2017-09-04: Sado Masochism

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  • Log: Sado Masochism
  • Cast: Sheriff Star, Kahm Yugh, Seraphita, Elhaym van Houten, Loren Voss, Kent Hauch
  • Where: Great Aveh Desert
  • Date: September 4th 2017
  • Summary: Sado, thorn in the side to Aveh -- and thus also Gebler -- has been spotted making moves inroads. It's time for something to be done about it. A few key facts are learned about Golems.

<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

Ever since its deployment, Golem Sado has been a force of terror on the front lines of the Aveh-Kislev war.

Kislev has been much too smart and careful to risk committing it to a forward assault on the main body of Aveh's army. Such an action would risk the Golem being overpowered -- and destroyed (if such a thing is even possible) or captured (which is certainly possible). Instead, across the huge front, Sado has periodically appeared to shatter a brigade here and crush a company there. This has made tracking it hard.

Two hours ago, a report filtered in from one of Aveh's Gear patrols. Sado was seen, cruising across the desert -- penetrating deeper into the Great Aveh Desert than it ever had before. This, it seems, was a chance to do something about it.

Sado is a beast of a machine. While it stands as tall as a Gear, much of its body is a long, serpentine tail -- making it much more massive. Its body is violet, with a silver-blue underbelly, and long wings of dark purple segments. They move -- huge cables, ending in a cannon, and then two long, graceful, and clawed arms that stretch off it. Sand bursts out of it, in a plume.

It blitzes across the sand, directly for supply depot of Aveh. Its eyes glow with a menacing, fiery red gleam.

VICTORY CONDITION Reduce Golem Sado to 50% HP in four turns.

DC: Sheriff Star switches forms to Golem Sado!
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.

The Golem Sado had been something of a thorn in Gebler's side was no secret. While through their support Aveh generally enjoyed a technological superiority in battle against Kislev, the other country's possession and control of the golem-both mysteries-had given them a counterweight in the conflict. It was an unacceptable state of affairs for Gebler, which had put several resources into tracking and attacking the golem. Capture was preferable, but destruction would also be viable if there was no other way.

Nailing the thing down had been harder than predicted, and one Captain Kahm Yugh had put in several sleepless nights trying to draw any kind of pattern between the Golem's appearances and the scope of it's activities. Either Kislev was cannier than expected or there was someone else pulling the strings behind this whole event-not unlikely, given the events of last week. Fortunately, the report from Aveh's troops came as something of a windfall, and Gebler had been wise enough to keep Kahm and several others on hand for quick assembly in just such an event.

Currently, Hauteclaire flew in formation with the other gears at an even cruising altitude, pulling up a magnified image of Sado on it's HUD for the Captain to review while he opened a channel to the rest of the squad. It certainly looked no less formidable from a cockpit than on foot.

"Sado's up ahead. Engage it carefully, and be on your defenses-we still don't know it's full capabilities." He said, fully aware that they may already be within the unearthed weapon's range.

Regardless of that fact, he wasn't about to let the serpentine construct set the terms of their engagement. Hauteclaire's pristinely white form dipped out of the sky and boosted it's speed dramatically as Kahm augmented the propulsion system with output from the ether engine, magnifying his own latent power. The gear cut perpendicular from Sado in a bolt of speed, drawing up gouts of sand in a screening manuever as it extended it's wrist cannons and raked across the enemy weapon with autocannon fire.

GS: Kahm Yugh has attacked Sheriff Star with Wrist Guns!
GS: Kahm Yugh has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a glancing hit from Kahm Yugh's Wrist Guns for 61 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.

An assault on a Golem called for muscle. And lucky for Aveh, when an Element was deployed to reinforce their side of the war, they sent her Gear with her.

Grandgrowl leads the charge in the air, the winged lion streaking across the skies as fast as it can go. It crosses the desert in a flash, swooping in overhead, only barely keeping in formation. Its bright red mane and wings, contrasting the blue sky and the overwise white body of the beast, it'd be hard to miss, even for something like Golem. Or perhaps, especially to something like the Golem.

Seraphita sits at the controls, her cockpit littered with shiny stickers and doodles. Coloring pencils roll on the floor from the speed, a half-finished book tucked behind the single seat. For someone as ditzy and simple-minded as she is, she has no trouble flipping switches, hitting the right buttons, controlling the metallic beast with precision. Don't get used to that kind of skillful exhibit from her though!

"Got iiiiiiit!" Seraphita singsongs over comms.

The Ether engine of the Gear revs up, the lion suddenly swooping down towards the Golem and opening its mouth! Fiery Ether gathers up in it, amplified from the pilot, and she shouts: "Fire Breeeeeeaaattth!" because you HAVE to shout those things or else it doesn't work!! (This may not be true.)

Predictably, magical fire rains down towards the Golem as Grandgrowl makes a fly-by, scorching the sand in a straight line.

"Hey, what do you guys think Golems like to eat?" she asks, over the comms.

GS: Seraphita has attacked Sheriff Star with Fire Breath!
GS: Seraphita has completed her action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a glancing hit from Seraphita's Fire Breath for 107 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly van Houten had come back to Bledavik in order to file some reports and recharge her tablet. She also had to do some other paperwork. Everything's going swimmingly, and it was kind of nice to get some real mess-style cooking, in its bland and creamy glory, when...

The call came.

She would have to PILOT THE GEAR.

Fortunately for Elehayym van Houten, the Gear in question is comfortable, almost spanking new as Gears go, and has cabin AC. There's even a chilled water dispenser for extended missions, though a heated water dispenser isn't in the cards, not yet. So physical comfort is not an issue, merely the looming threat of the great and terror-inducing Golem that Kislev, somehow, dug up, activated, and set out to destroy the fruit and flower of Prime Minister Shakhan's Gear corps!

Or something like that. Elly saw several other Gears flying off to who-knows-where. That can't have been good.

"Understood," she answers Hauteclaire's pilot - Vierge has hung back, in the second 'line' of the Gear detachment. Seraphita lunges forwards and goes for flame, and that rules out Elly's immediate default reflex. Fortunately, she has others.

Vierge doesn't gesticulate as Elly presses her thoughts, her soul perhaps, through the Amplifier... And out of a clear blue sky comes a shrieking bolt of lightning, casting shadows for miles around! Hi, Filgaian magnetosphere and atmosphere! And extra hi to SADO THE GOLEM.

"I don't think they 'eat' at all," Elly answers Seraphita, with a tone of almost-predictable distraction.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Sheriff Star with Anemo Bolt!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's Anemo Bolt for 108 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Sheriff Star!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

It had been, in its own way, interesting timing. The report had come in roughly two hours before, high priority, not long after Loren had returned from initial field missions to report in.

Needless to say, the part including the 'report in' had been aborted. All hands available for Gear engagement were required, effective immediately. He had barely had time to make preparations, let alone situation himself. But he had known this day was going to come, particularly where Sado was concerned. Funny, it hadn't been more than a day or two before that he'd had a conversation with Keil about the Golem... and how Kislev undoubtedly had plans to use it more places than the front lines.

Final diagnostics report, read out the display before him. Loren took a breath, closing his eyes as he settled back into the seat. His hands briefly tightened over the controls before easing off. Don't think about it. Don't even think about it.

All systems were green. No more holding back.

Even towards the back of the formation -- a result of the heavily-armored Gear's weight -- he can see the Golem dead ahead on screen. His gaze flickers over it, almost dispassionately. "I see it, Captain. Proceeding to defensive engagements."

A few sharls more... just a few more.

He should be able to get in a shot at it from here and assess damage appropriately. Well advance of his final position, he draws and begins reading the ether ARM. "Targeting systems engaged. Opening ether circuit--" Schiehallion pulls up sharply, an more impressive maneuver than it might appear considering the Gear's relative inertia and weight -- these models don't handle well as a result, but they excel one very important thing thanks to the armoring.

It's at the moment Loren's only real consolation as he unfocuses his mind and allows the ether amplifiers in the firing system to pick up the slack. Where to aim...? Glancing over at the screen just once, he settles on the wings.

"--Attempting to disable it," he says, finally opening earth ether-charged fire upon Sado's wings.

And there's a moment of radio silence that follows.

"...What?" That was in fact in response to Seraphita.

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Sheriff Star with SEG-V.Terra!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's SEG-V.Terra for 176 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

Autocannon fire cuts across the sand, plumes of the stuff exploding into the air. Then, several of those shots clip into the side of the Golem. It proves starkly mobile, though, as it suddenly swings to a side. Its tail lashes out after, sand billowing out in a wave, and the head turns. The eyes regard Hauteclaire -- and flash, menacingly.

And then flame washes over the Golem, scorching its armor and leaving it hard to discern in the fire that rains down from Grandgrowl as it descends. The fire spills off, turning some of the desert into glass. Then, the Golem rips through the fire storm.

Glassed sand bursts out, as the tail tears through the sand, and it whips around to face Hauteclaire and Grandgrowl both. The wings on its back twist -- and then the cables that make it up lift, revealing an array of cannons. They shoot out every which way, coming at them from multiple angles. Beams of light, razor thin, shoot from each, and criss-cross in the desert sky, and try to slash through Grandgrowl and Hauteclaire alike.

The Vierge sends a bolt of lightning crashing down. The Ether lightning slams into Sado, exploding in a spray of sparks and electricity -- and then, a moment later, Loren's shot comes tearing in. The blast of Ether slams into one of the wings, shaking it violently. Sado is pushed backward.

The face turns, thin and narrow, on a segmented neck. The eyes look directly through Loren's Gear's screen. They look at him.

Smoke wafts from the wing -- but a trio of cables lift, and aim. Three beams of light explode from it, razor thin, and cut through sand and smoke, before they all intersect right on Loren's Gear. Then, the larger right arm of the Golem lifts. A barrel opens -- and a powerful round fires out, shooting across the battlefield.

It crashes down for Vierge, before it explodes in a titanic fireball.

ROUND: 1/4

GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Kahm Yugh with Undulation Cannon - Spread Shot!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Seraphita with Undulation Cannon - Spread Shot!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Loren Voss with Undulation Cannon - Triple Shot!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Finger Launcher!
GS: Sheriff Star has completed his action.
DC: MISS! Elhaym van Houten completely evades Finger Launcher from Sheriff Star!
GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Sheriff Star's Undulation Cannon - Triple Shot for 250 hit points!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Seraphita with Undulation Cannon - Spread Shot!
GS: Seraphita takes a glancing hit from Sheriff Star's Undulation Cannon - Spread Shot for 200 hit points!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Loren Voss with Undulation Cannon - Triple Shot!
GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Sheriff Star's Undulation Cannon - Triple Shot for 234 hit points!
GS: Kahm Yugh takes a glancing hit from Sheriff Star's Undulation Cannon - Spread Shot for 105 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.

The way those eyes flash before attacking does not escape Kahm. Was it just his eyes, or could the Golem be showing....menacing intent?

It was too fast to really say one way or the other. Kahm felt the hum of the ether amplifiers surrounding his cockpit intensify as he applied the thrust in reverse, forcing the white gear to do a hard bank and turn back at the golem, quickly going into evasive maneuvers as Sado opened up on him and several others with laser fire.

The Hauteclaire is a highly agile unit, and it's in situations such as these that the capability showed-the gear banked and twisted despite high speeds to avoid the worst of the fire, but the angles Sado was capable of firing from made it impossible to escape damage completely, and one pulsing beam draws a scorching black line across the gear's flank, marring its white aesthetic.

"I've lost 40% of ablative shielding on my right flank." Kahm spoke coolly into his radio, and added "Nothing to worry about. Lieutenants, watch your six-there's more coming your way."

He trusted Seraphita would find a way to deal. Unorthodox tactics seemed to be her specialty, far as he could tell.

Before Sado has a chance to follow up with more attack, Hauteclaire is upon it-close enough for striking. The magnetic lock keeping the large carbon-steel sword attached to gear's back releases with a *CHA-CHUNK* just as the mecha gripped it with both hands, swinging it diagonally across Sado's body.

"Let's see if they eat steel." Kahm resolved.

GS: Kahm Yugh has attacked Sheriff Star with Heavy Swing!
GS: Kahm Yugh has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a solid hit from Kahm Yugh's Heavy Swing for 152 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.

"Huh? But what do they do when they're hungry?!" Seraphita replies to Elly, her tone one of complete familiarity. While Seraphita wasn't at Jugend, the two probably shared at least one or two classes regardless - near the end of Elly's tenure. That the rabbit hadn't been to school proper certainly explained a few things. Ramsus knew what he wanted in his elites; he made Seraphita pursue what she was good at, and made her waste no time on what she wasn't. The Elements complemented one another, and having four identical do-everything elites was sub-optimal.

Beams of light clip one of Grandgrowl's wings, tearing a gash through the plating and causing its flight to be rather lopsided. It spins around, almost on a dime, having streaked past the Golem but now planning its return course.

"OH! I bet that's why it's so grumpy! It must be hungry!!"

Well, there are worse guesses one could make.

"Left tenant, quick!! We should pincer it, and then, when it's down, we can feed it and make it like, one hundred percent less grumpy!! Maybe it does eat metal, good thinking mister captain Yugh sir!! And I heard when something is at one hundred percent you have to refer to it as maximum eff-ee-shanty, so make sure to sing too!!"

Question is, what kind of shanty fits feeding a Golem?

Grandgrowl swoops around Loren's Gear, and then heads for the right! For Seraphita is the right tenant, you see? With a sharp turn, the lion's mouth opens again, spewing another gush of flame. But this time it's more... liquid? There's some corrosive, flammable substance mixed in with the Fire Ether.

"STICKY FIIIIIIRE!!"

GS: Seraphita has attacked Sheriff Star with Sticky Fire!
GS: Seraphita has completed her action.
DC: MISS! Sheriff Star completely evades Sticky Fire from Seraphita!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

The Golem opens fire on them and those cables writhe around in a way that seems somehow -- hypnotic? No; it's more like there's a pattern there and she can see that there is a pattern, Elly thinks, but - maybe that is hypnotism. The confluence of doubletalk fades when a gun gets pointed at her.

Everything becomes clear as a glass of water.

There is a flash and a shell is coming towards her. The light feels like it's sparkling. Elly thinks she saw that cannon fire but she can't remember exactly where, but its range and the scale of its impact are there. Vierge swerves laterally and forwards, looping ahead with a booster shriek, the burst and shock coming well behind the Gear. It doesn't stop moving.

Pivoting around the X-axis, twisting the hips and legs of the Gear out of the way of the line of fire (they're dead weight right now, aren't they? Elly thinks, the thought flashing like the surface of a pond), Elly closes ground without firing more Ether off. She's probably letting the capacitor refill, or perhaps she's taking the instruction of Kahm to heart.

Vierge pivots with body-grinding G-force, like a bootlegger's J-turn in an era gone past. Elly sinks four inches into the quasigelatinous embrace of the acceleration cushion in her seat. Vierge is not bothered by this, though, and that rod comes out to administer a whipping flurry of strikes, aimed towards the base and junction of those tendrils, as it gets near to the point of having heels on the ground, moving round the Golem's flank and jittering unpredictably as it goes!

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Sheriff Star with Beat Storm!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's Beat Storm for 97 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

Pin-point accuracy, it seems; he achieved precisely what his intent had been--

A little too well.

It turns, regarding him as intently, almost reminding him of a preying mantis in the particular articulated cold precision in its gaze. His pulse accelerates.

And the cables lift, charging an attack.

"...Oh," he says, for a lack of anything at all to express at the moment other than the dull realization of what's about to happen.

Schiehallion is by no means a fast Gear -- whatsoever -- it's the price paid for its shielding. Even attempting evasive actions would be a fool's errand. So he doesn't. Bracing for impact and hoping the armor plating is enough is his only present option. The way he can feel -- as he brings Schiehallion back, readjusts the Gear's stance to hopefully prevent knockback, engages advance shielding, braces himself for the impact -- the sands shift underfoot does not give him great hopes, though.

Three beams converge with startling intensity, even if he had been expecting something of the sort. Just as he'd suspected might happen, the Gear's positioning on the sands is compromised, which... really doesn't help when you're attempting to absorb a hit. It doesn't go well. Knockback, shielding damage report -- he notes them in passing as he takes a bone-rattling direct hit. But he's still standing.

Left tenant... what? Loren blinks, righting the heavy Gear. Oh. Oh, that's what she means. "--Understood, ma'am. Engaging; armoring systems still steady at 75% capacity." Already accelerating as she swoops by to the right, he charges left, circling to keep enough distance between it, him, the Captain, and Seraphita.

Skidding across the sand, he draws the small (for a Gear) twin sidearms, enabling targeting systems once again as it slides in for home as it were. At Seraphita's shout and as Grandgrowl disgorges fire once again, he empties his clips.

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Sheriff Star with Twin Barrage!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star critically Guards a hit from Loren Voss's Twin Barrage for 41 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.

A voice suddenly cuts into the Gebler radio, a new viewscreen adding itself to everyone's HUD. The image is grainy, staticky, and difficult to make out - especially through the flickering lights in the new cockpit.

...and the haze of cigar smoke curling around the suggestion of a bald head.

"Woss all this? Havin' a dance party an' didn't invite ole me?"

A new Gear suddenly comes ripping into radar range, lacking any IFF, any signature, anything aside from a screamingly loud presence - a machine that couldn't possibly sneak up on anyone with systems worth a damn. It's moving. It's moving fast.

The thing suddenly bursts over a sand dune, a Gear that looks to be made out of actual garbage - chunks of charred-black scrap metal with red flames painted on them attached to the sand-camo body of an Aveh Sand Trooper. The skate-like attachments on the feet have been shifted and crudely mirrored, one on each side. Fuel hoses stick dangerously out all over it, leading to large flamethrower barrels sticking out of its body at random. Flames spurt out of them at random.

More exciting are the long blue-green flames jetting from behind its feet. Glittering glass spreads in its wake, sparkling around the airborne Gear, sand crystallized by the intense heat of the boost jets.

In the monitor, the shape shifts, swinging a fist directly up. Something crunches, and the light stops flickering, revealing a decidedly cramped and sweaty Kent Hauch, wearing his full ash grey suit and smoking a cigar. He seems to be in the back half of his cockpit - a pair of brown-furred dog ears poke up from the foreground in the bottom of the frame.

"Gah hah hah hah! Look at that biggum! I guess I should thank him for hurling this hunk of metal on my doorstep!"

"Glassman," says the unseen figure, one ear twitching irritably.

"Wot?"

The top of Ribaldy's head strains into view, eyes barely cresting the screen. "The RBY-BT-01 "Glassman" Trooper. RBY because I did most of the redesigns, BT because Black-"

The Gear's arm suddenly comes up, smacking itself in the chest, throwing Ribaldy around while Kent is too cram packed to move much. "I GET IT, I GET IT! Bloody fookin' hell, you smug bastard!" Despite the hot words, Kent is grinning broadly around his cigar. "Let's get some paychecks!"

The nitro boost gutters out and the Glassman lands, leaving the glittering rain behind as it swishes back and forth, weaving through the criss-crossing lasers. Despite the machine's rough look and jerky movements, the Black Tie ARMs Meister seems to have managed to boost the mass produced unit's specs. It lifts its left hand up toward the Golem Sado.

"WHAT COLOR'S YER SMOKE?!"

The hand swings down on a hinge, stretching wires, exposing a joint, and extending a long barrel surrounded by three smaller barrels. With a rapid thoomp, thoomp, thoomp, small canisters shoot out of the sub-barrels up at the Sado. The Tipple Cans crumple if they manage to hit the Golem, the scraping metal throwing a spray of sparks immediately followed by thuds, flashes, and small spheres of more blue-green flame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htKY2oD85rs

GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Sheriff Star with STM Config-00 Tipple Can!
GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a solid hit from Kent Hauch's STM Config-00 Tipple Can for 117 hit points!
GS: Sheriff Star enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

Golem Sado proves to be wickedly fast. That it can keep up with Hauteclaire speaks to whatever ancient engineering created this machine, because it banks around sharply. It tries to match the smaller Gear, but Kahm proves too skillful a pilot -- and his Gear too agile -- to easily be caught. Instead, Hauteclaire comes ripping in. A few shots from the undulation cannons fire down.

They fire directly down, lines of light scarring the sand but never touching Hauteclaire. The sword slams into the armor plates, and it proves to be a thing of steel as much as sorcery. Sparks explode; armored plates are shorn away, as Hauteclaire rips past.

Three of the wing-mounted, cable-held cannons swivel, turn, and shoot out to the sides. A trio of beams, like the ones fired for Loren a moment before, shoot down at the Gear's back.

And then Vierge rips by its defenses, and the rod swings out, each blow slamming into the armor, leaving dents. The cannons can't move to get an effective shot -- and the pink Gear's blows slam repeatedly for it. The Golem expresses no anger, no rage; it doesn't even express frustration. Grandgrowl comes down.

And this time, sticky fire issues forth--

--and slams into pure sand. Elly gets a view, as Sado leaps a few dozen sharls into the air. Its serpentine body twists around, and the hand-mounted cannons are aimed down for Vierge and Grandgrowl both. Then, it crashes back down into the sand, and a huge wave of the stuff comes washing out. Schiehallion sweeps in, the heavy Gear skidding about the sand, and its sidearms fire, rounds slamming into the armor, as it crosses both arms in front of it.

It wasn't expecting a second Gear. The shuffling, seemingly junk-piled Gear screams across the desert on skates. Sado is ill-equipped to marvel at this, as glass shards and sand whips out in its wake. The Tipple Cans slam into the armor, crumple, and then blue-green flame explodes off it. Armor plates peel back.

And then the Golem's mouth, which is flesh and blood below the plates, opens and power speaks into the souls of those present: "DARKNESS."

A shockwave of shadow rolls forward. The Glassman and Schiehallion, being closer, find it ripples through their systems and shorts them. Everyone, however, finds that a dome -- kilometers in diameter -- has turned day into night here.

ROUND: 2/4

GS: Sheriff Star enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Kahm Yugh with Undulation Cannon - Triple Shot!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Finger Launcher!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Seraphita with Finger Launcher!
GS: Sheriff Star has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Kent Hauch with Dark Zone!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Loren Voss with Dark Zone!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Sheriff Star's Finger Launcher for 173 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Kent Hauch guards a hit from Sheriff Star's Dark Zone for 0 hit points!
GS: Seraphita takes a glancing hit from Sheriff Star's Finger Launcher for 136 hit points!
GS: Loren Voss critically Guards a hit from Sheriff Star's Dark Zone for 0 hit points!
GS: Kahm Yugh takes a solid hit from Sheriff Star's Undulation Cannon - Triple Shot for 246 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.

It can LEAP?!

Seraphita is too busy going "Whooooa, awesome!" to realize this is actually a problem. The blasts the Golem unleashes from above smash against the back of the feline Gear - more importantly, they clip its wings, one of which was already damaged by its earlier blasts of light. A trail of smoke now blasts out from Grandgrowl's left wing, and Seraphita jiggles with the controls to stabilize it best she can.

"Aww, it doesn't play fair! But it looks super cool, and -"

And, it's dark.

It's super dark.

Seraphita hates dark places. Actually, she hates the dark.

"... I don't wanna play with you anymore, mister Golem."

Bright line shines from Grandgrowl's claws, as the Ether engine goes into overdrive to funnel Seraphita's power through the Gear and into all four of its serrated sets of claws. "Foooooooorm! Blazing Claws!" Arcs of plasma dance along the surface of the red hot metal. Grandgrowl accelerates!

"Kelvena always says a hug'll make darkness go away, but she's not here, so... this'll do!!!" It's hard to tell if she has a mean streak or actually means it. What's certain though is that getting a hug from all four of Grandgrowl's superheated claw sets is probably an awful idea.

GS: Seraphita has attacked Sheriff Star with Form Blazing Claws!
GS: Seraphita has completed her action.
DC: MISS! Sheriff Star completely evades Form Blazing Claws from Seraphita!
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.

There's a satisfying, jarring mutual impact as Hauteclaire's sword collides with the Sado's armor plating, shearing off an impressive amount before the gear is forced to break off contact. Kahm's intuition was correct-the cable-cannon were already bearing down on him-but the Golem is a hair faster than the pilot. The white mecha attempted to bank to the side, but only avoids a direct hit for it's trouble-the focused tribeam pierces one of the four thruster rods the projected from the gear's back in an X-shape, which Kahm detaches from the chassis in a quick-thinking purge command before it can explode (which it does, approximately fifty feet above ground).

That'll be some maneuverability, Kahm thinks, but it's far from enough to take him off the offensive.

Kent's crashing, stomping, nightmare of a gear rolls into the scene just about now, drawing the looks with a show of attention that might be contrary to their operation if it wasn't just as likely to distract the Golem as well. "Is that..." The Captain said, his voice tinged with disbelief as he espied somewhere the original frame of what was once a respectable mass-produce Aveh army gear beneath all of Ribaldy's improvements.

For a brief moment, Kahm is at a loss for words. Then, gruffly, he adds, "Right of salvage, Hauch. Just don't blame me if you two cook to death inside that thing."

Sado's next attack didn't reach him, but the Golem's mysterious invocation of it seemed to strike at the Captain's very soul, sending shudders through his person in a way that evoked the same suspicion he'd nursed when the ancient machine had recognized him. "This presence....is it alive?" He wonders aloud, more taken aback by this than it's demonstrated ability to leap.

"Lieutenant Voss, we're going to need some cover in case that thing has any more unexpected tactics." Kahm orders, drawing a bead on the golem from afar as it engages the Grandgrowl and channeling all the focused ire he could muster through the ether engine.

Hauteclaire lifted the cannon mounted on it's right arm, the barrel glowing with a blue aura of crackling power before it unleashed a concentrated beam of ether energy at Sado's center, piercing through the air like a line of fire.

GS: Kahm Yugh has attacked Sheriff Star with Anemo Beam!
GS: Kahm Yugh has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a glancing hit from Kahm Yugh's Anemo Beam for 100 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

And then, out of nowhere--!!

When... did they get their hands on a Gear? Loren thinks distantly as the machine comes charging in.

...And what did they do the repairs off of? That thing -- the Glassman -- looks like it's about ready to fall apart at any moment.

Or explode, which would be a wonderful conclusion to this operation, Loren thinks, his grip on the controls briefly tightening.

The Golem's mouth moves.

Its mouth, Loren processes a second or three later, the realization of this interesting little fact hitting home.

It speaks.

Day and night invert their positions, a rippling wave of darkness swallowing up all light, natural or not. He can't see anything. Systems return an error, communications cut out. Shiehallion banks, pulling up with a skidding swerve that -- unseen, at least by him -- kicks up a veritable tsunami of sand as he wrestles the Gear to a standstill.

And then, blessedly, there comes a scroll of text across all display screens: AUXILLARY POWER SYSTEMS ONLINE

Let there be light?

Of a localized sort, within the dome, that is. "Systems restored -- Ma'am, Captain, it shorted out many of the internal systems but we're back online. I have a read on your positions. Support cover incoming." He pauses, reaching over to touch a series of displays. Ether amplification system: charging. "...Use caution when approaching, friendly fire situations possible."

He'd know about those well, wouldn't he.

He settles back, closing his eyes as he once again allows his will to diffuse, to infiltrate and settle into and through the amplifiers. He can feel their presence already if he focuses -- the Captain, Seraphita, van Houten. With the systems online again, it just means there's that much more precision involved.

Vibrational force -- that's how it looks at first, the great shells that distort their way into being mimicking for a moment the sharp lines of a crystalline form. Briefly, the impression of quartz -- weight, hardness -- grows, before fading with only the sense of foundation left behind. "There."

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Barrier Order!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Kahm Yugh with Barrier Order!
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Seraphita with Barrier Order!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Barrier Order for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Seraphita takes a glancing hit from Loren Voss's Barrier Order for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Seraphita!
GS: Kahm Yugh takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Barrier Order for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Kahm Yugh!
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.

Ribaldy's barely visible ears shrink down and wilt back as the Golem's voice, his human voice, he's Sonic's friend, touch his mouth there's no fur there just real human flesh, powers into the souls of the Johnny-come-lately Ties.

Kent Hauch, however, historically reacts poorly in the face of authority - be it mortal, celestial, or divine. For an instant, as the darkness sweeps over them and dims the lights, he shrinks back, pupils dilating.

Then they contract to pinpricks, a vein sprouting on the side of his head. He clenches his teeth in affronted rage, tobacco puffing out as he rips holes in his handrolled. He kicks at Ribaldy's chair, snarling, "Pull it together. We ain't about to be bloody cowed by anything."

Kent reaches up to his chest, putting his burned hand over his heart, pressing the stone tablet into the old scar on his chest, pulling harder on his anger. "How's th' systems, or summat?"

As the Glassman pushes forward, the already-twitching machine spasms violently, turning at an erratic angle. Flames pop out of its burners spasmodically with staccato snapping sounds. Ribaldy hauls it back around, breathing hard. "Well," he says, "good news is it didn't make anything malfunction that, uh... wasn't already. Main camera scanner's still down and we lost some bodycams, but-"

"Too technical!" Kent roars. "Work on yer bloody short words and spin us around to it! I'll show this bastard what fire does to the fookin' night!" The Glassman jerks its shoulders violently to the left as Ribaldy does what he has to, the momentum of the motion causing metal to rattle as it pulls the Gear back in line, lifting that left arm again.

"P-p-primary charge loaded."

THOOOOMP. The fourth canister is significantly larger than the previous three, dripping a thick fluid from a small crack in its casing. "Don't worry, Yugh," responds Kent. "I can take a little more heat than this."

A burner licks over the Tipple barrel, setting off the drops of fuel clinging to the inside. It recoils sharply, the blue-green flame gout driving it back and almost knocking the Gear over - potentially right in time with the charge impacting Sado with a much larger sphere of flame. Kent laughs uproariously while Ribaldy says soft cusses like 'aw, beans!' as he pounds on the controls. "See?!"

GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Sheriff Star with STM Config-01 Tipple Charge!
GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a glancing hit from Kent Hauch's STM Config-01 Tipple Charge for 268 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Unfortunately for Elly, it seems her record of dodging anti-Gear artillery has come to an end. The sinuous form of Sado rising upwards throws off her estimates and the on-board systems in Vierge aren't much good against artillery fire beyond warning of an incoming barrage.

With a SLAM the Vierge lurches, a significant fraction of its right calf reduced to smoking scraps in the sand as the darkness is thrown forwards. Elly looks towards it, but - a moment of fear is eased somewhat when she can see Grandgrowl moving in it.

And then comes...

THE TIES

"Ah! - Gentlemen!" Elly says, by way of greeting, but there's not a lot more to do than that. She can see they're moving and haven't immediately died, and that's all Elly has time to think about in this moment. A shimmering vibration passes over Vierge as it takes to the sky, trailing its wounded leg, letting it hang in its locked state as other weapons discharge downwards. Vierge's head tilts slightly, to get a better camera angle.

Elly breathes in deep through her teeth. Between fire, flame and explosive, she reasons, 'Sado' must be running quite hot. Her eyes narrow slightly.

Vierge starts emitting Ether after-effects, the echoing radiation of an invocation. What is she invoking? Even Kahm might wonder, because there is no immediate effect.

Because...

... six hundred feet below Sado... there is a layer of sand that has enough water in it that a deep-drilled well would produce a steady trickle, enough to keep a small cluster of villages alive, something that might have once fueled an oasis. Now that water, called by strange forces, rises.

Rises and cools...

Anyway, the point is that in defiance of all laws of nature and science, a forest of vast ice stalagmites suddenly erupts from beneath and around Sado, hopefully fencing it in while subjecting it to a burst of metal-cracking blast chilling!

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Sheriff Star with Aqua Ice!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Aqua Ice for 310 hit points!
GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Sheriff Star!
<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

Sado can, in fact, leap. Grandgrowl is a flash in the darkness, the claws alight with plasma. Sado drops down, like a winged serpent, and slithers low to the ground. It shoots by the Gear, and Seraphita's Gear slams into the sand. The claws burn the sand into glass, glittering with fire in the sudden darkness made by the Golem, as it springs back up a distance away.

Kahm fires the cannon mounted in Hauteclaire's armor -- and the energy blast shreds through part of it, leaving a burnt hole in the armor. Inside, he can see a glistening, crystalline structure on the interior. The insides of a Golem are a strange thing, defying most human notions of how mechanical structures function.

Which everyone gets a fantastic view of. The charge from the Black Ties Gear slams into the Golem, the Tipper barrel exploding just as Kent promised. The blast of fire sends up thick black smoke, painted orange and blue in the night, and armor plates fly back. A crystalline lattice, worked over the insides, undulates and moves.

A wing collapses, slamming into the sand. The wired guns on it stop moving. Sado turns its head, down to look at the Glassman. Then, it looks up.

It shrieks, a soul-wrenching shout that echoes out. Then, a pulse of shadow rips from it. It explodes over the ground, sand flying and hurtling every which way. Where it touches the sand, it burns cracked, webbed patterns of purple into it. The shockwave of energy rips over the entire course of the battlefield.

ROUND: 3/4

GS: Sheriff Star has activated a Force Action!
GS: Sheriff Star has activated a Force Action!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Kent Hauch with Bleak Impulse!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Loren Voss with Bleak Impulse!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Seraphita with Bleak Impulse!
GS: Sheriff Star has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Bleak Impulse!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Sheriff Star's Bleak Impulse for 203 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Kent Hauch guards a hit from Sheriff Star's Bleak Impulse for 217 hit points!
GS: Loren Voss guards a hit from Sheriff Star's Bleak Impulse for 201 hit points!
GS: Seraphita takes a glancing hit from Sheriff Star's Bleak Impulse for 167 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.

It actually took Kahm a few moments to recognize how Elly did what she did-and the implications that she could've detected water that far down, much less draw it up. She's growing at a significant rate. He thought casually, or perhaps this talent was there all along, and she's now letting herself use it...?

At any rate, he could speculate later. Hauteclaire's shot penetrated the Golem and exposed it's interior, which the gear's camera immediately zoomed in one for Kahm to view as a magnified image on his cockpit. "...crystal?" He murmured, finding only esoteric mystery where he had expected conventional wiring and circuitry. "What are these things?"

Perhaps the could compare this data against Barbados later.

Lieutenant Voss's barrier sealed over Hauteclaire with a shimmering incandescence, further augmented by the shielding supplied by Kahm's own force of will. "Appreciated, Lieutenant." He said by way of Loren, covering his ears as the golem's shriek resonated in mind and soul as that curtain of shadow erupted over them, ripping over the landscape and threatening to swallow them all. There was a terrible chill, a psychic drowning of the self that seemed to consume Kahm on all sides, enough to drive a man mad if he didn't know darkness in one form or another already, and cultivated the will to withstand it.

One thing was certain: He couldn't allow the thing to keep inflicting these attacks on the team. There was no telling what else it might do.

"We need to put this creature down, immediately." Kahm emphasized over the radio as the effects of the attack faded, lifting Hauteclaire further into the air and double-tapping the red buttons on his flight stick, "Clear the field when you have a chance."

The flight sticks receded as two smooth 'globes' rose up on either side of the captain, who gripped them directly with his hands and focused, the entire cockpit alive with surging blue light.

Outside, the Hauteclaire spread both arms apart as it's breast armor panels slid open, revealing what seemed like a glittering, dark orb in it's jcenter: A high-capacity ether capacitor, tuned specifically for Kahm's power threshold. The orb suddenly burned blue, warning with a high-pitched whine before it erupted in a pillar of energy that (from Kahm's view, at least) outshone the sun and tore through space like a fist through paper. That last shot seemed like a candle to a firestorm by comparison.

GS: Kahm Yugh has attacked Sheriff Star with Hi-Anemo Cannon!
GS: Kahm Yugh has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a solid hit from Kahm Yugh's Hi-Anemo Cannon for 396 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.

"It's so fast!" Seraphita observes - or perhaps, complains? It could be both. She's not one to hide when she thinks an opponent is being awesome, nor one to hide when she's getting bummed out by it! "C'mon Grandmeow, you can do it! Chase the red dot!!! CHASE IIIIT!"

Like a cat chasing a laser pointer, Grandgrow attempts to keep on the Golem's toes as it keeps springing away, and away. Seraphita can't manage it, but it probably looks very funny. At least, until the Golem counterattacks. Darkness rips through the area and knocks Seraphita's Gear back, and she rattles around her cockpit (what are belt buckles?!) like a ragdoll. Many lights flare up bright red and yellow, and the status screen reads ominously.

Seraphita gets back into her seat and reaches for a few switches to the side. Grandgrowl's thrusters spark despite damage, and it rights itself, coated in a shimmer of red. The flames gushing out of the wings seem fiercer than ever. "I don't think it's gonna surrender, guys!! We'll just have to knock it out and force-feed it, then!" Well, just like Kahm said. It needs to go down now, not later.

----- GRANDGROWL -----

Integrity: 1998/4000

Fuel: 1720/2000

Booster > ON

Power Output > 100

Hyper Mode > 0%

Armor Loss > 35%

AGL Level > 20

Warning! Booster is ON. Fuel consumption doubled.

The lion stands its ground, opening its maw. Seraphita gives it everthing she has, the temperature in her cockpit rising as she focuses on one task and one task only: insert Fire Ether into Gear. It shows, given the hellish glow coming from Grandgrowl's open mouth.

"Thermo BEEEEEAAAMMM!" Seraphita screams, slamming a hand down onto a big RED BUTTON the moment it starts flashing. On-cue, the Gear lets out a shining red, yellow, orange and white beam of fire and plasma, eating through fuel reserves to amplify the Ether that much more.

GS: Seraphita has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraphita has attacked Sheriff Star with Thermo BEEEEEAAAMMM!!
GS: Seraphita has completed her action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a solid hit from Seraphita's Thermo BEEEEEAAAMMM! for 364 hit points!
GS: Break! Statuses applied to Sheriff Star!
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.

Ribaldy tilts his head, watching the Grandgrowl go for it. "I haven't seen that one before. That's a lot of fire."

"Jus' means they 'ave good taste," Kent growls, still stressed. "No fookin' aim, though. Can't hit the broadside of a wossname." Pause. "This blue light means what again?"

"Oh, that means the radio's broad... casting."

The two men glance at each other. Before they can dig the hole any deeper, the darkness slams into them. The Glassman writhes again, staying up, staying turning, but its micromovements go absolutely buckwild. Again, though, the machine avoids being crippled by sheer fact that it's already halfway there, though armor plates explode off of it, scattering behind it.

However... the Beastman pounds down on his part of the controls. "Crap! Crap! Body cams are out!"

"So get the fookin' Main workin'! I saw some kinda bloody flesh on that god damn thing and I wanna see if it BURNS!"

"Trying but I mean I had like a week to rig it up and didn't have my good wire stripper and Samuelh fell asleep in the port before I got everything plugged in and I think he greased it up and ugh come on COME ON"

Ribaldy's muscles tense, the buttons on his vest bursting as he gets frustrated and slams both fists down on the computer console he's struggling to manage. Keyboard keys pop off and ping around the cockpit. All of the burners fire a puff at once and the nitro unexpectedly activates. The black pit torn into the front of the Glassman Trooper's face flickers once.

A blood red light glows into being at its center, moving left, right, up, and down as it calibrates before focusing on Sado, a crosshair and a ring visibly tracking it from the outside.

"Got i-- I got it! But I can't turn the skates off!"

"Just keep me STEADY!"

The viewscreen in front of Kent and Ribaldy finally flashes on, illuminating the unnaturally dim darkness the Sado has put them in, presenting them with a very glossy jpeg of the screaming Golem. With a predatory instinct, Kent leans forward, eyeing that patch of exposed lattice as he drives in after it.

"Arming RBY Flamethrower Gauntlet." "Give 'er the juice." "You sure?" "Fook 'em."

The machine's right hand clenches into a fist. Of all the adjustments done to the Sand Trooper, the right hand looks the most dramatic. Its entire forearm has been mounted with a big ugly bracer, hoses spiralling around it with eight long flamethrower barrels mounted to it - an experimental design too big and dangerous for any Black Tie to be both powerful and stupid enough to use (except MAYBE the Todds, watch this space). Steam hisses out as the bracer expands, pilot lights clicking on.

"---THE LEFT! BOSS, BRACE!"

The Thermo Beam hammers in unexpectedly, crossing the erratic path of the Glassman. Seraphita can't really be blamed - the scrap Gear's movement is violently unpredictable, weathering all of the Golem's bizarre storms. Ribaldy simply throws it forward, barely passing under it, metal on its back melting and dripping.

Kent's face turns into a kind of mad rictus. He tends to stay off the front lines out of pragmatism, but he is no coward. Reaching out to touch death like this is a rare thrill.

Ribaldy calls out in alarm as Kent punches the Glassman's arm out mid-fall, aiming for the exposed crystal lattice, fire billowing outward in an enormous Gear-sized wave - and then he clicks the Tipple, and the flame turns, for an instant, into a blue-green spear with an accompanying flash of blinding light. It hurls them away, metal flying everywhere as it bounces and rolls across the sand, warnings exploding around their monitors.

GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Sheriff Star with RBY Flamethrower Gauntlet - Nitro!
GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star guards a hit from Kent Hauch's RBY Flamethrower Gauntlet - Nitro for 174 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Sheriff Star!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

As Vierge is caught up in that horrid shriek, some part of Elly thinks: We're really hurting it, aren't we!

Any amplifications are cut off because of that shrieking quasi-nuclear explosive wave of raw shattering force that swats Vierge out of the sky and, thankfully, into the sand, where it hits and is shoved into a roll; the Gear is tough, it's made to go through things like this, but the banging and tumbling in the cockpit, the gritty static discharge that makes the screens flicker, all of these put turmoil in Elly's gut.

The rolling stops.

Seraphita speaks. She's not dead! She doesn't even sound in pain. That's encouraging to Elly. Vierge sits upright, and makes it halfway to its feet before she realizes from her readouts that Seraphita put the Booster on. SERAPHITA.

A cold feeling runs up the spine of Elly as she keeps Vierge where it is. Vierge has two main advantages, and one of them, revealed here, might be rather bad, all things considered. There are no doubt Kislevi forces observing Sado.

So Elly goes for the other one.

Her eyes focus and she breathes out. Seraphita's beam shrieks forwards and Elly steers Vierge's hand up, as if to take aim through her outstretched fingers. And then she reaches for that same technique that the Metal Demon general met.

The 'cube' that Elly wills to become as hot as something can possibly be is more like 80cm by 80cm rather than one square centimeter. It isn't quite a white hot room, but the explosive quasi-stellar plasma eruption is pretty emphatic, especially when a nearby ice stalagmite flashes directly to steam.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Sheriff Star with Thermo Cube!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: Sheriff Star guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Cube for 208 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

He reopens his eyes, exhaling out a breath as he reasserts his command over the controls. There, it took.

"Moving to left rear backup position; Sado is to my right."

He can't stand around here. As fire and force is laid into the Golem from various points around him, Loren urges Schiehallion back into motion, leveling into a steady drive in an arc around the Golem towards the left side, angling for that single point in the field he'd named. The darkness has maintained; any accidents are likely terminal ones, he considers grimly.

Schiehallion slows, again skidding to a stop. "Point acquired; I can see your current positions from here," he announces, left hand reaching over within the confines of the cockpit to re-engage ARM targeting systems. Now, to hope they understand the subtext of that statement and remember that he's here...

Cannonfire briefly illuminates the field.

Loren had been under the assumption that Golems -- more or less highly advanced semi-mobile weapons with a crude AI routine -- were ultimately in structure not dissimilar to modern-day war machines such as Gears.

Looking into the guts of the Golem Sado -- such that they are -- as parts of the internal workings glint and squirm in the artificial and firelight, he's realized he's in error. "What in the world..."

There isn't time to gawk. There isn't much time to do anything except hurriedly engage enhanced shielding protocols -- gritting his teeth against the soul-rending sound -- as the Golem tips its head up and shrieks into the abyss around them. Sand rises up in waves that would drown and bury for eternity anyone unfortunate enough to be caught on foot in the midst of this fight, Schiehallion shoved backwards several sharls, glowing defensive shielding and all. Which flicker, light coursing through them spasmodically, and cut out. Smoke hisses forth, barely visible in what little lighting.

Within the cockpit, there are far too many yellow lights, interspersed with some red. "...All enhanced shielding is lost. Damage to ablative is..." He pauses, skimming the damage report. Well. That's bad. "...Nevermind."

Why even bother at this point?

Put it down and clear out. His gaze skims over the fuel readouts, the various flashing alerts of interity failures and Loren nods, if only to himself as he makes a few quick mental calculations.

"...Understood."

Despite its armor (or because of its armoring), Schiehallion isn't equipped for close combat; it's a ranged support unit. This is fine, particularly right now. The last attack has left the medic and his Gear somewhere back and to the left of the madded Golem. "Diverting power to main cannon and engaging guided targeting." Somewhere in the depths of the Gear, several key elements unlock. Fuel and systems resources are diverted.

All he has to go on in his sights are a few of the flash fires illuminating Golem as the cannon mounted on Schiehallion's shoulder charges. But with guidances in place...

Laser fire erupts from the cannon's mouth, briefly carving a circular hole through the dome of darkness as it speeds forth.

GS: Loren Voss has attacked Sheriff Star with Albion Cannon!
GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
GS: Sheriff Star takes a glancing hit from Loren Voss's Albion Cannon for 106 hit points!
GS: Sheriff Star enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Sheriff Star has posed.

A short time after the shockwave, shards of ice come ripping up from the ground. They slash and shred into the underside. The underbelly plates are no softer than the back plates -- but the ice spears still rip into and pop some off, leaving it scarred. And, yet, it still stands.

But those ice spikes help catch it in place. They hold it there, for one critical moment.

The beam of energy from Hauteclaire slams into the Golem's side. Damaged armor peels and burns away. The Golem Sado shakes violently, yet still stands, but the Black Tie Gear comes rushing in -- hurtling over the space where the sand was turned to glass by Kahm's beam -- and then jukes away from Seraphita's beam. The Tipple slams into exposed crystal, and it explodes into the lattice. There is a view of it shattering, pieces chipped off and breaking, as the blue-green fire turns into a colossal explosion.

And another, when the ultrahot thermocube appears. The ice stalagmite nearby burns away. Metal superheats; the more mundane metal plates superheat then melt away, in rivers of red hot streaming liquid. The crystal there flashes -- and suddenly balloons outward, expanding its surface area to spread heat across it. Elw technology, man.

Because more of that crystal suddenly balloons outward, ias if directed. Sado's form shifts in a way utterly unlike human engineering: a cyst of green-blue crystal explodes out to meet Schiehallion's laser fire. The crystal shifts, refracts, and disperes a portion of the energy beam across it. Almost as if, after being struck several times, it learned how to contend with that blast.

And, finally, the full wrath of the Thermo Beam comes downward. The multicolored beam slams into Sado, and it can't relocate more crystal. It punches into, and through, the chest of the Golem. The Black Ties may find themselves caught in the shockwave, as Sado lists forward, a gaping hole torn through it. It opens its mouth. It shrieks.

And then it dives down. The serpent-like golem slashes into the sand, wiggling into it, and vanishes. As daylight returns, it shines down onto a field strewn with shattered crystal, a broken wing, and an arm -- hurled off by the blast. Suffice to say, Sado will not take the field again for a good long while.

ROUND: 4/4

MISSION SUCCESSFUL!

<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.

The Golem takes quite the beating... but then, it retreats.

Grandgrowl hunches down, butt in the air. Its rear half wiggles and wriggles hypnotically, left and right, until Seraphita pushes her joysticks forward and the massive, metallic red and white cat POUNCES.

Crashing into the sand where the Golem used to be.

There is no prize in Grandmeow's mouth to show for it.

Seraphita pouts. "Awwwww, we failed..."

Oh no, she sounds... she sounds sad?! Is she going to cry?

<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.

"No, it wasn't a failure." Kahm's voice coincides with Hauteclaire's appearance near Grandgrowl is it came down from the sky, hovering (albeit a bit shakily) over the ground. "Sado took a beating-Kislev likely won't be able to field it again for a while, which will give Aveh's forces critical time to shore up their defenses. Moreover, I highly doubt they have any ability to repair it."

Kahm eyed the remains the golem had left behind: A wing, an arm, and a whole litany of shouted crystals.

Now came the inglorious part. "All of this needs to be collected. Hauch, you help too-I don't want any of these objects lying around for some wandering digger to find."

That crystal in particular was of interest to the captain. The way the Sado had manipulated it to adapt to and defend against attacks was yet another unexpected development...and he had a feeling there would more of those in the coming days.

<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.

The light in the Glassman's cockpit is flickering again. The machine has come to rest on its back, several hoses busted, leaking clear fuel into the sand around it. Kent Hauch is wedged into a corner of the cockpit, blood trickling down from his forehead, getting into his eye. He can only move one arm.

He grunts painfully as he wedges his hand into his coat, pulling out another cigar, clamping it in his teeth. He then fishes out his arc lighter, sparking it up.

Ribaldy wore his seatbelt. He's fine, if hanging at an odd angle. "One skate broke."

"Yeop."

"Losing most of our flame fuel. Valve cutoff isn't responding."

"Whatever that means."

"Central wire in the bottom half's disconnected. Have to get in there to move our legs again."

"Heh, enjoy that wiffout Samuelh to bend in there."

"You don't seem to be, uh... taking this real seriously, Boss."

The Glassman is still broadcasting. The impact cleared the image up, and so the whole thing is broadcasting out clearly. Kent waggles his cigar at Ribaldy, grinning. "Oh, I'm real bloody serious. Nothin's relaxin' like spittin' in the face of God, trust me on that."

The Beastman sighs, undoing his seatbelt and dropping down painfully. He reaches up and pulls himself into camera view. "Yes sir," he responds to Kahm. "Of course, sir. Just have to, uh... de-break the RBY-BT-01 "Glassman" Trooper."

A few minutes later, he pops out of the cockpit. These -Lambs- don't even wear normal suits.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Vierge, helpfully, was out of the shockwave - or at least that final burst. The Gear is battered but operational, and soon enough it boost-hops its way towards the smoking glazed battlefield sector, the fast-melting ice stalagmites gently tottering over to land in the sand.

Which produces a minor sandquake but such is life.

"Understood. I'll sweep the area and send location markers," Elly answers Kahm crisply.

Then Vierge goes 'fwush!' and floats in the sky.

"That machine's very innovative," she says in clear, apparently meanining the Glassman - no; the RBY-BT-01 "Glassman" Trooper. "I didn't know that your group had such advanced technologists...!"

Elly then keys to answer Seraphita, for reasons she can't quite put her finger on. "That was astonishing too. But perhaps we should, um, catch up somewhere else. You're alright?" A beat. "Have you spoken to Kelvena recently...?"

<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.

Kent starts trying to free himself from where he's wedged. Ribaldy, fortunately, is too busy plunged up to the waist in the Gear's waist to hear Elly and blush furiously. "Hah! The kid's been wantin' a robot for years. Carried the plans with 'im everywhere, just in case. Past that iss all just muscle, an' we got plenty of that."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

The darkness fades. Sado retreats.

Loren exhales a breath, grip loosening on the controls. He had been anticipating having to perform evasive maneuvers -- always an uncertain thing in this Gear, given its slow acceleration -- but...

"...The Captain's right, it will be some time before they can use it again. If they can use it again." He huffs out a sound that might halfway be a laugh, a little bit of the adrenaline build up from the engagement finding its way out. "There was a possibility they might have used it in a surprise attack, on the Seed Cities perhaps, or maybe the capitol itself..."

Not much chance of that now.

His gaze flickers down again to the various systems reports; power levels returning to normal operations following use of the cannon, but that changed little regarding the absolutely stunning array of system alerts still populating just about every screen he cares to look at.

"Do we need a support team deployed?"

<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.

Kent finally pops free, grinning. "Arright, better shut this thing down before Ribaldy hits a bad wire, innit." He leans forward awkwardly, squinting down at the Beastman's console before hitting a button. The video feed cuts off.

Kent glances up at the blue light.

He twists, slamming his fist into the side of his cockpit, blood spurting from a split knuckle. "Rat BASTARD machine thing," he snarls. "On a FUCKING pedestal. Tryin' to put ME into darkness."

He wipes at his forehead and shoves his hand back into his shirt, pressing on the stone tablet he's tied above the flame-shaped burn scar over his heart. He leans down, bracing himself, sweating and shaking with mixed, mad emotions, listening for Ribaldy's return as he takes a moment in pure isolation to just let it out.

"Yeah. Use it again, you bastards. Next time I see that thing I'll eat its god damned heart."

<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.

"Huh...?" Not a failure?

Seraphita bounces back, just like that. ... so does Grandgrowl. It pounces back up, wags its tail a lot. It looks like a happy kitty right now, if you ignore the smoking wing and numerous gashes and scorches. It's also still glowing red and burning fuel like mad every turn it takes.

Seraphita remembers to turn the boosters back off.

"Oh, I'll help, I'll help!" she says, and Grandgrowl bends down to grab a large piece of scrap in its mouth. It wanders over towards Kahm's Gear, and drops it there. Is it a dog, or a cat...? "See, see! We don't need hands to pick up stuff!"

M... maybe find someone better suited to gathering sensitive scrap, if you don't want all of it to have teeth mark in it on top of battle damage. Luckily, Elly distracts Seraphita, and she's all too happy to answer. "Huh-uh! She's on another ~secret~ ~mission~ or something like that right now!! Oh yeah!!! She said to say hi to yooou!" A slight pause. "I asked Dominia if she wanted to say hi and she said 'HMPH!'. But not like, hmph, she was like, HMPH!!! and crossed her arms and looked away from me."

Seraphita mimics this in her cockpit.

She forgets no one can see her because she forgot to turn on the cameras in there for dramatic mugshot purposes.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Really? You've been planning ahead," Elly answers Kent, before the search and ... 'steal' proceeds, and Seraphita starts to bubble up with News she can Use.

Or, in some cases, 'news that reinforces the dreadfully expected.'

"... oh..." Elly replies to Seraphita, at her update from Dominia.

You can hear her head drooping forwards sorrowfully.

<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.

"Don't worry, she's always like that! This one time, I was like, hey Dominia, I have TOO MUCH ICE CREEEEAAAAAM! and she was like, hmph!!, and then left the room, so I just ate all the ice cream and got a brain owie." Seraphita gets those a lot. She still hasn't grasped why.

"Oh, oh! This other time, I was like, hey Dominia, hey, hey, you wanna play hide and seek, I'll count, you can hide first! and she went HMPH! and went to hide, and I never found her until the next morning when she got out of bed." She didn't process that as Dominia wandering off and not playing.

A side-glance towards Kent's machine, which Grandgrowl mimics. Seraphita asks Elly: "Why is the angry mister saying bad words?"

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"He's had a difficult life," is Elly's answer.