Gundam: Wrath of the Stars IC

[Nova_Eclipse]

The year is UC0284. Humanity, having spread throughout the stars, is in conflict once more with the Ragalians, a race of Near-Human cat-like warriors whose reasons for attacking are still largely unknown. The war has dragged on for 5 years, following its 200 year hiatus. But now, the Ragalians have begun fielding new, more powerful mobile weapons in their latest offensive, and even humanity's realtively new alien allies being folded into their combined forces, has only barely stemmed the tide of Ragalian advances. System after system has fallen to the Ragalians, though the defenders have put up long, valient fights. In the opening three months of the year, observed Ragalian forces have increased three-fold, and the Republic Alliance, the combined alliance of human and alien forces, have grown increasingly desperate. Humanity, however, seems to work best under pressure, and has been developing its own new mobile weapons to counter this threat. The legend of the Gundam lives on from its first appearance in UC0079, but the Alliance hasn't stopped there, commissioning every member nation that can manage it to commit a mobile suit for advanced development and rapid deployment, Gundam or not. These suits were gathered at Stechkin 4 for development, testing, and upgrades before deployment into the field. Stechkin 4 was thought to be safe; far from the front, and lacking any useful FTL routes into or out of the system, the system's Earth-like world was a perfect testing ground for the mobile suits, if more than a little dull. But that was your mission: to test and develop and build the weapons everyone was counting on to help win the war.

They say no plan survives first contact with the enemy. And that goes doubly so when the enemy shows up unannounced. In short, you were completely unprepared when a portion of the Ragalian fleet somehow leapfrogged through the contested front-line systems and began bombarding Stechkin 4. Although the Alliance had stationed a guardian force consisting of several carriers and battleships in orbit above the planet, they were unable to do more than delay the enemy. Fortunately for you, the Republic Alliance assault carrier Vengeance was at the base when the Ragalians appeared. Originally there to deliver development supplies and to load several of the newly-completed suits for delivery to the fleet, the Vengeance's captain ordered the base evacuated and every development suit to be loaded aboard, no matter its stage of completion when the Ragalians appeared. Unfortunately, the bombardment destroyed many of the suits under development, and even damaged one of the mostly completed Gundams, killing its designated pilot and badly injuring its backup, though before succumbing to their injuries, they managed to get it on board for evacuation. Only 6 suits in total managed to board before the captain was forced to depart, lest the ship and its precious cargo be destroyed, or worse, fall into the hands of the enemy. But even then, the ordeal was not over.

In order to evade the enemy, the Vengeance has had to adopt extraordinary measures, micro-jumping from Stechkin 4 to the Stechkin system's asteroid belt, before powering down and drifting to blend in. However, you've been largely unaware of this, as another drama played out on the Mobile Suit deck, one of man vs. machine. One of the prototype suits, during the loading process, moved by itself to protect one of its techs during the siege, promptly scooping her into its cockpit, before rushing up the boarding ramp, stepping on its own pilot in the process. Once inside, the suit went dormant for a time, but when the crew detected that the tech inside was injured, unconscious and in need of medical help, the next ordeal began, as the suit refused to let anyone open the cockpit, and began swatting away anyone who tried. Four more techs were injured before the crew chief gave the order to evacuate the deck save for the suit's own team. Crammed into the first available space, it took 5 hours for the team to finally extricate the tech from the recalcitrant suit and get her to the medbay. In the ensuing 3 hours, you've been allowed back out onto the Mobile Suit deck, but have had no updates on the outside situation, as the crew of the Vengeance have largely been preoccupied with evading the enemy.

8 hours after the attack, and things have started to settle down. On the Mobile Suit deck, the crew chief has ordered an inventory of parts that were loaded before takeoff, as well as team listings from suit teams. In the medbay, the injured are being treated. And on the bridge, the captain checks her data, and then leaves the bridge to her first mate. If the Vengeance is to survive, it's going to need every asset it has just acquired, and it's time for her to personally see what those assets are....


Episode One: The RAS Vengeance


Lucia: You awaken in the medbay of a ship with a massive headache. You vaguely remember a blast of heat and light, and then red all around you, before tumbling headlong into Sazabi's cockpit and everything falling away into darkness. The bed beneath you is soft and supportive, and while you don't seem to have an IV, you can feel the bandages wrapped around your left arm and right leg, as well as the one on your head. A tall, thin man with black hair wearing a white lab coat draws back the curtain surrounding your bed and regards you with a smile.
"It's good to see you're awake. How do you feel?"

Yuuki: Your father has been dutifully following the crew chief's orders to take stock of his team, and he's pawned inventory duty for the Shura off on you. Despite the haste, the teams managed to load a significant amount of ordnance before the ship was forced to depart; there's enough ammunition available for several sorties if used conservatively. Counting crates isn't that interesting, but at least it's something to distract from the more disappointing realization that the war has come to find you once more. As you finish your circuit of the deck, you note your father talking intensely with the crew chief and gesturing in your direction. That can't be good.

Agrias: You were one of the pilots whose suit was scheduled to depart on the Vengeance. You and Freedom were awaiting final assignment when the Ragalians showed up, and your suit had already been loaded when the assault began. Curiously, the order to suits never came, and instead, you've been put to work helping the crews on the MS deck after the Sazabi debacle. Now that things have started to calm down, perhaps it's time to check with your suit's team lead and see if he's heard anything yet. You spot him making a beeline for the crew chief, who's currently engaged in what seems to be an intense discussion with the head engineer for one of the other suits.

Athrusa: You also awaken in the medbay, though your entire body hurts, not just your head. You can feel the compression of the bandages on your arms, legs and torso, and there's an IV in your left arm. Trying to move or shift sends a stab of pain shooting through you; and it's hard to think. One moment, you were working on some calibrations with Matthias, the Nephilim's primary pilot; the next, you were flying through the air with a shooting pain in your side. Things went black for a moment, and then you were in the cockpit of the Nephilim...or what was left of it, anyways, as Matthias, badly injured, did his best to get the ancient machine up the ramp and into the ship. The suit almost fell, but you managed to help him hold it upright, before he fell unconscious and stops breathing, succumbing to his wounds. The sheer effort of holding the suit up and making it walk comes and goes in a haze, before there's blackness once more, and now you're here. A blonde woman in scrubs pulls the curtain back just slightly, and startles when she notices you're awake.
"Oh, oh my! I wasn't expecting you to be awake yet. How are you feeling?"

Tana: Your suit had been just been submitted for upgrade, testing, and performance evaluation when the Ragalians attacked. You had been on base less than a week, and your suit had barely been through the baseline evaluation before the bombardment started. Thankfully, the tech team hadn't started disassembling your suit yet, so it was usable, but you know you're going to be at a disadvantage compared to some of the other suits that managed to make it on board. You were evacuated with everyone else during the Sazabi issue, but since then, your team has insisted you stay close to your suit in case scramble orders are issued. Unfortunately, that seems to have meant a lot of sitting around and waiting, but now one of the techs comes to find you, waving.
"Tana! C'mon down, the crew chief wants to talk to us."

Xaia: Your team was in the middle of running calibrations on your first set of arms when the Invaders struck. Your hangar was far from the ship, and while everyone from your team made it aboard along with you, they were unable to load much of the parts that were intended for you. Your team tried to help during the Sazabi issue, but were unable to convince it to let the person inside go. Ever since it released her of it's own accord, your team has been working with the few parts they were able to bring to give you a smaller body you could use inside the ship. They'd just finished the link to your Haro when one of the Vengeance's techs comes to fetch the team. It seems the crew chief wants to talk, though from where you had been docked before being connected to your Haro, it seems he's already engaged. One of your team absent-mindedly picks up your Haro and carries you along with them.
"Let's see what he wants, shall we?"

[Merilan]

Athrusa is a white-haired, white-eared Artificial Ragalian; perhaps the only one onboard, which owes to a lot of the stigma and uncomfortable looks that she has accrued from a lot of the tech and military staff during her time on Stetchkin 4. Still, it wasn't all sour grapes -- she did get along with a number of people, chiefly the one who was really kind to her... Matthias, the primary pilot of the Nephilim, who often took the time to teach her and was patient even when others were snapping impatiently at her.

The beastwoman took a horrible hit from beam rifle splash during the initial assault -- a great portion of the right side of her body was badly singed by radiation emission, including her eye, which currently is hidden behind a patch of bandages. She's wearing an oxygen mask to sustain her during this precarious period, but, even then, all she can replay in her mind is--

Matthias groans as the last of the shot bombardments die down; the awful scent of smoke and oil is deep in the air as flames surround them, and the cockpit is torn open from where the shot blasted through and wrecked half the display panels of the Nephilim's mobile suit core.

Athrusa trembles and stares, barely aware of what's going on -- stares in shock as she finds herself the one in the actual cockpit seat, the primary pilot having reversed their positions. "W-why-- Matthias?" was all she could choke out, as blood drips down her throat and lips.

He wasn't doing much better. He slumps slowly, revealing a horrible shard of debris from where it's impaled him on the back. "... heh... guess I... messed up, huh?"

"No, no, this isn't happening!" screams Athrusa, even as the pilot reaches for one of the auto-pilot systems and forces the suit to start walking. Warnings are flaring all around them, cascading the scene in crimson. "M--Matthias, you're going to be okay--"

"It might be the end of the line for me... but... you'll take care of the Neph, right...?" Matthias tries to reassure the Artificial Ragalian with one of his cocksure grins, but it's clear that it's all bluster. "... sorry I couldn't do more..."

"Y-yes..." Athrusa answers the question first and foremost, even as she stabilises the suit by instinct and uprights it on whatever vernier balancers would still respond to her.

"Good... hey, Ath..." Matthias pauses for a moment. "... live a good life, okay? Live true to your... emotions. It only takes... one fool to change the world... heh..."

"M-Matthias?"

There's no response.

She's jolted back towards the present through the sharp, stinging pain of something aching rather badly across her body. "It hurts... all over..." is all she manages to muster out. "Where's... where's Matthias? What happened to the base...?" She sounds more like she wants this to be a bad dream, but some cognitive part of her mind already knows otherwise.

[DualShadow]

As good as it was for her and her suit to be already loaded into the Vengeance Agrias felt like she should have gone out to help with the evacuation. Instead she helped around as needed especially after the incident with the Sazabi. "Blasted AIs, what good are they for if they don't work with us." she mumbled to herself as she went about helping. At least things were calming down and the chaos created by the messy departure was more or less solved.

Wanting to know more about the current situation Agrias headed to her suit's lead but he met up with the others before she could intercept him so instead she moved closer to the group to hear what the fuss was about. "That ought to be good."

[DoctorFaust]

"Oh please god, no."

Yuuki lets out a groan as she sees her dad motioning towards her, deep in conversation with the chief of staff. They can't possibly be talking about what she thinks they're talking about, right? All she is is a gofer, a very junior techie at best. They're on a ship full of actual military people, at least one of them must be qualified to sortie in the Shura.

But...

Always the goddamn but, Yuuki thinks to herself as she sits down with a thump, leaning against a box of shells for support. But she was the one that got the Shura in when the pilots couldn't be found. But she remembered Dad telling her about how he designed the controls so that even a moron could use them. But she had helped to design the instructional program for it. But, but, but, but, but. They actually are going to try to make me pilot it, she thinks to herself, sinking her head into her hands. But I'm not going to let 'em.

[Burden King]

Xaia calmly allowed the technician is carry her as they went along, glancing around the ship as she experienced the human sized halls for the first time. Since her activation, she had only seen the training and testing field, and the hangar when it was time for dormancy. "Have we caused some damage or inconvenience to the crew of this ship?" she asked, glancing up to the tech that was holding her, briefly contemplating what title they would have if they were a biological family.

Her father and mother were back at the Praxus territories, programmers and researchers that departed for different projects after her model was approved for testing. She hoped she could send good news back. She'd hate to be a disappointment.

As for the technicians though, they were not involved with Xaia's creation, or related to her mother and father. But they had been around and cared for her like she would think a family would. The question settled in her head, something for her to gnaw at later, when the mission was over.

[Erynn]

"Finally...", Tana griped as she separated the helmet from her pilot suit before pushing off from the cockpit of her mobile suit, "There's nothing I hate more about this job than the hurry up and wait."

As Tana descended to the hangar deck, she got her first opportunity to take stock of the mobile suits that had been loaded aboard the Vengeance. Her gaze drifting from Sazabi to Freedom before finally coming to rest upon the form of Nephilim. For some reason, the mobile suit's small size compared to those around it left Tana unsettled.

"I swear that one's familiar.", she muttered to herself, "I just can't quite put my finger on it."

It was at this moment that Tana's feet met the hangar deck, magnetizing to the metal surface. She took a moment to brush her hair out of the way, back behind her again, as it has continued forward in the weightless environment to obscure her vision momentarily. Proceeding toward what looked like the engineering and repair bay, Tana began scanning the patches attached to each crew member's shoulder, looking for the individual of the correct rank. What she finds instead is a rather distraught looking teenager leaning on a box of shells.

"Hey, kid!", Tana calls out looking to break the ice, "You know that's ammo, right?"

With a little bit of luck, the comment would get her attention and perhaps see Tana recognized. Directing civilians to safe locations was always easier when they knew who was directing them. 'even if they've never met you before, just knowing who you are seems to make it easy for people to trust you.', Tana thinks to herself.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki leaps up from the crate, jerked out of her brooding by an unfamiliar voice. She whirls around to face the other woman, and replies, "Oh, uh, yeah. I know. I got put in charge of doing our inventory. I'm part of the Axis Forces group."

[Shimmer]

When Lucia awakes there is only silence for the briefest of shining seconds like the soft intake of air before a scream. Then the feelings hit her like a tidal wave. Fear, anger, terror, fury, concern all wash over her to the point that she feels like she might drown as her vision swims with red her head pounding as loud as a drum, as loud as a heartbeat. Desperately she tries to de-tangle the feelings. How many are hers? How many are Sazabi's? She doesn't know, but as she tries to force her self to breath through her nose she can almost feel the force of the AI bearing down on her mind. Then just as suddenly it lifts. Less a pressure and more the feeling of someone standing at her back so close that if a machine could breath she'd feel the stirring of the hairs on the back of her neck where it lurks in some distant part of her brain.

Not for the first time Lucia curses her abilities and almost misses the man in the lab coat at her bedside entirely. For a moment she blinks at him trying to comprehend his words that might as well be foreign code to her then slowly things click back into place. The world seems to righten and she nods.

"F-fine." She croaks out wincing at how raw her voice sounds leaving her answer coming off almost more as a question rather then the response it was meant to be. "I'm... I-I think I'm fine." Lucia adds blinking groggily at her surroundings noting they didn't have her hooked up to an IV. Thank goodness for that drugs never mixed well with her abilities and if she was going to get Sazabi loaded on the ship she'd need....

Slowly her mind stuttered to a halt her breathing kicking up a hitch into borderline panic and once more she could feel the weight of the AI react to her fear.

"Where am I?! Where's MSN-04 Sazabi?! There was an attack! Did he get loaded in time!?" Lucia gasped out struggling to sit up with her good arm ignoring the piercing headache and the near migraine like pressure of the AI against her mind. Sazabi had to be at least in one piece if he was giving her this much of a headache and possibly close, but there was no telling with the Mech.

Down on the MS deck the MSN-04 Sazabi's eye lights up shedding the area around it in an eerie sickly green as the single orb shifts seeming to be peering up and in the direction of the bed bay. Beyond this minute startling bit of movement the mech does not make any show of lurching into action like it had done once before. Instead a low rumble echoes from the suit as it vents a short burst of steam. Possibly cooling down from it's previous brief burst of movement or revving up for another. Whichever it is it's clear it's own techs can't quite tell which as the few that had been lingering around it take a few rabid steps back out of it's range just to be safe.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa: The nurse's expression shifts to one of sadness as she moves up to the side of the bed and places a cool, comforting hand on Athrusa's forehead. It's something of an odd gesture, but the physical pain seems to fade for a few moments.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but the other pilot who was with you, Matthias, was it? He didn't make it. He was gone before your suit made it aboard. We tried to revive him, but it was too late, and his injuries were too extensive. As far as what happened to the base, the enemy arrived. They're in the system, bombarding the planet. We're aboard the RAS Vengeance. We've escaped the planet, but I don't know much more than that. The doctor should have a look at you; you shouldn't be awake this soon after surgery." She taps a small device on her wrist, but otherwise makes no move to leave. "My name is Celeste. What's yours?"

Agrias: The lead engineer for one of the other suits seems to be arguing with the crew chief. As you get close, you can hear him talking in an angry voice.

"She's still just a kid! She didn't sign on to become a combat pilot!"

The crew chief seems to have a different opinion.

"Look, Mr. Itano. I wouldn't be suggesting this if there was another option, but she's the only one you've got! The other two pilots didn't make it aboard. She piloted the thing aboard. The captain wants to know who the pilots are. I gotta tell her something, and your daughter's the only thing I've got right now!"

Mr. Itano does -not- look pleased. He crosses his arms over his chest stubbornly, and frowns.

"Well then, I'll just have to take it up with the captain."

The crew chief sighs in an exasperated manner as Mr. Itano walks off, back towards the Shura.

"You do that." Then he turns to look at the suit lead and Agrias. "What's your team and suit's status?"

Yuuki/Tana: One of the suit techs for the Shura walks by, and pauses, noting the insignia on Tana's suit.

"Yuuki, have you got the inventory done yet? Your dad's probably going to need it. I'll run it to him, I think you may need to stick with your new friend here." Great. Now your own team's trying to throw you to the wolves. The tech with Tana seems unusually nervous, but says nothing while the Coordinator stops to try and help the "civilian".

Tana herself may have noticed that despite the general disorder currently present due to the amount of crates on deck, the mobile suit deck seems oddly empty. There should be many more suits aboard; this class of carrier typically carries a complement of 24 suits. Where are the rest of them?

Xaia: The tech shakes his head, smiling.
"Nah, he probably just wants a status on the Gai-Sura. It -is- incomplete afterall, though it wouldn't take much for you to be able to fight with it the way it is." It seems you'll have to wait in line; Agrias' team is already talking to the chief, and several others seem to be queuing up. Odd that. And then, everyone pauses, and goes silent for a moment as the Sazabi's eye glows, looks around, and the suit releases some steam. Several of the techs back up for a moment, but when the suit doesn't move, activity slowly resumes. Hopefully, that's a good sign.

Lucia: The doctor opens his mouth to reply, but before he can say anything, a woman wearing a long, black coat with epaulets dripping gold fringe appears next to him. The black pants with the red stripe, and the plain white blouse under her coat somewhat conflict with the black beret with the gold shield atop her head. The uniform of a ship captain. Her black hair is worn in a loose braid down her back, and her dark blue eyes regard Lucia with something between kindness and annoyance. The rest of her expression, however, is professionally neutral.

"You, and your troublesome mobile suit are both safely aboard my ship, the RAS Vengeance. I am Captain Nina Brighton. I know who you are, Lucia Lynelle. Your team told me once the suit had loaded itself, and injured four of my crew." She looks to the doctor. "How is she?"

The doctor looks startled, glancing at the readout above the bed. "She says she's fine, and I'm not seeing any abnormalities, just a few bumps and bruises left." Something on his belt vibrates. "Excuse me, Captain, I have another patient to attend to."

The Captain nods, and the doctor takes his leave, though she fixes Lucia with a sardonic expression.
"Well then, you and I need to come to a decision, then. Feel up to taking a walk with me?"

[DualShadow]

'So the Shura is lacking a pilot right now ... ' Agrias mused in her mind as she looked at the brick wall of a Gundam stored a bit further. To her it might as well been a walking coffin being so bulky like that.

Her thoughts returned to the crew chief as he asked about her team and her mobile suit. She quickly exchanged a look at her lead engineer before answering "Most of our staff and supplies were already aboard the ship when the attack began and so was the Freedom, no even a scratch on the ... " It was at that time that the Sazabi acted up and released some steam. Her first reaction was to clench up a fist in front of her "... I swear if that thing acts up again on its own I'll do more than scratch its paint." As the seconds went by and Sazabi remained motion less her focus returned to the conversation at hand at pretty much the same rate that the rest of the crew started working again.

Pausing to see what the other players near Agrias does.

[Shimmer]

After a few harsh panting breaths Lucia manages to reign in her panic. For the Captain's words are reassuring even if the information they convey is decidedly unpleasant. Finally reigning her emotions in the tech rests her face in her hands allowing herself one pained groan at how quickly the situation had devolve before forcing herself back to dealing with reality. Today she decides, is not a good day and as she eyes the woman before her Lucia can't help, but mourn that it's machines not men and women that she can read.

She can almost feel Sazabi's indignation, but she shoves it to the back of her mind pondering why the connection has lingered so. Perhaps a side-effect of head trauma? She couldn't really say.

"Captain." Lucia finally greets the woman with a nod. "I apologize for any trouble the MSN-04 Sazabi may have caused you. The AI is...touchy. Typically I am there to deal with any tantrums as you will, but it seems this time I was otherwise...disposed." She explains unable to hide the slight wince as she considered just how much trouble the irritable AI might have caused. Still she gives the Doctor a polite nod as he leaves and finds herself blinking in surprise at the Captains invitation if you could call it to 'walk.' What will come of it though Lucia is unsure. Still she leverages herself out of the bed doing her best to ignore how everything aches like a bone deep bruise and how her vision blurs red at the edges slightly when she straightens.

"If you wish to stretch your legs then it's the least I can do to join you." Lucia agrees once she's a little bit more steady on her feet.

"If you don't mind me asking the last thing I remember is the catwalk collapsing. Sazabi must have overridden or found some loophole in the restriction protocols on it to catch me and everything is a bit of a blank from there." She murmurs moving to follow wherever the Captain might lead leaving the medward to those in need of it.

"How..." Lucia begins with a slight grimace. "How badly did things go off the rails?"

[Erynn]

"No kidding?", Tana responds, somewhat skeptical before the comment of a passing tech seemingly corroborated the kid's statement, "If that's the case, then maybe you can tell me where the rest of this ship's mobile suit complement is. Or maybe my new shadow can?

Tana playfully acknowledged the nervous tech that had approached, hoping to put them a bit more at ease. Truth be told, however, Tana was experiencing a bit of unease as well. A hangar as empty as the one in which they currently stood was rare, generally occurring in only the most dire of circumstances.

Never the less, Tana continued to put forward a confident, relaxed demeanor for the benefit of those around her. Whatever the situation, there could be nothing more demoralizing to the rank and file than seeing those above them succumb to fear. Such fear behaves much like a plague, spreading from person to person as if an infectious contagion.

Tana had seen such a thing happen once before to another unit, and had no desire whatsoever to see relatively recent history repeat itself.

[DoctorFaust]

"Of course I wasn't lying," Yuuki replies, her voice more than a little frosty. "I've been working with the Shura for years now. And no, I don't know where the rest of the MSes are. Maybe in another launch bay or something?" She grimaces, and adds, "But...they also might not have made it on at all. I really hope they did, though."

Turning back to her duties momentarily, Yuuki flashes her tech a hesitant smile, and passes the inventory documents over. "Yeah, it's done. Here you go, Rafe. But, do you know what Dad's so worked up about?"

[Burden King]

Xaia stared at the Sazabi silently, letting the technitians wait as she decided to do something. Staring directly at the Sazabi, Xaia sent out a signal, trying to open up communication with what she thought had to be an AI.

"Hello? I am X4-14, or Xaia. Are you feeling better now? You seemed agitated before."

Her words were vocalized, a silent transmission to the Sazabi. As she waited for a reply however, she spoke allowed "When is my body going to be complete? The lack of I fields is disconcerting. And what if the enemy? Am I not combat ready yet?"

[Merilan]

There's a faint, hoarse breath escaping from Athrusa's lips, a measure of practiced agitation as Celeste places her hand on her forehead -- but it soon recedes as the cool touch starts to take the pain away, and she slacks against the bed. "A-Athrusa," she murmurs after a bit. No last name. The closest she'd have to one was the batch designation of the experiments she was part of, and Matthias had told her to stop thinking herself as a product on a production line.

She quietly catches Lucia and the Captain leave the medward on their way out, but her vision is a bit blurry for her to make any details out.

"I killed him..." she murmurs, after a while, her face scrunching up into a grimace. "He shielded me, I shouldn't have..." she whimpers, tears rolling down her eyes.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Agrias: The crew chief pauses, then sighs with relief when nothing happens. He makes a note on his datapad and looks back to Agrias.

"No argument from me on that; thing creeps me out." He shakes his head. "Alright, for now, stand by over there, please." He gestures to an open area to his left, then looks to the next group, all wearing the same patch. They must be the SRS team; she probably saw them earlier around the half-trashed suit that barely made it aboard with two injured pilots that had to be rushed to the medbay.

"You there! What's your suit's status?"

Agrias might just be able to hear the wrecked suit's status from where the chief told her and her team to wait, if she's so inclined to listen in.

If Agrias wants to listen in, she'll need to roll for it, since the suit deck is still a busy place with lots of people milling around.

Lucia: Captain Brighton walks slowly enough that Lucia can keep up with her despite the unsteadiness, her expression shifting to a more serious one. She leads Lucia down a hall to one of the personnel lifts and presses the down button, then speaks while they wait.

"Two broken arms, one cracked rib, and two Ooontaa with bruised organs. Your suit flicked them away when they were trying to get the cockpit open after it loaded itself and we detected you injured inside of it." She frowns, and fixes Lucia with a serious look. "In its rush to catch you and get aboard, your suit stepped on its designated pilot."

The lift arrives, and the captain heads into it, waiting for Lucia to follow. Once she's aboard, the captain will go on after selecting the button for the Mobile Suit deck.

"Your suit is refusing to let anyone inside of it now. Your designated pilot is dead. So, since it's so concerned about you, I can only conclude that it cares more about you than anyone else. The question then, is, are you willing to become Sazabi's pilot? I realize you're not trained for combat, but I don't have many options right now."

Yuuki/Tana: Rafe takes the documents, and glances back to the Shura, before holding the back of his hand to his mouth and speaking quietly.
"The crew chief here is trying to list you as the Shura's pilot, since Ginny and Steve didn't make it aboard and you piloted it on. Your dad is trying to keep that from happening...but...." He looks around, and nods at Tana. "I don't think there are many pilots aboard who could just take the Shura out and fight effectively in it. I overheard a couple of those little alien mechanic guys, uh, Ooontaa, I think they're called, saying that the ship's complement had been put out on defense duty before it was allowed to land. That's why the bay is so empty, it didn't go back to the station when it took off to recover the rest of its complement."

The nervous tech (his name is Gordon, though no one seems to remember this, despite having worked with him for months) nods at Tana. "He's right, Tana. They forced us to do the same thing before delivering the CGUE to the base; you probably don't remember that because you were the designated pilot, and were being briefed at the time. Supposedly an extra security measure, though fat lot of good it seems to have done."
The Vengeance's mobile suit complement was out on defense duty in space during the assault on the base. Most likely, they've all been destroyed, so now the suits it loaded planetside are the only suits aboard. This will be added to the ship's listing in the OOC for reference.

Xaia: The tech (Tim, his name is Tim, why does no one remember this other than Xaia?) chuckles while they wait their turn, oblivious to her silent transmission to Sazabi.

"I think we may need to revise the bar on completing your body. We don't have the other arms, or the parts to remake them, so you might have to make due with just two arms instead of six. Otherwise, if we just throw a bit of armor over the empty sockets, and run some calibrations, you'd be combat ready, I think." He sighs, after a moment. "I think the Captain is trying to give the enemy the slip. That's probably why you can't detect any I-fields right now; the ship's probably powered down to try and blend into wherever we are. It's a pretty standard tactic."

I'm not sure whether Shimmer wants to handle the interaction between Sazabi and Xaia or not, so I'm going to leave that open for her to respond to. Shimmer, let me know if you'd rather that I handle Sazabi, otherwise, I'll leave it to you.

Athrusa: Nurse Celeste smiles gently, in a comforting manner, and speaks soothingly.

"Shhhh, it wasn't your fault. I saw what happened to your suit; from what I could tell, I don't think either one of you could have saved it alone. If he hadn't shielded you, he might not have gotten it aboard at all, and you most certainly would have died. As it stands, I think he did the right thing. You're here, and your suit's here, and that's the best outcome that could have happened, given the circumstances."

A tall man with dark hair in a lab coat has slipped in while Celeste has been speaking. He smiles gently, before moving in in a brisk manner with a needle and injecting something into Athrusa's IV line.
"The nurse is right, young lady. I know it's hard, but you need to honor your friend's sacrifice by getting better as fast as you can. I've given you some more pain medication; hopefully it will help you to feel better. I'm Dr. Tram, by the way." His smile deepens as Nurse Celeste withdraws her hand. The coolness fades, and the pain starts to return, but quickly enough, it's dulled and fades as the medication begins to work. "We'll do our best to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible." And with a final nod and smile, he leaves. Nurse Celeste pulls down the call button and presses it into Athrusa's hand.

"Press that if you need anything, or if your pain suddenly gets worse. I'll be by to check on you a little later. Please try and get some rest." She smiles gently, and with that, makes her way back out into the ward, drawing the curtain behind her, leaving Athrusa alone with her thoughts.

[Merilan]

Some rational part of Athrusa probably agrees with Nurse Celeste and Doctor Tram, but... right now, biting her lip down hard is all she can do to keep herself from bawling further -- crying is turning out to be quite painful, given her condition, when Nurse Celeste releases her hand from her. "But he's a valuable member of the team... he was supposed to be the pilot... I--" she chokes out a sob, before nodding as she feels the thrush of the IV run through her body.

Live a good life. Live true to your emotions.

"... what am I supposed to do, Matthias...?" she murmurs to herself as she closes her eyes, as the nurse and doctor both leave her alone. Her thoughts were swimming at a mile a minute.

[Shimmer]

@Xaia

The MSN-04 Sazabi response to Xaia is far from immediate. So long in fact that at first it seems as though it hasn't received the signal at all or perhaps it is merely ignoring the younger AI. Yet finally after what seems like an eon Xaia receives a few terse sentences though the suit itself does not take it's single glowing eye off whatever it's target might be.

Communication received: This is unit designation MSN-04 SAZABI of the Principality of Zeon. Weapons will remained primed until status confirmation of unit designation Lucia. This is non-negotiable.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________

Lucia's grimace only darkens at the list of injuries to her crew yet finds herself relieved to hear none of them were injured fatally in her retrieval. At least until the Captain mentions the pilot and that causes the engineer to still with her heart in her throat. She'd never liked the man personally. Gyr had by no means been her favorite individual, but he'd been a good pilot even if he wasn't necessarily a good person. In her stunned silence Lucia almost misses the lift, but managed to catch the door with her hand and step in beside the Captain. Her thoughts catching on to the other woman's words. Your suit.

"I'm so sorry for the trouble." Lucia murmurs once again feeling as though all she has done since she woke up had been apologize for 'her mobile suit' as so many seemed to be putting it. Yet even as Lucia felt her chest tighten as she tried to come to grips with the knowledge placed before her she could not deny that fact. Ever since she'd been brought onto the project Sazabi had been branded across her soul as much hers as he had apparently shown she was his. Sighing Lucia finally came to her decision.

"I'll take responsibility as Sazabi's pilot. I'm not combat trained, but I know the controls better then anyone else." She acquiesced even as she considered her options and silently prayed to whatever deities might be listening that the mech didn't have anymore incidents.

"That is of course." She added "If he'll even unlock the cockpit for me." Lucia spoke even as the elevator door slid open revealing the MS deck bustling with activity yet far emptier then she had ever expected it to be. In the back near the doors Lucia spies the bright blood red of the MSN-04 and as the mobile suits single eerie green eye slowly swings over pinning her with it's gaze and she cannot help, but feel that she goes now to make a deal with the devil.

Vaguely she is reminded of an old saying of her Fathers. "Better the devil you know..." She whispers under her breath leaving the last half of the saying unsaid as she steps from the lift drawn to the mobile suit as a moth might be to a flame. As she limps past she notes as a few of the groups grow silent at her approach, but she refuses to bow her head or acknowledge their stares. Instead she draws alongside her suit standing before it hands resting on her hips, head tilted all the way back to match it's mono-eyed stare that had tracked her progress across the room. For a moment the world seems to hold it's breath and Lucia wonders what sort of picture the two of them make. The tiny tech in her grease and ash stained coveralls and the massive crimson mech. Slowly Lucia breaks the mechs gaze letting her eyes drop as she glances at an abandoned wrench left upon the deck. Toeing it lightly with the tip of her boot she stoops to pick it up weighing the weight of the tool in her hands for a moment. Then in on smooth motion she lifts her head, pulls her arm back, and sends the wrench flying to collide with a clatter against Sazabi's blood red hull not even nicking the paint as it hits the ground once more.

"Don't you ever touch my $*%#!@ crew again understand!?" Lucia hisses out between clenched teeth voice echoing in the slight hush after the commotion. Yet she still steps forward trailing her fingers along the edge of the mechs leg as she makes for the catwalk lift valiantly doing her best to ignore the surge of what she could only describe as vindictive smugness from the mech. It's AI already knowing that if not forgiven yet that it would only be a matter of time barring any further discourse before it is.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________

@Xaia

Unit Status confirmed. Weapons on standby.

[Erynn]

It was as bad as Tana had feared. The entire space wing had been out on defensive patrols when the Ragalians attacked, and the ship had been forced to get out of dodge without them. Tana's expression hardened before the eyes of those in the immediate vicinity.

"Yeah, they really took a bite out of us this time.", Tana agrees with Gordon, "Question is, how the devil did they find out about this program?"

Tana's train of thought was cut short though, as the hangar seemed to go silent. She watched with curiosity as a tech covered in grime limped toward the ominously active mobile suit whose green mono-eye tracked the slightly hobbled tech across the room. When the tech reached down to pick up a wrench, Tana could already tell what she was going to do with it and despite the assuredly dire circumstances the ship and crew found themselves in, Tana couldn't help but display an amused grin as the wrench ricocheted off the plating of the massive red mobile suit.

Clearly, this was someone who knew not the meaning of fear. Tana made a mental note to keep an eye on this particular individual. Whatever was going to happen around Sazabi's tech might not be the safest, but it was sure to be interesting.

"he he he she's pickin' a fight with a freakin' mobile suit..."

[DoctorFaust]

"There has to be other people," Yuuki protests. "We're on a freaking military base! How could they have not trained anyone else that made it on?"

[DualShadow]

Moving aside as ordered with her crew Agrias leaned against a nearby stack of crates as she looked over the chief. With a deep and slow breath she focused and tried to filter out the chaotic mess of the deck to listen in to the next team. At the very least it was a way to spend some time and the information would allow her to already start thinking about a possible encounter with the enemy. Which suit is ready and which ones lack pilots. As the art of war stated; to win you must know your enemy and know yourself, and for now she sure knew next to nothing.

[Burden King]

Xaia felt a little wave of disapointment, having expected a more engaging response "Aknowledged. My body and my creators are descendants of the Zeon. I will be proud to assist a mobile suit within the family when we face the enemy"

In the open, Xaia's civilian body had its little side flaps open and close in amusement "I'm looking forward to working with these people Tim...Though, the chief is taking a good time." she said, before hopping out of Tim's hands and rolling towards the chief

"Excuse me, we have been waiting for sometime. What did you want to see me and the Gai-Sura's technicians for? We have work to do and this is taking time we could use to prepare for future engagements."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Agrias: Agrias manages to listen in without anyone seeming to notice. The techs for the destroyed suit seem fairly depressed as they explain that the Nephilim has sustained significant damage: missing an arm, many of its maneuvering thrusters damaged or missing, and damage to its chest that includes damage to its cockpit. Nearly all of its weaponry is either damaged or destroyed, save half of its massive separable twin beam cannon, but the remaining arm may not be able to withstand the recoil of that particular weapon. Their only remaining pilot is still in the medbay; even if they can manage to make the suit spaceworthy before it might be needed, it's currently unknown what the pilot's status is. The crew chief instructs them to stand aside in the same area as Agrias when their report is done. Everyone seems to freeze when Lucia appears and stares down Sazabi, but after she throws the wrench and nothing seems to happen, the crew returns to their tasks. A moment later, she hears Xaia ask the crew chief what the hold-up is.

Xaia: The crew chief looks around for a moment for the voice, having just finished with the Nephilim's crew, before looking downwards, and scratching his head in bewilderment.

"Chatty little thing, ain'tcha? I needed a status report on the suit's readiness. The captain asked for it-" He suddenly cuts off as he notices the woman in the uniform behind him, with an expression on her face somewhere between annoyance and amusement. Her black hair is worn in a loose braid, and her long black coat with epaulets dripping gold fringe suggest an officer of some sort. He turns, comes to immediate attention, then calls loudly, "CAPTAIN ON DECK!!"

Lucia: The captain simply nods as Lucia exits the elevator and goes to confront her suit. Hopefully, this will fix the problem without her needing to do much else. Lucia is probably too busy to notice how long the captain actually goes before being noticed, when the crew chief bawls out his warning. All of the techs wearing the Vengeance's ship patches immediately come to attention and salute, facing the crew chief, since not all of them can see her. The tech teams from the base, on the other hand, simply stand and watch, waiting for her to speak.

Yuuki: Rafe shakes his head, sighing.
"They're out of pilots, Yuuki. The pilots that were on board had to go with the suit complement, and ours were missing when we lifted off. They didn't train everyone on every suit at the base, and besides, you're the only one with any zero-G piloting experience on the team." He seems about to say more when the deck goes quiet as Lucia confronts Sazabi, holds his breath for a moment, then lets it out as a sigh when the crew chief yells that the captain is now on deck. "Well, if you're going to protest, there's the person to yell at about it, not me." He gestures towards the woman standing in front of the crew chief in the black uniform, then turns back towards the Shura. "I'm gonna go deliver this to your dad before he starts in, too."

Tana: Gordon shakes his head, and is about to say something when Lucia confronts Sazabi. After the wrench hits, he shakes it again, then jumps, looking towards the crew chief when the latter calls out his warning.
"That's the million dollar question. Maybe the captain knows?" Typical civilian; no military respect at all. There's not time to lecture him, though, as the captain speaks, her voice echoing loudly even as the din of activity dies away.

Everyone on the Mobile Suit deck can hear this, though some of you have better vantage points to see the captain than others.
Mobile Suit Deck: The captain looks around for a moment, before speaking loudly, though her voice and demeanor are calm.

"At ease, everyone. I do have something to say to all of you, though, so please keep your ears open. Some of you know me, some of you don't. I am Nina Brighton, Captain of the Vengeance. The situation, I'm afraid, is rather grim. We are the last Republic Alliance ship active in this system. Two of our scout drones confirmed the destruction of the rest of the security force an hour ago. Currently, we are drifting, powered down, in an asteroid field. We cannot hold this position much longer, as our exit from Stechkin 4 was not clean, nor particularly stealthy, and it is only a matter of time before the Ragalians begin looking for us. In order to make an exit from the system, we will need to skip jump to the system's known jump point, which the enemy will no doubt have blockaded. Our mobile suit contingent was deployed to the defensive forces; it is now destroyed. The only suits we can use to project force beyond the ship are the ones that came in off of the base. Chief Gantz has asked you all to submit status reports on your suits' conditions and pilots. I know that not all of you have been able to report in to him just yet; I would appreciate it if those of you that haven't been able to report to him would report to me instead. I will be formulating our escape plan based on those reports, so please, be as thorough as you can. You may return to your duties now, all teams who have not reported to Chief Gantz yet, report to me ASAP, please."

The crew chief nods to her, then goes to his office after tapping a few things on his datapad. She now waits in the same place he did for the other teams, though her gaze seems to wander between the suits.

Athrusa: Athrusa is left alone to her thoughts for awhile; the drugs work effectively, and while she is now able to move around with minimal pain, it's only just a matter of time before they wear off. It's a pity that there aren't any vidscreens in this suite, it seems to have been set up for post-op patients who aren't out of the anesthetic yet. Apparently, the staff is keeping the fact that she's awake a secret for now, since no one else comes to visit for quite some time. Eventually, she can just barely make out voices in the hallway, though the bandages seem to be muffling the actual words enough that she can't make out what's being said.

[Merilan]

There's a groggy, tired stir from Athrusa as she lapses in and out of wakefulness; there's no hiding the fact that she's extremely worried and uncertain about what's going on. She knew that it was the Ragalians that attacked them, but not much more than that -- Nurse Celeste hadn't quite mentioned anything to her, lost on the situation as she was. The voices make her perk up just a little, and she squints as her ears perk up, fluffily, and she tries to carefully listen in on what's being said outside.

[roll0] Rolling to Carefully listen!

[Burden King]

Xaia rolled over to the feet of the captain, flapping her covers in an attempt to salute. "X4-14 reporting for the Gai-Sura captain. The mobile suit is currently missing 4 of its six arms, but remains at a tolerable level of combat effectiveness. Tim, the head technician of my team, has gone on record saying that the Gai-Sura should be ready for combat after coverings are placed over the empty secondary and tertiary arm sockets."

[DualShadow]

The Nephilim being as damaged as it was sure sounded bad in the current situation, with the limited amount of suits the ship had one less operational suit was bad news. Agrias gaze went from suit to suit until the captain showed up. She saluted the along the others but her motion wasn't a quick and sharp salute but more one of born out of obligation.

She listened to her speech and smiled a little when the captain took over taking the crew reports. Looks like she was a captain that was able to get her hands dirty even if it was just taking in the mobile suits situation. Agrias moved in closer to the captain eyeing the Haro unit that was behaving oddly, she saluted Nina with a bit more vigor this time. "Captain, I am Agrias Oak, pilot for the Freedom. Our unit's report is already in the files but I would like to ask for a copy of the final report of the ship's various mobile suits." She was just a pilot and in the mess Agrias lost track of who was in charge of the pilot group and who would be entitled to what information.

[DoctorFaust]

As soon as the captain has finished giving her speech, Yuuki stomps up to her and says, maybe more forcefully than she intended, "I refuse. You guys cannot make me do this."

[Erynn]

As Tana's salute drops, and the captain finishes speaking, the Zaft pilot quickly makes her way over to the captain, prepared to report the status of her unit, just in time to catch Yuuki flatly tell the captain that she had no intention of cooperating.

"Kid, you just got done telling me you're part of the axis forces group.", Tana reminds her, "If you're not a civilian, what you just did could easily land you in the brig."

Tana then glances over to the captain, her expression seeking to convey the doubt in her mind to the superior officer that the individual in question was actually a soldier. At the same time she does this, she hands the captain a data disc containing all information on the CGUE, as well as her own service record with the assigned machine. Inserting said disc into a PDA would readily display the fact that both mobile suit and pilot had managed to come aboard unscathed.

Tana waited quietly to see how both Yuuki and the captain of the ship would respond. She could foresee the scenario resolving only one of two ways, and regardless of which it turns out to be, what happens next is bound to be interesting at the very least.

[Shimmer]

Lucia winces as pilots swarm the Captain some more politely then others. Not that she shouldn't be among them, but quite frankly with most of her crew either in the medical bay or in their quarters till given the by your leave from herself she didn't exactly know what state her mobile suit was in. Moving towards the catwalk lift she rode it up taking a moment to observed the hubbub from afar and letting her eyes trail up the looming frame of the MSN-04 Sazabi.

Her mobile suit... Thinking of it as such simply felt strange. Not unnatural mind you. She'd always thought of Sazabi as hers like most engineers thought of their mobile suits. Yet it was a possessiveness that came with the understanding that one would need to share and form a relationship or bond with the pilot as much as the mech. Knowing that once the mobile suit was out the hanger doors there was nothing more you could do other then pray it came back in more or less one piece. Lucia hadn't been looking forward to that part. Apparently neither had Sazabi. While she wasn't certain if the AI could feel pain or not she knew he had some sort of dissonance in regards to the destruction of it's physical body that could almost be called the same thing. More then that however, was the fact the AI didn't like to be disregarded and used. He was more then a tool now. He wanted to be treated that way. Something Lucia hadn't been able to guarantee in a pilot before.

Now though, she mused, she could be certain of such.

"Sazabi..." Lucia greeted, cautioned, asked, too many emotions flowing through a simple name as the lift came to a stop at the mobile suits head. Reaching out she placed her hand against the red metal her features cast in a strange and eerie light of the mobile suits one great green eye as it watched her. Closing her own eyes Lucia let her mind open feeling her senses slip into the mech like a second skin as she felt the brush of the AI against her mind and wondered if the cockpit would open.

Welcome. The words rumbled through her mind like thunder as she heard more then saw the cockpit latch release revealing the mobile suit controls. Lucia wanted to say she was surprised, shocked, thrilled or disappointed, but truly she was numb. Settling into the seat like she was always meant to be there she held out a hand to stop the cockpit from closing.

"Leave it open." She ordered, not quite trusting her mech not to lock her in once more. Then turning back to the controls she began to run her diagnostic. Logically she knew why Sazabi had done what he had done. Lucia was a familiar constant, she wouldn't let him be erased or needlessly destroyed unlike others. She wouldn't let them erase his sense of self, but she had only been an engineer and in war time pilots could make any demands and see them done if it meant survival. So the AI had eliminated the threat from the equation.

"You didn't have to kill him." Lucia murmured soft and low as she read through the scan checking for anything that might prevent the mech from entering active combat. This time Sazabi's response came not through their link, but scrolled across one of her screens.

War makes monsters of us all.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa: The artifical Ragalian manages to catch the tail end of the conversation in the hall thanks to her ears, despite the other noises in the area and the bandages on her head. The voices are unfamiliar; both female, though neither is Nurse Celeste.

"...so she's awake?"

"Yeah, or, at least, she was. Dr. Tram gave her a dose of painkillers, and they might have knocked her out again. Her injuries are really complex. She's lucky to be alive. Being awake and possibly able to move is nothing short of miraculous."

"Poor girl. But if she's recovered from the surgery this fast, hopefully she'll heal quickly, right?"

"I'm not sure. These engineered folks can sometimes be tricky with their biochemistry. We may not be able to do much more for her until the ship can get to a station with a more advanced medbay, but it really depends on those diagnostics they did while she was in surgery. We'll know more in an hour or so."

"Well, hopefully she can get some rest, at least until then. Celeste said she would check on her in a little bit, hopefully, she's been able to go back to sleep." The voices fade into the distance after that, and Athrusa can hear quiet footfalls receding away. If nothing else, these people seem to be friendly and caring, and they don't seem bothered by her appearance or "augmentations" other than how they might affect helping her to heal. This ship might be a place she can start to feel safe around other people, if the rest of the crew is like the medbay staff.

Mobile Suit Deck - Captain's Pow-Wow:

Captain Brighton raises an eyebrow at the Haro unit reporting in on the Gai-Sura's status, as Tim, its lead tech, rushes up behind the little robot, somewhat embarrassed. He salutes her quickly, and somewhat awkwardly.
"Ma'am, what Xaia says is true. The Gai-Sura could be made combat ready relatively quickly, we just need to cover the exposed sockets and run a few calibrations, then load the vulcans."

"Hmmm, alright, noted." She makes a note on her datapad, then looks between the two. "How long will the process take?"

"About an hour, ma'am. My people have been working on the covers while we've been waiting, we anticipated the Gai-Sura might be needed for combat before we reached the next port."

"Good man. Alright, get it done. I'm assuming X14-er, Xaia, here, is the pilot?" She gestures towards the Haro, and Tim nods. She looks to her datapad, scrolls a bit, and nods. "Once the Gai-Sura is ready, you're to assist the other crews in prepping their suits. Get to it."

She then turns to Agrias, and returns her salute, before scrolling a bit more on her datapad, and nodding once again.
"I'll have the chief forward it to your terminal once everyone's in and settled, though that might not be for a few hours yet. Hopefully, you won't have to sortie before you get it, but I can't make any promises on that. On that note, have your crew load Freedom out for possible scramble. Your suit is one of the few that seems to be in good working order; if the enemy finds us, I'd like to be able to have something to throw at them. Dismissed." She seems to have caught the movement of the pair moving up behind her, and turns towards them, making another few notes on her datapad.

Captain Brighton's eyebrows shoot up at Yuuki's declaration, and there's a moment of confusion, until Tana mentions she's from the Axis Allied Forces group. She eyes Tana, obviously catching the doubt in the Coordinator's expression, before looking down to her datapad, and smiling in a friendly manner at Yuuki.

"Your friend is right, Ms. Itano, though to be fair, I know you're not a soldier. You and your father are a part of the civilian tech team." She sighs, closing her eyes for a moment, having noted that the pilots for the Shura are both missing and Yuuki was the one who piloted it onto the ship. "I'm in a tight spot; I don't really have any pilots I can put into your, or any suit, for that matter. From your team's report, it seems you're the most qualified. Let's not jump the gun just yet, though; can you tell the rest of your team to load the Shura out for sortie, and we'll work out who'll pilot it afterwards? While your team prepares it, I'll double check with my crew and see if there's anyone who's combat certified that you might be able train quickly. Fair enough? I can't promise there will be someone, but it's been a hectic day, and you might get lucky." Perhaps not the most military manner of handling things, but Yuuki isn't full military. Not yet, anyways, and Captain Brighton is quietly hoping she won't have to make the teenager full military, even in the dire circumstances they're in. She takes the disc Tana hands her and slots it into her datapad, then glances at the Coordinator, between skimming the info that comes up.

"Well then, I see your suit is more or less ready for sortie, correct, Ms. Akaishi? I realize it's not as specialized or durable than the other suits, but it is usable, for the time being, and that's what's important. Is your team currently busy, then, or are they just standing by as you are?"

Lucia: Sazabi's systems all check out green. The blood red suit does need fuel and ammo loaded, but it could be ready to sortie in under an hour if the tech team is pulled back in to aid the process. Lucia might note the entourage of the crew chief, several of the Vengeance's own mobile suit techs, and the team for the badly damaged Gundam in the next bay making their way past Sazabi, no doubt on their way to the wrecked suit. The crew chief and one of the suit's team seem to be deep in discussion. Are they seriously thinking about trying to sortie a suit that badly damaged? It's hard to say from this distance, though Lucia can probably try and find a way to listen in if she's terribly curious. Then again, perhaps staying focused on making sure Sazabi will let the rest of the team work on it now that Lucia's been made its pilot would be a more preferable course of action.

[Merilan]

Surprise stirs in Athrusa's face as she overhears the conversation. She... bites her lip quietly, sniffling just a bit. It was a major relief, in a way. So often, when she'd overheard conversations, it was usually quite nasty; people calling her 'traitor', 'cat freak', or any number of slurs against her; people who'd say it was only a matter of time before she decided to turn over to the other side, how they'd never let her near a mobile suit if they could help it.

She exhales quietly, hoping that the rest of the ship would be as kind.

She knew she couldn't rest for long. The Ragalians were after them. She wasn't out of the fire, like any of them here. But just for now... she was so tired...

Her eyes close, and she hopes to dream of kind people.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki pauses for a second, and then jerks her head in a nod. "Yeah, I can live with that. At least for now."

Once the meeting breaks, she lets out a piercing whistle, and yells, "Rafe, Hannah, c'mon! We gotta get the Shura ready to go. At least for now."

[DualShadow]

"Yes ma'am." she saluted before leaving for her crew and suit. So one of the pilot was that Haro unit somehow and that made her sigh and mumbled about sending toys to battle.

A distance away among her tech crew she relayed the captain's order "The Captain wants us to load the Freedom to have it ready for an emergency launch if needed. Run a quick diagnostic of the suit and then go help any of the other crews that needs help." Agrias suggested. "Especially that half destroyed unit, it needs lots of work but seeing as this is an emergency situation I would say patch armor over the critical bits, reinforce the arm so we can use it as some sort of turret on the ship."

With that she got in the Freedom's cockpit and started to run some check-ups before loading up the suit for a quick deployment meaning she should stay in the suit. With the suit's physical check done it was her turn to make sure she was alright. Agrias breathed in slowly and started doing Tai chi movement inside the Freedom, the suit mimicking the pilot's movements providing a weird show for those who can see the suit.

[Erynn]

"Thus far, I've only seen one tech from the CGUE upgrade project, Captain.", Tana replies, explaining the situation, "I don't think he's coping too well with something either. The man's nervous as a chihuahua. I'm hoping the rest of the team is aboard, lost somewhere, but his behavior gives me cause to fear the worst. As for the CGUE, it's in working order but needs refueling and rearmament. I can direct crews in how to go about the process, but there's the issue of logistics. Even with assigned personnel, does this vessel have the correct ammunition aboard? If not, I'm stuck with what's left in the magazines, then just the sword."

Tana then glances over toward the bay where her mobile suit has been docked, hoping to catch sight of Gordon in order to keep track of where he may be going and what he may be doing. If he's where he ought to be, then Tana's gaze shouldn't have to wander very far. Then again, the tech's behavior seemed a little off to her, so there was really no telling where he might be found.

Rolling clever approach: [roll0]

[Shimmer]

Lucia finishes double checking the MSN-04 Sazabi until she's satisfied the suit is in as peak of operation as can be expected at the time. Completing her work she rises from the cockpit seat with some trepidation as she eyes the decimated mech not far off from them with mild curiosity. Where they really planning to field that thing? Still shaking her head Lucia determines it's none of her business. Sazabi his her responsibility and if the enemy returns...well she didn't want to go out there with barely any fuel and ammo. Stepping onto the lift she descends and makes her way towards the Captain with her report, her pace still slow with her slight limp.

Standing politely to the side she awaits the other woman's notice watching as two of the others, whom she assumes to be pilots, depart past her to go about her business. Giving Tana time to speak her piece Lucia finally gives voice to her own report.

"The MSN-04 Sazabi's systems are green. The suit is low on fuel and ammo however, and if it is possible could you have one of the officers send for any of my crew that are uninjured and have them report to the Mobilesuit Hanger? I don't think it would be wise for me to leave the AI to go collect them myself. If we have to do an emergency launch the mobilesuit will be a sitting duck without fuel to maneuver and while I might be able to make due with a beam sabre I'd really rather not." Lucia spoke her tone soft, but clear as she listed off her unit's condition.

"If we can get the Sazabi space worthy quickly my crew and I can move to providing assistance to the other mobile suits. I've a fair hand at repairing heavy damage if that's all right with you Captain." She added deferring to the older woman.

[Burden King]

Xaia looked up to the captain, waiting patiently for her orders. As she was a soldier, a combat pilot, a mobile suit made weapon. She only wished to be given a target, or some orders. She looked to Tim "What should I do?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Xaia:. Tim picks up the Haro and turns towards the Gai-Sura once the captain tells him to get to it, and nods at Xaia's question, before walking briskly back towards the suit's berth.

"You should run your pre-mission checklist and get ready for deployment. If we're not jumped by the enemy, I suspect the captain will be having a pilot briefing soon. She wouldn't be telling us to get you and the other suits ready if she wasn't planning on needing you soon.". He considers for a moment, then looks back down at Xaia. "Once everything shows green for you, then you should wait for further orders from the captain. She knows you're the Gai-Sura's pilot now; I doubt she'll leave you out of whatever she's planning."

He sets the Haro down, and looks to the other techs, then begins giving orders for them to finish attaching the covers they had been working on, and to load the vulcans, leaving Xaia to run her checklist.

Yuuki: Rafe and Hannah look up, then nod, each in turn. Hannah scurries off to start fueling the Shura, while Rafe goes to gather some of the other techs to start loading the thousands of rounds of ammo the Shura carries. Yuuki, however, isn't left alone, as her father moves up to her. His face seems wracked by stress.

"Yuuki, what did the captain say? I heard you tell Rafe and Hannah to get the Shura ready to go. Did one of them volunteer to pilot? Or...did they perhaps, find us another pilot?"

Agrias: Agrias's crew nod, and quickly go about the preparations while she runs the suit's physical checks. Everything looks good, and the suit finishes fueling by the time Agrias is ready to start her own physical check. A few of the crew seem a bit startled when the Freedom starts moving, but they quickly get over it, especially once advised by the tech team that this is a normal routine for Agrias. Once the crew is done, they all follow Agrias' order to help the teams working on the Nephilim, and it seems the help is rather welcome. Perhaps by the time the captain needs it, the trashed suit might be usable, though only if they can find a pilot.

Tana/Lucia: Captain Brighton frowns as Tana explains her suspicions about Gordon, and her gaze flicks to the man, as well. He's standing where Tana left him, his gaze fixed on the Sazabi. Who can blame him for being nervous, what with what happened with the suit earlier? Still, it's something of a nuisance, and the fact that the rest of the CGUE's crew seems to have gotten lumped in with the base staff that ran aboard when the bombardment started instead of being pulled down here after takeoff is just icing on the cake. She glances down at her datapad again, and seems to make a few notes.

"I believe we have the correct ammo for your suit in stores, though I'll have a loading crew double check it and report back to you. I've also assigned two of my staff to go try and find the rest of your suit's tech crew; I'm not sure how they might've gotten mixed in with other evacuees. Once you're full on ammo and fuel, as long as you don't need him, have your man go help the other crews with that wrecked suit. Chief Gantz will keep an eye on him and hopefully, with something to keep his mind occupied, he'll settle down. You yourself are to stay ready for active deployment. If we have to scramble, the CGUE and the Freedom are probably the two that will be out first, so I'll be counting on you and Agrias until the other suits can be scrambled. I'll have the loading crew check in with you ASAP. Unless there's something else, you're dismissed."

With that, she looks to Lucia as the young woman comes up, and listens intently while she explains the Sazabi's status. When Lucia finishes, she makes a couple of notes on her datapad, and nods.

"That's fine. I've sent orders to fetch your team; since Chief Gantz says they were isolated, they should be back at the Sazabi by the time you're done here with me. I've also ordered a loading and fueling team to assist you. As long as Sazabi doesn't object to you working on another suit, the more hands on the Nephilim, the better, in my opinion. I need to go check a few things, but with any luck, I'll be back soon, and hopefully our situation will have improved. Unless there's anything else, you're dismissed for now."

And with that, unless Lucia stops her for some reason, she tucks her datapad under her arm and heads for the lift once more. Lucia's team is already at work on Sazabi by the time she gets back to the suit's berth, loading ammo and fuel. Most of them are too busy to say much to her other than to give a nod or a "Hey" in greeting, though one or two are engaged with the staff from the Vengeance, making sure that the correct munitions are making their way to their proper places on the suit.

Athrusa:

It's hard to tell how long Athrusa sleeps for. An hour, maybe two or three? Eventually, though, she becomes aware that someone is in the room with her once more. Cracking an eye reveals that she indeed does have company, a dark-haired woman in a dark uniform. She seems to be studying a datapad, and seems oblivious, at least, for the moment, of Athrusa's being awake once more. Odd, too, since she must have some rank, since her uniform's coat has epaulets dripping gold fringe. At least the pain meds Athrusa received seem to still be working, since she can shift her body without much pain, at least, for the moment. The woman in uniform glances at Athrusa every now and again, but seems to be trying to stay mostly quiet while here with the artificial Ragalian. Odd, to say the least.

[Merilan]

There's something of an acquired habit of Athrusa's body stiffening whenever she notices she's around someone she doesn't immediately recognise, and that's what she does when she looks up to the woman in the uniform. "U-um..." she stirs to wakefulness once more, as her eyes flutter open. "Is something... is something the matter?" She feels her throat burn for a moment, and she sounds just a bit hoarse.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki sighs, and stares down at her feet. "...No, Dad," she says slowly. "They haven't yet. But the Captain said she'd try, and so I thought I should at least go along while she looks so they don't try to force me to do anything."

She looks back up at her father, worry obvious in her eyes. "They can't actually make me fight, can they?"

[DualShadow]

Focused on her breathing and movements, Agrias performed the martial movements in slow deliberate movements like in those old kung fu movies. Feeling the feedback of the Freedom performing the same movement was still odd to her. She had tested the MTS cockpit quite a few time by now but the feeling was still there and it was both amazing and bothersome to have it feel so natural like moving her own body but also a little off. Not to mention controlling the unit's wings, that feeling was brand new and a little disturbing at times, it was like trying to move a muscle that you don't have and that last part still required quite a bit of concentration.

After five minutes of Tai Chi drill in her suit she declared that the suit ready and exited the Freedom. Feeling a bit more focused she looked around the deck as she made her way down the suit. Reviewing the info she had so far:

- The Nephilim is rather busted for the moment and the pilot injured. She could go check up on that but seeing as the infirmary was rather far she opted to limit herself to the mobile suit deck.

- There was the Gai-Sura that was piloted by the Haro ball. The unit was nearly ready for sortie.

- The heavily armed and armored Shura seemed rather ready but she knew that there was no pilot and the potential one was a civilian.

- She had no information on the Sazabi and its pilot though she guessed that the girl that attacked the suit with a wrench might be the pilot.

- Finally there was the CGUE, it seemed intact enough but didn't know about the pilot.

As she touched the deck's ground Agrias headed to the Shura to meet with the pilot Yuuki and her father. "Who is the candidate to pilot this unit?" she announced as she got near.

[Shimmer]

Lucia listens quietly to the Captain and Tana speak before following their gaze to the tech in question and can't help, but frown at what she finds there. She knew Sazabi had caused some problems, but she didn't think he warranted that level of attention and fear or perhaps this was the techs first encounter with the mobilesuit? Her team had kept the restoration project extremely quiet in case of spies as the MSN-04 had earned a reputation the last time it had been launched as one of the few mobilesuits to truly strike fear in the enemy or as much fear as they might be able to experience. Still the Red Comet was on their side.

Jolted from her musing Lucia turned back to the Captain offering a nod of understanding. "Thank you Ma'am. It should be safe to lend aid once I have Sazabi ready for combat. I don't fully trust him alone with my techs right now so I'll be getting back." She informed the Captain before letting the busy woman be on her way before offering Tana a small smile as she turned on her own heel to head back to work. Crossing the deck once more however, she didn't get terribly far before she found herself pausing alongside the tech known as Gordon. For a moment Lucia is lost for what to say only that she finds herself hoping to reassure the man.

"The AI is finicky, but he won't hurt you unless you give him just cause to do so." Lucia spoke her voice soft as she offered the man a gentle smile. "But if you're ever worried just come find me. I'm Lucia." She offered before leaving the man to his thoughts and moving to meet with those of her not injured and able to work. For the moment she would oversee the reloading and refueling process keeping a wary eye on her mech, but thus far the Sazabi seemed unperturbed. Then again the AI was mostly wary only in regards to it's cockpit which she took care to ensure her crew gave a wide berth.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa: The woman's attention snaps over to Athrusa as she speaks. She chuckles bitterly, and smiles wistfully, before rising and moving over to the side of the bed.

"What isn't would be a better question. I did, however, come to see you with a purpose in mind. I felt it was better to let you rest, though, after speaking to the doctor, especially given what I need to ask you, Athrusa." She pauses, brushing a bit of hair out of her blue eyes. "By now, you've probably guessed who I am, but I might as well introduce myself. I'm Nina Brighton, captain of the Vengeance." She smiles, not the wistful one from before, but one that's filled at the same time with warmth and sadness. "There's something I need to tell you, and something I need to ask you. The doctor explained it to me, and I felt you should hear it from me before I ask my question. You've been injured pretty badly; and my team has done everything they have the equipment to do for you. Your body is functional, but you've suffered a lot of nerve damage, and due to your modifications, we don't have the right equipment to treat it. If we can get you to a station or a larger ship with a better equipped medbay, then it should be fixable, but until then, you're going to be in a lot of pain when you move around without some form of painkillers."

She sighs, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment. "Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but given our situation, I have to ask you to do something I normally wouldn't. You're the Nephilim's only remaining pilot, and none of your team know the controls due to its age. If the doctors can give you enough painkillers to suppress the pain for say, an hour or two, would you be willing to try and pilot it? I've assigned extra people to your team to try and repair it as far as possible, and I'll have them do the prep work for you so that you can spend as much time resting as you need before we need to sortie, but right now, the Nephilim and the other Gundams are the only mobile suits I have to field, and I'm sure we're going to have to fight our way clear of the system. Once we're clear, I can see if you and your team might be able to train someone else to pilot, at least until we can get you to a better facility, but right now, you're all I've got. I won't force you; this is completely up to you, and like I said earlier, I wouldn't be asking this of you if this situation was anywhere close to normal, but we're in a definite pickle. What do you say?"

Yuuki/Agrias: Ichiro places a hand on his daughter's shoulder. There's sadness in his eyes, but determination on his face. He obviously doesn't want to say what he's about to, but he feels his daughter needs to hear the truth.

"They can, yes. Technically, the captain has the final say; the Admirals' council gave the power of conscription to captains three months ago, though normally they can only do it when in a warzone. I suppose this qualifies, though, which means that she can draft you on the spot, and order you into combat, and you failing to follow her orders can get you thrown in the brig, or worse." He grimaces, and looks to the Shura. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I shouldn't have brought you with me, nor should I have let you get so involved in the work on the Shura. This is my fault. Your mother joined the military because she wanted to, but I don't think she would have wanted this for you. Unless, by some chance, the captain manages to find someone else, but I guess we shouldn't get our hopes up."

He looks to Agrias as she approaches and calls out and shakes his head.

"They seem to be looking very hard at my daughter, here, but I am hoping someone else will turn up between now and when the Shura is ready. You are the pilot for the Freedom, yes?"

Lucia: Gordon looks to Lucia and just nods, before deciding to head back towards the CGUE. The crew working on the Sazabi take Lucia's warnings to heart and stay well clear of the cockpit, which is easy enough. Between the loading and fueling crew, and Lucia's own team, refueling and loading take a remarkably short amount of time. Soon, Lucia and her team are free to help others with their suits. The Nephilim is probably the obvious choice; most of the other crews seem to have things well in hand by this point. The wrecked suit seems to be coming along quickly thanks to the sheer number of people working on it, though it's questionable what they're going to do about that missing arm. There's also the matter of the pilot, if the rumors about the Vengeance being short-staffed of pilots is true, but there's probably little Lucia can do about that.

[Merilan]

Athrusa's eyes widen a little, and perhaps, it's a little endearing how the little artificial Ragalian tries to make a salute even though she's basically bound to her medical equipment when Nina drops her title. She listens to her lay it out. Nerve damage... well, that couldn't have been helped -- the fact that she's still here at all, despite being partially washed in the radiation of a beam, was... remarkable, nothing short of a miracle, really...

But her eyes widen further. "... I'm--" she bites her lip, swallowing gently. "I would have been dead on Stetchkin 4 if it weren't for Matthias... and... you didn't leave me behind."

There's a little tremble from the young girl, as her eyes water. The way she expresses it, it feels as if she was so sure she would be discarded the moment things went pear-shaped. She hears those voices again, telling her to life a good life. "... I'll do it. For Matthias' sake... and everyone else who was lost too. ... I'm sure you already got the reports from everyone else, but I think the mobile suit wasn't in a really good condition, though... it might not be able to perform amazingly, but-- but I can try to provide fire support or anything else you need me to, with what it has left on it. People have been kind here to me... it's... strange...
but... nice."

[DualShadow]

"Yeah I'm the Freedom's pilot, name's Agrias Oak." she answered with a smile. The pilot's gaze switched between the daughter and the father, "I'm gonna be honest with you two, I would prefer not having her out there with me. Going out in combat with an inexperienced civilian is just gonna put us into more danger but seeing the situation I'm starting to reconsider the idea."

Agrias looked around at the Shura, Ichiro and Yuuki, the situation was bad and once the ship tries to escape the system things would get worst. With a sigh she smiled a bit to the father/daughter duo "Look kid, the way I see it, either we all die when the ship blows up from enemy fire or everyone on this ship does their absolute maximum to make sure we all survive to live another day. So that means you going out there in that suit so that the ship, with your father on it, can be saved. How does that sounds to you? The captain is doing her best to find another pilot but in the meanwhile you should use your time wisely. Go in your unit, try to run a combat simulation or something."

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki pulls herself closer to her dad as the other pilot approaches, staying silent until she finishes talking. "Yeah, I know," she says quietly. "It's just...I'm scared. Not just of me dying, because I am really scared of that, but also what might happen to you guys if I do go out and screw up."

[DualShadow]

Agrias grinned "Your suit looks ready but you clearly are not. So how about we use what time we have to train in simulation to fix that problem instead of worrying about it?"

[Burden King]

Xaia watched as her mechanic left her to her checklist, and had she the capability, she may have pouted at the fact she had been left with this chore. Instead, with really no other options, she rolled over to the Gai-Sura and sent a burst of commands to the mobile suit. While the Haro unit docked at a near by charging pad, Xaia felt the cool rush of her code filling the systems of the Gai-Sura.

"Artificial intelligence transfer and conversion achieved. Integrity of consciousness steady at 100 percent. Beggining pre-flight check list."

The Gai-Sura slowly came to life, panels and other small devices along its body and inside its form performing testing movements or actions. Then slowly more and more things with the Gai-Sura became active and began to move

"Articulation and adaptive armor confirmed functional. No anomolies detected.

Sensor suite confirmed functional. Cameras Theta 1 and theta 2 offline. Cause: Missing Armature Theta 1 and 2. System deemed non-essential. Diverting power to other systems.

Continuing Sensor suite scan....

Cameras Beta 1 and Beta 2 offline. Cause: Missing Armature Beta 1 and 2. Systems deemed non-essential. Diverting power to other systems.

"

Xaia let out a growl of annoyance, which came out of the Gai-Sura sounding a quick release of steam.

"Removing all systems directly connected Aramarure System Theta and Beta from essential list.

Continuing Checklist..."

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the Gai-Sura was all checked, and Xaia felt a bit accomplished, sending a transmission to the captain "Xaia reporting in Captain. The Gai-Sura is prepped and ready for combat. Awaiting orders...."

[DoctorFaust]

"Alright, I guess," Yuuki replies. "I don't know how much the hour or whatever we have left will help, but I guess it at least can't hurt."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Yuuki/Agrias: Ichiro sighs, and nods.

"I suppose that's probably the most reasonable course of action, given the circumstances. Can you help me set up the simulation, then, Miss Oak?" He gestures towards the Shura's docking area, indicating that both Agrias and Yuuki should follow him. Once they reach cockpit level, he orders one of the techs to bring the computer used for calibrating the Shura's cockpit, and in short order, has it hooked up and rigged so that Yuuki can use the Shura's cockpit as a simulator.

"You can set enemy levels and positions through this terminal, and you should be able to give Yuuki advice through this microphone here." He gestures towards the relevant controls, and moves aside so that Agrias can use the terminal. He looks to Yuuki. "You should get into the Shura now, Yuuki. I've already keyed it to skip the startup sequence, so you shouldn't need to worry about anything other than training."

Athrusa: Captain Brighton smiles, both gratitude and relief evident in the expression.

"I've got my people working with your team on getting your suit ready, and the other teams have started to pitch in as well. Given the state your suit is in, I'd like to use it as fire support, but a lot is going to depend on what they can get done before we need to move. For now, don't worry about that. I'll conduct a briefing soon, once I have a few final details worked out. Just rest and save your strength for when you'll need it." She stands and takes a few steps towards the door, before turning back towards Athrusa. "I'll send someone to come get you once things are worked out. Thank you for being willing to do this. I won't forget it. And Athrusa..." Her expression grows very serious. "If anyone on this ship mistreats you, I want to know about it, ok?"

Xaia: Xaia receives a text message back from the Captain, short and to the point: Stand by and await further orders. Briefing will be coming soon.

While she's waiting, Xaia can observe the others going about their business. She could probably split her processing time while waiting and extend some of her senses back through her Haro if she desired, especially since the pilot of the Freedom seems to be helping the pilot candidate of the Shura with something. Then again, there are a number of other people she could interact with, if she chooses to, including the teams working on the Nephilim. No telling how long the wait will be before the briefing.

[Merilan]

Athrusa's eyes water further, and she-- lets out a little sniffle, and the Captain can really feel the fragility of the young girl as she wipes her eyes. Like she's never really heard that spoken to her so earnestly before. Matthias was kind to her, but it was a pocket of solace under a structure that largely treated her like a tool. "... yes, Captain," she nods. "Thank you..." she reclines back onto the bed, gasping for air again.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki nods silently, climbs down into the cockpit, and mechanically begins strapping herself into the cushioned pilot's chair. Once the final buckle snaps into place, she turns her attention to the control panel in front of her and its rows of familiar, solidly blinking lights. She focuses on them, taking slow breaths in and out until she can make herself transmit, "I'm ready to go. Um, Ma'am."

[DualShadow]

"Remember to stay calm and in control of yourself." Agrias makes some configuration on the console, entering some parameters and a custom scenario.

Over the console's conmmunication takes the role of a mission controller "Enemy approaching, emergency launching of the Shura!" With that she launches the simulation with the mobile suit getting launched out of the ship. The combat scenario contains two enemies set to quickly rush at Yuuki with a trigger-happy attitude but low accuracy, the goal being to have her feel the pressure of a relentless assault to see if the civilian pilot would crack under pressure.

[DoctorFaust]

"Sh-Shura launching to intercept!" Yuuki shouts, grabbing the controls. She steels herself, and pushes the controls forward, mimicking the acceleration of her mobile suit, sending the simulated Shura flying forward into space.

Three-quarters of an hour later, Yuuki hauls herself out of the cockpit of the mecha, dripping with sweat. "So," she pants, "Was any of that alright?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Agrias/Yuuki: Itachi helps Agrias adjust the controls as the latter sends waves of enemies at Yuuki for the next 45 minutes. When the simulation is finished, he looks considerably paler, not because her performance was poor, but because of how good it was. Agrias hears him mumble something as Yuuki's climbing out of the cockpit.

"Her mother.....just like Mayu..." He clears his throat. "E-excuse me, I need a moment."

You can roll to create your advantage now, and remember to add a +1 since Agrias helped you. I'd say this is probably a Clever approach, since you're thinking through the issue at hand and trying to address it.

Athrusa: The captain simply nods, before leaving. Athrusa is left to rest once more....at least, until.....


The Vengeance shudders violently, knocking objects from their places. Klaxons blare, signalling red alert, as two Ragalian strike teams appear on the ship's sensor readouts at maximum range, consisting of a pair of destroyers and no less than twenty mobile weapons, which fan out to try and cut off the carrier's retreat options. The asteroids make for treacherous conditions, but the destroyers and their escorts press on, firing their powerful beam weapons at the carrier. The first shot grazed the ship, but did little damage, but the second is a direct hit that shakes the ship like a dog with a chew toy. It doesn't penetrate the ship's armor, but it's a near thing, and several electrical systems nonetheless take damage. Captain Brighton orders a return fire, but if the mobile suits aren't scrambled, there will be no escaping the asteroid field.

On the mobile suit deck, just as Agrias and Yuuki are finishing up their training session, the ship shudders once as the klaxons go off, then lurches violently. Several techs are thrown from their feet, either to the floor, or bouncing off in random directions when working in areas with the artificial gravity turned off. Crates fall or go careening off, sometimes with consequences; several techs working on the Nephilim are injured, along with the pilot for the CGUE, who was trying to climb into her cockpit when the ship lurches, and banged her head on the hatch, knocking her unconscious. The pilot for the Sazabi is among those injured working on the Nephilim when a crate of electronic parts slammed into her unexpectedly, causing her to hit her head once more on the suit's armor, and causing a relapse of one of her earlier injuries. She, and the other injured, are rushed to the medbay for treatment, but the ship is now down two suits to deploy.

Over the intercom comes Captain Brighton's strained voice, echoing throughout the entire ship: "All mobile suits, emergency scramble! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Repeat, ALL MOBILE SUITS, EMERGENCY SCRAMBLE!"

[Merilan]

Athrusa's eyes shoot open the split second before impact is felt -- and there's a scream from the young artificial Ragalian as she's thrown clear off her bed, IVs dangling and ripping off her arm or tugging the metal rack along with her. She needs several seconds of trembling to reel and contextualise what's happening, eyes widening as she whimpers, saying, "I--is it them? Is it the enemy? Is it..."

She gasps and chokes out loud as she hears Captain Brighton's voice. "M-mobile suits..."

She looks to the nearest person, begging through the pain, "Nurse... Nurse Celeste. Help me... help me..." At first, she's just begging to be assisted, but she chokes out a, "... let me... let me onboard. I can help... somehow... if I can..."

[DoctorFaust]

As the mobile suit deck springs to life around her, Yuuki starts trying to shove her way through to the bay doors. After almost a minute of pushing with no progress, though, she opts to simply grab the person nearest to her and shout, practically right in their face, "Do you know where the captain is? I need to talk to her!"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa: Nurse Celeste appears after a moment, frowning in worry, but carrying a pilot's space suit in Athrusa's size, along with another hypodermic on a tray. She sets these aside as soon as she sees that the Artificial Ragalian has been thrown to the floor, and hurries to help the injured young woman up.

"Here, let me help." She kneels down and helps Athrusa up into a sitting position, doing her best to keep her patient's IV line intact. Miraculously, it didn't pull out, but the stand has been knocked over. Once Athrusa's sitting up, she'll start disconnecting the bag line from it. Her presence seems to help the worst of the pain subside after a moment, and she works quickly and skillfully. "Captain Brighton told us what to do if you needed to scramble, and it sounds like you do. She left us a pilot's suit for you, and I've got a mix the doctor said should help with the pain and keep you alert for a full shift if needed. Catch your breath, and we'll get started, ok?"

Yuuki: Yuuki has managed to grab one of the assistant crew chiefs, who stares at her wide-eyed for a moment....before something slams through the number 2 catapult bay doors, and sprays shrapnel over the oddly-shaped suit called the Gai-Sura, which had been preparing to launch. Several pieces penetrate its armor, and red fluid runs down its legs as it collapses, actuators disabled by a massive hydraulic leak. One of the other pieces manages to ricochet and hit Agrias as she's running for the Freedom, punching a neat hole through her left thigh. Two medics rush to her and begin first aid right away, but it's doubtful she'll be able to pilot now. Thankfully, the air containment field kept the hangar from depressurizing, but now the Gai-Sura is blocking that catapult. At least the Vengeance has more than one. The assistant crew chief blinks for a moment, and touches the earbud in his right ear.

"She's...uh...on her way down now, ma'am. But...uh....I think you should maybe get to your suit." He nods towards Agrias, who's now being helped by the medics. "Be a shame if that happened to you, too."

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki stares, her face bone-white, as Agrias is carried away. "O-okay. I'll go and get it warmed up."

She begins running back the way she just came, snagging a pilot suit along the way. After a short climb up the scaffolding around the Shura, she practically throws herself into the safety of the cockpit and seals it shut behind her. Equally quickly, she pulls off her civilian coveralls and shoves herself into the suit, latching her helmet down before turning on the comms system to try to raise other members of the Axis technical staff. "Dad, Hannah, can anyone hear me? Does anyone know what's going on?!"

[Merilan]

Athrusa manages to stop herself from hyperventilating as she sees Nurse Celeste, allowing her to sit back up with a quiet nod as she grits her teeth through the pain. "P-please, do that," she whispers, squeaking tears out of her eyes. She's not sure whether it's because of the pain or the emotion. "I'll fight. I'll fight to keep everyone alive...!"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Yuuki: Itachi comes over the comm, managing to sound both relieved and worried at the same time.

"Yuuki? Oh, thank heavens you're ok! The ship is under attack, the enemy seems to have found us. Are you in the Shura? It should be ready to deploy, but the crew chief tells me the Captain has belayed her scramble order until she arrives on deck, I'm not sure why. She should be there any minute now; can you see her?"

Sure enough, the captain has arrived on deck, not in her uniform, but in a pilot's suit, helmet clipped to her belt, her long hair tucked under the suit's collar. She rushes up to the Sazabi, and seems to be having an intense conversation with its tech team. Yuuki might be able to use the Shura's sensors to listen in, if she's of a mind to.

Athrusa: Celeste nods and finishes disconnecting the bag line, before taking the shot from the tray, prepping, and administering the painkiller inside into Athrusa's IV. The powerful drug floods the young woman's system, and in a moment or two, the pain completely subsides, and an alertness sets in, as though she's just taken a few caffeine pills. As soon as the drug seems to have kicked in, Celeste has managed to remove Athrusa's IV line, and put a bandage over the tap site, secured with some tape. She offers Athrusa her hands.

"Take it easy now, let me help you stand, and then you can get changed and head for the Mobile Suit deck."

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki heaves a sigh of relief when she hears her dad's voice over the comms. "I'm so glad you're okay too. And I can see her," she replies. "It looks like she's trying to get the Sazabi's crew to let her pilot it. I'll try to eavesdrop in on her. But are all the rest of our crew alright?"

Yuuki brings up the controls of the Shura and quickly focuses them in on the Sazabi, trying to catch as much of the conversation the captain is having as possible.

[Merilan]

There's an almost dour sigh from Athrusa as she grits her teeth and lets the medicine flow through her, and then she slowly, unsteadily lets Nurse Celeste stand her up. "I'm-- kind of-- dizzy, but..." she shakes her head again and tries to focus... and does just that. The medicine's numbness was -- disconcerting, she can't really feel anything, but she knows rationally that this is the best state for her to be in at present.

It's kind of a miracle she can even stand, given how much damage she sustained from having a beam rifle shot wash over her, even indirectly.

"I'm-- I'll get changed!" she finds a normal suit not too far away, perhaps moving just on sheer instinct, stuffing her hair down the neckpiece in a kind of clumsy manner. "I'll--" A pause. "Where... where's the Mobile Suit hangar? I don't actually know this ship at all--" she realises, seeking guidance. She was brought here unconscious, after all...

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa: Nurse Celeste politely moves away as Athrusa starts to get changed, turning her back, but not leaving in case she looses her balance.

"It's two decks below us. There's a lift down the hall to the left. The buttons are marked with the deck names, so it should be easy enough to get to. I can take you to the lift, if you'd like, once you've finished changing."


Yuuki: "Everyone's safe, though there are a few with some bruises from the pitching around," Itachi explains. He doesn't say anything else, trying not to disrupt Yuuki's attempt to listen in on the Captain. After a moment, she manages to get the Shura's sensors to pick up the conversation.

"....it ready?" Captain Brighton asks the tech lead of the Sazabi, who nods grimly.

"It's fueled up and ready to go, Ma'am, but how are you going to get into it? That blasted AI won't let anyone but Lucia inside it."

Captain Brighton gives the man a serious look, before speaking again.

"This suit has a psychoframe, doesn't it?" The man nods at her, a wary look on his face. "I know you folks disabled it, but I need it up now. Activate it."

The man's eyes widen, but the hard look from the captain steels him, and he quickly moves over to a terminal hooked to the Sazabi's cockpit. His hands fly nervously over the keyboard for a moment while Captain Brighton looks on, with her arms crossed over her chest. The ship jolts again, less violently this time, but enough to remind everyone of the situation they're in. After a moment he turns back to the captain.

"It's done, Ma'am. I hope this works."

Captain Brighton doesn't say anything further, just closes her eyes for a moment, as Sazabi's optic sensor glows once more, and moves, seeming to focus on her. She seems to be having some sort of silent battle with the machine, as its optic glows brighter still for a moment, before the glow fades, and the cockpit hatch opens, allowing her entry. The tech seems to breathe a sigh of a relief.

"Good luck, Ma'am," he says, saluting. She returns the salute with a nod, then heads into the suit. A moment later, her voice comes over the comm to the Shura.

"How's the Shura doing, Yuuki?"

[Merilan]

Athrusa nods, and bows her head. "Thank you, Nurse Celeste... thank you." She holds her hands tight, gives her a hug, and then races down the hallway towards the lift, smashing the button and hurrying as fast as her legs can take her.

There's a gasping look as she bursts into the Mobile Suit deck and looks towards the nearest technician, staring in awe at the different machines assembled -- and looking in horror at the state of the Nephilim. "I'm-- I'm here, Athrusa, um-- where's the Captain? I can help... send me out, anything will do..."

[DoctorFaust]

"The Shura's doing...uh..." Yuuki glances down at the instrument panel, picking out the few green glowing lights saying that everything is working. "She seems to be fully operational. It's the pilot I want to know about, though."

"You did say you would try to find a replacement for me," she quickly adds.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa: Nurse Celete turns in time to be hugged, and smiles gently, before stepping aside as she rushes off. Once Athrusa is on the lift, she'll whisper to herself as she goes to check on other patients.

"Good luck, little sister."

Once she reaches the mobile suit deck, she'll find a flurry of activity. The state of the Nephilim isn't as bad as when she brought it in; in fact, it''s already spaceworthy, the holes in the cockpit having been patched, along with the damage to the good arm. A cloth-like cloak hangs from the damaged pauldron of the missing arm, and one of the Vengeance's techs sprints up to her, hearing her call out. He gestures towards the Sazabi, which has its optic sensor turning this way and that.

"She's getting ready to go out in the Sazabi since its pilot was injured. You're...Athrusa, right? The captain told us to expect you." He gestures towards the Nephilim and begins leading her towards it. "We've done our best to make your suit combat-ready. We couldn't repair the missing arm, we didn't have time, but some of our Ooontaa contingent found an extra crate full of anti-beam armor cloth, so you've got a bit more protection there. We've only been able to repair 60% of the thruster systems on the wings, so your maneuverability is going to be down, but it's better than what it was, and we've reinforced the remaining arm so it can fire the beam cannon and withstand the shock. We've also managed to repair the machine cannons and load them. She's all fueled up and ready to go. The captain's waiting for you, best not dally," he says with a warm smile.


Partial Repairs: The Nephilim has been made combat ready just in the nick of time. It's still not up to its full potential, but a second weapon system has been brought online for use.

Loadout Change: 90mm Machine Cannon x2 - Online

Yuuki: Captain Brighton's voice sounds slightly distracted, and more than a bit strained, and no wonder. The captain is having one of the worst days of her life, and it's probably not going to get better anytime soon.

"I looked through everyone's records again, even had my staff check with the civilian teams. Nobody else has the right experience, Yuuki, except for me, and I shouldn't be doing what I'm about to, but I can't send you and Athrusa out there all by yourselves. You're not a soldier, and she's injured. I wouldn't be asking you to do this if we weren't in dire need, but the reality is, if all three of us don't go out there and get rid of those destroyers, we're all going to die." She pauses for a moment, and the Sazabi's optic sensor shifts around to look at someone who's just run in from the lift: a young woman in a normal suit. One of the techs runs to her and begins leading her towards the Nephilim. "I know you're probably scared and nervous, but I need you, and the Shura, on duty and focused if we're going to make it out of this alive. Can you do that for me, and for everyone else?"

[Merilan]

Athrusa wasn't really expecting to go out in the Nephilim -- vague, hazy memories of how that mobile suit wound up made her think that it could've been a write-off... but there it was, standing in front of her. Like her, battle-scarred and probably never to be the same again, but... flush with the memories of Mathias, she nods as she digests what the technician had to say to her. "That's amazing, I was expecting to just be a turret, I'll do my best...!"

She salutes to the technician, ever fond of the on-the-ground staff ever since she was taught to always respect them, climbing onto the latch-style cockpit and sliding down into it.

It's cool inside -- but to someone like her, she couldn't miss the faint scent of blood still in the cockpit. Hers... and Mathias'.

She holds her hand close to her chest, then straps the five point buckle into herself. She finds her fingers dancing along the keyboard, reactivating the mechanisms one by one as she whispers, "CPG stabilisation, lock... compensating for coriolis effect, confirmed. Reroute circuit power from ion pump modules to compensate for damaged manipulators... check. All systems, standby..."

She pauses, as a quiet flash ebbs over the one system they never quite figured out in testing, the sphere that sits at the center of her flight dashboard.

"... Athrusa, XG-00 Nephilim, do you copy, Captain?" she calls out on the radio. "The Nephilim is at about 60 percent mobility, I have close-in weapon systems and a long range 'Buster Rifle' beam cannon deemed safe and operational to support you with. Please let me know what my orders are."

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki slumps down in her chair, unable to think of any arguments against what the captain was saying that weren’t either childish or stupid. After a very long moment’s pause, she thumbs on the radio and broadcasts, ”Yeah, I’ll do it.”

Another long moment passes, and Yuuki switches the cockpit radio to a private frequency with her father. “Hey Dad,” she asks. “Why would the captain need to have the Sazabi’s psychoframe activated? Even just from a tech perspective, surely it’d outclass anything the Ragalians could’ve sent against us on short notice even without it on.”

[Nova_Eclipse]

Yuuki: "Thank you, Yuuki," Captain Brighton says, more than a little relief in her voice. At least they'll have the Shura for this fight now.

"Well, she must be a Newtype if she had them turn it on. The rumor is that the Sazabi's AI is rather...crotchety, I guess is the best term for it," Itachi explains. He doesn't seem perturbed that Yuuki's contacted him when she should be getting ready to go out. "It wouldn't let anyone into the cockpit but its designated pilot, but since she was injured, the Captain must have needed some way to convince the AI to let her pilot it. If I had to guess, that's probably how she convinced it to let her in. Perhaps something to ask her about later."

Athrusa: Captain Brighton's voice sounds a bit distracted, but it seems to fade as she speaks.

"I copy, Athrusa. Glad you're here. I know the Nephilim isn't 100% yet, but I really need you and it, since all of the other suits save the Shura and Sazabi have either been damaged or their pilots have been knocked unconscious. I've got a battle plan, let me make this a circuit channel between the three of us so I can explain what we're going to do..."

Both Pilots:

There's a quiet click, before Captain Brighton's voice comes back over both the Shura and Nephilim's comms.

"Ok, ladies, here's the situation: there are, at last count, two dozen mobile weapons closing in on us, and two destroyers blocking our exit path from the asteroid field." An image comes up on each suit's display, showing a 2D image of the Vengeance, surrounded by large, grey spheres, mostly to its aft, while numerous red dots seem to be darting around them, slowly closing in. In front of the ship, two larger orange dots block the ship's egress from the asteroid field. "We can't go deeper into the field because of the asteroid density. The destroyers have powerful I-fields; they're able to withstand blasts from our megaparticle cannons, and they've managed to knock our conventional cannons offline. We're also low on torpedoes, and now that they've found us, we need to save those. I'll explain why in a moment."

The image on the display zooms out, showing a longer corridor between the Vengeance and the enemy ships, with scattered red dots among the grey spheres. A stray sphere here and there passes between the Vengeance and the enemy, but for the most part, the corridor seems clear.

"Yuuki, you and the Shura are going to be our bomber. You've got more conventional firepower on board. You should be able to get in close, and knock out those destroyers' I-fields." An image comes up on Yuuki's display next to the first one, showing a close-up of the alien ship. They use a smooth design, studded with bulges. The ship is an elongated teardrop, with the largest end aftwards. The image zooms in on a bulge on the ship's belly and highlights it in red. "A conventional weapon strike here on each should knock them out. Once their I-fields are down, they'll be vulnerable to beam weaponry. The Vengeance should be able to take them out in a couple of salvos once those I-fields are down."

An arrow comes up on the "map" image, showing a course through the asteroid field towards the enemy ships, this time on both the Shura and Nephilim's displays.
"You'll both fly this course. Athrusa, your job is to escort the Shura to the targets, and deal with as many enemy suits along the way as you can. Yuuki, try to conserve as much of your ammo as possible on the way there. Athrusa's suit is only at sixty percent mobility, but her suit started out a lot more maneuverable than yours, Yuuki, so I think you should be about matched in terms of performance. I'd come with you, but someone needs to deal with the rest of these enemy suits, so they don't do to us what we're planning to do to them. I'll do my best to make a big, flashy show of it, so hopefully, they'll be more focused on supporting their forces here than trying to catch you two."

Sazabi hefts its beam shotrifle, as if to accentuate this point.

"Once the destroyers are taken care of, the Vengeance should be in the clear to get out of here. We're not going to try and hide again, though; this is going to be a two-part operation. After you've finished with the destroyers, rendezvous with the ship, and stand by on alert. We'll be microjumping to the system jump point, and we're likely to encounter heavy resistance there. That's why I need you to conserve ammo, Yuuki. We won't have time to resupply the Shura before you'll be needed again. That's also why we need to conserve our torpedoes. Our scout drone saw a lot of force there, and if we're going to punch through it, we need to be able to bring as much to bear as possible."

The captain takes a deep breath, and sounds a bit calmer now.
"If I can finish the goons off early, I'll come to help, but you two need to rely on each other, and keep each other safe. I'm counting on both of you. Any questions?"

[Merilan]

Athrusa listens acutely as the Captain lays the plan down; her fingers are twitching, as she tries to calm her nerves. A real do or die situation. "Okay... I got it. I've only got a single arm and no melee weapons, so it might be dicey if we get trapped in a close engagement, but there's no other way." She didn't seem to have any questions, glancing on the comm screen towards Yuuki. She can't really remember right now if she's met her before, her memories and head are still slightly fuzzy from the cocktail of drugs and painkillers in her.

"Hey Yuuki. I'm Athrusa. I'll shield you with my life, so don't worry... okay?" she tries to be reassuring to her teammate. Even over the monitor, over the tinted visor of her helmet, it's quite clear where just about half her face has received some scarring.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki jerks her head in a terse nod. "I think I get it. I'll do my best to save my heavy munitions for the second stage. Maybe I'll just use the sword and knives until we engage the destroyers." She looks away from the comm screen to try to hide the nervousness she can't quite banish from her face, fixing the last few life support connections into place.

Athrusa's message breaks her out of her shell just long enough for her to whisper, "Please don't do that," before she turns her eyes down again.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Both Pilots: "If you've got no questions, we should get started, then. You two should use catapults 1 and 3, then. I'm heading out now. Good luck, ladies." The comm from the Sazabi cuts off as the crimson suit makes its way to the number 5 catapult, which will fire it aft instead of forward. A moment later, the captain's voice comes over the general channel, rather than the private one they were using a moment earlier as the Sazabi is locked into the cradle. "MSN-04 Sazabi, launching!" The catapult fires, and the Sazabi is gone, a bright light disappearing rapidly into the blackness outside the ship. The launch doors for catapults 1 and 3 open, waiting for Yuuki and Athrusa to get their suits in position.


For this battle, zones are roughly defined by their distance from the Vengeance, and their location in relation to the ship. Each zone represents an increase in distance from the ship of 25 kilometers in all directions.
Zone A - The Vengeance is currently in the center of this zone.
Zone B - The area surrounding Zone A, mostly asteroids. Many of the enemy mobile suits are in this zone.
Zone C - Surrounds Zone B, asteroid density is slightly lower here. There are a few strangler enemy units in this zone, currently enroute to Zone B.
Zone D - Surrounds Zone C. Asteroid density drops off the further from Zone C you get in this zone. The enemy destroyers are in this Zone.

I'll try and get an image up in the OOC thread of the asteroid density and enemy distribution, though it'll be more of a rough guide.

[Merilan]

Athrusa pauses, before lowering her head contritely. "... sorry. But, I will do my best to defend you, still."

She turns her look towards the number 3 Catapult, and proceeds with the controls as the winged mobile suit is carried on its recharge rack and placed upon the catapult rail.

"XG-00 Nephilim.
All pre flight checks cleared.
I have control."

Her eyes narrow as she grips onto the flightsticks and feels the G-forces hitting her body -- even with the drugs, it was still quite tough to control given how wounded she is... but she'll manage.

The suit is truly a wreck, but there's a certain beauty to it that still shines through -- its wings unfurl, almost organic and angel-like in the midst of the cloak that flutters through it. "Headed towards Operational Zone B to engage the enemy!"

[DoctorFaust]

As the heaviest of the mobile suits, the Shura is the last to be taken to the catapult rail. All along the ride, Yuuki is checking, and double checking, and then triple checking all of the systems in the suit until she finally can't put off launching any more.

"AMX-913C,
Flight checks cleared.
Launching!"

The G-forces hit her like a hammer, worse than anything she's felt in flight. But she fights through it, pushing back against the ring of grey threatening to eclipse her vision, until finally she clears the end of the catapult and is launched out into space. She throttles the thrusters back to a more reasonable level, and peels off into position behind Athrusa's suit. "Nephilim, I'm your wingman. Lead on to...wherever it is."

[Nova_Eclipse]

As the Nephilim and the Shura take off, their sensors begin registering obstacles and potential enemies. It will take them 2.5 minutes of flight time to reach the next zone. Thankfully, the zone surrounding the ship is relatively free of asteroids, though beam fire from the destroyers occasionally lances through the clear zone between them and the Vengeance. As they approach Zone B, the density and size of the asteroids will pick up. As they near the border, several objects seem to be moving a bit more erratically than the asteroids, though whether it's the enemy or the result of collisions between the asteroids will take some deduction on the part of the pilots. The Sazabi is already engaged; although outside of their suits' other sensor ranges, if they look off to the left, they can see the telltale signs of a space battle starting: the spherical explosions and lancing lights of beam fire being exchanged.

Athrusa, leading the formation, has the first opportunity to spot what might be the enemy in the next zone, though Yuuki won't be far behind in being able to confirm whether it is the enemy or not.

You can both roll your Careful or Clever approaches to try and discern whether what your sensors are picking out is actually the enemy or just asteroids. I posted this in the OOC, but here it is again for reference. The route the captain showed you through the briefing takes you up along the right side of the open corridor, in the asteroids so that it will be harder for the enemy to follow and engage you. The two large red dots are the destroyers; the smaller ones are enemy suit wings that the ship could detect before you left. The grey pieces are large asteroids; there are a lot of smaller ones I didn't draw due to scale.
https://i.imgur.com/I0nWg1F.png

[Merilan]

Athrusa grimaces as she tries to keep a low profile, but amongst other suits, the Nephilim certainly is a bit more grandiose than others... even damaged as it is. "We've got more space debris ahead, Yuuki -- let's try overlapping scans and make sure we don't have any unwelcome surprises. Linking my radar data to yours--"

She pauses as she feels some kind of sensation sketch into her mind, seemingly emanated from the machine--

[ Z. . . . R . .O . . ]

"... e-eh?" Athrusa shakes her head, unsure of what she just saw. It's gone again. "Linking-- linking my radar data to yours. Sorry."

Rolling for Careful: [roll0]

[DoctorFaust]

A frown twitches across Yuuki’s face in response to Athrusa’s sudden confusion, but she quickly brings herself back under control.

”Alright,” she replies, punching commands into thw main computer of the Shura. “I’ll try to put some filtering on the signal to get the sensors to justregister higher output energy sources.”

Clever:[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Damaged though it may be, the Nephilim's sensors are working at peak condition, and they easily pick out the forms of three common, if older, Ragalian model mobile suits. They're similar in shape, though the heads on two (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/x/nrx-018-2.jpg) of them are slightly different from the third (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/x/dt-6800w-alt.jpg), which has a large, shoulder-mounted cannon on it. The arms on the two with different heads also sport a large outcropping, probably a weapon of some type, and all three carry beam rifles. They don't seem to have noticed the two Gundams yet; they're continuing on the same course, at least, for the time being. They're at the far end of the Nephilim's Buster Rifle range, but they're close enough together that one well-placed shot could take out the entire group.

The Shura, in contrast, seems to have missed them. Perhaps its sensors aren't calibrated right, or perhaps it just doesn't have the correct angle, but for whatever reason, the Shura's sensor analysis suite seems to think that they're the result of asteroid collisions. It will take another minute before the Shura picks them up, if Athrusa doesn't act on her own suit's analysis.

[Merilan]

Athrusa's very own senses perk up as she announces to Yuuki, "Contact. Two Ragalian models, one with an artillery attachment," she explains as she tries to transfer some of the data over. "It might draw attention to our location, but I'm going to try to take them out with a Buster Rifle charge."

She lets the Nephilim glide for a moment, powering off her thrusters as she lets herself hide behind an asteroid... she gazes towards the radar, and when she's confident she has a shot lined up--

"Destroying the obstacle."

There's a hiss from the Buster Rifle as it roars into life, a glow ebbing down the barrel of the impressively long beam cannon -- and with a single shot, a golden, defiant roar races across the asteroid field, reducing to dust any lesser debris that dares stand in its path.

There's a grimace from Athrusa as the cockpit rattles -- even in the cold of space, the weapon is not meant to be fired in such a condition; she can feel wear and tear reports blare out as the arm starts to shake under the sheer recoil of the cannon.

It's either a Stealthy or Forceful action, but they're both at +2 so -- [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The massive yellow beam lances out towards the three enemy suits, who have just enough time to look over at it before it's upon them. Clearly, their own sensors aren't up to snuff since they make almost no evasive actions before the beam hits. For a brief instant, the suits disappear in the burning yellow-white arc, before a trio of fireballs expand from where the suits and the beam intersect, before the explosions and the last of the beam die out, returning only a few tiny pings on the radar from the bits and pieces of the suits that weren't vaporized by the beam. Despite the cockpit's shaking, the Nephilim has held itself together, and the wear and tear reports only show the most minor of damage, certainly not enough to keep the suit from continuing to fight. For now, though, as far as your sensors can tell, the path seems to be clear of enemies, though once you get further away from the Vengeance, the asteroid density is going to pick up substantially.


Defense: [roll0]
Success with Style - You can reduce damage by one to gain a boost
Doing so won't alter the above outcome


It's now Yuuki's turn, for reference.

[DoctorFaust]

The massive beam from the Nephilim rocks the Shura to the side, and Yuuki struggles to correct her mobile suit's course. "Christ," she gasps, "How did they take down your suit when it's armed with that?"

When the Shura starts reacting to her controls again, Yuuki opens the throttle back up and continues on her course out towards the destroyers.

Moving from Zone B to Zone C

[Merilan]

There's a faint breath as Athrusa keeps the suit under control, rather pleased to see that it was going to hold. She was absolutely terrified of any leaks or other demerits happening while the rifle was in operation... and there wasn't a lot of ammunition left -- it only holds three e-pacs.

"... they caught us by surprise... and the intended pilot--" Athrusa pauses for a moment. "Died protecting me. This is the least I can do to make up for that."

The Nephilim's white wings furl up as she tries to catch up to the Shura as it heads along, but it'll be a bit longer for her.

I'll create a Boost for my next action out of that.

[Nova_Eclipse]

The asteroid density increases as the pair of Gundams makes their way through Zone B, but neither suit's sensors pick up signs of enemy squads in the zone. Once they reach Zone C, the asteroids will slowly begin to thin out, which will make spotting the enemy easier. As they're traversing the field, the Vengeance will begin advancing slowly on the destroyers, but it will take them some time to reach even Zone B. Still, at least now they're something of a moving target, if not a very fast one. They're probably holding back so as to give Yuuki and Athrusa time to take out the destroyers' shields.

As they fly, new data will come up on Athrusa's tactical display. Apparently, either before the Nephilim was loaded, or during the course of repairs, someone updated its enemy craft library and analysis routines. It displays data on the suits Athrusa has just destroyed: known performance parameters, sensor ranges, and so on. Of note is the fact that the Nephilim's sensor range is several thousand meters more than that listed of these suits, and it's a good bet that the Shura's sensors have an equal, if not greater, advantage.

Boost - Short Suit Sensor Range

[Merilan]

Athrusa blinks a few times as she scans the enemy data while they fly; it wasn't something she'd been expecting to have, but it was nice to have nonetheless. She sucks in a little breath as she reviews the sensor ranges again; it was a bit strange -- she didn't think the Nephilim could pick out ranges at the distance it did, but... here it was, giving a little extra from what was listed. It was nice, a little boost of confidence.

"Hey, Yuuki? Here's some information about the enemy sensor ranges -- I believe our suits have superior tracking systems; I'll give you some additional data to tweak your search filters better. I think the Shura's got even better sensors than what the Nephilim's capable of... let me know if you spot those destroyers as we head along as well."

She hastens her review through the enemy models, funneling data that she hopes Yuuki would be able to better spot undue surprises.

I'll use my Boost to Cleverly Create an Advantage for Yuuki - Refined Radar Tuning. [roll0]

[DoctorFaust]

"Oh, awesome, thanks!" Yuuki starts poring over the data funnelled to her by Athrusa as they continue their flight path, looking for any pattern that might help her fix the sensor program that failed her so badly in their previous encounter. And with how much more skilled she is with the Shura's operating system than she is it's weapons, she's quickly able to identify what she thinks was causing the problems.

A few strokes on a holographic keyboard later, and the new filter is up and running on the Shura's sensors. "Alright," she says, "I'm going to try to get my suit's range up to max. I wasn't involved in those tests, but if we tried to overachieve as much there as we did on everything else, I should be able to pick more up."

Cleverly...overcoming? I guess? And I'll also be using Merilan's boost, assuming the roll was a success.

[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Success with Style: Athrusa has created Refined Radar Tuning, which can be invoked once more for free by either Athrusa or Yuuki, since Yuuki's already invoked it once. This situational aspect has been added to the OOC for future reference.

Success with Style: Yuuki has fixed the glitch in the Shura's sensors, and gained a boost as well!

The Shura's sensors, now operating at 100% thanks to the data from the Nephilim and Yuuki's quick refinement, do indeed reach further out than the Nephilim's by a significant margin, a design feature intended so that the Shura could use its missiles to strike at longer ranges, since the warheads continue on their last vector for quite a ways after running out of fuel. As soon as she enters Zone C, the Shura's sensors pick out the forms of another wing of enemy suits, the trio seemingly holding position near a large asteroid at the edge of Zone D. It will be another few minutes of flight before the Nephilim will be in range to pick them out, let alone be in beam cannon range, but the pair could alter course to go around them, if they act quickly.

Enhanced Targeting Data

[DoctorFaust]

"Athrusa, can you see these?" Yuuki punches a few buttons and sends the positions of the wing of enemies back to the Nephilim. "I think we could punch through 'em if we had to. There's not many."

[Merilan]

"Oh, no, I couldn't... the sensors only go so far," Athrusa admits, glancing towards the formation of enemies. "We're close enough to the destroyers that I don't think the Buster Rifle's a good idea -- it'd attract their attention and give us away. But I could manuever around and ambush them from behind -- and you can follow up."

She charts a quick path according to Yuuki's data, and follows it -- the Nephilim's wings unfurl as she darts forward and quickly zips through the asteroid field to try to lurk behind the enemy. The blue and white mobile suit silently glides as it comes up to the next set...

... and she quickly opens fire -- with the machine cannons. Her intent is to quickly disable one and snatch that Ragalian suit's handheld weaponry -- hopefully some kind of beam rifle or sabre. Then she'll utilise that weapon to launch more shots to burn through them.

Sneakily attacking with the free invoke from Refined Radar Tuning! [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

As Athrusa gets closer, the Nephilim's sensors show that these enemy suits seem to be more alert than the last bunch. Their formation is different, allowing them a more comprehensive scanning pattern. Still, with her Gundam's enhanced sensors, and the data from the Shura guiding her, she's able to find a tactically superior position within the asteroids, giving her a chance to get closer in for a better shot with her machine cannons.

Defense for the suit wing: [roll0]
Success with Style - You may reduce damage by 1 to gain a boost; doing so won't alter the outcome listed below

Unfortunately, their vigilance matters little, as the sheer power of the Gundams is rapidly becoming apparent. Athrusa's first burst from the machine cannons on the Nephilim strike more damage onto these outdated models than a normal suit's would. Perhaps it's the ancient weapon's targeting system, perhaps it's the repair job performed with modern materials, or the modern ammunition. Whatever the cause, the burst manages to shred two of the suits, both the models with the strange protrusions on their arms. The third suit, another of the artillery models, looses its head, an arm, a lower leg, and part of its cannon. While it doesn't explode a moment later like the first two, it's definitely too damaged to be useful in combat anymore. Curiously, the pilot doesn't eject. Athrusa manages to find not one, but two enemy beam rifles. She might need to get inventive with storing the Nephilim's buster rifle in order to retrieve them, though.

Yuuki now has a clear path to ambush the destroyers from.

[Merilan]

There's definitely a nerve struck when she realises the enemy suits are alert and onto her -- the difference between awareness and negligence is life and death, and she's very much acutely an up-front victim of that once... it's claimed Mathias before, and now--

--now, she won't let that happen again. The vulcans have a surprising spread to them, allowing the Nephilim's old targeting system to pattern its bullets such that critical joints are rent as she has the suit reach back and latch the Buster Rifle onto a recharge rack along the back, parallel to its primary wings. She grabs one of the beam rifles with the free hand, and hucks it in the direction of the Shura. "Rifle coming your way, Yuuki! We're hurting for supplies back home, might as well pack an extra while we can!"

She grabs the other rifle.... and takes a deep, deep breath.

"The destroyers are just ahead in Zone D, Yuuki -- you know what to do. I'm going to run a distraction for you so that you've got a better angle on them, okay?"

The Nephilim charges forward, for once showing itself clearly within radar position. She launches a few warning shots in the direction of the destroyers, then plays a cat-and-mouse course as she darts towards the further asteroid fields to present herself as a skirmisher trying to get into their blindside.

I'm gonna use the boost from my last attack to Quickly create an advantage: Athrusa's Diversion. [roll0]

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki had begun her own charge towards the squad of Ragalian mobile suits, but Athrusa's sudden firing forces her to roll away, the g forces once again greying out her vision. She's able to shake it off more quickly this time, and recovers soon enough to have the presence of mind to clip the Shura's shotgun on to the back of its skirt to be able to grab the beam rifle. "Thanks! I guess." Yuuki broadcasts back. "Good luck."

The younger pilot takes a deep breath of her own, and flies on towards the destroyers. Up to this point in the mission, she hasn't been able to find it in her to fire a single shot, and now she's been entrusted with taking down fleet ships on her own.

Still, the mission is well past the point of no return for her, and so as she nears the enemy ships, she redoubles her grip on the controls of the Shura and opens the throttle even wider. Forgoing any sort of subtlety or sneakiness, Yuuki opts to simply plow forward towards the ships and, as soon as she's in range, flush the first of her many magazines of homing missiles at the underside of the destroyer.

Forcefully attacking:[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa's Diversion - Both destroyers are focused on the Nephilim, giving less priority to other targets.

Athrusa's taunting seems to work, as the flak turrets on both destroyers begin spewing tracers and beams at the winged Gundam. Their sensors must have registered the destruction of the suit wing, because they seem more focused on getting revenge on the Nephilim than trying to intercept the heavily armed Gundam that suddenly appears below them, firing missiles.

Quickly trying to outmaneuver some of the missiles [roll0] Success With Style - Yuuki may reduce damage by one to create a boost, if you'd like.

Too late, the first destroyer catches the inbound suit on its sensors, and too late, the destroyer's thrusters flare as it tries, unsuccessfully, to avoid the first salvo. Explosions light across the entire underside of the enemy ship, but as the debris that spalls off clears, the Shura's sensors show that the damage the ship took was light. Still, something must have hit one of its I-field generators, because the field strength seems to have diminished somewhat. Not enough for the Vengeance's own beam shots to penetrate yet, but enough to at least provide a glimmer of hope. Better still, with a little fiddling with her targeting systems, Yuuki should be able to set her missiles to home on the generator's signal. Something to try for her next pass, perhaps. A bit of structural analysis pops up on her tactical display along with the signal strength info: the missiles, while not seeming to have caused a tremendous amount of damage, seem to have broken the cohesion of the ship's armor. Her next attack may be all the more devastating, provided she can strike one of the weakened areas.

Compromised Armor Integrity - Destroyer 1

Athrusa, unfortunately, may not be feeling particularly hopeful, as both ships have focused their attention on her, and it will take their gunners a moment to refocus on Yuuki now that she's appeared and made sure she's a threat to them.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Both are forcefully attacking Athrusa this turn, so she'll have two defenses to make.
Destroyer 1 Attack: [roll0]
Destroyer 2 Attack: [roll1]
Hmmm...perhaps I should have put this in the OOC thread, but I think it's easier to follow here.

[Merilan]

Quickly defending:
Destroyer 1 [roll0] - Tie
Destroyer 2 [roll1] - Success

Athrusa's eyes widen a touch in the wake of the Shura's explosives; she was nearly in awe of what that mobile suit was just capable of -- it wasn't something she'd ever seen before. But it wasn't yet enough -- and there's a wince from Athrusa as she exclaims, "Keep it up, Yuuki, it's working! We need more physical payload on their I-field generators!"

She's struggling herself, as the cockpit starts to rock -- the Nephilim may be ancient, but there's something about its chassis that causes it to hold together even as their gunners open fire -- a solid round shell explodes on the surface of the Nephilim's shoulder armor, blowing away a small chunk of it and more critically throwing her off-balance. Fortunately, her speed was such that she could still hold together and avoid the second volley...

... up until the cockpit lights start to flicker, Athrusa's eyes widening further. Connection errors and other kinds of issues start to flare throughout her screen, and there's a wince as she struggles with her flightsticks. "Not now...!" she hisses. Even if the Gundanium armor had held, something more fragile had been possibly knocked loose underneath. She opens her panel computer to start diagnostics, even knowing her life could possibly be on the line.

To spice things up, I'm going to compel Heavily Damaged on myself to illustrate that the Nephilim's a patchwork machine right now, much like Athrusa herself is.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Compel Accepted - You gain a fate point!

Diagnostics take a moment, and a few of the connection errors go away in that time. When the damage report comes back, the news is...marginal, at best. The impact severed several connections in the suit's shoulders. Most of them can be rerouted, but suit's AI is having trouble discerning where the connections should be made. A simple fix for Athrusa, but one that will take precious seconds as she has to manually select each reroute. Once that's done, the real damage appears: the suit's right wing binder actuators are locked. Shell fragments are stuck in the joints. There's a chance Athrusa may be able to either knock them loose, or perform some other workaround that will give her the maneuverability she so desperately needs back, but if something isn't done, she may need to fall back to the asteroid field in order to avoid being destroyed.

Athrusa will need to roll to overcome Wing Damage. This action will take her turn for this round.

[Merilan]

Diagnostics take a moment, and a few of the connection errors go away in that time. When the damage report comes back, the news is...marginal, at best. The impact severed several connections in the suit's shoulders. Most of them can be rerouted, but suit's AI is having trouble discerning where the connections should be made. A simple fix for Athrusa, but one that will take precious seconds as she has to manually select each reroute. Once that's done, the real damage appears: the suit's right wing binder actuators are locked. Shell fragments are stuck in the joints. There's a chance Athrusa may be able to either knock them loose, or perform some other workaround that will give her the maneuverability she so desperately needs back, but if something isn't done, she may need to fall back to the asteroid field in order to avoid being destroyed.

Athrusa grimaces as her eyes keep flitting back and forth between the radar depicting the battle and her own problems; fortunately, her own heightened senses as a Ragalian, no matter how fake, helps her in keeping things in check. She grimaces further as she reworks the AI and overrides the connections to manual, and-- gawks at the wing binder reports. "You've got to be kidding me...!"

She bites her lip as she thinks rapidly, heart thumping -- she pedals by instinct to at least help her suit glide so that she's not a stationary target, but the destroyer crews are going to be noticing that her movements are slowing and becoming far more predictable.

"Reroute sub-power to the release mechanism, override the safety and unhinge the coupling..." she's ranting to herself as she works, more out of habit than anything else. Her plan is to essentially unbuckle the connection from the wing binder to the main suit -- which carries the risk of the wing just flying off into space on its own, but hopefully it'll give room for the debris to get loose.

Cleverly overcoming the problem. [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Failure: Either the binder doesn't unjam, or it does, but the suit will take some form of damage. I'll add flavor once I know what you'd like to do.

[DoctorFaust]

"Goddamnit," Yuuki hisses. "Tell me when you get it fixed, Athrusa. I'm going in closer."

True to her word, Yuuki continues hurtling towards the destroyers, not letting up on the throttle at all until she's practically within the I-field. Then, and only then, does she open up with her gatling gun, sending a veritable hail of fire at the already mangled sections of armor around the destroyer's I-field generator.

I'm invoking the boost for a +2, and Forcefully attacking.

[rol]4d3-3[/roll]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa's quick thinking manages to free the wing binder joint, but the release mechanism doesn't trigger gradually like it's supposed to, instead wrenching open, then snapping shut. Although she doesn't lose the wing, the improper motion manages to damage some of the control links. Unfortunately, these links can't be rerouted around, and it will force the suit to a lower thruster output to remain balanced. Although she hasn't lost any maneuverability, she has lost some of the Gundam's already limited speed capabilities. Even the Shura can now outpace her in straight line acceleration.

Imbalanced Thruster Output - The Nephilim's right wing binder's control links are damaged, allowing the suit greater thrust from its left wing than from its right. The suit's speed must be decreased to keep it controllable in flight.

The destroyer the Shura has focused on tries desperately to roll away from the mobile suit, its engines and thrusters flaring, but it is much larger and heavier, and doing so is only a temporary measure at best, meant to delay the suit until its flak turrets can be brought to bear against the Gundam, since its mobile suit escort is either occupied in the asteroid field or has been destroyed.

Quickly defending: [roll0]
Success with Style - You may reduce damage by 1 to create a boost. Doing so won't affect the outcome below.

The Shura's beam gatling rips through the destroyer's already weakened armor, destroying the I-field generator entirely. A massive explosion rips out from underneath the blister where the generator lies, and the ship rocks as the hull is breached in multiple locations. Several thrusters spit and then sputter out, and one of the ship's engines flares and then dies. Clearly, the Shura has managed to damage something more critical than just its shield generator. But obviously, not critical enough, as the ship's remaining flak turrets open fire on the Shura. It might be down, but it's not out of the fight yet. Its partner continues to fire on the Nephilim, hoping to take the damaged suit out completely.




Destroyer 1 Attack on the Shura: [roll1]
Destroyer 2 Attack on the Nephilim: [roll2]

[Merilan]

Athrusa hears that awful grinding noise and knows instinctively that it isn't a great thing-- but she has thrust now, and that's all that matters; the output's all messed up, but it's enough for her to haphazardly swerve out of the way. She's not in a great position, still, with little cover. "It'll do for now, Yuuki! Just keep the pressure on them!"

Athrusa has Heightened Awareness, which will help her against the Destroyer's fire even when her suit's been damaged! [roll0]

And a good thing, too! That was a tie, so the Destroyer gets a boost against her next...

[Nova_Eclipse]

A beam bounces off of the cloak the Vengeance's engineers hastily fitted to the Nephilim, but none of the other shots connect, thankfully enough. The destroyer now has a better picture of the old suit's weaknesses, and as a result, will have a better solution once their weapons recharge.

Enhanced Firing Solution

Will post an outcome for Yuuki once I know how she's forcefully defending.

[DoctorFaust]

Trusting to the armor of the Shura, Yuuki presses forward into the zone of fire and simply lets the flak rounds bounce off her mobile suit. The symphony of shrapnel is by no means reassuring, but she's stared at enough cross-sections of the stuff standing between her and space that she's sure nothing this light will get through them.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Several rounds bounce off the Shura's heavy plates, and a low-power beam spaks off harmlessly as well. The wounded destroyer may not be able to muster up the power to pierce the suit's heavy armor at this point, but a lucky shot might still do something, and if nothing else, perhaps it can worry the Shura's pilot enough to get her to back off.

Desperation Tactics

It's now Athrusa's turn, for reference.

[Merilan]

Athrusa knew she couldn't be on the defensive forever -- the way she's off-balance, she knows the destroyer's got to be getting ideas on how to hit her more efficiently. The Nephilim's present arm raises that Daughtress' beam rifle and takes aim -- and fires off several snapshots as she starts to glide in an opposing direction to pincer them.

The I-field is still up -- her beam weapon is going to do nothing to the destroyer. But that's not her target -- her target's the hardpoints that by their nature would have to be extended past the field lest it interfere with their own beam fire.

Athrusa is attempting to Forcefully Overcome Enhanced Targeting Solution by attempting to inflict damage on their guns: [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The destroyer's I-field holds against the beams, but its turrets may not be so lucky. It takes the enemy captain a moment to determine what Athrusa's trying to accomplish, before ordering the ship's I-field expanded, causing its turrets to go silent for a moment. It might not be much, but perhaps it will give Athrusa the room she needs to maneuver.

Cleverly trying to deflect the shots: [roll0]

Unfortunately, the required break in firing breaks the destroyer's Enhanced Firing Solution, and better still, Athrusa manages to destroy a couple of the ship's flak cannons. Not enough to protect her from its inevitable counter-attack, but at least that counter-attack won't have the added punch a converged, focused salvo might. For the moment she can breathe a bit easier.

[DoctorFaust]

Pushing through the destroyer's field of fire, as nerve-wracking as it was, finally gives Yuuki a clear line of sight on the second ship. Not one to give up this late in the game, she flushes a second magazine of missiles at it, hoping to saturate the destroyer's defences.

Forceful attack: [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The second destroyer's commander seems to be focused on trying to handle the Nephilim, and as such, isn't really focused on the Shura. As such, the ship doesn't seem to mount a defense to the incoming missiles until it's almost too late, and even that is the wrong one, emergency evasive maneuvers, rather than any attempt to shoot some of the ordnance down.

Quickly trying to dodge out of the way: [roll0]

Their application of the wrong defense works to their detriment as the Shura's missiles detonate in swaths over the entire ship. The impacts don't seem to have done as much damage to this ship, however. Perhaps its armor is in a bit better shape than the first ship the Shura attacked. However, their day is about to get worse before it gets better.

A massive beam lances out from the Vengeance at the heavily damaged destroyer, intersecting the ship, before a massive explosion rips the hull in half and scatters debris everywhere. The Vengeance itself has made it to the middle of Zone B, and is slowly picking up speed. A moment later, a familiar voice comes over the comm.

"You two okay?" Captain Brighton's voice is worried, but if the Gundams look towards the carrier, they'll see the red suit streaking towards them. "I'm on my way now to help, hang in there!"

The remaining destroyer is going to have a hard time of it if this keeps up. They break off of their pursuit of the Nephilim, turning away from the Vengeance, before beginning to accelerate away. It will take them a turn to manage this maneuver, however, and their broadside will be exposed to the carrier while they do it. If Yuuki can manage to bring down the I-field in the next few moments, the Vengeance should be able to destroy the ship with little effort.

It's now Athrusa's turn; maneuvering is the destroyer's action.

[Merilan]

Athrusa holds steady as she listens in to Captain Brighton's voice. "Y-yeah... had some balancer trouble, but I managed to enact field repairs... thanks, Captain."

She watches the destroyer turn, and a plan quickly formulates in her mind -- and she rushes the Nephilim up as she matches the angle her suit's faster at to its manuever. Her goal isn't the I-field as they might be starting to guess... it's their AMBAC thrusters, which they'll need to properly reposition in space. If she can take out some of the side verniers on the battleship, it'll seriously throw off its balance and, hopefully, leave it in a position where it's a sitting duck to the Vengeance.

And for this purpose -- she uses the machine cannons, which latch open and spray fire along the side of the craft as she draws near.

Quickly Attacking with the machine cannons! [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The destroyer is unable to avoid the fire, and all it can do at this point is try and divert Athrusa from her primary targets through the use of its own flak turrets. However, there aren't many of them covering that area of the ship. It's apparent they're more just trying to scare her away than do real damage at this point.

Flashily trying to scare Athrusa away: [roll0]

The desperation in their tactics is evident, as the small number of turrets nonetheless manages to lay down an impressive field of fire that holds Athrusa at bay. The destroyer's captain is committed to retreat now, and he intends to make it a fighting one. Still, the near miss has redoubled his staff's efforts, and the destroyer's engines flare as they push the ship to its limit.

Engines to 120%!

[DoctorFaust]

"You can't escape!"

The Shura drops the beam rifle taken from the Ragalian mecha and pulls out its shotgun. Streaking towards the destroyer, Yuuki opens up with both of her long guns, pouring laser fire at the retreating ship. As she flies, the chest armor of the Shura pops open, revealing a pair of miniaturised gatling guns that join their with the lasers, which are followed quickly in turn by the shoulder mounted cannons and vulcans.

I'm going to spend a Fate point to invoke Brick Wall of Death and get a +2 to attack. This sort of concentrated overwhelming firepower is almost exactly what the suit was designed for, after all.

Forceful attack:[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The destroyer tries desperately to roll while it's turning, to bring its I-field generator out of the Shura's line of fire, but they weren't expecting it to bring quite so much firepower at once to bear, and the maneuver may not be successful in doing so.

Trying to Quickly maneuver: [roll0]

Success with Style: You may reduce damage by one to gain a boost.

Unfortunately for the destroyer, the sudden maneuver isn't enough. The Shura's sheer firepower smashes through the ship's armor, destroying its I-field generator. A moment later, a red suit flashes past the Nephilim, and rains a hail of beam fire from its torso onto the destroyer, before it can mount any sort of counter-attack, destroying a number of its remaining turrets, before arcing back towards the asteroid field and the old, damaged suit.

"Good work, both of you, the Vengeance should be able to handle it from here. Time to clear out and rendezvous with the ship."

True to her word, there's an ominous glow coming from the bottom of the Vengeance. Those familiar with this class of carrier might know that the ship's hyper-megaparticle cannons are mounted there. It seems the Vengeance intends to end this battle with one final shot.

[Merilan]

There's a relieved little sigh as Athrusa watches the Sazabi charge past, blasting away at its turrets to accompany the Shura's awe-inspiring hail of destruction. "Thank you, Captain..." She drifts away as best as she's capable of, unwanting to be caught in the Vengeance's own hail of fire. "And good work, Yuuki...!"

[DoctorFaust]

The Shura spirals off from its attack run on the destroyer, getting well clear of the Vengeance's firing line. "You did most of the work, Athrusa. I just came in at the end and stole the big ones," Yuuki replies, forcing her voice to stay light. As she passes the damaged mecha, she snags it under the arms, her own more powerful thrusters carrying them both forward. "Now let's get back to the ship."

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Sazabi forms up with both the Shura and the Nephilim, its mono-eye shifting over to the two suits as they enter the asteroid field once more. As soon as they're out of the blast radius, the Vengeance fires, twin violet beams of power that lance straight through the enemy destroyer, shearing it into thirds an instant before it explodes violently, vaporizing most of its wreckage and leaving the carrier a clear path to exit the asteroid field.

"What's wrong with the Nephilim, Athrusa?" Captain Brighton's voice is concerned, but she seems undistracted by the fireworks show being put on by the ships.

[Merilan]

Athrusa listens in on the comms, blushing a little as Yuuki compliments her. "Yeah, let's go back..." Her eyes widen as she watches the power of the mega particle cannons just -erupt- straight through the asteroid field and consume the destroyers... wow...

"One of the wing binders jammed, I had to dislocate it to get it to move again-- I'd be moving in circles otherwise," Athrusa comments, her voice starting to get a bit haggard. Now that the immediate threat was gone, the adrenaline was starting to wear off, and her body's starting to feel less numb and more pained. It's probably not long before she needs to return to her medbay.

[DoctorFaust]

"Does your suit know how bad the damage was?" Yuuki asks. She increases the magnification on the Shura's viewport, looking down at the binder connections. "Depending on what got broken, we might be able to put a fix together before the next sortie."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"I see," Captain Brighton says, before Sazabi's optics change focus once more to the Vengeance, as they near the ship. "We can't linger here very long, and we're going to need to sortie again quickly, but the Nephilim needs repairs. I'll make sure there's a team waiting when you two land. Maybe they can rig something quickly. How's your ammo, Yuuki?"

[Merilan]

"I'm not a full time mechanic like you, Yuuki, but I'm used to running diagnostic reports so I can give the mechanics an idea of what's broken..." Athrusa replies. She looks towards the Vengeance again, and says, "I also grabbed a beam rifle from the enemy, since the Nephilim's low on usable weaponry... it'll give us more stuff to work with."

[DoctorFaust]

A few commands bring up a diagnostic readout of the Shura. "Um. I'm down to about half of my ship-killer missiles, but the smaller ones are all full. The guns are reading about half capacity."

The readout is quickly dismissed, and Yuuki returns her attention to the Nephilim. "I know my team had a few cases of mobile suit rated hydraulic and electrical cabling. If you're radioing ahead, you could probably get my Dad to help scare up supplies."

[Nova_Eclipse]

There's a short pause, before Captain Brighton comes back onto the comm.

"Good work, both of you. We're clear to land. Yuuki, I need you to stay on stand-by with me. The fuel teams are going to refuel us on the catapults while we clear the asteroid field. Everyone else is going to work on the Nephilim and try and get that binder fixed. Athrusa, you'll be pulled into the hangar for that; while you're waiting, the med team is going to check your status. We've only got a few minutes before we need to micro-jump to the system exit point. Our battle plan may change if we can't get the Nephilim repaired quickly, so I need both of you to be flexible, ok?"

The Vengeance looms large ahead; the Sazabi fires its thrusters, slowing as it arcs in towards a landing on one of the aft recovery decks. The other suits should start making their own landing preparations now.

[Merilan]

"... Y-yes, captain," Athrusa murmurs, shaking her head for a moment as her vision starts to blur. What was once numb was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. "I'll leave it to Nurse Celeste to see if I can't be cleared for another sortie... I don't mind pushing myself."

The Nephilim begins its own landing procedure, its functioning wing furling around it as it descends onto the catapult to be retracted inward to the mobile suit hangar.

"... Captain... one more thing," she reports. "I'm not sure if it's just a hallucination or-- some system onboard? I feel like there was something strange for a moment while I was out there. ... i--it's probably nothing, actually, probably a medicine interaction?"

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki brings her mobile suit to rest beside the Sazabi, but she clearly isn't happy with the situation. "Captain," she protests, "I can't pilot very well, but I am a mechanic. I should be in there helping with the Nephilim, not sitting out here waiting."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"Have your team lead run a diagnostic while the wing's being worked on Athrusa. And let the doctors know if it happens again, but I don't think it's a medical interaction," Captain Brighton says, as the suits are staged back onto the catapults and the fuel teams rush out. The channel changes, as she shifts to a private channel between the Shura and the Sazabi.

"Normally, I'd agree with you, but we need to be ready to launch as soon as we come out of micro-jump. If the Nephilim can't fly, we'll be in serious trouble, and I'll need you right there with me if we're to have any hope of escape. The jump point is heavily defended." She speaks lower, in a more worried tone. "To be honest, I'm not sure we can make it through, but we have no other choice. If I had another pilot who could fly the Freedom or the CGUE, I'd have them right there with us, but even I can't fly either of those suits. At least, not right now. I'm not a Coordinator, and the brief I got on the Freedom implies that there's a learning curve to its piloting system, one we don't have time to climb." She pauses, before going on. "I'm sorry, Yuuki, but this where I need you right now. Reset the Shura's targeting systems for all-range attacks, if you can. One of the loading teams says they can fill your main guns in the time we have, but not your missile racks, or the auxiliary cannons. I'll be running some calibrations on the Sazabi; make sure you're ready; there'll be a one minute warning before we jump."


We're out of combat turns for the moment; in the interlude, I'd like to try something a bit different, to make things more natural, as far as roleplaying goes. If you want to interact with each other, you don't need to wait for me; likewise, if you're interacting with NPCs, I'll post as I can for them, instead of waiting for everyone to take their turns. I think it will be more natural. This interlude is only going to be about 5-10 minutes long in game-time, for reference.

[DoctorFaust]

"But..." Yuuki huffs, and settles down in her seat. "Alright, fine."

She punches a few commands into the computer, and sits in silence for a few moments before asking, "So if you couldn't handle the Freedom, does that mean you're an Oldtype?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton chuckles to herself for a moment, before answering Yuuki's question.

"No, I'm a Newtype. Class S, actually, if it matters to you. No, the Freedom has a new type of cockpit system; the controls are completely different than what you or I are used to. Supposedly, it traces the pilot's movements. I have no idea how that translates into space battles, but apparently it can be learned by anyone, since as far as I know, Agrias is an Oldtype." There's a pause, before she grows a bit more serious. "To be honest, I don't care whether someone's a Newtype, an Oldtype, a Coordinator, Artificial whatever, or anything else humanity's come up with. We're all people at the end of the day, trying to survive, no matter the distinctions between us, and as long as you do what you're asked to help keep yourself and the people you care about alive, that's all that matters to me."

[Merilan]

"Roger, Captain..." There's a tired, beleaguered sigh as Athrusa takes her helmet off and slacks the cushion on her spacesuit's neckbrace. She waits until she's cleared to disembark, wobbling as she steps out and holds up a small flash drive towards the nearest mechanic. "This is all the combat data and analysis points from the flight route... she's in pretty bad shape, but that's all I can do, unfortunately."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Techs of all shapes, sizes and races have already swarmed over the Nephilim by the time Athrusa makes it out of the cockpit. An entire team is already working on the suit's damaged wing, while others reload its machine cannons, refill its fuel tanks, or patch and reinforce other damaged areas. The man she hands it to turns out to be the Nephilim's own crew chief, who nods, and takes the drive without fanfare. As soon he gotten it, he's away, tasking teams with more repairs. Standing off to the side, however, is Nurse Celeste, who's got a databoard and a tray with several bottles on it. She nods at Athrusa and smiles gently as she moves up quickly.

"How are you holding up, Athrusa? I don't see any damage to your suit; you haven't been injured any further, have you?"

[Merilan]

Athrusa can't help but think she's getting more and more fond of Nurse Celeste, perhaps even seeing her -- almost like a mom in some way... not that she ever really remembers having one. She looks really happy as she comes by the nurse's side, holding onto the railing as she tries to steady her breathing. "I avoided getting shot too bad, but a lot of the inner stuff was really acting up..." she wipes the sweat coming off her forehead. "I-- how am I doing? I think the sedatives are starting to run thin... I'm starting to get a bit-- thick in the head. Like wool's in my mind. I think I remember some of the handlers saying something about how my-- metabolism means drugs pass through quicker?"

She sits down on a nearby bench and breathes. "But I-- I want to be ready in case we do have to deploy again. I don't want to put it all on Yuuki and the Captain..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Celeste frowns for a moment, then nods, making a note on her databoard.

"I see. Is it just fogginess, or has the pain returned as well? Your body may process different medications at different rates, and if we can narrow down what's leaving fastest, we might be able to help keep things managed for a longer period of time."

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki snorts. "I'm glad to hear someone doesn't care. There's not a lot of people that agree."

[Merilan]

"The pain's just kind of... dull? It's not throbbing or acting up..." Athrusa reports, ruffling her white hair for a moment as her ears perk up a little. "I... feel like I hallucinated in the cockpit a little. I thought I saw something about... 'ZERO'..."

She shakes her head. "I think it might just be a side-effect, I know I've gotten those before with certain kinds of benzos..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Yuuki: "Yes, there are a lot of military types who like to classify based on that, and civilians too, for that matter, but I'm not one of them, and I won't allow it on my ship, either. If someone from the crew is hassling you, I want to know about it." Captain Brighton's voice is stern and set as she says this. Apparently, she's had some history of it herself, if her tone is any indication.

Athrusa: Celeste puts on a thoughtful look, and scrolls through something on her databoard.

"Well, I don't see that listed as a side effect of any of the drugs we've given you, but I'll make a note. I can give you something to help perk you back up and keep you alert, and I can also give you a little more for the pain, if you think you need it to get back on duty..." She trails off as one of the Ooontaa crew wanders over. The alien is dressed, as most of them are, in mechanic's coveralls, carrying a databoard of his own. He scratches the side of his head and nods at Athrusa.

"Heard you've been seein' things in the cockpit. Near as I can tell, there's some kind of extra system in there, sort of a reverse psycommu sort of...thing. Might be damaged, or malfunctioning somewhat, we're not sure yet. We'll need to run extended diagnostics when we have some time, but we can't risk disabling it right now and breaking something else. Just thought it might help you folks."

[Merilan]

"... well... I wouldn't be surprised if I had to, is all," Athrusa replies to Nurse Celeste, nodding at her suggestion of another medicine to keep her back and alert as she looks towards the Ooontaa crewmember with a soft smile. "An extra... system? I've never heard about it..." She frowns very quietly as she says, "But I do remember reports about some kind of black box we're never meant to touch. I wonder if that could be it..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"Probably is, but we'll know for sure once we're safe. It shouldn't be dangerous, at least, to you." The sensation of velocity aboard the ship has intensified; it must be nearly clear of the asteroid field. The alien waves, before continuing on his way. "Well, I'd better get back to work."

Nurse Celeste stays quiet for a moment, watching him go, before nodding at Athrusa. She prepped a new dose of drugs while Athrusa was talking to the alien. The dose is quickly administered, before she smiles at Athrusa.

"There, that should help." And indeed it does. A moment later, and the tiredness and pain fade back into an afterthought. Just in time, too. A warning klaxon blares briefly, giving the two-minute warning for jump. Nurse Celeste waits until it shuts off, before speaking, her smile growing a bit worried. "Be careful, ok?"

The team lead for the Nephilim comes over before she can say more, and taps Athrusa on the shoulder.

"Miss Athrusa? If you've gotten your medical needs attended, we could really use your help in the cockpit of the Nephilim. We're close, we just need your help with this last bit."

[Merilan]

It shouldn't be dangerous, at least, to you.

Athrusa wasn't quite sure if she was convinced of that... those hallucinations felt quite-- strong, like she wasn't quite there, like someone pulled the wool over her eyes. But she had to trust the technicians, they knew more about the suit's current state than she does at this point. She stays still while Celeste administers her dose--

--and there's a quiet breath as she nods, saying, "Thank you, Nurse Celeste..." and-- gives her a hug, before picking her helmet back up. "I'm coming!"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Celeste squeezes her quickly, before letting her go, smiling after the young woman. The tech leads her back to the Nephilim, which is still positively swarming with bodies. He talks as they walk.

"We need you to trigger a few things while the mechanics align the binders. If we can get timed just right, it should fix the major damage."

Athrusa can now make an attempt to Overcome Imbalanced Thruster Output. Quick or Careful would be the most appropriate approaches, but others may be possible.

[Merilan]

Athrusa nods as she throws herself into the cockpit, adjusting the collar of her normal suit as she leaves the blast door open. "Alright." She puts the speaker up as she looks towards the cams where the technicians are working, and starts to proceed through the standard workflow of the wing binder-- up until the point where it starts to grind into a lock.

"That's where it goes wrong, just let me know when you want me to trigger it!"

She waits for their signal, somewhat familiar already with the operations of the suit and the ranges in which its wings can go... and...

"Now...!"

Overcome! [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

There's a loud Chunk! as the suit's actuators trigger, and a second later, a collective cheer from the swarm of techs who've been frantically working on the ancient suit. Readings come up positive, as the wing's thrusters come back online. The team lead pokes his head into the cockpit, giving Athrusa a big smile and a thumbs-up.

"That got it, Miss. You should be ready to sortie, then. We've refilled your fuel, and reloaded your machine cannons. Your beam cannon only has two shots left; we didn't have time to swap its e-pacs, but it's still usable. I'll let the Captain know; we're bound to jump any second now."

As if on cue, there's a sudden sensation of the floor dropping for a split second, before snapping back. Although this doesn't actually happen, the sensation is quite memorable, similar to, but jarringly different at the same time as, the sensation when a ship enters a normal jump. The tech braces himself for a moment, before pulling himself out of the cockpit so Athrusa can close it up and prepare to launch once more.

Yuuki will also feel the sensation when the ship jumps, signaling their arrival into another battle zone. Captain Brighton comes over both mobile suits' comms a moment after the jump.

"Athrusa will be joining us here momentarily. Use catapult 3, Athrusa. I'll brief you two in a moment; we're getting new and updated data from our sensors."

Success: Imbalanced Thruster Output has been Overcome!

[Merilan]

Athrusa feels good as she hears the cheer from the team... it's a change from how brusque and distant some of the teams she's worked back at Stetchkin could be. "Thank you. Oh, I liberated one of the enemy's beam rifles too -- could you make sure you prime that for me? Thought we could do with as many weapons as we can scavenge..."

She pauses and rattles for a moment, adjusting the collar once more as she puts her helmet on. "--did we just-- jump? I wonder where we've ended... I hope we escaped their formation..."

She nods to the tech and finishes fixing herself up. "Roger that." She adjusts the panel and starts working on her launch sequence as she watches the suit be loaded to Catapult 3...

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki audibly swallows as they jump out, but manages to force down her nervousness enough to joke, "It's good you're back, Athrusa. I was worried that the squad didn't have quite enough seniority over me."

[Nova_Eclipse]

The tech gives a brief nod to Athrusa's request before he pulls himself out of the cockpit. As the Nephilim is making its way to the catapult, Captain Brighton cuts in, sounding rather irritated.

"Something's wrong. They're not here. They should be here, where are they?!" Data from the ship's sensor net is now available, if Yuuki and Athrusa want to see for themselves what the Captain is going on about, but clearly, she's not expecting whatever it is she's seeing. "I don't like this. Not one bit."

[Merilan]

"A-aww, you don't have to think that way, Yuuki... I'm here for you, okay?" Athrusa replies on the comms, but pauses as she stammers, "Captain? What's the matter?"

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki patches herself into the ship's sensor net, bringing up the data on her main display. "Was someone supposed to meet us here, Captain?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

"There was a half of a battle group here according to our scout drone just before we launched in the asteroids. They should still be here, it's the logical tactic to try and catch us, and they must know we defeated their hunting party. Instead, there's just...nothing." Captain Brighton's agitation level doesn't seem to be going down, but the sensor data that Yuuki taps into confirms what she's saying. There's nothing here....at least, for the moment. "We're an hour from the system jump point, but-" She cuts off as there's a massive power surge on the sensors. Visuals come up, and she's suddenly yelling orders:

"EVASIVE, KENT! EVASIVE!" Even strapped into their suits as they are, they can feel the ship suddenly lurch as it undertakes a violent maneuver. On the sensor screen, a rip forms in the fabric of space, an instant before a massive, hulking machine slams into the space where the fleet the Captain was expecting should have been. The machine, a starship, is truly gigantic, the size of a space colony, perhaps larger even than that, and from the way the ship bucks, if the Vengeance's pilot hadn't been on his toes, it would have slammed into the much smaller ship, obliterating everyone aboard. As it stands, the Vengeance is now within 500 meters of the enemy vessel's hull, a very close shave indeed. The comm goes silent for a moment, before Captain Brighton finally breaks it quietly, in a way that would be humorous if not for the dire situation the entire ship is now in.

"Well #%$^."

[Merilan]

Athrusa had to even wonder what it would mean that there was no battle group. Did they escape? Did another situation come up? It--

She clutches at her head again as the ebb and flow of the systems onboard start to throb and pierce her head. "Ugh...!" she can only vaguely hear the captain screaming about evasive manuevers, and then they're violently rocked--

--and they're left staring at a space-colony sized ship. "... no way... what is that...?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

"They call it a 'Worldship', from what I've been told," Captain Brighton says quietly, though there's a bitterness in her tone that suggests something other than awe or worry. Anger, perhaps. "We don't know much about them, they've only started showing up recently."

[Merilan]

"W-what do we even do?" is all Athrusa can ask. "Can we run? We can't possibly fight a behemoth of that size..."

[DoctorFaust]

Very hesitantly, Yuuki says, "Maybe...we captured one? Do they have IFF on?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton takes a measured breath that both Yuuki and Athrusa can hear over the comm before replying. The data on Yuuki's board comes up a moment later. The vessel is definitely Ragalian in IFF code.

"All we can do is try and run for the jump point. The briefing I was given on this class of ship says that their sensor nets near their hulls are very poor unless they're at a dead stop, and they don't reach full resolution until about a kilometer out." She must have the line open between the two other suits and the bridge. "Kent, keep the ship on this skim trajectory, and pour on the boost. We're going to catch attention anyways, once we pass their stern, but hopefully, they won't have anything heavy enough back there to damage us too badly. I-field on max, weapons on flak only."

There's a muffled sound over the channel that Athrusa can just barely make out as an affirmative from what sounds like a male soldier.

"Yuuki, Athrusa, our goal is to get the Vengeance out of here. We don't have the armament to destroy a ship like this now, and we can't board it, either. Their sensors are bad, but I'm sure someone's going to spot us soon, and this close in, without sensor lock, they'll send more mobile suits after us. Our job is going to be to keep the pursuers away from the Vengeance. Intercept anything that's got heavy armaments on it first, if you can pick them out, otherwise, destroy anything that gets too close. We won't launch until they've launched pursuers and they've closed distance with the ship to less than 25 kilometers, to try and save fuel. Stay within 12 kilometers of the ship, or you might not be able to catch back up. Got it?"

On the sensor readouts, at max range behind the Vengeance, an angry swarm of red dots appears. Apparently, the enemy has spotted them. That didn't take long.

[Merilan]

Athrusa winces as she listens in on the plan, feeling like they're going up against literal gods right now. But she stammers out a, "Y-yes, Captain," as she locks the beam rifle at the ready with the Nephilim's existing arm. "I'll do my best."

[DoctorFaust]

"...Okay, Captain," Yuuki eventually replies, barely keeping her voice under control. "How-how long do you think it'll take from when we intercept them to get to the jump point?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

"Well, normally, we'd be an hour out from the jump point, but I don't think the battle will last that long. If their suits get too far away from the ship, they won't have enough fuel to make it back, since they're having to launch with velocity in the opposite direction from the one they need to go to chase us, so they're having to spend more fuel to catch up," Captain Brighton muses, "And we're going to be using emergency boost. The battle shouldn't be much more than half an hour, perhaps 20 minutes, if our luck somehow turns around."

On the sensor readout, a few of the enemy's vanguard suits have started closing the distance, and a timer appears. 2 minutes until the suits will need to launch to intercept the enemy.

"I'll do my best to take point against them, and try to thin them out, since Sazabi is faster than either of your suits. Cover each other as best you can, and keep the ship safe above all else. We have a lot of people we care about aboard, and I'll die before I let these bastards lay even one finger on them. Failure is not an option here, ok, ladies?"


Captain Brighton is attempting to Forcefully create an advantage by giving her pilots a reason to fight as hard as they can.
[roll0]

This might work better as a Compel, but I'm not entirely sure how that would work, since there's not really much of a choice being offered. Yuuki might defend against this, which is why I haven't posted an outcome for it yet. Let me know in the OOC thread if there's a better way to work this that I'm not seeing.:smallredface:

[Merilan]

"... I hadn't been shown kindness until I woke up onboard the Vengeance. And that... that kindness extends to you too, Captain," Athrusa suddenly speaks up. "I agree... I don't want to see anyone onboard die. But... that goes for you too..."

She firms her lips a moment. "I'm not accepting anything less than all of us making out of here alive...!"

[DoctorFaust]

Twenty minutes... Yuuki grimaces at the number, trying not to think about how long that would be in a fight. "We'll totally be fine," she says. "Right? We beat everyone in the first sortie, after all. There's just more of them this time."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"Right. We'll give them all the hell they deserve!" Captain Brighton's determination is clear, and somewhat infectious. The enemy won't catch them, not if she has anything to do about it.

Spirited Defense - The Gundam team is fighting to protect their loved ones aboard the Vengeance, and they will not let the ship go down without a fight!

The timer counts down quickly. A quick perusal of the data shows the enemy pursuing in a mostly ramshackle arrowhead formation, the few units at the tip swapping positions occasionally, each seemingly eager to be the first to catch up to the Vengeance. At the 30-second warning, Captain Brighton comes over the comm once more.

"Gundam Team! Ready to launch!"

The Vengeance's catapult doors open once more, as each suit's thrusters power up once again. Klaxons blare warnings, and then there's the rush of G-Forces as Captain Brighton gives the order:

"Gundam Team! Launch!"


This battlefield is a bit more simple than the asteroid belt. 500 meters below the current plane of travel is the surface of the enemy Worldship. Dropping to this surface means losing the velocity the suits already have and being quickly left behind. This also means that the Vengeance and the Gundam Team are moving too quickly for enemy flak turrets to track effectively. This being an otherwise empty area of space also means that there is almost no cover available; this battle will be more of a space dogfight than the fight in the asteroid field. There are three zones for this battle:

Zone A: This zone covers the first 5 kilometers surrounding the Vengeance. This area includes the effective range of the carrier's flak cannons as well. None of the enemy have made it this far yet.
Zone B: This zone covers the next 5 kilometers from the edge of Zone A. The vanguard enemy suits have just crossed into this zone behind the Vengeance when Captain Brighton orders the Gundam Team to launch.
Zone C: This zone represents the edge of the Gundam Team's operational range. Remaining in this Zone for more than two turns will result in being left behind for Gundam Team members, as their suits won't have enough fuel to be able to catch back up to the Vengeance before it reaches the jump point.


Let me know if you need a visual aid with the zones. We'll be in combat turn order now, which is currently the following:
1. Athrusa
2. Yuuki
3. Captain Brighton
4. The enemy suits

Both Yuuki and Athrusa have a free invoke of the advantage Captain Brighton created. I'll update the OOC in a little bit with currently active situational aspects.

[Merilan]

Athrusa's lips thin as she feels the G-forces pulling her against her seat, like it could just crush her inside the Nephilim at any moment. The winged mobile suit flies out in a spiral, billowing feathers trailing behind her as she arms the Ragalian beam rifle. The super verniers of the suit flare into full bore, trails of light-blue flame cascading in the distance as she dutifully monitors the distance gauge. "Engaging..."

She waits until she's at the border, to best conserve the momentum the catapults have afforded them before she corrects course. She's taking the vanguard, perhaps inspired more than she is usually -- as she crosses the enemy suits and opens fire on the closest one with several leading shots.

Moving to zone B and shooting Quickly with the beam rifle! I'll take the invoke from Captain Brighton's roll, since she's inspiring me!

[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The pursuers this time are modern and well-equipped, front-line units of the Ragalian Empire, the kinds of suits the Gundams were meant to go up against. The trio at the head of the spear are somewhat different (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/srw/inspector/rpt-014.jpg) in design and armament from the older suits the team fought in the asteroid field. Still armed with beam rifles, and equipped with a few more built-in weapons, these suits are more of a threat. Still, at the end of the day, it's the pilot that ultimately can make or break the battle, and while Athrusa doesn't get the drop on these pilots, the sheer force of her attack may well startle them all the same. They scatter as she fires, breaking the loose formation they had as Athrusa's attack focuses on the lead suit.

Quick, evasive maneuvers - [roll0]
Success with Style - You may reduce damage by 1 to gain a boost.

The lead pilot, unfortunately, doesn't scatter in the right direction. Athrusa's fire rakes over his suit, and it explodes a split second later. Although his comrades were expecting a fight, it seems neither of them were expecting such overwhelming force right at the outset, and they're obviously shaken, since they both vector off to regroup. However, this frantic action means Athrusa can easily fall in behind them to pick them off.

Shaken Up

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki bursts from the ramp just behind Athrusa, screaming through space towards the incoming Ragalian mechs. As they break off under the Nephilim's fire, she takes advantage of the break up of their formation and charges one of the units with sword drawn, bringing it down in a crushing arc aimed at it's arm.

Moving to Zone B, and then Forcefully attacking.

[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The enemy tries to use its beam rifle to catch the sword and block the blow, since Yuuki's attack is so swift that it doesn't have time to draw any melee weapons, if it has them.

Quickly trying to block: [roll0]
Success with Style - You may reduce damage by 1 to gain a boost.

Unfortunately, this is a horrible idea that backfires badly, as force of the blow not only bisects the weapon, but also the suit, and sends the sparking remains hurtling into the last suit in the group, a moment before they both messily explode. The pursuers still entering the zone are now forces to change their tactics, since their enemies obviously can bring considerable force to bear, and they appear to be having morale issues, since it seems to take them a long moment before sending two trios after the Shura, and another two after the Nephilim. Each Gundam now has 6 suits in cautious, almost half-hearted pursuit.

Divide and Conquer - The enemy has started splitting its forces, but they're obviously afraid of the Gundams.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Sazabi rockets in on Yuuki's starboard wing, arcing deep into the enemy swarm, focusing all of its firepower into a line in front of it, doing its best to cut a swath through the enemy and leave them dazed and confused by the shear speed and force of the attack. Blitzkrieg is an effective tactic, it seems.

Forceful attack [roll0]

Quick evasive maneuvers [roll1]
Not effective enough to do much, if any damage, but the Red Comet certainly has the enemy's attention, now. Another detachment of half a dozen suits breaks off from the main force to pursue the crimson suit, though they're going to have a hard time keeping up with it.

Meanwhile, the group pursuing the Nephilim opens fire on the antique suit, probing fire more meant to show them its capabilities than to do real damage; there doesn't seem to be a focus to it. Still, even unfocused fire can be deadly.
Carefully firing at the Nephilim. [roll2]

Likewise, the group pursuing the Shura also open fire on the heavy suit, though with its armor, they may be hard pressed to actually do any damage.
Carefully firing on the Shura. [roll3]

[Merilan]

She was no Newtype-- not even registering on any official scale, and yet...

"T-these reaction times are truly inhuman."
The black-cloaked doctor steps forward, a smile creasing his crooked face. He has a claw-arm that clicks softly against the screen.
"That's the point. She isn't human. She is..."

The Nephilim zips with a fluidity in its movement that would convince one that it wasn't actually horrifically damaged; it's part and parcel of its whole operating mode -- the collective verniers along its body and wings afford fine control, and the billowing shower of feathers actually acts as camouflage against heat sensors and other targeting systems to assist in cloaking its true position.

And then there's its pilot, too.

Quickly Defending with a +2 from Heightened Awareness! [roll0]

She watches the Captain as she trails a blazing line, whispering, "She's just like the Red Comet..." before shaking her head and focusing upon her targets. They've fallen for the bait, and she's here to collect.

The Buster Rifle locks into place once more as it whirrs with a roaring thrum, motes of light seeping into its long barrel. Athrusa lets out a calming breath and goes through the motions, closing her eyes as she murmurs:

"Target: Lock-on.
Eliminating the enemy with the Buster Rifle--"

Space would light up, a lance of overwhelming power erupting across the combat zone.

Forcefully Attacking with possibly one boost (from my prior Attack) with the Buster Rifle. [roll1]

[DoctorFaust]

In a move lacking any semblance of finesse, Yuuki charges at the first trio of mobile suits and tackles their leader. Her aggressiveness throws off the other suit's aim, and the few shots that do find their mark are easily ablated by the Shura's heavy armor.

Roll of 3 v. the Ragalian's 1, making it a success, but not with style.

[Nova_Eclipse]

The enemy formation is tight, but not close to the Gundam when the Nephilim turns and fires its Buster Rifle. They try to scatter as soon as the antique Gundam brings its weapon to bear, but some of them most likely won't be able to evade in time.

Quick Evasive manuevers [roll0]
Success With Style - You may reduce damage by 1 to gain a boost.


The burning yellow of the massive beam drills through the center of the enemy formation, and instantly vaporizes two of the pursuing suits. The massive discharge streaks through the battle area, lighting small explosions along its length where the beam grazes, or vaporizes other suits that have yet to enter the battle. The rest of the formation pursuing Athrusa fires their thrusters wildly, and scatters, their already shaken morale overcome by the obvious superiority of the Gundam's firepower.

Angel of Death - The Nephilim's strong showing has further frightened some of the enemy into complete disarray, their formation broken, making them easy pickings.

[DoctorFaust]

Don't think about how there's a pilot in there, don't think about how there's a pilot in there,
don't think...

Still locked almost suit to suit with the Ragalian mobile suit, Yuuki jerkily draws the energy shotgun from the back skirt of the Shura. She points it towards the enemy mecha and starts pulling the trigger, sending out blast after blast of blue lasers and not letting up until the first e-cell runs dry.

Forceful attack:roll]4d3-5[/roll]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The enemy leader is doing his best to separate from the Shura after being tackled, and tries to quickly wrench away from the Gundam when the Shura pulls its shotgun and begins firing. His subordinates are also having to take quick evasive maneuvers due to the fire the Gundam is pumping out, which means they're too busy to try and help their commander.

Quick evasion/maneuvers to get clear [roll0]
Success with style - You may reduce damage by 1 to gain a boost.

Yuuki's ferocious attack overwhelms the trio. The commander's suit manages to wrench away from the Gundam, but before he can get stable, a blast from her shotgun catches him full in the torso, and his suit messily explodes. One of the others fares little better, catching a quick energy spray in the back, decimating the suit's attitude controls, and sending it spiraling away to crash into the surface of the ship below, the flare of explosion rapidly fading away. The third member fares a bit better, only catching the edge of a blast, but it's enough to make them turn tail and run, trailing smoke. The three suits further back in the formation alter their course to cover his retreat, and seem to pause, unsure of whether to approach the Gundam and attack or wait for reinforcement. This leaves them open for any number of actions.

Indecision The enemy's morale is causing them to second guess each other, making them slower to react than normal.

Captain Brighton, meanwhile, has turned her seemingly reckless run through the main enemy formation into a killing field by leading her pursuers through a trap she cleverly set with the Sazabi's bits. The remote weapons laid dormant, and the enemy mistook them for mines, a mistake they pay dearly for, as when they pass through the formation, the bits come to life, firing their beam guns, maneuvering quickly and erratically to aim at a new target, then shifting once again in a kaleidoscopic flurry that spells doom for any enemy caught inside it. In short order, the six suits pursuing the Sazabi are utterly annihilated, as one by one, its bits slowly return to it after performing their grim work. Once free of its pursuers, Sazabi streaks back towards Yuuki and Athrusa's positions. Curiously, the enemy doesn't seem inclined to pursue it further.

Instead, they seem more interested in gathering information at this point. The remaining enemy near Yuuki and Athrusa hold their positions, and also hold their fire. Perhaps they're trying to analyze the Gundams to determine a better strategy?

[Merilan]

There's a faint and shaky breath as Athrusa keeps the recoil of the rattle down, each time fearing that the suit's going to collapse from the sheer, raw power of the weapon being brought to full bore. And this was supposed to be a twin buster rifle. Just what did the ancients have in mind with this machine...?

The mind shivers.

She hooks the Buster Rifle back up as she watches the Captain and Yuuki-- noticing that the latter's firing quite rapidly; she wants to make sure she gets the time to reload, and using the enemy's hesitation...

She charges forward, making to motion as if she's going to launch a second shot in their direction. The ominous roar of the Buster Rifle whirrs to life for a moment--

--and then the shot never comes, the angelic mobile suit instead crashing into a Ragalian suit to knock it off-balance as she runs interference with the enemy's formation. "Yuuki, while their backs are turned!" she announces.

Forcefully Creating an advantage with the boost from Angel of Death to give Yuuki the benefit of my Interference.[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The enemy near Yuuki don't seem to notice Athrusa until it's almost too late, and the Nephilim's pursuers were sent scrambling for safety with her feint, leaving her free reign to interfere with the remaining enemy near the Shura. The suit Athrusa slams into tries to evade, but he's going to have a very hard time of it. The other two in the trio are seemingly too distracted to notice her incoming until it's too late for them to do anything about it, either.

Quick, reactionary maneuvers to evade. [roll0]

Success with Style -You or an ally may invoke Interference twice for free!

The Nephilim's crafty and reckless maneuver manages to completely blindside the remaining pursuers near Yuuki. Their surprise leaves them wide open for anyone opportunistic enough to take advantage of the situation and blow them away.

[DoctorFaust]

With only a brief moment of hesitation, Yuuki revs up the Shura's chain gun and sweeps it across the remaining suits, hosing them down with laser fire before they have a chance to react to the Nephilim's sudden appearance.

Quickly attacking seems the most appropriate here. Invoking Interference.

[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Too late, the suits notice the Shura readying its chain gun. They try to quickly get out of the path of its fire, but they're going to have a hard time of it due to the lateness of their reaction.

Quickly trying to dodge the fire. [roll0]

Success with Style - You may reduce damage by one to gain a boost

Taking the boost won't affect the following outcome.

Athrusa's maneuver managed to throw the enemy suit into the path of the Shura's chaingun, and the unexpected nature of her interference slowed its comrades' reactions enough that Yuuki manages to destroy all three suits in one quick burst from the Shura's chaingun. With this last action, the Gundam team has destroyed or driven off the groups of enemies that were chasing them, and have effectively eliminated almost half of the initial pursuit party that was tailing the Vengeance. The remainder have fallen back to Zone C, and are slowly falling out of sensor range. Sazabi slows, forming up with the Nephilim and Shura, and Captain Brighton comes over the comm.

"Good work, both of you. I think it will be safe for us to fall back to the Vengeance for now-" She's interrupted as a new voice interrupts over the comm. It's calm, with a slight British accent.

"Gundam Team, we have inbound bogies at 11 and 2 O'clock, range at 35 kilometers and closing. 10 ships, enemy mobile weapon count unknown. Orders, Captain?" There's a brief pause, before Captain Brighton comes back on, as data is relayed from the Vengeance to the suits, showing two enemy groups making a simple Y-shaped formation towards the Vengeance.

"Stay the course, Kent. We'll intercept. Yuuki, take the one on the right, I'll take the one on the left. Athrusa, stay near the ship. If any of them get past us, you need to intercept before they can hit the ship, got it?"

The two enemy formations are far out in Zone C, ahead of the Vengeance, but they're closing fast. They'll be in Zone B in approximately two turns.

[Merilan]

Athrusa listens in on both Kent and Captain Brighton's update, with a soft shiver of her own. "Copy those orders..." while she's continuing to scan around those targets that Yuuki's chewed through with her chain guns. One of the reasons she's done it, of course, was to allow for her partner to get good shots in, but also to get her close enough to...

...quickly scavenge for any dropped weapons, as she's done before. This time, with her objective in mind, she wants a melee weapon, probably a beam saber or two to replace into her suit's wing binders... besides, she's shown the Buster Rifle and even the Ragalian beam rifle before -- if she picks up more weapons, she can surprise the opposition with weapons their intel don't consider her to have.

Quickly Creating an Advantage to do what Athrusa seems to like doing - Scavenging. [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Athrusa manages to find a couple of intact beam sabers among the wreckage, though whether they are actually functional or not will require some experimentation, time she probably won't have before needing to intercept the wave of incoming enemies. Still, something that might be useful later, even if they're not functional now.

Ragalian Beam Sabers x2 (This will also serve as the advantage Athrusa's trying to create, a surprise attack mode to use against the enemy).

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki nods in acknowledgement, but quickly shakes her head and replies, "Okay, Captain." She gooses her thrusters, sending the Shura drifting forward and to the right side of the bow of the Vengeance. As it goes, Yuuki brings up the targeting computer and sets to reprogramming it for mass fire to hopefully help it keep track of the number of enemies they're going to be facing.

I'm going to take my free invoke of A Little Training..., since this seems like the sort of scenario it would be most applicable to. Trying to quickly create the advantage Targeting Solutions.

[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The data link between the Vengenace's sensors and the Shura shows that the enemy seems to be largely unconcerned with stealth at this point. The ships, as were reported earlier, are in two formations of equal size, 5 ships per formation, though now as they draw closer, the sensors are able to pick out over two dozen mobile weapons with each group of ships. The ships themselves are of several classes, two corvettes, two destroyers and one battleship form each group. Their approach vector means they'll only have a few minutes to attack before the Vengeance passes out of their range completely, but there's enough firepower there that a few lucky shots could destroy the Vengeance completely. Still, the enhanced data and lack of stealth means that it's a fairly simple matter for the Shura to pull both groups into its targeting matrix and form firing solutions.

Targeting Solutions - The Shura has the enemy locked in its sights.

Sazabi rockets ahead of the Vengeance, arcing towards the enemy formation on the left. A moment latter, the signs of space battle show once more, as Captain Brighton and the Red Comet streak into the enemy formation. She might not be able to do much damage to the ships with their I-fields up, but she can rip through the mobile suits the enemy has deployed and that seems to be her first goal.

Forcefully attacking the enemy mobile suits. [roll0]
Quick evasive maneuvers. [roll1]

The enemy ships mostly seem to be holding their fire this turn, instead locking weapons on the Vengeance and charging them, but the lead ships in the formations, the corvettes, begin launching torpedoes, in the hope that the mobile suits will be too preoccupied at targeting the other mobile weapons within the formations to be able to intercept them. The relatively slow-moving missiles can be intercepted, but doing so may draw the Vengeance's mobile suits away from attacking the Ragalian suits, and possibly into the path of fire the larger ships might use to attack the Vengeance.
The battle group commander is trying to Cleverly create the advantage Rock and a Hard Place. [roll2]
Yuuki and Athrusa are in position to defend against the creation of this advantage, but Captain Brighton is not, and the Vengeance's own defenses won't kick in until the torpedoes are closer.

[DoctorFaust]

The front armor of the Shura folds down, revealing a pair of gatling guns. They spin up in short order and begin to spray large quantities of what amounts to chaff into space ahead of the Vengeance, and the effect is added to as Yuuki begins to fire her paired vulcans and machine cannons at the incoming missiles as well.

I guess Forcefully defending?

[roll0]

[Merilan]

Athrusa charges in after the Red Comet, focusing as she looks to Yuuki -- and sees that she's got the attempt to bray the enemy's formation largely down pat. She wants to focus on being the Sazabi's guard right now. "Be careful of your flank, Captain!" she launches several shots with the Ragalian beam rifle, until it clicks a few times and she scowls, throwing it away.

Forcefully making an advantage for Captain Brighton's defense! [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

Success with Style - You gain a boost!

Sazabi turns when Athrusa calls out over the comm, but it's too far away from the corvettes to be able to effectively mount any sort of attack on the torpedoes. Athrusa's fire on the enemy does give Captain Brighton an opening to directly attack one of the corvettes, though, as the suits escorting it now turn their attention on the Nephilim.

Divide and Conquer - Enemy mobile suits in the left formation now have to divide their forces to defend the fleet from both the Sazabi and the Nephilim.

The torpedoes, however, never make it to their targets. The amount of fire the Shura unleashes destroys all of the incoming projectiles, and their explosions light up the area in front of the Vengeance so much and produce so much shrapnel that the enemy is going to have a hard time targeting the carrier with their weapons.

Sensor Overload - The enemy's strategy backfired, and the battle zone is now more difficult for them to target, making it easier for the Gundam team to launch surprise attacks.

[DoctorFaust]

As the last green targeting reticle on the screen of the Shura flips over to red, Yuuki heaves a sigh of relief. The last few seconds have been incredibly nerve-wracking, balancing shooting down the oncoming missiles, keeping enemy radar profiles from blocking each other and losing locks, and making sure neither of the two friendly mobile suits get caught up in the sea of targeting solutions. But somehow, she seems to have done it.

With a scream of "Flushing missile batteries! Firing for effect!", Yuuki hammers home the launch button, and almost 80 missiles burst from the Shura, darting through space towards the Raglian force.

Using Keep Bringing the Circus and taking my invoke of Targeting Solutions.

Forceful attack:[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Ragalian ships aren't able to take much in the way of evasive maneuvers from the Shura's barrage. Their mobile suits are better able to take evasive maneuvers, but many of them are distracted, trying to chase the Nephilim or the Sazabi. The ships activate what their anti-missile systems, hoping that will be enough, but considering they won't see the missiles until they're fairly close due to the screen the Shura created of the debris of their own torpedoes, they're at a distinct disadvantage.

Forcefully Defending with anti-missile batteries [roll0]
Success with Style - You may reduce damage by one to gain a boost. Doing so won't affect the following outcome.

Explosions light through the enemy fleet as the Shura's missiles rain destruction down on the enemy hulls. Some of the missiles are detonated prematurely by the fleet's anti-missile defenses, but the vast majority make it through. One of the corvettes detonates messily as an anti-ship missile smashes right through its reactor's containment. The other ships are damaged to lesser degrees, and a number of mobile suits are also destroyed out right, or damaged by shrapnel. The fleet's woes aren't over, though, as Captain Brighton takes Yuuki's cue to pause and unleash the full fury of the Sazabi's considerable armaments at anything Ragalian within the suit's range.

Forcefully Attacking [roll1]

The fleet really can't do much to defend against these sorts of attacks all at once, and coming from two directions to boot. They might fare a bit better simply due to the number of weapons the Sazabi mounts that are beam-based, but shields alone probably won't save them.

Attempting to Cleverly defend by shifting their shields around. [roll2]

Unfortunately, this isn't enough to save the corvette that Athrusa's attack made an opening on. One of Sazabi's missiles catches the ship from behind and detonates an engine, leading to a chain reaction that rips the ship apart, and rains debris on its partner, and mobile suit escort, destroying a number of suits. Both formations have now lost a corvette and had other ships take damage, all within a few brief moments of each other. This doesn't seem to deter the Ragalian commander though. As both groups cross into Zone B, the battleships and destroyers open fire on the Vengeance with their beam weapons, hoping to overwhelm the solitary ship's shields. A few stray bolts seem to make it through the powerful screens, splashing on the Vengeance's armor, leaving dents and pock marks, but none seem to do any serious damage.

The enemy mobile suit force doesn't sit by idly, either. When the barrage starts, they redouble their efforts against both the Sazabi and the Nephilim, giving chase to the two Gundams and attacking with their beam rifles in concerted volleys. Despite the Sazabi's speed and maneuverability, a stray blast manages to clip the suit's shoulder, spinning it for a moment before Captain Brighton manages to regain stability. Both Yuuki and Athrusa hear her growl to herself over the comm, but she says nothing else.

Need a defense roll from Athrusa, and then it should be her turn.

[Merilan]

Athrusa couldn't help but stare as the gleam of the explosions the Shura and Sazabi both inflict shower over her screens; she shakes her head for a moment, and then peers towards the enemy mobile suits as one of them manages to clip Captain Brighton on the shoulder. "Captain!"

The Nephilim is on the move. It jukes left, right, and then-- rather than rely on the Buster Rifle or the now thrown-away beam rifle, makes do with what /looks/ like a machine cannon spray...

But the winged, angelic mobile suit is instead carving a trail across the enemy formation -- a sudden pink gleam visible as it draws the Ragalian beam saber and cuts through them.

Cleverly attacking! I'll use both the boost I got and from the Scavenged Weapons boost to make up for my lower base! [roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Nephilim's quick, unpredictable movements, combined with the amount of shrapnel suddenly flying through space and the losses the Ragalian suits have been taking means that their attempts at volleyed fire on the antique suit do little more than scatter their already tattered formations into complete disarray.

Formations Scattered

They're going to have a difficult time creating a focused defense, especially when the Nephilim begins attacking using one of their own weapons. Most of them aren't able to mount much of a defense, since they were more focused on ranged attack and defense due to the Shura and Sazabi's assault, but a few are quick enough on the draw to at least try and quickly get out of melee range with the Nephilim.

Quick withdrawl from melee range [roll0]

Success with Style - You may reduce damage by one to gain a boost.

Unfortunately, most of them aren't fast enough to actually get out of the Nephilim's range, and Athrusa tears through several more suits, either disabling or destroying them. It seems that, between the Nephilim and the Sazabi, nearly all of the mobile suits that were in this formation of the enemy have been damaged, disabled, or destroyed. The ships are the only real threat left here, and the Shura is probably better equipped to deal damage to them. The other formation, of course, still has some of its mobile suit contingent left, though.

[DoctorFaust]

"I'm out of missiles! I'll try to deal with the mobile suits in the other group now. Try not to get me in cross fire," Yuuki shouts. The Shura boosts forward to meet the Ragalian forces, hosing down any target that presents itself with a burst from the beam gatling gun.

Quickly attacking. Invoking Sensor Overload.

[roll0]

[Nova_Eclipse]

The enemy suits in the second formation are caught off guard by the Shura; Yuuki finds them in positions to defend against her previous position as the Vengeance's escort. A few of the farther out squads manage to get enough time to quickly fire thrusters and try to evade, but most of the closer ones are caught completely off guard, and barely have time to try and shield themselves from the Shura's assault.

Quickly defending, either through maneuvers or trying to shield their bodies with their arms. [roll0]

Success with Style - You may reduce damage by one to gain a boost. Doing so won't affect the following outcome.

Even those further out don't seem to have the speed to outpace the Shura's targeting software, and the heavily armed mobile suit blazes a path through the enemy formation, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Although Yuuki wasn't able to catch all of the formation's suit complement with her attack run, she was able to destroy a significant number of them, potentially opening a path for her allies to destroy the rest of them, and potentially do some damage to the ships as well.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Yuuki's destructive run has caused chaos in the second formation, and as a result, the remaining suits are going to have a hard time co-ordinating any sort of organized offense or defense.

Confusion in the Ranks

Captain Brighton, for her part, quickly realizes that effective targets are in short supply, and given how fast the Vengeance is approaching, makes a command decision.

"Yuuki, Athrusa, time to return to the ship! I'll take one last run at them, and then join you!"

A moment later, Sazabi rockets across the area to the second formation, and carves another arc through it, before looping back towards the Vengeance, which is growing closer to the enemy by the second. The confusion the Shura just sowed is not going to help the enemy mobile suits mount an effective defense, but a few at least try to maneuver out of harm's way.

Quickly attacking the enemy: [roll0] Incorrect, see OOC thread.
Evasive maneuvering: [roll1] Incorrect, see OOC thread.

The Sazabi manages to damage another of the remaining suits, but it's doubtful those left are going to be able to muster much of a counterattack now.


The Vengeance, for its part, is accelerating as fast as it can, and as such, it finds itself between the enemy formations in short order. It will be there only briefly, but Captain Brighton and the ship's XO have a little surprise in store; a parting gift for the enemy. As soon as the Vengeance passes into the space between the enemy formations, it launches its torpedoes in twin broadsides, hoping to decimate the enemy ships.

Cleverly springing a trap on the hunting parties: [roll2]

The enemy ships quickly begin filling the space between them and the Vengeance with flak, hoping to destroy some of the incoming torpedoes.

Forcefully defending using flak cannons: [roll3]

And then the fire intensifies, as they hope to deal some real damage to the Vengeance.
Forcefully attacking: [roll4]

The Vengeance is mostly relying on its acceleration and speed to simply get away, and hoping its I-fields will be able to stop whatever shots actually manage to catch it.

Quickly escaping: [roll5]

The flak and torpedoes at close range like this means there are a lot of explosions, and many of them are not where one would like them to be. Still, a few torpedoes manage to get through and do some damage to one of the battleships; and more importantly, provide a screen for the Vengeance's mobile suits to return to the carrier without being targeted by the enemy's flak cannons.

[Merilan]

"R-roger that!" Athrusa twists the controls and sucks a breath as she starts to feel pain pang through her systems. The Nephilim tilts, and spreads its wings as it glides along, using the cover of the flak-versus-torpedo firefight to assist in its evacuation out of the battlefield. She turns to look at the Shura to go, "Yell if you need help getting back, Yuuki!"

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Nephilim is easily able to catch up with the Vengeance, but as Athrusa begins making her landing approach, one of the ship's controllers comes over the comm. The voice is female, and friendly sounding, at least.

"Nephilim, this is Vengeance control. Once you've touched down, we'd like for you to stay out on the deck until the Shura and Sazabi have returned. Once they're on the deck, you can go ahead and enter the hangar. Clear?"

[DoctorFaust]

"Alright, I'm coming back." The Shura banks away from the Raglian ships, using one of the burnt out hulks as cover. Once Yuuki has a clear path to the Vengeance, she boosts back up to full throttle and starts making her way back to the mothership.

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Shura takes a bit longer to catch up with the Vengeance, but Yuuki manages it. As with Athrusa, while Yuuki's making her landing approach, the Vengeance's controller comes over the comm.

"Shura, this is Vengeance control. Once you've touched down, we'd like for you remain on deck until the Sazabi has returned, before you enter the hangar. Just taking some routine precautions. Once the Sazabi is on deck, you should be clear to enter the hangar."

[Merilan]

Athrusa listens in on the comms, and lands and stays on the deck with the cannons at the ready. She's trembling a little. "Y-yeah... I might need a medbay pickup after we're done. My body's not acting quite right. I think the cocktail's about up." She looks towards the Shura to somewhat shakily go, "Good work out there, Yu-Yuuki."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"We'll let the med team know to be on standby, Nephilim." As the controller cuts off, both Yuuki and Athrusa can see the Sazabi bank around and flare its thrusters, before the crimson suit lands heavily on the deck, optics glowing green. As it straightens up, Captain Brighton comes over the comm.

"Good work, both of you. Let's-" She breaks off for a moment as the Vengeance's engines flare, jerking everyone with its sudden acceleration. A split second later, the Vengeance rocks again as the enemy formations fire a final, frustrated salvo from their beam weapons at the ship, as they're already beginning to fade into the distance. None penetrate the ship's I-field, but it feels to be a very near thing. Captain Brighton breathes a sigh of relief, and finally finishes her thought.

"Let's head in. Once you've got your suits berthed, meet me by the lift. I know you're running down, Athrusa, but I need you to bear with it for just a bit longer, ok?"

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki lets the Shura drift slowly forward into its docking bay and then brings it to ground with a thump. Finally clear of any danger, she lets out a long, profoundly grateful sigh and starts unstrapping herself from the pilot's seat.

"You too, Athrusa. I'm glad I had you two out there to cover for me," she responds. "I just hope I don't ever have to do this again."

[Merilan]

The Nephilim is locked onto the hangar berth, as the last of the rounds rock against the ship's I-field. Athrusa kind of half-stumbles out as she undoes the neckbrace of her normal suit and takes her helmet off. Her vision's getting a little blurry. "Thanks... everyone. Hope I didn't cause too much work," she lets out an awkward grin as she heads to the elevator.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton doesn't say more over the comm, as she quickly maneuvers the Sazabi back into its berth, and quickly heads for the elevator, so as not to keep her pilots waiting. She needs for them to help her with updating fleet command once they've hit the jump point, and she's not sure how much longer Athrusa can go without needing rest.

Nurse Celeste falls into step with Athrusa as soon as she's out of the Nephilim, giving the Artificial Ragalian some much needed support. Some of the returning pain vanishes once more at her touch, and she does her best to help Athrusa get to the elevator, giving her a grateful smile.

"Good job, Athrusa. Captain Brighton gave us a quick update while you were berthing your suit; she needs you for a bit longer, but you won't need to pilot, just talk. I've got another dose of painkillers if you need them, but Dr. Tram doesn't want us to give you any more of the alertness boosters right now, if we can help it. You may need them later, when we get wherever we're going and he doesn't want you to develop a tolerance for them. I'll be with you, don't worry, the Captain said I could be there to help if you need it."


Athrusa, Nurse Celeste, and Captain Brighton will arrive at the elevator at the same time, giving the three of them the chance to talk for a moment.

Meanwhile, the Shura's hatch opens as Yuuki finishes unstrapping herself, and interposed into the space is her father, Itachi, looking profoundly relieved.

"I'm glad you're back safe, sweetie." Before she can respond, he sweeps her up a big, warm hug. "I know you need to go meet with the Captain, but I needed this."

[Merilan]

Athrusa finds herself needing Nurse Celeste to move more and more as they head to the elevator; if a wheelchair is accessible, she'll sit down on it. "Y-yeah, I don't need the boosters... and I'll-- keep it together until I can get in bed. I know how addictive they can be, so I'd rather not rely on them too much..." She does give the nurse a look and a nod, as she says, "... I'm glad we managed to get away. I thought-- I thought about how much I wanted to help all of you in return... so thank you. You've been... really inspirational to me."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Once they reach the elevator, a wheelchair is waiting. Celeste helps Athrusa into it, as Captain Brighton arrives. The nurse looks about to say something when Captain Brighton speaks up.

"Well, we're not quite away yet, but I doubt they'll be able to catch us now. We should be at the jump point in a few minutes." She nods at Celeste, who gives Athrusa a small shot, enough to numb the pain for another half an hour or so, though it might make her just a bit drowsy. "I need to update command right away, and I need you and Yuuki to help me with that, since you both got a better look at the ships in the asteroid field than I did. Once that's done, you're free to rest all you need while we're in FTL. I'm hoping we can get to someplace with some better medical facilities ASAP. We've got a lot of injured now." The other three pilots, at the very least, plus however many may have been injured during the fight. "Think you can hold out for another little bit?"

[DoctorFaust]

Meanwhile, the Shura's hatch opens as Yuuki finishes unstrapping herself, and interposed into the space is her father, Itachi, looking profoundly relieved.

"I'm glad you're back safe, sweetie." Before she can respond, he sweeps her up a big, warm hug. "I know you need to go meet with the Captain, but I needed this."

Yuuki latches her arms around her father and buries her face deep into his chest. "Please don't let the Captain make me go out there again, Dad," she whispers. "I know they were just Ragalians, but I don't wanna have to kill anyone else."

She pulls back, and says in a more normal voice, "I really do need to go talk to the captain."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Itachi rubs her back soothingly for a moment, before she pulls back and he nods.

"I'll get out of your hair for now, and I'll do what I can. Come see me when you're done," He pauses for a moment, with a wistful look on his face, then adds, "There are some things I think your mother would want you to know."

And on that note, he quickly pulls himself out of the Shura's cockpit and hurries off, no doubt to see to the suit's refueling and re-arming, leaving Yuuki alone once more.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki looks apprehensive, but she nods, and says, "Okay Dad. I'll try to get out of whatever debriefing we have to go through as quickly as possible."

She hops out of the cockpit behind her father and heads towards the elevator at a fast trot. "Sorry that took me a while," she calls. "I got pu-" Suddenly, she cuts herself off and grinds to a stop as Athrusa finally comes into view.

"What the **** is a Ragalian doing on this ship?"

[Merilan]

Athrusa slumps a little as she places a hand onto the damaged side of her face; she listens in on Captain Brighton's debrief, saying, "I'm-- I'll help you with that, but my flight recorder might have a better memory than I do at this point... yeah... I'll hang--"

Yuuki comes into view. The white-haired Artificial Ragalian's ears perk up as she looks towards the girl and speaks--

--before the question comes, and she suddenly falls silent. There's a stunned look on Athrusa's face, before she-- looks to Nurse Celeste, rather obviously shocked into a panic attack. "I--I'm not... I'm not..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton raises an eyebrow at Yuuki. This is an unexpected development. She was under the assumption that all of the development staffs had intermingled on the base, but clearly, that wasn't true. She fixes the younger woman with a sharp look of authority.

"She's not a Ragalian, Yuuki. She's a Qualian. You probably wouldn't have heard of them unless you were either in the military or were a Solarian before the war started. I can fill you in later, if you'd like," she offers, before her expression grows more serious, "But for now, all you need to know is that she was born as human as you or I, and I expect you to treat her with the same respect you give anyone else. Is that clear?"

The nurse behind Athrusa's wheelchair touches her shoulder gently, a gesture meant to calm her down. Her voice is even and calm and sweet, and she smiles at Yuuki.

"The Captain is right, Miss Yuuki. Athrusa's a Qualian, like me. We're a bit different, but we started the same as you did. You just fought beside her, helping her protect the ship. She's the same as you on the inside. The Ragalians are our enemies; we shouldn't be looking for battles among friends."

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki glares at the captain, then Athrusa, and then the captain again. "So one of them lied about where they're from to get in the research station. Spying isn't exactly rare in war."

[Merilan]

"I--I didn't lie... I didn't lie..." Athrusa whimpers, even as the news of Celeste being a Qualian like her comes out. She... didn't know at all. She didn't, truthfully, even know there were others -- during her engineering process, she was kept entirely isolated from others until she was pawned off to the Stetchkin project. She shivers and clutches onto Celeste's hands. "It hurts..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton stares Yuuki down, her expression icy.

"I know where she came from. I know where you came from. I know why you're here, I know why she's here. And I know what your hang-up is, Miss Itano, more intimately than perhaps you do. I know a great deal about everyone who came aboard. I did -not- waste the time we spent hiding in that asteroid field. While you and your team were securing your suit and loading it out, I was given full personnel files on everyone who came aboard, and I spent that time verifying that everyone who's aboard is a legitimate asset on their projects. That includes both you, and your father, as well as Athrusa. I am willing to share how we know that she's an Artificial Ragalian, so that you understand who your real enemy is, but-not- -this- -instant-. Our first priority is to update command. We should be hitting jump in the next few minutes, and if we can specify any sort of vector before we go, I'm sure command would like for us to try and make it." Her expression softens just a bit.

"Can you trust me enough to humor me until we're in FTL?"

Nurse Celeste doesn't say more while the Captain deals with Yuuki, instead she looks down at Athrusa, and turns the young woman's wrist over slightly, before taking a hypo cartridge out of a small pack at her waist and administering another dose of the painkillers. The drug should help Athrusa's pain, but it will probably make her drowsy. She gives Yuuki an expectant look, but says nothing more for now, waiting to hear her answer.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki stares back at Captain Brighton, her gaze just as icy. "I'll drop it, since you'll probably throw me in the brig or something if I don't. But I don't trust you."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton sighs and nods, closing her eyes for a moment and rubbing her temples as she takes a step towards the lift. This has been a very bad day, and she's been pushing herself the entire time, trying to keep everyone alive. But then, that's why they made her the Vengeance's Captain, after all.

"Fine. We'll discuss this later, then."

Celeste begins to push Athrusa's chair towards the lift, and speaks softly.

"Captain, please be quick. All the additional stress is causing problems with Athrusa's injuries. I'm not sure how long she can hold out."

[Merilan]

There's a somewhat shaky tremble as Athrusa sinks back into her chair, feeling the hypo cartridge's contents filtrate into her bloodstream. There's a quiet sigh, and she casts one timid look at Yuuki -- then away again as she holds rather tightly onto her wheelchair's armrests. "Thank you... Miss Celeste..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Celeste squeezes Athrusa's hand, gently as the Artificial Ragalian begins to relax, comfort and confidence flowing from the gesture into Athrusa, though the nurse says no more as both she and Captain Brighton step onto the lift. Once Yuuki joins them, Captain Brighton pushes the button for the bridge deck, and the lift quickly whisks them to the topmost level of the ship. She leads them down a short hall that ends with several blast doors. One of them leads straight on, and is marked "Bridge", while the one on the right is emblazoned with the Republic Alliance insignia on top, and right below that, in plain lettering, is a name: "Nina Brighton, Captain, Republic Alliance Space Forces". The door's owner presses her hand to the lock pad, and the door snaps open with a pneumatic hiss.

Inside is a small office, with a desk set out from the wall closest to the bridge, while two chairs are opposite the desk, ostensibly for discussing business with the Captain. On the wall opposite the desk are three large displays. On the wall opposite the door are a number of framed photos, as well as a half-destroyed dartboard with three very slim throwing knives sticking out of it. There's enough room between the desk and the display wall that everyone present can fit, if a bit snugly. Captain Brighton gestures for everyone to follow her inside, then makes her way to the desk, and begins typing something into the terminal there, though she doesn't sit down.

"Make yourselves as comfortable as you can, I know things are tight in here. We'll be in contact with RA command momentarily."

[DoctorFaust]

As the group files out of the elevator, Yuuki takes up position as far from Athrusa as she can, and stands with her arms crossed surily.

[Merilan]

Athrusa looks a little surprised at the room, especially the dartboard and the photos. She can't help but catch notice, looking over as to who they might be. Before long, however, the medicine's causing her eyes to become blurry again, and she droops to one side as she waits.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Clearly, the photos are Captain Brighton's. Nearly all of them are group shots, sometimes smaller groups, sometimes larger ones, sometimes all humans, sometimes with a group as mixed as the crew of the Vengeance seems to be, though interestingly, there are no photos of anyone resembling the Captain herself that might be considered parents or siblings. Picking out the Captain out of the group shots isn't difficult; her face hasn't changed that much in the intervening years. Curiously, though, there's a somewhat familiar looking face in a few of them. Someone resembling Yuuki, but clearly older than the Captain was in each photo. She seems to have a motherly attitude with everyone else in the photos, the Captain included. Yuuki might also note this very familiar person among the photos, but there's little chance for either of them to say anything before the screens light briefly with the Republic Alliance logo, then begin showing three older men, clearly Captain Brighton's superiors. She salutes them as they speak.

"Oh, Nina, I trust we have good news?" The first says, a kindly-looking older man with striking blue eyes and a warm, grey beard. Yuuki can recognize him immediately, since he's been in the news vids practically every day since the war started. Admiral Amadeus Gato, the most prominent of the AAF's two dozen Admirals, and direct descendant of First Contact War hero Anavel Gato. Admiral Gato was one of the first humans to transfer from his home nation's military to the combined forces of the Republic Alliance, and the move was seen as a positive, both politically and militarily.

"We were beginning to think the worst had happened," The second says. Athrusa might recognize the hawkish older man as Admiral Elias Maxwell, of the Solar Retribution Society. Before the SRS, he was a part of a vocal minority in the Solarian government that had urged preparedness for the return of the Ragalians. History proved him right, much to his own chagrin. It's been rumored that he acquired the Nephilim privately and donated it to the RA, but nothing solid was ever shown in the way of proof of this.

"I see you have some of the young pilots with you. What happened to the rest of them?" The third's question seems to concern the other two. Unless Yuuki or Athrusa are well-versed in international politics and military command, they probably won't recognize this man, though his uniform is very similar to the one the Captain wears when she's not piloting a mobile suit, while the other two men's uniforms are more refined and noble-esque. Captain Brighton lowers her hand and smiles at all of them, tension evident in the expression.

"In due time, Admiral Stazi. There's been a development here. The enemy has sent one of their worldships, and it almost came through the jump point on top of us. We've managed to fight past it, and we're only a few minutes from the jump point. This is our last chance to make vector corrections, and if we can lay in a course to anywhere that might be helpful to the fleet, I'd like to try."

All three of them seem to look in different directions for a moment; no doubt looking at each other through their own vid-links, the effect is comical, though they don't mean it to be. After a moment, Admiral Gato nods and leans towards the vid pick-up.

"Cordellia, if you can manage it. I know it's a week's transition time, but if you're going to be of any use, it will be there. Axis volunteered to let the Alliance use their Newtype weapons testing facility for a second, smaller run of specialty Newtype-use Gundams. The damn Raggies have leapfrogged our lines in multiple places; we're still not sure how. The facility there reported nothing unusual an hour ago, but if the Raggies send a force there like they did to Stechkin, they might not be as lucky; there were no ships scheduled to be through for another three weeks."

The other Admirals nod, and Stazi speaks up again.

"We're still dealing with the incursions, so be careful, Nina. We can't afford to lose the Vengeance, the Gundams, or their pilots."

Captain Brighton nods somberly as she taps something quickly on the keyboard on her desk. No doubt, informing the bridge crew of their new destination.

"I'll do my best sir. I've informed our bridge crew as to the destination," she says, as she comes around the desk, gesturing at Yuuki and Athrusa. "And to your earlier question, sir, they've been incapacitated, so far as I'm aware. I had to join the fight in order to bring at least three suits to the fight. Yuuki and Athrusa here are the only pilots I have."

"I see Miss Athrusa is in a wheelchair; I take it she was injured during the battle?"

"Before, sir, during the evacuation. She managed to get the Nephilim and her injured co-pilot aboard the ship while injured, and while the other pilot succumbed to his wounds, we were able to fix some of the injuries Athrusa received. Unfortunately, that's a topic we'll need to get into another time. The short of it is that we'll need to divert to a place with an advanced medical facility to heal some of the more permanent damage; my doctors tell me there's equipment that will be needed that we don't have aboard."

"And still injured, she managed to pilot the suit?" He pauses, eyes wide, fixed in an expression of awe, staring at Athrusa. "Remarkable. Can you tell me, young lady, what sorts of suits the enemy brought to bear against your Gundam in space?"

[Merilan]

Athrusa wasn't the kind of person who was allowed much exposure to the outside. Her Ragalian conversion was done in an incredibly sterile lab, and the only people she know for the longest time were her handlers. Admiral Maxwell feels... a little familiar, as if she'd gleaned his presence in a TV somewhere in Stetchkin 4, maybe, but there was not really any chance of her recognising anything in her current state.

"... y-yes. Lt. Mathias was... meant to be the Nephilim's pilot, but he... he died protecting me," Athrusa reports, though she's fighting to fight back tears at remembering the memory. "The suits... the most recognisable ones were the ones at the spear of the pursuit force after us, who came from the Worldship. They were armed with beam rifles and had in-built weaponry, including what I think was a shoulder-mounted cannon..."

A pause. "I managed to acquire some beam rifles and sabers by scavenging during the battlefield, since my suit has next to no weapons left... the engineering team should be able to provide you with diagnosis..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Admiral Maxwell nods in an understanding manner. He seems very impressed with Athrusa, and unperturbed about her appearance as an Artificial Ragalian, though perhaps that's because he knows what the Qualians did to her.

"Resourceful, too. We'll try to get you to a better medical facility as quickly as we can. Hopefully, the testing center hasn't been hit. They should have a better-equipped medbay there." He seems to look back to Captain Brighton. "Once you're secure in FTL, Nina, I'd appreciate if you'd forward your technical team's report on the Nephilim and the armaments that were stolen from the enemy. They might hold some clues we can use."

Captain Brighton nods. "Of course, sir."

While Admiral Maxwell has been talking, Admiral Gato seems to have been staring intently at Yuuki, not in a hostile manner, rather, he seems to be trying to place her face. After a moment, he speaks up, looking at her.

"And you, Miss. Forgive this old man his poor memory, but you were part of the Shura's technical staff, weren't you?...Itano, wasn't it? What happened to the Shura's pilots?"

[DoctorFaust]

When the Admiral addresses her, Yuuki jerks to attention, her focus having wandered during the speeches. "Uh, yes. Sir."

Yuuki grimaces, taking a moment to get her thoughts in order. "Yeah, I'm Yuuki Itano. My dad's Itachi, the head of the Shura Project. We...don't know what happened to the pilot candidates. The last time I saw any of them was when the evacuation alarm was sounded on Stechkin. They said they were going to try to help buy some more time to get the suits onto the Vengeance, but...they never made it back."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"I see." Admiral Gato's expression grows serious and somber for a moment, before his expression softens, and he gives Yuuki an apologetic look as Captain Brighton speaks.

"Yuuki was able to knock out the destroyers' I-fields with the Shura, and she was able to keep the ship safe during our escape. She's a good pilot, even though she's only had civilian training. It's too bad she's not a soldier, we could use more pilots like her." Despite their earlier confrontation, Captain Brighton clearly isn't going to deny the truth about Yuuki's skills. "She's not interested in enlisting, though, and I'm sure the Admiral would rather have a military pilot in the Shura. Do you think the test center might have an extra pilot to spare, sir?"

The Admirals all look at each other again for a moment, then simultaneously all look away for a moment. Admiral Stazi clears his throat loudly, and Admiral Gato gives Yuuki a sad look, before speaking. Admiral Maxwell simply wears a grim look.

"I doubt it, Nina. The enemy surge is spooking the allied governments. They're worried we don't have enough soldiers to stem the tide. Even the other races in the RA are taking steps to bolster ranks. The council voted while you were engaged. All able-bodied persons over age 16 are to report for fitness assessments as of 1030 hours, GST. The civilian tech teams you have aboard are now officially military personnel, and are hereby assigned to the Vengeance and its mobile suit complement."

Admiral Maxwell's tone sounds as grim as the look on his face. Captain Brighton's eyes have widened in a look of sheer shock. She wasn't expecting this.

"That includes both of your active pilots, and any injured personnel you may have aboard."

Admiral Stazi nods and speaks in his turn.

"The Ooontaa, Gh'ree, and Palanteer are also lowering their age of conscription and drafting every able-bodied sentient they can, so rest assured, it isn't just humanity bearing the burden of this."

Captain Brighton takes a moment to compose herself, but when she does, it's clear she's very angry. Nurse Celeste backs a step away from the Captain, and closes her eyes, face twisted in concentration. Captain Brighton speaks through clenched teeth.

"That won't be much comfort, -sir-. I now have a ship full of people who may rightly believe they've been shanghai'd. And as the sirs are aware, I am short on security personnel at the moment, since I was not outfitted with a complement of marines before this voyage to make room for the extra personnel needed for the Gundams." She steps forwards, somewhat between Yuuki and the pickup, fists clenched so hard her suit's gloves creak. "I will need official dispensation from every government I have civilian personnel aboard from to prove that I had nothing to do with this."

All three Admirals nod in unison, clearly understanding her position. None of them seem happy about this.

"You sent a list earlier, we'll work from that, and send the documents as soon as we can. Even with this many people, it shouldn't take long. Expect it in a few hours."

"I will still need to figure out how to announce this, but that's a start at least."

Admiral Gato gives Yuuki another apologetic look around Captain Brighton.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Itano. I know the war has not been kind to your family, and now to have this duty thrust upon you is not easy, but these are the times we live in. Were it up to me, I would have made a different decision, but I can only follow the orders I have been given."

[Merilan]

Athrusa doesn't look too surprised, but she worries for Yuuki. For her... well, she'd never known civilian life. She was picked up in an age where she doesn't even remember her family or her ruined colony, so her entire life has just been being a lab rat, sold to the highest bidders to do their mobile suit testing... it didn't really matter whether she was officially 'military' or not given she never knew anything better. But Yuuki...

At least, Captain Brighton looks incensed, and she can only hope she can properly stand up for her. The situation is dire, but...

She quietly salutes and murmurs, "You... you have my support, at least, Captain Brighton. ... I won't go anywhere else -- I don't have anywhere else but the Vengeance. You can count me in."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Admiral Maxwell's expression softens, and he chuckles slightly, as Captain Brighton's head snaps around to hear what Athrusa has to say. Her expression is still tight-lipped, but she nods once. She doesn't exactly smile; she's still far too angry at the situation for that, but Athrusa gets the idea that she is thankful for the younger woman's willingness to serve. She looks back to the screen as Admiral Maxwell speaks.

"You're a dedicated young lady, aren't you, Athrusa? That's good, but don't push yourself too hard while you're still injured." He smiles, his tone kind. "That's an order."

[DoctorFaust]

"Of course you would've," Yuuki says with a bitter laugh. "Forcing civilians to fight probably won't make you very popular. I guess that means I've gotten press ganged twice in one day."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton opens her mouth to say something, but is quickly interrupted by Admiral Gato, who holds up a hand with a knowing smile on his face.

"It's all right, Nina." He regards Yuuki with a bit of mirth in his eyes. "I suppose you have, but if I know Nina, she did it out of necessity, and by her own question that started us down this path, she didn't intend for you to stay press ganged for long. Unfortunately, it seems the length of your service isn't up to her anymore. Or me, for that matter."

He chuckles, and goes on. "And you're right, forcing civilians to fight wouldn't make me popular, but that's not why I wouldn't have made that decision. Part of my job, as a commanding officer, is to try and make the best decisions for everyone under me. Sometimes that works for everyone and everyone is happy, or can at least tolerate the decision. Sometimes, it doesn't work for one person, or one ship, or one battle group. Then I'm not popular, but I always do my best to try and give the job at hand to the people I think are best suited to handle it. I don't make a decision based on whether it will make me popular, I make it because I am trying to do the best to protect my homeland, and my people. Conscripting or 'press ganging', as you put it, many new people, isn't going to solve the problem the enemy has caused for us. I advised our leaders of my position on the matter, and they chose to ignore me. That happens, in the chain of command, sometimes. And so, we are forced to make due with the decision as it stands. But there is another component to this that I find intriguing. Tell me, Miss Itano, do you believe in fate, or destiny? Or perhaps, luck?"

[DoctorFaust]

"I don't think fate is real," Yuuki replies after a moment's hesitation, "And if I have luck, it's all bad."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Admiral Gato nods, then smiles.

"Mmm, luck is what you make of it, I think. But as far as fate goes...I am unsure. You see, ever since the first Gundam was built, there is a peculiarity that seems to follow the suits that carry that name, regardless of who built them, or what they were originally intended for. They seem to choose their own pilots. Somehow, the right person is in the right place at the right time, and they become the suit's pilot, regardless of whether even the chosen person -thinks- they are the right person. It's an odd theory, and one that can really never be truly proven, but history does seem to show a pattern." He leans forward. "A pattern that seems to have continued with both you and Miss Athrusa. Neither of you were the intended pilots for your machines, but here you are. So, the question for you is now, will you lend us the Gundam's strength to turn the tide against the enemy that once again besieges us? An enemy that has stolen much from you, Miss Itano, and will continue to do so until nothing is left? Or will you turn your back on us all?"


Admiral Gato is attempting to appeal to Yuuki's thirst for Vengeance, trying to get her to accept being conscripted as the Gundam Shura's pilot, since it's clear she doesn't want to be a soldier.

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki's face curls into a snarl at the Admiral's remarks. "No, I'll fight the Ragalians. But not because of some dumb superstition. I'll do it because I want my pound of flesh."

Accepting the Compel.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Admiral Gato nods seriously, but then his image, along with the other Admirals', flickers for a moment as the familiar sensation of the ship transitioning to FTL flight washes over everyone on the Vengeance. Captain Brighton takes a deep breath.

"Very well, then, Miss Itano. Nina, I'll send the documents for both of them as soon as they're ready, along with everyone else. I believe the static indicates you've transitioned to FTL?"

Captain Brighton nods tersely.

"Yes sir."

"You have duties to attend to, then, Nina, and we shouldn't keep you." Admiral Stazi admonishes, smiling in an understanding manner. "The rest of our questions can wait awhile, until after you've gotten things settled."

Admiral Maxwell nods.

"We've got more than enough to keep us busy as it is," he says with a chuckle. "Though, we appreciate everyone's dedication. Get some rest during this jump; I fear you may need it when you get to Cordellia."

Captain Brighton nods again, and finally gives a small, tired smile.

"Thank you, sir. We'll be in touch, then." She salutes, and they return the gesture, before the contact cuts off. As soon as the screen go dark, she looks to the younger pilots.

"You heard the Admiral. Get some rest, both of you. Athrusa, you and Celeste can return to the medbay. Yuuki, stay here for a moment."

Nurse Celeste rubs her temple, and steps forwards to Athrusa's chair.
"Yes, ma'am." With that, Athrusa is quickly wheeled out into the hall, and back towards the medbay. Once they've gone, Captain Brighton nods to Yuuki.

"I need to figure out where to place everyone. But I don't know what your living arrangements on the base were. The pilot's quarters are near the MS deck, and while I'd like for you to be in them, I'm not sure they'll work for your father. I'm assuming you and he lived together on base, but is that correct?"

[DoctorFaust]

"Yeah, I was living with him," Yuuki replies. "Since, y'know, I'm a minor."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton nods again, and makes her way over to her desk, practically flopping down into the chair behind it, closing her eyes for a moment, and pinches the bridge of her nose.

"Right. We'll put you and your father in one of the marine officer berths. It'll be small, but at least it will be somewhat private for the two of you. We might have to shift you around later, if we get some marines, but for now, that's the best I can do. It's unorthodox, but then, this whole day has been, and it doesn't sound like it's going to get better anytime soon, so we might as well make the most of it. Before I send you off to get your rest, does the rest of your team get along okay? If they were to bunk together, would they get on each other's nerves?" She sighs, opening her eyes, and gives Yuuki a very tired look. "Normally, I'd ask your father, but you're here and you probably know most of them just as well."

[DoctorFaust]

"No, they all get along pretty well," Yuuki replies. "But a couple of the non-Axis military people on our staff were in relationships, so that might be an issue."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Captain Brighton wordlessly pushes a datapad and a stylus towards Yuuki, before nodding, rubbing her temples and closing her eyes again.

"Jot the names down on that, would you please? I'll talk to them and see how much of an issue things might be." She takes another tired breath. "It should go without saying, but please don't mention anything about everyone being conscripted to your team, or anyone else. I don't mind if you tell your father, but make it clear to him that it shouldn't be shared beyond him until I can make an announcement about it. It'll only be a few hours, anyways, but I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea. I didn't want the Gundams brought aboard just to shanghai any of you; I just wanted to keep them out of the enemy's paws. Once you've written the names down, you can go. Your new berth will be on deck 7, room 22. Get some rest, ok?"

[DoctorFaust]

"Yeah, sure."

Yuuki scribbles a few names onto the datapad, and tosses down the stylus. "If that's it, I guess I'll see you at the announcement that we've been shanghaied."

[Nova_Eclipse]

"See you there. And...for the little it's probably worth to you, I'm sorry," Captain Brighton says, the tiredness in her eyes reflected in her voice. Much as she would like to get some rest, she still has work to do.

DoctorFaust, if you want to pick up with Itachi and Yuuki in PM now, that's fine.


The Vengeance has survived its first contact with the enemy, but at great cost. Three of its Gundams have either been damaged or had their pilots incapacitated. Still, being alive and in a whole ship counts as a victory when the odds are so heavily against you. Still, without replacement pilots and munitions, the Vengeance is operating on borrowed time. Perhaps Cordellia will hold more resources for the ship to use in its fight against the Ragalians? Next Episode: New Friends, Old Enemies

Athrusa and Yuuki gain the benefits of a minor milestone.


Episode Two: New Friends, Old Enemies


A week can be the longest period of someone's life, and yet all too short at the same time. For two pilots in the Cordellia system, it has been the longest week of their lives. Originally sent to the backwater system on the edge of AAF space to test two new mobile suits, the pair were caught off-guard, like everyone else, when a Ragalian fleet showed up in system. Cordellia's facilities included two small space stations in the system's asteroid belt for maneuverability testing and tactical training, and several large colonies orbiting a murky, nondescript swamp world that lacks intelligent life. A perfect place for Newtypes to train, and to develop powerful new technologies that take advantage of Newtype physical and psychic abilities. And when the enemy came, the test pilots and experimental mecha gave the enemy pure hell. Unfortunately, even they were not enough to stem the tide, however. Within a few days, most of the mobile suits, along with their Newtype pilots, had been destroyed. Curiously, the enemy did not linger in the system, simply destroying the defenders, and moving on, but their lack of interest isn't the two pilots' biggest concern right now. Unfortunately for them, the pair were out on test runs at one of the facilities in the asteroid fields when the enemy struck. The ships that brought the pilots, their suits, and development teams to the facility were quickly called away for system defense when the enemy showed up. For awhile, it was thought that the other pilots would be able to drive the enemy off, but unfortunately, that outcome didn't happen. Now the pair are stranded with their teams, hoping they have enough supplies to last until the next AAF supply convoy comes through the system, and hoping even more fervently that the enemy doesn't return in the meantime. The cramped station was only meant to be occupied for a day or two at a time. The pilots and their suits' support staff may have to get creative to hold out another two weeks, and that's if the enemy doesn't return....


On board the Vengeance, things have been moving quickly. Captain Brighton's announcement was met mostly with grim determination and annoyed acceptance, with only a few protesting loudly, before being quelled by the revelation that their governments were the ones responsible for their conscription. Still, the forces on board the Vengeance are a unique bunch, ones that won't conform to all the military rules. They've managed to turn grief into productivity.

A day after their exit from the Stechkin system, sad news for two of the mobile suit teams was delivered. Tana, the pilot of the CGUE, died from the complications of her injury during the first attack on the ship. Not a mere bump on the head, but a far worse injury than was first suspected. And Xaia, the AI pilot of the Gai Sura, was wiped out when the suit took damage from the armor piercing round that hit it on the catapult. Although the team could reconstitute her, it will take them months of work to restore her, and the Gai Sura itself is no longer a suitable host. Agrias and Lucia remain in critical condition in the medbay; it's unknown when Lucia might wake up, and Agrias's injury was more serious than first thought, and requires constant monitoring for infection. The Freedom has been put into storage; despite the crew's best efforts, none of the ship's potential pilot prospects seem to be able to grasp its control scheme. The Sazabi remains a dangerous artifact. It behaves itself only for Captain Brighton, and continues to refuse entry to anyone other than her. It's unknown what might happen should Lucia die, but the betting pool on the MS deck is split 50/50 whether the suit's AI will go mad and try to destroy the ship, or whether it will choose Captain Brighton as its new pilot permanently.

Because their pilots are now gone, the Gai Sura and the CGUE have been designated as spare parts suits, since Tana was the only Coordinator aboard. The crew has begun patching and fixing the Nephilim with these spare parts where ever they can, along with integrating the weaponry Athrusa appropriated into the suit's arsenal.

Captain Brighton has been keeping Yuuki busy, giving her two tasks: the first, to undergo mobile suit combat simulations, with the Captain herself providing instruction. The second: to try and teach some of the crew's pilot prospects how to pilot a mobile suit in space. This has been a frustrating process, as many of these students don't really possess the spatial awareness to be able to handle a mobile suit in space, much less combat. Still, it at least keeps her busy.

Athrusa has been allowed to rest as much as possible, and while her pain isn't gone completely, it does seem to be growing more manageable. Celeste checks on her frequently, and she and Dr. Tram both seem pleased with her progress. She might not be running anywhere without meds, but there is progress.

Overall, the ship's crew is beginning to bond together, despite the forced circumstances. The hope that they'll find more people, more pilots, and more resources in Cordellia has been keeping everyone going, and anticipation when they reach the end of the journey is high. For now, though, everyone is concentrating on doing their jobs, whatever those might be....

[Merilan]

It's strange to think, despite her status as a test pilot, that Athrusa was perhaps one of the more senior pilots left onboard the Vengeance. Strange, and a little bit chilling as well -- but as far as that went, Athrusa was as keen as ever, when she was awake and medicated enough, to help the crew train. It was a way to try to offer her help while also trying to bond with the people who did accept her.

She spent more time with Nurse Celeste as well. They talked a lot about their times on Qualia; Athrusa was very honest about the fact that she was a lab rat, never allowed to see anyone, and even her contract to Stetchkin 4 was all signed up without her consent or knowledge. To be quite truthful, she never wanted to see the artificial asteroid ever again.

The Nephilim, in many ways, was like her; battered, injured, but not out. The Gai Sura and CGUE's parts allowed for the Nephilim's mobile suit team to go through the undoubtedly growing pains of transitioning some of the suit's extremely ancient parts and wholesale replacing them with parts that they could repair and find replacements for. The Ragalian beam sabre and beam rifle were both welcome additions that added a whole lot of needed simplicity and versatility to the suit's incredibly lopsided arsenal.

Something was weighing on the Artificial Ragalian's mind, though. Yuuki's words to her on that day... she tells Nurse Celeste she's okay, that Yuuki's going through a lot herself, but... it's obviously getting her down as she sits on her bed with a laptop, busy providing feedback on a direct line to the engineering team's latest efforts. Ever the busybody, this one.

[Nova_Eclipse]

The pilot trainees seem eager for the instruction, though none of them seem to be particularly good at actually piloting a suit in anything approaching zero gravity. Not for lack of trying, though, and none seem to have a problem with her status as an Artificial Ragalian, but then, many of them are Vengeance crew members, RA soldiers used to working with aliens, and the few that aren't don't seem to care.

Athrusa learns that Celeste is actually a failed experiment. She's a highly enhanced Newtype, genetically born one, then pushed to her limit by the Qualians. Unfortunately, her abilities make her a very poor warrior: the enhancements amplified her empathic abilities to unheard of levels, and as a result, she can use them to sense and mute pain, even in specific areas in the body. Unfortunately, that means that she can't be directly in combat; causing wounds of that magnitude would overwhelm her, mentally. The enhancements also muted her naturally enhanced spatial awareness, which makes her less than ideal for mobile suit warfare. She decided to put the gifts she had to good use and became a nurse, and enlisted when the Ragalians reappeared, her natural desire to help overcoming her fear of being in combat. As long as she stays on the ship, she's far enough away that the battle doesn't affect her too badly.

She pauses as she passes Athrusa's room, and watches the younger woman for a moment. Celeste knows that what Yuuki said cut Athrusa to her core, but there's little she can do about it, other than continue to stand by her "lab sister" and support her in whatever way she can.

[Merilan]

If there's something Athrusa is kind of decent at doing, it definitely is hiding how she really feels with a mask of cheerfulness, not wanting to depress others. She's deeply respectful of Celeste's story and her boundaries as well, of course. In a way, she was kind of the opposite -- she was just a normal girl who got turned into a supersoldier, and while her spatial awareness was excellent, she's always wondered what it was like to have empathic powers...

"--oh, hold on, Celeste's here," as she tugs the portable screen and goes, "Say hi, everyone!"

They likely know each other anyway, but it's fun to spread the cheer around. "Do you know when we're going to touch down in Cordellia? I got the name off a passing tech, but not really about where we're going there..."

[Gorum]

Gabriel Goldstein keeps nervously pacing in the hangar bay. Reflexively, he kept reaching for a small silver case in the interior pocket of his N.E.W.T. blazer, and opening it, only to realize, once more, that it's already been more than 24 standardized hours since he smoke his last cigar.

"RaaaARGH"!

The silver case flies across the room and clang against the titanium wall of the hangar. By now, the support crew is sort of used to Gabriel short(ish) temper, so they barely notices. He picks back his silver case (after all, it was one of the rare few gifts his father gave him) and pushes himself back toward the communication room/consoles. He removes his aviator sunglasses before asking once more:

"Could you re-run a full scan of the area?"
Observing the uneasy technician unconsciously distancing himself and raising and eyebrow, his glance betraying a bit of apprehension at the idea a full scan might garner unwanted attention, Gabriel goes on, trying to explain himself:
"Look, it should be obvious now that the enemy attacked while I was sent away. It is clear we're too valuable an asset to simply be sitting around like we do! If anything, our rescuers don't even have the NavChart for this area."

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Anaheim tech sighs uneasily, but nods. The station doesn't have much in the way of comms equipment, mostly short range, but the scan for the area is excellent, owing to the need to analyze a suit's movements. His fingers fly over the keyboard, and hidden machinery elsewhere in the station whirs to life. He rocks back in his chair as the data comes up. The data is the same as it has been the hour before, and the hour before that, and the day before that. Since the enemy left the system, there's been nothing moving, and no attempt to recover the stranded crews. Some of the Anaheim team have begun looking into possibly modifying Gabe's Gyro Gundam for an extended, long-range flight, but even their best calculations give the suit's life support as only lasting about a week before giving out. Not enough time to get anywhere useful, even given the suit's incredible speed.

"Nothin'. I'd say you owe me 20 creds, Gabe, but they ain't gonna do me any good right now. Can't you get some rest like everyone else?" There's no annoyance in that question, but genuine concern. The tech (Joe, by name) gives Gabe a friendly smile. "You ain't doin' anybody any good by being more nervous than a cat in a room fulla' rockin' chairs, and wearin' yourself out in the process."


Celeste waves to the engineering team with a smile, before answering Athrusa's question.

"As I understand it, the facilities in Cordellia are mostly in orbiting colonies or space stations. I don't have a lot of details yet, but we're supposed to be dropping out of FTL next shift. Try and get some rest; you'll probably be needed to pilot the Nephilim when we drop out of FTL."

One of the Ooontaa mechanics, shuffled on from the Freedom's tech team, pipes up on Athrusa's screen.

"Don't worry, Miss Athrusa. Your suit will be ready before you need it, we'll make sure of that. Me and th' boys have also had an idea about a modification to your normal suit to help the medical team keep better tabs on how you're doing, but it might not be ready yet. We'll let you know before it's time to get ready if you can use it or not."

[Merilan]

Athrusa nods very slowly as she responds, "Oh, that's good news... I hope there isn't too much of a shake or anything, but the inertial cancellers around the med ward seem really good." She nods at the mention of rest, and smiles at the Ooontaa as she says, "Thanks, Mac, you're a real lifesaver, going above and beyond for me..."

There's a pause as she says, "Oh, can you guys give me a moment, though? I need to talk to Nurse Celeste about something." She mutes the vidscreen, and looks up at the Qualian nurse.

"One of the doctors sat down with me to talk about... options, when we touch down in Cordellia. He said there weren't facilities here for complex surgeries, but he was talking about skin grafts and such..."

She lowers her head. "I haven't... seen my face," she admits, "Since I've generally been asleep when you replace them for me. ... so I'm scared. How horribly mangled I got... you know?" she kind of-- shakily laughs. "It's not like I'm vain or anything, just-- I think about that."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Celeste nods and steps into the room, and seats herself on the edge of the bed, placing a gentle hand on Athrusa's shoulder.

"I won't lie, one side of your face was burned pretty badly...and there will be scarring. Your modifications are helping the healing process; but Doctor Tram is right, you will need some skin grafts. With time, and extended surgeries, you could have all of the scars removed, though whether we'll have access to those sorts of facilities in the near future is still an unknown. Once the skin grafts are done, the scarring should mostly resemble a long knife wound along your cheek; something that can be removed completely later at a more advanced medical facility." She gives Athrusa a wry smile. "Perhaps once you're healed up, you'll decide you like the 'tough gal' look and keep them. Some people do."

[Snowbluff]

Lt. IVan Tessera
The Station

In the hangar bay is a large mobile suit. It has long, curving feature, and is almost beautiful as a war machine can be. It sports a large number of thrusters, belying the primary focus of the frame: speed. On its back are a pair of massive wing binders, attached by utilitarian arms, holding additional thrusters and sub arms, as well as a compliment of funnels. Additionally, its backpack unit carries a large Sturm Booster unit, which consists of more rocket nozzles and fuel tanks, in the shape of a massive protruding spike.The machine glares down over the workers with its single, green eye from a head nestled in a streamlined arrangement of neck armor, almost invoking a person nestling themselves in a large scarf or fur coat. On the side of the head is a designation and model number.

"SA2 Heavy Armament Test Type AGX-44 Sasha Gundam"

The paint job is primarily red and pink, much to the pilot's chagrin.

IVan is a man of average height, with unremarkable features. His eyes are purple, and always carry a lifeless, uninterested expression. His hair is black. As per usual, he's wearing his piloting normal suit and his sidearm on a drop leg holster, ready for combat at less than a moment's notice. He has been in the cockpit for some time now, drumming his fingers on the console. When he hears more speaking from below, he gets up from his linear chair in the panoramic cockpit of his machine, leaning out of the cockpit door.

"I concur with the technician," he says dispassionately. "Given the situation, at least one of us should be well rested and ready to scramble in the event enemy combatants arrive. In that interest, seeing as my machine is currently operational, it would be best I took the first shift."

[Gorum]

Edited to take Snowbluff's post into account.


"Nothin'. I'd say you owe me 20 creds, Gabe, but they ain't gonna do me any good right now. Can't you get some rest like everyone else?" There's no annoyance in that question, but genuine concern. The tech (Joe, by name) gives Gabe a friendly smile. "You ain't doin' anybody any good by being more nervous than a cat in a room fulla' rockin' chairs, and wearin' yourself out in the process."


"I concur with the technician," he says dispassionately. "Given the situation, at least one of us should be well rested and ready to scramble in the event enemy combatants arrive. In that interest, seeing as my machine is currently operational, it would be best I took the first shift."


Gabe sighs, his posture relaxed, seemingly defeated, and he lets out as he turns back toward what would be his quarters:
"Yeah, I guess you guys are right."

But only a few steps away, he seems re-energized. He pivots on himself and spouts enthusiastically:
"I've got an idea! You guys won't like it, but it may give us a better shot at getting out of here."

With a momentary glare of insanity in his eyes, he approaches the closest view pane which gives toward where the assault took place. He then points out toward the space graveyard as he continues:
"Why not salvage the parts we need? Jack here, and I, climb aboard the Gyro, we take the stroll toward the graveyard, salvage a bit of stuff and build ourselves better communication systems. If we're lucky, it might be just a matter of giving some system out there a bit of juice! While we're there, we could salvage any intact life pods for extra food, water and fuel!"

Then, with a grim smile, he adds:
"And if the enemy strikes this place while we're away, I get to confirm and brag about that both assaults were all an elaborate tactic from the Regalian bastards not willing to face me in battle!"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Joe sighs again and shakes his head.

"You can't even reach the closest battle zone, Gabe. We ran the calculations again yesterday. A mobile suit just doesn't have the life support capacity. You'd run out of air before you made it there."

Another tech, an older man from IVan's team, chimes in.

"Not even if we stripped the support system from the Sasha and put it in the Gyro. Give it a rest, kid. All we can do right now is wait."

[DoctorFaust]

One thing that Yuuki has learned about herself in the past several days is that, while she might be a good pilot, she's a piss poor teacher. After yet another session that sees her storming off in frustration, she barges into the Axis crew quarters and flings herself down into the nearest bed with a loud moan.

[Gorum]

Gabe's face betrays a mixture of bewilderment and offense at the idea of simply taking it easy. He's about to start the kind of sentence you have to point at your interlocutor as you spatter them, but he's taking them back as soon as he starts the gesture. This repeats twice before saying, in an half-defeated tone: "I can't. Dying of suffocation, dehydration or starvation might be alright for mere technicians, but as a warrior, I'd rather die trying something stupid."

Gabriel sighs, then, turning toward the Anaheim technician:
"And what about using inertia to get us close enough that the battlefield comes within' our operation range? We get the Mobile Suits out, we push this station toward the target area. Since the void of space won't stop us, we can slowly build up speed. Certainly beats watching paint dry or rations dwindle."

[Snowbluff]

IVan Tessera
The Station

"Sergent Laramie, the person who removes the SA2-HA's life support system will be the next one piloting it," IVan says, effectively giving the death sentence to anyone who limits the viability of his hardware. It could be interpreted as a joke, but with IVan, it's hard to imagine he has a sense of humor.

"As for your plan, Goldstein, if you're concern is about rations, then it won't work. Considering how much more massive the station is compared to the mobile suits' outputs, it would take a while to break our orbit, and we would be moving at a much slower velocity than a mobile weapon." IVan hops down from Sasha's cockpit, slowly falling in the small g environment. "Honestly, this is making me consider a proposal for a new kind of mobile weapon. If an FTL drive can be miniaturized enough, than an Ares variant like the SA2 could use it in place of a Sturm Booster. It could make for an interest penetrating counter attack machine. Unfortunately, this station doesn't have an FTL drive in the first place, and neither the technicians nor I likely know enough about the technology to make it a useful escape technique."

[Merilan]

"T-tough gal?" Athrusa sounds genuinely surprised. "I guess I've never thought of it that way... I kind of think of myself as kinda small and mousy." She twiddles her thumbs. "But you're right... there's hope, and I don't have to think of myself as--deformed or anything. Thanks, Miss Celeste..."

[Gorum]

"I get your point, but there MUST be a way to increase our chances... We might as well try something! Anything!"

Gabriel sits down, nervously rubbing his left eye and then, with the same motion, running his hand through his hair.

" And I want to point out I really feel like I'm the only one fighting defeatism here. In facts, you all fight really hard for defeatism, which is really odd. I mean... you're all very good at dismissing ideas, yet perfectly content to remain there as a starving duck. "

Then Gabe as a short moment of "staring into the distance". You could figuratively hear pieces fall into places for another of his plans. He then goes on, excitedly:

"What about supply drops? If we're careful enough, we can pack up and allow supply drops much smaller than this station to drift in space toward the targeted area of operations. Of course, doing semi-improvised pit-stops along the way won't be easy, and we'll have to be very careful about we send them out, but my guess is that Jake here does more complex calculations in his hobbies than what it would require to have those supplies exactly where we need them. "

[Nova_Eclipse]

Celeste smiles and squeezes Athrusa's shoulder gently.

"You're welcome, dear. Get some rest, ok?" She stands, and quietly shows herself out.


Meanwhile, Yuuki finds she's not alone, as a gentle voice calls down her.

"Rough session? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Captain wants to see you in her office." The voice belongs to a bridge member Yuuki was introduced to at the beginning of the week. The young woman is one of about half a dozen crew members who handle deck control for the ship. She's been introduced as Ensign Mitsuki, though Yuuki has coaxed out of her that her first name is Saffron. Of course, Yuuki herself is probably having to get used to being called 'Ensign Itano'. "She didn't say why. More training, maybe?"


The old man looks visibly offended. If steam could come out of his ears, it probably would be. Instead, he shakes his fist at Gabe.

"You dumb young punk, who said we're giving up! Sometimes you gotta know when to sit, bide your time, and wait! The supply convoy is coming, we just gotta wait for it to show up!"

Joe shakes his head, and sighs, ignoring the old man.

"How would you even get them out there-" He's suddenly cut off as a loud alarm comes from the scan console. He begins working the controls furiously, hands flying over the panel. After a moment, he looks to both Gabe and IVan.

"Something jumped into the system. Light lag on our scan gear....not sure what is yet, but nothing's scheduled for another two weeks. Either it's a relief force, or the enemy." He turns back to the console, as more beeping ensues. "Uh, crap. Micro-jumped away...multiple signatures....yep. It's the damn cats. You're getting your wish, Gabe. Suit up both of you, and be ready to launch, but run in low-power mode until I give the signal to launch. I'd be surprised if they didn't catch that active scan pulse we sent out just a bit ago, and it won't take them long to figure out where we are."

[DoctorFaust]

Yuuki lifts her head from the bed to see who the speaker is, and then drops it back to the bunk with a sigh. "Either that, or she wants to dress me down some more. Those're probably her two favorite pastimes at this point. But, uh, Saffron, I'm not taking your bed right now, am I?"

[Gorum]

"Hah! I knew you could pull it off Jack!"

As he runs toward the Gyro, he adds loud enough to still be heard:
"Don't worry: I'll make sure the fireworks will be worth the efforts!"

And as he sits into the Gyro's cockpit, he quikly flips through his audio files player and digs up Artist Unknown - At the gates of Doom. He then proceed to wait, jittery with anticipation.

[Merilan]

Athrusa nods gently as she starts to close her eyes. "Thank you, Celeste... I really appreciate everything you've done for me." The small Artificial Ragalian seems like she's drifted off to sleep in rather short order. But after Celeste leaves, she starts for a moment--

[ Z E R O ]

"...nnh--" she gasps as she clutches her forehead. That same flash again...

She stares towards the viewscreen where it's still idly fixed to where the engineering team was working on the Nephilim.

Just what was the true identity of this mysterious suit...?

She closes her eyes again, to drift to sleep. She'll need it...

[Snowbluff]

IVan Tessera
The Station

"Roger that," IVan says. He double checks the external systems of the Sasha before jumping up to the cockpit to continue his preflight checks internally. The cyclops eye on the Sasha Gundam glows a brilliant green, and IVan grabs his trusty Guillotine rifle from the weapons rack and the binders reposition themselves as IVan tests the controls. "Lieutenant IVan Tessera, SA2-HA, ready for launch. Goldstein, make sure you have your music going through your headset, I'm getting some feedback here."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Saffron shakes her head, before giving Yuuki a wry grin. "Nope. You're in Akiba's bed." Oh dear. "Akiba" is the nickname given to one Ensign Johnny Slater. Who happens to the be Yuuki's worst student. He tries hard, oh lord, he tries very hard, but his abilities are sorely lacking. At least one of Yuuki's 'ragequits' during her sessions of training potential pilots has been due to Akiba's absolutely horrid attempts at piloting. The fact that he also seems to be developing a very badly hidden crush on Yuuki doesn't help matters either. He's barely older than she is, a young, fresh recruit on his first mission, and often acts like he's about 14 years old.

"You might want to skedaddle, he's coming off shift in about 15 minutes."


Joe watches his screen with a frown on his face. Several of the other techs come in, and crowd around the monitor, all frowning. One of them, from the Sasha's team, comes over IVan's comm on a private channel.

"Be careful, IVan. They aren't here yet; looks like they're heading for the main facility, none have broken off this way yet, but we're picking up something weird. Goldstein probably won't care, but you've a bit more experience; you might be able to figure out what it is when they show up."

[Snowbluff]

IVan Tessera
The Station

IVan grips the control sticks more tightly. "I appreciate the heads up. Perhaps a new mobile weapon has been deployed by our long time foe. However, it may be meaningless to speculate for now. I'd elected to continue to passively collect and record data. It wouldn't be worth the risk to lure them here with an active one. However, if we are forced to engage, collecting as much data as possible would be preferred."

[Gorum]

Edit: This comment shouldn't exist as Gabriel Goldstein did not actually hear what would've triggered it. As there was literally no stimuli to react to, I have nothing to replace it with either, and I can't find the way to simply delete it. So I hide it here, for posterity.

As Gabriel activate the Push-to-talk function of his communication system, one can clearly hear music in background. " Yeah, I kinda need you guys to collect data. If we don't know what we're defeating, how are we to claim bragging rights? Because, let's face it, we either become highly decorated heroes or we die trying. "