2011-03-20 - This Ain't Your Dad's Asteroids

The White House, the home of America's presidents and a symbol of patriotism and national pride. Ordinarily, Gore would never touch it, being the honorable sort that he is. However, times are changing, the people of the Dinosaur Empire are becoming restless, and something drastic will have to be done to calm them before they do something their entire race will regret. It's not pleasant, but the Emperor of all dinosaurs will have to ignore his saurian sense of fair play and destroy something important to the humans. He'll have to strike at the heart of America. To this end, he has ordered Gallery to build an orbital deployment system to drop a Mechasaurus directly on Washington, D.C. This will, if all goes well, help to avoid unnecessary combat that could hinder its ability to accomplish its mission. Heavy resistance is, of course, expected. Now, the machine dubbed the "Asteroid Cannon" hovers in orbit directly over Washington, D.C., adjusting its aim so that the rock it fires will land in just the right spot. Of course, the White House, being the super secure place that probably has sensors scanning space for just this sort of occasion that it is, is already in the process of evacuating. Even the president has little choice but to board Air Force One, due to unspecified technical troubles with Metal Wolf. A call for assistance has been sent to the Alpha Numbers, while several gun emplacements around the nation's capital appear out of the most ridiculous places. It almost seems like a mad scientist from a super robot show designed the place. "Gallery, you may fire when ready." Gore says, sitting in the command chair in Machineland's main control room. Gallery, of course, is always ready to try out a new toy, and gives his emperor a brief salute before turning to the console behind him and pressing a large, red button. The meteor is launched without any problems, the flight through Earth's atmosphere heating the rock enough that it'll fall apart a few moments before impact, revealing the Mechasaurus inside. However, the anti-air guns give it a bit of trouble, knocking its course off enough so that it lands outside the city. Oh, well. It'll just have to smash its way in. The Mechasaurus known as Bull roars its challenge to America, while the asteroid cannon starts firing more rocks from the cannons on either side of the main one. In true dinosaur style, it's not just an orbital deployment system, it's also a meteor gun. While Bull tears its way through the city, space rocks will be falling on the parts it misses. It's an ingenious, diabolical assault. Will super robot spirit be enough to save D.C. today? Or will the Empire triumph with the power of throwing asteroids at things? LEVEL 1 START

 James Heller transmits, "Humm good good, the Ashsaber should be good to go now."

The Alpha Numbers are the Earth Federation's special forces, focused on swift responses to any and all enemy action. Even when a cannon begins firing asteroids at Washington, D.C., the Alpha Numbers are there to respond faster than any enemy previously thought possible.

Space ripples. Blackness peels away, the particle density surrounding the black Baikal-class space battlecruiser fading as the Mirage Colloid system powers down. The previously-invisible ship, the word 'PHRIKE' emblazoned on the outer hull, approaches the cannon and the atmospheric drop zone at high speed.

The bottom of the Phrike swings open, exposing the mix of Personal Troopers, Armored Cores and Mobile Suits to the vacuum. Fittings for drop pods have already been completed, attached by the repair systems in the hangar with speed and precision. Phrike slows over the atmospheric entry point...

"This is Klein. Aggressors, prepare for deployment." Leos Klein, a grey-haired, aged man, stands on the bridge and looks out over the asteroid cannon. One of the bridge crew, a young woman manning one of the numerous consoles, looks up. "Launch control has been transferred to the pilots, Captain."

Leos nods. "Aggressors. Your mission is the protection of Washington, D.C. and the destruction of the enemy's orbital cannon. Do not allow them to occupy or destroy the city."

"Launch!"

Max Jenius was just getting ready to go on patrol when the alert goes out from DC. He takes off from IZu Base way too calmly and reaches mach 2 without any problems. However, once near the city, he actually takes a lower flight to look for whatever landed near DC. What he ends up finding almost makes him laugh. "Now that is amusing. A dinosaur." Then he hears a female voice on radio and rolls his eyes. "well, if anyone's going to take this thing out, he will. or he'll keep it from tearing up too much of the city. "Dancing Skull 1, Fox Two!"

SPACE The Final Frontier Just hope we have not found the ELS yet

So, why the heck is Ascian of all people, protecting the Asteroid Cannon - which just fired big rocks down towards Washington, D.C.? Well, the answer is a composite, yet simple one.

One. He's an ender, earthnoids have never been his favorite kind of people. Though he doesn't particularly have any plans of eradicating them - unlike certain other crazy-rock-powered martians - they are home to the EFA.

Two. He's secretly a fan of the American President and wanted a chance at seeing the Metal Wolf in action. (Sadly, he is wholesomely disappointed that the president fled in the Air Force One).

Three. He was /asked/ to go and help out. Orbital Frames lend themselves extremely well to space missions, better so that most mobile suits. The whole 'can deploy anywhere at any time' thing and all that.

Four. He needed to get /out/ of the Earth Cradle for a bit. Especially with how weird Amenthes had been acting as of late. Problems with the A.I. systems, the frame in general acting up, and otherwise the severe need to testrun the latest edits made to the Metatron Computer. Purging and reintegrating circuitry is not particularly something that gets done that often, so timely testruns are important to prevent bugs during the stepwise upgrade process.

So it is that the Orbital Frame, Amenthes, is floating somewhat ahead of the Meteor Launcher. There is a fairly decent squad of other drone Orbital Frames nearby, driven by a drone program installed on Duat. It wasn't often he got a chance to use this program on missions. But apparently the defense of this place was enough to allow for its use. So, in a perfect ring around the base, series of raptors and Mummyheads are joined with the Phoenix styled Orbital Frame.

She doesn't seem to be too active though. Even with its sensors at high alert, the bioluminescent flow from its core is soft and slow. Within the cockpit, Ascian is just slowly tapping his fingers against the two halforb controls, looking at a little videofeed of what is going on below. "Guess even the president is too much of a fan of dinosaurs to attack them. I wonder what his favorite is..." The young man comments, not really expecting an answer.

Somewhere on the outskirts of Washington, at Moe's Tavern and Mech Stop


 * BEEEEEEELCH*

"Oh, pardon me! Haha!" Marcus exclaims as he slams the empty mug of beer down on the bar surface, "Ah, that was a good one, give me another Moe!" Marcus, as you can tell, is off duty and enjoying the sweet taste of victory after another successful contract the way all mercenaries do. By getting drunk. It's still early in the night though and he's only on his third beer, though he plans to rectify that soon enough! He sits eagerly as the frothy brew is pour--

then comes a loud crash, causing the bar and all it's glasses to shutter.

Several smaller rumbles follow, almost like footsteps. Each one causes the bar to shake and it's patrons to look around in a drunken haze. Marcus frowns a bit as he peers out the window, "Hey Moe, have you been spiking the booze again?"

"No, why?"

"Because either I'm hallucinating, or that's a fifty foot dinosaur walking past your bar."

Marcus lets out a sigh, then reaches into his wallet for some money and slaps it on the table, "Keep the change, and make sure that beer's cold when I come back. I gotta go make a jumbo sized alligator-skin suitcase."

It doesn't take long for Marcus to get into his ride (conveniently parked outside with ten other giant robots of various flavors), but as the system starts up and the console comes to life, Marcus rumbles a bit, "Oof, don't think that last brew is sitting well with me. Moe probably /did/ spike the booze after all..."

the Atlas III comes to life and begins to move, slow and ponderously like a titan of steel as it steps out of the lot and follows the Mechasaurus' wake of destruction.

The venerable Doctors Leo and Liger Shishioh are currently engaged in an epic display of sibling rivalry, arguing over whose fault it is that none of GGG's sensors picked up on that orbital mass-driver drop station (or whatever it actually is) before it was operational. Chief Taiga, being a man who knows how to keep priorities straight, is disregarding the doctors' debate in favor of ordering GaoGaiGar's deployment.

Fortunately, Orbit Base being most of the way around Earth actually has its advantages for plotting an atmospheric re-entry, so the Amaterasu and the Izanagi waste little time in crossing the width of North America, the former launching the already-combined GaoGaiGar as soon as it's close enough for an efficient deployment. The Izanagi doesn't get quite as close ... but it's plenty close enough to launch the Dividing Driver, and Guy flies to intercept the dimension-warping tool in mid-air, sliding the King of Braves's left fist into the interface port and diving towards the city below, lining up his descent ...

"DIVIDING DRIIVEEEEERRRR!!!"

Guy's shout splits the air just as the Dividing Driver's head slams into the ground and splits the fabric of space in a very carefully controlled manner; a line of bright energy is drawn across the ground, from the point of impact to the Mechasaurus's position ... and then the ground splits open.

Everything which is part of Washington D.C. is carefully warped out of the way as the ground opens up, revealing a featureless rock plain far enough across to serve as a perfectly adequate battlefield for giant robots and giant monsters to duke it out, while minimizing damage to the city and danger to the civilians. Of course, the ground opening up underfoot like that might also mean the mechasaurus finds itself falling ...

Dinosaurs.

It is a brief history in time that flits across her HUD, as historical representations and examples of the ancient, pre-historic dinosaurs flood across her screen and cast a pale glow across her features. Wraparound sunglasses provide a reflection and cut down on the glare-- not that it's an issue for someone like her.

Lethe Rusina's eyes flit left and right at high speeds, absorbing the knowledge into her mind: The history, as well as the information that she has access to regarding men-- things-- like Emperor King Gore. There's a certain intrigue seen on her face, a curiosity that does not extend beyond the purely academic-- and the purple-haired woman flicks her finger across a touchpad on one of the many extra consoles crammed into the Assault Dragoon's cockpit to shift it into a shrunken, alternate window.

Close to the edge of the battlefield is the Flickerist: Imposing and large, the black machine's silhouette is virtually unmistakable among a literal army of lizards and reptiles and things that should be extinct, and things with a whole lot of weapons. In simplest terms, it seems to resemble an Ashsaber.

At least, an Ashsaber's big mean and angry cousin.

Yellow eyes glow beneath the visor on the aggressively-designed head, and the right arm-- heavily armored compared to the left, which sports only a long elbow-mounted blade-- lifts a bit as a strange energy washes over the battlefield, segregating the combatants from the rest of normal space, as if to defend itself from the Dividing Driver.

Things seem to settle, after a moment-- or at least, as settled as they're going to be.

"Cancelling observation of Washington assault," she says, voice soft and somewhat monotone on the DC's closed band. "W18, ASK-UC90 Flickerist now preparing for battle."

Photon Power Labs Japan

Leather creaks around slender fingers as they reach out, flipping a series of switches. Moments later, the controls light up one after another..

> Photon reactor at 100%! > Scrander.dll loaded! > All systems go!

The roof retracts, spilling sunlight and water into the dark (and till now dry) Mazinger Hangar. Lift systems take over, whirring as they move the launch platform up to the surface.

Koji runs his tongue over his dry lips, his breathing just slightly labored. He can't even help it -- his adrenaline already threatening to get the better of him. It happens every time. He's had the injections, of course, and the hypnotic preparation. It stands to reason that he can't really be afraid. Langley Base's psychiatrist checked his brain waves, asked him silly questions while he was asleep, and they told him it isn't fear -- it isn't anything important.

It's just like the trembling of an eager race horse in the starting gate.

Koji Kabuto couldn't say about that, he's never been a race horse. But the fact is...

He reaches for the radio control. It clicks and there's a burst of static before the line is open. "Ensign Kabuto Koji, Mazinga Zetto.."

Flight-control grip is raised up, setting the Jet Scrander's thrusters to burn. The Armor of Miracles levitates into the air, climbing high and gaining speed.

The fact is, he's scared silly every time.

"MAZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

Washington D.C.	United States of America

Mazinger Z rockets through the skies at incredible speeds, the crimson wings of its Jet Scrander raised forward for high-velocity manuevering. With its arms outstretched, its mighty Super Alloy Z fists batter aside chunks of descending space-rock like they were mere motes of dust.

Its pilot, a courageous boy of no more than seventeen years is glued to the controls. His body tense, his eyes practically peeled and wide-eyed under the protective cover of his helmet's goggles. Koji Kabuto's heart pounds in his chest, working out a staccato beat that threatens to overwhelm his own ears. He can't even stop himself, the tension has to go somewhere..

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

..and as usual, it comes out his goddamned mouth!

A series of flickering beeps work across the radar field, catching Koji's attention. "UWAA---.. eh!?" he sputters curiously. "That unit..!!" He freezes slightly, lifting his eyes to catch the sight of the yellow-eyed and elbow-blade-armed robot edging toward the battlefield. "..Is it an Ashsaber!?"

 Ascian Luddite sends visual confirmation of the PHRIKE battleship. "We got visitors." Is he cursing?

 Emperor King Gore transmits, "Keep them busy."

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "I'll see if Amenthes is up for it."

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "She's been restless lately."

 Lethe Rusina monotone replies, "Roger. Moving to offensive position."

 Emperor King Gore transmits, "I expect nothing less than your best. I trust you will not disappoint me."

Russel Bagman is an American, his homeland has suffered greatly since he was a child. It always strikes a person hard when something close to home or home it self is hit. The Dinosurs have prehaps managed to rile Russel a bit more than normal. He is on the ship and he finds it odd didn't a meteor wipe out the dinosaurs? Very odd either way he's got people to defend. HE's on the ship as Klein give the order to launch.

"Bagman here, deploying to DC!"

Russel is already contacting a unit of MST's which are moving to try and intercept the asteroids and the attacking forces"

The Gespenst MK IV lands with a klunk and a hisses as he targets the biological horror unleashed by a race with an older claim to earth, than humanity. But they ran they hid, they left this world. This is their home now! He does the best way to greet a hostile invader to America SPLIT MISSILE!

Above the Atmosphere, several minutes ago.

Suriel was sitting in the Qareen, waiting for the drop pod to be released. He waits, calmly, as something flickers on his screen. Suriel raises a brow, he wasn't aware that he would get secondary instruction for a simple 'beat the shit out of everything' mission. I mean, Suriel didn't expect to succeed at all...

"Hello, Argentum-1." the feminine voice whispered, but no image came on the visual. Suriel was already scowling, he hated the name... even though he reconized his position as a weapon more than a person, the name bothered him. He stared, but said nothing, looking defiant. "Oh there is no need to look at me like that, I am here just to tell you that your GIEM system has been activated for this mission, you aren't getting backup... and we want as much destroyed as possible."

"Whatever, I am not interested in using it right no-"

"You are not being given a choice. I am overriding it. Have fun."

Suriel cursed, knowing just how bad this was going to be tomorrow morning.

Sky above Washington, DC. Now.

A orbital pod falls, coming dangerously close to the city before exploding open. Inside was the Qareen, and already the green metatron flame/shield started to form around it. The force of the opening, combined with the unit's power is enough to shatter windows for hundreds of feet around it, causing even the strudiest of buildings to rumble at the discharge. The unit, seeming to phase in and out strangely as if space itself seemed to be unimportant to it.

Inside Suriel is cursing, tied to the system, and ready to unleash his frustraition on any poor defenders in his way.

Asteroids fired from space to squash the White House!?

Dinosaurs landing with terrible strength upon the earth to ravage the monkeys that taken it over?! This, clearly, cannot stand!

The Phrike has a particular statue latche at it's front. A massive statue, easily massive enough to squash most mobile suit, sporting two massive shields on each of it's arms. It is paint red and gold, showing to all the Aggressor's foes of what they are going to face soon.

"OCTO-4, GIGANSCUDO, LAUNCHING!"

The eyes of the Giganscudo attached to the Phrike flares up as Shinguji slaps on the last few procedures for launch. The specialy prepared kinetic catapults fires off the massive lumbering Ultimate Shield foward into space, soaring as the Tesla Drives picks up on the slack of physics. The initial thrust given by the Phrike gives it quite a formidable speed.

"On the way to intercept the cannon, now!" The young mechanic lets out, sound quite happy despite rushing straight into the thing that's firing down massive asteroids down the earth. That's just what he does when in Gigan: get in the way of bigger things.

The first mech to be deployed from the Phrike is the blue-painted Gespenst Mk. IV, at the controls of which sits Raidiese F. Branstein. To say Rai is 'nervous' wouldn't be quite accurate. This is the first true combat deployment of the 'New Aggressors' team, however, so Rai is very focused. Besides that, he piloted the R-2 for years. Any other machine he controls is simply equipment he has to borrow when his mech isn't available.

The Gespenst IV deploys in one of the heavy drop pods, set to land in the middle of the battle in Washington. Rai's focus will be defending the assets on the ground, while Leos is focused on annihilating the enemy forces in space. The drop pod fires like a heavy missile from the underside of the Phrike, fired straight into the atmosphere of the planet.

The first part of the trip is uneventful, as the drop pod follows the same exact arc as the asteroids fired by Gore's forces. Once it hits the atmosphere, things get exciting, though. Extreme heat from reentry starts to burn up the exterior armor of the pod, while the friction causes the entire thing to shake. It's exactly what the pod is made for, and the trip is fairly safe, but no less physically jarring on the pilot, and Rai can do little but brace himself as gravity and momentum fight for which gets to wreck his senses the most.

While the fall lasts for only a few minutes, it seems much longer inside the pod. The heat becomes intense even inside the cockpit of the mech, as the outside of the pod is burned away. Finally, at about a mile above the ground, breaking thrusters begin to fire, rapidly slowing the decent to 'safe' levels. This lasts for only a few seconds before the pod is itself blown apart, revealing the gleaming blue Personal Trooper to the light of day. The drop pod has done its part, and now it's Rai's turn.

Suddenly free of the shelter of the pod, Rai's Gespenst weaves though the air in order to avoid possible enemy fire as Rai surveys the situation. His mech's own thrusters kick in to slow his decent more as he angles his machine towards the enemy. He doesn't have much time to look over the situation, but he does one tactical sweep as his mech freefalls though the air, anti-air fire from his own side exploding all around him as the US forces desperately try to fend off the invaders.

"This is Super-2," Rai transmits, still using his old callsign despite the new team, "I'm engaging the enemy now."

With that, Rai sends a pack of split missiles firing though the air at the Dinosaur Empire's dreadnought. His Gespsent is still in a controlled fall though the air, but Rai never let that stop him from attacking before.

 James Heller transmits, "We got a problem the engaging units are reading as ... The hell?! Aggressors?!?!"

This is Jin Saotome.

Jin Saotome is the Gundamfighter(in-exile; long story) for Neo-Australia, one of the top (and at the moment, the *very* top) Battlers on the Variable Armor Circuit, master of Saotome Martial Arts, and member of the second iteration of the legendary EFA group known as the Aggressors. Jin Saotome is 21 years old, clad in a white leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders, white leather biker pants, white boots, and the phrase '#1 In The Universe' written down his back in kanji.

Jin Saotome is the #1 craziest motherfucker in the whole of the universe.

When the bay doors of the Phrike open, it's Jin who's standing there; the sudden change of atmosphere whips about his scarf, sending it flying dynamically about him as he looks out into the starlit field, an enormous grin on his face. Of course, the reason he's so happy is obvious - there are dinosaurs here, they need to be punched the fuck out. And Jin Saotome loves punching things in the face. His eyes bug out; his fist pounds into his palm with an echoing *whoom*, and he takes off at a run straight for the door. It's only as his feet leave the metal, as he crests out into the sea of stars from the Phrike, that his fingers come up in a dramatic pointing motion; there's a flare of light from his hand as he lets loose with a scream that could probably be heard halfway around the world:

"BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

And it comes. It comes at his call, the faithful servant of its crazy master; the great red-and-white mech lumbering after him from the exit bay of the Phrike, flinging itself outwards just like Jin had, spreading its arms like a skydiver and in imitation of the martial artist. Jin spins in mid-air, the cockpit block sliding open as though it sensed his will; he enters without a second thought, falling into the seat like an old friend, fingers wrapping around the controls of the Variant Armor easily. Screens flick on; large, old-style cockpit block screens flare to life, showing the situation, the battlefield, and the dinosaurs up ahead. Jin sets his finger against the microphone.

"Jin Saotome, rolling out to punch the shit out of as many dinosaurs as I can find!"

Blodia's jet thrusters flare to life; it screams towards the dinosaur battleship, its red and white armor shining in the light. The eyes of the Blodia flash, as if in answer to the flashing eyes of its pilot who is even now screaming hot-bloodedly towards the great meteor ship, its fists flailing away at the meteors. The huge red nail-ended arms smash through rock like nothing as they near the asteroid cannon; fire trails from the arms at odd points, leaving clear contrails of red and orange behind it, slicing throug the black of the night sky.

Jin opens an open channel to the DC.

"HEY, DINOSAURS! I GOT TWO BIG ASTEROID FISTS RIGHT HERE - AND I'M THINKING IT'S TIME TO FINISH WHAT NATURE STARTED, YOU NANCY-ASS CRETACEOUS REJECTS! NOBODY BLOWS UP WASHINGTON ON JIN SAOTOME'S WATCH!"

This is Jin Saotome.

He's a *very* angry young man.

Mai has had a lot of time to herself lately; getting her "self" back in order after some unspecified traumatic event has been an arduous process, and one that for some curious reason a lot of Federation scientists are very, very interested in. It has taken her a great deal of time to get cleared for significant amounts of active combat duty, but at long last, she is.

The young lady seats herself at the controls of the Wildschwein, the R-GUN having been moved to storage pending significant examination of that aspect of the SRX project; the Wildschwein's controls are a touch less familiar to her, since the systems she's been placed in for the sake of reassembling herself and testing herself have more closely resembled the R-GUN's.

Nevertheless, she sorties in defense of Federal territory alongside many of the other Aggressors, keeping a moderate distance between herself and Super-2 but following the other SRX pilot's lead nonetheless. "... Wildschwein, backing you up," she says, pulling forth the M13 Shotgun, spending the briefest of moments sighting it in, and firing two quick bursts at the dreadnought to test its defenses.

"OCTO-1, LAUNCHING!"

The Battle cry of Katina Tarask, as her Gespenst Mk. IV roars through the battlefield, armed with probably every single gun in the arsenal. She hasn't had many opportunities to field the Mk. IV, but she's going to make the most of this! She's already collapsing her Plasma Cannon and making a Bee-Line for the closest Dinosaur (it looks like a Triceratops), and lets of a nice blast, "GO BACK TO EXTINCTION!"

The lower launch hatches of the Phrike swing open, and drop pods move into position. "This is Valkyrie-1." Meiya says into her microphone, and considers the fact they should really get uniform callsigns if their all in a squad. "Launch control has been transfered. 3, 2, 1... launching!"

On the count of 3, the droppod containing Meiya's unit drops from the Phrike and hits the atmosphere, a long trail of atmospheric fire lighting up the night sky over washington as Meiya clutches the arms of her chair as the droppod rocks through the atmosphere, dropping through the air like a stone in it's balastic re-entry over Washington DC. Meiya watches the altimeter plumete at a frightening rate.

"Drop LZ reached." Meiya reaches out and presses the buton to jetison the drop pod shields, revealing the Type-00R Takemekazuchi as it swivels it's engines and fires the turbo jets to slow it's descent towards the ground. Right about then the Type-00R detects LEthe's Ashsaber variant and alerts it's pilot "Unknown configuration...?" She frowns and pushes the control sticks foward, the Type-00R diving towards the Flickerist. "Meiya Mitsurugi, engaging the enemy!"

The 36mm assault rifle of the Type-00R fires a spray of caseless rounds, it's not a strong attack, but it is an attack she can use to guage her enemy.

Amenthes sensors notice the large battleship, Phrike, falling out of its Mirage system's protection. A big warning light, red, much like most of the lights and objects with the Amenthes, burns. A vidwindow pops up, showing Ascian the visage of the ship which was launching dropships down towards Washington. It was not outside of the range of the Amenthes yet, but Ascian was hesitant to approach it quite yet. Besides, his concentration was on a gigantic unit coming his way.

The last time Ascian had seen the Giganscudo had been on Mars, during the pickup of Axel Almer - one of his more recent succesful missions; a number that was rather low. But he'd been given many chances before. If there was one thing he could say about the DC, it was that those who dealt with him were strangely forgiving. Admittedly, he mostly dealt with the BAHRAM branch. And even if he had a low success rate, that was not going to take him down today. He was actually in a /good/ mood due to events of last night.

"I better not lose, what would my little sister think?" He whispers to himself. Duat, the Amenthes' A.I., decides to comment; "Your files do not declare a family member of younger age. And your older sister is still marked as M.I.A." Its female metalic voice does little to ease the young man's feeling that his A.I. is suddenly showing an interest in his personal life. "I kind of... unofficially adopted Seril Vaskell." Ascian explains to the frame. "I don't... understand." It replies immediately. The framerunner just shakes his head. "That's alright Duat. Just accept what I said." - "Acknowledged."

Then suddenly, gigaknuckles! "It's faster than it looks in space." Ascian mutters, staring at the fists rapidly coming for his location. The Orbital Frame quickly lights up with activity and combat systems activate. A series of raptors and mummyheads quickly converge on his location, whilst the Amenthes spirals up - looking all graceful and stuff, whilst shifting its left arm to a rifle and finally halting above the bath of the knuckles whilst aiming the rifle at the enemy, sideways, legs slightly spread; as if it was readying a bow, and was looking along the arrow. A flow of red energy rapidly rushes over the rifle, before a heated bolt of plasma rushes along its length.

The knuckle in the meantime meets with a series of mummyheads, which have raised their shields and are attempting to use their thick yellow beamcannons to halt their approach and keep them away from the orbital cannon. Their combined power manages to push them off course, and then await further commands from their central drone program. But there are no further commands for now, as Amenthes prepares to properly assault the Giganscudo.

"We better take this serious, Duat. Because otherwise, we will never succeed at this mission that has been entrusted to us. The Giganscudo is a monster, and we will likely not be able to break its defenses. However, we might be able to force it down towards earth with enough force." And thus! The tails of the Amenthes begin to burn up in a brilliant red light.Orbs begin for form at the spade-shape-ended prehensile tendrils, moving around and then coming together to push the spheres of compressed space against eachother whilst filling it with the volatile and weaponized Metatron energy.

It is in fact, so potent, that it begins to seep out of the shell of compressed space in the form of red feathery embers that make it look like the orb is in fact on /fire/. "Let's see if we can push it off course!" Ascian calls out to the Amenthes in general, before turning to his speakers. <"I know you won't listen. But I will ask you anyhow - please leave this part of space!"> No 'for the freedom of Mars' today. Just a statement, followed by a toss by the tailfeathers, sending the large orb of potent impact energy right towards the dual-shield wielding Russian mech.

The Atlas III plods along after the Mechasaurus, making very good time for an assault mech.

That said, it's still /really farking slow/.

From his position, Marcus watches as various units engage the mechasaurus. What he also sees however is the rather dramatic entrance of the Qareen, all covered in weird flames. And from Marcus' past experiences with the fucked upness of the Earth Sphere, he knows: Glowing Is Not Good.

He queues up the long range missile pack and draws a bead on the newly arrived target, then pulls the trigger. The left torso snaps open and disgorges a flight of fifteen missiles that streak up towards the Orbital Frame.

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "So. Suriel. Try... not to kill too many civilians?"

 Suriel Misaki completely silent.

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "I don't know what's more disturbing... Suriel normally... or Suriel not quipping about killing civilians..."

Indeed, the heavy resistance the Empire was expecting has come. Human defenders pour out of the proverbial woodwork, with their super robots and their personal troopers all firing away at the Mechasaurus, trying to halt its progress through the city. But none of them has quite the success that GaoGaiGar does, as the Dividing Driver sends Bull crashing to the ground in the featureless, rocky plain. As the Mechasaurus stands, Russel, Rai, and Max fire their missiles, forcing it onto one knee from the force of the explosions. It tries to fight back with missiles of its own, but they're simply too fast. Katina's shot makes it stumble back, which has the unfortunate (for the humans at least) effect of knocking it out of the way of Mai's shotgun blast. In the meantime, Jin is up in orbit, punching asteroids. This somehow hurts Bull too. Don't think about it too hard. However, dinosaurs are nothing if not resilient, and nothing the humans do will keep it down for long. It pops some dino viagra, stands up, and roars at the sky again, missile launchers appearing across its shoulders and torso. And then suddenly, missiles, everywhere! But it's not done yet. GaoGaiGar is, presumably, also in the field, and thus makes a prime target for Bull's rage. It sprints across the featureless ground at the black robot, roaring the whole way, and when it reaches melee range it just starts throwing punches. Lots and lots of punches. And while it's doing that, its horns light up with a blindingly bright blue light, electricity arcing between them, and suddenly there's lightning arcing through the air at Mai's Wildeschwein. And then, almost as an afterthought, it stops trying to pummel GaoGaiGar long enough to scoop up a big dirt clod from the ground and throw it at Max's Valkyrie.

"Hostile action detected, Washington D.C. area. Identification markers, indicate D.C. forces."

Solis nods as Castilla mirthlessly reads off the rest of the data, he reviews the information as the rear gates of the TDF Cruiser open up, revealing the glowing blue orb of the earth...

Solis stares down at it, beautiful...but again the manifold reminds him of the caustic sensation of the atmos, oxygen is one of the most deadly gases in existance, and mankind thrives in it.

It always brings a glimmer of joy to Solis' heart.

"Identification of unit assisting Dinosaur Empire forces indicates high probability of the assassin Misaki.."

"...noted..."

The PPC runs forward, leaping out into space, and falling...

The nimbus of re-entry surrounds the HXG, deflected by glittering one-use high power refractor fields...the fire searing around Solis and reflecting against his eyes...

"I am the burning fire. I am the endless flame. I am the servant of mankind. Behold me as I fall from the stars. See me now, see me fall, like the heavens crashing down upon you..."

The PPC launches out a series of parachutes, several ripping free as it descends, "The flame tempers the metal.." The parachutes catch aflame...and the PPC readjusts, aiming its main cannon downwards at Suriel's machine as it fires, slowing the fall of the PPC to non-fatal levels, "The metal lives. SURIEL MISAKI! Assassin! I, Solis Vivent, oppose you, be wary!!"

Of course, whether or not Solis hits Suriel, the PPC SMASHES into the earth, and likely crashes through to an unoccupied subway tunnel beneath...

Aggressors fall from the sky. They come from everywhere, the Phrike practically skimming the upper atmosphere and disgorging drop pods. It pulls up and continues forward, approaching the asteroid cannon. Space forces drop out seconds after like a well-oiled machine and the Giganscudo is hurtled forward, the Ultimate Shield intended to be used exactly as it's nickname implies.

As much as he is loathe to admit it, Leos has to say that Giganscudo makes an excellent mobile wall, if a slow-moving one.

"Bring up the tactical display for the ground engagement," Leos says, sitting in the command chair on the bridge. A small scowl rests on his face. He would much rather be in the Ethermaster on the ground with the rest of the Aggressors, fighting the Dinosaur Empire as they attack. Someone, though, has to coordinate things from on high... and it /is/ his ship besides.

The display appears. Leos examines it, the gleaming points of shifting light showing relative positions of enemy forces in the massive hole that was Washington, D.C. The shifting battle lines are chaotic at best, but the Aggressors have begun moving in. Leos watches for a few long seconds, running through the myriad possibities for this engagement.

Leos comes to a grim conclusion: with the titanic mechabeast and the increasing forces of the Dinosaur Empire on the ground combined with the constant reinforcements and fire support of the asteroid cannon in space, their chances of victory are slim.

Which means they need a trump card.

Leos slides his hand to the control panel on the armrest of his seat. He flips open a covered switch, revealing a square red button. He pauses for the span of two heartbeats, and then depresses it. The seat shifts--

--and a red phone rises from the arm. Leos lifts the phone to his ear, face set in a dire expression. "This is Klein."

"Get me... Aggressor-0."

"What the hell is this place!" Koji sweats as the landscape has been turned into a rather boring, featureless plane. "Is this even Washington!?" He glances worriedly around, finding nothing but Mechasaurus Bull, meteors, and other Federation pilots.

Mazinger Z lowers, its crown tilted in the direction of the Mechasaurus.

"Damn!" Koji sweats. "First the oni, now this! There's no point in--- shit, get out of the way, Shishioh!" He flips a switch and rears back on the control yoke. "I guess the only way out of here is to fight! ... I hope!"

Mazinger Z raises its arm toward the Mechasaurus.

"ROCKETTO PANCH!"

When in doubt, Dynamic Entry.

As Jin punches his way through the asteroids on the way down to the ground, each strike knocks aside rock and shatters chunks into nothingness. The Blodia starts to heat up; this is, of course, perfectly natural science, given that reentry at the sort of speeds an asteroid gun would encourage are at best dubious and at worst extremely, extremely dangerous. That said, if Jin Saotome was the kind of person who cared even a little about danger, he wouldn't be piloting a machine like Blodia.

Or piloting at all, really.

The Dividing Driver's crater is a nice, fat, easy target; Jin's thankful for that. Even more thankfully, the Mechasaurus is also a nice, fat, easy target; as the blazing meteor-esque Blodia and the rocks it's dangling from begin to close on Washington, there's a loud, whistling sound from above. Anyone looking up would probably...well, *notice* that Blodia is coming in at speeds that the Mecha Operations Manual, the EFA Field Manual segment on Reentries, and most other publications of this sort would describe as 'tombstoneariffic'.

Ask Jin if he cares.

The Blodia manages to invert itself as Jin fights the controls; its fists are stretched forward the nails on its forearms sharp and superheated from the atmospheric entry.

And he plows right the fuck into the Mechasaurus, personal safety be damned.

There is an explosion of dust from the sheer force of the impact.

"BRING IT ON, DINOSAURS! GOD WASN'T MAN ENOUGH TO FINISH YOUR EXTINCTION, SO /I'M GONNA HAFTA STEP THE HELL UP/!"

Oh good, he's okay.

In response to the flurry of punches being directed at GaoGaiGar, Guy allows himself to smirk, although it's hidden away within Galeon's Fusion interface chamber and behind the mask of GaoGaiGar's helmet ...

And the punches are *parried*. Not dodged, not tanked, Guy's actually countering each punch as it comes at the King of Braves, up until Bull breaks away to shoot lightning at Mai and lob a chunk of the rocky ground at Jenius.

Of course, the Mechasaurus's turning its attention away from GaoGaiGar is about to prove to be a very painful mistake. "Not so fast!!" Guy calls out, firing up the super mechanoid's flight engines and rocketing after the mechasaurus. "You may think you can invade Washington and do as you like ... BUT YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THINK COMING!!!" GaoGaiGar reaches for the Mechasaurus's shoulder, trying to yank it back and spin it around - and then to drive a massive metallic punch into its face.

Russel Bagman does not evade the fire, he actually takes it and opens up with the m90 assault rifle but the rounds do nothing to the horrific horror of the distant past. He grits his teeth, they got more crusaders comming? If this is how they want to fight then he will give them a fight. He also finds its ironic how many times he has acted to defend or capture the White House. Either way he has a duty and he will not be stopped by anything short of death and prehaps not even then.

The Damaged Gespenst keeps coming at the other machine and opens up as Russel keeps collecting data and also is keeping an eye on the status readouts of his allies. He does open a channel.

"Jack King is unable to make it today but we'll evict you none the same! Get back to La Gias!"

The Gespenst fires a grenade and then fires a long burst of fire at the huge machine but he's doing his best to keep the Dinosaurs on him, and there goes Jin, damn he's living up to the stories that he's been hearing about. Also keeping an eye on the status of Tasuku and Katina as well. He will always have their backs whenever it is humanly possible. Jin moves in and he contiunes to follow his comrade up and keeping firing. The Gespenst might seem a little strange to Gore's men there is something a little different a weapon of unknown design is strapped across it's back but seems to be collapsed at this point in time, just what are they up to? Those damn dirty apes.

"Jin get in close I'll cover you!"

Katina's red Gespenst Mk. IV dashes past the missile explosions that try to blow her up, and she makes a series of slashes that have no effect on the dinos she's fighting, and growls as she pops a fist up, and says, "Stop giving me problems, you bastards! RAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" She roars out, as she drives a fist into the Dino.

The Qareen looks impassively...it doesn't respond to words or threats, the pilot trying to focus and harness his inner rage. The thing that the GEIM system is trying to unleash...he will not be a monster...but at the same time he can not help but give into those desires for destruction. He does love to fight, he loves destroying. This is something he knows to be true...and when Marcus and Solis let loose their coordinated attacks, The Qareen's shields twist and bend, space warping for just a moment...and the missiles from the Atlas veer off...and just as soon as they would veer off, they would start flying back towards their source...the same with the light based weapons of the PPC.

Luckily our heros have deployed the Dividing driver...

Or not, Suriel realizes that he can go all out without worrying about the bothersome screaming the EFAers and the DC fence sitters would give him. He laughs slightly, his only response, as the green flame from before starts to expand around him, not a full fledged burst, but streams of it fly off, aiming to bash both Solis and Marcus away, throwing them as if they were toys instead of very powerful war machines. The fire burns, melting and distorting armor.

Gliding close to the ground, it is a Tesla Drive that holds the Flickerist aloft-- but despite this, what keeps it charging forward faster and ever-faster is the pair of large thrusters mounted into the backpack at the center of the Assault Dragoon's back. There's two more in the legs, and the distinctive glow of two more thrusters hidden under the back end of the machine's skirting.

The Flickerist's attention turns first to the Takemikazuchi. With a low rumble, the legs swing forward to scrape across the deck, the soles of the feet crunching the ground and creating twin trenches about three to four feet deep. Twisting to present it's right arm to the Type-00R, the bullets ding and ricochet across the broad and layered armored plates, sparking and searing the outer layers of the armor-- but it holds.

The left hand lifts in the next moment, hooking underneath that defending forearm. In it's hand is a large black revolver with a few glowing green accents... glowing from the charge that has built inside the spinning cylinder chamber while it pulls the trigger. The gun kicks twice as Lethe returns fire, but the purple-haired woman starts to adjust her calculations a moment too late: She knows they're not going to strike their target.

Inside the darkness of the cockpit, the lower screen on the central console comes on, casting a bright glow upward and across her features. Images start to load across the screen, taking in the form of Meiya's machine and attempting to get a reading from them. With the preliminary data, she chooses to strike, and Lethe's lips part to speak just two words: "Strike, Flickerist."

The torso tips forward as the arms curl closer to the heavily-customized Ashsaber's chest. Docking clamps unlock with a set of crisp POW noises just moments before two long and angular bits sweep out from around the Flickerist's frame-- and two more emerge from over the shoulders. They look a little larger than the average... and they start to swarm the Takemikazuchi from all sides, keeping a safe distance from the Type-00R as one takes the chance to fire a narrow swath of purple energy at the machine's legs!

The Giganscudo is not called the Ultimate Shield for nothing.

The wave of Metatron energy washes over the massive form, completly englurfing it in it's destructive power. But, relentless, the Giganscudo pushes through, barely singed by the unhealthy Metatron radiations, none for the worse to wear.

"What the hell was that?" Shinguji shouts from his cockpit, grinning wide as he pushes the massive Cursed Shield foward, it shields sparking up with a spark coat of electricity, plowing foward to slam down into anything that get close enough, look like a meteor or the cannon itself. "Did something /move/? Could've sworn SOMETHING tried to attack me, there!"

Raidiese continues to fall though the air, the Gespenst IV sweeping though the air to weave between the scores of missiles as they come in. He fires more missiles himself, but his focus is more on dodging at the moment, thrusters firing to slide the PT carefully though the air as it evades the incoming missiles. He doesn't have any movement data for this particular move, so he has to improvise...But hey, that's the mandate of the Aggressors.

"Mai," Rai transmits to his fellow Aggressor, "Just remember the drills we've run. Just stay close to me and you'll be fine." As far as he knows, this is Mai's first combat deployment, and he promised Aya he would look out for her.

He doesn't have much time to focus on that before he's about to hit the ground. He's been controlling his fall this whole time, with one aim: He plans to fall right on top of that dinosaur machine. His aim isn't to kick it or land on it, though. Instead, he twists his mech around at the last moment to throw the whole momentum of his fall behind a set of rapid punches at the enemy machine from above, before bouncing off and smashing hard on the ground a good bit away.

Max was still trying he best to turn around as the Mechasaurus tosses the dirt clod at him, which is sees coming. Valkyrie computers are meant to pick up missiles getting a lock on him or other planes getting a lock on him, but not flying chunks of earth. Max makes a face and snerks...just before he STOMPS on the foot pedals and pulls back on the throttle and control stick, causing his valkyrie to slow down into a really really pretty backflip, turn and fly right at the Mechasaurus, changing back into fighter mode once it's done. "You're gonna have to do better than that. Here's a little incentive." He says before shouting a warning to Koji and Shishioh...and dropping a bomb on the Mechasaurus...

Ultra Autocannon rings out with hevay rounds, but the bullets simply melt upon impact with the strange flames. The Atlas III fairs much better however as it braces and tanks the hit, stubbornly refusing to be rooted from it's spot as it's armor seers and burns.

"Greeeeeat, just what we need. Another psycho on a power rush. I wish people from the Earth Sphere would stop giving incrediably dangerous and destructive war machines to mentally unstable freakshows..."

As smoke still rises from the warped armor, the Atlas III strides forward, it's left arm snapping up. Two brilliant beams of ruby light lance out to burn away at the Qareen's frame.

Solis shakes his head, the PPC standing up... Its armor still glowing from re-entry...he misses having pods to do that for him...the parachutes are just useless...

Its then that he turns to again regard Suriel, his chainsaw cycling up as he rushes forward..and directly into the green flames of the Qareen.

The Preliator's systems flare for a moment, the manifold safeties temporarilly overwrought with the attack as the exterior armor is fused and some of the joints become unresponsive...

Solis bites back a scream...

While the damage doesn't flow through empathically to him in a physical fashion, he does feel the pain...

Solis glances around, an empty activity he already knows his system status intimately.. Motive systems are experiencing torpor, the main weapon is temporarilly off line with auto-recitation beginning to re-rouse the machine spirit...

He returns to his own bodies issues for a moment to find himself screaming in pain, and stops himself...

There is again the reminder that he's fighting Suriel Misaki. Solis isn't like Guy Shishioh. Solis doesn't believe he can defeat any opponent. He knows Suriel outclasses him in every concievable way on the battlefield.

Solis is meat for the beast. Something to be gnawed on so the city won't be. He's fine with that.

"MISAKI! Is that the best your useless talents can accomplish! COME AT ME ASSASSIN!"

The Preliator rushes forward, its flamethrowers firing beneath it and giving it momentary flight with all of the grace of a trashcan launched by cherry bombs...

The chainsaw swordsmanship is similar. Brutal but effective.

"Right," Mai replies to Rai, boosting forward to get just the littlest bit closer to him; she doesn't want to lose sight of her primary compatriot, especially not here. The arcing electricity bursting for her unit catches her off-guard, but she manages to take her machine into a hard sideways slide that narrowly gets her out of its path.

Taking a deep breath and finding herself settling into a combative groove that she was unaware that she actually had, Mai moves toward the Mechasaurus, drawing the M95 Machine Gun next; she decides to stick to ranged combat for now, finding it a great deal easier in a battle as intense and pitched as this one. Firing a quick burst, she keeps herself squarely on the defensive, in a posture optimal for either blocking or getting out of the way of incoming blows as quickly as possible.

"Oui."

This is Renais Kerdif-Shishioh.

"This is Aggressor-0, in position."

Renais Kerdif-Shishioh is currently blind; her unique talents combined with the nature of the mission came together to place her in a post surrounded by darkness--and heat; a /lot/ of heat. Renais /hates/ heat, but can't remember the last time she was ever cold. Even with the world's climate in the state it's in, she can't remember the last time she felt a snowflake on her cheek.

"T-minus five. Four. Three..."

This is an asteroid; hurled from heaven by the maniacal King of the Dinosaur Empire, it scythes a blazing line across the firmament as it falls to Earth at terminal speeds. In the timeless past, just one of these brought a thriving civilization to an abrupt end; today, Earth's stalwart protectors are faced with /dozens/ of apocalypses, but--

--this particular one seems to avert /itself/ in the moments prior to impact: without warning, seemingly without /reason/, it simply detonates as it swings past W18's Flickerist.

"Contact."

Through a thousand-fold chunks of spaceborne debris, and dust, and smoke, and fire, there's a brief flicker of pink; given five or six seconds, the strange, rosy point will eventually clear the edges of the chaos, revealing--

--a woman?

"Valkyrie-1 is currently engaged."

A /small/ woman at that, borne aloft by small plumes of fire guttering from the soles of her feet. Green light flickers over her left eye and on top of her right hand--the same right hand that extends towards the Flickerist's abdomen as the small, mad woman streaks towards it.

Despite appearances, her touch is molten--enough to damage even mobile suit armour on contact.

"I am assisting."

This is Renais Kerdif-Shishioh, as cold within as she isn't without.

With the massive battleship in the distance still not moving upon the cannon, Ascian currently still has to deal only with the Ultimate Shield before him. The massive thing just pushes and rushes /through/ the sphere of Metatron. "My god..." The young man mutters, shaking his head lightly. "I can't believe it just ignored it as if it was... nothing. I might as well have missed for all the good that did me." Ascian's eyes quickly flick up to check on the energy reserves of the Amenthes. "Still doing good." He mutters, when suddenly the speaker of Duat crackles. "The hell?" The youth turns his eyes towards the end of the Amenthes.

In the meantime, Tasuku is burning the Giganscudo's thrusters, and getting much closer. A series of mummyheads quickly rush forwards to defend, deploying their shields... but are then suddenly called off.

What just happened!? Ascian, within his frame, is grinning maniacly.

"I understand."

His eyes move up, whilst his head lowers a bit, and his gaze quickly darts between a few vid-windows, before he claws into the controlorbs of the Amenthes. The tips of his fingers push into them, and there is the sickly sound of the pressure becoming so strong that it almost sounds like leather creaking. "Amenthes! Let's do this!"

The Phoenix suddenly rushes out ahead of the drone A.I.s and places itself right in front of the Giganscudo. Memories, flashes, of the Amenthes stopping a train lash before his vision. That was what this was like, accepting an omcomming bullrush! Its wings spread, and metatron crystals begin to deploy from between their folds. A sudden 'burst', like a halo, spreads from behind it as it gets a quick burst of speed just before the Giganscudo touches down on its right hand. A test of strength!

This was insane. In many ways, Ascian would normally never take this risk. But something had come over him today. The cockpit filled with the red mist of Metatron's radiation. Some of them sparking, like little fireworks were happening inside. But, without an audio-video link to Tasuku, this was all playing out without anyone knowing. Nobody, but those few that are keeping track of the Amenthes' process. Out, far, in the dark. Watching.

"Hrrryaaaaaa!" Ascian screams out, audibly over the speakers, as the Amenthes erects its shield and begins taking away the kinetic energy that the Giganscudo is creating, its wings growing in size, the twelve khopesh formed units spreading out far, rods of Metatron connecting them, making its wings grow and flatten. A few sparks jump off the unit, its right hand cracks slightly, but somehow, it is holding. The left arm then comes up, and Ascian tries to /jab/ the thing right between the two shields before letting a gigantic ball of plasma rip from the end of the projectile energy weapon.

Once more, the ruby lights get distorted in the strange field, with a grunt of effort, the Qareen twists, and the beams completely reverse direction, aiming to pepper the Atlas. Suriel doesn't immediately speak to Marcus, as he calls out his little shouting about crazy people in death machines. He really didn't get how laughing was one of those 'you are an evil psycho thing'. Well, I mean, sure...I guess NORMAL people aren't like him...but he wasn't really a person.

The gap though is what Solis needs, he takes advantage of the momentary slip of the displacement field, and drives his chainsaws into the unit. The smaller, by far, orbital frame jerks as it is cut into, before Suriel seems to literally fade away. Seconds later he is retreating, as the wounds caused by the chainsaws start to immediately restore themselves. Suriel, grunting, and starting to breath heavily stares at Solis.

He puts a hand out as the Pike of his is summoned from his VECTOR TRAP as he points at at Solis. "Very well. You want your death to come at you now, then I will deliver." He says, and is gone...

All Solis will see is the Qareen ram into it, covered in the displacement field again as he drive his Pike square into the larger unit..litteraly aiming to lift it off the ground with his stregth. He shakes it, a few times, before slamming it down, aiming to dislodge it and Solis into the ground.

That field is /really/ starting to get annoying. Marcus hates bullshit like that... he's tried missiles, he's tried lasers. time to try something a little more lowtech. BULLETS! The Atlas continues to close as the rebounded laser leaves an angry welt in the behemoth's frame. It's chest angles up towards the Qareen, and Marcus switches his Ultra Autocannons to double rate before pulling the trigger. The massive twin machineguns rattle off a burst of solid rounds up into the sky, hoping to finally pierce that field that protects the Qareen.

The attack doesn't have the desired effect...

The PPC is sadly too heavy and too solid of a unit to be flung about like a normal orbital frame...

The displacement field roils over the PPC, as its own refractor fields roil back, causing sparks and miniature crackles of diffuse energy between the pair.

The PPC attempts to impale the Qareen with its chainsaw arm, but fails, instead seeming embracing the orbital frame for a bizarre moment...

"GUNTER! SHOOT IT NOW!!"

Solis raises the cannon arm of the Preliator against the drive systems of the Qareen, "Your assassination skills have faltered again, Misaki. You can defeat me, you can strike me down, but it is not in you to kill me. You lack the capabilities. I wonder if you share the same endurance! LETS SEE, SURIEL! LETS SEE HOW /YOU/ HANDLE IT!"

The asteroid cannon was only able to deploy one Mechasaurus before the defenders began their counterattack. This means, of course, that Bull is in some serious trouble. One on eight is never good odds, not even for dinosaurs, and that's holding true here as it can't seem to land any significant hits against the human machines. They, however, are landing plenty of hits on it. Especially punches. The humans are very punch-happy right now, for some reason. What this leaves Bull with, of course, is a bloody nose and a lot of bruises, but they only serve to anger it further as it lashes out with everything it can. Mazinger Z's rocket punch dislocates its jaw, but with a sharp motion it manages to (painfully) reset it in its proper place, just before the Valkyrie's bomb explodes all over its back. And then it just steps a few feet to the left and avoids Blodia entirely. Jin must be even angrier now. It looks around at all of the humanoid robots surrounding it, reassessing its situation. Things have gone wrong, very very wrong, but maybe they should have expected that. This is, after all, a very high profile target. And when it roars again, the sound is accompanied by a massive pink beam, which it sweeps across the defenders in the general 'in front of it' area with a quick turn of its head. And just so the ones who aren't being targeted don't feel left out, even more missile launchers appear on its body and fire even more ludicrous amounts of missiles.

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "I... I'm stopping the Giganscudo!"

 Ascian Luddite transmits, "The Orbital Launcher is untouched!"

Meiya hnns as the Flickereist defelects the bullets with it's arms. "The armor isn't light." The shots for the revolvers zip past. "And it has close range guns." Then the modified Sword Breakers detatch from the Flickereist and streak towards the Takemikazuchi. "Shi-!"

Meiya pours on the thrust to the right engine while killing hte left, swiveling the Takemikazuchi into a powerslide across the road as it raises it's machine gun to return fire. Shots from the Sword Breakers and the machine gun both go wide as path of the slide are just impossible to predict accurately for both parties.

"It still has those... I guess I can't afford to not take this seriously!" The engines of the Takemikazuchi power up again, turning the TSF towards hte Assault Dragoon as it accelerates. The Machine reholsters the machien gun and grasps the curved blade from over it's shoulder. She considers challanging the enemy pilot formally as a Gundam Fighter but... this is a tacitcal deployment.

Instead, Meiya merely rushes in with a zig zag pattern down the street, until she can bring the PB Blade upwards through the Flickereist's midsection. "HAAA!"

"PROTECT WALLLLL!!!" roars Guy as the beam sweeps towards GaoGaiGar - and while the barrier comes up, it doesn't 'stabilize' quite fast enough to prevent the impact alone from rattling GaoGaiGar's sytems, and to a lesser extent, Guy's teeth. Then the beam scythes onwards to hit the next target, and Guy ... smirks.

After all, the Protect Wall caught enough of the beam to have captured a chunk of its energy - and right now, that part of the beam is being bent back on itself, warped into the shape of a pentagram, which goes flying back at the Mechasaurus. "How about a taste of your own medicine!!" snaps Guy as the energy-star heads towards Bull.

Katina Tarask is having an absolutely fun time NOT hitting the mechasaurus, as she growls, her Gespenst Dodging the Beam narrowly, "Dammit, stop being hard to hurt, you son of a-- DIE ALREADY!" She holds out her M90, and fires the Grenade Launcher at it. "RAAAAGH!"

Max detected the impact of his bomb on his sensors, and started to turn around for another one. That's when Max's control panel started beeping. Missiles. "Really. Missiles. Man, you really need to go to the academy, Gore." He flips up the left hand control stick and pushes on the pedals again, switching to gerwalk mode, and firing a really long volley of bullets from the Gun pod, mostly to shot down the missiles that start getting tagged by his computer, and the rest get fired at the mechasaurus.

Suriel was engulfed by the main cannon of the PPC. For a moment, it looked like that was all there was going to be...if Solis for that brief moment had won out.

Inside the flames of the main cannon Suriel, growled...it hurt...IT FUCKING HURT! This mother fucker...this low class fighter thinking he was something more than a MEAT SHIELD...The beams of the main cannon studdenly stop, and reverse violently as the Qareen' reappers, but not undamaged...the damage, however, vanishing as the superiority of Metatron reasserted itself again.

Marcus came in, and the Orbital frame turned, sending the bullets themselves right back at the Atlas, growling. "So you think because you sacraficed your robot to save some aliens, you are some sort of better fighter now? All I see is a loser, you are going to be one now as you always had...except you don't have a city destroying robot to back up your words!" He says, and the Sword breakers come out of his VECTOR trap, flying around and saturating the area with them. There is no escape, they sit everywhere, forming litteral clouds around both Marcus and Solis, before they rush in, aiming to ram themselves into the two units, and release beam fury at point blank range.

"I am the best the school has to offer! It is not just my unit! This unit can only be driven by those that have the will and the power...and as a student of Gym Ghingnham, I will NOT lose."

The massive pink beam sweeps across the Blodia; it's destructiveness incarnate, pouring across the armor of the red and white robot with obliterating force. The Blodia stands its ground as the earth around it is ripped to shreds; armor starts to melt, peeling away in small chunks from the blast as it swipes across the Blodia's form. The area starts to smoke; in the cockpit, Jin is slamming buttons, hammering on them over and over in frustration to eject melted chunks and deal with the mounting redlines. When the beam ends, the Blodia still stands; it's white hot, smoke peeling off its body, but it's *still there*.

The cockpit opens. It is sizzling hot, white steam pouring out. There's no motion for a moment; just a shadow in the steam. And as the steam clears...

"/YOU DO NOT GET TO FUCK UP MY ROBOT, YOU RIDICULOUS EXCUSE FOR AN IGUANA'S GRANDMA! NOBODY! FUCKS UP! MY ROBOT!"

The cockpit seals as Jin hops off Blodia's shoulders and into its outstretched hand. He lands, scarves trailing behind him, fist on the palm of Blodia in some sort of insane giant robot fistbump; when he looks up, his eyes are blazing with literal fire, flames pouring out of his eyes in the direction of Gore. It'd be like something out of a ridiculous anime series if it wasn't so entirely serious and entirely freaky.

"/DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT KIND OF PAIN I'M GONNA BRING NOW THAT YOU FUCKED UP MY ROBOT?! *DO YOU*!? WELL LET ME TELL YOU - I'M GONNA BEAT YOUR ASS SO BaD *YOUR ENTIRE RACE* IS GOING TO FEEL IT! I'M GONNA PLANT MY BOOT SO FAR UP YOUR TAIL-"

And he goes on like this for another few seconds, before he punches his fist (which is, for those paying acute attention, /now also on fire/) into his palm. "BLODIA! LET'S GO!"

Jin leaps off Blodia. He runs, right at the dinosaur - and Blodia responds, its own motions mimicking his identically. On-fire pilot and less-on-fire-but-melty giant robot go plowing right towards the Mechasaurus; Jin skids to a halt directly underneath the mechasaurus, his fist going down at his side.

There's a flash of blue light. Blodia makes the same motion, its own hand flashing blue as well.

% And then Jin Saotome uppercuts the underside of the dinosaur. This is completely harmless, except maybe a bit of a tickle - a minor distraction.

Less harmless is that Blodia does the exact same thing. To its face.

And Blodia's twin nails are *spinning now*.

The head's up goes out.

Koji Kabuto ignores it and Mazinger Z stands in the blast radius.

The flash is intense -- as is the concussive force that radiates outward. Mazinger Z raises its forearm as its enveloped in the bomb's destructive wake.

..when the light fades and the smoke clears, MAZINGER Z stands unscathed! Koji clenches his fingers together into leather-clad fists, the look on his face jubilant. "This Super Alloy Z is incredible! Together, this Mazinga and I are unstoppable!"

The boy-Ensign settles back into the chair, his hands centering atop the control yoke. Mazinger Z pulls its arms back, its fists stacked atop each other. In a flash of lightning in an otherwise featureless plane, a length of blade materializes in its mighty hands.

Motor-control rocks forward and Mazinger Z launches after Mechasaurus Bull, its Mazinblade raised high above its chrome crown. "I'm comin' in! Mai, you can use me for cover!"

A burst of rocket-propellant and Mazinger Z climbs up to meet Bull. Light flashes off its lightning-etched sword, its eyes alight with Photonic Power.

"MAZINBLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADE STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!"

The Armor of Miracles swings in an downward arc at Bull, lightning forking off its blade!

the remote weapons surge in and Marcus replies with a grunt, his torso swivelling and swinging around much like a boxer would in order to take the brunt of the damage to less vital regions of the machine. one of the sword breakers however comes a little too close, and the Atlas suddenly sprints with speed it has not shown before to grab the drone. It crumbles in his hand. "Blah blah blah I'm on an ego trip because some school fucked with my head to make me a weapon blah blah blah. Skill ain't nothing if you're too much of a dipshit to use it properly." With his crumpled up drone in hand, the Atlas charges, then /leaps/ into the air and attempts to use his makeshift club to brain the Qareen upside the head.

This time, the Giganscudo does not fare as well as it did a few second ago. The rifle shot resounds into the Ultimate Shield's chest, making a clear impact crater in the hull of the machine. Shinguji, inside, is rattled, gritting his teeth. That came a little too close than he would have liked to the cockpit. Still, there's quite an amount of armor out there. He'll be fine.

"Man!" The Psychodriver shouts out, flipping a switch, then pushing his control stick foward in a swing. "THAT thing is freaky as hell." He mutters, reading his sensors on the Duro. Energy are off the scale. It detect something it cannot identify. Whatever that thing is, it reminds him of... machine beasts of Dr. Hell? He's not sure. What he's sure of, is that he's not going to be stopped by this thing.

"WHATEVER YOU ARE, GET OUT OF MY WAAAAAAAAAAY! ALL OF YOU!" The Mechanic shouts, the elbow joints of the Giganscudo's arms suddenly pushing out a stream of pressurised air as they unhook themselves out of the socket, firing themselves foward like massive rocket fists held by chains. IT swings it's arms like massive flails at all the mummyheads and raptors around him, continuing his journey to the cannon.

It should be close now.

The attack roils over the Preliator, harsh, unrelenting...

It scatters back, its cannon arm disconnecting, hanging only from its dozens of redundant supports, but the system is disabled, and the machine spirit has gone silent...

The pain washes over Solis, his arm twisting, joint creaking, muscles screaming at him... His vision fading from the pain, agony washing over him as palpable as the energy crashing into the Preliator itself.

"A better pilot? Y-you think that matters?"

The Preliator creaks, its hydraulics steaming as it rights itself, "The Hostis is indeed gone, Assassin, but what it comes down to is this..."

The chainsaw arm again engages, "Life is not defined by who wins or loses, it is defined by who chooses to fight and on what side. I choose, Suriel Misaki. You do not. If you are the best that Adler Koch's school has to offer, then he offers nothing. Ghingnham will learn this too in time..."

The Preliator rushes forward, its so slow...so heavy...

"I ceased the madness of aiming to be a better warrior. The madness to be a better pilot. I learned to start seeking to be a better man..."

The Preliator's chainblade rips out, rapidly aiming for the joints of Suriel's machine, "A man is not defined by his victories, Suriel Misaki, but how he faces his defeats! And you...you have neither. For until you stop being a tool, you CANNOT BECOME A MAN!"

Russel Bagman is more lucky this time as he evades the terrible attack from the Mechasaurus. He is however scanning it and the IV's computers go to wark trying to figure this thing out. He pauses noticing something and opens a channel to Koji.

"Koji! heads up I think its got a weak point! Strike it there!"

He may be wrong and but sens Koji the data awayway. He keeps moving and uses the hover system to strafe around the huge biomecha horror that is assaulting the city. He empties the entire clip at it, and then slams in a new clip!

Aggressor-0 moves in. The other Aggressors on the ground seem to be faring well; the group still has some things to learn about proper coordination with one another, but their individual skills mesh well together. Several appear to be coordinating, and focusing fire; dinosaurs are going down under solid slugs, beam weapons and all manner of blades and fists.

That, though, is the least of their worries. The asteroid cannon and the BAHRAM defenders of it--what an interesting combination, Leos thinks--needs to be dealt with. Giganscudo cannot handle them all by himself, regardless of the fame of the machine and the will of the pilot within.

"Bring us closer," Leos commands. "Arm GN missiles and prepare to fire at these coordinates, on my mark." A chorus of 'aye sir's echo on the bridge. Leo taps the keypad; projected areas of effect appear on the main monitor. One of the newer members of the crew looks up, startled. "Sir, these will come awfully close to Giganscudo--"

Leos silences him with a glare. The man wilts, turning back to his station.

"Fire."

Phrike comes about, it's missile racks turning and opening. A salvo of sparkling missiles are launched into the fray, flying apparently at Giganscudo before spreading out a little further. The detonations around the Ultimate Shield make it clear what he is doing: letting the enemies attacking Tasuku get into their optimal range, and then annihilating them with a long-ranged volley.

The Atlas skids back as the strange barrier redirects his force back at him, the result of which ends with a shattered drone and a now useless club. Marcus growls a bit as he tosses it aside, the quickly snaps off a shot from the medium laser. The beam lances out--

then gets caught in the singularity.

Marcus swears as he braces himself. Gravity crashes down on his machine, warping, tearing, rending, and crushing. the Atlas disappears into the distortion...

Then suddenly catapults out of it like a shot, it's form mangled and it's armor stripped to expose myomer muscle bundles and the endosteel construction beneath,

"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL--"

The Atlas III reaches out as it lunges. one hand grabs out for the Qareen's face. the other reaches out for a leg. both hands crumbple metal as they grab hold.

The orbital Frame is suddenly hoised over the Atlas' head, then slammed down onto it's shoulder back first as the Atlas III drops like a meteor towards the earth.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!"

When it lands, the ground craters beneath the 100 ton machine, and all that landing force is transfered up through the Battlemech into the point of leverage: The Qareen's back, seeking tosnap it in two like a twig.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Argentine Backbreaker Drop, Battlemech Style.

The blast strikes Solis again, the singularity tears at Solis's body and mind, as the Preliator finds its own exterior armor damaged... Solis futilely attempts to strike out at it, and only earns critical damage to the chainsaw assembly for his troubles...

Solis experiences the sensation of his hands both being broken, individually at each joint...and pain is excrutiating, coursing up his body and he almost wishes the damage were real...then at least it might trigger some endorphins...

"The strong...don't...determine anything of the sort..."

He spits, his vision fading... "You want to fight forever, thats understandable, so do I... But you are a weapon with no purpose. A sword does not dream of fighting, it dreams of service. A missile hungers only to be released and used, not for war..."

Solis engages the triggers on his machine guns, firing out gyro shells as the Preliator advances forward, slowly, "...you will defeat me, Suriel Misaki. I knew that when I fought you. You cannot stop me. It is beyond your capabilities. You have made peace with nothing."

A promethium spout is released...before being ignited, "...your strength is mere power. True strength is being able to endure and face the world. You run from it like a coward. You were defeated when you chose to fight. You live in defeat. This display is merely a tantrum."

The drone A.I.s quickly move away from the direction of the flail, although the slower Mummyhead units only manage that by... being hit by it and being knocked back. Their anti-physical shields however hold, and only minor damage is done to them. Amenthes on the other hand, quickly pushes its verniers to full power and rushes up, leaving a streak of red beneath it before turning straight towards that chain and following it. "[ansi(r,You can do it.)]" A feminine voice resounds within the Amenthes, granting Ascian a more devious look on his face. "Let's follow it!" The unit suddenly shoots right after those chain-attached fists, and soon catches up with the right one. Without her being in the path of them, the unit quickly begins extending the compressed space around herself.

Soon having attached herself to the fist with this massive 'pull' of physics defying energy, along with the help of the grip of its hands, she begins to... change the fists' direction. That's right, the Amenthes begins /attempting/ to /swing/ the Giganscudo! <"I WILL NOT!"> Ascian suddenly calls out. <"AMENTHES GUIDES ME! AND WE WILL NOT FALL! LEAVE HERE NOW!"> And he tries to pull the fist into a different direction to set it on a different course - towards the ship which is...

The feminine voice suddenly hisses against Ascian's ears, who's bioluminscently lit eyes quickly flick towards the right. That ship is firing missiles at it! And with the Amenthes trying to redirect that fist, it is suddenly quite out in the open. Its wings release, seperating, then form a collective circle behind the unit, like a gigantic Halo! The tailfeathers quickly attach to the halo on all four sides, slithering into place, before releasing a sudden flash of energy.

A rush of raptors suddenly speed forward to take the missiles whilst the Amenthes turns towards the Giganscudo again - still clutching onto that fist. Hoping that holding onto it might help guide its attack, a gigantic orb begins to form behind it, filling with Metatron energy. Thicker and thicker it flops, pulsing dangerously, before the 'ring' aims up and the orb moves to a position above the Amenthes. <"TAKE THIS! TASTE THE POWER OF METATRON!"> Ascian calls out and lunges the gigantic bulb of explosive energy right towards the chain connected to the arm. A good jerk might rip the 'fist' back from the Orbital Frame however.

Then suddenly the Atlas was up...

Suriel, call it arrogance if you will, looks up...and challenges the attack with his shield. The two forces collide, but the force of the Atlas is too much even to redirect...he was a fool for challenging...but he makes the best of the situation. The force shatters the ground around them, as Suriel holds the attack off with the barrier...but the Qareen's body shatters in places, exposing the Metatron directly. Suriel doesn't care, he doesn't even hear the voices of his computer warning him...he seems to vanish after being able to safely not get crushed...and appears right behind Solis, safe from his attacks. The burst of speed was nothing like Zero Shift, but it was enough for his purposes.

"I don't run from anything. I can not leave the DC, I can not leave the school, I will die if I do so. Worse, I will die without a purpose. That is a cowards death, and I would rather die doing the thing I was bred to do... the thing I enjoy. If I can help the DC make a world that is right...then I will consider this one thing I can do with my life." he says, Gripping the larger machine.

"I do not understand you...you know you will lose but here you are." he says, his words are measured, as if he was in pain...extreme pain but he doesn't let Solis hear him scream.

"Whatever it is, nothing will stop me." he says, as the Sword breakers come in again, drilling into the PPC as Suriel releases, aiming to drive him into the earth. "Lay there, then. Let the sands of time errode your name and your memory from this word."

Bull is trying to keep itself calm, trying to avoid making mistakes. The problem with that is that it has to fight eight enemies at once, something it wasn't really prepared for. Its missiles are good for general destruction, but here it only has one choice: Fight the enemy one on one, one by one. But it seems they don't want it to do that. All manner of bullets come flying at it, ripping into its scaly flesh, causing it to stumble back in pain, flailing uselessly (although it does manage to knock the slugs fired by Mai away, completely by accident). Mazinger Z's sword cuts into it, causing it even more pain, and Jin's drills get him a literal bloodbath for his trouble. When GaoGaiGar fires part of its destruction beam back at it, it's so pissed off that it actually eats the energy, using advanced super dinosaur science to reabsorb it into its systems. And then it tries to gore Blodia on its horns, charging them with electricity again for extra pain, followed by tossing it at Koji's Mazinger. But even if Jin manages to wriggle his way out of Bull's grip, Koji will still have to deal with a lightning bolt lancing through the air at his face. To follow that up, another round of missiles fly out at the Gespensts and the Valkyrie, and then the Mechasaurus once again turns its attention on GaoGaiGar, firing another beam from its mouth directly at the black robot. If it can focus its fire enough, it should be able to break through that barrier...though some of it may bounce off toward Mai's Wildeschwein.

Marcus' eyes light up as the armor on the Qareen starts to shatter... and a twisted grin comes to his face. So, even this bullshit barrier has it's limit. All he has to do is tax it enough.

As the Atlas lands from it's failed maneuver, it turns to the Qareen. Marcus takes a moment to crack his next, "Nothing, eh? well then, I have a couple dozen 'nothings' right here with your name on them kid. Now how about a little advice!"

both missile pods snap open and a deluge of firepower pours out from both it and the twin autocannons, seeking to overwhelme the field and pound Suriel into the dirty.

"Hubris will get you killed."

Solis Vivent senses Suriel behind him, but its too late...

"I am here because someone has to stand against madness such as yours, as people stood against me, Misaki. As people stand against madness..."

He turns, attempting to /body slam/ Suriel, the drill impacts against the helmet face of the Preliator drilling inwards..

The refractors give way and the sword breaker punches through...the blade nearly missing Solis but tearing across his side...

Blood floods out across Solis' uniform as he grits his teeth, glaring through the active optics at Suriel, "...you fool...you haven't even started moving yet..." His head falls forward against the cockpit...as consciousness flees from him.

The Preliator, despite Suriel's best attempts...remains standing...

Max snerks as he sees more missiles, and shakes his head. Of course, even with his eyes closed, his valkyrie snaps into fighter mode and does a tactic that max rarely uses....he outruns the missiles. The best part about all of this is...it also gives him a LOT of room to line up his next shot. As the last missile falls from running out of fuel, he banks and turns back towards the Mechasaurus, lines up the valkyrie and looks for a solid lock before unloading an insane amount of missiles at the Mechasaur...

It is a damned good thing Jin Saotome isn't in Blodia right now, and an equally damned good thing he can control it through ancient Saotome kung fu or magic or something else; that electrical attack looks NASTY. Fortunately, only Blodia is gored on its horns; electricity rocks through its systems, sending it into spasms as it fights (?!) against the horns...before being hurled into Mazinger Z, and bouncing off harmlessly. Blodia seems to have intentionally fired its thrusters at the last minute - burning out its only chance of standing, but enough to keep Mazinger from being knocked over. A heroic sacrifice from the robot...!

Blodia falls to the ground, a smoking wreck.

Something explodes at the base of the dinosaur.

It's Jin. He's on fire; so much fire that the ground of the Dividing Driver's Dimensional Distortion is literally turning to glass under him. Even the *Mechasaurus* would notice, though it wouldn't be doing any damage; just that intense, insane heat as Jin's eyes begin to burn, as his hair and scarf rise and float from the sheet heat he's putting off. Steam coils underneath the mechasaurus, heat distortion waves rolling around the area Jin is standing in.

"BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Comes the roar of absolute fury, of rage beyond rage, of anger channeled into a weapon. It is as much a cry of pain and heartache as it is a command; Jin throws back his head, screaming loud enough for the whole battlefield to hear.

And Blodia stands. It pulls itself to its feet, as if in response to Jin's burning hot passion, his rage, his absolute fury; Blodia's eyes flare with light as it takes up Jin's stance, throwing back its own head and arms like it's calling to the sky.

Jin runs. Under the mechasaurus, he just runs; Blodia comes plowing at its foe, its little bit hovering behind it; blasts of energy come pouring out as Jin leaps from the ground straight onto the mechasaurus, jumping up into the sky, a beacon of fire and rage, white scarf flowing behind him.

Blodia's fists come rising up.

Jin and Blodia come smashing down, united as one. Alone, they are nothing - halves of a whole. But together?

Together, they're Number One In The Universe!

The Amenthes seizes off the Giganscudo's, shoving into an overload of Metatron energies. The Giganscudo's frame does not like it. it's rocked by the explosion, the cockpit deep inside still safe despite the radiations. It weakens the chains, certainly, but it takes much more than that to weaken the mighty Giganscudo.

"DAMN," Shinguji lets out, holding on tight to his controls inside, "That thing's nastier than I thought! Are you /ALRIGHT/ in there? 'Cause, DAMN! You sound kinda CRAZY."

Explosions rocks around the Ultimate Shield, fired from the Phrike. That was some close hair ones, but he could take the damage even if there was a miscalculation in the firing arc. This is Giganscudo, after all. If any units you can fire around of after it amassed a large amount of enemies around, it's that one.

"But I ain't done yet, buddy! RAAAAAAAAH!"

First off, a massive electrical shock powers from the Giganscudo's center core, flowing through the chains and finnaly to the shields that are beings held. At about the same time, the Giganscudo moves foward, pulling itself toward the Orbital Frame to reconnect with it arms, seeking to body slam it's smaller foe.

"Hubris will get me killed?" Suriel just starts laughing. "ME!? You say that to me? YOU of all people?! You are the most arrogant of people I have ever fought! The only reason you live right now, is because of Solis, and you KNOW this.." Suriel laughs, even as the attacks come in...Suriel attempts to evade, but there is just no evading THAT many shots...and without his barrier, which has been taxed out, enough of them hit, and cause the Qareen to finally fall, blasts chunked out of it as it slides against the ground.

Suriel laughs a little more...before suddenly he stops, abruptly, before wracking in pain... "Whatever...happens now...you are unable to stop the dinosaur...haha...I will take grim satisfaction in that.." he says, before slamming something on the control pad. The GEIM system, thankfully, is writhdrawn, and the orbital frame activates it's emergancy Metatron dispursion, and shoots up, retreating.

Direct contact is - extreme body heat aside - Renais Shishioh's /least/ effecient mode of attack--it just also happens to be the one best suited to surprise, close-ranged offensives. She arrests her motion as soon as she's cleared the space Flickerist formerly occupied, the jets sputtering from her boots flickering to and fro as she stabilizes herself in the air.

She narrows her eyes at the modified Ashsaber over the rims of her wee, pink sunglasses and begins to reach into her bulky pink overcoat--only to stop herself when the HUD painted across the bright green lens hanging before her eye draws her attention to the Flickerist's speeding limb. The Library Lens provides her with a series of snapshots depicting the fist's acceleration in exacting detail; it frames these images with calculations regarding its velocity and bearing, and most importantly it keeps all of this telemetry conveniently to one side of her field of vision, allowing her to watch the thing that could quite easily kill her in real time.

The fist is many, many times larger than she is, but the most obvious solution is deceptively complex: it's massive and moving much faster than her jet boots will allow, so safely making contact with it requires a fair amount of attention paid over the next couple of seconds to finding /just/ the right angle and /just/ the right velocity to make a landing without being immediately flung away, or splattered, or worse.

By the time the Flickerist's vernier-assisted limb has made a full extension, Renais has stabilized herself in a crouch atop its fist; in the next moment, she takes off in a sprint up its arm, hand disappearing into her coat again. By the time she reaches the elbow, she's drawn an enormous rocket launcher from the confines of that coat, and on the next step she leaps directly forward to try and place herself right in the Ashsaber-variant's face.

There's /plenty/ of opportunity for its pilot to pull itself free; a cyborg treating someone's mobile suit like a platforming game isn't the sort of thing that's likely to go unnoticed. Should the Flickerist's head still be there for Renais to draw even with, however, its pilot will be treated to quite a show of vibrant green light as a trio of glowing bazooka shells race towards it,

 Suriel Misaki releases a retreating from combat signal.

"Yes, because wars are fought and won by a series of one on one duels, dumbass," Marcus remarks to the retreating Qareen, "but hey, I'm not the one stroking his dick and pretending it's big enough to challenge the entire universe."

with that out of the way, Marcus grunts as his machine marches over to the fallen PPC, then uses the immense strength granted to it by the Triple Strength Myomer to drag it off.

Russel Bagman keeps on the radios with his allies, and ther's an idea a good one one of the things he had a hand in putting into the machine but first there's something else he's got to do. He get hits by several missle shis machine comes out of the explosion and his aim with the m90's been thrown off pretty hard. But he comes out of the fire and flame, the Jet Magnum is charged and the plasma stakes are glowing brightly! HE leaps at the ender race's weapon of war to do what Jin would approve of. He starts punching like crazy and the Pistons like firing system of the plasma stakes only adds power to them.

The forearm blade cuts into the clavival of the Takemikazuchi, gouging out a piece of it's armor before it can move away from the Flickerist, "Tch." The Shadow bits however, are a much larger problem.

Meiya did not forget they were there, but she made the concious choice not to get caught up in them and be stuck at range where she would be innefective. So the Shadow Bits get their chance. The beams slice into the Takemikazuchi even as Meiya leaps it backwards, burning through armor, one of them severing the large shield like shoulder plate on the left side completely while the others leave burns down the left side of the machine.

Meiya steps the Takemikazuchi back untill it's a few paces away, and clear of the immediate threat of Shadow Bit attack, and then rushes the Flickerist again. As it runs int though, it's Sword swings wide away, and MEiya ducks the Takemikazuchi down, and activates it's engiens.

Ramming the tip of that 'decorative crest' on it's head at the Flickerist's waist.

 Ascian Luddite sounds /honestly/ worried, "You okay there, Suriel?"

 Emperor King Gore transmits, "If the battle is too much to handle, do not hesitate to retreat. I understand you humans are less... suicidal, I think you'd call it, than dinosaurs are."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "I am quite fine! The Gigascundo is going to be TOAST!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "Your warrior's spirit is showing. Good. Fight as long as you can."

Blodia goes flying at Mazinger Z.

Within, Koji raises his hands out of pure reflex. "..Ohshit! Jin..!"

Blodia bounces harmlessly off the Steel Guard, leaving its fretful pilot to let out a sigh of relief. "Phew.." But he has no time to rest, as his radio transmits the piercing cry of an incoming message!

> "Koji! Heads up I think its got a weak point! Strike it there!"

"A w-weak-point!?" Koji Kabuto's eyes are drawn to the Pilder's displays The tactical data pinpoints the projected findings of Russel Bagman, whose suggestions center in on a particular spot on the Mechasaurus's chest-wall.

The creature might have a weakness.. but wait! "That armor's too thick!" Koji realizes with mounting horror. "There's no way a conventional attack could pierce it...!" He pauses and bites down on his lip in consideration. "Unless..."

Koji's eyes are drawn to a yellow-and-black striped panel on the Pilder's dash. "..it's the only way!" He reaches for it, his hand trembling. The panel slides back, revealing a lever and a dial beside it.

"I'll just have to burn it out of existence! There's no choice..!"

The boy from Nihon's eyes flash with the same intense yellow light that possesses his Mazinger's own.

ALERT: Koji Kabuto has gained DRIVE!

With renewed purpose, Koji begins raising the lever up one power level after another. Photonic reactors within Mazinger Z whir with the sudden demand in energy which course along power-conduits to its chest-mounted heat-sinks.

The sharply-angled red panels atop Mazinger's breast begin to glow with mounting intensity.

The power levels continue to rise! Seven, eight, nine, ten...

..Eleven..!?!

"THE TIME OF DINOSAURS ARE OVER...!" Koji Kabuto shouts over the high-pitched whine of charging energy. "THIS EARTH IS FOR MANKIND!"

Mazinger Z's heat-sinks burn red, its arms pulled back at either side for a triumphant flex. It stands in total defiance of its saurian supremacy!

"THIS WEAPON...! I SHALL USE THIS WEAPON FOR GOOD!"

"THIS WEAPON THAT EVIL HAS COME TO FEAR!"

"YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED, YOU BASTARD...!!"

BURESSSSSSSSTOOOOO FIYYYAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Everything between Mazinger Z and the Mechanosaurus turns red.

Missiles come in at Rai's machine again, but he proves a little less apt at dodging them this time, and several impact hard on the torso armor of his machine, knocking it back. One lucky shot strikes at the arm joint on his mech, sending his gun flying out of the machine's hands, skittering on the ground a few hundred yards away. That was unexpected, but nothing Rai can't handle.

He steps back a bit, putting some distance between him and the machine. He needs to set this up just right. He circles around, flanking again, this time moving to find the proper firing position. He needs to be at the right angle for what he's planning.

Without his assault rifle, he falls back on the machine's 'big' gun. A heavy weapon stock slides into place in his machine's hand, with a barrel telescoping out from the stock to form a massive energy weapon. The weapon is aimed quickly but carefully, Rai still moving into position as he sends out a powerful plasma bolt at the Bull, as much to keep the pressure up as to do actual damage.

The Phrike hovers on the outside of the field of drones, the bridge crew watching the distant battle. The tension in the air is palpable; Leos can practically reach out and touch it, the emotion permeating the bridge and the ship itself. Anything like this will cause even trained military personnel to be concerned; you don't have to be an empath to detect /that/.

"Cycle missile racks," Leos says, the voice of authority cutting through the tensions. Things begin moving; something to do keeps the crew from worrying about what is one of their first actual combat engagements in this vessel. "Rearm launchers and focus fire at target points one-six-three and three-four-one. Wide spread. Give the 'Ultimate Shield' cover."

Phrike's engines carry it around the battle. The battleship fires into the swarm with more numerous launchers as it goes by, a broadside attack. It goes 'up,' intending to bypass the actual defense forces as they're drawn to Giganscudo and assault the launcher itself. Leos sees the Orbital Frame there, but he isn't too concerned. While Giganscudo is there, it will be kept busy.

And while the cannon is kept tied up, the Aggressors and the other Alpha Numbers can secure Washington.

Another beam attack?! Guy can't get the Protect Wall reset in time; this time, the Destruction Beam hammers the King of Braves *hard* despite Guy's best attempts to tank the attack, and GaoGaiGar gets rocked back hard on its heels, leaving prodigious amounts of scorching over its armor - including Galeon's face, which provokes an angry rumble from the currently-transformed mechanical lion, and a wince of pain and anger from Guy himself.

It doesn't stop him. It slows him down, throws him off-stride, but it's going to take MUCH more than that to actually *stop* Guy Shishioh and GaoGaiGar from continuing to bring the pain. And while Guy is regaining his equilibrium, his comrades are pouring it on - aggressively enough that going back into close combat would, perhaps, not be the best idea.

Fortunately? He doesn't have to get close.

"PHANTOM RING!! PLUS!" Guy calls out, raising GaoGaiGar's right arm, and the Phantom Ring floats into position around the raised forearm, which starts to glow magenta as forearm, fist, and ring all begin spinning. Then he winds up ...

"BROKEN ... *PHANTOM!!!!*"

And throws a spinning, grinding rocket-punch straight at the Mechasaurus.

Mai's Wildschwein is ready for the ricochet, going into a quick controlled leap and subsequent controlled fall; the machine isn't as agile as Mai might like for this purpose, but it's agile enough to handle something like this. "Come on, come on..." Mai mumbles under her breath; the pitch of the combat reminds her of something, something familiar in an all too primal way... but she ignores it for now in favor of keeping her eye on the prize.

Finally closing in to melee range rather than hanging out at the middle distance, Mai draws the Wildschwein's beam saber; giving it one quick twirl as it ignites, the Psychodriver goes in for a series of what look like, at first glance, artless slashes; however, there's a curious pattern to them, one that seeks to entrap the enemy such that their defensive options eventually run out entirely.

<"I'm quite fine."> Ascian's voice drops in volume, but he's still just... grinning there. <"He's quite fine."> A wispy human-female voice then follows that comment. Wait, what? But there was but only one biosign in there!? Why was... what? <"Now, if you will please go away. Please?"> The female voice speaks in absolute unison, as the framerunner says the exact same thing. <"It's nice of you to care, but I must ask you to leave, or die... pleeeease?"> And that united speech continues.

When those electrical sparks suddenly show on the fists, the Amenthes is momentarily taken in. The speakers suddenly shut out with a loud 'pop' and 'fizzle', whilst the inside remains unseen. Of course, it hurt. The Amenthes was not well protected against surges of energy. "Raaaaah!" Ascian screams within that cockpit, as the Metatron flow is disrupted and oversaturated by the extra energy, before he manages to activate the Magna-Electro systems and reverses them against the Giganscudo.

Then the sparks suddenly flare against the fists, and the Amenthes detaches. Its path is, obviously, taking itself straight towards the Giganscudo. But there is no hesitation in Ascian. Whilst flying towards it, he activates - on rapid notice - the Vector Cannon systems.

A whole wave of energy suddenly erects from the Amenthes, harmlessly crashing against the Giganscudo - though radiating the space around the Orbital Frame itself - whilst red energy defines itself into what look to be entirely newly made structures... out of nowhere!?

"Shift to Vector Cannon Mode - Mark Two."

So the letters almost burn into Ascian's retinas as he starts the system. The unit begins to unpack, pieces of metal appearing out of nowhere, connectors shifting around and locking into place. The bit-wings shift further outwards to give more room for the Vector Cannon equipment. A large barrel even purses from the torso of the unit whilst two rail-gun like sidings appear over the length of the cannon.

"Energy Lines Connected."

The crystalized mass behind the bitwings grows to such size that they now clearly look like /wings/. Stretching out far and wide from the unit, glowing red and yellow, as if they are on fire. They connect between of them, rods of Metatron further forming amongst them, shifting them even further back - then parting the 'pieces' once more, turning them into /24/ seperate parts.

"Gravity and Kinetic Energy Cancelers - engaged."

The cannon-tip begins to shine with a crimson light, purple lightning begins to crackle along the railgun as the unit engages its thrusters and flies straight along the retreating chain, faster and faster. A long distance had been created at first, but at the same time - the system was unpacking at a rapid pace. It spirals around it, hoping to find a direction that Tasuku might not expect him to fire from.

"Inner Chamber Pressure Rising Normally."

A eightsome of circular plates suddenly appear right around the half-way point of the railgun beams and begin to circle around it, slowly speeding up and forming a red electric link like lightning constantly seeking earth - spreading this all throughout the long metalic beam towards the cannon as well as its end.

"Life Ring has started revolving."

The rings flare up quickly, much more so than normal, and within mere seconds, the unit suddenly changes its direction and positions it at a shallow angle between the battleship in the distance and the Giganscudo. The pulse of Compressing Space fires between the Amenthes and the battleship, whilst capturing the Giganscudo within that pull - trying to rip at its head. But that same moment, its placed directly in the path of the Phrike's missiles.

The GN missiles rip into the Amenthes, whilst a series of Raptors quickly move to try and intercept. Some cyclopse units try to surround the Giganscudo to hold it down, and a few Mummyheads shield the Amenthes unit - but are blown up in the process of the incredibly volley of power and desctructive capabilities. Even within the cockpit, whilst only the blasts reach through, Ascian could feel his body being pressured by the power of those blasts. But he would not relent!

<"TASTE THE POWER OF METATRON!">

Ascian doesn't even wait for the claim that the system was ready. He knew it was already. And suddenly, space is ripped through by an extremely 'thin' lined version of the Vector Cannon, trying to rip through the Giganscudo's head, and towards the very bridge of the Phrike, and puncturing the drones which had still been between it and the battleship, as well as destroying a line of missiles!

The Mechasaurus is fighting its damned hardest to destroy these human machines and start its attack on the capital again, but there are just too many of them and reinforcements aren't coming in. Things are not looking good for it, and it knows it. Still, as long as it's standing, it has to keep fighting. For the Empire's ideals, for the future of dinokind, for their ancestral home! It jumps over Mazinger's Breast Fire, but while it's in the air, a sudden onslaught of Jet Magnums, CP Cannons, Broken Phantoms, beam sabers, and the god damn Circus slams into it all at once, tearing its body right the hell up. And the very moment its broken frame touches the ground, it's smashed so hard by Blodia that it goes flying into the opposite wall of the extradimensional pit, crumpling to the ground after a bone-shattering impact. It tries to roar in a mixture of fury and pain, but all that comes out is a gurgle as internal injuries force its own blood into its airways. It twitches, trying to get up, trying to keep fighting, but the beating it took just proves to be too much. And then it /stands anyway/, just through sheer force of will and saurian stubbornness. It gurgles some more, blood splattering the ground in front of it, and suddenly its entire body seems to turn into one big mass of missiles. How in the hell did they fit all of those missiles in there? The answer: Anime magic. And suddenly the pit is filled with ludicrous numbers of missiles

It's the strangest thing: Those heavily customized Sword Breakers move in very careful, deliberate ways, even while the Flickerist itself is occupied with the cyborg that is now running up the length of it's right arm. The armor plates start to shift again as the armor moves to keep the extra thruster from being in the line of fire for too long. It's a smooth jog up the forearm to the layers and panels of the pauldron, and the head, well--

-- Wait. "Horn," she says, like she's looking at a flash card.

Lethe's lips purse as the head turns, the cameras shifting to see-- to /try/ to see-- the person standing there with a goddamned bazooka aimed straight at it's face. It's one of the more minor tactical flaws of giant robot design, they rarely think to incorporate countermeasures for /cyborgs/ running /up/ the /arm/. The maneuver is, however, noted with keen interest as her hands have completely released the control sticks... and are instead blazing across the keypads at rest over her thighs. The computer is wasting no time gathering even more data based on what Lethe has already seen, even as the scans add more tactical data to the Dragoon's building file on the Takemikazuchi.

Shifting her booted heels to dig in and /push/ backwards, the Flickerist attempts to pull itself away from the Takemikazuchi well before the crest atop it's head can be used to gore the Assault Dragoon... unfortunately, attempting to multi-task the control of her Shadow Bits, evasive maneuvers straight ahead, and calculating a means to cope with the cyborg standing atop her machine results in the horn plunging into the Flickerist's abdomen, shearing through armor and into the more sensitive workings of the machine.

It lurches-- hard-- and Lethe shifts her footing /again/. Stomping down with both feet, her hands switch up to the control sticks. They tilt upward as she rips both of them backwards along the tracks, and the gynoid's machine somewhat violently tears itself away from Meiya as the thrusters in the lower legs, the skirting, and in the backpack explode to life with an angry roar.

This roar of thrusters, including the violent shudder of the armored hull as it not only accelerates /backwards/, but then upwards /and/ backwards, may contribute to the bazooka shells not making the impacts that they should. One deflects across the forward crest of the helmet and bursts in air, the second exploding next to the Flickerist's visor. The third misses /entirely/. This movement is also meant to, hopefully, /dislodge/ Renais from the machine.

The toes of the machine point downward as the Shadow Bits change their angles, swinging through the air and coming toward the Flickerist. There's a pressurized hiss from the knees as a fifth and sixth bit drop down from their docks, joining this tightly-fitted zig-zag formation. Clamps, magnets, or locks, it's hard to say how they stay together at this point, but a handle swings out of the side of this collective array... and rather than a solid beam projectile, each of the alternately-facing bits emits a short, narrow jet of purple beam energy.

Visually, it looks like she's holding onto a big flat breaker-made club. With beam spikes.

The Flickerist spins around in the air once, twice, and then /hurls/ the oddly-collected series of remote weapons at Meiya's Type-00R like some kind of discus. Whether they impact with the machine or the ground, the locking mechanism holding them all together disengages... and all six of the modified Sword Breakers /fly/ at full speed in seemingly random directions, like an explosion of shrapnel that threatens to even catch Renais!

Creepy female voices speaking over the cockpit of another man's cockpit, asking you gently get the hell out or die, is not creepy at all. No, nope, not creepy. Absolutely not.

"Wha." The mechanic inside the Giganscudo stares off as structures just forms out of nothing, gritting his teeth. What are those, subspace weapon platform creation? Etheric designs? Shit, is it /magic/? Whatever it is, it distracts Tasuku enough, still barreling foward, gritting his teeth as the Vector Cannon charges up ... and fires. Like before, it coats the entire Giganscudo, caught off guard by the compressed space it created. This material is complete, absolute, bullshit, Shinguji curses out mentaly while weathering the onslaught.

"Well, that's GOOD to know that you're not completly nuts, that broad and you. By the way," Tasuku's voice emits through the radio, as he emerges the Ultimate Shield out of the soaking field of radiations, the command fin on it's head destroyed, showing as well multiple exploded parts over it's body.

"You come over here, start helping dinosaurs drop /freaking meteors on the earth/, and you have the audacity of /ASKING ME TO LEAVE/? What about..."

The Tesla Drives, the one device that is giving Giganscudo the amount of mobility that it currently possesses, pushes foward the lumbering machine. It shields lights up with electricity, reeling a massive fist backward.

"... YOU TAKE THAT METATRON..."

Then, uncharateristicaly, the Giganscudo spins on a dime, soaring upward in a straight angle for a few moments, then turning right down again toward the Orbital Frame, shooting down his two massive fists like before to grasp it.

"... AND CHOKE DOWN ON IT, IF YOU RAMBLE ABOUT IT SO MUCH!?"

Sitting on smaller mechs is usualy more effective when there is gravity. On the other hand, Giganscudo's sheer primal fatassness overrides things like the need of gravity to sit on somebody.

Such as now.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Tsssk!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "I /will/ /not/ /fall/."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina transmits, "Roger."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite mutters, "Instead of 'roger', a well meant 'Good Luck' would have been proper there, Lethe."

After all of those missiles being tossed around like so much confetti, Max has only one answer for all of these missiles.

More Missiles.

Max steps on the foot pedals again and flips up the throttle stick again, switching to gerwalk mode. The irony is, the Valkyrie still has that solid lock on the Mechasaur, so rather than break it, max keeps it's tone going, and fires a...second volley of ludicrous number of missiles. can this valkyrie really store that many missiles? apparently...

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Incorrect. Roger is appropriate; this is a tactical channel."

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

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina transmits, "Understood, W16."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Seril Vaskell transmits, "You can do it, big brother!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Thank you, Seril!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Now I'll do my best /even more/."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "I could almost mistake you for a dinosaur, with an attitude like that."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Sorry, full blooded Martian human. But I appreciate the compliment, /sir/."

Missiles. Lots of missiles. And Guy tries to fly right through the onslaught - but in the course of weaving between them, he has to climb high enough to essentially go *over* the missiles, too far to be able to counterattack properly while the Mechasaurus is still launching missiles.

Going up THAT far has its advantages, though. There's a transmission from Orbit Base, and suddenly Goldymarg gets launched onto the field, courtesy of Izanagi.

Oh, and that transmission? Two voices and a stream of encrypted data. "GOLDION HAMMER, OPERATION ... *APPROVED*!!" "Roger! Goldion Hammer, safety device ... RELIEEEEEEEEVE!!!"

"LET'S CRUSH THIS GUY BACK INTO THE FOSSIL LAYER!!" roars Goldymarg as he flies towards the currently-airborne GaoGaiGar. "SYSTEM CHAAAAAAAANGE!!!" He alters course upwards just as he begins to convert, something which looks like the biggest squeaky-mallet ever flying upwards while the remainder of Goldymarg's form folds up into an even proportionally more ridiculous forearm and fist.

"HAMMER *CONNECT*!!" roars Guy, flying towards the Marg Hand, 'plugging' GaoGaiGar's right elbow into the connection port, and opening the fist to catch the shaft of the descending weapon. "GOLDION HAMMER!!!!!"

Fueled by willpower and indomitable courage, the G-Stones' power output surges inside both the King of Braves and the hammer of heroes, enough energy that it manifests not as the G-Stones' normal green, but as a radiant gold, suffusing both of the combined robots and seeming to change their very color, as GaoGaiGar descends upon the Mechasaurus Bull and brings the hammer down, aiming squarely for its head right between the horns ....

All is fine and well -- until Mechasaurus Bull /leaps/ over the Breast Fire!

"Wh-what!? No way!!" Koji Kabuto flips out within the confines of the Pilder. Such a manuever is virtually un-heard of! Who'd ever thought a monster would leap over such an assault!?

"That can't happen--!"

Mazinger Z spins around, its lightning-etched blade still held in its Super Alloy-fortified hands. "..I'm definitely not letting some guy whose clothes explode off him show me up!"

Koji swings the controls forward and once-more ignites the Mazinger's Jet Scrander rockets. The Steel Guard leaps into the air with an explosive burst of flames from its thrusters, ascending to meet the Mechanosaur once more.

"I'll just do this the old fashioned way...!"

Mazinger Z streaks toward Bull, its colossal sword raised above its head.

"MAZINPOWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

Koji screams and throws the yoke forward, commanding his Mazinger to thrust the Z-blade directly into the weakspot Russel mentioned before!

Missiles come in from everywhere, and Raidiese's Gespenst starts moving. Rai can't risk using motion data for this pattern, so he makes it up as he goes, sliding and dancing the PT like a dancer on stage. He can't spare enough attention to return fire, but weaves elegantly though the storm of missiles, like a small animal dodging all the raindrops during a heavy storm. Somehow when the missile storm passes, Rai's machine is untouched, and roughly where it was standing before.

"Alright Aggressors," Rai transmits, his voice as calm as ever, but slightly thin from the strain of the evasion he just pulled. "It's time to finish this up."

Rai transmits some targeting data. To one side of him, the Octo Squad, and to the other, Mai and the other Aggressors. If he's worked his angles right, he should be able to shatter though the remaining defenses and allow the others to finish this off.

Rai isn't holding back anything now. The CP Cannon fires again, this time powerful bolts of plasma energy are complimented by missiles and grenades as Rai fires everything his machine has at the center of the Mechasaurus, the rapid, intense assault draining most of his remaining power and ammo as he saturates a large area of the Bull with every kind of fire he can bring.

"Alright Aggressors. It's time to end this!"

Having broken the Mechasaurus's armor, Jin is content to backflip out of the way of the absurd destructive force, landing on Blodia's shoulder as the massive machine recovers from the absolutely absurd missile assault. Its armor is smoking; there are holes all over its formerly proud red and white armor, melted from the earlier assault, and a big smoking stab right through the cockpit block. If he keeps pushing Blodia like this, it'll burn out.

So, as much as Jin may loathe it, he retreats; Blodia rolls backwards, to allow the rest of the Aggressors to do their job. He never backed down from a fight - but this was a military operation, and he'd done what he'd been ordered to do.

Besides, Jin totally drill kicked a dinosaur.

That's fucking /awesome/.

Russel Bagman is keeping tabs on all the others who are engaging in combat, Rai's got a plan and it's good one. He pauses for a moment as he pulls the CP canon off the bck of his unit and it unfolds out, the handle forms on the side he grabs it and starts to aim the hurge energy weapon at the the ready he watches as the computer locks on and synths up with the other MKIV's.

"Come on Mk IV Forward!"

The canon starts to glow as it charges and then split missiles fire off at the enemy unit.

"It's over."

As the split missiles start their ttack it may become clear they are a distraction as the CP canon fires a huge blast of plasma so powerful it's forcing Russel's machine back several feet as it fires.

The missile volley detonates in the field of dummies and all around the Giganscudo, the carefully-aimed warheads fill the air with GN particles and the massive blasts, and then... it stops.

The 'small' Vector Cannon blast cuts through the field of incoming fire and sucks them into the warped space, blasts folding weirdly as the false positive of an impact detonates the weapons before they ever reach their intended target. The line of GN explosions leads back to the black ship above the blue Earth like a spear of brilliance without a haft. The Phrike tries to change it's course, nose rising--

Colored smoke erupts from Phrike as the Vector Cannon smashes into it. The weapon pounds into the vessel, e-carbon armor twisting and suddenly sundered by the shot. A hole appears as the Vector Cannon drills clear through the middle of the battleship, the debris from the inside spiralling out the other side like it was caught in a whirlpool spun out into space.

But when the smoke clears, Phrike remains.

"Status report," Klein snaps, voice overcoming the alarms blaring on the bridge. Bridge personnel scramble to answer him; it's the nervous voice of the young man who questioned him before that first catches his attention: "Uh, high energy reaction, some kind of--of weird weapon--"

"Vector Cannon," Klein says, mostly to himself. "I did not think... hmmm." Beat. "Go on."

"Uh, yes sir! Major damage to the middle of the ship, but mostly to the hangar! No sections reporting loss of atmosphere or crew casualties yet!" Leos nods. It could have been much worse; if they weren't on that course... but no matter. "Bring us about. Get me a lock on the Orbital Frame. I want it brought down, now."

Phrike comes around, facing the battle around the Giganscudo. The guns under the bridge focus on the Martian mobile weapon, it's line of fire perfectly clear. The Vector Cannon is to thank for that, and proves most useful, the huge laser cannons on the nose of the vessel firing simultaneously right back down the cleared path.

Klein will be sure to send BAHRAM command a fruit basket for their thoughtfulness.

Something in Mai's intuitions tells her that there's always backup. Despite the fact that the Mechasaurus is on its last legs and the rational thing would seem to be 'to attack it directly, repeatedly, alongside everyone else,' Mai's gut makes her decide to turn around and offer better coverage /behind/ the Alpha Numbers forces rather than throwing in with an attack that's already likely to overwhelm the monster.

Weaving around the ludicrous numbers of missiles and doing her best to counter-shoot the ones she can, Mai keeps her focus as steady as it can be; there's always something else, her gut tells her. ALWAYS.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "SHI~.!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki grimly, takes satisfaction in that.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina transmits, "A withdrawl will statistically increase the chance of your survival."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki sickly, "Pride goes before the fall, or so it says."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "The correct quote is 'Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall'."

Renais has no /choice/ but to vacate Flickerist; she's harder and denser than a human being by a factor of lots, but /that/ much vibration directly against her body still carries a significant risk of breaking bones or damaging sensitive instruments--to say nothing of the ever-present risk of simply being flung away like the rose-hued flea she is.

The bazooka isn't quite so fortunate as Renais; it tumbles from her hand amidst the turbulence, shattering somewhere in the grey abyss below. When she herself flees the machine, she does so more or less under her own control--aided, of course, by her boot jets. As she flips backwards to put a bit of space between herself and the Flickerist, she draws a handgun from her jacket and takes aim at the Ashsaber--only to have her aim disrupted by one of its flying Sword Breakers.

Although 'disrupt' may not be a strong enough word for what happens when a small French Girl has her left leg clipped by a speeding remote weapon and is summarily sent spinning towards the ground.

Needless to say, the handgun falls too.

At least 3G's budget for providing its operatives with high tech weapons is basically limitless.

Renais is a swiftly disappearing dot, and while she's /trying/ to steady herself with her jet boots, it's difficult to say whether or not she'll succeed or simply face the same fate as her lost weapons. Either way, half a dozen missiles launched from--somewhere are spiralling /up/ at the Flickerist. Four are targetted for the space around Flickerist in the hopes of keeping the Shadow Mirror machine coralled and in position for the last two.

/Those/ will be coming directly for Flickerist's front.

When Giganscudo suddenly starts moving and dancing in space, Ascian is a bit unnerved. The Orbital Frame leans back a bit, the extra equipment suddenly /exploding' off of it in a bright flash of energy, falling into all directions like red feathers. It's quite beautiful in fact, making the entire unit promote that Phoenix look, amidst the fire of crimson Metatron energy. It moves back a bit as the Ultimate Shield moves up after that 'twirl' and quickly rushes back down and away as the gigantic shield wielding machine comes straight for it and launches the fists!

"Tssk!" Ascian lets out an angered sound, lowering his head again whilst the verniers of the Amenthes try to reconnect. The aftereffect of using the homing lasers, as well as the Vector Cannon, was that it always slowed down - and had much more trouble moving at high velocity. A series of mummyheads still left from the defense at the Orbital Station quickly move before it, but are absolutely destroyed as they are momentarily grabbed, and crushed within those gigantic hands.

<"You simply don't understand its power!" Ascian calls out. "And neither do you understand why I am helping these people. Do you honestly believe that we are there to kill civilians!?"> He calls out at Tasuku. <"I simply want to bring Earth's attention back to Earth, so that Mars may live in peace!"> It's a somewhat bad view on things, but its effectiveness was undeniable. No operations had found place on Mars for quite some time now, as both the EFA and A-Laws had been forced to redirect their attention to events on their own planet. His voice lowers then, finally. <"I am sorry that it has to be this way... but it is the only way - Earth just won't listen!">

The dual voices are gone. With the lashout of using the Vector Cannon, it seems like the energy within the machine has lowered beyond such a point that the 'spirit' that seems to live in there with Ascian no longer responds or converses. But there are after effects. "And to add to that! I can't fall here, my little sister would be embarassed to have me as her new big brother, if I can't even hold down a base like this against you!" Ascian doesn't hate Tasuku, he even understands him. He knows that he is just here to defend earth. "Just continue to fulfil your role as protector of earth, Ultimate Shield!" Wait, wasn't he earlier telling him to go away? Has he given up on that? But he's not exactly asking him to die anymore either.

The fists continue further along their way, and Amenthes' arms quickly morph into the shapes of blades which cross before it, finally ramming the entire unit into the Orbital Meteor launcher. There, the fists grind and grab into the metal, but fail to attain Amenthes within their grasps. And beyond them, a red light begins to form - seeping out from the hole beyond those grabbing hands.

Then suddenly, a gigantic blast bursts from the station - as Ascian manages to get the Amenthes to launch a burst of explosive power right onto those hands - pushing them away. "MADA-MADA!!" He quickly turns his head and finds himself in the path of gigantic lasers coming his way. The unit quickly sends another volley of explosive balls into the way of those lasers before turning towards the Gigascundo and holding one last one. Did the... Amenthes just grin? Its facemask was broken, and part of the glow almost made it look as such.

The unit then suddenly flies up and launches one final bold towards the enemy unit before the massive lazers crash through the large balls of volatile Metatron energy and diffuse slightly, creating a momentary bottleneck of energy before they hit the gigantic Orbital Station and pierce right through the Meteor launching aperatus. A gigantic explosion follows, and the Amenthes is caught in it, sending it on a straight plummet down towards earth... entering the atmosphere; the grubby hands of Earth's gravity lashing quickly and pulling fiercely onto the frame. Not willing to let go before it crashes into a mountainrange somewhere in Europe.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki sickly, "Is it? Maybe I should read stuff before I quote it."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Yes."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki sickly, "You're teasing me now, aren't you?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "No."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki amused, "Oh I forgot, you're all buisness."

<Radio: A - DC Chat> Dr. Hell transmits, "Do try not to antagonize them."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "I appologize, sir Gore. The Orbital Meteor base has fallen."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "If you are on a mission, you should be 'all business' as well."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "The output of the Phrike battleship was too much for me to guard it against."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki transmits, "I withdrew. I'm trying not to be sick right now."

Rai, Russel, and Max hit Bull with everything they have, the explosions and plasma and all manner of painful hurty things tearing its body apart to the point that it shouldn't survive, but somehow it hangs on. Koji stabs the Mechasaurus right in the weakest part of its armor, ripping through straight to the other side. Bull tries to roar, but again all that happens is that it ends up coughing up purple blood, possibly even splattering Mazinger with the stuff. But still it keeps trying to fight, grabbing the Goldion Hammer as it swings down and trying to force it back, but it just doesn't have the strength. As Gore watches the Mechasaurus become light and the subsequent explosion of the asteroid cannon, he takes a deep breath and sighs. Time to board up the throne room.

What in the heaven's is that thing doing to it's bits?

That is the thought going through Meiya's mind. Then she sees the massive form of the Shadow Breaker club thrown towards her. Oh, so it's aparently making a giant /indiscriminiate death discus/ with it's bits, and throwing it me. God, that just isn't even fair.

Meiya leans the Takemikazuchi back, and it's free hand reaches up to grasps the second PB Blade from over it's shoulder. The Shadow Breaker bears down on her, looking like Meiya has some crazy assed intention of trying to stop it with those swords.

The Takemikazuchi leans forward, waiting, waiting.

The Takemikazuchi surges forward and puts one foot to the pavement as hard as possible, leaping up over the spinning wheel of beam spewing bit death. "Go it!" Meiya exaults as the Takemikazuchi arcs overhead, but then the Shadow Breaker splits apart, the Shadow Bits streakign through the air, "HHHNG!" Meiya wrestles with the controls.

The Takemikazuchi twists in mid air, bringing it's feet up as it approaches the side of a building and spins around to face the Shadow Bits. THe engines of the machine angling downards as the TSF skims /backwards/ over the glass siding of the builing as both of the PB Blades swing in time to the incoming Bit attacks, deflecting each incoming ram and shot with an uncanny precision, the poly-carbon blade standing up to the punishment of beam weapons for now. "I can't stay like this. I have to take out the mother unit!"

With a blast of thrust, the Takemikazuchi leaps of the side of the building and up into the air, where Meiya can more easily sight the Flickerist. "There!" The engines on the back of the unit tilt up and flare brightly, driving the machien down towards the black brother of the Ashsaber.

"I am Meiya, Meiya Mitsurugi. Gundam Fighter of Neo Japan II!" The first PB Blade swings down, splitting the air like a thunder clap. "If you do not vacate imediatly!" The Takemikazuchi spins around on one heel, slicing the second blade throguh the air fast enoguh that the nromal human eye only sees a silver crescent of light reflecting off the blade's surface. "I will be forced to destroy you!"

Both of the blades swing upwards diagonly, scything through the space the Flickerist occupieies in a cross shape of reflected silver light.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "There is no need to apologize. I underestimated the speed with which they would respond, and produced a machine unfit for the operation."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "That black robot...what was its name?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Black? Can you be more precise?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "The one that created the pit."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Please submit an image or a more detailed description."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Ah. The GaoGaiGar."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "It's part of the GGG - who report to the Orbit Station."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "I see...yes, I remember now. The Empire has encountered it before."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "It was troublesome then, and troublesome now. Incapacitating it somehow will be high in my future priorities, I think."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "You will have my assistance, if you so request it."

Tasuku will be frank with himself here: this is was all the Phrike opening fire and destroying everything here. He didn't do much, himself, beyond getting all in one nice, big, cluster to be blown up by.

In other words, mission f***ing accomplished for Gigan.

The last destructive wave of Metatron washes over the Giganscudo. It hurts, destroys some armor, blows up some joints, fry some systems, but over all, it survives, just as does the young mechanic inside. His eyes might not, so hard they're rolling, right now.

"If you came here to not kill any civilians, you KIND of did that part badly, you self-righteous jerk!"

With most of the targets down, Tasuku can relax, going off to the asteroid cannon -- if anything remains of it -- and proceed to surgicaly( I.E Read: crushingly ) demolish the contraption. With gigantic laser blasts if nessecary.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki thinking, "How does it create the hole? I mean...it kinda works like how Metatron does but in reverse."

And then the /light particles/ keep fighting.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Want me to organize a mission to steal it?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "Dimensional severence and protrusion. I do not know the details."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Suriel Misaki transmits, "I...guess? I mean, good luck with that. That place is pretty strong."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "I've been in there once before..."

Even if they never intended it to be, the two attacks work in tandem with each other-- a combination of sorts, that combines the missiles at Renais' disposal and the precision and strength found in both of Meiya's swords. The Flickerist barely pays attention to Renais after the initial throw of the Shadow Breaker, and that may perhaps be what causes the events to come next:

Missiles, flying toward her at high speeds. She starts to dodge up and to the left, but then makes a swift movement to the right, the controls being moved with precision... but they're movements that show a lack of /experience/. Renais' attempts to herd the Assault Dragoon into position are ultimately successful, especially as the large black machine is struck squarely in the middle of the chest with the paired explosions.

Tesla Drive or not, the machine lurches backwards, losing a bit of altitude... and Meiya Mitsurugi is a proud warrior that will not let opportunity escape her. Lethe digs in her heels again, fires the large thrusters, but the effort seems to be too little, too late. In the clouds of smoke and flame that plume and erupt from the cockpit hatch, the swords strike in a grand cross-- and shear straight through the heavily-modified Ashsaber's armor. The chest is ultimately sundered to a critical, unsafe level, leaving Lethe with little in the way of options.

The six Shadow Bits start to fly almost as though they have intent and authority, as though they had a damn good and dangerous purpose assigned to them. But with that much damage directly to the chest, surely the cockpit was struck...?

With a groan of metal and the shifting of tuned mechanics, the Flickerist stands straight and tall all over again. The blades have literally come within inches of tearing that perfect X straight through the inner hatches, but this machine simply continues to be unrelenting and fierce. Lethe's forward screen has the distorted beginnings of the assault forming that imposing shape in dead and scrambled pixels, scrambling her display a little more than she would like.

The Flickerist's torso twists, presenting the left arm and that revolver once again. The six modified Sword Breakers scream through the air and align themselves in a tight circle around the fist, around the very handgun itself-- and then it fires one massive beam of purple through the protected space at Meiya's Type-00R, aiming to bore a hole straight through it in a single shot.

And then they fly, one more time, those Shadow Bits, breaking away from their penetrating formation and aiming to head toward the location Renais was last tracked on her HUD. Whatever limiters or devices that were used to keep the beams in check have been disabled by now. As the Flickerist continues to move backward, the Shadow Bits fire with enough force to literally carve swaths of scorched earth across the sub-dimensional space.

Play time is over, kids.

"OH SHI---"

SPLAT

"Ffff---!" Koji Kabuto turns a bright shade of red. The entire canopy of the Pilder is drenched in Mechasaurus ichor.

"..Goddamit..!"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Emperor King Gore transmits, "Is someone still fighting out there?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> James Heller transmits, "Nice shot Lethe."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Echidna Iisaki transmits, "W18, if you do not have support you should withdraw."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Lethe Rusina transmits, "Roger. Target alpha has been shot down."

Mazinger Z whirls around, the onslaught of beamfire from a series of flying bits having caught Koji's attention. "Wh--" he squints hard, leaning over the console of his cockpit as he stares through a point of the heavily-damaged but-still churning Flickerist. Is that a flash of... purple hair? "Th-there.." His eyes widen with realization, "..there's a girl in there!"

So much for the Mechasaurus. Guy takes stock of the remaining state of the battle, but most of it is in orbit and he'd have trouble getting up there with the Goldion Hammer equipped; for now, he retrieves the depleted Dividing Driver and takes to the air, transmitting a reminder to the allied forces NOT to still be in the Dividing Field when it reverts to normal. Then the King of Braves heads for Amaterasu, to undergo the regular post-mission procedures of cleaning, Fusion Out, and maintenance and repairs ...

The fact that the Flickerist is still moving after that is extremely suprising. The fact it can fire that gigantic Screw You cannon is even mroe suprising then before. And at this range, theres no room to dodge.

The energy blast smashes into hte Takemikazuchi, instantly evapourating any of the armor that isn't made of the supercarbon alloy that gives the light framed mech any ridgity at all.

THe melting and vapourizing metal threaten to overtake the entire machien and bore directly through it, if it were not for the inclusion of strategic melt points in the armor, designed of low teprature materials to instantly vapourize and preventing the frame from conducting such intense heat directly into the cockpit where ti could cook the pilot alive.

What is left behind from the beam looks more like the Terminator after you strip off it's skin, a bare metal skeleton, still attempting some sort of mimicry of human motion as it staggers around in jerky, unrealistic motion before it finalyl collapses to both knees.

Max hovers there as the Mechasaurus falls, smiling just a bit. "And another one bites the dust." He says over the radio before he turns to leave the area, headed for Izu Base. He flips back to fighter mode and takes off towards the west, this time at a much more slow pace...