2012/05/19 Cradle To The Grave - F1

 Vindel Mauser transmits, "Divine Crusaders. All available hands are to deploy to the Earth Cradle's interior defensive lines, focusing upon the Gate of Magus."

 James Heller transmits, "It's show time eh?"

 Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Yes."

 Arken Gryslan transmits, "Roger. Moving into position now."

 Vindel Mauser transmits, "Yes. Zweizergain is preparing. We have detected movement."

 Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Understood."

 Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Commander Toto."

 Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Angelg is not currently on site. There is a Neo Zeon prototype under repair in the hangar. No pilot is assigned to it. I will be flying it."

 Echidna Iisaki transmits, "With your permission?"

 Samuel Flynn transmits, "Dammit, I can't deploy in Insolent down here! Uhhh, shit, what've I got in the hangar--"

 Glemy Toto transmits, "Granted."

 James Heller transmits, "I got those new Hunter Class Gears."

 Arken Gryslan transmits, "Dreissen's loaded and fully repaired."

 Anita Hunter transmits, "Feder Huckebein is ready to move out."

 Rhella Kan Zeitun transmits, "If anyone has time during your mission and the recording capabilities, I'd be most appreciative of some combat data on this excursion. Good luck, gentlemen, ladies."

 Cynthia Lane transmits, "Oh, of course I keep replays!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Axel Almer transmits, "We'll provide it. Prepare to roll out, people! The Colonel's watching."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Rhella Kan Zeitun transmits, "Excellent. I look forward to your glorious victory. Out, so as not to interfere."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Oh, sure thing Colonel~!"

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. Through a variety of means and methods that when distilled down to their essence amount to 'Huang Qin Shi lying to everyone ever,' The Alpha Numbers have managed to launch a surprise attack on the Earth Cradle. No fewer than five fleets - three Earth Federation, one A-LAWS and one, surprisingly, Katharon - have gathered for the attack. Timed orders have been uploaded into the ships' tactical computers, and tension mounts on hundreds of bridges as the timer counts down to 3, then 2, then 1, then...

ALL UNITS HOLD POSITION

The order blinks over and over, prompting multiple calls for clarification and confirmation...but with no answer. Hundreds of ships are gathered for an assault, and no orders are being given. What the hell has been the point of all this? is the thought on their minds as the massive fleetcontinues to loom around the Gate of Magus as though prepared to begin the assault, but instead just sort of...hanging there.

It is at this instant that the Gurren Brigade, having spent the past month digging a tunnel from the false tronium mine in Botswana, finally breaches level B100 of the Earth Cradle. The first groups through are teams of power armour soldiers, who speed through the lower levels of the Cradle, spreading out to key locations and waiting for their orders. Alpha Numbers elites follow shortly thereafter, most of them moving toward the lowest access points to the central elevator shaft, while others begin setting up heavy weaponry at the insertion point. At five minutes and seventeen seconds into the operation, a DC facilities technician stumbles into a hallway. At five minutes and eighteen seconds, the first shots of the Battle of the Earth Cradle are fired. There is a brief radio exchange.

"Contact."

"Do it."

A soft *crumpt* echoes through the facility as the nearest generator to the insertion point is detonated, and for several seconds the Earth Cradle goes dark, the Gate of Magus freezing open in the act of deploying screening forces. Backup systems and generators kick in almost immediately, but the door remains open for several seconds, permitting the bold - or foolhardy - to move in from the outside. The power armour teams begin hitting targets, and suddenly contact reports are coming in from all throughout the Earth Cradle as hangar bays, maintenance shafts and weapons stockpiles report hostiles engaging and demand reinforcements.

At nine minutes and thirty-two seconds, Alpha Numbers engineers cut through the access door to the central shaft. The main elevator is the heart of the Earth Cradle, permitting units to deploy to any level and easily large enough to deploy robots hundreds of feet in height. It is the key access point to controlling the Gate of Magus, and through it the Cradle. The orders blinking on the screens of assaulting units are simple: take the central shaft, by any means necessary.

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. "WHAT THE FUCKETTY FUCK FUCK FUCK IS GOING ON!"

Axel Almer's professional inquiry into the situation makes several soldiers jump. The Soulgain stands in the center of the Earth Cradle's interior, looking up at the Gate of Magus as it swings open -- and his mouth opens, then closes, before he turns his head, and looks back at a wall that caves in. "They tunneled--get your asses around, before--"

The first volley slams into Axel's brigade, which had been standing in the front lines. He sees a Destroid's report slam into and blast apart a Gespenst. Another Shadow-Mirror Gespenst turns, just in time for a beam rifle shot to tear open its cockpit. He swings the Soulgain's hand back, bioelectricity crackling over it.

"Secure the perimeter!" he screams into the radio, before leaping up. The Soulgain slams into the ground -- sending a shockwave rolling out around it, knocking over a GM III rushing inward, and then stands there, like a glowering sentinel, in their path.

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. When push comes to shove, Vindel isn't terribly surprised that the EFA forces have something up their sleeve for penetrating the Earth Cradle. While he might wish that they were nothing more than fools, the Colonel had not gotten this far by assuming that his opponents were willing to flush away huge numbers of troops for no real return. If they were willing to commit to this attack, then they must have something up their sleeves - a new weapon, a weakness they had discovered, or some inside ally who was assisting them. It was impossible to say which - in this case, all they could do was fight and prepare for the onslaught.

"All units, deploy to resist the intruders! Our priorities are to protect the hangers and Magus' core!" Vindel transmits as the Zweisergain begins its startup sequence. Two baleful red eyes flash to light as the machine reaches full power, and Vindel slams his fists together in frustration, the massive dark blue and black machine matching the move. "Axel, I'm heading to your location now. All other units engage the enemy as soon as possible!"

There is a distortion in the air... and Vindel's machine and several nearby Ashsaber's vanish, reappearing deeper with the base a short distance away from Axel's brigade. The W-Series piloting the mass produced Ashsabers immediately throw themselves into the fray with a lack of concern for their safety which is almost frightening, and Vindel turns his head slightly, looking for a foe that is deserving of his machine's attention.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Vindel Mauser transmits, "All available units, protect the Earth Cradle! Secure the hangers and Magus' core, and repel the invaders!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Axel Almer transmits, "Do what you can, Gryslan!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Understood Commander!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Arken Gryslan transmits over the sound of roaring thrusters, "For God and the Divine Crusaders!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "I'll head to the barracks then! It'll be loads of fun!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane pauses, "Well, I hope it'll be."

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. Angelg is not here.

Fortunately, there are other options. They are even very, very good options to defend the Earth Cradle with; the spectacular speed of the unit to give it stellar mobility combined with the heavy beam launcher for immense firepower means that the Neo Zeon unit in question is a wonderful choice.

And then Echidna heard they were digging up from below, which kind of limits the usefulness of what amounts to a giant fighter plane.

Still, Echidna is in it. The prototype unit is making a long, constant bank around the elevator; Echidna wants to keep it moving rather than let it fall, which is what it would do in an atmosphere. The bulky back-mounted Mega Booster gives it better flight characteristics in an atmosphere, for which she's grateful as she circles high above.

Echidna watches the W-Series bioroids throw themselves into the fray, and she almost immediately takes command, focusing them on where they will take slightly fewer casualties while still defending effectively. Vindel can't be expected to bother to micromanage, after all, but Echidna can. That's part of what she's for.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "AMA-01X deploying." Pause. "With Mega Booster."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Anita Hunter transmits, "I knew it! I knew something was weird with this whole thing!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Arken Gryslan grits his teeth. "All we can do now is ensure their tricks pay no dividends!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "No time to ready the Valison I'll take the Ashsaber.."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Kick some ass, Heller."

<Pose Tracker> Tarazu [N] has posed. Tarazu did not expect the simple act of 'digging' to have such deep and profound tactical implications, but you learn something new every day. A wave of Gespensts pours into the facility, and at its head is a unit the Crusaders might not have ever seen before. It looks a little like its fellows, but the armor's got different lines to it, antiquated and etched with odd runes. Gespensts don't tend to carry enormous swords, either. "Come out and fight me, Crusaders!" Tarazu bellows. He chugs down the dregs of an energy drink, crushes the can against the side of his helmet, and swings the visor closed. "Who among you wants a clash of blades?!" Or something. Tarazu is not being terribly picky at the moment, hopped up on adrenaline (and caffeine, and sugar, and ecstatic anticipation, and cut-wrenching terror) as he is.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn sounds like he's running, "I'm heading deeper; maybe I can do something on the back end."

<Pose Tracker> Ratsel Feinschmecker [U] has posed. An apocalypse shelter. That's what the Earth Cradle is. A massive, supposedly impenetrable fortress, built to endure anything from a gravitational shockwave, to an asteroid impact, to direct colony drops while keeping thousands of human lives safe until the time is right. However, it has fallen into the hands of some... Unsavory sorts, as of late. The dome capping the underground fortress keeps the bunker sealed away, and heavy reinforcement blocks nearly any assault from below. Only the world's most powerful excavating equipment could bore a hole through those defenses--

How fortunate, then, that one of Earth's most powerful drills is at the tip of the planet's most mysterious battleships.

The ground shudders. The earth quakes. Something big, heavy, and distinctly Space-Noa in shape would appear on any sensor capable of picking it up. The attack has begun, and there is no longer any time for subtlety.

Klaxons flare throughout the ship's hallways as its crew scrambles to combat positions. Bulkead gates shut tight, locking and sealing in preparation for battle. And in the warship's hangar, HE brings it to the massive, reinforced deployment bay.

In the main shaft, a plate of concrete and steel, several feet thick, buckles and twists. A sound that is not unlike a car being crushed beneath a falling skyscraper echoes through the elevator shaft as the tip breaks through. The Colossal Drill bores on, tearing the wall to shreds as /that/ vessel emerges from the Earth.

The hangar opens. Sparks fly along the main shaft's wall as the first of the invaders descends, fast as the wind that blows over the battlefield. Bolts of hot metal blast down into the gathering defense forces. It appears on radar, its signature unmistakable--

DGG-XAM2 Aussenseiter

"It seems we've arrived on time," its pilot chuckles into his radio, his smirk practically dripping from his voice. "This is quite bold of the Federation. Impressive." He glances to his side, into an open communication window to his wingman, still aboard the Kurogane, "So, shall we lend them a hand, Sanger?"

<Pose Tracker> Ascian Luddite [D] has posed. For most of Today, Ascian has been lounging. The Earth Cradle is one of those places that can't help but make one feel safe. A Gigantic shell of safety, there to protect against potential alien invasion and immense bombing. Still, this lounging is happening in Ascian's favorite spot - Amenthes. Sure, it's not exactly a 'spot', but who's counting? A technician is currently working on Amenthes' data core - thick lines running out of the cockpit. The young man looks up when sirens suddenly start going off however. "The heck!?" Ascian is surprised, this is the first time he's heard that sound since the day that the brainwashy aliens were outside of their doors. It's kind of shocking to hear it once again.

"Duat?" Ascian asks, before he hears announcements going to the speakers. They're /actually/ under attack!? His eyes quickly flick to the technician, who knows to stop what he's doing. Ascian is quick to lean forward and help him pull cable after cable out of the plugs of Duat. It's not long before the machine starts burning a bright red to signal its activation. Ascian kicks himself back into his seat and wraps the safety straps around his body before laying his hands onto the controls of the machine. The darkness doesn't bother him, but does make the eerie red light of the Amenthes stand out quite a bit.

<"This is Lieutenant Luddite speaking - I'll try to cut them off before they hit the hangars."> He announces over the radio, and lets the Metatron flow come to its standard flow. "Duat, how is Amenthes feeling?" He then follows this up with, after having mentally shut down the radio. "She's feeling quite well sir." - "Then lets' go."

It's not long before the Amenthes is released from its shoulder locks, and the machine spreads its wings and chases to the top of the hangars and raises its head. Its body then comes to a halt near the opening and the machine spreads its hands straight aside to indicate the 'universal' sign for 'go no further'. In the meantime, Ascian is readying the weapon systems - but he's not quick enough to open a barrage before people get through.

<Pose Tracker> Theresa Testarossa [K] has posed. Tessa Testarossa has suspected something like this was coming for...for quite a while. Huang Qin Shi is playing a game, here, and although talented he is, bluntly, not possessed by a cosmic intelligence with access to every tactic that will ever be employed.

Which is why there are Katharon units in the air as the Earth Cradle starts deploying. Mithril units fire shots from positions all across the desert. Everyone has been recalled. Kurz Weber snipes a Guarlion out of the sky with one shot from half a kilometer out. The Black M9 practically stutters across the field - slashing a unit, judoing another, and vanishing in a spark of blue. And the leader...

The mysterious lavender unit that appeared in Somalia returns, rocketing low to the ground. It spirals around its mass, firing three shots from its binder cannons, and then they splay out to provide additional thrust. In the cockpit, Tessa Testarossa's eyes are set as she eyes the targets. "Ten seconds? No. Nine. ...Seven. Safer. OK." She flips a transmission switch. "All units with me, follow my lead! The power won't be down for long, the window is vanishingly small! All power to motive systems! I'll get us out when the time comes....please have faith!"

The power fails- and Tessa yells, "NOW!" as the Regina rockets forward. "This is Ansuz...entering the Earth Cradle!!" Control the elevator, control the world. Something like that?

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Norris Packard transmits, "Would you look at this. It seems two of my students have come home. I think it's time to give them a warm welcome..."

<Pose Tracker> Alex Corser [U] has posed. Okay. He didn't die last time, and he won't die this time. Alex keeps telling himself that, over and over again. It kind of helps. Kind of. "At least I actually know how to fly this one," he mutters to himself. He turns the 'control stick' over in his hands, the somewhat familiar weight of the odd device a touch reassuring. He's spent hours in this thing, but he wasn't training for combat. "Why do I keep doing this to myself?"

The entire cockpit shakes. Alex rocks against the restraints holding him upright, going through a mental checklist for the umpteenth time. He takes a breath--

The DGG-XAM1 Daizengar takes the plunge, leaping from the hangar with its signature blade held high. Artificial lighting gleams off the edge of the colossal blade as it descends, dropping into the fray alongside the Aussenseiter. It doesn't land nearly as regally as the brother unit does; it comes down into a crouch and straightens, arms splayed out to the side as if to catch its balance.

"...yeah, let's, uh, do this!" replies Alex "Not Sanger" Corser in as courageous a manner as he can muster. It isn't much. He glances to the side at a space where a wooden pole with the words 'NOT SANGER' written on it in black permanent marker resides, giving it a look of mild contempt.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Moving in on the Huckebein!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite while squinting at the Daizengar, "Is that /really/ Not Sanger... or is he trying to screw with my mind?"

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. The silver SUMO robot, possibly known to non-Katharon forces as 'the robot that kind of looks like a football player,' is among those following Tessa's assault squad. The pilot inside is mostly silent, which might mean that he's one of those quiet badasses, or more accurately means that said pilot inside is Oliver Evlien, who just isn't very hotblooded at all.

He fires with both beam pistols at DC units as he lands, using the SUMO's speed to keep himself a moving target. He won't be able to get inside, but that's not part of his plan. He's going to provide cover for his boss. "Good luck, Captain Testarossa! Stay safe."

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. The Gurren Brigade has been hard at work digging digging for some time. They have been told, roughly speaking, to not talk about this to anyone. Huang Qin Shi was quite clear with regards to the Gurren Brigade's movements and how they should do something quite unusual to members of the Gurren Brigade: Keep their fool mouths shut. The team has been kept in the dark as long as possible as they approached the Earth Cradle. If the Divine Crusaders were to ascertain what was really going on, or where to expect the assault, they'd be in deep shit.

The Gurren Lagann, as a result, is one of the first mechs through the door.

Simon never really expected digging to have such profound tactical applications either, but Gurren Lagann does largely one thing and so he had to learn how to make the most of it.

"It doesn't seem like they were expecting us from this way..." Simon breathes a sigh of relief. "Didn't want to think about how to get out of that tunnel if they were ready."

Boota puts on some sunglasses. "Buu." Simon nods to his companion's wise word.

<Pose Tracker> James Heller [D] has posed. James Heller gets orders from Vindel and he's quickly on the comm issueing orders to Shadow Mirror's technicans they start moving valuable gear and mecha that can't be launched to defend the cradle to other locations a pair of warships but that's not imporant really, as the force that's comming James is moving quickly through the base at the controls of an Ashsaber followed by a dozen others piloted by MP W bots. Things are getting crazy and now is the time to fight. He's making a dash for the Core, they have to protect that from the Fed's gtting thtough. He's shocked a little bit at the tatic they have pulled then again? Huang along with an friend nearly killed Haman and just abotu prevented her space crazy. So it's not a total suprised Huang would do something this insane.

James opens a channel.

"Welcome to our home, sorry its'a a bit of a mess I'm going to have to ask you to leave or help with the garden...as fertalizer!"

<Pose Tracker> Cagalli Yula Athha [K] has posed. Behind the mysterious lavender unit is a much less mysterious unit. Cagalli still isn't sold on the notion of handing the Earth Cradle over to the Federation, which is what this essentially is. But there /is/ a need to keep up appearances for this particular set of diplomatic maneuvers, and as such, the Akatsuki is formed up with Regina, moving along just behind it.

"Cagalli Yula Athha, entering the Earth Cradle!" she announces, before nodding and appending, "I've got your back, Ansuz."

<Pose Tracker> Cynthia Lane [D] has posed. More like no time at all!

One of the 'experimental designs' that has actually seen quite a lot of fielding in the past was the Overman Dominator. A lazy day playing video games, Cynthia Lane was about to hit the longest killstreak in the history of the latest Call of Duty! "I -so- got this!" The scope is trained on the head of an unexpecting camper! And then the power goes out.

"....No way! Just no.. no way! Who is responsible for this!?" She can hear rumbling, talk of battles, talk of an /invasion/. And suddenly everything is okay again. "Well, they did give me something even better to play with!" She happy sing-songs, the blob like machine opening for her as she steps inside.

Bouncing from the hole in the wall that just may have been made, she heads from the opposite way, the odd light purple and yellow machine super-balling across the tunneled mine. Eventually the Dominator comes to stop, floating lazily in the middle of the path a few machines may need to take to get deeper. It even flips lazily!

"Ooooh, so this is the cause of it!" It rotates around the Soulgain once, before floating a bit away. "Hmmm.. Do you think they'll be fun to play with, White Wraith??" She asks. Which is Axel of course.

<Pose Tracker> Adam Steiner [N] has posed. Tunneling into the enemy base? Adam Steiner hasn't been on the Earth Sphere very long, but he's already seen more technical and military variety than in his entire time in the Inner Sphere. It's like every day here is a new grab-bag of scenarios and tactics. It's actually a bit enjoyable, though Adam would never say that out loud. This IS very serious.

As such, Adam has rolled out all the stops. His ship is with the fleet, supported by Banshee and Mongoose squadrons, but his two mech lances, Striker and Skull, are with the assault teams in the tunnels.

Striker Lance, a mix of heavy and assault mecha from the Inner and Earth sphere, move in as one unit, all four mechs moving in perfect unison, walking in a diamond formation. Adam Steiner himself, in his heavy Berserker battlemech, has point here, heading towards the objective straight out, while two other skirmisher mechs follow on either side of him, and a long-range missile mech follows behind them.

"Alright Striker, you heard your orders. Take and hold. We secure the point and keep operational control until command pull us out. We push forward hard, and don't give one inch back! Let's move."

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. As the central front of the Battle for the Earth Cradle is joined, with the confusion and noise and weapons fire, people will undoubtedly find it difficult to notice the moment when, about 50 floors up, the outer wall of the elevator shaft shivers with a sudden impact. Or when it does so again, the metal this time bending a foot or so inward. On the third such impact, however, the wall blows inward, and a hole about eight feet across yawns open, chunks of metal spraying everywhere.

A man stands in the opening, illuminated from the rear. Another man falls.

Huang Qin Shi is wearing approximately half of a suit of Star Eagle power armour, having lost the helmet, two thirds of the chestplate and several pounds from other assorted locations. His chest is covered in blood, much of it his own. The rest of it is not actually blood. He drops out from the sky, the weight of his armour turning him over until he is falling back first.

It is at this point that he lands on the top of Echidna's Jamru Fin and bounces off in a spin. Echidna will likely recall that the last time she saw him, Huang had an artificial eye on the right side of his face instead of a bloody, broken mess.

The impact jostles the commander of the Alpha Numbers back to (agonizing) consciousness, and his remaining eye snaps back open. -B69- flickers past, followed by -B70- and -B71- in rapid sequence. Fuck. Huang grits his teeth and fires the Star Eagle's jump jets, which sputter to life and slow the veocity of his fall, propelling him slightly toward the Alpha Numbers entry point. By the time the floor approaches, Huang turns his right side downward, absorbing the worst of the crash with what little armour the Star Eagle has left, dislocating his shoulder and leaving the rest of his chestplate behind. He tumbles and rolls a dozen yards before coming to a halt near the entryway, at which point medics rush out to begin dragging him under cover.

This is not the best plan he has ever come up with.

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. MEANWHILE

Back in the cavernous chamber housing the main terminal and processing towers of Magus, the supercomputer at the core of the Earth Cradle, Wodan Ymir looks like hell.

His blue coat has been almost entirely burned away, revealing bare metallic construction underneath. A hole has been blasted through the center of his chest, about where his heart should be; judging from the fact that one can literally see through it and out the other side, if his heart /was/ there, it certainly isn't anymore.

He doesn't seem to mind, any more than he minds the fact that underneath the hole, the metal of his torso is bulged horribly outwards, as if a facehugger chose an extremely poor target and later regretted its decision... to say nothing of the long steel spike broken off in his shoulder.

Most noteworthy of his injuries, however, is that his mask has broken in half, revealing beneath it the snarling face of a man who should be long dead... but Wodan's injuries are nothing compared to what he now staggers towards, away from the hole in the wall he has just created with Huang Qin Shi's body.

On the floor before the flaming, shattered remains of the supercomputer's main terminal lies Dr. Sophia Nate, face down in a pool of her own blood. The length of her back, from her shoulders down to her hips, is a sheet of torn fabric, gore, and shrapnel.

Wodan staggers across the room towards where Sophia lies, remains from the handful of shattered processing towers crunching under his feet. His sword is gone, thrown out of his hands and into the wall nearby during his last exchange with Huang Qin Shi, but he doesn't care; his soul is nothing compared to the life of Sophia.

But... he doesn't know what to do.

Wodan sags to his knees next to Sophia, arms falling limply to his sides. Death has always been his domain, not life. Was she right, after all, not to trust him? Has he failed her again?

"She is dying," Egret Feff says from over Wodan's shoulder, voice full of feigned sorrow. He had spent the battle hiding; he managed to evade injury, but now has emerged... although not without lingering fear, after being confronted by the ferocity - and identity - Wodan hides beneath his now broken mask.

"You must help her," Wodan commands, without lifting his eyes from the barely breathing Sophia.

"I don't know if I can," Egret confesses, slowly drawing closer. "There's no time to get her to the infirmary, and with the halls full of soldiers..."

"But," he interrupts, raiisng his hands in a placating gesture as Wodan turns to look at him and begins to rise. "I think I may have... an idea." Slowly, his gaze turns to the back of the cavernous room, where a black tarp has been thrown over an object about the size of an SUV, dozens of thick cables running out from under it and into the walls.

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. As the tunnel breaches the lower levels of the Earth Cradle, a small nimble uit leaps out of the opening and rushes down the mech sized loading corridors of the massive super structure and kicks it's feet out as it jumps, smashing clear past an Ashsaber and into a slide kick that sends sparks spraying down the corridor, blowing right past a pair of Flygia hovertanks that don't even have time to respond to the anti-tank daggers that embeded in their sides, detonating moments later into a pair fo fireballs.

The olivedrab unit kips up and tips forward itno a roll, diving underneath a closing emergency bulkhead. The scuffed, dirty machine rises up to it's feet as the lights in the bay turn on, Ashsabers along the wall come to life with W series bioroids at the controls.

The M9E Gernsback draws a single monocutter from it's back, shaped like a katana.

A few minutes later, the machine oil covered M9E Gernsback walks into the main bay where the Soulgain is.

"Axel Almer." Meiya Mitsurugi says calmly. Weeks of training for the preperation of the Gundam Fight having put her in top fighting form. And takes the katana in both hands, standing at hte ready.

<Pose Tracker> Melissa Mao [K] has posed. Faith, luck, and no small amount of skill as well - but damnit, that's why she's pushed her people like this. Despite a recent combat record of embarrassing defeats, Melissa Mao's taken the opportunity to train the hell out of the SRT unit. And herself - all that combat data, at least, had been salvaged even if the units themselves hadn't.

"Ansuz, Uruz-2, copy that. On your tail, and taking point." Cold and harsh, not the typically upbeat and flirtatious voice. It's telling of what might be going through Melissa's head; if the Crusaders think they're going to hold on to the ark of mankind then they are going to have another thought coming. Preferably, one pushed through their brains with a bullet, and if she gets the chance that'll happen.

"Uruz-4, Uruz-5, Uruz-2, cover fire on Ansuz mark." Everything gets ramped to maximum mobility as the woman gets ready to follow Tessa Testarossa in - taking the right moment to slip the M9E around her commander, and waiting for directions. Ready and waiting.

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. Vindel's first set of orders goes out to the entire DC - repel the invaders. The second is a much more direct set of orders - and these are directed to his fellow Shadow Mirror allies. They haven't lived this long by playing to long odds, and the Colonel wants to ensure that all of his bases are covered at this point. If the EFA and their allies prove to be too difficult and they cannot hold the Cradle... then it was time to take steps to ensure that Vindel's dream lived on. They would fight for as long as was feasible, of course, but the loss of the production facilities here would be a heavy blow to their war effort.

There is one unit that catches Vindel's interest - he smiles faintly as another hole breaks into the Earth Cradle, this one being driven by the Kurogane. So they were pulling out all of the stops for this attack - a full up assault in an effort to take out the DC forces here in Africa once and for all. But they would not get it without a fight. The Zweizergain crouches down, one of its arms beginning to spin rapidly at the elbow as it revs up to full speed. And without any real announcement of his intention to attack, Vindel snaps the spinning around and launches it down the corridor, the blazing engine rocketing over several grunt units exchanging fire as it heads right for the face of the DGG unit.

Only after the attack is well on its way does Vindel greet the man who is making huge holes in his base. "So, the Mysterious Gourmet himself has joined us - here to pretend that you are not atoning for what you believe are your mistakes under Bian Zoldark, 'Ratsel Feinschmecker'?"

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. Of the numerous units Oliver can and cannot identify on the battlefield, Cynthia's machine is the one he finds the absolute strangest. Even just the way it moves is so /odd./ It's DC-identified, at least, and intellectual curiosity combines with duty. He wants to see how it fights, in a way, and only way to do that is to find it out for himself.

He aims the two beam pistols the SUMO wields and shoots them as he flies towards her, not calling out any kind of battle cry or anything. He's a careful fighter, and wants to know how to react next.

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. *200*

Echidna is momentarily surprised when approximately fifty percent of a power armour and ninety-five percent of its pilot bounces off the Jamru Fin. The impact wasn't enough to really hurt it, but it was certainly enough to get her attention. She descends, putting the Jamru Fin into a dive.

She does not pass the Silver Eagle because she is not going to fire the Jamru Fin's giant thrusters while pointed at the ground. She does descend fairly steeply, though, tracking the fall of the power armour, not firing on it because it's a waste of ammo - that thing is already totalled.

What she /does/ fire on is, far below, a strange-looking unit. Hello, Simon! Say hello to the tiny beam guns on the weird underbody struts of the Jamru Fin, because they're saying hello to you.

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. "Meiya Mitsurugi. Been a long time," Axel says, "and it's gonna be even longer next--because I'm sending you to hell!"

Soulgain goes running forward, feet slamming down with huge metallic clangs over the Earth Cradle's interior. The massive super robot barrels down on the M9 Gernsback, before it leaps into the air, higher than it has any right to do. Blue lightning crackles across the frame of the massive robot, as it lifts up one foot, and then drops it down in a mighty kick aimed to crash down right on its head.

The other foot hits the ground. The floor plate buckles, sending rivets into the air, which hit the ceiling, and scrape over it with sparks. The foot pivots, and he kicks out again, trying to send the Gernsback flying away.

"SHIN'YOU!"

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. "Meiya Mitsurugi. Been a long time," Axel says, "and it's gonna be even longer next--because I'm sending you to hell!"

Soulgain goes running forward, feet slamming down with huge metallic clangs over the Earth Cradle's interior. The massive super robot barrels down on the M9 Gernsback, before it leaps into the air, higher than it has any right to do. Blue lightning crackles across the frame of the massive robot, as it lifts up one foot, and then drops it down in a mighty kick aimed to crash down right on its head.

The other foot hits the ground. The floor plate buckles, sending rivets into the air, which hit the ceiling, and scrape over it with sparks. The foot pivots, and he kicks out again, trying to send the Gernsback flying away.

"SHIN'YOU!"

<Pose Tracker> Ascian Luddite [D] has posed. It's a whole damned invasion! Ascian grits his teeth some more within the Amenthes. Unit after unit moves past the Amenthes, and he has no way of actually stopping them. And then... the hangar closes again. The Amenthes spirals around one-eighty degrees and lays its fiery red gaze upon those who have dared to enter the vault of humanity. "Damn Federation Scum." He hisses between his teeth and feels that tense feeling in his veins that comes with stress and extreme agitation. Of course, he's not on his own, and he's glad for it - because there's some units here that are way out of his league. What's worse - is that Sanger Zonvolt? Sure, the thing says it's /not/ him, but clearly that is just Reverse Psychology.

Units quickly start to engage themselves, and Ascian is quick to pick out a target that seems to be following a second unit. In order to best defeat these forces, a first step may be to destroy their formation. What little formation they may actually have. It's Melissa that ends up being this target. While this loyal woman may be prepared to dive in front of her commander, is she ready to defend /herself/?

The Amenthes lazily aims a hand downwards at the position between the M-9 Gernsback and the Ansuz, and a rapid series of fiery red bolts dart from her fingernails. They stick to the ground like lit and ember-emblazed feathers. "Where do you think you're going?" Ascian uses a laser-communication to target Melissa's unit, trying to get through to her unit. Before she can respond however, the Amenthes turns about until she's upside down, rams her feet against the ceiling of the Craddle, and kicks off in order to quickly get between the two units. Its form then twists until it has both hands aimed at both Melissa and Theresa's units - seconds later, a series of red lasers flare out from its fingernails, trying to impale both units.

<Pose Tracker> Ratsel Feinschmecker [U] has posed. Explosions rock the inside of the cradle as the Aussenseiter continues its descent, its massive rifles putting holes through grunt after grunt after grunt. But then, something interrupts its picture-perfect entrance--

A giant, metal fist.

Ratsel 'tsks' audibly as the Aussenseiter suddenly whirls out of the way. One of its shoulder-plates comes loose and knocks the rocket-propelled fist away, leaving a long gash in the Zweizergain's wayward arm. "Vindel Mauser," the former aggressor gravely replies, "You've come yourself. I can't say I was not expecting it. I'm afraid that I am but a chef, though if I /were/ searching for atonement, then I presume it would not come by simply taking back this Cradle- though I imagine you'd think it would be a fairly decent first step, hm?"

The Aussenseiter whirls as it sheaths its shield. Its rifles fall back into its hand as the the Zweizergain appears in its sights. "Unfortunately, I doubt you will simply stand by and allow me to do so. I suppose we'll have to dance, won't we, Colonel Mauser?" Two bolts of metal explode from the barrels of the Aussenseiter's long-ranged cannons. The metal glows red as they tear through the air at speeds that most bullets are not intended to fly. Their target: The Zweizergain's arms.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "I assume we remove them by /any means necessary/?""

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. Soulgain leaps at the M9E Gernsback, Meiya swings the sword down, one arm thrust outwards, and sets it's stance like a sprinter at the starting blocks. It leaps forward. The incredible power-to-weight ratio of the M9's muscle package system sends it barrelign across open space, underneath the Soulgain as it comes down, and beyond the reach of even it's mightly legs.

It hits the ground with both feet in a slide that turns it back towards the Super Robot. "Don't be so sure of yourself." she swings the sword up and leaps towards the blue and white special unit, the electric motor of hte monocutter blade revving up as it brings the sword down at Soulgain's back in a single handed swing.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Please try not to destroy the Earth Cradle in its defense. Other than that..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Vindel Mauser transmits, "Short of arming the self destruct or collapsing most of the base, yes."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Heh... Balanga has some skill. /Working/ on him."

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

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Well, of course we don't want to destroy it!"

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. Why is Huang falling from the sky, Simon wonders distantly. "Huang what the--" He says but doesn't get the chance to immediately fly out to try and catch him because a tiny beam laser rips int the Gurren Lagann's side, knocking it over to its side. Dizzily, Simon rolls his mech onto its back, squintint his eyes as he sees what it is--a Jamra Fin! "Ghkk... come on, not now..." He tilts his head and sees medics have gotten to Huang. Okay, he thinks, that's nice. Standing the mech up, he obseves the Fin. "You didn't shoot at 'im..." Simon murmurs. "But alright--" He assumes Huang's going to be out for a while, they're not going to let him go out again right?

He clomps forward, leaps up, and intends to hit the underside of the Fin with a fist.

Like Mario. To a Block. Perhaps a ? Block, but he probably won't eat any mushrooms that fly out of Echidna.

<Pose Tracker> Alex Corser [U] has posed. "Okay. This could be way worse," Not Sanger says to himself, turning his head and scanning the odds. It is a bit odd, at first; when he moves his head, Daizengar does the same. He has to watch the monitors through quick eye motions rather than looking this way and that. He takes a second to get used to it again. "Yeah. Yeah, this could be worse. I could be... uh..." In the Earth Cradle. Right in the heart of Divine Crusader territory. Surrounded by enemies with heavy firepower on all sides. Piloting a machine he's never actually taken into a fight.

"...fighting on the surface of the sun," he asides to himself lamely.

Suddenly, a huge fist shoots out of the mess and goes right through the spot Aussenseiter was just standing. Daizengar reacts like a startled man might, jerking away from it and taking a couple steps back. "Woah! Okay! Surface of the sun, surface of the sun," he repeats, looking for the source -- there, right over there, that one. That... big one, the one that might go on the list of worse things. Alex hastily lifts the sword hilt in his hand, depressing the switch --

Daizengar lifts the Colossal Blade, pointing it at Zweizergain dramatically. The guard splits, liquid metal rushing up the blade and forming around it into the shape of a bigger broadsword.

Alex mutters, "Of /course/ he didn't enable any of the other weapons." He was apparently hoping for something a lot more long-ranged. Daizengar starts forward at a lumbering pace, following behind the Aussenseiter and trying its best to avoid the clusters of Ashsabers all around. At least this'll make it easier to parry things, maybe.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Engaging the strange machine..."

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. "You're gonna need more than that!" Axel shouts, as the sword comes in. The monomolecular blade clangs into the arm blade on the Soulgain -- biting into it and sending sparks flying into the air. The blade pushes back, holding it there for a moment, as he stabs the other arm out, trying to puncture through the M9E. The blade goes just left of it, though, and he scowls, as the Soulgain takes a step back.

He swings down both hands -- and then they burst off, with a blast of biolectricity. The two fists curl up, then ride out on tornadoes of wind that send bits of debris and dust flying back and forth inside of the Earth Cradle.

"BYAKKO KOU!"

The two fists whip around, and come crashing down on the center of the M9's mass, trying to crush it, before they fly about, and then slam back into the Soulgain's wrists.

<Pose Tracker> Cynthia Lane [D] has posed. "Eh? Guess Wraith is busy." Cynthia remarks, looking as fist to blade meet each other on the battle-field between him and Meiya!

But the egg shaped Dominator is suddenly fired upon! Two energy pistol shots that the SUMO fires, scorching energy burning through the bowels of the earth towards Cynthia. "Oh. I'm under fire!" She happy chirps into her comm-link, collecting battle-information as she was instructed. It's for her SICK FRAGZ video she'd make later. Of all her success, but zero of any failures.

"Soooo... are you one of those stoic, boring types?"

The Dominator flips, spiralling low and rising abve the two shots, flying towards to meet the SUMO! Except instead of meeting it, a single arm shoots towards the SUMO, balling up and erupting out as if fired from a cannon! It misses.

"Then I guess I'll play with you until you entertain me!"

The hand misses the SUMO, but it doesn't miss the stalagmite behind it. The Dominator pulls itself in, Cynthia grinning wide -- and did the Dominator just grow a bit, covering itself in spikes!?

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. The Star Eagle's left leg falls off of the frame as the medics drag Huang Qin Shi away through the entrance. Nice medics, he thinks. /Good/ medics. He sucks in another pained breath and then winks as he realizes where they're taking him. "Stop," he says, then clears his throat. "/Stop/," he repeats, more firmly, and then regrets it as they do, the momentum driving spikes of agony into his injured shoulder. "Get me out of this thing and get my mobile fighter up here."

The medics exchange a look that says a lot. Most of what it says is 'this guy is a fucking retard.' "Sir, we need to treat your injuries," the bolder of them says. "Christ, I don't know what the hell happened to you, but---"

"/Wodan Ymir/ happened," Huang snarls, staring the man in the eye. "And in about three minutes, he's going to come down here to finish the job, and he's going to cut through half the /fucking world/ to do it if he can't find me." Blood seeps down from his re-reuined eye. "Patch the worst of it here," he says in a more measured tone. "And then help me get in my harness. He's not going to care if I'm too hurt to fight."

Whether it's the argument or the tone of his voice, the pair prop their commander up against the wall and set to work, shouting into their commbeads as they go. Huang leans his head against the wall and closes his eye, feeling them peel off the armour and set to work on the slash in his side, covering his belly with a slap patch that begins to constrict, putting pressure on the wound. Another one wraps around his shoulder and back, covering the shallower chest cut. The eye...there's not much they can do there but cover it with gauze and then wrap some cloth around to hold it in place. Huang feels it happening, but the pain is distant, unfamiliar.

Sophia is dead. And he was powerless to stop it.

"Your shoulder--" Huang nods and steels himself, his nerves firing with agony as they line the separated joint up with the socket. A sudden push and its back in place, and this pain is too much for him to block out entirely, eliciting a strangled scream. The commander closes his eye, digging the nails of his left fingers into his palm. All his planning, all his cunning. And once again, all pointless because he lacks the power to finish the job. Haman Karn's laughter echoes in his memories.

"Sir, it's here."

Huang looks up at the red and black machine being slowly rolled into the staging area, stares into its face. "Daijinshi," he mutters weakly, then shakes his head. Sanger Zonvolt was wrong. He isn't worthy. But...but he knows someone who is. "Help me up," he says, anger welling up within him. "I need to get to work."

<Pose Tracker> James Heller [D] has posed. James Heller has been with Vindel and his men for some time, not as long as Axel or Lemon but still a very long time. Enough he doesn't have to think twice about following his orders. With that out of the way? Adam would find a Ashsaber bearing standard Shadow Mirror markings bearing right down on his Battlemech. Adam was a unknown factor to James, that interested him. It also ment he should try to keep Adam locked down as much as possible. He readies the beam machine gun as he closes with the hulking outer colony unit and opens fire, the W-bots with him also open up and he opens a comm.

"So Adam isn't it? Welcome, the garden as I said was in need of some new mulch. So show me what you have or it's going to be a really bad day for you!" C

Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan roars, "BREAK AND PERISH!!!" Explosions follow.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Norris Packard transmits, "Enemy unit down."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "You work fast."

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. MEANWHILE

Wodan Ymir carries Sophia's limp body across the room, holding her with a gingerness that seems impossible for what amounst to a horrifying Terminator.

Egret is several steps ahead of him, already pulling the tarp off of the machinery, revealing a large cryonics pod. It's barely settled on the floor before he's attending to the control panel on the side, the clear cover of the pod sliding open to allow entry.

"It's ironic that this is here to save her, if you think about it," Egret chatters, always eager to talk up his own greatness. "She so opposed simply embracing the original nature of the cells and using a living core, and now the very same unit I had brought here to -- oh," he interrupts himself, lifting his gaze to look at Wodan. "You'll need to-"

Wodan, it seems, is ahead of him; even as he carries Sophia across the room, he is tearing her clothing off of her. (Thanks a lot, OG:IN.) He's in the middle of removing her blouse when he shoots Egret a Look, and the doctor pales and turns his attention back to the pod.

Within half a minute, Sophia has been stripped nude and laid within the coffin-like machine; Wodan has, perhaps surprisingly, made care to unbind her hair and drape it over her breasts, to maintain as much of her modesty as he can.

"You have done all you can for her," Egret says, as he begins powering up the cryo equipment for freezing. "You should sortie."

Wodan doesn't move from where he stands over Sophia for several seconds, even at Egret's urging. But... he's right. He cannot allow the Earth Cradle to be taken - his first failure is the source of his shame, and to repeat it would be unacceptable. He has no choice but to entrust Magus's life to Egret, the filthy shadow of an already vile man.

Slowly, Wodan turns and walks away, out into the hallways honeycombing the Cradle's structure, first at a brisk walk and, over time, slowly building up into a stiff-armed Terminator run.

<Pose Tracker> Theresa Testarossa [K] has posed. "So this is the inside of the Earth Cradle," Tessa reflects. Come to think of it, getting out of here if this fails is going to be VERY hard. But...no. She can't really afford to fail. If she's LUCKY - if she can get in deep enough - she can try to get eyes on the inside. Try to hook DANA in to their systems and put a low-level worm in that she can use, later, to keep an eye on them. And then she'll have all the eyes she needs.

But first she's got to get there. Regina's thrusters explode with light, Tessa hollering, "Melissa, keep up with me!" as she spirals around and bolts forward..and then, suddenly, not so much sensing as computing, she yelps, "SCATTER!" and the Regina shoots upward, Ascian's blasts passing through harmlessly. The thin-limbed machine snaps around, facing the offending OF. "Melissa...stay with me," she repeats, and then Regina's drifting falters as one of the binder rifles snaps down into its underarm firing position; the machine grabs the firing mechanism and pulls, digging ruts in the walls as it seeks to carve in to the OF! "Orbital Frame," Ansuz mutters to herself, licking her lips. This is gonna be tight. An ace unit will slow down the time table. Time to find out how much.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Huh! Huckebein Mark III is pulling back."

<Pose Tracker> Adam Steiner [N] has posed. Adam Steiner's Berserker lumbers on, surprisingly quick for a machine its size, though still pretty slow compared to many of the other machines in this battle. Still, that comes with some advantages.

"Striker, move around to point Beta and provide cover fire. Get the enemy's attention as much as you can, then fall back to Gamma."

"Roger that Striker Lead, mov--Woah, watch your four, sir!" A massive Templar Battlemech's pilot calls out as James's force steps out. Just before he opens fire, the Templar moves forward and intercepts the attack, taking the hits on his heavy modular battlemech.

"Thanks Striker 3. Now move out! I'll handle this," Adam declares. His Berserker turns and heads towards James's position. He knows the Ashsaber design, though he's never fought one. However, he also notices a handful of infantry with anti-mech weapons nearby. It's a good play. This area favors infantry fighters who can move through passages too small from mechs, pop out, fire, and reposition before they can be attacked back. It's how Adam would have defended this area.

Of course, it's also a possibility Adam considered when he came here, and so he's prepared for it. As his mech charges for the Ashsaber, he fires a blast of high-energy plasma at James and the W-Bots. The plasma might do some damage to James's mech if it's caught in it, but the effect on unarmored infantry would be devastating, burning up enemies instantly when they're caught in the large blast radius, and flooding passages to kill fighters that are hidden behind cover. Yeah, it isn't nice, but it is effective.

<Pose Tracker> Cagalli Yula Athha [K] has posed. Cagalli doesn't trust Tessa not to get blown up on her own -- that's just an unfortunate fact of Tessa's relative inexperience (at least, relative to Cagalli). As such, she decides to fly in a defensive pattern near the Regina, staying close with her shield and her rifle at the ready. It's a more conservative style than Cagalli usually brings to bear, but she's not really in a position to do much else for the moment.

She's still in pretty good shape, though -- which means Cagalli thinks she can let down her guard, juuuust a little.

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. "The fact that you are willing to lie to everyone else is amusing - after all, if you did not first lie to yourself, then you would have no need for this fa?ade," VIndel replies coldly to Ratsel as the two machines close in on each other. The shots from the Aussenseiter slam into the Zweizergain's arms - but that doesn't exactly do a ton of damage. After all, the robot's arms are the main thing that it uses to defend from incoming strikes. Cracks appear in the armor from the force of the blows, but Vindel leaps over a knot of fighting Ashsabers and EFA units, the blue and black machine's cape swirling around for a moment as the huge machine produces a sword out of a hole in the air. "My dream will not stand for people like you attempt to derail it! Humanity is doomed without a willingness to embrace conflict."

The Zweizergain shimmers for a moment... and then reappears right next to Ratsel's machine, its massive sword already swinging towards the two guns that Ratsel had been using to shoot at Vindel's unit. "And even if you take this facility away from the Crusaders, you will not be able to stop us. Like war itself, we will endure - there is always conflict. The location may change, but the mission remains the same."

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. The Jamru Fin is not something anyone in the Federation has ever seen before, mostly because it is an unfinished prototype and Echidna took it because Angelg wasn't around.

The part that is unfinished is the head. It has a temporary one. Given the head is invisible while it's in its fighter form, and with the Mega Booster on it can't /not/ be in its fighter form, this is probably largely irrelevant.

"It was already disabled," Echidna says, in what may be a reply to Simon. The Jamru Fin banks sharply, but there simply isn't enough room for it to go through the entire turn /or/ to hit the accelerator; Simon's fist scrapes along it, tearing off a long thin piece of metal from the armour and, under it, the frame.

Seeing as Simon is right there, Echidna opens a bay on the underside of the Jamru Fin. A series of small cluster bombs fall out, detonating as they fall or impact; Echidna has only used the small ones to avoid tearing up the bottom of the elevator or the W-Series bots still milling around in Ashsabers and attempting to hold a line.

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. "The first strike is for determining the mettle of your opponent, if should strike true then they weren't aware of thier surroundings!"

Meiya lands the M9E on the ground after the first failed strike. The sword is swung back with a flourish as she prepares herself for the nextr attack. It comes as both fists launch off the Soulgain. She lunges in, the M9E bouncing from side to side, dancing past the detacheed fists, sword raised in both hands to slice across the Soulgain's chest while it's defense is still open. "I've been dodging Zonvolt's Boost Knuckles too long for that to work."

Reaching it's free hand behind it's back, the M9E grabs a second monocutter sword and pivots it's body, forcing the weapon upwards at the Soulgain's lower abdomen. "HAAA!"

<Pose Tracker> Melissa Mao [K] has posed. Damn right it's a whole invasion. No more raids, no more pennypacket "Motti" style attacks, this was Mithril gone to war. And war they will receive, Mao realizes, as the Amenthes makes its move. Laser fire explodes around her, but the attack is ineffectual - it simply strikes where she'd been running a moment before. Tessa's warning, timely and downright prescient as usual.

"Going clean through you, pal." Whoever wanted to try to talk her down just gets an angry growl of a voice, if someone thinks they can try to BS their way out of having to fight her they have another thing coming. You shot at Tessa, you walking dead man.

"Not bad, Tessa. You're getting much better at this." The woman grins, but it's not audible in her voice. Hard and direct like always, she continues. "Came a long damn way since that day on the island with Sousuke - and I'm /damn/ proud to fight by your side finally. Let's kick his ass together - Uruz-2, suppressing the low end!" Mao raises the heavy cannon and unloads a long, long stream of fire - if she can keep the other one pinned in place, the Regina can do some serious damage...

<Pose Tracker> Cynthia Lane [D] has posed. "More like boring!" Cynthia exclaims as she tries to take the I-Field head on! It works much like you think it would, despite the Dominator shifting to a more humanoid form, hands shifting to blades as they swing in response to the beam saber! With the Dominator cut into, Cynthia pulls it away frm the SUMO momentarily. "Oooooh, but maybe you aren't all that hopeless!" She exclaims, cheerfully. "Oh I'd hate for it to be too easy after all. I'd have to play with you before I killed you if it was!"

Now of course she'll just kill him, y'know? The back of the Dominator grows on the humanoid machine, into some sort of odd religious looking arch. But it's certainly not just fashionable, energy formed in the center from all the spokes about the arch, suddenly lashing out towards the Sumo to grasp it and then start /rubbing it/ against the walls with the sort of affection of a kitten rubbing against your leg!

"You're not going to be very fun to play with if that alone surprises you though!~"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Engaging the strange machine..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "This is a /very strange machine./"

<Pose Tracker> Ratsel Feinschmecker [U] has posed. Teleportation. The Aussenseiter goes to dash out of the way, but no amount of speed can defend against instantaneous transportation, and so it attempts, instead, to deflect the blow. The Aussenseiter draws its shoulder-plates into the path of the blade, but even the extra layer of armor isn't enough to completely absorb the force of the strike. Metal crumples and bends as the sword passes through, and--

Slams into the two bayonets at the ends of the Aussenseiter's rifles.

"I do not lie," Ratsel replies, cool and calm, "The man you think I am died the day the Crusade lost its way." Sparks fly as the bayonets slide to the hilt of the Zweizergain's blade. It pushes forward with the force of a tornado, whirling about to knock the sword away- and to drive one of the lances into the Zweizergain's torso. One shot, then another and another fire, until the bayonet is pulled away- and the Aussenseiter rolls back to a more acceptable range. "There is no facade. I am the Mysterious Gourmet. And your ideal war has no place in the world That Man's left behind!"

<Pose Tracker> Ascian Luddite [D] has posed. Ascian squints as he fails to hit both targets. "Duat!" He calls out to his machine. "Sorry sir..." The female voice replies, "... some of the calibrations by the technician were not completed. I will attempt to adjust." This kind of news does not make the young man happy. It's trouble enough that Duat cannot be properly updated due to the nature of the Metatron Computer - he now has to deal with peripherals that are not completely aligned. And damnit - he's no coordinator! He's just a regular old soldier. A Runner who merely seeks to have what it takes to protect Mars from the clutches of 'evil'. A goodhearted young man, truth be told.

The machine quickly spins aside and tries to move out of the way as Theresa lays her Binder Rifles' aim along its direction, and folds its arms firmly in front of itself. The beams ram into its active shield, and are forced to diverge around its body - though clearly pushing the machine back. Now and again, some of the energy leaks through and carves a small scorching beam along its shoulders and sides, but it appears that it was able to avoid any 'real' damage.

Then a voice comes in, and the Amenthes quickly pushes off against the floor with its sharp toes and jumps backwards like it were a true living and sentient thing. And Theresa might know - that isn't just a 'like it were' - and had a chance of being very much exactly that. Its evasion is beautiful all the same however, moving right over the M-9 and coming to a halt in the airspace quite close behind her. <"I refuse to let you go through. The Federation has done enough damage on Mars. And now you guys are getting involved? I won't let you take down this last Bastion that still serves Humanity no matter where they come from.

The machine then reaches behind itself, and grabs a twosome of massive miniguns which begin to wind up. He'd asked command if they should use 'any means necessary. They'd said yes. And so, a massive spray of metalic bullets are fired at both Melissa and Theresa while the unit speeds forwards, dancing around between the two units, spinning around and generally making what seems to be 'useless moves'. But amidst all of its, its tailfeathers light up - and seconds later, a series of massive flaming balls of fire are flung at Melissa's M-9.

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. "Did you know who that was?" Simon asks. "Not that I on't appreciate it." He grits his teeth as hsi blow doesn't seem to be quite as solid as he was hoping for, but as far as STARTERS go, he finds it acceptable, but he wish he managed to clobber it a bit harder. He doesn't really have the luxury of being pinned down by one unit--there's a lot of levels in this Earth Cradle and he doesn't know when Rossiu's surprise is going to make it here.

He lands, taking in a small breath as he sees a cluster of bombs. "oh fuck--" He throws Gurren Lagann back and fires a set of minidrills that collide into the bmbs, detonating them early--

--before continuing on, threatening to crash into Echidna's mech! "I'm Simon, by the way." He adds, since it's a lady and all.

<Pose Tracker> James Heller [D] has posed. The foot bound W-bots had not had time to get to machines so they were engaging as best they could. Thsy pay for it as several are caught in a ghout of flame. If Adam is paying attention there's no screams, no signs of pain and no signs of any major self presuvation from this armored solider thei weapons don't do much b ut they are a distaction untill the W-bot piloted Ashsabers follow James in. He now sees iof Adam replies but if he doesn't want to talk he doesn't want to talk. He keeps laying down a barrage of fire from his Beam Machinegun again.

His machine is moving around fairly fast but also taking note of the Battlemech's firepower. Those things were juggernauts that could take a stupid amount of beatings for their size and had firepower to match. Adam only needs one hit to make James have a very bad day.

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. "I--" Oliver is not really sure /how/ to respond when the robot definitely changes shape and a wall of energy attemps to /squish/ him. He manages to break free with a punch from the SUMO, although that isn't helping his befuddlement.

"I-I am /not/ boring," he stammers, rather taken aback. Even on a radio on the battlefield, his voice is pretty soft and low key. "I may not be very good at shouting, but that's not really what's important here, is it?" He makes a fist with the SUMO, the bladed Heat Fans on the wrists heating up and glowing red. From there, he dashes forwards, slashing with one and then the other Heat Fan, hoping the robot's "putty" structure doesn't affect how well it takes damage.

"That technology really is incredible, Milady, but overconfidence suits no one..."

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. MEANWHILE

Egret Feff has the cryonics pod in Magus's chamber all set to go... but there is one last step. With a glance around the room, just to make /sure/ Wodan is gone, he reaches into his pocket and withdrawss a syringe full of clear liquid.

Humming merrily to himself, Egret leans into the container, presses the needle into the side of Sophia's neck, and injects it.

It takes a few seconds for anything to happen... and then Sophia gasps, her back arching up off of the surface beneath it, and her arms lift away from her sides, scrabbling briefly above the air and then falling back to extend above her head.

Egret, humming merrily to himself, grins a giant Grinch smile and triggers the freezing. The lid of the container slides shut, and with a flash of blue light, the stretched, nude Sophia is frozen.

"Now," Egret beams to himself, sliding the empty syringe back into his pocket and withdrawing his pocket computer from it. "We just do this and this, and..."

ELSEWHERE

When you are perfectly willing to drop down elevator shafts and stairwells, it does not take very long to go 'down.' WIthin a minute or so of departing, Wodan has reached the hangar beneath the central elevator that holds Thrudgelmir, leaving the occasional stain on the wall or floor that was an intruding soldier moments before.

He leaps from the catwalk straight to Thrudgelmir's head, the cockpit hatch opening automatically to provide him entrance. He settles into his seat as the hatch closes behind him, and with a few button presses, the floor beneath Thrudgelmir begins to ascend, an enormous hatch in the floor above him slowly yawning open to allow the machine access to the central foyer of the Earth Cradle.

And then, somewhere, Egret Feff presses 'enter', and suddenly, Wodan Ymir is alive again.

He can feel Magus again; feel her touch inside himself, permeating the every fiber of his being, like he hasn't in so, so long, too long to bear.

He has no heart anymore - this he knows - but he can feel the phantom sensation of a pounding in his chest, as some mixture of joy and relief floods his brain, even subdued as it is by his new nature. She has given him her blessing again, at last; she has forgiven him, and he will not let her down again.

"Thank you..." Wodan says aloud. "... Sophia."

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. When Thrudgelmir begins to emerge from the floor of the central elevator, it is melting.

Thick rivulets of metal stream down its body; from within, gears and pistons suddenly break the surface of its shifting flesh, and then dissolve, sinking back into the warping machine like capsized ships.

Inside the cockpit, Wodan lifts his hands from the controls beneath them; he will have no need of them, anymore. Instead, he lifts his arm to stare at it with glee as the shredded remnants of his coat's sleeve begin to grow, spreading up his arm like moss in fast forward. The barb in his shoulder melts, oozing deeper into his metallic flesh and then vanishing entirely, leaving only pristine metal in its wake. Above, his mask, too, begins to grow, slowly spreading to cover the features he has yet to earn the right to reclaim.

About the time Thrudgelmir's elevator draws level with the floor of the battlefield, its change has finished, and it is... different. Before, it was a machine like any other; its paint was scratched, its hide scarred with ugly weld lines, its dimensions occasionally the slighest bit uneven.

Now, it is... something else. It looks new; not just new, /brand/ new, its polished surface gleaming in the light, its body clean of any trace of past battles.

Slowly, Thrudgelmir lifts its right hand; the massive ornamentation on its right shoulder suddenly jerks into the air, pulled by bolts of lightning arcing from the machine's hands, and swings around hover in front of it; its hilt snaps outwards, half the length of Thrudgelmir's entire body, and the machine's hands extend to grasp it as the electricity shooting from its hand fades.

When the blade comes, it, too, is different; before, it held the same liquid metal as Daizengar. But today there is no swirling column of steel; today, the blade simply... appears, growing foot by foot out of the Zankantou's hilt, as if it was being constructed right there on the spot.

"MY NAME IS WODAN!" Wodan roars, emboldened by the Machine Cells even now still multiplying throughout his body. "WODAN YMIR!"

Thrudgelmir lifts its blade to hold it at shoulder-level, parallel with its own body.

"AND I AM THE SWORD OF MAGUS!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "-NO!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "ALL UNITS, THRUDGELMIR HAS TAKEN THE FIELD!!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien is actually shouting. "That man is EXTREMELY dangerous!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "He's from...he's from another side. He's a /monster./"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Don't get cocky around him! Face him with caution!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "I can't warn the Federation, but..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Will Holiday transmits, "...that don't sound to positive there."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Melissa Mao licks her lips audibly. "I /will./"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "We're engaged...hopefully he won't decide to take exception."

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. As difficult as he might have expected. Vindel spins about, slashing and parrying as best he can, but the machine that Ratsel pilots is too fast - he can't quite get a blow in edgewise for a moment, and that moment is all that the DGG unit needs to unload a couple shots into the Zweizergain's torso. The blasts do some damage, but the Colonel's machine is made to take damage from much greater sources than this and remain in the fight. Ratsel might have hoped to see some large, smoking holes blown straight through the dark machine - what he gets are two huge dents in its armor, enough that the kinetic transfer probably did some internal damage, but hardly a fatal wound.

"Bian Zoldark left behind a number of annoying things in his self-righteous crusade! And like the man himself, they should remain dead and buried - it was the Shadow Mirrors who pulled the DC up from the depths in which it languished after his death!" The red gems all across the Zweizergain's torso flash - and three shimmering images of the machine appear, each one leaping up until they surround the Aussenseiter. Vindel's machine has control over space itself, and with a whim he can become legion. "And now I will send you to join that man, since you cannot seem to abandon his ideals!"

And with that, all four copies of Vindel's machine stab inwards with their blades, trying to skewer Ratsel from all directions at once.

<Pose Tracker> Adam Steiner [N] has posed. The beam machine guns rattle against the heavy armor of the Berserker, burning away a good bit of the armor across all the sectors of the armor, though the damage is pretty light on any particular part. That's the thing about Battlemechs: It takes a good bit of focused firepower to bypass the armor in any particular part to do significant damage. Adam, meanwhile, continues to charge straight at the Ashsabers. Usually, Battlemechs work best as mid to long-range fire platforms standing at a distance and shooting at a mile away with high-powered lasers and missile packs.

The Berserker is not a usual mech, though.

Adam's Berserker raises its shining mech-scale sword; A weapon made just to do massive damage to a single area and blow through mechs. This sword is raised, and then brought down at the nearest Ashsaber as Adam charges in. He continues charging past, and brings the blade up in a raising-strike at the next Ashsaber, and Adam continues along like this, taking swings at any Ashsabers that get too close.

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. The small launchers above the large thrusters on the Jamru Fin pop open as Echidna pulls up. She is trying to get away from the drills (which she does) and also get a lock on Simon (which she doesn't). At least, not on her first cycle.

Echidna pulls up so hard she does a loop backwards. She manages to fire missiles at Simon as she levels out again, having gone through the whole turn; a trio from one side before the launcher closes up with a snap.

And then she hears... /it/. Echidna had not been certain where Wodan was. He's so uncontrollable, almost erratic, compared to the other W-Numbers; he is an error, she thinks, a mistake. She has never found any reason to change her mind. What he is is ...disgusting.

And now he's here. Echidna is not pleased.

She does not let that interrupt her combat. The nose-mounted cannon on the Jamru Fin flickers to life, crackling ominously as it charges up; inside the Earth Cradle, she does not let it burn very long before she releases it. Even unpowered, the beam is intensely bright, accompanied by a huge shockwave as it blasts the air out of the way. Small machines bowl over if they're even anywhere near its path; a wanzer constructor literally goes flying as it was caught in the trailing edge of the blast, spinning end over end to crash into a wall with a dull explosion.

Simon possibly dealt with, Echidna throttles the Jamru Fin's engine and prepares to pull to the side, out of Thrudgelmir's way. She doesn't exactly trust him to check his swings; she ends up moving, slightly, toward Vindel instead.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "That...is Wodan Ymir, of the Shadow Mirrors. They say he doesn't die."

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. Wodan Ymir takes the field in a storm of fury. Huang Qin Shi limps in.

The Jingshen Renshou sags against the entryway and pauses, staring up at the horror the Thrugdelmir has become. He spent the past twenty minutes killing the man, and it hasn't taken yet. The sword through the heart didn't slow him down. Filling his chest with plasma grenades was an inconvenience. The crushed throat never slowed him down. And impaling him through the spine...

"He'll come to finish me soon," Huang says over the tactical channel. "Once it's done, you'll have your chance. /Don't let up/," he snarls. Then closes his eye. "And tell Shine...I'm sorry."

The Jingshen Renshou steps into the centre of the shaft. "Sword of Magus!" Huang screams, flecks of blood from his ruined eye soaking slightly through the gauze patch. "I am the Hand of Hausen! COME!" he shouts, spreading his feet and beckoning. "LET'S FINISH THIS!"

<Pose Tracker> Cagalli Yula Athha [K] has posed. The Princess of Orb now has something much more pressing, on the 'protect Tessa' field, than 'nebulously float around her.' Wodan Ymir has taken the field and Cagalli Yula Athha is just about ready to shit her pants from the way that everyone who knows more about this situation than herself is talking about it.

Conveniently, 'pants-shitting' is adjacent to a much more productive mental state: absolute clarity. The Princess glances down for a moment, then back up at Wodan; in an instant, she sees everything.

Cagalli didn't get this far playing it safe and is sure as shit not going to start playing it safe now, because that's quitter talk. Instead, she draws the Akatsuki's beam naginata, puts away the rifle, and breaks it into its component sabers.

Yes, she thinks -- much better.

Because Cagalli is an idiot, she proceeds to charge Wodan Ymir at full speed, slashing at the Thrudgelmir repeatedly with both swords.

<Pose Tracker> Melissa Mao [K] has posed. The red unit takes fire from Tessa as she'd hoped - damn, it's got an I-field of some kind. Or something, there's a hell of a lot of variation out there - but either way he's got a defense that's going to be bloody annoying. Fine then, there's ways around that.

The way he's putting out rotary cannon fire, it's suppressive - and not hard to dodge, but watch for the real attack coming...there it is. The red "wings" arc down, and for a moment Mao brings the antitank blade up - just in time, as the scarlet energy explosion consumes her for a moment.

But only a moment, as she's already leaped forward, using the power of the muscle-packs in the Arm Slave's legs, dagger aimed right at the core of the machine. It strikes home, and Mao grins cruelly for just a moment - because it's then that the Wodan monstrosity rises forth. She's not faced the thing, but heard of it - and the fear in Tessa's own voice says playtime is deader than disco.

"Tessa! Leave this commie son of a bitch to me, get in deep and see what you can do. I'll hold this one back...don't let that big norse bastard get near you. See you when it's over." Click goes the radio, and the Gernsback pushes off before spinning in place and slamming one foot into the dagger...seeking to drive it deeper through the armor, going for the cream filling certain to be within.

"You're /MINE/, pal."

<Pose Tracker> Ratsel Feinschmecker [U] has posed. This time, he is prepared. But it does not quite amount to enough.

/Wodan Ymir's/ sudden appearance is not much help.

The Aussenseiter dashes past one of the copies, whirls past a second. It leaps into the air to avoid the third, but the fourth cuts deeply into the Dynamic General Guardian's side. Bright red, warning screens appear over the Aussenseiter's controls, indicating that something important was almost severed. Almost.

"The Crusade you presume to lead is but a shell of its former self. An entity that is no more than a mad dog, fighting for the sake of battle and nothing more," Ratsel replies, dashing away from the Zweizergain at top speed. It turns its back once, to fire another pair of shots downrange. "Though Bian died, his ideals still live on. Not only in me, but in the hope that the current generation may yet survive the next decade."

He glances, briefly, to the Daizengar. Come on now, boy. This is the moment.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Whoever that Hand of Hausen is, I respect his courage. And feel sorry for him."

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. The monomolecular sword revs to life, the blade slashing into the Soulgain's chest. Sparks fly, as the mustachioed machine hits the ground, one a knee, and slams both of its arm blades together, in a scissor-like motion. Axel tries to crush the M9E with the motion, but the blade catches them sparks exploding as arm blades and monomolecular sword meet.

"GENBU GOUDAN!"

He barks out the attack, before he kicks off the ground. The Soulgain rises up into the air. "Don't lecture me on awareness! I'll rip you apart!" he shouts, as he slams both of the Soulgain's palms together. Blue lightning leaps across them, crackling, as the energy gathers. It erupts into a blue-white column of energy, which flies down, burning back floor plates.

It swings down, the beam curving for a moment, before it comes rushing and crashing at the M9E.

"SEIRYURIN!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Wodan?! What are you doing?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "W15...?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller realises Wodan is using that tone and is quiet.

<Pose Tracker> Cynthia Lane [D] has posed. "But only Gainer's even really close to being better than me!" She remarks in response to Oliver. All while the machine takes a fist to the face! Or whatever face three green crystals make up. It's really not much of a face! "You aren't? Then you've gotta show me more than whatever that punch was, and the sword you made out of your hand! You've gotta have a trick or two, or something that'll make up for what you just ruined! I won't accept it if you don't~!" She happily exclaims, treating it all just like a game.

As the heat fans glow red, slashing towards the Dominator, Oliver would realize that it does have some sort of substance, a massive half sphere of pieces of the Dominator being placed forwards to deflect the swinging of the heat fans, the rest of the Dominator squidding about the ground stalatites. "Well, you're getting there!" She adds, "But they're ... fans!" She's obviously not a fan of such /fans/. "But it is original!" Still. The Dominator goes for low tech, bladed arms swinging for Oliver and his SUMO, slashing and lunging, attmepting to impact and slam him ground wards - where the real fun starts! Which involves a saw-blade like Dominator spinning towards the mid-section of his SUMO!

"Oh!~ Hey you can be boring again, things /really/ heated up! You don't have a chance anymore! Guess this is one of those fights we can't lose... huh... kind of a bummer then."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane sighs. "AWww...."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Barracks squadrons, how're we holding up?"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "It's no fun if we can't lose..."

<Pose Tracker> Tarazu [N] has posed. The odd-looking Gespenst wades out of a cluster of DC machines, the head of an enemy GM(?) flying off into the distance like a half-melted line drive. Tarazu flicks oil off his blade, sending globbets spattering across the cavern floor.

Thrudgelmir appears. The Supreme Commander says some very strange things.

For several seconds, Tarazu's mind bounces between excitement and terror and anger like a pachinko ball, finally ending in the gutter of 'near-death serenity'. He's never seen that machine before, but its sudden transformation shakes him to his core. This is not the power of the Spiral. The man who punched out Lord Genome is sure it will be the death of him. But whatever happens, Tarazu isn't just going to sit there and let his commander fight alone.

"Sword of Magus," the Beastman says, the Rune Breaker settling into a fighting stance flanking the Jingshen Renshou. "Your challenge is accepted. Tarazu of Teppelin stands ready."

<Pose Tracker> Alex Corser [U] has posed. Aussenseiter is suddenly engaged with the teleporting(?!?) killing machine of Vindel Mauser's. Daizengar turns, ready to face it, taking up the liquid metal broadsword in a two-handed grip. He hesitates. Ratsel seems like he's handling this one all right, maybe, and he really doesn't want to get involved in any more fighting. After the last time it happened--

Alex doesn't want to think about the last time it happened. He wasn't himself; he wasn't even human. It was like before. He was a /thing/, a body in a machine that the corporations could point at their enemies. He doesn't want to go back to that. But if the choice is to fight or die...

Wodan Ymir appears. The Thrudgelmir's weapon's resemblance to the Zankantou in the Daizengar's hands is unmistakeable. The feeling that comes with him, moreso. The entire room suddenly alights with fear, and the intensity of it, even greater than that of a normal battle's run of it, crawls beneath Alex's skin. Daizengar starts to step back as he tries to get away in the cockpit, but something else hits him right after, making Alex's choice for him.

Fury.

Daizengar suddenly lurches forward, taking huge, resounding steps. The PLUS in the cockpit doesn't even think -- he sees an enemy that brings out that kind of emotion in front of him, and without even realizing it, he takes it into himself. His moments of fright and uncertainty are replaced by a sort of reddening rage, and the urge to scream builds as a pressure in the back of his throat.

Alex suppresses it. He holds it in, a tightly coiled ball of emotion that is not his own. Daizengar comes at Thrudgelmir, the Dynamic General Guardian's sword held high and wide. He charges, rushing forward and sweeping the sword across the distance between himself and the furious swordsman in an amateurish but undeniably brutal swing. The blade goes right over the heads of the smaller machines below; he barely notes their presence. A growl comes from him unbidden, a shaky sort of noise through clenched teeth, and the battle is joined.

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. "There's nothing /wrong/ with fans," Oliver insists as the SUMO spins away from the saw-blade, showing off the 'Super Maneuverable' part of its acronym. He prepares to strike again, but then he sees

/that robot/

and hears

/that voice/

He'd never fought Wodan Ymir personally. He'd heard stories. He'd seen it. The Gate of Magus, the force which laid low entire battalions, a monster on all worlds he visited. Oliver is shy, but he is rarely frightened, particularly on the battlefield where he feels more at home than in social situations. Wodan Ymir frightens him. He stares with wide-eyes, freezing for a moment. Even Cynthia can tell; it looks for a second like the SUMO locks up.

"You shouldn't take joy that he's taken the field, milady," he insists, voice lower and more serious now. The temptation is there, despite the fear, to try to take on Wodan himself-but he has his own opponent, and she's formidable on her own. Just not a demigod.

"Things will defintiely get /interesting,/ if that's what you mean." There's a hint of scorn in his voice as the SUMO leaps upwards, hovering for a few moments. It lands right next to the strange body of the Dominator, as Oliver first stabs with one of the Heat Fans and then side-slashes with the other, following it up with a spinkick and punch from the SUMO. "Call my technique boring if you want, but it's kept me alive to this day!"

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. "I do not presume anything - Bian Zoldark left the Divine Crusaders to rot on the vine when he was done with them. All I have done is given them a new purpose - one that continues their original mission, but does not hesitate on the brink like your former leader once did!" Vindel growls in response, his voice sounding aggravated. The Zweizergain pauses, one hand thrusting forward as if to strike at Ratsel with an accusatory finger. "People do not simply lie down and die when their leader falls and declares that the fighting is over. The fact that Zoldark died is proof that he was weak - and his methods weaker still. Humans must fight!" The pointed finger is retracted, and instead Ratsel is showing a clenched fist.

In fact, he remains standing there even as a pair of shots glance off of the Zweizergain's frame, leaving behind smoking, white hot scars in the armor. And then Wodan explodes onto the scene, and Vindel smiles. "As you can see, dedication to war brings only greater power! Peace leads only to humans rotting - their bodies, the minds, and their very spirit withering to nothing! We will not submit to that quiet death, wrapped in so many layers of soft weakness until we smother to death!"

The Zweizergain snaps its hand to one side, and seven more copies of the machine appear on either side. Their eyes all flash collectively as they take the same stance that Vindel did at the beginning of the fight - the right arm of each machine beginning to spin rapidly from the elbow down. "Now die for the sake of my dream, ELZAM!" And with that, a massive barrage of Boost Knuckles is launched at the Aussenseiter, one rocket punch after another roaring straight at Ratsel.

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. Simon takes in a deep breath. "Rossiu..." He says. "I'm sorry, but it looks like I'm not going to have the luxury of being careful." Judging from the sounds of Huang's words, he seems a man ready for death. But Simon has no intent on letting Huang die so easily. He looks up and twards the Jamra Fin. The missiles slam into the Gurren Lagann's chest, erupting--but not forcing it back. It's the second strike, however...

The Gurren Lagann swings up its arms--in a sense, the Gurren Lagann is expendable for what he has planned. He doesn't have a second pilot in it this time around. But the blast rips into the Gurren segment of the armor and sends both it and Lagann spiraling away from Echidna in a wild, nearly uncontrolled arc.

Simon sets out the spiral thrusters, slowing down the mech just enough that it doesn't crash into any of his allies, the Lagann bursting off of the Gurren Lagann's neck.

It spirals through the air wildly before crashing down for Huang's Renshou, slamming into it, drill first.

"Sorry, sir. But I'm not letting you have the luxury of getting killed by a sword wielding maniac today. Maybe next time?"

A bright green-blue aura ripples around the two mechs.

<Pose Tracker> James Heller [D] has posed. James Heller knows mech warriors are very good gunners when it comes to weaponry and given their firepoer it makes them dangerous. What he's not expecting is that sword to be more than a hold out weapon to deal with Earthsphere beam sabers and other melee weapons. This he does to his peril. The attack is comming in and the laser blade snaps hisses to lidfe as he moves to incerept the strike from Adam. The W-Bot ones show no sign for care of thier own well being it's just like the few armored infantry that Adam set on fire, most curious. But Adam is locked in s battle with James and Adam doesn't talk. He's smarter than most of the feds that James has fought in that regard. He'd deined his best weapon, his mouth.

"SWORD BREAKERS!"

The remotes break off his machine and dart towards Adam's forces openign fire as they go!

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "This M-9 won't sit still..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Engaging enemy officer, Adam Steiner and his personal unit."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Norris Packard homing becon goes off.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "I'll crush Mitsurugi here and now!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Packard is down."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Jamru Fin is almost undamaged. Enemy unit is -"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki says, after a slight pause and in an almost inquisitive tone of voice, "Error?"

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. Wodan Ymir appears out the central elevator, his machine flowing like liquid metal. It draws Meiya's attention and her eyes go wide "That machine..." She bites her lip and swallows hard. She looks back to the Soulgain as it drops from the air. The Gernsback runs along the ground, but Meiya has never seen the beam /curve/ before, and it catches her off guard, smashing the M9E to the side and skidding across the floor, one half of the Gernsback scorched black. Pieces of the armor missing, showing the muscle package beneath. Meiya staaggers it back it's feet. "Computer, set bilateral angle to 2.7."

"That is below recomended safety specifications."

"Do it." the computer beepsin reply.

The Gernsback hunches down, spinning both blades int it's grasp and resetting it's hold on both. "THat man's machine..." Meiya hisses between her teeth.

THE Gernsback explodes orward, striding across the distance in a run so quick it's like a cheetah closing in for a kill. It leaps upwards and spins through the air, slashing one sword down. "Why..." it completes the spin with a kick and sets up a sword to come down from over head, blade buzzing as it tries to carve a deep cut through the Soulgain.

"Why does it look like it's infected with DEVIL GUNDAM CELLS?!"

<Pose Tracker> Cynthia Lane [D] has posed. It is pretty manueverable. "You know for something that looks like a tin can... you /are/ not as slow as one!" She happily proclaims.

But it is a fleeting situation, really. Wodam Ymir? She had only heard things as well. It's like a story of a raid boss that is popped only when the right time and items are brought together, and even then, you'll generally wipe since the fight is that difficult! And for such a big situation to attract him!

Gosh, why was she there again?

"I'm not joyful!" She sighs, responding. "Even you're hesitating now, and that just won't do! Y'know I can tell! ... Even if I lose here he'll destroy you anyways. So what's the point?" She proclaims, apparently having lost the will to destroy Oliver into small pieces - or even try.

His swing at her at least puts her back into the game! The Dominator nearly splits in half as a fan is thrust forwards, the body evactuating that area. Following after, as the slash comes sideways, the Dominator flattens against the ground, bouncing up over the kick and then landing on the ceiling, both arms pointing downwards, as if the arms came from the back of a Guncannon.

"So I guess I'll get as much fun as I can with you, since it doesn't matter~!"

<Pose Tracker> Theresa Testarossa [K] has posed. Tessa manages to peg the OF, but that field...she does some quick calculations and figures out what she did, but still. "Gonna need to hit the frame itself..." she grates out, swerving - but she can't quite evade the attack, and cries out a shout as Regina rattles.

"Y-yeah," she says in response to Mao, laughing. "I did pretty good, huh?"

ANd then "MOTHER FU--" Tessa yelps, as WODAN YMIR appears. A handy discretion shot stops her from swearing in front of the children, but she's almost immediately on the line again, calling, "Ansuz to all units! Please, be extremely careful! THis man, that unit...it's extremely dangerous! I'll join the fight as soon as I can!!" She shouldn't. It's dangerous. Her whole body screams to RUN. But she's come this far. She grips the control levers, licking her lips. Eyes stay hard on the consoles. "Cagalli....please, be very careful...!" she whispers, getting ready to try and cut through Ascian to help her friend. But...Mao tells her to back off.

Tessa takes a few seconds to think. But only a few. "...not a chance," she decides, and snaps out two handles - which expand outward into fans. "DANA's on the hack! We need all availalbe force on Thrudgelmir!" She says it correctly, because she's a weirdo. "If someone's leaving to face that MONSTER, I want my best, and that's you! So either back off, or give me a hand!!"

And thus she charges dead ahead at Ascian, snapping the fans to wide configuration, then hops forward in a buzzsawing dance of wide-band beam fans.

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. Huang Qin Shi winks and looks up. "What's a gattOHMYGOD"

*SHRIEEEEEEEEECRUNCH*

For a moment the Jingshen Renshou just stands there, one hand still extended upward, except that there is a small Gunman leaning crookedly where its head used to be, and there is about eight inches of drill sticking through the top of Huang Qin Shi's cockpit, ending about half a foot from the top of his head where he is standing in the harness. He gapes. His mouth moves. "I...you..." he sputters, then finally just cracks. It has been a bad day. "WHAT THE FUCKETTY FUCK FUCK FUCK IS GOING ON!" he screams, his voice cracking. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHAT ARE YOU DOING! NOW HE IS GOING TO KILL US BOTH!" Huang throws his hands in the air, the mobile fighter mirroring the motion. "AND WHAT THE FUCK IS this...green...light..." Huang looks around as the cockpit begins to...buckle? "I...Simon?"

( ENGAGING: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SxCj1gmqR0 )

The Jingshen Renshou is already humanoid. But cracks appear in its armour and fuselage as Spiral power pours through it. Liquid metal explodes out from the cracks and flows over the surface of the Dynamic General Fighter, which begins to grow by several feet, armour hardening and strengtening. The machine bends over halfway, Huang screaming as his body is forced into the position, then leans backward, its abdomen groaning...

....and then exploding. Into a >:E

ENDURING COMBINATION OF THE SOUL RENSHOU-LAGANN

"Oh my gods..." Huang breathes as the lights begin to die, his hands shaking as...these readouts. This...is this what he feels like all the time? He closes a fist, and then his eye. "Simon..." he breathes, then opens his eye, lips peeling back from his teeth in an angry snarl. "LET'S GO!" The machine bursts forward in a sudden rush, green energy blazing out from every orifice as it hurtles toward the Thrugdelmir. "WODAN YMIR!" Huang screams, thrusting his left hand out, as drills formed of liquid metal suddenly streak toward the giant machine, stabbing at it from multiple directions. "BRING IT!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Vindel Mauser hrmphs. "Withdraw Echidna if you are in trouble." He sounds a bit dismissive.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "I am unharmed. The combination of the units was unexpected. Charging mega launcher to remove it."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane laughs. "Two of their machines crashed into each other! Oh, that's path---eh?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "What happened?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Vindel Mauser transmits, "Hmmm, I did not realize that machine could combine with something other than the red one. Interesting."

<Pose Tracker> Ratsel Feinschmecker [U] has posed. "Bian knew exactly what he was doing when he took to battle that day," Ratsel replies, cryptically. "You claim to talk about strength, and yet you do not understand the courage and the steel in that man's heart. To walk to meet your foes, knowing what will come- to stand there and fight and die before the entire world, throwing away your legacy, your legend, and leaving your name to the cruel inferno of history-- That is true strength, Vindel Mauser."

"This..." He growls as the cascade of fists descends like a terrible flood- a tidal wave- a landslide. It raises its rifles, his teeth grit, impossibly tight. "This is nothing. This is false, a power that burns brightly for a brief moment before being snuffed out, nothing but a candle burning alone in hurricane. Strength does not come from battle, but it is what drives us to victory. Courage is tried in the forge of war, but it is born in the love that warms a soldier's heart!"

--An image enters his mind's eye. A woman of phenomenal beauty, impossible bravery, and a heart of steel- harder than any mechanical fist, brighter than the mightiest star, more breathtaking than the work of the gods themselves--

"Softness! Gentleness! Mercy! These are words a rabid man such as you could never understand!" Bolts of molten, crimson steel erupt from the Aussenseiter's rifles, faster than the eye can see. Each and every shot collides with one of the Zweizergain's flying fists, lighting the darkened elevator shaft with bright specks of light, each and every one a perfect bullseye. And in the chaos, it fires, again and again and again, at the Zweizergain's head with all the skill of a practiced sniper, and all the fury of a man who has never forgotten what his beloved had taught him, all those years ago. "I have thrown away my name, my life, my world. Elzam von Branstein died when the Crusade had accomplished its goals. Now I am but a Mysterious Gourmet--"

"--But I am also the man who carries the will of a hero and the memories of the greatest woman who will ever grace this world. Your dream is nothing before that!"

<Pose Tracker> Adam Steiner [N] has posed. The sword breakers fly in at Adam's mech, and there's not much he can do about it. The Berserker isn't really much for dodging, so all it can do is stand there and get pounded by lasers, while he tries to catch up with the Ashsabers that control them.

That would be a bigger problem, except for one little fact: The beam weapons shooting him build up heat on the surface of the mech as they hit. The heat is absorbed into the machinery that moves the machine, via a special system called TSM - Triple Strength Myomer. When the TSM gets hot, the physical moments of the mech grow significantly faster and stronger.

Which is exactly what happens now. The TSM activates, and suddenly Adam's mech surges forward, right for the lead Ashsaber. The PPC arm is swung forward in a powerful, quick blow at the head of the Ashsaber, though the blow is mostly just a feint to get the mech off balance for the follow-up attack: A kick from Adam's Berserker, carrying the force of 100 tons of charging mech right into the center torso of the smaller enemy mech.

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. "Don't ask me! That's not the doll I remember--" Axel spits, once, looking at the Thrudgelmir. His lips curl back into a snarl, before he turns his head, and then looks at the Gernsback, watching it dive down. The blade cuts down, but the arm blade catches it, and sparks fly. Meiya can pull back, before he swings up the Soulgain's foot and tries to roundhouse her machine out of the way.

"Whatever it is, IT'S ON OUR SIDE!" Axel bellows, before he fires the thrusters on the Soulgain's back. Blue-white flame erupts out of the vents, sends the machine arching into the air, and it pulls back one fist, before it comes diving down again. This time, a single missile explodes out of the shoulder plating.

It fires a burst of highly reflective, dazzling chaff -- making it hard to secure a good target lock.

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. Echidna Iisaki watches Simon fly away.

She watches Simon hit the Jingshen Renshou.

"...Error?"

Echidna recovers quickly; she was not truly mentally damaged, only a little confused. Things like that just aren't sensible, and she doesn't know how they work. It vexes her. The Jamru Fin rises up, getting a better aerial view of the battlefield ('aerial'; she can only go so far in here). She is given orders: remove the combined unit. Well...

The nose-cannon crackles, extending several feet with a /chunk/ and spreading wide as a pulsing yellow glow throbs within. Echidna does not fire it, allowing it to charge intensely, almost dangerously so given the close quarters; instead she fires an octet of heavier missiles from the Mega Booster, mounted on the side struts. At least three of them go wide, attracted by loose mechs; the Jamru Fin is designed for space combat and the Mega Booster's missile targetter hasn't gotten the 'urban environment' package installed yet.

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. "What's with the nihilsm?" The SUMO slides to the right, but still gets smashed up by the shapeshifting Dominator. It's looking dented up now, and Oliver sounds a little frazzled in general. Just a little. That may partially be Wodan. "You enjoy fighting, don't you? I can tell. Why shrug and suspect it's hopeless? Why call it a foregone conclusion? Look at those brave souls engaging Wodan Ymir!" The SUMO's hand gestures that way. "Look at the brave, if possibly unwise Hand of Hausen, fighting for his liege-um, I assume-against impossible odds. That is the true spirit of a warrior, the essence of knighthood, that chivalrous and heartbreaking stand against the impossible! He will probably die, but I will tell my children of his courage."

He really did mean that in a flattering manner.

"So you should fight too for your own reasons, and not just shrug it off and assume everything's a foregone conclusion. You should--...why am I encouraging you to fight stronger against /me?/"

He pauses again, considering this, sighs, and then shakes his head. "Please disregard my inspiring speech, milady." The SUMO grabs both of its pistols again, firing upwards at the Dominator as it leaps up, sharpshooting in midair.

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. Huang's challenge draws Wodan's gaze immediately; he is, after all, the man responsible for her current state. /Obviously./ And, just as obviously, he shall have to pay for it.

But, first, there are inscets in his way, who must be crushed.

The first of these is Cagalli; the Akatsuki comes speeding in, beam sabers brandishes, and Thrudgelmir decides to catch it with its face. The enormous drill protruding from the robot's forehead spins up, and Thrudgelmir simply swings its head down at the small, golden mobile suit. He doesn't manage to squash Cagalli, but he /does/ force her to abort her attack run.

And then 'Sanger' is running in, screaming; it takes Wodan a moment to actually recognize his opponent, as he has yet to see Daizengar in person, and holy shit, that form is /so bad./

Is his shadow truly so without finesse?

Daizengar's sword swings around, and Wodan... doesn't even move to defend himself. He simply lets the sword bite into Thrudgelmir's shoulder armor, burying itself halfway into the machine, and focuses entirely on his counterattack.

Said counterattack consists of going more or less apeshit, smashing Thrudgelmir's Zankantou back and forth across Daizengar's chest for a few moments before finishing with a fierce upwards slash, hard enough to drive the equally large machine backwards and wrench its blade out of Thrudgelmir's shoulder.

"So," Wodan muses; Thrudgelmir takes a step back, raising its sword into a defensive posiiton. "It has been completed, here... the Dynamic General Guardian."

As he speaks, the enormous gash in Thrudgelmir's armor is... healing, slowly filling in with a thick cloud of brilliantly sparkling dust of some kind before it sets into the shape of the machine's undamaged shoulder.

"But you are not my shadow," he declares, as Thrudgelmir draws its blade back to strike. "And so I have no need for you. Begone!"

And then, of all things, it throws its Zankantou into the air, sending it spiralling (TEE HEE) straight up.

From behind Daizengar comes the Renshou-Lagann; Wodan changes targets, in that instant, but not technique. The drill thrusters on the back of Thrudgelmir snap upwards, and the super robot reaches its hands around its back to grab them, the armor growing over its closed fists in the blink of an eye.

When Thrudgelmir brings its hands back around to the front, the drills come with it, and already they're spinning up, fire licking across their surfaces. As Huang and Simon's drills come shooting in towards Thrudgelmir, it thrusts its hands forwards, and its own drills erupt off of it in counterattack, roaring through the air towards the Spiral machine.

The Drill Boost Knuckles plow through two of the drills headed for Thrudgelmir, blasting them into shreds... but there are a lot more than two, and even as Renshou-Lagann is dancing out of the way of Wodan's drills, its own are slamming into Thrudgelmir's hide, blasting gaping holes into its armor.

Holes that, of course, quickly begin to refill with glittering dust.

What might be even more surprising than that is when, having missed their target, the boost knuckles simply... dissolve. Even as they do, new drills - and hands - are reappearing on Thrudgelmir, and it lifts its newly reformed hands just in time to catch its falling Zankantou.

As soon as the blade is back in hand, Thrudgelmir suddenly launches itself into a spin, sword scything through the air towards Cagalli and the Sanger impersonator; Wodan ends the spin with the blade held out to the side, and the drills once again on its back spin up and send it rocketing past the hopefully-faltering Daizengar, towards Huang and Simon.

"CHEEESTOOO!" Wodan roars, as he whips Thrudgelmir's enormous blade around in a horizontal slash at the Renshou-Lagann. He hasn't feld this alive since... since...

... well, since he died.

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. "Indeed, they are words that I have watched kill a world!" Vindel roars in reply to Ratsel's accusation at his lack of compassion. "We did not embark down his path on a lark - we watched as foes you cannot even imagine descended upon our world. We watched a world that had grown soft and weak from gentleness, compassion, and mercy taken to task! We watched thousands die, and it was only through becoming like the steel of a blade that we were able to survive and escape! What you have seen thus far is nothing!" With a single motion, Vindel watches as Ratsel begins his dance... and he meets it with one of his own.

Both machines vanish into darkness, and with each shot that Ratsel unleashes, he finds the black blade of the Zweizergain waiting for it. Blast after blast is deflected to the side, sometimes from a machine other than the one the Aussenseiter is shooting at as a shadow Zweizergain appears to block the shot. He's not able to press in and continue the attack, but that is fine - Vindel is just waiting for his moment, and smiles. "But you will never understand until you see it with your own eyes. Just ask Wodan, Mr. Feinschmecker! Ask him what mercy the world has shown to those who dream of peace!!"

The Zweizergain leaps back, spinning its sword around as it sets and waits for the right opening. And as soon as Ratsel pauses, his barrage complete and his attention just beginning to focus on the defensive...

The Zweizergain appears behind and above the Aussenseiter, its blade coming down with enough force to smash through the floor and plunge quite a few nearby units down to the next level of the base.

<Pose Tracker> Cagalli Yula Athha [K] has posed. The blade rips out for Cagalli, and the Akatsuki just fuckin' eats it. The machine loses an arm and a leg, quite literally, to the immense power of the Zankantou; the Princess's mind, still going a mile a minute, does some hasty calculations and realizes something:

There's no way this is going to work. The Akatsuki's advantages are completely irrelevant in the face of Wodan "My Shadow And Me" Ymir, and it simply can't keep up with the fully-powered Thrudgelmir. On top of that... there's still doubt in Cagalli's heart. There was a moment of absolute resolve when she wanted to intervene for Tessa -- but the hit has shaken her, and reminded her of all the reasons this operation was a bad idea.

She promptly boosts as fast as possible in the direction that puts her in the path of the fewest DC units. There's no real /retreat/, but by God, she's trying, and throwing up every international signal for 'Surrendering unit' in the process.

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. Meiya bounces the Gernsback on it's feet away from the Soulgain as it's own smoke discharges fire, covering it's exact path and reventing the chaff from landing directly on it. The Gernsback crosses it's swords deffensively. "That man was already unstable," she recalls the few encounters with him. "If exposed to something like DG cells..." Meiya bites her lip.

"And you're just going to /accept/ it like it was nothing?"

The Gernsback runs, it pumps it's legs like pistons and leaps upwards, it brings it's arms to it's sides and legs perfectly together, twisting through the air to bring it's feet over head like some kind of giant robot gymnast and comes back down behind the Soulgain landing as it slides one sword away, taking up the remainder with both hands.

"You're a /fool/ to trust something that dangerous without question!"

The Gernsback.../Meiya/ runs forward, the monocutters motor at a high pitched, ear splitting whine as it's slashed forwards and through the space currently occupied by the Soulgain. The sword swing doesn't even show up on cameras, except the high speed kind, nothing by a line of reflected light through the air.

"And I won't stand for that."

<Pose Tracker> Ascian Luddite [D] has posed. "The hell!?" Ascian moves his head forward a little in the cockpit to get a better look. Yes, that's right! He saw the glint! The glint of a knife coming forward. He presses his fingers hard around the half-spheres that form his controls, and tries to guide Amenthes quickly backwards - and manages to just barely make Melissa fail to hit the /actual/ fore of the Amenthes. Were she to break that, that would be the end of Amenthes! And Ascian is extremely protective and aware of that part of her. It's a reaction like someone automatically protecting their face if something moves towards it.

In fact, it's not just its torso that Melissa has pierced, but also one of the Amenthes' hands. It's wrapped around the knife partially, and the machine seems to... stare at the M-9. There's a metalic groaning scream from the Amenthes, while that red glow of its eyes burns that more brightly. Ascian braces himself for what comes next. The smallers machine outmaneuvers the Amenthes and drives the knife right through its protective armor, and into the Metatron beneath. And when it's flung itself away, Tessa has her chance to get away while Amenthes grab for the small knife and pulls it out - flinging it right at the Gernsback M-9.

Ascian hisses between his teeth again, "We're being driven back... I can't believe this. Come on Amenthes." Ascian's grip tightens and his body tenses a bit when he tries to tighten his bond with his Orbital Frame. And then Tessa joins in again! The Amenthes' both arms switch rapidly to its sword arms and it tries to halt the incoming fans with its blade. However, Tessa's maneuvering proves to be the better one, as the fans slide partially around the blades and cut into the Amenthes shoulders before it can deflect them - shattering pieces of its armor.

"Damnit! DAMNIT." Ascian is getting more and more frustrating. Here he is, right in front of most of the brass of the Divine Crusaders, and he's having these two people make a /fool/ out of himself. He can feel his skin crawling, whilst the machine begins to respond to its runner's needs. It knows this frustration all too well, and it too is fed up with being hurt time after time again.

Of course, there is no way that Ascian can go and deploy the Vector Cannon within this building. He doesn't wish to blow the insides of the Earth Cradle to hell. Sure, it could probably take it - but he's fairly sure that Vindel would not be happy with a near transdimensional beam cutting swaths through his base. So then what is there to fall back on? It's but one thing - one of the weapon systems that is only slightly more reliable against higher velocity units.

Ascian quickly waves a hand out in front of him. Duat is still open, so he can access some of its systems more directly. "Duat, give me full control over Amenthes' systems. Ignore all overrides." A small red keyboard appears in the air, and Ascian rapidly taps some keys as trained to do, before the Amenthes reacts. The pulse of red halts for a moment... then begins to grow brighter. Its wings expand and the red embers that fall off of its body begin to brighten. The small feather 'earrings' that lay near its ear begin to evaporate as all of its Metatron reserves begin to be drawn to its weapon systems.

<"Fine. You wish to play serious?"> He asks Mao and Tessa in general. <"Then we'll give you serious. There is no way in hell I can forgive you for aiming for Amenthes' heart! You /would be/ MURDERED!"> Its both arms begin to shudder, and suddenly flares of red energy begin to build around them. They shift into a set of far longer barrels - something that Tessa might very well recognize as something /very closely/ resembling the Wing Zero's twin buster rifles.

The machine moves back a little, and Ascian begins to target the two and tries to predict what they'll do. But then he realizes - Melissa tried to get in front of the other unit before. He only needs to aim for /that/ unit. Tessa's unit!

The tailfeathers of the Amenthes come up, and the red glow begins to materialize in further metal - drawing the resources from its Vector Trap and its Self Supporting Armor - until the two rifle-arms are brought together. The wings fan out into the shape of a perfect circle, all turned into a single direction while purple sparks begin to form and rotate around the wing of wings. <"Let's see you protect her from this!"> He then shouts at Melissa, before the beam rifles /mesh/ into eachother, forming that double buster rifle... with that demonicly red looking pulse of weaponized Metatron energy at the front.

It's not a second later, before the hangar is lit up in a mighty red beam that carves quickly across the floor, melting the cement there, before trying to envelop and wash over Tessa's unit!

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. BOOM BABY.

Heimon tries to respond to Huang Qin Shi, he thought he knew about this, he was there when they fought Genome. "Sir, I." FUCKETTY. "I'm trying to--" FUCK FUCK IS GOING ON. "I did--" WHY DID YOU DO THAT? "I'm trying to--" WHAT ARE YOU DOING! "Explain that--" NOW HE IS GOING TO KILL US BOTH!

Simon sighs quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose. He waits for Huang to calm down a bit before adding, "You okay now?"

He grins faintly as the response is LET'S GO! "Right!" He adds.

He needs a moment to recover, letting Huang take the lead here. Besides, he can tell in a way--it's his fight, isn't it?

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Tch... the energy cell's tapped dry. Damn...."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Amenthes is empty too..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "But I refuse to retreat yet... she's still got some fight left in her!"

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. Years ago, as he lay bleeding in the belly of the GeoFront, just before he collapsed into the void of Instrumentality, Huang Qin Shi dreamed of a world where he had a loving wife, a beautiful daughter, and a power that could shake the heavens. Thanks to Wodan, he can never have two of the three. But Simon has given him one, if only for a time. It will do.

The Renshou Lagann moves like a dancer, the harness system allowing Huang to slide away from first one drill fist and then the other, tucking his abdomen in ever so slightly to slip around the second. Warning chimes echo out from behind his head as Echidna's missiles lock on to him, and thanks to Simon he doesn't even need to avoid these. The liquid metal drills flow toward the Gunman Fighter in a sheet of quicksilver that separates and flickers out behind it, a tiny drill spiking into each of the projectiles, blasting them to ash before they can touch him.

"Simon," Huang says as Wodan Ymir turns back toward him, "You've saved...more than my life this day. Tell Mister Adai..." He shakes his head. "Tell Rossiu...that any debt remaining between us is paid. Whatever else happens." The engineer sucks in a breath as Wodan Ymir comes for him, holding his ground.

And for the first time, he is entirely unafraid.

Huang drops down in a sudden rush, flowing toward the floor as the zankantou cleaves the air just above his back. He thrusts his hands downward and the liquid metal drills curve around, tunneling under the floor to come up and spike Thrugdelmir through the feet, rooting it in place, if only for a moment. The Renshou-Lagann slides up toward the monster's belly, Huang's eye noting the holes already being repaired. So. That's his secret. "What did Joshua say to do to zombies..." he muses, clenching his left fist, white plasma mixing with blue-green Spiral power. "Oh right," he says as he drives the palm thrust forward. "Kill 'em with fire."

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. "Shut up," Axel says. "You're an idiot. You think I'm gonna tell you why I trust it!? What is this, the happy sharing club? No!"

The sword comes screeching in, faster than the Soulgain's cameras can see, but not faster than Axel can feel. The blade slams into the Soulgain's palm, as he catches it -- and it cuts clean through half the arm, shearing away armor and metal alike. Half the limb falls down, slamming onto the ground, as the blade swings out the other side.

"IT'S THE EARTH CRADLE!"

The blasted arm swings at Meiya's machine -- and then the other does, firing a rapid set of punches that never quite find their mark. Then, however, the Soulgain lifts both arms up. "Limiter," Axel shouts, "DISENGAGE!"

The Soulgain flares to life, brilliant light exploding into the air, a flash of blue-white energy erupting up into the heavens. Then, the machine swings around both arm blades, doing a rapid set of slashes, each crackling with electricity. It ends with a sudden kick, aimed at sending the M9E flying backward. The Soulgain flies forward, after it.

It launches a mighty uppercut at the M9E's chin -- and then flies up, over it, and swings both hands down.

"CODE..."

Blue lightning explodes off the machine, hurtles down, and scores shocking blasts across the ground, whipping across the floor plates. Then, a solid beam of energy erupts, firing down at the top of the M9E.

"KIRIN!"

<Pose Tracker> Tarazu [N] has posed. There is a flash of red in the corner of Tarazu's display. Lagann vaults into view, landing on top of Huang's machine--the mini-gunman is here, he thinks, maybe they have a chance of winning now! Cautious hope turns into amazement as green light fills his monitors, and a new machine emerges from the display of Spiral Power.

It's on your side this time, Tarazu reminds himself, as he looks down and notices that he's shaking.

This hesitation means he misses a perfectly good opportunity to try and shoot Wodan, but on the other hand, it means Wodan's not trying to kill him yet. In a rare moment of caution, the Gespenst boosts back out of the way just long enough for its pilot to regroup--and then it charges back in, the echoes of its heavy footfalls lost in the din. The Rune Breaker comes at the Thrudgelmir from another angle, the massive two-handed blade bursting into flame mere seconds before impact

"I SAID!" Tarazu cries, in what is either a misguided attempt to take heat off Huang and Simon or a desperate grab for attention, "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

<Pose Tracker> Melissa Mao [K] has posed. Between the two of them, the big red monster's taking a beating - when it growls, Mao just grins cruelly. Should have brought some bigger toys if you wanted to play with the big girls. "What, and let you have all the fun, Ansuz-chan? Not a chance!"

But before she can make further plans toward the final elimination of the Amenthes, Ascian's plans come to fruition - as does the giant energy cannon that forms. It's familiar - just a little too familiar; she's seen that same shape before. The monstrous beam cannon erupts forth in scarlet fury - right as Mao sees where it's aimed at.

"TESSA!"

And she doesn't even make it to her commander's side before that blast engulfs them both. "You son of a bitch, you tried...to kill her. Not just her, but EVERYONE! ALL OF HUMANITY IS HERE, DON'T YOU CARE?!" Screaming with rage, Mao charges forth with the Gernsback - one side glowing and burned, the arm fused in the flow of molten steel. The other side, however, brandishes the massive monomolecular sword.

"You don't deserve to /exist/ for that!" And the Gernsback launches itself once more at the Amenethes, seeking retribution not for herself, not for her commander, but for all of mankind stored within the Cradle.

<Pose Tracker> Theresa Testarossa [K] has posed. Tessa is doing her level best, but the Amenthes is a powerful machine, and Regina....is also basically amazing, admittedly, but Tessa is only a 'very good' pilot, rather than especially exceptional.

The point is that she sees what he's doing. "Buster Rifle--!?" she stammers, alarmed, but there's not much she can do. "Activating--" DANA chimes. "NO!!" Tessa yells back, and jerks to the side - and the evasion saves her life, the blast searing off boat loads of armor and thermal shock starting to damage her systems. Her dreams of going toe-to-toe with the Thrudgelmir after this seem to go up in smoke, particularly after she catches Cagalli fleeing. "Cagalli!!" she yelps back. "We can't--" Do this...without you...

She casts her eyes down. Fine. She's still got Melissa. She sucks her teeth, panic racing through her.

"Fine," she says aloud, gripping the control levers tightly. The Regina's binders both fall into place, the unit falling to the floor, blinding light shining at the barrels of both guns.

The voice comes to Ascian's cockpit - garbled by voice changer. "I," Ansuz says, neutrally, "have killed a lot more than this. Goodbye."

The whole zone disappears into light, twin screaming bolts blackening the armor as it rampages to blast Amenthes to scrap - or at least force it to withdraw.

<Pose Tracker> Alex Corser [U] has posed. Alex plants his sword straight through the body of Thrudgelmir. The Colossal Blade sinks into the shoulder, halting when he runs out of momentum. Alex's hands are thrust out ahead of him in the cockpit, the feedback of the control mechanism making it feel like he's holding the weapon. He can almost feel the weight of it -- but that isn't important. Why didn't he defend himself?

Oh. That's why.

Daizengar's chest plate is suddenly riddled with horizontal gashes. It twists and turns with each hit, but it doesn't back off, not until the upward slash suddenly launches it into the air. It sails backwards with the grace of an airborne whale, crashing down right on its ass and skidding a short distance across the wide-open floor. Alex's ears ring from the cacophonous and thorough thrashing he just took, but the damage readout says it isn't as bad as it could be. He mentally thanks whoever designed this thing for the extra armor plating.

Alex (and Daizengar) climbs to his feet. The machine lifts its sword again, striking a ready position that, while not particularly threatening, is actually spot-on for the style. He's had plenty of practice taking up /that/ stance in the last few weeks. Alex glances at the mighty (wooden) sword (stick) Not Sanger, still resting off to the side in what looks like a slot explicitly for holding someone's sword while in this thing. He's got to get better, and fast, or this will be a short fight

"No," Alex says, his voice coming clear over the Daizengar's external speakers, "I'm not Sanger Zonvolt. He's out sick." He adjusts his grip on the sword, finding a position that feels somehow more natural. Without really noticing, the Daizengar shifts its footing. He glances at the gold machine that goes peeling off, wincing sympathetically. "My name is Alex Corser. This is the Daizengar. And I'm --"

Wodan launches himself into a spin. Thrudgelmir rotates three hundred and sixty degrees, sweeping the huge sword around and down at Daizengar in a ridiculously overwrought strike. If it weren't for the fact that Alex is fairly certain this one swing could kill him outright, he'd call it a ludicrous move, and one that leaves him wide open to counterattack. The sword comes down...

CLANNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!

The Zankantou intersects the path of the Sword of Magus' Colossal Blade, catching the spinning weapon at the perfect angle of deflection. He pushes with a moderate amount of force, foot sliding across the ground, trying to adjust his suddenly unbalanced stance and disengage. That was a /ridiculous/ swing. He ducks, letting Thrudgelmir move past him, the blades moving past one another. Daizengar ducks and turns, coming around with another brutal slash, all strength and no finesse but with plenty of forward momentum.

"--the /test pilot/!"

Dimly, Alex registers that he is now probably going to die. He isn't terribly genre savvy.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "I'm out of energy and my coolant's bottoming out. Pulling back with Packard's mobile suit."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Vindel Mauser transmits, "Very well then. Rally at the hangers, make what repairs you can, and hold them at all costs."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "I'm sealing off what portions of the base aren't already being breached, it should at least slow 'em down. I'll need some more time to pull the memory core in case they get past."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Good job, keep at it."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Enemy Wildfalken is retreating as well."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Gosh... how boring."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "He's all talk..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane siiiiigh. "Well, maybe I can still have some fun~!"

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. The DGG unit's assault is not something to be underestimated - Vindel takes a pounding from it as Ratsel smashes him again and again, the Zweizergain's armor cracking under the force of the assault. Spikes are snapped off and sent spinning away, chunks of armor are torn off and launched across the room, and still the machine does not fall. And as Ratsel backs off, the Colonel smiles... and laughs. "That?" he asks as Ratsel points at Wodan?

"That is nothing more than a doll, created in the image of a warrior. To call it a sword would mean that it obeys its purpose and fights as it is wielded. As it stands, it is a puppet that dreams that it might one day become a man." His scorn is evident - these dolls of Lemon's have become unruly and unreliable. Ever since W17 had turned against them, the rest had been... suspect. Certainly they were not trusted as they once had been now that it had been proven that they were more than devices that would obey their creators' orders.

"And now I shall show you what dedication to war can bring to you - the power to surpass the Asura itself! LIMITER RELEASE!" With those two words, the Zweizergain suddenly blazes with energy, all of the crystals mounted on its body glowing red as a blazing aura of red energy erupts around the dark machine. And all across the frame of the machine, the blue color is washed away until the entire machine appears to be a reddish gold in color.

Vindel Mauser was, after all, a Gundam Fighter. And the greatest fighters knew how to tap into their emotions and unleash the Super Mode that Domon had revealed several years ago.

"Code Kirin - MAXIMUM DRIVE!" the Colonel roars, and with a massive explosion that sweeps across the room copies of his machine erupt out in all directions, hundreds in all. Grunts are thrown in all directions at their appearance, but each one slams into a wall and kicks off, all of them streaking back in towards the Aussenseiter. One after another, a continuous train of pain crashing down towards Ratsel. A thousand blows in one instant...

<Pose Tracker> James Heller [D] has posed. James Heller is making good use of his remotes, the other mech, with the power of its TSM is fast enough to actually react quicker than james. The 100 tones of warmachine is just able to hit him and rip into his machine. The damage is bad, James is shocked but he's not done yet. "So you got me not bad, not bad at all!" A challenge that was rare for him.

he watches as the Colonel breaks out the big bad attacks on the former DC personel. He can't help but smirk a little bit at that but he's got his own fight. His beam machine gun comes into play once more as he fires a burst of energy at the other machine, as he tries to keep out of melee range with the mech.

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. Oliver is frankly starting to get a bit indignant. It does happen. "/Madam,/ I am not sure what it is that is so unimpressive. I have been fighting to the best of my goodness what are you doing--"

His robot is /engulfed/ by the other, surrounded by a suffocating, crushing darkness that drives deep dents into the SUMO. It buckles under the weight, and Oliver winces as parts of the cockpit start to buckle in against him. It's tight enough in that cockpit as it is, to be frank. "I--I am not.../boring./ Maybe not flashy, maybe I am a bit reserved, but there's more to being flashy!" Is he really just being defensive at this point? Cynthia might have poked some holes in his ego. "I am..."

SUMO grasps at the robot around it, starting to tear apart in opposite directions in an attempt to simply tear its way out through sheer force. "SIMPLY..."

If he manages to tear out, he bursts out quite violently, pushing the Dominator away by forming a focused I-Field forcefield. "VERY..."

He adds more force to the I-Field, stepping back as he tears his way free, voice raised for the one time in about six months it is ever, ever raised.

"POLITE! NOBODY VALUES POLITENESS ANYMORE!"

"Um, if that's alright."

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. Echidna continues to circle.

She is now mostly giving commands to the remaining W-Series. There aren't many; a lot of them were put in the front ranks of the anti-Federation defense, and are now dead or in crippled machines. The second wave is incoming now. They barely need organization; they swarm like bees, or possibly like Zerg.

The glow in the barrel of the nose cannon of the Jamru Fin is really getting quite bright. Echidna attempts to lock onto Huang/Simon's bizarre machine, but the large missiles are still getting confused; she uses the smaller ones instead, hoping that stray fire does not accidentally enrage Wodan any more than he has already been enraged.

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. The Renshou-Lagann rushes in at Thrudgelmir as it recovers from its swing, palm full of flames; the recovering Wodan whips the sword around an instant after the blow smashes into his machine's side, but it's able to dance away, leaving a swirling patch of Spiral flame on the side of Thrudgelmir. Thanks to the efforts of the machine cells, it isn't spreading... but it's definitely left a soft spot, as armor constantly regrows and then burns away.

Tarazu comes buzzing in afterwards, as small to Thrudgelmir as a regular-ass bird is to Wodan; he swings his flaming sword, and it, too, bites into Thrudgelmir's armor. Unlike the Spiral fire, however, the brief patch of flame (and rended armor) left by the blow vanishes quickly, overwhelmed by the machine cells. It's the only strike Tarazu can get in before he's forced backwards by more whipping of Thrudgelmir's enormous sword.

And then comes Alex, swinging Daizengar's Zankantou; once again it bites into Thrudgelmir's side, but this time, it seems, Alex is prepared for the counterattack when the vicious upwards swing comes.

"Such dishonorable tactics," Wodan sneers; Thrudgelmir, its blade still lifted above its head from its swing at Alex, shifts its grip on its sword and turns sharply, slamming the enormous weapon down at the Renshou-Lagann hard enough to make the entire floor of the main foyer shake as if in an earthquake when it strikes the floor.

Its blade embedded in the ground - whether it went through Huang and Simon to get there or not - Thrudgelmir suddenly releases its weapon, turns to Daizengar, and lunges, hands outstretched. If they want to make this a street fight, Wodan will oblige.

Which he does, it seems, by spinning up the drill on his forehead, and then smashing Thrudgelmir's face at Daizengar's over and over and over and over and over.

And over.

<Pose Tracker> Ascian Luddite [D] has posed. The beam is as bright as day, the red blaze overwhelming the position he'd aimed at, following the Regnia's trail. But when Melissa speaks, the beam falters. The glow of the Amenthes draws to a far slower one, and a series of small explisions near its 'rifle arms' seperate the two and let pieces of metal be cast down upon the ground. Within the cockpit, Ascian is panting, feeling the strain this is putting on Amenthes. He'd just wasted all of her energy and resources on that one attack. But those voices confirm one thing before the smoke is even gone. They're still alive!

Ascian lowers his head a little and lets his hair fall a bit before his eyes, while those voices try to speak to him. All they hear in return however, is a chuckle... a laughter that seems a bit unnatural. <"Humanity is safe. There is far more defenses in this grande fortress than even my Amenthes can penetrate... don't you worry."> He then breathes in slowly, and then out again. <"Amenthes won't let them die. Nor will she let them fall to your greedy hands. It's just like your collegue said. You guys have killed /far more/ people."> The arms of the Amenthes then suddenly shift into a set of blades, while Ascian lets a video be transmitted of him in the seat.

"Will this help perhaps? See before you - I am part of Humanity too. Maybe that will see you see what you've been busy killing. Young men and women like me - who are simply trying to do the right thing. It's hard to see when there's just some metal between us, isn't it?" He's talking more to Tessa than Melissa it would seem. "It is Humanity you seek to protect, by destroying Humanity. You fight in this place, knowing that a mis-step could easily destroy all you are working towards." His video then flickers, as the blue haired young man seems to be joined by a red apparation. Or is that just a glitch in the transfer of video? The video cuts out again.

The Amenthes then suddenly slams down to the ground onto its pointy feet and skates right forwards along the ground, its wings realigning before the machine jumps up straight towards Melissa's charge and rams its blade flat across the dagger - trying to dislodge it along with the Gernsback's entire arm if it /can/. Then again, Ascian's voice, <"If you seek to protect the other one - they who you protect so fiercely. Then why bring her into battle? Of course she will be killed! DO NOT TAKE UP A WEAPON IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO DIE! THAT GOES THE SAME FOR YOUR ALLIES!">

The machine then swings around like a ballerina and cuts its two bladed arms up along the torso of the M-9 before it ducks down and spins over the two beams that Tessa manages to let off at the unit, then ducks down to the ground again and fires a rapid series of bullets from the tip of one arm-blade towards Melissa's unit again, then speeds forwards to the Regina and lets both blades form to hands again, and draws them back behind the machine. Suddenly a massive blaze of energy forms within their palms, which are then thrown straight at Tessa's machine. <"LEAVE THIS PLACE AT ONCE!">

<Pose Tracker> Adam Steiner [N] has posed. Yet more beam fire rattles against Adam's mech, but he ignores it. There isn't much else he can do, anyway. Instead, he goes all-out offense. All he needs is to get one good, solid strike, he figures, so the best thing to do is keep hammering as fast as he can and hope one of the attacks sticks.

The Berserker lunges forward, sword held back a bit as it does. Actually pinning down which mech is the command-mech in a unit like this is always a bit tricky, but there are little hints you can get in formation and how things react that suggest heavily who is calling the shots, and Adam has been watching carefully.

So he picks the mech he figures for the command mech and throws his Berserker at it, charging quickly with the sword held back. When he gets close, the sword is thrust forward as the mech itself skids to a stop, transferring as much of the charging momentum as he can into the single powerful sword-strike. The strike itself is aimed at the center of the Ashsaber, right at the hip actuator. If the strike hits perfectly, there's a good chance Adam could tear the mech right in half with one blow.

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. "I will." Simon says. He closes his eyes and focuses. He's going to fuel Huang Qin Shi with as much spiral pwoer as he can muster. He'll be the battery if Huang fights. It might not be the most efficient f battleplans, sacrificing Gurren Lagann for Renshou Lagann, but there's more to fighting than just victory. He's not about to sacrifice huang fo, okay, what might be the coolest evil lair ever.

Upon opening his eyes again, he observes the fight. He might not be controlling much at the moment, but he observes the effect of the spiral flame on Wodan.

"Huang..." He says. "Spiral fire--I'm not sure he can regenerate that, at least it's not as effective."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "The last enemy ace looks to be pulling out."

<Pose Tracker> Cynthia Lane [D] has posed. Humming, happily, it seems as if Cynthia almost ignores Oliver's plight, taking time to not pay attention to his indignance. "Huh? Oh... sorry about that! I thought that'd have taken care of you~!"

"Kind of impressive you haven't let me win yet. But I guess that's going to be over soo-huh?" The I-Field about the SUMO pushing, expanding the Dominator like a balloon around it. It seems to almost absorb it though. The Dominator stretches about the I-Field, stretching, STRETCHING!

"Wow, that's pretty cool!" Even if it is done to /her/ machine. "... And this is a game. Why would I bother being polite. It's not like I'd ever have to meet you in person!" It's obvious to her, "So just toughen up!"

With such wise words, the Dominator, stretched about the I-Field and the SUMO, parts of it ripped away and thrown about, seems to simply be growing. It doesn't seem to be giving up! Or giving in.

"It's okay!" Cynthia responds, "But ... I'm done playing with you right now, so I'm going to end it now, too!"

"'Kay?"

Growing from all sides, hands expand, shooting towards the I-Field and SUMO, slamming their palms against it. Hand after hand shoots from the stretched Dominator, slamming against the field and the SUMO, attempting to deactivate both! They just keep coming!

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. Meiya remebers the Code Kirin, she been on the receiving end of both the Soulgains and Zweizergain's. She turns to face Axel, both hands held tightly on the Gernsback's sword. "Somehow, I think that when I talk, you hear a different thing entirely." she steels herself, and it's evident in the ARM Slave's posture. "I guess I can't ask you to think too hard, can I?" she says quietly. "Fine then..."

"I'll just do it by BEATING THE URGE TO THINK INTO YOU!"

The Soulgain comes in, its kick is launched at Meiya and her Gernsback, the sword sweeps the kick aside, but hte uppercut forces MEiya to lean hard ot the side to let it go flying past, killing her chance at an immediate counter attack.

Soulgain shoots upwards and MEiya looks up to follow it. The more time she spends in hte M9, the more it feels like controlling her own body. The blast of lightening comes down and the M9 leaps upwards, flipping over at it's apex to land again, letting hte lightening blast strike where she once stood, leaving a scorching crater in the metal floor.

The arm of the Gernsback lifts up and fires a wire-grappling that wraps around the steel girders in the cieling. The line retracts, pulling the M9 up at lightening speed. It's free arm pulls back, as it comes zooming in for the Soulgain, the arm hammers forward, the heel of the hand turned up to try and strike the Soulgain under the chin with jackhammer like force!

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Hnh... I'm seeing machines pulling out on our side. Is there a retreat order out?"

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. "What the--SHIT!"

Axel sees the M9 come in. He does a hard roundhouse, the kick smashing into the Gernsback as it flies in, and sends it back -- and then the M9 comes flying bac in. The hand slams under the Soulgain's chin, knocking it back. The huge super robot goes flying high into the air. It smashes into the Cradle's ceiling and cracks. It comes falling down, energy trailing after.

It hits the ground, hard, but kneeling. The shockwave buckles plate after plate. The machine rises, slowly, and then bounds off.

"We're done, here," Mitsurugi. "You might beat me--but as long as we have the Colonel, we'll never fall!"

<Pose Tracker> Ratsel Feinschmecker [U] has posed. "A doll?" Ratsel asks, glancing at the Thrudgelmir. The monster. The colossus that is tearing through the offensive, indomidable and apparantly invincible. "Hrm," he replies, his voice thoughtful for a brief moment. "Yes. Yes, I see. A Pinnochio." A doll that dreams of being a man, "But what is a man but a puppet of the soul? But I digress--"

And then, the light of a warrior's heart, set alight by the conflagration of war.

The time for discourse has come to an end.

Like a breeze, the Aussenseiter puts itself into reverse, dashing at velocities that would drive lesser men to the brink of unconsciousness. His foe is legion. One machine, one man, but an army wrapped in the flesh of a single body. Skill, strength, cunning, all honed to a killing edge.

But it is flawed. The might of a one-man army is being brought to bare against that which lives to cleave the legions of the stars themselves.

The Aussenseiter suddenly whirls about, leaping into the air as the first strike connects where it once was. The second blow approaches, it uses the clone as a platform to redirect its momentum. Again and again, it weaves and ducks and evades, knocking innumerable strikes away, until finally, they have all gathered- They all surround the Aussenseiter, ready to land the final blow.

Perfect.

It reaches around its back, taking hold of its cloak to hurl at the legion. The cloak flutters for a brief moment, before a bullet races through the fabric. Another, another, a storm- a nova of rounds and a flurry of blades, an ebony tornado. Each Zweizergain rises to strike, each recieves a red-hot bullet, then another. For each copy, there are three shots, for each body, there are three blows. One by one, the army is felled, each copy vanishing into the void from whence they came, until finally, there is only one--

The Aussenseiter raises its rifles to the final unit- the true one, and Ratsel Feinschmecker speaks, but does not pull the trigger. Not yet. Why? "It seems that the strength born from war is no greater than that which was nurtured in love, Colonel Vindel Mauser. Perhaps someday, you will understand. But--"

Ratsel jerks his head at the Thrudgelmir, Aussenseiter mirroring his motion, "I believe that we may have to cut our duel short here."

<Pose Tracker> Theresa Testarossa [K] has posed. Tessa stares, blankly, as Ascian helpfully presents his face. Tessa stares quietly.

"Is that it?" Ansuz asks - a patient, extremely neutral tone. Ascian /dodges/ the shot attack, and now Tessa's getting frankly kind of irritated. They need to end this. They need to END this. Now. Right now!

He comes at her, but the Regina is a powerful machine. He skates toward her and fires those blasts---!

Regina's binder cannons rise upward, firing a pair of heavy bolts into the oncoming beams, mutually annihilating. In the aftermath, Tessa reaches for the beam fans again, snapping them shot - and rather than turn off, the beams narrow to a needle point, like sabers, and the Regina charges at Amenthes, sinking one blade toward its midsection, and another slashing vertically down, then the binder thrusters fire again, giving her the momentum to whirl over the Amenthes and drive both swords into its skull!

"Resolution is necessary to change the world. Do you think your screaming is somehow going to change that?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Who is pulling out?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Vindel Mauser transmits, "Given the extent of the breach, we are withdrawing our critical personnel for the time being. We will not cede the base, but the enemy is already inside our defenses - we must not take any chances with our critical people or resources."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan growls. "Damn it...."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "In case of extreme emergency, please place detonation charges on the remaining Metatron reserves on base."

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. Huang Qin Shi backs away swiftly as the Spiral Fire spreads along the surface of the Thrugdelmir and then stops, the flame fighting against the machine's natural regenerative capabilities. "Understood," he tells his copilot (not god, the other one). Huang's shoulders stiffen. Even with the Digger powering his fighting, he's still not sure if he can actually break through the Thrugdelmir's armour. Not without...Echidna's missiles slam into the back of the Renshou-Lagann, and he whips his head around to glare angrily at her. There's verisimilitude and then there's trying to get him killed. Huang shakes his head. "Simon," he says. "I'm going to try something. I'm not sure what's going to happen. If I pass out...take over. Do what you need to do to finish the job."

He sucks in a deep breath and leaps back away from the stabbing Zankantou, turning a tight flip and landing on the floor. He lets the breath out slowly, emptying himself of pointless thought, of diversions. He has no idea what is going to happen here. But against an opponent like this, he can't leave anything in the tank. The Direct Motion Link System Huang Qin Shi used at the core of his Dynamic General Fighter is like a mobile trace suit, but with the nasty nervous feedback turned off. The result is performance and output that approaches, but does not quite match, that of a true Gundam Fighter.

Huang has no idea what happens when you turn on the nervous linkages to a machine with Spiral power and molten mercury for blood. If he did, he wouldn't try to find out.

"Limit--AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" he screams, and then keeps on screaming as his mind starts to fracture. He can /feel/ the fire flowing through his joints, /feel/ the energy flowing through Simon and into him, the unbridled fountain of it. It doesn't stop, part of him thinks as the rest carries on with screaming. It keeps going, forever and ever. What the hell is this young man made of? How can he contain this all? The Renshou-Lagann stiffens and then shakes, greenish-white plasma venting out from the Spiral Fighter's joints, its eyes, its mouths. It writhes with the energy, pulsates with it, almost seeming as though it is going to burst from it if it cannot vent the pressure. It needs to release---

"REEEEEEEEEELEAAAAAAAAAAASE!" the Hand of Hausen screams, green flame pouring from his empty socket. The man (the machine) (the boy) dashes forward in a fluid, lazy sprint, leaping into the air on a plume of Spiral fire. He turns his body to the right and then begins to spin, the Renshou-Lagann's thrusters blazing outward, accelerating it toward the Thrugdelmir's back, even as its legs twine together into a blazing verdant drill.

He can feel that too.

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. Ridiculous. But it was clear that Elzam was as good as his reputation - Vindel is not able to break through and land even a single hit. A formidable warrior indeed, although it appears that he is more worried about Wodan and his rampage at this point. That was fine by the Colonel. There were two choices here - stand and fight, possibly until the end. Hope that Wondan would carry the day and that they could repel the EFA from the Earth Cradle. Or play it safe - fall back, establish a new base, and return once they had rebuilt their forces to retake this facility.

For Vindel, it was an obvious choice.

"Hmph. We shall see - regardless this battle is far from over. If you think that you can contend with the thrashing of a doll who's strings have been cut, then I wish you luck. I will ensure that we are prepared for the next battle no matter what it takes."

The Zweizergain has taken a beating, but the greatest part of its armor is designed to protect the core of the unit - the mysterious device known as System XN that had been provided by the man known to the Shadow Mirrors as Helios. It was the one invention that gave the Shadow Mirrors their unprecedented response time and tactical flexibility. As long as they could teleport about the Earth Sphere and beyond at will, the Shadow Mirrors would be a force to be reckoned with. And so retreat was the logical option - the only real choice Vindel had seen. This world had potential - the fighting strength that it possessed would help Vindel to return and crush Charles zi Britannia, and then to retake their world...

The Zweizergain begins to glow once more, flickers of energy washing across the area as Vindel powers up System XN for a long range teleport. "We will be withdrawing to conduct repairs and reorganize - Shadow Mirrors, prepare for jump! We will return to the fight as soon as we have reequipped and rearmed!"

High above, two transport ships finish loading the last of their cargo - the Neverland and Ganland are dedicated transports that Vindel brought to this world along with his personnel. The Neverland maneuvers to a point in the docking bay above where the Zweizergain is fighting deep below - the Ganland begins to taxi around and heads for a launch ramp, several Ashsaber's escorting it and preparing to make a break out of the facility.

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. Echidna recieves orders. She reacts and responds, putting herself in a better position. She is now - she thinks - capable of achieving her primary goal for the attack - a goal ordered by nobody, requested by no officer, given to her by nothing but her own mind.

And yet, for an instant, she stops herself from doing it. It's dangerous, part of her thinks. Worse, it's illogical. It's unnecessary. If you do not do this, she thinks, someone else will. Except nobody else here has her timing, her mechanical precision, or quite the same opportunity. He will expect it from most people.

He will not expect it from her.

It only takes her a few milliseconds more for her to make up her mind. She must do it now. If she does not do it now, she will never be able to go through with it. The opportunity is here - but more, if she convinces herself not to, she would be nothing more than the loyal doll Vindel wants. But worse: dreaming of something better, but never willing to take it.

In that moment, Echidna decides.

Echidna stretches her time sense and how she interacts with her body, something she rarely feels the need to do; her body screams at her, because running her brain in this method for long periods of time is highly strenuous if she also moves while she's doing it, as she is now. Her fingers dance across the controls. Echidna throttles her physical movements to not damage her joints, but still moves faster than any human. She didn't need to speed herself up to do this.

She needed to do it to watch Vindel Mauser. She does nothing, at first, as he prepares to jump; nothing, then, as the engine starts to engage. She stretches even further. She can hear her artificial heart, a slow thump that goes off about once every relative twenty seconds or so. Her timing must be millisecond perfect. She only gets one shot.

The time comes.

Echidna fires the Mega Launcher at full power, strong enough to take out a small battleship. The giant yellow blast thunders in the enclosed space; if there was a shockwave before, this one causes what sounds like an explosion, a colossal roar that - for an instant at least - even makes Thrudgelmir seem quiet. She vapourizes that wanzer constructor she threw before.

The beam is aimed directly at Zweizergain, just as it starts to vanish - aimed to impact while he cannot move because he is teleporting, but before he actually teleports away. There's about a five millisecond gap there where it is vulnerable. Echidna has timed herself to hit it.

It was the only way, she tells herself. Every other route led to her eventual deactivation, soon or late, as a failure. Either by Code ATA - her frame burning, exploding, melting before she finally shut down, probably in immense pain, unable to stop her own body from killing her - or having her mind reset in a lab, which would be gentler but just as final. She could not accept that. It frightened her as nothing else did.

"I am sorry," Echidna says, into the sudden silence that comes after every firing of an ultraheavy weapon. Moments later, she accelerates, slamming the controls forward; the Jamru Fin slams her back hard enough to make human piloting difficult as she dives, tearing toward the Federation lines.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Vindel Mauser transmits, "I am preparing a long distance jump to one of our backup bases. We will gather additional forces and deploy enough W-Series in our machines to return as soon as we have made basic repairs and hit the enemy from behin-"

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. "It...is not a /game,/" Oliver tries to explain, his bi-annual supply of hot blood having apparently been exhausted. He mostly sounds tired and upset. "If you treat it like one, it'll just make it easier for you to kill people. Sometimes you have to kill your opponent, but it should never be easy..." There's a reason he's sounding so pained and exhausted. The I-Field is pushing against all of those hands, and the sheer effort needed to maintain it is draining him more than the rest of the battle did. He heard that Captain Harry had a custom machine with an I-Field powered entirely by the Captain himself. He can't imagine that, knowing how much this is taxing him, the machine punching and pushing against all of those hands...

And finally one breaks through, smashing into the robot; more follow in succession as the I-Field collapses, leaving the SUMO a smoldering wreck. The pilot inside is alive, but weary, heavily bruised and bleeding from the crumpling cockpit.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "COLONEL!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "That was /way/ too easy - wha?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "What happened?"

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

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. Meiya's M9E releases it's wire linea nd drops to the ground in a three point stance. It slowly rises to its full standing height. Meiya turns to face the Soulgain as Axel speaks about Vindel. She frowns.

he M9E gets down onit's hands and knees. The hatch behind it's neck opening and MEiya stands out of it in the ARM Slave pilot suit, that is in mostways, much more modest then her TSF flight suit, but in someways worse. At least the TSF flightsuit just leaves nothing to the imagination, these ARM Slave suits /fires up/ the imaginatin, but she's used to the humilation of wearing suits designed by thirteen year old boys with no girlfriends.

She puts one foot outside the hatch, leaning against her knee. Maybe her confidence is so fragile any more.

"Then the Colonel will fall."

<Pose Tracker> Melissa Mao [K] has posed. Within the Gernsback, Mao blinks as the monitor flickers to life and shows the other man's face. So, this is the visage of her enemy. And boy howdy can he give a speech, or something. Sweat drips from her brow as she gives the monitor a hungry stare.

"You accuse us of destroying humanity when you use weapons such as that?! Or that monstrous Thrudgelmir, all to hold a peaceful bastion of mankind hostage for your own ends?! Judge yourself before you judge others!" And the Gernsback ducks down below the spray of bullets, kicking upwards as it leaps past. The satisfying clang of impact might just be enough to dislodge its aim against Tessa, as Mao cues her own video monitor.

"I've got news for you. I AM prepared to die. I'm just not GOING TO, and NEITHER IS SHE!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "So, who needs help?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Tssk... DAMNIT."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "C'mon, I'm sure you have a picture or something!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Picture?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Of what beat you!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "The M-9 and the... other unit in front of me."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Ohhh, that other unit..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits a 3D projection of Tessa's unit.

<Pose Tracker> Alex Corser [U] has posed. If nothing else, Alex is excellent at adapting to being stabbed to death.

The Zankantou flips, pointed downward at a sharp angle. Again the two mighty blades clash, a ring of steel of a closer approximation to thunder on the scale it's at. Daizengar's strength is Alex's strength, and with it, he contemptuously deflects the undoubtably deadly blow. Sanger will be proud -- unless he brings back his robot in pieces, that is.

Daizengar steps back, swinging the sword back up to a guard position. He barely waits; he wades in again, moving up as Wodan charges at the drill-using robot. He offers the other guys a quick look, looking between the swift, small machine and the glowing drill-laden one, and then he exhales a sudden kiai shout: "HOH!"

Which turns into a: "Huh?"

WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM. WHAM.

Daizengar's face gets utterly wrecked, because that is one god damn ridiculous drill. It resembles Huang's, in a way; one side of it is completely mangled, a twisted mass of metal and sparking circuitry. Alex's monitors quickly go fuzzy, barely able to tell friend from foe. He turns frantically, trying to figure out what the hell he should be doing right n--

There's a deafening shriek of a high-energy weapon going off. Someone gets hit, and it isn't Ratsel. Alex, assuming that Wodan will be as distracted as everyone else on that side of the fence, takes this opportunity to make a sincere attempt to just slice Thrudgelmir's head right the hell off.

"No honor in getting killed in a random melee," Alex mutters viciously.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Two of them too? No problem!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Leave them be, Lane."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "... What?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Right now - take out the traitor!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Oh! - Oh."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Someone /turned/?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Wodan Ymir transmits, "Merely a broken doll. I will destroy her, in time."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "There's a simple way to deal with them."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> A mechanical voice (that sounds suspiciously like a very bored Gilliam Yeager) states: "Warning, Dimensional Catastrophe Imminent."

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. The Zweizergain is smote from behind, a second Judas of Lemon's creation turning on the leader of the Shadow Mirrors. The beam blasts a hole straight through the blue and black machine, and Vindel staggers at the blow. "...what!?! How dare you, you miserable doll!" he roars, already trying to turn his machine so he can reduce Echidna to ash with a single transmission of the ATA Code. None of them could be trusted - it was clear now that he had made a mistake in allowing Lemon to build these things...

And then a warning tone goes off, and Vindel's eyes snap around, widening in fear as he recognizes the alert. He had only heard it once before, several years ago...

Back behind the lines of the Katharon assault, a very bored Rakshata looks over the scanners that are mounted on her transport. She takes another drag on her cigarette, tapping off a bit of ash from the end before her screens go red as well. The cigarette clatters to the floor, and she grabs the radio and begins speaking into it frantically...

Bolts of red lightning arc from the Zweizergain in all directions, and it looks like the machine is distorting, space around it no longer transmitting light in quite the way it had before. It is a phenomena that is known to every Shadow Mirror, and those who had come from the other world. After all, they had seen it during the disastrous teleportation that had consumed the Gate that had brought the Shadow Mirrors and all of their assorted foes from Britannia to this world. "Damn you all! This... is not the end..." Vindel states, trying to gain some measure of control over what he knows is about to happen. "No matter what you might think... my dream will not end here... not... like... THIIIIS!"

There is a twisting, stomach wrenching sensation... and the Zweizergain vanishes into an expanding black sphere as System XN overloads.

And then the ceiling is torn apart, sucked into the black void along with a few nearby Ashsabers. And with a loud crack, the hanger floor gives way, the Neverland topping backwards into the expanding black sphere and vanishing from sight as it too is lost into the black void.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Ohhhhh fuck."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "That... that's bad, right?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Tch...!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "... Oh /come on/."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "I wonder... if I can knock of those two into it and see what it does!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Okay. Ascian. Scale of one to ten, right?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "'Yes.'"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Oh."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Damnit Flynn..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "I hate it when you say Yes."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Yeah, I know. Look, just /get away from it/, whatever it is!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Rakshata suddenly jumps on the radio, speaking very quickly, "There's something happening in the Earth Cradle... the readings are exactly the same as the event that brought us here!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Melissa Mao transmits, "the hell is that...TESSA, MOOOOOOOOOOVE!"

<Pose Tracker> Ratsel Feinschmecker [U] has posed. What he sees is... It is Betrayal? No. The Zweizergein survives but-- What is that. That in the sky. "Colonel--" Ratsel mouths as the Aussenseiter is knocked away, skating back up the walls of the elevator shaft. "Damnit. You were a good soldier. You could have--" Reality breaks. Ratsel's heart skips a beat as the sky itself opens up and swallows the ceiling. "What is /HAPPENING?/ Damn. Corser!"

The Aussenseiter turns toward its mobile base, fully intent on /getting the Hell out of dodge./ "Back to the ship, now! We need to assess this situation and retreat before we're sucked into wherever THAT THING will take us!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Get clear NOW!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Everyone out!" Melissa Mao (mao) pages Theresa Testarossa and Ascian Luddite: yeah do it. it'll let mao give ascian the stinkeye for it <Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "I'm on the /opposite side of the base/, how bad is this gonna get?!" <Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Does the word diemsnional cascade mean anything to you?" <Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Yes, everything but a blast radius that isn't /infinite/." <Pose Tracker> Tarazu [N] has posed.

The Rune Breaker recovers with inhuman speed, its blazing sword whipping back into a guarding stance to protect itself from reprisal. As Wodan's blade comes rushing in, Tarazu wonders if it will be enough.

It is--barely. A loud /clang/ echoes through the cavern as the Agni Blade catches the enemy weapon, and servos in the Gespenst's hands and arms shriek in protest. The force of the impact sends Tarazu stumbling back several steps, and out of range again. But that doesn't matter. He stopped that blade.

The Renshou-Lagann keeps up the assault. Tarazu doesn't feel nearly as worried about it now, for fairly obvious reasons. Instead, something else draws his attention--namely, the fact that Echidna Iisaki shot her boss in the back. That's more than he ever did to rebel against his old masters.

As all hell breaks loose, Tarazu manages to keep composure, boosts back out of Wodan's range, and starts trying to flag down Echidna /while/ sprinting for the exit. "Iisaki!" he transmits, "I still owe you for the Moon base! Allow me to return the favor!" It's kind of tough to keep the potshots off a flying unit while you're in a ground unit, but he's /trying/.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Oh, nifty~."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "I don't know how wild this is going to go. Get out of the cradel and I'd not stop. It consumed an entire large island the last time."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Shit, shit, shit, shit--"

<Pose Tracker> Axel Almer [D] has posed. Axel stares up at the Zweizergain. His eyes reflect the blast of black energy, as it erupts through the air, and the blast bowls his machine over. It knocks it to the ground, lightning crackling off it, as he takes deep breaths. He stares at where the Zweizergain was -- at where his commander stood, not a moment before. Now, he is gone. He looks up at Echidna's machine.

James Heller's voice echoes in his ear. He knows what he has to do -- he reaches a hand out, slowly, and flips open his console. Memories hit him like a sack of bricks.

He remembers Echidna pulling him into her cockpit, saving him from the frozen hell of Siberia. He remembers her showing him kindness, even when he thought of her as nothing but a doll. He remembers all of this.

A sob starts to form in his throat -- and through pure will, he chokes it down, his body shaking.

"I can't," he whispers to himself. Then, he slams a fist down, furiously against his console, before he opens a line. "Heller--the comm system's damaged. It... wouldn't go through."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "It's--it's not going to go out of control."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "It's not?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "Wh...this event i---"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa chokes on something

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "Just...just, RUN, RUN, RUN!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "ALL UNITS WITHDRAW!!!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Princess Cagalli Yula Athha transmits, "I've been working on it!!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "SUMO is disabled, Colonel..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Melissa Mao transmits, "-Making pickup on SUMO"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Thank you."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Melissa Mao swears under her breath, something about self-aggrandizing pompous ideologues

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Will Holiday transmits, "Tha' hell is happin' out there?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Something unfortunately familiar..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "An event like this happened shortly before we were drawn /here./ To this universe."

<Pose Tracker> James Heller [D] has posed. James Heller has lived longer than anyone might expect. Long long ago on a nearly dead world he'd met Vindel. He was given a second chance and spared from Wodan's wrath. He'd marched across more places than he can think of along side Vindel. He'd belived in the man and his dreams. He'd seen his home world come back from is slow stagnate death. James machine just freezes as he looks in the direction of the hanger. James is ruffled he's horrifed to his core, he then on top of seeing his friend and commander fall. To a maverick gynoid, there's nothing he can do, he issues orders to the MP W Bots to tie up the feds while he issues orders. He pauses with the readings he's pretty sure what's going to happen or could. It could be bad, very bad.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "How are you sure?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "...yeah. I saw it before. It'll... it needs to be bigger. It means..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer his voice tightens. "The unit...was probably destroyed, mid-reaction."

<Radio: C - Global> Ratsel Feinschmecker transmits, "(The following is sent to anyone who happens to be down in the Cradle at the moment.)"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Wodan Ymir transmits, "Be silent. I will resolve the issue."

<Radio: C - Global> Ratsel Feinschmecker transmits, "The Kurogane is evacuating. Anyone who wishes to may come with us to safety."

<Pose Tracker> Ascian Luddite [D] has posed. <"You are really telling /me/ that I am using a weapon like this? This is a weapon that aims for freedom! Look at your own army! I've seen the things the Gundams carry on them, and it's far more lethal than what Amenthes can put out!"> Short of the Vector Cannon... but he doesn't want to disprove his own point at this moment. "This unit assisted in bringing down the Shield Generator during Operation SRW. It just depends on what you use weapons FOR!" The machine of Melissa's moves so fluidly while Ascian responds, that it even outdoes Amenthes' more sentient looking maneuvers - knocking her off balance.

What Melissa shouts next though, has Ascian let out a sigh. No, they're not going to die. He never planned on actually killing them. Ace pilots like them - he could tell... it is a soldier's experience. He can tell that they would surive such an assault. Still, he ends up being maneuvered by Mao - right into Tessa's blade-swing. The two cut down, one hitting the head of the Amenthes and severely cracking its head-unit, while the other pierces its torso just when... shit goes down.

<"Resolution /is/ necessary!"> Ascian agrees. <"Why do you think that BAHRAM does not combat B.I.S.!?"> The sensors on the Amenthes start going haywire seconds later, and the machine comes to a halt. It looks battered and bruised, and lacks energy to do much. And Ascian then gets the message from DC command. That what is coming is bad. That which is coming... will kill.

The Amenthes flickers, and Ascian transmits his image once again. <"I've been... beaten."> He admits. <"But that's not important right now. You two need to /leave/. Right now!"> He points out towards what is happening, before he clenches his teeth. <"Look, I can carry only one... but you want /her/ safe right?"> Did his logic just jump? Wasn't he their enemy just seconds ago? <"Then let me prove to you my resolution, rather than yelling at you about it.">

And so the Amenthes grabs Tessa's unit and its wings spread afar. It's but seconds later that - with those blades still lodged into her, The Amenthes suddenly begins to take off - trying to get the fuck out of the Earth Cradle! <"Keep up, or you'll make your friend sad!"> He then shouts at Melissa - letting a hangar open through Amenthes' controls and giving the three of them a proper way out.

<Pose Tracker> Melissa Mao [K] has posed. As Tessa disappears, Mao stares - that red bastard...no. Some self-appointed egotist like that long-haired lunatic, he wouldn't have turned on his own ideology and killed Tessa. She's safe, Mao knows it. There's more that tells her than just a gamble of the dice - but the M9 turns to face the giant once more, for just a moment. Its one remaining sensor glows, burning with a light that's more than simple detection.

It's a light that burns with promise, and an all too unpleasant one at that.

And then the Gernsback breaks, charging...toward the expanding void?! No, not quite - the Arm Slave skids to a halt in front of Oliver's crippled machine, extending one hand in a precise punch that shears off the crumpled cockpit door cleanly. The hand reforms, providing a platform for the pilot to step out on. Mao's boisterously cheerful voice booms out over the loudspeaker. "Wanna ride, big guy?"

And Dodge is gotten the *(! out of.

<Pose Tracker> Adam Steiner [N] has posed. Well...That's certainly a new one. The Earth Sphere is the gift that keeps on giving where weird shit is concerned.

Adam steps back, his Berserker pulling away as the weird anomaly thing comes up. This gives James plenty of time to get away, but Adam really doesn't care about that anymore.

"Huh. Rachel, what do you make of this?" Adam transmits over his radio with the sort of zen calm that can only come from this kind of outrageous situation.

"I think it's time you got out of there, Adam," Rachel responds back, her voice quite a bit less calm.

Orders over the radio confirm that, and Adam nods. It sounds like there's some problem with commander Shi, but Adam isn't in that region, and others sound like they're on it. Adam meanwhile, can help with the evac. "You heard them. Full evac, now. We can play with the giant glowing spacial anomaly another time. Striker Lance, form a firing line and cover our escape. Let's move!"

And that's just what Adam does.

<Pose Tracker> Oliver Evlien [K] has posed. Oliver's visuals are down, but he can tell what's going on from the radio, and he doesn't like it. It's /familiar,/ reminding him entirely too much of the incident over a year ago that sent him and the other members of Dianna Counter and the Black Knights over to 'this' side, this other universe where he still doesn't entirely feel at home yet. Which means that if anyone is caught up...

He feels the jostle of movement. "Thank you, milady Mao," he contacts her over the radio, with a hint of defeat in his voice.

<Pose Tracker> Cynthia Lane [D] has posed. "Yes, it is?" The pilot exclaims, grinning. "Just because I'm better at you, you don't have to take it so seriously!" She proclaims.

Gosh, it's like they think she hasn't heard this one before!

Floating above the fallen I-Field powered SUMO, currently having been smashed into the ground, the Dominator bounds a bit off the walls in the air, idly.

"And I do take it seriously, too... but I know when it's just a game." Of course, then there's a traitor. Which causes a giant black hole. It seems to be growing even larger too, and hovering above, the Dominator watches as a member, one of the two that actually defeated Ascian, goes over to help him.

"Tch. Stupid black holes. I could have totally had a killing streak, too!" The Dominator buzzes above, bounding about the mine, almost hopping as the machine begins to 'retreat' as they were told to. It's so boring to, though. She'd be able to take them, for sure!

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. Echidna fires.

Wodan's attention does, in fact, slip briefly off of the recovering Alex; his normal neutral expression shifts into a frown. So the doll has finally broken completely. He will have to fix that, in due time.

But for now...

Daizengar's Zankantou comes scything in, and Thrudgelmir simply reaches up, catching the blade with its forearm. It lifts its other arm, palm spread... and lightning arcs from it, to the elaborate ornament on its right shoulder. It lifts off of Thrudgelmir, spins around to the front of it...

... and then it, too, sprouts a handle and a blade.

Thrudgelmir drives the second Zankantou forwards into Daizengar's face while it's still forming, sending the other machine stumbling backwards. It raises the blade to strike again--

-- and then Renshou-Lagann smashes into its back, its legs twisted into an enormous drill.

For several seconds, Huang and Simon bore ferociously into Thrudgelmir's back, rending the armor into shreds...

... and then, abruptly, they pierce through it, leaving an enormous hole in Thrudgelmir's chest and smashing into the floor at its feet.

For a few beats, Thrudgelmir just... stands there, while in the background the rip in reality from the destroyed Zweizergain grows. That surely must have done it, there's no way that OH COME ON

After that beat of stillness, Thrudgelmir leaps into motion again. The sword in its hand, now fully formed, sweeps in a sudden upwards cut, smashing into the Spiral machine and launching it into the air; Thrudgelmir continues the motion of its slice, turning one hundred and eighty degrees... and then its free hand reaches out and snatches up the handle of its /first/ Zankantou.

It turns, ripping the weapon out of the ground as it does, and follows up on the still-airborne Renshou-Lagann with a vicious downward swing. It strikes with a tremendous crash, and sends Huang and Simon shooting through the air...

... straight towards the rip in space left by System XN.

<Pose Tracker> Meiya Mitsurugi [N] has posed. When Echidna shoots Vindle in the back, Meiya's head whips around. She sees Zweizergain fall, just like she said, but then..then the terrible ability of Zweizergain goes out of control. The world itself tries to eat the man calle dVindle Mauser.

Meiya climbs back into the hatch of the M9E and slips back into the control harness that reinflates arond her arms.

The M9 lurches back up and turns around. The machine pauses before running, it looks at the Soulgain that hasn't moved.

"If you want to live, Run! Or are you as idiotic as you truely seem to be?!"

With only those parting words, the M9E begins running, the ARM Slave's muscle bundles strain and wear against the torrment they've been put through today. Fibers of the artifical msucle beginng to snap and shar through.

<Pose Tracker> Vindel Mauser [D] has posed. The main difference between what happens here and what happened back in Britannia is that the Zweizergain's System XN is not designed to transport entire armies across dimensions - the Gate was designed to be able to move the entire Shadow Mirror contingent between worlds without having to make multiple trips. When that system had exploded, it had created a vortex that had swallowed everything in sight. It does look threatening though - the black void grows for a few more moments, pulling in debris from everywhere around it, swallowing everything that comes close to it like a small black hole. But it only grows for a moment before it finally slows, coming to a halt at about twice its original size.

The black sphere ripples.

Flashes.

And then contracts down into a single, infinitesimal point of blinding, brilliant light. The mote falls to the ground and vanishes into the floor, leaving behind only a tiny smoldering hole in the Earth Sphere's armor plating four stories below where there actually is a floor. What remains is a huge, gaping void in the middle of the Earth Cradle, parts already starting to collapse inwards due to most of their structural supports being in Oz.

This means that rather than taking the most radical adventure ever, Simon and Huang instead only get to be acquainted with the floor several levels down rather than the Unknowable Darkness of the Outer Rim. Of course this means they are only falling to their doom as parts of the hanger - large containers, fuel tanks, munitions, the occasional unmanned mecha - begin cascading down into the hole instead.

The Ganland's pilot curses hits the emergency booster, the only remaining Shadow Mirror ship roaring up the launch ramp and into the open air. Going to emergency overboost while still IN THE BASE is frowned upon in the SOP, but he figures that whomever was in charge now probably wouldn't get too pissed at him...

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn mutters, "Man, and I was worried about Kojima Particle saturation. These guys friggin' /broke space/."

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. Echidna is not aware of what Axel thinks or does. She merely knows she is not dead. This is a plus.

The Jamru Fin is /fast/. Echidna can't use all its speed in an enclosed space, but even at about thirty percent throttled it's both very swift and very maneuverable. She would actually have to slow down to let Tarazu keep up.

Which she does. "...Yes," is her one-word response to Tarazu, before she flicks back at the readings she's getting. The System is... malfunctioning. It won't last; she's seen this before, or something like this (admittedly, then they were doing it on purpose) and that's not a sustaining reaction.

But it is a reaction, and a bad one. It can cause damage before it collapses. "Excuse me," Echidna says - and she turns back the way she came. Foolish, she tells herself. Foolish, but necessary.

Huang's machine flies toward the gate. Echidna braces herself and lets the throttle out a little more. The machine vibrates and then accelerates. The nuclear pulse engine isn't even on yet; she is astounded by the raw engine output of this thing. She lifts up, still speeding, reaching dangerous speeds inside.

The bottom hatch on the Jamru Fin opens. It fires something straight down. It isn't even a weapon.

It is a hook. On a cable.

Echidna aims it to catch the Renshou-Lagann. It is probably not particuarly comfortable to be caught by a carrying hook - but Echidna tries very hard, still rising so that the Renshou-Lagann doesn't bash against the floor.

She releases the hook several moments later, probably sending the Renshou-Lagann tumbling. That's okay. They can handle it. She banks /back/ the other way, now heading toward the Federation line for a third time.

<Pose Tracker> Staren Wiremu [U] has posed. LATER THAT EVENING

The giant mole machine beast MO-L3 (creative names: not Staren's strong point) digs into the Kurogane's hangar bay, and the Star Hawk climbs out of its backpack, before kneeling on the ground and exposing its cockpit block, allowing Staren to climb out.

"Hi guys, what'd I miss?"

"...What?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero surprisingly sounds a bit shaken. "...Oliver... what happened out there?"

<Pose Tracker> Staren Wiremu [U] has posed. EVEN LATER

Staren stares at the screen displaying the combat footage.

"WHAT?!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "What happened?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "I have no idea."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "This goes above my paygrade..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "I'm not sure. Vindel Mauser might have done something...it reminded me of what happened when we came here, from the sound of it."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "My visuals are down."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "And Wodan Ymir was out there, sir."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Melissa Mao transmits, "All I saw was some kind of giant void, like a black hole. Then it collapsed, and...disappeared."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero transmits, "...Vindel Mauser... no. Damnit! DAMNIT!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Sir?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero transmits, "Is he gone?!? Is there any sign of Mauser!?!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Tch.... All we can do is hold fast. It looks like their aces have withdrawn from the barracks. Even without the Zeon squadron we should be able to hold for the moment."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "I don't know..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Melissa Mao transmits, "Not if he was anywhere near the middle of that. Uruz-2, departing."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "What happens if he's gone?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero transmits, "...that man... that man... he had the only working dimensional teleporter!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "...Oh, no."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero transmits, "If he is dead... we... are..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Stranded here."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Perhaps permanently..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Princess Cagalli Yula Athha, helpfully, "Stuck."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero growls under his breath.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Things have a way of working out."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I'm sure you'll find a way - or one will present itself to you."

<Pose Tracker> Alex Corser [U] has posed. Alex's heroic effort to just cut the Thrudgelmir's head clean off its shoulders does not pan out as well as he'd hoped. Daizengar's head gets unceremoniously stabbed in the face again, shattering the other eye and neatly removing Alex's effective combat ability. He has just a moment to exclaim about the unfairness of having /two/ giant swords with a shout of, "That is fuckin' /bullshit/ right there!!" that echoes through the cavernous space. It enters the hole in the universe, the remark lost to time and space.

OR IS IT

Anyway, Daizengar is thrashed. Having been suitably brutalized, Alex falls back, staggering along a wall by using the feedback from his 'controller' to guide himself via stabbing the sword in a groundward direction. He gets out of immediate reach of Wodan and curses again, the fear coming back in force now that the adrenaline of fighting for his life is more or less spent. Something else comes with it: an echo of despair and loss, though from whom, Alex could not say. He isn't even sure why he feels it.

One of the emergency cameras comes online, giving Alex a narrow view of the outside. Daizengar retreats towards the wall the Kurogane is sticking out of, barreling towards the hangar. He doesn't have the guts to look over his shoulder at the dimensional event.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Wodan Ymir transmits, "Zeon's cowardice is unsurprising, but of no concern."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "...Perhaps there was some clue in the Earth Cradle as to the nature of that technology."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "But now is not the time to search."

<Pose Tracker> Theresa Testarossa [K] has posed. Ansuz's unit executse that finishing move, then tears its knives free, stowing them quickly. And then...

And then the world inverts. Tessa feels it like a knife in her brain, and she snaps around to look, turning all sensors on it. DANA chimes alarms, urging immediate retreat; the sensors on Regina aren't actually intended to DO this, and Tessa's stuck quickly recalibrating the gravity tremor sensor, except this is something different altogether. It's no tremor, and more like happening on the /universe itself/, like some kind of... "Dimensional..quake?" Tessa breathes out. "We've got to--go! Go! EVERYONE OUT WE'VE GOT TO GO!!"

And then before she can really get going, Amenthes grabs her. "What--" she rasps out. "no! M...Melissa! MELISSA! MELISSA!" she reaches hands out, desperate, terrified for her friend so close to that awful singularity. "GET OUT OF THERE--!"

But...

It fades to nothing. She slumps back, her panic leaving her dazed. She tries to filter through what she's just seen, eyes sliding shut. "DANA," she asks, "Please notify me when this guy lets go so I can return to the Katharon lines."

"Yes, Colonel."

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. "Yes!" Simon says as they clobber Wodan. He is pretty sure the fight's over there is no way that he could have survived and everything is pixies nw especially since Vindel ... somethinged ... and now everything is gravy. It's wonderful. Right? Right.

Simon listens to Huang when he has a moment, breathing out. "Sure, I'll do what I can but it's better if I don't have to!" though that's probably not exactly a superkeen speech, Simon means it. Sometimes he has to work a bit on his speeches.

He checks the spiral gauge. Not too hot, Simon thinks, he hasn't fought quite like this before, not in a long while. He tries to think hot bloody thoughts, but it doesn't quite work. Spiral power may be infinite, Simon, strictly speaking, is not.

"Huang." He says, reaching for the cnotrl stick as Thrudgelmir swings at the Renshou-Lagann. "Uh huang!!--"

KABONG!

The Renshou-Lagann is sent flying. Simon furiously with everything he has ries to ignite the spiral thrusters to get away, but it's not enough, he's getting tired, the inertia--

The Renshou Lagann suddenly stops short, a hook slamming into the back of its neck. It's practically comical. Simon has no idea what they just avoided, but praises the man who died to save the world and came back to life (Kamina).

He twists his head and sends a transmission. "Hey... never got your name, but thank you." Simon says. It runs abck to Federation lines. "Buu." Boota is so wise.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Zeon's cowardice? Vindel's forces were already moving to pull out and leave us to handle the brunt of the counterattack."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "We were saving vital production material. Glemy."

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. If you had told Huang Qin Shi twelve hours ago that, half a day later, he would learn that there is such a thing as a mental plateau one can reach in which the agonies of liquid metal blood, Spiral Power and damn near being cut in half balanced out to the point where one was able to function at about 90% capacity, only to then be backhanded by an abomination toward a hole in spacetime, he probably would have nodded and said "Yep, sounds about right." This says more than it should about his life choices.

*poit*

Huang staggers as the hook drags the machine forward, the Spiral Fighter falling to its hands and knees in the centre of the elevator shaft. He looks up, and around. The place is nearly empty. Except for him, Simon, Echidna...and Wodan Ymir. Huang's fists clench. "Simon...I need one more shot."

The Renshou-Lagann begins to burn. Greenish-white Spiral fire wreathes the hybrid machine, burning ever hotter until the liquid metal surrounding it boils away, dissolving into a glittering, crackling cloud. Cracks appear in the fuselage as mercurial steam spews out from the inner workings of the body, the agony soaring to new heights. He just needs to bear it...for just another second. He closes his eye and lets out a breath. At least, however this works out, he got to say the words. "This is for Sophia...you mechanical freak." The white light suddenly seems to vanish, replaced by a wavery shimmering as it blows out of the visible spectrum entirely. Huang holds his left hand up and clenches his fist. Drills explode from every surface of the little machine, their surfaces surrounded by the blazing silver mist.

He screams some words in CHinese or something.

The drills retract, collapse into a single, massive one wrapped around the left hand.

He shouts another thing. Anyone have a translator?

Huang pulls the hand back, and the weapon begins to spin rapidly.

He shouts something else.

He stops. Smiles. And drives the hand forward, propelling the massive projectile with a blast of plasma.

He shouts one word a really long time.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "It doesn't matter. They're all going to die."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "We're going to kill every last one of them."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "We'll rip them apart."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Oh so lame. I was going to do at least a few parting shots too, but I thought we totally /had/ to leave."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Toto. How fast can you get some G-3 canisters down here?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Will Holiday transmits, "Now is the time ta get refitted, righ'?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "SUMO's a mess, at least, but I can use other machines just fine."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero transmits, "I'm sending a squad out there right now. There has to be something we can find... if we wait and the Federation finds it first..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "It'll probably be easier to pry it out of their computers than the Earth Cradle."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "I'm not sure it's safe out there, sir. The squad might be caught up in whatever's going on there..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "And...there is another option."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Oliver Evlien transmits, "Also, Wodan Ymir may still be out there. -Yes?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Colonel Theresa Testarossa transmits, "I need to talk to 'him.'"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Zero transmits, "Even if we can recreate the technology, the Shadow Mirrors are the only ones who know where our world was. We need that information!"

<Pose Tracker> Ascian Luddite [D] has posed. The Amenthes halts in the air as the disruption begins to alter again. It seems that the properties of Metatron are taking to adjusting in these kind of situations quite well - as is the Quantum Computer that helps in making said adjustments. <"She'll be fine. Someone like that doesn't die do to something like that."> Ascian answers Tessa. The Orbital Frame then lowers back down towards the ground and sets down the machine. Seems Ascian has no use for keeping Tessa around. He kept his promise.

Of course, as he lets go, he is reminded of the glowing eye of that M-9. <"Tell your friend when she gets back, if she has qualms with me, she can contact me."> Along with a personal frequency that one could easily transmit to. It's not secured or anything, but it works as a means of communication. The Amenthes turns its upper body and slowly looks at the Earth Cradle. <"There's things I have to remove from that place, before I can leave here."> He has no idea how much Tessa knows about Orbital Frames however - and sees no reason to go into details.

The machine then spreads its wings, some of its SSA armor falling off - pulverized from the earlier attacks, and without shields activated - it returns to the Earth Cradle to do one important job. To get its hands on all the Metatron resources.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Officially, Zeon has been chemically disarmed since January of 110."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Unofficially, a large shipment of precursor agents is getting lost..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "... in about six hours."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Good."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "They dug a tunnel. They'll fucking die in it."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "That's..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "That's /justice/."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "It's awesome!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan growls, "How kind of them to /dig their own grave./"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite mutters, "Idiots."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "...I've got something. That can assist in the defense, I mean."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "If you think gas is gonna do it when most of those things are sealed for space, you're crazy. But..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "It's a message."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "It's a message proving you are worse then them."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Besides--at the end of that tunnel is the medical personnel and non-combatants."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "That's our target."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Colonel Mauser was worth a million of them."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "Uh..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "You'll have no official support from Zeon for this unless you buy it at quite the premium. Even the G-3 is a risk."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "...sir, I--"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Those feds are going to /burn/"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "James, stop egging him on."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "It's disgusting."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "That's the start! We should drop a fucking colony on them for this!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "But... all that matters is victory. If we must burn in hell to win, then we burn in hell!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "Now hold on a goddamn minute!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "What!?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller also paises as well, he's not sounding too right either.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "Get your goddamn head on straight!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn snaps, "If you pull down a colony, I'm going to very happily flood your bunk with KP the next night, /sir/. Why don't you /get it together/."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Gh--shut up. Fine. Whatever."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Reni Qavar transmits, "I will not do this!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Reni Qavar transmits, "That is the worst way to fight. I am a pirate, not a soldier. I will steal from them. But gas is for cowards."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "We'll do what needs doing tomorrow, without the gas."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Then we'll talk."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Reni Qavar transmits, "Instead you should send all your reinforcements at their back."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan exhales with a hint of relief.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "That's more like the Axel I know."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Oh i can't wait~! Maybe I'll be fighting someone fun!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Gh... I'm going to get the Soulgain repaired."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "We should fight them head-on. Force them back down their tunnel and bury them in it!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "No, we'll fight /smart/."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Smart, and with Spirit."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "You're both half right."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cynthia Lane transmits, "It's kinda pointless to argue. How about we just destroy them?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "WE send forces at their backs, draw them back into the tunnel, and collapse it."

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. Huang shouts a bunch of nonsense (Wodan has never cared for Chinese) and shoots a giant drll at Thrudgelmir. Its pilot's excellently-planned tactic is to scream; Thrudgelmir throws its head back and roars, its mouth opening to reveal jagged metallic teeth running with rivulets of what appears to be, for all intents and purposes, drool.

The Glorious Sky-Piercing Drill Palm smashes into Thrudgelmir's chest, just above the center of the now rapidly-healing hole left by Huang and Simon's earlier driling. It tears through the shoulders and neck of the machine... and even clips the cockpit, the upper edge of the drill ripping Wodan in half, pulling his lower body from his upper.

Functionaly torn asunder by the drill, the thin struts of metal supporting Thrudgelmir's upper body suddenly buckle, and the machine collapses into a pile of metal, undulating in an almost organic way.

They... may have actually done it.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Look, I've got the location of an old Rosenthal experimental type -- it's supposed to be a Super-type configuration focused on Kojima Particle collection and use."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "We put a kill squad at one end of the tunnel and smoke them out with radiation from the other."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "If they're going to dig a hole, they will have one approach. And not a large one. We can squeeze them back into their hole and close the door."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "It's worth a shot. We don't have the other end secure, but we can chase them down it."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "...Wait a minute."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Wodan Ymir's signal abruptly cuts out?

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "Where the hell was the Tronium bomb?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "At this point I'm not sure there ever was one."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "Shit--W15. Someone find out what the hell happened!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller is trying to calm down he seems to be trying to control his emotions. "Right, Vindel would hit us over the head if we went of crazy. All right that sounds like a plan.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "There was supposed to be a kaboom, an earth shattering kaboom!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "That would mean the other end fo the tunnel is in...Botswana?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Anita? What happens if we explode the Tronium Mine?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "Nothing. There /is/ no Tronium mine."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Do we have any mobile assets in orbit? They're focused over the Gate, we could do a drop onto the mine and catch 'em in the middle -- no, that wouldn't work, they're too dug in..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Any of us getting out of here would be a bad idea. But we must have forces who can support from the outside. The Space Force. They could drop onto the other end of the tunnel."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "That was his whole con game, he hid the tunnel entrance in plain sight!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Reni Qavar transmits, "It will be guarded. I cannot sacrifice the Quel!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "I can see if we can get some help from BAHRAM... maybe we can convince Nohman to temporarily move the Zakat..."

<Pose Tracker> Huang Qin Shi [N] has posed. Huang Qin Shi sags against his harness; if Simon is not awfully quick on the paddle, the entire robot keels over. "Oh thank the gods," he mutters, tension draining out of him as he re-engages the limiters and cuts off the neural connections, the Renshou-Lagann no longer boiling itself alive. Huang has been running on pure adrenaline (and no small amount of power beyond mortal ken) for the better part of an hour, and the beating he sustained at the hands of the Sword of Magus did not go away when Lagann connected. Nor did the emotional trauma.

Sophia is dead. At some point, he's going to have to tell Sanger.

"Glad that's over," Huang mutters, his head drooping toward his chest. "Just need...rest..." There is a brief pause. And then the sleep of the (nearly)dead.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "We can hit it, but I'm willing to bet they'll have the whole damn fleet there."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "That's not something I want to bet on beating."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "Dropping another hulk won't work again so soon."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Minus the ships we dropped a hulk on, perhaps."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "You could always drop something bigger. It certainly worked for the Regent."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Do I have to deal with these worthless soldiers? It's kind of boring out here now that the aces are gone."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "No."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Tell you what, Cynthia. Call of Duty match while Amenthes repairs herself?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "Like a colony? Tsk... that takes time. Too much. We need something relatively immediate."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Nothing... 'bigger.' I think we've already established that a good portion of the pilot corps aren't really keen on that idea."

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. Simon is not quick n the paddle.

KATHOOMP. Yeah this is pretty pathetic looking. Looking like scrap and junk after a battle is the true way of the Gurren Brigade. He's surprised he's not in another dimension.

Simon laughs heartily. "We did it Huang! WE did it! There's no way he could do that TWICE."

He grabs his paddles and pushes the machine up, moving to fetch the Gurren. It's all over, somehow--

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Merely joking to highlight the weaknesses of a drop."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "...right. Sorry. Long night."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Sure thing! The Dominator's still holding pretty well so there's not much to repair!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Bet you can't beat Duat - heard she made a perfect bot for the game."

<Pose Tracker> Echidna Iisaki [D] has posed. Echidna Iisaki is suddenly RIGHT THERE

Seriously, she's about fifty feet from Simon's machine.

"Retreat," she suggests, before accelerating the Jamru Fin into the tunnel entrance. (Sorry, Tarazu; you might have been left a little bit in the dust.) She says nothing else.

Maybe she's having a crisis.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Hm. More earnestly... Why not let Ymir handle it alone? From what I gather, last night he seemed more than capable."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Tonight, rather."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "He dropped off-band. Does anyone have eyes on him?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "Forgive me -- it's past midnight in Zeon."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Anita Hunter transmits, "No, no sign of him."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Looking for him...."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Axel Almer transmits, "I'm not gonna sit idle. But he's--I don't got line of sight on him, at present--tough enough."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "He'll pop up soon 'nuff."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "So can!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Ascian Luddite transmits, "The only one who beat her so far is that 'King Gainer' dude. But that was just a fluke."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Arken Gryslan transmits, "And that... machine of his has vanished too?"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "Then I'll /definitely/ win!"

<Pose Tracker> Wodan Ymir [D] has posed. Huang passes into unconsciousness thinking he has won.

It is, in a way, a mercy.

As Simon separates from Huang's machine and moves to reclaim the Gurren, the floor suddenly shakes as one of Thrudgelmir's fists pounds into the floor. After a beat, more shaking, as the other hand joins it.

Slowly, Thrudgelmir hauls itself to its feet... and when it does, it once again is a vision of pristine paint and perfect symmetry.

In other words: completely unharmed.

"Her name," Wodan corrects, as Thrudgelmir calls its fallen Zankantou back into its hands on arcing fingers of lightning, "is Magus."

Thrudgelmir throws its head back and roars again, electricity crackling across its hands and flowing out of its eyes. One gets the impression now would be an excellent time to run.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cynthia Lane transmits, "He won't get the better of me there, too!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Duat says, "We'll see about that..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Wodan Ymir's signal abruptly returns. "There will be no weapons of mass destruction deployed within the Earth Cradle."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "And what of the tunnel?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Wodan Ymir transmits, "Your conflicts are of no concern to me. But you will not deploy them within the Cradle."

<Pose Tracker> Simon [N] has posed. Simon picks up Gurren. "Yeah just about to--Thanks ag--" she's gone. He frowns briefly and glances back at Wodan's corp--

"OH COME ON!" Simon says, pedaling it out like a lunatic that's on fire and being chased by other lunatics on fire ad nauseum.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Glemy Toto transmits, "And if you fall?"