2011-06-24 - A Poke In The Eye: Ground Combat

The Spiral Empire stretches from its headquarters in Teppelin to both above and below, outward in every direction, as far as their forces can fly. Which is a distressing border - because it seems that although the forces of Teppelin are not especially /powerful/...their numbers seem to be without end. In the years since Teppelin's occupation, villages have been systematically emptied and burned to the ground - men and women, forced underground or occasionally just murdered and left in the wastes, a warning against...anything one might wish to be warned about, a silent, grim spectacle.

Only rarely has anyone ever pushed into Teppelin's space. The Generals, for all their strangeness, are terrifyingly effective at preventing breaches...and on the rare occasions anyone has gotten to Teppelin's doorstep, they are soon ushered out again by the terrifying power of the Spiral King himself. Normally, offensives by the small bands that have been plaguing Genome's life for some time falter about 100 kilometers away from the site, at the towering structure's absolute defense line. From here, Teppelin can be seen towering in the distance... a looming threat, and a promise of the final goal. Such a broad zone shouldn't be easily defensible, but with the Beastman Army's massive numbers, there always seems to be a swarm awaiting would-be attackers.

But today, someone saw a chance - a breach in the line. Lord Genome is moving his forces /somewhere/, in massive enough quantities that not even his prodigious production capacity can keep up. Genome's crimes are manifold, and whatever goal he may have in mind cannot be allowed to reach fruition. So the method is obvious: Cut off the head of the hydra. Word leaked through to everyone with a grudge against Genome - today might be the day.

An orbital drop on Teppelin itself would be suicide, but here, blitzing toward the mighty tower's defensive zone, it's possible to bring a ship down rapidly through the atmosphere into the heart of the Spiral King's empire. Of course...getting out again will not be easy if this goes awry.

And as the line is approached, it becomes clear it may already have. There is a mound awaiting at the weakest spot in the line, the targetted point. But as ships approach, the ground trembles, and the mound slowly, grindingly, shifts forward.

HARDENED TERRESTRIAL GUNMAN MOBILE FORTRESS DAI-GUNDO

And in the commander's chair of the great mobile fortress, Guame, the Immovable, smirks broad and clutches a pipe in his teeth. "So, these humans think they'll just pierce right through!? As if we wouldn't expect that!" He peers over at his anteater-man comms officer, yelling, "Get in touch with the Human Extermination Army Central Command Center! We're under attack! We need land and sky-types, on the double!"

He turns to the eclectic cross-factional mix of attackers, sneering. "I think we need to swat some flying monkeys."

BATTLE AT THE TEPPELIN ABSOLUTE DEFENSE LINE Mission Objectives: *Defeat all enemies. *Survive.

The Sand Squad had laid in wait once the first eyes came upon their lord. They stirred, the living defenses moving into the cliff face, bodies undulating as they moved through the dirt and rock face, or walked, in some cases. Or simply dug. The wide variety of the beastmen did not matter, for their goal was the same.

Cockpits planted within the ground beneath, and around, Teppelin. Lights came alive, but remained dimmed. They returned to hibernation, lightly lit screens warming the beastmen into a state of sleep. The green light was their night. The first step of a human machine upon the ground marked the first transition from green to red, eyes opening as the screen, near bright as a burning sun, glowed red. It was a sign if things to come - they would mark many things in red, the field being one of them.

The ground around the Dai-Gundo also impacts, multiple craters forming about the ground the machine had tore free from. Called upon by Guame, the beastmen awake. Gunmen, in the form of thin and somewhat sleek pillars, shoot out and stand tall, eyes and mouths to the sky.

"Don't you let them get anywhere near Teppelin! Not a shaved ape is to get anywhere close!" The 'leader' exclaims, the tallest and thickest of the pillar like Gunman that shoots out. A wide and tall cylinder that seems almost to be like a small building from the size. Sitting back in his 'chair' ( Snake Beastman ) he hisses. "Sand squad, bury every last one of them!"

The mouths open, shells and small objects ( rocks ) shooting skywards to intercept those that came above, while those below - well there's Guame!

Upon seeing a possibility that someone could just drive into Teppelin, A-LAWS was quite willing to authorize some forces to deploy. And though Meriden has never fought the Beastmen in a robot before, she's encountered them a few times, and never enjoyed their presence very much.

One of them still has her stolen clothes. She's /still/ annoyed about that.

The Seventh Gundam, with its Full Armour gear on (but not its Heavy Full Armour; that makes it almost inoperable in gravity), looks like a standard Gundam that someone made comically bulky. It has shoulderguards like a linebacker, blocky arms, thick legs, a deep torso - it's just big all over. Unable to fly under its own power, it was launched from significantly higher up and is slowing its descent by holding onto... something.

It might not even have a name; it's basically a square with a thruster at each corner. Meriden holds it up over the Seventh Gundam's head by a bar across the middle and uses the thrusters to slow her descent enough that, when she lands, she doesn't crumple like tin foil.

She likes not crumpling like tin foil.

"Boss, are you sure about this?"

The Boss Borot moves through the Russian wasteland, wearing a scarf and a pair of earmuffs. Boss and his thugs are wearing the same in the cockpit as Boss moves the wheel back and forth in that way you do when you are trying to convey the fact you are driving.

"Of course I'm sure! Look at this map."

Boss unfurls a huge map of the entire globe with some side spaces for off world bases. A vague russian spot is circled. Boss jabs a thick finger into it. It is marked 'Secret Russian Waffle House Location.'

"This is where they serve the legendary vodka waffles! A guy on the subway told me."

The Boss Borot bumps into one of the gunman. Boss sticks his head out of the 'mouth' of the Borot.

"HEY! FRENCHIE! WHERE. IS. LE. WAFFLE HOUSE?"

Ahh. Beastmen. They had been the bane of Sinya's existance since her arrival on Earth two years ago. At first, it was simply a matter of mistaken identity - easily handled by explaining herself, right? Wrong. More than a few times, it had gotten the catgirl into major trouble when people were not so accepting of her story about being from La Gias. On top of that, she had spent the better part of the last few months living with the people of the SuiKyosha, who had their own stories about living under the rule of the Spiral King. They had become a kind of second, or third family and where the Captain and the ship goes - so does she.

The form of the gryphon knight - not a modern unit by any means - stands at the mouth of the battleship's hangar. There is a click as the staff at the knight's side extends, glowing faintly blue-green in against the watery walls. A few fish swim away, startled by the light. As the power from the guymelef's energists begins to flow, it lights the eyes on the gryphon's chestpiece, making it look a bit ominous as the red glares down at the battlefield below.

Within the cockpit, Sinya is latched in, her arms and legs bound into the metal control devices that cling about her arms and legs as if they were a second skin. A helmet covers most of her head, with a little room for her ears to move. Her hands clench around the controls, and there is a brief, determined nod of her head as she steels herself for battle. Unlike so many others going into the fight today against Lord Genome's army, she isn't a soldier, and fighting isn't what she does best. Still, she isn't about to hide out in the battleship like a scared kitten with her tail between her legs.

<"This is Leland. Launching now."> She doesn't wait for a responce - something inside her tells her well enough that the Captain and XO know that she's leaving. Something that passes without the need of a radio. The guymelef leaps into the air, his wings outstretched as they somehow manage to slow the fall to the ground, even if that defies most laws of physics. Backwinging, the guymelef lands on his feet, the staff twitching out at his side as he surveys the array of Gunmen, the demonic red eyes of the Gryphon burning with intensity.

When you live as a mercenaries, you take the jobs as they come. Sometimes, that means guarding shipments of food that are a hundred thousand miles away from anything that would actually want to mess with them. Other times, that means going into a pit full of snakes and poking them with a stick to see just how much they bite you.

Sly Heckler really wishes he got more of the former. However, sitting inside a Rifleman borrowed from Solis Vivent, itself standing on the launch deck of the Equinox just before a mission to go annoy a guy who /literally/ tore the leg off his mech barehanded last time they met, Sly feels like he's gotten a disproportionate amount of the latter.

Sly would have passed on the mission entirely, but the Equinox itself was uniquely suited to it, and so demanded a fair price as a transport. As a carrier, the Equinox was substandard, only able to hold 4 mechs and 2 fighters, but where it really shines is its advanced stealth capacity which allows it to drop its strikeforce well behind enemy lines without being spotted.

That was the job here today. Bring a strikeforce right down the Beastman's throat, drop it on top of them, and then wait for extraction.

Sly would have been happy to just let things go at that, serving as captain who /didn't/ get shot at, but some jokes turned into an argument, and before he knew it Sly agreed to pilot one of Solis's lesser-used mechs into battle. Sometimes Sly wishes he recorded his conversations so he would know exactly where he loses control of them.

Still, as the Equinox touches down and the mech bay doors open, Sly's mech is the first one to storm out. The machine has been modified a bit, but there's not much modification you can do to a BattleMech. The neurohelmet still works, and the cooling suit is a Clantech one Sly owns himself, and the rest is just sort of there. He doesn't have much time to learn it as he stomps the Rifleman out of the ship and into the field, weapons already spinning up in anticipation of a quick reaction now that they're here.

"Whelp, here we are."

Teppelin.

It makes his spine tingle. Teppelin...

This entire city could have been 'resolved' once, a long time ago. With the fusion cutter and destructor singing out... But the Hostis has returned to the machine god. And murder does not rise easily to Solis' hands or mind...

War is another matter. War he is versed in.

"We are the threshers before the wheat. We are the reaper who ascribes with cold eyes the destiny of many."

His manifold wiring seeks out the control systems of the Reaper, communing with the machine spirit of Archangel's old machine.

He sees the mocking form of Teppelin through the sensory array... and it seems to arouse in him the usual grinding fear he has had the past few months. The book of Ha-Rasen..

He continues to murmur across the radio band, "Rejoice. For I bring upon you ultimate despair. Gaze not at the heavens. Harken not to your heart as it whispers in the light of the day. I come to liberate you from your dreams. Cast aside your hopes and bury yourself in the earth. Reach not, grasp. Innovate not, sustain. Hope not, despair. Love not, hate."

He stares at Teppelin, eyes narrowing, "Why do you make me think of these words, Teppelin. Why do you inspire such thoughts, Spiral King?"

The Reaper launches out, after Sly's machine, "Such considerations are of no matter and no consequence. BEASTMEN! SERVANTS OF THE SPIRAL KING! I am Solis Vivent. Greet me as you are able."

A united assault on Lord Genome. If there is /anything/ Xiang Yuan could get behind, it was this. The man is standing at the head of the bridge, overlooking water which is quickly being pushed around, a blue magical glow coarsing through the entire ship as it is in transit. And as they travel, a series of flashbacks seem to reflect against the water, as the captain thinks back... back of all those battles before. But more importantly, the life of those upon this ship. Years ago, the people of the SuiKyosha had lived at the bottom of one of those underground caves - one wrought with water. A floating city if you may, beneath the plains of the Spiral King.

Only a few years ago had they escaped that place. He, along with the help of his XO, Yu Zhi Wu, and the might of this battleship, had freed the people that had lived within that village. Him, as a village chief... or rather, Emperor, was now looked up to by his people, guiding them, ruling over them, judging them. Yu Zhi Wu, the woman who had always been with him, and was like a sister to him, stands besides him as they look together through the seethrough window, coral lining the area around it. "It's been a while, since we came this close to the Spiral King." She whispers.

Indeed, they had attacked the Spiral King's troops many times. There was a reason that their hangar now contained a fair number of Gunmen. The SuiKyosha's magical abilities had always given them the chance to take over those Beastmen's machines, freezing the area, taking them, and disappearing again. That is how it had been on La Gias. That's how it was on the Mystic Moon - Earth - and that's how it would be now. They were here to win. However, this time, they were expecting them. And that was something Xiang was not used to having to deal with. However, they had one thing. A slight element of surprise. You see, those Beastmen... were not all that was beneath the ground.

Around tepelin lies a river, deep beneath the ground. Also refered to as a ground water supply. The SuiKyosha groans under the magical strain as it presses through this thin realm of water, but manages to keep itself in tact, and the magically protected dimension in which they travel in one piece. "We're approaching the enemy sir." The man at the sonar claims. "Very well." Xiang mutters and slowly walks to the throne that is ready for him at the center of the bridge, and settles down on it, mightily tossing his mantle over the beautifully ornate coral-looking seat, and lays his both hands over the seat. His XO steps besides him and looks on together as they come to the edge of the magical barrier, and are about to... crash through a large quantity of rock!

Beneath those beastmen, earth rumbles. Those on the Dai Gurren are not the only ones who are capable of doing the 'impossible'. The earth continues to rumble. Slowly turning into a true quake. Beneath those pillars, earth begins to crack. A sudden thin spray of water appears from below. And more. And more! Larger and larger the streams of water grow, shaking the ground, destroying the earth as magic is at play, ripping the ground apart.

"EVENT HORRIZON MET!" The helmsmen calls out. "Very well!" Xiang calls out, and throws his gauntletted hand. "Prepare for battle. All men to battlestations, ready the arctic missile barrage! Fire at will on any and all gunmen that are in the viscinity!" People all across the SuiKyosha run around. Stores close. The hangar's water-aquarium bubbles quickly. The machine begins to shake...

And then finally, as a gigantic TORRENT of water /blasts/ of from the ground, an absolutely /massive/ battleship that rivals even the Macross in size bursts out of the ground, guided by the water, quickly expanding as it breaks out from the underground watersupply, and the wave of water put forth by the SuiKyosha allows it to materialize on this plane! The hangar opens on multiple sides, and Gunmen units on board begin to fire conventional weaponry at the ground beneath. Multiple gates open all across the ship, and blue bursts of magical missiles rush down at the ground units beneath. The SuiKyosha has arrived!

Within moments, it 'falls' down in the sky, coming to a horizontal heading and begins to arc around for a second volley, massive cannons swiveling towards the enemy units. Clouds form overhead, and a magical stream of water - translucent - forms beneath the ship. <"Roger that! You have go for launch."> Yu Zhi Wu, holding a double shelled device, radios back to Sinya.

They say a good distraction from problems was combat, at least for some. R was having a great deal of problems, mostly trying to understand himself again. The realization of just what he was and how much his life had been a lie since he returned with his old name...

...It was silently driving him mad in trying to get a grip on things. His mind only asking over and over who he is and 'could robots even dream of electric sheep?' as the age-old question goes.

This distraction came when he was offered a job. A job to take out some beastmen once and for all? That is how it kind of sounded and it may indeed help clear his head enough to stop looping over the same problem again and again. After all, nothing like a good punching some heads in to clear the old.. processor?

The strangest part of this trip was also the fact of getting a ride with Sly and just keep the Primal Armor down till they got in a safe distance to kick that Kojima shield up to cause some local pain. The other odd part was Solis was also here with the old black mech of Arena might. R would be /very/ interested to see how the old boy handles here.

As Sly heads out and Solis runs out with his great charismatic intro. A aqua green visor flashes brightly before a single light then comes into focus as the rest of the visor dims down. The sound of smooth mechanics can be heard moving as soon the White NEXT known as Strayed enters the field as well. <<"Energetic, isn't he?">> He asks Sly before the NEXT slams a clip into the assault rifle and readies it.

<<"Well, lets go catch up. Hate to be the last one to see any action.">> The NEXT then goes into a full out run across the field. R, somewhere deep within, hooked up, seeing as the machine sees, was trying something very different this day.

He was going to utterly let himself become the machine.

As Strayed got further in, the thrusters ignited, before he sailed across the ground floor, making quick work across the rough terrain and avoiding the rocks, or whatever those were, being hurled toward him. <<"Lets do this!">> R yells out as the missile pod comes around on the shoulder, then missiles explode out heading for different targets. Oh yes, someone's blood would be on this field and it wouldn't be his, because he had none to spill.

Earth, it was a place she'd not lived on long she'd didn't think she'd be fighting here for it. Against it but life had taken her down a very strange turn and so here was her machine, made out of alloy even the Martians didn't fully understand and even fewer knew the terrible things it could do but here she is.

Ardjet was descending in it's Cocoon form with little worry about dropping in like it was, once it reached the units broke away from the Orbital Frame, and formed back into it's cape, as she looked over the hordes of beast men she started to lock on as she charged her machine's tracks dozens of targets and opens fire even as the rain comes down, she's forced to adapt a little bit but soon comes a volley of high powered lasers, that twist, bend and hunt their targets.

"This is Engine Marinaris of the A-laws, we're crashing the party."

The rain comes crashing down on her machine and turns to steam every time the lasers fire and super heats the water that impacts the emitters.

A square with so many thrusters! What mockery!

But the attention is drawn much to the shavd ape that sticks its head out the window. "It's in the comissionary, in the middle of the market place!" The Gunman pilot responds, his own cockpit opened. "Kill the shaved apes and it's my treat!" Boss, unfortunately, is seen as an orangutan. The hair and jaw is just such a perfect disguise. "Extra honey!!" The gunman closes. /But not vodka/.

As the Guymelef lands, the ground isn't so kind. It gives way - and the way is given to two pillar like Gunman shooting up late, intending to smash the demonic red eyes right out - drilling upwards! "Who gave you the right to set a foot on our land!?" "YEAH!" The distorted voices exclaim! The Equinox touches down, the ship being revealed - and the machine that walks out immediately being pelted by rock and gunfire, shells and literal shells. But it's too far to actually impact.

That is until Solis declares his intent. Almost immediately, the ground rumbles under Solis, two snake like Gunmen choming for each leg to pull him under, to bring the giant down. One has a few words. "Greet? A naked ape!? We'd rather KILL YOU!" The impact would be quick and violent.

The ground they so cherised, so /believed to be safe/, suddenly turns against them. "What the hell is that!?" "It's not one of ours!" "OF COURSE NOT!" The snake yells, before the sprays of water shoot the beastmen skywards, geysers causing them to erupt like caps from a shaken beer/wine. The torrent of water doesn't manage to catch any of the Gunmen by surprise asthey either dig in or - take to the SKY!

R fails to find this out, since the missile pods that are fired track onto those heading towards him. A Gunman explodes, mouth open, as it spirals to the ground. Another simply detonates. More take off after R, teeth gnashing, trying to catch him!

Though Ken's laser fire manages to light up more than a few Gunmen, some smash into her, flying serpents, 'wings' shooting off the ground units, the Gunmen gliding through the air, or digging through the ground. Not the type to stand up and fight straight on - those were Guames.

"Worthless naked Apes! To defile our land, and to threaten us! You won't get a sssingle one of the Divine Generals, and certainly not Lord Genome!" The biggest of them all, the cylinder Gunman, chooses the battleship, the SuiKyosha, the two halves coming undone into a massive unhinged 'jaw'. It looks more like a beartrap, as it tries to latch onto the front of the ship!

Fire is rained down from the flying serpents, those below bitten, snapped from the gaping wide jaws of the mostly mouthy Gunmen!

 Solis Vivent murmurs, "...and your shackles shall be heavy, for they are my gift to you..."

 Tina Uesugi transmits, "The hell?"

 Tina Uesugi transmits, "Anyways, Cyber Breaker is going to be down for a day."

 Solis Vivent murmurs, "...naught but the laughter of thirsting gods...."

 Rebel 316 transmits, "How's that big fight I'm hearing about in the real world? I almost decided to take a piece of it, but I decided to spend time with a cute girl instead."

 Sly Heckler transmits, "Focus Sol. We've got a job here. And what did you do to this targeting screen? It's all screwed up."

 Solis Vivent transmits, "I don't need one. So I sent the power elsewhere."

 Rebel 316 transmits, "You guys are so serious, it must be tough huh?"

 Sly Heckler transmits, "Solis, you don't mess with a Battlemech's targeting systems! Situational awareness is dull enough in one of these things as it is."

The Seventh Gundam eventually lands. Meriden discards the burned-out square of thrusters. It worked great... once. It couldn't really get her back off again.

And then she reaches for her radio, because she's been informed there are people here. "Hey!" she broadcasts, suddenly. "Humans! Truce! Truce! Shoot Beastmen!" She doesn't really have the authority to do that, but Global said it was okay so she doesn't feel too bad about it.

Flipping the radio back off, Meriden grips her controls, looking firm. The Gundam starts to march forward; having managed to land without getting shot with /anything/ (rain doesn't count; it doesn't damage the Seventh Gundam), she feels pretty good about her chances. Pulling the giant beam shotcannon over the Gundam's shoulder, like a shotgun but much bigger, Meriden starts to run forward at some of the ground-bound Gunmen.

They look weird, she thinks. That doesn't stop her from pulling the trigger, sending a wide spray of yellow-white energy into their grouping of snakelike Gunmen. The rain doesn't interfere very much with the shot, though the gun does steam an awful lot afterwards.

 Rebel 316 transmits, "It's like driving a car, a big car, with lots of guns."

Narrows his eyes as the two snake like machines grip around him. He feels the Reaper urging him to a quick strike, but that would likely kill one of them...and so he attempts to avoid, only for the Ganmen to latch on and immediately rob Reaper of its primary advantages in terms of agility...

"I don't have time to waste with you, fool," Solis mutters, before engaging the engines to try to leap away before unleashing a clipped burst of the Kawasawa at the appearing ganmen...aiming for non-lethal disabling shots on the machines... Its like fighting with both arms tied behind your back...

Again the distraction of the words of the book gnawing at his mind...

/What awaits you in the inky black is but doom. You are doomed who gaze at the heavens.../ He shakes his head, "Focus. FOCUS Damnit!"

Boss hmms, tapping his chin. "Shaved apes, shaved apes... not sure where I can find some shaved apes."

The Boss Borot steps back as bullets, missiles, and beam shots fly, and turns on an old CRT monitor, loading up googletube.

"Shaved Apes... shaved apes..."

The Boss Borot rocks violently to one side. "SAFESEARCH ON! SAFESEARCH ON!"

 Sly Heckler transmits, "Hey folks, that mobile suit thing over there flying the A-LAWs IFF is freaking out over the radio. I think she's worried we're going to smoke her."

On the ground, the sheer amount of Gunmen surrounding them is more than a little intimidating, especially to someone not quite used to going into such large-scale battles. The biggest confrontations she'd had were in space, and weren't nearly these kind of numbers. A small shiver runs up Sinya's spine, causing her tail to puff out slightly as she tries to calm herself and focus on the task at hand - keeping herself alive and trying to do as much damage as she can manage to as many of these beastmen. At first, her hands seem to freeze over the controls, her nerves getting the better of her. With a shuddering breath, she manages at least to spin the guymelef's staff in front of him, but there is a momentary lack of thought process on exactly where in this mess she should attack first.

As she spots that huge Gunman making for the SuiKyosha, she can't help but tense more, resisting the urge to call out to them. Biting that back, the catgirl shows a flash of fangs, and then turns - just in time to see one of the Gunmen coming at her, ready to bite down onto one of the guymelef's arms. With a snarl, she sweeps a wing forward, trying to move out of range of the attack and strike a blow at the same time, but the little beast-driven unit is too quick. She lands with Arius in a crouch, raising her head as her ears slick backwards. For the time being, she has to focus on keeping herself alive rather than worrying too much over the others.

"Alright, you're mine." She sweeps the staff out, pushing forward with those powerful knight's legs as she leaps forward with the guymelef, moving like some predator as he lands in a crouch, sweeping the staff out towards the toothsome one that had attacked her, trying to hit it hard enough to send it flying, possibly into several others nearby. At least, that's the intention, anyways - that staff moving with arcs of light that seem to follow the range of her motion.

Xiang watches from his seat as the Gunmen manage to disperse before the missiles impact on the ground, and take to the skies. "Fill the air with ice bursts!" He commands, then turns as the man at sonar warns him. "We have a large unit incoming sir! It's the cylinder! It just... it just split!" The image comes right onto the screen. "Tssk." Xiang closes his eyes. "Captain?" The man calls out, but Xiang doesn't reply. "Don't worry about it." Yu quickly interjects, knowing that the captain is concentrating and trying to contact the SuiKyosha telepathically.

The massive ship continues that small circle and the massive turrets continue their onslaught on the ground beneath, whilst the rain that has begun to fall with the SuiKyosha's coming begins to coalesce in places. Massive shards of ice randomly begin to form, trying to trap the airborne gunmen within their grasps, or make it harder for them to get away from the attacks from its allies.

Then suddenly, a twosome of absolutely /gigantic/ icicles form before the cylinder and form two... knuckles!? They are floating in midair, with nothing behind them The fingers open and grab for the two ends of the cylinders and hold them back. "Gah..." Xiang grabs for his chest as his concentration and connection of the SuiKyosha backfires a bit, as there is quite a bit of force behind those cylinders. But the ship itself remains free from the clutches of those massive cylinders.

"Now, while they are held!" The SuiKyosha shudders for a moment, the blue armor gleaming as the thrusters engage and more shards begin to form in midair, and then proceed to explode! More missiles come flying from the ship, rushing for both sides of the cylindrical Gunmen with a wave of ice. Then finally, Gunmen from the SuiKyosha drop down from its hangars and join in with the fight, joining in with Sinya and assist her. "COME ON, LELAND!" One of the more brave and outspoken warriors calls out, the gorilla looking Gunmen stomping along and tries to get behind the one that had attacked her and tries to hit it in the back just as she attacks it - to cut off its path.

Strayed blasts across the land, yes the very land these beastmen cherished so. As they come in to take a bit out of him, they will find themselves meeting a particle wall made something akin to low-grade radiation. The Kojima fields make him almost impossible to bite onto, as it tends to force back solid objects.

Few may find this fate, others he avoided with simple ease, of leaped straight into the air, allowing them to crash into one another. As he landed back down, his Kojima Blade powered up. The object on his left armor powering as each small cylinder along the inside of the shaft blasted out kojima particles, harnessing it into a single, sick aqua green energy weapon.

As the blasts then came in, the Strayed quickly moved side to side with quick thruster bursts from its shoulders, before the energy blade returned the favor. It was also here he continue to use his blade for a time, encircling man as he could; lashing to cut their machines in two.

R's voice came over the radio to Solis. <<"Remember, the old boy isn't made for speed. Just have faith in him and you'll get some of the best performance you ever seen!">>

Sly Heckler steps his Rifleman out into the field, and immediately gets hit with...rocks and sticks? Oh great. It's going to be one of /those/ jobs. Sly moves out as the left element of the formation to secure one side, however that proves moot pretty quickly. First off, Solis manages to talk them into trouble. Solis actually has proved really good for that. It's quite remarkable, actually. It's like Solis is to diplomacy what antimatter is to normal matter.

Shortly after Solis opens his mouth, people start literally exploding out of the ground. "Well great. At least we got their attention, I suppose." The Rifleman raises its arms, but the targets are moving too erratically for Sly to properly target them with the big Rotary Autocannons. Rather than spray fire wildly when his allies are still so close, Sly opts to do some bug-zapping instead, and starts firing on Beastman with the Medium Lasers the Rifleman has equipped. If nothing else, that'll light them up a bit.

Meanwhile, someone sounding panicked calls up his radio. A quick IFF check shows the machine to be flying under the A-LAWs colors. Nobody told Sly about that, but he'll roll with it. "Relax sister," Sly transmits back as calmly as he can in the circumstances, "We're here to ruffle the furs, not kill government men."

Likewise, Sly warns the rest of the Trailers. Sure, they aren't here to hassle the EFA, but she seemed a bit twitchy, at least.

Ken Marinaris boost was correct Ardjet was made for fighting massive numbers of enemy units possibly alone, at this point. She didn't say the intended targets had at first been the feds, a lot has changed after all. But the counter fire and the skill of the enemy gunners surprise her, the Ardjet heals it's damage the armor plates real seal and Ken continues her assault, this time the cape explodes into a cloud of remote units and the WISPs do not sit still for long, missiles seek out the nearest of the enemy targets, and will explode on impact, the rain keeps coming down. She's actually thankful for it. she keeps tabs on the ships a Gundam launches and she tags it a friendly. The metatron reacts to Ken's will and she falls into to try and help give it some support. All the while the Metatron lines on the suit pulse with a life of their own.

The Ardjets AI was busy processing enemy data flagging new units and identifying the ones it could. It was also trying to descern trhe function of the different Gunmen types.

The Gundam lands, much different than many of the others. A stomper. A ground pounder. It doesn't have /any/ problem with making itself noticed. The shotcannon is much like a flamethrower to the much lower than average size of the Gunmen, which manage to act more like ants than like crocodiles. "Truce? So you're fighting together?" "So are we!" Two of the Gunmen leap skywards, diving onto the Seventh Gundam!

The blasts scorch the Gunman, but they leap, teeth grasping for each arm, as they try to dive earthbound with the machine, and drag i thard against the earth - with hands in tow, under!

Solis lights the Gunmen up with his 'clipped burst'. It near swallows the machines. What 'non lethal' shot is possible to those who want you dead? "You aren't going anywhere!" The mouths snap open on the fallen machines, a torrent of fire aiming to pelt the Reaper until it's a shade of its former self.

"Yeah, they're terrible, aren't they!!" One of the Gumen yells over to Boss. "You should just focus on killing them!!"

The slash from Sinya moves to slice the Gunman - but it dives under, falling into a hole it created moments before. "Gahaha! No! YOU are MINE!" He retorts, the bear piloting the Gunman, as gunfire erupts up and outwards. The same firing squad is shared with R, though the slash tears apart Gunman after gunman, splitting them into two as they detonate with screams. They don't want to get close, far more interested in pelting it from a distance! R just scares the bejeezes out of them, currently. Though not as much as Lord Genome.

As 'held' as they are, the gunmen blast the icicles that form, continuing to lay waste to the SuiKyosha's armoring, bit by bit. Part of the spread-fire is shared to the Gunship, but the blasts rend some of the number. It's just not as apparent. The frozen ground freezes shut, which stops the sudden arrival of a Giant Gunman that comes crashing down onto Sly's - but it slams to the ground, torn apart by the twin-linked Bright blossom lasers as the ground is frozen due to the Sui-kyosha.

There's not as an easy way to escape, now. "YOU SHAVED APES! Do you think that'll stop us!" "We're frozen still captain-" "Then get us OUT!" The larger Gunman, the leader, is busily freeing itself. Ken is able to more than blast apart the theatening forces due to the combine effort of the Sui and .. simply her skill, really. Gunfire fills the air after Ken, attempting to catch it - so easy to get it the first time, right? This'll be a walk in the park to take it down!

Or /so it seems/. Sly is suddenly onset by a Gunman from behind, smaller, but just as toothy! It came from above, diving onto him!

 R transmits, "Targetting Leading Gunmen unit. Please be advised because grenade is going to be away."

 R transmits, "Or should that be, jump back and get some distance because something may be exploding."

Boss looks at his calendar, then up at the beast man. Then back at the calendar. He looks at Miss October. Then back at the beast man. Then back at Miss October. Then at Miss October. Then at Miss October.

Boss finally peers back out of the grills of the Boss Borot.

"Waaaaaaaaaait." He squints one eye as he looks up at the Gunmen. "You are beastmen! Disguised as the french! You cunning bastards!" The Boss Borot balls up a fist. "You damn beastmen. Always..." He stops, then consults his Numbers handbook under 'Beastmen'. A few moments later. "ALWAYS HATING ON US HUMANS! Well humans invented pizza!"

The face of the Boss Borot is furrowing deep into a >:( expression as it pulls out an enormous thompson machine gun and starts firing into the Beastmen.

Normally, it would be a bit disconcerting for more Gunmen to enter into the fray nearby, but these are colored different - with the blue and whites of the SuiKyosha's army, and they stand out against Lord Genomes units. Sinya looks over her shoulder, a smile pulling to her features, "Ling!" She calls out, seeming all too happy to see her young protege's unit come up next to her. In some ways, there's little wonder why the running rumor on the ship is that these two have some sort of relationship, as the guymelef and skull-shaped Gunman go back to back for a moment, each one defending the other from the onslaught that follows, echanging blows with nearby enemy units.

There is a grin that lingers on her features, but it fades quickly as that strafing fire comes across towards them both. "Lookout!" She calls, raising a wing to try to shield the smaller Gunman from that nearby fire. The shots puncture holes into the guymelef's wing, jarring Sinya lightly as she's rocked back against the restraints. Looking down, the catgirl lets out a breath, "Watch yourself. This isn't a game." She doesn't have time for further talk, the staff coming back down to her side as she watches a nearby 'friendly' unit that seems to be in trouble. The eyes of the gryphon glow briefly from red to blue, and somehow - don't ask how - it's that La Gian 'magic' thing no one really believes in - it somehow seems to help.

As for Sinya, her eyes are on the group of Gunmen closest, those engaging with the SuiKyosha's pilots. With a series of quick movements, Sinya moves between the various attackers, trying to find the known weakpoints in each of their designs, striking out with her staff in attempts to take them down, one by one, as the staff-blows are aimed at disabling them - at least temporarily.

 Folka Albark transmits, "It appears the Zentrati are aiding Lord Genome."

 Solis Vivent transmits, "Likely Kamjin's group of reprobates."

The NEXT was quick, R's mind now acting fully one with the machine, only made it quicker. As the Snakemen with their own gunmen attempted to pot shot Strayed, the mech quickly sped around. The assault rifle's aim however as off as he noticed the leading unit went down. He slid around to a hard stop, kicking up snow before he pointed at a few, then pointed at the downed big gunmen. <<"Is that important?">> He asked the beastmen. <<"I bet it is, isn't it?">> There was almost a synical smile could be heard with the voice that reached out from the NEXT.

Then Strayed took a step back before it jumped into the air, the thrusters carrying it up with ease and speed that would tear apart any normal human. The Grenade launcher on the other shoulder came around before being pointed down right at the massive leading gunmen below now covered in ice. The transmission then went out to all ally radios; <<"Stand By. Launching Grenade in 3.. 2..">>

With a loud *KATHUNK* and then an explosion of great force, as massive grenade shot was blasted right down for the Gunmen below; all in hopes to make it go BOOM!

Seventh Gundam doesn't fly. Meriden doesn't mind, though she does sometimes miss the third dimension; she's used to having it. But even without it, she can hold her ground and clear a path.

Meri continues to lay about with the shotcannon, to mixed success; she comes under attack moments later, and she barely has enough room to swing the thing around and aim like she's been taught. She uses the oversized weapon like a shield instead, parrying one of their attempts to jump on and firing the head vulcans at the other. She doesn't hit, but it's enough to cover her quick evasion to the side.

Chest panels on Seventh Gundam flip open. "CHEST MISSILES!" Meriden yells, completely unnecessarily, as a quartet of missiles launch, two from each side of the heavy chestplate. She feels the recoil, something she's unused to having to absorb; Seventh Gundam tilts back slightly, then straightens, trying to advance forward again and simultaneously keep an eye on Ken.

And, okay, everyone else too. She's generous.

 R whistles.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> R transmits, "Nice software some of these little gunmen have.."

Must not kill. Must not kill...

Roger's orders were very strict, and Solis is a dutiful child...

The Reaper twists through the air, like a ballerina armed with an assault rifle as the Ganmen open fire...literally.

Solis seems nonplussed as the Reaper lands again, launching forward on its boosters through the enemies surrounding it.

A crimson energy blade burns out as Solis activates more of Reaper's built in armament.

The blade seeks out, aiming for joints, supports and non-lethal and non-explosive methods of rendering the gunmen inoperable...

"Surrender is your best option. Your resistance is futile."

Again he finds the verses crashing into his mind, a childhood of taut memorization...

/Fools say 'seek your dream,' what occurs when all seek their dreams? Are not some dreams nightmares to others? Would this not fill the world with nightmare? Indeed, seek your nightmare. For in horror and despair, there is safety and peace. /

He grips his head again, "Damnit... Why can't I stop thinking about this?!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Rebel 316 transmits, "Shootan' for Dummies two Point Oh"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Rebel 316 transmits, "busters used to just pull the trigger and shoot."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I can't get it out of my head! I keep hearing the book of ha-rasen."

"Let's pay them back for all the lives we've lost!" One of the men on the bridge of the SuiKyosha calls out. "For all those deaths!" Much like what had happened in Kamina and Simon's village, had happened to theirs. Gunmen falling from the sky, dislodging rocks, causing earthquakes, killing their loved ones. There are a lot of people on this ship who absolutely /dispise/ the beastmen. The fact that Sinya lives amongst them means that they've at least gotten over that first knee-jerk reaction that 'all non-humans are bad', save for the leader of the Gunmen army on that ship. But even Feng does not try anything funny against Sinya this battle, in a large lion looking Gunmen, punching through a small group of enemy Gunmen.

The constant barrage upon the SuiKyosha's thick plating is met with the strange property of that plating. It seems to 'melt' beneath the hits, softening the blows, but damage is done none-the less. "Damage report from floor one!" One of the men calls out. "Reroute the armor plating down!" Yu Zhi Wu commands. A gulf of 'water' suddenly rushes out from the water, bubbling up along with the rain, and moves onto the bottom of its hull to protect the area further!

The icicle fists however are finally broken, but instead unleash a barrage of icicles on the enemy cylindrical unit. The ground beneath continues to free in the meantime, trying to make the advancement of the Gunmen even more difficult. The rain is slowly turning into hail, as the air begins to 'freeze'. "Increase the barrage!" The winds around the ship pick up, tornadoes forming above the ship, connecting with it, forming torrents of water in the air for no reason at all! The hailstorm increases, pelting on the area beneath, but somehow leaves the areas Xiang's allies travel through entirely unscathed. The massive guns that had shifted finally come online, the tornadoes of water connecting to them, feeding into them...

And then finally, huge geysers of water blast down onto the ground beneath, trying to crash into the enemy gunmen with such kinetic and magical force that the beastmen within would be /crushed/ beneath the force!

Now suddenly these things are flying /everywhere/. Sly can't say that's much of an improvement, but at least he can get his Rifleman moving. Maybe he'll step on some somewhere? He fires lasers, but that doesn't seem to accomplish much. Well, at least he doesn't think so. They don't seem to notice, at any rate.

At least that's what he figures until his Rifleman lurches forward when something jumps on his back and takes a bite out of his rear armor! That's just downright rude. "God damn it! See Solis, THAT is why we don't mess with the optics! Because I would have seen that coming otherwise!"

Fortunately, the Rifleman does have some advantages. Like the arms are fully rotatable. First Sly spins them back to knock the mouthy bastard off him, then he starts charging forward, hopefully to keep ahead of it. Meanwhile, both arms are twisted back, and both heavy RAC/5s spin up and unload a blast of HEAP rounds backwards, the rapid-fire antiarmor guns rattling off for just a few shots to hopefully either discourage pursuit, or just gun the jerk down.

Ken Marinaris says, "No I do not but I got a lot more where that came from ya damn Furry!"

The Insults's are already flying this isn't much of a suprise there is one thing the Beastmen do, that is talk trash. She however can not dodge when there's just too many shots in the air for her mech to move. She uses WISPs as a barrier but that doesn't last too long as the Gunmen punch right though and the Ardjet is riddled with fire the Metatron is damaged but it regenerates, how long can she keep it up, the gauge on her stockpiles of metatron is getting lower and lower.

Two compressed space pockets open, and WISP after WISP comes back into reality, and they all are focused on blowing a path though one section of the enemy lines.

R's machine is noticed and that gets an eyebrow from Ken she's not seen him out and about in along time but whose in Reaper then?

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "I am not familiar with its words."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "But if they come to mind, they must have some kind of relation to this war we are waging now. There is no such thing as coincidence."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Rebel 316 transmits, "Just trivial cyclical bits of stimulus LODGED IN YOUR BRANEMEET"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "It is the revelation that turned the faith in the machine god from one based around positive acknowledgement of the glories of creation, into one of hatred, despair, rage and xenocidal urges."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Rebel 316 transmits, "The emperor smiles upon you brother."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "I blame the fact you are in Reaper. It most be all the black."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "What revelation was that?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Rebel 316 transmits, "Using satellite technology to launch multiple simultaneous devestating deep strikes."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "The angel of the cold eyes came to the writer and told him the 'truth.'"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Rebel 316 transmits, "I bet you guys read books."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Tina Uesugi transmits, "I hear that Hustler can only read one type of book, and its Hustler Magazine."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Rebel 316 transmits, "Maaaan. Neo Larry Flint is a sellout."

The >:( Boss Borot blasts into quite a few Gunman. They are stunned that their compatriot is attacking them!! "What!?" "You're one of them!?" "TRAITOR!" They share much in common with Boss, "Now you'll never get those waffles!"

A massive explosion from the Group of Gunman's mouth is misdirected as Sinya moves bewteen them. The eruptions slip around her, detonating where she was, as each blow disables a few Gunmen, the machine working its way through a swathe!

The NEXT? The Gunman, leader of it all, stared straight towards the swell of grenade launcher. "Can't we move!?" "I just said we couldn't." "GET US MOVING! SSSSTUPID!" "SSSSSSTOP that SSSS!" The snake boss stares. "Cccccertainly." He glares, as the entire thing rocks, flashing red and yellow. Armoring is shorn off, but the command unit, not yet destroyed.

Chest missiles impact the ground, cracking the ice and earth, allowing some to slip through, the Gunmen taking off into the air again or vanishing below. "Surrender against SHAVED APES?" "You'll have to kill us before we would even think of it!" "You don't know how scary Lord Genome IS, DO you!?" Solis is responded to by grunt after grunt. The energy blade tears through gunmen's limbs, but scores not a killing blow. Unluckily. That leaves them to shed their 'skin', becoming but turrets. They can still fight.

Sly attempts once more to just rattle down the jerks, gunning them one by one - but the Gunmen know alot about guns! And men/shaved apes! As he keeps firing, they dive down, a few acting as distractions, before they get the jump on Sly! Forcing the Mechwarrior to the ground, or at least bashing it against the frozen and broken earth!

The barrier forms, and the Gunmen - well they glare upwards at Ken. But she won't be forgotten! "All you've lost? You'll lose far more!" The commander exclaims, but they have been involved in many under-world tactics. The magical forces that swell across the battlefield worry them little, taking up and off, or diving below. Hail beats down, forcing the Gunmen back - but they've seemingly grown faster, stronger - more deadly.

Is this the will of Genome!?

"Wipe them off the planet, and then maybe they'll finally crawl back to where they belong! GET THEM!" The head snakeman declares! From the ground below, any remaining Gunmen erupt - the full force bearing down, land and air, with 'teeth' claws, tackles and barrages! It is an endless swarm --

How many are there!?!

"Your Spiral King? I have faced him. I endured his drills. I stood resplendant afterwards... "

He watches the Gunmen rush at him, explosions ricketing the Reaper, smashing into the frame, which stands against it all despite their best efforts...

"You come before me with such things. You wish to conquer, but I say to you, you are already defeated! You..."

/And I inquired, what sin have we committed. And it said to me thus, "The infant reaches heavenward, with ignorant curiosity and foolish hope. This is your sin."/

Solis clenches his eyes shut, as the Reaper crouches down before launching skyward....

Its shoulder mounted plasma cannon cycles into active position, laying out punishing fire on the gunmen below, but again...aiming non-lethally...

"Why do you fight? To conquer? Why do you stay here. What is the motivation of the Spiral King? Do you not know? Are you nothing but cogs? TELL ME!"

The blast from the nearby Gunman is enough to send the gryphon knight forward, slamming him hard into the ground and driving Sinya into the controls of her unit. Wincing, the girl tries to brace herself, hissing as the metal cuts in against her suit. Arius was never meant to take hits like that in reality, and one of them has done enough to draw blood from the girl's shoulder. She turns, looking at the wound, but pays it no real mind as Ling's Gunman helps the guymelef to it's feet. "Thanks." She coughs, trying to get air back into her lungs, turning the guymelef's eyes back toawrds the horde surrounding them. "Work towards the west, I'll come around and flank them."

As the group splits apart, Sinya moves carefully, treading over already crushed Gunmen as she tries to get to some that are already distracted by the battle. It's hard enough to try to hit these fast moving little buggers, but with Arius damaged - it was becoming harder to focus. Taking a breath, that staff is spun around with her hands, raking a line in the ground before using it to catapult over some wreckage, leaping in towards one of the enemy units.

And just then, a drop of blood from her shoulder falls... Where it lands within the cockpit, there is a momentary glow. The guymelef's energists grow faintly darker, the energy recoiling back into Sinya as her hands grip the controls tighter than normal. Whatever had caused the reaction to her blood, it's clear that it has unleashed some part of the guymelef normally hidden. The catgirl grits her teeth, giving a roar as she charges forward. This time, though, it isn't her staff that leads the way, but one clawed hand. A ghostly after-image of huge claws seems to form around that hand as it rakes out, trying to lash against the nearest of the Gunmen, somehow powered not only by blood, but rage as well - a rage that isn't Sinya's alone, but someone else as well. Someone... that is no longer part of this world. There is a flash, for those sensitive to it, of an actual knight. The image overlayed over the gryphon's lunging form.

The Grenade Launcher did its works and it seems to upset teh whole swarm of beastmen below. Strayed floated in the air, one hand resting on its side as the Grenade launcher retracted and went back down to rest behind the shoulder of the mech. <<"Well, I am impressed.">> R's voice calls down to the still standing command unit. Though he watched it vanish off his radar HUD in the corner of his own vision. <<"Just to bad you run like a dog with your tail between your legs. At least we.. what is the word you guys like using, oh yes, hairless apes have more courage then what you beastmen have between your legs.">>

Though he watched as several gunmen leaped into the air and took flight. The Strayed quickly dropped down to avoid several of them, before he used his Kojima blade to parry away any blade like weapons that came toward him, and allowed his Primal Armor to eat the damage. The NEXT then slammed down onto the ground in a three prong crouch. The hand dug into the snow, before the thrusters ignited with bright aqua green color. The primal armor field could be seen flicker for a moment. His foot was planted down such away to keep himself from rushing forward. <<"Badda-boom. Badda-Bang.">> Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Suddenly the white NEXT blasted forward with great speed, going to knock down any gunmen in his path down like bowling ball knocking over pins in a bowling arena.

The SuiKyosha suddenly finds itself the focal point of quick a large sum of beastmen in Gunmen, rattling all across the ship. Some stomping onto its hull. People within the ship, looking through the many holes where one can see the outside, scream in fear as they swarm the ship. Though they had seen gunmen before, it had never been in this quantity. The people on the SuiKyosha, for the first time in their lives... are scared. Scared for their lives. Bulkheads close all along the ship. Residents cower in their houses. Couples hug eachother on their beds.

Turrets all across the ship are torn from the hull, and deep within the ship, the SuiKyosha's spirit cries out in pain. It shudders. It cries out. And Xiang hears it call out for him. "Hang on... SuiKyosha." The captain mutters, staring out before himself. "Get our forces on the ship." He stands up from his throne and waves his hand forward. The earth rumbles once again, and the ground once again becomes the enemy of the Gunmen as huge Geysers suddenly lift the SuiKyosha's gunmen up into the air and onto the hull, so their battle can continue there!

"That is their leader. The one who speaks too much." Xiang mutters, staring calmly at the screen. He cannot show his nerves in this situation. The people of this ship depend on him. He must see this battle through to the end. The ship blasts forwards, then turns again as a huge mouth at the front of the ship begins to open. From within, the spirit cries, and the battlefield is suddenly roared through by the ship's god. It sounds like a dragon of sorts. The eyes at the front of the ship shine, and those torrents of water begin to flow straight into the back of the ship, into those formerly transparently shielded areas, letting it rush into the ship.

"Prepare the main cannon!" Xiang Yuan calls out. A rolling light, like bioluminescence, coarses through the SuiKyosha. In the meantime, some of the SuiKyosha's Gunmen that had not been lifted up continue to fight along with Sinya, trying to help her out any way they can. But it was clear that her abilities with the GuyMelef were certainly better than theirs with the Gunmen.

"FIRE!" Yu Zhi Wu calls out, right at the same time as the captain. And the energy of water concentrates, and a huge blue beam fills the skies, freezing it over, then shifting to water again, turning around, following the cylindrical Gunmen around, trying to wrap around it and damage it with its cold and high-energy body.

There are beastmen /everywhere/.

The Seventh Gundam is swarmed by Gunmen - but doesn't go down, though it staggers back under the force of the assault. Meriden is rocked this way and that under the impact of the swarming beastmen, and now she's much, much too close to actually use the shotcannon effectively.

So she doesn't. The forearms of Seventh have concealed grenade launchers. Meriden kind of waves her arms around more or less randomly, launching tiny grenades in every direction. She is sheltered by the Gunmen clinging to her - but the terrain around her erupts in clusters of explosions every time a pair of grenades hit the ground, a Gunmen, or just after they've been in the air around her for a while. "Get ooooff!" she yells, more angry than anything else.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent murmurs, "...and the flesh shall slouch off of you, and you will breed no more. For to breed is to die, and to grow is to die, but metal is firm, unchanging and eternal..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "...damnit..."

"Boss! These are the guys Simon is always fighting!"

The Boss Borot lifts a boulder, throwing it at one of the Gunmen. It flattens the single one and the shockwave of the exploding unit throws the others away from the Boss Borot. "WHAT I AM BUSY HERE! I am NOT a traitor, I'll have you know I am the most honorable Bancho this side of the arcade with the pac man that has tits drawn on it!" Boss seems VERY angry about this. Honor is very important to him. Sometimes.

"They have something to do with Spiral power. Or drills. Or something."

Boss leans back, looking over at Mucha and Nuke. Mucha shuts his mouth and just shrugs. Boss rubs at his chin. "So they run on some kind of super special source of power."

"And drills."

"And drills." Boss agrees. Boss picks up the Mickey Mouse phone from it's hooks in the Boss Borot and dials.

"Chan Two Eyes. I need you to get to..." Extreme close up. "SAOTOME LABS!" Boss hangs up the phone dramatically. Mucha opens his mouth.

"Boss, you didn't even tell him what you wanted!" Boss waves a hand indignantly before the Boss Borot starts running in towards the gunmen, arms flailing like a muppet.

"LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME! I AM NOT AT ALL STALLING FOR TIME!"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I need to focus!"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "It sounds like a premonition..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "A warning."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R sarcasim, "... man, this is starting to sound like the /story/ of my life.."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "I would hope it's not a premonition."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland growls softly to herself.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "I've... heard similar ones before."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "Amongst smaller cultures within La Gias. Mostly cults."

Sly says a few unflattering things about Solis (Thankfully untransmitted) as he slams a fist on his control console. Thanks to the reduced optic targeting systems on his mech, he can't line up shots properly, and doesn't manage to gun down any of these gunmen. Worse yet, the damage from earlier is messing with his power systems, diverting Sly's attention away from targeting while he reroutes power, allowing some beastman to grab onto his mech like Elementals.

He really hates that.

"Solis, you don't have blast pods on this thing, do you?" Sly asks over the radio, but he knows the specs and knows it doesn't. And that's about where Sly has an idea. "Okay, I have no pods, but these things aren't Elementals, are they? They're something else..."

Sly turns to his power systems again. This time, instead of rerouting power away from the damage, he diverts all the power he can straight through the damaged power lines. Broken cables suddenly spark to life as intense electricity suddenly surges through them. Although most spark uselessly, a few of them along the edges are laying severed against the machine. Specifically, against the thick armor plating of the mech.

That armor conducts the energy nicely, and for a brief moment, the surface of Sly's mech surges with enough electricity to kill or damage anything that might be hanging off it.

Ken Marinaris is keeping track of her wingman and the Trailers, but it's a heavy fight, there's just too much fire and way too many gunmen. She orders the AI to plot a firing solution while she focuses on avoiding not dying. This doesn't go so well as planned the Ardjet is ripped into sections are blown off it, rounds detonate inside it and the strange machine looks like a wounded animal now, it falls back. WISPs are again summoned, and soon the machine is encased in a cocoon the machine isn't dead and everyone present would pick up a massive energy spike as the Ardjet charges, she makes sure no friendly units are in the way then she'll rake the Beastman lines with it. Not once, but three times, at this point the ground would be turning to glass from the force of the energy that is unleashed.

"Do not under estimate a Martian! Our planet is named for a god of war and its soil will be watered with your blood!"

Well the intimation factor may or may not work but hey its worth a try.

"You think you faced him!?" The Beastman laughs before the plasma cannon tears apart the armoring of many a gunman! They are left armorless, in the end. Laughing, still. "You can't even SHOOT staight!" One pipes up, falling out of the remants of his Gunman before he dives under into the holes. "See you later, but we won't, because you won't make it!"

Sinya's Gumelef takes it to the Gunmen, tearing apart a few, section by section, ripping them apart as the pieces, and pilots, fall as they tear straight through the onslaught of gunmen. Tumbling, in pieces or in just a piece, the Gunmen and pilots are at the mercy of the /demon/.

The sudden eruption of speed from R - it's after a taunt. A taunt that proves to gather the attention of the Beastmen. Many of them. "Oh?" "Oh." MORE TO COME. Because he is /blasted/ by the massive blue beam. The leader's Gunman is frozen over, the huge blue beam freezing it solid, the pilots and the engines - all of it freezes solid. How easy to shatter they, and it, must be! But it simply crashes to the ground - massive as it is. But it doesn't /move/.

Concealed grenade launchers from the Seventh Gundam detonate around the Gunmen, forcing them off - it's a nice plot. The tactic is solid - the explosions take with them gunman and pilot. Swallowing all as one. The Seventh is a strong force - but they are quick. "Get off? But you're such a big target!" Hshasha! Arms flailing smash into a Gunman somehow, /destroying it utterly/. "Of course you're not stalling for time!" The Gunman and pilot exclaim, "You're WORTHLESS!" Gunmen from all sides smash into Boss Borot - or try!! But such noodly arms!? "And a traitor! Don't you forget that!"

Gunmen shoot off from Sly as they held on, 'wings' opening wide as they take to the sky again, gliding off, or leaping off the Rifleman. "Crafty, shaved ape!" "But you were not the first to try such risky manuevers!"

R, sadly, proves to be the bigger target than Boss. Energized by his presence, drawn on by his very command, the Gunman, frozen so solidly - thaws. "You TRULY do not UNDERSTAND his might! And you underestimate /every last one of us/!" The loud mouth ( really it can stretch )'d Beastman proclaims.

"So I will demonstrate it!" The Gunman lunges, 'arms' grasping the ground as it lunges... away? As R boosts forwards, he's met by the rubb-banding Gunman, matching his speed, in the reverse direction. It's really rediculous, like a missile with teeth impacting a glowing ball of energy. But that's where Lord Genome's will /truly shines/.

The smaller gunmen are devoured by Ken's swelling laser, wisps raining across the field to demolish each and every smaller machine - but they do not entirely rest. The remaining guns are turned to those who play keep away, while those who engage are lept upon byt those that remain.

The Beastmen force... suddenly doesn't seem so large.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Massive static from R's unit.

The Reaper continues flitting about, even as the beastmen open up from below.

It crashes down amidst the fire, blasts skimming across its armoring...no true hits, but a lot of near misses...

Solis within grips his temples, "...the metal lives...the flesh dies but the metal lives...the flesh dies but the metal lives..."

He snarls and smashes his head against the bulkhead, again and again and again...

He stares up, blood pouring from his forehead, eyes wide, crazed, "Miserable little bastards. I. AM. GROWING. SICK. OF. ALL. OF. YOU. I have orders to not kill all of your useless, miserable asses, but I am becoming SORELY tempted!! You want to cite the Spiral King, call us apes, and generally make nuisances of yourselves?"

A missile launcher rises up over the shoulder of the AC, "WELL I HAVE A MISSILE LAUNCHER!!"

The launcher fires, wildly, almost insanely, "I HAVE A MISSILE LAUNCHER!! I HAVE A DAMNED MISSILE LAUNCHER!! AND MINE IS BIGGER THEN ALL OF YOURS PUT TOGETHER!!"

Now that these things are off Sly's Rifleman, he intends to keep it that way, backpedaling the mech as fast as he can. Shots come in, some impacting the heavy frontal armor, others get sidestepped around, but the Rifleman doesn't slow down. Sly also catches the transmission set his way, and only grins in response.

"No, I don't. But I know something you don't."

The Rifleman's two heavy cannon arms spiral back to face forward, and the entire mech pivots back just a bit as the two arms sweep into the air.

"This mech here? It's an anti-air unit."

The two cannons spin up and both fire heavy bursts into the Beastman ranks. Sly doesn't back off this time. He's got them where his targeting computer can actually do some good, so he lays on the fire now, holding down the cannons until they glow as they fill the air between his Rifleman and these Gunmen with high-explosive, armor-piercing rounds.

A demon? Well, whatever has posessed Arius certainly may fight like one, although it doesn't seem to radiate any sort of evil aura along with it. As soon as a few of the Gunmen fall underneath those ripping claws, the effect seems to stop. The after-image of the knight dissipates and the gryphon is left standing there as he always had been, staff at his side, still. Sinya, though, is a little bit bewildered. This had happened once before, and she'd never quite figured out what had caused it. She's preoccupied enough with the battle that the little cut goes unnoticed, and she never does make that connection between the two things.

With her pulse racing in her ears, and her mind already consumed by the heat of battle, the catgirl turns, the knight following her motion, spinning his staff in his hands before turning towards the ever-unending horde of Gunmen. Sweat beeds on her forehead, having to pant softly for breath as she moves on from those destroyed enemies to find new ones - ones who might just be a little unnerved by what they just witnessed at the hands of the guymelef. However, the knight is gone, and all that is left is a focused catgirl, still trying to keep herself alive for the time being.

The fact that her ship, her 'friends' on the SuiKyosha aren't faring particularly well doesn't slip her attention, although she doesn't have time to flee to their aid just yet. There's too much else at stake, and with so many friendly units damaged, she has to stay in the thick of the battle - and trust that her beloved can handle himself without her help. Gritting her teeth, Sinya charges forward, wading into yet another clump of Beastmen as she swings that staff out, moving with a combination of steps, strikes, turns that almost seem like a dance. Each one is aimed in the control of a martial-artist's kata, trying to do as much damage as she can in a short period of time, if only to clear a few more of those enemy Gunmen off of the field with that glowing staff of hers.

There was a reason you don't taunt the beastmen. There was a reason sometimes it was better to be quiet. R-- silently wondered if he and the original shared this alike. They both like to talk big, hit big, and get the price for it double folded.

The Main unit rushed him. It was faster than what R was expecting and the Strayed was impacted. The first impacts were being taken by the Primal Armor. Hit by hit though, the Primal armor started to 'tear', before at last it 'shattered' as Kojima particles flew backward and the main unit hit him around like a damn ball.

The final blow however slammed the Strayed across the ground, before it hit hard, rolling a bit, till it at last came to a hard stop on the ground; laying there for a moment in silence. Then with a hand slamming into the ground, then the other hand. The NEXT picked itself up with a groan of machine parts and the visor flickering several times as the systems rapidly were being fed energy, being rapidly rebooted. <<"...">>

"<<"..I am.. not.. done..">> R's voice said with a slight monotone. <<".. Preparing system for Assault armor.">> The NEXT suddenly stared right over at the leading Gunman unit, before suddenly the NEXT ran right at the gunman. Those white feet carrying it far as the arms went out wide. The feet then started to run faster and faster before the thrusters ignited. The NEXT charged right for the gunmen, before it reached out to take ahold of the Gunman unit.

With thrusters bright, he tried to send them both into the air. The aqua green visor staring down at the optical senor of the large beastman unit. <<"I am not human, but my will is. That-- is a very dangerous thing for something that can not die, however-- you can, can't you?">>

Suddenly letting the Gunman go. The Primal Armor started to glow yellow on the outside before all the vents on the NEXT closed and the visor shield went over its visor. The Primal armor then sucked in tight, before a massive explosion happen in the air. An explosion that would rock radioactive scanner alerts for a short time during the blast high in the sky. By sight, it almost looked like a mini-nuke just went off by the sheer brightness of it.

"I'm not a big target!" Meriden objects. Though she is by Gunmen standards, there are bigger around - the ship that's shooting ice tornadoes, for one.

When she runs out of grenades, Meriden uses the /other/ launchers on the hands to shoot yellowish beam blasts, slamming into the nearby Gunmen and forcing them back. Meriden doesn't clear out a /lot/ of room... but she doesn't need to. Mostly she wants to pull up the shotcannon again.

Meriden pulls the trigger. The gun does not immediately shoot. Instead the depths of the barrel begin to shine faintly yellow as Meriden draws more power into it. While she charges, she jumps; the Seventh cannot fly, but boosted by its space-use thrusters, it gets a hell of a long leap.

Bounding above and along the battlefield, Meriden realizes she has to keep them off Ken - and so she fires at the ones that might be menacing her. The Seventh's shotcannon emits a massive beam, a blast so long-lived Meriden can drag it along the ground as she jumps, leaving a deep furrow in the stone and striking at quite a few of the Gunmen at once. "I'm not going to let you guys keep menacing everyone else!" she yells. "Why can't you just go live in your own kingdom? We'd be okay with that!!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> R transmits, "..power at five percent.. rerouting power."

Ken Marinaris lays waste to a portion of the enemy forces the surface is turned to glass in it's wake but theres more to do even as she'd make an Green Peacer quite unhappy. Ken doesn't care there's too many Furries to deal with. The enemy comes and while Ardjet is badly damaged she keeps pressing on and the Gunmen only find after images, she's not even sure how many of the Trailers are still in the fight, there's still a sea of red contacts.

Wisps break off the body and attack, she fires them all rather than leave them to go down with her there's still too many Beastmen and something best be done about that.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> R transmits, "The NEXT is now pulling power from me.. I always wondered why I felt like I did after I pulled that off. Why Strayed could reboot the Primal Armor so fast.. it is because it.. it uses me.. because, haha, I am Strayed!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Sinya Leland transmits, "Next thing you know, he'll be talking to crickets."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> R transmits, "I-- already do."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Tina Uesugi transmits, "Thats Xaing's Sctick!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> R transmits, "How do you think James got his name?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Tina Uesugi drunkenly, "Give it back!"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Sinya Leland snickers. "Not allowed to tease, I see?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> R transmits, "Arro?"

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Tina Uesugi hiccups.

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Folka Albark interupts your conversation for... "KOUHA KISHIN KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!"

"We got him!" A man calls out. "No." Xiang stares down at the fallen Gunmen. "It is not over yet." All across the battlefield, war still wages. Far from where they are, the Divine Crusaders fight their fight against Lord Genome's forces. Closer by, Kamjin, the traitor, fights the rest of the earth's mighty heroes. And here, even the A-LAWS and trailers work together to take down this enemy. "Yu..." Xiang mutters and holds out his hand. She hands in the speaker, and the chime of the device coarses through the ship, as well as the outside.

<"Today, we stand before a seemingly impossible enemy. A force that seems to defy logic, a mighty enemy called the beastmen, and behind them stands the surpressor of humanity, the Spiral King. We are only some of many humans who wish to defeat this enemy. We must not falter. We must raise our hopes. We must trust in the weapons we've been granted. The experiences we've lived through. We must cherish the lives we have. And for us to protect the lives of the many that live now, and will come after now."> Within the ship, people slowly look up, as they realize something rare is happening: their emperor, speaking to them all.

<"These creatures are an enemy of our people. Seeking to undo everything we have worked for in the millenia of our lives. Both in the world of La Gias, as well as that on earth."> The SuiKyosha's gunmen continue to fight, kicking a set of the enemy's units off of the ship, whilst the machine lifts towards the skies. The storms become more violent. A heavy wind sets, and the hail begins to turn into rain once more, then into tornadoes of water that continue to flow straight into the armor of the SuiKyosha. <"Let us hear it. The roar that is the will of humanity. The will of those who refuse to be oppressed. The will of those who wish to be free!"> Though perhaps his words may not have such a great effect on those outside of the ship. Within, the people are suddenly exstatic. They trust in their emperor. And they trust in his words.

The light of the SuiKyosha becomes brighter. And the earth beneath suddenly flash-freezes, but leaves the allied units untouched. More tornadoes of water come crashing down from the skies. Some flail shards of ice around, others send small offsprings further into the SuiKyosha, which has opened many a gate to take in their power. <"Beastmen. Watch humanity. Watch us shaven apes. Watch us, who are not too different from you! Defy you! Defy your might, your Spiral King. Watch us do what you thought to be the impossible. Because together, humanity can do just that. We can DO the impossible!"

The gate at the front of the SuiKyosha, that large mouth opens further. Water pours in faster. Lightning storms overhead crack through the area. Large gates that are set from the magical reactor to that opening... open. One after another, bulkheads collapse and reveal further magical glyphs that shatter. Seals are unmade. And the God within the SuiKyosha rages. It is being led out! It is being channeled. "Sir! Something is going on with the SuiKyosha!" One of the men on the bridge calls out.

Xiang just... grins. The ship itself seems to slightly change its form. The wings grow, the fins glow, the eyes brightly shine, and the water power within the weapons all drain towards the front. The ground rumbles. Further geysers suddenly blast up, as the rage of the god of water within that ship brings their powers to bear. Nature defies nature. Magic defies nature. Many of these tornadoes spiral impossibly so, a slight blue glow to all of it. A beautiful glow...

<"TASTE HUMANITY'S ANGER!"> Xiang, for once, shouts. He truly shouts. Angry. Like a battlecry. And then it commences. A azure pulse appears at the front of the ship, then lightning strikes across the hull and ripples through the entire battleship, before coarsing forwards to the tip of that weapon and fires...

A gigantic dragon of water! It roars, it rages, it flows out and wraps itself throughout the entire area. Again it roars, its red eyes staring down at the snake Gunmen's machine. Another roar. Its jaw opens... and then rushes straight for it - trying to wrap around it, strangle it, bite it down with its huge water-body. To crush it with its mighty jaws and destroy it with the power of magic and kinetics.

With the remnants of the Gunman hordes of the Sand Squad decimated. The Reapers missile launcher is deadly - all those crippled machines from before are destroyed, along with any unlucky pilots. Solis manages to avoid killing /too/ many. Much of the smaller targets explode - the larger ones? There's only one large one /left/.

The Gunman lunge at R, but the sudden eruption of Assault armor prove they are more apt to be dissolved into energy, vaporized from the less sudden but catastrophic assault. They jump, or fire, but are shorn away. It's surprisingly long in reach as well. The field is clear around R.

The pen, struck by evolution, flies through the cockpit of the biggest Gunman - it slams into the head of the pilot. "GAH! What worthless shaved ape! He thinks THIS will-" The pilot shuts up, but the Gunman continues to thrash, long tail slamming into the Borot. The tail smashes away, knocking Sinya out of her technique after it cleaves apart yet another swarm of beastman - the Gunmen are thrown about - Sinya's field goes green right before the flailing 'boss' smacks her out of camera range. Sly tears apart a swarm as well, gunfire filling the air between him and the Gunmen - well, what is left of the Gunman in the end! There are more bullets on the field unspent than there are Gunmen destroyed. And the number is only getting more favorable!

Missiles rain down from Ken, from the Ardjet, but a single cannon shot is fire, the flying machines protesting their demise! "LORD GEN-"! They cry, but are silenced, destroyed by an Ender. Ended, in particular. The Gunman commander flails against the Seventh, but the beamshortcannon melts much of the armoring, slowing it down - its strike may not even be felt - but it's still a threat to the others, wildly lashing. The pilot isn't, in particular, well.

The SuiKyosha, bright as the skies, washes away the commander and his Gunman. "LORD GENOME! I HAVE FAILED YOUUUUU!" He cries out, "But... YOU WILL ... NEVER BEAT... HIM?!"

The lightning that strikes wipes out beastman and gunmen alike, followed by the massive dragon, crushing the machine entirely - it no longer exists when everything is finished.

Speaking of the pilot? Due to Boss, he is now /fungus/. The power of evolution worked in reverse - or perhaps fungus is more complete than beastman!

All fields clear!!

The flash of light from Strayed seems to catch Sinya off-guard, not having expected the sudden glare and then the flow of radiation that seems to follow afterwards. It's distraction enough that it leaves her open when a nearby Gunman slams into her, knocking the guymelef backwards. Luckily, the teams from the SuiKyosha seem to make short work of it, and she's able to get back on her feet, blinking her eyes as she tries to focus - even with those annoying little colored lights still lingering in her vision. "Damage..." She reminds herself, tapping a finger to bring up the guymelef's status. Overall, he'd fared better in this battle than in the Arena match against that Armored Core, so that's something at least.

Just as she is about to head back into the thick of the battle, the voice of the Captain catches her ears, causing them to perk. The catgirl's head turns towards the SuiKyosha, looking upward like some knight before his lord. The words - they seem to stir something in her heart - or at the very least remind her of the part of Xiang that she had fallen in love with: the part so few other people ever saw. A small smile quirks on her lips, showing a bit of personal pride in those green eyes as she raises the guymelef's arm, staff in hand, adding that silent affirmation of the power of 'humanity'. Sure, she may not be human - not in the strictest of senses, but she still considered herself part of that 'family'.

The knight raises one wing, shielding himself from the hail and wind, watching the way that ice dragon rips through the forces of Lord Genome, her tail twitching. "This is Leland to SuiKyoshan fighters. Looks like this batch is taken care of. Get the cleanup crews out here and let's salvage what we can. If you see any Gozu parts, they're mine." While Xiang may have command of the ship, and there are others who command the SuiKyosha's army, Sinya is definitely the boss of the hangar crew. for now, she launches into the air with a flex of the guymelef's wings, flaring through the skies to return to her ship and see just how bad the damage had really been.

The Boss Borot lifts up, thrown back by the powerful swing. It crashes into the ground and rolls once, eyes @_@. Boss grapples the Borot up into standing, rubbing at his head. "Hah! Look at that! They are down. All thanks to the singular greatness of the Boss Borot!" The Boss Borot bounces up, flexing noodle arms.

All three of the thugs, and the Boss Borot, pull out aviator glasses and slide them on. "It's time."

The Boss Borot starts moving towards the Teppelin.

"For some fucking waffles."

Solis Vivent calms down for a moment and spies the various wrecks, some a result of his own actions...

He frowns, a dark frown... He's violated orders...

Defeat weighs down heavilly on him.

Ken's machines on it's last legs, but the Ardjet is hit by one last Gunman, the aim was true asher swarm, the final act of the doomed Gunman pilot drags the Ardjet wit it, it sprals out like a shot person and drops towards the now shot glass ground. Ken's trying to get control but there's nothing she can do, she's going down faster than an dress on prom night.

Meriden Almace, unlike many of the other units here, is more or less intact. The Seventh is missing a couple plates of armour and that's really it, aside from the odd scuff and dent in random places. She even still has most of her battery intact, though the thrusters are a little overstressed; if it wasn't raining, she'd want to wait for them to cool down before she used them again.

It is and she doesn't. Meriden bounds across the semi-abandoned battlefield, leaving the beastmen behind. She feels bad, that they died... but if they stayed, if they never attacked people, they wouldn't have to do this. Instead she bounds toward Ken and the Ardjet, to pick up the pieces - or, if she can, catch the orbital frame, though that would be tricky due to relative sizes and speeds.

The SuiKyosha slowly flows down towards the ground as the Dragon continues to rage, taking down the last remnants of enemy Gunmen, before it returns to the barrel of the mighty ship - which closes its mouth... and the seals come back into existance. A loud cheer erupts from the innards of the ships, and the SuiKyosha's Gunmen cheer! A series of new Gunmen suddenly launch from the vessel, as the hangar crew heeds Sinya's request. In the meantime...

The skies overhead clear. The storm casts away, letting the sun shine through once more, making the now drenched ground, ship and Gunmen look like sparkling angels somehow. It all somehow fits dramatically well with the victory that had finally occurred. And on the ship, Xiang settles back down in his throne, smiling. Yu Zhi Wu is looking at him, seeming rather proud - much like Sinya. "I have protected them." He whispers. "You have indeed, Xiang." She puts a hand on his shoulder. The two look at eachother for a moment, after which the man turns his attention before him.

The gigantic hangar doors of the SuiKyosha remain open, welcoming any and all vessel on board. A-LAWS, Trailers. It didn't matter. A series of transmissions are sent to people like Ken and Meriden, with an invitation to make use of the repair facilities on board the grande vessel. "Miss Leland incoming." One of the men calls in. But Xiang already knew. He could feel her as the god within the battleship makes that telepathic connection. He knew she felt proud. And that just makes that smile on his face that much bigger.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "...I must have killed one or two of them..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "...thats a violation of orders..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I can't return home now."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "Killed two of what?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Xiang Yuan transmits, "Mister Vivent. If I am right, your father will not be as upset as you may believe him to be."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "The beastmen during the assault."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "But if it would cool your mind, I invite you onto the SuiKyosha."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "He indicated to me expressly that mistakes would not be tolerated."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "These are genocidal monsters that will try and kill everything. You're good, I am sure."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "We can perform some repairs on your unit."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "An order is an order."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "I am certain he will understand, mister Vivent."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I will not return to Paradigm City."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "If that is your choice..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "Where will you go now?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "Choice doesn't enter into it."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I will return to my habs in the Den and hope that Father does not choose to cast out my sisters for my incompetence."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "You are giving up without trying, mister Vivent. But, I am not one to judge you in this matter."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason siiighs.

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "Nrh.. tired.."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "It may not mean much, but if you need anything, Solis, let us know. We'll try to help however we can."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "There are plenty of homes to take here aboard the SuiKyosha, and we are a free ship. You are welcome here."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I have a place in the Den."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "...at the end it seems that despite one's best attempts, he still fails."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "As much as I've tried in the past..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "To not kill, when wielding weapons, is an impossible venture. Which is a sad truth."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I informed Father of this, his response to my statement was 'A negotiator cannot afford to fail.'"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "Failing is a part of learning."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "Are you a negociator, mister Vivent?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "In training to be one, yes."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "Failure is not permitted to a trainee."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "But you are not one."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Emperor Xiang Yuan transmits, "Failure not being permitted...?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "No. Failure has never been permitted."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "Just leave it, Xiang."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "Failure to observe appropriate ritual requirements for construction of turbine, punishment fifteen hours in the pain glove."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "Failure is always punished."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "That's it."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "Solis. When you're done. You're going to the arcade with me."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I have to debrief father, first, Mr. Mason."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "Nope."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "Presuming he opts to not terminate me, other punishments may remain which would interfere with such outings."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland sighs softly, "Sometimes trying to get through feels like a losing battle, Ringo."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "What is that, Mr. Mason?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "...the worst part is."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "I didn't even enjoy it."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "Hey Sly, when we get back-- you want a drink?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "You're tellin' me. Kid was in my care when we were both in the DC."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "Not much better now than it was then, is it?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sinya Leland transmits, "Anyways, going to focus on some work for a while. Time to catalogue salvaged Gunman parts..."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Ringo Mason transmits, "Actually, gosh, he is much better than he used to be."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Sly Heckler transmits, "I guess the field is clear. So do we hold here, or pull out?"

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> Solis Vivent transmits, "Unknown. I'm deferring to someone who knows what they're doing."

<Radio: A - Trailer Chat> R transmits, "I guess not... and yeah, lets get home. We did our job after all."