6158/A Blood-Red Sun on the Rise

A Blood-Red Sun on the Rise
Date of Scene:	24 November 2018
Location:	Great Ocean
Synopsis:	Due to Abyssal presence in the Red Sea, and the princess Suez's stranglehold on the Mediterranean, shipping companies have resorted to rounding Cape Horn at the south end of Africa to keep worldwide trade in motion. The increased shipping has drawn the presence of a new Abyssal, tentatively called the Raider Demon.
Cast of Characters:	Midway, 6730, Shigure, 6384, 591, 6708, Kotone Yamakawa, 6716

---

Midway has posed:
80km south of Cape Town
French supertanker 'Sea Giant'

    These tankers are massive seacraft, and as a downside not particularly fast or nimble. Moving at the highest speed the turbines will allow, the Sea Giant has turned due west, churning the waters behind it as it moves at an unhurried 8 knots. Sailors have gathered astern of the main superstructure, peering out across the waters with eyes and binoculars.

    One shouts, points. Others react by focusing in the same direction.

    Far astern of the Sea Giant, coasting on the water as one would on ice skates, is a pale woman in a tattered black uniform. All down her back is a series of misshapen devices, metal and blackened flesh and teeth, which feed a series of tubes into the massive gauntlets framing her arms. The left hand terminates in a four-fingered claw. The right, a normal hand framed between two oversized three-barreled cannon mounts. The headpiece she wears obscures her face, but a single glowing crimson eye can be seen through the opaque faceplate.

    The Raider Demon.

    And she's not alone. At first, black shapes skip out of the water ahead of her like dolphins. Horrific, misshapen dolphins with sleek black hulls and ghastly teeth, eyes glowing blue. The ones that follow behind in her wake even seem to have legs. Abyssal destroyers, all of them, surrounding what might pass for a battleship, going by the large caliber cannons she's carrying.

    An alert goes off on board Sea Giant, and men begin to scatter from their sightseeing to prepare for an emergency. Mercifully, the Demon has not actually opened fire yet.

Android 17 (6730) has posed:
    Earlier.

    Android Seventeen was tapping his foot impatiently as he waits for a ship to get ready for boarding. Sure he could FLY, but this was so much more enjoyable. Going for cruises and taking his time to get anywhere, as opposed to getting there fast. Often times, the journey was just as important as the destination. Still...it was overlong. And then sirens start going off.

    "Well, that's probably not good," he considers, walking towards another port to get a better view.

    Now.

    Looking out over the ocean with his /ANDROID EYES/, which are actually cyborg eyes, because he's not actually an android, and Dr. Gero is kinda a moron. The large array of ships, but not firing, start coming into view. Well, that's a thing. People on the ship, looking like this, reminds him of what he heard about. Hmm...

    Now, Android 17 is flying out to meet this group of ships and their pilots? Bodies? Bodots? Pilies?

    Floating above the ships, but aiming to keep pace and flying backwards he looks down. "So hey. You're spooking some people. You haven't fired yet either, you on a mission or something? Peaceful? Assume I have no idea what you're about." He addresses Midway in that cocksure way that Seventeen seems to talk to everyone.

Shigure has posed:
    Steaming at the maximum speed they can muster with Yamashiro struggling to maintain more than 20 knots, the Fifth Strike Fleet closes as quick as they can. Shigure and Yuudachi are in the lead, with Kuma and Yamashiro following behind in a loose box-like formation. Kuma and Yamashiro both lean a bit to one side, as a launch catapult angles into position. "Type Zero Recon Seaplane. Launch!" "Go! Seireitei, kuma!" The pair loosing off their spotter planes before contact is made.

    "Remember, we are outnumbered, make your shots count, but our primary goal is intelligence gathering, and protecting the lives of those sailors." says Shigure as her eyes narrow, radar pulsing out to acquire the Abyssals. "My research has borne some fruit... I believe I know who she used to be, but we shall have to see."

    Yamashiro's eyes close, and her face screws up in consentration. "I can see them... Elevation two seven degrees. Spread one nine. Stagger one second.... FIRE!" The Battleship's turrets gimbal out, and the barrels elevate, before they report in a staggered volley that lobs 41cm shells into the oncoming formation of Abyssals. Hopefully breaking their headlong pursuit and giving them something else to worry about than catching the Tanker.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     There's a patrol boat not too far away from the action. Orchid has been working on a couple of projects, partly inspired by her efforts with the Ship Spirits in dealing with the Abyssal Fleet. One of them is her own version of the âairplanesâ the carriers use, but a more modern design, one based on the V-22 Osprey, the tilting rotors giving them the benefits of both vertical takeoff and longer range. This first project is helping with the second, a set of sonar drones, mech-animals formed like blow-fish. The V22s both carry the fish further out for rapid deployment, and act as relay stations, extending the mesh of Orchidâs network over the horizon.

     The location for this test run was dictated by the reports of the Raider Demon, putting the reploid further to the west of the tanker. This could be good, this could be bad. Good because it means she won't be far away from the action... which is also bad, if she gets there too soon.

     Her thoughts go back and forth, and Orchid leaves the patrol boat for her rocket surfboard. It's not as long-ranged as most means of getting around, but it is very useful over short distances. She'll fly over to the tanker, stowing the device in its subspace pocket as she lands aboard.

     Seeing the specs of light in the distance, she focuses on the shells launched by Yamashiro, ready to report on how the shots fall. Too short? Too far? Or bracketing the target?

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    Making bad decisions has been in Aoko's blood since highschool.
    Possibly earlier.

    She wasn't much a fan of the attitude displayed against that Re-class young lady. Boat thing. She wasn't sure. What she WAS sure of is that she didn't buy the "they're just monsters" deal, and wasn't a huge fan of the organized supernavy deciding who can and can't exist. So, only one way to find out.

    Fight alongside the "monsters" and find out.

    A shitty speedboat approaches. It's the kind you might rent for ten bucks a hour and that's neither meant for rough weather or fighting. Onboard is Aoko, in that ever iconic white shirt and jeans, though she has a red raincoat on too. It's the sea, you never know! In truth, she wasn't sure what to look for, and just kind of came on a whim.

    Luckily, someone does let her know what to look for. The first rounds go off, artillery coming from Yamashiro and towards dark shapes. Ah, from that distance, Aoko can't really tell what's being fired at, to be honest. That's fine, really! She'll take her chances.

    Aoko's hands never leave her pockets. An array of several dozen motes of light form overhead, brilliant blue and shining like tiny stars. "Set. Fire."

    Rays of light fire in every direction. Blue shots numerous and accurate enough to intercept Yamashiro's shells - and several more that remain in the air, stationary, waiting for targets of their own.

    "Hm, I oughta set up a signal while I'm at it."

    Another blue light. A large one, this time. A small sun the size of a head, complete with tiny magma movements and solar flares, rotation and... it really is a tiny sun.

    And it's being used like a lighthouse, to shine a cone of light towards the Demon Raider and her fleet. Aoko waves from afar, finally using a hand for something.

    "Yoooooo, over here!"

Foreigner (6708) has posed:
     "Adelaide," the handsome young man says with a broad smile as the ship cleaves through the waves with supernatural grace, "Have I ever told you how your mother and I met?"

     He takes out from his breast pocket a long pipe. From the other pocket, he pulls out a lighter; MY BELOVED HUSBAND is scrawled on the side. He snaps it open with a flick of his hand, lighting the tobacco in the pipe and taking a deep draught. The smoke curls up in the air, mingling with the steam-ships' smokestacks, with the black smog pouring into the blue sky and drowning out the bright sun. Carefully, lovingly, the young man flips the lighter shut, vanishes it into his pocket, and tucks his cane under his arm. "It was a sunny day. We met at a dance, a festival. When my eyes met hers, it was love at first sight. I walked up to her and smiled and held out my hand and I said, 'miss, I would be delighted and honored beyond all reason if you'd give me this dance.'"

     A misty look clouds the young man's bright eyes. "She said, 'sir, I would be delighted, but I'm afraid I can't just yet.'" A smile crosses his features as he chews on his pipe. "'You see, sir, I've promised my first dance to that gentleman over there.' So I, I clucked my tongue, and I said 'I'll fight him for that honor.' She was taken aback. 'Sir, I could never ask you to do such a thing.' I winked and turned and said 'madam, a woman who would ask a man to fight for her isn't a woman worth fighting for.'"

     The young man leans over the rail, draping his fingers down into the spray of seafoam. "And then I went over and I told that man, 'sir, if you don't yield that enchanting creature's first dance to me I am going to have to see you on the field of honor.' He said, 'She's not worth it to me. You go ahead.' And I laughed and punched him right in the teeth."

     The young man's bright eyes turn to his companion. "She asked me why I had done such a cruel thing. And I told her. 'Madam, a man who would tell me that a woman like you isn't worth his time deserves far worse than that.'" He laughs, a musical sound, and spins his cane out from under his arm.

     The creature at his side is a massive, hideous, bloated frog-creature. Its soulless black eyes stare at the young man in his 18th-century American naval uniform, blank and uncomprehending. It makes no noise as the young man looks at it. The young man stands and pats the frog-creature on the head. "I know, I know. You'd never suspect your old man of being capable of such violence, would you, Adelaide? But even I lose my temper every so often."

     His bright, mad eyes turn towards the Abyssals. "For example..."

     "I do hate to see such lovely young ladies in peril. As a gentleman, I feel it's my duty to protect them." The young man snaps his fingers. "Vanguard fleet."

     "Sortie."

     In the midst of the scrum, as the Kancolle guns start firing, there's horrible writhing, a twisting of space and time. Water is displaced. Black ships emerge from the twisting space, turning their guns on the ambushers, planting themselves firmly in between the Kancolle and the Abyssals. The black ships are crewed by frog-horrors, frog-men in smart U.S. military uniforms, balding men and women in the same, and others.

     In the distance, the approaching flagship of the Foreigner, Mississippi, continues sailing forward, the eldritch flag of Yhana'thlei flying from its master. The Foreigner himself hovers ahead of it, trailing smoke from his pipe, cane clutched in both hands like he's standing in the air.

     "I really," he says calmly, "Can't abide such people."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
The Report had come in, just as Kotone was recovering after an incident on Black Friday. She was not to get a day of rest, she was not to get a day of rest at all. She'd taken to her ship when the call came out the Blue Nose was high above unable to do anything save one thing, act as a staging platform to get Kotone on to the Tanker far below, after a brief radio conversation with Shigure. She's on the pad leaving the command of the ship to Slip-Bolt, a moment later there's a flash of light and it would impact into the deck of the tanker.

Kotone would rapidly take shape and is already rising.

<<Sea Gaint This is Paladins Operative Kotone Yamakawa I'm here to assist.>>

She looking about the deck, looking for anything outside of the crew at the moment she would cloak but her entrance would be hard to miss anyway. She makes ready for possible boarding action against the Sat Giant or to help evacuate the crew if the Abyssals want to just sink this ship. She needed to be ready, then to her horror, other figures arrive and one of them she knows from reports.

"Forginer, God help us..."

She mutters as she' knows things are going to be getting serious now, very damn serious. It was bad before but now it's worse and even worse than that there's an unknown party here as well. Wait Forginer wants to talk....?"

Morgan Berselius (6716) has posed:
Lurking beneath a cloud, a shadow suddenly grows thick and heavy like a droplet of water about to fall. The sphere drops pendulously, necking into a perfect teardrop before plummetting suddenly toward the wine-dark sea below. It falls, meter after meter, until it seems like it's about to disappear into the roiling waves--

But then, a pair of wings unfold. A great darkness spreads across the water's surface. The shade takes flight, surging across the tumultuous surface, making a bee-line just over the waterline for...

No, not for the Abyssals.

This time, he has a more pressing target to deal with.

The shadow shoots alongside one of the eldritch ships then turns upwards, skimming a jagged line overtop its heavy armor before alighting its deck. A long tendril of liquid night lashes out, swiping at the nearest frog-man and the corruption that its master sees lurking within. "Not this time," the shadow says, a young man stepping out from within with a lantern slung over his shoulder. "You made a mistake coming here. Monsters, I'll eradicate every single one of you."

Midway has posed:
    Raider Demon's optic swivels across the faceplate of her helmet towards the other fleet appearing on the horizon. She twists, then, digging her heel into the swells and bringing herself to a stop. Her clawed hand raises and thrusts to one side-- and the destroyers dive into the sea around her. She remains to see the fire head on-- when it is instead shot down by laser fire from behind her. She throws up an arm to shield her face, then shoots a look over her shoulder at the flare that's been thrown up by Aoko.

    When 17 draws near, the woman raises her cannon arm towards him. All six guns swivel and adjust. But he starts talking instead of attacking. That single red eye remains fixed on him, when her voice gurgles out. It has a mecnaized tone to it. Rasping, like metal grinding against itself, "Want. Oil. Steel. Materials."

    Various forces in person and by radio transmission begin asking her for a negotiation, rather than violence. When it becomes clear that 17 has no interest in attacking her, she lowers her cannon arm to her side. A tail lashes in the water behind her. When a commotion erupts on the deck of one of the Black Ships, her eye swings across her faceplate to stare at it.

    'Are you Graf Spee'.

    Raider Demon's eye swings instantly towards the approaching Fifth Fleet. With a splash, her tail hauls out of the water behind her and arcs forward over her shoulder. The clubbed 'end' expands, then swings either side around to expose torpedo launchers. These are fired into the water, into the Fifth Fleet's approach.

    "That. Is forbidden." Her posture shifts, clawed fingers spreading and cannons raised. Static creeps into her oddly toned voice, as the anger becomes more apparent, "Those who. Give. Oil. Will be spared. The rest. Shall. Sink."

Android 17 (6730) has posed:
    Android 17 slowly floats down, not landing on the ship but making sure she's firmly in place between the ships, the tanker, and the other ships. His annoyance at Morgan is starting to reach peek, but that's a different story for a different day.

    "Look, you do not have to do something BECAUSE you think it's your purpose. You can choose to do what you want to do. If you attack these people, they'll brand you a monster or worse. Eventually enough guns come for you and yours and you get worse than nothing. If you need what's here, then simply offer something to these people in return." He says, calmly.

    "Protection from your fleet, protection from other fleets, pirates, and all that. That's a service you are uniquly able to provide."

    "However, if you attack this ship, and it's people who have done nothing to you.." He says, calmly, as a shield forms around him. He interjects himself between ship and ship girl. "I will protect them, and by doing so, protect you." he breathes...this might be a long one.

Foreigner (6708) has posed:
     Truth be told, Foreigner really didn't care about the negotiation.

     Foreigner is a gentleman. Foreigner is a businessman. Foreigner lays out parlay because Foreigner likes to know what people want. For example, he's now learned what the Raider Demon - and presumably others of their kind - might want. Oil, metal, materials. Repair parts.

     The Foreigner takes a puff of his pipe. That was good. Now they could do business. Now he didn't give a good goddamn what happened to the rest of these people. Especially since-

     -especially since someone just emerged to try and kill one of his children.

     Morgan's tendril of liquid night smashes into the frog-man. The frog goes overboard with a *splash*, vanishing into the water. Guns are levvied at Morgan across the ship, some of them black-powder, some of them arcane nonsense-weapons pointed in his direction. A lumbering froghemoth of a creature moves forward with a magic crest on its hand, a pulsating, sickly green light flowing up its arm. One of the more humanoid ones, a bald-headed man with a nametag that says ALBERT, moves forward, holding the gun level. "Alright, mister. You knocked my sister off the ship, but she'll be fine. You just step back nice and easy and Father won't have to get involved. How about that?"

     The Abyssals decide to fire. That's fine. Foreigner takes another puff of his smoke and crosses his legs. "I've decided."

     He disappears.

     Foreigner reappears sitting in the air next to the Raider Demon. He stands and holds out his hand, taking hers and kissing it politely before he straightens. "Madam, I am the Foreigner. I'm here on behalf of my country and my family to protect you from these /awful/ brutes. After this, why don't we discuss setting up some trade? You need metals and oil. I think I can provide you long-term."

     Then he straightens and looks back towards his ship.

     There's a flicker in his eyes.

     The soldiers, pointing guns at Morgan, step forward. "Put your weapons down, nice and slow, kid. You back off and we'll back off."

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure is tense. She doesn't want to get close to those Black Ships, but if she can stall long enough for the tanker to escape...

    And then Foreigner calls her out on it. "Tch..."

    And then the Raider Demon reacts about as well as she expected to being called out by name. "Kuma, ping sonar, Fifth Fleet, move into defensive formation on that Tanker, Spread formation she probably launched torpedoes... this is going to be difficult. The destoyer escort would have been bad enough, but the addition of Black Ships to the mix will make this a fight for survival more than anything." says Shigure, before turning to Yuudachi. "No heroics... and no crazy stunts."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    With the sea calming down, Aoko pulls her shitty speedboat over towards the ongoing mess. No sense being too far off!

    This close, she can even tell Foreigner's... a Thing. She actually smiles, because that's a very interesting surprise. Well, something to poke at another day, though.

    "Yoooo. Aoko, here on behalf of myself," she introduces herself, not nearly as flamboyant and fancy as Foreigner. She's immensely curious now that she can see Raider Demon's body up close - that's some cool armor. So she really IS a ship? Wicked!

    Though, the growing hostilities are starting to concern her.

    "Ah, geez, look at all those people screaming. That happen to you often?" she asks the Demon, trying to engage in casual chatter to kill time. "Like they actually need that oil, psht. To mess up the planet and put more cars on the road, sure. Hardly the necessity you guys have for it."

Foreigner (6708) has posed:
     Foreigner is an *extremely* proper gentleman. He spares a moment to kiss Aoko's hand and shake 17's. His grip is firm and strong. His eyes are alight with raw and utter madness, and his smile is half-detached, like the world is barely there.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Things are going belly up now, a strange monster hunter she's never heard of before crashes on in. She's about to get to know a fair bit about Morgan today and has no choice in the mater on that. As she listens to the radio she sees which way things are going, and it's clearly time to evacuate the ship as she gets her orders from Shigure. She'll make for the bridge and get ahold of the Captain. Once she does find them.

"We need to start evacuating as many of your crew as possible I'll be able to assist in operating the ship if you allow me to be able to jack in and start helping to man it's systems that way. We don't have much time and need to take advantage of what time we have."

If the Captain will let her she will hard line jack into the bridges systems and do what she can to help run the ship allowing more people to get the heck off it.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Well, things have gone far past simple. Orchid is still trying to process all that is going on. There's the point-defense with the lasers, provided by someone on the sea. There are at least two fliers who might tip things. There's the Commodore, issuing threats and pretending to be civilized.

     Orchid is currently on the ship, and while Kotone is dealing with informing the crew, Orchid is arranging for patrol boats to be in position to pick up the lifeboats expected to be in the water soon. She's also sparing a little of her attention for looking through the files of notes about world war 2 ships, and the names of notable members of their crew. If this raider is truly the spirit of the KMS Admiral Graf Spee, then Orchid might be able to pull up some names with meaning to the ship. And if so...

     Of course, this keeps Orchid too busy to take much part in the negotiations going on over local radio channels.

Midway has posed:
    Raider Demon recoils when Foreigner appears near her, more than any reaction she has to him taking her taloned gauntlet in hand and kissing it. That single red eye on her face-obscuring helmet remains fixated on him for a long moment, even as she lifts that gauntlet away and flexes the talons. She returns her attention to the Fifth Fleet, who had called a name that angered her for some reason... but they have not actually opened fire since that first, intercepted volley.

    Her flotilla of destroyers have not come back up. Had they been ordered to retreat? The red eye on Raider's faceplate dims slightly, as if narrowing. She will consider the torpedoes payback for that abnormal pain just now. Her eye shifts back to the Black Ship upon which Morgan's now in a standoff.

    That single eye swings towards Aoko when a question is asked. The response is curt as any of her other comments have been, "This. Is New." The Raider Demon actually seems to be rather confused by what's going on. With the altercation erupting through radio channels, the Raider swings away from the scene unfolding on Foreigner's flagship. Coasting at a steady pace, she resumes her pursuit of the retreating Sea Giant.

    On board the Sea Giant, crewmen have already been gathering near the escape launches astern. Kotone helps round up a few who had been taking their time. The deck officer pauses near her, though, "It's a digital system. If you're good enough, you can probably hijack the autopilot and control it remotely." He nods once, "I and my crew appreciate this, miss. Good luck."

    Unrelated to the encounter unfolding on the ocean's surface, a small squadron of round white shapes coasts through the air at a significant altitude. These Abyssal scout planes bank lazily and begin circling at a safe distance. Raider Demon didn't launch them, they appear to have wandered into the area from somewhere else.

Morgan Berselius (6716) has posed:
Dozens of guns are levelled at the invader. Weapons magical and mundane, eldritch and worse. Morgan stares at them for a good long moment, his eyes tired, exhausted, unreadable. "Guns, huh? Scary things. It's amazing what a few more centuries of development could have brought," Morgan slowly shrugs his shoulders and lifts his hands congenially, "Look at all of you though. What has happened to you to make you like this? Poor souls, don't worry, I won't hurt you."

A shadow propagates from beneath the God-Walker's feet, surging like a wave across the ship's deck, going to wash /over/ the unearthly crewmen, "Unless I have to, I mean." The first of Bendigeid's miracles has always been dominion over the sphere of night. Tenebrous tentacles erupt from the wave of shadow-stuff, going to wrap around first the firearms, then the bodies holding them. Each moment the tendrils remain, they constrict and /burn/ with purifying energies.

"Let's see if whatever /happened/ to you can be /undone/," Morgan rumbles, the shadows flickering around him. "I am the Warden of Night, let this evil be PURGED!"

Android 17 (6730) has posed:
    When the exchange starts, and Morrigan's refusal to back down occurs, Android 17 simply stopped protecting the ship, and turned to land on the Abyssal's deck. Trying to coordinate a compromise that was good for everyone...or at least, what he thought was good for everyone...

    Things break down into a trash fire very quickly. Then upgrade to dumpster fire in short order. Seventeen sighs, and takes off once more, looking at the Raider.

    "So you got me on yourside for now. Don't make me regret it." He says, calmly, even taking the offered hand from Foreigner when he drops by to offer it, though he just barely suppresses a shudder. The man is disturbing, and recriminations against him for slaving are out there, but right now it's not about him. It's about these girls, and right now...Seventeen can't help but see a little of him in them. Raising from the ship, he flies right towards the tanker, and goes right into the water. Shields extending around him as he prepares to fight...and defend.

    His first action is to fire a warning shot off of Shigure's hull. A beam of light tears through the water, much like the 'chi' from his universe.

    He doesn't talk, instea dhe prepares to fight.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure hangs back near the Tanker, as Yuudachi, Kuma and Yamashiro interpose themselves between the Tanker and the approaching Abyssal. Shigure grits her teeth as the argument continues to spiral, and her anger finally erupts and causes her to finally raise her voice for once in a very long time.

    She then makes her ultimatum, her torpedo launchers angling to punch holes along the side of the tanker as the launches drop into the water and start to leave the area. Hopefully, as Yamashiro transforms into her full sized Battleship form, the launches won't be noticed until they're far enough away to not be pursued.

    "Forgive me for what I am about to do..." Shigure says, then launches her torpedo spread at the tanker... only to get a shot over her shoulder from 17. "Tch..."

Foreigner (6708) has posed:
     Morgan strikes.

     But there's nothing that can be undone. These aren't mutants. These aren't people tainted by some greater evil. These are /people/. They're born with this. This is in their blood. So the frog-man dies, screaming and gurgling, fire curling up around his flesh.

     Foreigner feels it die.

     This is in error.

     The Foreigner disappears off the Abyssal ship. The effect is much like watching space /spasm/. It's not a clean teleport, like Aoko has seen before - it's a twitching demand, a passing-through of something ancient and horrible simply tearing a chunk out of reality.

     Foreigner flits around the battlefield. Orchid gets a brief reading of him appearing on the tanker. His eyes trail outwards towards the fleeing lifeboats. His fingers twitch, and then he's gone again. Above, black smog is gathering, and the waves are getting rougher. Murky water starts to flood, spilling forth and making the waves shake. The dark clouds swirl.

     Foreigner is targetting the lifeboats and the patrol boats with that murderous, dark power. Aoko can feel the sheer depth of mana available to him. Shigure and Orchid can see him.

     There are tendrils writhing out of the air behind him, like some horrifying version of the Gate of Babylon.

     The soldiers, meanwhile, open fire on Morgan. Those old guns aren't old guns at all. They're high-tech, magical guns. They're dangerous guns. They kill immortal things.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa does not like where this is going but she's with the Paladins and she's not the one in charge of this operation. They are under a hell of a bad space here. The first objective is to get the crew out. "I should be able to do it long enough to do what needs to be done." She'll make sure they are out, once she's got a hard line in long enough she'll take control of the ship at this point. Kotone just focuses on trying to get the crew off, she will not blow the ship until they are away.

She will move to get control of the ship remotely and is issuing command sit's going to take her a bit to get to the tanks, however. God this is going to be an environmental disaster but if the Abyssals get this fuel? A lot of people are going to die. As the comm chatter continues she just winces there's not much she can do about it

She then gets new orders so they are going to torpedo the Sat Giant? Okay, she changes plans and will make sure checking the ship's internal security systems that it's clear as she's going to make to get off. Though, she's behind everyone else in getting off the ship. As she had to assume control of its systems. Maybe it's due to her time with the Fleet but she mutters something as she moves.

"I'm sorry Sea Giant you deserved better."

She's got to get off now as well teh torpedos are coming and now there's Forginer. Time is running, out, it's very much running out.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Orchid can see the Foreigner's brief visit. Further, she can see the darkness the man-shaped thing is gathering around the life boats he is looking at. She can't do much by herself, but she can bring warning to her friends, some of whom are in position to attack, to disrupt the source of darkness.
     Orchid looks around... the other lifeboats have left. For her? Sinking to the bottom here WOULD kill her, so she grabs a pair of life preservers, one in each hand, and jumps overboard.
     *splash!*

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    Aaaand... the shit hits the fan.
    Aoko squints in the direction of the chaos. The tanker's hit. Well, that's... that's bad. That's super bad.

    Nothing in Aoko's arsenal can resolve an oil spill short of setting it ALL on fire. Which, granted, she could do, and seems to be the Abyssals' solution to an oil spill too. Not a great one too.

    No, well... there's something else, right?

    What's being responsible, really.

    "Ha, the old man would laugh. That shadow'd be pissed too. Great, it's settled. Time to do something REALLY DUMB!"

    In her awful speedboat, Aoko slams her foot down.

    A brilliant blue spell circle spreads out from underneath her, sinking into the water. The circle doesn't seem to have an ending.

    "Hear me, Lord of All Creation."

    Apparently this has a casting time.
    The air becomes still.

Morgan Berselius (6716) has posed:
These are not tainted. These are /people./ Born with this condition, imbued with it in their very blood. Killing them is wrong, it's a devastating, fatal error.

Or it would be.

If Morgan still considered them people. If he /hadn't/ learned of the devastation these creatures wrought upon an innocent city. If he didn't know about the human enslavement, of the /foreign/ nature of his foe.

As it is, Morgan does not care. He sees a monster, a blight upon the world, and every ounce of his being demands that he /erase/ it.

"No? Pityt. At least I tried." Bullets hiss by, rounds that can kill immortals-- but Morgan is no immortal. He is a regenerator, an unstoppable beast of his own right. The bullets sink in, blood and nightmare erupts from the young man's back and shoulders as they bury in deep and rupture on through. He slumps forward like a puppet with its strings cut. Morgan's body slumps into the shadows and dissolves, and for a moment it seems as though the danger is passed, but then...

But /then./

There's a laugh, terrible and deep, like something terribly, unspeakably old. The voice of a nightmare that was born when the first human gazed into the darkness and felt /fear./ The shadow surges /upward,/ tendrils seizing around the limbs and bodies of whatever corrupted creature is nearby. It launches forward, racing through the air until it alights over the open sea. The darkness spreads, racing across the world. Within the shadow, an ancient god of a fallen world exerts its rightful dominion over the domain of night. Light is swallowed, little motes of ghostly azure float amidst the haze as winged shadows with Morgan's face begin to dance through the air.

And suspended like bloated, hanging bodies by ink-black shadow from arbitrary points of space... Are the Foreigner's precious children.

"Hated Foreigner," The God of Night rumbles. "This night is not YOURS to command. For each soul you've sold into bondage, for each life you've taken, I shall purge a hundred and one of your children from the world. Retreat now, if you do not wish to lose /these/ next."

Midway has posed:
    The Sea Giant shudders when torpedoes impact its side one after the other. A smaller vessel would be rocked by so many impacts, but not a supertanker like this which dwarfs even Yamashiro's mighty Ocean Fit-Out in scale. The plumes of water don't even reach the level of the deck.

    The last of the lifeboat launches jettisons from the stern, striking the waves. The engine gutters, then starts up. Like the other three, it turns towards shore, perhaps hoping to outrun whatever horror the Foreigner is preparing to unleash. Aoko's speedboat passes by this last lifeboat, with many sailors on it staring after this apparently crazy redhead charging into what they reason to be certain death.

    Raider Demon halts when those torpedoes hit the side of the tanker. Her single red eye stares at the vessel, her posture shifting when the ship begins to list into the holes blasted into its side.

    "NNNGH--!" Denied what she had come for, the Abyssal girl wrenches her cannon gauntlet up. All six guns adjust their elevations and alignment, fixating on the Fifth Fleet flagship, that destroyer, Shigure.

    But she hesitates.

    The single red spot that is Raider Demon's eye travels around the curved surface of her faceplate, taking in the chaos of two unknowable god-like creatures demonstrating a clash in natures. Her gaze returns to Shigure, her arm shifts to re-align her guns. And then she just lowers it.

    The burning frustration is clear in that single circular scarlet optic. But there's just too many variables at play here for her to feel comfortable actually fighting.

    Water around the Raider Demon's feet grows turbulent, and the monstrous shipgirl sinks beneath the waves.

    The squadron of Abyssal recon planes, meanwhile, drops altitude and tightens its circular path to get a better look at what the Foreigner and Morgan are actually doing as they antagonize each other. Being scout planes, they are unarmed and no threat, but by dropping altitude they're more obvious from sea level.

Android 17 (6730) has posed:
    The Android Barrier hits torpedoes. However, he misjudges the angles, and the blast sends him massively off course. He fires blasts from his hands towards one of the torpedo's, trying to shoot them down, but because of his hilariously off course position...he misses some.

    Damnation, he thinks...that was that. Raising out of the water, he comes up just in time to see the Abyssal...not fire on Shigire. Taking a breath, well...baby steps, even if it might have been more about survival than anything else.

    For a moment, he scans the battlefield...if she fires on the retreating Abyssals, then this fight isn't going to end soon. However, if he can find the right...

    The civilians.

    Seventeen rushes towards the ground again, before he seems to vanish, aiming to appear right infront of Morgan, and the barrier expands. His eyes focused, his eyes narrowed and he simply gets ready to stand to defend the fish men.

    "Whatever your problem with Foreigner, this does not extend to killing his children, how blind must you be to see those lives on the water are put in danger by your actions and your unwillingness to look passed your own stupid bias." He says, firmly.

    He takes a step forward, hand glowing brightly as he prepares, willing to fight this man to the death.

    "Foreigner, I will protect your sons, but you must not take your wrath out on those people, it was not by their choice that they were used in bad faith. If you have a beef, I suggest taking it out with the man who wants the fight."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    Underneath the area, the sea begins to glow.

    It's a brilliant flare of blue and cyan visible from far away. No, possibly, even from space. There's no harm - no lasers, surprisingly - just an immense amount of energy, breaking through the darkness of Morgan's god. But not, in any way, disrupting its power.

    Aoko's hair starts glowing, appearing that much redder than before. The air crystalizes, like broken mirrors are hanging everywhere and shards of the local future and past are visible through. Aoko turns to look at the Demon Raider before she leaves, making sure to talk just loudly enough that only she can hear. "Hey. Meet me here again in a few days, alright? And bring something to patch up a ship. I'll make it worth your while, promise. For now, you should call off your fleet, there's no point taking losses for nothing."

    Aoko turns back to look at the mess. The fighting doesn't concern her. The tanker does. It's sinking. She can't change that, but...

    She can change WHEN it'll sink.

    "I announce.
                BLUE
    In my name representing order, I announce.
                  NOT SANE
    Everything will be corrected.
     FIVE TIMELESS WORDS
    Order has now fallen."

    There is a flash of intense, blinding blue light. When it passes, Aoko's spell circle, glow, all the blue light... and the tanker... are gone. Aoko puts her hands back into her pockets, flopping down to sit inside her awful boat. "Oh, I'd forgotten how that feels. Well? Where's my mandatory greeting, mister Shadow? Oh, that's right, you can't touch me. Ahaha... ha... be funnier if it was here. Oh well. Aoko one million, Alaya still zero."

    Somewhere else entirely, a Red Shadow snarls like an angry beast.
    It's not Aoko's problem.

Midway has posed:
    The tanker disappears in a flash of brilliant light. Light that disrupts the formation of three Abyssal scout planes somewhat, and it takes them a moment to compose themselves after what they'd just witnessed.

    Elsewhere, deep beneath the sea within the lightless depths, crimson eyes narrow, "...Hmhmhmhm~... How fascinating."

Foreigner (6708) has posed:
     Foreigner's chant continues. The quiet, murmuring, hissing noise. The spilling water. The shaking sky. But nothing's happened yet. Nobody's /died/. The world hasn't turned upside-down. He appears to be giving Seventeen a chance.

     But he's not willing to stop gathering that enormous amount of prana. And he's not willing to stop invoking his Noble Phantasm until he's sure.

Morgan Berselius (6716) has posed:
Seventeen appears before the still-expanding storm of night, and speaks words into it. From the shadows, a figure emerges, unmistakably that of Morgan Berselius. "I don't think you understand," Morgan says, locking his hands lazily over his head. "I'm killing his children because he's willing to kill people who were just minding their own business and living their lives. I really don't see what room for mercy there is here. These creatures are clearly alright with their 'Father' attacking cities, taking slaves, and snuffing out countless lives."

"So, like," Morgan just sort of... shrugs? "You tell him to stop fuckin' doing that and I'll think about not killing every single one of his 'children.' How's that sound?"

The tentacles still holding those fish-folk tighten ever so slightly, as if poised to burst into purifying energies at any moment. "Come on, I'm not a patient guy. If you don't hurry up and extract a promise from him to behave himself, I might just sink one of his ships and all the people on /it/ next."

Android 17 (6730) has posed:
    Android 17 has had ENOUGH.

    He moves his hand, firing several focused blasts towards the tentacles holding the fishman, attempting to give him time to get free.

    But Seventeen isn't done, he comes on, unafraid of the darkness, and aiming a shot right across the center of mass, aiming to try and launch Morgan AWAY...with any luck OFF of the ship, but away from the fish would be enough. Enough for Seventeen to interpose himself between the ships and Morgan.

Morgan Berselius (6716) has posed:
Shots are fired. Focused blasts of energy tear the shadowy tentacles off of one of the fishmen, then another, then another--

And then the remaining ones suddenly burn with purifying fire.

Morgan spreads his arms in an unmistakable 'oops my magic slipped' kind of way moments before he's blasted bodily off the vessel by an angry Android.

The shadow rushes away, apparently lacking interest in actually /fighting/ the Android so much as it seems to be getting ready to deal with the aftermath of just what it did.

Time for things to go /terribly/ wrong.

Foreigner (6708) has posed:
     Foreigner's fingers go up to his face. He's laughing. He's laughing wildly. His bright eyes are practically peeling. The dark and murky water is full of eyes on the waves. The tendrils lash around him. His eyes are bright and terrifying.

     "Ah, ah."

     The last words of the Noble Phantasm drop from his lips.

     "BLACK SHIPS OF EVIL MIEN ~ NONE SLEEP WHILE THEY SAIL."

     The sky turns *black*. Not the black of night. Not the black of shadows. *Black*. A deep, alien darkness, a darkness deeper than the deepest ocean. The darkness is choking, suffocating. It's deeper than Morgan's darkness by far. It swallows shadow and swallows light alike, choking out the night beneath its hideous swirl. Laughter echoes through the night, laughter and screams from every direction. Mists spill across the ocean, suffocating sight.

     Then the black ships arrive.

     They are not the ships of his armada. The ships of his armada are not these...these /things/, these vast, black, hideous nightmares. The ships of his armada are sailing vessels; these are demons, true demons, true nightmares, true horrors, with blazing red lights like eyes that cut through the fog. They cleave straight through the patrol boats like they weren't even there, like their bows were ship-cleaving colossal blades. They open fire, without hesitation, on the fleeing lifeboats. Shells erupt, blasting innocent lives out of the water. Swallow, dark waves crash against lifeboats, swallowing them whole. Some of the sailors are choking on the black smog pouring from the smokestacks. It is a horrifying sight, a nightmare beyond nightmares come to life, the terror of an entire country engraved into a single moment.

     Foreigner's laughter continues to echo as he holds up his hideous cane.

     "The night? The darkness? Ignorant child. You think terror awaits me in the darkness?"

     "I am beyond darkness. I am that which lurks in the waking nightmares. I am the horror that sleeps beneath the waves. When children wonder what lies in its depths, they wonder of me. When good men cross themselves and hope that their pitiable gods will save them, they hope it from me. You are the darkness? You are the night?"

     "I aM tHe AbYsS oF tHe DeEp."

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure winces as the Tanker vanishes. Not important.

    Yuudachi, Kuma and Yamashiro level their weapons on Raider Demon, but do not fire as she disengages and sinks to leave. Then the two waring demi-gods start throwing out their stuff, and Morgan makes things WORSE.

Hersnd that's when the Nightmare arrives. She shakes her head. "Not this time.. Not again." she turns, kicks off the water and starts to RUN, toward the lifeboats. She deploys her rigging, firing in counter to the incoming shots from black ships, the rotten horrors of ancient colonialism. She skids to a stop, blocking bodily the boats she can, as she transforms to Ocean Fitout. "GET ONBOARD. NOW!" she calls to the men, dropping lines overboard as shots hit her armour belt, stab into her superstructure and shred her forward turret. "HURRY!"

    She can't save all of them... the other boats are too far, and she's taking too much damage already, but she can save some.

    Once they're on board, she guns her engines, and transmits orders to the fleet. <Retreat. All ships, retreat at best possible speed.>

Android 17 (6730) has posed:
    Seventeen takes a breath...he failed, and that is on him.

    His eyes harden...his gaze goes right towards Morgan.

    He might be able to save one or two...might, he isn't sure if he can close the distance in time...but it wouldn't remove the threat to the greater portion of people. Slowly, he starts walking towards Morgan.

    > Try and save someone.
    > Make him pay. < *enter*

    With a flash, Seventeen was gone, aiming to appear right infront of him, aiming to throw his fist full force into the stomach of the man. There is no hesitation, no desire for a challenge. Seventeen's moves are there to try and quickly and mercilessly hurt this man, to take him down as quickly a possbile...

    Before both hands point towards the chester of mass. Followed by a overly dramatic and large beam of pure energy fired. He was not holding back.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone While born and mostly raised in the West? She was well aware of her roots, she actively visited her dad's side of the family in Japan and went to school for a good four years in Japan. She was fairly well in tune with her roots and she stares for a moment as the Noble Phantasm. She sees the ships for a moment.

"The Black Ships... ADMIRAL PERRY?!"

In a strange way Kotone owes her existence to The Admiral dragging Japan out into the wider world, given her Father met her mother in the Americas after all. Still, the trauma that was caused to drag Japan into the modern world?

She now acts without thinking given the mobility systems the Starbounders gave her. There's too much interference from the magic that's been let slip to allow her teleporter to function.

She makes use o the double jump system to pull the lifeboat and the passengers on it on to Shigure, but that's all she can do at this point it's a rough landing they will be banged up but some of them have been saved from this. As for Kotone she's sprawled out on the deck with the lifeboat on top of her lower body and she doesn't seem to be so good...here. She couldn't save everyone but could save some.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Pay no attention to those two life preservers that have the circle 90 degrees to the surface of the water. Orchid is totally not hiding under them.

Morgan Berselius (6716) has posed:
The world goes dark. Darker even than night. Blacker even than the deepest dark. Morgan looks on with quiet eyes. It's as if he's been stunned silent, as if the gravity of his mistake has finally, terribly dawned upon him. At the very least, it's dawned on another. Android 17 is driven to rage, he moves faster than the human eye could ever hope to follow. In a flash, he closes the distance with the shadow-paladin, drives a fist into his midsection. That kind of punch could shatter mountains on his homeworld, a blow delivered with no mercy and no hesitation.

And yet, the figure it struck seems... /wrong./

There is no weight to that body, no mass. The Android's fist plunges deep into its abdomen and it dissolves into so many shadowy wisps.

Earlier, when he had first made his threat, when he had first set all this into motion, Morgan... Had disappeared, deployed a small army of illusory copies of himself. Again and again, the Android races at the speed of thought, smashing effortlessly through hollow copies. But...

Where is the real one...!?

There. A shadow emerges from beneath one of the lifeboats and solidifies into something physical. A pair of bloody holes punched through his chest still drip thick blood into the churning, too-black seas. The immense artillery already begins falling around him, blasting great columns out of the sea. Morgan-- the true Morgan-- rises into the air amidst the devastating blasts. "You're mistaken, Foreigner," he says, the darkness surrounding him hardens into something tangible. It spreads, unfurling like a pair of black wings spread wide. Inexplicably, it's darkness that you can /see/, something tangible and comforting against the backdrop of unknowable, unthinkable murk, "Night is the shield that protects mankind from creatures like you. You exist beyond it because it refuses to yield to you and yours."

"I said it before," Morgan snarls, his outstretched form suddenly hardening to receive the alien onslaught, "I say it again. I am the Bulwark of Night!" Shells empowered by the nightmarish energies burst across his body, blowing holes in the solidified shadow. Lances of the stuff of night erupt from the ruptured veil, smashing into whatever projectiles that they are able to intercept, a small proportion of the full barrage.

With each blast, Morgan's form is stripped away. Liquid darkness flows back in to fill the gaps-- too slowly to maintain cohesion. And even still, even as artillery bursts and alien stars blossom amidst choking black smog, Morgan remains there, receiving or intercepting as many of those bolts as he is at all able. When the darkness is spent, he burns his lifeblood, crimson giving way to black to absorb just one more blast. One more shot.

He gives everything to this defense.

But even that... Against the full black fleet, what will it amount to?

And in the distance, the Android ploughs through one last shade...!

Foreigner (6708) has posed:
     Morgan throws himself forward. The Bulwark of Night meets a nightmare given form and flesh by eldritch power. The Black Ships of Evil Mien are far beyond the first black ships that appeared, the ones that interposed to protect Raider Demon. These are no mere boats, no mere evil ships - these are things as far beyond ships as Foreigner is beyond Servants, things that bear the shape but are so fundamentally *unlike* them that calling them the same is simply wrong. There are no fishmen on these decks. There are no soldiers manning the guns. There is simply Foreigner, tendrils spilling out of a tear in space and time behind him, guiding the Black Ships of Evil Mien like a conductor playing a tune. His cane sweeps outwards, and all the guns turn on Morgan, and they pour shells large enough to blow a human being to bits down upon him. It gives Shigure time to get another boat back up. It's a valiant sacrifice.

     But the rest of the fleet comes in, and finishes the job. While the Black Ships of Evil Mien concentrate on pinning down Morgan, the ships of Foreigner's actual fleet come in and fire down upon the remaining lifeboats, the surviving, fleeing patrol boat. Water sloshes, great, dark waves swallowing sailors attempting to flee. Orchid gets a gruesome look at one man dragged under by the water itself, wrapping around his neck like a noose and dragging him into a watery hell.

     Once Foreigner is satisfied, the darkness dies. The murky water drains away to clear. The whirling storm turns to nothing. The Black Ships of Evil Mien, blessedly, vanish like a bad dream as the sun peeks forth. Foreigner looks up and sighs, running his fingers through his hair.

     Then he disappears. He reappears aboard the Mississippi, setting a hand on Adelaide's huge, amphibian shoulders. "We're going home. We have children to bury. Husbands and wives to inform."

     There's a brief military gun salute as the ships fire into the air. Seventeen, and anyone still around, can glimpse Foreigner giving Seventeen a stern nod, a distant, grieving look in those mad eyes, as the black ships twitch the space around them and vanish.

Android 17 (6730) has posed:
    Seventeen starts moving from ship to ship, trying to find the damned real asshole.

    Seventeen is fast, but he does not have the ability to sense power levels, and his senses are being fooled by the stupid illusions...

    With the last one dead, he turns...well of course he's there...he waits for the balwark of night to absorbe the blows...

    And then he appears behind Morgan.

    "Whoops, my finger slipped." He says, while firing a large ball of electrified energy into the back of the man, hopefully enough to carry off whatever remained of him from Foreigner's attack, before exploding.

    Seventeen appears in the air again, releasing a barrage of smaller, but faster energy towards wherever Morgan may land.

    When he was satisified, he stopped, turning and catching Foreigner's eye. There is a nod in return...there wasn't anything else to say. People had died...

    People had died for the self satisifaction of one man.