2010-11-22 - Soldiers of Sorrow

NEVIIM

"We must consider all options," Euzeth Gozzo rumbles. The man leans forward in his chair, inside of his laboratory, chin resting in his hands.

"M'lord?" his aide asks.

"We suffered a set back when the shield was taken down. There is a chance that we could force an advantage." Euzeth looked up, his face unreadable behind his mask. "The forces we cannot identify, the things beyond the World Wall are being pulled into one location. There, secrets rest, and with secrets, power."

"Earth Cradle."

"Yes."

SAHARA DESERT

The assault comes from Europe. High speed units are sweeping in, showing Balmarian ingenuity (such as it exists). Zechariahs, Habakkuks, and Ezekiels mounted dodais stolen from across Europe for the assault -- and at their lead, the Gespenst Type-R leads the way. The machine has its head locked forward on the black orb in the distance.

Inside of the cockpit, Galuin M'Habel takes a deep breath, as he looks outward. "We will... take this place," he promises in a rasping voice.

Er'ela Sufa, devoted soldier of Ze Balmary Empire follows the Gespenst Type R on a stolen dodai. She wishes she wasn't using the barbarian's technology but theres no helping it. The humans will expect gravitation warps to set off their early warnign alarms, but this way they may catch them unawares.

Er'ela looks at the back of the Gespenst and frowns as something knots in her stomach. "Galuin M'Habel... why do they trust you with so much?"

Why do they consdier that... toy soldier so much better then her?

The Habbakuk model units have not been widely deployed.

As such they may seem faintly ridiculous to those encountering them. The Habakkuk Mafatzecha lives up to its' surname's second syllable; its shoulders are even broader than the original model. It is requiring the service of not one, but two dodais.

Tucked into its cockpit, the pilot rubs two oil-slick polished metal hands together. The running lights glitter off of it. "Heh heh heh," she breathes to herself, even as she tries to push past the faint nagging headache and urge she cannot quite name.

"Putting everything behind a single big door..."

Galuin was an interesting candidate - unlike the new acquisitions, he was not what you called a 'soldier'. He was more of a tool, at least in Ingram's eyes. He had fought so hard against the reprogramming, even given what they had to go through in order to 'obtain' him for conversion, that there was precious little of the original left. That they had not actually been forced to burn up other pilots in the conversion process was something that Ingram was greatly pleased with - it wouldn't do to simply break material that could be more gently bent into a proper shape. Euzeth hasn't asked Ingram to attend this operation - but he comes along regardless. He has appeared a good bit more often since the shield has fallen, his aid often unordered or unasked for by Laodicea or Euzeth. The reasons why, of course, are Ingram's alone, and he smirks as the Astranagant flickers into existence within the midst of the drones and other manned units that are taking part in the attack. "I hope that you do not mind if I lend a hand to you today," Ingram broadcasts to the other Balmarian troops. "This opportunity was too good to pass up, and I had never had a chance to take a look inside of the Earth Cradle for myself. It is a good opportunity to learn just what sort of secrets that the DC have been hiding here all of this time."

Asfanit Kolot is the one responsible for most examples of the Balmarians getting innovative; just after a long stay in the medical ward following the attack in Ensenada, the request for tactical forecasts regarding an attack on Earth Cradle came before her, so she spent a couple hours hammering one out - not the least of those tricks being abuse of the fact that right now, they own Europe, the Earth Cradle is well within reach of that region - and they may not actually be expecting them to launch an assault that traverses the surface like that.

Asfanit's stark white Lekhishah is among the vanguard units, the dark-skinned girl leaning back in her seat, watching the landscape rocket past. "Can we do this...?" she wonders. "The Cradle is virtually impenetrable..."

"Every battle guides us closer to victory, win or loss," Lekhishah reminds. "But, they will not..."

"Yield, no, they won't," Asfanit agrees, and smiles a bit. "And that's why I asked 'her' to come along..."

The movement of Balmarian forces did not go undetected by the EFA's satellite imagery, and their intended target was simple enough to calculate from their movements. Huang Qin Shi's first instinct - one shared by several other officers - was to do nothing. If the Divine Crusade and the Balmarians annihilated each other, so much the better, and the Earth Cradle is a very hard target in a very remote location, eliminating the worry about civilian casualties. Live and let die was the consensus opinion.

Except that the EFA, A-LAWS and Katharon spent a lot of blood and sweat to clear the aliens out of the Moon Cradle barely a week ago. Or that the prospect of the Balmarians locked behind an even stronger door was terrifying. In the end, it wasn't even really a choice.

The long-idle little white robot known as the Rasavatam hurtles through the skies over Tunisia, Huang Qin Shi esconced in the cockpit, his hands tight on his controls. He is not comfortable at all out here; he had built a battleship so that he wouldn't /have/ to do this sort of thing any more, which was for the best considering how bad he was at it. But the Yingzi needed to stay in Riksent, and at its top cruising speed in atmosphere couldn't have made it to the battle in time anyway. He could have stayed on the ship, directed the battle remotely. He could have sent someone better than him in his place. He had every reason to just let things happen.

But she will undoubtedly be there. And Huang Qin Shi is not going to just sit back and pray.

THE KUROGANE

Sanger Zonvolt, the sword that cleaves evil, sits in the in-ship dojo. His legs are crossed, his eyes shut; in his lap is one of the Shishioh Blades made by his master, Rishu Togo, the greatest swordsmith ever to live. His fingers wrap about the sheath, feeling the curve of the steel beneath; familiar, subtle, and beautiful. Its image is marked in his mind's eye as he thinks back, casting his mind across the stars of his memories to his battles with 'Galuin M'Habel'.

Kar Wai-Lau.

The former leader of the Aggressors, and one of the most fearsome men in the Earthsphere, Kar Wai-Lau had been an unstoppable force all on his own. When the like-minded Aggressors were assembled, that unstoppable force was multiplied a hundred thousand times; they were more than a unit. They were practically a family; they had fought and served and killed together, drank together, ate together; they had dwelled upon the front lines together, slicing through anything that stood in their wake.

Sanger's grip on the blade tightens, his knuckles whitening. To imagine that man, who was like a brother to him, enraptured by the spell of Evil...! Unthinkable!

Proximity alarms begin to blare. Sanger is jolted out of his meditation by the shrill sound; he darts to the bridge, staring down at the readings. No...not there! Not now! Not there!

Sanger Zonvolt, the Sword That Cleaves Evil, wheels around and scrambles out of the bridge. There is, for the first time in a long time, something akin to panic writ on his usually-stoic face. There was danger in that target - not simply for the Earthsphere, but for someone that Sanger Zonvolt...loved. And that made it very, very personal.

The blinking alarms of the bridge read out, as Sanger leaves for the hangar, a single, solitary message: EARTH CRADLE UNDER ATTACK

EARTH CRADLE

As the Balmarians begin to filter in through their nasty little gravitational warps, there is a sound like thunder from beneath the earth. A whirring sound, a sound that dominates the battlefield in an instant, demanding the attention of all present in its sheer presence. It is a sound like the earth being upturned; and, in moments, that is exactly what happens, as the brilliant red-black-and-gold Kurogane soars forth into the sky triumphantly. It rises above the Earth Cradle, joining the Divine Crusaders defenders like a beacon of hope and salvation; reinforcements in a dark hour. And no mere reinforcements, either.

"BAAAALMAAAAARIIIIAAAAAAAANS!" Sanger's voice twists in rage as the Grungust Type-3 emerges from the hangar of the Kurogane, standing tall, proud, astride the great drill ship. "You steal friends...family...loved ones...you assault this world without remorse, claiming it is for the good of the Empire as you twist minds with your evil...BUT THIS PLACE!"

The Grungust Type-3's massive sword risies into the sky, the liquid-metal blade abruptly catching the sunlight as it forms. "THIS PLACE, I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DESECRATE! THE HOPE OF MANKIND IS NOT FOR THE LIKES OF YOU!"

"AND WITH THIS SWORD, I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER COMING TO THIS WORLD CALLED EARTH! SO COME - IF YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO FACE ME! COME, AND SEE THE FUTILITY OF YOUR STRUGGLE!"

Levad is not with the main body of the assault. He was here several hours earlier. The balmarian stares out of the hatch of his unit, deftly hidden beneath an almost insultingly primitive ghille covering... Its a high priority target, and a set fortification. Set fortifications are monuments to futility, but this one still stands. So its not merely a set fortification... He gnaws slightly on a piece of wood, finding himself desiring something else, although he's not quite sure what... As he slides back into his machine, he doesn't bother with checking in, or responding to orders. "You'd think a race as advanced as ours would know you use tiny little picks to open a nut, not a sledgehammer..." He brings up his weapon, watching down the sights from his position hidden amongst the dunes, and waits for the opportunte moment.

 Vindel Mauser transmits, "My Sanger Zonvolt alarm just went off at the Earth Cradle - what is that fool doing?"

Echidna Iisaki is troubled.

She does not precisely sleep, but the downtime she does require has been haunted by images - dreams where she can't put name to face, or even understand why they are important to her. Her electronic brain is still, in some way she can't describe, scrambled. She hates it, and hates the feeling of weakness and /wrongness/ associated with it; she is sure she still blanks out, sometimes, even if she doesn't remember that either.

In combat, at least, she understands things. Echidna practically demanded that her captors make use of her, and they have; she is bundled into one of the green flightsuits and thrown into the most generic of EFA units. Fortunately, she knows how to use them, even if they're crippled compared to the ones she knows.

Echidna's Gespenst does not fly. It runs, taking long loping strides across the desert ground, occasionally using its leg thrusters for a jet-assisted jump hundreds of yards long. She stays within visual range of Rasavatam, though she starts in front of it and ends up behind it. It already carries a beam rifle in one hand, and every once in a while it raises it to shoot out one of the Bugs or Birds that they always seem to bring along. Her aim is mechanically precise; she's better than the targetting computer is.

"/That/ guy is here again," Suzaku Kururugi says, the Z-01 Lancelot's HUD lighting up with Aerogater and Crusader IFF icons. But the one stands out above the others for him -- it is the same guy that attacked Izu Base a week ago. Ingram Prisken. The Astranagant. "What's he doing here... Now? Are they attacking the DC to see their hidden strength?"

Kururugi frowns, gripping the dual controls of the Lancelot. The FLOAT Pack on the gold and ivory Knightmare Frame blasts him forward. His player purposefully doesn't pose a giant book that nobody is reading anyway.

"At least this time, I've got the Lancelot," Suzaku says, with a determining nod. He activates the Knightmare's weapons, the VARIS Rifle coming online in the Lancelot's grip. "I might actually have a fighting chance --!"

 Ali Al-Saachez transmits, "Hopefully getting himself killed."

 Puru Seven transmits, "Ha ha ha."

 Erika Keese transmits, "I think he's coming to... help us...?"

 Ali Al-Saachez transmits, "You should kill him anyway."

 Vindel Mauser grunts. "Let him throw himself on the aliens - if they kill him, all the better. If they don't, then take care of him after they have worn him down."

 Vindel Mauser grunts. "Let him throw himself on the aliens - if they kill him, all the better. If they don't, then take care of him after they have worn him down."

 Vindel Mauser transmits, "And if he walks off with Doctor Nate again, I will be... *greatly* displeased. Don't let him kidnap any more of our scientists."

 Erika Keese transmits, "Y... yes sir."

 Puru Seven transmits, "I'll head out too."

 Puru Two transmits, "Are you kidding? Not letting that happen again. Nobody's getting past me this time."

 Vindel Mauser transmits, "Unfortuantely, the Balmarians have deployed a giant mechanical Space Eel near Axis - Axel and I are handling it, but we may not be able to assist at the Cradle."

 Ali Al-Saachez transmits, "He never did learn how to aim."

 Puru Seven transmits, "Don't fall behind, "sis."

Fort Monus - Hoffman Island 12 Hours ago.

Russel was in the main hanger where the first of the new units were being finished. He was actually helping where he could with the work. He looked up at the machine, the machine had a legacy, thought and this was another chapter for it. But the legacy was greater than Russel would ever know. Still he worked as he watches the final stages go under way. It would be time soon to deploy this machine would be done because the entire project team was focused on getting one up and fully operational.

North Africa NOW

A Tausendfuessler flies through the skies carrying its cargo, Its a Gespenst but the stylings a little different its a bit sleeker in some areas and the style of its jet magnum has changed, and the load out is carrying a new weapon.

Russel sits in the and goes over the final systems check, it was time for a trial by fire.

>Tactical Network online >Combat Data sharing protocols active >Plasma Reactor online, >CP Canon charged >Ready to Launch.

The rear hatch opened, light flooding in on the machine, it bore hastily painted EFA and Octo squad markings. Russel looked up saying a quick prayer. A lot was riding on this. The machine crouches and prepares to leap out of the transport.

"Captain Bagman! PTX-018 Gespenst Mk. IV LAUCHING!"

The machines thrusters kick in launching if from the Tausendfuessler and into the air above the sands of the largest desert on Earth, its fall is slowed as it starts to descend to the ground, and it clutches an M90 assault rifle in hand. Russel puts it to use as he opens fire. He pauses as his HUD displays an alert that Kar Wai-Lau better now known as Galuin M'Habel has been detected. The memory of the CO of the Crys wolves son being crushed under Galuins foot, is still one of pain, but hes determined to end it.

"Kar Wai-Lau!"

The Gespenst Mk. IV hover systems kick in and it starts to race across the desert to the fallen leader of the Aggressors.

Jyl Tandaavi is not capable of piloting the Sharlorn tonight. She is busy. Busy on more important errands even than defending the Earth Cradle. When the call for help goes out, she is not even /in/ the Sharlorn. But there are standing orders for cases like this. In her stead, the Sharlorn is being piloted by Suulo Stonefoot, dwarf vampire and master of the Mech Fu.

Of course, her mind is nowhere near powerful enough to withstand the ego of the Sharlorn's unholy blade. Moonquencher is piloting. Its dark power pulses, and Sharlorn goes from 'across the desert' to 'standing in front of the Earth Cradel' in the blink of an eye. The massive necrotic machine lifts the silver blade, staring out over the field. Moonquencher's voice booms.

"WELCOME, ALIENS! WELCOME TO THE DESERT OF NIGHT! THE DESERT OF DARKNESS! Here, you shall face terror! Here, you shall face doom! You will never leave the desert, for your souls will be devoured! Your essence will be consumed! Your bodies will litter the sands for generations to come, monuments to the power of your destroyer! And that destroyer is...MOONQUENCHER!" The sword cackles, dark power pulsing over its rune-covered blade. "MOONQUENCHER! BANE OF THE WORLD ABOVE!"

 Jyl Tandaavi transmits, "I am unable to assist. However, I have sent an able pilot to aid you."

There is a darkness in the Earth Cradle's airspace that cannot be contained.

The Night Fencer looms above, in full, raw form. It has bid its time, and skulked in the shadows, waiting for Earth's defenders to rally; but now, the time has come for Lilith to take part in the defense of the world she loves so much, she would strive to eradicate all life from it. Up until now, the Sorceress of the Night was content on hoping that the humans and the Balmarians would wipe each other out.

Not anymore.

The vestigial super robot of ancient times raises its claw-like hand, Blood Sword carved into solid reality out of haphazard sinews of sanguine lightning. With a confident brandish, its shoulder-mounted Evil Eyes gleam, ready to cast a most wicked judgement on those that would touch the very soil of the world it was built to protect.

The Sorceress herself is in rare, unamused form. She only has a few words to say to the invaders: "Turn back now, for this is a place for the Condemned. You and I, fated to yield and advance, even for those with innumerable sins wrought on their once hallowed hands." She reclines on the throne-like seat of her cockpit, hands laid bare and full on the extenders that allow her to assert her will over the Fencer.

The Fencer's aura expands, mottled and blood-red in color, as Lilith joins the fray, swooping in with wings expanded, seeking her first target out. "Blood will be on both our hands tonight."

Clad in white there stood a man far off in the distance, no insignia of Earth adorned his clothing in any spot. The man lifted a gloved hand up, a pocket watch held gently, and studied the time of the day upon the surface of the watch in his grip. "It's already that late?" Rem murmured to himself, his gaze shifted to look up toward the gathered Balmarian force as it continued it's march toward the Earth Cradle. Already the others had begun to appear, Sanger Zonvolt himself had shown himself and announced his intentions. The gloved hand slipped back down, the watch replaced into the confines of the jacket.

A surge of energy could be detected, the energy itself unknown to anyone who had not in the past encountered magic. One second that spot of land had nothing on it, and the next a knight similar to the olden days stood there, sword held in one hand and shield strapped to the left forearm. The machine was not imposingly huge, it stood at a mere forty feet. What was most impressive about it was the fact that it had simply appeared. The Dream Weaver had arrived, and it why was only known to the pilot.

There are likely complex sociopolitical factors at work that have led to the Balmarian invasion of Earth. They likely have a rational reason to invade the Earth in their own minds. It might even be a good reason, in some sense, through some interpretive lens. They are living beings, and all of their lives are as sacred as the lives of anyone on Earth, or anyone else in space.

It is Chibodee Crockett's love for all living things that has brought him across the ocean. It is his simple creed that all people should be able to live free that brings him into the line of fire, again and again. It is the ethos at the heart of the Patriot Guard. It is the core idea of the Shuffle Alliance. The call of freedom speaks to him when he meditates on the heart of the universe.

In short: Chibodee Crockett is going to punch a man in the dick.

Gundam Maxter explodes across the Sahara, its lifting board's afterburners surging as it closes in on the Balmarian forces approaching the Earth Cradle. The EFA's operating frequencies crackle in the background of his cockpit, which drones on as white noise. The Queen of Spades' mission is different than theirs. The Earth Cradle and all of its terrible weapons can burn today.

Chibodee wants his friend back.

 Sophia Nate does not currently have Secure Channel access, sneezes anyway for some reason. "..Excuse me." Clears throat. "Gate of Magus locking systems will be initiated after pilot launch. ETA is 20 minutes."

SOMEWHERE IN ANTARCTICA

A penguin slowly waddles up towards the edge of an ice cliff. He looks down, flapping his flipper leg wings a few times before backing up and diving into the freezing water below to catch his fish for today.

SOMEWHERE IN JAPAN, COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO ANTARCTICA

Boss stands in his turf, an abandoned ship yard, where thugs stand around flipping coins like they tend to, avoiding homework and generally looking cool. He has one of the ship repair docks housing the Boss Borot, preparing for rapid deployment. It is a very precise equipment set up that has been prepared, painstakingly for just this moment.

That is to say, the Boss Borot is wearing elbow and knees pads, a pair of roller skates, and a backpack with approximately five million waterbottles. The Boss Borot pumps a giant air pump while Boss sits back in his cockpit and laughs.

"Hah! All those guys spend millions of credits of rapid deployment! I did it in fifty bucks. And still had change over for beef jerky!" He devours a piece of beef jerky, while Mucha and Nuke strap themselves in.

"Boss, are you sure this will work?" "Sure, I saw it on TV once!" "Didn't that show say it will not wo-" The Boss Borot pumps once more and the entire rigging explodes, high pressure air shooting it up a wooden ramp by the roller skates and into the air.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

SOMEWHERE OVER CHINA

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

SOMEWHERE OVER INDIA

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

SOMEWHERE OVER PAKISTAN

All three thugs take a deep breath.

HIGH ABOVE EARTH CRADLE, DESCENDING FAST

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Erika Kees quietly sits on a nearby crate looking up at the special unit she had been assigned and thinking back to the test battle against the Aerogaters... hers was not the most auspecious start, having been soundly defeated by one of the enemies... but that isn't the fault of the machines. It's her that just needs to get better, to rise to the occasion.

Taking one last sip of her almost sickeningly sweet nutriant drink, the martian Zeonite stands up and tosses the empty bottle in the bin and turns to leave. That's when the alarms go off. "Looks like I'm going to get the chance for more on field training after all..." Erika grabs her helmet off the crate and quickly clips it on as she climbs into her custom painted machine and shuts the hatch. "Erika Keese, Valsion Kai, moving out!" Emerging from the great cradle of humanity, the Valsion Kai is easily one of the largest machines on the battlefield next to Sanger's Type-3 and Wodan's Thrudgelmir. In the cockpit, Erika prepares herself, even if the orders she is given do not settle well with her. She can see their reasoning, but still. It just seems... cold.

That figures. Just when Puru Two finally feels ready to take the fight to the aliens, the aliens are taking the fight to where she is. The Earth Cradle, quite possibly the most fortified structure on the planet. "What, they've come /here/? ...just as well."

There is no more hesitation or unease on her part. All that was effectively blown away after the abduction of one of the few people she actually cares about. It's since been replaced by two simple needs: the need for vengeance, and the need to retrieve that which was lost. With the latter being a difficult matter right now, that leaves satisfying the former. And she's always more than ready for that sort of thing.

She calmly watches the two halves of the Gate of Magus part before her. She knows the drill: it will only stay open long enough to let the defenders exit before once again sealing shut, not to open again until the battle is concluded. No reinforcements can be counted on. But that's fine. This will be more than enough. Especially considering what she's piloting.

Right after the Valsion Kai, another large mobile suit shambles through the Gate. A purple giant, the desert sun reflecting off the v-shaped fin on its forehead. Of course she brought it out again. Failure is not an option here, the Earth Cradle must be defended at all cost. "Come and get it, alien freaks! You won't be getting past me and Psyco Gundam!"

A Sonic boom announces the arrival of a blue Valkyrie. Unremarkable in nature from any other Valks, except for the blue accents to it. It still stops close to the Earth cradle, transforming into it's gerwalk mode to do so, then switching to soldier mode once stopped, hovering in place. "Ouch, talk about a serious problem here....." Max Says, scouting the area for a second.....

Tasuku just loves when a machine of his comes out of production and into play. He wish he had more time to test the machine out to kick out some kinds of the new model, but at least... it's out, didn't exploded on the first jump out. "AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAH!" Tasuku shouts out in improvised mad laughter as the Gespent Mk.II-TT blasts after the Mk. IV. Man. that thing is working just perfectly. He checked the TT's systems to see if Ingram rigged it or anything... but he doubts it, even if he /did/, he don't have any reliable way to make sure that he didn't or did not. He's gonna have to strust his instincts on this one. "Alright, Russel, I've got the Mk. IV's sensor in full relay over here, I'm recording everything, give it your damn best, buddy."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki is allowed on the radio to scream. Possibly to remind people of what failure tastes like.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Moonquencher transmits, "SHUT UP, YOU WHINY LITTLE MONKEY! I am trying to SLAUGHTER ALIENS AND DEVOUR SOULS!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Seven transmits, "... They get louder and louder every month, Two."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "Seriously. Be quiet, you, I'm trying to savor that screaming."

Little-discussed fact: There are more Purus than most normal people have fingers. But that little tidbit of trivia is not why one of Glemy Toto's elite Newtype Squad is at the Earth Cradle. In fact, it's a little more academic than that: She's here for books. Or was, at the very least-- looking for something to read, something to put her mind on other than space invaders, the actions taken by her Zeonic superiors, and ultimately, the desire to fit a knife into one of her sisters.

That "one" being Puru Two, of course.

In her flight suit in no time and exchanging an ear-flap beanie for her helmet, she's running through the usual startups and pressing the Mobile Suit out into the sky. The AMX-004 Qubeley is iconic Zeon technology and engineering all the way, from the impressive swoops and graceful curves, everything based on Haman Karn's own unit fitted into a mass production model.

It's just... canary yellow.

And there's hot rod flames on the forearms and ankle scoops.

Ascending into the sky, the massive wing binders on the shoulders flip outward with a dull roar in the atmosphere, the clone's mind and consciousness starting to focus-- sharpen-- on the on-board psycommu system.

Galuin M'Habel's eyes narrow, behind his mask. He sees the machines coming across the desert, for him, and fires his thrusters. The Gespenst Type-R leaps, and lands in the sand, holding its M95 rifle in one hand. The head of the machine turns, and the visor has green light crackle across it, as it settles on one machine -- and one machine alone.

The Gespenst Mk. IV is new to him. He brings the M95 down, and the cockpit's crosshairs flicker -- back and forth, before they settle on the machine.

"Down," he rasps.

The M95 opens fire, pouring out a rapid burst of 95mm rounds that riddle over the dust and hurtle off towards the large, flying Gespenst. His machine then turns on a foot, as his hand flicks several switches. The chest plates open, and missiles come whipping out; four shoot away in total, but they shed their casing, splitting into dozens.

The Split Missiles whip across the desert sands, some hurtling off for the Gespenst Mk. II-TT behind Russel's machine and others swinging out for the huge Grungust Type-3.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ali Al-Saachez transmits, "These lesbians are pretty freaky, huh?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite groans...

The portly Habbakuk opts to reply to the strangely dark and resonant words, in clear.

"Oh look, daughter," its pilot says. "They've invented the sword." The Habbakuk's hands raise...

... and come together, twice, sardonically, even as the twin Dodais swoop low, dropping off the machine. It lands in the sand and dust, feet sinking nearly to the Saharan bedrock as it commences an advance with little great haste.

The silky voice of a mature woman keeps transmitting outwards, though more directly towards the necrotic device. "Actually, 'Moonquencher,' we are going to use a revolutionary thing that I believe translates in your inarticulate tongue to 'science' and 'technology,' which combine to allow for the performance of very impressive feats!" The Habbakuk pauses, raising up one hand. "Here, let me show you an example."

The fingers of the rather broad hand of the Habbakuk wiggle slightly.

A few moments later a quartet of streaking missiles flare out, rising up in a spreading arc and converging downwards towards the Moonquencher's disgusting host-body-thing. They are full with a complex substance of Balmarian manufacture known as "explosives."

Unfortunately, Galuin was never one for talking. Ingram has to regret that, but there is nothing to be done for it. If there is enough of his brain left to fight, that was good enough for the higher ups. The rest was... optional. A pity though - it would have been interesting having more of his tactical genius available for the battle. He had his moments, but they tended to come and go unpredictably.

Still, the Earth Cradle was indeed an interesting target. If they could crack the shell open, the secrets would spill out like a piata that had just been smashed open by some overly enthusiastic young child. That was well worth the trouble of coming here, even if there was a considerable amount of resistance. There was also one person of interest here at least, although Ingram was certain that he would see more within a few minutes. He was 'the traitor' after all, and there were few people who would ignore that - and fewer still who were going to let a Balmarian command unit go through here unopposed. The Astranagant flips over and begins to head towards the doors to the Earth Cradle - certainly he could teleport over there, but there were enough enemies along the way that the pressure on the rest of the force might be overwhelming. Better to eliminate a few of them first. And so the swept back, black crystal head of the Balmarian machine pivots around, picking out the fast moving Lancelot from the crowd. "I see you have appeared again to do battle, Suzaku. And in your true machine as well - I thank you for being willing to show me your true power at this point." That said, bolts of energy begin to chew apart the ground approaching the Lancelot as Ingram starts firing both of his head mounted Photon Vulcans, aiming to put a shot or two into the other, nimble machine.

Azgad stops as he comes to the front lines. More familar units...but one in particular stirrs something in his subconcious. He hasn't seen that mech...at least he never has...right? Explosions and pain rip through the man's body, something was dislodged recently that had he seen this mech just a few weeks ago would have only been minorly discomforted.

The Baraq Rifle trails the Rasavatam, swallowing, before firing a single round from the long range rifle, attempting to use the power of LIGHTSPEED (AKA LASOR) to shoot down the liquid metal mech. He forces himself to calm down, trying to regain some composure. The stub of his real arm, the part where it connects to his metal hand, throbs.

Novas Stellas is playing for keeps! She is flanking the Rasavatam because she best if she leaves Huang Qin Shi alone, the next time she'll see him he'll be brainwashed. Sure, he kicked Sanger's ass so hard that he nearly died from getting hammered in the ass but that doesn't mean he'll avoid capture--lots of awesome people got captured! She looks over her shouler and sees a Gespenst. She does not attack the Gespenst, but she is like 'woah another ship is clearly here to make sure Huang doesn't kill himself'. AWESOME.

"So uh. Where we heading. Man, this is crazy. So many ships." Novas says, "Been a while sinec I saw so much killing power in one spot."

A FEW MOMENTS AGO

Whilst there are some of those who are more often found within than outside of the massive walls of the Earth Cradle - there are many more who refuse to be held within. One such free spirit is Ascian Luddite, scout under BAHRAM -- and thus under the Divine Crusaders. He's a fairly new arrival to this planet, but he has made himself quite useful since. There's just one problem. Most of his contributions have been ones against the aliens - assisting the EFA, A-LAWS and Katharon. This is something that has been mentally plagueing him as of late.

And where better to think that outside of cramped areas like that - in space. It is in orbit that the scout is 'resting' within his Orbital Frame - a red shield enveloping it to protect it, in case he would dive downwards to earth. So when Duat, his unit's A.I. vocally decides to warn him of strange energyreadings near Afrika... as well as a strange projectile in the form of Boss. Either way, it is soon indicated that the Earth Cradle is under assault. Ascian is annoyed. "Yes yes..." He calls out over the Radio as chatter begins, grumbling and laying his hands onto the controls - sending a red glow straight through his Orbital Frame as it goes active.

NOW

Coming down from far far above - flames licking across the red shield that protects his unit - the Amenthes is immediately ready for combat. A rifle formed on its right arm is aimed downwards at a single unit; Levad's - as its wings open up and form a series of 'bit' like units. Twelve of them exactly, six on each side. They warp in appearance as a red glow forms at their tips - aimed a few of the Ezekiels. It didn't take long for the massive airshow of lasers come down.

The Night Fencer -- a black, winged machine if blackness was ever concerned -- homes in on ... the other black machine possessing wings: the Astranagant. The bloody shimmer of its opaque, diamond-shaped eyes gleam around its obsidian face as it swipes inward towards its perimeter.

Lilith narrows her eyes, slowly. She'd heard of this one through private channels before. The 'traitor', as they call him. Interesting. She would not decry him for it, due to her nature, but she does find the concept to be unusual. She declares her opening line.

"I am Lilith Argenti, Sorceress of the Night. The Earth is my charge, since ages long past..." is her statement, accented with the Fencer cutting in at fast speeds. Its hand blurs as it strikes out with a flurry of sword-slashes, crimson arcs trailing the motion of the Blood Sword's jagged edge.

"... and I am pleased to make your acquaintance," she finishes off, with the final opening strike.

As much as Er'ela seems to hate Galuin for being a 'toy soldier' she has to admit, he can very effectively draw the attention of a large number of enemies and hold it.

Er'ela's HUD squeeks at her and points out the approaching Gundam. She looks the machine over. "Hnn...?" something familiar about it. "...Just another Gundam." she tells herself.

Er'ela's Ezekiel Ne'eman jumps off the dodai and comes crashing down in the sand of the desert. It stands in the baking heat of the sun with the Earth Cradle to it's back. A laser blade in it's hand ignites. "I won't let you pass!"

The thrusters of the Ezekiel ignite driving her machine towards the Gundam Master. The laser blade rises up and slashes at the represenative of Neo-America.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "...Seven. That white one. Help me kill it."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Seven transmits, "Let's burn it down!"

The Mk. IV Gespenst is so far going well, its getting constant tactical updates, as Russel moves across the burning sands. The alien altered Gespenst has spotted him. He knows what's coming, the machine is quicker than an standard Gespenst, as the rounds from the m95 machine gun chew up the desert, Russel actually weaves out of the way of the majority of the fire, a few catch the machine in the shoulder leaving some minor impact craters. But the MK IV keeps coming, right for the mind controlled Aggressor leader.

"Tasuku! Keep with me, we have to bring him down, if we can."

Off the back of the new Gespenst comes a split missile pod, it detaches and flies into the air for the other machine, the pod then explodes, as a cloud of smaller missiles launch seeking out the other machine to little effect unfortunately they have little to no effect.

Tasuku would find hed be getting tactical feeds from the MK IV, as Russel takes point, the M90 assault rifle now comes to life as Russel opens up on the Balmarianized Gespenst and he doesnt seem to be intending to hold back.

As he fire, Russel executing a sliding turn, all the while aiming to keep his weapon trained on the man who once lead Sanger, Elzam and the rest into battle against the forces of Zeon, this is not a happy day. But he cant just let this go on, its got to end. Shells rain down hitting the desert sands as Russel doesnt take his finger off the trigger until the clip is emptied, and he moves to reload another.

"This ends here!"

Despite his position on the field, Max still keeps his mind open for options. However, Huang's arriving mech and the balmarian suddenly going after him only made him worry. Huang's lack of ability in a mech was the reason for his concern, and it made him rush to the man's aid. Huang's only warning was "HUANG! MOVE!" before his gun pod opened fire on Azgad's mech....

Suzaku seems to have attracted the attention of the same dude he was hoping to pick off as he approached -- Ingram Prisken! When the much larger, much meaner, Balmarian mech turns its loathesome gaze on the Lancelot, Kururugi immediately cuts the thrust and dives towards the African dirt. The beams full of supercharged photons chase the Lancelot's ascent, the Knightmare leveling off just above the surface.

Suzaku slams the throttle control to the console, the green-tipped FLOAT Pack humming brighter as it devours Yggdrasil Drive-powered energy. But it isn't fast enough; one Photon clips the back of the Knightmare, then two more slam into the body of the robot, sending it spinning into the Earth. The Lancelot skids for a good hundred yards, smoke wafting from the damage.

After a moment of pain and a quick survey of the damage, Suzaku kick-ups the Lancelot back to its feet. The thin robot swivels back around, landspinners locking into position as it starts to rumble across the ground.

"Ingram," Suzaku says, his green eyes hardening at the image of the Astranagant up in the air on his HUD. "I know you only /want/ us to fight you... Harder, beter, and stronger. But --"

The VARIS in the Lancelot's grip extends, the impact barrel shifting into beam mode. Green particles pool briefly at the tip of the rifle, before a lancing green beam of energy cuts up across the African Sky.

"-- If I destroy you, none of that will matter!"

Levad sits for a long moment, watching the distant battle unfold, its then, he has a brief horrifying thought.

"Combat is three dimensional you imbecile!"

He turns and looks up, just in time to see Ascian's attack desending from on high... The blasts strike into the Ezekiel, surrounding it with explosions... Levad grits his teeth, as he pulls the Zechariah from its hidden position... "...I hate the bloody desert, no soft cover!" The Zechariah launches along the dunes, kicking up a deliberate sand storm to attempt to obscure its position as he assesses his damage. "...optical rifle disabled...well damnit all..." He cricks his neck, "Have to make due with the vulcan then..." The aforemention photon vulcan fires out a quick burst as Levad attempts to fall back to 'position b'

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Ascian Luddite - Amenthes - assaulting from above."

"Not enough, Kar Wai-Lau!" Sanger roars, the spinning drills on the Grungust Type-3's shoulder falling forward onto the Boost Knuckle. "You'll need more than that to best me! DRILL BOOST KNUCKLE!" Sanger slams his hand forward, the boost knuckle exploding from its arm socket; it plows through the split missiles, explosions ripping apart the air between the two warriors. Smoke clears, the Drill Boost Knuckle reattaching to the Grungust Type-3; its eyes light up, shining through the smoke towards the unit of his foe.

"Kar Wai-Lau...do you remember?" Sanger's fingers reach for the control sticks of the Grungust. "Do you remember the night we arrived to rescue the White Base, in that barren hell? Do you remember looking upon the vision of that man - that warrior of Zeon, Ramba Ral?!"

"DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOU SAID TO US THAT NIGHT?!" Sanger slams the controls forward; the drills of the Grungust Type-3 turn rapidly, fire pouring forth as the mech plows towards Kar Wai-Lau's Gespenst. The massive sword sweeps around in its free hand; at the last minute, the motion is reversed, snapping diagonally upwards as the Grungust's off-hand suddenly applies added force to the blade already powered by its own weight.

"We asked you how it was possible that he could be so strong! We asked you if it was his unit, his new, experimental weapon! We asked you if it was his skill, if it was some sort of power! And on that night!"

"ON THAT NIGHT, SO LONG AGO, YOU TOLD US THAT NOTHING WAS IMPOSSIBLE, SO LONG AS WE GRASPED IT IN OUR OWN TWO HANDS!!"

The Colossal Blade is swung at its full force. Sanger Zonvolt is not trying to save Kar Wai-Lau; Aggressors do not hold back against other aggressors. They are some of the most dangerous men on the planet.

They cannot help but fight to kill, or they will die.

"WITH THIS BLADE, I WILL BRING YOU BACK - EVEN IF I HAVE TO KILL YOU TO DO IT! KAAAAAR WAAAAI LAAAAAAAAU!"

There is a man here who needs to be punched... but not today.

Gundam Maxter does not slow down as it sees the Ezekiel crest over the sand. It leaps off its lifting board and throttles up its verniers to full, leaving its lifting board behind. It streaks through the air with the grace of a hurled bathtub, leaving a blurry afterimage behind it driven mostly by sheer inertia. Crockett screams like a maniac as he flies through the air, pumping himself up further.

The laser blade meets Maxter first, hacking across its midsection in an explosion of sparks and fire. Chibodee presses his fist forward even as the blade seems to tear his body in half, Gundam Maxter forcing through the impact to clobber the Ezekiel in the upper torso. There is something of her left there -- he can feel that awesome strength.

Chibodee grits his teeth, not able to spare any breath yet to do anything else but scream. Going full-bore immediately, he follows up his jab with a spiraling uppercut, intending to partailly surf the Ezekiel into the sand before springing back to land heavily on the superheated sand.

Feel me through my fists, Chibodee wills.

Lekhishah screams across the sky on its bright white photon thruster flares.

Galuin is an asset more than a man; Asfanit treats him as such, allowing the man to go wander up front and get everyone riled. That works better for her, anyway - as the Lekhishah, difficult to see, difficult to find, makes direct headway for the Earth Cradle's doors.

They will defend this place with their lives, but how can they do that if all the pilots worth anything are stuck outside? And once she's in, she can start locking down warp coordinates, and then...

Check mate.

"Oh, have they, mother?" Asfanit chimes back to that darkened, portly assault unit below. "It's always darling how terrifying they think their sharpened sticks are, isn't it? Feel free to break as much as you like~"

This is about the time when a ///NEWTYPE FLASH/// would come in handy. Huang Qin Shi, however, has to deal with a shouted warning from Jenius that, while appreciated, does not quite come in time for him to react appropriately to the shot, which tears through the Rasavatam's left shoulder, evaporating most of the armour around the joint and a significant portion of the upper chest. The machine spirals downward, Huang gritting his teeth as he strains against the G-forces, barely managing to keep himself conscious and correct the dive. He pulls up hard and starts accelerating in the direction of Azgad, glancing at the damage indicators once the blood rushes back to his head. Not great, he thinks - but the Rasavatam's molten armour is already flowing over the gap, concealing the pulsing black-and-green skeleton from sight.

"That's twice now," Huang snarls as he starts firing a barrage of white bolts of light, scattering Minovsky particles around the Balmarian unit, trying to foil with its targeting. "Twice now some jackass with a long-range rifle has been gunning for my head like I owe him something. You in there, Balmarian?" he asks, his voice harsh. "I'm told you might be a man I used to know. But that man died a hero. Not a slave." Pushing the crazy man's buttons is not a great plan, but it's all he has. COMBAT: Huang Qin Shi has attacked Azgad Mela'ka. Silver Ray added to their queue.

"Tch!" Tasuku lets out, manuvering the TT into a slid turn to pincer the Gespent-R, avoiding the stream of missiles spreading around. Sand and rocks flies in his way of the explosions as he homes himself close to the controled man. "Kar Wai-Lau! You don't know me --" He begins to shout, not paying much mind to the data. He'll survive this, he'll analyse all of this stuff later. For now, there is a man they must attempt to free from his torture. "--But Major Sanger was my instructor and superior for a while! By him and thus by you, I learned a lot from him!" The Mechanic continues, drawing out a beam gladius out of the wrist-socket of the Gespent, charging the Balmarian Gespent in a full-head-on charge. "We'll get you out of there! We're glad you're alive -- but we'll get you out of there!"

Nobody stood forth from the crowd to strike out at the Dream Weaver, the machine that resembled a knight lowered the broadsword down slowly from the challenging position it had held it in. "Very well then, I suppose I shall make the first move," Rem stated to himself, as he gripped the piloting crystal between his hands in the cockpit. The Dream Weaver twirled the broadsword about expertly, before driving it blade first into the desert sands before it.

From the backside of the Dream Weaver it pulled out what resembled a longbow, although it seemed to lack any sort of visible string mechanism. Instead as it lifted the bow up a burst of energy formed where the string normally would be, along with a perpendicular beam that resembled an arrow. This arrow was in turn pulled back, as the Dream Weaver lifted the bow up and sighted the weapon toward Ingram Prisken's Astranagant. The arrow is pulled back, and then released, taking on the form of a beam that shot out from the bow at Ingram's machine.

So, they have returned to this place. This place, so important to the man he calls comrade. He would not allow him to lose as he has lost. Ratsel is uncharactersitically stone-faced, his hands wrapped about the controls to the Huckebein Trombe. The Kurogane would take to the battlefield another day- but for now...

For now, more than simply what is resting within the Earth Cradle, he has counted not one, but two of them. Two comrades- two fallen friends- corrupted and ensnared by the predations of the vile Balmarians. Not only Ringo Mason, but /Kar-Wai-Lau./

A memory slips into Ratsel's mind- of a year gone to the flow of history. When he first met that man- when he was first inducted into the legendary Aggressors. How long ago that was? Hm. Memories.

Out of the Kurogane's hangar, the black and red personal trooper rushes into the battlefield. A surge of sand and soil serves as telltale signs that something is pushing into the warzone at incredible speeds. That something is the Steed of Justice, that Tornado Horse itself! And as Trombe surges through the dunes toward his partner's Grungust, its pilot is already taking aim-

Kar-Wai-Lau, this would be the end!

The Boss Borot finally lands, hitting the dirty terrain. He slides a good few hundred yards, digging a wide furrow in the dirt between the two forces like an enormous line in the...well, sand. The Boss Borot lies there with feet crooked up, skates still spinning, face twisted in an @_@ expression. Mucha and Nuke are fine, strapped to the chair, but Boss is flopped at the top of his domed cockpit, beef jerky sticking out of his nose.

"Location." Boss asks weakly, lifting a finger. The two cohorts lean over together, unwilling to unstrap themselves. "We are at the Earth Cradle thing."

Boss flips himself up to his legs, lifting one finger into the air. "Ha ha ha! Told you it would work! That stupid science thing doesn't have any hold on me." He snaps his fingers idly. "What's it called..." "Physics?" Mucha offers. "Gravity?" Nuke counter offers. "Those things."

The Boss Borot flips up to its feet, shifting uneasily on its skates. "ALIEN GUYS WITH MASKS! Uh... Lip Balm, or something. YOU SUCKERS GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE OR! OR!" Boss is nearly out of his cockpit now, hanging out of Borot's 'mouth' "I'll pop each and every one of you guys in the mouth!"

Mucha and Nuke unstrap themselves, hurrying over to drag Boss back in, climbing over the control panel to get there. The Boss Borot deploys several hundred desktop fans around its head and they start blowing furiously at the Gespenst Type-R!

Which nearly drags all three right out of the cockpit."

The Psyco Gundam initially takes a position directly in front the Earth Cradle, as if to intercept whoever comes near as a last line of defense. And the Lekhishah just so happens to be going right for the Gate. The Balmarian machine may be white, but in Puru Two's vision it's appearing quite red right now. Hard to find? Not at all, not to her. It has quite a unique 'feel' about it that makes its presence unmistakable. "It's that one! The one who...!"

Hang on, stay calm. It's hard enough to keep this machine under control, let's not make it any harder. Gotta focus her force of will if she's going to succeed against that machine, and properly make that pilot pay.

But wait, why should she do it alone, when she's got one of her 'sisters' here? She can be perfectly okay with sharing at a time like this. "...Seven, that white one. Help me kill it."

Without further ado, the Psyco Gundam transforms into its boxy flight mode and rockets to the sky on an intercept course. There's no need to fire any projectiles: the machine itself /is/ her projectile. Her resolve to stay calm wavers quickly the closer she gets, scenes from the previous encounter flashing through her head, all involving the Kiribito and its pilot. By the time she reaches the Balmarian mech, her verbal reaction is quite the opposite of calm: "YOU! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?!"

"...Not this again." Azgad's voice is strained, as he speaks over the open frequency. There is no doubt about it, this man's voice is Ringo Mason's. The fighting style, the long ranged accurate attack. However, unlike Huang, he does have a ///NEWTYPE FLASH///.

However, dispite his heightened awareness, the gunpod tears through the high speed unit, as he was focused on the target infront of him. However, as the Shining beam came to melt his armor away, Azgad was already in the air. The unit was faster than the Soldier, more fited to his fighting style. His right hand shoots out a chain, aiming to wrap it around Max's unit and attempt to use the thrusters of the mech to spin him wildly, the attack would attempt to send him flying at Huang. Unless he catches another poor sap that was just hovering near Max.

"My name is Azgad Mela'Ka. Remember it for the next brief moments of your life."

The Gespenst Type-R's path over the ground skids sideways, a gash torn into the armor on the shoulder. Smoke rises from it, as Galuin's eyes shift sideways, at a screen on the side, and considers its movement. The machine turns, aiming the M95 over the shoulder, and puts Echidna's Gespenst in his sights.

The rifle fires, a burst of rounds exploding from the barrel and towards her machine, as his goes whipping past.

His machine slides to the left, sand spitting up in its wake. The M90 rounds from Russel's rifle slash into the sand, sending up puffs of it into the air, as the machine hurtles along. Galuin's eyes narrow, as the Gespenst uses its other hand to pull a beam saber from the recharge rack. A blade of plasma explodes from it, and his machine comes whipping past Russel's.

"Yes," he agrees with Russel, "it does."

The saber slashes at the waist of the Gespenst -- and tries to cut through the Mark IV, as it goes ripping past. The Grungust Type 3 comes down a moment later -- the blade slashes into the armor of the Type-R, and it has to roll to the side to not lose half the body. Metal is shed aside, as it twists, and a cloud of sand goes up behind it.

"The man you call out..." Galuin rasps, softly, "...is long dead. Now, there is only the Balmarian Empire. The M95 lifts up, as his machine speeds backward from the Grungust, in reverse. Machinegun fire riddles out towards the much larger robot.

The Gespenst Mk. II-TT comes sweeping in a moment later, plasma cutter whisking outward. The still lit one lifts and catches Tasuku's -- lightning explodes between the two blades, before his whips upward and catches the top of the head. A blast of fire explodes from the back of it, while Galuin's own plasma cutter slashes inward, cutting at the sword arm of the white Gespenst.

Then, Galuin rushes his machine forward. He lifts up the arm with the plasma cutter, weapon held sideways -- and the three plasma stakes ignite with blue flame. He punches them at the chest of the Gespenst Mk. II-TT -- and then the photon rifle shots come in. They slash into the Type-R's side. It goes into a spin.

The machine lifts a hand up, as smoke pours from it, and fires off another burst of the familiar M95, up at Trombe.

And then Boss Borot blows a cool, refreshing wind at the Gespenst Type-R -- which it leaps over.

What a dick.

My my, this one was polite. Ingram catches the transmission from Lilith a moment before she comes rushing in, and in the same instant that she slashes, the Astanagant's own green glowing blade comes around - aiming to parry and strike back against the swift onslaught from the Night Fencer. The two blades slam together, sparks flying as the telekinetic blade grinds away against Lilith's own magical weapon for a moment - and then the two cut past each other, a sparking cut showing in the crystalline side of the Astranagant. However, even that blow begins to fill in as the regeneration systems of the black machine go into action, sealing the breach and shoring up the internal damage. "Guardian of the Earth? An interesting title," Ingram acknowledges, returning the courteous reply. "I am sure you have heard of me, but in case you have not, I am Ingram Prisken, Supervisor for the Balmar Fleet. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." He spins around, the Z.O. Sword weaving a complex pattern in the air as he tries to cut through Lilith's defenses and score a slash or thrust across some area of her mech, testing her defenses to see just where she might be weak. "A title that was bestowed upon you, or one that you've claimed for yourself?" Of course, there was another challenge here as well - Ingram leaps away as Suzaku unleashes a powerful shot his direction - and as he can see he's not going to evade it, he overcharges the Nendou field, the blast being mostly dispersed by the protective barrier. "Impressive. You have a considerable amount of power in that machine," the blue haired man states, checking to see how much of the shield power he had lost. It could have been much worse - he was still in fairly decent shape after a high powered shot like that. "Your more direct tactics might well work - but we'll see if you can fare better this time, when you are relying on that mech as much as your own skill." The next unit to come in... Ingram raises an eyebrow slightly, even as he unleashes the Photon Vulcans in reply to the autocannon barrage. "Well what do we have here?" he asks, curiously. "Someone who is using the legacy of Bian Zoldark to their own advantage, is it? I had heard that there were other Valsions being deployed, but I did not think I would be able to meet one so soon. Come..." And the black machine raises one hand, making a 'come hither' motion. "Let us see how your machine stacks up against the original." The last attack comes in the form of beam arrow, and Ingram takes it with the TK shield, the arrow embedding at the edge and exploding, most of the blast absorbed by the psychic barrier. This one wasn't too talkative - hmmm. Still, it was another challenge, and Ingram extends both of the Astranagant's arms outwards. In response, a pair of black crystals eject from the machine's back, spinning around and hovering at his shoulder for a moment. "Gun Familiars," he orders, and the two crystals unfold - black crystal wings supporting them in the air, while a beam cannon barrel unfolds from the bottom. The Astranagant gestures, and the two drones streak away on their attack run - spraying down Suzaku, Erika, and Rem with streams of energy fire before returning to Ingram's shoulders to take up watch and prepare for whomever was coming at him next.

Sharlorn is not a fast machine; being an immense, multifloor robot made of dead bodies tends to do that. However, the sword Moonquencher is much faster to react than a pilot would be. It never blinks, sleeps or thinks of anything but slaughtering its foes. A rune shimmers...and the entire machine vanishes, reappearing on the other side of Osefet's Habbakuk. The immense corpse-machine slams its free hand at the alien mech as the missiles slam harmlessly into the Earth Cradle's massive gateway. "I fear not your feeble 'science' and pathetic 'technology', alien! They are nothing compared to my power, to my will! They are as naught before my unrighteous rage, my DARK FURY!" The sword is probably not going to shut up.

Sharlorn raises the blade in the stance of a master swordsman - well, a master swordsman after being killed and raised as a zombie. While Suulo Stonefoot knows the arts of Mech Fu, there's only so much the dwarf's skills can be made to do, even at the command of an evil sword. "AND NOW! You will see the power of MOONQUENCHER! You will vacate your bowels in terror, quake in helpless fear! For this is the face of true power! REAL POWER! Real power is not bound up in your 'technology' or your 'science'! They are feeble, weak! Pale shadows of the true power, which cannot be made - only /taken/!" The sword laughs as its commandeered pilot makes the arms swing forward. The blade is massive - the size of a football field - but its edge is sharp and it pulses with unholy power. It swings at the Habbakuk with terrible might if not speed.

"BEHOLD, TRUE POWER! THE POWER OF MY WILL! I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU, DEVOUR YOUR VERY SOUL, AND FUEL MY VICTORY! YOU SHALL NEVER KNOW ANYTHING BUT PAIN, FOR ALL ETERNITY! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAA! I AM MOONQUENCHER, AND I CAN DO ANYTHING!"

Like Novas can keep track of all these weirdly named ones. She is glad that all her friends who got kidnapped kept their names otherwise she'd probably have gotten a headache. She better let that dude know, though, because otherwise she'll feel bad if he dies horribly and she doesn't remember his name.

"Sorry!" She tells him, opening fire (but he can easily evade since she's a little distracted by Huang geting his ass kicked (you'd think she would get used to this by now)). "But I can't remember your name because ... I have no idea how it's spelled and it's too complicated for me to remember, I mean I GUESS you were talking to Huang and HE probably would be able to remember because his name is pretty crazy too but your name is a lot crazier...!!!"

She flicks over to Huang and because sh's having trouble pinning this guy cheers him on instead, "This guy's a pu--well actually is he a puntz? I don't know maybe he's brainwashed God Tier Robot Guy!! But you can take him, Huang! I believe in youuuuuuuuuuheystopgettingshot!"

Something about the Gundam Fighter makes Er'ela gasp in a breath, even as her laser blade bites into Gundam Maxter she can feel a shudder run down her spine. "What-?! Who-" but the questions is cut off as the uppercut comes crashing in for the Ezekiel's frame. Er'ela tries to grasp the arm and twist it out of the way, but fails, the fist smashes into the Ezekiel's chest and sends it flying backwards to the sand. "Hahg!"

Er'ela exhales heavily and hits the thrusters to get the Ezekiel back up to it's feet. "Who..." The Ezekiel leaps forward as the pilot calls out, the laser blade held up high in both hands. "WHO ARE YOU?!"

The Ezekiel comes down at the Gundam Maxter, the laser blad slashes out in a horizontal swipe and spinds around in the machine's fingers to a reverse grip on the weapon, letting her stab it right bak in at the Gundam Maxter's chest.

One thing max was getting used to by now, his Valkyrie was usually getting nailed by rifles. Except that wasn't a rifle, it was a mine chain. Max still nudged his controls to get out of the way, but was nailed in the hip by the chain. "Hmm...better keep on this guy. That way Huang can get a better shot at him." He says lining up his gun pod and firing at Azgad yet again....

Unfortunately, Sev's been on the move a lot lately-- she hasn't had the time to settle down in one spot long enough to get to know the names, faces, and machines of the Balmarians aside from the Cliff Notes that get passed around the Divine Crusaders. She's busy, of course, because she needs to stay close to Glemy while the peons do the dirty wor-- okay, okay.

A small smile plays across Sev's lips while her hands shift on the controls, her eyes cast ahead-- not looking at the window that vid-links the Qubeley Mass Production Type to the Psyco Gundam, but acknowleding the other Newtype all the same. "Let's burn it down," she says, and then-- closes her eyes.

When they open, her pupils draw into sharp focus, her mind, her senses-- all extending outward, reaching and feeling out for the appropriate systems. The Qubeley's tail binder shifts upward while bursts of light scatter out from the three groupings of Funnels docked there.

C-1 to C-5. A-6 to A-10.

Flooding out around her, ten of the thirty Funnels stocked in the Qubeley's tail binder blaze out wide, scattering through the sky as they streak forward. They twist and spiral, directional thrusters carry them to their appropriate positions-- and then two fire, aiming to put a cross of beams through the Lekhishah!

"Hmph." Sanger's Grungust Type-3 sweeps out another Drill Boost Knuckle, but it goes wide as the bullets rock across the VG Armor of the massive machine. The M95 machine gun is a dangerous weapon even in the hands of an amateur; in the hands of Kar Wai-Lau, every weapon on the Gespenst is more lethal than the battlefields of Solomon. "Is that so."

"You claim that the man who once lead the Aggressors to victory is dead? That the man who fought against the tides of the Middle East war, that the man who stood beside us day and again, who loved and laughed and lived with us...is dead?"

"HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Sanger covers his face with his hand. "Kar Wai-Lau! Your sense of humor is as strong as ever!" His hand slips down, his face taking on a terrible grin in the cockpit as he looks at his screen, at the Gespenst dodging about like that. "If all that's left is Ze Balmary Empire, then I have nothing to fear!"

The Sword That Cleaves Evil comes around again, swinging upwards into the sky. "That which made Kar Wai-Lau most ferocious wasn't his fighting skill, or his drive never to give up! It wasn't his tactical genius! It wasn't even his mastery of the Gespenst!"

"WHAT MADE KAR WAI-LAU MOST FEROCIOUS WAS HIS LOYALTY TO THE THINGS HE LOVED! IF KAR WAI-LAU IS DEAD, AND IF ALL THAT'S LEFT IS A BALMARIAN PUPPET, THEN WHAT HAVE WE TO WORRY ABOUT?!"

Sanger grabs the Colossal Blade once again, swinging it straight upwards as the Grungust's engines double-time to produce enough momentum to make an effect. The drills spin as loud as they can; they strain from the exertion, flames pouring out into the sand beneath. "KAR WAI-LAU IS NOTHING WITHOUT HIS HEART! IF I FIGHT ZE BALMARY EMPIRE ALONE, LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ALL OF THEM!"

And the blade comes sweeping upwards in a brutal, two-handed uppercut, propelled by sheer weight and speed and the laws of physics, in a motion to slice straight through Galuin's machine with the brunt of the blade itself.

Osefot sits up straight in her cockpit. Another teleporting machine! INTERESTING, she thinks but does not say, even as the Habbakuk starts to lurch around like a pregnant Battlemech. One enormous arm is moved, largely interjecting those incoming strikes, but even its apparently vast armor plating is not imperishable. Deep, probably-meaningful divots are carved into the squat machine's metal by the time it finishes turning...

... but Osefot has brought it back a pace, in time to avoid the true full force of that withering strike. She exhales, perhaps relieved. "Well, I see that your astonishing Tellurian powers of RAISING YOUR VOICE remain intact," she answers, saucily.

She feels that nagging urge as her hand makes a peculiar gesture, as if wanting to tap a pen. This is of course invisible; she is not even transmitting a visual signal. She answers Asfanit, sideways, "Don't stay in front of it. I do have to give them that!" Then back to the Moonquencher. "Special monkey sample can does hit um real hard with big sharp stick, ook? Ook!"

The Habbakuk takes another sudden, precise leap backwards, both hands raising now. The missiles are launched in a lower direct-fire arc, and this time there are eight - that's as many as two fours, and that is hopefully enough to score a hit and set the monstrosity on fire.

Echidna Iisaki does not regain all of Galuin's attention and that is fine by her. It gives her room and time to maneuver; she keeps her machine jogging across the desert, leaping over a sand done, impacting near the top and sliding down the far side on its feet. Bullets explode the dune behind her, sand and grit flying everywhere.

W16's lips purse. This is - it isn't painful, but it is an unpleasant sensation, knowledge that she has done this before, in exactly the same way. But it's not exactly the same, is it? She was alone that time; she's not alone this time. And there's Sanger. She feels she should know Sanger, screaming at Galuin - it's not the Sanger she knows. Not quite. He's not her brother, or even cousin -

She doesn't remember a male, and she can't have relations; she is a machine. Echidna's head immediately starts to ache, a dull pain between her eyes. This does not in any way stop her from drawing the G-Revolver with her free hand and beginning to fire it, trying to lead Galuin away from the Earth Cradle.

Believing that he had caught his opponent off-guard, Ascian somehow believes that he has the tactical advantage - even as sand is kicked up in massive quantities. He is new to these kind of tactics. He'd been trained for inner-city combat, but not for the kind one finds in the desert. So when bullet suddenly come flying from that sandy cover - it catches him off-guard. A big flashing red WARNING sign pops up in front of him as pieces of hot metal scar across his unit's body - chipping off pieces of armor plating and lodging into its right arm, rendering it temporarily disabled.

"I know, I know! Shut up!" Ascian shouts back out at his A.I., even though the message in question had not actually 'spoken' to him. The metal around the right arm crumples for a moment whilst the wings reform as the unit shifts the armorplating around a bit to re-adjust for some of the structural damage. "Duat, give me a marker for a point between the sun and the enemy unit." Pulling up records, it was now marked under the name of 'Levad'.

The moment his unit had found it, he steers the Amenthes to a point within that line, staying up high - whilst his right arm had finally reformed properly into the shape of a rifle. A red glow forms once again - forming a dart dart in front of it. Hoping that where he was, the opponent would have a harder time spotting him or targetting him, Ascian remains still again as he tries to aim precisely at his opponent's weapon itself. And down it comes, the moment his unit gives him a sign that the aim is steady.

The furious light breeze stops and the three thugs are out of the Boss Borot, dizzily clinging on. Boss scrambles in with a grunt, dragging his subordinates in after him. He turns off the outside AC, turning on the inside AC. "Hot out here... Who knew the desert would be so hot!" The Boss Borot pulls out a paper fan and a bottle of sprite, fanning itself with one and drinking the other. Boss pulls out a beer, WHICH IS COMPLETELY ILLEGAL AND THEREFORE COOL, because drinking beer at seventeen is what cool guys do.

War wages outside and the three take their time to hydrate. The Boss Borot tosses the enormous sprite bottle aside. Before Boss pumps a fist into the air. "ALRIGHT!" He points a finger at the Gespenst outside and the Boss Borot pulls out another paper fan with the Japanese flag on it. "I'm not even sure who that guy is but I'm pretty sure we need to fight him!" "Yea!" "Yea!" The Boss Borot fans out both paper fans and starts flailing towards the Gespenst, skating somehow on the sand.

"SOMETHING SOMETHING FRIENDSHIP!"

The gun familiars rake across the valion's massive frame, blasting away at it's heavy armor. Erika trusts the machine to hold though as she hurtles herself towards the Astranagant, it's massive blade whipping around and coming down on Ingram's head. The Nendoh Field though proves too strong as the blade crashes against it, sparking and grinding as it tries to get through the psychic field. Finally Erika is forced to push off and switch tactics. "Oh, you'll see how it fares, let me assure you!" The right arm whips out and energy starts to collect around the air, opposing forces spiralling around one another until it reaches a crescendo. Then with a yell of "CROSS SMASHER!", the beam fires, snaking it's way through the sky as the opposing energyes wrestle with one another before slamming into the Nendoh Field, seeking to drill through with raw power.

In the cockpit Rem watched quietly as the crystals were ejected and transformed into what looked like miniature birds with guns strapped to them. "How interesting," Rem murmured, even as the drones streaked across the heavens and fired their shots at the numerous people assaulting the Astranagant. The Dream Weaver responded with a slight sway, the attacks aimed at it barely missing, while the bow was lifted once more and fired off a quick shot at Ingram's machine again.

The Dream Weaver returned to the normal stance after the crystal ceased it's assault upon it. The bow was kept lifted, and once more an arrow was drawn from thin-air into existence. The energy crackled as the Dream Weaver sighted down the shaft of the energized ammunition, stared straight toward Ingram's Astranagant and focused on the left foot. The fingers of the Dream Weaver opened, and the arrow hurtled free once more toward Ingram.

The hum of the Z.O. sword is almost palpable in the back of Lilith's mind. A truly fascinating weapon that she would find herself wishing to study if she had the chance. But alas, it is being wielded in her direction. As the two exchange blows, the Z.O Sword scores an indirect cut along the Fencer's arm; the metal shatters there, and a substance that appears blood-like bursts out in an arc.

Her swordplay is, at the very least, up to par, with the Fencer's guard keeping up with Ingram's artful and complex manuevers. When he strikes, she raises the Blood Sword as she moves to his side, weaving to and fro to accomodate Ingram's other attackers and work in tandem with their moves.

"I have heard of you through the gritted teeth and chest-pounding of your former team-mates, but I wished to hear of it from the man himself..." Lilith said with a confident smirk. She likes an eloquent battle-partner; much more interesting and intellectually rivetting than another hot-blooded mongrel.

She channels forward her magic, her eyes shimmering with a trace of La Gias' most primal power. Her chant is firm and arcane, intending to show -- and not tell -- Ingram that her title is, indeed, granted.

"Hark, a death knell is in the air. The maidens this evening are shrouded in black. Where do the murder of ravens fly, up to the blood-red sky? Fear not the portent of wintry doom, and fear not for thy beloved. Forevermore before your soul does Death's Door await."

The Fencer moves in again as it manages to escape to the Astranagant's side. The large, wicked Eyes on its shoulders -- bulging, grotesque and cat-like -- shimmer with an unsettling glow. The sky itself yawns open around the Night Fencer, spirits of death flowing around it.

"The measure of my powers are true, for the numerous guardians Earth hold from its colored past are, no doubt, part of the reason your kind is so interested in it," Lilith explains, before the Fencer carries that channeled power forward, thrusting her sword in the Astranagant's direction -- and sending an astral barrage of death in Ingram's direction.

Levad Yachid watches his opponent, his focus remaining on the enemy far, far above... Its a sneaky one, but he's apparently overly reliant on his vector advantage... He gnaws on his stick before tossing it aside in disdain, "Damnit all...I need something more...but..." Those eyes turn up eagerly towards the fellow in the air. "HUMAN! I am Levad Yachid, of the Seventh Balmarian Fleet!" He never can figure out why he always introduces himself, it just... seems right. "An important lesson for you! This may be your planet, but its /my/ battlefield!" He produces a detonator, and depresses it in full view of his visual feed. The sand explodes outward as tarps are pulled back... Apparently Levad scrounged up some old abandoned elements of mankind's warlike past again...in this case, dozens of broken BuCUEs, with their weapons aimed upwards at a pre-planned kill zone...right where Ascian is. "You really only have yourself to blame. Heh...Heh...HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Suzaku gets physical with the Gun Familiars. As the two Balmarian weapons swoop down on him, he cranks his landspinners to the max. The wheels squeal as they tear ass against the rough, war-worn, African terrain near the Earth Cradle. Kururugi's pattern zig-zags, the Lancelot cutting each time the Familiar's line up their shot. Bolts of energy slam into the ground all around the Lancelot, huge geysers of uplifted Earth pillaring from each failed impact.

Suzaku explodes out of the chaos at full speed, the Higgs FLOAT System reengaging. Immediately the Lancelot lifts off the ground, the momentum of the landspinners giving Suzaku a sizable surge of speed to climb back into the sky -- purplepink wingtips glowing with emerald light.

"That's the point --!" Suzaku yells back at Ingram. He has never been one to back down from combat -- nor the type to think it through. He relies on reflexes, instincts, and raw skill to survive.

Swooshing back around, the Lancelot realigns itself with the Astranagant in the air. Suzaku flips a few toggles on his touch screen control screen; the VARIS Rifle contorting to his commands. The gold and blue weapon transforms, shrinking its barrel length to give a better angle for what Kururugi has in mind.

The Energy Filler meter flashes a warning sign, concerned at the programming. Suzaku ignores the warnings; he'd rather die because he ran of out energy than look up from Hell knowing he'd had some left in the tank. He's fought this Balmarian Monstrosity before -- he knows its capabilities. He konws he can't spare anything; not for a moment. It is, as they say, balls to the wall!

BURST MODE.

The words run across Suzaku's HUD, as he gets a red chime on Ingram's robot.

"This planet deserves to live! These people are not your toys!"

With a rush of power, the VARIS starts launching spinning green fireballs of energy -- like a plasma rifle in some rad Doom 2 spinoff game. They rocket from the rifle, one after another, coronas of emerald light swirling behind them.

Gundam Maxter blazes forward, fighting more like George de Sand than Chibodee Crockett. He overpowers Er'ela's grab and drives the Ezekiel back, eyes already starting to glow with the strength of the Crest. He must end this now.

Maxter goes onto guard, but not a strong guard. He lets Er'ela close on him, the laser blade driving into him from the /other/ shoulder this time. The searing agony makes him roar inside of his Trace Chamber, knees shaking from the horrible feedback tearing through his body. His heart skips a few beats; his head lolls back, body threatening to collapse from system shock.

And then Maxter's left arm comes up, as if driven by Nature's God. With a crushing swing, and an explosion of yellow sparks, Chibodee throws his weight back against the Ezekiel, smashing against the Ezekiel not with physical force, but sheer spiritual presence. The psychic splash from the impact may draw some attention, but it's a risk that Chibodee needs to take --

Chibodee presses his heart against the Ezekiel, trying to reach into the cockpit, trying to touch the soul of the pilot arrayed against him. Her awesome strength. Her pride. Her innocence, her innocence most of all -- someone who should have never been wounded in such this way. Used like he was used, violated in a way that she'll never be able to forget. It is an unacceptable crime. The wrong must be righted.

"I am," he breathes, arm straining as it keeps pressing against the Ezekiel, "Chibodee Crockett...!"

Chibodee pulls his left hand back, the sudden movement starting to summon up what seems to be a dust devil around Gundam Maxter. The atmosphere churns, a ever-intensifying spiral of sand starting to form around the machine. He stares at the Ezekiel with determined focus, heart pounding in his chest. "I am the Queen of Spades!"

As the dust devil becomes a small tornado, Gundam Maxter bursts forward, swinging its right arm at the rival machine! The vortex explodes away from Gundam Maxter, purple-blue light filling it as it intends to pummel the Ezekiel from all angles, intending to disable it without tearing it apart. It's a risk, a dangerous gamble, but to use his full strength...!

"And I will *never* abandon my friends!"

The voice - which Huang had been struggling to recall, coming to him as it usually does from nightmares - confirms it. Visions flash through the mind of the one-time commander of the Divine Crusade. The sight of Ringo with Solis, initially grousing under the duty he'd assigned him but eventually compliant, even eager to help. Running alongside him in their escape from Zeon. And seeing the Guarlion tumbling across the sands of a nameless island, shattered by Vindel Mauser and Axel Almer.

"It's Ringo Mason," Huang answers Novas, his voice low and tight. "He saved my life twice when the Divine Crusade had me dead." A shiver runs through him, the skin of his right palm burning, Novas's presence bolstering his resolve. "This will /not/ stand."

The Rasavatam hurtles forward toward the Balmarian unit, molten armour spraying from the glancing impact against the chain. The machine keeps coming, however, its internal temperature skyrocketing as it closes. Huang's motions are smooth, precise, direct as he slides toward Azgad's unit, the Rasavatam's semiliquid arms snaking out toward the Esram Tzel's left forearm and bicep, driving its right knee up toward the elbow joint from below.

Whether Ringo can receive his freedom through means other than death is an open question. But either answer will be easier once the man's unit is defenceless.

"BAHAHAHAHA! You don't the power of my voice!" The sword laughs, while the pilot of Sharlorn has her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and would be drooling if her body still produced saliva. (It doesn't, because she's undead.) This time, Sharlorn does not teleport, at least. Instead, it falls into an approximation of a swordsman's crouch, the blade drawing back. Suulo Stonefoot, still staring at the back of her own eyesockets, is doing the same on the command throne. She mimes a sudden cut. Sharlorn complies, lashing out with surprising speed. All but two of the missiles explode as the immense sword slices through them - or, more precisely, slams into them, being far too large to cut something so small. The two missiles smash into the machine, exploding and setting fire to a few corpses. Within, a group of ghouls hastily chop those corpses down and let them fall to the sands below.

"But you are a fool, alien, to think you face a feeble ape! I am no human, nor elf, nor dwarf! I am no ape, shaved and walking about! I AM THE SUPERIOR WEAPON! I AM THE GREATEST POWER! LOOK UPON ME AND DESPAIR!" The Sharlorn flourishes its blade, then draws it back. It doesn't move a lot, but it doesn't have to - its reach is /immense/.

"I AM MOONQUENCHER! MY BLADE IS SHARPER THAN ANY EDGE, MY WIT SHARPER THAN ANY TONGUE! I AM THE MOST POWERFUL SWORD THAT HAS EVER BEEN FORGED, MY POWER SEIZED FROM THE UNHOLY WILL OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE SOULS I HAVE DEVOURED! YOUR RACE WILL KNOW MY NAME - AND DIE! NONE SHALL RECALL YOU EXCEPT AS INSECTS CRUSHED BY MY ALMIGHTY POWER! YOUR CHILDREN WILL ROAST IN THE FIRES OF MY MAKING, THEIR MINDS TRAPPED IN ETERNAL TORMENT AS I USE THEIR SOULS AS FOOD TO FUEL MY DESTRUCTION! I! AM! MOONQUENCHER!" The blade swings forward, somehow managing to /not/ vibrate out of the Sharlorn's hand from the volume of its bellows.

It was Kar-Wai-Lau who refined Ratsel's shooting eye into something that could truly be called 'legendary.' It was Kar-Wai-Lau who turned him from a mere pilot to a storm of steel on the battlefield. He is not surprised that the ex-ace's assault had managed to connect with the Trombe's armor.

He is furthermore unsurprised when he's able to evade his counterattack.

"Kar-Wai-Lau! You know as well as I do what must be done!" Ratsel roars, pushing forward despite the Trombe's damage. The crosshairs line up once more as he rushes in, the Roche Saber blazing at full power- he swipes, and misses! Trombe misses its target completely, but is not about to give up the attack. It swings back around, and fires again and again and again, unleashing a harrowing barrage of photonic fire- but it is a mere ruse.

The real attack stems from the beam-coated disk whirling through the air.

The battle has just begun, Kar-Wai-Lau. Has your capture corrupted your skill as well as your soul!?

There's a picture taped to the dash of this machine, it's a picture of Tasuku, Katina, and himself just after Tasuku formally joined the Octos as a pilot. He knows only the Balmarians have taken Katina, and so many others. Twisted them into mockeries of themsevles. Just like the man who he was fighting. A man who has been a hero to so many, he did not deserve this. As he gets a reply.

"If there is anything left of who you really are, fight it!"

Russel sees as Tasuku makes his move against the target he comes in under fire, but he keeps comming, he watches out of the corner of his eye as Chibodee fights one of the more well known Balmrain commanders, but he's only vaguely aware as he noe actually stops, plants his machine's feet and opens fire, with the entire clip of the m90, he holds down on the trigger sending round after round, but he's let himself open as the former Aggressor carves into his machine but he doesn't stop shooting.

The attacks come in quick. "Hn," Asfanit murmurs. "So, they weren't able to ignore it, were they?" she muses.

"This facility is the best-defended on Earth," Lekhishah notes, neutrality in her high-pitched voice.

"Every nut can be cracked," she notes. "Certainly it's withstood attempts before, admittedly..."

"The mission fails if the doors close," Lekhishah intones.

"Yes, yes," Asfanit sighs, and then the laser emitters all across the machine snap open, bolts of magenta light screaming out from the machine to harrass - the funnels!? The aim isn't great, but it does enough of a job to bother the assaulting remotes that only a few scant scratches actually appear on Lekhishah's hull. Much more damage is done when Puru Two takes advantage of Asfanit's maneuvering needs to RAM her massive machine into the Lekhishah, finding her attack met by the white machine's arms, clutching on tight--

"'Her'?" Asfanit wonders. "Oh....now I recognize your voice. Do you mean poor Aoba Tsuzaki?" Asfanit laughs, pleasantly, as Lekhishah's photon thrusters lead the machine to blur away from the two attacking machines.

"I told you. I took her somewhere safe. Somewhere your barbaric culture can't hurt her anymore. Just like I'll do to you!" She says it bright and friendly, as Lekhishah's vaguely crystalline form starts sparking and flashing, briefly, the black crystal in Asfanit's arm resonating in turn. She looks down, frowning at it slightly...but shakes her head, leaning back in her seat easily. "Lekhishah, how are we on brainwaves?"

"Driver ready, My Lady," Lekhishah chimes.

"Well then!" Asfanit chirps. "Activate it." And she does - the machine's shoulders slide open, blasting out waves of radiant heat from the back of the machine, an aperture appearing in the center of the back. It's a human device, of course, but /they/ don't need to know that, as Lekhishah's body changes from sleek white to a more aggressive red-and-white. Asfanit takes a slow, deep breath. It used to be so difficult, she reflects. But now...whisper, whisper, whisper, she hears, and she understands.

"There. That'll make this a little more fair," she says, and then the Scream, Tzrikha, lunges forward, bolting across distance too fast to track, and slams a wrist blade into the armor of Puru's Psyco Gundam. It is not a very long blade, nor necessarily very sharp.

Despite this it cuts like it were cleaving tissue.

Azgad was always a quick fighter, the Gun Pod this time only drives the quick Balmarian back. Sand kicks up from the ground, blinding his sight, but Azgad still knew what was coming for him. Huang streams in, even as his Mine Chain detonates against him...but the liquid metal of the robot warps around the chain, as it continues to drive forward at him.

Azgad doesn't have an answer for that, the right hand and left leg are covered in liquid fire, while the torso of the Mech is jammed in by the foot of the strange robot. He flies back stumbling, reading the damage on his unit...

He doesn't like what he sees, he is getting a feel for what is going on here...

"Not yet." He says, litterally slamming back on his thrusters away from the group while a single missle fires. What happens next is strange, a scattering of reflective shards pepper the battlefield, as Azgad points nowhere near Huang or Max...

The single shot from the rifle fires, as a single beam of energy flies everywhere, litterally attempting to come at each pilot at randomly unpredictable angles.

A Jet Magnum -- a precise, fast, brutal one at that. Tasuku grits his teeth, slamming the foot of his TT down into the ground, crouching the machine and waiting. He's been named the current King of the Gespent, altough that is just a frivolious title, that still means he is able to control this thing really, really well and in his mind, ther eis only one thing that he can think of he could use to counter such a thing. "RAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Shinguji shouts, pouring power into his T-LINK system, he lifts up both of his hands to grab the incoming Jet Magnum, being pushed through the ground from the sheer train of the attack. Beyond the articulations being damage and /thanks/ to the sudden inburst of psychic power(Tasuku has no idea where THAT came from), he sruvived. "Alright," The Mechanic flashes a grin. "My turn!" The TT flips backward, landing into a crouch as he leans back a fist. Plasma Stakes ejects out of the wrists, powering up. Skates burns to life as he soars back through the short distance bettewn them. "THE BALMARIANS ARE JUST A BUNCH OF THIEVES! We'll get our friends out, we'll get /you/ out -- /HELL/, we'll save them from THEMSELVES!"

The Valkyrie is able to get a quick shot off against Azgad just before the shot hits his weapon and knocks it out of position. Max however, smiled. The Valkyrie's head was still trained on Azgad's Esram, and it's head lasers point at the mech before opening fire.

The Habbakuk is struck by that resonant blade, its entire frame shivered. Its pilot quails inwardly, on a subtle level. And yet.

AND YET.

There is a particular phrase which Moonquencher has used. One which reaches in through the very heart of Osefet Kolot, one that pierces deep into the fundamental essence, perhaps, of any person who shares the 'alien' woman's experiences of life. Her glittering silver hands clench tight.

"So!! This is the superior morality of the 'samples' - you threaten my children with eternal torment! Ha ha ha!!" The Habbakuk seems to roll slightly, steam emitted from places within it where fluids must have been released, perhaps to cool vital components.

"I will show you the merest inkling of the power your pathetic pretensions of evil lead to!" The shoulders of the Habbakuk start sliding back. A prominence emerges, Osefet exhaling loudly at the psychological effort of compelling the Metallium Cannon out. Its tip gleams, squat and menacing, much like the Habbakuk itself.

"Now die," she invites, before a shimmering, shrieking ray of green lances outwards towards the Moonquencher and its bearer's device. It aims low, and then slices up -- perhaps to see if it can sever a tendon.

"That guy is Ringo Mason?! But Ringo Mason blew up! Wait...maybe that means he's a ghost after all." Novas mulls thoughtfully. No, that makes no sense. She really should hope these sorts of things less, it's unbecoming. "Well, gosh. I thought he was dead. I guess we ARE remembering his name after all. So much for my cool quip." She looks over to Huang and points towards him, "Huang Qin Shi!! I have... AN IDEA! So hold on one second..." She loads up a datastream and sends an image file THROUGH SPACE towards Azgad's robot!

"RINGO MASON!" She cries, "SNAP OUT OF IT! YOU HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!"

If Ringo Mason actually looks at the picture, he'll see--SOLIS VIVENT?!?!?!?!

"YOUR SON STILL LIVES!" Novas cries tearfully. "OUR SOOOOON!! It's almost THANKSGIVING, Ringo! Are you going to deny Solis Vivent his FATHER?" She wipes a tear. "Are you going to deny him...his FAMILY? I believe in you, Ringo Mason! I believe that you will throw off the chains of oppression! He still misses you, still cries out your name as he sleeps... He says he has an imaginary girlfriend now, you must wake up...!" Tears!!!

Two of them were modestly fast - the others were insanely quick, and they would be difficult to take down. Thankfully, Ingram at least has a decent idea of what the odds are going to look like at this point - he's not fought against such a speedy mix of machines before, and this should be an excellent chance to absorb data on how the Astranagant can prevail against these sorts of odds. His lips pull back slightly - not to mention the simple fact that this would be enjoyable. The Cross Smasher from the Valsion knockoff is met by concentrated fire from the two Gun Familiars, their repeated shots blasting into the spiraling beam until its cohesion has been disrupted that it goes sailing off to one side. Rem's arrow punches through the TK Field, scraping along the side of the black machine's leg with a shower of sparks to mark its passing, but the damage is superficial at best. Ingram quirks an eyebrow at the sight, before sending the Gun Familiars after the Dream Weaver, the two crystal hawk-like machines gunning him down a few times before circling around. "Then do show me what the extent of your power is, madam," Ingram asks of Erika - he wanted to see for himself just how much power this copy could put out. Would it compare to the original, or was it just a pale shadow? Choosing instead not to take Lilith's attack head on, Ingram instead uses the psychic barrier to ride the blow, the energy breaking through only in a small part. The energy crackles across the surface of the Astrangant's armor, causing small bubbles to rise from the crystals. "Truth be told, much of the exact reasons for the 'interest' in this world have never been expressed to me. I can make a guess however, but my masters are not the most open mouthed of people when it comes to their motivations." He gives a tiny shrug, and an amused smile. "Your style is from La Gias, unless I've missed my guess. You are an excellent opponent - I used data from Cybuster for much of the magical portions of my machine - but a chance to test it against another from the lower world will be quite useful." And then the Astranagant leaps straight back, the massive beam of energy from Suzaku's VARIS rifle blasting through the space where the black machine had stood a moment earlier. The power output on that weapon was impressive - any of the shots that had been launched so far could have done serious damage if it had landed cleanly. But the blue haired man just chuckles at Suzaku's words, as he replies, "Life is not something that you gain by simple right, Suzaku. You must struggle for it. You must earn it, for there are always those who try and take it away from you. That you have free will is a blessing beyond all else. Do not waste it." And with that, Ingram launches himself at Erika and her Valsion unit. Time to test the sort of power that machine had from up close - and the Z.O. Sword leads the way, the green telekinetic blade extended outwards like a lance as the Astranagant tries to ram straight into the midsection and drive the blade straight through it's torso. Behind him, the two Gun Familiars continue the assault, strafing back and forth as they keep a rapid barrage of fire raining down on Suzaku, Lilith, and Rem. The blasts come from all sides as the machines move rapidly, diving behind buildings and popping up along various streets.

The Gespenst's verniers fire -- shoving the machine back through the air, sending it away from the mighty uppercut slash. The machine turns, a few verniers putting the Type 3 right into its sights. The chest plates slide open on the front, and a huge column of energy /explodes/ from the chest, hurtling towards the Grungust.

Galuin seems to awaken, all at once.

"BLASTER BEAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!"

The G-Revolver shot slams into the armor and knocks the Gespenst backward. It hits the sand, spitting a wave of the stuff up, as the head turns to look at the offending Gespenst. It rushes over the sand, spewing it afterward -- and slashes the plasma cutter at the side of Echidna's machine. Then, it turns around -- the Boss Borot clipping it, as it hacks the plasma cutter at Boss Borot, leaving a trail of light after it.

The machine takes a single step back -- as Ratsel's chakram caster flies between his machine and Boss Borot. The head turns, as it flies its thrusters, and leaps into the air. It comes down, and brings the plasma cutter down with a massive overhanded strike at Ratsel's machine.

Before it can land, the M90 machinegun riddles the armor with holes. It falls down, into the sand.

A wave of it goes up, and the machine lifts the M95 with one hand, locking onto Russel's machine even as it rights itself. It opens fire, gun trailing after Russel's machine. Then it turns, the rest of the rounds hurtling into the charging Gespenst Mk. II-TT.

"I wonder..." Galuin -- no, Kar-Wai -- rasps. "Is this how Ral fel?"

The M95 empties its clip. He tosses it to the side, as the Jet Magnum slams into his machine. The fiery explosion knocks it backward, sending it into the sand, and sends sand rolling up around him.

Thank god... his opponent was not someone who was as crazily vocal... as Moonquencher or Zonvolt. He appreciated the lack of shouting. He didn't appreciate the fact that he was once again targetted rather accurately. His hands still on the controls, a burst of red can visibly be seen from the right vantage point as energy rushes into the verniers and opens them up, pushing metatron crystals from them. They come to life and push him to the side... too late. The few missiles that fly his way explode nearby and send his unit rattling and swirving through the air for a moment - breaking off a small piece of its left wing.

Luckily, due to the fact that this unit is made so uniquely, it can compensate. A small fraction from its back crumples and shifts to its wing. "Guess that will not work." He mutters to himself, and then finally decides to make use of the radio. "Your battlefield is nothing but a giant litterbox!" He shouts out. "Ascian Luddite - BAHRAM - about to kick your ass!"

Or so he will try, in the form of his unit pushing a little down and begins to circle his opponent at a wide berth. In the meanwhile his unit had identified a series of other units, most of which he'd had the 'pleasure' of fighting before. He makes a disgusted sound. "Tssk... damn aliens." He eyes his current opponent, and then the chaos that is erupting beneath him - further away.

His attention returns to the task at hand - and the wings burst into pieces once more, quickly sending single-target laser-shots down at the set up ambush, burning through the units and destroying what had shot at him - turning the entire area into one big scorchmark. However... the lasers do not disengage upon impact! The moment they pierce through the enemies they change directions in a physics-breaking 'kink', space warping around those points, and darting straight for his opponent's cockpit.

The Dream Weaver shook as the response to the arrow-based assault was to continue hammering away at him with those strange bird-like machines. The damage wrought by Ingram's Gun Familiars was somewhat unastounding, and made all the worse as when they came in for another barrage the Dream Weaver slipped past their attacks once more. The bow frame was deposited back in the holding place designed for it, as the Dream Weaver started to finally move forward at a somewhat impressive pace, scooping up the ground-sheathed sword with the right hand.

"What is your true purpose here?" Rem inquired all of a sudden of Ingram, as the Dream Weaver came within melee range of the Astranagant. The machine leapt up, the white paintjob gleamed slightly as it sailed toward Ingram's direction and attempted to deliver a powerful chop to the right forearm of the Astranagant, as though it aimed to sever the hand from the rest of the machine.

Last time, she didn't have enough power. Last time, the odds weren't in her favor. But now... Now Puru Two has the Psyco Gundam. Now Puru Two has one of her 'sisters' helping her against this single machine. No matter how strong it is, she won't lose this time. "Watch me, Aoba," she speaks in a low voice, seconds before impact.

The sound of metal impacting metal is music to her ears, signaling the success of Operation Ram Lekhishah With Mobile Fortress. The name of the operation is equal to the extent of the plan.

The response to her query is substantially less satisfying. "You're not taking me /anywhere/," she growls, the pleasant tone only spurring on her rage that much more. "I don't know where you all came from and what it is you think gives you the right to just abduct people like that... and I don't care! Either you give her back, or I'm taking her back!" The clone soldier would never admit just how much she needs Aoba to be around for the sake of her own sanity, but then again, this is basically an admission in itself.

Puru Two frowns deeply in the cockpit when the Lekhishah gets away, and assumes the form she only got a brief glimpse of before, and she can only imagine is that much more powerful. "Sure, give it everything you've got, that's just fine...!"

Despite her bold declaration, the Mobile Fortress is pierced by a deceptively effective knife, piercing through the machine's considerable armor with ease. But this doesn't necessarily have to be a terrible thing. After all, this action required the alien machine to get in close range. In response, the Gundam's limbs pop out of their confinement, the arms seeking to wrap themselves around the Lekhishah. Naturally, Psyco Gundam hugs are generally unpleasant.

"what the-- SHIT!" Erika curses out. she had not expected the sword to actually /extend/ like a spear in an attempt to skewer her. the divine Blade snaps up, broad side facing the attack. the two blades meet and the Valsion Kai is forced back a good ten meters from the force... but the attack fails to pierce the blade and into the Super Machinery Humanoid. Erika twists the blade to the side, deflecting the Z.O. sword past her. Then she surges forward, sparks flying off the Divine Blade as it grinds across the Z.O. Sword the entire way. Then, at the last second, she breaks the blade lock and sweeps the massive sword around to rip into the Astranagant as she passes.

"I suppose you may file it in that manner, though such distinctions did not exist when I was first created into being," Lilith says with a little smirk, hearing the apt comparison between the Cybuster -- some of the movements do seem familiar. The Fencer isn't to be bested by Ingram's Familiars, however -- it shows just how much it can do with a single weapon as she gives chase after the Astranagant, its 'thrusters' emitting a curious red light. The Blood Sword cuts down the Gun Familiars in her path, zig-zagging as she also considers how to approach the Balmarian for her next offense.

She decides on ramming.

The Fencer's form arcs even further forward as its giant metal wings split to its sides, now parallel to the ground. Its sharp, spiked legs lock into folded position as its head tucks inwards, the bird-like mane on its back acting as a beak. The Bird of Night is surrounded by thos spirits she summoned, giving it a powerful red hue -- and a dangerous, cutting power to its wings.

The Fencer gains more and more speed, until it crosses in on the Astranagant's path to intercept and slash into its side, its wings now acting as powerful cutting blades.

"I find your words to be interesting," Lilith speaks of Ingram, "Are you perhaps the type to not question your superior, deferring to their will as undoubtedly good? Somehow, I doubt that. You are too inquisitive a type to leave an unknown thread hanging loose."

Boss Borot flips his fan forward, holding it upward. "Hah-hah! Suffer my true skill at the fan! I took a three week course and well I only went for two days BUT I AM A NATURAL!"

Boss tries to throw one fan while blocking the plasma cutter with the other arm. The fan flips uselessly at the Gespenst while the Plasma Cutter digs completely in, slicing off the Boss Borot's fingers and removing the fan from its hand.

"Maybe I should have had both courses."

Radio starts to interrupt and Boss Borot turns, suddenly wearing a towel around its neck. "No fear, Chibodee!"

The Boss Borot leaps, landing next to the Gundam Maxter and slams both hands on its shoulders. And it begins to rub vigorously, the Boss Borot looking serious.

"First punch, then jab, then give him the uppercut!" The Boss Borot nods seriously. "Then join the Mazinger Fun Club today!"

The blast hits the Zechariah in the center, blasting its systems off for a brief moment and sending it toppling ass over teacups... Levad grunts as he attempts to secure himself within the cabin.. "..multiple attack vectors, cute..." He cracks his neck, engaging the machine's vulcan cannon again as he again skids through the desert area, attempting to reach fallback point C. He's not planning on teleporting out with the others. Hanging around the White Star is a sure fire track to getting declared irretrievably insane and thats not a fun way to end one's illustrious career of being a borderline psychopath. "Hold together you piece of garbage."

Free will and Suzaku Kururugi. The irony meter on some poncy teenager's Japanese Cellphone just popped into the stratosphere.

But Kururugi just frowns. He frowns because he is not happy -- not happy with what Ingram is saying and not happy that he just failed to completely destroy Prisken from the universe. The VARIS Rifle in the Lancelot's hand hums, the surge of particles causing the chamber to cool with a visible hiss of ozone. Suzaku glances down at his energy meter and finds a new reason to frown.

A moment later, one of Ingram's Familiars shoots into Suzaku's threat range. He drops back in the sky, but the other Familiar attacks him from below. The bolt of energy smashes into the white and gold armor of the robot; tearing one of the Lancelot's legs right off beneath the knee.

"Shit!"

Suzaku compensates, boosting the Lancelot forward in the sky to escape the familiars. He foregoes the unsuccessful VARIS Rifle for the moment, stowing it back into its leg holster -- the weapon constricting as it slides into the compartment. Beautiful engineering. And in its stead, the Lancelot rips both of its Maser Vibration Swords from their sheathes along its back --

"If you believe so strongly in free will --" Suzaku challenges, firing a hip-mounted Slash Harken right at the Astranagant. "Why are you brainwashing all of these innocent people!?"

Using the Harken like an explosive tow-cable or grapling hook, Suzaku lets it snap tight and slingshot the Lancelot and its two MVS blades straight into something important on the Balmarian Machine.

SOME TIME AGO

Inside the Earth Cradle, there is a room. It is small, and sparsely decorated; so sparsely, in fact, that it contains nothing but a straw mat.

A man is kneeling on the mat. Normally, he would be meditating. Today, that is impossible. The room buzzes with the dull hum of his radio earpiece, streaming the events of the ongoing battle above to him.

The aliens do not concern him, overmuch. There is no honor in the chaos of mass warfare. Until commanded, he will wait; wait for his 'comrades' to tire or die, to provide him an incentive.

But...

Today, there are two more things inside the room; one is a photograph, of a woman with long blue-green hair, and a man with short gray.

The other is a mirror.

Eventually, the man makes up his mind. He lifts the heavy metal mask - more helmet, really - in his hands into the air, and slowly lowers it onto his head.

No longer will the man who stole her go unpunished. No longer will he be unworthy of her attentions.

No longer will he be a mere shadow.

NOW

Rarely does the Gate of Magus open during a battle. But today, it has, the massive doors slowly yawning open with the usual moan and rumble.

From deep within the bowels of the Earth Cradle rises an elevator, smack in the center of the tremendous black doors. The first thing to crest the threshhold is... a swirling mass of silver liquid?

The liquid congeals into a massive blade as its wielder comes into view; the Thrudgelmir, its right hand thrust into the air, clutching its Colossal Blade.

As the elevator grinds to a halt, the pilot of the super robot speaks, his voice echoing across the air (and the airwaves) for miles in every direction.

"I am Wodan!" he cries. "Wodan Ymir!"

"The Sword of Magus!"

That Wodan guy reminds Novas of someone. BUT WHO? Nagging at the back of her mind...!!

It is not exactly a secret that Huang Qin Shi has anger management issues. His friends have noticed it, and worry. His enemies have noticed it, and exploited it to their benefit. A year of more or less constant failure on the field of battle, seeing his plans collapse because he wasn't skilled enough in battle to back them up, drove him to the edge. Having his endeavours in other fields falter as well - in the case of his love life, before they even really got off the ground - only made him angrier.

Until a teenage girl trusted him with the world. He /will not/ give way.

The anger flares up again in his heart, boiling his blood, and Huang feeds it into the flame. Frustration, anxiety, fear, fury, all of it flow into the column of flame at the centre of his mind. The pillar of rage burns white-hot with emotion, and Huang feeds it further, pouring into it the part of him that thinks of himself as the former commander of the Divine Crusade. As the former Ruler of All Known Space. A friend, a lover, a commander. A student. A loving son. The flame flows through him and then flickers, dying out as the Rasavatam's pilot lets the ashes flow out from his lungs, lets Huang Qin Shi fade away.

The void remains.

The shot fires out from the rifle, and the Rasavatam's anti-orbit defensive systems activate, duplicating the incoming trajectories of the shots with urgent tones inside his cockpit, their intensity and location corresponding to the incoming fire. The sound approaches from below and to the left of the Rasavatam, and he ghosts the unit in a roll to its right, then fades up to evade another. The briefest of hesitations on the unit's accelerator, a feather-light deceleration, allows the next bolt to flicker past the robot's chest. The Rasavatam surges forward then, right arm trailing, hot white light gathering in the palm of its hand, blinding in its intensity. The palm strike, when it comes, is aimed for the upper chest, slightly over where the cockpit should be.

"MORALITY?! What do I care about that for!? I AM MOONQEUNCHER! I THREATEN ANYONE I WANT! YOU SHALL KNOW THE SAME TORMENT!" Moonquencher is insufferably loud, completely divorced from morality and knows itself to be unholy. But mostly, it just likes to shout. It can feel the power gathering the Habbakuk, but the Sharlorn can hardly move fast enough to /dodge/. The green ray flies for the machine...and the flat of the blade moves in front of it. Moonquencher lets out a long laugh as it withstands the beam for a second, vanishing along with its zombie-mech wielder. The two reappear on the other side of Osefet, the blade still laughing.

"AHAHAHAAAHAHAHAA! You think you can kill me? You think you can kill Moonquencher? I AM NO MORTAL! I cannot die, for I do not live! I AM ETERNAL! I am the eternal will of destruction, the slaughterer of aliens! I do not sleep! I do not eat! I do not rest! I EXIST TO DESTROY YOUR RACE AND ALL OTHER ALIENS! I! AM! MOONQUENCHER!" Somehow, it's getting /louder/. The Sharlorn shuffles to the side, circling the Habbakuk as best it can - which is badly, given its speed and size. Dark, unholy magic pulses within the sword, as it calls on its reserves of power.

"You see now, you cannot defeat me! TECHNOLOGY IS NOTHING BEFORE MY MIGHT! SCIENCE IS WORTHLESS IN THE FACE OF MY POWER! YOUR MORTAL FRAILTIES RENDER YOU WORTHLESS IN COMPARISON TO ME! Alien scum, you have only one honor, and that is this: your life will be ended by my thirsty edge! Your blood will soak the sands by my power! DO YOU FEEL HONORED, ALIEN!? YOU SHOULD! I AM MOONQUENCHER, BANE OF THE WORLD ABOVE! AND NOTHING CAN STOP ME, FOR MY WILL IS STRONG! MY POWER UNMATCHED! I CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE, FOR I AM THE MIGHTIEST OF SWORDS!" Darkness explodes around the blade as it sweeps down at the Habbakuk, channeling its unholy might. It's a long, slow sweep - but almost inevitable. Magic's like that.

"BWAHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He's awake again. Echidna doesn't smile, because she so rarely does, but she feels like she's in /exactly/ the same place she was on that day. Something starts to click, though she can't put it all together immediately.

Her leap to the side is not quite fast enough to evade the carving blade. It takes a chunk out of the Gespenst's side, but Echidna is already up and away before it hits anything immediately vital. She slams down, raising both the weapons in her hands, taking aim at Galuin's back as he passes on toward a new target.

"Do you remember me," she asks, turning her radio back on and actually using it, ignoring the growing pressure in her skull. She begins to fire, alternating shots from the rifle and the revolver, rapidly. "Galuin M'habel - do you remember W16? The sample that got away? The - "

Echidna freezes. Her brain seizes up at Wodan's voice, attempting to recognize it, process it. "W15..." she whispers, barely aware she's done it.

Boss points. "Hey! It's Bill Cosby!"

"Tch," Trombe brings its arm up as the Gravity Territory is torn apart by the Gespenst's plasma cutter. A long gash is carved into Huckebein's offhand, even as it pulls away, simultaneously withdrawing the Beam Chakram to slam into the Gespenst's armor, tearing a chunk out of its shoulder on the way back into its compartment. "How Ral fell?"

"Ramba Ral? Ramba Ral died fighting for a cause he believe whole-heartedly in, Kar-Wai Lau. What we do tonight is liberation!" Trombe draws a truly impressive looking cannon. It locks onto the Gespenst, dashing away to put distance between the Huckebein and its opponent. It pulls the trigger once, then again. Like a mirage, the black machine disappears into a cloud of dust-

And then, another volley of rounds, then another and another and another, before leaping out of the dust cloud, unleashing a final barrage of rounds before taking to the skies.

--Just in time to see the Earth Cradle split like an egg- and to see the super robot emerge from within.

That sensation! The same he feels in the kitchen, on the bridge, in the TV room, in the bedroom! That is--!

But, that can't be, Sanger's /RIGHT OVER THERE./

The Gundam Maxter's hand smashes the Ezekiel Ne'eman smashing it back, but the real damage is done deep inside. That first swing sends a shock through Er'ela that she can't understand. "Aaaaahhh!"

Er'ela clutches her head as the pressence touches her. It's worse then the GN particle field that Katharon used. That only let her hear the thoughts of others, this... this power touches her heart.

"No..." she sobs, unable to take the controls to evade the cyclone punch of Chibodee Crockett. Gundam MAxter- No, the Queen of Spades power assaults the Ezekiel Ne'eman al at once in an incomprehensible torrent of force that blasts the armor off the Ezekiel like layers being peeled off an onion. The dark purple machien reduced to a metal skeletons in mear moments, and limbs torn free from it's frame before the main body goes flying backwards, bouncing across the desert, closer to the fight with Galuin, rolling to a halt.

Two people look up from a tear in the cockpit of the Ezekiel Ne'eman at the form of the Gespenst Type R.

The first sees Kar Wai-Lau as he should have been, a proud man that will die, at least no longer exploited. The second sees a toy soldier and recoils, culing up in the cockpit. "No... God no..." Er'ela Sufa starts to sob, she can feel the second person in her head. "No, NO! Do you know what you've done!?"

"All I wanted was to erve the Empire! to do my duty!" she shudders and heaves.

"No...now they're going to make into something just like him!"

Er'ela starts to hyperventilate as she sobs "...I'll just be a toy..."

Now it's starting to make a little more sense. Puru Seven's known /about/ the friends her elder sister has, but she's never met them. The clone newtype knows better than to spit out jokes or make fun of her situation; the maturity that she touts and claims to hold over the others is stronger than any deep-seated urges today. Instead, she focuses on piloting.

The Qubeley's large thruster's fire harder, boosting higher into the air over the Earth Cradle and swaying off to the side. The machine twists almost gracefully even in gravity, the span of the wing binders not slowing the machine down much at all. The spin flashes all sides of the battle across her screen at once, while Seven tries to decide what to do next.

Pressure.

She's trying to read Two's intentions rather than directly talk to her; radio lines are not as secure as they ever should be, and the human mind-- or the consciousness of newtypes-- provides a bit more confidence.

The beam launchers mounted onto the backpacks of the Mass Production Types raise and then drop into position while the Psyco Gundam goes for that crushing hug. Trying to time the shot just right, her thumb grazes across the firing button until just the right moment, to time it to inflict the maximum amount of damage without actually harming the Gund--

There!!

The beams sizzle and crackle through the sky-- the overall intent being to nail the Balmarian from behind while she's occupied with the massive Mobile Suit!

. Russel Bagman knows this fight is far from over, he knows so there are many people fighting and it's taking them all to even have chance here. The Mk IV's new systems are already proving their worth, as it aids Russel's reponses and he is able to keep ahead of the long burst of fire from the m95 machine gun, it eats up the burning sands, but the MK IV isn't touched a single time, and he checks again. He knows what it's time to do, the plasma stakes start to glow brightly. He puts the M90 on the machine's back and then takes to the air as he heads right for Galiun. The newest member of the Gespenst line, stares down one of it's ancestors.

"JET MAGNUM!"

Russel strikes again and again, trying to even launch Galiun up into the air. He'll chase after the other machine and keep punching over and over again, until the charge in the stakes is fully spend, he'll drop to the ground landing in a crouch.

BLASTER BEAM?!

The Grungust Type-3 is right there as the wave of power washes over it; Sanger drags around the Colossal Blade, using it as a makeshift shield for the cockpit, but even so he can feel the sheer power of this machine. The shoulderpads of the Grungust Type-3 begin to melt; the energy pours across his form, its knees buckling a bit as joints designed to hold it up are suddenly no longer capable of the task. The face begins to sag; but the eyes, the eyes still shine so bright, as defiant as its very own pilot.

"I don't know," Sanger admits slowly, to Kar Wai-Lau. His voice is quiet, respectful of both the man before him and the man he had helped Amuro Ray slay. "We were never cursed with the ability to look into the minds of others. But that man fought bravely for his people! No matter what I believe of his philosophies, he was a true hero of Zeon!"

Sanger grips the Colossal Sword in both hands; the sunlight glints off it as his eyes sink shut. "And so was Majid, and Sahib, and Rashid, and the Maganacs! And so were all the others we fought with honor and valiant spirit! Do you remember those nights, Kar Wai-Lau?!"

"Do you remember the nights in the desert, with the Gespensts behind us?! With the campfire roaring, and Elzam's soup in the pot? Knowing that tomorrow, the blood would flow, and it would cover our hands and ours alone - but that tonight we would laugh and have fun, because each day we might die!"

"Do you remember the shaky fear in our hearts as we faced the world together?! AND THE WORDS OF CONFIDENCE YOU SPOKE TO US, TO SHORE UP OUR COURAGE?"

"AND IF YOU HAVE FALLEN TO THE SIDE OF EVIL, THEN YOU KNOW WHAT MUST BE DONE!"

"FOR I AM SANGER!"

The blade twists to the side, lensflaring in the sky! "SANGER ZONVOLT!"

"AND I AM THE SWORD THAT CLEAVES EVIL!"

The Zankantou falls like the Blade of Damocles, as large as a skyscraper and as sharp as justice itself, towards the light blue gespenst. It whistles through the air to Sanger's distinctive kiai:

"CHEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSTO!"

"THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN WITHSTAND THE MIGHT OF MY ZANKANTOU!"

Fortunately (or unfortunately), Sanger hasn't quite noticed Wodan, beyond a terrible feeling somewhere behind him. But the sound of the introduction, of /his introduction/, prompts a frown across his face as he transmits something to Ratsel over the Kurogane frequency.

Things might be about to get nasty.

Azgad's eyes follow everything...

Well, almost. His concentraition is interupted by the voice of yet a too familar person. "Wha...?!" Is all he manages to get out as Novas speaks to him, causing him to furrow his brow and try and understand what is happening. Even as his video monitors put a picture onto his screen...something stirs...His hand shakes for just a moment...

"SHUT UP!" he booms, sounding very unsure of himself. Something was clawing from inside of him screaming to get out, but Azgad surpresses it, HE was Azgad, he had a child...

That looked exactly like that...

The Liquid metal machine launches it's attack, but the newtype force in him instinctually causes him to evade, dashing upwards just as Max comes down aiming to rain down destruction at him. His hands force the controls to duck away from the anti-aircraft weapon, as the rifle points down at Huang...

It shakes...he can't shoot...

WHY CAN'T HE SHOOT?!

Instead, he points the weapon up towards Max.

"STOP INTERFERING!"

Tasuku is not all that sure how he's doing this well today. Somehow, his entire sense are on edge, sharpened by will and completly aware of his surroundings. Thanks you, Schawrz Bruder, for your endless wisdom. Bullet fire flows around the Gespent-TT, Shinguji manuvering around in a wide circle to avoid the incoming fray of gunfire from his previous impact. The Red and blue machine pulls back, going on it's way to give the Gundam Maxter a little boost -- Boss, however, get to him first. He can just dread what kind of jury-rigging he's doing to that poor thing, the nightmare of any half-decent and sane mechanics. Good freaking lord. Alright, change of plans. "ALRIGHT THEN! FAR JET MAGNUM, GO!" Tasuku shouts, twisting on a 180 to charge at the Balmarian Gespent-R. He get some interferences coming from another Balmarian mech... one that feels familiar. He'll go look. He'll NEED to go look. But first, time to throw a flying rocket punch held by massive chains at Kar Wai-Lau.

The true power of the Shuffle Alliance is to touch the hearts of those in need. Like a testosterone-injected foul-mouthed Care Bear with nuclear weapons, Chibodee Crockett is one of the most dreadful things that can be fielded against the forces of evil.

The trashed Ezekiel gets dumped into the sand as the spiraling torrent of sand subsides. Gundam Maxter advances after it, stooping once it gets near to allow Boss to do his magic to the machine. Maxter stabilizes a little more, but it still looks like hell warmed over. Well enough to fight... maybe not for very long, but well enough to fight its way out of here if it needed to.

He's close enough, Chibodee thinks, and gives his comrades the only warning they're going to get before he acts.

Gundam Maxter's central hatch opens up. Chibodee, blood-speckled and raw, pulls himself out. He throws himself out of the machine and down onto the cockpit block of the Ezekiel, slamming his hands down into the metal of the machine to force the hatch open.

It is a display of awesome primate dominance. Crockett rends hardened alloys like he were tearing through wet cardboard. He sees Er'ela below -- and it would be easy for him to finish the emotionally shattered pilot off. There is a moment where he stares down at her, eyes glowing golden, towering over her like an invincible god of war. This, Suzaku, feels like one of your stories --

-- but then, with great care and softness, Chibodee lowers himself down and aims to take Er'ela into his arms, intending to hold her against his chest. She may strike him a little. She may scratch at him. Curse him. Spit at him. But this is the true, ever-abiding love of the cosmos. It has not failed Chibodee Crockett yet.

"You aren't a toy," he says, softly. "You never were, and you never will be."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Seven transmits, "Ghh-- what the hell was th--"

Max pops another shot towards Azgad before moving out of the way of Azgad's precision shot....barely. "Whew...that was close." Max says to himself before drawing a bigger smile on his face. "all right Balmarian... lets try this on for size..." He says before rising the Gun pod to the Valkyrie's chest level and firing a long burst at Azgad's mech... a very long burst.

"Wodan... Ymir?" Galuin rasps, wondering, as he looks at the machine.

"I remember you," he answers Echidna, as his machine stands back up. He flicks a few switches on his cockpit -- knowing what was effective before, and could be today. The chest opens, and a short blast of energy shoots from it -- an electrified bolt, which hurtles at W16's Gespenst. The shots from Ratsel's double magna rifle leave two, smoking holes in the side.

The machine stumbles to the side, before turning -- and then releases a single, huge lance of light that hurtles across the battlefield and towards Ratsel's machine. The Grungust Type-3 and Gespenst Mk. IV come whipping in, moments later; the head of the Type-R turns and looks at both.

The Colossal Blade comes slashing downward. His machine twists to the side -- and the blade shaves the right arm off, sending an explosion of sparks. The Type-R leaps, before the Jet Magnum lands a blow. Rapid explosions fire, one by one, and send the older Gespenst away.

It goes airborne, firing its thrusters. "I am... not so easily... DEFEATED!"

The prompt explodes across the screen: SHOUT NOW.

"COLOSSAL LIGHTNING KIIIIIIIIIIICK!"

The Gespenst Type-R comes sweeping down from the skies. Its left foot swings out -- striking first at the Gespenst Mk. IV, and then crashing past it, right for the head of the Grungust Type-3. It fires the verniers, turning, and lands in the sands a moment later. It sits, crouched over, smoke rising off it.

Then, Tasuku's rocket Jet Magnum slams into the back -- proving a new trick can sometimes surprise an old soldier. The explosion sends the Gespenst face-first into the sand.

The clash with Erika doesn't go well - despite his several attempts to land a blow, Ingram comes up short, the Valsion landing a punishing hit on one of the wings of his machine. "You've faster than the machine might suggest," Ingram compliments the girl, and then spins around, bracing for Suzaku's assault. It comes in fast and hard, a flurry of blades and rocket spears.

Despite any mysterious things that may or may have not happened to Suzaku as a result of his best friend doing things with his brain, he still has quiet a bit of free will. Just not free will in the directions that he would prefer, like being exploded honorable, that sort of thing. The Astranagant is pushed backwards as Suzaku presses his assault, the two Gun Familiars shooting in an effort to open the distance and buy Ingram some room to work. But the pressure is intense, and it keeps building as the others join in. But he still speaks, even as the Astrangant trades blows with its foes over and over again. "I believe that the coloqual expression is 'that's my job'," Ingram replies as Suzaku crashes into the black crystal machine, sparks flying up as his sword grinds away against the side. The Astranagant is absorbing the damage nicely, and it's self-repair systems are doing a decent job of keeping up with the damage, but hitting these people is proving to be a problem. The Fencer slams into him from the side, its wings cutting another deep rent across one of the black machine's shoulders, and Ingram grunts once. "...clever. You're coordinating your attacks well. I am impressed, given that this grouping seems rather ad-hoc. But Lilith makes an interesting comment, and Ingram counts it with one of his own. "Of course, you understand me rather well for our having just met, madam. But as the allies I used to work with would say, would it not be typical to excuse my crimes by stating that I had simply been mind controlled like the others?" Another bit of damage makes itself known as Rem races in to chop at him. Ingram takes the blow on his sword, but as he pivots to return the slash, the other machine catches him on the arm, a chunk of crystal flying off and dissolving away in thin air. But Ingram note the question, and states in reply, "To fight, of course. And to see if I can locate an opponent of the caliber that I seek." With all this close ranged fighting, he's just too hard pressed. It was time for bombardments. The Astranagnat leaps out of the cluster of machines, soaring up into the air until its wings can snap out to the sides. Both of its hands flash with a brilliant cluster of light - and as they snap out, a shower of energy beams explode forth, blanketing the area below the Astranagant with a massive number of lasers - enough to make anyone's day difficult.

This time, Levad's hit on Ascian's Orbital Frame is nothing short of a lucky shot! However, that lucky shot is plenty to rend pieces of armor straight off of the torso of the unit - and even pierce a hole STRAIGHT through the bottom of the cockpit - leaving a giant hole right between Ascian's legs. The young man calls out in pain, "GRAAAAAAAAAH!" His pants are ripped to pieces, and his skin is blacked due to the burning heat and friction of the bullet that had come through. He can clearly see some blood coming from his body - and the Ender has begun to feel lightheaded.

Ascian tries to keep his head clear, but as he tries to look back up towards his targetting window, things are starting to get unfocussed. He can just barely keep his hands on the controls - instead of gripping for his legs. The hole between his legs gets covered up by a black shield, but even this kind of damage cannot get fixed easily by Amenthes. In fact, he could sense 'her'... he could sense his unit being in severe pain - only making his own suffering that much more obvious.

"H... help me out, Duat." This was the first time he'd actually asked help from his A.I. "Amenthes... she needs us." Yes, his opponent had seen multiple vectors now. But with the help of Duat... things were about to get a tad different. Whilst Ascian closes his eyes to try and get himself to be able to focus - keep his mind awake enough - the wings continue to be in their bit-like state and begin to launch a volley of lasers in several directions - not seemingly targetted at anyone. At that same moment, the unit begins to act a bit... strange in movement. It begins to descend; tumbling down.

This is where the BAHRAM frame-runner opens his eyes. "Amenthes, don't give up on me!" He calls out - radio still active, barely able to speak those words as pain overcomes him once more. "Aim for that guy!" And that's when those previously random-shot homing-lasers suddenly show what they had been aiming for! Maximillian had once seen this - where Ascian had launched an attack in a general circle around his opponent... only to have them 'snap' and go for their target. Only this time... there was a way 'up' to get away.

"noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Novas says, noticing someone in a valkyrie with a long weapon with head lasers that are long and very potent! "Valky-Tan!!" Novas swoops in the way, interposing her mech and Ringo's. "Stooooop trying to kill his ass! He is a war hero who SAVED THE RULER OF ALL SPACE ... you know back when he was a terrorist enemy!!" She decides not to mention that Ringo is also kind of a douche because it's more important that he saved Huang when it counted and died for it so she'd feel like a jerk if she just let him explode. "ooooooooooooooooooooooo!" She adds, in case Max isn't paying attention. "NoooOooOOoOOooo."

And then she flicks two middle fingers at Max. "Nooooooooo. Give Huang his chance okay?? We're totally reaching him. You can tell because he told me to shut up!!"

Some part of Novas wishes she was better at making this argument than is immediately apparent.

They just keep talkin'. Asfanit no longer gets distracted by the battle tearing up the world around her. This isn't going very well, but she knew this would be a bit of a gamble.

Er'ela's in trouble, but...well, Asfanit knew her programming was weak. Judecca binds and guides them, and in Judecca they are whole; their efforts won't amount to much. If necessary, Asfanit will guide her back to the righteous path herself. She's not sure why the forced transfer isn't firing, but Lekhishah's interface goes dead in the Tzrikha configuration; too much energy draw, the system needs that to power the Driver. Psyco Gundam comes at her, and Asfanit...shakes her head, ruefully.

"No," she says, as the machine SLAMS into a sparking, flashing blue-white barrier of light, as the machine's blue eyes burn. "I promise, you'll be allowed to be with your friend again. I'll see to it personally, just as I personally saw to her happiness. You can trust me." She has such a kind, gentle demeanor, you'd never know she came out of that hellion trying to blow up Sharlorn over there. A burst of strength to fling the Psyco away comes out, enough energy to send the machine flying but not really enough to cause harm; and then Asfanit senses something else.

"Tch," she mutters, eyes ticking back. The beam launchers come in - and again, cascade off the massively powerful shield, Asfanit gritting her teeth but largely undamaged by the blast. A pair of sharp smacks to the cannon suddenly divert the shot, leading to much of the bulk of the blast missing entirely. The aperture in back opens at the last second, blasting out a thick red-hot cylinder that comes to rest in the sands; Lekhishah wobbles in the air for a second when it happens. "Worked it too hard," she mutters. "Troublesome--but, fine." NOW, she knows who the other enemy is.

She swings one of her monocutters in that direction and -- points.

Then gives a sharp thumbs down.

Then there is an awful, sheering scream as Puru 7's qubeley attempts to rip itself in half.

After this, she snaps around, one of the laser panels sliding open. Nothing.../appears/ to happen; despite this, Puru 2 will find her machine's armor being bored through, imperceptibly.

The Rasavatam follows through with its palm strike as the blow misses, Tesla Drives pulsing as the little liquid metal unit arcs away from the Balmarian ace, its surface armour rippling as the atmosphere presses down against it. The unit's internal temperatures pass 250 degrees Centrigrade, and the brilliant white light emitted from the reactions in the armour passes into the ultraviolet, the Rasavatam slowly fading into a deep black in the visible spectrum.

At a mile distant, the pilot begins the turn. The Rasavatam circles in a long and wide arc, sand fusing to glass on the crests of dunes as he passes over them, coming back around toward the battle. The ultraviolet energy flows along the surface of the little robot, which crosses both arms in front of its head, flowing liquid metal armour from the rear to the upper body, shaping it into a long, thin spear approaching Azgad's unit at blinding speed. And this time he's aiming for the cockpit, some part of his subsconscious knowing the man will feel him coming.

Hours from now, when reviewing the battle data, Huang will burst into laughter as he scans Novas's transmissions.

The Habbakuk's pilot is getting the measure of this sword person now. The machine moves, slow and deliberate but still quick enough to avoid the incoming slicing arc of the blow. It strikes sand, kicking up metric tons of it as Osefot lets out a smug little chuckle.

"I'm sorry, did you say your name? I'm not sure if I heard it," Osefot answers, enjoying the elevation of her pulse. Now it seems unlikely that this Sample can simply use some secret arcane technique to instantly destroy her -- if it could, it would have done so at this point. This is a relief. She just has to avoid being murdered by the giant corpse through accident, or shot by some stray round or beam.

The Habbakuk begins moving towards the left, as if to wheel around the creature. It stays halfway turned away -- Osefet must have learned to expect a teleport-and-strike attack from an alternative angle. Another missile is disgorged from somewhere within the bowels of the machine, streaking straight upwards...

... then arcing downwards, bifuricating several times into a rolling, localized storm of what might be considered 'ICM' by Solarian science. The Balmarian version, of course, is superior; for one thing, it's flashing blue, not orange-red.

Boss just grins as Chibodee leaps out, right in the middle of the battle. Retarded indeed. The Boss Borot gives a thumbs up and winks before it skates around in a circle. It brings the towel up to mop at its brow before tossing the towel away over a large cactus.

Mucha keeps looking up from fiddling with the radio. "Boss! The radio won't stop playing Trombe! All the stations are overridden!" Nuke bites his nails. "What do we do?!"

Boss rubs at his chin before the Borot's middle slides open. "We shall do this! OLD SCHOOL!" The Boss Borot pulls out a giant boombox and seats it onto its shoulder. It pops in a giant tape, pops in the holder, and presses play as it skates forward.

'At first I was afraid. I was pertified. Kept thinking I couldn't live without you by my side. But then I spent so many years Thinking how you did me wrong And I grew strong! And I learned how to get along!'

The counter-swing from Ingram Prisken swept into the Dream Weaver, doing light damage to the frontal armor plating. The machine from La Gias stepped back, however, and then raised it's left arm up as the Astranagant unleashed a shower of lasers upon the area. The shield on the forearm held against the bombardment, the metal warped inward from the powerful force of the blast from Ingram's unit.

"Worthy opponents are everywhere on this planet, I do not feel you shall be wanting," Rem stated in response to Ingram as he lowered the left arm and sheathed the broadsword. The ball and chain were pulled out from their holding place, the ball upon the end sent twirling about in the air over the head of the Dream Weaver as it prepared to unleash the weapon upon Ingram. Once sufficient momentum had been gathered the ball and chain were unleashed, a quick series of hammering attacks hurtled in at the Astrangant. "Perhaps even I will be more than enough to entertain you!"

Dodging a well aimed attack is one thing. Dodging many well aimed attacks another. Dodging what essentially amounts to a waterfall of laser fire? THAT is another issue. The Zechariah is blasted about again by the explosions... Levad grunts as the lights flicker on and off within his cockpit. He slams his fist on the console, "PIECE OF JUNK!" He growls, "Honestly. Who's behind this war...its like we're being led by a librarian and someone who got their battle tactics out of a book written by an idiot..." He looks up at his opponent again, as the Zechariah limps slightly, moving out of the way again.. He switches the detonator in his hand, revealing the toggle on the opposing side... "...I was hoping to not be fighting someone in the air today.." He triggers the device. An explosion rocks the nearby sand dune, sending dozens of flechettes, and small explosives heavenward at Ascian... submunitions exploding all around him... Levad tries to utilize it as cover to limp away to manage his next attack.

The Night Fencer is an occluding object that blocks out the area behind it as it's engulfed in a shower of lasers. The surface of the Bird begins to melt against its sheer, oppressive power as Lilith snarls, feeling the pain as the physical extension of her will starts to endure significant damage.

An explosion rocks the aircraft's hull, forcing it out of its flight mode; its wings snap back into binders on its back as its legs furl out once more, head rising back into sight. Blade drawn, Lilith 'excuses' herself from the battlefield, uttering a simple set-up orison to make the Night Fencer vanish from sight.

"That would be convenient, and it would be the choice of one with no more interest than to label you as a target for their loss and grief," Lilith comments from within her own darkness. A flash of the Fencer's eyes... small, the ones from its head. And then, finally, its large shoulder-mounted Eyes open, transmitting a powerful, oppressive wave that radiates throughout the area the Astranagant is in. She has almost no interest in the physical battle now -- she wants to engage him in a contest of wills.

"But that would be, to say the least, unsatisfying. So confront me, now, and confide in me what you really think, Sir Prisken..."

Wodan Ymir, a man who could rival Sanger in terms of destruction with a sword. The machine always creeped Russel out as it looked much like one of the Devil Gundam's machines. He's got to keep this up, as he locked in a dance of death and also wonders. Was this how it felt for the Aggressors and the White Base crew when they fought Ral? The skill, the power, all of who his foe used to be is all there still. Then he times it, he's seen this attack before. If he can time things just right? The MK IV now moves, quickly as Gespenst Type-R comes at him, and he evades the devastating attack,.

> CP Full fire Mode ready

Appears on the hud. Russel knows what he's got to do now. He pulls what seems like a short rifle off the back of his mech and it starts to expect forward kind of like a more primitive Orga Canon, and he grabs a handle with the machine's right hand as the weapon finishes un packing.

On the hud targeting information lines up.

ROCK ON

Russel then fires not one but several split missile pods off his machine, they fly ahead breaking apart into a cloud of missiles which hunt and seek out The Gespenst Type-R.

Then there's a power spike as the weapon taps into the machine's reactor directly for power. A bright glow starts to form inside the barrel and is getting brighter by the second, Russel holds his fire as the percentage display on his screen rises, it finally clicks over to 100 percent. He then pulls the trigger, not once but twice, two huge blasts fire out of the canon, one after the other seeking out the enemy. He calls out on the radio to Tasuku for some cover, he's going to need it. But even more so as he fires the force of the blast is pushing the Gespenst back wards leaving tracks in the sand as it does so.

"CP CANON FIRE!!!!!!"

Echidna Iisaki, disoriented by the arrival of Wodan, W15, one of her partners - she isn't moving when Galuin's shot comes in. She can't start moving in time; she gets two steps before the crackling bolt hits her.

The Gespenst goes dark.

It isn't, on an absolute scale, all that damaged - but the electrical system has just been drained. And worse - just like the last time, Echidna herself remains vulnerable to the effect. She feels a crackle, hears a pop - and nothing.

Echidna hangs in her piloting straps, mouth open, eyes open, apparently unconcious or dead. She does this for all of about ten seconds before she spasms, slamming her head back against her chair with enough force that something cracks, and it isn't her; the side of the headrest falls to the floor as she reactivates. Her one working eye spirals down to a point, crackling with light, and then returns to normal.

The Gespenst starts to boot up again. Echidna has data - so much data she cannot analyze it all in the middle of a fight - but some of it she is sure of. She knows who she is, and what she was doing; her mission, the purpose for her construction, it's all clear to her. Even her piloting technique changes, visible to anyone watching; it returns to the way it used to be, mechanical and precise. Slash Rippers launch off from the damaged Gespenst, whirling across the field toward Galuin.

Inside the cockpit of the destroyed Ezekiel, the white haired Er'ela Sufa has curled up into a fetal position, arms pulling her knees up to her chest and face as tightly as she can. "S-stay a-away from me..." she pleads. The terrible power of the Queen of Spades clearly frightening her.

But the nearly demonic looking (in her eyes) Chibodee Crockett lives up to his promises. He reaches down with the utmost care and pulls Er'ela to him. "NO!" She thrashes in his arms. She tries to hit him but it's useless, she's strong, but not that strong. She kaes her fingernails over his face as she screams.

But it's useless, Chibodee holds her still in his arms as she sobs "No, no, NOOO--" she starts to run out of breath and tucks her head against Chibodee's chest "-oooouuuhaa...haa uhhwaa..haaaa." she trembls as she sobs against him.

"Why...why are you in my heart?" she sniffles and cries "Who...who is the person inside me...?" she asks while wailing at the same time.

"/SANGER!/" Ratsel roars, rushing down from the Trombe's skyward sojourn, just barely dodging that devastating lance of light. The black Huckebein rushes to the crushed Sanshiki. It pushes into the crimson machine's colossal shoulders, keeping it from toppling over with that incredible, heaven-sundering kick. "Sanger, are you safe in there? I cannot afford to lose you here, comrade!"

His smirk droops even further as the Huckebein draws its boosted rifle, using the Sanshiki as if it were cover as he locks onto Kar-Wai Lau's fallen Gespenst. "You must keep fighting. WE must keep fighting! There will be time to rest only after we have emerged from the battlefield alive!"

The Huckebein dashes away, launching a spiralling round at the Gespenst's cranium. "Remember, the second lesson this man taught to us! Death before defeat, but we must never give up until we have achieved victory! We must never allow another of our comrades to fall, so long as one of us still breathes! In such a way, we are invincible!"

"Comrade, so long as I stand, I will not allow you to fall! Come, Sanger! Let's keep going! We must /FINISH THIS!/"

Wodan Ymir has appeared. And he has gone - as far as he can tell - largely overlooked.

That just won't do.

The drills on Thrudgelmir's back roar to life, jets of flame erupting out of them as they propel the machine into the air. It climbs up, and up, and up...

... and then descends, drawing its Colossal Blade back above its head, light gleaming off of the weapon. Red lightning crackles from the super robot's eyes; it wrenches open its mouth and lets loose a horrible roar as it descends towards the Sword that Cleaves Evil...

... and then straight past him, fast enough that it's little more than a colorful blur, diving right towards Galuin, whipping its enormous sword around towards the PT's chest.

"Zankantou! Ichimonji-giri!!"

There is a brilliant flash of light.

Thrudgelmir strikes the African soil hard enough to leave a crater and slides almost a full mile in a kneel, dragging a trench through the earth behind it. Eventually it slides to a stop... and then slowly rises to its feet, and raises its sword again to a ready position.

"There is nothing that can withstand the might of my Zankantou."

The attack missed...

Max's counter attack ripped through the back of the Balmarian unit, destroying the thrusters and sending Azgad falling towards the ground. However, Huang was not so content to let him leave...

As he turned, the sonic boom of his approached was already attracting his attention. He couldn't avoid it...but he COULD reflect the majority of the head away from him and prevent his death. He could do this because he saw the attack...but doing so would cost him the fight. Grenades fire, blasting specific parts of the Super Robot away...the reforming wouldn't happen in time to take his cockpit out...

But it would cut right through the Balmarian unit in strange ways, causing the massive thing to crash, the upper half of the unit was gone, the other half a melted hunk of slab, and the cockpit exposed. Azgad, partially on fire, starts beating himself off, his right hand on fire but not being put out. Not right away. As the balmarian armor falls away, it reveals that the hand itself was mechanical. Azgad was too worried about not being burnt to a crisp to think about the people shouting at him about remembering.

There is a momentary pause as Osefet's words sink in. She's mocking the sword! That cannot stand! Because Moonquencher, while very intelligent, is not actually very /bright/, it roars and sends the Sharlorn charging into the blast, trying to punch the Habbakuk through it. This goes about as well as might be expected - dozens of corpses burn away under the explosive force of Osefet's missile, and the arm-swing goes entirely wide. "YOU LITTLE WORM! I WILL DESTROY YOU! MY MIGHT IS UNQUESTIONABLE! MY POWER IS UNSTOPPABLE! MY STYLE IS INVINCIBLE!" The ranting continues as Sharlorn pulls back, trying to regain its balance despite sudden loss of many of its component corpses.

Moonquencher doesn't remain on the defensive long, however. Instead, it comes right back in, Sharlorn drawing the blade upwards. "COWER, MORTAL! COWER AND KNOW FEAR, FOR I WILL RUN YOU THROUGH! I WILL CRUSH YOUR FLESH, STOMP YOUR BONES! I WILL DRINK YOUR BLOOD AND RAVAGE YOUR SOUL! There is nothing you can do to stop me! Your feeble mockeries are worthless against my power! My unrighteous might is unstoppable, for my will is strong!"

And then the blade slices downwards, dark power pulsing in its runes. "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE MY JUSTICE! MY UNSTOPPABLE JUSTICE - FOR THERE IS NO JUSTICE FOR ALIENS! NO JUSTICE BUT DEATH! AHAHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" The ranting is getting less coherent as Moonquencher gets angrier.

Why isn't the Balmarian recall circuit working? Why isn't Er'ela being pulled back? Hot blood. That's why. Or plot holes. Either works in a super robot series.

Chibodee takes the punishment. Er'ela claws into his face, leaving red lines across his skin. She strikes him a few times with her head and elbows. It hurts, Lord, it hurts, he took enough pain from the initial fight. But he holds fast, and holds true, and lets the cosmic love of the universe flow through him into her.

Chibodee gently cradles Er'ela's hand against his chest once she settles down. He rises with her and steps away from the cockpit block, the woman as light in his arms as a bag of groceries.

"You can find out," he says, as he walks back to the foot-lift he had built into Maxter for just this kind of situation. "Do you want to find out?"

Chibodee is going for that Balmarian. Tasuku could feel, hear her cries. Heck, he can see it from there. The Shuffle Alliance's power goes much beyond sheer fighting strength. They've proved that times and times again. Go, Chibodee. Just don't get caught by the Balmarian too. If it's who he think she is... he really hopes the Queen of Spade will save her. Shinguji, not attacked for the right moment, take advantage of the breather space to move to the Grungust-3, deploying several quick-field repair equipments to apply to the damage the Super Robot has sustained. That would have been it. Then, this man, Wodan Ymir, comes out, cleaving the Gespent of Major Kar Wai-Lau. Tasuku stops mid-repairs, looking up at the Grungust, then at the other giant-sword wielding mech. "Major. Did the Divine Crusaders made a clone of you or something?"

Sanger is, unfortunately, momentarily distracted from the follow-up blow of the Colossal Blade; the COLOSSAL LIGHTNING KICK explodes into the Grungust's face, and the Type-3 staggers backwards in mid-air, Sanger nearly dropping the blade in shock. The appearance of Thrudgelmir - of a unit he had once piloted, under the thrall of the Devil Gundam - was startling enough. But the malice...the sheer hatred and power flowing from that unit...who? Who was that man inside that armor?

Even with Kar Wai-Lau on the field before him, he felt that he had to know. And then...

Those words...that name...'Zankantou! Ichimonji-giri!' That strike, perfect and elegant...it could only be one thing in this world or any world, only one style!

JIGEN-RYU

Thrudgelmir's sword comes down, and Sanger's shock turns to awe. Was this what it was like? To look upon Jigen-Ryu and feel the terror of that overwhelming sword? To be thankful that he is on /your/ side, and not against you? Is this what it's like to be around Sanger Zonvolt?

No, that's impossible. Because in all this world, there can only be one Sanger Zonvolt! "I don't know, Tasuku Shinguji...but I aim to find out."

"YOU!" Sanger roars, grabbing his own Colossal Blade in his hand, "Who are you?! How do you know that style - that attack? Why do you ride in that cursed Special Unit?"

"How do you possess that sword?!"

Sanger twists the Colossal Blade to the side, the Sanshiki assuming a combatative stance. The blade angles forward, dipping down towards the ground. "I will find out...the only way that I can! The only way that I know how!"

"WODAN YMIR!"

The Sanshiki's drills pour fire once again, and the Blade of Sanger Zonvolt is drawn backwards, swinging along the side with all the force Sanger can bring to bear, horizontally. In his mind, he goes over names, faces; students of Master Rishu Togo. Identities of those who were strong enough to fight like this. Who were powerful enough to battle like this. Who had access to mech piloting. Who had a colossal blade.

Who Is Wodan Ymir?!

Watching as the Balmarian goes down, the Valkyrie seems to turn towards another battle. The valkyrie suddenly leans and transforms into it's fighter mode before flying straight at the battle between Ascian and Levad. Firing a missile at Levad from long range once he gets a lock....

Suzaku comes to a chilling conclusion. His spine shakes from Ingram's comment. 'That's my job'? His eyes narrow. That type of thing... That's the same sort of thing that the Britannians said. It's what the soldiers said, commiting terrible crimes against the Japanese people in Area Eleven, when his own father refused to surrender --

"JUST YOUR JOB!?" Suzaku yells, his mind bursting with anger.

He swings both of the Maser Vibration Swords harder, and harder, at the crystallize, self-repairing chassis of the Astranagant. "To ... To say such a thing, like it is justification for what you do! You were a soldier once -- you follow orders on the battlefield, you fight who you're supposed to... But what you do, what you Aerogaters do... I would rather die than be brainwashed by you --!"

Just then, Ingram and the Astranagant respond. Suzaku and the Lancelot are knocked back in the air by the rush of power; the wounds it had just struck swallowed back up like they were never born. The energy on the Astranagant's palms pulses on Suzaku's sensors -- the factspheres on the Lancelot's shoulder feeding thermal information right to his cockpit block. He's right there -- straight infront of the Balmarian Death God. He will get his wish.

LIVE!

It happens again. Suzaku's mind burns out the last filament. Pure instinct takes over. At the last instance, lasers from the Astranagant arcing towards the Lancelot to incinerate it -- the Blaze Luminous on its right arm activates. Three quick pivots of the emerald green energy field intercept the lasers; each one popping and sizzling like a deflected bullet from Superman.

The Lancelot immediately moves, showing why its pilot received the name The White Reaper. Before the wake of laserfire can even subside in the sky, the gold and white Knightmare is back in Ingram's face. Suzaku immediately stabs one of the MVS straight for the chest, a Slash Harken from the same sword arm's wrist trailing the blade in to try and plunge the weapon /right in/. And with the other hand, Kururugi swings the VARIS Rifle around --

"You're going to die and I'm going to LIVE!"

Boom!

"You'll find I'm full of surprises," Erika replies with a little grin as the Valsion snaps around, it's arm snapping up. Once again, the two opposing forces collide and spiral around one another as her Cross Smasher carges, but this time she turns Ingram's own defensive tactic against him, sweeping the blazing beam across the sky to disrupt and deflect the Attractor Shower away from her. It doesn't stop there as the energy starts to cycle faster, recharging a a fearocious speed. Both arms snap up, shaking with energy, "Cross Smasher... And then suddenly a rapid fire burst of energy leans out of both barrels, blasting Ingram over and over again, "CANNONADE!"

The rocking sounds from the boombox causes Galuin's Gespenst to shake. Sound weaponry, at its finest -- pieces of metal fall off, and the entire Gespenst Type-R shakes violently. Galuin's lips curl back into a snarl.

Then, the Slash Rippers come in. They catch the other arm -- the plasma cutter goes inactive, as the limb flies back. Galuin stumbles back, slowly, eyes widening, and then he leaps into the air. He sucks a breath in. "I won't be defeated, so easily! I may have an idea of who I am, what I am, but above all else, I am--"

The split missiles are shot, by short and focused blasts from the blaster beam. They explode in midair, and then the CP Cannon fires. The beam rips into the air, striking the top half of the Gespenst. It lights up, bright gold, as light pours over it.

The head, shoulders, and top half cave away into ash. The machine shudders -- and before it lands, the boosted rifle shot tears away a leg. Before it hits the ground, the Thrudgelmir's Colossal Blade comes down. It slashes into the remains of the Personal Trooper -- and splits it in two.

The explosion is deafening. A sandstorm whips backward, ahead of the ball of fire that rolls outward.

The two halves land in the sand, with a dull thud. Sand whips around them -- and then the halves of shattered Gespenst vanish in a flash of blue light. There remains one thing, however.

A broken body, more man than machine.

"It seems, considering the size of your blade and the way you throw it around, that you're committing a -" Osefet begins, with evident relish in her tone. What is this going to lead to?

The Balmarian machine continues to lurch off to the sand. The battle has moved past them, the war between the two tubby titans doubtless an entertaining side show. Osefet might object to Er'ela's encounter in (earthling) space, but she is not even aware of it. Her blood has been stirred by this thing, this thing with the temerity to threaten her own /flesh/.

"Fallacy," Osefet concludes, after that downward slice totally punks the hell out of another cubic half-acre of Saharan sand. The machine's arms fold, smugly. "So is this then the power of your alien killing unstoppable death justice death soul murder justice? Do I have that right, Moontrencher? Hmmmmmm?"

The Habbakuk comes to a halt then, leaning its head slightly forwards. A portal opens. Something slides back. Is she coming out? Is she going to unleash some terror on the corpse-heap -- or is there instead going to be some sort of stunning rebuttal? Osefet waits, then. She waits for Moonquencher to come.

Then something beautiful happens: a warhead-tipped missile streaks out of the head of the Habbakuk, screaming as it accelerates right, hopefully, /into/ the onrushing titan of death.

Novas is... TOTALLY IGNORED!

"Man," She transmits to Huang, w/re to Max, "Fuck that guy."

Echidna Iisaki's head still feels as if it might burst. She pushes it aside, ignoring it; she knows who she is, now, and what she is doing - and that's enough.

The Gespenst continues to walk forward, toward the battered body of Kar-Wai Lau. Echidna knows who he is, too; the Aggressors are well-known to the Shadow-Mirrors. How else would Wodan Ymir have been brought to their side? She has no interest in allowing one of them to live if she can help it.

The EFA Gespenst brings its beam rifle up. She has nothing to lock onto; she has to track manually, but she fires a sustained bolt at the downed Kar-Wai, dragging it left and right in case she misses by a few feet. "Goodbye," she says, her voice cold once more.

Puru Two is generally good about conveying her intents in battle when psychicly prompted to. Few are better capable of mental coordination in this manner than she and her 'sisters', the natural result of being basically the same person. The 'signal' isn't quite as clear as usual though, owing to her clouded state of mind. That, and there's something else there. The Psyco Gundam has a mind of its own, always trying to assert itself over the pilot's...

The pilot seems perfectly in control for the moment however, even if she's not quite able to grab the slippery Tzrikha. "Tsk..." As a natural result of transforming out of flight mode, the Psyco Gundam quickly crashes to the ground, but lands on its feet, no worse for wear.

Anyone else might at the very least consider the fact that Asfanit is a genuinely nice person. But it doesn't tend to work that way for Puru Two. The nicer people are to her, the more she tends to mistrust their intentions. Even getting the benefit of the doubt is a chore, and completely impossible for aliens who took away one of the few sources of stability in her life.

"Trust /you/? You took her against her will, you're threatening to do the same to me, and you want me to believe it's best that way? Stop embarassing yourself with that sentimental crap, and be /honest/ about being enemies!"

The clone soldier is completely focused on the enemy machine, fully expecting an attack to follow. Those laser panels opening, that is clearly a prelude to an attack. Even if she can't see it, she can /feel/ that it's about to happen. The purple behemoth quickly lurches to the side in response, capable of much quicker movement than its size would indicate, and points its arms to the sky.

"You had the advantage last time, but now you're out of your league. I'll make you pay for what you did... I'll make you feel the pain you've caused!"

Abruptly, the Psyco Gundam's arms extend far beyond their normal reach, shooting towards the Tzrikha, guided by mentally controlled cables. After several attempted punches - all feints - its hands open, and energy builds within the machine's fingertips, unleashing deadly beam fire upon the Balmarian mech.

Ascian is too busy with his current engagement to realize what else is going on around him. It is taking every bit of his concentration to remain up and keep his eyes focussed. With that kept in mind, what happened next was nothing but a miracle! His unit somewhat 'comes to life' as Levad manages to pull off yet another prepared assault. The thought of how the alien had prepared that without their radar or his patrols noticing only briefly even crosses his mind - before a fierce pain is sent through his head, like someone just turned it on fire. Within his mind's eye, he can almost see the figure he'd seen once during the battle during which Setsuna F. Seiei had engaged his unit's ability.

The eyes of the Amenthes suddenly come to a fierce glow, and its bits all retract back into the shape of a pair of reverse-bladed wings. The metatron crystals burst from the vernier positions immediately, and the entire unit suddenly spreads out both arms as they shift into the form of blades. "DUAT ERROR! AMENTHES ASSERTING!" A giant red screaming video-window appears before the young man. "IGNORE!" He calls out in reply as he feels a certain kind of 'power' suddenly rushing through himself. The little 'lines' beneath his eyes show a small bit of a red glow, that suddenly drag further along his head as his link with his machine is further asserted. A step closer...

"RAAAAAAH!" The Amenthes's glow becomes more fierce, and its wings almost seem to burn as the unit's velocity hits a highpoint as it moves /downwards/, straight for the incoming flechettes and cutting them down graciously - whilst somehow dodging away from the incoming explosions. It isn't even seconds before the machine has somehow maneuvered itself beneath the range of the ambush-like attack and is going down in a sharp arch across the desert towards the offending unit. "I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!" It was rare for Ascian to get emotional like this and attempts to swing his two sword-arms at his opponent in several sweeps - aimed for the cockpit. He isn't intending to let the guy LIVE! "DIIIIE!" Crazy BAHRAM people... who'd thunk it?

As he keeps one ear on the radio band, Ingram can tell that the battle is not going well. Others were falling left and right, and soon they would be turning their attention his way. Not the most satisfactory of outcomes, but he could see that their determination was as great as ever. Perhaps even more so - no matter how fast the leaders tried to assimilate and take over this world, when it came to willpower they were always playing a battle of catch up, never quite managing to keep pace with the strongly determined humans. Rem's ball and chain crashes into the Astranagant, sending it flying backwards until it skids to a stop along the hard packed rocky ground, a line of dust being kicked up in its wake. A powerful blow, and he grimaces for a moment, checking the data readout on how much damage he's taken. Still nothing too serious, but the readout indicating the amount of power available to the Nendou field is dropping fast. But the real problem here is the powerful psychic assault from Lilith - the blackness tears at Ingram's mind, and he feels like it's OK to let go... he can speak to this woman. All he needs to do is give in, and it won't be bad at all. Nothing to worry about... ...and Ingram's knuckles turn white as he feels the outside pressure influencing him. And with a low growl in his throat, he slams his head forward onto the controls, the blow managing to clear away the worst of the influence. But the palpable darkness has left him feeling tired and drained, his breath coming in heavy gasps for a moment. "I must admit madam, your powers are indeed formidable. I would not have expected you to have that much influence. But my reasons are my own, and not to be divulged to you. After all, if everyone knew what I was after, it would severely compromise my plans." Sadly, he seems to have upset Suzaku somewhat - and the Lancelot comes screaming in from an off angle, its speed and agility something to behold. He tries for a couple of speculative shots, but its to no avail - the machine is just too fast, and the Knightmare Frame's sword slams into the Astranagant's shoulder, the rifle coming around to blast it in the face a moment later. The damage is severe, and while it begins to heal back up almost immediately, the speed seems to be much slower than it had been previously. "Lord Gozzo doesn't even regard you Samples as sentient beings for the most part - he simply sees you are resources to be harvested and exploited," Ingram shoots back at Suzaku through clenched teeth. "This is how we conduct war. Do not be so egotistical to assume that your morals and values will apply to everyone in the universe." The Cross Smasher roars in at him, and Ingram leaps aside from the blast, raising one hand into the air. Erika will suddenly find that the Gun Familiars have cut around for her, swinging around behind some buildings before they streak in on the attack! Both of them project an energy blade from their cannons, aiming to bury themselves into the Valsion and cut it to pieces with a few moments of quick and dirty work from close range. But the real light show is coming from the black machine itself, orange light gathering in one hand, rotating about and sending strange shaped beams of light from between the black crystalline fingers that clasp it. "My life is not yours to take, Kururugi," Ingram growls after a moment. "While you might not think much of it, I will not die until I have accomplished my goals. And if you wish to stop me, I will fight you with everything I have. Come, let us embrace the true power of the Zehirut, and see who prevails." The Astranagant levels its hand, the brilliant orange light contracting down until it begins to turn black, with crackling arcs of red energy erupting from the center. "Axion Cannon," Ingram intones - and the black sphere erupts forward, growing as it dashes towards the ground. The yawning void of total darkness will swallow Rem, Suzaku, and Lilith if they aren't fast enough - and they'll find themselves crushed to pieces, strained through dimensional openings that distort and warp their machines, and spat back out the other side.

Wodan Ymir spares the fallen remains of Galuin's Gespenst only a moment's attention. It is, he's sure, more than he deserved. "Pathetic," he rumbles to himself. But it's no matter. The man was merely an obstacle.

The Type-3 comes rushing in, and Thrudgelmir whirls to meet it, its Colossal Blade snapping upwards in a perfect parry. the two swords strike so precisely, the forms of the combatants are so perfect, that a trained observer would be hard pressed to tell whether they are fighting, or drilling.

Heh heh. Drilling.

"I am Wodan," Wodan repeats, at Sanger's demand. Even such a man as him is unable to keep the contempt out of his voice, especially as he has to raise it to be heard over the deafeningly loud sound of grinding metal from the locked Colossal Blades. "Wodan Ymir. The Sword of Magus."

That, it seems, is all the explanation that is forthcoming. But Wodan doesn't stop speaking. "Sanger Zonvolt..." he rumbles. "How I've waited for this moment. How I've waited to display my worth..."

"Sanger Zonvolt!" the Sword of Magus cries; Thrudgelmir shoves suddenly on its sword, breaking the lock and sending both super robots stumbling backwards. "Prepare!!"

It takes only a heartbeat for Thrudgelmir to recover, and it lifts its left hand from the hilt of its Zankantou, snapping it up to point towards the Type-3's face. The roar of a rocket joins the cacophony of battle, and the Thrudgelmir's entire left fist erupts off of its arm, propelled through the air towards Sanger's Grungust on a tail of flame.

<Radio> Tightbeam to Ascian Luddite from Maximillian Jenius says, "Not bad. Not bad at all."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Maximillian Jenius: Ascian Luddite says, "Shut up - AND GET OUT OF MY WAY - or you will go down next!"

<Radio> Tightbeam to Ascian Luddite from Maximillian Jenius says, "We're in this fight together, whether you like it or not. Except this time you're not shooting at civilians."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Maximillian Jenius: You Ascian Luddite, "Just shut up!"

<Radio> Tightbeam to Ascian Luddite from Maximillian Jenius says, "Whatever man. You can loathe the EFA or whatever allll you want. Whenever you get your head straight about who your real enemy is, look me up kid."

Levad Yachid looks up as the BAHRAM crazed pilot comes crashing in lower... "Well hell," he mutters before his Zechariah is bowled up by the strike, it goes tumbling across the sands, even as the missiles pound down around him. After saying a few choice words over the comm system, before it too explodes, he decides to call it a day... He trips the detonation gear in the Zechariah before escaping through the hatch... Even as the missiles rain down, he rushes out across the dunes, pulling a non descript sand colored cloak about himself... "Time to live off the land, Levad, you always did before..." He rushes away even as his machine goes critical and explodes behind, leaving no material behind.

Huang Qin Shi lets out a deep breath once his unit has torn through the Balmarian one, coming back to himself as the void at the centre of his mind collapses. Shards of metal fall into the molten armour, flowing into its suspended mass, the black box technology that fuels the machine using it to repair some of the damage. "He means well," he says to Novas. "Let's keep an eye on...whatever Mason is calling himself now," he suggests. "I'm not sure if he's ready to remember yet...and even if he is, I can't exactly pick him up in this thing, I'd end up broiling him alive if I came within a hundred yards." Or maybe two hundred, he thinks as he notes the temperature rising ever closer to 300. Much hotter and the metal is going to start boiling.

Instead he cracks open a channel to Sanger Zonvolt, who's engaged with...uh...well, that's certainly an odd sight. "Qin Shi to Zonvolt," he says, looking off-screen at the Thrugdelmir. "Not that you'd /require/ assistance, but would you care for some?" He really doesn't want to interfere in a duel of fifty-foot-tall swords if neither party wants him there.

There it is! Trombe rushes toward the fallen Gespenst, black meeting blue as he dips, gently scooping the fallen warrior into the Huckebein's hands- but is it too late!? Sand and broken steel alike surge into the air as the Kurogane's prow pushes into the earth, Ratsel rushing into the hangar just before it pulls back into the sky.

It waits for Sanger, patiently floating above the battlefield. In the meantime, somebody needs a medical team.

...Or a burial.

The beam shot comes whipping inward.

It hits Galuin M'Habel. His cyborg body shudders, sparks, and flies into the air, before it lands on the ground. His eyes go open; then, he reaches his working hand up, and tears his mask off. He breathes, hard and deep, and tastes free air again.

His cyborg body is burnt and battered. It is shattered and broken thoroughly, pieces of charred metal laying around him. His eyes, though, are clear -- and look up at the machines of his students. He waits.

Echidna Iisaki keeps the rifle raised, tracking the small body, flying across the ground. Her finger tenses on the trigger -

She does not fire a second time. Something in the pit of her stomach feels damaged or tuned improperly. Though Echidna keeps the dying man covered, she does not do any more to kill him, nor does she stop anyone from approaching him.

Erika grits her teeth as she avoids the Gun Familiar's, the retrains her weapons upon the Astranagant. She's just about ready to open up when-- FLASH! In an instant, she whips around, another Cross Smasher blast arcing through the air in an attempt to intercept the two familiars. They easily weave through the snap shot thjough and bury deep into the Valsion's chest, "Tch! Damn!" The Valsion Kai slams down to the ground and skids to a stop as Erika assesses her damage... integrity is below 50 percent. Who would have though that the Astranagant could be so powerful? "I'm not done yet!" Erika yells out, branishing her Divine Blade again. Since it worked so well last time, it's time to try it again! Thrusters flare brightly as the Valsion surges forward, swinging it's blade up in a two handed grasp before bringing down in a simple, no-nonsense cleave.

"The only fallacy here is YOU!" Moonquencher is no longer even really thinking about what it says. Instead, it is busy being enraged. It charges in...but Osefet's beautiful plan to fire a missile at it and thus shut it up faces a fatal flaw: Moonquencher is a magic sword. It swings forward and slashes the missile in two, weathering the explosion. A normal weapon would be destroyed - but Moonquencher is three hundred feet of solid, enchanted metal, forged in the dead of night and not allowed to see the sun until it was completed. That's /craftsmanship/.

It draws back, trying to squeeze more use out of Suulo, who would probably have ruptured eardrums were she not a vampire and thus /already dead/. (Rather, she has ruptured eardrums but it doesn't really do anything.) The Sharlorn falls into a fighting stance - a martial arts pose that would be comical if it weren't actually /useful/. "NOW! YOU WILL BE SILENCED! YOU WILL KNOW FEAR AND DEATH!"

And then the Sharlorn lunges forward, the mighty blade Moonquencher striking out like a snake. A really big snake that recently ate a cow, but a snake nonetheless. "CRY TINY TEARS OF INFANTILE TERROR, MORTAL! CRY FOR YOUR MOTHER, WHOSE SOUL ROTS IN HELL! FOR YOU WILL FIND NO MERCY HERE! DIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!" At this point, the only way it's getting louder is if it starts using its telepathic shouting voice.

The darkness swept toward the Dream Weaver, a wall of shadows that seemed insatiably hungry for anything that it crept upon. Even as Rem attempted to figure out what else was occuring about him, the insanity that was Wodan and Sanger, the potential death of Galuin and everything else as people continued to fight about them, Ingram's counter to the ball and chain was most assuredly already upon him. The Dream Weaver would have wept in pain if it was capable of feeling, or tears, and instead it merely crumpled down toward the ground. The kneeling machine seemed to almost smoke, cracked marks running across the entire outer armor plating, in the aftermath of the devestating blow wrought by Ingram. "Dear sweet Aurora I might have found the answer," Rem said in an awed sounding voice, as he clutched tightly the control crystal within his hands.

The Dream Weaver stood back up, the ball and chain discarded to the side as the attack by Ingram had devestated it. Instead the broadsword was drawn forth once more, and the blade pointed in the direction of the Astranagant. "I would request of you a favor. Will you grant me access to that weapon you just deployed, once? I of course have nothing I can offer as compensation, beyond my thanks," Rem inquired of Ingram. Slowly the Dream Weaver pulled the sword back into a more readied battle position, and then it leapt toward the Astranagant in a flash, swinging out that deadly blade once more. This time it aimed to cleave off an entire leg from Ingram's unit. "In truth I don't even know why I bothered to ask, there is now way you'd turn such a potent weapon over to an enemy!"

"Sounds like a plan." Novas tells Huang, "It took Lenara and Rocbell a couple of times, if they raised him from the dead and all it'll probably be harder for him. I mean, that's just brainwash science. But I think he was reacting, since he totally flipped out. I mean, if it wasn't working he would've just been like 'buhhhhh', yeah?"

Well actually she has no idea. Maybe.

"That Wodan Ymir guy." Novas tells Huang. "He reminds me of someone. Someone... Someone... Do you think he might be Akira? No, that makes no sense. Maybe he's Reverse Pascal..."

Maximillian Jenius pulls up and heads back towards Huang's last position, not really knowing who Novas is, but he still hovers far overhead of them to watch the battle unfold.

There is another tremendous groundswell of power coming from the Astranagant, which is the most difficult word in the human language to type. Kururugi can sense it instinctively; his proximity to Ingram just making it that much more imperative to act. Act in order to survive. Act in order to continue to live. And as that swirling vortex of power starts to escape from the grip of the Astranagant, Suzaku acts without thinking --

The Lancelot lurches forward, its one remaining foot actually moving to plant itself against the side of the Astranagant. It uses this for leverage, pushing off the Balmarian Super Mecha while cutting its FLOAT System. Suzaku backflips through the air and then plummets towards the Earth. And it precisely at this moment that the AXIOM CANNON nearly takes his life for the second time in so many weeks.

The wash of energy is severe enough that Kururugi's descent is totally fubar'd. Like a leaf through a gust of wind, the Lancelot is knocked spinning off course. It collides with some of the potch-marked dirt surrounding the Earth Cradle -- torn from numerous battles, much like this one. On its back it skids, bounces, and skids more until it finally rocks to a stop.

The Yggrasil Drive dies down, its rotations slowing. In the cockpit, the world starts to come back into focus; Suzaku's mind seeming to regain its coherency. He blinks a few times, confused at his situation. But the black outs are becoming familiar. And it only takes a second to realize he is /still in combat/.

Exhaling, Suzaku pushes the Lancelot back to its one good leg. It uses the MVS Sword of its other hand like a cane, balancing itself, while the free hand swings the VARIS Rifle back around. The Impact Rail extends, fizzling with particles. Motes of power brew at the tip again.

"Fighting until the very end," Suzaku says, a bitter taste in his mouth. Just like Genbu Kururugi. "So be it."

He fires, another rush of green energy shooting from the VARIS Rifle. This time it is a concentrated beam of power, that coils like a cyclone up into the sky.

Kar Wai-Lau is free. Tasuku finishes his repairs on the Grungust-3 -- quick and dirty as they might have been, the Gespent-TT blasts off from it's current position, rushing to the cleaved machine -- and the cyborg man that fell off. Then, he is shot. "What!?" Shinguji lets out, dashing in front of the sniper's view to cover the fallen cyborg, two large pods ejecting out of the shoulders of the Gespent. They unfolds into long blades, begining to to spin on themselves. The origin shot comes from that mech, all the way over there. It's a long shot, but it's a shot worth taking. The Slash Rippers are launched, Tasuku letting go of the control afterward to crouch down, scanning the man -- and pick him carefully.

Lilith has an inward, curt smile at Ingram's resistance -- she knew that his will would be too strong for her to contain. The best, most worthwhile people all are. At best, all she could hope for was a long con, and it'd have to be battlefield therapy. Probably not worth the prize. However, she now knows something she didn't before.

"You are a man who calls no one master, Ingram Prisken. I know that much, just from what we've discussed today. I do truly wonder what your master plan is... but, speaking as peers on that front, I will respect that," Lilith speaks earnestly, in applauding tones.

Within the darkness of Ingram's Astranagant, the Night Fencer's blood aura sees it prevail. She navigates the spatial anomaly caused by the Axion Cannon, and comes through on blood-sailed wings, moving in a very swift line straight towards the Astranagant. Her magic is running low. The Fencer is damaged, and she finds herself at a disadvantage compared to the Astranagant's regenerating capabilities... however, she will never back down. Here it is, the final sum of all her magic and ephemeral power -- the very power that made humankind fear and betray her.

"Live, Man, upon a placid island of tempered ignorance; Let coalesce the black sea of infinity. Tear not down your position to primal fright, Or glipse ye into the truth and be forever vanished into memory!"

The Night Fencer's form shatters into a million pieces, each of them artfully spurting arcs of blood. For a moment, it seems that Lilith has gone -- and yet, the air around the Astranagant swirls into a terrible mist; a mist that brings to the fore terrrible personal imagery. The very acts of violence brought about by the Balmar war, on both sides; the appearance of the Neviim. The destruction of Merida Island. The bombing of Beijing, and Moscow, and other places thus, shown as still-life paintings swirling about in cascading motion...

...from one of which the Night Fencer emerges, in a most cunning of surprise attacks. One thought. One memory. One strike.

The shields-- those goddamn shields. Puru Seven shifts in the cockpit chair, easing her footing on the pedals and hinging the control sticks backward until the Qubeley starts to sway backwards the moment after those shots fire-- but then before she can release a second volley, something smacks into the cannons-- and the Mobile Suit loses a bit of altitude before easing into a subtle roll.

The air around her ripples, and something gives her a rather bad feeling. Something is wrong, something is going to happen. Digging in with her toes and stomping them to the bottom of their supports, the canary yellow Mobile Suit blazes /toward/ the Psyco and the Lekhishah, out of the path of what promised to be a rather painful experience; Sev glances over her shoulder and the bulk of her slightly-larger protective gear.

"... that was..."

Her mouth finally opens, and she shares the same voice, the same face-- and the same aggressive, angry tone, though she hides it behind a mask of calm. "Idiot," she finally says, addressing the Balmarian and her sister all at once.

"You clearly don't know who we are."

The ten funnels scatter again, the beams dropping to various angles before lining up shots, trying to close the "cage" created by the beams being fired from the Psyco Gundam's hands. If she dodges one, another is there to fire-- and so the cycle continues, with surgical precision.

"We don't trust anyone but ourselves!"

Azgad, pulling out a rifle from the cockpit, points it up towards...

Oh...they weren't coming. Ok...cool. That's great. He communicates with his boss for a minute, shrugging.

"She could have at least activated my recall. I swear...priestess' and their lack of practicallity..." He says, and shoots the controls.

Nothing happens. "Oh Spirit Emperor preserve me."

He's been waiting for this day? That only raises more questions, as Sanger roars out his own boost knuckle command, letting the rocket fist streak out towards the opposing weapon. Sanger's boost knuckle impacts...too late, only nudging the other Boost Knuckle slightly off its course. It slams into the Grungust's chest, knocking it backwards as the cracks in the VG armor begin to widen. Sanger lets out a cry of surprise - The Thrudgelmir was as strong as the Sanshiki, perhaps even stronger. And with that man's skill...anyone who interefered in this duel was going to die.

And that's pretty much what he tells Huang, and the whole world, over the global radio as he grasps for the Colossal Blade. He could feel the hatred in that punch; the desire to see Sanger Zonvolt, all that Sanger Zonvolt is, all that Sanger Zonvolt will ever be, reduced to dust, ground to ash, removed from this world.

/Why/?

"You say your name is Wodan Ymir! The sword of Magus!" Sanger brings up his blade, snapping it to the side, "Who is Magus? What have I done to you to make you hate me so much?" Not that Sanger was any stranger to people hating him, of course - but usually he *remembered* the *reason* they did so, especially such overwhelming hate, such an intense fighting spirit!

"Where did you learn...JIGEN-RYU!?"

Sanger's Grungust responds in kind; its right hand snaps forward, detaching and spiralling towards the Thrudgelmir, propelled by fire and righteous anger. And all the while, Sanger continues to ask himself...what makes this man so damned familiar? Except the one, impossible option...but that simply could not be.

Could it?

The Amenthes had somewhat automatically steered away from the enemy as the thing explodes - away from the additional missile fire - leaving Ascian hunched over grabbing for his legs and finally being able to wrap them up in pieces of bandage he had laying around in the cockpit. Sweat is dripping from his forehead - and his breathing is shallow and of high-tempo. He kept an eye on the vid-windows that were up, but he was having a hard time asserting which were a danger to him and which were not.

It is then that a series of chatter over the commlink has him angry and awake again - and has him gripping for the controls - looking up at Maximillian's unit for but a mere moment. "Let's... do this." He had spent most of his energy in that last fight, and he could see the gauges that were indicating that continuing battle was a BAD IDEA(tm) - but that would not dissuade him. The Amenthes heeds his control and lifts back up and turns towards the larger battlefield around the Earth Cradle itself - spreading its wings and loosening the bits - targetting every enemy he could get within his reticle... which was swaying around a bit too much due to his limited concentration... and fires! "Take this!" He calls forth.

Russel Bagman sees his shots had struck true and the rest of the fighter's efforts had finally brought the machine down, the Gespenst vanishes. Wait what's this? There's a figure falling to the ground. It's a form a cyborg? Wait is that what they did to the colonel. He's movin in to recover the Aggressor's leader.

When a warning comes up of an incoming beam shot.

"What the?!"

He attemps to throw himself in the way but he's a bit too slow, he also sees Ratsel, he turns to see who it was. It was the person Huang had brought in to help? Was this planned? Was it a mistake, he doesn't attack. He does keep in the way as Ratsel goes to deal with it, it's Ratsel's place not his to do this. But he does have something he wants to say.

"Colonel Kar Wai Lao, I'm sorry for how things turned out. We will end this, I promise we will stop them and save as many of those taken as we can."

Then goes Tasuku after the one who did this, this was going to be a mess.

"Ohhh ho ho ho ho ho!" Osefot laughs regally at Moonquencher's rage. Her eyes narrow as she pulls backwards further. The echoing noise is quite amusing, although the lunging strike is fast enough to tear another sheet of metal from the side of the machine. The Habbakuk can be cannily piloted, but it is, ineffably and fundamentally, a fat man with heavy weapons.

It is lased, then; lased by a unit in the distance, but enough for Osefet to flinch. She sucks in breath through her teeth, and then declaims, loudly, "I'm sick of your shit, Sample!"

The back of the Habbakuk slides open - and broadens. Where one Metalium Cannon had emerged before, /four/ slide out now, moving into a strange pattern... but they do not fire. They seem, perhaps, to need a few moments to do so. Instead, both the head tilts forwards, and the hands extend out, every single damned missile launcher that the Moonquencher had seen being used to, instead of fire one at a time, do a singular full off-load -- the storming rain of direct explosive fire, perhaps, meant to buy time for...

For whatever the hell that is going to be.

When Sanger launches his second Boost Knuckle, Wodan responds much as Sanger did to his own. He lets the Zankantou tumble from his machine's right hand (miraculously, his first Boost Knuckle, already returning, swoops in to catch it as it reattaches itself to Thrudgelmir's left arm) and raises his arm, yet another roar of jetfire filling the air as he fires his own second fist.

The two Boost Knuckles collide in midair in between the Grungust Type-3 and Thrudgelmir, eliciting a tremendous *CLANG* and a shockwave of dust as they bounce off of each other like excited toddlers. A cloud of grit spreads out between the two super robots...

... and then is suddenly torn apart by a bolt of /God damn lightning/ that erupts from Thrudgelmir's still-briefly-handless right arm, aiming to rip a gash in the Type-3's armor.

"Enough, Sanger Zonvolt," Wodan practically growls. "Let our blades do the talking. Words will not avail you an escape from death!"

Asfanit /is/ a genuinely nice person. She is the nicest person ever. She just also wants to conquer your barbaric world in the name of her distant homeland, which has unilaterally decided it is better than you. That's not wrong, is it?

"I took her somewhere she's much happier," Asfanit reminds Puru. "Nobody abuses her...in fact, she seems much happier now than any of our records suggest she's ever been. And you want to take that away from her? The purpose, the joy we've allowed her to experience?"

She emits a low, sad, "Tsk." And adds: "And someone else does, as well..."

Her eyes tick over. Normally this is Lekhishah's job, but with the program set to passive standby while the Driver is running, Asfanit has to scroll the menus herself, quickly locating two downed units. One on fire; one penetrated by the enemy. In Azgad's cockpit, a soft chime is heard, and Asfanit's high-pitched voice comes through: "Azgad, I'm engaging force transfer. I advise you get out as soon as you're back on Neviim, systems stability is.. ahaha, I guess you know, at the levels I'm reading, huh?" Pause. "Also, the consoles aren't rigged to respond to bullets. Good thinking, though!"

Asfanit's eyes tick up. Blasts coming in; she throws out her arms. The beams slam into the barrier and stop there, swirling their way around. She grits her teeth; the /machine/ may not get so badly damaged, but the strain to /her/ feels just as bad. Ngh-- The beams finally gather up and /scream/ back at Puru 2, blasts of light crashing into the machine. Asfanit goes back to her work, calm if somewhat winded.

And then, a more chilling scenario, because in Er'ela's cockpit as well there comes a pleasant warning chime, and then Asfanit's voice - a little tired, a little winded, but very polite, very pleasant, rather high-pitched, feminine. Caring, more than commanding: "Er'ela, darling, it's Asfanit. Did they disable the transfer system? I'm sorry it took me so long to notice. I'm engaging a forced transfer now. Please be at ease...I promise, we'll make it all better. I'll personally see to it."

She leaves no address for the man she knows is in the cockpit; that should've chilled him to the bone, she decides, just on its own. She takes a little pleasure in the thought of scaring a Sample, and then turns her attention back to the problems at hand, namely: Puru 7's funnels attack comes barreling at her, and Asfanit bolts skywards, Tzrikha taking to the heavens with sudden, incredible speed! She swings down, though - lashing out at Puru Seven's machine, this time, with a slash of her monomolecular cutter, aiming to just chop the Qubeley right the hell in half.

"I AGREE!" Sanger roars, depressing the triggers. The Grungust Sanshiki's eyes blast to life, beams of destructive force launching out and into the path of the lightning bolts. There's a brief beam war as the two forces collide; the eye lasers disperse, ripping holes in the desert, and the lightning veers off to the side and blows apart a cactus or a small furry animal or something.

"The time for talk is over! Wodan Ymir!" The anger in his voice is palpable, as the boost knuckle connects to the Grungust Type-3's arm. Sanger snaps his zankantou to the side, raising it above the Grungust Type-3's head; if Wodan is truly a studen of Jigen-Ryu, he knows where this is going, that's for sure. "Whoever you are...wherever you are from...I WILL CARVE THE ANSWERS FROM YOUR BODY WITH THIS ZANKANTOU!"

"YOU KNOW MY NAME, WODAN YMIR!" Sanger roars as the Sanshiki rises into the sky, Zankantou held high above its head like the sword of an angry god of war "YOU KNOW WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY! SO THERE IS NO NEED FOR THOSE WORDS!"

"ZANKANTOU ICHIMONJI-GIRI! CHEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSTOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

The Sanshiki roars, much as the Thrudgelmir before it; but its roar is not horrible, but hopeful, the hope of a bright future personified in this zankantou - in this man, Sanger Zonvolt! Cleaving away the darkness of the past, once and for all!

"No imposter will stand against my Zankantou! Disappear...WODAN YMIR!"

The new tactics and assaults that the enemy are using on him are quite effective - while Ingram is certain that the Zehirut Crystal will absorb the knowledge and become more effective following this battle, he did have the minor concern of making sure that he doesn't actually die in the meantime. As his foes come in, he orders the Gun Familiars to open fire, while drawing his own blade to deal with Erika's rush. The two blades clash, but the Valsion has the upper hand here. The two blades grind together, until finally the Divine Blade breaks past, carving off a large chunk of crystal from the chest of the black machine. Ingram curses as an arc of lightning shoots across the cockpit, the Zehirut crystal that makes up the frame of his machine expressing its displeasure at the damage it has taken. And then there is Rem - the blade slams into the leg of the Astranagant, cutting deep... but the crystal flows around the damage preventing it from actually passing through. In fact, if Rem isn't careful it will out and out seal the entire sword in the leg, making it impossible to remove. But asking to see such a weapon... Ingram is amused. "You are correct in that I will not turn such a thing over, but the weapon itself is a hybrid of magic, EOT, and human technology - something for you to consider if you wish to try and duplicate it. Best of luck to you along that front, of course." The VARIS Rifle blast hits Ingram head on a moment later - he curses, wondering why the dimensional flitter system isn't activating at this point. Well, it was not his concern. But he can also sense that Suzaku is not quite as intense as he was a moment ago. And Ingram raises an eyebrow at that. "So where is the passion? Where is the fury you showed me just a moment ago? Or are you as out of steam as your machine, Kururugi?" he inquires mildly. Strange... it was almost like a switch had been flipped off in the boy. "It would be disappointing if you were to not stand up to me for just a bit longer..." Lilith's final attack comes from an unexpected angle - as the mist surrounds his machine, Ingram watches for a long moment at the long litany of violence that he has seen over the last few weeks. He shakes his head after a moment. "It is very sad," he states, with a slightly exaggerated sigh.

And the Astranagant spins, intercepting the Night Fencer as it thrusts out at him. The crossed arms of the machine crack and splinter as the crystal armor absorbs the impact, but they do not yield as the mists clear and Ingram knocks Lilith away. "But I knew what the consequences of this invasion were. I have known them for quite a long time. And I have acted as I must - I will not second guess myself. Because in my position, anyone else would have acted the same." The Astranagant rockets skywards, before coming to a stop high above the Earth Cradle. And Ingram crosses both of the machine's arms, the two wings snapping up, great streams of green energy erupting from them to create a pair of blazing wings that bracket the black machine like some sort of sharp, angry black crystal angel. And from amidst those wings, a series of infinitely sharp blades of telekinetic energy appear - shining in the sky for a moment as Ingram looks at Lilith. "T-LINK Feather," he states. "Engulf her unto nothingness." The feathers erupt from the sky like a blizzard, each one driving towards the ground like a razor blade. And where they strike, they embed themselves and explode after a moment, leaving behind a good sized crater - and Lilith has dozens coming at her... But the final attack is yet to come, and Ingram throws the Astranagant's arms wide, the two wings blazing even brighter as energy is pumped through the machine. A circle appears in front of the Astranagant's chest, glowing brighter by the moment until a flare of energy creates four brilliant crosses of light, one at each cardinal direction of the circle. In his cockpit, Ingram raises one hand up in front of his face, and intones, "Let time roll backwards..." The energy continues to build, and the open hand is clenched, a massive surge of power erupting in the air in front of the black machine. "...and may you cease to exist! INFINITY CYLINDER!" The bolt roars down towards Ingram's enemies gathered below - and it breaks apart, transforming into eight spheres of pure blue-white light. They swirl in a complex pattern around Suzaku, Erika, and Rem... but where they touch something - anything - they leave nothing in their wake. Reality is removed, leaving an empty void in its wake, and the spheres carve a crazy pattern across the landscape... and unless they can get out of the way, through machines as well.

The battlefield is a confusing place, and the technique Huang used to survive his confrontation with the man who was once Ringo Mason distanced his mind from the chaos unfolding around him. He catches up quickly, however, particularly once his tactical computer starts screaming about blue-on-blue contact toward Echidna from...oh gods, why /him/.

"Shinguji!" Huang snaps, turning the Rasavatam away from the sight of Sanger Zonvolt and some guy swinging a sword a lot like Sanger Zonvolt, and back toward what he hopes is not a gigantic war about to break out. "Stand down! What the /hell/ do you think you're doing?" he asks. "I bloody well told you - Iisaki is designated friendly!" Talking about Echidna on an open channel is undoubtedly not a fantastic idea, but he needs to head this off now.

He really hopes he does not have to fight Tasuku to do it.

One of the T-Link Rippers scrapes across Echidna's armour without digging in too deeply; it widens the damaged armour from before but does not open any new ones. The other one is deflected by a broad swing of her beam rifle, damaging it. She is fairly certain it will fire - once - but probably not hold up to sustained use.

She points the revolver in her other hand at Tasuku instead, walking slowly backwards across the desert sand and rock. Echidna activates her communicator, appearing heads-up on Tasuku's screen, a lavender-haired woman with one stray lock in an EFA flight suit.

"Do not do that again," she says, and nothing else. Echidna enters the rockiest section nearby, using the broken terrain for cover while she keeps one eye on the Wodan/Sanger fight. Huang may as well not be there; he wasn't addressing her, she doesn't have to deal with it, and she's not doing anything she promised she wouldn't.

Azgad's unit is sucked into the gravity distortion after a brief....

Pause. Azgad himself, once he appeared on the deck of the White star, immedaitely rolls out of the bruning cockpit and books it away from the burning mech.

The deck captain is having a meltdown.

And as an unexpected barrage of energy strike him from the side, Ingram grimaces - and lets the Photon Vulcan loose in reply at Ascian. "Someone else come to fight, eh?"

Er'ela is lifted from the cockpit by Chibodee. She's frightened, she lifts up her head as she sees the Gespenst cut in twain "Wait...stop." she puts a hand on Chibodee's shoulder and puts her own feet down. He face is red from crying, but she looks over at the half dead body of Galuin. "I have to see this..." It's Er'ela's harder voice, not Meiya's.

She knew what was coming next. The Recall was force activated by Asfanit. "Yes...everything will be...better."

Er'ela Sufa takes advantadge of the fact Chibodee Crockett pushed himself so brutally hard. She steps sideways and pivots about on her foot, swinging her fists into the small of his back, sending him off the edge of the Ezekiel's remains. She pants hard, chest rising and falling as she looks down.

Her voice has gotten softer, less ER'ela, more Meiya. "I'm sorry. I'll suffer through this." The Ezekiel and Er'ela begin to waver out of existance.

Something dark reaches out and takes hold of Meiya's heart, Chibodee can feel the icy grip around Meiya's soul like a cahin made of the dark things that lurk in the universe. Meiya throws her head back agian and clutches it "AAAH! GET OUT!" she hunches over gripping her sides.

"...You...you can't stop this, You can't break me out like this..."

She whipers horsely "...run!..."

Er'ela and te Ezekiel dissappear together.

"Doooon't shooooot friendlies!" Novas shouts, though she barely knows who Echidna is in the first place. Likewise, she was mostly focused on Huang and Ringo and she totally missed like the rest of the battle.

She loads up her guns and then realizes that if she starts fighting Tasuku even with Huang over the fate of Echidna it will take like forever and it might be treason, she's not so sure. Unless it's what Huang wants in which case Tasuku is the treasonous one? Well she'd really rather not, he got along with Lenara after all maybe?

"So uh. ... now what?" She asks, hoping Huang knows what to do, as usual, because she sure has no idea what is going on. The sooner she can stop thinking for herself the better.

Boss hmms, rubbing his chin as he watches everyone blowing each other for a moment.

"We should do something..." "But everyone is already fighting something! You know how that works!" "Yes, you are right." Boss hits a button on his control panel.

The Boss Borot is suddenly in a lawnchair while Boss and his two thugs pull out boxes of sushi to dine on.

Oh dear. That can't be good. Erika knows some serious shit when she sees it. The blast of nothingness leaps out and Erika throws the Valsion out of the way. One of it's legs though gets caught by the sphere of pure void and simply ceases to exist entirely, as if erased by some sort of cosmic eidtting program. But better her leg than the rest of her. "Holy mother of--" Erika lets out upon seeing reality raped so thoroughly by the crystalline machine. How the hell is that even possible! Suddenly on 'ohshitohshitohshit' mode, Erika does the first thing she can. She fires a Jam Grenade at Ingram, hoping to blind him so he doesn't turn her inside out next.

Puru Two... pauses at the other clone's words. That's true, isn't it? That's how it's always been, how it's supposed to be. Trusting no one but each other. Exactly when was it... when that changed?

No time to think about such things now. She receives a wake-up call in the form of getting a cascade of her own finger beams redirected towards the chest of the Psyco Gundam, causing it to momentarily stagger, and its arms to start falling back to ground level. "Ugh! Stupid barrier! ...no problem, this much is nothing...!"

So she says. And maybe it's true for her machine. But the pilot is mentally struggling. Confused about why she feels so strongly about retrieving Aoba. Doubts about Aoba's happiness - it's true that she was never really happy with her circumstances. She's starting to lose the strong emotions necessary to maintain her previous conviction.

So the Psyco Gundam helps her to regain that.

"Now... now..." Puru Two repeats the word in a monotone. Something's wrong. Puru Seven can clearly tell in detail: Puru Two's mind and the psychic emanations coming from the Psyco Gundam are blending together.

The falling arms of the giant Gundam suddenly freeze in mid-air, then start to rise again, faster and faster. Its hands ball into fists, and the forearms sprout massive Beam Swords. At the same time, a wicked grin forms on Puru Two's lips. "Now... ...I'm going to tear you apart. Bit. By. Bit." The fact that she sounded more cheerful than anything else is probably the worst sign yet.

Rem would not leave his blade in the deadly machine of Ingram, so it was that when the crystal started to act like it might devour and seal in the sword Rem withdrew it immediately and gave up on sawing away at Ingram's leg. "Magic and technology combined? I figured that would be the best course of action, and perhaps I was not so stupid after all for coming to the surface," Rem commented as the Dream Weaver backed away from the Astrangant, the broadsword sheathed once more. As the spheres swirled out across the battlefield Rem watched each and every one, and noticed rapidly that everything they touched seemed to simply disappear.

"Magic again?" he inquired, with a somewhat amused chuckle. The Dream Weaver itself managed to somehow play keep-away from the spheres, although there were far too many close calls for Rem's preference. The Dream Weaver continued to put distance between itself and the Astranagant, even while it pulled out the bow frame once more and brought it up. This time not one but many arrows were fired, quick successive shots that rained toward the Balmarian machine which hung so high in the sky.

Ascian's A.I., Duat, has reasserted proper control of Amenthes and registers the hit on Osefet's unit first. The framerunner steers the frame further towards the battlefield, and lifts his unit up towards midair once more, so he can get a better look of what is going on. He doesn't really have the energy to spare shouting back at the Habakkuk though - and refrains from doing as such. All this 'sample' talk was just tiresome, and he'd done enough raging. In fact, he was quite calm again. He's even calm enough to just 'stare' at the 'LOW ENERGY' warning which Duat is displaying.

The next warning - one that indicates he is getting shot at - however warrants an expected reaction. That of adrenaline rushing through his body - converted into a quick reaction as his unit's 'bits' fold back up into the shape of those reverse-bladed wings and rush him out of the way. Due to the long-distance between him and the one who'd shot at him, he has plenty of time to get away - but can see the accuracy of the attack afterwards as his unit confirms that it would have hit had he not moved. "Not a good idea. Let's go for the other one." Ascian mutters and re-assert his previous target; Osefet.

"Let's try this again... low-assault mode." He keeps his unit still and afloat again in midair and begins to target the Habakkuk Mafatzecha. Or as Ascian thought of it; the unit with way too many gunports. "Let's close up some of those bays!" His unit's right arm shifts to the firm of a rifle once more, and he aims as precisely as he can at the enemy... hoping to tear plasma through those openings.

"STOP LAUGHING! I WILL MAKE YOU STOP LAUGHING! I AM NO SAMPLE OF YOURS! I AM A WEAPON DESIGNED TO DESTROY YOUR RACE AND ALL LIKE IT! I AM UNSTOPPABLE! I AM INDESTRUCTIBLE! I FEAR NOTHING!" The sword shouts angrily - and truthfully, in some cases. It is fearless, being...a nigh-indestructible hunk of metal. And so, when the missiles come flying for the Sharlorn, it lacks the self-preservation instinct given to most creatures, and certainly to the pilot it is puppeting.

The missiles explode all over Sharlorn as it charges through them. Corpses burn away, dissolve and in several cases /explode/, leaving a framework of bone and rotting sinew behind. The corpse-armor of Sharlorn is being devastated...but even as it happens, the machine swings an arm out, smacking the Habbakuk and getting closer. Though it will soon need to retreat for repairs, Moonquencher isn't thinking about that.

Instead, it is still on the offensive. <YOU THINK THAT WAS ENOUGH TO STOP ME!? YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO STOP ME! THERE IS NOT ENOUGH IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE TO STOP ME! I AM INEVITABLE! I AM YOUR FATE! YOUR ENDING! I AM SLAUGHTER ENSHRINED IN A BLADE! YOUR DESTRUCTION WAS INSCRIBED UPON THE UNIVERSE WHEN I WAS FORGED! BEHOLD MY MIGHT! TREMBLE BEFORE MY POWER! SCREAM AS I DISSOLVE YOUR VERY BEING! I AM MOONQUENCHER, AND THIS! IS! YOUR TORMENT!> The runes flare black along the blade, and Moonquencher summons up almost all of its dark power. The air it passes through is left blackened for several seconds, the stench of brimstone filling the air even as Moonquencher has switched to telepathy because actual sound /was not loud enough/.

Foolishly, Chibodee stops. He can't really hear what the cockpit recorder is saying because of the explosions, the shouting, the various carnage -- the ringing in his own ears from the beating he's taken. He's running down on adrenaline. He anticipates being able to set Maxter on autopilot and pass out in a bloody heap while he gets back to Riksent...

Stars flash in front of his eyes as Meiya ruthlessly puts Chibodee to the sand. She knew where to hit him; she set up the strike at the beginning of the fight, she must have. He tries to get himself back up, but something is happening, some sort of space-folding.

Chibodee fights, pushing himself up. He feels something horrible, something unimaginably awful, and his brain tries to throttle his comprehension of it. He feels Meiya being pulled away into -- into --

Chibodee stares at where Meiya and the mech was for a few seconds before combat instincts kick back in, the second wind of adrenaline firing through his body. Crockett remembers where he is. He leaps up onto Maxter, jumping twice from knee to thigh to throw himself back into his cockpit. Reflex has him slam the hatch door behind him. The Trace System comes back up, the pain slamming back across his body. It focuses him like a blowtorch.

Chibodee pulls Maxter back on like an armored suit. Crockett brings up its heavy arms, clenching its fists. The board comes back, which Maxter leaps up onto. It pulls back and away from the fight, running silent as it heads back toward EFA lines.

What is that behind them, he thinks, and keeps seeing the impossible geometry of the shadow behind Meiya, drawing her back into --

Shinguji narrow his eyes at the screen, frowning. "As long /you/ don't do that again." He replies, keeping himself calm. Then, Huang yells at him. That's pretty typical and should have been expected considering what he just did. "The HELL I think I'm doing, Huang," He replies, not pursing any further on shooting the the Gespent that walks away, "Is to give a man /some/ sort of godamn peace before he kicks, some SEMBLANT of having a save after living in a world of hell and suffering for /years/! I ain't gonna take somebody just shooting him out while we just managed to free him!" He swings his sword away, "Counter-attacking might have not been the smartest thing I done, I'll give you that."

Rather than stand idle and let Sanger come to him, when the Type-3 goes into its dive, Thrudgelmir leaps to meet it, the drills on its back once again screaming to life, propelling the Special Unit into the air, its Zankantou drawn back to strike, its own roar joining the Type-3's, the two screams mixing into a tremendous howl that echoes across the plains of Africa.

When the two machines collide, it isn't clear exactly what happens. There is a tremendous flash of light, and a shockwave, the roar of which joins the howling of the Super Robots, flattening grass and stirring up dust for miles around.

An instant later, Thrudgelmir once again strikes the ground and slides to a halt, apparently completely unharmed, leaving a massive trench in the soil behind it. It is a mystery how its angle of momentum changed so sharply. Probably a wizard did it.

"I..." Wodan begins, his voice barely more than a whisper.

The Thrudgelmir's entire right pauldron suddenly slides off, the massive chunk of armor severed by a perfectly clean, horizontal cut, that just barely missed the workings of the joint.

"... am no impostor."

Ingram is, in truth, perhaps more than an opponent for Lilith to handle alone. In her current form, the way she has to use a human host and adopt a machine as such -- but she isn't one to complain about what tools she have, which are plentiful indeed.

"Focus, Lilith. Do not let his power intimidate you," she intones to herself, shutting her eyes. She cannot avoid this attack through normal means; instead, she channels inward and spends the rest of her energy, taxing herself to the limit as she thrusts forth a counter-spell.

The easiest way past the barrage is to plow through where it would hurt her the least -- towards its side; as the Fencer moves, it's surrounded in a tranquil blue gaze, a water-like barrier shimmering along the surface soaking up the Featherfall as it storms the Fencer's vicinity. Make no mistake -- would it have hit, the Night Fencer would have been completely obliterated. However, Lilith weathers the storm, breath taxed and mind weary.

"It is rare to see a Balmarian who can express sorrow at the battles waged in this invasion, Ingram Prisken -- at the plight of the Samples." She shifts back down, leaning against her throne. "Even amongst our kind, there are plenty who would refuse to show pity. Whatever it is you have planned... I wish you fortune on your lonesome path. I will be watching."

The Night Fencer, spent, pulls away from the battle. Its wings arc upwards as it carries a portion of the darkness present in the battlefield with it, until it is nothing but a tiny black glint in the sky.

This day just got shitty.

Ingram Prisken does a bunch of stuff that shouldn't be possible -- let along, comprehensible -- to Suzaku Kururugi. In the end, it all amounts to a bad situation for him. When you pilot a prototype Knightmare Frame devoid of any sort of cockpit block, you know that you're probably going to die in the damn thing. But you don't expect to literally be /warped/ out of reality.

The Infinity Cylinder hits the Lancelot, which has lost a lot of its manuerability. The bluish white energy crackles across its frame -- the gold and white armor fizzling as reality around it distorts. For a brief moment, the Z-01 is gone from this plane of reality. Suzaku can't explain it, but it feels just like when they jumped dimensions.

But then he is back in this world, on this planet. And his robot is blaring alarms right and left, falling at a strange angle like it was shot out of a cannon directly at the ground. The Knightmare skids on its gold and white face, tearing a shallow swath through the mud. Dents and fissures line its armor -- sparks shooting from odd places, a small glow of released Sakuradite creaking from a terrible cut along the Knightmare's chest.

"...I'm not afraid of you," Suzaku says, after a long moment. He frowns. This entire fight has been weird. He feels strangely lucky to be alive, like he should have died. Like he wanted to -- but didn't. "My previous goal remains true, Ingram Prisken." Suzaku nods, his grip tightening on the Lancelot's controls. He is no longer afraid for his life. "I ask you to either surrender..."

Suzaku pulls the other MVS free again, wielding both swords in the Lancelot's grip. The vibrational blades contract, syncing their frequencies, the edges turning dark red.

"-- Or I will be forced to defeat you!"

The FLOAT Pack reignites with a flash of color. Kururugi goes Astro Boy, vaulting straight up into the air. He comes at the Astranagant from below fast, swinging both of the MVS in horizontal slashes as the Lancelot rockets by -- green hexagons of energy pulsing on the Knightmare's forearms as the Blaze Luminous fields surge to protect the Knightmare on each counter-stroke.

The psionic force wounds Osefot Kolot almost as much as the incoming strike. The Habbakuk's arms come up, crossing in front of it - the hands slide off as it staggers back, apparently disarmed. Blood runs down beneath Osefot's fetchingly feminine mask, and she exhales loudly, audibly.

Missile bays detonate and fuse. The emergency escape option becomes quietly available. But...

"There's something you don't know, Mooncatcher!"

The Habbakuk's arms spread, and its undamaged guns lens outwards. "And don't think I forgot you either, you little brat," she snaps at Ascian, even as she exhales loudly. Then breathes back in. "This machine is built for a purpose -- a purpose which you may have foiled. I can carry only two Fusor Capsules at once!"

Her voice is grinning. "Do you know what that means, Sample!?"

The head launcher fires a pod outwards. It is simple and plain, more of a sphere than a missile. It even sloshes faintly as it slides forwards, frost forming on a supercooled outer sphere as it hovers before the Habbakuk. The four weapons align themselves, peculiarly positioned. "Ohhhohohoho! Burn, you wretch!" They all fire one precise, pointed beam --

A sun dawns.

The Fusor Capsule is 'merely' exploding with the force of ten tons of TNT. But it doesn't stop exploding. The screaming howling winds that erupt from it smash into the sand, whipping it upwards into a shredding tornado floating above the machine, even as the pressure from the Metalium Cannons forces the miniature star, searing actinically, forwards - ever forwards! It accelerates, staying perhaps well below the typical speed of such a projectile, but relentlessly - accelerating as it draws nearer. The touch of it would sizzle through steel. Is this the weapon they planned to use to breach the Gate of Magus with?

And is there a /second/ round of it??

The sudden rise is something that Seven didn't expect at all-- but the Puru clone is forced to adjust for it in due course, even with widening eyes and a look of surprise. The Qubeley's left hand rises upward while a beam saber's handle ejects into the waiting grip, the blade igniting on the swing. While she catches the blade of the monomolecular cutter, the weight of JUMPING ROBOT and the difference between their own machine's weights /period/ pushes the blade down, skidding it to the side with an impressively bright spray of sparks and fire.

Coming down on the shoulder, the Mobile Suit rocks, hard. Puru Seven jostles hard in the seat, but she opens the throttle wider, she adjusts her thrusters even while the blade eats through the side of the Qubeley's broad face and into the armor of the shoulder, and the wing binder. When it stops, that's when Sev's eyes widen a little, shifting toward the Psyco Gundam.

Something's--

Oh. Dear. Those are big blades Two is generating, too...

Though the deterioration of her big sister's psyche is a worrisome thing, her Qubeley being split open like a bloated corpse takes a little priority in her mind, and Seven simply /cuts the thrusters/.

The Qubeley drops like a sixty-two point one metric ton lead weight, the momentary lapse in flight allowing her to escape the cutting edge of the blade. Throwing the sticks forward and slamming down on the pedals with everything that she's got, the bulk of the mass production unit starts to fly horizontal; the ground is getting closer than she'd like, but the various Verniers are there to help tip it forward and at least get it upright before the broad heels hit the ground.

Sev pushes it forward a little further, trying to keep the balance ahead in order to keep the Zeonic machine from crashing messily backwards-- but it's still a challenge.

Staying put for the time being, the cannons over the shoulder line up one more shot-- and then, instead of firing once, begin a barrage of shots, short bursts, direct fire, just trying to guide the Tzrikha-Lekhishah into the Psyco Gundam's path!

Meiya Mitsurugi is pulled away, both physically, and metaphorically back into the mind of Er'ela Sufa. The woman that contains these minds is whisked away by the Aerogator's gravity warp, back to L5 near the moon, back deep into The White Star.

Back to where that dark thing's power is the strongest.

And it smothers her until the screams finally stop.

Echidna Iisaki does not respond to Tasuku verbally.

She cannot prevent the very slight curling of her lips into what might be a snarl if she let it finish; by the time it gets even that far, though, she is no longer broadcasting. Safety. The man was dead. She'd met him; he wouldn't live. All they could do with him is make him something...

Something like W15.

Echidna turns, finally, and starts to run; the Gespenst bounds out the same way it jumped in, heading toward a pickup with an EFA vessel. Whether they let her on or not is another matter entirely, but she assumes they would at least like their robot back.

A muscle tics along Huang's jaw. Gods only know killing enemy pilots is frowned upon, to say the least, so Echidna's not completely blameless. But it's not completely against the laws of war, either. This isn't the Gundam Fight, where shooting for the cockpit, or the pilot, is completely outside the code. But firing at an ally...damn it, just when it looked like this might get off without a hitch. He double-checks to make sure his visual feed is disabled before making this face: http://bit.ly/fmqyDq

Some days, he thinks his face is going to freeze that way.

"You /are/ going to take it," he snarls back. "Counter-attacking implies you're the one /being/ attacked. I'll deal with you - both of you," he adds, so Echidna's aware just who he's speaking to, "Back at base. Both of you return. Now. And don't so much as look at each other," he adds, though Echidna is again beating him to the punch.

For that matter, he thinks as he scans through his tactical computer, a general withdrawal is most definitely in order, given the deteriorating state of the Balmarian assault. Sanger Zonvolt can take care of himself. "Qin Shi to allied units," he says, whirling the Rasavatam around. "Mission complete - let's get the hell out of here."

So this is what it's like.

The receiving end of the Zankantou, the twin blades meeting and passing. His own blade, cutting through the shoulder; Wodan's blade, drawn upwards, straight through the cockpit. There is a sound like the wind as the enemy Zankantou ventillates Sanger's cockpit is the most aggressive way possible, and Sanger is treated to a sudden burst of sunlight as the sheer shock of this moment catches up with him. It is not that he has been defeated; Sanger Zonvolt has never been invincible, merely unrelenting and unceasing. He has been defeated before.

It is not that he has been defeated by a fellow blade artist. No swordsman worth his whetstone considers himself invincible or even superior; all know that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Inevitably, there is a day when a man must meet his match and accept it.

It is not even that he was literally a razor's edge away from death, that he might have been cut in half by a sword identical to his own in his own cockpit, his blood smearing the walls, never to see Sophia Nate again or to have one of Ratsel's dinners or sit down and simply rest in the kurogane's dojo and be alone.

It is that this man, this man he fights, this man...his existence is impossible.

The Sanshiki hangs there in the air; VG armor briefly welds itself back together, a long, scarlike /thing/, like tissue freshly healed, running the length of its left side. It dangles, like some weak, weak thing; Sanger lets out a breath he didn't know he'd held as he hears Wodan's words.

'Not an imposter. Not an imposter. Not an imposter. Not an imposter.'

"You cannot...be," Sanger manages, shock slowly setting in, "The man you are...it is not possible that you can...it isn't..."

"You can't...be..."

The Zankantou begins to slip from the fingers of the Sanshiki as Sanger's grip on reality is suddenly turned, wholeheartedly, upside-down in the wake of the revelation that his very soul rejects, and yet somewhere in the pit of despair, standing at the Gate of Magus, he knows may very well be true.

The only man who can fight like that is: Sanger Zonvolt - The Sword That Cleaves Evil. The battle between the two Living Swords rages on. Manhood comes up against manhood as two souls clash for dominance! The land shakes and the last, greatest hope of mankind itself shudders with every catastrophic impact.

But it seems that another force has decided to interrupt this epic duel.

A force that is, somehow, more impressive than either man's blade, proving at long last who is the MOST colossal. "SAAAAANGEEEERRR!" Ratsel roars, the Kurogane plowing into the desert, and dividing the two men with the might of the ark of the Divine Crusade! The Colossal Drill turns at incredible speeds, spilling sand and splitting the desert like a great, horizontal tornado. The cannons atop the battleship lock onto the Thrudgelmir and unleash a barrage of suppressive fire!

Under most circumstances, he would never consider disrupting his friend and comrade's duel. Under most circumstances, he would salvage Sanger and unit both, carrying their wrecked remains into the sunset to fight another day. This is a special case. There is someone Sanger must speak to- before it's too late.

"Sanger, we must go! /NOW!/"

Unthinking, unfeeling, the Sanshiki's hand snaps out to grab onto the Kurogane as what is left of Sanger's awareness reacts with the warrior's instincts. Ratsel was right. He had to leave.

But he would return. And he would fight this man once again.

And next time, he would be ready.

More battle - continuing over and over again. Ingram is rather pleased to see that there is someone perceptive around here. But there was little else he could do - the Astranagnat had taken a battering, and it was time to withdraw. But he has one last exchange to make, and Ingram leaps in as Suzaku moves for one last strike. The two machines come together, blade slamming into each other's chest, just as the Chaff Grenade is fired at Ingram... And the flicker system engages, the Astranagant stepping just outside of normal space, and the attacks pass right through it. The same can not be said of Suzaku's mech, as Ingram cleaves it across the chest. "Regardless, it appears this operation is over. You have all fought quite well today - I admit that I am impressed by your skill and fortitude. But if you do not grow stronger, I doubt you shall fare too well next time." Throwing a parting smirk in Suzaku's direction, Ingram hits the recall function - and the Astranagant vanishes from the field in a ball of blue light, which distorts and leaps for the sky, leaving nothing but a faint crackle of ionized air in its wake.

<THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN SURPRISE ME WITH THAT WOULD HELP YOU! NOTHING AT ALL!> Moonquencher roars, even as it forces the Sharlorn's helpless pilot to raise it. The Sharlorn does not dodge. It /kills/. The head launcher fires a pod... and Moonquencher ignores it. Sharlorn slams the sword downward in a powerful stab, meant to impale the Habbakuk.

This is ultimately a bad plan. The beams fire. <WHAT!? YOU DARE?!> The light washes over the Sharlorn, vaporizing corpses and bone. The machine falls forward...but as it does, Moonquencher begins its final offensive. It swings upwards, slicing for the Habbakuk with magic-driven force. <-I CANNOT BE DEFEATED BY THE LIKES OF YOU! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED! I AM UNSTOPPABLE!>

The Sharlorn falls to its knees. It is left only with its dragonbone frame and the thin inner shell of dead matter that keeps things from falling out /all the time/. It falls forward even as Moonquencher continues to rave. In the cockpit, Suulo Stonefoot's eyes finally roll back around. She blinks, listening to the ranting. <-I AM INVINCIBLE! YOU ARE DEFEATED! YOU HAVE NOT WON! THIS MACHINE MAY BE WEAKENED, BUT I REMAIN! I CANNOT BE DESTROYED!> Suulo blinks...and then focuses her will. Moonquencher has been distracted enough that now the /vampire dwarf/ is in control. The sword's power is invoked, and the machine and sword blink out of the area, heading for the nearest graveyard and interrupting Moonquencher mid-thought. <-I AM UNSTOPPAB->

The Purus split their power. Trust only each other, is that it? Asfanit sighs. "You're so lonely, aren't you?" she murmurs. "That's it. You boast and you bluster because you haven't let anyone into your heart. But we're here for you, don't you see? We've come to guide you away from the pain, from the loneliness. We will give you something to live for, and friends to live with."

But a sigh, then, as the Purus come in from opposite angles. Asfanit grits her teeth. Time, she decides, for a show of force. And Tzrikha... stops moving.

Puru Seven's blasts smash into that barrier, again, again, again, again, hammer, hammer, hammer, HAMMER, and they just /bounce off/, completely failing to do anything but spark the air impressively. "But if you are so, so dedicated to living a life of despair..."

"Then yes, we will make sure that that broken part of you is destroyed."

Asfanit's psychic talents are weak, and mostly filtered by her machine; so the terrifying effects of Puru Two's psyche eroding are largely not present. And the beam swords come from those massive arms, and SLAM into that barrier with OVERWHELMING POWER, and it /doesn't even ripple/.

Power flares, star-bright for several long seconds...but in the end, the beams end before the shield bursts.

Asfanit takes a slow, deep breath, eyes closing. That was taxing, she decides. But the driver didn't suffer much heat damage, so....but there's another problem.

"It seems my compatriots are mostly gone, and I'm not /that/ kind." She laughs. "This is farewell, for now~" she chimes.

And then: Gravity tremor...and the Tzrikha simply vanishes.

Thrudgelmir slowly turns to face the damaged Type-3, where it floats in midair... but it doesn't get farther than a few small steps towards it before the Kurogane suddenly smashes down in between the two machines, its cannons lancing fire out towards the Sword of Magus.

They never even come close to hitting; Thrudgelmir casually bats a few blasts out of the air with its Colossal Blade, and then it leaps into the air, its drill thrusters firing to carry it upwards and away from the battleship.

The duel is interrupted. Victory now is meaningless; it must be clean. Honorable. It will mean nothing to her, if not. "Know this, Sanger Zonvolt," Wodan sneers, as Thrudgelmir turns to flee back towards the Gate of Magus. "I will not be outdone."

"I will not be your ghost."

And then Thrudgelmir dives through the massive black doors of the Earth Cradle and vanishes from sight, apparently bored by the lingering pockets of combat above ground.

The Boss Borot continues to fan itself on the lawnchair, mission forgotten.

If there was a second round of THAT - that'd be bad. Very bad. Duat's sensors are indicating quite clearly just how dangerous that 'sun' is - and it is in a ways quite a good thing that Ascian is remaining at such a distance - away from... whatever that was. And there was no way he was going to go anywhere near that tornado of sand and explosive energy as long as it was brewing. With the current state of his unit - he knew he would not survive that.

Shifting his attention to the radar inside of his cockpit - he notices that most of the alien targets have been neutralized or have fled. And when the last of them is finally gone - he lets his head fall back against the cockpit's seat and lets go of the controls. Amenthes, no longer receiving a signal from its runner, automatically engages autopilot and remains afloat above the desert whilst asserting what it should be doing.

"TO ALL EFA UNITS AND OTHERWISE!" From his relaxed position he shouts across the radio. "WE APPRECIATE YOUR ASSISTANCE AGAINST THE ALIEN THREAT. BUT WITH OUR SHARED ENEMY GONE, YOU ARE NOW IN HOSTILE TERITORY. PLEASE LEAVE WITHIN THIRTY SECONDS, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!" Or at least... he would. It's a silly threat really - but he truly has /no/ love for the EFA.

"Aye Aye Supreme Commander Of Destiny." Novas says, following after Huang. "Kids these days. You give them a mech and they Gundam all over you. Though have you met Merry? She's so /farreeaaakin'/ adorable." She doesn't REALLY blame anybody, though she will talk smack--you get stressed in combat operations, do crazy things which get other people to do crazy things and so on. It happens. What's actually important is what happens next.

The Astranagant retreats, leaving the one legged Valsion Kai just hovering there in midair, aiming at where it once was. Erika shakes and trembles, "... Is it over?" Aaaand then Ascian gives his ultimatum, causing Erika to flinch, "Guess not... hopefully they take the hint and pull back. I don't know if I have enough for another go..."

Just because Asfanit's decided to retreat doesn't mean Puru Two is done yet. "Wait... come back...!" Her voice is strained, the clone soldier struggling to fully regain control over herself. The Psyco Gundam wants to continue killing. Anything will do. It turns towards the Qubeley--

"Stop, stoooop!!" ...just in time. Those blades were already heading in that direction, but are quickly retracted. "...that's enough. They're gone." She doesn't spare a word of apology for her fellow clone, but then again, what else is new.

The Psyco Gundam remains where it is just in case, but as long as it doesn't look like anybody else gets any big ideas about approaching the Cradle, it makes no more hostile moves. Puru Two is tired. Tired from mental exertion, tired of this battle, tired of always playing defense against these aliens in general.

And part of her... part of her wonders if Asfanit didn't have a point there somewhere.

The Dream Weaver lowered the longbow, and then finally opted to put it into a holding place in the back area of the machine. The man within the cockpit tilted his head to the side, and then smiled a bit at the words of Suzaku. "Can you honestly say you did not gain worthwhile battle experience from that, as well as knowledge of his capabilities?" Rem asked of Suzaku... before rolling his eyes at the announcement from Luddite.

"Not a single shred of decency from that one is there?" Rem inquired of anyone who was bored enough to listen to his question. The Habbakuk, apparenly too damaged by the Sharlorn's final brutal strike to continue prosecuting its attack, or unleashing another of those fusor bombs at -- well, the Earth Cradle, or individuals on foot, or Personal Troopers --

Well, it vanishes.

Perhaps to strike another day. In its seat, Osefet thinks to herself: Not bad. Not bad... for a beginning.

Max Continues to Hover there, even after Luddite's proclamation. and his own loudspeakers turn on. "You're welcome Luddite, but I'm not leaving until my commander does."

"Each time we fight, he has been stronger," is all Suzaku says for Mr. Blacknight. And since they're being threatened, he takes that as the cueu to FLOAT Pack his way to base. Whoooosh, montage, slow monologue superimposed over Lelouch, next episode.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Seven transmits, "Tsk! She ran away..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "You'll get her next time, I'm sure."

And then.

Puru Seven's mind draws to focus as she realizes that the Psyco Gundam's attack hasn't completely, fully stopped just yet. As the monolith bears down on her, her eyes widen-- and for the first time, she actually freezes in combat like a deer in headlights.

And then the blades retract.

For perhaps the first time in her life, worry creases the young clone's face. There was something wrong there. She could feel the strain in her voice-- not just on the radio, but in her mind, her heart. Hesitating to remark on the incident, she instead stares at the massive dark purple monolith and turns her head to regard her Funnels, tracking them with the HUD and her own two eyes.

Guiding them back to the dock in the tail binder, the massive wing binders swing down over the arms while the Mobile Suit returns to a standby position. Carefully, the Zeonic Mobile Suit starts walking back to the Earth Cradle, a bit of doubt in her eyes.

What the hell was that?

'We only trust ourselves,' she had just said. For all the jokes and chiding she's made about the need to take it over for Two, maybe there really is something going on? Of course, if it were /her/ Mobile Suit, it wouldn't be a problem at all.

She's lucky number Seven, after all.

"You know I don't deal in idle threats - Valkyrie pilot!" Ascian could not even be bothered to learn Maximillian's name - even though he had introduced himself during their previous encounter. He slowly seats himself up more properly and takes a gaze at his unit's energylevels. There was definitely a tactical disadvantage in attacking Maximillian in this location. Nowhere to get the man stuck between buildings, or surprise-attack him. However - he was not about to make it seem like he was someone who merely bluffed!

So, the wings expand one more time, the red glow of the homing lasers building up between them all and aim directly at the Valkyrie. But it seems that Huang - Maximillian's commander was 'just heading out' - so the young EFA ace gets away without being blasted. A breath of relief comes from Ascian - and he contacts the base before coming in for a landing, all units having left.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Earth Cradle... please ready your medical unit. Coming in wounded."