2010-04-24 - Turn Blue

SOME TIME AGO

Revive Revival has Leo Stenbuck in his office, aboard the Shirogane. It's a tense little meeting, not in the least because it's five minutes and neither man has said anything. Revive doesn't seem angry, though. Finally, he chuckles.

"So the secret's out, huh?"

Folding his arms and letting out a long breath, Revive grins. "No hard feelings, then." This coming from the man who beat Leo Stenbuck so badly that he needed to go into gene therapy to keep his bones from dissolving or something. "Tell you how it's gonna be. Today, we're swinging out to Baldur Bay. I've got intelligence pointing to Katharon hiding out there." Revive waves a dossier but doesn't offer it to the other Captain. "You're gonna be my second on this, Leo. And you're gonna impress me with your leadership so much that you're gonna get the GNX Team back and all's gonna be forgiven. That's the deal. You don't have a say in negotiating the terms."

Revive's smile takes on a cruel, predatory bent. "And when we scare out those little Katharon scumbags -- your 'leadership' had better be swift, merciless, and /bloody/. Dismissed, Captain." Revive winks.

NOW

Five A-LAWS units close in on Baldur Bay colony in Side 6. Baldur Bay has a lot of history -- it used to be Zeon-controlled, and is in fact the place where the psycommu system was invented. But now it's just another Orb-friendly colony in an Orb-friendly sector of space. At the head of the pack is Revive Revival, blasting through space on a stream of dark orange sparkles, the glittering contrail marking the path of his Gadessa. In the tall unit's hands, a truly massive weapon is clutched, slowly pulsing with building energy.

Just outside the colony, Revive comes to a halt, lifting one arm to signal to the others. Using some fancy Ribbons Tech, he opens a direct line of communication to the gate controllers of the colony, letting his men listen in, too.

"Baldur Bay colony. I am Captain Revive Revival of the Earth Federation peacekeeping unit A-LAWS. I have received intelligence to the effect that you are harboring fugitives connected to the terrorist organization Katharon. You have one hour to surrender these fugitives. Otherwise, we will be coming in and taking them."

Revive's Gadessa hefts the beam rifle. It draws a careful bead, and then shoots one of the airlock gates, blasting the hangar bay's door clear off. Luckily, it was a disused one; Revive knows better than to /start/ with an atrocity. Nothing but space junk floats out, but it's a handy way in.

"And just to prove to you that I'm serious," Revive Revival transmits, "you now have fifteen minutes."

Asteroid belts surround the colony. Perfect hiding places for Katharon units. Revive Revival isn't actually looking at Baldur Bay on his scanners. He knows where the enemy is going to come from.

 Revive Revival transmits, "On your toes, men. No telling what tricks these sympathizers have let the terrorists rig up."

Alongside Revive Revival's Gadessa, just off its left wing, flies the 1 Gundam, propelled by a similar stream of burnt orange particles. It draws to a halt alongside the other machine, and unslings its GN Buster Rifle from where the weapon is mounted on its upper arm as the 'Cyber-Newtype' gives his spiel.

Inside the Gundam, Leo grimaces at the colony, currently taking up the vast majority of the view on his monitor. He doesn't even flinch when Revive blows the door off a hangar... but he does sneer, a look that lingers even when he realizes the hangar was unused.

"Jackass," the young man mutters to himself. The Haro mounted to his left agrees heartily, chirping, "JACKASS, JACKASS! JACKASS, JACKASS!"

Leo rolls his eyes, reaches out to give the thing an affectionate pat, and busies himselfe watching for a Katharon sally from inside Baldur Bay. They'll certainly try to spring a surprise attack from inside, rather than just surrendering... so it's just a matter of where they're going to come out of the colony.

One of the A-LAWS units with Revive is an oversized RX-7 with a rather heavier frame than the usual, and instead of the spear, it carries a pair of hand axes. The astute may recognize it as Noriko's own unit, the RX-207 Totoro.

Noriko is not in the RX-207 Totoro.

Fern, wearing a newly-tailored Top uniform knockoff (in blue instead of red, perhaps to differentiate her from the /real/ Top squadron, but otherwise identical) is sort of half-perched on a central arm inside the cockpit. Both bare legs hang loosely, her feet in stirrups; both bare arms have control cords that connect to a harness strapped on across her torso, the safety strap under her breasts.

When she got in she wondered how Noriko dealt with having cold arms and legs. She no longer wonders. It's a workout, although not an objectionable one.

Burnt orange particles fill the emptiness of space in glittering trails from the GNZ-003 Gadessa and CBY-001 1 Gundam; the effect is rather pretty, especially as they intermingle with the broad blue contrails of jet thrust that expel from the depths of the deep crimson ZGMF-X2000CQGB&S GOUF Crusher. It might be a pretty sight to most.

The way the particles help to make his radios and electronics intermittently short out, though, Lieutenant Alex Dino can't help but find it be anything but annoying.

Frowning, the blue-haired Coordinator has been trying to periodically check his systems since the moment that the task force deployed to make sure the GN Particles were not somehow infecting his mobile suit with robot AIDS for lack of a better term. This has, of course, been periodically interrupted by his checks being forcefully shut down by the GN Particles.

It's a vicious cycle.

Still, when Revive comes to a stop over Baldur Bay, the GOUF stops abruptly behind the Gadessa and the 1 Gundam. The mono-eye of the ZAFT mobile suit swivels about, focusing pointedly on the 1 Gundam.

"What kind of Gundam is that...?," he mutters to himself, voice thoughtful. Alex's brows furrow just slightly as Revive blasts away the doors to one of Baldur Bay's hangars, the scorched and melted chunk of metal blasting past his mobile suit.

Dino frowns, automatically banking back ever so slightly away from the 1 Gundam and the Gadessa. Not because he's uncomfortable -- such missions are just a part of being in the military, however distasteful they might seem to be. The Coordinator, instead, is making sure he's prepared, keeping his distance and switching his gaze out towards the vast expanse of space. With such a loud and forceful entrance, if this place /really/ is affiliated with Katharon...

"Hrn," Dino grunts under his breath, but otherwise remains silent. This, too, is just another part of keeping people safe, isn't it?

Noriko Takaya is not in the RX-207 Totoro, her unit so personal-custom it has her name right there in its full name that nobody uses.

(RX-207 Machine Weapon v2 Takaya Custom "Totoro", by the way.)

But if she's not, then where is she!? The answer comes in the form of a smaller, yellow unit, boosting up next to the Totoro, a proud V-fin sparkling amid the stars, a machine the A-LAWS have bought out from Neo Mongolia and brought down to mass-production specs: The GF13-053NMO Temjin Gundam. Noriko is inside the Mobile Trace cockpit, her tightfitting Mobile Trace Suit reconfigured to the small emblem she wore back, years ago, during a....bad time in her life.

Its arms are folded across its chest because Noriko's are folded across hers, watching. Attacking a colony...well, it's just to chase out the enemy, she knows. Still: She didn't want to bring Gunbuster to something like this. A battle where people could get hurt...is not the sort of battle Gunbuster should attend.

Eyes narrow. Now, she thinks, they wait.

Revive's intuition is correct and Leo's is not; that's the simplest, most straightforward way it can be put. There are indeed Katharon units in the mining asteroids surrounding Baldur Bay; Katharon rarely enters colonies anymore, save to refuel and repair. It's just too risky.

"... damn. And it sounds like they won't stop until they find us, either..." Cagalli says, listening in on the broadcast. "... then I guess we're going to have to meet them halfway on this one." Quite literally, in fact.

The Princess's machine peels out from behind an asteroid without even checking if any of the other Katharon forces are going to deploy on her wing; it's foolhardy, but she /thinks/ she has the element of surprise. And as we all know, the element of surprise is the most important element in any encounter.

"You've got that right, ma'am! Don't worry, we'll show these fucking bullies what for!" comes the ebullient response from out in the asteroids. And THEN:

There is a sudden flare of minovsky particles in the immediate area as the hilariously risky reactor mounted in one of the god-damned EMS-10 Zudah units that Katharon has, depending on how you read it, 'started deploying' or 'begun resorting to' rises from behind an asteroid. The power output slides steadily upwards, passing sensible and reasonable safe distances, the pilot quivering in the cockpit as she looks ahead at the small dots that are the enemy mobile suits.

"Bastaaaaaaaaaaards!!" she screams, before the Zudah jerks forwards, spraying cerulean fire behind it as it accelerates forwards hard enough for Qira to be mashed back into the piloting seat, laughing like some sort of horrific space-born Patricia Quinn while limbering out one of the Zudah's numerous high-explosive weapons.

"In less than FIVE minutes, all of you are going to be DEAD!" she shouts, inwardly exulting in the sensation of velocity, even as the Zudah whips around to fire an enormous erupting bazooka round at the Totoro. Which Qira doesn't recognize, but this is some kind of elite strike force; it /can't/ be good.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. 280mm Zudah Bazooka added to their queue.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has struck a major hit on Fern Calico's RX-207 Totoro using 280mm Zudah Bazooka.

 Revive Revival transmits, "Right. On. Time."

 Revive Revival transmits, "No survivors, men."

 Leo Stenbuck transmits, "..."

"Man, we sure do seem to have some rotten luck," casually remarks Garrod, who's own Gundam is hiding behind another asteroid, beam machine gun held upright in one hand and shield braced in the other, "I am really starting to get sick and tired of these A-Law guys..." Garrod glances over to where Cagalli's Gundam is positioned, "So what's the--" And then Cagalli jumps out of cover and bumrushes the enemy. "-- plan. Oh come on!" garrodpushes his own Gundam up over the asteroid he was hiding behind and snaps up his rifle, spraying a barrage of yellow beams from the twin barrels at the Mobile Fighter, "And Kid calls me impulsive and headstrong...!"

One would say that, in battle, 'surprised' is another word for 'dead.'

Fortunately, Akira Tadokoro, vulgar psychic and all-around generalist pilot with an excessive amount of 'hot blood,' comes careening out from behind an asteroid along with the Strike Rouge. The Astray, painted in his own favored dark blue and red, follows the Gundam containing their rather violent and slightly psychotic (maybe) princess.

"Got your back, Cagalli," he transmits. Akira is a good person to have on your side, especially in that Astray... when it works right. They /did/ re-tune it again, right?

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has attacked Noriko Takaya. Beam Machine Gun added to their queue.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has struck a solid hit on Noriko Takaya's GF13-053NMO Temjin Gundam using Beam Machine Gun.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has missed Garrod Ran with her Temjin Scimitar counter attack.

 Noriko Takaya transmits, "Yikes! I got one! Engaging!"

Fern Calico still isn't entirely used to Totoro, or more accurately Totoro's bizarre control scheme. Fern yearns for a unit that she can pilot with her mind, a forced synchronization to get herself out of her body and into a giant robot -

But the scientists wanted to do maintenance on Earthquake Naga Gundam, and so she's stuck manually yanking herself around like some kind of caveman. It feels cruder than it is.

Fern uses her stronger left side to swing the oversized Machine Weapon in a tight arc, but not fast enough to avoid being blasted by a heavyweight bazooka shell. At least, she thinks to herself, these straps don't transmit pain.

Her eyes flick up to a Post-It attached incongruously to an empty patch in the cockpit. She mentally sighs, but takes a deep breath, pushing her entire body forward to accelerate Totoro directly at the smaller, faster Zudah. "Buster Missile-Mite," she says, sounding like she's mortified about the whole thing.

She failed to trip the decibel reader, so Fern settles for throwing one of the hand axes instead. It doesn't come back, because she hasn't mastered Buster Tomahawk Boomerang. Maybe she can go get it later.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Qira Lassiter. Buster Tomahawk Hurl added to their queue.

 Fern Calico transmits, "They're deploying Zudahs again."

And like clockwork, out come the rats.

Revive Revival's lips curl back into something that's either a smile or a sneer -- either way, teeth are bared, and if anyone were in his cockpit with him they might be impressed by the feral grace of his beautiful, androgynous rage. "Right. On. Time," Revive hisses into the radio, and flips a few switches, causing the GN Mega Launcher in his Gadessa's arms to vibrate warmly. Happiness, as they say, is a warm blah blah blah.

"No survivors, men," Revive Revival says, coldly, but he can't keep the superior smirk off of his face.

"Cagalli Yula Athha!" Revive Revival calls, jacking open a radio band to taunt the Katharon leader with. The Gadessa swivels sharply. It moves with motorik precision, fast and sharp like a whirling knife. The gun in its arms emits an angry glow from its tip. "Under Article Fifty-Two Point Sixty-Seven Subsection A Paragraph Ten Clause Sixteen of the A-LAWS Rules of Engagement..."

"...you and your allies are hereby declared enemy combatants and use of lethal force has been authorized! Surrender now, Princess."

Revive then proceeds to fire.

"Or don't. I could use a workout."

COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot added to their queue.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Cagalli Yula Athha with his GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot attack.

 Noriko Takaya transmits, "Zudahs, that's...they must really trust their skills."

 Fern Calico transmits, "Also this thing's missiles aren't working."

 Leo Stenbuck transmits, "They're probably just running out of money."

 Revive Revival transmits, "Couldn't have put it better myself, Jinx-1. And, ah... 'Kitty,' if they aren't working, get them working."

 Noriko Takaya transmits, "Oh, you have to yell for it!"

 Alex Dino transmits, "... Zudahs are volatile, but they're still dangerous. Don't underestimate it."

Macua Huitl is just seeking out enemy units at random with what's happened. She's not in a good mood but she can't argue the A-laws ploy was very good at drawing them out. Katharon really didn't have a choice did she have really. As the other Katharon aces move into engage, she's picking out a GOUF of some sort seems to be a custom machine. That speaks that it's an ace, at the controls.

She's not sure who and not really caring she's going to take them down before the A-laws can get to the colony itself as several bad memories of the group that came before them. She doesn't even make use of the funnels on the back of her machine yet.

She just brings up the rifle and snaps off a shot at the GOUF. Unlike others she doesn't have much to say at least not yet, but this machine Alex might have some idea looks a hell of a lot like the Hyperion Gundam. But there are also bullets comming his way too

 Noriko Takaya transmits, "Put your burning heart and soul into crying out! Also, make sure the missiles bays are unblocked, they're in the thighs. Unless they're in the hands today..."

COMBAT: Fern Calico has struck a glancing hit on Qira Lassiter's EMS-10 Zudah Qira Custom using Buster Tomahawk Hurl.

The element of surprise in-/deed./ It takes Leo a few moments to realize that Katharon is coming not from within the colony, but from the asteroid clusters surrounding it. Tch... it figures they'd try something like this. He should have expected it. Ah, well... at least this way, the colony itself is in less danger, and once they take out the defense forces, the colony government will certainly surrender...

... uh... whatever it is they're hiding.

The 1 Gundam wheels about to face the onrushing duo of Cagalli and Akira and lifts its buster rifle, orange energy swelling at the tip of the weapon. A beeping icon and diagram on Leo's hud informs him that Revive is firing on the Strike Rouge... so Leo shifts his aim sideways a little bit, to line his reticle up with the Astray-TT, before he pulls the trigger.

When he does, a massive beam of burnt orange energy erupts out of the rifle, lancing through space towards Akira's Astray. In keeping with Revive's urging, he actually aims /at/ the thing, and not simply 'near' it, as he often does... but he still aims for the legs.

Hit or miss, the beam keeps going... until it hits an asteroid in the distance. It peters out after that, but njot before burning a hole straight through the space rock.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has attacked Akira Tadokoro. GN Buster Rifle added to their queue.

The Strike Rouge, with a quick whirl with both shields at the ready, deflects the Mega Launcher shot with both shields; using both keeps both of them relatively intact in a way that using only one would not, and also builds up a little more momentum for the incoming princess to use against her newfound foe.

"You didn't need to tell me that," Cagalli half-hisses back to Revive. "The answer is no." After all -- if they live, great; if they fail... well, at least in /theory/, the A-LAWS have no reason to go digging through the colony if they've already seen the Katharon forces nearby. Surrendering, disconcertingly, /adds/ more risk than it eliminates.

Focusing on Revive's machine and trusting her allies to handle the rest of the A-LAWS battlegroup, Cagalli draws both of her machine's Armor Schneider knives, boosting forward and down. At the last second, she swings her entire machine upward, feet-first, and slams the tiny knives for the GNZ machine's legs, digging them hard into the joints before boosting away.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Revive Revival. Dual Armor Schneiders added to their queue.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has attacked Alex Dino. Breaker Rifle Shot added to their queue.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has missed Alex Dino with her Breaker Rifle Shot attack.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has missed Macua Huitl with his Impact Vice counter attack.

Qira's internal dialogue continues. They're threatening a colony, a sign of the lizard-spawning degeneracy of their military options. (Zeon would never have /threatened/ them.) She keeps zipping past the Totoro, zinging back around and then, for her trouble, getting winged by a thrown tomahoke!?

The thrown weapon bounces loosely off the Zudah, having only glanced against its armor. Nonetheless, it takes a half second or so for the machine to regain its equilibrium. "shit," she mutters. Her eyes narrow -

"What a joke!" she shouts then, the taunt-comm picking her up quite clearly. "Are you seriously expecting us all to /surrender/?? Ha ha! Tell that queer you call a commander that he--" There is a spike in Minovsky density, cutting off the rest of Qira's /hate speech/.

What is less easy to see or dodge is Qira's sudden accelerating dash, shield-spike first, towards the Totoro -- why she's closing the range when she has six different sorts of missiles on the stupid, dangerous thing is a question best asked to AEUG personnel sorting policy.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. Shield Spike Bash added to their queue.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has struck a solid hit on Fern Calico's RX-207 Totoro using Shield Spike Bash.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has missed Qira Lassiter with her Buster Tomahawk counter attack.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has missed Revive Revival with her Dual Armor Schneiders attack.

The peculiar muscle movements that the Mobile Trace OS uses to recognize the command for forward thrust in zero-g is actually somewhat unnatural, even for a Gundam Fighter; that's a large part of /why/ so little combat is done outside the gravity well, there simply isn't a natural way to cause it to happen.

Gunbuster uses a fairly similar motion, however, so Noriko feels no problem at all when she sees an incoming Gundam. She tenses her shoulders and the thrusters flare, propelling her forward; she reaches down for the Temjin Scimitars, plucking them out of the sheathes, and swats her way through the beam machine gun fire. This only works so long; one good shot gets through, and then a second, but she manages to surge through and slash at Garrod's Gundam with a sharp swing, and then she resets her feet, spinning the Temjin in mid-flight. "ugh, that hurt," Noriko groans, having forgotten the danger of the Mobile Trace Suit, but after a second of rolling her shoulder (which probably confuses the hell out of Garrod), she yells, "I've got an enemy!" as if this weren't abundantly clear, and then adds, "CHARGING!" as she lunges toward Garrod, swinging the Temjin Scimitars with both hands.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has attacked Garrod Ran. Scimitar Assault added to their queue.

The Strike Rouge comes down with its knives, but the Gadessa is a lot faster than a unit its size really has any right to be. "Ah," Revive chides, like a sweet schoolmarm tsking a naughty student. The GN Mega Launcher swings down, and Revive uses the barrel like it was a hockey stick, slapping both arms awry and knocking the Gundam back, leaving his priceless legs unstabbed.

"Tell me, Princess," Revive says. He sounds perfectly kind -- his tone is warm and feminine, and really, without seeing the pilot, it sounds for all the world like there /is/ a woman at the other end of the radio. (And even if you did see the pilot, well.)

"Will you be a better leader to your people as a martyr?" Revive hefts his unit's gun up again and fires another shot, aiming for the hips of Cagalli's Strike Rouge. "I, for one, cannot /wait/ to find out."

Zzzap!

COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Mode added to their queue.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has struck Cagalli Yula Athha with a major hit using GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Mode.

It seems that banking back was the right idea after all; especially when the GOUF's visual sensors catches Katharon IFFs coming in from the rear, heralded, quite helpfully, by the burst of a bazooka shot going off, muted against the backdrop of space. Dino grimaces, but ultimately narrows his eyes.

"... I guess I'm going to have to fight after all."

The GOUF's left arm unhinges from its shoulder joint, rotating backward and locking against the ZAFT mobile suit's back with a click and a short rain of sparks. In its place, a massive, steel vice rotates upward, its tremendous pincers opening up with a groan of metal. Inside the cockpit, Dino scans the battlefield, when something catches his eye: a pink and red mobile suit. The Strike. And Captain Revival pointing that /cannon/ at it--

The GOUF bursts forward a second later, apparently intent to intercept the Strike Rouge; this forward momentum is only stopped, however, when his radar suddenly blares, warning him of a lock-on. Thrusters reverse on the GOUF's tail binder, sending it /shunting/ downward through space only a second before those bullets can batter its crimson armor.

Dino grimaces. Looking up, he sees the Gundam; the make is vaguely familiar, but it's the last thing on his mind. Right now-- "I guess I'm going to have to take care of you first," he mutters, gripping onto his control sticks. The GOUF swings about, blasting forward.

"Katharon! You are under arrest! Surrender now!"

'Under arrest.' He makes as clear as possible in as least clear a way as he can that he has no intention of killing anyone here today. The Impact Vice seeking to clamp DOWN on the Gundam's head and /squeeze/, however, seems to imply differently.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Macua Huitl. Impact Vice Crusher added to their queue.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has struck a apocalyptic critical hit on Akira Tadokoro's MBF-X1AT Astray-TT using GN Buster Rifle.

Knock Out! Akira Tadokoro's MBF-X1AT Astray-TT unit has become disabled!

It looks like they did not, in fact, remember to tune it.

The buster rifle shot is true. Akira's T-Link connection suddenly flips out, a sudden burst of interference from /nowhere/ kicking in. He looks startled and then pained, the feeling of a flame washing over his mind causing him to cry out. The T-Link System's feedback spikes as the beam tears the legs and the whole lower half off of the Astray-TT, sending it careening off into space. Power fails, and it blips off the sensors, floating towards the asteroid that was holed in the process...

...which begins to move.

The Astray is knocked aside, head smashed by a suddenly hurtling chunk of space rock, send spinning while still containing a glowing hole directly for the 1 Gundam. Something is behind it, propelling it forward and then giving it a final burst of speed, using the rock and what used to be cover as like it ammo for a mass driver. Is it another Katharon suit?!

"Heh." A man's voice comes over the radio, broadcast on an unsecure frequency. "You look like you could use a little bit of help, Cagalli! So why don't I lend you a hand, just this once?"

An alien shape emerges from the asteroid field, pale green and gleaming. The eyes beyond it's visor glow a wicked yellow as the light of the battle reveals it's terrible form.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has attacked Leo Stenbuck. The Power of Nearly Obsessive Free Mission Completion added to their queue.

 Revive Revival transmits, "Good shooting, Jinx-1-- wh-- Is that what I think it is."

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has struck a major hit on Garrod Ran's Gundam X-Divider using Scimitar Assault.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has counter attacked for a minor hit on Noriko Takaya's GF13-053NMO Temjin Gundam using Shield Bash.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has activated a spirit command.

 Alex Dino transmits, "What is--?!"

COMBAT: Alex Dino has missed Macua Huitl with his Impact Vice Crusher attack.

 Leo Stenbuck transmits, simply, "Uh oh."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "Jinx-1..."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "...keep it busy. I'll be over soon as I'm able."

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has struck a glancing hit on Leo Stenbuck's 1 Gundam using The Power of Nearly Obsessive Free Mission Completion.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, through gritted teeth, "Yep."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "There's a lad."

Fern Calico's other hatchet remains in her hand, and Fern has absolutely no qualms about using it. It is a little smaller than the shield, though; she fails to knock it out of line enough, and the spikes scrape along the already-damaged side.

"You're crazy," Fern informs Qira, once the brief staticky burst clears. "And you should be glad we'll /let/ you surrender instead of just killing you to begin with! People like you - you make me sick."

Fern snarls, then actually yells this time: "BUSTER MISSILE!" Perhaps aided by extra volume, it works; a shower of missiles launch from shoulders and thighs, spraying the Zudah with heavy explosives. It keeps Fern occupied from noticing the sudden arrival of /something else/ for a moment.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Qira Lassiter. Buster Missile-Mite added to their queue.

The Princess of Orb cannot quite maneuver out of the way of that woman(?)'s attack in time, and as she's hammered by the GN blasts, she sees Akira's machine go down, too. This is rapidly looking completely untenable... and then, from out of nowhere, salvation comes.

In exactly the form Cagalli wouldn't have wanted it to.

"Y-you?!" she stammers, mind blown by just who's come to aid her. "I -- well --" she starts, before finally admitting that... yes, they need the help. "... All right! I won't expect you to form up with the rest of us, but --!"

Resolve redoubled in spite of the fact that this is rapidly turning into a clusterfuck and will probably become even worse as time passes, Cagalli nevertheless turns her attention toward Revive's machine. "I'm not going to make it that easy!" she says, drawing one of the heavy swords of the Strike Rouge.

There's no real finesse to her tactics here; rather than get real complicated, she just stays in close and hacks away with that heavy blade. The GNZ machine clearly has the advantage at a distance -- so she has to keep the fight where it can't /get/ much distance. ... or so she thinks, anyway.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Revive Revival. Ship Cutting Sword Slam added to their queue.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has struck Revive Revival with a major hit using Ship Cutting Sword Slam!

COMBAT: Revive Revival counter attacks Cagalli Yula Athha with a minor critical hit using GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has missed Qira Lassiter with her Buster Missile-Mite attack.

The first scimitar strike glances off the Divider Shield as Garrod brings it up in defense and deflects it away with a quick flick as he backs off, "Phew... that was a close one," He gives a brief glance at his screen to assess the situation... just in time to watch Akira get punked and Gym '****ing' Ghingnham suddenly appear, "What the--??" That one moment of distraction proves costly as Garrod looks back up and sees the Temjin looming in his screen, "WOAH!" One arm swings up to prevent the blow from landing anywhere vital. One of the scimitars cleaves clean through the beam machine gun, the other digs into the arm and throws Garrod off balance, "Shit!" Out of reflex, Garrod swings the Divider Shield around and uses it to knock the Temjin away, then folds the shield in half and attaches it to the back of his Gundam before pulling out a pair of beam swords, "Man, today is just /full/ of surprises! let's just hope he doesn't shoot us in the back or something..." the verniers lock into place as Garrod surges forward to where he knocked Noriko awya to, then brings up both beam swords over his head and swings down at the Gundam's shoulders.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has attacked Noriko Takaya. Dual Beam Swords added to their queue.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has struck a solid hit on Noriko Takaya's GF13-053NMO Temjin Gundam using Dual Beam Swords.

As Cagalli charges, Revive Revival's Gadessa fires off another quick burst of orange hellfire -- it catches the Strike Rouge, but isn't enough to stop it in its charge. The ship cutting sword slams into the Gadessa's side -- in maneuvering its gun out of the way (wouldn't do to lose its main armament!), the Gadessa left its flank open to being hacked into, and the sword tears into the machine like it was unnecessary liposuction.

"Gmnnh!" Revive Revival sputters. In an instant, he goes from calm and serene -- to absolutely bugfuck raging. "You -- Gnng -- YOU THINK YOUR DIVINE CRUSADER FRIENDS CAN HELP YOU SURVIVE THIS, /WHORE/?! WON'T BALDUR BAY BE NICE AND /SAFE/ WHEN IT COMES OUT THAT IT'S GOT /DIVINE CRUSADERS/ WATCHING ITS BACK, TOO! YOU'RE DEAD, YOU COW -- DO YOU HEAR ME?! DEAD!" Revive's voice has risen from a polite chirp to a fuming roar -- his voice actually gets deeper as it gets louder, and though it still sounds womanly, it sounds like a woman who's abused too many anabolic steroids, like Jung Freud.

Rocketing backward, the Gadessa doesn't even aim. Revive just fills the area around Cagalli with a peppering of GN-powered bolts, too angry to even consider catching a proper target lock.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. GN Mega Launcher - Rapid Fire added to their queue.

"I'm crazy!? You roll up, threatening a colony's airlocks and you call me crazy?!" Qira shouts back, in high dudgeon. Inwardly, her psyche is thrilled. Outwardly, she feels /the thirst of battle/, even as missiles launch. Uh oh. She raises up the shield:

This works, surprisingly. The series of impacts largely blutch out most of the shield's value as a spiky object, but they also propel the Zudah backwards, Qira herself swearing and being, at the moment, unaware of the presence of the incoming Turn X.

How do you turn an X? How could you tell? A turned A is easy.

The Zudah, meanwhile, is unlimbering a long-barreled weapon as it keeps sailing backwards. "But to show you the superiority of our mercy -- /and/ to spare the life of another dupe, /whatever your name is/," she continues, even as the autoloader warms up, "I'll just disable every limb on your machine!"

The 135mm ship-killing rifle would be hellaciously loud in atmosphere. However, it's instead completely silent, due to the whole 'space' thing.

Even as she tries to bracket the Totoro, which is slightly tricky shooting, she hears the rage-out -- and adds, smugly, "You see? Eh? Eh?"

As the GN Buster Rifle beam fades, a few stray orange particles rise away from the rifle's barrel, like smoke curling away from a fired gun. The 1 Gundam casually lowers its rifle, and begins to turn away to acquire a new target...

... but hesitates, as motion in the corner of his eye grabs Leo's attention. Is that asteroid coming closer...?

-- oh god yes it is /definitely/ coming closer--

The Gundam swings its shield up to cover its body and... accelerates directly into the oncoming asteroid, the density of the stream of orange particles coming from its back increasing dramatically as it does. It slams into the asteroid with surprisingly non-apocalyptic results. The impact shakes Leo around, scrapes up the shield, and dents the shield inwards... but that's about it.

Leo keeps accelerating until the asteroid comes to a halt, and for a moment it just... floats there, obscuring the 1 Gundam from sight. And then, suddenly, eight beam daggers erupt out of the hole in the asteroid, streaming through space towards the Turn X, fanning out around it and lancing in one or two at a time to attempt to bury themselves in the mobile suit's body.

Meanwhile, a fifteen meter long beam of orange energy flares to life behind the asteroid as Leo ignites one of the 1 Gundam's beam sabers, and... handily carves the thing into two, shoving the two halves away from each other and accelerating through the newfound gap after his Fangs, towards Gym.

"You're Gym Ghingnham," he transmits, simply. "I thought you were dead."

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. 135mm Anti-Ship Rifle added to their queue.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has attacked Gym Ghingnham. GN Fang Prison added to their queue.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Cagalli Yula Athha with his GN Mega Launcher - Rapid Fire attack.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has struck a glancing hit on Fern Calico's RX-207 Totoro using 135mm Anti-Ship Rifle.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has missed Gym Ghingnham with his GN Fang Prison attack.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has missed Leo Stenbuck with his Turn X Slam counter attack.

Macua Huitl Says, "Surrender? Last time I surrendered? I was turned into a lab rat! To hell with you, I didn't even get a trail /either/." The young woman doesn't sound happy at all as Alex makes his move Macua moves with almost inhuman speed away from the claw getting enough distance to avoid getting caught in it's terrible grasp!

From the back of her machine several of the funnels launch and fall into formation with the Phoebe. They then speed away comming in at Alex from several angels. Then Akira goes down and her attacks pick up. "The offer of surrender was likely a Lie anyway now show me what you got!"

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has attacked Alex Dino. Funnel Swarm added to their queue.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has struck a major hit on Alex Dino's ZGMF-X2000CQGB&S GOUF Crusher using Funnel Swarm.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command.

"Fuck /you/!" Cagalli shouts, as she brings her machine's shields up again; this time, however, she ends up not even needing them, a negligible burst to one side taken on in the process just barely bringing her out of the path of the shots. A close call -- a little too close, actually. But... battle is a zero sum game of 'alive or dead,' and Cagalli much prefers the former to the latter.

Dancing around Revive, keeping herself moving at all times, Cagalli considers whether to press again or to get the Hell away; in the end, she decides to play the middle range -- close enough that she can close the gap at any time, but far enough away that she has time to think. It's really the best distance, she's starting to learn.

"Just -- get out of here! Fuck you!" she declares, perhaps less eloquently than she'd intended. Centering the Rouge's main body such that it's aimed straight for Revive's Gadessa, Cagalli fires both of the mid-sized, hyper-velocity shoulder railguns of the IWSP over and over, trying to pound through the machine's armor with sheer, vicious offense.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Revive Revival. Dual Railguns added to their queue.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has missed Revive Revival with her Dual Railguns attack.

COMBAT: Revive Revival counter attacks Cagalli Yula Athha with a minor hit using GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot.

A turning X is a windmill. Turn X Gundam is just a refurbished Netherlands machine, really.

"Did you seriously think we were going to blow any of them but the unused one?" Fern is scornful as well as angry. "My name is Fern Calico. And if you think that this is going to stop me - "

She cuts the radio connection, too angry at herself and at Qira to hold a continued conversation. They call /her/ mad, overreacting? After what happened to her? How /dare/ they? She flips a toggle on her handgrip almost at random.

Instead of missiles, the shoulders of Totoro vent a series of six-pointed objects, each tipped with a tiny laser spike. They drift aimlessly at about the same time Fern finds a new object in Totoro's free hand. It is round. She flings it, perhaps assuming it is a grenade.

It hits the center of the cloud of six-pointed stars and sends them flying. Each of them stick harmlessly, the laser spike only penetrating about half a foot but clinging like annoying burrs. Harmlessly, of course, until they explode.

Fern is too irate to realize she just played a children's game at someone to kill them.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Qira Lassiter. Buster Jacks added to their queue.

"It's not-- ghhh!" Alex's attempts to convince Macua are both cut off by his frustration and the fact that there are funnels pummeling the GOUF like an all-you-can-eat funnel buffet. Bursts of beam power rip through the GOUF's legs, electrical sparking acting as precursors to a series of explosions that rock the Zeon-inspired mobile suit's red frame.

"... regardless of what you think," Alex Dino transmits in the aftermath, as smoke veils the GOUF Crusher in thick billowing clouds, "... regardless of your reasons...

"... you are going against the law -- and you'll be put in jail and tried for just that!"

It is as the smoke begins to disperse that two heat rods suddenly /burst/ out of their depths; one aiming for the arm holding the Phoebe's beam rifle, the other seeking to just wrap around the machine's torso to entangle... and then activate, sending a series of powerful electrical jolts through /both/ whip-like tendrils.

"I'm sorry -- but it's better for you this way," is the only thing Alex does not bother to transmit.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has struck a glancing hit on Qira Lassiter's EMS-10 Zudah Qira Custom using Buster Jacks.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Macua Huitl. Dual Slayer Whip Entangle added to their queue.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has missed Macua Huitl with his Dual Slayer Whip Entangle attack.

Noriko slashes the beam machine gun in half, then slices through the X's arm, and Noriko just keeps the pressure on. It doesn't work as well once he's back on center, the shield deflecting Noriko's sword blows a few times before Garrod slams it into Temjin's exposed belly armor, knocking the machine away until Noriko can get breath back in her body long enough to flex her shoulder muscles to fire the verniers and reorient herself.

"ngh," she grunts. It's been too long; she's out of practice with the Mobile Trace system, she's been focused so intently on the Gunbuster control harness that even this system is feeling alien. Still...She brings the scimitars up, and whatever they're made of is apparently enough to deflect the blades enough that they just sheer through the external armor, exposing the Temjin's internal systems and slashing off the blocky shoulder pads.

In addition to making Noriko feel like her skin is being flayed off, this gives her an opportunity to shriek, "HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" as she drives the two Temjin Scimitars right under Gundam X's shoulders, trying to either disable them...or cut them right off!

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has attacked Garrod Ran. Scimitar Finisher added to their queue.

Revive Revival jams upward on the controls to his once-beautiful, now-besmirched Gadessa, shooting it upward. At the same time, he brings the GN Mega Launcher downward, pointing it directly below himself, and timing it /just/ so -- so that when Cagalli's charge misses and the railguns fail to hit their mark, he can snap off a shot as she moves below him.

Revive Revival's voice is low, quiet, simmering.

"Fuck..."

"...me?"

The beautiful boy-woman-prince's face is contorted into a look of pure and distilled rage. Evil heat cascades out of Revive's glowing eyes as he swallows and his mouth spasms. He's sweating with anger. His hair remains utterly perfect. Which is hard to tell because he's wearing a normal suit. But trust me. Revive begins furiously jamming buttons.

"FUCK... /ME/?!"

Power levels begin to rocket from 'safe and happy' into 'warning, check manual, pilot may be an idiot' readings. Revive intentionally begins siphoning energy out of other systems and pushing his GN Tau drive to the limit, maxing out the amount of power feeding into his death-cannon. "No, no, no, no, NO NO NO NO NO, Princess," he croaks, his voice a breathless, inhuman gasp of anger.

Power levels: 150% of safe capacity.

Revive Revival aims.

"FUCK -- /YOU/!"

Revive Revival fires.

The void of outer space lights up for a moment, like a star being born.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. GN Mega Launcher - Apocalypse added to their queue.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has struck a devastating hit on Garrod Ran's Gundam X-Divider using Scimitar Finisher.

The Turn X is a terrifying monster of a machine. It's presence alone on the battlefield makes everything that much more horrible. The fact that it's oriented on the 1 Gundam is...

...entirely a coincidence. Gym quirks a brow in his cockpit, murmuring, "That voice... where have I heard that...? Oh, it's /you/," he says, as if it was obvious and he was chiding himself for forgetting. "The kid with the Colossal Blade." He glances at his display, the highlighted beam daggers approaching him. The pattern is obvious to someone with his amount of experience, even simulated.

The Turn X barrels forward, diving between the daggers as they close in. One that gets close is swatted away by the physical hand of the Turn X, the edge of the beam dagger contorting weirdly and never coming into contact with the limb. They strike space and floating debris from the asteroid, leaving melted rock behind the Turn X.

The asteroid gets cut neatly in two. The Turn X helps it along, grabbing one side with it's left hand and shoving it away. The Destruction Manipulator on the right arm ignites with a flash of yellow light, sliding open organically and extending a wide beam saber of it's own. It pauses to regard the 1 Gundam. Gym can appreciate the artistry in a machine's construction.

"I am," he replies. "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

The Turn X moves in close and swings it's beam saber down for the 1 Gundam's head. Gym sounds thrilled when he speaks again, letting the cleaving swipe carry him right up close and personal with Leo's mobile suit. "Let's see what you've got, kid--" He pauses for a beat. "I suppose I shouldn't call you 'kid' if you managed to take out that other mobile suit of mine. What's your name?"

Obviously, Gym doesn't stop the follow-through to banter.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has attacked Leo Stenbuck. Destruction Saber Cleave added to their queue.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has struck Cagalli Yula Athha with an apocalyptic critical hit using GN Mega Launcher - Apocalypse.

Knock Out! Cagalli Yula Athha's Strike Rouge IWSP unit has become disabled!

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival, snarling, like a supermodel's mad dog: "WHO'S NEXT?!"

Subjected to the brutal wrath of a children's game!? The Zudah is not flown by a newtype; Qira says "Shit!" and tries to jink back out of it. This means only one of the jacks clings to the Zudah's side, which she ignores, relieved. Then:

BANG!

The machine lurches again, even as she huffs out, "Going to stop you? Of course it won't, you'll just keep coming back and - and -" She stops, the agitation running into a momentary mental snarl.

Why is she yelling? she thinks. What are they arguing over? They came here to flush them out, and - what is - And that strange unit from that Shadow Mirror force -

One hand goes to the forehead of her normal suit's helmet, eyes squeezing shut as she forces herself to breathe inwards, the irrational urge to start crying getting tamped down hard. "Nngh - you bitch!" she shrieks then, answering Fern Calico's jacks with something else. A different weapon.

A bigger weapon.

The Sturm Faust is an unguided missile, but Qira has a way to try to make up for this -- she loops around and upwards, twisting around and diving towards Fern's location /before/ firing, hopefully so that the increased velocity leads to increased accuracy. She thinks she came up with this trick herself, even if in fact it got brought up in a film watching class back in Zeonic training courses.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. Sturm Faust added to their queue.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has missed Fern Calico with her Sturm Faust attack.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has missed Qira Lassiter with her Buster Missile-Mite Snapshot counter attack.

Macua Huitl Says "Right and wrong are not always good and evil. The law can be evil it can be unjust! Enough talk if you want to talk to me? Use your fisst and mayube then we will be able to get somewhere!" The attack was well placed, this guy is no rookie and it's just the fact the machine is partially responding to Macua's mind which lets her move clear of the first, second slayer whip.

She doesn't say anything else at all as she said she seems to be a bit leaning to how many Gundam Fighters think about talking to eachother. She launches several more funnel attacks trying to keep the A-law pilot off balance.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has attacked Alex Dino. Funnel Strike added to their queue.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has struck a solid hit on Alex Dino's ZGMF-X2000CQGB&S GOUF Crusher using Funnel Strike.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command.

In a word: Ow. To be more descriptive: Oh god paaaaaaiiiiiiin. Noriko's blows strike true, with one of the scimitars stabbing up through the shoulder joint to disable the previously wounded arm and the other cleaving off part of the shoulder guard. A beam sword goes spinning off into space as the now useless limb flops limply and the GX is sent hurtling, "Gyaaaaah!" Garrod's backward arc is finally ended as he slams into an asteroid and bounces, "D-damn, whoever this person is, they aren't screwing around!" His one remaining beam sword is replaced as he reaches behind and grabs out a large bazooka, then takes aim, "Tch, can't afford to hold back now either!" He pulls the trigger and the bazooka flashes, though no thunderous explosion follows in the void of space.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has attacked Noriko Takaya. Hyper Bazooka added to their queue.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has struck a major critical hit on Noriko Takaya's GF13-053NMO Temjin Gundam using Hyper Bazooka.

Alex Dino can't seem to catch a break. Whatever rebuttal he might have is drowned out by the massive surge of energy that comes from the Gadessa's GN Mega Launcher. Behind his shades, Alex's eyes briefly widen--

--but whatever he might even be able to do about the situation ends as abruptly as the explosive burst of power; funnels rampage across the GOUF's armored hide in that moment of weakness, sheering off a chunk of armor from the Crusher's back, the explosions knocking Alex forward violently until the buffer cushion bursts forward, hampering any violent collisions with sensitive equipment.

The Crusher lurches forward, and slowly, Dino narrows his eyes. He needs to end this -- fast. "... Fine," he mutters, largely to himself. He clenches his controls--

--and suddenly the right Slayer Whip of the GOUF /whips/ forward, aiming to get a secure lock on the Phoebe's head. If it can, it will /yank/ the mobile suit forward bodily -- right into the awaiting pincer claw of the Impact Vice that swings up, disregarding funnels to just /clench/ into the mobile suit's midsection and start compressing as powerfully as possible.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Macua Huitl. The Crushinator added to their queue.

Fern Calico is not nearly old enough to have fought in the One Year War, or ever seen a Zeonic training course; she's only twenty-two. But she recognizes what Qira is going to do as she does it; firing another, shorter stream of missiles, Fern does not even move.

She doesn't need to. The missile-mites target the Sturmfaust rather than the Zudah, locking on and exploding against it with deadly effect. Even if all she killed was a missile.

Still too angry to respond, Fern doesn't. Her muscles strain as she forces Totoro through a sharp turn that even Noriko would have trouble with, since she is not so disproportionately strong on one side; Fern's cybernetic left arm can put out a lot more force than her natural one, but even her natural one is not precisely 'weak'.

Fern retrieves another handaxe from somewhere, wielding one in each hand now, and charges the already-charging Zudah from the side. She rears up from her 'seat', such as it is, bringing both axes simultaneously down in a two-handed chop.

Even Totoro is stronger left-handed when Fern is piloting it. She attempts to force Qira's Zudah back with repeated chops, smashing it repeatedly toward a series of asteroids.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Qira Lassiter. Double Buster Tomahawk added to their queue.

There's really no answer to that one.

The Princess's machine is engulfed by the tremendous GN-powered beam, attempting to mitigate the damage with both shields; all the while, the sheer force of the weapon buffets her further and further back. When the weapon clears, it's not immediately obvious whether the Princess has simply been pushed to a completely different part of space, or just outright vaporized.

Whatever the case, she sure isn't in the fight anymore.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has missed Leo Stenbuck with his Destruction Saber Cleave attack.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has struck a glancing hit on Qira Lassiter's EMS-10 Zudah Qira Custom using Double Buster Tomahawk.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has struck a glancing hit on Macua Huitl's Funnel Phoebe using The Crushinator.

The Turn X and the 1 Gundam collide; as the Turn X's beam saber comes down, the 1 Gundam's comes up, and the two blades meet with a brilliant flash of color, electricity arcing off as I-Field reacts with GN Field. In the distance, the Gundam's Fangs sort themselves out and fan out again, preparing to strike at Leo's command.

"Leo Stenbuck," Leo informs Gym, perfectly casually, as if they were playing chess in the park instead of attempting to kill each other with beam sabers.

That's all he has to say before he suddenly breaks the saber lock by swinging the Gundam's shield up to slap Gym's saber upwards, with another, smaller flash of electricity as the beam interacts with the beam-resistant coating on the shield. It leaves a long, black scar on the already dented shield, but it frees Leo's own saber.

And he takes immediate advantage of that, lunging it suddenly forwards towards the Turn X's right side and then sweeping the blade sharply upwards in an attempt to simply remove the mobile suit's right arm. What could possibly go wrong?

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has attacked Gym Ghingnham. GN Large Beam Saber Rampage added to their queue.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has missed Gym Ghingnham with his GN Large Beam Saber Rampage attack.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has counter attacked for a minor hit on Leo Stenbuck's 1 Gundam using Destruction Manipulator Saber.

Cagalli Yula Athha... is gone.

The thought that she might not be dead doesn't even enter into Revive Revival's head. He's panting, sweating, worn out like a teenage boy after their first time really putting their back into it. He scans the battlefield, but it's a formality. He already knows what he wants to do.

The Gadessa, its guts still hanging out, turns. First the legs, then the body, then the head.

Then the GN Mega Launcher, whose barrel still glows as if it almost smelted itself.

"Turn X..." Revive Revival whispers, before breaking into an aggressive snap on the radio: "Jinx-1." Revive Revival sounds like he's on some kind of deranged PCP bender, but everything comes out flat and focused, as if his load were blown, so to speak, when he turned Cagalli into a thousand atoms. "Get ready to show me your leadership skills."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "Two down. Four to go. I'm disappointed in you all. You should be far more efficient killers by now."

Macua Huitl knows about the other fights there's little she can do about it now other than keep alive. The Brazilian is past talkking that's for sure. She gives him no reply and it's a good thing she's focusing on trying to fight as Alex is prehaps a better pilot than she is. This time the whip does get ahole o the head of her unit and she's yanked towrds his own unit. So in the words of scorp she gets the hell over there.

She's not out of it though, not by a ling shot, her right hand goes for one of the machines beam sabers and tries to hack her way free of Alex's hold before he can make use of the terrible claw upon her.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has attacked Alex Dino. Beam Saber Strike added to their queue.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has struck a major hit on Alex Dino's ZGMF-X2000CQGB&S GOUF Crusher using Beam Saber Strike.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command.

Argh, axes! Qira's one weakness!

The slammed-into Zudah's shield is reduced, after parrying one ax-based blow, to so much metallic scrap. She jerks back again, another ax-slam damaging most of that limb's forward hand actuator, Qira herself feeling the creeping sensation of fear through her usual haze of deranged glee in violence.

Cagalli, she thinks vaguely. Did she just-

"Nnnghhh," she breathes out, feeling the urgent need for a cigarette and six hours with some friendly man, or alternately, two with Kai Shiden. Maybe Cagalli just died right there. And if she did:

"I hate this!! I hate your idiot lizard war, and I hate your god damn commanders!" she shrieks again, even as the Zudah's rifle is stowed away-- and both the bazooka /and/ the sturm faust are limbered downwards, like two lopsided barrels of hot projectile death, levelled towards Fern. "If you live somehow - don't buy their bullshit! All weapons --"

There is a barrage of silent streaks of light, the rockets firing outwards and aiming to engulf Fern in silent, agonizing detonations of metal-ripping force. Qira finishes with a scream, a thoughtless one at that.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. All The Rockets added to their queue.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has missed Fern Calico with her All The Rockets attack.

"Leo Stenbuck," Gym repeats, speaking the name testingly, as if evaluating it's worth based on sound. He does this with the same kind of casual demeanor that Leo displays when their beam sabers clash. The Turn X plays a polite tone to remind Gym that there is a series of remote weapons behind him that are moving back to attack.

"Not a bad name," he decides. Gym nods slightly. The Destruction Manipulator goes wide from the sudden shield bash, leaving it's arm open to the beam saber's counterattack. The Turn X's left arm snaps up, the hand impossibly grasping the blade of the GN Saber and preventing it from moving closer. It sparks and flares as if it had hit a solid wall projected by the hand itself, caught at some invisible corner. The GN Field interacts with the essentially solid I-Fields the Turn X is composed of for a brief moment. Gym lets the Turn X handle calibrating itself against the new kind of power.

The Destruction Manipulator, free, cuts in in an arc, to graze the shield, come up over the top of it and slice down the inside arm. It ends up directly between the Turn X and the 1 Gundam, and Gym presses his momentary advantage, bringing it up diagonally and boosting straight into the 1 Gundam, intending to drive it through the thigh and make it start going upwards.

"You have to /do better than that/, Leo!" Gym roars, voice filled with bloodlust and mirth. The yellow glow of the beam saber blade reflects in his eyes, wide while he sees the 1 Gundam up close--and, perhaps, sees what is inside of it before it's melted to slag.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has attacked Leo Stenbuck. You Are Not Araris Valerian added to their queue.

"Tch, god dammit--" Alex grits out as the Phoebe once again manages to slice straight through the GOUF's heat rod and evade the bulk of his assault. The Impact Vice instantly ratchets back into place on the Crusher's back as the large, spherical weapon at its upper right shoulder seems to detach. Even if Macua got herself free, she's still in close range--

--and Lieutenant Dino seeks to capitalize on this as swiftly as he can. The Spherical Breaker mace ejects, and the Crusher's remaining Slayer Whip slings outward, attaching to the weapon's base. Yanking /hard/ on the giant, spherical thing, the GOUF begins to spin rapidly, aided by the sudden BOOST of rocket propulsion on the Breaker's base, sending it faster and faster like a veritable red tornado--

--all aimed at hammering that mace into the Phoebe at full momentum.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Macua Huitl. Spherical Breaker added to their queue.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has missed Leo Stenbuck with his You Are Not Araris Valerian attack.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has struck a glancing hit on Macua Huitl's Funnel Phoebe using Spherical Breaker.

Noriko sets herself. She's lopped off one arm, but it's still got the other - got to be ready, be in position, got to--!

Her eyes widen, diverted from Garrod's recovery by the momentary glory of Revive's GN Mega Launcher lancing out and washing away the Cag. Noriko murmurs, "What's he--fighting is one thing, but a weapon like that in inhabited space!?" Noriko gasps, fingers curling tighter around the force-feedback of the Temjin Scimitars' handles. "Cyber Newtypes, huh?" she mutters. Revive on the radio, she grits her teeth and bears it; she knows what she's good at, and why she's good at it. It isn't for killing - that isn't an order she can accept.

Fraternity is for the protection of people. Any people. From any thing.

Of course, her hardening resolve is interrupted when her systems beep wildly about an incoming bazooka shell. "What!" she yells, surprised, her train of thought flying off track as she whips her weapons up to try and deflect the shell, except mostly what happens is it explodes, destroys one of the scimitars and sends Temjin flying backwards, drifting. In her cockpit, Noriko rasps, the pain from the impact transmitting through her like fire. But she narrows her eyes. Got to get this guy down, she thinks - put him down and get him out of here, one way or another. She sets the remaining Temjin Scimitar, but in space there's no real place to adopt a form stance so it's just...there, in front of her, and then she just charges in, despite Garrod's armament - swinging the scimitar, trying to cut through his guard, and then cut through him, before he can take her down.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has attacked Garrod Ran. Temjin Scimitar added to their queue.

Well, that's not okay.

The only thing that betrays Leo's confusion - and sudden uncertainty - when the Turn X handles his beam saber blade like it was a cardboard tube is a series of rapid blinks. That's all he has /time/ for before the other mobile suit's beam saber skips over and past his shield, scoring along the 1 Gundam's arm, turning E-carbon molten where it scrapes along the limb.

And then Gym keeps going, pressing closer in towards the Gundam and slicing his beam saber up into its thigh. Leo holds him at bay for a split second by slamming his shield - harmlessly - into the Turn X's chest, forcing it back for a split second. It's all he can manage, but it's enough to make a tactical decision. He needs to get away, but as it is, he's sort of... /entangled/ with his opponent.

So he fixes that.

The 1 Gundam's shield suddenly detaches from its arm with a flash of flame and light as Leo blows the explosive bolts, crashing into the Turn X's chest again. Leo slips his now-unladen arm between the Turn X's attacking arm and its torso, and accelerates suddenly backwards, lifting away from the other mobile suit, orange GN particles spreading out behind it as it retreats.

It never turns away from the Turn X, reaching over with its left arm and drawing its second beam saber from its right elbow, the blade flashing to life; the Gundam crosses them into an X in front of its torso, defensively, but does not immediately move to strike.

This is because while it's drawing its second weapon, from behind the Turn X, the formation of idling Fangs suddenly flare to life again, zipping in at the Turn X's exposed back on jets of orange particles, all of them converging on the MS to turn its Kyaraps backpack - and, through it, its back - into a pincushion.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has attacked Gym Ghingnham. GN Fang Nightmare added to their queue.

Lizard war? What the hell is she talking about, Fern thinks, in that icy-hot way her mind sometimes gets at times like this; furious, but analytical, picking apart minor details that, in most cases, she honestly wouldn't care one bit about.

Fern pushes herself backwards in the seat this time, and then throws herself bodily forward and to the left so hard that the harness is all that keeps her from tumbling forward, pulling taut as Fern feels tight bands across her shoulders and ribs. The Totoro goes into a bizarre forward tumble; it would be a dive if there was gravity involved, but as is it's just a reorientation of about a hundred degrees tipping forward and then a sharp acceleration.

"Don't you tell me what to believe," Fern hisses, unable to raise her voice or catch her breath. Her heart is pounding as missiles explode all around Totoro, her dive accelerating as Totoro's thrusters run as bright and hot as they possibly can.

Eventually, Fern slams back down against the seat she has to straddle, uncomfortably. Totoro glides to a stop, more or less unharmed except for the thrusters, one of which appears to be entirely offline. "When we let terrorists live," Fern says, low, almost dangerous, "other people die." Her arm and leg burn. She knows it's psychosomatic. There's nothing wrong with them.

Fern uses only one axe this time, her left one; her right arm is still sore from the dive. She attacks madly, almost a frenzied flurry of blows - and the one plus Qira has is that she is mostly aiming at the Zudah's limbs and not the torso.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Qira Lassiter. Buster Tomahawk Flurry added to their queue.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck sounds distracted. "I've got this guy under control. Everyone else doing okay?"

COMBAT: Fern Calico has missed Qira Lassiter with her Buster Tomahawk Flurry attack.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya transmits, "Doing alright! This guy's stubborn!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "GN Mega Launcher recharging."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Alex Dino transmits, "This one is fast...!"

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has struck a major hit on Gym Ghingnham's CONCEPT-X 6-1-2 Turn X using GN Fang Nightmare.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has missed Leo Stenbuck with his Kyaraps Tri-Missile counter attack.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has missed Garrod Ran with her Temjin Scimitar attack.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck, still distracted. "Takaya, take care of your bogey double-time and go help out Dino. Sounds like he could use it."

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has activated a spirit command.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya transmits, "Understood! This guy...I'll show him how a Top fights!!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck starts to say something, but apparently thinks better of it.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Rei Ayanami, quietly. "Be careful, Coach."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "..."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya transmits, "Just for you, I'll work extra hard!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Rei Ayanami characteristically does not reply.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Healing Care transmits, "Aw that is so /adorable/."

Noriko isn't the only one who's gaze is drawn to Revive's... excessive use of force. Moments after the recoil of the Hyper Bazooka passes, the glow of the Mega Launcher draws his attention, but more importantly Cagalli's lack of presence in the aftermath also catches his eyes, "Cagalli...? Shit! I don't see her mobile suit anywhere!" The GX turns, looking for any signs. Debris-- an IFF signiture, but he can't see anything. His eyes tighten and his teeth clench as he turns back to face Noriko, "Tch...!" The Gundam X-Divider is no longer there as Noriko lashes out, as Garrod ignites his verniers and launches into the sky above, "Bastards...!" The Hyper Bazooka thunders silently twice more, expending the rest of it's shells down towards Noriko. Then the empty weapon is tossed aside as Garrod reaches behind him and unclips the Divider Shield, then brings it up and-- Oh my, that's a lot of beam guns, isn't it? The barrels of the 18 fire-linked beam guns glow brightly, before discharging in a fan of pink beams that rack across the void of space like claws.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has attacked Noriko Takaya. Full Assault added to their queue.

Fortunately, Qira is learning not to hang out in melee range when her enemy's melee package is:

- Axes and tomahokes

And her melee package is:

- Bravery

"Nnnghh," Qira breathes out; the mission's situation is apparently a complete screw-job, and for all she knows, she's the sole survivor. (Cursed with second sight?!) The Zudah keeps moving away from the Totoro, and with its out-sized engine, this is easy to do.

"Well, fine! Believe what you want!" she shouts with childish petulance back at the Totoro. What accents her words? Why, everyone's favorite gift of all:

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. Sturm Faust added to their queue.

COMBAT: Garrod Ran has struck a glancing hit on Noriko Takaya's GF13-053NMO Temjin Gundam using Full Assault.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has struck a major critical hit on Fern Calico's RX-207 Totoro using Sturm Faust.

"I do," Fern says. She doesn't have time to cut the connection; instead she just ignores it, giving Qira an increasingly staticky view of her cockpit.

She wishes desperately that she had a proper S-Type connection in this thing. Swinging herself around is getting harder; she cannot possibly get out of the way of the Sturm Faust and it doesn't even have a proper shield to cover itself with.

Instead, Fern flies directly at it, bringing both axes up in an X-shape. All she can do is make the Sturm Faust explode early; it showers the upper body of Totoro with shrapnel, tearing away part of the head, making it look almost skeletal. The shoulders don't get much better.

Fern cannot catch the Zudah. This time she doesn't try. She found a new toggle on the arm controls, which is only moderately delayed by the fact that her cockpit is shaking like it was in an earthquake. She makes chopping gestures at the Zudah from way the hell over there; as she swings, arcs of energy radiate out from the blades, wide lashes of stray power slicing at a distance.

She still has to yell. She doesn't sound happy. "BUSTER TOMAHAWK BEAM!"

COMBAT: Fern Calico has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Qira Lassiter. Buster Tomahawk Beam added to their queue.

Macua Huitl is locked in quite lethal combat with Alex who's starting to prove if he was in an machine on par with Macua's? She'd likely be a smeal b now as it is she's caught tyring to get lose. She barely does and then she's got the second comming of a long forgotton super hero comming right at her and there's no way to dodge. She brings up the shield wich is just demoished along with part of the arm assembly. She's sent sprialing back from the force of the his attacks.

The damage of the bad, it's adding up one or two more hits and it's over for the newtype. She launches the rest of her funnels and opens up an savage assault which is aimed to try and be athe sort of attack is where you have to pick the lesser hit if she pulls off the field of fire right.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has attacked Alex Dino. Funnel Danmaku added to their queue.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has struck a devastating hit on Alex Dino's ZGMF-X2000CQGB&S GOUF Crusher using Funnel Danmaku.

Knock Out! Alex Dino's ZGMF-X2000CQGB&S GOUF Crusher unit has become disabled!

Revive Revival waits. He's not patient about it. Not even close. His fingers drum on control panels' edges. He keeps licking his teeth and sucking on the inside of his cheeks, setting and resetting his jaw as he watches a progress bar tick-tick-tick. While it does so, he unconsciously keeps adjusting the GN Mega Launcher's position, tracking the Turn X as it menaces the 1 Gundam.

"You son of a bitch..." Revive mutters, continuing a long stream of inelegant swears that he's been mumbling for a few minutes now. "Human dog... Beat you like the dog you are, break your body open and watch your filthy blood stain the--"

Ding! Your GN Mega Launcher is ready!

"Hnnaah!" Revive Revive's sound is either triumphant or frustrated -- possibly both. Fixing the targeting crosshairs on the Turn X again, he can feel the heat of the weapon in his hands. Or maybe he's imagining it. Either way, it's nice. Revive Revival can think of nothing sexier than pointing this gun at a living thing. Maybe that's why he sounds so smug and pleased as he transmits: "Jinx-1."

"Heads up."

A torrent of orange energy blasts through space.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Gym Ghingnham. GN Mega Launcher - High Output added to their queue.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Gym Ghingnham with his GN Mega Launcher - High Output attack.

Noriko has sympathy - perhaps one of the only ones on the field who does - but it's a battle. She has picked her side and sticks to it. It's something they didn't teach her in piloting school: Your actions will kill people. Period. It has been a long, hard fight to realize that fact.

All she can do is apologize to their ghosts every night, and pray to whoever can hear her that her choices are right - and try to be satisfied in her decisions.

She can't dwell on it. Garrod is angry, but Noriko's not going to just fall. He yells at her, and opens fire as he evades. She charges in again, because Temjin doesn't really have a lot of choices, on that front; she swings wide around the bazooka blasts, sweeping to the side and cutting one in half with a clean slice, then boosting away before it explodes, detonating the second in the process. Noriko pushes on, but then Garrod...opens his Divider Shield, and Noriko gasps, "Are you for real!?" as it unloads.

She darts in anyway. She has no choice. She swerves and jukes with an agility to boggle the mind, deflecting beams with her sword. One slams into her shoulder - another sears her chest, but even though tears bud in her eyes from the pain, she charges on, surges toward Garrod, screams, "I'm sorry, but, I'm ending this RIGHT NOW!" as she swings with all her weight to just slash the X Divider right in half.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has attacked Garrod Ran. Scimitar Assault added to their queue.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has struck a devastating critical hit on Qira Lassiter's EMS-10 Zudah Qira Custom using Buster Tomahawk Beam.

COMBAT: Noriko Takaya has struck a glancing hit on Garrod Ran's Gundam X-Divider using Scimitar Assault.

Detachable shield. Explosively so. Noted.

The Turn X doesn't even give a clanging ring to show it got /hit/ by the shield, largely due to fighting in a vacuum. It watches the 1 Gundam go on the defensive, taking the seconds it gets from the maneuver to get another beam saber. It won't help against Gym. He doesn't care /how/ many weapons he has, he'll just plow through them all to get to the explosively decompressable center.

The tone comes back. Gym glances up--and sees the beam daggers strike. The Kyaraps equipment pack is pierced by the daggers, plunging through it--but not quite. The beams warp it out of shape like it was some kind of rubber or clay, striking through to the back of the Turn X. The proximity starts to warp the bizarre armor, sending it staggering forward and 'downward', briefly giving the 1 Gundam another moment's reprieve before it returns to start cutting it up.

Fortunately, the weapons are unharmed. The Kyaraps pack ejects from the Turn X, detaching an floating in space away from the mobile suit. It reaches upward for it's beam rifle--

The Turn X disappears into a column of brilliant light. The GN particle beam washes over and around it, silhouetting it against the blackness of space for the heartbeats before it is just /gone/. The beam continues onward... and then bends outward like it had suddenly struck an expanding cone.

It curves off into space, diffusing into stray, low-power particle beams that pepper the asteroids and the colony nearby both. The center abruptly caved inward and it all begins to flicker; the beam itself is using power far more rapidly than Revive probably planned it to, losing cohesion around the spot where the Turn X was.

Where the Turn X /is/.

The Destruction Manipulator is opened wide like a deadly, metallic flower with it's petals spread out. The mobile suit's eyes glow a burning yellow, and the narrow groove in the middle of the X-shaped scar on it's chest gleams with the rainbow light of an alien world. The power contained with the Destruction Manipulator flashes and dies, absorbed into the mobile suit and added to it's colossally powerful power plant.

"That," Gym intones, face suddenly appearing on Revive's monitor as if by sorcery, "was very rude." The apparent human narrows his eyes--those eyes, something is /strange/ about those eyes--and frowns as if he'd just discovered someone cheating in a game of chance.

The Destruction Manipulator closes slightly. It's beam emitters flare to life again, and the mobile suit fires back, a sudden and massive column of bright yellow swept across space like a cutting torch waved over an ant. Leo is, for the moment, forgotten.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has attacked Revive Revival. Destruction Rifle added to their queue.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has struck Revive Revival with a devastating hit using Destruction Rifle!

COMBAT: Revive Revival counter attacks Gym Ghingnham with a minor hit using GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "GNNHHRRAAAHH!"

With the momentum being generated by the Spherical Breaker, Dino is in a rather poor position to react -- especially to react to a swarm of funnels generating an inescapable storm of energy. Beam fire ripples through pulse after polse of angry and powerful bolts immediately after the GOUF's spinning comes to an abrupt stop. Alex is attempting to recover the machine--

--When the first funnel burst pierces through the GOUF's tail binder. The second, through the Spherical Breaker. The third impales through its left leg, the entire limb exploding. And so it continues to a seemingly limitless degree, the expanse of space lit up brightly. Beams pierce through the torso of the machine, the explosion sheering apart pieces of the cockpit; shrapnel lances into Alex's right side, nearly piercing his helmet. He lets out a strangled noise of pain--

--and ejects the cockpit /just/ as that final funnel burst pierces through the GOUF's reactor, the subsequent explosion from the ultracompact battery searing like a miniature sun as the blocky, red cockpit drifts through space. Within, Dino clenches his right, bleeding arm, grimacing.

"... maybe... I deserved that," he wonders through heavy breathes.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck suddenly blurts, "An I-Field! It's got a fucking I-Field!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico transmits, "W - The Crusader unit?"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "I'M GOING TO KILL THIS BASTARD!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "Yeah, the... gra-- whoa-"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "I'M GOING TO /DRINK/ FROM THE BASE OF HIS SHATTERED /SKULL/!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Revive Revival transmits, "GGGAAAAAHHHH!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "Wwwhuh..."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico transmits, "Captain, calm down; you're in no state to give orders like that."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck sighs explosively. "Don't worry. I'm taking control of this operation. Everybody, status reports, now."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya unable to respond due to animation error.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico sounds controlled. "Totoro is functional. If she hits me again I don't guarantee it will be, though; I've taken damage near the cockpit."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Alex Dino transmits, "I'm... fi..."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Alex Dino's radio goes quiet.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya answers anyway, though: "Try blocking with the palms! They're armored for that, and the Inertial Canceler field is strong there to deflect attacks!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico transmits, "I did. That's why I have half a head instead of none."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya transmits, "Oh, well then."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Healing Care transmits, "Whoaaaa sounds like things are hairy over there!"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "Calico, pull out if you need to. Dino... shit, does anyone have a visual on Din- Healing now is /really/ not the time- where the shit is Dino?"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Healing Care transmits, "Pft, it's always the time to make observations."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico transmits, "His unit exploded. If he's talking he must have ejected the block."

The yellow light sails through the void and, for lack of a better word, molests the Gadessa.

Revive Revival is screaming incoherently as his unit tumbles, knocked for a space loop as bits and chunks of armor fly off and pirouette into the all-encompassing emptiness that surrounds it. The GN Mega Launcher sparks, shooting sprays of orange particles into space, like a leaky water main. The thing could blow up at any second, probably.

Like Revive Revival cares. "AARRRGH!" Revive cries. Most of his tirade -- about drinking out of Gym's skull, et cetera, et cetera -- made onto the radio, but he can't even be bothered with that now. Stenbuck is talking and he's not even paying attention. He's focused entirely on Turn X, and on forcing his damaged, wheezing unit to lift its gun and pull the trigger, when pulling said trigger may or may not just atomize him.

But some things are more important than sanity.

Revenge is probably at the top of the list.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Gym Ghingnham. GN Mega Launcher - Low Output added to their queue.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Gym Ghingnham with his GN Mega Launcher - Low Output attack.

Oh god, lasers

Qira is running low on options. Her missiles aren't working, and she's vaguely becoming aware that people are firing all their huge lasers and shit all around the colony nearby. Dammit dammit dammit, she thinks; colony cylinders may be durable but she doubts that a bunch of reptilians care about these hapless locals!

And then:

The Zudah is struck dead on by that incoming series of rays, metal boiling off its front as the sturm faust launcher simultaneously evaporates /and/ explodes from its remaining payload being superheated. The Zudah, after the rays and waves of light fade, is a slightly glowing, steaming wreck in space; it apparently avoided exploding by the skin of its teeth. Peculiarly, the material behind it remains cool and intact, including the slung heat hawk and 135mm rifle - but that's the way it goes in space combat...

The Zudah's right arm moves.

"bbbbiiiiiiitch," Qira breathes, having barely survived the momentary sensation of her heart stopping in sheer terror, and it is fortunate for Fern perhaps that she is only able to use one arm to guide the Zudah's weapon around towards the Totoro before pulling the trigger. Then again, in space, how bad /is/ the recoil?

Macua Huitl does do something suprising with Alex, she doesn't fire at the cockpit block. She lets Alex go? Looks like that's the case as the Phoebe turns and heads back into another part of the battle, prehaps an ally needs a hand?

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. 135mm Anti-Ship Rifle added to their queue.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has attacked Fern Calico. 135mm Anti-Ship Rifle added to their queue.

COMBAT: Qira Lassiter has struck a glancing hit on Fern Calico's RX-207 Totoro using 135mm Anti-Ship Rifle.

Leo cringes a little when the Turn X vanishes within the blast from Revive Revival's GN Mega Launcher. Well, he may not have been dead last time, but he's probably dead now... along with all eight of the 1 Gundam's fangs (THANKS REVIVE.) If Gym's lucky, the cockpit block'll at least make it through just welded into one piece, instead of dis...

... what.

WHAT.

The 1 Gundam has to zip out of the way of one of the smaller beams born from the diffusion of the Mega Launcher shot, and Leo just... gapes as the Turn X sort of /denies/ one of the most powerful MS-scale beam weapons in existence. And the way the beam's refracting like that...

"An I-Field!" Leo blurts suddenly, mouth hanging slightly open. "It has a fucking I-Field!" That explains the earlier tomfoolery with his attacks, too. But... how does it have an I-Field?! Those are /way/ too big to mount on MS, and, hell, too /expensive/ to mount on mobile armors, even...

Leo shakes his head vigorously to clear his state of shock, and busies himself checking in with the rest of the A-LAWS strike team while Revive Revival fires uselessly at the Turn X again. As Gym's attention moves more fully to the Gadessa, the 1 Gundam deactivates and fluidly sheathes both of its beam sabers, and then accelerates in towards the distracted Turn X.

In fact, it accelerates not just in towards it, but in /to/ it, driving its right foot at the small of the MS's back, its leg extended and locked.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has attacked Gym Ghingnham. 1 Kick added to their queue.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has missed Gym Ghingnham with his 1 Kick attack.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has missed Leo Stenbuck with his Do Not Engage Lu Bu counter attack.

Fern Calico did not mean to kill Qira. She does not feel particularly guilty about it when she thinks she has, though; soldiers sign up to die. She learned that in her second deployment.

She starts to turn Totoro to the side and only catches the tiny shift of the Zudah's arm out of the corner of her eye. Fern does not have to wait for her concious mind to process that, the tiny bit of cybernetics in her brain messing with her chemistry enough to give her a shot of adrenaline; if she was synchronized properly, the machine would move more smoothly, more quickly.

When she's alone like this, Fern's heart starts beating like a jackhammer and she feels like she's burning up. She pushes her entire body to the side, every muscle straining -

The guide harness on her cybernetic arm snaps as Fern accidentally exerts a force higher than it's rated for, between her body weight from the multiple Gs of her maneuver and her sideways strength. That and maybe she didn't put it on right. Either way, Totoro's left arm suddenly goes slack, and she plows through the bullet disabled arm first.

"Shit," Fern says, resorting to rarely used profanity. "Missiles!" she demands, and Totoro responds; she empties the remaining ammo in an attempt to take her tenacious terrorist buddy out. Well, 'buddy'.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Qira Lassiter. Buster Missile-Mite added to their queue.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has struck a major hit on Qira Lassiter's EMS-10 Zudah Qira Custom using Buster Missile-Mite.

Knock Out! Qira Lassiter's EMS-10 Zudah Qira Custom unit has become disabled!

Well, the Zudah is not made of miracles. Only of hope.

The first missile DOES go long, but the second and third one don't, and the explosion of the Zudah take care of most of the remainder as shrapnel from it spreads outwards in an ever expanding cloud, soon to be tugged by microgravitational pulls into the debris belt surrounding the colony (and possibly, before long, consisting primarily OF the colony!)

A spherical object falls on a slightly divergent course. Two red eyes glow in the cold of night.

'Thank you for using HaroScape Pod! If you require emergency medical assistance, please groan in agony!'

The Gadessa, properly molested by a gigantic fucking laser, is slightly less of a threat to the Turn X. It is largely composed of partially melted metal and /Innovade rage/, but it is less of a threat--until it comes back at him with another beam, this one noticeably smaller than the last.

"Is that /it/?" Gym flies straight at the particle beam. The Destruction Manipulator emits a cascade of lightning, the bolts leaping across the void to grasp the particle beam and tear it apart before it can reach it. It connects to the Destruction Manipulator as the I-Fields--if Leo has the sensors to detect it he will find that there are /more than one/--bend it inward for proper consumption. It still bleeds around it, scattering sparks off into the darkness.

"All that, and that's /all/ you can come up with? I thought you were supposed to have a /good/ mobile suit!" The Turn X doesn't even turn around to fight Leo. It's head rotates slightly, and then it breaks into pieces, scattering in eight directions like it had just exploded without any bit of a light show.

"And /you/, Leo," Gym adds, transmitting to everyone still, "is this fool /your/ subordinate?? Teach him to /really/ fight and have him come back and try again!"

As if that was not bad enough, the pieces all start to come back together. The head, arms, legs, hips, torso and back all fly in a swarm of parts, spinning like they were swept up in a tornado. They fly at ramming speeds at both the 1 Gundam and the Gadessa, to smash into them and fly past. As they move past them, just when they think they're safe...

.../that/ is when the Kyaraps backpack comes back and joins in, and when the megaparticle cannons mounted in all nine begin to fire, showing that the Turn X is every sort of bullshit crammed into one compact container.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has attacked Leo Stenbuck and Revive Revival. Bloody Riot added to their queue.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico, hoarse, "Are you still fighting and do you need assistance."

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has missed Revive Revival with his Bloody Riot attack.

COMBAT: Revive Revival counter attacks Gym Ghingnham with a minor hit using GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot.

COMBAT: Gym Ghingnham has missed Leo Stenbuck with his Bloody Riot attack.

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "This guy is... ... we should get out of here. Calico, grab Dino's block and start falling back."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya's continuity error-lock finally breaks due to having waited several hours, "Target's disabled! Ngh, but, Temjin's in kind of bad shape..."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "Takaya, you bang out, too. Paradigm-1 and I will bring up the rear."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico transmits, "Understood. What about you?"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck totally said that after Fern, time doesn't exist, deal with it~

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Noriko Takaya transmits, "But---right. Understood! Damn, did he break a rib--"

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico lets out a pained grunt. "Yes, sir."

Fern Calico is not in much better shape. Oh, Totoro is - it still has all its parts, for one, though some of them are looking decidedly shredded and barely functional... but Fern is attempting to control the left arm by gripping the popped remnants of that control cable, which leaves her with no hand control, and she thinks she broke one of her ribs on the central harness.

Fern does not join in the attack on Gym. Totoro makes a slow turn to the side instead, heading toward Alex's last known location - she has enough control to bring him back, at least.

Revive Revival is quaking with fury. And today started off so well, too. He spits -- it hits the inside of his faceplate. He turns his radio off -- he doesn't even want to listen to the human cattle anymore. Nothing matters. Nothing exists. But Turn X. Shrugging off his beams like they were nothing. Like Revive Revival was nothing.

Revive Revival is not nothing. He is the next step. He is what humanity aspires to be. He is what they climb and claw at only for him to step on their fingers, to walk bridges hewn from their bones over vast seas of useless, stupid flesh--

What Revive Revival is, is fucked.

The Gadessa is able to sharply juke out of the way of the Turn X's riotous rampage, but only barely. As Revive does so, he fires the Mega Launcher again. It surges, sputters out a beam -- and then violently explodes in a brilliant flash of orange, like a fireworks display that's all the same ugly color.

The Gadessa is brutalized further still by this. It stops outputting sparkles. It floats there, useless. Inside, Revive Revival is blind. He should have closed his eyes when his gun exploded. He couldn't turn his radio back on now if he tried. As it is, he screams, he swears, he nearly throws up, he's so angry.

But for all intents and purposes, the Gadessa looks like it's toast, and with no communication, its pilot may well be dead.

Merry Christmas, Leo Stenbuck!

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico, still raspy, "Pulling back now. I have Dino."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "You alright? You don't sound so good..."

<Radio: B - A-LAWS Secure> Fern Calico transmits, "Yelled too loud. I'm fine. Sore ribs."

The Turn X doesn't dodge the 1 Gundam's kick, not really. It doesn't block it, either. It just sort of... comes apart around it, and the pieces all zip off in different directions.

"You have got to be shitting me," Leo sputters, exasperated.

And then the pieces come back, and the 1 Gundam ducks nimbly awya from the tornado of MS parts... and then ducks yet further when they start shooting beams, /oh god what/, zipping back and forth around the barrage of beamfire from Turn X's everything.

Okay, Leo thinks, as he dodges mega particle beams. What do I know about this mobile suit?

1) It can come apart and fly around in individual pieces.

2) It has an I-Field. (I-Field/s/?)

3) IT IS FUCKING INVINCIBLE HOLY SHIT.

3 is as far as he gets before he decides it would be best if they retreated. As apparently Revive has gone off the deep end, that means it's up to Leo to make it happen... and so he does, barking orders via radio at Fern and Noriko.

And then the Gadessa's GN Mega Launcher explodes, and Leo cuts his radio broadcasting to declare, eloquently, "FUCK!"

His worry is instantly replaced by, of all things, contemplation. Even if Revive didn't die, right there... it'd be an easy enough matter to ensure that he /did/ die. He can't help but doubt that Gym would balk at executing a helpless opponent. Leo licks his lips, and his eyes dart from the Gadessa to the (presumably now reforming) Turn X and back.

But... no. Revive's a piece of shit, but he's not going to leave him to die, not like this. Besides, Ribbons would probably chew him out if Revive got slotted. Especially after that whole thing about the God damn pills.

With an almost reluctant quality to its movements, the 1 Gundam coasts over to the disabled Gadessa, grabs it, and accelerates away from Baldur Bay. It lingers just long enough to let Noriko and Fern get the F out of dodge before it really lays on the gas.

Or... the... GN gas, I guess.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has retreated from the area.

Noriko Takaya flies back through the battle zone en route to the A-LAWS carrier, presumably leaving Garrod Ran exploded somewhere.

She tries to stay out of the Turn X's agg bubble.

For once, Gym does not chase down the Gundam and the Gadessa with his terrible all-range attack system and reduce them to their component atoms, even if he really kind of would like to. The Turn X's components float back to one another, meeting in the middle and smashing together, reconnecting seamlessly.

"I-Fields down to fifty percent," Gym muses. "Not bad." He glances at his sensors.

"If there are any other of you 'A-LAWS' pilots around," Gym announces to space as a whole, "I suggest you clear out. I'm getting /bored/ again."

And so, Baldur Bay was saved, thanks to...

Gym Ghingnham and the Turn X!

Cue freeze frame, cue theme music, roll credits.