2024-03-02: Awaken, You Dreaming Fools
- Cast: Alejandro Corner, Liu Mei Wang, Soma Peries, Yuliana Kafim, Tieria Erde, Regina Everhart, Lockon Stratos, Christina MacKenzie, Setsuna F. Seiei
- Where: Side 6 - Outside Gryps II
- Date: U.C. 0098 03 02
- Summary: Operation Fallen Angels commences. The goal - none less than the destruction of Celestial Being's Ptolemy task force, and the sundering of the Gundams that declared war on war itself. Can such an ouroboros of conflict ever be severed? (Takes place September 0098.)
KTS: Mobile_Weapons_Team has deployed as a Boss for 3 opponents.
<Pose Tracker> Liu Mei Wang has posed.
The news rings across the headlines of every media outlet. "NUNE Task Force To Pursue Celestial Being - Operation "Fallen Angels"". After all - Celestial Being made itself a major target over the past two years, and what better way to legitimize the shaky new government than to unite against a common enemy?
First, they went after an easy target.
The Trinity Meisters - public enemy #1, the crueler and harsher group whose interventions often went violently and ruthlessly. While some around the world sympathized with Celestial Being - the Exia's display of peace in Azadistan as a prime example - there were few who cheered when the three Throne Gundams left savagery in the wake of their directives.
"You've been Earthbound for too long, yes," Observer Liu Mei Wang informed the three, hands steepled under her chin, eyes clear and cool. "The transport for your next mission is arriving at these coordinates in three days - make sure not to use up all your rations in the meantime." The three were frustrated and exhausted, but resigned themselves to their fate - it's not easy calling a covert MS carrier these days.
A click. One lie down. The transport that was once planned to be en route to the Trinity Teams standby in Central Asia was re-routed two days ago, towards more reliable allies.
"They're in position, Mr. Ali. No, mm, 'Gary Biaggi' is what you've been going with in the AEU's forces, huh?" Liu Mei allowed herself just one wry smile - she knows the mercenary favors a little unprofessional demeanor. "Aren't we lucky that you're not the kind of man who weeps too hard about sacrificial lambs? Alas. Veda's decreed that those three have outlived their purpose, after all."
A click. Two lies down. While the Trinity Team were always meant to ensure Celestial Being didn't seem too heroic to the public, it was not in Vedas script to kill them here and now.
"Saachez is going after Team Trinity. A nuisance that we had to rely on him. What a troublesome man on the inside. I take it you two are already deep in Veda's guts? Good work. Once those three are off the table, I'll lure the Ptolemy right where you want them - and that will be that. I look forward to our new, prosperous future, Ribbons - and Mr. Corner."
A click. Three lies down. No. Of course she didn't want to make it that easy for either of them. Ribbons Almark is not someone to be underestimated - and a thorn in their side is a useful handhold to have.
Besides, they're in turn underestimating Alejandro Corner, who they both no longer stand the sight of - really, couldn't that preposterous mobile armor of his do this job entirely on its own? His skill as a pilot is clearly lacking - his arrogance is self-evident - but in this era, ones virtue as a human being is less important than the engineering of ones mobile weapons. Itd be embarrassing if the man whos most utterly outlived his utility among everyone gathered were the sole survivor of the day.
One more white little lie to go. Or is it three, even if you tell the same one for the same reason?
"Yes, I've reached the Kafim household, so to speak, haven't I? Its been some time - and I've enjoyed watching the Silent Callings flower bloom. I've come to ask for a favor. No, not beg for one - though I'll have to keep up appearances in the NUNE's guts in the coming days, I'm more than happy to give you something in exchange once this is all over. Vedas working down to the wire on charting the Fallen Angels operatives and their trajectory. Its calculated their forces, including a nasty work of a Mobile Armor, driven by a man who'll claim hes bested the will of God or some nonsense like that. Yes. The attached coordinates are for the fastest transport that'll get you up to the Ptolemy's location. Its looking grim, and its not at all in the plan for you to die here. But I'm sure it'll put whoever's left limping and struggling in your debt."
"Good, I managed to get hold of you, Regina. Your reliability has always been cherished. Veda has unearthed the plans of the NUNE to try and wipe out Celestial Being outright. They've brought too much to bear - but I know you have what it takes to tip the scales in their favor, liable as it is to be a difficult, trying fight. Can we count on you? I worry that your sense of diligence is easily exploited, but Veda believes in your capabilities. If you agree - please rendezvous with Kafim in 8 hours at the attached point."
"Aah, its a pleasure talking with you again, Christina. No, no, tragically, this isn't about anything particularly fun. Not this time, its a bit of an emergency need. I imagine you've seen it on the news - theyre not bluffing. Theyre already en route to Team Trinity - and the Ptolemy is next. Mm, that'd be great if you could. I think you might just be the one in play to turn what would've been a crushing defeat into another one of Celestial Beings little miracles."
At no point had Veda made calculations regarding the strength and patterns of the Fallen Angels operation - the exact people meant to provide that information were guiding the NUNE's hand.
Liu Mei Wang sighed in her chair, pivoting around to face the light of the moon, where Veda lay waiting. Oh, there was far more to benefit winning the world with those two, most would say. If she wanted to mislead Captain Sumeragi, it'd be a phone call away. They don't even know yet that Veda is compromised.
As Liu Mei glances on the TV at her side, recounting footage of a squadron of GN-Xes mercilessly gunning down the Trinity Meisters, a cattier smile crosses her lips. One down, ruptured into an unsurvivable explosion. The second, captured, and the pilot mercilessly executed in the cockpit. Is that Ali down there on camera? The mercilessness, and targeting the Zwei he'd always fancied, is a tell. The third - escaped, hooh? A useful note for later.
The seeds are all planted, and with luck, Liu Mei's seen through enough of the screens to her own favored outcome.
No - outcome is an insufficient word. That's what they all misunderstood about her aims. There was no end state Liu Mei Wang was pursuing - and thus, none that could be taken from her as a threat.
"I wonder which side the world will lean towards..."
-- -- -- -- --
Deep within the moon's surface, a man who has lived beneath a long-dead philosopher's shadow now looms over his cryo-sleep cask.
A broad grin spreads across Alejandro Corner's face, now that he and his guardian angel have seized the reins of Veda for themselves. "Finally. A man who clung to life for this long, in such a preposterus state - all because he awaited a world where others would do all the work of making him God!"
The slide racks back on Alejandro's gold-clad pistol, aimed at the slumbering body of Aeolia Schenberg. "I won't stand for it! I'll be the one to lead this world into a new golden age - I'll be the one to topple your 'Celestial Being' and unite the world, where your schemes were too slow to adapt!"
He fires once - and cracks the glass, boring a hole into Aeolia Schenberg's skull. The world his forecasting dreamed of guiding into the future, the one he trusted he'd live to see even 200 years past when he ought to have died - it is one that will forever be outside of his last breath.
Laughing giddily to himself, Alejandro loosens round after round into the cask. "You were a fool. Your Meisters were fools! And my family were fools for not seizing this opportunity when they had the chance! We would have done all that work for nothing in your world!"
At the console behind Alejandro, a glassiness frosts over Ribbons Almark's helmet.
How grim, for such a revolting person to have been so useful.
Alejandro, quaking with anger, takes a single step back - as a volley of alarms and warnings heralds threats to lock down the facility, trapping malicious intruders in this space for their hubris.
"Unthinkable. To account for this - of all things...you foolish man. Fixed on escaping the bonds of mortality to taunt me at any costs! ...I won't let you be correct. Ribbons! I'm departing to finish this with the Gundam Meisters once and for all. I leave the rest of our new world up to you - and look forward to a victory toast together back on Earth."
Alejandro storms off the way they came - setting a course for Gryps II...
And at last, Ribbons Almark is left alone. Quiet, as even the message from Aeolia Schenberg vanishes.
"...finally. I've put up with him for far too long. A man like that belongs purely to the world we both sought to bring to an end. ...Aeolia..."
-- -- -- -- --
The bell tolls for the last refuge of Celestial Being, as the NUNE's task force amasses outside of Gryps II. At its spearhead, a colossal golden Mobile Armor, its rear section lit by seven GN Drive Taus burning a bloody crimson into space.
The sun lingers behind the Earth below.
"The day has finally come, Celestial Being. We'll spare disgusting terrorists like you few words. To the amassed forces of the NUNE - you've done splendid work coming this far." Alejandro Corner tightens the gloves on his piloting suit, nestled comfortably in the titanic Alvatore's golden hull. "This is how we'll deal the decisive blow - right here, right now!"
An immense maw extends from the Alvatore's prow - blazing bright, amassing energy like the dawning sun. And from it - an unthinkably broad GN particle cannon breaks space in half, surging towards the Ptolemy's position beyond...
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
The NUNE fleet that approaches Gryps II is not especially large... After all, the Gaia Sabers is still in its infancy. It takes time to reconfigure the forces of several former Federation blocs and groups into one coherent military force. But still NUNE has managed to amass a force of several warships and dozens of mobile weapons. And as to be expected, the ones at the front are the new GN-X models, their pseudo solar reactors pumping out crimson particles behind them as they fly through space towards the colony turned laser turned refuge.
Amidst those leading the charge is the GN-X of Soma Peries. She stares at the sight of the colony ahead, or rather a specific speck close to it. She taps a few buttons on her controls and a window appears on her display, zooming in and showing the unique silhouette of the Celestial Being vessel.
Soma grips her controls a little tighter in anticipation...
Today is the day.
Celestial Being has taken so much from her.
The lives of countless soldiers fighting for their nations. Some of whom were Soma's comrades...
...
The place she had considered her home. Where she worked and lived alongside those comrades...
You really considered a military base a home?
The Research Institute...
Was that really a loss?
"Shut up!" Soma calls out into her cockpit, of which she is no longer alone in despite no one else being there. She really opened the floodgates and now she regrets it, "They were our brothers and sisters! I grew up with them. Learned with them. Ate with them. Trained with them. The Institute gave us a chance to live!"
As test subjects.
"Shut up!" Soma repeats again. Soma feels like giving herself a slap as if it'll silence the voice in her head. But she is ultimately stopped by her helmet. So she decides to simply growl quietly and says, "If you're not going to be helpful, then be quiet! I'm trying to focus here."
<"Lieutenant, are you alright? Your course is drifting.">
Already caught out by the distraction, Soma stumbles to respond, <"Y-Yes, Colonel. Just distracted running some final checks..."> Tch, now the intruder in her mind is causing her to lie to the Colonel.
Colonel Smirnov seems to notice the trouble in her voice, replying, <"It's alright to be nervous, Lieutenant. We've been working towards this day for a long time. Just don't let the nerves paralyse you.">
<"Of course not, sir. This is what I was trained for. I'll perform to the best of my ability.">
It's at that point that the words of Alejandro Corner echo from the cockpit speakers. After they're finished, Soma admits over her private channel to Smirnov, <"I'm not sure what someone like him is doing here..."> For all Soma knew, he was simply a former councillor of the Federation. What business does he have here? And what the hell is that unit?
Smirnov's reply is simple enough, <"Doesn't matter. It's an order from above. Just focus on the mission plan and leave him to his own machinations.">
Speaking of the plan, the time to mission start quickly counts down. It finally comes, signalled by the huge beam of GN Particles streaking out from the Alvatore towards the Ptolemaios.
At this point, Smirnov radios the rest of the GN-Xs, <"Teams three through five, open fire!"> Several formations of GN-Xs, equipped with the longer range version of GN Rifles, do just that. The red beams lance out across space. They're not as powerful as the one fired by the Alvatore, so aren't likely to be a serious threat to deal with this far out. Which makes them more distracting than anything else.
Perhaps that's the plan though!? As shortly after the attack begins, two additional NUNE warships appear on sensors. Somewhat older models, they aren't much more than lightly armed mobile weapon carriers. But they're on course for the Ptolemy, approaching from two wildly different directions from the main NUNE force. And they're accelerating!
KTS: Lockon Stratos has left all buckets! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has deployed in GN-001 Gundam Exia. KTS: Soma_Peries has deployed as a Boss for 3 opponents. KTS: Lockon Stratos has joined Soma Peries's bucket!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pluU6j4g6pw Ego Likeness - When The Wolves Return
"No man can best the will of God," is what Yuliana said to Elisa, after her wife -- also, incidentally, the leader of their particular cell -- got off the phone with Liu Mei. "This time... let's not ignore their requests. If I hadn't declined those missions... no, of course, it's fine. Besides -- it's to defend the Ptolemy, now. I won't regret it."
And Yuliana's the one who suits up. "I'll leave my support to you," she asks of Elisa, as she goes. "I'm heading out." Only one Kafim will get on that transport -- but it scarcely means the other isn't watching.
Yuliana's the one who meets Regina, as they rendevous. "We're facing up the 'Fallen Angels', I suppose," she sighs, over one last drink, as the transport escorts them up. (Tea. She doesn't drink, and not only because she keeps halal.) "Liu Mei's projecting some stiff competition from them. Don't die out there. Haha... look at us, running back to stick our necks out... whoever said there's no loyalty amongst terrorists?" She calls them terrorists, and not freedom fighters.
And she says, "... for me, it's simple. Elisa told me the story of how everyone gathered on Ptolemy... to figure out how to save me. Even if they hadn't helped me turn against the Republic long before then... Celestial Being saved me. My heart might waver, but that much is true."
So she can't leave it be, if the Ptolemy's in trouble. She's in her wanzer again, by the time the transport reaches its destination.
| Kia-ialloth'you llph'otfh'ou-llni |
| DA XUKONG 0 |
| Y-yth'yollysh'y-k... OK |
| Ll:o sh'jsth'ianish llkh'ioll |
| Llkh'ioth'ia tiasth'llwkth'you |
"Verdiska, engaging--!!"
Da Xukong 0 is a scorpionoid machine, the thrusters on its eight legs open to give it pinpoint space manueverability. Its crest is lowered, on its headpiece, and its tail stretches up above it -- firing a shot too late to stop the Alvatore's GN Particle Cannon as it makes tissue paper out of space itself. She could blame the transport getting them here at this moment instead of anytime sooner -- and, because of the sort of woman she is, she does -- but she doesn't have time for that, right now.
No, right now she just screams into CSB's frequencies: "Particle cannon! SCATTER!"
Veering out the the way of the Alvatore's cannon just leaves the wanzer in the path of those GN-Xs, of course -- which might be just what the Wild Bear planned for. The GN riflefire causes Da Xukong 0's eldritch green shields to flare up, as they deflect the distracting blows, but they achieve their goal:
The wanzer focuses on them, instead.
"You wanna mess with me?!" She yells, over an open frequency, as her wanzer's arachnid tail lifts over her machine's head and fires a ball of boiling-hot plasma into a GN-X team.
<Pose Tracker> Tieria Erde has posed.
Tieria stands in front of the Ptolemy's terminal to Veda. This was where he spent most of his time on the ship, interfacing with the true brain of Celestial Being. His purpose was to guide humanity to a better future, but he just couldn't deal with humanity as it is now. There were too many...unspoken rules these people had, so many things that one was just expected to know without even being told. None of it made sense. He just couldn't relate. It was frustrating.
Veda, however...Veda was an advanced intelligence, but it was still a machine. Even quantum computers ran on code, on strictly documented rules and logic. One could understand simply by looking at the source code. That was why he trusted Veda's judgement above all. But...
His fist hits the glass separating him and the computer core.
Veda had been taken, Aeolia Schenberg's mission perverted. This, too, made no sense. Celestial Being was trying to stop war. Was that not the most noble of goals? Why were they resisted at every turn?!
It made no sense.
Tieria would make it make sense.
Alejandro Corner's voice boomed through the Ptolemy's comms. Such an...obnoxious voice. Befitting of the MAGGOT of a man who would threaten to take everything from him. He makes his way to the Virtue without a word, deploying the Gundam, the weapon of peace.
"Virtue, engage!"
As soon as his sights are set on Alejandro, he opens fire with the GN Bazooka, not even wanting to give him a chance to react.
KTS: Tieria Erde targets Mobile Weapons Team with GN Bazooka Shot! KTS: Tieria Erde has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team charges into the attack! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team successfully avoids Tieria Erde's GN Bazooka Shot Milly Ashford teleports in. POT: Milly Ashford is now set observer.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with Infernal Arachnid Injector Stinger Salvo! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Regina Everhart has posed.
Suddenly, a communication. Though rarely one to initiate conversation, Regina is always available to those with the means to reach her. And on today, when yet unbeknownst to her the sword hangs high above the heads of those gathered beneath the banner of Celestial Being, she answers the call.
"...I see. Understood. I will be there." Simple and to the point, as always - though a hint of faint concern creeps into her tone. But she arrives, at the designated point at the designated time, offering Yuliana a nod of greeting as they board the transport.
"...An onerous name." She replies. "But not unfitting, I suppose."
And she nods, as Yuliana bids her not to die. Terrorists...
It's true, she supposes. But she listens, as Yuliana speaks. Her dedication... care and loyalty, repaid.
"...Mm." Regina starts, a bit hesitantly. "They gave me direction. Something to believe in. ...These hands... they're not fit for much more than fighting, I'm afraid. But I believed... even I could make a difference for the future. To pave a path for those more suited to... the pursuit of peace."
She goes quiet, then, contemplative, as the transport reaches its destination... and she doesn't speak again, until she's suited up in her machine.
"I go." Regina announces - and her flight-type Alto launches out. The forces arrayed against them... truly, NUNE's intentions are laid bare - to completely erase them from the face of history. And at their head, a truly monstrous machine - ready to unleash a terrible weapon upon the Ptolemy.
"...No!" Regina gasps out - and as Yuliana screams out her warning flies up, out of the path of the great beam that erupts forth. She watches in awe and horror both.
Her head whirls, then, to the GN-X squadrons. They've come to eliminate them.
...Very well, then. Let them come. She will face them with everything that she has, everything that she is. Regina surges forward, her machine's spear lashing out through everything in her way.
KTS: Regina Everhart targets Soma Peries with Standard Large Physical Melee Swing! KTS: Regina Everhart has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim rattles Soma Peries, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Soma Peries fails to Evade Yuliana Kafim's Infernal Arachnid Injector Stinger Salvo, taking 4800 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim begins a Formation attack! KTS: Soma Peries blocks Regina Everhart's Standard Large Physical Melee Swing, taking 2250 damage! KTS: Regina Everhart has engaged Soma Peries! You are empty-handed.
<Pose Tracker> Lockon Stratos has posed.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
The small spherical companion had gone off like an alarm out of nowhere. The meister that claimed it as his partner had just been on the deck of the Ptolemy as the sirens flared of the impending attack. Though even that alarm was silenced at the sound of Alejandro Corner's voice making its way over the comms.
It's more than just an ominous interruption, but something much deeper than that. To have the Ptolemy's location discovered, to have forces begin to swarm. It was the highest level of danger to the crew that they'd ever had to encounter. "Looks like they've finally decided to come meet us at home, huh...? We won't let them get us that easily..."
A signal had already been sent out. No reason to be subtle at this point when the Ptolemy had already been spotted. There was only one thing that can be done, amass as much power of their own to prepare for the battle that was to come.
A battle that would span across the wide expanse of space. To the GN-X squadrons that were charging right up to their doorstep, to the Mobile Armor in the distance that seemed to emanate the very aura of a certain Alejandro Corner from its aesthetic alone.
"Tieria, Setsuna, Chris, we'll deal with the vanguard units. You guys...Don't let him think that Celestial Being's going down so easily... "
It's all he can say as those already upon the Ptolemy prepare to launch. Even now, The Green Gundam finds itself ready to launch, Meister and Haro in the cockpit as they call out to prepare for the sequence.
"Dynames, engaging!"
By the time he's launched, both the assistance of Regina in the flight-type Alto and the Da Xu Kong handled by Yuliana arrive at the scene. Yuliana already screaming into the CSB frequencies of her attack, and the sound of horror that follows as Regina realizes the severity of the situation as the NUNE's demonstrate their intentions.
"Don't lose focus!" A shout comes in on the CSB frequencies for the two to hear as GN Particle blasts past the two units in quick succession. The origin of those shot a Gundam of emerald, it's v-fin dropped down to conceal its visuals to expose a single scope atop its head as it began firing off those sniper rounds. Each shot attempting to snipe down some of the GN-X, a few being caught in the first volley, but some..."Tch...These things really are using GN drives...They've gotten way faster...Whatever you do, we're holding the line. We won't let them reach the Ptolemy!"
KTS: Lockon Stratos targets Soma Peries with 'Sniping the Target!'! KTS: Lockon Stratos has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries fails to evade Lockon Stratos's 'Sniping the Target!', taking 4960 damage! KTS: Lockon Stratos completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
The long range fire from the GN-X force appears to draw the attention of a few of the mobile weapons on the side of Celestial Being. Which is of course fine for Soma. She's in a particularly vindictive mood right now thanks to everything she's been going through lately. And it's only enhanced as she notices one of the opening shots against the GN-X force being from a familiar wanzer.
Soma narrows her eyes, growling quietly, "Yuliana Dispersal..."
Soma also recognises one of the Gundams she's fought before... A fight which did not go well for her. Anger swells within Soma. But also confusingly, a distant feeling of fear at the sight of the Da Xukong 0. But her training as a Super Soldier keeps her focused as she starts to radio, <"Colonel-">
Colonel Smirnov interjects quickly, <"I see them. Get ready. Our objective is to tie them up. Leave the overall battle and the Celestial Being mothership to Colonel Mannequin."> Then to the GN-X force, Smirnov orders, <"Teams one and two, follow me!">
The Da Xukong 0's plasma orb melts, the Alto's spear rips, and the Dynames's sniper shots tear through several of the GN-X units during the initial response to their opening salvo. Those GN-X squads begin to back up as they take losses. Any thoughts of following are quickly disrupted though as two more teams come rushing in to take their place.
Firing their standard GN Rifles-better suited for skirmishing than the longer range version-the GN-Xs attempt to harass the Celestial Being units while keeping them from getting a solid bead on any of their brethren. Soma and Sergei's GN-Xs are at the head of this assault. Though it's not immediately obvious who they are as their units are identical to the rest.
As the two teams approach, they split up, starting to spread out to try and catch the three Celestial Being units in an encirclement. At Yuliana's open call towards them, it's Sergei who responds to her and the other two pilots, <"The violence and intimidation of Celestial Being ends today. Surrender now and you'll get to keep your life in a prison."> Sergei doesn't expect Yuliana to surrender. But there's still a possibility one of the other two might.
KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim, Regina Everhart, and Lockon Stratos with GN-X Beam Rifle Covering Fire. KTS: Soma Peries has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Regina Everhart has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Regina Everhart blocks Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Rifle Covering Fire, taking 3375 damage! KTS: Soma Peries begins a Formation attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully evades Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Rifle Covering Fire KTS: Lockon Stratos's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Lockon Stratos fails to react to Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Rifle Covering Fire, taking 2625 damage! KTS: Soma Peries begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
Christina MacKenzie, disaster engineer and aid worker. Christina MacKenzie, field agent of Celestial Being. Days passing by wavering on the fence between destruction and creation.
Noticed by VEDA for her piloting skills and technical expertise, and recruited by Lockon for her urge to rebuild the battered world. Shes slashed through the enemies of Celestial Being; shes regretted not saving each and every one of them. Even on her first mission, she still recalls the visceral flexion of a womans ribs breaking under her strike--she doesnt know if the woman is still alive. In Azadistan, she arrived in time to pry a bodyguards mangled body from the rubble of the AEUs power relay--she doesnt know if that woman is still alive, either.
She couldnt compromise anything, even at the Gryps superweapon, and it was there that she finally lost her balance. She showed her face to her friend, trying to save someones life at gunpoint.
(If that isnt an apt description of Celestial Being...)
In more recent days, shed abstained from answering the paramilitary groups calls to action--promised to herself that shed quit, promised to her family that shed quit, and had begun focusing on a new dream, one without a gun in her hand. Maybe it was too late for her: she had already felt the gaze of surveillance drones, had been warned by a contact that her name had been flagged as a person of interest. Her family had warned her of grave danger, darker secrets than shed been prepared for, warned her to stay clear of the whirlpool of Celestial Being, lest it pull her under. And yet, with all these misgivings, all these pleas, there was a part of her that couldnt let go of those shed fought alongside.
She was in her cot, laying low in the PPLs grace and generosity, doomscrolling through the triumphant tones of news feeds, when the call came through.
(Strange...I thought I had rerouted my contact numbers?)
Liu Mei Wang, Observer of Celestial Being, and the benefactor who had entrusted Chris with a reproduction-type GN Reactor. A difficult woman to deal with, and someone who always tipped Chris ever-just-so-slightly off balance with her words and actions.
(A little miracle?) Its not like Liu Mei didnt know who her found family was. Very funny, Miss Wang. There are no miracles that come for free. Who foots the bill for this one?
Chris hung the phone up before Liu Mei could answer her question. Of course there was no way to trust the woman. Liu Mei always...made things sound so logical, so simple, so easy.
(But, damn it... If everyones in danger, I...")
Liu Mei Wang couldn't have known the things she so recently had learned, and yet, Chris still fell into her gambit just the same. The knight piece moved, white to black and black to white. Never at rest on one side or the other. She slunk away from the PPL's warm lighting, leaving behind in the improved hideaway her worldly possessions and a three word note for Koji:
"Continue The Dream"
She 'borrowed' a motorboat from along the shore, and called to her long-time companion to rise from beneath the waves. Chris wrote a message to Sayla, then deleted it. Her old friend's eyes gleamed as he came to her, breaching the surface and rocking her boat.
"Gundam Tristan," she murmured aloud, as though she had comrades by her side to hear her, "We're hitchhiking a ride to space."
- - Side 7, Gryps II Proximity
Gundam Tristan <GN Failnaught>, its bearing as steady as its name, screamed through the vast space, all eight vectored thrusters blazing, GN-T flowerbud spinning, Chris gritting her teeth as she pushed the acceleration to the limits of what her body could still handle.
"Lockon, we still have unfinished business--Don't think you can dodge my questions after all this!" she replied to the Ptolemaios's field leader.
Nor was he the only familiar face she'd seen recently.
"Yuli... In the end, I couldn't stay away, even for my own sake," she wired directly. "Let's build together again after this."
Reaching the battlefield proper, she used the Tristan's excessive speed to drive her way through the frontline blockade of GN-Xs, tiny dodges between blistering interception fire, pressing her into the padded seat with great force. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on the Alvatore.
"And you! Weapons like that won't exist in the world of my dreams!"
KTS: Christina MacKenzie targets Mobile Weapons Team with Patience! KTS: Christina MacKenzie has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Christina MacKenzie's Patience, taking 909 damage! <Pose Tracker> Setsuna F. Seiei has posed.
It was always Celestial Being's ultimate goal to be the enemy that unites the world, and in this moment, they've done it. So clearly, there's no reason to fight. They should just graciously bow their heads down and accept the punishment they've been working towards. Setsuna accepted this the moment he joined. And yet...
It's wrong. He doesn't even need to know the scope of VEDA's plans to feel it. This isn't a push for world peace, but a push for something more sinister. Conquest. Power. The ills of the Earth's government are still firmly there. And so long as they continue to fester, he'll continue to fight to excise the problem.
"Roger. Setuna F. Seiei. Launching."
The Exia launches from the Ptolemy after the Gundam Meister responds to his orders, GN Sword and shield firmly in tow as it locks onto the Alvatore. A mobile armor? It's either desperation or confidence with no in between, going off of his knowledge of these things. Knowledge that might be considered biased, given that it's just history lessons from past wars involving various Gundam units. But until otherwise stated, Setsuna feels like it applies. Which means, in either case, he can't afford to take the situation lightly.
Reaching behind its back skirts, the Exia pulls an empty beam saber hilt, and with the flick of a switch, a thin, pink beam suddenly sprouts from it. With the Virtue attacking from range, it only makes sense to make sense that it can continue to do so by keeping it locked in melee.
Beam sword arm now raised high, it flies on over, a trail of GN particles trailing behind it brings the blade down across its chassis.
KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei targets Mobile Weapons Team with GN Beam Saber Slash! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to parry Setsuna F. Seiei's GN Beam Saber Slash, taking 2280 damage! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has engaged Mobile Weapons Team! <Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Hands fit for nothing but the shape of another man's throat...
... Yuliana thinks of herself, listening to Regina's resolution. She thinks of Chris, too.
She wonders whether Tieria would have liked to get a cat of his own, if he...
"It isn't nothing," she said, to Regina, as she reached over to squeeze her hand.
"The world is different because of us. I know it for a fact."
The whole world knows it. She's internationally wanted, in fact, for her crimes at the North Pole -- which is still quite green, in the wake of her efforts to revolutionise reality.
Is it better?
It's different.
They go.
And Lockon's cry shakes Yuliana from her anger, as the GN-X team fires around them. Thanks to that reminder, she's able to evade their fire, as they close in around them. "Tch -- focus --" She brings her wanzer around, to put her back to Regina's Alto, given the way the Colonel circles them.
She switches back to an open channel, to snap: "I've seen your prisons, Wild Bear. I'll not go back there! Call yourselves REA Forces or the bludgeons of NUNE -- I know what my fate would be, at your hands!"
Da Xukong 0 grasps its Cleave Axe, as Yuliana forces her wanzer forward, the wanzer's legs bending at sick angles to give it the proper manueverability in space. "Do you think I'm afraid of you?!" She demands, of the Colonel, as she swings the heavy weapon into one of those GN-X units around them -- looking to create an opening for the others.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with MULS-P Cleave Axe Swing! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Liu Mei Wang has posed.
The extravagant, battleship-sized form of the Alvatore proves an almost imposing apex of mobile weapon indomitability.
As hailfire after hailfire from the Ptolemaios recognizes Alejandro's gilded mobile armor as the primary threat, a vast GN Field encompasses the colossal thing, sending shot after shot glancing away. Even despite its unyielding barrier, the sheer size of the Alvatore makes its blistering speed come as a shock. When the Gundam Virtue makes its presence known with an opening salvo, the immense machine twists on a dime, and extends a vast claw from starboard.
"Hohoh. I can hear that you put up a tough front, Meister of Virtue. Tieria Erde..." Alejandro says, lowering his head to prepare a slowly building laugh. "Heh. Ehehe. Ahahaha! For you, I can only imagine this is your darkest day! You, who were born to recognize Veda as no less than God! You, who lived to fulfill its will - and are no longer worthy of its voice! I would cry at the starvation of your purpose, were you not on the border of death! If you are forsaken, then I'll make your end quick!" The claw lashes out towards the Virtue, spread enough to threaten crushing the entire Gundam flat!
"The world of your dreams?" Alejandro sneers, the Alvatore's frame angling upwards, beam fire dispersing across its flanks. In response, hatch after hatch opens upon the mobile armor's sides, alighting with vivid red beams that arc and twist in the vacuum, aiming to pummel the Tristan again and again. "And what foolish ideas have you come to, MacKenzie? Are they some enduring ideals you hope to outlive you? Nonsense. If the world must be united, then it'll go to the strongest - a dream is a weakness in the face of this truth!"
The hatches close, as soon as Setsuna's saber gouges into the Alvatore's GN Field for just a moment. "If it isn't you. The epitome of foolishness. The Gundam Meisters picked are all such jokes. Three incompetent siblings. A man who hides his thirst for petty vengeance beneath a caring facade." - that's absolutely not hidden from Lockon's signals - "A failed supersoldier constantly losing himself." - that's absolutely not hidden from Soma's signals - "A false 'angel' doomed to be neglected by his god. And you. The most absurd of them all. A troubled boy who clings to the idea of the Gundam like a child's blanket."
The grin audibly widens across Alejandro's lips - and, utterly disrespecting the Exia's renown in hand to hand combat, the Alvatore begins to accelerate, directly towards Setsuna. Faster and faster, the GN Field itself flaring hotter and harder, as though subjecting the Gundam to atmospheric re-entry. "The era of Gundam is over! The last page of that pathetic storybook is closing! Celestial Being, who clinged to it as their mask of ideals, is doomed to perish along with that symbol!!!"
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Tieria Erde KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Tieria Erde with Claw Arm Vice! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Christina MacKenzie with Side Beam Cannon - Focused Blitz! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Setsuna F. Seiei with GN Field Impact! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries fails to Parry Yuliana Kafim's MULS-P Cleave Axe Swing, taking 4800 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Soma Peries! KTS: Tieria Erde has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Tieria Erde retreats from the attack! KTS: Tieria Erde fails to react to Mobile Weapons Team's Claw Arm Vice, taking 3375 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Tieria Erde has posed.
Tieria clicks his tongue at the missed attack, and nearly bites it off refusing to justify Corner's ramblings with an answer.
Because the truth is that he was mostly right.
The Virtue, not the most agile Gundam to begin with, attempts to pull back, but still gets the brunt of the claw's attack. "Grrrgh! And you think yourself more worthy, that you had to steal its voice for it to even acknowledge you?"
As the Virtue pulls back to a safe distance, the cannons on each shoulder charge up, firing on the Alvatore.
KTS: Tieria Erde targets Mobile Weapons Team with GN Cannon Charged Shot! KTS: Tieria Erde has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team charges into the attack! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Tieria Erde's GN Cannon Charged Shot, taking 3537 damage! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team rattles Setsuna F. Seiei, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei parries Mobile Weapons Team's GN Field Impact, taking 750 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has engaged Setsuna F. Seiei! KTS: Christina MacKenzie's Beam Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Christina MacKenzie fails to evade Mobile Weapons Team's Side Beam Cannon - Focused Blitz, taking 3080 damage! <Pose Tracker> Regina Everhart has posed.
It isn't nothing, Yuliana assures her, squeezing her hand. The world is different because of them. Regina nods.
"...I would like to believe that." She replies. It's something to hold onto, at least.
---
'Don't lose focus!' Lockon's shout rings out over the comms, and Regina grips her controls. She cannot concern herself with the past or the future. There is only the 'now', and the brief moments that follow - she doesn't have the luxury of considering any other timeframe.
The GN-X teams spread out to surround them. ...Indeed, as Lockon says - the enemy units are remarkably capable. They may far outstrip her own Alto...
But it's the pilot that matters. She'll prove that.
"Understood." She replies, to his assertion to hold the line. "Everyone - fight well!"
Yuliana trusts her back to her, and Regina trusts her back to her as they're encircled. Regina's spear spins, deflecting beam rifle fire - though some still slips through, leaving trails across her machine.
"'Violence and intimidation'... To be replaced by your own? The weapon at the forefront of your forces... You bare your heart, whether you realise it or not." Regina retorts. " ...Spare me talk of surrender."
She lunges forward into the fray, her movement moving with surprising fluidity - unleashing a bare-handed strike with her free hand upon the nearest GN-X before quickly following up with a strike from the butt of her spear.
KTS: Regina Everhart targets Soma Peries with One-Two Jab! KTS: Regina Everhart has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries parries Regina Everhart's One-Two Jab, taking 1470 damage! KTS: Regina Everhart has engaged Soma Peries!
<Pose Tracker> Lockon Stratos has posed.
"Hai, hai, when we all get out of this safe and sound, feel free to shoot all the direct questions you want. I won't be dodging anything. Till then..." Chris needed to focus on the task at hand. She knew that assuredly. And like her, he too needed to focus on the matter at hand. For even now...
-------------------------------------------------------
Back upon the battlefield:
THe GN-X forces are nothing to sneer at. Even as the trio of the Celestial Being Meisters assemble their strength to punch through their numbers, that they go back into formation, refilling their ranks just as quickly.
"Tch. It's one thing if they were just filling numbers but now...Gnnngh!!!"
A cry escapes the Meister's lips, and just as quickly displays appear on his screen of being caught by one of the blasts from the GN rifles. Even if it was mostly covered from his GN Shield, the fact that it had rattled the cockpit had already been a problem.
"Lockon! Lockon!"
"I'm fine, don't stop moving. Especially now...If they circle us, the Ptolemy, it's over...No future for Celestial Being. No future for the world...No...Like hell I'll let it end like this."
Even with the narrow view he'd taken through his scope, he was aware of the situation all the same. The way that they were beginning to encircle them. If that happened...
<Yuliana...Regina...Watch your six, I'm clearing a path... Trans-Am!!!>
Between the GN-X mobile suits, and those of the Gundam, despite both using GN drives there was still one defining trait that had separated them. One thing that still made it possible for Celestial Being to fight back. Something that had been left to them in the belief of their values, and was in a way...Hope being given form.
The GN particles that had always had an emerald gleam to them as they dispersed began to agitate. The density of them expelled from the Dynames turned their flare into a crimson so bright that even the exterior green of the Dynames itself was turning alight with that shade of red. Within its Sniper mode, even the particles that it was charging were becoming more condensed as any pilot that had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of the GN Sniper's barrel.
He can't assure that when they get through on the other side things will be better. That they won't run into other enemies. That the crew of the Ptolemy might suffer. But with this, he intends to at least give them a chance to deal with that adversity. A chance to avoid completely being boxed in as the 'world' itself truly attempts to close in around Celestial Being.
<Miss Sumeragi, We'll clear the way...Whatever happens after...We'll be in your hands...> Who those words are directed to isn't made clear. Was it to the crew of the Ptolemy? To Regina and Yuliana to continue the fight should his GN particles deplete from the blast? To the entirety of Celestial Being there at this moment?
All that's known is that Smirnov had offered the three surrender. Regina and Yuliana, they have the kindness to at least deny the surrender with words (even if there's no kindness in the words alone). The Dynames however offers a very familiar response. One that Soma should be all too familiar with. A lack of one.
She can only watch as her squad becomes the group that's on the receiving end of its sights as it begins to charge GN Particles. A radiating light building with the barrel that even as it does so, there's the sounds of her allies all being told to prepare for evasive action. Though it's in that time that it already been set in motion...
<Lockon Stratos, Targeted and firing!>
The GN Rifle fires and from it a beam erupts from the weapon. The radius of the blast expanding beyond what the barrel of the weapon had been. It's attack appearing more on scale with something the Virtue might have been firing than something that was meant for precision, and yet it was still more. An attack that had the power of Virtue's GN Cannons, but the precision of a sniper aligning as many of its targets as possible. To identify the best point from which to fire so that an opening could be provided to the Ptolemy and aid its escape, to cause the most devastation of the Nunes forces, and most importantly...To remind them that they were facing Celestial Being.
KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos targets Soma Peries with 'Targeted and Firing!'! KTS: Lockon Stratos has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries blocks Lockon Stratos's 'Targeted and Firing!', taking 4875 damage! KTS: Lockon Stratos roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. <Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
<"Teams one and two, concentrate your fire on the Gundam and the Alto. I'll deal with the Wanzer.">
The Da Xukong's axe sweeps its way through a couple of the GN-X's as they try to scramble to get clear of Yuliana's strikes. But then on cue, Sergei's GN-X comes rushing in with its crimson beam saber drawn. The saber rapidly lashes out at the smaller Wanzer in an attempt to keep Yuliana on her toes. All the while Sergei radios, <"The world as we know it is moving forward. We're relics of a passing age, Kafim."> Him more so than Yuliana perhaps. But still, <"If we don't lay down the regrets and pain of the past, there'll be no hope for the future.">
Meanwhile, as much as Soma wants to deliver righteous vengeance to the traitor herself, a part of her is relieved that Sergei is going after Yuliana instead. It's the same part of her that recognises that Sergei is trying to keep Soma safe, by keeping her away from Yuliana and that weird effect of hers.
A thought nags at the back of Soma's mind... Which part of her is it that realises that?
Soma shakes her head to throw the thought from her mind and turns her focus on the Alto and the Dynames, radioing the other GN-Xs, <"Let's go!">
Regina tries to break through the encirclement but it proves difficult, possibly because the performance gap of the machines really are more than can be made up for by pilot skill. Or more likely, it's just the sheer numbers advantage the GN-Xs have.
However, the sudden shining star in the dark of space that is the Dynames in Trans-Am mode draws the attention of many, including Soma herself. She recalls the last time she saw this and is barely able to get out a, <"Look out-">
The Dynames fires.
Several of the GN-Xs are caught in the resulting beam, significant chunks of their frame completely obliterated as they are turned into floating debris. Soma's GN-X isn't spared from that light either as she tries to maneuver her way out of its path, reinforcing her defenses with the physical and GN beam shield on her machine's left arm. Said arm is caught in the beam, holding up for several moments before crumbling and disintegrating under the onslaught.
Finally the light fades, the shoulder stump of Soma's GN-X leaking out crimson particles. In the cockpit, Soma slams a fist against her arm rest in annoyance, "What the hell are those machines!?"
Driven to avenge those who were lost, Soma's GN-X rushes in to join in on the formation that has managed to catch Regina and Lockon in their grasp. She raises the GN Rifle in her machine's remaining hand, starting to unload rapid crimson shot after shot at the two. All the while the other GN-X's remaining join in trying to do the same, focusing their onslaught on the two.
As she keeps her aim on the targets, Soma calls out on an open channel, <"The world is changing and we're trying to maintain order during these chaotic times! We will not allow the taint of Celestial Being to infect the new future that we are trying to protect. Your presence is not needed-No! It was never needed!">
KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim with GN-X Beam Saber Rapid Flurry! KTS: Soma Peries targets Regina Everhart with GN-X Beam Rifle Focused Onslaught! KTS: Soma Peries targets Lockon Stratos with GN-X Beam Rifle Focused Onslaught! KTS: Soma Peries has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Soma Peries rattles Yuliana Kafim, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to parry Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Saber Rapid Flurry, taking 2400 damage! KTS: Soma Peries has engaged Yuliana Kafim! KTS: Lockon Stratos's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Lockon Stratos fails to react to Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Rifle Focused Onslaught, taking 6240 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Soma Peries's Loyal Soldier activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: Soma Peries completes the Formation attack! KTS: Regina Everhart has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Regina Everhart has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Regina Everhart blocks Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Rifle Focused Onslaught, taking 4059 damage! KTS: Soma Peries completes the Formation attack!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana trusts Regina; she's saved her life before. (And not just Regina.) Both she and the Alto are of a mind, diving into melee -- but Yuliana swerves, when she hears Lockon's warning.
"You're activating your Trans-Am...?" She transmits, on Celestial Being's channel. Sumeragi...? There's no time to think about who he's addressing, right now. She grits her teeth, and says, instead: "Watch yourself, Lockon. We can't afford to have your GN Particles run dry in a situation like this."
Is it too little too late, telling him to think about himself after all that time she left him to think about the others?
... maybe it's just the selfishness of not wanting an ally limping in a situation like this.
She notices her IFF signals diverting, and snaps, "Regina, they're coming for--!" A warning cut short by one particular GN-X unit crashing forward towards her, forcing Yuliana, inopportunely, to bring her Cleave Axe up to defend herself. It's knocked clean from her hands by the force of Sergei's blow, spinning into space.
His GN-X may not look any different to the others -- but the difference is as plain as day, to Yuliana. She's not at all surprised to hear Sergei's voice. And she replies, on open channel: "Then what am I supposed to do, Colonel?! You people -- you MADE me! If someone like me is a relic, just like you... where are any of the Republic's dirty little secrets supposed to go?!" She doesn't name Soma; perhaps she doesn't have to.
Her injector comes out, instead, stabbing at the larger chassis of Sergei's GN-X, in a wild attempt to inject that superheated plasma into his mobile suit. "Regret! Pain! Thanks to your ilk, it will always be in my future! Even though I'm working so hard, it doesn't go away! Even so, I can use these skills you gave me! Even now, I can WRAP MY HANDS AROUND YOUR THROAT!"
She knows she's not on the Wild Bear's level; but she is a wild thing, herself.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with Infernal Arachnid Injector Heat Warper! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
"They're not--Gh--only my dreams! We're all fighting to quit fighting!"
Chris pulls back on the throttles, hard, flaring out the Tristan's verniers as the massive golden Armor unleashes a broadside towards her. Frankly, it's a testament to her and her Gundam's united reaction speed that she's able to spin and dart between the beams for as long as she does, sliding into the still-rippling space of a fading beam to evade the next a split second later.
Watching those devastating claws lash out at the Virtue, as the massive craft manages a shocking amount of acceleration to rush against the Exia's blade...can she slow it down somehow?
Finally, the Alvatore's barrage pins her evasion routes down, and she's forced to slam her pedals, INCOMs flaring out into a hexagonal shield before the Gundam to at least dampen the strike away from critical components. The Alvatore's GN-T powered beams batter the shield for a long, long few seconds, and a bright red flashing on her HUD demands she break away or suffer blow-through. The Tristan jets backwards in the shadow of the shield to gain even a hair's breadth more time, and there's a straining in the INCOM wires as they spool out despite the flickering, failing shield. Finally, the beams pierce through, and the first winnowed beam scores a melted gouge across a chobham plate before the Tristan is no longer pinned down, its discs retracting for a sorely needed recharge.
Arcing a flight path towards the rear underside of the grand weapon, the Tristan tries to dive into the shadow of the broadside cannonade to catch a breath.
"My dream is a world that doesn't need a union over bloodshed!"
Flitting back and forth to keep herself away from the overlapping fields of fire while her INCOMs recharge, Chris maneuvers hard towards the Alvatore's glimmering crimson wake. As soon as a path forward reveals itself, those verniers flick straight back, gathering G forces in Chris's gut in a hard burn towards the Alvatore's engine manifold. At first it seems like she might crash her whole body into the much greater mass of the mobile armor, but those verniers flare out at the last moment, spinning the Tristan in a violent pirouette. One arm reaches out, crashing a heavy chobham-plated forearm into an engine casing.
The intense spin and jarring impact threaten the older pilot with nausea and G-LOC, but she still finds her voice as she pulls away to a semi-safe distance.
("Yuli, Regina, Lockon...hold on out there...)
"So, so what if it's foolish! The people I save with these foolish hands--we'll be stronger together than you ever will be, alone!"
KTS: Yuliana Kafim rattles Soma Peries, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Soma Peries parries Yuliana Kafim's Infernal Arachnid Injector Heat Warper, taking 1140 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Soma Peries! KTS: Christina MacKenzie has activated the Accel Spirit Command and Has Engaged with Mobile Weapons Team KTS: Christina MacKenzie targets Mobile Weapons Team with Blitz Vector - Pressure ! KTS: Christina MacKenzie has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Setsuna F. Seiei has posed.
"Jokes? Just what do you know about Gundams? About Gundam Meisters? About ideals?"
The Alvatore attempts to crash into the Exia, and the Gundam quickly brings the massive sword mounted to its arm up, the underslung blade swinging forward and locking into place before meeting the mobile armor's crashing attack head on. It seems like a pretty fruitless endeavor that'd only end in failure, given the the massive difference in stature between the two robots, but the Exia seemingly holds out, even as its sword arm begins sparking and whirring under the massive strain.
"This world doesn't have any use for people who refuse to understand. You're simply another obstacle to cut."
Continuing to struggle, Setsuna remembers not that long ago... The true abilities locked away within their GN drive. A double-edged sword. The power to put every fiber of meaning behind his Gundam, if only for a brief moment before it's reduced to something quieter than a dull whisper. Would he risk it, knowing that he fails, there'd be no chance to rebound and recover?
Does he even have a choice?
"Trans Am."
The inside of the Exia's cockpit glows red, soon followed by the entire mobile suit as its reactore begins burning through all of its reserve. With that rash action, however, comes power, enough to repel the mobile armor and mount its own offensive. It tosses away its beam saber, instead now reaching for one of the physical blades mounted on its waist.
A GN field. This is the Exia's true purpose, to fight against something like this. With GN Long Saber in hand, the gundam's hand tightens around the hilt as it once again lunges forward, putting the entire weight of its body behind the attack as the tip of the blade aims to penetrate through Alejandro's defenses.
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Christina MacKenzie rattles Mobile Weapons Team, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Christina MacKenzie's Blitz Vector - Pressure , taking 1350 damage! KTS: Christina MacKenzie has engaged Mobile Weapons Team! KTS: Christina MacKenzie begins a Formation attack! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei targets Mobile Weapons Team with GN Long & Short Blade Slice! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Setsuna F. Seiei's GN Long & Short Blade Slice, taking 4275 damage! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has engaged Mobile Weapons Team! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei completes the Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Liu Mei Wang has posed.
"Worthy. Worthy?!" Alejandro clicks his tongue, the Alvatore widening the GN Field's dispersal with a barrel roll - expecting the field to even endure the Virtue's salvo of cannon fire - when it instead sears craters into his glittering armor, his brow furrows instead. "My family has worked tirelessly to bring Aeolia Schenberg's ideals to light for generations! Sacrificing so much to see his dreams to fruition! To watch as they came to light, only to be inadequate in a wildly changed world - something needed to change! Obeying a silent machine that plans to reward only its own children who believe it to be infallible. Should our seizure of its core not be enough, Tieria!? Would an all-powerful God allow itself to be compromised? This world is meant to be in human hands alone, and I'll prove it! Fly, Fangs!"
From the Alvatore's tail, six spear-shaped bits fly out - the GN Fangs, burning red with their own micro-Condensers fueling their thrusters, surge out and encircle behind Tieria, aiming no less than at the burning GN Drive at the Gundam's back.
"Oh, you're a true believer in the 'wage war on war' idea, aren't you, MacKenzie?" Alejandro says, barely containing a spitting voice. "It was only ever a means to an end to break the stalemate of superpowers in favor of a hegemony. Aeolia was an idiot to believe there was something more grandiose about the idea. The purpose of Celestial Being was to disrupt the world and force a stronger order to take place - that's what I believe, and that's why I'm disposing of it, because that world has come to pass. You're already in the dustbin of history - today, I'm simply taking out the garbage!"
That said, Alejandro can't hide a grunt as he fails to outmaneuver the Tristan - the jolt to the seven red GN Drives sends a rattle through the mobile armor, slowing down its frantic pace across the battlefield. With the Fangs all harassing Tieria to boot, Alejandro struggles to answer without his rear-mounted defenses - that is only for a moment, until an upper module of the Alvatore pivots around, aiming two mobile rifle-turrets down at Christina, firing at an almost reckless pace as though to rid himself of a troublesome pest.
"Refuse to understand what, 'Setsuna F. Seiei'? Even the pseudonym alone is ridiculous. The Gundams and their Meisters are tools, Setsuna! They are objects of war constructed to be superior to others so that one group may seize the power to decide the future! What would you know? To you, it is a sword that a distant God granted to you by unknowable whims. But to me? I could tell you of its development - of the billions of dollars that went into constructing them - of the facilities in which they were built and maintained - of the negotiations made with the bloc governments to ensure we had covert access to those facilities. The Gundam is something loaned to you, Setsuna F. Seiei. Using them was your employment. They are mine because I financed them, and I am now disposing of them as a dead asset!"
So lost is Alejandro in his affirmations and disgust at Setsuna that the activation of the Trans-Am leaves him suddenly stunned and disoriented, with the AI navigation doing all the work for him in ascertaining its target. By the time Exia's red-flashing form is finally back in frame, the GN Field is insufficient, its blade shearing a deep scar in the Alvatore's armor. The Alvatore's superior, infallible armor, made to crush the remnants of the Ptolemaios. A vein pops on Alejandro's forehead - this was supposed to be easier. The strike team's bogged down by more enemies than anticipated. Surely this many people did not truly believe in such elusive, ridiculous idealism?
"You'll pay for those damages, Setsuna," Alejandro scowls, as the primary beam cannon from the front of the Alvatore's prow erupts like a battering ram, its twin jaws at its apex widening just feet from Exia's front. Such a massive particle cannon rightfully would take many moments to charge up - but for the monstrous Alvatore, a battleship-splitting hellfire pours out within moments of that cannon deploying.
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Tieria Erde with GN Fang - Suppressive Salvo! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Christina MacKenzie with GN Beam Rifle - Arcing Light! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Setsuna F. Seiei with GN Beam Cannon - Lance Flare! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Tieria Erde has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Tieria Erde has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Tieria Erde has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Tieria Erde successfully avoids Mobile Weapons Team's GN Fang - Suppressive Salvo KTS: Christina MacKenzie's Beam Wall L2 activates, negating 2000 base damage. KTS: Christina MacKenzie blocks Mobile Weapons Team's GN Beam Rifle - Arcing Light, taking 1400 damage! <Pose Tracker> Tieria Erde has posed.
Tieria notices the bits moving towards the Virtue's weak spots, and shifts out of the way just in time to avoid their shots. This was why he usually stayed on the edge of the fray...
"You sure do love listening to yourself talk. Unfortunately, I don't." Noticing the Exia activating Trans Am, Tieria takes the hint. If there was any time to break out the big guns, it was now.
"Trans Am."
Like the Exia, the Virtue's cockpit, then entire frame begins to glow red as the suit pulls the GN Bazooka into Burst Mode, particles beginning to gather and glow along the barrel, red instead of the usual green.
"Full Burst!"
A thick red beam fires out and directly to the Alvatore.
KTS: Tieria Erde uses install KTS: Tieria Erde targets Mobile Weapons Team with GN Bazooka Full Burst! KTS: Tieria Erde has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei fails to Evade Mobile Weapons Team's GN Beam Cannon - Lance Flare, taking 4860 damage! <Pose Tracker> Regina Everhart has posed.
Lockon gives a warning, and Regina nods. That power... It is a risk, but right now, perhaps they aren't in any position to play carefully. They're outnumbered, and they have few advantages. Best to use the ones they do have.
"Understood." Regina replies. She watches herself, but soon enough, Yuliana begins to call a warning to her, and -
"Yuliana!" Regina calls out in surprise, as a unit crashes into Yuliana's, engaging her directly. Regina isn't given any opportunity to assist, as the GN-X's prove maneuverable enough to match her attempts at attack. Is the difference that vast...? She grits her teeth and focuses. She hears Lockon's words - who are they for...?
She can't dwell on that for long.
Soma's GN-X sweeps in, opening fire - and the rest of her team follows suit. Regina's spear sweeps through the air, trying to cut through the volley - but she can only deal with so much at once. The difference in firepower and numbers... she's starting to feel pressured, now.
Maintaining order... Their presence isn't needed. It's true that the world is changing. She's known that much. She's seen it. Regina is quiet for a moment, hesitant... but she sets her jaw and advances.
"If your order was enough, we would not be here. No... I cannot trust it. The world is splitting, ever splitting, even in the face of existential danger. What more proof could there be that we are needed?" She insists.
She grips her spear in both hands, now, and charges down Soma's GN-X - but rather than go for a direct attack she goes for a disorienting sweep, to make it more difficult for her to react to the others. With Yuliana occupied with Sergei, she will have to entrust the rest to Lockon.
KTS: Regina Everhart targets Soma Peries with Standard Large Physical Melee Topple Strike! KTS: Regina Everhart has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to react to Tieria Erde's GN Bazooka Full Burst, taking 3825 damage! KTS: Tieria Erde roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Regina Everhart rattles Soma Peries, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Soma Peries parries Regina Everhart's Standard Large Physical Melee Topple Strike, taking 1410 damage! KTS: Regina Everhart has engaged Soma Peries! <Pose Tracker> Lockon Stratos has posed.
The Dynames' blow appears enough to whittle down an egregious amount of the NUNEs forces. To an amount that could allow for the Ptolemy to break through the potential of a blockade. That said, as brilliant of an attack that was provided, as powerful as the power of Trans-Am was, it too came with its own cost.
"GN Particles low! GN Particles low!"
"Tch. More of them broke out...And that movement..."
As the irritated state of the Gundam returns it to its prior state, Soma can see as its sniping scope recedes, its v-fin lifts up to expose its gaze that stares right back at her. The pilot says nothing, but...It's like he's saying it without words alone. He recognizes her, even without Soma being in the same machine. Its probably some of the most acknowledgement she's gotten from the silent Gundam since the first time she's seen it.
<True, it's not a fight that we can all be reckless with...But it's not a fight we can hold back on either. So...>
His voice gets interrupted by his original blast of the Trans-Am charged attack. Though it's only in this time between then and Yuliana once again going into that feral state does Lockon's voice call out to her. His voice travels as she once again seems like she's about to give into her rage. As she begins succumbing to that wild wrath in her. Yet he still attempts to call out through the raging of her voice over the comms. <...Yuli!> His voice calls out with the same strain it has as before to try and reach her. Though it's only in that moment till it turns a bit more coy even as she finds herself going into that feral state. <Like I just said, there's only enough room for one of us to be reckless right now, and I already just took my shot...>
It seemed that while Yuliana perceived him as the one that was left to think about others, was that really how he saw it? No. He had always been doing that. Wanting better for those of Celestial Being, for the world even. And that tried to show in every move, every shot he made. So, why was it now that he'd be so reckless? Why was he the one forcing her to be responsible in this bout?
<I've softened them up, so don't you think I'll forgive you now if you slack off! I don't care about your rage or any of it, but if it's the only thing you have,going forward if it'll blind you from seeing the best future! Then you need to cha-- Auuugh?!?!! >
As he was going, Soma and her squad's shots begin to find purchase as they start to penetrate the Dynames. The machine caught in an array of gunfire that has Lockon bouncing in his cockpit. Even now one of the legs of the Dynames has been shot off, one of the GN shields completely singed and twisted out of shape. It's not a pretty sight to see...And it's only due to Haro's ability to continue garnering control that he breaks out of it.
His vision starts to feel hazy. His body starting to waver, and yet...From his display he can see as Regina starts to go in for Soma's units. Starting to soak in their attention which brings free to offer the finishing shot. There's a soft smile as he feels blood starting to trickle down from the top of his head.
<My, my, and here I was just saying I was going to leave it to you guys. But...> As he feels blood trickle down his eye, his visage becoming tinted in red, he still pulls down his scope once more, a cheeky smile becoming more composed. <Guess it can't be helped. you guys aren't the only ones trying to make a future after all...Haro.> He calls out to his partner once more, as the spherical companion focuses on one thing and one thing only, to make sure that Dynames is completely and properly locked into position to take this last shot. The v-fin goes down one more time and with it, the GN Drive finds a second burst of emerald light...And with it, one final shot erupts from the GN rifle. A burst that sings as light fills space once more as it hurls towards Soma's unit.
KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos targets Soma Peries with 'I've got you right between the eyes!'! KTS: Lockon Stratos has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Soma Peries successfully evades Lockon Stratos's 'I've got you right between the eyes!' KTS: Tieria Erde has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
Sergei may be a great ace but he's getting on in his age. And Yuliana has a lot of fury backing her. He's able to bring his beam saber up to meet the injector. Instead of striking the GN-X's torso, it instead digs into the armour of the right arm, causing it to start to bulge and glow with heat.
Sergei quickly triggers the eject on the arm, letting the now dead limb go to keep it from getting in the way and to lighten his machine. He then has the other hand reach out towards the wanzer, attempting to grab hold of it with those sharp claws that threaten to dig into the Da Xukong 0's frame.
<"The REA may have made you, but so long as you continue to hold on to hatred for it, it'll still hold sway over you and you'll never truly be free of it. It doesn't matter if its secrets are revealed if they drag you down too. It's not worth it. You have a wife now. If you keep going down this path, eventually even that will be taken from you one way or another. Trust me on that.">
Soma brings her GN-X's leg around in a kick to meet the sweep from Regina's spear. The counter-force is enough to keep the blow from significantly throwing Soma's balance off, but it still causes some damage to the leg.
<"So what are you going to do? Are you going to keep striking out and throw the world into further chaos? Why do you keep trying to bring everything to ruin!?"> Soma raises the rifle in her hand once more, unleashing a quick barrage to delay Regina and keep her from getting close again. But then-
Look out!
Soma backs her machine up before she even has a chance to register where that warning came from. The beam of green lances right through the space she'd been in moments before. Soma quickly turns her head, following the beam back to its source.
"Gundam!"
It's not glowing as much as it was earlier. Maybe this is her opportunity! Soma quickly turns, leaving Regina behind as she bursts towards the Dynames on a trail of crimson. She raises her rifle, letting the red beams lash out towards the Gundam, but they're not designed to do serious damage, but instead by time while Soma closes in.
As she reaches the Dynames, Soma throws the beam rifle aside and draws a beam saber from its thigh, <"Just go away!"> The GN-X lunges that beam saber towards the Dynames.
KTS: Soma Peries targets Yuliana Kafim with GN-X Claws Swipe! KTS: Soma Peries targets Regina Everhart with GN-X Beam Rifle Rapid Spray! KTS: Soma Peries targets Lockon Stratos with GN-X Beam Saber Through And Through! KTS: Soma Peries has completed their actions for the round. <Pose Tracker> Setsuna F. Seiei has posed.
"It is not a loan if I don't intend to return it. The Exia is mine. Now, answer me this, why do people keep on creating Gundams? Why do people continue to use the name? It's because a Gundam is more than just technical specs and a list of materials. It is more than results. In their undiluted form, they are a message. A message of hope. A message of peace. But more than that..."
The Exia readies the massive physical blade strapped to its arm, right before its suddenly engulfed by the Alvatore's beam weapons. If only if it were to end that easy though, as it clearly wasn't as clean of a hit as Alejendro would have hoped, the only visible damage outside of swathes of missing paint being the fins on its chest being melted off and a missing pauldron.
"People need faith in something to live. And since God has failed me, I'll simply believe in Gundam."
Going for a fake out, the blade on its arm folds back to free up the hand as it reaches for its second GN Blade, now dual wielding the weapons as it crashes into the Alvatore's GN field, sinking both blades in as it attempts to penetrate through and reach the mobile armor.
KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei targets Mobile Weapons Team with GN Long & Short Blade Bisect! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Regina Everhart has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lockon Stratos's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Lockon Stratos fails to parry Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Saber Through And Through, taking 4800 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Soma Peries's Loyal Soldier activates, causing Jam L1! KTS: Soma Peries has engaged Lockon Stratos! KTS: Regina Everhart blocks Soma Peries's GN-X Beam Rifle Rapid Spray, taking 2460 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's EN Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim partially guards Soma Peries's GN-X Claws Swipe, taking 1750 damage! KTS: Soma Peries has engaged Yuliana Kafim! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team fails to parry Setsuna F. Seiei's GN Long & Short Blade Bisect, taking 4950 damage! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has engaged Mobile Weapons Team!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
They are needed, and they cannot trust NUNE's order; Regina's logic makes perfect sense, to a saboteur like Yuliana. Perhaps she is too bitter -- she would say she is too wise.
But Lockon tells her not to be so reckless, and Yuliana growls, in the clutches of her clutch. She at least has the presence of mind to switch back to CSB's channels, to reply: "Isn't it fine?! Isn't it fine to TEAR THEM APART when they come to KILL US?! It's not like I'm in some clunke--!!" Another growl, as she cuts herself off, looking at the readouts across her visor. "... but Regina's stuck in a Flight Alto... against these things. Shit. It's fine, I'm -- I'm cool. I'm cool." Her breathing is audible, in and out, as she tries to apply those lessons in the cockpit of all places.
(Can people like them really learn better, Chris?)
She's grasped by Sergei's GN-X, though, as she's trying to get a grip on herself -- and she switches back to an open channel to reply. "What... what do you care?" And her voice is pressured, as she asks. "Why would you... yoooou... you stupid old man!" Her Injector stabs at him, again, but it's more a stab than a burn -- she doesn't manage to inject a payload, this time. (Doesn't think to.) "It was so easy to think -- everyone was like you! But if I'd had someone like you! If I'd had someone like you, I wouldn't have cried so much! It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not FAIR!" It's hard to call her anger merciful, though, when Da Xukong 0's tail keeps stabbing.
"Rrrrghhh--!!"
She doesn't want to... leave her wife.
But she doesn't want to leave --
"Dynames!" Yuliana cries, still over that open channel. "That's -- that voice, it's -- HEY, YOU!" She yells into her radio, hoping to catch Soma's attention. "That Gundam's not the one who TRASHED YOUR HOME! You remember having to bring it down around your own damn ears?! That was all me! If you have any honour, you'd take me out, first!"
It's the only way she can think of to get heat off of Lockon, sounding like that.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Soma Peries KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Soma Peries KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Daunt Spirit Command targeting Soma Peries KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Soma Peries with Infernal Arachnid Injector Gouge! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
"A means to an end? Is that all we ever were?"
As much as she hates it, those words, and his lecture to Setsuna of the financial diplomacy beneath the surface of Celestial Being give a shape to the darkness Leina warned her about. A lapse of focus for just a moment, but it would have been a lethal mistake had she not already positioned herself conservatively. Instead, her hardwon delay is wasted lost in thought, snapping out of it only as twin beams blaze into light.
Chris has no time to dodge, and her fingers dance over her console, concentrating her INCOM barrier in a shifting, double-layered triangle and this time, she's prepared, one INCOM zipping in to take the place of another as she begins evasive action.
"If the world that's come to pass is the world you want..."
The Tristan strafes left and right, shifting the relative position of its triangular shields as the double-barrel barrage persists, until finally she can snap off a quick beam shot and break away, the INCOMs trailing in her wake making potshots to force the twin turret's defenses to stay up.
"...Then you're part of the reason we need change in the first place!"
The Tristan arcs away, and begins looping back, but not before gathering telemetry from the rest of the battlefield.
("Yuliana! She's being pushed hard, and Regina isn't able to break through...") The subtle burst of static across Lockon's comms is indicative of cockpit block damage, and all three of the Meisters have been pressed to use their aces. The Alvatore was accumulating gouges, and the GN-X squadron was succumbing to attrition in turn. The sides looked--they looked well-matched.
("Liu Mei... exactly how well did you estimate our collective fighting power?")
Her chest tightened, and she turned her eyes from her comrades, forced to trust in them, as they trusted her to blunt the enemy before them.
("Safer maneuvers won't make up the difference in our fighting strength--I have to take risks if I want to go home.")
The Tristan bore down on the Alvatore, chobham bracers and INCOM geometry projected before it, closing the distance while Tieria opened fire with full salvo and Setsuna brandished his gleaming blades.
"Someone who sees others as garbage--as tools to be discarded."
Sweeping in trailing fusion flame and neutral-white GN sparkles, the Tristan raised its arms up high, all eight INCOM cables twining and their emitters meeting, blazing bright with a massive, merged blade.
"I'll never let someone like you decide how this world changes! HhrraaaAH!"
KTS: Christina MacKenzie has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Christina MacKenzie targets Mobile Weapons Team with Crucible! KTS: Christina MacKenzie has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Christina MacKenzie's Crucible, taking 5166 damage! KTS: Christina MacKenzie has engaged Mobile Weapons Team!
<Pose Tracker> Liu Mei Wang has posed.
"Taciturn right up to the end without your faith, aren't you, failure?" Alejandro sneers down at Tieria, the GN Fangs returning to their housing with a click. When he sees the GN Cannon alight on the Virtue, he's dismissive of what he's even seeing, the red light coursing through its frame surely not accomplishing much when the Virtue's so bulky. Alejandro prepares to simply dive out of the way...
Only for the titanic purge of incinerating particles to punch right through the GN Field, causing an oh so deserved scream of frustration from the traitor to Celestial Being. The Alvatore's gigantic body starts to overheat and erupt from the sheer burst of GN Particles, erupting and exploding across its creases and armor plates.
---Is that the win...?
"Hah. Ahahahahahaha! Faith in a relic that a false god left for you, Setsuna!? Gundam...Gundam is a monster. Gundam is the terror that cleaved through Zeon with the unwitting aid of a scared child! Gundam is the tragedy that threatened to devour Neo-Japan, and the Earth soon after! Gundam is fear! To believe in it is to believe that the terror it inspires in others is equivalent to awe! We made them Gundams because they were symbols that made people cower!"
A hiss from the Alvatore's upper section - plates unfolding into vast wings, revealing a humanoid Mobile Suit within, just as gold-plated as the machine it operated. A visor that flashes a menacing green, and a core that thrums a vivid blue
The IFF code abruptly changes - from [GNMA-XCVII Alvatore], to [GNMS-XCVII Alvaaron].
Smoke billows from the tip of its twin heavy-caliber beam rifles.
Wings spread wide, an unthinkable amount of stored energy begins to course through its frame - transferred from the body of the Mobile Armor it stands atop. Glimmering and pulsing - before arcing out a rain of light that ascends high above the Gundam Virtue. It resembles none less than the opening salvo of arrows from an army of antiquity, descending upon a wide area with promises of destruction to entire armies.
Then, Alejandro lunges forward, flashing out beam sabers to meet with Setsuna's swords, clashing and struggling and losing the Alvaaron's left arm in the process. ...But then - the wings converge together. Powered by the blue core at the Alvaaron's heart, a gradually burning sphere of light grows and grows, only to launch at eruptive speeds, aiming to cast the Exia down from heaven.
"You were treated like tools the entire time, MacKenzie! Don't tell me you began getting attached to your peers through your time in Celestial Being. After all, at any given moment, Veda could have ordered you to execute one of them - or for you to be the one executed!" A light gleams in Alejandro's eyes, staggering back atop the upper prow of the Alvatore, heel-magnets crackling and faltering as the mobile suit's GN Drive tries to keep control and deflect the gigantic sword of unity crashing down upon him - but they've de-winged the falsely angelic machine, severing that unreasonably powerful weapon from the suit's core.
And that is enough to make Alejandro realize the peril he's truly in.
"...Damn you. Damn you and this useless resolve when you're doomed nonetheless! Standing firm and fighting even when the very entity you fought on behalf of has forsaken you. When Veda no longer favors you, because I hold its reins!" - Alejandro thinks, for just a second. He doesn't have the reins on it at all. Not right now. "...Resistance wasn't supposed to be this fierce. There's more among you than Ribbons forecasted. ...Nonsense. You are the ones who interfere with the plan more. So why...why?!"
Gritting his teeth, Alejandro swings his one remaining arm up at the Tristan, a loud *thunk* emanating from the gigantic beam rifle, loading in some cartridge not unlike the Beam Magnum. Its power is similarly fearsome - this is a shot that would threaten to blow a hole clean through a normal Mobile Suit.
KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Christina MacKenzie with GN Beam Rifle - Punish Execution! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Tieria Erde with Wing Cannon - Ash Like Snow! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team targets Setsuna F. Seiei with Wing Cannon - Daybreak's Bell! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim rattles Soma Peries, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Soma Peries parries Yuliana Kafim's Infernal Arachnid Injector Gouge, taking 1200 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Soma Peries! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei blocks Mobile Weapons Team's Wing Cannon - Daybreak's Bell, taking 9120 damage! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei uses install
<Pose Tracker> Regina Everhart has posed.
"Chaos and ruin was never our intent - though it may not seem as such to you, who benefits so much from the violence mankind likes to visit upon itself." Regina replies. She raises her spear to intercept - but it was not made to withstand so much punishment from such a superior power. In breaks apart in her Alto's hands. She grits her teeth, and starts forward - but she's hesitant, for a second.
Lockon... He sounds -
...It'll be fine. It must be fine.
But it's true what Chris says, that she can't break through - and she can hardly chide Yuliana for her recklessness. She's been known to be reckless, herself. Isn't it reckless, to go out like this...?
Regina inhales. She has to focus - especially now, as Soma moves to leave her behind to round on Lockon's Gundam. Yuliana seeks to draw Soma's attention - and Regina does the same, by giving her something else to think about.
"You've made an error in judgment. Do not turn your back on me!" Regina scolds. She shifts the remains of her spear in her hands - and then hurls it, sending it flying like a crossbow bolt straight for Soma's GN-X. Regina herself is right behind it, swinging the remains of the spear's handle. Connected or not, it breaks apart in her hands - but she's already proven that unarmed combat is no obstacle.
She pushes her machine, straining it under her command, drawing out every ounce of power it has - following it up with a powerful flurry of unarmed strikes.
KTS: Regina Everhart has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Regina Everhart has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Regina Everhart uses Hyper Reloader KTS: Regina Everhart targets Soma Peries with Shattering Combination! KTS: Regina Everhart has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Soma Peries parries Regina Everhart's Shattering Combination, taking 2010 damage! KTS: Soma Peries has been defeated! KTS: Regina Everhart has engaged Soma Peries! KTS: Tieria Erde has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Tieria Erde's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Tieria Erde fails to react to Mobile Weapons Team's Wing Cannon - Ash Like Snow, taking 5700 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Tieria Erde has posed.
"You may have taken Veda, but you never took my faith in the mission! That faith drives me still to this very moment, Corner!"
The GN Bazooka immediately begins charging up another full burst, its GN Drives working doubletime under the Trans Am. The energy concentration is enough to have red particles drifting off the entire surface of the Virtue.
"You may clip our wings, but my Virtue still shines bright as a paragon to the entire sphere!"
Alarms and alerts go off throughout Tieria's cockpit, warning of imminent GN Drive shutdown. Trans Am must be pushing it to the limit. No matter, this should end it.
"This angel will never fall! FULL BURST!"
KTS: Tieria Erde targets Mobile Weapons Team with GN Bazooka Full Burst! KTS: Tieria Erde has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team rattles Christina MacKenzie, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Christina MacKenzie parries Mobile Weapons Team's GN Beam Rifle - Punish Execution, taking 5208 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has engaged Christina MacKenzie! <Pose Tracker> Lockon Stratos has posed.
"Isn't it fine?! Isn't it fine to TEAR THEM APART when they come to KILL US?! It's not like I'm in some clunke--!!"[/normal]
<I'm not telling you not to be angry...I'm not telling you not to give them hell...If you end up learning one thing from me. Take the thing I'm best at... As a sniper...If you only keep one eye open while taking your shot, you'll lose perspective on everything else that goes around you. You won't see the full picture. Same thing goes if you lose yourself in ra-- Yuli!!!>
He calls out once more as she's snagged by Sergei's GN-X. He's in no position to assist though. In fact. Even after the fact she's still calling out to the Dynames. As if he's the one that is in peril. Which, at the moment...He was.
"You missed! You missed!"
"What?! Shit, did the last shot wear down the barrel?!"
It didn't matter what the reason was, whether it was his mistake, or simply Soma's skill. The fact of the matter was that she was coming in hot, and at first he thinks he's going to be dealing with the fire of her rifle. What's left of his GN shield coming forward in front to try and brace for the impact. However...What comes isn't a beam rifle but the collision of a beam saber as it pierces through that shield completely till it can be felt connecting with something on the other side. She's got the kill, she's sure of it till...
<I...I seriously should be dead...>
Just for an instance as the Gundam hid behind that plate of green, does she feel that irritation of particles[/normal] once more. It's only for a second, the briefest moment was Trans-Am activated. And in that moment it was the smallest burst, and yet it was enough to maneuver...Just enough that when the beam saber had pierced the GN Shield rather than searing right into the cockpit. She finds that her blade skimmed the side of it instead. It's enough where she can see the slightest opening. A pilot with his face-concealed by his helmet, a scope pulled down from atop. And...An orange Haro that was holstered right at his side. And just as she gets a look does she finally hear a voice enter from his lips to her ears.
"Looks like we both missed our shots...That said..We're not dead yet.."
He draws out those words. As if he's trying to stall Soma's attention entirely, all up till the last moment that Regina is able to take her spear and unleash that fury upon her.
<Pose Tracker> Lockon Stratos has posed.
"Isn't it fine?! Isn't it fine to TEAR THEM APART when they come to KILL US?! It's not like I'm in some clunke--!!"
<I'm not telling you not to be angry...I'm not telling you not to give them hell...If you end up learning one thing from me. Take the thing I'm best at... As a sniper...If you only keep one eye open while taking your shot, you'll lose perspective on everything else that goes around you. You won't see the full picture. Same thing goes if you lose yourself in ra-- Yuli!!!>
He calls out once more as she's snagged by Sergei's GN-X. He's in no position to assist though. In fact. Even after the fact she's still calling out to the Dynames. As if he's the one that is in peril. Which, at the moment...He was.
"You missed! You missed!"
"What?! Shit, did the last shot wear down the barrel?!"
It didn't matter what the reason was, whether it was his mistake, or simply Soma's skill. The fact of the matter was that she was coming in hot, and at first he thinks he's going to be dealing with the fire of her rifle. What's left of his GN shield coming forward in front to try and brace for the impact. However...What comes isn't a beam rifle but the collision of a beam saber as it pierces through that shield completely till it can be felt connecting with something on the other side. She's got the kill, she's sure of it till...
<I...I seriously should be dead...>
Just for an instance as the Gundam hid behind that plate of green, does she feel that irritation of particles once more. It's only for a second, the briefest moment was Trans-Am activated. And in that moment it was the smallest burst, and yet it was enough to maneuver...Just enough that when the beam saber had pierced the GN Shield rather than searing right into the cockpit. She finds that her blade skimmed the side of it instead. It's enough where she can see the slightest opening. A pilot with his face-concealed by his helmet, a scope pulled down from atop. And...An orange Haro that was holstered right at his side. And just as she gets a look does she finally hear a voice enter from his lips to her ears.
"Looks like we both missed our shots...That said..We're not dead yet.."
He draws out those words. As if he's trying to stall Soma's attention entirely, all up till the last moment that Regina is able to take her spear and unleash that fury upon her.
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
The Tristan blazes in with her grand eightfold sword, a fitting blade for a knight to fell his tyrant king. Grey armor has been battered and scorched, blasted off by the blistering firepower brought to bear against her, revealing the sizzled and worn colors of white and blue underneath.
"Of course Gundams are at the center of catastrophes," she interjects into Corner's rant to Setsuna. "Of course they strike terror, of course people fear them! We built Gundams for war and built war around Gundams!" She can't help herself, at this point, after the past year--the Unicorn's pilgrimage and the Banshee's victim.
"And this, the Tristan--the Alex--is no less a successor to that legacy! To destroy this Gundam, a colony nearly burned in nuclear flames. But a Gundam...is not a catastrophe--it's people like you that use it for them!"
Raining down golden arrows, brandishing its broad wings, and that unique head design--for financing the Gundams so much, it's blatantly clear to the engineer that Corner put money to keep his mobile suit from looking like a Gundam.
"Then, let me show you what a Gundam can be!"
The Tristan's INCOMs, energy expended by her Crucible blade, guttered out one by one, as he alighted on the Alvatore's hull, staring down the barrel of Corner's Alvaaron's cannon. With no time to retract them first, the INCOMs whipped behind Chris's advance as she leapt the Tristan forward, gambling on her speed and expertise versus his trigger finger and charge speed.
It was a dead heat.
"Enough of this. I have to go home. My family is waiting for me. But you wouldn't know what that's like."
The Tristan--half of it--stood before him, one arm clenched on the barrel of that cannon, diverting it from centerline. Everything in front of the cannon was gone, leaving a hand without an arm, a foot without a leg, a spiderweb of INCOM fragments. But what was left was enough. Because that's what a Gundam is--something to exert ones will. For better or worse.
<Pose Tracker> Soma Peries has posed.
As the Da Xukong slams its injector into the GN-X repeatedly, it's doing damage, though Sergei doesn't seem to notice as his machine shakes around him from the impacts. Instead he considers...
Why DOES he care?
Yuliana is a traitor and terrorist. She had never really entered Sergei's view back when she was with the REA as they were generally running in different circles. Neither did he know her commanders beyond their reputations in passing. Of course he was not so naive as to think everything was on the up and up. But there's nothing he could have done for her anyway.
No wait. Is that really true? Is that just an excuse? Did he have regrets and that's why when Soma came to his command he saw an opportunity to keep her from the worst of what Yuliana had gone through? Soma Peries...
'HEY, YOU!'
Still holding on to the beam saber that had pierced through the Dynames's shield, Soma's attention is drawn by the call. She looks towards the Da Xukong 0 and the GN-X nearby, seeing the former repeatedly slamming the injector into the latter.
<"Colonel!"> Soma deactivates the saber and leaves the Dynames be, quickly rushing away from it and heading towards the other two with the intent to assist.
Error in judgement indeed!
Regina's spear stabs into the GN-X's back, just off center and along the edge of the GN Drive Tau. The machine jerks and then goes still as the light from the pseudo solar reactor goes dim and then out entirely.
<"Peries!"> Sergei's GN-X releases its hold on Yuliana's wanzer, blasting away from her and towards Soma's GN-X. It arrives just in time to take an unarmed blow from Regina's Alto on its shield. It then grabs the its dead sister unit and starts to pull it away, <"Peries-">
<"Don't die!">
In her now dark cockpit, barely a few lights still running from emergency batteries, Soma cries again, <"Don't die! Don't...">
Tell him.
...
Tell him!
<" Don't... Don't leave me... I'll have no one! If you were gone, Colonel. I'd be alone...">
Sergei doesn't know how to respond to that, simply saying, <"Lieutenant...">
Things aren't looking great for them right now. Most of the GN-X teams have been seriously damaged and are trying to regroup. Meanwhile, Sergei isn't sure what the status of the sniper Gundam is. But the Alto is still functional, as likely is Yuliana's wanzer. Retreating could put himself and Soma in danger...
... He then receives a message. Finally, he starts to retreat with Soma in tow, saying, <"Celestial Being... You should see to your own.">
The meaning of which becomes clear, as two small explosions light up space. The NUNE fleet had been pressuring the Ptolemy, exchanging fire with them. But the Ptolemy has succeeded in destroying the two errant warships that had been charging them. Unfortunately, the true extent of the NUNE plan is revealed as from within the exploding debris of the two vessels...
Large chunks of rock are revealed. The vessels had been packed full of them, not mobile weapons and remotely set to charge the Celestial Being mothership. Their destruction releasing the payload as a cloud of fast moving asteroids.
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna F. Seiei has posed.
"I see. You don't understand. I don't expect anyone here to. I will put it bluntly. Gundam exists to end conflict and bring peace and hope. Peace and hope is not brought through idle hands and pretty words."
He could go on, about Axis, about the intrvention Krugis when he was a kid on the verge of death. But there's no point. He's not here to argue ideals. He's here to fight for, and potentially die for them. That's why he's a Gundam Meister. That's why he's part of Celestial Being.
There's a large warning pop up that tells Setsuna that the GN drive's particles are running low, and it basically forces him to make a decision. The decision, of course, is to push.
It places its shield in front of it, just in time to take the mobile armor's massive beam attack, the piece of metal already deforming and losing coherence mere seconds after impact. It doesn't matter, though, the shield is expendable. He's expendable, too, at the end of the day.
But better to die fighting than to die doing nothing. The Exia pushes through the beam, its shield arm now melting as afterimages trail behind it from the sheer speed at which its approaching. He just needs one good attack, and this is his chance.
The GN Sword slides back into place, and the Exia puts the entirety of its weight into the attack, thrusting the sword into the Alvatore. It seemingly disappears for a moment, the only evidence it actually moved being the afterimages and particles it leaves behind before once again attacking from yet another angle, a process it does repeatedly until its GN drives finally deplete.
KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei targets Mobile Weapons Team with Trans AM Burst! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team's Beam Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Tieria Erde's GN Bazooka Full Burst, taking 2295 damage! KTS: Tieria Erde roots his unit, coming to a standstill and leaving him vulnerable. KTS: Mobile Weapons Team partially guards Setsuna F. Seiei's Trans AM Burst, taking 7120 damage! KTS: Mobile Weapons Team has been defeated! KTS: Setsuna F. Seiei has engaged Mobile Weapons Team!
<Pose Tracker> Liu Mei Wang has posed.
A conclusion that leaves both forces in tatters - a total failure for Alejandro Corner, who sought nothing less than to crush the dream of Celestial Being in his own fist as a trophy.
"Your family, you say." Alejandro gasps and struggles at Christina, as he reaches the limits of what he can endure in the heat of battle. Despite the threat he posted to the Ptolemaios, he was ultimately just a man, not a warrior of any strength or valor. Simply all the weaponry his money could buy.
"While Veda may have mysteriously protected the Gundam Meisters - you'll have no such luck going back to yours, MacKenzie. Hahahah...you, Everhart, and the Kafims - if you escape here alive, I'm sure you had no place in either of our worlds! You all no longer have a place in that obnoxious all-knowing machine's plans!!!"
A hailfire of GN Particles streaks across the lower body of the Alvatore, the platform still powering the Alvaaron even now. It far exceeds anything the damaged Mobile Armor can endure - and the eruption of flames and particles tears the golden hulk to shreds. Sent flung into the cosmos, girding himself to keep fighting another minute, another moment to pull back. "Faith in a duty even as the god that represents it turns against you...ahaha. Haaaah. I'd thought it impossible for the Innovades to turn against their creators, but maybe it's in your blood after all. Maybe that damned Aeolia wanted to ensure it! It's enough to laugh even now!"
And then, the sword of judgment pierces through the false, golden angel. Before Alejandro knows it - blood's lined the inside of his helmet, pain coursing through his body once the cockpit is parted in twain. A flood of GN Particles - the true ones, from the Exia's light, from Setsuna's blade of resolve - fills the space as well.
"...hah. It's as simple as that. Unwavering belief in peace and hope, isn't that what miracles wind up made out of? ...Foolish. Completely foolish. Is mankind's future really based on blind idiocy?! ...it might be. It might be! Damn you all, for being a world only saved by its own naivete!!!"
The most blinding light of all cleaves the stars - and the traitor to Celestial Being, Alejandro Corner, breathes his last amidst a violent explosion of red and green alike, reflecting off what's left of that garish golden frame.
-- -- -- -- --
A conclusion that leaves both forces in tatters - a day left to fight that the crew of the Ptolemaios had briefly lost hope that they would even get. In the ship's fevered pitch of battle against the NUNE fleet, they were reliant on fading particle reserves from the GN Condensers, and the lightning fast Gundam Kyrios tearing at inbound forces like a diving bird of prey. And yet, not even Allelujah Haptism's impossible speed could save the Gundam from being torn to shreds, and not even his resolve to protect the Ptolemaios could do anything about the storm of explosives barrelling towards the battleship's bridge.
As the bells of war begin to fade, a faded, desperate message to Regina, Yuliana, and Christina patches in. The voice of Captain Sumeragi Lee Noreiga, struggling and exhausted. "...This is Ptolemy. ...We...owe you a great debt. Without you three arriving here, we might not have made it. But...with Veda now turned against us...with the world pursuing us to the bitter end...with the injuries and casualties our crew have sustained...it's a debt we won't be able to pay for quite some time."
A long, deep breath, as the Ptolemaios calls for the tattered Gundam Meisters to return if at all capable. "...We'll need to go dark for some time to figure out just where we can go. But we don't intend to give up. Aeolia Schenberg entrusted that vision to us. ...And what exactly is left but to try and see it through, huh?"
-- -- -- -- --
A conclusion that leaves both forces in tatters - a frustrating outcome for Ribbons Almark, swimming in the sea of Veda's boundless, unhindered information. While Alejandro Corner's death was convenient, the Innovade's brow couldn't help but tighten, knowing that Veda insisted on protecting the Gundam Meisters.
"...The Silent Calling is its own troubling brewing problem, but that much I'd always known," Ribbons muses, extracting a flower of data with one slender fingertip. An orchid in shape - how fitting, they find it. "Between the other two, it's Christina MacKenzie that's the most immediate problem. As a proof of concept - let's see just how simple it might be to turn fate against her."
A slow smile creeps upon their lips. The all-seeing eye at their disposal was a power humans would find addicting, easy to misuse to fulfill their every whim. But none knew greater than Ribbons Almark that this was just the opening coda. Oh so much work was to be done.
-- -- -- -- --
A conclusion that leaves both forces in tatters - an end that suits Liu Mei Wang just fine.
Useless loose ends tied up. The Innovade who can teach her how to go farther has their wish of godlike oversight. The Ptolemy can even find out they're slightly in her debt - and given the showing they put up against Alejandro, Liu Mei can't help but give a little applause at their performance.
"No, of course they're not out of the script just yet. Why else would Veda take measures to protect them? I think you've let the promise of an all-seeing eye blind you a little bit, Ribbons. Fallen angels that are more likely to come to the defense of an Empress, and the God that betrayed them on its most loyal angel's leash..."
The daybreak across the edge of the Earth illuminates Liu Mei's window, her smile unable to be contained as she loosens her braids one by one.
"That's a tide of change I'm way more happy being part of!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"The full picture... the full picture, it's agony. Look out too far, and you see how all sense and logic falls away.. oh, even if it's my duty..."
Yuliana must sound raving mad, replying to Lockon over an open channel, as if nothing's prompted her at all.
She just forgot to switch her radio back to private comms.
She does tend to stop thinking about little things... like that.
Regina capitalises on the opening Yuliana makes, capturing Soma's attention, to punish her GN-X -- and Sergei releases her to go to his charge, leaving envy to grasp Yuliana, instead. The way he treats her, even absorbing those attacks, she...
"Leave them," she says, her voice chipped and raw. "Leave them!"
And between her demands and Sergei's logic, maybe those two will make it out of here, after all.
Because, left behind --
Yuliana couldn't think about Sumeragi, before. She didn't have the time spare, between the blows. But now -- even with Corner dead -- the Ptolemy was still cornered, after all.
"I read you," she tells her, now. "Get out of here. Lockon... you, too," Yuliana says, Da Xukong 0's sensors turning to the Dyames. "Go -- before they send another wave. I... heard what you're saying." Of course she thinks of things that way; Sergei was here, fighting, after all. The REA has a certain style.
She radios into Chris and Regina, to add, breathing a touch heavily: "Need... a ride?"
... the Kafim's ride, of course, is more of a teleport -- because Elisa's been watching Yuliana all this time, and all she has to do is ask her wife's assistance.
It is cold, and dark, and swift.
And the Silent Castle is still a safe place for angels to tread.
<Pose Tracker> Regina Everhart has posed.
Regina's spear finds its mark - but her fists meet, instead, the shield of Sergei's GN-X. Her Alto retreats back to assess the new opponent, and be ready to renew her charge -
...But instead, she's left with a warning.
"...The Ptolemy." Regina says abruptly, realising its meaning - but now, it's too late to intervene, as the full breadth of NUNE's plans are revealed. Warships packed with rocks, not weapons - and the power of quickly moving stone is as relevant in this day as it has been in any ever.
But Alejandro Corner leaves them with cruel words, and the Ptolemaios...
...Regina listens, and goes quiet. ...It's come to this. In the end, this is what's become of Celestial Being...
What's left for her, now? Now that the one hope she had is now so far out of her reach. Now that sees what comes for those who follow legacy.
"...It is alright. Concern yourself now with your people. I require no repayment." Regina replies. "...Go well. And be safe. It was an honor."
Even now, they intend to see Aeolia Schenberg's vision through, but she...
...
Yuliana's question, delivered with effort, manages to break through her contemplation.
"...Yes. Please." She replies. What comes next, the sudden relocation, is cold, dark, and swift.
But that's fine, right now. She needs a safe place to tread - and a place to think, about what comes next.