2010-11-10 - Desert Ghost

The Sahara desert: A mysterious area for some, a spring of wealth for others, and a really big litterbox to cats. But it is this aspect of mystery that plagues these lands in the depths of night. For a few hours now, a specific spot inside of this ginormous sandbox has been giving off a strange kind of radiation that has been interfering with radar and interference. And this section of the Earth being so prominently ruled over by the Divine Crusaders, they have sent out a scout. However - the Divine Crusaders are not the only ones with interest in this strange anomaly. Most of the factions that are stationed on earth, afraid that the aliens may have cooked up a new weapon, too have sent out a few units; unaware of what had occured just before the release of this 'radiation'.

A small group of trailers had also been noted being in the vicinity beforehand; an excavation group launched from Mandela Spaceport which had gone missing around the same time this strange radiation had been detected. Who knows what happened to these unfortunate souls - bringing only a small squad of Zaku IIs for hauling things in and out of the Garuda-class. Who knows what they had believed to have found? With the radar not working though - it was impossible to get a reading on any of these units.

From a /distance/ though, visuals could reveal some suitable details for those flying, walking or hovering in. The Garuda, a sandy-yellow, looked like it had been through hell and back. But then, what to expect when one is dealing with some of the junk rebuilt by the trailers? It looks like it is still in flying condition however - as these transport-planes were build quite sturdily, and made to last. The hatch was open, and a single Zaku II was still standing inside - visible only if one got the right angle on the encampment. Nothing was moving however - except for some of the white tents' cloth, flapping in the desert wind. The sand looked entirely flat and clean, like nobody had walked upon it. There are some plumey sand-dunes around the encampment, and a few measuring devices stuck in a somewhat circular shape around the eastern edge of the camp - although some of them were half fallen-over. The area looks a bit suspicious.

Ascian, the DC scout, began his approach, and immediately could tell that the radar was going haywire. Thousand of blips appeared and disappeared randomly like specks of sand in a sandstorm. In fact, the Variable Fighter itself started steering somewhat more difficult than before - something that quickly caused the young man to send the machine down and shift into GERWALK mode. He had little experience flying the machine to begin with, and with it acting up, he'd feel a lot safer on the ground. The machine makes a fierce impact with one of the sand-dunes and continues on to stumble forwards whilst the pilot gets jostled around and fervently tries to regain the machine's balance and footing. He succeeds. "This thing is so unwieldy." The BAHRAM framerunner mutters to himself, before looking up from the controls and outside of his window. He'd approached from the south, facing the cockpit of the Garuda, and kept his machine at a distance. Lower to the ground, it seemed that the strange radiating interference was not as fierce as it had been in midair.

When some kind of radiation is popping up in the middle of an uninhabited wasteland, most of the time, people just kind of ignore it. Unfortunately, when you're in the midst of an alien invasion and it could be the sign of them coming down to destroy /everything/, that is not exactly the best of plans.

White Glint seems more a mirage than a mobile weapon. The quick Armored Core approaches the radioactive zone at speed, arriving from the northeastern side of the radioactive zone and apparently coming downward instead of going up. The NEXT's sensor suite picks up the innumerable hostiles, but Joshua has a feeling that it's a little... wrong. Recalibrating it with a quick touch to the controls, he picks up the strange radiation instead of the hostiles.

"If anyone comes at us, our sensors won't help at all," he muses aloud to his wingman. "Wouldn't worry too much, though. Just keep your eyes peeled, yeah?"

White Glint descends, flying closer to the ground. He starts to look for... anything.

High overhead, a pair of large blue... bird-like objects circle the site, looking down over the camp and the grounded Suit Carrier aircraft. After a few moments of looking the site over, the two descend towards the camp like Mobile Suit-sized vultures, swooping over the area to get a closer look.

Up above, the icy-blue shape of the Blue Angel orbits the area as well. Its pilot, Ketol, lies back inside the spherical panoramic cockpit, suspended in the center by a harness of cables and wires. Despite the complete view of her surroundings, she doesn't look through the Suit's sensors... But instead, through her own, her mental 'eye' looking the scene over, both through her Familiars, and by her own skills at Clairvoyance. Electromagnetic distortions were annoyingly common on this planet, thanks to pollution from high-energy particles. But this... Something powerful is still here. She knew it. She /felt/ it... And that made this insignifigent camp worthy of her attention.

The Divine Crusader and the NEXT were secondary concerns, at best.

A black speck is seen racing through the desert, complimented by a electrical anomoly, the speck racing toward the assigned contract area, once closer the black unmarked armored core is visible more clearly, a shimmer gliding over it's rather dark unfriendly looking frame, those glowing red eyes in the skull-like mask of a face that it has, those skeletal wings stretching and relaxing as its pilot seems to guide it effortlessly to the location, it's left hand resting lightly on the foregrip of the assault rifle it is currently carrying.

Flying alongside White Glint is... something unusual. The old Star Hawk, in GERWALK mode and with all its extra booster packs, is carrying an ATAC, specifically a Ratatosk, which also has a boosterpack as well as a Clay Bazooka strapped to it (to provide extra ranged combat capability in case magic decides to suddenly stop working or something).

The reason for this unusual setup is, the Star Hawk is not designed for extended desert operations, and if a sandstorm comes it could mean serious trouble. He's seen ATACs walk across a desert no problem, though -- perhaps La Gias magitech is more sand-resistant. "Roger that, White Glint." Staren responds. "Eyes? I've got plenty of eyes..." He does, at the moment he's remote-controlling the Star Hawk and watching through it's sensors. But then... Hostiles. Drat. Wait, no they're gone. Wait... what? "What the heck is going on here?" The whole Star-Hawk-and-Ratatosk assembly begins to shake. "Damn it... Detaching!" The red GERWALK swoops close to the ground and lets go, releasing clamps added for this mission, and transforms to fighter mode, flying away from the anomaly. The Ratatosk hits the ground running.

"Something's making technology go haywire... Alright magic, lets see what you can do!" He checks the Ratatosk's sensors to see if they, too, are being affected...

Ascian, the Divine Crusader, is incapable of detecting the Blue Angel at this time. However, from his cockpit - approaching the camp slowly, he /can/ see the glint of something in the sky, as well as some of the sand being kicked up by a machine which - once it gets closer - he recognizes. He'd had a run-in this this particular man before. The presence of others didn't quite unsettle him as much as the lack of people at this camp. The tents were not covered enough with sand for this to be an old abandoned station. The Valkyrie, still in the nice and stable GERWALK mode, continues to approach the camp until finally it is standing right before the huge MS-carrier. Almost as if he can't even trust his own eyes, because the radar is out of wack, he uses the mech to reach forward and touch the metal. It was there alright. Checking his radio to see if the other approaching vessels are allies or enemies, he tries to switch frequencies a few times; but all he gets is loud static. Even the IFF sensor is claiming that he himself is apparently an Aerogater... no wait, from the EFA... no wait... Meanwhile, Staren - checking the more magically attuned sensors will find that there is a lot of energy here, originating from beneath the camp. He could possibly make out the presence of the other units present, but any IFF signals being sent are disrupted entirely due to the radio-interference. All of the units present would likely need to approach and land - as quite a few of them were already doing - to further investigate this anomaly.

Staren relays his findings as the ATAC moves closer. Without thinking he looks for the 'ready ranged weapon' button and then remembers that he'll be primarily using spells if such situations arise -- the clay bazooka he brought along is for backup. "Who's there?" he tries asking over local broadband, when a horrible realization hits him.

He's been CUT OFF.

For most of his life, through his cybernetics he has constantly been connected to the hypernet. Complete radio silence is rare, and even then he's connected to the Star Hawk. But he's not in the Star Hawk. He's in a magi-tech machine from the inner world, which he must remember is a good thing right now.

Staren suddenly feels very alone.

"H...hello? Is anyone there?" he calls again, over the Ratatosk's speakers. Or speech-amplification spells. Whatever.

White Glint's multi-eyed head turns and regards each of the incoming mechs. He recognizes the model of one, and some of the parts on another, but the thing above them... that looks like one of the Balmarian machines. Joshua has a strange feeling about that one, something he can't quite put his finger on. It's like he can almost feel it looking at them.

Must be the AMS acting up, he thinks. The NEXT is shielded from most kinds of radiation, sitting on a Kojima reactor as it is; he isn't worried about his machine going crazy. Still, White Glint touches down, waiting for the Ratatosk to hit the ground and moving in closer with it. The variable fighter that's already in the center...

"Unidentified pilot, this is--" A burst of static makes him wince. Joshua tries switching to Katharon frequencies, but it's finally gone dead. He sighs. Some days...

"Unidentified pilot, this is White Glint," booms the Armored Core, external speakers all he's got. Joshua sounds casual. "We're not looking for any trouble. Are you here about the rads, too?"

The black exotic looking core stops about 30 or so metres away from the site, it seems to be looking around before it pauses, and over it's loudspeaker system a distorted voice comes, as if it's run through a vocoder and modulator, "No trouble, here on contract number seven bravo niner zulu. If you need credentials, callsign Reaper." the core then starts moving again, the head turning as it looks around, it moves abnormally fluid for a core. The pilot must be very skilled.

All of a sudden, the communications back and forth are interupted by a flurry of movement. Two massive birdlike drones swoop through the camp, ignoring the assembled mecha, and taking up position by the circles of measuring instruments. Before anyone has time to respond, the 'birds' split apart, and open up, twisting and reforming themselves into two large metal circles, aligned in a colum directly above the site.

That is when the Blue Angel descends into the field, and looms menacingly overhead, taking up position above the two aligned rings.

Moments later, a bright flash of energy lights up the camp, as a MASSIVE spray of energy pours out of the Aerogator weapon. Passing through the first ring, it's focussed into a coherent pillar of light between the two reconfigured drones, aimed at the sand-covered circle. Emerging from the second ring, however, it converges to a smaller, tightly-focussed beam, like a cutting torch

Clearly, whatever's inside the Angel doesn't intend to be /subtle/ in its excavations...

Hearing voices all around him, Ascian pulls the Valkyrie's hand away from the Garuda and steers the machine around as to approach the more eastern side of the camp - yet not quite into that strange and suspicious circle. Deciding that right now is not a time to go aiming gunpods at these people - who ever they were - and instead replies in a demanding tone; "Private Ascian Luddite, of the Divine Crusaders. This is our territory - please Identify your association." Luckily for him, some of them had already done so, and he'd taken note of the black core's callsign. He continues to steer his unit about and uses one of its large hands to grab hold of one of the tents and rips it up. The radar was down, so he could not tell for sure if there were any lifesigns. But his heat-sensor did claim as much... at least that thing worked.

"I do not detect any heat-signatures associated with earthnoids." Using a bit of an old term there. "But I just found food in a pot that still is on a burning gas-unit. Something happened here." Using the radio to reach that many people allowed the sound to penetrate his unit rather well - and it was hurting his ears, so he tries his best not to say /too/ much until the rest is closer. But that was not the only pain he'd soon sense as a flash of light erupts from the skies - blinding him temporarily as the Blue Angel begins her assault on the measurement-site. The sand blasts up at first, before beginning to create a strange 'shine' that reflects the beams faintly into random directions - lashing up in the air like a concert laser-show. Something beneath the sand had stopped the assault from penetrating through the sand, and had caused the massive heat from the beams to turn the sand into glass on top of what looked like... a giant metal black plate. "What the!?" Ascian calls out, belatedly, in reaction to the 'attack' and aims both gunpods up in the air.

Burning gas-unit? It's a stove. Who talks like that, is this guy an alien? Staren wonders. "I'm Staren Wiremu. So you're just as in the dark about this energy reading as everyone else, huh?" And then ALIENS. The Ratatosk looks up at the looming, cutting alien machine. and then looks over at White Glint. "Should we attack that thing...?"

Remy Sledge 's core whirls around at the huge beam, and aims it's rifle at the large ship, the distorted voice coming over the speaker again, "I hear a familiar voice, finally get yourself out of the desert only to find yourself here again? Funny we run into each other again." the core fires up it's booster and starts to move towards the large spacecraft, engaging a tightbeam scan, everything from IR, to thermal, to radioscope, "Lets take a looksee shall we?"

Once the Angel's beam weapons are repelled, the Aerogator craft cuts the power to the beam, and the two drones reform themselves into birds. Heedless of the others, the two drones swoop down, and start basting the sand and glass away from the central site, trying to find the edges of the black object. Meanwhile, the huge blue craft turns towards the others, and a harsh, but feminine voice sounds in the minds of all those assembled:

"Leave this area at once, Samples. I have no time to deal with you as well."

"Roger, Reaper. Sounds like a Raven job; we'll try not to get in one another's way." Joshua pauses a moment. Divine Crusaders? That's a problem. "Just a few curious sorts. Concerned citizens. We're making sure that nothing--"

White Glint watches the laser light show with only the briefest pause. The Armored Core NEXT jumps backwards, a flare of white from it's boosters launching it out of the radiation cloud. It takes to the air, climbing up to the same altitude as the Blue Angel, it's two rifles trained on it and it's remote weapons. "--like that."

Joshua grits his teeth at the voice. He speaks through the loudspeakers, voice remaining cool and controlled. He has a presence that feels just as calm as he seems. "Balmarian unit, call back your remotes or I'll be forced to shoot them down. Like I said, we don't want any trouble. Don't give us cause."

White Glint hovers. Staren can handle examining the thing; he's currently waiting to see if he has to shoot down a few pidgeons.

When the alien adresses them, Staren gets ready to try and freeze it... But he doesn't want to _start_ the fight here and, also, he wonders: Why isn't the big and mighty alien just trying to crush them? Since when do Balmarians say 'go away'??

Naah. Ascian might not be from earth, or even from a spacecolony; but he's no alien. "Aerogaters! It must be trying to seal that place!" The scout makes a wrong interpretation of what is occuring right now and sends his unit into the direction of the glassed over black plate. This doesn't quite explain the manner in which the alien is going about this, but it is as close as it is going to get for him. The plate seems to span a long distance through the sand - and it will take a while to find the edge. The reason for him heading there where the plate had previously glassed over by the laser-fire was mostly because that'd get him away from the Garuda - which could blow his unit to hell and back if it exploded. And just as he walks onto the plate, the ground begins to rumble.

Like an camera's iris opening up - a hole begins to form at the center of the reading-instruments. "Something's opening up here." The interference immediately grows stronger - and particularly weakly made radios might find themselfs sending a high-tuned whine across them. Sand begins to fall into the 'hole' as it grows, showing a deep fall down a tunnel of sorts - a metalic looking tunnel. And at the metalic bottom - easily a mile below - one could see a crashed Zaku II... shot to pieces. A bit of sand is also situated at the bottom from a previous time the 'gate' was opened. There were a series of openings here and there at the bottom - all sized for robots it seems. Some of these openings - leading into tunnels - are closed behind bulkheads, locked with huge padkeys... also robo-sized.

The black core pauses, hovering there in mid flight, the red glow of his thrusters pulsing as it hangs there, "Go away?" emanates from the black core, which looks at the white glint, "Affirmative." it does however train it's rifle at the drones, the wings flaring out quite a bit, electricity arcing between them and eventually creating a eerie looking membrane between the wings, the unseen pilot of the mecha lighting a cigarette, the distinct flick of a lighter to be heard over the speakers, "This could be unfun."

As the pit opens into the mysterious object, the two drones quickly return to the Blue Angel's side, overhead the opening. Sending the drones in first, the icy-blue shape slowly descends into the opening the moment it's large enough to permit its passage, not waiting to see how the others will react.

The distorted voice emits from the black mech, "You know.. that's someone's grave.. or something that could be a national treasure somewhere." the core's finger moves into the triggerwell of the large assault rifle, the other hand grabbing the foregrip as it takes better aim, "Unidentified alien craft, you are trespassing on private property, if you do not stop, as per previously stated contract, i will destroy your craft." the core starts to sway back and forth looking like it's ready for evasive maneuvers, "As for the rest of you, it would behoove you to stop this, could set back the war effort."

As Ketol's drones rush into one of the openings - they find themselves winding through a series of tunnels - where the interference is getting stronger and stronger. One gets left behind as the other heads forwards - and suddenly gets destroyed by a flash of blue flaming energy... like a plasma shot of sorts - shattering the one that had gone up ahead. It had been hard to tell where the attack had come from - as the halls were dark, and shadows were all-present.

In the meantime, Ascian is guiding his unit forwards - away from the hole that is still opening up, until it finally stops moving. It is then that a red series of magna-electrical 'whips' suddenly lash out and grab wildly around - attempting to grab the crafts in the area; originating from a series of 'machines' that became visible as a set of gates opened within the downward tunnel. At the same time, a red series of beams settle from the downwards tunnel up, from the bottom - like a spacecraft landing strip... turned upright. It would appear that these whips are 'guides' for whatever vessel was meant to park in there; and were thus strong enough to pull anything metalic their way even if they did not touch... and try to pull down. The alien, the black core, the Ratosk and the White Glint - they are all caught within this 'web' of sorts. Even the Divine Crusader scout - who tried to push as hard on the pedal as possible in order to blast off - could not escape from the wicked magnetic tendrils and gets pulled in with his thrusters going at full. Swears are omni-present from the scout as he realizes his own futility.

Some systems might experience an overload. Others might simply not be able to compensade against the strength with their thrusters or boosters. Either way - the collective party of suits here get pulled into the hole - after which the massive black iris that had withstood so much laserfire begins to close above them.

The problem with going into a confined space past the White Glint is that you leave yourself open to attack afterwards.

The benefit of Joshua O'Brien being the /pilot/ of White Glint is that he is not, say, Yazan Gable, and does not immediately shoot the blue alien machine in the back. He instead follows it down, tailing the mech and hovering just off the ground as he does. There's plenty of room; it's mech-sized, whatever it is, and his is kind of small, comparatively speaking.

Joshua flashes a quick laser communication to Staren's Ratatosk. He folds his arms across his chest and lets the Allegorical Manipulation System guide him along, easily maneuvering underground--and then flying circles around the magnetic tendrils.

Not that it helps. All of Joshua's skill is useless when he's up against something with that kind of strength. The field is powerful; his thrusters won't give him enough lift to get away while he avoids using his Overboost, and doing that will drain his Primal Armor. It's a choice between going down or leaving himself defenseless, and with a Balmarian around, he has no intention of allowing the field to be disabled.

White Glint shoots the two nearest tendrils right at the whip-like tips and begins to descend willingly, intent on seeing this thing to it's conclusion. Maybe they can use whatever is down here.

Staren tries the ratatosk's booster, but it's no use. The ATAC stands up once it's pulled in, and Staren looks up to see the Iris closing. "Oh come ON! What? So now a bunch of people from disparate factions, including an evil alien, will have to learn to work together to get out of here alive? Really? I don't want to be in this movie!" he sighs.

It appears that on their way down, Remy had been somewhat unlucky. The red tendril that had grabbed hold of his machine cut out as one of White Glint's rounds scathes through one of the tendrils and crashed into the magna-electro whip generator. The sudden loss of control sends the machine into a temporary spin, and knows the man around enough to send him into la-la land. The Divine Crusader scout is more lucky - as he gets set down neatly onto the bottom of the tunnel - right next to Staren. When everyone has been set down, the object disengages. He listens to the guy's whining and decides to try something; he launches a volley of missiles straight up at the Iris. The series of explosions rocks the complex and creates a rumble further in. But... no effect on the protective plating. It doesn't look like he is carrying enough firepower to do this one. "So it seems." Ascian mutters and turns his eyes towards the Alien's vessel.

The Blue Angel had been unfortunate in her approach. Due to the largest quantity of whips having gone her way, every drone she sends is caught within the web. The lasers do end up doing some damage - disabling some of the sources of the tendrils - but at the same time a small count of drones get crush beneath the power of these things. It appears these things were made to handle sturdy and large things. Drones... were not. "How about we take down her - and THEN try to figure our way out? At least we're all human." This message is sent to Staren and Joshua's machines using a tightbeam laser. Working together with non-Divine Crusader units? Again!? This was getting rediculous. But he had been ordered that, if he were to encounter the Aerogaters, to accept any help he could get. Ketol's machine is placed down neatly - and finally the whips disengage on her too. "What do you say - guys?" Ascian makes sure the tightbeam communication laser does not touch Mal'akh. He then takes a look around and gives a confused look at the doors nearby. "What's with the huge panels?" This last part he manages to use the speaker for.

Staren sighs. The laser communication is noted, but... the words 'at least we're human' rub him the wrong way. Well, monday did show that the Balmarians are _capable_ of working alongside humans when it suits them. "Attention Balmarian!" He announces over the loudspeaker. "We may have to work together to get out of here. Are you willing to work together with 'samples', or would you rather die?"

The feathers fall to earth once 'attacked', and retreat back into the Angel once it lands. Concentrating on navigating the tunnels remotely, Ketol rolls her eyes at the others. At Staren's declaration, the Blue Angel turns around, and suddently rights itself, the teardrop turning point down, and hovering over the others.

"By your own culture's definition, Ascian, you are possibly the only one here that could be considered fully 'human'. Do what you will."

Meanwhile, Ketol continues to run her drone through the passageways, looking for any more 'traps' or presences.

The magnetics doesn't mess with the pilot of the White Glint as much as they might anyone else. His body is built for high-G maneuvers, and he's a spacenoid besides. He spins for a moment, but gracefully touches down on the ground below before he crashes into (or through) anything. It takes just a second for him to not feel a little dizzy from it, but he's a professional. It isn't a problem.

He's a little surprised at Staren's words, truth be told. Maybe he's grown up a little since last he heard anything about him. Joshua raises an eyebrow and glances at the Ratatosk and the variable fighter, facing down the Balmarian machine with the two of them with him. He's even willing to listen, but...

"Alright, that's enough." White Glint raises it's longer rifle and fires twice, sending two solid rounds sailing right for whatever the blue alien machine has for a head. It looks like he's fed up with talking to one of the /things/ kidnapping his comrades.

With the drone floating like that - certain traps triggered. Or perhaps, they weren't really even 'traps'. However, there is a massive presence she can feel moving around the drone - then flare up as suddenly the drone gets struck from behind and destroyed! Somehow though, through a reflection nearby, she caught a shimmer of blue energy as well as the presence of something... not quite dead. But definitely not alive. And at that same time, she gets shot at by the White Glint. Ascian, unnerved by the words used by the alien - and even /more/ unnerved by the fact that /somehow/ she had managed to hear him - activates his own gunpods. "I'm with you, guy in the White unit." He calls out - ignoring Staren's offer to the alien to help them. After all - he was still unsure whether the alien owned this place or not. In the meanwhile - deep down the halls - a loud sound begin to approach them. A small barrage of missiles quickly lock on and fire!

Staren sighs. Well, he tried. Now here goes the fight! The ATAC strikes a combat pose of sorts. "Scatter your chilly sharp blades! Ice!" The ATAC doesn't need incants, but Ketol probably doesn't know that! This way, he can surprise by attacking without an incant later... Either way, for no reason discernable to sensors, air in front of the ratatosk goes cold and fills with ice crystals too large to have been produced by the amount of water in the air, and cold air and ice spew forth over the alien machine!

The Blue Angel takes the impacts on its hull, the shielding absorbing the impacts. The pilot's voice returns, more irritated then angry. "Very well. Then you can face this... guardian together."

Directing her perceptions towards the greatest 'pressure' she can feel, the Priestess mentally *shouts* to it, OVER HERE!

A moment later, The Blue angel backs off, and glides swiftly down the farthest tunnel.