2010-05-15 - Panda Express

SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN

The TDD-1 Tuatha de Danaan is surfaced, for the moment, its flight deck open for a daily brief period for helicopters and mobile suits to land and take off for various points around the Pacific theatre. These moments are where the TDD-1 is most vulnerable, for while its ECS masts make it indetectable by most traditional scanning equipment, it is quite visible to any and all who would have occasion to look. Of course, nobody's looking.

Is how it's supposed to be. But suddenly warnings begin to sound inside, the flight deck begins sliding closed. Personnel run around inside quickly. The Captain has collapsed. Princess Rachel Miu Athha has also collapsed. Medical teams are going nuts. And...

The prisoner has escaped.

Amid the chaos, handfuls of personnel have been found blacked out throughout the ship - all on the way to the hangar bay.

The chaos of the collapses and the cunning of the escapee means that the normally highly-adept Mithril forces are only aware that they've failed to secure Soma Peries behind the sealed bulkheads when one of the airtight subaquatic launch containers opens, closes, fills...and deploys.

On the bridge, Executive Officer Richard Mardukas narrows his eyes. "...they're going to be coming," he says, grimly.

Jarred from a moderatly restful afternoon of reacclimitizing to a ship with actual gravity.. and far fewer windows, Kurz lurches up and out of his bunk. "S'sunova-" he begins as he rockets out his door and into the corridor. Muscling and weaving around other crewmen in the two-wide hallways. In no time at all he's slipping into his M9 san the usual protective gear and fussing at the technicians to hurry up with the aquatic gear.

Some may call it cunning. Lieutenant Soma Peries is running on blind instinct at the moment, however. She's not planning ahead. She just has one goal at the moment: freedom.

That opportunity comes after she rounds a corner and downs an unsuspecting MITHRIL agent with a single spear strike of her hand to his throat. He'll be fine after he wakes up, but he's going to have bruises and a sore throat for a few days. Soma doesn't know where she's going. She doesn't know the layout of the Tuatha de Danaan. And yet, she doesn't make a single wrong turn on the way to the launch hangars. She doesn't hesitate as she leaps into the first Mobile Suit she sees and activates the underwater launch container. She doesn't even stop to think how she knew how to do all this.

A plainly-colored MBF-M1 Astray clears the surface of the water. It's only a matter of a few moments before pursuers from the submarine come after her. The beam saber and rifle are drawn, and the Mobile Suit begins transmitting a long-range signal to the Shirogane. There are no words in the signal, but it is clearly the IFF code for one Lieutenant Soma Peries. Soma Peries activates her GNX-609T GN-XIII unit.

 The IFF code for Lieutenant Soma Peries is detected in the southern Pacific Ocean.  Revive Revival transmits, "--my, my, my. Is anyone else seeing this?"  Alex Dino transmits, "--I'm on my way."  Revive Revival transmits, "All available hands -- oh, I shouldn't even need to say where you're going. Get moving."

Soma Peries activates her MBF-M1 Astray unit.

 Healing Care transmits, "Uh oh, looks like there's hope yet for Leo's other girlfriend~!"  Fern Calico transmits, "Deploying. Does anyone else actually have an aquatic-specialist unit or am I the only one?"  Revive Revival transmits, "We're a space militia, Kitty -- I'm surprised there's even yours to use."  Jung Freud transmits, "Depends. Revive, how waterproof is this?"  Revive Revival transmits, "One way to find out."

The Guren the day before was trashed - nearly cleaved in two at certain parts. What a great start to her assistance of Katharon after some time. But she doesn't even have the time to rest - or for the Guren to be repaired. The base which she was staying on goes on alert, as shown by the chaos that unfolds around her.

Ducking out of her room, Kallen wastes no time in heading to the hanger bay herself - dashing through hallways. "They were holding someone here!?" And apparently didn't even bind them, or lock them up. Worrying about people when the entire thing could go up in smoke. The things she just isn't told.

Unlike her usual Knightmare, she leaps into a far less advanced machine - a Zaku II. Ignoring what's going on around her, or the drama on the radio, the Zaku II's mono-eye comes to life, launching as the axe is pulled free, water dripping off the dull colored suit.

This is just going to get worse - but that's what she's there for - maybe it can still be salvaged.

 Fern Calico transmits, "I always assumed they just had it sitting around, so they felt like modifying it."  Alex Dino transmits, "I don't have one. I'll be grabbing a flight subunit to provide assistance from above."  Fern Calico transmits, "Calico, deploying in the Deep Forbidden S."

The signal goes out, and Mardukas is proven right.

They /are/ coming.

A glittering orange streak cuts through the clouds before long. The Gadessa isn't the fastest unit in the universe, but a combination of ideal placement and, let's face it, pure piloting skill have given Revive Revival a rather short trip in reaching the South Pacific. The tall, sharp GN-powered unit bursts out of a patch of white fluff, dissipating it in its wake. In its arms it cradles the GN Mega Launcher, a gun whose size and energy signatures distinctly mark it in the category of 'overkill.'

Revive Revival broadcasts to whatever A-LAWS have made it into the vicinity: "The emergency signal is coming from a Katharon unit. Looks like our girl's a hijacker. So men, do take /care/ when you're exterminating the scum, yes? It wouldn't do to accidentally /hurt/ the person we're trying to save." This may or may not be some kind of subliminal message to Healing Care. It may also be Revive Revival, in his inimitably charming way and with that warm, maternal voice, treating the rest of the A-LAWS troops as if they were children. Either way.

Now, though, he switches to loudspeaker. It's -- it's pretty loud.

"Attention, Katharon! This is Captain Revive Revival of the autonomous galactic peacekeeping force A-LAWS! We are retrieving Lieutenant Peries! Attempts to interfere with this retrieval will be met with duly authorized lethal force!" Revive is smiling, but he doesn't sound like it. Then again, he sounds like a she anyway.

"This is your only warning."

 Jung Freud transmits, "Oi Fern, I'll give you some sound cover."  Fern Calico transmits, "Thanks for the warning. I'll turn the sonar down."

Cagalli Yula Athha was not anticipating this, but Latooni took excellent care of her machine flying against that horrible monstrosity; as such, the Strike Rouge is actually hot to go and ready. As such, within moments, its familiar pink form crests the horizon, having been on a relatively nearby Salamis Kai for refueling.

Drawing both of the machine's heavy anti-ship swords as she skims across the water, Cagalli bites her lip, nervously peeling a layer of skin off it with her teeth. Tessa /and/ Rachel? Did Soma do something? Or was this -- something less comprehensible, something involving the bizarre lack of a barrier between them?

She doesn't know. Right now, she's too worried to really think it through that cleanly -- especially with the A-LAWS incoming.

 Nenai Illan transmits, "This is Captain Illan, my ship is inbound to support the recovery of LT Soma Peries."

Meanwhile, up in the sky, something sparkles.

Jung has never power dived /into/ gravity. However, she reasons, this is going to work out. At worst, the Empruss will handle poorly, she'll surface, and resume flight, and will fight from that position. If it does work out, welp, she's in an enormous stingray-looking machine. She'll figure something out.

The dive from orbit, the GN Field active and trailing shimmering sparkles of red over the white carapace of the vast Empruss, is a unique feeling to Jung. She lets herself feel it, pushing the fretting over the latest retarded dicta to come from up top (she knew it was a matter of time, based on past experience in the DC; maybe, she thinks, that's where this Novak came from?) to the back of her mental warehouse.

She can hear Revive on the radio, though she doesn't quite hear his (her?) matronly words. The clouds ripple past her, and she stops breathing in anticipation of the inevitable stop. She feathers the controls a little, pulling the Empruss up slightly --

It strikes the South Pacific ocean like an object weighing six hundred tons and travelling significantly faster than terminal velocity. The shockwave slaps into the ocean like God slapping His thigh in amusement at some jest from his lovable little buddy (Satan). The waterspout gushes upwards hundreds of feet, phosphorescent organisms flickering in sudden confusion even as the Empruss trails a massive quantity of cavitation bubbles and the strange, unearthly noise of the GN drives operating beneath the sea's surface. This probably does not help any attempts to monitor the situation in sonar.

Jung however is rapidly learning that this was not the best idea, and is hauling back the controls as sixteen different systems complain in sixty different degrees. Well, she thinks, no need to advertise this.

 Revive Revival transmits, "Acknowledged, Captain. Welcome aboard."

TWO WEEKS AGO

Jiron Amos flees a Chinese battlefield on foot. He barrels through the underbrush and bolts away from Guy Shishioh, who has his Gallop in his mech's hands, about fifty feet or so off the ground. He jumped.

It seemed like a pretty good idea at the time.

Jiron finds a secluded spot with some cargo containers nearby. He runs over to it and dives behind it, rounding the corner to avoid detection. He barely gets there. He looks around, trying to figure out where he really is. He thinks he sees a vehicle of some sort... but the battle is still going on, and he doesn't see a mech he can take to get into it.

Jiron ducks into a cargo container.

A WEEK AND A HALF AGO

Jiron Amos, incredibly hungry, stumbles out of a cargo container on a tiny airbase somewhere. It's arid. He thinks he might be in China, or some of the Siberian wastelands. He looks around, spots a huge lizard on a rock, and licks his lips.

A WEEK AND A HALF AGO, MINUS FIVE MINUTES

Jiron Amos is back in the cargo container. The lizard is nowhere to be found.

ONE WEEK AGO

Jiron Amos steps out of the cargo container for the first time it's been still for any length of time in days. He's in a snowy place. He spots something moving nearby. Knowing that this one just contains some kind of paperwork in weirdly stampled envelopes, he makes a break for it. Maybe it's a walker machine, or a mobile suit, or a--

Nope. Cargo container.

THREE DAYS AGO

Jiron pokes his head out of the new container. It's full of food, so he doesn't really consider leaving for the moment. He hasn't been this well-fed in months. He looks around, stretching in the sunlight of the tropical island--and freezes when he spots the armed men approaching, chatting, having not noticed him.

He turns, diving into a smaller container within the big one and closing the top most of the way. The men move to take it...

FIVE MINUTES AGO

Sergeant Jebidiah "Cookie" Allerdyce, Mithril Special Food Services Taskforce operative, opens the industrial-sized frozen food container aboard the Tuatha de Danaan, seeking a confectionary treat. He looks into it...

...and stops, staring down at Jiron Amos as Jiron stares up. He has icicles growing from him, and the many pounds of frozen food are completely gone. They stay this way for a long moment.

NOW

Jiron Amos runs the hell down the corridors of the Tuatha de Danaan. He has no idea where he is, what the alarms mean, or why there is at trail of bodies. What he /does/ know is that whoever is running away in front of him seems to have the right idea.

He enters the hangar, bolts for the first thing he sees starting to power up, grabs the pilot inside who looks /very/ confused, and hurls him one-handed across the room in a panic, climbing into the only somewhat familiar cockpit. It's an Arm Slave; he can pilot it. Maybe it's as good as the Savage!

Launch continues. It's about now that someone /probably/ calls in the crazed melon-headed individual they just saw move like a bat out of hell, apparently chasing the prisoner.

Jiron Amos activates his M9 Gernsback unit.

Distressingly to Leo Stenbuck - now moreso than ever - the Shirogane is incapable of in-atmosphere FTL travel, or even from jumping from one side of the planet to the other. The Jump drive simply doesn't have the capability for the fine control required to do something like that.

But that's okay, because as it turns out, it's pretty easy to get from Point A to Point B the normal way when you're in orbit.

As A-LAWS forces begin converging on Soma Peries's emergence point in the Pacific, one of the many responders appears first as a small point of flame high in the sky, trailing a brilliant wake of glimmering, burnt orange particles. It's coming down awfully fast, but it's still not terribly noticable, through a combination of the GN (and inevitable Minovsky) particle's effects on most sensors, and the virtue of being located straight up.

It becoems much, much more noticable, however, when a ten-meter thick beam of orange energy suddenly lances down into the ocean a few hundred meters away from Soma's Astray, carving a long slice through the water. It doesn't hit anything, or even really come close, but it does boil away tens of thousands of gallons of water, and - as far as the young man behind the blast is concerned - send a very clear message.

Inside the descending 1 Gundam, Leo grits his teeth, and tightens his grip on the Gundam's controls. "Soma..." he mutters to himself, his voice a tangled mess of joy and relief and worry and barely-contained fury. "I'm coming."

Shortly behind the arrival of the Gadessa is a similar-but-noticeably-different GN-Tau-powered unit, the Garazzo. It too descends like a streak from the skies, breaking through the blue skies and carried upon a trail of glittering orange particles. Within the sharp-looking A-LAWS unit is none other than the young 'lady' everyone hates, Healing Care.

"You're way too nice to these jokes," the Cyber-Newtype grouses, her young, pale face contorted in an expression of disgust. "Our colleagues, I mean. Then again, they're humans; they can't do anything on their own!"

The Garazzo turns sharply, sun catching its silver husk as it continues its descent toward the Pacific. Grinning sharply, the violet-eyed girl just tilts her head, one hand reaching up to absently twirl with a short, wavy lock of oddly-green hair.

"Y'know, you shouldn't have even given them a warning, Revive," she states as the machine drops one lanky arm at its side. Fingers flex, and like an animal its fingertips erupt with five sharp-looking orange beam claws. "We should have just descended upon them like the /rats/ they are. The only good Katharon is a /dead/ one...oh, is that /Leo/?"

Turning her attentions toward the 1 Gundam, Healing's eyes hood in amusement. This should be /fun/.

"Hey Revive, a bet," she calls to her fellow 'Cyber-Newtype.'

"How many minutes do you think it'll be before Leo completely loses his shit and starts wailing and or sobbing and or screaming and frothing incoherently?

"I give him less than five minutes."

Fern Calico does not appear in the sky with the others. There is a very good reason for that.

The Deep Forbidden is one of A-LAWS' very few aquatic units, and Fern has one of the few that has been modified for a specific elite pilot. It is rare that it has a chance to shine, but on a mission like this, Fern is going to run it for all it's worth.

Although it is not an inherently stealthy unit, the Deep Forbidden gets a lot of coverage from Jung's colossal Empruss strking the water; compared to that, her own displacement and noise is basically nonexistant.

The humanoid machine tilts slightly, its green visor sweeping the water as it gets a visual lock. Inside, Fern smiles.

ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD..

Audhumla: Mobile Command Center for Karaba Garuda-class, large transport aircraft Location: ????

"Director Hayato, there's a message coming in over the secure lines. One of our allies has suffered a setback and are anticipating an assault by an A-LAWS/EFA joint strike force."

"Well, that's problematic. Location?"

"Triangulating signall.. the South Pacific, Director."

"Well, we're short our aces.. but I'm confident our B-team will be able to provide some assistance. Ready our pilots for launch."

MOMENTS LATER..

Darkness gives way to a yawning chasm of brightness. It's the sky, a great plain of blue pockmarked with fluffy clouds. The lights within the cargo-bay of the Audhumla switch to red, warning personnel to scatter from the immediate vacinity. A trio of mobile suits in green and blue armor, Nemos, stand ready atop their accompanying Dodai Kai support-crafts in crouched-forward positions.

"Nemo-5, Hot Gates, launching!"

There is wind and thunder and then the lead suit takes off. Shortly after..

"Nemo-11, Tom Sensational, launching!"

"Nemo-26, Soup Lister, I don't wanna diiiiiii-yyyyy--iieeee-!!"

..the last two Nemos take off aboard their Dodai Kai chariots. Destination: the South Pacific.

Alex Dino sits inside his quarters aboard the Exelion. Aside for his presence, the room is empty. His shades set aside on his desk counter, the young man pours through files - electronic news clippings and military reports detailing Katharon's recent attacks and attacks on Katharon. He rubs his temples; a recording of Patrick Zala's commanding voice issuing one of the last speeches of his career has been assailing his ears with bitter condemnations, one of several recordings of the man Alex has been playing on repeat for the past hour.

"... Why can't they--"

The sound of the soft ping of his radio cuts Alex off, drawing his attention with the confused blink of his eyes. The files close down, the sound bites are stopped as he runs a diagnostic check. His eyes widen. A distress signal, from--

"Lieutenant Peries...?!"

It took barely any time for Dino to load up into his crimson GOUF Crusher. Turning sensors on with idle flicks and booting up the operating system with the dim glow of effervescent light, Alex Dino frowns. He doesn't know the lieutenant; in fact, less than a year ago, they were probably enemies. But--

"I'm not going to leave anyone behind again," he mumbles to himself just before his communications turn on with a slight fizzle.

"This is Lieutenant Alex Dino; I'm deploying in the GOUF Crusher to provide aerial support, I'll be there in ten!"

The GOUF's feet latch onto the back of a sturdy Guul flight platform. With the screeching rain of sparks, both it and the green-gray platform beneath it are tossed harshly into the blue skies beyond. The back thrusters of the Guul glow a pale blue color before rocket thrust gushes out in whipping contrails, sending the GOUF blasting forward like a shot.

"Katharon..." he mutters, thoughtfully. His eyes narrow. "... I'm not going to give you any mercy anymore."

"Healing, sister, don't be cruel," Revive Revival says serenely, as if he were above such crude gossiping.

Meanwhile, one of the Gadessa's hands subtly lifts, four fingers held straight, before returning to its grip on the GN Mega Launcher.

<Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "So, /is/ it waterproof?" <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Jung Freud transmits, "Water /resistant/." <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "Heh. Don't try diving."

Nenais ship has picked up the signal from Soma and is moving in to aid, the forces of Katharon will easily be able to pick in the up the hulking alien warship as it descends from further up in the Atmosphere. Nenai has freshly back from the successful deep space the factory satellite was captured and all seemed to be well. Yet the song, the terrible song of the unknown attackers still haunted her. It had controlled the wild Zentradi there and put many of those working with their human cousins into agony.

Nenai clears her mind and she looks to the tactical display, she sends a short transmission to the A-laws to let her know shes there to help and now she looks over what the enemy is fielding.

"Prepare Valkyries and Battle Armours for launch, all gunnery crews stand by combat. This will likely dissolve to combat."

Nenai looked at the displays again, yes it was time to deal with Katharon

<Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "They told me about the Forbidden Blue. There's a reason I'm not in one." <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Jung Freud transmits, "Could've been the dive." <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Jung Freud transmits, "These names sound... sexy, what are they?" <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "Aquatic units. Forbidden Blue was the first one they made on this design. It had a really nice pressure shield. Like an energy deflection shield; Deep Forbidden's got one too. I'm coasting." <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "Worked great until the power turned off and the cockpit acted like a tin can."

RIGHT HERE

ALSO NOW

Huang Qin Shi does not hit the water at a thousand miles an hour, nor does he streak out of the skies like some sort of burning GN-powered fallen god. Most of those people passed him like a minute ago. He is instead taking re-entry rather slowly, making frequent use of his machine's thrusters to slow his free-fall as the chunks of his re-entry platform spread out to either side of him.

He has survived a complete free-fall onto the planet before, and has no intention of testing his luck ever again.

He is also esconced within the confines of a Zaku, which is rather like old home week for him, even if this particular borrowed model is missing most of the bells and whistles of the command unit Haman Karn obliterated over half a year ago. He left the Rasavatam in the Vesalius's hangar bay, because heating your own armour to several hundred degrees is not so much a good idea when there is an ocean around. Of course, there was that one fight with Latooni in...

STILL HERE AND NOW

Huang shakes his head angrily - what is he thinking, letting his mind wander at a taime like this? "Focus," he mutters.

<Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Jung Freud transmits, "Ooops." <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "Yeah. This one's reinforced. I'll be stuck, but that's all."

Juku Reimaru had an...interesting conversation last night.

And she just happens to find herself in the South Pacific... well... under the South Pacific.

The Junk DAG plods along under water, using one of Juku's (few successfull) inventions to cut up a piece of colony that fell during the one year war. She looks up as chatter starts crackling across her radio. It's unclear but, sounds like A-LAWS is set to throw down with someone.

Juku breaks off from her work and sets the Junk DAg on a course through the water, and rising to the surface

The Tuatha de Danaan is deploying mobile suits and using its underwater launch mechanism; ARM Slaves are basically useless in a situation like this, except for aquatic defense. There /are/ aqua packs, after all.

Either way: The flight deck closes. A blast from the 1 Gundam's buster cannon fires through. Mardukas frowns, on the bridge. Didn't he hear something about that thing being obliterated in a recent battle? Check the data later, he thinks. "All hands, brace for crash dive!" he barks, hands folded neatly behind his back, eyes hard, staring at the screen. This is a mess.

They're /here/ for Soma, he thinks. That's fine. The Captain wants to keep track of her but he's sure even she would declare her the secondary priority in this situation. But how long until someone notices this is their chance to get rid of the Toy Box...?

The TDD-1 begins to descend, submerging quickly...but quickly enough?

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Fern Calico transmits, "Bingo. Can you retrieve her?"

There is help coming. There should be help coming, at least. Soma knows they must have received the signal. It's only a matter of time.

That time comes much sooner than expected. Beams fly down into the water, and a Mobile Armor crashes into the ocean. Hands gripping tightly on the Astray's controls, Soma turns back slightly. Of course there are pursuers... she couldn't incapacitate the entire submarine, after all. It would have taken -far- too much time, and after another few minutes they'd have gotten their act together enough to recapture her. No, she was ready for people to follow.

The Astray lifts its beam rifle and pivots slightly in midair, turning just enough to point the gun back at a pursuing Zaku. A single shot is fired, trying to discourage the Mobile Suit from keeping chase.

COMBAT: Soma Peries has attacked Kallen Kouzuki. Beam Rifle added to their queue. COMBAT: Soma Peries has struck a major hit on Kallen Kouzuki's MS-06F Zaku II using Beam Rifle. COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has counter attacked for a minor hit on Soma Peries's MBF-M1 Astray using Heat Hawk.

It doesn't take long for them to make their entrance. The water on one side of the Tuatha suddenly vanishes, a beam tearing through it, steam erupting and the water filling in the void that now only holds vapor. Waves crash against the Zaku, which is noticable since it wasn't exactly touching the water before hand.

Water that probably came from the Empruss' impact against the ocean.

There's alot going on - and with the Zaku already launched, at least Kallen is in a good position. "You're not getting out of here!" Kallen blindly exclaims, raising the axe the Zaku accelerates as the beam rifle is swung about, turning to point the gun back, nailing the Zaku in the chest.

Beam energy melts the armoring as it engulfs the suit, threatening the internal stability, and due to the smoldering chest the water that rains down causes more smoke to be swell around the craft. Kallen doesn't give up chase that easily, even as she's shaken within the cockpit. The controls push the Zaku forwards, a burst of thrusters sending it screaming towards the Astray, the left arm of the machine first.

COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has attacked Soma Peries. Zaku Martial Arts added to their queue.

Faint impressions impinge on Jung's awareness. Alex Dino biggest of all, if only through familiarity, but also the dim transmissions of Revive Revival and, less pleasantly, Healing Cu- Care.

The sea can't block them, and the Empruss, after some struggling, begins to gain forward impetus, rising upwards, implacably.

From the point of view of those on the surface, or above it, such as individuals in Nemos, this might not seem like much until some sort of GIANT ENEMY CRAB lurches from the sea, water pouring off of it and releasing evil-colored steam where it comes near the GN Drive cowlings, apertures opening on its forward terrible-crab-claws and releasing shimmering, lancing beams of red energy dead ahead!

Jung is actually rebooting the secondary motor balancer which is why she isn't either shouting or doing anything fancy.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. You Are Evil  Because Your Energy Weapons Are  Red  added to their queue.

Bingo, Fern thinks. Her lips curve even more sharply, an unusual expression for her. The scarred skin on the side of her face doesn't move quite right with it.

Electing to keep her radio transmission to a minimum - they might notice her - Fern dives when the TDD does. Her sonar is still drowned out by fighting; she can't pick up the submarine on it, and couldn't even if it /wasn't/ essentially inaudible.

But she can see it.

The first sign the TDD-1 gets to tell them Fern is there (short of someone looking out the window, anyway) is the supercavitating torpedo that rockets toward the submarine, trailing bubbles as the cavitation collapses in its wake.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has struck a glancing hit on Bright Noa's AEUG Squad using You Are Evil  Because Your Energy Weapons Are  Red.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Teletha Testarossa. Supercavitating Torpedo added to their queue.

COMBAT: Soma Peries has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has missed Soma Peries with her Zaku Martial Arts attack. COMBAT: Soma Peries has counter attacked for a minor hit on Kallen Kouzuki's MS-06F Zaku II using Astray Punch.

With time to rival that of a professional racing pit crew (possibly because some of them may very well have been recruited from pit crews) Kurz's Gernsback is fitted with the scuba-like aquatic gear. "Alright, Launching to cov-" he begins when he sees Jiron charge into the hangerbay and go all manner of GTA on another Mithril pilot. "Who in the hell is that?!" he manages a moment befor his unit's AI informs him that it's time to go.

Without time to waste on further wonderings Kurz's M9 is dumped into the sea. Not the best place to be when the majority of hostiles are up in the air, the glare of the sun ruining any hopes of having a good shot and completely nullifying any hopes of ECS stealth. He doesn't have to worry about that though, it seems that there's plenty of threats already under water that he can tend to. The water-packs props spin up to speed, carrying the AS away from the TDD-1 as quickly as possible, trying to escape the turbulant waters of the dive as well as get out of the blast radius of the torpedo. "Coming from the air and the sea? Is this a rescue op or a ambush?!"

The Princess of Orb rushes toward the GOUF in the Strike Rouge, the Crusher's form all too familiar... she wonders, briefly, if it's the same pilot as before. There was something about him, something familiar and yet a little on the unclear side...

... and right now, he's an A-LAWS operative who is almost certainly going to turn his guns on Katharon in short order. She can't let that happen, especially not here where the Tuatha is so vulnerable... and so, once again, she has to fight. Locking onto Alex's machine, the Princess boosts in.

After a second, she puts away one of her ship-cutting swords, trading it for a beam rifle; saying nothing, she fires two quick shots for the GOUF, one after another.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha's Beam Rifle has been added to your queue. COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Alex Dino. Beam Rifle added to their queue. COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has missed you with her Beam Rifle attack. COMBAT: You counter attack Cagalli Yula Athha with a minor hit using Impact Vice. COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has struck a solid hit on Teletha Testarossa's TDD-1 Tuatha De Danaan using Supercavitating Torpedo.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Jung Freud transmits, "Incoming Nemo wing, and these aren't good hands. Leo? Alex?" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "We're working on it." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Leo Stenbuck transmits, tersely, "I'll get Soma." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Fern Calico transmits, "I'll keep the submarine busy, then." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Alex Dino transmits, "... I've got the Strike Rouge on me, I'll keep it off your back." <Radio: D - Co-Sec> Nenai Illan gives a set of locations and a warning to be aware of incomming fire from her ship.

Nenai Illan sees the fighting has started. "All Valkyries and Battle Armour pilots deploy and back up the A-law forces. Gunnery crews prepare to fire on my mark."

Human and alien mecha deploy from the green warship but what's really noticeably is the number of weapons turrets starting to move into position to fire. There isn't going to be much time but she may get lucky.

"Let's see is this Ship's captain's even worthy of part of the wreck being a trophy. Gunnery crew fire us formation Gamma."

Then particle beams rain down in a controlled pattern of fire, sea water will be vaporized as the salvos continue the entire intent is to try to hit the sub before it gets too deep and the alien ship may have...other means to continue attacking after.

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has attacked Teletha Testarossa. Beam Cannon added to their queue.

The Nemo Team speedily arrives to the site of battle, their Dodai Kai crafts noisily wedging the surface of the ocean.

On board, sonar picks up the presence of a moving vessel beneath the Pacific's rapidly less than pristine waves.

"Something's coming!" Nemo-11, Tom Sensational, transmits. His heart near-skips a beat. Over a thousand launches, he gets it every time. He bites his lip, steadying his hands by gripping the controls of his mobile suit tightly.

The Empruss surfaces!!

Aboard Nemo-26, things are slightly less composed. "OHH GOD WHAT IS THAT THING!?! IT'S SOME KIND OF CRAB!!?! BUT.. I'M ALLERGIC TO CRAB! OH GOD IT'S SHOOTING, IT'S SHOOTING AT US!! I DON'T WANT TO DIIIIIIIIIIIIYY-IEEEEE!!" sweats Soup Lister, his voice going so loud that it cracks his audio feed, letting loose noisy static.

"Ungh!" Hot Gates, pilot of Nemo-5 and Nemo Team Lead, jerks her head back reflexively. "Get your shit together, Soup! Bring that shield up --- NOW!"

"AHHHH!" Soup screeches. He pulls hard on the left control, his finger jabbing hard on a series of red-lit buttons on the lit-up HUD beside it. His Nemo brings its shield forward ... just in time to catch the edge of that GN blast! Gundarium-alpha alloy melts on contact, sending bits of charred slag rolling down the length of the shield. "..ghh.. huh.. I'm.. I'm alive!?!" Soup transmits, his voice loud and incredulous.

"Hnn.. for now!" Tom Sensational grunts. "Giving coverfire.. now!" He works the controls, resulting in his Nemo-11's right arm lowering to aim its beam rifle at the Empruss as it rockets forward on its Dodai Kai platform. The mechanized finger curls, squeezing the trigger! Beam particles coalesce around the barrel of the gun briefly.. and fire!


 * BZOWWWWW!!*

COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. Beam Rifle added to their queue. COMBAT: Bright Noa has struck a minor hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss using Beam Rifle.

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has struck a glancing hit on Teletha Testarossa's TDD-1 Tuatha De Danaan using Beam Cannon.

As all hell breaks loose, Revive Revival is -- perhaps uncharacteristically -- not right there at the front, jackbooting bitches in the mouth with a robot jackboot in their robot bitch mouths. Instead, he's playing a bit more strategically -- zipping around, this way and that, powering up the GN Mega Launcher only enough to squeeze off bursts of intense orange power in quick shots.

These aren't exactly randomly targeted ones, either -- Revive is gunning for any Katharon units that dare stray too close to the Soma / Kallen fray. He trusts Soma to handle her own there. So he lets her handle her own -- she could probably use it as a way to blow off some steam. He knows what kind of anger lives inside the Littlest Super Soldier's quantum brain.

As he shoots at unnamed grunts in Aquatic-Type Maganac Rollerbladers or Viking Gundams or that one Lego line with the deep-sea divers who harvested crystals from immobile Lego octopuses or whatever, Revive Revival opens a direct radio link-up to his Best Friend in the Whole World.

"Leo," Revive says, casually, as if he were reading the paper and not killing people. "Can we talk a minute? It's actually rather related to Soma. Some things I think you should know, if you haven't been made aware of them."

Evil Coop has arrived.

It is understandable that the IFF signal Soma Peries activated attracted the attention of A-LAWS, which elicited a response from Katharon. But now all those little contacts, lines of fire cutting their way across the skies, GN engines roaring in the water. It stands to reason that such a gathering might attract the attention of units that happened to be in the area for unrelated reasons.

Coincidence can be a funny thing. It can even be deadly.

The GN particles are playing hell with both sonar and other sensors as Minovsky radiation begins to flood the area. But you'd have to be blind not to notice a massive sweel of water approaching from the south, a surge that drains away from a massive black machine that rises out from the depths, flame highlights and a single burning red eye the only spots of colour on the ebon monster.

Except for a sign dangling from around the neck, where someone has hurriedly scribbled 'GRANZON' in big block letters.

"Well now," says Coop Cooplowski as he leans forward in his cockpit, a faint smile crawling onto his face. "What /do/ we have here? Seems to me one might call it a target-rich environment." The giant Black Thirteen straightens both arms, laser cannons springing out from around the forearm. "And it ain't even my birthday," he sighs as he opens fire on the nearest target. He's not picky.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has attacked Healing Care. Arm Cannon added to their queue.

Jiron Amos is suddenly underwater in an Arm Slave he is unfamiliar with. It boots up surprisingly quickly, to his, well, shock. "Woah. This thing must have a great computer core. I wonder where they salvaged it?" he muses. He shakes for a second in a startled fashion, launched out to sea. Momentary panic sets in; is this thing even water-tight?!

Apparently so. Jiron finds himself passing the wake of a torpedo. He tries to turn, moving too quick and sending the M9 spinning off towards the source. Most people would feel sick, but he just feels kind of alarmed that he's out of control in an Arm Slave he has no idea how to actually pilot.

Well, that's a lie. Jiron Amos is the son of the great rock-man, the "Arms of Steel." He can pilot /anything/.

The M9 comes out of it's spin but doesn't adjust it's course. The larger mobile suit that came at the submarine with the torpedo suddenly has an abruptly very visible Arm Slave barreling at it, sweeping it's arms for it. Jiron has managed to get enough velocity to actually make the impact worth it.

The Crusher continues its steady descent; heat vents on the Guul gush out air as it stabilizes its flight pattern, bringing the GOUF dangerously close to the water's surface. The downward curve of the flight platform's wing churns up water as a spray of foamy sea salt splashes against the red machine's back. Alex looks behind him, almost surprised at the absolutely /massive/ form of the Empruss divebombing into the waters.

"... When in the world did she get something like that?"

Gaze refocuses. Behind his shades, his eyes pinpoint the coordinates of Soma's IFF, swerving to the right -- /just/ as a burst of green energy churns through the water that the GOUF was once hovering over.

Alex's gaze shoots up; he yanks backward on the subcontrols on the GOUF and the Guul veers upward, ascending just beyond the second energy burst. Emerald beam particles cook the underside of the platform to a heated, glowing red as the GOUF continues its ascent, right arm locking backward. The Impact Vice slides into place and then /clamps/ into Dino's target within a second's brief contact, crushing into metal as Dino's gaze refocuses.

"... The Strike Rouge?" The surprise is fleeting at best. His expression hardening in seconds, the Coordinator turns the weapon's control system on the GOUF. From its left hand, one of its Slayer Whips snap outward, aiming to snag the wrist of the Rouge holding its rifle; the shocking jolt that comes after is meant to both overwhelm the Strike's systems and force it to release that beam rifle as the Guul RIPS forward, to tear both the GOUF and the Strike away from the main battle. The further they are from Soma, the safer the lieutenant will be. And--

"I'm giving you one chance to surrender!" Alex Dino's muffled voice comes in. "This isn't a fight you can win!"

COMBAT: Your attack has been added to Cagalli Yula Athha's queue. COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. Slayer Whip Shock added to their queue.

The fact that Jiron is going, "WAAAAGH!!" in the cockpit while he kind of freaks out about all the water and the suit /he/ just saw is incidental. So is the fact that his radio in the M9 is probably now informing the Tuatha that he's in that one.

COMBAT: Jiron Amos has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has attacked Fern Calico. A Typical Zoran Starts Nothing Like This -- There's Too Much Water added to their queue. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has struck a solid hit on Fern Calico's Standard using A Typical Zoran Starts Nothing Like This -- There's Too Much Water. COMBAT: Fern Calico has counter attacked for a minor critical hit on Jiron Amos's M9 Gernsback using Forbidden Trident.

COMBAT: You have missed Cagalli Yula Athha with your Slayer Whip Shock attack.

Somewhere during his descent, the 1 Gundam ends up back-to-back with Revive's Gadessa, with an explosion in the background behind them, because, well, that's just how these things work sometimes.

"Now's not a good time," Leo replies curtly to Revive, as he sweeps his Buster Rifle across a trio of... Hygoggs? Really?

/Really?/

Like Revive, Leo has elected to maintain altitude and keep anything from even kind of looking at Soma's Astray funny. He'd take a shot at Kallen, too, but the whole 'in a dogfight with Soma' thing sort of prevents that; he was too late to stop her from engaging, and so he has no choice but to stay the course.

He could use the Fangs, of course, but after Haro's /stellar/ performance at the last Angel... Leo shoots a glare at the Haro docked to his left, and as if it can read his mind, it squawks miserably, "SORRY, AMURO! SORRY, AMURO!"

So all he can do is offer words of encouragement. It takes a little doing to open a radio link with Soma... but he does, eventually, manage it. "Soma?! Soma, it's me! Are you okay?! We're right here, you're going to be fine! Now take down that Zaku and let's get the hell out of here!!"

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has activated a spirit command.

The Empruss is not evading terribly well, either to instill some kind of imperial terror of the implacable will of the ancient (like three months) majestic (orders from small children in sailor suits) proud (Leo Stenbuck) and terrible (OK we'll give you that one) A-LAWS organization!

The beam rifle strikes do not score deeply on the outer hull of the Empruss, which seems to shimmer with an increasing density of a strange particle-scattering effect, red and menacing. Steam seems to be dying down behind it, though, even as Jung's eyes dart around at the various mobile suits. This is tricky, she reasons to herself, and she's going to have to engage in a subtle maneuver here, which she begins to formulate in another part of her 'space combat genius' brain, in order to take them down without groteseque murd -

A new icon pops up on her mini-map: "GRANZON", complete with suspiciously well crafted sarcastic quotes.

The Empruss pivots towards the source of beam rifle fire, jerking forwards with an abrupt application of throttle - aiming to sweep past the Nemo, while also whipping out with one terrible crablike claw to grasp the mobile suit and fling it into the sea!!

COMBAT: Jung Freud has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. Grappler Arms added to their queue.

The Heat Hawk manages to nick the Astrays' armor, but not enough to seriously damage any systems. Strangely enough, Soma doesn't transmit anything else except the constant IFF signal. She'd rather not be shot down by the ones who came to rescue her just because she's in a Katharon suit.

When the Zaku charges in again, the Astray quickly jerks to the side, one arm reaching out to grab the Zaku's arm and shove it past in a quick judo move. It isn't the most effective, especially in midair, but it works in a pinch.

Fight or flee response is a strange thing. Until now, Soma was just trying to get away. But she's seen her allies arriving. She still wants to escape but... there's also the pain inside her head that's driving her on. Turning again, the Astray activates its beam sabers. Thrusters fire, sending the Mobile Suit crashing toward the zaku as the pilot lets out what can only be described as a feral roar.

COMBAT: Soma Peries has attacked Kallen Kouzuki. Dual Beam Sabers added to their queue. COMBAT: Soma Peries has struck a major hit on Kallen Kouzuki's MS-06F Zaku II using Dual Beam Sabers.

It takes a while to get there, the Junk DAg is slow on land. It's REALLY slow underwater. Eventually however, Juku's sensors can make out allt he turbulance being caused by the combat in and above the water. On the surface, a little Johnny Bravo bobble head heastily converted into an bouye with a webcam transmits the action back to Juku. It sudden'y squeeks out 'Do the monkey with me!' and starts dancing there, just sitting on the water.

Juku huhs, and selects a target. There a nice GN drive unit. She flicks a switch, and the DAG's shoulders launch torpedos to the surface. Okay well Torpedos that break apart into anti-aircraft missiles for the Gadessa.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has struck a major hit on Bright Noa's AEUG Squad using Grappler Arms. COMBAT: Bright Noa has counter attacked for a minor hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss using Beam Saber.

COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has attacked Revive Revival. Salvaged Weapon added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has struck a major hit on Revive Revival's GNZ-003 Gadessa using Salvaged Weapon. COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Juku Reimaru with his GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot counter attack.

The Zaku's arm shoves past in the quick judo move and Kallen's blindsided by the action. "That's not going to work!" It works. Thrusters send the mobile suit as Kallen attempts to pull the Zaku up, away from the assault. The back scrapes against the waves, but the swords tear into the Zaku, rending the mobile suits armoring.

Kallen fights to pull the Zaku up - armoring shredded, electrical systems giving the worst kind of feedback ( none ) and the controls sluggish. The pilot fights against the situation as well as Soma's advantage.

Things just aren't going well.

The heat hawk finally is swung around, right before the Zaku hits the water, breaking the plunge and tossing the Astray away. The redhead's eyes narrow as she takes this time not to pull back, but to charge straight in. In a show of recklessness, Kallen dives towards the Astray, and Soma, pulling the Heat Hawk back, moving to swing it so hard, and so often, that the Astray is shredded into metal.

Who gives a damn if the pilot survives, after all?

"If youdead set on escaping... THEN YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY!"

COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has attacked Soma Peries. Heat Hawk Rampage added to their queue.

"Actually, Leo, now's a great time, so be quiet and listen." Revive Revival's warm voice goes ice-cold in an instant. It's not a tone that allows for the possibility of dissent. "That boy on Mercury -- Allelujah Haptism. The Gundam Meister. You have a history with him. So too does our dear, dear friend Soma, if what happened when they met was to be believed."

Revive blows up a Ball or a GN Skidoo or something, who even knows. "So when this is over, when Soma is safe and sound and recovering in her bed like a good little soldier, /you/ will be taking Louise Halevy and going to Mercury to have a talk with the Haptism boy, to find out /what/ the story is. I know you want to crush Celestial Being just as badly as I do, Leo. So let's not let a little bit of /unpleasantness/ get between us... and achieving our goals... and maybe even helping our mutual friends. Okay?"

Revive is cut off by a goddamn missile hitting the Gadessa right in the Gadick.

"GNAH!" Revive snaps, having not been paying super-close attention -- he automatically fires his rifle at the origin of the missile, but it's unfocused and goes wide. "Excuse me a moment, Leo. Something below our level dared spit at me. And as you'll soon learn, part of our status -- well, my status, your /eventual/ status -- is crushing those who deserve it. Ciao for now, my friend." Revive turns his attention back toward the sea.

"Where are you... ah." Revive aims the GN Mega Launcher, and fires it down toward the location of the Junk DAG. Hit or miss, the GN-powered beam broils like a hundred dolphins. COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Juku Reimaru. GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Mode added to their queue.

Weaving away from the whip, Cagalli nibbles on her lip again. "I'm not just going to sit back and let you attack the Tuatha again! I'm not just going to -- to lie there and let you do what you want!" Growling under her breath, Cagalli angles the IWSP's wings a little, weaving down a touch, feet momentarily hitting the water before she takes the machine into a controlled 540 degree whirl.

Putting away her beam rifle, Cagalli draws the machine's beam boomerang, asking the question that's been foremost on her mind since seeing the Crusher: "Are you the same pilot -- from before?!" His voice is familiar, but even then, she can't be /quite/ sure... There's a great deal of modulation and interference in voice comms.

Raising up a little higher, Cagalli uses the angular motion of her machine to add a little extra 'oomph' to the hurling of her beam boomerang. It's not much, but it does speed up the weapon by a great deal. Almost instantly, she turns her attention back to the defensive, though -- she needs to be ready for that weapon's return -- and no doubt Alex's counterattack.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Alex Dino. Beam Boomerang added to their queue.

COMBAT: Soma Peries has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Kallen Kouzuki has missed Soma Peries with her Heat Hawk Rampage attack.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has struck a major hit on Healing Care's GNZ-005 Garazzo using Arm Cannon. COMBAT: Healing Care has counter attacked for a minor hit on Evil Coop's Black Thirteen using GN Beam Claw.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has struck a solid hit on Juku Reimaru's Junk DAG using GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Mode. COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has missed Revive Revival with her Rebuilt Rifle counter attack.

"Tom, motor!" shouts Hot Gates as she commands her Nemo-5 to come around for an attack run on the Empruss.

The pilot at the helm of Nemo-11 tries his best, he yanks hard on the controls. The Dodai Kai beneath him blasts its belly-jets, setting the water beneath to boil. It begins to ascend, but the Empruss's claw catches it by the belly. "NNNGH!" Tom lets out a grunt, as the interior of the Nemo's core-block rattles hard. The HUD flashes red as the armor plating of the mobile suit groans in protest of the claw. "Not.. fast.. enough... gotta.. cut this off... at the start.."

Nemo-11 reaches back with its left hand, plucking one of the slender cylinders from its rear waist-armor. Bringing it to bear, armored fingertips hit the activator function.


 * whzzzzing!*

Beam energy releases with a simultaneous magnetic field, confining the energy into a lengthy slender extrusion. The beam saber glows fierce pink, humming loud as it descends on the Empruss claw's servo-motor in an attempt to burn it out. It's not enough -- the Nemo-11 goes flying!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Tom Sensational cries out.

"No, no no no!" weeps Soup. "It got Tom! It got Tom! Oh jeezus! We're done for! Game over, man! Game over!"

"I.. am not.. a -MAN-!" Hot Gates snarls over the com. "This is the last damn time I am telling you to get your shit together, Soup. Alright, whoever you are.." she twists at a knob, calibrating targeting sensor. Nemo-5's beam rifle comes up, supported by its left hand slung underneath it. "It's time you met the rest of your oppressive jerk friends, but in hell!"

Nemo-5's targeting reticle zooms in on the black slotty shape atop -- feasibly where the main sensor might be. The beam rifle fires!


 * BZOWWWWW!!*

COMBAT: Bright Noa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. Beam Rifle added to their queue.

Mardukas frowns. This is a mess. He'll make the whole crew do stupid walks up and down Merida. Six times!!

He will also frown steeply as the SONAR reports, "Torpedo, incoming! It's, it's too close, I can't--!"

"All hands, brace for impact!" Mardukas thunders. "Ready the EMFC for combat applications! Prepare to accelerate to full combat velocity! Weapons, load torpedo tubes and prepare to open fire!"

"Sir! An enemy battleship is above - weapons targetting toward our position!"

Frown.

In the British navy, there was once a feared captain. Perhaps the most renowned captain in the history of the fleet, this man could run a submarine in circles around any other ship. It could be said that he may have been the greatest ship captain alive. He was known, with respect and fear, as The Duke. And this man had a certain habit...

Mardukas' fingers reach up to the rim of his baseball back, and smoothly slide it around to the rear.

"At that range they'll have difficulty targetting," he says. "Continue course and heading. That stray M9--it's intervening in our favor. We need all the help we can get; keep an eye on it, don't engage." He'll deal with whoever's responsible later. "As for the Zentradi ship...Tube 3, harpoon missile. Fire."

The de Danaan is struck hard by the torpedo, but it keeps moving despite the damage - the hull, very thoroughly armored against a weapon like that, won't be breached so easily. The beam shot from the ship above manages to disrupt the water enough that the de Danaan rattles...

And also manages to disrupt the air that Nenai may not be able to react to the incoming missile until far too late.

COMBAT: Bright Noa has struck a solid hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss using Beam Rifle.

COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has attacked Nenai Illan. Harpoon Missile added to their queue.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has missed you with her Beam Boomerang attack. COMBAT: You have missed Cagalli Yula Athha with your MMI-558 Tempest Beam Sword counter attack.

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has struck a glancing hit on Nenai Illan's Thuverl-Salan using Harpoon Missile. COMBAT: Nenai Illan has activated a spirit command.

Fern Calico, preparing to take another shot with her torpedoes, never gets the chance - a fast-moving M9 gets in her way.

Fern clearly does not know /who/ is in that machine. She reacts instinctively: drawing the long metal trident with the collapsible pole from its spot on the Deep Forbidden's 'backpack', she pulls it around and thrusts at the Gernsback to interrupt its charge.

Unfortuantely, she doesn't do it early enough and the machine strikes the Deep Forbidden anyway, sending the aquatic unit drifting backwards until Fern gets it more under control. Dammit, dammit, /dammit/, Fern thinks: she's going to have to leave the submarine to the battleship instead of harrying it faster than they can deal with.

Fern tenses the Deep Forbidden's arms before going into a long lunge, the backpack's turbines humming and something flickering around the torso as the water practically slides out of its way. "Get out of my way," she says by radio, ensuring Jiron can hear her clearly.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Jiron Amos. Trident Strike added to their queue.

COMBAT: Healing Care has activated a spirit command.

The GN beam blasts through the water and strikes the Junk DAG, blasting it back down into the water, the response fire from it's 100mm rifle going wide, doing absolutely nothing.

Juku actually has a moment to think about this. She's underwater, her target is flying, giving it way better mobility, and she doesn't know if she's actually detected or not. "Only one thing for it then."

The Junk DAG lifts it's arm and fires a single projectile that launches out of the water, into the air, and attempts to wrap around Revive's machine, and with the considerable wight of the Junk DAG behind it, hal her prey intot he water.

Like reverse fishing!

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has attacked Revive Revival. Rocket Magnet added to their queue.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has missed Jiron Amos with her Trident Strike attack.

We'll pretend that Healing was busy making fun of people until--

The console of the Garazzo suddenly erupts in warning, several red triangles calculating and pointing out a potential threat. Just as the silver mech turns itself around and makes visual contact with the imposing Black Thirteen, it's more or less too late. Healing Care's expression is one of surprise.

Then, she's angry.

"OH, I SEE!!" the Cyber-Newtype barks, wide-eyed as her lips pull into a vicious snarl. "You just think you can MARCH up in here and start takin' shots at people!?" The GN-Tau drives of the Garazzo suddenly flare up, particles of brilliant orange spewing into the blue skies as the machine takes off toward the Thirteen--even as its big scary cannons fire.

The Garazzo is struck hard; however, being the warmonger she is, sheer determination keeps Healing more than focused on her pursuit. The silvery chassis is seared and warped viciously, sparks spewing from a particularly deep gouge--but that doesn't stop her.

Instead, the Garazzo slams its claws into the chest of the Black Thirteen.

"Ha ha ha ha I LIKE YOUR STYLE!!"

That being said, Healing Care shows her love by attempting to slam its fist into the Black Thirteen's face.

COMBAT: Healing Care has attacked Evil Coop. GN Spike Knuckles added to their queue.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has missed Revive Revival with her Rocket Magnet attack. COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Juku Reimaru with his GN Beam Saber counter attack.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Healing Care has struck a solid critical hit on Evil Coop's Black Thirteen using GN Spike Knuckles.

With the rogue M9 veering off to deal with the aquatic threat, and the bombarment from above making a return to the TDD-1 too risky, Kurz pulls towards the surface. Catching sight of Kallen's Zaku hacking away at the escaped Astray like a Lumber Jack aching to dress in women's clothing and hang around in bars. This in and of itself isn't troubling, but the Gundamy.. thing hovering over head picking off friendlies does.

Not wanting the resident red-head to bit it from a shot to the back. A M9 with a large backpack broke the surface of the water, near skidding along the tops of the waves befor it rolled belly-up, almost seeming to do the back stroke, were it not for the fact that it's arms were, instead of stroaking, holding a AS scaled assault rifle. Hoping for a hit and away run, Kurz took a few shots at the Gundam 0 tossing lead into the air to try and draw his attention from the ladies as they struggled against one another. Admittedly a difficult feat, but Kurz was more then willing to give it that old, college try. Of course, seeing as how Kurz never went to college, that might not be saying too much.

COMBAT: Kurz Weber has attacked Leo Stenbuck. From The Hip added to their queue.

There is no snappy reply. There's barely a sound at all. The initial strike from the heated axe is caught by the beam sabers, and the Astray quickly falls into a more defensive position. It takes all of Soma's concentration, but she manages to parry each of the swings, Heat Hawk sizzling against beam saber again and again. There may be a few people who care if the pilot survives. Captain Testarossa, Princess Rachel... oh, and basically all of A-LAWS.

Escape. She has to get away.. but with this Zaku hounding her, that won't be so easy. One of the beam sabers is deactivated, and the rifle comes up once again. The Astray squeezes off several shots at close range.

Pain. Soma winces as a shock of pain rushes through her head. For a moment, she releases the controls to grip the sides of her head, and an ear-splitting SCREAM tears from her throat. If that wasn't bad enough, a wave of chaotic brainwaves erupts from the Astray, radiating out in all directions. If there was any doubt before that it was Soma in that suit, there probably won't be any more.

The onslaught of brainwaves continues for several seconds. When it finally subsides, the rifle comes up once again. The Astray squeezes off several more shots at close range.

COMBAT: Soma Peries has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Soma Peries has attacked Kallen Kouzuki. Astray Rifle Stock Footage added to their queue. COMBAT: Soma Peries has struck a devastating hit on Kallen Kouzuki's MS-06F Zaku II using Astray Rifle Stock Footage.

Knock Out! Kallen Kouzuki's MS-06F Zaku II unit has become disabled!

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Kurz Weber has missed Leo Stenbuck with his From The Hip attack.

"This isn't about a ship," Alex Dino's modulated voice comes out stiffly. "It's--" He is about to continue, but stops as his lips begin to part. This much, he realizes -- this much isn't about the lieutenant, either.

"... It doesn't matter."

The boomerang is withdrawn; the words earn a furrow to Alex's brows as he jams the control stick of the GOUF forward. "... Yes," he manages; the GOUF ascends rapidly, thrusters complementing the Guul's forward momentum. The Rouge's beam boomerang spirals through the air violently, but -- Dino has more than ample experience with beam boomerangs.

The GOUF unholsters its sword, the Tempest blade expanding and pouring forth a hyper-condensed beam edge. The energy of the sword clashes against the beam blade of the boomerang in a fluid sweep as the two energies crackle, conflict, merge -- and then deflect off each other, repelled rapidly as the beam boomerang goes flying and the GOUF's sword is knocked upward.

"I am Lieutenant Alex Dino...!"

The GOUF aims to collide with the IWSP a second later, its sword coming down to carve through the front of the pink-red machine to knock it even further away from the battlefield. Jung is not enough of a Newtype to send more than 'vague impressions of confusion' from the panicking man in the Nemo. She pivots the Empruss up into a tight loop the loop, which means at least that Nemo-5's shot only hits the slotty headdy bit directly /once/.

Jung curses at the shake and shimmer in the displays, the panoramic view flickering as the computers reroute things to give her something, at least, comparable. The left claw's damaged now too, she thinks, lips pursing. And there's the, quote, Granzon, endquote, to deal with.

"I don't know," she says thoughtfully, and into the transmitter, more or less after Nemo-5's words. "You don't sound like much of a preacher to me!" The right claw raises, turning towards Hot Gates' mech --

But unfortunately, the Empruss lacks the ancient lore of "Left Claw North, Right Claw South" and thus does not instantly crush it in a wave of magnetism, however, what DOES happen is almost as good: A series of lashing, wriggling metal strands, energized with crimson GN Particles, whip out to try and encircle and yank down that enemy captain!

COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. MMI-558 Tempest Beam Sword added to their queue.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. Egner Whip added to their queue. COMBAT: Jung Freud has missed Bright Noa with her Egner Whip attack.

COMBAT: You have missed Cagalli Yula Athha with your MMI-558 Tempest Beam Sword attack. COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has missed you with her Shield Machine Gun counter attack.

Coop pretty much does think he can just roll in and take shots at people, yes. It's that thing that he (and also Shu Shirakawa, of course) does. He is slightly taken aback by the reaction his attack receives, however - not the ferocity of the assault but rather the seeming insanity of the source.

Man, why can't he get the calm big-breasted ones for a change? Stupid Axel.

"Whoa whoa there, little lady," Coop says as the Garazzo's claws bite into the thick armour plating of the Black Thirteen's chest, and slicing the dangling sign down the middle in the process (GR/ ON). "I'm not looking to make a commitment here. I thought I'd shoot some of you, then maybe some people over there." The Black Thirteen bends backward as the claw withdraws, bringing its left forearm up to meet the attack, claws ripping into the armour. "Besides, you're like eight years old. It's really kind of creepy that you're already going for the whole 'crazy sex' thing."

With that sage advice, Coop pulls the arm across the Black Thirteen's body, trying to spin Healing's unit around so he can punch her in the back. Ah, the back punches.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has attacked Healing Care. Fisting The Teenage Girl From Behind added to their queue. COMBAT: Healing Care has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Evil Coop has struck a major hit on Healing Care's GNZ-005 Garazzo using Fisting The Teenage Girl From Behind. COMBAT: Healing Care has counter attacked for a minor hit on Evil Coop's Black Thirteen using GN Kick.

When the Junk DAG casts out a line, Revive Revival ignites the Gadessa's beam saber, preparing to make a decisive slash with the weapon in case he does get snared. When he jerks the unit out of the way of the cable, the beam saber becomes unnecessary, and thus it just quietly collapses.

Besides, playing with beam sabers? Kid stuff. Revive Revival has bigger fish to fry.

Flying low over the water, Revive's angular monster of a mobile suit causes a hellish spray of water in either direction, sizzling the waves in its wake. "Very naughty, very naughty," Revive tsks to himself, actually /insulted/ by the attempt to rope him. "Fortunately, punishment is at hand."

And that's when Revive fires a rapid succession of GN-particle energy bolts at the area the Junk DAG is swimming in. He's not worried about striking a decisive blow so much as boxing it in, trapping it by cutting off any paths of escape beyond 'sinking' or 'going away.'

In the process, Revive also shoots thirty-two of the thirty-three remaining narwhals on the planet.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Juku Reimaru. GN Mega Launcher - Rapid Fire added to their queue.

The Zaku charges forwards - Kallen intending to be rid of Soma and the machine she was in. Except that simply doesn't happen. The Zaku powers forwards, pulling the heat hawk backwards, swinging it forwards. The beam saber meets it, sparks flashing, sizzling. But Soma has something that ones up Kallen.

She knows how to use a damn gun.

In this case a beam rifle, as the rifle fires, tearing into the Zaku. Holes are made, sizzling through the armoring, exposing internals and blasting off the arm that held the heat hawk. A leg vanishes as well, the Zaku barely able to say afloat.

The sudden salvo fixes that, putting enough holes in the machine, damaging the frame that even the cockpit isn't entirely uneffected. The Zaku floats, bobbing for a moment - Kallen inside in a slow burn of anger - but trying to pull the Zaku up and away. "Move!" She tries, to no avail.

With all the damage the Zaku doesn't stay above water for long. The cockpit, damaged as it was, may not be watertight, either.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "Lieutenant Peries, do you read me?"

Kurz's first burst of fire is just a wee bit wide - undoubtedly the fault of the motion of the ocean - and that's apparently all the warning Leo Stenbuck needs, because although the second burst is dead-on, the 1 Gundam is already gone, accelerating suddenly (and eerily smoothly) away from its former position as gunfire slices through it.

Leo cannot help but take a moment, as he whirls to face the person shooting at him, to thank God he stopped listening to Revive as soon as he figured out what he wanted.

"Haro," Leo barks, as he drags his targetting reticle over towards the faux-backstroking M9, "Keep an eye on Soma! Take out anything that gets close to her!" Obediently, the Haro deploys the Gundam's Fangs, the eight beam daggers ejecting from the shield and curving through the air to take up a defensive perimeter around Soma's Astray.

Meanwhile, the 1 Gundam itself points its buster rifle straight down and fires. Another incredibly thick beam of orange energy punches down into the ocean... but this one strikes the water only a few meters from where Kurz is floating. The good news is that this means it has zero chance of incinerating him and his Gernsback.

THe bad news is that it still causes the water to boil for twenty meters in every direction, burns away thousands of gallons of water into a billowing cloud of steam, and creates a riptide that does its damnedest to drag the Arm Slave under. Not to mention the heat radiating off of the beam, that threatens to soften - or even liquify - the AS's armor.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has attacked Kurz Weber. GN Buster Rifle - Warning Shot added to their queue. COMBAT: Kurz Weber has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has missed Kurz Weber with his GN Buster Rifle - Warning Shot attack.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> The radio signal cuts on right in the middle of an ear-splitting SCREAM of pain. It is definitely Soma's scream, though. <Radio: B - A-SEC> Healing Care transmits, "Sounds like she's having fun!" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "I'll take that as a 'maybe.'"

"Tch!" is about the only response Healing musters.

Ripping the spikes from the arm of the black machine, the Garazzo takes a moment to seemingly try to distance itself from the Black Thirteen. Only when she's accused of being called eight years old does its pilot widen her eyes--before she hoods them angrily. Her face takes on a shade of red.

"Screw /you/, human!" the girl hisses, even as the other machine grips and spins the Garazzo, punching it in the back. In the middle of it all, the Garazzo's feet SNAPS up and delivers some kind of weird mule-kick to the Black Thirteen.

Look, it's a machine, there's no need to go into details.

With a loud, guttural (and girly) scream the pilot of the Garazzo rages and spins the machine BACK around so as to use one hand's five beam claws to try and plunge them deep into the chest of the Black Thirteen and viciously RIP the finger 'sword' nastily out and leave as much destruction in its wake as possible.

"I AM BETTER THAN YOU IN EVERY CONCEIVABLE WAY!"

COMBAT: Healing Care has attacked Evil Coop. GN Beam Sword added to their queue.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?!" Cagalli asks as she brings one of her shields up to countermand that saber slice, batting it away; she pulls the trigger a second too late to follow up with a blast from the gun on the shield, though. Catching her boomerang as it returns, Cagalli returns it to its place on the shield before pulling away.

"It doesn't matter why you do what you're doing?! Are you --" She can't even fathom someone thinking that the 'whys' of an operation they're involved in don't matter. A man like Alex Dino... isn't a man who makes sense to her.

Drawing that heavy blade again, Cagalli decides that she has to get closer to the TDD if she's to protect it from -- from -- people like /that/. And the only way to it is through Lieutenant Alex Dino... so up her ship-cutting blade comes, and almost immediately, it comes back down, aiming for the shoulder of the GOUF.

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

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "Lieutenant Peries, if you can hear me -- /Soma/ -- get out. Now. Fly up, and keep flying up, and don't stop until you're clear. Can you understand me?"

COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command.

SPLOOSH!!!! Bright Noaemo-11 hits water in a reverse-bellyflop (backflop?). Its limbs splayed as it effortlessly sinks into the water, that Gundarium-alpha alloy not the most bouyant thing in the universe.

"Taking on water.." Tom Sensational says.. to himself. Why do mobile suit pilots have a tendency to think aloud rather than.. think.. uh, quietly? "...this Nemo is mostly water-proofed.. but.. damn, my armor's already broken! I'm taking on water anyway!" He reaches up to his helmet, pressing his fingers against the top to slide his visor down. "Things're about to get soggy... Gotta get this moving, quick!"

As the Nemo-11 sinks, the rapidly darkening environment beneath lights up -- with the flare of its backpack veniers! The suit begins lifting, enabling its legs to swing back enough to fire off its foot veniers as well.

"Yeah.. well..!" Hot Gates retorts as she commands the Dodai Kai beneath her Nemo-5 to make a hurried ascension, avoiding the GN-particle slathered-tendrils of the Empruss's Egner Whip. "..that's because.. um.." her eyes shift back and forth. "..let's just say the church and I don't exactly see eye to eye on daytime professions!"

Aboard Nemo-26, Soup Lister whimpers, "...I want my Baffles.."

"Thank -you-, Miss Gates..!" Tom Sensational transmits as his Nemo-11 rushes the Empruss from below. Drawing his other beam saber hilt from its waist-mounted recharge rack, both pink blades glow beneath the daunting Mobile Armor. "For freedom!" he shouts, propelling the mechanical arms of his mobile suit to thrust both blades into the underside of the Empruss!


 * bwzzzwommmm-eeeeeeee!*

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has struck you with a glancing hit from their Ship Cutting Sword Slam attack!

COMBAT: Bright Noa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. Dual Beam Sabers added to their queue.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Healing Care has struck a major critical hit on Evil Coop's Black Thirteen using GN Beam Sword. COMBAT: Evil Coop has counter attacked for a solid hit on Healing Care's GNZ-005 Garazzo using Blazing Sword.

COMBAT: Bright Noa has missed Jung Freud with his Dual Beam Sabers attack.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has struck a solid hit on Juku Reimaru's Junk DAG using GN Mega Launcher - Rapid Fire.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has activated a spirit command.

Swinging a stick at Jiron Amos is only going to get him mad. The trident bounces off the M9's armor, changing it's directly slightly and giving Jiron the room he needs to avoid the thrust. He twists it out of the way, the aquatic thruster pack propelling the M9 past the trident-wielding machine. It just circles around in a tight loop.

Jiron has just gotten the hang of this. Things are starting to get easier. If he knew this sort of machine was so responsive, he would have tried to get his hands on one a while ago! Jiron rounds on the A-LAWS machine, drawing one of the Arm Slave's knives. It seems to have a few. He'd normally just go straight hand-to-hand, but if he can damage it enough, maybe the seawater will take care of the problem for him.

"No way!" replies the operator of the rogue M9. "These guys owe me, and if you take them out, how am I gonna colect?!" He dives forward, straight at the eerily named Deep Forbidden, and then rises in the water, presumably above the trident so he can swing the knife across the thing's upper body, following it with what is basically a deep-sea roundhouse. He's not giving it any room to use that polearm.

He's also /pretty/ sure it's the vibrational kind, but he doesn't know how well that'll work in the water... which may be why he's trying it anyway.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> The screaming stops, but Soma still sounds very strained. She doesn't say anything, but the pain is evident in the choked sounds she's making.

COMBAT: Jiron Amos has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has attacked Fern Calico. Close Quarters Battle added to their queue.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Louise Halevy transmits, "S-Soma?! Soma!" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Louise Halevy transmits, "Stay with us! Come on -- Soma!" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "Jinx-1, I can see your Fangs eyeing her. If her flight path falters, you're to disengage and /carry/ her home if need be." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "But then, I doubt I even need to make that an order." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Jung Freud transmits, "Peries, we've got you! You're gonna be fine, just keep it together for a little bit longer, OK??" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "You don't."

COMBAT: Jiron Amos has missed Fern Calico with his Close Quarters Battle attack.

Nenai Illan will always love fighting its in her blood, 250,000 years of it, but shes learned to not be mindless as she used to be at least. As the missile is launched from the TDD she hears a warning from one of the techs.

"Captain! Incoming Anti ship missile!"

"Gunnery crews I want it shot down!"

The gunners open fire but have a devil of a time getting it in time. They get it but the warheads armed and goes off ripping into the hull, the ships bulk prevents it worse damage but still that was a hell of an shot for a lone missile against the ship.

"Prepare our own missile and fire! Set it for timed detonation!"

Shes out of water when dealing with naval but she does have some common sense in dealing with it the anti ship missile launches and vanishes under the waves, the timer on the war head ticking down, now it remains to be seen if guess of how deep the other ship was on the money.

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Nenai Illan has attacked Teletha Testarossa. Antiship Missile added to their queue. COMBAT: Nenai Illan has missed Teletha Testarossa with her Antiship Missile attack.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Healing Care transmits, "Tch, saving her'd only hold us back and cause us /more/ casualties." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Leo Stenbuck transmits, "..." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "Nnnot the time, Healing dear." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Louise Halevy transmits, "Don't -- don't say that! Not -- we're /so/ close --" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Fern Calico transmits, "Only incompetents run an army that way. No soldier left behind - that's how you should do it."

As the Zaku falls and the radio sounds within the cockpit of the Astray, the Mobile Suit stops midair for a moment. Several more shots are fired downward, though they aren't really -aimed- at the Zaku. The very same seagull soars past behind it.

"Nnnng..." Clutching her head, Soma tries to sort through all the voices coming over the radio. The fight or flee instinct does another check. There is nothing shooting at her right now. The sky is clear. It isn't the time to get into another fight.

The Astray flies upward, soaring toward the A-LAWS forces.

COMBAT: Soma Peries has retreated from the area.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Soma Peries transmits, "...nnnng!" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Revive Revival transmits, "Warrant Officer -- Louise -- don't mind her. Soma will come home safe and sound. You'll see, won't you?"

Coop Cooplowski's cocky smirk (his default expression) widens as he brings both arms of his machine up in a cross block, then flickers as the GN blade parts his armour like butter, then tears deep into the ebon titan's torso. The big man's eyes narrow as he looks at the sword, which is...spitting particles? Hnh. "KIVA - begin scanning enemy machine. Full-spectrum analysis," he orders.

"As you command," a feminine robot voice echoes out.

In the meantime, however...Coop leans forward and grips his controls a little more tightly. "In every way?" he asks as the Black Thirteen's engines blaze, steam blasting out on all sides as the ocean begins to flash-boil, the giant robot seeming to vanish into the mist. "Naw - don't think so, little missy," he says, voice echoing out over the speakers as he brings the Black Thirteen up into the air over the Garazzo, blotting out the sun for a moment as he brings the right leg roaring down.

"I mean, can you piss standing up?" he asks, shaking his head. "Yeah - didn't think so."

COMBAT: Evil Coop has attacked Healing Care. Black Thirteen Kick added to their queue.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Healing Care transmits, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever, bleedin' hearts. I've got this rogue ...whatever to kill. Sorry I can't be sitting her sobbing over some fool who goes and gets her self caught up by a bunch of morons." <Radio: B - A-SEC> Dewey Novak transmits, "Recovering our personnel is an important issue, Miss. Care."

COMBAT: Evil Coop has struck a devastating hit on Healing Care's GNZ-005 Garazzo using Black Thirteen Kick.

Knock Out! Healing Care's GNZ-005 Garazzo unit has become disabled!

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Louise Halevy transmits, "Healing, I -- I like you, but -- stop it!!" <Radio: B - A-SEC> Healing Care transmits, "Louise I like you too, but even you know throwing everyone we have in to just pull someone out is silly!"

Juku doesn't bother to counter attack this time. She figured wether she reels in her catch or not, she's too slow to counter properly. So she just put up the DAG's dukes, taking the GN beam strikes on the arms instead of the main body, slaggign nothing but spare armor.

Something hapens though. all of those beam shots that don't hit the DAG, stab into the ocean, and slowly but surely the water turns dark. "Huh?" Juku looks around and sees... Narwhal. "What..." half bodies of the sea mammel floating up through the water.

Something in Juku just plain snaps. It doesn't make any sense, theres not even a real reason for it. The results are very very real.

The Junk DAG suddenly explodes out of the water on rocket thrusters, right in front of the GN powered machine, both hands of the machine occuppied by a large weapon, gicing a very distinct VRRRRRRRRRRRRR

And The Junk DAG descends on the Gadessa, swinging both chainsaws at the Mobile suit in wild strikes.

"NARWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!"

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has activated a spirit command.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Then, thankfully, Healing's communications are cut out.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has attacked Revive Revival. Texas Salvage Saw Massacre added to their queue. COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has missed Revive Revival with her Texas Salvage Saw Massacre attack. COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Juku Reimaru with his GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot counter attack.

Not at all liking the thought of letting that damned rifle landing a shot anywhere near him after having seen what it did with just that opening volley, Kurz arches his back in the cradle of his M9, working the AS into a awkward dive after he angled the nose of his backpack into the water and let those jet engines do the rest. The last Leo would see of the M9 were it's feet as they dived into the water and then it's shadowy sihlouette as it dove down and out of sight.

Hoping that the binary explosives could fire off underwater, Kurz brought that rifle to the M9's shoulder, hefting it up and taking aim at the vague outline of Leo's unit only to have his plan derailed by the shape of a Zaku in the water. Kallen's. "Eh, so she got shot down again?" he muttered to himself as he peered over at the drifting unit. He didn't have a choice in the matter. Stowing the gun, Kurz makes a B-line towards the downed unit, "Yo, Red-head, you alive in there?" quizzed Kurz as he pulled up along side the drownding zeek leftover. Answer or now, he went about doing some minor work, water-proof sealant foam jetting out from a hidden nozzel in one of the M9's knuckles, trying to patch up any holes he could see around the cockpit hatch and upper body.

War continues. Healing Care is charging Evil Coop, Jung notices when she lets her eyes flick back at the map. That's pretty nice, she thinks to herself. Either way - she wins!

She stops being bitchy as the Nemo she's targetted evades her whips, which Jung chooses to blame on a lack of practice in whipping with a giant-ass lobster claw. She also has the /strangely familiar, at this point/ noise of a suffering, screaming fellow pilot ringing in her ear, which makes her take a quick pair of breaths to clear her mind.

The GN Field flares suddenly, and the incoming beam sabers - dissipate?? They leave a deep carbonized streak on the paint, but seem not to dig in, the horrible crimson trickle, like someone was pouring glowing devil red soda over the front of the Empruss, eroding the power of those beam sabers. "Yeah," Jung says with some sympathy, "we've all had our arguments with religion."

Then, that whip-bearing claw retracts its lashes and snakes outwards and back, aiming to grab, crunch, and hurl that Nemo into the salty deeps as well!

COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. Grappler Arms added to their queue. COMBAT: Jung Freud has missed Bright Noa with her Grappler Arms attack.

Vibroblades work fine underwater, which is why Fern has absolutely no interest in letting Jiron connect with it. She uses the tines of the trident to keep the weapon away from her; it leaves a score down the plain old regular metal of the trident the Deep Forbidden wields, but the weapon remains more or less intact.

There is a lot of room in the sea. Fern gives up space in favour of damage, letting herself be moved away from the Tuatha rather than taking the kick in the face. She can come back if she has to. Of course, the fact that he /follows/ makes it a little hard for her to use her trident properly.

Fern's smirk comes back as the Deep Forbidden... changes. The backpack it wears lifts up, tilts forward, and locks into place over the GM-like head of the frame; the enormous shields on the sides unlock with popping sounds and swivel, the blunt end of the teardrop-shaped shields forward.

Suddenly, pincers flip out of the sides, wickedly curved scimitars with the cutting blade on the inside of the curve instead of the outside. Fern immediately uses the very proximity Jiron was trying to keep to try to snap off one of the Gernsback's arms, or at least damage the upper limb. "I said, get out."

Fern Calico's GAT-706S Deep Forbidden transforms into its Close Combat mode. COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Jiron Amos. Pincer Snap added to their queue. COMBAT: Fern Calico has missed Jiron Amos with her Pincer Snap attack.

"... A mission is a mission. It doesn't change that I know exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing," Alex transmits pointedly even as the GOUF's solid sword is knocked away, the beam edge around the solid base crackling chaotically.

"Can you say the same?"

The Guul continues its backward retreat from the source of the actual TDD; it would seem, for all intents and purposes, that Alex isn't particularly interested in the actual ship itself. Islands begin to come into Dino's field of vision. If he can use the trees there for cover, then--

His thoughts are cut off the second that the ship-cutting blade comes down upon the GOUF's shoulder. The Crusher responds suddenly, its Tempest Blade swinging up to parry the blow; the sword, however, is too large, too heavy, to stop the full bore of its momentum. Instead, the Tempest blade merely deflects it and though it doesn't cleave the ZAFT suit's arm clean off its shoulder, it /does/ cleave straight into the torso. A thick gash spills electricity forth like erratic gushes of blood as the GOUF bursts backward and Dino's teeth grit together.

"Ca-- Princess Athha -- I know you mean well, but..." The GOUF's Impact Vice swings forward again. At the same motion, the Tempest blade is swung, to aim the solid flat of the sword and bash it into the torso of the Rouge. Its aimed to batter the cockpit, to disorient and knock Cagalli about in the cockpit and bat the Rouge away, at which point the Impact Vice swings out, the vice-like crusher claw seeking to /clamp/ down on the Rouge's right arm, /crush/ down, and /yank/ it forward -- into the waiting knee of the GOUF looking to plant itself in the Strike's midsection with crushing force. "... your methods aren't going to work."

COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. The Crushinator added to their queue. COMBAT: You have struck Cagalli Yula Athha with a devastating critical hit using The Crushinator. COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has counter attacked for a minor hit using Railgun!

<Radio: A - A-CHAT> Huang Qin Shi transmits, "While you're on, Colonel Novak, I was meaning to have a word about your current directive."

Revive Revival's nightmares will be haunted with the ghosts of thirty-two bisected narwhals shrieking for narwhal vengeance, which is also calleed 'narwhengeance.'

Nightmares or wet dreams.

Whichever. Same thing.

Anyway, Revive dashes off some orders over the radio and checks up on the fleeing Young Miss Peries before, suddenly, the Junk DAG bursts out of the water, like a whale doing a backflip in a soda commercial, but with less marketing potential (at least regarding soda, anyway). "Gah--!"

Revive jerks back, the chainsaws whiffing but only barely, his instinctive counterattack going wide and causing a humpback whale to explode -- blubber rains from the sky in globby splats against the water.

"Oh, now that one /really/ wasn't /my/ fault," Revive sighs. "You should have had the good sense to take the shot for that poor, poor whale. Tell you what. Do-over."

Revive flips a switch, and surplus energy the GN-Tau's been feeding his Mega Launcher starts to seep into the barrel, causing a blinding orange glow to build -- and release, right toward the center of the Junk DAG's mass.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Juku Reimaru. GN Mega Launcher - Low Output added to their queue.

<Radio: A - A-CHAT> Dewey Novak transmits, "You do, really, Mr. Qin Shi? Please, proceed to the Ginga, we do not want to have such conversations over a broad channel, mm?"

Though the Garazzo manages to land a nasty blow on the Thirteen...Healing Care's arrogance once again becomes the bane of her existence--whether she knows or bothers to address it or not is another matter altogether!

"Uh, did you not HEAR me, you ignorant ape?!" barks the Cyber-Newtype, violet eyes wide as she stares at the massive black machine plastered on her monitor. It's about /then/ the thing starts evaporating the ocean and pissing off the WWE before it screams up into the air and blots out the sun. Healing Care squints and just continues to look agitated; the radio blathering doesn't help her mood any.

Then, like Thor's hammer, the Black Thirteen descends with a kick.

"I CAN IF I REALLY WANT TO BUT THAT IS IRREL--" the radio shouts back at Evil Coop.

Then, in a glorious plume of red, the Garazzo

E X P L O D E S

Somewhere in the midst of it--to the dismay of /many/ of her 'fellow' A-LAWS--a small escape pod and the GN drives flee to safety. Next time, Gadget. NEXT TIME.

<Radio: A - A-CHAT> Huang Qin Shi transmits, "Oh - I was meaning to secure an appointment, actually." <Radio: A - A-CHAT> Huang Qin Shi transmits, "I did not expect you to be free immediately, truthfully, and I'm in the middle of some delicate tests. Should I contact your assistant to arrange a suitable time?" <Radio: A - A-CHAT> Dewey Novak transmits, "Certainly." <Radio: A - A-CHAT> Dewey Novak transmits, "A good commander always cares to listen to the concerns of those beneath him, after all, Huang. I can of course call you Huang?" <Radio: A - A-CHAT> Huang Qin Shi transmits, "As you wish, sir."

COMBAT: Revive Revival has struck a major hit on Juku Reimaru's Junk DAG using GN Mega Launcher - Low Output.

When, after a few tense moments, Kurz doesn't return fire, Leo assumes that he's either been disabled or - regrettably - killed. He does his best not to think about the latter possibility - even now, years later, he is still only kind of sort of okay with it in most cases. Thankfully, today it proves easy, because he has someone else's life to worry about!

The 1 Gundam turns and accelerates towards the climbing Astray containing Soma; its Fangs remain spread out around it, occasionally punching through a Kathy unfortunate enough to think about possibly someday shooting at someone whose name is, or rhymes with, Soma. The Gundam coasts right up to the ascending Astray and grabs it by the midsection, using its own thrust to help the thing rise.

Leo, meanwhile, opens a contact circuit communications channel! "Soma," the young man says, as gently as he can manage considering that they are still in a God damn war zone. "It's me. I need you to tell me if you're hurt. Can you do that for me?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Soup Lister screams in defiance. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH GOD I HATE FIGHTING!! WHY MUST YOU ADULTS MAKE US FIGHT ALL THE TIME--!?!?" His slender, girl-esque hands stab at the controls in a frantic and reckless mess. His Nemo-26 levels its beam rifle at the Empruss, its output-safety mechanism popping off with a clang of metal. Pink energy coalesces around the tines of the barrel, eliciting a loud whining noise as it begins to fade out into a brilliant white.

"..Oh jesus," Hot Gates murmurs aloud, her Nemo-5's head turned to the side to glimpse just what her Nemo-pilot colleague is up to. "...I really, really hate whoever's idea it was to put anyone who barely got out of puberty into a mobile suit. Sorry, you! But it's time to motor!" she salutes from the depths of her cockpit at the Empruss pilot before her Nemo-5 veers off to the side.

"I JUST WANTED TO WATCH ANIME AND EAT DEVIL DOGS ALL DAMN DAY! BUT YOU ADULTS MAKE ME FIGHT!" bleats a completely obnoxious Soup. His Nemo-26's systems are blasting him with warnings regarding the stress he's putting on the compact Minovsky fusion reactor. He doesn't seem to notice because his voice hits that damn high. Jesus christ what the hell is wrong with him. "I'LL TEACH YOU!!!!"

The beam rifle discharges its load at the Empruss!


 * BLAOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!*

<Radio: A - A-CHAT> Dewey Novak transmits, "Now, now, Huang. There is no need to call me 'Sir.'" <Radio: A - A-CHAT> Dewey Novak transmits, "Colonel will do."

COMBAT: Bright Noa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. The GM Killer added to their queue.

<Radio: A - A-CHAT> Huang Qin Shi transmits, "As you wish, Colonel." <Radio: A - A-CHAT> Dewey Novak transmits, "Excellent."

COMBAT: Bright Noa has missed Jung Freud with his The GM Killer attack. COMBAT: Jung Freud has missed Bright Noa with her Grappler Arms counter attack.

Two battleships - one, the stealthiest ship in the sea. The other, a terrifyingly powerful Zentradi warmachine. It shouldn't be an easy call to make. But....

Mardukas frowns. Shot it down. Not that easy. Right. "They'll be returning fire. EMFC online, all speed to port." The command echoes down the chain, and the TDD-1 stops moving forward, and starts just /sliding/ to one side - quite impossibly, especially for a machine that size.

Nenai's missile explodes above, rupturing the sea, but thanks to the maneuver, the Danaan is just out of range of the explosion, suffering little more than some rattling. Not clear yet - not yet. And they've got to get that M9 back, too. Hrrrn. "Comms, get in touch with that unit. I don't care who the hijacker is, they were aboard this submarine and I want to know everything I can." The Captain, he knows, will probably let them off with a hug, but...either way. "Weapons, launch SUBLARS. Don't burst the shells until they're within enemy defensive fire range."

"Aye, sir!"

Two things happen. One is that Jiron encounters an override on his communications of a pretty young communications officer calling, "Unknown pilot, you are in Mithril property! Identify yourself!"

The other is that a pair of rockets erupt from the sea, screaming upward toward Nenai's ship - and just before they get into range of her anti-missile targetting, they burst open, revealing they are full of dozens of even smaller rockets.

COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has attacked Nenai Illan. Submarine-Launched Rockets added to their queue. COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has struck a solid hit on Nenai Illan's Thuverl-Salan using Submarine-Launched Rockets. COMBAT: Nenai Illan has missed Teletha Testarossa with her Antifighter Missile counter attack.

Juku will be having similar dreams, dreams of the spirits of thirty two Narwhals asking her to get vengance for them.

She will blame it on bad guacamole.

Again the Junk DAG's arms cross over itself and take the brunt of the attack - and there is a lot of brunt to take. The arms bubble and boil, the armor ready to slough right off, but they... keep moving? It's like theres a second layer of armor under all the junk.

"Actually, I find whale to be delicious."

The DAG starts falling back into the water. "Oh..." the rocket motors sputter out. "I forgot I used up most of the fuel earlier..." The DAG drops into the ocean like an over sized stone into a puddle *PLOP*

Then it fires a Hyperbazooka at Revive, because damnit. Juku wants to hurt something.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has attacked Revive Revival. Hyper Bazooka added to their queue.

The Impact Vice catches Cagalli's machine, though she fires a quick shot from one of the shoulder-supported railguns to disincentivize staying that close for too long. "I -- of course I know why I'm doing what I'm doing!" she transmits back, as the machine's midsection crunches against the knee of the GOUF, Cagalli's face smashing into the panoramic monitor /in spite/ of the linear seat.

Swallowing hard and trying to retain her focus, Cagalli decides to take a page out of a book she's read pretty thoroughly at this point -- Kai Shiden's. "And yours will?! You think trying to bring everyone together under your banner by force is going to help?! Is that when this ends -- when all of your enemies are dead or working for you?!"

Rather than trying to break the hold, Cagalli swivels both of the heavy shoulder cannons down to face Athrun's unit, punching in a quick fire pattern. The machine pulls lower and away from sheer force, as the Princess fires shot after shot from those massive cannons.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has activated a spirit command.

"Man, now you're suddenly bitching about pilot age," Jung complains at Hot Gates. "I can't believe this!" And then, even as Soup Lister jerks his beam rifle up, charging it up and preparing it for the ultimate release of victory, Jung feels a blue tension in the back of her head. She grasps one sub control, hearing the man-child screaming behind her about Devil Dogs!?

"What the hell is a Devil Dog," she says, even as the left claw whips out then, detaching from the side of the Empruss, curling around under its own terrible GN pressure, and grasping that beam rifle right in the middle, slicing it in half and, of course, comprehensively spoiling the climax and its relief for Mr. Lister.

Even as the Empruss pivots, the claw remains where it is, sliding up to try and dig and tear at the limbs of the Nemo, Jung saying in irritation as she does, "Shut up, you pussy! God! Every man who watches those cheap capitalist cartoons turns into a chronically masturbating man child! If you don't want to fight, you should have stayed home! And if you're that angry -"

The claw raises up and swings down, finally, in an overhead clobber. "SHOW ME YOUR SKILLS!"

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Alex Dino. Dual Shoulder Cannons added to their queue.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. Grappler Frenzy added to their queue. COMBAT: Jung Freud has missed Bright Noa with her Grappler Frenzy attack.

COMBAT: Alex Dino has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has struck you with a major hit using Dual Shoulder Cannons! COMBAT: 3550 points of damage taken! 3998 health points left!

<Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Jung Freud transmits, "Alex, Fern, you two copacetic?" <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "If that means 'am I fine', yes." <Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Fern Calico transmits, "Tied up with a Gernsback, but I've got the advantage. They're not made for this."

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has missed Revive Revival with her Hyper Bazooka attack.

<Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Alex Dino's transmission is drowned out by the sound of explosions, "--ll figh --" and some more "--ot it covered!"

"UUUUUUUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" cries out Soup, his face a wide-eyed mask of red-cheeked horror at the incoming claws. Grasping the hand-controls of his Nemo-26, he twists it back and shifts hard to the right.

In response, the stalwart Nemo-26 brings its slightly melted shield up to bare. The claws swing forward, but Nemo-26 tries to intercept it. The shield swings out like a plated door, trying to bash those claws away!

COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. Shield Bash added to their queue.

Several years ago, when he first found Megas, Coop Cooplowski would have dropped a crotch chop or two following a move like that. Instead, he kicks in his thrusters again to keep the Black Thirteen from submerging entirely, and slowly lifts his machine out of the cloud of quickly cooling mist, which slowly flows down the black machine's legs.

"This just proves my policy of not sticking it in the crazy," the big man says as he glances at the preliminary reports from KIVA, wincing at the damage. "Almost...radiation burns?" he asks, tracing a finger along his display. "But not quite..." Coop glances around for the fallen blade, and sighs as he realizes it's on its way to the bottom of the ocean now. Damn.

He shrugs his shoulders - he'll have to pay closer attention next time, he thinks as he scans the area for his next target(s). "Could always spray the area with missiles," he says. "But where's the challenge in that? Need some dude who ain't already bleching smoke..." A rapid pinging echoes out from the roof of the cockpit as KIVA inteprets his chatter as a command, and Coop's neck cranes upward to stare at the rising Astray, being chased by the 1 Gundam.

The big man smiles and cycles through his display. "Access Weaponspace," he orders, then doubletaps a long-barreled weapon, the name 'MIRABELLE' blinking on the screen. A black hole yawns open in the air next to the Black Thirteen, and Coop reaches the machine's right arm into it, slowly drawing out what for all intents and purposes appears to be a massive flintlock weapon measuring some 300 feet in height. The big blonde carefully raises it up toward his robot's chin, takes aim at the fleeing pair, and pulls the trigger. What flies out is not so much a musket ball as a hunk of steel weighing in the vicinity of a thousand pounds.

It also does not so much fly as it does reach escape velocity.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Blip. The IFF signal on Soma's Mobile Suit is fast approaching the A-LAWS transport ships.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has attacked Leo Stenbuck. Flintlock Railgun added to their queue.

COMBAT: Bright Noa has struck a solid critical hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss using Shield Bash.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has struck a major hit on Leo Stenbuck's 1 Gundam using Flintlock Railgun.

Jiron, having little experience with vibroblades, is surprised and pleased to see that they do. He may have to get something like this in case they ever figure out how to seal Xabungle up against water--if they even manage to fix it, that is. He reminds himself what he's fighting for /this/ time. It's a step in the right direction for his larger one.

The sudden shift in the Deep Forbidden's frame and the equally sudden appearance of scimitar-like pincers doesn't catch Jiron as unawares as Fern may wish. The M9, already moving upwards, flips itself upside-down and rolls. The pincers pass close to the arm, scissoring past it and only disturbing the water around it. The M9 keeps going, over and around the Deep Forbidden, keeping up with it and chasing it like a persistant wasp with a deadly stinger.

"Attacks are all about patterns, right," Jiron mutters to himself questioningly. He pulls the M9 around again and darts at the Deep Forbidden, passing it on one side, hurling one of the knives towards the other. He rapidly draws a second, trying to thrust it behind the shields and let it bite into the armor to damage the joints while the first distracts with theoretically less punishment.

Helpfully, they then explode.

"That's /awesome/," Jiron marvels. He's about to say something to Fern when--

Suddenly, Bridge Bunny. Jiron blinks. "Uh, me? I'm Jiron Amos. Who're /you/," he retorts, possibly smartly (for him).

COMBAT: Jiron Amos has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has attacked Fern Calico. Cargo School of Knife Fighting added to their queue. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has struck a major critical hit on Fern Calico's Close Combat using Cargo School of Knife Fighting.

Revive Revival pulls out of the way of the bazooka shell. His machine is emitting plumes of sparkly smoke -- damaged still from that first great shot that blasted its robot crotch to pieces -- but it still moves easily, never once drifting too close to the surface of the water.

"Tsk," Revive Revival sighs. "I don't care what you find delicious, if we're being honest. And in fact, I'm rather tired of this. You bore me. As a pilot, as a mechanism, as a person, as anything. So let's make an end of it, shall we?"

The Mega Launcher thrums loudly and ominously. The noise alone is enough to frighten seagulls for miles. The superweapon surges with power, the glow of its GN energy moving from burnt orange to something so bright that it's like looking at the sun, a blinding white heat.

The blast that emerges from the Mega Launcher is enough to boil a huge section of the sea. It blossoms outward like a monsoon, seeking to give the Junk DAG no escape, and no mercy -- likewise the ocean beneath it, a huge half-sphere of water maybe a mile deep at its center suddenly just /vanishing/, steam pouring into the sky, the waves immediately struggling to fill in what's been taken from them.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Revive Revival has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Revive Revival has attacked Juku Reimaru. GN Mega Launcher - Apocalypse added to their queue.

Nenai Illan sees what happened too late, the enemy sub is more manouverable than anything the EFA has in the water. Without Global here it's not going to go too well. The rockets hit and the damage is noticable this time to the hull of the large ship. But this is where it's getting problematic to deal with. Nenai knows she's out of her legue now but the attacks contiune this time the counter attack is smaller, anti fighter missiles set for timed detonation in a wide spread pattern.

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has attacked Teletha Testarossa. Antifighter Missile added to their queue.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has missed Teletha Testarossa with her Antifighter Missile attack.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has struck a major hit on Juku Reimaru's Junk DAG using GN Mega Launcher - Apocalypse.

And then, suddenly, the 1 Gundam isn't clinging to Soma's Astray anymore.

This is because it has just been scraped off by a thousand pound ball of metal going Fuck You miles per hour. The ball's line of fire takes it - and thus the Gundam - down into the ocean about two miles away with a huge splash, blasting a column of water several hundred feet into the air.

It takes about ten seconds for the water to get (relatively) still again... and then it erupts again as the 1 Gundam bursts out of the water on a cloud of orange GN particles. Although its left arm appears to be entirely gone, its buster rifle is still clutched in its right; it raises the weapon towards Black Thirteen, merely a speck at this distance, an--

"SOMA, SOMA," Haro wails, fraught with worry. "SOMA, SOMA!"

Leo glowers at his targetting reticle where it hovers over one Howard Cooplowski for a few moments... and then the 1 Gundam turns and accelerates upwards again, moving to reunite with Soma and get the F out of dodge.

COMBAT: Leo Stenbuck has retreated from the area.

"Trying to maintain peace and fix things from within is better than just killing good people because they disagree with you! We can't -- we can't survive on Katharon's self-centered logic! That kind of arrogance -- that's how people like Patrick Zala are born!" Alex shouts back despite himself, his lips peeling back into a snarl of agitation. He tries to tell himself it's because of the cannons that are suddenly pummeling the GOUF with bursts of bright hot plasma discharges. Each pulse rips through armor; one cooks and melts its right shoulder, another chars its head. A third blasts through the Impact Vice, slowly churning through the metal before ripping it clean off its hinges. He tries to tell himself it's because of this.

But he knows it's not.

The mobile suit's right arm locks back into place right as a final burst /punctures/ through the Guul's rightmost thruster. "Shit!" Its flight begins to destabilize as the remaining thrusters attempt to compensate, leading the deep crimson machine into a bizarre wobble through the skies. Alex's eyes clench tight.

"I promised I wouldn't let the people of ZAFT be threatened again! How about you!? Cagalli, you could have -- you--!" The Guul isn't going to last for long. Instead of attempting to maintain its flight, then Alex does something else entirely; something else that might be reckless. The GOUF /leaps/ from the Guul after setting its final flight path for the Rouge. By the time Alex's eyes open again-- his pupils are the size of pinpricks.

"Don't you see the path your taking is the one that is going to be the most harmful!?"

The GOUF descends, holding its Tempest sword up high. It aims not for the chest of the Rouge, or the head, or the limbs --

--but for the flight back, intent to take away its ability to fly through the skies right there and then.

Alex Dino changes into his SEED Mode pilot form. COMBAT: Alex Dino has attacked Cagalli Yula Athha. Flying's For Chumps added to their queue.

The extended angle of the grappler claw, as well as the sheer power of Soup Lister's incoherent, frothing, privileged-white-anime-nerd-boy rage, make it crack - twitch - and hang limp!

Jung goggles for a moment even as the Empruss twists in the other direction, losing speed for a few moments. "Sweet shit on a cracker," she says, having no other clear comment for the situation and being momentarily distracted by the explosions of Alex Dino. As the air grows steadily steamier thanks to the hilarious power output of Revive Revival, she pivots around.

"Not bad," she tells the man. "What's your name, kid? I'm Jung. It's been a pleasure - well, not really, you're screaming at me like I stole your animes. Yeah, forget this," then she hits overboost:

The GN Field glitters around the damaged but intact Empruss as it charges the probably-fat man's machine, whipping around as if executing a bootlegger turn at the last moment -- which turns those arch, angled wings, into impromptu, glittering, red-sheened blades of lethal force right into the lower part of his Nemo.

Jiron's strategy works surprisingly well. Fern has only fought a Gernsback once or twice; she doesn't remember that the knives explode until far too late, and blocking with the shield so that the first weapon stuck in turns out to have not been the greatest idea in the world. It doesn't help that the Gernsback is annoyingly swift, even in the water.

The second knife strikes home and damages the backpack - now 'head' - of the Deep Forbidden badly enough that Fern snarls. She reaches back, checking her link to the systems - fine. Undamaged. So now it's j ust dealing with her opponent. She can handle that.

The shoulders of Deep Forbidden click once before both of them expel a simultaneous torpedo, moving absurdly fast (well, for a torpedo; it's only about four hundred kilometers an hour) directly at the Gernsback. Fern favours the undamaged limb and wields her trident in only one hand now, backing up, expecting Jiron to follow.

She has plans.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Fern Calico has attacked Jiron Amos. Twin Supercavitating Torpedo added to their queue.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. GN Wing Cleave added to their queue. COMBAT: Bright Noa has activated a spirit command.

There is no reply from the Super Soldier inside the Astray. The radio line remains open, though, and Soma's voice -can- be heard... though there are no words, just pained whimpers. She's trying to fight back the pain, but it's not easy.

COMBAT: Jung Freud has missed Bright Noa with her GN Wing Cleave attack.

Juku, dryly replies. "So sorry I couldn't entertain you. But if you need a mechanism to entertain you. I hear they deliver those in plain brown paper wrapping these days."

The Junk DAG basically has no chance of escaping as it descends through the water. It can't manuver, and the emergency bouyancy air bags won't do didly squate fast enough to change it's course. Especially not when the incoming blast vapourizes enouwgh water to fill a goddamn football stadium. What Juku does see that she can do... is several pieces of debries floating down from the battle.

Robotic arms reach out and grasp pieces of mobile suit and ship and start haphazardly welding it to the DAG. Juku grits her teeth, and holds on tight.

The blast practically detonates the water. Piece of debries obviously belonging to the Junk DAG fly upwards, chunks of torso and limbs are smashed under the waves rushing in to cover the hole. The Junk DAG is defeated.

But not Juku.

An intense N-Jammer feild prevents it's immediate discovery, but the new Mobile Suit, REX Hound picks up a piece blasted off the Junk DAG and hefts it up. Magnetic accelerators blast tiny particles of metal through the water and up into the air. Iron Oxide and Aluminum, each of them statically charged by the propulsion. A 'fuse' of magnisum goes off in the chamber, and the stream of metal particles suddenly ignites at tempreture hot enough to vapourize steel. Juku made it as a tool, an underwater/space use thermite cutting beam. Or as she likes to refer to it as...

Juku Reimaru activates her REX Hound unit. COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has attacked Revive Revival. Lava Railgun added to their queue. COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has struck a major hit on Revive Revival's GNZ-003 Gadessa using Lava Railgun. COMBAT: Revive Revival has counter attacked for a minor hit on Juku Reimaru's REX Hound using GN Mega Launcher - Rifle Quick Shot.

COMBAT: Fern Calico has struck a major hit on Jiron Amos's M9 Gernsback using Twin Supercavitating Torpedo.

COMBAT: You have struck Cagalli Yula Athha with a major hit using Flying's For Chumps.

Knock Out! Cagalli Yula Athha's Strike Rouge IWSP unit has become disabled! COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has counter attacked for a minor hit using Beam Rifle! COMBAT: 546 points of damage taken! -545 health points left!

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

"Soup.. use.. your.. beam-saber!" Tom Sensational gasps out from the depths of his Nemo-11. The poor mobile suit has been clinging to the bottom of the Empruss, trying to determine a weak spot in the mobile armor, while simultaneously watching from the feeds.

"WAAAAAAAAH!!" Soup cries out, as incoherent as he is inconsolable. Is he even listening? The servo-motors of his Nemo-26's right arm whirs as it moves back, holstering the beam rifle in favor for one of those beam saber hilts. The weapon ignites quickly, catching the edge of the Empruss's wingblades.

The buzzing of energy is everywhere, filling Soup's ears and echoing off the corners of his Nemo-26's core block. The Dodai Kai beneath is struggling to provide thrust, to keep him aloft as he holds the Empruss at bay. Its failing -- the Empruss is too strong! Nemo-26 is being pushed backward while thick black smoke billows out from under the lifts's vents.

"Oh Allah!" Hot Gates gasps as she compels her Nemo-5 to curve around for another attack. Catching the Empruss in her sights, she attempts a quick lock-on with the system's targeting co-processors as she speedily tries to rescue Hot Soup.

"It doesn't matter what your name is!" Nemo-5 cries out as pink beams lance forward!

COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. Beam Rifle added to their queue. COMBAT: Bright Noa has struck a minor hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss usi ng Beam Rifle.

The superheated material of Juku's Lava Railgun splashes onto Revive Revival like a small child being shot with a Super Soaker full of hydrochloric acid, with results that are nearly as hilarious. The GN Mega Launcher is hefted out of the way, the Gadessa turning to take most of the blow on its back and side when it's clear that it's too late to dodge--

--and this is why the damn thing gets halfway melted, sharp points and sleek curves dissolving into a soupy mass. "GAH!" Revive shouts, banging on his control panel, as if it was the unit's fault that it was melting. "That's it -- that's /IT/! I'm had enough of this -- ENOUGH!" Somewhere, Simon Furman gets a royalty check: "It's OVER -- /FINISHED/!"

And then the GN Mega Launcher fires again, and once more, it's like a star detonating.

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

Comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon


 * FUCKBLAMMO*

"YES!" Coop shouts, pumping the fist with the railgun into the air as Leo Stenbuck and the 1 Gundam go spinning down, down, down into watery freedom. "Can you BELIEVE that?" he asks, looking around, arms held wide. "I mean I /know/ I'm outstanding, but sometimes...wow!" He looks around. "Just picked that little bastard off the other little bastard." He blinks. His arms drop. He frowns. Oh come /on/. "What, /nobody/ saw that?" Coop asks, sounding disbelieving. A muscle tics over his right temple. "You know what the worst thing about hopping from dimension to dimension is, Kiva?" he asks conversationally.

"The lack of some basic--"

"The LACK of some BASIC FREAKING RESPECT around here!" he shouts. The Black Thirteen's armour plating begins sliding away as racks of missiles set themselves into position. "I mean, by the time you finally get to the point where they're all fearing your name and fleeing before you, you know what the problem is, Kiva?"

"They're all too de--"

"They're all too DEAD to appreciate it," he confirms. Black holes begin dropping missile batteries onto the giant robot's shoulders, one after the other, until they're stacked about ten high and tilting forward ominously. "And you've gotta do all the crazy psycho crap over and over again just to get back to where you belong, even though it's wasteful," he says with a sigh as target locks being sounding, er, everywhere. "I swear, it's hard being this good," he says with a sigh.

"You are a pillar of patience, Emperor."

"Well, that's nice of you to say so."

COMBAT: Evil Coop has activated a spirit command.

Thinking fast, the Princess of Orb fires one last quick shot from her beam rifle, aiming it squarely for the main camera of the GOUF; unfortunately, it comes much too late, and the full mass of the machine comes down on her, simultaneously piercing through the IWSP with that Tempest blade.

The Princess's machine skitters wildly out of control, floating over the surface of the water for some distance before finally plunging under, GOUF still locked in that vicious embrace. Both machines skim along the surface for a great distance, before finally disappearing -- either under the water or beyond the horizon, it's not entirely clear.

The Princess goes to answer Alex's accusations, his statmeents, but her comms are out; her words, whatever they might have been, are lost to the sands of time as the machines grind together, moving farther and farther away.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Revive Revival has missed Juku Reimaru with his GN Mega Launcher - High Output attack.

The enemy sub is more maneuverable than literally any other ship in the sea. There are mobile suits that can't move like the TDD does. Aquatic-use ones.

It's helped by the fact that its commanders are two of the best captains alive, too, which Nenai is not.

Mardukas frowns. "That's..." his eyes narrow. She's trying to find him, he thinks, as the missiles shoot across the range toward them. Pin down their location - or at least, get a hit while firing blindly. But that's what it is - firing blindly into the water and hoping to get lucky. "So this is the level of their captains?" Mardukas mutters. "Continue the dive. Don't worry about the missiles."

"But Commander!"

"They're anti-fighter weapons," he notes. "They're not meant for sea use at all, let alone to fire at a vessel this deep. Return fire - Tube 5, harpoon missile."

The de Danaan's upper launch tubes burst open again, releasing another blast from one of the Vertical Launch Systems, sending a high-yield missile screaming into the air - a one-shot attempt to scuttle the Zentradi ship, or at least make it busy enough that the de Danaan can make good its retreat.

Meanwhile: "This is the communications officer for the TDD-1 Tuatha de Danaan. Jiron Amos, you're piloting our property! Thank you for assisting us in this battle, but, we need you to bring it b--"

Mardukas stalks over and snatches the command headset, snapping in a British and COMPLETELY TERRIFYING voice, "Son, get that thing back aboard this ship before we leave you /behind/, and we'll see how much the A-LAWS likes you when you're piloting a weapon they've been trying to steal for years!" Nevermind A-LAWS is barely four months old.

COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has attacked Nenai Illan. Harpoon Missile added to their queue.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has attacked Jung Freud, Teletha Testarossa, Bright Noa, Fern Calico, and Jiron Amos. All the Goddamn Missiles added to their queue.

<Radio: B - A-SEC> Alex Dino's radio sputters and goes dead just about the time his IFF signal is similarly cut off.

COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has struck a solid hit on Nenai Illan's Thuverl-Salan using Harpoon Missile. COMBAT: Nenai Illan has missed Teletha Testarossa with her Antifighter Missile counter attack.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has struck a glancing hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss using All the Goddamn Missiles. COMBAT: Jung Freud has counter attacked for a minor hit on Evil Coop's Black Thirteen using GN Cannon Quick Burst. COMBAT: Evil Coop has missed Teletha Testarossa with his All the Goddamn Missiles attack.

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Evil Coop has missed Bright Noa with his All the Goddamn Missiles attack. COMBAT: Evil Coop has missed Fern Calico with his All the Goddamn Missiles attack. COMBAT: Evil Coop has struck a major hit on Jiron Amos's M9 Gernsback using All the Goddamn Missiles.

The Junk DAG was out of Rocket Fuel. The REX Hound has a different reserve, thankfully. The thruster ignite and shoot the REX backwards and up through te water, away from the flash vapourized zone of water.

The REX breaks throuwgh the water, a completely different machine then what Revive faced before. An ally out for revenge? It swings the Lava Railgun behind it's back and draws out a different rifle. The Free Electron Laser retunes itself to a pencile thin beam of ultraviolet light, stabbing out at the half melted Mobile Suit in an effort to cut a piece right off like a knife.

COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has attacked Revive Revival. Free Electron Laser - Ultraviolet added to their queue.

<Radio: E - Frat-Unit> Alex Dino transmits, "Might be having a bit of prob--" Before his radio abruptly and loudly cuts off.

The transmissions coming from BENEATH THE EMPRUSS make Jung look downwards reflexively. "Ehh?? You leech!" she says, mildly impressed as well as, well, annoyed. Incoming beam rifles hit the GN Field, but unfortunately for Jung, her particle density supply is running lower and lower. This is a negative mission outcome in the making.

Alex's comm goes out.

There is a sudden eruption of immense hostile intent floating behind her. Jung feels her spinal muscles stiffening in sympathetic reflex already.

"Hyaaah," she breathes out, loudly, in lieu of screaming (for once) as she stops trying to be witty, or trying to be anything, really. Her hands just move, going back to the Egner whip controls --

Both of the claws gape open, the broken one still intact internally. The whips lash out with streaks of red light to contrast with all of that pink, even as the Empruss is already turning into another 3-G turn to face backwards towards where Alex Dino has gone down -- the missiles incoming are met with a volley of streaks of red light, splattering perhaps against some of the missiles even if one does get through, scoring a hit against the less damaged claw. (Sigh!)

COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. Dual Egner Whips added to their queue. COMBAT: Bright Noa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jung Freud has missed Bright Noa with her Dual Egner Whips attack. COMBAT: Juku Reimaru has missed Revive Revival with her Free Electron Laser - Ultraviolet attack.

The pencil-thin beam is fast and sharp -- but Revive Revival doesn't go out like a sucker, and that's a space fact that you can take to the space bank -- the /money/ space bank. The beam just barely misses its target, though, as Revive is piloting a half-crippled molten mess of a robot. He snarls and gnashes his teeth and generally reacts poorly to the whole situation, cutting out radio contact so he can freely swear his Innovade balls off.

Then comes the coupe de grace: a little 'CHECK ENGINE' light informing him that the GN-Tau drive is nearly depleted. He goes through these things like candy, but Revive still manages to get supremely pissed off whenever it happens.

"DAMMIT!" he screams, so loud that deep below the sea, a thresher shark has a heart attack.

Then, with a sputter, a shudder, and a start, the half-a-Gadessa launches into the sky, surging away lopsidedly, off into space, forever.

COMBAT: Revive Revival has retreated from the area.

Nenai Illan doesn't have much of a choice now there's going to be a lot of mad sea lovers.

"Captain the missile barrage didn't work.

"I know that, it was a gamble tell all gunery crews to focus fire. The weapons all focus on one point moving as they track the other ship. A moment later the weapons are charging and Nenai calls out a single order.

"Fire."

Then the focused energy blasts rain down reduc ing sea water to gas. Will it reach deep enough?

COMBAT: Nenai Illan has attacked Teletha Testarossa. Weapon Focus added to their queue. COMBAT: Nenai Illan has missed Teletha Testarossa with her Weapon Focus attack.

Through the GN-particle density, staticky bursts of radar show dozens of problems across the field.

"Missiles--!" Hot Gates gasps, eyes wide, as the camera conveniently cuts to her. "Evasive manuevers, everyone! /MOTOR/!"

Nemo-5 tilts its head up, light reflecting off its visor with a *ping!* Raising its rifle into the air, it fires at the incoming projectiles. Beam energy clips the warheads neatly, setting off a chain reaction that detonates them before they have a chance to strike.

The Dodai Kai beneath Nemo-25 cuts to reverse, rapidly pulling the ecstatic Soup Lister away from the immediate vacinity of the Empruss and a pair of missiles.

MEANWHILE, IN SPACE..!

The Argama, flagship of the Anti Earth-Union Group, floats serenely in orbit of Side 6!

"Aw c'mon, Tanith.." Torres sighs softly at the freaking-the-fuck-out junior nav-tac operator. "I'm sure it's not /that/ bad. Cagalli probably ejected or something. I'm sure she just singed her hair. Look, why don't you listen to some music. That'll make you feel better.."

Torres's fingers tap along a keyboard with precise strokes.

Over the Argama's loudspeakers,

o/~ SUCKIN ON MY TITTIES - LIKE YOU WANTED ME o/~ CALLIN ME - ALL THE TIME o/~ LIKE BLONDIE o/~CHECK OUT MY CHRISSY BEHIND o/~ IT'S FINE ALL OF THE TIME o/~ LIKE SEX ON THE BEACHES o/~ WHAT ELSE IS IN THE TEACHES OF PEACHES? HUH? WHAAAT?

"Huh?? Huh??!!" Torres's eyebrows bob up and down at Tanith, his face eager.

Then, from behind...!

Whoosh! The lift-doors open, revealing Captain Bright. He freezes in his tracks, eyes wide and hamburger in his hand. A little bit of ketchup clings to the corner of his mouth..

Torres swings his head to the door, "C-Captain!! It's.. it's not what it looks like!?!"

"....."

Bright's eyes fill with anger as a vein begins bulging from his forehead. "FFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!"

HERE

"The protective field.. it's.. weakening!" Tom Sensational realizes. "..This might be my only chance..! To be.. -SENSATIONAL-!" Re-igniting the beam-saber of his Nemo-11, he tries to thrust the pink blade forward into the Empress and fire the verniers, so he can surface while dragging his blade all the way around the crabby beast!

COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. Beam Saber added to their queue. COMBAT: Bright Noa has struck a minor hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss using Beam Saber.

COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has activated a spirit command.

Juku puffs out her cheeks as Revive retreats. "The real face of A-LAWS huh?" She looks at her scanners, she should probably land and make repairs herself- Juku frowns.

Where the hell is the Princess' signal?

Well, she supposes she can say goodbye to any pay from this mission.

Ka-boom! The shockwave translates through the water nicely; Jiron could feel that one, so close to the Deep Forbidden. He probably should have gotten further away. The Deep Forbidden seems to be kind of beat up, and kind of persistent... maybe--

Wha-boom! Torpedos detonate on top of the M9. It sends it sailing backwards, giving Fern some distance. The liquid fortunately prevents it from spinning out of control, but it doesn't stop it from getting knocked downwards by a hail of missiles from somewhere else entirely. Explosions blossom beneath the waves, knocking Jiron's 'borrowed' Arm Slave around like a rag doll. It looks incredibly beat up, and pieces of it's weaponry floats all over the place--or rather, /sinks/ all over the place.

"Waaaaaahh!! Watch it with those, you're gonna get someone hurt!" Jiron barely thinks before he speaks. He might be yelling at Evil Coop. He grabs the last two knives of his, circling back around in a wide arc, further from Fern than he thought. He isn't sure he can take her out from here.

But he follows anyway. He glances at the radio unit while he does. "Uhhh--you... aren't related to Cotset, are you," he asks somewhat hesitantly. He snaps out of that fast. "Fine, whatever, I'll be over there when I'm done!"

Jiron rushes the Deep Forbidden with two daggers. He comes straight at it, only changing heading at the last second to avoid getting entirely impaled on the trident. He doesn't drop speed, going low, stabbing both at the machine, and then spinning around it and past it to set it off before it can shoot back!

Distance doesn't seem to matter much when there's a lunatic chasing you.

COMBAT: Jiron Amos has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has attacked Fern Calico. Specialized CQB added to their queue. COMBAT: Jiron Amos has struck a major hit on Fern Calico's Close Combat using Specialized CQB. COMBAT: Fern Calico has counter attacked for a minor hit on Jiron Amos's M9 Gernsback using Forbidden Trident.

Juku can't just fly around forever. She cuts throttle and drops into the water again. She runs a hand down her face, a lot of things are not going her way lately. She starts poking at controls and sets a heading. The REX plods through the water, at least it's faster then DAG.

Maybe she can find Cagalli and prove Trailers aren't all gigantic asshole.

The missiles do not impact Fern, though the shockwaves they send through the water do... sort of. Fern rather deliberately pulses the Geschmeidig Panzer power with a stray thought in exactly the way they told her a human pilot couldn't, the pressure-counteraction system adapting to the shockwaves and leaving her almost unmoving despite the force that washes over her machine. And unhurt, too, though the system is a little strained; she wouldn't have tried it deeper.

The pressure deflection system does not work on knives. Fern attempts to interrupt the charge the same way she did before - with a quick thrust of the trident - but with one hand she can't brace it well enough to actually stop a charge; the knives strike home, carving plates off the Deep Forbidden.

It keeps moving, somehow, gliding away. "Gernsbeck pilot, you lost," Fern says, flatly. "Your prisoner's gone. Go home," she says, the pincers flipping back and locking into place, the close combat pack rising up and becoming a backpack once again.

The reason becomes obvious a moment later: it's much faster in a straight line with everything all aligned like that, as Fern attempts to pull back. Sort of back, anyway; she's on a hunt for Dino.

Fern Calico's GAT-706S Deep Forbidden transforms into its Standard mode.

He's not out there! They don't know where he is! A wriggling feeling of panic creeps briefly into Jung's awareness - she's had people shot down before, yes, but that sudden explosion and silence --

It reminds her a little too much of Halley's Comet. She breathes rapidly, to the point where it threatens to fog the helmet of the normal suit that the Empruss comes with, eyes unfocusing slightly. The Empruss is deeply cleaved in front, the beam saber carving through its outer carapace, before it hits a halting point against the red outer material -

Is it supposed to be red.

"Hnnnyaaaaaah!!" The Empruss pivots again, whipping through the air with harsh swooping (yes, like some giant predatory bird), its GN Field glowing with renewed heat -- but it has passengers, and as the GN Field will probably not harm them enough to run them off in time, after diving towards Hot Gates...

It does a partial barrel roll, and then dives downwards, aiming to skip through several waves before pulling back on the stick, riding its steadily-depleting column of GN particles upwards, into a new, brave, hopefully Nemo-free future -- and one in which, perhaps, Alex Dino will make an appearance in the flotsam??

COMBAT: Jung Freud has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jung Freud has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jung Freud has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jung Freud has attacked Bright Noa. GN Psycho Crusher added to their queue. COMBAT: Bright Noa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Jung Freud has missed Bright Noa with her GN Psycho Crusher attack.

"Sir!" the scans officer calls. "We've finished scanning the target's current state! It's charging weapons!"

Mardukas grunts. "Good. ...good work." And with /rare compliments paid/, the Duke hands the comms handset back to the officer, and says, "Pull in the Turtle!" With weapons like that, even at this depth, if they hit, it's over. He knows this. "Crash dive! Immediately drop us as far as we go! Full speed ahead! EMFC to full!" He narrows his eyes at the readout on the screen, frowning just so. Is it possible? ...yes, yes it should be...! "All tubes, ready to fire, on my mark!"

The TDD-1 Tuatha de Danaan simply.....vanishes. Sinking so far beneath the waves, so silently, that finding it becomes...simply impossible.

The blast from Nenai's cannons sheers through the sea, vaporizing huge amounts of water. Did she hit? Is it just...gone?

Far below the waves, Richard Mardukas rumbles, "Mark."

The sky lights up with sea spray, as a dozen missiles arc into heaven, scattering water and fire - and making targettin gthem with defensive batteries difficult by sheer virtue of /how many there are/, and if Nenai's gunnery team isn't very good, then she will have to deal with an extremely exploded ship.

COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has attacked Nenai Illan. All Tubes Open added to their queue. COMBAT: Nenai Illan has activated a spirit command. COMBAT: Teletha Testarossa has struck a solid hit on Nenai Illan's Thuverl-Salan using All Tubes Open.

KARABA: Secret Origins ONE-SHOT!

SUBJECT: Gates, Hot Gender: Female Birthplace: Cordoba, Spain

Gates joined Karaba shortly after the incident in which downtown Hong Kong was nearly obliterated by the Titans's Psycho Gundam. When asked why she wanted to join, she merely stated that Titans were poor-tipping grabby scumbags who didn't know how to treat a lady. We later discovered that Gates was working as the 'entertainment' for a Titans pilots's bachelor party. Her knack for mobile suits was discovered early on and when asked if she might be a Newtype, she scoffed it off as a lot of 'spacenoid fortune and glory.' Despite her bawdy past -- or should I say because of it -- she is an effective team-leader.

"Sorry, lady.." Hot Gates answers, her demeanor calm even as her heartbeat thumps loudly in her ears. "..you can look, but..!"

Nemo-5 drops its beam rifle in favor of drawing its own set of beam sabers.

"..You can't touch...!"

Hot Gates heaves forward, slamming the controls to the hilt as the Dodai Kai beneath her mobile suit rockets her for the Empruss. She's honing in for the tear in the armor left by Tom Sensational, trying to drive her energy-charged blades direct into the mad mobile armor.

COMBAT: Bright Noa has attacked Jung Freud. Dual Beam Sabers added to their queue. COMBAT: Bright Noa has struck a solid hit on Jung Freud's GNMA-Y0001 Empruss using Dual Beam Sabers.

Juku just facepalms as she listens to the radio. "Where does Katharon get these guys?"

Jiron loses his knives. He also loses his target. "/What/ prisoner? I don't even know what you're talking about!" Jiron sighs, frustrated, and kills the comm line after that.

The Gernsback starts to feel the stress he puts on it and the damage done to it. The Deep Impact gets away--this time! Largely because, well, Jiron has bigger fish to fry, though they may be across the world. He can't die here. He isn't sure how the ejection system works!

The M9 slows down and floats in the water. It turns back, towards the Tuatha de Danaan, after much deliberation. Jiron is tempted to just run off with it, but he might as well give it back. He doesn't need it, he can't reliably get the parts to fix it, and that guy on the bridge is scary as /hell/.

The 'borrowed' Arm Slave approaches the TDD-1. "Uh, you're gonna have to tell me how to get back in. And don't have anyone pointing guns at me when I get there, or I'm going to point them right back! I could've taken your fancy Arm Slave and just left, remember that!" He figures it's a point of honesty in his favor, at least.

Nenai Illan gunnery crews are not able to get all of them the missiles rip into the hull and explosions dance across the hull but the ship which may be older than the current era surives but it's trailing smoke and it's pulling away, it's fighters start to return as it flees. Nenai scowls at the damage reports.

"... It seems that American Sub Captain's right."

"You mean Killy Sailor Ma'me?"

"Yes, remind me I need to talk to him. We will have... a sub to hunt..."

If Hot Gates is a Newtype, she can probably feel that extenuating events and/or an arbitrary mood swing have COMPLETELY REMOVED the burning spirit from her opponent. It is probably much like the feeling of sudden shrivelling and softness that Gates may be more familiar with.

She doesn't answer the taunt, even. This is of course not normative behavior for Jungs Freud at all, and indeed she doesn't take much defensive measure against the beam saber sinking into the Empruss's wing... possibly because the machine's sheer size is rendering nearly any hit that is beneath the 'truly outrageous' to be an "accumulating nuisance" rather than "a dire worry."

Its GN Field collapses, suddenly, and its engines dim for a moment.

Then it blasts upwards, accelerating and abruptly, it seems, clawing towards orbit, dropping no bombs or surprises (other than, you know, 'streams of GN particles') behind it.

Internally, Jung feels conflicting desires, to curl up in a ball, to rip out controls and beat things with them, to scream at Fern, to tell Fern it's alright, to ask Fern what she knows, or, perhaps, all five - OR MORE - at once.

But hey: at least she's leaving.

"..Phew," Hot Gates whistles, blowing a curl of raspberry hair into the air. "That was just as hard as positiong myself for a Portugese breakfast. Nemo team, let's cover our allies retreat and then make it back to the Audhumla."

Tom Sensational grunts as his Nemo-11 lurches atop the Dodai Kai of his screaming colleague, Soup Lister. "..and maybe a generic vicodin for Soupy here.. uunf.."

The Nemos trail behind TDD-1, weapons drawn as the sun sinks into the horizon.

!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !!