2010-11-23 - Knight-mare in the Desert

To many people the area of North Africa was more of a Crusader held locale than anything else. So it was not too much of a shock that when people tended to hear of bad news occuring there many of the crueler and more grudge-bearing pilots tended to turn a blind eye. Yet this was something which played directly into the hand of Rem Blacknight, he did not want an entire army coming after him... not yet at least. He had to test these surface folk and see what their capabilities were.

An alert went out on local bands, and some military bands. In North Africa there was a town called Tarfar, and within the town there were many ordinary citizens who went about their lives naturally. So when the alert went out it came as a shock to everyone... this was not a military target. It was not even a worthwhile civilian target.

The local elementary school, housing at least one thousand children, was allegedly under attack during the middle of the day.

Remy Sledge is.. not on contract suprisingly, having ~just~ fixed the noir, and for whatever reason, has taken it out to the desert to do telemetry checks, and some target practice, the often unseen pilot of the machine, pauses in his routine of checks, and dials in the frequency from the chatter, "... an elementry school.." a soft sigh to be heard by no-one, he simply lights his cigarette, his machine independant from him, turning and engaging the thrusters, moving at a decent clip across the sand, a huge multiband radio frequency anomoly appearing as combat systems online themselves, shrouding him from most conventional sensors. "I swear to god, I can understand attacking factories, but a frickin school?"

Despite anyone's warnings, Max Jenius makes a return flight to the earth Cradle in North Africa. He didn't care who jurisdiction it was under, he returned to make sure there were no return Balmarian incursions.

Ascian, scout under the Divine Crusaders, is tasked with protecting and keeping this entire area at bay. Or rather, that's a job he has assigned to himself, not quite knowing what else to do. However, since his unit was temporarily 'in the shop' so to say, he is forced to resort to flying a Variable Fighter. When the signal comes in, the obvious response is annoyance. "Damn aliens." Without knowing who or what it was, that was an easy assumption to make. So, he hits the jet's verniers to full and flies straight off towards the target and does a quick fly-over and uses the unit's camera that had been set at the bottom to take quick snapshots - both heat and image... to see what is going on.

Those who opted to respond to the call for assistance would arrive within visual sight, and what they would see was perhaps beyond understanding. There did stand a giant, multi-limbed monstrosity flailing about the limbs and seemingly plucking children up and eating the children, one after another. Each child eaten was savored longingly and then another massive tentacle would descend upon the school. The childrens voices all called out for help, save us they cried, sobbing and shivering in fright within the school.

As the three defenders grew within weapons range the image wavered, like a mirage...and then vanished.

In the playground of the school there stood a man in white, playing gently with the children. "Oh they're here?" he asked, as one child tugged at his arm and pointed skyward. Two defenders? That would do well, he thought while he smiled, patted the child on the head and then walked toward an open section of the outside playground. "Take care alright?"

A second later a forty foot tall machine stood near the school, it resembled a knight from the days of old although with a somewhat slimmer, more elegant design to the armor. The Dream Weaver stepped away from the school slowly, taking care to step cautiously around so that nobody would be stepped on, and then it pointed a hand up toward the nearest person, whom was Ascian. "Stay and fight or I will kill everyone within two city blocks," a voice called out over the radio, before a man wearing a mask appeared on the openly sent visual transmission. "I am Morpheus, master of dreams, and you two shall be the first of many to fall."

The video transmission ceased, as within the cockpit the light inside dimmed and the entire machine seemed to shift internally. The exterior also began to change, cracks formed along the outside and from those cracks the darkest of all darkness oozed out and billowed around the Dream Weaver like a fog.

-- Nightmare Mode Initiated --

Max's Valkyrie turned it's head towards the... strange mech nearby and actually chuckles. "How ironic. Now the situation he put New York in, is back on him." He says before turning more fully towards the 40 foot mech. "However, I can't really let him fight this thing alone..."

A Cold Modulated mechanical Voice comes over the general comms, well it's more of a insane bout of giggling, "Then you know what nightmares I bring." as the giggling gets put under control, from a sand dune way off in the distance there's a rapid flicker of bright flashes, followed by a black shape with skeletal wings darting off to the left, large calibur rounds screaming at the 40 foot 'knight mech'.

The weird tentacle monster has goosebumps rising on Ascian's skin - but when he does his flyover and it disappears... getting those pictures of what was really going on down there... it all felt weird to him. Like someone playing a game with them. A bluff? The young man circles his VF around the school a single time so that he can take a look at the odd looking robot beneath. "I refuse." He suddenly calls out. "You will not harm those children. And even if you do - I have no need of protecting them." Maximillian probably knew this to be true the most out of all of those present. "Can't you give me a better reason for starting a fight?" Unlike Remy - who'd by now fired a shot already -- he continues to fly in circles.

The shots from Remy Sledge hurtled into the mass of shadows and the white knight, and the entire frame shook from the impact of the heavy calibur rounds. A left hand flicked out in the direction of Remy and the air coalesced solidly into rounds exactly like what he had just used, before firing off after his distant form. The Dream Weaver looked upward as both Maximillian and Ascian settled in over the area in their flying machines. "I can give you a great reason," the voice of Morpheus spoke out in the mind of Ascian, no longer bothering with radio systems.

The hand that had previously flickered toward Remy's direction once again lifted up, this time into a fist. The air grew more solid near the Noir, before a duplicate of the Dream Weaver appeared near Remy's machine holding a sword crafted of darkness. This was in turn sent thrusting out at Remy before the phantasm vanished into thin air again.

Toward the other two the right hand lifted, and flung out in a wide arc before the Dream Weaver. For a second nothing seemed to happen, and then from the ground pillars of fire erupted upward out of the middle of the busy city streets toward the Variable Fighters. "I will burn you to ashes if you stand there and do nothing!"

Max does a nice little drop to avoid the magic beam from the mech and starts sliding around it in a circle, popping a shot from his gun pod at it. "Well...if you insist upon fighting, lets dance...." and opens up a longer burst from his gun pod...

Remy Sledge's machine is a nimble bastard, as it pulls it's own vanishing act, it suddenly stopping in it's tracks to avoid the swing, and then firing off it's boosters and zipping away at breakneck speed, "Hah, your going to have to do better than that." the cold mechanical voice resounds over the radio, "there you are..' the giggling begins again, as there's another rapid flicker coming from another dune, those heavy large rounds screeching yet again at the white knight machine, the sound of the report coming much later.

When the fire erupts from the ground, there is nothing but surprise from Ascian - an emotion that'd become present the moment he'd heard Rem Blacknight's voice within his mind. His right eye twitches a bit - and he squints his eyes tightly for a moment. He pulls as hard on the stick as possible to try and get out of the way. For a moment he feels the heat of the fire near him, just as if it was touching his very skin... then leave again. His eyes open again and he quickly looks over his shoulder. The left wing was looking slightly charred - but it was still in flying condition. "Damn... okay - he's asking for it." His legs suddenly twitch. He looks down at the both of them, set in their white casts. "I can't believe they convinced me to fly with these wounds..." Those flames were reminding him of the pain he'd felt last day...

"Let's hope I don't die..." He bites his lower lip and turns his unit around. It is quite clear that this pilot is not used to flying a variable fighter. However, he knows very well where the buttons are now. So - when he believes he has an aim on the white knight - and sends a spread volley - hoping that the kinetic force of the blasts will push the black fog away from this unit... to reveal it.

The gunpod assault from Maximillian ripped into the Dream Weaver, leaving small holes in the armor plating where each bullet hit as well as holes in the foggy shroud that wrapped about it. The response from that assault was that the air around Max was filled with blades of every type and shape, balls and spirals and straight ordinary blades that sparkled in the light of the sun. The Dream Weaver looked as though it was about to follow through when Remy's slug ripped into the left shoulder of the machine.

The Dream Weaver staggered from the first, yet stood up straight and took the second round from Remy's most recent barrage as though it was adjusting to what was being used against it. The head swiveled toward the direction of the Noir, hiding near those dunes...and then the sand coalesced into a giant fist which hammered out at the Noir! "Very good ranged capabilities, excellent accuracy, but if that's the best your gun can do then it is not worthy of my taking it," a voice echoed within the minds of the pilots fighting against the Dream Weaver.

The final opponent to leap in was Ascian, his missile spread blowing up a large chunk of the area around the Dream Weaver, although as the cloud of debris and dust settled the strange magical machine remained standing. The air near the Variable Fighter coalesced, and then an actual god's honest truth Dragon appeared and unleashed a massive blast of flames from it's mouth, before roaring defiance and disappearing once more.

The air seemed to almost sweep in around the Dream Weaver, gathered near the right hand and then a rifle appeared in it's grip. This rifle was casually aimed over in the direction of the Noir, a shot rang out from it that unleashed a single solid burst of air. While that shot continued to travel toward the Noir the free hand lifted up and shoved out toward Maximillian and Ascian, a powerful force of gravity gathered and dropped upon the two of them and their transforming machines.

Remy Sledge's core reels with the incoming assault, it stops moving, only to completely vanish for a moment, "Not bad...." reappearing right behind Rem's machine, a glowing red spike emitting from it's fist, the core's fist fires upwards in an uppercut motion, aiming for what would on a human being the kidneys, in this case, the back of the White knight machine. Regardless if his attack his successful, the black mecha zips off straight into the air in a almost drunken zigzag pattern.

"You've got to be..." When the firey dragon appears, Ascian hits the pedal on the unit straight down. However, he is forced to twitch it back up when a fierce pain courses through his body... staggering the unit and causing the fire to lick all across his unit. "Shiiiii~...!" The framerunner was truly out of his element in this battle... then suddenly something happens. As the gravity begins to shift - a red line suddenly 'glows' slightly beneath his eyes and causes him to instinctively pull the stick to the right and sends the unit flying around the 'attack'.

"What the..." It's when he is safe and hears the ground behind him being crushed to pieces that the realization hits him of what just happened. He whispers softly the name of his Orbital Frame - which was still stationed at the Earth Cradle. "Wish I wasn't in this piece of CRAP!" He calls out over the radio and at that same time sends an entire volley of missiles aimed straight for the knight's torso, believing that to be the location of the cockpit.

Once more Max attempted to use gunfire to end the life of the Dream Weaver's pilot, yet as the bullets rained upon the machine it seemed distracted... as though it wasn't really interested in the Valkyrie whatsoever. The rifle it held in the right hand shifted, warped into a long black blade that oozed darkness, and the Dream Weaver ceased to be where it was.

A second later the large blade of the Dream Weaver had carved deeply into the Valkyrie of Maximillian, chopping off as much parts of the machine as it could. "Laugh? At me? I doubt that will happen," the voice echoed again within the minds of the pilots. The sword lifted up toward the heavens and then was leveled in the direction of the Noir as it attempted to conduct an uppercut upon the Dream Weaver. What came from the machine was a ghostly hooded figure bearing a scythe, and it descended upon the approaching Noir with intent to kill. The scythe swung out, carved slightly into the Noir, and then the Grim Reaper was gone once more. The Dream Weaver hovered there in the air as the missiles from the Variable Fighter rammed into it, the explosions caused it to almost crumple over as it was pushed away from Maximillian's position and toward an open section of air space. The right arm lifted up and swung out toward Ascian's direction, and the arm itself stretched out over the distance so that the sword could cleave into the Fighter. "What you call a piece of crap I call a work of art, do you not realize how above and beyond your machine is to some things I have seen? You are a fool to doubt it's might."

The right arm retracted, and the left hand came up to clench the blade of the sword. The sword itself was ripped apart, the hilt of it sent flying toward the direction of the Noir, or rather the ground far below it's now aerial presence. From the ground tentacles erupted, crafted from darkness and shadows, and these tendrils attempted to grab hold of the Noir and drag it back to the ground so that it could be crushed into non-existence. The blade of the sword was sent flying toward Ascian and Maximillian, and before it reached them it simply exploded into a mist. A mist that enshrouded them, and if they stayed within that mist they'd find themselves becoming battered, devestated and potentially destroyed by forces beyond their comprehension.

Max immediately moves out of the way of the cloud of darkness attack, smirking a bit. "I had a feeling you'd try to pull something like that. Magic seems to be your forte, so.....I think it's time to bring you down." Transforming into Gerwalk mode for a second, he waits for the mechs attention to focus upon Ascian and the other mech out there before leveling out his flight a bit. His gun pod then levels at the larger mechs back and opens up...

The Crimson noir is having one of it's bad days, about 90% of the armor plating has been knocked off the machine in one sense or another, giving it a very skeletal look, enhancing it's morbid appearance, over the comms there's the sound of insane cackling, "I'mmm going to kiiiillll youuuu." the modulation making the voice even more creepy, instead of speeding around like it usually does, it starts a slow walk toward the white machine, one hand reaching into a chest hangar and pulling out a mech sized submachinegun, the other hand lifting the assault rifle, it just opens up with fully automatic fire from both weapons the deafening roar of fire coupled by the small storm of huge shell casings.. that insane laughter continuing.

What the 'pilot' of the Dream Weaver called a piece of art was incapable of reacting as fast as Ascian needed it to. When the black sword came crossing his way - it cut down the belly of the unit - scraping through the metal and justling the machine around. "Gaaah...." The man grabs the stick more firmly and tries to get control back - but just when he is about to pull around for another attack, the ghastly enemy sends a second attack towards him. He is just barely able not to raise his hand up to cover his face from the incoming sword... and pushes his foot to the pedal. That was probably what saved him as the mist spread... for only the back of his unit had begun to rush and crumble. The entirely unit was starting to become unstable...

He pulls firmly on the stick and sends his unit straight up towards the stratosphere - looking back down over his shoulder. He kept his eye on the strange machine as he makes distance. He was starting to get scared. "Why are you doing this!?" he calls out. "Why this pointless battle?" He then swirves the unit around and aims its nose straight at his opponent and flips a little cover off of the top of the controls - revealing a big red button. "Well..." He shut off the radio. "Bye bye ammo... this better work." He presses down and makes a single vertical 360 around the jet's axis, causing the many missiles that are fired to be sent from different directions at his enemy. It wasn't anything like Amenthes' laserfire... which was accurate... but there was definitely the devastating potential. "Stop the pointless fighting - you're no better than the EFA!"

The Noir can't possibly take any more punishment, the machine barely held together by itself, "Hey, crazy white motherfuck tithead, I got everything on yer lil toy there." before it in a rather dangerous maneuver fires off it's overbooster, and takes off, flying in a drunken zig-zag, unseen in the cockpit, remy is bleeding from the mouth, nose ears and eyes, biofeedback is a bitch.

Remy Sledge's Noir demonstrated well that the firepower it could wield was most definitely worthy of looking at, and as the bullets streamed into the Dream Weaver it shook and rattled and fell toward the ground, only to hit the ground and immediately go to a kneeling position. A burst of fire appeared near the Noir, yet it continued onward over the horizon and most likely burnt some random bird to death.

As Max attempted to flank and plug holes into the backside of the Dream Weaver his screen was filled with darkness, and then that darkness began to eat away at the Valkyrie like a hungry little hippo eating pellets. The Dream Weaver itself had vanished, appearing near the Variable Fighter flown by Ascian. Missiles started to be unleashed from the Fighter and the left hand came up... and the missiles vanished. "I do this to save the woman I love, why do you fight?"

The question is left floating there in Ascian's mind as the Dream Weaver flickered from view and appeared on top of the Valkyrie in Battroid form. It looked down at the machine it stood on top of, rested calmly on the shoulders as though this was ordinary, and then it pointed a finger at the head of the Valkyrie. If Max didn't avoid the head would simply cease to be.

Then the Dream Weaver was near Ascian's Variable Fighter once more. "Did you decide why you fight yet?" the voice asked of Ascian, before a hand came up and pointed directly at Ascian's machine. A giant guillotine would appear, and descend toward the Variable Fighter with full intent to cut it in half.

Max is starting to get on a roll here. As the attack came for the Valkyrie, Max moved out of the way again. "This is getting interesting. However, you're still attacking the Earth Cradle. I don't know why Ascian hates the EFA, but you're fighting the wrong people if your wife was taken. I know the SDF-1 doesn't have her, and I can't let you attack the Earth Cradle that we defended a couple of nights ago... sorry." It's then that a LARGE barrage of missiles is sent towards the mech.

 Tightbeam to Ascian Luddite: Remy Sledge says, "*cough* You handle that machine well."

 Tightbeam to Remy Sledge: Ascian Luddite say, "SHUT UP."

 Tightbeam from Remy Sledge says, "That was a compliment, sorry *cough* was trying to be nice."

There is no way for Ascian to formulate an answer as he is too busy trying to get his unit to move around the incoming attack. His heart was racing - his eyes shivering within his sockets as that guillotine appears. "This is crazy..." He mutters to himself as he realizes just in how much trouble he is. He can feel clearly as the back of his unit is entirely torn off - and he can see the wings of the variable fighter falling off. The variable fighter goes into a death-spin, and the young man can't help but freak. He begins pulling on any controls he can get his hand on. "I can't die here!" He calls out, "I have to find my sister... I have to protect my home from the earth! I have to save my sister!" He calls out in response to Rem's taunt - wanting to at least utter those words. "She still needs me! I need to find her!" He sounds desperate. "Anything to find her." In a ways, he could understand doing 'anything' for wanting to find 'the one' one loved. But this... this behavior made no sense.

"How will randomly attacking people save the one you love!?" He calls out and finally pulls on a control - causing a series of parachutes to suddenly deploy close to the ground - and transform parts of the unit. In the end, the fall is slightly broken and the machine /crashes/ into the sand. The BAHRAM pilot was lucky that he was tightly fastened in his seat. But he could feel something wet moving down his neck after his head smacked back into the seat - through the helmet he was wearing - glass of the visor broken. Some sand was falling down into the cockpit through some holes - and he was having a hard time concentrating. "No way..." He whispers to himself. "I can't die here..."

He pulls on the controls and tries to get the right arm of his unit to move. It did! The gunpod underneath it was still somehow attached and working. "Just like you - there is someone I must save. You can either ask for help - or you can die and fail!" And with that he sends a series of missiles from the attachments around the gunpod - rushing for the strange craft. "But /I/ WONT die here! Not in a battle that means nothing!"

Maximillian attempted to destroy the Dream Weaver once more, the missiles smashing into it and erupting in explosions that would have fallen a lesser machine. What existed afterward was a skeletal machine that seemed more monster than knight, the foggy darkness oozing from it holding the machine together by sheer force of will. The hands swung out to the side as Ascian responded, showing not only that he has emotions and a personal reason for what he does, but also the willingness to murder as he fired off his own stream of missiles. The left hand lifted up...

And the missiles were gone again.

The Dream Weaver stood up straight as the right hand reached out and grabbed the air, only to rip free from the very fabric of reality a sword crafted from some unknown material that glittered beautifully in the sunlight. The city nearby had already been evacuated, the battle itself no longer a threat to innocent civilians, and so as the left hand lifted and pointed toward Maximillian's Valkyrie it seemed that what was to come should be the worlds deadliest attack.

An orange fish appeared, flapping against the Valkyrie wetly. It's just a small fish right?

The Dream Weaver blurred, and then it was next to Ascian once again, the blade it held twirled about and held upside down by the hilt. The weapon was lifted up, and then driven toward the center of the machine, yet aimed in such a way that it would shear right past the cockpit rather than through it.

"I wish you luck in the future in finding her."

Max cartwheels out of the way of the illusion of the fish. "Ok... this is getting way too weird. maybe I can disable this guy." The Valkyrie switches to Fighter mode and flies over the mech, before transforming, GRABBING the mech's shoulder, planting it's feet and aiming it's gun straight at, what he thinks is, his power cell... he then fires.

When the massive sword is about to come down, Ascian has already left the cockpit and is stumbling into the direction of the school. He hit the dirt the moment the weapon slices into the machine - and feels his body being thrown around like a ragdoll as the kinetic force of the explosion hits him. The BAHRAM framerunner ends up unconcious - due to the pain his legs are sending through his body as well as due to the explosion.

The Dream Weaver stood there as the Variable Fighter erupted about it in an explosion, the darkness that it emitted swirled around the machine like a curtain of protection. When Max came in and started to unload on it the machine was too late to respond, it twisted and the cloud began to billow...yet it was all too slow. The Dream Weaver shook, shuddered and then collapsed to the ground in a kneeling position. A hole could be seen going all the way through to the other side of the machine.

"We will meet again," that voice echoed once more, as the Dream Weaver began to crack like glass and then shattered apart. The remains blew away in the wind like dust.

Maximillian Jenius shakes his head as the machine disappeared. "Takes all kinds I guess. If what he said on the radio is right, I hope he finds who he's looking for soon."

Max then looks over towards Ascian's unconcious form and snickers. "I'm gonna start calling you faceplant." he says as the Valk switches to Gerwalk mode and picks up Ascian.... only to fly him into the city and as close to a hospital as he can. By the time the DC forces actually decide to react to max's presence, Max takes off... once Ascian is in the hospital ward. Maximillian isn't stupid enough to go into a military base.