2023-03-28: War Never Changes

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<Pose Tracker> Necronomicon has posed.

    A village on the outskirts of Adlehyde's territory is having a very, very bad day.

    The Adelyn Ranchlands are usually peaceful enough, and this village is small, uninvolved. But that changed when a soldier carrying an important package limped into town, her squadron gone. Of course, a farmer chose to help...

    But now, her army is here to claim her; Kislev has sent another group of soldiers to escort her home. However: Aveh has also heard of her approach...

    And had sent a Gear with its soldiers.

    Step forward to now: the Gear's guns scythe through a barn as a warning shot, as soldiers on either side line up in preparation for a battle, the Kislev side seeking cover wherever they can find it as terrified farmers start to run. It's noon, the grasslands stretching out in all directions, and already there is devastation.

    The battle is on, and the battle is here.

    BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qKiSWq6DAY 

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline Barber is of Adlehyde. And she is a traveler, a merchant - she's already familiarized herself with the villages and the people dotting the Adelyn Ranchlands. Her family lives in one of them, after all, having moved out of the main city following the attack on Adlehyde by the Metal Demons so long ago.

This isn't their village, thankfully - but right now, that doesn't matter. What matters is that there are innocent lives on the line, whether they're her family or not.

Aveh and Kislev approach, and the former has...

"A Gear? Monsters...! That's completely unnecessary!" Jacqueline hisses to herself through clenched teeth. If she were to call in Issachar now, she may be able to take it... but such an act would be tantamount to declaring war, and even an Omnigear can't take out an entire army on its own.

No, better not to risk it. So instead, she focuses on what she can do with just herself - preserving as many innocent lives as possible.

"Everyone, please come this way! Are there any injured?" Jacqueline calls out. One hand waves to draw the attention of the fleeing farmers, while the other is hard at work, performing sorcerous gestures - raising earthen structures to give them cover, to help them get away from the forming armies. Some coordination is better none, when tensions are so high. 

<Pose Tracker> Rille Felis has posed.

Rille Felis is also having a very, very bad day, though until just now she didn't realize it.

Rille had been kind of vaguely trying to avoid Kislev, for the very simple reason that she is very technically an escapee from a work prison, and while she isn't exactly high priority, there's definitely a reward on her head. She stands out. It's hard to misidentify her as anyone else.

But she's frequently in the area, doing odd jobs - the kind of thing you'd need a Drifter for, or just a strong worker. She's found people, moved livestock, done the other sorts of odds and ends that travelers always seem to get to do. Some of her time has been on Nede, but most of it has been here.

She can't entirely run away from Kislev and Aveh, after all. The war's on.

Rille had been sleeping after a long night when the first soldier came into town. There'd been a sheep that had gotten lost, and she'd been out all night finding the damn thing and bringing it back from where it had gotten separated and lost in a ravine. (Did you know Rille can see in the dark? Not perfectly, but well enough on a bright night.)

So she didn't even know something was going on, at first. She'd been happily snoring away in a borrowed... well, not even really a room, just a corner. That was before gunfire. Big gunfire.

Rille bursts out of a different farmstead, trying to simultaneously run, button her shirt with her thickly clawed fingers, and hike up her shorts with one hooked little finger. She manages to get the shorts pulled into place, buttons at least enough of the buttons that the shirt stays put even if it is open over her stomach, and settles for just running after that, clawed feet kicking up clods of dirt.

"Hey!" she yells, waving her arms. "This way, this way! C'mon, stick with me!" It looks like she's not alone, either; someone else is doing something with the dirt, which strikes Rille as a good idea. "Stay behind the earthworks!" She glares at the Kislev soldiers, but her fiercer glare is saved for the Aveh Gear. What the hell is that thing doing here? There's nothing here that deserves a Gear pointed at it!

Rille is still running because she can physically start picking up people, if they can't run themselves. She expects to. 

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

When Eleanor had a premonition, Hannah knew it would be bad news. And involving Aveh and Kislev, in particular... there was something screwy with that, she was pretty sure, given the encounter she'd had recently at a seemingly-abandoned Kislev supply depo... but she didn't have enough details to make any conclusions just yet.

Her immediate concern now, however, is preventing casualties and collateral damage for the innocent bystanders just trying to live out their lives and do something compassionate for a lone soldier. She'd arrived with Ida and Ruth, and had set herself about the task of gathering recon.

She's got herself hunkered down for the moment, eyes closed, while Zephyr scouts for her. She's counting under her breath. "Well," she says finally. "I ain't likin' our odds if a real firefight break out... 'specially not with that Gear they brought to the fight." She opens her eyes and starts sketching something out. "Found some routes we can use to evacuate people, though, an' Zephyr's keepin' an eye on things from above. Worst come to worst, we c'n at least keep the people safe."

The homes and buildings are quite another matter, though. But, one problem at a time. 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    See, this is why you should only trust professionals with important packages!

    ..... Except no. A military matter must remain that of the military; Gwen has made a point of not doing business between the military sides of the two warring nations for a reason.

    Flying in the Halcyone with Lan, Gwen takes a note of the skirmish below, just as an Aveh Gear decimates a barn. "... What the hell is goin' on down there? We're in Adlehyde territory!" Picking up her radio, Gwen yells, "Lan! I'm makin' an emergency stop! Two squads're scufflin' on some farmers' land right on the Adelhyde border."

    Thankfully, the Halcyone's design, is uniquely *not* of Aveh or Kislev design and has been customized to advertise its function as a courier vehicle. However, Gwen's pretty sure not everyone's going to have gotten that memo, or would want to honor it in the heat of battle.

    Switching her microphone to the speakers, Gwen says, "Uh, welcome to Adlehyde! Y'all sure seem to be a little lost n' all. How 'bout *not* takin' out that time-honored aggression on the folk 'ere, eh?" The two 'chicken' feet of the Halcyone plant themselves in the dirt admist the danger. "I can see a lot of my fellow Drifter pals're here too. So, why not skedaddle away from these parts? You got a whole ol' territory to the west to fight in."

     Be loud, be friendly, be blandly ignorant of the situation, and must of all, make yourself a nice distraction. That is Gwen's plan: buying time for the fleeing folks to get someplace to hide, even if she can't exactly do this for very long. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily was tracking the soldiers' movements, until now. The trail had initially gone cold at the site of another battle--seeing the fallen Kislevi soldiers was... not pleasant, for her memories. She knew those uniforms, after all. After debating it for a little while, Lily decided to delay.

She buried the fallen soldiers, though it took her hours to do. And then she continued along the trail she found.

That took here here, approahing in stealth, in exactly enough time to see the Avehan soldiers descending on the town.

"Shit," Lily comments, immediately guessing what's about to happen--even before the Gear starts firing. When that happens Lily dives for cover immediately, pulling down her friend if she's a little too slow to do the same.

"Gears... They must be expecting serious trouble."

Lily considers for a moment. "Jay's magic. ARMS looks to be on the scene... And..." Rille. Rille is definitely handling people. Lily looks to her thoughtfully--and then decides that where the earthenworks cover is is exactly where she needs to not be.

Instead, Lily pops out of cover and extends her hands. Her stealth gear is at this point more Galadian than Kislevi, but she is recognizeably a soldier--and recognizeably working magic. She stares at a fire and it winks out, deprived of all oxygen as she smothers it with the power of space.

Another, and another. She's trying to limit the devastation as best she can, but it does make her a potential target. 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida hunkers down behind the bole of an old oak, pressing herself against its bark and the ground in equal measure. She takes deep, steady breaths, trying to stay focused on where those colossal footsteps are coming from... and where they're headed.

    "Gear's the biggest threat here," Ida says, as if it needed saying. "Keep track of it." She glances to Ruth. "Do you carry antimaterial rounds?" Ida doesn't have any, and can't make them in the field with zero equipment and zero prep time. Her brain is still trying to problem-solve the encroaching enemy army.

    The Gear's guns cut through the barn like a buzzsaw. Ordinary wood offers no resistance to that kind of firepower.

    "Shit!" Ida squawks, "we need to deal with--"

    A second Gear touches down. Ida stares at Halcyone for a good three seconds before she realizes what Gwen's up to. "Jay needs help," Ida says. "Cover me." She shoves herself upright, and dashes towards the farmhouse adjacent to that barn, raising her voice. "RUN!" Ida screams, and she glances into the farmhouse window, checking to see if anyone's been left behind. "HURRY!" Again, she breaks into a dead sprint, dashing behind Halcyone towards another building and checking it. Jay seems to have rounded up most of the people, but...

    No one deserves to be cut down in their own home.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Elly was here to help.

And the thing is that Elly has a lot of highly specific skills and pieces of training which are definitely not in any kind of way nurturant or caring. She was trained as a military intelligence officer.

Of course, that has many aspects - which is why when she helped Lily to bury the soldiers, she used Earth Ether to create spaces and to seal them up again.

Elly also looks a great deal different right now, because her hair has been gathered up into an opaque wrapped dark cloth and the rest of her outfit is likely sourced from the same place as Lily. She even has some dusty makeup on her face, to reduce the reflectivity from her big ol' chubby cheeks, though she can't do much about her equally limpid, soul-baring glistening blue eyes.

"Lily," Elly tells her, with some urgency. "I could call Regulus, but the active countermeasures won't work in call-mode. I'm not sure if -" She pauses when Halcyone appears, briefly -- "Oh, fair," Elly continues, before her attention moves forth. She continues her inadvertent sort of Earth-type combo; her anti-fire measures are done with bursts of dust and conjured soil.

You never know who might be watching with Aveh involved. 

<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

Eleanor had her premonition, and she's impressed upon those friends who were close by to hurry to that village. Ruth Pauling, one of the ones to respond, has had a rough reception at a village just like this one, not long ago.
 
     People flee all around her, and it's colorful noise that starts to edge towards white. With only one healthy ear, picking up coherent words is a challenge as Hannah breaks down their odds. A bit of a wicked smile starts to crest Ruth's face, head bowed as she feels the strain of her left shoulder metaphorically going 'no, nope, don't.'
 
     "You can," she says to Hannah as she comes to grips with what she'll be doing. "I know my part in this."
 
     She's both simultaneously numb to, and frightfully aware of, that barn buckling to Gear rounds, as Ida asks her an important question. "I've one clip."
 
     She's found a ladder to a choice place to take her roost, though the climb is slow. The Granasian rosary glints in what light is present. She hesitates to crest the top of that climb because she knows what she's going to see, and what it's all going to bring back - but this is who she is.
 
     The last few steps of her ascent up the ladder is agonizing, but complete, as she draws her rifle with the help of Malevolence running through and reinforcing her left arm. The scope has been removed so that a reflection can't give it away, relying on an iron sight instead. She relays as such over empathite to the others, words that ought be chilling.
 
     "I'm in position." Death's Door is in place. She gauges the field from her elevated position en route to locating the Aveh Gear and its on-foot support. Waiting, watching, for a key moment to take the shot(s).
 
     She'll keep those working on the ground to evacuate and move people safe, pending further spotter reads by Zephyr (as relayed by Hannah). 

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Sometimes Lan gets the opportunity to travel with Gwen while the courier is making her deliveries. This used to be a more fraught method of travel for Lan, whose notorious dislike of Gear cockpits usually led to her either hitching a dangerous and breezy ride on the outside or very miserably enduring the cramped and stuffy inside. While she's pretty fine with riding on the outside, her development of the spell she has yet to actually find a proper sticking name for has made it a lot easier to move around under her own power.

    Which is why, when Gwen explains what that minor explosion up ahead is, Lan releases her grip on a sticky-outty part (Gwen told her the technical name and Lan nodded and promptly forgot it, and has been too embarrassed to admit that she did). She already has the spell active, a few resonating shards and slabs of crystal floating around here like an imitation of a Gear's viewscreens, because that's exactly what they are; it lets her talk to and see Gwen almost as easily as if they were sitting together.

    Probably easier than, actually, because Lan isn't shaking and trying to concentrate on how not-artificial and not-stuffy everything totally is.

    "Okay!" she calls back, standing easily. The crystals move with her, an extension of her will. Lan steps off of Halcyone's hull, and even if it's not a large Gear, the fall will surely injure her--!

    Gravity ceases its hold on her fragile mortal body. More and more crystals phase into existence around her, until Lan floats in her own asteroid field. Despite the seriousness of the situation, taking flight always feels liberating.

    "I'll back you up!" A number of larger crystal points, the length of her arms and the thickness of her thighs, materialize too; they hum with power in a way the starfield doesn't. 

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Wu had been traveling with Lily. Her goons had been scattered, spread out looking as well. She doesn't seem surprised that it's landed on her lap though. Before all of that though, she'd been helping to bury the dead as well. She didn't show any emotion there either, but nor did she complain. Adding to the Earth Ether with her own. Precise and sharp edged as it was. If you go rogue because you cared about your soldiers, you extend it all the way right? The former shock trooper internalizes it that way at least.
 
 Her own uniform is mottled greys and browns with an old school harness for her pistols and ammunition. All tucked away with a drooping broad brimmed hat and her hair in a tight bun.
 
 The embankment is a good lookout. Though inaction here won't help anyone if you want to do more than observe.
 
 She's lingering for a moment, muttering away into her radio. Coordinates, time, direction, head count, armaments and estimated responses. Anyone close enough might realize she's treating it pretty seriously. With the radio away, she pulls her pocketwatch, checking it for a moment. "Shrike's too far for launch. Friendlies are en route, but a few minutes out."
 
 She aims for a different goal though. Starting first with Lily and Elly, reinforcing their cover without blocking line of sight. She holds a hand up, "I'm going to go liason." before she begins her run towards the farmstead. Cover to cover, even if she has to create her own. She's not at all subtle, like she might be trying to draw oncoming fire from both the pair she'd traveled with and the bystanders and rescuers below. 

<Pose Tracker> Necronomicon has posed.

    It cannot be overstated what a calamitous international incident this risks being: it's one thing for Aveh and Kislev to fight, but now they have brought their war over Adlehyde's doorstep and into the foyer. There's every chance that -- save perhaps for Princess-Regent Cecilia's renowned level head in such things -- this could well become a three-sided war.

    No doubt the soldier that inadvertently caused this mess had counted on Adlehyde's being a neutral party in the stalemate between Aveh and Kislev -- she'd surely assumed that she wouldn't be followed. Unfortunately, she'd been wrong and underestimated how far the other side had been willing to go.

    But now is not the time to worry about the geopolitical future, or where the blame should fall. Now is the time for decisive action: lives still might be saved and terrible destruction prevented.

    Jacqueline, with deeper ties than most to Adlehyde, is quick on the scene, acting as beacon and ward for the fleeing farmers. Eager for some hope of salvation, they flock to her near the town's center, some led by Rille who has hurried for the earthwork fortifications that Jay has raised. Others are rallied from their homes and businesses by Ida who runs as far and as wide as she can to help bring them to where the others are gathering. And they're all just in time:

    A missile shatters against one of her earthen walls.

    Smoke rises like a tide across what had been the village square. If it hadn't been for Zephyr's recon work moments prior, such a development might have led to immediate chaos among the gathered villagers; as it stands, Hannah is able to give them all some guidance about which ways they should go to escape the village center.

    But the fact remains that there are still buildings burning. And that there are Gears still doing battle with one another and threatening to press further into what had been the town center. There could still be people in those buildings, for one thing--

    But both sides will have to contend with the sight of Gwen's Halcyone and the choice words the pilot hurls into the pitched melee. Gwen's in time to watch one of the Avehan Gears deal a decisive blow against their Kislevi counterparts, after which there's but a moment's pause. Are they considering what she's said, or Lan's deployment of her crystal cosmos or--

    Or opening fire on Gwen's Gear next, it seems. But Gwen's positioned herself in just the right place to divert any incoming fire away from the village.

    There's a scream for help from the now-burning farmhouse ; it appears that the spreading flames have indeed trapped someone inside. But before this necessitates a pitched rescue mission, at Lily's will the flames that were consuming the building start to vanish as if snuffed, leaving behind blacked planks and a way forward for the trapped occupant to freedom. Elly, with her own earthen Ether, works to try to similarly (in outcome if not in essence) snuff and bury the flames that still spread from the burning barn, or from any of the other places where artillery fire had been felt previously. It will take more work to keep the flames contained, but both of them are on the job. Meng Wu meanwhile, races towards the blazing barn.

    Are Lan and Gwen aware of Ruth? Would she have opted for another action if she were, or would she have chosen the same action regardless? Perhaps there is no 'unjust' action when it comes to saving the lives of the innocent -- certainly, none of the soldiers, who cannot be ignorant (not after Gwen's words) that they are involving Adlehyde and citizen lives, are innocent in this. The fact of the matter now is that Ruth is in position...
    And the Avehan Gears have their 'backs' turned to her sniper's nest. Only one of them spots movement nearby and it isn't Ruth -- they've spotted Meng Wu's approach and detonate a spire of rock that she abandoned two points of cover ago: the Avehan Gear certainly has no idea where she's gotten to by now.

    But all is not well in the town proper. An errant missile had struck the church early into the sortie and now the burning church belltower is beginning to collapse--

    Right for the path into which the fleeing farmers and villagers are headed. 

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

"Hard for 'im to miss that one. But he's got eyes on all the troops." Ida asks about antimaterial rounds--she's asking Ruth, admittedly, but... Darkly, she says, "Pretty sure I could make a dent in that thing, if I set my mind to it." She really hates calling upon all that power, but... in times of desperate need, right?

Ruth says she knows her part though... and Hannah nods solemnly. She rips a second page out and hands it to Ruth.

She's marked a few different high perches for Ruth to use. It's given with a quiet, weighty reverence for what she knows Ruth is about to do.

But she can see, clearly, that the ARMS conteingent aren't the only people on scene. Lily, Elly, and Wu come in, with Wu looking like she's trying to draw fire, and Jay and Rille (and now Ida) seem to be doing their best to help the civilians. Gwen is trying to stall, and Lan looks like she's making ready to do... something, with those crystals.

And her guidance is handy, as it helps the villagers escape a missile strike, but that still leaves the problem of artillery hitting the village. "Grr... buncha..." Zephyr's handling recon. She can get in and help the villagers, the same way Jay is. She charges into the village, looking for bystanders and innocents, and even raising up a few of her own barriers (though they all look... a bit off, compared to Jay's. Spiky and menacing in a way a wall just shouldn't--but they'll hold, nontheless.)

Hannah pauses, as she hears an alarming cry in the back of her mind. She abruptly changes course, her hiking boots kicking up dirt as she charges for the church's belltower. She skids to a stop in front of it and removes a crest graph from her pouch.

It's blazing a bright bluish white as she channels magic into it. But for something that large... Hannah closes her eyes, and the already tense air grows more tense around her as it starts to ripple--something not quite right is filling the air around Hannah, and she strains to control it...

When she opens her eyes again they're glowing. She raises the crest graph high and shouts, "Winter's Grasp!" Then she slams it into the ground. A wave of twisted ice comes rushing out, crawling up, wrapping around the damaged structure to provide some reinforcement--but it's not going to last, not with the fire it it working through the ice.

And though she knelt to touch the crest graph to the ground, she sags immediately after, putting her other hand to the ground for support.

She might be in the way of that belltower herself if someone else can't get it stabilized. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily is pretty sure that with this group, they could do some damage even to the Gears. ...But without endangering the people even more? Without worsening the international incident that's already in play? Lily would have some words for that soldier, but...

All those years ago, she might've done the same thing.

The otehrs are handling the people, but Lily has the brief chance to help someone here. "Come on out!" Lily calls to th womann who has a way forward, "We'll cover you!"

She watches Wu, stepping over, and grits her teeth as the cover she'd used is blown to hell.

But Lily sees another problem. Not the many Gears, but--

"The tower!" Lily calls, and looks around; she sees nothing that can arrest its fall for now. Which means...

"Meng!" Lily calls, using her surname, "Get me supports, now! Elly!" There's only one person Lily trusts more than Elly at her back. Just one.

 She jumps away from where she'd stood with Elly, and begins to transform. Prismatic wings begin to extend from her back in the shape of circuitry; her eyes turn dark. The markings on her body glow, even through her clothes, and she extends both hands.

Gravitic force lurches from all around her, time and space distorting in all directions as if the world itself is cracking on its axis. She extends both of her hands--

Lily interposes herself between the falling tower and the people below, and shifts the forces involved to hold it up. The tower halts mid-air--

But not for long, not without help. The tower is threatening to break apart at any moment (though Hannah's ice may make the difference), and the bell, ringing in alarm, begins to tumble out, towards the people.

"Elly! Now!"

Death calls. But perhaps it can be delayed, if not defeated. 

<Pose Tracker> Rille Felis has posed.

Rille is definitely handling people. Possibly manhandling them. But she's glad she's not doing it alone, even if she's not exactly counting heads right now to see who's around.

While other people set up enormous weapons and acts of sorcerous might, Rille has none of those available to her. What she has is nothing but the strength of her arms and legs, enough stamina to keep at it all day -

And the loudest voice for miles.

Rille takes a deep breath before letting out a "KEEP MOVING!" at her top volume. The air vibrates around her; she feels the noise in her bones, it cuts over even the sounds of Gear-sized violence. Rille bounds forward, ensuring that people are still on the move; she stops, once, to help a fallen farmer up, sending them on with a restrained thump on the back once she's sure they're upright.

Rille digs her feet and one hand's claws into the side of the earthwork, hanging there so she can see over the sudden wall. The fire's spreading, but all she can do about that is make sure nobody's in it, and she can't be everywhere at once no matter how much she wants to be. Earth spreads around the fire, putting some of it out, but it doesn't un-burn the building. She growls, low - she's *furious* at Kislev and Aveh for bringing their stupid, stupid war here, for no reason she can tell -

The belltower explodes.

Rille is moving before she thinks about it. If she *had* thought about it, she would have seen the problem here; the tower is much bigger than she is, and it's falling to pieces. Even if she could stop it, all the rest of it would fall around her. But the instinct to act happens below the level of conscious thought.

But then the tower *stops*, caught in a net of magic that Rille cannot identify or make sense of. Her growl turns to a grin as the enormous bronze bell rings, caught in its framework of wood... splintering, damaged, scorched wood.

With a crack and a shudder, the bell breaks free. It hits on its side and rolls, careening wildly like an even-bigger cannonball, and it's coming for people. Not just her, though it's moving towards Rille; the people behind her that she sent on.

This is going to suck, is all Rille thinks, as she runs, head down, arms pumping - to suddenly come to a halt, arms spread as she tenses her entire body.

The bell slams into Rille, thudding against her upper body, chest and stomach and thighs - and drives her back. Even her clawed feet, gripping the soil deeply, can't stop her; several hundred fast-moving, rolling, bouncing kilograms of bell have just hit over a hundred kilos of Rille and that's a *lot* of momentum to stop dead.

Rille grunts, every muscle in her body tensed, feeling the pain and the taut pressure as she struggles to hold it back rather than be bowled over. She can feel not just her arms but her legs and her torso strain, to say nothing of having just had the air knocked out of her by the impact. She flexes slightly, arching her back -

- as Rille literally lifts the bell up off the ground, holding it still - by herself! - for several long, silent seconds before half-setting it down, half-dropping it with a THUD. It no longer rolls, or no more than a few centimeters, while Rille breathes out in a shuddering gasp, falling to one knee and trying to recover from having an enormous weight slammed into her body with enough force to knock down a brick wall. 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Gwen's never minded Lan perching on the outside, and while her Gear is roomier than most on the inside, it's not exactly.... homey, despite Gwen's attempts to spruce up the insides. That extra space is meant to serve towards cargo, and while there's seats for the times when her 'cargo' is friends, there's no denying the grimy, metal interior is anything other than a spruced up customized Gear.

    "You be careful, Lan. My idiot act'll only buy a few seconds if we're lucky," Gwen warns, as Lan prepares. "And it ain't like it's all an act either. Be prepared t'pull out all quick-like if this's some weird trainin' exercise."

    The Halcyone, while definitely able to put up much more of a resistance to bullets than Gwen herself, is not exactly a tank, either. It's made to protect packages and get from A to B, and to minimize threats to those packages.

    It won't hold out for long, but it'll get the job done. Like a hen protecting its chicks, the legs of the Halcyone bend backwards to lower the bulk of it to the ground, while its 'arms' cover in front of it to provide a tiny bit more coverage. "..... Note t'self, get more shieldin' if I'm gonna pull stunts like this," Gwen grumbles to herself, until a bullet from one of the 'invading' forces manages to pierce the armor, and audibly ping around in a compartment uncomfortably close to Gwen's head.

    She doesn't focus on shooting back, either; that would need one of the arms to come away from covering the cockpit, and she's not about to escalate things more than necessary. "I recommend y'all retreat now, before you pull Adlehyde in," Gwen says over her speakers. She tries to will away the smell of burning wood and cloth from distracting her; she has to trust that everyone behind her is handling the rescue effort.

    The falling bell tower, however, is another matter, but Gwen can't exactly move fast enough to knock it aside, but she does shift the Halcyone over, trying to cover for the rescuers and those who flee. 

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

On her own, Jacqueline isn't sure how much she'd be able to accomplish. She's just one person, and these people aren't fighters - they aren't ready for things like this. But thankfully, Jacqueline isn't alone. She doesn't know Rille, but she can see the way she's lending a hand, helping to provide further direction to the people.

"Thank you!" Jacqueline calls over to her. She'll have to catch her name if they get through all of this. And it's not just her - there's so many familiar faces gathering here now - and a familiar Gear, engaging those of the armies. While she and Rille help guide the people, others contribute in their own way.

The town center... that's a good start, and the people follow her. But that's not enough, not yet - Jacqueline shuts her eyes tight as a missile crashes into her walls, the impact nearly causing her to lose her footing. No one got hurt, but that was close - and it's incredibly likely that they'll try that again. More people join the group, too, through the others' efforts as they are rescued and rallied.

...But then, there is a loud, terrible sound - the church cracks, and begins to collapse - right into their path!

"No!! Wait-" Jacqueline calls out. And -

Ice rushes up the crumbling building, providing some reinforcement. Lily draws upon her power, and the tower stops. The bell begins careening - and Rille catches it. Jacqueline's breath is caught in her throat - but she finally exhales. Just enough to start shouting again.

"Go! Quickly, quickly! While they've still got it!" Jacqueline urges, quickly reaching into her bags and drawing out a bottle of pale green liquid. She taps a hand against the side of the bottle - and the contents evaporating, forming into a glimmering cloud. It surrounds the townsfolk, giving them energy, promoting freedom of movement - something they'll need to make it through. And once she's sure every one's safely made it past the clocktower -

She moves for Rille, offering her a hand up and a potion for recovery. For the others, she can only offer a grateful look for now. 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
There's screaming. Chaos. That church that was on fire is creaking. The farmers are - are moving? Elly looks up from where she had been trying to extinguish the flames. They've moved too far, too fast.

It's going to collapse. Lily sees it. Elly feels the tug of a certain sort of sick self-loathing in her belly, erupting out from the tension and control of the observation mission and its humanitarian swing. But she's doing something to catch it.

The bell breaks free but Elly can't do anything about that. She's being called. Elly sucks in a deep breath and raises both her hands, slapping them together, the fingers and their metal capper at the base coming together as she lowers her head. Despite the disguise, it doesn't really feel any different as she breathes out.

And flame licks out towards the wooden structure from Elly. How is that going to help!? It's going to be even more on fire!

As Rille catches the bell, Elly steps forwards. Her eyes are mostly closed. The flames from her position keep erupting, though they wobble for a moment, the flame misbehaving itself and seeming to shrink into itself. And brighten. Elly's face tightens. The brightness flickers

and erupts with trebled force, enough to stand out even in the thermal landscape of a town under assault. Elly's head snaps up and her eyes stare up at the intense flame. She raises her left hand which forms a loose fist - she pulls it to the front, and the incinerating flame slams in that direction instead. It burns and the resulting smoke rising into the sky is ten times what it already was. But it rises, for the most part; it may blacken the air for miles around, but that's because the combustion is...

Getting complete. A chunk of the very tip tumbles off, but it was not in the path. Elly begins to walk the flame downwards, panting in the short air as sweat pricks from her skin and immediately evaporates.

Her vision swims a little, or is it the heat? Either way: she walks the flame down, to aim to reduce the wreckage to light and ash. As a sort of side effect, it is now a lot easier to see in the immediate area.

(subtle and sneaky, just like Gebler likes it!) 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    There are stragglers. Ida honestly doesn't blame them. Hunkering down might be viable if there weren't Gear weaponry being thrown around. She stops in her tracks as she ushers an elderly woman to the relative safety of Jay's group, head craning in the direction of that scream--

    Lily smothers the flames. Ida's lungs are burning, but she still rushes forward, and offers the villager a hand as they move through the smoke.

    Ida's head tilts to the side, and she says, into her Empathite earpiece:

    "Ruth... take the shot...!"

    It is a declaration of absolute trust in someone still drenched in innocent blood.

    "Go, go!" Ida's voice is raw, but she screams anyway. The creak of wood alerts to her to the collapsing belltower. She's right in its path. Ida sets her heels, sucks in a pained breath, and throws her body between the crumbling structure and the fleeing villagers. She might survive. She might even slow the bell, a little. It turns out to be wholly unnecessary.

    The adrenaline rush only abates for a moment. Ida snaps her heels together, and a wall of wind rises up, a favorable tailwind flecked with motes of green. It surrounds the fleeing civilians, aiding their escape.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    It doesn't really matter whose territory this is, to Lan. It matters that there is a barn that will have to be rebuilt, and a home that is burning, and a belltower that is falling. There are people who could be killed and a community that could be wiped off the map. Lahan isn't the only village that was ever ruined by something as simple as a single Gear. "I know. But if we can buy even just a little time for the people who live here, it's worth it!"

    Lan is thankfully just far enough from Halcyone to not be in the immediate target area; she is, however, well within range of possible ricochets if a bullet were to bounce off at just the wrong angle.

    She reinforced the idea of the shield, after Azoth. But still.

    "Are you okay?!" she yelps, as her image of Gwen suddenly comes with a free 'ping ping pting' soundtrack courtesy of a very near miss. She stretches out to her full height inside the relative safety of her starfield, toes loose in her sandals, and reaches out to the invading Gears, as though about to beckon--

    --and one of the pillar crystals surrounding her disappears, blinking back into reality above the Gear that fired on Halcyone. The ring of light surrounding it expands, builds, and then shrinks to a single point at the center before discharging as a single beam of radiant starlight, smashing a crater into the ground at the enemy Gear's feet.

    "Please," Lan asks them, echoing Gwen's earlier coaxing. "This doesn't have to get any worse. Please just go home, okay?" 

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Sliding to a stop as the missile strikes the tower, Wu stomps her foot down, creating a splash of rock cover for her for a moment. She had one idea in mind, though Lily's callout changes that plan and she instead adjusts on the fly without hesitation. Tapping into years of experience in reshaping terrain to her advantage and concluding that trying to hold the building up is a losing prospect at that height, she makes a sweeping motion with her free hand, ripping up the earth and creating a series of stones at a sharp angles overhead the fleeing civilians and supporting the wall. A wave of stone and earth holding for the immediate time being. Suspiciously similar to vehicle traps. Something drilled into her. Loud, unsubtle and familiar. Ideal for on the fly instinctual magic right?. Some habits might die hard.
 
 If she wasn't a fun target before, the magic display might have helped. With Lily and Elly's cover crumbling, she turns her focus. Lifting both hands, creating additional hiding places for the two. Still out more or less in the open herself. It's a pride thing for her to keep those under her charge (As she sees it). Self-preservation comes after.
 
 There's a sense that she hasn't had to strain herself this much in a long time though and she's looking shaky. Using a hand against the barrier and a peek around her own barrier to try and get a look at the situation. That she's leaning hard and breathing harder doesn't matter. She's not trying to hide any weakness. Leaning against the wall when a shot whizzes past, she checks the chamber of her pistol and focuses. 

<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    Things deteriorate. Ruth's eye squints as she makes out figures against plumes of smoke and dust from various explosions and imapcts. She bats her eyes, but tears don't yet escape. Her breathing shallows even as chaos emerges regarding the exploding belltower. Her gaze shifts between Lan's and Gwen's Gears, and the explosion from one of that Avehan Gear to that spire of rock. Their back is all turned to her.
 
     These aren't the same kinds of Gears that were fielded in Zoara. She has unfamiliarity with the common models seen on the field. Another look to shuffling soldiers, and occasionally catching glimpse of others. Her gaze re-centers, re-focuses.
 
     "There." She says, as she thinks of the target.
 
     ...The first.
 
     "There," she says again, movement of her eye tracking another of the Avehan Gears. A smile she'd be ashamed of seeing in the mirror, but one she cannot deny having, recognizes how they might react. She wants them to see the first one. Watch them turn, face both the correct way - and the wrong way, if they wanted to glimpse anything else.
 
     The second.
 
     'Ruth... take the shot...!'
 
     The third and fourth do not take as much consideration.
 
     "...All of them," she concurs, as Malevolence wreathes around her. Her emergent tail wraps around her left arm for physical support, and an extension of the despair that she can't ever be anything other than a--
 
          * BANG *
 
     It's a deafening report unfamiliar to the Ignasian landscape, for the most part. The first round, to pierce and detonate on-board fuel and munitions as an educated guess owing to the angle afforded by the Avehan Gear that tried to fire on the rock spire.
 
     Her right hand dances across the length of the rifle with unmatched dexterity - speed and precision, chambering the next round and stabilizing the rifle's legendary kick in an unthinkably small amount of time.
 
     * BANG *
 
     The second shot, for the next - placed so the next two targets will doubtless recognize, react. Once again, her hand moves.
 
     * BANG *
 
     Three in a row, faultless accuracy - aiming to pierce the cockpit should that target look just far enough in that direction she can get the angle. Once more, her hand dances, as if eager for the one, powerful sound that is the only thing her left ear can hear now.
 
     * BANG *
 
     The fourth, and final shot for the last in the line in immediate reach, as the Gae Buidhe/DDearg DC4's clip is expended, to consign that last targeted Gear's pilot to a sudden end. Her tail parts company from her left arm to retrieve another clip - unfortunately, that was her only anti-material set - dexterously picking the rifle open as if an eager child wanting to go 'more, more, more, again, again, again.'
 
     Death's Door's terror continues anew. 

<Pose Tracker> Necronomicon has posed.

    Even if she ran for it, Gwen wouldn't make it in time. Then there's the matter of the attention she's gained from the Avehan Gears: would running only direct fire back at the town? Better perhaps in the scheme of things that she hunkers down, though this does not come without its own costs as she soon finds.

    One of the Gears hesitates in its fire upon her position. Did her words reach them, at least?

    Lan at least is there to provide backup, one of her crystals smashing into the ground near to one of the Gears. It backs up -- it overcorrects.

    Into this moment comes the first shot. The Gear that had stumbled has its fuel tank explode and unbalanced, collapses.

    There are scant seconds before the next shot. Before the next in line -- the one who had hesitated -- takes a shot that sets off its munitions at close range. Which is to say, they detonate on the Gear.

    As it falls, the belltower almost seems to do so in slow motion. The bell clangs loudly, one last time.

    And there is Lily, in the midst of it, her own body serving as the unmoving object to arrest the belltower's fall. But even she can't hold back the entire thing forever, or indeed, the entire thing: with an ominous crack followed by what can only be called metallic noise, the top of the belltower explodes and its bell descends.

    It's through Hannah's ice magic that further parts of the tower are stayed from raining upon the townsfolk below: slate and stonework are welded into space by the unforgiving flash-freeze. Wu calls up earthen pillars to attempt to further stabilize the structure for the moment.

    The bell continues its dangerous descent only to meet Rille. Who catches the bell. Who is flung backwards by sheer momentum alone. Who in so doing, spares a good many people a terrible fate.

    But even the belltower can't hold forever like this: Lily stopped it and Hannah filled in the gap, but eventually physics will reassert themselves. The tower will fall.

    But not if it burns away, first.

    There will without question be ash scattered across the fields nearby. The sunsets in this part of Ignas (perhaps -- perhaps throughout Filgaia) may be the more brilliant for the particulates that will enter the atmosphere. But the belltower burns by Elly's will, and once the pyre completes it will have burned away cleanly and totally.

    The brilliance in the meantime, helps everyone see a little bit better in spite of the haze and the smoke.

    The other Avehan Gears have already turned to see that two of their own are downed. There's a sniper: surely they've realized this. One of the Gears twists in search of the sniper's nest, and it might be the last thing its pilot ever does. There is a hole in the Gear. It isn't moving anymore.

    It's a fate shared by the last Gear as Ruth's last shot strikes true.

    This is not a moment that Jacqueline wastes. As tragedy is averted, she urges the townsfolk onwards, giving them the energy they'll need to get out of here. Whatever else happens here today, one thing is certain: they must make sure that no one is left behind. Ida helps make certain of that, speeding them on their way as Jay turns to see to Rille.

    This is the position in which Wu finds herself, using her own rock as a shield as she surveys the landscape of the damaged town:

    Of course there weren't just Avehan Gears. They had sent out some soldiers on foot to sweep for the Kislevi soldier, after all--

    And one of them, glancing at a fellow briefly, lifts their rifle to take aim at Lily Keil. ...Daughter of a Kislevi commander. 

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

It's still the middle of a battlefield and there's some sense of being at your center when that's what you did for so long. It's strange in a way. As Wu's watching the situation. Trying to piece together a better course of action. It's turning into a brawl, her own people are still just out of reach and she's done something like sprint out into the open without quite realizing Lily's probably got a bounty.
 
 That's a later issue. Jerking her hand up, the barrier created is far less pretty than her usual methods. Ragged, uneven and still made of stone. The stone cover jerks out of the earth with a sharp crack, obscuring Lily (And hopefully not ruining any plans) from the rifleman.
 
 With one last breath, she rolls around her own cover, the stone crumbling and collapsing behind her as she fires wild shots in the soldier's directions. Giving him something more immediate to worry about. It's.. still a pistol on the move which is dubiously dangerous in the broadest sense.
 
 In a clear parade ground shout to Elly and Lily at this point Wu calls out, "Keep your heads down." Thinking maybe it's just a silhouetting issue possibly. Or maybe just continuing the attempt to keep the others safe at her risk. It's what she does.
 
 The whole time, she might be muttering under her breath about drilling, not forgetting heavy equipment, having better reinforcement protocols, The usual things right?
 
 She spares a moment to check on those at the farmstead as well. Calling out, "Friendlies inbound, they're here to help, check your targets." Almost sounding ashamed she hadn't thought to warn them before. If she'd gotten her own people hurt over such a sloppy maneuver. She grits her teeth. She's been pulling strings too long. A reminder on why she's stepped back out into the light, so to speak.
 
 That she's treating them like soldiers and they might not quite have that level of training or experience doesn't cross her mind though. 

<Pose Tracker> Rille Felis has posed.

If this was a story someone was telling about Rille, she would wave off the aid from Jay, stand up, brush herself off, and get back to work.

But in reality, Rille is not quite *that* tough, though she's absolutely going to tell that story *later*. She gratefully accepts the hand up with a grunt of discomfort. And the potion, for that matter, which she downs in one shot, then wipes sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. She's a little shuddery, the aftereffects of adrenaline more than anything else - she's amped up and she knows she shouldn't let herself be, she can hurt herself like that.

"Thanks," she gets out. She prods herself, two knuckles spread wide hard into her ribs - nothing's broken, she thinks, but she's going to have a powerful bruise later, mottled under the streaks of fur she has across her front. Rille plants one foot on the bell and rolls it deliberately so it's not in her way. "I'd talk, but I dunno how much time we have, if they're still out there." And they are. Some of the Gears are...

...huh. Several are down. She saw the sorcery to support the building, then burn it - it's hard to miss, honestly, even if you don't know anything about magic, which she doesn't - but she's not sure where the shots that took out the Gears are; Rille looks around wildly trying to find the gunner, fails to locate Ruth entirely, and assumes the worst.

"Someone's shooting," Rille says, sounding more her usual self even though she's feeling a little dazed. "We need to get outta the line ourselves, once we've gotten everyone else clear - c'mon, stick with me." Not that Jay is not capable of defending herself, but Rille doesn't *know* her, personally.

They're not shooting at her, precisely, but they are shooting at other people. Rille's primary goal here is the citizens - she cares a lot less if Aveh soldier shoots Kislevi soldier or vice versa than she does if any of them so much as hurt one of these farmers, and the other Drifters seem to have similar ideas. In return, Rille isn't armed with anything but her knuckles and the occasional scooped-up rock.

This isn't going to stop her from thumping any of the soldiers she comes across while backing after the fleeing citizens. Keep them safe, she thinks, through the faint haze. Just make sure nobody comes after them for getting in their way, or just for fun. 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Elly's flame saves how many people? She doesn't know.

But in the words of a certain hobbit enthusiast: She has now written 'Elhaym is Here!' in clear letters. Will the Aveh soldiers know it as anything other than 'someone had super-intense flame'?

Elly cannot think of a way to address this beacuse for a few moments she cannot think at all. Essentially all of the free glucose within her brain has been spent. She sways; her legs tighten up which keeps her from keeling over, but the entire world swims around her. Someone in the distance calls out 'someone's shooting,' someone else 'get down' --

Elly dives to the left, rolling out of the immediate avenue of fire. Tumble. Bounce. Roll.

Whee!

Dimly, Elly realizes what's going on and reaches up to fish in a breast pocket to find a sol. (Ah, so nostalgiac! They're not the usual patent-medicine thing back in Aquvy, after all.)

Drinking it gets her sufficiently perfused to sit upwards again, focus returning. She does not rush out anywhere immediately, although her head turns to look for Lily -- and her eyes widen in shock at what she sees! 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida keeps her back to the civilians, and her face towards the enemy. It offers her the perfect view of what comes next. Four shots, each taken with ruthless precision, designed to terrorize as well as kill. A cold cramp grips Ida's guts, and twists. She can imagine the look on Ruth's face, and it chills her.

    She told Ruth to take the shot. Would Ruth have taken it without her? Is this on her?

    Ida takes a deep breath and looks over her shoulder at the fleeing civilians. She reminds herself what's at stake. She whips Devil's Due from its holster, and runs to catch up with the civilians. "Sniper's one of ours!" she shouts, to Wu and Lily and the others. She presses her hand to her earpiece, and opens the line to Ruth, again. "They know you're there! Get moving!" All it would take is one decently-aimed barrage of gunfire, or a near-miss from a missile.

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

It was, perhaps, a desparate ploy--but it seems others had the right idea about the belltower, too. She gazes up at the creature with the circuitry wings, and though the form might be unfamiliar, the magic isn't. "Lily...?"

In slow motion she can see that bell detach, and go flying. She trains vainly to get up, to do something, but the momentary vertigo from trying to move gives her other ideas. Luckily, Rille is on hand to keep it from harming anyone. "Nice catch, hun."

She watches as Jay guides the people safely past the belltower, with a sigh of relief. And using her alchemical skills, to boot, which reminds Hannah that she really needs to catch up with her at some point. (Later, obviously.)

The crest sorceress swears under her breath as a sorceress of a different sort steps into the fray. Her ice is not going to withstand that, but that's okay: in short order, the belltower is being... disposed of, in a fashion, so her ice is entirely unnecessary after that. She finally pushes herself up to standing, her own green eyes still shimmering as whatever magic she wields hasn't settled down yet. "Supposin' there was no savin' it at that point," she notes, sadly. "You alright there, Miss van Houten?"

Wu also lends earthen pillars of support, and Hannah casts a nod in her direction. "Thank you kindly, Miss."

Hannah stiffens as shots ring out, and she immediately casts her gaze to the Gears that the invading armies have brought. Maybe if they can take the gears out of commission, the on-foot soldiers will be easier to handle... whether by words or action.

She shudders to think what Ruth might have been capable of in her peak, and has only the briefest of moments to mourn the cycle that Ruth has trapped herself in.

Rille notes that someone is shooting. "Sniper's with us. She'll be fine. But someone's taking a shot at Lily, too, and Wu seems to have that covered. "Can't exactly protect all the buildin's, but we can keep the people safe... Zephyr, sweep the town."

Who did she say that to, exactly?

There is, distantly, the cry of a bird of prey, and if one knows where to look, they can see it plunge out of the sky and start sweeping through the town.

"Gonna make sure the soldiers can't chase after us while we're evacuatin'."

Her eyes are still glowing as she lurches into the middle of a street. Once she gets the all clear from Zephyr she pulls out another crest graph. "Anybody closeby better watch your balance!" she calls out.

It's the only warning anybody gets before the lifts up a foot and stomps it into the road. Ripples of motion radiate outwards from her as the ground rumbles, then shakes. Cracks begin to appear across the road, and then with a great explosion of dirt, stone, and gravel, giant spikes erupt from the earth in several rows. They're not impossible to get through, but it will be slow. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

There are four Knocks against Death's Door. Lily feels each of them and feels the noise resounding through her bones as the Gears are disabled by a single woman on foot.

But Lily can only hear that, and the devastation that follows; what she sees is darkness and debris. She is aware of Hannah's ice; she is aware of Wu's earth. But more to the point, she feels her burden lightening, as Elly performs a feat of Ether beyond all but the very most potent practitioners. The light overwhelms Lily's senses for a long few moments, because the wreckage becomes ash. When it is done, Lily sags in the air, still floating there in plain view. "Did we...?"

She will hear later of Rille's feat with the bell. For now, she is in sight of the Avehan soldier's rifle.

...Until she isn't. Lily turns towards the magic as it sounds, and the barrier may not be pretty, but it's made of stone hard enough to block a bullet. "Thanks!" Lily calls raggedly, and falls to the ground more than floats there. She impacts roughly and rolls with the fall. "Glad to hear it," Lily says of friendlies inbound. "...Did Ruth handle the Gears...?"

She hadn't known Ruth was here, but only Death's Door could've been that set of sounds, that presence.

Lily winces, her eyes still darkened, sclera still black and irises still prismatic. She is probably not a reassuring sight to the villagers. But that's why she doesn't focus back on them. "Elly?" she asks. "You all right?"

She saw her impressive work, but... she's concerned.

"I'll..." She coughs, then, and there's blood in it. She turn back to Elly. "...I'll be fine," she says. "I just--" 'Sniper's one of ours', Ida says, and Lily puts it together.

"...Elly and I will hang back," Lily says. "To wait for Ruth and Meng's people. The rest of you go ahead with the villagers. We'll catch up together." 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "M'okay," Gwen states plainly, when Lan asks. "It'll buff out." The metal will, anyway. "Y'sure those crystals're holdin' up against those bullets, though, Lan?"

    Lan puts up the offense that the Halcyone currently can't, but Gwen wonders if her insistence on not firing back might be in her favor. "I'm a courier, so I know enough about the logistics of the war here," she says, through her speakers. "Through a Drifter's eyes, anyway. I don't knowingly partake in anythin' that's gonna be nasty for one side or another, 'cause that ain't my job. Adlehyde's the same."

    Gwen tries to ignore the screams and shuffling behind her; this is a thread that may work. She does, however, note Ida's yell that the sniper is 'one of theirs'. That was Ida, right?

    Is it really ethical to be chatting up the Gear pilots when they're getting sniped left and right?

    ... Gwen can't really answer that, being she's benefiting from it.

    "Now, I realize that y'all can't stop firin' on each other, but us Drifter types can. N' here's the thing; we all can't really order each other t'stop, 'cause we ain't an army, exactly. Though, maybe I could *try*, but y'know how that goes. They may see me as some foolish courier tryin' to make peace~"

    Gwen knows exactly what she's doing now. "How 'bout y'all inform me n' my friend here why y'all are doin' this? I'd ask the Kislev soldiers why they're doin' stuff, but, I kinnnda don't wanna turn my back on you guys, since, you got the military-grade Gears n' all." 

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline finds herself in awe as the belltower is burned away completely at Elly's command, her power evident. She's always been impressive, but it feels different in a context like this. ...She can't let herself be distracted for long. They're not safe yet - danger is still afoot.

Jacqueline lends a hand and Rille's back up. At the thanks, she offers a nod.

"Right. Let's focus on what's right in front of us." She agrees. Someone's shooting... Four shots, specifically. "...I think I know who that is. If I'm right, we should be fine."

She never thought she'd encounter Ruth in a situation like this - but she's glad that, out of everyone, they seem to be working toward the same go. Rille suggests to stick with her, and Jacqueline nods.

"Right. Lead the way." She says. She's not going to object - it's better that they work together here, and letting Rille handle it means she can focus on support sorcery.

...And, keeping an eye out for stragglers, or anyone who may have been been wounded and become unable to move. Indeed - they can't allow anyone to be left behind. If they can save even one more person who can't save themselves... it's worth it. 

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    "I'm fine for now! There's a shield," she explains. Good, they're listening! Maybe they can actually work th

    CRACK

    Lan sucks in a sudden sharp breath as the Gear she'd been warning away is pierced and explodes into flames. "No-!" Another piercing crack, another explosion, another downed Gear. Lan casts her gaze about before opening her awareness as wide as possible.

    Lily, Ida, Elly, Jay she knows. Hannah and Meng Wu too, even if they aren't as familiar. She's never met Rille before. But there, perched on a rooftop... Ruth. Ruth and her old, old rifle and her rainy aura and her secret song. Lan hadn't wanted anybody to die, but if it had to be somebody she would rather it be someone who didn't care about collateral damage, about an entire village's worth of lives.

    She isn't a healer and she's no more fireproof than Gwen.
    She doesn't know how to... to...
    She flashes back to Engel Voss's face in that place next door to the Dreaming. Alive forever in a memory, dying again and again for the agony his death had caused.

    "Gwen, help me!" she begs, before flitting as close to the first burning Gear as she dares to get. She doesn't know how to open it, and she isn't sure where the pilot is, but...

    The pillars hum in unison, dimming as Lan points a finger at the wreck. A pencil-thin laser is the only thing she can think of, carving a hole in the exoskeleton where she thinks the cockpit might be. 

<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    The rifle is reloaded, and the former top sharpshooter of the Aquvy Union fights to keep lucidity off the bloodlust high that stands in conflicting opposite of shame and guilt. Malevolence rises off her person as she tries to keep a grip on her lucidity, anchoring past stresses long since ingrained from years of endless fighting in Zoara in beyond.
 
     'They know you're there! Get moving!' Ida warns.
 
     "Of coursssse," her voice is hissing. That's almost never a good sign.
 
     She doesn't waste precious moments standing there - she hurls herself down the ladder like a beast plunging from on high to pounce a future meal, and given the true shape her Malevolence has given her, she looks the part - a single-winged gargoyle hurriedly moving along the cover of the fog of war. The bayonet blade of her rifle drags for a split second before she hefts it up, running, moving, to be clear of prospective gunfire or explosives against the now obsolete makeshift nest. The offset of balance having only one wing in addition to having to carry such a heavy, cumbersome rifle gives her a clumsy, lumbering gait that undercuts - but does not invalidate - her dead sprint along what cover exists to relocate.
 
     She slams her right hand against a wall somewhere, fist tensing as the Granasian rosary around her right forearm digs that much more into her arm. A serpentine tongue flicks to the fleeing and yelling of those whose lives are yet upended by the advent of an expanding forever war, watching as a number of the others guide and assist them along. She can taste the fear in the air.
 
     She stops herself from pursuing. Some of the racing rancor inside her mind starts to drain into her chest, and she holds onto that guilt as an anchor to the waking world outside of what goads her to be, and keep being. Another breath.
 
     Another message, to Ida and Hannah. "I'll hold the line," Ruth says, almost sullen. "I'll find another position." The lack of hissing - she's holding herself, for now. "I deserve their fear. Behind my shadow... or before my eyes."
 
     Ruth eyes another rooftop accessible by a ladder. She engages the empathite one more time.
 
     "I'll rendezvous with some of the others here when they fall back," she adds to Ida and Hannah alike. "This... this isn't the first village I've fought in."
 
 5tIt won't be the last. There may never, in fact, be a 'last,' and in the moment Ruth makes her peace of it as she helps herself up a roof to take position and be ready to pick off on-foot soldiers to assist in others' evacuation.
 
     It's as she told Hannah, she knows what her role here is. 

<Pose Tracker> Necronomicon has posed.

    One Gear stumbles, yes, even as Gwen makes her suggestion to the remaining pilots, in those scant moments before they're summarily picked off. A fire is burning from the ruptured tank of that first Gear and the pilot, still able to bail, does so, ditching the Gear and leaping into the wreckage of the field only to turn about and face Gwen, her hands in the air.

    Surrender, sometimes, is the only logical action.

    Two Gears aren't moving at all. The point-perfect shots suggest there's probably nothing good awaiting any would-be rescuers, but the third is burning and the pilot hasn't emerged. Maybe they can't--

    Lan directs light as a laser, cutting a hole into the machine. For a few heart-stopping moments, perhaps, there is nothing. And then the pilor tears his way free: he's suffering from burns and he's stumbling, but he's still very much alive and eager to remain so.

    Wu is in the best position to give a warning as she discharges her sidearm, and it's a warning that's well-taken from Elly and Lily. Elly dives out of the way while Lily takes a more direct approach.

    Wu's right: the sidearm doesn't have the necessary range to connect, but it does give them all a few crucial moments in which the Kislevi soldier with the rifle stops shooting and pauses. It's all the time Hannah needs to conjure up the spikes to act as an extreme form of area denial: the soldiers aren't getting through quickly, not unless they want to risk significant harm to their selves. Or, for that matter, Ruth who remains in her nest and ready to pick off anyone who makes their way past the stone spikes. And with Wu's support inbound...

    Suffice to say, if the Avehan soldiers don't bail soon, they're in for a rude awakening.

    Rille and Ida hurry after the fleeing civilians in the wake of the snipershots and the riflefire across what had once been the village town square. It's for the best: while they're unlikely to run into further complications from either Avehan or Kislevi forces. Jacqueline, following up from behind, keeps an eye out for anyone who is falling back or seems to be wounded or tired.

    Those who remain behind to intercept the soldiers or to sweep the village find, though, that they aren't alone.

    "...Damn it," says a heavily bandaged woman, extracting herself slowly from one of the still-intact buildings. She's on crutches but even so, the way that she moves is purposeful and as quickly as she can manage. She grimaces to take in sight of the village before continuing in her way towards the townsfolks' saviors. "Sergeant Rachel Hedlund. Kislevi forces. I'd apologize, but we've got a problem -- and more than the Avehan bastards back there. We've a war machine on the way here but we don't know who's controlling it. Excavated-class armament," she says, glancing over those who have stayed behind, "Last reported coordinates at..."

    She rattles off a string of coordinates. It's somewhere to the north.

    "...I'd say we'd best evacuate the villagers but it looks like you've already done. Last sweep, and then we scatter." She glances down at herself and smiles bitterly. "I'm in no condition to go solo. Bad luck for me, eh? ...Consider this my surrender." 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Elly, gazing on the Sergeant, quietly repeats the coordinates to herself several times. She even digs out a small paper pad to write them down, despite repeating them to herself in both Solarian (??) and the regular tongue. But if you're quiet enough, anything sounds like muttering.

"I don't know about that," Elly concludes. She looks up at Rachel. "It worked out, for me." 

<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.

Hannah, having thrown up the biggest roadblock she can, sags, dropping to her knees once more. "I'm fine," she says weakly, before shifting to sit cross-legged and closing her eyes. Breath in, try to find your center, breath out... A few more times, and when she opens her eyes again, they've stopped glowing. And her aura is... mostly okay.

She stands and listens to the wounded soldier, nodding. "Zephyr, I need you to keep watch."

There's nobody else there, and she didn't use her empathite, but she seems satisfied with the outcome. (Overhead, Zephyr spirals upwards so he can see as long and as far as possible to watch for danger.)

After that, then she uses her empathite, quickly relaying the information back to ARMS before turning to the soldier. "We won't harm you. And... thank you. I know you're riskin' a lot to get us this info." 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily will not stop Lan and Gwen from rescuing the errant pilot. Maybe if they knew more 'mercy' in this world, things would be more of their way and less of Lily's way.

Instead, she stops to recover herself, and in the process has the chance to meet with Rachel Hedlund.

"...Lily Keil," she greets. "Formerly Kislevi forces." Her name will be known, of course. She frowns, sharply. "Another...?"

An excavated-class armament. Elly has the coordinates covered, but Lily will remember them as well.

"At least you're alive," Lily says, and turns to the others. "I'm going to suggest we transfer custody of the prisoners to Adelhyde's government. Cecilia won't mistreat prisoners... and this is her front door."

Ruth's vigilance will see them all safe in the meantime; the automaton does not come here yet.

...But now they know it's out there.

"I need a moment to recover; I'll watch the Sergeant here," while Zephyr and the others check for more villagers, presumably.

"...Gonna be a long day. I have a bad feeling about this..." 

<Pose Tracker> Meng Wu has posed.

Meng Wu doesn't try to chase anyone down. It's over and there's other issues. She checks her pistol. Reloads and holsters. Turning back to both Lily and Elly first, then the others. Her reinforcements have arrived at least! A bunch of mostly beastfolk and a few others that.. look as intimidating as she does most of the time, but they're helpful enough.
 
 Wu herself climbs back up to join the two she'd entered the mess with. Working on fiddling with her lighter and a smoke.
 
 "I'm out of practice." She admits flatly. Taking a seat near the two of them. Clearly checking up on them even if her eyes are hidden behind her sunglasses. "Are you two okay?" She'll get the information later.
 
 A bat beastfolk seems to be taking notes. Whether he was supposed to or not. For what it's worth, but it seems fine right? With the faint squawk of a radio, he pipes up for the group in the town, "If you have a rally point we'll try to shuttle the locals out."
 
 Though with Lily leaving, she does offer a hand out to Elly to help out before heading down herself.
 
 "Always is." She replies to Lily's comment as she catches up. She does eye the prisoner, but doesn't take action.

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