2011-05-14 - Force Your Way

 Thorn can be heard playing soft jazz. Several fumbled notes here and there seem a pretty good hint whoever's playing is only moderately good. There's a sigh then an off mic 'Sorry Sir' before a louder voice hisses. "Best call it over anyhow. We're due for sim training in an hour."

 Thorn sounds somewhat proud, "They've been practicing. How I'm not sure given our collective workload."

 James Heller transmits, "Huh didn't expect that."

 Thorn transmits, "While this requirees a somber mood of me... the fact SoJin is finally listed as ready for deployment.... leaves me feeling somewhat giddy."

Space. Mankind's second home.

An infinite void in which hang the distant, nigh-infinite lights of other stars and worlds. In this blanket of night, the constant cycle of illes and troubles that plague humanity seem insignificant indeed. Beyond that ocean of stars lay infinite possibility, unlimited hope...and endless horror.

One of those small points of light was the planet Balmar, whose inhabitants even now eyed the earth with a hateful gaze, wringing their hands as their thoughts turned towards vengeance. Another held the engimatic force known as 'Inspectors', watching from afar and waiting, planning for the day when mankind would be evaluated.

And somewhere in between those dazzling lights, in an existence defined not quite by either darkness nor light, lay another force all too terrible for the mind to comprehend. The force of the in-between too waited, biding by their hunger, dreaming their endless vision of the day they would awake to be sated once again.

Meanwhile, man remained trapped in his conflicts, ever sorting out his own house even countless outsiders sought to plunder it from beneath him. It ought to have been a time of peace, of prosperity and understanding as humanity moved beyond the cradle of it's birth into the wider wold beyond. It was not.

This was the time of SUPER ROBOT WARS


 * THEME MUSIC*


 * ANIME OP*

0200 HOURS EARTH SPACE

Approximately 15 minutes ago, the AEUG's Argama and her crew initiated a covert attack on a mobile station in DC territory, based on information that it housed a rogue cell of Zeon extremists who did not share Glemy Toto's inward looking vision for Zeon Zum Daikun's dream.

This information was fault, distributed by A-LAWs agents to lure the ship into a trap where combined task force of their own units along with that of Alpha Numbers await to draw the net tight around the New Troujan Horse.

At the same time, the Divine Crusaders have become aware of an unlawful incursion into their space, and have dispatched units to protect their borders against all who would tramp upon Spacenoid sovereignty.

The Argama has radioed for assistance from her allies, but will they arrive in time?!

"Shit!!" Cried CAMILLE BIDAN as the Zeta Gundam's HUD lit up with more bogies he'd seen since the assault on the White Star, dodging fire from all directions before manuevering the Gundam behind a derelict Musai, one of the many skeletons of the One Year War that drifted through space in silent testimony of Earth Space's violent past. Enemy units where everywhere, he didn't even know /who/ was shooting at him, only that they were. It had been a long time since it had gotten this bad.

"Munoz!" He opened up a frequency to the damaged Nemo at his side, quickly evaluting that it'd be more of a hindrance than help to further efforts, "The last salvo got your targeting units, you'll be fight blind out here. Get back to the Argama, tell Captain Bright these assholes mean business!" Not waiting for a response, the Zeta turned it's verniers up and blasted into the open, "I'll cover you!"

"O..okay. Thanks Camille!" First Lieutenant Adrian Munoz followed swiftly, his Nemo getting past as the Zeta's Hyper Mega Launcher laid down a gratifying field of suppressive fire.

He mad it about nine clicks out before a stray shot pierce his reactor, ending the dreams of Brazilian restaurant, a pension, and marrying his sweetie back home in a burning corruscate of nuclear flame and mental agony.

"/Damn it/!?" Camille hissed, feeling all too acutely the final, terrified moments of the Lieutenant. A closed his slammed on the commlink, heralding the voice of young, anguised man far too young to deal with what was on his place, "Argama, where the /hell/ are our reinforcements?! We're getting hammered out here!!"

LIKE TWELVE HOURS AGO THE NEWTYPE STORM NIGHTCLUB LONDON

The smell of cheap beer and spent cigarettes permeates the air. The sound of the music is deafening, like some kind of nightmare steed wrought entirely of bass hits and lurid fluorescent lighting, fracturing bones and collapsing lungs beneath its hooves as it drives the actions on the dance floor with only /one hand on the wheel/. The every sense of Ibis Douglas is filled with the stink, the taste, the burn of tequila. Somewhere in there, there is the vague undertone of salt, but it sure as hell isn't doing much by this point.

Fighting back the urge to be suddenly and violently sick, she puts one hand to her face and makes a vaguely agonized kind of noise, sitting up in her chair and looking to one side groggily. Leo Stenbuck is there, or at least looks like he is there, but has actually worked his entire head beneath the spaghetti-strap top of another waitress. Ibis blinks once, mumbles "Oh." and her head sags as she passes right the hell out. Her last thoughts for the night are a vague and unsorted jumble of concerns that pretty well stop making sense.

RIGHT THE HELL NOW OUTER FREAKING SPACE YO ITS COLD OUT HERE

*Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep*

Like a diver coming up for air, Ibis comes out of her extremely greasy-feeling nap with a sharp, shocked intake of breath. She closes her eyes and winces, pain lancing through her head in a hot flash of discomfort. She raises her hands and puts them to her face, readying a groan. There is that awful, horrible moment of dawning comprehension where her hands bonk into her flight-suit helmet, and reality snaps into place.

That wasn't her alarm clock, that was the missile lock warning.

Ibis glances around the cockpit in a panicked rush. The controls, this layout, this isn't a TELLUS or a Barzam or something competent! Her breathing accelerates as her reflexes punch through the filmy layer of tequila coating her brain and more or less set fire to it with a lighter that is also shaped like a revolver. Gloved hands fly on up to the controls and it's hard rudder right with tesla drive thrown all the way open.

The YAM-07-1 Astelion, the only Armored Module named after a potato, pitches hard to one side and surges forward on a plume of emerald flame as two stupidity-seeking missiles twirl and trail after it. Being shot by stock DCAM-004 Lions, which kinda flounder after Project Terrestrial Dream's fattest (yet fastest) non-prototype unit, they go wide and one of them explodes on a conviniently placed peice of Space Debris (tm).

The other one comes within a couple metres of the Astelion and prepares to detonate--except that a giant robot fist slams into the side of it and the circuitry shorts out. The Astelion, that white-painted shining testament to humanity's propensity to fly really fast and also maybe destroy alien battlestations, grabs the disabled missile and throws it back at one of the Lions like a god damned knuckleball. Inexplicably, both Lions explode because of this.

Around this time, Ibis glances behind her while just about panting like she ran a marathon, and notices that there is another girl squeezed into her cockpit. Her blood freezes.

The battle raging outside goes mute.

WHY IS NIA IN THE ASTELION.

 R transmits, "Sorry Macua.."

The Nest was wrecked, the reasons to why was a bit unknown, but the found had an idea to who was behind it all. Sadly without the proper connections right now and most of the Nest down, he didn't have time to go repay the favor.

It wasn't like he could anyhow.

So, how can one burn off some steam anyhow? Simple answer, go help take on a mission and blow someone or something up! Violence always solved everything (sometimes)!

Now R was sent on a mission of his choice, using one of the new Raven's Nest ships that could break orbit. Once in space, the hangar part of the ship opened and dropped the white NEXT out into space as it moved away from what would become the combat zone soon enough.

It was deadly silent in space. The visor of the NEXT flickered for a moment as then a massive sickly green teal field surrounded the NEXT for a moment, before it faded away from view. Becoming invisible to the necked eye. Soon the thrusters came to life and the NEXT blasted toward the combat zone. His mission was to assist in the federation in whatever they needed. Crest may be unhappy about this later, but this was R's choice. <<"This is R to all Federation and Federation allies. I have come to assist in dealing with the Katharon out in this area.">> there was a pause. <<"Pay me by your choice, but consider it free work.">>

Though if any who had mind reading, emotion reading, or about anything attempted to scan him to see if he was being honest would find this utterly impossible. They only thing they may get from the NEXT and its pilot was just--

-- well, something was just off. Not bad, not good, just.. no real way to explain it. Unreadable, but how was that possible? Maybe a natural-born blocker or some kind of training? That was the mystery if R.

The Wing Gundam Zero is already deployed, twisting and weaving through the battlefield adroitly in a vain attempt to push the tide and make a difference in this newest hour of crisis. It will never exactly be known why, exactly, Heero was almost prescient-like available in his cockpit and ready to sortie, as if already knowing of the conflict ahead. Was it insider information? Did he already know this would happen? Did ZERO show him this future? Or was it another reason altogether...

FIVE MINUTES BEFORE CODE RED THE WING ZERO'S COCKPIT

"ZERO, show me how we can win this battle..."

The ZERO System flashes, diagrams and overlays and statistics into Heero's mind. He reclines for a moment, breathing in. But then he frowns, rejecting ZERO's future.

"No, no, ZERO. That's too complicated. Katz can barely press buttons. He wiped us with a simpler strategy last night. And Camille refuses to respec to healing..."

The ZERO System sighs. Goddamn scrubbies.

AND NOW YOU KNOW AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE -- GI JOE!! MEANWHILE, THE OTHER HALF OF THE BATTLE

The Wing Zero's buster rifle roars into life and fires quickly, melting away the arm of a nearby Divine Crusader Lion approaching the Argama's perimeter. Heero wipes his brow for a moment, and mutters, "How did this situation even create itself?" He scans his eyes for another bogey in the battlefield. He's playing full defense now, this is all the Argama can afford at the moment.

The Earth Federation dreadnought Yingzi powers toward the battle, weapons and defensive systems already charged, its presence alone an indication of how seriously the Alpha Numbers are taking this operation. The Yingzi is also located behind another capital-class ship, which is an indication of how seriously its commanding officer is taking it as well.

Huang Qin Shi sits on the bridge of his ship, listening to the preparations going on around him. His mind has been occupied recently with the declaration of Glemy Toto and Joshua's report on the man. A lost heir to the Zabi bloodline. Charismatic. Dangerous. With a shake of the head, the Alpha Numbers' commander dismisses the worries for another day. Today he needs to fight.

"Qin Shi to all units," Huang says in his Official Captainy-Type Voice. "The primary goal of this operation is to disable or destroy the Argama. Be aware that reinforcements may be inbound - this could get ugly very quickly. Qin Shi out."

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"Stupid frakking..." Animal like hissing punctuated the near inaudible mutterings as Thorn creeked an eye open. He had been all bright eyed and bush tailed when this op started. Send the SoJin off on it's madin 'official' flight... YEEEAAA! Five hours of dull nothingness in the vaccume of space kinda dampened his enthusiasm.

EET EET EET EEETEEETETETETETETETEWAKEUP!

He snorted at the single line display in the middle of the mechanisaurus's control yoke. "Status..." He glance d about simi-randomly. "So much for a boring first hop." He checked to make sure his suit's cloak and electronic countermeasures were operating before heading out to get a closer look at these intruders... who apparently already blew up a few lions.... Damnit NPCs weren't supposed to go blewy yet! DAMN YOU IBIS!

 Ascian Luddite transmits coordinates. "Heavy A-LAWS and Katharon presence detected."

 Thorn transmits, "Acknowledged. Moving to intercept."

 Heero Yuy transmits, "Heero Yuy, Wing Zero is active, covering the Argama's starboard flank."

 Puru Two transmits, "It's great when they just sort of come volunteer to die."

The lights were new to her! The sounds! The /action/! Especially the action. Out on the dance floor, BunNia, dressed in, her belief, to be the /best/ waitress outfit ever (A playboy bunny suit) from what she had seen on tv. As Leo went spelunking and Ibis went under, Nia was out on the dancefloor.

Fueled by the new and exotic taste of fire water ( tequila ) and the world of 'seedy hardcore clubs' Nia was asked by another patron, female, who was eyeing her up if she would like to go to her place and change into something more comfortable! Nia of course welcomed such hospitality!

Not a few minutes later since Nia rrived at her place, Nia skipped out wearing some of the woman's best clothing. A stylish white mini-skirt and a comfortable white top, half open and half business. Of course after all that walking /man/ was Nia tired! And fell asleep nearby Ibis having returned to the club.

"Mmm...mmMMm?" Nia yaaawns, being shaken to wake up! Or at least it feels like that. There's also a loud piercing noise. Nia lays in the Astelion's secondary seat, curled up slightly. First one eye opens, then another! Ibis's frozen look of horror is the sight that Nia wakes up to!

"Good morning miss Douglas!" She beams, happily, "I want to thank you again for last night... it was oh so very unforgettable! ... And this ringing in my head is very new as well. It feels like there is something trying to escape!" Nia informs Ibis in an all too chipper explanation. At least it is better than waking up /next/ to Nia, right Ibis?

She waves.

 Thorn transmits, "Negative. If they are this open about an assault I expect something from a different angle at the worst possible moment."

When it comes to guarding outer space, making sure the A-LAWS and folk are not causing any trouble, it is often recon - not radar - that notices trouble. And the one who noticed the A-LAWS and Katharon suddenly going at it was actually an Orbital Frame pilot named Ascian Luddite. Lieutenant and part of the BAHRAM Space Fleet, he actually is guiding a sizable squad of Narita drones through the area to expand his sensor range. Interfacing with those simple drones was not hard for the Quantum Computer on board, running the Artificial Intelligence named Duat.

The machine is currently hidden within a weak mesh construct meant to look like a single floating asteroid, the Naritas each hidden within one of their own. Sure, their direction is a tad straight, but they should not be too obvious to find. Within the machine, Ascian is going over the astrometric data coming in, as well as the radar data, and passing it through by tapping his fingers lightly against the two red half-orb like constructs that are his controls. The taps halt when he finds the Mobile Station that is transmitting an old DC signal. And... The Argama? A signal was quickly sent out to the DC... and the asteroids continue on past. The Argama is not the only machine that can use fake asteroids to win a battle!

The Narita units and Amenthes, hidden in those fake rocks, continue to float along. Ascian's gaze settles on the Astelion for a moment, then notices... the Wing Zero. He'd always wanted to go up against that machine ever since he had talked to Heero during his captivity on that ship. Another machine that... what was it again? He doesn't remember.

Either way, when the fake asteroids finally pass in a good distance past the Argama, they suddenly all burst as the units within cut them open, and go on a full approach to both Ibis and Heero. The Narita Drones mostly concentrated on the first, it is the Amenthes - the Orbital Frame Phoenix - that launches a large series of red beams from its right arm's gun nozzle upon the target!

<<"This is Lieutenant Ascian Luddite, of the BAHRAM Space Fleet. This is Divine Crusader Teritory. Please vacate this area now, or be destroyed!" Of course, he'd already shot at the Gundam Wing, so... the point of warning them was kind of moot. But... it felt like the right thing to do.

 Macua Huitl transmits, "Amazon CI launching."

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "Lieutenant Ascian Luddite, engaging the Wing Zero!"

Puru Two has been having some mental difficulties lately. Okay, she's been having mental difficulties her entire life, they're just more serious now. Usually it's limited to severe headaches, or wanting to kill things more super-dead than she already wants to kill them normally. There haven't been problems like being uncertain of her long-term memory and seeing things that aren't there before.

Clearly the best medicine for this sort of thing is some mindless slaughter. If there's one thing that's guaranteed to clear up any sort of lapse in focus, it's a huge battle. There's just something about needing to actively make sure you don't die that causes this, it's a funny thing.

In short, looks like it's that time again: Puru Two has found her way to the Argama. It's pretty obvious that she just won't quit hunting that ship, so it should be understood that this is just something that will happen periodically. Usually at the worst possible times. This certainly qualifies, although this is really the worst possible time for everyone involved.

Not that Puru Two particularly minds. As the red Qubeley Mk. II speeds through the stars, its pilot just smiles at the sight of so many enemies of so many affiliations. "Ha, just look at all the targets out there. Way too many to choose from. I'll just take care of whichever one of these losers wants to go first!" With the quick flip of a switch, she switches the sensors to Simple Mode, turning the rainbow of colors on her HUD to a simple 'blue for ally, red for enemy' mode. It doesn't matter who belongs to which faction. They're all just targets.

Her target is thusly decided entirely on who happens to have the bad luck of getting in her sights first. And obviously Ibis is already having the most luckiest of days, so it's just fitting that it happens to be her Astelion that soon comes under fire from the Qubeley Mk. II's Beam Launchers. "Ready or not, time to die!"

As the A-LAW's distant carrier ships oversee the battle, a message gets passed to a pilot, finishing the last checks on their normal suit. Something was happening to the Astelion, beyond what could normally be attributed to Ibis's piloting skill. She needed support. With a flat acknowledgement, the pilot pulls on their helmet, and polarizes the faceplate, masking their appearence. A few leaps and bounds out of an airlock, and soon they were inside the cockpit of a red GNXIII, already prepped and waiting. Without another word, beyond an almost automatic response to the deck controller's orders, the GNXIII's pilot positions themself on the catapult, and launches...

It's only a moment later, charging far ahead of the the other suit teams in a bright trail of orange, that something seems a little off...

Closing in towards the Astelion on a bee-line path, the GNXIII attempts to open communications, a flat, but high voice sounding somewhat out of place from the anonymous uniform: "Silver Shooting Star, please respond. This is Blue-0, closing in for support."

Macua Huitl finds it hard to forget the Balmarians given what happened but there's really more of them far more. She knows next time they will just be there to kill them. They won't even try to harvest most likely. That would result in things she didn't like to think about. Then worse the alliance was out there. The Radam, the space monsters and so many others. The house is on fire and yet the humans keep fighting internally with eachother, while men like Paptiums, Ribbons and Toto play their fiddles.

One such person stuck in this house that is on fire, she is in a mobile suit that still doesn't appear in any data bases jut yet. The only clear thing wa it was a G fighter. Macua checks over the controls of the Amazon CI launches from the Argama it doesn't take too long the DC might be aware of it that Sam tried to steal this thing. Either way the machine is freebound into the space.



 Ascian Luddite transmits, "Careful of the new Gundam model."

 Ibis Douglas sounds like hell and a pack of cigars, "God, I hate that callsign, just call me Douglas."

 Ibis Douglas transmits, "Or Ibis, I don't care which!"

<Radio: F - A-LAWS Chat> An anonymized Eight Murasame transmits, "Understood, Ibis."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "The Pilot is Adom Nazir -- Macua Huitl."

"-What- reinforcements!?" Bright shouts into his command phone as the camera switches to him. Behind him, a power-coupling overloads and bursts. Sparks shower down, followed by a burst of compressed gas. The Argama's bridge -- along with the rest of it -- trembles from several impacts to its reinforced hull-plating.

"The Radish is too far out. They'll never make it in time. You'll just have to fight harder. There's no choice but to make a break for it," the Admiral delivers the news to Camille over the wire. "Continue covering the Argama, we'll be directing the barrage on the portside so we can clear an escape path."

Then, Bright turns his attention to the battle at hand. "Fire main batteries in cycling bursts, suppressive fire patterns. Don't let up for it for a second!" He motions his hand forward, conveying his orders to his seasoned crew. "Prep anti-air missiles the moment the Sandra gets any closer to the battlefield!"

The Argama lurches toward the portside. Its modest yet powerful firepower easily able to destroy Assault Dragoons and Armored Modules alike with ease. High-tensile steel is eviscerated under condensed beamfire, leaving only a fleeting cloud of component atoms to glitter in starlight.

"Captain!" Caesar calls out as he notices the stationary presence of one particular blip and the rapidly-moving approach of several other blips. "The Sandra is staying out of range, but Federation and mercenary contacts are headed straight for us!"

It would be at this moment, Bright Noa's hair took on an additional strand of silver. "What! Was this a trap all along? Deploy additional countermeasures and maintain the barrage! We'll need to hold them off just long enough for our engines to spool up!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Thorn transmits, "Acknowledged."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "She got another one, huh? Good to know."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "This one seems to concentrate on Melee combat, but is equiped with Funnels as well. It's a tier better than the Amazon Mark Two."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Be careful of the lance, it's a Balmarian reverse-engineered weapon."

ARGAMA, 5 MINUTES BEFORE CODE RED, THE DELICIOUS NEW OLD FLAVOR OF MOUNTAIN DEW

"Look, Heero, I put a lot of effort into speccing for for damage, I even found the hidden maximum level of the ageism flaw for more points! Someone else promised to use the same flaw for more healing points but I keep missing when they're online! ...Hey check this out, I turned the giant plushie joke item into a mount!"

1 MINUTE AGO

"I've depleted the battery and the e-caps, Astonage, we're going to have to use the secret new power source... detaching the battery pack now!"

NOW

"Staren Wiremu, Star Hawk MkII, returning to the fray! Hopefully this new power source will give me a big enough edge..."

The distinctive form of the Star Hawk in its bulky assault armor, lightly (so far) marred by bullet holes and scorch marks, is flung back into space off the catapult... And then it suddenly begins trailing blue sparkles, fading to violet...

SOMEWHERE FAR AWAY FROM ALL OF THIS PROBABLY A SPACE STATION

Tsugumi Takakura, Project Terrestrial Dream's Chief Engineer, hums merrily while flipping through an e-space-neo-newspaper. A steaming cup of tea is on the desk next to her because she is basically Japan's favourite model waifu. For her, everything in life is back on track. On her computer screen are a billion and one complicated looking schematics in FutureCAD. There are more lines than any sane human woudl know what to do with.

"Ma'am?" comes the voice of an erstwhile young graduate, currently acting as Tsugumi's personal mail retrieval service. "I thought you said Lt. Douglas said she'd never pilot the Astelion again?"

The brunette with entirely too much hair shrugs happily, setting her crazy-expensive e-book-reader back on the desk. "I thought she did too, but she was awfully nice about it when I phoned her to ask one last time. She kept apologizing, though... I think I heard police sirens in the background?"

The engineers share a puzzled look.

WHO CARES ABOUT THAT SHIT WE WARRING IN SPACE RIGHT NOW

Ibis Douglas is currently managing to not totally freak out right now, but it's a miracle that she ain't.

Cutting a hella proper figure in that forest green A-LAWS piloting suit with suitably badass amber faceplate, she looks at Nia like a totally panicking (but /not/ freaking out) mother wolf might look at her young for doing something insanely foolish. Or at least, that's what she approximates. Not having seen a mother wolf stare at her young, it's anyone's guess.

"Nia! Oh my god what are you doing here what have I done oh my god oh my god oh my /god/--" rambles Ibis as Narita drones go streaking for her at absolutely preposterous speeds. "And when the hell did Tsugumi put another seat in this thing?!"

The Astelion's tesla drives, true fact, do not really ever get set to anything other than 'balls out full throttle' or 'off', so one of those Narita drones is in for a shit of a time as the bulky white Armoured Module turns on one side like a rugby star bracing for impact, and it lances straight through it with one of those huge sonic breaker nacelles in a burst of scrap. It is there that the engines cut and the Astelion about-turns in a brief flare of maneuvering jets, and stitches a glowing line of minigun fire across space as it blows more annoying drones out of the sky.

Back in the cockpit, this basically looks like Ibis is playing the most badass video game ever. "Nia, do you remember how you got here? What the hell did I do!" she continues to (not) freak out about this situation, attention returning to her controls just in time for a red Qubeley to open up from beyond her field of view. But the law of action movies dictates that it is not, in fact, time for Ibis to die just yet, and she passes behind another buzzing drone just in time for all that beam fire to do some radical team-killing.

"Douglas here, Blue-0." the redhead responds back into her radio, sounding hell of proper. "Thanks for your support. what the hell is even going on here? I, uh..." she squints while gunning the Astelion's engines back to full power, throwing the Project TD unit upwards (relative to her original position, anyway, fuck outer space for being so confusing) and thumbing the bright red missile button, her favourite button in the whole world.

The Astelion's ordinance bays open and dispatch dozens of red-tipped bundles of high-explosive, which spin and spiral away into the target-rich environment. Rest in peace, nameless mooks, and maybe next time don't show up when the /Hero of the Federation/ is on the scene. Two of these missiles bank sharply to the right and go chasing for Puru Two's red Qubeley, giving her ample time to have a totally sweet chase sequence with them.

"... uh, forgot."

It's a terrible excuse.

The Wing Zero's systems pulse a sudden warning from within Heero's mind. A flash of insight rolls through the young pilot's mind. It's that Orbital Frame from a while back... it's that man. Heero's eyes tighten with a frown as he murmurs, "It's you..." He turns his attention, shifting down from higher strategic levels.

"Strategic Level 1 locked, moving to Tactical level combat."

The Wing Zero's eyes beam to life as the shots run in, each of the red beams cascading against its shields and making pock marks on it. They breach, and with the last shot, everything seems to freeze in time as the laser cuts through and shatters the shield wholesale. "Tsk..."

His eyes cut to the Astelion for a moment. Ibis is here too? This just gets better... he sees the Zeta Gundam deploying from the side. Good. Let's hope he can DPS better than last night, GEEZ.

He listens to the Bridge chatter on the Argama, in the back of his mind. Reinforcements will not be coming... can they hang on long enough for the battleship's engines to power back alive? The tactical choices on that desperate a level are culminating on the back of his mind...

"We have every intention of vacating this area..." Heero comments to Ascian, as he swoops in and draws the beam saber from within the remains of the shield's energy supply rack. The verdant green hum of the saber flares into life as the Wing Zero swoops in, left, right, its powerful verniers cutting a trail of bright blue light behind it. "But the battle has already begun, hasn't it? You give us no choice."

"I am not sure!" Nia happily announces. The next question is just as easy 'what did we do'. "Oh, we slept together!" Nia answers without any explanations. No she did not literately 'sleep' with Ibis but she did sleep WITH Ibis! "Oh we went here afterwards!" Nia has a moment of insight. "Because Leo had to go on his own so we went together! Mhmm!"

But there's ... a problem. They're under attack. "We're under attack, are we not?" Nia asks matter-of-factly, sitting up and brushing herself off, stretching after. She's .. not worried?! Grasping Ibis' chair, Nia looks over, holding on to it tightly, head a bit too close to Ibis', but it's not exactly a spacy place in there.

"Yes we are!" She decalres, nodding in her confirmation.

"But I am not worried Ibis... because you're a hero, and in the end we'll leave here together! Just as we ended up here!" The Spiral Princess declares!

The tesla drives, and Ibis, might get a bit of a boost from the Princess - in unexplainable fashion, some of the energy turns green. Tesla drives don't /usually/ become green, do they?

"So they better watch out for you!!" Nia declares, voice strong, FULL of belief in Ibis!

In time, the Yingzi's inbound acceleration overcomes the newly-fleeing Argama, and the Katharon flagship enters the outer range of its guns. "Helm set a course to zero-one-five to starboard on this vector," Huang orders, pushing himself to his feet. "All weapons, select your targets. I want every second gun on the Argama's engines - let's try to keep her here." he clears his throat. "And open a channel."

Presently, Huang Qin Shi's pleasantly smiling (and creepy-eyed) face graces the monitors of the Argama's bridge. "This is Supreme Commander Qin Shi of the et cetera, et cetera," he says evenly. "Captain Noa, if you're listening, I am willing to entertain the terms of your surrender. In light of your service to the planet at Aidoneus, you are due that much at least." The Alpha Numbers' leader clears his throat and looks to one side. "Consider it quickly."

Battles meant Chaos. Yes. Battles also meant lots of other things. Thorn could not bring himself, in that moment, to care about the divisive nature humans had. He didn't want to but this whole 'aliance' thing made him focus on that. Blah De Blah De Blah.

Who are my targets? Quick scan of his insturment pannel showed him who was highlighted an ally. Everyone else here... enemy. No collateral damage. No hapless civilians. No need to not let his baser nature come out and play. Well. He had his primary orders to Observe and record as long as possible and interfear only if it was deemed nessicary.

Trouble was given the sheer number of enemies it seemed fairly obvious he wouldn't be able to play wall flower.

TARGET?

"Good Question.." He patted the console as he considered his theoretically Perfictly Safe position provided by obscene amounts of stealth.... How long that will last. Anyon'es guess.

"Damn it, we're too spread out!" Camille seethes at his Captain's news, "Heero and the others can only do so much, and i've got five new locks on me every damn second. Sending more guys out in Nemos is just gonna get them killed!" At this rate, he'd almost rather have /Fa/ out here.

No, that's not true. He wants her stay on the Argama, where it is...marginally safer than being out here in a mobile suit.

"Fine, i'll see if I can attract some more attention than.." The youth grimaced as the mental space of other newtypes and space-sensitives violated his brainspace. That was...Puru Two....and another, "Great. I always wanted to eat shit for breakfast."

If they survived this, he wanted to know where the hell they're intel vetting had failed on this stupid hoax.

Three Guarlions are pierce by a single straight beam in unison, the Zeta pilot's keen newtype eye combining with the evolved combat computer to make a field of death that would bring a tear to the eye of Pol Pot himself. The Gundam blitzed forward, past the Wing Zero and into a copse of enemies where twin beam sabers superheated steel, sheared cockpits, and cooked human beings into ash.

'Where' Camille thinks to himself, 'Where is the path that will take us out of this?!'

"Blue-0 to Ibis. A combined Earth Federation task force has been deployed to subdue and capture Anti-EF forces." the GNXIII's pilot explains, in a calm, level tone. "However, we appear to have been further engaged by Divine Crusaders. Our objectives are to cripple or capture the enemy command ship Argama, and to repell any assaults from DC forces."

With hardly a glance in its direction, the Jinx whips its beam rifle to one side, taking a pot shot at the approaching Gundam Fighter, unleashing a burst of beamfire as the pilot doesn't miss a beat. "If you're incapacitated, I will cover your retreat."

Then, there's a pause, before the pilot asks, "... Who is *that*, Ibis?"

TARGET.

Thorn spied the white NEXT suit apparently hired on to do the Federation's bidding. He had a brief flashback of this same suit unleashing a kojima-partical weapon over a fairly densly populated city.

"Hmph... I might be doing your species a favor by removing this one from the board..." SoJin flew at the now targeted opponent and, in a totally not ripping-off the TNG Romulan decloak woosh effect, droped it's visable camoflage as it opened the belly launcher for it's missiles. How they fit in a craft little bigger than a bus? You tell me... or better yet don't ask. Dinosaur Tech cares not for physical space limitations!

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Do we have an escape route charted yet?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Hn, yes!"

"Huh." This is Puru Two's very eloquent reaction when her target does not in fact stay still and die, not particularly caring about what she does hit. Looks like she chose wisely. It's really quite boring when opponents are too easy to kill. She'll have to keep her eyes on this one.

Which is more difficult than anticipated. It takes quite a bit of effort to keep up with Astelion. Especially when it starts inexplicably move even faster due to the power of the color green, actually causing her to completely lose sight of it. "It can outrun the Qubeley?!" This is rare. It probably should be a cause for some concern. But Puru Two isn't wired that way. This just feels like a personal challenge, one which she is only too happy to accept.

Contact is re-acquired the same moment a missile warning sounds in the cockpit. While it's certainly possible to have a totally sweet chase scene as a result, Puru Two's response is to just stay right where she is. Instead of moving her machine, she relies on her mental responses to be quick enough for a proper reaction - a pair of Funnels quickly launches from the Qubeley's tail binder, seeking out the missiles and destroying them with a single well-placed shot each. Maybe if she'd deployed all her Funnels she might have been able to intercept some more missiles and same some of those faceless pilots. But who are we kidding, she doesn't even care enough to do that for most pilots who /do/ have faces.

She's much more interested in her opponent, capable of handling a unit with such high speeds. A video communnication window opens in the Astelion's cockpit, showing Puru Two's grinning face. "Well well, aren't you a quick one. But you're no Newtype. How long do you think you can keep this up?"

Not one to just ask a question without offering a new challenge, the two Funnels fly towards the Astelion in a fairly straightforward way, firing the beam weapons. This shouldn't be too hard to dodge, but Puru Two is really more interested in seeing if the pilot can deal with that feint - because it is one - and also avoid the sniper fire coming from the Qubeley's launchers.

The NEXT continued on the move to assist with the Katharon problem, however he was not expecting a sudden missile from behind, and sadly his operate was too late to warn him.

"R!" Nell yelled over his comm. "Six o'clock!"

<<"What?">> As the NEXT turned around it came to saw the missiles flying right for it. It the raised up the assault rifle to return fire. However the sheer force of the missiles slamming into the Primal Armor threw his aim off balance. The Explosive force ripped apart the Primal Armor, the rest of it slammed into the armor of the NEXT itself. The white machine floated back in space before it quickly corrected itself and then started to try to strafe the Dinosaur with the assault rifle. <<"Hi. Did you ring?">> R asks with a chuckle in his voice as he keeps the bullets flying.

STAREN WIREMU's machine flies this way and that, surprisingly agile for such a big and heavy-looking machine -- is this the power of the GN TI DRIVE? Volleys of railgun and missile fire help Camille to take out the swarm of machines coming from the Neo-Zeon base... but then a worse problem arrives:

A-LAWS is here. They're boxed in!

Well, if any machine here today can take on the A-LAWS's command ship, the Star Hawk can! ...Actually so can the Gundams, but nevermind that! "Was this an A-LAWS trap all along? Do you really think this is all it takes to stop us? We're not giving in to a world where A-LAWS can do as it pleases!"

Staren's machine hefts the giga-launcher, a massive bazooka, and fires a missile at the A-LAWS ship!

Ascian watches the Gundam Wing with sheer interest as he sends the Amenthes closer towards it - trying to meet it mid way. He continues to unleash bolts of red plasma upon the suit as he approaches, the twelve wing-bits of the machine pushing it forth and expelling red ember-like light, that leave a trail like a shadow angel's feathers! The communication comes in just as the Amenthes shifts her right arm to catch the Gundam Zero's sword mid-strike - and the Gundam Zero itself suddenly moves towards its left! The sudden change in position leaves the unit unprepared! Ascian quickly guides the left arm to fire at the enemy unit's chest and releases a shotgun blast of plasma, but it does nothing against the fine particles of the beam which cuts straight through the arm and destroys the rifle-arm, sending it flying behind it to explode in a cloud of red feathery embers!

"Tsssk!" Ascian mutters, and presses down hard on his controls. Duat, housed within one of the most powerful computers ever made within this galaxy, quickly takes over and compensates and starts to predict the enemy's moves. As much as it doesn't have as much power as Zero - it cannot predict the future - it still integrates well with Ascian. The two, Duat and Ascian, have been working on this whole working together thing! The Amenthes spins around to continue to face the Gundam Zero. "Amenthes! Duat! Help me out!" - "Roger that!" A conglomerate female voice comes from the machine.

The wing-partitions suddenly spread, splitting into a twenty-four form, and lets Metatron crystals form between each pair, before it rushes straight after the blue-verniered Gundam. The mixture of pure fiery red and the blue of Ascian's opponent mix into a strange purple like light as the Amenthes tries to catch up and lifts its right sword-arm towards the unit and tries to speed past it only to twirl around and catch it with a backwards drop-strike of the sword, aimed for the head of the enemy unit. <"Nobody ever listens when I say it. And I don't see the Argama retreating. Do you?"> Ascian replies to Heero.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Macua Huitl transmits, "A-laws...and glad to hear that captain."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Alright... tell me if ZERO and I need to cut a path."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "..Do it!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Roger that...! As soon as I can shake this guy off..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Admiral, I'll help hold off the enemy ship!"

Well when in doubt ROLL. Bullets grazed wing and tail, but nothing more than glancing blows. Even so Thorn mentally docked points for failing to completely evade. Target was in close...

While it wasn't entirely meant to be used as a weapon the sensor package at the end of the tail was well armored and had enough shock absorbtion to double as a club if need be. Since his opponent was close Thorn let the Tail's wild thrashing grow just a little wilder, enough to maybe clip an arm or slam into a rifle as he tried to get a more detailed scan of the NEXT. Maybe he could get points with the Gallery by giving them something new to work with....

The Amenthes' sword-arm clashes with the Wing Gundam Zero's beam saber with a dramatic flash, the two winged machines forcing themselves against each other with their light-encrusted sabers battling for dominance.

"Look around you! It isn't just the Crusaders that have appeared here. The A-LAWS, the Alpha Numbers... they've all congregated here. Are you going to just become another obstacle to us?" Heero demands hotly, feeling more impassioned than usual.

ZERO whispers into his mind again as the communication with Bright comes. His eyes suddenly widen and his combat focus is gone for a moment. "No... ZERO, that... I won't allow you to do that," he utters towards his machine. Two pilots, assisted by their machines, battling for their lives right now. ZERO can witness that... and it does not like the way this battle is headed...

He shakes his head and lashes outward, rolling towards the Amenthes' right to try to score another strike with his beam saber, a verdant green wave of beam energy trailing behind his swing as he does so.

Macua Huitl seems to not be aware of the GNXIII comming after her, at least it seems that way, she senses somehing comming and the Gundam move, it moves quite quickly but doesn't launch it's funnels just yet she does feel a pressure realising it is another newtype or cybertype but just in a GNX that was strange as the beam fire is evaded and she's closing. The funnels then detatch without much more warning and start firing from several direction while the machine it self seems to be of all things trying to get up close and personal with the other machine. IT seems intent to fight up close.

The only reason Ibis doesn't immediately start crying waterfall tears that drown her in her own helmet is because she is /pretty sure/ that she can take Nia's statement at face value and that the two of them just kinda passed out together, not... not the alternative. Not that alternative. She refuses to believe she has sunk so low as to do such a thing.

"O--oh, um... good. Yeah, we're under attack! Nia, I should get us out of here, I can't put you in da--" the redhead in the slick helmet clams up as the Spiral Princess grabs the back of her chair and suddenly there are basically two heads looming over the controls. From what Nia can see there are a million billion red and green blips on the radar.

"God damn it--" hisses Lt. Douglas of the moeffin' A-LAWS, glancing around her viewports as she tries to keep sight of the Qubeley, and then looks kind of puzzled as a mysterious power surges through the Astelion's systems and it's engines flare turbo-green with what /might be/ Spiral Power, sometimes referred to as the Legendary Go-Time. The big fat white AM roars ahead at speeds it was never designed to take, and the look on Ibis' face is one of utter bewilderment.

Moving as quickly as it is, the White Knight of Project Terrestrial Dream spins to face the Qubeley with railgun extended, business end ready to emit hot tungsten slug-death. That is precisely when the funnels open up with lances of white-hot projected energy, trapping the Astelion in a net of enemy fire, cutting off most of the potential evasive actions to take because Puru Two is /straight gangster/.

The burst railgun melts and explodes in the Astelion's hands as the speeding AM makes a panicking escape through the net of fire anyway, not giving a single solitary fuck, and Ibis throws it into the depths of space to join the dozens of other melted ones. RIP, Burst Railgun. For its pilot, it is time to panic. She has possibly /the/ most innocent civlian in history on board her ship, and getting blown out of space is a very real option.

...Hero...

Something fuzzy resonates inside of Ibis' head, and she can't quite work out what it is. She's kind of a stranger to this whole 'space magic' business, and for some inexplicable reason, feels the resolve wash over her in waves as Nia declares her, in fact, a hero that people had better watch the hell out for. She doesn't even question it. The suited A-LAWS officer, in fact, looks away from her controls entirely and lays her hand on Nia's.

"Okay." she says resolutely, not at all worried that she might screw this one up, despite how things have gone thus far. "Let's do this."

Boosting towards Puru Two's sweet-ass ride at the speed of plot, the Astelion's chestplate slides open and reveals a fire-linked pair of miniguns, which immediately begin spinning up as the distance between the Armored Module and the funnel-launching platform diminishes rapidly.

Ibis also has no time to think about Ken Marinaris trying to get her jailed forever on the radio as she unleashes a hailstorm of 110mm HEAP munitions at the Qubeley in a glowing streak of tracers, going wide and trying to circle-stafe it like this is an FPS or something. Ibis, you retard, these are /giant robots/.

It's in the middle of Camille's questining that he sees it: The Yingzi, flagship of the Alpha Number, closing in on the Argama.

"That's why..."

His fists closed around the flight sticks, teeth set in a grinding grimace. He was tired, he was hungry, he had a fucking raid on Junon in /ten hours/ and he did not want to /deal with this shit/!

"Staren, i've got your back!" Hopefully far better than he had Lieutenant Munoz's too, because Camille comes in with beam rifle snapping off successive, aimed shots for the the turrets along the Yingzi's hull to hopefully lessen it's firepower, splitting from the Star Hawk to race along the ship's other side.

The SoJin moved in to attack and the NEXT quickly responded in kind. As the Tail swiped down, it impacted into the Kojima Field around the NEXT protecting it from most of the damage. However in return for this close encounter, the Kojima Blade activated with its sickly teal green Kojima energy.

The first thing, if Sojin had any sensors, was that this NEXT was indeed radioactive and so was that very blade that glowed above the left hand of the NEXT; which it swings the blade to slice into the Tail. With a quick burst of the side Thrusters and a 360 spin, the NEXT goes to slice that same very blade right into the torso section of the Dino's machine.

Not just between ZERO and DUAT, but also Heero and Ascian, there is quite a difference of skill, and it is noticable! It doesn't help that Amenthes can't use its standard two-weapon technique. Instead, it's forced to stick to a single arm to fend off the incoming strikes. But it's holding up so far. <"It seems I am, sorry Heero."> Ascian replies, as he guides the Amenthes' arm along with Duat's trajectory alterations to catch another strike. Amenthes has a bit more speed on her side, but this is wittled away by the high power strikes that are behind the Gundam Wing. Perhaps Heero was not aware of it, but Ascian was actually giving him a good chance at getting away - because normally he'd /never/ engage in melee combat, unless he absolutely had to. He was much more confident in his abilities at long range combat.

<"As much as we are weapons - we are also soldiers. This is my task. If I am in the way of your task, then do away with me. Be the better soldier on the battlefield. Is that not how it is, Heero?"> Ascian demands to know, after parrying another strike and being forced back, after which the Wing Zero engages its verniers and gets past the Amenthes' circle of protection it's created around itself with its blade. The saber strikes firmly into its side and forces it sideways. However, it doesn't manage to cut through! A fierce red shield has erected itself just in time. But the energy on the machine is quickly running low. Ascian grits his teeth, staring at the indicators. "I gotta get better." He whispers to Duat and Amenthes; "So when I find my sister, I can face her like a proper brother."

The metal of the machine suddenly begins to twist, as Amenthes begins to synchronize further with Ascian, and the glow within the cockpit increases in hue. A stream of powerful energy runs through Ascian's body for a short moment, after which Duat cuts the dangerous Metatron off from its runner. The framerunner pushes his arms a bit forwards, and replies to Amenthes' call for his strength by pushing his will into the machine!

The wings shrink, then expand again. The metal that had been moving and twisting reforms its left arm, but has left its body with a lot less armor plating now! "Go, Amenthes!" Ascian calls out, and sends the machine quickly into close combat with the Wing Zero again whilst the feathers begin to come to a fierce red glow. They twist and fire lasers behind the Gundam Zero to keep it from getting past its assault, and then with both arms again available, he unleashes a quick volley of strikes, trying to find a weakpoint in the enemy's armor and abilities. Duat's indicator blinks rapidly, calculations running through Ascian's head as the machine adjusts. He doesn't understand them, but he inately knows how to react to the incoming data. <"Show me your machine's spirit, Heero!!"> The Ender calls out.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Tssk, this guy is good!"

The GNXIII's pilot glances aisde for a moment, before delivering a curt, "Incoming funnels." before breaking off. Diving away from the Astelion, the sudden wave of beams catches the GNXIII as it accellerates away, scoring deep cuts in the armor as it returns fire, attempting to intercept the funnels with wild rifle shots, to no avail. Spinning up its drive again, the Jinx dashes away from the Amazon, trying to open up the range. Levelling its GN Lance at the enemy Gundam Fighter, it continues to open fire, calmly lining up shots each time as it dashes about the particle-filled void.

"I'm engaged with an enemy Newtype, Ibis." There's a noticible pause, then the pilot continues, almost... dissapointed. "I am unable to assist you. Please ensure the civilian's safety."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Macua Huitl: Ascian Luddite says, "Adom! You're here too! Why are you people here!? Don't you realize this is Divine Crusader space?"

BWIP! The screen turns on! Nia looks up. It is... /HER!/ "Hello Miss!" Nia exclaims, grinning and waving at the screen. "I believe she'll be able to keep it up forever, miss!" She doesn't look like a tree anymore, but Nia is unmistakable!

"Please, if you do not want to get hurt miss, pull back. Ibis will not lose!" She believes in Ibis ... simply so much! After all... the woman had saved her life! More than that, she was a nice and caring person, who also would probably cry if she remembered fully what she had straight up included Nia in. Hers hand rests nearby Ibis' on her chair, Nia leaning forwards, unsure about the various buttons and sensors and all of those materials before her. Gunmen have two hand-held controllers and maybe a pedal or two. This beats them all by miles in complexity!

But she knows Ibis does. And if Ibis can't believe in herself.... she'll just have to believe in Nia, who believes in you, Ibis!!

"Yes! Let us teach the cute but loud-mouthed girl a lesson!" Nia cheers, the hand not against Ibis' raised ceilingwards, hitting it and ow ow ow - but Nia doesn't flinch! That is her resolve!

Nor does Nia say everything they did that night over the radio. "Hello miss! I am Nia!" She responds to Eight, "It is a pleasure to hear you!" --- Oh my!

"Ah! She's so fast... but I'm sure you'll catch her!" There might be sudden grooves along the weaponry that did not exist before, depending on what she would use next!!

Huang Qin Shi could have sworn he had more backup when he started taunting people, but any support he had appears to be melting away into the aether. The Zeta Gundam and the Star Hawk Mk. Whatever the Hell Wiremu Is Up To By Now zip along the Yingzi's sides, peppering the dreadnought with small arms fire that breaks through its defensive fields. Small bursts of flame and shrapnel erupt outward, but the heavy battleship's thick armour plating holds. For the moment. "I'm not with A-LAWS any more, you ignoramus," the Yingzi's captain snaps in response to Staren. "Don't you people get the programme?" Honestly, it's not like he's been in so many factions that...

...uh, never mind.

As the pair of Katharon mobile suits pass by the Yingzi's embankments, they are introduced to one of its designer's more fiendishly clever defensive mechanisms. Sections of armour plating indistinguishable from those they are shelling suddenly burst outward as contact mines buried under the plate are remotely triggered. Shards of Minovsky-saturated metal spray out toward the mobile suits, accompanied by an electric discharge of significant proportions.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits all of a sudden, "... Captain Bright, I'm patching through the A-LAWS' radar network through the ZERO System to Argama Actual."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Ascian Luddite: Macua Huitl says, "I'm with the Argama. What do you think."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Macua Huitl: Ascian Luddite says, "I mean - /why/ are you people here!?"

> "This is Supreme Comm--"

The audio squelches the moment Bright swings his hand across his neck. He sits there, watching this man he has never met go on at length. There might be some proclamation of the law, of which the Admiral has already broken than once. There could be the notion of standing down and prepare to be boarded. There could be something or another but as far as Bright Noa is concerned, it is not enough. Not for a man who shoots first and makes proclamations later.

The moment the man has finished, Bright reaches for the command phone at his side. He is an old fashioned man, with a taste for old fashioned things.

"This is Argama actual."

The Argama swerves out of the way. Their navigator, the young and talented Torres, seemingly able to anticipate the firing solutions of the Yingzi's armaments.

"I have no idea who you are."

"And although you seem decisive to the point of making bad judgment calls, I'm going to give you and your crew a piece of advice."

"If you have any interest in remaining a Federation officer tomorrow, you'll cease hostilities at once and withdraw your forces."

"Katharon has no interest in shooting down your ship. Do not mistake my passivity for weakness, my pilots will have no hesitations in reducing you and your people into atoms if you threaten the lives aboard my ship."

"There will be no further communications."


 * fzt*

"Captain!" Saman shouts, "Incoming message from Ibis Douglas!"

> "aptain Bright Noa, this is Ibis Douglas! I repeat, I'm trying to keep Crusader forces from engaging the Argama, but my hands are tied with the Yingzi on the scene! I'm going to get Heero onto our C3 network so he can ghost some contacts on there to assist in your escape! Do you /copy/?"

From his chair, Bright Noa nods. "Saman, patch me to Ibis's mobile unit. High encryption."

"This is Argama actual, Douglas. Acknowledged."

Ibis Douglas: Double-traitor. What's up.

Ascian has got Heero on the ropes now, as the Ender's strikes dive in and crash against the battered Gundam. The blades swarm in as Duat's predictions overwhelm Heero's movements and lead him along, one step at a time, each of the strikes slicing in against the pure-white Gundanium that the mobile suit is built out of. Armor cracks and the protective shell shatters as the Wing Zero is pushed back and back, further, Heero rocked in his seat with each strike.

He momentarily slams against the side of his side-panel. Then he stares towards the Argama, as the circle perimeter just tightens and tightens further... they don't have a lot of time. They need to break through, now. Captain Bright has told him that much.

So why is he hesitating? He knows of the plan. But...

"That is..." Heero states to Ascian, pausing. He's at a bit of a loss of words right now. "I used to believe that. I used to believe... in clearing any and all obstacles in my way. To complete my mission... to be the perfect soldier."

But...

The Wing Zero's eyes flash again as it moves onward, a split-second before Heero even cajoles it forward with the pedals. He grips his control stick tighter as he feints in for a strike with the beam saber, but whirls around rapidly to attempt a brushing slice with the Gundam's four wing binders to bash the Amenthes further out from that which he is protecting, to use his mobile suit's size as a barrier.

"I don't believe in that anymore. I don't want to be the perfect soldier..."

Heero's eyes flash with resolution as he fires the verniers to add some burn to his wing attack, blasting away to try to twist and lead the Amenthes on forward.

"I want to be... human!"

Upon the patch being made, Nia sees ANOTHER face on the screen. "Ibis, you are very popoluar!" She declares.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Acknowledged."

Macua Huitl is somewhat distracted by Asican but she doesn't reply oddly it's not becaue she's being well crabby with him. She's comming under fire. The Amazon CI contiunes to evade the incomming ire from the other machine she uses the funnels to contiune distracting the other machine but that's not what her real plan to hit her with. She reaches for the waist of a the machine pulls a small rod, which then unpacks itself into a mecha scale spear and Macua now breaks into a series of lighting strikes with the mecha sized polearm. She strikes again and again attemping to stike the other machine.

"That all?"

"I don't care who you're with." Camille chimed in bitterly over the radio, "The Argama is home to hundreds of crew members: Men, women, /children/." He hoped Fa, Shinta and Qum were okay. Annoying as he found those damn orphans, damn it...

"Threaten that, and I won't hold back!"

Nevermind that the Yingzi is full of the same thing, except maybe children. Camille was employing teenager logic right now.

Irradiated shrapnel explodes at the Zeta as it careened through space, and while Camille couldn't do much to avoid it even with his skills, he wasn't going to get torn up lik some newbie either! The Zeta's shield came up in an instant, taking the brunt of the damage as the Zeta's head peeked over cover and lit up with the vulcans. hopefully laying waste to the more sensitive portions of hull he thinks may be under the armor plating Huang sacrificed to attack them.

But he's not done there.

The Zeta twists upward, a simple motion in the freeness of zero-gravity space even at the high speeds he'd already achieved. Jets in the booster pack and feet ignited with blue flames as the mobile suit soared overhead and above the federation cruiser, beam saber humming to life with its trademark pinkish hue as the Newtype sought to carve out a nice big 'FUCK YOU' on part of the hull directly viewable from the bridge.

He was probably not going to get further than part of 'F'.

Ascian was so concentrated on the sword strikes, that when Duat predicts and shows an angle that Heero's sword could not possibly makes, he discards the idea and lashes the machine's two arms forwards instead! It showed that Ascian actually had some distrust of his machine. The entire construct of the frame is caught in the chest by the wings that come around instead. The machine is pushed back, and with the Amenthes having been moving forwards, the sudden change in momentum - the push past the inertia is enough to knock the breath straight out of Ascian and even coughs up some blood - which sprays lightly across the cockpit - looking as if it 'glowed' due to the red hue in the cockpit.

He heaves heavily, trying to get his breath back, forcing the Amenthes to retreat slightly for a moment, to get out of the Wing Zero's range. What had the guy said? Heero wanted to be a person? No. A human. "So a soldier..." He actually opens up an audio-visual communication port with Heero for a moment, which would display the blue haired bishonen leaned over, staring at the camera in a tired manner. <"... is not human? There... is a middle way you know. Where you can be a human, and a soldier. I am a soldier, because I want to be human. I don't want to be trash. I have things I want to protect. If I am not a soldier, I cannot protect what I want to protect. Should I just throw that all away? Can /you/ just throw away being a soldier? Do you have nothing to protect yourself? Besides, why are you even in that thing if you don't want to be a soldier!?"> Ascian again, demands to know these things, staring at the Camera - Heero if he accepted the communication - in the most serious manner possible.

His head then hangs down as his breath shudders. The Amenthes after that hit is having some problems keeping its energy flow straight. <"Amenthes tells me... she tells me I cannot stop being a soldier. Without her, I cannot do what I need to do. Tell me then, Heero. Should I give up on my family, just so I can feel Human? Or is being a Human not for everyone? If you are sick of being a soldier, THEN GET OFF OF THE BATTLEFIELD! MAKE ROOM FOR THE SOLDIERS!">

And with that said, he cuts the communication again. Ascian takes a deep breath. The grip on his controls is strong enough to make his fingers sound like creaking leather. His muscles tremble. The machine he controls itself trembles. Then finally, it gets out of this downward spiral of repair and losing power, and finally shoots forwards again. Still deciding to rely on close-quarter combat, Ascian lunges for the Wing Zero, and the Amenthes' right arm suddenly shifts into a normal hand! Purple lightning crackles all across it, magna-electric power rampaging through its fingers. It then pushes forwards, trying to grab at the Wing Zero's head so that he could send that spark through the unit and possibly disrupt the systems within!

CAUTION! RADIATION!

"Uh-huh." Thorn frowned at the one line display as he countered the NEXT's down right impressive accrobatics by making a straight line course away from the glowey radioactive blade of DOOM. As he rocketed away on oversized tesla drives SoJin's head turned to look back...granted said head was mostly encased in a comically oversizedd life support cowel, but said gear didn't block the vulcans from sending a 'hey come follow me' volly R's way.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Thorn transmits, "This Mammal is getting on my nerves..."

The ZERO System's shrill whispers flicker throughout the dark cockpit as the Amenthes' magna-electric power courses through the entire unit. It doesn't do a whole lot of structural damage, but it does something even more devious that Heero doesn't quite notice yet... with a struggle, the Wing Zero breaks free, but the damage has been -done-. It continues moving, on a course around. Heero turns to Ascian again, frowning, and uttering, "I... don't have an answer to that yet..."

The situation grows ever more desperate. It can feel the rattle shaking the Wing Zero, bolts coming loose, cabling come fraying, data streams becoming corrupted. Armor breached. No, that would not make for a desperate situation...

>> Assessing: Strategic Level Priority 1--

Heero witnesses the Argama, in its moment of crisis. How was it that they came to this -- The battleship cannons of an opposing fleet pierce through the Argama's defenders, reducing them to slag -- future? With every little intricacy, every little twist... every little flapping of the -- A cluster of missiles erupt on the Argama's underside, exposing a hole that sucks away dozens of its civilians -- butterfly's wings, as it were... it could all end here. Flashes of insight -- A stray beam lances through the Argama's cockpit, incinerating everyone within -- crackles through Heero Yuy's mind. ZERO is sending him messages.

"No, ZERO... we will live through this," Heero adamantly whispers in anger. There is momentary silence from the ZERO System. A pause. Click click.

Heero tries moving his stick forward. It doesn't respond to him.

"The power's been cut...?!" Heero exclaims with disbelief as he rattles on his control sticks. No, not like this! He's too far away, too deep into enemy lines to lose complete control...!

He feels the chime of the Wing Zero's black-box system within his mind. This time... this time it is not showing him death. It is not showing him destruction. His mind blanks towards a grassy knoll, for a moment. A beautiful grassy hill, filled with flowers and large pine trees and alpine mountains in the distance. He sees... himself, in it, rolling gingerly and laughing as he comes to a stop in the midst of the flower-field.

Is it pulling from his memories?

"ZERO... what are you telling me?" Heero remarks as he finally lets go, reclining further against his seat, pulling his leather harness tighter.

It does not respond. It will not tell him... that is Heero Yuy's job to do. Instead, it lifts its arm and reaches for the beam saber stored in the wing binder's recharge rack. Heero's eyes widen as his Gundam starts to move independently of him. This has never happened to him before.

"ZERO -- stop this!"

There's a momentary cry of shock when that lime-green saber is actually plunged into the ZERO's own chest. With surgical precision, Heero can audibly hear the bindings tear along the sides of the movable cockpit frame, damage reports tracing a perfectly spherical line. "What are you trying to do?!"

The youth's own question is summarily answered in due time, when the Wing Zero's own arms tear and plunge into its own chest... and wholesale grabs its own cockpit out, holding it in its hands. For the first time, Heero can see in what little cameras are left the Wing Zero's face. Its eyes glimmer... soulful, full of emotion, outmatching his own dead and shocked tone.

"... no, don't. Don't do this. I'm begging you," Heero whispers hard, but his mobile suit's mind is made.

Which is why the youth finds himself hurtling through space with the single vernier grafted into the cockpit block firing him at high speeds towards the Argama's own defense perimeter.

"ZERO!!!"

The Wing Zero turns towards its enemies, eyes shining. It has a gaping hole where its chest was... and yet it could not be more aware and ready to do battle.

>> Re-Assessing: Strategic Level Priority 1. >> Reasserting Pilot Subfunctions: ZERO System

It's on a forward dive, blasting at top speeds past the Amenthes, straight into the midst of the enemy's formation, its twin buster rifles held in each hand. It has one task left to do, and it knows what it needs to do. It lifts its chin up, eyes flashing, as its wings arc outwards and take it way, way away from any semblance of safety... nothing it would ever do were a pilot were in it, operating it right now. It goes beyond the realm of human survival instincts.

>> Mission Start

The NEXT misses its target, however R was a very determined person. He wouldn't have been around this long if he wasn't. He also wouldn't be who he was, if he wasn't such a confident pilot either. As the SoJin pulls away and opens fire, the NEXT shows off its skills that, under normal circumstances, would kill a normal human.

It moves quick, side to side, like a blur of white in the blackness of space and in return the assault rifle opens fire. Then the NEXT quickly blasts with the Overdrive, moving to aim from behind the SoJin in great speed, letting out several missiles right for the machine once Lock is given.

<<"You have a pretty quick machine. I'll give you that much, but it isn't quick enough.">>

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits hysterically, "ZERO!!!!"

Ibis has not actually done much of the looking-at-her-communications screens business until now, she busy has she been yelling over the voice-only comms like a goddamned Wing Commander while fretting heavily about Nia's presence aboard the Astelion, even though the Spiral Princess's confidence in her continues to make everything oddly better in a way she cannot actually explain.

So imagine her surprise, the forgetful girl, when she looks up there and notices Puru Two's badass mug staring back at her.

Ibis only vaguely remembers the Divine Crusader days, because those were basically like the 70's, and /nobody/ wants to talk about the shit they got up to in the 70's. And despite the fact that the Qubeley is dual-wielding swords made out of fucking lasers bearing down on her like some kind of very red and pointy energy-based blender, Ibis does not in fact give her the satisfaction of panicking.

The Astelion jukes to the left away from the Qubeley, responding to the invitation to dance in turn as it produces a huge knife from the hatch on its back with absolutely no fear whatsoever. The white Armored Module jumps into the fray and clashes blades with Puru Two, despite this being a phenominally terrible idea because knives are not at all like swords made out of energy bound by an I-field.

"Long time, no see." quips Ibis across the void at her opponent, an oddly warm kind of smile on her face. Sparks fly from the point of contact between the Astelion's assault blade and the beam sabers, and if perhaps the cameras focused close enough on that knife, they'd notice that it is in fact coated with a filmy green layer of light that spirals and twists around the blade in time with what might /almost/ look like a heartbeat.

The Astelion breaks away first, jetting backwards on a wash of green flame that surges from the maneuvering jets with entirely too much force. It fends off the next couple of strikes of this lethal bit of beam-choreography with that tiny knife, because spiral power is /bullshit/.

"I'm pretty distraught to see you're still letting the lunatics at the helm of the Crusaders run your life. Surely, you must realize...!"

For her troubles, Ibis lapse in concentration results in the Qubeley's beam sabers taking an arm off. Just like that, the Astelion's knife-wielding arm flies into space, it responds in kind by engaging the boost drive, which hurls it bodily past the Qubeley in a blurry rush of movement, as though it were deciding, yeah, that's enough. Time to run.

But in the cockpit, Ibis Douglas sucks in a breath and pats Nia's hand again. "Nia, sit down. This is about to get rough."

Ibis' hands fly across the controls. She feathers the Astelion's boost drive to full power, still soaring away from the battlefield like a big fat coward. Tendrils and wisps of green light rise from her control readouts and seep into her hands, but, you know, fuck it. She's not really asking questions anymore. "Preparing to enter Maneuver RaMVs on my mark." she all but whispers, eyes aglow with strength. Nia is basically /making shit happen/ here.

The White Armoured Module banks to one side and the ordinance bays open swiftly once more as the engines flare and it goes into a huge, wide arc around the Qubeley. Only needing one arm, the Astelion grabs hold of a Guarlion that comes too close as it accelerates faster and faster, and slams it into another one just like it. The two throwaway DC units crash together and explode in a briefly-blossoming flower of scarlet that serves as some kind of punctuation for Ibis, some kind of cosmic fucking stopwatch that tells her that now, now, /now/ is the time.

"Mark."

Missiles erupt from the Astelion like a swarm of angry dragonflies, except this batch of crimson-tipped SDF-1 Surplus seem to fly on a trail of green sparkles that /might/ be fairy dust. In fact, the missiles do not stop. Dozens of radar contacts light up on the screens of anyone who keeps track of things like 'enemy munitions' or 'things' on their radar, and they rush for the Qubeley at, well, Astelion Speed Plus One, which is really fast. But what makes this even better is that the Astelion doesn't /stop/ shooting missiles, either, it just keeps on unloading until the bays have nothing left to give.

"Nia, if this doesn't work--" Ibis says, steadily, as space itself seems to fly past at a trillion miles per hour. This is some jump to lightspeed shit. The battered, beleaguered YAM-07-1 becomes more than the sum of its parts through the power of Nia's belief and, perhaps, the plucky heart of the ace at the helm. A shimmering emerald field of light erupts around it like a protective shell, recognizable as the Sonic Breakers firing up. But there is a subtle difference.

The Astelion is now charging forward encased in a giant green drill made of lasers.

This is so dumb.

"--then I failed. I'm sorry."

All of this comes to a head as every missile ever made soars towards Puru Two's Qubeley, and the Astelion rears back with a fist and prepares to SPIRAL CHAOS DUNK the red machine at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. At some point, Ibis realizes she has been roaring like a hot-blooded animal during the final seconds of her approach, as all of the missiles start exploding and space itself just throws its hands up and walks away.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Saman transmits, "We're receiving erratic data from the Wing Zero! It's... it's all zeroes!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "What!?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Bright! Camille! Anyone, stop it! Please!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Camille Bidan transmits, "What in the world...?!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "The hell...HEERO!!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Saman transmits, "The code. It's.. it's just all zeroes! Every single byte on every single line, a zero!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Heero!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Duo Maxwell just starts rattling off a stream of swears.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Ibis Douglas buts into this on the wrong channel, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH~!" but it's the right channel for screaming panickedly so /deal with it/.

<Radio: D - WING boys> Duo Maxwell transmits, "HEERO!! WHAT THE HELL IS GOIN' ON!?!"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "The... ZERO... it's..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "What the..."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "It's going to... complete its mission..."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Duo Maxwell transmits, "What?!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Zero... is it an enemy now??"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Duo Maxwell ffffffffffff

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Project Meteor?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "YOU GUYS GOTTA GET AWAY FROM ZERO!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "No... it... it's going to clear us a path."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "At any cost..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "What!?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "I see. Don't give up hope, ZERO..."

The swipes and thrusts from the Amazon's spear don't seem to faze the Jinx's pilot in the least, wheeling around as the Fighter lunges, and then dashing away as it recovers. The pilot tenses slightly, the blank faceplate greeting Macua's transmission without any indication of emotion. The pilot's voice is carefully level, and muffled by the helmet, as if they were distractedly reading off a script just off-camera. "Macua Huitl. You are wanted for acts of terrorism, and destruction of property. Surrender now."

The pilot switches the channel off almost immediatly afterwards, not even pretending to wait for Macua's response. Once again, it levels its rifle, firing off more shots. But now, focussed in concentration, the pilot's intensity is almost palpable as they line up their next shot...

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Macua Huitl transmits, "Get clear!"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Duo Maxwell transmits, "No, no, no, no, no, they don't get it..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Get away from it! Please, I'm asking you."

<<You are... begining to irritate me.>> Thorn's voice had a distinct hiss to it as he spoke, something definately not an artifact of transmission.

INCOMMING MISSILES!

As if it weren't painfully obvious the cockpit readout helpfully informed Thorn of the painful realities of combat... which he delt with via controlled vulcan bursts and interesting acrobatics. In mid-turn SoJin's belly opened up again and a single missile launched.

Then it split into LOTS of smaller missiles that first arched away from their point of origine and were now converging on the NEXT.

See. the Dinosaurs can do the whole Macross Missile Massicre thing too!

The swipes and thrusts from the Amazon's spear don't seem to faze the Jinx's pilot in the least, wheeling around as the Fighter lunges, and then dashing away as it recovers. The pilot tenses slightly, the blank faceplate greeting Macua's transmission without any indication of emotion. The pilot's voice is carefully level, and muffled by the helmet, as if they were distractedly reading off a script just off-camera. "Macua Huitl. You are wanted for acts of terrorism, and destruction of property. Surrender now."

The pilot switches the channel off almost immediatly afterwards, not even pretending to wait for Macua's response. Once again, it levels its rifle, firing off more shots. But now, focussed in concentration, the pilot's intensity is almost palpable as they line up their next shot...

Camille can't fathom a ship where the bridge /isn't/ right there and easily targetable. He's probably going to have trouble when ships like the Ra Cailum become the norm.

THEN AGAIN he may not be worrying much about anything by the time that rolls arounds.

The hull seems too thick for a normal beam saber to do much good, and a flash of newtype insight barely allows him to kick off the surface of the ship before the piece he was just standing of bursts open in a cavalcade of steel and less mentioniable fluids.

Thank God they're in space, so Camille cannot here the *SPLUTCH* some of that makes it as splatters across the Zeta Gundam's already blaste paint job.

"Did you just...." Camille blanched. There was now way Astonaige was going to clean that up, "You...you /ass/!!!"

The blast of of grenade fired into the Yingzi's shit-hole was perhaps a more poignant answer, followed by the the trailing fury of the Hyper Mega Launcher's beam bayonet as it exended and charge to full capacity, trying to tear an even wider piece of the ship free from itself.

But Camille's wounded pride diverts itself when the HUD expands the image of Heero...apparently cutting himself free of Wing Zero, and throwing...wait, how was that possible?! Why was the mobile suit moving on it's own?!

The radio provides more question than answers, leaving Camille to wonder, "Heero...you....is this the ZERO System?"

As if called by a kindred soul, the Zeta Gundam glowed ensconced in in a brilliant aura of light, searing the filth from it's body, parting the veil of the cosmos of Camille's mind as it behild the sight of the Wing Zero. There was no one inside anymore, but it had that trace, the aura of on autnomous state. There was a mind there.

No. There was a life.

The Newtype's breath drew in sharply as the pieces of that itinerant puzzle clicked into place, "The Zeta...!!"

Looks like it's just him and Camille fighting the enemy ship... so be it! "Camille! We can do it, no ship is invincible! Show them what the Zeta Gundam can do! And I'll show them... What I can do!"

Staren hefts the massive giga-launcher and just starts firing missile after missile until the magazine is empty, spraying the yingzi with the dual railguns as well. "Take this!"

And then ZERO goes crazy. "What? Heero...!" He looks... grabs the right moment from the right camera, is it TEARING ITS OWN COCKPIT OUT?! How... but the cockpit block is already headed for the Argama, so he doesn't need to save it... Bit ZERO, what is it...

Clearing a path.

Staren remembers when ZERO came alive. He hopes this doesn't have to be the end for it. "ZERO! Don't give up hope!"

The Argama is manuevering toward an escape route. In war, it is often said the best defense is a good offense. Perhaps no man in All Known Space has known this to be true better than Bright Noa. Under his supervision, his ship's cannons constantly swivel around, firing one after another in constant bursts. An impregnable defense built entirely on suppressive fire, blotting anything out of existence before it has an opportunity to be a threat.

Meanwhile, aboard the ship, a whole new crisis is evolving.

"We're receiving erratic data from the Wing Zero!" Saman tries to make heads or tails of the seemingly corrupted code streaming into the ship's systems. "It's... it's all zeroes!"

Bright nearly snarls. He jerks his head, glancing over his shoulder. "What!?" he barks out with all the techno-unawareness of a man whose only job is to shout at people.

"The code." Saman points toward the monitor, "It's.. it's just all zeroes! Every single byte on every single line, a zero!"

And surely, the horror dawns upon the Admiral as he narrows his eyes to focus..

000000                                                                       000000                                                                        000000                                                                        000000                                                                        000000

"My god," Bright pales. ".. it's all full of zeroes."

The Captain of this ship, nay, our very hearts swallows down his courage. "Alert our mobile suits to steer clear of the Wing Zero and prepare for emergency landing on the Argama! Aft and dorsal guns, target the enemy ship and return fire!

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Tssk... I'm chasing that machine!"

"R, I am sorry to interrupt your fight... but.."

<<"Not now.">>

"R, just look to your left. You'll see what I mean!"

<<"Nell, you have the worse timing.">> He comments as he attempts to avoid the missiles. Most of them explode on impact with the Primal Armor, though a few make it pass before the Primal Armor can fully regenerate. The stuff regenerated pretty darn quick too. Faster than most NEXTs Primal Armor anyhow.

The Visor's center glow when had been focused on Thorn's unit, slides over to the Left as it watches Gundam Zero. That--

-- That wasn't right.

<<"I'll get back to you.">> He said pointing at Thorn before he suddenly blasts towards where the Gundam was.

Gundam Zero was a good ways ahead. It be hard to catch up, so R have to do something a bit crazy and it was a hard shot to make but he have to try. Aiming the Assault rifle down the line, his head moved steady. In his field of vision, was the data on the Gundam coming up.

"R! You can't make that shot!"

<<"Watch me Nell.">>

"But if you miss..!"

<<"I wont.">> The NEXT's visor flashes bright before it then fires off several rounds from the assault rifle, treating the weapon like a freakin' sniper rifle.

It was a long distance, but R had to try to stop the Gundam.

Wait. No return fire? He's seen this unit fight before and....

CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!

"Oh Fudgenuggets that can't be good." Calmly he started readiying Everything he had. Everything. Missiles. Guns. Even the giant canon that had a stickie note over the button that read 'Do Not Use. UNTESTED!' He's seen what this suit could do... it has to die... NOW. COMBAT: Thorn has attacked ZERO System. For The Emperor added to their queue.

If Huang Qin Shi was a better man, he would not take this much pleasure in covering the Zeta Gundam with the collected crap of his crew. If he was a better man, he would not enjoy the fact that somewhere on Camille Bidan's hull are the remnants of Arado Balanga's triple taco salad. Huang Qin Shi is not a better man.

He is, however, a desperate one, as his ship is being harassed by Bidet and Wiremu both...and now the Argama is opening up on him. "Priming CARL!" he shouts as the Star Hawk and Zeta tear into the ship's defences. "Deploying the GraviCon shield!" A surge of power dims lights along the Yingzi, which suddenly begins erupting with a dark purple energy, gravitic force repelling the smaller units away from the dreadnought. The gravitic force sweels up under the defensive shield of the Yingzi, reinforcing them, and successive blasts of the Argama's guns simply arc away from the ship before striking it, as space itself bends away from the ship. "Know who I am /now/, you ass?" Huang mutters smugly.

"What the /hell/ is that," breathes the science officer.

Huang Qin Shi looks up. Oh, that tone of voice is never a good one. "My screen, now," he snaps, reaching out with his right hand, the officer grabbing the data on the holoscreen in front of her and tossing it in his direction. Huang mimes a catch and then slaps his palm against his displays, which are suddenly filled with real-time data on the Wing ZERO, which is...just not doing things the way they're supposed to be done. The commander's left hand covers his mouth. That...looks like the machine he fought when he was still with the Divine Crusaders, wrapped in his augmented Zaku. He'd nearly defeated the pilot despite his deficiencies in training and equipment. He does not remember it performing like this. The only thing he's seen moving this quickly, this decisively...

Huang shakes his head. No. Can't be the Zuvorg. "Get me as much data as you can on that damned thing," he orders, then turns to weapons. "I want everything we've got brought down on that machine. Contact allied units, tell them the same thing - engage that unit and prepare to withdraw." Up and down the Yingzi, missile batteries open up, rising out from concealed positions along the hull. Row after row spray out toward Camille and Staren, while the full force of the dreadnought's main cannons rips across the sky, lashing out at the Wing ZERO.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Saman transmits, "All pilots steer clear of the Wing Zero and prepare for emergency landing!"

Macua Huitl is suprised when the other machine is able to evade the attacks prehaps they are better than she gives them credit however. She pauses she knows that voice.

"And what get my brain wired up again like a Chrismtass tree? No."

Then the comm tramsission is over ridden by a warning CAUTION! CAUTION!

She's got an alert the Wing Zero is glitching? She now starts to pull off from the other pilot evading the incomming fire and seeming toi almost run. She focuses on that intensisty and makes use of it to evade while sending her funnels after the other machine again. She's more focused on getting clear and if she loses the funnels it could be worse!

"Oh! No I don't know how to pilot!" She cheerfully explains. "But I have not made you my enemy, so we shall be fine!" Oh but they are shooting at her. Oh! "Oh!" Then comes the beam sabers. Both of them. Nia doesn't move her hand, grasping the chair as the cockpit shakes and shudders, the arm of the machine taken off. Her hand is patted... and Nia nods, sitting down! "Right!" She holds on as well, tightly. All of that light is coming from the Astelion, Nia notes. The big flashes, the eruption of spiral energy based on Nia's presence ( Perhaps due to the immense time spent with others... but she herself may have none! It's weird. ).

But then Ibis goes and says /that/ despite her testament against it. The attack comes.. does it fail!? It might but...

"No." Nia speaks loudly. "You ... are not a failure. You do not need to be sorry!" Nia stands up, even with the pressure but on her due to the speeds they are reaching!! "You will never be a failure Ibis... and if you cannot believe in yourself, believe in me who believes in you! That is what bro has told me!" She forces her hand up against her chest, against her heart. He body strains to do it at the speed but...!

"So it is not over Ibis... and even if it is! Then you will have done all I will have done more than I could have ever asked... or could have done myself!" Her hand grasps Ibis', now!

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Thorn transmits, "Sending collected data Now..... If I die I do not want this mission to be a complete failure."

Puru Two's reason for not remembering as much as she used to about the early Crusader days is squarely the fault of Haman Karn. She really owes the former Regent a lot in helping her get where she is today. But that was kind of all ruined right at the end there, around when her free will got stripped away from her. Now the mere mention of Haman is enough to evoke a plethora of complicated emotions, none of which positive.

Ibis has not even said the name, but she's reminded Puru Two of it with her choice of words, which is just as bad. "The Crusaders aren't the same as when you were there. And especially not Zeon. With Glemy in charge, everything's going to be much better than before!" A bit mentally flustered, she can't actually come up with anything more detailed to say. She just... knows things will be better, no question. Because Glemy can do no wrong.

As savage as her saber attack appeared, it isn't like Puru Two doesn't have the slightest bit of misgivings about this. It's a shame things had to turn out this way, she kind of liked bossing Ibis around. But things are different now, more different than she had thought possible even. This is not at all the Ibis she used to know. She's so calm, so determined. With this kind of mindset, she may actually be a capable pilot now. Which means that means that she can't afford to hold back, even she wanted to. This is still war, after all. It's still kill or be killed.

And something is not right here. She can sense it-- in front of her, but also behind her, near the Argama, something is happening. There's a clear difference in what she feels from either side. In front of her are powerful emotions, driving a person to excellence. Behind her is a mechanical soul, bent on pure destruction. Her mind tells her to run in two directions at once, caught between two powerful forces. She must retreat from one, only to rush straight towards the other. The only choice is to flee and attack at the same time.

It is a choice quickly made. The power gained through the will to protect is something that even she's come to respect. But forces bent on nothing but destruction... that harkens back to the Psyco Gundam, and what it made her do. The world has no need for such things.

And so, when Ibis rushes at the Qubeley, it turns, and and it flees. Funnels are dispatched, the remote weapons scrambling to keep up and intercept all the missiles that get too close before they detonate. Meanwhile in the Qubeley, energy has been building up for the one shot that Puru Two knows she is going to get at trying to make sure that is isn't rushing from one source of certain doom into another. And finally...

The final movement of the Qubeley is so quick and so abrupt, it leaves a blurry afterimage, instantly wiped away by the Astelion plowing through it. Simultaneously, the red machine fires a charged blast of energy from its Beam Launchers, perhaps not matching what the Buster Rifle can do, but of a size great enough that it should give Wing Zero pause all the same.

What the hell? Ascian watches with open eyes as the Wing Zero halts before him and starts... tearing out the cockpit. Somehow, suddenly, he feels himself become sick. He quickly puts a hand to his mouth as a disgusting taste appears in his mouth. For a moment, he was seeing something from a distant memory. Childhood memories he wished he could have forgotten. His eyes close for a moment, and the Amenthes quickly takes this moment to react. The Amenthes quickly rushes back, realizing this situation is dangerous, almost inately so. As if it had... a true instinct. And not just calculatedly so. <"Then find your answer! And don't you dare die before you find it! Because there are many soldiers that seek that same answer!">

Duat goes in full overdrive as Ascian regains his full senses and turns the machine about as the Wing Zero suddenly chases past. He turns towards the cockpit block, and for a moment aims his weapon at it... it comes to a glow... ready to fire... then dulls again. He can't bring himself to do it. "Tssk." Instead, the unit suddenly reaches around its back and pulls out a white pack of sorts and then attaches it to the cockpit. With Amenthes' hand, he then touches the cockpit, and he quickly lets his voice resound within. <"I put a rocket pack on your cockpit. If you are wearing a normal suit, you can use it to get out of the way, or prevent your cockpit from drifting away. It also has an emergency beacon, in case yours in malfunctioning..."> Ascian pauses for a moment.... then adds, <"This is my thanks for those words you gave me at the Argama.">

The Amenthes then turns about and storms right after the Wing Zero and starts going through a full system checkup. The Vector Cannon, as much as it was his most powerful weapon, could not be activated at the time. Too much energy was lost, and he'd risk even killing the life-support systems. That was not a risk he was willing to take. "Now what, Amenthes?" Ascian requests of the machine, hoping it held the answer. "Duat?" He continues on to query. No response. "Tssk... I wish you had the answer." Then suddenly, that red glow within the machine pipes up even further. Pulsing quickly, like a heartbeat, coming from the core at its chest. Amenthes' spirit awakening.

It speaks to him, and Ascian grins, hearing its voice. The wings spread further, distancing further from the unit, and the tailfeathers flail up like tendrils, connecting firmly to the wings and... energizing them?! Four pairs of them attach, forming a strange red light between them as the extreme high-velocity Orbital Frame speeds forwards. Faster and faster it moves, quickly overtaking the Wing Zero. Those charged weapons. He knew that tactic. He knew it, because he used it himself. To blast a way through. He had the Vector Cannon for just that reason himself. "I must stop it! Who knows how much damage that thing will do! If it's anything like Amenthes..."

He wondered. What would happen if he had not stopped Amenthes from killing those he'd targetted so many times. When he'd lost control. Was this anything like what Heero was going through now? The feeling of powerlessness when your own unit overpowers the pilot? It was certainly scary to him! The tailfeathers move outwards, and the remaining unattached weapons move in a straight line along it, forming what looked like beautiful connected wings. Like the feathers of a Phoenix. And a red light began to envelop it, the Metatron radiation quickly rising. Closer and closer is came to the Wing Zero. Then, when finally in striking range, he pushes forwards once more and gets past the enemy unit just barely and... disappears!

For just a moment, the Amenthes disappears, before it is abruptly pushed back out of the Vector Trap. Just one moment it needed. One moment where Ascian believed that the enemy would not be able to calculate what he was going to do. Something unexpected! And from behind the Wing Zero now, like a pair of scissors, he tries to cut straight through its wings, spiralling once as the wing-parts flare up like red cutters. They then detach as the unit comes to a momentary halt, before it pushes forwards and the tendril tail-feathers split up and the other eight wingbits return to its back to form the standard wing pattern, and the other four remain.

These form a set of sicles between them, which then all spin forwards - attached to the spade shaped end of the tendrils and try to cut straight through the enemy machine's lower body. To seperate the torso from the legs!

There's something much more important in Ibis' eyes than the Qubeley. In fact, she's looking beyond that hulking red war machine even as she charges for it amidst a sea of missiles. Rose-coloured eyes lock onto the recently-excavated cockpit bloc of the Wing ZERO tumbling helplessly in space, and just like that, she's never felt more sure of anything in her life. The redhead smiles knowingly at Nia. It's almost like...

"For your sake, I hope so." Ibis responds across the radio in the split-second where time freezes as the Astelion screams past the Qubeley amidst a truly messy storm of particle effects and glowies. The drill-shaped peak of the sonic breaker field is seriously like an inch or two away from scratching the Newtype's stylish ride. Perhaps the Puru clone's /sparkle space radar/ is active, she can feel that...

... she was never Ibis' true target after all.

"Fly safe, Puru Two. We'll meet again, I'm sure of it."

The one-armed Astelion's energy fields all simply snap out of existance as its attack is forgotten, although a coiling green wreath of mist still surges about the machine as a whole. Ibis smiles calmly to herself and squeezes Nia's hand as she brings the machine around in another wide loop and homes in on her prize, zooming farther and farther away from the battle as the Astelion's lone remaining hand reaches out into space and /lots of math is done/ to ensure that--

--Ibis grabs Heero's cockpit like a star catcher in the outfield /winning the fucking game/ yes yes yes yes.

"Douglas to Argama! I'm coming in hot with your boy, clear the landing bay!" yells Ibis into her mic, which is getting a hell of a workout today. Sure enough, the crew of the Argama's hangar have approximately thirty seconds to get their asses out of dodge, as the shining green and white form of Project Terrestrial Dream's oft-battered spaceship approaches with pretty much zero ability to slow down.

It /pretty much/ crashes into the Argama's hangar with one hand in the air holding precious Heero cargo aloft because that is how you know it just won everything ever not even up for debate anymore.

Mission: Complete

The Wing Zero cuts past, further and further away... it is rapidly analyzing the extent of its own Twin Buster Rifle, to ensure that it does not damage any of its allied units. It can detect and analyze the radio chatter on Katharon. Good... they are responding accordingly. It can rest assured on that front... it also detects the Zeta for a moment, feeling... strange. For just a moment, it can see beyond the recesses of its own programming, its own numbers...

~- * -~

It feels itself floating in pastel space, an infinite horizon of both nothingness and... everythingness. It can see Camille Bidan floating opposite it. He is reaching out to it, hand extended. He feels warm... inviting. Gentle, yet strong. What does Camille Bidan see in response? Does he see a mobile suit? Does he see programming? Does he see the future?

Does he see... life?

"I can sense you..." it speaks, now, not through Heero, but through the recesses of Camille's very -soul-. "What is this? Is this... emotion? This... is feeling?"

It is hesitant. It does not know what these things are. It is not its programming doing this. It is not in its very nature... and yet, it transcends it. It extends its 'hand' out, just a metaphor whatever Camille sees... and whispers one final message.

"Tell Heero... thank you... thank you for opening my eyes to everything. And that some day..."

But then it 'snaps' back into reality, as that cruelly long moment stops short of everything it wishes to relay now that it had the -chance- to say it. It moves onward, as the sniper shot from R follows through and crashes into its shoulder from a remarkable distance, shattering away a pivotal wing joint. It could not have predicted that... that was too far away. Similarly, Thorn's missiles, guns and beams all come crashing in towards it, melting away the armor on its leg and blowing the knee joint off as it rains pain and destruction all over its body.

Huang's cannons are a testament of his coordination, as it throws the Wing Zero off its intended path and rattles in further, the machine cannons just evaporating away as it's caught in the Yingzi's beams, and yet... perhaps in due part due to Gundanium construction, and perhaps something a little more... it holds on. It holds on.

Puru's beam launcher just adds to the pain, ramming into a wing on the back and atomizing that away, along with the top half of its shoulder armor, exposing circuitry and causing a trail of explosions to rock throughout its body. It has no chance to escape or survive, now, but... the mission. The mission is all that matters to it.

The Amenthes' attack comes in next, tail-feathers and wingbits raining in and slashing through it to gibs, and it does manage to separate the torso from its legs, which fall off and crumble into pieces of blue and red and white Gundanium, before exploding as the attached circuitry within the legs overload and detonate. No, it still has its arms, it can still...

>> Twin Buster Rifle, Charge 48 percent...

The Wing Zero's eye -- its other one burst at the socket and useless -- gleams, its V-fin tattered and shameful, not befitting its 'Gundam' name. It wonders, for a moment, how it came to be. At the hands of Theresa Testarossa... no, at the hands of the Gundam Doctors. That was the origin of its inception. She was the one to give it form, to give it life... and then it was stolen, and used by so many...

Then it met Heero Yuy. And through perseverance and determination, through stubbornness and raw willpower, Heero Yuy kept resisting it, convincing it, talking to it... giving it the time of day. To treat it as if it were something more than a weapon... and it could sense that it stemmed from the youth himself. That he was reflecting an inner desire to make a weapon feel more than just that... because of his own experiences.

>> Twin Buster Rifle, Charge 67 percent...

And the adventures they had! Images and data flash to prior battles, all meticulously catalogued in the ZERO System's databanks. So many memories, precious and arduous and painful. Of that battle up in Luna, where the 00 Raiser's systems caused the ZERO System to overload... where it could finally experience human reaction and response. To experience the prejudices and fears of those that are afraid of it as a weapon, and... everything else.

>> Twin Buster Rifle, Charge Failing... >> Sub-routing power from internal fusion core: Overloading. >> Twin Buster Rifle, Charge Sustained, 88 percent...

It can see the end of its own command routine. Line by line it executes its final protocol, and soon, its code will end. The ZERO System has seen its future... and it accepts what it sees. Where once, there was a system that was selfishly and amorally concerned with perfect victory for its pilot, it chooses death to save others. It chooses sacrifice.

"That some day... we'll meet again..." it whispers to itself, unheard to anyone but itself, as it extends its arms, Buster Rifle in each hand. Ominous radiant orbs of pure light stem from each of its cannons as it finally explodes internally, its head flung off and shattered from the sheer impact of its own core explosion, its arms shredding apart at its joints as it irrevocably shreds itself apart.

And as it does so, the fingers at each rifle fire... and spin... and turn... engulfing the vicinity with an erratic and luminous rolling beam that cuts a fierce path of destruction to all within it.

>> Terminating program--

Static. Then... nothingness.

>> Mission: Complete......

With a few quick busts, the GNXIII weaves through the beam shots, evading the incoming funnels with practised ease. Too easy... The pilot glances in the direction of the retreating Gundam Fighter and spots the massive conflagration of destruction, centered around the newly-independant Wing Zero.

"An autonomous mode? But why?" the pilot asks what seems to be thin air. "If it doesn't need a pilot... Why bother with one in the first--?"

She's cut off as she notes the sudden combined assault. Looking for the Astelion, she spots it... Just in time to see it snatching the ejected cockpit, and faceplant onto the deck of the Argama. Without a moment's hesitation, the GNXIII spins up its drive, and charges for the AEUG's carrier.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "--clear the landing bay!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Saman transmits, "Bridge to port hangar, clear the runway!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Chief Astonaige transmits, "Jesus christ, clear my goddamn hangar!!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "I... I'm clear. The Astelion's landed."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Heero Yuy: Ascian Luddite says, "Hope you got out of the blast radius there."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Heero Yuy: Ascian Luddite says, "I'm... sorry. I... think I know what you feel. I would feel the same if I lost Amenthes. My... condolences."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Ascian Luddite: Heero Yuy says, "... thank you."

EJECT! EJECT! EJECT EJECT!

Before Thorn could think past 'Oh crap' when Zero started, but before the White Death could incenerate Sojin the cockpit was ejected... singed... but not destroyed.

Such was not Sojin's luck. There was a faint outline of black... then nothing.

Just because Thorn survived did not mean he got away unscathed. Cracked ribs, a broken shoulder from the whiplash of ejection at suicidal speeds while he had still been on his attack run. He coughed, then weezed as he forced his less broke arm to the escape pod's controls. That had been the intention but all his arm did was flop uselessly.

<<Well. I'm alive...?>> Yes dear Lizard. You're in unimaginable amounts of pain and far away from the ultra advanced medical technology your Kin could use to wipe it all away.... That is how you know you're still alive.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Lieutenant Puru Two, what do you think we should do next?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "That last attack has some of our forces destroyed - or in disarray."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Thorn takes a slow breath, "I need a pickup..... SoJin's gone."

"Yes, goodbye miss! Take care!" She says to Puru Two, waving! The speed is amazing! Nia doesn't even question Ibis' path, nor does she question any of what she does. She trusts Ibis, through and through!

As the Astelion shoots past, Nia grips the chair, Ibis' chair, as the speed only increases! Her hand, squeezed back by Ibis, is so warm now. Perhaps a bit sweaty from the exertion of Ibis. But she enjoys it almost. That is when you know they had truly tried! A man/woman is judgded by their sweat blood and tears! She thinks bro might have said that. Or was that the television? Hmmmm..

"..OH! You saved someone else Ibis!" Nia even recognizes it when Ibis claims she saved someone else, Nia pretty much excited! That is, until the Astelion crashes right into the Argama's hanger, Nia 'flipping' over the chair and into Ibis lap, giving her a biiiiiig hug!

"Now you're my hero AND their hero, Ibis!" She proclaims, a bright smile with wide eyes *~sparkling~* at Ibis.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Roger that, Thorn."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "Well for starters, you can stop calling me that. Other than that... I'm gonna say we let this one go. Not a very favorable position we're in right now, and they're leaving anyway, so whatever. There's always next time."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Roger that. I will cover our retreat. Sending in a new raptor squad to retrieve damaged units."

Ibis Douglas, hero of something or other, looks a little bit stressed about this, but more or less smiles tiredly as the adrenaline runs dry, and at the end of the day, she did /not/ get Nia killed. She returns space-hugs, patting the Spiral Princess on the back.

This is basically going to be impossible to explain, but maybe that just means she did the /double-right thing/.

Ibis Douglas, hero of something or other, looks a little bit stressed about this, but more or less smiles tiredly as the adrenaline runs dry, and at the end of the day, she did /not/ get Nia killed. She returns space-hugs, patting the Spiral Princess on the back.

This is basically going to be impossible to explain, but maybe that just means she did the /double-right thing/.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Thorn transmits, "If it's not too much trouble could someone get medical ready? I'm sure it's more than just me that can say this but... I'm pretty banged up."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "...! Captain Bright... can we get clear?!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Already contacting the nearby BAHRAM Jhemil class cruiser for that purpose."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Thorn transmits, "Acknowledged."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Working on it."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Saman transmits, "All pilots, return to the Argama!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Roger..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Macua Huitl transmits, "Roger. Disengaging and returning to ship."

"We got 'em!" Astonaige shouts into the Argama's intercom. His crew of knuckle-draggers are pulling Ibis's escape capsule into the ship, bringing a party of three to safety.

Several decks above, Saman reports this to Captain Bright. "Chief's reporting Heero, Ibis, and a civilian aboard the ship!"

Bright nods assertively. "Radio the rest of our pilots to withdraw to the Argama. Torres, set a course for Side 6! Maximum thrust! Caesar, deploy dummy balloons to obscure our escape!"

The Argama turns in space, its crew working hard to facilitate its escape. Dummy balloons launch from its port and starboard missile batteries, filling space with all manner of inflatable faux-debris.

Puru Two has a lot to be surprised about, but really it all kind of falls to the wayside when compared to the surprise at how, after all the mental acrobatics it already took to maneuver herself into position to fire at Wing Zero, she still manages to avoid Death By Buster Rifle, too. All pure instinct, which is thankfully a Newtype's best asset.

Now that she actually has an opportunity to think things through again, a quick inventory of the situation leads to a quick decision that there's little gain in remaining. Clearly there is not even a little bias involved with this decision because of Ibis's words and actions at all. It's just tactically sound, and nothing more.

"...you bet we'll meet again, especially now that you're with them," she notes as she turns the Qubeley around. With her detailed IFF switched off, she never noticed that Ibis wasn't even with Katharon, and fully expects to see her again during the inevitable next attack on the Argama. Time will tell.

The shot made it. It was a gamble, but it made it. The NEXT slowly lowered its right arm holding the assault rifle. He wasn't sure what the Gundam was planning but it didn't look good. However as radio chatter broke out, his voice was calm. <<"Looks like it.">> As the NEXT visor flickered, zooming in on its target. Keeping Zero locked in his sights. There was a calm in R's voice; soft and relaxed. He was in his element. Facinging dangers that could utterly destroy him with the wrong move.

<<"Hehe, will see. Will see. But I am sure you will. Just stay focused.">>

It was then that R saw the light show come. The lasers moved fast, it was a one of great power. <<"Evasive Maneuvers!">> R yelled out before his NEXT quickly moved freely, and easily in space. Each energy blast came dangerously close. His brain was calculating every move to make at inhuman speeds; It had to be the only way to avoid so many blasts, even as the Primal Armor was near impacted by a grazing shot.

Once the shots were over the NEXT once more fired down range. The visor focused all the way down the line.

"R, are you alright?" Nell's voice asked over his comm.

"R! Respond! The Operator terminal is on the frits!"

<<"I'm fine Nell,">> R at last spoke. <<".. I just hope he is ok..">>

The NEXT then canted its head to the side as another voice came over his radio. The glow in the visor flickered from side to side, as he at last scanned over the battle field. It seemed his original target didn't fare as well; honestly, probably not much did. <<"..hrm.. Yeah-- Next time.">> he said with a hint now of distraction.<<"Nell, patch me through to the Trailer frequency..">>

Just how did he escape that anyhow?

Huang Qin Shi lets out an explosive breath as the Wing ZERO's beam assault dies down before it can completely dstroy the graviton-enhanced shield grid...although the bloody thing still managed to tear through it in about a dozen places, which is just /not/ supposed to happen. The Yingzi's commander stares at the Gundam's wreckage, his eyes distant as he watches it. It is good to watch the wreckage. The longer he watches it, the longer he doesn't have to think about Ibis.

Shit. What the hell have you done?

"What was that, sir?"

Huang looks up, winking in surprise. Damn, he hadn't known he'd... "Ah...nothing." He scans the battlespace display, noting the withdrawal of the Argama and some of the Neo-Zeon units. "Send out a SAR team to pick up what's left of that," he says, pointing at the chunks of Wing ZERO, "Before it drifts too far away. Tag the pieces with a short graviton burst - it'll make them easier to find. I'll be..." Huang pauses, reaching under his glasses to rub at his eyes. Damn it, he can't run away from this. "I'll be in my ready room, composing a report on this...whatever it is.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "Macua, can you read me?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "R, what've you gotten my girlfriend into this time ... ?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "I think she is ok. I thought I saw her out here. I wanted to know if she and Heero were alright."

Huang Qin Shi lets out an explosive breath as the Wing ZERO's beam assault dies down before it can completely dstroy the graviton-enhanced shield grid...although the bloody thing still managed to tear through it in about a dozen places, which is just /not/ supposed to happen. The Yingzi's commander stares at the Gundam's wreckage, his eyes distant as he watches it. It is good to watch the wreckage. The longer he watches it, the longer he doesn't have to think about Ibis.

Shit. What the hell have you done?

"What was that, sir?"

Huang looks up, winking in surprise. Damn, he hadn't known he'd... "Ah...nothing." He scans the battlespace display, noting the withdrawal of the Argama and some of the Neo-Zeon units. "Send out a SAR team to pick up what's left of that," he says, pointing at the chunks of Wing ZERO, "Before it drifts too far away. Tag the pieces with a short graviton burst - it'll make them easier to find. I'll be..." Huang pauses, reaching under his glasses to rub at his eyes. Damn it, he can't run away from this. "I'll be in my ready room, composing a report on this...whatever it is.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "If you answer that scumbag mercenary, Macua, I'll put you in a bodycast for a month."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "The reason I ask, is cause I am not sure what Heero's status is, but-- his Gundam was just destroyed.."

When Wing Zero finally presses forwards and engages its buster rifles, Amenthes is the closest unit. And for that, it was perhaps the most lucky. This close by, it could focus well on the machine's abilities and direction. At least, that was the logic Ascian was using at the time. He didn't expect exactly just how much power there was stored within those buster rifles! When the two pillars of yellow light sear space, rending it in two and cutting through it like a lit up knife. And its power sucks the Amenthes into its path. Its shield goes up at full force, but when it turns about to try and get away, its wings and legs are still caught!

In fact, it just seemed to glance. But even just that moment is enough to send a storm of electrical current through the unit and melt off those pieces of metal as if it was nothing. Amenthes screams beneath that metal - again something on Ascian hears. His hands tap against the controls, little windows pass by quickly, and Duat helps in re-distributing the energy needed to properly guide this machine, before it finally breaks from the sucking power of the golden light and blasts up after which it turns and unleashes another volley of plasma bolts on the enemy suit to make sure it dies. "Amenthes. I want you to know..." Ascian whispers. "As much as it pains me. If you ever do that without me. If you ever go wild, and become a danger. I will do everything I have to destroy you as well."

A gigantic cruiser then suddenly warps in. Ascian had requested it a bit earlier already. A series of raptors quickly deploy, rushing in to catch the mook units, as well as Thorn's unit, and quickly rush them into the ship. Gigantic beam weapons quickly come online and swath through space, trying to dissuade any Katharon or A-LAWS units from trying to chase the wounded or to finish them off.

The Amenthes continues to float, now in silence, looking down on what has occurred. Sparks leap from its body continuously, its body plating lets go here and there, Weapon Systems are barely working. But still, Ascian works the machine, picking off any mooks that may be trying to get too close to the Divine Crusader units that are retreating.

<"This is to the Federation and Katharon units. This battle has lost any meaning. Leave Divine Crusader teritory now. Reinforcements are on the way, and your pitiful forces are not going to be enough to take that punishment. Do the smart thing, and leave this place immediately. There is at least one amongst you who grieves, do not make this a day even further people must grieve about.">

The order to retreat goes out over the line. He was commanded to clear the area, the leave the Wing ZERO-whose life his Newtype mind could not deny-to die in solitude and despaire. The Yingzi's missiled launch and descend upon the Zeta as it stand there, pilot frozen by indecision.

And then...

FIVE MONTHS AGO

THE BATTLE FOR EARTH

Two Gundams floated freely above the the luminous sphere of the Earth. Behind them was the White Star, a weapon sent by an alien civilization reap despair and horror on the citizens of Earth. They left behind them now, bereft of its masters, slain by their own hand. The pilots both new without words that their role in this victory would not be remembered, nor would it matter: That sun would continue to rise each morning on an Earth controlled by free humans, for better or worse.

Two steel fists collided in wordless recognition of that fact.

NOW

Camille muted his radio. For him, there was one simple rule for all aboard the Argama right now: No one died alone.

mou kizutsuite mo ii hitomi wo sarasazu ni  atsuku hageshiki ikite itai

No missile touched the Zeta Gundam as it spiraled, perfectly and throughoughly, with prescience and vision that exceeed the cold mathematical calculation of onboard guidance computers. Coordinate were confused, variables went unpredictcted and chaos ensued as missiles collided with one another attempting to adjust, consuming one another in a premature corruscating explosion.

akiramenai tsuyosa wo kureru anata dakara dakishimetai

He was too late, far too late to stop the attacks that would tear the Wing Zero apart. But that had never been the objective. He reached out, felt his consciousness expand, saw real space fade away around him for the hauntingly familiar yet disturbingly foreign landscape of the emotional place. A light awaited him the, brimming with the pulses of intelligent thought. He felt it reach for him, knew the warmth of its mind, its memories, its birth...its death.

I JUST FEEL "RHYTHM EMOTION" ayamachi mo itami mo azayaka na isshun no hikari e to michibiete

"I understand." Camille nodded, "I'll tell him.." There was only one thing left to do now. Feeling the impulse of danger, the Zeta Gundam turned-still bathed in the purple light of the awakened bio-sensor-leaving the fallend Gundam behind as it raced back for the Argama, and they who would harm it. Real space was before Camille's eyes again, in which were held the untold destiny of the stars.

I JUST FEEL "RHYTHM EMOTION" kono mune no kodou wa anata e to tsdzuiteru SO FAR AWAY....

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Kazuma Ardygun transmits, "Wait. Was she inside the cockpit with him?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "I-- don't think so?"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner sadly mutters... "Heero..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Heero... are you alright?"

You might expect the boy of logic and reason and rationality to go WTF at what just happened. But he remembers when ZERO awoke for a brief time, and talked. He knows it's autonomous. And so he knows that Heero's friend has just given its life to cut a path.

If there's any chance of saving it...

Trailing blue sparkles, the Star Hawk chases after what's left of the Wing Zero, grabbing it (Or a few of the biggest or most important-looking pieces, anyway) before moving to intercept the Argama. Any resistance is met by fully charged Death Blossom Cannon fire, since Staren has barely touched the GN Drive's energy reserves.

"Heero... are you alright?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "... I... I will be."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "I grabbed what I could, but... I can't make anything near a guarantee. S-sorry..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "It's alright, Staren."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Thank you for trying..."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "The Heart of Space is full... of sorrow."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Duo Maxwell transmits, "You can't kill Heero."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Duo Maxwell transmits, "Okay, so, ignoring Quatre's hippy bullshit, what /happened/?"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "... the Wing Zero is destroyed."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "...What?"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "No... that's not true."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "Zero... sacrificed itself to save me. To save us."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I... I should see if I can get some shore leave. I should visit you."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "That is, if you will have me."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "... if you want, that would be good."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Of course."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "...Is there any possibility... that it copied its programming over to somewhere else, that it could be restored if rebuilt?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "It's... not that easy. I don't... think."

As the Astelion lands and docks, and the cockpit ball and hatch of what was left of the Wing Zero set on the ground, Heero reclines tightly against his seat. He isn't sure how to feel right now... not sure at all. He hears all the chatter and discussion and rage of the battle, and it is all very... distant to him, as if being spoken in another room. He is unfocused, and incapable of thinking straight.

Not that he ever was hur hur

Heero reaches for an object at the dashboard of his cockpit, and pries the hatch open. He looks towards it... it's an optical disc, marked 'ZERO'. He shuts his eyes and holds it to his chest for a moment, with both hands, as he hears Astoniage and the others trying to get the door open. A medical team has also been deployed, he can vaguely hear... but... he can't hear them, either.

He pulls himself up. He has to be strong, for everyone. For ZERO... he reaches up and touches his face for a moment. A soldier... a soldier shouldn't be ashamed to cry. He wipes a tear from his eye, and opens the hatch, and walks out of the wreckage, disc firmly in hand.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Backups of ZERO's programming exist, but..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "But... it... wouldn't be..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy trails off into silence.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Macua Huitl transmits, "The same...."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I'm sure ZERO is still with you... in your heart."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "... yeah. Yeah... it will be. I won't forget it."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "I see. I'm sorry..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "It's the thought that counts, Staren."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "...yes."

There's a few moments of quite contemplation as the Astelion, smashed up as it is on the floor of the Argama, soon vanishes out of radio range with the rest of the A-LAWS and Numbers forces at the site, and Ibis stares kind of emptily at her cockpit as she thinks about the gravity of what she has done. Best-case scenario, she's going to be considered captured.

Worst-case, well...

The redhead disengages her helmet with the press of a button and gently casts it aside to the cockpit floor, reaching across and keying the hatch open. She looks up at Nia, who has been basically dragged along for the wildest ride possible.

"Well, come on. Lets stretch our legs and say hello."

And it is only when Ibis Douglas clambers out of her sorely-beaten prototype and finishes helping the Princess of All Things Spirally out along with her, that she notices Heero Yuy standing next to the wreckage of the ZERO's cockpit bloc, looking stoic.

Heero Yuy, possibly the single reason she was able to fight through everything that had gone wrong during the Balmarian War, that unwitting beacon of moral support whose words and actions led her onto the path to turn her from a spineless, gutless wimp into, well, the Ibis of today.

"Hold on." she murmurs to Nia, and proceeds to sprint across the flight deck and throw her arms around the forlorn Heero, wrapping him up in a tremendous bear hug that more or less lifts the poor supersoldier off of the ground. It is hug prime up in this bitch, patting him reassuringly on the back and everything. Fuck what you /heard./

SPACE BROS

The launch elevator opens, and the Star Hawk steps out to see... The Astelion and... a girl hugging Heero? ...What? The Star Hawk carefully maneuvers past them to its gantry, standing in it briefly to allow the armor parts and FAST packs to detach and lock to the gantry before the base unit steps out again, and... Lies down against the floor, arms folded under its chest, watching. He can at least let her finish comforting poor Heero (poor _Heero_, never thought he'd say that...) before a giant robot starts asking her who she is.

Who has the answers?

Are we the masters, or are we the slaves?

Do we choose them, or do they choose us?

Such are the questions the plague Camille Bidan's mind as he sits in the cockpit of the overheated Zeta Gundam, still cooling down until they could open the cockpit and allow him to leave. Minutes seemed to pass like epochs in that time where he only had to consider the presence he had felt, the mind he had touched unlike any other. Distinctly not human and yet...and yet...

The cockpit cracked open, unleashing a hiss of stale, recycled air as the world of Argama's hangar was unveiled to him. That's right...he'd been entrusted with something, gifted with words he had to pass on. He owed it a favor, he couldn't just...

By the time Camille has found his way to Heero and the rest he seems a bit more like his normal self, still grim-faced and serious. He knows Ibis has made a choice today as well, but they can get to that in a moment. For now, he waits until they are done.

"Heero.." The Newtype looked askance, unsure how to phrase, "The Wing Zero...before it was destroyed. It /spoke/ to me. I felt its....its presence, I guess you could say...--" He looked up with soul-filled eyes, "-- It asked me to tell you something for it."

Hopping out of Ibis' lap, the spiral princess, dressed in white and a tad of grey ( with a bit of black around the seams ) leaps to the edge. With Ibis helping her out of the machine she was helped into the night before, things go smoothly! She hops to the ground, head ringing less now. Spiral power may ALSO cure hangovers? Who knows.

It is then that Ibis stares at Heero who is staring at the pieces of his machine. They are not much of a machine anymore... but Nia curtsies with the mini-skirt as best she possibly can, bowing to the man though he does not look on towards her. Ibis /races/ over to him and changes that, however.

"Well met, sir!" She cheerfully exclaims, seeing yet another inside of one of the many cruisers involved in the war. This one, however, was /well/ reknowned. Not that she knew about it. They all look the same to her. "Thank you for letting us land here." She bows again to Camille and Staren. The Spiral princess is, if anything, well mannered!

Heero's eyes widen more than a little bit as he gets hugged by a girl for the FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE. Quite possibly. He isn't quite sure how to feel about it, but it feels warm and reassuring... in its own special and bizarre way, and it drags feelings he wanted to just bury deep inside of him for a while longer to the fore. "Ibis..." he mutters, holding her back in response. Damn the Chelsea girl is taller than her and so it's sort of like Heero-teddy bear getting hugged by giant Ibis-girl.

He catches Staren -- or at least, the Star Hawk -- at the corner of his eye and regards him for a longer moment, before nodding towards him for a longer moment.

He also notices Nia, and her mannerisms... who is she? He'll have to inquire with Ibis later. He knows there's a reason she is here.

Heero looks up towards the Zeta... as well, and is relieved that it is back. He could still see the Wing Zero standing at its usual corner in the Argama hangar... and yet, try as he might, he can't see it. He can't spot it. It makes him well up inside again, but then Camille speaks up. "What... what is it, Camille?"

"Thank you."

Camille spoke the words, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders as he did. Althought he didn't look down, or even smile, he had enough courtesty to offer Nia a soft pat on the head, "It said...thank you..."

ELSEWHERE

At approximately 02:42:03 seconds in time as measured by the atomic clocks registered within mobile suits-the precise moment the ZERO System ceased to function-a simple radio transmission of exremely short wavelength was emitted by the Zeta Gundam. This fragment of electromagnetic disturbance was so negligible as to be completely invisible in the face of larger, greater wavelengths at play in a battlefield, not to mention the distorting background of minovsky saturation. However, it was utterly autonomous, with no input from the pilot. This was not unusual, as mobile suits emitted all kinds of useless signals as a product of their natural processes. Like everything else, that infitesimal signal would continue to travel in the vastness of space, where it held a near 100% chance of never being detected or heard by any mind intelligent enough to understand. Even if it was, it would no doubt be drowned out in the sea of greater signals awash in space from all intelligence civilizations.

But if someone /did/ receive that signal, managed to decipher and analyze it, they would find a sequence amazingly ordered where there should have been naught but random, meaningless jabber. Re-sequence it into a more familiar prompt, and that motley network of 0s and 1s would assume the form of the english alphabet, arranged in a specifict assortment that must have been intentional. They would comprise two very basic words of humanity, and read thusly:

FAREWELL BROTHER

Macua Huitl own machine has come in for a landing it's not been hit once oddly enough the machine. She's worried about Heero and is wondering abotu the new arrivals as well. The Amazon CI follows up with Zeta as she's looking a bit worried herself. The Amazon Ci now is heading for it's dock she's going to get out and go check up on Heero's. She's worried about him...she felt what happened she knows no one gets off losing a friend unscarred...

Heero notices Macua coming in, and looks up towards her for a moment... giving her a solemn nod. At this point, it's more like Heero is internally checking up on every and each single part of the Argama, to ensure that it isn't missing...

"Thank you..." Heero mouths, looking at Camille, and then repeats the words, shutting his eyes for a longer moment, before letting go of Ibis and giving her a firm nod, before moving forward to him. "Thank you for being there for it... in its last moments." He shuts his eyes tighter, before looking away and back towards Ibis and the others. "We... should get this situation sorted out with Captain Bright, shouldn't we?"

Wait, where did the retrieved ZERO parts go?

ANIMATION ERROR now they're over by the parked mechas.

And now, things seem to be calming down a little. Well then.

"Thank you for retrieving Heero. Who are you?" Staren's voice comes from somewhere in the head of the Star Hawk, a glowing green visor regarding Ibis and Nia from the mecha that is laying down to bring them closer to eye level but also make it clear that at least one person here has a lot of force at their fingertips, if they're here to try something.