[Log] Ramba Ral's Last Stand, Part 3
Haman Karn feels her hand crack as Tatsuki bats it away with the butt of the rifle clasped in her hands. She feels Tatsuki beat on her, knocking the Newtype to the ground. She can feel consciousness slipping away... until it is snatched back by a sudden surge of pressure, her entire mind snapping to attention, every fiber of her being tensing as Amuro makes contact!
((Because Amuro, Because You and your Federation destroyed the dreams of my Father, destroyed the dreams of Zeon, left us in the chains of your oppressive Earth Forces! I only want to protect the ideals of Zeon. This is -war- and in war people die. Your friends chose to get involved, they chose to stand in the way and thus became targets. Even this girl, who thinks herself so strong, who has beaten my body, broken my bones. She has now offered herself up as a future target. This could have been just between you and I, between the Federation and Zeon but they had to get involved. Now, they will pay! As will you!))
And even though Haman lies in a bloody, semi-conscious state at Tatsuki's feet, there is something about her, something only Amuro can sense and see. It's a hideous red something, standing behind and around Haman, as if made from her very essence, there's something insectile, alien, hideously wrong about it. It hungers for carnage, lusts for war, lives for conflict and it lives inside of Haman Karn!
Gauron grins. His opponent is prone. He could cut her down now. But he grabs somethign from his belt. Something round. With a pin.
"Whoops."
He throws the grenade over his shoulder, and it lands on the ground. Near the kids.
"Looks like you've only got a few seconds to say goodbye."
Huh. The pin is still in. Just barely. But it is.
But he doesn't give Misato enough time to realise that, as he slashes at her, hoping for that split second look of rage, terror, fear, anger, any emotion at all.
Rei doesn't resist as she's taken down. At least she isn't having a seizure, although it may only be an intermission. She's breathing, at least, and there's a faint pulsing to the blood, which is thankfully starting to slow down.
he's silly, you know. nothing ever changes.
It's fainter, Rei thinks, without using those words. It's distant. It's cold, she thinks a moment later. Why is it cold. This is the white base. What is white? What is...
"Ikari," she says, through bloody lips.
Lily Davies gets her fingers on the rifle, tugs it over to her, and manages to get her finger on the trigger. She is ready to -
- get shot in the knee. Lily has fought many battles in the psychomech, and is used to the phantom pain she feels. Even having her arm's flesh partially shredded by shrapnel is something she's felt before, or something similar, when the armour plating is ripped away and the mech starts to take serious damage from an Atlantean shard weapon.
She has never, ever felt pain like this before. Lily simultaneously wants to scream and throw up and settles for just yelling. Her finger squeezes the trigger as her hands both try to ball up into fists, but the burst is wild - she barely manages to keep it pointed vaguely in Ramba's direction, and bullets hit the walls and ceilings.
Lily also finishes her slow slide down the wall, her left leg bleeding profusely as she threatens to pass out.
There is, indeed, a flash of horror in Misato's eyes as she sees the grenade being flipped over toward the Children. But she doesn't make any sound. No cry of rage. Any telepaths listening, though, will probably feel the fury rolling off her like great waves as she turns her eyes back to Gauron, watching him lunge at her.
Her leg, bent beneath herself, uncoils like a spring as she hurls herself forward at Gauron, flinging the rifle at his face. And the knife...finds itself buried in her gut, probably mangling a kidney on its way through. But that was the point. Because now, she's got the pistol pulled out of her shoulder holster, and she's right in his face, and she's trying to empty the clip into his gut at point blank range.
"You got it, Commander!"
Really, Rook sounds way more pleased to be dropped into a combat zone than she /should/. She has just enough time to evaluate the way things are down below, right before she jams the controls for the reverse thrusters. The Cyclone can't really fly... but it can give itself a nice buffer against gravity as it goes down. "Hang in there, guys! The cavalry's here!"
The humanoid-shaped armor is certainly mobile. Rook maneuvers it down to land lightly, quickly scrambling down through a ragged tear through the hull. Well, that was convenient. Who needs doors?
Raising up the Gallant, she proceeds cautiously. Beyond radio contact, it's almost impossible to tell who's behind the red and white armor. Her visor masks her face, and it's hard to see her, otherwise. She shifts the Gallant, raising up the snub-nosed gun, eyes narrowed, scanning the hallway for someone. Something. Anything that's not dead, anyway.
...Eh. She's seen worse. The Invid had a way of really making messes. Not that what people did to each other was much better, really.
A sudden sound brings her to raise the Gallant up. She'll shoot first and ask questions later -- and suddenly, the opposition finds itself short by two soldiers. The kill seems to embolden her, and she... grins, of all things, skittering forward over the bodies and sprinting down the hallway.
"The cavalry's here!" she bellows into her radio, leading with the Gallant. Yes, let the firearm lead for her. "Alright, you sons of bitches, who wants to die first?"
...There. "Good enough!" The big guy trying to beat the Turtle Tamer into a pulp. She doesn't know who it is, but he's probably on her side if he's being squished, and... well, yeah. Good enough. Rook throws herself forward, attempting to tackle the otherwise-occupied Claude Speed and bring the butt-end of the Gallant crunching down over the back of his head. Footing's treacherous, though. We'll see if it actually works~
Claude must have, like, boss HP or something, because somehow he's able to survive the onslaught thrown at him. He jumps to his feet and is somehow able to pivot away from Turtle's sword of fiery love, sustaining an ugly cut along his side but fortunately not being run through. He is, however, smashed in the back of the head by the butt of the Cyclone's Gallant and goes down like a ton of bricks, slamming to the deck with a sickening thud and spitting out a mouthful of dark red blood. If he's not thoroughly owned, he's nearly there.
The master criminal rolls several feet away, slowly pulling himself to one knee and groaning in pain. "Man... you guys wanna make... a fuckin' gang bang outta this? Fine... we'll do it thataway."
He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a syringe, the needle dripping with something - and he rolls up his sleeve, jamming it into his arm and injecting himself. The shot of raw adrenaline hits his system like a bullet, and he takes in a deep breath, his back stiffening and his eyes becoming clearer as the screaming pain in his body rapidly begins to move into the background.
Claude's life bar just went waaaay back up - and though he's still a wreck, he, much like the Energizer Bunny, is still going.
Pulling out a switchblade and flicking it open, he takes a 9mm pistol in his other hand, grinning through bloodstained teeth. "Let's go, fuckers." The joking's over; he's all business now.
The Grand Theft Auto guy pulls a needle out and stabs himself with it. Unlike most times he's stabbed with things, he feels better.
Alright. This is bad. This is /bad/. He just sold all his Red Pixel Potions /last week/. Alright. "You there! I--Oh, I know! Hol...actually, don't hold still, just don't...dodge....this?"
The Tamer waves his hands Mystically. Rook, should she not somehow dodge it, would suddenly feel more in tune with the Cyclone. More empathetic to its needs and wants. Somehow, despite the fact it's an inanimate object, this means she kicks more ass with it. It also means it inexplicably weighs 5 more pounds. At least this proves it's heavy, and not your brother.
Ayanami's alive.
For a while. "Oh t-thank..." Shinji can't hold back a sob and, bizarrely, hopes that the trio won't think less of him. He rests his forehead on Ayanami's, careful to avoid the wound, and just /breathes/, thanking whatever's out there that she's alive and they might just get through-
Shinji's thoughts are abruptly cut off as Ramba Ral's full load of buckshot makes itself very much aquainted with his right side. His whole body is ripped up, and Shinji's flung away from Rei, Kikka, and the two boys. Hurts. Hurts. Hurts. Oh God GRENADE oh wait the pin's in it but.
"Muh...Misato...no..." Shinji manages, eyes widening as the closest thing to a mother he ever had is stabbed in the gut. Some part of Shinji notices that Lily's down, and sees that he can't really do much about Gauron with Misato all /there/. Shaking, Shinji picks the still-armed grenade in his /left/ hand, pulls himself up to his knees, pulls the pin, and /flings/ the grenade at Ramba Ral.
Shinji slumps over, then, hurting too much to crawl, right now. "G-god..."
Inspite of the point black shots, only one bullets get past the armor, going into Gauron's gut. The gun jams, though, as Gauron twists the knife in Misato's gut. "I've survived a shot in the dead center of my forehead. A gutshots nothing." Twiiiiiiist. "Your kids there, however..." Twiiiiiiiist. Gauron suddenly pushes Misato back, grabbing her pistol, moving quickly to clear the jam, and try and swing the gun round to hit the unexploded grenade. The one he hasn't yet realised is missing. This might be a mistake to take advantage of. Especially with that nasty gut wound.
"Damn it, girl, just /go DOWN!/" Ramba bellows, aiming his assault rifle at Lily one-handed. Her wild spray does manage to get another bullet wound on him - this one a vicious scrape on his left side. The bloodied Zeon commander breathes heavily, taking quick aim, and squeezes a round off for her hand. The bullet fires free, and he adjusts his aim a moment later for her skull.
When he pulls the trigger that time, there is but a hollow click. The rifle is out of ammunition. With a grunt, he throws it aside - right into the legs of a crewmember. He grabs his shotgun then, and cocks it with both hands, before turning around and aiming it towards the newcomer - when he sees that it's a battlesuit. "Son of a bitch."
Ramba Ral, however, is nothing if not ingenious. He looks at the cart against the wall, that Misato kicked aside earlier. He grabs the side, prying open a door, and then quickly takes his utility belt off - and then quickly pulls out the pins of all the grenades remaining on it. He throws it into the cart, then, and kicks it right towards Rook.
Express explosive delivery!
Unfortunately, that would be when he notices the grenade. The man's eyes widen, and he grabs the shotgun, firing the buckshot - which rips into the grenade and makes it explode in midair. The shrapnel still cuts into him, making him groan in pain, his front side now a bloodied mess. "D...damn it, boy..."
Rook manages to keep her footing, and the blow connects with enough force that sets her arm to tingling. She yanks the Gallant back, shooting a thumbs-up to Turtle Tamer. Her attention turns back to Claude, though, and the freedom fighter just /grins/ behind her visor.
"Awright. You wanna play hardball? Let's play hardball, tall dark and ugly." She grins, flexing her fingers over the grip of the Gallant.
"/Yahoo/! Bring it, man! You can't even touch the Invid! You're nothin' compared to them!" She gives a whoop that threatens the volume range of her communications equipment and throws herself forward, aiming to use the suit's weight to tackle the thug. The Cyclone moves like a dream, too -- faster and more responsive than it's ever been, though she's always been good at making it do exactly what she wants. Not that she's going to complain, mind you.
Through it all, Rook Bartley is treating the matter with all due seriousness.
...Honest.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral groans, "U...urrrngh..."
[Fac-Syndicate] Gauron says, "Hrmph."
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba mutters, "Help's... on the way, Speed."
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed rasps in a deadly, bloody-sounding voice, "Word. Kick some ass."
Back near the control room, the remaining soldiers are gathering to form a phalanx, in case anyone tries to break through. The towering Ryu Jose balances his bazooka over his shoulder, while his much smaller co-pilot Hayato readies a machine gun. "We're not gonna let this base fall," Hayato assures Bright Noah, who himself is armed. Indeed, Mirai, the bridge officers, Sayla and even Fraw are carrying weapons, just in case. Many of the are scattered throughout the base, doing what they themselves can do to survive.
Bright Noah looks grim. "In the event we do have to evacuate, lead the charge out, Ryu."
"Sir, what about-..."
"I will die before I let them take this ship!"
Amuro still feels vaguely delirious and feverish as he looks down at the form of Haman, all of that hatred and anger crackling around her. A very tiny bit of it swirls around him, in his mind, reminding him that he could just put a bullet to her brain and make all of that disappear. Get rid of her for what she did to Ayanami. See how she likes lead in the head.
And then the redness around him dissipates, abruptly. He turns to Tatsuki, his breath short and labored. And nods once, running over to stand protectively over Shinji, Ayanami and the children, reloading his gun and trying not to put much weight on that one leg. "Lily, g-get over here if you can..." And he holds up his pistol, launching another round at Ramba's remaining troops. Rook is a welcome sight.
And he's the least wounded, so if he can "draw" agg...
...Ooooh, snap. She had not, however, planned for someone else jumping into the fray she had chosen. Or explosives. Explosives are bad. Rook falls short of her target, scrambling a moment when her eyes catch sight of the grenade rolling right towards her.
"Oh /shit/! Heads up, man!" Hopefully the Turtle Tamer is paying attention. She moves to kick the thing out of the way, but right now, she's equally taken up with staying out of Claude's knife range. Okay, yeah, things just got a wee bit more dicey.
Lily Davies drops the rifle after the first wild burst. She doesn't mean to; it just slips from her fingers seconds before the bullet strikes.
Her hand was not quite in the position Ramba expected because she dropped the gun, but he hit something, and apparently something sensitive. Another spray of blood stains the wall, this one smaller than the others because Lily's fingers aren't very big. Her eyes widen as Lily brings up her hand in front of her face, looking at the little finger there - which is either shorter by a joint, or so twisted as to be useless. It's hard to tell which.
They widen further as she sees Ramba point the gun at her head. She doesn't even realize that it clicks; Lily faints first. She was about due for it anyway. Sorry, Amuro.
Missile lock warnings chirp inside the Veritech. 'Woop, Woop, Woop. Missile. Missile.'.
Roy lets out a curse as he starts popping flares as he streaks skywards. As missiles swarm after them, some exploding as they get caught up in the flares, taking the super-heated bait, Roy continues to press the vehicle skywards. As he realizes that the shuttles are getting close, he turns the Veritech about and starts to dive.
Reaching out, he flicks the B switch, flipping the Vehicle back into Battloid mode. Brining up the autocannon, Roy depresses the trigger, causing the weapon to start spewing out rounds as he starts to tear into the incoming swarm of missiles. As they strike within the swarm, fracticide blossoms occur and explode as he pushes the Veritech through the explosions.
Back to Fighter the Veritech goes as it dives, racing right at the Gallop's bridge at what seems to be ramming speed. The pilot growls, smoke trailing from the fighter from shrapnel wounds the armored skin took. As he gets closer and closer, suddenly - the Veritech converts, feet of the Battloid swinging out towards the Gallop's bridge and colliding with the glass.
It shatters and collapses inwards, as the Veritech slides in, landing on it's rear, Roy staring up at the Commander of the Gallop. Damn.. she's cute. He almost hates doing this. However, unlike many pilots on the SDF-1, Roy Fokker has fought other humans before - so the feeling quickly passes by as he starts to yank the controls.
From the sitting position the Veritech is in, the autocannon is swung upwards. As the engines of the fighter fire, pulling it out of the broken wreckage of the bridge with a grinding and shattering noise, the autocannon starts to whirl and then with a sound much like a giant chainsaw, 55 millimeter Depeleted Uranium rounds are thrown out at the rate of nearly five per second, the shell casings raining down below as Roy just lays on the trigger.
Ikari, she thinks, after saying it.
There's another explosion. She doesn't hear it.
Her hands are still wrapped around the gun. "Point," she says, or chokes around blood in her throat. "Center. And point. And."
She stops talking then. She thinks nothing. It's peaceful. It's warm again. She's -
- needed. White hands that are shading to gray lift up slowly. They shake, then steady. Rei starts breathing in again; it makes a strange noise which changes note as she sits up with a sudden lurch. The barrel of the gun hits the floor and so does some of her blood. 'My hair wasn't this color before' crosses her mind.
Clarity comes back. The one eye that seems to be working focuses. Am I dead? she wonders, but have not yet known it?
your kids over there, however
Center the target -
She raises the pistol towards the man who said those hateful words, seeing him through a haze of red and gray. She pulls the trigger, once; the recoil is enough to send her onto her back, the gun bouncing out of her hand.
The adrenaline surging through Claude's veins has heightened his senses, and he sees Ramba Ral's special delivery coming. He reacts instantly, leaping backwards with the speed of a cat in preparation for whatever the explosive payload does - and indeed, it saves his ass given that Rook's unable to rush him.
The crook, however, doesn't need to be in knife range given that he's got a pistol in his off hand.
Letting the Turtle Tamer be for now, the man from Liberty City whips the handgun up in a blood-slick but remarkably steady grip, bringing the barrel to bear towards the head of Rook's mobile armour. "Get dead, bitch," he rasps with a sick leer. Squeezing the trigger, he empties a full clip at her faceplate, pounding a rain of bullets straight at her.
He then flips the knife around in his other hand and wails it towards her, the spinning blade whirling and aiming to sink into her chest armour.
Tatsuki Arisawa watches Haman Karn go down. She stares for a long, long time, shivering.
She stands there until she hears Misato scream as Gauron twists the knife.
PROTECT
He's too close. Kicking him would kill her. She looks down at her gun. Right, then. Only one thing to do.
Tatsuki sprints forward silently, carried at astounding speeds by...something. She'll think about it later. Instinct guides her body. It's alright, it says. For their safety, any cost...
She skids to a stop to Gauron's left. She shrieks, "HEY!! MOTHERFUCKER!!"
She points the assault rifle at his skull, mere inches away. There is a pause only barely long enough for him to turn and face her.
"ONLY ONE PERSON DIES TODAY!!!"
She pulls, and holds, the trigger.
"AAAaaaaarghlngh..." Misato falls back with a heavy thud agains the wall, clutching at the knife in her stomach. Her eyes are clouded with pain and fury, teeth clenched and grinding as she slumps slowly to the ground, leaving a bright streak of red on the panels. She stares at Gauron balefully as he turns away, trying to deal with the grenade. With a convulsive wrench, probably doing even more damage to herself in the process, she yanks the knife out and hurls it at him, trying to bury it in the side of his neck.
That done, she casts about, looking for another gun...but there's nothing right next to her. And she's not about to be crawling very far toward the nearest weapon. Weakly, she struggles to lever herself toward another rifle several feet away.
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed breathes, "How we doin'?"
[Fac-Syndicate] Gauron makes all the sounds of someone getting shot in the head.
[Fac-Syndicate] Vincent Thompson replies automatically. "I have an alibi."
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino says, "Do try not to kill your own allies. It's bad for business."
On the bridge of the Gallop, Harmon Crowley's eyes widen as it all happens at once. The glass shatters inward - one unfortunate Zeon office being ripped apart as part of the frame crumples inward. Someone shouts an order, something about firing a cannon, but the woman knows it is too late. Her blue eyes stare upward, into the triple barrel of the GU-11 gun pod, and she swallows.
Roy might, before he fires, catch the movement on her lips: "I'm sorry, my love."
Then, the autocannon opens fire. The rounds rip through the bridge and the people there, shredding them in an instant. The frame breaks inward, before the bridge itself is ripped apart; a plume of flame shoots upward, and the Gallop-class land battleship falls still; its lights fade to nothing, and the ship is left lifeless.
Inside of the White Base, Ramba Ral's radio crackles - a static-filled, softly spoken, sad female voice says, "I'm sorry, my love."
The old man closes his eyes. "Harmon..."
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral grunts... "My wife is dead."
The Turtle Tamer stops the cart. In an awesome, muscular manner!
You gain 40 Strengthliness.
You acquire an item: Cartful of Grenades
Wait a second, these grenades have had their pins pulled! OW! OOF! EEK! ARGH! OOF! EEK! ARGH! OOF! OOF! BARF!
<3 You lose A Lot of HP.
And that's the Turtle Tamer out of the fight for now. He's half-consciously digging through his sack for...for something.
The knife doesn't get a chance to reach Gauron. There is too much gun in Gauron's face.
"Heh. How very Kash-"
BLAM.
Blood everywhere. Gauron's body flies back, and slumps against a wall. Bleeding. A bleeding, nasty, bloodspattered corpse. No-one will miss that one.
[Fac-Syndicate] Albedo Piasora, automatically, "Kill the bastards who did it."
Rook Bartley, unfortunately, does not always have cat-like reflexes. Mostly because she's trying to avoid an explosive little present courtesy of Ramba Ral, and that would be very /bad/ if the thing happened to go off.
On the other hand, it's also a little urgent that she makes sure the big guy with the knife and gun doesn't lay on the hurt too much. Oops, too late. Rook screams as two of the bullets slam into the visor of the Cyclone, but more out of fear -- the first spiderwebs a crack into the glass, and the second shatters one side -- she closes her eyes, but the pieces still leave dozens of shallow, sharp-lined scores down the side of her face.
Okay, he damaged the Cyclone. It's so totally /on/, now.
Snarling, Rook brings the Gallant up to unload an energy round in the car thief's face, but before she has a chance, the knife scrabbles against the chest plate. She shrugs it aside, but the blade scrapes along the steel, instead sinking into her relatively unprotected forearm.
Cue scream number two! Save that this one sounds far, far less pleased.
"Alright! Playtime's /over/, you bastard! Now hold still so I can kill--"
Amuro gives his orders. Crap! There goes her golden opportunity to pound this guy's face in. Growling, she gives a curt acknowledgement.
Whirling, she lunges away from Claude, but not before yanking the knife out and throwing it down. She bolts for the hallway, ducking and trying to look as inconspicuous as a big red and white armor suit can look. She skids to a kneeling halt beside Lily, looping her good arm around her, and hefting her easily. Having the extra strength from the armor helps.
Shifting her load, Rook pauses long enough to cast a glance about the room, surveying the best way to get back to Amuro. There. She seizes her opportunity, even though it brings her close to Claude again. Feh. She'll pound on him after she's gotten her payload back to Amuro. Or, rather, defend the rag-tag group of defenders. "Amuro! Hey! I got her!"
Lily Davies does not complain about being picked up because she is still very unconcious.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba laughs harshly. "I doubt I can get there in time. It must have been whoever brought in the battlesuit..."
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed says, "...I'ma kill all of those mother@#$%ers."
Haman Karn lies there, in a pool of her own blood, in the shadow of her own all-consuming hatred for those who deny her will. Tatsuki did a number on her, that's for sure. She's going to need massive reconstructive treatment on her nose, she's pretty sure her jaw is broken and she's got at least two... make that three cracked ribs. Still, her gun rests in the holster at her side where she totally failed to draw it thanks to Misato's shot and Tatsuki's rapid fists.
Closing her hand around it, she pulls the reassuringly cold and heavy steel and composite weapon out. Sighting carefully along the end of her weapon, she aims for the back of Tatsuki's head. "Die," she whispers, pulling the trigger quickly and deliberately.
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino clears he throat softly, "Mr Speed? I do not mind harsh nor crude language and I understand when tensions run high, you must find a way to express them. However, It may be more entertaining for others and yourself to come up with more creative ways to use that language?"
[Fac-Syndicate] Magneto says, "Or are you that limited in your intelligence?"
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed says, "@#$% you."
[Fac-Syndicate] Magneto says, "It's the latter."
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed sounds pretty cracked out at the moment.
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino says, "Aaah. Unfortunately that is not doable. But I am sure I could find someone to return the favor for you instead."
Claude Speed is not about to give up the fight so easily. As jacked up with adrenaline as he is, he's still hellbent on fighting despite being all but dead and currently without a weapon in his hands. The criminal sneers after the receding Cyclone and shakes his head, reaching into his voluminous coat. "Y'ain't getting away from me that easily, bitch."
With a horrible, bloody grin he takes a Molotov cocktail in each hand. He laughs, a low, decidedly unstable sound, and spits out a mouthful of reddened spittle. For a moment he just stands there like that.
He then howls something incoherent and slams both cocktails towards the ground at the Cyclone's feet. The pair of bottles erupt into huge clouds of alcohol fire, not especially damaging but pretty spectacular-looking. It bursts from the floor in sheets, though it probably isn't especially effective against robots.
However, a chainsaw is - and it's with a running chainsaw in hand that a bloody and nearly dead Claude Speed comes barreling through the fire, catching alight himself in the process. He barely feels it despite it taking its toll on him. With a bloody roar he begins to slash at Rook's armour with the blazing chainsaw, attacking her with no finesse whatsoever.
"DIE YOU FUCKING PIECE OF METAL SHIT!!!"
Shinji Ikari sees Ayanami make her last stand, and crumple into a little pile. "...Ral you j-just..."
Shinji Ikari sees Misato make her heroic last stand, and slump over to a wall. "..k-killed the o-only..."
Shinji Ikari sees a knife by the floor. He knows how to use a knife. His father made him learn. Shinji's a little thankful for that, now, as the Third Child weakly picks the weapon up. "...f-family I...e-ever had..."
"...i s-swear...k-kill you...all..." Shinji doesn't know how he's talking, or how he's standing up, or why his arm just doesn't hurt anymore. Or how some part of him just /knows/ that Haman Karn JUST ISN'T DEAD ENOUGH YET! oh god not tatsuki no he's worthless he can't do it he's got to he what does he...
In the depths of NERV, Evangelion Unit-01 suffers a /massive/ power spike, as if it was trying to turn itself on. There's some yelling, and some panicking, but the surge stops before anything more than Ritsuko Akagi's quickly developing ulcer can be damaged.
Shinji's eyes are massive fields of white with tiny blue-black dots somewhere in their respective centers. The Third Child gets out, "KILL YOU!" before he loses what facualties he has left, managing a bestal war-cry as Shinji /pumps/ at the prone form of Haman Karn, actually trying to leap the last bit of distance, plant his knee in her chest, and slam the little switchblade down on whatever part of Haman Karn isn't allready cut open.
[Fac-Syndicate] Albedo Piasora hisses and mutters something about "just war" under his breath, before laughing.
Ramba Ral looks up, weakly, after a moment. The bloodshed all around is immense. He sees, from the corner of his eye, Lily being picked up and moved. He also sees bodies, both in Federation khaki and Zeon green, strewn over this bloody, bullet-ridden way. Haman is there, but cut to ribbons herself. He grunts, forcing himself to sit up, and looks around in a haze.
"Sir! Sir!"
He turns his head to the side, as three Zeon soldiers begin rushing towards him. They kneel downward, next to him, and it takes his eyes a long moment to focus on them. Three Privates, he realizes - all young, the oldest being only eighteen, and the youngest having turned seventeen days ago. His best men are dead around him, veterans of the war so far. Is this what Zeon has come to? "Nngh...I...see you survived," he groans. He forces himself up, standing up and grabbing his shotgun hard. "Get out there, back where you came from."
"Sir, we can't leave--" the middle one insists.
"The hell you can't," Ral snaps, pain laced in his voice. "I said /go/! Get the fuck out of here!"
"S-sir. We'll... we'll go," the oldest answers. He looks at the rest. "Come on! We have to hurry!" The three begin charging, running for dear life through the hall they came from. Ramba cocks his shotgun, and starts limping forward. He brings it to his shoulder, aiming it at Rook's back. He pulls the trigger, and there is again a soft click.
"Ha..." he laughs, softly.
The Turtle Tamer is ready. Y'see, he sold all his bat guano. He sold all of his red pixel potions, the sack is nearly empty, in fact. Cause, you see, it's okay to crash Loathing's economy. It's expected.
And in this case, it was worth it. The Tamer pulls two things out. The first thing, a small tin of Doc Galaktik's Ailment Ointment. Economical, but not ideal. Regardless, he needs it so he can walk. Once applied, he gets up, and procures the second item from his pack.
It is a hockey stick. It is not just any hockey stick, it is a hockey stick that is red. Very red. It also practically seethes with Canadianity. In fact, it's so Canadian and so red, just LOOKING at it makes you angry. This is exactly what the Turtle Tamer is hoping for. He gets up. And he starts to run through the halls, waving it like a madman.
The intended effect? Simple. Whoever's left. Whoever is still standing, still lying down, will suddenly realize, hopefully, just how VERY, VERY ANGRY they are at the Turtle Tamer. And will attack him, instead of whoever it is they're otherwise going to attack. This is where we get into the hard part. The Turtle Tamer has to get /away/, and he's not got much left in him. ...with a sigh, he pulls out a Ten-Leaf Clover, and grabs it.
If he had any meat left, he'd donate it to that Leeroy Jenkins Memorial Fund.
Misato Katsuragi, too, is lying in a heap with blood pooling out from beneath her. She is still conscious and cognizant, though, not having suffered any head injuries. But she's fading. A few more futile struggles to push herself toward a nearby gun leave her drained, and she finally just drops her head to the ground, peering toward the Children through tears of pain. "D-don't, Shin...ji," she whispers. "Nnnuh...dun...lose yourself..." She coughs, and then closes her eyes. To rest.
Tatsuki stares. Her breathing is ragged. She didn't stop firing - the weapon is simply spent.
She hears it, somehow. Her head turns. Die, she said.
MOVE
Can't...
Amuro feels he should be more horrified at what Tatsuki did. But he just doesn't have it in him. He didn't feel Gauron was particularly human. And so, he moves to take control as best he can, which isn't too well. He is cognizant of something strange around Shinji, maybe some dark shadow. He hopes he can start seeing normally, again. "Katsuragi, hold on, I'll-"
A brief image of a silhouetted girl with her brains on the opposite wall. It melts, like a shadow.
And with nearly inhuman Newtype reflexes, he dashes, shoving Tatsuki down with as much strength as he has and taking the bullet into his own upper back. It hurts, like hell, and leaves a red, growing stain on the blue coat. He is aware of extreme pain. But the bullet is embedded in muscle tissue. And not a lung.
Rei lays there. She has been shot in the back, the side, and - evidently - in the head as well. Her face and hair is coated with blood in a way that does not speak well. The hair sticking in the wound keeps most of its details from being obvious to a glance.
Something faint and dormant in her shifts. It's quiet and the faint flicker of - something? - fails briefly as she shudders. Her eyes don't close as she stares up at the ceiling.
She breathes, weakly. Her heart beats when it should, or at least, more often than not. She stares at the ceiling.
Is it happening too soon? she wonders, before the moment of terrible clarity winks out.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral groans, "G...get out."
Rook has just enough time to drop Lily in the vicinity of Amuro Ray before she's being assaulted by two pillars of flame. The sudden blast is surprising, to say the least, but this is more along the lines of something she can deal with. Invid weapons sometimes do the same thing. Yay for fire!
But that doesn't stop her from dancing sideways to keep the worst of it from getting to her. Really, singe and char marks are so hard to clean off. And hello there, suddenly she's attacked by a chainsaw-wielding lunatic.
"You're one persistent bastard," she grates through gritted teeth, bringing up an armored arm to swat aside the chainsaw. The lower part of her arm, as well as the gauntlet, are all heavily armored. The chainsaw grinds against the alloy, but the most it can do is leave shallow tooth-marks and a whole lot of sparks shot into the air.
She shoves against the chainsaw again, keeping it carefully positioned where it won't cause any damage to /her/. The Cyclone, she can fix. A missing arm, she cannot. Sparks fly as she advances closer to Claude, leering, and the expression is quite visible through the shards of her broken faceplate; blue eyes ablaze in the light of the sparks.
"First, I ain't metal. Second, I'm sick and tired of your persistent pickin' at me." She brings a hand up, reaching to snatch Claude by the collar of his shirt and just /hold/ him there. Then her knee comes up, aiming to give him a good, solid, and ultimately /quick/ sock in the gut. He's already tiring, so she'll refrain from emptying an energy round into his head. Why waste perfectly good ammo? "Now drop th' fuck dead, and get outta my way!"
Haman Karn might have meant to come alone but some of her more zealous followers will never let her wander into danger alone. Chief among these is a young man by the name of Mashmyr Cero Haman's self-proclaimed number one fan! He'd secretly followed in a desert camoflage Dowage, ready for the moment when Regent Karn might need him. Now it seems, as Ramba Ral orders a retreat, that time is now. The Dowage (a massive Dom-based monstrosity built for heavy desert combat and fitted with tons of extra armror) springs forth from cover and shoots across the sand towards the White Base.
Inside, Haman stares in horror as Amuro Ray dashes into the path of her shot. "Nooooooo!" She manages to cry as the young Newtype takes the bullet meant for Tatsuki. Of course, that's when Shinji charges in to kick her, stab her or whatever.
The Dowage reaches the White Base and two Neo-Zeon special forces troopers leap off, climbing into the Trojan Horse to hunt down Haman Karn. Fortunately for her, she can be tracked by homing in on her DC frequency radio as all members of the Divine Crusaders can.
Had Claude the Guncannon he would probably be able to put a dent in the Cyclone. Unfortunately, he does NOT have the Guncannon. He does, however, realize he's not doing anything with the chainsaw, and thus as he's snatched he just drops it to the ground.
By the time he's picked up, he's pointing a weapon square at Rook's faceplate.
A large rocket launcher.
"Yeah, and you too, bitch."
And just as he's hit in the gut he jams down the firing stud, disgorging a single rocket into Rook's faceplate at point-blank range.
Both the knee and the explosion hurl him violently backwards and send him pinwheeling way back to the other end of the corridor, where he slams awkwardly on his side into a bulkhead. The impact shatters his shoulder and upper arm bones, smashing a few ribs for good measure. He hits the ground, pukes up a mouthful of blood, and slumps over - alive or dead, it's hard to tell, but if he IS alive it's by the skin of his teeth.
Tatsuki Arisawa watches with a sort of dull awe and horror and something else as Amuro leaps into the path of the bullet. Just the shoulder. He's fine. The entire situation is overwhelming, totally stifling, but...something...in the back of her mind, tells her what she needs to know.
She almost moves to kill Haman Karn. Shinji's doing it instead.
She sits there, instead, staring at Amuro. "You'll be OK," she says. She looks on. She doesn't move to stop Shinji - all emotion exhausted, her spirit spent. "I don't think she's going to hurt us anymore."
Ramba's eyes wander side to side. Claude has fallen in a bloody heap - and Haman, he doesn't even want to think about too much. He grits his teeth hard, and then looks down the hallway. The bridge is secured, he realizes, by the very crew of the White Base. His shotgun is out of ammunition. The man looks around and swallows, until he spies something. A single, unspent grenade that rolled away from a corpse of one of his men.
The man kneels down, grabbing the grenade, and looks around. "This... is it." He looks at Amuro, reeled over in pain. "There is no other way for this to end, boy. I told you, back in Giza, that war can only end in one way. Victory or in death. Remember that, Amuro Ray! Remember it well!"
Ramba slumps against the wall, leaving a bloody streak there. He heaves once, and looks up at Amuro and the rest of them. For a moment, he looks Shinji in the eyes. Then, he pulls the pin of the grenade and claps it against his chest.
"LONG LIVE THE INDEPENDENT PRINCIPALITY OF ZEON!"
The grenade detonates a second later; this one was an incendiary grenade. The fireball expands brilliantly; a moment later, as the flames end, there is little but a crumpled heap of flesh, and a black and red smear on that particular bulkhead of the White Base.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral shouts, "LONG LIVE THE INDEPENDENT PRINCIPALITY OF ZEON!" Followed by an explosion, and then static.
[Fac-Syndicate] Envy sighs. "The goal is to make the other poor bastard die for his country, not you! Oi."
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino says, "Oh... my."
[Fac-Syndicate] Kazuma Torisuma says, "Now that is how a man dies. Lets give him a moment of silence."
Sorry, Misato, some sane part of Shinji thinks as he knees Karn in the gut. The rest of him is wondering where his knife went, and deciding to just choke the bitch instead. Its more...intimate, that way.
The Third Child wraps his hands around Haman's neck, heedless of the reopened wounds and the blood pouring down his right arm, and Haman can see just what Shinji Ikari looks like when he completly loses control. The meek, gentle boy's more animal than man now, teeth bared, eyes bright with the joy of killing, nostrels flaring as he /squeezes/ and /squeezes/ and it makes what happened to Ayanami a little bit better so, gosh, he'd best SQUEEZE HARDER AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Somehow, the Beast thinks to turn...at catches Ramba Ral's eyes. Good. Good old man. See what you-what old men did to me!
And then, somehow, that little, lucid part of Shinji catches Ramba's look-and Ramba Ral can see Shinji Ikari...calm down. His eyes widen again, his lips fall, and the wave of berserk anger just...breaks, cresting against the solid wall of whatever strange wisdom Ramba's look gave him.
"Oh G-god...I'm s-sorr..." BOOOOOM. The explosion's powerful enough that Shinji's /flung/ off of Haman Karn, slamming into the hallway wall and groaning as he's slumped into a little pile of Third Child.
Battle, ironically since his time coming to the Hub and traversing the Gates, this was likely the first time since he'd set foot in one that was awash with carnage and blood splattering the unfortunates who didn't manage to escape the many gunshots, or explosions that had gone off. Not the worst he'd ever seen, but it was a reminder of what he didn't miss. Archer did as he'd promised, walking through in his spirit form phasing across doors and metal walls. Descovering which party was the intruding force was one he'd have to descover on his own...Orihime wouldn't appreciate what he'd see when he returned to report. There was a reason why the radio she'd so anxiously wait next too was silent.
Atleast they'd already set up preparations.
The Servant paused by a fallen girl with her hair stained red, bits of its natural blue peeking through. Looking around, he knelt.
Amuro isn't really inclined to try to stop Shinji. Or he could. He could, "seeing" that redness from the boy behind him that might well just be delirium from pain. But he's in some shock at the moment.
He manages to look up at Tatsuki, rather pale, and tries to sit up despite the bleeding. "I-"
His gaze briefly meets with Ramba Ral's. He can vaguely remember the man and his wife whose soldiers joked around.
Then there isn't anymore Ramba Ral.
The boy slumps again, keeping his gun clutched to his chest. "We need to get...to the shuttles, for medical help. There are other wounded on t-the base, too..." Another look, towards that pile of ash.
"At least he...treated us like soldiers..."
...Well hello there, rocket launcher.
Rook doesn't have time to contemplate the fact that there's a rocket suddenly coming at her. She's too close to be destroyed in a blossom of fiery death, thankfully. But, that doesn't mean she's not close enough for the momentum of the thing to smack right into the Cyclone's helmet.
It's kind of like getting hit soundly upside the head with a sledgehammer, really. The room spins, and the red-armored figure drops like a sack of bricks. Okay, so maybe she's going to need a bottle or two of Advil in the morning... she'll just kind of contemplate the floor, here, until she's got presence of mind enough to get back up. And in the meantime, nothing else comes from the armored Red Warrior. Whee.
And just as Shinji is flung off of Haman, the two Neo-Zeon special forces guys (a.k.a. Newtype Space Ninjas Biggs and Wedge) toss a pair of non-lethal smoke grenages into the room. In the ensuing confusion, one manages to get Haman ot her feet while the other (the larger of the two) grabs first Gauron, then Claude and drags them towards the hole where the Dowage waits to take them all to safety. Some will require more medical attention then others. Fortunately for Claude and Gauron, Axis has some of the finest medical facilities known to science and some of the best Doctors. It's a pity half of them are wanted war criminals.
[Fac-Syndicate] Kazuma Torisuma resumes, after a moment, "...please tell me he just used a C4 or a detpack, and not something wierd like a hidden grenade."
Rei is alive, although not very. She's breathing and her heart is working - she's still bleeding a little bit.
She isn't moving, however, beyond that.
And somewhere in there, in that space between death and sleep, Misato dreams of her father pushing her into a small metal capsule, and blood pouring down her forehead, and a cross-shaped pillar of light clawing at the heavens....
But it dissolves away. The light is the flare of a grenade burning someone into ash, and the blood on her face isn't coming from her scalp, it's because she's got her head pillowed in a pool of it. "Where's...backup..." she rasps, struggling momentarily to rise. The sharp pain in her gut dissuades her of that, though, and she just tries to look and see what the situation is at this point.
Save for the pop of smoke grenates, it sounds like there's no more weapons going off, at least. For now, anyway.
"Need...a beer."
Lily Davies remains unconcious after Rook puts her down. She is better off than Rei but is also very, very glad (or would be) that she is not concious.
Tatsuki Arisawa watches the nightmare unfold before her. Ranba Ral screams his final message, and Tatsuki's breath catches. She can't see him. She wonders if getting blown the fuck up even destroys your spirit.
She ponders this, and then heaves a heavy breath. The sudden appearance of the evil-people rescue party actually almost causes Tatsuki to rise up - they are getting away, and they'll HEAL them and they'll do this ALL OVER AGAIN and and and and...
Tatsuki's entire body seethes with resurgent force, but she dares not move. Amuro is wounded.
Tears stain her face, and she slumps, unable to work up the energy to even sob.
So this is war.
The Servant hesitated as he leaned over the teenager, internally debating whether he should just stick to scouting and leave the rest to those who were still alive here in this ship. A short sigh later, the air hazed as he'd appear into view. Another second later a roll of white was in his hands as he'd seek to stem the most immeadiate bleeding before gently picking the girl up. Orihime'd have one injured to tend with along with his report, he'd see to it that she'd get to the Gates unharmed. It's what Servants were good at.
The children are looking up at the Servant, if they can see him. And even if they can't, they're gathered near they others, hiding and unharmed. This is not the first time they've witnessed bloodshed.
They weren't always orphans.
In the distance, brilliant flares shoot up into the sky. For those looking closely, perhaps on the White Base's bridge, there is a single man there - though he can't be made out. That may be for the best, as the White Base's crew would likely have a heart attack to see that it was Bernie. Wiseman is slumped over, on the hill, with a bandaged leg.
He looks up, though, as he spies three figures walking up the sand dunes. He stands up and takes a deep breath; however, he realizes after a moment that no more are coming. "Are... are you three it?" he asks, looking down at them. "No more? Not even Sarge?"
They were all younger than him, Bernie realizes. The youngest kid looks to the side. "When... when the enemy variable mobile suit attacked--a stray round killed him. He tried to get back to the Gallop."
Bernie's hand curls into a fist. He had fought off the Gundam Alex just to save that man - and he still died. He closes his eyes. "And Ramba Ral?"
"He's dead, sir," the oldest answers.
Bernie swallows and opens his eyes. This couldn't be happening. Only four survivors, of an entire brigade. That was what the IPA and the Gundams had cut down. He could hardly believe it. He feels bile rising in the back of his throat, tears starting to burn in his eyes. "Who...who's in charge, then? I'm just a Corporal."
"You, sir," the middle one says. He looks down, biting his lip. Bernie realizes, after a moment, and after looking at their stripes, that they are all pirates. He swallows again, trying to keep the bile down his throat. The tears are a little harder to hold back - /four/ men out of one thousand, one hundred, and fifty-two.
The sound of jets roar overhead, and he looks up. ZAKUs from ZAFT, the forces Yzak promised to send to retrieve them, are beginning to set down. The first one lands, opening its hatch. "You there! Are there any more of the brigade?"
"We're it." Bernie looks up, sadly smiling. "But thanks for coming for us."
((Because Amuro, Because You and your Federation destroyed the dreams of my Father, destroyed the dreams of Zeon, left us in the chains of your oppressive Earth Forces! I only want to protect the ideals of Zeon. This is -war- and in war people die. Your friends chose to get involved, they chose to stand in the way and thus became targets. Even this girl, who thinks herself so strong, who has beaten my body, broken my bones. She has now offered herself up as a future target. This could have been just between you and I, between the Federation and Zeon but they had to get involved. Now, they will pay! As will you!))
And even though Haman lies in a bloody, semi-conscious state at Tatsuki's feet, there is something about her, something only Amuro can sense and see. It's a hideous red something, standing behind and around Haman, as if made from her very essence, there's something insectile, alien, hideously wrong about it. It hungers for carnage, lusts for war, lives for conflict and it lives inside of Haman Karn!
Gauron grins. His opponent is prone. He could cut her down now. But he grabs somethign from his belt. Something round. With a pin.
"Whoops."
He throws the grenade over his shoulder, and it lands on the ground. Near the kids.
"Looks like you've only got a few seconds to say goodbye."
Huh. The pin is still in. Just barely. But it is.
But he doesn't give Misato enough time to realise that, as he slashes at her, hoping for that split second look of rage, terror, fear, anger, any emotion at all.
Rei doesn't resist as she's taken down. At least she isn't having a seizure, although it may only be an intermission. She's breathing, at least, and there's a faint pulsing to the blood, which is thankfully starting to slow down.
he's silly, you know. nothing ever changes.
It's fainter, Rei thinks, without using those words. It's distant. It's cold, she thinks a moment later. Why is it cold. This is the white base. What is white? What is...
"Ikari," she says, through bloody lips.
Lily Davies gets her fingers on the rifle, tugs it over to her, and manages to get her finger on the trigger. She is ready to -
- get shot in the knee. Lily has fought many battles in the psychomech, and is used to the phantom pain she feels. Even having her arm's flesh partially shredded by shrapnel is something she's felt before, or something similar, when the armour plating is ripped away and the mech starts to take serious damage from an Atlantean shard weapon.
She has never, ever felt pain like this before. Lily simultaneously wants to scream and throw up and settles for just yelling. Her finger squeezes the trigger as her hands both try to ball up into fists, but the burst is wild - she barely manages to keep it pointed vaguely in Ramba's direction, and bullets hit the walls and ceilings.
Lily also finishes her slow slide down the wall, her left leg bleeding profusely as she threatens to pass out.
There is, indeed, a flash of horror in Misato's eyes as she sees the grenade being flipped over toward the Children. But she doesn't make any sound. No cry of rage. Any telepaths listening, though, will probably feel the fury rolling off her like great waves as she turns her eyes back to Gauron, watching him lunge at her.
Her leg, bent beneath herself, uncoils like a spring as she hurls herself forward at Gauron, flinging the rifle at his face. And the knife...finds itself buried in her gut, probably mangling a kidney on its way through. But that was the point. Because now, she's got the pistol pulled out of her shoulder holster, and she's right in his face, and she's trying to empty the clip into his gut at point blank range.
"You got it, Commander!"
Really, Rook sounds way more pleased to be dropped into a combat zone than she /should/. She has just enough time to evaluate the way things are down below, right before she jams the controls for the reverse thrusters. The Cyclone can't really fly... but it can give itself a nice buffer against gravity as it goes down. "Hang in there, guys! The cavalry's here!"
The humanoid-shaped armor is certainly mobile. Rook maneuvers it down to land lightly, quickly scrambling down through a ragged tear through the hull. Well, that was convenient. Who needs doors?
Raising up the Gallant, she proceeds cautiously. Beyond radio contact, it's almost impossible to tell who's behind the red and white armor. Her visor masks her face, and it's hard to see her, otherwise. She shifts the Gallant, raising up the snub-nosed gun, eyes narrowed, scanning the hallway for someone. Something. Anything that's not dead, anyway.
...Eh. She's seen worse. The Invid had a way of really making messes. Not that what people did to each other was much better, really.
A sudden sound brings her to raise the Gallant up. She'll shoot first and ask questions later -- and suddenly, the opposition finds itself short by two soldiers. The kill seems to embolden her, and she... grins, of all things, skittering forward over the bodies and sprinting down the hallway.
"The cavalry's here!" she bellows into her radio, leading with the Gallant. Yes, let the firearm lead for her. "Alright, you sons of bitches, who wants to die first?"
...There. "Good enough!" The big guy trying to beat the Turtle Tamer into a pulp. She doesn't know who it is, but he's probably on her side if he's being squished, and... well, yeah. Good enough. Rook throws herself forward, attempting to tackle the otherwise-occupied Claude Speed and bring the butt-end of the Gallant crunching down over the back of his head. Footing's treacherous, though. We'll see if it actually works~
Claude must have, like, boss HP or something, because somehow he's able to survive the onslaught thrown at him. He jumps to his feet and is somehow able to pivot away from Turtle's sword of fiery love, sustaining an ugly cut along his side but fortunately not being run through. He is, however, smashed in the back of the head by the butt of the Cyclone's Gallant and goes down like a ton of bricks, slamming to the deck with a sickening thud and spitting out a mouthful of dark red blood. If he's not thoroughly owned, he's nearly there.
The master criminal rolls several feet away, slowly pulling himself to one knee and groaning in pain. "Man... you guys wanna make... a fuckin' gang bang outta this? Fine... we'll do it thataway."
He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a syringe, the needle dripping with something - and he rolls up his sleeve, jamming it into his arm and injecting himself. The shot of raw adrenaline hits his system like a bullet, and he takes in a deep breath, his back stiffening and his eyes becoming clearer as the screaming pain in his body rapidly begins to move into the background.
Claude's life bar just went waaaay back up - and though he's still a wreck, he, much like the Energizer Bunny, is still going.
Pulling out a switchblade and flicking it open, he takes a 9mm pistol in his other hand, grinning through bloodstained teeth. "Let's go, fuckers." The joking's over; he's all business now.
The Grand Theft Auto guy pulls a needle out and stabs himself with it. Unlike most times he's stabbed with things, he feels better.
Alright. This is bad. This is /bad/. He just sold all his Red Pixel Potions /last week/. Alright. "You there! I--Oh, I know! Hol...actually, don't hold still, just don't...dodge....this?"
The Tamer waves his hands Mystically. Rook, should she not somehow dodge it, would suddenly feel more in tune with the Cyclone. More empathetic to its needs and wants. Somehow, despite the fact it's an inanimate object, this means she kicks more ass with it. It also means it inexplicably weighs 5 more pounds. At least this proves it's heavy, and not your brother.
Ayanami's alive.
For a while. "Oh t-thank..." Shinji can't hold back a sob and, bizarrely, hopes that the trio won't think less of him. He rests his forehead on Ayanami's, careful to avoid the wound, and just /breathes/, thanking whatever's out there that she's alive and they might just get through-
Shinji's thoughts are abruptly cut off as Ramba Ral's full load of buckshot makes itself very much aquainted with his right side. His whole body is ripped up, and Shinji's flung away from Rei, Kikka, and the two boys. Hurts. Hurts. Hurts. Oh God GRENADE oh wait the pin's in it but.
"Muh...Misato...no..." Shinji manages, eyes widening as the closest thing to a mother he ever had is stabbed in the gut. Some part of Shinji notices that Lily's down, and sees that he can't really do much about Gauron with Misato all /there/. Shaking, Shinji picks the still-armed grenade in his /left/ hand, pulls himself up to his knees, pulls the pin, and /flings/ the grenade at Ramba Ral.
Shinji slumps over, then, hurting too much to crawl, right now. "G-god..."
Inspite of the point black shots, only one bullets get past the armor, going into Gauron's gut. The gun jams, though, as Gauron twists the knife in Misato's gut. "I've survived a shot in the dead center of my forehead. A gutshots nothing." Twiiiiiiist. "Your kids there, however..." Twiiiiiiiist. Gauron suddenly pushes Misato back, grabbing her pistol, moving quickly to clear the jam, and try and swing the gun round to hit the unexploded grenade. The one he hasn't yet realised is missing. This might be a mistake to take advantage of. Especially with that nasty gut wound.
"Damn it, girl, just /go DOWN!/" Ramba bellows, aiming his assault rifle at Lily one-handed. Her wild spray does manage to get another bullet wound on him - this one a vicious scrape on his left side. The bloodied Zeon commander breathes heavily, taking quick aim, and squeezes a round off for her hand. The bullet fires free, and he adjusts his aim a moment later for her skull.
When he pulls the trigger that time, there is but a hollow click. The rifle is out of ammunition. With a grunt, he throws it aside - right into the legs of a crewmember. He grabs his shotgun then, and cocks it with both hands, before turning around and aiming it towards the newcomer - when he sees that it's a battlesuit. "Son of a bitch."
Ramba Ral, however, is nothing if not ingenious. He looks at the cart against the wall, that Misato kicked aside earlier. He grabs the side, prying open a door, and then quickly takes his utility belt off - and then quickly pulls out the pins of all the grenades remaining on it. He throws it into the cart, then, and kicks it right towards Rook.
Express explosive delivery!
Unfortunately, that would be when he notices the grenade. The man's eyes widen, and he grabs the shotgun, firing the buckshot - which rips into the grenade and makes it explode in midair. The shrapnel still cuts into him, making him groan in pain, his front side now a bloodied mess. "D...damn it, boy..."
Rook manages to keep her footing, and the blow connects with enough force that sets her arm to tingling. She yanks the Gallant back, shooting a thumbs-up to Turtle Tamer. Her attention turns back to Claude, though, and the freedom fighter just /grins/ behind her visor.
"Awright. You wanna play hardball? Let's play hardball, tall dark and ugly." She grins, flexing her fingers over the grip of the Gallant.
"/Yahoo/! Bring it, man! You can't even touch the Invid! You're nothin' compared to them!" She gives a whoop that threatens the volume range of her communications equipment and throws herself forward, aiming to use the suit's weight to tackle the thug. The Cyclone moves like a dream, too -- faster and more responsive than it's ever been, though she's always been good at making it do exactly what she wants. Not that she's going to complain, mind you.
Through it all, Rook Bartley is treating the matter with all due seriousness.
...Honest.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral groans, "U...urrrngh..."
[Fac-Syndicate] Gauron says, "Hrmph."
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba mutters, "Help's... on the way, Speed."
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed rasps in a deadly, bloody-sounding voice, "Word. Kick some ass."
Back near the control room, the remaining soldiers are gathering to form a phalanx, in case anyone tries to break through. The towering Ryu Jose balances his bazooka over his shoulder, while his much smaller co-pilot Hayato readies a machine gun. "We're not gonna let this base fall," Hayato assures Bright Noah, who himself is armed. Indeed, Mirai, the bridge officers, Sayla and even Fraw are carrying weapons, just in case. Many of the are scattered throughout the base, doing what they themselves can do to survive.
Bright Noah looks grim. "In the event we do have to evacuate, lead the charge out, Ryu."
"Sir, what about-..."
"I will die before I let them take this ship!"
Amuro still feels vaguely delirious and feverish as he looks down at the form of Haman, all of that hatred and anger crackling around her. A very tiny bit of it swirls around him, in his mind, reminding him that he could just put a bullet to her brain and make all of that disappear. Get rid of her for what she did to Ayanami. See how she likes lead in the head.
And then the redness around him dissipates, abruptly. He turns to Tatsuki, his breath short and labored. And nods once, running over to stand protectively over Shinji, Ayanami and the children, reloading his gun and trying not to put much weight on that one leg. "Lily, g-get over here if you can..." And he holds up his pistol, launching another round at Ramba's remaining troops. Rook is a welcome sight.
And he's the least wounded, so if he can "draw" agg...
...Ooooh, snap. She had not, however, planned for someone else jumping into the fray she had chosen. Or explosives. Explosives are bad. Rook falls short of her target, scrambling a moment when her eyes catch sight of the grenade rolling right towards her.
"Oh /shit/! Heads up, man!" Hopefully the Turtle Tamer is paying attention. She moves to kick the thing out of the way, but right now, she's equally taken up with staying out of Claude's knife range. Okay, yeah, things just got a wee bit more dicey.
Lily Davies drops the rifle after the first wild burst. She doesn't mean to; it just slips from her fingers seconds before the bullet strikes.
Her hand was not quite in the position Ramba expected because she dropped the gun, but he hit something, and apparently something sensitive. Another spray of blood stains the wall, this one smaller than the others because Lily's fingers aren't very big. Her eyes widen as Lily brings up her hand in front of her face, looking at the little finger there - which is either shorter by a joint, or so twisted as to be useless. It's hard to tell which.
They widen further as she sees Ramba point the gun at her head. She doesn't even realize that it clicks; Lily faints first. She was about due for it anyway. Sorry, Amuro.
Missile lock warnings chirp inside the Veritech. 'Woop, Woop, Woop. Missile. Missile.'.
Roy lets out a curse as he starts popping flares as he streaks skywards. As missiles swarm after them, some exploding as they get caught up in the flares, taking the super-heated bait, Roy continues to press the vehicle skywards. As he realizes that the shuttles are getting close, he turns the Veritech about and starts to dive.
Reaching out, he flicks the B switch, flipping the Vehicle back into Battloid mode. Brining up the autocannon, Roy depresses the trigger, causing the weapon to start spewing out rounds as he starts to tear into the incoming swarm of missiles. As they strike within the swarm, fracticide blossoms occur and explode as he pushes the Veritech through the explosions.
Back to Fighter the Veritech goes as it dives, racing right at the Gallop's bridge at what seems to be ramming speed. The pilot growls, smoke trailing from the fighter from shrapnel wounds the armored skin took. As he gets closer and closer, suddenly - the Veritech converts, feet of the Battloid swinging out towards the Gallop's bridge and colliding with the glass.
It shatters and collapses inwards, as the Veritech slides in, landing on it's rear, Roy staring up at the Commander of the Gallop. Damn.. she's cute. He almost hates doing this. However, unlike many pilots on the SDF-1, Roy Fokker has fought other humans before - so the feeling quickly passes by as he starts to yank the controls.
From the sitting position the Veritech is in, the autocannon is swung upwards. As the engines of the fighter fire, pulling it out of the broken wreckage of the bridge with a grinding and shattering noise, the autocannon starts to whirl and then with a sound much like a giant chainsaw, 55 millimeter Depeleted Uranium rounds are thrown out at the rate of nearly five per second, the shell casings raining down below as Roy just lays on the trigger.
Ikari, she thinks, after saying it.
There's another explosion. She doesn't hear it.
Her hands are still wrapped around the gun. "Point," she says, or chokes around blood in her throat. "Center. And point. And."
She stops talking then. She thinks nothing. It's peaceful. It's warm again. She's -
- needed. White hands that are shading to gray lift up slowly. They shake, then steady. Rei starts breathing in again; it makes a strange noise which changes note as she sits up with a sudden lurch. The barrel of the gun hits the floor and so does some of her blood. 'My hair wasn't this color before' crosses her mind.
Clarity comes back. The one eye that seems to be working focuses. Am I dead? she wonders, but have not yet known it?
your kids over there, however
Center the target -
She raises the pistol towards the man who said those hateful words, seeing him through a haze of red and gray. She pulls the trigger, once; the recoil is enough to send her onto her back, the gun bouncing out of her hand.
The adrenaline surging through Claude's veins has heightened his senses, and he sees Ramba Ral's special delivery coming. He reacts instantly, leaping backwards with the speed of a cat in preparation for whatever the explosive payload does - and indeed, it saves his ass given that Rook's unable to rush him.
The crook, however, doesn't need to be in knife range given that he's got a pistol in his off hand.
Letting the Turtle Tamer be for now, the man from Liberty City whips the handgun up in a blood-slick but remarkably steady grip, bringing the barrel to bear towards the head of Rook's mobile armour. "Get dead, bitch," he rasps with a sick leer. Squeezing the trigger, he empties a full clip at her faceplate, pounding a rain of bullets straight at her.
He then flips the knife around in his other hand and wails it towards her, the spinning blade whirling and aiming to sink into her chest armour.
Tatsuki Arisawa watches Haman Karn go down. She stares for a long, long time, shivering.
She stands there until she hears Misato scream as Gauron twists the knife.
PROTECT
He's too close. Kicking him would kill her. She looks down at her gun. Right, then. Only one thing to do.
Tatsuki sprints forward silently, carried at astounding speeds by...something. She'll think about it later. Instinct guides her body. It's alright, it says. For their safety, any cost...
She skids to a stop to Gauron's left. She shrieks, "HEY!! MOTHERFUCKER!!"
She points the assault rifle at his skull, mere inches away. There is a pause only barely long enough for him to turn and face her.
"ONLY ONE PERSON DIES TODAY!!!"
She pulls, and holds, the trigger.
"AAAaaaaarghlngh..." Misato falls back with a heavy thud agains the wall, clutching at the knife in her stomach. Her eyes are clouded with pain and fury, teeth clenched and grinding as she slumps slowly to the ground, leaving a bright streak of red on the panels. She stares at Gauron balefully as he turns away, trying to deal with the grenade. With a convulsive wrench, probably doing even more damage to herself in the process, she yanks the knife out and hurls it at him, trying to bury it in the side of his neck.
That done, she casts about, looking for another gun...but there's nothing right next to her. And she's not about to be crawling very far toward the nearest weapon. Weakly, she struggles to lever herself toward another rifle several feet away.
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed breathes, "How we doin'?"
[Fac-Syndicate] Gauron makes all the sounds of someone getting shot in the head.
[Fac-Syndicate] Vincent Thompson replies automatically. "I have an alibi."
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino says, "Do try not to kill your own allies. It's bad for business."
On the bridge of the Gallop, Harmon Crowley's eyes widen as it all happens at once. The glass shatters inward - one unfortunate Zeon office being ripped apart as part of the frame crumples inward. Someone shouts an order, something about firing a cannon, but the woman knows it is too late. Her blue eyes stare upward, into the triple barrel of the GU-11 gun pod, and she swallows.
Roy might, before he fires, catch the movement on her lips: "I'm sorry, my love."
Then, the autocannon opens fire. The rounds rip through the bridge and the people there, shredding them in an instant. The frame breaks inward, before the bridge itself is ripped apart; a plume of flame shoots upward, and the Gallop-class land battleship falls still; its lights fade to nothing, and the ship is left lifeless.
Inside of the White Base, Ramba Ral's radio crackles - a static-filled, softly spoken, sad female voice says, "I'm sorry, my love."
The old man closes his eyes. "Harmon..."
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral grunts... "My wife is dead."
The Turtle Tamer stops the cart. In an awesome, muscular manner!
You gain 40 Strengthliness.
You acquire an item: Cartful of Grenades
Wait a second, these grenades have had their pins pulled! OW! OOF! EEK! ARGH! OOF! EEK! ARGH! OOF! OOF! BARF!
<3 You lose A Lot of HP.
And that's the Turtle Tamer out of the fight for now. He's half-consciously digging through his sack for...for something.
The knife doesn't get a chance to reach Gauron. There is too much gun in Gauron's face.
"Heh. How very Kash-"
BLAM.
Blood everywhere. Gauron's body flies back, and slumps against a wall. Bleeding. A bleeding, nasty, bloodspattered corpse. No-one will miss that one.
[Fac-Syndicate] Albedo Piasora, automatically, "Kill the bastards who did it."
Rook Bartley, unfortunately, does not always have cat-like reflexes. Mostly because she's trying to avoid an explosive little present courtesy of Ramba Ral, and that would be very /bad/ if the thing happened to go off.
On the other hand, it's also a little urgent that she makes sure the big guy with the knife and gun doesn't lay on the hurt too much. Oops, too late. Rook screams as two of the bullets slam into the visor of the Cyclone, but more out of fear -- the first spiderwebs a crack into the glass, and the second shatters one side -- she closes her eyes, but the pieces still leave dozens of shallow, sharp-lined scores down the side of her face.
Okay, he damaged the Cyclone. It's so totally /on/, now.
Snarling, Rook brings the Gallant up to unload an energy round in the car thief's face, but before she has a chance, the knife scrabbles against the chest plate. She shrugs it aside, but the blade scrapes along the steel, instead sinking into her relatively unprotected forearm.
Cue scream number two! Save that this one sounds far, far less pleased.
"Alright! Playtime's /over/, you bastard! Now hold still so I can kill--"
Amuro gives his orders. Crap! There goes her golden opportunity to pound this guy's face in. Growling, she gives a curt acknowledgement.
Whirling, she lunges away from Claude, but not before yanking the knife out and throwing it down. She bolts for the hallway, ducking and trying to look as inconspicuous as a big red and white armor suit can look. She skids to a kneeling halt beside Lily, looping her good arm around her, and hefting her easily. Having the extra strength from the armor helps.
Shifting her load, Rook pauses long enough to cast a glance about the room, surveying the best way to get back to Amuro. There. She seizes her opportunity, even though it brings her close to Claude again. Feh. She'll pound on him after she's gotten her payload back to Amuro. Or, rather, defend the rag-tag group of defenders. "Amuro! Hey! I got her!"
Lily Davies does not complain about being picked up because she is still very unconcious.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba laughs harshly. "I doubt I can get there in time. It must have been whoever brought in the battlesuit..."
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed says, "...I'ma kill all of those mother@#$%ers."
Haman Karn lies there, in a pool of her own blood, in the shadow of her own all-consuming hatred for those who deny her will. Tatsuki did a number on her, that's for sure. She's going to need massive reconstructive treatment on her nose, she's pretty sure her jaw is broken and she's got at least two... make that three cracked ribs. Still, her gun rests in the holster at her side where she totally failed to draw it thanks to Misato's shot and Tatsuki's rapid fists.
Closing her hand around it, she pulls the reassuringly cold and heavy steel and composite weapon out. Sighting carefully along the end of her weapon, she aims for the back of Tatsuki's head. "Die," she whispers, pulling the trigger quickly and deliberately.
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino clears he throat softly, "Mr Speed? I do not mind harsh nor crude language and I understand when tensions run high, you must find a way to express them. However, It may be more entertaining for others and yourself to come up with more creative ways to use that language?"
[Fac-Syndicate] Magneto says, "Or are you that limited in your intelligence?"
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed says, "@#$% you."
[Fac-Syndicate] Magneto says, "It's the latter."
[Fac-Syndicate] Claude Speed sounds pretty cracked out at the moment.
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino says, "Aaah. Unfortunately that is not doable. But I am sure I could find someone to return the favor for you instead."
Claude Speed is not about to give up the fight so easily. As jacked up with adrenaline as he is, he's still hellbent on fighting despite being all but dead and currently without a weapon in his hands. The criminal sneers after the receding Cyclone and shakes his head, reaching into his voluminous coat. "Y'ain't getting away from me that easily, bitch."
With a horrible, bloody grin he takes a Molotov cocktail in each hand. He laughs, a low, decidedly unstable sound, and spits out a mouthful of reddened spittle. For a moment he just stands there like that.
He then howls something incoherent and slams both cocktails towards the ground at the Cyclone's feet. The pair of bottles erupt into huge clouds of alcohol fire, not especially damaging but pretty spectacular-looking. It bursts from the floor in sheets, though it probably isn't especially effective against robots.
However, a chainsaw is - and it's with a running chainsaw in hand that a bloody and nearly dead Claude Speed comes barreling through the fire, catching alight himself in the process. He barely feels it despite it taking its toll on him. With a bloody roar he begins to slash at Rook's armour with the blazing chainsaw, attacking her with no finesse whatsoever.
"DIE YOU FUCKING PIECE OF METAL SHIT!!!"
Shinji Ikari sees Ayanami make her last stand, and crumple into a little pile. "...Ral you j-just..."
Shinji Ikari sees Misato make her heroic last stand, and slump over to a wall. "..k-killed the o-only..."
Shinji Ikari sees a knife by the floor. He knows how to use a knife. His father made him learn. Shinji's a little thankful for that, now, as the Third Child weakly picks the weapon up. "...f-family I...e-ever had..."
"...i s-swear...k-kill you...all..." Shinji doesn't know how he's talking, or how he's standing up, or why his arm just doesn't hurt anymore. Or how some part of him just /knows/ that Haman Karn JUST ISN'T DEAD ENOUGH YET! oh god not tatsuki no he's worthless he can't do it he's got to he what does he...
In the depths of NERV, Evangelion Unit-01 suffers a /massive/ power spike, as if it was trying to turn itself on. There's some yelling, and some panicking, but the surge stops before anything more than Ritsuko Akagi's quickly developing ulcer can be damaged.
Shinji's eyes are massive fields of white with tiny blue-black dots somewhere in their respective centers. The Third Child gets out, "KILL YOU!" before he loses what facualties he has left, managing a bestal war-cry as Shinji /pumps/ at the prone form of Haman Karn, actually trying to leap the last bit of distance, plant his knee in her chest, and slam the little switchblade down on whatever part of Haman Karn isn't allready cut open.
[Fac-Syndicate] Albedo Piasora hisses and mutters something about "just war" under his breath, before laughing.
Ramba Ral looks up, weakly, after a moment. The bloodshed all around is immense. He sees, from the corner of his eye, Lily being picked up and moved. He also sees bodies, both in Federation khaki and Zeon green, strewn over this bloody, bullet-ridden way. Haman is there, but cut to ribbons herself. He grunts, forcing himself to sit up, and looks around in a haze.
"Sir! Sir!"
He turns his head to the side, as three Zeon soldiers begin rushing towards him. They kneel downward, next to him, and it takes his eyes a long moment to focus on them. Three Privates, he realizes - all young, the oldest being only eighteen, and the youngest having turned seventeen days ago. His best men are dead around him, veterans of the war so far. Is this what Zeon has come to? "Nngh...I...see you survived," he groans. He forces himself up, standing up and grabbing his shotgun hard. "Get out there, back where you came from."
"Sir, we can't leave--" the middle one insists.
"The hell you can't," Ral snaps, pain laced in his voice. "I said /go/! Get the fuck out of here!"
"S-sir. We'll... we'll go," the oldest answers. He looks at the rest. "Come on! We have to hurry!" The three begin charging, running for dear life through the hall they came from. Ramba cocks his shotgun, and starts limping forward. He brings it to his shoulder, aiming it at Rook's back. He pulls the trigger, and there is again a soft click.
"Ha..." he laughs, softly.
The Turtle Tamer is ready. Y'see, he sold all his bat guano. He sold all of his red pixel potions, the sack is nearly empty, in fact. Cause, you see, it's okay to crash Loathing's economy. It's expected.
And in this case, it was worth it. The Tamer pulls two things out. The first thing, a small tin of Doc Galaktik's Ailment Ointment. Economical, but not ideal. Regardless, he needs it so he can walk. Once applied, he gets up, and procures the second item from his pack.
It is a hockey stick. It is not just any hockey stick, it is a hockey stick that is red. Very red. It also practically seethes with Canadianity. In fact, it's so Canadian and so red, just LOOKING at it makes you angry. This is exactly what the Turtle Tamer is hoping for. He gets up. And he starts to run through the halls, waving it like a madman.
The intended effect? Simple. Whoever's left. Whoever is still standing, still lying down, will suddenly realize, hopefully, just how VERY, VERY ANGRY they are at the Turtle Tamer. And will attack him, instead of whoever it is they're otherwise going to attack. This is where we get into the hard part. The Turtle Tamer has to get /away/, and he's not got much left in him. ...with a sigh, he pulls out a Ten-Leaf Clover, and grabs it.
If he had any meat left, he'd donate it to that Leeroy Jenkins Memorial Fund.
Misato Katsuragi, too, is lying in a heap with blood pooling out from beneath her. She is still conscious and cognizant, though, not having suffered any head injuries. But she's fading. A few more futile struggles to push herself toward a nearby gun leave her drained, and she finally just drops her head to the ground, peering toward the Children through tears of pain. "D-don't, Shin...ji," she whispers. "Nnnuh...dun...lose yourself..." She coughs, and then closes her eyes. To rest.
Tatsuki stares. Her breathing is ragged. She didn't stop firing - the weapon is simply spent.
She hears it, somehow. Her head turns. Die, she said.
MOVE
Can't...
Amuro feels he should be more horrified at what Tatsuki did. But he just doesn't have it in him. He didn't feel Gauron was particularly human. And so, he moves to take control as best he can, which isn't too well. He is cognizant of something strange around Shinji, maybe some dark shadow. He hopes he can start seeing normally, again. "Katsuragi, hold on, I'll-"
A brief image of a silhouetted girl with her brains on the opposite wall. It melts, like a shadow.
And with nearly inhuman Newtype reflexes, he dashes, shoving Tatsuki down with as much strength as he has and taking the bullet into his own upper back. It hurts, like hell, and leaves a red, growing stain on the blue coat. He is aware of extreme pain. But the bullet is embedded in muscle tissue. And not a lung.
Rei lays there. She has been shot in the back, the side, and - evidently - in the head as well. Her face and hair is coated with blood in a way that does not speak well. The hair sticking in the wound keeps most of its details from being obvious to a glance.
Something faint and dormant in her shifts. It's quiet and the faint flicker of - something? - fails briefly as she shudders. Her eyes don't close as she stares up at the ceiling.
She breathes, weakly. Her heart beats when it should, or at least, more often than not. She stares at the ceiling.
Is it happening too soon? she wonders, before the moment of terrible clarity winks out.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral groans, "G...get out."
Rook has just enough time to drop Lily in the vicinity of Amuro Ray before she's being assaulted by two pillars of flame. The sudden blast is surprising, to say the least, but this is more along the lines of something she can deal with. Invid weapons sometimes do the same thing. Yay for fire!
But that doesn't stop her from dancing sideways to keep the worst of it from getting to her. Really, singe and char marks are so hard to clean off. And hello there, suddenly she's attacked by a chainsaw-wielding lunatic.
"You're one persistent bastard," she grates through gritted teeth, bringing up an armored arm to swat aside the chainsaw. The lower part of her arm, as well as the gauntlet, are all heavily armored. The chainsaw grinds against the alloy, but the most it can do is leave shallow tooth-marks and a whole lot of sparks shot into the air.
She shoves against the chainsaw again, keeping it carefully positioned where it won't cause any damage to /her/. The Cyclone, she can fix. A missing arm, she cannot. Sparks fly as she advances closer to Claude, leering, and the expression is quite visible through the shards of her broken faceplate; blue eyes ablaze in the light of the sparks.
"First, I ain't metal. Second, I'm sick and tired of your persistent pickin' at me." She brings a hand up, reaching to snatch Claude by the collar of his shirt and just /hold/ him there. Then her knee comes up, aiming to give him a good, solid, and ultimately /quick/ sock in the gut. He's already tiring, so she'll refrain from emptying an energy round into his head. Why waste perfectly good ammo? "Now drop th' fuck dead, and get outta my way!"
Haman Karn might have meant to come alone but some of her more zealous followers will never let her wander into danger alone. Chief among these is a young man by the name of Mashmyr Cero Haman's self-proclaimed number one fan! He'd secretly followed in a desert camoflage Dowage, ready for the moment when Regent Karn might need him. Now it seems, as Ramba Ral orders a retreat, that time is now. The Dowage (a massive Dom-based monstrosity built for heavy desert combat and fitted with tons of extra armror) springs forth from cover and shoots across the sand towards the White Base.
Inside, Haman stares in horror as Amuro Ray dashes into the path of her shot. "Nooooooo!" She manages to cry as the young Newtype takes the bullet meant for Tatsuki. Of course, that's when Shinji charges in to kick her, stab her or whatever.
The Dowage reaches the White Base and two Neo-Zeon special forces troopers leap off, climbing into the Trojan Horse to hunt down Haman Karn. Fortunately for her, she can be tracked by homing in on her DC frequency radio as all members of the Divine Crusaders can.
Had Claude the Guncannon he would probably be able to put a dent in the Cyclone. Unfortunately, he does NOT have the Guncannon. He does, however, realize he's not doing anything with the chainsaw, and thus as he's snatched he just drops it to the ground.
By the time he's picked up, he's pointing a weapon square at Rook's faceplate.
A large rocket launcher.
"Yeah, and you too, bitch."
And just as he's hit in the gut he jams down the firing stud, disgorging a single rocket into Rook's faceplate at point-blank range.
Both the knee and the explosion hurl him violently backwards and send him pinwheeling way back to the other end of the corridor, where he slams awkwardly on his side into a bulkhead. The impact shatters his shoulder and upper arm bones, smashing a few ribs for good measure. He hits the ground, pukes up a mouthful of blood, and slumps over - alive or dead, it's hard to tell, but if he IS alive it's by the skin of his teeth.
Tatsuki Arisawa watches with a sort of dull awe and horror and something else as Amuro leaps into the path of the bullet. Just the shoulder. He's fine. The entire situation is overwhelming, totally stifling, but...something...in the back of her mind, tells her what she needs to know.
She almost moves to kill Haman Karn. Shinji's doing it instead.
She sits there, instead, staring at Amuro. "You'll be OK," she says. She looks on. She doesn't move to stop Shinji - all emotion exhausted, her spirit spent. "I don't think she's going to hurt us anymore."
Ramba's eyes wander side to side. Claude has fallen in a bloody heap - and Haman, he doesn't even want to think about too much. He grits his teeth hard, and then looks down the hallway. The bridge is secured, he realizes, by the very crew of the White Base. His shotgun is out of ammunition. The man looks around and swallows, until he spies something. A single, unspent grenade that rolled away from a corpse of one of his men.
The man kneels down, grabbing the grenade, and looks around. "This... is it." He looks at Amuro, reeled over in pain. "There is no other way for this to end, boy. I told you, back in Giza, that war can only end in one way. Victory or in death. Remember that, Amuro Ray! Remember it well!"
Ramba slumps against the wall, leaving a bloody streak there. He heaves once, and looks up at Amuro and the rest of them. For a moment, he looks Shinji in the eyes. Then, he pulls the pin of the grenade and claps it against his chest.
"LONG LIVE THE INDEPENDENT PRINCIPALITY OF ZEON!"
The grenade detonates a second later; this one was an incendiary grenade. The fireball expands brilliantly; a moment later, as the flames end, there is little but a crumpled heap of flesh, and a black and red smear on that particular bulkhead of the White Base.
[Fac-Syndicate] Bernard Wiseman | Ramba Ral shouts, "LONG LIVE THE INDEPENDENT PRINCIPALITY OF ZEON!" Followed by an explosion, and then static.
[Fac-Syndicate] Envy sighs. "The goal is to make the other poor bastard die for his country, not you! Oi."
[Fac-Syndicate] Shizuru Fujino says, "Oh... my."
[Fac-Syndicate] Kazuma Torisuma says, "Now that is how a man dies. Lets give him a moment of silence."
Sorry, Misato, some sane part of Shinji thinks as he knees Karn in the gut. The rest of him is wondering where his knife went, and deciding to just choke the bitch instead. Its more...intimate, that way.
The Third Child wraps his hands around Haman's neck, heedless of the reopened wounds and the blood pouring down his right arm, and Haman can see just what Shinji Ikari looks like when he completly loses control. The meek, gentle boy's more animal than man now, teeth bared, eyes bright with the joy of killing, nostrels flaring as he /squeezes/ and /squeezes/ and it makes what happened to Ayanami a little bit better so, gosh, he'd best SQUEEZE HARDER AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Somehow, the Beast thinks to turn...at catches Ramba Ral's eyes. Good. Good old man. See what you-what old men did to me!
And then, somehow, that little, lucid part of Shinji catches Ramba's look-and Ramba Ral can see Shinji Ikari...calm down. His eyes widen again, his lips fall, and the wave of berserk anger just...breaks, cresting against the solid wall of whatever strange wisdom Ramba's look gave him.
"Oh G-god...I'm s-sorr..." BOOOOOM. The explosion's powerful enough that Shinji's /flung/ off of Haman Karn, slamming into the hallway wall and groaning as he's slumped into a little pile of Third Child.
Battle, ironically since his time coming to the Hub and traversing the Gates, this was likely the first time since he'd set foot in one that was awash with carnage and blood splattering the unfortunates who didn't manage to escape the many gunshots, or explosions that had gone off. Not the worst he'd ever seen, but it was a reminder of what he didn't miss. Archer did as he'd promised, walking through in his spirit form phasing across doors and metal walls. Descovering which party was the intruding force was one he'd have to descover on his own...Orihime wouldn't appreciate what he'd see when he returned to report. There was a reason why the radio she'd so anxiously wait next too was silent.
Atleast they'd already set up preparations.
The Servant paused by a fallen girl with her hair stained red, bits of its natural blue peeking through. Looking around, he knelt.
Amuro isn't really inclined to try to stop Shinji. Or he could. He could, "seeing" that redness from the boy behind him that might well just be delirium from pain. But he's in some shock at the moment.
He manages to look up at Tatsuki, rather pale, and tries to sit up despite the bleeding. "I-"
His gaze briefly meets with Ramba Ral's. He can vaguely remember the man and his wife whose soldiers joked around.
Then there isn't anymore Ramba Ral.
The boy slumps again, keeping his gun clutched to his chest. "We need to get...to the shuttles, for medical help. There are other wounded on t-the base, too..." Another look, towards that pile of ash.
"At least he...treated us like soldiers..."
...Well hello there, rocket launcher.
Rook doesn't have time to contemplate the fact that there's a rocket suddenly coming at her. She's too close to be destroyed in a blossom of fiery death, thankfully. But, that doesn't mean she's not close enough for the momentum of the thing to smack right into the Cyclone's helmet.
It's kind of like getting hit soundly upside the head with a sledgehammer, really. The room spins, and the red-armored figure drops like a sack of bricks. Okay, so maybe she's going to need a bottle or two of Advil in the morning... she'll just kind of contemplate the floor, here, until she's got presence of mind enough to get back up. And in the meantime, nothing else comes from the armored Red Warrior. Whee.
And just as Shinji is flung off of Haman, the two Neo-Zeon special forces guys (a.k.a. Newtype Space Ninjas Biggs and Wedge) toss a pair of non-lethal smoke grenages into the room. In the ensuing confusion, one manages to get Haman ot her feet while the other (the larger of the two) grabs first Gauron, then Claude and drags them towards the hole where the Dowage waits to take them all to safety. Some will require more medical attention then others. Fortunately for Claude and Gauron, Axis has some of the finest medical facilities known to science and some of the best Doctors. It's a pity half of them are wanted war criminals.
[Fac-Syndicate] Kazuma Torisuma resumes, after a moment, "...please tell me he just used a C4 or a detpack, and not something wierd like a hidden grenade."
Rei is alive, although not very. She's breathing and her heart is working - she's still bleeding a little bit.
She isn't moving, however, beyond that.
And somewhere in there, in that space between death and sleep, Misato dreams of her father pushing her into a small metal capsule, and blood pouring down her forehead, and a cross-shaped pillar of light clawing at the heavens....
But it dissolves away. The light is the flare of a grenade burning someone into ash, and the blood on her face isn't coming from her scalp, it's because she's got her head pillowed in a pool of it. "Where's...backup..." she rasps, struggling momentarily to rise. The sharp pain in her gut dissuades her of that, though, and she just tries to look and see what the situation is at this point.
Save for the pop of smoke grenates, it sounds like there's no more weapons going off, at least. For now, anyway.
"Need...a beer."
Lily Davies remains unconcious after Rook puts her down. She is better off than Rei but is also very, very glad (or would be) that she is not concious.
Tatsuki Arisawa watches the nightmare unfold before her. Ranba Ral screams his final message, and Tatsuki's breath catches. She can't see him. She wonders if getting blown the fuck up even destroys your spirit.
She ponders this, and then heaves a heavy breath. The sudden appearance of the evil-people rescue party actually almost causes Tatsuki to rise up - they are getting away, and they'll HEAL them and they'll do this ALL OVER AGAIN and and and and...
Tatsuki's entire body seethes with resurgent force, but she dares not move. Amuro is wounded.
Tears stain her face, and she slumps, unable to work up the energy to even sob.
So this is war.
The Servant hesitated as he leaned over the teenager, internally debating whether he should just stick to scouting and leave the rest to those who were still alive here in this ship. A short sigh later, the air hazed as he'd appear into view. Another second later a roll of white was in his hands as he'd seek to stem the most immeadiate bleeding before gently picking the girl up. Orihime'd have one injured to tend with along with his report, he'd see to it that she'd get to the Gates unharmed. It's what Servants were good at.
The children are looking up at the Servant, if they can see him. And even if they can't, they're gathered near they others, hiding and unharmed. This is not the first time they've witnessed bloodshed.
They weren't always orphans.
In the distance, brilliant flares shoot up into the sky. For those looking closely, perhaps on the White Base's bridge, there is a single man there - though he can't be made out. That may be for the best, as the White Base's crew would likely have a heart attack to see that it was Bernie. Wiseman is slumped over, on the hill, with a bandaged leg.
He looks up, though, as he spies three figures walking up the sand dunes. He stands up and takes a deep breath; however, he realizes after a moment that no more are coming. "Are... are you three it?" he asks, looking down at them. "No more? Not even Sarge?"
They were all younger than him, Bernie realizes. The youngest kid looks to the side. "When... when the enemy variable mobile suit attacked--a stray round killed him. He tried to get back to the Gallop."
Bernie's hand curls into a fist. He had fought off the Gundam Alex just to save that man - and he still died. He closes his eyes. "And Ramba Ral?"
"He's dead, sir," the oldest answers.
Bernie swallows and opens his eyes. This couldn't be happening. Only four survivors, of an entire brigade. That was what the IPA and the Gundams had cut down. He could hardly believe it. He feels bile rising in the back of his throat, tears starting to burn in his eyes. "Who...who's in charge, then? I'm just a Corporal."
"You, sir," the middle one says. He looks down, biting his lip. Bernie realizes, after a moment, and after looking at their stripes, that they are all pirates. He swallows again, trying to keep the bile down his throat. The tears are a little harder to hold back - /four/ men out of one thousand, one hundred, and fifty-two.
The sound of jets roar overhead, and he looks up. ZAKUs from ZAFT, the forces Yzak promised to send to retrieve them, are beginning to set down. The first one lands, opening its hatch. "You there! Are there any more of the brigade?"
"We're it." Bernie looks up, sadly smiling. "But thanks for coming for us."