2022-07-17: Capture at La Tour Orbital
- Cast: Marida Cruz, Vitaly Sokolov
- Where: 15 minutes from La Tour Orbital Elevator
- Date: U.C. 0096 07 17
- Summary: Having posted a trap for the Sleeves with the intent of capturing Suberoa Zinnerman, the G-Hound operation instead engages with the pilot of the Kshatriya.
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida can't see the future. She may be a Cyber Newtype, but she's not a psychic. Okay, she's that too. But even as troubled and intrigued as she is about the chance meeting she just had, the tension racing up her spine as she feels more and more as though she needs to LEAVE RIGHT NOW has her hurrying through customs and security check points as she heads for the civilian freighter she piloted here. The moment she is cleared and back on the ship, she is slipping out of the coat and into her normal suit. She has no idea why she's need to be in a normal suit right now, with nothing but a missed meeting eating at her, but she just feels like it's better to do so than to not. Just in case.
While the ship is warming up, she readies herself, stuffing her enormous mane of orange-red hair into her helmet.
This sense that she's in danger... Like a wolf's jaws are closing down on her... It's not something she just gets randomly, nor is it a feeling she would experience on a normal basis even if there was danger coming.
But she has to go now, or else she might not make it out at all.
She ship moves away from the space elevator carefully but quickly. She gets some squawking from the controllers over the communications over her jumping the queu of departures, but she just maneuvers with the controls and starts making for open space. She'll worry about masking her trail when there's some distance between her and the La Tour elevator.
In the back of her mind, a dark thought wriggles and asks the question, 'Did Alma Stirner set you up?' Marida's brows furrow as she examines the sensor readouts, trying to block out the suspicion. 'Was she delaying you to keep you here? Was this a trap?'
She remains on-task outwardly. But inside, she is in turmoil.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
Within the Orbital Elevator, multiple people convert towards the exit as Marida is leaving. One of them grabbing at their collar and pulling it up towards their lips. Speaking into it, before taking off their suspicious sunglasses in the middle of a well lit room.
Not seconds later, on top of the Orbital Elevator, an RGM-89DEW EWAC Jegan moves their arm towards a position in space, blinking one of its arm lights, before establishing a lasercommunications across longer distance.
~ FURTHER IN SPACE ~
"Ma'am, we're getting confirmation. Suberoa Zinnerman did not show up to the meeting. But a ginger woman fitting the description from Industrial 7 was sighted, leaving the Orbital Ring. Registration code, A-E-T-6-6-6."
The gloves of the old woman's normal suit creak as she grips tighter into the controls, staring at the transmission coming in. "Confirm direction of departure, we try to intercept. Keep giving detail for as long as you have a visual. Vitaly Sokolov, out."
The RX-123-P Gundam TR-S [Rabscuttle Proto], a sizable support craft, rests at the edge of a debris field, and begins to slowly maneuver outwards. There's four Stark Jegans attached to its outer hull, hitched with cables and clamps, being fed power from the Rabscuttle's sizable generator.
"We wait until they make distance from Orbital Ring. We don't want risk damage by stray beam fire."
Five minutes pass...
Ten minutes pass...
Did Marida worry for nothing?
Fifteen minutes, when suddenly the sensors on her Atmosphere Entry Transport goes off, warning her of a high speed target approaching. And at the speed it's coming after her, it's no battleship. It's coming at her at the speed of a bloody cruise missile, but is registering the size of her shuttle. Trying to do a Silhouette scan however comes up Unknown.
Whatever it is, it's coming in fast. And before she knows it, a radio call is coming in.
"This is G-Hound - Codename Winter Witch of Ravnui. Under the authority of Romefeller Foundation, I request. You comply. Cut engine and identify yourself. We will be boarding your transport for confirmation." With a heavy accent, this communique comes through at a distance. It won't be long until the target is upon her!
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
The civilian transport continues on its way, unheeding of the hails, when such start. It does not speed up, however. It just continues along the same trajectory, at the same speed. There is no obvious reaction to the super-fast object. But then thermal readouts bloom throughout, and the flaming blue thrusters start to behave erratically. Sputtering and flickering, the propulsion dies on half the transport, causing it to begin listing to one side.
In the span of 1 minute and 11 seconds the transport starts giving off signs of catastrophic system failures. Maybe it's just a trick? A deception of some kind?
A distress responder starts up from the ship with the callsign 'Blutwald', though there is no verbal confirmation from the pilot. If everything inside is on fire as it appears, their communications might be down. Or the pilot might not be in a condition to speak. Or, as the incoming G-Hound forces may suspect, this is still just an elaborate ruse.
However, whether they close in to investigate or not...
1...
...2...
...3...
...4--
The Blutwald suffers a visible interior explosion which is followed shortly after by multiple secondary explosions across the transport that rupture the hull. Just like that, the ship blooms into a huge blast of plasma and shrapnel that radiates outwards violently!
What the heck happened just now?
A silhouette stands in space nearby, somewhere below where the Blutwald once was. A figure just standing in the void, with the backdrop of stars and blackness and now flames and wreckage behind it.
Green light bleeds out of its eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
The Rabscuttle decelerates eventually in order to start keeping speed with the Transport. Again, comms are attempted. This time through Laserlink to ensure communication.
"Pilot of registration A-E-T-6-6-6 Blutwald. This is G-Hound - Codename Winter Witch of Ravnui. Under the authority of Romefeller Foundation, I request. You comply. Cut engine and identify yourself. We will be boarding your transport for confirmation."
The Stark Jegans release from the clamps, and one of them starts approaching to investigate.
"Careful. Is common tactic to use ship as trap when dealing with Zeon Remnant. Am reading heat-bloom. Keep distance, Mann Allbridges." The Veteran warns immedaitely as the transport starts giving off all kinds of signs. "Please start scanning surroundings for enemy units." After all, nobody would be crazy enough to blow up a ship while there's a unit on board! Right?
Suddenly, detonations! Violent detonations that come down the transport, rupturing the hull. Debris shoots at high velocity across space. Then, an enormous blast of plasma and shrapnel! One of the Stark Jegans gets its left arm cut off by a large cargobay door as a result, and the Rabscuttle gets peppered, but its heavy hull holds.
As a silhouette appears.
"Damn terrorists!" One of the Stark Jegan pilot calls out, and immediately rushes for the position of the NZ-666 Kshatriya! The Rabscuttle re-engages its engines and begins to maneuver, while the other three Stark Jegans use its large bulk to take position at its side and fire across its rounded top!
The Stark Jegan leading the assault brings out their beam saber immediately, and tries to bring it down towards the thick green figure. Passing through the debris and the black and space-flames.
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
The beam saber comes down on the green giant, met with a blazing green beam saber that attempts to shove it aside. But the reaction is too slow, it seems, and the beam saber cleaves into the enemy mobile suit! ...But it seems like the beam saber sort of... Gutters. Flickers. Like the thrusters of the Blutwald did moments prior. The particle beam of the Stark Jegan's beam saber still manages to get through a transparent film that seems like it's trying to swallow and suffocate the EFF suit's weapon. But the damage it deals is much shallower than if it was a direct hit.
And what it cuts into is... A huge, armored wing. One of four.
The Kshatriya's high-output beam saber thrusts forward, aimed for the Jegan's cockpit, trying to return the favor that was dealt it. Though this beam saber is considerably... Larger.
The green giant is not very jolly.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
"I-Field." Vitaly Sokolov speaks to herself when she sees the spark of blue and white as the Beam Saber comes down from the Stark Jegan pilot. Immediately, the enemy's risk profile has been raised within her head. Of all the units that the Zeon and Sleeve groups have deployed in the past, very few of them used I-Fields. And those that did, were costly enough to warrant them.
~"Engage with care."~ She warns her team, as the Stark Jegan that had bit into the Wing is repelled by the massive saber. And though the pilot manages to avoid it getting straight into their cockpit, the saber still melts through their defenses and burns into the shoulder of their unit.
Suddenly, there's this jerk, and Marida would spot a cable suddenly going taut. Pulling the Stark Jegan out of her grasp, locking it for a moment as the Rabscuttle suddenly burns away... and then turns around at high speed!
The Jegans lock into the connection clamps on the hull of the support vessel, as the entire unit seems to adjust its body a bit. The two large 'claws' at the sides of its hull move and start shifting forward, clamping a few times to test their functionality...
The Rabscuttle suddenly picks up speed /Significantly/. To the tune of 'this is a maneuver that should be crushing someone's ribs', broaching the distance between the Kshatriya and the Rabscuttle far faster than it has any right doing, trying to grab hold of its beam-wielding arm with one, and trying to 'pry' one of the wings to the side with the other to get a better look at the Silhouette. The claw starting to /pull/ at the wing binder in an attempt to tear it off!
The moment they make contact, even just for a moment, the voice of the pilot comes in once again. <"Where is Suberoa Zinnerman?">
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida is also making threat assessments as the fight progresses. This ship or mobile armor or whatever it is... It's totally unknown, extremely fast, and extremely powerful, with a compliment of mobile suits aboard as well. Its design is vaguely reminescent of something Zeon-made, but Marida can't think of what right now. She's too occupied with the enemy vessel grabbing hold of her arm and trying to pry at her wing. But she draws her wings closed over her front, presenting a wall of armor. Even so, those arms dealt considerable damage to the Kshatriya.
While it may look as though Marida was turtling up, after the initial success of the wings as a barrier, they flare open, along with the rear wings, creating a silhouette not unlike a large flower. Or perhaps a flytrap.
The thrusters in all four wings burn HARD and BRIGHT as additional arms unfold from the Sleeves mobile suit, prying at the arms that are in turn prying at Marida's unit.
Two arms slam into place to aid the main two. Then another two arms join them. By the end, there are six arms grappling with the attacker.
And those THRUSTERS keep pushing directly in the enemy's face. Bridge? Cockpit? Whatever that is? Whatever it is, those are a lot of large plasma-emitting machines going full-force.
Will it be enough to escape this close-range challenge?
The answer is YES! And with the Kshatriya trying so hard to get away, it keeps on flying away once it breaks free, even if some metal scraps were torn off and left behind in the Rabscuttle's greedy claws.
And from this somewhat safer distance, Marida tries to get a better read on her opponent. Is Alma aboard that thing? Was she with G-Hound? Is she still nearby? What if she's a target too? Should Marida warn her? Should she just try to escape?
So many questions going through her brain all at once, sorted and evaluated according to branching decision trees that spawn, split off, or dead-end as the Cyber Newtype cuts off a given course of action.
She probably can't outrun this thing unless she deals significant damage to it first. She doesn't have the time to make a phone call and if Alma isn't connected to any of this calling her might simply put her in further danger. No, Marida can't be distracted with such things.
So, about that damage...
Funnels begin pouring out from the Kshatriya's wings, zipping towards the Rabscuttle, and targeting any visible engines, maneuvering jets, or exterior sensors that Marida can perceive as she closes her eyes and visualizes through the funnels themselves. Maybe it's because of her recent meeting with Alma, but the ties of family are even stronger between her and her funnels than usual, and the demand for the location of the Captain riles her up even more. So she mutters a little plea under her breath that might accidentally wind up transmitted back.
"...with me, sisters..." is all that's audible, though, before the beams start lancing out at the G-Hound's monster.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
Manipulators grab at the Rabscuttle's massive arms. But the Rabscuttles are significantly bigger and sturdier. And as the thrusters start engaging, it holds on at first. But with the way the armor closes up, that shell is getting harder and harder to grip into. It's clear that this combatant is attempting to Capture the Kshatriya rather than outright destroying it.
Eventually, she breaks free. Giving Marida a chance to feel out the person within.
Whomever is on board, it feels... old. Not 'this is some kind of ancient being'. No. In a ways, it feels more like Marida's 'Master'. And right now, whomever this older person is, she feels /spiteful/. It's not quite the emotional sensation of Vengeance, but this oldtype is more certainly here partially because of some kind of emotional investment in this battle. And with Marida not answering her, no doubt it's only getting worse.
Whatever the case, she doesn't feel like Alma.
The moment the Funnels come out, Vitaly mumbles to herself. "Funnels..." And in that moment, the shuttle suddenly veers off, trying to get away. At the same time, the large Beam Emitters on its body begin to light up, and a flood of light rushes in various directions. Like a shotgun, scatter-shotting the entire region as it creates some distance. The Stark Jegans remaining on its hull, taking pot-shots at Marida's 'sisters'. However, the flashes of light coming from the funnels catch its engines in that moment, tearing into them and seemingly slowing the Rabscuttle...
As it turns, and something else suddenly approaches. The Stark Jegans remain behind, firing from a distance. But as Minovsky interference rises, they're starting to have a harder time. Their beam weapons failing to pierce through the Kshatriya's I-Field.
But that 'something else'...
It's so unwieldy looking. Large arms, yet at its center, she recognizes that symbol. The shape of that unit.
Gundam.
And that presence. That woman. It's coming with it. The one that kept talking to her. That spiteful being!
The massive shoulder packs shift. And as the Funnels keep firing, those zipping lines of beams suddenly start... reflecting back towards Marida Cruz. Almost as if it were turning her sisters against her! It's carefully maneuvering, using a series of resonating I-Fields attached to it to warp the incoming assault onto the Kshatriya's position!
<"Where is Suberoa Zinnerman?"> That voice demands again.
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
As the returned beams converge on the Kshatriya that the funnels came from, there is a moment of surprise, but Marida adapts quickly. She can still feel her funnels, and they aren't firing on her. No sense of betrayal or anything of the sort interferes with her decision making, and the relief that Alma is not aboard this... THING also helps. But the continued demands for information about Master, and the spiteful presence aboard, and the fact it's a Gundam all solidify for Marida that she can't just escape. She has to deal with this here and now or it will be a threat to the people she has sworn to protect. The ones who gave her purpose. The reason she's no longer alone.
All six of the Kshatriya's arms activate their high-output beam sabers at once. Marida begins attempting to parry her own funnel blasts as they come. While some get through, scouring the surface of the Kshatriya even further, many of them are caught in the dazzling display of martial skill and mental control that produces a miniature laser light show when beam strikes beam.
With her emotions riled up now, Marida cries out in answer to her attacker, even if she is not truly intending to 'answer' the other woman. "YOU WON'T TOUCH MASTER!"
She radiates all her hostility, determination, and bonds of family -- old and new -- towards the Gundam. Those damn Gundams! They're the enemy! There's no way she'll let her precious family disappear because of one of those....!
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
Vitaly Sokolov is no NewType. She's an Old Type in almost every way of the word. Old in age, old and set in her ways, and as psychic as a rock. But when Marida's hostility radiates, pushing her emotions towards the Gundam, even an Old Type can't ignore that voice!
'Gundam... enemy!'
Within the cockpit of the unit, Vitaly's lip... quirks. A viscous quirk.
<"So, Zinnerman keep 'pet' now?"> She asks Marida with a vile tone to her voice. <"Your master cause Federation too many year of problem now. It is time he's taken back to prison where he belong."> The ice cold woman answers her, as the Gundam keeps engaging, moving towards her.
This woman is tenacious. And she's coming right for her!
<"Perhaps, he show if I take you captive."> The Gundam's large 120mm Gatling Gun begins to unload upon Marida's position as it gets closer, only for there to suddenly be a pseudo-Incom device opening near its side. Multiple disks and rods shift what looks like a beam rifle into position, harassing Marida Cruz's Kshatriya. Pushing at its I-Field!
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida isn't responding anymore. The attempts to insult her mean nothing. All that matters is protecting the Sleeves, the people of Palau, the crew of the Garancieres, Lily, Princess Mineva, Master, and... Puru Two and Alma, and any other surviving family. Wherever they are now.
She once against converges her wings, and her I-Beam fields, to tank as much of the huge beam attack as she can. It is a harrowing experience, caught in the flow of such an enormous emount of energy, tearing away at the Kshatriya.
But it isn't enough to take her down. When the light and fury of heaven and hell fade away, the Kshatriya is still there. Scarred, sparking, visibly damaged, much of the armor on its wings torn away.
But the Kshatriya was built solidly, just like its pilot.
And just like its pilot, if the Kshatriya is going to be destroyed, it will go down fighting. Marida isn't going to give the enemy a single piece of information that could endanger those she protects. If that means spending the life that was bough with love, then she'll spend it gladly with her own love.
The Kshatriya flares its wings and begins charging towards the enemy Gundam. Wounded, but not yet slain.
Surviving funnels surround the Kshatriya in a lotus pattern, gathering power within themselves and producing a conjoined I-Beam field that tightens and tightens, producing a glowing green film over the whole of the Kshatriya, layer upon layer. As the mobile suit approaches, it is like a giant green comet. Vitaly may be powered by spite. Marida is powered by the unconditional love that she needs in order to be whole.
Even if being whole means becoming nothing at all.
The funnels all fire at once, masking the shape of the Kshatriya in its own river of fiery death.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
The searing Funnels spread into their pattern, making it harder for the Gundam to lay waste to them. Time after time, the I-Field flickers to life, protecting part of the Proto Gundam. Knowing enough about her enemy - Gundam - she may recognize that while this unit is one she's never seen before, it lacks a lot of the modern design philosophies.
This unit feels almost like it's stuck during operation Stardust. Loaded with so many weapons it feels like it is lacking the usual balance of a Gundam! The materials used, the production. It doesn't match up! It's most certainly a lot older in design than the Kshatriya! And right now, that is giving Marida the edge she needs against this Veteran pilot.
She can read the flow of battle, but there's this dogged precision.
Vitaly has seen these scenarios before. She has fought enough NewTypes. She has lost plenty of those engagements back when she was younger. But now. She isn't the same as she was back then. This fifty year old woman shifts her controls and manipulate the BUNNyS System, allowing her to manipulate more of the controls, more of the unit's weapons.
One of the armored carriers on the shoulder unit opens, as a manipulator arm pulls out a new spool of ammo for the Gatling Gun that keeps assaulting Marida's Kshatriya while the beams of her Funnels unload on the old Gundam. They sear into its arms, into its shoulders. One of the ammo carriers DETONATES, exploding and tear a large hole into the left side of the Gundam, weakening its thrusters...
As it turns another weapon on her. A singular large looking rocket launcher as the Hazel Proto uses those massive claws to try and GRAB onto those wings again. To /pry/ them open as that rocket launcher aims straight for the insides of the wings...
And fires.
Nearly Point Blank.
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Yes. Nearly point blank. Because Marida is CHARGING at the Gundam, seemingly intent on performing a sacrifical ramming attack to try to take her enemy with her. But it's not enough. Her attempt to turn the Kshatriya aside so that she could try again to collide and kill her foe fails to save her. The missiles slam into the Kshatriya and its wings, even if not directly, rocking the unit with explosions, amidst the rapid fire of machineguns, and the grappling with the enemy unit's arms. Marida is rattled around inside the cockpit, her head whipping back into her seat and then forward painfully, and then back again stunned, and then forward into the expanding airbags smashing the visor plate of her helmet and adding broken glass to the blood that is starting to drift around inside.
Unconscious, in her ruined mobile suit, Marida can do nothing to stop her capture. Her last attempt to make sure she did something useful for everyone... The attempt to sacrifice her life...
Even in this regard, she is insufficient. So useless she can't even die.
And now she's a prisoner. The exact thing she was trying to avoid with this sacrifice.
What fate awaits her from here? What kind of world is she going to wake up to, if she wakes up at all?
The dimmest edges of her unconscious mind let out a single thought across the vastness of space, when faced with the enormity of her failure...
<<But even so... I wanted to be needed by someone.>>
Then there is nothing.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
The detonation shatters, and even the Proto Hazel does not come out unscathed. One of its arms is looking wretched, turned 90 degrees. Parts of its body tarnished. A good half side of the entire unit is just trashed as the Kshatriya comes to a slowed halt, and ends up 'bumping' into the Hazel Proto.
With a limping thruster, it links up with the Rabscuttle in the distance, which begins its hampered return in order to dock with the unit.
Minutes later, the Stark Jegan pilots are working on using a set of computers to ensure that the Kshatriya is disabled and its reactor is offline except for lifesupport.
<"The pilot is still alive, ma'am.">
<"Good. Let us see if he will come for this.">
As they await a nearby battleship for pickup.
Within the cockpit, Vitaly Sokolov disengages from the BUNNyS System, and takes a moment to reattach her arms, before running a hand through her hair and leaning back in her seat. The thick and heavy normal suit she's wearing finally deflates a bit, releasing the pressure on Vitaly's body slowly.
The woman pants, touching her chest. She is getting too old for this.
As she stares at the Kshatriya and considers for a moment...
<"NewType...">