2011-07-17 - UNDERGROUND

THREE DAYS AGO:

The warehouse-cum-workshop is a battered mess, occupied mostly by junk parts from a thousand different machines, big and small. The locals bring their machines to her to get fixed, and then go take them out again - fighting for the Breakers, or just murdering each other further down into the slums. The proprietor, a pale woman with electric blue hair, doesn't particularly care either way, as long as she gets paid.

But what she does care about is when some of them come back with stories about someone falling down into the tunnels - and coming back with word of something they didn't expect down on the scanners. She checks her own instruments, monitoring the chambers far below that mustn't be disturbed...

The lenses of her goggles turn transparent, allowing an unimpeded view by nobody of her eyes - one normal, the other a cybernetic with an unceasing electric blue light - squinting in concern. "Shit," she says. "...can't ignore this one."

Shortly after that, a request came in to the Trailer Network: Come to Underground. There's something in the tunnels. The pay is decent, and the contractor gives her name only as 'Thousand.'

NOW:

The gateway to Underground is a tremendous crater, easily half a mile across, which is actually more like a /hole/ - descending deep into the Earth. Thousand's instructions indicated how to get into that hole without falling into the several different traps located along it, and the Trailers may notice a net, or perhaps more like a /web/, crawling with men with knives and malicious eyes, awaiting the unwary below one of the entrances.

Their directions take them down. Underground is a massive vertical city - eclectic and mad, with strip clubs and casinos located above bars and below colosseums. Violence is everywhere. The whole place is dirty. The mecha of the day appear to be Bigfoots, an obscure type of mecha originally bashed together by a designer from Zora out of car parts, but there's all sorts around here. And at the bottom, after a long series of tromping and elevators, are the tunnels down - deep into darkness, with the sound of a river far below.

Your contact for the mission is Thousand, the same woman with the electric hair and the impenetrable goggles over her eyes. She lays out the mission via communicator from her ratty workshop. "There's some stuff down in the tunnels Underground can't exist without. It may not be paradise, but...not everyone here is a devil. They don't deserve to get their water supply poisoned or something. But if I go to the locals, they're as likely as not to break it for some stupid reason. So I figured I could trust some experts." She smiles, tipping a bright blue eyebrow. "Right?"

When trouble is abound in Siberia, a place Xiang Yuan now watched with as much interest as he did the Spiral Plains, and there comes a contract that sounds like it is legit and not particularly related to this world's strange wars, he was quick to take it up. After a long conversation with his second, Yu Zhi Wu, they together decided that it was perhaps best to show that the captain of the SuiKyosha could prove himself in battle.

So, a few moments ago, the massive SuiKyosha actually parked itself outside of the only slightly more massive crater, with its rear aimed at the opening, and released its rear hangar's doors. From within, one might immediately pick out the single Gunmen that is standing at the front, with a beautiful and regal looking red cloak flowing by its shoulders. Its hands are styled like dragon-heads, and the chest part almost looks like it is flaming - so many touches have been put to this unit just to make it look beautiful. But then, it is rare that the Emperor takes it out.

Behind him, are a small crew of general Gunmen style units, along with a few 'other' elite troops. "Alright. We are going in." Xiang Yuan speaks over the communication systems, as he jumps straight down before he begins following that long series of elevators and walkways. Within the machine, Thousand appears on the screen, and Xiang nods her her as she speaks of experts. "You are correct, ma'am." He speaks in that regal way he usually does. "Do not worry yourself. We will find out what is going on, and take care of it."

For all that the Valhawk specializes in speed, both the mobile unit itself and its pilots are capable of relatively sedate transit, even in the sleek interceptor-like Air Force mode which is better for navigating down relatively narrow tunnels, provided there's enough clearance to accomodate turns. It's almost too bad, Kazuma reflected on the way down to Underground; the Valhawk's been getting overhauled lately, and he's looking forward to seeing what it can do now.

That was a bit ago, though. By now, the Valhawk has touched down and Kazuma and Mihiro are paying attention to Thousand's briefing, while Mihiro runs extra diagnostics in preparation for the actual mission. "So," Kazuma asks, "who or what did they spot which has you so worried?"

Yesterday was a nightmare for Remille. Though the mission was successful, she hated retreating. Thankfully the damage done seemed to be mostly over-heated parts and some quick slap back ons. At least by what her twin brother explained to her back in the Raven's Nest.

It was a good excuse to see him again, even if it was silent moments and her mostly going over information over a data-pad while he worked. The work probably did him good; the break did her wonders.

It was during this time she heard about a mission assignment for the Trailers, a unknown area in Siberia. Someone needing help. It would be a good way to test the new FCS that was being installed and make sure everything was in working order. The mission didn't sound to hard, though the chances were always there; but it was the chances that made it fun.

The Nightingale was dropped off by one of the Raven's own dropships instead of the normal Frightener dropship Remille used. The Armored Core started to drop down, before the thrusters kicked on and eased the machine toward the edge of the deep hole in the ground. Her radar showed nothing up this high, and the map sonar was just picking up the vertical shaft going down. Remille rubbed her nose ridge before she then leader her Armored Core down the 'rabbit hole' and whatever insanity may lay wait there.

She didn't exactly wait for the other Trailers, but she was sure they would catch up with her.

/Undergound/ Oh god.

Juku knows of the subterreanean city by reputation. It is a vile den of scum and villany. Not even Outreach or Solaris City in the Innersphere can match it's level of decadence and meat grinderish nightmare of violence.

Which is partially why she comes to see what the deal is. A town like this has plenty of hardened killers to throw at intruders, so why go outside of it?

Juku taps her fingers along the controls of the Rapid Environment eXperimental Hound as it descends along the wall of the crater. It's optical camo is off for now, just so none of these yahoos get the idea to detonate a pressure sensative booby trap as the Mobile Suit walks along. "I suggest we all stay inside our mechs. Or one of these jokers will knife you in the back."

"So 'Thousand'." She pauses as she thinks of the moniker. "What do you think is down there?" the Mobile suit comes to the underground river, and being much bigger then a Bigfoot, wades into the water to start descending.

Contract work. Normally, this isn't exactly the sort of thing that Sinya Leland normally gets involved in. The Trailer mechanic usually sticks to repairing mechs at the Raven's Nest or doing custom designs on the SuiKyosha, but when Emperor Xiang Yuan decided to take up on this little expedition, she couldn't exactly refuse to tag along. Sure, only a few people even knew she had a relationship with the enigmatic Captain of the Trailer battleship, but that doesn't mean that she can't make excuses enough to come along. For now, her reasoning is simply filling in the gap in the SuiKyosha's military, and scouting out Underground as a possible source for new materials and goods.

In the cockpit of her guymelef, the catgirl lets out a low whistle, looking around at the sighs of the strange vertical city. It seems like one of those places you'd see in a video game, designed by some madman as his idea of some perfect utopia, but then turned into a scum-filled place of violence and human pleasures. Not that she particularly minds. There are plenty of people who think the same of certain parts of the Raven's Nest, even if it didn't get nearly this bad.

The guymelef stands a bit in the back of some of the other units. Front-line fighting has never been the catgirl's strong point. Still, there his a crackle of energy from the staff held at the gryphon knight's side. It actually lights the tunnels a bit, casting them in an aqua glow from the thrumming energists. Her ears twitch inside the helmet, listening to the run down of things, and then she nods. "So we need to watch out for the water lines. Anything else?" Just on the off-chance it's needed, she has a small pack of repair equipment strapped to the guymelef's back.

 Juku Reimaru transmits, "God, /Underground/. This place is a viper's nest."

 Sinya Leland transmits, "It doesn't smell nice either."

 Remille Fortner transmits, "Seems like a common slum area."

 Juku Reimaru transmits, "Thats the smell of prostitution and blood."

 Sinya Leland transmits, "I really hope it's not prostitution I smell. Eww."

 Remille Fortner transmits, "I think this is also when I am thankful that my Armored Core is equipped with filters."

 Juku Reimaru transmits, "It's way worse then a slum. There is no goverment here, no laws. No one wants Underground."

 Macua Huitl transmits, "Tell me about it."

Simon still likes to help out his ol' trailer powers now and then and with Lord Genome up to ... something ... if he hears of something suspicious and can check it out, hee darn well will. He didn't summon the Brigade over, naturally, though Nia could have come along if she wanted.

"Wow," He's saying. "Haven't seen an underground city this huge /ever/. It makes home seem real tiny. Though what's with all the uh--" He shuts his mouth up, shaking her head. "Well--sure, we'll do our best." He looks to the comm. "And we'll try not to make anything worse. I know these things can seem real clumsy sometimes--"

"A wretched hive of scum and villainy?"

"That's one way to put it."

Sly Heckler was given three pieces of advice concerning Underground. One: Don't go unarmed. Two: Don't accept any drink you didn't overpay by about 30% for, and three: always collect cash up front. Sly has only ever been here once before, and that was to meet a contact who ended up getting stabbed in a barfight before their meeting could take place. Afterwards, he decided this scene was a bit too raw for his tastes.

However, he's back again now, mostly as a favor to someone who had some kind of business interests here they wanted protecting. However, Sly certainly wasn't going to go unarmed, and this sounded like it might be some mech action. His Seraph was in pieces however, and he wasn't sure something the size of the Poltergeist would be warranted. Instead, he decided to break out his Tengu armor once more.

Surprisingly fast and well armed for its size, Sly figured that the Tengu could deal with anything he felt like dealing with, and evade anything in the city he didn't. Besides, who knows if they'll need someone person-sized to go do anything. This 'Thousand' was very nonspecific about what the job was.

Sly's ship doesn't touch down..docking around here is dangerous. Instead he drops out as it flies past, using the Tengu's jet systems to break his fall and land along with the others, while the Equinox moves to do area recon and wait to pick them up. From there, Sly uses jets and his Battle Armor's natural speed to catch up with the rest, staying in cover whenever he can. This one is going to get bad, he can already feel it.

 Sinya Leland transmits, "I should probably switch to internal air supplies, didn't think I'd need that functionality on earth. Ugh."

Macua Huitl has seen the underground, she listens about not destroying the water supply and the like. "I understand it's not the right thing to do nor is it good for one reputation." She also notes on the other objections and she's not taken a contract job in a long time. She could use some pockert moiney after all and she keeps up with Sinya's machine as she does so. Otherwise the Brazilian's quiet for once.

EARLIER

There's a job! Jiron could use the cash, largely so he can actually stock the Iron Gear's kitchen with something he doesn't have to catch. It's not like it's bad food (for Zora), but he has to catch it all, and he's tired of doing it without so much as a 'thank you.' Breakers sure are jerks like that. Jiron heads down to the hangar, ready to go--

--and finds that, since he's announced he's not catching things, the two component vehicles of Walker Gallia have been fitted with nets and are being used instead.

NOW

Jiron descends into the tunnels on a Gallop. It's dark green, apparently borrowed from a secondary character.

He's not in a good mood.

Thousand huffs a sigh, shrugging her shoulders unhelpfully. "Hell if I know. We've had some weird excursions down there, sometimes. We think there must be something crawling out from Hollow Earth or the Dinosaur Empire's control zones, or something. Dead Bottom's not called that for all the hugs that happen down there, y'know?" Dead Bottom being the very bottom of Underground, where you by now are situated. "But most of those take care of themselves, ignore the area, or just piss off a local gang enough to get handled. This one..." She frowns, tapping her hand against her table. "I've looked at the data, and it seems like there's some kind of intent there." And intent, she doesn't say, means probably it's not just some bone serpent sneaking out of La Gias.

"Anyway~" she chimes. "Have fun! Connection with Underground is gonna get shakey as you go further in, but I'll try to keep the signal boosted. There's a /few/ repeaters down there, anyway..."

And so it goes! The tunnels are mostly natural, down here; there's rivers or the signs of rivers going through most of them. Others... seem to be made by drilling machines, long ago. How long has this city been here...?

The question lingers, but no answers are forthcoming, because down one fork, there is the sound of drilling.

DOWN THAT TUNNEL:

"I miss Captain Moleford."

"You mean General Moleford."

"Did he make General? I heard that's why he died."

"He didn't die, dumbass."

"Yeah he did. He went on that human neo-Myspace, right? And I hear he was making contact with someone on neo-Suicide Girls?"

"What's a Suicide Girl?"

"I think it's like a princess? Anyway so he set something up and he went on a date -"

"What's that? Isn't that like a fruit?"

"Shut up, dumbass! quack Anyway it's like when humans hang out to breed. So he goes on this thing and he finds out -- it's General Adiane!!"

"What??"

"Well, ever since that day, Moleford's never been seen again. And those fatty things on the front of her chest got three centimeters bigger."

"Holy shit."

SOMEWHAT FURTHER DOWN

The menacing machine "Seyrune", in its lower-down insectile mode, is providing support to the tunneling crews in two ways: One, by periodically sending a surge of water back elsewhere in the tunnels via whatever arcane means the machine uses to control the waters of Earth, and two, by being a looming presence to keep the tunnelers working.

Those tunnellers' numbers are unclear, but the glimpses of the south end of a northbound mole-type Gunman can be seen quite frequently. In the Seirune's cockpit, Adiane is simultaneously supervising labor, having a cigarette, eating a small box of bon bons, and reading a magazine on 'HUMAN EXTERMINATION MONTHLY.' Strangely, Char Aznable is on the cover.

 Remille Fortner transmits, "We have several here whom do not come up as Trailers. We should perhaps work out a joint channel to all units on this mission."

 Sinya Leland transmits, "Sounds like a plan to me, think you can arrange that, Remille?"

 Remille Fortner transmits, "Or not."

 Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "Sorry, it's an old frequency."

 Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "But I know some of us are tuned into it already."

 Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "Welcome to hand it over to the other people present. I do not have their radio information."

 Remille Fortner transmits, "So.. how are we going to do this? Any tactical plans?"

Remille listens to what is being explained and she glances round on what her view screen is showing, along with what data the map can pull up. The question does make her wonder how long this has been here. She knew of such things had to exist on Earth by stories she heard, but being Martian born-- and her adopted father a man originally from earth.. well.. she just never asked such questions about old ruins and things.

Besides, that never seemed like his cup of tea to ask him about.

Those sapphire eyes hrm for a moment as she takes in all who is here. It was indeed a mixing pot, but for the better good, wasn't it? Or at least the paycheck? She inhaled softly, before continuing her way down the tunnels toward the machinery sound. Though the Nightingale moved carefully. Those steps were slow and well controlled for a machine that is typically seen thruster sliding along. The two small machine guns in its hand, slowly raise up.

While waiting for the others to move in or get a better idea of what they were all facing, her hands go to set up a comm frequency, however it seems someone already beat her to it. "How typical." She murmurs to herself silently, before punching the numbers in.

"So--" She starts out on the new frequency.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "I'll hang back. Work backup, I think."

Xiang lets out an interested sound and rubs his chin - as if he had a beard there - and nods at the woman. He'd already told her they'd look into it. "We march on." He calls through on the radio to his soldiers, as well as the feline beastwoman who was amongst them. Xiang pushes the metalic bracers forwards and sends the Azure Dream walking on, step by step, using the three-sixty degree monitor capabilities to get a good look around himself, and watches out for those signal repeaters.

Most people might be expected to not feel very comfortable underground like this. But Xiang Yuan is different. Where Simon comes from an underground city, so does the Emperor. And as his title may suggest, he was actually one who had once taken up the role of 'Village Chief'. He is certain that Kamina would have punched him back then. Or maybe just his parents.

The man continues his pace until finally, the bright lights shone forwards by the eyes of the Azure Dream catch some of those drilling mole-type Gunmen. "Odd... Gunmen?" He flicks over to the old frequency. "I assume these are not friendly Gunmen..." He calls out through it, then turns his attention back to things before him and has his machine raise an arm. He's in a Gunmen, they might confuse him for an ally - humans or no humans. But how should he sound? "How goes the digging!?" He calls out, in the most 'chipper' voice he can manage... which is not very.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "Gunmen?"

The REX Hound wades out of the water of an undergound river, the numerous tiny thrusters on it's legs reconfigure from water jets to regular rocket thrusters. Juku slows her machine to a stop as she starts picking up sounds of...drilling. She frowns, and flips the switch for REX's stealth mode. The optical camo isn't as good as the Mithril made ECS, but in shadowy places like this is should serve pretty well.

The REX crouches down and moves forward towards the sound. "I'll take a look ahead." she radios back.

Surprisingly enough, a flower is growing in the cave! Oh wait, no, it's just Nia's head as she traveled down below with the others. hitching a ride from one of random, and yet friendly, people!

"I do hope it has gone well for them!" The princess responds to Xiang from one of the machines radios. "For there is much to dig, and if it was bad digging, then it could collapse!" Oh, Gunmen! She has seen those before so many times. ".... But if there was only one of her, why would she be called Thousand?" The princess notes as she sits back in whatever lap/seat/machine she is in!

Being a princess was hard, especially with all that not-walking she did in such situations!

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "You should get our crew to light different colors, so the SuiKyoshans don't get friendly fire."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Xiang Yuan transmits, "I will see what I can do."

So let's recap: They're going into a cave of doom which might or might not be filled with dinosaurs, to deal with a problem which might or might not exist, for a person who almost certainly won't pay them. Sly Heckler has heard better plans.

But what the hell, right? He didn't come all the way to Siberia and put on his best robot suit to NOT get shot at.

Given the small size and speed of his battle armor, Sly opts to take a lead scout position here, and heads on down into the tunnels. His Battle Armor might not have all the comforts of a BattleMech, but it does have a good sensor package and vision enhancements that make it easy for him to see what he's getting into, while the small size gives him at least some chance of spotting threats before they spot him.

Still, that doesn't mean he WANTS this particular position. "So, how long do you guys figure we crawl these tunnels not finding anything until we can declare 'mission success' and go get paid?"

Simon troddles. His head turns towards Xiang's machine though he doesn't call out to him at first, listening to what he has to say. Friendly Gunmen. Unlikely. "Nah, those aren't with the Brigade." He tells Xiang. "I'll put my money on them being the Beastm--" And then Xiang starts chatting them up. Simon's face is clearly horrified. There's no way the Beastmen could be that retard--


 * FLASHBACK*

Beastmen could be that retarded


 * END FLASHBACK*

The Gurren Lagann hunches down, awaiting for this to go all pearshaped. If they don't notice his mech he can get the drop on them.

Sinya Leland says, "Dead Bottom." Sinya repeats the name of the place with a little shiver causing her fur to stand on end. Places like that, well they had those names for a reason, and she certainly didn't want her grave to end up being this dark, dank place. It's enough to make her bristle, the sounds of water and the enclosed spaces where light flickers mostly from the various units and the occasional, flickering source somewhere else deep in the tunnels. It's more than a little creepy, especially for someone who prefers their freedom, and the ability to move without having to scrape her guymelef against slimy cave walls.

"Gunmen?" Sinya's ears lift as she hears Xiang report that over the radio. "You should get our crew to light different colors, so the SuiKyoshans don't get friendly fire." At the very least, the gryphon didn't have much chance of being mistaken for anything. There weren't many guymelefs on the upper world. Still, she hangs back for a time, behind the cover of a wall, allowing Xiang to chat up the Beastmen while the others search through additional tunnels. "I've got your back, Captain. Let me know if things turn hairy." Things were always hairy when it came to Beastmen. Well, most of them anyways."

The Valhawk makes its way through the tunnels on foot, with the Beam Shot Launcher in hand rather than risking damage by bumping against the tunnel walls while the plasma longarm is mounted on its hardpoint for storage. He's content to let other people take the lead tonight, and prepared to provide cover fire whenever it's necessary - or, for that matter, to just jump into direct combat. Whatever is going to be most profitable, so to speak.

Mihiro, for her part, is watching the sensors closely, scanning both ahead and behind with approximately equal attention. "Why would Beastmen be targeting Underground, though?" she wonders.

"Beastmen under Genome's rule?" Kazuma responds. "Probably 'humans are humans and they're our enemies, so let's wipe 'em out since we found 'em' or something to that extent." He shakes his head, glad that there are so many other Trailers here. "We'll worry about the 'why' if we get any prisoners to question, and I don't think that's a priority tonight. Just stay focused."

"*You* stay focused too, Oniichan," Mihiro retorts - but without much force.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Are there any weak points to these machines?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Xiang Yuan transmits, "All of it... Gunmen are not particular sturdy by our terms. However, they should not be underestimated either way."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "I'd say 'aim for the face' but ..."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Xiang Yuan transmits, "That'd be the cockpit."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "That too, yeah."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Well, if that is the case. Then perhaps I will just aim low. Perhaps take out the knee joints. That should quickly bring down the machines."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "As I highly doubt any of you desire for me to make the killing blow."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Juku Reimaru transmits, "These are beastmen were talking about. Show them the same courtesouy they would show us."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Juku Reimaru transmits, "Kill them without hesitation."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "I don't think we're gettin' paid for specific kills - just protecting Underground's continued existence."

Macua Huitl listens at the mention of the hollow earth or even the Dinosaur Empire. She'll keep on her guard.

"I can only guess what we might find down there. She nods and her Gundam does the same. She looks to her firend as they move their way through. SHe sees who else is with them. She bring up the next radio and keeps on moving. She's not sure what to think about the name of of the area. "I'll make sure I don't hit any of our allies if things get harry, but that's good idea Sinya."

A channel is opened to Kazuma. "So does this count as a date, Kazuma?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Macua Huitl transmits, "Gunmen are pretty easy to limb, though."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Well. If they are what is endangering the area.. the best means to make sure they will not try again. That means shoot to kill."

Kazuma chuckles, and answers Macua, "Not exactly something we planned, but I can think of worse dates!"

For instance - at least they're on the same side, which hasn't always been the case.

Jiron, still aggrevated by the fact that he doesn't have /his/ robot (he stole it fair and square and nobody caught him after three whole days), tromps down the tunnels. His expert hopping technique, learned from Breakers before him and taught to ones after, serves him well in getting across rivers, chasms, and mine fields.

"Sounds like someone's digging for something," Jiron mutters to himself. He leans out of the roll-cage on top of the Gallop and looks around, squinting into the tunnel. And turning on his headlights.

Remille glances as the headlights come on. She quickly has the Armored Core motion to him, "Turn those off.." She hisses toward Jiron over the radio.

Hanging onto the back of Simon's chair, Nia is completely safe. "Simon, why do you think they are here?" The princess asks. "Does father not agree with more people being underground?" She wonders, head tilting.

And then it becomes obvious!

"Oh!" She exclaims, "Perhaps father is making more space for the humans to live here, below!" Perhaps he is more reasonable than he seems lately!

There is no way Beastmen could be that retarded.

"Goin' great!" a mole man yells back over loudspeaker. "The hell are you guys doin' down that tunnel, tho'? Some proper humans, that way! No need to bother them."

Pause.

The Gunmen's flashlight eyes turn and ssssqqquuuiiiinnnttttt.

"You...aren't the search team, huh?"

Pause.

"AHHHHH IT'S HUMANS, PANIC, PANIC, THEY'RE HERE WITH THEIR STABBY BITS FOR MY TENDER FLESH AHHHHHHHH"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Xiang Yuan transmits, "Darn... that almost worked too."

As the alarm goes up and down the camp, the Mole-men turn in horror to the end of the tunnel!

And then yell, "KILL 'EM! Someone alert the General! We're discovered!!" before the air is filled with bullets.

Adiane looks up from her magazine momentarily. "Did someone say Gyunichan? I'm still in mourning and my back hurts! None of you shits mention his name!"

There's a pause as she hears the situation develop and a mole-man speak at length about how they're actual humans. Seyrune, unhelpfully, turns around in the tunnel to face back the way they came, colorful eyes gleaming in the stygian darkness.

"Fah! Humans! I'll --"

The goons lunge in between her and the enemy. Seyrune's crabby eye twitches slightly.

It then charges forwards, but unfortunately, it is hard to send things 'flying' underground. This may help compensate for some of the tunnel forces' numbers from the human's perspective -- after all, Adiane's going through them too!!

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Well, so much for that."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "What, you thought we *wouldn't* have to fight them?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "There's no reason why ALL beastman have to be big jerks. Some of them have got to have day jobs. Maybe sell ice cream or put up wallpaper or something."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Uh. Sinya's on this channel, isn't she?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "..."

Well, that didn't work. The Azure Dream seems to smile for a while when the mole man yells over that loudspeaker. "Just searchi~..." And then Xiang trails off as the Gunmen's flashlight-eyes turn and squint at them. The entire group of Gunmen can be seen sweatdropping, laughing all nervously and slowly tiptoeing to the side. Step. Drag. Step. Drag. RUUUUUN!

When bullets go flying, only a few of the Gunmen units get hurt as they ring across their armors. But within moments, they've taken up spots behind rocks and are throwing gunfire back. But one... one is still standing there, proudly, staring straight at those goons, and somehow managing not to get hurt. Perhaps the mole-Gunmen are just terrible shots, or it has to do with this strange 'aura' that it seems to radiate.

He just walks forward slowly, all dramatic like and what not, cape waving in the trails of wind created by the bullets. Explosions behind it, the piece of cloth being torn apart. There's one moment where a bullet gets too close, and Xiang uses the right hand of the machine to /deflect/ it. What kind of crazy man is IN that machine? Well, who-ever he was, he storms straight forwards into the bunch of Gunmen and the moment one of the beastman ones gets too close, he tries to simply clock it in the face, and punch it towards a nearby wall. "HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The Emperor calls out, quite spirited.

This... is COMPLETELY different from what people get to see on that ship.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "Hey Macua, maybe we can hunt you some spare parts. I've never seen mole-Gunmen before."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Macua Huitl transmits, "Sure wait mole?! I got a bad feeling about this"

Well, so much for that. And this was starting out as such a nice romp though a forgotten tunnel deep under a pirate city in Siberia. Still, no dinosaurs. That's a plus. Sly Heckler hates dinosaurs. He also isn't too fond of beastman lately, especially not when they attack his little Tengu.

Fortunately his Battle Armor is fast and small, and it can fly. He fires off the jumpjets and flies high into the air, aiming the heavy double-machine gun on the back of the Tengu's left hand to return fire, as much to discourage the enemy as anything else. If he was in a BattleMech, he'd just charge in and blast everything with lasers, but in a Battle Armor he's at a distinct disadvantage, so he needs to fight strategically.

In this case, 'strategic' means 'find someone else to hide behind'. Sly Heckler isn't very picky, so he starts running and flying though the battle, keeping his Tengu armor moving as fast as he can while he returns more anti-armor machine gun fire at the Gunmen. His goal is pretty simple: Get close to one of the larger machines and use them for cover.

BEASTMAN GENERAL! Simon would recognize that giant enemy crab scorpion anywhere!

"Uh--" Simon doesn't really want to shatter Nia's expectations of her dad not being a horrible person, and the beastmen not being horrible people, and also really who knows--in Genome's warped mind, he could be doing that. But he doubts it. "I think they have a lot of space here already--" Considering all the strip clubs anyway.

"Well, hold on tight Nia--we're gonna say hello to Adiane!"

The Gurren Lagann basically runs through the goons in an attempt to tackle the crab--suddenly!

Juku sighs and puts a hand to her face as everything just goes pear shaped.

The beastmen hordes go thundering past the REX Hound in it's cloaked state, and Juku just...lets them go for a minute, /then/ pushes her mobile suit into action.

The cloaked REX hound leaps across the tunnel with a knife drawn and plunges it into the spot-light eye of one of the Gunman. "Suprise!" The REX then hops on the top of one of the Gunman, and then the next one and next one as it rampages across the heads of a dozen beastment troopers.

Yeah, so much for this mission being a nice relaxing stroll through a metaphorical underground garden (probably of mushrooms, if it WERE a garden instead of tunnels through rock). "At least they showed up in front of us instead of behind," Kazuma observes wryly, raising the Beam Shot Launcher, the weapon's muzzle glowing as it primes for firing - and Kazuma pulls the trigger, aiming for the most convenient enemy Gunmen without too much concern as to whom else is targeting the same one. He's more concerned with firing past his allies and not hitting any of them - there really should be enough Gunmen to go around, in any case.

Wait, did that trick with pretending to be a Beastmen almost just work? Okay, they were stupider than she thought, and what's worse, these were the creatures that most people mistook Sinya for. Grr. If it isn't bad enough to be mistaken for some flighty anime catgirl, it's to be mistaken for some creature so dumb that they could be fooled not once, but who knows how many times by people pretending to be fellow Gunmen. Sinya would face-palm, if it weren't for the fact that her arms are occupied by the odd, almost brace-like control system within the guymelef.

"Guess you're just not a convincing beastmen, Captain." Sinya quips, her amusement only lasting as long as it takes for a Gunman to appear from one of the nearby tunnels, spotting her guymelef and firing off a blast of shots that lights up the pathway between them. Arius pushes off from the wall with a snap of his staff, landing on the opposite side with a rush of his wings that not only allows him to avoid the blasts, but also has the downside of keeping him just out of reach of catching the beastman goon with his staff.

Inside the cockpit, Sinya's arms move, mimicing each motion. In many ways, the guymelef moved much like a trace suit, although not quite so form fitting. It required her to make exaggerated motions, and act out the attacks, which probably explains how the knight is so quick on his feet. She catches the sounds of the radio chatter, and her ears swivel even if she doesn't have to shift them to listen. A small quirk of a fanged smile shows on her face, hearing the Captain expressing more emotion than he does normally. Seeing him fight like this - it's good for the soul.

Sinya grits her teeth, and then moves her feet forward, driving the guymelef into the fray. Arius charges down the tunnel, nearly spinning upside down - screw physics - and then strikes out with his staff, trying to smash right into the face of the Gunman. "Chew on this for a while!" She calls.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Xiang Yuan jokes with Sinya, "I must not sound stupid enough."

Macua Huitl sees there's other unit, mole-men? Okay that is worrysome, that means ... that /one/ beastmen could be here. She grimaces a little bit as she looks worried about that as she keeps tabs on all of the hostile beastment. She does see another unit. It's Seyrune! She knows them well, but she isn't in range to get a good shot off at her. She does fire off a barrage of head vulcan fire to just get her attention, she'll likely be on the molemen after this. The amazon keeps moving as best she can but these are tunnels and her mobility is limited here.

Seyrune lunges forwards towards Gurren-Lagann, smashing through Beastman gunmen as the strike team fires into them from a different direction. This does, perhaps, inspire some of them to fight harder.

An unfortunate muscovy-duck Beastman, here for some reason or other, lunges between the last few dozen yards between the armored titans.

Looks like he just...

Got ducked from both sides.

While struggling through the wreckage, Adiane snarls, "So you're coming back down here where you belong, are you? I'd congratulate you, but you're probably acting on some damned intelligence command from your Admiral Qin Shi!!"

Adiane loses track of fine details sometimes. As she lunges one mighty claw forward, aiming to wriggle it in and snap Gurren Lagann in its Groin Loggin, the head vulcan perforates the ducklike Gunman. "Shit!! Huitl again!?" Adiane curses, even if for now she's kept from returning fire by the flailing, probably dying Duckman.

"Oh, we are going to say hello? I have not seen her in so long!" The princess doesn't understand Simon's words - though she does immediately after! "Ah!" She exclaims, holding on as he notes! "Hmm.. perhaps you are right! There were many nice places to visit!"

But there are others. Like the Guymelf over there! "Sinya, take care as well! I know you can do it!" Sharing some of that cheer to others - because she knows Simon can do it already! Not that she might not bolster that later! "Hello Adiane!" The princess pipes up as the gunmen crash into each other, preventing them from meeting, "Are you angry today as well?"

It's important!

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

"Huh??" Simon responds, genuinely confused, before realizing--CHANCE TO PROVIDE FALSE INFO YEAH. "--why yeah, I'm... I'm totally here on behalf of my admiral Qin Shi, Huang." Pause. "And he's very upset ... that you are ... digging holes without asking the people here first!" He thinks?? Maybe she'll spill the beans as to what's going on if he keeps talking. Or she'll flip out and poison him with a giant scorpion death tail, his only chance to know what it's like to be Leo Stenbuck.

He doesn't need Nia to cheer him on. Her being nearby is plenty. His self confidence has gotten stronger--and he claims to have a NEW SECRET WEAPON from his training in the Guyana Highlands. but what could it be? Does he intend to utilize it today?? Or is it a /double secret/ technique??

Simon crushes a duck just before the Gurren Lagann's groin is crushed by Adiane's mighty claw. The good news is that this doesn't translate to Simon's groin being crushed, but for some reason the spiral power diminishes in the machine, mysteriously.

"Oi--!" he protests, trying to cut Adiane's mech with a giant pair of sunglasses.

Everything goes pear shaped! Bullets everywhere! Angry mole men! Furious scorpion lady!! The bullets are flying everywhere, the Beastmen just firing wildly at everyone they can get a target on.

This is fairly short-lived, because these units are not...really...very...good. They are heavily-armored, but their armaments actually kind of suck. A few shots meet in midair and explode; but the Trailers have brought heavy artillery. Several units explode in the opening volley; several others just get run the hell over by Adiane. Others emit a loud PING as rounds bounce off, and then fall over, helpless, flailing.

And then:

Kazuma suddenly gets a reading from behind him, barely a second before he's tackled from behind, massive claws sinking into Valhawk's shoulders. Bullets come rocketing out from behind, but more than that are a series of rapidly moving diggers, stampeding forward on all legs or, in one memorable case, a hedgehog with what appears to be rockets instead of feet, blasting onward at a rampaging course.

"The search party's back!" someone yells. "Hey guys, ya find anything!?"

"Later!!" a horse gunman yells, and then attempts to bite Juku's robot in half.

The Armored Core took a few minor bullet shots to the shoulder, but it wasn't enough for the Nightingale really to call 'damage'. Remille however quickly picked up activity behind them on her radar, before her sapphire blue eyes went wide.

From behind was never good.

"Damnit!" Remille sharply yelled, before spinning the Nightingale around quickly to fire off several missiles, however the impact and 'stampede' was enough to throw those missiles off and have them sailing right into the cave ceiling above. The Armored Core was easily tossed around, before it came at last away from the massively quick Beast Men. The Armored Core slammed hard into the ground, before rolling over a few times, before slamming into a stalagmite which brought it to a stop.

Remille groaned softly as sparks shot off around her. The monitors fritzing out for a moment as red glow from the warning lights illuminated the now dark cockpit of the Armored Core. Carefully she opened her sapphire blue eyes, before she forced a hard reset from the Armored Core, and for a moment one could think the machine was 'dead' as all the lights and sensors went dark.

Then soon, the optical sensor and all the sensor lights flashed on the martian machine, before the Armored Core rose up again, smoke coming out of some of the cooling vents. It looked like the Armored Core may be running closer to a Battlemech then it was before if that smoke was any indication.

The Nightingale kicked back and sped away from the new group of beastmen, letting lose another barrage of machine gun fire.

Xiang can feel the armor of the moleman-unit ring against the fist of the Azure Dream, before it gets launched into that wall - not before another one manages to finally gets some shots off at him however. Very much belatedly, he responds to something Nia had said a while ago; "I don't think that them digging is a good thing, Nia." He quickly pulls one of the bracers back and turns around, kicking the machine into overdrive as he retreats, using the cape to deflect some of the bullets.

In the meantime, the SuiKyoshan Brigade... not to be confused with the Dai-Gurren Brigade... continue their own assault on the gunmen. Whilst their Emperor is quickly showing just how skilled he is with his machine, they themselves are less so. But then, their machines were not as good either. The sudden appearance of the Gunmen behind them catches them off-guard. They'd entrenched themselves nicely behind some rocks. So when the backattack comes around, they find themselves in a heap of trouble!

But somehow, they make it out. Dodging and jumping all over the place, the SuiKyoshan Brigade forms up with Sinya and is soon followed up by the Emperor, who momentarily places himself before Sinya, turning the head of the Gunmen to stare at that of her Guymelef. You know... 'that' look. The look between lovers? How two machines can give that look, who knows. But it's being given - the rest of the SuiKyoshans /entirely/ oblivious to it. Maybe it was just in Xiang's head.

Either way, he then turns back towards his opponents and launches towards that horse gunmen that had gone after Juku and makes for a whirling kick at its head, trying to wrest it away from her machine.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Cooling element is offline."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Map functions.. offline.."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "I'll transfer some power from Arius, see if that helps."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "May help the computing functions return to normal, but with the radiator shot.. hard to say how long that will last."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun winces audibly, under the Valhawk taking a shellacking. "Cripes!"

Adiane answers Simon, snappily, "Then maybe he should have shown up in person!!" This is not her best comeback, but we strive for the highest possible batting average, not for some kind of optimal situation of comebackery. More telling might be --

The other claw coming up to grasp those shades as they fly. Seyrune shifts that claw for a moment... and then crushes the shades' nosepiece.

Crab battle.

Both claws are whipped upright, then, and the Seyrune advances, more gingerly now - Adiane saying, with a little chuckle in her voice, "Caught between both sides... You're in a bad situation now, monkey boy! Why don't you give up the miniature Gunman and MAYBE we'll let you see if you can get clear on foot before we're done with these other pukes!!"

Then both claws slash out, with tips that could break through steel. Are you going to come back from this one, Simon!?

Unfortunatly these Gunman are inexplicably fast! and te Horse manages to get it's flat, vegtable grinding teeth around the side of REX's torso "GRAH!" Juku yelps in suprise. "When the hell did you guys get so fast?!" she yells as the REX reaches up over it's shoulder to pull out a long thin blade that hums at a high pitch.

The high frquency blade flips around in REX'shand and plunges down towards the horse Gunman to try and plunge into it as Juku kicks out a leg to try and send the intruding Gunman away. "Off!"

Of all the people that Sinya wouldn't have expected to be down in these tunnels with them, Nia is certainly one at the top of the list. Then again, Simon is here, which probably explains that. Hearing her friend's call is enough to bolster the catgirl's spirits, "I will, Nia. Stay safe, okay?" Hey, she can't help it, everyone loves Nia - the girl just radiates good vibes.

As her initial strike takes out that first Gunman, Sinya turns and starts to race down the passageways, searching for the others. She's not as much of the type to throw herself into the fray head-first, but as she rounds a passage, it's just in time to see the new, faster, more dangerous diggers appear out of the tunnels. She catches the spark as Remille's Armored Core gets nearly leveled. Sinya grips her hand around the controls, clencing her hands into a fist. The colored lights of the gryphon glow faintly, the same color echoing around the Amored Core, if only for a moment.

Then, she's off again, knowing full well that the Frightener could take care of herself. Sinya meets up with the rest of the SuiKyoshans, giving them a quick glance-over to see if anyone was missing or damaged. Arius's head turns towards the Azure Sky, although there is no real emotion that radiates off of the knight as it does with a Gunman. "I'm alright." She reports, both for the sake of the others and for Xiang as well. "Ling, Po, you're with me." She motions with one hand, and she and the two Gunmen move down to the end of the tunnel to engage with another group of the higher-speed beastman. Sinya takes her staff, lashing out and trying to find weak points as the other two seem to focus more on causing damage.

"Oniichan, you IDIOT!!" snaps Mihiro as a hell of a lot of blips show up behind the Valhawk and the other Trailers; the best Kazuma can do in the tunnels' cramped confines is turn so that the Valhawk's shield, mounted on the other hardpoint for now, is interposed while turning.

"It was NOT my fault, okay, Mihiro?" Kazuma says in exasperation - even though he knows full well that he probably DID tempt fate right there. The level of damage already showing up on the diagnostic status display is very worrisome. "Gh. All right, screw this - they want to fight, let's plow right through 'em, get 'em in a pincer!"

And with that, Kazuma does the arguably stupid thing, converting the Valhawk into Air Force Mode and rocketing straight towards the new wave of highly combat-capable Gunmen, trying to plow directly through them like a bowling ball through so many pins!

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Gonna try and set up a pincer on these guys, watch your aim!"

Sly Heckler would be rubbing his temples if his arm and head weren't contained respectively inside very large pieces of well-fitted powered armor. This is just how it goes sometimes, he supposes. He does manage to find some temporary cover behind Remille's machine, jetting behind her for a few seconds as attacks intensify his way, and all he can do is return machine gun fire. He offers her a quick, "Thanks for being big and metal, Ellie," but can't really focus on that right now, because FAST BEASTMAN.

He lands on a particularly high outcropping of rock, and sighs. Alright. There's only one thing you can do in a situation like this.

He stops firing the machine gun...it wasn't doing much good anyway. Instead, a large, boxy weapons array slides from the back, into his mech's arms. It requires both arms to fire: One sockets the rig and provides the power and stability, and the other holds a a handle mounted midway across the weapon for support and aiming.

The weapon is a Variable-Speed Pulse Laser, and is very much like a laser minigun, scaled to blow apart heavy mech armor. He takes aim at packs of Beastman, and fires the high-speed pulsing blue laser into them, not really aiming at any one enemy so much as just firing wildly into their ranks. "Let's rock."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Heckler-- did you just..?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner aughs.

Simon's parents ARE dead, after all, so he's totally chill with fighting Beastmen. In fact, not too long ago he was a little bloodthirsty. Now he's more relaxed, ever since finding out that Genome was quite willing to kill his own creations--they seemed more like people then, a point of commonality really.

"There's no way I could take that offer. But I was wondering something--" Simon says, when suddenly--

--THE SHADES NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! "The shades! No waaaay!" Simon gasps as the two 'lenses' seperate into ... well two blades, now he has two weapons. On the other hand, the emotional damage is a major critical. "You just--broke the Shade Slasher...!" Simon shouts, astonished. "How--how dare you do that...! That's my bro's, rest his soul in heaven!"

He picks up the fallen half and swings them both upward to block the two claws, sliding across the dirt as he does so.

"--You know that Lord Genome considers himself the protector of us monkey boys right..?? So uh--why do beastmen hate humans so much anyway? Isn't he--you know--a human??"

He swings around, trying to dig the two blades into the crab's sides!

Despite having found someone to be close to as well, the princess only has flowing verses of confidence in Simon! "You are?" Nia asks, blinking to Simon, "Yes, digging holes without permission might make them fall and hurt themselves!" Nia adds, anyhow! She is, however, /unaware/ of Simon's new technique. At least for the moment. But he can fight for himself now!!

"Go Simon, I am sure Adiane the Elegant is no match for you, but still, it is best you be carefu-" Claw! "l!!" She exclaims, just at the right time, teetering backwards and flailing.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Okay, do you see me? I have less then four inches of advanced armor between me and something that /literally/ bites though tank armor. So yes, I used you for cover. Don't even start with me."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Heckler! I could have crushed you, you dult!"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "And don't start with me either. I have no radiator and this means no core cooling!"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Yes, I will take my chances with someone who is not /actively/ trying to kill me."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Well, if I /step/ on you, not my fault."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Just don't get yourself cored and explode on me and we'll be good."

Macua Huitl has seen everything get pear shaped but for who? That is the question. She's now seeing all of the beastmen as they come, they seem to be quite unhappy with them. But that's how it always goes with the beastmen as she's now trying to get in an attack she's caught from behind and evenwith her newtype senses she's noit able to get clear as the claws sink into her machine ruipping into it's back she feels it, she lets out a cry as her suit lights up. She totally fealrs it, turns around and starts going ape with her spear.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Macua Huitl transmits, "ARGGGG!"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "No promises."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Juku Reimaru transmits, "You two are so /cute/ together."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "What?!"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "What?!!"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "I rather be around a mutt then around that-- that--"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Bushy space pirate."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland coughs.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Little tactical suggestion here ... flirt later, kill Beastmen now?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "..."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Buggar off all of you."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "I think these guys are tryin' to bugger *us* first."

"Isn't he still alive?" Adiane says, aspergically. In more ways than one! Of course, then Simon's comin' dead at her, even as the Seyrune tries to shrink back --

"Shut your ugly face!!" is Adiane's retort to Simon's reasoned argument, which, in retrospect, he might have been able to anticipate. Maybe not that EXACT phrasing - she might have said something about feces, for instance, or simply swore at him. Then the blades dig in, even as the Seyrune attempts to brutally claw --

-- a nearby Gunman of a chameleon model. "Oh God!!" squeals the pilot, before exploding, but this doesn't prevent the Seyrune from being deeply scored by Gurren Lagann's rage. The problem with this is that now Seyrune is even CLOSER to the machine, and without further ado, attempts to slam forwards with a sudden surge, overbear, and climb up on TOP of the Gunman.

The egg laying may be disturbingly imminent.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Juku Reimaru transmits, "Were eyeball deep in beastmen."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent sighs, "And I'm missing it...blast it all."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "I thought you didn't want to kill any more beastmen?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I don't."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I still enjoy bringing the justice of the Omnissiah to them."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "Fighting the beastmen is so delightfully uncomplicated."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "They are evil. They desire naught but genocide, tyranny and death."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "And they make a satisfying thump when they hit the floor."

They're /fast/, that's the real problem. Attacks come at them en masse, but where normally gunmen and Beastmen both tend to do extremely stupid things like 'stand still and get shot', these are darting around, throwing themselves around on all fours and generally making a nuisance of themselves!

Swords are met - swung around and then countered with sudden high-speed clubs. Shots are responded to with returnfire. A few manage to strike hard - Juku cuts a Gunman right in half, and it explodes in her face; Xiang achieves similar results. They're not /sturdy/, at least, but...

Well, these are the scoutin' party, apparently. They're here for speed.

Also: For murderin'. Ten moles suddenly jump out of nowhere and try to bury Sinya's Arius beneath their mass, yelling barely-comprehensible curses. Macua's spear dance finds her a rival in the form of a bull - it sets its stance, snarls, "I'll show ya a dance!!" And then...Launches its face at her on a rocket.

Meanwhile, Xiang, that long-time foe of the Beastmen, finds himself in hot water, as a bat beastman suddenly swoops out of nowhere and attempts to catch him, then grind him into the dirt!

"Simon, look out!" The princess exclaims, almost throwing herself to 'help' him! Nevermind it is both of them in the same machine! Nevermind she doesn't know how to help!!

"Simon's face is not ugly!" The princess exclaims, though she only knows from experience. Perhaps it is - "And even if it is, it is far more deserving of being pretty than yours! He does not use bros as shields or try to kill ..." She pauses, "They are not shields!" She finishes, completely cutting off the rest!

And then Sinya gets in the mole pile. "Sinya!" Nia, already distracted, goes to watch another fight!

Remille sneers as her shots missed, but quickly got out of the way as the thrusters went to full to avoid taking any more damage. Her sapphire eyes kept going from looking at the main screen, to the heat of the generator of the Armored Core and to the cockpit's own temperature. She didn't like the numbers, but she would have to deal with it.

That and the radio remarks got under her skin. She is not a flirt and she never flirt with /Him/ of all things! "..I am going to kill them after this.." She mutters as she types in some commands and takes off her jacket.

The Nightingale quickly tries to get some room as the missile launcher comes around once again. Those missiles aim right for the mole pile that was trying to tear apart Sinya's unit. Sinya helped her once, it was time to see if she could help clear off the mole-pile of idiots.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, ".. damnit.. this is not good.. Sinya, can you comply? I don't want to see two units down.."

Xiang is indeed a long-time foe of the Beastmen, and remains to be quite the skilled warrior. Slowly walking away from the Arius, with a few Gunmen following him, he continues through those caverns. But as the battle continues, he found himself alone. Alone against a bat beastman that swooped down from behind him. But he noticed it. He noticed the small way in which the cape of the Azure Dream moved as air was displayed.

The machine turns around as he pushes on one bracer and pulls on the other and quickly has his machine topple away, dodging the winged machine. "Hrrm..." He quickly sets his gaze onto the Gunmen, letting the light generated by his machine break through the darkness of this place. He should probably report, and hope those repeaters were doing good; "Thousand! Just so you know, we are dealing with a large group of Gunmen here. We should be able to make them depart."

His attention then returns to the battle at hand. He can't fly, this machine wasn't capable of it. Or at least, that's kinda what he is assuming. He's never tried to make the thing fly after all. As skilled as he may be with this machine, he still thought in limited ways - even after all the magic he knew.

Didn't mean he couldn't jump.

The man revs up his machine's legs and then pushes his both arms forwards. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He calls out, with as much spirit as he can, the spiral indicators around him wizzing as he pours his Martial Arts abilities into the mix and starts to fling the arms and legs of his machine about like... well... a skilled martial artist.

Cut to a chibi Azure Dream jump-kicking at the chibi bat-gunmen in the air, which is dodging it like one of those old Game 'N Watch games.

Sly Heckler can't really tell if his laser-ing made any kind of difference, but at least it's keeping the Beastmen at a distance! Now that he has a moment where he isn't dodging bullets or whatever else they're throwing, Sly has a chance to get a tactical look at the fight, and it doesn't look especially encouraging. He'd give even odds between the two forces, though he doesn't know these Beastmen well.

The downside to his tactic of 'fire until the barrel glows' is that eventually the gun DOES overheat and he's forced to stop firing the VSP Laser. He doesn't put it away, though. He'll need it again once it cools off. However, he needs to do something else...

Now that the gun isn't on his back, he can slide the backpack weapons into place. Now that he's not under pressure, he can also take a moment to acquire some target locks. It doesn't take long, and a few seconds later, three powerful SRM missiles fire all at once from the Tengu. Fired together in a pack, they split up almost immediately, each locking onto a different target, tracking them down, and hopefully exploding impacting on them with the powerful explosive warheads they carry.

The problem with being toe-to-toe with high speed foes is that it leaves you vulnerable to attacks from other sources. Sinya doesn't see the moles coming. Why? Well, Arius doesn't have advanced radar systems like the more modern units, it's mostly a 'what you see is what you get' sort of machine. With her staff shoved up against the face of a Gunman, the catgirl only has a split second to look up and mouth a certain two-word swear combination before a horde of mole-Gunmen come down right ontop of her. There is a sound of crunching metal, and Arius all but disappears underneath the bulk of the ten moles.

Is that the end? Within the knight's cockpit, Sinya hangs forward, her tail limp. The guymelef gets shaken time and time again as blow after blow strikes against his armor. Then, Sinya coughs, and a few drops of blood drip down, landing against the inner wall of the guymelef's cockpit. The reaction is almost instantaneous.

The gryphon's eyes begin to glow. A glow that can be seen even from underneath the pile of Gunmen. The catgirl's head lifts, but when her eyes open, it's almost as if it weren't Sinya behind those eyes. In fact, those who might be sensitive to such things - NewTypes and the like - might just get the sensation of something old, and very powerful, if only for a split second. The catgirl growls under her breath, a sound that resonates through Arius.

With a roar, the gryphon's wings flare outward, sending Gunmen flying to the sides, even as the staff is swung outward in a circle, the path of the swing seeming to carry some lingering power with it as it lashes out, trying to drive all ten of the units backwards, or smash them into bits, whichever comes first. Inside the cockpit, Sinya's chest heaves as she pants for breath, her gaze intent.

But the strange aura around the guymelef doesn't linger. As it fades, the normal color returns to Sinya's eyes, and she gives a small shake of her head as if waking from a dream. Nia's voice? Something brings her back around, "I'm fine." She reports, ears lifting. "Arius is a bit banged up."

Simon is here to roleplay not to rollplay.

"H-hey he's one of yours!" Simon shouts as Adiane claws her ... ally. He suspects she doesn't care. What he doesn't suspect is her slamming into the Gurren Lagann, knocking it on its back, and sitting on top of his machine. Nia's cheers, while encouraging, are something he's not sure how to respond to. Sure, he's glad Nia doesn't find his face ugly but he's way too bashful to actually agree.

"Uh--w-well, bro did throw boulders at me the one time--" "OH MY17:02, July 17, 2011 (UTC)17:02, July 17, 2011 (UTC)!" Leeron's voice suddenly pops onto simon's transmission line. "This is quite a pickle you've gotten yourself into~. And here I thought you'd be the one on top." "L-l-l-l-leeeron???" Simon stammers, and then gets an idea! "Leeron! You'd know what to do! How do I get a scorpion woman off me?" Leeron gives Simon a nonplussed look. "Ooh she's a tiger girl isn't she? Well good luuuuck~." Bwip.

Dammit, Simon thinks. And he's not going to call Leo Stenbuck and ask him for advice, not this time! Simon struggles at the controls of the Gurren Lagann but is in a bad position to do anything with his hands.

"Adiane--uh...uhhh.... did you know that I always ... thought you were the uh--" What sort of thing would Adiane take as a compliment? "--scariest General..?"

Simon then manages to pull enough spiral power together--ahh, that's one idea. He grits his teeth and pushes forward on one of the control sticks--sending spiral power down to the waist of the machine--

--causing a drill to erupt forward from nothing, threatening to pierce Adiane's giant crab robot!

The Gunman explodes in REX's face forcing Juku to stumble the machine backwards to get out of range, resultign in the REX catching it's foot and falling directly backwards "AHG!! DAMNIT!" Juku shouts in prompted rage as her mobile suit goes sailing backwards.

Thruster fire int the REX's legs, kicking them up over it's head as it rolls over it's shoulders to land back on it's front. "/Nrhg/ You are really annoying me!" Juku flicks switches inside the cockpit, and a piece of equipment strapped to it's back begins to charge up.

The REX gets up to one knee as the equipment slides out and over it's shoulder. Grasped by both hands the weapon charges red at it's focal point before blasting a tight cohereant beam of laser light intot he horad of beastman driven Gunman.

Last, but not least, Macua's not only /assaulted/ by the Gunmen... but is at the mercy of the mole men!? The Gurren thrusts forwards and Nia staggers, falling back to grasp the chair that Simon sits in! She cries out, but it is just a yelp of surprise!

"Oh! If a girl is on you Simon and you want them off then you just refuse to pay them for any additional services!" She had heard about this one on a late night special! It worked like a charm! "But I am not sure than Adiane is interested in money." Unfortunate!

"Macua, are you okay?" It's a question on her head now that the sudden shock of being overturned is overturned!

"Yewait what?" Simon looks towards Nia.

Nia says, "Do not let them put you under the ground! It's very dark there, and cold, and then you can't be friends with anyone!"

THIS IS NOT A RPG THIS IS NOT AN RPG TAKE THIS TO BE TRUUUUUUUTH

As Seyrune tries to clamber into mating position on the Gurren Lagann, she's smirking, her too-wide lips spreading in crimson mockery of --

Her one eye widens and her cheeks pinken in a maidenly blush.

FWAM

"Ahn," she groans. "You've - you've violated my Seyrune..." And now it tenses up, shivering, before it suddenly distorts, smoothly flowing with ease that makes the Veritech Fighters look like awkward clunky plastic toys, before Seyrune stands, in all its feminine glory, before Gurren Lagann!

And hunched slightly over from the tunnel. "Hnnhh," she grunts.

Then she says, "Damn you, you - Really?" Her face pinkens again.

Then it gets angry once more. "I don't need your condescension!!" At this, laser whips whip outwards, aiming to entangle and slice apart Gurren-Lagann like so much soft delicious cheese being shoved through a screen door.

Macua Huitl has two left feet tonight, a slip, a minor lip is all the bull gunman needed and it ends up launch its face into her machine the front of the Amazon CI caves in in it staggers back and goes down the feed back has jarred Macua badly she's let out a scream she's not moving and her machine goes down and it goes down hard, she's not getting back up from the looks of it. The Gundam crumples to the ground from the impact of the attack and sprawls out. She's pretty much at their mercy. The feed back hs pretty much knocked her out.

But then she hears Nia's voice, she locks on to it and slowly becomes more aware, she's badly damaged, the Amazon CI is a walking hulk more ot less at this point as she tries to get back up. She's apprently not all dead yet. But she may be out of the fight from the looks of it to stay would mean she'd get ripped apart. She's still standing but she's not got much in her. the bull is in the way however if she wishes to flee she's got to get through him but she's pretty weak there might not be enough left in her. Still she attacks the bullman aiming ot rip the thing's limbs off then hopefully if she doesn't die? Flee.

"I AM NOT OUT OF THIS YET!"

The Valhawk plows through the midst of the returning scout party of Beastmen forces, then fires retrothrusters to decelerate before Kazuma practically stands the interceptor on its nose before converting back to Close Combat mode, deploying the Ray Blade as the transformation concludes and spinning to face the mass of Gunmen again.

There's one major problem with a pincer assault like this: if people aren't VERY careful with their aim, they can wind up hitting each other instead.

But such thoughts are promptly dismissed from Kazuma's mind as the Amazon CI takes one hell of a shellacking, and Kazuma's target priorities abruptly undergo a drastic revision - instead of just going after the closest Beastman Gunmen, Kazuma is charging back into the thick of it with the Ray Blade activated and extended, and is trying to *obliterate* the one who got that kind of a hit in on his girlfriend.

The fact that Macua is still in the fight enough to take her own revenge? Just means he's *helping* obliterate the Gunmen in question.

Simon looks at Nia for several moments, mouth hanging open in disbelief. He feels like Bill Cosby on Kids Say The Darndest Things. His mouth works but no voice comes out because it's roleplaying not rollplaying and not even a natural twenty on his 'figure out how to respond' check would come out positive.

Simon uses the opportunity to roll backwards--but it can't escape because those tentacle whips catch its arms, and legs--the waist drill shattering into nothingness suddenly, leaving him defenseless as the whips slice into the chest armoring.

"Khhh--" Simon grunts, the cockpit shaking. He feels like vomiting but since Nia is present, forces himself to be totally cool and not vomit on Nia. "N--no I'm not condescending! I don't even know what that word means! I'm uh--really terrified right now...!"

And he kind of is. "That Cytomander guy is just like annoying, all squack squack, yeah?"

He can't get away from the tentacoo wape so instead he sends his mech flying for Adiane's, this time trying to end up on top!

Facing the FANTASTIC POWER of the BEASTMAN ARMADA is not an easy feat! But, there's questions here, like...what the hell are they even doing down here? They were muttering like they were mostly avoiding the humans which is...largely...not Beastman protocol at all, is it? Then again, perhaps Simon knows the answer here. After all, doesn't Genome periodically cull his villages?

Either way: The counterassault is immense. Macua is crushed by the stupendous power of the assault, but rises anew with a little help from her friends. Her opponent desperately tries to retaliate, but betweeen her and Kazuma, it is a brief battle, and the tunnel experiences yet another explosion.

The Gunman counterattack is fast and furious, but the power of the humans is not to be denied! After all, they came here itching for a fight, and it looks like the Beastmen...weren't, so much. Units explode in chain reactions that tear up and down the battle line, and in the end all they can do is rush, attempting to tackle and tear and bite with claws and teeth and clubs. Sometimes, when their units explode, they get out and hop away, dashing toward whatever pickup might await them back the way they came.

Sometimes...no.

Remille stood her ground. The Nightingale refusing to move this time. Instead every beastman that charged toward her the Nightingale shot down with quick precise shots from the machine guns. The ammo may have been flying out fast and shells clanking to the ground, but every beast men coming at her got themselves a few bullets to keep them back.

The barrels came to a stop at last as smoke rose form the end. The female Frightener narrowed her eyes, as sweat went down her forehead from the heat that was rising in her core. Warnings were going off of dangers that could soon start to find the Armored Core if it continued, but Remille was not going to retreat.

She already ran once this week, she would not run again.

"..why don't all you damn bloody freaks just die already!" Remille yelled out over the external speaker before the Armored Core at last charged forward, going right into the main cluster of them. The Nightingale started to place on some fancy moves, skating around the Beast men, leaping over them, and the whole time letting more shells hit the ground; more ammunition burn.

"Simon?" Nia blinks, looking back. "Simon." She waves a hand - and then points out, yelling! "Simon!"

The whips rain down, Nia flailing as she is shaken around like a ... well a rag doll. She sort of /is/ a doll, and anyways, if Adiane kills them both she gets /double bonuses/. Probably moving to 'better than Guame' on Genome's trust list.

But instead of being killed or anything, Nia's bonked on the head by the floor, which is somehow above her at the moment! Or wait, she was above it and upside down from the shaking. It was a thrilling situation even if the end is the princess thumping to the ground dazed, clover eyes a little more starry than usual - star struck, even.

"Ah, Simon, there are so many stars... oh and birds around my head!" She declares happily, sitting up slightly as her vision swims. Maybe she should have worn a seatbelt!

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Nothing personal Sinya... But I am getting damn tired of these beasts.."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "Why would I take that personally?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "One never knows..."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "..nrrh.. I just hope this fight ends soon."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sinya Leland transmits, "I'm not that kind of beastman. I don't care for them any more than you do."

The crackling along the radios allow Xiang Yuan know just how much trouble there is going on. "Sinya!" He too calls out when he hears that something is wrong with the girl. He's scared for a moment, his heart jumping. But no. Another message comes through. She spoke those words - she was fine. Good. Still... why had he, for just a moment, felt something from her direction? Something... magical? The hair at the back of his neck is still standing up, and he is certain that is not because of the thrill of combat.

He quickly turns about, having failed to touch the bat, and finds himself getting swooped down upon by many many more of them. One after another they come down at his Gunmen. Skillfully, the man turns the machine around, using the mighty dragon-gauntletted fists to knock them off course, but there's just too many. He's forced out of the room, and somehow he suddenly can hear Nia's voice. Strange, how the voice of that little girl can rouse him so...

After his machine has taken so much of a beating, most of the paint ripped off, and a severe dent in the right leg, the machine comes to a halt, all those bat gunmen coming towards him. And Xiang? Xiang faces them, his eyes squinting, whilst he looks for something within him. Not that normal calmth to stand up against the waters of evil. No, he wants to control it. He wants to feel that raging torrent of water which he's come to know within the SuiKyosha.

Even with this many miles between him and that mighty battleship, he can still feel its soul. As its captain, as a martial artist who came from a world of magic, as a young boy who was raised within an underground world of water. THIS was almost like home.

The man moves one first backwards, the other forwards into the direction of the bats. "I will strike you. I will strike through you, and I will strike all of those within this cave." Xiang chants, the entire Gunmen suddenly seeming like it is being enveloped within a blue aura. Magical energies begin to flow off of the machine. This is the reason the beastman feared this man in the past, when he was still out in the field amongst his warriors - taking more Gunmen. This technique.

Within the SuiKyosha, the mighty god resonates with its captain. Their bond, one that no longer requires /just/ the gauntlet to communicate. A glyph appears straight beneath the Azure Dream, one that quickly expands and glows fiercely, catching the bats within it and forcing them still as if this were some kind of cutscene...

"Azure..." Xiang mutters, feeling his inner rage bubble up, letting it come... letting it come into his heart. "Dragoooon..." It rages like a dragon, coarsing through his veins. The glyph pulses with his own heartbeat. It pulses faster, and faster, from his heart, into his fist, into his Gunmen. Into the cave as he pushes that right bracer forwards as hard as he can, almost tearing it out of its sockets. "PUUUUUNCCCHHHH!" And the fist of the Azure Dream comes swinging forth, sending a dragon of magical water rushing straight forwards, through their bodies, rippling through the caves, swinging in and out randomly, trying to find beastmen driven Gunmen to chomp on and crash into nearby walls with all of Xiang Yuan's very might!

Gruff ugly looking Gunmen with prominant tusks charge atthe REX hound, giant axes and clubs raised overhead yelling at the tops of their loudspeaker amplifed lungs. "FOR THE HOOOOOOOOOAAAAARD!"

"And Emperor Genome!" The hoard pauses, a little dumbfounded for a moment.

"FOR THE EMPOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" They renew their charge for the experimental mobile suit.

Juku bears her own teeth as she yells wordelessly in defiance as she dives the REX directly into their charge. She tosses away the shoulder mounted laser weapon and the REX grasps a pair of mecha scale pistols from it's sides as it lunges in, bringing both weapons up to fire the dual weapons in tandam into the mob of Gunman, twisting through the dark cavern air to kick out at a Gunman's face/body as each of the guns fire in opposite directions at other beastmen machines

"HRAAAAAH!" she spins the REX around, firing the mechascale Desert Eagles into the back of another machine. "I'm gonna tear you apart! /WITH BULLETS/! IF you don't tell me why you're down here!"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Xiang Yuan roars across the radio!

While the missiles do their work, the downside of the missile pack is that it's a one-shot missile pack. Once fired, Sly disengages it. It's spent, it's heavy and it's easier to replace than the rest of his machine. Ejecting it saves some weight and allows his Tengu to move faster, which he puts to good use when his Tengu jets off as the Beastmen renew their assault. Sly is not fool when it comes to attacks like this, and he ducks for cover when it comes in.

The Tengu zips off, and dives behind some rocks, enemy fire blasting behind him. Alright, he's got to time this right. His heavy battle armor hides behind rocks as he bounces some sensor data off the others and acquires a few locks. The heavy VSP Laser is charged again, and all Sly has to do is wait for just the right moment...

When it comes, Sly bursts up from behind the rock, immediately unloading laser fire into the Beastman again. He knows what's at stake here, so he pours on the fire as heavily as he can, though not randomly this time. His aim is to pour heavy fire into one enemy until it drops, then move on, and on until his weapon overheats.

"Kya ha ha hahahahahahahaaaah!" Adiane gloats as she gets the Gurren Lagann just the way she wants it, advancing with a slow gunman-hip-swaying step even as her minions die in droves around her. She wasn't told to preserve their lives.

"So you're comparing me to that miserable little bird who roosts in the capital and doesn't ever come out to fight...? Why don't you have the balls and compare me to that little grub of an armadillo who keeps stealing my pipes, Gunman thief?" Adiane says, although she seems at least partially pleased by the flattery. And then she opens her eye and sees the Gurren flying at her.

FWAMP

Held so close again~ Seyrune shoves the Gurren Lagann off of it, Adiane's voice raising imperiously. "How dare you, you fucking ape?! You don't have any right to touch this machine! A sacred gift from the SPIRAL KING!"

Seyrune throws up an arm as if to declare it was in fact, Born This Way.

Nothing happens.

The ground rumbles faintly. There's a faint suggestion of something - surging? Like the tide? THIS DEEP?

"How far ahead did your precious little fusion machines plan?" says the Beastman machine from its unfortunate (or sexy) mouth location. "Fwa ha ha haaaaa!!"

The noise gets a touch louder.

Even with that renewed strength that comes with freeing herself from underneath the dog-pile of Gunmen, Sinya is by no means out of the woods yet. She turns just in time to see the rush of remaining Gunmen coming through the tunnels, watching as some are dispatched and others force their way towards her and the two SuiKyoshan fighters. "Brace yourselves, here they come." There is nowhere to go, no place to run from the horde. In an instant, Arius is slammed backwards into the wall of the tunnel, knocking the wind out of Sinya's lungs and nearly caving in part of the guymelef's chest in the process.

The energists within the knight's chest dim somewhat, and then flicker, as if the lines connecting between them had been damaged. By the time the two SuiKyoshan pilots manage to drag the beast off of Arius, the machine looked as if it were unlikely to move. One wing hangs lifelessly behind him, nearly ripped off by the sharp beastman teeth. The armor is bent, broken, and it's a great wonder that any life is shown from it at all.

This time, it's another voice that calls to her. Sinya's head lifts, the catgirl looking ragged. With a great effort, she pulls on the controls, managing to get Arius to his feet. The rumble beneath her feet is warning enough, and the other Gunmen still fighting her companions. "We have to get you out of here." The voice of Ling, one of the SuiKyoshan pilots and also her protege comes over the radio, concerned. Sinya, just nods. "This is Hellcat. Falling back." She manages not to cough, although her voice sounds winded.

Halfway back through the tunnel system, she clicks the radio to Thousand, "Warn your people, something bad could be coming." This is all she has time to say before her voice is drown out by Xiang's roar, and the catgirl blinks, "Yuan." She whispers his name, and then leans forward, "You can do it!" She calls, one last attempt at bolstering his spirits before Arius is dragged out of the fray by the Gunman squad.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Juku Reimaru transmits, "Anyone overheating, go back to the river."

How do those Gunmen carry so freakin' many weapons? At least the bullheaded Beastman who tried to obliterate Macua is easily removed from the fray, with the Ray Blade forcing his(?) Gunmen directly into the path of the Amazon CI's punches. But then the throng counterattacks en masse, and Kazuma quickly puts the Valhawk into evasive maneuvers - practically dancing around the incoming attacks, parrying a few attacks with the Ray Blade, then finding enough of an opening to unsling the Beam Shot Launcher and return fire, the bolts of plasma ripping into whichever Gunmen happens to get in the way of the blasts.

And then the Valhawk lunges forward, with Kazuma trying to drive the Launcher's muzzle right up against the Seyrune's chest, the mook-Gunmen serving as a nice blunt instrument - and then triggers the Beam Shot Launcher, the plasma shredding through the mookmech and probably doing a serious number on the command-level machine. Assuming as always that a crazy move like this works at all.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "I-- plan to jump this AC into that river-- and myself."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Once I am sure there is no more damn Beastmen about."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Are you smoking? If you aren't smoking you're still alright."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "I am smoking, been smoking for some time."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Yeah, okay. I'll try giving you some cover while you break, then."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "The radiator was damaged.. Armored Core's do not last long once the radiator goes down, because the Generate over-heats and it soon burns up everthing. I am surprised it has lasted this long. Boyle does wonders of engineering."

DOES Simon know? Genome didn't strictly cull his village intentionally, what with all the accidental earthquakes doing plenty. If he kept records on that sort of thing. Does he put it past Genome? Not really. A lot of the underground environments cull themselves, but this sort of place? It's asking for Genome's fist. It's still surprising that he's actually doing it--so much of Genome's time was spent gathering information, as far as he can tell, now it seems like he's really ready to act.

"Oh yeah??? Well I bet Genome has wy more chest hair which makes him even more apelike than me--and he's bald! Like...an ape! So--"

he's getting angry because of the huge flood. "And Guame's creepy too!"

He slides one foot back and summons a large drill at the forefront. It's not QUITE the Giga Drill (pelvic damage has weakened Gurren Lagann!) but he propels himself forward with spiral energy all the same. He'll worry about this 'flood' in a moment--a cave in, or maybe more tunnels to reroute the stream. Gotta think of something quick!

"--The sky is full of stars!" He agrees. "--but um--are you okay??"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "A single central radiator? Man. You should spread your heat-sinks out across the frame. My normal Seraph has sixteen double-sinks around it."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Juku Reimaru transmits, "THats because myomers generate an ass ton of heat themselves and need to be cooled directly, AC's produce a greater percentage of heat from it's engine."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Well, the /side/ benefit is that I don't cook off if I take one unlucky hit to the radiator."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Honestly, it is hard to damage the radiator-- but I think the Nightingale taking the hit like it did, shook maybe one of the lines free. Then it was a cascading failure."

"Y-Tes!" Pause. "Of course I am okay, Simon!" She smiles, answering him! Though she isn't looking at Simon, but his reflection in one of the screens, as she does so.

She doesn't really think she has any problems though! Perish the thought! She is safe with Simon! "

"Ah, is that the sound of water, Simon? Are we going to go swimming again?" Oh, maybe everyone can join them as well! Even Adiane! She likes the water, right?

"Would you like to join us for a swim, lady Adiane?"

Adiane, who is not yet being animated in action because we have to wait for the check to clear, remarks flatly to Nia, "Sure, give me a moment."

Simon is of course saying something like 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhh' because he's flying off somewhere that's not Adiane.

The Beastman Horde fights hard, for their lord, but they are simply no match for the assault party fielded by the Trailers. The counterfire does the job; they shatter, split, and die. But many escape - clutching segments of their Gunmen or simply running for their lives...

Possibly right into Adiane's final gambit, but it's not like any of them knew anytihng important, right?

But maybe not. Because there is a sense. It's brief - momentary, a flash, thundering in the head of the psychically prone in the area, as Simon's spiral power flares.

A distant sense, like the groan of something deep, distant, and vast.

Xiang notes the fact that Sinya is leaving, and turns his fist. The magical energies still flow through him, and he can feel himself connecting to the Gunmen. But also, he can feel the water. The water that is coming, and the water which SuiKyosha controls above. But the energies don't clash. There is too much earth in between. So he will have to do it. He tries to sense it... Adianne. A little window then suddenly pops up. A radar system! Through the other Gunmen there, he quickly gets a read on where she is, and where his Azure Dragon Punch is raging... and punches once more, changing its direction, straight for /that woman!/

The Fight was over, at least for now. The Beastmen were retreating.

The Nightingale quickly walked over to one of the underground water-ways and wadded itself deep enough were the core was /just/ above the water. Steam could be seen rising from some of the water getting into the air-take vents, and soon the back hatch opened up as Remille herself got out, before just letting herself fall into the water.

For a moment the female Frightener was missing, but she soon she waded herself out to the water, before freeing her hair, and ringing it out slightly. Her dark gray under-armor shirt was now soaked, so was her night cameo pants, and most likely those military boots as well; which once she got onto land, she kicked off and dumped the water out of.

Remille was showing perhaps a different side to herself during this mission, but that was because she was off duty with the Crusaders and missions like this, she didn't have to act all overly professional. She could just be a Frightener.

Also Remille had no plans to stay here to long out of her mech, she just needed to let it cool off; just like herself.

Macua Huitl is on her last legs she know she should have run, but what can she do? She's about draineds, her machine doesn't have much left in her, but she sees the bull is down, he'll not bother with it a there's not much left but there's still more they are still pouring in at her. She keeps fighting, punching kicking but something heavy weighs on her as she fights. She's become far too cocky and it just about got her killed. The damaged machine strains itself alarms are going off, it should be down, but she's still up She keeps fightiung, there's not much more she can do but will it be enough? It seems it is as the Beastmen run she lets them run, then her second win goes out o her and the machine. along with it's pilot drops to one knee.

"Ha! Yeah, take that, ya' furball sons of bitches!" Sly Heckler shouts as he continues to pour laser fire at the retreating enemies until his weapon overheats, and he's forced to stop. Still, it looks like the Beastmen are in full retreat, so he supposes they got out of this one successfully. He didn't even get any significant damage to his Tengu, which will make Little happy.

He does a quick damage survey and spots Remille exiting her mech though, which does get his attention. "Hey princess," Sly transmits as he hops over to cover the distance between where he was and where she exited. "This isn't a good place to be bailing. We're not out of danger yet, I don't think."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Hey princess. This isn't a good place to be bailing. We're not out of danger yet, I don't think."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Macua Huitl transmits, "I got no more in..me...."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Macua Huitl transmits, "I got no more in..me...."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "People who need to get out and have power to do so ought to do so."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "Can't do that, Kaz. Seriously, if I lose any lancemates in combat, my CA rating goes waaay down."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Fair enough."

The Valhawk is faced by Adiane as she smirks, before whirring as she dives away from that diving in beam-shot launcher. As a Gunman and its beastman occupant are sent to whatever Hell furries go to, Adiane escapes harm, cackling like an evil hobag all the while. "Too slow!!"

This leaves it open -- until it hops up and squeezes Gurren Lagann's drill between its thighs?! There's a horrible burring noise, vibrations going all through Seyrune - "Aah! Aahahahahah!!"

Remille's feeling of coolness in the water may be muted slightly - the tide seems to be going out. She has a few moments in which to realize this and perhaps return to her machine. Otherwise, a wild ride is coming.

As Seyrune releases Gurren Lagann's drill, there is a horrible surging noise, redoubled as the floodwaters roll upwards, frothily whipped and storming up from the cavernous bowels of the Earth, where Adiane had, presumably, directed them before. "Hah!! And Guame thinks he commands this direction!? Maybe when he isn't -" And the transmission is cut off by the fact that those tunnels are now filled with water.

This sounds relaxing, doesn't it? Yes; water is very relaxing, gentle, and loving. Just ask New Orleans.

Remille will of course have the peculiarly good fortune to wash up safely wherever the flood waters end up, or else spout (along with her robot) out of the fountains in front of the Neo Bellagio. Other people may be joining her.

UNLESS THEY ARE DEAD.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "I'm ... getting arrogant..."

As the water comes further into the caves and drives through, Xiang is waiting, waiting for the water to hit. And when it does, he feels the breath being knocked out of him for a moment. The force of this translucent liquid never ceased to surprise him, no matter how much he dealt with it. It's in fact strong enough to force him out of the caves, and well on his way back to the entrance.

Sly Heckler's Tengu lands with a splash in the water a ways away from Remille, and he crosses his arms. "Hey, princess! I'm getting some weird readings on this thing. What are you...Hell, she left her radio in her mech," he suddenly realizes. He figures she probably assumes he's here making fun of her. Truth is, something is bugging his systems, and he isn't sure what it is. He's too far underground to give the data to Cathrine to make sense of it.

Something seismic and...Aw /hell/. He notices the water level lowering slowly. It isn't supposed to do that. Something is wrong. His systems warn him just a few seconds before it happens, that something major is building. He doesn't know what it means exactly, but he does know one thing.

"Time to GO Remi!" Sly shouts though external speakers, as his mech lunges forward with sudden speed, and literally just picks Remille up off the ground. He turns and heads to the Nightingale, just as the water explodes behind them. This is REALLY not good. He could possibly outrun it, but he can't do so and keep Remille safe. There's only one place he can think of where she would actually be fairly safe.

He rushes to her mech, and shoves her in with one hand. The other slams her cockpit shut. He knows her machine's cockpit is air tight, because she does space ops in it. She'll be safe in there from the initial hit.

Sly's Tengu closes her cockpit behind her, but he can't actually seal that. She has to do that, and that'll take time. So he stays where he is, using the strength of his Battle Armor to keep her cockpit closed, even as the wall of water crashes over him...

Maybe, Simon thinks as he readies the drill, I can /drill through the giant flood/.

As it turns out, he can't do that quite yet. The waters slam into the Gurren Lagann (the impending doom, thankfully, keeps him from dwelling too long on Adiane thighing up his drill) and it resists--for a moment--before the juice for the day runs out and sends Simon crashing through the tunnels inside the machine. Not able to manage the controls in this situation, he reaches for Nia, hoping to hold her still so she does not crush her head any more than she already did today.

The Gurren Lagann splurts out by Remille, nearly landing on her, but luckily it's only comedically close. Unfortunately, it seems Simon won't be able to help stop the current this time! Perhaps someone else has a fix this problem quick scheme--if it's not too late!

Remille glances over as the Tengu approaches her, swinging the combat boots over her shoulder after she tied them together, "Don't get pushy with me and don't call me princess." She says softly as she starts to make her way back into the water, "I am aware that.." Though her words stop to only see suddenly lower of the water level. Those sapphire blue eyes just stare, before pulling down her glasses slightly over her eyes just to see if it was something up.

Sure enough, the water was rising. "...hell.."

She watched as her Armored Core was starting to get threatened by being toppled over by the waves. She grit her teeth. This-- was not the smartest of ideas. Worse of all--- she was most likely going to get swept away.

Though what comes next completely catches her off guard. She yelps in surprise as she gets lifted by the Tengu and then is suddenly thrown into her Armored Core. "Sly!" Was the words she yells out as he slams the cockpit shut. She can hear the water slamming in her armored core.

The Groan from the gears as they want to give. Remille quickly rushes to the controls and starts up the sequence to get everything powered up quickly.

There was soon a hiss as the hatch at last sealed, and then warmth of the thrusters for a moment. The Nightingale took a step forward to brace itself at last, before It at last swung around and lifted up the Tengu out of the water with ease.

The Red visor optical sensor flickering softly as the visuals adjust to the low lighting.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Sly. Are you alright?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Sly Heckler bzzp.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler bzzp.

Juku tchs as the beastmen run away before she can extract what they were doing from them. She turns to their leader, Adiane already engaged in combat with Simone "Alright you..." she trials off at the sound of rushing water. "Uh..."

"Damnit." Juku pushes the controls and the REX starts running forward. She flips some of the override switches on the side of the cockpit.

The REX Jumps, grabbing on to a stalagmite and swinging around it to dive to the next and grab hold of it with both arms, sliding around it in a spray of sparks and lets go, flinging itself into the oncoming tideal wave in swandive.

Thrusters convert to waterjets and propell the mecha through the water in a burst of speed.

THe REX bursts out of the water on the other side like some kind of super-secret trained super-agent that just infiltrated an arctic facility.

"Alright Beast/skank/!" The REX pulls back into a balled up fist. "You're gonna start talkin' while I start a knockin'!"

The fist rams forward at the Gunman's midsection.

The abrupt flooding of the tunnels does not do nearly as much damage to the Valhawk as it could have, in terms of blunt force mechanical trauma or even in terms of abruptly short-circuiting systems which have been exposed to water and were not designed to handle that. Part of this is due to Mihiro's swift reactions; part of it is due to Kazuma's buying the time with swift maneuvering for Mihiro to reroute or cut power to the systems which would otherwise be exposed.

So it's a fairly gentle ride back out of the tunnels for the Valhawk, although Kazuma is rather annoyed at the fact that the Beastmen were not collectively chased out of the tunnels. Still, any mission from which your machine can return to base/carrier under its own power is a relatively successful one. This definitely could have been worse. And even though Kazuma would be more than willing to traipse back down there, Mihiro nixes that idea by pointing out how close it was.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "I don't know who that was or how she did that. Everyone okay, in terms of 'alive and machine can be repaired'?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "I-- have Sly. His radio is not responding. Damnit. When the waters calm, he better be alive-- or I swear to whatever higher being there is.. I will find him-- then kill him myself."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "He was in a Tengu, right? Powered battlearmor?"

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "... Yes."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "If it's fairly intact he's probably alive in there. Those Tengu are sturdy as hell - I've got one myself."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "Which I have in the hands of my Armored Core. Just the waters will either shove me-- or we will wade it."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Don't go juggling it or throwing it, he'll be okay."

"Oh! We'll be able to swim for sure, now! That's a lot of water!" The princess happily notes. Uh oh. That's a bit too much water! But Simon grasps her, holding her so that she doesn't find out, head first, why there are restraints on the cockpit.

Coming to a rather bumpy stop, Nia giggles. "Oh that was fun, too! It was like a ride at an amusement park!" The log flume rollercoaster, no doubt! But wait, if Simon is there holding her then who is at the controls?

"Simon... is Gurren Lagann tired out from the excitement as well?" She's still a tad loopy.

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Remille Fortner transmits, "... why.. never mind."

The brutal fist hits the Seyrune right in its babymaker. Tragically, this degree of brutal force may mean that Adiane can never have children. :(

The Seyrune's water storm fades, or at least, it becomes merely a conventional storm surge rather than the terrible animate force the dark powers of Genetic Science had produced. Adiane says something best rendered as 'hngh,' having been rattled by the REX's punch inwards.

But she laughs scornfully nonetheless. "Why don't you start begging for your answers? After that, I recommend a vigorous but short session of shitting your stupid atmosphere suit and praying to your pathetic nonexistent idols!"

ELSEWHERE, IN TEPPELIN CITY BOOKSTORE (THERE IS ONLY ONE):

Richard Dawkins - "The Selfish Gene" - Signed copies on sale now!!

BACK UNDERGROUND

Adiane raises up her arms. "Bloody Clamper!!!" The cockpit opening irises open, showing the small (relatively) figure of the beastskank in question. Then fangs snap into place, and it lunges, in what can best be described as 'crotch first,' aiming to rip and tear with its horrid lower mouth at the metal of the REX.

Adiane, predictably, laughs all throughout.

The Water was rough but the Armored Core was holding its own. Though the feet were starting to slide as the current pushed against it. Rock was slippery when went. "Sly!" Her voice echoed out over the loud-speaker. "Do something damnit!"

However the Armored Core's footing at last gave, and like a control skid, Remille let it her Armored Core slide along, with the Tengu in its arms. Using its body like a shield to protect the smaller unit from the sharps walls and jagged ceiling.

Once they got out of.. where-ever they were. The Armored Core quickly placed down the Tengu carefully, before Remille swiftly got back out; bare footed or not she was going to check on him.

The Female Frightener ran over to the Tengu before attempting to find the means to open it. "Sly! Answer! Do something! Or I swear-- if you are not dead.. I will Kill you myself!"

Sly's Tengu is completely limp, and any scans would show it powered down. It moves very little as Remille is pushed along by the surge of water, and only clumps onto the ground when Remille sets him down.

A minute or two after that though, a puff of steam escapes though a seam that opens in the center, and slowly, the armor is pushed open. First one hand works out, then another, then together they shove the armor apart widely enough for Sly to wiggle out. It takes a bit of effort, but Sly manages to pull himself completely out of the Tengu armor. From there he sits on top of it, takes a deep breath, and fishes a hand radio out of a pocket.

"I'm here. The water nuked my Tengu's power systems. Motor functions, communication, weapons, all of it is tanked. The interior was sealed though, so I'm still dry. Took me a while to work the damned thing open, though."

<Radio: D - T.D.F. Operation> Sly Heckler transmits, "I'm here. The water nuked my Tengu's power systems. Motor functions, communication, weapons, all of it is tanked. The interior was sealed though, so I'm still dry. Took me a while to work the damned thing open, though."

The Bloody Clamper punches out like...like some kind of thing that really doesn't want to be throughly described.

The attack impacts the lower section of the REX but it's free hand swings up, punching the mass of fangs upwards and away before it can attempt to bite into the REX's Metal, or any gears.

"Sister, the only person around here thats going to do any begging is you."

The Mobile Suit lifts up it's foot as it pivots on the other, a water soaked strip of cloth tied around it's head swings around behind it's head as it comes around to drop it's foot on Seyrune's back while it's arms try to wrap around it's tail, and start /ulling/ as hard as possible.

"What do you want down here? Why didn't you attack Underground like you do everywhere else?!

Remille backs up as the Tengu opens and Sly wiggles himself out. Those sapphire eyes for a moment seem relieved, before they go back to their stern, soldier look. She then winds up her fist and goes to punch him on the shoulder. "You could have gotten yourself killed. You idiot!" She then starts to walk away with a huff. She then quickly spins on her heels; Hey her hair was actually getting curly, "And just because you went off to play the Hero, do not expect any reward or some great acknowledgment for it."

Then back off to soldier walking she goes to her Armored Core. Bare footed, wet, and angry(?) no less.

Adiane is momentarily baffled. This is a lot of why the arms wrap around the tail successsfully and start pulling with brutal force, because she's been simply taken flatfooted.

"What -- so now you're bitching that we didn't go and exterminate your underground monkey town!? Haven't you paid a single piece of attention!? First, /maybe we had better things to do/, and second," a hand taps the Seyrune's knoblike 'head,' "IT'S AN UNDERGROUND CITY! HELLO, MCFLY!"

A very small scout Gunman whips in from stage left. "Yes your generalship?"

"Take a picture of this monkey, Mcfly!"

He does.

But seriously:

The tail is held, but not held is the Seyrune's rest of itself, which flips around, pivoting on its tail joint and aiming to rip and tear down against the REX Hound to complete a full 360 degree turn.

Sly gives Remille a slight smirk and shrugs, though he does recoil a bit when she punches him. "Yeah well, if I'd let you die your brother would have probably raised my rent over at the Nest. Throwing your tight ass into a river isn't worth having to pay 20 extra bucks a month over." He shakes his head as she walks away, and stretches his limbs a bit before going back to his radio.

"Sly to Equinox. I owe Little ten bucks. Could use a pickup. Tell Little to bring a sponge."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Remille Fortner transmits, "... ..men.."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sly Heckler transmits, "I'm sorry I saved your life, /mom/. It won't happen again."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Remille Fortner transmits, "..."

<Radio: C - None> Adiane out of nowhere, "You're not happy when we're killing you, you're not happy when we AREN'T killing you!! Your problem is defiance, but it's also not being able to BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE!!!"

<Radio: C - None> Sly Heckler transmits, "/I'm/ happy when people aren't killing me."

"Thats what I'm talking about you stupid bint!" Juku shouts back at Adiane, "Whats so important that the Human Extermination Army wouldn't exterminate humans?!" right up until McFly appears. Out of reflex Juku targets McFly with one of the arm mounted anti-infantry vulcans. "...shit."

Realizing a moment too late that Adiane is on the move, the Seyrune's claws shred into the REX, tearing through it's optical armor with fercoity. Juku knows she's done here when the armor around the reactor screams an alarm.

Juku lift's REX foot up and fires the still converted water-jet thruster at Seyrune's underside, forcing it off her mobile suit. "I'll beat it out of you eventually."

The REX turns around and dives back into the water, firing it's waterjets to escape along the flow of water that's still trying to escape along the underwater stream.

<Radio: C - None> Juku Reimaru transmits, "P.S. Your makeup is terrible."