2011-01-13 - The Whisper of the Beast

SOMEWHERE IN KANSAS

...there is a missile silo.

It's a super old thing, one of the pre-One Year War, maybe even Impact Wars-era constructions. By now, it's been abandoned, sold, bought, sold, and bought again. People come and go, and the land around it continues to expand into the property. There's got to be half a square mile or more land around this thing, all uninhabited, all attached to the base.

The most recent owner, it just so happens, is Samuel Flynn.

One of the concrete surface buildings is a hangar of sorts, with one side open to the evening starlight. Just outside is a short runway, and just inside is a series of various mobile weapons practically gleaming from the care they're given. Sam is currently standing on a platform next to the arm of an A Baoa Qu-type Gelgoog mobile suit, the arm plating off as he rebuilds the servo.

Directions have been given to Ascian and Remille, a flight path included. Apparently, it's hidden from EFA-controlled USA, or private enough that nobody cares if they drop in.

Rule one about Frighteners: Their drop ships never do touch down. If a drop shop that belongs to them ever touches Earth's layer it is either because something had malfunctioned and they had to do an emergency landing or they just had no choice, but too. This, still may be in the category of emergency landing.

What is coming in though is the deep midnight blue machine, which one hits the pad, skids along the surface of the ground with ease before turning to slide to a stop. The machine held its sniper rifle, along with the small plasma cannon and extra radar assembly. The red visor flickered softly as it then looked around the long forgotten base now belong to the former Raven tech. "... cozy..." Remille says softly in her cockpit as she hits a few switches, then types in a few command structures.

Though she does pause as the computer comes up with an 'error' flag message and not shortly after a little laughing yellow face. This only causes her to rub the bridge of her nose under her glasses, before hitting cancel and trying the command again which now works correctly.

Having been given directions by Samuel Flynn, someone Ascian had begun to see as a 'friend' amongst the Divine Crusaders, he had left Bardos Island in order to give himself somewhat of a testing ground. One where he knew he could trust the person involved. Of course, he doesn't exactly know Remille well, who reportedly also would show up. But as long as there was at least one person he could trust. He'd be fine. Right? Right.

Anyone with a good radar would probably notice a high velocity unit darting along the globe's upper atmosphere, only to settle a good and long distance away from the location in question. And from there-out, radar readings would simply disappear for a while. After all, the BAHRAM framerunner had stopped flying and now...

Now he was walking... no... running on his way over to the missile silo area. One foot in front of the other. He got that down pat. Balancing the upper body? Yes, the young man was capable. Radio? Check. Speakers? Check. But he needed more. As fast as possible, he needed combat experience.

On the horizon now, Samuel might see it come running. A massive... monster like biped. Black in color, three rows of two eyes glowing in a fierce red, muscles underneath thick plates of metal armor. The biometalic combination between technology, biology and simple mad science. But the most important part was previously mentioned. It looked like a biped monster. Thick shoulders, somewhat hunched over head, arms hanging a little along the sides.

And that monster. That... beast. That is what comes to a halt within the grounds of the missile silo as it sets its eyes on Remille's unit, now obviously visible as she had removed her unit from the dropship, and almost seems to... grin. Metalic like shards - like teeth - making creating this 'illusion' of an expression. It looked mad in a way. Its head then lazily swings along, so it can turn its head towards the platform on which the Gelgoog stood.

Sam looks at the midnight blue machine as it skids to a halt in sight. He whistles a little, eyes scanning it up and down. He's looking at the thing like he might an attractive woman. Then again, that's just what the tech-types /do/, so it shouldn't be a surprise. He rests an overly large wrench on his shoulder and grins, waving a gloved hand at the AC that has touched down on his property.

And then there's the Warrior Beast. Sam's jaw drops as the thing shows up; he stares when it's head peeks into the hangar, and then laughs a little when he figures out what the heck is up with it. Must be Ascian's thing. He shakes his head and laughs a little more--byproduct of nervousness, maybe--and closes up the plate on the Gelgoog's arm.

The hangar, incidentally, holds four mechs. One is Insolent, the familiar Armored Core NEXT, the reverse-jointed machine in a place of prominence. Another is the DOL-1A Dola BattleMech, with it's vibroblade nearby. The third is some kind of Arm Slave, though the make isn't a common one, and the last is the Gelgoog. All but the Gelgoog are painted in Sam's favored bronze and dark grey color scheme. Tools are scattered everywhere, and stairs lead down in the far back corner of the building.

Sam lowers the platform to the ground on it's lift and walks towards Insolent. "I see you two made it easily enough," he remarks. He doesn't have to be loud; he knows exactly how good the voice pickup on those are. "Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with the mechs. I'll be right out, if you still want a fight."

The Armored Core then quickly turns as the unknown machine shows up. The monstrous creation causes the Armored Core to take a step back, though it doesn't raise any of its weaponry. Then again, if the beast got to close; Well - That is what the energy saber was for.

It then looks over to Sam as he speaks. Remille instead still checking over a few things before she speaks out over the internal speakers. "I hope I can keep my offer. As the system was reconstructed, there could be a few bugs that may need to be ironed out." She explains in all calmness.

Her eyes then shift over to the side monitor which is showing a side camera looking at the large beast mech. It is attempting to get any information and is probably failing at it. "Though I may sit out this time and just watch you -" The Armored Core's hand then directs over to the G1,"- and this thing go at it."

"Take your time." Ascian's voice gets warped through the machine, which's mouth actually /moves/ as he speaks, making it sound somewhere between a growl and a roar - though still making it obvious what is being said. Yes, he is receiving quite perfectly, the sound coming from the platform. The machine then suddenly... sits. It kneels down like a Japanese person would, its hands both on its knees. It seems to struggle getting to this point, and during the transition from standing to that he has to correct his balance at least trice, during once which he even had to catch the unit by placing one of its monsterous hands onto the ground before him. But he manages.

The monsterous head again turns towards Remille's mech, looking it over, kind of 'growling' as it does this - an after effect of the speaking picking up Ascian's faint breathing. "Warrior Beast EVA G1." Hey, he didn't name it. "I'll just refer to it as 'The Beast', to make it easy." Its mouth kind of hangs open afterwards, making it look somewhat even more disturbing than before, its 'teeth' showing. And then... finally... the mouth closes and the head turns towards Samuel again. After all, Remille had commented that she'd sit out. He wondered, in the cockpit. Was she afraid?

"No prob. Make yourself at home," Sam says he with a wave of his hand. He turns back to the NEXT. "Insolent, rise and shine," Sam calls as he approaches. The NEXT's optics glow as it powers up, the hand lowering to the floor and the cockpit hatch opening. He steps onto the hand and it smoothly raises him to the cockpit, letting him drop inside of it in what is practically the same step. "Insolent, close it up and lets get going." The cockpit hatch closes, and the NEXT stands, detaching from the wall rack.

Sam connects via radio. "Alriiight. So, that Warrior Beast EVA G1 of yours--looks like it's something Doctor Hell put together. Am I right?" Insolent walks to the edge of the hangar, the reverse-jointed legs closer to shuffling than actually walking. It jumps and hovers when it passes the edge, clearing Remille's Normal and drifting in the air.

"How do you want to do this? Besides 'away from my house,' I mean; I don't want to smash anything unnecessarily," he remarks. Sam idly runs pre-combat checks. Green lights flash in sequence as it all checks out. Of /course/ it's all right, /he/ made it.

The unit stands up carefully. And Ascian, within the strange cockpit, tries his best to assert his will through the machine, pushing the metalic 'handles' along. This control scheme somehow worked very similar to an Orbital Frame. The motions wasn't as important as the /thoughts/ put into the machine. He couldn't explain it very well however. And luckily, he didn't have to. As long as he willed it to move, it moved. And so it stands up.

"Yes. Doctor Hell indeed created, or rather, put this together - as you say." The sound is still growling and roaring during speech, and the dark sounds that come from it slightly increase it depth as Ascian's breathing becomes slightly heavier as the machine 'pushed back' against his will. "As for how. Go all loose. Just don't irradiate this thing... I am not sure how good this thing can handle the radiation." Being part flesh and all. But he doesn't say this.

Sam doesn't know how he feels about this hellish (heh) beast (heh heh) sitting on his lawn, but he does know that Ascian is not fully in control of it yet. He must not have had it for long, or had any opportunity to actually test it out. This'll be good for both of 'em, though; it means he gets to see it in action, and Ascian gets to figure out his limits without... dying.

"I'll do my best, don't worry. Besides, Kojima radiation is a pain in the ass to get rid of, and I like the landscape the way it is." Insolent takes off, leading the Beast further from the silo and out of his weapon range--or, well, not quite out of it, but far enough that he won't hit his own house with a stray shot. "Besides, I wouldn't want to break your new toy," he says with a grin.

Insolent suddenly goes high, firing a spray of solid rounds down at the Warrior Beast. It's the signal for the beginning of the fight, with Sam clearly taking the offensive to test the defenses of this not-quite-machine of Doctor Hell's. The solid shots should do well enough--unless it has some tricks he can't spot...

Remille Fortner was not scared, however she was not able to participate.

Why was this? Because she had to get her brother on the line for some OS help, so she just moved her Armored Core out of the firing zone, and watched. As she had assist from her brother over the line to restart so it actually would que up the combat systems.

'The Beast' turns its eyes up to the air as the Insolent finally goes up in the air and kinda just stands there. Ascian looks up, and the machine finally does the same. The young man is used to having an Artificial Intelligence giving him hints in these kind of cases. And there was something else. Could this thing even fly!? It didn't have any to show for itself, so probably was a land unit. And he hasn't actually figured out what weapon systems it has quite yet.

But when Samuel finally lashes that barrage on him, Ascian's mind can't help but send the signal one would send to an Orbital Frame, seeking a burst of speed to the right and gets... nothing. Right. This wasn't a frame. This was something completely different. Different mechanics, different... everything. "Shiiii..." He mentally tries to shield him; and the machine follows suit. It raises its arms up and braces itself as the bolts come down. A few dents appear in the armor, and the machine looses its stance a bit - almost kneeling. And then finally it lets up.

Okay. Now what does /he/ do? He looks around... but of course, all he sees is the world around him, through the 360 screen. Even at his feet he could see the ground and the legs of the machine... though somewhat see-through. "Grrr..." The young man growls. And the machine suddenly... jumps up a single time! Arms swinging up... but it doesn't go anywhere. Luckily, it lands safely on its feet.

However, during that jump, Ascian noticed something. Attached to the bottom of its right arm. "Alright! A beam gun! I can use that!" He's still thinking inside of the box. But... one learns how to walk by crawling, right? So, he raises the arm up and tries to get a semi-good aim on the Insolent and... nothing happens. "Shoot! Fire! Ehhh... Beam!" Nothing. He grumbles. "SHOOT A LASER YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" FWOOOOOOOOOOOSH! Sickly green energy flares up from the gun and scatters up into the air as a wide beam of energy!

FWOOOOOOOOSH! The beam gun shoots past Insolent, the NEXT rolling in the air. It fires a cutting swath of bullets, but the solid rounds only eat dirt. Insolent levels and circles, Sam keeping the Warrior Beast's position marked on his radar. Even if he doesn't see it, it doesn't mean it's not there... and he could use a little more room to move that isn't high and easily spotted from afar.

"Don't you have buttons in there? Switches? Evilly-marked joysticks?" He sounds a little like he's teasing him, circling around the beast and looking it over. Maybe it'll be easier for Ascian to do something up close if he can barely figure out how to fire a laser. The NEXT's circle becomes tighter, spiralling inward...

Funny, spirals.

Insolent comes downward, dropping and pulling up in a U-shaped dive. At the bottom of it, the NEXT slashes it's left arm out with the intense blue laser blade activated, sweeping the energy weapon through the Beast and then taking back to the air. Ascian might have enough time to actually swing an arm--if he can figure out how to /move/ the arm this time, that is.

Sam isn't really counting on it.

"I have two large metal... bars of some sorts I can move around. But it doesn't really follow those motions." It was a way to keep himself in place than anything. As well as giving his mind some sort of 'reference' for his own position. The unit ducks down a bit, almost like a boxer, making itself smaller after the beam had missed - letting Ascian get a good look of the weapon. It was kind of 'sunken' in the arm, half covered in flesh, and only armored 'around' it. "So the flesh keeps it attached?" Ascian mutters to himself, which again just comes out as an unintelligible 'growl' outside.

It turns its head up again and tries to back away when the Insolent comes down again, remaining in that guarded position. And when the machine finally comes sweeping down - he tries to dodge by pushing the feel of the unit one way... to send him rolling to the right. But all he manages to do is push with the wrong foot and... the machine falls over. Insolent lashes the laser blade across the thick armored shoulder of The Beast and simply... leaves a small gash within the metal.

Ascian hisses inside as he suddenly feels the 'pressure' he keeps feeling within pushing on his shoulder. This was way too similar to Amenthes throwing a tantrum. "Stop resisting me. You stupid machine." The young man barks at it. "I'm your master now, if you want it or not." It didn't really have a soul though. All he was talking to, in reality, was himself. He was resisting himself. And it will take him a while to realize this.

"What else have I got?" he thinks and looks at the other arm. Were those... holes? He didn't know what they were, or what they could produce. But his mind kind of filled it in. So, he manages to get the unit to get back up and begins... running. Running in a circle against the direction of Samuel's and tries to aim along the left arm. "Fire!" It works! This time it listened - as a series of fleshy-metalic missiles dart from the tubes, shining with a slight 'green' glow.

Not-quite-metal, not-quite-flesh missiles. Sam picks them out in the evening sky pretty easily, and his targeting and tracking computer highlights them on his display as the missile warning blares. Insolent backs off and boosts in reverse, outrunning the missiles through the American countryside and suddenly disappearing into the air with a brilliant flash from it's vertical thrusters. The missiles detonate in green-tinted blasts, clipping the reverse-jointed legs wit the concussion wave but not much else.

"Might have something to do with intent," Sam transmits thoughtfully. He isn't sure about this thing Dr. Hell cooked up, but if Ascian wants to test it... "The thing looks pretty alive, so think or speak what you want it to do when you want it to do it, too. I bet it's all about the concentration." Insolent comes back in close, dipping down from the air and circling around the less-mobile Warrior Beast with it's bright blue-white Dragonslayer laser blade active, looking for an opening.

It comes in close and flips over, swinging the blade for the same spot it already cut into on the way past. He pushes the arm forward, forcing the energy beam to try and dig into the metal and flesh as he attempts to disable the joint from the outside without completely removing the arm--and without staying too close for too long, ready on a moment's notice to disengage.

"Dr. Hell said that I'd drive this machine with my Will." The monsterous thing growls back at Samuel, jaw moving as it speaks, its eyes changing brightness just ever so slightly to show that it indeed was somehow 'alive'. "Shouting at it just seems to make it... easier." Or was it that he just got angry each time, making it easier to will it to do that which it can. "He also seemed to suggest it would... evolve or... go beyond its programming." For a moment, there is a bit of pride in the machine.

The machine changes directions, getting a better view on his sparring partner in the air and moves that head along as Samuel tips the Insolent down and travels towards the ground. Its arms just kind of... linger behind it as it runs, making it look rather bizarre and surreal. But that was nothing compared to the weirdness that would soon follow.

As Samuel tries to make his jab, the machine gets a sudden burst of speed as it turns around. Ascian pushing one metal bar forwards, and one back, getting the machine to do a fast turn. The blade slides over its shoulder and then deflects off of a metalic plate closer to its chest - bouncing it back. Its arm then comes forwards... and he tries to grab his opponent within that small moment of time he has. And if he'd succeed... he'd THROW the insolent as far as it could! Not like a normal throw. But... like a pitcher in a baseball game! "HUUUURRRRRWAAAAAAAH!" And of course, with a loud battlecry.

He makes the attack--and miscalculates, it turns out, the mobility of the thing. Ascian must not have had it completely under his control yet, and just managed to figure it out.

This could end... poorly.

Insolent curls it's reverse-jointed legs tightly under it, narrowly missing being grabbed by the Quasi-Evangelion. The NEXT suddenly kicks both of them outward and fires it's foot-mounted thrusters, slamming them into the arms and launching itself away like it was thrown but travelling under it's own power. It moves fast, the flight-type Armored Core easily getting some distance and rising upward into the air again before it turns around.

"Wooo! Not bad! See, you're getting the hang of it! All you gotta do is... heck, whatever you're doing, 'cuz it's working, ha-hah!" Insolent suddenly deploys it's Gremlins, the three round remotes dropping out of the shoulder-mounted rack and circling around it. Sam works out firing solutions and punches them in, the semi-holographic keyboard functioning as an input device in his cockpit for his ridiculous mathematics. "Hmm..."

The Gremlins approach! They flit around the Warrior Beast and fire on it with their cutting beams, the blue beams acting more like laser knives than mobile cannons. They cut and scorch, picking away at it and harrassing it whether or not it goes for Insolent up close again. Sam clearly wants him to actually have a challenge.

"I'm not sure what I am doing! I just... guess I am willing it to do this." But Samuel was right. He was getting the hang of this. The pressure on his mind kept going, but it felt... lighter somehow. Like the machine just lost weight or something. In truth though, he'd simply stopped trying to pilot it like Amenthes. Like there was another living being in there - fed up with the fact that 'it wasn't helping him'.

The machine's movement however still don't really seem to be quite what Ascian wants it to be. It cannot fly, its movements are sluggish, and its weaponry seems inaccurate. But, he realized, a lot of that wasn't the fault of the machine. It was the fault of his own inability to use it properly as of yet. It was just out of the hangar. It was a new model. It wasn't customized, it hadn't evolved, and he wasn't used to piloting it. And that was exactly why it was so important that he'd fight Samuel, a man he could trust.

"Thanks Samuel." The beast growls. But Ascian means it. Even as the Gremlins come, and he realizes that he cannot just blast them away with a well aimed, pronged out homing beam attack, he still appreciates that the guy set him up with a good environment to learn how to use this machine. And the pressure? The pressure is helping! Ascian, hanging on in that cockpit, standing firmly, pushing and moving around those metalic bars that somehow make up its controls... he wants those Gremlins to go away.

But there's too many of them. They are coming from too many directions. "Grr..." He staggers back and sways the giant's hands towards the incoming Gremlins, trying to swat they out of the way. But it isn't succeeding. Then suddenly... "Graah! Get away from me, you stupid pesky little...!" The flesh on the machine bubbles a bit, on its back, on its both arms... on its chest... on its legs... and holes suddenly open up. And... tiny missiles that looked suspiciously like drills suddenly dart in all directions - followed by a trail of green energy; some for the Gremlins, some for the Insolent, some for random rocks nearby!

Sam gapes. Drill missiles? What kind of machine uses /drill missiles/? That one, apparently; he isn't sure what other tricks it has up it's sleeve, but Dr. Hell is a master of packing them under the skin. Sam's Gremlins sweep their cutting lasers around to cut them out of the sky, but they barely manage to thin the swarm in any notable fashion. Some of them get cleaved in two by the sweeping beams, but almost all of them pierce the laser wall.

One punches through a Gremlin, detonating it with a thumping explosion. The indicator on Sam's HUD goes dead, and he winces at it and issues a recall order before the others get the same treatment. The second one gets back before the drills hit him; the last is clipped by one in flight, and it takes some fancy maneuvering to recover it, though it's too damaged to function as much more than a laser he can shoot backwards.

Insolent, now with three drill missiles sticking into it's frame and tearing away at the body, struggles to gain altitude. Sam slashes through one with his laser blade and knocks it clear, the detonation caught by the flaring Primal Armor and directed away from him. He twists it and goes into a spin, freeing the last two as he nearly touches the ground and managing to flip over at the last second and land with a dull thud.

And then he starts shooting back. The machine gun in his right hand opens up with fully automatic fire, laying down a veritable wall of bullets between him and the Beast. "Not bad, but try /THIIIIIIIS!!/" The sound would be deafening if either of them had an open cockpit. It's a good thing they're in the middle of nowhere.

"Hhnnnn.... uuuuh..." Ascian is panting heavily within that machine of his. That attack just now... had tired him. But... not physically. Though he felt a bit more dull, and almost like he was out of breath, he knew that he was't actually physically any more tired than before. This heavy breathing still comes out through the monster's mouth as growling, its eyes turning a bit darker. Duller. But he's still hanging in there.

"This feels... weird. What was that..." He could kind of 'feel' it on his body, where those missiles had shot from. Like he'd released his own life's energy from those places. No... even not that came close to explaining what he'd done. What he did know though, was that it'd been effective, and that he needed to reproduce this! "I'm going to try again!" He calls out!

And he pushes, trying to recreate that feeling he'd had that moment. That feeling of pushing out his will out of so many parts of his body. But he can't. Not quite. The sensation, the pressure, he couldn't recall it. The machine is forced to back away slowly against the barrage of bullets and tries to flop to one side... and does so. He hits the deck! Most bullets fly right over, whilst a few manage to nick into the metal and the flesh, tearing at it.

Ascian, somehow... kind of 'feels' this. It wasn't a direct feeling, it wasn't like the machine gave him that kind of feeling. It was more that his mind could imagine the damage as a small indicator displays where he is being hit. The machine groans and rumbles a bit as the projectiles tear into it until finally the salvo is gone.

The young man turns the beast's head, and looks into the direction of Samuel and his machine. "If only... I could fly." He mutters. He's an Orbital Frame pilot. His place is in the skies, off of the ground. This... being so grounded. The machine gets up to its feet and then begins to... run. Run at the Insolent. Run faster and faster. Within the cockpit, Ascian is moving the metalic braces along with his arm's movement, as if he was running. Faster and faster. Until suddenly...

SPLURT! "FLY....!" SQUEEELLCCH! "FLLLLYYYYY!" Ascian was imagining wings. Willing wings. "FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" Like the eagle! Well, not exactly! The machine jumps straight at its opponent and suddenly its back, where the Insolent's bullets had hit, splatter open! Green acidic liquid flies everywhere, in front of him, around him, everywhere, as two gigantic biomechanical wings rip themselves from the back, like a alien bursting from one's belly. Pushing, pulling, until they finally make it to their full size and pick up the wind, sending it sailing only a bit into the air. Unstable, the machine wobbles, dripping still in that green acid that almost seems like the machine's blood...

And lo, Ascian believes he can fly--and he does.

Sam, of course, takes this entirely the wrong way. "Holy /crap/," he sputters. He ejects the spent magazine and slams in another one, emptying it again as the Evangelion-thing rushes right at him, growing wings with a spray of acid-blood-ichor-stuff and apparently intending to smash his NEXT apart. Samuel doesn't stop it with sheer firepower, so he falls back to Plan B:

Get the hell out of Dodge.

Insolent charges it's Overboost, but it collides with the Warrior Beast before it can go anywhere. The Armored Core is practically splayed out against the front of the thing like a bug on a windshield, and Sam would be thrown around the cockpit if he hadn't installed the right amount of impact compensation tech. Primal Armor burns like a shield of white lightning, protecting Insolent from the harmful fluids but not completely guarding it from the impact of the other 'mech.'

"Shit, man, that thing is /insane/! You figured it out enough yet?!" Sam is a little unnerved by it now, but Ascian seems to have it under control--sort of, anyway. He fights with the AC for control, managing to get the left arm up and thrusting it in a straight punch into the thing's neck. He /knows/ there is a vital nerve cluster there, even if he has no reason to. It's right...

"There!!" FWASH! The Dragonslayer's blue blade suddenly ignites, the emitter pressed against a gap in the armor and jabbing into soft tissue. Sam /pushes/.

When the Insolent tries to get behind Ascian's unit however, it turns. One of the wings faltering whilst the other beats once more, flipping it and slightly moving it further along, knocking the initial punch and jab off-target and...

The blade jabs out and rams straight into the machine's back, and out of the torso. Almost too easily, it pushes through in between the ribs and armor. The machine suddenly roars out, almost as if in pain. In reality though, Ascian was currently staring with wide-open eyes at the blue energy of the blade, quite a bit away from him in the cockpit... but he could see the energy glowing through the light armor and flesh inside of the cockpit. That'd been a scream of fear.

That's right. Even a man such as Ascian knows fear. He knows it very well in fact. The machine goes limp a bit as this 'fear' quickly is used by the machine. And its pilot feels a 'pull' on himself. Where-as most of this battle, there'd been a push, suddenly he feels almost as if his will had... stumbled forwards. Like he'd stepped forwards and missed the fact that there was still one more step to that invisible stairwell and gets that falling feeling. It makes him nauscious all of the sudden.

Its wings falter, and the machine falls to the ground on all fours, wings barely capable of breaking the fall. But at the last moment, it kinda glides and lands like some kind of fourlegged beast. It then growls and grunts, as Ascian inside breathes heavily. "Y... yeah. I... I think I'm good." He stutters.

Insolent pauses, one of it's feet planted on the Warrior Beast's back. He stands there with the laser blade still glowing, waiting--and then rides it to the ground, pulling the weapon free and jumping back into the air as it comes down on all fours. Insolent's Dragonslayer deactivates and Sam flies a circle around the Warrior Beast, coming down in front of it and settling back on the ground.

"Whew." He runs a hand across his face, wiping some sweat off and brushing the dampness off on his pant leg in an idle gesture. "That was... that was pretty rough. You alright? Didn't mean to get quite so rough, but uh... /wow/, man."

Sam cannot think of anything else to say to that. 'Wow' pretty much covers it.

When Sam's machine steps off of the EVA G1's back, the machine slowly starts crawling onto its knees and basically... sits up. It doesn't get into a standing position, instead it just keeps its hands on its knees and remains seated up. "Y... yeah, I think I am okay." Inside of the cockpit, the young man moves his hand out to the direction he'd seen the blue glow and then suddenly retracts his hand. "OUCH!" The machine yelps, its jaw flapping up and down, but the rest of the body not showing any movement. It looked like a doll just yapping up and down its jaw... no, more like an english dubbed old chinese fighting movie.

The young man had burned his hand on the hot metal. "That was a bit too close for comfort. I'll need to see about increasing the shielding inside of this cockpit or something." The machine keeps moving, after which it becomes obvious that Ascian is gasping heavily inside of that machine, his eyes a bit dull. The chest suddenly opens up, a loud 'sluuuurp' and 'squeeeelch' as pieces of metal shove to the side and the flesh hatch literally 'opens up', looking rather... disturbingly like a body part. It's part EVA after all, it has to have some of 'those' references.

The young man slowly stumbles to the edge, then swings his legs over the edge and just... sits there, half in the cabin, legs dangling outside. He then throws his hands up into the air, sighs, and kind of... flops backwards.

~flop~

Insolent touches down again, it's Primal Armor flickering into sight and then vanishing with a crackle-hiss of instantly microwaved flesh. It settles on the ground and powers down, bits of EVA-guts sloughing off of it. It's a mess, but it's in one piece... because, well, any other pieces are somewhere else and not worth retrieving.

Sam pops the hatch in the torso, splitting it into three pieces, the pilot's seat sliding forward. He stretches his arms and legs, yawning--his body must have decided he needs more oxygen, and the AMS kind of took it out of him besides--and... kind of staring at the opening to the Warrior Beast's cockpit.

"That's not creepy or anything," he remarks. "You sure you're okay over there?"

Ascian remains still for a while, feeling a bit... detached. He'd heard of people who did drugs in his past, who described it as a feeling of being detached, but never had he experienced something remotely similar to that. But now... now he kind of could understand what it was like. Samuel's words kind of float in the background. He hears them, but he barely contains the will to really... reply to it. Heck, he barely understood what was being said.

He tries to snap out of it. And after a little while, he blinks his eyes and realizes that quite a bit of time has passed. At least a good minute or two. "Eh? Yeah. I'm fine." he sits up, brushing his hands along his legs as if nothing had happened just now.

It's a minute or two before Ascian responds. Sam leans over the edge of his seat and taps the raised sensor panel, checking the bio sensor attached to the Armored Core to make sure that the guy is /alive/. It turns out that, yes, he is, so he figures he's just exhausted. Just as well; he heard that those things did something funny to the pilots...

"Uhhh... huh," he says, clearly unconvinced. "You should probably go get some rest. Put some food in you and crash for a while. You weren't sounding so hot for a while there."

"I'm fine." Ascian retorts somewhat angrily, then quickly shakes his head. "Sorry. Didn't mean to snap at you like that." He appologizes and lets out a sigh. He wasn't used to people actually honestly worrying about him without being sarcastic or making light of him. It was kind of a... kneejerk reaction. He lowers his head a bit and raises a hand up to his hair to get it out of his eyes, as well as laying his palm to his forehead. He was looking straight down at his legs, but they were a bit out of focus. He tries to refocus, but fails miserably. "No chance you have food on you right now... is there?" He finally stats, letting out a heavy sigh whilst reaching for one of his pockets and taking out a little palm-pilot like thing.

Sam's lip twitches and his brow furrows in a brief frown, but he banishes it quickly enough. Ascian is probably just wiped; there's really little other explanation for his current attitude. He knows he'd be if he got his ass beat and he could feel it. Sam waves a hand a little dismissively, along with a, "Yeah, it's cool, don't sweat it," half-muttered at the apology.

He tosses something over the gap between the two mechs to Ascian. It appears to be one of those energy bars, with all sorts of vitamins and minerals and probably things like caffeine and high sugar content in it. The label says it's supposedly chocolate flavored. "Here, this'll keep you going for a while. You need a lift? I've got some stuff at my place if you can't walk that over there."

"Nah, I got the transport handled." Ascian seems to have trouble catching the bar however, and it obviously slips through a large gap between his hands... and bonks against his chest and onto his lap. "Thanks." He shows Sam a tired smile and begins to unwrap the foil, his fingers trembling a little. But he's managing. Concentrating on something this easily seems to be recovering his mind already. And that first bite out of the bar has him making a sound one'd expect from a completely random, non-descript, nearly-bald yellow skinned man from a popular American cartoon.

His body relaxes a bit, and he takes another bite. "Might need to start taking these with me too... hmmmm... chooocoolaaaate." A red stripe of energy then suddenly appears in the air, and he puts the little pad down. Obviously, he'd done something with it. "Basic program for the A.I. I can call it to do very basic steering to get over here." He then begins to climb on to his feet and holds the edge of the cockpit's 'hatch' to strengthen this motion. "I really do appreciate... you know... this." He kind of sways a hand at everything.

Sam seems a little perplexed at the sheer amount of fatigue the Warrior Beast imparted on Ascian. Was it something with the control method? Maybe some kind of sinister, Hellish (see what he did there?) device was planted inside of it to steal his life force or... something? He doesn't know, he's not some crazy Super Robot designer, he's just this tech-head with a garage of rare and unusual mobile weapons.

"Not a bad idea," Sam agrees with a nod and a smile. "Better than pilot rations; those things are pretty craptacular, but I guess they're good if you get shot down over some wilderness or something. Get some real food in you though, those're only really good for the short term." He leans back in his seat, watching his breath in the air for a second. He forgot how cold it was this time of year.

"Hey, no problem." Sam grins. "What're friends for?"

That word does bring a smile to Ascian's face. Friends. "And thank you for that too... friend." He nods his head. It wasn't often he could say that word. In fact, it was probably the first time in many years that 'that' word had been uttered by him with the current situation as a context. He remains standing and turns his head as the red stripe in the sky becomes much more visible... and within moments... Amenthes has finally landed and is standing right between the two mechs already present, its cockpit opening up.

"You have arrived at your destination." A female voice claims loudly, as if it were some kind of SatNav. Ascian looks rather content with this outcome, that is to say, the arrival of his machine. "Thank you, Duat." Amenthes move a bit in order the get the cockpit closer, and Ascian gets in with some difficulty. "But you are right. I should get some better food. Maybe they got something good at Mars." He's going to wait /that/ long!? And also... how is Amenthes going to carry that hulking machine!?

Sam doesn't quite 'get' that Ascian hasn't had many friends over the years. He has, but he's kind of a personable type; he makes friends (or, well, acquaintances) pretty easily. He picks up on it though when he ponders the tone in which he said 'that' word... "Huh," is all he says to that. He looks up at Amenthes from his spot on Insolent, raising a hand and waving at the Orbital Frame.

"Sure does. There's a place near on carbonated sea that's got some awesome food; I'll have to bring you there next time we're both on the Red Planet." He grins. He's in a pretty good mood. "Anyway, take care, alright? If you can't move your mech there," he says, nodding at the Beast, "I'll pick it up till you can get a transport in here."

The machine lifts is hand and waves back at Samuel. "Good Day, Samuel Flynn. It is good to see you." Duat greets him in her robotic yet female voice. One could wonder though, if it was programmed to claim it was good to see him... or not. Ascian smiles and just shakes his head at the artificial intelligence. "Seems she likes you, Flynn." Ascian calls out after taking another bite from the bar he'd been given and resting his head backwards. He then lays one hand on the machine and with the cockpit still open, he gives Duat a command.

"Prepare the vector trap for transport. I presume you're still empty?" In response, the unit shows a little indicator of the Orbital Frame's whole body, with a red-to-green indicator of how full the Vector Trap is. It's entirely green, at 0%; empty. "Alright." He puts the datapad into his pocket, and the frame swirls about and turns its back towards the demonic looking EVA G1... and begins to float backwards.

A strange 'wavey' motion suddenly appears in the atmosphere behind the Amenthes as it travels backwards, slowly... swallowing up the EVA G1 into its back. Ascian takes his time to snack in the meantime, watching as the trap slowly fills up. "I'll take you up on that deal for food... my treat." Ascian suddenly calls out, whilst this is still in progress. He's already looking a lot better.

Programming is a funny thing. Did the AI adapt, or did it get changed to say 'hello?' He doesn't know enough about them to say. Sam kind of wants to find out, but... well, examining that level of a very complicated data construct will take a long time and he doesn't really feel up to it when he has other things to do.

"We get along pretty well," Sam replies with a smirk. "Comes from repeated run-ins and pleasant chats." He stands up, stretching out and... observing the thing getting sucked into some kind of extradimensional space. He blinks.

He blinks again.

"That was... kind of awesome," Sam admits. He stares at the spot for a moment more, head spinning as he does all kinds of stupidly complex mathematics to figure out what kind of /everything/ is needed to do that. The answer comes back as 'Metatron is god damn hax, bro,' pretty much in every respect.

"I'll hold you to that," he finally calls.

"People keep telling me that - Metatron is quite... magical, isn't it?" Ascian raises his hand as the final parts of the EVA disappear into the Amenthes, and the indicator claims '98%% full!', in the red. It took a lot of energy to hold such a thing. But luckily for him, Amenthes was build in such a way that energy production was simply a non-issue. "It compresses space. But I am not entirely sure how the Vector Trap even works." The wings of the Amenthes finally 'spread' out somewhat, and Metatron crystals portrude from between the folds of the 'bit'-like entities.

The machine waves at Samuel once again. "Goodbye, Samuel Flynn. I am glad that master Ascian Luddite has a friend in you." Of course, /that/ statement gets a raised eyebrow from the framerunner. "Heh... A.I.s these days." He tries to excuse this behavior and closes the black cannopy of the Orbital Frame. "You can hold me to it when you visit Mars." The young man shouts out before it closes entirely, after which the speaker takes over - whilst the machine begins to float up. "I'll send you the coordinates to the NUT facility I stay at most of the time. See you there! Plenty of other Orbital Frames there." And with that said, the machine flips around and /blasts/ off, leaving a beautiful trail of red energy. Not like a GN-Tau drive... but more like... a rain of firey embers. Beautiful, in a way.

"Magical is a good word for it," Sam replies with a quick nod. "Dangerous, too, I hear. Still kinda want to see what it does, but... hey, I guess I just did," he laughs. "Compressing space... That could be kind of useful, I bet, if you could do something with a smaller device. Dunno how I'd even /start/, but..." A shrug.

"Goodybe, Duat," he calls, waving back. "You keep doing what you're doing, alright?" He glances back at Ascian with another quick grin. "Yep," is all he says to the 'AI' comment. "I'm intending to go take a trip there soon anyway, so count on it being sooner rather than later. I'm lookin' forward to it!"

Sam stands on Insolent's open hatch and watches Amenthes fly away. He exhales a brief sigh, though a pleasant one instead of the typical put-upon noise he tends to make. Pretty good day, all told.

Now he just has to procrastinate a little on cleaning up this mess...

Samuel Flynn
 * Archievement unlocked: Friend of a BAHRAM framerunner.
 * Archievement unlocked: Friend of a friend of a well spoken A.I.
 * Archievement unlocked: Let's hope the A.I. won't start talking to you daily...
 * Relationship Up+: New Status: Friends. New conversation option: 'Can I pilot that Orbital Frame?'.