350/BUG SQUASHING!

BUG SQUASHING!
Date of Scene:	05 August 2014
Location:	Desert Mountains
Synopsis:	A big bug comes to a Confederate factory followed by a gorilla... and the Confederates decide to squash it! HARD!
Cast of Characters:	222, 380, 399, Blurr, 522, 523, 524, 530

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Manata (523) has posed:
The Confederate factory #982059 is mostly a hidden factory. Off the side, out of the way, and it's only an armory producing one at that. Low security, not much to it. So... the question is, why would something this big want to go there? And by big... it appears almost like a miniature kaiju fight going on. They're both about 60 feet tall with a two distinctive looks.

The first one nearest the factory is a large dusty white color facing away from it. Said giant has a glowing red "grill" for a face and is currently trying to shoot the other one. Overall, it looks like the mecha version of a gorilla crossed with something. Hunched over, even moving as it tries to keep the other one from firing on the factory. Something which leads to it being smashed against a wall by some form of beam weapon. And the wall collapsed with rockets on top of it mostly.

The other one is a red-purple "skin" coloring and looks like something of your typical monster. Squatting down, it's definitely 60 feet or so with large legs that stay bunched up. No head, at least 12 or so eyes, and the long mantis like pincers for "hands" unlike the other one. A chipped red spine fine goes down the torso and it looks like it's been damaged by the laser fire from the other one some. And it appears to have no problem shooting the factory at all.

Needless to say, the factory workers are alerting the Confederate forces simply because the red one's first strike took out the bunker of guards and armored vehicles.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     The Borg are quick to respond in this case. If there is one thing they know needs preserving, it is production facilities. A Borg ship appears overhead. This one is not the usual cube or sphere shape. Rather, it is shaped much like a diamond. It is the Borg Queen's personal ship. Not nearly as large as other ships, but it looks to be much more heavily armed and armored. "Are either of these creatures an ally?" the Borg Queen asks over the radio as the 100 meter long ship descends toward the battle. "It would be a shame to destroy an ally."

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The signal has gone out and Gaius gives orders for the Dreadnaught to move in toward the signal location. The several mile long armored airship moves across the skies with little effort. The lights on its underside flicker from time to time and as it comes down ever slightly lower the sheer raw power that its conducting creates a low rumble in the air.

For unlike jets and many air-type ships, the rumble is not created by thrusters, gravity generators, or any other types of normal science devices. Instead it is being generated by the power of refined aetheric flow, powering a field under it by that of sheer magic.

As it moves in closer, Gaius at his bridge post goes to stand up from his seat and walks foreward, as he moves past the holographic projection of the area to view the very battle taking place with his own eyes from where he stands. The dark armor which yields to no light, the gold trim ever polished, and the crimson red cloth on his form where his armor does not touch.

The full plate helm hiding all facial features and where the eyes should be seem black and that of a dark void, with no visual of his own eyes at all. He has already sent word the Confederacy of his ship's arrival and with it coming into visual range-- her very body casts a shadow of the world below.

The Dreadnaught then starts to ever so slightly lean as the massive airship starts to turn to bring the side ports gun around to bare. It is with this position does she hold, but yet does not fire. As with another ship's arrival and allies coming in. Gaius wants to be sure they have a clean enough shot to not create to much friendly fire.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Hitching a ride with General Zod, Garen (Cipher Nine) took a long look over the field and the giant insect. "Hrm....Keeper. Alert the Imperial Air Force. Have them remain on station for potential bombing runs." <Done. Be careful, Agent.> "Aren't I always?" He asks of his handler. He finds a good place to set up on the ship, and begins lining up for sniper support.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro would be among the first to respoond, by virtue of the fact that the factory is practically on his doorstep. (Relatively speaking, anyway. Scale of distances tend to be skewed when speaking of a gargatuan superlandmass.) The indigo flash of a teleport in the sky heralds his arrival, several hundred feet above and a short distance west of the factory grounds. Electromechanical wings unfurl to hold him there as he takes a first impression of the intrusion...
    ...one of those below is presumbably intelligent, or at least capable of speaking over broadband. The question is which one?
    More ships - ones much much larger than one android - likelwise come to investigate, and he changes his position so as to not accidently become a casualty of crossfire.

General Zod (524) has posed:
The insectoid black dropship comes flying in at hypersonic speeds, though the passengers seem unperturbed by the extreme speed the kryptonian vessel comes screaming in at, nor are they bothered over much by the thing turning on a dime. Inside is a pair of pilots, helmets on, work the controls while Cipher Nine and Zod prepare for the assault. The back-end opens, providing a rather convenient firing platform for the Imperial agent, and a springboard for Zod.
Zod glances at Cipher Nine, his helmet retracting and his super senses flaring to life as he takes a deep breath of air. They clear after a moment. "I will call any weak points I spot over the tactical band." And then... he jumps towards the giant bug monster, cape fluttering out behind him.

Blurr has posed:
    A place that appears to not have much to it is always the first place that someone would go to hide something, isn't it? Because no one would think to look there, right? Well most people, anyway. People like Blurr know better. Sometimes you have to be a bit counterintuitive, in his business.

    At any rate, the speedster had been monitoring local probes when one of them picks up on an unencrypted transmission from a Confederate facility. Something about an attack, and there were two of them? Huh. He decides it's worth investigating, so off he goes, the hover racer speeding across the desert, kicking up a mini-sandstorm in the wake of the sonic booms.

    Upon arriving close enough to determine what appears to be happening via a short-range scan, he stops to take further stock of the situation. It seems Confederate forces have already arrived to deal with the threat. The Autobot hides in a nearby oasis, staying out of sight for now but watching very closely whatever is to happen next.

Madeline Vance (380) has posed:
    'GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK, EMPRESS.'

    Madeline sighs as she increases the throttle, building up a larger charge. "You, of everyone, shouldn't call me that."

    The simple AI doesn't respond to that, only returns to its duties. 'IMMANENT SOLAR GLORY BATTERIES AT 92% CHARGE. OVERDRIVE CAPACITORS AT 0% AND READY. CORE POWER AT 100%. RESERVE POWER AT 90%. STARTUP SEQUENCE COMPLETE. EXECUTING LAUNCH. GOOD LUCK, SIR.'

    Madeline braces as the Warstrider launches itself through the warpgate at high speed, already in her seat. She closes the program she was writing as she hurtles through, happening to have been only one short hop away. Offhandedly, the girl tosses her hair and pulls her helmet on... admitting softly, "It's good to be back in the cockpit, Empress."

    Madeline's flagship is considerably slower than the launched Warstrider, and is soon lost behind her... so will not appear for some time. All that arrives is Madeline herself, slamming into the ground in her Warstrider with both feet, causing two massive furrows in the earth to be dug in by her skid to a stop. Steam hisses from joints as the war machine lifts its own autocannon, held in two hands, and considers the scene. A brilliant yellow circle appears on the Warstrider's forehead with a burst of energy, and Madeline's voice booms out over the battlefield.

    "This is Confederate-controlled territory. Cease hostilities toward the factory or be eliminated. This is your only warning."

Manata (523) has posed:
The red skinned Mantis turns to look upwards at the air ship, raising it's arm pincers menacingly before turning and regarding the smaller Radiant Empress. If it had a head, it would be cocked to one side and giving off some emotion. Instead... it decides to answer the easy way.

A beam of green-blue is shot out at the smaller Radiant Empress, followed by a series of rockets up at the two larger ships. Multiple rockets at that. The darn thing's firing them from small vents around the eyes at that. It so far hasn't seemed to have spotted Zod, Garen, or Taro as of yet. It even gives a warbling chittering cry which is translated via Multiversal effect, "<DIE APE MEN!>"

It is very much hostile from the looks, and even crouches, prepared to apparently get moving as soon as possible. Or even pounce on the Radiant Empress in front of it. Both pincers are slammed into the ground as it seems to be getting to a stable position to fire off some more weaponry or just acting however the pilot normally acts.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The rockets come soaring in from the Insectoid like creature and they bombard the side of the Dreadnaught airship. The armor creaks with the explosions ringing against the several layers of armor. Those within the hanger have to brace when the impact happens and thankfully with the alarms already sounding-- everyone knows where they need to be and the drill of actions to be taken.

The Airship continues to hold position however, as then the gun-mounts that had been aimed at last start to open fire. Rain of bullets pour down from the Dreadnaught like a hailstorm from the very sky. The bullets designed to tear past a normal's man armor and even shred into the strongest of ocean going fleets.

Though Gaius is unsure how well it will handle against the multi-worlds many creatures of such oddities. It was indeed a moment to study his own ships capabilities against these threats and take note of adjustments that need to be made. "Keep me updated on the armor conditioning. Prepare to change out ammunition load if this proves ineffective."

"Yes, my lord!"

Blurr has posed:
    Hmm...the thing sounds pretty hostile, what is it? Blurr starts attempting to scan it in more detail...it kind of reminds him of a giant Insecticon. What's it attacking that factory for? He attempts to see if he can find a way to communicate with it from a distance.

Madeline Vance (380) has posed:
    Madeline kind of expected the shuddering blast that rips along her mech's frame. A few alarms blare loudly, but she does a quick redirect of a damaged power line and resumes looking at the readouts. "That was a surprisingly solid hit," she muses. "We may need to get serious."

    'NOVA SHELL ORDNANCE LOADED,' the AI says in apparent agreement. A glowing burst of light appears at the tip of the autocannon, ripping off a loud shot that burns with plasma around the physical bullet.

    But it's apparently leaping at her, so she's going to have to deal with that. In a flash of light, the autocannon is just... gone, and the Radiant Empress drops into a martial pose for unarmed combat. That might seem odd, considering that it lacks any melee weapons at the moment, but Madeline isn't worried.

    'ACTIVATING DARK MESSIAH FORM.'

Taro (399) has posed:
    It appears that being of smaller size has its advantages. Not being an immediate target, for instance.
    The other one can speak, then? Interesting. Not that firing on another another sentient creature bothers Taro overmuch. Besides, it's the apparent aggressor, and it's making a mess of Confederate property.
    His right hand clenches, and a panel in his gauntlet retracts to reveal the barrel of a plasma weapon. Rather than saturate the entire area, he fires a single volley at the insectoid-mech.
    He also keeps half an ear to the radio chatter. Interesting indeed. Perhaps he should take home a sample, if there's the opportunity...presuming there weill be anything left once they've all finished.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen found a reliable stop and dropped down to a knee. He bagan to line up his shot when he overheard that it was, in fact, a machine. He hrm's softly, but stores his thoughts for the moment. Rather, he aimed for the nearest joint, and let fly a shot.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     The Borg ship's shields flare when the rockets impact it, protecting the body of the ship from any real damage. "Aggressive actions will earn you an aggressive response." Regina says over the local frequencies before her ship opens fire. Since there -is- a friendly in the area, the Borg ship uses precision fire from its plasma beam weapons. It isn't the power they would use against an enemy ship, so there is not much devastation if they miss, just a large hole punched into the ground.

     If it does hit the Mantis mech, it would sear into it and leave burning plasma along the hull. "Quite an impressive construct. I would be most interested in studying it." she says over the radio.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Zod lands heavily onto the earth, plume of dust kicking into the air. He takes a deep breath and runs /under/ the thing and jumps, bracing himself for impact as his face contorts and turns red with the massive of shoving a 40 ton mass into the air and away from the Confederacy's factory. He hasn't pushed things quite this much yet, but Zod is reasonably sure he can get the 60ft bug to move.
"HRRRRRGH!!!!"

Manata (523) has posed:
The 60 foot bug is first nailed by the equivelant of a.. well... whatever it is Madeline shot at it. The boom is pretty big and the thing's armor is ripped away a bit along what passes for a forehead. It even forces the thing backwards along with the suppressive fire from the two ships. Then a joint is hit on the leg and it drops down to a 'knee'.

It's what Zod does that confuses it at first. "<What did you do, ape-men? Why are my gyrostabilizers showing my being off the-- GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUND!?>" And that's about the time that there's a new UFO. A flying giant bug form of UFO that goes under the borg ship and actually impacts the mountain side.

As comical as it may seem, the giant bug proves it's still dangerous by unleashing what can only amount to suppressive fire in response. The two ships earn some of the blue-green beams firing at... Madeline, isn't so lucky as she appears to have become the target of the rockets... along with Zod and the drop ship with Garen on it. Taro, however. Apparently whatever is in it may like fire backed humanoid for lunch. Plasma fire baked that. A burst of plasma is released from somewhere on the torso, aimed at Taro himself.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The energy beams slams against the more front side of the Dreadnaught as the massive ship goes to turn about in order to not only follow the target to where Zod threw it off too, but also to get ready for the next pummel of attacks.

The beam attacks streaks across the body, cutting open a gash in the armor plating. The magical field over the windows starts to crack under the heavy hit force. The people keeping an eye on it all call out damage loads and power loads from all magitek generators.

Gaius looks over to his weapons officer as he crosses his arms over his chest. "Bring about the cannons and prime the magitek cannon as well."

"Yes, Lord van Baelsar. Bring about main cannons and sending signal to prime the Magitek cannon."

Another one then spoke up, "Firing main cannons!"

The Dreadnaught moved easily still through the skies, mindful she seemed of her surroundings and the others whom also lined the air. Making sure to give them the space they would need and herself to open fire without catching those on ground in her wake.

The cannons lowered from the belly of the airship and then spun around to take aim. One explosion after another they fired their massive shells, which detonated a low explosion on impact with its attended target or with the ground around it.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     Regina moves her ship to pursue the flying bug armor, and as soon as it lands, there is a set of plasma torpedoes flying toward it. When they impact, they explode in a flash of green fire, sending burning plasma showering down on the surrounding area. Hopefully no one is there in the area already!

     The return fire from the Mantis shakes the Borg ship, causing visible damage along one side even through the shields. "What surprising power from such a small construct." Regina says, making a note that her ships will have to be careful even against seemingly smaller, weaker targets. As the plasma burns down below, Regina relays a message.

     "We are the Borg. Lower your defenses and surrender yourself and your machine. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance...is futile." Regina says this in her own voice, rather than the usual monotonous symphony of voices. And at the end, she adds a little chuckle. "And, you are quite outnumbered. Even with your impressive construct."

Madeline Vance (380) has posed:
    Madeline's fingers fly over the controls as she readies herself for a pounce that... never comes. Oh well. She shrugs inside the cockpit, then suddenly kicks the Warstrider into motion, rockets flying all around her and exploding in a series of concussive blasts that rattle her even in the cockpit, tearing off armor. A warning light comes on, and the voice of the AI quietly advises, in a more normal tone, "Warning: Further damage will result in internal structural damage and loss of functionality. Advise deploying defensive measures."

    Madeline shakes her head as she comes out of the rocket storm, leaving behind slagged armor and a whining hip servo. She skids to a halt in front of Manata and Had-whateveritsnameis, taking up a defensive posture again. "Are you all right?" She asks the fallen Engel.

    Meanwhile, a flicker of light appears to summon up two pistols for the Warstrider, her braced and open position letting her level both. 'SUNDOG GUNSLINGER STANCE,' the Warstrider announces, followed by a rattling series of blasts from both pistols, the giant-sized hand-cannons firing off a stream of bullets into the mountainside as a sort of suppressive fire against the Mantis.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro notes the impressive amounts of firepower tucked into the frame of that insectoid mecha. Including plasma weaponry, apparently. While this is not the time for academic questions, he can't help but wonder what power sources it uses.
    It also has a highly accurate targeting system, as its aim is true and strikes him squarely on the left side of his chest. Ablative sheets hiss as they vaporize from the heat, down and through the secondary underplating, and the inpact sends him into a clockwise spin. Altitude is lost as he tumbles, and he finds himself in the dreadnaut's shadow before he can pull up.
    This is not the place he needs to be, and the android hastily wings easdtward before he's accidentally hit by friendly fire.
    Once back in sunlight, he takes aim at the enemy mecha again and fires more plasma volleys, closing the distance somewhat while staying airborne.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen had just lined up another shot when the missiles struck the ship. "Now I'm angry..." He says, and when a Chiss gets angry, they get nasty. Locking eyes on the flying insect, Garen does the awesome and likely impossible. He charges up his rifle once more, and fires towards the flying insects head.

General Zod (524) has posed:
The former general manages to knock all the rockets that would have hit him off course before they exploded, but in doing so manages to land badly (for he has yet to master the trick of flying), battering plates off his armor and scraping his face across the ground. He picks himself up and wipes his face off of dust and ignoring the sting of the messy looking scrapes.
He watches as Vance and Gaius batter the insectile mechanoid with guns (lots of guns), and decides to draw the thing's ire so it will minimize the damage to his allies. How? Well...
Zod starts running across the desert landscape, legs turning the run into a series of bounding leaps as he approaches the Mantis-class. And then he goes for a giant leap, drawing back his fist as he attempts to land a train-wrecking punch square in what looks like its face. "GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU HAVE, INSECT!"

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches from his safe distance as the Confederate forces bore into the colossal Insecticon (okay maybe that's not what it is, but that's what it looks like to him, anyway) like there's no tomorrow. One of them even seems to possesses tremendous strength for his size, and picks the slagging thing up to throw it a good distance away from the factory.

    ...The Autobot's vision field flips from the monster to the factory and back. They're all after the Insecticon. They don't know he's here. At least, not as far as he can tell. A good operative would never pass up an opportunity like this one! If that Insecticon was attacking the facility, there's a chance it was after something important. And even if not, he could at least try to hack the control room and see if he can find any information on Confederate supply lines or Primus knows what else.

    Therefore, while everyone is distracted shooting the giant mantis thing, the Autobot suddenly speeds off toward the factory. If he's lucky, everyone will have evacuated the place by now due to the attack, and the elites will be too busy fighting to notice him zip by!

Manata (523) has posed:
For the sake of Madeline, she can see that the Engel is currently well and truly trapped. There's a rather large pile of rocks trapping a majority of it and it looks like it's struggling to move. There's even the sound of something being fired from in the rock pile and a small red glow showing briefly before dieing down. If there was any doubt that it was the voice on the broadband recently, it's quelled by the speakers, "We're fine. Trapped under this rock pile, unfortunately. We're trying to burn our way out with some lasers. It'll take us a bit, though." Then the pinned mecha actually GROWLS. All the rumblings over the broadband probably just made one hell of a lot of sense. And it's definitely not the pilot's doing either, as he pipes up over the speakers, "Hey! You're the one that got nailed! Now stay still and let me fire the lasers while your arm bones regenerate so we can use the talons to dig out." Apparently the two have an odd definition of 'fine' under there.

At first, it looks like the thing is about to leap, then there's suddenly one nice big volley of guns on it from the Dreadnaught. That earns the bug's anger at least. Or attention even as the plasma torpedo nails it and burns off some of it's own armor plating. Then comes a pelting of bullets that seem to be aiming at the melted off armor plating and doing some serious damage. At one point, a bullet tags it and there's a small explosion. That did look like where the rockets were coming from, too.

Taro's plasma fire earns a bit of a look as the beast turns to follow it, only to get a headshot nailed that takes out at least one eye that earns a turn towards Garen. Just in time for Zod to smack the overgrown bug. The bug is actually pushed back into the mountain by Zod's punch, which earns the mountain a new crater practically. Just before the bug decides to answer Zod with a pincer coming up to swat at the odd ape-man in it's way.

As for the two ships, the more dangerous seeming Dreadnaught earns something new. A larger, much stronger beam of the blue-green energy. Followed by a red beam on the Borg ship that seems to be different than the other lasers as it's designed to cause anything it hits to explode. It's then that the large bug leaps to get past Zod and go straight for Madeline, swiping at the ship that Garen is on in passing as it aims to get into melee range with the Radiant Empress, namely by landing on her and pushing her away from the trapped Engel. And good grief, that is one big freakin' leap it just did, too!

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The Dreadnaught is not an evasive vessel. moving quick while in battle is not something it can really do and when the heavy power of blue energy beam slams into the Dreadnaught, it does so in a very impressive manner.

The energy beam slams through the side and tears apart a few of the side turrets, carving a massive tear into the side armor. The sheer impacts of force actually causes the airship to lean slightly to the side, as a few crew members near that section nearly get knocked off their feet by the sheer force.

Those at the bridge are doing their best to compensate for the impact, trying to bring the big girl back right. Orders are flying around amongst the crew as Gaius continues to stand and look onward. "What is the status of the Magitek cannon?"

"The Magitek cannon is about ready to fire, my lord."

"Continue bombardment. Hold no quarter. Send out the Juggernauts while the cannons reload."

"Yes My lord!"

As the cannons ready for another bombardment of fire. From the hanger areas, openings take place on the Airship as several mechanized machines fly out in droves. They have long tower like structures and 'legs' that are kept up while they fly and 'wings', best be called, that move every so slightly as these things called 'Juggernauts' move into attack position.

Like fighter wings, these Magitek machina fly overhead at great speed. Communications happening between the pilots inside and the Dreadnaught. As a few come back around and have a clear shot, they take it. Machine gun like bullets fly out with rapid speed, buying the Dreadnaught the time she will need for her next assault.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     That red beam impacts the already weakened Borg shields, and punches through to the hull. The explosion of fiery red that follows is quickly engulfed by green flames as the plasma networks that power the Borg ship are ruptured along that side. "You cannot destroy me!" she shouts over her radio. Within the ship, drones are busy trying to supress the damage while in the middle of the ship Regina sits on her throne, a green light shining down on her, relaying her commands to her drones at multiples of the speed of light.

     The green fire slowing from the ship goes out a few moments later as the crew gets the flow rerouted and the fires put out. "Alright." Regina says as she peers at her viewscreen, drones moving in the shadows around her. "Let us see how you enjoy this."

     The Borg ship moves in closer, then a beam like a flashlight shining through mist shines down. Green of course. A tractor beam. The Borg ship attempts to hold the bug thing still while a trio of other beams, searing white in color, burn along the hull. It is designed to cut into a target and retrieve what basically amounts to a core sample. If successful, a cylindrical piece of the Mantis will float upward along the tractor beam. If not...well, the beams are still sure to hurt.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen once more was setting to fire when the insectoid came and swiped. It very nearly managed to cause him to lose an arm. Again, he got mad and got an idea. He took his rifle and, after stretching his neck, set up. He used the scope to scan the mechaniods form for the firing mechanism's for it's guns and once it started to fire, let fly a shot of his own.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro tucks his wings in closer to swoop in and to the side as the insectoid mecha fires into the air, but it appears he wasn't directly targeted this time. No doubt the mecha has much more immediate (and larger) threats than one small engineer.
    That gives him enough breathing room to consider a differnt tactic. "sitta, attend me," he speaks aloud as well as over the radio. "I have need of you."
    There's a tiny blink of energy in front of him, which blossoms into a twinkling blish-purple sphere of light about the size of a child's fist. 'I'm here, Em Taro!' it warbles. 'What do you need?'
    A ghost of a smile plays at the corners of the android's lips. "Activate your ORBIT system," he commands, in a tone that's almost gentle. "Your target," he points with a gloved hand at the mecha as it leaps past them, "is that. See if you can undo some of it."
    'Right away! this'll be fun!' Off it zips, a faint blurr of energy and light as it crosses airspace to swoop right at the insectoid mecha...and right through it.
    There may or may not be warning indicators for the pilot as the cyber-elf enters within in a move to disrupt its internal mechanisms, tweaking a stablizer here, a servo there, shifting gears to slow rather than speed...

Madeline Vance (380) has posed:
    "If you're fine, then," Madeline says. She pauses to listen to something from... her Abstractum? But it's brief and leaves her just shaking her head. Looks like she can be useful here, in any case, because she /could/ be possibly stopping Blurr from the factory.

    Instead the claw of the Mantis tears into her Warstrider's shoulder, causing a shrill alarm to wail as the 'wound' erupts in fire-retardant foam to put out the sudden internal fire. Some status monitors pop up, but Madeline reads them calmly despite the damage. "Hmn... Essence-Lending is down. Oh well. Lambent Bolt functionality disabled... that could have been useful..." Sigh.

    Bright yellow light flares from the symbol on the Warstrider's head again, external to her musings. The massive war machine is hit, and hit badly, but the wrenching attempt to hurl it aside is stymied by it halting in midair, hovering a few dozen feet off the ground. A snap-kick bursts with Essence, and the AI chimes in with, 'STRUCTURE-SHATTERING BLOW.'

    It's a Dark Messiah maneuver, so the broad foot strikes as if it were a vibroblade, rather than something blunt. And it unerringly strikes for a vital joint, aiming to shear into one of the claw-arms and cripple it.

General Zod (524) has posed:
General Zod peels himself carefully out of the impact crater after being swatted by a giant freaking claw, and takes a moment to regain his bearings and senses, breathing heavily. He doesn't remember being this tired in a very long time. He wipes his face again, noting the blood smears from the gouges the rocks and claw had given him from the massive impact. He peels off the remains of his shattered armor, revealing the black undersuit with the crest of his house emblazoned on a shield across his chest. The armor isn't going to help him like that. He needs... mobility, lightness right now.
Zod runs again, the strides turning into leaps and bounds as he moves across the rough terrain towards the Mantis. He aims to shoulder-tackle the leg and shove the entire thing along his path. Depending on how much punishment the thing has taken, it might snap the leg off instead. In which case, Zod has a handy club to beat the Mantis with. Otherwise, he'll try to get it as clear of the factory as possible with this shove.

Blurr has posed:
    So far, so good. No one appears to have spotted Blurr zooming toward the factory, and now he's made it to the main entrance. He scans it again at close range for any lifesigns, and there appear to be none for now. Yep, evacuated as he'd thought.

    He chuckles slightly to himself as he enters casually, as if he owns the place because right now he technically does since he's the only one here. It's not every cycle that you get to enter an enemy facility through the actual main doors, and then simply waltz down the corridor, following the signs that are intended to direct workers and visitors to the control room on a normal day. At this point the Autobot hardly even cares if he finds absolutely nothing useful here, simply because of how incredibly easy this was. Once he's found the control room, he searches for open sockets he might be able to use to jack into the system and steal whatever he thinks might be useful, wreaking havoc along the way.

Manata (523) has posed:
"No! Damn it, Had, can't you regenerate faster!? Hey, Migou! What's wrong? Not going to finish me off!?" The Engel gives a roar of challenge at the Mantis. There's a red glow again. Then a larger green one and the rubble shifts a bit. Not enough to be free, but it's obvious the white mecha is getting there.

The insect looks to the Engel, pausing long enough to give an answer, "<I'll finish you off in a moment, Ape-Child-Traitor!>" Of course, then comes the bombardment. It's lucky that the Mantis is so large. It's practically a shield for the Radiant Empress as all the fire hits it.

Smoke pours from more areas, and it's a bit of either luck or tactical that a clawed pincer LITERALLY is kicked off before being sucked along with the sample by the Borg ship. Once back in the borg ship, it's obvious that perhaps they got a piece of the pilot as well. There's an insectoid leg sticking out and the thing's speakers are giving off an ear piercing shriek, even as the thing's other rocket pod explodes thanks to Garen's lucky shot.

Then comes Zod... who impacts a leg with his face and does nothing to it other than moving it just a bit. And leaving an impression of his Holy Kryptonian Visage in the leg. Fortunately, a lot of this is due to Taro's Cyber-Elf wrecking havoc in the systems of the Mantis.

Then the Mantis decides to attack back. The first to feel it's wrath? Poor Zod. Zod now knows what it feels like to be kicked by an overgrown insect. The Radiant Empress, however, suffers from another stab of the remaining pincer before it looks skywards towards the drop ship that seems to be snipering it. A plasma bolt is sent that way, while the red beam is this time sent at the Dreadnaught and the blue-green beam is sent at the Borg ship that just took a chunk out of it.

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen grins as he spots the rocket pods go up, but then the plasma nails home. Even his radio fills with static for a moment, suggesting the agent had met his demise. That was...until a trio of sniper shots fly out. It appeared the resourceful agent had hooked himself into something before his radio fell out of the drop-ship, and was hanging out...literally. He also synched up a secondary radio he had brought with him.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     The shields are still not recharged fully when that blue-green beam hits, so much of the beam slices into the Borg ship, causing more fires and even sending a few drones falling the several hundred meters to the ground below. But, the ship remains in the air, and the tractor beam draws the 'samples' up into the ship's hold.

     Then, the tractor beam cuts off, and there is a moment of quiet from the Borg ship before it fires again. Those powerful green plasma beams sear their way through the air toward the Mantis, despite the fires burning visibly along the side of the hull that has been exposed to the Mantis's attacks. But, luckily for this ship, there are several other sides, and a mere rotation along its vertical axis provides the Borg Queen with another undamaged side to try and hold off critical damage. She is certainly not going to ask for help!

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Another beam comes for the Dreadnaught, but one of the Juggernauts gets in the way of its line of fire. One impact with the beam, the Magitek armor explodes and pieces go flying everywhere, including a bit that actually goes to 'plink' against the aura barrier of the bridge's window.

Though by radio confirmation and also id's on ground. The Dreadnaught is unable to bring its cannons to bear and the Magitek cannon is about ready to be fired. Which by this point the half orb at the bottom of the Dreadnaught starts to open up as the lights around it actually 'dim' before shutting off completely. The cannon itself is rather large and blue field can be seen coming up to actually protect it. Including a blue glow that seem to be feeding into the housing of the weapon.

"My lord, Magitek Cannon is about ready to be fired. Should we abort?"

Gaius remains silent for the moment as his head lowers slightly.

"My lord?"

"..hold steady.." He says with a rumble in his words as he then starts to walk across the plank to the massive window itself to get a personal better view of the battle below. "..Hold steady." he repeats again as he then goes to cross his arms over his chest once more. An intense air surrounding him as his right hand tightens a bit on his arm.

The one shot could end it all.. but they are all to close and with no way to clear the line...

As for the Juggernauts they continue to fly around the area a few of them swoop in aware that there is a possibly ally in danger and attempt to use the 'bird-like' legs to pull the Insectoid machine away. Including a few taking well timed shots in attempt to not catch anyone as they fire.

Madeline Vance (380) has posed:
    The other claw tears through armor as Madeline remains where she is, taking the blow with the Radiant Empress's bulk. A few more red lights flare to life on the status screen, but she merely frowns now. "Well if he has a cannon to take care of them..."

    'VOID AVATAR PRANA ENGINE ONLINE,' the Warstrider speaks, and more golden light shimmers around Madeline as the image of a fortress surrounds the Warstrider. With it comes a /wave/ of chilling cold, frost forming over rocks and the Mantis before her. It's not as damaging as it was when she was an Abyssal, but it's going to be pretty damn uncomfortable. What's more, it's going to make her next strike much, much more intense.

    'LASHING TEMPEST SYSTEM ACTIVATED'

    Gripping the arm that attacked her, Madeline directs her Warstrider to twist... then SLAMS her other hand forward, a pulse of Essence unloading a massive impact into the Mantis in an attempt to HURL it away and into the air.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro allows himself another ghost of a smile before spreading his wings and rising higher into the air once more. He's not overly concerned about Sitta - the cyber-elf should be able to disengage herself from the mechanical insect's systems before she suffers too much damage herself.
    Once he's at the same altitude as the Dreadnaut, the engineer brings his plasma rifle to bear...though he finds that there are a number of allies doing much the same.
    Patience...patience...
    He snaps off a volley when the way clears - or in this case when the accursed thing is flung into the air.

General Zod (524) has posed:
There's a crunch as Zod avoids being kicked like a soccer ball, getting a grazing hit from the giant foot along his arm, ripping the undersuit's strange weave and leaving a trail of scarlet along the kryptonian's arm. He gets up and looks blearily at the Mantis and grits his teeth as he does his best to get this beast away from the factory and the potential ally trapped under the rubble. With a scream of effort he jumps into the battered beast, shoving and pushing as hard as he can into it, possibly ignoring gravity as he hits, eyes shut and face contorted with effort. He's going to need a bit of a breather after this fight...

Manata (523) has posed:
At first, the insectoid proves a bit heavy, even swinging at the Juggernauts trying to carry it away from the Radiant Empress. That gives it the beseiged Empress it's opening to nail it. The Juggernauts actually lose their grip as it goes flying. Plasma fire pelts it as it barely touches down before Zod barrels into it. The thing flies away even further. That mountain it and Zod hit earlier?

It now definitely has a crater on it!

The thing moves to stand slowly, giving a scream of defiance. A long stream of expletives in the creature's native tongue is heard from the pilot... loud enough that the sample that cut off one of it's legs is also hearing a lot of it. The pilot's definitely mad. Not to mention it appears that between them, Madeline and Zod took out the remaining weapons it had. The thing is literally helpless now except for the one pincer and is having trouble standing thanks to all the damage.

Meanwhile, there is a rumble from the rock pile around the potential ally before a pair of hands raise upwards and out. Black flesh is visible along the forearms as it gives a roar of it's own and starts to swipe at the rock pile, the massive hands clearing it away as it starts to fully break out of the thing keeping it down. It is impressive in it's sheer strength at least, and the feral attitude it seems to have. "Finally! Didn't know the arms being crushed would take that long."

The Mantis, seeing this, crouches down, apparently getting ready to flee before it can be shot down. Although, there are sparks from the legs and more expletives as the thing looks ready to move. The Cyber-Elf's work seems to have managed to take out whatever allows it to move like it was. It's now one big sitting target on the mountain and free for elimination.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Gaius watches as the instectoid is knocked up by one and then knocked aside by another. With that he turns to his weapon's officer. "Fire the Magitek Cannon!" He says as his arm swings out to signal the fire.

Many of the areas that don't need power go into the dark for this moment. The Juggernauts flying around quickly move aside and head upward in order to make clear as well, knowing it is not the blast they have to worry about, but the air currents that follow the explosion.

There was then a glow from the barrel of the Magitek Cannon. A glow of bright red and fire that seem to swell in a circular motion. Then with a blast of red, the cannon was fired. The air shook from the explosive force as the cannon's blast screamed down for the attended target.

Once on impact with the ground, the sheer force of the power roamed upward in a orb of red before a massive cloud of dust was kicked up and exploded outward. In the wake of the sheer force left an area that was charred and fire still burning across the ground, some of the sand turned to glass itself. The only question for all its impressive power-- did it actually impact the attended target...

(( For visual ideal reference: http://youtu.be/bb3_4GGHjR8?t=2m3s ))

Garen (530) has posed:
    Garen watches the mechanoid be sent up into the mountain and nods. "Lazing location. Air strike approved." He says into his radio. With enough time for the magitek cannon to fire, down came missiles from the sky. It appeared that Imperial strike craft were indeed mobilized and dropped their payload on what was left of the machine.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Mere moments before the cannon fires, the bluish-purple orb of light draws itself from the mecha, and it flitters away to join Taro's side.
    The engineer brings an arm up to shield his face from the blast, his other hand cupping around the cyber-elf to protect her as well. The blast is impressive in its brightness, and the shockwave jerks him back several meters meters in the air. He blinks several times to clear his vision, eyebrows arching slightly as he surveys the damage. "Mm..."
    'ORBIT System disngaged...phew, I'm tired.' the little cyber-elf warbles.
    "You did well," he praises quietly. "Rest now, and I'll take you home shortly."

Madeline Vance (380) has posed:
    The war machine known as the Radiant Empress doesn't join in the attack... Madeline has already used more Essence than she really wanted, but it felt good to be out and about in her Warstrider again. She stays put and watches the devastation instead, then turns to Manata.

    "My flagship should be here shortly to scour the area and recover any remaining debris," she states. "We can take a look at your beast's armor damage as well, if need be. You did attempt to stop this thing."

Blurr has posed:
    While everyone is outside beating up on the Insecticon and meeting a new one, Blurr is in the factory, having jacked into the system. As he'd expected there's nothing major, though there are a few useful tidbits here and there. Armor and weapon schematics, and such.

    Once he's finished, he prepares a little surprise for them, too. If anyone tries to come in here and get the place operational again later, they are going to have one hell of a time trying to do so, because the system will be filled to the brim with scrambled code and corrupted programs. The equipment will go haywire as soon as anyone touches it. Heh...Blurr's almost disappointed that he probably won't get a chance to see a reaction if it does happen.

    Still, he is feeling rather smug as he leaves, transforming back down into a hover racer and speeding off across the desert. Sand swirls up behind him as he disappears behind the dunes.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     The Borg ship joins in the final assault, unleashing a full out attack of plasma beams, cutting lasers, and plasma torpedoes. If there -is- anything left after the Magitec attack, it is sure to be destroyed by the follow-up attacks.

     But, Regina is hoping it survived. Then, she can fly in and claim the remains. She did call 'dibs' after all. And it is her understanding that dibs entitles one to something so long as you were the first to call it. "I do hope something survived. It would be a shame to have wasted all that potential knowledge." Regina says to herself.

     Then, her ships sensors pick up an unidentified signature leaving the facility. "Hmm? Does anyone recognize that vehicle?" she asks.

Manata (523) has posed:
There's a boom as the magitek cannon hits. The head of the Mantis is just... gone. It's not there. Then comes the missile bombardment. More of the torso is gone. Enough that the remaining arm just falls off. Briefly, there is a look at the pilot as the mecha is cracked open. It's... a giant roach. Yes, a giant roach. The Mantis staggers drunkenly on it's legs before the Borg ship nails what's left of the torso. The pilot has enough time to look up with it's large insectoid head... then the rest of the torso is just blown apart. Somewhere in there, there might be the remains of weapon systems.

Meanwhile, the Engel's torso opens and from the front comes an odd... human pops out of what is apparently the cockpit to the giant machine. His helmet comes off and... well... he looks like there's something wrong with him. His skin's white, his hair's white, even his eyes are a shade of white!

The Engel gives a growl, as if in appreciation before the man looks up at the Radiant Empress. "Nice to know. I'm Manata, the big guy is Hadraniel, designation Chashmal Engel. So... who are you guys and where'd you get all the firepower?"

The Engel is set with it's large hands flat on the ground. Despite the damage, it is one hell of a sight for a mecha. As for the pilot, he's just standing there naturally on the edge of the cockpit, hanging on to the side as he looks at the others around.