[OPEN] The Swarm

[00ne]

WHO: Heero Yuy, OPEN
WHERE: S.S. Sigrun Cargo Hold
WHEN: Today (Saturday) afternoon
WHAT: Aid responses to Heero's SOS!
WARNINGS: Probably violence, possibly language?
FORMAT: Whatever you want

Comments

[mrthirteen]

Treize had been on his way to find Une when he heard the SOS, unexpected despite the obvious dangers an abandoned ship could have. Without informing Heero he was on his way, Treize changed course and headed to the hangar and Epyon. Opposite sides of the war as they'd been, it wouldn't have been right to just leave the young man to such a fate.

It still took him another good few minutes to get to Heero's location, even at Epyon's highest speed, so the obvious damage to ZERO wasn't as much of a surprise as it should have been, considering what the gundam was made out of.

This time, Treize had simply worn the helmet, not bothering with the rest of the suit in favor of cutting time. His own ZERO system was up and running, running possibilities and recommendations. It... would not be an easy battle.

Teeth gritted, Treize used the whip simultaneously with the lazer sword, whip working to take some of the heat off Heero and give the pilot something of a breather. These things were big!

[00ne]

ZERO beeped frantically as it indicated a new enemy, this one coming from... behind him!?

Unmistakable. The Epyon.

Although he didn't like it, Heero didn't have much of a choice- he swerved nimbly to the side to allow the heat whip to take out some of the swarm that had just been catching up to him, rebounding with both beam sabers drawn to cut down a few that had changed course coming in from the side, apparently now targeting Epyon.

Over the voice comm-link, he muttered, "These things can crunch through gundanium." Visibly, one of the shoulder pauldrons on Wing ZERO appeared to have been torn through.

[mrthirteen]

Temporary ally, though ZERO did have the difficulty of deciding who wasn't going to immediately fight the pilot. Which was why it was up to the pilot to control ZERO.

Epyon swiveled to beat back the attacks now directed at it. The surprise had worn off, but hopefully others were on their way to assist. Treize accepted the knowledge that he would likely be injured in this fight, then discarded it. Some things were simply more important than his own life.

"Understood. Status?"

[00ne]

"Verniers on left wings at 60 percent capacity; 80 percent on the right. Targeting sensors on left forearm offline. Moderate to severe damage to left shoulder and upper leg. Cockpit integrity is 97 percent," Heero listed off, reading the damage visible on one of his viewscreens. Wheeling around to slice through another few beasts, and spraying beam machinegun and vulcan fire towards an oncoming crowd, he hesitated before going on.

"I came here to locate the Deathscythe, but I've been unable to. Something on this ship is confusing my sensors. And... ZERO is--"

He was cut off with a grunt as a crowd came from below, one beast managing to snap off part of Wing's leg armor. In an attempt to throw it off, he went into a speedy aerial spin, taking it out with more machinegun fire.

"..ZERO cannot sense Duo, too much interference from all these lifeforms."

[pacifisted]

He'd stopped in the middle of his route to the next telegram recipient and broken into a run the moment he finished watching Heero's Guide entry, ignoring the angry beeps coming from his assignment packet as they started getting louder and louder in response to his abandonment of the marked directions.

Half-skidding into the Hangar, Trowa quickly glanced around, looking for anything that might have appeared overnight--the notion that the Vogons might have allowed something to come into his possession without making him fill out reams of paperwork was the universe's wildest pipe-dream, but stranger things had happened. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be making a repeat performance of themselves that day, leaving the young man without a suit or ship of any kind and unable to head out to the Sigrun to fight with his friend

[00ne]

The second incoming blip on Wing's sensors was met with less hostility than the first by ZERO, although it still caused him to do a double-take. Of the three people he immediately figured it could be, he hesitated before trying the most likely.

"Trowa?" He confirmed over voice-link, grunting as Wing skidded against the frames of a structural support, driven against it by the crowd of serpents.

[pacifisted]

"Heero."

It was the only thing he said in response, too busy focusing on trying to batter and slice his way through the swarm toward Heero, already able to see part of the damage to the other Gundam. He'd heard enough snippets about Epyon before, and though he could guess who the pilot was, he also doubted that the man would be as dishonorable as trying to cut Wing down in such a way. After all, Wufei had come back from his (obviously failed) duel in one piece, hadn't he?

Except for the snaky insect creatures, there weren't any other suspects as to who or what had done that kind of damage. And if they could do that?

Remembering that Sandrock came with a couple of missiles--nowhere near as many as his own suit could carry, but then again, none of them did--Trowa fired them at the monsters pinning Wing.

[00ne]

Pilot confirmed, Heero took advantage of the confusion of the beast to tear through the crowd with his beam sabers, speeding away from where he'd been boxed in.

"Be cautious, these things tear right through gundanium," he warned, with a harried glance towards his viewscreen displaying the Sandrock- equipped entirely with non-beam weaponry.

[forgotten_pilot]

Meiran left the work party in what would be her studio the moment that she heard Heero's SOS, leaving someone else in charge of the workers. With Wufei's typical disappearance (assumedly into his precious books like usual), there was no one to stop her from taking Shenlong and going after the Japanese idiot.

And because no one's said that Changs don't make good entrances, she comes up from behind the other suits, flamethrower already going at full blast to burn as many bugs as she can to make a clear alley.

[00ne]

Physics. Who needs 'em.

ZERO beeped frantically to inform Heero of the wall of fire coming from behind, and he swiftly rocketed down the corridor of space formed between the twin dragon fangs' flames, path now more easily cleared. Its left side was pretty badly demolished- shoulder armor gone and arm sparking with exposed circuitry, leg armor partially crunched off, face armor on the right side crumbling away and the feathers of its enormous 'wings' splintering off, looking in some place much like a skeletal bird's wing.

"Don't get caught up in them," he warned, initially under the assumption that Wufei was in the cockpit. "As you can see, they're not easily deterred by our Gundams."

[forgotten_pilot]

Not teenage Gundam pilots.

At least she could see that Heero had some common sense in battle. Meiran sweeps the fangs around to clear as much space as she can for them, resisting the urge to take our Treize's machine too. It wouldn't be honorable.

Roasting these alien bugs, on the other hand, is completely justified, and she's smirking the whole time. "Noted. Try not to get in my way."

[00ne]

Heero takes pause at the voice that answers him, narrowing his eyes.

"Hn. Same to you."

As the swarm behind him ebbed, another one began to dive down towards Wing and Altron from overhead, through a hole in the ceiling- apparently from an upper level of the cargo hold. Facing up, Heero fired back with the head vulcans, before darting down and away to escape their incoming path.

[papa_was_a]

[...Oh my.

If I had a bladder I'm very sure I'd pee on myself.]

[mrthirteen]

[You better not get lost, pet rock, 'cuz Epyon's not in the best of shape to go find you. >.>]

[papa_was_a]

[Oh dear. Well they must have some kind of weakness. Maybe you should try to play Blues Clues with them.]

[mrthirteen]

[That would be fire. And it's being dealt with, so thanks for your concern.

Btw, where the heck are you floating about?]

[00ne]

[The new blips on Heero's radar are welcome ones, although in another sense, also worrying. With his open communication link on, he tries to contact them.]

Ratchet- be cautious in engaging them. It seems they feed on lifeforms like yourself.

[He's interrupted by another jolt as he's rammed off course by 3 more of the metallic serpents, one crunching down onto one of his dorsal wings- right in his blind spot.]