2023-01-12: She Hates You
- Log: She Hates You
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Mitsuba Greyvalley, Leina Ashta, Vitaly Sokolov, Banagher Links, Treize Khushrenada, Serinas Nikola, Teletha Testarossa, Sayaka Yumi, Sophia Mayhew Castellan, Lucine Azul, Elisa Kafim
- Where: JOSH-A, Alaska
- Date: 2023-01-12
- Summary: A Federation task force sends a team out to collect data about the elemental residues of the MIDAS explosion, in order to determine whether the weapon was constructed from space- or Earth-based material. But when Parminder Chaudhri is replaced by Yuliana Kafim on the team lineup, some people realise something's wrong -- and when Yuliana splits from the main group on foot, what follows is nothing less than an assault on reality over the crater of JOSH-A. The Twin Dragon Tolsivya brings with it a crater of blood, and the world shudders as Yuliana dances. She recognises something in Mitsuba, but it's Leina and Banagher she clings to, as the horror of the void breaks her body in turn. Seeing her wife near death, Elisa aborts the experiment -- and teleports away with Yuliana, leaving the Federation with too many questions. (Content warning: Eldritch/body horror.)
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It was supposed to be a routine investigation.
The question of just who instigated JOSH-A is a question which hangs over the Federation, here, at the brink of even greater violence. On that raw and ragged edge, it is also not a question anyone can afford to devote many resources to; MIDAS left little trace to investigate, and they've got bigger things to worry about.
Nevertheless, a small team has been formed -- borrowing from many blocs, so that no one has to devote too many resources -- to try and find the truth of the matter. Until now, it's an issue which has largely been paperwork-based, following theoretical trails made from data logs and suspicious deletions. A few civilian attaches have been brought in to consult on the technical details. It's One Long Email Chain.
One of the people voluntold into helping with this investigation was the REA's Parminder Chaudhri -- a special operative with a background in intelligence who serves as the Nega Force's technical backbone. He's certainly been helpful in retrieving and restoring documents. Don't question too hard just why REA spec ops needs a specialist who can piece together things put through a digital shredder.
They've finally settled on something which might point them towards some hard facts -- trace elements from the MIDAS explosion which could inform them where the elements the explosive was built with were sourced from. The origin of these elements -- from space, or Earth -- would be, if still circumstantial, at least strong circumstantial evidence. That is: if they can manage to detect anything.
It's not Parminder who shows up on the day of the investigation, though. Captain Yuliana Kafim, in her drab grey-olive REA uniform -- with a distinctly non-regulation emerald scarf about her neck, but this is Alaska, so it's perfectly reasonable to look the other way -- has taken his place, and demanded he stay home, today. Wen has similar orders to catch up on her paperwork. Alma does, too.
She didn't bother saying anything to Cascade, one way or another.
And JOSH-A, settled against the Bering Sea --
To call it a lake is too generous. MIDAS has made a pool of the shoreline, a perfect circular cut-out which is masked only by the way the sea floods into the empty space it made. The half-moon where it meets the ice is as sharp and artificial as anything formed by man. Nothing remains here.
The approach, on a Federation carrier ship, is all too simple. The sensors on everyone's machines have been calibrated for what they're looking for; scanning tasks are distributed based on the capacity of each person's mobile suit. Meanwhile, the conversation, in this merry little band, can't help but turn to the worsening war.
It's on everyone's minds. This was such a stark instigating event, so who can blame them?
Captain Kafim's the one who slips out, in the middle of one of those worried conversations with the ship's crew. "I'm just going to check on something," she assures them, mildly. "I'll be right back. Don't worry -- the Annihilation's already configured."
It won't be deployed, today, of course.
But they don't know that.
Unfortunately, her fellow Captain Mitsuba Greyvalley happens to overhear her -- and invite herself along. (One would almost think an REA officer slipping away outside the bounds of the mission was 'suspicious'.) With no easy way to deny her, Yuliana is trapped in a position of having to invite her along.
... it won't matter. She won't be able to stop her, like this.
She takes a boat from the carrier -- it is equipped with them, aside from being a good launching-point for mobile suits -- and she cuts a small profile, compared to those giants, as she makes her way to the northern tip of the explosion. Getting from the boat up onto shore when the land carves down so sharply is something of an issue; she jumps, and rolls, and straightens up in the snow. How Mitsuba gets to land is her own business.
It's not... inconceivable, that she's come out to the edge of the explosion to measure something at the place where MIDAS stopped.
But why did she come out here, in a vehicle so easy to overlook at size..?
(This isn't even the first time Yuliana has invited herself along to projects which didn't originally involve her -- she offered the Nega Force's assistance to Colonel Wilbur Garland after he started having trouble with his hostilities, and long before that, she inserted her influence into Captain Sophia Castellan's efforts to address Khanka. Is there something to that?)
OOC: Aside from those people who have previously arranged on-foot engagement, please position yourselves inside your mechs by the end of your pose for an exciting second-round surprise!
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuba Greyvalley has posed.
On the one hand, Mitsuba's relationship with Yuliana has never really been clear; on the other hand, sometimes your personal relationships don't enter into a situation at all. Yuliana decides to slip away, and Mitsuba invites herself along.
The blonde captain sticks close to Yuliana -- taking her own boat rather than sharing one with the REA captain. (It wouldn't do to strand herself if something shady is happening.)
She has to take the approach to land much more slowly. It's more of a scootch down than a jump and roll, which allows Yuliana plenty of time to get ahead of her.
Her brow furrows a bit as she thinks this through, but at the same time... she's spent her fair share of time going random places on weird hunches. Can she really say this is actually all that strange?
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It started with a name: Evgenia Feofilovna Vasilev. A foreign exchange student studying Business and Modern World History in Barcelona. The papers stated she died by suicide. A tragedy, taking too many pills. 'If you or your loved ones need help then don't hesitate to call-'
Putting aside the article, Leina started working the Shuffle channels, it wasn't long before she had a travel log. Then she started cross-referencing it with local headlines for the day, or more commonly - the day after. Obituaries gave her names - background checks revealed more and more names with links to the REA, past opposition to the REA, past familial opposition to the REA, defectors who lived under false names. ... So many who learned their error in the hardest ways, with the loss of their lives or the lives most dear to them.
She wheeled away the hours, background check, after background check - as a list took form. Stories just like Evgenia. Every time she could, she read them, absorbed the information...
... and added another name to the list. She was certain it was only the smallest fraction of the real one.
That night, Banagher might find her asleep at her desk, a list of names in front of her, with references to still living next of kin or government contacts they were using.
-=-=-
It was passed along to her by a contact to the AEU, a task force forming in order to investigate the circumstances of JOSH-A, a mission roster was part of it. Leina scanned the list in relative disinterest. It's unlikely they'd find any-
Her eyes fixated to one name in particular, "Wait isn't he-?" Leina quickly pulled another travel log for Parminder Chaudhri. And, matched them up. Many times the dates VERY MUCH matched up. It made no sense. Why send a cleaner, a wetworker, for a fact finding mission... the more she thought about it, the less she liked it.
There was time enough to make it there ahead of time.
"... Hey Banagher, start getting ready, we're heading out. Dress warmly for this one."
-=-=-
"Yuliana!?" Leina now dressed in a parka, a scarf, snow pants and boots startles in alarm, handling over a pair of binoculars to Banagher so he can see her too, "... Why the last minute change? I doubt he's taking a sick day." She asks aloud, before handing it over to him from their position in a bank of snow on the Eastern shoreline as something turned in her gut.
"I really don't like this."
The launch of the boat was noticed, and sure Captain Greyvalley whom she'd spotted briefly at the Yumi Gala was with her but - Leina became worried about her chances against an enhanced Cyber Newtype, and an Accomplished Wetworker.
"Let's follow them... keep yourself low and watch your step."
Eventually the two were creeping along the shore, en route towards the Northern bank, cutting a low profile ...
... it would have been nice to have exposed him to snow under better circumstances than this.
They keep their distance at first, just - watching through the high powered binoculars as they land near that Northern tip that the explosion carved out.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
The REA is out 'in force' today. Between Yuliana Kafim, and Vitaly Sokolov, it's a practical coterie of Names in the region. When the original issue came to a head, Vitaly was part if the investigation into the matters of JOSH-A. In her case, investigating the presence of Eight York, who had rumors come out far too soon after such a destructive situation to not be investigated.
It does not seem like the 'Winter Witch' is willing to let go of this bone however. And as others seek out information on land, there is another machine deeper beneath the waters. The large clawed Mobile Armor known as the Rabscuttle has been equiped with additional sensor suites today. The machine, while large, is remarkably well suited for handling any fragments due to the expert control its pilot has over the machine's manipulators.
Right now, she's rather unaware of any trouble brewing on land. Instead, the old woman's focus is on what's in the waters themselves. The sooner they get things done, the better. Because the waters are connected to the ocean, and the more time passes, the more risk of the evidence literally 'washing away'.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Banagher can't help but worry more with each passing day. Leina... Her desire to save Yuliana is becoming more of an obsession, he fears. As far as Banagher is concerned, Yuliana is quickly becoming the kind of person you stop, rather than save. After she attacked Audrey and Leina, it's unlikely Banagher will ever see her as more than an enemy. But even so...
Yuliana let Leina save him when the NT-D was running wild. Why? If she hates Newtypes and wants the Unicorn so badly, why wouldn't she have taken that chance?
It's something he thinks about late at night, once he's sure Leina's actually in bed getting some rest. Gently waking Leina from her spot at the desk, he gently guides her to her room. Hopefully tonight, at least, she'll be able to sleep.
---
>Hi Dr. Bidan. I hope you're safe.
>But it's getting worse.
>Leina keeps doing more and more for Yuliana no matter how much it hurts her.
>Everything got more complicated when they kidnapped Miss Alma, but I don't feel good about this.
>I wish you were here. Leina would listen to you.
---
"Warmly?" Banagher asks, a tiny set of pliers in one hand and a half-disassembled Haro before him. "Sounds like a good time to use the Christmas present you gave me. Sorry, Haro. We'll be back soon, I promise."
---
Dressed much like Leina in a parka, scarf, snow pants, and boots, Banagher stays close to her side. He wouldn't be surprised if Yuliana came darting out of a snowbank, at this point. The woman is a total enigma.
Despite himself, Banagher can't help but be delighted by the powery white substance. He's laughed with amazement when they first set foot in it, and has been making little snowballs whenever the pair has come to a stop. If only they had the time to really play!
"I really don't like this either." Banagher says, just loud enough for Leina to hear him. "There's no way she just came here on a whim. She's after something." A nod, in response to Leina's instruction. "Sure thing. If it comes down to it... Please, love, let me stay between you two."
Sharing the binoculars with Leina, Banagher watches Yuliana with a frown on his face. Captain Greyvalley can't possibly know what she's getting into. Leina's armed, sure, but Banagher has never used a gun. If it comes down to it: he'll make sure Leina gets away safely. No matter what.
<Pose Tracker> Treize Khushrenada has posed.
It is known well enough that since the incident at JOSH-A Treize has been rather interested at what happened, going beyond just getting a tactial understanding of what happened and name of the fallen. One would almost expect that in one of the many rooms of his Chateau, there is a corkboard with all of the theories that Treize has concocted about the culprit, right next to who are the Celestial Beings. So of course when the Colonel heard that REA was planning an investigation into the incident he invited himself along.
The Colonel had even promised he wouldn't take any room on the passenger shuttle, instead he had came in on a Reconnassiance Leo, and letting the Leo's sensors run wild. As the sensors run he simply looks out at the area before him and shakes his head, " It's such a shame, such loss of life. Truly it is regretable."
<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.
ZAFT Command says it isn't a question. It was Riika Sheder, the traitor.
Serinas isn't sure she believes that story... but now her friend's blood is partially on her hands. Finding lost comrades stranded in the vicinity of JOSH-A is enough reason to volunteer to scout the area, but the possibility that someone, somewhere, might know more about what REALLY happened hangs in the back of Serinas's mind.
She arrived hours ago, flying around the crater, looking for... something. She didn't find anything. At the moment, she's taking a break for dinner. The Queadluun-Rhea is powered down, sitting in the snow between some trees; Serinas is sitting nearby, wearing a lightweight poncho to block wind over her piloting suit -- her helmet off while she eats some sort of self-heating ration.
The sound of approaching units makes her freeze, and then stand up, walking the short distance to the edge of the forest, the 30-foot-tall figure wearing an arctic camo poncho only potentially visible peeking out from behind the trees for a second before she spots the feds and ducks deeper into the trees. What are they doing here?! Why right now?!
The Meltrandi stuffs the rest of the ration in her mouth, watching and listening, sticking close to her parked machine. Hopefully the feddies will pass by... if not... she'll need to find a good time to make a break for it!
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
JOSH-A, for all intents and purposes, was something to continually keep abreast of. A weapon of power and might, and the everhanging question of which side pulled the trigger was still fresh on Mithril's mind. This, exactly, was why they had to push to stop war as soon as the embers began to smoulder, and to discreetly rip out whatever factory had the capability to create such a device.
And so, the TDD-1 trailed behind the REA carrier, only disengaging at the edge of the "scooped-out" crater, laying itself slightly away from the sole entrance in or out of that self-same crater. There, underwater, it waited in solitude, watching that entrance and continually verifying the presence of the REA ship. Anything it did could lead to the trace remnants; Just one or two forgotten pieces would be enough for Mithril.
And she waited. ...Considering the climate, it wasn't necessary to bundle up too bad, but there was a suggestion for a few more layers. This was a trailing op, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
With the Federation beginning their investigation into JOSH-A, the Photon Power Labs were hired in as civilian attaches of sorts, owing to their expertise in energy. Besides, Sayaka herself almost lost her life in that battle, and she very much would like answers herself. Even if it requires keeping tabs on the Federation military types she'd tagged along with.
As much as an investigation of this sorts might not warrant bringing along a Mazin, you can never be too safe, can you? Thus, Sayaka came in an Ichinana equipped with more than just research tools.
That precaution may be somewhat warranted when Yuliana Kafim slips away on a teensy boat. What could she be up to...? From everything Sayaka has learned about this woman, it can't be good.
The Pilder continues to hover over the horrid ruins of JOSH-A - scanning, while Sayaka's own eyes suspiciously follow that boat. She doesn't chase after it, though, remaining close-by in case of any emergency that would require the Ichinana's full capabilities.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sophia Mayhew Castellan is in piloting gear today. She hasn't brought her full entourage - but she did ask to be present for this. She's just idling on the flight deck, staring off into space.
Of course, she can't explain that she thinks the connections here will remain, will point her toward truth. Inanimate matter does not hold bonds well, per se, but a Place absolutely does. Besides...
Her eye casts over as Yuliana departs, with Mitsuba in tow. Her Geass shoes her fountains of hate and spite gushing into a pit moving away at some speed. She marks Mitsuba's place, as well. Just in case.
Then she huffs a breath and moves back toward her Flag, hopping into the cockpit with a huff of breath. She flicks a few sensors on. They're closing on the destination point.
She passes her Geass over the others here. There's the Colonel, in his Leo as expected. And there's...tsk.
"Ashta," she mutters to nobody. And the one next to her will be Links. She marks them, too, then blinks her Geass off and sets her head back against the rest.
For a moment, she's not sure what she wants to happen.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Among those assembled on the deck at the beginnoing, Lucine is a face that's easy to overlook. Dressed in her Nergal flight uniform and a winter jacket, Lucine's teeth chatter against she wraps her arms across her chest to guard against the Alaska cold.
The very moment Lucine had realized Yuliana was replacing Parminder, a pit of dread had been steadily forming on the bottom of Lucine's stomach. Yuliana has proved to be an ally in recent battles, yes, but Lucine can't get a good sense of where her loyalties actually lie. Liam had told Lucine about Yuliana being a victim of the labs, leading Lucine to feel some sympathy for her, but. This is the same woman who harassed Ranka for the simple fact she was a Newtype. Her hatred runs deep, to a level Lucine cannot account for. You can't count on someone like that in a fight to not doublecross you.
But this isn't a fight, it's just... investigation. Why is she even here?
Watching Mitsuba and Yuliana go out on separate craft, something rises from that pit of dread, shrieking like a bat put of Hell: a sharp pang of alarm, too unmistakeable to be simple paranoia.
If Leina and Banagher were even paying attention to the deck after any of the main players had left, a quick glance back would confirm that Lucine is now gone.
Donning her helmet, Lucine settles into the cockpit of the Dianthus, getting ready to launch. ".... Don't worry, Ryoko... I'm not going to make the same mistake again if I can help it..."
KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has deployed in RX-123-P Gundam TR-S [Rabscuttle Proto]. KTS: Lucine Azul has deployed in Dianthus Mk. 3. KTS: Treize Khushrenada has deployed in OZ-06MS-E2 Leo Type Reconnassiance. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has deployed in SVM-01 Union Flag Sophia Custom. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has deployed in TDD-1 Tuatha de Danaan. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has deployed in MPMZ-17 Ichinana. KTS: Serinas Nikola has deployed in Queadluun-Rhea. KTS: Serinas Nikola has changed loadout. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has changed loadout.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
The investigation starts out so normally. There's a surprising amount of big-name REA presence here, between Captain Kafim and Lt. Commander Sokolov -- though that last one betrays a large G-Hound contribution to this effort, too. It doesn't... look, like anything bad is going to happen.
But the readings are wearied by time -- and the question of whether it was deliberate, how long it took to send people out to get them, lies open on the table.
This is a milk run, and it's looking like it might have been a waste of time.
But out there, on the artificial shoreline...
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jr7xw3NLx0 Akira Yamaoka - Float Up from Dream
The ice, out here, is a sheet difficult to challenge. It is layered, pressing into itself, the skin of the earth keeping those above from the depths below. (It is pale, so blindingly PALE, and perhaps the area has not received blood for some time.) At its surface lies the most recent snowfall, crystallising into more ice.
CRUNCH, those fragile crystals shatter, as Yuliana's boot drives into them. She approaches Mitsuba, easily, casually. She is not armed. Neither does she hold measuring instruments.
"What a pain," she remarks, distantly.
"It would have been easier, if you hadn't noticed." And she, in turn, has not noticed the shine of binoculars. She does not have Wen Yuan's sniper eyes; her back is turned to Leina and Banagher, as her hands spread out.
She smiles, and there's something strangely dreamy to her voice, to the glint of her green eyes against the snowglare. "Have you come to witness the beginning?" She asks, kindly -- sounds kindly, seems kindly, and there is nothing written on her heart at all. "Very well..."
Her hand lifts, to her neck, and unties the emerald scarf tied there. It falls, one end wrapped loosely about her palm -- and then snaps about, to weave around Mitsuba and tug the two of them together. The green fold crystal which was hidden under that scarf swings, freely, about her neck.
"Dance with me!"
And she is, all a sudden, a whirling, dizzying font of movement both beautiful and frustrating to interrupt. She is close to Mitsuba, and the green shine of her eyes could not be further away. As the Key turns, down there in the snow, the sky SPLITS --
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
THE SKY SPLITS.
Some distance away, in a clearing in a deep forest...
A ring of blood surrounds what was once a living tree, an ancient hardwood. The ring is wide, tall, etched into the ground, and where the blood has touched, foilage has died. Within the circle everything except Elisa herself is rotted, utterly drained of life and vitality. And in the circle are etched runes of eldritch power, inscrutable and terrible to look upon.
"The energy is perfect. The wound left in this fell crater, in reality itself..."
"Britannia's perfidy. And Her anger."
"The time has come," Elisa Kafim intones, in a black dress with a black cloak. She traces out lines in the dirt and blood with a long blade, a ritual sword. Piles of ash that were once human beings lie at the cardinal points of the circle.
BGM: Ghost - Witch Image https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZDYlOdq6z0
And she begins to twirl, tracing the lines drawn with the sword.
"Y kh'oll: wph'ou jow, Tolsivya. Y kh'oll: jow y-th'ou piy-k. Th'oth u'ykh ysh ou-th, piakh'ou-ni:a thou nilj u-yll:."
Elisa, the witch, stabs the blade into the heart of what once was the beautiful living tree, and then lifts both hands toward the sky.
"Plj th'ia pllou:t ou-fh th'ia gh'oyzaw th'oth llyfiash... Piakh'ou-ni:a!"
The rent sky shudders over JOSH-A, the crater-pool shaking as it turns to thick, viscous blood. The torn sky begins to disgorge something, a horrific serpentine form that comes forth from nothing at all. The portal it leaves behind is a yawning abyss, green-starred void visible to look upon, horrific to focus upon. The dragon--for it is a dragon--has a huge form, with two wings and long claws at the end of each of four limbs. Its head is curved, its maw long and crocodilian, and it is dark as the void, with gleaming green eyes. And then, when it is through the portal--
It reaches to its head and begins to rip. The dragon tears itself apart along the center, black ichor dripping into the pool of blood below. Slowly and then all at once of the pool coagulates, clots, turns solid and red, though ugly residue will remain on the legs of those who pass across. Notably, the Bering Sea is still water--it is only this crater, this remnant of horror, that has turned. The dragon finishes tearing with a horrific noise, and Tolsivya Sinistral and Dextral stand apart from one another; each takes a wing, uses it as a second 'leg', prepares twinned jaws and terrible claws.
The twinned dragons roar, and the very air shakes.
Elisa looks down to her tablet, where she sees all. The witch smiles, sickle-sharp.
The dragon whirls into motion, and the cracked sky pulses; the dragon attacks everything in sight, and a few things not in sight. It draws them closer with a sudden roar of energy, the blood itself responding to the dragon's assault to pull them in.
KTS: Elisa Kafim has deployed in Twin Dragon Tolsivya. KTS: Elisa_Kafim has deployed as a Boss for 7 opponents. KTS: Elisa Kafim: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sayaka Yumi with Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Serinas Nikola with Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Lucine Azul with Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Treize Khushrenada with Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe! KTS: Elisa Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lucine Azul rushes into the attack! KTS: Lucine Azul partially guards Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe, taking 2088 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Lucine Azul! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Sayaka Yumi, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to react to Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe, taking 3960 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Deject! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Sayaka Yumi! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Sophia Mayhew Castellan, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to parry Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe, taking 3960 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Deject! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan! KTS: Treize Khushrenada fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe, taking 3240 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Treize Khushrenada! KTS: Elisa Kafim: Will Barrier Activates.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuba Greyvalley has posed.
'What a pain,' 'It would have been easier' --
Is this an REA operation, or is this a Yuliana operation? Mitsuba reaches down for her service pistol, as she's asked if she's come to witness the beginning.
Mitsuba is agile enough to avoid falling when startled, but not quite physical enough to get away from something like this. The scarf that's thrown around her pulls her in to dance with Yuliana, sending her weapon flying into the snow. While she stumbles with her, pulled along in a circular stagger, she cries out -- "Let me go!"
To come this close was a mistake, she realizes -- to move personally, instead of using the power entrusted to her. She attempts to wriggle her arms out of that scarf-assisted grapple, but Yuliana is designed for far more physical tasks than Mitsuba.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
There were definitely several familiar faces on the deck, and part of Leina wants to reach out to several in particular but... her walls are high right now, and she's maintaining radio silence. A function of also not wanting to be detected by people whom would be hostile to her.
Unfortunately for her, it makes no difference to Sophia's insightful eye.
Banagher's sentiment is sweet, Leina even smiles at it, but- "If it comes down to it, we run together okay?"
The ice is difficult to challenge. And Leina probably has to keep a grip on Banagher once or twice to keep either or both of them from sliding down. Eventually however, they make it to a decent perch at the edge of a snow bank.
The binoculars look down upon Yuliana as she turns to Mitsuba. "Maybe Captain Greyvalley had something to say to her that they didn't want overheard...?" She murmurs to Banagher. She doesn't - seem the type to be in cahoots with Yuliana.
She can't really make out what they're saying. And she can't feel Yuliana at all. Yet there's something unsettling about the look in her eyes...
When the scarf snaps out, drawing Captain Greyvalley in, Leina scrambles to grab her firearm-
-but what she expects to be an assassination when she sights Yuliana down with it it turns out to be... "Are they DANCING?" She looks to Banagher like she doesn't trust her perception of this.
She lowers the gun - right as she feels something... horrible in that pulse of power. For a moment it's all she can do to hold her head and prevent herself from shrieking at the simple feel of it, her eyes blurring as they look at the sky splitting open... disgorging something twinned and serpentine - ichor dripping into a pool of blood.
"... Oh God." Leina says, her voice the barest whisper in sight of that horror. And in that moment Banagher feels a flash of staring eyes.
"There's no running from this. Banagher we have to stop her. We have to stop her right now!"
She moves from fixed in horror to moving in an instant, more terrified of inaction than action when it comes to what she feels is happening. Vaulting over the snowbank, Leina lets herself slide down the ice, as she comes to a jarring stop. Before she scrambles back to her feet and starts to run, trying to be as careful as possible with her footing- "Captain Greyvalley! Are you still yourself!?"
That question sounds - important, even though she demanded that she let her go that she appears to be resisting. so many options right now are closed off from her being in her grasp.
Whatever the case, she comes up on the dance warily, and when Yuliana is whirling she tries to move in on her. The moment she's in range - she feels it hit her, in that wave of dizziness and nausea.
Nevertheless, she flicks the safety into place, and aims the Pistol as a blunt object - whipping it straight towards the back of the Dancer's head.
KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Serinas Nikola, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Serinas Nikola fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Claw Swipe, taking 4800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Deject! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Serinas Nikola!
<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.
The sky SPLITS?!
Serinas looks up at it, then back at her machine.
A FREAKING DRAGON STARTS COMING OUT.
Serinas climbs atop the Queadluun-Rhea, stuffs the poncho in the gear compartment, pulls on her helmet, and begins the startup procedure.
The Meltran mecha stands up while the dragon is still ripping itself apart. Serinas stares. The monster... is killing itself?
She does not expect one dragon to become two. She does not expect half of a dragon to ATTACK...
KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
It starts with a 'ping' from one of the sensors on the Rabscuttle. It's unusual enough that it pings at first. A change in consistency in the region. The woman's gaze slips down as the massive floodlights start to fill the area beneath her. Trying to seek out the source of this...
Right before that 'ping' turns into an alert.
A blood red alert.
The Rabscuttle is forced from the waters not moments later, entering the sea instead, remaining as hidden as it can be, for a Mobile Armor. By the time it's maneuvered around to get sights up, the Dragon is already rising up. The pool is a rather significant of size one after all.
The Rabscuttle surfacing partially, as Vitaly watches in rapt attention, as the beings tear eachother apart. Immediately, her mind flashes to what happened on the colony. Internally, she curses Liam 7-020 for never getting back to her on this. And this is exactly why she wanted the war with ZAFT pushed. With so much of NERV missing, and this being the exact issues they'd normally deal with, it's down to the regular people...
And she has seen those wars.
She has seen the regular army deploy against Angels.
She has seen the regular army deploy against Dr. Hell.
She has seen the regular army deploy against the Dinosaur Army...
She has seen them.
And those battles require a special kind of person. The kind of person that is larger than life. And Vitaly is not larger than life.
Considering that almost all Kaiju have some kind of tactic - a method to their madness - to them, she chooses to do something very unusual for Vitaly Sokolov these days.
She remains at a distance.
The Rabscuttle, sticking just its nose out of the water, charges the tip of its weapon. The mega beam weapon charging, as various reflectors come to life... right before searing blue light travels from its nozzle, into the reflectors, creating multiple angled thin beams aimed to scalpel and cut at both of the dragons, trying to see how these two 'things' are related.
She doesn't even consider to look for a summoner, or anything along those lines. The woman is old, and while she knows how to deal with unit tactics, taking out the commander... there are too many variables here. And she will get to the center of this onion, one peel at a time.
KTS: Vitaly Sokolov targets Elisa Kafim with Hrududu II - Beam Reflector Trick! KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Vitaly Sokolov's Hrududu II - Beam Reflector Trick, taking 3000 damage! KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has engaged Elisa Kafim!
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Banagher nods at Leina's statement, though his eyes display a hint of doubt and worry. "Sounds good. No matter what, we're here together."
Ice is a new experience, just like the snow. Banagher is quick to figure it out, but even with his profound spatial awareness, there are definitely some wobbly moments. He can't help but admire the fragile substance, crunching beneath their feet. It's beautiful... The Earth is full of so much wonder.
"I can't imagine Captain Greyvalley being that dumb, but -- maybe?" Banagher expresses, trying to see the distant figures with only his eyes.
When Leina bursts into movement, Banagher puts a hand on her arm. "What? What are they -- dancing?! That's got to be some kind of--"
Clapping a gloved hand over his own mouth to keep from screaming, Banagher wobbles as the sky splits open. He squeezes his eyes closed, struggling to endure the wave of... whatever that horrible feeling is, until...
Instinctively, Banagher takes a half-step toward the... nightmarish, bloodstained dragon. The color's drained from his face, but it'll take more than a creature out of hell to keep him from protecting Leina. His gaze locked on the dragon, Banagher startles as Leina projects those eyes. Hands shaking, he stands firm, but it's a genuine struggle to do so.
Leina calls his name, and Banagher finally turns to her. He only has time to nod before Leina's already vaulting over the snowbank, and Banagher is only a few steps behind her. Captain Greyvalley and Yuliana are really, truly dancing. But Leina wants Yuliana stopped, and so--
Banagher charges forward. The void reaches out, wrenching his gifts away from him. It's enough to send a spike of pain into his head. He nearly retches, but holds himself together. Leina throws her gun -- and Banagher throws himself, trying to tackle Yuliana to the ground.
"Whatever this is -- whatever you're doing!" Banagher manages, despite the sweat beading on his forehead. "I won't let you hurt anyone!"
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
A familiar sensation washes over Sayaka's pilder - or rather the lack of any sensation. Like with Koji's Ichinana during the disastrous Kafim wedding, the infinite light that powers the mini hovercraft comes to a complete stop for just a few moments longer than it did the last time. That, combined with Yuliana's little "leave' is enough to tell Sayaka exactly what is going on here.
Once the sensors come back online, she's immediately face to face with a twin-headed dragon.. almost reminds her of one of the warrior beasts used by the Mycenean army, but this isn't exactly the time to reminisce.
Nor is it time to panic, as Sayaka carefully turns the pilder towards the carrier holding the rest of the Ichinana. "PILDER ON!" She shouts, even as the dragon sweeps towards it with a furious swipe while the Mazin is at its most vulnerable. Ultimately, while it deals some unfavourable damage to the joints, it's not enough to interrupt the combination.
"Alright, you monster." Sayaka breathes out. "You've earned yourself the fury of a Mazin!" Truthfully, these are the types of opponents Sayaka feels at her best fighting. If it was Yuliana herself, or even that mysterious Elisa, she would hesitate. But there's no need to hold back against a monster, she thinks."
Saving the Breast Fires for when she knows the reactor is stable, she counterattacks with the Ichinana's own fist of iron against the dragon's claw - not a rocket punch, but bound to deal some damage regardless.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Silence in the ship. Silence and waiting. There's nothing but the focus of someone desperate to calm the thoughts of everything in their own head, the Captain furrowing their brow as they watched DANA's observational screen. Just what would be the resu-
A jolt coursing through the captain, eyes widening as her grey pupils dulled the tiniest bit.
the eyes are there
...A hand against her mouth, shuddering in place for a moment. Bad news, bad news. Gazing at the REA ship will do nothing. Staring at how that water corrupted itself into that ichor, the impossibility of it all serving as the figurative cold water for her psyche. It was something-
No, it can be seen. It can be heard. That only makes it a thing declaring everything an enemy. Breathe deep. It was alive.
...And so, it can die.
"...Prepare all tubes. DANA, check what thing is." Fear? Yes, fear in her voice. Something so strange, so foreign, the sight of that crater turning blood red. So utterly baffling outside of the laws of anything real.
"Aye, ma'am! Ready all tubes!"
"DANA, scanning!"
What a creature. Already looking at it reminded her of the fantasy books of her childhood, something made grotesque by...something. A dragon? Here? Splitting into two?
A press on a switch. Another deep breath audible on open comms. There was no obligation to hide. Not here.
<"This is Mithril, callsign TDD-1. If anyone has any idea what that thing is, please tell us all. If no one has any clue, then we offer our help against those...dragons.">
Click. "Begin pulling away at fifteen knots, take us at least a few kilometers off!"
"Aye, ma'am! Pull away from the entrace at fifteen knots! Three kilometers!"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Elisa Kafim with Ichinana CQC Strike! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Sayaka Yumi, Sophia Mayhew Castellan, Serinas Nikola, Lucine Azul, and Treize Khushrenada with Coordinate. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Sayaka Yumi's Piloting!
<Pose Tracker> Treize Khushrenada has posed.
The benefit of being in a machine built for sensor computing is that the sensors are fined tuned to even the tiniest things, increasse in wind, barometric pressure drops, the sky splitting open and a dragon dropping from the sky and splitting it self in half and even sensors to tell you when it is being attacked. Unfortunately this unit was not built with any other form of combat in mind so the thrusters are to slow to actually avoid the dragon's attack.
Treize is awestruck for a moment as legends have appeared before him and he makes sure all the sensors on the damn Leo are focused on those dragons. This could be the beginning of the Oz's corporations newest model of battleships, the Ouroboros category of battleships perhaps.
Examining the data that is when Treize notices an oddity, there is a signal being directed at the dragon and then the comms come in, <"TDD-1 This is Colonel Khushrenada of G-Hound. I suspect that this dragon's appearence is not random, I am still analyzing the data but I do not think it is simply going to go back to sleep.">
Treize looks at that weird signal again, "Well first thing first is to cut the feed and perhaps draw out whoever is watching this." The Leo begins to emit a pulse to interupt and counter the frequency of the signal that is being directed towards the dragons.
KTS: Treize Khushrenada targets Elisa Kafim with Jam!
KTS: Treize Khushrenada has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.
It happens so fast. Serinas is left reeling, the dragon shoving the Queadluun-Rhea through trees, its armor warped and broken where the monster made contact. The only blessing is that it has to rush off to focus on the next machine as it attacks them all, giving Serinas a moment to right herself with a quick thruster burst. When it doesn't seem to be looking at her, instinct moves her: TAKE THE OFFENSIVE! She charges, flying low over the treeline such that she has to weave her armor's legs around the trees as she holds the Queadluun-Rhea's arms forward and the gatling lasers spin up and fire twin hails of green bolts.
While those who've fought Serinas alongside Sophia know to watch out for the shoulder cannon, the truth is it's a new addition with the Rhea model. As far as ancient Meltran combat techniques refined for millenia are concerned, some of which were imparted to Serinas to defend her home belt colony in an old Queadluun-Rau, THESE are the main weapon.
Serinas grits her teeth as she tries to keep her aim steadily focused on the side where the half-dragon split, hoping the armor is reduced there. She ALMOST forgets that the Federation is there, for a moment, but what part of her mind realizes that reasons that the monster should be their priority, not her... right? She can't think about it too hard right now, though!
KTS: Serinas Nikola has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Serinas Nikola has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Lucine Azul's Piloting! KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Serinas Nikola's Piloting! KTS: Serinas Nikola has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Serinas Nikola targets Elisa Kafim with LPG-303R Hand Gatling Lasers Focused Fire! KTS: Serinas Nikola has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Treize Khushrenada jams Elisa Kafim's sensors, reducing her accuracy. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Sayaka Yumi's Ichinana CQC Strike, taking 2835 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Serinas Nikola's LPG-303R Hand Gatling Lasers Focused Fire, taking 2494 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Like a grisly wine, that jagged spike of panic becomes something familiar.
It feels the same as the time at the beach, the time when she and her friends fought to gain back the stolen Dianthus.
Lucine closes her eyes tight with regret. "...... Spoke too soon... Sorry, Ryoko..."
The thrumthrumthrum of dread increases as the twin dragons circle. It's hard to concentrate.
Lucine brings the knuckles of her right hand to the lower half of her face, feeling the hard crystal and metal of the ring against the sensitive skin of her lips and cheek through the gloves of her suit.
At one point, Lucine wished she had gotten the necklace at the Sheryl Nome concert instead of the ring, since rings are things you had to take off when gardening, and also, they carry... connotations.
Now she's glad to the point of tears.
< "..... Lucine Azul reporting. I read you, TDD-1." > Her voice is soft, belying the anxiety that grips her. < "I've dealt with something similar, at the Frontier Colony. For some reason, some exMACs somehow stole my unit afterwards and it ended up in this force's hands. It's the same force. It's not something like Triple 000; NERV had my machine checked out when we managed to barely get it back." > She gulps in a sigh. < "I don't have much advice, I'm afraid. Keep your focus clear and your resolve strong. Don't take it on in close combat if you can help it, but things like this can be defeated. You can survive, especially if we all coordinate together." >
Zipping up into the sky, sparks scattering from a partial hit by one of the dragon's claws, the black and magenta Dianthus blends against the red sky until the petals on the unit's back radiate out into a circle, glowing bright magenta.
Energy pulses back at the twin dragons, trying to repulse them back. She doesn't know how long her luck will hold, but she will give others a foothold. < "Whoever you are, you thought you could take the one unit fast enough to hurt you.... but now, you should know that even if you take me down, we have the advantage of numbers!" >
KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Piloting! KTS: Lucine Azul targets Elisa Kafim with Lunate Crown v.2 Scream! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa coordinates maneuvers, raising Treize Khushrenada's Piloting!
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Something's wrong. It just sits in Sophia's gut. Why are Ashta and Links even here? How could they possibly have known? For that matter, even as a pair, why did they come together, without machine accompaniment? And--she can't see Mitsuba anymore, as the woman vanishes into the chasm of Yuliana's unpresence. She sucks on her teeth, uneasy. Move, damn you. What are you doing. Her sensors of course, see nothing. They aren't for that kind of observation.
And then the sky splits. Sophia feels like her eye catches fire, like a migraine started suddenly inside of her ocular nerve. She blinks wildly, tears in her eyes from sheer pain and irritation as she disables the Geass. "What sorcery was that!?" she demands of the sky, but for once, nobody here can even guess what she really means.
The immediate sortie order forces her to remove her hand from her face. "Castellan," she grits out, unable to mask the sound of agony in her voice. "Union Flag, launching!"
The Flag's in the air seconds later, watching as the world turns to blood and horror, and seconds after that, she's already hit by a slashing claw, her attempt to catch it with her Sonic Knife amounting to little. "Ghuh," she mutters, almost gurgling in her cockpit rather than really shouting in pain.
And then, she gets a call. With her eye still feeling like a ball of fire in her skull, she doesn't scan with her Geass yet.
She doesn't entirely need it. "...Acknowledged," is her single reply to the TDD-1. She thought she saw people down there...
No time for now. These THINGS are forcing her to stick to medium range. She knuckles the charge toggle on her linear cannon and then whips out the linear machine gun, equipping a mid-range weapon rather than her usual long-range linear rifle. The effect's the same:
She raises it and opens fire, superspeed projectiles raking across the twinned hides.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Elisa Kafim with 120mm Linear Machine Gun Burst! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Lucine Azul's Lunate Crown v.2 Scream, taking 1800 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul repulses Elisa Kafim, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's 120mm Linear Machine Gun Burst, taking 2300 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Well, it was an REA operation.
Yuliana sees the gun, certainly -- but she's better with that scarf than she looks. (She's been dancing since she was a child. Did you know?) She grasps Mitsuba at the wrist with her other hand, and her grip is iron, empowered by her own impossible reality. She spins her out, as if the snow were a ballroom.
"Let you go?" She echoes, and her voice echoes, bouncing off the empty halls of a vast and unseen oblivion.
"You, who found such comfort beside me?"
She pulls her back in, and her movements cannot be called rough for all they are strong and sure; these are the smooth gestures of performance, with no footing out of place. "THIS is the comfort you sought!" She crows, to her, and she is so singularly focused on her movements --
The sound of a pistol impacting a human skull is not, typically, an inhuman and echoing roar.
Even so, Yuliana does not drop, as Leina approaches behind her to whip her pistol down. Her head bends, and her body moves with the forced motion, sweeping down and about to face Leina instead. Her scarf lashes out, to tangle about Leina's arm -- a threat which she will follow with her other hand, in a smooth attempt to wrest the pistol from the girl's hands entirely.
Should she succeed, she twirls -- and flings the weapon out into the crater-lake MIDAS made, to let it sink into the congealed blood.
They're welcome to go and get it.
Once, twice, three times: "Yourself? Yourself!? Your 'self'...!"
Her dance with Leina, tragically, is cut short by Banagher volunteering instead. Yuliana's footing is certain, on this icy ground -- a place so like the one she finished growing. She does not fall to the ground, when he impacts her, but effortlessly she makes his motions look good on the dancefloor -- clasping him to her chest, and dipping him down, one leg extending out behind him to support the both of them.
"Hurt anyone?" She murmurs, tender and close, as a strange green light shines in her eyes. "We will save everyone."
She is so calm, even as blood turns to water and the sky breaks.
She pulls Banagher upright, and spins him into Leina. "You should not have come," and the regret she expresses to Leina is distant and dreamlike, as Yuliana whirls, that scarf spinning about herself. "She is so hungry. Reality manifests itself in violence!" And where that scarf spins, it seems as if a razor in the world, though it is made from the same fabric it was a moment prior. The pressure around Yuliana builds, as she twirls.
"The Key must turn to open the Gate!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The dragons roar as Vitaly's beam reflectors send out those spears of blue light towards them. They roar in perfect synchronicity, and they roar twice--once for each hit. Apparently, the dragons are 'linked' despite having been torn in two. The two halves remain a whole, and the scalpel-cuts into the dripping ichor of one are mirrored on the other.
Treize's jamming, meanwhile, has no visible effect... but it does do something. And it gets a response. A voice echoes in Treize's cockpit, and only there, not over the radio but audible nonetheless. "Tch. You will not stop what is to come with such petty tricks!" It's a woman's voice, but otherwise non-obvious in source.
DANA's scans, meanwhile, find nothing like it in the databases, but its infrared signature is very, very, very cold. The energy is like little on the books unless someone has information from the dragon at the Frontier Colony, where it tried to activate the Fold engines. Related, though--it will scan as very much like Fold energy, but different in a way that's difficult to quantify. That is what it's related to, though: Fold energy.
Meanwhile, Sayaka's attack slams back into the claw, and the fury of a Mazin sinks into that claw, dealing visible damage to it in the way of ichor flowing out like blood. However, something about it doesn't quite obey the angles it should; the attack does not deal as much damage as it could.
Similar is true for Serinas's time-honored technique; it doesn't hurt as much as it should, even though it hammers into the 'weak point' made of the dragons' torn flesh. Still, it does take a toll. The dragon, it is said, can be defeated; perhaps it can today.
Lucine's pulse slams into the dragons, knocks them backward onto the ground instead of the bloody crater. They screech back at her, but do not immediately attack again; they instead have to deal with Sophia, who unleashes a barrage of machinegun fire on both. They rake across twin hides, shatter scales and shear them off.
The Dianthus gets a horrible blast of heat energy that trails green behind it, sickly and diseased. It will cause boils on flesh that is exposed, but in the more immediate present the problem with it is that it's a giant blast of fire slamming straight for the Dianthus's center mass.
Next is a wing buffet against Sophia's Flag, the dragon on the left leaping towards her after skittering forward, to hit it with that same wing and land back on the ground again.
In turning, that same dragon slams its tail at Treize's Leo, snaking out and snapping like a whip. Vitaly gets a bolt from the sky; it slams down from the gate itself, black and green-tinged as it sails straight down for the source of that blue light from a few moments ago. For Serinas, the right dragon rushes, surging forward with great speed and aiming to snap her unit up in its jaws. Elisa far away lifts an eyebrow at the Meltrandi unit. But so it goes; she does not relent.
Teletha is still hidden. She gets no attack, but she does get more information.
Finally, they both converge on Sayaka, bearer of the hated light. Both at once blast forth that ultra-hot, diseased breath that will pit and tarnish metal given the chance, aiming to engulf her completely and finally.
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Lucine Azul with Diseased Heat Breath Rapid Fire! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Draconic Fury - Rush! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Vitaly Sokolov with Saturnine Bolt! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Treize Khushrenada with Draconic Fury - Tail Slap! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Teletha Testarossa with Pass! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Serinas Nikola with Draconic Fury - Seize! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sayaka Yumi with Diseased Heat Breath Lob! KTS: Elisa Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Vitaly Sokolov blocks Elisa Kafim's Saturnine Bolt, taking 2550 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim begins a Formation attack! KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to evade Elisa Kafim's Diseased Heat Breath Lob, taking 5800 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Treize Khushrenada, reducing his Morale significantly. KTS: Elisa Kafim rattles Treize Khushrenada, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Treize Khushrenada fails to parry Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Tail Slap, taking 4800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Deject! KTS: Elisa Kafim repulses Treize Khushrenada, forcing him to disengage. KTS: Lucine Azul successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Diseased Heat Breath Rapid Fire KTS: Serinas Nikola has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Serinas Nikola has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim anchors Serinas Nikola, forcing her into close range. KTS: Serinas Nikola fails to Parry Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Seize, taking 4950 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Serinas Nikola!
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
The light from the Rabscuttle careens across the skies. The sensitive systems meant to find materials under water are allowing a more accurate look closer to the twin dragons. Each roars. Each roars in a function of each hit coming in. This could be coincidence, but it's enough to remark on.
They are sharing something. It could be senses. It could be something else. But the searing light is showing effectiveness.
As the message from the TDD-1 comes in, the woman does not answer at first. It isn't that Vitaly Sokolov is going to turn away unknown factors in this battle - irregulars are a common thread, especially in this day and age. But there are certain matters that must be made sure of. Such as establishing the risk that she's going to get shot in the back.
The Winter Witch has not survived this long being careless.
At least Serinas' appearance, a ZAFT pilot, is one she immediately considers as a target to be wary of. But right now, as usual, humanity unites against an invader.
Treize soon answers the TDD-1. The Toybox.
An opportunity presents itself here. But at a most inopportune time. This isn't the time to break off and go on the Hunt.
<"This 'Dragon' appears similar to an even that happened a few months ago. Its appearance is likely related with matters akin to Fold science - based on previous findings. The two dragons appear 'connected', even if apart. I recommend not relying on getting into its blind spot, if the other has eye on you, until it has been established they only share their pain."> Vitaly Sokolov gives her impression of the battleground at play.
She wants to say this is related to the space bugs that have been showing up, but the way this dragon appeared doesn't seem at all similar to the small 'fold windows' that those seem to travel through. Which means... another foe. And with a second occurrence, this now means there is a pattern. One that is bound to earth.
But why here?
Lucine illuminates matters further. If she is right, taking her unit, that suggests that this is a Human Concern somehow. Or at least, a concern From Earth.
It's all speculation. But evidence at least leans towards this.
But more notably...
Lucine. That girl again. How does she keep appearing around matters such as these? She seems to attract a different kind of trouble from the Boy in the Unicorn, but it's still notable to her.
Apart, but connected. But then, why tear itself apart to make itself 'weaker' by splitting up? Is it a matter of Opportunity? Or is it weaker when one? When...
Time to confirm a theory. Even though Lucine just recommended they stay away from Melee Range, the Rabscuttle suddenly lifts from the waters as the Daedalus System activates, increasing the Minovsky readings in the area significantly. A flood of particles enter the area as the machine hits the thrusters, and suddenly rockets straight up at an angle towards the basin.
A flash of lightning tears from the skies. The gate itself showing itself a weapon, to be used. Whether it's a weapon system beyond that gate, or an action from the Dragon, the woman knows but one thing as the machine begins to climb closer to that gate. Another bolt, black and green, tears across the body of the Rabscuttle. Its I-Field generators barely keeping up with the abuse it is receiving, as it turns with its belly facing the gate. It's a dangerous maneuver...
One that puts it in a temporary spin that 'flings' a small drone out by wire into the gate itself. A thick wire that quickly goes taut, as the device disappears beyond... a small thing, compared to the Rabscuttle and the gate itself. Meant for underwater gathering and scanning. Its big headlights turning on as it gathers information. The data flowing into the Rabscuttle's databanks itself before...
ERROR! WARNING!
Followed by the wire being cut, as the Rabscuttle quickly swipes one of its beamsabers across the wire, as the device on the other side goes dead, and begins a drive straight towards Tolsivya Sinistral - its claws opening, and she attempts to direct the Rabscuttle straight into the first.
One grab for its neck, the other towards its main body... with the intent of slamming Sinistral into Dextral at full thrust. Enough momentum gained between the Sea, making the top of a parabolic arc and meeting the Dragons to create a massive shock to her own system. The pilot suit rapidly bloating out, protecting Vitaly Sokolov from the incredibly high Gs. Her prosthetics straining, as she considers her own limits.
For a moment, whispering her husband's name.
KTS: Vitaly Sokolov targets Elisa Kafim with Hrududu II - Beam Claws! KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim rushes into the attack! KTS: Vitaly Sokolov anchors Elisa Kafim, forcing her into close range. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Vitaly Sokolov's Hrududu II - Beam Claws, taking 5760 damage! KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to react to Elisa Kafim's Pass, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
A curious open communication emits in the Ichinana's screen. Mithril's here too, huh. "TDD-1, this is Sayaka Yumi with the Photon Power Labs." Sayaka quickly transmits back. "While I've never fought anything like this before, I can tell you that somehow the void it manifested from was able to completely stop Photon Power in its tracks."
She pauses, switching to a closed communication just in case she's listening. "The only other case we recorded of such a thing was at... Elisa and Yuliana Kafim's wedding." She explains, gravely. "And it happens that Captain Kafim left her post shortly before the monster attack." The evidence is damning, but... "Well, we can speculate after! Let's send this dragon packing back to the void first, shall we?"
Vitaly Sokolov mentions fold science. Sayaka doesn't immediately respond, but she does make a mental note to look into it, if she's to come up with a way for Photon Power to overcome this.
That warning to stay away from melee range rings true, as the Ichinana is washed over with searing flames, irritatingly getting a taste of its own medicine. Sayaka can feel the hatred from that flaming breath, but at this point her own blood's just getting hotter. "You like playing with fire, don't you? I'll show you how it's really done - BURNING FIRE!!"
The Ichinana strikes the iconic pose as it turns up the heat - literally, through the heat sinks, firing off a beam of flame directly towards the two-headed draconic monster.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuba Greyvalley has posed.
The urgency of Leina's question puts Mitsuba on edge -- she's seen and contemplated the things that lie beyond the material realm just a bit, even before the sky split and water turned to blood. She knows that the self is a fragile thing, and the world full of predators.
The question is orienting -- and the answer is crystal clear, here in the stillness around Yuliana. "I am the Dreisstrager's captain, Mitsuba Greyvalley!" she calls back to Leina, even as she remains caught in the dance. That doesn't last very long, though -- Mitsuba hisses, "I wasn't seeking it, I just thought you were nice to be around, but I guess I --"
Banagher shoulders into the dance, and makes himself Yuliana's new dance partner. Mitsuba hits the snow, with a wince.
She starts crawling away, reaching for her discarded sidearm; she snags it with an irregular grip, and -- still on the ground -- rolls up to point it at Yuliana.
"Cease and desist!" she commands, directly -- though she's fairly certain it won't take.
KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Sayaka Yumi's Burning Fire, taking 3240 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It's a relief that she is, she was worried- as she calls out to Mitsuba, "Good! She's probably the source of this! Be careful if you see any green crystals!
The scarf lashes out, and Leina struggles against it, her mind distantly thinking of Shuuji...
... when she wrests the pistol and flings it into the pool of blood. She's definitely not that attached to it.
"Damnit!"
She curses even as Banagher impacts her - and she... dances with him!? Leina's too horrified in the adrenaline rush of the situation to even consider jealousy, massaging her wrist, even as Banagher's spun right into her.
This close to Yuliana, the two impact roughly, onto the ground, Leina beneath him, the wind knocked out of her, as she briefly hiccups from the hit as her diaphragm spasms in torture. It takes her a moment, "Banagher - y-you..." She wheezes, "... you okay?"
She definitely looks like she took the worse hit from that.
She might need a hand to get up, but once she is, "That's exactly..." A cough, "... why I need to be here!" She says to Yuliana, "To stop this!"
A radio callsign enters into her earpiece from Tessa but her input is currently muted, even as Lucine gives advice of her past encounters. Leina reaches up and unmutes it with a quick tap in the recovery even as she takes a knee again, still coughing miserably.
"<TDD-1, everyone... currently engaging what I believe to be... the source. Just know this thing is hostile to our reality... and worse could be coming if we don't stop this.>"
Her voice may be familiar to some, she's not using a voice changer this time, but she also doesn't identify her callsign.
She does however play coy on the source, because well, she doesn't want them to you know, all die - from being bombarded.
While she was speaking on the radio though Leina's hands were actually trying to discreetly scoop up snow and chunks of ice between her gloves, and makes a motion. Then eyes Banagher, as if indicating her intent.
Mitsuba points a gun, but Leina doesn't exactly want Yuliana to be shot if she can help it... even if she would.
Abruptly, Leina flings a hastily made snowball right at Yuliana's face from that position, "NOW!" It feels like an absurd gambit to throw a snowball, but even should her scarf cleave it in twain, it'd leave a drift of snow behind that might very briefly obscure vision.
Assuming Banagher will charge Yuliana, she gets up from kneeling position like a runner, soon coming up on her in an attempt of her own.
"The gate needs to take a time out to COOL OFF!"
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Yuliana doesn't have much time to 'dance' with Leina before Banagher comes crashing in, something he's thankful for. The sight of Yuliana clutching Leina makes his heart go cold.
...there's no way he's going after Leina's gun. Even looking at that blood makes him feel sick. Not that he has time, with how poorly his own attack goes. Banagher threw his full weight against Yuliana, and she didn't even flinch. Golden eyes go wide as Yuliana grabs him, pulling him close, and dips him low. Banagher struggles against her hold, half-angry and half-frightened.
"Save--?"
But before he can go on, Yuliana has sent him spinning toward Leina. Banagher can't stop himself, on the ice, and crashes into his girlfriend hard enough to send them both to the ground. Groaning, Banagher does his best not to vomit.
"Leina -- I'm so sorry." He manages, after a moment, standing quickly to get his weight off her. A hand reaches down to help Leina up. "I'm okay, but It's so hard to think, and move-- I had no idea she was this strong. Stay back until you're recovered, okay? Something's... really wrong with all this."
As soon as Leina makes it to her feet, Banagher keeps himself between her and Yuliana. The dancing woman is raving, her words meaning as much as her dance. Banagher clenches his hands, frantically looking around for anything he can use to stop Yuliana.
Until...
The Key?
"I'm not opening anything for you!" Banagher shouts, still finding his footing on the icy floor. "Definitely not some gate! Keep your nonsense to yourself!"
Leina's voice sounds so serious, from behind Banagher. Hostile to reality, worse coming-- Banagher grits his teeth. He should've brought the Unicorn. What can he do against someone like Yuliana? Even if they run, if those dragons get free, it won't matter.
Banagher notices motion from the corner of his eye. Trying to look back without alerting Yuliana, he gives the slightest nod at Leina's signal. Their bond may be blocked, this close to Yuliana, but nothing can disrupt the trust they've built.
"NOW!" Leina shouts, and again, Banagher charges forward.
With a furious cry, the young man headbutts Yuliana, trying to strike her in the head with his skull. Mitsuba is shouting, but Banagher is entirely focused on Yuliana. All the momentum he could summon up is put into the strike.
Leina is with him, something that terrifies Banagher, but -- he believes in her. That's all he can do. Squeezing his eyes closed, one clear thought echoes through his mind. At least they didn't bring Audrey into this.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
The submarine slowly shifted, keeping eyes and ssensors on the dragon. Taking in the information, attempting to process where it could, attempting to decipher this thing that sprouted out of the crater. Acknowledgements come in one after the other; In the end, there's only a few threads to grasp on for later, but the small deconfirmation of 000 did bring a sigh out. It felt like a beast, more than anything. An Angel? No, there's specifics for that.
...It was something else.
<"Copy all."> The single acknowledgement on open comms as she scanned over DANA's reports. Cold. Cold cold cold cold. The specifics of Fold energy this was was outside of Mithril's repitoire. And yet, it is something to aim at.
Damning evidence, indeed. Yuliana disappearing before this thing appeared. Strange. Stranger and stranger, brow furrowing in thought for a moment before delegating herself to more pressing things.
A deep breath in. A deep breath out. There's people there. Source? Yuliana. Close. Be careful. Bombardment not necessary.
"Launch a SAM on Surface Tube Three!"
"Aye, ma'am! Launch a SAM on Surface Tube Three!"
A rumble.
A hatch opening.
A missile screeching like a bat out of hell, piercing through the water, through the boundary between water and air, and rocketing toward the Beast That Should Not Be.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Elisa Kafim with Single Missile! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Sophia Mayhew Castellan, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan parries Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Rush, taking 885 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Deject! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan! KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Teletha Testarossa's Single Missile, taking 1725 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.
Serinas hears the open announcement: <"Today we put aside our differences! Horrors such as this can't be allowed to run loose on Earth!"> Serinas may have even seen an Earth fantasy movie with dragons in it, but she's probably also heard the no doubt drier Zentradi legends of space horrors. Nothing so specific as this, but the idea that there are THINGS out there that her ancestors fought is enough to be salient in her mind now, though she hadn't thought of such since coming to the Earth Sphere what with being focused on humanity tearing itself apart and all.
Wait, did someone say they'd seen something like this before and not to get close to it? But SHE'S close to it!
And she's soon a lot closer than she'd like, as it spreads its jaws and tries to take a bite out of her! Her attempt to stop it with her suit's claws just kind of end up booping the snoot with the lasers' barrels, teeth scraping a shaving of metal off the arms and jaws clamping down hard on the armor's midsection, metal screeching and crunching alarmingly... the cockpit, which is much like that of an arm slave scaled up to maclone size, feels tighter now as the metal of her suit strains ominously.
Serinas's voice comes over the external speakers: "No! You won't dine upon me, beast!" She fires discouraging shots from the chest and laser cannons -- the shoulder cannon fires at the wrong angle as dragon and meltrandi writhe and struggle for position and misses, the ship-killer beam shot streaking off into the distance -- and then the queadluun line's famed engines try to wrench the armor free, Serinas kicking at the thing's mouth and trying to grab between those teeth, spin in a somersault and THROW the serpentine creature into the ground! "Get OFF me and DIE! Your time in this system is already too long!"
KTS: Serinas Nikola targets Elisa Kafim with YEET! KTS: Serinas Nikola has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim rushes into the attack! KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Serinas Nikola's YEET, taking 1350 damage! KTS: Serinas Nikola repulses Elisa Kafim, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Serinas Nikola begins a Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Treize Khushrenada has posed.
Treize does get a reacton , it is a violent and also vocal reaction. The tail whip of the dragon smacks against the Leo's shield as Treize tries to redirect the attack and the unit's arm is almost lost in the ffort. The damage is far from negligible as the unit's left arm and shield lay limp at the side, sparks flying here and there. Treize as well is rather rattled as for a moment before the unit was knocked backwards he was sure the unit was going to fail to hold up under the pressure.
Treize settles back for a moment as he quells the warning sirens, <" I do not believe the dragon is acting on it's own intent, I am working to see if I can disrupt the controller, perhaps it will retreat if I can succeed." > The colonel is certainly not use to fighting biological enemies, little lone dragons but there are a few things that he figures are rather common with most animals. One is rather sensitive ears.
The Leo begins to emit a tone, radiating from its satellite dish head, the tone getting louder and higher pitched as Treize winces a little before pushing it beyond a human's level of hearing, and keeps cranking the volume. It is his hope that there will be a moment where whoever spoke to him can't be heard by the dragon.
KTS: Treize Khushrenada targets Elisa Kafim with Shock! KTS: Treize Khushrenada has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Treize Khushrenada shocks Elisa Kafim, reducing her Morale significantly.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
The Colonel's playing ball with Toy Box and Sophia has a migraine like she just tried to dig out her sinuses with a field-issue spork, so she's just kinda letting that one ride. She'll take any advice she can get, honestly.
Fortunately, this time, she's ready for the hideously-bisected dragon's assault. She has her own insights, after all.
It's reflex, mostly, that gets her to restart her Geass, not that this Thing From Beyond is attached to much of anything. Except...one? ...follow up on that later. It lets her see it. And seeing it means she can fight it.
The Flag's knife comes back up and this time she has a better sense of the masses at play, letting her soar up on the Flag's plasma thrusters and knock aside the oncoming wing's bony parts, cutting only fractionally through those powerful wings. But it does knock it aside enough to let her soar away. Breathe. She now can't see ANYBODY over at wherever Yuliana went, she realizes. Great. Cool. Sophia has no great reason to care, but...
She briefly thinks about a screaming redheaded girl, sucked into this world's hateful, loveless vortex.
"Damn you, Yuliana Kafim," Sophia hisses, but it doesn't make the signal any clearer. She sees that the charge on her cannon is about ready. She can't drop to the ground, but at this charge it'll probably just rattle her around a bit.
The main cannon more or less bolted to the Flag's side sizzles with light seconds before expelling a short volley of three shots, each a heavy 200mm slug that should rip quite cleanly through that armor.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Elisa Kafim with Linear Cannon Main Charge! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Main Charge, taking 3150 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine's recommendation can be quickly surmised as basically, 'the dragons are scary and do mind things, please stay further away'.
The petals snap back into place on the Dianthus's back like a wasp's wings, the craft itself preparing to make a calculated, timed dodge. Hands tighten on the controls, and the Dianthus's boosters fire, spinning away from danger like a spent blossom in the spring air.
".... Leaf green... just like on the beach..." Lucine's words tremble. ".... Why did it want to take my own happiness away from me...? Why that attack, back then?"
Leina's familiar voice further strengthens Lucine's own resolve.
< "They tried taking the Dianthus from me. I consider that unforgivable. I'm not backing down." > Vitaly's information complicates Lucine's developing theory, however. How does the Dianthus factor into any of this, or Lucine herself, for that matter? < ".... There was some report about something happening at the Frontier Colony, but I didn't really understand the connection at the time... What is confusing is that this force bothered to hire agents for it, unless... those were an illusion..." > Treize reports his own findings, in that there's a source. < ".... Maybe that's the source of the...." > Of the Newtype fog. Lucine's voice trails off, not willing to divulge the rest of that particular sentence. < ".... the dragons. Someone needs to be the conduit. Is it... coming from the crater?" >
Yuliana, maybe,
They just need to deal with the dragons until the source is located. Undoing the Arbalest from its back, the Dianthus flies straight up, aligning the sights with Lucine's own eyes. Normally the automatic system would be enough for a simple aimed shot, but this... this is something special.
".... ..... Got you."
Like a shooting star, the beam fires, threatening to split at least one of the dragons in twain if they're not fast enough.
KTS: Lucine Azul targets Elisa Kafim with Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Orion Shot! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim successfully evades Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Orion Shot
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Mitsuba makes her military demands, as the fabric of Yuliana's scarf tears through the fabric of this layer of reality.
From between those ragged edges, perhaps they will see it -- see it in the definition of what is NOT, in that hollow space, as Yuliana's Cyber-Newtype aura becomes so pronounced as to be visible despite its inherent lack of existence.
Those thousand, grasping claws, scintillating black and emerald green, barely comprehensible about her.
Brought into existence by that horrific tear in the world which gave these dragons to JOSH-A, in this moment, they are hands which will grasp any bullet.
And still, it is not enough. It is not enough!
"I will not," she answers Mitsuba, smoothly. "You cannot stop it. She will open the way. For this -- for her -- I give everything."
But Banagher insists she keep her notice to herself -- and she turns, smoothly, to him, looking slightly to the left of him. "You? No. I."
She chants, as she twirls. Her words maintain that horrible echo, as if she were speaking inside a vast emptiness.
"I am the Lock which closes the Gate."
"I am the Key which opens the Gate."
"I know the Gate. I am the Gate. I am the Key and the Lock of the Gate."
"Its past, present, and future..."
'NOW!'
Yuliana's whirling scarf scatters that snowball, before it hits her face -- but the snow still splatters onto her, cold needles in the stark Alaskan air. She blinks, in momentary focused shock, as the cold sinks in through her REA uniform.
And Banagher charges in.
That horrible feeling is strongest, CLOSEST, when his skull impacts hers. Yuliana's movement is interrupted, as she staggers back, and grasps at her head with her scarfless hand. The boy reflects off of the green fold crystal of her necklace, those artful clasps which keep that darkening stone in place.
"No," Yuliana growls, as her fingers and her resolve tighten. "NO! She needs me! I am the only one who can do this!"
She grasps Banagher, tightly, and swings him away, as she spins towards Mitsuba. "Cool, and cool, and cool some more!" She chants, she raves, sunk into madness. "To the depths of deepest cold! She will come! She MUST come! So long has She waited..!"
And as she closes the space between herself and Mitsuba, bright white lines erupt along her forehead, down her temples, along her spine. Without a Fold engine to rely on, it is by Yuliana's power alone that they open the way. Yuliana, alone, dancing in the snow.
It's agony, of course, and this time she does not feign it. The tears springing to her eyes are evidence enough of that.
It cannot happen.
Hope of blue supplanted red.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The drone that disappears into the void is never seen again. Thanks to the beam sabers, the line is severed before it can get worse than that. The data is difficult to read; all that Vitaly will be able to get in the moment is the visual of gigantic eyes in the void, beggaring belief in their sheer scale. But later, the data may prove useful. For now, the dragon attempts to rush right into that attack, but the Rabscuttle takes hold, and slams the dragons against one another. They roar in anger and pain, but it was an effective strategy... if one that came at a cost.
Meanwhile, Sayaka and her Ichinana's pure flame streaks out towards the dragons and engulfs them briefly, lighting them ablaze for a bare moment before the fire snuffs out completely. They roar once more, in hatred and in anger.
While it attempts to dodge missiles, the Beast That Should Not Be cannot get out of the way in time; it snakes apart from itself but one half is struck, the missiles exploding against it with another screech. Teletha's strike hits home, even if it continues to strangely evade some of the damage from each attack, as if not completely here.
Serinas's Queadlunn-Rhea is powerful, but simply can't get the leverage to throw the dragon far. Nevertheless she manages to grab it by the half-jaw and slam it into the ground. The other dragon quickly responds, however--or is it the dragon? It suddenly pulses with green energy, and, moving as if puppeted on invisible strings, reaches out its wing-claw to try to grip hold of the Queadlunn-Rhea. If it gets hold, there is a horrible chill, a terrible void stretching into the space beyond perception. It has the potential to send cracks spiderwebbing along the whole machine, to say nothing of the nausea it might give its occupant.
But then Treize's high-pitched tone starts to echo through the air. The dragon screeches in pain at the sensation--and then goes berserk, flailing in all directions.
Elsewhere, Elisa's mouth twitches, her head tilting as the SOUND irritates her and makes her tablet's screen scramble partially with static. "Tch!" No one hears that, but she says it.
Sophia's Flag fires its cannons. Three shots light up. They slam into the dragon--nd then the slugs fire out through the other dragon's back, as if teleported mid-strike. It keens its frustration as both turn towards her--but both dragons rush apart as Lucine's Dianthus fires that powerful system. The shot rockets past them, into nothing in particular. It might very well have been enough--if not for their sinuous, strange movements.
The dragons retaliate. For her part, Sayaka's flames get the Sinistral dragon to rush her and slam down a huge claw straight at her unit, ichor still dripping from an earlier wound.
Treize's Leo, meanwhile, simply receives a touch. The Dextral dragon slithers up to him and reaches out--and then a little bit of the void comes with that touch, the dragon pulsing green as utter cold beyond cold suffuses the Leo, perhaps briefly glitching its systems as something other than life rushes through them.
Now that it has revealed itself, the submarine of TDD-1 gets both dragons to rear back and belch forth blast after blast of diseased, hateful heat breath. The flames crackle with red, orange, and green, and the water itself boils and hisses where it is touched.
For daring to touch the void, meanwhile, the void stares back into Vitaly's machine. No whispered name forestalls the attack, though Vitaly's devotion may yet protect her. The void simply begins to stretch further open, and from within a spiral appears. That spiral moves in time with Vitaly's heartbeat; a massive blast of energy erupts forth from where the drone disappeared, and towards the Rabscuttle.
The dragons converge back upon Sophia's Flag, trying to bite down with both jaws from either side of her, the hot breath enough to warp and pit metal even without being breathed out.
Finally, the Dianthus gets another shot. The dragon on the left simply disgorges a huge gout of burning, foul breath.
But far, far away, Elisa looks to the other portion of her tablet, to where her Yuliana is... and frowns, sharply, at what she sees. "No, it..."
She keeps frowning. The dragons are left to their own devices for a few moments.
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Serinas Nikola with Calamitous Grasp! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sayaka Yumi with Draconic Fury - Smash! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Treize Khushrenada with Touch of the Void! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Teletha Testarossa with Diseased Heat Breath Rapid Fire! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Draconic Fury - Bite! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Vitaly Sokolov with Absolute Spiral! KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Lucine Azul with Diseased Heat Breath Blast! KTS: Elisa Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim rattles Treize Khushrenada, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Treize Khushrenada fails to react to Elisa Kafim's Touch of the Void, taking 4180 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Treize Khushrenada! KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim anchors Vitaly Sokolov, forcing her into close range. KTS: Vitaly Sokolov blocks Elisa Kafim's Absolute Spiral, taking 2100 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Vitaly Sokolov! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to react to Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Smash, taking 4000 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Sayaka Yumi! KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul successfully evades Elisa Kafim's Diseased Heat Breath Blast KTS: Serinas Nikola has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Serinas Nikola has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Serinas Nikola parries Elisa Kafim's Calamitous Grasp, taking 2250 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Serinas Nikola! KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuba Greyvalley has posed.
Careful if she sees any green crystals -- that, she does, and she makes note of it. "Thank you!" she calls back to Leina, sidearm still leveled. Leina tries an iceball, and Mitsuba chews at her lip for just a moment -- hoping that that will be the end. Unfortunately, simply being startled repeatedly hasn't done anything to Yuliana, as Banagher and Leina have proven again and again.
She has to wait a little while -- Banagher's headbutt tmakes her worried about her firing solution, because she certainly doesn't want to get him hurt. But the simple fact is --
'Cool, and cool, and cool some more, to the depths of deepest cold' --
Mitsuba takes a breath in and shoots, after leaning just slightly to one side to get a trajectory that risks Banagher just slightly less.
... it doesn't feel good for her, to do this kind of violence -- especially without an imminent threat to the Dreisstrager. But... she can't let whatever this dance is, whatever reality-warping thing this dragon is... persist.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
As the data finally stops being scrambled, and the processing on the visual data completes, a single screen comes on for a moment at the top-right of her machine. At first, snow, then, a void. Blackness that almost feels like it's beyond the screen. Then... green light begins to populate into the cockpit.
A spiral flows. A rip of energy descending down onto Vitaly that slams through the I-Field as if it were not even there. Penetrating deep into the machine. Into the heart of the machine, and into the heart itself.
Slowly filling it. Vitaly's gaze slips up for just a moment. As the visual data starts to gain clarity and large ey~
There's a violent CRACK. A shattering of electronics and glass, and a sharp shock of electricity that passes through Vitaly as an enormous combat knife is planted into the screen, faster than she could have turned it off. Sparks fly from the panel, as Vitaly grimaces at it. The heavy knife and handle remain within, as the Rabscuttle releases from the dragons and tries to quickly start maneuvering. To get out from beneath the beam washing over it!
Her blue eyes stare at the now-dead screen for just a moment. "Am not Vasilisa. Do not haunt me, Babu Yagu." She mutters as warning signals immediately call out that her heart is facing signs of arrhythmia, only for a small electronic device to apply a set of little shocks. The woman grimaces, spitting out saliva into her helmet for a moment at the pain, forcing her body into behaving.
For a moment, Vitaly is being forced to the edge of the battlefield, grabbing for her chest with one hand. The pain is making it hard to focus on the battle itself. A fierce spray of small Megabeam particles tear across the Dragons from afar as the Rabscuttle takes its distance, the woman getting her breathing back under control.
She doesn't remark on anything else on the radio for the time being. Setting the automated systems of the Rabscuttle and her co-pilot take the reins for just a moment.
KTS: Vitaly Sokolov targets Elisa Kafim with Diffuse Mega Particle Cannon - Wide Range Spray! KTS: Vitaly Sokolov has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Teletha Testarossa, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Teletha Testarossa fails to Evade Elisa Kafim's Diseased Heat Breath Rapid Fire, taking 7700 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Deject!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Lucine's voice comes over the comms, she was hoping that she could keep her away from this, after what happened to her but...
... apparently that's no longer an option, if this kind of thing is happening. "<Acknowledged.>"
Leina's eyes blink as the ragged edges of Yuliana's aura warp and distort space. She wonders if she's seeing things... knowing she isn't. "God... Oh God..."
It's disturbing, hearing her chant and twirl. In these throes of some kind of occultist ecstasy. What is happening here!?
It's like she's herself, and not. Just enough of herself to make her doubt.
Banagher headbutts at her signal, and she sees the glittering green.
Even as she swings him away- "Banagher!" -and spins towards Mitsuba, watching the white lines erupt - and she sees the agony, in the tears, "Yuliana! You have to- have to stop! What is worth hurting yourself like this!?"
Leina asks as she makes her appeal, moving towards her. There's this sedate quality to her pace as if trying to make her less of a threat, "If you're really so dear to 'her' then why is this tearing you apart!?"
And then Mitsuba fires, "Wait!" She understands why, she understands... but despite the risk, she was hoping to resolve this without Yuliana dying too.
Mitsuba firing though convinces her she needs to act, and act now - and not just try to convince her not to use deadly force. Abruptly she surges into motion just out of the line of fire, as she aims to punch to the side of Yuliana's ribs. It's obvious, it's telegraphed. It's a rather pathetic attempt towards an enhanced Cyber Newtype.
Once that strike is defeated, once just in range, her off-hand moves up in a quick motion that seems positively anemic in comparison, surely she's got no power on this kind of hit-
-but there's an object that was hidden in that hand, and if it makes contact with her throat, the trigger button she presses on the high powered stun gun suddenly discharges an extremely high charge right into her.
"BANAGHER! GRAB THE NECKLACE!"
KTS: Treize Khushrenada has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Serinas Nikola
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
"Leina, don't look at it!" The young man yells, as reality tears at the edge of Yuliana's scarf. Even when Banagher manages to wrench his gaze away from the hollow space, he can feel it still, freezing him deeper than the snow and ice ever could. Again, a wave of nausea threatens to overwhelm him, but he keeps it together.
Yuliana is the key? Banagher looks absolutely confused, though that changes when she begins to chant. He can't think about that, he can't focus on how the echoing words grate against his brain, because--!
Banagher manages to send Yuliana reeling, even if just for a moment!
But the cost is -- too high. All the strength leaves his legs, and his eyes roll back in his head. It's like the void is directly inside his head. Banagher screams in agony, not fighting Yuliana at all when she sends him spinning toward Mitsuba. Not hearing the gunshot.
When he comes to a stop, he collapses, laying still in the snow for a long moment. Something's happening. Something important. Leina's in danger. Everyone's in danger. The whole world is cut away, leaving only the freezing embrace of snow and ice. Warmth, connection, all gone. He can't get his legs or arms to move. The strongest of his efforts only bring slight finger twitches.
Leina's in danger.
---
Among the stars, a golden bird flies.
---
Leina's in danger.
---
She senses something, something she's only seen once before.
---
Leina's in danger.
---
With a cry, azure flame ignites. Faster than belief, she soars toward the planet. She will not arrive in time.
---
Get up!
He has to -- he has to! Banagher grits his teeth, eyes fluttering open. With slow, wobbly movements, he struggles, holding himself up on his hands and knees. Yuliana is so close, and as he looks up, she's begun to glow... Her body looks like it's tearing apart. Yuliana... she's crying.
Banagher's never been able to bear the sight of tears. Something in his heart glimmers against the cold, and he focuses in on Yuliana.
"You don't... have to do this. There are-- people who love you." He coughs. "You don't have to be the Key."
It's all he has, in this moment. One gloved hand reaches out, burying itself in the snow, and then dragging his body forward. Slowly, Banagher pulls himself toward Yuliana and Mitsuba. Every inch hurts, like shards of ice in his brain.
Leina shouts. Banagher latches onto her voice. Grab the necklace.
With a burst of strength, he gets to his feet, stumbling forward desperately. Both hands reach out for that wicked looking jewelry. The last thing he wants to do is touch the green crystals, but -- he's going to. Even if he damns him, he'll get that necklace--!
<Pose Tracker> Treize Khushrenada has posed.
The Leo steps back a moment as if unsure of what to make of the dragon before being void touched. The Leo is certainly not void protected and for the briefest moment even Treize is effected by the void. A deep unsettling cold ripples through him, not his brand of menthol ice crystals but more like the fire behind it all was briefly put out. It leaves him a little shakey.
Treize for the briefest moment considers what to do as he is breathing unsteady, it is an unfamilliar feeling for him, then again this is the first time facing dragons. The Leo finally draws forth it's beam saber and points to the dragon, over open comms he speaks to those he is allied with and the dragons before them. < "We can not let such a danger spread on to this world, nor can I let more die here. There are already to many souls of the fallen that cry out for vengence on this land, we can not allow these beasts of legend to add our souls to the lot.">
The Leo's thrusters sputter a few time barely functional but the Leo does manage to dash towards the dragon that touched him, raising the beamsaber and trying to stab the beam saber into the flesh of the dragon. Treize is pretty sure it is the last thing his unit is going to be able to manage to do before it falls apart.
KTS: Treize Khushrenada has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Treize Khushrenada has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Treize Khushrenada targets Elisa Kafim with Twin Beam Sabers Thrust! KTS: Treize Khushrenada has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Sayaka hears a familiar voice over the radio. Without a doubt, it's Leina... she should've known she'd come the moment she caught wind of this, too.
On a private communication, "Leina, you're here?! It's them, isn't it? Ugh..." She sighs heavily, not because of Leina herself, but because of the danger she almost definitely put herself in.
"Please, just be careful, okay? I'm not counting on any of us dying today." She'll have to check up on her as soon as she can. But first: giant dragon to deal with.
Which, speaking of, lunges towards the Ichinana after basking in the flames of a Burning Fire. It's nowhere near as damaging as its previous assault - the Ichinana sustains some further limb damage, but it's still left standing.
The wiser move here would be to break away from melee as fast as she can, knowing the Ichinana might not be able to take another of those nasty fire breaths. But she heard what Leina said, that this is a danger that threatens their reality. And she put herself in harm's way to stop it. No, Sayaka can't let this go, either. This is her end of the promise. If it gets really bad, the emergency Pilder Off sequence is ready. But for now, the Ichinana edges even closer to the void monster.
"MAZINGER BLADE!" Sayaka drives the two-handed blade towards the two-headed dragon. Tearing through whatever barrier is keeping it sustained is the only thing on her mind.
KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Vitaly Sokolov's Diffuse Mega Particle Cannon - Wide Range Spray, taking 2860 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Treize Khushrenada's Twin Beam Sabers Thrust, taking 3400 damage! KTS: Treize Khushrenada has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Elisa Kafim with Mazinger Blade Revenge Strike! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Sayaka Yumi's Mazinger Blade Revenge Strike, taking 7800 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Sayaka Yumi roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.
MELTRAN AIR SUPERIORITY is short-lived. But Serinas has been warned that the dragons fight as one -- she's already turning towards the second as the first hits the ground. She's just as quick with her own claw, meeting the dragon's at speed and making the impact significantly less disastrous for her -- for the next few seconds, anyway. The arm creaks ominously, and its armor plating buckles before the strange corruption sends cracks across the whole machine, shards of armor plating shedding off the right arm and around the torso where it took hits before.
Serinas hasn't been able to do that focusing thing she does this fight. She just can't seem to get into the groove for it, struggling to keep herself from reeling after every blow. And now she feels sick... Hopefully her training will be enough to get her through this!
The Queadluun-Rhea's claws tighten, interlocking with the dragon's. She goes to knee it in the body, then thrusters kick in and push her upward, she reaches up with her free flaw and tries to grab the head and pull it in for another knee strike before firing the gatling lasers and chest beam cannons point-blank!
Words cut through the nausea.
It's that earthnoid soldier she helped escape this place... and however wrong he is about serving his masters, the damn earthnoid soldier is right about this: This monster can't be allowed to run loose here! It can't be allowed to add to the death toll!
Serinas forces the nausea down, and takes more precise aim then just blasting it in the side of the head: She tries to direct the left gatling lasers into its eye and mouth, her right claw holding tight and blasting point blank into the dragon's own. She swallows, takes a breath, and shouts in defiance as she tries to drive claw, knee, and foot into it and send it to gatling laser hell!
"RAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
KTS: Serinas Nikola targets Elisa Kafim with LPG-303R Hand Gatling Lasers Execution! KTS: Serinas Nikola has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim partially guards Serinas Nikola's LPG-303R Hand Gatling Lasers Execution, taking 7200 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Serinas Nikola's Can't Catch Me! activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Serinas Nikola has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim enervates Sophia Mayhew Castellan, reducing her Morale significantly. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan parries Elisa Kafim's Draconic Fury - Bite, taking 750 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Elisa Kafim's Beyond the Void activates, causing Deject! KTS: Elisa Kafim has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan!
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
"Hit confirmed."
"Copy." Even then, the sight of it was strange. Moving, shifting...phasing? The sight of the smoke clearning revealed the extent of the damage...or rather, the absence of it. A Lambda Field? Something similar? It locks her jaw up, opening her mouth before-
...! "Bearing 45! Fifteen knots!"
"Aye, ma'am! Bearing 45 at fifteen knots!"
The submarine turns, shifting, speeding up...and being scalded by heat. Strange, unworldly scalding of the ocean as the submarine is blasted, the panels on the outside quickly warming into a dull red. One second, pure heat, the next, none.
"Sections four through nine have melted. Engines are past heat limits." The report of damage. Fine enough, fine enough.
"We're still good. Maintain course." Khhhh, hooooot. <"Careful. It's breath is caustic. Possibly superheated.">
Focus, focus, focus, focus, the sweat, the heat, the occasional glances of the crew.
"Prepare all tubes with Anti-Kaiju missiles!"
"Aye, ma'am! Prepare tubes with Anti-Kaiju missiles!"
Come on, come on, come on. She can feel it in her guts; The movements of the missile, the instinct of a captain who built her own ship. Move move move move...!
"Fire!"
"Fire!"
Hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch after hatch opening on the TDD-1, the missiles firing out in pairs. Again and again and again and again, streaking out of the water, those missiles streaking up, over the dragons...and splitting into two, threes, fours, fives, miniature missiles raining down on the dragons proper.
KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Teletha Testarossa targets Elisa Kafim with Itano Circus Missile Dance! KTS: Teletha Testarossa has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Teletha Testarossa's Itano Circus Missile Dance, taking 3060 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
The Orion shot misses; Lucine frowns. "Not this time, looks like... but the next will be bigger."
Seeing Sayaka's craft stab with a mighty yell, Lucine takes advantage of it, doing exactly what she had advised against earlier.
Pale gold eyes glint; her hands grip the controls with renewed, excited vigor.
She moves in.
Falling down from high in the sky like an eagle on easy prey, the silver metal of the Dianthus's glaive catches the light, carving a straight line towards one of the dragon's heads as Lucine drives it home.
KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has NOT engaged with Elisa Kafim KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul targets Elisa Kafim with CL0-V3 Glaive Crescent Cross! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to evade Lucine Azul's CL0-V3 Glaive Crescent Cross, taking 2550 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul has engaged Elisa Kafim! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sophia knows how fast those bullets move. She's moving around in a flight pattern that gives her the altitude she needs to see them pass through - but not quite. They can't have covered the gap that fast.
"The center," she breathes, and then, flicks comms. <<Castellan to all pilots! Munition transited between the halves without using the actual space! Don't bother with the middle!>>
As if that particularly means anything. But she's still stuck up close with this Thing and BOY she don't like that. She hits the transform throttle and the Flag folds up, jetting rapidly away from the Void Dragon at full possible speed. It's only a few moments, but it does get her out of immediate threat range.
Just as the Linear Cannon reports it can't hold anymore charge.
She hits the transform again, the whole machine whirling around itself as it unfolds, as Sophia throws her machinegun completely aside to brace the cannon on her side.
"CLEAR THE LANE!" she screams, a warning lane broadcasting from her machine barely seconds before the linear cannon ignites electric blue, firing hypersonic projectiles, one, two, three, separated by a matter of seconds each for the coils to remagnetize. Each sends the Flag jerking rotationally.
She jerks it back into position. Again. She has to put her shoulder into the second.
The third, she loses control; overcorrection sending the Flag spinning for dangerous seconds.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Elisa Kafim with Linear Cannon Maximum Charge! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Elisa Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Maximum Charge, taking 7580 damage! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana Kafim is the weakest point of the world. Where she steps the fabric of this existence is weakened; where she steps, another leaks through. Like layers of skin or snow peeling away, there is something else, beyond the physical existence they know.
Something else, between the cognitive connection Leina and Banagher know.
Mitsuba pulls the trigger. It only takes a little squeeze. Just one touch, one suggestion, and she can stand alone --
The bullet sinks into the void. Again, there is a roar, inhuman and horrible. Again, a roar, and perhaps one day it could have been called human.
A pair of eyes open, and there is no space for them to open, in front of Yuliana. A pair of eyes cannot open, once and once again, eyelids and eyelids opening.
Her eyelashes are claws, and they rend existence.
They do not close.
They simply stop.
The bullet does, too.
The aura about Yuliana shreds the world, all torn to bits, as that vision departs and Yuliana grasps Mitsuba's hand. She dismisses the gun with motions powered by something inhuman; her fingers weave between Mitsuba's fingers, as she steps in, so, so close. She has always gotten so, so close.
"You," she breathes, as her eyes shine with a fell light and her mind pounds with the knowledge of nonexistence. "Yes, I see, now... you wayward child, made to fit the shape of this tortured false reality... why do you stop us?" And her vague question sounds so confused, so pained, so reasonable.
"We will remake this world for your comfort, as well."
And those claws which are not grasp at her, grasp and pull, and perhaps she does not spin entirely on her own power. There is a long, ancient scar, down the left side of her face, a wound from history. It grows a shade more red, and the meaning isn't immediately obvious, in the stark chiaroscuro of the void about her.
Not until she spins in revolution, again, to face them --
And the blood weeps from that ancient war-wound, tears from her veins.
It is joined by a droplet at her forehead -- and another -- and another, another, another, as if from the wounds of shattered glass. A tear at her cheek makes itself known by the red, smearing down.
The front of her uniform gradually gains red stains -- at the belly -- by the liver -- across the chest -- at the hip.
The port scar at her wrist from long ago flecks red, as if it were removed yesterday. It is hardly the only damage, along her arms -- or her legs.
Gradually, gradually, every scar on Yuliana's body begins to bleed.
"Ahh---aaaahhhh," Yuliana cries out, finally, with her voice. She grits her teeth, eyes scrunching up against the pain. "Once this fake world stops fighting us... once the world expands... it won't hurt! It will be better! It will be beautiful!" She whirls, she carves, she calls.
"Elya promised me that--! I have to be strong... strong enough for her to open the way...! I-I can't back down, now! I can't! She needs me!" Yuliana's breath rasps out, desperately, with that horrible light which gutters and pulses and the blood which drips into her eyes and out from her mouth. It mixes with more convential tears, and the combination tracks down her cheeks so much faster. "Because there are people who love me, I must do this!" She yells, and it's not to Banagher: "I can keep going! This much won't stop me--!!"
She is spun, by her ineffable, intangible partner, and perhaps this too is love.
Yuliana buckles, in her dance, as the demands placed on her churn under her skin. "AAAahhhhh--!!" She screams, she sobs, and when she sees Banagher coming towards her --
She clutches desperately at his parka, with her bloodied hands. "No-- no, I -- please, I can't," she sobs, she pleads, her gaze unfocused. "I'll be ripped apart -- oh, God, it's all inside me -- I hear You, I hear You, but I'll die...!"
And Banagher, in front of her, is the first to see
the way those scars
begin
to unweave.
The blood leaks from old wounds made new, and as the skin splits there is nothing, black as oblivion and hungrier still. Long, thin lines, they are the barest promise of Yuliana's unmaking, brought from her dreams to the waking world.
Banagher can grasp the necklace. Banagher can tear it from Yuliana's neck. Perhaps he even should.
He wrenches it from her neck, and her gaze focuses on him -- for the first time? -- and the horror which dawns in her teary eyes is entirely real. She is human, SO human, so agonisingly human. She does not move to take her trinket back.
"Banagher?" She asks, voice small and afraid.
It does not echo.
"Banagher, what's happening to me?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The void does not chase Vitaly. That spiral, that rip of energy--that is all, for now, but for what lingers from it. The eyes stare no longer from the ruined console. Vitaly, as she withdraws her Rabscuttle to the edge of the battlefield, sprays those small particles back at the dragons. She hits both at once. Still, the attacks seem to hit something a little 'off' from where they should have landed, but damage is done nevertheless. Next up, Treize's Leo is ready to act, despite the danger. His battlecry is strong. The Leo's thrusters may sputter, but it still stabs through the dragon. The dragon screeches loudly as the beam shoots through to the other side, ichor falling in all directions. The two-handed MAZINGER BLADE, however, is a powerful thing. It tears through the spatial warp that is its barrier, and buries itself deeply within the Sinistral dragon. The dragons roar in frustration and pain, and then Serinas's Queadlunn-Rhea slams back in. She can't keep hold of the dragon, sinuous and slippery as it is, but she doesn't have to; in a single perfect shot she blasts the Dextral dragon powerfully.
Then missile after missile after missile slams into both dragons, and while they are small, their combined explosions blot out the entire sight of the creatures by the time they're done being fired. When the smoke clears, Lucine's Dianthus is there, having slashed past the dragon in perfect time. Its howl is one of rage. ...and in perfect time, the Flag's linear cannon slams rounds into the Sinister dragon, one, two, three, each hitting hard enough that a gigantic blast opens up the side of both dragons. Ichor pours out into the bloody basin. ...But the dragons still stand.
They rear back, and begin to keen a terrible cry, as the Void itself begins to open... and open... and open. It stretches further. There is a terrible sense of Presence beyond, something utterly inimical to life as it is known. And it is nearly here...Yuliana screams. Yuliana screams, and far beyond, Elisa's eyes widen. "No," she starts. "No, this isn't how it's meant to be!"
The keening is interrupted, overwhelemd by a terrible shout. "NO!!" calls a voice, terrible and fell, a woman's voice echoing over JOSH-A through no radio at all, but audible to all present. It will not be recorded. It is fury itself, frustration magnified, and perhaps... Perhaps the barest hint of fear.
Dropping her sword and tablet, the witch throws back her hood, green eyes wild. She tears the air before her and leaps, suddenly consumed in a flash of green energy.
The tablet shatters against the ground, but the sword remains.
And then, just as suddenly: where Yuliana and the others are, reality tears in a different way. There is a flash of green light, and Elisa Kafim lands on the ice with a terrible crack. Her cloak swirls as she turns--towards Yuliana. Her eyes wild, she steps towards her, and with a casual flick of her hand those standing beside are propelled away in a flash of green light. It will not harm them overmuch; they are an afterthought. A nothing. Not her.
"No," she breathes. "You must not. Not like this, my darling. This world fights too much. I must protect you!"
She takes Yuliana gently into her arms, so gently, and in another rush of green light they are gone.
The sky closes, slowly and then suddenly all at once slamming shut with terrible finality. The dragons, keening before, look towards each other and screech their pain--as they shrivel up and fade away into nothing at all.
The basin is no longer blood, though nothing within it lives that was not in a mobile suit. Already, the fish that were there are starting to rise, belly-up.
The Presence can no longer be felt by anyone present. The sky is clear blue.
KTS: Elisa Kafim's Twin Dragon Tolsivya has been disabled.
<Pose Tracker> Treize Khushrenada has posed.
The dragons simply seemed to have vanish and Treize has to check system damage to even confirm that something had been there. The damaged Leo lands near where the crator formed at the origin points of the dragon still unsure about what happened. <"Enemy appears to have disengaged. We will need someone to check on thoses on in the ground team. Make sure they were not harmed.">
Treize may have been a little oblvious to what happened to the ground team, but the dragons, a part of him wonders if they were the spirits of vengence themselves. Brought forth from the pain and suffering of the innocent. Then again the more rationalized side of him tells him that it is more likely they were kaijus that were dragon shaped. Perhaps even Angels.
On a private video comm channel he speaks to a lady in the shadows, <"Inform REA that G-Hound will be taking over the investigation of JOSH-A, if they resist please involve SEELE. Also please bring ina few more reconnassiance units, we will need all the sensor data we can get."> The video comm clicks off as Treize looks about the battlefield, unsure if this is even truly over.
<Pose Tracker> Vitaly Sokolov has posed.
The Void is beginning to open further. Vitaly stares up at the skies, as something worse is coming.
<"If something proceeds through Tear in sky, I recommend full retreat from area."> Vitaly transmits to the rest of the region. It isn't that she doesn't believe in the people here. But what lies beyond is assuredly more devastating than these two dragons. And with the current state of the people here.
A terrifying shout. A single NO. Without context, the woman quiets. Steeling herself to be the one who must cover the retreat on this. To protect the younger generation present here.
Only for relief to flood her heart, as the sky begins to close. The dragons are left to die, almost like the life they were being given through the rift itself was torn off. Like an invisible umbilical cord being cut.
The blood fades, but the fish already rise up, dead, towards the surface. Vitaly's machine is recording it all, as the woman herself remains quiet.
In the skies. Keeping watch.
SEELE. What can they send to prevent this from getting worse?
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuba Greyvalley has posed.
Mitsuba has no idea what Yuliana is doing -- even as she strips her of her arms and informs her that this is for her, too, a wayward child. She doesn't know if Yuliana means to do this for everyone, or if there's something special about her in this regard -- but in the end, it doesn't matter.
Wrenching herself away from Yuliana as she begins to pull away, watching as blood weeps from her. This void begins to feel like it could swallow her up, if it wanted to -- which makes it all the more important to get away, to do anything but this, to be anywhere else --
"Both of you -- get back! Don't approach her!" Mitsuba starts, and the further she gets from Yuliana, the more she feels like this is urgent, like there's nothing to meet Yuliana with but destruction, even as --
-- Elisa takes her wife home.
Mitsuba stares, horrified, gradually pulling herself back up to her full standing position. "... what happened here?" she asks, even though the effects are all too obvious. "You two seem to know much more than I do," she starts, looking from Leina to Banagher and back.
... this doesn't look like an REA operation, though.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
The void is all around them. Tears roll down Banagher's face as he struggles forward. It hurts, in all the worst ways. The only thing keeping the young man conscious is his love for Leina. She's hurting every bit as much as he is. He can't stop, not now.
Eyes open. Banagher turns his face away from them, but they stare. He can feel them, unblinking. Reality tears, and tears, and tears.
Leina needs him.
Banagher clings to that, anchoring his heart deep within him. Even if it kills him, he's moving forward.
Yuliana bleeds. Her scars open. Banagher's eyes go wide. "W--what's happening to you?" His voice is hushed in terror.
The blood just. Doesn't stop. Banagher doesn't know how to cope with this. He's seen blood, he's seen dead bodies, but this is just... so much worse. "Yuliana, stop! Please!" Even as he struggles forward, Banagher wrenches his scarf from his neck. Where's the worst of the bleeding?
Yuliana clutches at him. Banagher startles in terror, frozen. She's bleeding. She's crying. He's got to--
"You won't die!" Banagher says, crying fully now. Horror that he can't express unfolds before him, unmaking Yuliana. "J--just--! Hang on, Yuliana! Stop whatever this is and just-- hang on!"
Don't think about the way there's nothing in the gaps of Yuliana's scars. Don't think about it, don't look at it, just-- do the right thing!
Before he grabs the necklace, one hand winds his scarf around Yuliana's wrist. That horrible deep scar there... He doesn't know what it is, but Banagher knows you can die from losing blood from your wrists. It's a quick, messy thing, certainly not enough pressure. It's all he can do, before --
Banagher wrenches the necklace away, shattering the pretty clasp that holds it around Yuliana's neck. His hand brushes against the green gemstones, and his world shrinks down again, until his body is the only thing that exists.
Pain explodes everywhere, everywhere, nothing exists but the pain. Banagher shrieks, screaming in anguish. Immediately, he falls back down to his knees. It's cold, so intensely cold it burns, his flesh must be ripped away.
It's the necklace. Despite the agony, he knows that to be true. This thing is evil, and he can't bear it a second longer. Slipping from his fingers, the necklace clatters to the ground, and Banagher heaves in a deep breath. It felt like he burned for a hundred years, but -- Yuliana's still here. Clinging to him, calling his name.
All he can do is reach out, placing a hand over a bleeding wound on Yuliana's face. His voice is destroyed from how his voice twisted in agony, and his head is still foggy. But you have to stop the bleeding. That's what you do, when there's bleeding. His other hand reaches up to cover another wound.
"We're g--onna save you."
Before he can make good on his promise, Elisa is suddenly there, and Banagher is propelled away. He tumbles to the ground, unharmed. Once again, slowly, he pulls himself to his hands and knees, only to see Yuliana and Elisa vanish in a burst of green light.
As if in answer, Banagher lets himself fall back down. Curling up, he sobs. The echo of that horrific pain lingers, and his connection to the world comes rushing back. It's overwhelming, it's too much, but one thing stands out above it all.
"Leina," Banagher gasps, "Don't touch the necklace. Don't -- don't touch it, no matter what."
Covered in blood that isn't his, Banagher is only half-aware, trembling where he lays.
<Pose Tracker> Serinas Nikola has posed.
They deliver a series of terrible blows to the dragons! Yet... they still stand. But before Serinas can think about her next move...
The wound in the world GROWS.
What is this? Serinas feels it. The thing that must be stopped.
Her own psychic receptiveness allows her to feel the Presence deeply; and it awakens a feeling deep inside the young half-meltran. For a moment, she feels a looming purpose, threatening to consume her. THIS must be stopped at all costs. How can anything else matter? But... just how can she stop it?
And then there's a scream, a rejection. The sound washes over Serinas, her mind still grappling... but then the sky closes, and
Serinas feels like she just dropped out of that mental state she goes into in combat sometimes, only moreso. Disoriented, but... the sense of purpose is gone. How could crazy space magic be that important when there's a war on for her and her family's and her comrades' future? When she has to stop people like Blue Cosmos from dividing the people of the Earth Sphere forever and breaking its wonderful culture?!
Serinas shakes her head a little.
Speaking of which...
In that war, right now she's surrounded by enemies. And their common foe literally vanished just now.
Serinas allows herself one deep, calming breath,
...and steels herself for the g-forces, before the Queadluun-Rhea stops hovering and zooms off towards the nearest ZAFT base. Best not to put the Federation's friendliness to the test.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina switches channels, and answers Sayaka privately, "<It's VERY MUCH them! ... And I'm trying! But if we don't stop this!>"
She doesn't even need to finish the statement, after all she told her earlier.
The bullet vanishes into the void, but she can't see it, she can only FEEL that cognitive tear between them, as Yuliana cries out, cries out, buckles, then screams and sobs as Leina shocks her.
There's blood, there's so much blood, its dripping, she feels it on her skin, as she then hooks an arm around her and tries to hold her fast from behind, crying out to her as she writhes
"Yuliana! THIS IS KILLING YOU! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! PLEASE!"
This close, she doesn't see it at first, the way the scars are unweaving, as the skin splits open.
Maybe she's just too scared to look too closely. And then Banagher has it, and she's so human... so human... Leina looks, and pales.
And Yuliana asks a question. She sounds so small and scared, as she asks that question to Banagher, and Leina's eyes sting with tears.
"Yuliana..."
She's too overwhelmed in the moment to even consider the question she asks Banagher, as she babbles at her, "It's going to be okay! You're going to be o-"
Such thoughts though are interrupted by Banagher's sudden SCREAMING, "BANAGHER-!" As she lets loose of Yuliana, and tries to rush towards him.
Then there's an awful crack, as her cloak turns, and - suddenly she's flying through the air, landing heavily on the ground with a yelp-
Just in time to see Elisa cradle her and leave. The world goes from the isolation of a single space, to being so large again - and the sudden expansion leaves a horrible migraine behind as a treat.
"Nnngh." Leina lays there for a moment, her parka dirtied with ice and snow, before rolling over
Sucking in one breath after another against the pain, feeling the still welling tears against the icy chill, it takes her time to voice this feeling.
"God. ... What have you done to yourself? What have you let her do to you?"
Hearing Banagher's sobbing, finally reorients around, and forces herself up, limping over to him, "Banagher! It's okay I won't! It's going to be-"
A pause... as she recognizes it was the same thing she said to Yuliana, "-okay!"
She lowers herself right beside him, holding his hand as she pulls his head into her lap, as she looks over to Mitsuba, she just mouths at her quietly, "Not here." Before-
A private channel is opened to Sayaka, "<Sayaka... if you have the means to quarantine hazardous material... need you down here at my location as soon as you can before G-Hound tries to confiscate it...>"
She does not sound like she's in a great state, but... priorities, they need the means to fight against this.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
A soft breath came from the captain as everything just...ended. Safe. Safe and sound. It takes a few seconds for Tessa to realize how tightly she's gripping the chair, having to consciously relax her hand digit by digit. Was she that tense?
The thing. That thing. Ah, she's not going to have a restful sleep tonight. She could swear she saw it; Something beyon, that vaguely familiar feeling from that letter, from that first terrifying sensation. Something...primal.
<"This is the TDD-1. Thank you. G-Hound, please leave whatever findings you have for Mithril.">
The submarine does dive a bit, but it remains close. Monitoring. Making sense. A message to Mithril, to prepare the closest base for repairs and monitoring. But. They still had their mission to carry out.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
The blade lands, it slices true. For one glorious second, Lucine is lighter than any force that could ever possibly drag her down. There is no mystical force enabling this; just the high of everything, settling into place, like a swipe of a paintbrush that follows its trajectory with perfect percision.
Then the paintbrush explodes into ichor, and screams, and a terrible Void Presence Other From Beyond, and everything crashes down like gravity as reality catches up.
The place, where she had sensed fellow Newtypes Leina and Banagher (and hopefully Mitsuba, safe), something is tearing. "... No, they're being attacked?!" Of course, they'd all be wide open, all flesh and blood, no metal to protect them.
The previous grace of the Dianthus disappears along with every trace of the dragons; it's simply a machine to get from Point A to Point B, as fast as possible, before the worst happens.
For better or worse, even with the Dianthus's speed, Elisa is able to slip away with Yuliana in tow.
The Dianthus makes a careless landing, the cockpit opening before it's even settled fully against the surface. Making a rough leap onto the Dianthus's knee, then onto the ground, Lucine stumbles up, and slows.
If she couldn't sense Banagher, she would have been frightened by the automatic suspicion he was dead. It's a lingering bit of her trauma that always forces itself in on times like this.
".... I can only fit maybe one person in the Dianthus..." She sucks in a breath, her mind imposing her in Leina's place, comforting an overwhelmed Liam.
No, she couldn't bear to separate these two. "....... The Dianthus is in good condition. Tell me what you need." A pause. "Mitsuba's here. I can go with her and explain what I know. You can... fly automatic, okay, right?"
It's implied, but, by the way her lips are set, Lucine is doing something she never thought she would before: loan out the Dianthus.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Sayaka braces herself, gritting her teeth after the Mazinger Blade strikes true, preparing for whatever gruesome counterattack it'll use next.
But it never happens, as the dragons shrivel into nothingness along with a tear in reality.
A transmission from Leina: requesting a means to transport hazardous material. What in the WORLD happened?
The Ichinana swoops down towards where the crack in reality happened, having a hunch that's where she'll find Leina.
"Pilder off," Sayaka states, the hot-blood having totally left her. And the sight she sees is gruesome... blood everywhere. Certainly not Banagher's, but.. something horrible happened here. "Oh god," she breathes.
"Hazardous material, huh." Sayaka takes a look at the necklace. "We don't have much of a choice except to transport the pieces to the Old Lab with this Ichinana," she decides. Normally, she'd take much more precautions but they don't have much time - it's a risk she is willing to take to prevent it from falling in G-Hound's hands.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
A few high-G spins later, Sophia's Flag gets back under control, just in time to see the world start to end.
She looks up, as the sky...the world...?
She grits her teeth. And she opens her eye. The bird within screams out of her, opens her mind and thoughts to the bonds that form the soul. She sees it. Ties to the dragon, ties UP, to the Gate. It burned her before, and it STINGS even now, but she dares to look at it, the way the line hits the gate and scatters like a beam against a shield. But something's coming, isn't it, something's--
A voice shatters the battlefield, a scream. And another presence appears. Soon enough it's gone inside Yuliana's bubble of silence, but Sophia sees it, sees them. Gone too fast to identify, but...
The bonds mark them surely. The columns of connection that pile down from the sky into the vacuum of spirit around Yuliana. She'll see that one again.
ANd then, they're gone, and soon after, the sky cranes closed. Sophia dares to look up, distant bonds she cannot see the termini of spearing toward it, as the Gate closes.
"I saw you, Yuliana Kafim," she hisses.
"If this is your game...I'll end it."
Her teeth grit, her eye burns like fire, but she screams it, "If you're an enemy of everything, then I'll hunt you."
She's screaming it to her cockpit, comms down as her eye burns, burns, from seeing something it shouldn't have, mustn't have. "I CAN SEE YOU, YULIANA KAFIM! I'll find you, and your demon, too!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Get back!, Mitsuba cries, and the emptiness weeps for its lost children, deafened and blind. Don't approach!, Mitsuba cries, and Yuliana feels Her contempt for the temerity of Mitsuba's betrayal.
Banagher bids she hang on, and she does, desperately. Perhaps he is all which stops her from spinning, tossed about by what lies in the void. There is pressure on her wrist, but she doesn't look down to it.
The blood does not soak the scarf quickly. Neither does it slow. Inevitably, at a steady pace, those tears drip and fall.
Leina screams that it's killing her, and is that was this is, this awful pressure in her heart, in her muscles, in her skull, as herself pounds against the walls of herself? She doesn't know how to stop this thing she's begun. "I don't want to die," Yuliana sobs, shattered, shattering. "Please, I don't want to die..."
There's pressure on another injury, as if Banagher could hold together the parts of her. She hears someone tell her it will be okay. Someone...
"Leina..?"
But Leina releases Yuliana to reach for Banagher, and Banagher flies from Yuliana's desperate grasp. And perhaps they can see, as they are forced to leave her, that moment in which she is devastated.
She doesn't want to die alone.
Yuliana staggers backwards, deprived of the boy she was holding herself up against -- but Elisa is there, taking her into her arms. Not like this, her other half insists, and Yuliana jerks and seizes in her arms. She swore obedience, just as Elisa swore protection, but it still takes a horrifying moment for her to heed her wife's words.
A moment longer than Yuliana exists, in that icy shore. Teleported away, it is Elisa alone who observes the way the brightness fades, and the nothing behind those scars knit back together, staunching the flow of blood which Banagher could not stifle.
Protected by her wife, innocent to the hunters she has enraged -- Yuliana cries, too wounded by the struggles of the world.
And the REA will claim no knowledge of this.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
However...
While the REA claims no knowledge, G-Hound's team of allies will find something in the forest, around a dead tree whose barren rings suggest could have been centuries old. It is withered, destroyed, utterly murdered. And it is at the center of a ring of strange runes in no known language. The circle is full of death; dead foilage, ashes that can no longer be recognized as people.
But there is one thing within it, yet: A bloody, straight sword. To Awakened senses it is a horror. To ordinary senses it is otherworldly even so.
There is blood in this ring. Scans will confirm: much of it is human blood. But not all...
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina rubs her fingers through Banagher's hair soothingly, looking dazed from a cornucopia of minor injuries and one bad day, as Lucine asks what she needs - and even offers to loan out the Dianthus.
She then looks towards Sayaka as she notes that the only option is to transport it by Ichinana.
"... If we can't quarantine it, then we don't know how it'll affect your Ichinana right?"
Leina asks Sayaka as if to confirm, "Just need... a box, or something to wrap it in. Got an idea for short range transport - to something that can cover the distance to Fujinomiya... if you really don't mind me flying the Dianthus."
Leina actually laughs lightly, "Thank you- both of you- sorry that things are so crazy right now."
-=-=-
Using the Dianthus for cover, she arranges to meet the TDD out at unspecified coordinates at sea... where they can coordinate quarantining the necklace for long distance transport.
They'll arrange dividing it up and transport to the PPL later for their own research
When she finally returns the Dianthus to Lucine she looks fit to collapse, "God... this day sucked." That thought of Yuliana, how she looked as she thought she was dying...
... that'll haunt her.