2010-12-02 - Katz Kobayashi Gets It Together

It is a fairly uneventful afternoon at Greendale Federal Military Academy, located in Knoxville. It was here where some of Neo America's best soldiers were prepped for service in the EFA's military. However, not all students here were just interested in combat. Some students were training in the R&D and medical fields of the military, making Greendale a fairly important school in the country.

This is why a Katharon spy was placed here. Far from combat and trouble.

Senor Kobayashi stood in front of his class, eyeing them with quiet disgust. Katz didn't like his job. I mean he was teaching Spanish to the enemy. Katz groaned as he listened to another presentation from one of his ungrateful students, not understanding a single word. I mean Senor Kobayashi taught Spanish. That didn't mean he could speak Spanish.

There was a buzz from Katz's jacket, prompting him to reach into his coat and pull the cell phone from within. He immediately answered it, ignoring the look he got from most of the students. "Hello?Y,yes sir!You mean it?! YOU REALLY MEAN IT?"

At this point all the students were staring at Senor Kobayashi, who was notably more excited than he's ever been. "YOU MEAN I CAN FINALLY REJOINED KATHARON IN AEUG?! This is an honor sir! I won't let you down! I'll bring all my notes about this installation! Thanks!" Katz grinned as he hung up, sticking the phone back into his jacket. It took a moment for him to perceive the darkening silence over the room. He finally looked up at his class, all of them EFA cadets, and stared with a slowly growing amount of terror. The students stared back in a mixture of shock and anger, eyes narrowed and veins popping. It was finally a student who stood up and pointed at Senor Kobayashi who broke the silence.

"TRAITOR!!!!!!!"

~Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Caught in a bad romance ~Katz skidded out of the room, spinning as he flew out of the door. It took him only a matter of seconds to correct his stance and begin to run down the hall in fear. His class was now chasing him down the hall, screaming about a Katharon spy being in the building.

~Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Caught in a bad romance ~

Within moments, other students began to join the chase, some of them from rifle practice. Katz' eyes widened as he ran faster. He pulls out his distress transmitter and presses it as he continues to fly down the hall, ducking as a student opens fire on him.

~Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah! Roma-roma-mamaa! Ga-ga-ooh-la-la! Want your bad romance~

MISSION BREAKDOWN Katharon: Get Katz To His Gundam EFA: Stop Katharon From Destroying The School

At this moment, the distress beacon Katz was issued goes off to whatever pick up he was getting. This beacon, coupled with the fact that this is a military installation does mean that Katharon now thinks this is a hostile situation and should start firing on the many turrets and military vehicles now scrambling to catch the spy.

At this same moment, The EFA and all allied frequencies are alerted to a katharon attack on this base/military academy. Meaning all katharon units should be seen as hostiles.

At this same moment, Katz tries not to wet himself when a bullet flies past his ear.

2 Rounds Before Katz Gets To His Gundam

Russel Bagman had just saved an Katharon outpost the night before from a La Giasan raider with a few others. Now this is happening, what can you do. he's seriously had enough with other people messing with his homeland for whatever reasons. The new Gespenst MK IV contiunes to head to the distress call.

"If it's not one thing it's another. This is Octo 2 I'm inbound, to assist."

EARLIER...

"OhhhHhhhhHhhHH... Captain!" a delicate, feminine voice swoons.

The sound of Bright exerting a forceful groan just about fills every inch of the bulkhead of his quarters. "NnnNNNnnngghh.."

"Oh.. oh.. oh my god!" the feminine voice just -squeals-. "That's it!" she cries. "Right there! Oh, my Captain!"

Then all of a sudden, there's an abrupt and harsh blare of an incoming message.

With a sigh of disappointment from both Bright and what seems to be his female companion, Bright answers his incoming call.

"..Captain, we're receiving a message from Karaba!" Saman shouts urgently over the intercom. "Katz Kobayashi is making his big move!"

To which seems to confuse the Captain. "..His big.. what?"

The woman in Bright's quarters titters.

Saman transmits, "He's making his escape from his undercover mission at the Federation's Greendale Military Academy."

"He.. WHAT!?" Bright shouts back in alarm.

"He's been deep undercover trying to recruit for Katharon, sir," Saman explains. "He's making his escape right now.. he intends on taking a Gunam and rejoining the Ayoug fleet!"

If a man could pale audibly, you'd hear it in Bright's voice. "HE'S GOING TO WHAT!?!" Then with a muffled swear, Bright mentions to his female companion, "Miss Emary, I have to leave."

"B-but.." Emary Ounce sputters, "My jar of space-pickles. Who will open it now??"

The question is never answered, Bright leaving Emary Ounce and her jar of space-pickles with its ever-so-stubborn-to-twist lid, in his quarters alone.

NOW

Katharon forces converge on Greendale. Emary Ounce's hunger for space-pickles continues to go unsated.

A Katharon attack has some urgency. Especially one on a civilian target, which some obscure automated system has flagged as having an 81% chance of being Celestial Being undergoing a brutal attack against a soft target in the interests of furthering whatever it is they are furthering. As such, mobile elements in the new model space mobility ship "Yingzi" were prepared...

"Gespenst Mk-II M, launch!" says Lamia Loveless with crisp certainty before the Gespenst is hurled out of the launch accelerator at eye-flattening velocities. Lamia, unbothered, waited for the relevatice acceleration to fade before bothering to attempt radio conversations.

"Yes," she answers Octo 2, who she can read faintly, and then addresses the individual coming up immediately behind her. "Have you had any combat experience with Celestial Being?" There is a faint 'fump' as the Gespenst, now focused more on deceleration than anything, stops breaking the sound barrier and arcs down steadily towards the campus.

"We have reports of an incident at the nearby academy, apparently its a traitor..." Dewey hrms, "A traitor in this day and age may be important. Send Lily squadron to determine if its a balmarian or just a normal insurgent. Primary orders are to avoid damage to the surroundings. The facility is more important than any one machine or pilot. Lily 1, the leader of the squadron slides into his suit, and enables the overlay of the monsoono's operation. "Trapar levels are at full.." "Man, you should have..." "Cut the chatter Lily 12, operational information only." The Monsoono's deploy, in formation, trailing glowing lines of trapar behind them, none speaking, they're engines of control, not people. Or thats the intention anyway.

Off in the distance, a twinkle appears, streaking across the skies like a comet as it swerves in towards the site of the school. As it approaches, it's form becomes more distinctive, that of a red and grey Armored Core. Specifically, it's a mass producted version of the infamous Nine Ball Seraph, named after it's equally infamous pilot. At the helm of the AC sits Garrod. He thinks he's here to help extract an undercover agent of value. Clearly he has never heard of or met Katz Kobayashi. "Wow, something serious must have gone down here, I'm picking up EFA and A-Law IFFs on approach! I guess whoever this agent is, they want him bad."

One of the problems with the temporary assignment to the Yingzi: It lacks the proper catapult to accomodate the, er, unique aspects of the Impulse Gundam. It still feels weird to launch in the Second Series machine with it already fully assembled, but there Shinn is settled into the familiar cockpit as his mobile suit settles onto the catapult after Lamia's Gespenst launches; gunmetal grey with its Variable Phase Shift Armor still deactivated, the familiar shape of a Gundam in the vein of the RX-78 or the Strike series hunches slightly, before the red-eyed Coordinator gets the go signal. Unlike many of his colleagues, Shinn never switched over to the A-LAWS flight suit; instead, he wears his comfortable ZAFT Red suit, letting out a slow breath. "Shinn Asuka, Impulse! Launching!" he calls, and the Yingzi's launch catapult hurls the machine out into the sky... ...Where, fortunately, the thrusters and wings of the Force Silhouette pick up the slack, the blue, white, red and gold of A Gundam bleeding into the armor as power is redirected, activating it, following Loveless' Gespenst on down. "Celestial Being?" Shinn repeats, as if Lamia hadn't just said exactly that. Like she'd been speaking in code, or was suddenly stammering again. "Not really. Rey had me run through some simulations back on the Minerva, though... Those guys aren't so tough."

ELSEWHERE IN KNOXVILLE MINUTES AGO

Hogarth Hughes looks upward, eyes going wide as he takes in the most majestic sight he has perhaps ever seen. The young boy's jaw slowly drops, a hushed sound of awe escaping him. "Wooooooooow."

The Iron Giant, looking less far upward, stares at the same sight. "WOOOOOOOOOW."

The world's biggest cybernetic waffle sculpture gleams in the sunlight.

GREENDALE FEDERAL MILITARY ACADEMY NOW

Hogarth's Official Section 9 Communicator Watch beeped, and he couldn't just /ignore/ it.

The Iron Giant powers across the landscape. Hogarth stands in one of the huge metal man's hands, holding on tight when they are suddenly clearing a farm in one giant leap. They approach the military academy, lacking an IFF but being famous enough in these parts for the Earth Federation at least to know what's coming is friendly. One of these days they'll make some kind of transmitter belt for that sort of identification code thing.

"What's going on?" Hogarth shouts, passing a checkpoint in a majestic jump.

The guard at the gate stares, shrugging helplessly as they completely bypass him.

"What? Katz..seriously?!" Camille couldn't keep a perplexed expression from his face when the news reached him, even as he ran down one of the Argama's many, endless corridors to prepare for deployment, "I thought they sent him to boarding school or something for... I don't know, can you even fix that kind of thing?"

"...." Fa Yuiry deserved some kind of peace prize for keeping her mouth shut as she ran alongside her childhood friend. After all, it wouldn't be polite to point out the irony of Camille's words. (Warning: this may be an improper use of irony)

Moments later, Camille was suited up and strapped snugly into the cockpit of the recently repaired Zeta Gundam and taxiing his way to the catapult (Which the Argama not only didn't lack, but had /two of/). The shift from zero-g to atmospheric combat could be jarring, but the AEUG ace had done it enough times now that he was beginning to get an awkward hang of it. Without further aplomb, he grips the flight sticks.

"Camille Bidan, Zeta Gundam! Launching!"

Being on Earth and having the troublesome aspect of /gravity/ to deal with, the mobile suit launches in waverider form. Even soaring as high as he is over the airspace doesn't prevent Camille from having some sensation of the panicked thoughts radiating off the unseen chaos below, "Geez, he hasn't forgotten how to make an entrance.." Also, did he hear that right on that radio? Did they actually give him a /gundam/?!

Ugh, he didn't want to think about it. "Couple of bogies coming up." He noted on the HUD, suddenly feeling all Maverick-like, "I don't recognize the units, but one seems to be... a Zeta?!" Brows furrowed. That wasn't right.

Katz runs faster as the angry mob behind him grows larger and more hungry for his blood. He breaths heavily as the bullets somehow avoid striking him. If it says anything for the EFA, these are the future and they can't hit a very stupid asian manchild running down a hall.

Katz seems to be arguing into his radio as the students find various weapons to fire or throw at him. Still, he manages to keep ahead, mostly out of fear.

~I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything, As long as its free, I want your love, Love-love-love! I want your love~

Katz slams into the door, running into the theatre to try to get out of the hallway of angry kids. He quickly finds a mop and holds the door shut with it. For a moment, he stops and catches his breath. "Hahaha! Now you can't---"A gunshot fires through the window on the door, shattering the glass. Katz lets out a girlish scream and runs for the other exit to the quad. Oh god, he can't die here! He won't let Bright Noa be right! ~I want your loving, And I want your revenge, You and me could write a bad romance, I want your loving, All your love is revenge.~

At this moment, the school's student body are maning turrets. Each step is celebrated with Lacus Clyne's new cover of the classical song: Bad Romance. These defenses begin to hit anything with a Katharon tag on them, firing wildly to defend themselves from the attack.

"Oh god! They are coming! Katharon is invading our school!" One student yells into the radio to all EFA friendlies. "HELP US!" It was clear that these kids were not ready for the harsh reality of war.

What an interesting discussion on the Katharon frequencies. Garrod just sweatdrops a bit at the arguement that erupts between Bright and Katz, "Ooooookay..." I mean, what else can you SAY about Katz anyway? "Tch... I'm seeing a lot of targets Camille, let's hope your friend doesn't take too long in getting out of there, otherwise we're going to be /swamped/ with Feds." Ahead of him, he can see the tellatale signs of trapar particles, sure signs of KLF activity. The Nine Ball banks around to bring them into Garrod's sights and the beam rifle unleashes a withering barrage towards the machines as quickly Garrod closes the gap between them.

"Lily 7, this is Lily 2, we have a detection on a mobile Core uniRAAAAAAGH!!!!!" Lily 2 is promptly caught by the beam rifle fire, the blasts cleaving through the cockpit and causing the machine to explode in a beautiful pink puff of smoke and disolving reflection film. Lily 1 shouts, "Ginga command! Ginga command! We are under attack by an unknown core unit!" A soft child like voice replies, "Initiate counter measure action A-11134 Gamma, it may be a unit sent to capture the traitor. You are likely dealing with Katharon if they are using trailer units..." Lily 1 grits his teeth, "Carry it out!" The remaining Lilies reply, before breaking off in all directions... Laser cannons come raining in at poor Garrod from all directions at once as the Monsoonos rapidly move through the skies, leaving glowing trails of trapar behind them. Its quite beautiful. Lily 2 probably would have appreciated it.

None of this makes any real sense to Lamia. They're screaming for help but there seem to be relatively few complex things afoot. She can observe the inbound Iron Giant, but what else --

Oh, the Gundam.

It is not however a CB gundam, which Lamia's alert super-robot-lady brain spots immediately. "It seems we may have overestimated matters slightly," she remarks to Shinn, even as the heavily armed Gespenst unlimbers a weapon. Its drive bears it upwards, informing Shinn as she goes --

FIRST: "I'll cover you."

SECOND: "Celestial Being is more dangerous than simulations may suggest, I think. Regardless,"

Streaks of green light arc from the mega-beam rifle that the Gespenst is toting, aiming up at the Zeta Gundam. Surely, some hapless little spacenoid girl cannot dodge government lasers of this intensity.

Sadly, Impulse isn't even kind of a Zeta. It's more like... The Mk.II, if it had been developed by Ikea instead of the Titans. The ZGMF-series prototype jets after and then /past/ Lamia's Gespenst, rushing beyond the other machine as it opens fire on the Zeta. Inside the cockpit, Shinn's red eyes study the sensor readout briefly, and then lock onto the sight of the Waverider on Impulse's screens; a powerful enemy, by all accounts. But the, Shinn's never seen a machine given the name 'Gundam' if it sucked... And usually the pilots are pretty good, too. "Whatever!" the temperamental young Coordinator replies as Lamia suggests the simulations might not be an accurate representation of a fairly mysterious enemy. "All we need to do is to be as strong as possible then!" While Impulse can't assume a more aerodynamic flight mode, its plethora of thrusters thanks to the Force Silhouette are more than enough to carry it along at a pretty good clip as it charges the Zeta, stowing its beam rifle on the rear skirt armor and pulling one of its beam sabers free from the Force Silhouette pack; thusly armed, Shinn aims to close with the Zeta and swing that beam saber right at it, to use their relative speeds ('fast' and 'fast, in the opposite direction') to facilitate dragging the beam blade along the Waverider's shiny armor. "GRAAAGH!!"

Russel Bagman is moving in as the attacks contiune. There's a spy trying to get away, damn it did Bright play them all along to make use of the alien invasion?! There's not much he can do, for now so he's just trying to cover some of the peopletrying to get clear of the attack.

If there's one thing Armored Cores in general and the Nine Ball in particular is well known for, it's being Stupidly Fast. the Monsoono's all break off and scatter, firing on the nimble machine from all directions, but Garrod simply cranks up his speed and /tears/ right through the center of their formation before they can draw a good bead on his machine. Garrod yanks on the controls and the Nine Ball responds by pitching back and launching straight up into the air, leaving contrails in it's wake. Then the machine banks around for another run, centering one of the scattered Monsoono's dead center in Garrod's hud as it hurtles forward, only to begin transforming. feet snap out and legs extend from the main body and the chest uncurls. Arms unclamp from it's side. the head pops out, it's sensors glowing ominously. both arms ignite in a pair of brilliant laser blades as the Seraph, driven forward by a combination of sheer momentum and carefully timed boosts to maintain his heading. Both arms cross as he barrels right at one of the KLFs before sweeping his blades out towards the center of it's mass to chop it in two.

Look, the Impulse is far away and Camille is kind of autistic. All Gundams look like Zeta to him. That aside, it is not a pro day for our hero as the the blaring signal of the Zeta's HUD warn of an incoming heat source. Between the less-than-familiar factor of air resistance on Earth and the chaos of the minds below, the Newtype's reaction is less than ideal. "Shit!" A hard jolt slammed his right side into the chair as the Gepenst's shot scores along one of the Zeta's wings, molten armor running along new furrows like drawn blood.

"The reaction time is definitely slower on Earth.." Camille mutters to himself, wishing his 'Strike' designs where making more headway, "I'll just have to compensate with better reactions!"

And while he muses on that, the pilot of the Impulse gets all up in his face.

"!" To bar fair, his reactions /are/ better now that the first jolt has gotten his battle awareness up and running. The Waverider veers away from Shinn's savage attack, catching only the tip of the Impulse's beamsaber along the underside and earning a thin, mostly cosmetic molten gouge along the paint for it's trouble. Not bad for federation pilots, he thinks, working his wonders along the mobile suits control panels as the wings fold back, legs flip forward and V-Fin sprouts up to prove that yes, it /is/ another Gundam.

And not just any Gundam. Rather than deploy with the beam rifle out front, Camille leaves it clipped in place on the mobile suit's back, reaching for hip-mounted beamsabers with both hands as the boost thrusters pushed it back in the Impulse's personal space for double the revenge, the melee weapons igniting in the cross slash of burning, violet plasma.

"HRAAAGH!!!"

Lily 8 shouts out, "I've lost him! He's too fast!" "Stay on target, 8! This isn't like the engagement against that /thing/ where we lost half the squadron!" Then 8 looks up and sees....NINEBALL, glowing eyes and all. "DEAR GOD!!" One of the Monsoonos rushes up, body checking the Nineball to knock its otherwise perfect blade strike off course. "Realign! Position five one eight!" The others nod as they begin aligning, "FOR THE COLONEL!" Lily 1, kicks his own monsoono around on a glowing, circular path, "For the Colonel." They all then begin rushing in at the lone Nineball, like a fleet of sharks... Each striking rapidly, and in turn being covered in its retreat by another who is attacking...

Katz freezes as he gets to the quad, watching the war zone erupt from his mistake. He looks around frantic, running toward the stadium. He breaths heavily, hearing angry voices erupt from the theatre.

Damnit! He is going to die if he doesn't get to his Gundam. He breaths heavily as he runs and runs, finally reaching the bleachers where the Gundam was packed up. How it didn't manage to be found is beyond Katz' advanced mind (he's very stupid so he doesn't think about such things.

Katz quickly opens the cockpit, undoing his tie as he leeps up the side of the machine. He lays back, flipping switches wildly.

"Welcome back, Katz Kobayashi." The screen on his Gundam Mk. II greets him as he begins preping launch.

"It's time to show the world who I am." Katz says as the Gundam's torso rockets up right, smashing the wooden bleechers as it attempts to stand.

It's a Gundam!

The angry mob of betrayed students stops in their tracks when the Gundam sits up. They want to fight but there was nothing they could do. This is why they turn to run, especially as the Gundam stands, it comes running toward the battle. Coincidently, this is in their direction.

Katz doesn't hear and crushing noises from outside his cockpit. He does notice the lack of mob though. "Alright! I'm coming to help you Camille! It's time we fight together as equals again! LETS DO THIS!!!" Katz fires up the Gundams thrusters...only in the wrong direction. The Gundam flies in another direction, smashing into a building several feet away from the battle. Katz growls as he attempts to pry the Gundam free from the building but it is currently stuck.

The Armored Core shudders as the monsoono slams into it, knocking it just enough off it's course to cause the machine to soar right past it's target, "Tch, damnit!" He quickly spins around to fast the oncoming squad of mechs. The Quick Boosters activate, launching the AC violently to the side as the first of the KFLs rush right past him. The second sweeps in and swings out, only for his blow to be deflected away with a well placed kick. "I'm not about to fall for your wolf pack tactics!" The Nine Ball Seraph suddenly transforms again, nose pointed straight up as two more Monsoono's rush in. The Overboosters ignite and the AC launches into the sky like a rocket, pressing Garrod into his seat as he banks around. 5r Multiple target lock warnings start to sound in the cockpits of the Monsoonos as the Seraph tracks them one by one, tagging each machine. the right misisle pod snaps open and a cloud of smoke erupts as the swarm of rockets fly forth, with garrod quickly banking away to avoid getting caught in the middle of the furball once more.

Two men of destiny clash with violent force, their melee weapons held high and proud!

Lamia by contrast floats there with a rifle.

But yet there is war afoot, and that Gundam is launching. Lamia is uncertain how they hid it, but what she does know is that if it is not rapidly and conclusively stopped it is likely to unleash a reign of horror onto that panicked mob of students.

And it's already begun. Her eyes widen as the machine thrashes, smashing through public property and doubtless mangling dozens of students in manners too ticklish to tell. Lamia's jaw tenses, and then she whips the Gespenst into action --

"Are you trying to collect a hostage?" she asks, tone low as the Gespenst swoops down from the direction of the quad and Discount Textbook Resellers' Row, Tesla drive glowing menacingly. The angle must be perfect -- because the enemy Gundam's reaching inwards deeply, probably to try and seize some VIP they haven't clearly identified.

"I won't allow it!"

"GESPENST --"

The Gespenst's arm draws back as it accelerates in the final few hundred meters.

"PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCH"

Why did her voice suddenly get shrill and piercing? A mystery.

The missiles launch out, as the monsoons twirl through the air, glowing trapar trails and missile contrails forming a beautiful ballet of death in the open night skies... Most of the Monsoonos avoid the missiles... "I can't shake it! I can't shake it!!!" Lily 6 screams, as she tries to avoid the missiles trailing after her, "I can't...no! I don't want to die!! NOO!!!" The missiles catch the monsoono, and it explodes again in a beautiful pink ball of smoke... Lily 5 shouts, tears in his eyes beneath the multi-eyed KLF helmet, "SHARON!! NOOO!!!" Lily 1 grits his teeth, "Damnit all. Ginga command!?" The Ageha's voice again speaks over the channel, vaguely condescending, "Positioning is ready..." Lily 10, 11, 12, and 13 rush down from the sky even as the other monsoonos charge up from the ground, filling the air with energy beams, forming a horrific lattice work of ammunition and death.

Warning sirens go off inside of the Seraph's cockpit, drawing Garrod attention to the newly arrived monsoono, "Shit, they got reinforcements!" In desperation, he punches the throttle and dives towards the earth to gain momentum. Shots fly right by his machine and he ducks and weaves, but the field of fire is just too thick to escape unscathed. One laser cannon shot slams into the Ac, deflecting it slightly. gunfire riddles it's hull, but Garrod presses forward. Directly at one of the unfortunate Monsoonos. "Get out of my WAY!" The boosters suddenly surge with power as the Core lurches forth, it's engines pouring out massive amounts of thrust in the final seconds of the charge.

Were Shinn less the sort of person to focus completely on what he's doing, he'd probably take the moment to be bewildered by the fact that a) Lamia actually just, for serious, shouted out her attack name and b) that her voice got kind of weird there. She has kind of a deep voice usually, /that is weird as hell/. BUT INSTEAD The Waverider manages to avoid the worst of Shinn's attack, leaving Force Impulse with few options but to bleed off its forward momentum as quickly as it can manage and whirl around, because the Zeta is in the process of showing its true colours. Which are... Fairly similar to Impulse's colours, actually. Standard Gundam paint scheme!!! Camille ups the ante by bringing /two/ beam sabers to bear, and at the moment it's too much for Shinn to completely avoid. ZGMF-X56S is rocked by the slashing sabers, deep gouges getting carved out of its armor as the machine falls back, Shinn straining against the safety harness as he's thrown about rather dangerously. "The Zeta, so what?! Something like that isn't gonna scare me... This is a Gundam, too!!" Shinn shouts, heedless of whether he can be heard or not; he's really doing it for his own benefit. With its shield-bearing hand, Impulse grabs and subsquently tosses a /grenade/, the particle spreader detonating in an attempt to catch the Zeta in its field, a countermeasure to both play havoc with Camille's sensors. Could Shinn actually be... Using /tactics/!?

Lily 1 charges directly back at Garrod as he comes charging down, "Only if that way is to HELL!!!" He snarls and punches the onrushing Nineball as it comes crashing down at him... The Monsoono turns, smacking the Nineball with its board to send it further up into the roiling kill box of the overlapping fields of ordnance fire.. Garrod is thrown into a world of beautiful glowing trapar, speeding surfing forms of various type monsoono KLFs, brilliant beams of energy... And potential death...

The Seraph shudders again as the board slams into it, jossling Garrod in his seat, "Tch, old man has some skills it seems, but I'm not gonna let that stop me!" The Seraph banks, avoiding the first burst of gunfire aimed at him. A swarm of missiles quickly bridge the gap, forcing Garrod to change back briefly to the bipedal mode to blast them out of the sky with a burst from it's vulcans. The quick boosters engage immediately after to throw the machine clear of danger as Garrod transforms a third time for the extra speed, climbing for the sky. The seraph transforms one final time as it rockets towards the sky, then snaps up it's rifle and unleashes a flurry of shots at the Monsoono's climbing to pursue him. the shots intent is to coral them all close together as garrod boosts sideways. And once they're all nice and bunched up, he opens up with /ALL/ of his missiles, rippling the very spy with an expanding cascade of explodes.

"I'm not letting you get away with things that easy!" Lily 1 shouts, "Alpha attack pattern! Don't let him draw you in!" The Monsoonos flutter through the air, following the unseen flows of trapars instead of the easilly understood laws of aerodynamics... The herding shots fail to accomplish their goal, its like herding the wind with bullets... "Missiles!" Lily 2 shouts, "We have reports of the student's being attacked! Advise Ginga Command!" "Conclude your engagement. Otherwise you'll be overtaken," comes the staticy reply of the Ginga's tactical officer...the Ageha apparently busy elsewhere at the moment... "Roger that!" The Monsoonos continue attempting to rush along side the Seraph, trying to negate its close combat advantage by moving like ocean currents around his each manuever, while flooding the air between with missiles that leave their own glowing contrails..

Russel Bagman is trying to direct some of the staff and student sto cover when he catches a warning of Gundam, the Gespenst is moving in and taking much care to not hit anyone or anything on it's way. But he's too late to stop the Gundam, he sees that the Gundam Mk II has stepped on a number of the kids. IT's a grusrom site, one that gets him not happy in the lest. He can't use his ranged weapons it would cause nmore damage.

He sees the Gundam stumble, and is stuck. There's more damage, but he might be able top take it out. The next thign Katz would notice is that the Gespenst has lept upon him. IT's just goting melee rapidly punching the other unit.

"Those are the last lives you take!"

"So /that's/ there Mk. II went." Camille feels a pang of sympathy for his old unit, thinking it deserve a lot better than being in the hands of the guy who crashed it spectacularly into the ocean on a headstrong, ill-thought out whim. Fast forward to now and...well, at least there weren't any oceans around.

Then he starts actually trying to /move/ it, and shit gets real.

"Katz...what the hell are you doing?!" Camille quite nearly screams as the tortured, mangled death cries of a number of student bodies assail his psychic brain, giving him more additional trauma to slowly go psychotic from. "You...god, we're not just meaningless killers!" How the hell was he supposed to fight alongside /that/?

Fortunately, Lamia's..er..impassioned yell is somewhat able to bring the pilot out of that despairing pit. He's not sure what disturbs him more: the pitch, or the fact that he's mildly arouse.

But hey, wasn't he having a manly fight? Lets get back to that!

"Now I recognize it..that's the Impulse!" He read about it on the internet! A sneer crossed over the AEUG ace's face, "That thing launches in pieces! What kind of stupid, gimmicky design is that?!" Seriously, was it supposed to fight, or sell models?!

"I won't be tricked by a move like that..!" Camille said as he was, in fact, tricked by Shinn's clever (?!) tactic, attempting to punch the grenade back with the Zeta's closed fist, but mostly precipiating it's impending explosion and scrambling of all his targeting systems. "Chaff?!" He hissed, slaming one fist against a snowy monitor, "I hate chaff!" Without the computer to aim for him, all he had was his natural instinct and spacey newtype sensibilities.

And so, relying on them, he'll stow a beamsaber to pull the Zeta's rifle free, snapping off a shot first where he knew the Impulse had last registered, and then where it /might/ be.

Garrod grits his teeth as the Monsoonos avoid taking the bait to bunch up all together. Aboarding his attack run midway through, he quickly transforms into Flight Mode and surges away as the missiles chase him down. he ducks and weaves, pulls hard banks, dives and doubles back as the missiles chase him down, with most of them losing their target lock during the wild maneuvers. one valiant missile though manages to get close and detonates, rocking the AC with it's explosion. Warning, damage to left thruster. Output at 50 Percent. Smoke starts to spew from the wounded engine and the machine suddenly feels sluggish in Garrod's hands, "Damn, gonna be hard to keep this up with a wounded engine... time to improvise." The Seraph banks back into the furball, ducking and weaving between the KLFs. then without warning, it transforms and raises it's hand, attempting to literally SNATCH the refboard out from under one of the Monsoonos to use as a ride. Said Monsoono will very likely have a long and terrifying ride to the ground once deprived of it's means of flight.

The Gundam sits there as Katz attempts to try to free it by jerking it back and forth. No budging though. He hears the cries from within the building, causing Katz to feel rather bad about what he was doing. Heroes didn't do this kind of thing! "I'm trying Camille! I didn't mean it!" Katz says as he spazes out and tries hitting more buttons.

Just then, Lamia's Gespenst comes in with a mighty punch, denting the front chest piece with a metal clang. Katz winces, trying to free himself. He notices several systems go down from that punch alone.

Then Russel's Jet Fist slams into the Gundam as well, pushing it back into the building with another metal bash. Katz screams like a wuss, trying to free himself. More systems down! More things going wrong.

The pain from those he accidently killed surges through his Newtype mind, bringing tears to his eyes. "I JUST WANT TO BE A HERO!!"

He hits the wrong switch.

The Gundam's jet pack fires up, spewing fire into the building. This obliterates anything that was still in there. Any commotion from within is ended with blistering fire.

Katz narrows his eyes as he floors it toward Lamia and Russel, ignoring the new screams from inside the building as the Gundam rips itself out of it. "I'M GONNA BE A HERO!!!" The Gundam fires its Beam rifle before tripping and falling over again.

With engines damaged and on verge of giving out, Garrod takes his rainbow farting surfboard and rides into the sunset.

Who punches a grenade? Seriously! Shinn is a bit bewildered by Camille's obviously superior grasp of completely confusing mobile suit tactics, but it's not without it's effects; because of the punch, Impulse is caught by the explosion of the grenade as well, staggering the ZAFT-made Gundam but at least its sensor systems hold out better than the intended target... Which is good for Shinn, because shit is indeed continuing to get real. The Zeta's beam rifle is brought to bear, but the shot doesn't hit anything, /because/... Impulse isn't where Camille last saw it. The battery-powered mobile suit has instead dropped low, briefly losing altitude in order to avoid the blast of concentrated mega-particles, but rather than getting its own beam rifle Force Impulse charges in again, slashing once more with its beam saber, as a friendly reminder to Camille that he just missed. "You terrorists... You think we'll just sit back and let you do whatever you want?!" Shinn bellows, setting the Gundam's mobile shield with one hand and brandishing its beam saber with the other. "The Athhas talk and talk about peace, but now - even now! - with the Aerogaters on our doorstep, all you people care about is making more war! I'll show you...! I'll show you what happens when your 'symbol' is taken away! Zeta Gundam... I'll tear you out of the sky!!!" Force Impulse charges in again, swinging its large shield in a bid to surprise Camille and knock him off guard, before following it up with two wide slashes with its beam saber, the pinkish blade thrumming loudly as it aims to do awful things to the Zeta's armor... And then, the beam saber is stabbed forward, Shinn trying to drive it right through the Zeta's midsection. "Just disappear already!!"

The board is stolen, causing Lily 2 to begin tumbling through the air... Lily 1 however blazes up again, catching the ailing unit and peppering the Nineball with response fire from its shoulder mount. "Ginga Command! We've got him on the run!" "Break off engagements. The Nineball is not considered to represent a tactical threat with its significant damage to its motive systems. Withdraw to point 3a to form a perimeter and help to prevent additional Katharon assets from arriving." Lily 1 grits his teeth, glaring at Garrod's machine, "Next time, terrorist!" The Monsoonos break off from their attack at various vectors...

The Gundam sits there as Katz attempts to try to free it by jerking it back and forth. No budging though. He hears the cries from within the building, causing Katz to feel rather bad about what he was doing. Heroes didn't do this kind of thing! "I'm trying Camille! I didn't mean it!" Katz says as he spazes out and tries hitting more buttons.

Just then, Lamia's Gespenst comes in with a mighty punch, denting the front chest piece with a metal clang. Katz winces, trying to free himself. He notices several systems go down from that punch alone.

Then Russel's Jet Fist slams into the Gundam as well, pushing it back into the building with another metal bash. Katz screams like a wuss, trying to free himself. More systems down! More things going wrong.

The pain from those he accidently killed surges through his Newtype mind, bringing tears to his eyes. "I JUST WANT TO BE A HERO!!"

He hits the wrong switch.

The Gundam's jet pack fires up, spewing fire into the building. This obliterates anything that was still in there. Any commotion from within is ended with blistering fire.

Katz narrows his eyes as he floors it toward Lamia and Russel, ignoring the new screams from inside the building as the Gundam rips itself out of it. "I'M GONNA BE A HERO!!!" The Gundam fires its Beam rifle before tripping and falling over again.

Who punches a grenade? Seriously! Shinn is a bit bewildered by Camille's obviously superior grasp of completely confusing mobile suit tactics, but it's not without it's effects; because of the punch, Impulse is caught by the explosion of the grenade as well, staggering the ZAFT-made Gundam but at least its sensor systems hold out better than the intended target... Which is good for Shinn, because shit is indeed continuing to get real. The Zeta's beam rifle is brought to bear, but the shot doesn't hit anything, /because/... Impulse isn't where Camille last saw it. The battery-powered mobile suit has instead dropped low, briefly losing altitude in order to avoid the blast of concentrated mega-particles, but rather than getting its own beam rifle Force Impulse charges in again, slashing once more with its beam saber, as a friendly reminder to Camille that he just missed. "You terrorists... You think we'll just sit back and let you do whatever you want?!" Shinn bellows, setting the Gundam's mobile shield with one hand and brandishing its beam saber with the other. "The Athhas talk and talk about peace, but now - even now! - with the Aerogaters on our doorstep, all you people care about is making more war! I'll show you...! I'll show you what happens when your 'symbol' is taken away! Zeta Gundam... I'll tear you out of the sky!!!" Force Impulse charges in again, swinging its large shield in a bid to surprise Camille and knock him off guard, before following it up with two wide slashes with its beam saber, the pinkish blade thrumming loudly as it aims to do awful things to the Zeta's armor... And then, the beam saber is stabbed forward, Shinn trying to drive it right through the Zeta's midsection. "Just disappear already!!"

Russel Bagman notices Lamia has the same idea as him keep it melee to avoid massive damage from higher yeild weaponrty. He doesn't even know what to say, is this person that deluded? He keeps walking for them the guy is using a beam rifle, and russel gets the hell in the way least it cause more carnage.

Russel flashes back remebering the fight on the colony where Bask basicaly ordered a purge, he frowns, what's wrong with this pilot. He stalks in keeping the Steel Knife ready mad then moves to drive it into the beam rifle, and hopefully disable it.

Lamia doesn't get it either, don't feel bad.

She has little idea what Katz means. She, of course, cannot feel the psychic flows of the dead; she has the psychic acuity of a vat grown taco steak and a bag of old cable modems. What she can tell is that Katz is apparently taking pains /to/ endanger the civilians...

That, or he's gone mad. Or else he's an incompetent pilot. The latter seems implausible; Katharon has a worryingly high level of average proficency. Lamia throws the beam weapon aside as Katz activates his thrusters, raising up the mech-scale shotgun and firing a round into the machine even as the Gespenst sidesteps his angle of beam rifle fire.

"You are a mad dog!" she answers, with a little heat -- not much, but a little. The shotgun is pumped once, with an immense mechanical noise which is, all present would agree were they not distracted, /totally sweet/. The Gespenst raises it up again and fires it at the back of the collapsing Gundam, perhaps to try and disable the engine block.

This of course may not work as planned.

Katz struggles with the controls of the Mk. II, attempting to get the machine up. This is just in time to see Russel coming in for a stab at his beam rifle. Katz manages to fire it off once before the knife cleaves the gun and disables it. "Damnit!" Katz shoves the gun at Russel to try to gain some space just as Lamia's shotgunblase strikes the back of the Gundam.

Katz flinches as if the shot was directed at him and not the robot he is currently sitting in. Katz turns the Gundam to fire the Vulcan cannons back at the Gespenst as the Gundam attempts to get some distance.

He had to survive. He had to live on.

Katz breaths heavily as he attempts to flee with his Gundam. "I have to live. I have to become the hero. Just like Amuro." Katz says as he fires his Vulcans again, firing in all directions. He is probably doing more damage to the surrounding area than to Lamia or Russel.

It was like the orphan of the One Year War hadn't learned a single damn thing doing...whatever it was he'd been doing all this time. "Katz..." Camille's shoulders shook with incandescent rage, each meaninglessly crushed, suffocated or otherwise incinerated cadet a bullet through his mind, "You're...!" He already heard how Lamia was taking this. Camille was no political strategist but even he could see the damage this incident was going to do to Katharon's public face.

The repeated mental assaults did not make it terrifically easy to focus on combat, an exceptional liability when going against another Gundam that, unlike the Mk. II, seemed to be piloted by someone with deadly competence. The initial lash of the Impulse's beam saber earns another gouge in the zeta's chest, forcing the mobile suit back as it tries to get enough distance for another shot.

But the ZAFT pilot is clearly one who knows how to press an advantage once he's got it, and Camille had no such respite. "Tch..!" Damage reports flew at him like objects flung from a certain childhood friend's caring hand; the Zeta's vernier thrusters fired at a ninet degree angle, avoiding the hab to the midsection in exchange for melting armor all along the side. Damn it, this was like fighting Jerid! The situation was bad enough, and if he didn't work out a defense against the pilot soon...

"I could say the same to you!" Camille shoots back, much as he finds little to defend about this particular incident, "The Aerogaters serve as nothing but an excuse for the Federation to continue their oppressive policies, both on Earth and in Space! Just because the aliens are worse doesn't mean you're suddenly good!" Or them, for that matter, if Katz 'Massacre' Kobayashi was any indication.

Still, Camille remained stalwart, "The Zeta won't be taken down so easily!" At his insistence the foot pedals are shoved to maximum tilt, the Gundam's primary boosters rocketing it to sky above before making a rapid, extreme change in movement that looped it back towards the Impulse, building momentum in a ridiculously short timeframe that the Zeta Gundam was apparently known for. "I won't do say you say!!" A lone beam saber flashes out horizontally at the Impulse, hoping to bisect it right through the cockpit, the only way for a ZAFT pilot to die. "You're the ones who should vanish!"

Russel Bagman seems to be refusing to break out the heavier weapon, and he's managed to disbale the beam wapons. It's clear this unit has much heavier weapons, but he doesn't use them. Russel's keeping the knife in hand as he keeps close. "I think your right, Lamia! This guy's insane!" He moves in and starts punching witrh the unpowerd plasma stakes again, he seems intent to disable the other machine. HE's hit but the damage isn't too bad and he's still comming.

Lamia doesn't hear all of this. "Amuro Ray?" she says, as if to ask for clarification on Katz's comment. The Gespenst advances - slamming one fist against the Gundam. But the Gundam doesn't fall. It stands, like some kind of icon of terror intimidating and threatening the hapless students of this educational facility!

Lamia is not filled with options. As Katz is briefly distracted by the power of Russel's more modern Gespenst, she raises up the M13 Shotgun -- but backwards? Suicide!?

No.

She slams its stock forwards, aiming to crush the forward cameras of the Gundam's head.

"We're trying to defend the whole Earth Sphere!" Shinn counters, stubbornly unwilling to concede the point to Camille. The Zeta's pilot is, quite frankly, amazing; even Shinn can tell that, although he's not really the sort of guy to compliment an enemy in the middle of a battle. His attack doesn't get the purchase he would have hoped for, keeping him from putting an end to the Zeta Gundam's reign of terror, but as the situation on the ground goes more and more wildly out of control thanks to Katz 'WMD' Kobayashi, Shinn Asuka becomes more and more focused on the enemy in front of him. The red-eyed Coordinator's brain processes information with remarkable speed, subconsciously calculating what the Zeta is doing - even if Shinn himself isn't aware of the process - and his hands and feet move on Force Impulse's controls, whirling his Gundam around to meet Camille's, beam sabers clashing in a tremendous burst of forces, crackling energy spouting from either beam blade. "The Earth, the colonies, all of it! It's people like you, and the rest of Katharon - who hide behind pretty words and high-minded ideals, but all you do is keep fighting, dragging out the war! Who can you protect!? WHAT DO YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH TO SAVE?!" Impulse breaks the saber lock with a quick, short slash of its blade, lunging in to swing the beam saber again in a horizontal slash, hoping to take the Zeta's head!

Katz screams at Russel comes forward with another punch, blocking it with the Gundam's shield. The loud impact makes the pilot shudder as he realizes he can't keep this up much longer. The EFA was going to send more in and then he and Camille would..."TCH!" Katz draws his beam saber and swings it to keep Russel away.

And then he runs right toward Lamia. He swings the beam Saber but the impact of the butt of her shotgun, breaks Katz' vision to the outside world. The beam saber is dropped as Katz panics. "Damnit! I won't die here!" Which probably comes out to Lamia as "Damnit...Die here!"

The Gundam fires up its thrusters and rockets forward as it blindly draws it's beam saber and holds it forward. The intent is to shank through Russel shove him out of the way...which is conviently near the Cafeteria or the dorm.

From an outsider perspective, this yelling seems to be a Berserker crying out for more innocent blood.

Since returning to the AEUG, Camille has already taken part in more battles than he cares to count. In those same fights he's certainly traded blows with any number of formiddable opponents...but none quite like the Impulse Pilot. It wasn't simply a matter of skill (though he was, in fact, extremely good, enough to make the Newtype nervous), but the effect the fight itself wrought on the AEUG ace. It wasn't just a matter of survival, or of winning a philosophical point...the simple fact was that Camille /didn't want to lose/ to this guy, whoever he was. Deadly foes were a dime a dozen, any of them could be with enough luck, but those who brought out the reticient Bidan child's sense of competetive spirit into combat were rare indeed.

Katz Kobayashi? Who the hell was that?

The blue-haired Newtype's preternatural awareness served the same function as the Coordinator's mental processing power, reaching same result via different paths. The prediction of movements, foreseeing the path of battle..in other words, they were evenly matched. But a tie was never good enough for Camille, who grits his teeth as the Zeta pressed forward in the crackling power struggle against the other Gundam.

"It's because of that misguided notion that space and the earth are suffering so much!" Camille admonishes, blood boiling, "Who made you fit to protect the Earth, or space? The Spacenoids weren't asked, or the powerless peoples on Earth! That kind of desire is nothing more than the arrogance of the elite!"

Camille sees the Impulse's move before it makes it, cutting his engines back so that the Zeta's had drops precious feet below the arc of the Impulse's attack, just barely escaping with it's V-fin attack, "I'm not some kind of saint who think he can protect everyone...I don't claim to have all the answers."

Two grenades fire from the Zeta's wrist: smoke rounds to disguise next attack. "But at the least, I can be strong enough to stop suffering when it happens right in front of me!" Current example not withstanding, a pink lance of burning energy launches from the smokescreen at the Impulse's chest. Not a beam saber, but a beam /bayonet/

"Someone has to step up and do it!" Shinn retorts, as the Zeta avoids being decapitated by Force Impulse's beam saber. "People who draw those distinctions - 'Spacenoid' and 'Earthnoid', 'Natural' or 'Coordinator', 'Oldtype' or 'Newtype' - they're people who just foster more conflict!!" Shinn has always had one foot in both worlds, really; a second generation Coordinator but born in Orb, he grew up without the anti-Coordinator prejudice many of his peers and predecessors faced. He grew up in a society where nobody really cared what your genes were like or if somebody tinkered with them while you were in the womb... But like all Coordinators, space is his natural environment. His time as a citizen of the PLANTs, as a pilot for the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, showed him what it was like on the 'other side'... The awful thing is, if Shinn were in more of a reasonable mindset than he is right now, he'd probably find himself agreeing with Camille more than disagreeing with him. But instead, he's pretty much got a round trip ticket on the screaming rage express. The obscuring smoke fills the air in front of and around Impulse, but Shinn just needs to think his way through this; he just needs to move. "We're all--" Suddenly, the hyper mega bayonet comes spearing through the smoke, and while Impulse is trying to move, it's not fast enough. The bayonet spears through the Gundam's torso, hitting any number of extremely important parts. Which would be why Force Impulse pretty much explodes then and there. There's an oddity to the explosion, though, because half of it happens a significant distance /below/ the rest of it, as the suit's lower torso and legs seem to have fallen off, the Variable Phase Shift Armor dying out to a gunmetal grey colour; a close observer would notice the Core Splendor that unfolded from inside the crippled and then exploding Gundam, a small blue and white fighter getting the hell out of there. It's not equipped to, you know, fight a /Gundam/. "/Zeta/," Shinn mutters to himself as he flies back to the Yingzi, nursing a good slow burn angry.

Russel Bagman is moving in fast, the other machine has a beam saber. "I will not let you kill any more innocent people!" Russel says as he moves in, he manages to evade most of the attack and then, drives the steel knife as deeply as he can into the the other machine.. There's not much else he can do. He's putting down a mad dog, plain and simple.

The Steel knifes goes into the Gundam's chest but it is not enough to stop it from keeping moving. The machine flies blindly away fro mthe battlefield to be retreved by Camille in a moment. Who was this monster? Why did he crave innocent blood? Was this the new face of katharon.

Katz looks down at his wet pants and suddenly doesn't feel very fresh or heroic.

Just the same, there was part of Camille that couldn't help but sympathize with what Shinn was trying to communicate. When he wasn't consumed by that burning, self-righteous sense of anger, he could understand the humanitarian, admirable desire to defend the Earth Sphere and strive for a world without directions. But he himself had lived far too long under the heel of oppression, a first-hand witness to the atrocities of the Titans, to ignore what those noble ideals would inevitably twisted. And having lived all too cognizant of his status as an 'other', even among spacenoids to live in that ideal, boundary-free world.

He can't take much solace in his victory here, not because of his shady trick or anything (There was no such thing as an honor in battle or what have you, Captain Quattro had showed him that), but the all-too poignant knowledge that he'd gotten lucky. The glimpse of the retreating Core Splendor proved it-guess that design did serve a purpose-and he didn't doubt he'd be seeing that pilot again.

Meanwhile, it's a quick effort of aerial dering-do to retrieve the battered Gundam Mk. II where Katz delivered it, keeping the EFA vultures at bay with the Hyper Mega Launcher if necessary. The retreat flares are fire, and Camille beats a swith path back to the Argama, would-be hero in tow.

"Katz..." Camille could only shake his head in muted shock as he considered the ruin of the shrinking academy behind them, "What have you done?"

Russel Bagman can't do anything further chasing might cause more fatalities, so he stands down. "So this is how you thank us Bright Noa..." This was a nightmare, what might happen against the balmarians the possiblity of a betrayal once the aliens were down was a possiblity now... wasn't it? After a terror raid like this. Russel didn't know what to think.

CUTSCENE - During all of that, on the Argama

The Argama was currently carrying a prisoner - not too much unlike a traitor in a ways. A Divine Crusader they had picked up about a week ago or so. A few days ago Judau had somehow conned Bright Noa into letting the guy become the new 'maid' of the White Base's successor. A few chicken hunts and hours of assisting the tired technicians, the man had been proven to be quite a bit of a help. After all, unlike most that had been on board of that ship, he had been granted plenty of sleep. It is the radio-room he is working in just as transmissions begin to come in. "Katz?" Ascian obviously was not familiar with the name. What he /was/ familiar with was the call for assistance however. That, and the fact that the guy who was working there quickly kicked him out. After all, he wasn't particularly liked - and eyed with great suspicion. And who could blame them? The events surrounding his capture had been rather... suspicious.

So instead, the guy makes his way to the hangar, where technicians are speeding around after the Gundam launches. Now was a prime time to check on Amenthes without anyone noticing. The thing was filled with cables and other such thing. The entire Orbital Frame looked rather miserable. The two large gashes along its body and the break in its spine set by the lasersword looked even worse now that he could get a good look at it. He'd put on a Normal Suit to be inconspicuous and floats to a nearby panel to check on what they had been gathering. Not much. Some energy readings which were incredibly low. Ascian's eyes slip upwards and notices however, that the metatron energy 'feathers' were still hanging from Amenthes. "Of course you are not going to get proper readings if you stick all those tubes just into the cockpit. She isn't a damn Gundam." He mutters to himself and watches as a few technicians float by talking to eachother. With everyone launched, they can finally take a momentary and hard-needed break. "Yo! Don't overwork yourself!" One calls at him. He just raises a hand and without turning around he calls out; "I'll be done in a moment!" - "Don't kill yourself man. It's not even one of ours." They were too tired to be suspicious.

It would be so easy to delete this information right now. But he refuses. Instead, he takes note of everyone's position before pushing off and flying straight to the cockpit - using one of the pipes leading into it to guide him into the opened shielding and settles into the cockpit. The systems were barely active - only a slight glow at the controls that seemed to respond to his presence alludes to Amenthes having noticed her framerunner. "Don't worry - I'll get us out of here after a while. I've heard rumors that we are currently on route to Mars. Just sit it out for a little longer." While war carries on beneath the Argama - Katz getting to his Gundam and all of that - the hangar remains fairly empty, leaving Ascian to do his 'job'.

The metatron-energy feeding lines that run throughout the frame are normally fixed - and the damage has cut off a lot of their paths. But someone who has maintained and held onto their Orbital Frame as long as this young man has learns how to do certain kinds of maintenance once in a while. One of those is the ability to dredge up a program that lets his redirect what signals go through where. And by bypassing certain connections and making them go through others - he begins to manage to reconnect the 'lines'. For a moment, the unit entirely lights up - before Ascian quickly sends a deactivation signal. "HEY!" He hears a man call out. "That freaky thing just lit up!" Amenthes had been given new life. And at a quick glance - Ascian had seen that it was able to fly. He'd locked it with a key of sorts - before jumping over the edge of the cockpit and disappearing on the other side - soon leaving undetected. That was all he'd intended to do. Preperations... if he ever had to flee.