2022-05-28: Where Least Expected
- 'Log: Where Least Expected
- Cast: Saraven Vai, Ouka Nagisa, Lily Jung, Bergh Scred, Laila Elsayed, Gary Biaggi, Lina Lombardi, Nena Trinity, Sophia Mayhew Castellan, Cornelia li Britannia, Sakia Davila
- Where: Iraq, Euro Britannia
- Date: May 28, 2022
- Summary: The Sleeves send a care package to assist allied Zeon remnants in a strike on Britannian Iraq.
<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.
The One Year War has been over for the better part of two decades. Someone still has yet to clean up the entire mess. Case in point: The southern Jazirat al-Arab, nominally Saudi Arabia, still a hotbed of remnant Zeon forces who've been waging yesteryear's war for what has turned out to be several cycles of yesteryears. It's simply one of those places that's more trouble than it's worth to deal with properly.
The thing is, Zeon remnants talk - at least sometimes. Sometimes they even make deals.
That brings us to Charleston County, Neo Britannia - what used to be on maps as the city of Najaf and its surrounds, back before everything got pumped full of the backwash from Britannia's collective dynastic gene pool. The newer settlements here now haven't been kind to Iraqi cultural heritage - ex-Najaf looks distressingly like any Britannian city on the California seaboard. There's a large fuel depot on the outskirts of town, mainly there to collect storage cells drawn from nearby solar farms. They're banked into several huge rectangular warehouses.
One of which presently has a Zaku landing on top of it with a crunch. An old Zaku - positively One Year War vintage.
"They've got reinforcements coming, damn it," the pilot growls, whipping his heat hawk off towards the distance. "The Red Comet had better keep his word--"
"Look! Up there!" exclaims another. There are about a dozen older-era Zeon mobile suits on the scene, and they all look up at once - to where there's a fiery disturbance in the atmosphere.
The trail of a fast-moving drop pod slashes downwards. It punches through a fluffy white cloud, followed by three more like it, before the hatches on each pop open at a pre-set altitude. Three of them disgorge simple Geara Zulus, plotting their descent with simple reaction-control jets.
The lead pod spits out something distinctly lilac.
"Stand by to receive assistance," Saraven transmits, voice quiet despite the fact that she is actively falling into a gravity well with only her verniers and rockets to steady her descent. It's fine. She's done this plenty of times back home and her instincts tell her it'll be fine. She guides the Varguil with simple thoughts, and it responds smartly, descending to the midst of the fuel depot to land in a crouched state.
Her muscles tense achingly, then relax as she lets out a breath, the moment of pain passing before it can truly escalate. Earth's gravity is not pleasant and only the fact that she both trained physically for it and took a painkiller is allowing her to manage relatively normally.
"Get what you need loaded," she transmits to the Zeon commander. "We will hold off the enemy reinforcements."
KTS: Saraven Vai has deployed in AMS-123XS Varguil Complete.
KTS: Saraven Vai has changed loadout.
KTS: Lina Lombardi has deployed in eEXM-17FT Alto Flight Type.
KTS: Laila Elsayed has deployed in Neit-Sekhbet.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
In spite of her recent work alongside NERV, the fact remains that 2nd Lieutenant Aurum-1 serves first and foremost a pilot for G-Hound. Whenever her orders come in she has to be at the ready - even if said orders takes her half way across the planet. Of course this does little to help her dispel her 'Spy-hime' persona... as her sudden and unexplained leaves of absence only add fuel to the fire of the convesations around her.
So today, rather than wearing a school uniform or even a School uniform she wears an Arm Slave piloting jumpsuit and rests within the confines of its control harness. She is familiar with Arm Slaves. After all some of the earliest training she can remember involved her piloting old surplus first and generation arm slaves alongside GM series autobalanced units.
Admittedly there is part of her that prefers these kinetic units. Sometimes it feels like like to automatic systems get in her way more than help.
Painted in Middle Eastern Camouflage, her unit was deployed on intelligence suggesting that there were Zeon remnants in the area plotting a raid against local infrastructure. She had located the dozen or so OYW-era Zeon mobile suits and had signaled her position and location of the enemy forces. Since then her role had been merely to shadow them and wait for orders or reinforcements. She was fairly confident that she could defeat even a dozen older-era Zeon mobile suits in just her uncustomized XM9... but that all changes when a cloud overhead has holes punched through it by three fast moving objects!!
"Scouting unit Aurum-1 reporting. Confirmed sighting of additional enemy reinforcements. Uploading data via encrypted burst. Holding position to relay tactical data."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.
For once, The Sleeves are getting some unexpected assistance. A few moments after Saraven's pod breaks through the clouds, another glint can be seen coming from another vessel. However, this one is not descending from space, but is instead being dropped from what looks like a A-shaped vessel with some limited radar-cloaking. It is dispersing an awful lot of Minovsky particles to blind the area around her, and Saraven might in fact spot it as an Unknown Target before she picks up on something else within.
Within the pod is naught but darkness, and the shape of a somewhat outdated model. And within that, a girl touching her hands together, making for a small little prayer that this operation will go well...
EARLIER:
"I'm sorry that I can't meet you in person, my sweet girl. But I'm going to need you to go to this location in order to help out some of our business partners." The voice of her father breaks through as Lily is boarding the newly delivered machine.
"Of course daddy!" Lily smiles at him across the video-call. "So does that mean my Zack is all better again?" She gazes up at the giant before her within the pod, as it is being moved into the stealth transport.
"Better than ever. With the readings you provided, this will suit you a lot better than the previous version. You could say that he has grown up to fight alongside of you, Lily."
The girl smiles and tilts her head, "Okay!"
"There may be other people on this operation. We haven't been given the full details. So be careful."
Her body feels that plummeting sensation of gravity taking hold, pulling her down within this pod. The EWAC Zack itself is booting up, having been keeping its reactor charge full. Various screens pop up, and Lily carefully puts her Haro into the bay prepared for it. "I'm going to need you to keep an eye out for the enemy, okay?" Lily asks of it, which gets the fluffy bear-modeled Haro to chime her name a few times sounding more than happy to perform these duties.
The entire machine springs to life, and red light fills the cockpit. Various lights flowing rapidly between the panels, coming from a spot right behind her head. "No more cables is nice." She remarks to herself, lifting her arms and looking between them, before touching the panel in front of her.
"Kumo - open the pod."
"Opening pod! Opening Pod!"
As the girl closes her eyes... and reaches out. The world seems to suddenly expand around her. This is unlikely anything she's ever felt. The world around her seems to touch back. The machine itself... it's like it's responding. In that same wave, her excitement, that bright sunny presence of her pushes out towards Saraven.
A Flamingo Taking Flight
"Sara!" She calls out, excited at meeting an old friend.
The descending pod opens, and an old looking EWAC Zack suddenly pushes out, breaching into the blue of the skies. Its body lights up, and it begins a more rapid descent towards the ground. Until, just at the last moment, it engages a 'Parachute' that slows the remainder of its fall until it is on the ground, and disengages the pack on its back, and begins moving forward upon the ground, holding two rather unusual looking beam rifles. They are... chunky. Not quite 'Buster Rifle' kind of Chunky, but chunky non-the-less.
KTS: Lily Jung targets Saraven Vai with Awe!
KTS: Lily Jung inspires awe, increasing Saraven Vai's Morale!
Your unit's HP stands at 44700
<Pose Tracker> Bergh Scred has posed.
In the Archangel's hangar, as it sails through the blue sky, the engineering team was hard at work preparing for sortie. In most circumstances, the war of yesteryear's yesteryear was of little importance to the Federation's brass, especially comapred to the monumental problems faced elsewhere. Of course, that didn't mean that they never cleaned up their own back-yard, just that it wasn't atypical to dedicate specialist forces to that kind of tour. And that is ultimately, what the Archangel was.
Not only as an experimental battleship carrying two experimental test type MS, though that as well, but also because it was largely being manned by civilian conscripts. Speaking of yesteryear, it's almost like we're gonna' be re-enacting the escapades of White Base. As if. Well, the Strike isn't tuned for ground-combat yet anyway, so it'd be a pretty bad idea to send Kira out now either way.
A pneumatic hiss breathes out of the Gundam before its hardpoints snap into place, securing the two bazooka units to its shoulders. Mwu's gotta' stay behind as rear-guard, which leaves me, myself and I to go out and fight .. man, if only we were just going to be mopping up old Zakus and Goufs from the One Year War.
"Alright, the H-Type equipment is all attached - doin' final checks now!" Murdock barks, as Bergh rolls up the sleeves of his SNRI-branded jumpsuit, "Alright, showtime."
- usually, this kind of mop up wouldn't have a response like this. Unless there was something more going on, which, there was; reinforcements from space performing an orbital drop-deployment to bottleneck the local garrison and the troops moving to shore up with them.
F90 reaches one of its arms out to grasp onto a stocky looking beam rifle, causing Murdock to squint and pull his communication gummy down to his mouth and open a line, "Hold up. Isn't that the shoulder gun for the P-Parts?"
"Yeah," Bergh replies, "Well, it can be handheld or mounted to the shoulder. Call it a pilot intuition, but I just have a feeling I might need it."
"If you say so - but I'm not taking responsibility for you using crap out of spec." he shoots back, to which Bergh chuckles, "Don't worry. I mean, most of this was drawn up by me anyway, so I already know that the F90 can handle this much. Bergh Scred, F90 Gundam, going!"
Stepping onto the launch catapult, the mobile suit deploys and drops from the sky, a bright white parachute billowing out its back to slow its descent.
"Positioning data, huh .. nice," he grins while taking the information provided by Ouka's recon into account, before his expression turns down into a mild frown. Then that pinprick in my temples wasn't wrong. The Lilac Gale is here .. haven't seen her since that time at the colony. Seolla .. I haven't been able to see her after she left the Archangel's medical bay, either. What are the odds I'd meet that woman on the battlefield again?
Purging the parachute once close enough to the ground, Bergh signals his IFF to the allied forces from G-Hound, the blocs, and the union, before immediately turning the F90's right-shoulder bazooka on the Zaku stepping upon a solar array, firing a powerful rocket-propelled mortar his way before the Gundam bends its knees and zooms towards Saraven's distinctive mobile suit, closing in rapidly as its leg-mounted hover units allow it a high-speed dash.
"Back at it again, huh - Lilac Gale?"
<Pose Tracker> Laila Elsayed has posed.
With a new mission prepared, it is meet that one travel in discretion and style. All the necessary things are there, waiting for her, across the world; and so only a few things join Laila Elsayed on what had promised to be a peaceful aerial journey in a registered astronomical observation mid-altitude craft.
The astronomical stuff can be a cover, but it's not entirely a lie; there are some impressive digital astronomical tools located in the top mounts of the Active Frame, and for some reason they had an opportunity for a complete refresh.
Of course, you don't need a telescope to see meteorites coming in. Laila's eyes turn to the side, and she clicks on the console: "Skyfall," she reports. "I'll have a look. Link up the Britannian codes, would you, Hathor? That's a lamb, thank you," she says while turning the wheel graciously, adjusting the wings --
And beginning her descent.
... which is pretty low key, especially in the desert sky; the underbelly of the Active Frame's aerial mode is, of course, painted in light colors, and with baffle-lights to avoid mismatching contrasts. It can be seen on radar, of course, if dimly; and it is piloted by a living mind. Even so.
Laila begins to speak in a low, almost hushed voice with a subtle accent. The target: local Fed-aligned forces. She has the current encryption and a legitimate IFF signature, at least. "This is a national astronomer, acting out of Federation patriotism, don't mind me."
"I thought I'd let you know what my little telescope is telling me. What I see is what appears as a platoon of Mobile Suit assets - not so, it's about ten refurbished surplus units. Thus far I've seen two supporting units arrive; they appear to be linking up. One of them's heavily armed; the other seems as though it might be a space-use model. Your thermals may be thrown off by the solar farm - that may be what they're counting on. I don't believe the panel height is sufficient for them to use the panels as shelter, however..."
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
The red comet is indeed here, well not really. If anything it is just some transforming mobile suit thats really could only be called a knock off of an original design. The pilot inside of it isn't even wearing sunglasses and obviously doesn't have a mask on what so ever. Nope Gary Biaggi is in fact no red comet but he is entering the battle anyways.
The AEU has been monitoring this situation for the time being and well Lt. Biaggi drew the short straw for patrol today. Really he had planned to ignore anything he saw as long as it wasn't to obvious and then go take a nap somewhere, but sadly it appears the Sleeves and G-Hound have started barking at each other and if Gary just flew off he would hear no end to it.
With the decision to at least engage in combat the Enact opens comms up to friendly channels, <"Lt. Biaggi of the AEU is on the scene. Beginning my attack.">.
The Enact stops in midair as it shifts from flight mode to it's suit mode and seems to decided on a poor Zack unit. It seemed weak and pitiful enough after all. With out any hesitation Gary begins to charge the EWAC Zack opening fire as he closes the distance.
KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Lily Jung with 20mm Machine Gun Dash-and-Fire!
KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan, Lina Lombardi, and Bergh Scred with Awe.
<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.
Another day, another dollar with G-Hound. They were among CDS' best clients, and just detached enough from the Federation writ large for Lina to set aside her qualms with military work. She didn't expect to find herself back in the Middle East so soon, but hey, world travel was a perk of the job.
The Concord Mobile Deployment Platform was really just a small ship, big enough for a crew of about three and one mobile suit. On top of the ship's flat bow was the Alto, probably the biggest piece of crap in the fray, rolling its shoulders with Lina inside as the others on the ship itself finished all their calibrations. Painted in blue with a red stripe down the left side and a saxophone emblem on one wing, the flight unit certainly wasn't outfitted for camouflage, not that Lina particularly cared for stealth missions. The pilot herself is rolling her own shoulders in the cockpit, wearing her trademark jacket over her piloting suit. As she's warming up, her console beeps and the voice of Alina Pride, one of the company's mechanics and Lina's main support, popped up.
"Pre-flight preparations complete, Jazz. Alto is ready to take off at your word!"
"Thanks, hun!" Lina winks at the voice on her console, knowing full well that Alina can't see it. The Alto takes one step forward, locking its feet into the ship's launcher as the boosters by its wings begin to fire up, ripping the air behind her with incredible heat. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Thank you for joining us on Lombardi Air flight 1004, nonstop to Euro Brittannia. We ask that you keep your tray tables up, your seat backs in the upright position, and your seat belts locked as we begin....TAKE OFF!"
The Alto shoots forward, leaving the launching dock and darting into the air, wings pulling back for aerodynamic effect as the suit approaches the battleground, spreading back out as the EXAMAC comes to a hover in the air.
"Launch successful, Jazz. Platform will stick back to provide support. Good luck out there!"
KTS: Lily Jung has activated the Foresee Spirit Command.
KTS: Lily Jung fails to evade Gary Biaggi's 20mm Machine Gun Dash-and-Fire, taking 3510 damage!
KTS: Gary Biaggi has engaged Lily Jung
<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.
...Flamingo... you're flying again, aren't you...?
Saraven tilts her head towards the familiar presence in the familiar machine. "Lily, be careful," she says quietly, never one to let excitement take over.
For all that the Sleeves tend to stick to space, the Varguil's not having much of an issue operating in Earth-normal gravity. The lilac mobile suit readies its long beam rifle and crouches against a warehouse, orienting towards a point off into the distance. The sense of danger is coming directionally. She readies herself to face it.
Someone's been shadowing the Zeon forces and she knows it. There's a subtle pressure as her mind reaches out, touching a presence in a humble Gernsback. Saraven frowns, not quite sure what she's feeling from Ouka Nagisa yet.
There's little time to assess it, anyway - not with a familiar Gundam bearing down on the little Zeon grouping. Saraven furrows her brows at the sight of the F90 blowing away one of the allied Zakus before pivoting her way with a transmission. She doesn't respond verbally.
She lets her rifle do the talking and attempts to place a shot squarely in the F90's shoulder joint.
The descending Active Frame is unfamiliar. Saraven glances up towards the descending machine, feeling it more than seeing or detecting it. The Varguil jukes backwards from the cover of the warehouse, whirling out into the open to try and triangulate its position against the number of new threats descending on them. There are more than she expected.
It will be fine.
The rifle swings up again as Saraven aims for just a split-second. The shot she snaps off is distressingly accurate, cutting a slash across the sky to try and intersect Laila's path of descent. Then she's whipping onwards, thrusters kicking up clouds of loose sand as she pivots to squeeze off another shot.
At the skulking Gernsback. She's trying to precisely take a leg off the smaller mobile weapon.
"Withdraw," she transmits, her voice flat and almost machine-like. "The energy cells here are being repurposed. Opposing this will result in your deaths."
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Bergh Scred with Long Beam Rifle Shot!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Laila Elsayed with Long Beam Rifle Shot!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Ouka Nagisa with Long Beam Rifle Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
Nena Trinity sits at a table, outside of an ice cream store in the New and Improved city. She doesn't know what the place was like before Britannia got its hands on it, apart from some pictures her Haro tried to show her on the way here. Which she briefly glanced at and groaned at how boring it once looked. Obviously it's much better now!
Nena takes another lick of her ice cream. As she does so, her eyes are drawn to the sky, where she spots some streaks. Familiar looking ones too. Nena's eyes widen in a little excitement as she asks, "Hey Haro, is that what I think it is?"
The Purple Haro rolling around at her feet buzzes out, "Orbital drop! Orbital drop!"
Nena ohhhhhs, "Was there a base in that direction?"
Purple Haro flaps its wings, "Negative! Negative!" Remotely tied into the systems of Nena's Gundam, it's able to get a vague read on what's happening, "Hostile action! Hostile action!"
Nena grins with joy, "Oh! That sounds like fun." She stands up from her table, starting to walk down the street, "Let's go crash it!"
The Purple Haro rolls around before quickly moving to follow after Nena. It complains in its robotic voice, "No mission plan! No mission plan!"
Nena snorts, "Who cares? Besides, it's our job to get involved in fights." Definitely an oversimplification there, but one Nena is happy with if it gives her someone to shoot at.
After walking for a few blocks, Nena rounds a corner and comes face to face with a construction site. There are currently no workers on site, labor disputes or some such boring stuff that Nena didn't care about. What she cared about is it was empty. 'Was' being the operative word. Nena slips in through a whole in the fencing and walks towards the large open center of the site, before stopping just short of it. She looks up a bit and grins at... Nothing. The site still looks empty.
Nena grins as she rubs her hands together, "Let's have some f-erm-get to work. Shall we?"
Purple Haro replies, "Removing optical camouflage! Removing optical camouflage!" Particles of light briefly glow as something begins to appear, deep red and grey metals starting to take the shape of a mobile weapon.
Nena gives some brief applause at the sight, her Gundam Throne Drei finally taking its complete form as the rest of the camouflage keeping the unit hidden vanishes. She idly remarks to her Haro, "I love that part." Nena walks forward, preparing to board and change into her piloting suit. Though she pauses briefly, glancing back in the direction she had seen those drop pods going. The sounds of battle are already starting to pick up. Seems like she might be a little late... But that's okay. It's fashionable!
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Entering sensor range from afar is a small vessel - a dropcraft, really, with room for maybe a few Mobile Suits. It's fast, though, as it crests the horizon and becomes visible to spotters.
A male voice comes over laser communications. "BUF Helios entering the field at full speed," its captain announces. "We will deploy Flag complement once we're in launching range."
Belowdecks, seated in her Flag's flight mode, Sophia Mayhew Castellan taxis up to the catapult, flipping console switches with the crook of her finger. "All green. Union Flag, ready to deploy."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.
Federation forces are responding to the disturbance. And the Zeon Remnants are doing their best just to survive. In the grand vision, the Remnants are barely something that contributes to the war - in her mind. At least, not at a singular entity. However, their importance is perhaps far greater than most give credit to.
Lily's gaze slips towards the approaching enemy forces, when she feels this sudden intense... presence? It's not even a pressure in the normal sense she sometimes feels. This is different. The Zack, looking like it's intended for EWAC operations... however isn't spreading its normal intense amount of ECM interference. And the closer the Enact gets, the more Gary can see that something is just off about the unit. The weaponry, the lack of interference, the... what are those on its body?
Coming in firing, the Enact lets its bullets ripple across its body at first, only for the unit to suddenly move SIDEWAYS without at all showing this movement in its limbs. It begins to practically 'skate' across the surface, making it harder and harder to get a proper focused hit in on the pink Zack as it keeps maneuvering. Of course, within the suit, Lily is practically biting her lip. She only just deployed, and is already being fully put on the defensive as Gary Biaggi gets closer and closer...
A tug at the back of her mind.
As the Flamingo takes off, spreading its wings further.
Thanks to Saraven.
~"I'll be careful - Sara!"~ She answers chipperly, her eyes widening. This feels... easier. Regardless of the fact that her unit is taking some significant damage here, her body doesn't feel like it's being oppressed. Before she spots something. No... feels something. Just a fraction of a moment before Kuma declares;
"Celestial Being! Celestial Being!"
Lily recognizes the unit. She recognizes Nena Trinity's machine. And more importantly, the risk it poses the mission. A tremble runs through her body. The girl remembers their last encounter clearly. She tries to shake that feeling, and lets out a long breath.
"I'm okay!"
The unit shifts its body suddenly beneath Gary Biaggi's machine as he gets into closer range, and suddenly BLASTS OFF right for him while wielding two Beam Rifles. Firing rapid blasts of purple energy right for his position, while seemingly going straight for him!
It's closer now. He can see that the unit is just littered in Verniers. Perhaps just in time before the verniers suddenly activate, and the unit practically pirouettes through the sky as they turn, and the left beam-rifle shifts modes, activating a beam all along one side of the Longblade Rifle, and cuts for the Enact, before the unit aims the right rifle down at his position, and activates a larger beam to push the Enact towards the ground.
Before the girl calls out.
<"Are you here to have 'fun' again, killing people!?"> She demands to know of Nena, her personality pressuring forward, right for the girl. Enhanced by something within the machine - because while her voice is simply using a direct line of communication, the wave of emotion and 'pity' Lily feels towards Nena just washes right towards her in that same moment.
KTS: Lily Jung targets Gary Biaggi with Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Blade and Beam - Repel!
KTS: Lily Jung targets Nena Trinity with Shock!
KTS: Laila Elsayed shares insight with Gary Biaggi, making his next attacks more accurate!
KTS: Gary Biaggi blocks Lily Jung's Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Blade and Beam - Repel, taking 3360 damage!
KTS: Lily Jung repulses Gary Biaggi, forcing him to disengage.
KTS: Laila Elsayed shares insight with Cornelia li Britannia, making her next attacks more accurate!
<Pose Tracker> Bergh Scred has posed.
The condensed megaparticle stream does, indeed, do more than enough talking. A faint ringing that pulls from his ears to the center of his forehead leads Bergh to pulls F90's arm up, covered in a green plate that was reminscent of the old ground-type shields. It absorbs the brunt of the beam blast, smeltng a deep hole in it that almost goes through. "Yikes.." he murmurs to himself.
I thought I'd let you know what my little telescope is telling me.
"Nice eyes in the sky," he responds through the short-range burst, "That purple one - it's got a high-performance spec spread. The pilot is one of the Sleeves aces, so everyone take care - it's equipped with newtype use remote weapons."
Keeping himself calm and collected, Bergh sucks in a breath. Dust spews through the air as the Gundam tilts its body, careening itself in a rapid drift to the side that takes it circling around a nearby building. Using his instinct - the presence he could discern at the edge of his mind's eye - to guide him, he was able to easily keep track of the Varguil even then. He had no doubt she could do the same to him.
F90 raises its arm and extends its index finger, which hisses as it slides open and deploys a dummy balloon that blows up into a shape strongly resembling the Gundam's base frame which floats out ahead of the real-deal. Even if all it buys is a hot second..!
The Gundam dashes around and past its decoy, firing a volley from both bazookas as it torpedoes its body at her. "You don't do so hot when someone gets in your face!"
The shield is purged as the Gundam hurls it towards the Varguil's main camera, before leaning its weight onto its left leg, stalling out the hover module and blowing a cloud of stray dirt around them while the Gundam attempts to deliver a hard kick to Saraven's cockpit, and give her a parting gift in the form of a close-range volley of vulcan shots as it pulls back, skidding unsteadily on one leg in a south-eastern skid before it rebalances itself with both legs on the ground.
[Public] Shinji Ikari> thanks!
KTS: Bergh Scred has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.
KTS: Bergh Scred has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
Bergh Scred uses Hyper Reloader
KTS: Bergh Scred targets Saraven Vai with This Is No DOM!
KTS: Saraven Vai fails to evade Bergh Scred's This Is No DOM, taking 8040 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Bergh Scred's Newtype Flash activates, causing Sparkle!
Your unit's HP stands at 36660
<Pose Tracker> Cornelia li Britannia has posed.
There's a familiarity to this scenario. To this battleground. It's like being reintroduced to the steps of an old dance from your youth. For some there is trepidation and uncertainty in those first swaying motions. But then, you realize, you've remembered those steps all along.
'Withdraw.'
<< "No." >>
And the old passion returns like the roar of a bonfire.
That single, simple, -absolute- denial comes from the direct left of where the Varguil and its pilot hold their ground. It heralds the sudden -squeal- of a slash harken screaming through the air for the mobile suit, looking to puncture into armor and -lodge- there. The line begins to retract --
--bringing the commandingly violet, horned form of Cornelia li Britannia's Gloucester tearing through the air towards Saraven Val's Varguil, white cape whipping regally behind it as it goes.
It's a direct, aggressive blitz that brings the Viceroy of Area 11 to the doorstep of Neo Zeon's mission, weaving between reinforcements to strike straight for the heart of the operation.
And she does so without a single ounce of hesitation or fear.
<< "Britannia does not acknowledge the demands of ghosts." >>
And Saraven will have only a few precious seconds to react until that smaller Knightmare Frame is within striking distance, shoulder-checking directly into its chest.
<< "Your intelligence - and further assistance - will be appreciated, 'astronomer.'" >> Cornelia's voice is clipped. Professional. Commanding.
But within her cockpit, there's a smile on purple-painted lips sharp enough to pierce steel. It's the perfect match to the bright fire in those lilac eyes.
Oh, how she's missed these old familiar places.
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia targets Saraven Vai with Slash Harken Hook!
KTS: Laila Elsayed fails to evade Saraven Vai's Long Beam Rifle Shot, taking 3600 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 208.
KTS: Saraven Vai has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia anchors Saraven Vai, forcing her into close range.
KTS: Saraven Vai fails to evade Cornelia li Britannia's Slash Harken Hook, taking 2925 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 33735
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia has engaged Saraven Vai
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
Back and forth, left and right his target moves but Gary doesn't let up with the machine gun. It wouldn't matter in just a few more seconds he would be in range of the pink unit and it would be the end of its trouble. Then the damn thing appears to dash under him. Easy enough just readjust and ...oh those are beam rifles. Raising his defense rod it spins quickly as the beams impact glancing off but unfortunately pushes him backwards. "Oh will you look at that. You hae a trick. "
As he slides back his rifle switches to sword mode and he is about to charge back in when his alarms go off , his screen zooms in on the new arrival showing the celestial being. "So they showed up to fight huh?" There is a moment trying to determine which person to fight in this situation when the pink unit starts looking toward the celestial being. "Target identified."
The Enact charges the EWAC Zack, sword readied to slash when it reaches optimal range. A small sense of enjoyment coming from the Enact as the battle just gets started.
KTS: Gary Biaggi has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Gary Biaggi has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Lily Jung with Blade Rifle - Engaging strike!
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Reaching out to touch Ouka's mind is inherently a strange experience. If one were to liken it to trying to tune into a radio station, they'd notice there's a lot of static making reading her emotions difficult. Naturally someone might then attempt to focus, attempt to tune the signal... but then perhaps realizes there are TWO layers to the static: A layer from failing to connect, and a static coming from within the station itself. It's like her brain is clouded in a sea of White Noise - emotions and memories scrambled to the point that they cannot be deciphered, and eventually the brain adjusts by blocking it out as background noise.
Meanwhile the holes in her mind where those scrambled memories once fit have left depressions in her mental landscape. Much akin to dark matter, the old traumas are only detectable by the emotional gravity they left behind threatening to pull the First Boosted Child into their mysterious depths.
It is amidst this shifting sea of confusion and treachery that the fortress-like mind of Aurum-1 was constructed. A shining cathedral of resolute certainty, forever threatened to be undermined by its uncertain foundations. Only by looking closer can you see the countless hasty patches marring the gleaming facade of its walls.
But if Aurum-1 is at all distracted by the condition of her mind, she makes no indication:
"Confirmed: Attack incoming! Moving to engage target 'Lilac Gale'.
The XM9 Gernsback quickly rolls into a position where it can intercept the beam rifle shot with her arm shield instead of her unit's leg! Thanks to the mobility of the smaller arm slave it is able to position itself just in time, the beam burning a glowing red circle into the defensive plate and leaving streams of molten metal running down its sides.
"Understood. I'll make sure to watch my six, and submit tatical callouts as necessary." The Gernsback draws its shotcannon from its backplate holster before crouching low, its limbs pulling into an extreme position to maximize mechanical tension before using it to spring forward into a lunging advance! "Closing to optimum engagement range!"
'Withdraw. The energy cells here are being repurposed. Opposing this will result in your deaths.'
There is not even a flicker of hesitation within Ouka's mind at that. Death, and threats thereof, do not seem to phase her. At least not in the face of a mission. As her unit reaches effective range for her Boxer 57mm she fires a slug round attempting to hit or at least suppress the target to allow her continued advance!
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Saraven Vai with Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Slug!
KTS: Saraven Vai successfully evades Ouka Nagisa's Boxer 57mm Shotcannon Slug
KTS: Lily Jung has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
The Gundam Throne Drei lifts into the air, Nena having boarded and changed into her pilot suit. She doesn't bother pumping out any more GN Particles than her machine already does so. There's no point in trying to conceal her approach at this point, given she plans to just dive on in.
The Gundam Throne Drei blasts away from the the construction site, rushing through the air towards the battle taking place a short distance away. As she approaches, Nena glances over the various signals popping up on her head. It's quite the selection to pick from. Nena is in the process of trying to decide when she suddenly feels something weird. A feeling of something... Directed at her? Nena's eyes focus in on the pink EWAC Zack, Nena asking out loud, "Hey Haro, what's going on with that one? It seems weird."
Nestled into the control slot in front of Nena, the Purple Haro replies back, "Unknown! Unknown!"
Nena rolls her eyes, her response dripping with sarcasm, "Oh wow, thanks Haro. You're so helpful. Whatever would I do without you?" Nena narrows her eyes, "Fine, I guess I'll just have to find out on my own."
Watching the Zack, it appears to already be under attack by an Enact. Doesn't really matter. Nena has her machine draw one of its beam sabers from its shoulder, the blade of crimson red lighting up. Just as Nena is about to charge forward, a radio signal filters in. From that same machine. For some reason, Nena's chest tightens a little at the words... And she feels a sense of familiarity. Wait... This is like... Nena's eyes open wide a little in recognition.
Nena smiles.
A radio comm comes back from the Throne Drei to the EWAC Zack, <"Again? Have we met before? Sorry. Can't say I remember you. You must not be the memorable type. Which I guess is a good thing, as people won't have to waste time remembering you after you're dead!">
The Gundam Throne Drei rushes forward, quickly closing the distance and lashing out with a single strike, managing to time its attack with the Enacts, though from the opposite direction, attempting to take advantage of the distraction.
KTS: Nena Trinity targets Lily Jung with GNW-003 Twin Beam Sabers Strike!
<Pose Tracker> Laila Elsayed has posed.
Laila's eyes stay forwards as she wonders for a moment just who might see her, or infer her presence from this. She doesn't breathe heavily. The Varguil moves -- a beam lances outwards in the literal middle of --
Well, Neit-Sekhbet has many assets, but among them is a broad, energy-efficient wingspan and a prominently cylindrical-when-onfacing fuselage. An elegant weapon perhaps for another era; when shrieking megaparticle waves come upwards, slamming into the machine and making it judder as ablative layers of paint and sacrificial armor are torn away, Laila thinks something along the lines of -- Dear God! How have I offended you, to attract so many beam rifles? Is the sky itself no longer safe?
Laila leans forwards, pushing the Active Frame into a dive towards the solar fields. The windscreen before her tints significantly and abruptly, to filter out panel refractive glare. She makes it towards a maintenance vehicle park, currently... mostly empty... well, that's not my problem, is it, she thinks, even as she replies to the commanding voice.
"Of course," she replies. "I regret to say I won't be able to share our colorful local fireworks, but I believe I know something that may please them just as well. Do you know, there is a traditional response to such a, brazen statement of intent from visitors."
Neit-Sekhbet makes a hard landing, popping off flares and smoke as it lands - clawed feet digging into a concrete pad as it hunches down low. Laila reaches over to grasp the gear-shift, pressing the synchrotronic lock button and pushing it forwards with gusto.
"Ah," Laila answers Bergh: "So I see! How difficult for us. I'm told that Earth is a poor field for such weapons. All of our gravity and dust and so on. Tut tut." Wings pull inwards - neck stretches outwards and elongates; legs withdraw; material components change positioning...
"We should be more hospitable to our robbers!" And with this, the Active Frame, now in a much lower and LONGER form, begins to slither along the ground space between panels, copper glittering among blue black.
The good news is that Laila's quite decidedly hostile intent is palpable! The bad news is that the weapon behind it is a scintillant ray of coherent light - quite swift-moving compared to a beam rifle - aimed at the lilac suit's lower components!
"I'll have to get to open ground to go for an underground attack, so do feel free to disable her before then," Laila continues, more intensely.
KTS: Laila Elsayed targets Saraven Vai with 419nm Laser!
KTS: Saraven Vai successfully evades Laila Elsayed's 419nm Laser
<Pose Tracker> Sakia Davila has posed.
As much as her time in the ZAFT military was not one of fond rememberances, the muscle memory still remained. The rumble of the droppod. The dull pressure adjustments of wind moving outside, the sounds and sights of dropping back in through the hell of Earth's Ozone. It was comforting, in a way. It meant she didn't have to care about how the day goes. Not when there's stuff right in front for 'stress relief'.
A screeching pod dropping in from above, the metal panels rubbed red from sheer pressure, the downward angle careening in the abstract matter of a falling bullet. Anything shot, no matter how carefully aimed, only amounted to tossing a giant bullet downwards and praying for the best. With the longest sigh she's sighed today, the bootup process began. Lights quivering to life, the old and replacable new sputtering to life. Quality control and universal parts were a blessing, considering the various hues every mechanical panel had in the cockpit.
An unceremonious crash of metal in the desert, the pod embedding itself in the dirt. Door face-up, luckily enough. One kick, two, three, before the pressurized explosives forcefully ejected the panel clean off, the figurative grumbles of that precious Zaku I grabbing the sides and pulling herself out of a steel coffin.
"Fuel cells or not, can't they all just leave?" Gravity was never completely agreeable, especially not the immediate aftermath. "Not that I'd wait." A quip on the closed channels. Even through the light layer of nausea, the acid tone was honing itself on instinct. Blame the turbulence up above. Even jet streams were finicky on the best of days.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.
The Enact and Nena both rush towards the Zack as Lily maneuvers her machine into the air further, ending up right between the two of them. Tactically, a rather bad move by all means. The girl doesn't seem to slow her pace and has the Zack engage both weapons, engaging their Beam Saber style modes and tries to catch them. She can feel Nena. This tension behind her words that push upon her mind. This sense of Nena just lashing out.
<"I must have been pretty memorable to have you try and deny meeting me!"> Lily answers Nena with a voice that shows that she's not the least deterred!
The machine then swings its blades out to the sides, backing off a bit, as Nena and Gary both engage with the Zack. The first strikes slamming into the blades, far enough that a bit of reactive armor detonates from the heat of both of those blades getting that close, followed by a fog of debris spreading around them. The EWAC system spreading a sudden burst of blinding light... disrupting visuals.
But their blades give, both pilots can feel that they just did some damage together, but something changed...
As the light fades, the Zack seems to be resisting against their blade-attacks by putting its hands against those of the Enact and the Throne - trying its best to push them back. Its weaker thrusters however are clearly being stressed, and together they are pushing her back...
But that leaves the question.
Where are the rifles it was wielding?
That answer comes in the form of strange shapes hovering close-by. Verniers bursting with blue light as the large Longblade Rifles are literally skating through the air within their blind spots charging. Not a second later, both of them engage, massive purple light BLASTING from them, aiming to sear both of their positions with barrier-shattering amounts of force!
Within the cockpit, Lily is panting, already being put to her limits. Not to mention, this is a new machine. And right now, she's having muscles worked she didn't even know she had! The machine is acting so well to her desires, it's almost scaring her a little bit.
"Thank you Kumo." Lily chimes to her bear-shaped Haro.
But the Haro answers her:
"I didn't do anything, Lily. I didn't do anything, Lily."
Then how are those beam rifles just flying there, like an extension of herself....
She can almost feel like she's still 'holding' them. As if they are still part of the machine. A red light coming to life within the EWAC disc behind the Zack - its Mono-eye glowing, shifting between the Enact and the Throne Drei.
<"I'm going to have to ask you to please leave."> Lily asks Gary and Nena. <"Is this operation really worth the amount of budget you are putting into this?"> A pause, then turning that Mono-eye towards Nena. Looming. Crimson. Yet... happy?
<"Surely, Celestial Being has better things to do than chasing after Zeon Remnants.">
KTS: Lily Jung targets Nena Trinity with Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Pyscho Option!
KTS: Lily Jung targets Gary Biaggi with Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Pyscho Option!
<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.
There are a lot of people on scene to keep track of and fewer Zeon people at her back than Saraven would like. It doesn't help that she knows some of them are high-performance machines with good pilots.
Case in point, Bergh. Saraven whirls to face the approaching F90 and blows a hole through it.
...'s decoy. She blinks once, then presses her teeth together and whirls just in time to catch a shield to the face. The multiple feints catch even her sixth sense off guard; Bergh's able to squeeze in and deliver a hard blow to the machine's torso, narrowly missing the cockpit hatch but knocking the Varguil back into one of the warehouses. The corner crumples off the building as the lilac mobile suit strikes it, staggering and reorienting itself with some difficulty.
That lasts until Cornelia manages to come out of nowhere, anchor onto the Varguil's shoulder and check it in the chest. The bigger mobile suit lurches back, a dent forming above one vernier outlet. Saraven inhales, then lets it out in a rush. She can feel the confidence underlying the voice that cut in over the comline.
Even with Cornelia swinging off her, she can feel another incredibly ordered mind bearing down. The Gernsback fires; the Varguil's moving with the momentum of its own stagger, though, planting a heel and twisting away on a path that takes advantage of its momentum and converts it. The mobile suit almost dances away from Ouka's attack, stepping into the clear and sweeping an arm out once the shot has passed. A pair of short energetic blades spring out of the Varguil's forearm.
Saraven slashes downward, trying to cut the harken chain holding Cornelia to her, then snapping the hand out to launch the butterfly edge from its dock. The blades fold into a Z shape, launching like a boomerang to try and slash through the little Knightmare Frame.
"There are no ghosts here," Saraven answers Cornelia levelly. "But you seem to want to become one."
Her radio crackles with something else: Sass. The Varguil's monoeye flicks towards Neit-Sekhbet, the hostile intent slicing into her consciousness. The blazing line moves faster than a beam rifle ought to--
--and the Varguil reacts faster than even a high-performance mobile suit ought to. It darts to the left in a short burst, pivoting as the brilliant laser blast cuts through space where it once stood. As the lilac machine comes back around, the funnels burst off of its backpack and fan out in a cloud, two forking off to shower Laila's machine with firepower. Two more divert to pursue the little Gernsback, harrassing Ouka's machine with steady shots towards the legs and hips.
"The Varguil is designed to fight in any theatre," she answers Laila's quips, again with that flatness of affect. "That includes the theatre of old Earthians whose dreams can't escape Earth's gravity."
The old Zeon quip rolls off her tongue as easily as if it were second nature. What's also second nature to her is the fact that her mind is steering the last couple of funnels and guiding her beam rifle. Turning to confront Bergh, she tries to bracket the F90 with funnel shots before swinging her rifle in a bid to score a centre-of-mass shot, then one more.
Her thoughts drift - they focus, for a moment, on Ouka.
She's more ordered than the others... it feels... familiar...?
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Cornelia li Britannia with Butterfly Edge Boomerang!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Bergh Scred with Funnel Cage!
KTS: Saraven_Vai Changes attack to Ouka Nagisa and Laila Elsayed with Funnel Sweep.
<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.
"Jazz, target on your 9. Pod just dropped, good opportunity to get the drop in."
"I see 'em." The Alto pulls its assault rifle out from the side of its leg and brings it up to its head, taking careful aim at the Zaku climbing out of the pod and popping off a single shot.
KTS: Lina Lombardi targets Sakia Davila with ExAMACS Assault Rifle Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
"We're reading a new entry to the field," announces the comms officer on Helios. "Drop pod! Not sure if it's Sleeves or ZAFT!"
"It's not one of ours, in any event," Sophia determines, the light in her eye going out. No response. Alright. "Launch!"
From the belly of the oncoming dropship rushes a Union Flag in flight configuration, blasting across the open sky. Stock G-Hound colors; the Captain is not a woman who chooses to stand out.
"That's...A Zaku?" Sophia mutters. A Zaku One? Like the thing that Zeon didn't even want to use until they had absolutely no other options even in the One Year War?
...this feels like bullying, but she knows very well to respect anything that has a gun on it. The Union Flag cruises across the landing zone and opens up with the linear rifle, peppering the ground below with fire.
The exhortations to quit the field were already given. Repeating them on the reinforcements strikes her as pointless.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Sakia Davila with Linear Rifle Standard Fire!
<Pose Tracker> Bergh Scred has posed.
"Usually I like a challenge, but that's a tall order.." he chuckles back at Laila before turning his full attention towards figuring out how to strike a decisive blow against the Varguil. ... Though. That recon girl in the M9, something about her is bothering me. It's kinda like .. - nah, this isn't the time to lose focus. I gotta' keep myself on point, or I'm just going to whiff over and over.
Or get blasted to smithereens. Varguil deploys its funnels, which while not quite as effective as they would be in a space-faring battlefield are still more than threatening in this instance. "Friggin' great..!"
To its credit, the F90 shows off its incredible handling in tandem with Bergh's seasoned acumen as a pilot as it weaves through the barrage, bobbing and sledding as it bends and hunkers its body in ways that had to be unsafe, even for a miniaturized mobile suit.
Particle blasts dig into the ground a heartbeat apart from striking the Gundam, peppering nearby buildings and debris as Bergh grits his teeth. I'm avoiding the brunt of it, but she's trying to pin me down for a kill shot, I know it - !
A sharp tingle reinforces this notion, which he throws caution to the wayside for and charges directly into the aft of the funnel formation, firing away wth his vulcans to force them to part or get riddled with bullets.
His evasive maneuver comes not a second to late, as the first rifle shot brushes past the Gundam's forearm, and the second lances through the lower-right of its mid-section. If I didn't throw the F90 into forcing through the funnels, that would have been a shot to the reactor and cockpit. Can't I catch a break?!
The Gundam can't stop its momentum in time to stop it from crashing shoulder-first into a mid-rise building, shatterng its windows and raining industrial debris onto the ground below. Bergh doesn't hesitate in covering himsef with a one-two retort with the shoulder-mounted bazookas, one aimed at the ground around where the Varguil was maneuvering, and a second for a bodyshot to hopefully give one of the others a crack at her. Given that Knightmare Frame's close-range loadout, if she could get in there in the meantime, it'd probably give her an edge.
Bergh blows a huff, "Who'd have thought this would be how I meet a princess, I want a refund."
The quipping calms his nerves, while F90 pulls itself up right and gets moving, at a slower pace than before, given the minor damage to its hover modules.
KTS: Bergh Scred has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus.
KTS: Bergh Scred targets Saraven Vai with 4-Barrel Bazooka Double Up!
KTS: Saraven Vai has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Saraven Vai fails to evade Bergh Scred's 4-Barrel Bazooka Double Up, taking 4500 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 29235
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
More alerts, more damn klaxxons echoing throught the cockpit as Gary just shakes his head. The mounted machine gun turret turns and begins to fire towards the floating beam rifle, however he is forced to back up from the rifle shot. Then comes the request by the pilot, who sounds like someone who shouldn't be on the battle field.
Gary opens his comm so both the enemy and the throne can hear him. The first thing that would be heard would be Gary laughing at the request before he takes a deep breath and fakes being serious. <"Sorry Pinky, to disappoint you but I have been informed by the budget department of the AEU that as long as I defeat you in the next few minutes it is more cost effective to stop you here then to withdraw.">
With his response given the Enact's comm goes silent and instead it drifts back just a little before he opens fire with a barrage of missiles at the Pink Unit and if the Throne was to get caught up in it, well the budget department would call that a profitable manuever.
KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Lily Jung with Blade Rifle Attachment - Missile Launcher Barrage!
KTS: Sakia Davila fails to Evade Lina Lombardi's ExAMACS Assault Rifle Shot, taking 4260 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Lina Lombardi's Outmaneuver activates, causing Control Bonus!
KTS: Sakia Davila fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Rifle Standard Fire, taking 4140 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sophia Mayhew Castellan's I See Your Sins activates, causing Designate L1!
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
"Confirmed, Lilac Gale has deployed funnels. Keep your eyes open for flanking assaults!"
As the funnels come to life seeking their targets, Ouka finds a couple darting towards her. Her eyes narrow realizing she'll be hard pressed to keep her advance while fending off an attack from multiple angles. Still the attempt needs to be made: She simply can't effectively utilize most of her kit at this range.
The funnels attack low, attempting to slow down and disable her unit. She maneuvers to attempt to intercept the high powered beams with her shoulders instead of her legs, hoping to deflect or absorb the worst of the shots. Each blast sends sparks and molten metal spraying from the shoulder guards, until one angled blast catches the shoulder plate dead on!
"Detatching right shoulder shield!" Aurum-1 announces as the explosive bolts detatch the right arm's shield, which breaks apart from the intense thermal stress it is under. The XM9 Gernsback staggers, and catches one more glancing shot from the other funnel in her unit's left shin, leaving the armor molten and cracked.
And yet... a fear of death does come. Even outmatched as she is in her stock XM9, and missing her previous attack, she pilot seems to be only more resolute to reach her target and make her assault.
"Disabling limb range of rotation limiters." Aurum-1 announces as her machine puts away its Boxer Shotcannon. The unit's limbs begin to demonstrate its ability to move in ways not typical of a human and therefore not common to a humanoid unit. It hunches down until its legs bend back more like a grasshopper's before the entire machine springs forward!!
The intense g-forces of the sudden movement causes the First Boosted Child's vision to blur and dim briefly before her reinforced circulation system kicks in to compensate. Her eyes remain on the target, waiting until she is close enough to fire her XM18 Wire Gun! The shock wire lances towards Saraven's cockpit. Should it attach, it will begin to send electricity through the wire in an attempt to shock the pilot and her instruments, before drawing the XM9 further in.
"Zeon Remnants-allied unit, your warning is acknowledged and taken under advisement. However, you are to power down your unit and submit yourself to local authorities. Failure to comply or attempting to withdraw will result in further, more lethal measures."
As if to accentuate the point the Gernsback, using the momentum of its jump and the assist from its wiregun, will attempt to LAND on the Varguil. It's ... probably not a good idea to let her stay attached for long.
KTS: Sakia_Davila has deployed as a Rival.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Saraven Vai with XM18 Wire Gun Near-Cockpit Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
Nena feels the jolt through her machine as her strike is stopped somehow, the combination of smoke from the reactive armour and blinding light briefly making it difficult to determine why. But as both fade, Nena watches with some annoyance as it is revealed that the Zack is holding both the attacking machines back by their hands. Quite the feat. Nena briefly struggles to break free but then gets a surprise as her system warns of an attack from above, "What!?"
The Longblade Rifle hovering in the air above the Gundam Throne Drei fires. Its purple beam streaks down towards the machine, looking to have caught it off guard. But at the last moment, the pack attached to the Gundam's back folds upwards, vents opening wide. A deluge of crimson particles rush out, getting between the machine and the fired beam. The beam quickly dissipates, becoming smaller as it passes through them, until finally striking the Gundam's tough armour and leaving naught but a bit of a scorch mark behind.
Nena breathes a sigh of relief, "Phew."
Purple Haro, having stepped in to release the GN Particles and form that strong barrier, buzzes at Nena, "Whatever would you do without me? Whatever would you do without me?"
Nena pouts a little, before stammering back in embarrased annoyance, "S-Shut up!"
The Gundam Throne Drei breaks free of the EWAC Zack's grip. Backing up a little, before Nena replies back to Lily, <"Celestial Being works in mysterious ways! Plans within plans and all that jazz. What would you know about what we do or how we do it?"> Not that Nena really knows either. But that's kind of the point!
The Drei raises its arms in the direction of the Zack. Lily would recognize the mounted beam-gun attached to the Gundam's right arm. But in what may be some surprise, there is now a second one attached to the Gundam's left.
Nena briefly pauses on firing as another radio comm comes in. Though this time it's from the Enact that is also fighting the Zack. Though Nena recognizes the voice of this one, "Man, what is this, a convention for people I've already fought?" Still, Nena finds it somewhat amusing that they're now both going after the same target.
Gary fires off a barrage of missiles. Which do look to be dangerously close to catching the Drei too. Nena's amused. She pulls the trigger.
The Drei begins firing rapidly towards the Zack and the barrage of missiles. Nena's focused on trying to shoot Lily down. But if she happens to detonate some of the Enact's missiles prematurely to make sure they don't catch her in the resulting explosions too, then bonus!
KTS: Nena Trinity has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Nena Trinity targets Lily Jung with GNW-003 Dual Beam Handguns Saturation Fire!
Lily_Jung <- Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
<Pose Tracker> Sakia Davila has posed.
A Zaku One of the oldest variety; Some call it a junker, some call it desperation, some call it "The only thing they had left in the world". Nevertheless, the final gasp of OYW Zeon goodness was still moving onwards; Even when the old junker was smacked in spots as it began to move, it was still trucking. Still running. Machine gun in hand, the trusty vulcans half-hapazardly welded on sustaining the force of every thump across the desert.
Sakia_Davila THE HELL ARE YOU SHOOTIN' WITHOUT A CUSTOMARY WARNIN' IN PEACETIME!?
Sakia Davila says, "Not even a warning sign, you damn Flag!? Where's your damn pride, down at the dumps along with your dead!?" Being battered sure woke a person up. Adrenaline. Spice. The bile in her throat all but forgotten, swallowing it back down as she ran across the fields towards cover, towards the buildings. A flick of the safety on the machine gun, before aiming at the obvious target. One shot in the shoulder from (not) stray fire was all but forgotten, but a line of bullets was nothing more than inciting the wrath of a frustrated gal."
<Pose Tracker> Sakia Davila has posed.
A Zaku One of the oldest variety; Some call it a junker, some call it desperation, some call it "The only thing they had left in the world". Nevertheless, the final gasp of OYW Zeon goodness was still moving onwards; Even when the old junker was smacked in spots as it began to move, it was still trucking. Still running. Machine gun in hand, the trusty vulcans half-hapazardly welded on sustaining the force of every thump across the desert.
Run. Run. Push harder harder harder HARDER.
"THE HELL ARE YOU SHOOTIN' WITHOUT A CUSTOMARY WARNIN' IN PEACETIME!?"
"Not even a warning sign, you damn Flag!? Where's your damn pride, down at the dumps along with your dead!?" Being battered sure woke a person up. Adrenaline. Spice. The bile in her throat all but forgotten, swallowing it back down as she ran across the fields towards cover, towards the buildings. A flick of the safety on the machine gun, before aiming at the obvious target. One shot in the shoulder from (not) stray fire was all but forgotten, but a line of bullets was nothing more than inciting the wrath of a frustrated gal.
<Pose Tracker> Laila Elsayed has posed.
"Ah," Laila answers Saraven --
And then she turns left abruptly -- the ophioid motion arc of Neit-Apep suddenly turning round, much of its body moving in a dynamic manner, temporarily coiling around panel struts as it flattens down to pass BENEATH them, temporarily occluding the spaces meant for air flow and maintenance management, the spaces often scenically found to have had temporary campsites on the magazine covers -
The motion, the cover, some combination is enough of it that the funnel's discharge manages to only nick some scaling as the machine-snake scrambles for the edge of the plot, finds the rocky soil, and immediately --
Disappears into it? There's a subtle rumbling but most of the fifty-odd (sixty-odd? hard to tell, it's not laying anything like flat) meters of serpentine armor mass seems to boil into the ground, like a cup of water poured onto thirsty soil.
"Though, I work in astronomy, my dear lady; is that why you missed?"
Of course, Laila reasons, I can't hide in the soil forever. Or, well, I can, but that would hardly look sporting, would it? This is certainly a troubling trend, she reasons further as the seismographic computers begin to interpolate the approximate location of people and moving objects, shimmering grayshapes on the ultra-black darkness visible in the cockpit (now lit only by instrument panels).
Neit-Apep dives first deeper - below the upper layers of mesopotamian soil, past the soil borne in the time of humanity, or perhaps even primates. The shapes become first vaguer, then more crystalline. Laila's eyes turn upwards. One of them is going to be faster than the others, but relatively large, she reasons.
She all but stops breathing. The head of Neit-Apep reconfigures with subtle grindings and crunchings. Watch... listen...
There.
Laila pulls back on the control wheel. The head pivots upwards. "Here we are," she says, before pressing the button labelled in graceful Arabic calligraphy (translated): ASCEND
ON THE SURFACE
The ground sits. It emanates a threatening aura. This is probably kind of a new experience and a little formless. The Earth isn't supposed to be threatening! Perhaps it's some kind of indication of increasing activation? No: With sudden speed and shockingly little mass disruption, the sere earth rips open and from beneath, a copperine wedge raises upwards, micro-motive elements hidden en masse beneath scales screaming and shedding dust in the air!
The self-same formed wedge-shape that had led this thing to burrow through the soil and rock itself is what it leads with - tracking, in the sudden light, against the underside of the Varguil; to, thenceforth, slam its enormous elongated body against the mobile suit.
Laila, at least, has nothing else to say. (There are several important secondary controls, and she has only so many limbs. Snakes make it look easy.)
KTS: Laila Elsayed targets Saraven Vai with The Nose of Flint!
KTS: Saraven Vai fails to evade Laila Elsayed's The Nose of Flint, taking 5000 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 24235
KTS: Laila Elsayed has engaged Saraven Vai
<Pose Tracker> Cornelia li Britannia has posed.
Blades of crackling energy shunt from the Varguil's forearm. With one swing, it cleaves through Cornelia's harken; the Gloucester wheels backwards immediately, preparing for the follow up.
But the Princess proves a second too slow, and the Sleeves ace a second too faast: the beam-sharp edge of that boomerang-like weapon cleaves through the front of the Gloucester's torso in that space between the moments of Cornelia's retreat and Saraven's attack, scoring a long, glowing-molten scar across regal armor.
Landspinners squeal out a glut of sand as the Gloucester reorients itself; within her cockpit, Cornelia rocks backwards and then lurches forward violently, purple hair spilling around her with the motion as she grips the controls of her Knightmare tight.
"... Hah," exhales the Witch of Britannia. "Fast, for a ghost. I suppose even the sad dregs of the past can still have some fight in them."
A grin dances at violet lips.
"Good."
Distance is gained between the Zeonic mobile suit and its pursuer; but distance is never a thing that lasts very long as far as Cornelia is concerned. That aggressive frontal assault seems to resume again with the roar of landspinners sending the Gloucester -tearing- across the sandy grounds of the solar farm, weaving between panels fluidly. It seeks to close ground rapidly, as if intending another rush for the Varguil's center mass --
-- before it -diverts- at the last possible second, Landspinners sending it spinning out into a graceful circular arc -around- Saraven's machine. The Gloucester's jousting lance is brandished.
And it is here that it suddenly seeks to -jab- that lance into the back of the Varguil, impaling into thrusters --
Before unleashing a sudden electromagnetic discharge, intent to disrupt or destroy whatever of those thrusters it can to better hobble the machine against the actions of those others pursuing it.
As she attacks, Cornelia's violet eyes sweep the battlefield. They fall on Laila's machine with a pensive press of lips. ... A press that becomes a full-blown frown as she notices the distinctive form of that Celestial Being Gundam in the distance. That machine. The machine that nearly--
"... Tch."
No. For now... focus on the immediate threat.
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Saraven Vai
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia targets Saraven Vai with EM Jousting Lance - Disabling Blow!
KTS: Saraven Vai retreats from the attack!
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia rattles Saraven Vai, making her next maneuvers more difficult.
KTS: Saraven Vai fails to react to Cornelia li Britannia's EM Jousting Lance - Disabling Blow, taking 3225 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 21010
KTS: Saraven Vai has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
KTS: Sakia Davila targets Lina Lombardi with Goad!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.
<"Then I will have to make sure the next few minutes are very expensive for you"> Lily answers Gary as the unit starts firing rapid beams at the incoming missiles. But with them being further away from her body, Lily is having a great deal of trouble getting them to reach. And with them being under attach by Gary Biaggi's machine gun turret, it takes time for them to return to the EWAC Zack. Lily practically holding her hands out to get them to come back into her hands!
"Back to me, Blades!" She cries out, as the unit is pummeled by missile after missile impacting upon the Zack! She has to duck down to the ground in order to use the surface - letting a good number of them to detonate across the ground as she backs away. Of course, that isn't helping as much with the fierce volley of energy-bullets coming from Nena Trinity's Throne Drei. Pock-mark after pock-mark blasts into her unit, and she's biting back some tears at the stress of the battle at hand. One of her blades manages to return to her.
<"Mysterious ways?! You don't even know what you are really fighting for, do you!?"> Lily Jung calls out to Nena Trinity. Again, this wave of 'pity' flowing right along with that statement as the Zack manages to set on the ground and points that singular one of its weapons up towards the two of them - keeping the other at its flank.
She begins to open up, firing standard beams upon their position. Focusing on Gary Biaggi's position at first, then widening the attack at Nena Trinity. She glances aside quickly, seeing to the status of the battle. Saraven is being pressured. But out of all of them, it seems Lily is having the hardest time.
The girl grimaces a bit. She wishes she was a better pilot than this. But wishing isn't going to make her better! She should have paced herself better. She should have...
But right now, she has to deal with the cards dealt with her. Taking in a quick breath, she rushes upon Gary Biaggi's position! Firing upon his position with that singular Longblade Rifle, before trying to swing it and lock his saber! In the mess of it all, sending that second saber right for Nena's position!
The entire thing seems to unfurl, growing four almot crab-like legs as it turns its beam-nozzle downwards and tries to literally 'grab' onto the Throne Drei before its shield can be brought to bear, and attempts to fire straight into its head and shoulders -- to try and disable the Gundam.
KTS: Lily Jung targets Gary Biaggi with Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Blade and Beam - Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.
Lina chuckles as she slowly drifts to follow the Zaku, keeping aim on it. "The shot IS the warning, hun. You haven't even seen me get serious." If Sakia was hoping to egg Lina on, she sure had succeeded. The Alto lowers in altitude as the assault rifle peppers out a full barrage of shots, attempting to intercept the Zaku's path.
KTS: Lina Lombardi targets Sakia Davila with ExAMACS Assault Rifle Barrage!
KTS: Nena Trinity has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.
If Saraven didn't know better, she'd mistake Sakia's Zaku for one of the locals. It's the kind of old machine Saraven herself has never actually flown. She's usually been reserved for the high-end stuff, typically with a psycommu in them.
For all that, she's having more trouble with Bergh than she'd like. He's creative, and for all that Saraven's been well-prepared, Bergh probably beats her in sheer experience. Case in point: He takes a shot at her feet, and for all that she's used to fighting on the surface of Mars, Saraven responds with a short jump that'd be higher if she weren't in Earth gravity. The mistake brings her up just short of the landing spot she was aiming for, burning more fuel in the process.
The follow-up blast catches the Varguil hard enough to blow the armour cowling off of one of its skirt plates. A plume of acrid smoke escapes into the Charleston County sky. Saraven presses her lips together.
This one is experienced. He was the last time, too. But I should always be careful when it's a Gundam....
This gravity, though... it hurts, even with the painkillers.
The Gernsback's pilot seems not only more accustomed to this theatre, but poised in a way the others are not. There's a sense of purpose and focus there that feels more familiar the closer Saraven gets. The wire gun snaps out, uncoiling towards the flash of red indicating the Varguil's cockpit hatch. It looks for a second like Ouka has her dead to rights--
Until the Varguil digs its toe into the turf and kicks. The sandy tarmac underfoot buckles as the mobile suit's foot trenches up a clod of clay and asphalt. Chunks of it shower into the path of the electric wire, and one of the larger ones catches the unspooling length. The shock is literally grounded.
It buys Saraven a second to juke back, hunching her shoulders and exhaling before speaking again.
"You're not like the others," she says, her comline open only to Ouka's Gernsback for the moment. "You're special, aren't you...? I respect that...."
In all this, she's lost track of Neit-Apep. Something whispers in the back of her consciousness. It's not Laila mocking her.
It's the fact that the ground just ripped itself open and disgorged an entire-ass robot. The Varguil is in no position to respond adequately; it lurches backwards as Laila slams that wedge into it, tearing a trench through a skirt plate. Saraven's eyes go wide, and she sucks in a breath as she fires her rockets and tries to boost back out of range. It's not easy, and she's trailing a path of smoke as she does so.
It gives Cornelia an opening. The little Gloucester comes dashing in, and Saraven darts to the side as she does, but not fast enough. The shock lance snags a joint just under one of the Varguil's main rocket thrusters. Electromagnetism churns; smoke puffs out of the thruster nozzle, verniers flickering and growing sluggish. System lights wink in Saraven's face, ominously.
She closes her eyes and exhales, then opens them again. "...I recognize your colours," she says quietly. "You're the one they call the Witch of Britannia, right?"
She pushes back her hair with a sweep of one hand. "I'm not sorry, then. Britannia... deserves to be destroyed."
The verniers on the back are sputtering. Saraven settles for using the ones on the front, launching into a rearward lunge and letting the funnels fill the open space. They dance out in geometric patterns, popping off shots to try and crowd out Bergh - trying to keep him at arm's length. He's too clever by half and she'd rather not let him get close.
She leans on her rifle for the rest. Barrel swinging, she lands in a braced stance and pops a startlingly quick shot off at Laila, trying to catch Neit-Apep before it can pull off another underground vanishing act. Then it's a swing towards Ouka to try and intercept the Gernsback with another blast.
The last shot is held a second - and then released, aimed along a line in her mind where she can see Cornelia's little Knightmare Frame moving. She's trying to anticipate her maneuvers and catch her in the midst of them with a lethal blast.
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Bergh Scred with Funnel Strike!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Laila Elsayed with Long Beam Rifle Tracking Shot!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Ouka Nagisa with Long Beam Rifle Steady Fire!
KTS: Saraven Vai targets Cornelia li Britannia with Long Beam Rifle Charged Shot!
KTS: Nena Trinity has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Nena Trinity parries Lily Jung's Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Psycho Weapon, taking 900 damage!
KTS: Lily Jung has engaged Nena Trinity
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sakia's furious retort is both verbal and ballistic - one of those in several ways - but the Union Flag veers sharply to escape the barrage of gunfire.
The shouting is harder. Laser comms, man.
"Does something about hot-dropping into an active battlefield, on one of the most active battlefronts on Earth, strike you as a peaceful activity, pilot?" Sophia asks, in the tone of voice that suggests 'pilot' is standing in for something less neutral.
The Flag roars into the air, then Sophia tags the transformation control, the legs sweeping down to convert the Flag into standing form. It still flies just fine, though, thrusters blasting it down into engagement range. "But if you're interested in surrendering, I will of course guarantee your safety."
...there's a lot of reason to doubt a comment like that, though Sophia actually would. The Flag's shin plate buckles forward, exposing the missile launcher that would be underslung in Flight Mode.
Works fine even being in a weird position, though, as a missile fires out of it to dog the dodging Zaku.
Sophia Mayhew Castellan transforms to SVM-01 Union Flag Sophia Custom
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Sakia Davila with Onboard Missile Rack!
KTS: Bergh Scred blocks Saraven Vai's Funnel Strike, taking 2280 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 209.
KTS: Sakia Davila fails to react to Lina Lombardi's ExAMACS Assault Rifle Barrage, taking 4600 damage!
KTS: Sakia Davila fails to Intercept Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Onboard Missile Rack, taking 4620 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sophia Mayhew Castellan's I See Your Sins activates, causing Designate L1!
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia fails to evade Saraven Vai's Long Beam Rifle Charged Shot, taking 6720 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 252.
KTS: Laila Elsayed has activated the Wall Spirit Command.
KTS: Laila Elsayed fails to react to Saraven Vai's Long Beam Rifle Tracking Shot, taking 3960 damage!
KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 295.
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
Gary shakes his head as he responds to his opponent, <"Speaking of keeping the books in order, who exactly do I have the pleasure of knocking around? You don't sound like a pilot."> Then what is likely only bad timing on Gary's part laser fire begins to try and prove the Lietunenat wrong. The Enact does its best to bob and weave but the laser strikes the Enact's leg and carves a good groove into it. The suit isn't going to be able to support itself it it lands.
Staying in the air he dashes back before his comm opens to the throne, <"Hey Celestial Being nuisance, I don't know what is up between you to but I have no reason to stop you two from killing each other. In fact I am going to help."> The message delivered Gary does indeed seem to take a bit of a support role, the Enact is no longer trying to chase down the pink one.
The sword rifle rverts back to rifle mode and begins to fire shot after shot at Lily, it should be obvious after a few shots though, they are leading shots meant to keep Lily moving where Gary wants her to, directly towards the Throne.
KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Lily Jung with Blade Rifle - Leading Shot!
KTS: [Mirage] Lily Jung's EWAC Mirage activates, and she slips into a mirage.
KTS: Lily Jung fails to evade Gary Biaggi's Blade Rifle - Leading Shot, taking 0 damage!
KTS: Gary Biaggi begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Sakia Davila has posed.
The smallest click of the tongue, that Zaku I already littered with a few holes from the onset. A few grazes, a few punctures, nothing that another round of repairs wouldn't fix. Not that the grin on her face was abating. Did she know it was there in the first place, the heavy breathing that came in tandem with the familiar stomp of her Zaku?
Whatever the case may be, the sight of those bullets spirailng away from the Flag set a new train of thought into motion.
Two targets mentally marked. Two targets slamming bullets and explosions down across the field, the pale green mark of a thing that should not exist refusing to cave under the pressues of things greater than herself. Bastards. BASTARDS.
"Really now? They'd've taken you in for some proper training on your aim if that's the case!" Bile tossed at that Alto machine, crashing, running, doing her damndest. "You can't exactly claim to be such a good shot if the warning isn't fatal, is it!?" She's still alive, she's still here. That warning was all but naught, even if the hole on the Zaku's shoulder was screeching. Even if more holes were popping up 'mysteriously', that monoeye tracking upwards. Another burst of vulcan fire for the bastard at play.
"Depends, Flagging Bastard! If you shot an alien that crashed down, you'd bring the downfall of humanity!" It was a smooth motion; turning to run completely backwards, using the natural laws of motion to keep bounding back, a practiced motion that could take in the missiles. Watching them careen in, doing her damnest to twist out of the way...And to feel some of them smash home, explosions carving out the armor. Ah, what a day, what an unlucky day.
"YOU THINK I'M HERE TO KEEL OVER!?" Watching the Flag drag ever closer. Machine gun to the side. Closer, closer....and stopping right in place, one foot in the back, one in the front, entire weight poised to hurl a haymaker right at the Flag!
KTS: Sakia Davila has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakia Davila has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakia Davila targets Lina Lombardi with Bolted-on Vulcan Burst!
KTS: Sakia Davila targets Lina Lombardi with SMASH!
Sakia Davila has cancelled her attack on Lina_Lombardi
KTS: Sakia Davila targets Lina Lombardi with Bolted-on Vulcan Burst!
KTS: Sakia Davila targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with SMASH!
<Pose Tracker> Bergh Scred has posed.
F90 slows its dash in a semi-circle that allows it to loop along the Gloucester's flank. Cornelia's frustration - at least to those with sensitive minds - was plain. It was just a little erratic, at least from his perspective, but he was at least able to thumb down one direction it was aimed. "For once, CB isn't blowing up Federation bloc equipment and property. Weird, right?"
"Though, I wouldn't think too deeply about the reasoning. I'm pretty sure that pilot is just flippant enough to decide she'd rather fight the Sleeves, this time. Call it a hunch."
He was awful casual considering the difference in station, but it was also pretty apparent that irreverence was maybe a personality trait for him.
"More importantly, though, our momentum's stalling."
Not necessarily the actual speed or acceleration of their units, but the flow of the battle itself. Some could call it the economy of action; that is, how much ground is being taken or lost by each side in a conflict.
The Gundam breaks off, accelerating and leaving a plume of dust in its wake as it puts a bit of distance between itself and Cornelia's Knightmare, to avoid it getting caught up in the dance it was about to share with Varguil's funnel suite.
"So if you've got any ideas... - now's the time..!"
F90's maneuvering is a good deal more reckless ths time, in a way. Bergh seemed more than willing to cut his shave as close to the proverbial jugular as he could if it meant closing some distance between him and Saraven, popping off shots at both the MS and the funnel formation with its beam rifle. It's a good thing I brought this. Let's see .. I only have three mortars left between both of my bazookas, I'm pretty sure, and if I want to use 'that' then I need to get closer. That's the problem with the cut barrel, I guess.
"Then I gotta' make 'em count and punch when I can." he affirms to himself.
Saraven Vai wasn't any sort of slouch. He'd only ever fought two pilots who challenged him so severely before in his entire life, and frankly, if she'd had the experience as a soldier that either of them had, she'd have already mopped the floor with him.
"I get better with age too, y'know." he jokes, mostly to himself. Intent on messng with her spatal awareness, Bergh has the Gundam deploy the rest of its dummy balloons - counting four in total - as it dashes. "O-K, let's play a game of magical hats!"
A bazooka shot is aimed at the Varguil to force it to move while the F90 weaves by one of its decoys, using its free hand to draw its beam spray gun. Only, it wasn't loaded with a standard E-CAP.
Aiming upwards, a stream of bright red Super Napalm is fired into the air, seeming to go very wide from Saraven's current position.
Until the Gundam weaves again and drops the armament to grasp onto its rifle with both hands, almost as if it were a saber, and fires up the weapon's Long Saber mode, sweeping its particle stream against the super napalm's and scattering it as it slashes down like a guilitone in Long Saber mode. "Take this!"
This would hopefully not only make it hard for the Varguil to evade, but it'd give those funnels a mean reckoning, to boot. Hopefully..[normal Bergh thinks to himself.
KTS: Bergh Scred has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Bergh Scred has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Bergh Scred has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Golden eyes widen as her attack fails to find purchase, as if the foe predicted her movements...
... ah but of course, Newtype.
For an Oldtype like Aurum-1 the capability of Newtype pilots to suddenly predict and react to her moves before she even makes them is a vexing tactical problem. How does one respond to someone who knows what she is about to do before she does? However in spite of the fact her attack whiffed, in spite of the ground now all-too-quickly rushing up to meet her, the G-Hound fielded XM9 Gernsback managed to recover and stick a landing...
... well almost. The damage done to her left leg and the intense speed of her assault means that absorbing the kinetic forces of her landing causes the armor to continue to crack and fail. The internal structure, while strong, is now being forced to put both with Ouka's willingness to push a unit to its limits... as well as the fact it can no longer rely on the armor to take part of the brunt of the landing.
Red warning lights and the smell of acrid smoke fill her cockpit, but the First Boosted Child merely grits her teeth and begins planning her next attack.
'You're not like the others...'
'You're special, aren't you...? I respect that....'
Special?
The Varguil's beam weapon swings around and fires another shot. The XM9 attempts a hasty evasion rather than risking sacrificing its other shoulder shield, but a failure in the left leg's actuators causes her to stumble instead. The result is that the blast catches her in the chest. Not directly, thankfully, but the resulting shot knocks the small arm slave on its back.
There is pain, and there is heat. A few drops of molten metal find their way through the unit's chest and splatter against Ouka's harness, creating yet more acrid smoke and showing just how close she had come to death.
But she has been here before...
"My orders require your submission, not your respect." Ouka replies over an open line before her machine rights itself. It is very clearly on its last legs, and one of those legs is clearly starting to fail, but all the pilot within does is calmly draw a monomolecular blade before running forward!!
This time she isn't attempting anything flashy: She's just attempting to drive the monomolecular blade in as deep is it will go into the Varguil's leg, attempting to pay back in kind the damage done to her own unit!!
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Ouka Nagisa targets Saraven Vai with GRAW-2 Monomolecular Cutter Press!
KTS: Saraven Vai fails to parry Ouka Nagisa's GRAW-2 Monomolecular Cutter Press, taking 5640 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 7330
KTS: Ouka Nagisa has engaged Saraven Vai
<Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
'You don't even know what you are really fighting for, do you!?'
The Gundam Throne Drei seems to hang in the air for a moment as that feeling of pity washes over Nena once more. Does she know what she's really fighting for?
Does she?
Yes. Yes she does.
Nena chuckles. A chuckle which grows into laughter. Laughter that both Gary and Lily end up hearing as the both commed her. Nena mimics back Lily's words, <"What I'm really fighting for?">
The Longblade Rifle splits, looking to rush in towards the Gundam Throne Drei and latch on with those arms. But the Drei quickly spins around, launching a kick into the approaching bit. It slams into the remote weapon, causing it to get launched away, just barely managed to scrape a small line through the machine with one of its claws as it does so.
The Drei draws its second crimson saber as it rushes in towards the EWAC Zack once more, Nena saying with a sneer in her voice, <"I'm fighting to mess up people like you!">
The Drei unleashes a quick opening slash with one saber, before following up with a stab from the second.
<"Watching them fight so seriously. For their cause-">
The Drei brings both sabers around at once for a cross strike against the Zack.
<"-their fellow soldiers-">
The Drei raises both blades together and spins, lashing out with a whirling dual strike.
<"-their friends-">
The Drei briefly backs up, switching things up with its head-mounted beam vulcans to try and distract the Zack while preparing its final charge.
<"-their lives! Only to end up dying to me.">
The Drei charges forward, both blades poised to stab through the Zack's chest.
With a giggle, <"It's so much fun!">
KTS: Nena Trinity targets Lily Jung with GNW-003 Twin Beam Sabers Onslaught!
KTS: Lily Jung fails to retreat.
KTS: Lily Jung fails to react to Nena Trinity's GNW-003 Twin Beam Sabers Onslaught, taking 7680 damage!
KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Nena Trinity's V :P activates, causing Sparkle!
KTS: Nena Trinity has engaged Lily Jung
KTS: Nena Trinity completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.
The Alto does a barrel roll to the side, easily avoiding the shots thrown her way. "Oh, I'm the one who needs to improve my aim, says the chick who keeps getting hit and missing!"
"Jazz, behave yourself, please."
"She's the one eggin' me on, Pride! Talk shit, get hit!" The cannons on each of the Alto's shoulders glow as several beams shoot out at the Zaku. "How's this for aim?!"
KTS: Lina Lombardi targets Sakia Davila with Flight Module Cannon Rapid Fire!
<Pose Tracker> Laila Elsayed has posed.
Neit-Apep's anatomy -- is that the right term? -- means that after its ascension there is an inevitable period of regrouping; and Saraven is quick enough to avoid simply being encoiled, which is probably a fast road to... something really bad. Nothing good happens to a mouse when a snake gets to that point.
As the Active Frame - or is it more of a Mobile Armor right now? - reorganizes itself, Laila's eyes flick towards the KMF. "Ah," she says with a hand on the directional antenna control; a message aimed (if not a thought masked) to the Gloucester direct. "It's an honor to stand beside you, madame. These accusations of witchcraft, though --"
Another clucking of the tongue even as Saraven makes her own remark. That Britannia deserves to be destroyed.
"Is that what the power cells will be for?" Laila offers, which is met - deservedly, Laila thinks, I really did ask for this one - with a hail of beam fire. Out in the open like this, Apep cannot exactly go hide underneath solar panels again (unless...? No, it cannot teleport, apparently; Neo-Egyptian sorcery only goes so far). The great bulk of the Frame's mode and the contraction of the copperine scales prevents a critical hit, as perhaps does the good and honest question of where DO you hit, exactly? Normally you aim for the torso, but where's the fucking torso on a snake?
"I'd like to make you an offer," Laila transmits as Apep lowers itself round, undulating as the other machines circle round Saraven. "And I mean it quite honestly. Throw in the cloth and I'll put in a word for you. Your machine's quite impressive, as are your skills. Think of it as an exchange." (As this happens, Laila is sinking backwards as the pilot's seat of the Active Frame gently hugs her in some kind of gelatinous undercover of what had been a fine leather interior, which is there because--)
The head of the machine snaps forwards with a noise like a cracking whip - for the very tip of its nose DOES break the sound barrier, just barely, before coming backwards. As it moves, the maw of Neit-Apep opens, slashing fangs coming out - a complex compound, containing a range of ovoid objects which all seem to have been sliced in half and embedded in some kind of thin bakelite-acidifier solution, spray outwards. Should either fang slash against Saraven, then this fluid will go into the space beneath the armor plating; perhaps into the joints.
At the rebound, Laila lets out an involuntary whoop, because the whiplash-prevention device doesn't make it a rather dramatic physical sensation.
KTS: Laila Elsayed targets Saraven Vai with The Fang of Fluidized Plastic Explosive Semispheres!
KTS: Saraven Vai parries Laila Elsayed's The Fang of Fluidized Plastic Explosive Semispheres, taking 3906 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at 3424
KTS: Laila Elsayed has engaged Saraven Vai
<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.
<"You know, you should be a gentleman and introduce yourself before you ask someone else their name!"> Lily Jung is quick to snap back. Though Nena Trinity might pick up a flush of embarassment as Gary Biaggi claims that she doesn't sound like a proper enough pilot! An embarassment that is felt on a really deep and personal level to Lily.
Instead, she starts maneuvering herself differently. As Nena Trinity manages to dislodge and avoid the devastating strike from her second Longblade, and Gary calls out that he's going to help, she starts maneveuvering her Zack in such a way that it starts putting Nena Trinity's Throne Drei right in between herself and Gary Biaggi's shots. Each time it seems like he might get a free shot...
It is almost like he's being read. The ECM signal of the unit reaching him each time just before he puts his intent to his trigger. The unit suddenly zipping behind the Throne just as he fires, his ships zipping past as the Flamingo starts to get her wings under her.
However, that puts her in a very troublesome position as Nena's Gundam rushes her position and brings its blades forward. The girl grimaces as she feels that intense and corrupted 'joy' of Nena Trinity's.
At which point Nena feels this INTENSE beat of two very specific emotions. The first, she's felt this entire time. Pity. But then it gets warped by this sensation of sheer disgust. Not fear. Not anger. Just... loathing who Nena is on a very personal level.
<"I feel sorry for you.">
Just those five words is all that Lily utters as the blades of the Gundam Throne Drei is stabbed into Lily's machines - the young woman maneuvering so they tear into its shoulders, a bit close to the cockpit block, but not enough to threaten her. The reinforcement of that cockpit block in intense.
The Zack has grabbed hold of those hands, to try and desperately stop the Gundam Throne from moving those sabers. The unit is creaking. But the girl refuses to let her fear show.
"I'll be okay. I'll be okay. I'll be okay." The girl whispers to herself, repeating herself.
"I'll BE OKAY!" As one of the Longblade weapons flies around and tries to stab into the Throne's head - right before the second takes aim at Gary Biaggi's unit through Throne Drei's legs and sends a wave of purple energy his way!
KTS: Lily Jung targets Nena Trinity with Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Ship Cut!
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to parry Sakia Davila's SMASH, taking 3990 damage!
KTS: Sakia Davila has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan
KTS: Lily Jung targets Gary Biaggi with Twin Longblade Rifle - Psycho Model - Blade and Beam - Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Cornelia li Britannia has posed.
Recognition. It's something Cornelia is used to, even if she does not necessarily expect it; it is not, after all, while she's here. She is also used to the condemnations that come next.
'Britannia... deserves to be destroyed.'
<< "Those vanquished by history often wish defeat upon their victors. And they so seldom see it. You'd think you and yours would be used to that by now, ghost." >>
Funnels are deployed, helping Saraven to gain distance once more with the clever use of her working verniers. The Gloucester pivots, taking a sharp turn towards the left with intent to exploit the damage its pilot has already inflicted to seize the Sleeve's flank. It charges forward--
And something happens. A shot, fired with preternatural accuracy, aimed not at where Cornelia -is-... but where she's -going- to be.
"Wh--"
This, she knows, too. Something that goes beyond simple piloting expertise, something typically only a true master of their craft could achieve. Knowing, however, does not prevent that beam from -sheering- into the Knightmare Frame. A lethal shot is prevented only by last minute evasive maneuvers: instead, the Gloucester's left arm is melted -clean- off, bubbling up in slagging metal until the princess -yanks- on the controls, ejecting the limb as it explodes roughly twenty feet off from where the Gloucester spins out. Superheated metals glow at the machine's shoulder joint.
The Witch of Britannia narrows her eyes, a soft "tch" of irritation touching upon her lips as warnings blare and suggest retreat.
She ignores each and every one.
Instead -- it is a smile, amused if small, that touches her lips as she listens to that direct communication from the Neit-Apep's pilot. "Hah," she chuckles, shaking her head. "It's a curse my enemies have taken to. I've grown rather fond of it, actually. As for the rest..." As to the rest...
"You have my permission to be honored when we've won, astronomer."
And with that, the Gloucester moves again. Sparking, damaged -- but still holding onto its lance as it peels across the distance. Its remaining Slash Harken launches, firing -- past Saraven and her mobile suit. It lodges into a nearby chunk of debris.
And Cornelia uses it as an anchor, sending her Knightmare Frame LAUNCHING towards the Varguil at high speeds, intent to abuse an opening and run it -straight- through as it fends off the others assault.
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia has activated the Alert Spirit Command.
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Saraven Vai
KTS: Cornelia li Britannia targets Saraven Vai with EM Jousting Lance - Piercing Thrust!
KTS: Saraven Vai fails to parry Cornelia li Britannia's EM Jousting Lance - Piercing Thrust, taking 4770 damage!
Your unit's HP stands at -1346
KTS: Saraven Vai's AMS-123XS Varguil Complete has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
The Enact attempts to flip over the laser and avoid the slash but well if the right leg was damamged, the left leg was slashed off and leaves the Enact kinda hobbling in midair. The balance is obviously off as even when it tries to stationary hover it wobbles back and forth. Gary considers the situation for a moment, before he opens a direct communication to Pinky, <"You know pinky, I thought you were going to disappoint. You can just call me Lieutenant Biaggi.">
The Enact, despite being damaged doesn't move from it's position however, no attempt to rush in and finish this. Instead he promised to let the two fight and that is exactly what he is going to do. However Gary was one who got bored easily so he isn't simply going to sit back and do nothing.
Raising the rifle, the Enact takes a few moments to track the pink suit before firing off well aimed shots They may not be the most powerful shots but they are intended to really just knock the enemy around and be annoying if nothing else.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
"We've fended that off before!" Sophia calls back. The argument is flawed on like three lines but she's too busy tracking the shockingly skilled Zaku to fully muster a verbal counter. She does drive her Sonic Blade up in an attempt to issue a physical one, but Sakia drives her machine's fist into the Flag's display of a face, cracking the plastic and sending the machine reeling backwards. Sophia hmphs. "I think you're here to support an insurrection!" she snaps, and regathers her Flag's posture before driving the knife for the Zaku's center, digging into internals with the sonic blade's sheering force.
KTS: Gary Biaggi targets Lily Jung with Blade Rifle - Sighted Shot!
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Sakia Davila with Sonic Blade Drive!
KTS: Sakia Davila successfully avoids Lina Lombardi's Flight Module Cannon Rapid Fire
KTS: Sakia Davila rushes into the attack!
KTS: Sakia Davila fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Sonic Blade Drive, taking 4050 damage!
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has engaged Sakia Davila
<Pose Tracker> Saraven Vai has posed.
Saraven's more experienced than anyone aged 19 has any right to be, but a lot of that has come against opponents far beneath her skill level, and it's come with the caveat that her handlers don't want her to think outside the box too much. It leaves openings for someone like Bergh, who knows how to plan that way. She's got half an eye on the F90, and she can tell he's planning something - the intentionality's clear enough.
The actual translation of it is harder. "You're thinking something," she murmurs, the comm pickup catching her voice. The bazooka fires - this time she ignores the dummy balloons. There's no intentionality coming through them. The bazooka goes off, and she eludes it by just swatting a balloon into the shot and whirling away to gain range. The spray gun's coming to bear --
Bergh does something truly ridiculous. The super napalm rains around her like a cloudburst. "Wh--" she begins to gasp, before doing the only thing she can think of: Firing her thrusters and trying to run like hell for open sky.
It doesn't really work that way, of course. Napalm splatters the Varguil's shoulder and chest armour, gnawing through plating and leaving ugly holes in places en route to biting through to the more vulnerable systems beneath. Saraven presses her lips together intensely as more warning lights flicker in her face.
'My orders require your submission, not your respect.'
"Not acceptable," Saraven answers rotely, snapping one of the Varguil's arms up defensively as the damaged Gernsback comes racing in. A beam saber springs to life in the taller machine's hands, angling downward to try and deflect Ouka away. The First Boosted Child is too fast and too low, the monomolecular blade scoring deep into the Varguil's upper thigh and carving out a sizable chunk of plating and a plume of smoke and fire. The mobile suit staggers, and Saraven grimaces as she pivots to guard the exposed leg.
She's tense. Tense in a way she isn't usually. Bergh's dangerous in one way. Ouka's dangerous in a way based on intense focus and excellence of execution.
I can't feel her the way I feel others... but the way she thinks... it's centred. The way Dr. Metta taught me to think....
So the Federation also has people like me....
There's something oddly comforting about that awareness. Maybe a sense that it's not just Zeon.
With Laila quipping over the radio, Saraven knits her brows, her focus tinged for just a moment with something resembling confusion. "If this is a recruiting pitch, I'm not interested," she starts, before the huge serpentine machine snaps at her so hard that it kicks up a sonic shock. Saraven reacts quickly, beam tomahawk flashing out to try and intercept the fangs. She manages to swat most of the bite aside, but one of the fangs catches the Varguil's forearm.
The trickling fluid runs down into one of the gashes created by earlier strikes. Systems begin to seize up; two of the fingers on that hand stiffen as the Varguil nearly drops the beam saber. Saraven blinks and tosses the weapon to the off hand, trying to back off as quickly as possible as more cascading failures race up the arm.
"What kind of technology is that," she murmurs, again picked up by the radio.
It's technology that buys Cornelia a critical opening: She's coming in from the side with the bad arm. Saraven clenches her jaw and tries to bring the beam saber across to bat away the Knightmare Frame.
The princess swings herself up and over the disabled arm, slashing the shock lancer into the Varguil's upper arm before Saraven can deflect the smaller machine away. Outwardly it doesn't look like much of a hit.
Until the Varguil pulls back a distance and it becomes clear that the arm on that side is completely immobilized. She's guiding herself with thrusters and balancing from the other arm.
For all that there are warning indicators glaring in her face, when Saraven comes over the radio again, her voice is calm and empty of feeling. "If your victories brought anything but misery to humanity, there would be no need for the ghosts of Zeon," she states. "There are billions who deserve more than to be the slaves of old Earthians who forgot dreams. So long as that's true, Zeon will never die."
She says that, but Saraven's also actively pulling back towards the desert. The Varguil's funnels swoop around it and fire down into the tarmac and sands, kicking up obscuring clouds as they go. Saraven jabs her control panel quickly.
"Lilac Gale to allied units. When you can disengage, take what you have and withdraw to the retrieval point at Umm ad-Diyan."
There's no way she can fight on with one arm - not with this much damage, against this many skilled opponents. All that's left is to get out alive and figure out how to get the Varguil repaired and back into space.
<Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
The feeling of pity that Nena can sense directed at her had always bugged her. But when that feeling of disgust joins it, that causes Nena to grin, responding happily, <"Sorry for me? Really? Is that all? Be honest now."> She's not sure how she knows that it's more than that. Intuition perhaps? But it amuses her.
The Gundam Throne Drei struggles against the EWAC Zack only so much as to keep it from getting the upper hand. It doesn't look like it's trying to break free. Apparently Nena had other plans.
Plans briefly put on hold as Purple Haro buzzes, "Warning! Warning!"
The Drei's vents unleash another blast of crimson light particles, but the Longblade just cuts right through them, its beam saber looking to lance right through the Gundam's head. The Gundam's armour proves tough though, even against the blade of light. The tip is partially deflected on impact, throwing the Longblade off course just barely and causing the saber to scrape across the side of the Gundam's head.
The resulting gouge cut through the Drei's head takes out the left beam vulcan and eye. A few sections of Nena's panoramic display suddenly go black, before coming back with slightly less defined images from backup cameras. She's probably going to get an earfull later due to the damage...
... But right now, Nena doesn't care. She just laughs as she flicks a switch and pulls on her trigger.
With both arms still gripped by the Zack, the Drei still doesn't struggle to break free. Instead, several ports along its right shoulder shield open up. From within a barrage of GM Missiles rush out, crimson particles trailing.
It's a dangerous move, firing missiles in this situation. It's true that at this range, it would be hard to intercept them without quickly releasing the Drei and dashing away. But the possibility of Nena being caught in the same explosion meant for Lily is high. But of course, the Celestial Being missiles aren't your regular explosive variety. Instead they just pump those infamous light particles into their targets on impact to react harshly with the machine's own structure. The result is usually explosive, true, but it means there is a short delay that Nena can capitalize on to break free and escape.
KTS: Nena Trinity targets Lily Jung with GN Missile Barrage!
<Pose Tracker> Sakia Davila has posed.
She couldn't help it. Laughter. the invisible smile of a Zaku as she trusted her instinct, trusted her Oldtype self that the ZAFT bastards back home so distinctly sneered against. She could feel it, she couldn't feel it. It was a blind toss of luck and the sure sense of a woman so, so, so sosososososososososo sure of herself. Eyes in thin pinpricks as the sounds of beams whiffed across with the twist of her body, two intents in one action.
To turn the slightest bit for beams to scorch across the armor, a few hitting their mark. Luck.
To add weight to the punch that she setup. Planning.
The right place at the right time.
"What aim!? The aim of a pilot that can't even smack a kaiju in the back!?" Head. Light. Blood. Hearing. Pumping. SHe could feel the adrenaline; even while seated in that suit, even while she was gripping those levers so easily. Pinkies twitching.
The crunch of metal against metal elicited laughter. Glee. A hit. A HIT. A FIRM HIT RIGHT ON FACE DISPLAY! AH, PERFECT! Following through, tossing her body in the perfect form of someone who knew how to toss a punch, pulling herself back into position with hands wide open. A low stance. A stance of expectation.
"Congratulations! I wasn't there for it, because I was in space gettin' shit on!" Speakers. She was communicating on speakers; Those radios were open enough, but not enough power was diverted to them to really work. Just an echo straining to define itself in the air. "WHY DON'T YOU PROVE TO ME THAT YOU CAN!?" She trailed off with a low chuckle, failing to properly move for that knife to bury itself in. For Sakia to try to grab at the wings of the Flag, to tear into it with the hunger of the soul.
"I came here for answers to personal questions I can't even ask because YOU'RE STABBING ME, YOU BRITTANIAN BASTARD."
<Pose Tracker> Bergh Scred has posed.
"How shallow," Bergh shoots back - not that he necessarily thought that Britannia shouldn't be criticized, but, the usual stock Zeon schlock coming from Saraven ..
It felt insincere and practiced.
"If you're going to fight," kill, "and struggle," die," - it should be for your own sake. They're your hands getting red and musty, after all. You should try it sometime."
People should fight and die for what they believe in. If they're going to kill, with their own two hands .. - you should try it sometime, Bergh.
Bastard. But, at least with that much, I guess I've come to agree with you.. he rumnates on the words of an old enemy as he parrots at least some of it at Saraven. The irony wasn't lost on him.
Cleaning out the rest of the Zeon remnants wouldn't be all that difficult from here on out, a job his half-full beam rifle and arm-mounted grenades were more than prepared to carry out against twenty year old machines.
He doesn't doggedly chase them down of course; but as long as they remain in the bounds of the mission area, they were fair game. A Gundam bearing down upon them was certainly an incentive to hurry along with Saraven's retreat order.
" ..hm. So that was the 'witch' of Britannia, huh." he murmurs to himself.
While they were allies in the loosest sense, despite passing some words along earlier, they also served different masters. Bergh kept that tacitly in mind.
"Oh," he transmits to Leila and Ouka, "You two were great, by the way. You really saved my goose - I wouldn't have gotten half way through that tussle without either of you. So now, we're certified buds,'kay?" he nods, reaffimringly, despite no one being able to see it. "The bonds of battle are thicker than mud, as they say."
<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.
"You're really getting on my nerves, you know that?!" Lina brings the Alto down to the ground to get on the same level as the Zaku, clearly getting frustrated with her opponent.
"Jazz, their leader is pulling back. The target is also likely to retreat when given the chance. Don't push yourself, the mission has already been completed!"
"Oh, hell to that, if this lady's gonna limp away, I'm gonna make it HURT for her." Returning the assault rifle back to its place, the Alto reaches behind its back and pulls out its spear, the length of metal telescoping to its full size. "Take this, you little brat!" The Alto pulls the spear back and brings it down for a powerful thrust, giving its entire strength.
KTS: Lina Lombardi targets Sakia Davila with ExAMACS Spear Revenge Strike!
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sophia is getting the impression talking to this one isn't achieving much for her. She sucks in a breath to try and focus through the haze of Sakia's taunting. Find her center. Find the --
The Zaku tries to rip her Flag's wings off. The pack should...probably...get her away anyway, but the damage to the wing pack is nonetheless severe.
But it does also leave the Zaku right there with a knife in it.
Sophia flicks the switch to vent the drive plasma through the blade, the sonic weapon turning into an impromptu beam one as searing particles vent out of it in a loose blade.
"Then I shall be happy to render those questions meaningless for you!" Sophia snarls back, and then sweeps the now semi-beam saber straight up, hopefully completely sheering through the Zaku's armor.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Attune Spirit Command.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Sakia Davila with Plasma Blade Cleave!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Jung has posed.
<"Lily Jung - and I so am a Pilot!"> She's pouting her pretty little face behind that helmet, giving the Enact the most grumpy look she can manage in that moment, before she has to duck her unit to the side to try and avoid Gary Biaggi's shot, only to be led into the Drei's Missile Barrage. The Longblades spin around her, trying to cut as many of them down with rapid beam fire, but she doesn't have a high performing machine like these two. She's being forced back heavily.
She hears Saraven's call for retreat, but she also notes that the amount of red warning lights on her machine that are going off are absolutely rediculous at this point. Between the various pock-marks left from missiles and beam shots even before the most recent barrage, and the smoulding holes in its chest-cavity, she has to retreat!
She puffs out, her helmet starting to get harder to see through because of the moisture gathering against the helmet's insides. Her entire body is aching, as if she has been going through some kind of full-body workout!
In the end, the Longblades rush in, and fire a set of beam-blasts at high intensity, aiming to blind Nena and Gary for long enough to let her put some distance between them and her, and join the Sleeves and Zeon Remnant forces as they back off as fast as they can.
KTS: Sakia Davila parries Lina Lombardi's ExAMACS Spear Revenge Strike, taking 1800 damage!
KTS: Lina Lombardi has engaged Sakia Davila
KTS: Lina Lombardi roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
KTS: Sakia Davila rushes into the attack!
KTS: Sakia Davila fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Plasma Blade Cleave, taking 4320 damage!
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has engaged Sakia Davila
KTS: Lina Lombardi has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
KTS: Lina Lombardi has activated the Rouse Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Aurum-1 rushes in, a beam saber ignites and sweeps down to catch her!! At the last moment the Gernsback manages to move into a slide to move under the arc of the blade. The result of the sudden change in momentum and mechanical forces though causes her unit's left leg to twist, crack, and break at the knee! The mechanical limb is left twisting uselessly behind her as she nears attack range.
For a moment of time, everything narrows to a single point of focus. Blood vessels in her limbs constrict while the ones leading from her lungs and heart to her brain dilate. Synaptic firing increases at risk of neural fatigue or even damage. She won't have another shot at this. She HAS to make it count!
'Not acceptable' was Saraven's rote response. She recognizes the tone and timbre of such an answer. It's the answer like she would give. The answer for one whom surrender is simply not an option. If she were to be brought down, if she was to be captured, she would bleed her foes every step of the way. At no point would she consider giving up to spare her own life. Even if her tactical situation made it impossible for her to do anything but die. Even if it meant leaving those she loves in the tender mercies of Dr. Setme and Koch.
With only use of its right leg the Gernsback uses its off arm to help right itself and get that limb under its torso. From there it springs into an attack pattern to drive the monomolecular blade into the thigh of Varguil!! The blade finds purchase using one hand, and then Ouka grips and pulls the blade through the armor plating through with the other.
It wasn't enough to disable the unit... but maybe it would be enough to provide an opportunity for her allies to finish the job before the Varguil recovers enough to drive the beam saber through the vulnerable and almost immobilized Gernsback's chest.
Thankfully it is Laila's unorthodox strike that disables the arm carrying the beam saber, and ultimately provides the opening for Cornelia li Britania's Gloucester to deliver a decisive blow fully disabling one of the foe's arms.
The Varguil falls back, firing blast after blast into the arid sands and kicking of an obscuring dust cloud in the vicinity.
Not that it was necessary to prevent any further attacks from the XM9 Gernsback. Severely damaged as it is, after landing from the final assault a warning light indicated a critical fire containment failure. The cockpit is already starting to fill with smoke and heat. Even as willing to risk life and limb for the sake of the mission she seems to be... even Aurum-1 has a modicum of survival instinct.
"My Gernsback is disabled." A staticky message comes over allied short range band, "Moving to an on foot allied support role."
The back plate plate of the Gernsback slides open, unleashing a billowing cloud of smoke from within. The First Boosted Child extracts herself from the damaged and burning internals, sliding down the back of the unit and landing gracefully on the tarmac below. She's wearing a full body Arm Slave pilot's jumpsuit with a matching sealed helmet. There are visible signs of damage on both - flecks of once molten metal still embedded into the cracked visor of the helmet. She carries with her only her sidearm, a few hand-held explosives, and a combat knife.
Through that visor though she watches silently as the Varguil retreating. She wonders a bit... if her sense of the person, based on how she said just two words, was right or not? She is not a Newtype, and this person clearly was. They were are part of Zeon's remanants, whereas Aurum-1 was assigned to G-Hound with the remit specifically to oppose those forces. They should be nothing but different and yet even with all of that... there was a hint of simularity. A thin and treacherous bridge across a chasm-like divide.
The cracked and damaged helmet is removed and discarded, dropped unceremoniously to the ground next to her burning unit. Her dark green hair, unbound by the removal of the helmet, sways only a bit damply in the arid wind as Aurum-1's golden eyes continue to stare thoughtfully.
But ah... it's pointless after all, to empathize with one's enemy.
Touching the side of her neck, Aurum-1 activates her radio, "Confirmed retreat of Target: Lilac Gale. You are welcome for the assist. If your units are still in able combat condition please move to a support role until we have confirmed all hostiles have been neutralized. I will resume my scouting role and focus on neutralizing ejected enemy pilots as well as disabling targets of opportunity."
KTS: Ouka Nagisa's M9 Gernsback has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
Gary grins as he hears Lily's response and as he hovers for a moment before he watches the pink unit fly off, "Until next time Ms. Jung. " The unit continues to float in the air for a moment before Gary spots the Throne still in the combat zone. "If I remember right I am suppose to do something with that too."
The Enact begins to float slowly into position trying to be a bit casual about it before his rifle switches to sword mode and he looks at the Throne for a moment longer. "Just stay right there, I hear I get a big bonus if I bring in one of yall even if the pilot is dead."
Once in position the Enact charges toward the Throne attempting to run the Throne through from behind. Totally unfair dirty fighting tactics but then again the pilot has been deemed a terrorist so, alls fair.
<Pose Tracker> Sakia Davila has posed.
She could hear the voices; Comms coming through the radio waves: Saraven, fallen. Retreat, imminent. The attack had failed. The attack had failed. The incursion had been routed. Point Umm ad-Diyan. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Repeating it over and over in her head, lips unconsciously moving in-between the bouts and fits of emotion carrying her along.
Two things at once. She tried. She tried so hard for both. The realization of the knife in her Zaku came too little too late, the sword chopping clean through metal, the smallest cut blossoming into a saber that pierced through the Zaku proper. To say that she screamed was a false statement.
Screams have meaning.
A bellow does not.
No words could make a bellow of the lungs have meaning.
With repressed rage in her soul, the lamentations of a spacenoid Oldtype grasped at the thin straws of trying to find meaning. To keep the Flag's wing in one hand. Harder. Harder. Squeeze the metal. Choke out the wants of the pilot, crush it. Feel the knuckles crack, to have the joints twist and mangle as that hand attempted to sink into a firm grip.
The other hand, no, arm snapping back, body twisting in reaction. The sounds of that Zaku creaking, the sharp cut having barely missed the cockpit, the sliver inside of a pilot with a cracked headpiece, blue hair fallen down in caked sweat.
Thin pinpricks that made up the pupils. Nothing but the feral want to live.
That backturned arm snapped its wrist clockwise; An armguard making the mercy sacrifice for Lina's spear, digging in with a screech. keeping it buried in as that same arm whipped out, a backhanded slap with the full force of palpable bloodlust.
And all the while. Crushing. "Brat? BRAT? BRAT!? DON'T LECTURE ME FROM ABOVE WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE AT THE BOTTOM!" Crushing. That hand would likely separate at the joint when pulled off. Useless. "I WANT TO KNOW WHAT MORE THERE IS TO THE WORLD THAN THIS." Useless. Like her. "GIVE ME A REASON WHY THIS WORLD SHOULD KEEP GOING." A question in everything in pronunciation. Useless hand.
KTS: Sakia Davila has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakia Davila has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
KTS: Sakia Davila targets Lina Lombardi with Piledriver!
KTS: Sakia Davila targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Piledriver!
KTS: Lina Lombardi fails to rush.
KTS: Lina Lombardi fails to react to Sakia Davila's Piledriver, taking 7020 damage!
KTS: Sakia Davila has engaged Lina Lombardi
<Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
Nena has to shield her eyes as the Longblades unleashing that blinding light. Rubbing her eyes for a moment, Nena opens them once more once the light has passed, only to see the Zack in retreat. Nena pouts a little, "Awww, I didn't get her..." She COULD try giving chase...
But Nena glances at the image of the Enact floating not too far away. Nena grins cheekily as she marks it as a target.
The Drei turns slowly, its arm beginning to move...
And the Enact lunges forward, trying to stab through the Drei!
Nena is surprised. Not by the fact that Gary proceeded to turn on her. But more by the fact that he managed to do it before she could!
<"H-Hey!">
The Drei brings one of its sabers up to meet the Enact's blade, pushing it away enough to keep it from being a clean thrust through the machine and Nena too. Instead the blade manages to cut a groove through the side of the Drei's torso.
Nena then exclaims in some annoyance, <"I was going to do that first!">
Pushing the Enact's blade away and trying to throw it off balance, the Drei counters with its on stab towards the Enact.
KTS: Nena Trinity targets Gary Biaggi with GNW-003 Twin Beam Sabers Riposte!
KTS: Lina Lombardi has activated the Attune Spirit Command targeting Sophia Mayhew Castellan
KTS: Gary Biaggi fails to parry Nena Trinity's GNW-003 Twin Beam Sabers Riposte, taking 3040 damage!
KTS: Nena Trinity has engaged Gary Biaggi
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Focus Spirit Command.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to parry Sakia Davila's Piledriver, taking 8220 damage!
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan's SVM-01 Union Flag Sophia Custom has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Laila Elsayed has posed.
"Then I'll hold my feelings in check," Laila answers Cornelia, "at least, for the moment."
As Neit-Apep rises upwards, its head at a more Mobile Suit-y elevation heaped up on its own coils, tensed and ready, Laila answers the pilot of the Varguil. "Amateur astronomy," she answers Saraven, her tone cheerful and iron daggers in the back of her mind. Then the Knightmare Frame comes up --
A killing blow? Not quite -- but enough to drive the high-spec Mobile Suit to retreat. "Maa salama, and please enjoy your stay," Laila calls, raising a hand to wave ironically - perhaps salute - even if, well, the Active Frame cannot reflect that, being in an un-armed mode at this point. The posture of the machine settles back, the battered but intact neck/length that supports the head turning round to survey the scene--
"That Gundam..." A blurred view of Nena's attack run.
There is a remark, from Bergh. "Think nothing of it. I'm always glad to protect these lands, as I'm passing too and fro," she answers him, slowly, leisurely... vaguely flirtatiously? This may just be how she speaks. In English, anyway.
And...
The head of Neit-Apep shifts a little, as if to better get visual on Aurum-1.
To herself, off the comms, Laila murmurs, "Is she mad? Perhaps it's a concussion. How sad to be out of her chain of command." Then, back ON the comms: "Recommend you stay in cover, Aurum One, the zone is still hot." Neit-Apep repositions itself, orienting towards - but not lunging towards - the remaining clashes.
KTS: Lina Lombardi has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
<Pose Tracker> Gary Biaggi has posed.
The Enact raises it's blade to parry but the Drei's blade shoves his own blade down into the shoulder till he backs off a bit out of range of the attack. <"Well you know, if you are to slow on the uptake then thats not my fault. Here let me just finish you off and it will all be over.">
THe Enact begins to come in again before the main vernier booster on the Enact's back starts to give out.< "Hmm appears we will have to do this another day.">
Without waiting the Enact fires a spray of bullets randomly from its turret before swapping back to flight mode and retreating. Overall Gary finds the situation acceptable.
<Pose Tracker> Lina Lombardi has posed.
Lina's teeth rattle in her head as she feels the full impact of Sakia's attack, lights and alarms going off in her cockpit as she shakes her head to regain her bearings.
[boldblue]"Jazz! You're taking an unneeded risk! Disengage now!"
Lina grumbles and activates her boosters, pushing herself back up in the air away from the Zaku. "Damn girl, I thought I was the only one who was good with obsolete junk." The Alto sheathes its spear as Lina begins preparations to retreat. "Listen up, girl! You want a reason to keep going? You wanna know what more there is? Well, I'm no philosopher, but I did go to college. Sometimes all you need is one little thing to look forward to. One thing to push you through. I wanna meet you on the battlefield again, got it? I know you and I both got way more in us than this. Give ya somethin' to count the days until, eh? Name's Lina Lombardi, and I don't want you forgetting that!"
With that, the Alto's wings fold back and it shoots off back towards the Platform to lick its wounds.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sakia pushes her Zaku to extremes Sophia can hardly imagine. A savage, animal need to live, bubbling out of her in ways Sophia doesn't understand.
The Flag's alarms grow more and more insistent as the Zaku I rips into her.
And that final, demanding shriek.
What more is there to this world. Why should this hell of a world be allowed to continue?
Sophia finds only dust in her mouth, before finally accepting her unit's warnings and jamming the transformation switch and gunning the engine. Sakia will sheer that wing completely off, but UP is all she needs to signal for Helios to get a catch going.
Why should this world continue...
Her eye burns, an emblem igniting in it as she half-consciously traces the webs of bonds across the field. Seeking the guilty and finding nothing of note.
She mutters, "I won't let this world end until I've made every one of them pay," hoarsely, in the cockpit's cold light.
<Pose Tracker> Nena Trinity has posed.
Nena turns her machine, bringing one of her shields around to tank the spray of gunfire sent her way. As she turns back to look, she finds the Enact in retreat, Gary giving off a parting comm. Nena briefly considers giving chase to him as well... But she HAS suffered some damage. She doesn't want to suffer more and risk having Laguna shout at her for it...
Plus there's something oddly poetic about the two of them going to turn on each other, each get a stab in, then call it. So Nena too is happy, countering with, <"Another day!">
The Drei turns, beginning to fly off with a trail of crimson particles.
As Nena is pulling back from the quickly finishing fight, she catches sight of a familiar looking Knightmare amidst the defending forces. Nena wonders out loud, "Oh hey, that looks like the one I fought in Japan. Didn't it belong to some Britannian Princess?"
Purple Haro buzzes back, "Cornelia li Britannia! Cornelia li Britannia!"
Nena nods in confirmation, "Right, right." She then grins, briefly altering her course.
The Gundam Throne Drei blasts through the sky, starting to rise. It passes by the Britannian forces and turns briefly, its still good right eye glowing with a red light in the Gloucester's direction. The Gundam then gives it an energetic wave, before continuing off into the distance.
<Pose Tracker> Cornelia li Britannia has posed.
With an electrical spit, the Gloucester lands five feet from the Varguil, its remaining arm snapping that large lance to its right until the tip stabs into the sandy earth. The joints of the Knightmare Frame sputter and groan; within its cockpit, Cornelia assesses the readouts with a growing frown.
"Tt" is her ultimate conclusion on the state of her machine; but it's done its job. Cornelia looks over her shoulder as the Varguil starts to pull out. The Gloucester begins to peel around to pursue --
But funnels alight, providing the Sleeves pilot precious time needed to gain distance and enter a full retreat, leaving on those final words to linger in her wake.
Perhaps there is some truth to that. Perhaps, in another life, Cornelia would be one to dwell on such a sentiment. Perhaps if her circumstances were different. Perhaps...
"'All men are not created equal.' You'll die a thousand times simply to prove that reality."
... but it is not so at this moment.
Cornelia's frown lingers despite their victory. She assesses the situation, as the pilot of the Gernsback announces her weapon has been disabled. A second passes by. And then:
"All damaged machines and wounded personnel fall back to these coordinates; I will provide fire support for your retreat. You have done good work this day."
And with that, she shuts off active communications, returning towards the field.
Her frown of irritation lingers.
<Pose Tracker> Sakia Davila has posed.
A standstill. She couldn't help but pant, the want for answers pumping in her veins. She could feel her heart beating, bit by bit. Was it so loud as to be audible? No. It just was that sharp of a moment. Of a victory.
Answers. Even through the sliver that exposed her to the air, she looked up. A final push for that wing to be ripped off, tossing the useless hand to the side. It came off so easily; The snap of strained metal leaving her without a hand at all.
Lina Lombardi. Something to look forward to? Yeah. Yeah, she's got that. That's temporary. That's a temporary thing that she'll make happen. What of after? Not that she'll say any of that. Not when she has to go. It'd suck if she was gunned down after this.
...No name. Flag. Flagged Bastard. That's a good nickname for this gal flyin' off. Hell, at least she had an answer. The Zaku I offered no response to that, merely giving a nod so small that it could be mistaken for a phantom.
There was nothing more to scrounge from the desert. No. The only recourse was to turn and run, to keep maintaining this junkheap as the failed operation came to its end.
...Not that she particularly had hopes for it. She satisfied her own desires. In her eyes? Complete success. In spirit.