2023-09-22: He Has Seen My Misery
- Log: He Has Seen My Misery
- Cast: Loren Voss, Seraphita, Azoth, Xiumei Klein, Ida Everstead-Rey, Lunata Croze, Ethius Hesiod, Lily Keil, Jacqueline Barber, Elhaym van Houten, Gwen Whitlock, Billy Lee Black, Xantia, Leah Sadalbari
- Where: Great Sea
- Date: September 22, 2023
- Summary: There are remnants of ruins among some of those few islands of Aquvy closest (relatively speaking) to the continent of Ignas. While little of note has ever been dredged from their depths, it would seem that Solaris -- for no other nation boasts Gears of such a make -- has found something. An excavation has begun, attended by a small host of their Gears. And whatever it is that that has drawn Solaris' attention, clearly... their aims cannot mean well for the world.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Here there rests the few scattered islands of Aquvy, like droplets of sand cast from one's hand, that lie closest to the Ignas continent. Too small to be inhabited -- too small to be much beyond marks of passage for those who ply the waters -- a few well-explored crumbling ruins of whatever edifices had been built in another age are all that grace the islands but rock, sand, and the occasional stand of trees.
Perhaps the islands were bigger, once. Or perhaps these had been watchtowers or waypoints constructed by some older denizen of these waters. The answers, as they often are in the absence of greater evidence otherwise, have been inconclusive. More pressing for many Drifters, they have also been absent any remotely interesting treasures.
But someone, it would seem, has found something among the largest of these islands. Unfortunately, that someone is the enigmatic sky empire of Solaris.
The excavation has been ongoing for several nights at this point. Even at an island at this remote point, the orders had come to do the work under cover of darkness: command had opted for fewer defenses than usual for the site. Of course, 'fewer' wasn't the same was 'weak', particularly with some of those stationed to oversee -- and defend -- the work progress. Command had simply made the calculation that it would be better for work to proceed uninterrupted for as long as possible and that too many machines in the area would be noticed.
Loren had thought of course that even that was a tad ambitious. Thanks to certain repeat meddlers (not that he's naming any names) among other things, he'll be surprised if the work completes without anyone interfering.
The sun has nearly vanished over the horizon. It won't be long now until the night's work commences, and even their best-laid plans can't completely muffle the racket to come. Regardless of what happens, Loren figures, settling into the seat of Schiehallion's cockpit, it's going to be another long night. Cracking open an energy drink, he dutifully downs its contents. Forget the actual combat, this is what's going to actually kill him.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
At least one member of Solaris doesn't need energy drinks to keep going. 'Too much energy' is pretty much her usual state of being.
Of course, in Grandgrowl, Seraphita can't really get up and move around all that much; the cockpit may be a little unusual to people used to piloting other machines, but 'unusual' doesn't mean 'luxurious'. She's sitting sideways on the seat she uses to pilot, swinging her legs absently as Grandgrowl idles, crouched down and loafed up like an actual cat, its metallic wings draped over its back.
"Ugh, waiting stiiiiinks!" At least Seraphita didn't have her radio on for that, so nobody can hear her. She runs her fingers through her hair, making her ears flop slightly differently as she swings herself back toward a proper piloting position, reaching for the horizontal control sticks. This lets her get a thumb on the radio trigger: "<Are we almost done yet?>"
Why they've sent an Element to be bored here - well, Seraphita is between missions, and why not keep her busy? It's better than letting her idle; use the resources you have, and all that. It's (probably) not because this place is that important. Probably.
DC: Azoth switches forms to WARNING: OVERRIDE ACTIVATED!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Such a mission makes Azoth a convenient choice. He's easy to move, easy to hide, and more importantly, easy to command. And despite his size, his AI was designed for something far bigger, and battles on grander scales. Even if he were not to fight, his calculations could prove valuable if there were... interruptions.
But what a waste that would be. This program was designed for violence, and the power of his core vibrates for battle.
"<Now, now, User Loren>," Azoth chirps in a deep, reverberating voice that echoes over the radio, because he doesn't care if Seraphita hears his attempts at scolding. Why would he? Azoth lounges on Schiehallion's shoulder, idly spinning his own tail in claw, "<Perhaps you should dial it down. I would hate to see you mixing substances later.>"
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
It would be quite the lucky thing for Azoth if all they ended up doing was waiting.
<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.
ARMS is not, as a rule, terribly friendly to Solaris. The truth is sometimes more complicated -- Solaris isn't the sort of group most countries want to anger too much -- but ARMS has the power to face them, if not always on equal footing.
So when word of the excavation came, they decided to send someone to check it out.
Which is why, at the moment, she is perched on the shoulder of Ida's Gear. She has a grip on the armor of the head, with one hand; her hair flutters after her, and she has her light green and white armor on, with her glasses gone.
Xiumei's eyes narrow.
"I'll drop off when we get closer, Miss Everstead-Rey," she says. "Thank you for the ride."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
ARMS has its share of Gear-tending equipment, including some refurbished craft capable of acting as ferries. One of them approaches the island now, its running lights dimmed to keep a low profile. The Dust Dragoon hunches on its deck in a crouch, its balancing mechanisms keeping it stable despite the motion of the sea beneath. In the cockpit sits Ida, her jumpsuit sealed, her hands on the sticks.
"Understood, Xiumei," Ida says, and she frowns as something lights up on the panoramic cockpit before her. She sent a quadrotor to scout ahead, and it's already picked up familiar signatures. Her jaw tightens as she sees what's unquestionably Azoth's alongside two Gebler Gears she's fought before. "Looks like two primary Gears with troop reinforcement. Confirming the presence of Element Seraphita; there might be more of them on foot as well. Something's here, if she is."
The tender approaches from what its crew judged to be the safest angle. There isn't too much cover, and it's vulnerable until the Gears launch.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata's not really certain about territorial dispute or whether it's really her deal, but... I mean, she doesn't want to be judgemental either, but after what Solaris got up to in Macalania, she's not about to ever really give them the benefit of the doubt when they are Up To Something in a remote island in the Great Isles. There might be terrifying secrets lying within.
The Rephaim is pretty old hat at this point, one of the few Gears that sails clearly in the skies; she taps into the shortwave to comment to Ida and Xiumei. "Skies look pretty clear from out here, don't see reinforcements in the Rephaim's radar range, over."
She says that 'over' in a really giddy way, as if she's super excited to be using radio comms parlance.
Lunata's both acting as a scout and as bait, as it were -- the Rephaim is very familiar to Solaris, and also possesses powerful barriers, so it's well designed to take point while others do more covert things.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
After that harrowing encounter on the Fahrenheit some time ago, it's put a lot more matters about Solaris into a potentially severe light for Ethius. Though, what doesn't? In virtually any other circumstance their daily activities are highly actionable, but, this is not the place for philosophical debate about the application of a law of a land both far and near at the same time.
"<This is the pilot of the Aiguille,>" Ethius says over the present cross-coordination frequency of those moving to intercept Solaris. The Aiguille is a Metal Demon War-era 'grunt' unit famed for skirmishing, long-distance strikes, and relative difficulty in tracking its heat signatures - the Achilles' heel being its primary armament's typical weakness of laser weaponry to be easy to trace. It has the hallmarks of an abortive paint job using pigmentations common in Spira from a well-intentioned attempt to try and pass it off as Al Bhed machina salvage when so much of its construction's appearance disproves that origin. This is not the strangest thing Jay bankrolled out of this man's eccentricities, but such is the resources of the Caravan Kinship that they can field some Gear units at all.
"<I identify three hostiles,>" rattling off brief summaries for Schiehallion and Grandgrowl in absentia of knowing their model names, "<and Azoth.>" Ida helps fill in the gaps.
The segmented rifle-staff is held at ready as short-burst heatless dash jets try to move into position. As noted, there's not much cover, so he has to rely on his own reflexes and mobility to keep up. It would be easier if he'd just get the cockpit refurbished and retrofitted so he doesn't have to cross his arms to operate it, but he's always been stubborn about it.
It feels like everywhere in the universe, it expects everyone to be right-handed.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Where Solaris acts in the world, Lily Keil intends to oppose them. She knows she doesn't yet have the power to stop all their works... but whatever they want here, they can't be allowed to have it. So, she's here.
She's not with ARMS, but she's not friendly to Solaris either, obviously.
Rather than approaching from the sea's surface, the next Gear to arrive comes from the skies. Out of a cloud flies a sinuous, black and purple machine, which comes down to ROAR at the Solarian Gears before it. Clearly a Zeboim-era Gear, it has not been sighted in the world before.
Hersnd now it is here, with its great jaws and terrible claws and slaying tail, a dragon from on high.
"<This is Keil>," Lily announces herself to the group. "<In the Breka.>"
The draconic Gear rears back and roars, launching a blast of energy down towards the work. It's interceptable.
It's a message.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
It's true - there are many known meddlers about. Once the news spread that Solaris was excavating something in Aquvy, it didn't take long for people to decide to do something about it. Whatever they're aiming for, it's probably in everyone's best interest if they don't get it - that's how Jacqueline feels, anyway.
And so, Issachar soars through the rapidly-dwindly sunset at a steady pace, keeping its power draw low to avoid drawing attention until they're ready. Fortunately, she's something of a multi-tasker - even as she mentally guides the Gear, her hands are hard at work tapping away on the console. Before long, there's reports back from Lunata and Ethius.
"Thank you, both of you." Jacqueline replies. Their work is vital while everyone gets into place.
...Despite the heavy atmosphere of their current mission, she can't help but crack a smile at how excited Lunata sounds. It's the little things.
...And then her attention moves up to the clouds, as a dragon - no, it's a Gear - parts them. ...And, Lily is the pilot.
"Impressive." Jacqueline notes with a smile. "I have so many questions about that, but I'll have to save them for later."
That roar is bound to draw attention - she'll need to be ready to respond.
DC: Seraphita switches forms to Elemental Gear Grandgrowl!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly has a better idea than most just what Solaris is capable of - and why it is not a good idea to leave them unchallenged.
This is territory that might be said to 'belong' to the Thames - in so far as they are the premier salvagers. And the people of the Thames are friends to Elly, even if she never anticipated such a turn of events.
And if there is any Gear that might be able to force a peaceful solution, it is...
EL-REGULUS: The Omnigear with the arts of ancient times. Solaris will have problems fighting if their Gears have been shut down remotely, after all.
".... That's probably a good thing to do," Elly says to Lily; "disrupting the camp, I mean." There is an undertone in her voice, squeamish maybe at the prospect of workers being harmed, but a lack of enthusiasm doesn't translate to reticience! ... though it might well, literally, do so.
In case Regulus wasn't already clear enough, it produces an active radar ping as if intent on sweeping the skies for possible foes.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Ida and Xiumei had a lot of friends to call on, and Gwen happened to be in the area, and available. This is why Gwen is here, doing her part to ruin Loren's day, though she didn't do it for that reason alone. It just... happened that way.
Recognizing the Schiehallion, Gwen groans. Of course, Loren's here. "Sorry, Loren. Guess it's one of those days I gotta be the bad guy n' screw up your week. ... At least it'll prove to Solaris y'ain't gettin' soft on us Lambfolks." This is shared only with herself, for now; sympathy is not a fun thing to lob at someone who really, really, really wishes you'd take them as a serious threat.
Which Loren definitely is.
< "Yo, Halcyone here. Gonna go in on foot. Between an Element, Azoth in Solaris-mode, n' Loren's Gear, Halcyone'll fold like a wind-up toy. Mechanics cost more n' doctors these days, so I'll go in hard n' fast, super mode. Make a flashy distraction. Orrrrr..."> Pause. < "That's Lily, right? Guardians, that's just cool-lookin' as all hell. Distraction already taken care of." >
Parking the Halcyone a ways away (at least, as much as she can manage, from what she could see from her vantage point), Gwen has the digitigrade Gear to lower down to reduce its profile.
She probably was already seen by now, but the Solaris staff there would know she's the one to watch out for.
And so, she jogs up at a casual pace, giving that ARM of hers time to charge up, and 'infect' the rest of her with that bright light.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
The Renmazuo is far from a subtle thing, with its flapping yellow-lined cape. It renders a stealth approach a hard ask. But Billy Lee Black knows these islands as few others do...and they're just far enough from the orphanage that he wouldn't want to be stuck sitting around for twenty minutes while the Gear traversed the hemisphere to get here.
Thus, the Renmazuo is there with the rest of the Wolves. It hasn't changed from when it was a fully-kitted Etone gear in most respects, and color is one of them; still that vibrant white and blue.
Billy sits in a cockpit festooned with stuffed animals. An action figure of a robot that won't exist for another several subfranchises sits on the dashboard, held in place by a clamp.
<<Renmazuo in position. I'm confirming multiple hostiles. Technological...no sign of Wels activity. Unusual for this region, Solaris must've been here for a little while.>>
He flicks a switch to trigger the ether accumulator.
<<Give me a sign.>>
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
The past few months had been turbulent for Xantia... presumably, given how muddled her memory of them is. If it wasn't for Lily tracking her down, she might still be out there, doing who-knows-what in pursuit of the shadowy organization backing Xenia. Understandably distraught at her limited recollection of her decision-making process, and having been wounded in the process, she'd finally taken time to properly rest and recover.
Until now. She just happened to overhear her fellow Black Wolves discussing the Solarian excavation just as she'd gotten up and about again, and naturally immediately wanted to be involved. As always, the mere mention of Solaris being Up To Something is all the reason she needs to take action. And she didn't even need to be the one to suggest the violent route this time, she already had Lily on board with that.
As such, she'd hitched a ride with Lily's incredible new Gear for a time - as usual, she preferred to handle things on foot. And she just wanted an excuse to ride the cool dragon, can you blame her? As such, she was set down some distance away, covering the rest of the distance on foot.
She cracks her knuckles as she approaches the Solarian encampment, casually waving to Gwen as if she'd been expecting to run into the Super Courier here. "Hiya! Long time no see! Ready to have some fun?"
Of course she'd think this was going to be fun. It's been far too long since she's been able to fight based on her own conscious conviction. Nothing better to get back on her feet following that bit of downtime than being able to punch something without reservation. Doesn't matter if there's Gears involved, she'll punch them all the same and be no less gleeful about it.
That glee and lack of reservation lasts approximately as long at takes for her to notice that Azoth is here. Her smile soon fades with the realization of what would need to happen, once again. Not the way she would have preferred to see him again, but... the parameters haven't changed. They can handle each other. Right?
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"<Not yet, according to Commander Sadalbari,>" Loren reports back to Seraphita. "<Her last communication came in six hours ago. No updates since, so I assume it's still underway.>" Throwing his head back, he drains the remaining contents of his energy drink and grimaces. It's great. It's fine. It's like something died in his mouth. He's in the process of leaning forward to stash his empty when Azoth's voice rings out over the channel.
"<I didn't ask you for your opinion,>" he replies, flat. "<If it gets me through the night, it's fine.>"
Of the two Gears, Schiehallion is certainly the most 'standard Solaris Gear' in form: which is to say it looks new compared to most Gears one might find around. New, and high-tech compared to most machines one might sight in the field, ancient Zeboim Gears (and Omnigears) aside. Oh, and one can't forget the absolutely gleaming white of its armor. Speaking of said armor, it's covered in it, apparently Solaris' spin on the heavy and slow Gear archetype. It bears no major weapons of note save for a pair of Gear-sized sidearms holstered against its lower back. One might reasonably assume it's built to handle opponents at range.
Loren, in the meantime, leans back in his seat, his gaze focused approximately nowhere.
ATTENTION: HEAT SIGNALS DETECTED
He bolts upright in record time, readjusting his glasses as he leans in to squint at the local area sensor report. "<...We've got incoming,>" Loren announces, approximately six seconds before something that's either a dragon, or a Gear, or a little of both unleashes a blast of energy from on high. "<Shit!>" Feeding Ether through local channels, he works quickly to do the most immediate thing he can, which is spin out a hard-edged barrier about his Gear (and by proxy, Azoth) and Seraphita's Grandgrowl both.
As it happens, Seraphita has the relative threat of the opening salvo well in hand.
"<Engaging!>" he shouts, and a flurry of missiles erupt from Schiehallion, speeding towards a set of the targets he sees advancing on their location. Loren's attention dips towards his monitors in the aftermath. "<I'm picking up smaller signals. Azoth!>"
They'll want someone on foot for that.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Billy Lee Black with Meridian Storm! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Meridian Storm! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Meridian Storm! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lunata Croze with Meridian Storm! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Meridian Storm! ===== +health readout for Loren Voss =========================================== _______________________| Form Gebler Gear Schiehallion |________________________
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Seraphita with Barrier Element! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Barrier Element! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Barrier Element! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. ===== +health readout for Loren Voss =========================================== _______________________| Form Gebler Gear Schiehallion |________________________
GS: Loren Voss accepts Loren Voss's Barrier Element for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Barrier Element for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Azoth! GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Loren Voss's Meridian Storm for 66 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Lunata Croze solidly guards Loren Voss's Meridian Storm for 72 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Meridian Storm for 209 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"<Ugh, figures...>" But even Seraphita isn't going to call Sadalbari to hurry up.
Nobody knows Grandgrowl's unit code. Not even Seraphita! At least she knows what it's called (it's not exactly a secret). It, too, looks new and high-tech, but in a different way than Loren's; feline, with great wings, it's shaped more like a mythical animal than a human.
Seraphita goes from 'lazy, lounging' to 'completely 100% alert' in about a millisecond, jerking straight upright in her seat before taking the more appropriate stance, gripping the controls again. "Whoa, okay, okay! I'm awake! You don't have to scream at me," she scolds the draconic Gear.
Grandgrowl stands, spreading its wings and leaping into the air, the wings beating as thrusters kick in to lift it slowly from the ground. Debris and dust blows away from it in a roughly ring-shaped pattern as Grandgrowl gains some height. It matches Breka's roar with one of its own, deafeningly loud -
It discharges a burst of its own. Not lightning so much as EMP, scrambling electrical signals, accompanied by a visible rippling distortion in the air; the wave tears at the energy burst, shredding it into little flecks as it rips apart when passing through that distorted, energy-disrupting space. It actually 'impacts' the work as flashes of light and bursts of sound, but surprisingly little force. It's an excellent distraction, but it doesn't do any significant damage.
Seraphita looks smug in her cockpit as Grandgrowl flies forward, sending a barrage of bullets from its concealed ports at the dragon. But as she flies, she sees a spotter below - "<Scout!>" she calls over the radio, and drops straight down, almost landing on top of the Aiguille with red-hot claws.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraphita accepts Loren Voss's Barrier Element for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Seraphita! GS: Hyper applied to Loren Voss! GS: Seraphita has attacked Lily Keil with Mane Machine Gun! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Superheated Rake! GS: Seraphita has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Seraphita's Superheated Rake for 141 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Seraphita! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Seraphita's Mane Machine Gun for 114 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Loren Voss's Meridian Storm for 82 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"<No, User Loren, but you did ask for my honesty. Is that not the same thing? You may need to redefine some variables for me.>"
Alas, the night will not be simply made of waiting and trying to make Loren's existence more difficult.
When Breka roars, all of Azoth's lights flare their deep crimson in sputtering error. He launches upright from Schiehallion, claws tense and twitching, as he lets out his own roar -- one so much bigger than his body, echoing with a glitched reverb, mechanically inhuman and all wrong, with an faint echo like rusted needles scratching again ceramic.
ERROR: Flight module not found.
It does not matter how much his bladed tail twitches or how cords threaten to burst from the overflow of energy. Azoth cannot meet such a foe in the sky. But there are, as Loren says, smaller signals. Overrides pulse and he shrieks, clawing at his visored helmet of a head, running grooves into the surface with his red, ARM energy laced talons. He is here to handle different foes, and he will not, cannot allow anyone on foot to slip through during the chaos of battle.
He leaps down to the earth in a full dive, twisting through the air as the mechanics of his body fold and shift, and pixelated energy ripples over his form and with the lingering touch of Loren's ether barrier. Azoth lands on all fours, tearing across the ground and cutting through the earth with every bladed limb in his hunt. Targeting systems identify three painfully familiar faces.
"Accessing database. Determining threat levels. Identifying exploits." There is no emotion in his robotic tone. Even the mocking lilt he gave 'User Loren' is absent, drained of anything but a construct reporting its commands. But it might be noted this itself is flawed behavior for its purpose. Why announce anything to an enemy?
Azoth tears for Xantia, red claws trailing with bright energy as he pounces for her in unrelenting ferocity, and trying to contend with him is more like battling a monster than a man. His voice crackles, glitched and distorted.
"Handle..."
"Look... after..."
"What do I... want..."
Two swords of the same errorneous energy materialize by his side, orbiting around him before darting off to fire toward Xiumei and Gwen. But the detonation of this erratic energy pulses with a new, terrible wrongness -- a frequency pulsing with disruptive data more potent than the white noise of Azoth's own glitched existence.
GS: Azoth has activated a Boss Action! GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.azoc TRANSMUTE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Azoth has attacked Gwen Whitlock with exec.ohr REFORMAT! GS: Azoth has attacked Xiumei Klein with exec.ohr REFORMAT! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Xiumei Klein fully evades Azoth's exec.ohr REFORMAT for 0 hit points! GS: Xiumei Klein's Jam Ward may block the effect! GS: Jam and Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"<10-4, Ethius!>" Lunata sounds so excited to say that. She feels pretty confident that the Black Wolves are here too, along with so many of the others; in a way, she wonders if they've overdoing this, but... they can't be too confident with Solaris. Lily's new Gear certainly speaks a lot to some of the sites they've uncovered. But even if Loren's gear is similarly old-hat to her, she can't ever underestimate it--
As is the case when missiles rain through the air; the Rephaim's familiar Pulse Shift barrier erupts and allows it to sail through the cloud of smoke, the bright-blue translucent shield crackling and hissing along from the sheer pressure of the ordinance.
"<It's been a while, Loren,>" Lunata calls out. "<How're you doing?>"
The Rephaim's wings raise into full spread, and its arm reaches to a white cylinder along its back, verniers on full fire as it closes the distance.
"<Jay, Miss Elly, I'm going to tie them in close range, give you some breathing room. Let me know if I need to fall back and reinforce any of you!>"
It draws close to the Schehallion, and Lunata lets the cylinder rip -- revealing a Ley-powered beam sabre that she threatens to rake through the Solaris gear, horizontally.
"<You mind if I-- cut the line?!>"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Loren Voss with XA-MA16 Leyline Saber! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Lunata Croze gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock solidly guards Azoth's exec.ohr REFORMAT for 30 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock's Jam Ward may block the effect! GS: Jam and Poison applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Guard bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Xantia takes a glancing hit from Azoth's exec.azoc TRANSMUTE for 98 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Understood, Lunata," Ida says, "Recalling drone." The quadrotor scout spins on its axis, and tilts forward as it starts its return. "Xiumei, I'm moving." The Dust Dragoon rises to its full height, and leaps off the ferry's deck; its jets send waves of heated air downwards, stirring up the sea, but the vessel was built to take just that. The Dragoon lands on the shore, where the drone meets it, and neatly tucks itself into its parent machine's charging rack. And not a moment too soon.
A horrible roar from above. Ida jolts in her seat, and tilts her camera up, half-expecting to suddenly see a Metal Dragon--
And she is half right. She stares for a moment as Breka descends, and breathes. "Lily pulled the trigger," Ida transmits, over the friendly comm. "Go, go!" Where did she even get that Gear?! Questions for another time.
The Dust Dragoon does not have a shield. What it does have is extremely sturdy armor. It settles into a stable, wide-legged stance, crosses its arms before it, and simply takes the missile barrage with the heavier plating on its shoulders, forearms, and torso. Note to self, Ida thinks, as the cockpit rattles--invest in telescoping physical shield. A pause, as she sees Azoth engaging Gwen and Xantia, and she dearly hopes Gwen is right in making that challenge.
"Collating targeting data," Ida says, her hands flying across a side panel. The Dust Dragoon's command suite opens up multiple radio channels, asking to synch with several of the other Gears. Ida needs more eyes to figure out what Solaris is up to, here.
<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.
"Right," Xiumei says. "That's a problem."
Ethius says that Azoth is here. Xiumei knows, by now; she heard the reports, heard the information about Azoth being with Solaris. She hesitates for a moment, tensing up. But, she knew this might happen. She sucks a breath in.
Then she straightens her back out. "I'll move to engage," she says, keeping her voice quiet.
She nods, as Gwen says she will go in, too.
Xiumei looks down at them as the fighting starts. Her eyes lock on the armored figure below -- Azoth, she knows. She fought him before; she didn't know back then. Varius and Avile didn't, either.
He tears off for Xantia, and then a sword of bright red energy shoots off for her -- and leaps through where she was, as she jumps into the air, jumps again off thin air, and then comes crashing down to the ground. She hits the ground in a three-point stance, stands up, and then four crescents of light appear around her, orbiting her.
A weapon of Avile's. It may be predictable, when they send a shockwave of white-blue light erupting all around her, and threaten to catch Azoth in it.
"Azoth," Xiumei says. "It's... true, isn't it?"
GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Azoth with Cross Barrier - Shock Burst! GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Sensor Uplink! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Lily Keil with Sensor Uplink! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Lunata Croze with Sensor Uplink! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed to Sage! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Sensor Uplink for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify applied to Lily Keil!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly, seated in her glorious and elegantly simple cockpit - for Regulus is, indeed, controlled by thought - has a lovely view of the area around her. Panoramic, with her seat being a sort of 'pit' containing the seat of the Gear's controls. The pilot has to be somewhere, after all.
They've come in force; Xantia is here, several other Gears, and more. The sight of Renmazuo brings a passing smile toher lips, but by the time she looks back, there is another form, also familiar, and less well-auspiced:
Schiehallion.
"Oh no," Elly says quietly, as the immaculate white Gear comes into focus. Missiles burst outwards and Elly stares for a second too long, before the indicators peep up and Elly scrambles to authorize the deployment of --
Too late! The barrage, for the most part, strikes home against Regulus, bursting against the ancient reliquary Gear; the explosions shake and rattle Elly even if silent waves of RF-radiation tell a laggardly missile to turn down and land in the ocean, no doubt to the great surprise of any fish that haven't vacated the area already.
And Grandgrowl too. Elly clutches her head with both hands for a moment. Why, why why why. Why can't it just be regular troops? "Understood," she answers Lunata, although it doesn't actually sound that shaken. Maybe Elly's getting better at hiding her feelings!
Regulus grasps the mace slung in an attachment dock at its thigh, raising the weapon upwards and holding it with both hands. Of course, it's kilometers away from the enemy target (if not many kilometers) and this is a mace that seems to be an actual mace. She cannot do anything with it.
... Except that there is a concentration of Ether-enhanced force, a thin and diaphanous red light... which is merely a tracker, a marker perhaps, for the intense waves of radiation silently erupting towards Schiehallion with the intention of superheating it. Perhaps to provoke premature detonation of its missiles, before another barrage could come forth.
Please don't hurt him, Lunata, Elly thinks.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Loren Voss with Ether Diathermy! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Sensor Uplink for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Azoth solidly guards Xiumei Klein's Cross Barrier - Shock Burst for 102 hit points! GS: Cover, Hyper, and Riposte applied to Xiumei Klein! ===== +health readout for Loren Voss =========================================== _______________________| Form Gebler Gear Schiehallion |________________________
GS: Loren Voss suffers a terrible blow from Lunata Croze's XA-MA16 Leyline Saber for 304 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Loren Voss suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's Ether Diathermy for 287 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Billy Lee Black solidly guards Loren Voss's Meridian Storm for 71 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Loren Voss!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Indeed, it isn't long at all before a response is fielded.
"Missiles incoming!" Jacqueline warns. In one swift motion, Issachar's spear is drawn and spun protectively in front of it. Many of them are intercepted - but several still manage to make it past, rocking the Gear with explosions. She's still holding strong for now, however.
The source of the missiles, as it happens, is a familiar Solaris Gear - Loren's Schiehallion.
"Loren." Jacqueline greets. She'll let Lunata handle the niceties. For now...
"Gotcha. We'll be counting on you!" Jacqueline transmits back to Lunata. If she's handling the front line, then Jacqueline will assist from the back. As Lunata goes in on the attack, Jacqueline draws a Crest Graph from her deck, setting it on the console. Where it touches, green and blue light indicative of Wing and Muse emanates out. Issachar gestures, drawing upon its power - and then thrusts a hand out toward Schiehallion. Electricity sparks from its fingertips, racing toward the other Gear - and where it strikes power travels back up the current as Issachar attempts to drain the energy right out of the other Gear and back into itself.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Siphoning Current! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily's happy to give Xantia a ride. And Elly's words, "That's what I was thinking." She is... less bothered at the idea of harming Solarian workers in the moment, though she's not about to aim for them either, probably.
"Questions I can answer," Lily says to Jay, though she agrees--later.
The Elements' Gears are not to be underestimated. The EMP bursts outward and shreds Breka's blast, causing Lily within the cockpit to narrow her eyes. The interface attached to her wrists and temples gives her static at the signals. But then, there's bullets--and Breka's great form takes a ringing line of them, impacting hard on its 'scales'.
Ida's Dragoon transmits targeting data, and Lily looks it over thoughtfully, considering where to strike next. "So," she says to Seraphita over the radio, "You can fly, too. That's fine."
Within the cockpit, Lily's circuit-like markings blaze radiant purple. She directs her Gear down, down--
The draconic Gear lunges for Grandgrowl, gigantic claws ripping down towards it and attempting to seize it outright in the air, to the shoulder and to the head.
"Worry less about him and more about me!"
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Seraphita with C L A W! GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The dragon-shaped Gear is eye-catching, and Ethius casts a wary eye above in order to ensure it's not a reinforcement against them. (This potential misconception is cleared up immediately, but among even the company of superior Gears like El-Regulus and Issachar, Lily's Gear still has a presence.)
"<Copy. Moving into support fire position,>" Generalized chatter on Ethius' part. He tries to stay wide of the displays of power between Grandgrowl and Breka, the faint wash of EMP a momentary inconvenience as he raises the shot-staff for what should be a clear shot against the Schiehallion.
Grandgrowl intercepts *immediately*, and Ethius catches this fractions of a second away from being too late.
The short-burst heatless dash jets engage as razor-hot claws rake against the torso and reach as far down the right leg. The armoring is like butter against its superheated claws, so that it catches as little of it as it does is critical. Had he been any slower, Seraphita would've pounced, pinned, and perforated the Aiguille right then and there.
"<I've been intercepted,>" Ethius remarks. His eyes are a bit wide where he sits. He has the presence of mind to glide a finger across permissions for the targeting data from the Dust Dragoon but his 'copy, received' commentary is lost because he misses the button to get it on the radio.
Grandgrowl is right there. The segmented laser-staff is swung in an upward strike in the attempt to try and coax the Elemental's Gear back for spacing purposes.
"<I'm cut off,>" he informs the other friendlies as he regains his composure. "<Switching targets.>"
The received targeting data will help him keep tabs on everything else going on, at least.
"<You're outnumbered,>" he says along a public line for Seraphita to hear, as Lily moves to try and peel Seraphita off him.
Powerful as she is, he doesn't intend to leave Lily to hang to dry.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Seraphita with Vertical! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Seraphita takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's C L A W for 237 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Lily Keil! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Seraphita solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Vertical for 121 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraphita gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen turns to Xantia, that wide smile on her face as the yellow gold glow spiderwebs up her face. "Haha, back atcha, Xantia. Feels good to fight by ya again." She lifts her left hand up for a possible fist-bump, if Xantia's not already jumping in or dodging back.
.... The latter possibly happening when Azoth comes to meet them, on foot. But, not the kind, friendly neighborhood Azoth Gwen stands by as a solid friend, but the form that's managed to nearly kill her at least once. Even if that Azoth might be a means to draw people in, as he's claimed at least once, Gwen doesn't care. Azoth's never acted like he sees them that way, after all. That speaks louder to Gwen, despite Xiumei's questions.
Gwen's information may be a little outdated, too. Then again, this is the same person who still believes Janus is out there, alive, possibly hunkering down to live a better life that's still on his terms. And then, there's Loren--
In that moment Gwen's eyes ever manage to meet Azoth's own, no matter what form they might be in, there's a glimmer of kindness in the left eye, the right eyelid lowered slightly as her other eye twitches and begins to shine.
As Azoth goes for Xantia, swords of energy pivot around and slice against Gwen's right arm. The woeful energy behind it crackles as her ARM naturally tries to convert it, producing spasms down the length of her right arm and shoulder.
"Ghh..." Flinching back, when Gwen does look back up, both eyes now glow and twitch with that same light.
Dashing in, right fist held back, Gwen comes in with the counterattack, attempting to slam her glowing right fist against Azoth's head without another word.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Azoth with Jarngreipr! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Access! Gwen Whitlock takes 45 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth partially guards Gwen Whitlock's Jarngreipr for 135 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! ===== +health readout for Loren Voss =========================================== _______________________| Form Gebler Gear Schiehallion |________________________
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss partially guards Jacqueline Barber's Siphoning Current for 219 hit points! GS: Loren Voss's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Mute blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber drains Loren Voss! Jacqueline Barber gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Well of course, Xantia is all about answering any fist-bumps that are offered! She doesn't look the least bit concerned about Gwen's current condition. There's a level of trust and understanding she tends to develop with those she's known for an extended period of time. But unfortunately, that's as far as the reunion with Gwen can go, before she needs to act.
As Azoth comes for her, Xantia's demeanor is hidden behind a mask of neutrality. She's fully aware of what to expect, and responds accordingly - activating her right bracer's blade and preparing to shield herself with her left. She does her level best to match him, or perhaps more accurately, keep him occupied. The longer she keeps his attention, the less he can focus on anyone else. Gwen and Xiumei may not need to be protected, but she considers it of paramount importance to prevent any regrets on the part of Azoth that she's able.
"...Good to see you again. Wish it didn't have to be like this, but..."
She manages to sound calm, even in the middle of all this. Even so, those claws are relentless, and she can only parry so much. In the end, she's forced into breaking away, gritting her teeth as she feels a sharp pain in her left arm. But she doesn't need to look to know - it's only a scratch, from the very tip of Azoth's weaponry. Exactly as much as could be allowed to not suffer debilitating injury. When it's Azoth, she can never help but wonder... to what degree was this on her own merits, and to what degree is this Azoth managing to hold himself back?
She doesn't pause in her movement. Right after jerking away, a sharp increase in Ether concentration with Xantia at the center may alert Azoth to what's coming: a wave of electricity bursts from her body, and is immediately launched forward by meaning of her right arm. Retracting the energy blade at the same moment, by the time she seeks to strike Azoth, it's with the flat of her palm, a deceptively powerful blow aimed at increasing the distance between them more forcefully.
Lightning continues to crackle around Xantia in its wake, and she smiles a rueful smile. "One day... I'm going to find a better way. I'll override those overrides yet!" Like others have been able to do for her, she thinks, but doesn't say.
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Elemental Fury! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Azoth solidly guards Xantia's Elemental Fury for 110 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy has ensured Renmazuo still looks like a hero. He is unwilling to compromise on such a thing, even if the world that image came from has been crumbling apart. The missile barrage rages across the sky and Renmazuo ducks to the side, whipping up both wrist blasters and firing a barrage of light into the swarm to fend off the worst of it. Billy grabs the handles and shifts two controls, and Renmazuo drops out of the sky to land hard on the earth below. In a smooth motion, Renmazuo finds the grips of its twin handcannons - external weaopns that emerge from its thighs. It levels them up, firing up toward Schiehallion in response to its aggression.
"Suppose that counts as a sign, yeah!" he grunts to nobody. He leans over and finds a lever with a little pink kitten cozy over it, which he shifts with a hard CLUNK. Power starts to redistribute through the frame.
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Loren Voss with Gun Blaze! GS: Billy Lee Black has gained 1 Combo! GS: Billy Lee Black's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action. ===== +health readout for Loren Voss =========================================== _______________________| Form Gebler Gear Schiehallion |________________________
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss solidly guards Billy Lee Black's Gun Blaze for 136 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"<...Seriously?>" Loren asks of Azoth and the world at large, as if he was the Most Put Upon.
But he won't have long to be so. Interference is finally on its way.
He recognizes the Gear that leads the charge -- how could he not? "<Croze-- I should have known it was you!>" he shouts over the comms as she closes. "<Don't you have anything better to do?">" Other than make his life difficult, that is. She comes in hot and fast though, the impact of her blade sufficient to send even his Gear stumbling back a step: the damage report comes in moments after her Gear slices into Schiehallion's armor and it's enough to make him wince. Really? That much? Immediately?
"<I think I do!>" he retorts. He pulls no ARM or saber of his own though: earth itself rises in a wave from the ground beneath their feet, shooting upwards in jagged spikes for her and continuing beyond where she stands for the place Ida's own machine occupies, readying her and others for the rest of the battle to come. He saw her there -- perhaps he even guessed at some part of Lunata's gambit.
It's not that he hadn't seen Elly's Gear looming there, off in the distance. It's more that he'd resisted considering its presence, and the sort of interactions that would assuredly follow. To say they had been on good terms before Elly had defected would be a misstatement of the truth, and it's even less so now. What he's avoided focusing on out of sheer spite costs him, though.
WARNING: ETHER AMPLIFICATION DETECTED. INCOMING
And that's the real warning he gets before that beam strikes home. Even as he forces his awareness into his Gear's Ether-channeling circuitry, he knows it's too late to intercept it. The damage report is... also not great. Slowly, Loren takes a breath, hearing the roar of his pulse in his ears. And then he white-knuckles the controls.
"<Van Houten!!>"
This might be all the warning Elly gets. A great ringed watery lance tears through the space that separates his machine from hers.
Maybe it's just as well that here, Jay intercedes. Electricity snaps through the air between them, and while Loren will have to look at the combat log to confirm it, he would swear that a portion of fuel up and vanished from his meter, just like that. Within the confines of his cockpit, he glares balefully at Issachar.
"<Got a new toy, did you?>" Loren snaps; Schiehallion reaches behind to grasp for both sidearms. Dropping back with a hop that makes the land tremble, he snaps off a shot in her direction and assumes a more defensive-forward stance.
This may have been a good plan, as it were, because Renmazuo chooses that moment to descend from the sky and then, almost immediately, open fire upon Loren's position. Loren, for his part, is more than happy to return the favor, snapping both ARMs up and unloading rounds on Billy's location.
But he can do more than one tactical action at a time. This is a fact.
"<Ma'am!>" Loren calls, feeding his will through Schiehallion's systems as he continues to fire. It's a drop in the bucket: just a small way of bolstering their defenses here. Green hard-angled lines tear through the air towards her, weaving around but never intersecting one another. He can't fix the Grandgrowl any more than he can fix his own Gear -- not like he can fix a person's body. But he can fill in the metaphorical cracks and pave over the damage. Sometimes, that amounts to the same thing in the end.
===== +health readout for Loren Voss ===========================================
_______________________| Form Gebler Gear Schiehallion |________________________
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lunata Croze with Terra Ray! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Terra Ray! GS: Loren Voss has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Aqua Matrix! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jacqueline Barber with False Eclipse! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Billy Lee Black with Binary Fire! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Healing Line! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Seraphita with Healing Line! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. ===== +health readout for Loren Voss =========================================== _______________________| Form Gebler Gear Schiehallion |________________________
GS: Gamble! Loren Voss heals Loren Voss! He gains 202 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Loren Voss!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Grandgrowl, descending, manages to get claws on Ethius' Aiguille before it is raked by Breka as Lily decides to keep Seraphita away from Ethius. It's probably for the best; tying the Element up (not literally) so that she can't join the main battle is absolutely the way to make it easier on everyone.
Ripped away from Aiguille, Grandgrowl lashes out with its razor-tipped tail at the other Gear before she's dragged too far by Breka. "Of course I can fly!" Seraphita sends back, attempting to break the draconic Gear's grip.
Which she does, Grandgrowl pushing free as Aiguille stabs at its legs, causing Seraphita to take off higher again from what is turning into an awkward close-quarters battle between land and air. Grandgrowl's mouth opens wide - but this time it blows flame rather than a roar or bullets. Ironic that she's using it on a dragon, but...
"I won't even ask you why you're here, because I already know! Do you really like breaking everything so much...? - Hi Elly!" That came out with deceptive cheerfulness. At least Seraphita doesn't break away to go chase the other Gear down.
Energy surrounds Grandgrowl from Loren, too - lines and patterns. "Thanks! I can handle just two, though - take care of yourself, or help Azoth!"
GS: Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Loren Voss's Aqua Matrix for 235 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Gamble! Loren Voss heals Seraphita! She gains 202 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber takes a glancing hit from Loren Voss's False Eclipse for 133 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover and Hyper applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Seraphita has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraphita spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraphita has attacked Lily Keil with Fire Breath! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Tail Razor! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil takes a glancing hit from Seraphita's Fire Breath for 203 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lunata Croze solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Sensor Uplink for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lunata Croze solidly guards Loren Voss's Terra Ray for 89 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Lunata Croze receives 200 temporary hit points. GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Billy Lee Black takes a glancing hit from Loren Voss's Binary Fire for 167 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod solidly guards Seraphita's Tail Razor for 135 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
When his attack misses Xiumei entirely, Azoth turns his head up toward Xiumei, thin visor line of light that serves in place of any eyes brightening and narrowing. Varius and Avile didn't know it was him before, but now he's more familiar than he's been since they've encountered one another in this era. This form is a shadow of what he was -- a mere skeleton of his former self, almost literal in how much of his innards are exposed in its incomplete, sloppy construction -- but it's truer to his silhouette than the one that looks human. It's free of all its smiles and cheerful tones.
And yet, it's still wrong, missing his signature brilliant energy and instead filled with this horrid, corrupted datastream.
The shockwave of light strikes against Azoth's on barrier of red, shattering it instantly. But it does absorb a heavy chunk of the attack, Azoth shaking out his claw with a click in his joints.
She says his name. She knows now, too.
Azoth forms a massive blade and leaps up, crashing down toward her with an overhead swing.
Gwen's fist the seeks his head. She catches the edge of his visor on her knuckles, feeling something crack the moment before Azoth is gone, as if he never was, reappearing just shy of the range of her as an energy blade coalescs and orbits around his body in a full 360 degree spin, extending to counter her strike with slashes of his own.
The look in her eyes did not escape him, but he looks back at her with an empty void behind that broken visor. "Hesitation." So he says. But is kindness really the same thing?
In a moment of hypocrisy, hesitation is exactly what happens when Azoth beholds Xantia's injury. A split second pause. A warbled beep softer than the deep reverb. Whether it also softened the sweep of his claws or not goes unanswered, but it is not until her lightning palm slams into him and sends him back that she is afforded any space.
Electricity crawls through Azoth's body, twitching every limb and mixing with red arcs that leak from within. They collect at his arm, and despite the disruption, another blade forms from the energy, quickly hurled straight for Xantia's middle.
GS: Azoth has attacked Xiumei Klein with exec.mec REND! GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo! GS: Azoth has attacked Gwen Whitlock with exec.mec ERASE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.mec DISPOSE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Azoth's attack becomes clear! GS: CRITICAL! Xiumei Klein solidly guards Azoth's exec.azoc VOID STEP for 177 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xiumei Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 100 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth vanishes from Xiumei's sight before his leap finishes its landing.
The same instant, he's behind her, trying to grab her shoulder with his claw to sink his bladed grip in as he drives the sword for her back.
"...Define truth."
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Loren Voss's Terra Ray for 100 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Xantia suffers a terrible blow from Azoth's exec.mec DISPOSE for 198 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam and Poison applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Indeed, keeping Grandgrowl from the main battle is Lily's priority in this case--she's seen for herself the power of the Element before. Though Lily shows no use of magic in this Gear, strangely enough, she can still maneuver it well; she manages to turn to the side such that the fire breath erupts against Breka's side, instead of more vulnerable joints and parts, but the scorching is still clear. And Seraphita?
"I do," Lily answers of breaking things. "I like it a lot. Especially when they're Solaris's things. That's one of my favorites." ...She might be trying to get a rise out of Seraphita, but it would be easy to figure she's just telling the truth too...
"No," she says, "We can't have Voss interfering. I'll move to neutralize."
She guesses she's in this with Hesiod, now--there are far worse people out there to have watching her back, as she sees it. This Gear is powerful, but against an Element's Gear...
Breka rears back again, and opens its terrible jaws. There is a flash of light as it draws in energy, and then a translucent column of energy beams out at Grandgrowl, painting targeting data all over it--makinng the parts where Loren's magic reinforced it glow, suddenly, sickly green. Breka's eyes gleam.
"Now I've got you!"
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Seraphita with DIRECTIVE - S E E K -! GS: Lily Keil has gained 3 Combo! GS: Lily Keil's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Azoth's exec.mec ERASE for 236 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Loren calls her name.
I didn't want to fight you again Loren!!! Elly thinks, squeezing her eyes shut. She can feel the water-works starting up, tears rolling out of her eyes as her cheeks crumple up and her face flushes, and then she lowers her head and pushes forwards.
Even if it hurts --
She's made her choice!! The water smashes against the Regulus, staggering it in its approach, but the Gear had folded its arms and seems to have power and thrust to spare. What else would you expect from an Omnigear? (It would be quite something if it were to become a mere matter of upgrading the parts upon something as ancient and grand as this.)
And after smashing through, the Regulus keeps flying.
Now, the Regulus has, historically, kept well away from the thick of battle. This was something Vierge did as well. It makes sense: it isn't the heaviest of machines, leaving aside the (non-trivial, as Hammer would tell you) question of maintenance and repair costs and difficulties. But close the gap Elly does.
And as she gets near, the mace is swung -- but she's well short of Loren? Oh, there it goes: the head is mounted, it seems, not merely on a body but on some sort of unspooling CHAIN, the resulting flail swept backwards and then 'whipped' at the Schiehallion to tangle it up! And one would hope, throw Loren off.
"... I suppose it's my turn to 'cut the line,'" she says to Lunata, without a lot of 'oomph' behind it.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Loren Voss with Chain-Grasp of Regret! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.
Xiumei glances at Xantia. Overrides, which mean that Solaris can control him. She feels cold, inside, as she thinks about that.
"He's... that's what he looked back. Back then." Varius hesitates for a moment, and Xiumei nods -- then she mutters a curse, as he leaps at her with an overhead swing. Xiumei holds a hand out -- her AV Saber appears, energy blade gleaming to life -- and she moves for the parry.
It never comes.
Azoth vanishes, appearing behind her, and her shoulder is grabbed -- the armor scored by his claw -- and the sword slams into her back, glances off armor, and still cuts into her side as the glance pushes its path to somewhere less vital.
Blood runs down her side. She staggers, for a moment. "Nngh--!" she gasps. "You're..."
"I'd say you don't have any choice..." Avile doesn't speak with effort; she isn't the one wounded. "It goes deeper than choice, doesn't it, Azzy?"
Xiumei spins, taking aim -- her AV Buster appears, the short handcannon in her free hand -- and she aims, firing three rapid bursts of energy at Azoth, even as she leaps backward to give herself a little bit more space.
GS: Xiumei Klein has attacked Azoth with AV Buster - Triple Shot! GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xiumei Klein's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action. GS: Seraphita takes a glancing hit from Lily Keil's DIRECTIVE - S E E K - for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraphita gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease, Entangle, and Shieldbreak applied to Seraphita! GS: Azoth solidly guards Xiumei Klein's AV Buster - Triple Shot for 122 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Xiumei Klein!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata sees Ida's data come in. Lunata has, truthfully, no idea about how to actually use this data; she's not Jacqueline, and unable to really synthesise and make the most out of it, but... fortunately, she doesn't have to. The Rephaim's systems just seem to take care of it, and its Fire Control Systems realign to make better use of the vantage points available to it.
Lunata's not a psychic or anything, but hurting Loren wasn't really in the cards either, thankfully for Elly; she's known Loren long enough that she doesn't hate him... and they've shared a thing or two about their viewpoints, especially when she was really down in the dumps.
Ethius gets cut off; there's a quiet 'tsk' but says, "<Copy that, Ethius. Let us know if you get cornered!>" As the sabre manoeuvre follows through, she pays attention to Jacqueline's siphoning move -- she's looking for the gap in attention from when he has to deal with that...!
"<Something better to do?! Isn't that my line? This doesn't look like the kind of work you usually do, babysitting some mining operation!?>" Lunata teases Loren. "<What's good down there? Tell me!>"
Loren's got her number, though -- she can't recover fast enough to directly avoid the jagged spikes coming from the Rephaim, which slams against barrier and manages to punch through and rake through ancient Zeboim armour with a shower of sparks.
"<Hey, those are some nice moves. But I've got more!>"
The hip-mounted, Ley-powered railguns that definitely aren't just stolen from some other popular-with-housewives robot show swivel into place, and the Rephaim rises to the air, and with a POP, POP--
Two Ley-powered, electromagnetically-fired projectiles come chasing the Schiehallion!
"<Did you know there was a pun behind this? Apparently this is supposed to be a railgun, but it's Ley-powered, so it's a Leylgun.>" Lunata's being really chatty with Loren. Is she just trying to distract him?
GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Loren Voss with XA-G11 Leylinear Leylgun! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The staff-weapon is returned to a defensive position just as the Grandgrowl is forced into an awkward hybrid engagement between air and ground, and the defensive effort perhaps benefits more from that more than any skillful reaction or mechanical advantage (if any) on Ethius' part - parrying the razor-tipped tail where it grazes along Ethius' left shoulder as displays of power are exchanged between Breka and Grandgrowl give Ethius time to reposition.
In more pragmatic times, Ethius would have taken any opportunity to slip past people, often at cost of inconveniencing, endangering, or introducing deceased Bugbear stench to a respectable alchemy establishment.
"It's what I do." Ethius responds to the accusation, matter-of-factly. That's his particular specialty in the broad spectrum of what his job entails, and it's spoken without hesitation or compromise. Ethius breaks things! A lot of things!! Even with a proper context now* this is a truth that will never again be forgotten.
* - A notice was posted on the CaraKin board. It was immediately covered up accidentally by someone posting another notice on top within five minutes. This will be hilarious at an unspecified date.
While the Aiguille does have some installed loaner mobility tech from Shevat, Ethius stays low to the ground, engaging the dashjets again to reposition just as Breka rears back and opens those terrible jaws, looking upward in the wake of the Grandgrowl's voluminous flames.
<"No."> Ethius gets over to the Breka once the on-board equipment recognizes and adjusts for what its communication frequency is.
<"We've got her."> He says, the staff's segmented laser mechanisms lining up energy as he discharges a needling line from below, angling towards the bottom of the jaw. (The 'needling' is where the unit line got its name from!)
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Seraphita with Shoot! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Seraphita solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Shoot for 136 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraphita gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline nods at Lily's reply. Her curious mind is racing, of course - but she has more pressing matters to attend to now.
"Do you like it? I find it suits me quite well." Jacqueline replies to Loren. Issachar dodges to the side as Schiehallion fires off a shot with its sidearms, the quick movement turning what would have been a serious blow into a glancing shot against the armor. It serves as a valuable reminder - she may have fought him before, but that doesn't mean she can take him any less seriously.
The Crest Graph on the console is replaced with another. Once more it lights up with Wing and Muse, but this time, in a different configuration. At Jacqueline's command, electricity begins to crackle across Issachar's spear - and with a flourish and a thrust, she sends it erupting out toward Schiehallion in a beam of lightning.
In the end, it's Lunata who gets around asking what's going on around here first. Jacqueline has to admit that she was curious about that... but, she elects not to chime in - Lunata is better equipped to handle that right now.
Her attention does shift to Renmazuo, for a moment. A Gear with the silhouette of a hero... she's still fairly jealous of the cape. She has to admit, he has style.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Lightning Pierce! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. <Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's eyes dart back and forth from screen to screen as data feeds in from Breka, Aguille, and Rephaim. If anyone here can handle Seraphita on even footing, it's Lily--and if nothing else, Ethius can be very good at ruining people's machinery. Ida prepares fire support, and is just about to hit 'Send' when the Dragoon's sensors register an Ether surge. Jagged spikes of earth erupt beneath Ida's Gear, and in that same moment, she hits the jets, roaring up into the sky before they can do more than rake the foot armor. Bits of rock and metal fall to the ground as the command Gear traces a high arc through the sky.
The Dragoon comes down further down the beach, on a bluff with a slightly better view of the Solarian camp. Ida can't take a very good look at the moment, though, as she's got firing solutions to finish--and once the computer's done with those, Ida hits 'transmit'.
"Data coming in for you, Breka, Aguille, Rephaim." And just like that, the data is there, all ready to go without the other pilots needing to do a single thing.
GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's Chain-Grasp of Regret for 104 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Loren Voss! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Lily Keil with Firing Solution! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Firing Solution! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Lunata Croze with Firing Solution! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Lunata Croze's XA-G11 Leylinear Leylgun for 331 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated! GS: Lunata Croze drains Loren Voss! Lunata Croze gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Loren Voss critically guards Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Pierce for 126 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Firing Solution for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Lily Keil! GS: Ethius Hesiod accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Firing Solution for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ethius Hesiod!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Xantia and Gwen are united in several ways- fighting, lightning, fists, and love of cake. Xantia would definitely read a level of control in Gwen's movements despite the first few moments of twitchy transformation, which now are thankfully gone.
And they stand united in regards to Azoth.
Xiumei may know more, though, and unfortunately, she's meeting Azoth on foot. Gwen finally deciphers this, and immediately goes on the offensive as Azoth closes in on her with quiet decisiveness, contrasting with her earlier chatty demeanor.
Running towards the two, Gwen releases a bright burst of electricity out ahead of her, attempting to hit Azoth away from Xiumei.
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Azoth with Shock Diamond! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters a Counter stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Access! Gwen Whitlock takes 45 damage! GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Shock Diamond for 161 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Ethius *is*, as it turns out, really good at breaking stuff.
The beam hits Grandgrowl's ... well, it misses the chin, but only just; it hits part of the mane, blowing off some of the stiff metallic frill and showering the area with small bits of debris as one of the machine guns is also taken out.
"Hey, ow ow ow!" Seraphita personally isn't actually hurt by this - her cockpit isn't in the head - but it's a significant impact on Grandgrowl. It's still functional, but it's not moving quite as well as before... and, worse, it looks awful!
She really does need to keep these two busy. Lily's Breka is doing something that Seraphita can't immediately identify - she would have guessed it's Ether, except it's self-evidently *not*. The energy traces all over Grandgrowl, pointing out vulnerabilities, joints, patches -
"Hands off!"
Seraphita reaches for *her* Ether, through the Ether amplifier. What she does is so fundamental it barely qualifies as a spell, yet so complicated that almost nobody could actually pull it off in battle; she seizes at all the ambient Ether and *yanks* in a very particular mental way, pulling all of it into alignment.
Specifically: aligned with fire.
Surrounded by a bubble of entirely Fire-aspected Ether, *then* Seraphita releases her sorcery; streaming energy blasts away from the Grandgrowl down at the other Gears, catching all the drifting Ether and pulling it along with it. It's unpredictable, but for the few instants before the Ether 'snaps' back to its normal elemental attunement, it surrounds them in a literal world of flame.
Seraphita also butts onto Lunata's radio, once she's caught her breath from that particular trick.
"BOOOO! That's a horrible joke! Tolone would say, a good pun is its own reword, and that's not rewording at all!" It is unclear if Seraphita gets the pun, though she does follow it up with, "Plus, it's more of a Leyray. Rayley. Leyrayley... o/`" She sing-songs the last bit.
GS: Seraphita has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraphita has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Wildfire! GS: Seraphita has attacked Lily Keil with Wildfire! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Lily Keil suffers a terrible blow from Seraphita's Wildfire for 431 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Seraphita! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Ethius Hesiod suffers a terrible blow from Seraphita's Wildfire for 442 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Seraphita!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia does notice that moment of hesitation, simply because she's looking for it. She may have seen it even if it hadn't been there, so keen is she to believe in Azoth's willingness to fight his overrides in whatever limited capacity he's able. It isn't going to be enough to stop this, of course, but all signs of the progress that was made over time are a welcome sight.
The first signs of overt distress from Xantia don't come until the brief moments where she loses sight of Azoth. Ironically, it's only because these instances happen in an enchange with another - she would actually feel less alarmed if she was sure she would be the target of the ambush to follow herself. 'We can handle each other' is like a mantra at this point, so convinced is she of this being an absolute truth. But when another is involved, she can't be certain of anything.
She doesn't even have time to attempt to warn Gwen or Xiumei, it all happens so quickly. But the immediate counterattacks tell her all she needs to know right now: Everyone is still alive. The best she can do right now is do her very best to keep it that way.
Her own charge is however interrupted by an energy blade thrown her way. There's no time to dodge. In an impulse, she instead raises her left arm, focusing her aura of lightning around the bracer she uses to shield herself. For a moment, the situation is uncertain as the energy blade comes to a dead stop, suspended within a web of electricity. Then it violently explodes, knocking Xantia off her feet, crashing down on her back some distance away.
That looked painful, yet she doesn't stay down for long. She can't afford to. She needs to get back in close to be able to make a significant difference. Soon enough, she's the one who briefly vanishes from view, briefly supplementing her charge with a burst of Ether to nigh-instantly bridge the remaining gap between her and Azoth. Another palm strike follows, now no longer lightning-enhanced. Instead, it's pure, raw Ether being employed, using foreign energy to attempt to cause some kind of disruption within Azoth's body.
"...Sorry," she can't keep an apology from slipping out. "But, you understand. I'll make sure you'll be able to keep your promise, no matter what."
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Essence-Rending Palm Strike! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Xantia's Essence-Rending Palm Strike for 129 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Mighty and Shield removed! GS: Cripple blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Schiehallion's bombardment befalls Renmazuo, and the gunfighter Gear finds itself outgunned. With a flare of his cape, the Etone Gear whirls away , attempting to disrupt Loren's fire by confusing his silhoette. It works, somewhat, though the frame reverberates from a few solid hits.
Billy elects to abandon offense for a moment. He plants one knee to the ground, and the massive Gear signs the cross, and begins to pulse with golden light.
In the cockpit, Billy also shines, hands clasped together as he prays for safety for all and protection from these villains who make a curse of the name of God.
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Billy Lee Black with Sacred Veil! GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Sacred Veil! GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Lunata Croze with Sacred Veil! GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Sacred Veil! GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Sacred Veil! GS: Billy Lee Black has gained 2 Combo! GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action. GS: Billy Lee Black heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 190 temporary hit points! GS: Shield and Surge applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Lunata Croze accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Firing Solution for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Billy Lee Black heals Lunata Croze! She gains 188 temporary hit points! GS: Shield and Surge applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Billy Lee Black heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 194 temporary hit points! GS: Shield and Surge applied to Elhaym van Houten!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Xiumei's armor bends under claw. Armor Azoth had helped her rebuild. Armor Azoth said he would do anything he could to help her reform and stabilize. Now he tries to break it. Gwen accepted Azoth as he was, however he thought was the most truthful to present himself, but the only thing to accept now is violence. Xantia told him that certain algorithms were super high priority.
That may well be the reason he can even talk now, through those overrides. And choice... Azoth holds a broken past and an empty future.
"I was not... designed... for choice..."
It is deeper than it not being intended or desired. It's an exploitable nature of being.
Three shots fire from Xiumei's buster, colliding with metal. They strike armor, not innards, and the force is enough to dislocate his shoulder and leave his arm dangling on cords and wires. With a rough snap, Azoth forces it back into place.
Gwen fights without words. There is something about her eye. Something is wrong, something she tried to warn him about, once, and his calculations know it, but they cannot prioritize it -- especially not as it envelopes him, drawing out a mechanical, layered shriek from his circuits as his whole body goes rigid, lifted inches off the ground as if paralyzed in space itself.
It snaps like thunder and Azoth flies back. Before he can drop or recover, Xantia's palm catches him. Time seems to slow the moment he's struck, the light pulsing through him dimmed and flickering.
"Pr...omise... in... progress..."
He collapses. Even so, the lingering disruptive pulse of Azoth's ambient energy grows hot. The only warning Gwen receives is a sense of intense static building before it gathers and bursts, exploding in corrupted data. A cloud of dust is left in its wake whether Gwen was able to escape the area or not, and Azoth is gone. Until he isn't, appearing up above them.
A ring of blades surrouds Azoth. Crosshairs appear on his visor, darting around before layering on top of one another at dead center. He dives down, gliding across the ground at alarming speed, dust and streaks of red behind him as he barrels toward Xiumei like a flying blender of swords. He pivots around, commanding those swords to his side without touch, bringing them together like a chain and whipping them at Xantia, following the arc of their lead into a slam of his claws.
GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Azoth spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Azoth has attacked Xiumei Klein with exec.mec DELETE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Azoth has attacked Gwen Whitlock with exec.ohr DETONATE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has attacked Xantia with exec.mec TERMINATE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Azoth with Counter Attack! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Azoth's exec.ohr DETONATE for 366 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam and Poison removed! GS: Gwen Whitlock's Jam Ward may block the effect! GS: Poison applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Jam blocked! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and SOS Overdrive activated! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Gwen Whitlock has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Xiumei Klein has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: Xiumei Klein partially evades Azoth's exec.mec DELETE for 240 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xiumei Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Cover, Hyper, and Riposte removed! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Counter Attack for 231 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Azoth's exec.mec TERMINATE for 120 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam and Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Billy Lee Black heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 194 temporary hit points! GS: Shield and Surge applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Here she comes, he thinks, unkindly, as Elly descends from the heavens. Finally joining the rest of us on the field. Never mind that it's just good sense -- and always has been for her, with her Gear. Schiehallion can get into the thick of it, whereas Vierge (and Regulus) are more delicate by comparison. But for him, it's just another sign of how the universe favors Elhaym van Houten. She swings her mace and Loren, uncharacteristically, opts to evade, perhaps detecting that something is off about her attack. He might have almost gotten away with it but--
Schiehallion was always a slow accelerator, as Elly may remember. Loren finds himself snarled in a line that's far stronger than it has any right (by his thinking) to be. "<Let... go!>"
His shout over the comms is punctuated by a rising tide of soil and rock, aiming to batter the Regulus over and over.
"<Can't you be quiet?>" he says to Lunata; it might well be easy to imagine the sort of expression on his face now as he struggles with the bind and with Lunata's general Lunata. "<Like I would tell you! You're the ones tresspassing!>"
There's not much he can do against her attack except dig in: hexagonal panels of light snap into existence before the Schiehallion, in an attempt to dampen the attack. ...He'll never be able to go back in check to know for sure, but he's fairly certain it didn't help very much, given the values he's seeing on screen. "Great," he mutters to himself. "Left auxillary shield's almost shot." The left side of the Schiehallion has indeed begun to smoke a little bit, helpfully. "<And why is it a pun, anyway? Who names their attacks puns!?" Loren yells over the comms, apparently personally offended by this.
Of course, he's personally offended by a lot of things.
In his own way, he shows Lunata what he thinks of that: a swirling jet of water with all the force of a storm's tide roars ex nihilo for Lunata!
Those two are going to be a problem, he's figured -- by which he means both Ida and Billy alike. The latter's using Ether by his estimate, which is not just a problem but an active concern -- well, for someone other than Loren, once he's done here. Assuming he opts to mention it. . But in the moment, he angles his ARMs towards the both of them as if his Gear were instead in a petty dive bar shootout. "...Load in special rounds," he tells the computer, and the ARMs oblige with a satisfying click before he unloads the detonating rounds.
"<Hmph,>" is his response to Jay's statement about her own Gear, and it's a sure thing he's making a face. "<That should have been ours!>" He's pretty sure about this, anyway -- if they had been quicker, perhaps they would have been able to salvage it before whatever had thrust it into her hands had happened. And of course all things like Anima Relics are Solaris' by rights. But Jay gives him something else to think about in the form of a crackling bolt of lightning: he has scarcely a moment to counter it with a rising wall of earth and still there's enough of the spell's charge remaining to travel up the remaining distance to greet him.
His own response is to drop back, as much as the entangling chain will allow him. "...Switch to Ether ammunition mode," he asks of the on-board computer. All at once, he snaps both ARMs up and unloads upon Jay's position, firing until the warning light flashes red. Each and every shot bears with it no cartridge, but the very essence of a mountain.
Seraphita had asked him not to worry about her.
"<...Yes, ma'am,>" he replies, frowning as he beetles his brow. He should probably...
"<...Azoth. Incoming.>" Not enemy fire, no. Rather, green fractaling energy, unwinding and coiling for Azoth in a way that only the math can foretell.
GS: Loren Voss spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Terra Vector! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lunata Croze with Aqua Prime! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Terminator Rounds! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Billy Lee Black with Terminator Rounds! GS: Loren Voss spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Iron Halo! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss spends 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Azoth with Energy Principle! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Azoth accepts Loren Voss's Energy Principle for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Jam removed! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper and Regen applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Loren Voss's Reload! activated! GS: Azoth gains 2 Combo from Inspire! GS: Lunata Croze partially guards Loren Voss's Aqua Prime for 554 hit points! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The Breka outputs no Ether at all, despite a clear signature of its use. It's certainly strange--but the beams it emits are technological rather than magical in nature, and a strange technology indeed.
"I don't think so."
But Ethius is right; 'they've' got her, she isn't fighting alone here. Which is good, a moment later, because... Fire happens. A spell that Lily can recognize being weaved, a spell that turns the very world into flame itself. Breka is suddenly engulfed in flame, hot enough that Lily herself feels it, as the metal of the cockpit heats up against her. Streaming energy blasts radiate through and around.
But Lily's Gear is not destroyed, despite that terrible blow. Quite the opposite, a very small amount of the Ether is absorbed, the Gear beginning to glow red for more reasons than just heat.
Lily grits her teeth. "...Time go for it," she says. And thanks to Ida's powerful electronic measures...
"Hesiod. Full offense. Leave nothing behind." It's the only option at this point; playing around is sure to see them overwhelmed.
Breka rises higher into the air, and its eyes glow. It opens its mouth wider, jaws opening up more than they should, as energy crackles in from all around. Its 'claws' point forward, its tail rising to the sky to direct the energy--
And a horrific beam larger than some Gears itself erupts forth from Breka's mouth, a weapon capable of wiping out buildings in a flash.
GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber suffers a terrible blow from Loren Voss's Iron Halo for 343 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: Lily Keil has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lily Keil spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Seraphita with DIRECTIVE - P U R G E -! GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Amplify and Mighty expired! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.
The gouges, the bending in the armor are severe enough to deform the shoulder armor. Xiumei manages to break away after firing the shots from her Buster -- and after Gwen's blast of energy. She darts away.
"Thank you!" Xiumei calls to Gwen, before she looks back to Azoth. She hesitates for a second, when she sees him crash down like that. She lifts her Buster; the saber vanishes into cubes of data light.
And then Azoth rises up. Xiumei gasps, as he comes crashing down for her, and the energy blades slam into her. They batter her armor -- they smash her backward, hurtling her across the battlefield. She hits a rock with a crunch.
"It's not right. To use your nature against you," she says. "I... I don't have a good solution today. I'll... I'll try to find a way, though."
The four crescent-shaped barriers around her twist -- and instead of forming a cross shape, they fly in front of her, into two stacks of two each. Light gleams between them.
Then, two huge beams of white-blue light explode out of them. They fly together -- then the crescents move, and the beams cross into an X-shape, with Azoth at the center of them.
"Damn it... we'll figure something out, Sparky!"
GS: Xiumei Klein spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Xiumei Klein has attacked Azoth with Cross Flash Remix! GS: Xiumei Klein has gained 2 Combo! GS: Xiumei Klein has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Loren Voss's Terra Vector for 217 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Amplify added to Azoth! GS: Azoth has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Xiumei Klein's Cross Flash Remix for 284 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Xiumei Klein! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Seraphita takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's DIRECTIVE - P U R G E - for 613 hit points! GS: Cripple and Drowsy applied to Seraphita! GS: Seraphita enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"<I'm getting... heat readings.>" Ethius hesitates only for a proper adjective because in the moment he can't find an appropriate one. It's a window of time where he can quietly accept further support from the Dust Dragoon but he's got eyes on what he's looking at and he can't tell if there's a growing mechanical failure in the Grandgrowl from whatever Lily did. It doesn't match the way he assumes the machine might 'fail,' after the time unbeknownst to him that Ragnell completely subverted his attempts to pick apart Azoth he's been finding more novel cases he has no precedent for.
That's not a catastrophic feedback effect.
"<Don't stay there,>" is the best Ethius can give as he starts gunning the thrusters, foregoing the short-burst heatless benefits as he tries to put greater distance between the Element's Gear and himself. As it so happens...
He can't outrace the gouts of flame, racing ahead of him and engulfing the area in which the Aiguille is currently operating in fire. One could believe that a confirmed kill then and there, for the roughly ten seconds that pass where there isn't signal or movement.
...
A burst of propulsion sees the Aiguille leap upwards, melted and fused plating along with immense smoke from where things seem to have burst around the torso (twice) and left leg.
It is also still on fire.
"<Aiguille here.>" He generally hides it well, but there's the subtle fatigue of someone with a near-miss from passing out from the heat. "<Hit, but operational.>" He thinks giving a specific run-down of the damages is beyond the time he has allowed before Grandgrowl can come at him again.
'Hesiod. Full offense. Leave nothing behind.'
"<Copy.>" He's watching Breka's rise higher into the air, of which he can't follow. Some of the segments of the staff flicker and show that he's bound to have to do some chores around the Thames to get replacement segments. (That they have them in the number they do is great, but it's always a dwindling, finite number.)
A viable pathway exists between generation and travel towards the end point of a final charged burst, light gathering at the end of the staff before it discharges in a rapid-fire burst aiming lower rather than higher.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Seraphita with Neutralize! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amplify expired! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Seraphita takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Neutralize for 403 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Seraphita joins the pun foray!
"<It's not my joke! It's like a 5,000 year old joke at this point! Well, it's not a ray, it fires some kind of solid thing, but... you could say my rifle is a leyray, sure! Rayley... maybe a Ralleigh person built it... ha ha!>"
Oh no, these two are going to just yak up the radio frequency at this point.
Fortunately, Ida's there to distract her with more data. "<Thanks, Ida! Sometime I'm gonna have to ask for a course on how to read this... the Rephaim just does it for me, but that's gonna bite me in the butt someday.>"
But then-- Billy's to the rescue! Planted with one knee on the ground, the Gear... prays, and Lunata can't help but look in awe as this heroic-looking Gear somehow redoubles the Rephaim's defensive power-- and just in time, too, as Loren's attack comes in savage and severe;
The jet of water literally takes the Rephaim out of the air and colliding against forest, where Lunata ends up taking a chunk of the canopy with her. Ack, she thinks, I hopefully didn't displace too many animals... poor animals... what animal am I having for lunch again? Right, it was twice-cooked pork--
Focus, Lunata!
"<Rephaim here, I'm still doing okay. Also, who's in the cool blue robot with the cape?>" Lunata asks Renmazuo. "<Not sure if we've met before. I'm Lunata Croze, in the Rephaim! Thanks for the assist!>"
The Rephaim's verniers realign and upright, bringing it up towards its feet again. "<You want to play hardball, Loren? I'll bite!>"
The Rephaim's suddenly moving at fast speeds, waiting for the moment in which she finds an opening-- as she skims in, the head vulcans roar to life, showering the space around the Solaris gear with solid-round ammunition--
"<Take this!>"
--and then she's literally thrown her saber, which spins in the air like a boomerang; while she's got him occupied with that, the beam rifle comes out for a few snapshots at the same time the horribly punny Leylgun fires, each sequential use of her weapons done in perfect harmony.
"<And this! And this! This is my...!>"
She's on the other side when that salvo finishes, the chest-mounted ley cannon erupting in a large, streaking beam that shatters ground and threatens to consume all in its path.
"<Full Weapon Combination!!>"
GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lunata Croze spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lunata Croze has attacked Loren Voss with This is... my Full Weapon Combination! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss solidly guards Lunata Croze's This is... my Full Weapon Combination for 437 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 60 FP! (That's 45 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Loren Voss's Terminator Rounds for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Gleam activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Did Gwen escape the area?
No, she didn't, but as Azoth appears up in the air, there is a certain courier, right behind him, gripping him from behind.
"....." From this angle, it's unfortunate, but if he actually managed to somehow look back towards her, there'd be no mistaking it at this close distance. On that neutral, calm face, Gwen's eyes shine, yes, there is still the courier's warm smile behind them.
Then again, one could almost swear the courier was trying to hug Azoth.
Which is precisely when all the energy which she was holding on to in her body, as well as the corrupted parts of his, are shot right back into Azoth's body, just before he's able to slip from her weakened grasp.
Azoth's power is such that it'll likely take a moment to work, and even then definitely a few more hits from Xantia and Xiumei, but Gwen's confident they can take care of the rest.
"....... should've.... used Halcyone....." she coughs, now her normal, extremely squishy and painful self, down on the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Billy's attention washes over Elly. Can someone like her really deserve the blessing of god, in a moment like this? Billy thinks so; and maybe that's a blessing in its own right.
Elly smiles to herself at the pun that Lunata explains. It seems more like wordplay than a pun proper but perhaps that's just a quirk of the language, thinks Elly (who, much of the time, still thinks in Solarian in her head).
Soil and rock smash against the Regulus as it presents itself as an anchor to Loren's ambition.
"... I don't have to listen to you, Loren," Elly answers him (finally!). "I don't recognize your claim. None of them do. If you want it so badly, then they can come down and talk to people about it. They're people, not --"
Oh, he's still attacking, not listening. Elly's talk is derailed when he begins his assault on the others. The mace head retracts itself and Regulus does pull away. Loren is, apparently, free. He is turning his attention to other targets.
Elly isn't letting her eyes off of him.
Signals and control panes flock to the cone of Elly's vision, like helpful cream-colored birds. Text scrolls, in its familiar archiacisms. Elly thinks: Yes, yes; all but the engines; let those go into standby -- and a blue screen appears to the side. Elly reaches forwards with her hand to touch a space that says, in that older script: <AYE>
There is an emanation from Regulus. A signal sent into the very brain and nerves of Schiehallion. Into the gear Loren's family has spent so much to perfect, and it just comes in there, broadcasted with atrocious levels of power over not that much distance at all.
off
shutdown
@QUIT
disable
cool_off eng:12%
A cascade of commands. All of them saying one thing to the Gear: GO TO SLEEP. TURN OFF. Perhaps, in a certain sense of the term, DIE; but all they are is forced signals, transmitted from outside. How good has Solaris made their firewalls?
GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Elhaym van Houten has attacked Loren Voss with AHT - Signal Lullaby ~Dream of the Blue Girl~! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's AHT - Signal Lullaby ~Dream of the Blue Girl~ for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Delay, Entangle, and Shieldbreak applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Sometime when we're not being shot at," Ida says, to Lunata. A second flare of Ether approaches the Dust Dragoon, but this time, the alert stays silent; the signature came from an allied unit. Faint golden light washes over the Gear's frame, leaving behind a bright Etheric shield. "Appreciated, Brother Black," Ida says, even if the dissonance stings. How has he been holding up? Ida swallows, makes a note to follow up.
Of course, Loren knows the value of force multipliers like that. The explosive round races at the Dust Dragoon, and Ida shifts the sticks at the last possible second. The Gear twists to the side, the round glances, and rather than ripping an enormous hole in the armor, it erupts in a burst of shrapnel. Bits of metal scrape across the Gear's chest, but its defenses held... thanks in no small part to Billy's earlier intercession.
Ida's eyes dart sideways just in time to see mingled, gut-wrenchingly-familiar energy signatures erupt from the field. That's Mockingbird's, that Xiumei's, and that's... Azoth's. Ida's stomach twists. "Dammit," she transmits, over the friendly band. "Xiumei, status?"
Now, the Dragoon decides to engage its foe directly. Its hand reaches up, snatches something off its back--something long and thin, which unfolds into a telescoping spear with a conductive head. It starts to hum with charging energy as Ida jets forward, trying to stab Schiehaillion, let loose with a massive electrical shock, and hopefully do some damage.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Loren Voss with Shock Lance Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"o/`..."
LUNATA CROZE has gained a social rank with SERAPHITA! This can only be a good thing.
With pleasant thoughts in her head, Seraphita focuses on the battle. She has to pull through, of course - just like before, going back to Solaris in failure is unacceptable. She has to be the best of them, the most determined, the most dedicated, just because of who - and what - she is. Otherwise...
But alas for Seraphita, fate isn't on her side tonight.
Full offense is a valid tactic for her and it's a valid tactic *against* her, too. Breka's beam blasts out, and Seraphita's response is to fly upwards, hovering as Grandgrowl's wings shift, sculling the air. It roars defiance into the blast of energy -
It almost works. Breka's beam wavers visibly, the whole thing expanding and contracting like it was being viewed through rippling water, but it doesn't break apart; it hits in a chaotic flux rather than a solid beam, but that's barely any difference at all, in the end.
Bowled over by the sheer force of it, much of the armour stripped away or visibly cracked, Grandgrowl nonetheless manages to remain up in the air; its thrusters burn brighter as it flies, sweeping in an arc around as Seraphita tries to get height over Breka (she can't help but get it against Aiguille).
Rising, she's struck by Ethius' beam too, and one of Grandgrowl's lower legs has a blast of sparks and light erupt from its hip. It's not standing, so that's not disabling, but Seraphita's board is looking worryingly red; she reaches out, adjusting some of the screens. She can still see.
She can still fight. She's not going to run until the Commander calls it. "<Loren! I've got them, but - is the Commander responding...?>" She's putting a good face on it. Grandgrowl is way more damaged than she wants to admit.
Grandgrowl stoops into a dive, its damaged mane emitting a ring of flame that it dives through. And again, and again, speeding up with every descent, the entire front half of Grandgrowl beginning to shine a dull red; a bubble of flame forms before it, streaming backwards like a comet's tail.
She slams more than anything else into Breka, and keeps going; reaching out through the flame as Grandgrowl stoops, she rakes out with the three working limbs down at Aiguille before pulling up sharply, wings beating hard to avoid slamming Grandgrowl directly into the ground. Which would probably be a really embarassing way to go.
GS: Seraphita has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraphita spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraphita has attacked Lily Keil with Shooting Star Charge! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraphita has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Superheated Ripper! GS: Seraphita has gained 1 Combo! GS: Disease, Entangle, and Shieldbreak expired! GS: Seraphita has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Seraphita's Shooting Star Charge for 178 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper, Mighty, and Shield applied to Seraphita! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
There's a strong reaction from Xantia upon hearing the words, 'not designed for choice'. She visibly flinches, expression filled with absolute misery. For Azoth, certainly, but right now, with what happened recently... it feels all the more like it applies to herself, as well. She quickly turns this into defiance, throwing out an arm to the side in rejection.
"Don't say that! It doesn't matter! There's a lot of other things you were never designed for, but you can still do! One day, that wish too will come true!"
Rejection... and desperation. She's saying it for the both of them. No one can carry on without hope. She knows she couldn't. And that promise she insisted upon is its ultimate form. Looking ahead to when all their woes are over, with the insistence that what's most important will not have changed.
But there's no rejecting the fact that this fight is not going to end except by force. Xantia tried to do it gently, by her standards, which is to say indirectly rather than with full-on violence. But it's not enough. And when Azoth appears high in the air once more...
There's no more time to think. It's necessary to act to survive, and so act she does. When the chain of swords comes for her, she dives to the side, crying out in pain as her left leg is struck this time. It's not quite as shallow a wound as the one on her arm, but it shouldn't be outright debilitating. Still, she's on the ground. Which makes this the perfect time to strike, and so, Azoth must. Knowing this, she anticipates the following claw strike...
...and in spite of the injury, springs up, landing in a knelt position, the red energy blade bursting into existence from her right bracer. Without missing a beat, she launches herself forward, passing directly by Azoth with her blade extended.
When Xantia lands, following this... she sinks through her knees, and falls down on her side. But this is solely from her leg wound. In that latest exchange, she'd managed to avoid further injury. But what of Azoth...?
GS: Xantia has attacked Azoth with Blade Blitz! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia takes 32 damage from Poison! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Seraphita's Superheated Ripper for 392 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Billy Lee Black heals Billy Lee Black! He gains 202 temporary hit points! GS: Shield and Surge applied to Billy Lee Black! GS: Billy Lee Black solidly guards Loren Voss's Terminator Rounds for 35 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Billy Lee Black! GS: Shield applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Xantia's Blade Blitz for 173 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Delay applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
A sacred veil of protection falls over Issachar. It takes her a second to feel its presence - and a second longer to realize where it's coming from.
"Thank you." Jacqueline says, as Billy offers a prayer, though her attention quickly turns back to Loren.
"Don't be a sore loser, now. If you want to blame anyone, blame Seymour for letting it end up in my hands." Jacqueline says. It's only because he tried to kill her with it that she was able to connect with it at that fateful moment.
Schiehallion's sidearms take aim, and Loren unloads upon Issachar with the very essence of a mountain. Jacqueline braces herself - and her quick thinking combined with the protection of Billy's prayer sees her through. Issachar is rocked violently - almost literally - but at the end, it's still standing. Jacqueline exhales in relief.
"...Alright then." She decides. Issachar readies its spear and then lunges toward Schiehallion, charging toward it with a sweeping thrust - but in the end, this is just a repositioning tactic. As she moves, the blade-like feathers of Issachar's wing units detach, each one glowing with electricity - and in Issachar's right hand, the power of the earth is starting to build. With a push forward of its hand, Issachar's spear thrust is followed up by a stalagmite. This, too, is followed up, as the feathers simultaneously release their electrical charge.
GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Advancing Spear! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 3 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has launched an attack Link! GS: Jacqueline Barber's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Loren Voss with Dynamic Sorcery! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss partially guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Shock Lance Strike for 267 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Loren Voss partially evades Jacqueline Barber's Advancing Spear for 101 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Loren Voss suffers a terrible blow from Jacqueline Barber's Dynamic Sorcery for 495 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Loren Voss's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Mute blocked! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Gwen is engulfed in the blast and Azoth... miscalculates. Painful data concluded that she would not be standing after such an attack if it struck her dead on. Or, no, he was correct. Gwen is not standing. She is holding on. His body jerks and convulses, trying to shake her free, only to feel a swell of that dangerous energy bleed directly into his circuits. Crimson red is stained in that shining reflection.
Azoth explodes during his assailing flight. Chunks of his chassis go flying across the battlefield, sharp edges embedding into the earth. Wires snap and spit electricity. Cables burst, oozing hydraulics and coolant. An arm hits the ground. His tail shatters into segments. And he accelerates, letting more of his broken visor chip off and fly from his faceless visage to complete his assault on Xiumei.
And Xiumei shows him sympathy. It hurts, the way forgiveness comes so automatically. It hurts, the way they think a solution exists. It hurts holding all the numbers he doesn't know how to explain to anyone.
Time seems to stop as Xiumei's crescent barriers form and twist. Azoth's form flickers in and out of visibility, as if it he were about to use his Void Drive to escape. But once the beams of light strike, he is trapped within that radiant cross, locked in his flinch as his mechanics shriek.
His bladed feet hit the ground, one armed body hunched. But he hardly needs both arms to throw a blade-chain at Xantia and drive a claw into into her fallen form. A thousand arguments pass in a second, logic scrambling for every justification why this cannot happen. Overrides rip them apart in merciless disregard, as they always have. The claw comes down. Xantia comes up, red energy blade of her own, and passes through.
The dangerous arcs of electricity dancing over Azoth's body quiet and fade. Red lights dim, leaving only black.
He falls.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Employing such light drains even Billy's profound faith. He takes a breath, afterward, deeply.
<Renmazuo, responding,> Billy answers Lunata's call. <...Etone, Billy Lee Black at your service, ma'am. I believe we've run into each other on the field a few times. You're welcome.> Billy is, as ever, a startlingly pale young man, but there's a soft smile on his face, too. A kind-hearted young man, despite the haunting things he's been made to endure. <God's light is for us all, even in these times.>
Then he has to move. Scheihallion takes aim and his sensors detect the targeting line. Renmazuo roars from a kneel straight up into the sky, narrowly skirting away from all but the worst of the detonation. Then he grabs the kitten-covered switch and jams it the WHOLE way forward!!
The area grows silent under a single calamitous BOOM!!! from Renmazuo's midsection, the heavy cannon in its belly going off and blasting a huge shell into Scheihallion with such force that Renmazuo is sent upwards. It flips end over end, its silhouette obscured by that cloak as it arcs backward and up, and then with judicious jet abuse, slightly forward...
So that it ultimately LANDS on the Scheihallion in a knee-shattering straddle of the shoulders.
Then he drives both of Renmazuo's fists into the Solaris machine, and the blasters buzz up, firing dozens of ether-infused charges into the enemy, possibly pulverizing the head. Jump jets see Renmazuo leap away a moment later, flipping back to a safer distance.
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Loren Voss with Sky Gatling! GS: Billy Lee Black has gained 1 Combo! GS: Billy Lee Black's stances have changed from Avenger to Hero! GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss solidly guards Billy Lee Black's Sky Gatling for 338 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 50 FP! (That's 35 more than usual!) GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
From his cockpit, Ethius sucks in breath as sweat runs down his brow. The cooling systems got overwhelmed and he's boiling in there. It's familiar. Not comfortable, but familiar. Remembered lessons in training from years ago, little tricks and tips over thousands of years of collective knowledge on the best ways to maintain yourself in unbearable heat.
He has to squint because the sparks of Grandgrowl's thrusters and that horrid building-busting beam of the Breka really are that bright to his visual systems and maybe... those ought to be replaced with something that better filters excessive brightness.
Grandgrowl's going too fast for him to get a fair lock on with the staff weapon, even pointing it at there. It's too reckless, the angle puts Breka in the line of fire if he does.
Grandgrowl comes for him, and attempts to engage the dashjets when already overtaxed from external heat sources is fruitless, claws tearing off important-looking plating and-- he doesn't dwell on how close that one was to the cockpit, whirling from inertia as the Grandgrowl pulls right back up.
With little ceremony or announcement, the staff's orientation is changed so that the firing end is pointing downwards, because the end is still running hot from the last barrage. With the window of opportunity narrow as it is--
Ethius thrusts the red-hot tip into the ascending Grandgrowl like one might spear a fish, risking grazing and further injury by the very wings on Seraphita's ascent. The earlier strikes severed some important key hydraulics, so Seraphita's current momentum in her machine might be doing more of the work for him by necessity.
"<If you've got anything left,>" Ethius can't finish that before static from heat damage cuts off the transmission into obnoxious noise. He's of the presence of mind to shut off that transmission before it risks being injurious.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Seraphita with Thrust! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'A good pun is its own reword'.
Loren, in the middle of a pitched battle, stops and stares into the middle distance within the depths of his cockpit. Hell. He's in hell. He died and he went to hell. That's the only rational explanation--
"<What is wrong with you! This is a fight not a-- some kind of-- just shut up!>" he sputters in Lunata's direction as she continues the punning. Lunata, he can mouth off at; it's not so much the case (as he sees it anyway) with Seraphita, who outranks him by miles.
He can't move particularly well, caught still in Elly's tether. If he'd had the opportunity, maybe he would have holstered one his ARMs and tried to work himself out of it, but he's getting pressure from all sides and can't afford even a minute's respite. Instead, shielding flares about him, catching some of the incoming fire from the Rephaim and then Lunata throws her sword at him.
"<WHO THROWS A-- what,>" he says, all the fury of that moment melting as she not only continues to unload, but unleashes, as her coup de grace, the ley cannon.
It's not particularly great, getting hit with the Ley. Even in cannon form!
"And that's the other auxilaries toast. And half the primary on the left. Great," he announces to no one. The Schiehallion has begun to spark, ever-so-slightly, on its left side, its shielding cracked.
"Just great. I hope this was worth it, Commander," he says to no one at all.
His response when he takes a spear through that same part a few moments later is to stare grimly into the near distance. "Cool. Great. Engineering is going to have my head," he mutters. He's going to have to make this one good, and at least salvage his name somehow in this mess. Ether courses through Schiehallion's reservoirs, building up the precise charge Loren will need in the moments to come. Only in a Gear can he do something like this -- only in a Gear, or on Drive.
He thinks about it, stashed in the compartment near the seat. But it hadn't really helped last time, had it? In fact, it never seems to do very much for him at all--
"<Nothing yet! Just hang in there, ma'am! We'll-->"
This is when the cannon gets him. It hits with enough force to tear him at last from Elly's tether, but this is a joy that will be shortlived. Caught in the same (ruined) stand of trees that Lunata had been, it's there that Renmazuo catches up to him in a manner that he's sure broke something in the Gear even before the diagnostics report catches up to the damage. He heard it. "<You maniac! What's wrong with you?!>" he shouts at Billy, but it's cold comfort when he's literally getting peppered with ARMs-fire in the process. So much for the upper primaries, he thinks dimly.
"<And he's dead, but you're still alive!>" Loren snipes back at Jay, in what is assuredly an astounding display of wit. Shifting his Gear's stance as Jay comes for him, he's rewarded in this moment by the spear merely gliding over Schiehallion's armor. This might be cold comfort, for Jay follows this feint for the real strike to come: a twinned blow of electricity and stone alike. It rattles the heavy Gear, sends it sliding backwards and worst of all, it disrupts Loren's concentration. It's not lost, no, but he can see that gauge reading tick down instead of up and it's all he can do to not shout something profane.
But it's Elly who becomes the focal point of his fury with a few choice words alone. "<You don't get to determine our rights, you traitor!>" he spits as if it were venom.
Even now, the fact of what she did -- and succeeded -- is steel wool across his skin. He can't and won't let it slide, even if everyone else seems willing to do it--
All he can see is the screens flooding with text. He's seen some of it before: sometimes when a few of the systems get shut down in ancipation of diagnostics, or when maintenance has to replace components. They're... shutting down.
One after the other, they go. Their text a storm of snow against the abyss, and then... nothing. "No... come on." He's not an idiot, he knows the override password -- his fingers fly on the keypad. It should stop a breach. It should, but it doesn't: the cascade keeps going. Systems keep going silent, one after the other. "Is this a joke?! Is this what you think is funny, van Houten?!" She can't hear him. Outside the cockpit, probably no one can hear him at all.
Slowly, Schiehallion drops to one knee. ...Twelve percent power on engines. Just twelve percent. There's only one thing he can do with that. But if he runs now...!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
ELSEWHERE:
The great Gear that stands in this sandy expanse is winged, golden, quadripedal. The Support Gear Simurgh is parked there, looking out sightlessly over the desert as its mistress stands in the sand. She looks down, at the hole a few Ministry operatives are digging. It's down to shovels now; the heavy equipment has been set aside.
'She' being Leah Sadalbari, no longer concerned with the sand in her prosthetics which no longer exist. She is wearing loose, draping clothing against the desert wind, her blonde hair fluttering in the heat. And she waits. She waits. ...And waits.
Until--
"Watcher!" one of them cries. "We've found something!"
"So you have." The Watcher brings a hand up to the radio at her ear. "Loren," she starts. ...She gets no reply. There is no signal. She frowns. Then, a shake of her head, and the frown disappears. "Seraphita," the Watcher says instead, and she will hear it in her radio.
"Objective achieved. Team may withdraw." Her words are clipped, short. There is something else that has her interest.
GS: Seraphita takes a glancing hit from Ethius Hesiod's Thrust for 118 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraphita gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Seraphita! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Ethius' plan is a good one. Grandgrowl, with its thrusters firing as fast as they are, simply cannot slow down as quickly as Seraphita would like - which means it drags the tip of the staff along its flank, causing a spray of sparks and fluids.
Grandgrowl doesn't quite fly out of control, but it does bank very sharply to one side before Seraphita recovers, and its flight path is not straight. It's a struggle for her to practically wrench it straight; she has to physically manhandle the controls as they keep trying to reset to the wrong place given Grandgrowl's current flight dynamics.
Honestly, it's a miracle she doesn't crash the thing at all. Apparently she's as elite a Gear pilot as she is an Ether-user; even disregarding the difficulty of piloting a quadruped with back-mounted wings, it's a feat. Once you take that into account, it really is a miracle.
And yet Seraphita still tries to guide it around as if she was going to set up another strafing run - until she gets a signal from Sadalbari. "<Understood!>" she sends back, tensing before shoving the controls as far as she can down, then sideways in the *other* direction.
Grandgrowl abruptly wingovers; it flies almost straight up, flat-turning at the peak of its ascent before half-gliding, half-flying in a short dive before she manages to level it out. It gets her to turn around faster than any other way possibly could, and if it's a little show-offy, well, that's why she practices it.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Okay. This is the bad that has gone to worse. He needs to think about this, Loren decides, staring grimly at the engine power and his whole array of dead screens. Okay. Deep breaths.
...Yeah. Pride or not, he's going to need to get out of here. It's going to take ages to get these booted, if they will boot, and in the meantime, he's dead meat.
"Ma'am."
He's a lot more composed than he was moments ago in his call to Seraphita, having taken a few deep breaths and then fished out his tablet to establish a connection line with her machine. This is absolutely terrible for piloting, but it's fine if he's just taking a moment to explain. "My systems are dead. I have enough engine power to fly, but that's it. I have to retreat."
"No sign of Azoth," Loren continues, surveying the scene -- at least visual are also considered a life-critical function for a Gear. "If he took damage, we'll need retrieval." This time, at least, it won't he him, he thinks, and the thought brings him no joy. "That's all. Over," he reports, before Schiehallion surges to the air.
The dig site is strange, once investigated. There's no sign that there were many people involved: the operation appears to have been largely machine-driven. What's more, it doesn't seem that they dug up anything in particular: the digging did just that: dig, at an angle, through the ruins and down into the earth. There's no sign that anything out of the ordinary was here, let alone excavated.
With Solaris' sudden abandonment of the site this suggests that their true aim was instead directed elsewhere...
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Grandgrowl's dive batters Breka, even as it coils to try to guard up nagainst the blow; even so it's knocked backward, having to use its maneuvering thrusters to right itself as the red glow about it continues. It's hot, and Lily within is jostled terribly by feedback and impact both.
"I sure do have something left," Lily answers Ethius despite the pain. Pain is something that she knows how to use to her advantage, after all. "I'm going to--"
The noise turns to static. Lily prepares her next strike--but even as she's preparing to dive back down, Seraphita's Grandgrowl is on its way away. Solaris as a whole seems to be in retreat. "...?"
Lily tilts her head within the cockpit. "I guess we won," she comments. "With the enemy in retreat..."
Breka starts to fly down towards the dig site. "Investigating!"
<Pose Tracker> Xiumei Klein has posed.
Azoth falls.
Xiumei starts towards where he fell -- the way the light faded from him stands out in her mind -- but it's all she can do to push herself that far, and then... she can't see much else. Her eyes turn upward; she spots Grandgrowl, then Schiehallion making their way from the battlefield.
She tenses, as as she realizes, and looks down at the dig site. "They fled," she says. She looks down, too, then, and her nose wrinkles.
"Azoth..."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Eventually, Aiguille must come down - and does. The staff becomes something of a secondary support as the damaged machine lands in a kneel. In the cockpit, Ethius does not hit his head. This is important. No one can afford another six or seven years of him half-remembering what he's supposed to be doing or why.
"<They withdrew,>" Ethius echoes what others say. "<Running diagnostics.>"
"<Manually,>" he adds, because the easy button got damaged. Only a faint sense of concern as to what this all might have been about prevents him from throwing open the cockpit for a burst of fresh oxygen. Any longer in that inferno and he might have blacked out. This will keep him occupied for a specifically convenient amount of time as others lead the investigation into the dig site.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Dust Dragoon rebounds, jetting back and away from the beseiged Solarian Gear. It only takes a few more moments--Schiehallion flees, and Grandgrowl flees with it. There's no sign of Azoth's energy signature, either. Ida lets out a breath, and hopes they can call this one a victory.
"Releasing drones," Ida says, and the Dust Dragoon's skirt compartments slide open. A trio of quadrotors fly up, into the air, and immediately start to reconnoiter the dig site. It takes a few moments for data to pour in. "...No anomalous metallic readings or energy signatures, no Ley signatures, no Etheric discharge... Come on..." There has to be something, right? But as the data keeps scrolling in, Ida's expression sours further. "Damnation," she growls, and she slams a hand against her armrest. "Was this a feint? This was a feint, wasn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
The little Social Link jingle plays ontop of Lunata's head. There's a heart-throbbing moment where dramatic music plays.
THE FOOL Rank 1: THE PUN-ITENTIARY Unlocked
"<Oh, Billy! I didn't know you had a Gear like that -- the cape's a nice touch! Wouldn't that be flash on yours, Jay?>" Lunata asks.
Loren seems to be having trouble; Elly's gone out of her way to disable him, and she doesn't want to undermine her efforts -- and again, having a battle to the death with Loren wasn't exactly her idea, now or ever. Still...
Schiehallion surges to the air, and Lunata calls out for him one last time: "<Don't be a stranger! Let's hang out sometime, I'll make you pork chops!>"
...
Well, Loren at least gets to be in hell with pork chops, so that's slightly better than just being in hell?
There's a faint grimace at Aiguille to say, "<Ethius? Looks like the Aiguille's in a pertty bad way... Jay, do you have it? I've still got enough in the tank to patrol and keep an eye out while folks investigate and patch people up...>"
It's an unnerving situation. The presence of more and more powerful Gears have become more common; she's fortunately caught up from her years-long advantage of having a tech lead by just becoming a better pilot, but these battles aren't getting any easier.
"<Thanks for your help too, Miss Elly, Miss Ida.>"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Gritting her teeth, Xantia rises up to a seated position. Her leg feels... well it feels like she could stand, but she would not enjoy doing so. But that's hardly her main concern right now. There wasn't another follow-up after she fell, so that must mean...
She didn't see Azoth fall - she doesn't see him anymore when she looks around for him. Next thing she knows, Solaris appears to be starting a retreat, so she readily assumes Azoth was likely recalled. She lets out a frustrated sigh. Of course, there probably wasn't any better way to end this... but that doesn't mean she likes that this needs to keep happening. "...One day," she repeats to herself.
In time, she slowly gets back to her feet, biting back the pain in order to hobble back to rendezvous with the others. From getting shot on one side of her body to getting stabbed in the other. Looks like it's back to recovery for her, again. Siiiiigh.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"That might be something to think on." Jacqueline replies to Loren - but at this point, it might be too late. She readies herself just in case as his unit seems to be disabled - but in the end, he and Seraphita retreat. Issachar stows its weapons away once more. She chuckles a little, at Lunata's question.
"It is pretty stylish. I'd never really given much thought to accessorizing my Gear before..." She considers, then turns her attention to the aftermath.
"Is everyone alright?" Jacqueline asks. It seems like those on the ground had it pretty bad... She'll lend a hand later, but for now, she joins the others in investigating what Solaris left behind. And what they turn up...
"This is..." Jacqueline frowns, at Ida's readings. She folds her arms in front of her, leaning back in her seat. "...I wouldn't be surprised. I don't think even they would just throw their people out to fight like this for no reason. So... we can assume they were up to something... but where and what, we don't know yet. That's... not no information, at least."
...She's trying to look on the bright side of things.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly's attack takes a peaceful form, but it isn't the only thing being done.
Loren speaks to her. With rage, with venom.
"Then don't do the things that make me speak," Elly replies, without even really thinking as Schiehallion reaches one knee. "I know I've said this before, and you don't have to believe me, but if you finish the shut down --"
Grandgrowl, which had been caught in a middle of a terrible fight (agh Seraphita oh gosh), abruptly turns and begins to accelerate swiftly away. Shortly thereafter, Loren joins them.
"..."
"... That.. was the parameters of the mission, Lily... but does it really feel like...?"
"You're welcome," Elly tells Lunata as she steers to land. "... I heard someone talking about Azoth -- where...?"
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Likewise, Gwen is able to get up before long, much like Xantia, though it's only with the promise of the Halcyone being there to keep her going. When inside (which is much later). Though, with the people still around, Gwen ambles up, rubbing the side of her head. ".... Azoth hits like a tank. Jay, you got a potion or somethin' I can buy off ya? N' did anyone see what happened to 'im? I kinda... blacked out." She pauses, glancing back to Elly. ".... Yeah, now that you mention it... what the heck that was all 'bout anyhow? Felt anticlimatic in a way that don't sit well with me."
A part of her wants to ask about Loren, but Gwen decides against it. A man like Loren'd be fine, and he didn't seem like he was being exploded at any point while she was on her feet. "... Like... they all just left? Or was I out for a lot longer?"
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
To Lunata: "<Renmazuo is an old friend...the kids at the orphanage have been maintaining him for some time now.>
... ... "<To be clear, the cape was my idea, though.>"
Then, once he's settled from his attack on Loren, he calls back: "<If you think that was too dangerous, you don't respect your Gear's capabilities!>"
At least Stone's combat training is still good...
Then, the retreat comes. "What--" Billy wonders, and checks his screens. "No movement here, no indication they escaped with any new material...."
This was a feint, Ida guessts. "<Yes. Their true objective must've been somewhere else entirely.>" He bites out a curse and then huffs against the (yellow, knitted) cushion behind him. "<They got us, this time.>"
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
STILL ELSEWHERE:
Stepping off the platform, Leah jumps down into the hole. She lands heavy, but without care for the protest of her legs. The Watcher looks upon what was uncovered, and begins to brush more dust off of it before it begins to glow.
A great golden tablet, inscribed with an Eye...
"Yes... the first."
"'Reuben.'"
Green power floods from the tablet in the instant that she touches it, radiating in waves all around her. The operatives scrabble for purchase on the sands to get away. Most do. In the meantime, the wrappings of her overlayer whip and roil against the force of the object's might.
"Now... Come!"
The Anima Relic rises into the air--and when it reaches Simurgh, it phases into the Gear, causing it to glow brilliantly, blindingly white.
What results is an indigo machine of smooth lines and angular corners, ornate with black and gold. It is tall, taller than the Simurgh was, and its wings are indigo and gold like the rest. On its left arm is something like a cross between a punching dagger and a shield; its right hands is a terrible, golden claw.
Its head is too smooth, organic, red-eyed with gold inlays. And as it rises...
"Come forth, Omnigear..." The Watcher intones.
"Mastema!"