Log: The Tides of War - Part 2
WHO: Roy Fokker, Rei Ayanami, Yumi Francois, Thraskar Davidson, Vanilla H, Elzam von Branstein, Ruri Hoshino, Amuro Ray, Christina MacKenzie, Bernard Wiseman, Sanger Zonvolt
WHERE: Super Dimensional Fortress One
WHEN: 25 March 2011
WHAT: The Zentraedi prepare a trap for the Macross and her Micronian Crew. All is going well, until outside help arrives...
Outside of the SDF-1, The Nadesico is not alone in battle. Vanilla and her Harvester are also on the outside. Even though the machine is primarily a mobile repair bay, it also has an arsenal that is not to be ignored, as it proves by unleashing upon the Battle Pods which are assaulting the larger ships. Missle bays open along the ship's body, firing explosion death, a danger that is made only worse by the large energy cannon mounted on the bottom unleashing a similar amount of death. She may be team healer, but this healer is also her own tank.
With a quick flip of a switch, the young pilot announces herself to the crew of the Nadesico. She doesn't waste any time with introductions, and gets right down to business. "I will be assisting you. If you find yourselves heavily damaged, I shall do what I can to fix that." And then, she cuts off. No need for conversation when there's aliens in need of detonation.
Hiver skims across the Deadalus' top side at a good rate of speed, not having to worry about such touchy things as atmosphere and gravity to slow her down. She can't move this well on Earth quite yet, but maybe in a year or two unless they're absolutely forced to put her back under again for another trip through the tank.
She really hopes it never comes to that.
Bright, green optics regard the ship that started this whole thing. The one that swarmed men into the Deadalus during the attack.
She holds out her right hand and quietly guns the supercollider that is part and parcel of her power systems. After a few moments running she's collected several nanograms of antimatter plasma in her hand. Reaching out into the interstellar medium she collects a like amount of stray plasma from the solar wind.
Two spheres form on opposing sides of her hand as she closes them into a fist, allowing the plasmas to mix and mutually annihilate.
The three gems on the back of that gauntlet spark in sequence and a single, pencil-thin beam of pure annihilation rockets out to encourage the ship. Perhaps she intends to DISTRACT its crew from trying to launch more pods?
"The B-switch. Right." While keeping aware of the movement of the battlepods around him, Amuro's hand moves seamlessly to hit the B-Switch. There's an abrupt, jarring feeling as the VT transforms seamlessly from a space-ready fighter jet to a humanoid robot mode, something like a thinner, faster Mobile Suit. The feeling of lightness and more delicate controls still apply to a VT in Battloid mode, but this is still far more familiar to the young Gundam pilot. Makes it a lot easier to aim, too.
A spark in his mind triggers his Newtype instincts, and he turns sharply to fire off the pulse rifle-like laser guns at an approaching battlepod. "This is a bit better," he admits to Roy over the radio. "Still not exactly the same, but it'll do for now...!"
"Mrs. Subaru and her wingmates have all launched." Ruri announces. "I'm vectoring them to cover out port flank from enemy Pods."
"We're coming under fire from enemy cruisers." Minato says. "Going evasive... it'll be tricky, though." Nadesico's distortion fields flare as several blasts impact upon them. They don't fall, though.
"Distortion fields are holding steady. Engines are at maximum output." Ruri announces. "Heavy Gravity Cannon is ready to fire."
Minato grins. "Isn't it nice of them to use energy based weapons, Ruriruri."
"...I suppose." Ruri concedes. She reaches forwards and adjusts the comms, sending a message out to the combined fleet and fighter defenses.
[["This is ND-001 Nadesico. We are preparing to fire out Heavy Gravity Cannon but several friendly fighters are in our desired vector. Transmitting co-ordinants to evac now."]] Ruri transmits a string of numbers that pilots will understand.
Bernie's head turns, glancing towards the unmanned Destroids. Things begin clicking into place in his head: the fact those things aren't moving means they're unmanned or the crew inside is dead. The lack of damage makes the second option unlikely. His teeth grind together, as he turns his green eyes over - and finally spies the blasted out jeep.
"Poor guys," he mutters. He turns and looks at the red-haired Gundam pilot. "They're not Mobile Suits, but they'll have to do. Hopefully these things won't be too hard to pilot."
He rushes ahead, towards one of them. The young man starts climbing up to the hatch and finds the release lever. He yanks it with a growl; it falls open, and he climbs in. He stares down at the console. "All right... at least it's all labeled!" He flips a few switches up with his fingers, and lights begin turning on.
Then, he hits a foot pedal - and it steps forward. He grins a lets out a whoop. He speaks into the radio a moment later. "Hey, Chris! How's yours coming?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "We're doing alright out here, but it's pretty chaotic. Status inside?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman clicks on. "This is Sergeant Bernie Wiseman, ex-ZAF, uh... retired. I'm in a..." He's pausing to read. "...Tomahawk!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "-...Bernie?"
If it were physically possible, Thraskar would make his machine blow smoke off the overheated barrel of the particle cannon. As-is, he's content to keep those bastards off Ayanami--Eva-00 is probably the biggest thing on the deck right now, and if nothing else, he owes Rei one for putting herself on the line to help his people.
The Excalibur's other gun-arm targets one of the closer Missile Pods, and fires again; as soon as the cooldown cycle for the first is complete, the Lieutenant targets another of those stupid, swarming alien craft. But there's far too many to deal with like this--they're outnumbered, they're defending at least fifteen thousand civilians, and a lot of innocent people are going to die if...
If the odds aren't turned in the defenders' favor.
Something goes 'click' inside Thraskar's head. Both of the Excalibur's arms turn towards one of the corridors leading to the Daedalus.
"Back to Hell with you," Thraskar says, over a public comm. It's a statement, not a threat. White-hot death pours from the Destroid's main guns, streaming down the corridor. It isn't actually /aimed/ at anything, but it may well turn the deck into a molten, bubbling, nightmarish mess.
Which is sort of the whole point.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Yeah. I can operate an MS and this civil defense team get wiped out..."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois's voice transmits a slightly mechanized chuckle, "Welcome to the party." She sounds so FRIENDLY when she's playing with antimatter. "Okay. I'm going to see if I can distract this big boy the Macross tried to punch earlier for a while. It's a little too close for me to go to full power, and I don't think I could Crush Intrude all the way through it."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson sounds creepily calm, with a side order of malice. "Wiseman. Thin their numbers; I'm blocking off their access points. Bastards have done enough damage."
"They /will/ have to do." Christina agrees, scanning the area briefly, pausing suddenly at the sight of the Huckenbein Trombe.
"It's...a...Gundam?" she speaks, sounding rather puzzled. It's certainly a design she hasn't seen before-not to mention a different paint job. Maybe a custom model.
Shaking her head and focusing back on the situation at hand, Christina is off and climbing into a different Battleoid-an Excalibur. No sooner than she is in does she hear Bernie over the radio, which brings a small smile to her face. "I'm in and getting adjusted." a pause, "...this one seems to have quite a lot of weapons systems." Sparing no further moment of wasted time, the Excalibur walks forwards haltingly, lifting one off the particle beam cannons and firing.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "On it!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "Commander Fokker and I are keeping more from getting in on the outside, along with...um, information says the Nadesico."
EVA-00 is peppered with Zentraedi weapons fire as it finishes clambering out of the hole; the cable trails behind it as it turns its head to regard the smaller things. It squats slightly - it may not have to, but it is safer to do this.
It feels claustrophobic to Rei. She is glad she did not bring guns; they would be dangerous here.
Instead, she steers the Evangelion around; it crouches, and reaches out with sudden speed towards one of the Zentraedi unit's arms.
"To think that such crass aliens as you would dare to try and hit my Trombe," Elzam declares, smirking as the battlepods come in at him. The rifle is stowed, and he reaches back to grab the beam saber mounted at the Huckebein's hip, pulling it free and firing up the rear boosters. If the Zentradi were used to fighting the SDF-1's main troop contingent, they were probably not used to have to engage enemies in close combat - and he would take advantage of that fact!
The Zentradi's first point of notice will be that this strange new unit is blindingly fast - it moves like black lightning as it weaves around their shots, avoiding them effortlessly before sweeping in and attacking two of the pods with a pair of lightning fast slashes, before rocketing upwards and turning about in midair. The rifle comes out again in an instant in the Hucky's opposite hand, and before the battlepods even have a chance to react to the first attack, Elzam fires off a single shot from his Photon Rifle for each, aiming right into the back of the pods.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Vanilla H says, "I am also active in attempting to stem the flow."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "Keep at it. There's enough of them in here as-is."
The attack from the Harvester is unexpected. Several Battlepods explode in small sunbursts as they are hit, the rest of the missiles finding a cruiser and slamming into the side of it. The ship shudders, firing its own cannons towards the Galaxy Angel's frame before it splits in half, collapsing and exploding.
Roy, taking a moment to notice that the Daedalus is completely dark and hanging listlessly from the side of the Macross, small fires still visible through its elevators and ports. So many men already lost. Hopefully Vanilla can tend to it later.
The Nadesico's call goes out. Claudia takes it, translating it into the latest call signs and areas for the RDF fighters and sends it back out. Veritechs start to streak away from the line of fire, converting to Battloid or Gaurdian mode as they move to protect the allied ship and get out of the line of fire.
The Hiver's blast slams into the side of the flagship, antimatter implosion causing it to split in half like an overripe melon. That is when the observant eye will realize that other than the few Battlepods that did not make it out of the Flagship and into the Daedalus are now trying to get out and attack the Hiver in ernest, however, the ship is otherwise abandoned. The SDF-1 punched a giant pinata, and it was full of bees, it seems.
As Bernie and Christina get their Destroids on line, they will learn that they are not a moment too soon, as the street explodes violently, as a squad of Battlepods open fire on the sitting ducks. Behind them, a pair of Battlepods race into the sky, ripping through EVE's facade and revealing the ugly beams and decks that exist behind the pretty city lights.
Thraskar's weapons fire is concentrated onto one of the two main elevators that enter into the amphibious supercarrier Daedalus. One of the Battlepods trying to get through it is holed through and explodes, just as several other find their entry way cut off. That's going to be a mess and a half to try to get through when the time comes for the RDF to run cleaup on the heavily damaged carrier.
Christina's first shot is true, slamming through the leg of a battlepod. It trips over itself, sliding along the ground, and hits a building, collapsing the outside of it. The Battlepod creaks open and splits along a seem, a giant of a man climbing out of it. At least forty feet tall, he rips a street light out of the street and charges at Christina, looking to use the street light to smash it's head in.
Elzam's blast strikes home. The Battlepods never know it's coming as the two Battlepods are startled by Trombe's speed. As they twist around to engage the strange mecha, they never get the chance, exploding into pieces as they fall to the ground, crashing in heaps in Macross park. However, this battle is just beginning. From the ground, a missiles Battlepod moves into position, and from its racks, a dozen missiles leap into the sky of Macross City, streaking and climbing as they corkscrew towards the Trombe on several different vectors.
Rei will find herself with an armful of Battlepod, in paticular, one of the laser protusions. The pod flails around, trying to get into a position to open fire on the massive creature, the Zentraedi inside getting wide eyes as he realizes that this is indeed the monster of legend. It's not purple, though. It's worse. Death wear white.
Outside, the Backstabber hits the same hatch that Elzam had used to get inside the SDF-1, and starts to make his own descent into the bowels of the ship. His mission isn't to capture, though. He is going to try to get past the Macross City battle and destroy the SDF-1's reactors and bring her to a dead in space stop.
Amuro's shot streaks by a battlepod, which in turn fires lances of laser fire at the newtype. The Battlepod pilot may be good, however, he is no match for the Gundam ace, who finally manages to get the edge over him. Streaking in, then flipping into his Battloid mode, Roy sides up with Amuro. "What do you think, Amuro?" the pilot asks as he fires a controlled burst from the GU-11 at an enemy battlepod. "Ready to try to make a run on one of those cruisers? We got enough anti-ship missiles to handle a couple of them, but the SDF-1 is gonna need all the help she can get!"
Back inside, six Battlepods wander and fall into a pile away from the battle. They don't look like they were hit at anytime during the fight itself, having stayed low and slow. As they split open.. human sized figures wear roughly hewned sackcloths climb out. "To death.. and now to our rebirth!" Kron exclaims as he heads off towards the shelters.. that are on the otherside of the pitched battle that Bernie and Christina are carrying out. They will be the first to notice over a dozen and a half men in sacks heading for the shelters.. and more importantly, Minmay.
Other Battlepods are not interested in fighting, either. Instead, they are ripping into ships and taking out as many souveniers as they can find. Dolls, toys, ovens, refrigerators.. one of them is even trying to steal a car.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois says, "Well, I didn't mean to hit it quite that hard. But I guess staving it open works as well as incinerting it."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois's voice takes on a sing song quality, "It's not on myyy bill."
Hiver considers the flagship's flaming annihilation for about a third of a second, having not actually intended to punch quite THAT big a hole though it. But then again, she's done this sort of thing to countless aliens that are brain-eating parasites. Giant mauve people from a distant star doesn't really rack up to that big a difference in the grand scheme of things.
'This is what Tekkamen do.'
They kill things very, very dead.
With a gesture she shapes her Tekklancer, a Chinese Lion sword with a V-shaped hilt, crystalizing it from the same processes that create her armor, and parrys the first shot that comes at her. A moment later she's off at a high rate of speed, applying the velocity part of the mass times velocity equals momentum equation with great prejudice.
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois's voice echos on the channel, "I guess that solves the mystery of where all the battlepods came from. Was that thing COMPLETELY hollow?"
[Fac-IPA] Captain Gloval laughs. It sounds slightly manical. "...A Trojan Horse! Of course!"
"C'mon, you things!" Bernie shouts, turning the Tomahawk around at the waist; that little feature is a nice one, given the way Destroids owe more to tanks than infantry, vis a vis Mobile Suits. The shoulder missile launcher opens up, panels flipping open one-by-one. He gets a lock on the pair of Battlepods in the air.
He looses the missiles. Six of them shoot out and split into two groups of three; they leave behind vapor trails as they arch upward suddenly and head towards the two battlepods that rip through EVE. Bernie, however, doesn't wait for visual confirmation.
He turns and faces the squad opening fire, as a few blasts leave burn marks from near misses on his Destroid. The right gun arm aims at the "eye" of the Regult pod and fires - shooting out a single, heavy shell at it.
"Our lines of fire are clear." Ruri drolls as her hands tighten over the controls. It always feels 'tingly' when she fires the cannon.
"Right. We're going to have to take a lot of the heat of off the SDF-1." Jun announces. "After we fire, take us into the middle of whatever's left. I've got a feeling that we're a lot more maneuverable then they are. Okay." Jun, standing ramrod straight, gestures with his right arm, causing his little cape-thing to flutter. "Fire the Heavy Gravity Cannon!" Despite the fact that he stumbles and near falls over from hostile impacts rocking the ship, he smiles. He's been wanting to say that for a long, long time.
Ruri eyes gloss over as she connects with the firing sub-routines, rechecks to make sure that there aren't any friendlies in their firing lines... good. The heavy gravity cannon discharges in a powerful burst; Ruri rakes the weapon across several enemy cruisers.
The Nadesico, it's main cannon discharged, lances forwards as the twin engines flare to life. The High Mobile Battleship is on a daring (or foolish, depentant) course into the middle of the surviving enemy ships. Let's see if the Zentradi keep thier nerve.
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino says, "Firing Heavy Gravity Cannon, keep clear."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Uh..."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Chris, I just conferred with that black Gundam. Those battlepods /did/ just let out a bunch of human-sized Zentraedi."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "...Human-sized Zentraedi?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Roy Fokker says, "What?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Christina MacKenzie says, "...human sized?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "They make those?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Rei Ayanami says cryptically, "Hoist..."
Amuro's Battlepod stands back-to-back with Roy's Skull One, sending a spray of shell fire outward in a half circle around him to clear a small "path." "I'm ready, Commander. You lead the formation, since you're more familiar with fighting the Zentraedi. Maybe we can start to stem them off, that way..." Narrowing his eyes, he converts back into jetfighter mode in preparation. He may not know this vehicle very well, but he knows that they're going to need a lot of speed to reach those ships and take them down.
"Sir," he asks over the radio, "why would they be releasing human-sized Zentraedi...?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Either that or some RDF soldiers with some /really/ nasty skin diseases--oh! The Black Gundam's pilot just said his communications system is damaged..."
Of course it's going to be a mess to clean up, Roy. Why else do you think they keep people like Vanilla H on the payroll?
The Lieutenant grins like a shark as the elevator goes dark and dead. Some sort of overheat alert starts wailing. Thraskar sets both particle guns to cooldown mode just as the remaining Battlepods decide to remind him that yes, they saw what he did there. Laser fire streaks towards the Excalibur, which can't really do much to get out of the way--such is the price of being a rookie Destroid pilot in a large machine. The mech is still standing at the end of it, though its armor is covered in pits, and one of the machine-guns has been blown off.
Thraskar sucks in a breath, and lets out a hiss that sounds slightly less maniacal than the Captain's. The Lieutenant flips several switches, and then follows Bernie's lead--or, perhaps, the lead of one Coop Kaplowski. The Excalibur's missile pods snap open, and a swarm of anti-aircraft missiles seek out the Battlepods emerging from the ruins of the street.
Oh shit, bees.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson hisses, triumphantly. "One elevator, out of action."
As her attack strikes home, the expression on Vanilla's face does not change in the slightest. They surely knew the risk when they chose to engaged in battle. "Rest, sinful creatures." She takes a moment to be dramatic before turning her attention back to the battle. And in that moment she recieves the coordinates from the SDF-1. She doesn't intend to be in the way when the Nadesico decides to unleash it's own particular brand of chaos.
She adjusts her flight path to carry her out of the danger zone and is quick to fly in to follow-up on the attack. She may not have Forte's firepower, but she has mobility and defensive abilities the Happy Trigger lacks. If there are any Zentradi foolish enough to of not been blown up by that heavy gravity blast, they now have Vanilla to worry about as well. Sorry Roy, she'll have to get to the Daedelus later!
Meanwhile, onboard the SDF-1, a slender blue-haired girl is curled up in the middle of a hallway, eyes closed and tail twitching happily. Nano-Nano, despite the explosions and horrors going on around her, is taking a nap. Normad has been relegated to the role of her pillow. "Nyaaaa...Nano-Nano....ice cream....z.zzzzz...."
Rei's lips twitch as she feels EVA-00 gain its firm grasp on the Zentraedi battlepod. She cannot see the pilot's face, or doesn't care to; she does not know how they feel. Even so, somewhere, she feels a curling shiver of satisfaction.
EVA-00 stands up, another hand coming to cup beneath the captured battlepod and hoist it along with it. The Evangelion's grasp is gentle, almost; it does not seek to harm its little charge. Oh no.
Rei turns her head; EVA-00 mirrors this motion as the entry plug's panoramic display flickers and flutters from the complex HUD data set being sent in by the local tactical networks. (Fortunately. Dr. Akagi built all this software robustly, despite expecting maybe six targets on the map - maximum - in its real mission.)
EVA-00 twists the battlepod around in its hands, letting the head point more or less towards the ground, and then - seeing what looks like another batteloid in some isolation, even if Rei cannot make out the fine details - it hurls the Zentraedi towards its comrade, both arms creaking in the maneuver.
'Missiles' don't always have warheads.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Christina MacKenzie says, "I see. (So it /is/ a Gundam.)"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois says, "Just making sure, that black Gundam doesn't have a scythe, does it?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Christina MacKenzie says, "No."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois says, "Okay, that's good."
Missiles? Tch - not very good. Elzam raises his photon rifle and takes several shots, shooting two of the missles out of the sky, but one corkscrews in... and explodes against the Hucky's side. It was a good excuse if anyone got a good visual on his unit - and it would cover for the 'damaged radio' story he had just given to Bernie a few moments ago. However... the missile pod that he had just been shot at by was of secondary concern, as Elzam spots a Command battlepod streaking through the holes he had just made in the ship. He scoffs for a moment - that was unanticipated, and in a way it was his mess.
"Let me have a word with you, my clever enemy," Elzam says, firing up the boosters on the Huckebein. "Let us gallop, old friend." And the black and red mech launches itself across the city, its boosters flaring as Elzam settles in to pursue Khyron. He doesn't fire just yet - lets see where this one is going, before he gives away the fact that he is here.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "I can't get his identity. The communicator may be damaged..."
Destroids, Christina notes, are certainly more difficult to control than a Gundam. She's far more used to the speed of the mobile suit.
That being said, as she finds herself facing the charge of a fourty-foot tall Zentraedi, she finds the tiny worry that the machine might not be fast enough. This is quickly shoved aside as she was trained to /act/ and not worry about performance in the middle of a fight. The Excalibur stumbles backwards a step.
Suddenly, the missile pod on the right shoulder opens, unleashing several missiles at the charging invader, hopefully felling him before the Excalibur's head can be smashed by that streetlight.
The odd occurance of the human-sized Zentraedi emerging from some of the Battlepods is noted, but as it stood, there were still too many hostiles in her area to do anything about that.
Bent on nothing less than complete destruction, the pods continue their advance, now cut off from their path of retreat, thanks to Thraskar. All that is left now is to fight and to die for the cause, and bring about as much destruction as they can in the process. Blue fire spews from their upper and lower cannons. Explosions launch fragments of glass and steel into the artificial air and tear gaping holes in the streets, exposing raw power lines and rupturing water conduits. Raining showers of electrical sparks, store signs dangled dangerously from fractured rooftops. The facades of buildings collapsed, sending up clouds of dust and thick smoke.
A pod, its twin cannons blazing, steps out from behind the remains of a clothing store, just as Rei makes her pitch. She should have really pitched at the Black Sheep Baseball Game, as the flung pod crushes into its comrade, sending them both down the street to explode violently. There will be no giants climbing from these pods.
One Battlepod takes up a position in the middle of the park, and starts firing down Macross Boulevard, sending ground-to-air heat-seekers airborne against mecha, further stripping EVE's star-studded sky veneer, revealing in stark detail the naked terrors of war. This battlepod is engaged by Thraskar, causing it to leap into the sky and send another swarm of missiles flying towards the Destroid, the missiles sizzling past each other, several of them slamming into the Battlepod, taking it and the Zentraedi out of the battle for good.
Outside the fortress, things are bad, but they are starting to turn in the favor of the Robotech defenders. The SDF -1 is starting to put some distance between herself and the Zentraedi warships, but the furious dogfights were continuing.
The Nadesico drifts into position between the Zentraedi warwagons and the human fortress, it's cannon ripping through space, and slamming into left flank of the Zentraedi battlers. Nearly ten ships are struck by the cannon, collapsing in on themselves, and exploding violently outwards. This means that nearly a half of the attackers are gone now, but this battle is still every bit as violent.
A light cruiser breaks away from the force to start it's own attack run on the SDF-1. This is the one that gets Roy's attention. "Let's move it, Amuro!" Flipping his own Veritech into it's Fighter mode, he hits the engines and starts to dive in and out of the cruiser fire and stray Battlepod fire as the two Veritechs charge to meet the Light Cruiser head on. Roy releases his missiles first, streaking right over the cruiser to try to keep the cannons from getting a good lock. "Follow my lead, Amuro!" he calls out to the other pilot.
The Tekkaman is very very good at her trade, and looking cute while doing it. The smaller sword cleaves through the charging Battlepod, splitting in half and sending it spinning around wildly before exploding. One of the Battlewagons, noting the strange mecha, turns it's fire on it, even as the Battlewagon is shielded by the missiles from the Harvester slamming into it, causing it to fall listless and silent.
Back inside, as the Zentraedi takes a swing, the missiles from Christina's mecha penentrate his body, sending him falling backwards. He was too close for the missiles to arm to detonate, however, he was close enough for it to be really effective.
Meanwhile, Bernie's pivot is effective as the missiles streak upwards, catching the two Battlepods, and blowing them out of the sky, raining debris onto the street below. The Battlepod that was to be cannoned dives out of the way, and actually leaps into the Star Bowl. There's a scream of horror as Minmay suddenly finds herself face to knee actuator with a Battlepod. "...back off!" the Zentraedi screams over his radio as an actuator whirls out to try to grab the pop starlet and take her prisoner.
Elzam's chase begins fast. Apparently this officer's pod knows some schematic of the fortress, as it dives past and through bulkheads, before entering an exhaust/maintenance shaft once used by the Zentraedi and heads down deeper into the ship, with several Battlepods giving chase, trying to buy Khyron time as they fire their lasers towards the fleeing 'Gundam'.
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois says, "Nadescio, I'm going to give you a little extra breathing room!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "They're going after Minmei!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "-Crap!"
[Fac-IPA] Captain Gloval calls out, "We're unable to get the main cannon on line, we have units in the firing shaft!"
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois says, "I'm going to use the Reactor Voltekka."
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois says this like she's said she's going to go buy groceries.
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino says, "Confirmed. We'll attempt to isolate enemy ships and destroy them."
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "We're starting to turn the tide! How's Macross City holding up?"
[Fac-IPA] Vanilla H says, "When more of the enemy has been destroyed, I shall begin repairs. At this time, there is too large of a chance for my efforts to simply go to waste."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Rei Ayanami says, "What sector?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "--Minmei?"
The SDF-1 is cleared a bit?
AWESOME!
As the second smallest Super Robot on the Black Sheep payrole continues to turn the very same sort of thrust vectored manuvering that makes female Zendraedi so dangerous against the male version of the species, her armor begins to crackle with a distinctive, green energy.
No, not another Crush Intrude... this is too diffuse.
She alights on the hulk of the battleship she staved in earlier and concentrates.
The Hiverblade vanishes back to whatever storage it normally lives in as Hiver reaches out both of her hands. From the solar wind she collects a handfull of starstuff. From her internal systems she collects a handful of Something Special.
"REACTOR!" she commands, both handfulls igniting into magnetically bottled plasma.
"VOOOOLTEKKA!"
She then brings both of her hands together.
Streamers of Voltekka energy go screaming out of her hands coiling through space like a dozen dragons that are neither little nor white. She's not using full power, though, the space around here is way, way too crowded with friendlies right now for that.
[Fac-IPA] Thraskar Davidson says, "City's taking a beating. Someone's got Minmei."
[Fac-IPA] Thraskar Davidson says this matter-of-factly, despite everything.
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "Son of a bitch,."
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "(more for the city than Minmay.)"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "--other problems, I got the pop star! An officer's pod's headed to engineering!"
"Roger!" Keeping a level head despite the chaos around him, Amuro's VT Fighter flies after Roy in formation, swerving around fire with a combination of skills and Newtype reflexes. He follows Roy's lead almost to the letter, not in his exact patterns, but in his orders. He's no hotshot, and has no desire to pull any sort of stunts in the middle of battle while piloting an unfamiliar MS.
His own splay of missiles hit the cruiser as he veers in as close as he safely can, in order to get an accurate hit on the ship. A flash before his mind briefly displays a cannon lock-on display, and he turns sharply to avoid cannon fire that comes close to clipping his wing. He can do this. He's taken down ships before, in the Gundam. This is just like a Gundam, in some ways.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "Who's on it?"
[Fac-IPA] Li Syaoran says, "Who is Minmay?"
Something in Rei is pleased at the explosion. She can't take the credit for the pitch: it was just the long hard work of Project E, to make a better tomorrow!
EVA-00 levers itself back upwards, towering against Macross City as Rei turns her head to scan the area again. Her lips purse as the strange outlines of this cramped pocket city look far different from this distance. Especially since people are flying around and shooting missiles.
She hears 'an officer's pod' and tries to look for it; EVA-00 also, finally, starts to walk, gingerly picking its way along the roadway towards the stadium (which is, at least, visible).
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "A famous idol singer aboard the Macross."
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "I'm not sure why they'd seek her out specifically..."
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "She was performing a concert when the attack begain."
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino, boredly. "Demoralization effort."
"Oh, no you don't!" Bernie shouts. The Tomahawk turns around at the waist and aims both of its mounted arm cannons at the Regult pod near Minmay. The former Zeon soldier takes aim; the first shot is lined up for one of the knee joints. He fires it first - trying to shoot through it. Then, the second shot comes.
He fires it towards the main body, ideally to knock it away from the pop star. "Get back! Get off the stage!" the pilot shouts into the loudspeaker. "You don't want to be out here!"
He turns, looking back at Chris. "We gotta get Minmay outta here. It looks like these aliens are after her."
The Nadesico's maneuver proves to be both brave and foolish. Hits rock against the distortion fields from all sides, rattling the ship and those in it. The three Aestivalis units in the air aren't enough to hold back all the Zentradi pods. And missiles are far more effective against the Nadesico's shields then lasers are. A Missile Pod streaks past the fighter escort and several missiles penetrait the barrier, explosions connecting with the hull of the craft.
Ruri tenses at her console, trying to balance not only her job but Megumi's as well. Regulate the engine output. Keep the distortion fields monitors. Keep comm-lines open, monitored, and use them. Keep the gravity cannon monitored, calculate vectors for it, fire it. Keep intercomm-lines open, monitored, reply to them. Fires reported. "Fires reported on decks 2, 7, and 8. Routing fire control teams." Get more point defence missiles in the air. Don't lose track of the gravity cannon. Ruri lurches forwards a little bit and coughs wetly into the back of her hand several times.
Ruri waves her other hand in Minato's direction, forstalling comment. "I'm okay." She mutters, ignoring the sanguin taste in the back of her throat. "We've got a new firing solution for the gravity cannon. Opening fire."
The Nadesico's main cannon opens fire once more, but for all it's computer's processing power, can only find clear lines to two of the enemy battleships.
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino says, "This is Nadesico, requesting more fighter support."
[Fac-IPA] Tekkaman Zommer, back on Yumi's version of Earth, suggests helpfully, "Well, they ARE all guys. Maybe they're just lonely."
"Ah, ah breakthrough operation. Very clever," Elzam says, weaving the Huckebein around to avoid the energy blasts from behind. He'll have to focus and keep dodging as best he can for the time being - he wants to buy some time to actually follow that officer's pod into the shaft up ahead before he turns to deal with his pursuers. And he would not have named his unit after his old horse if he was not certain of its speed - that, and Elzam's ability to coax every last bit of motion out of his highly modified, jumped up units, as well as his incredible dodging abilities and accuracy, had earned him the name 'Black Tornado' in the UCF.
But he won't be able to keep up the pursuit as long as these battlepod are chasing him, and so he lands, allowing Khyron to gain a bit of distance as Trombe slides to a stop on the bottom of the maintenance shaft, a large metal weapon attachment ejecting itself free from the Hucky's back. Flying around, Elzam grabs it out of the air, attaching the power leads to the front of his unit, and turns to aim it at the pursuing battlepods. "Hmph. Let us wipe this battlefield clean, old friend!" he shouts, pulling the trigger. A massive wave of black energy gathers in front of the barrel, and Elzam shouts, "G Impact cannon! FIRE!"
The maintenance passage goes dark as a a wave of gravity sweeps down it, sized so as not to hit the walls of the passage itself, but the disruption should be enough to crush or mangle beyond hope of operation the pursuing battlepods.
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois exclaims, "DAVID!" She then pauses, "I'll route a couple of beams to help you out, Nadesico..." sounding slightly miffed at Zommer.
[Fac-IPA] Vanilla H says, "Keep yourselves safe for a moment, Nadesico. I am moving to reinforce your defense."
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "Amuro, sounds like we have our next objective!"
Chris lifts the particle beam cannon again and aims it at another Battlepod, firing before the scream, and Bernie's words, are brought to her attention. "After /Minmay/? She's just a civilian!" Christina sounds exaspirated.
Despite this, she commands the Destroid forwards, turning the torso to fire the 32mm autocannons as she moves, "You escort her, I'll provide the cover fire."
Because Excaliburs can provide a /lot/ of cover fire.
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "Roger!"
After unleashing a few more volleys of missle fire into the enemy fleet, Vanilla's craft comes to a halt. The combination of Roy's Skulls, Amuro and his amazing Gundam, and the Nadesico and it's ability to use gravity as weapon, they are all destroying the enemy in a much more effective manner then she could. It isn't like her to rush off into battle like this. Normally, she knows her place. She's supposed to be supporting the stronger fighters, not trying to butt head with the enemy firsthand. It doesn't take her long to figure out the reason for her unusual behavior, however. It's curled up asleep while battle rages around it. While she's used to having her allies depend on her, knowing that the girl that, for whatever reason, considers herself her daughter is in danger changes everything! The fact that so many other people need her help hardly makes it easier for her to stay out of the fight. She remains floating still for several moments before the Nadesico requests assitence. It's enough to remind her just what she's out here for! The Harvester fires it's boosters to launch itself for a direct interecept course for the larger ship. The pods assaulting it will suddenly find themselves under assault, from both beam and missle. Vanilla's aim is sure, her hands steady. Barring interference, there's no chance of her accidently striking the ship she's trying to protect.
Thraskar is not very concerned about Minmay specifically--he is, however, concerned about the Zentraedi suddenly deciding to blow up the city once they've got their prize.
Why the hell are giant alien space vikings trying to kidnap a pop singer, anyway?
Because they have no taste, says the sarcastic little voice.
The Excalibur is already lumbering towards the Star Dome, firing its auxiliary armaments at any Battlepod unfortunate enough to get within range. As Christina and Bernie intervene on the pop star's behalf, Thraskar does something a little different. This time, it is entirely unintentional, and perhaps a consequence of setting the Tunefriend to 'idle' rather than 'off'.
There is a cheery little 'beep-beep-beeeep!', and suddenly yet another ominous Latin hymn blares from the Excalibur's cockpit speakers. "Dies Irae", "Day of Wrath", one of the less cheerful songs in the Church's hymnal--as interpreted by Verdi.
"Oh, /#$*&ing hell/," Thraskar swears. He could've /sworn/ he switched it off 'smart speaker-find' /before/ he got on the SDF-1! The Lieutenant is, for a moment, tempted to find the thing and turn it off, but it /does/ have a remarkable sense of timing, and it may well confuse the hell out of the Zentraedi. It certainly goes with the fire pouring forth from the Excalibur's remaining weapons.
Outside the SDF-1, the battle wages on. The Hiver starts to summon up her attack, energy forming around her while the two Veritechs dive like angry eagles onto the light cruiser. Both Roy and Amuro's missiles strike true on the ship, causing it to tumble over end over end before exploding into a violent blast of light, disappearing in the chaos of the battle. That's another one down. Roy pulls back on the stick. "Come on Amuro, let's go support the Nadesico!" the Veritech pilot calls out as he guns the throttle forward, racing towards the allied ship. As he gets close he transforms into his Gaurdian mode and alights upon the ship, rifle held at the ready just in case anything gets too close as he skeet shoots at a passing battlepod, rifling it through.
That's when the Hiver's blast goes off. Streamers of energy streak out towards the enemy ships. She's able to catch several of them in the wave of energy as it streaks out, surrounding the ship and the plasma eats through the hull of the ships causing them to flare up and catch afire.
There are a few Battlewagons that are still sending blasts of fire towards the Hiver, however, they are starting to run out of ships to continue the battle with. Oddly enough, the Zentraedi are not sending more ships into the fray, even though from where they stand, they could easily finish overrunning the damaged fortress and her supercarriers. Another Zentraedi heavy cruiser catches a full broadside from the Nadesico. It's sliced into, ripping through the armor and causing heavy damage to it, however the large ship turns it's own plasma cannon on the Martian ship, opening fire with several plasma and conventional missile batteries, attempting to inflict just as much damage to it as its taken on in the firefight with the SDF-1 and its allied craft. The ruins of Battlepods, Cruisers, and Battlewagons mingle with destroyed and mortally wounded Veritechs, so much more space junk now, or small grave markers for the poor soul that was at the controls.
Vanilla is a very good mother when it comes to protecting her daughter. Her direct fire on the cruisers and the battlepods is very accurate and is ripping apart the spacefaring ships and the giants at the controls.
OOC Note: One Touch of Venus is a movie from 1948 starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner. Art expert Whitelaw Savory at last finds the statue of Venus which he has been seeking for years. His barber, Rodney, comes over to shave him and idly places his fiancée's ring on the statue's finger. Venus comes to life and falls in love with the man who resurrected her. At first, the terrified Rodney is unwilling. Undaunted, Venus pursues him, temporarily immobilizing his fiancée, and finally convinces him to be her lover. Then she realizes that she will have to live a suburban existence in Ozone Heights, and reconsiders. She is taken back to Olympus, but leaves behind a facsimile of herself so Rodney will never be alone again, as she had promised.
WHERE: Super Dimensional Fortress One
WHEN: 25 March 2011
WHAT: The Zentraedi prepare a trap for the Macross and her Micronian Crew. All is going well, until outside help arrives...
Outside of the SDF-1, The Nadesico is not alone in battle. Vanilla and her Harvester are also on the outside. Even though the machine is primarily a mobile repair bay, it also has an arsenal that is not to be ignored, as it proves by unleashing upon the Battle Pods which are assaulting the larger ships. Missle bays open along the ship's body, firing explosion death, a danger that is made only worse by the large energy cannon mounted on the bottom unleashing a similar amount of death. She may be team healer, but this healer is also her own tank.
With a quick flip of a switch, the young pilot announces herself to the crew of the Nadesico. She doesn't waste any time with introductions, and gets right down to business. "I will be assisting you. If you find yourselves heavily damaged, I shall do what I can to fix that." And then, she cuts off. No need for conversation when there's aliens in need of detonation.
Hiver skims across the Deadalus' top side at a good rate of speed, not having to worry about such touchy things as atmosphere and gravity to slow her down. She can't move this well on Earth quite yet, but maybe in a year or two unless they're absolutely forced to put her back under again for another trip through the tank.
She really hopes it never comes to that.
Bright, green optics regard the ship that started this whole thing. The one that swarmed men into the Deadalus during the attack.
She holds out her right hand and quietly guns the supercollider that is part and parcel of her power systems. After a few moments running she's collected several nanograms of antimatter plasma in her hand. Reaching out into the interstellar medium she collects a like amount of stray plasma from the solar wind.
Two spheres form on opposing sides of her hand as she closes them into a fist, allowing the plasmas to mix and mutually annihilate.
The three gems on the back of that gauntlet spark in sequence and a single, pencil-thin beam of pure annihilation rockets out to encourage the ship. Perhaps she intends to DISTRACT its crew from trying to launch more pods?
"The B-switch. Right." While keeping aware of the movement of the battlepods around him, Amuro's hand moves seamlessly to hit the B-Switch. There's an abrupt, jarring feeling as the VT transforms seamlessly from a space-ready fighter jet to a humanoid robot mode, something like a thinner, faster Mobile Suit. The feeling of lightness and more delicate controls still apply to a VT in Battloid mode, but this is still far more familiar to the young Gundam pilot. Makes it a lot easier to aim, too.
A spark in his mind triggers his Newtype instincts, and he turns sharply to fire off the pulse rifle-like laser guns at an approaching battlepod. "This is a bit better," he admits to Roy over the radio. "Still not exactly the same, but it'll do for now...!"
"Mrs. Subaru and her wingmates have all launched." Ruri announces. "I'm vectoring them to cover out port flank from enemy Pods."
"We're coming under fire from enemy cruisers." Minato says. "Going evasive... it'll be tricky, though." Nadesico's distortion fields flare as several blasts impact upon them. They don't fall, though.
"Distortion fields are holding steady. Engines are at maximum output." Ruri announces. "Heavy Gravity Cannon is ready to fire."
Minato grins. "Isn't it nice of them to use energy based weapons, Ruriruri."
"...I suppose." Ruri concedes. She reaches forwards and adjusts the comms, sending a message out to the combined fleet and fighter defenses.
[["This is ND-001 Nadesico. We are preparing to fire out Heavy Gravity Cannon but several friendly fighters are in our desired vector. Transmitting co-ordinants to evac now."]] Ruri transmits a string of numbers that pilots will understand.
Bernie's head turns, glancing towards the unmanned Destroids. Things begin clicking into place in his head: the fact those things aren't moving means they're unmanned or the crew inside is dead. The lack of damage makes the second option unlikely. His teeth grind together, as he turns his green eyes over - and finally spies the blasted out jeep.
"Poor guys," he mutters. He turns and looks at the red-haired Gundam pilot. "They're not Mobile Suits, but they'll have to do. Hopefully these things won't be too hard to pilot."
He rushes ahead, towards one of them. The young man starts climbing up to the hatch and finds the release lever. He yanks it with a growl; it falls open, and he climbs in. He stares down at the console. "All right... at least it's all labeled!" He flips a few switches up with his fingers, and lights begin turning on.
Then, he hits a foot pedal - and it steps forward. He grins a lets out a whoop. He speaks into the radio a moment later. "Hey, Chris! How's yours coming?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "We're doing alright out here, but it's pretty chaotic. Status inside?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman clicks on. "This is Sergeant Bernie Wiseman, ex-ZAF, uh... retired. I'm in a..." He's pausing to read. "...Tomahawk!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "-...Bernie?"
If it were physically possible, Thraskar would make his machine blow smoke off the overheated barrel of the particle cannon. As-is, he's content to keep those bastards off Ayanami--Eva-00 is probably the biggest thing on the deck right now, and if nothing else, he owes Rei one for putting herself on the line to help his people.
The Excalibur's other gun-arm targets one of the closer Missile Pods, and fires again; as soon as the cooldown cycle for the first is complete, the Lieutenant targets another of those stupid, swarming alien craft. But there's far too many to deal with like this--they're outnumbered, they're defending at least fifteen thousand civilians, and a lot of innocent people are going to die if...
If the odds aren't turned in the defenders' favor.
Something goes 'click' inside Thraskar's head. Both of the Excalibur's arms turn towards one of the corridors leading to the Daedalus.
"Back to Hell with you," Thraskar says, over a public comm. It's a statement, not a threat. White-hot death pours from the Destroid's main guns, streaming down the corridor. It isn't actually /aimed/ at anything, but it may well turn the deck into a molten, bubbling, nightmarish mess.
Which is sort of the whole point.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Yeah. I can operate an MS and this civil defense team get wiped out..."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois's voice transmits a slightly mechanized chuckle, "Welcome to the party." She sounds so FRIENDLY when she's playing with antimatter. "Okay. I'm going to see if I can distract this big boy the Macross tried to punch earlier for a while. It's a little too close for me to go to full power, and I don't think I could Crush Intrude all the way through it."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson sounds creepily calm, with a side order of malice. "Wiseman. Thin their numbers; I'm blocking off their access points. Bastards have done enough damage."
"They /will/ have to do." Christina agrees, scanning the area briefly, pausing suddenly at the sight of the Huckenbein Trombe.
"It's...a...Gundam?" she speaks, sounding rather puzzled. It's certainly a design she hasn't seen before-not to mention a different paint job. Maybe a custom model.
Shaking her head and focusing back on the situation at hand, Christina is off and climbing into a different Battleoid-an Excalibur. No sooner than she is in does she hear Bernie over the radio, which brings a small smile to her face. "I'm in and getting adjusted." a pause, "...this one seems to have quite a lot of weapons systems." Sparing no further moment of wasted time, the Excalibur walks forwards haltingly, lifting one off the particle beam cannons and firing.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "On it!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "Commander Fokker and I are keeping more from getting in on the outside, along with...um, information says the Nadesico."
EVA-00 is peppered with Zentraedi weapons fire as it finishes clambering out of the hole; the cable trails behind it as it turns its head to regard the smaller things. It squats slightly - it may not have to, but it is safer to do this.
It feels claustrophobic to Rei. She is glad she did not bring guns; they would be dangerous here.
Instead, she steers the Evangelion around; it crouches, and reaches out with sudden speed towards one of the Zentraedi unit's arms.
"To think that such crass aliens as you would dare to try and hit my Trombe," Elzam declares, smirking as the battlepods come in at him. The rifle is stowed, and he reaches back to grab the beam saber mounted at the Huckebein's hip, pulling it free and firing up the rear boosters. If the Zentradi were used to fighting the SDF-1's main troop contingent, they were probably not used to have to engage enemies in close combat - and he would take advantage of that fact!
The Zentradi's first point of notice will be that this strange new unit is blindingly fast - it moves like black lightning as it weaves around their shots, avoiding them effortlessly before sweeping in and attacking two of the pods with a pair of lightning fast slashes, before rocketing upwards and turning about in midair. The rifle comes out again in an instant in the Hucky's opposite hand, and before the battlepods even have a chance to react to the first attack, Elzam fires off a single shot from his Photon Rifle for each, aiming right into the back of the pods.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Vanilla H says, "I am also active in attempting to stem the flow."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "Keep at it. There's enough of them in here as-is."
The attack from the Harvester is unexpected. Several Battlepods explode in small sunbursts as they are hit, the rest of the missiles finding a cruiser and slamming into the side of it. The ship shudders, firing its own cannons towards the Galaxy Angel's frame before it splits in half, collapsing and exploding.
Roy, taking a moment to notice that the Daedalus is completely dark and hanging listlessly from the side of the Macross, small fires still visible through its elevators and ports. So many men already lost. Hopefully Vanilla can tend to it later.
The Nadesico's call goes out. Claudia takes it, translating it into the latest call signs and areas for the RDF fighters and sends it back out. Veritechs start to streak away from the line of fire, converting to Battloid or Gaurdian mode as they move to protect the allied ship and get out of the line of fire.
The Hiver's blast slams into the side of the flagship, antimatter implosion causing it to split in half like an overripe melon. That is when the observant eye will realize that other than the few Battlepods that did not make it out of the Flagship and into the Daedalus are now trying to get out and attack the Hiver in ernest, however, the ship is otherwise abandoned. The SDF-1 punched a giant pinata, and it was full of bees, it seems.
As Bernie and Christina get their Destroids on line, they will learn that they are not a moment too soon, as the street explodes violently, as a squad of Battlepods open fire on the sitting ducks. Behind them, a pair of Battlepods race into the sky, ripping through EVE's facade and revealing the ugly beams and decks that exist behind the pretty city lights.
Thraskar's weapons fire is concentrated onto one of the two main elevators that enter into the amphibious supercarrier Daedalus. One of the Battlepods trying to get through it is holed through and explodes, just as several other find their entry way cut off. That's going to be a mess and a half to try to get through when the time comes for the RDF to run cleaup on the heavily damaged carrier.
Christina's first shot is true, slamming through the leg of a battlepod. It trips over itself, sliding along the ground, and hits a building, collapsing the outside of it. The Battlepod creaks open and splits along a seem, a giant of a man climbing out of it. At least forty feet tall, he rips a street light out of the street and charges at Christina, looking to use the street light to smash it's head in.
Elzam's blast strikes home. The Battlepods never know it's coming as the two Battlepods are startled by Trombe's speed. As they twist around to engage the strange mecha, they never get the chance, exploding into pieces as they fall to the ground, crashing in heaps in Macross park. However, this battle is just beginning. From the ground, a missiles Battlepod moves into position, and from its racks, a dozen missiles leap into the sky of Macross City, streaking and climbing as they corkscrew towards the Trombe on several different vectors.
Rei will find herself with an armful of Battlepod, in paticular, one of the laser protusions. The pod flails around, trying to get into a position to open fire on the massive creature, the Zentraedi inside getting wide eyes as he realizes that this is indeed the monster of legend. It's not purple, though. It's worse. Death wear white.
Outside, the Backstabber hits the same hatch that Elzam had used to get inside the SDF-1, and starts to make his own descent into the bowels of the ship. His mission isn't to capture, though. He is going to try to get past the Macross City battle and destroy the SDF-1's reactors and bring her to a dead in space stop.
Amuro's shot streaks by a battlepod, which in turn fires lances of laser fire at the newtype. The Battlepod pilot may be good, however, he is no match for the Gundam ace, who finally manages to get the edge over him. Streaking in, then flipping into his Battloid mode, Roy sides up with Amuro. "What do you think, Amuro?" the pilot asks as he fires a controlled burst from the GU-11 at an enemy battlepod. "Ready to try to make a run on one of those cruisers? We got enough anti-ship missiles to handle a couple of them, but the SDF-1 is gonna need all the help she can get!"
Back inside, six Battlepods wander and fall into a pile away from the battle. They don't look like they were hit at anytime during the fight itself, having stayed low and slow. As they split open.. human sized figures wear roughly hewned sackcloths climb out. "To death.. and now to our rebirth!" Kron exclaims as he heads off towards the shelters.. that are on the otherside of the pitched battle that Bernie and Christina are carrying out. They will be the first to notice over a dozen and a half men in sacks heading for the shelters.. and more importantly, Minmay.
Other Battlepods are not interested in fighting, either. Instead, they are ripping into ships and taking out as many souveniers as they can find. Dolls, toys, ovens, refrigerators.. one of them is even trying to steal a car.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois says, "Well, I didn't mean to hit it quite that hard. But I guess staving it open works as well as incinerting it."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois's voice takes on a sing song quality, "It's not on myyy bill."
Hiver considers the flagship's flaming annihilation for about a third of a second, having not actually intended to punch quite THAT big a hole though it. But then again, she's done this sort of thing to countless aliens that are brain-eating parasites. Giant mauve people from a distant star doesn't really rack up to that big a difference in the grand scheme of things.
'This is what Tekkamen do.'
They kill things very, very dead.
With a gesture she shapes her Tekklancer, a Chinese Lion sword with a V-shaped hilt, crystalizing it from the same processes that create her armor, and parrys the first shot that comes at her. A moment later she's off at a high rate of speed, applying the velocity part of the mass times velocity equals momentum equation with great prejudice.
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois's voice echos on the channel, "I guess that solves the mystery of where all the battlepods came from. Was that thing COMPLETELY hollow?"
[Fac-IPA] Captain Gloval laughs. It sounds slightly manical. "...A Trojan Horse! Of course!"
"C'mon, you things!" Bernie shouts, turning the Tomahawk around at the waist; that little feature is a nice one, given the way Destroids owe more to tanks than infantry, vis a vis Mobile Suits. The shoulder missile launcher opens up, panels flipping open one-by-one. He gets a lock on the pair of Battlepods in the air.
He looses the missiles. Six of them shoot out and split into two groups of three; they leave behind vapor trails as they arch upward suddenly and head towards the two battlepods that rip through EVE. Bernie, however, doesn't wait for visual confirmation.
He turns and faces the squad opening fire, as a few blasts leave burn marks from near misses on his Destroid. The right gun arm aims at the "eye" of the Regult pod and fires - shooting out a single, heavy shell at it.
"Our lines of fire are clear." Ruri drolls as her hands tighten over the controls. It always feels 'tingly' when she fires the cannon.
"Right. We're going to have to take a lot of the heat of off the SDF-1." Jun announces. "After we fire, take us into the middle of whatever's left. I've got a feeling that we're a lot more maneuverable then they are. Okay." Jun, standing ramrod straight, gestures with his right arm, causing his little cape-thing to flutter. "Fire the Heavy Gravity Cannon!" Despite the fact that he stumbles and near falls over from hostile impacts rocking the ship, he smiles. He's been wanting to say that for a long, long time.
Ruri eyes gloss over as she connects with the firing sub-routines, rechecks to make sure that there aren't any friendlies in their firing lines... good. The heavy gravity cannon discharges in a powerful burst; Ruri rakes the weapon across several enemy cruisers.
The Nadesico, it's main cannon discharged, lances forwards as the twin engines flare to life. The High Mobile Battleship is on a daring (or foolish, depentant) course into the middle of the surviving enemy ships. Let's see if the Zentradi keep thier nerve.
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino says, "Firing Heavy Gravity Cannon, keep clear."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Uh..."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Chris, I just conferred with that black Gundam. Those battlepods /did/ just let out a bunch of human-sized Zentraedi."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "...Human-sized Zentraedi?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Roy Fokker says, "What?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Christina MacKenzie says, "...human sized?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "They make those?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Rei Ayanami says cryptically, "Hoist..."
Amuro's Battlepod stands back-to-back with Roy's Skull One, sending a spray of shell fire outward in a half circle around him to clear a small "path." "I'm ready, Commander. You lead the formation, since you're more familiar with fighting the Zentraedi. Maybe we can start to stem them off, that way..." Narrowing his eyes, he converts back into jetfighter mode in preparation. He may not know this vehicle very well, but he knows that they're going to need a lot of speed to reach those ships and take them down.
"Sir," he asks over the radio, "why would they be releasing human-sized Zentraedi...?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "Either that or some RDF soldiers with some /really/ nasty skin diseases--oh! The Black Gundam's pilot just said his communications system is damaged..."
Of course it's going to be a mess to clean up, Roy. Why else do you think they keep people like Vanilla H on the payroll?
The Lieutenant grins like a shark as the elevator goes dark and dead. Some sort of overheat alert starts wailing. Thraskar sets both particle guns to cooldown mode just as the remaining Battlepods decide to remind him that yes, they saw what he did there. Laser fire streaks towards the Excalibur, which can't really do much to get out of the way--such is the price of being a rookie Destroid pilot in a large machine. The mech is still standing at the end of it, though its armor is covered in pits, and one of the machine-guns has been blown off.
Thraskar sucks in a breath, and lets out a hiss that sounds slightly less maniacal than the Captain's. The Lieutenant flips several switches, and then follows Bernie's lead--or, perhaps, the lead of one Coop Kaplowski. The Excalibur's missile pods snap open, and a swarm of anti-aircraft missiles seek out the Battlepods emerging from the ruins of the street.
Oh shit, bees.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson hisses, triumphantly. "One elevator, out of action."
As her attack strikes home, the expression on Vanilla's face does not change in the slightest. They surely knew the risk when they chose to engaged in battle. "Rest, sinful creatures." She takes a moment to be dramatic before turning her attention back to the battle. And in that moment she recieves the coordinates from the SDF-1. She doesn't intend to be in the way when the Nadesico decides to unleash it's own particular brand of chaos.
She adjusts her flight path to carry her out of the danger zone and is quick to fly in to follow-up on the attack. She may not have Forte's firepower, but she has mobility and defensive abilities the Happy Trigger lacks. If there are any Zentradi foolish enough to of not been blown up by that heavy gravity blast, they now have Vanilla to worry about as well. Sorry Roy, she'll have to get to the Daedelus later!
Meanwhile, onboard the SDF-1, a slender blue-haired girl is curled up in the middle of a hallway, eyes closed and tail twitching happily. Nano-Nano, despite the explosions and horrors going on around her, is taking a nap. Normad has been relegated to the role of her pillow. "Nyaaaa...Nano-Nano....ice cream....z.zzzzz...."
Rei's lips twitch as she feels EVA-00 gain its firm grasp on the Zentraedi battlepod. She cannot see the pilot's face, or doesn't care to; she does not know how they feel. Even so, somewhere, she feels a curling shiver of satisfaction.
EVA-00 stands up, another hand coming to cup beneath the captured battlepod and hoist it along with it. The Evangelion's grasp is gentle, almost; it does not seek to harm its little charge. Oh no.
Rei turns her head; EVA-00 mirrors this motion as the entry plug's panoramic display flickers and flutters from the complex HUD data set being sent in by the local tactical networks. (Fortunately. Dr. Akagi built all this software robustly, despite expecting maybe six targets on the map - maximum - in its real mission.)
EVA-00 twists the battlepod around in its hands, letting the head point more or less towards the ground, and then - seeing what looks like another batteloid in some isolation, even if Rei cannot make out the fine details - it hurls the Zentraedi towards its comrade, both arms creaking in the maneuver.
'Missiles' don't always have warheads.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Christina MacKenzie says, "I see. (So it /is/ a Gundam.)"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois says, "Just making sure, that black Gundam doesn't have a scythe, does it?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Christina MacKenzie says, "No."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Yumi Francois says, "Okay, that's good."
Missiles? Tch - not very good. Elzam raises his photon rifle and takes several shots, shooting two of the missles out of the sky, but one corkscrews in... and explodes against the Hucky's side. It was a good excuse if anyone got a good visual on his unit - and it would cover for the 'damaged radio' story he had just given to Bernie a few moments ago. However... the missile pod that he had just been shot at by was of secondary concern, as Elzam spots a Command battlepod streaking through the holes he had just made in the ship. He scoffs for a moment - that was unanticipated, and in a way it was his mess.
"Let me have a word with you, my clever enemy," Elzam says, firing up the boosters on the Huckebein. "Let us gallop, old friend." And the black and red mech launches itself across the city, its boosters flaring as Elzam settles in to pursue Khyron. He doesn't fire just yet - lets see where this one is going, before he gives away the fact that he is here.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "I can't get his identity. The communicator may be damaged..."
Destroids, Christina notes, are certainly more difficult to control than a Gundam. She's far more used to the speed of the mobile suit.
That being said, as she finds herself facing the charge of a fourty-foot tall Zentraedi, she finds the tiny worry that the machine might not be fast enough. This is quickly shoved aside as she was trained to /act/ and not worry about performance in the middle of a fight. The Excalibur stumbles backwards a step.
Suddenly, the missile pod on the right shoulder opens, unleashing several missiles at the charging invader, hopefully felling him before the Excalibur's head can be smashed by that streetlight.
The odd occurance of the human-sized Zentraedi emerging from some of the Battlepods is noted, but as it stood, there were still too many hostiles in her area to do anything about that.
Bent on nothing less than complete destruction, the pods continue their advance, now cut off from their path of retreat, thanks to Thraskar. All that is left now is to fight and to die for the cause, and bring about as much destruction as they can in the process. Blue fire spews from their upper and lower cannons. Explosions launch fragments of glass and steel into the artificial air and tear gaping holes in the streets, exposing raw power lines and rupturing water conduits. Raining showers of electrical sparks, store signs dangled dangerously from fractured rooftops. The facades of buildings collapsed, sending up clouds of dust and thick smoke.
A pod, its twin cannons blazing, steps out from behind the remains of a clothing store, just as Rei makes her pitch. She should have really pitched at the Black Sheep Baseball Game, as the flung pod crushes into its comrade, sending them both down the street to explode violently. There will be no giants climbing from these pods.
One Battlepod takes up a position in the middle of the park, and starts firing down Macross Boulevard, sending ground-to-air heat-seekers airborne against mecha, further stripping EVE's star-studded sky veneer, revealing in stark detail the naked terrors of war. This battlepod is engaged by Thraskar, causing it to leap into the sky and send another swarm of missiles flying towards the Destroid, the missiles sizzling past each other, several of them slamming into the Battlepod, taking it and the Zentraedi out of the battle for good.
Outside the fortress, things are bad, but they are starting to turn in the favor of the Robotech defenders. The SDF -1 is starting to put some distance between herself and the Zentraedi warships, but the furious dogfights were continuing.
The Nadesico drifts into position between the Zentraedi warwagons and the human fortress, it's cannon ripping through space, and slamming into left flank of the Zentraedi battlers. Nearly ten ships are struck by the cannon, collapsing in on themselves, and exploding violently outwards. This means that nearly a half of the attackers are gone now, but this battle is still every bit as violent.
A light cruiser breaks away from the force to start it's own attack run on the SDF-1. This is the one that gets Roy's attention. "Let's move it, Amuro!" Flipping his own Veritech into it's Fighter mode, he hits the engines and starts to dive in and out of the cruiser fire and stray Battlepod fire as the two Veritechs charge to meet the Light Cruiser head on. Roy releases his missiles first, streaking right over the cruiser to try to keep the cannons from getting a good lock. "Follow my lead, Amuro!" he calls out to the other pilot.
The Tekkaman is very very good at her trade, and looking cute while doing it. The smaller sword cleaves through the charging Battlepod, splitting in half and sending it spinning around wildly before exploding. One of the Battlewagons, noting the strange mecha, turns it's fire on it, even as the Battlewagon is shielded by the missiles from the Harvester slamming into it, causing it to fall listless and silent.
Back inside, as the Zentraedi takes a swing, the missiles from Christina's mecha penentrate his body, sending him falling backwards. He was too close for the missiles to arm to detonate, however, he was close enough for it to be really effective.
Meanwhile, Bernie's pivot is effective as the missiles streak upwards, catching the two Battlepods, and blowing them out of the sky, raining debris onto the street below. The Battlepod that was to be cannoned dives out of the way, and actually leaps into the Star Bowl. There's a scream of horror as Minmay suddenly finds herself face to knee actuator with a Battlepod. "...back off!" the Zentraedi screams over his radio as an actuator whirls out to try to grab the pop starlet and take her prisoner.
Elzam's chase begins fast. Apparently this officer's pod knows some schematic of the fortress, as it dives past and through bulkheads, before entering an exhaust/maintenance shaft once used by the Zentraedi and heads down deeper into the ship, with several Battlepods giving chase, trying to buy Khyron time as they fire their lasers towards the fleeing 'Gundam'.
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois says, "Nadescio, I'm going to give you a little extra breathing room!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "They're going after Minmei!"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Amuro Ray says, "-Crap!"
[Fac-IPA] Captain Gloval calls out, "We're unable to get the main cannon on line, we have units in the firing shaft!"
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois says, "I'm going to use the Reactor Voltekka."
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois says this like she's said she's going to go buy groceries.
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino says, "Confirmed. We'll attempt to isolate enemy ships and destroy them."
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "We're starting to turn the tide! How's Macross City holding up?"
[Fac-IPA] Vanilla H says, "When more of the enemy has been destroyed, I shall begin repairs. At this time, there is too large of a chance for my efforts to simply go to waste."
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Rei Ayanami says, "What sector?"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "--Minmei?"
The SDF-1 is cleared a bit?
AWESOME!
As the second smallest Super Robot on the Black Sheep payrole continues to turn the very same sort of thrust vectored manuvering that makes female Zendraedi so dangerous against the male version of the species, her armor begins to crackle with a distinctive, green energy.
No, not another Crush Intrude... this is too diffuse.
She alights on the hulk of the battleship she staved in earlier and concentrates.
The Hiverblade vanishes back to whatever storage it normally lives in as Hiver reaches out both of her hands. From the solar wind she collects a handfull of starstuff. From her internal systems she collects a handful of Something Special.
"REACTOR!" she commands, both handfulls igniting into magnetically bottled plasma.
"VOOOOLTEKKA!"
She then brings both of her hands together.
Streamers of Voltekka energy go screaming out of her hands coiling through space like a dozen dragons that are neither little nor white. She's not using full power, though, the space around here is way, way too crowded with friendlies right now for that.
[Fac-IPA] Thraskar Davidson says, "City's taking a beating. Someone's got Minmei."
[Fac-IPA] Thraskar Davidson says this matter-of-factly, despite everything.
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "Son of a bitch,."
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "(more for the city than Minmay.)"
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Bernard Wiseman says, "--other problems, I got the pop star! An officer's pod's headed to engineering!"
"Roger!" Keeping a level head despite the chaos around him, Amuro's VT Fighter flies after Roy in formation, swerving around fire with a combination of skills and Newtype reflexes. He follows Roy's lead almost to the letter, not in his exact patterns, but in his orders. He's no hotshot, and has no desire to pull any sort of stunts in the middle of battle while piloting an unfamiliar MS.
His own splay of missiles hit the cruiser as he veers in as close as he safely can, in order to get an accurate hit on the ship. A flash before his mind briefly displays a cannon lock-on display, and he turns sharply to avoid cannon fire that comes close to clipping his wing. He can do this. He's taken down ships before, in the Gundam. This is just like a Gundam, in some ways.
[Y-Black Sheep Squadron] Thraskar Davidson says, "Who's on it?"
[Fac-IPA] Li Syaoran says, "Who is Minmay?"
Something in Rei is pleased at the explosion. She can't take the credit for the pitch: it was just the long hard work of Project E, to make a better tomorrow!
EVA-00 levers itself back upwards, towering against Macross City as Rei turns her head to scan the area again. Her lips purse as the strange outlines of this cramped pocket city look far different from this distance. Especially since people are flying around and shooting missiles.
She hears 'an officer's pod' and tries to look for it; EVA-00 also, finally, starts to walk, gingerly picking its way along the roadway towards the stadium (which is, at least, visible).
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "A famous idol singer aboard the Macross."
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "I'm not sure why they'd seek her out specifically..."
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "She was performing a concert when the attack begain."
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino, boredly. "Demoralization effort."
"Oh, no you don't!" Bernie shouts. The Tomahawk turns around at the waist and aims both of its mounted arm cannons at the Regult pod near Minmay. The former Zeon soldier takes aim; the first shot is lined up for one of the knee joints. He fires it first - trying to shoot through it. Then, the second shot comes.
He fires it towards the main body, ideally to knock it away from the pop star. "Get back! Get off the stage!" the pilot shouts into the loudspeaker. "You don't want to be out here!"
He turns, looking back at Chris. "We gotta get Minmay outta here. It looks like these aliens are after her."
The Nadesico's maneuver proves to be both brave and foolish. Hits rock against the distortion fields from all sides, rattling the ship and those in it. The three Aestivalis units in the air aren't enough to hold back all the Zentradi pods. And missiles are far more effective against the Nadesico's shields then lasers are. A Missile Pod streaks past the fighter escort and several missiles penetrait the barrier, explosions connecting with the hull of the craft.
Ruri tenses at her console, trying to balance not only her job but Megumi's as well. Regulate the engine output. Keep the distortion fields monitors. Keep comm-lines open, monitored, and use them. Keep the gravity cannon monitored, calculate vectors for it, fire it. Keep intercomm-lines open, monitored, reply to them. Fires reported. "Fires reported on decks 2, 7, and 8. Routing fire control teams." Get more point defence missiles in the air. Don't lose track of the gravity cannon. Ruri lurches forwards a little bit and coughs wetly into the back of her hand several times.
Ruri waves her other hand in Minato's direction, forstalling comment. "I'm okay." She mutters, ignoring the sanguin taste in the back of her throat. "We've got a new firing solution for the gravity cannon. Opening fire."
The Nadesico's main cannon opens fire once more, but for all it's computer's processing power, can only find clear lines to two of the enemy battleships.
[Fac-IPA] Ruri Hoshino says, "This is Nadesico, requesting more fighter support."
[Fac-IPA] Tekkaman Zommer, back on Yumi's version of Earth, suggests helpfully, "Well, they ARE all guys. Maybe they're just lonely."
"Ah, ah breakthrough operation. Very clever," Elzam says, weaving the Huckebein around to avoid the energy blasts from behind. He'll have to focus and keep dodging as best he can for the time being - he wants to buy some time to actually follow that officer's pod into the shaft up ahead before he turns to deal with his pursuers. And he would not have named his unit after his old horse if he was not certain of its speed - that, and Elzam's ability to coax every last bit of motion out of his highly modified, jumped up units, as well as his incredible dodging abilities and accuracy, had earned him the name 'Black Tornado' in the UCF.
But he won't be able to keep up the pursuit as long as these battlepod are chasing him, and so he lands, allowing Khyron to gain a bit of distance as Trombe slides to a stop on the bottom of the maintenance shaft, a large metal weapon attachment ejecting itself free from the Hucky's back. Flying around, Elzam grabs it out of the air, attaching the power leads to the front of his unit, and turns to aim it at the pursuing battlepods. "Hmph. Let us wipe this battlefield clean, old friend!" he shouts, pulling the trigger. A massive wave of black energy gathers in front of the barrel, and Elzam shouts, "G Impact cannon! FIRE!"
The maintenance passage goes dark as a a wave of gravity sweeps down it, sized so as not to hit the walls of the passage itself, but the disruption should be enough to crush or mangle beyond hope of operation the pursuing battlepods.
[Fac-IPA] Yumi Francois exclaims, "DAVID!" She then pauses, "I'll route a couple of beams to help you out, Nadesico..." sounding slightly miffed at Zommer.
[Fac-IPA] Vanilla H says, "Keep yourselves safe for a moment, Nadesico. I am moving to reinforce your defense."
[Fac-IPA] Roy Fokker says, "Amuro, sounds like we have our next objective!"
Chris lifts the particle beam cannon again and aims it at another Battlepod, firing before the scream, and Bernie's words, are brought to her attention. "After /Minmay/? She's just a civilian!" Christina sounds exaspirated.
Despite this, she commands the Destroid forwards, turning the torso to fire the 32mm autocannons as she moves, "You escort her, I'll provide the cover fire."
Because Excaliburs can provide a /lot/ of cover fire.
[Fac-IPA] Amuro Ray says, "Roger!"
After unleashing a few more volleys of missle fire into the enemy fleet, Vanilla's craft comes to a halt. The combination of Roy's Skulls, Amuro and his amazing Gundam, and the Nadesico and it's ability to use gravity as weapon, they are all destroying the enemy in a much more effective manner then she could. It isn't like her to rush off into battle like this. Normally, she knows her place. She's supposed to be supporting the stronger fighters, not trying to butt head with the enemy firsthand. It doesn't take her long to figure out the reason for her unusual behavior, however. It's curled up asleep while battle rages around it. While she's used to having her allies depend on her, knowing that the girl that, for whatever reason, considers herself her daughter is in danger changes everything! The fact that so many other people need her help hardly makes it easier for her to stay out of the fight. She remains floating still for several moments before the Nadesico requests assitence. It's enough to remind her just what she's out here for! The Harvester fires it's boosters to launch itself for a direct interecept course for the larger ship. The pods assaulting it will suddenly find themselves under assault, from both beam and missle. Vanilla's aim is sure, her hands steady. Barring interference, there's no chance of her accidently striking the ship she's trying to protect.
Thraskar is not very concerned about Minmay specifically--he is, however, concerned about the Zentraedi suddenly deciding to blow up the city once they've got their prize.
Why the hell are giant alien space vikings trying to kidnap a pop singer, anyway?
Because they have no taste, says the sarcastic little voice.
The Excalibur is already lumbering towards the Star Dome, firing its auxiliary armaments at any Battlepod unfortunate enough to get within range. As Christina and Bernie intervene on the pop star's behalf, Thraskar does something a little different. This time, it is entirely unintentional, and perhaps a consequence of setting the Tunefriend to 'idle' rather than 'off'.
There is a cheery little 'beep-beep-beeeep!', and suddenly yet another ominous Latin hymn blares from the Excalibur's cockpit speakers. "Dies Irae", "Day of Wrath", one of the less cheerful songs in the Church's hymnal--as interpreted by Verdi.
"Oh, /#$*&ing hell/," Thraskar swears. He could've /sworn/ he switched it off 'smart speaker-find' /before/ he got on the SDF-1! The Lieutenant is, for a moment, tempted to find the thing and turn it off, but it /does/ have a remarkable sense of timing, and it may well confuse the hell out of the Zentraedi. It certainly goes with the fire pouring forth from the Excalibur's remaining weapons.
Outside the SDF-1, the battle wages on. The Hiver starts to summon up her attack, energy forming around her while the two Veritechs dive like angry eagles onto the light cruiser. Both Roy and Amuro's missiles strike true on the ship, causing it to tumble over end over end before exploding into a violent blast of light, disappearing in the chaos of the battle. That's another one down. Roy pulls back on the stick. "Come on Amuro, let's go support the Nadesico!" the Veritech pilot calls out as he guns the throttle forward, racing towards the allied ship. As he gets close he transforms into his Gaurdian mode and alights upon the ship, rifle held at the ready just in case anything gets too close as he skeet shoots at a passing battlepod, rifling it through.
That's when the Hiver's blast goes off. Streamers of energy streak out towards the enemy ships. She's able to catch several of them in the wave of energy as it streaks out, surrounding the ship and the plasma eats through the hull of the ships causing them to flare up and catch afire.
There are a few Battlewagons that are still sending blasts of fire towards the Hiver, however, they are starting to run out of ships to continue the battle with. Oddly enough, the Zentraedi are not sending more ships into the fray, even though from where they stand, they could easily finish overrunning the damaged fortress and her supercarriers. Another Zentraedi heavy cruiser catches a full broadside from the Nadesico. It's sliced into, ripping through the armor and causing heavy damage to it, however the large ship turns it's own plasma cannon on the Martian ship, opening fire with several plasma and conventional missile batteries, attempting to inflict just as much damage to it as its taken on in the firefight with the SDF-1 and its allied craft. The ruins of Battlepods, Cruisers, and Battlewagons mingle with destroyed and mortally wounded Veritechs, so much more space junk now, or small grave markers for the poor soul that was at the controls.
Vanilla is a very good mother when it comes to protecting her daughter. Her direct fire on the cruisers and the battlepods is very accurate and is ripping apart the spacefaring ships and the giants at the controls.
OOC Note: One Touch of Venus is a movie from 1948 starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner. Art expert Whitelaw Savory at last finds the statue of Venus which he has been seeking for years. His barber, Rodney, comes over to shave him and idly places his fiancée's ring on the statue's finger. Venus comes to life and falls in love with the man who resurrected her. At first, the terrified Rodney is unwilling. Undaunted, Venus pursues him, temporarily immobilizing his fiancée, and finally convinces him to be her lover. Then she realizes that she will have to live a suburban existence in Ozone Heights, and reconsiders. She is taken back to Olympus, but leaves behind a facsimile of herself so Rodney will never be alone again, as she had promised.