2023-03-25: Legend of Zero: Vajra Attack
- Log: Legend of Zero: Vajra Attack
- Cast: Alto Saotome, Ranka Lee, Sheryl Nome, Brera Sterne (NPCed by Sheryl), Ruri Hoshino, Lucine Azul, Rin Starking, Kaiju Navi (NPCed by Grace O'Connor)
- Where: A beautiful Pacific island
- OOC - IC Date: March 25, 0097 (2023)
- Summary: Miranda Merin, the star of the movie Bird Human, has been getting harassed recently, and blames her co-star, Ranka Lee. When Ranka loses her temper, a swarm of Vajra suddenly attack, forcing the assembled cast and crew to retreat while those battle-ready fight back.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
There's a low buzz of excitement around the Bird Human movie set on this beautiful pacific island. There's only a couple of scenes left to film. Which is a good thing, since the movie's premiere is in just over two weeks. One wonders how the poor editors are going to survive preparing these final scenes in time.
One of those final scenes to film isn't technically a scene, but rather stunt footage for the movie's final battle against the titular Bird Human. Obviously there is no actual Bird Human to fight, but nonetheless pilots from all over have once again been gathered (some are even getting paid!) to participate in a mock combat to improve the realism of the battle. Said battle isn't scheduled until tomorrow though, so right now the set is rather peaceful. There is a quick re-shoot of a scene planned for today, but it's not a major one so this is a good opportunity for people to enjoy the beautiful scenery...
... That is until an ear-piercing screech can be heard stretching out across the set. Is someone in danger!? Is someone hurt!? Are ravenous animals attacking the set again!?
Numerous people look in the direction of the scream's source. But once they realise where it came from, they just shrug and continue on about their work. The reason quickly becomes clear as a trailer door is slammed open. The leading actress of the movie, Miranda Merin, comes storming out of the trailer. She takes a few steps across the sandy beach before demanding loudly, "WHOEVER DID THIS, SHOW YOURSELF!" What 'this' is, is not immediately clear from a distance. Still, many on the movie's crew are trying to make themselves scarce, long ago fed up with the actress's behaviour. So when Miranda scans the beach for possible culprits, there aren't many in sight. Which unfortunately means Miranda's gaze settles upon her green-haired co-star, "You!"
Miranda storms up to Ranka, calling out, "You're responsible for this, I just know it!" 'This' becomes far clearer now that Miranda is pointing to her face. Where a collection of discoloured blotches adorn what is her normally pristine skin. Most likely an allergic reaction, though not a serious one. Still, everyone knows just how important the face is to a movie star.
As she stops in front of Ranka, Miranda explains, "I'm always very careful with what I put on my face, so I know it had to be deliberate! What is this? Some kind of misplaced revenge for your firing?" Even though everyone knows she did it, she still tries to play innocent.
"First they hire a talent-less nobody as an extra. Then even after your ineptitude is put on display for all, they go ahead and give you the role of Mao! The rest of us are going to be lucky if our careers aren't dragged into the mud by whatever it is you claim to be doing in front of the camera, because it sure isn't acting!"
----
The commotion is starting to draw attention from others further away. Including Alto, who was helping to perform final checks on the stunt VFs. Leaning over to look, he asks, "What's going on?"
Michael, a fellow pilot of Skull squadron, shrugs, "Looks like 'her highness' is at it again. This time with Ranka."
Alto frowns, putting down the checklist he was holding, "I'll be back." He starts walking towards the source of the commotion.
Michael mock sighs, "Ahhh, the white knight, charging to the princess's side."
Next to him, Luca, another member of Skull squadron, says, "I feel sorry for Ranka... She's worked so hard at this."
----
"-not to mention how unclean that creature you've been trying to keep hidden probably is. Who knows what kinds of diseases it's carrying! It should be disposed of before it gets us all sick!" Apparently Miranda is still at it, "Go on-" Her hand comes up, giving Ranka a shove to her chest, "-admit it! You've been trying to sabotage me and this movie since day one!" She takes a step forward, trying to use her clear height advantage over Ranka to loom over her.
Yet as Miranda's shoe comes down to the ground, there is an ominous crunching sound. Miranda looks down in surprise, "What's that?" She shifts her foot over, revealing a sea shell irreparably broken into hundreds of pieces.
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
Ranka's not in costume today, indeed she's in casual wear, but shes hard at work all the same. She started the morning with her vocal exercises, because theyre soon to record the movie's ED song. It is perhaps not linked to the filming today, but it is nevertheless important.
She could sing Aimo perfectly in her sleep, but the new verses added to create a tribute to the Mayan People were transformative in a way. It's surreal to her in a sense, she never imagined sharing this song with the whole world but...
...perhaps it's time. Maybe it was meant to be. The thought gave her a smile, thinking of how many friends she met because of the song, how important this song could become to so many people. She was still riding the high of several wonderful experiences lately, a hand carding through her hair as she reminisced when
A shriek erupted from the set, and like many, Ranka immediately dropped what she was doing to rush towards the trailer. In the light and breezy outfit she's in right now, her pace is a touch slower than the rest, but just in time for the furious Miranda to burst forth and march right up to her.
Ranka's red eyes suddenly become touched with panic, as she takes a step back, "I didn't- I-!" She looks at the flourishing hives on Mirandas face, as she moves into a defensive position shes assumed almost her entire life during confrontation. "I wouldn't!"
The tirade keeps going though, and Ranka feels that anger, that fury second hand, it pounds into her brain in a building rhythm. And for a time she holds her hands on either side of her head, offering no further defense to her accusations, towards the idea of her unworthiness towards the position, the ineptitude of her acting.
anger anger anger anger anger anger anger
"Don't-" She whimpers out a word as she reveals Ai-kuns presence to everyone surrounding them. "Don't... bring him into this." Yet all she gets for her troubles is a shove, as she yelps, hitting the dirt, as the sea shell Alto gave her, on that loose cord hangs to the side of her neck, on the sand.
At first she doesn't even know what happens, when the crunch sounds. Its not until that heel, so close to her head and neck is lifted, as she eyes it, and those red eyes of her go wide. And it's like something inside of her just, snaps too upon seeing that precious gift break. As a hand slides over, slipping around its broken shards, scooping them up in a fistful of sand and shell. So many tiny fragments of what was once a precious gift.
ANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGERANGER
There is a reason she has always assumed the stance of the coward. It is the knowledge that actions have consequences. That her actions have consequences. And deep within her, she knows. She knows.
Someone could get hurt.
As she climbs up, she doesn't even dust herself off, head bowed, and for a time people might mistake her for being about to burst into tears, and running away. "What's... that? You ask... that, then you just..."
As her red eyes slide up towards her with a cold fury in them, like an unlit hearth, but building towards increasing heat in their fury. "You think what, because you won Miss Macross and you're the lead actress for the film that you can step on people and the things important to them?"
She starts walking towards her, fists balled up at her sides, her eyes gleaming with this slightly unhinged look, like that of a cornered animal that's finally biting back, "Is that what you think? That we're all just beneath you? That we don't understand our place and that's why youre allowed to act this way?
She asks with a building pressure of her that sudden immense anger. "It's not that you think I've done anything to you other than EXIST around you! Youre just jealous because you think you've earned Sheryl's attention, and she wont even look your way! But you don't understand the first thing about Sheryl, not really. And its easier to blame that on me, to blame everything on me, than to look at the ugly truth."
Elsewhere, certain instruments go wild, as the waves go into a chaotic sprawl of emotion of what is transmitted as she raises a finger, and points it right at her, "You are an awful, unpleasant bully, and everyone EVERYONE sees it! ... But we don't have to hear it. If you're going to be like this then..."
There's a moment of silence, where between the ebb and flow of the waves perhaps a pin could be heard dropping, even if it were to land on only the sand of the beach, as her hand drops back to her side, and over the urgent pounding in her ears, she pronounces it to Miranda, like an imperious command that allows no argument.
"...I won't hear another word from you. Not. ONE!"
And unbeknowst to her. A multitude feels that command too.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
It's been a hectic shoot, to be sure. Sheryl has already finished recording her theme for Bird Human, after passing the lyrics back and forth between the director, the director's assistant, and Grace, and she's pleased with it--but the movie itself? It's been a disaster.
Having gone back and forth between the island and various other places for various other jobs, Sheryl hasn't been privy to all of Miranda's misfortune, but she's heard enough--and when she screeches and storms out of her trailer with rashes on her face, she's seen enough, too. Sheryl looks over from the tent where she's drinking a water. Brera, her bodyguard, looks over too.
There's an instant where both of them tense as Miranda berates Ranka for all to hear--even steps on her pendant. Brera's already starting to move that way. When Ranka bites back, though--Sheryl grabs his arm and shakes her head.
"Why are you stopping me?" he growls, his glare intense even behind his shades.
"Believe me, I know how you feel. But Ranka told me once she wants to be able to rise up by standing on her own two feet," Sheryl murmurs back, staring right back at him anyway. "You and I might not like it, but this is a reality of show business." She smiles and settles that hand on her hip as she looks back at the two bickering young women. "This is an important step in the stairs she's climbing, and it looks like she's climbing them just fine on her own."
Brera's frown implies he doesn't agree. Still, he remains where he is after all, shaded gaze turning back to Ranka and Miranda.
But while Sheryl might have a stronger grasp on the social nuances, it's Brera who'll sense a certain rumble first...
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri Hoshino is not a movie star. She operates behind the scenes. As Bird Human's smallest technical support, she's troubleshot all manner of electronic glitches and misbehaving software, always making sure the movie can go forward on schedule.
She's typing away on her laptop, as ever, fixing one of those inevitable problems. She's under the shade of an umbrella, even though she has plenty of sunscreen on, just like Minato told her. (It's Pure Shield, of course. Not that Ruri would be taken in by all that foolishness; she's just supporting Sheryl.) Ruri isn't in a swimsuit on the beach today, but she's close, in a cute, casual blue sundress.
This isn't the first time she's looked up from her fingers flying over those keys to see Ranka getting bullied.
It bothers her.
Ruri frowns, as she watches Miranda bite into Ranka -- and she watches, as Ranka stands up for her. "... fool," Ruri mutters, glaring at Miranda with a withering expression, fingers still. She clips her laptop shut and pushes her hands against the fold-out table to stand -- she doesn't have the showbiz intuition Sheryl has, about this.
She approaches Ranka, anyway.
If only it were ever that simple.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Ever since the animal attacks, this movie set hasn't been the pleasant sunny getaway it once was. Lucine has been keeping a tazer on her as a general rule, and she's definitely not been going out onto the beach in her nice new swimsuit. The pilot suit, while not offering much more protection than standard clothing, at least isn't bare skin, and it means she's ready for when they finally do need those shots. With Ruri nearby, she needs to be a good guardian! But that doesn't mean Lucine can't enjoy watching the waves, feeling the sea breeze from underneath the beach umbrella, and the cries of the gulls.
Ah, so peaceful, so mesmerizing...
The exclamation from the blotchy-faced Miranda draws Lucine's attention from the waves. "...?" She blinks away the half sleep, spotting the star actress stalk towards Ranka, as well as where Ruri is, which is going straight towards Ranka.
Moving to stand, sand is kicked out of her way as Lucine awkwardly steps over the shifting sands, feeling a duty to come to both Ranka and Ruri's aid.
But, when those yellow eyes, darker than the pale yellow that colors Ruri's, sees Alto, Lucine stops in her walk. Alto'd have an easier time stopping Miranda, Lucine reasons.
Ranka is shoved to the ground. *crunch* The seashell, too small for Lucine to notice, is broken. "...!!" This is going too far. Lucine resumes her walk, sand groaning from those first few footfalls.
It hits like glass breaking against a tile floor.
She's never felt Ranka so angry. And worse...
.... why does she feel that flutter of panic in the pit of her stomach? That odd, active sort of panic that treads the line between paranoia and legitimate fear, that has, many times, led to nothing? She's had fewer incidents of that recently, as her memories of the Mars invasion sink into the past.
".... Ranka...." Seeing, hearing, and feeling Ranka's anger is setting something off inside her, clearly. That is the only way to explain it.
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
Rin Starking has been enjoying this movie life, but...
It is pretty isolated, isn't it?
It's good to have moments like this, though. She might die any time, as they are so often reminded. A colony could land on Area 11, or Britannia, or even right here. She could have a sudden genetic disease. The Federation forces, or Britannia, or the REA, or all kinds of other people could take offense. Her life could change drastically - choices collapsing into a narrow, hollow wave-form.
Isn't it good to dream?
But it can be a little lonely.
Rin, right now, is working on the connection for a lighting rig. She has often ended up doing this kind of intermediate technology thing. She has been a litle less inclined to volunteer for everything after the bad situation with Ranka. So when she looks up and over at Miranda with a little smirk at her misfortune, she is relatively alone.
Letting out a sigh, Rin looks up - and then stares a little as Ranka begins her counterblast. Line and chapter and verse. Rin, for her part, doesn't let her mask continue. She just starts grinning like an idiot. She can't quite hear what Ranka is saying. She shifts, connecting the two cables she had in hand, and rests her hands on her knees.
Her lips make a little 'ooo' as Ruri Hoshino, local shorty and professional internetter, steps forwards. Is she about to join the parade? Rin reaches for her phone, and flips through the video app--
<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.
'...I won't hear another word from you. Not. ONE!'
The emotions carried by those words rush across neural pathways, as chemicals fired across synapses and in cortisol released into the bloodstream. It is carred far away from the cognitive center of the body and deep down into a place more primal, a place as old as multicellular life. There strange microbes detect the tracers of distress, of trauma, and yes even anger... and they glow with an eerie light as they begin firing off signals.
... but not within the flesh and blood confines, but across a network far older than even multicellular life, yet somehow spanning the infinite divides of space.
There those signals are received, causing similar microbes to stir to life and release chemicals that in turn stir the flesh and blood of the creatures that house them. There is no center of cognition housed within their flesh, no place where the nuance of verbal communication could be interpreted.
All that can be understood is that there is hurt, there is discomfort, and there is a desire to stop the living breathing source of that hurt and discomfort.
And it is to that, They Come.
In beautiful primal synchronicity, the sky alights with a cloud of fold signatures. One by one creatures emerge from the immaterial into realspace - their tan bodies seeming to swim easily through air as they do through space. Then a larger, weightier signature appears at the eye of the swarm. From this comes a larger beast, its crimson carapace seeming to reflect the anger of the one who called to it.
As the swarm finishes emerging into realspace, each one turns its gaze towards the island. The smaller tan-carapaced Vajra cloud undulates before splitting to encircle the island. Simultaneously they become a physical barrier - ensuring that no vessel can make an easy attempt to escape - and the seeking gaze looking for the one who called it. And the eyes for the larger beast leading the van of the horde, descending like some crimson meteor into the midst of the production as if seeking to obliterate everything in a single crashing blow!
But it doesn't. Instead it unfurls at the last moment, spinning gracefully in the air as it unfolds and lands upon the firmament. But it doesn't attack at first. Instead its multitudinous eyes sweep the movie set, its mouthparts clicking rhythmically as if in thought and uncaring of the chaos and terror it has sown. It's known, at least to some, that these creatures lack a brain and thus, theoretically, the capacity to think. It may seem odd then that such a creature would seem so contemplative. Whatever the reason for this brief reprieve though, it is no doubt a godsend for the cast and crew as they scatter for whatever safety or shelter they can hope to find.
... it is but a brief reprieve though. The eyes sweep over several figures, and a broken scattered shape in the dirt between them. One figure luminous and alive with thought and feeling, the others cold and dark. Alien. Monstrous.
And there are many more cold and dark ones here. They are unlike the luminous ones, unlike themselves. The Vajra's eyes flash red, as if filled with sudden intent. It raises its two smaller appendages up, chitonous pores opening to reveal the 'barrels' of their bio-organic equivalent of vulcan cannons.
Meanwhile the cloud of smaller Vajra beasts encircling the island begins to converge.
... Violence is about to begin.
KTS: Kaiju Navi has deployed in Vajra Heavy Soldier.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Initially nonplussed by the fact that she just crushed a sea shell beneath her foot (they're on a beach, there's shells all over the place!), Miranda suddenly finds herself surprised as Ranka actually stands up to her. This increases into a mild panic as those red eyes rise to settle on her, anger shining within.
As Ranka steps forwards towards Miranda, she instinctively takes a step back. Then another, as the small bundle of rage continues to approach. Miranda tries to counter, "No, that's not-" But she can't get manage to get a word in as Ranka continues to press her. Miranda starts glancing around, looking for some sort of assistance. Someone to run to her defense...
... But all she finds in accusing stares. Nods of agreement to Ranka's words.
She's on her own.
"B-But I'm the star-"
Again Ranka cuts her off. Finally finishing off with those words, '...I won't hear another word from you. Not. ONE!'
Miranda is silent. Shaken by the anger on display. As her mind struggles to put together a coherent sentence in response, her thoughts are drawn elsewhere.
What's that rumbling?
----
Alto had arrived within sight of the commotion shortly before Ranka's surge of fury. He had intended to intervene but once he realized that Ranka was starting to stand up for herself, he stopped. Part of it is surprise that she has it in her. But part of it is also that, like Sheryl, he recognizes that this is an opportunity for Ranka. So he just stays where he is, watching. And a little impressed.
----
Now though, a light show begins to dot the sky above them. Alto eyes are drawn are drawn upwards, along with everyone else.
That can't be good.
He slowly starts to walk towards Ranka and Miranda. Though not out of any intention to interrupt, but out of concern that something's about to happen...
... And sure enough, numerous, familiar forms begin to emerge from those lights. Definitely not good!
A comm window pops up near Ruri, the Nadesico's comms officer, Megumi, quickly saying, "Ruri! We need you back here! There's a large number of Vajra approaching!"
Alto goes a little pale as he looks around at all the movie cast and crew staring at the distant forms, most unaware of what it is they're looking at. Alto shouts, "Everyone! Get to the Nadesico! NOW!"
Initially confused, people begin to realize that they actually might be in danger. Quickly enough they begin to start moving towards the long pier that stretches out towards the Nergal vessel currently floating in the water.
Alto quickly rushes over to Ruri, leaning over her shoulder towards the comm window, "Megumi! Launch my Messiah to my location."
"R-Right! Mister Uribatake says he's finished the tuning on your new pack, do you want-"
"Yes!" Alto turns to look back at the large swarm, "I'm going to need it."
A short time later, Alto's Messiah rockets out of the Nadesico's catapult. Autopilot taking it, it banks around, quickly transforming into GERWALK mode. Slowing to a hover above Alto, the craft lowers down and lands on its feet, leaning down to move the cockpit closer to the ground.
The Messiah is looking a little different today. A little chunkier. Like it's put on weight. Many tons actually, in the form of additional armor segments and weapons platforms.
Alto gives one quick concerned look towards Ranka, then Sheryl, before shouting, "Go! Hurry!" He then turns, rushing to climb into his machine. The Messiah soon stands upright once more. It raises the large gunpod in its hand towards the swarming Vajra fliers and begins to fire into them on full auto.
KTS: Alto Saotome has deployed in VF-25F Armored Messiah. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Kaiju_Navi has deployed as a Boss for 3 opponents. KTS: Alto Saotome targets Kaiju Navi with Gatling Sweep! KTS: Alto Saotome has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rin Starking has deployed in Kyokei Mk. 108. KTS: Ruri Hoshino has deployed in ND-001 Nadesico. KTS: EN Barrier activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
It's often said that you should beware the nice ones, once they are pushed so far, and it feels like she's proving that right now, pushing up against her. Hardly letting her get a word in.
She might be sympathetic ordinarily to her plight of all she's going through, if not for it having an almost karmic element to it given what she has put Ranka herself through.
Sheryl is correct, Ranka does want to stand on her own two feet, which is why she's never tried to leverage her growing friendship with Sheryl in her rise to stardom.
She feels if she achieved it that way, then she only did because of Sheryl's help. Still it's hard, hard for her to be assertive. Hard for her to stand up for herself.
It's understandable that Brera would want to step in...
Ruri approaches, calls Miranda a fool under her breath, and Ranka doesn't mind it though, more people than her ought to show Miranda she can't treat people this way.
Whereas Lucine warns her... what? Right now she's pretty mad at Miranda, so she doesn't... quite even comprehend the warning. And Rin grins at these proceedings but in the end...
... her anger transforms into shock and horror as the sky fills with a cloud of the creatures, the swarm spreading out to surround them, "Va-Vajra!?" She almost sinks to her knees at the sight of them, so many.
A comm window pops up to the nearby Ruri, and Alto shouts and...
Coming off the adrenaline rush of her anger, Ranka doesn't succumb to her fear for once and quickly runs up to Ruri and grabs her hand, "Come on! We're getting you back to the ship!"
A quick glance is given for Sheryl and Brera, before she starts to try to lead the way, running over the beach towards the Nadesico while looking over her shoulder every now and then for other members of the cast.
Alto tells them to hurry, and she nods quickly, again and again, "Don't worry! We've got this! We'll get there!" As if she were trying to tell him to worry more about the Vajra than her.
Which is... braver than she has been about this kind of situation for some time? Maybe she's just riding that anger high.
Ranka for her part grips Ruri's hand, white knuckled, still looking over her shoulder to check on Sheryl every now and then.
KTS: Ranka Lee has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Alto Saotome! <Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
There's a moment as Alto approaches, clearly intent on Ranka's aid before he stops to let her stand up for herself, that Brera's frown deepens into a scowl. He moves again to storm over--and Sheryl almost lets him, out of a twinge of her own jealousy.
But then Ruri is coming over too, and Lucine is coming into view, and Rin is raising her phone to record the fight, and Sheryl hurries forward to block Brera's way entirely this time.
"Let Ranka stand on her own two feet. It's what she wants," she insists, tone practicedly even.
"And let him go to her instead? That man is not worthy of protecting Ranka," Brera growls with as much emotion as Sheryl has ever seen him express.
"He's plenty worthy. You just don't like him," she tells him curtly, folding her arms.
He stares at her. Given his typical inexpressiveness, it's hard to tell what exactly he thinks of that. But it is enough to give him pause.
And it's at that moment that the swarm erupts through the heavens, folding in numbers so great they blot out the sun.
The wind blown by the Vajra's wings blasts through the set, and Sheryl cries out as it hits her and makes her stumble. Brera catches her, but his eyes are already up, their lenses shifting and zooming in as they take in the deluge of insectile aliens.
Alto shouts for everyone to get to the Nadesico. Brera pays him no mind. He's listening to orders from a different source, sent to him wirelessly. He's looking at Ranka, so small and even smaller now with the Vajra towering over her.
"Alto..." Sheryl murmurs, pushing back a long lock of her hair out of her face as she straightens and turns to see the Messiah deploy from the Nadesico. A small smile creeps onto her lips as she spots Ranka next, no longer cowering, taking action to get herself and Ruri to safety.
Then she yelps as Brera kneels and picks her up, then dashes over to the head of the evacuatees, which of course is conveniently close to Ranka.
"B-Brera, what are you doing?!" Sheryl demands of her bodyguard.
"Guarding your body," Brera replies without looking at her, which is such an inarguable response that all she can do is fume.
At least all of them will be easily able to keep tabs on each other for the moment--and they'll also all get aboard the Nadesico quickly this way. Brera absolutely won't let anything block their path.
KTS: Sheryl Nome has deployed as a Sub Pilot for Ruri Hoshino! KTS: All-Out: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Buff,MAP KTS: Caution: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Buff,MAP KTS: Coordinate: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Buff,MAP KTS: Prospect: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Buff KTS: Shock: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Debuff,MAP KTS: Awe: 0 Ranged,Passive,Special,Buff,MAP KTS: Pass: 0 Ranged,Passive,All-Range
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
Rin Starking doesn't notice the lights in the sky, but when one of them comes close -- descending. Rin sees the motion> She turns her head and she stares as the Vajra descends and unfurls, hideous, alien, beautiful, unreachable, *here*... and pausing there.
Perhaps it's stunting, thinks Rin.
Rin stares at it for 2.7 subjective seconds, 1 objective second, simply taking it in. Her eyes saccade behind her glasses.
And at subjective 3.0secs, her eyes squeeze shut. Damn it, she thinks. We're all going to-- even if the Nadesico fights them off, we -- we're all -- this can't be what happens! This can't -- Oh, god, everyone's --
Inwardly, Rin's excoriations turn inwards. Do something, idiot!! Didn't you brag to that Britannian dipshit that you were -- that you were a Super Soldier??? Your father was a hero, moron! Haul your fat ass!
-- and that's why Rin, belatedly, turns and flees at flank speed. She is running all out. If you tracked her, she's actually running a little faster than everyone else. She's not running for the tree line, though. Rin is running towards the far end of the crew space, where the heavy labor wanzers were parked. "Come on come on one of you be open please be unlocked please be unlocked YES!" Rin grasps a side of the machine, pulling herself upwards, throwing herself into the cockpit.
In there she takes several deep hyperventilating breaths. Her pulse is hammering. Fine, she thinks, reaching into a pocket to take out two things; a bottle of little pills and her phone. She takes two of the pills and puts the rest in the little cockpit space, and as for her phone, she looks at it for a moment.
She looks up. The Vajra is there.
Rin twists the phone around and forces the case open, leaning forwards. Her hands are shaking. Come on, she thinks, come on Miss Super Soldier, don't screw up, Rin tells herself. She opens up part of the console, fishes out a connector, and jams it into the base of the phone. The rest of the casing, which she cracked with her hands, is shucked off and torn aside. "Come on," she breathes. "Okay, okay, this is WANZIX," Rin tells herself at high quiet speed, "this is something you know, he's compatible... okay, phone, override Screw Grandpa Nine Four Alpha."
The phone screen goes blank, shows a logo, and then shows... a command line. Rin reaches for the tiny in-console keyboard to type loading commands. "Okay okay there's no local drive shit shit shit but that's full bus okay okay okay come on alright come on Rancor boot up for me -"
The phone screen blinks out. Then the command line comes back. "Rancor please," Rin breathes. "I need you and I need the voice at once without the voice interface we're gonna just die like a bad video come on come on come on GOD DAMNIT!"
"okay, last time," Rin says. "Rancor -- please -- please --"
> SECUTRON OS 5.0.1.21 LOADING...
> Loading haxrin.pkg.............
> YES, YOUR PRINCESSNESS
"Thank God," Rin breathes as her head slumps. She straightens up then and stands for a moment to pull the cockpit's access hatch shut. And...
To an external view, one of the Wanzers' engines starts! It rises upwards.
Command text scrolls on the phone screen even as another side view pops up on the interface.
> EXTERNAL DRIVE PWR 93%
> EXTERNAL DRIVE TMP 52C
"Better than nothing. RANCOR CAN YOU HEAR ME," Rin says as she leans backwards, and the Wanzer bobbles a little. "Okay! I'm gonna worry about the arms, you just do the legs! I --"
Jesus this is scary, Rin thinks as the Wanzer turns to face the Vajra. Rin breathes out. "Okay," Rin says.
"Go."
And then it charges. It's a long low loping approach but it is going straight at the Vajra as it raises up one arm, reinforced and with a cargo loader fork still attached to it for labor purposes. Accelerating down the slope of the beach, shouting wordlessly inside of the cockpit --
Until she finds words as she sees people scattering in the periphery: "GET OFF OUR ISLAND!!"
KTS: Rin Starking targets Kaiju Navi with MULS-P Shield Bash! KTS: Rin Starking has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lucine Azul has deployed in Dianthus Mk. 3. KTS: Lucine Azul has changed loadout.
KTS: Sheryl Nome targets Ruri Hoshino with Coordinate! KTS: Sheryl Nome has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
They Come.
Lucine is like a statue, as the sky bleeds with multiple signals of insectile forms.
..... why is this happening
.... this isn't what
.... why
She lets out a scream of primal terror, echoed by the bright pulse of animal fear that issues out from her, a complusive Newtype signal of distress, showing possible images of a different sky, broken in like a cracking egg.
Something tries to happen, but something crucial is missing.
Her heart is beating in her ears, but it isn't enough to obscure Alto's voice.
No. No, this isn't the same. This isn't the same. This is not the same. "This isn't the same." It is not the same. "No."
"..... Ruri, please call the Dianthus, once Alto's is finished." Lucine's voice is flat. ".... I apologize for my outburst." The apology is a formality.
The Dianthus will arrive not soon after the Alto's improved model; if Lucine's brain wasn't jittery as it was, she'd notice the difference. As it is, all she wants is to be in the shield of the Dianthus, and to be where she knows she can fire back.
< ".... Lucine Azul, providing assistance." > The Dianthus draws its Beam Arbalest as its pilot settles fully against her seat.
Her mouth still feels dry, but she knows she's not alone.
The Dianthus fires its first shot. < ".... No one is dying." >
KTS: Lucine Azul targets Kaiju Navi with Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Aim! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri approaches Ranka -- but so does something else.
"The enemy..?" Ruri asks, as she looks up. Is she just being foolish...?
No. The bugs swarm, and her expression grows drawn. For a moment, she doesn't act -- until the comm window pops up. "Ah," Ruri blinks, looking to Megumi, with a sharp nod. "I understand."
If only she understood the tense feeling in her chest.
(She is facing the Vajra with her own eyes again, and she is afraid.)
Perhaps someone else can feel her feelings better than she can, though -- because Ranka takes her hand and starts running. "Ah--!" Ruri gasps, but she grasps tightly to Ranka's hand, in turn, as she runs after her. She has shorter legs, but this isn't the first time -- sadly enough -- that she's had to run for her life.
Megumi, in a comms window, directs the evacuees onto the Nadesico: "Please progress up the ramp! There's room for everyone!" Luckily, there's room for everyone's machines, too, and the pilots surely all know the way to the hangars. (The film crew -- yes, even Miranda -- instead get directed to a place they can be safe during the battle.)
Ranka, of course, is their most diligent intern, so she knows the way to the bridge, and can take Ruri there.
"Ruri -- Hoshino, on deck, reporting," the littlest systems operator reports, huff-puffing a little and trying to be inconspicuous about it as she moves around to her station in the middle of the bottom rung of the bridge. Megumi, for her part, hands Sheryl and Ranka headsets much like hers -- "You can use these to contact everyone," she explains, perhaps not even for the first time.
"Now deploying the Dianthus," Ruri reports, because she still remembers Lucine's request. Her voice is not nearly as disquiet as her heart.
"It looks like all the civilians are on board," Megumi reports.
"All right," Jun Aoi, the Nadesico's executive officer, decides. "It's time to launch!"
"Launching," Ruri reports, in turn. She presses her hands to her console, and her IFS injections light up with the receptive nanomachines, as she and Omoikane close up the Nadesico and lift it from its parked position. It's... difficult, to manuever this close to the ground, but Ruri is a very good Operator.
She looks at the swarm, and to Omoikane, she says: "Please fire as many missiles as you deem appropriate."
Omoikane fires an absolute barrage of missiles, because he can feel how tense Ruri is, even if she's struggling.
KTS: Ruri Hoshino targets Kaiju Navi with Missile Barrage! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to charge. KTS: Kaiju Navi's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Aim, taking 4464 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi charges into the attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Ruri Hoshino's Missile Barrage, taking 1950 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi charges into the attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Alto Saotome's Gatling Sweep, taking 2800 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi rushes into the attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Rin Starking's MULS-P Shield Bash, taking 2750 damage! KTS: Rin Starking has engaged Kaiju Navi!
<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.
Yet the creature does not fire. Strange. Instead it continues to lumber forward. Suddenly it appears as if the hands are not meant to shoot, but to grasp. To seize.
To crush.
Even as ponderously as it moves there is little hope for such small forms to escape easily. Though they try. And it is at this moment that it begins to fire, raking the area they and the other evacuees are fleeing toward with massive bio-generated shells that kick of gouts of dirt and dust! It all seems hopeless after all...
At least until something happens to draw the beast's ire. A gunpod ignites in fire, emitting shards of pain that connect with the smaller ones in its number. The creature rears back immediately as some few of its smaller breathern burst with the force of the blasts, and immediately spreads its prismatic insectoid wings to pursue - seemingly having forgotten its initial targets for now.
Just as it begins to rise though, the Wanzer pilotied by Rin and Rancor charges straight into the larger beast. The result of the impact sends it off its initial attack trajectory. Good news. Bad news is that the Wanzer now also has earned its ire.
As Lucine's Dianthus draws its beam Arbalest and lines up the shot, some of the smaller beasts take notice. They descend from the cloud attempting to disrupt the shot of the pilot, but fail to reach her in time. Instead they dive directly in between the shot at the larger Vajra, their relatively thin carapaces crumpling and collapsing before their body explodes. Meanwhile the Nadesico fires a barrage of missiles, as many in a volley as their ports can contain. Once again the smaller Vajra demonstrate their self-sacrificing behavior - throwing themselves out from the cloud to get in the way of the missiles so that they explode before hitting the main body of their force. The result is that many are eradicated... but less than would be if the missiles were allowed to continue all the way to their target.
Then from the smoke cloud comes a bright blast of green energy, piercing the through the dust and leaving a hole burned through the middle! The shot is aimed directly at one of the offending missile ports of the Nadesico, apparently intending to respond in kind and try to disable what has hurt its kin.
Meanwhile the remainder of the swarm dances around their targets: Alto, Rin, and to a lesser extent Lucine. They attempt to harry their victims with numbers and their own bio cannons before suddenly, synchronously breaking out of their attack pattern.
In the gap comes another swarm - micro-missiles, forged through some unknown organic process in the Vajra's own body, comes to consume their victims in fire and smoke. Rin and Rancor's wanzer, in particular, will get an up close view of the missile pod on the great beast opening wide before unleashing the explosive barrage at nearly point blank range.
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Ruri Hoshino with Vajra Bio-Cannon Tearing Shot! KTS: Kaiju Navi has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Kaiju Navi Changes attack to Alto Saotome, Lucine Azul, and Rin Starking with Vajra Bio-Micro-Missiles Wide-Area Barrage. KTS: Sheryl Nome coordinates maneuvers, raising Ruri Hoshino's Piloting! KTS: Rin Starking blocks Kaiju Navi's Vajra Bio-Micro-Missiles Wide-Area Barrage, taking 5160 damage! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Ruri Hoshino's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Ruri Hoshino fails to evade Kaiju Navi's Vajra Bio-Cannon Tearing Shot, taking 2880 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul fails to evade Kaiju Navi's Vajra Bio-Micro-Missiles Wide-Area Barrage, taking 5590 damage! KTS: Alto Saotome's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Alto Saotome blocks Kaiju Navi's Vajra Bio-Micro-Missiles Wide-Area Barrage, taking 3630 damage! <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
People continue to rush towards the pier and the Nadesico at its end. But even as they run as fast as they can, the process is likely agonisingly slow to those who are trying to fight the Vajra off and keep them away from the civilians.
Another pair of Messiahs launch from the Nadesico, both also wearing the SMS logo similar to Alto's. Though one is primarily blue in colour, the other a light teal with a large radar dish on its back. The first lands upon the Nadesico's deck, transforming into Battroid mode and then lying down. It brings its long rifle forward and starts firing off single rounds, each one piercing through individual Vajra with unnerving accuracy. The light teal Messiah also lands on the Nadesico's deck, in GERWALK mode. It begins feeding additional battlefield data to other machines in the area to assist them with their fight.
Meanwhile, Alto's own version starts to take several steps over to join the Dianthus. Between bursts of gunpod fire, Alto asks, <"You alright, Lucine?">
Alto also notices one of the wanzers is now moving and fighting back too. He's not sure who's in the cockpit, but the help is definitely appreciated.
Alto's systems alert him to a barrage of missiles heading his way. He quickly pulls his left control back and up, the movement triggering the VF's transformation. It briefly separates, electromagnetic forces rearranging the parts into its fully humanoid Battroid mode before recombining them.
Alto quickly raises the shield attached on the left arm, a barrier of glowing light appearing just beyond it. The missiles streak in, exploding against the barrier, some managing to skirt around its edges to strike the Messiah proper.
But as the smoke from the explosions fades, the Messiah is still standing there, looking to have weathered the explosions quite well.
Alto nonetheless grunts at the force of the explosions in his cockpit, after which he radios, <"There's so many of them!"> These particularly Vajra aren't all that threatening individually. But in so many numbers... Alto continues trying to whittle the numbers down, his gunpod firing more bursts into the swarm, trying to coordinate with Lucine's own movements.
----
In the Nadesico, things are a little concerning as the movie crew and cast are shuffled into a room. Then there's a shaking, as the Nadesico takes a hit. The movie's director, the famous George Yamamori, looks around for a moment. He then gives his assistant a look. The two nod to each other, moving to leave the room. Curious, a certain lead actress follows them.
A short time later, the three enter the bridge. Should they even be there? Well, they are technically with Nergal. But still! Observing as the battle plays out, it's Miranda who is the one to speak up first, "Why are those things here!?" She of course recognises the Vajra from the attack against the Frontier Fleet.
KTS: Alto Saotome targets Kaiju Navi with Leading Fire! KTS: Alto Saotome has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
Breathlessly she runs, she runs with Ruri right up the ramp, and right onto the bridge. It's a good thing she'd been getting much more exercise with her dance practice. A good thing, because despite running for her life, she's only a bit winded upon arrival. "Alright Ruri... you've... you've got this!"
And indeed, as an extremely diligent intern, its not long before they're there. The Vajra attack, it's terrifying, she almost died from the Vajra time and time again. Even once getting thrown into the vacuum of space. Already she can fill the ship rock from the blast of the Vajra's cannon and she stifles a cry in her throat.
What can she do though? Again and again she asks that question, and again and again she comes up with the same answer. She doesn't remember why, she just has the feeling that this song might help people in combat even if only to stay calm.
Some part of her has always been scared of sharing this song too widely. A deep seated fear, an insecurity she has always had. And so she sang it to only one person at a time, usually people who came upon her singing it, or someone she felt needed the same calming touch - or merely, someone who wanted to hear it from her. She hadn't even sang it to Elmo, but if it is time for all to hear it, then perhaps it might be of use right now.
"Omoikane. Can you link me in to the ship's broadcast systems?"
< OK! >
< SONG = GO() >
Putting on her headset from Megumi, and adjusting the mic, she takes a deep breath, and begins to sing, using the Nadesico's speakers to broadcast all over the island. An ethereal quality, sweet, calming tone rings out from her voice and spreads throughout all of the island entire, as if calling for peace from all things. Even those without a true brain to comprehend them.
Even as she begins to sing Alto and Sheryl in particular, might feel it as if Ranka is right there beside them as the waves of her music reach both of them.
"Aimo aimo nedel lushe
"Noina miria endel prodea
"Photomi."
"Here we are in a warm sea: look up and breathe."
KTS: Ranka Lee has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Alto Saotome KTS: Ranka Lee targets Kaiju Navi with Jam! KTS: Ranka Lee has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
The moment Sheryl, Ranka, Ruri, and Brera reach the bridge, Brera sets her down, glances only briefly at Ranka, and turns away to leave for the hangar. He doesn't need to ask permission to deploy his Lucifer, and so he doesn't. His eyes shift in inhuman ways, calling to it to warm up as he approaches, so that once he arrives, all it needs to do is snap its cockpit open for him to leap up and in. The next second, it snaps shut, and Brera flies out aboard the Lucifer to engage the enemy just before the Nadesico launches.
Meanwhile, Sheryl, back on the bridge, turns to him. "Brera, make sure you--oh, he's gone," she utters, then huffs, "He could have at least listened!"
But since she's certain he's going to do what she would've told him to--smash some bugs for her--she'll let it go.
Instead, she accepts a headset with a firm nod and takes a seat at the bridge. "Thanks, Megumi," she says, seating herself near Ranka and Ruri as she puts it on. She... doesn't really know how to do this sort of job, and looking at Ruri she suspects she might not have the right equipment for the job, literally, but damned if she'll just sit back and do nothing at a time like this.
When the Vajra open fire on the Nadesico, Sheryl yelps. Her face flushes soon after, perhaps from embarrassment, perhaps from anger. Into the headset, she shouts, "The nerve of them! How dare they come here, of all places?! Alto! Lucine! Brera! Make sure you teach them a lesson! Those monsters will regret what they've done to us!" (She'd include Rin, but she's not actually aware that Rin has launched at present.)
Miranda asks a good question, what the Vajra are doing here. Sheryl would like to know that, too. But as she looks to her and opens her mouth, Ranka transmits her song--and Sheryl's anger ebbs as she looks over at her and pauses to listen. The violet quartz in her earring glimmers. "Ranka..."
KTS: Sheryl Nome targets Alto Saotome and Lucine Azul with Awe. KTS: Sheryl Nome has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sheryl Nome inspires awe, increasing Lucine Azul's Morale! KTS: Sheryl Nome inspires awe, increasing Alto Saotome's Morale! <Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
Collision! Earth and the unknown alien in contact. Now what? Rin thinks as the Wanzer rebounds, catching itself in a backpedalling that is unusually adroit. I should probably make sure to wreck the Wanzer when I'm done, Rin muses further. But I don't have a gun, do I? -- her eyes flick to the side as a beam ray smashes inwards.
Then back to her enemy as other creatures, comparable, swirl around. Shit, shit, Rin thinks. SHIT! "Rancor, dodge west!" Rin says, and --
> EXTERNAL DRIVE PWR 74%
> EXTERNAL DRIVE TMP 79C
the Wanzer begins to step sideways! Sadly, not into a spiritual realm where it would be immune to Vajra assault (... probably) but simply a rather deft side-stepping which is within the parameters of a Kyokei but definitely on the outer envelope. And the barrage from the Vajra smashes downwards, bursting into the beach with screaming explosions -- the world filling with light and smoke and hot sand, scattering everywhere --
It would be wrong to say the Kyokei 'dodges' it, but it manages to avoid a direct hit, even if repeated slamming bursts and bioshrapnel from the detonations are throwing it steadily off canter, further, further. It almost stumbles, but - ("Hup!") - stabs into the ground with the cargo fork, the sand not yielding enough to let it in that deep. Smouldering and battered, the Wanzer rears upwards.
> EXTERNAL DRIVE PWR 66%
> EXTERNAL DRIVE TMP 78C
"Okay," Rin forces out. Something crackles outwards, and Rin's eyes flick around. "... Where did everyone...?"
She sees the Nadesico. "Well," Rin says to herself, "crap!"
Gee, this is embarrassing, Rin thinks. I'm going to die horribly because I had to be a big hero! I suppose I'm still protecting the production... and anyone who's trapped out there or ran the wrong way, Rin self-justifies, with the skill and adroitness of a Britannian private-school-system student.
I could cover my retreat, Rin thinks... if I had a gun. But you know what they didn't need to set up a shoot on a remote island? Firearms! BOY, DID THEY GET THAT ONE WRONG. Then again, the Nadesico would have certainly been more than enough. And yet, here it is.
Rin's cheeks puff out -- and she says, low and quiet, "Okay, Rancor, we gotta line this up. I saw it's... storing those missiles inside, but it's also like a bug. Bug design... whether it's literally a bug or -- alright, you probably don't understand what I'm saying." (The wanzer shakes side to side a litle as if to say: nope)
"Then let's be shining knights," says Rin as she brings up the cargo fork, points -- "and CHAAAAAAARGE!!!"
Another dash inwards, potentially as the heavy soldier unit tunes in to the distant song -- but Rin is heedless of that beauty, even if she would be doubtless so relieved that Ranka and Sheryl and everyone got into the ship. Instead, just as she brings up the other arm to brace the cargo-fork arm like a jouster's lance! And the target is the enemy's armpit --
More specifically, the joint beneath its front leg and that central carapace!
KTS: Rin Starking has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Starking has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Starking targets Kaiju Navi with MULS-P Heavy Shotgun Breaching Approach! KTS: Rin Starking has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Eeeeh? Rin-chan's in one of the labor wanzers?!" That's Minato Haruka, the Nadesico's helmswoman, as she looks at the display screen.
"Yes," Ruri says, far more dispassionate. It's not that she doesn't care about her gaming friend, it's just...
The enemy came. She can feel her feelings later.
"Is the enemy reading into our moves?" She wonders, as those little Vajra sacrifice themselves for the whole. That bio-cannon replies, and rocks the forward prongs of the Nadesico, washing over the ship's Distortion Field.
"Distortion Field... working adequately," Ruri settles on, as she takes in all the myriad data of the attack. She frowns -- a light decoration on her face -- as she looks at the forces. Just as Alto says... there are so many Vajra.
And why are Vajra? This is the question Miranda poses. Jun -- the highest-ranking officer presently on deck -- turns to her. "The Vajra attack human settlements without warning," he explains, calm enough. "Since they're not human, they don't have motivations like human enemies would."
"The question," Ruri says, still quite stoic, "is why are you here, Ms. Merin. Please leave. The bridge isn't an appropriate place for you right now." Ruri is... still thirteen, but she issues her withering statement with enough authority that it might almost be possible to imagine it is appropriate for Ruri to be here.
Jun sighs. "It's not that I disagree, but..."
He doesn't quite get to finishing his sentence, though, because he -- and the rest of the Nadesico -- are momentarily taken aback by Ranka's voice.
Ruri silently transmits her swarm analysis data to Alto, Rin and Lucine's respective machines, so as to not interrupt the song.
KTS: Ruri Hoshino targets Rin Starking, Alto Saotome, and Lucine Azul with Caution. KTS: Ruri Hoshino has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Ruri Hoshino suggests caution, raising Rin Starking's Intuition! KTS: Ruri Hoshino suggests caution, raising Lucine Azul's Intuition! KTS: Ruri Hoshino suggests caution, raising Alto Saotome's Intuition!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Alto's note of concern is quietly appreciated, as Lucine pilots the Dianthus around, trying to fling away the Vajra that try to crowd her.
< ".... Yeah. The way the Vajra entered just... reminded me of some dark memories." >
As Ranka's song echoes over Lucine's speakers, she mouths the sounds along with them, returning to the peace of that small greenhouse and listening to Ranka's singing.
It was a simple understanding that benefited everyone. And now, the soft majesty of the song, combined with the memories of a calmer place, bring calm into Lucine's voice, as she continues.
< ".... I have made many good memories, since then. I'll be okay now." > A smile snakes on Lucine's lips as Sheryl interjects. < "We'll defend them off, all of us, together." > Rin's help in the wanzer is doubly appreciated, as several micro-missiles hit their mark, leaving the Dianthus and its pilot temporarily rattled.
The five petals on the back of the Dianthus engage, rolling out behind the craft like a five-pointed star, or flower. They light up, and emit of scream of energy, the air wrinkling like smoke in the passing of energy.
The Dianthus can sing, too. Just not the sorts of songs that are to be listened to.
KTS: Lucine Azul targets Kaiju Navi with Lunate Crown v.2 Howl! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Ranka Lee's Jam, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Lucine Azul rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Kaiju Navi blocks Lucine Azul's Lunate Crown v.2 Howl, taking 1200 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi rushes into the attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi partially guards Rin Starking's MULS-P Heavy Shotgun Breaching Approach, taking 3180 damage! KTS: Rin Starking has engaged Kaiju Navi! KTS: Kaiju Navi blocks Alto Saotome's Leading Fire, taking 3430 damage! KTS: Alto Saotome begins a Formation attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Ranka Lee's Jam, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Ranka Lee's Jam, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.
Numerical superiority, plus an uncanny ability for the beasts to organize their attacks ... and even a suicidal tendency to sacrifice one of their numbers to protect others. All of these features make the Vajra a disturbingly persistant foe. It's impossible to win through attrition. The only way to possibly overcome the foe is through superiority in arms.
... and even with Alto's Messiah and the assistance from the Nadesico, even that seems to be showing its limits.
After its successful micro-missile barrage, the larger Vajra soldier takes a moment to recover as the hatches on its missile bays close. Just then Rin takes the opportunity to send its Wanzer dashing forward, drawing a shotgun to fire directly into the carapace where one of its legs connects into the body!! The shot connects, but once again the insectoid monstrosity takes to wing as it rushes forward and past Rin's Wanzer. Is it planning to take advantage of the inertia of the wanzer, and strike from behind!?
Perhaps... if such a creature was capable of planning. Regardless of what it was about to do though, Lucine's Dianthus proceeds to open like a flower before unleashing a screaming howl of energy! The burst lashes directly towards the Vajra Heavy Soldier just as it turns from its rush, and sensing the danger, it brings its heavier arms before it to black the assault.
... and the energy seems to BEND around the exoskeleton plates of the arms. The chitin glows from the heat of the deflection, but it seems much of the serious damage has been deflected. This is a worrying development. While the creatures had shown some resiliency to weaponry used against them before, the creatures seem to have been developing a strange new method of deflecting or negating energy weapons used against them.
Thankfully the smaller ones still seem to go down easily enough. The spray of rounds from the Messiah rakes through the cloud of Vajra, the force of the rounds enough to cause the creatures to scatter apart as their bodies fall into the ocean! Others though manage to compensate, bringing their limbs together to block and deflect the blows before rounding to turn on Alto. They converge upon his machine, loaded down in heavy armor and armaments as it is, and seek to grab ahold of the machine. Like a swarm of honey bees forming a death ball around a violent hornet, they seem intent to crush the Messiah under the pure weight of their bodies.
Simultaneously the Vajra Heavy Soldier lowers its dorsal mounted bio cannon towards Rin and Rancor's Wanzer, bright green energy arcing along the length of the 'lance' as it charges a no doubt vicious attack directly where the machine's armor is weakest.
But then...
"Aimo aimo nedel lushe..."
The grasp of the Vajra soldiers clutching onto the Messiah weaken. The Vajra heavy soldier's bio-cannon charge dissipates as the creature jerks upright. Its mandibles clicking rhythmically, it begins looking around as if in confusion. It IS confusion. It came, they all came, at the call - the behest of one of their own. Now another call is coming, but contradicting the first?
They don't understand. They come in response to hurt. And they found them here, hurting and killing. Now they are being told to stop? To leave? Something is not right but they don't understand what's not right.
Little Queen, lost, hurt and alone, we came to fight for you. Why don't you want us to fight for you?
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Alto Saotome with Pass! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Rin Starking with Pass! KTS: Kaiju Navi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Ruri Hoshino with Pass! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Lucine Azul with Pass! KTS: Alto Saotome fails to react to Kaiju Navi's Pass, taking 0 damage! <Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
Miranda's response to Ruri is to frown. However, still feeling shaken-first from Ranka's anger and then the arrival of the Vajra-she doesn't have a good answer.
Thankfully she doesn't need one though as the Director takes a few steps forward, passing in front of her. He looks between screens showing the various machines outside battling the Vajra... Inspiration quickly strikes his face!
The Director rushes over to Ruri's station and gives her an intense stare from behind his dark glasses. While Ruri can't really see his eyes, she might be able to pick up on the metaphorical sparkle within them.
The Director's Assistant likewise moves to rush up beside the Director, saying, "Miss Hoshino! Please record the footage of the battle! We would like to use it for the movie."
Ruri's answer may have to wait though, as soon after Ranka has started to sing. She of course draws the attention of the three trespassers. Miranda is the only one of them though to not get it, wondering, "Why is she singing?"
----
The gem earring, attached to a necklace and beneath Alto's shirt, glimmers as Ranka's song starts to play through the speakers in Alto's cockpit. He can feel a sense of calm, a sense of focus washing over him.
Unfortunately, the Vajra also wash over him. Many of them rushing in to crowd him. There's too many! Alto is sweating a little as they start to grab onto his machine. Its armor is holding for now, but against so many, he-
-the Vajra all pause. Alto glances across his screen, briefly pausing in his own movements. He wonders out loud to everyone, <"They've... Stopped?"> This has happened once before, at the Neo Mexico colony. Though Alto was not there for that. So he is definitely confused. Still...
<"This is our chance!">
The Messiah rockets backwards, breaking free of the weakened Vajra grips and gaining a little distance.
Alto flips a switch on his controls. His targeting system comes to life. Alto's eyes dance across his screen canopy, looking at numerous spots across the swarm of Vajra. Sensors within his cockpit track his eyes, creating target locks at those points. After a few moments of this, Alto presses the trigger.
Several of the new additions to the Messiah's frame snap open, revealing dozens of micro-missiles beneath. They rocket outwards and away from the Messiah in a huge blossoming wave. Smoke trails out behind the missiles as they spread out, homing in on separate locks as they dance through the air. Finally they explode amongst the Vajra swarm, engulfing many of the stationary creatures in the blasts.
KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Alto Saotome targets Kaiju Navi with All The Micro-Missiles! KTS: Alto Saotome has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
Many questions are asked, good ones. Miranda even, asks a good question. Yet Ranka has no answers. She rarely has any answers. She's never had a head for science, or technical stuff. She doesn't know the first thing about the Vajra other than what everyone else knows.
In the end, there's only one thing she can share with the crew, with the world, and that is her voice. Crimson eyes closed, she continues to sing the song she's sung since she was a child. The one memory she retained out of who knows how many that were lost to the deepest recesses of her own brain.
Her special song, her one memory. A shared link between her and Brera. A source of comfort throughout the years. If it can bring the same to others... then it's worth it. Sharing this.
As she told Kaworu once, it is the type of music she wants to make. And so, she makes it, only vaguely registering Alto's message that they've stopped. She is swept up in the song, that music that sweeps through the battlefield. An expression of herself, an expression of her will, an expression of her love.
"Lulei luleia
"Skylarks soar like lapping waves over me.
"Lulei luleia
"You are the gentle child of all greenery."
"Aimo aimo nedel lushe
"Noina miria endel prodea
"Photomi."
"Here we are in a warm sea: look up and breathe."
She does not know it, she cannot know it, but she commands calm. She commands peace. She commands an end to the hurt. She wields the song in ignorance, not knowing what she is doing to her subjects.
Because she only knows how to live as a human. And as if to demonstrate that, the song continually reaches out to Sheryl and Alto, as if to express one of the most human of all emotions... something that humanity shares in common with the Vajra.
KTS: Ranka Lee targets Kaiju Navi with Designate! KTS: Ranka Lee has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Ranka Lee has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Alto Saotome KTS: Ranka Lee has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Lucine Azul KTS: Rin Starking fails to react to Kaiju Navi's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul fails to react to Kaiju Navi's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Ruri Hoshino fails to react to Kaiju Navi's Pass, taking 0 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Rin is in that Wanzer? "What, seriously?" Sheryl utters, looking over at Minato. It had to be someone, but she'd assumed that Rin had run in with the rest of the crew. She looks back out and leans forward, a hand on the panel in front of her. "Then Rin! You crunch some bugs too!" She tosses her hair with her other hand and jokes, "Your queen demands it!"
It's her way of keeping her composure in the face of such an overwhelming force. Despite it, the moment she spots the Vajra swarming Alto's Messiah, she gasps in horror. "Alto!!"
But...
Ranka sings Aimo--that mysterious song, the song that links her to someone's forgotten past. And the Vajra... stop. Looking around in apparent confusion, as if they hear it too. Sheryl stares at them, then at Ranka, the swift motion of her head swinging her earring. Ranka had told her once that she had powers that some might call Newtypism, that she could understand how others feel. Is this a part of that? Is she so strong that she could tame even the Vajra?
It's disturbing. She should be disturbed. She's known for ages that Ranka has incredible potential, that she might even rival her one day. But hearing Ranka's song now, she's struck at once by two things: the gentle serenity that her friend wishes to convey... and the prospect that, actually, Ranka could even surpass her--and leave her behind.
It's a difficult moment, grappling with both of these feelings at once. As absorbed as Ranka is in her song, she won't see that conflict in Sheryl's eyes as she watches her. "..."
KTS: Sheryl Nome targets Rin Starking with All-Out! KTS: Sheryl Nome has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sheryl Nome has activated the Rouse Spirit Command targeting Alto Saotome
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
While the initial trauma had left Lucine shaken, fellow pilots hade picked up the slack, and Lucine responded in kind. Flowing through the sky as easily as a seed puff on the breeze, the Dianthus continually attempts to dislodge the Vajra that try to further slow it down. Smoke wafts from the damage made in the last attack, but Lucine's resolve is set. She tries to shoot off what she can off of Alto and Rin's units when she safely can, but these efforts are quickly overwhelmed by her own assailants.
She pants and strains the muscles of her face, trying to keep from blacking out as she throws herself in a desperate spin.
The thought of people counting on her keeps her going, but it is drawing her to an impasse. The Dianthus is not built for getting backed up into a corner- it was always dependent on the option of running away, a survival skill of a lonely heart. Even if escape wasn't blocked, Lucine wouldn't.
< ".... Keep going." > Lucine's soft voice tries to encourage Rin and Alto (and Brera to some extent). This is not the same, as that day. She couldn't hear voices over the radio. No one sang.
< "As long as you can hear... you are not alone." >
.....
And like a gasp of breath, the Vajra pause.
The Jovian lizards never paused like this.
It's like a miracle, almost like Ranka's singing had given them the chance they needed.
< ".... You heard him!" > Iron and an undercurrent like joy enters Lucine's voice as she swoops up like a hawk, albarest at the ready. < "Aiming." > The mechanical bow fills with white light-- < ".... Firing Lacrimosa." >
White bolts like feathers spiral down, their trajectory crashing into several crowds of Vajra, performing their swan song.
KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul targets Kaiju Navi with Lacrimosa! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"All combat data is stored for later revision," Ruri reports to the Director, stony-faced. "Please direct all requests for footage to the Captain."
...
did Ruri... just sell Yurika out?????
Ruri definitely just sold Yurika out.
Dealing with these people is now officially Yurika Work.
She doesn't have much time to dwell on it, though -- or on the questions of actresses -- because the enemy is behaving strangely. "The Vajra have ceased aggressive movement," she reports, stoic.
"Eh? They've stopped attacking?" Megumi asks, baffled.
"Yes," that's what Ruri said, and her confirmation is no more moved than before.
"Then we have to take this chance now!" Jun insists, grasping his hand into a fist. "Strike the Vajra down--!!" Even someone like him can get fired up...
Ruri wonders, for a moment, what attacking a hesitating enemy really makes them.
But even if they're bullies, that's the order she's given.
"Now configuring Gravity Blast Cannon for atmospheric fire," she reports. "Transmitting firing path to allied units..." This part, of course, is important to make sure she doesn't hit anyone she DOESN'T want to annihilate. "Compensating for atmospheric filtration and local humidity... all systems clear."
Ruri doesn't blink. "Firing Gravity Blast."
The great prongs of the Nadesico, like the pincers of an ancient insect, grind outward. It's power is rerouted around the damage the Vajra did to the firing mechanism, and collects, there, at the core. The wave which pours out over the Vajra is vast and it is all-consuming.
The Nadesico is come.
KTS: Ruri Hoshino targets Kaiju Navi with Gravity Blast - Atmospheric Wide Spread! KTS: Ruri Hoshino has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sheryl Nome orders an all-out attack, raising Rin Starking's Skill!
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
The fork sticks in the Heavy Soldier as Rin finds herself momentarily -- stuck? Not quite stuck but certainly affixed. She brings up the Wanzer's other arm to push and to pull but after this, and a stagger --
> EXTERNAL DRIVE PWR 51%
> EXTERNAL DRIVE TMP 92C
She doesn't overbalance but this time it's a near thing and she swings in her seat, nearly slamming her head against a piece of metal. Then she looks up at the lowering cannon, seeing it move in the leisurely field of view that Rin Starking always experiences, and she shouts --
"DUCK!"
And the Kyokei throws itself forwards, onto the sand. And that near miss Rin experienced when she swerved while pulling the cargo loader fork free becomes a near hit as the side of her head grazes against a grip bar and she jerks forwards in her restraints and -
"kuh"
Is she blacked out? Knocked out? Not quite, but it's stunning; her glasses fly off and she is terribly, horribly disoriented for a moment.
Ranka saves her life, even if she doesn't know it.
And so in the silence of the cockpit, a battery is gradually expended, growing steadily hotter from pressures it was not meant to serve. A solid-state drive, put into service to host an unpacked neural-network file, awaits for instructions. Rancor -- the heavily modified home security robot Operating System which has been a quiet part of Rin's life for over seven years -- waits...
And someone speaks to him. (Yes, him. Rancor's identity is present; though it is difficult to say how. Some things are but seeds, that will sprout in time.) The Nadesico sends targeting data. A source from outside the world. A source other than the communications of Mother. A source that provides valuable information on the shape and contours of the target. Rancor's original processes know the shape of things; the shape of human intruders, and the verifier override for the shape of Britannian police uniforms, never to be confronted.
Rancor was given a task - to mind the legs - and one of them reaches out to the ground to try and anchor. The complicated problem of MOTION of an enormous machine is fed, in clumsy, fumbling form, through a cellular telephone. Rancor pulls a little - gingerly -
> EXTERNAL DRIVE PWR 38%
> EXTERNAL DRIVE TMP 94C
Rin briefly wonders why she's asleep near the stove because SOMETHING feels hot and it's a really specific point hot, like a space heater, or --
Did someone tell her to - huh? Rin shakes her head, touches the corner of it, and then looks upwards. Controlling the arms, the Wanzer soon enough bounces upwards, and Rin puffs out another breath, sweat running down her back.
"... Something stun you?" Rin asks, rhetorically. "Well, I don't see a white flag --"
AND THAT MEANS
Rin can loosely identify what looks like a head, and she has a cargo fork before her. With an enemy who is, in turn, stunned, and who has shown numerous forms of lethal weaponry, Rin does what any good gamer in this situation would do - rear back the Wanzer, turn it and then --
Slam that cargo fork STRAIGHT upwards into the lower portion of the head, right near what looks like a neck connecter! And then, to twist -- and slam it into the dirt!
Sand. Whatever.
KTS: Rin Starking targets Kaiju Navi with MULS-P Heavy Shotgun Dead Shot! KTS: Rin Starking has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rin Starking has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Starking has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rin Starking has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Rin Starking's MULS-P Heavy Shotgun Dead Shot, taking 7800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rin Starking's Punishment activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Rin Starking's Yomi activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Alto Saotome's All The Micro-Missiles, taking 10140 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Alto Saotome's The Twinkle Of A Tearful Planet activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Alto Saotome roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Alto Saotome completes the Formation attack! KTS: Ranka Lee designates Kaiju Navi, making it easier to target and opening it to indirect fire. KTS: Kaiju Navi's Force Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Ruri Hoshino's Gravity Blast - Atmospheric Wide Spread, taking 4800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Ruri Hoshino's Scan activates, causing Designate L1! KTS: Ruri Hoshino roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. Ranka Lee has cancelled her attack.
KTS: Kaiju Navi's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Lucine Azul's Lacrimosa, taking 3600 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Kaiju Navi has posed.
The Vajra are many, and when they are moving as one they act as an insectoid tide. Each body acting like a cell, in the part of the tissue that is their fighting force. However that unity of action has a weakness - should anything disrupt the flow of their force, diverting their indomitable will, they are left milling about in shock and confusion.
Such is how it is with the Vajra soldiers swarming about Alto's Messiah. The crushing strength seeking to consume the VF within its mass suddenly grows slack, and in turn the machine is able to fight itself free. Opening up with each of its additional pods it releases an incredible salvo of missiles. Each target is painted with a sweep of Alto's gaze, and each missile seeks an individual target. However unlike before the Vajra do not seek to defend or evade the strikes! They are consumed with the blast, sometimes singly sometimes in groups, the mighty blasts shredding their confused forms within their violence and scattering water with their remnants.
Meanwhile Lucine snaps free of her terrible memories of the Jovians past. Unlike the lizards, the insects have paused... however briefly, and that brief pause was enough for her to launch the mechanical arbalest with deadly light! The ball splits into bolts like feathers, chasing then burning away the remnants of the Vajra horde left behind by Alto's grand Itano Circus.
Meanwhile nearer to the ground, the Vajra Heavy Soldier still wheels in confusion. That is, until finally its crimson gaze settles upon the Nadesico. She is there. She... and something else? Somethings else. A little light, and a guttering spark.
But all that matters to the Heavy Soldier is that beacon. The Little Queen, sad and hurt. Lost and confused. Calling yet dismissing.
The iridescent wings spread again from the creature's back, but just in time Rin's Wanzer comes smashing into it once more! Wielding the cargo fork with lethal intent, Rin's finely honed gamer senses aims for a headshot and drives it into... and THROUGH the neck connector!
And so the head is disconnected. There is a spray of blood and viscera. However, perhaps to Rin's horror, this isn't a traditional shooter where a headshot or two can take down most enemies. It is some monstrous live service entity, capable of taking endless shots to the heads and yet still function without flinching!! For indeed the body of the creature leaps upwards and takes flight.
The now-headless Heavy Soldier reunites with the remnants of its kin, tattered and broken as they are, and form again into a single arrow directed towards the Nadesico. Directed towards its bridge. Directed... to the one they came for.
But the pincers of another great insect open wide, and emit a force of gravimetric destruction! The immense wave sweeps over the remainder of the Vajra with all-consuming force, their bodies distoring, twisting, then exploding violently from the force of the blast!
Once the beam's energies dissipate nothing is left of the deadly swarm...
Nothing perhaps but more questions.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The last of the Vajra fall to the Nadesico's attack. In his cockpit, Alto leans back. He catches his breath after that close call, relieved that they managed to get through this. He radios both to Lucine and the additional wanzer, <"Good work, Lucine. You too, whoever you are. Thanks for the assist."> He didn't quite catch the chatter about who was in that other machine. Not that he actually knows Rin anyway.
----
There's a general sense of relief on the bridge of the Nadesico as the last of the Vajra are annihilated. Well deserved too, given how serious that was getting. Thankfully now it's over and everyone can relax again.
Well, almost everyone. Instead of joining in, Miranda is looking at Ranka with suspicion. She then calls out, "Don't you see!? She did this! She made them attack us! It's all her fault!" On the one hand, there is some merit to this theory, given the coincidences of today's events.
On the other, coming from Miranda, it just sounds like another petty attempt at putting Ranka down.
Miranda storms up to the Director and his Assistant, "She probably caused the animal attack too!"
Of course, the Director doesn't seem to be having any of it. He just gives Miranda a hard stare, like he's holding back some choice words. His Assistant is a little more diplomatic, saying, "Now, now, Miss Merin. It's been a tough day. Maybe we all need to take a break and-"
"No!" Miranda turns, storming up to Jun this time, "This is all her fault! Why do you trust her so much!? Why won't you listen to me?"
Miranda turns to Ruri now, walking up to her station, "You're smart! You see it, right? Right?"
Miranda considers approaching Ranka again, but then remembers the last time she did... She hesitates and glances around at everyone again. Apparently finding no supporters here, Miranda turns and storms off in a huff.
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
Ranka's not sure what she's feeling from Sheryl. It's hard, when she's in the middle of the song, but she feels so close to her. Is she upset? Scared? ... Jea-
The thought almost jolts her out of the serenity of the moment. That Sheryl might be...
... and as the song winds down from her lips, pain jolts through her body, with a gasp, Ranka holds her abdomen against the searing fire she feels.
Her entire body tightens up, and then when it releases, she pants, over and over. It's once again a confusing moment for her. Why? Why does this keep happening?
They called it a panic attack, yet another manifestation of her mental illness but...
Slightly dazed, she looks over to Miranda, then straightens up at her accusations. Giving her a long look as she goes from one person to another. There's a momentary breath, then she just walks across the bridge to stand beside Sheryl.
And discreetly, she just leans close to her with a smile. In the end, she does not even dignify Miranda with a response.
That lingering feeling of closeness is far more important to her than anything coming out of Miranda's mouth.