2024-09-21: Broken Earth
- Log: Broken Earth
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Boss, Sympatria Unit, Li Yao, Angelo Sauper, Kathras Fari, Sayaka Yumi, Leina Ashta, C.C., Emilia Eschonbach, Lilium Valerie, Soma Peries
- Where: Gobi Desert, Mongolian/China Border
- Date: 2024-09-21
- Summary: Yuliana and Angelo lead the Dawn of Fold, with Satellicon support, to steal relief supplies from the REA and bring them to a rural Mongolian town in need of aid. But NUNE has tracked them down -- and from their perspective, terrorists have just stolen food which the people of the Shanghai Crater need, too. Thanks to One of the Sympatria Unit, Captain Fari isn't able to blow up the supplies before he leaves them in terrorist hands -- and so, after a terrible sandstorm, said terrorists are able to get help back to Choir. But Leina's concerns over the consequences weren't unfounded, as Mongolia finds itself under increased scrutiny and demands to see their papers afterwards.
KTS: Angelo Sauper has deployed in AMX-015-4S Dag Doll. KTS: Kathras Fari has deployed in Agammemnon-class Carrier 'AION'. KTS: Leina Ashta has deployed in CEK-068 Beguir-Neuer. KTS: Boss has deployed in Boss Borot. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has deployed in AMX-116K Zaku IV 'Black Swan'. KTS: Li Yao has deployed in GNF-00XNH Yulong. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has deployed in Da Xukong 0. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has deployed in EXM-A9a Spinatio (Army Type). KTS: Sayaka Yumi has changed loadout. KTS: Leina_Ashta has deployed as a Boss for 2 opponents. KTS: Soma Peries has deployed in GNX-604T Advanced GN-X Rosen. KTS: Soma Peries has changed loadout.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNCmspSjJ1E The Witch from Mercury - Terrorism
Choir is a free economic zone on the edge of the Gobi Desert, around a hundred kilometres from the edge by road. That road has been devastated, now -- because even though the shockwave dissipated enough not to destroy the town by the time it reached them, it still caused a lot of damage.
More damaging still were the dust storms which came in the wake of the explosions. 'Dust' may imply irritants, something annoying but easily pushed aside; put the image out of your minds. The debris which blew across Mongolia was made of shards of glass, fragments of steel, scouring sand, and a dozen choking chemicals. It drove into people's homes, into their machines, into their eyes and their lungs... and into the food they had stored.
Choir began as a Soviet outpost -- long, long ago, what is now Zaftra saved the people here from being claimed by China. Their memories are long, and that's why the people here are resentful, now, of the REA's seat of power. Their neighbour has always gotten more of the pie. It's no different, now, when this town which originally hosted eight thousand people swells to a population of sixteen thousand refugees... and the REA fails to send them the supplies they need to survive.
Other people, they're told, need it more.
An entire town of tents -- many of them dark -- have cropped up around the town of Choir, in the weeks since the world was broken. The Silent Calling attends to them, trying to help where NUNE has failed. Beside them is the Yumi Foundation, trying to get help to the under-served populations of NUNE. But the Yumi Foundation's air drops are being tied up in Customs -- with the REA taking the process of approving their relief supplies slowly, trying to convince the Foundation to let them allocate the supplies, and insisting that an air drop might just drop those supplies right in the hands of terrorists.
(It's well-known, after all, that the Silent Calling are associated with the Kafims -- known reality terrorists.)
If it's not coming from NUNE, perhaps it's better -- or at least safer -- to have no help at all.
The delay have lasted days, and food is running out in Choir, even with people being asked to volunteer to go without if they can. Perhaps, if they'd just waited longer, help could have come...
... but how much longer can these people, who have lost everything, really wait? Hunger is as basic a need as warmth, and with so many injuries, physical and psychological, a full stomach is all the more necessary.
Under these conditions, Yuliana's called Angelo and the rest of the Dawn of Fold in for support -- as well as their allies in Satellicon.
Under these conditions, they've crossed the Gobi Desert into China, to strike at a convoy bringing supplies in to the communities still standing around the Shanghai Crater. The assault was quick, brutal, and surgical; they drove the convoy guards off instead of killing them, perhaps entirely because of some of the Satellicon assistance with them, but they've claimed the supplies for themselves. Three Geara Doga units have been re-fitted to haul cargo, escorted by the attackers; their task is simply to keep the life-saving supplies they're hauling safe.
The terrorist caravan makes its way across Inner Mongolia -- the Chinese side of the Gobi Desert, though it's common to call Mongolia itself Outer Mongolia in deference to the Chinese viewpoint. Many parts of the Great Wall of China stood here -- once. In a place where walls from the Liao and Jin Dynasties once stood, in these craters where Gobi Desert once grew...
... there is nothing.
Parts of the Great Wall survived -- parts further from the impact site, protected by mountains or other blessings. But here, close to where Zamyn-Uud once kept the Mongolian border, there is no longer even a hint of the Wall the Chinese people built in ancient times. They are all consumed by vast craters, punctuated by long stretches of blasted-out nothing, even the sand blown away by the force of the explosions which landed here.
It's a shame. If the Wall survived, they could use it for cover. But this is the most vulnerable leg of their trip. Before they reached what used to be the Gobi Desert, they could move in stealth, taking a long, winding route far from the troubled settlements here. Now they must cross this thing which is no longer even a desert -- and there is no cover for miles around. At least it's dark, at this time of night.
Everyone should be on high alert.
It's still a long way back to Choir.
[OOC] Yuliana Kafim says, "for NUNE: You are aware that a relief convoy was stolen because the guards lived to tell about it, and you've been getting your forces together and tracking them down and are now ready to spring on them in the ruined craters of the gobi desert where they have nowhere to hide."
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
Angelo Sauper hates Earth.
There's very little redeemable about it, in his eyes. There's very little -comfortable- about it. The wild swings of weather. The dizzying horizon. The way gravity constantly bears down on you, reminding you of one single thing.
You are not free here.
Lack of freedom, being dragged down by the weight of something and someone else, though -- these are both things that Angelo is too familiar with. So while he might not like Earth... he can, at least, provide critical assistance to his allies when need arises. After all, these allies are precious in this critical juncture, or so he's been told. It's important, to have someone capable of scratching your back, they said.
So why shouldn't he help them with the guttering, sad wreckage of a once-great planet they're all so desperately obsessed with?
In the end, it's just another transaction.
And so, Geara Doga are modified and supplied, as well as a trio of pilots adept in their use. Dogas are old but reliable. Cheap but dependable. But best of all, like their descendants, the Zulus -- far and away one of the most easily modified Mobile Suits in the Earth Sphere.
There's a contingent of Sleeves to help guard, of course, but it's a small showing at best. The bulk of their contribution are those trio of Mobile Suits and the veteran pilots behind them...
... and their Commander.
Angelo Sauper's Mobile Suit can be found here, today: the pale lilac of the Dag Doll gleams in the light as it soars overhead on the back of a Base Jabber, its glowing pink mono-eye swiveling back and forth in eternal vigil. Systems currently on autopilot, its pilot rests within. Arms crossed, eyes closed, the white-haired Commander of the Sleeves' remnant forces may seem for all the world to simply be resting -- but he is listening closely. To every ping of radar. Every most minor alert. Every twinge of chatter on the radio. He listens. And he waits.
It's unusual for him to be here. Earth is, again, one of the last places Angelo Sauper wants to be.
But this isn't about what he -wants-.
It's about what he -needs-.
And he's more than willing to wade through the sad dredges of humanity's cradle for that.
He's willing for much more than that.
<Pose Tracker> Sympatria Unit has posed.
One of the units escorting the convoy of cargo-haulin' Dogas is a large, blocky machine with no discernible heads, and guns for arms. This is perhaps not too surprising for mechs, since the estimable design of 'armored artillery, self-propelled' has had an honorable niche, however obsolete it may be in some situations.
Nevertheless, the BRC-1 has been keeping up - and sometimes it's even gone into the van, to relieve escorts during reshufflings. After all, it's a long trip.
And the man in the BRC-1 - THE PAIN OF THE UNIVERSE - is built tough.
This gentleman - call him One, because that's what he calls himself - turns his head for what he has counted as the 327th time - incrementing to 328, as he completes his direct scan of the horizon. "Clear," he reports, gruffly.
There's a tactical frizzle of static, and one of the cargo-hauling Gearas Doga answers him.
"So are you looking forward to your DATE?" comes a wheedling, faintly mocking feminine voice.
"Wh - Six?! How long have you been there?!"
"Since we got in," Six answers One: "I was sleeping, but I got bored, so--"
"Cut the chatter," One replies, with heat. "You could give us away!"
"It's a signal maser, dummy, if they can intercept signal masers then they've probably solved quantum complete encryption cracking and we're already all just playing around until they bring the ham"
"Three! Are you alive?!"
"Yuh-huh," answers a somewhat less gruff male voice, faintly.
"Are you in control of your machine?"
"Yuh-huh."
"Well then get the comm set away from her!!"
There is an interlude of scuffling during which One reaches with his arm less encumbered by control links to pick up one of the damp cloths he'd set out before deployment. It's mostly dry, and now warm, but he appreciates the rough texture, wiping the sudden burst of sweat from his natural-skin forehead.
"Agh! I've been murdered!" says Six. A moment later, Three speaks, more clearly. Some cross-talk before signals are adjusted, probably to filter out the wails of agony from the murdered Six.
"OK, she's confined," Three says. "So... is it true?"
"Is what true?" answers One, guarded.
"Are you going on some kind of date? I'm just surprised. Never thought about that myself."
"I can go on a date if I want," One grunts.
"I'm not questioning that," Three says: "Just, you know, curious. This is actually me, if you're concerned."
"... she asked me," One says, finally. "At, hrm, well, I'm not going to say it on comm; you know where I mean."
Three digests this, and answers: "So you accepted?"
"... You didn't see the look on her face, I didn't have a choice," One grunts. "New topic. Is the reactor stable?"
"Stable as gravity," Three reports. "Honestly, even with the adapters, I like this thing. I can tell it's got good energy."
"... the power systems?" One hazards, before concluding - "Never mind-- compliment the providers later. Out."
"Out," concludes Three, closing the mic mere fractions of a millisecond before a thin but tight-clenched fist comes towards his head from behind--
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
The mood in Boss Borot's cockpit is not as chipper as the machine's face might suggest.
As members of Satellicon, the trio is here to assist wherever they're able, and helping allocate supplies is a particular point of interest for them. They don't have the advantage of familiarity, though - Boss's famous hospitality will do nothing for the silent desert sands. Nor is team spirit particularly high - for as much as they consciously know why they're here, brute forcing their way through convoy guards can't help but feel off-putting. (Boss might have took comfort in the idea that his presence helped prevent a more violent altercation, but that would require him to consciously accept that his Dawn Of Fold allies would have been more violent were it not for Satellicon's presence.)
If nothing else, though, at least protection comes naturally to them. Nuke diligently monitors Boss Borot's radar, while Mucha maintains communications. Boss is at the wheel, keeping watch as he pilots - the radar only detects "any signs of life", so anything else of importance has to be handled manually. The crew make regular check-ins among themselves and with their allies, but otherwise their usual banter is subdued in their focus.
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
The days have been long since the so called 'Breaking', Yao wasn't even sure how many days it had really been. Images of the little valley he had called home for years decimated by debris, the village downstream now merely rubble that blends with the rest of the rubble, are simply on repeat in his head. That wasn't even the worse of it though, the worse was the people.
In the past weeks so many hungry faces, so many needing medical supplies and yet no help came.
It has left the old man quite a bit more surly then normal, and his secret about smoking becoming less and less of a secret. In fact right now he was simply letting his unit move on automatic for a moment while he stands on top of the Yulong's shoulder, a cigarette in one hand as he watches the horizon.
The old man is lost in deep thought, until his ear piece begins to be blasted by the comm chatter by the Sympatria unit. Yao can't help but snap at the 'kids' <" Will all of you be quiet and focus on the matter at hand."> WIth an annoyed huff he rips the ear piece out of his ear and takes a final moment to enjoy the cigarette before he tosses it over his shoulder. Shaking his head, Yao now says to himself, "Kids can't even tell a storm is coming."
Climbing down from his perch he makes his way back into the cockpit of his unit and begins to prepare for the mess that dust storms bring.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
The OCU, and by extension Fujinomiya City, might have been left unscathed by the devastation caused by the Break the World Incident. But the damage done to nations like China and its close neighbours really hammers in how 'close' it was, how fortunate they were, when others weren't. Making sure relief gets where it needs to go is a little out of the scope of the Photon Power League... but it isn't out of the scope of Satellicon.
It was the call from Yuliana Kafim and the Dawn of Fold that brought her here, and although Sayaka remains apprehensive of the Silent Calling for some reason, she still trusts the work that the Yumi Foundation does, even without Sayla at its head anymore. Sayaka made sure the presence of Satellicon tempered the Dawn of Fold's... somewhat violent tendencies, and therefore, the original deliverers of the supply got to escape with their lives.
Sayaka doesn't really think she has the right, deciding who gets to eat and who gets to starve. But with the intel they've been given, it doesn't exactly seem NUNE is deciding it with a fair hand, either.
Sayaka was also worried about bringing Boss along, since, well... old Borot wasn't made for long-range desert travel, or fighting NUNE's finest. But she knows their desire to help people are earnest, it's true that his presence lessened the amount of violence! "How are you three holding up? Honestly I'm surprised that bag of bolts is still moving... I suppose those upgrades weren't for nothing."
Unlike the trio, she's not in her personal unit - her responsibilities means she has to be a little more subtle about who she is. Instead, she took the Spinatio for a spin, if only to test the frame and provide Shari with some data about its performance in heavy terrain. It's not what Sayaka's used to, but if they get sprung, it'll hold its own. If they're lucky, it won't come to that at all.
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
The scales ever sway, but one thing is constant - each time they move to balance, countless lives are thrown off the edges.
Above the convoy, its arms spread, the slightly tarnished Gawain looms, and the world knows it to be the standard held by Zero, the man of miracles who rose from the oppressed of Japan.
"In the wake of calamity, the powers that be are quick to decide sacrifices...hmph. Borders drawn in the sand made into arbiters of life and death. ...I can only imagine that it displeases you, Mr. Sauper, but your diligence for this cause will not go unappreciated."
That booming, authoritative voice reassures the ones trudging through the dust...
And then within that cockpit, the masked man of miracles removes his helmet - letting long green hair shake freely and taking a deep breath to herself. C.C. rubs her throat, a little cognizant still on how the voice changer convinces anyone - it certainly sounds different to her.
The haughty stuff is a little difficult for her to keep up, so to compensate, in her own voice, the witch heralds to Boss, "When it comes to supplying this food, though, you're the biggest 'man of miracles' here, aren't you? Are you just here to run defense, or are you planning on providing that dash of extra morale once we get to the camp?~ If so, I -would- like to try some."
...It feels a little silly still, to pretend to be two different people in one cockpit, but at least C.C. set up her own reputation as only really speaking up to say something a little self-indulgent.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
It was the areas all over again. Britannia prioritizing aid to the safe and desirable, and leaving those truly in need to suffer. 'Numbers' aren't real people to them after all.
This is hardly her first time stealing supplies- it was a typical Black Knights operation, with far less resources than the Dawn of Fold and Satellicon both. Come in hard, take out what you can, then get out before you can be followed or reinforcements come. Today, especially, Emilia leaned into 'going in hard'. Interspersed among the Geara Dogas are the Zaku IV squadron- and there is chatter, occasionally.
"So, Gray, you think the psycho's more or less unhinged than usual today? What do you reckon, is our 'Earth Combat Specialist' trying to impress her old boss?"
"Do you *really* need to needle her right now, Peri? I'm busy watching our entire clock right now."
"Couldn't imagine what you're talking about."
Emilia is, in fact, tense. Very tense. She too is watching her six- but the quiet reminders from her squadmate that Emilia isn't a 'real Spacenoid' isn't helping. The subtle reminders that just as many of the Black Knights saw her as a full Britannian no matter what, just as many of the Sleeves saw her as a privileged Earthnoid. She was already in an awful mood- and the savagery with which she hit the convoy is a tell for that. Guards surviving wasn't for lack of trying on her part.
"Sh-shut the h-hell up, Peri." Emilia's voice comes out as a growl- it's typically rare for her to speak more than acknowledgements on a mission.
"Oh?" Toni Peri seems entertained by the response. "'fraid I couldn't make that out, Eschonbach. Wanna repeat that?"
"I s-s-said-"
"Both of you, stow it. Eyes on sensors." Squad Leader Oscar Kalo's voice brooks no argument- in part, because he knows the commander is listening. And, in part, because it seems like today there's a genuine risk that Emilia might decide to take Toni's constant aggression as an invitation to shut her up permanently.
"Y-Yes sir."
Peri's response is a somewhat insubordinate silence- but that's good enough for now.
Emilia scans the field in her 360 degree cockpit, but her eyes keep trailing to the KMF. Zero's KMF.
And what the hell was that bastard doing here...?
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
In Ulaanbaatar, Leina Ashta sits in a hangar, talking on an audio only call with a Meltrandi woman, because communications are still on the fritz. Technically she's a volunteer, but as Sayla Mass's daughter the Yumi Foundation volunteers in Mongolia has been leaning on her to be their representative for solving their dwindling supply problem, they were supposed to get a drop two days ago but, it didn't happen, so she's back in civilization...
"Alright - the REA are being assholes. What else is new? We've got problems, let's talk solutions. Can we divert small amounts away from the sites in China by ground transport?"
"Not easily." Val answered, "By ground we're looking at probably a week with how devastated the countryside is, even planning routes has to take into account REA checkpoints, bribes - the possibility they'd just confiscate it anyway."
"No guarantees and we don't have a week anyway. Okay, what other options do we have?"
"Not many. You could try to call your Mother-"
"Her political authority is less than useless Earthside right now thanks to Junius Seven."
"I meant, she has connections. These REA customs officials are acting like they're 'incorruptible' but really it's just that their bosses are demanding everything be diverted to China."
Pinching her nose, she takes a deep breath, "Okay sure, fine - she has enough problems right now but if you think it'll help-" Rubbing her face, "God I'm about five minutes from just going up to the ring, getting out the platinum card and hauling it back down myself."
Val took on a whimsical tone, "It'd solve a lot of problems." Before Leina noted, "And give me five more. I'm under extra scrutiny right now for insubordination, if I'm seen as abusing our authority to bypass the red tape..." Leina's forehead thumps on the table in front of her, "Nnngh."
"I can't see you but by the sound of it you're full on head desking?" As Leina muttered, "Uh-huh." Her head turned sideways to press her cheek, "Maybe I'll call Mondo. He's done smuggling work."
"A more law-abiding officer I have never not seen." "Shuddup."
The hangar suddenly lit up, with red lighting, to indicate a heightened state of readiness, as she sat upright, raising an eyebrow, "Hey Val, call you back in a bit? Something's going down."
"Go handle it. This isn't just your problem to solve, Leina. We're putting in a lot of work on our end too." A sigh at that, "Yeah, I know just... ... Later Val." Ending the call, she stood up, walking across to the comms room, "What's going on?"
"A supply Convoy near the Shanghai crater got hit, Cathedra command thinks it's Dawn of Fold." Leina froze for a few seconds, before a word uttered from her throat, loud, and hot. "GODDAMNIT-!"
-=-=-
There is a small Cathedra contingent in Mongolia, with a presence heightened due to the emergency situation, but mostly it was only there because it was a convenient staging point near Khanka.
It's that contingent that's linked up with the NUNE forces and is now flying over the devastated Gobi Desert on Base Jabbers, seeing the blackened areas, some shining like glass against the moonlight, others just long stretches of nothingness, and others consumed by billowing clouds of violent dust storms.
"It's chilling. Like it's another world." One of the Cathedra pilots said, and another replied, "Get what you mean. Man who even wants to live on Earth after this?"
The irony of such comments caused Leina's lip to curl, as a Colony Girl born, she just remembers the well-off people from Shangri-La who wanted to get to Earth, desperately, or her first look at Dublin, almost a decade ago, after the war was over.
"I don't know... feels nostalgic... just in all the worst ways." She says over the comms, "No matter where we are, we're always in some state of picking up the pieces."
The chatter was somewhat quieter, after that, until the comms picked up, "Got visual, pinging them in." As the signals lit up and the cockpit's screen began showing multiple angles of them.
"Knew it." Leina muttered quietly, as she saw the Da Xukong, near the Dag Doll. "Alright - I'm getting in there! Just stay up here and cover me!"
One of them sounded shocked at the absurdity of it, "You're sure!? In the thick of it with those two? One of them's Minovsky's Woman-" "Was, Minovsky's Woman." "-and the other is-" "Sauper. Former head of the Sleeves Royal Guard. I know. Just trust me - and keep up that cover!"
The Base Jabber containing the custom Beguir, with a black paint job abruptly swung lower, before the Beguir bent at the knees, and leapt off, it's back thrusters lifting it high in the desert air, before she abruptly cut them off.
Earth's gravity, the thing that Angelo hates so much would be her weapon, as the Beguir fell, faster and faster, at Terminal Velocity, before she turned the thrusters on, downward. The foot unit claws opening up, as she tried to slam it right down on top of the Dag Doll, to catch it with the claws in a jarring impact, trying to latch onto it by the shoulders in a precarious balancing act meant to try and topple him, ripping off pieces as she goes.
"Hey Angelo, you were right you know... we absolutely couldn't ignore you after your career change."
Before the Beguir attempts to leap back off the Dag Doll, beam rifle lifting as it fires towards Da Xukong again and again, rapid fire to try and pin down her down quickly, the others in mid-air also aiming shots to try and halt a quick advance, as pink beam fire from her rifle skewers the dust to reach towards her.
"Not a single second longer." Before Leina then turns her frustration on the pilot of the Xukong, "As for you, Yuliana - what was your plan here!? 'Bring them a meal and whatever happens next after they track it down isn't my problem?'"
KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Don't Dare Belittle Me! activates! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Beguir Neuer Foot Unit Claws That Catch! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Yuliana Kafim with Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Assault Burst! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to engage guard against Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Assault Burst! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Critical Hit! Yuliana Kafim poorly reacts to Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Beam Rifle Assault Burst, taking 3520 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Angelo Sauper engages guard against Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Foot Unit Claws That Catch! KTS: Angelo Sauper successfully guards Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Foot Unit Claws That Catch, taking 3360 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kathras Fari has posed.
The Aion slowly moves through the air high above the soon-to-be-battlefield, Kathras Fari seated on its bridge watching displays on the screens of his crew. Beside him and lower sits Lanra Gavarre, first officer, overseeing many of the ship's operations, and all around are those stationed here; Jakallo at weapons, Zhukov at comms, and Jayaissa at the helm.
But not that high in the air anymore. Soon, a cloud moves, and the Aion comes into view, flanked by numerous GN-X mobile suits. It is a large ship, a carrier, black and vaguely oblong. The catapults on either side of the ship are open, and still deploying more mobile suits by the moment.
"We have visual on the targets," Jakallo repeats to the Captain and the XO. "The convoy's just ahead."
"Bring us in," Kathras Fari says. "Ms. Gavarre, bring the mobile suits along."
"Yes, sir." She eyes the displays, too--she's all business now, all business because this is deadly serious. "...Those three," Gavarre directs, conferring with the others. "We'll start with them. Achilles Squadron, you have your orders. Move in!"
"Mr. Jakallo," Fari directs. "Give them a warning shot to let them know we've seen them."
"Aye, sir!"
Just ahead of the convo, particle gunfire slams down into the earth, revealing the Aion above.
"We're in," one pilot says as the GN-Xs rush down from the sky. "I'll take the shiny one. Two and Three, with me!"
Beam fire crashes down for Boss and Sayaka's units. "Is that?" a pilot asks. "Doesn't matter," cuts off the other. Beam fire rockets down, as stated, and aims for weapon systems.
Meanwhile, the Sympatria Unit is greeted with the leader, who rushes in close with a beam saber!
KTS: Kathras Fari has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari targets Sympatria Unit with AION Mobile Suit Wing Harrying Tactics! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Sayaka Yumi with AION Mobile Suit Wing Indirect Tactics! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Boss with AION Mobile Suit Wing Indirect Tactics! KTS: Kathras Fari has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Boss engages evade against Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Indirect Tactics! KTS: Boss moderately reacts to Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Indirect Tactics, taking 300 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi engages evade against Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Indirect Tactics! KTS: Sayaka Yumi successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Indirect Tactics, taking 3900 damage! KTS: Sympatria Unit fails to engage guard against Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Harrying Tactics! KTS: Best Defense! Sympatria Unit successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Harrying Tactics, taking 3300 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari begins a Formation attack! KTS: Kathras Fari rattles Sympatria Unit, making their next maneuvers more difficult.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
People were starving. That was their justification, most likely.
The Spacenoid terror attack had quite literally broken the earth. Millions were dead, and the survivors were hungry. She'd seen what was left of Shanghai on the way out--and heard what happened to the supplies bound for it from the raided convoy.
People needed these supplies. Of course, other people need food too, but these supplies already had a destination. They had people depending on them.
That meant stealing them wrong, didn't it?
Lilium shakes her head, gripping her control columns tightly as the ex-desert draws near. Contacts fill her vision--identification pending, but no friendly IFF and on the right course. As the Aion's mobile suit wings descend, another GN-X with a long rifle sweeps over the rim of a crater and aims its weapon directly at Yao's unit.
<<Second Lieutenant Valerie, engaging unidentified terrorist contact Zero-Five!>>
The dust storm behind it, that solitary GN-X's rifle lets fly an opening shot.
KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Li Yao with GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot! KTS: Lilium Valerie has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
C.C.'s aside to Boss helps him snap out of his somberness a little- that's something he knows how to handle. "The day I say 'Mission Complete.'" - and he does a little faux-serious voice as he says it - "and jet off without a word is the final day of the age of Boss Borot. What's the point of keeping this metal moving if I can't keep a good meal moving with it?"
Mucha's the one to answer Sayaka, reporting back "Armor's holding up fine and our energy's good - as far as the robot goes, anyways. I don't think us three could ever properly wrangle a different unit like you can, but we know how to stick around with this one. We should be good to keep it up, as long as-"
The beams travel much faster than the signs of life, so it's Boss who first reacts, jerking Boss Borot into falling on its back to avoid fire. As the machine catches its own landing with its hands, one beam grazes a leg, leaving a visible mark but no major damage. Mucha doesn't bother finishing his ill-fated sentence, opting instead for "Well, then. Looks like we've got new plans! We'll stick with you, Sayaka!"
With that, Borot pushes hard on the ground to spring itself back upright, and sprints to meet the GN-X's challenge, its long limbs seeking to close the distance against their longer range!
KTS: Li Yao fails to engage evade against Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot! KTS: [Mirage] Li Yao's GN Disruption activates, and he slips into a mirage. KTS: Best Defense! Li Yao successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Careful Shot, taking 0 damage! KTS: Boss targets Kathras Fari with Borot Rush! KTS: Boss has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
---= MISSION TIME: -05H:23M:52S =---
"Satellite recon has located the stolen supplies here."
Within the briefing room of the Hannibal-class land battleship 'Charlemagne', Soma stands to the side of the large screen displaying a map of the Gobi Desert. A square highlights a section of the map and then zooms in. Multiple images then overlay, showing top-down snapshots of zoom and enhanced satellite footage.
Soma turns her head back to look at the collection of pilots seated before her. There are a bunch of new faces, with some old ones missing... The Break the World incident resulted in a significant restructure of many squads throughout the Gaia Sabers.
This is no longer the team Soma hand picked herself. And something about that irks Soma. Not because she is against working with any of the new transfers... But because she's noticed a sudden shift of the collective emotions of the Gaia Sabers that she notices whenever she's around large groups of them. The higher ups at Heaven's Base in particular. She gets the feeling this restructure is just a prelude to something.
But that's not important right now. What's important is the mission. Soma continues, "The terrain is too difficult for the Charlemagne to engage directly, so we're coordinating with the Aeon. It will attack with its Jinxes from this direction, driving the convoy this way. Which is where we come in."
---= MISSION TIME: 00H:00M:31S =---
The Aeon has engaged. Its GN-X squadron rush in, GN beams firing at the defenders. No doubt the convoy will respond, trying to make a break for it.
Then there is the high-pitched whistling. The ominous sound of incoming artillery fire! Quite some distance away, out of direct line of sight due to a long rocky ridge, the Charlemagne fires its cannons. The shells arc up over the ridge, before coming back down towards one edge of the convoy. At this range, the aim doesn't appear to be especially accurate. So perhaps the convoy has a chance...
Except as the shells impact the ground, the impact blast is not that of the usual heavy object blowing a wide crater open. Instead clouds of an amber coloured gas suddenly burst into existance to hang around in the air and engulf a number of the convoy's units.
There is no immediate reaction from the gas against said units. What is its purpose?
Another squad of GN-Xs appear on the convoy's radar, coming from a different direction to the Aion's squadron. And this one is led by a customed GN-X Advanced. The rose pink of its paintjob combined with the four large, shoulder-attached funnels resting over its back, make it clear which squad this one is.
In the Advanced GN-X Rosen, Soma orders her squad, <"Engage!">
The GN-Xs open fire with their mixture of GN Rifles and GN Lances, crimson particle beams beginning to rain down on the convoy. Some of those units caught in the amber-coloured clouds are targeted and as the beams pass through them...
The clouds explode in a firery display.
KTS: Soma Peries targets C.C., Emilia Eschonbach, and Yuliana Kafim with Melt! KTS: C.C. accepts Soma Peries's Melt! KTS: Soma Peries melts C.C.'s armor. KTS: Best Defense! C.C. successfully reacts to Soma Peries's Melt, taking 0 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim accepts Soma Peries's Melt! KTS: Soma Peries melts Yuliana Kafim's armor. KTS: Best Defense! Yuliana Kafim successfully reacts to Soma Peries's Melt, taking 0 damage! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach accepts Soma Peries's Melt! KTS: Soma Peries melts Emilia Eschonbach's armor. KTS: Best Defense! Emilia Eschonbach successfully reacts to Soma Peries's Melt, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Ahh, leave them be," Yuliana says, when Yao chastises Six for her gossip. The scorpionoid wanzer Da Xukong 0 trundles along, not far from the Dag Doll, another guard for the convoy. "After something like this, people need hope... after all."
She tunes in, as well, to remind the mysterious autotuned voice of the mystery Spinatio pilot: "Excuse you, Spinatio, that's Boss Borot. Are you saying Boss Borot can't handle feeding people in need? Honestly!" ... Yuliana's still a fan, a full decade later.
And the Da Xukong opens up a tight-band, to the Black Swan, to say: "Your squad really likes eating you alive, huh? You must be the newbie... forget about them. I'm glad to see you here." She laughs, lightly, as she adds: "Even if you didn't get to shishkabob the cabin when they were still driving! It would've been funny... we just shouldn't alienate our friends so easily." Well, they're her friends, anyway. Doesn't that make them 'our' friends?
Don't ask Elisa that.
Yuliana draws in a sigh, and switches back to wider comms, to tell Angelo: "... we appreciate the assist. I'm sure you have your own problems, up there... but right now, it's Hell on Earth." And not even a Hell she's brought them, for once.
But her endless gaze darts to an alert on her sensors, projected over her helmet, and she barks: "Incoming, twelve o'clock!" That is to say -- straight above them.
She brings her Cleave Axe up to guard against that beam rifle fire, and her green Abyssal Veil flares as it absorbs part of the blast -- though not enough to stop the shots from scoring marks on Da Xukong's carapace. "So, what?!" She demands over an open channel, as the wanzer skitters back -- only to fail to escape that amber cloud which Soma's GN-X fires towards her. It explodes, and she can heard snarling as she's tossed forward in her roll cage, seatbelts digging into her flesh to keep her safe.
"Damn you, Soma!" She snaps, as she slams a fist into her console to bring everything online again. "Once I deal with this brat, I'M COMING FOR YOU!"
First, though: this brat. Da Xukong 0 skitters towards the Beguir, as it lifts its Cleave Axe high to bring it down on the Beguir's armparts. "So what, so what, so what?!" She demands, as if she has to physically grasp her train of thought again. "We let them starve?! The children! You took too damn long, Leyasha! I have to do something! Right now, right now, right now--!!"
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Leina Ashta with MULS-P Cleave Axe Topple Strike! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta engages parry against Yuliana Kafim's MULS-P Cleave Axe Topple Strike! KTS: Critical Hit! Leina Ashta poorly reacts to Yuliana Kafim's MULS-P Cleave Axe Topple Strike, taking 5000 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Yuliana Kafim's Mortal Wrath activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Kathras Fari fails to engage evade against Boss's Borot Rush! KTS: Kathras Fari moderately reacts to Boss's Borot Rush, taking 3741 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
As it begins to rain down beams of energy upon the convoy Yao shifts Yulong to full power, the GN drive humming and the energy veins along the outside of the unit grow that GN particle green glow. As the unit hits full power one of those shots of beam energy fly toward Yulong but it's too late, the Yulong whips us a dust cloud where it once stood and manages to dodge the worst of the opening salvo.
Yao returns to being on comms and is hearing the voices of his allies, Emilia being aggressive, the hidden sadness in Yuliana's voice, and in his own mind where there is usually a degree of old man calmness there is anger. None of them were in the wrong, if anything it simply reminded Yao that it was more than justified these days then a couple months ago.
The Yulong moves to approach the GN-X that shot at it , producing a trio of GN knives and throwing them at the one who has volunteered to become Yao's emotional punching bag.
As the knives fly toward the GN-X Yao opens up comms to speak to the pilot with a mix of cold anger and chastisement that one might experience from a family head. < "Go home child. Go home and play with your toys. You had your chance to do the right thing and it is evident that is not going to happen. So go home and we will pick up your mess.">
KTS: Li Yao targets Lilium Valerie with Triple Knife Throw! KTS: Li Yao has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lilium Valerie engages evade against Li Yao's Triple Knife Throw! KTS: Lilium Valerie successfully reacts to Li Yao's Triple Knife Throw, taking 3520 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sympatria Unit has posed.
Li Yao's scolding gets three mic clicks from the cargo Doga, interspersed with brief and horrible noises during those slivers of the mic being clear. Nonetheless, it seems Sympatria #3 heard him. Probably. (One replies to him, immediately and with a loyal tone of voice, "Yessir.")
And then -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nob1Tp_NDU
It comes swift and sure. The Beguir falls downwards and moments later, Achilles Squadron becomes the direct issue of the Sympatria in their quiet everyday life -- alright, 'life', and perhaps 'everyday'.
The Pain of the Universe is big, blocky, and has obvious ranged weaponry on it. It is good orthodox tactics to close to melee, and One shouts "What?!" as rockets start erupting even as the leader surges forwards. The beam saber snaps downwards, carving through torso armor and making One howl in sympathetic pain.
The fist-fight in the cockpit of the Cargo Doga stops instantly. Two voices speak more or less as one - and indeed, they say "One?!" before there is scrabbling and cross talk --
And recriminations!
"Ghh! Why didn't you see them, Three?!" says Six, immediately turning her head to scan the starboard section of the panoramic view. "Ahh! They're shooting at that dumpy one!!" (She means Boss Borot. Six is rude.)
"Because I was fighting you! Shit," Three grunts. "We don't have any kind of offensive gear." A beat afterwards, Three says, "If they're making an attack run, we don't have any options but ditching... but if we ditch the cargo..."
"Then all of this was for nothing," continues Six as her head swivels 180 degrees to check the port side. Then it snaps back into a more normal configuration.
MEANWHILE -
After staggering back, One breathes heavily. He can feel something in the tech stack that links him to the Beldam Rack interface glitching. It's the worst possible time. How long has it been doing that? He had no reason to test it. If he lives, he resolves - diagnostic every few hours. No matter what.
"Ugh - NUNE bastard!" One grunts out as the Pain of the Universe stomps forwards and raises up one of the weapon arms. The cannons are heating up to combat status but they aren't there yet, and all the toughness isn't going to help if the GN-X gets a followup strike. He twists around as he brings the cannon limb down, aiming to club the Mobile Suit into the arid ground! The weapon blurts out a half-formed streak of accelerated particles, throwing light and heat -- but doing nothing more than leave a burned streak on the ground.
KTS: Sympatria Unit: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Sympatria Unit targets Kathras Fari with Assault Surge! KTS: Sympatria Unit has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kathras Fari has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari fails to engage evade against Sympatria Unit's Assault Surge! KTS: Best Defense! Kathras Fari successfully reacts to Sympatria Unit's Assault Surge, taking 3375 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
Angelo Sauper listens to the conversations between the other convoy guards, and one pale white eyebrow spasms -just- so.
"I'm surrounded by clowns."
He continues to listen to the sound of his radar. Focusing on it. Concentrating on it. It's a reverie --
And one interrupted by a familiar voice on the open comm line. Addressing -him-.
A frown tugs at his lips.
... we appreciate the assist.
A little viewscreen of Angelo Sauper pops up on Yuliana's feed. His eyes finally open, that squint of a stare in the face of her disarming gratitude says it all:
He doesn't trust a single word. If anything, it's somehow just made the spacenoid -more- wary.
A second passes.
And Angelo looks away again, eyes shutting.
<"It's nothing,"> he says simply, coolly.
<"We're -allies-, after all.">
It could easily be taken as an expression of camaraderie, for any functioning adults with healthy relationship dynamics.
On the other hand: it could just be Angelo making a dig at Yuliana reminding her that this means -nothing- to him; that -she's- relying on -him-.
Which could it be?
Angelo offers no hints one way or the other before the screen snaps shut and he focuses once more on his radar. The steady metronome of it. Like water droplets splashing against a lake's calm surface.
Focus...
ping... ping... ping... ping...
Nothing... nothing... nothing... nothing...
... ping...
Noth...
...
Violet eyes snap open. Lips reflexively curdle.
And Angelo Sauper fights down the nauseating feeling of his expanded awareness triggering something, for once. Some-one-. Someone familiar.
"... It's her!"
And fast on the approach.
<"Prepare yourselves!"> is the lone thing Angelo calls out to his fellow Dawn of Fold and their Satellicon allies before the forces of NUNE descend upon them in a sudden, violent blitz.
It's not unexpected, so much as the shoe that was inevitable to drop here, with guards left alive to report them. Angelo would curse at the hindrance of others' consciences, but the truth is, right now? He doesn't even feel particularly annoyed, as the inevitable bears down on them, like he knew they would.
Whether these supplies get to their destination is no nevermind to him. Earth made their own grave. But this... -this-...
This is what he wants.
Opportunity.
The Beguir is already upon the Dag Doll, mounting up impossible momentum --
And yet the way the Zeon-make Mobile Suit reacts is far too swift to be normal. Like he was anticipating her, like he -felt- her, the Doll's shield snaps -upward- as the Base Jammer's thruster ROARS with redoubled life, providing a counter-thrust bulwark against the rapid velocities of the Beguir's impact against the surface of its shield, rather than shoulders.
Angelo has always been a good pilot. An excellent one; a natural. But this is... more.
There is a massive CLANG of impact. Of screaming sparks and screeching metal as the Dag Doll shunts -downward-, metal joints straining... but -holding-.
And the presence of him - the anger of him - can be felt roiling against Leina's senses as he speaks.
<"Too little, too late!"> barks the former guard dog of the Sleeves.
<"You all should have been listening from the beginning! But you wouldn't be a NUNE hound if you were -faster- on the uptake--">
The Beguir -leaps-. And the Dag Doll follows. Shots from mid-air come, but the Base Jabber moves with shocking speed, weaving through each lancing burst as a pair of hilts launch out of wrist compartments and into the Doll's waiting hands.
<"And you certainly wouldn't be a NUNE hound if you weren't so EAGER to fight over who's unimportant enough to let -starve- to death.">
Those beam sabers come up -- and then -down- as the Base Jabber banks in a dangerous maneuver that sees it trying to rake both particle blades across the head of the Beguir as it passes by.
There is a grimace, as he hears Yuliana. He begins to prep the Dag Doll's systems with narrowed eyes, cold sweat already forming on his brow.
<"-Focus-, Kafim!">
KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Leina Ashta with Dual Beam Saber! KTS: Angelo Sauper has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Finding His Voice activates Wall! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta's Ace of Dominicus activates! KTS: Leina Ashta engages guard against Angelo Sauper's Dual Beam Saber! KTS: Leina Ashta moderately guards Angelo Sauper's Dual Beam Saber, taking 3570 damage!
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
A smarmy retort from C.C. to Boss - a simple, "Good man.~ I'll sing the praises of what you make to help seal the deal." She'd keep up the playful bandying about, but-
Well, all hell's broken loose, hasn't it now?
C.C. knows well that the GN-X units are emblematic of the Gaia Sabers refusing to play around - and just because those missiles don't immediately explode on impact doesn't mean C.C. just assumes they're safe. Finger-mounted harkens whir out from the Gawain's hands to intercept as many of those explosives as she can - and before fully retracting them, her arms whip upwards to rake those tethered blades across the GN-Xes.
Stuffing Zero's helmet back on, and tapping her voice changer to ensure it's going to plan, C.C. proclaims, "Ground forces! Give us a status report - make sure the convoy isn't exposed to those flames as much as possible. If we have any means of extinguishing it, we'll use it here rather than save it for some later emergency." Zero's command is, unknown to Emilia's grudge, directed towards her very unit, before the witch turns her attention to the commanding GN-X.
"How noble of you. In your self-righteous quest to save lives, you'd risk setting the very resources that'd help anyone aflame? How hypocritical. How fitting to your name - you'd cut the very Earth in half for the sake of your 'justice.'" It's mostly taunting and goading - despite C.C.'s bravado as the Man of Miracles, the Gawain's floating in a rather defensive pattern, keeping wary of Soma's mobile suit...
KTS: C.C. targets Soma Peries with Slash Harken Shot! KTS: C.C. has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Sayaka can't stop herself from laughing, when Yuliana Kafim herself scolds her about underestimating Boss Borot. "Of course that's not what I'm saying! It's just that Boss Borot is like our secret trump card, you know? Especially when it comes to meal delivery, at least." And there's a knowing tone, even through the voice modularity. Who else could it but Sayaka?
Of their Dawn of Fold allies, one man Sayaka wasn't expecting to see here was Zero, of the former Black Knights. There's a lot she wants to say to him. Questions like why he's showing up now of all times, after he made a series of lofty declarations, and abandoned every single one, or how he was so quick to capitalize on what happened with Princess Euphemia. Sayaka keeps them to herself, but at least Zero's wingwoman seems to be a fan of Boss's.
Of course, Leina's arrival doesn't escape her notice, either. She knows Leina was doing her best, to make sure these people got their food... but there is such a thing as 'too late'. Sayaka doesn't want to fight her, but it sounds like Yuliana and the other Dawn of Fold leader, Angelo have her attention. All the same, Sayaka prepares for combat, as the NUNE forces begin to gather, and...
Red-orange flashes of light in the sky break up the monotony of the desert trek. GN Beams mark that they've been spotted. "Those are GN-Xs... scatter!" Sayaka orders her allies in the vicinity, as the Achilles Squadron closes in. The Spinatio doesn't quite fully break away, but its reinforced armour leaves it still in shape to put up a fight. "Tch... they sure know their ambushes. At least give me some time to test the controls!"
A zoom-in on the sensors reveals the Aion in the distance, and Sayaka grimaces, remembering their battle in the Mobile Doll facility. "That's one of the Gaia Sabers' flagships. All of you, don't take it lightly!" Sayaka still isn't sure how reliable the Sympatria Unit is, hearing all that banter from them over the comms... but the Pain of the Universe certainly looks capable. Boss Borot, on the other hand... well, Mucha says it. "Haaah... good save. Don't worry, I'll cover you!" Sayaka feels she has a responsibility to that, even if she's sure Boss Borot, being Boss Borot, will be fine.
Sayaka reaches for the Spinatio's main weapon - a rather unassuming looking assault rifle, with an eldritch secret behind it. That's not quite evident yet, as Sayaka aims the rifle, and it's just bullets that come out. But those bullets are headed right for the limbs of the GN-X that grazed them by!
She should've expected that the Aion would oppose them here. What does Kathras Fari stand for?
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Kathras Fari with Loom C27 Assault Rifle Basic Shot! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kathras Fari has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari fails to engage guard against Sayaka Yumi's Loom C27 Assault Rifle Basic Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Kathras Fari successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Loom C27 Assault Rifle Basic Shot, taking 3075 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The tightbeam message comes through, and Emilia's voice definitely sounds... strained. "...I-i-it's fine." Emilia says, in a manner that implies the opposite. "If sh-she keeps it up I can s-s-settle it. A-a-after the mission." Unfortunately, Emmy does not laugh at Yuliana's sense of humour. "I w-wasn't doing it to be f-f-funny." Emilia responds, a touch coldly. Whatever could be making her act so impersonal.
And then two GN-X squadrons make their appearance on the battlefield, as a gas is released upon them- and Emilia's first instinct is chemical weapons, closing the intakes of her Zaku IV. As the rest of the Zaku IV squadron pull into their formation, Emilia doesn't join them. She never has been part of the formation. No toxins detected yet, but...
"You!" She yells, her Zaku surging forward towards Soma's GN-X squadron, the Swanfeather unit opening up with a horde of missiles against the attackers, dodging the initial beamfire- and corresponding explosions. That's their trick?
The obvious conclusion is to stay out of the gas, and to get in close with the attackers- at least that way if she gets hit, they get hit too. But that means closing to them.
That's what the missiles are for- to provide her cover while she advances, recklessly, for the enemy.
"Oh look, she's gone and broken the fucken leash again." Toni Peri mutters, raising her sniper rifle to target some of the other GN-X's filling the sky. "What a big fucken surprise."
"Gray, monitor her. Peri, focus on the enemy. We'll bail her out if she needs it and not before, got it?" Not that, it seems, any of Emilia's violence seems to be getting her over with the squad and the Sleeves at large. It's looks like he'll have to rely on the Commander over all on that front.
And then a voice- an all too familiar voice- comes through her comms- and Emilia's hackles raise. "I-I-I'm never. T-t-taking another o-o-order f-f-from you ever a-again!" Her voice rises to a roar, full of venom and despair. "J-Just st-stay the h-h-hell out of m-my way, you c-coward!"
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Soma Peries with Cluster Missile! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Kathras Fari has posed.
"It is!" A pilot answers, "It's Boss Borot!"
"Well, looks like our job is to kill Boss Borot, then!"
"Aw, man!"
"Button it up!" comes Lanra Gavarre's voice over the radio. "I don't care if you're fighting Sinterklaas, just get those supplies!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Over a more general channel comes, "This is Captain Fari of the Aion, affiliated with the Gaia Sabers. Stand down and surrender yourselves, your mobile weaponry, and all supplies. You will receive fair trials for your actions."
Boss Borot flips in a very cool move, catching its own landing and making new plans. The sprint takes it up close with one of the Gn-Xes, and the distance is closed; it can't get out of the way. It's battered by Boss Borot's strike, but will need a second to switch to melee weaponry.
Meanwhile, the Captain continues over the radio, "Fail to comply, and your lives are immediately forfeit."
One grunts out a curse. "Incoming!" one of the GN-Xs warns his friend, but it's not in time to evade a drubbing. The cannon smacks across the face of the mecha, knocking it down towards the ground, though it manages to get its feet under it before it impacts the earth. At the same time, Sayaka's Spinatio aims for bullets, and the GN-X in question gets a number of shots taken straight for its left arm, bypassing its shield through skilled aim. "Guh!"
"Incoming fire support," Lanra Gavarre says to one of her pilots, Jakallo gets a firing solution on the Pain of the Universe--and fires a gigantic blast of shipboard beam particles from the sky. The Aion is descending to closer range, which could be dangeorus for everyone.
Meanwhile, the GN-Xs rally. Achilles Squadron starts to set a trap, spreading out in three directions to forestall the Spinatio going anywhere but backward, raining down suppressing fire to try to keep the strange suit pinned.
The other two GN-Xs rush Boss Borot, rushing up close to try to head off its acrobatics through sheer volume of beam saber strikes. One of them is still down an arm.
The ship continues to loom.
KTS: Kathras Fari targets Sympatria Unit with Heavy Ship Fixed Beam Turrets Blast! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Sayaka Yumi with Designate L1! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Boss with AION Mobile Suit Wing Swarm Tactics! KTS: Kathras Fari has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries engages guard against C.C.'s Slash Harken Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Soma Peries successfully guards C.C.'s Slash Harken Shot, taking 2400 damage! KTS: Sympatria Unit engages block against Kathras Fari's Heavy Ship Fixed Beam Turrets Blast! KTS: Sympatria Unit's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Sympatria Unit successfully blocks Kathras Fari's Heavy Ship Fixed Beam Turrets Blast, taking 2000 damage! KTS: Soma Peries engages evade against Emilia Eschonbach's Cluster Missile! KTS: Best Defense! Soma Peries successfully reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's Cluster Missile, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It's a fortunate thing that she doesn't know that's Sayaka, or Emilia - they'd probably getting way more than a scolding if she did.
"That couldn't really be him, right?" As she considers Boss Borot, "No way." She'll have to check Fujinomiya after for theft...
Angelo's anger is something forceful enough to cause her to flinch, as if her cockpit walls didn't exist, as she sees his gleaming dual sabers come down at her in the Beguir. That jabber is coming in far too fast, and she only has time to holster the rifle to the shoulder track, before grasping her own from the shield.
Her Beam Saber ignites, and the flash of both of them slam down on the top of it, at high speed- causing the Beguir to dance precariously on clawed feet to keep it's footing in the sand looking around warily for more attackers, but fortunately - the NUNE force has fully engaged now, and she still has cover.
"How's she move like that!?" "That freaky Scorpion thing-!" The cover fire tries, but it's harder to pin down Yuliana than it might seem at a glance.
"Pretty sure only one of us is being a brat." Leina utters, as Da Xukong comes in, with a skittering swing towards its arm. Indeed, Leina swings it's shield aside in time to drive the strike high, but the axe blade cleaves through the top of the shield, stuck halfway within it, the shield wrist sparking from the blade within it.
With a growl of frustration, she uses that moment of the axe being wedged in to try and engage her thrusters, taking her with her, before hitting them full force, as the mobile suit dives to try and smash Da Xukong into the desert sands like a misbehaving scorpion she found crawling on her.
"You're being shortsighted. Sure! Feed them! Feel good about yourself!" Then there's a moment later, "Then what comes after you're finished patting yourself on the back moved on? How much heat are the people in rural Monglia going to feel because you put on this big show? Even in your own damned cult!"
Part of her understands her own hypocrisy in this moment, after all she was willing to break the law, bend the rules (Even considering calling Mondo! MONDO for Pete's Sake) to get the people fed, but she was trying to minimize the harm.
There's something abstracted, about the way that she speaks to Angelo afterwards, finally responding to him.
"... I did listen. I listened, again and again as you called people like this filth. I heard what you were really saying."
This time as the Base Jabber swings low, the Beguir's funnels all launch, in a spiral pattern that seems languorous under Earth's gravity, indeed the thrusters have to strain against them, though not as much as remote weapons might have used to.
"We can't keep doing this Angelo."
The Funnels rather than firing haphazardly, move at irregular patterns, before coming under the Dag Doll's Base Jabber, and firing upwards through it at the mobile suit within it.
"Something has to change."
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Yuliana Kafim with Beguir Neuer Cross Shield Drive! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Strike Formation! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayaka Yumi accepts Kathras Fari's Designate L1! KTS: Kathras Fari designates Sayaka Yumi, making her easier to target and opening her to indirect fire. KTS: Best Defense! Sayaka Yumi successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's Designate L1, taking 0 damage! KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper engages evade against Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Strike Formation! KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Angelo Sauper successfully reacts to Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Funnel Array Strike Formation, taking 0 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Boss has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Boss engages charge against Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Swarm Tactics! KTS: Boss moderately reacts to Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Swarm Tactics, taking 6114 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to engage guard against Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Cross Shield Drive! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Critical Hit! Yuliana Kafim poorly reacts to Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Cross Shield Drive, taking 5280 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium blinks. Wasn't the target just there a second ago? It was in the dead center of the OS' targeting reticule, then there was that flash--and there was just dust and... green.. particles.
Oh, no.
Lilium desperately glances around at sub-monitors trying to get a fix on the unknown Mobile... weapon. Half the crater was already on fire already, it seemed like--no traces of whatever it was she'd engaged. Just wanzers... What looked like Zeon units (Spacenoids...), a... vague, blobby iron shape she vaguely recalled seeing in the background of a Titans broadcast about the Hell Uprising as a child? As she racks her brains trying to remember what, exactly, that thing is, the proximity alarms start to blare
"-Shit!" Lilium cries out to nobody in particular, pulling back immediately on her controls and sending her GN-X rocketing upwards--yet not fast enough to avoid one grazing its leg. Perhaps the sudden opening of a channel had distracted her somewhat.
<<Clean up our--clean up our mess??? There are people--Starving back east, and you're taking their food! Taking the only food anyone can spare them! And for what? Yourselves? To sell? For--I don't know, someone you think deserves to be fed more? That's not... justice, is it? It's not keeping the peace! This is the opposite of peace!>>
Despite its minor damage, Lilium is able to fairly easily orient her GN-X in the air--facing directly down at where the Yulong ought to be just long enough to snap off a quick shot.
KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Li Yao with GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Snap-Shot! KTS: Lilium Valerie has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Li Yao engages evade against Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Snap-Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Li Yao moderately reacts to Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Snap-Shot, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
Soma had not intentionally been going after Yuliana's unit. It was just the opening salvo of the ambush, unfocused as it was. But the warning from Yuliana gives Soma brief pause. As much as she has Unfinished Business with the terrorist, Soma can't exactly fight her herself, which presents problems. Thankfully though, Yuliana is not the mission today. And Soma trusts Leina Ashta enough to keep her occupied.
The GN-X squad led by Soma split as they move to engage other defenders and try to recover the supplies. Soma herself briefly observes the battlefield as it plays out. Bringing up one unit in particular on her display...
he Gawain is of course known to the Gaia Sabers. And sure enough, the voice of Zero booms across the channels. Soma frowns... This just got problematic. The man is known as a shrewd tactician. One to give the likes of Kati Mannequin, or even Soma's own mentor, a run for their money.
Is Soma up to the task?
Strange...
The stray comment from the other inside her only gives Soma a brief confused pause before she replies to 'Zero', <"Some loss of the supplies is acceptable for the mission. And better to burn them than let them fuel your disruptive activities. Though given your reputation, I'm not surprised you're involved in the stealing of relief supplies.">
A few of the GN-Xs are caught unaware by the cabled fingers, taking damage and forcing them to back off for now. The Rosen raises its arm though, taking the slicing across the more armoured forearm.
A strangely equipped Zaku shouts in her direction, unleashing a wave of missiles towards Soma's squad. Soma asks in confusion, <"Me?"> Have they met?
Most of the GN-Xs resort to standard tactics of trying to shoot them down with the GN Vulcans in their heads. Soma's Rosen doesn't though, her unit blasting forward and accelerating faster than the standard GN-Xs have shown before. It weaves its way through the barrage of missiles as they streak through the air, explosions trailing behind her but never quite managing to reach her.
Amidst the rapid maneuvers of of evading those missiles, the Rosen raises the GN Lance in its hands towards the two. Still too far away from them to engage in melee, the Advanced GN-X pulls the trigger on the lance's handle. The four emitters embedded in the wider base of the long weapon begin to unleash a rapid barrage of crimson beams. Soma alternates her fire between the two targets. It's not direct, but instead clearly meant to lead their movement into those amber gas clouds that still hang, trying to take advantage of the secondary explosions from them.
KTS: Soma Peries targets C.C. and Emilia Eschonbach with GN-X GN Lance Covering Fire! KTS: Soma Peries has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Boss has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
Sayaka and Yuliana's banter about Boss Borot is also helpful in getting the crew back towards a more relaxed demeanor. They don't interject, but Nuke's good-natured chuckle is audible over the comms. Yuliana's continued support is appreciated! Everything's fine on that front, for sure and certainly.
Tragedy of tragedies - Boss is busy formulating a clever response to C.C., but he waits to let Mucha talk to Sayaka (there's not exactly soundproofing in their big pink sphere) and then combat interrupts them! The great Boss Banter is lost to the ages! Many will lament this outcome - or they would, but there's perhaps other pressing matters at stake right now.
Would that they could hear the GN-X's shocked reactions, the Borot Crew might have been surprised at a reluctant enemy, if only for a moment. As it stands, they only get the broad "lay down your arms" speech - not particularly convincing to the trio. Beating Boss Borot is one thing - putting them down for good is a more difficult job indeed.
Fortunately, the team's headlong rush pays off - as Borot's fist retracts from its succesful strike, Nuke spots that GN-X switching to close combat, just how the Borot Crew likes it. If they're playing Borot's game, though, they're not shy about stacking the deck; beams flash like lightning as Boss Borot is swarmed with several GN-Xs slashing through any escape routes.
But Boss has no interest in escaping. What would have been the point of coming here? Boss does his best to weather the attacks as the pink machine's metal flashes orange with the sabers' light. Even though he's not moving the way they expect, "sitting still" is not particularly hard to hit, so they score some real damage this time - the nicks and scrapes to the limbs are starting to pile up, and one slash gets a clean hit on the side of the torso - nothing vital, but it's a nasty hole in the armor.
Boss isn't sitting still for nothing, though. While he's holding out, Mucha's firing up the Photon Printer while Nuke makes a plan; what's a good tool for a bunch of tight-quarters mobile suits? "Boss, get us a little space!" All three know they only need a moment of opening to use the printer once it's ready, and once they do, light shines out of Borot's stomach as the hatch containing the Photon Power 3D Printer slides open...
In a flash, Borot reaches to the ground and picks up... an oversized pink Hammer, really more akin to a wrecking ball, bearing Boss Borot's face underneath its spikes. "That'll do it, Mucha!" Boss pumps his fist in acknowledgement. "They wanna line themselves up, we'll knock 'em down!" With that, Borot starts swinging, trying to catch as many GN-Xs in its path as it can!
KTS: Boss targets Kathras Fari with Borot Bag Of Tricks! KTS: Boss has completed their actions for the round. KTS: C.C. fails to engage evade against Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Covering Fire! KTS: Critical Hit! C.C. poorly reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Covering Fire, taking 5400 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Soma Peries's Loyal Soldier activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: Soma Peries begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Hmm? You should enjoy yourself more," is Yuliana's advice to Emilia, in the wake of her frosty reception. She's always been so good at mentoring the youth. "Well, good luck with her, anyway."
Angelo clearly meant nothing by it, so why's there the sound of growling under her breath, barely picked up by her radio? ... she knows he's making a dig at her.
(Is her pride really worth these people's lives?! -- no, probably. Probably they should still get to eat even if she's being embarrassed. What would Sayaka do...)
"If you stand down to the Aion, you'll walk right into a firing squad!" Is what the Da Xukong transmits, viciously, on the heels of Fari's generous offer. "A 'fair trial'?! To a guy like that, we're dead either way--!!"
So not exactly encouraging anyone here to take his offer, apparently. She manages to feel bad -- passingly -- for getting Boss and the others wrapped up in this; she knows they'll have questions to answer, afterwards.
She'll figure something out. She's thinking. She's --
Axe buried in Leina's shield, Yuliana is, unfortunately, all too captive an audience to her own assault. "Tch--!!" She snarls, as she braces herself against the way the Beguir slams her wanzer into the glassed desert. "So you're saying it's better to let them starve to stop rocking the boat?!" She yells, in turn. "Doing nothing is still an action you've took, Leyasha! I couldn't let this go on, so now I'm the bad guy?! Because I did something about it! I'll work out tomorrow, tomorrow!!"
With what Zero's prattling on about, Yuliana knows she can't use her flamethrower here -- she did hear Angelo telling her to focus, even if she seems to be disregarding that advice entirely.
The Beguir's Funnels launch -- and the Da Xukong's spires, carving out from its shoulders, begin glowing a colour deeper than black. Green crackles between them, as something which only resembles a beam of energy meets between the two spires and fires into the Beguir.
"The Generation Platform," Yuliana hisses, as she grasps her clutch tightly. "It's building power... more than enough to use some to get you out of my way!"
The breath she draws in is ragged. "I tried to wait for you," she says, and grows more upset, in the wake of her Power. "But the children were crying."
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Leina Ashta with Abyssal Coil Herald Devastation! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta engages react against Yuliana Kafim's Abyssal Coil Herald Devastation! KTS: Best Defense! Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Yuliana Kafim's Abyssal Coil Herald Devastation, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari fails to engage guard against Boss's Borot Bag Of Tricks! KTS: Kathras Fari poorly reacts to Boss's Borot Bag Of Tricks, taking 5035 damage! KTS: Boss roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Sympatria Unit has posed.
A voice rings out to the Sympatria unit.
"Great," (derogatory) is Three's assessment when the news of the Gaia Sabers flagship rings through his head.
"Aghh!! Their flagship!? Is this the main body of their force, coming down like an overwhelming hammer? I knew this was going to be awful," Six moans, and is, unfortunately, back on an open mic again.
Three is the one who answers Zero. "No direct fire on us yet but BRC-1's snarled up," he transmits, crisply and without much delay. "They've got a squadron out th"
"ONE!!!" Six, her neck still swivelled around, screams.
IT'S TOO LATE.
After clubbing the GN-X, the Pain of the Universe only has the chance to take a single step backwards before the world begins to fill with light. Sympatria #1 turns his head to look in that direct a moment before the anti-MS cannon shot strikes the bulky slab of a unit.
The pain washes over him. The previous streak was like a sharp gash dipped in lemon juice. For a moment this feels like something enormous, something unthinkable. An exotic torment dreamed up in the nightmares of direct neural stimulation and its horrid potentials.
And yet...
dream of another world
PAIN EDITOR
...the damage becomes an abstraction. A knowledge, an awareness, something distant from him. Warm honey pours downwards, a golden light filling the edges of One's vision as the stack kicks into its appropriate, its *necessary* configuration. Everything is working. The armor plate is boiling, sure, a good quarter-ton of it having translated directly into high-energy metal vapor that the central Asian winds are stirring outwards.
The Pain of the Universe stomps one foot down, then the other, shaking loose rivulets of molten metal and then sending out a wide-open bellow of a transmission: "IS THAT WHAT YOU GOT, GAIA SABERS?!"
(Six exhales with enormous relief and slumps in her seat. She doesn't flip her head back the right way around right away.)
"HAHAHAHAHHA!" The stamping in place ends as the Pain of the Universe surges forwards, approaching, not the ship, but weaving among the GN-X's. "Hold on, you guys," One transmits to Boss, to the unnamed Spinatio. "We can win this!"
One of the cannon-arms is thrust forwards. "YOU!" he declaims - towards the AION. "My name is--"
(Three says, "He's goin' for it!" There's a tone of wonder and disbelief in his voice.)
"SYMPATRIA UNIT ONE! And I'm going to share a little something with all of you in those spindly little manual drive no-talent lawn darts -- YOU'RE GONNA BE WALKING HOME!"
The Pain of the Universe executes a sideways leap, landing in a slight crouch with a hard THUMP into the soil while that extended arm warms up - and then he bellows, "Take THIS!" before the 'little' spurt of superheated particles that burned a stretch of ground and little else turns out to be an ill omen, bursting into a massive fiery-red burst of compressed megaparticles towards the looming ship.
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Li Yao bristles at the response, at the naivety being put in front of him by his opponent. <"These supplies are going to those who truly need it. Instead of sitting in some depot waiting. Waiting for those in charge to take their share, for the military to take theirs, for those who have the money to take their share, until the bottom of the barrel scraps are all that remain and have to be handed out to the masses. No it has been proven this job is to important to leave to the government. ">
The Yulong dodges the shot again and increases it's speed to close the gap, now the Gundam Fighter is staring directly into the eyes of it's opponents as Yao continues his lecture, <" Instead we are giving these to those who are forgotten, to those who would never have a chance for the supplies and your superiors would rather simply disappeared.."> Still no attack comes, there is a brief pause as Captain Fari's message is heard.
For a moment the Yulong does nothing before it pulls a couple more knives and drops them as if to symbolize that Yao plans to give in to the request. He even waves to get the attention of the Captain's ship before he does it. Then the Yulong rushes towards the GN-X driving a knee towards it chest armor. <" I am Li Yao, Ex-Gundam Fighter for the R.E.A. and I do not fight for causes like justice. I fight to protect those who need it.">
KTS: Li Yao has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Sympatria Unit has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Li Yao targets Lilium Valerie with Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Flight! KTS: Li Yao has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sympatria Unit targets Kathras Fari with Single Agony Cannon! KTS: Sympatria Unit has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kathras Fari has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari engages guard against Sympatria Unit's Single Agony Cannon! KTS: Best Defense! Kathras Fari successfully guards Sympatria Unit's Single Agony Cannon, taking 3975 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages charge against Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Covering Fire! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Critical Hit! Emilia Eschonbach poorly reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Covering Fire, taking 3850 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Soma Peries's Loyal Soldier activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: Lilium Valerie engages evade against Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Flight! KTS: Best Defense! Lilium Valerie successfully reacts to Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Flight, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Even though they have the charismatic power of Boss Borot on their side, Kathras Fari makes his ultimatum: stand down or else. Even if Boss has deniability, Sayaka can't give away her identity. "Aion, your offer is acknowledged. I don't speak for the entirety of Satellicon, but I'm afraid I must decline." Sayaka has to agree with Yuliana on this one. "A fair trial, really? Tell that to the survivors of the massacre in Sveaborg." Apparently, this 'terrorist' is well-informed of the Gaia Sabers' work.
"No... what you're going to give me is a fair fight! I won't give up these supplies, when it's people's livelihoods on the line." A slip in her tone might suggest some cockiness, even as the Aion closes in, as several GN-X's surround the Spinatio and keep it pinned. The Spinatio's no Super Robot, but Sayaka is still confident she can fight her way out of this. "You're right," She agrees with One. "We can win this." She does think she appreciates their attitude.
Even Boss Borot doesn't run away from this, but there's a bit of a flinch from Sayaka as the GN Beam Sabers clash against its scrap-metal frame. Although Boss Borot doesn't make it out unscathed, its pilots do - and so does the Photon 3D Printer, apparently. A Borot Hammer, huh... "Nice one! I'm following up!"
While it's not quite as fancy as the PAIN Editor, or Borot's many tricks, Sayaka's always had to deal with her robots being on the more lightly armed side. She brandishes the Spinatio's combat knives, stabbing towards one of the GN-X's armour, before outright throwing the knife at the second - before closing in with a disorienting slug of a punch.
KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Kathras Fari with Combat Knife Disorienting Blow! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari fails to engage evade against Sayaka Yumi's Combat Knife Disorienting Blow! KTS: Best Defense! Kathras Fari successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Combat Knife Disorienting Blow, taking 3000 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi rattles Kathras Fari, making his next maneuvers more difficult.
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
With the roar of thrusters, Angelo's Base Jabber blows past Leina's Beguir. There is the bright flash of clashing sabers, the sparkling burst of conflicting, constrained particles raging against each other.
It's beautiful, and blinding, and barely seconds-long before the Dag Doll punches past the Beguir, swinging back towards the skies above to leave her to the Da Xukong's tender mercies.
<"Maybe you can help them in Kafim's stead, -Ashta-,"> Angelo's voice bites out, his contempt scathing yet surprisingly controlled. <"Offer to fill their bellies with your thoughts and prayers and overwhelming concern, so they continue to think they have a chance or place in this death-riddled planet. Please, by all means.">
The Base Jabber comes to a stop. Backlit by the light, the Dag Doll is a dark silhouette, only the baleful glow of that pink mono-eye providing any illumination in the living shadow it casts.
<"Keep poisoning them with -hope-.">
She did listen, she insists.
She heard what he was really saying, she claims.
Memories of that day over a year ago flood back to the forefront of his mind. When his heart opened up, unbidden--
Gloved fingers creak a protest as they clench around the Dag Doll's controls.
<"... -Tt-...">
But he can't answer that claim -- not immediately. Funnels, struggling but functional in Earth's atmosphere, launch from the Beguir -- and as if in direct answer, Bits of the Dag Doll's own jettison from its massive backpack like a swarm of bees pouring from their hive to defend their queen. Small and cylindrical, they float around the Dag Doll.
And as the Beguir's funnels fly for him, the Dag Doll's respond in turn, triplicate-panels snapping open on all of them in a flourish.
Funnels zig and zag in unusual, unpredictable patterns.
And yet at every destination --
There is one of the Doll's bits, waiting for them.
Beams fire. A flash. A flash. A flash.
They light up the sky in beautiful, sparkling patterns of particle fire before swiftly guttering out inexplicably.
The Base Jabber's thrusters ignite.
And as that last volley comes, the Dag Doll -kicks- off of its flight platform -just- as all that particle fire lances through it, exploding into a burning, flying fireball that launches straight towards Leina and her Mobile Suit just as the Da Xukong prepares its onslaught, exploding -just- shy of ramming into the Beguir as a handy, sudden distraction.
<"... hah... the audacity of -you- of all people, saying something has to -change-.">
The Dag Doll lands, untouched by Leina's skillful assault. And the reason why becomes clear soon enough as those bits swarm around the Beguir --
Each one crackling with the Beguir's own, seized particle fire.
<"Is it comfy, sitting at the feet of your masters' filthy, stagnant throne? It must be.">
Reflector bits.
<"You haven't budged an -inch-, after all.">
Doing what they do best:
unleashing the Beguir's own power against it in a blistering array of ricocheting bounce-shots that seek to riddle the Mobile Suit mercilessly.
<"... But you're right. Something does have to change. Something -is- going to change.">
Angelo turns off his communications. He takes a deep breath.
And he flips the switch of the Dag Doll, as metal cylinders funnel forward with a hydraulic hiss to interface directly into his spine.
"... -I'm- going to change it--"
MACHINE HEAD MODE
Eyes widen. Angelo strangles his gasp. Gloved fingers tremble as his pupils dilate and the world is forcibly opened to him--
But he refuses to flinch.
He can stand stifling his freedoms. He can stand debasing himself.
ONLINE
And he can stand -this-.
KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Leina Ashta with Funnels - Trick Shot! KTS: Angelo Sauper has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Finding His Voice activates Focus! KTS: Leina Ashta engages evade against Angelo Sauper's Funnels - Trick Shot! KTS: Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Angelo Sauper's Funnels - Trick Shot, taking 5310 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"I d-d-don't do this for fun!" Emilia calls back, her anger already rising. She doesn't even hate Yuliana. She's just been having a real bad time lately- and sometimes that means she takes it out on people who don't deserve it. Fortunately, Soma is right in front of her, and a perfectly valid target to take out her anger on.
Emilia launches into the barrage, letting her Beam Coat handle the worst of the lances shot, just accepting the blasts to get herself closer, faster, more viciously- even as the gags causes further explosions against the Zaku IV. It's fine. It's tough. And she's fought GN-Xs before. She's trashed them before.
And yet the stealing supplies comment directed at Zero trips Emilia. "What th-th-the hell do you kn-know!?" She yells toward Soma. "As i-if NUNE t-t-trash like you. H-has ever c--ared about the p-p-people under h-her!"
Emmy doesn't know Soma. Not as more than 'an enemy on the field'. She'd assumed chemical weapon from the smoke. That it wasn't hasn't changed her opinion of the other pilot. "Y-you... your sq-squad... I'll tear ALL of y-y-you apart! I'll CRUSH YOU!"
She's not quite close enough to connect at perfect range- but the advantage of the Hyper Hammer is that she doesn't perfect range. She grabs the chain with both hands and swings it full force overhead at Soma's GN-X, intending to bring the massive spiked chain down on her enemy's head. "All y-y-you bastards d-do is kill p-people who aren't- a-a-aren't obedient enough!" She cries, pain and anger spilling out at once. "Th-th-the second th-they aren't exactly wh-what you want you d-do worse than th-throw them away, y-y-you murder th-them when th-th-th-they can't f-fight back!"
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Soma Peries with Hyper Hammer 200 Power Swing! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
"Hah. Unsurprising that you consider the lives of refugees as nothing but 'fuel'," booms "Zero" across the airwaves. "On the off chance you ever break from the cage of empire, consider if you, too, have been used as nothing but fodder for someone else's flame." Behind the mask, C.C. does give a little smile - she does love getting to tug on any perceived slipup in phrasing. She can't help but wonder if that's a pleasure Lelouch derived as well.
The scheme to get the Gawain to back away into the explosions works - flames lick away at the KMF's armor, incessant alarms blare in the cockpit as countless joints and wires turn to slag - the left leg in particular's just about dead weight at this point, nearly fused together from the heat. But from here... "B2. Slip through the gaps in their formation now that they're pressing their undue advantage." From behind the GN-X squad, behind an outcropping of stone, four Burais wheel out and let out a salvo of bazooka fire towards Soma and her entourage.
In the midst of reorienting her flight path, Emilia's familiar acid-drenched tones elicit a soft sigh from C.C. - of course that girl would scarce forgive...much of anything. There's always been such a searing flame behind that girl's reservations, and it's only gotten more intense as time passes... "Hm. Wounds that time will never heal, it appears. I won't press the matter," C.C. concedes - it's a bit too difficult to unpack this troubled history here and now.
And besides...she heard a voice. A strange whisper of one on a channel only she could hear - 'someone else' where there shouldn't be one. Out of a moment's curiosity, towards Soma's machine, C.C. conveys her 'real' voice plainly, asking that murmur, ((Well now. Don't tell me I've encountered another one of those machines that uses human brains as processors, hm? That's my first instinct, upon hearing you. If you'd like, I can help you, if that's your current struggle.))
...That was one of the most unpleasant conflicts C.C. ever wound up in. Hearing machines scream in agony and imprisonment during the Huffman conflicts felt truly like a new low - and a fair few of them 'malfunctioned' owing to her interference. Best not to assume the Gaia Sabers of all people wouldn't stoop to that low.
KTS: C.C. has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Soma Peries KTS: C.C. targets Soma Peries with Black Knights - Centralize Opposition! KTS: C.C. has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Kathras Fari has posed.
The Photon Printer is quite the armament. Light shines, and--a gigantic hammer comes out and slams around the GN-Xs. The first is battered to the ground immediately, dust shooting up in all directions from the impact. The second manages to get partly out of the way, and is instead sent spinning to the side, while the third brings up its shield to block and is 'merely' knocked back dragging along the ground such that the earth is rent by its steps.
The Pain of the Univers estomps. The transmission comes, and Jakallo blinks at the screen as it comes over the bridge. "Captain," he says, "Target remains."
After a direct hit, it's still there. Fari leans forward in his chair. "Interesting," he says. "Mr. Zhukov, make sure you record this battle data."
"Aye, sir!"
Sympatria Unit One happens. A very, very red burst of compressed megaparticles slams up against the ship.
"Shit!" Jayaissa says, "I can't dodge it--"
"Our armor will hold," Fari reassures her simply. It does. The beam slams up against the ship, and it leaves a very large mark on the underside--but the armor holds. There are no broken hull plates. ...There may be some injuries, though, from the way it shook the ship.
"Acknowledged, Sympatria Unit One," Fari says over the radio. "Your refusal to surrender has been noted in the log. We will not make a second request."
The remainining GN-Xs have gotten out of the way of Sympatria's mecha, but that also prevented them from striking back before it could target the ship. They may not make this mistake a second time... Or maybe they will. Over the comms, Lanra says, "Don't get close to that unit. We'll take care of it."
"...You are also acknowledged, Gundam Fighter," Fari says to Li Yao. "But you're obsolete now. 'Justice' will wash you away."
The GN-Xs that were knocked over rush Boss, trying to herd him towards the Pain of the Universe and the ship's counterattack. With beam sabers in the front and GN-particle guns in the back, orange fire rushes towards the Boss Borot!!
Meanwhile, a number of missiles streak off from the battleship, going down towards the Pain of the Universe with pinpoint accuracy--unless, of course, the Unit can do something to change that.
But Sayaka's disguised voice makes her defiance known too. The Aion responds with Fari's voice, "Satellicon is a noted teerrorist organization. We won't be listening to your propaganda."
Well-informed... but that doesn't need to be something anyone acknowledges.
Meanwhile, the ccombat knives of the Spinatio slam into one of the GN-Xs's sides. It sparks and crackles with power and GN particles both, but it didn't quite hit the reactor. That one's partially disabled, though. Meanwhile, the next gets a knife to the face... and its sensors are damaged.
"Captain," Lanra Gavarre says just on the bridge. "We detect a worsening storm on the horizon. We won't be able to continue in these conditions much longer."
"Acknowledged," Fari answers. "But don't call Achilles back just yet. They're still doing well enough."
"Aye, Captain."
Meanwhile, the GN-X that remains tries to likewise herd Sayaka's Spinatio towards the missile strike coming for Sympatria Unit One and the Pain of the Universe. If they can group them all together, then maybe the ship can finish them off all at once.
KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Sympatria Unit with Ship Fixed Missiles Surgical Strike! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Boss with AION Mobile Suit Wing Herding Tactics! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Sayaka Yumi with AION Mobile Suit Wing Herding Tactics! KTS: Kathras Fari has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sympatria Unit has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit engages charge against Kathras Fari's Ship Fixed Missiles Surgical Strike! KTS: Sympatria Unit's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Sympatria Unit successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's Ship Fixed Missiles Surgical Strike, taking 4200 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari completes the Formation attack! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Boss KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to engage block against Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Herding Tactics! KTS: Best Defense! Sayaka Yumi successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Herding Tactics, taking 4425 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari anchors Sayaka Yumi, preventing her from Evading the next attack! KTS: Kathras Fari bypasses Sayaka Yumi, preventing her from Guarding the next attack! KTS: Boss has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Boss fails to engage guard against Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Herding Tactics! KTS: Best Defense! Boss successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's AION Mobile Suit Wing Herding Tactics, taking 4425 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari anchors Boss, preventing his from Evading the next attack! KTS: Kathras Fari bypasses Boss, preventing his from Guarding the next attack! KTS: Soma Peries engages parry against Emilia Eschonbach's Hyper Hammer 200 Power Swing! KTS: Soma Peries successfully reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's Hyper Hammer 200 Power Swing, taking 3851 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
What can Leina say about Kathras Fari? Except...
...
...
...
"What a dick."
Thankfully not on the comms. She's definitely still sore about being abandoned on the moon, but at least Soma, and Lilium came, sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad in regarding to your allies.
The Pain of the Universe however gets a momentary squint, before Yuliana in the Da Xukong distracts her away from it, as Yuliana yells at her, and the spires of DaXukong carve out in a charge, at the same time Angelo, intentions clear as day, for despite his best efforts he wears his heart on his sleeve, his anger always the second strongest emotion he felt in Leina's eyes, the Dag Doll kicking off the base jabbers-
Abruptly the Beguir's shield launches on a wire, glowing with what few Non-Kinetic Effectors are left within it.
And Yuliana is at point blank range treated to the sight of a shield with her Axe's Mark carved into it, suddenly wedging below the spires to shift them up, driving that aim wide, as the Beguir leaps. It then shakes, and retracts on a wire, zipping back to her, discolored from the Green of the Void.
"You incredible dummy. I never told you to do nothing. Can't you understand? That desperation you feel-"
Indeed, as much as Leina protested, Judau always did whatever it took to see her have money enough to be fed the next week, and the week after. It was always just the 'whatever it took' part which caused the Fourteen Year Old boy to cross Leina Ashta's lines.
And while she herself is less against such actions these days, there are still lines to her, which she believes when crossed cause more harm than good. The Beguir's beam saber tries to plunge through it's veil, to attempt to slice part of it off, before pivoting around Da Xukong, taking off in a leap as the reflectors send her own funnels particle fire her way.
"-is a bed partially of your own making! YOU cut off better options that could let you really help these people!"
Just as she wanted.
It's a gambit that she suffers for, as the merciless reflections carve past the Beguir's thigh, sizzle into its rear armor, such that warnings blare that it's recharging systems are down.
His words, his feelings - they always were the most difficult to deal with.
"And so you poison them with despair, like the people of Palau? All the better for them to never try something different? Never think things can be better?"
Her eyes close as she murmurs softly...
"Hope... is supposed to be audacious."
There is only a small amount of Psychoframe present in the Beguir, precisely the legal amount allowed, yet, even if it is a pinhole aperture compared to the blaring light of the RX-0, she can still peer through it.
She can still see him.
The images of the boy in the bed, the boy with his mother, the boy with the violet flower.
The funnels spin around like they're coming from so many different angles on another pass, aligning specifically as if she were going to fire to try and get past his reflectors by doing so from more angles than he can handle.
They don't.
Because even that small amount of Psycho-frame flashes bright, as she pushes it to its limit.
< PSYCHO-JAMMERS >
< ONLINE >
It is a strain she has grown accustomed to in two years, as the funnels suddenly blare into azure lines, tethering from one to another, connecting in Three Dimensional outline of a diamond that attempts to encompass the Dag Doll outright.
And the Psycommu within that bolsters Angelo's voice for all with the senses to hear feels a violent sense of-
r e j e c t i o n
It is violence, to cut off Angelo's voice, to reject it, it is a reversal of years ago, when he did the same to her. A circuitous merry-go-round, as the cycle makes another round.
"Something has changed."
Leina asserts, to the dead air of Angelo's deactivated comms, and perhaps that is her most audacious statement of all. Her dream of a hopeful world. A world that does not require Cyber Newtype Labs, and human experimentation.
... Means a world without Angelo's Hope. A world without Full Frontal.
"Even if it's just between you and me."
Maybe it's just their positions in this violent dance of acceptance and rejection.
She'll keep dancing. This is the decision she made.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Yuliana Kafim with Standard Beam Saber Thrust! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Jam L2! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries engages evade against C.C.'s Black Knights - Centralize Opposition! KTS: Soma Peries successfully reacts to C.C.'s Black Knights - Centralize Opposition, taking 4680 damage! KTS: Angelo Sauper accepts Leina Ashta's Jam L2! KTS: Best Defense! Angelo Sauper successfully reacts to Leina Ashta's Jam L2, taking 0 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to engage evade against Leina Ashta's Standard Beam Saber Thrust! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Critical Hit! Yuliana Kafim poorly reacts to Leina Ashta's Standard Beam Saber Thrust, taking 4680 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Leina Ashta's Mass Effect activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Your unit's HP stands at 1645
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
The GN-X's pilot exhales sharply as her shot completely fails to connect. Again. Less GN particle trickery this time, though--She can keep the Yulong in sight. Enough to pick up on its... body language(?), at least.
<<You--you really think there aren't-->> Lilium attempts to stammer out a retort mid-lecture. Something that makes sense. Something that--
It's right in front of her. Its face is filling the monitor. Gundam. Definitely Gundam.
You could put a Gundam head on anything, though. It doesn't just make a suit stronger, no matter what Spacenoids might believe.
Lilium rights herself, for a moment passing close to the ground as Li Yao tosses aside its blades.
She lowers her rifle slightly as he waves--was that something an AMBAC unit could do..?--to the Aion. Prepared for the order to accept a surrender.
<<If you're willing to stand down, then-- GAH!>>
Lilium takes a moment to process the old man's transmission to the... less old man as she shunts her GN-X about five meters directly backwards. Gundam Fighter. As in Mobile Fighter. This was an issue. What were the tactics for dealing with MFs, again..? She'd thought it was strange that she needed to learn them, of course, but learn them she had--
TACTIC ONE: Do Not Be Provoked
Gundam Fighters were used to keeping their opponents talking. They were martial artists before pilots, after all. That meant you had to.. avoid showing weakness. Maintain composure. Remain calm. Remain... calm..!
<<-Aye, sir. Second Lieutenant Valerie, striking with the force of Justice!>>
Theatrics. Aimed more at the Yulong than her superiors. If she could keep up the appearance of her conviction, that would buy her time. Her suit's Beam Vulcans roar to life, spewing a curtain of bright orange particles in the general direction of the Mobile Fighter as Lilium attempted to regain a safe distance.
KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Li Yao with Beam Vulcans Retreating Volley! KTS: Lilium Valerie has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sympatria Unit has posed.
What is pain, exactly?
It is not pain that binds us, it is suffering. Pain pervades much of life, from the smallest to the greatest. The tiny pains of contacting something a bit too quick or moving a bit too far, these train the mind and the body to avoid self-injury, or at least to minimize it. The pains of joints and muscles, though undesirable, are the same. A headache tells us that something is wrong.
What if there was *no* pain? None whatever.
What would be left?
Sympatria Unit One shouts, "Hahaha! Not so bold without your direct fire, are you? Tell you what, Gaia Sabers. I'll make you a special offer. You can WALK HOME SAFE -- but my price is simple. I'm gonna need TWO ARMS from each of you. Your Suit's or your own - I'm not particular!! Just stick your arms out in front of you and I'll -- huh?"
Missile launch incoming.
The Pain of the Universe squats and leaps forwards. TOWARDS the missile.
This is, of course, facially stupid, and the Pain of the Universe does pay a price for it, even if that price isn't in -- well -- pain. The explosion hits the upraised armored forearm and blasts the plating off of it, as well as violently undoing the Pain of the Universe's attempted vault forwards. The crouch means that the center of gravity forces the mech back into the ground, broad feet smashing a meter deep into the soil.
As shards of metal plating fall loose, One grunts and steps out of that hole. "I'm flattered, Gaia Sabers! Now--"
INTERRUPTION! Six shrieks, "ONE! ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE"
"What!!"
"Three!" Six prompts.
Three speaks with intent and heat: "Those Sabers suits are kettling up the humans, One, they're gonna die or get captured or something. I don't have a gun, it's on you!"
"Got it!" One answers, before doing another hop - it would be almost absurd but it means he can pivot nearly a hundred and eighty degrees to face the cluster of GN-X's he'd recently bypassed. "Offer retracted, pigs!"
The cannon-arm that had *not* just gotten hit with a missile erupts in a quartet of blasts, much like the one the Sympatria had just sent towards the AION. Somewhat less powerful - perhaps to allow for rapid fire - but it's kind of a 'somewhat' situation. "Hahaha!! I wish I had the hands to pull you around by all your SPIKES!"
("He's a little manic, huh," Six observes. "Manic?" Three replies, curiously.)
The vocal track kicks in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2PPs0Wwt0E
KTS: Sympatria Unit has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit targets Kathras Fari with Agony Across The Arc of My Foes! KTS: Sympatria Unit has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Li Yao engages evade against Lilium Valerie's Beam Vulcans Retreating Volley! KTS: [Mirage] Li Yao's GN Disruption activates, and he slips into a mirage. KTS: Best Defense! Li Yao successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's Beam Vulcans Retreating Volley, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Tch," Yuliana grunts, as she puts Emilia out of her mind. The girl's in a bad mood; that's fine. She's here, anyway.
It means more than thoughts and prayers.
(Even if she knows Leina was trying to do more than that, anyway.)
"So this is my fault?!" She yells, to Leina. "I can't even try?!" She tries to skitter away from the Beguir's assault -- but the interference Soma laid into her systems, coupled with the Beguir's might, means that her mobility isn't as good as it ought to be. Warning lights blare, in her cockpit, as she yells to them: "Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!!"
Leina might think she's still talking to her. In a way, perhaps she is.
She growls, as Angelo becomes all the more offensive to her senses, a deeper hole of something which should be there and isn't. She keeps out of his way, anyway; she won't interrupt his work.
Not like Leina, apparently. Yuliana can't sense what's going on -- but what she does detect is when Angelo's transgressions stop taking up so much space.
"Tchah... you think you can do it too, Leyasha?" She asks, as her tentacles crank the legs of the Da Xukong forward, in an unnerving skittering motion. It comes into the Beguir, and those legs dig in as it latches onto the larger mech's back, and the crest on its head raises just slightly.
She is a Psycho-Jammer, as she lives and breathes.
"So," she hisses, bitter and wounded, "can you make it right in my arms?"
She should worry more about the Pain of the Universe, fighting Fari out there... but Angelo's warning's fallen on deaf ears. Her focus, right now... it's not befitting a commander.
(It was always just a pleasant fiction, anyway.)
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Leina Ashta with Prevent! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta accepts Yuliana Kafim's Prevent! KTS: Yuliana Kafim prevents Leina Ashta's maneuvers, reducing her Skill drastically. KTS: Best Defense! Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Yuliana Kafim's Prevent, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
The hammer swings find their targets, managing to at least make contact with three GN-Xs, with one of them getting a particularly hefty hit. Mucha gets the message from Sayaka: "you got it! We'll give you space!" Boss stops swinging the hammer quite so wide, giving Sayaka space to dash into melee range of an enemy MS, while giving that enemy unit minimal time to react to her after Borot's attention-demanding swings.
This time, Boss is a little more inclined to get at least a little distance from the enemy - he certainly doesn't want any friendly fire. Holding this huge weapon isn't great for mobility, though, so there's no chance Borot is outpacing the approaching bright wave of orange - instead, the machine squats low, like a spring about to uncoil, giving itself the biggest range of movement to try and block the incoming blows. It's heavy firepower, but Boss again manages to keep it away from the vitals - although Borot is definitely in a familiar, "obviously damaged" state by this point.
The pilots are well acquainted with this situation; Borot won't hold out much longer. And the Crew aren't ones to lose sight of their objective; they're not here to beat the mobile suits, they're here to protect the cargo. Mucha speaks up to point this out: "We won't get anything out of breaking down the mobile suits if that big ship is just gonna keep harassing us. If we want to wrap this up, we've got to put some pressure on them. You guys ready for a long shot?"
"Hahaha! If that's our move, I'm pointing to the stands already!" A flick from Mucha's comms to let Boss transmit to all allies - "HEY, GUYS, STAY CLEAR FOR A SECOND!"
With that, the hammer comes back up, swinging around and around. But it's not at the GN-Xs; hopefully it keeps them from getting in the way, but Boss isn't interested in hitting them. Once he's built up some momentum, Boss Borot - shifts its trajectory? Straight upwards? Nuke moves to generate a more familiar object from the Printer, and there's a quiet *click* from Borot's right thumb, as the spiked ball disconnects from the hammer and sails straight up into the air.
Borot takes a step back, and as the ball falls back down, its next Photon Powered scheme is wound up and ready. Boss Borot's springlike arms, baseball bat in hand, whip around with tremendous force, aiming directly for the Aion. It's not quite as long a shot as it seems - it's a big target, and the range is reasonable. Even so, it is decidedly a gamble, as the Borot Crew shoots for a deterring shot with a hefty strike!
KTS: Boss has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Boss has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Boss targets Kathras Fari with Borot Home Run! KTS: Boss has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
Does Soma care about the people under her command? Of course she does!
She does the best she can to lead them, to train them, to ensure they can complete the mission successfully and return home alive. Because, as a soldier, victory was all she ever wanted. And then, as she later learned, to not meaninglessly sacrifice her life. That's what she wants to give those who follow the same path as she does.
That's caring, right?
Soma frowns, <"In one sentence you talk about caring for people. And then in the next you talk about crushing and tearing them apart! All the while trying to protect food you've stolen from others. The delusions of so-called 'freedom fighters'. You're just hypocrites. Justifying your rage-fuelled destruction using the banner of a cause that's not even yours to fight!">
The Zaku's Hyper Hammer comes swinging down towards the Rosen's head, but Soma reacts quickly. She raises her lance up, bringing the weapon into the path of the heavy chain and knocking it to the side, causing it to simply smash across the unit's shoulder and avoid far more serious damage.
<"That's a nicely customised mobile weapon you have. High performance. Must've cost quite a bit. I bet you eat three square meals a day too. How about you sell it and buy some food to give out, before stealing other peoples'!">
Since the Zaku is now in much closer range, Soma responds in kind as she charges the machine, lance tip aimed towards the other unit as she attempts to drive it completely through the enemy machine.
Who is...
What?
Oh... Nothing.
Then be quiet, I'm concentrating here!
The Black Knights surprise attack catches a couple of GN-Xs with their bazookas, sending a few robot limbs flying from the resulting explosions. And as if to prove the opposite of Emilia's beliefs, Soma does not leave her squadmates to fend for themselves. For even as she's trying to lance Emilia, the four funnels on the Rosen's shoulders detach, rushing off in the direction of the offending Burais. They fly into formation circling the group of KMFs. Barriers of crackling electromagnetic energy emit from the funnels, attempting to surround the Burais and cause the power to surge through them, damaging systems and immobilising their units in the hope that the assailed GN-Xs can finish them off.
As the battle rages outside, inside Soma the voice responds to C.C., ((Mmmmm, no. My situation is more complex than that... At least from my perspective. My name is Marie. What's yours?)) The 'voice' shares similarities to Soma's, but with a clearly softer tone compared to the one arguing with Emilia mid-fight.
KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries targets Emilia Eschonbach with GN-X GN Lance Cavalry Charge! KTS: Soma Peries targets C.C. with Rosen E-Shield Funnels Quad Formation! KTS: Soma Peries has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages charge against Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Cavalry Charge! KTS: Critical Hit! Emilia Eschonbach poorly reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Cavalry Charge, taking 4400 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Soma Peries's Loyal Soldier activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: C.C. has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: C.C. has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: C.C. fails to engage react against Soma Peries's Rosen E-Shield Funnels Quad Formation! KTS: Critical Hit! C.C. poorly reacts to Soma Peries's Rosen E-Shield Funnels Quad Formation, taking 4650 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Soma Peries's Loyal Soldier activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: Soma Peries continues a Formation attack! KTS: Soma Peries anchors C.C., preventing her from Evading the next attack!
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
The veins at Angelo Sauper's forehead bulge with increasing, frantic blood flow; his almost ephemerally pale features redden with the strain of a mechanical system hijacking his central nervous system and forcing it to digest and absorb far more extratactile information than its atrophied Newtype senses were capable of handling on its own.
He can feel it. He can feel it. The pinprick starts to widen even further. He just needs to push more. More. More--
r e j e c t i o n
And suddenly Angelo Sauper's world is as quiet and small and closed off as he used to wish every day it would be.
"Wh--"
All around the Dag Doll, its bits suddenly fall, dead and lifeless. Within that field, it is still as a statue.
And inside the Doll...
Violet eyes widen. Dilated pupils shrink down into pinpricks. Something cold seizes his gut and pumps icewater into his veins until a choked sound of confusion flips past his lips.
What. What is this?! This feeling -- that light -- those arrays--
No.
He knows this. He knows it so well.
That day--
"No. No. No! No no no no!" Angelo's shouts never leave his cockpit as he scrambles with the controls of the Dag Doll's Machine Head Mode, trying to activate it again and again and knowing each time was futile, ridiculous, -stupid- --
"NO! I need this! Dammit! Dammit!! WAKE UP, DAMN YOU!"
Silence. Nothing but silence. Nothing but that blessed silence that he never, ever truly was allowed to have every day he tried to close himself off from the world and now -- NOW -- when he needs ANYTHING BUT--
He can't help it. He laughs, a bitter, angry laugh, oblivious to the world, oblivious to Yuliana as she inflicts the living Psycho-Jammer on the Beguir. Oblivious to Emilia's fight, or Kathras' sheer, insufferable nature, or the fight for this absurdity that all these people waste their precious -time- on--
Shut off from the world, the laughter grows, and then eventually fades.
...
...
"... -You-..."
-Her-.
Despair, she said.
As if she was in any position to lecture him about the poison of despair.
As if -- as if -- as if--
"... how..."
BGM: https:''youtu.beP_QIThn4clw?si=WHoxK4-a_yvevPl4 - FIRESTAR
<"HOW DARE YOU!">
And suddenly, the Dag Doll is -LAUNCHING- at the Beguir in a violent flare of thrusters, DRAGGING along the gripping i-fields and the Psycho-Jammers' smothering field as it grips the long beam rifle at its back and -unslings- it.
He could feel it, when he used the Psycho-Jammers before, on that cursed day.
And now she can, too.
The strain of trying to repress someone else's passion and hope and yearning with your own, implacable will.
Because he struggles.
He struggles like a wildfire.
He struggles as he fires off shot after shot from that rifle upon the Beguir, until its close enough that that absurdly long barrel-slung saber IGNITES in a fiery blaze of pinks from the rifle--
and sweeps with incensed fury in one glorious, graceful arc to try to -carve- straight into the Beguir and those delicate Psychoframe systems that support it.
A dance of his own. A dance he's still learning the steps to, but is an eager, -desperate- learner of.
A dance of defiance.
KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Leina Ashta with Danse du Feu! KTS: Angelo Sauper has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Finding His Voice activates Wall! KTS: Leina Ashta engages parry against Angelo Sauper's Danse du Feu! KTS: Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Angelo Sauper's Danse du Feu, taking 3520 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
The Yulong was not just a mobile fighter, it is a twisted idea of an old man taking his mobile fighter and giving it a GN drive to substitute for the fact that it's pilot is old and can not do what it used to do. A good example is this very moment as the gundam's GN drive allows for it to reach incredible speed, dashing around to avoid before managing to get behind the GN-X.
Hovering behind it's opponents, perhaps a little too close , the Yulong's pilot speaks up, <" Do you believe that your justice is strong enough to stop me? Is it even your justice? Sounds to me like you simply define justice to be whatever your captain tells you it is. So what does your justice say about this situation? What does your justice say about us simply trying to get supplies to those in need?">
Yao shakes his head, as does Yulong at the GN-X, <" Again child, go home. Go home and contemplate your own justice."> With Yao's words said the Yulong moves in and aims a palm strike at the enemy. On impact the Yulong would flood particles into it's opponent to disrupt the GN-X's system.
KTS: Li Yao has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Li Yao targets Lilium Valerie with Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Roar! KTS: Li Yao has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie engages evade against Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Roar! KTS: Lilium Valerie successfully reacts to Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Roar, taking 4320 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Satellicon is a noted terrorist organization, that's not false. "You don't need to listen. Satellicon prefers to make its intent clear with its actions," Sayaka replies, evenly, at the accusation. There was no acknowledgement from Fari when she mentioned Sveaborg, but she wasn't expecting a man like him to.
But no matter what they believe in, the Aion, its crew, and its mobile suit pilots are remarkably well-trained. Beam fire snaps in from all directions. Sayaka raises the Spinatio's shield to hold off some of the GN-X fire, but without anti-beam coating, the beams crack through and break into the Spinatio's already-worn armour. "I know what you're playing at. You won't have to waste too many shots if you just force everyone back into the same spot."
They're definitely backed into a corner here, but Sayaka can't help but hide a cocky grin anyways. "Of course, that won't matter if we just drive you away first!" The Pain of the Universe plays its part, tanking the missile fire from the Aion with a little less than grace, followed by a burst of cannon fire to keep it at bay. While Boss Borot... Sayaka hears the pun. "Are they gonna do the home run...?" A beat. "Yep, they're going for the home run."
Even with the size of the Aion as a target, with the GN-X in formation to intercept, it won't be easy. But that's what Sayaka is here for. "Just make sure you don't get struck out before you run the bases~" Sayaka decides to just run with it, even with the voice changer. It'd be weird if she didn't, she thinks. "I'll keep our basemen occupied!"
Sayaka loads the rifle, but she changes the settings this time... it's also strange to use this, but energy is energy. There's nothing inherently evil about it. "Alright, Shari... I'll make sure you get some good data out of this." She mutters, and the Spinatio fires a round of green-black energy towards the GN-X suits. Yuliana might recognize it as the Void. Whether the Achilles Squadron recognizes it or not, Sayaka's hoping it will force a retreat back to their flagship.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Kathras Fari with Loom C27 Assault Rifle Ripple Burst! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari fails to engage evade against Sympatria Unit's Agony Across The Arc of My Foes! KTS: Kathras Fari successfully reacts to Sympatria Unit's Agony Across The Arc of My Foes, taking 4240 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari engages intercept against Boss's Borot Home Run! KTS: Kathras Fari successfully reacts to Boss's Borot Home Run, taking 2580 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari engages evade against Sayaka Yumi's Loom C27 Assault Rifle Ripple Burst! KTS: Kathras Fari successfully reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Loom C27 Assault Rifle Ripple Burst, taking 4950 damage! [OOC] Kathras Fari rolls 1d6: 1.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"P-Prying w-w-would mean you e-ever did. A-a-anything other than a-a-abandon us!" Emilia yells back at 'Zero' her voice quivering for a moment- something more than just rage. "I t-told you! STAY O-OUT OF M-MY WAY!"
"H-h-how stupid are y-you!?" Emilia screams back at the implication she could just 'buy' people food. "F-F-Food you NUNE b-bastards w-would just st-steal for th-themselves!?" Why is she even talking to Soma right now? The woman won't listen- won't even pretend to listen. Fine. If that's how she wants to play it...
Now in close with Soma, the lance driving into one of the Zaku IV's armoured shoulders- and through it. The monoeye turns to focus on Soma's GN-X, glowing as it does so. As if one could almost catch the rage of the pilot through the look alone. She moves the arm servos with difficult as it reaches up to grab the arm that drove the lance through with as tight a grip as possible. At the same time, harkens fly off the Swanfeather unit to attempt to entangle Soma, and keep her unit in as close to Emilia as possible. This is her range. Her zone of control. She'll show it.
"Y-y-you don't kn-know a damn thing!" She yells, unable to keep her rage in check. Unable to stop herself. The blinders are coming in. Destroying Soma is the priority. She has to kill her. She has to remove the threat in front of her.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Soma Peries with INCOM Harken Grapple! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries engages parry against Emilia Eschonbach's INCOM Harken Grapple! KTS: Soma Peries successfully reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's INCOM Harken Grapple, taking 2700 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina cannot feel Angelo's panic, she can only imagine it, she can only imagine it in the same way as she experienced it. Back then, she needed the power of the Banshee Norn too.
"Not like THIS!" Leina snaps at Yuliana, deeply upset, "You are endangering those people! People who are depending on you not to bring more problems to their doorstep!" Even as she yells shut up shut up shut up - and Yuliana tries to make that happen, as the Da Xukong skitters towards the Beguir and latches on.
"NNnnnnnnnghh-! LET GO!" The dizzying presence of the void is an awful silencer, feeling like it's muffling everything that her Psychoframe is amplified, including that sense of rejection. The brainwaves pass erratically, and it feels like her world narrows considerably, as she tries to stare beyond through that window.
It feels like she's doing so blindly now.
The Mobile Suit does not carry the sensation of being squeezed by the Da Xukong, but still it staggers as Leina tries to keep balance, but there is one thing that Yuliana knows well.
It is how used to the dark, clawing sensation, Leina Ashta is.
"Watch me."
And the Beguir reaches down, grabbing Da Xukong, and violently rips her away by the spine. Before she casts Da Xukong into the field of r e j e c t i o n.
'HOW DARE YOU!'
However even as she sends her away, the Dag Doll is launching towards her, taking the field WITH IT, as Leina now with her concentration frazzled but not broken, pushes back, holding up her shield against his firing shots.
"Stop! In that machine you can't-!" However, Angelo isn't much for words like 'can't' in this moment, as she tries to push back against his emotional tide, and she sees through the gap in her shield, that barrel slung saber coming down. Her own Beam Saber ignites, and the outright fury causes the Beguir to buckle at its knee joints, as the force brings back her own Saber nearly to the Beguir's neck.
She knows the rebound against him, as those conjoined fields will tether him back.
So she gives him incentive.
Just like before, her shield launches on a wire, buoyed by those non-kinetic effectors within it, but she doesn't even need those. She just needs that impact to start the process.
And as the rebound starts, as the tension upon her Beam Saber's parry lets up, that MS's hand cocks back, and throws it - at this short range, while he's suspended between this moment in time and the next, trying to impale his suit.
The Psycho-jammers sputter, the fields of blue dimming, and she knows despite it all, she's about to lose them. "Damnit...! Damnit... I thought... I thought you wanted a world where noone had to look at you."
And there's something mournful in that. Like she thought, despite it all, he might understand.
But here they are, dancing more violently than ever.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Yuliana Kafim with Jam L2! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Beguir Neuer Cross Combination - Inquisition! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta targets Yuliana Kafim with Jam L2! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Angelo Sauper with Beguir Neuer Cross Combination - Inquisition! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Angelo Sauper fails to engage guard against Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Cross Combination - Inquisition! KTS: Angelo Sauper's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Angelo Sauper successfully reacts to Leina Ashta's Beguir Neuer Cross Combination - Inquisition, taking 3825 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim accepts Leina Ashta's Jam L2! KTS: Best Defense! Yuliana Kafim successfully reacts to Leina Ashta's Jam L2, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
...It was probably always a bit difficult for a smooth talker like Lelouch to deal with a reckless spirit of anger like Emilia, C.C. realizes. After all, the entire world's cordiality and cleverness can easily come undone the moment an associate lets their thirst for vengeance boil too hot.
"The first thing hypocrites do is point the finger of hypocrisy, as they say," Zero calmly asserts, flicking switch after switch to send the Gawain's float unit surging skyward at a rate that almost certainly would've made Lelouch pass out. (Much as C.C. can't just confess it - it's a little bit -difficult- copiloting even a complicated machine when someone in it is the poin of failure.) "B2, hold position for just a while longer," comes Zero's command, which certainly makes the rebels in their Burais sweat a little as the funnels surround and overheat their KMFs...but when attention is focused on them...
The Gawain, looming imperiously in the desert sky, unfurls those twin prongs on the shoulders - the Hadron Cannons alighting to surge across the GN-X squadron. But where ordinarily they'd fly in a heavy, imposing burst...
...C.C. slipped one trick into the Gawain. Something only she can use to its full effect. It was really salvaged from a Funnel or so, somewhere along the line - but in coordination with the Gefjun Disturbers stabilizing the output, it lets her very thoughts split the beams into a wide, directed cage, each beam guided by a single rapidly burning micro-bit, swirling around the GN-Xes like hungry snakes.
Amidst it all, her own voice is almost gentle and understanding towards Marie.
((I think you can just call me C.C., much as I use many names. Hm. Do you feel the intent I'm giving off as strongly as I imagine one in your position might? ...It's very possessive for a reason, you know. A 'cage' in every sense of the word.~))
That serene voice contrasts with what C.C.'s actually saying - Zero's half-baked attempt to at least quench that fire of betrayal Emilia's voice is seared by. "The board's circumstances are ever-changing, and key players sometimes fall behind the fog of war, myself included. Still, that likely doesn't make what you've suffered 'right'. ...hm. If you're amenable, perhaps I can explain what befell me, once we've concluded this operation."
...is she really gonna tell Emilia all of what she's doing? Well, maybe, C.C. concludes - or maybe she'll cook up another lie. It's spur of the moment like that.
KTS: C.C. targets Soma Peries with Hadron Cannon - Queen Cage! KTS: C.C. has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries fails to engage Guard against C.C.'s Hadron Cannon - Queen Cage! KTS: Best Defense! Soma Peries successfully reacts to C.C.'s Hadron Cannon - Queen Cage, taking 4050 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"They need to eat! This is something I can do! This is something I can do, so--!!" Yuliana screams, all the more unseated. "I know they'll be mad! But you weren't supposed to know! It was supposed to be easy! Why can't it just be easy?!"
It would be easy -- if it were as simple as Yuliana preying on Leina, here. But the Beguir is still larger than the Da Xukong -- and it's damaged, by now. It has no defence against being ripped away so violently, thrown into that zone of
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eICUTG7Oyik Nine Inch Nails - Demon Seed
r e j e c t i o n
Months ago, Elisa gave Yuliana the Liminal Lattice, banded across her wrists to protect her from the Empress's influence.
But what was the effect -- of distancing her from the only connection left to her?
Her singular bond numbed... for so long.
What has she been doing, since then?
Isolating herself, and turning away, and leading them all into
"where"
There is nothing.
The world began with nothing, and the world returns to nothing; but the emptiness isn't, and has never been. Empty. It's not empty, where it's empty, where nothing after nothing after nothing comes out. The bond isn't numbed, any more.
It's gone.
"where"
And there is nothing here. It all comes back to nothing; it all leads back to nothing. It is
"empty"
And there is no force to her words, no fervour -- as if she doesn't even realise she's speaking. Certainly she doesn't realise she still has that open channel, broadcasting to anyone who can here.
"there's nothing there"
She sees the Void fire out, from Sayaka's Spinatio. There is no cold love, behind it. There's nothing there. It's a graveyard. It's
"dead. everything. beneath"
The Da Xukong 0 falls still, and prone.
"hahahahahahaha..."
Emilia was right, in the end.
It's not funny.
"they don't... know"
Isn't it?
Isn't it funny?
"yet."
Yuliana, slack, stares into the eternity of their oblivion, because you never had to carve down to the centre of the universe...
... to find a dead garden.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Leina Ashta with Pass! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta accepts Yuliana Kafim's Pass! KTS: Best Defense! Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Yuliana Kafim's Pass, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kathras Fari has posed.
The Pain of the Universe leaps for the missile, and Jakallo stares at his display as he sees it happen. Jakallo is too far away to sense much of what's happening down there--certainly with the Jammer and Yuliana Kafim existing he isn't getting readings. But he has his radar, and he has his cameras, ,and he watches Pain's descent into the soil.
Then, the GN-X squadron is battered by the rapid blasts of that powerful cannon, and they can't get out of the way. All three take hard shots, hard enough that it shakes their units and shears off armaments. One loses another arm; another loses a leg.
Boss has an answer. Boss throws the long shot... and that hammer comes up and around. The GN-Xs are too busy with Sympatria and Sayaka's shots to get in the way of this shot, and that familiar object is a gigantic spiked ball that just... slams right upward through the bat. It indeed isn't that much of a long shot.
Lanra Gavarre, on the bridge, frowns sharply. Jayaissa, at the helm, stares at the display. "What the FUCK is--"
The CIWS of the ship fires, multiple small guns turning and reducing the ball to something much smaller than it was when it got there--but they cna't stop it completely, and it slams into the ship with a resounding thunk. The bridge shakes from the impact.
At the same time, Sayaka's modulated voice continues at their reply. No, Fari's not going to reply to that part. Instead he says, "Then act away, Satellicon. We'll be watching."
the basemen do end up occupied. Shari's technology sends out strange energy towards the suits, and Achilles Squadron does not recognize it at all. They're blasted by it, one managing to escape but the other taking the hit such that it bypasses most defenses. "W-what!?" a pilot exclaims.
"What IS that energy?" Gavarre suddenly asks, looking down at the displays. "Is it--"
"Call them back," Captain Fari answers smoothly. "...The storm's almost on us. And the battle data we've recovered is at least as valuable as the supplies we could still recover. ...We'll have to formulate a countermeasure for those abilities."
Both Boss Borot's... printer, and the strange energy that Sayaka (not that he knows it's her) used.
Perhaps a Newtype could identify his opponent in this way. But he doesn't have those powers. Instead, he has something different; he has orders. "Mr. Jakallo," Fari says as Lanra Gavarre starts calling back the GN-Xs. "Fire on these coordinates."
"...On the convoy itself, sir? On the supplies?"
"We have to show them that crime doesn't pay, Mr. Jakallo. Those are my orders. Fire."
"...Yes, sir."
The cannons on the Aion start to turn--and turn towards the convoy itself. With a whine of heat, they fire--straight down at the heart of it.
But with the wind picking up, that's the last precise shot the Aion is going to be able to get off. The GN-Xs, meanwhile, start gathering themselves up--one has to grab another to help--and are on the retreat. It is certainly possible to fire on them as they flee.
But Captain Fari, is listening on that open channel from Yuliana Kafim.
Jayaiassa is, too, and her skin crawls.
But Fari is calmer. "...What..." Lanra Gavarre answers, "What is wrong with that woman?"
"..." Mr. Jakallo shivers. "Nothing," he says.
KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Sympatria Unit with Heavy Ship Fixed Beam Turrets Focused Assault! KTS: Kathras Fari targets Boss and Sayaka Yumi with Shock! KTS: Kathras Fari has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sympatria Unit has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Sympatria Unit has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit fails to engage guard against Kathras Fari's Heavy Ship Fixed Beam Turrets Focused Assault! KTS: Sympatria Unit's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Sympatria Unit moderately reacts to Kathras Fari's Heavy Ship Fixed Beam Turrets Focused Assault, taking 5250 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sayaka Yumi accepts Kathras Fari's Shock! KTS: Kathras Fari shocks Sayaka Yumi, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Best Defense! Sayaka Yumi successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's Shock, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Boss accepts Kathras Fari's Shock! KTS: Kathras Fari shocks Boss, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Best Defense! Boss successfully reacts to Kathras Fari's Shock, taking 0 damage! KTS: [Spirit Defense] Boss's Lovable Machine activates, and his spirit is adjusted.
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
<"Why would we need to steal food!?"> Soma definitely doesn't understand that. If anyone on Earth is going to have food it's the Earth government. Why would they need to steal it? It makes no sense.
But that's terrorists for you. They make no rational sense.
The Rosen goes to pull away again, trying to take its lance with it. But the Zaku grabs the GN-X's arm, locking it into close range and keeping the long weapon poking through its shoulder. Harkens blast out, starting to tie up the GN-X. Soma definitely gets the feeling this pilot wants to keep her in close.
That's fine.
Another harken launches out but before it can wrap up anything, the Rosen's free hand grabs the cabled rocket, pulling tight on the cable and using it to bring the Zaku closer, driving the lance further in. The GN-X then releases its hold on the harken, its hand changing to a flat palm as a crimson glow appears around the claws. It then drives that hand forward towards the Zaku, trying to bury it into the other machine's frame.
Just as 'Zero's' Burai's are trapped within Soma's electromagnetic cage, Soma's GN-Xs are trapped within the Gawain's. Who flinches first?
Soma. She doesn't hesitate. Which is presumably what C.C. is banking on. The E-Shield Funnels disengage their energies, freeing the Knightmares and rushing up to reinforce the GN-X squad. The same shields re-engage, this time placing themselves in the path of the energy cage to soak it up and create an opening for escape.
((C.C.? I like that name. You could destroy them, with that weapon, couldn't you? It would be quicker. But then her funnels would still be free to act. Or are you perhaps trying to avoid their deaths?))
It's true, that with her hands tied up with Emilia and her funnels tied up with breaking the cage, Soma's options are limited.
But not zero.
With a hopefully tighter grip over the Zaku now, Soma tries to force the other unit to turn so its back is to the Gawain. Which means the lance in its shoulder is now pointing at the floating Knightmare. And the GN beam emitters within the lance, now poking out the back of the Zaku's shoulder, begin to rapid fire at the Gawain.
It's only after this that a large blast rocks the battlefield, at the heart of the convoy. Dust and debris from the fallout washing over the GN-Xs and Soma, who looks on with obvious shock, <"What!?"> What happened!?
KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Soma Peries targets Emilia Eschonbach with GN-X Claws Penetrating Hand! KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Soma Peries targets C.C. with GN-X GN Lance Pierce and Unload! KTS: Soma Peries has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach engages charge against Soma Peries's GN-X Claws Penetrating Hand! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach moderately reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X Claws Penetrating Hand, taking 4500 damage! KTS: C.C. has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: C.C. fails to engage evade against Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Pierce and Unload! KTS: C.C. moderately reacts to Soma Peries's GN-X GN Lance Pierce and Unload, taking 5850 damage! KTS: C.C. has been defeated! KTS: Soma Peries completes the Formation attack! Sympatria Unit tosses a coin: Tails
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Maintaining her suppressive Vulcan barrage, Lilium blinks. Once. Just once. It's long enough to lose track of the Yulong, but not quite enough for her to miss the particle trail--not that it particularly helps her, at least in comparison to the proximity arms screaming that there was something Behind Her Right Now all of a sudden.
<<Justice isn't--something that comes from Individuals! Justice comes from people, from societies, from the organisations they create to keep them safe, and the people of Earth have named the Gaia Sabers as their justice!>>She cries out, dashing forwards and entering a backwards flip.
Psychological warfare. It wasn't her forte, but she hadn't been one on her high school's cheer squad for nothing.
As she angles herself horizontally upwards the Yulong's palm strike collides with her suit's 'face'. A glancing blow, but still enough to flood her Earthnoid-brand GN drive's systems. An issue. But not an instantaneous one, and if she vented all her particles fast enough...
Lilium turns up the volume on the line Li Yao had opened to her, and forces a wide grin. <<Come ooooon, Justice!>>
The GN-X's drive spins up to a recognisably-dangerous rate.
<<Get me a G!>>
All power diverted to the Long Rifle. Compression chamber at critical mass.
<<Get me an S!>>
Firing angle... simple. She's almost totally upside-down now...
<<Get me a B!>>
Was this act even going to phase him? She didn't know, but it was worth a try. Her GN-X fully inverts, hanging upside-down in the air--and totally freezes in place, thrusting particles in every direction to give her a perfectly stable firing position. She takes in a deep breath, grips the trigger firmly, and...
<<GOOOOOO, SABERS!>>
KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Li Yao with GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Ultimate Shot! KTS: Lilium Valerie has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sympatria Unit has posed.
"Manic means... uh... like how he's acting now," Six tells Three, because Six knows what the word means, but does not have an onboard dictionary.
Neither does Three. He doesn't answer, instead scanning the horizon. "This is kind of a clench, huh."
"Super clench," Six agrees, her head swivelling around. There is wordless silence for them as they see the GN-X's. Six's head rocks back to watch the skywise segment of the panoramic view, seeing the duel between Dag Doll and the others. "C'mon..." she mumbles.
"If they fire on us," Three says, "I'll try to roll with it." A beat passes. "You should get out."
"... you sure?"
"Yeah," Three says. "It'd take me too long to unplug. You're not connected at all. ... I'm not saying it's gonna happen! Stop making those eyes at me!"
Six turns her head to protest -- and she's the first one to see -- What she says is more of a high pitched emission of sound than a word, carrying a simple imperative over the comm-link to the Pain of the Universe.
!!LOOK!!
The Pain of the Universe doesn't have a head, but it does have a camera array... you can get remarkably huge amounts of resolution from remarkably small cameras. There's a somewhat blurry space on the side that got rocked by the missile, but One's head snaps forwards and sees the motion of the Aion.
He doesn't warn Boss or the woman in the Spinatio. "Oh no you don't," he says without thinking, driving the Beldam Rack Chassis forwards and leaning ahead. The machine runs -- it's huge, yes, but it's also highly powered, perhaps even overpowered.
He hisses through his teeth as a second glance tells him it's the main guns or something close. His eyes saccade between the space ahead of him and the turning of the AION's turret. Mentally he plots trajectories. Simple graphics in his minds eye. What can he do?
He hits a particle purge with a silent cybernetic command. The Pain of the Universe's failsafes for e-cap overcompression incidents fire, flooding the immediate area with that faintly red-shifted cloud of particles as the suit leaps into the air. He turns, presenting the less-devastated arm, with its additional thickness of armor.
The beam fires.
It hits.
The outer layer of armoring, with its integral anti-beam laminate (a token safety feature - the design didn't include enough to do more than make it harder to pop the suit with a beam casually) vaporizing. The diffusing dumped megaparticles fill the air with static and perhaps they absorb some of the force. The main thing that absorbs it is the plating.
The other plate was shattered, with some of the exterior boiling off. In this case, nearly a ton of metal flashes to vapor, with the remainder falling inwards. Coolant lines rupture, producing an immense thermal expansion as the interior workings are gradually but thoroughly destroyed by the capital beam weapon. The blast moves inwards; it hits the rugged underlying 'bones' of the BRC's frame, but there has been enough energy absorbed that they only melt into sagging members of ruined alloys, not vaporizing.
It crawls inwards. Coolant pipes vaporize as their expanding contents absorb curlicues of deadly force. The shoulder joint is a rugged thing and its lubricants prove shockingly refractory - though it's a matter of degree. The cannon is destroyed. The forearm is destroyed. The upper arm is destroyed. The shoulder actuator is destroyed. The interior defense baffles begin to melt.
The cockpit's temperature spikes, and then the Pain of the Universe strikes the ground hard enough to deform the entrance hatch, bursting it outwards. Superheated air that has already faintly burned One's face erupts outwards, and a few moments later his left arm -- a cybernetic replacement(?) -- tears itself apart, interior components bared and pistons stripping apart. Acrid electronic-waste smoke rises outwards but the flames do not have a chance to really get going.
One gasps for breath, once. The dull heat of the destroyed assemblies radiates against him. The side of his face blisters. He can sense the destruction of the arm, the burn, several large shrapnel shards in his leg. And...
... the remaining (albeit damaged) cannon arm turns and pushes the Pain of the Universe upwards. One leg crooks, getting under it. The machine rises, swaying, with several visible fires in what's left of the destroyed arm.
"I don't... care," he husks, "how BIG... your GUN is..."
(In the cargo Doga, Three and Six both are staring at the little signal-pane from the Pain of the Universe, which has been sound-only this entire time. They can hear, mostly, static.)
"you can't," One breathes as the staggering Pain of the Universe pivots towards the Aion, "kill the FUTURE... with a beam... gun."
The thought occurs to One, after he silently checks the status of the Pain Editor (workin' fine, chief! thanks for checking!), that he probably should swap off with Three or something if they clear out the area. The remaining Agony Cannon fires off another burst towards the Aion, even as One turns his head to look through the deformed-open cockpit hatch -- how they doing? Which of the cargo lighters were Six and Three in again? No, not lighters, Mobile Suits, labor Mobile Suits. Do I have a concussion? (So One thinks.) (He probably does.)
KTS: Sympatria Unit's The Vocal Track Kicks In activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sympatria Unit's The Vocal Track Kicks In activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit's The Vocal Track Kicks In activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sympatria Unit's The Vocal Track Kicks In activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit's The Vocal Track Kicks In activates! KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit targets Kathras Fari with Single Agony Cannon! KTS: Sympatria Unit has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kathras Fari's The Loyal activates! KTS: Sympatria Unit's The Vocal Track Kicks In activates! KTS: Kathras Fari fails to react to Sympatria Unit's Single Agony Cannon! KTS: Best Defense! Kathras Fari successfully reacts to Sympatria Unit's Single Agony Cannon, taking 3975 damage! KTS: Kathras Fari has been defeated! KTS: Li Yao fails to engage evade against Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Ultimate Shot! KTS: Critical Hit! Li Yao poorly reacts to Lilium Valerie's GN-X Long Barrel Beam Rifle Ultimate Shot, taking 6600 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Lilium Valerie's Tracer Shots activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Lilium Valerie roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Angelo Sauper has posed.
I thought... I thought you wanted a world where noone had to look at you.
What is the shape of a world where no one sees you?
A world where you simply don't exist?
Before, Angelo Sauper would have been fine with that. His life meant nothing. He was no better than the rest of the filthy dreck of humanity.
He just wanted to see it all burn. Everything that hurt him, everything so diseased and evil and twisted about this world. Just burn it all away, and then he could just... fade away into a place where no one would ever be able to peer into his heart ever again.
So what happened?
You have a voice of your own Angelo! USE IT!
It's a question Leina never receives an answer to. As the bounds of that field start to snap back like a rubberband forced to its limit, the Beguir acts. That shield -knocks- into the Dag Doll, unsettling its footing. That saber pulls back, and -thrusts- forward--
--and meets the broad, circular bastion of the Dag Doll's own, scorched shield.
Time seems to freeze for a single moment. And in the cracklines forming within the Psycho-Jammer, Leina can feel a sliver of Angelo's anger, like catching a glimpse of someone through a crack in the wall. Personal and directed at her, like she had slighted him personally.
But it's more than that. Hatred, and anger.
But focused.
Less the cold resignation of bitterness...
... and more a growing spark of dissatisfied fury.
The shutters of the Dag Doll's shield hiss open, revealing mega particle barrels in triplicate even as that saber melts through circuitry.
And - just as the Psycho-Jammer field rebounds to launch it back - the Dag Doll fires a sudden volley of mega particle fire from its shield, overloading circuitry from overheated strain and causing a rupturing explosion to RIP out between Beguir and Dag Doll as the latter is -shunted- backwards.
It hits ground with a violent, unsightly CRUNCH of impact. Thrusters activate as it rebounds, the counterforce helping it to land in an upright position - kneeling, but upright - in this hellish, god-awful gravity. Sparks sputter around the Dag Doll, its left arm partially melted from its shield's explosion...
... but that mono-eye still gleams.
Within that cockpit, Angelo's huffs and huffs, the impeccably coifed curl of his bangs now spilling messily over his sweat-slicked forehead as he blows out each ragged breath.
He can feel the Psycho-Jammers sputtering around him. He can feel that damnable, ugly world that hurts just to look at opening back up to him.
This is his window--
where
"... Eh?"
Past the wild heaves of his breathing, Angelo just -barely- hears the whisper of that familiar voice, normally so incensed and now just... small, slight. Slack. He looks, perturbed and annoyed, in the direction of the Da Xukong.
Violet eyes narrow at the heavily damaged, prone machine, and his first impulse is to simply ignore it and leave Yuliana to her fate.
If she died, she died, and the world would suffer the loss of another deranged, bigoted Earthnoid. He wouldn't shed a tear.
He has his window now. He can act -now-. He can deal with Leina -now- before she can compromise -everything-.
there's nothing there
"..."
The Dag Doll is still, for a long moment.
"... -tt-."
And then, thrusters igniting, it lunges--
-- for the Da Xukong.
<"You don't know the world I want.">
One mechanical hand grips the smaller machine.
<"But you will.">
And as it does, the Dag Doll starts to shunt -backwards- in the direction of the convoy intent to take Yuliana into a full retreat, a sudden, devastating volley of mega particles screaming out in a wide, diffuse array across the battlefield as cover fire to try to keep Leina from pursuit.
<"Move!">
Violet eyes look up with contempt as the Aion starts to charge its weapons. As the Pain of the Universe starts to move. He knows what's coming. What might well inevitably happen to the convoy. He still moves, cursing as he goes.
He could have.
He could have...!
<"... Damn, useless cultist...!">
KTS: Angelo Sauper targets Leina Ashta with Diffuse Mega Particle Cannon! KTS: Angelo Sauper has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Angelo Sauper's Finding His Voice activates Valor! KTS: Leina Ashta engages evade against Angelo Sauper's Diffuse Mega Particle Cannon! KTS: Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Angelo Sauper's Diffuse Mega Particle Cannon, taking 4794 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Together, their three units certainly deal a blow to the Aion and its forces. With the last of its strength, as the storm brews, the Aion aims its cannon. But Sayaka finds that it isn't at them. No, the Spinatio's targeting cameras suggest...
"...They're aiming for the convoy? What, if their people don't get to eat, no one does? What kind of twisted logic is that?!" It does make Sayaka wonder if bringing Satellicon into this crisis only managed to make things worse, only because she underestimated the extent of the cruelty this Gaia Sabers ship would show them.
One, Three, and Six realize the same thing - but they're way more equipped to actually do something about it. Attempting to take a battleship's main cannon point blank is a ridiculous move, but can the Pain of the Universe do it?! It's almost... a visceral sight, watching it in what feels like slow motion, all those armour plates melting off. But sure enough, the beam is stopped - and the Pain of the Universe is left standing at the same time. Sayaka breathes a likely, collective sigh of relief with the rest of Satellicon. "Pain of the Universe, come in, can you read me?" She wants to make sure they're okay anyways.
At the same time, Yuliana broadcasts over the open channel. She does... not sound herself. The Spinatio lowers the Loom rifle. "Y-Yuliana?" Her concern, too broadcasts over the radio. "What in the world... happened to you?" What else can she ask? She'd never seen Yuliana like this... not even after her roughest therapy sessions.
A long sigh. The Dawn of Fold and Satellicon got what they wanted with this operation. But it doesn't quite feel like a victory... because the Gaia Sabers have had it clear that they do not forget and forgive, and will burn anything to make that point. "Alright -- we'd better regroup and make sure those supplies keep moving before people starve."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"F-F-F-FINE!" Emilia yells back. "L-l-live through this a-and explain yourself- and it h-h-had better be good enough- n-not just for me! B-but for Kallen, t-too! Or else I'll f-f-finish the job Britannia st-started!" There's real hurt in the girl's voice, buried amidst the anger. She feels ready to burst-
But the problem of Soma remains more prominent. The Zaku IV doesn't defend itself- if anything, it welcomes the pull on the harken, letting the GN-X bury itself deeper- and when the claw drives into the other side of the unit, Emilia's cockpit is rattled and she feels the impact transfer to her. It hurts- and then her other arm wraps around with a motion more humanoid than is typical for a Mobile Suit, with the intent to wrap Soma's GN-X's arm even closer, locking them both in a death grip. Her other arm- the one impaled, moves to shift from the arm to get a death grip on the GN-X's waist.
And unlike Soma, she sees the explosion- and in this close range, she can replay the footage easily, forcing it through contact comms. The AION, shooting on the supplies.
"Y-your boss th-there decided that it's b-b-better for everyone to. St-st-starve than just l-let it go and r-r-replace it." Emilia says, growling. "H-h-having the m-most doesn't mean th-there's e-e-enough, you pr-pr-pr-privileged l-little idiot! N-n-now even m-more people will st-starve! J-just like the a-a-areas! J-Just. Like the c-c-colonies!"
She grins, but it's not a happy grin. It's sadistic, ruthless, and devoid of joy.
"R-R-Remember that a-as you leave th-this world! NUNE c-cares more about h-h-hurting people than h-helping them!" She grips the controls, as the Swanfeather surges to life. "Let's d-dance, Black Swan!" She calls-
And here, at point blank, with little care for her own unit, unleashes everything she has on the GN-X. Missiles, the harken that isn't caught, the twin circular beam sabers, the serpent leaders and finally the heavy beam cannon, all of them fly out in rapid sequence as Emilia does everything she can to hold the GN-X in place, even as she risks damage to herself- and given how badly beaten the Black Swan is... she's more than pushing her luck.
KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beaten... activates! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beaten... activates! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beaten... activates! KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach targets Soma Peries with Black Swan Pas de Deux! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Sometimes when you are old, you can lean on your experience to be able to abstract everything that is going to happen. How it is all going to play out, and at the same time when you rely on that too much some cheerleader pulls the rug out from under you. That was exactly what happened to Yao, he was not expecting a cheer, and it cost Yulong layers upon layers of armor as it scrambled to get out of the way much too slow.
Yao could feel the heat of that blast as beads of sweat form on his brow. Still the Yulong is standing and ready to fight. At that moment is when Captain Fari gets tired of this situation and tries to rush to the end of the game, but the children prove themselves much more capable then Yao would have thought. Maybe he was wrong, maybe his anger clouded him to the true power of the Sympatria unit.
For now there was still an enemy in front of him, <"So there is the justice of the Gaia Sabers. You would rather everyone starve then let someone win. Fortunately, it looks like Captain Saber was a bit dull. ">
The GN reactor on the back of the Yulong has been spinning up this entire time as a large power build up as the gem on the back of the right hand begins to glow with a collected GN particles. Fortunately for the GN-X pilot Yao is now much more aware of the situation around him and specifically Yuliana's state.
A moment hesitation is all it takes before Yao speaks one last time to his opponent, <" Your battleship is leaving, the dust storm is upon us. We can continue this until we are both scrap or you can catch up to your ship. I have other things to do."> The Yulong's GN glow dissipates as it stands down and flies toward the Da Xukong to try and support Yuliana in the moment.
KTS: Li Yao targets Lilium Valerie with Pass! KTS: Li Yao has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lilium Valerie accepts Li Yao's Pass! KTS: Best Defense! Lilium Valerie successfully reacts to Li Yao's Pass, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Why can't it just be easy? A question asked by so many. You weren't supposed to find out, it's easy to say.
Ultimately, Yuliana seeing into the beyond, is a quiet thing. It is the sort of quiet that raises goose pimples on the skin. It takes a moment for her to understand something is horribly wrong, as she thought it was going to be like at the North Pole.
That it would merely switch the channels, connect her to a being that...
"Yuliana?" She whispers, at some of the comments, the laughter. "What did I just do?"
Indeed, it wasn't so long ago that she told Angelo he had a voice, and he told her that he didn't want people to look at him. And the world turned, and time passed, and he said he had learned to use his voice.
And part of her, drawn into him by the Machine Head - cheered him. Then today, she tried to take it away.
What changed?
'You don't know the world I want. But you will.'
"... Damnit! Then don't-!" Urging it forward, sensing his intent, as he grabs Da Xukong the sudden burst of Mega Particle rays cause the Beguir back, like a rain of gravel sent at it, and it jerks backwards all the same, scoured in several areas by that beam rain.
Not as much as Angelo might have liked. The Aion charges its weapons, and Leina gawks in horror, as the Pain of the Universe... saves the supplies?
There's a sudden emotional deflation, like all the air has just been let out of her, perhaps.
"...run away." She says with a sense of resignation, in that moment uncertain if she wants to press into that realm of understanding, of if she just wants this dance to end, feelings tugged in multiple different directions.
"Come on Ashta! We're pulling out!" A Base Jabber swings down, and Leina leaps up to balance precariously on it, with the other Cathedra mobile suit.
Why does she feel so alone? So much so that she doesn't even want Angelo to leave? Wasn't this the right choice to make?
Come ooooon, Justice!
Get me a G!
Get me an S!
Get me a B!
GOOOOOO, SABERS!
Leina's face just locks up in this moment of being dumbfounded in the face of something unexpected at hearing Lilium over the calms, before her eyes dip down.
"..."
There's this, very faint smile, because even if she has very mixed feelings about this whole affair...
"... Well it's no 'even so.'"
...today it'll have to do.
KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Soma Peries's Fearless Soldier activates! KTS: Emilia Eschonbach's Beaten... activates! KTS: Soma Peries fails to engage evade against Emilia Eschonbach's Black Swan Pas de Deux! KTS: Soma Peries successfully reacts to Emilia Eschonbach's Black Swan Pas de Deux, taking 6120 damage!
<Pose Tracker> C.C. has posed.
((...A pleasant name, huh? It's only what I'm named because I lost what it was before. Marie's an actual name, you know. Do hold onto it.))
C.C. hides the strain in her mental voice given it's a rare pleasant little opportunity - because suddenly, that 'cage' being a bit psycho-active in nature proves very important once the storms billow through the world - once Yuliana's hollowness and Emilia's fury combine into a chorus of malaise the witch can't easily block.
...it's trying to 'protect' Marie.
Even at the same time as Soma's lance carves a hole dangerously close to the Gawain's cockpit - letting the dust storm spill into the space from one small gap, leaving C.C. grateful Zero's mask isn't just decorative. Still, the damage being as critical as it is, and the tides of battle shifting as they do...she's left with little choice.
"It's useless to continue fighting in conditions this dire, and NUNE forces are in enough disarray...we'll live to fight another day, much as this didn't get to be as much of a rout as we'd like. I'm withdrawing for now - all forces of the Black Knight contingent, we'll reconvene later."
"...as for you, Emilia - yes, I will have an audience with you soon, then." On that, the Gawain pushes away with all its might, flying within the dust storm as smoke cover...
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Muting her communications line for a moment, Lilium breathes heavily. She put everything into that shot. Everything. Unfortunately, this leaves her... pretty open. She struggles to use what mobility she has to right herself, at least before she loses the capability of flight--Oh. Oh, she's made a mistake
TACTIC TWO: Stay Airborne No Matter What.
Mobile Fighters are notably harder to control off the ground, at least traditionally. Getting close enough to the floor that they can reach you without jumping--that's a mistake. That's a fatal mistake.
Lilium screws her eyes shut as her opponent prepares to charge up his handstrike, reflexively reaching for her ejection handle...
And Yao thinks better of himself.
Silently, she watches him leave. Thinking on his words.
Was this... justice? Was this really right? They were wrong to steal the supplies, that was without question, but...
Second Lieutenant Valerie shakes her head, reaching out to reduce the volume of her transmission back to its normal levels, and switches back to a more secure line.
<<Valerie. Heavily damaged. Have repelled enemy unit. I'm withdrawing at whatever speed I can manage, assistance would be appreciated!>>
Smoldering faintly, with traces of orange and even fainter traces of green particles trailing behind it, the Long Rifle GN-X turns, plants its feet on the ground, and runs.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"i have to"
There's some bare recognition that something is grasping her, at least. That physical jolt of the Dag Doll grasping the wanzer -- exists.
"i have to"
The world... they want.
"it isn't."
Why can't she think? The silence is too loud.
"this world isn't."
The wanzer offers no protest as the Dag Doll moves, though there's a rasping, shuddering gasp. "Wh..." Yuliana starts, and at least doesn't sound quite so hollow, now. "What's... going on? An...gelo...?" Another breath. She tries to focus. She remembers -- "Leyasha... why...?"
She blinks, blearily, as her eyes focus on her cameras and sensors again. "Oh, God," she breathes, as she sees One's innumerable Pain. "I --"
Angelo calls her 'useless,' and her brain catches up to what Captain Fari has done, and she knows why.
"I'm... sorry," is what she tells him. "I'm sorry. I don't know... why I broke. He's... gonna be okay, right...?"
They're leaving...
... and Yuliana can't comprehend, in her present state, why they're leaving.
They've managed to keep the supplies in their hands, but before they get back to Choir -- they'll have to weather one of those horrific sandstorms, the kinds made worse by shards of glass, broken from the innumerable craters of Gobi Desert.
In their machines, they'll be okay... and they might even be able to use it as cover to throw NUNE off their trails, and get back to Choir without leading them right there.
But the REA will notice they're doing better, after this.
And the 'random' identity checks will only grow more constant from here.
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
The footage of the Aion firing on the convoy is undeniable. Soma staring at the screen in confusion. The mission was to recover the supplies. Some loss as a result of combat was expected. But to intentionally target to destroy them, that wasn't part of the mission... Was it?
Soma grits her teeth even as Emilia strengths her grip on the Rosen. Soma radios the rest of her squad, <"This mission is over. Retreat!"> There are a few objections from some of the new squad members but Soma shouts at them, <"Get out here unless you want to die for no reason! Because that's what will happen if you continue! Mission over. We failed. Get out!">
The GN-Xs are beginning to pull back. Except for Soma, who's still stuck and simply braces herself for what's about to happen.
((Life is just a series of losses and gains. Sometimes you lose something, sometimes you gain something. Sometimes both at the same time. Losing things is unavoidable. So why not just learn to accept it and leave those things in the past, taking what you gain and embracing it?))
The Advanced GN-X Rosen and the Zaku IV Black Swan both explode with the latter's suicidal assault. As the smoke passes, the Rosen is still in the embrace of the Swan. Though there are chunks of its structure missing, blown apart by the barrage. Including a part of the lower torso, where the cockpit is. It's been blown partially open, revealing the pilot within.
Soma groans as she moves a hand to hold her head. She shakes off the force of the barrage and tries to focus. With much of her cockpit gone, Soma is looking straight at the other unit, with not much in the way of options.
Thankfully she has one though which does not rely on conventional systems. The four funnels that had been protecting her now retreating squad fly down to surround the Zaku from the sides and back. Their electromagnetic shields activate, energy crackling around the Black Swan. Their output is diminished, but it's enough to briefly disrupt the already damaged systems of the enemy unit.
The GN-X doesn't take advantage of that state though, as it simply releases the grasp on what remains of its lance and proceeds to extricate itself from the Zaku's grip. While doing so, Soma mutters over the radio, still a little out of it, <"Tactics like that one... You're not fighting for a cause. You're looking to die. A release from your pain.">
Freed from the Black Swan, the Rosen turns, starting to rise into the air as it retreats. Its funnels deactivate, swooshing back to attach to what remains of their host unit. And Soma gets one more barb off with, <"Like you are now... You're going to be the one who gets other people killed. Not us.">