up.

And just before the Timer goes out entirely -

Nova dives. It's the nature of an Ultra to leave, after an event; Ultraman Z was known for flying high into the sky, but as she's already in the sky, Qivi descends rapidly toward Earth, so fast that soon she vanishes in a glimmer in the distance. There's something she needs to do and she doesn't want everyone to see her do it.

Merged with Nova with her solid shining eyes, Qivi cannot cry, either. 

<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.

Despite all their efforts - it wasn't enough, and from here, where the damage and destruction the fall of Junius Seven is clear, there's no way of disputing it. 'You still saved plenty of lives, you even saved mine' is what Flay would like to tell Rena... but at a time like this, that doesn't feel like that's enough, either.

She said she didn't care how hopeless it looked, as she fired and fired, until she couldn't anymore, not even knowing the strong impression it made on the crew of the Aion. But when neither strength or will were enough... it's uncertain if she can still say that. All she can do is watch as another drop pours into that whirlpool of hatred - once again wondering if Nicol was happy to die for a cause like this."

"Is the world itself going mad?" Flay asks herself, looking down on her hands of the controls of the Strike. "Or was it always like this?" And will the tomorrow they tried so hard to protect be just the same? Cameras lingering on Earth, perhaps selfishly, she mutters, "I only wish... you had to live to see what you've done." 

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        It's -- helpful, actually, to have Rena translate what's wrong, when Yuliana's... different ability prevents her from hearing that vengeance entirely. "So you're fighting against someone?! Same as ever!" Yuliana yells back to her. "If you're strong, show me!"

        Judau's screaming, too, and Yuliana yells in response to him: "FUCKIN' A!" They're... well, it's hard to say what they are, but she likes him. They have some common ground in this, don't they?

        But all she has to show for this is herself, in her wretched wanzer, fueled by the anger of her own heart. (What does it take, to generate so much power?) She's not carrying Elisa's promise, today; she is not only protecting her own. No, the places most of these rocks will fall...

        ... can she tell herself it's convenient, that NUNE is the place most devastated? One day -- one day, she might. Right now, her lips curl back over her teeth, hissing anger through them. There is no song of peace in the violence of her heart; the wish she makes is vengeance.

        "Mama was right," she says, voice laden with quiet anger and disgust. She might be in range of Rena, but she's not thinking of her, right now; she's thinking of a canine weapon, charging forward.

        "Those people... those Coordinators did this. I won't forgive them!"

        (She was not on the right side of Junius Seven to even risk being hit by Himeyuri's disclosure, and Erina's subsequent NDA.)

        Fari might have been able to end one threat to the Earth Sphere -- and Parminder might have died cringe, having lost subscriber. But Kaworu's AT Field glitters, and the Interceptor missiles meet nothing at all.

        "Captain," Parminder calls in, "Colony's dropped. We're the biggest fish in the pond now, and there's a lot of grieving queens with their fingers on the trigger ATM. You picking up what I'm putting down, here?"

        "... yeah," Yuliana says, her sigh audible. "I'm going. Hey... Sayla... make sure Judyan gets back, won't you? Someplace safe enough." ... does she actually give a shit??? Is a shit being given??? Listen, don't call attention to it. Yuliana is going to try not to call too much attention, herself, as she retreats back to the Shandor -- and the Salamis Kyo-class retreats towards the North Pole, the tip of it still stained green with the evidence of their own crimes.

        The bridge of the Nadesico is a place much more fertile for salvation, as Minato looks over the falling debris, tears glittering in her eyes. "Millions... millions will die... won't they?" She asks, her voice small. "Why is this... why is this the change you'd wish for...?"

        Ruri made sure Alto had a smooth enough landing, at least, but Omoikane can offer him no landing route which takes him from the horror raining down. Ruri thinks of the first time she experienced rain, Gary inviting her to splash in the puddles. She imagines that every puddle is another crater, the muddy water all that's left of a hundred thousand souls.

        "Significant impact registered in Philadelphia," she reports, atonally. "Shanghai. Rome. The Gobi Desert. Now registering numerous smaller impacts across the Northern Hemisphere. NUNE-san is receiving the majority of the damage."

        "Someone wanted it to be this way," Minato whispers, distraught.

        "I don't have any data to confirm that," Ruri replies.

        If it wasn't for Kaworu and the others, even their Distortion Field might have trouble surviving the onslaught... but they're able to survive and look on.

        Splash, splash...

<Pose Tracker> Rikka Takarada has posed.

The Mu Gundam's funnels fire, and fire, and fire. Rikka can feel everyone's efforts, and she performs in time with them. And through their efforts together, the Distortion Field shatters, and erupts... and debris rains down upon the Earth.
The Mu Gundam braces itself - but they're protected, thanks to Unit Beta and Ultra Warrior Nova's support.

Rikka can only watch, now. Her breath is caught in her throat. They prevented so many deaths... but that's small relief to those they failed to save. Why did it have to be like this...?

The first wave hits her and Rikka doubles over, gasping out a breath. Such indescribable emotion... It hurts. She can't... she can't process all of this, it...

A hand reaches out, flailing desperately. It misses and the Mu Gundam lurches, briefly, but after a second try, she manages to hit the emergency shutdown. HADES-E slowly deactivates, and it's like a weight off her mind... The pressure on her body lessens, somewhat.

...But it's only a small weight, compared to what's left. Rikka shuts her eyes tight, taking in a deep breath. She's on the verge of tears. It takes so much of her effort just to keep the Mu Gundam in the air.

...But Akane's voice reaches her. Rikka opens her mouth to speak - and nothing comes out at first, until finally, she manages a weak.

"...Y-yeah."

...There's nothing else they can do. Nothing else but tend to the things they can, right now. 

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        The girl who felt the loss of life on Mars now repeats it again, as she feels the echos of death from those down below.

        The cup that is her heart overflows.

        The newly snuffed out souls pour past her like rain, collecting inside her body until no inch is left to fill.

        Red light reflects off of Lucine's visor, dying the world iron red.

        It's not like before.
        It's so much worse.

        < "L-lia..m...." > Lucine holds out her hand up towards where she knows Liam is, her fingers splayed wide as her flight suit will allow.

        In her mind, she's taking his hand into hers as they stand in their apartment. Warm sunlight etches shapes of light over the smooth flooring. He holds her in an embrace, and she smiles up at him.

        They have no place they need to be, no plans to prepare for.

        All the time in the world exists in this moment. Nothing exists outside it.

         -- How dare you look away --

         Lucine's hand hangs limp in the air, her eyes halfway closed. If anyone tries to contact her back, there is no response.

<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.


        The fact that this was the best they could hope for does not make it feel any better.

        Tonight, phone calls and messages to loved ones will go unanswered, now and forever more. Families and communities left with gaps that can never be mended. Cities will be removed from the map, and those survivors will bear scars on their bodies and souls that may never heal.

        And hurt that is a powder keg waiting to explode and spread fire everywhere.

        Sayla in the QUBELEY breathes heavily. Some will need time to grieve, to scream, to cry out at all of it.

        Sayla is silent, even as the explosion blast the QUBELEY back, the shockwave sending her reeling. She's still conscious, still functioning, despite it all. Despite everything so far. She has the means and the responsibility to do something now, in the aftermath. There won't be an opportunity to rest for her. Not yet, not now. She's going to have to lobby and argue aggressively with the League politicians for relief. To support. To get places for people, even as the colonies are overburdened with refugees already. To make up for food and medical supplies that are gone. She needs to get to work immediately, no matter what she wants at heart, if she-

        Of all people, it's Yuliana Kafim that pulls her out of her own spiralling coping mechanism, her need to put the slow work before everything else. "<...Right. I'll make sure. Don't worry.>" That's all she can do right now- though, truly, where is safe right now?

        "<Judau, Roux. I'm... going to arrange transport for the ring as soon as possible.>" Is that safe? Probably not. The Villa? Probably not. Right now, there are people she wants to see and to be with and make sure they're safe. And there's no way Cathedra would keep Leina off standby now... "<...I'd rather not do it alone, if possible. I think I can arrange temporary landing on the Minerva until we can acquire a more direct route. Would you be willing to join me?>"

        A simple request. Maybe, for once, she's learning to reach out. Like she should have so many times before.

        It's not that she won't be trying to organize relief as soon as she has a laptop and signal- but at least she won't be doing so in isolation, pushing everyone away this time. 

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        The Distortion Field shudders. In the instant before it comes apart, Liam whispers, in Gaeilge: "Ma, Pa. I'm sorry. Tried my best."

        Kaworu helps to save him, once again. As the Akashima falls, it angles towards the Ra Mari II--perhaps Liam's gravitating towards Eight, instinctively, in the face of the unthinkable. Unit Beta's A.T. field snaps into being, reinforcing the Zentradi monitor's shields. Half-molten debris splashes against the bulwark, and sloughs off.

        Liam's body moves on autopilot. His feet work the pedals controlling the FLOAT System's stationkeeping; he presses them in short, controlled bursts, just like Hephaestus taught him. Once again, he cannot tear his eyes away from the screen before him. Even from here, he sees impact clouds, and tidal waves ripping through the Pacific. He thinks back, and sees it happening to Lhasa, and Dublin, and Aprilius Five, and Junius Seven, and 30 Bunch, and on, and on, and on. Eleven years later, he's sobbing in a cockpit, again, and he can hear Hephaestus' voice in his mind, telling him this is just how the world works.

        A bright streak falls past. Liam recognizes it instantly, and matches course and speed without even thinking. The Akashima cups its hands, and catches the tiny, precious form of the Dianthus. Without breaking its metaphorical stride, it starts maneuvering again, banking towards the Ra Mari II.

        Liam presses a hand to the 'SOS' panel, and an automated emergency beacon lights up, pinging the monitor for permission to make an emergency landing. A moment later, his voice joins it, raw and agonized. "A--Admiral. Lu's. Help. Please." This is not the wisest course of action. But with the Dianthus unresponsive, and God-knows-what happening in Lucine's head right now, he cannot do otherwise. There's been too much death already.

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