2011-03-05 - Dial 2 For Camille

AXIS, T MINUS 5 MINUTES FROM NOW, JANITORIAL BLOCK

Compromise is a mandatory part of any mission. The best professionals are masters of give and take; they roll with what the cards have dealt them, and each and every little minute detail of a mission alters the eventual path... but never the resolution.

Heero Yuy accepts this quite readily.

As he sets down his communicator, having made sure his back-up is on the way, he accesses the hacked map diagram that he's tapped into. Axis' defenses are solid, even after the chaos of losing their grand leader... but he was expecting no less.

He readies his gun, and comes out of the closet.

"THERE HE IS!" Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat.

AXIS, T MINUS 2 MINUTES FROM NOW, MAINTENANCE HANGAR

Obviously, actually making an entry to the Axis space colony with the Wing Gundam Zero is nothing short of ludicrous; its size and presence would alarm it to all detected. That was why Heero had to commandeer one of Axis' maintenance Balls (he loves Balls, okay?) and ride in unnoticed. It took a week for him to plan this all out... and it bought him only a couple of minutes.

He did leave with his objective, though.

The youth stands with his back pressed against the wall. A half-circle fan of Neo Zeon soldiers have their gun trained on him, each with a rather riled and angry expression on their faces.

"Give it up, intruder! We've got you cornered now! Arms to your sides! Throw down that gun!"

Heero's expression tightens slightly, but it remains very much rigid. He does toss his gun down, the metal weapon skidding smoothly across the gribbled floor of Axis' bay. He was hoping it wouldn't quite come to this, but he did prepare one more ace card to get him out of this jam.

Namely, he left the ignition on.

"I'd watch your back," Heero responds, as he slowly raises his hands to either side of his head.

The squad leader scoffs, his thick brow arcing, feeling confident enough to hoist his rifle onto his shoulder. His mind is busy thinking of the promotion he'd get for this. "Yeah, like I'd ever fall for--"

"SIR!" comes a panicked shout from behind him.

"Not now, soldier!"

"SIR! I-i-i-it's a--"

With a heavily annoyed noise, the sergeant turned, and his lunch just dropped. "I-it's a... GUNDAM!!!"

AXIS, T MINUS ZERO, AXIS AIRSPACE

Heero Yuy reclines against the tightly harnessed recline of his seat. He grips the control sticks and shuts his eyes, tuning himself in to the discord assessed by his combat partner. His seat rattles ever so slightly as the verniers take him away from the immediate tightness of the maintenance bay.

"Thank you, ZERO..." he murmurs.

There is a chime of approval from the machine's enigmatic system. He opens his eyes; already, he is flanked on all sides by the colony's defenders, and quite possibly more surprises in the way.

"Mission, Stage one complete. Moving to strategic level two."

1600 Hours, Argama

Camille Bidan hung up his tranceiver, lips set into a thin line as he considered his options. The back-up plan he and Heero had concocted was one designed to morph on-the-fly as the situation changed. But for a situation like this, even the Second Coming of Amuro Ray wouldn't be able to pull it off on his own.

A list of names quickly rolled out of his head, and not all of them were necessarily affiliated with Katharon. But more importantly, they were all in one way or another affiliated with either Heero or himself. He'd put the word out in just a moment, but first..

The blue-haired pilot grabbed the phone for the bridge's direct line, his voice somber and serious "I need to speak to Captain Bright, we've got a problem."

1700 Hours, Axis

The control room of Axis was in a flurry of activity. Even with its definitive head removed, Neo-Zeon had not faltered in growing a new one with the temerity of the Hydra of yore. Warning yelled alarm in their crimson and amber hues, cameras cycled through a dozen feeds at once and harsh orders were barked by rankled superior officers.

"Status report! Where is the intruder?!"

"Sir! The intruder has escaped via a mobile suit, a Gundam-type, and is currently being pursued by our forces." The nameless bridge flunky skimmed his data readouts, "He has a lead, but we should overtake him in short order.."

"Always the damned Gundams.." The Superior, a veteran of the One Year War, sneered at the thought opponent that never seemed to go away for Zeon, "No, we're not taking any chances. I want the Qubeley out there, and contact any BAHRAM and Amalgam units in the vicinity for assistance. They've got just as much to lose as the rest of us with what he has."

"Done." Flunky Prime was about to pat himself on the back when his screen suddenly flared with the universal 'AW HELL NAW' signal, "S-sir, warship just detected on our periphery! It's the Argama!"

"Tch, I had feeling he'd ask for help. Are they in range of our defenses?" The seasoned veteran twisted his riding crop (Yes, he's one of those guys) infuriatingly in his hand.

"No, she seems to be staying just out of range, but i'm reading multiple bogies coming in on us..." A few more keystrokes centered the HUD on the enemy movements, "I'd say missiles, but they move like mobile suits. It's just..." The tech squinted his eyes, as if to be sure he was seeing reality, "..they're going through the debris." What kind of maniac would come up with /that/ strategy?!

OUTSIDE AXIS

The Zeta Waverider weaved in an out of space detrius at ludicrous relativstic speeds, guided by the foresight of it's pilot and more than a fortune of equivalent space nazi gold in technology development. It was a bit unorthodox, but the DC would never expect them to get the drop on them like this.

"Axis is looking like a nightmare down there, seems Heero kicked up one hell of hornet's nest." His voice came out on open channel to all who'd come along for the ride, and he gunned the mobile suit forward with an even great burst of speed as they emerged from the cloud of debris.

"Heero, do you read?! I've got you covered! Lets give these bastards what for!"

MISSION START OBJECTIVES 1. Heero stays alive 2. It's an escort mission (FFFFFF), that's it.

Wufei was in the Daedalus Carrier when his communicator went off. Thankfully, Treize wasn't around to hear it, but he was even MORe surprised that it was Camille on the other end. "Camille! What the...How did you..." She says before Camille say something that simply makes him stop speaking. "where." He then waits a few heartbeats. "I'm there." He doesn't bother telling Treize where he's running to, or where he's launching to, but somehow, a couple of minutes later, Altron has a detachable rocket booster on it's back and is launching towards the Argama. Using an older frequency he and the Wing boys used during an operation in the Balmarian invasion, he taps in an IFF code for the Argama, and the subsequent units, especially Camille's Zeta Gundam. Altron flys through the debris field like a gundam possessed, since Wufei was determined to make sure Heero made it out of the Axis colony alive, one way or another. His point made, by detaching the collapsed trident off of it's charger...

 Chang Wufei transmits, "One of these days Heero."

 Heero Yuy transmits, "We're all prepared for that."

 Quatre Raberba Winner whispers; "What's going on?"

 Chang Wufei transmits, "I know Heero. Camille just radioed me a few minutes ago. Treize is gonna be a little miffed when he finds one of his rocket boosters missing."

 Chang Wufei transmits, "Axis Colony just became a hornet's nest, Quatre."

 Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "I'd think Heero to be more interested in Barge?"

 Heero Yuy transmits, "There are more enemies than just OZ..."

 Quatre Raberba Winner sounds hurt by this statement, "I am aware of that Heero."

 Chang Wufei transmits, "Tell us later, Quatre. It's going to be hard to listen when you have people shooting at you."

1630 Hours, Argama

"Your plan is to fly through the debris field? Well, I guess a daring plan can hardly be safe..."

NOW, OUTSIDE AXIS

A red-and-white VF-11 Thunderbolt, Katharon's rarely-seen variable fighter, weaves through the debris field, barely keeping up with Camille -- It's not that it doesn't get enough thrust, with its super parts it has plenty -- but that making these maneuvers at this speed is just _hard_.

'Is this the talent of newtypes?' is what Staren would be wondering, if his entire mind weren't focused on NOT HITTING THINGS

Somehow, Katz has made it on to the list. Maybe it is because Katz actually means well with his bad decisions, piloting, and such. More likely they needed a human shield and Judau wasn't available.

As the group starts to sortie, Katz is already ready to go with the MK. II. He has literally been ready for hours due to Johnny Ridden jacking his ride on more than one occasion. Katz adjusts his flight suit and narrows his already squinty eyes. "Today, I will show them that I can be a hero! Gundam! Help me live my dreams!"

....

The Gundam says and does nothing because unlike some, Katz was not talking a sentient machine or a protagonist who took Gundam as one of his spoken languages.... No, Katz knew Spanish though. So if he managed to get Tequilla Gundam, he'd be set for life.

The Gundam Mk. II races after Camille, waiting for orders. "Katz here! I'll do my best to help you, Mr. Yuy!" You hear that? That's the sound of true terror.

SPACE

Elenia Weyland slouches in a chair while watching a presentation on the power converter situation on Zeon. She is, as is usual, working through a pack of expensive cigarettes.

"Uh, ma'am," says the man next to her, whose eyes have gotten red and slightly teary from sitting downwind of the scary earth woman in her scary dress. He coughs, theatrically. "Do you think uh, that you could --"

Elenia blows smoke directly into his face, which silences his complaining. Shortly thereafter, however, something far worse comes. A siren blares, and the meeting room has a light go on at the wall.

GUNDAM

As the Zeeks shriek, freak, and critique, Elenia rolls her eyes loudly and rises to her feet, flouncing off in the direction of one of the comm rooms, where she has had something set up.

A LITTLE WHILE AFTER THIS

A long metal tube shifts and starts slithering out through one of the ball-sized hatches in the sixth MS hangar level. Nobody really notices, due to confused cross-talk and the sad and sorry lack of Haman Karn's Battle Meditation to focus their minds.

Escort missions are terrible. /Terrible/. Especially if you base a mastery on them!! It's just an exercise in frustration.

Fortunately, Kallen's not the type to complain about these kinds of situations. When Camille had contacted her about what had happened with Heero and asked her to help, she--well, didn't agree to it *unhesitatingly*. But she did after a moment of thought. She's never personally met Heero, but she knows that he and Camille were partners after a fashion during the Balmarian invasions, and she considers Camille a good friend. She's more than willing to help out for his sake.

No, Camille, she's still not going to sleep with you.

The Guren Mk. II has been fixed up with spaceworthy equipment. No new weapons yet, but it's a better job than when they were out towards Jupiter, so it should be able to last better than it had back then. Currently, it's hitching a ride on the Zeta Waverider (one of the benefits of being tiny), ducking and weaving to avoid space detritus that comes close to clipping. Camille's flying is good enough that he'd be fine on his own, but Kallen's not going to rely *entirely* on him.

"Damn," Kallen mutters, as much at Camille's report as the sight of all the units ahead. "Heero doesn't do anything by halves, does he?"

It's always something, isn't it. Puru Two only got back to Axis yesterday, after attempt number who's-even-keeping-count-anymore to destroy the Argama didn't pan out, to return what was left of the MP Big Zam. Probably a write-off, but the beauty of mass-produced units is that it won't be very costly to make new ones. Hopefully the combat data she brought back will be of some use, it could do with some improvements.

Today was supposed to be a day for her to rest. She doesn't exactly like taking time off, but she wasn't about to argue this time. She's got a lot on her mind, and taking it easy is probably advisable after the harsh treatment her brain went through, first to mold it to Haman Karn's wishes, and then to undo all that again. The clone soldier's noticed she's getting tired a little more quickly than usual, so some extra sleep would have been good.

Obviously, the one time she actually wanted to, she wasn't going to be allowed to get that rest. While half asleep in her quarters, reports of a fugitive came in, and she was ordered on standby in case pursuit in mobile suits proved necessary. Figures, just figures. Well, now that she's up anyway, he'd /better/ make it out in a mobile suit, because somebody's going to have to pay for this.

And so, by the time Heero makes it out, Puru Two is ready and waiting in the cockpit of the red Qubeley Mk. II when she receives the order to scramble. "Right. Puru Two, bla bla bla, launching." ...of course, not without in some way making clear that she's not happy about getting disturbed today. She didn't catch much of the details of the exact situation, but she doesn't really care. There's a Gundam out there that needs shooting, that's all that matters.

It does make sense to send the Qubeley out, it's very well-suited to high-speed pursuit situations like this. Even if it can't catch up to a unit, which is rare, there are very few things that can outrun its Funnels. Thus in no time flat, Heero's already got the Newtype mobile suit on his tail. "Hey, you in the Gundam. This is where I'm supposed to ask you to surrender, but I'm not in the mood. Go die." Speaking of Funnels, there they are, already right there on either side of Wing Zero. Yeah, this escort mission is just starting off in the best position.

SOME TIME AGO

Loran Cehack rolls another barrel of sour mash whiskey onto the Willgame, the modest yellow spaceship of the Earth Militia. The ship is in dock to resupply, as its troop contingent is in dire need of space rations. That is to say they need booze in case liquid courage is needed for an atmospheric drop.

That shit is scary.

A porky fellow in suspenders leans over the railing throwing a radio down. "Hey, Loran! There's someone asking for Laura!"

"Oh, thanks!" Loran replies, wiping his brow, readjusting his headband. He wears it even when he's not in a dress. Deal with it. "This is Laura Rolla."

The familiar voice on the other end says: "What do you know about... escort missions?"

"I like helping people," Laura says bemusedly.

LATER

The Turn A Gundam is once more aboard the Argama, increasing the ambient Gundam count by an imaginary non-real number because that's how the future works. The yellow bubble that serves as its delicate looking cockpit opens up, allowing the so-platinum-blonde-she-might-be-albino-except-for-the-obvious-reason-contrary pilot to lean over the edge and wave.

"Hello, Mr. Bidan! I never got to thank you for helping with the White Doll! Mr. Bright told me you looked over some of its specifications when it was being repaired during the invasion!"

SOME TIME AGO

Bright Noa looks intense. He rubs his chin as he inspects the blueprints in front of him, returned recently from Camille and Astonaige's possession. It's a rough outline of what seems to be the White Doll's equivalent of both the Gundam's Learning Computer and Zeta's Bio Computer.

'Is this shit on a wireless network? I don't even know. -Astonaige'

Camille has no note but there are a pair of boobs drawn in a corner that have not were not completely erased afterward.

NOW

The White Doll glides through the asteroid field, keeping up with the Zeta's waverider despite not having a transformable mode of its own. The dopey looking thrusters mounted in the mustached mobile suit's legs seem to be up to the task.

"There's a lot of them ahead of us," Laura comments to the empty cockpit. "Is the Ghingnham fleet there, or do they just have that much firepower by themselves?"

To her credit, anyone who grew up on the future moon would probably associate lots of people freaking out and shooting lasers wildly into space with the Ghingnham Fleet.

That doesn't matter, though. What matters is that the White Doll clears the debris field, fluttering around in all of its benign glory. Its reputation is well received because it is TURN A GUNDAM, a mobile suit whose ONLY GOAL is TOTAL WORLD FRIENDSHIP.

MOMENTS AGO

Samuel Flynn, Master of the Armored Core and All Cool Tech He Surveys (the title is his idea and currently confined to his head), sits in one of Axis's hangars within a bronze mobile weapon alongside the innumerable identical Zeon MSes. With one leg swung over the side of the seat and his head propped up on his hand, Sam stares at the deployed computer console's screen, going over the same pieces of combat footage over and over.

And then a Gundam bursts out and everything kind of goes to hell.

NOW

Insolent, that sleek and shiny Armored Core NEXT, deploys from Axis and immediately gives chase to the Gundam. Neo Zeon /did/ ask nicely (for them); he can do them a simple favor. Space around the NEXT flickers and shimmers with motes of white light for a second as he accelerates, the AC's numerous thrusters giving it speed as it keeps on the tail of the Gundam... and the Qubeley.

Sam is not suicidal enough to put himself directly between Puru "Murder Engine" Two and her chosen prey.

In the past, underwater tanks were used to simulate the microgravity of space. It wasn't perfect, but it was decent for training.

Why, then, would there be any problem with a shark swimming through space? Although its ion boosters are firing, the Hammerhead still swishes its tail as it 'swims' through the vaccuum. "Hmm. Something boring like this..." Rhyss doesn't like fighting in space. There's only one reason, really: vaccuum doesn't carry sound, which makes her own abilities a little more limited. Only a little, though. She'll have to rely on other methods. "Well, it might be interesting." The Zoidian shrugs and leans back in her seat as she accelerates toward the Gundams.

Haman Karn is dead and gone, along with many of her more rabid follower. It's now time to mend fences between Axis and Mars... unfortunately, it is not an easy thing for Erika to do. The tyrant Karn may be dead, but that underlying atmosphere of secularness and arrogance that allowed her to rise so high is still there. Neo Zeon still holds itself apart from the rest of the world and looks down upon other, more gravity bound people. It's at times like this that it becomes painfully apparent just how far a gap there is between her Zeon heritage and her Martian upbringing. The people that she should consider to be almost cousins to feel... /alien/. For the most part, she's spent this fence-mending diplomatic (and recruitment) mission in the maintainance bay, adjusting her ReFined Gouf while more diplomatically capable members of the Oldsmobile Army work towards smoothing over things with their 'Cousins from Axis'. This also means that when the alarm goes off to scramble, it doesn't take long for her to get ready and suited up. It takes even less time for her purple and blue Mobile Suit to sortie. "Seriously? A Gundam here? How the heck did he manage to smuggle a Gundam all the way out here without anyone noticing?"

A horizontal distortion cuts across the space near Axis, and if it weren't for the rubescent gleam flickering within, picking it out without staring directly at it for a while would have probably taken some time. Regardless, the horizontal distortion won't remain so for very long; just as Wing Zero emerges, it begins to split itself vertically, and as it splits, the light it perpetually sheds intensifies, sending bright red shafts in every direction.

MEANWHILE, ON BARDOS ISLAND

Given Dr. Hell's feelings about Zeon, the mad villain would have no doubt been content to ignore the general Divine Crusaders distress calls and leave Axis to its own devices.

/One/ of his soldiers, however, has decided to be a bit more ambitious than that--perhaps to make up for her lack of focus during Misaki's assault on the Argama; the Marchionessa Idunn is thus clutching her command staff to her chest in tight, faintly trembling hands. Behind her flowering domino mask, her eyes are squeezed shut, because she doesn't need them; the monstrosity on the other end of her psychic tether provides her with all the visual input she could ever need.

"Marchionessa Idunn," she quietly says, "here with support."

She /says/ that, but the rest of the Divine Crusaders won't hear it--despite her radio link being active and engaged. No, instead, what the Divine Crusaders will hear are the tortured strains of the pre-Colonial music the Marchionessa has chosen to help maintain her focus today.

o/~ Wake me up! (Wake me up inside) I can't wake up! (Wake me up inside) Save me! (Call my name and save me from the dark...) o/~

SPACE, WHERE CAPTAIN KIRK IS PROBABLY BONING A GREEN CHICK RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT

When the distortion finally ceases its expansion, it's revealed to be a large circle--an /eye/, glowing violently red. A split-second later, the brown fur and shiny metal of someone's gross mockery of a kangaroo appears around the eye, placing the lone ocular roughly where the pouch and joey /should/ be. The monster's arms are small, shriveled, and nonetheless tipped with sharp claws; its jaws are a bit too large for its head and its teeth are perpetually exposed, perpetually dribbling beads of saliva into the void. The beast appears to have perfectly functional eyes in its own head, as well, but the jaundiced one in the center of its belly twitches back and forth regardless, as if taking in the surroundings for itself.

It doesn't take long for it to turn its attention from Wing Zero to fixate on the approaching Katharon forces, and when it does, a low growl rumbles in the monster's throat.

Heero isn't a Newtype.

He can't sense the incoming presence of other Newtypes, yet alone their remote weapons. He does, however, have the extra-spatial intuitions of ZERO, who chimes it into the recesses of his mind, beams images directly into his cerebral cortex.

He cuts across the future of his cockpit being lasered to bits by Puru Two's funnels by raising his shield, by now well-hardened and even appreciative of the only language that he shares with the burgeoningly aware ZERO System. The remote beam cannons' energy blasts score marks against the bright-red shield, the metal holding ever so briefly as brilliant yellow sparks shatter across its abused metal.

All this while, Heero is launching a counterattack already; machine cannons open and pop, up to twelve fierce gatling cannons rolling their payload out to try striking the incoming Quebeley... to no effect. He isn't accurate enough -- not fast enough.

"I don't intend on dying today," Heero announces in return to her.

From underneath the shield arm, the Twin Buster Rifle is held aloft. It fires as Heero barrels towards its flank, cutting forth a quick beam of destruction towards his opponent... attemping to read her movements, fire seconds ahead of where she will be. Can he do it?

A few hours ago

"All systems nominal. No decontamination necessary." Duat claims after the system has run a full diagnostics. "Thank you Duat. I'm glad you charged that shield. After doing some talking with mister Flynn, it seems that Kojima radiation is... bad." If that wasn't the understatement of the day.

The young man lets his gaze flick across some of the screens that have come up, along with one that indicates the buffer size for the A.I. versus the Metatron energy flow size into the cockpit. "It's grown again." He mutters. "We need to get you another update. Let's let back to NUT."

Now

A streak of red once again scars space as the high-velocity Orbital Frame rushes through space, leaving a trail of Metatron residue to spark behind the thick expanded crystals that are allowing for planetary escape-speed. And whilst it travels, that path takes it along to the direction of Axis when Duat pops up a window that alerts him of the current state of that base.

"Mark it." A radar becomes visible, and Axis gets marked. Then additional blips appear. "What's that in the asteroid field?" The blips disappeared, and suddenly many more identifiers pop up. Katharon IFFs. "Let's pick something that looks like it is straggling. Maybe cut off their escape path." Ascian asks Duat.

The combat computer immediately identifies a Gundam-II further in the back of the line, and Ascian takes that hint immediately. The frame rushes off towards it and alters its right arm into the shape of a rifle, and raises it up towards the oblivious target. And within less than a second, it's charged and firing bursts of red plasma that fly somewhat 'ahead' of the unit. Duat had calculated, with its current path, it should strike by the time it moved into position.

So Heero was holding out for a hero? This was an almost funny turn of events. If Heero's life was not in danger, so it's really not that funny. Still she has become fond of Heero as of late and comes out of wanting to help him than just some sense of he's with Katharon itself. So here she is on the Argama getting reacy to launch.

Now

The Phoebe is on the launch deck at the moment, The Pheobe launches and follows off after The Zeta.

"Fire Dancer, Gundam Pheoebe launching!"

Away she goes into the void and towards Axis. Haman may be dead and a feast for space worms but Neo Zeon is still a problem.

"Kallen, Camille, I'll try to run some interferance for you two with my remotes, hopefully . And there sure is Laura, let's see. Looks like it's their own personel for the most part Laura. Neo Zeon's got quite the warmachine going."

 Chang Wufei transmits, "Looks like you could use a bit of help, Heero."

 Heero Yuy transmits, "If you can spare any."

 Chang Wufei transmits, "On my way.."

Something twitches in Katz's head right before Ascian's attack is fired. The squinty eyed Newtype quickly evades the round, almost crashing into an asteroid in the process. He breaths a sigh of relief, widening his eyes at the Asteroid. "I'd be a fool to crash into one of you guys! And my mom didn't raise a fool"

Fun Fact: According to Frau Kobayashi, Katz was a not just a fool but someone who almost became a ward of the space state. She did the best she could.

Katz undocks the Beam rifle and closes his eyes, sensing for the source. Finally, he shoots his eyes open and swings around to aim at the BAHRAM machine. "Got you! I won't go down without a fight!"

The Gundam Mk.II fires it's beam rifle repeatedly in a messy spray of gunfire. This was the Katz method of hitting a target.

For the record, Camille isn't a hundred percent sure how Katz got in on this either. He probably shouldn't have left Roux a message on her machine. "Katz, just... stay close or something." He did not want to be the hotshot pilot responsible for getting Hayato's son killed or something like that.

"Heero's just that kind of guy." He flashed a smile to Kallen who was, of course, welcome on his back any time. The question was if he was welcome on hers..?!

The answer is: No, forever.

He's particularly glad the pilot of the 'White Doll' was able to help. Strange-looking a Gundam as it was, even Camille couldn't deny the power it had displayed in the Balmarian conflict, and the technology powering it was of great interest to him as a quasi-professional engineer (But not as interesting as boobs, apparently. Again, look at who he's teaming up with). "Fortunately for us, I don't think thing Ghingnham was invited to this party. But Neo-Zeon and their friends are no slouches, even with Haman Karn dead." The Newtype frowned to that; Axis had recovered /terribly/ quick in the wake of Karn's demise...an absent part of him wondered if Captain Quattro had something to do with this.

But with giant space kangaroos and sharks materializing out of nowhere, who the hell cared about that Red Comet?! Camille grimace at the feeling of cthonic horror emanating from that mockery of Australia's friendliest critter (OOC Note: Kangaroos are not friendly fuck them) and knew, of course, that it meant he probably would need to deal with it. "The DC always has crazy shit like this.." He muttered to himself, off-com, "Oh well, at least there aren't any Codarls."

"Got it, Macua. Kallen, i'm going after Skippy at 12 o'clock, you can back me up or find your own dance partner, but i'm transforming in just a second!" True to his word, the Zeta snap out and into it's humanoid form in short order, sweeping down on the Animus Machine like a predator of the stars with furious plasmatic thunder to bake its prey.

Altron cut through the debris field faster than most of the other gundams could manage, mainly due to the fact that Wufei was slicing through some of the smaller pieces of debris with his Trident. However, Wufei wasn't close enough to stop Puru Two from firing at Heero's Wing Zero. This only ticked off Wufei. In his all out attempt to get to Heero and get Puru Two off of him, Altron's left arm shoots out towards Puru Two's machine, attempting to pierce a leg, at least..

"Or, you know, run off and attack an Orbital Frame, one of the nastiest pieces of work around." Camille would do a picture-perfect rendition of picard.jpg if he hadn't just engaged, "God damn it, Katz."



Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... er... into space...

To be honest, Rhyss rarely cares much for Divine Crusader holdings. She only assists them because the person she works for has decided to ally himself to them. That's fine. She hates him as well. Rhyss is an equal opportunity hater. "What have we here?" A white machine is a big target. Not only is it highly visible, but an ace who paints their unit white usually has some silly ideal like purity or justice or something. A -hero-. Well, Rhyss knows how to handle heroes.

The Hammerhead swishes its tail, and all four ion boosters light up, propelling it forward swiftly. The Zoid darts around space debris, in between dueling Mobile Suits, and slowly closes in on its target.

Dunh... dunh. Dunh... dunh. Dunh dunh. Dunh dunh. Dunhdunhdunhdunhdunhdunh...

Jaws opening wide, the Hammerhead launches toward the Astelion, intent on latching on and ripping a chunk off!

 Camille Bidan transmits, "Careful Heero, that's probably Puru Two on your trail."

 Heero Yuy transmits, "Yeah... it's a Newtype, alright."

"Nngh--" Marchionessa Idunn groans as the Machine Beast's pain travels across the psychic wavelength they share and threatens - briefly - to overwhelm her own nervous system. "--hnn--no--Ormsgore B4 is stronger than that!" she resolutely informs Camille.

Well. Okay. She /tries/ to inform Camille of this; what actually winds up transmitting to Zeta Gundam's cockpit is:

o/~ Without thought, without voice, without a soul Don't let me die here There must be something more Bring me to life... o/~

It /probably/ lacks the same punch as a proper show of adversarial arrogance, but it's what she's got.

Despite - or, more likely, /because/ of - the damage done to the Machine Beast, as soon as it's recovered from plasma flashing across its body, it lunges ferociously at Zeta Gundam. Its maw parts, spraying droplets of spittle every which way as it bears down on the mobile suit, and then--


 * SNAP*

--they'll try to close with Zeta's shoulder trapped betwixt them.

At long last, the space ahead is clear of debris.

Instead, it is full of mecha and an asteroid base.

Staren transforms to GERWALK mode and takes a brief moment to orient himself as he slows down before shifting all the way down to Battroid. It looks like the enemies are all occupied, as his allies meet with them... In that case, perhaps this is the perfect time to hit them ALL with an attack while they're distracted...

Staren's eyes track back and forth as reticles appear on his HUD, in what looks like someone photoshopped him into some Gundam SEED Kira stock footage, and then ports on the VF and its super parts open, and the area around him is filled with smoke as too many projectiles to count take off...

And then the Crusaders (and one A-LAWS, oops) are sent to the Missile Dimension, where nothing exists but missiles. And Katharon punching or zapping them or whatever.

The Orbital frame turns around the axis created by drawing a stright line between Katz's Gundam II and the Amenthes, basically barrel-rolling on the entire 3D-plane around the beams, whilst retaliating with well-aimed shots that one by one fly for the Gundam's extremities - shoulders and legs.

"This pilot..." Ascian mutters. "It's nothing like the guy we faced last night. We got this, Amenthes!" A grin forms on his face. "Don't be overconfident!" Duat warns the framerunner. And he nods in reply. "Right. Here we go!" The high velocity machine keeps spinning in and out between the incoming beams, then changes its rifle arm back to a normal hand once more.

It then bends down a bit, whilst still flying straight for the Gundam II, whilst picking up a foursome of red balls of energy from the tailfeathers, which had formed whilst dodging. Spheres filled with volatile Metatron energy, surrounded by a thin pulsing shell of compressed space. Kept inside, leaking out slightly in the form of red embers, sparking off of them like fire.

Those orbs 'attach' to its fingers, before it changes its posture and tries to move a path /straight/ past the front of the Gundam II, ignoring the missiles that impact directly on its raised shield, whilst launching a whole storm of those volatile 'bomb's at the unit.

Puru Two isn't just a Newtype. She's an artificially enhanced and questionably stable Newtype. Worst of all, one who is currently rather pissed off. Heero may not have personally thrown her out of bed, but he might as well have with his poorly timed shenanigans. Nobody gets away with that. ...oh, and he stole something or other, but it's not like that matters nearly as much as being personally slighted in some way.

As long as the young girl's mind remains perfectly focused on the task at hand, she's going to make predicting the future a pretty difficult thing to do. She'll even predict the moves that her opponent will be making based on what they're predicting her own moves will be. As a result, the red Qubeley suddenly veers off from its apparent trajectory in a completely different direction in order to avoid the large beam of energy sent to where she would have been if she hadn't done that. "Tough," is her one-word retort to Heero's assertion.

She's not as unconcerned as that sounded, though. She's heard about Wing Gundam and its Buster Rifle. A direct hit from that could potentially end this fight instantly. She'd better stay on the ball and not get distracted, or...

She promptly gets distracted. Wufei's aggression being directed at her makes it easy for her to sense that another Gundam is coming for her. Not altogether unexpected that reinforcements would seek to help out the fleeing unit, but it is rather annoying. The extended arm is spotted well in time, the Zeon mobile suit withdrawing a Beam Saber from its forearm to forcefully swat it aside.

"More Gundams?! Heh, that's just fine. Come on then! One at a time or all at once, I don't care!" With that, the Funnels split up into two groups, six swarming around each of the Wing Boys.

Erika sighs quietly as the battle erupts, not really feeling the fire she usually does. This entire trip to Axis has been a bit of a damper after all and she's ancious to go back home to Mars where she can make a difference instead of being here where she feels so... out of place. Still, she can't just let Katharon make off with Crusader secrets, even if she doesn't feel very enthusiastic about this. With one final deep breath, Erika expels all the twisted feelings inside of her and then focuses on her target. The RF Gouf suddenly accelerates, diving in towards the formation of invading katharon units. The heat rod extends, lashing through space like a beam tipped whip before cracking towards the Phoebe Gundam.

That long metal coil fully disgorges from Axis's side. Its forward tip stiffens, a covering sliding back to reveal a complex and subtle head, with eyestalks extending and glowing a luminous, luciferian red, a serrated-tooth mouth gloating open...

In her padded couch in Axis's bowels, Elenia lets herself grin. She likes the Velantian. It's familiar, even coming on the other side of a horrible last few months.

The polyoptical viewscreen shows her various Gundams and other units starting to whip around. The Velantian loops its lower body around an extruded piece of heat sink to gauge the situation, Elenia rolling her conventional mundane eyes at the sight of a flying kangaroo-thingy. How ridiculous, she thinks.

An incoming missile smashes into the Velantian's current location. The burst throws it clear, along with that particular heat sink cluster; the dragonlike machine's mouth opens and sends a shriekingly silent beam of starkly inconcievable force back the way that missile came, before spreading out thruster modules and tacking forwards. Towards what?!

Towards the most precious thing on this battlefield.

The Velantian may not look much like anything Laura has seen before, resembling some kind of devil-penis-snake from Hell instead of a proper machine. The six serrated-claw forelimbs strike outwards as it closes relentlessly, aiming to grapple at Turn A's arm and shoulder in preparation for its tail-drill to slide along, screaming and aiming to dig in deep!

"Got it, Mac," Kallen responds to the blue-haired Gundam Fighter, glancing about as Katharon's various allies gather for the fight; units like the Astelion and the White Doll are noted, but not knowing their pilots, Kallen doesn't offer them any words of greeting. Despite having some experience fighting space, she's still far from an expert in it, and she's keeping her eyes sharp for who's where rather than chit-chatting unnecessarily. She flashes a smile back at Camille, unaware of the direction in which his thoughts right, then fades quickly into a sober scowl of concentration.

"I'll back you up," the redhead replies when Camille gives her a head-up on what he intends on doing, and releases the Guren's grip on the Zeta just a few seconds before it shifts modes and zooms in on his target. Kallen glances only briefly in the direction of Hero's Gundam before she fires a Slash Harken from behind Camille towards the Animus Machine.

As she does so, though, the enemy machine opens transmissions to... play a song at them?? Kallen squints in confusion. "Camille, why the hell is that unit playing rock music at us?" The guitar is actually pretty good, she thinks. Of course, Kallen has the advantage of a) having not heard that song on the radio, every half-hour, for about a year straight and b) not being able to quite make out the lyrics due to not really listening to them.

 Chang Wufei transmits, "Hmf. this one's actually good. Heero, get ready to bail I don't want you taking too much damage."

Heero sees Wufei's more direct style of combat serve as a buffer between him and the very aggressive Puru Two; it gives him just enough breathing space to parry another potentially devastating attack with his shield. The Funnels swarm in, once more, and finally punch through with enough force to crack and shatter that shield of the Wing Zero's apart.

Red and white Gundanium fragments fall past the Wing Zero's right gauntlet, as its wings spread into four and bring him across space. Already the fight was getting rather intense; these Funnels are going to overwhelm him and fast if he doesn't do something about them.

He feels a pulse ringing through his head.

"Yeah... we have no choice, ZERO. Let's do it," Heero mutters as he brings up his lock-on sensor. He sees multiple crosshairs fly as an angry swarm of bees towards the Quebeley, sensing and detecting her. This is going to be a hard shot; he's going to have to punch through with one attack if he wants to get the better of her.

The Wing Zero's aiming sensor stops into final lock. '>>>> ROCK ON <<<<', it says. The Gundam's Rifle bifurcates, and Heero holds one of them aloft as a decidedly threatening whirr overcomes the sound of machinery in his cockpit. The charge levels are turning red.

"Firing the Buster Rifle. Eliminating the target," Heero intones. How long has it been since he's said that?

A familiar bright burst of light cuts across space. Unlike the beam before, it's sustained, and rattling the battered arm and even the barrel of the rifle it's firing from. If he were doing this on Earth, he'd likely have overheated something serious.

"I know, Camille! But I need to help out if i'm going to be a hero! I got this!" Katz says cheerfully, clearly missing Camille's tone. He knows his best friend only cares about his well being. He knows that is why Camille is so hard on him....Despite what his Newtype senses tell him about Camille. Katz was pointless optimistic about his usefulness to the Argama and Katharon.

It is this thinking that makes Katz not sense the incoming fire from Ascian's machine. The Gundam is struck pretty hard by the attack, almost losing all it's systems in one hit. Katz's eyes widen as he screams. "Damnit! I can't lose! I need to win! Damnit! Gundam, didn't you agree to help me see my dreams?!"

Katz undocks a beam saber and charges toward Ascian's Orbital Frame, attempting to cleave it in two. "DAMN YOU!!!"

The White Doll darts through the battlefield, its arms spread. One carries a shield, the other is empty-- Gundams usually mount beam sabers in recharge racks, but the lack of beam rifle is a little weird for space combat.

"There's the Wing Gundam!" Laura excitedly tells the silent computer in her cockpit. "Can it get out quickly?"

The VR Helmet, a dome that folds out from the chair to surround Laura's head, gives the pilot a remote viewing of the unfolding battle with Puru Two. The young teen frowns. "I should get there as fast-- urhghk"

While her attention is elsewhere, the snakey monster thing sent from the depths of Axis's most comfortable couch plows into the side of the Turn A Gundam. Its claws skitter across the machine doll's surface, seemingly unable to find purchase.

The mustached mobile suit flails, punching wildly at the offending monster. The two are still locked enough that the Velantian goes for the tail-drill anyway. Laura's eyes widen. "A... DRILL?!"

With boosters hidden in its hips, the White Doll quickly inverts itself, the tail darting in but finding only empty space! This leaves Laura perpendicular to the monster, which means it's all too easy to reach down and grab the drill with her suit's surprisingly powerful arms.

Laura wrestles with it for a bit, struggling with the undoubted resistance, but nevertheless using her own thrusters to try to spin it around and use the tail drill against her assailant! Who needs beam rifles when there's so many things on the battlefield to use?!

"I have no freaking idea, these guys field some really messed up shit sometimes." It's even worse for Camille, who gets to here that song /directly in his brain/, being a Newtype sucks. "But they're also unpredictable, so you can't let how ridiculous they look or act fool yo-fuck!"

Camille himself nearly fails to take his own advice as the mechanized marsupial tries to take a big, juicy by of Gundam Mignon. Verniers adjust and fire, giving the unknown pilot the tantalizing taste of nearly sampling the Zeta's shoulder and losing it just as quickly with only the the backhanded smack of the Gundam's shield across it's jaw to account for the effort..

"..like that, yes." He opened a quick com to the star of this little operate, "Heero, the Argama's on the outside of battlezone, i'm feeding you the coordinates now. Try and lose the Qubeley if you can and get over there!" They weren't here to get bogged down in a battle of attrition after all, but aid in the one-man agent's escape.

Macua Huitl radios back. "Got it Cammile, watch your self out there. Same to you Kallen and Laura. Wait what I know that feeling!"

Macua feels someone else comming in. It's a Gouf of some sort? She sees the heat wire comming in there's not much of a chance to say much more. She feels a few other presences but attempts to turn them out as best she can. She opens fire with her head vulcans as she's caught byt the whip. She's actually hit bad. It seems by luck or skill Erika has really done some bad damage to the Phoebe. It's not so much external as it is internal damage. The machine reels back, but as it does so, the spikes on the back detatch and are clearly funnels. They fly away from the machine heading after erika, some come from above, others come from below and several comes from the sides, all them firing as Macua attemps to create a crossfire zone.

"Even with Haman dead...you still presist in her madness!"

Wufei missed with the dragon fang, and is nailed by Two's return attack, apparently a storm of Gundaium fragments. "nnnngh. Gotta find a way to help heero get out of here." As he begins to close with the Quebley, he turns his eye to see Heero's Buster rifle begin to rise. "Right. Let's see if we can't hold that Quebley still long enough..." Once his left arm retracts, Altron tosses his Trident into his other hand, to fire out the other Dragon Fang at the Quebley, this time, hoping to keep her in place long enough for heero's shot...

On the one hand, hitting the Hammerhead on the head is somewhat effective. That's where the cockpit is, after all, marked in nice, bright orange. Rhyss doesn't seem bothered by the railgun slamming down just inches from her head, though. The missiles, on the other hand, are a bit more worrying. At such close range, there isn't much she can do to dodge, so she just opens her Zoid's own missile bay doors. "Yes, yes. I see it..."

More missiles incoming, but Rhyss can't do much about those either. She does let one of the fired missiles fly back toward the farther source, but the other three are directed right at the Astelion. There's still close contact, though, and that's -exactly- what Rhyss wants. "Hello, little girl..." There is no radio, no viewscreen, just the Zoidian's voice carrying through the physical contact between the Hammerhead and the Astelion. The effect is somewhat echoey... or maybe that's just Rhyss herself? Either way, it sounds more like a ghost than a human. "Don't panic, now. Soon I'll show you how useless your presence here is." The twin hyper beam guns mounted underneath each side of the Hammerhead's head swivel forward and lock into place. The Zoid flicks its tail and releases its deathgrip of a bite, floating back just as the beams fire toward the white machine. "Now be nice and just die."

 Katz Kobayashi transmits, "Why?! Why are you doing this Gundam?!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Katz, fall back! The Mk. II is not equipped to take on an OF!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Also, that guy is insane!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "Who is it?"

<Radio: A - Chat> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "I need to be useful, Camille! I'm sick of being useless to you guys! I want to be a hero!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Katz, I'll cover you!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Katz, you won't be useful to anyone _dead_. You have to be careful!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "But I....I need to win!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "You should listen to Staren, Katz"

<Radio: A - Chat> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "I...I just keep failing...Alright! But tomorrow, I will prove to you guys that I can be useful! I'll end this war once and for all."

<Radio: A - Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Also,Heero! The Argama's on the outside of battlezone, I'm feeding you the coordinates now. Try and lose the Qubeley if you can and get over there!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Heero Yuy transmits, "Roger that. I'll provide as much backup as I can before my time is out."

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "You do NOT need to win, Katz! This isn't a game! If you sacrifice your life to 'win' one battle, you've lost!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Well, that depends on the battle...ugh, no, we don't have time for this!"

Great, funnels. Erika inwardly sighs as she grips the controls. Her RF Gouf goes into evasive maneuvers, successfully dodging around the mobile gun platforms with skilled ease. Then Macua mentuons Haman and Erika just twitches, her concentration momentarily broken. That's all it takes for two fo the funnels to tag her suit, but erika ignores the damage as she feels a little big of that fire return to her. "Excuse me?" The beam sword makes it's appearance as the Rf Gouf pushes ahead, it's blade licking out against the hull of the Phoebe. "You don't even know me, so I would greatly appreciate it if you were not to arbitrarily compared me to that insane /bitch/." There's a bit of an edge to Erika's voice as she glares across the void towards the Phoebe, "besides, I don't know what madness you're talking about. All Neo Zeon has done /since/ Karn died was tried to get it's shit together. /You're/ the ones instigating this battle. How about you let a nation at least get it's house in order before you start accusing them, hmmm?" The beam sword flips around in Erika's hand, holding it in a reserve grip as she charges. The RF Gouf hurtles in straight on, but feints at the last second and tries to duck under Macuia's guard to shiv her machine in the side.

Insolent is along for the ride, and Sam is already feeling a little bit stunned by the speed at which the Katharon forces blitz out of the debris field and come charging at them. He hangs back for a moment, letting the Qubeley and the Wing Gundam charge into the fray, watching as lines of light erupt across the section of space and start burning everything away.

Sam shivers. Some days he wonders why he does things like this. He takes a deep breath--

The Armored Core rushes forward on a flare of white light. Blue tinges the edges of the brilliance on which it rides, approaching at ludicrous speeds and rapidly catching up to the cluster of Gundams and other more esoteric mobile weapons. It closes in a bee-line, slowing only as it passes by breaking off in a gentle curve, heading off into space on the edge of the debris field. Two quick flashes of light burn from it.

Space silences the machine gun it carries, firing 'downward' at the Guren as it comes back around. The NEXT changed direction fast; whatever it has in there is doing a good job of keeping the pilot from being in a bad place physically from the sudden shift in velocity and direction. "Don't worry, I've got you covered," Sam transmits to the thing Marchionessa appears to be controlling. He has no idea if she hears him.

Staren's focus is grabbed by one thing in particular: Katz is in trouble.

Great.

Well, good guys have to save people whether they like them or not. Staren watches the orbital frame Katz is fighting for a moment, evaluating its armament and watching its pilot's style... then nods as he comes up with a plan to pull the pilot's attention away from Katz.

Cut to a battroid flying foot-first at the Amenthes. "Thunderbolt Kick!" This is followed up by the sudden activation of beam armblades and a series of slashes. "Thunderbolt Slash!"

That should get Ascian's attention!

The radio inside the Astelion blinks open, transmitting across space-ghost-shark voices to Ibis as she tries to missile her way out of a jam, which doesn't work because Jesus that's retarded why are you even trying that. The redhead rolls her eyes at the message. "Sorry, no plans on dying--" she starts to retort, which is cut short because the Hammerhead lets go of the white armoured module and blasts it square in the face with beam lasers. Fuck. Getting shot! Her only weakness!

The Astelion is a quick machine for such a bulky peice of ass, and the boost drive fires almost immediately as soon as that big-ass shark lets go, meaning that instead of taking a fatal shot to the chest and incinerating the pilot block, it just grazes the edge of the beam and only loses one of those huge, fragile and expensive sonic breaker modules on the shoulder, as well as most of an arm. And the electronics are largely fried. God damn it, why does she ever /pilot/ this gigantic peice of shit? No biggie. No sweat.

"Why the hell does the shark shoot lasers?!" roars Ibis once more in abject confusion, a real pilot lost in a crazy supers world, as she tries to swing her battered unit around to keep her transversal velocity up against Rhyss's lethal space laser shark while she peppers it with missiles, most of which are prone to spending more time making pretty sweet loopy complicated crisscrossing trails in space rather than actually hitting things. SDF-1 surplus, clearly.

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Go, Katz!"

"Sword!" Duat shows the image of it as the Gundam II's arm reaches to the beamsaber's holding place. "Help me out, Duat." The Orbital Frame shifts slightly to the right and shifts its left arm into that of a blade and raises it quickly, catching the descent of the saber onto its Metatron powered arm-sword. Sparks of melting metal soon jump off of the frame, as the beam digs slightly into it. The frame itself shudders a bit.

"We got this!" Ascian then suddenly calls, and Amenthes' right arm goes up into the 'air', shifts to a sword as well, and cuts STRAIGHT through wrist of the hand that held the beam saber, before the frame quickly spins around, kicks its legs against the Gundam II, and like a dancer of sorts manages to 'jump away' from the incoming attack, which Duat had warned him off.

"Thank you Duat." The bluehaired framerunner says, which gets an immediate reply from the female voiced combat computer; "Simply abiding to my programming, sir."

The wings quickly push away from the Orbital Frame and form a ring around it, from its feet to its head, along its sides. A perfect ring between them. Metatron energy is bursting from all directions. "Think you can get them both?" Ascian challenges his A.I. -- "With your help." Duat replies. -- "That's just what I wanted to hear!"

Red dots form at the ends of the 'wings', which quickly flare, sending a slight 'ring' outwards, whilst a stream of red lines flow from them. Like razers, they cut through the darkness of space, split up, and then snake around like mad magical wires, spinning a web around both of the mobile suits: attempting to cut off their escape paths by forming a sphere around them, and cutting into them on their last reflected path. After all, these lasers were ignoring physics, and led along a path!

A missile explodes against the back of Ormsgore B4's cranium!

A Slash Harken cuts across its back, exposing one of its mechanically reinforced spines!

And last - but certainly not least - Zeta Gundam's shield whacks it soundly across the jaw, snapping one of its metal teeth right from its skull and leaving streaks of sticky saliva across the surface of the shield!

Each blow enrages the Machine Beast, but in the soundless void of space its fury goes unheard; Bardos Island is another matter, however.

Marchionessa Idunn grits her teeth in discomfort and swallows the phantasmal pain when the missile explodes; when the Slash Harken cuts across its back, she hunches forward, one hand leaving the control staff to clutch her face tightly. Her whole body shakes; crimson colours the corners of her vision, and she struggles to bring Ormsgore's emotions - and her /own/ emotions - back under control, for both their sakes.

And then the Machine Beast is cracked across the jaw; Idunn's own head snaps in the same direction as Ormsgore's, and as she reorients her trembling head, any hope she may have had of keeping herself and Ormsgore from bleeding into one another today slips away. Her eyes are open as wide as they'll go, and her teeth are exposed in an angry rictus; barely human growls emanate from her throat, interspersed with labored breathing.

Quite similarly, Ormsgore - despite its smoking, smoldering, and bleeding - does little more than hover in space, growling and twitching with each new wave of pain that courses through it. Until, that is--

|            |                                                --o--  FLASH  --o-- |            |

--its abdominal pupil distends to admit a number of small spheres into the darkness. Each is nigh on identical to its source: jaundiced, glowing, seemingly alive. Each dances through the darkness to try taking up positions all around Zeta Gundam, and once they've found their places, they'll give off a great flash in concert before turning so that each and everyone is staring at Zeta Gundam.

And then, in concert, they'll fire sizzling ruby beams meant to fry Zeta and its pilot in one brilliant stroke!

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn transmits, o/~ Wake me up insi-- o/~ before it's suddenly truncated by the sound of a stereo system being crushed. Also by the sound of her roaring in a most unladylike/human fashion.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Rhyss transmits, "Oh, what a lovely sound."

Puru Two gets exactly what she asked for: a two-on-one it is. She lets her remote weapons do all of the work, so that she'll be free to maneuver her own unit in whatever way it needs to. It was a good plan.

But the plan didn't include getting her movement restricted in some way. While Puru Two focuses on making sure she can not be wherever the Buster Rifle might fire next, one of the Qubeley's oversized shoulder binders is snagged by some kind of dragon-arm. The girl lets out a yelp in panic, knowing that if she's held onto like that, there's no way she'll be able to react quickly enough.

Unable to break free, there's only one thing she can do. She has one of her Funnels blast her own unit in the shoulder, to completely sever the binder from the rest of the machine. In that same instant, the Buster Rifle fires. "Ahhhh!"

Her movement was based moreso on panic and pure survival instinct than planning this time, but lucky for her, it worked. If she'd broken free and gotten away from her held position one fraction of a second later...

She watches the large energy blast that narrowly passed her by with shock and awe. It may not have extinguished her unit, but it certainly doused her spirit. She thought that previous shot from Buster Rifle was as big as it was going to get. This is patently ridiculous. It's not worth getting killed over getting your sleep disturbed. ...oh, and that other thing. What /is/ it that guy stole anyway, it must be pretty important if they the Gundams are coming out in force like this, armed with weaponry like that. Regardless, she wonders out loud, "Wh-what the heck kind of overkill is that?! Are you crazy?!" That feels a little ironic somehow.

Even though it grabbed her just now, and cost her one of the shoulder stabilizers, suddenly the other Gundam seems like a much more minor concern. She probably hasn't seen the full force of what it can do yet, but whatever it is, it's unlikely to compare to the Buster Rifle. It's quite obvious that it could take her out in a single shot. Naturally, she cannot allow it to fire again, three times may well be the charm. Taking down this machine to complete a mission or settle some vague grudge doesn't matter anymore, this is purely a matter of survival at this point. The shield is gone; now's the time to go all out.

All the Funnels that were harassing the Altron Gundam cease to do so, and instead fly off to join the ones that were focusing on Wing Zero. A focused beam assault of twelve Funnels seeks out to disable the machine's limbs and/or its weapon in particular - anything that'll keep it from firing that rifle again. Of course, if it were to disable the machine itself in the process, so much the better.

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Go, Katz!"

<Radio: A - Chat> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "Alright! Thank you"

<Radio: A - Chat> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "Damnit! He's still got me in his sights"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Damn it, can't I ever get away from that band?!?!?!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Thaaaat didn't sound good."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "Try getting shot at by /GIANT DEATH LASERS/, you'll have better things to worry about."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Elenia Weyland lets out an abrupt gasp.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "On that note, what did this guy do, anyway? What was so important that they sent some kind of one-man army?"

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

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn transmits, "/Who cares/?! Crush--tear him--kill--destroy him!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "But generally speaking, when a Gundam that isn't yours is high-tailing it away from one of your bases, you chase it."

Obviously they only _look_ like lasers (or rather, the popular conception of what lasers look like, since you can't see the beams of real lasers) -- Staren realizes too late how they're behaving, and his already pockmarked-from-crusader-counterattacks valkyrie has criss-crossing lines burned into its armor. "Rrgh... stupid orbital frames..." He draws his gunpod, and takes a page out of Katz's book and just starts firing a seemingly never-ending spray of bullets, trying to make a firing pattern that Ascian will have difficulty dodging, as he moves between the orbital frame and the Gundam.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "You don't run unless y--geez, alright, alright."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "Okay, none of you are telling me anything I don't already know here."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Elenia Weyland transmits, "/Darcy/?"

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

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Rhyss transmits, "Sounds like you know our violent songbird."

Macua Huitl seems to be tracking the other for the moment as her machine as she listens to the other but says nothing in response against the other machine. She listens to wha tthe other one says and she sgive no reply no answer, but her machine does move, dodging the beam sword, twisting out of the way like she saw it comming and uses the machine's shield to intercept it. There's damage to it but not the rest of the machine. A moment later Erika would find her machine staring down the barrel of the Phoebe's rifle.

"Unlike most funnel users I remember to keep up on the basics!"

She opens fire both a solid slug rifle with an underslung beam weapon. She then pulls away from the other, and keeps shooting all the whiloe as the funnels reform into a new formtion.

The snakelike monster is drilled most profoundly, the drill scoring into layers of gray-black plating before it deactivates with a hiss of coolant gasses. Elenia flinches, feeling phantom pain in the side of her knee --

Elenia exhales with force, then. And speaks.

It transmits to the Turn A through the power of TOUCH TALK. "Yes," she says, rather snittily, "a drill. Do you have drills? Listen, young lady, if you stand down this is going to go a lot better for everyone."

Something tickles faintly at the back of her mind. Elenia ignores it; the tickles have never meant much or amounted to anything, except when she went to Monte Carlo and cleaned up.

The Velantian's mouth gapes -- and then it suddenly snaps shut, the machine twisting around in a manner that may mildly discomfit the White Doll. It seems suddenly distracted.

ON AXIS

Elenia gasps in horror, eyes widening to the size of saucers. Aloud, to the point of disturbing a comms man near her, she says, "DARCY??"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn bellows, "/WHAT--/" before cutting herself off; the link remains open for several seconds of growling and panting that's steadily decreasing in volume.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn transmits, "--muh--"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn transmits, "--/mom/?"

Man, now Camille will *never* get that song out of his head.

"Are you all right?" Kallen asks the Newtype sharply. This is followed by a humorless 'heh,' and she adds, "No, this is you we're talking about. I'll keep that in mind. That song served as a hell of a distraction tactic--"

Case in point, there's now another unit swooping in towards her and firing a machine gun at her to try to separate her from Marchionessa's unit. It does a good job at that, at least; Kallen hits the Guren's thrusters while returning fire, managing to avoid getting shot while getting the enemy some in return. "Tch--looks like I'll have to cover you from the opposite direction now, Camille," she tells her companions. "Macua's gotten tied up, too--"

The Guren's silver claw uncurls then, spreading its fingers as maroon-black microwaves begin to bubble out from it. Changing the Guren's trajectory to compensate for the balance, Kallen charges Samuel's unit hand-first, aiming to grab a part of his mech and just blow it to hell.

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

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Wait, when'd she get here -"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "What the /CLAW/!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Elenia Weyland transmits, "What on /Earth/ -"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn transmits, "C--/Ceci/?!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Samuel Flynn transmits, "Holy /shit/ this is--okay, family reunion later, Katharon shooting now!!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Rhyss's voice has a somewhat echoing quality to it, "Oh, a family reunion? How nice..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Puru Two transmits, "Oh for crying out-- yeah, seriously, can we not have any touching family reunions while I'm barely managing to stay alive out here?"

As the swarm of missiles flies toward the Hammerhead, it rockets up slightly, sending several bursts from the smaller pulse laser guns mounted beneath the hyper beam guns. That manages to shoot down a few of the missiles, but several get through, and explosions tear large holes in the hull of the Zoid. "Hmm. Not ready to die yet, then?"

From some of the still-sparking holes, a number of very tiny objects fly out. They're small, no more than an inch or two long, and resemble stag beetles. Surely nobody will notice them flying through space and latching onto the hull of the Astelion. "Hmm. Activate Viking Lance unit." A panel in the bottom of the Hammerhead swings open, and a long, nasty-looking blade and shield float out. The blade affixes itself to the right side of the shark's head, the shield to the left, and several small gears turn to lock them into place. "Now then."

The Ion boosters flare up. As they do, the small insects buzz. Once more, a is sent across to the AM, not via radio, but somehow it seems to echo directly in the cockpit, coming from everywhere and at the same time nowhere at all. "Why don't you just give up now? It's not like you're of any use to anyone here." The Hammerhead accelerates. "You're some useless failure. Look, you can't even help your friends." It's generic, but it's all Rhyss has to go on for now! She doesn't know Ibis well enough to tailor her torture. But perhaps it's enough to give her an opening as the Hammerhead darts forward, seeking to ram that lance right into the Astelion.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Yes it's me! I've been here /ages/, you'd think some of you would have noticed!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn transmits, "B--but--I--"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Elenia Weyland transmits, "Cecilia I knew /you/ were here we are going to speak later /Darcy which of these people are you/"

The Gundam Mk.II's hand falls clean off from the Metatron's slice. Katz winces as if he could feel the Gundam's pain. Why couldn't he pilot as well as Camille. He was a Newtype! It wasn't fair.

Katz cringes as he hears people yell at him to leave. Why couldn't he do this?! He decides that given his mission tomorrow, he will have to leave despite his pride.

As the Gundam MK.II pulls back, it takes another critical hit from the cutting power of the Orbital Frame's attack. Katz cringes louder, trying to get away and not wreck the Gundam Mk.II any further. "Damnit! Why can' I do this, Gundam?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Marchionessa Idunn tentatively transmits, "Nuh--none of your--" before cutting herself off."

Heero missed again.

Is this the power of the Newtype? He could, for a second, sense how agitated and reactionary that last-minute dodge was... such good instincts. He's going to have to try harder, both in this combat and in the future. Right now, though, he's got to focus hard on actually surviving this... he can't let this information be jeopardized. Katharon's future plans regarding the DC are relying on this.

The Funnels come in again, ever the persistent prey. One by one they're caving in on its structural joints, and everything and anything they can land their hits on. He had no chance to evade -- her all-range attack is dead-on.

In the midst of getting his unit rocked, Heero narrows his eyes and states in response to her, "You've stated your intent to kill me."

Her next plan is quite easy to read -- stop him from using the Buster Rifle again. He's showed his fang, and what she needs to stop if /she/ is going to scrape by out of this. He thinks for a moment about his next plan... but then a bright flash overtakes him for a moment more as the ZERO System informs him of further avenues available to him.

Yes, that is a good plan.

"... Argama actual, open the hatch bay. I am cutting open a path at maximum speeds," Heero announces to his comm. He stares forward, both at his visual and his radar... there's a relatively clean path between him and Puru Two, given he was overtaken by her funnels.

As the last of the Funnel bursts descend on him, the Wing Zero is in rather sorry shape. Previously white Gundanium battered and smelted, warped and pocked with battle damage; one of its eye sockets has burst out, and it's running on three wings instead of four...

...and yet, it's got its remaining Buster Rifle held in place, death shining white-gold down the length of its barrel. Enduring the Funnel swarm to charge the Buster Rifle, purposefully taking damage to gain this advantage.

"Target, auto-lock on...        Error ratio within acceptable parameters.         Adjusting for extrasensory perceptions, confirmed.         Buster Rifle : Maximum Discharge."

The second and final blast erupts from the rifle -- the charge so powerful that it causes the cannon and hand it's holding to both explode. Shortly afterwards, Heero pursues the beam, intent on following it to make his escape...

"Yes, that's great," Erika replies with a rather deadpan tone of voice as her ReFined Gouf darts side to side, evading the sudden barrage of solid abd beam shots, "Congrats and all, good for you." Yes, she is being a little snarky right now. The combination of annoyance and apathy has made her wit a little dry at the moment. "You know, while we're on that subject, you people still have the rightful heir to Neo Zeon in your custody. It would probably go a long way to help stabilize Axis and prevent another sicko like Karn from rising to power if you were to just give her back and all. You know, maybe help end a war that's been going on for the past four or so years. i mean, that's what you Katharonites /do/, isn't it? Meddle in other nation's affairs to try and regulate and end war." the 5-barrel machine gun snaps up and rattles off bullets in return, keeping Macua busy as Erika grabs for her beam rifle. Once she has it in her grip, she adds it's volume of fire to the mix as well.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Ugh, fine."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "Cecilia."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "What?"

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Looks like I'm not as good as I thought I was... but I'll make the best of it."

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "I'm coming in hot."

<Radio: B - Secure> Camille Bidan transmits, "There's no shame in someone like Puru Two getting the better of you. I'll cover you as best I can."

"Is there a woman piloting that or is it by remote?" Laura continues to mutter to herself. She adds, more under her breath: "she sounds a little unreasonable."

This is a grave insult in 1905 New England.

The White Doll continues to wrestle Beowulf-like with the mighty serpent of the stars, completely cut off from the rest of the fight while engaged in this bare-knuckled brawl! It punches the monster in the nose and it does roughly nothing. "Normally, punching things works!" Laura laments.

The beast constricts, its teeth coming down like a steel trap onto the machine doll's shoulder! Despite its scathing jaws, the armor of the Doll Found in the Mountain is preternaturally tough. Nevertheless, while it struggles, the spikes dig deeper and deeper!

"Aghhh!" Laura shrieks, the cockpit rocking about violently. With one eye closed to shield her from the flashing lights holographically projected before her, she guides her angel's hand upward-- to its free shoulder! There, a saber hilt pops out from a recharge rack panel, her fingers wrapping around it!

"Retreat and let Heero go and no one has to get hurt here! If you don't, I'll disable this thing right now!"

Unfortunately, fifteen year olds are impulsive and Laura goes ahead and rams the deactivated saber hilt into the monster's neck. When it snaps on, its flickering, thin beam suddenly explodes brilliantly, becoming a hideously huge claymore of destruction!

"Oh fuck." Laura squeaks, covering her mouth.

It's okay. That probably wasn't the cockpit. Probably.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "I am... glad that you are still doing well."

Ibis grits her teeth and hunkers down in her seat as her cockpit becomes some kind of fucked-up house of horrors, with voices coming from every which way and taunting her and telling her she's a useless failure and all the rest of it. But she's been called a useless failure for like several years now, ain't no thang! If only that stupid helmet weren't in the way, she could do something rad like reach up and wipe the seat from her brow or flick her hair or something stylish. But nope. Helmet. "What, are you getting those tepid burns from a manual or something? I already tied you up for long enough, anything more is a bonus!" laughs Ibis, who probably has not actually glanced up to see if Heero is getting totally spanked by funnels or something.

"Whatever, I've trounced worse than you. Let's go." quips the Astelion pilot, who brings the bulky white Lion-custom about-face towards the Hammerhead as it proceeds to produce a lance and go for the charge. The white humanoid figure proceeds to extend one giant robotic middle finger towards Rhyss's unit as it bears down on it at the speed of stupid.

The Astelion's boost drive fires at the very last second, propelling it out of the Hammerhead's path on a plume of brilliant blue flame. In slow motion, it pirouettes around midair and drags that middle finger over the Hammerhead's cockpit. Ibis cannot beam her god damned voice around the place like Rhyss can so that is pretty much all she can do to wig her out.

Almost as an afterthought to such a sweet manoeuvre, the Astelion's upper abdomen slides open to reveal a pair of 30mm autocannons, which spray a heaping helping of HEAP handshakes the Hammerhead's way.

Camille Bidan says, "Son of a bitch!" Kallen was picked off by some dude and Macua was fighting a battle of her own as well. The whole situation was going to Hell faster than a married interracial gay couple burning the american flag (Not that there's anything wrong with that). "Focus on your own opponents, then. I'll handle this...thing, whatever it is."

Yes, Camille will handle it, as Ormsgore proceeds to get even /more creepy/ than it was before. A chaotic resonance assaults the Newtype's mind, requiring his utmost focus to avoid utterly spacing out at the odd harmony those strange ovoids seem to arrange themselves in with their bizarred parody of living actions. The flashing eyes of the beast-god it was bleeding, was it really alive?!-almost transfix Camille, losing himself in the primal aura the things represented, the basic instinct to kill or be killed in a world that was indifferent to the survival of the individual, of entire species.

The bizarre creations fire in unison, and at the moment Camille experiences a FLASH of his own!

The Zeta Gundam's shield raises, blocking the initial brunt of lancing crimson as verniers shot the mobile suit forward for the opening Camille perceived in the creature's defenses. It was not without sacrifice: melted armor ran like blood down the chassis of the unit as the Gundam closed, fist soaring for the the machine's wounded maw, all but baiting it take another piece of the Zeta.

Was it the infamous Zeta punch?! Looks could be deceiving: the pilot's actions would get them a pair a grenades in the face or down the throat at the last possible moment."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Not like you ever checked before! Do you even remember my birthday?"

"Tssk. Missiles." Ascian growls as the Amenthes quickly is forced to rush back and starts discharging its reformed rifle-arms in order to take down a few of them. But in this close of a proximity, the projectiles catch up quickly and soon rock the Orbital Frame severely.

But even as they impact, and the radar indicates that one unit is fleeing at a point he's judged it battle-incapable, it begins raising its shields and preparing for another attack. Multiple explosions continue to go off, taking off pieces of armor plating and creating pocketholes into the unit. But it doesn't stop.

The rifles come together, and in a manner similar to Heero's twin buster rifle attack, they 'form' into a new seperate weapon of sorts. Energy lashes through the unit, electric sparks jumping here and there. "I'm letting the newbie pilot go. You shouldn't take folk like that into battle." Ascian suddenly calls out at Staren over a direct laser transmission.

And as he says this, space begins to 'warp' a little into the direction of the fighter. The arae around the frame begins to compress, making it harder to move within whilst the twin-rifle comes up and... with a loud 'fwwwwwssssh' sound, a red thick beam sears straight for it, following it almost perfectly, trying to cut into its wings and thrusters.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "Wh- you -"

<Radio> Tightbeam to Katz Kobayashi: Ascian Luddite says, "Go try and be a Hero on someone else's watch."

Altron sits somewhat idly by as the Quebley and her drones disengage to go right after Heero. Wufei growls at the newtype so blatantly ignoring him. "uh uh. You don't get to Heero that easily." His rage might be felt by Puru Two as Altron's wings flare, Intent on charging the Quebley so it doesn't get to heero...even if it means getting caught up in the Buster rifle's shot. As it gets close, Altron raises it's trident to hit the Quebley hard.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Well you don't! I haven't seen you in years except when I had to fight your stupid bug robot!"

<Radio> Tightbeam to Staren Wiremu: Ascian Luddite says, "Leave now, and I won't fire further."

<Radio> Tightbeam to Staren Wiremu: Ascian Luddite, "Now leave!"

Insolent comes at Guren without knowing precisely what it's getting itself into. Samuel's machine gun spits munitions through space at the red mech that is clearly not designed for it, popping off shots to get it's attention.

It clearly works.

Rounds from the gun on it's arm glance off of the armor of the NEXT, striking the sides of the pointed torso and sending sparks of white and pale green off behind it, dragged along in the wake of the machine and fading away in seconds. It closes to melee, it's speed too great to decelerate without problems. The flat device attached to the outside of the left forwarm suddenly lights up, a blade of bright white light surrounded by a blue edge springing to life. He draws it back, swings--

WHAM! The claw meets the Armored Core and the laser blade sweeps across the Guren's torso, jerking weirdly to the side as one of the rounds that glanced off the torso falls out of the shoulder joint, crushed flat. Guren starts to bake the Armored Core and it's pilot, the radiation waves pouring into the side of the AC. Spare ammunition for the machine gun detonates in the torso, shooting chunks of armor and a spray of useless rounds into space, leaving a hole there.

Pale green light surrounds the Armored Core, the Guren that is on top of the thing surrounded by will-o'-wisps that dance and swirl all around the NEXT. They bend inward near the claw, a full field of them pressing against the microwave-spewing weapon, making the Primal Armor go absolutely mad as it repels enough of the radiation to keep the AC from just detonating there and then. Insolent turns it's laser blade forward and starts hacking wildly at the clawed arm, swinging with reckless abandon as the pilot realizes what the hell it is.

Geiger counters near the two mechs go /fucking crazy/.

<Radio: A - Chat> Katz Kobayashi transmits, "I, I think I got away."

Elenia doesn't answer Laura right away. The Velantian is skewered by that savage screaming beam saber, which does...

... surprisingly little. The thing seems to be a tube of actuators; it sparks and wriggles, but when it pulls away it does not seem drastically harmed. One of the arms is hanging partway loose, which is at least progress. The White Doll is not being constricted, the Velantian knotting along itself to reduce its overall firing profile even as Elenia struggles to put her attention back in the game.

She answers Laura with really quite untoward heat. "You're making a very POOR negotiating bargain, young lady! You should know that what you do in a negotiation is that you either make a compromise towards the other person's position --" The drill tail flicks, left, right, right again.

"Or else," Elenia says, voice rising, "You don't make a deal at all!" The Velantian's chest bulges outwards, but unfortunately for certain segments of the audience, it is unfolding an as yet undamaged and unused array of strange weblike elements. They twist around, before their metal outer portions curl around and start glowing red hot, then white hot, then so hot they seem as if they would catch fire in an atmosphere. The thermal radiation bulges for a moment, before spiking --

-- into an armor-piercing lance aimed at the White Doll!!

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland sputters

Time seems to slow down as the Hammerhead darts by underneath the Astelion. Slowly, Rhyss looks up. She sees the finger and rolls her eyes. Typical. She has to get one who's already been damaged. "Well, you've got a little skill. I'll give you that, girl." The followup shots from the machine cannon do a lot more, tearing apart the dorsal fin and punching holes in the Zoid's armor all the way down its back. "Tch... fine then."

This time, Rhyss opens up a real radio frequency. There's a creepy quality in her ees as she stares at the viewscreen, possibly because she doesn't seem to have any pupils. Despite the damage to her machine, she begins to laugh. "You think you're tying me up? That's cute, dear." The tail flicks neatly, and the Hammerhead rolls over and pulls around to face the Astelion once again. "You made one wrong assumption, though."

The audio shuts down, but not the video, just long for the Zoidian to yell... something, before the sound returns. "You assumed I was only here to stall you. I don't really care -what- you do... except -die-." A blue flash lights in the back of her cockpit, and that same blue light glows from all the joints and all the damaged areas on the Zoid. The holes torn open by bullets and missiles begin to close up, the dorsal fin grows back, and the entire Hammerhead begins to grow... and grow... and grow. Underneath the pectoral fins, a pair of two-barreled cannons swivel forward and begin to fire, sending a volley of energy spheres flying toward the Astelion.

Staren smirks just slightly as his bullets rattle the orbital frame... and then shakes his head a bit at the comment that comes back. "He forced his way into battle. He's been... difficult to teach."

And then: HAX SPACE WARP BEAM

Staren tries to evade, but something is wrong with space itself -- all light cones lead to a beam punching through his valkyrie -- something explodes and begins spewing smoke.

He can still fight. The other pilot asks him to go. "Not yet... not while Heero is still here..."

The Valkyrie transforms, creaking and straining as it takes GERWALK form for more mobility. It begins to glow hot on infrared sensors as Staren pushes everything to the limit -- All the parts will need replacing after this, but with so much damage most fo them will need it _anyway_... He fires another burst of gunfire and a missile volley as a distraction, then flies in in a zigzag -- the armblade emitters crackle and spark as the blades grow larger and brighter, Staren overfilling them with plasma and stretching the I-Field... and then suddenly he charges in with a stab, before slashing and pulling back, zipping around and attacking again from behind, and again, and again, and again...

Macua Huitl has indeed got tied up pretty well by a Gouf. Gouf vs Gundam, a tale as old as both models. She is keeping Erika away from Kallen, Laura and Camille at least. It doesn't look like she'll be able to break off from them any time soon with how doggedly the other machine is hunting after her.

"She's somewhere safe."

She now keeps trying to evade the other machiens shot but there's a good deal of fire comming her way from Erika. She keeps a mental tab on Camille for the moment but she's got to deal with the Gouf. She's able to keep out of harms way but still Erika gets close several times with the amount of fire she's putting out. She's going to have to keep this up or? One hit and she'll be a mess or shot down at this rate.

The Funnels come again this time taking on a formation much like it is some sort of bullet hell game, large field os fire and she's trying to force Erika to chose the lesser hit over flat out evading when it comes down to it.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "It's true and you know it! I don't even know when you got here!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "You didn't tell me!"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Chang Wufei transmits, "Good Shot Heero."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "I'm returning to the Argama. Thanks for your assistance."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Chang Wufei transmits, "Anytime, Heero."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland finally regains her composure enough to say, "Don't be ridiculous, I haven't forgotten your /birthday/. And I had /assumed/ you wouldn't care to know!"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Chang Wufei transmits, "I'm heading back with you, Heero."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Why wouldn't I?"

<Radio: D - WING boys> Heero Yuy transmits, "Alright."

"Tcchh... that'll teach me to be nice to people." Ascian mutters whilst the unit raises its shield around the Orbital Frame's arm, stopping some of the missiles, but disabling it from maneuvering very well. It didn't help that its wings were still detached from its back - where they'd actually lend to its velocity. He tries to gets some shots off against the weakened enemy unit, to stop it in its path, but it fails...

The VF flits around speedily, raking the sword against the Orbital Frame's armor. The unit moves its arms to its chest to protect the core, and the wings quickly move to its back, but the damage is done. Severe amounts of armor plating suddenly are floating in space, and the unit is sparking and leaking energy into space. "Shit, gotta get out of here." Ascian mutters, and lays his hands more firmly around the controls before it blasts off towards Axis, hoping that it can get some repairs inside.

Two syllables across her radio link is all it takes to snap Marchionessa Idunn out of Ormsgore's fury:

Elenia Weyland> "/Darcy/?"

As soon as she hears them, her fingers loosen around the command staff, her jaw /swiftly/ relaxes, and--

SOME TIME AGO

Outside of a stately home, young Darcy Weyland crouches before her seated sister Cecilia. A hopscotch grid has been etched into the asphalt beneath them, but because of the faintly bloody scrapes criss-crossing her knee, the game's come to a brief halt to give Darcy time to carefully apply space band-aids and Neo-Neosporin.

Just as she finishes, however, her mother - /their/ mother - summons her attention with an incredulous cry of, "/Darcy/?!"

The girl's eyes snap to Elenia Weyland, standing in the doorway to the family home with folded arms and a disappointed frown; nearby, Cecilia sniggers to herself as she hops to her feet to resume the game.

"Darcy, what have I told you about this sort of--/thing/?" she imperiously, distastefully demands of her daughter.

"Wh--but--Ceci--"

"Cecilia /clearly/ could have taken care of herself." Elenia firmly states, indicating the younger of the two children with a tilt of her chin. Just as attention is called to her, Cecilia has adroitly hopped her way to the end of the grid; she sticks her tongue out at her sister with a smirk far too smug for a girl so young.

"B--but that's--"

"That's the way the world /works/, Darcy; you are grounded. /Again/."

"B--but--"

Elenia's back inside of the house before Darcy can find the words to protest, leaving her alone with her triumphant sister to try and figure out what just happened to her.

NOW

--she can barely raise her voice above a shellshocked whisper when she transmits, "Mom?" across DC frequencies.

With no guidance from its master, the Machine Beast has nothing but its emergency backup routines to preserve itself; after curling up tightly to more easily bear the brunt of Zeta's grenades, the Machine Beast--hops--through space to find a place on Axis to hide itself for retrieval. The satellite eyes dim as Ormsgore flees; by the time it reaches the asteroid, they've become inert spheres of meat suspended in space.

As it flees, there's a moment where fear can't help but reach towards Camille's consciousness--the sort of fear normally reserved for a child faced with thunder, spiders, or the night.

Or with a cold and only occasionally understood parental figure.

The White Doll breaks off from its heroic but ultimately pretty stupid campaign of trying to punch things to death in space. Its beam saber retracts to a more manageable length, but the thin blade still flickers with a promise that it can quickly flare up again.

"I don't even know what you're trying to negotiate for!" Laura replies defensively. "The only thing you're doing is biting and stabbing!"

Laura flicks her saber back and forth, holding it up and matching the pattern of the tail. The two float, unattacking for the moment, but tensely staring each other down! Laura adjusts her headband again. She didn't have time to do the whole normal suit thing, so fortunately she can indulge in nervous habits.

"And if that's all you want, then we're never going to come to an agreement!"

As the Velantian's chest forms the mining beam, the White Doll raises its saber, still mindful of the tail but now with split attention. When it fires, Laura engages the thrusters and zooms forward, reaching out with her mighty sword!

"And that's because..."

With freakish agility, the White Doll darts to the side, whipping her sword up to refract the beam into her suit's I-field, allowing it to harmlessly disperse! In the return motion, Laura cuts savagely, aiming to slice the mining array asunder!

"... I DON'T LIKE BEING PENETRATED!"

Puru Two has by this point already decided that this is pretty much not worth pursuing if it's going to have such a high risk of getting killed. She still doesn't even know what she's trying to keep out of enemy hands here, she might be getting killed over some random bigwig getting their diary stolen or whatever, how lame would that be? Just blast that Gundam with her Funnels and get out of here no matter what the result, that was the plan.

The plan didn't quite work out that way. She had assumed that after the beating she gave Wing Gundam, it wouldn't be much of an issue anymore while she focused on dealing with Altron Gundam. The pilot of which mentally telegraphed his follow-up to make it real easy to predict. Her reaction to that is picture-perfect, quickly abandoning any notion of trying to block with her sabers but rather opting to reverse course and move far away. She's at an advantage at a distance. "Pff. That was obvious," she chides.

She planned to be a bit more mocking as she directed her Funnels to prove Wufei wrong and finish off what she figured would be a total wreck by now... but Wing Zero had another shot left in it. And this time the clone soldier fails to predict it. Obviously due to the suboptimal state of her mind, at least that's how she'd explain it away. Not that that would matter at all if she died here. Which she knows is a very real possibly. And despite the tough image she likes to put on, she really, really doesn't want to die.

"N-nooooo!" With a scream and a sudden jerky movement, Puru Two does the best she can to try and save her life. Pulling up just in time to lose the entire lower half of her machine, the Qubeley's legs and abdomen completely vaporized in the blast. It shears off so close to the cockpit, the floor is literally hot underneath Puru Two's feet.

Like hell is she sticking around after that. She's still got a few back thrusters operational, and she's going to use every single bit of their power to get back to Axis on the double. No time for a witty comeback, living is a bit more important.

Erika never was one for danmaku games... or shoot'em ups period. In fact, she's not much of a gamergirl at all... but she does seem to be pretty good at avoiding those beam shots as she weaves back and forth. Not quite perfect though, as several shots still graze her machine. "Gee, that's wonderful of you. A nation is in desperate need of leadership and a foreign power is holding the legitimate heir captive and dangling her just out of reach. Figures that the group that denounces shady dealings with such a passion would so quickly resort to them given the opportunity. So what are you going to do? Try and stage a coup to take control of Zeon for yourselves? Sit back and watch as an entire nation self destructs? Blackmail the state of Zeon?" The heat rod suddenly snaps out and whirls around, seeking to entangle the Phoebe Gundam before yanking it in and constricting it like a snake. "Some heroes."

The Velantian is carved into brutally. The heat array snaps and sizzles and fuses down to the snakelike belly of the machine; the beam saber also carves off two of the forelimbs, leaving it looking notably more like a literal snake. The machine then rears up in order to return a brutal blow!

Actually it doesn't.

Elenia speaks to the White Doll, sounding agitated and distracted. "Yes look I can respect that although I think you're making a mis- anyway that isn't the /point/. I've just had something come up, do you think there's any chance we could --"

The Velantian's remaining two upper limbs waggle to the side. "That we could pick this up in a while? I realize you're in a tight situation here and frankly I'm just a consultant, but I don't think either of us are going to accomplish very much in this current situation."

There's a momentary distraction as a gigantic beam of golden death erupts somewhere in outer space, and Ibis pauses to look at it with mouth agape as something explodes. Heero Yuy, ladies and gentlemen. Distraction over, she recoils slightly as a Rhyss' pupil-less face shows up on her communications monitor and starts that there trash talk again, bringing the verbal heat to new and previously unseen levels. Ibis squints and leans forward slightly, trying to get a better look. "Hey, I think you're overthinking this." she retorts, sounding more confused than anything. "I'm not dying, though, no matter how nicely you ask, so give up already!"

The Astelion is a royal pain in the ass to hit once it's back to full velocity, making lots of little jukes and jetting out of the volley of energy weapons fire that the Hammerhead wants to share so badly with it. This long, complicated dodging path begins bringing it back around towards the Hammerhead in a big loop, the battered white Lion custom zig-zagging through a couple of asteroids--dummy or real, who cares--and back down towards the space shark, the one remaining sonic breaker unit giving the mechanical equivalent of a tired groan as it turns itself on.

Ibis tries to think of something totally radical to say but comes up short as her unit falls towards Rhyss' at a very, very high speed, the arm attached to the remaining breaker unit cloaked in a shimmering field of blue-green energy as it reaches up... and...

SLAM DUNK

If nothing else, while Kallen keeps Samuel's attention on her, the rest of her side's fights seem to be going... pretty damn well, actually. Heero punches through the Newtype that was blocking his way back to the Argama, that unit that Camille was worrying about gets busted up too... There's still a lot here to keep on worrying about, as Kallen sees that Camille and Macua are both still occupied, and of course she's still got her enemy in front of her--what the hell is up with that green light? They remind her vaguely of GN particles, but it *couldn't* be that--and chunks of the Armored Core blast off in the face of her attack. In retaliation, the Armored Core starts lashing its laser blade forward to try to cut the Guren's silvery arm down to pieces.

"!!" Whether Sam knows about the Guren or not, he's more than understood the power of the Fukushahadou right away. Kallen, surprisingly, doesn't get many people who try to aim for it! There's not time enough to try to pull it back, so she attempts to cancel it out or do him better with a burst of microwaves--but that green light disperses her attack somehow, and while Sam doesn't destroy it, several of those fingers are gone now.

"Tch...!! You're not just anybody either, are you!?" the redhead snarls under her breath. She changes mode, retracting the silver arm to take advantage of zero gravity and creative use of thrusters to perform a dance of destruction unbound by the rules of 'having an "up" direction.'

The White Doll dashes away and then kind of floats there dumbly. It looks like it should be scratching the back of its head. If Laura had figured out the mobile trace thing by now, it probably would be. Small favors.

"Um, yes, I guess so. I probably won't stick around if you're planning on coming back. Sorry?"

"Well I mean I realize this isn't very typical but I've had some family things come up," the Velantian explains to the White Doll. "You know how it is, Rusty's Rule and all that. You'll, er, be fine, yes, I hope? Perhaps we'll meet again."

Then comes an awkward silent pause.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "Well because -- because I've been out of touch for a while and we had not, I will admit it, last run across each other on the best of terms."

"I guess."

The White Doll looks down at its beam saber and then over its shoulder. "I don't want to be rude but I wouldn't like that very much. I don't prefer snake monsters."

"Or most monsters, I suppose."

"Look we can work these things out," the horrible snake-monster assures the White Doll. "Regardless, I need to get going. Er -"

Another small awkard wave, followed by starting back towards a hangar. This is probably pretty easily seen for those who might be seeking additional notches for their Gundam's gunstock.

<Radio: B - Secure> Laura Rolla transmits, "I, uh. The snake... thing is leaving. It said it was just going to go away."

<Radio: B - Secure> Camille Bidan transmits, "It's been a strange day."

<Radio: B - Secure> Laura Rolla transmits, "It would be polite not to shoot at it."

<Radio: B - Secure> Laura Rolla transmits, "In any case, the White Doll is still fine! I can force everyone back if you want to start retreating around the debris field instead of going through it!"

<Radio: B - Secure> Camille Bidan transmits, "I think Heero's clear, as soon as we have confirmation we can just retreat directly back to the Argama, it doesn't look like they'll be able to mount a long pursuit."

<Radio: B - Secure> Kallen Kouzuki transmits, "Gotcha."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani squint

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Well, okay."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani squint

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Well, okay."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "What - what do you mean 'well, okay'?"

"I might be," Rhyss admits. "But I have to admit, you're not quite as interesting as i would have hoped. You're already broken, so where's the fun in that?" Rhyss shrugs, recalling her small insect friends. "You are annoyingly fast, though... I'll grant you that." The downside to her Hammer Kaiser being so massive now is that Rhyss now has to aim at something that could easily fly around inside its cargo bay, rather than something of approximately the same size. "What in the world are you--?" Rhyss' eyes widen as she realizes that the Astelion is going to try to ram her using a one-armed charge with... some strange maneuver at the end. She knows nothing of basketball, so she can't recognize it, but it's effective nonetheless. Even though te Zoid has recently regenerated, that's a lot of damage coming in... and not all the holes were fully closed when the Astelion impacted. The result is a large gouge town out of the upper hull of the shark.

"Hmm. Well, looks like we may be down one more Zoid." Rhyss doesn't sound too concerned, though. "Specular..." Crossing her arms, she leans back casually in her seat. "I'll leave this to you." A soft growl sounds from the rear of the cockpit... and the Hammer Kaiser begins to move differently. It thrashes around and arches up, jaws snapping for the AM. If it manages to get a good hold, it thrashes again, shaking the Astelion to smash it against the Viking Lance and Shield units mounted on either side of its head.

Heero frowns slightly as he watches his beam rip the Quebeley straight in half; not because he wasn't able to kill his target, but just because of how sloppy he's gotten. It was supposed to be a surgical operation -- get in, get out. No innocents, no people harmed. But now...

ZERO reminds him that he isn't out of the woods yet, though, with a quick few gory deaths of his. He is humbled, and shakes his head as he murmurs, "Something that I need to work on, yes."

The Wing Zero's thrusters rattle as they reach their peak, and the mobile suit streaks through space as it aims for the Argama's open bay door. Moments later, the mobile suit scrapes in, top speed, retro thrusters coming in hot and halting its movement as Heero attempts to rein in the less-than-perfect control of his unit now that battle damage has entered the equation.

It winds up colliding against the floor, everyone fortunately having been instructed to clear; as he braces against his harness, stretching its arm and leg out to pin the mobile suit against the walls of the hangar, he thinks to himself: could it have gone any better, if he were more disciplined?

Regardless, it is a fortunate enough outcome.

"Mission complete."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Nothing! I thought you were shooting someone."

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Laura, I don't think I can make it back through the field in this state, can I get an escort around it?"

<Radio: A - Chat> Laura Rolla transmits, "Oh, uh, sure."

<Radio: A - Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Thanks."

<Radio: B - Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Mission objective confirmed secure."

The Orbital Frame retreats.

It's about TIME that worked, thinks Staren.

For a few tense moments, he surveys the battlefield. Where is Heero? Is he out of here YET?

Finally, he recieves word that he is. He transforms to fighter mode and heads back, firing a quick burst of thrusters and engines before throttling the power down and trying not to burn out his machine until he gets back to the Argama.

This enemy had already proven itself unpredictable on more than one occasion, and even as Camille's attack successfully eats into it the Newtype is on guard for whatever is going to come next. Was another smaller robot going to leap out of it's pouch and bit at his kneecaps? Was it going to punch him back?!

No, apparently it was going to flee and leave the Zeta pilot with the impression of a frightened child in his mind. "What the.." A panoply of images and memories that were not his flashed through his mind at a rate Camille could not comprehend, just barely perceiving a face-no, a presence that he distantly recalled like a half-remembered dream.

You'd think he would be used to this by now, but it never got any less weird. "Was...was that the pilot? The name..D...dorothy..?" No, he had a feeling that wasn't it, "Who would pilot a thing like that, and why?" Rhetorical questions abound in the cockpit of Zeta, but the intimation of an all-too-common unwillingness would not scrub free of his unfortunately resonant brainpan. "Divine Crusaders, Titans, Zeon, the Federation..." A fist curled, eyes narrowed in young rage, "It's all the fucking same!!"

The noiseless roar of the Wing Zero's buster cannon stole his anger, the anguish of Puru Two passing through his head like a bulllet, "PURU!!!!" Fuck, he should've told Heero that avoid hurting her if he could. Judau, Rachel...!!

Fortunatey his streak of glory, futile as it may have been, become unnecessary when the cyber newtype not only manages to /survive/ but sees the wisdom of retreating. "Thank goodness.." Camille breathed a sigh of relief, and made a not to thank Heero later, "I'm sorry this had to happen so soon after Haman, Puru.."

But war was war. As soon as the Wing Zero was safely stowed in the Argama the retreat flares went scouring across the inky blanket of space for all to see. "That's our cue." Camille shouted on open channel to all remaining units, "Extrace yourself if you can, or let me know otherwise. There's no need to keep fighting!"

Speaking of such, the Zeta sets course for home unless someone winds up needing his assistance.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "I /was/, yes."

The White Doll deactivates its beam saber, watching the stabbed half to death space eel (she has to be aware that maybe it's not a snake-- never underestimate your enemy!) slither off.

"I guess everything went... okay? Wow, that doesn't usually happen."

The mustached suit sets off as well, forming the rearguard for those retreating from Axis since it is mostly undamaged and can wave its beam saber around menacingly.

Wufei Went at the Quebley full speed, so it stand good to reason that, after the Altron missed Puru, he was completely out of the Buster Rifle's 'Beam of White hot death'. Altron spins around just in time to see...half of the Quebley flying away towards the Axis Colony. "well, that went a bit better than expected." He says to himself, before giving a few radio transmissions as Heero streaks away into the Argama's bay.

Wufei flies backwards for a few seconds before turning towards the Argama itself, retracting the Beam Trident into it's collapsed form, but not putting it away, not until it's safely on the Argama's hangar deck, safely out of the battle...

Macua Huitl oddly has always loved them even before she was twisted about by Blue Cosmos, maybe this is an infulence. She keeps moving anc she says, "Did I ever once claim we were heroes? No I didn't. I'm not under delusions like some." She knows thery are a terrorist group at the very least.

"But consider this how she was used, and you know it was the Knight of her aunt who brought to Katharon. Shall we just get this over with?!"

Macua sees the heat rod comming at her once more, she moves quickl moves her machine up and evades the line that would have otherwise pulled her in. That was again far too close of comfort even as she sees Camille and Kallen keep fighting the people who have intercepted them. She's got an idea, and the fire fierled becomes even more intense from the before. There's patterns o fire that form shapes, and otherwise just keeping using non standard formations of fire to try and throw Erika off.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Don't let Adom take you down. Erika."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Mars needs you!"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Oh. You stopped."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "Yes, yes I did --"

BOOMSHAKALAKA SHE'S ON FIRE

The Astelion makes with the one-handed slam/jam and the sonic breaker unit decides, nope, no more for today and flicks itself off as soon as that punch has been delivered. Though the battered AM has seen better days, it certainly appears to be in a commanding position as it grabs hold of one of the freshly-torn gouge in the Space Shark (tm).

"If I'm broken, then you're totally shattered! Are you even paying attention to this anymore?" laughs Ibis from her vantage point (in the cockpit not actually being eaten by a space shark) as the Astelion hauls itself up on top of the Hammerhead away from the snapping jaws of the Hammer Kaiser. For a brief moment in time, the white Lion unit is riding a shark in space, and all seems right with the world

At this range... it's time for miniguns. Ibis nods grimly to herself as she depresses the firing stud on her controls and unleashes another withering hailstorm of cannon fire Rhyss's way as her unit rather sadly has to boost away from the hostile Zoid and put an end to the shark riding escapades.

Sam can't tell if he has her attention or if she has his. He's in something of a panic at the moment; it's more like him freaking out a little and continuing to shoot instead of just turning tail and running like hell, so it isn't a /complete/ panic. His mind is spinning with the possibilities, the blanks in the mental diagram of the radiation wave unit filled in by... something else.

Voices; little, here and there, at the edge of his perception. Whispers, whispers, always whispers... they can tell him what it is, how to defeat it, how to /make/ it, if he listens to the whispers--

Sam reaches up and physically smacks himself as he lays on the speed, the NEXT's small, powerful thrusters scattered across it's frame launching it sideways as the breakdancing assault begins. "STOP FREAKING OUT," he orders himself, "IT'S ONLY A RADIATION CLAW. /God/!!" The NEXT turns and drops something off it's shoulder, the black sphere falling 'down' as Kallen ignores there being an 'up.' Another burst from another thruster moves it in the other direction, the edge of her KMF grazing the surface of the Primal Armor forcefield and the physical armor beneath as he narrowly evades.

The light show surrounding Samuel's Insolent and the enemy's Knightmare Frame is an amazing thing to watch, and it is only suddenly compounded by the cannon that swings over his shoulder. The barrel, some kind of split cylinder with spinning motes of green between it and a series of capacitors on either side, locks into place and focuses on the Guren as the Insolent tries to keep up with it. A green spark gathers at the far end of the barrel, flickering and growing brighter until it's core is a shining white.

"Doesn't matter if it has a /radiation claw/," Samuel snarls, trying to keep himself in the game, "you have a /radiation gun/!!"

There's a bright light that flares up the length of the barrel--and it fires! The Kojima Cannon launches it's radioactive payload, sending a pulsing green star flashing down the barrel and spinning through space at the Guren while the asteroid field and the Argama is at the KMF's back. The blast trails the same motes that the shield is made of. The compressed pulse of radiation is... vaguely like what the Claw puts out in melee.

Turnabout is, after all, fair play.

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Cecilia Utani transmits, "Oh. So. Um."

The Velantian wiggles back into a hangar.

Elenia pulls the dripping spike from the back of her head, straightening up and doing her hair back up with well practiced motions of the hands and looking extremely disgruntled. Both her children are alive - and on her current, unfortunate side. For a horrible moment she wonders if the third - but no; that was a false alarm, she assures herself, shaking her head once.

Even Rhyss would admit she isn't at her best today. She's usually a lot better at getting to people, even if she doesn't know anything about them. For some reason, she's distracted...or maybe her heart isn't in this. That must be it. She'd never admit to actually being -bested- here. "Hmph." Well, the Astelion is fast, and the pilot's reflexes are impressive, but the game is nearly over. "Specular!"

The Zoid swings its tail around, swatting at the Astelion, but the machine cannon rounds tear into the back armor, right through the weakened armor from the earlier smash. Even as explosions begin to resound within the Hammer Kaiser, the Zoid begins to shrink, slowly, back to its original size. Inside the cockpit... nothing, just some movements of shadows. As the entire Zoid explodes, a blue streak of light shoots out from the remains, arcing down toward earth.

Ibis being Ibis, she assumes that Rhyss goes down with her machine and adopts a totally rock-solid sombre look as the Space Shark meets a final and untimely end at the hands of bullets, and she about-faces as the Hammerhead explodes so the Astelion is silhoutted in the fiery red burst of light for the cameras. "Mission complete." she says solemnly because this is a mission about Heero Yuy for god's sakes. The Astelion, being heavily damaged as it is, decides not to spend any more time lingering around Axis and boosts on out of the area at maximum speed to possibly maybe kinda-sorta hitch a ride on the Argama or something.

Inside the cockpit, Ibis reaches up to wipe her brow and donks her hand on her helmet. She frowns. Sub-badass move.

Kallen is a normal human being. One who has achieved some incredible things by virtue of busting her ass day-in and day-out, but still otherwise a normal human being. No psychic powers, no gene splicing, no Whispers, no Newtype powers, nothing like that. She's aware that she might encounter such people in a battle, but she tends to go into a fight not assuming that's what she's facing. Of course, the two of them don't have a radio line up, so it's not like she can hear him freaking out either, but if she *did*, she'd wonder what the hell is wrong with him.

That question may be neatly answered when he gives as good as he's gotten as the two of them spin away from each other without connecting meaningfully, and as she uses thrusters to spin around and face him, widens her eyes to see him pointing a gun at her with a green spark at its core. Warnings blare on the Guren's monitors, and now that it's being used for an active attack, they tell her what she didn't realize earlier, due to the form it takes being so different. Green vs. red... It's almost festive, though all you'd get for *that* Christmas is radiation poisoning.

"Wha...?!" Kallen moves to try to dodge the incoming blast, but it's no use; he's already locked onto her, and the Kojima Cannon strikes true. The ace of the Black Knights would be in some pretty severe trouble if the Guren were not radiation-proofed--/heavily/ radiation-proofed, given its main weapon--but as it stands, she grits her teeth and prepares to attack--

'Mission completed.'

A quick glance at her radio window, and Kallen nods. "No point in sticking around here, then," she murmurs. That mobile suit... what kind of light *is* that...? Kallen narrows her eyes and resolves to review the combat data in detail later, but for now, she sets the thrusters to get herself the hell out of dodge.

<Radio: A - Chat> Heero Yuy transmits, "Mission... why is everyone saying that today?"

<Radio: A - Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Beats me."

<Radio: A - Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "We're done? pulling out."

Macua Huitl hears Heero is away, she doesn't say anothing to Erika, her gundam turns and starts to run, using the funnels to cover itself. Once she's far enough away Macua will recall them and make for the Argama.

Sam has a lot of problems. Some of them are more down to earth, like the crushing loneliness of having your entire extended family wiped out in the span of a day. Some of them are a little more exotic, like the problems with being part of some sort of worldwide secret conspiracy full of mysterious metallic-named guys with guns.

The 'hearing voices that actually tell you dark secrets' bit kind of takes the cake, though.

Sam can see it from his forward display: Guren, struck by the Kojima blast, the corrosive radiation packing a surprising amount of explosive force and literally eating through the armor at a frankly alarming rate. The pilot should be fine, he thinks, assuming they're properly shielded; with something like what she's packing, it is pretty much impossible not to be.

Insolent breaks off seconds after the Guren does. They got away; he can't do anything out here, and he doesn't want to get more wrecked than he already is. It flies backwards, watching the Katharon mobile weapons disappear into the debris-strewn space.

"What the hell," Sam mutters to himself, "was that all about?"

LATER

Admiral Bright Noa of the Argama sat with steepled fingers in his quarters. The face in the viewscreen was a familiar one: Wong Lee, ever in his trademarked purple threads and humorless expression. He undertook these calls with the same tormented sense of necessity that caused one to endure suppositories.

"I take it we've finished analyzing the data collected by agent Yuy?" His voice was measured and calm, almost completely hiding the utter fatigue the the Captain felt after having to fend his own ship off from a heavy assault and shortly after mobilize in a rescue mission.

"Yes, for all the good it did." Wong Lee grumbled as ungratefully as ever, "You know as well as I do this was a botch. Yes, we got what we wanted, but the DC knows what we took. It'll take time, but they'll reroute their funding sources, change their structure and we'll be in the same position as were before. We've thrown them off guard and done little else."

"Yet you're calling me." The Admiral didn't fail to miss a beat: There was something else to this.

"Yes, well.." Wong Lee yanked on his tie, never a good sign, "We found something encrypted, hidden amidst the data. It's an old algorithm, we don't think the Axis even knew it was there. It's nothing recent, and that's rather the problem..." The businessman eventually realized he was tripping over himself and harumphed, "Well, rather than explain it i'll just show you."

Lines of information overwrote Wong's accursed image on the screen and beady eyes scanned them with practiced rapt attention that soon unraveled as the full meaning behind the man's discomposure was revealed, "This is...!"

"Yes, it seems we're doomed to be haunted by the ghosts of the One Year War." The man who signed the paychecks for the AEUG offered little sympathy, "I have other matters that need my attention, but I expect you'll want to investigate this soon."

ELSEWHERE

'Sir, there is a call for you from a mister, ah...DC.'

It was a message Baron Romero Stovald had been dreading for years. Years of charities, political dealmaking and dynasty-building seemed naught but a house of cards ready to fall apart in the lightest breezed now that it was out.

He sat in his campaign headquarters, surrounded by advertisements, stickers and banners proclaiming his virtue, his electability. A shaky hand spilled most of the whiskey in his glass before it got past his lips and summarily slammed it down upon the hardword desk with enough force to crack the bottom in a grim metaphor for his mind.

It wasn't over, they might not have known, they weren't even /looking/ for it. Even if they did, who cared? He was a powerful man now, a man with connections. He could deal with this just as he had back then. No one would know, no one would care.

The man who would be king (Or something like that) reached for his future phone. It was time to call in favors, and he knew exactly where to start.

"Yes, hello." Romero licked his lips, glad he was still sober, "I know the time, but I must speak with Commander Katagiri straightaway. It's an urgent matter..."

TO BE CONTINUED(?)

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Remille Fortner transmits, "Is everything alright? It sounded like a mission had taken place."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland exhales loudly. "Someone was attacking Axis, some sort of Gundam sighting."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Remille Fortner transmits, "Feds?"

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Rhyss transmits, "'s voice sounds rather tinny, as if she were in a very small place, "Is that what all this was about?""

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "God knows. No, I think it was the other Gundams."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Elenia Weyland transmits, "I was just here for some consulting, really, I'm hardly in their chain of command."

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