2011-04-08 - Objects In Space

Katharon Flagship Argama 12:23 - Local Space Time

Beyond the immediate grip of the Federation, 'All Known Space' is a considerably rough landscape. The creature comforts expected amid the colonies is nowhere to be found. Beyond the occasional Federal ship moving to and from the Martian front, there is no order here. Those who dare to eke out a living hauling goods across the heavenly bodies take their lives into their hand -- lest of course, they can pay for the protection of the Inner Sphere.

In the gap between worlds, the expanse is as desolate as it is fraught with unseen dangers. Space-rock, along with the detritus of over a decade of near-continuous warring, litter the visual field. Shattered semi-monocoque frames linger about along with a few bodies with uniforms of yesteryear, their limbs locked into place by the vaccuum's deep freeze. A junk dealer's delight.

The Argama is a fixed-point in this lawless void of space. Its gravity blocks extended, lengths of mechanical arms propelling them around in constant rotation to provide colony-level conditions for the crew. Tow-splines extend from the white battleship, leading all the way to the battered hull of the derelict Peregrine-class ship.

A crew of MSA-003 Nemo units litter the space between the two ships, scattered in tactical formation. With their beam rifles drawn, their head modules whirring about as they scan every inch of the field. Their sole task: to protect the lost treasures of Bian Zoldark that Katharon has come to collect.

Crowded around the airlock of the derelict Peregrine are a series of small-by-comparison white vaguely humanoid mechanoids. Instead of hands, they possess a variable clamp in the right and an arc welder in the left. Ion-drives serve as propulsion and a scuffed up 'SpaceConstructionVehicle' runs down its left arm.

A couple moments of tinkering and whoosh, the airlock pops. The door is simply hurtled into the void by a blast of depressurizing atmosphere. The lead mechanoid trembles for a moment..

"Chief, are you alright?" Bright clicks over the radio link. He's couped up in one of these things, these micro-Petite Mobile Unit. On his right, Rachel Miu Athha.

In the lead unit, Astonaige lets out a sigh of relief. "SCV, good-to-go, Cap'n."

"..Right," Bright huffs. "..Let's just find this black hole engine and get us the hell out of here. Bright to Argama, we're going in."

The micro-Petite Mobile Units disappear into the Peregrine...

Back at the Argama,

"They're going in," Saman reports to the bridge crew.

"..and I get to sleep in the fancy chair!" Beecha clasps his hands together and grins.

Teenagers: world's worst acting Captains.

SPEAKING OF TEENAGERS AS CAPTAINS

ABOUT TWO WEEKS AGO

"Nah, Heero, come on, -nothing- will go wrong!" Camille Bidan chums up to his fire-forged buddy Heero Yuy, wrapping his suited arm around him. "Get a couple of drinks, hit on some chicks... it'll be all fun in the sun!"

SHORTLY AFTER

The windows to the Neo Triple Crown shatter as /Heero freaking Yuy/ launches himself out in a fit of drunken rage, screaming, "CAMILLE!!!!!!!!" The battle rages on as multiple people keep calling Camille a /girls'/ name and much fun and wackiness is had by all except maybe Johnny Ridden who will forever be scarred by this event.

Johnny Ridden, horrified: 'Argama Contact, we lost Heero. Oh god, we lost Heero.'

A LITTLE AFTER THAT

Heero twitches as his body starts to respond, blood flowing through his systems. There was a sharp coldness... his eyes flutter open, and he gasps as he pulls his body up. He stares down, and sees himself half-encased in ice, in some grotesque bathtub that could use a purging by fire. All around him were weird figures in rags that could once pass as doctor labcoats, holding scalpels and other mortifying instruments that could similarly once pass as 'surgical equipment'.

In the distance, a Zaku in a sombrero advertises, 'WELCOME TO TIJUANA!' Maracas and cheerful flamenco music follow.

EVEN MORE TIME AFTER THAT

Heero Yuy flinches once more, waking up in total darkness. "Where... where am I?" he groans, feeling quite positively like hell. He floats about in this darkness, until his eyes glimpse the shape of a porthole. He frantically reaches for the lever and pulls it open, revealing a grand, majestic view of... the Red Planet.

All the rage builds up in him as he clenches his fists to the air.

"CAMILLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

NOW

The IFF of a Katharon-aligned Salamis Kai cruiser pulls into combat airspace. But this is no Salamis Kai, boy.

Covered in what looks to be leaves and bushes and trees and effigys to some supernatural pantheon that looks like they've got profiles of flowers, a giant can of Neo Cola, Neo Vegas' now-defunct Libertarian party advocating Free Love, designer shoes and most importantly as the central figure in the middle, affixed ontop of the bridge unit:

A giant freaking effigy of Heero Yuy's head, made of wood and metal and having /laser cannons/ for eyes.

The bridge is no less bizarre or busy, with half of the recommended staffing for the bridge dedicated to tasks like easy listening and wining and dancing and being gay and merry. On the captain's chair sits a lovely figure dressed in an ostentatious ballgown of leaves, and flowers, and pearlescent little necklaces and jewelry, and a wreath of flowers on their head.

That figure is also Heero Yuy. Who opens up audio and visual commlink with the AEUG battleship rite about /nao/.

> "Captain Bright. The Pride of Moon-Moon will assist in salvage retrieval. Moving to hold position."

He turns his eyes towards the few people who -are- still working. "Man the forward cannons and ready the engines for possible combat initiation! Stations to level 1! Load up the anti-mobile suit mortar shells and keep a watch over your signal radars!" Pause. Everyone stares at him, confused. One guy scratches his butt with his banjo. "This, your goddess commands!"

Only on that final word do people actually -do- anything. Lights and figments come onscreen as the crew begin their hale and hearty work, and Heero Yuy slinks back into his captain's chair. "I will kill you, Camille Bidan," he mumbles.

 Saman transmits, "Uhh, Beecha, the Pride of the Moon-Moon just entered range and they're indicating to Captain Bright that they're providing assistance with the op."

 Beecha Oleg transmits, "Well, I'm the Captain right now! You tell them that /Captain Beecha/ says /whatever/."

 Heero Yuy transmits, "... copy that, Captain Beecha."

 Beecha Oleg transmits, "Ha ha. It's good to be the King!"

 Captain Bright Noa sigh. "Of all the-- I copy that. Thank you, Heero."

 Roux Louka transmits, "Beecha, quit screwing around! This is a position of responsibility, not some cheap way to fulfill your fantasies of power and authority."

 Heero Yuy transmits, "Oh, good, you /are/ here, Captain."

 Heero Yuy relieved.

 Camille Bidan transmits, "Ah...wow, Heero, you've been busy."

 Heero Yuy PASSIVE AGRESSIVELY, "Yes, I have."

 Camille Bidan cough, "Well...uh..good to have you back!"

 Heero Yuy 's background has violent primal screams from the bridge about 'Camille the Betrayer'. "Ah... um. Maintaining radio silence."

 Roux Louka transmits, "Uh..."

 Camille Bidan transmits, "Er..."

 Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Do... do I wanna know?"

 Heero Yuy transmits, "You really don't."

<Radio: D - WING boys> Quatre Raberba Winner transmits, "Alright then."

Oversight of the salvage operation in case of a sudden intrusion of Battlemechs, or worse, Tengu Power Armors, is being provided by Roux Louka in her second-edition Zeta Gundam!

Which is currently floating rather placidly in space some distance above the salvage operation. It turns fractionally when the new incoming ship transmits, Roux herself frowning to herself, thinking perhaps that this is all extremely silly.

She takes a moment to send Beecha a comment on the radio, before letting out a sigh, rolling her eyes, and digging in the cockpit side pocket for her bottle of neo-Adderall. If this goes on, she thinks, maybe she can get some reading done.

Having a stealth mobile suit is honestly pretty damn awesome. It lets Juku sneak around things she shouldn't and to find valuables that would otherwise be unfindable.

Like a wreck of the Divine Crusader Peregrine that has something on board it interesting enough to have the Argama here, slowly trying to break into it. "Hmmnhmmn." Juku considers to herself. Should she party crash her former compatriots? Well she paid her contract termination fee with Katharon. It was almost the entire amount of money Katharon paid her in the first place.

So considering her dues well paid, Juku moves the nearly invisible REX Hound closer to the Divine Crusader Wreck, scanning the hull for a second way inside. She turns her machine to the opposite side of the wreck and closes in on a rend in the armor...mabe she can force her way in.

Macua, has experiance boarding and salvage ships in the past. She's used SCVs before a long time ago before her life went to hell and she quite remebers the last salvage job she was with but she keeps with the other.

"Woo hoo over time."

She laughs a little bit as she moves her SCV with the others.

"So looks like this place shouldn't be bug infested...like that last ship I worked on."

The SCV oddly hasmore armor plate then normal on the rear of the unit but it doesn't seem to be causing any problems for her.

"So let's see what's here, maybe there will be something useful in this mess."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "The.. hell.."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Heero Yuy maintains order. "But it is good to see you are fine, Camille." Pause. "Not that I was worried or anything."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Camille, what've I told you about never abandoning your wingmen?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "I have no idea what anyone is talking about!"

SOME TIME AGO

'ONE(1) FULLY-FUNCTIONAL BLACK HOLE ENGINE' is scrawled across the bottom of a shipping manifest, right beneath 'FIFTY(50) FULLY-FUNCTIONAL MATHIAS ROMON BOBBLE-HEAD DOLLS' and 'FOUR(4) CANISTERS OF FULLY-FUNCTIONAL PURU-GRADE STEM CELLS'.

"There," the writer murmurs as he scans the document into his computer. "That oughtta do it."

A few seconds later, the image is posted on a dozen different Katharon-affiliated BBS sites and digital drop points, including 00chan; its filename reads '1121116 MOON CRADLE TORRINGTON CARGO MANIFEST VERY IMPORTANT'.

"Sieg Zeon," he exhales with a note of sarcasm as he moves on to his next assignment for the day.

SOME TIME AGO(BUT A LITTLE BIT AFTER THE FIRST THING)

"CAPTAIN BRIGHT!" Katz Kobayashi excitedly screeches upon seeing a particular 00chan posting. The young Newtype leaps to his feet and sprints from his room to race through the Argama's corridors. "I FOUND SOMETHING! I FOUND SOMETHING /AWESOME/! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE--"


 * KA-THUD*

Before he knows it, Katz is sprawled on the ship's floor; a few feet away, Anaheim Electronics' Wong Lee is picking himself up with the best expression of disdain he can muster. "What," he growls, "was so important that--"

"/I FOUND A BLACK HOLE ENGINE/! I GOTTA TELL THE CAPTAIN!" Katz screams as he scrambles to his feet. Before he can take a step, however, Wong - whose pupils have been replaced with dollar signs - extends a hand to take him by the shoulder and stop him.

"A--black hole engine, you say," he slowly murmurs. He lets it hang for a second, two, three, four--

"Kit, son, don't worry. /I'll/ let the captain know; I'll make sure he recognizes your..." A beat passes. Two. Three. Four.

And then Wong just walks off to return to his shuttle without bothering to finish his statement.

"Uh--sir--sir, it's /Katz/, sir--!" the young pilot calls as Wong disappears.

NOW

This particular Peregrine class cruiser has seen better days; several years ago, it was a jewel in the Federation's fleet. Once the Divine War began in earnest, the ship's crew brought it to Bian Zoldark's side, where it served through numerous conflicts until, finally, the ravages of war and science and time took their toll; it's a wreck, now, its systems dead and dark. Whatever its original purpose, all it's good for now is occupying space.

And being occupied.

"It's funny," Anavel Gato transmits without a shred of humour. His Gundam GP-02A Physalis stands amidst shipping containers in the derelict's cargo bay, hidden as well as a thing so bulky and distinctive /can/ hide.

"The Argama's /predecessor/ was the 'Trojan Horse'. Hh, Keep your weapons cold until the last moment."

He isn't /alone/; it would be risky in a way nobody on Axis - even in its current state of disarray - could possibly be comfortable with, to send one man to ambush what could easily become an entire fighting force of Newtypes.

"We don't want to give ourselves /away/."

Also helping with the salvage op is one STAREN WIREMU, BOY GENIUS. His Star Hawk does contain some engineering tools that may be useful, and this time he has his FAST packs loaded with remote drones to help with the op. He eyes the SCV warily... if they're attacked now, the captain and beecha might be vulnerable... Hopefully he and the others will be able to stop any such attackers. Now, how to scan for a black hole engine...

Staren Wiremu activates his SRH-2X Star Hawk Mk. II Prototype unit. Staren Wiremu's SRH-2X Star Hawk Mk. II Prototype transforms into its Star Hawk Mk. II Humanoid mode.

Rachel Miu Athha has had quite a lot of experience in learning how to pilot a Petite Mobile Suit. She was more than willing to volunteer for the recovery job, as well-- the time that she spent with Judau gathering the Gelgoog, as well as parts for it, has helped her become fairly adept in it's use. So as the crew of the Argama bumps through space, the young Lieutenant shifts in the chair, feeling the subtle bends and shifts in her old black and pink Orb Union flight suit.

With all the testing for the P2/3C, she hasn't worn it for awhile.

More to the point, she still looks a little rough. It isn't so much a lack of sleep, but the adventure that took place in her last outing with Tessa Testarossa, Melissa Mao, and Soma Peries during her last trip down to Earth. What started as a routine check-up with the doctors on board for her GN exposure was... well...

... There will be a cutscene about that, don't worry.

"I-Is that Heero's face on that ship?" she asks with a squint, even as her artificial left eye tries to spin out and bring the Moon-Moon cruiser into focus. What in the sweet gravy hey brought /that/ about...?

On board of the Peregrine

"This is boring." Ascian mutters. The very dim glow of the cockpit flows through the machine. The bluehaired framerunner has one leg kicked on on the side console of the Amenthes, and he is reading what looks to be an instruction manual to the SV-51 Variable Fighter. He'd pilotted it before, but he was trying to get a better idea of how it worked, and how to fly one. With Seril recently having asked if she should try pilotting something other than the Yatagarasu, the young man decided that perhaps a Variable Fighter would work well for her style of combat. "Ahh... so /that/ is how to properly transform!" He claims in surprise, and kind of makes a motion in the air, following the instruction. "Yes, I see." It'd been months since he'd flown that damn deathtrap. But he knew they were capable units, he'd seen people fly them beyond what he concidered their possible limits.

He looks over to the control panel before him. It was pulsing slightly, showing 'Raptor Program, Active' in feint red letters. He kinda had a red theme going on with this machine after all. It was a good thing he didn't have any issues seeing that particular color. His left eye is finally no longer covered in a bandage, so he is capable of properly seeing the area around him. That is, the inside of the large metal construct he was inside of. The Amenthes, floating somewhat, is actually hidden within the confines of a LEV suit. A disguise! That's right, the Orbital Frame is disguised as a LEV. Who would /ever/ thing of such a thing?

Gato breaks through the radio. "Ah, they're here?" Ascian asks, and Duat immediately resounds; "Correct, multiple energy signatures are inbound on our hangar location." - "Dim all the lights." The framerunner demands, and the cockpit turns dark, and the LEV unit's red eye turns off. It's a great disguise, it now just looks like a completely inactive LEV unit. Sitting there. Doing nothing. Right next to a box that claims: 'Black Hole Engine: Do Not Touch!'. "Just give me the word." Ascian notes. There was a black hole in that container alright. A Cellar to be precise, holding a series of Orbital Frame drones.

"And all i'm really trying to say here is that I wish you would be more mature about this whenever I want to talk about it! Maybe if you spent as much time actually listening as you do eyeing every other girl who walks by on the Argama.."

"Look, Fa, couldn't we do this another time? Like, i'm all for 'never' really, but at the moment i'd settle for /not in the middle of an active mission/!!!"

Camille Bidan shouted that last part into his commlink, wincing as the Zeta nudge a piece of space debris which would no doubt cause some kind of catastrophe in the near-future, "Son of a bitch!"

"Watch where you're going, Camille!" Apolly's voice came in, his signature Rick Dom not far behind, "There'll be plenty of time for 'recreation' when you get back to the ship!"

"That's not what this is!" The Newtype snapped back, already feeling pissed off enough to handle whatever would inevitably go wrong on this mission, as he started having the typical bad, plot-forecasting feelings about it an hour ago. "Seriously though, Fa, there's got to be plenty for you to do right now. Like, uh..." He put about one second of thought into his response, "washing my clothes or something? You still do that, right?"

"You are /such/ an asshole!" Fa's social link went down the zero, and the line cut.

"Oh well." Camille groaned, 'parking' the Zeta Gundam in a synchronous space adjacent to the derelict ship, a relic of a time that seemed not nearly so far or irrelevant as the pilot wished, "This is Camille, i'm in position. Try and get whatever it is fast, I don't like...anything about this, really." Call it the lingering touch of death, the legacy of brutality and destruction inherent in floating ruin about them, or the chalupa he had late last night, but he was not feeling at the top of his game about this.

Also, Heero is here. That is reaaaallly awkward.

The tear in the Peregrine's hull-plating isn't difficult to work against. After being left adrift for so long, entropy has settled in. Though Juku's mobile weapon is outfitted for stealth, it may not be able to suppress sounds coming from beyond it. Peeling the rend back to fit in may be creaky to those inside the ship.

"Let's.. try not to think about it right now," Bright lets out a sigh. There is no words to express the deep, appalled feelings he is experiencing right now. Within the SCV's bubble, the Admiral stares at a dark world of corridors ahead of him. The Peregrine's powerplant must have bled dry. He fiddles with a setting inside the suit, switching the hi-beam halogen array above him on. Brilliance floods out, turning the fearful into the much more manageable. "Let's hope not, Macua. Chief?"

"According to the schematics we lifted," Chief Astonaige murmurs as he studies a wireframe display. "The cargo bay oughta be that way. Welp, fastest way between points A an' B are a straight line, so.."

The Peregrine landing crew begins moving toward the Cargo Bay, completely unaware of what lies in store of them.

"Tee hee hee.." one of the many disurbingly same-faced orange-haired girls titters in the dark. Gato might've ordered them all to not give things away but, it's awful hard not to be amused when you're holding onto a secretOiRanmaru

"You know, it's been a while since we've been in space," says Lockon Stratos, who is very definitely not secretly also Lyle Dylandy, Karaba special agent. He sits, of all places, in the hangar bay of the Argama, sitting on top of the currently open cockpit of the GN-006 Cherudim Gundam, wearing his hunter green Celestial Being flight suit. "Much less on the Argama. Well... Hopefully Tieria gets what he's after," the counterfeit Gundam Meister decides, proving to be pretty laid back about the whole thing.

"BLOODY VENGEANCE," the orange Haro contributes in a cheery electronic tone, floating close at hand in the hangar's microgravity. Its eyelights flash, and its ear flappy things flap. "BLOODY VENGEANCE!" Lockon gives the Haro an odd look. Still, until either Tieria returns with Katz Kobayashi's head on a pike, or something unexpected and /COMPLETELY AWFUL/ happens, there's not much else for Lockon to do except babysit the mysterious GN-series machines, lest any enterprising rogues on the Argama's crew try to take a closer look at them.

Juku can hear some of the open radio chatter, just enough to get a sense of who's here for Katharon. "These guys are gonna be pissed if they find me here." Maybe she /shouldn't/ go against her forer allies here, but... well it's not like she ever got along with most of them.

Juku works REX's hands against the peeling metal plate, attempting to go slowly as she can, but it's just goddamn hard, if not impossible to make a gap big enough for a mobile suit to get through without alerting everyone inside. "Okay, plan B."

The hatch of REX opens, as if a gap were opening in space into a cockpit. Juku climbs out in her normal suit, and takes a cargo container from REX's belt, nudging it into the hole in the hull. Inside of which there is some fumbling with the containter until it opens, revealing the angular TENGU battlearmor. "I haven't used this before... I hope it's not that hard."

Juku seals herself into the powered armor and boots it up. "Just like a tiny Mobile Suit... that can tear off heads if I make a bad twitch at the wrong time."

She thrusts deeper into the ship.

THE ARGAMA THE FINAL FRONTIER NOT VERY LONG AGO

A bulky spacefaring craft of somewhat ancient design sits in the curiously nondescript hangar of the Argama, twin engines still in the process of cooling, so recently has it landed. Bearing no logo save two simple red crosses on either side of the cockpit, it pretty obviously has some kind of application in either evacuating people, or providing medical aid. Like... some kind of Medivac. A Medivac Dropship, if you will. Curious. It is carrying a giant robot-shaped bundle of tarp that clearly is not a humanoid weapon of war. Who could possibly be flying such a thing?!?

"/Missing/?" repeats Ibis Douglas, squinting curiously at the lovable blonde operator of the Argama's communication facilities as she stands on the bridge as a gigantic god damned security hazard seriously who let this happen. She is dressed in a flightsuit adorned with red crosses just like her mysterious transport ship, so bulky, armoured and white that it looks more like powered armour than anything. Her flight helmet is under one arm. It is huge. God damn. "That's odd... Heero said he had something really important to show me. Something about the Triads next move back on Earth." she muses, a hand to her chin.

"We haven't had word from him since that incident, last I heard. Pretty strange, all up." replies Saman, folding both hands behind his head and enjoying the company of someone other than his /asshole slave driver of a commander/. The two of them share a bonding moment as they ponder where Heero Yuy has gotten to.

And then, a tribal abortion of a spaceship appears out of nowhere. A peace sign is emblazoned on one side and it wobbles kinda funnily as Heero Yuy's voice starts transmitting. There is a tremendously awkward silence.

THE ARGAMA THE WINGS OF LIBERTY THEMSELVES RIGHT NOW

Ibis God Damned Douglas jams her curiously medic-looking helmet on as she storms through the hangar towards her dropship, and hauls the tarp covering her giant space robot away with a flourishing moment as she mutters darkly. "This is so stupid. I am still dreaming. I am still having that insane nightmare in Neo-America. God damn it." The TELLUS in the ace colours gleams brightly, /heroically/ even.

There is nothing about this that is not stupid.

The ambush is a tactically sound one, obviously well-planned, not just involving rushing headlong into a frontal assault. This is how you can tell that Puru Two wasn't the one who set it up. It's hard enough for her to do as Gato says and wait a while longer before springing the trap. Having to sit back and focus on keeping her presence hidden from the Newtypes out there isn't her favorite thing in the world.

Seated in the cockpit of her Qubeley Mk. II, which is itself sitting lifeless in the cargo bay, she would look almost asleep at first glance, eyes closed and waiting calmly for the signal. She is anything but calm, however, barely able to contain her impatience. At least she can contain it better than her 'sisters'.

"Quiet," is the only word she spares the lot, their presence just making it that much harder to concentrate. Her red Qubeley stands out a lot more within the greyness of the cargo bay than the units of the other Purus, but that's not a concern. By the time they can see her, it will be time for action, anyway.

"I'll be a lot more amused once things start exploding," she impassively reacts to Gato's comment. Ascian has it right, this is boring. The signal to attack can't be given soon enough.

Anew Returner had been onboard the Argama when the attack first began. There were few members of Katharon that Anew knew personally outside of Celestial Being; her boyfriend (or was he that?) seemed to know just about everyone they encountered onboard the craft. Anew couldn't help but wish that things came as naturally to her as they did to him. Watching him, it was difficult not to admire the ease with which he carried conversations, even with acquaintances; Anew, on the other hand, had difficulty pressing forward the appropriate words. Jealousy was not the word for what Anew felt towards Lockon for his ability; admiration might have better described it.

But when the attack began, Anew rushed off to the bridge to assist; taking a seat at a control panel, Anew furiously presses buttons in front of her, her eyes quickly scanning and processing the information before her. Her eyes dart away from the screen only once -- hoping to catch sight of Lockon's Cherudim. Her lips tighten into a worried frown; her brows furrow.

She swallows, and turns back to the screen before her.

The funny thing is, space does absolute wonders for Tieria Erde's attitude.

Ever since the Gundam Meisters returned to outer space, he seems to have relaxed, even just a little bit-- and that has more than likely played to the advantage of Lockon Stratos and Anew Returner in all the time that this trip has taken. His anger has not, however, waned enough that he is willing to obey all of the wishes and demands of the Argama, as this time he has parked the GN-008 Seravee Gundam in the hangar of the AEUG ship.

Tieria has come to the ship to speak with Bright Noa about the conduct of one of his crew, as well as the recent snafu that was caused by him stealing from Princess Shine Hausen and wounding the Gundam of Gundams, Latooni Subota, with a gun. Seriously, who gives /Katz/ access to a gun?

Unfortunately, it looks like the purple-haired androgyne's lengthy rant at Bright Noa is going to have to wait, due to the absence of the Captain on the ship. Instead, he stands there staring at Beecha Oleg long enough that his red-eyed gaze could bore a hole through the teenaged crewman-slash-captain, and he exits the bridge at a brisk pace, returning to the hangar.

Pushing off from the railing on the second floor entrance to the hangar and gliding to the Cherudim, Tieria stands perpendicular to the Irish sniper, adjusting his glasses with a light touch of his fingers.

"I do not understand how this ship has not been annihilated."

An operational Black Hole engine. Such a find would be an incredible discovery, but it was also something that could not fall into the wrong hands. Something about this bothers him, something that causes his brow to furrow. While it looks like his usual expression, someone like Lockon Stratos would be able to tell that there's something bothering him.

"Urgh."

Sitting a short distance away, astronomically speaking, is the Ark Hammer. With all of it's sensor jammers running to bend long range sensors around the large ship, Divada peers out of the viewport with a bit of a sneer. "Jump drives primed my lady." Divada looks back and nods her head. "Yeah. I hate to stop deliveries to mars because of this, but having katharon get a Black Hole drive is unacceptable." She says to the entire bridge. "Keep the comms open for the signal, I want everyone ready for this..." For all intensive purposes for scanners.....nothing can be detected except more open space.....

Roux doesn't hate you, Camille! Not yet, anyway.

"Relax," she says cheerfully, pausing to swallow two tablets. Then she keys the mic back on. "Do you think they're ever going to start manufacturing new artificial singularities again, Camille? I know most of the equipment for it got wrecked during the war..." The last big one, presumably.

The Z-II continues to pivot around, rifle held ready in case something pops up. Something sits at the back of Roux's neck - she can't quite place it, the sense of foreboding rather dim.

After Tieria leaves the bridge,

"That.." Beecha motions with a thumb over his shoulder. "That.. that was a guy, right? I mean, he looked like a guy. He sort of sounded like a guy. I'm not.. entirely sure he dressed like a guy. I mean, he is a guy, right? I'm not just.. I'm not just seeing things, right?"

Torres and Saegusa stay silent. On purpose.

Gato waits...

... and waits...

... and waits...

There are a few cameras scattered throughout the Peregrine; they're new. Cheap. Just for this operation; they're there to keep an eye on the salvage team's progress through the ship, because proper intel and reconnaisance are still important, even when executing an ambush. Gato's HUD has a feed from the cameras instead of his own suit's external sensors; his eyes are locked on the Petite Mobile suits. When they're about to cross the cargo bay's threshold, he sees them as well as he hears them; the GP-02A's eyes briefly flash.

No order is given; he instead leads by example: the quartet of powerful verniers adorning the Physalis' shoulders flip to bear it /through/ the crates and containers it was using for camoflage, and with no sign of impeded speed or mobility despite those obstacles, the stolen Gundam bears down on the salvage team. It is, like Spike Lee's subconscious, a great white nightmare. In a flash, it's gripping Astionage's Petite Mobile Suit by its head; a split-second later, the machine's been hurled into space.

Directly through the Peregrine's walls.

Without stopping to accost the other two excavators - beyond a broad and somewhat vague sweep of its body-height shield, anyway - the GP-02A follows Astionage's mobile suit through the hole, into the void; he grabs it again, this time by an ankle.

"Katharon," he calmly transmits as the GP-02A coasts to a stop. It raises its arm to dangle the Petite Mobile suit above its head.

"Princess Mineva Zabi: where is she?"

Macua Huitl says, "Right right." She doesn't mention that team was armed to the teeth with enough firepower to bring down a pair of mobile suits. She's certainly going to be paying attention to any strange feelings she gets in here for sure. "Right so we ee if this cargo is here then we grab it. Before anyone else does." She is again wondering why her SCV has triple the rear armor plating of the others but who really knows its likely just been a salvaged unit. Thens he gets a terrible feeling a she hears and feels something. Minerva? Oh no! That voice, that spike of focus, It's GATO!

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "What..!?!"

Yes, Rachel, that is in fact the giant face of Heero Yuy (albeit made out of wood and bits of metal and maybe suspectly Martian leaves for hair). No, he probably didn't request it to be emblazoned so boldly out there. It's complicated.

'A working black hole engine' was about the gist of what Heero got about this operation; if he were actually present instead of fighting and harpooning Martian crocodiles for food and sometimes supping on a tree fog, he would've run a background check on this. His gut is starting to feel rather sore -- and that wasn't the questionable jambalaya of First Mate Aruh'Akhbar -- at the prospect of all this. He adjusts the ring of flowers around his head.

"Maintain full synchronicity on the EWAC outputs. We don't want to miss the slightest detail," Heero orders to his crew. Pause, once more, pairs of eyes staring like they're addled--

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Caesar transmits, "Holy shit! Contact! Enemy mobile suits, over a dozen! And they're all.. they're all in the ship!!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Rachel Miu Athha transmits, "Captain!!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "GATO!?!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "/Gato/!!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Heero Yuy engrishy through gritted teeth, "Gato."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Rachel Miu Athha transmits, "Anavel Gato...!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Chief Astonaige transmits, "WHOAAAAAAH OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Roux Louka transmits, "That man -!"

And then all Hell breaks loose.

The scanners linked to the Argama come into visual, and Heero confirms the Physalis' presence. He dramatically turns his head upwards and declares: "It's a trap!"

There's a raucous cheer of approval at that. Maybe Moon-Moon likes memes? Do they even have the internet? Who knows. His eyes and mind are immediately on the ball, however, as he waves his triple-golden braceletted arm forward, peacenik signs all a-jangling. "Maintain a secure perimeter for allied forces! Ensure that we have the Argama's blind spot covered within our targetting radius! Keep your eyes peeled for any allied units attempting to flee and shoot down any interceptors!"

This, their Goddess commands. /OORAH NATIVES/.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "The trap has been sprung. Miss Kirador, please warp and engage the enemy forces."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Divada Kirador transmits, "Acknowledged, Mister Luddite. Helm. Do it...."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Get out of here! I'll hold them off!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "He's got Astonaige!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Aww, dammit!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Heero Yuy transmits, "I don't understand his demand."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Maybe if we all hit him at once without warning, we can get Astonage away..."

Puru Two grins, and her eyes fly open. "Finally."

Instantly, the entire cargo bay is suddenly noticably filled by a very strong psychic presence. It may seem like it's one huge entity, but as Qubeleys start moving apart from one another, it soon becomes clear that there are many different minds present. And yet... all the same mind?

The only red Qubeley among them is quick to follow Gato's Gundam out through the hole, patently ignoring the salvage team. The real threat won't be coming from them, so she's not interested. She doesn't particularly care what the others choose to do.

"Too easy, Argama. Far too easy," she comments to herself. It's not like she expects to get the information Gato demands, but it's worth a shot. If it doesn't work, she'll be in a prime position to take care of whatever comes their way.

As Top Puru, she figures she should say a few things to her 'sisters', if just to keep their easily-distracted minds on the job. Thus, on the Puru Channel, the face of the one who's always scowling appears. "Alright, listen up. We all know this is going to lead to fighting, so... as much as I hate to say it, the Argama can wait. Crush all mobile insects attracted by the bait first, then we move onto the capital ships. A few of you can feel free to harass them a little though if you want, keep them occupied while the rest handles things here."

Now, to see how this pans out...

All hell breaks loose is an understatement. Only a scant few seconds after Gato reveals his presence and heero says it's a trap, the Ark Hammer decelerates from it's quick jump into the area. As it slows, Divada glares at the pair of ships, and shifts her to the 'not really a Kai Cruiser anymore'. "Humph. Shields up, power to all weapons. Launch Fighters. Armory, load torpedoes. I want one of their turrets as a souvenier." She growls as Miranda smiles a bit. 'arm missile tubes 1 through 6.' 'Turrets ready, my lady.' Divada smiles. The crew was ready for this.... "Open fire."

<Radio: B - Trailer Secure> Juku Reimaru transmits, "What the f-"

"Sir." Duat speaks up. "Enemies are begin engaged." She is picking up some of the communication going on between people. Gato in particular. Mineva? The LEV suddenly switches on, its una-eye turning red, and the thick body taking a few steps forwards from the large box, which he then hits with the side of the gigantic rifle, revealing a pulsing black orb of energy. 'Raptor Program Active' Duat indicates. "Send them out." Ascian quickly replies, and within seconds the orb begins to grow smaller as a good dozen of drone Orbital Frames rush out of the crate and rush into the ship itself to find straggling SVCs and other such units.

The LEV disguised Orbital Frame then slowly steps forwards, towards the hole left by Anavel Gato and after momentarily halting there, engages the bulky thrusters to move out into space. It looks kind of like a souped up Phantoma II, with red highlights rather than Acemos' standard blue. After all, BAHRAM didn't usually employ LEVs anymore. Was this some kind of A-Laws turncoat?

Within the Orbital Frame's cockpit, Ascian quickly pulls up vid-windows, and checks with the interface that is bound to the LEV parts outside. Duat is doing most of the work, but he is still managing the weapon systems. The gigantic rifle comes up, and he begins to generally follow some of the surrounding Nemo units and fire thick bursts of red energy at them - just like an LEV would. Nice and slow, one at a time, no weird hijinks.

The inside of the Peregrine is about as you'd expect any derelict ship to be. Abandoned and dim. The circuits have been fried due to their long exposure to the vaccuum. Everything feels fragile. If you stepped too hard, something could break under you. Worse, the darkened corridors of this sleeping spaceship feels a lot more closed in than it ought to. Something about it makes everything feel as if you can't quite get out. Claustrophobic and in sharp contrast to the limitless void beyond it.

Juku will undoubtably hear the commotion that has suddenly erupted in the cargo bay. Sudden and ineveitably, all has gone very much awry.

"WHOAAAAAAH OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!" Astonaige dangles precariously in the GP-02A's grip. He can do nothing but flail the arc-welding and clamping limbs of his Petite in agony, his life as a knuckledragger for the Anti-Earth Union Group flashing before his eyes. "ADMIRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" he begs piteously.

"What!?!"

Admiral Bright freezes in his tracks. He can do nothing when his friend is hurled through the insides of the Peregrine. He can do nothing when he's plucked into the air and dangled above the Gundam's head. "Gato--!" his fingers flex tight around the Petite's controls. Compared to the GP-02A, he is a lilliputian. Insignificant. A gnat.

"Son of a bitch, we walked into a Zeon ambush hook, line, and sinker.." Bright Noa grits his teeth. "Launch mobile suits!"

Surrounding the lone red Qubeley is a squadron of grey ones. No, a murder of them. Graceful phantoms of space whose wing-binders sweep open from their arms. Their elongated heads lift, optical sensors winking on as numerous pairs of violet lights juxtaposed against the eternal void. By the command of their lead, the little orange-headed girls in each cockpit opens their eyes and chants softly in reply..

"Kill!" "Kill!" "Kill!" "Puru!"

Their binders open, ejecting dozens of cylindrical devices into space. Beamfire streaks. Everything is terrible and dangerous. "Kill!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Son of a bitch, we walked into a Zeon ambush hook, line, and sinker.. Launch mobile suits!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Beecha Oleg transmits, "Hey hey hey! I give the orders as Captain!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Beecha Oleg transmits, "Uh, launch the mobile suits!"

Heero's eyes are quite alert, and thus when the warning of 'enemy missiles' shows up -- through a complex routine of both terrible and old evasive systems and just plain good eyesight -- he's ready to act.

>> SHOOT DOWN << shows up on the corner of the screen as the forward gunners rattle down the incoming missiles, and they explode /very very loudly/ /in space/, because this is anime science fiction, despite what Double Zeta would insist on having you know. If these were trained professionals, their beam turrets probably would've scored something, but the forward gunners on duty are in fact a pair of goggly-eyed natives with as much idea of what a gun does, so in their credit they did /really well/.

"Keep the pressure up! Hold our position, but leave us manueverable!" Heero exclaims as his face totally cuts in, with bouncing earrings and necklaces and all that. "100% charge on the forward cannon... lock on and box the target in."

Heero Yuy /totally steals/ Bright's immortal lines. "Mega Particle Cannon... fire!"

The giant Heero-head's eyes light up and fnaw-nananananaw-pew-pew-pew laser beams fire out of its eye-sockets, on a direct collision course with the Ark Hammer.

Red lights flood the Argama's twin hangars. Crewmen and pilots make a mad dash to their action stages.

Several Nemo units are caught in the sweeping lances of funnel-fire and explode.

Stumbling back a couple of steps as the hammer gets hit by the ship's beam weapon, Divada takes a step forward. "mmm...this could actually be interesting. Give me a scan on that ship." She says as tactical says 'The Titan is charged my lady.' "Good....prepare to fire." She quietly waits for the scan results before the laser cannon fires at the ship...

"I swear, that Camille..!" Fa Yuiry's hands were balled into fists as she stomped her down the corridors of the Argama, "Thinking i'm just around to wash his clothes..though I probably should do that soon-ergh, no!!" She shook such horrible feminine thoughts from her head. She ought to launch in the Methuss against orders, and show him she can be helpful!!

Oh wait, that's right, Reccoa beat here this time.

Thusly sighing did Fa traipse into the bridge, happening alongside on Anew Returner, "Huh, you're not Roux.." She doesn't get to know many lavender-haired sorts, "Is there...uh..anything I can help with?"

MEANWHILE

"I hope not, for both our sakes." Camille grunted sullenly to Roux, "Though there is some crackpot material out there about how it's all safer and more environmentally friendly that stirs people up now and then." Just what the hell was friendly about a /black hole/?!

Camille said, as about twenty feet of heavy Gundarium alloy seperated his ass from a nuclear reactor.

And then, everything went to shit. Again.

The Gato chorus on the radio was the first hint, but there was no hiding the combined mental chirping of a dozen Purus in Camille's head to clue him off that they just took the bite, big time. "The Nightmare of Solomon...!" His breath hissed between his teeth..

SEVERAL MONTH AGO

Camille watched powerlessly from a Medea transport as the desert Katharon based was consumed in a gout of nuclear flame. It was the second time he'd been forced to endure such a horrific sight, all for the sake of one man's desires and ambitions, however much he believed himself to speak for his people. The Newtype's fist clenched. He would not forget this.

NOW

"It's the end of the goddamned world, Roux." Camille's hands went into action over the Zeta's console as the suit mobilized (haw) without missing a beat, "Follow me."

The interior of old ships like the Peregrine could be a mazed if you didn't know where to go, but Newtypes had a way of cheating that particular fate. 'Rachel' Camille searched, felt the other pilot's presence, somewhere inside, not far from the action. "I can see it!!!"

The Zeta's beam saber carved through the worn hull of the warship like paper mache, cleaving a straight path to the one-sided Mexican stand-off Gato currently held with the captive petites.

"Here's your princess, you megalomaniacal son of a /bitch/!" Said plasma weapon went straight for the GP-02's chassis, no doubt presuming Astonaige would be rescued in time, or that he was just that good.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Camille--!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Rachel Miu Athha transmits, "Careful, Camille!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "I can take this asshole!!!"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Lockon Stratos transmits, "Cherudim, Lockon Stratos! Sniping the targets!"

"Aw, you're being too hard on them," Lockon replies to Tieria, looking over at the other Meister with a relaxed grin. "After all, they're led by the legendary Bright Noa, aren't they? They're in good ha--" Whatever the counterfeit Meister was going to say, however, is thoroughly cut off by the alarming fact of a Zeon ambush. Instead, Lockon turns a sharp, lopsided smirk towards Tieria, and then plucks Haro out of the air, pulling himself into the Cherudim Gundam's cockpit. With a hiss, the flight suit's umbilical connects to the cockpit seat, and the hatch seals itself as Lockon plops his orange Haro onto its dock, the partner robot whirling around as it merges with the mobile suit's controls, the hunter green and white Gundam stepping onto one of the Argama's catapults "Cherudim, Lockon Stratos! Sniping the targets!" the Gundam Meister calls, before the machine is hurled into space, a trail of brilliant green GN particles radiating from the mobile suit's back as it grabs the GN Sniper Rifle II from its right shoulder, the weapon's barrel unfolding and locking into place. Inside the cockpit, Lockon has pulled down the suit's rifle-shaped targeting computer, and Cherudim's forehead opens with a third eye... Although this isn't so much about enlightenment. And then, about two seconds before Camille's Zeta charges at the Physalis, a lance of pinkish light streaks across the black towards the Peregrine, breezing close by Anavel Gato's machine's hand... Just close enough to, hopefully, force the Nightmare of Solomon to let go of Astonaige's petit mobile suit.

It all happens so fast! Suddenly Qubeleys, thousands of them! Well, maybe not thousands, but... And suddenly Astonage is taken! The Star Hawk takes up a defensive position in front of Bright at least, but it's too late for Astonage... He can't save the engineer single-handedly, and he wonders how even a group can stop Gato from killing him... damn it! This is bad!

And then the Purus all empty out of the ship. Bright is safe, for now. Now, to stop the purus from interfering with his allies... With a sudden burst of thrusters, the Star Hawk chases after the Qubeleys, trying to grab the red leader-looking one from behind while getting out one of the hybrid swords to stab it with! "Oh no you don't!"

That tension headache gets suddenly worse. Roux thinks it's from dropping amphetamines, but then!!

"Gato!" she echoes, in astonishment even as Astionage is brutally flung, possibly to his inglorious death. Her worrying over Beecha engaging in petty power dynamics, or the dozen other little hassles and pleasures that come with life in the AEUG, fade away.

That man's back again. A wash of the same sort of sickness Roux felt as she had antiradiation drugs dripped into her by the bucket load comes through her by simple psychic association. The bursting tension of other minds keeps her from panicking or ending up staring in horror at the relatively non-psionic Gato, at least.

Camille is, ironically enough, a pillar of stability in this. The Z-II turns to follow after him even before Roux says aloud, "Right!" The high precision maneuver inside of the wrecked ship happens without even thinking about it strongly; it is only as she is erupting past the Zeta, Roux clearing the other Gundam's hull by centimeters, that she realizes just how strange and perhaps wondrous the performance there is.

No time for thinking!! The head vulcans of the Z-II rattle silently in space even as it shifts, reaching to try and grasp at the Petit Mobile Suit while firing upon the GP-02's arm. Hopefully Gato will let go... and if not...

Hopefully Astonaige remembered to put on his normal suit.

The Tengu drifts slowly through the cordiro, gently gently Juku goes as she knows the vacum of space doesn't allways perserve, but instead desicates much of what it comes into contact with.

Then the comotion starts "What, are they /blasting/ through te hull or some-" WHAM. The entire cooridor lurches, and takes the Tengu with it, the little powered armor sailing down the coridor end over end. "UWAAAAAHG" *THUD* the Tengu lands spreadeagle face first against a bulkhead.

"UHg...that...wasn't a demo charge. Something /fired/ in here." The Tengu slowly peels itself off the wall, and Juku decides to damn being careful and fires the Tengu's jump jets, rushing down the hallways and codirdors, bouncing around corners until she coems to the cargo hold and hears... anavel Gato demanding the Pincess of Zeon from the Katharon.

"Oh. Balls." she says as she peers around the corner of a door.

"Balls, Balls, Balls. Goddamn DC."

"/BALLS/!"

One hand on the lowest rung of the ladder leading to her unit's cockpit, the tarp /not even finished fluttering/ yet, Ibis squints dramatically and turns her head to one side as a red glow in the distance catches her attention. Her expression quickly becomes one of terror as a flurry of beamfire rips through the hangar and ploughs directly into a 3x3 stack of bright red barrels with 'WARNING: EXPLOSIVE' labels haphazardly slapped across them. The white-suited pilot's grip on the ladder sucks ass and as a result, she is thrown into the air! Oh no!

But space, so Ibis just kinda donks into the ceiling and rebounds comically into the open seat of her TELLUS' cockpit, which snaps shut after her almost as an afterthought and comes to life, the monitors reflecting off of her helmet with a dull green glow that looks like a bad 80's HACKERS COMPUTER movie. She grits her teeth in irritation as the world comes back into focus.

The white Armored Core begins to move. And by 'begins' I mean 'shoots out of the fucking hangar at the speed of stupid' as it rockets into the fight, looking for the source of all of those god damned lasers. Ibis jams on the controls with vigor renewed, convinced that maybe if she mashes the buttons harder, her lasers will shoot back /stronger/. The TELLUS hefts a giant god damned laser rifle and starts returning fire with blinding streaks of blue-white love.

The scans for the PRIDE OF MOON-MOON reveal some pretty... interesting details.

Crewmen onboard.......................................15. Engine output.................................87 percent. Torpedos loaded........................................6. Babies birthed........................................17. Percentage Saved on MS Insurance to Neo-Geico.......-15. Hobos rescued........................................143.

The list goes on. What the hell kind of ship is this? Heero's eyes narrow down as the attack flies inward, crunching against the side of the Salamis Kai's hull and burning off more than its share of leaves and foliage and THAT RUSTY '~WELCOME TO NEO VEGAS~' SIGN HOW COULD YOU ARK HAMMERRRRRRRRRRR--

"All hands brace for impact! Shut off Block 6 and put those fires out!" Heero declares as he braces against the colorful pearly beads that are sort of acting as an impromptu seatbelt. It's like Mardi Gras!

He grimaces further, focusing his will for a moment. These crewmembers aren't going to be able to get through this without proper encouragement, so here goes...! He flips open to an old, musty book of Famous Dramatic Speeches. "My loyal subjects, heed my words! We must defend our thrice-blessed lands, and graceful, beautiful allies! Not out of greed, or personal motivation, but out of..." He feels his stomach churning with shame and embarrassment. He can't do it! No! The crewmen are mesmerized and yet paralyzed!

He switches to his secret weapon: a tape deck.

Lacus Clyne's voice suddenly explodes out of its subwoofers, exclaiming, "PEACE! AND! LOOOOOOOOVE! KATHARON FIGHTING!!"

The bridge erupts into spirited shouting as the Pride of Moon-Moon /explodes/ with all of its missiles, lasers, and turrets, fighting like a native ship /possessed/.

Macua Huitl is just staring as they are ambushed. She looks up in her own machine. She stareds for a moment she doesn't have the firepower to handle this thing. She's not sure but she's starting to back off she's got to get a combat machine. A zaku! Anything this is like some huge four legged alien creature with huge tusks. Well more like nuclear weapons, but she's so out of it's league right now...

If Lockon had the time to finish his sentence, Tieria would have just frowned a little harder. It was hard dealing with either of the Dylandy brothers-- they were just way too laid-back for his tastes, no matter what the situation called for. It was just so... so...

... aggrivating!!

Tieria looks to Lockon and nods while pushing off from the Cherudim, letting the Irish sniper get to bringing the Cherudim online. Without much in the way of time to slip back into his flight suit-- he's not going to go to a meeting without looking /professional/-- the Innovade flies toward the Seravee, gripping onto the side and, in short, slinging himself around to the massive black backpack of the Seravee Gundam to slip inside the waiting cockpit.

His eyes closed, there's a brief hint of his will exerting against the systems, a dull glow hidden under his eyelids. Of course, he comes into contact with nothing... but it isn't going to stop him from trying, every single time he settles into the Gundam. Hatches closing and the GN Drive spinning up from within the great combination of machines, the bulk of the Seravee steps out onto the Argama's catapults next.

Gliding across the outer deck and springing off into space, the GN-verniers fire off a wash of brilliant green particles from each and every port to accelerate it off into the void... and in short order, the Gundam starts to flood with targeting data and information. And that LEV, shooting down the Nemos--

"Tieria Erde, Seravee: Destroying enemy forces."

Slinging forward one of those massive GN Rifles, it crackles with concentrated GN particles before firing a single, bright-ass bright beam through space straight on at it!

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Tieria Erde transmits, "Tieria Erde, Seravee: Destroying enemy forces."

'My lady?' The guy on tactical says after the ship was hit and their shields deflect turret fire. '...these are some unusual reading. It's like the entire crew is on drugs.' Divada only snorts. "then lets put them out of their misery." The comms officer turns from her display. 'My lady...Knight Squadron has launched and is en route.' "Very Good. Tell them to commit to their run...full speed." 'Yes, My lady.' She then turns to Miranda. "See if you can't get a repair team to put some of that armor back on."

"I knew they wouldn't just talk," Puru Two speaks with the wisdom of someone who's lived in the world of Super Robot Wars all her life as enemy units start pouring out from everywhere. Even though she's dying for a little action after such a long wait, she lets the other Purus handle it, at first. Newtypes appear on her mental radar as easily recognisable blips, but unfortunately not the one she's looking for. She briefly informs Gato of the absence of the man most likely to know Mineva's whereabouts: "Johnny Ridden isn't here."

And then her Qubeley gets barreled into from behind. "Argh! What the--!" Stupid non-Newtypes sneaking up on her while she's not paying attention to them. This matter is quickly rectified, the Mk. II launching its Funnels to try and pry off the assailant. It's already been stabbed before that can be accomplished, however. At least it makes the choice of first target easy.

"Ugh! How dare you do that to my Qubeley! You'll pay for this!" The launched Funnels are small in number, just a mere four added to the many already out there, the rest kept in reserve for the time being. But even four Funnels are more than a nuisence, especially if one of their more precisely aimed shots at weak spots in the Star Hawk's armor manages to connect.

"Eh?" Anew turns to face Fa, her expression distracted; she hadn't realized that she had attracted anyone's attention, though she can't fault anyone for noticing an unfamiliar face on the bridge in the midst of an attack. "I believe I have things under control."

She turns her attention back to the control panel before her; usually, she's co-piloting the Ptolemaios during battles. Her background in astrophysics and Mobile Suit engineering was still useful here, for noting anomalies on the ship in the midst of battle.

"Your ship's programming is a little different from the Ptolemaios', though," she says, still tapping buttons. Another glance is reserved for Lockon, and her eyes dart to check on his Meister companion before settling her eyes back on the screen ahead.

A blast of blue-white laserfire intercepts one of the grey Qubeleys. Though constructed from durable Gundanium alloy, it isn't able to withstand a direct shot to the chest.

"Aieee--!" a Puru's shriek is cut short, along with her life, as the condensed energy particles overwhelm her cockpit module. Everything goes bright for the girl-pilot whom raises her tiny hands in a futile gesture of defense. The tremendous heat generated by TELLUS's LR-01-ANTARES Laser Rifle erases her from existence. Shortly after, her Qubeley joins her by exploding.

Seravee takes aim at an offending LEV and lets loose burst of concentrated GN-particle. Though it might not hit its mark, two nearby Qubeleys are melted into fleeting atoms by the GN Bazooka's blastwave.

Several more Qubeleys move into attack-position. Their sinister design boding poorly for Ibis Douglas and Lockon Stratos.

"Kill!" the diminuitive girl within one of these space phantoms echoes their orders. Her Qubeley rockets for the TELLUS, the glow of her mobile unit's verniers a soft blue corona. From out one hand, a beam saber slides into those long-stemmed fingers. It grasps it and swings out, a lance of light forming as it tries to catch Ibis in its deadly arc.

Cherubdim might also find problem. Several funnels are conspiring against the Gundam, rising up on either side. Cloaked by virtue of being amid darkness, it wastes little time in pressing its advantage by firing upon the sniping Meister!

That worked surprisingly well, Staren thinks! He gets ready to twist the sword and _really_ do some damage when SUDDENLY, FUNNELS! He kicks off the Qubeley, trying to evade the funnels to no avail! "Aaagh, dammit!" Glowing lines are seared across the Star Hawk as armor is melted to slag. <Argama, can you get the armor parts ready for launch? I may need them!> But he'll have to hang in there in the meantime... He raises the Star Hawk's left arm, and begins firing the 'beam shotgun' an array of small beam cannons, wildly in an attempt to hit the funnels with the scattering beams! And with all those Qubeleys swarming around, maybe he can score some hits on them as a consolation or bonus prize!

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Beecha Oleg transmits, "Armor parts? Who leaves armor parts lying around?!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Caesar transmits, "Oh for the love of, we'll send it out--!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "I didn't expect to need them on a salvage mission!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Thanks, Caesar!"

Some of those allegedly drug-addled (Heero runs a clean ship! Honest!) natives gasp and cup their chins and do their best Neo Macullay Caulkin impersonation as the Cutlass Squadron comes flying to flag their bedraggled probably Pagan ship down. "We're all going to diiiiiiie! Abandon ship!" they exclaim with oddly cheerful tones, waving their hands up and down as if doing the limbo.

"Keep your positions! Follow my lead: First, fourth gunners, flank fire to box their flight path in! The rest of you, wait for the signal!" Heero announces as an old television suddenly cuts in to the communications crew, assembled of two people in strangely fancy black sports jackets thrown ontop of their native clothing. Their tags read 'Bartosis' and 'Basteless'. They're also probably hopped up on serum or whatever the new Neo Angel Dust plus PCP is, so they probably think they're somewhere else.

"Well as you know the vehicle of mobile suit combat is technology, and sometimes technology just fails to work!" exclaims one of them, just to be interrupted. "Hold on, Basteless, I don't think our native ship's down and out yet! We haven't seen the 'GG' signal!"

The squadron swoops in, but the forward gunners manage to actually prevent them from firing directly onto the Salamis Kai and with some of the native turretmen actually scoring hits! "WHAAAAAAAAAT?!" exclaim both 'commentators' at the same time.

"Oh my Gunbuster, is this really happening? I have native chills all over my body! Goosebumps!" "Holy Toledo, Bartosis! I think we're going to pull through! My entire world of reality is upside down!!"

Gunfire. Heero calmly puts the gun away and a pair of natives drag the television away, to be jettisoned out of a convenient airlock. "Good job; now pull towards their right and rain down suppressive fire! This, your Goddess commands!"

The machine guns suddenly just erupt in a combined attempt to take down both the interceptor fighters and to deal some more damage to the Ark Hammer itself.

The GN particle stream grazes across the GP-02A's hand; it's just enough to cause its hand to open, allowing Astionage to fall safely from the Gundam's grasp. It's just as well; /without/ the counterweight, the GP-02A has the freedom to maneuver itself out of the Z-II's vulcan fire before bullet one actually touches its chassis; the shells do come /incredibly/ close to doing damage, but in the end, they do little more than scrape paint from its arm.

They /also/ nudge the Gundam into the original Zeta's crosshairs, and its pilot is unable to react as smoothly to it: it has to rely on its shield to prevent major harm from coming to its frame, and while its shield's beam coating is normally sufficient to prevent such contact from doing major harm to the delicate systems within, the very tip of the Zeta's blade edges through one of its panels.

A second later, steam shoots from the edges of the shield.

A second after /that/, every bit of coolant flowing through the shield bubbles from the hole; the GP-02A's cockpit immediately goes red with alarms, and its pilot has no choice but to disengage, lest his mobile suit ignobly explode here in the middle of nowhere.

"Another time," he tensely transmits as the bulky machine's verniers flare to life to speed it along to the safety of the Ark Hammer.

"Have the Princess ready to go home; I won't be leaving without her again."

The series of units lauching get noted on Ascian's heads up display. Well, the holographic video-windows that pop up here and there within the cockpit that was. It's not /exactly/ a heads up display. His head turns slightly to look out of the cockpit, which has just another layer of canopy over it due to the LEV disguise. It is through this canopy that he notices a unit just newly launched, whipping out a massive GN rifle and aiming at his position. "Okay, time to move." He clutches his hands firmly around those half-orb controls and gets the machine to move by engaging the thrusters. A blue fire quickly pushes out from underneath, sending the LEV upwards -- and just in time, as soon that bright iridescent beam of light cuts into space beneath it. "Phew..." Ascian mutters to himself, staring at the reading Duat was giving him. "Okay, wow. Yeah, we better not get hit with that, or we'll be toast in seconds."

The LEV quickly turns about, and the tip of the large two-handed gun lets out a flash of red light from both ends, after which a thick red beam sears through the darkness - aimed for Tieria's GN powered machine.

In the meantime, within the ship, a series of Raptors have found a particular Tengu, and are quickly closing in on it, their red beamswords coming to life at the ends of their spindly arms. A good four of them, all at the same time, try to lash out at poor Juku's personal machine.

Astonaige falls from the GP-02A.. ..and frantically mashes his hands on the commands, triggering the ion-drives. The gentle 'whompf' serves as the cushion that keeps Astonaige from being pasted on the deck-plating. He promptly whizzes over to Bright, Macua, and Rachel. "..Holy shit!"

Bright lets out a sigh of relief. "C'mon, we need to get back to the ship. This whole damn ship is a deathtrap!"

The Admiral turns, moving swiftly with his retinue to one of the doors... only to find a Tengu Armor nearby. "Juku? Juku Reimaru? What're you doing here? Come on, dawdling around will only get us killed!"

Doing another scan of the ship, just as the machine guns pierce through the shields and impact the Hammer, Divada gets wealcome news. 'Armory reports torpedoes are loaded my lady.' Divada takes a deep breath as she closes her eyes. Opening them again, her eyes are a shade of purple, and she grins rather malevolently at the other ship. "Fire one." A couple of seconds later, a rather LARGE torpedo is launched from the front of the ship, streaking at the opposing cruiser...

Ugh /funnels/. If only Lockon had something he could use against them...! Oh wait, right. "Haro, deploy shield bits!" Lockon instructs hurriedly, his attention still focused on GN-006's targeting computer; the orange spherical partner robot whirls to comply with digital efficiency, and nine discrete sections of hunter green armor, each an elogated hexagon, detach from the Gundam and move to intercept the incoming beam fire from the funnels. Controlled directly by Haro over a quantum network, the GN Shield Bits move quickly and precisely, but the delay in their launch is enough that significant fire gets through, blasting into the Cherudim Gundam's armor and knocking the machine around. "You think so, huh?" Lockon wonders, whirling his machine around to take aim on the Quebeley menacing apparent ally Ibis Douglas, which he privately hopes is the source of the funnels menacing him. He takes careful aim, the targeting reticule reflecting green on the faceplate of his suit helmet, and then as he exhales, he squeezes the rifle-shaped targeting computer's trigger in a single, smooth motion. A lance of terrible light streaks across the void from the barrel of the GN Sniper Rifle II, hoping to take out one of the Qubeleys quickly.

"Bang," Lockon mutters.

Anew is usually even-tempered during battles; even in the midst of a particularly heated fight, the lavenderette is usually focused, in control.

Things, however, have changed in the months since she joined the crew of the Ptolemaios -- and in particular, since she found herself drawing closer and closer to Lyle Dylandy. Before, she found it easier to keep her emotions in check; she maintained professional relationships with the crew -- they did not extend any closer than that.

But since then, her relationship with Lyle had become more than professional. The feelings she felt around the Gundam Meister were ones she couldn't ever recall feeling before. Whenever she was around him, she felt happy. And for the first time in her life, when they were in battles, she found herself feeling worried and scared. Her perfectly-practiced calm was in danger of breaking every time she watched the Cherudim fly into battle.

So when her eye catches sight of a series of funnel rising up across the side of the Cherudim, Anew feels the panic rise up inside of her.

Her control panel tapping suddenly draws to a halt as her attention is entirely directed to the pilot of the Cherudim.

"Lyle!" she calls out, her voice quivering slightly.

Ibis 'Child-killer' Douglas, cold as ice, is mostly comforted about the cold and harsh reality of melting cloned child soldiers by the fact they're all annoying as hell and won't shut up and god damn it.

The TELLUS is a real pain in the ass to hit. It scoots around like, well, a thin frame of metal and plastic covered in oversized rocket boosters. From side to side it scoots, loosing shot after shot of burning blue energy at more of the asshole Puru clones flying around peppering her with shots. Ibis, jamming back on her controls and sending the Core into the air, furrows her brow in that dramatic moment all pilots have where they get to monologue in the middle of a firefight.

"That face, it's so similar to... it can't be her." she mutters, thinking back to her DIVINE CRUSADER days.

CUE WAVY FLASHBACK SEQUENCE WAVY FLASHBACK SEQUENCE GO

Long, drawn out sequence of Puru Two bossing around a much meeker, milder Ibis Douglas who is also wearing that god-awful salmon pink ensemble. Seriously what is wrong with Project Terrestrial Dream what a bunch of jackasses. Highlights include wincing and tittering and looking downcast.

BACK IN THE PRESENT BACK IN THE WAR

God knows how she does it, but Ibis Douglas picks out a single Qubeley from amidst all the Puru clones darting around and stares wistfully at it while having her wavy flashback sequence. This makes her an easy target for the MP Qubeley coming up on her from above, and only through /sweet hero reflexes/ at the last second does Ibis jam her TELLUS out of the way in a burst of rocket fire, a green beam of energy scything through her unit's thin armour and ruining a shoulder. Oh no, shoulder!

"Tch! Can't be--" hisses Ibis, whose red hair dangles dramatically in front of her eyes as she squeezes down the trigger /even harder/ and sprays the Qubeley at point-blank range with a machinegun roar of generic-looking bright energy particle bullet third-string animation blasts from the oversized gun in her unit's other hand, taking care of both the attacking clone and any others lurking on the horizon.

Seriously dual-wielding laser guns these things own.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Waitaminute, is that Celestial Being!?"

More scans! The Ark Hammer is privy to more of the Pride of Moon-Moon's juicy delicious secrets not meant to be known by man, Zentradi, aliens or biomorphs alike!

Mutated alien bioforms detected...................2. Rooms transformed into bridesmaid chambers........5. Last extranet link accessed.......................ettp://s5.argama.net/fyuiry/index.htm by user hyuy Changes logged: "dear fa i'm totally sleeping it up with roux and rachel and i think you're fat and ugly!!11 -camille bidan" Potato supplies............................CRITICAL.

"We need to stop them in their tracks -- load up the side beam guns, and fire them in unison. We can't afford to play around much longer!" Heero explains to the crew, who for just this once are magically on-board with this plan. Outside of the one goofing it about and folding a paper airplane to fly around the bridge.

Is this what Bright Noa feels like? This isn't too bad of a feeling, Heero thinks as the beam cannons lock, load, and fire; the incoming torpedo is whittled away and prematurely explodes like a lover that just got kicked out of bed. Double awesome.

Then a native child runs up with a basket full of fruits and nuts and a goofy crayon drawing of Heero with flowers flying through space and fighting giant green monsters. Maybe. That might be candy.

Oh, nevermind. /This/ is what Bright Noa feels like. I need a drink, Heero thinks.

Juku just summarily facepalms at Bright, right in the Tengu, resulting in a loud *CLANG*. And hear she was worried they'd be angry at her if they discovered her presence. "At least Gato's flown the coup."

Well Juku is probably the only one of the pint sized invaders that is properly armed. "Fien, fine." she waves one arm. "Let's go." she decides to follow along because this whole damned ship could come apart at any second.

Heero Yuy pauses. WAIT THAT'S WHAT STARTED ALL THIS

Puru Two has absolutely no reaction to the lives of her 'sisters' winking out around her. They mean nothing to her, having barely a personality at all. These are just expendable troops with cheaply manufactured Qubeleys. Probably better off dead since they'll never be anything more than puppets anyway. And clearly this practice doesn't bother her at all.

Now why does she suddenly feel sick to her stomach? Must be something she ate.

When Staren comes at her again, something is very different from last time. She's paying attention now, and as a result has become much, much more difficult to hit. Even her Funnels get out of the way, both mobile suit and remote weapons sliding aside to avoid the incoming mass of beams, the Qubeley firing its hand-mounted beams in response.

"You've had your chance. Don't expect to get another." With that, the four Funnels from before circle around the Star Hawk, opening fire from behind. It's a bit simple (get it, a 'bit' simple) and obvious, but that's because that wasn't all. Four more Funnels are launched, the eight remote weapons attempting to sandwich Staren's mech with their beams.

For some reason she starts to feel like bossing around one of the enemies. But that desire remains only vaguely defined since the episode's flashback budget has already run out.

"Well...yeah, you get the hell out!!" Camille shouts at the retreating Gato, "And fuck you!!!"

The Zeta's scanners show him a a blown-up image of Astonaige landing safely, thanks in no small part to the crack shooting of one infamous sniper. "Well, that all went...totally according to plan." Yes, this was totally though of ahead of time, "You okay, Astonaige?"

The sound of Purus blowing up outside suddenly stick him like a railroad spike through the head, "Shit!!!" He hated it when they died, sounded like a goddamn dog whistle for Newtypes!

"Captain Bright, can you get Rachel and the rest back to the Argama safely? We'll try to clear a path for you." 'We' being him and Roux, assuming the adderall also had the side-effect of nulling her to pre-teen girls dying horribly all around her, "I know it doesn't matter now, sir, but I kind of thought this sounded really shady from the start."

And then the Zeta is flying out, shooting a laser show all across the battlefield to assist his embattled allies.

Meanwhile, Fa is assisting the beleaguered crew on the bridge by.....bringing a tray of Beecha's favorite snacks. She sighed, before turning her head to Anew and reading her concern, "Is he...someone important to you?"

Her eyes looked out for the Zeta, conflicted.

The Beams hit the shields and are stopped cold before they can hit the hull. "Shields were going to kick in sooner or later I guess." She says with a smile. "all right Lock on Ion cannon." She says as the top turret turns towards the ship. "Let's hit the sucker hard. Fire." The barrel of the turret glows blue briefly before firing a beam of the same color at the cruiser....

"Chief!" Roux calls to Astonaige. "Get to one of the ships - this is a war zone! Your petit mobile suit can't handle it!"

NOT SHOWN: Judau Ashta handling it in a Petit Mobile Suit.

She grits her teeth at the arrogance of Anavel Gato, as well as the sharp pangs that feel like blood vessels mashing against her optic nerves as the Purus perish in obpuruscuity. It is not severe enough to keep her from answering with crisp determination, "Right!"

The Z-II's beam rifle is raised up. It sure is a big rifle. "Camille, is it the bio sensor?" she asks, hearing his expressions of pain even as she feels her pupils contract. The Z-II does not zip as fast as Camille, who is clearing the underbrush; instead it advances steadily towards the Katharon ships, moving with a lateral zig-zag to make it marginally harder to come up behind it and spike it with a giant beam saber (QUATRE).

Roux breathes steadily, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Several times, seemingly without clear indications, she pulls the trigger on the Mega Beam Rifle, sending actinic bursts of violet megaparticles filled with enough energy to power small cities for days out. Hopefully, this firing pattern - one of letting them cross her sights, rather than whipping around after spastic flailing - will lead to the termination of the targets.

Not children. If they ever /were/ children, she thinks, with a vague passing sense of guilt.

If the ZERO System were here right now, it'd helpfully be trying to coax Heero to dodge by showing him in full 1080p glorious mental HD every single frame of death that would've occured if he didn't dodge that. Heero pauses for a moment and wonders if he is so thoroughly exposed to ZERO that his brain has now assimilated a copy of it. Nah...

That'd just be insane.

He totally sees it, though, and thus declares, "Starboard roll, forty seven degrees," with precise calmness.

The Salamis Kai totally does a roll and the shot just skims past, grazing more foliage and leaves and coverage -- at that time, the television jettisoned earlier flies into the path of the Ion beam and is disintegrated while it's on a shot of several of the Pride of Moon-Moon's fights with an excited Seoul-accented man (does a Seoul accent even exist jesus) going 'AAAAAAAA HATCHAREEEEE HATCHAREEEEEEEE--'

And then it is no more.

"Flag them with the machine guns; the chambers should be cool enough for further firing."

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Machine guns, bullets, lead, they fly forward to shower the Ark Hammer with dakka.

Macua Huitl watches as Gato leaves, with their favorite tech head safe? She turns tail and runs. Back to the ship, out of the wreck she goes, sending the SCV on faster than is sane to get to the ship, and get into the hanger. Macua arrives into the hanger, she's now scrambling into the Phoebe she's powering up the machine and isn't even taking time to call out her launch she's just getting the hell out there. As she's launching she remebers

"Fire Dancer, Phoebe Gundam launching!"

Most of the energy of the machine guns are stopped by the shield of the ship, especially as it continues to fly along it's projected course. "all right. seems they enjoy evading our attacks. Arm the EOTI laser." 'Laser armed my lady'. "Fire." One white hot laser fires from the aft of the ship, but actually CURVES towards the cruiser....hopefully to hit it..

The shot misses-- even if it manages to put a hole through one or two of the Qubeleys in the process of the attack. Indeed, the machines used by Celestial Being are used for various purposes, close attack, high-speed raids. The Cherudim is their precision sniper. And the Seravee, well... artillery. A lot of damage, spread over a lot of area.

The red beam that is fired in retort catches a wary stare from the Gundam Meister, his arms throwing the control sticks backward while tilting them to the right, complete with a shift of his footing on the pedals. The Seravee lists hard to the right the GN Field charges, but isn't able to deploy in time. The beam drives squarely into the seam of pauldron and shoulder, causing the Mobile Suit to whip backward with a small burst of an explosion.

Tieria grunts, angrily frowning as the Gundam seems to catch itself before it gets spun off into the darkness of space. The cannons over the Gundam's shoulders shift while the massive black kneeguards pop and swivel upward, all four GN Cannons aimed and firing in return at the disguised LEV.

Twisting hard, the Mobile Suit continues to lead off to the right, trying to put some distance between it and the Argama; lining up angles and trajectory for a better shot. The massive GN Rifles in either arm are pulled backward while the legs lift, the cannons in the knees alternating their fire in an attempt to catch the Crusader machine in the small barrage!

In all brutal honesty, the homing lasers probably would've worked.

The lasers curve sleekly against the dubiously modified custom Salamis Kai. At the last moment, though, Heero gets some sort of god damned literal prescient moment and suddenly announces, "Deploy the dummy balloons!" There's huge cheer as the three guys in charge of this have basically been waiting for something to do all combat long, and press the big red button.

Giant dummy balloons float up and distract the lasers from their target. For some reason, they're also shaped like huge Heero Yuy balloons made out of some really shoddy combination of tarp and leaves, given that there wasn't exactly any platic or acrylics to work with in the Martian wilderness.

"The charge is offset... buy us some time and fire off the beam turrets," Heero announces. Exactly that just happens, with beam shots feathered through with careful fire -- the natives suddenly being upgraded to Level 1 Gunman -- streaming through combat space.

The battlefield is descending into beam-strewn chaos. Getting a clean shot may be difficult, even for the legendary marksman Lockon Stratos.

As the GN-powered shot clears Cherudim's barrel, one of those terrible funnels drifts into the blast-route. The GN-round takes out the autonomous psycommu-directed weapon, earning Lockon a very minor explosion in the midst of the battle. The remaining energy careens on, catching a Qubeley right in the wing-binder. --the Wing Binder shatters, yet the dread space phantom remains operable. It flits in space, turning its purple-lit optics for the Gundam.

The next Qubeley engaging Ibis in her TELLUS armor wields that crackling beam blade with chilling skill. It flashes hot in the forever cold of space, doing a tremendous job of mitigating the Deneb Pistol's firepower. Several cracks are rendered into its grey plating, but by god, it pushes its advantage. The Qubeley swings, trying to smash into the TELLUS's core with an open-palm strike.

The Star Hawk's scatterblast is easily cancelled out by a screech of a nearby funnel's beam.

The Zeta and Z-II storm into the laser-strewn hell, firing back at the Qubeley swarm. One is heavily damaged, its arm and leg consumed in the blast from the Zeta Gundam's weapon system. It attempts to retaliate -- but the pilot, her tender young face streaked in blood from the shattering of her helmet's glass-panel, isn't quick enough. A glancing shot from the Z-II is enough to clip her Qubeley's reactor and she too becomes nothing more than carbon molecules quickly fleeting in space.

Qubeleys streak across, the young pilots serving as their nerve-centers willing their tiny Funnel systems about. These conical objects flit around so fast and painted grey so they're hard to pick out amid the debris, may prove the undoing for the Argama's plucky Newtype pilot corps.

..another Qubeley, the one near-terminated by Lockon, rushes after the Gundam Meister. Its Active Cannons flipping forward onto its shoulders and unleashing great blasts of energy!!

Sighing, Divada stares at the ship in front of them. "Helm, prepare a course for our departure. Tactical, prepare to fire all turrets at the cruiser." She says as she gnashes her teeth at the cruiser. She'd love to crush that cruiser under her foot. "Fire..."

Bright Noa leads his intrepid away team, plus Juku Reimaru, toward the Argama.

"Is that Celestial Being!?" the Admiral remarks as he tries to swiftly get his ass out of danger. "What're they doing here!?"

"This thing is so slow..." The massive armor on top of the Amenthes greatly slows down the disguised Orbital Frame. He sends commands through, and the thrusters of course activate, but it's all a bit too late. The blue burst of energy sends the LEV up again. But thanks to Tieria's skills at Artillery support and... well... the sheer size of the beams his machine is putting out, it can't help but hit the Phantoma II armor. Its legs suddenly get seared though, and within seconds the entire machine is minus its lower legs. Just a few black 'tips' are peeking out - the Orbital Frame, however with no Metatron Flow going through it, it's almost invisible.

"Tssk." Ascian mutters, quickly looking at the damage overview. "Go into a LEV disguise they said. Nobody will shoot at a LEV, they're so old, they'll just think you are a Mook they said." Mutter mutter snaggerfragle. "But fine, we'll give it a bit more time." That rifle comes up again, and whilst that beam is still firing, and those thrusters are trying desperately to keep the unit above its firing arc, he fires short bursts of red beams at his opponent, after which he finally charges up and lets out a completely charged one - like he had before. Simple thick and powerful red beams of light - though of course, /nowhere/ near as big as what Tieria is mustering up in that Gundam!

And then suddenly, he notices another enemy lauching. Realize that the Divine Crusaders are somewhat outnumbered, he quickly sets the Raptor Squad which had been within the derelict cruiser off to meet this new target. "That thing better not use funnels." Raptors don't like funnels. His attention returns to Tieria. If he wanted to survive this, he'd need all the attention he could muster.

The small squad of raptors rapidly approach the so called Fire Dancer, engagine their beam sabers once more, and quickly waggling their little arms at the Phoebe Gundam - trying to cut into its armor and pile up on it.

The fire gets turned up to eleven, now. The breaking point, the boiling point, the gaseous point??? has been reached.

"How's that charge working?" Heero demands, as he switches link to the arsenal room. He sighs as he sees the four torpedo loaders and beam chargers being involved in a very intense game of what seems to be limbo, complete with drums and one of those hollow bowl drums playing dance music. "Get back to work!"

Just about then, the Ark Hammer's offensive rushes in with one sum total, and its beams, cannons, lasers and fighter jets slam against the front of the cruiser. It's not a very pretty sight, and Wilheim screams are abound as warning signs blare and the disco red lights erupt all over the bridge for real instead of just being there for mood lighting. "Flower Goddess, the bridesmaid chambers are flooded with cleansing flame! Save them, save them!"

Heero grits his teeth further and shakes his head. "We have to keep to the battle. Distract them further -- fire the machine guns again; formation fire."

The turrets on the side graze inward and fire more machine guns! As in, machine gun bullets. Although it'd be awesome to have a gun that fires guns. It's like infinitely recursing.

Juku eyes Bright slightly. "/You/ don't know why Celestial Being is here? Isn't that something you ought to know?" This is one of the reasons she left this motly group, half of them don't know what the other half is even like.

"Uh, I'm gonn have to go back for my Mobile Suit."

The one thing better than a giant robot martial arts fight is one that takes place AT HIGH SPEED.

The TELLUS makes for a hard target to keep up with, but Qubeleys are all fast 'n shit, so this works out perfectly as Ibis overdramatically looks up at the displays in her cockpit with narrowed eyes in disbelief that something can keep up with her. The DENEB pulse gun spits rapid-fire bursts of blue death that go wide and smash into unsuspecting mooks in the background, who were probably on their way home or something. That'll learn 'em.

"Get--" growls the Chelsea-born redhead as she feathers the boosters on her Armored Core, trying to get out of range before that beam saber comes back around to do even more damage. The big white robot jukes to one side--but the Qubeley keeps up! Even worse, it knows kung-fu! This shit is banannas! "--off of me!" yells Ibis, uncharacteristically badass as she plays her trap card. Which is where a gigantic laser sword pops out of her unit's shoulder and snaps to life with what would be a totally rad hissing, humming noise if only space wasn't airless and thus lame and silent.

Giant robot fist and blade clash time and time again. Ibis is a totally shitty swordswoman, but that's fine. The TELLUS literally has a 'press here to melee' button so she can just lean on that until things are okay. Cue the tinted cut-in as her laser-blade strike meets improbable Qubeley-fu, sending both units back in a flash of energy that divides the screen in half for /bigger cut-ins/.

Ibis immediately cheats, and launches a really ginormous cruise missile at her opponent as soon as there is space between them. It is really kind of lame in comparison to her usual shtick, as it doesn't even spin around or make cool trails or anything. God.

"Hmph," is Puru Two's eloquent response to Staren's challenge. True, Funnels aren't going to work to stop a bladed assault. But that's not all she has. Beam Sabers flare to life in both of the Qubeley's hands, and the mobile suit takes a defensive stance.

There was a time when melee combat would have been a serious weakness, but she's been working on that. Obviously she much prefers sticking to her Funnels whenever possible, and predicting enemy ranged attacks tends to be easier, but that doesn't mean that she's completely helpless at close range. That is quickly proven by a quick series of parries to intercept the hybrid swords at every turn, cheating like only a Newtype can by predicting each move before it happens.

Oddly, even though the battle is certainly stimulating enough, she finds her motivation slipping. Strange, it's not like she was disappointed this led to a battle, quite the opposite. This is what she wanted, so why is she feeling the impulse to abandon this now? Surely it can't have anything to do with the Puru Squad members that have been exploding. Whatever the case may be, it leads to her making an offer she normally never makes.

"You have one chance to escape with your life. I suggest you take it." Even though she says this, she still strikes back, seeking to cause an unbalance before turning her defensive position into an offensive one, slashing her Beam Sabers out towards the Star Hawk time and time again. Though still, like she said, leaving a clear way to escape, not bringing her Funnels into it as well.

Anew attempts to deflect her attentions elsewhere, away from the battlefield; this is important, she tells herself. The best way to help Lyle is to ensure the safety of the ship she's on now; if any units are damaged in battle, they will need the Argama to retreat to.

Tapping on the screen furiously, Anew reviews the data in front of her; various segments of the ship light up in different colors with varying different thicknesses. The units surrounding the ships are pulled up, too, all lit up on screen in various colors. Swallowing, she continues to tap-tap-tap away.

"Lyle is..." Anew hesitates, trying to find the right word to describe her relationship with the Gundam Meister. "...is very important to me."

She glances at Fa for only an instant, watching as the girl's eyes look out for her own target in the sky; just as swiftly, she turns her eyes back towards the panel, pressing her lips together as one of the units -- the Cherudim -- flashes a brilliant red on her screen.

"You have someone important to you out there too, don't you?"

'Course laid in my lady.' "Good." Divada says as the machine gun fire rocks the ship pretty hard. "All right. We're gonna have to make this ship remember us." She then turns to tactical. "Lock onto the target and fire every EOTI laser we have." 'Yes, my lady'. A couple of seconds laster, the Ark hammer fires a LOT of blue colored lasers, blossoming out in a makeshift light show, much akin to a flower. It'd be pretty if it wasn't all death rays...

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Divada Kirador transmits, "huh..."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "As I usually say... lasers work."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Especially those that defy physics."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Divada Kirador transmits, "Cruiser is disabled."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Well done. What's your the status?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Staren Wiremu transmits, "How's it looking, can we win this? Or are we pulling out?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Divada Kirador transmits, "In need of repairs....and upgrades."

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "Sure your gunners don't just need more training?"

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Divada Kirador transmits, "That, Mister Luddite, I will handle myself."

This is going... Badly. Lockon lets out a faint, annoyed sound as he's unable to land a solid hit on the Qubeley, and instead becomes its new target, the Newtype-use mobile suit's Active Cannons firing right at the Gundam. Now, the Gundam Meister is definitely not a Newtype, but he does at least have a plucky robot buddy and a can-do attitude, which is why the GN Shield Bits suddenly whirl into action again, linking together to form small shields and intercepting some of the blasts from the Qubeley... But not enough. Powerful blasts impact GN-006, even as the shield bits' own small beam weapons return fire, but... "Shit, I..." Lockon groans, his head turning so that one aquamarine eye settles on the none too distant Argama. Where, right now, Anew Returner is. "...Am getting REALLY SICK OF THIS!" "TRANS-AM!!" A red brilliance suffuses the GN-006 Cherudim Gundam as one of the five True Solar Furnaces spins up to full power, GN particle production passing critical mass and reaching optimal mass; the suit's particle condensers begin to dump their entire payload into and through critical systems, pushing the Gundam's performance to still higher levels. The GN Sniper Rifle II, now damaged, is tossed aside, left to float in the void, as Cherudim reaches back over its shoulders to grab its paired GN Pistol IIs, the axe-bladed guns stowed where a traditional Gundam keeps its beam sabers; and then, at top speed, the Celestial Being machine charges forward, rushing to power through the Qubeley's defenses and get right in point-blank range before unloading with both guns, repeated blasts of concentrated GN particles seeking to rip chunks out of the Zeon machine.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Tieria Erde transmits, "Transmitting targeting data. Stay out of my way unless you want to die."

There is a sharp indignant pain in Roux's spine this time. She grinds her teeth, not for the first time, even as the Z-II continues its deliberate advance. Roux, possibly in the midst of a chemically induced moment of supreme personal exaltation, looks ahead but doesn't see quite through her eyes.

She breathes steadily but with increasing rapidity, saying as she does, "Making weapons out of people like this... no better than the fucking Federation..." Her radio is on but she has kind of forgotten about it. The incoming funnels are disregarded as she continues forwards, until they become impossible TO ignore, at which point Roux punches it.

Pressed back in the cockpit seat by the steady accelerating force of the Z-II's reactor, her lips quirk up into a less than cheerful smile. The sort of exaltation/outrage grows as she vectors slightly to the left, still accelerating; the Z-II's other hand comes out to brace the Mega Beam Rifle, even as its tip glitters and then flares out into a swollen purple tip!

The sheer force of impact, combined with the disintegrating nature of that tightly cohesive band of megaparticles, will hopefully allow the weapon to slam right /through/ a Quebeley. The outcome should, Roux might think (were she thinking much at all at the moment), be explosive.

"I..." Fa seems a bit caught off-guard by Anew's question, eye searching for any other place to look. But between the likes of Beecha and the horrible battle raging in the void beyond, she has a little other choice, "I suppose I do, yes. Even though he's annoying, and immature, and pig-headed, and just so, so, /so/..."

Vaguely aware she was tightening fists again, Fa sighed and let her shoulders slack, "I just want him to come back safely, that's all. Even if he's that way, i'd rather have him so than not at all.." Her worried gaze faced the battle once again, "He does this all the time, at least. I don't worry about him as much as I did."

"Oh god, i'm going to fucking die." This was /not/ like all those other times.

The Zeta Gundam was nearly dissected with pinpoint precision by the flitting funnels as it vainly swung out with a fist and manages to nick one, armor melting and fusing with joints, various systems going online before he even knew he had them. "The Bio-Sensor...maybe.." He offered some cursory response to Roux, "I hope it's only that...but we need to find cover, or neutralize the funnel, or /something/..!" What he wouldn't give for Rachel and her creepy Red Zeta right now.

Roux already has her own ideas, and the newtype can't help but agree with the sentiment, "I know it's hard, but you can't think about them!" Twin Grenades sailed for two Qubeleys, judging infinitlely more successive prospects in taking out the masters of the funnels than the funnels themselves, "It'll only get us killed out here!"

Slowly, the Innovade frowns. He missed-- he hates missing. Really. Even if the blast did manage to burn up the lower half of the machine to some degree, Tieria shifts his weight in the cockpit, reaching ahead to flick switches on his console, to pulling triggers along the length of his control sticks in a very specific sequence. In the process, he makes one general announcement to the Katharon line:

"Transmitting targeting data. Stay out of my way unless you want to die."

The GN Field rises as it was intended. The majority of Ascian's blasts hit the field and are deflected across the surface, some diffusing through the particles and scattering in varying directions. Some do strike the Mobile Suit, but with that position it has, it's hard to say if it's doing a lot of damage to it. Instead, Tieria is keeping an eye on climbing meters. "Compression ratio rising."

The Seravee turns over the rifle in it's left hand, holding the weapon by it's grip as the rifle in the right hand is brought around. The pair interlock into one goddamn massive gun, sides of the chamber slit open down the sides. The yellow inner tracks slide forward and lock, and the green emitters atop the guns flare with a glow, much like the one that fills the Mobile Suit's eyes.

Slinging the massive GN Bazooka II around in both hands, the purple-haired pilot narrows his eyes as the targeting cursor lines up on the disguised Amenthes. And then, the Gundam lets loose with a massive spray of GN particles from every vent, every GN-vernier.

"Face Burst Mode."

The two golden spikes atop the Seravee's black backpack sway forward before slamming out to either side to form the iconic V-crest. The face of a Gundam drops down, the guards along the face-- nay, the /whole face/-- venting a theoretical asston of true GN particles from behind it, creating an oddly serene green glow. That is, until the Mobile Suit begins to glow a bright red--

"Trans-Am!!"

Tieria can feel it. Literally, he can /feel/ the rattle inside the machine, the vibrations caused by the GN Condensors working at full bore, flooding the machine's output to it's theoretical peak. And then the single cursor, wider than before, locks red not just on Ascian and the disguised Amenthes... but a rather large area around him, as well.

"Seravee... highly-compressed particles... RELEASE!!"

And then the GN Bazooka II releases an incredibly massive beam, a veritable torrent of pink-hue energy at the disguised Amenthes, one that threatens not only to completely overtake the Orbital Frame in weaponized GN particles... but to potentially cut the derelict ship behind him in half!

Macua Huitl is just out of the ship as Ascian and his machine does the mecha version of a cardboard box. So the Raptors totally get her attention, they come into close combat with her. She evades their strikes and opens up with her head vulcans. IT doesn't do much but it does help give her time, and that's just what she needs.

The Funnel detatch from the back of her unit forming up into a rather large formation as Tieria goes into full out Trans-Am mode and goes right after one of the other hostiles. She attacks the Raptors are chased only by a few of the remotes each she's trying to go after them all at once, feeding attack locations with just her thoughts.

"There's got to be a command unit around here...."

Divada watches as the cruiser is actually hit by the massive laser barrage from the Ark Hammer. However, Divada raises an eyebrow. "That's almost amusing. all right. Miranda, get our people down to the lower decks and begin repairs. Also, see if we can't find that trailer that helped us before. See if we can't upgrade this ship." 'My lady? does the ship really need to be upgraded?' "Yeah. as much as I hate to say it...it does. Let's make sure the rest of the crusadeers make it out OK first."

"Mm," Anew says, trying to reign in her worries. For her, it was the complete opposite. Though as time passed she became more and more acutely aware of how competent Lyle was in battle, she found herself growing more and more apprehensive with each battle. Lyle had given her something no one else had, and she was afraid that if she lost him, she would lose that as well.

"Let's do our best for them, then," she says, trying to sound confident.

<Radio: B - DC Tactical> Ascian Luddite transmits, "What /is/ that light!?"

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Argama Contact, we are coming in for a landing. Will require medical attention."

Space around the Amenthes

Ascian's jaw falls open slightly as the Gundam suddenly has /two/ faces. If he was some kind of hotblooded dude in a Gunmen, he'd likely have to say something about this! But he's not. He's Ascian Luddite, soldier under BAHRAM, trying his best to climb the ranks. The gigantic Gn Bazooka has come into clear view, and within his cockpit, a big reticule has formed around it. "Warning!" Duat notes. "Reading a high potency energy reaction. Evasive maneuvers are recommended." (Press R3). "Evasive Maneuvers?" Ascian mutters back, "With what? These crappy thrusters!?" The machine's backpack begins to burn up, and he begins to move sideways a tad slowly. Then suddenly. Burst. Puff. Burst. Puff. The thrusters suddenly fail. Phantomas were not known to be the most reliable of units out there, especially not ones connected to an Orbital Frame the way it was.

The Raptor Squad

Macua was right. Where there were AI Drone Orbital Frames, there was indeed always a command unit. The raptors speed quickly around her unit, and when the funnels come into play, the drones actually show that they have some limited intelligence. Guided by one of the strongest and most capable Orbital Frame Metatron Computers in the BAHRAM space fleet - that is Duat - they manage to move around the initial laser fire, and in fact begin to /latch on/ to the bits and try to cut into them. Of course, if they were succesful, that small squad of a dozen raptors would end up exploding themselves. But that doesn't take away just the fact how /strange/ it is for the drones to show this kind of intelligence and ability to evade attacks.

Back at the Amenthes

"Warning! Theoretical output of the machine is being overriden somehow!" Ascian is staring at the red particles that are now suddenly flooding space around the Seravee gundam. "That light..." He whispers. He remembered that light! It reminded him of a time, months back, during the Balmarian conflict around Hong Kong. "Shit. This isn't good! This isn't good at all, Duat! Amenthes!" He doens't know which one to call out to, his unit's A.I. was well busy handling the raptors and engaging Macua, and Amenthes as a machine was being surpressed by the thick armor on her. "We gotta get out of here!" His gaze falls on another machine which is suddenly rushing throughout the battlefield. "What /is/ that light? That technology?"

"Incoming!" The pink hue builds up at the tip of that massive weapon, and the thrusters are still not engaging. "Come one, come on! Stupid thrusters, engage!" They puff and burst for a moment, sending the LEV disguised Amenthes a bit further up, but in no way was this enough to get it to move far enough. "Mooooove!" The thrusters engage! The unit turns about and speeds towards the battleship, just as that /massive/ beam of weaponized light sears through space and threatens to swallow the entire unit whole. He flees down, close to the armor of the derelict ship, whilst the Seravee's artilery weapon just /cuts/ through the ship, slowly cutting it into half. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh /shit/" Just as he's about to get halfway along the hull of the ship, the thrusters cut out again, and the Amenthes slows down once more. "I don't wanna die!"

... ... ...

Suddenly, there is silence within the cockpit. Within what may seem like ages to Ascian, truly seconds outside, a red glow washes throughout the Orbital Frame. Outside, the beam washes over the LEV armor, melting it. Explosions suddenly rupture pieces of both Orbital Frame and thick armor, the battleship breaks in half, the two ends both moving up, whilst the middle remains low, setting a whole chain of explosions in motion. But within Ascian's cockpit, there is only silence. A female figure suddenly appears before him, born from fire and light, small wings across her back, floating towards him. Smiling. "[ansi(hr,I'll keep you safe.)]" She whispers. And the Amenthes disappears.

... ... ...

The beam of the Seravee finally cuts out, the battleship in the background explodes magnificently, purple mini-explosions dancing throughout the entire structure, pieces of metal flinging about. A few drone units which had been assisting the Divine Crusaders rupture just from being /near/ this this display of force. And the Amenthes seems to just be... gone. Vaporized?

No.

There is suddenly a high energy signature, and as if 'lowering' out from behind a mirror, a glowing and waving piece of space, the Amenthes slowly drops out of what had seemed like invisibility. Her body slowly becoming visible, red sparks dancing across her - an almost gas like cloud of energy flowing from her body. Its head's visor showing two red eyes, fiercely aglow, staring on towards the Trans-Am unit. Within the cockpit, Ascian is panting heavily. His hands feel clammy, and he just has /goosebumps/ all over his body. The glow underneath his eyes is clear, a sign of Metatron poisoning. But what he sees before him are not the Seravee and the Phoebe - or any of the other units. His gaze is slightly out of focus, unable to concentrate on what is before him. The 'presence' within the cockpit is still there. And certain NewTypes may very well feel her presence. <"You nearly killed me..."> He huffs over broadband radio.

But to him, it's as if he is staring at something different. He isn't talking to Tieria or anyone like that. He is talking to what looks to him as his father, some scientists, and worse of all, Dezeele Zephyrs. <"I can't believe I'd ever see that ugly mug of yours again."> Of course, Tieria would probably have /no/ clue what Ascian is on about.

The Amenthes suddenly stretches its arms and legs out, and a series of rods and beams begin to materialize out of nowhere! There isn't even the cues from Duat. Ascian knows by now how to activate things, how to time it all. /That/ weapon. The system stutters, the machine hampers. Sparks fly off of it. Its movements seem strained at every twitch, like it was trying to break out of its own body... out of a non-existant shell that was too stubborn to break. A gigantic cannon begins to form from the armor plating just above the cockpit, made out of energy - materializing...

Connectors appear out of nowhere, linking the cannon that is elongating and forcing itself further out of the torso of the machine. The two red 'claws' that are prominent on its chest - holding up what are basically its breasts - suddenly turn around like living things and CLAW onto the cannon, connecting extra lines of energy. A fierce flow of red energy darts directly from the Metatron core through the thing.

<"You... you ruined my life. You took away what childhood I could have had. Because of your god-damn experiments! You murdered children, just to get what you wanted!"> Looking at 'that face' of Dezeele, in his little mentally disturbed world, he 'steps' towards that man, who just grins at him. <"I'm going to kill you - I am going to kill you, so you will never do those things ever again! Neither you, nor the rest of your sick cronies."> Faceless scientists smile at him, big white smiles, with no eyes. Just staring at him. <"STOP STARING AT ME LIKE THAT!">

The crystalized mass behind the bitwings grows to such size that they now clearly look like /wings/. Stretching out far and wide from the unit, glowing red and yellow. It looks incredibly unstable all in all. And they are aglow so far that they truly give the effect of being on /fire/.

More sparks come from the unit. The cannon-tip begins to shine with a crimson light, purple lightning begins to crackle along the railgun as the unit flies further up into the air, aligning itself with the mouth of the unit.

Ascian raises his fist to the air. Holding him from behind is that red woman with the wings. Those who are extremely psychically gifted might see into this madness that goes on at the moment indeed. All within the mind of this young man - connected too deeply with his Orbital Frame.

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

Ascian shrugs the woman off of his shoulders and raises a 'gun' towards the scientist he blames for everything that has ever gone wrong in his life. <"GIVE ME MY SISTER BACK!">

The rings flare and spin quicker and quicker, until it is impossible to tell them apart. The purple lightning between them sparks madly not just between them, but even from the unit itself. Pieces of armor plating spring loose.

<"AND DIE!">

His grip on the trigger tightens, and he can hear the bullet firing. Again, he shoots, at a random scientist. Then at his father, he keeps firing, unleashing bullet after bullet from that non-existant gun... whilst in reality...

In reality, space before him is suddenly washed over by a thick beam of red light, speeding along, trying to capture both Tieria and Macua's units respectively, cutting along to catch any unfortunate mook.

The distance between Ibis's TELLUS and her Qubeley foe is minimal. Launching a cruise missile at this distance would be an assured hit, but some would say, incredibly reckless. The hard, tapered front-end of the projectile slams into the Qubeley without effort. It cracks its way through the armor, smashing aside protective systems.

..on the opposite end, the Puru can only stop and stare as this rounded thing smashes through her Qubeley's panoramic monitors. "G-Glemy, save me..?" she lets out a squeak before the TELLUS's BM-03-MEDUSA missile detonates. She fades to black and white, then blanks out entirely.

The Qubeley gunning down Lockon continues charging. Cherudim turns its GN pistols on it, its Trans-Am powered blasts takes out its left arm. Then its right leg. Its other arm and at last, its head, until it is nothing more than a core attached to a single remaining leg. Its damaged ports spark and fizzle, it hurtling toward Cherudim like a massive chunk of space debris..

--until that final paired shot tears open the core, rupturing the Minovsky drive.

The Qubeley erupts, consuming itself in a Minovsky-fueled blaze until it is nothing more than brilliant sparks showering the Gundam.

Another Qubeley faces off with Roux. Beam bayonet meets beam sword, resulting in a fizzle of light that leaves both units unscathed!

The Zeta Gundam's grenades take out one more Qubeley. The Zeonic ambush is beginning to crumble -- but wait, there's three more of those wretched space phantoms!

With arms outstretched and shoulder-binders flared, their cloned pilots focus their minds ahead. Funnels come in from every direction. Beamfire is everywhere. It's so vicious.

He refused to listen. What a surprise. Exactly what the red Qubeley gets in return shocks the pilot a little, however. A sudden savage attack later, Puru Two finds her mobile suit suddenly armless, and without a way to further defend itself effectively against a bladed assault. "Ahh! You... you never listen! Why do you never listen?!"

Puru Two doesn't even have the motivation to follow up on her threat. The Funnel return fire is half-hearted, enough to cause damage but not nearly enough to destroy the Star Hawk outright. But that much is fine, it should serve as enough of a deterrent against following. Of course, considering she retreats to be in the midst of the Funnel nightmare back there, that's kind of a deterrent in itself.

The red Qubeley re-appears in the middle of the grey ones, only to just sort of... hover there a moment. Then, comm lines are opened to everybody shooting at the Puru horde, showing the frowning face of the only one of them who's been saying more than 'kill' or 'puru'.

"Easy, isn't it? Shooting them down. I'm sure you noticed, they're like me, but not like me. An army of expendable drones with my face." It's all spoken very matter-of-factly. But it's not hard for the Newtypes to sense that which Puru Two has failed to fully realize herself, that somewhere deep down, something's tearing at her, deeply disturbed at feeling 'herself' die over and over again. And she wants this to end, one way or another.

"I'd just back off if I were you. They will not pursue. They don't have orders to." Puru Two herself doesn't stick around to respond to any reactions to her 'friendly' suggestion, turning around and making herself scarce, leaving the others to their own devices. Maybe some of them will survive, if they're lucky. She'd rather not find out the hard way.

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "Oh, and, uh..."

<Radio: B - Katharon Secure> Heero Yuy transmits, "We might need a decontaminant for the natives. ... wouldn't want diseases to spread."

Staren tries to think of how to prepare for the inervitable counterattack... But it seems he was successful in getting the Qubeley commander to leave. Disturbing information is brought to light: They're using clones? As disposable soldiers? He is too tired to comprehenmd just how ABOMINABLY EVIL that is right now. He just heads back to the Argama. Hopefully the battle is over, but if not, he's in no condition to continue participating.

Macua Huitl is feeliung something she doesn't like something she doesn't like at all from it. She doesn't like being around something like this. There's not a kind look on her face, it's one Adom often had when one of the samples really got her going. Macua seems to be in one of those moods from whatever she sensed. She brings up her shield and floors it. She's mostly successful the shield however is a total loss and she's still taken a lot of damage.

However? She says nothing and he's yelling about his sister? What the hell? She's not sure but she does direct every last funnel at him opening uo from several angels aiming to cut the Orbital Frame to ribbons.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

The massive red beam comes streaking toward him. It's a rare sight to see Tieria Erde at the business end of a massive beam cannon attack, one that causes even the androgyne's chin to drop and face to become harder, more stern and fierce. The shot missed, yes, and it may've cut a swath through space, but he's going to have to deal with that return fire.

In Trans-Am, the GN Drive operates well beyond the standard specs in every imaginable field. This too includes it's defenses, such as the field that engulfs the glowing red machine. Like a brilliant green marble, the sphere forms around the Seravee Gundam moments before the blast strikes, setting the machine and it's Innovade pilot awash in the cannon's light. Communications are disrupted for a few moments.

But Tieria Erde is not so easy to kill.

When the field breaks, the Gundam Meister's Mobile Suit is left completely unharmed, the cannon split back into rifles. It's on the drop that they're swung upward, the cannons mounted on the shoulders shifting into position to allow the cannons to dock in place.

The yellow sections rock forward while electricity arcs across the length of the twin GN Rifles mounted against those cannons. Wordless, heedless of whatever cries of insanity and madness that Ascian Luddite levels against him, the member of Celestial Being levels both guns onto the LEV-- the Orbital Frame-- and what happens next is precisely what happens when Bright Noa cries out, 'increase the barrage!'

Tieria increases the barrage.

The odd thing is, it's a Mobile Suit firing blasts that should rightfully be coming from a /battleship/.

Twin blasts of light blaze through the void back at the Amenthes, those roaring blazes of weaponized GN energy poised to engulf the Martian machine in it's fury all over again!

"Serious SNAFU here!" hisses Ibis as her opponent goes up in a giant missile-induced Minovsky blaze, once again ignoring that she is /slaughtering children/ and will likely develop a huge Tony Stark-style relationship with alcohol in the near future when reconciling with this fact. If only there was some atmosphere so we could get a solid, badass, booming explosion. Well, whatever.

The TELLUS' missile bay snaps shut and starts to backpedal for the safety of the Argama as things heat up. Where 'backpedal' is synonymous with 'fire the god damned rockets, Ibis Douglas'. The Armored Core is thrown backwards at speeds reckless, just in time for a withering hailstorm of beam-fire to blaze through the space she occupied only moments ago! The dazzling, blinding barrage of energy nearly dazzles the American redhead because she is an idiot and her display doesn't autocorrect for brightness. There are speed lines and the screen shakes as she weaves back and forth while somehow not smashing into any of the other active combatants still on the field, covering her own retreat with pulse after pulse of LR01-Laser fire. Gigantic god damned laser beams.

"Come on, hold together, just a /little/ longer..."

This time, though, Lockon is ready for it. Still glowing with red light, Cherudim dodges and weaves to avoid the blasts from the funnels, its GN Shield Bits - also red, now, thanks to the Trans-Am system - streaking through the black in jagged red lines as they intercept any shots that come too close to the Gundam itself. Psychic pressure, well... That doesn't really mean anything to the Gundam Meister, and instead he focuses completely on what he's doing, which is pretty simple: Blow up more Qubeleys. "Haro," Lockon grits out. "Switch the bits over to offensive mode." "Roger!" Haro confirms, still alarmingly cheerful in the middle of a battle. "Roger!" Suddenly, all nine GN Shield Bits change tactics, whirling away from the Gundam on a mission to seek and destroy, blasting at the remaining Qubeleys in concert with Cherudim itself as Lockon's mobile suit twists and turns, firing precisely calculated shots one after the other, the machine moving like it knows some sort of gun-related martial art devised by some filmmaker from hundreds of years ago.

Get out of his head? With Macua's Phoebe being Palter, Ascian's father, in his wild delussion, that just doesn't seem to sit well with him. He frowns for a moment, confused, staring at the two. In his eyes, the bullets had penetrated both of them. Yet they were still standing there. "What is..." He whispers to himself. A severe headache suddenly coming on.

"Come on. Show them... show them you won't give up." The womanly figure whispers. Ascian suddenly backs off as both Palter and Zephyrs come running for him, and /both/ absolutely sock on in the face. He goes reeling back, stumbling, failing to fall back. The gun goes flying across the white 'space'. Zephyrs - Tieria - then continues his approach and punches Ascian /right/ in the stomach. He is send reeling, almost puking, and falls to the ground onto his knees, his eyes trembling, losing his focus, grabbing for his stomache.

The Orbital Frame puts up a shield as Tieria engulfs the Orbital Frame in a second wash of light, and the Funnels commence their onslaught. The latter cutting through pieces of armor, shooting off its 'ears', and completely detaching the 'tailfeathers'. The unit is forced back into a large floating piece of debris from the battleship, but its shields remain up, somehow stopping Tieria from entirely vaporizing the machine. But under the stress of so much absolute power, pieces of armor plating just spontaniously fly off ot the unit. Small mini-explosions find place across the entire thing, but its Vector Cannon remains up...

Ascian crawls slowly, reaching around, trying to find that gun, looking up at both of his most hated enemies standing there, watching him crawl to his weapon. He takes it, holds it up with strembling hands, and raises it to Zephyrs. <"DIE!">

And after that pink light has been active for long enough, a second wave of the Metatron powered red light carves forwards, compressing space. Its force is much less this time around, but it cuts much more thinly. He doesn't even try to make it wash over Palter - Macua - his concentration is on that one man alone.

Outgunned, outplanned and outflanked, Camille's teeth gritted as the blasts of MP Qubeleys consumed his visuals, sadly inured to the death cries of their pilots now. He'd feel shitty about it later, when he could afford to. For now...

Several funnels suddenly peer from their hiding places in the junk cluster. No less than ten bogies pop up on the Zeta's HUD, each one of them a not-too-subtle 'fuck you' courtesy of the latest trend in terrible Zeonic clone soldiers. It seems like the end, then...

ARGAMA

Fa smiles warmly back at Anew, "You're right. It's the best we can do from here. I'm Fa, by the way. Fa Yuiry."

/ARGAMA/

///////FLASH!!!!!////////

The funnels suddenly seem like they're flying drunk to Camille, who perceives the path that would take him unscathed from their undesirable brand of searing death to the comparative safety of open space.

He saw it. It was only for split a second, but he saw it. He couldn't do it alone though, he needed help, he needed...

"ROUX!!!" The AEUG Ace's voice came on the ZII's line with an urgency that brooked no objection, "Your Zeta doesn't have a bio-sensor, but it was still based on mine! They can interface!"

In case she wasn't seeing the point, he'll quickly illustrate when the Zeta, rather roughly, braces upon against the rear of its technological progeny, Hyper Mega Launcher lifted to face on side of space.

"And /so can we/!!!"

For once, Camille didn't mean it like 'that', his consciousness expanding like an open wireless signal with an ecrypted WEP key to avoid going crazy by proxy to whathisface over there. "I saw the remaining units. Too much for me to take care of at once. See what I see, aim where I aim, if we can do it together..." The thought is too much to speak aloud, nor does he need to: They just might make it out alive.

The Hyper Mega Launcher sings a song of doom and death, scarlet rivers of pulsing energy sniping crack shots at what would hide beind spacerock, rusted hulls and the worn legacy of past that should not be forgotten adrift in space. Verniers turn and fire slight, putting just the right spin on the Gundam to engineer a wonderful carousel of high-powered death.

Roux opens her mouth. Suddenly her entire mind vanishes.

She feels like a resonating chamber. God is saying "GIVE ME MY SISTER BACK! AND DIE!" She froths at the mouth for a second, body twitching and spasming for a moment before the distortion in space fades. Roux, completely empty, stares ahead, burned out forever by --

-- she blinks twice, face turning red with irritation and a certain nameless tension. Camille is speaking. 'based on mine - they can interface! AND SO CAN WE!!!' Roux blinks twice. Her breath sucks in as she feels something sliding, moving...

"Ahn!" she cries out, even as her arms seem to move in a certain curious unison. A hot glittering pathway seems to be leaping from her brain to the powerful signal radiating out from the Original Zeta. It's silky-smooth, she thinks. Powerful, even as the Mega Beam Rifle glows with its own inner force, fat and swollen with pink light even as it begins to spit outwards, twisting around at strange angles that violate all proper sense and organization of firing discipline. The Z-II itself pirouettes in the void of space, changing position and orientation with casual ease as space itself seems to go from a series of stage dressing to a throbbing three-dimensional virtual representaiton, lush in all of its -

It's -

"Camille!!" Roux shouts, almost pants. "Do it harder -- We have to finish this before that Orbital Frame murders Celestial Being!!"

Macua Huitl is now wondering, she wants to get out of her here she wants to shut up the voices she wants them out. She hates how others force their way in. She wants them out, it's no better than Sample #215215 Setsuna. No that's one of Adom's old memories there. She wants them out. She wants them out. The forms up the funnels again gritting her teeth muttering one thing or another.

Her own mind is starting to press back trying to get away, while the frame stops targeting her? She now deploys all her funnels they form up around the Orbital frame and start shooting trying to create a cage and then fall into very wildly changing pattern of fire.

"I SAID GET OUT OR I WILL MAKE YOU GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD! ALL OF YOU KEEP TRYING TO FORCE YOUR WAY IN! GET OUT!"

Anew looks up at Fa once more. "Anew Returner," she says by way of introduction. "It's nice to meet you." Somehow, even in the midst of battle, Anew still manages to remain as polite as always.

And when Anew finally glances away from her screen and back outside, she watches at the skies light afire. For a second, she can feel her heart rise in her chest; but when the smoke finally clears, Lyle is still all right, and it appears that Fa's important person is okay too.

It's at that moment that Anew realizes it: the reason for her apprehension. Even though she was able to repair damage to mobile suits -- even though she had been trained even to treat people medically -- there was no human that could raise another from the dead. She could repair Cherudim if it was damaged and she could wrap Lyle up in bandages if he was injured, but she could not save him if he was dead.

Lyle was strong -- and he was competent -- and he was a man of high ideals. And while those were parts of the reasons why she liked him, they were also what drove him to fight. Lyle would always be in danger and there would never be a way she could guarantee with a hundred percent certainty that he'd be safe.

She'd just have to find some way to live with it.

Anew stares up at Cherudim.

Or learn to believe in him.

The remaining Qubeleys hold the line. Blasting indescriminately, forming a hard line that threatens to overwhelm these Katharon pilots.

Together, these youths band together. It is the Hero of the Federation, IBIS DOUGLAS in her TELLUS that leads the charge -- the rapidfire burst of her weapons arrays disorients the clone-girls. So many shots, they're unable to keep up. Their Newtype minds taxed to the limit --

--ace marksman LOCKON STRATOS takes the stage now. The love of ANEW RETURNER is the pedestal that elevates him higher, he and his faithful Haro -- the perfect melding of man and machine -- that uses Gundam Cherudim's GN Shield Bits to great use. The binders that house the Qubeley's most powerful weapons are detonated in streams of focused GN-particles. Truly, Love is the Pulse of the Stars.

These girls, dazed and confused, shriek in horror as they're expertly disarmed. Their pitched wails reaching an all time high, heard across the cosmos in the receptive field that links all Newtypes. They're vulnerable..

..and it's time for CAMILLE BIDAN and ROUX LOUKA to strike. Their units, the indomitable Zeta-series Gundams pioneered by the brilliant boy said to be 'the Second Coming of Amuro Ray' himself, join together in beautiful and destructive harmony.

Hyper Mega Launcher and Mega Beam Rifle blasts collide in a brilliant laser light show that disintegrates the remaining Qubeleys. The screams of the wicked end and space returns to its silent twilight. Cold and harsh... to those with their minds too settled in that of the old era.

The GN Field raises one more time. Slammed with the energy of the Vector Cannon copy, Tieria is forced to actually bare his teeth in a wince as the Mobile Suit Gundam is shaken by the pressure of the attack and his waning GN Particle supply. Soon, the Innovade is going to be facing the second edge to the power of the Trans-Am System-- the status of his machine at it's end of storage capacity.

The Seravee Gundam lurches forward through the blast, even as whole sections of the energy flow shear straight through the barrier and rip into the armor, cracking the chest and ripping the vents mounted in it. The pauldrons crack, and even the bulky armor around the face starts to bend, creak, and give way. Despite this, Tieria does a move that is both ballsy and straight out of the Setsuna F. Seiei school of Mobile Suit piloting:

He charges right up into Ascian's grill.

If he can break the range of the gun, if he can move his way into the gap between the muzzle of the Vector Cannon Mk. II and the Amenthes itself. In the midst of pressing himself forward like that, he waits until the absolute last moment to move, bursting out of the blast with the radiant light of GN particles still engulfing the machine.

As it bursts outward, the Gundam has already docked the pair of massive rifles on the bulky skirting armor. The hands have likewise dipped down to grip the handles of beam sabers, the two blades thrusting in at the Amenthes' chest with the full-on intent to drive them /through/ the machine. The four cannons, over the shoulders and in the knees, suddenly split open. Their emitter arrays become the backing to hands much more light and skeletal than the main pairs, and each wield sabers of their own. In that moment, they begin to swing.

They swing, and strike, and lash out, and tear at the Orbital Frame with the intent to completely dismember the machine with lethal effiency, trying to scissor off the head, legs and arms-- and then /ripping/ the two main blades out to either side in a finishing blow!

But it isn't really like Ascian is /trying/ to get into Macua's head. Heck, the transmitter is actually more Amenthes than the framerunner himself. The young man keeps hearing these words from Macua, which don't fit with his father's image. And slowly but surely, the image before him is becoming distorted. Or rather, undistorted, as the world returns as it should be, just in time to see...

Fire scarring his Orbital Frame. Bright light ravages the SSA of the Amenthes, leaving pockmarks and various actual /holes/ in her. Some of the strikes come /dangerously/ close to her core. But more importantly, some of them even come so close as to scathe over the cockpit's black canopy. It takes every ounce of will out of Ascian not to release the controls and raise his hands up to his face to protect himself. The Amenthes shudders, its fragmented wings barely remaining safe under the assault of so many funnels, and then there's the assault of his other opponent. Ascian's eyes quickly dart within their sockets. He's trying to find out what he has available, how much energy... "Duat!" That's faster.

The Artificial Intelligence seems to come alive with a pulse... a glow of red within the cockpit that seems to purge the 'gas' like energy that had been expelling from the unit. Its arms move slowly, its head turns towards the Seravee, and one of the legs barely moves up. Sparks continue to fly all over, and its chest now finally has the core exposed - an Orbital Frame's absolute weakpoint... but also something Ascian is never to lose! The arms quickly shift in form, metal shifting and flowing into different places as the SSA tries to compensate well enough to give that bit of 'ply' needed to form swordarms and lunges forwards at the incoming opponent.

Two of its 'wings' rush forwards suddenly, and latch onto the back of the Amenthes' arms, reinforcing the structure as the machine gains a certain sense of... grace all of the sudden. The first strike blocked, carving into its armor. The second parried, somehow, pushing the arm away. And using that small moment of time, it shifts that same arm into a rifle and sends a quick volley of plasma bolts towards the Seravee - aimed besides the torso, close to its legs, before reforming rapidly to a sword to halt the next strike of the blade.

"Shit... shit... what has happened...?" Ascian wonders to himself, "It happened again, sir." Duat warns him. It doesn't need to explain further. Ascian knows what 'it' means. He'd lost himself to the incredible influence of Amenthes once again. That was the second time now that he'd started to hallucinate. He bites his lower lip, his gaze flicking up as another strike comes through and lashes against the Amenthes' left arm, cutting it clean off. The limb flies into the distance and spontaneously explodes.

Targetting reticules suddenly appear over the funnels, as well as the Seravee Gundam. Amenthes begins to back off. Metatron Crystals purse from behind its legs and from the folds between its wings, sending the unit backwards further, after it kicks off of the large debris plate it had crashed against earlier. "Who's still left?" he wonders out loud. Nobody. He was out here alone. "I gotta get out of here." The wings turn horizontal and send a series of homing lasers straight at the funnels and the Seravee Gundam. He is hoping that by keeping them busy with dodging, he can find an escape route safe enough to use, and depart from this area.

Meanwhile, aboard the Argama..

"OW!!" Beecha whimpers from being smacked upside the head by Bright.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa transmits, "Withdraw our mobile suits! We're getting out of here!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Roger that!!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Macua Huitl transmits, "Roger."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Roux..uh, good work."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Roux Louka transmits, "You didn't finish this, Camille! Th - Oh, there it goes."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Roux Louka exhales forcefully.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Camille Bidan panting, "Y...yeah.."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa, off radio, "..Someone tell me what the hell Celestial Being is doing here!"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "Intervening?"

At this point, Tieria frowns and continues his gamble regardless of the risks. Homing lasers come screaming toward him and strike the GN-008 Seravee Gundam squarely in the chest, blowing a hole through it. Surely, the cockpit block had to have been destroyed in the assault. That had to have been it. Who could ever survive a hole being blown through the most common place to ever house a cockpit, especially on a Gundam?

As the last of the beams finish, the Seravee's damaged head, drawn backwards as though it were floating dead in the water... snaps forward. The eyes glow brightly, and the beam saber in the right hand is released.

Like a gunslinger of the wild west, the GN Rifle docked on the skirting armor is gripped and snapped forward like a pistol, firing one last blast straight back at the Amenthes as it attemps to gain more distance.

Inside the cockpit of his machine, Tieria frowns a little harder than usual... but he is somewhat relieved that he's still able to keep fighting, despite the critical level of his GN Particle capacity.

Bright calls. At this point, it would be wise to heed the advice of the AEUG Admiral. "Lockon. We're heading back to the Argama."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Staren Wiremu transmits, "It... wasn't exactly a _secret_ to Katharon that we were coming here anyway, maybe they want the Black Hole Drive too?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Tieria Erde sigh. "I had hoped to have a discussion with you regarding one of your crew members, Bright Noa. In person. It seems it was fortuitous that we did."

Ibis Douglas has crazy Apocalypse Now silent imagery-style flashbacks to Puru clones screaming and dying while looking blankly at the controls in her cockpit, TELLUS sitting secured and deactivated aboard the Argama because she pals around with terrorists like that jackass Koji Kabuto.

Heero Yuy owes so much of an explanation for this.

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Camille Bidan transmits, "Ugh, I knew this would happen eventually.."

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa, off radio, "What do you mean they can hear everything I've just said!?"

<Radio: A - Katharon Chat> Captain Bright Noa, off radio, "Tieria is what?!"

The red glow around GN-006 fades, the Cherudim Gundam's bits returning to their docked positions to recharge their individual particle supplies... While the suit itself begins the process of recovering from the expenditure of energy in Trans-Am. "Whew," the counterfeit Gundan Meister says, reaching forward to give the orange Haro docked close by a fond pat. "Looks like that's that." "ALL CLEAR!" Haro reports, cheerfully. "ALL CLEAR!" Weapons returned to their docked positions, Cherudim turns and retrieves its discardred rifle, returning /that/ to its shoulder port, before the hunter green and white Gundam follows after Seravee, back towards the Argama "Sure, sure," Lockon replies to Tieria's instruction, sounding relaxed as always.

On the way back, Roux feels somehow cosmically unsatisfied.

So she complains at Camille, using the miracle of Touch Talk (because they still didn't disengage), "Do you know what the hell they're talking about now underneath Staren being a know it all?"

A pause.

Her eyes close. "/Beecha/..."

The lasers flare through space, and when Amenthes is left alone to stand against the might of the GN Rifle, with its wings deployed for assault, it can't do that little amount of movement needed to dodge it! Sure, there is a quick burst of speed, but Tieria seems to have anticipated this. The beam cuts through the right side of the torso, shattering it, and even cracking the core of the frame. A few more little explosions erupt on board the machine, but somehow, it manages to survive... to escape total destruction. "What was... that light." Ascian whispers to himself, thinking back of Trans-Am, and steers the Amenthes away from the exploded derelict and the Gundam Aces. Wings reattach to the back to give it that last little boost of speed it needs to properly escape, and get out of firing range.

Camille is starting to think this whole thing was a horrible idea. Oh wait, shit, can hear him thinking that?!

"I think it's something to do with Katz. Have you ever seen how the news always sees he's a member of a Celestial Being when he pulls some stupid shit?" Christ, it was hot in here, the Zeta's heat sinks had partially failed in combat and the Hyper Mega Launcher didn't exactly run cool. "You did good out there, by the way. Good reactions." Was he feeling a bit like Captain Quattro?!

"By the way, it is /really/ hot in here. I don't want this to get weird but, like, I may really need to get naked in a second." Yeah, totally not weird.

Meanwhile, Fa breathed a sigh of relief. Camille was safe!!

Macua Huitl has no idea she just wants them out, she wants them out. She wants things that are not her's. She wants to get them out of her head. She's trying to get it out her mind is actually lashing out trying to force it away and she hears a recall order she'snow pulling back a pair of funnels don't make it but the rest do and she now turning tail to head back for the carrier. She's had enough.

"Don't get all condescending," Roux says in a huff. She opens her own Normal Suit's helmet, shaking out sweaty hair in her own cockpit. "And that Katz is nothing but trouble. The admiral ought to ditch him on some backwater colony before -"

Roux falls silent abruptly.

Three seconds later, she asks, "Why does that ship have surface sniper camouflage?"