2018-09-29: The War-Giant
- Log: The War-Giant
- Cast: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir, Zed, Mihaya, Fei Fong Wong, Catenna, The Watcher, Layna Manydays, Rudy Roughnight, Ida Everstead-Rey, Loren Voss, Kahran Ramses, Gwen Whitlock, Yarobeleedt
- Where: Gunsmoke Desert
- Date: September 29th, 2018
- Summary: Hearing reports of a large machine approaching November City destructively, Gear-riding Drifters arrive on the scene to apprehend it. Of course, things can never be that easy, as agents of Solaris arrive with their own goals in mind...
============================<* Gunsmoke Desert *>============================= The Gunsmoke Desert occupies the northwestern portion of Ignas. This desert is different from Aveh's. Instead of rolling dunes of sand, it has dry and cracked ground, and the mountains that rim it also intrude into the interior, forming stunning rock formations that can look as beautiful as they look impossible. The settlements here are hard-pressed to survive, consisting of countless small towns. The lucky few are connected by railways to the Seed Cities scattered about the Gunsmoke. Many are lost to the sands, which cover them and a tremendous concentration of ruins from Filgaia's past. This makes these badlands the heart of Drifter activity in Ignas. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z_CxmE0AkA
DC: You switch forms to VALS-4 Corsair! DC: Layna Manydays switches forms to VALS-4 Corsair! DC: Zed switches forms to Manic Blade Master Zed! DC: Monster Mash switches forms to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir! DC: Fei Fong Wong switches forms to Weltall!
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
The wastes of the Badlands are no stranger to creatures making their presence known. Through scent, sound, sight, or sheer numbers, the barren lands are an eternal battleground for sustenance - for man, and for nature. Scarce few settlements can withstand the conditions. November City is one such location blessed with access to food and water that can support significant numbers. Looking from the outside in, one may think them a herd that is cowering together to stay warm, away from the harsh realities that lie beyond the borders.
An echoing, reverberating call fills the twilight air as the sun sets on the day. It sounds nothing like anything they've heard.
A nefarious bunch of outlaws throw themselves at the city's borders, known criminals that they are, all but screaming that they have seen something unthinkable. That call sounds again.
Those few brave to follow it will notice that even the seismic hiccups that denote sandworm presence are completely gone. Even the voracious underground tunnelers have fled.
There are no longer any more brave to go further when a shadow blots out the setting sun. An enormous, bipedal figure whose stature is the only thing that can be likened to any other known living creature flattens a dune underneath a powerful leg. What features that can be seen are alien, possessed of a metallic sheen highlighted by light blue emissions. Its shape is only discernable with the help - however incidental - by the lights of numerous sort of spherical objects with trailing, rope-like protrusions that follow it like a halo.
Those few that make it back put word out by every means available: there is something huge and unthinkable headed towards November City. Some try to call it a Golem like none have ever seen. An emergent Aveh and Kislev clash comes to an abrupt halt as the sightings are confirmed.
By the time the Drifters arrive, there is already wreckage from no less than a dozen Kislevi Gear units - most of them for scouting. The aggressor is a machine at least one magnitude larger than most military grade Gears, turning its head as it finishes discharging a blast from a long, complex-looking ARM into one such Kislevi unit that did not disengage fast enough.
Other lights in its torso intensify arrhythmically. A sense that there is more than one set of eyes peering out from it, but to attempt to anthropmorphize its body language is only as an educated guess. It is truly an alien thing.
It is not far from November City. If it is not stopped here...
Ancient Anti-Golem Weapon
JOTUNN-02 THURDGELMIR
Then November City may find itself a similar fate to Lost July.
DC: Loren Voss switches forms to Gebler Gear Schiehallion!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed has seen this giant before.
Back then, it was incomplete. Or maybe, it's better to say that it was... Damaged? Injured? Whatever the case, it doesn't look like it's in nearly as bad of a state as it had been, before. The parts of its body that had been discarded and replaced with the limbs of salvaged gears seemed to have regrown or-- regenerated, maybe? Did it assimilate the parts of the machines that it had previously used as prosthetic replacements for its own shattered body?
Well.
That doesn't matter much.
All that matters is that it's BIG and it's STOMPY and it's HEADED RIGHT FOR A CITY.
And Zed...
Can't have that.
"Hahahaha, wow, who'd'a thunk that I'd be starin' you down, huh?" Zed asks the empty air as a dry wind blows red, dessicated earth across the wasteland. "Well, that's fine. Fightin' between us kind is normal, right!? As normal as the rising sun! As ordinary as the setting sun! Whatever the case may be, it's just fine by me!"
"I," Zed declares as he rushes down a nearby mesa, his blade flashing in the gleaming twilight. "Zed, the Dark Hero, challenge you to BATTLE, war giant!! You can smash these robots, but I... Am no mere metal man! Here I go...!"
Zed... charges at the colossus' legs. His blade shines as he begins to whirl, spin and slash, a dust devil disguising his strikes...!
But he's a bit small, isn't he? He's a bit too small, isn't he?
Nonsense!
Everyone knows that the LONE ON-FOOT HERO can always fight the GIANT ALIEN MONSTER to a standstill!
...R-right
GS: Zed has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Dark Horse - Supreme Tornado! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Zed's Dark Horse - Supreme Tornado for 26 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Mihaya has posed.
Mihaya has been traveling around recently - there are quite a few people from Azado who were scattered to the four winds when they arrived here on Filgaia, and she has been checking local towns and cities to make sure that no one has been taken to some distant location either unwillingly or through ignorance. There is an effort to reunite everyone back in Riesenlied's new town, and she doesn't want anyone to be left out who might otherwise wish to be reunited with their surviving friends and loved ones.
This of course leads to her being in the area when the massive Gear slash robot thing arises from somewhere in the desert, walking towards the city of November with what appears to be clear menace in its steps. And for the moment, it appears that there is only one... particularly crazy swordsman who is trying to stop the thing? Clearly more help is coming, but this metal monster seems unusually tough. And Mihaya is unwilling to allow it to just casually hurt other people.
And so the elf takes steps to assist, and try to keep the robot from moving forward.
Mihaya raises her staff in front of her, closing her eyes for a moment as she concentrates on the connection she had built so long ago on Lunar. She had wondered in Azado if that connection was still there - if her escapades and adventures had changed her and the Fayth had abandoned her as a result. But now she knew differently. As long as she wished to protect others... they would answer.
The crystal mounted at the apex of the elf's staff begins to glow. It begins as a dusty red, before taking on the form of a single twirling candle flame. And by the moment it grows, until it appears that a raging ball of flame alights atop Mihaya's staff, held in check only by her will. She holds it upwards for a moment, her eyes closed as she hums quietly beneath her breath... and then brings the haft of the staff down to the ground.
"Come forth my Aeon!"
The ball of flame tumbles from her staff, landing on the ground at the symbologist's feet with a faint 'poof' of dirt. But within moments the flame expands, racing outwards to carve a circular seal across the ground around Mihaya. Faint lettering and swirling symbols are burned into the stone around her, and then as the last of the flame fades the ground itself seems to surge upwards, the stone being raised from below by a pair of massive, clawed hands.
The beast raising the rock looks much as one might expect a classic demon to appear. Impressively muscled, with ruddy brown skin, a mane of shimmering orange hair and massive curving horns both rising from above its canine head (as well as curling down to guard its face, not to mention the horns coming out of its shoulders), the shimmering aura of heat around the Aeon is enough to cause bits of sand and rock to bounce away in all directions.
With a twisting motion of its arms, it shatters the stone bowl above its head with a single motion, causing Mihaya to fall down into one palm. With a gentle motion, Ifrit brings his summoner to the ground and nods his head at her, while Mihaya gives him a nod of approval. And with that, the Aeon turns and unleashes a massive roar of anger - bounding across the ground towards the massive machine as it approaches the city. As he reaches an appropriate distance, Ifrit gathers himself and leaps into the air - flames shrouding one fist as it brings it around to slam into the torso of the huge, advancing robot.
DC: Mihaya switches forms to Hellfire Aeon Ifrit!
GS: Mihaya has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Burning Fist! GS: Mihaya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mihaya has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Mihaya's Burning Fist for 28 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mihaya has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei, in Weltall, can be seen slightly behind Zed and kind of drawn in a simplified design style with a large sweatdrop coming down its head. How does anyone get to be so confident, he can't help but wonder to himself as he leans back against his chair. Weltall's head stares straight ahead but Fei uses the external speaks to say, "You holding on okay there?" Fei asks. "I'm uh assuming you are using your gravity powers to hang on because Weltall can't uh... it moves around a lot." Like it will in fact do a giant robot back flip in some cases. "I wouldn't want to send you flying and--"
Fei blinks as a demon from hell is summoned. He blinks at it a few times through the view screen.
"--And hurting you accidentally, but I'll try to protect you from attacks I can see."
A lone on foot hero can probably always fight the giant alien monster, sure, but he's not sure this construct is actually alien and also he isn't fighting alone so really Zed isn't having any of these trope advantages if you think about it.
Nevertheless, Fei runs forward and tries to jump kick the anti..golem...golem?
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Oh Shit It's Weltall! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Oh Shit It's Weltall for 60 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna has no Gear; she doesn't think much of the idea of hiding herself from nature behind an abominable construct of cold steel and mechanical gizmos. She just hitched a ride with someone when word got out of some hideous thing rampaging through the countryside; Fei happened to be handy, as Fei-type critters often are.
The wind of the Gear's passage billows against the ankle-length skirts of Catenna's blue and silver dress and pushes her hair back in a wavy black stream. She didn't bring a sword - just a long wooden staff for support. It'll have to be enough. Hopefully it will.
At the sight of that colossal mechanical beast up ahead - a Gear, she reminds herself to call it - she vaguely doubts that it will.
"Thank you for the ride," she calls over the travel sound, patting Weltall on the side of the head.
Then she pauses, tilting her head as Mihaya calls forth a demon. She...
...smiles. "So Lunar does have Guardian spirits," she murmurs.
For now, Catenna continues to ride on Fei. It's a rough ride as he charges; she steps back, prepared to leap off if she must, but she levels a hand and chants a few words, belting off a spell. The air around the monstrous anti-Golem machine warps and grows heavier as gravity multiplies.
The fun thing about gravity is that the bigger you are, the more effect it has. The Golem may find itself growing heavier and heavier....
GS: Catenna has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Grav! GS: Catenna has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> The Watcher has posed.
NOT LONG AGO:
"...Ren," a woman with blue hair comments from abrubtly behind the young medic. "We have a mission. ...Technically optional for you, of course, since you're on leave..."
The one-eyed woman smiles, a gleam in that blue eye. "But I think you'll enjoy this chance."
NOW:
Gigantic, terrifying; the unthinkable monster moves towards November City, amidst the wreckage of the Gears. Its strange lights gleam, its bizarre weapons...
And over a radio just to one Loren Voss, a modulated voice crackles in his speakers. "SLIDE-1 is on the scene. Observe but do not engage if possible." To the rest of the group, however--the voice comes shortly after. Crackling over speakers on a sudden frequency, a robotic-sounding voice echoes:
"Support incoming. Surface Gears, my designation is Simurgh."
Leah grins within her Gear, which, as one looks--is quadrupedal, bronze in form, dog-headed with brilliant blue-patina wings supporting it, cannons in its clawed 'paws'.
"Laying down suppressing fire."
The robotic voice crackles loudly enough for those on foot to possibly hear it, as Simurgh puts forth two limbs; from them erupt suddenly gigantic artillery shells, sailing straight towards the center of the same creature and exploding in a deafening roar.
"Target engaged."
DC: The Watcher switches forms to Support Gear Simurgh!
GS: The Watcher has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Materiel Fracture! GS: The Watcher has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Two Gears move at high speeds through the desert - one a bulky machine painted in red and gold and bearing a massive anchor on its back, and the other one slimmer and painted with flames. A certain pirate captain had received word of something approaching November City. Something big, powerful, and...
...Familiar.
She had wanted to tangle with it in something closer to its size ever since she had first laid eyes on it, and now that she had some warning, her Gear is deployed. And of course her Lead Artillerist wasn't going to let her go alone.
Soon, it arrives on the sensors. A wide grin spreads on Layna's face.
"You've had a little work done, aye? Good, good. Let's see what you're capable of now!" Layna says with a shout.
Over the radio, she hears whining.
"Captain, why do you always get the good fights?" The pilot of the other Gear, Victoria, huffs. Layna laughs.
"Captain's perogative, Victoria!" She replies. "'Sides, someone's got to make sure it doesn't get too close to the city. Just get yourself set up and ready to move if it tries to push past us!"
In response, a sigh comes over the radio.
"Fiiine." At this, the flame-painted Gear starts to break away, heading toward November City. Layna, meanwhile, continues at high speeds toward the massive ancient weapon, delivering a punch toward its mid-section!
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with A Pirate's Hello! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Catenna's Grav for 122 hit points! GS: ! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
"Huh?"
Rudy Roughnight lifts his head, looking up from his card game. The Adlehyde jar lies a little fuller than before, beginner's luck seemingly paying off for the fine people of Adlehyde. But like most things in Roughnight's life, it all goes wrong so swiftly as talk of a giant beast is heard and other giant beasts are ready to come out and fight.
"Huh" is all the boy offers in response as he slowly gets up. "You have one of those giant robot things?" bartender inquires.
Rudy shakes his head.
"...And you're going to fight."
Rudy nods.
"Pay for the cream soda tab now."
After fishing out some gella, Roughnight is soon running toward the battle, calmly loading his ARM and making sure that it's combat ready. Once he gets into range, a simple shot goes out, aimed for a sensitive area of the machine. It might not be much with everything that is going on, but it's something. It's likely a good thing that Jack or Cecilia isn't here, so the blue haired Drifter can do what he does best: Painfully short sighted decisions made in the hubris of youth while trying to be a hero.
GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Swift Shot! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Rudy Roughnight's Swift Shot for 18 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Rudy Roughnight! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rudy Roughnight has lost 1 Combo!
DC: Kahran Ramses switches forms to Command Gear Wyvern!
GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from The Watcher's Materiel Fracture for 57 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Watcher has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Death strides steadily towards November City. On the outskirts, a young woman rushes towards one of the warehouses near the rail depot--several armed guards stand outside, but none of them stop her. She ducks into an open door, and finds herself inside the massive building--on the inside, it's not so much a warehouse as a hangar. A massive machine stands in the very center, and the hums and whines of hydraulics fill the air as its crew retracts the mechanized scaffolding surrounding it. A rope ladder dangles from the small of the giant's back, leading to the open cockpit block. A man with an eyepatch and long, dark hair converses with a woman in a jumpsuit--the lead mechanic.
"Well, we were looking to do some testing," says the man with the eyepatch. One hand rests on a ladder rung. "I'll bring you back some data, how's--"
"Jimmy!" Ida Everstead-Rey is interrupting, but if the horrible howling moans echoing across the plains are any indication, there's no time to waste. "What's--" She looks up at the Gear that was once her machine, now barely-recognizable as the Aveh Trooper it once was. It looks magnificent, but there's no time to appreciate it.
"Ida!" Jimmy Shen Long's eye widens, and his friendly smile is strained. "This is a bad time. You need to get out of here. I'm taking your old man's weapon out there and I'm going to see if it can put a dent in that thing before it wipes this city off the map." Something twists in Ida's chest. "Okay? I know you piloted this in the past, but your father wants you safe, and it's my job to keep you safe."
Ida's jaw tightens. Jimmy isn't telling her the whole story, it seems, but she can put the pieces together. Father is terribly worried, he needs someone to test that weapon if it's going to be of any use against the Demons, Jimmy is someone he trusts with his life, and the lives of his family.
"Jimmy," Ida says. The mechanic backs off--this is way above her pay grade. "I know what that monster is. It's a Demon war machine, and it has awakened because their Mother has." Ida looks up, meets Jimmy's gaze. Her guts are tying themselves in knots, but there is steel in her eyes nevertheless. "I took this machine against Sado, an Elw Golem. I know how to handle myself." There's a standoff. She can feel Jimmy gauging her, trying to see if the fear and uncertainty is still there. There's silence, but for the howls of the distant monster.
"All right, kid," says Jimmy. He passes the pilot's helmet to Ida. "Go get 'em. And don't make me have to tell your old man his precious girl got killed by the demons."
NOW
A Gear strides across the sands outside November. Its frame is all blues and golds and blacks, and its armor is angular, striking a balance between mobility and protection. On its back, the Trooper's old rifle rack has been converted into a housing that holds a massive cannon, its barrel half strange, patina-coated coil. Metal Dragon components?
The Gear takes to the air, jumpjets firing with a booming roar. It rushes up at Thrudgelmir, its right arm drawing back and then rushing forwards in a punch as it comes in for a landing. The Gear lands with a sound like a mountain falling. In its cockpit, Ida smiles behind the face-concealing black helmet.
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Command Gear Dust Dragoon!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Gear Knuckle! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Layna Manydays's A Pirate's Hello for 45 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Gear Knuckle for 138 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
EARLIER
He'd nearly jumped when she'd addressed him. Any protests soon die on the vine, silence taking over as she explained things quite thoroughly to him.
'Technically optional'. Sure. Maybe she's being honest about it, but he can't afford the inverse.
"...Understood. What's the situation, ma'am?"
NOW
The heavy Gear comes in from the left, hanging low and to the back of the Simurgh; sturdy Schiehallion might be, but the Gear simply isn't equipped for close quarters combat, particularly against a thing of unknown origin and strength. "I have it on my screen now, Watcher," he reports back over private frequency, his gaze skimming the data readouts coming in. "Initiating data capture of unknown entity. Command will want to know what it is. It might be related to Sado."
He exhales a breath. "...Looks like SLIDE-1's not the only one of them here."
And to the outside world, a Gear that might be recognizable to some announces:
"Schiehallion, reporting. Hostilities against us will be met in kind."
Might as well cut off any possible problems at the pass... and if they're still so inclined, well.
"Incoming support," he announces more privately across channel to The Watcher, and in the next moment routing his will through the ether circuitry.
For a moment crystalline-walled light cascades around the Simurgh, only to then fade.
"Assuming defensive position."
He's got data to capture. And support to conduct.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked The Watcher with Barrier Element! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: The Watcher takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Barrier Element for 0 hit points! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to The Watcher!
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
And then, when things cannot get any worse, they do. Twin streaks of golden and purple light flare high in the sky, using gravity to speed their descent. The acceleration presses Kahran Ramses against the seat of his cockpit, tendons straining in his neck and shoulders as he wrestles with the controls to keep his speeding machine on target. The Gebler commander's fingers tense on the control yokes as he reaches the outer limits of his sensor range, allowing him to sweep the battlefield with his steely gaze. His eyes pass over the War Giant, pass over the scattered defenders, pass even over the signals of his subordinates. They search, for something.
And then he spots it - an obsidian spire against the desert tan. The cockpit's screens magnify the visual, and a low thrum of excitement passes through Ramses' chest. He hasn't felt this excited since... He smiles and clicks the communicator, opening his mouth. "Don't---
"---interfere," the Vierge's pilot says pre-emptively, opening a channel to her pale-haired superior. Ramses offers her a fierce answering grin, then closes the connection. She's said she needs to say; she knows how important this is. She knows.
A dozen yards of steel glint on golden sunlight as the command Gear's wings flare, boosters activating. The sudden surge presses the pilot even further into his chair, until his bones fairly creak from the pressure. Iron will and cords of flesh keep the point on target, and Weltall's pilot gets a fraction of a second to react.
'WARNING' 'WARNING' 'WARNING' 'WARNING' 'WARNING'
HIGH ENERGY SIGNATURES APPROACHING
'WARNING' 'WARNING' 'WARNING' 'WARNING' 'WARNING'
"Kahran Ramses, Command Gear Wyvern!" the head of Gebler roars as golden light collides with night's fury. "Arriving!"
GS: Kahran Ramses has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Boosted Slash! GS: Kahran Ramses has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
Zed's eyes do not deceive him. Many of the distinctive features noted by intrepid scientists that lived to tell the tale are not as applicable to its present appearance. What was once a mass of barely-functional, improvised parts has given way to a more cohesive form. Its posture is aggressive, a hunch with a forward lean as Zed comes rushing at it with his sword drawn. The Dark Hero advances heedless through the cloud of dust--
A foot stomps down. Displaced sand sprays everywhere, obscuring Zed's presence. Could the Dark Hero have met an ignoble, sudden end?
Lights shift as a great horned beast wreathed in flame appears, their form distorted by the haze in their wake. Its ARM sweeps out in a great backhanded motion to deflect the creature. A shockwave of heat washes out from where Aeon fist meets mysterious construct. It slides against the dunes, but does not lose its footing.
The other lights, of the spherical floating constructs with ropey protrusions, disengage from its protective cloud. An offense is not immediate. There is a sense that it is observing what this horned creature of flame is for all of three seconds before the air is filled with the scent of ozone - lasers discharge.
Weltall and Catenna join the battle in tandem. The black Gear of infamy presses the attack where Ifrit starts with a leaping kick, though it is partially deflected by the construct's shoulder. It sweeps outwards, threatening Gear and its hitchhiker both--
Only to find that its attacking arm grows too heavy to maintain its horizontal sweep, and it starts coming down vertically upon the machine. Even if Catenna herself doesn't get crushed by it, any impact will be turbulent and threaten to send her tumbling to an early grave.
The mysterious assistance from Simurgh comes in the form of two gigantic artillery shells that are coming in too fast, at an advantageous angle. One is intercepted in sacrifice by one of the odd drones. An attempt is made by the other, only succeeding at diverting it so that the shell deflects up against a firm shoulder. More yet fly out to cover the machine's flank, firing more beams of light to dissuade it from further aggression.
Struggling with the hieghtened gravity, there is virtue to the more bestial posture the machine has in which to disperse and rebalance the load of its weight so that it doesn't collapse. Metal screams and strains, and its emits another harrowing cry that heightens in pitch towards the end as Layna comes to slug it dead center. Instead, it leans its head up against Layna's own Gear equivalent, shortening its wingspan and thus its ability to strike the unknown machine anywhere sensitive. Lights within shift as it bears down upon them--
The Dust Dragoon breaks this stalemate, and something on its back creaks ominously as the heightened gravity further aggravates the stress on its frame provided by being clocked upside its 'face,' and a light seems to go dark. Defense drones seem to try to bodily ram into the Dust Dragoon to force it back - or to embed themselves prior to discharging deadly laser fire within.
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
Its recoil from collected attacks giving leverage to the gun-arm, a laser focus hums - several of them - as they coalesce into one pulsing shot that rings out across the length of the battlefield towards the Schiehallion as the machine elects to give ground. A machine that once seems intent only on a forward march, adjusting its footing. Is it key to simply throw bodies at it until it backs off...?
There is yet another who dares take to the nearby dunes on foot, whose blue hair and red vest seem to be highlighted by the setting sun behind him - as though he would dare carry the very light of a fading hope behind him. The shot visibly connects, a spark from where the bullet ricochets off the armor. Trifling desperation, one might scoff, but a light somewhere in the weapon's torso seems to shine somewhere in Rudy's direction.
It shines brighter - blindingly so. No weapon is trained upon Rudy. Instead, the machine throws its upper body back and once more emits an ear-splitting roar whose very volume might even send some sensitive instruments into flux as it straightens out and up.
Its extended drones move to return to it, though some take long-winded routes for reasons unclear - perhaps to scout various figures at angles they deem important or necessary. A number, especially, seem interested in the high energy signatures radiating from the oncoming streaks of golden and purple light of the Wyvern.
GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Zed with Expedient Execution! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has activated a Force Action! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Gun-Arm Swipe! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Catenna with Gun-Arm Swipe! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Gun-Arm Swipe for 22 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Kahran Ramses's Boosted Slash for 66 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Kahran Ramses! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked The Watcher with Type-Alg Point Defense Drone! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Type-Alg Point Defense Drone! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Mihaya with Type-Alg Point Defense Drone! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Layna Manydays with Head to Head Showdown! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mihaya guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Type-Alg Point Defense Drone for 96 hit points! GS: The Watcher takes a glancing hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Type-Alg Point Defense Drone for 77 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Loren Voss with Gun-Arm Shooting! GS: Layna Manydays critically Guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Head to Head Showdown for 25 hit points! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Strength-Yeller's Threat Assessment! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Strength-Yeller's Threat Assessment for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Expedient Execution for 120 hit points! GS: Catenna has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Catenna completely evades Gun-Arm Swipe from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir!
GS: Loren Voss guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Gun-Arm Shooting for 90 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Type-Alg Point Defense Drone for 99 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei says, "Don't worry about it, Catenna." Pause. "Are you sure that's a Guardian Spirit? It seems to be stickin' around. Weltall doesn't personally thank Catenna but maybe Weltall is just too bashful to handle compliments well, but after his initial strike, MORE gears show up. He can tell they're from Gebler because they're saying 'Surface Gears' which isn't something either Aveh or Kislev would say. Part of Fei grouses at the concept of working with Solaris --less to do with his deep subconcious instinct and more to do with them always acting sketch as heck when these sorts of things happen--but what is he going to do? Let this thing destroy a city?
Why not?
Aw shuddup, Fei thinks at himself. Catenna could get hurt. Is that new gear showing up also from Gebler? He thought this would be a simple mission but all of a sudden Fei is getting reeeal nervous.
Also Rudy is opening fire with a gun. Fei wonders, for not the first time, if the young drifter is insane. He respects the guy, sure, but he respects a lot of crazy people. He is enjoying his time with the Black Wolves after all.
Weltall raises up an arm sharply to block the heavy strike coming down for its shoulder and, more importantly, Catenna's very squishable body. "Ghkk...you okay there Catenna? We should be okay so long as--"
Suddenly Fei's eyes widen, "Catenna! Watch out!"
Weltall barely gets to turn partway before the Wyvern's blade slams into Weltall, carving up a hefty slice across its sides and pushing it away with enough force that it's knocked off its feet, tumbling across the sand.
Catenna...may have picked the wrong giant robot to ride and Fei can only chide himself for thinking there really was any chance of cooperating with Solaris here. To them, he is the pilot of a stolen machine and...something else. What was it, Ramses had called him? It's hard to think of it now.
Fei checks on Catenna to make sure she didn't uh...get bisected before he stands his gear back up.
Fei flicks on his comms to the Wyvern. "What are you doing!? That beast is going to destroy the city!"
His attempt to communicate doesn't stop him from fighting back, however, as he throws a palm thrust for the wyvern, twists into a round house, and then spins once more into a flying jump kick for the waist of the other gear.
"Is this because I punched Kahm??"
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Kahran Ramses with Reppu! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
More Gears begin to appear. Catenna sets her jaw as she realizes they're no ordinary Gears. So the Sky Visitors have come to play again. Wonderful, she realizes grimly.
All the more wonderful is that Fei is moving in close. "Fei thank you for this butIneedtodisembarkTHANKSVERYMUCH," Catenna says hastily, because it's only polite. With each word, the shadow of that massive arm looms over her.
Until she springs off of Weltall's shoulder, flipping backwards with a long leap. The Moon Shaman's dress and hair stream dramatically as she flips upside down in the air, the arm whistling past her by mere feet. Still too close for comfort.
At the height of her jump, Catenna begins to descend. She does the only thing she can do to keep from squishing herself: She flicks her traveler's staff out.
She's looped something around it. It's her grappling hook. The rope sails through the air - and with a rasp, it catches another Gear. It's Victoria's - Layna's companion. The rope snaps out, and Catenna swings through the air and across the distance until she can come to a rest with her heels against the Gear's calf. From there it's a bit of nimble climbing until she can pull herself up.
"Hello," she says to Victoria, then retrieves her grappling hook and adjusts her dress primly.
Hook in hand, Catenna positions herself on the shoulder of Victoria's Gear. Looking on with a frown, she holds out both hands, but even as she prepares her spell a few thoughts nag at her. "I wonder how it could continue to move about of its own accord... one would think it would wear down with time. Unless someone keeps repairing it."
Thoughts for later. There's a machine to be stopped right now. Chanting softly, Catenna pushes her way through the block between herself and her source of power; even with Celesdue feeling so painfully distant, though, her closeness to the Moon runs deep, and she can muster enough magic to once more cast forth that persistent gravity. The earth cracks slightly around the Thrudgelmir's feet as gravity attempts to burden it enough that even defending itself will become a problem.
GS: Catenna has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Encumber! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Kahran Ramses takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Reppu for 116 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Kahran Ramses!
<Pose Tracker> Mihaya has posed.
Would be the first to tell anyone who asked that there are no Guardians that she knows of on Lunar. The Aeons are something... else.
But no one is asking at this point, and they have an opponent to fight.
What IS surprising are the number of Gears that are showing up to the battle. Not having seen many of these weapons, except for the few that deployed to fight against Sin in Azado, Mihaya isn't entirely sure what to make of them. The ones that had appeared seemed friendly, and they were advanced pieces of Machina... but there was something about the level of coordination that seemed... higher on the part of some of these massive machina than others. The elf resolves to keep an eye on them while they deal with this threat.
One of the close in drones unleashes its attack, the blast slamming into the Aeon and sending it sliding backwards. But while a creature of flesh and blood might have felt considerable pain from such a strike... the Aeon is no such thing, and it shrugs off the attack with a roar and keeps going.
But rather than rushing in to attack like a feral animal, the Aeon leaps to a more advantageous position, just outside of the path of the advancing giant Gear. No physical strike this time - instead the Aeon throws its head back and lets out a massive roar, the shimmering heatwaves surrounding it surging in intensity as it channels the elemental strength that is a part of its nature. There is a surge of magic - and then a ball of flame appears directly in front of the chest of the rampaging Gear. It surges for a moment, seeming to drag in heat from the surrounding air - and then explodes in wave of crushing heat and pressure, right as the Jotunn walks into it!
GS: Mihaya has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Fire 2! GS: Mihaya has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Catenna's Encumber for 0 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir!
<Pose Tracker> The Watcher has posed.
Light cascades around the brilliant, shining Gear that flies above, its coppery form gleaming against the beams that move to intercept it--but diving forward, Simurgh rotates mid-air, rolling to the side as it moves forward, the blasts peppering its surface without slowing it down.
Leah smiles then, within her Gear's cockpit, as the Wyvern arrives. Her single eye gleams at her displays.
On Gebler's combat channel, the Watcher's scrambled voice intones, "Operation continues as planned, Schiehalleion. We have our target."
Yeah Solaris is hella sketchy, no argument there. ...Which is why Leah flicks her eye downward and one of her screens is filled specifically with images of Ifrit and the Aeon's Summoner both.
Her voice echoes to the general vicinity then, as if no one had mentioned violence against them, "Multiple drone signatures noted; suggest attempt to overwhelm with multiple fronts."
Simurgh continues its dive, this time with the sound of gigantic guns roaring forward, automatic fire ripping towards the drones from above as it moves in closer, closer--
GS: The Watcher has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Blast Advance! GS: The Watcher has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
So.
Maybe, just maybe, it was a bad idea for one greenhaired hero to run in on foot to try and kill something several hundred times his size with nothing but a sword.
Maybe.
There might be at least one such world where this logic is flawed.
By the time the devil dog that is Ifrit charges in and turns so much of the battlefield to glass, the mysterious Dark Hero is... Gone. Disappeared in a geyser of sand. Finally, it seems as though his foolishness has caught up with him. But...
Now is the time where we pan to a nearby mesa and find a Zed-shaped hole in the rock, right?!
No. Not quite.
There's movement near the giant's foot. No, not near. Under...! There, a shock of green struggles against the colossus, even as the massive gravitic forces grinds the giant's heel down harder into his chest. Zed chokes back a wet cough as something pops along his ribs. "Khh, you bastard," the metal demon snarls, struggling to right his blade and jab the beast in the foot. "H-has Mother's awakening really driven you mad...? Damnit--" He growls, muscles straining against the impossible weight pressing down on top of him. "I just... need to get free...!"
MEANWHILE
Something twinkles on the horizon. A massive shadow soars over a dustfarmer. A dozen rappigs stare confusedly at their feet. A farmer takes a swig of his moonshine, not quite believing what he's seeing.
RIGHT NOW
"Damnit--" Zed snarls, "Damnit! I--"
Something twinkles on the horizon.
And suddenly, a machine of tremendous size slams an equally enormous sword into the colossal Jotunn.
Its body... Shines red, blue and gold!
Its eyes burn with a thirst for justice!
A voice roars defiance from its chest...!
Specifically, from the lion-face on its chest!!
It's... it's...!
Crouching down, scooping up a handful of desert, and spooning it into its chest. What... Is this thing...!?
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Since when did Rudy get a gear?
That was Gwen's first thought as she coaxed Gulliver and her precious wagon out of the 'safety' of a nearby stable, and happened to spot the young Drifter's bandanna out of the corner of her eye. It's rare that anyone goes *towards* the area of attack of a gigantic huge gear just about to blast everything to kingdom come. Even Gwen knows when it's not a great time to intervene.
But, well, there's Rudy. Making important life choices. He's got a gear, probably. He's- no, he doesn't. He's taking on the damn thing by his lonesome.
Gwen rubs her forehead. "Gulliver, you win. You're stayin' inside the stable. Not like I can outride a gear anyway..."
----
Well, okay, Rudy won't be alone, since there's others about, brave Drifters who are familiar in varying degrees to Gwen as she tries to catch up. "Uh, hey! Rudy!"
He's going to do it, isn't he. He's-
A bullet ricocheting off the giant thing's metal armor gives Gwen all the answer she needs. "Rudy, hey, listen, maybe we should..." Her words are drowned out by Jotunn-02's roar, forcing all sound to seemingly leave the battleground, save for Gwen's own heartbeat and breathing.
... Ah. That must've been her hearing. This'll be fun. Time to make good life decisions.
A second shot rings out from Gwen's own palm. Her mouth is likely saying something like 'oh guardians rudy get out of here what are you doing aughaughaugh my ears, why am I here, this is crazy, what is that thing with the lion's head, why is there some Guardian she's never seen before floating in the sky, what is that other gear, why did I shoot'. Something like that.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
"Tch," Ramses sputters as Wyvern's blade barely grazes Weltall; he kicks in the retro thrusters immediately, causing Wyvern's wings to flare outward, assisting in a rapid deceleration. Sand blasts upward from the force of the counter-thrust, sending a concentric wave of glittering particles scattering across the desert. The golden Gear turns, Ramses raising its blade up to the attack --
Weltall leaps through the sand, whirling around in a tight circle, and the blow crashes into Wyvern's guard, knocking the massive longsword from its grip. Black steel crashes into the golden Gear's side; Ramses rocks with the strike, dropping his Gear's arms down to grip Weltall.
"A beast, you say?" Ramses snaps, Turning hard to his left and hurling Weltall away. "Destroy the town, you say? You would know, would you not, beast?" Wyvern's wings flare once more, and a half-dozen little pods float out from the Command Dear's body, gleaming in the golden desert light.
Ether power crackles through Wyvern's amplifier, flowing through ancient technology, amplifying into pulsing waves that nestle into the hovering Aerods. The tips of the little pods begin to shimmer with a mounting power, as the Gebler Commander pours energy into all of them at once, holding it poised. "As I see it... if -Lambs- are to be slaughtered, then what does it matter which beast does the deed?"
The Aerods fire in sequence, sending six crackling beams of brilliant green light arcing across the desert toward Weltall.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed falls into a dark space, coughing and hacking and doing all kinds of awful sounding things with his lungs. "Khh, what--" the Hyadean starts, but before he can finish, something... Something lights up in front of him. No, several somethings. A set of monitors, all displaying a single message...!
Rescue Complete - What is our mission?
Zed stares for a moment, then... Then... Laughs!? "Pffah! Pfaahahahahaha! Like you really need to ask!? That's simple! Our mission is JUSTICE! Our weapons are Heroism and Courage! Our target is--"
Really?
"Wh--"
Are you being serious right now
"Uhhhhhh," Zed stares blankly at the consoles. He tilts his head left. He tilts his head right. He shrugs!? "Y-yeah! I guess!? It's never failed me before, right!?
Somehow, the computers sigh.
Fine. I guess.
"RIGHT!" Zed grins! It's a great and terrible and toothy grin! His hands seize around a controller shaped vaguely like the hilt of a sword. "So! Let's do this thing, partner! All systems go!"
Understood. Eldthrusar-01 entering combat m--
"Nope!"
What.
"That's not what we're calling you!"
oh no
Zed's grin only gets WORSE.
OUTSIDE
The primary colored colossus rises, sand falling in cascades from its shoulders. A voice booms over the battlefield as it surges forward, swinging again with that COLOSSAL BLADE! "I who stand in the full light of heaven command the invincible super robot. Beware, all those who do evil within my sight! Beware the Pharos of Justice! The Giant of Battle! The Peerless Wild God...!"
You can... You can almost hear the glee in his voice as it booms across the battlefield, for all of heaven and earth and evil and cheering children to see...!
DREAM CHASERS - EPISODE 15
--Musou Kojin--
!!Dai-Zed-Gear!!
"HAS ARRIVED TO CLEAVE ALL THE EVIL BEFORE HIM! Nyeheheheheheheh!"
DC: Zed switches forms to Musou Kojin - DaiZedGear!
GS: Kahran Ramses has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Aerod - Full Charge! GS: Kahran Ramses has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from Kahran Ramses's Aerod - Full Charge for 82 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has lost 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Mihaya's Fire 2 for 79 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from The Watcher's Blast Advance for 40 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to The Watcher! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Watcher has lost 1 Combo! GS: Zed has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with BGM CHANGE! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Zed's BGM CHANGE for 143 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
The VALS4-Corsair clashes with the ancient weapon. Layna grins out at as its head meets her Gear's.
"You got a lotta nerve, aye? Gettin' all up in my face." She says...and then leaps backward as the Dust Dragoon makes its entrance.
"Nice one!" She calls out through the speakers to the other pilot.
At about the same time, Victoria finds herself passing by the Weltall when suddenly something comes rushing down toward it. She sends her Gear leaping back, but as she does so, she finds that something has attached itself to her leg - or someone.
External cameras let her recognize it as a person - and, in particular, the woman that happened to be present(for...other reasons) when the finishing touches were being put on Layna's Corsair. Victoria brings the Gear to a stop, letting her climb up without worrying about getting caught on anything.
"Fancy seeing you here! Need a ride?" Victoria calls out, then switches on her radio again.
"Captain! Change of plans, I've picked someone up. I'll keep my distance, get ready to cover us if it tries to do something mean!" Victoria calls out. She repositions herself, trying to get away from the fight breaking out between the Weltall and the Wyvern while putting Catenna in a position where she can still cast effectively.
Meanwhile, Layna frowns in her Gear as several other Gears arrive. 'Surface Gears', they say. What'd they mean by that? Well, whatever. There was only response to this.
"Crimson Corsair. Just don't get in the way!" Layna broadcasts to the newcomers, then turns her attention back to the ancient weapon. She licks her lips then pushes forward toward the ancient weapon again, drawing the massive anchor from her back. She brandishes it much like one would an axe or a sword, bringing it down toward the enemy machine's head!
It's about this time that another machine appears, slamming a sword toward the beast. A...very brightly colored machine. Layna blinks once, then twice as it claims its pilot, who begins to speak...
...And then Layna laughs raucously in response.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Weigh Anchor! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
A slow frown appears on Rudy's face as the shot pings off with little effect. While Rudy has witnessed Gear battles from time to time, it's clear he's not used to his POWERFUL ARM not being that powerful at this moment. But perhaps it is an important lesson to learn: no matter how big a fish you are, there are always bigger ones in the sea. Still, one would think that now Rudy knows he's overwhelmed.
But as the creature attacks Zed and sends him to the sand, the young man grits his teeth. If the Metal Demon can stick this out, so. Can. Rudy. With a calm jog, Rudy begins to skirt the large Anti-Golem as he switches out cartridges to try and find a more effective attack, clearly planning to try and find his moment with all the chaos to take his shot. Layna's massive gear means he has to move around, and Weltall and Catenna's assistance means that Rudy has to work to find his opening. Thankfully, the large attacker is an easy target, just a matter of making sure he doesn't hit someone with friendly fire.
Then one of the Gears, Fei's to be exact, is attacked by some mysterious force. Lacking a radio system, the young man quirks a brow. He isn't sure exactly who to shoot, but figures that well, go for the one marching toward November City and then figure things out from there.
Before he gets a chance to do anything, Gwen speaks before the roar, causing Rudy to look back as the war rages on. "Gwen, you shouldn't be here, it isn't safe if you don't have a Gear!"
REALLY, RUDY? REEAAAALLLY?
As the Aeon attacks with powerful fire and the attack from above begins with the overwhelming guns, Roughnight sees his chance, staying close by Gwen just in case. The runes on Rudy's left arm glow bright blue, spinning his weapon a couple of times. Once the required 'ritual' is done, the weapon is leveled at the Anti-Gear and a powerful shot goes off. Considering that the attack is launched at a much greater length than is normally given (considering that Rudy is hoofing it for a Gear battle), the explosive round arcs in the air for few seconds before it impacts. The question, in all of this, is where it impacts.
Well, that's the question, until suddenly Zed gets his surprise weapon as if a gift from the Fate itself. Roughnight looks toward the Gear with the Lion Chest and then toward the heavens, clearly having beef with divine favor decides to favor with super weapons.
"Really?" Rudy inquires as he looks above and then toward DaiZedGear as if questioning The Powers That Be. "REALLY?"
GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Boosted Shell! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Quickshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Dragoon might be up in the JOTUNN's face, but its advanced AWACS gives it a view that goes for miles. The sudden arrival of that massive machine from Aveh--flanked by two with similar signatures--gives her pause, and she tenses up in her seat. That one's going right for...
There's no time to warn Fei Wyvern's just too fast for that, and it slams into Weltall like the fist of a vengeful god. Ida chokes back a cry of surprise, but thankfully, Weltall hits back, and Catenna flees to safety. An alarm sounds. The Dragoon sinks back into a crouch, raising both hands to defend itself as the comparatively tiny Type-Alg races in, spitting lasers. Beams score smoking lines in the Gear's plating, smoke wafting upwards into the air. Thankfully, the Gear escapes without too much damage, giving Ida a moment to reassess the battlefield. She presses a gloved finger to the red dots marking Wyvern, Simurgh, and Schiehallion, flipping them manually from red to gold.
Tiny little figures start emerging from nowhere, and Ida suddenly becomes acutely aware of the possibility of someone getting unintentionally squashed. Her hands dart across the comm panel as she activates the scrambler, infusing her voice with strange, scratchy (algorithmically-generated) anonymity. "Captain," Ida transmits, to Layna. The Dragoon backs off, and starts to circle the massive JOTUNN as best as it can. A hand goes for the massive cannon on its back, gripping the stock and pulling it free. "The Three-Dragon Cannon is charging. I'm uploading my machine's analysis of its armor to yours. Use it well."
Data floods across Layna's machine's computer, highlighting less-armored areas of the JOTUNN in red. Hopefully she can put it to use!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Layna Manydays with Firing Solution! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Firing Solution for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Layna Manydays! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Layna Manydays's Weigh Anchor for 61 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Weltall is seized up by the Wyver. Fei is on the back foot here, managing to survive largely through instinct. Blades may be grazing him, but if Ramses gets a full on strike with a high powered gear like that, it won't be pretty. Still, when Weltall struggles against Wyvern's strength, it is a challenge to hold on. Weltall doesn't slouch in the power department and Fei's martial arts background translates really well into the machine. As a rather untrained pilot, this is what he has going for him. Surely no other power.
"I--" Fei begins as Ramses strikes him right in the weak point: His spirit! It hurts, but in some ways it's what he's been craving: the proper condemnation for the crimes he has committed. It's been many a day when his friends have just forgiven what he has done, but he knows the truth. He remembers. It's easy to forgive a crime if it never really hurt you.
"I tried turning myself in..." Fei curls his fingers inward. "But right now I..."
Fei's interrupted by AERODS. Fei's eyes widen. In the distance Zed summons his own giant robot WHERE DOES HE KEEP FINDING THESE THINGS???
I'm going to die here, Fei thinks, and the last thing I'm going to hear is Zed's laughter. Weltall's arms snap free from the Wyvern, aiming to block the AEROD fire--as if he's seen them before, he just tries to minimize the damage as he can--but they're still the pinnacle of Gear technology. Several chunks of armor are blasted away within moments. Fei realizes quickly that just trying to weather the assault just isn't going to happen.
He takes in a deep breath and he slams Weltall for the Wyvern, trying to slam it right into some of those AERODS just to open up some space for himself.
"I can't right now! Cecilia needs me to fight Mother..." He mysteriously is choosing to not state the other reason he isn't throwing himself to the wolves since it involves selling out another AEROD user mysteriously enough.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The Drifters have brought a few Gears to the standoff against the... thing, he notes. One of them stands out to him simply because it has a few components that seem oddly familiar, somehow. Perhaps it'll be something to review from data capture later, though truth be told --
Most of his analytics are focused (for now) on the unknown giant before them.
Perhaps it's for Ida's benefit in the long run, all told.
"I recall something like that... creature while we were fighting against 'Sin'," he informs the Watcher, focusing for the moment on Ifrit-- a thing he knows not, certainly not the name thereof. "It had the appearance of alignment to ice rather than fire." He's trying to be helpful. "It's not a Guardian. They can't stay around like that." Outside of Luceid. Wait, unless they can all do that...?
He beetles his brow in frustration, trying to think back. A good question for Lan. But later. Because the Gear's system has just had the warning lights come on.
INCOMING PROJECTILE FIRE, Schiehallion's analytics-support systems announce. "I can see that," he retorts back to the system. "Rerouting systems for shielding -- let's take the edge off."
Light births in glowing walls around the white Gebler Gear as the projectiles find their mark -- and disperses off some of the force of the blasts. Barely rocked by the hit, the armored Gear remains standing where it had initially so planted itself.
The Wyvern then enters the fray.
Across private channels thus: "...Commander? Watcher, should we..." A pause follows. "...Understood."
The mission takes priority.
Continuing to hold his position, Schiehallion draws both of the Gear-sized sidearms equipped to it. Sometimes support means direct engagement.
TARGETING SYSTEMS ONLINE. SHOT ALIGNMENT 70...
Within the Gear, Loren stares the metal giant down and grits his teeth. Time to make up for all his failings on Lunar--
85... 90. ACCEPTABLE ACCURACY RATIO ACHIEVED. FIRE NOW.
Projectile-fire screams from the barrels of both ARMs, a barrage right for the thing that seems so resolute upon November City.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Kahran Ramses with Exotic Weapon Proficiency! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with False Eclipse! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Kahran Ramses takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Exotic Weapon Proficiency for 120 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Rudy Roughnight's Boosted Shell for 92 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Quickshot for 33 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Loren Voss's False Eclipse for 48 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Loren Voss! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
Weltall is not given a break as the Wyven descends upon the black Gear as an opportunistic predator. As they unleash blow after blow against this new threat, they run the risk of exposing their flank to a near point-blank shot from the rampaging machine that moments prior was the only problem he had to deal with. It wouldn't take much. A swivel of an arm, the gun-arm would be aligned.
It is an opportunity this unknown foe must be 'aware' of, but it is one it does not deliberately take. In the moments that pass between this opportunity and a sudden stress being placed upon its right leg - it being closer to the epicenter of the increased gravity field that Catenna sorcerously brings forth - this omission of a new offensive against them stands out all the more. The weight is too much for the right leg to support, and it collapses on one knee against the dunes. The Shaman of Celesdue will have herself another near-death experience as the Gun-Arm points at her. There is a warm, electrical humming sound of a cannon many times her size being pointed at her. The heat radiating from it is intense and enough to possibly kill her even before it fires where she stands out in the open upon Victoria's Gear - if it would use that much force on such a tiny target alone.
Fire washes around its form, saved only by the strength of its armor for it cannot have known the method in which the air spontaneously combusts under a foreign power. The lights of its torso shift over in the direction of the horned beast that roars - no, it might know.
Bit by bit, the approaching Simurgh shoots down the drones that have moved to harass it. Thinning out the herd is an excellent idea, tactically - but they are a herd of very, very many. These lights converge... and then part? Are they allowing Simurgh to draw closer? There is a reason why. The opposite arm - now one may note to be carrying a great blade of its own - starts to draw back...
Something shifts unnaturally under the other foot. It presses down as if to assert its balance... and then a great, colorful, shining metal giant - yet another challenger - comes forth and slams a sword worthy to be called one into an arm that, incidentally, is also a sword.
It was. It is cut clean off to a shine of strange teal electrical sparks, as the metal mass hits the sand. The great machine leans back, and this new arrival retrieves what it must.
...Cables appear where the weapon is severed from, re-forming into a set of fingers. The various drones take their cables and latch onto the massive dropped blade, taking it back-- no, they vibrate and glow with an intense heat, melting the metallic mass, which seems counterproductive to the weapon's recovery? They fly off towards one of the few great trees nearby in this environ. It is long since barren, the desert finally having claimed the last of its life.
The Crimson Corsair joins this momentary advantage swinging a massive anchor. The gun-arm disengages from pointing in Catenna's direction (saving her from the possibility of having an actual shot being sent her way - for now) to swing and parry it back.
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
Meanwhile, the melted mass of sword coats this tree, for reasons that seem outlandish. It does not melt into flaming cinders. The molten alien metal fuses about the form of this tree without fundamentally changing its shape -- all the while the Dai-Zed-Gear wails upon it with another stroke of its great blade. The disarmed arm twists back...
...grasps the metallicized tree...
..and uproots it with one powerful swing in a wide arc, swinging into Ifrit, Dai-Zed-Gear, the Crimson Corsair, and the fast-approaching Simurgh (just barely now getting into range), in one powerful stroke - it just clearing the disengaging Dust Dragoon. It would seem that not even the surprise arrival of a heroic unknown quantity could give the metal weapon-creature any pause, even as it remains forced down on a knee. The swing of this very metallicized tree appears to have parried the entire line of projectile fire from the Schiehallion. Whatever character the metal of the former sword, now casing of a tree, it will not be so easily neutralized.
The gun-arm opens fire upon the more distant Shiehallion, once more. A priority target? Another round snaps off towards the Dust Dragoon, which had only just avoided meeting the business end of the bludgeon - it seems timed as though to disrupt the transfer of data. It may be a trick of the mind. The flickering lights are definitely not.
Rudy and Gwen both open fire from where they stand, unshielded by the metal armors the rest adorn themselves in - weapons that are what give them a flicker of a hope against this. This does not stop Rudy from shooting. Gwen, too, stands resolute in her desire to try and shoot it. Electrical sparks mark where Gwen's projectile's strike. The more explosive payload of the Boosted Shell does something a little more.
The unknown beast-machine flinches, warbles a strange but defiant-sounding cry...
And there is a sudden mobbing of those spherical drones. A disproportionate number of that great cloud of drones converges upon these two human-sized targets - does it mean to encompass both, or is one a priority target while the other stands to be collateral? It matters little.
GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Catenna with Gun-Arm Warming Up! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Mihaya with Repurposed Arm Swipe! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Zed with Repurposed Arm Swipe! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked The Watcher with Repurposed Arm Swipe! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Layna Manydays with Repurposed Arm Swipe! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes 10 damage from Corrode! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has completed its action. GS: Catenna takes a glancing hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Gun-Arm Warming Up for 70 hit points! GS: Zed guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Repurposed Arm Swipe for 183 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has activated a Force Action! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Loren Voss with Gun-Arm Shooting! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Gun-Arm Shooting! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Type-Alg Swarm ! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Type-Alg Swarm ! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes 12 damage from Corrode! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has completed its action. GS: The Watcher takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Repurposed Arm Swipe for 286 hit points! GS: Layna Manydays guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Repurposed Arm Swipe for 186 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey critically Guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Gun-Arm Shooting for 52 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo! GS: Rudy Roughnight used the Force Action Protect! He takes Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's attack on Gwen Whitlock on himself! GS: Rudy Roughnight has activated a Force Action! GS: Mihaya takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Repurposed Arm Swipe for 142 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Aerods are the pinnacle of Gear technology, the best Solaris has managed to come up with. Only a handful of Gears - those belonging to those with tremendous Ether potential and skilled enough to be called 'Elements' - are equipped with them. And yet....
And yet, Ramses thinks to himself as the blasts do little more than part a few plates from the obsidian machine's armour, the Gear called Weltall is still standing. Despite being piloted by a slip of a boy with no experience to speak of. A mewling coward who somehow strikes with a fury Ramses has seen but a handful of times before. This 'Fei' should be little more than a stain upon the sand. And yet.
Aerods go spinning away as Weltall simply barrels into them, the little black Gear accelerating rapidly - more rapidly than Ramses thinks it should. "A desert configuration?" the Gebler commander wonders, and then wonders no more as the two machines collide. Weltall smashes into Wyvern, and the Command Gear's plating groans and shrieks in agony. Black carries gold deeper into the desert, away from the heart of the battle, chased by the battered little Aerods. The smaller prototype should be no match for the heavier, more advanced war machine.
And yet.
"A tired excuse!" Ramses replies, the Aerods firing a few lines of light that miss the streaking Gears; the Gebler commander sets them to orbit, then begins channeling his power into the Amplifier once more. "After this Mother falls, what next? What excuse will you cower behind? What friend's need will you seize upon to hide from the truth? WELL?" Ramses snarls, and Wyvern plants its feet, retro-rockets firing, joints straining as it seeks to halts its retrograde motion.
And then its hands come up, blazing with green power, aimed to either side of Weltall's head.
"Better for all... to fall before me!" Ramses roars, both hands firing.
GS: Kahran Ramses has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Great Ether! GS: Kahran Ramses has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Gun-Arm Shooting for 161 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Rudy Roughnight guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Type-Alg Swarm for 176 hit points! GS: Reaper! Statuses applied to Rudy Roughnight! GS: Rudy Roughnight takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper! GS: Kahran Ramses heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 0 temporary hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has lost 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Great Ether! GS: Kahran Ramses has completed his action. GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Kahran Ramses's Great Ether for 238 hit points! GS: Kahran Ramses drains Fei Fong Wong! Kahran Ramses gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The good news for Victoria is that Catenna's not naked this time.
"I could use one, thank you," Catenna says with a little dip of her head, dropping to a crouch on the Gear's shoulder. "I do not need to get close... that would be a terrible idea."
Then again, fighting this thing without a robot was also probably a terrible idea. The monstrous machine swings its weapon arm towards her. Even from here, she can feel the heat billowing off that gigantic weapon. The intensity of the outflow of heat blows her hair back in a stream and nearly knocks her off the shoulder of Victoria's gear. With a gasp, she staggers backwards --
And she takes cover behind the Gear's head. It puts her out of the worst of the heat and at least keeps her from getting shot. Breathing heavily, she takes a couple of seconds to compose herself before she peeks out, making sure that the gun arm is no longer pointed at her squishy, squishy self.
"I am beginning to feel as if this was one of the less wise things I have done lately," she chides herself.
All the more true because she can see what the metal monstrosity is doing to that tree. A sick feeling burns in Catenna's gut. That shouldn't happen to the trees. It can't happen, according to the laws of physics.
"Miss. If it starts to focus on me too much, I will have to run. I do not think I can withstand even one of those hits," Catenna quietly lets Victoria know as she steps out from behind her Gear's head again. "But until then, I will try to help." And indeed she does, shaking her sleeves back, then beginning to chant. Her voice echoes sonorously, rising, the words incomprehensible save to those familiar with Zortroan.
The force of gravity she brings to bear upon the massive anti-Golem Golem is enormous - disproportionate, coming from such a small caster, against such a massive entity. She strains, sweat beading from her forehead with the effort of channeling magic that doesn't want to channel right now, as she forces the Golem's centre of gravity upward and inward. Metal will groan and frame elements will creak as Catenna attempts to compress it beneath its own weight, trying to force everything to collapse towards a single point. The awesome pressure threatens to crumple armour plating and crater it from within, to snap bracing beams and bend metal elements that should not bend.
Clenching her teeth, Catenna focuses and holds the spell as she tries to slowly begin to compress the Golem into a small cube.
GS: Catenna has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Catenna has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Polarity Clutch! GS: Catenna has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Mihaya has posed.
Ifrit takes the full force of the arm head on, the massive robot sending it flying some distance away from the fighting. The Aeon actually bounces several times before its claws slam into the ground, and it comes skidding to a stop a few seconds later. And there is a snort of rage from the monster, flames jetting from its nose as it readies itself for the next assault.
There are... a lot of unexpected things going on. The fact that some of the Gears are fighting amongst themselves suggests that there is more going on here than Mihaya would have guessed, and part of her realizes she needs to keep something in reserve for when this battle is over. If these new people are willing to attack those who are trying to protect an innocent city... well, they are not likely friends, and may need to be stopped.
Or evaded. She's a stranger here, and Mihaya isn't going to assume anyone else here is willing to help her.
Ifrit leaps through the air, landing next to Mihaya a moment later. It curls up one lip for a moment, before turning to give her a quick look. She considers for a moment, and nods once - and the Aeon surges forwards once more. As it runs along, its claws snap outwards, grabbing a pair of large rocks in either hand. Rudy will probably have a moment to see the Aeon rushing past him, a wave of heat rushing by as it channels energy into the boulders it is dragging along behind it. The two rocks suddenly crack, flames erupting from inside of them as Ifrit jumps into the air...
...and lands on the shoulder of Zed's Gear a moment later. It remains for only a moment, letting out a tremendous roar before using the Dark Hero's machine as a springboard to leap into the air and hurl one of the flaming meteors straight at the head of the advancing Jotunn machine!
GS: Mihaya has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Meteor Strike! GS: Mihaya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mihaya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Living metal hews through living metal as the Jotunn's blade arm falls to the sands. Zed's lips curl even more, his capacity for face-splitting grins rivalled in its sunniness only by the DaiZedGear's amazing colorscheme. "Hahahaha! You see that!? That's what happens... When mech and warrior become as one! You've got no cha-- eh?"
The Jotunn.
It... it's grabbing a tree?
"Ehhh!?" Zed gasps and backsteps, bringing his blade up to block the massive blow. Splinters fly in an explosion of sawdust. DaiZedGear slides back, its feet dragging trenches into the sands.
Damage nominal. Continue the offensive
"Ffah! Like I'd ever let up!? Do that thing with the sword! Let's see how Kalve's work holds up in real combat!" Acknowledged. Sending transformation signal to the Type Zero Colossal--
"Nope!" Zed grins like he was ten years old and it was Christmas day. "I've got a name for that too!"
Why
DaiZedGear reels back. It snaps its sword arm to one side as the entire length of its massive blade suddenly shifts and re-orients itself, bending at the middle as weight shifts to the now broader tip. "Here we go! Fly, my Skyward Sword!" Zed booms over... what appear to be built-in external loudspeakers. "ZETTOU SHINAI--"
"DAAAAAII---" The giant winds up! "---SHAAAAAAA---" The giant swings! ---RIIIIIIIIIIN!" The giant... Lets go of its sword...!
Normally, throwing your weapon at your enemy would be a problem. But in this case... That weapon is a GIANT SWORD BOOMERANG! It tears a booming shockwave through the air as it whirls forth to carve a gash into the Jotunn's everything! And then, it'll come back!
BOOMERANGS!!!
GS: Zed has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Zedder Boomerang! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
And then a giant inferno puppy lands on DaiZedGear's shoulder. "Eh!?" Zed blinks. "H-hey, careful! I just painted that!!"
Oop, and there it goes. Oh well!
<Pose Tracker> Mihaya has posed.
Ifrit just turns and looks at Zed's machine. And one could swear the Aeon smiles as before it drops to the ground again, the other flaming rock still held in its other hand as it looks for a new angle of attack.
<Pose Tracker> The Watcher has posed.
"Fascinating," the Watcher replies over comms to Loren. "It's a glorious creature." She glances to the data she's collecting on Ifrit for the moment. "...It doesn't have the right guise for one of the known Guardians. Moor Gault has a completely different appearance according to conventional lore."
If Leah reacts to the new Gear's arrival, she does not broadcast it. Instead she glances at the figures on the ground in her display, then notes the Dust Dragoon charging, the enemy's attacks--
As Simurgh pushes through drones, Leah watches the opposite arm. "There we are," she murmurs to herself, and her Gear's engines hum as she begins to power up the Ether booster. ...Until suddenly that doesn't happen--instead--
"Fascinating. Self-repair systems... they'll have to be overwhelmed."
The tree is swung, and it impacts Simurgh hard, smashing into the Gear's underside and sending it spinning through the air away for a moment, alarms blaring within the cockpit. Leah doesn't so much as move in the meantime, closing her eye to let herself focus, approach--
Suddenly Simurgh's wings extend to either side, and the Gear evens out. The modulated, robotic voice chimes again over the public channel, "Let's see what you all can do. Support incoming."
The magic that had started to build abrubtly reaches a fever pitch. Wind Ether swirls around Simurgh, unmoving in the center, and with a crackle of lightning a circular barrier briefly appears before multiple combatants at a time, green and yellow and fading into an invisible barrier for each of them under the Gear's power... though the sheer force of the magic is not precisely comfortable for the smaller fighters.
GS: The Watcher has attacked Mihaya with Nirvana Screen! GS: The Watcher has attacked Catenna with Nirvana Screen! GS: The Watcher has attacked Loren Voss with Nirvana Screen! GS: The Watcher has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Nirvana Screen! GS: The Watcher has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Nirvana Screen! GS: The Watcher has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Watcher has completed her action. GS: Mihaya takes a solid hit from The Watcher's Nirvana Screen for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield! Statuses applied to Mihaya! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from The Watcher's Nirvana Screen for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Catenna's Polarity Clutch for 328 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Watch out!" Victoria cries out. She shifts to try to give Catenna some added protection, though there's only so much she can do to help. It's hard to protect a small human against the force of such a creature.
"You won't have to. I'll take 'em for you - or try to, at least. But if you need to run, tell me and I'll cover you, got it?" Victoria replies. She's a lot less brash than she'd usually be - she can respect someone who'd try to go up against something like this without a protective metal shell.
Around this time, Layna hears a voice in the radio. There's something familiar about it. She has a feeling she knows who it is, but doesn't say it aloud. Instead, she turns her attention to her computer, observing the data flooding in.
"Hah, I can use this. Thanks!" Layna replies, grinning wide. It gives her some ideas...but before she can implement them, the ancient machine...
...lashes out with a tree??
Not expecting this kind of assault, Layna is taken completely off-guard. The tree bashes into her Gear, sending it stumbling backwards. It nearly falls to a knee, but Layna manages to get the Corsair back under control.
"That was dirty...but I can fight dirty, too." Layna remarks. She rushes forward again and moves as if swinging her anchor...but instead lunges forward with a powerful left-hook toward one of the unarmored spots Ida - er, the Dust Dragoon's completely-anonymous pilot - showed her, activating the pile bunker built into it on contact to give it a little extra 'oomph'.
But she doesn't stop there - as soon as it goes off she follows up with her anchor, driving it downward straight toward the ancient weapon's head.
GS: 2 Combo gained from Boost! GS: Layna Manydays has activated a Force Action! GS: Layna Manydays has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Terrorof the Seas! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Mihaya's Meteor Strike for 29 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mihaya has lost 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Zed's Zedder Boomerang for 189 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Layna Manydays's Terrorof the Seas for 217 hit points! GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from The Watcher's Nirvana Screen for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield! Statuses applied to Loren Voss!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Thrudgelmir's return fire slams into the Dragoon's waist joint, penetrating the first few layers of protective cabling. The Gear, caught mid-step, lands awkwardly, sinking into a low crouch as smoke spills from the wound. Had it been several feet lower, it could've cut a hydraulic line, reduced that leg's responsiveness by half, if not more. Lights flash amber on Ida's board, and she frowns. That frown only grows as she sees the gold machine go speeding off, shoved along by Weltall. The AWACS might be able to keep track of both Fei and the JOTUNN, but Ida is still learning how it all works. Keeping up is difficult. Ida kills her end of the radio, and whispers in the safety of her cockpit. "Who is that...? He's a skilled pilot, his machine is almost definitely Gebler, he speaks as though he knows Fei." Hearing her own voice aloud, among the hydraulic whines and electronic chatter saturating the Gear's cockpit, helps her focus.
The Dust Dragoon braces its feet, and raises that massive cannon, gripping it with both hands. Panels slide aside in the Gear's gauntlet armor, the cables inside connecting to hookups inside the cannon. The Dust Dragoon's slave generator redoubles its efforts, gulping down liquid-fuel reactant to power the weapon. "All right, you doddering old scrap heap," Ida says. "Let's see how you fare against real engineering." The Dragon Filaments in the cannon's reactor core blaze brilliantly. Fuel drips into the chamber from the feed nozzle, and the reaction is instantaneous. The Dragoon raises the massive cannon, and a brilliant arc of Dragonfire spews from the muzzle, burning hot enough to melt most common metals on contact. Ida has been keeping an eye on that unnerving (but friendly) flame-beast, seeing how it's been faring--perhaps this is something it could take advantage of.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Thrudgelmir's return fire slams into the Dragoon's waist joint, penetrating the first few layers of protective cabling. The Gear, caught mid-step, lands awkwardly, sinking into a low crouch as smoke spills from the wound. Had it been several feet lower, it could've cut a hydraulic line, reduced that leg's responsiveness by half, if not more. Lights flash amber on Ida's board, and she frowns. That frown only grows as she sees the gold machine go speeding off, shoved along by Weltall. The AWACS might be able to keep track of both Fei and the JOTUNN, but Ida is still learning how it all works. Keeping up is difficult.
Ida kills her end of the radio, and whispers in the safety of her cockpit. "Who is that...? He's a skilled pilot, his machine is almost definitely Gebler, he speaks as though he knows Fei." Hearing her own voice aloud, among the hydraulic whines and electronic chatter saturating the Gear's cockpit, helps her focus.
The Dust Dragoon braces its feet, and raises that massive cannon, gripping it with both hands. Panels slide aside in the Gear's gauntlet armor, the cables inside connecting to hookups inside the cannon. The Dust Dragoon's slave generator redoubles its efforts, gulping down liquid-fuel reactant to power the weapon.
"All right, you doddering old scrap heap," Ida says. "Let's see how you fare against real engineering." The Dragon Filaments in the cannon's reactor core blaze brilliantly. Fuel drips into the chamber from the feed nozzle, and the reaction is instantaneous. The Dragoon raises the massive cannon, and a brilliant arc of Dragonfire spews from the muzzle, burning hot enough to melt most common metals on contact. Ida has been keeping an eye on that unnerving (but friendly) flame-beast, seeing how it's been faring--perhaps this is something it could take advantage of.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Three Dragon Cannon - Flame Breath! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Flame Breath for 203 hit points! GS: Acid and Jam! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The drones fire upon Rudy and Gwen. The blue haired person doesn't care for himself, but he cannot stand the idea of someone getting hurt to protect him. To waste a jewel over a tool is just bad economics.
When the sand settles after the volley, Rudy is smiling toward Gwen, kneeling over her. "You should be careful out there," he states calmly with a smile. Slowly, he stands up, his wounds only revealing himself when he turns, his red vest torn asunder and his white shirt now stained with his blood from the back. It continues to drip, marking his progress as he moves across the battlefield even if he doesn't vocalize his suffering with sound. He lumbers forward a couple of steps. "I think I can make a difference," Rudy explains as he looks toward the larger robots fighting. "Just need to survive for thirty seconds."
Then? Rudy runs.
Because Rudy's actions of fighting on foot are not crazed enough; he begins to run toward the Gears as they fight in melee, again, changing his cartridges to suggest a different sort of weapon. Those that watch the boy might understand the reasoning. Rudy is fighting with a weapon meant for long range to medium range But within the range of battle for human sized. To get maximum effect, he needs to be close to the enemies. All of them if preferred. He has a plan, but the question is, will the bug survive until then?
Soon he gets into range, the Aeon and the Gears now around him. Perhaps a vain attempt to help his survival chance, he leaps into the air, shooting a round into the ground. As it collides with the sand, it stirs up a whirlwind of sand and lightning. It goes Rudy some cover, perhaps enough to avoid the drones from getting a clear lock.
GS: Rudy Roughnight takes a solid hit from The Watcher's Nirvana Screen for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield! Statuses applied to Rudy Roughnight! GS: Rudy Roughnight takes an additional 5 damage from Reaper! GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Solid Storm! GS: Rudy Roughnight has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rudy Roughnight takes an additional 25 damage from Reaper! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
His attention, fleetingly, turns to battling forms of SLIDE-1 and the Wyvern. The Commander hadn't requested support. He had in fact almost aggressively demonstrated his desire for anything but -- he'd forced the black gear further and further away from the operation against the strange giant. "..."
The Watcher speaks up. "That's right. It's supposed to be avian in appearance. Typically, Guardians don't shift much in appearance when summoned," he explains to the Watcher over the private channel. "I haven't heard about anything like it in other traditions. Another thing we'll need more data for. I don't suppose this is something that followed us back from Lunar?"
The thing grabs ahold of a tree, and a transformation immediately begins to take place. Loren sits bolt upright in his seat, wide-eyed.
And just like that, all of his rounds are parried, swatted aside as if they were nothing at all.
"Watcher! Did you see--" he says across the private channel.
Yes. Yes of course she saw. Are you ten? the other half of him fires back. Grimacing, he hunkers down, routing a data uplink to local systems immediately. They need to see what he just recorded, and this way if something happens--
ALERT. INCOMING.
He looks up, then scrambles to reroute shielding.
It's not fast enough. The rounds slam into the Gebler Gear, cracking the outermost layers of armor plating along the Gear's arms, held up now before him in the best form of guard he can muster. "...Damn," he hisses out, glancing at the damage report.
75% OUTER ARMOR INTEGRITY REMAINING. INNER SHIELDING AT SATISFACTORY LEVELS.
He can't hold this position -- it's just going to keep firing on him. Urging Schiehallion forward with a lurch, it takes a few moments for the heavier Gear to gain quite enough speed. Thrusters flare, a brilliant blue-white, and Schiehallion becomes airborne.
He draws in close, the Watcher's wind-infused Ether catching the Gear and propelling him at speed onwards; he drops altitude and pulls in close, both Gear-sized ARMs at the ready.
And as he nears, looses the throttling, enough to angle the weighty Gear back as it starts to slow--
And there opens fire.
GS: Loren Voss enters a Counter stance! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Aphelion Purge! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Weltall is somehow managing to hang in there. Despite being piloted by a slip of a boy with little experience. At the very least, Fei hasn't exploded yet but is it really so strange? Those desperate to live do find ways to make do and it can be a grind to ultimately put them down.
But Fei doesn't seem like someone who is all that desperate to live. If anything, it would be so easy to just stop fighting and let Ramses stab him out of his cockpit. Would that finally make the nightmares stop? Would that bring peace to the people of Lahan? Would it even help Filgaia?
No. It won't. That's the joke, Fei. You better start laughing.
Fei doesn't have any of that kind of keen tactical awareness that Kahran is putting on display. He is withdrawing inward rather than analyzing his surroundings beyond what is a few feet in front of him. What is a few feet behind him. Ramses swings both hands into Weltall's head, shattering several camera systems in the process. Further, he drains energy from the Weltall to fuel his own machine. Luckily the cockpit is NOT in the head because otherwise Fei might've been flashfried. He can't see Rudy coming up behind him (to be honest he probably wouldn't even be able to see Rudy from that position even if he DID have his cameras, he's a smol boy). Fei can't even see Ramses, to be honest. All he can do is sense out the source of the Ether power pulsing into him.
"Just.... STOP IT ALREADY!" Fei snaps, throwing out both hands up, eyes flaring red. "You're not even FROM Lahan! And I'm not who you think I am! I can't be! I won't be!!"
A blue eruption of chi energy explodes out of Weltall to fly for the Wyvern. The force of it, combined with the effect of the Wyvern's hands pushing down on Fei calls the Weltall to fall over towards, well...
...Well Rudy will probably be fine. He's a main character!
(Don't do this at home kids).
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Kahran Ramses with Guided Shot! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Kahran Ramses takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Guided Shot for 118 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Rudy Roughnight's Solid Storm for 80 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Rudy Roughnight! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Aphelion Purge for 314 hit points! GS: ! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen's freckled face looks completely dumbstruck by Rudy's show of bravado, as well as his lack of understanding. Rudy, only a young man in height and weight (as well as lacking any sort of protective padding), is blocking the way between her and the giant Gear. Is he... trying to protect her? It's just as well that Gwen can't hear what Rudy's saying, because it'd just make the whole show of force even more perplexing.
There's the familiar blue glow, and Rudy fires. Gwen's eyebrows raise, whistling as the shot manages to arc into the gear. The sound gets lost as Ifrit zips by, all heat and tremendous speed. Gwen blinks. "A Guardian?!" That has to be a Guardian... right?
But there's new things to worry about. The MYSTERIOUS METAL Z- that new gear (or is it another? It's rather overwhelming to be underneath a series of battling gears) has cut the giant machine's aged sword in one clean stroke. "Maybe we're in luck," the courier cheers, in the middle of a battlefield.
what is it doing
what is it doing to that tree
why is it
why
".... uh, shoot..." Gwen's lips purse thoughtfully, her mouth dry as sand as she considers what has just transpired. Clearly, it's now time to grab onto Rudy and yank him out of danger.
She was fully intending on doing that, but the air filled with drones, and before Gwen can react, the ground shifts.
"... eh? Rudy?" Gwen finds herself looking up at a strangely calm Rudy. "Rudy, wait. We need to..."
He's not fine. There's blood all over his back as he turns, running into the battlefield to make a difference. To get close enough to shoot, Gwen now realizes. It's impossible. His ARM, even at full strength, can't possibly do as much damage as he's hoping for. Gwen's can't, so why would Rudy's?
She starts running towards Rudy, doing her best to provide cover fire, when a strange glow settles over her. It certainly makes some things easier, but some other things... well, how can air feel so heavy? "Rudy, hey!"
*SLAM*
Gwen begins yelling as Fei's gear slams down on the small Drifter. "DAMN IT FEI, GET YOUR DAMN GEAR BACK UP, YOU FELL ON RUDY!"
It probably registers as the buzz of some mosquito in Fei's ears.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Coil Cannon EX! GS: Gwen Whitlock has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 55 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Ramses... blinks. "Lahan?" he asks, honest confusion tinging his voice. "That moulder---" The Gebler commander breaks off his question as his sensors register a sudden surge of energy, the familiar feeling of gathering Ether - raw and untamed, but powerful - crackling across his senses. Wyvern slip-dodges to the left... but energy washes over the command Gear's right side and shoulder, boiling away golden plating into so much steam.
"You think this - all of this - is over Lahan?" Ramses asks, coughing as a tendril of smoke wafts its way into the cockpit, bringing with it the acrid tang of sublimated steel. "Over a flyspeck of a village in an unimportant strip of a backwater continent? Because you slaughtered -Lambs- before they had grown into proper sheep? Truly?"
Wyvern boosts forward, and Ramses sends the Aerods dancing again, firing a series of short blasts in Weltall's direction, trying to hem in the big machine's movement. If the Gebler commander notices the Drifters on the ground beneath him, he pays them no mind - which should come as no surprise. "This is about what you are!" snarls Ramses as Wyvern dashes in, hooking a left hand toward Weltall's chest. "Killer!"
*SMASH*
"Monster!"
*SMASH*
"DEMON!"
*SMASH*
Wyvern hovers in the air, blazing with greenish-gold energy, both hands raised, waiting for Weltall. Every inch of the cultured baritone is gone from Ramses' voice as he snaps his next few words, addressing them to Fei with as much venom as anything he's ever spoken. "Mourn not these worthless -Lambs- you love so dearly," he snarls, fists tightening on Wyvern's control yoke. "For I promise you - you will not long mourn their passing."
GS: Kahran Ramses enters a Counter stance! GS: Kahran Ramses has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Wyvern's Sting! GS: Kahran Ramses has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
The Shaman of Celesdue knows the risk she takes, but she also knows what she holds most dear and important - and that she, too, has the power to affect change. By proxy, for Celesdue - whose powers are being strained to breaking point by Mother's awakening. Though the Guardian of the Moon struggles to hold her end of the seal to prevent Mother from awakening back to their full might, Catenna's faith shines through as she twists the weakest force of the universe in ways it is not meant to against the gigantic machine.
It makes horrid gurgling noises as things... squelch? Compress. It shrieks in something approaching distress as it stands further upright than it is meant to, jerked back up from when it was forced to a knee. Some oddly-colored liquid spills out of its face-analogue. The groans are deafening. There are flashes of what it might look like under the hood, and elements don't look entirely mechanical.
It's easier to get a peek as it swings the tree into the oncoming meteor by Ifrit, destroying it into crumbling, burning embers that nonetheless single the top layers of its strange metal armor composition, slowly eroding away. As this happens, Mihaya will take notice especially that the various sphere drones are rearranging themselves around the battlefield. One comes to rest far too close to comfort (~20 yards out), but it does not turn a light on her. Why?
They don't seem primed to turn laser sights on anyone. This might be advantageous? An opening to turn things around.
A sworderang's spin and curve aligns with instead of against the shape of the thing's torso, but it lacerates it down the side of the gun-arm to another spray of oddly-colored ichor and another scream. This may unnerve, but it has already shown some sort of understanding about positioning (when to fall back for spacing) and even improvising a new, suitable weapon out of something traditionally not (when it got the tree).
More drones circle about where the green-and-yellow screens converge. They only seem truly violent about it where the screens seem to try and protect Rudy and Gwen, but it is less 'try' and more 'succeeds in doing.' Almost every other drone seems to be drifting... aligning? There's no clear pattern to their positioning to watch.
The Crimson Corsair sticks a railyard spike right into the chest. A light goes out - an anchor to the head follows, and it turns its head slightly so it slams into the 'neck.' Another light dims and flickers. That should be akin to a kill shot, right? Then, from where she looks, Layna can see that this strange light is traveling up and down the body. It's not light for light's sake.
There's something - multiple somethings - under there, as it wrenches itself free with a violent shake.
Dragonfire comes in from behind the arm that wields the tree, the Dust Dragoon getting to watch the antique annihilator's metal turn to dripping sludge, where she can clearly see the shape of something moving. A shape not unlike that of the drones that are now hovering about at variable altitudes and distances that would seem unconnected other than appearing to be in proximity of the Dust Dragoon. It is not a unique circumstance for them alone.
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
Schiehallion takes the offensive, as fast as the heavy Gear can manage with help from the wind-infused Ether from its Watching ally. The pilot takes its chance, and opens fire... to watch two different ARM paylods rip through it, one through the shoulder, one deeper into the torso. Another light goesout.
The drones find themselves buffeted by the sand and lightning cover. No sight or echolocation can assist them, as they lose track of Rudy. Of all the strange actions being taken by the drones suddenly being hands off, that the ones that are surrounding Rudy - now very clearly targeting him, as by proxy Gwen doesn't seem to be taking the brunt of their business - become agitated and sweep the area in search of them.
This should be especially stand-out as Gwen unleashes respectable cover fire relative to her size and overall personhood - the drones aren't sweeping in on her. Why? A few linger and hold position within sight - similar to Mihaya's present position - but they aren't rushing in to demolish her.
The rampaging giant staggers back under the tremendous combined forces, and there's another deafening scream. It sounds almost defiant, if one can apply emotions to it. It seems to have some sort of ability to reason. Its lessened quantity of lights shift, moving to converge or position themselves away from where there are breaches in the armor. These are weak points, then. Moving weak points... but the seeming lack of aggression from the drone bodies will make itself clear to anyone with their scanners or sensors for energy readings.
The charts are voided.
A wave of energy washes out, something like a shockwave - which has a debilitating but not altogether painful effect. Disorienting for humans on the ground, some mild nausea. For machines, malfunctions and troubles...
But as it hits every drone, the drones amplify and magnify it, flooding the entire field in this wave of energy. As if the intent were to throw everyone off-center, to not keep them on the defensive so much as to make it impossible to have a defensive - to pry them open, to render them vulnerable, as the gun-arm slowly starts to rise towards the air...
You have a bad feeling about what's coming next...
GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Loren Voss with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Layna Manydays with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked The Watcher with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Mihaya with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Zed with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Catenna with Electromagnetic Surge! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mihaya guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Mihaya! GS: Layna Manydays critically Guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Kahran Ramses's Wyvern's Sting for 150 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated a Force Action! GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from The Watcher's Nirvana Screen for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield! Statuses applied to Catenna! GS: CRITICAL! Catenna takes a glancing hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Catenna! GS: Fei Fong Wong used the Force Action Protect! He takes Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's attack on Rudy Roughnight on himself! GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated a Force Action! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: The Watcher critically Guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: The Watcher has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Zed! GS: COUNTER! Loren Voss strikes at Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with a counter attack! GS: Loren Voss guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Loren Voss! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Counter Attack for 398 hit points! GS: ! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna presses her lips together and glances towards the head of Victoria's Gear again. "If things get bad, someone will have to go back and try to get people away from the city. I might be able to do that better than someone in a robot."
Her spells are having an effect, to be sure - but as that wave of energy radiates out from the huge Golem, washing across Catenna, she finds herself shivering a little beneath the odd feeling of it. Pressing her hand against the helmet of Victoria's Gear, she sways unsteadily as a wave of disorientation hits her. With a soft groan she slouches against the machine for a few seconds before inhaling and forcing herself to straighten up.
Something is buzzing in her ears. It isn't comfortable. She can't concentrate on a spell like this. Her muscles tense and relax, a sudden twitch running through her neck and up her back before settling, and she breathes unsteadily before collecting herself.
"...Miss," she says intently, "it is going to do something and no amount of hiding behind your head will cause me to not die."
Catenna does the only thing she can do in these circumstances: She unrolls her grappling hook, slides off of Victoria's Gear, and sprints away as fast as she can, while waving her hands and wincing at the bad case of rope burn she just gave herself.
<Pose Tracker> Mihaya has posed.
The sudden magical wave that washes out from the Simurgh's ether amplifier catches Mihaya by surprise. While it affects her, it ALSO affects Ifrit by extension - which she is not going to complain about. It helps makes the Aeon tougher, and less apt to be damaged by the attacks of the massive Gear.
Of course, the drones floating out across the battlefield are not a good thing either, and the elf turns to find some cover, lest she be caught up in whatever is going to come next. She doesn't trust this thing not to have some sort of horrible wide range attack, and she's seen Sin charge up such things before.
Still... this WAS the sort of weapon that she had wanted to see out of these Drifters. Interesting that it seemed to be such a random weapon that was attacking innocent people.
Ifrit on the other hand seems slowed by the field, and the Aeon snarls at the restricting effect - a small puff of flame coming from its mouth as it struggles for a moment. And clearly THROWING things at the Gear was not working at this point. It was going to have to use a more DIRECT attack method if it was going to do some damage.
And so the Aeon takes the flaming rock in its other hand, and narrows its eyes for a moment... and LEAPS back towards Zed's machine. It needs a springboard for this next attack, because the monster spins around in mid-air as it pushes off of the chest of Zed's robot. The flaming rock comes up, held in both hands... and this time there is no throwing.
Ifrit just attempts to bring the rock down with BOTH massive hands in a crushing blow right for the rampaging gear's head. Drones? Pfah.
IFRIT SMASH GIANT GEAR!
GS: Mihaya has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Meteor Dunk! GS: Mihaya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mihaya has completed her action. GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a glancing hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Electromagnetic Surge for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei doesn't immediately realize he landed on Rudy becauase, well, most of his cameras are out and there's a Weltall in the way. He can still hear Ramses, though, because this is Fei Fong Wong and he deserves this. When Ramses seems to think this is about something BESIDES Lahan, that's when he gets confused.
"Huh?" Fei says, a comic moment admist all the horror. "It's not?"
And that's when Gwen helpfully tells Fei that he landed on Rudy. Oh it may be a mosquito but it has thrown right into his ear and stabbed him right in the eardrum. He landed on Rudy. He's a tough guy but nobody is that tough. Fei immediately assumes the worst.
Ramses punctuates the dawning horror by punching the cockpit shield. SLIDE-01 is a powerful prototype and it speaks more to its construction that Fei isn't crushed by Ramses's fist, but he is still thrown about the cabin with each strike as Ramses clobbers him directly. Each strike is deafening, the words...more so.
Fei grabs at his head. It's not about Lahan. It's about what he is.
He's a killer.
He's a monster.
He is a...
Fei sees him on the monitors, that red haired man that plagues his dreams. He shakes his head rapidly. "No...!" He says. "NO!!!"
Weltall lifts up suddenly, hefty sections of cockpit shielding punched in and nearly skewering through Fei's neck. He doesn't even seem to notice the weakening structural integrity of his gear.
"YOU KILLED HIM!" Fei screams in rage. It's not the demon just yet, but it's creeping ever closer. Every closer. It's coming. Ramses can feel it. "YOU KILLED RUDY!! AND YOU DON'T EVEN CARE!"
Weltall jumps into the air. The cameras are largely shot entirely, but his aim is not suffering (well barring a comical total evade but what are the odds of THAT right??) as he comes down, feet first for the Wyvern, intending to slam its legs into Ramses repeatedly over and over and over again.
Someone may have joined Weltall on this ride. Perhaps Catenna picked a good time to jump ship after all.
"HE WAS MY FRIEND!" Fei screams over and over with each strike.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated a Force Action! GS: Fei Fong Wong has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Kahran Ramses with Ryuten! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: COUNTER! Kahran Ramses strikes at Fei Fong Wong with a counter attack! GS: CRITICAL! Kahran Ramses takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Ryuten for 482 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Kahran Ramses's Counter Attack for 163 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Victoria frowns as Catenna speaks. She, too, can tell that something's up.
"Right. I'll cover your escape, you get outta here as quickly as you can. Don't worry, the Captain and I've got this." Victoria replies, lowering herself down so that Catenna can dismount more easily. Once she's off Victoria moves her Gear into a defensive stance to form a wall between the direction Catenna departs in and the massive ancient weapon.
Meanwhile, the ancient weapon is taking a massive beating...and yet, it still keeps moving. Layna can respect that kind of durability, but it makes her no less interested in destroying it. It was still dangerous, after all.
But then, there's that light...
"...What the hell? It's like there's somethin' movin' under there. A lot of somethin's." Layna remarks. And then, suddenly, the ancient weapon emits a powerful shockwave. All over, the VALS-4 Corsair's instruments start spouting errors. She can feel the controls lock up on her.
"C'mon! Don't do this to me now!" Layna shouts, shaking them. "Work with me here! You're better than this - we've still got a job to do, aye!?"
Layna slams her fist down on the control console...and suddenly, abruptly, everything lights up, as everything returns to normal.
"Glad to see you're on-board." With a grin Layna backpedals, leveling her left arm toward the massive weapon as she moves. A cannon emerges from it, firing off a powerful round to clear up some space between her and the enemy.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Buccaneer Broadside! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Mihaya's Meteor Dunk for 103 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Layna Manydays's Buccaneer Broadside for 266 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> The Watcher has posed.
"It's possible," Leah answers Fei over comms, strange robotic voice and all. "Little by little..."
Did she see? he asks, and cuts himself off. The other half of him argues, but over the comms once her Gear is stabilized, the Watcher answers, "I did. Let's try another tack."
...The eruption of chi energy from Weltall gets a look from the Watcher, who continues to monitor that fight as well. Yes, this is rather personal for some reason, isn't it..? Again, the Watcher does not make any overt comment.
Instead she updates her personal understanding of the drones as they respond to her magic, continues to watch the strange spheres to see what the do, what they do not do--and at the same time holds her focus, shielding others as she waits for the thing to begin attacking again. And when it moves that pulse--
"...So that's your game," she murmurs, an instant before the shockwave crashes into her Gear, too, sending crackling electricity throughout the Gear's systems; a control panel bursts before her, shrapnel tearing a furrow down her cheek though she does not move even so.
The lights pulse red again within her cockpit as she stares down at the display. The gun is rising.
"Lieutenant," the Watcher's modulated voice calls over a private comm. "Hang on, things are about to get ugly. Making preparations now." She glances again at part of her display, making no other movements. "Cover me. I'll get us all out of here if need be."
Switching to a more public frequency as Simurgh sails upward, whirls up and back to prepare for a low ascent, the Watcher announces, "On your right, Corsair." The winged Gear shoots past suddenly, picking up speed despite the field, despite the instruments still reading incorrectly, despite the little twitch developing in her mechanical hand.
A stunning array of bombs drops towards the Jotunn, each exploding in concussive force on the way through as Simurgh's ascent becomes completely vertical.
To no one Leah murmurs, "Come on. Hit me, demon."
GS: The Watcher has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Soaring Blitz! GS: The Watcher has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The Watcher's summons the power of the Ether, the winds kicking up as Rudy summons his own powerful dust devil. The bleeding soul stands his ground, even as the magic causes him to be in a micro sand storm. Enduring hardship just feels like the right thing for Rudy, so he doesn't even complain. Of course, Gwen gets a glance back from Rudy at the worst time. Why? Because his soft brown eyes are locked on her blue-grey irises at her beacon. Right as Weltall falls over him, masking him from view.
Thankfully, Gwen isn't too worried, and rightfully so as Rudy is tougher than he looks. So much so that when the Gear rises, there is a small red clad form clinging to its back. With his Hand Cannon still in his right hand, he seems to be planning to do whatever it is he plans to do. Sand sticks to his bloodied back as well as pours out of his hair, his vest, his shirt... Everywhere. But the blessing of the violent winds kicks in, whipping away a lot of it. Leah's is a true fashion hero!
But he did it, Rudy Roughnight lived. And Fei will know that he lived because there is a frightening power starting to read on his back. It's a small energy reading, but the fact that it is likely what one would expect from a tank, it might be concerning. As Fei takes off into the air, it suddenly spikes and seems to fall after Weltall begind to descend. Then the tragic soul might be able to see as well as other Gear users: Rudy is building up power. You can't hurt them, Gwen thinks. But it's clear Roughnight believes otherwise. The symbol on his left arm goes with a near blinding power, the cartridge changed in mid air as if he were not falling to his doom. He's happy, after all, he has gotten to the ideal position to what he wants to do. "I like helping," he whispers quietly, as if it were the sole motivation for what he does now.
The shot is aimed to be between Ramses' marvelous gear and the Jotunn. As it explodes out, there are blue lasers that seem to seek out the two robotic forms as well as drones in the area. The firepower of the volley is brief and standard for gears, but not exactly for someone with a hand gun. In the wake of the attack, Roughnight continues to fall until he lands in sand, his fist pulled back to punch the ground at the right time.
Well, the good news is that Rudy nailed the three-point landing and survived a gear landing on him. Bad news is that Rudy might not survive long enough to be praised (or yelled at) for it.
GS: Rudy Roughnight has activated a Force Action! GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Solid Storm! GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Kahran Ramses with Solid Storm! GS: Rudy Roughnight takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Kahran Ramses enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Kahran Ramses has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rudy Roughnight has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Kahran Ramses completely evades Solid Storm from Rudy Roughnight!
GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from The Watcher's Soaring Blitz for 188 hit points!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Roaring through the sky, the Zettou Shinai whirls back into its master's waiting hand, landing with a *snap* and reshaping with *kochin* back into its original form. "Heheheh, Kalve's gonna be so hype when he finds out 'bout this! The sword, the joints, the controls, everythin's PERFECT! Gwahahahaha--"
Electromagnetic Pulse incoming. Bracing systems.
"Eh?"
DaiZedGuard doesn't seem to do all that much as the waves of electronic chaos blast through its body. This is somewhat misleading, as EMPs rarely ever have an obvious visual cue when they work. Instead, their damage is often more subtle, but can be frequently just as, if not more dangerous than a simple beam cannon hit.
Zed blinks as the screens around him flicker and hiss, blizzards of static swallowing each of the panoramic displays for split-seconds at a time. The Hyadean looks... Confused? "Eh?" Zed asks again, "What'd that do?"
S-severe damage to combat axiom circuits. R-r-recalculating--
"H-hey buddy," Zed starts, "You okay? That sounds pretty bad. Uhhhh."
Calculation complete. Tactics revised: ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
"Oh!" Zed suddenly perks, "Well, finally! You're startin' to get a hang of this whole fighting thing! Gwahahaha!"
Confirmed. Gwahahahaha
The Zettou Shinai suddenly flashes. Brilliant energy surges up the blade as DaiZedGear lifts it aloft. "OKAY! Here we go...! ZEEEEEEEEETT--"
--CALIBEEEEEEEER!!
DaiZedGear swings!
Its sword surges!
And out of the blade... Washes a great flood of light that threatens to swallow the Jotunn whole...!!
And then the FIRE DOGGO kicks back off DaiZedGear's chest like some kind of infernal pinball and sends it stumbling back. "Damnit, stop doin' that!" Zed squawks, "I don't mind setting up an awesome combination attack, but jumping off a guy like that without tellin' him first is just super rude!"
GS: Zed has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Sword Beams!!! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Rudy Roughnight's Solid Storm for 74 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Rudy Roughnight! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir critically Guards a hit from Zed's Sword Beams!! for 67 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
A tiny figure with blue hair and a red vest charges across the field, and Ida's heart catches in her throat. Moments later, Weltall rockets back across the field, and so does the Gear pursuing it. A metallic shudder echoes through the Dragoon's cockpit as Welltall goes down, kicking up sand in its wake. Ida can't see the tiny blue-haired person anymore. "Fei?" Ida says, jabbing a finger at the radio. Her static-modulated voice trickles over Weltall's comm, even as Ramses's screams echo in her cockpit. Ida has no idea who this man is or why he's here or why he seems to know so much about one of her dear friends. She doesn't know if it matters. She sees him tearing into Fei's Gear while an ancient war machine is stomping forth to kill an entire city.
An alarm flashes across Ida's HUD: EMP WEAPONRY DETECTED - HARDENING ACTIVATED Several of the cockpit displays go dark. The Dragoon hunkers down, and then blue-white radiance pours across the world. Unearthly light plays across the metal surfaces inside the cockpit, bathing Ida in an eerie glow. Static sputters from the radio. The screens go dark. For a few, terrifying moments, Ida is blind to the outside world. She whispers a prayer, reaches into the little compartment next to the controls...
They're still there. Ida pulls out a chunk of ancient-looking stone, which in turn is wrapped in a beaded metal rosary. The lights come back on, and the first thing she sees is a string of errors. The first thing she hears is Fei screaming, inches away from a breakdown. "FEI!" Ida screams, her voice audible--and recognizable--over the radio. The Dragoon raises its cannon, the motion stuttering, halting. "You bloody Gebler dogs--!"
The Medium, clutched tightly in Ida's off-hand, grows hot. Ida feels it through the leather of her glove, not quite hot enough to burn. The pain drags her back from the edge. Tears sting her eyes as she forces the Dragoon to turn away from Fei, towards the monster stomping towards the city. She hits the jets. The Dust Dragoon rises into the air with a booming roar, sailing high over Thrudgelmir's head and twisting in mid-air. It lands right in front of the machine, its feet carving furrows in the earth. Dragon Filaments lining the weapon's barrel glow brilliantly. The gun's muzzle flares white-hot, and a bolt of lightning races from it, towards Thrudgelmir. The initial impact is potentially devastating, but the lingering ionization is nothing to laugh at, either--it might not be as powerful as the Thrudgelmir's pulse, but it's more than enough to mess up the machine.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Three Dragon Cannon - Voltaic Breath! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
It's true - Ramses doesn't care about Rudy. He doesn't even know who the hell Rudy is, much less that he killed him (especially since he actually did not). What he does care about is---
"Finally," the Gebler commander snarls, a sudden thrill rippling through him, like a wave of goosebumps along the fabric of his soul. He doesn't know how or why the Red Demon of Elru is bound to this mewling child. But he can feel the creature emerging... and with it the opportunity to resolve a vendetta a lifetime in the making. "I tire of picking the wings off butterflies, bo---"
Ramses stops speaking as Weltall flickers forward, moving with the languid, fluid ease he's seen once before. The first kick smashes into Wyvern's left shoulder, shearing the armour like so much tissue paper. "Ou---" The second shears the command Gear's right wing from its body, sparks and fluid spraying into the air. "Out---" Ramses spits, rocking back in his cockpit as the third blow crumples the plating of the Wyvern's chest armour, driving metal back into the Gear's frame. "Out," he rasps, his head snapping back into the seat as a fourth kick staggers the Wyvern. The fifth and sixth pound the already-abused chest plating, twisting it horribly out of position, a fate made worse by Rudy's power volley. The cockpit's side screen folds in and shatters, spraying glass across the Gebler commander; blood sprays out as he acquires cuts above his right eye, and along his right cheek. "Out," Ramses spits, crimson flecks staining pearly white teeth. "Out, get out, come out," he says, his voice breaking with each blistering kick from Weltall. "COME---"
Gleaming steel suddenly slams into the sands, a massive longsword spearing into a massive dune immediately behind Wyvern. High above, in the skies, the purple figure of a Solaris gear hovers silently. Snarling, furious at himself, the Gebler commander takes up the sword for the first time since the opening blow of the fight. And Fei, Rudy, and Gwen see Kahran Ramses go to war.
Wyvern darts forward, lashing out with a pair of flickering thrusts, licking out lightly toward Weltall's shoulder joints. Again and again the enormous blade snakes out, jabbing like a forked tongue at the separation between plates, at the sensitive circuitry, the sword dancing and weaving like a leaf on the wind. Over and over Wyvern jabs and jabs, and after two dozen such strikes, the command Gear charges forward, trying to shoulder-smash Weltall up into the air. As he does, Wyvern raises its blade skyward in both hands; it is at this point that the battered Aerods descend upon the sword, connecting to pre-set points on the crossguard... and then firing upward, forging a brilliand blade of light.
"COME OUT, DEMON OF ELRU!" the Wind Element roars. "AND TASTE DEFEAT!"
GS: Kahran Ramses has activated a Force Action! GS: Kahran Ramses has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Kahran Ramses has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Apotheosis! GS: Kahran Ramses has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kahran Ramses has completed his action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Voltaic Breath for 192 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Kahran Ramses's Apotheosis for 272 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei does indeed sense Rudy is still alive. Perhaps Fei is not the only one with secrets, with power, with another self. Even the red text guy quiets down a bit. They cannot tell where that power is coming from, not in this exact moment, but they take notice all the same. Fei is jarred out of his anger, his fury, and all of his sorrow by comic timing.
Weltall pauses in its attack as relief and shame fill Fei's heart. He looks at the mess Weltall has made of the Wyvern and he feels sixk in his stomach. The anxiety and pain overflow as he vomits to the side. Hammer is gonna have to clean that up later.
The emp burst that struck Weltall earlier slows the machine further...just enough.
Thr Wyvern rips plates off of Weltall freely. Alarms blare in the cockpit as Ramses efficiently dismantles the prototype gear in quick precise strokes. Sparks burst out from the exposed circuitry.
And the blade of light cleaves through Weltall's chest and dowm and across the cockpit shield. The rrmaining view screens shatter across Fei's face, he is sealed tightly within a largely crushed cockpit.
COME OUT DEMON OF ELRU AND TASTE DEFEAT.
Fei opens his eyes. He doesn't see any red haired monsters stares back at him. The comms, somehow, still function. What will the demon say?
Fei laughs softly over the comms. It is clearly painrd, and he coughs partway through...but then he says, "Thank the Guardians...Rudy is ok..."
Ramses is so close...so close... A single sword strike would do it.
But it is about at this point that Fei remembers Weltall can fly and all his gear's injuries were along the top and front of the gear. He activates his aerial thrusters...
And...flies away like the ultimate tease.
SO UNFAIR!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There's a crunch, and Gwen sees Wyvern smash against Weltall's cockpit shield. "...." She stumbles back, feeling genuinely like an ant among giants. Fei's alive in there, right? He's okay?
Gwen Whitlock says, "Hold on, Rudy, gonna do somethin' nuts!" Rudy is let down as Gwen begins to charge up her own ARM, gritting her teeth as the weapon begins to draw on her own body's energy. It's still having trouble after that last attack. Gwen can manage. "Nghh....""
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
At least she's not rubbing it in. Maybe she's changed from when he was actually ten. "...Understood," his reply comes across the private channel.
The Watcher isn't the only one keeping an eye on that conflict, however afield it roams. Should he send a transmission offering assistance to the Commander? ...No, that would imply he thought the Commander needed it, to say nothing of potentially interrupting him at a critical moment.
...Why is the Commander so worked up about a Lamb?
He has his own orders to worry about for now. He unloads into the unknown construct, sending shell after shell into the thing's shoulder and torso.
It puts him in a bad position to evade the sizzling pulse of amplified energy. It's bouncing between the drones, growing in force...!
"Damn--"
Before it can take control from him, he cracks off all remaining rounds. Before Schiehallion dips in mid-air, before he can engage system blocks to wall off vital components. Before he has to struggle then with a foundering Gear to avoid an up close and personal encounter with the desert sands below.
Mid-transfer, the uplink from his system is severed. To anyone back on base in Bledavik -- or elsewhere -- his feed has cut out entirely.
Sparks spit across the cockpit as the surge takes out even a monitor, frying it, the last gasp of the short doing its worst in the system. The damage done meanwhile maintains.
"I can see that," Loren says across the private channel. His tone runs a touch darkly as power returns, lifting his gaze from the displays detailing just how compromised several critical defensive systems have become. The busted screen continues to return static. Damn, it killed the data transmitter and one of the external cameras. "It looks like it was an EMP blast -- it's compromised the defensive systems, they're still offline. Ether output is undamaged. Power returning to scanning systems but data transmission's gone. Command will have to make do with what they have until we return."
A bold statement, to assume that they'll return.
"...Understood, Watcher. Stay behind me. Combat support Ether incoming." If nothing else, he can use his Gear as a shield--
Even if the thought of it makes his stomach twist.
He focuses for now on maintaining his position, watching it and watching the Watcher.
That and shedding a portion of his will through the amplifiers, forcing the Ether to lend under the Watcher a small fragment of the fury of the unstable planet far beneath them.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There's a crunch, and Gwen sees Wyvern smash against Weltall's cockpit shield. "...." She stumbles back, feeling genuinely like an ant among giants. Fei's alive in there, right? He's okay?
He is okay.
He isn't going to *be* okay.
He is _not okay_.
Gwen's nearly caught up in the storm of colliding air as Weltall rises, leaps into the air, and crashes back down on Wyvern. So caught up, in fact that she nearly misses the small figure of Rudy on its back. Gwen lets out a whoop of joy, but it's overpowered by the sheer *violence* of Weltall as it continues to strike against Wyvern. That was not the reaction Gwen was expecting. Not _at all_. "Wait! Wait, Fei, he's okay! He's right there! I was wrong!"
Well, Rudy *was* right there. Where did he go?
The Demon of Elru. He's... not here. He can't be here. "You got the wrong guy!" Gwen exclaims, at Ramsus. "Right? Fei, you're there, say something!!" It all likely amounts to the buzz of a hornet, or a butterfly flapping its wings, for all the noise she could make in comparison to the giants around her.
Something like a shockwave passes *through* Gwen, causing her ARM to spark and sputter momentarily, making something lurch queasily in Gwen's chest. Thankfully, it'd take a lot more than this to make the ARM fully go out, connected as it is to Gwen and she to it.
Rudy doesn't get a chance to rest for long. The weary boy will find himself being picked up and stored underneath Gwen's right arm like a particularly ungainly gridiron football. "Damn it," she wheezes as she runs. She still hasn't fully recovered from that last 'outing' with Janus yet. That, and the following long climb back out of the Serpent's Coil ruins, alongside Ida.
But Rudy's determined quiet heroism is catching, much like a terrible cold. That has to explain why she looks up from her angle, she feels... inspiration? It's a unique view, to see a giant machine from far down below it. ".... That's not a Gear at all..." Gwen watches in shocked amazement from her vantage point. What are those writhing inside it? What exactly.... is it?
Is it one, or many, underneath a shield?
"Hold on, Rudy, gonna do somethin' nuts!" Rudy is let down as Gwen begins to charge up her own ARM, gritting her teeth as the weapon begins to draw on her own body's energy. It's still having trouble after that last attack. Gwen can manage. "Nghh...."
If Rudy can do it, maybe Gwen can too?
She's got one shot to find out.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked The Watcher with Power Element! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: The Watcher takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Power Element for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to The Watcher! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Corona Discharge! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Corona Discharge for 183 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Ramses does indeed try the sword strike, Wyvern's blade carving a half-moon arc just under the leaping Weltall. He moves to fire off the Aerods again... but the little pods are crackling and sparking, overloaded by the force of the previous assault. "No..." he rasps, then smashes the broken screen with his right fist, drawing more lines of blood. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO---"
"Kahr."
Myyah's voice cuts through the red haze, and Kahran Ramses sucks in a shuddering breath. A faint tremble passes through his body, the pounding of blood through his ears slowing to a dull roar. And in that few seconds, he remembers to stop thinking with his sword and start thinking like a commander. Hands shaking, he keys in his command override, cutting through local comms.
"This is Wyvern. We're done here," Ramses announces as the C-1 Vierge settles in beside the battered golden Wyvern. "All units, pull back at your discretion and leave these -Lambs- to their fate."
As the two Gears, gold and purple, begin to lift off, Kahran Ramses leans back against his cockpit seat, closing his eyes, feeling each shuddering impact once again. Reliving the sensation of steel carving steel.
"Don't you fall, boy," he mutters. "Not to anyone. Save me."
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
Even within the protection of a Gear, there should not be a sense of safety nor security. This approaching weapon is setting something up, even as it appears to be at the severe disadvantage against this many elite units (and a few otherwise determined folks who came to a gun fight wielding a hope and a prayer). The Schiehallion unloads everything it has without care for what it's hitting, and more lights fade.
Ifrit comes and dunks a giant flaming meteor down upon this relentless foe, itself a timeless, insatiable burning flame. A blue light inching up towards the skull retreats upon impact back down the torso - maybe a 'miss' in terms of snuffing out lights, but eroding how much wiggle room the mechanisms within have to work with.
Layna's aim appears to hold especially true as the cannon fire goes and strikes out the elbow of the tree-wielding arm, and there is another unnatural grinding. Can it bend that elbow much? The light that courses through that limb seems to flicker and fade out.
The cloud of drones go on the move again, coalescing along ever closer to the central unit. Many of them seem to move to intercept the bombs from the Simurgh... or is that incidental? It may be the latter, as some of the overall force is blunted by their seeming sacrifice. A number of them settle upon the machine-giant, as... armor? No, many of them seem to begin to position themselves around the gun-arm. Specifically, the gun-arm. That seems a poor choice, tactically speaking. There are enough that seem to move to help lift the tree arm to disperse the wave of light, but only for that purpose before they are disintegrated... leaving the arm with the tree limp. Hmm.
Rudy Roughnight, a boy who likes helping, appears. This alone seems to get a disproportionate number of drones to disengage from the Jotunn to try and strike, but the blue lasers that streak out run through their shining optics - punching deep holes and turning them into useless slag and scrap that sizzle in the sun. Whatever's going on now, the great cloud of drones can't, or won't, spare any more to go after him. Why him, though? He seems the least threatening of the lot.
Compare this to the Dust Dragoon, directly firing upon the Thrudgelmir with a bolt of electricity that has to disperse through a number of drones that are now hugging the body. Some of the electrical jolt passes through into the intended target, and more of the light within fades. There's not much left...
No, compare this threat level to that of the black Gear Weltall, and the Wyvern! This great weapon should see them as rich, open targets in their distraction, but appears to have not prioritized them - as if acknowledging and able to catalogue what are immediate dangers versus what isn't. There are a lot of targets on them, coming at them from many angles and approaches. Even with help from the drones, it seems prudent to focus on the threats that are right there, except it's not... doing so much of that.
Why?
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
Gwen takes note of the moving things writhing inside. She puts her heart (maybe literally) into lining up the shot, thanks to the space that Rudy helped clear. She shoots into that little opening...
There is an explosion, and a fading, wheezing, stuttering whining cry as the upper body adjusts their eastward orientation subtly. The lights seem to fade, one by one, by one. It's hard to quantify specific 'ones,' for they seem more like continuous, converging lines of energy within the alien husk as Weltall takes to the skies. Fei may notice as he runs, that the gun-arm is pointed to the sky... at it? No, it's off-center, but uncomfortably close in terms of angle. At a different elevation, the Watcher may find a similar tinge of fear. (But they did say 'come on, hit me.')
The gun-arm warms up, as the blue light within the husk seems to fade. The drones rush into the open gaps in the armor. The gun-arm shudders and whines, as electrical power surges up and down the shaft...
And fires into the air.
And again.
And agandagainandagandag-- so much that it is impossible to say 'again' for every shot without it all bleeding together into one shrill noise of blended words.
The shots are rapid-fire. Innumerable flashes of teal lights loading themselves up the gun-arm's chamber and fanning out into the open skies. The people of November City - though far enough away from the battle - are not so far as to avoid sight nor sound of what's going on. To those watching with telescopes, it's like seeing a whole number of shooting stars crossing the sky...
...and coming back down.
One of them goes even further out, almost indistinguishable from the others save for a different hue of blue that is marginally dimmer... which flies further out east, as a curiosity, before disappearing into the horizon. For those who do not have the benefit of spectator seating, there is scant any time to watch the skies for any romantic notions of what all the streaks in the sky mean, because they are coming right back down.
Each one impacts against the sandy dunes with a catastrophic explosion. One fallen Kislevi Gear, merely a prop in its damaged state, explodes into a mass of parts far smaller than the sum of its whole. Domes of light mark where explosions happen, scorching the ground anew in a land where the ground is already scorched by the desertification of Filgaia.
Circular patches of fused glass will yet become a landmark for travelers to the area in its aftermath. The light in the body of the great machine-weapon is fully expended, but the shell is there - and there is no telling what failsafes or tricks might be left. It may 'die' in its own explosions.
Whether time to flee to safety or move in to finish the job, this must come to an end.
GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Layna Manydays with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked The Watcher with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Zed with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Loren Voss with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Endless Deluge Mortar! GS: Layna Manydays critically Guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 87 hit points! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 472 hit points! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 432 hit points! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 252 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 416 hit points! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Rudy Roughnight takes a solid hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 357 hit points! GS: Rudy Roughnight takes an additional 45 damage from Reaper! GS: Rudy Roughnight has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Loren Voss used the Force Action Protect! He takes Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's attack on The Watcher on himself! GS: Loren Voss has activated a Force Action! GS: Loren Voss critically Guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 84 hit points! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has lost 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir's Endless Deluge Mortar for 127 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna hears another broadcast from Simurgh. The Corsair moves quickly to the side as it comes in to get out of the volley of explosives dropped from the flying Gear. She can't help whistle appreciatively at the level of firepower on display here.
That's about the only thing she can appreciate - up until this point, she's been in melee range of the ancient weapon this whole time. She hasn't had the luxury of paying attention to anything that wasn't an incoming attack reading.
Speaking of...there's a lot of them. Firing upward...and then coming down against. Explosive mortars rain down around her. Layna doesn't flinch. The Corsair stands there as explosions go off all around it. Over the radio Layna can hear Victoria cursing as she frantically tries to dodge the falling explosives.
The smoke clears...and the Corsair is still there. Smoke rises up from it, but none of them had managed to connect with it directly.
"I'll give you this - you're pretty damage strong. But I think it's time we put an end to this, aye?" Layna says. She drops her anchor, instead grabbing it by the chain.
"Everyone, stand clear if you don't wanna get hit!" She shouts, lifts the chain and starts spinning it. The anchor's momentum increases, and increases, and increases...and then she sends it flying toward the ancient weapon, trying to bury it into its midsection.
"Now come 'ere, ya great blaggard!" She roars. She doesn't stop there - if it lands successfully she pulls it toward her, delivering a strong kick to send it flying off.
GS: Layna Manydays has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Jolly Roger Rampage! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Jolly Roger Rampage for 466 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> The Watcher has posed.
"Acknowledged," the Watcher replies to Loren, piloting her Gear to move within Schiehallion's protective radius. Already, its pilot can feel the Ether charging from the Gear behind his, the assault readying in place as soon as there's time. She does not expect someone to face danger without point, after all. But the readouts...
"That's what the redundancies are for. Power transfer, acknowledged." Leah can feel it; the fury of an unstable, ruined planet...
Weltall retreating. Almost gone. Almost. And he laughs. Rudy, he says. So that's the name.
But Leah pauses, letting the Water Ether she's gathered thrum all around her, blue light pooling--...And there's the announcement from Ramses, the override announcing the order to her, as well. In that moment she calculates; the condition of the creature before them, the condition of those warriors assaulting it; how it looks... How Ramses has done.
"Simurgh acknowledges, Wyvern. I'll cover our exit."
There's a twist--rightfully, a spell like that should fade outright rather than be altered, but apparently someone of the Watcher's rank has the capability to do otherwise. Water Ether floods from the air; the very sky crystallizes around each of the Solaris Gears, the scent of the ocean, the rush of water that freezes into an invisible, shielding lattice, its mere presence enough to begin healing wounds of pilots and preventing damage to Gears both.
All of this happens even as Loren's Gear shields Leah's; she is met with none of the explosions crashing through the air, with none of the danger in the moment. ...And thus she has time to maneuver.
"Covering you too, Schiehallion," the Watcher's modulated voice crackles out. "I'll be right behind you."
And in the meantime, she waits an instant for the frequency to change to one inaudible to those present, "Prepare a retrieval team for battle debris. Authorization, LV-47-79-632. All machine fragments and pilot remains included. Get to work."
Leah smiles as she prepares her exit.
GS: The Watcher has attacked Loren Voss with Anima Cascade! GS: The Watcher has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Watcher has completed her action. GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to The Watcher! GS: The Watcher heals Loren Voss! He gains 400 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Catastrophe befalls the desert outside November. Shooting stars race higher than the clouds before plunging back down like a deluge of disaster. Comets rain from the sky as though heaven itself was shattered into so much glass, its shards cast down to tear open the earth. To anyone who knows no better, it seems as though it was the end times...!
But.
Where some shake in their boots at the terror pouring from on high, where others dare to fight and are smote for their insubordination, there is one with the power to bravely turns his face to the sky, stand tall, and shake the heavens...!
That man! Has just retreated from the battlefield, because Fei Fong Wong occasionally has more sense in his head than your average kung fu hero.
Instead, the people of November will need to make do with a couple of suicidal gunslingers on foot, a pirate, a fire dog, a gravity girl and no less than three super shady sky people.
Oh.
And this guy.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Zed and computer scream as one as DaiZedGear blasts into the sky, leaving a brilliant, vaguely scarf-shaped thruster trail in its wake. It's not in fear. It's not in terror! Bolts of sky stuff blossom into spherical explosions as they smash into DaiZedGear's thick armor. Scraps of metal rain from the sky as the massive gear races INTO the onslaught, its face turned defiantly as if daring the heavens to strike it down...!
It cannot. Because soon, Zed has broken through the storm, and stands high above it. DaiZedGear is injured, damaged, but not broken. It still has two arms with which to fight, and that... That is enough.
"It's time to end this, old one! As your brother in blood, let me put an end to your rage! Here we go!" DaiZedGear lifts its blade high. The sword seems to expand, racing upwards as living metal surges along the edge and drags in broader, wider, longer, until the sword itself is taller even than its wielder! "#-1 FUNCTION (HG,) NOT FOUND"
HISSATSU!
The thrusters turn. DaiZedGear descends, gravity and the force of its own powerful flight system blasting towards the surface below as its arms ready that enormous-- no, that COLOSSAL BLADE. "Zettou Shinai...!"
The sound barrier... shatters...!
DaiZedGear drops right on top of the Jotunn. It strikes in the same instant, every newton of force being diverted to swing its weapon as hard as its joints can possibly endure! A shockwave tears across the wasteland, carving a great scar into the desert as the sword falls like the executioner's guillotine!
And over the din, two voices roar in unison...!
Zettai Zettou!!!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Catastrophe befalls the desert outside November. Shooting stars race higher than the clouds before plunging back down like a deluge of disaster. Comets rain from the sky as though heaven itself was shattered into so much glass, its shards cast down to tear open the earth. To anyone who knows no better, it seems as though it was the end times...!
But.
Where some shake in their boots at the terror pouring from on high, where others dare to fight and are smote for their insubordination, there is one with the power to bravely turns his face to the sky, stand tall, and shake the heavens...!
That man! Has just retreated from the battlefield, because Fei Fong Wong occasionally has more sense in his head than your average kung fu hero.
Instead, the people of November will need to make do with a couple of suicidal gunslingers on foot, a pirate, a fire dog, a gravity girl and no less than three super shady sky people.
Oh.
And this guy.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Zed and computer scream as one as DaiZedGear blasts into the sky, leaving a brilliant, vaguely scarf-shaped thruster trail in its wake. It's not in fear. It's not in terror! Bolts of sky stuff blossom into spherical explosions as they smash into DaiZedGear's thick armor. Scraps of metal rain from the sky as the massive gear races INTO the onslaught, its face turned defiantly as if daring the heavens to strike it down...!
It cannot. Because soon, Zed has broken through the storm, and stands high above it. DaiZedGear is injured, damaged, but not broken. It still has two arms with which to fight, and that... That is enough.
"It's time to end this, old one! As your brother in blood, let me put an end to your rage! Here we go!" DaiZedGear lifts its blade high. The sword seems to expand, racing upwards as living metal surges along the edge and drags in broader, wider, longer, until the sword itself is taller even than its wielder! "Ichigeki...!"
HISSATSU!
The thrusters turn. DaiZedGear descends, gravity and the force of its own powerful flight system blasting towards the surface below as its arms ready that enormous-- no, that COLOSSAL BLADE. "Zettou Shinai...!"
The sound barrier... shatters...!
DaiZedGear drops right on top of the Jotunn. It strikes in the same instant, every newton of force being diverted to swing its weapon as hard as its joints can possibly endure! A shockwave tears across the wasteland, carving a great scar into the desert as the sword falls like the executioner's guillotine!
And over the din, two voices roar in unison...!
Zettai Zettou!!!
GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Zed has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Zettou Shinai - Zettai Zettou! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Zed's Zettou Shinai - Zettai Zettou for 476 hit points! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Fei rockets to safety, and a tiny bit of the weight is gone from Ida's shoulders. His attacker's furious screams ring in her mind, even as she tries to focus on the Jotunn and what it's doing. Gebler knows Fei. More than that, that man thought the Demon of Elru--
That Id was--
The thought is there now, lodged deep in Ida's mind like a splinter. She shakes her head, flips the voice-masking back on to try and regain composure--as if hiding her voice now would somehow help matters. "Look alive!" shouts Ida's algorithmically-jumbled voice, as the Jotunn rears an arm up and fires into the sky.
ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT DETECTED
The machine hunkers down, sinking to a knee and twisting so most of its bulk is beneath the heavier armor on its torso. It almost looks as though it's looking up at the sky, expectantly--perhaps daring it to its worst. Thrudgelmir does its worst. Exploding bolts slam into the Dragoon's shoulders, chest, and helmetlike head, tearing into its armor. Each explosion rocks the machine's frame--Ida can feel each jolt in the cockpit--and carves out a fresh divot in the armor. Ida put her life in her father's hands, trusting in his engineering to help keep her safe.
It seems to have worked.
Smoke rises from the Dragoon's frame as it uncurls and rises, its movements smoother on account of a system reset. It raises its cannon, and in the cockpit, Ida sees the fuel meter start to dip. Energy courses invisibly through the Gear's arms, and into the cannon it carries. An electromagnetic bottle forms within it, powered by electrically-conductive Dragon Filaments. Ignition-type Dragon Filaments heat the gas in the chamber until it's no longer truly a gas--it's a searing, burning plasma. Coolant-type Dragon Filaments stabilize everything, ensuring the Three-Dragon Cannon doesn't melt itself to slag, along with a good portion of the Gear using it. It is one of Adam Everstead-Rey's most cutting-edge weapons. His daughter turns it on the JOTUNN, and pulls the trigger.
Part of the bottle collapses. Plasma roars from the cannon's muzzzle with enough force to drive the Gear's arms back. It races at Thrudgelmir, a beam of white-hot, coruscating death, more than hot enough to reduce anything it touches to slag and ash.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir with Three Dragon Cannon - Breath Of The Sun! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Breath Of The Sun for 462 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir! GS: Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He moves Schiehallion into position, taking up a point in space between her and the construct. Yes, fortunately there are redundancies in place; eventually there should be a pickup for the defensive systems. But right now, save for the more basic defenses built in for the Gear, he's at a noted disadvantage.
Stay calm. This probably isn't where you'll die, he tells himself, before he takes a breath.
ENERGY READINGS FROM TARGET INCREASING. 60%... 75...
Stay calm. Stay focused.
It isn't just one shot.
Of course not.
INCOMING BOMBARDMENT, reads the messaging across the screen.
It's a rain of mortar fire. And with a crippled Gear, at his position, he's a sitting duck.
Shell after shell impacts the heavy Gebler Gear, sending sections of the armor plating cracking, shattering. Sparks dance in the air where not only the outer but inner shielding has been obliterated. Alarms -- too many to do a running inventory -- sound off; his cockpit is flooded with a dull red. Loren gives up attempting to read or make sense of the damage report about five lines in. Forget it, it's a mess. The only important thing is that the Gear still works.
Particularly when he spots that one flurry of shells rocketing right for--
SHIELDING SYSTEM RESTORED, announces a rare line of green across the intact screens. Light shines around his Gear as he routes power into the shielding, routes power into an all-out boost--
And intercepts the last of those shells bodily with the Gear, the shielding dampening the impact of mortar fire.
CRITICAL LEVELS REACHED. FURTHER COMBAT OPERATIONS IMPAIRED.
"...I know," he tells the on-board system. The fact that shielding Ether is applied soon after is only a bandage over a the wound. He'll be able to get this back to base without trouble, but the Gear will be out of commission for some time. "Heavy damage sustained," he informs her across the private channel. "I may need to--"
The override cuts through his transmission. There it is. An order to retreat. He would have had to have requested it in any case.
"Schiehallion to Wyvern. Understood: preparing withdrawal."
She'll be right behind him, the Watcher says.
"Understood, Simurgh. Support incoming." And he lets loose one final pulse of Ether, enough to similarly give her the ability to make it back intact.
Leave them to their fate. He's fine with that.
GS: Loren Voss has spent 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Loren Voss has attacked The Watcher with Energy Principle! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: The Watcher gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Loren Voss heals The Watcher! She gains 400 temporary hit points! GS: Reload! The Watcher gains 15 extra FP from Loren Voss! GS: The Watcher gains a Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Ahahahaha, I did it! I actually did it! Woo!" Gwen raises the terrible, uncertain thing that is her right ARM in the air with unbridled celebration. "I was completely wrong, Rudy, we *could* make a dent in that thing!"
Wonderful, joyous words delivered just before the consequences of such actions make themselves be known.
Well, not immediately. The machine makes its shuddering bellow, sending a volley bright shots into the sky.
Gwen looks up at the sky, and curses under her breath. There's no sense running. Gwen's going to need whatever energy she has left just to survive.
Grabbing onto Rudy in the sort of hope only a fledgling tryhard big sister figure could ever latch onto, Gwen raises her ARM, the weapon made from fossilized metal dragon bone and technology beyond her own understanding. She wills its to expand into a small shield, made of stretching bars of pyrite gold energy.
It won't be enough.
Just enough to survive, maybe, or to possibly pay back Rudy for his own heroic sacrifice. Or maybe, be flashy enough that one of the remaining gears (hopefully a friend's) notices them. One small target instead of two would be harder to hit, right? Something like that. "I think I overdid it," Gwen grunts. "But isn't it pretty? Like a field of stars."
Of course Gwen would say that.
And of course she'd smile, for as long as she thinks someone is watching.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The young man prepares himself to fight. It's clear that the Weltall is on his side, he knows it's hurt, but if they can push though. But Ramses' gear fights on, tearing into it. Fei is forced to recall himself, leaving the young gunslinger behind. The retreat perhaps saves Rudy, Solaris no longer having a reason to go all out as the other Gear pulls back as well.
Rudy calmly changes out cartridges as he looks toward the massive metal beast before him, his brown eyes hardening with focus as he prepares for a final volley. Then the woman appears. Gwen takes him up and Rudy is too shocked to fight against it. Soon, however, as Whitlock does her own trump card, Rudy sees the drones prepare themselves.
"Gwen, you can't be here!" the boy calls out in her moment of personal triumph, his gloved hand reaching out for her. He wants to protect her again, but he can't, he's too slow. "Please, I don't want you to suffer because I-"
Heaven's wraith pours down, extracting the price for thoughtless heroics as Gwen moves proves her protective nature for the self-destructive young lad.
Zed's newfound Gear offers its final blow, taking advantage of the opportunity given by Victoria, Ida, Leah, and Loren sealing its doom.
Meanwhile, Roughnight finds that he lives up to his own name, the dust clearing to reveal his bloodied body. A gloved hand grips the sand, a failed effort to get closer to Gwen, understanding she is suffering as well. "I'm sorry," he cries out as he inches forward slightly. Her words on the stars aren't noticed, too mired in his own regrets to see her philosophy of admiring the stars despite the pain. Maybe one day, he'll learn the power of joy no matter the circumstance. "I didn't mean to make Fei worry," he states, only now realizing her words and putting two and two together. "I didn't mean to make you hurt because of me." His legs kick out once, trying and failing to get under him. He's not getting up. At least not tonight. "I wouldn't have come if I knew you'd get hurt!" he exclaims with soft but pained heartbreak, as the tears roll down his face as it rests on the battlefield, taking some blood and sand along with it. "I'm sorry, Gwen; I'm sorry..." He whispers a few more times before his body gives out. But like the woman with the ARM arm, he's alive, perhaps thanks to her efforts.
Off in the distance, an man lower his spyglass, watching from the second floor balcony of the bar where Rudy had come out of. "Yeah, they didn't make it, pay up!" he calls to his other older and perhaps genre-savvy companion.
The other man groans in frustration as he hands the money over. "But the hair was blue, the guys with the blue hair almost ALWAYS make it. And that woman seemed to have a super tragic story with that arm."
"If they had a talking animal, they might have stood a chance," the first replies and they both nod in agreement, not at all troubled that if not for the brave souls and their Gears, Aeons, and everything else, that November might not still be around.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
A hand reaches out as Rudy gets close enough, raising up to gently rub Rudy's hair, while careful of the bandanna. "...'got a good heart," she finally says, softly. "... It's worth protecting." She groans, shifting her body the small inch or so she's allowed. "... We did good. I'm glad I followed you, Rudy. Learned something new." The hand relaxes, falling down to the ground beside her face. "... so... don't cry." Her eyelids drift closed, but her chest and face still move, still continue breathing. She's alive.
They survived.
<Pose Tracker> Jotunn-02 Thrudgelmir has posed.
The construct, whatever it is, wherever it came from, no longer bears the lights in its body as it is pulverized underneath the destructive rains. No final cries of pain come from the encroaching forces that are indeterminate parts lucky versus skilled to survive - but are certifiably determined enough to see all this through to its very end. Layna rushes in and shreds apart outer layer plating much more easily than when it was moving and doing things... a far greater piece of it flays off than she might intend when she yanks it in, but the only risk there is lost balance as she sees it away.
The Dust Dragoon moves in to put a bullet point on when and where the thing that kept interrupting those field expeditions at sundown finally ceased such activity (or any activity at all, ever), matching the strength of its deadly laser blasts with a plasma cannon that seems to turn the armor plating of the Jotunn like it were butter of an appropriate temperature.
Zed emotionally appeals to what may not ever have had them in the way he acknowledges their existence, and there is no answer in strange screams - only that it is present for his coup de grace as he brings down the COLOSSAL BLADE at unthinkable speeds. It hits the sand with an underwhelming 'whumpf,' as if to spite the impact of it hitting back down on Filgaia at the speed it does. Hardly any sand is displaced. The anti-Golem weapon itself reacts far differently as it is cut in twain, drifting apart in two clean halves as small explosions ring out throughout the fallen husk - twisting and warping into something unrecognizeable of which a reconstruction of what it once was will prove nigh impossible.
It will never again pull itself together to menace the Badlands as it has in recent times... but why, exactly, has it become so animated to the point of fully reconstituting itself right now? Was it biding its time? Did it take that long for auto-repair to kick back in? Maybe it had something to do with Mother's recent awakening?
The sun fully sets - once a sign of dread that this might appear, it now signifies the ancient construct's induction into eternity.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
MEANWHILE, IN THE FROZEN WASTES OF NORTHERN ELRU...
Some lowly slug-worm-bug huddles about himself. Ever since that day in Arctica, it has been tougher to move in these climates. He knows this part of the region inside out. He's patrolled it for decades prior. He's sick of it.
He wants to go out and destroy the humans in Mother's name. She's here! She's back! Just waiting to have him claim the glory he deserves... and they leave him to just sit and watch here for anything that shouldn't be there.
He despises it. Cowards, the lot of them, too afraid because he would destroy all the humans. Not him! He's no coward. He'd rush ahead and slay them before they even set foot on Elru. The blizzards mock the creature, battering him with snow and ice and a nasty wind that at one point blows him downhill. He sticks a solid scythe arm into the ground to support himself as he spits more ungentlemanly hexes.
"All things do not happen here ever!" He complains.
Then he cranes his neck upwards to a growing shadow, of something covered in a fiery halo held at bay by a flickering, failing light-blue forcefield.
An explodion follows a split-second scream. Smoldering in the crater is a circular device that pulses a faint blue hue, a flickering hexagonal aura denoting a failing forcefield that nonetheless enables its own progression to its final destination. It leaves the unfortunate scout in their crater as it continues their inexorable roll up the rim of this new dent in the very earth, across snow unfathomably deep, towards where it must go.
Back to the Photosphere.
(It's going to leave out the part of what cushioned its re-entry.)
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
At last, the dust settles in the wake of Zed's final, fatal strike. Even without the satisfaction of a totally earth-shattering kaboom, Zed is... Still pleased. This was, all in all, a decent first outing for his newest mechanical friend. And yet, as he looks at the ruined remains of the fallen jotunn, a pang of regret resounds in his heart.
He spoke to it, once.
Then, it had been sorrowful, mournful, grim, but determined. Now it had... Only rage and estatic, alien joy in the revelry of violence. Had he put it out of its misery...? Perhaps.
Perhaps.
But for now, Zed has one more thing to do.
Over the unconscious bodies of a certain gunslinger and courier, a shadow grows long and ominous. A pair of enormous hands scoop up around the both of them, and the giant they belong to begins its long trek back home.
A FEW DAYS LATER, AT THE ZEDDER RAY RESEARCH LABS/ZED'S COOL HOUSE
The machine known as the DaiZedGear sits silently in the shadow of a great big cave. Its owner busily hauls massive sheets of metal, steel rails and various cables to and fro, building... What looks like some kind of catapult? Maybe? It doesn't matter.
Within the machine, a soul reignites. Orange light flickers across a screen.
Auto-repair complete. Rebooting--
A memory leaps across the fore of an electronic brain. Suddenly, an emotion that it hadn't even realized it was capable of begins to bubble up from the depths of its soul.
oh no
Suddenly, a voice calls out for it. Someone slaps its body's foot in a gesture that can only be called... buddy-buddy. "Hey partner! You finally wake up? That was awesome back there!"
Oh. No.
"That final attack was the best! It was like! Woosh! Kshang! BLAOOOOW!" Zed's arms flail! They flail so hard!
Aaaa--
"You're the best, pal!" Zed laughs and slaps his robot's metal foot again, "I bet everyone saw just how cool we were! It'll be great! We'll be famous!"
--AAAAAAAAAAA--
The emotion boils over. The machine called DaiZedGear, inhabited by the learning core of the Jotunn variant called Eldthrusar-01 Surtur sinks its metal face into its metal hands. Yes. This terrible, burning ache at the very core of his being... This can only be what humans call... Shame...!