Scene #5855: Rise of Xanthos

Owner	Pose
Nova Terra	The location given by Nova leads to a security station, for those who arrive by warpgate. Normally used to keep out unwanted visitors, the guards are all dead and the security doors are open. Once passing through them to the outside it'll be easy to realise where this location is: SPACE! Specifically, it's a massive, open platform floating in space. Thankfully there is both gravity (though a little lower than 1g) and atmosphere, even though there's no obvious structure keeping the latter in. The platform has several raised areas which primarily lead to the battlecruiser docks. The ships currently moored at them are quite large, easily a kilometre in length. There are also a number of Dominion military bases hastily constructed near the docks, defending them against traitor Dominion troops likely serving Davis. The real issue though is the large machine floating in the center of the platform. It's not as large as the battlecruisers, being roughly three hundred metres in height. However it looks heavily armoured and armed. It's currently under fire from the Dominion military, but they appear to be having trouble. This becomes obvious as from one of the large machine's weapons a sizeable wave of fire is unleashed, washing over the Dominion troops and melting through their armour within seconds. It's not long until Nova comes into view, running down the ramp from the nearby base. Most here would recognise the colour scheme and designs of the Covert Ops team that she leads. Behind Nova, a small force of Marines, Marauders, Siege Tanks and bipedal mechs follow. Nova begins to lead them towards the large machine devastating the Dominion troops. But the grim look on her face suggests she isn't exactly confident about taking it down.
Yang Xiao Long	Roaring through the warpgate comes Yang, on her motorcycle. Her hair whips in the slipstream she creates and she leans into a banking turn to join up with Nova's force. The deep growling engine is probably drowned out by the stomping of the mecha and the rumble of the tanks, but she taps her commlink and speak sto the Ghost. "Where do you need me? I can run interference or I can try and knock a hole in the thing." she offers, keeping pace with the group, and looking out of the visorof her helmet... she always wears a helmet on her bike. Safety first!
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace isn't far behind Yang, astride Skrat - her armed motorcycle. Strapped to her backpack she's carrying a Mk-19 belt-fed grenade launcher, connected to the backpack with a thick armoured belt. She pulls up behind Yang, Skrat's gas turbine doesn't growl like Yang's bike; instead, it's a resonant whistle. She listens to Yang saying what she was about to say, retracting the faceplate of her own helmet. "What she said." Tiny comments. "If we can get a hole in there, we can cause all kinds of trouble inside the thing. I'll understand if you want us to save the bitch for you, though."
William Pauwel	Will is here! And entirely intact. And most importantly, NOT possessed by the evil will of some kind of horrible red crystal. But even MORE important than that, he's in space. SPACE. SPAAAAACE. If it weren't for the explosions and general mayhem unfolding all around him, he'd probably be freaking out just a little bit, in the good way. As it stands, Will currently has more important things to do. "Hey miss Nova," Will chimes as he charges on up to follow alongside her caravan of death. "Y'all call for help? Sounds like this lady's got some pretty crazy firepower, huh?"
Rory White	Rory has checked the coordinates of the warp gate ahead of time... and, realizing that it's SPACE, has chosen to do two things. First, she's come through the warp gate in her battle body, as usual. A sleek, robotic feline form covered in decorative glowing circuit patterns, with unused weapon hardpoints across its body. The second? Her ship, 100 meters of backswept futuristic alloys, all sleek and seamless, and ending in fusion nacelles, ripple-decelerates into realspace from an FTL jump that leaves it at the far fringes of the battlefield. The only question is, why did she bring that here? So far away, what can it accomplish? And as it is by no means a warship, it certainly cannot offer much... she must have a reason, right? The robolioness pounces after Nova, quickly falling into formation with her! "There is no shortage of firepower in this sector despite an alleged peace treaty! What is that machine and how did this person obtain it without anyone realizing?! Very troubling. I suspect you plan to infiltrate it somehow?"
Starbound Flotilla	Even despite the presence of gravity and atmosphere, George has arrived in his EVA hardsuit. That doesn't last long. "Hoooooh nelly that's a hefty motherfucker." He mutters, eyes wide. "The size of that thing, it must be..." He starts fussing with his wrist computer, calling in something from far outside the battle. Farther away, his shuttle deploys a little drop pod! It streaks towards the fight, deftly averting danger until it slams hard into the deck in front of him, popping open and unfolding into his STARSTRIDER rig. "I sure hope these Dominion boys can cover the expenses on this baby." He calls out, leaping aboard the industrial mecha, looking far more like something designed to load huge and heavy cargo, with shining, crackling fists and drills, and a bright red HUD filling up the unsealed cockpit. It's some fifteen feet tall or so, still meager compared to the three-hundred-meter behemoth. "Always wanted to help punch a general to death, but I gotta say I'm not a fan of it if it starts like this." He mutters, dashing into action with a surprising degree of rocket-powered swiftness in the mecha-suit. First and most important thing: Close on the foe between those horrific waves of fire, and get into grappling range where using those weapons is less safe! He's gotta try to leap onto one of those massive thrusters, and latch in with his drills and massive, mecha-grade grappling hooks! Assuming, of course, that Davis doesn't intercept him somehow on his way over. "Fucking hell, lady, what are you doing?!" He calls out in the General's, uh, general direction. "Gonna bust up a bunch of these ships but you're dead-center in the middle of Dominion power, aren't you? This isn't-- You can't get away with some Protoss again, what the hell is the point?! Damn!" He's gotta use his expertise in MECHANICAL ENGINEERING to try to find a good point to try sabotaging this from the outside!
Bahamut	After the two bikers jet through the portal, a series of rune-covered circles appear in front of it. The glowing gold-white lettering glitters with their own light. Their source becomes apparent a few moments later as the great metal dragon, Bahamut, comes spiraling through the warp gate, crashing through his summoning circles before his wings spread to brake his speed. But, only to a point. His momentum carries him upward a bit before he finally crashes back to the platform with a bellowing roar. He stands tall with his arms crossed over his chest, then snorts in his draconic way. He takes a quick look at the situation and watches Nova start toward the thing in the middle of the shipyard. Without a word he starts after Nova squad. He runs a few paces before his wings spread again and he takes to the air once more and as they close in on the machine he starts firing burst of Flare magic, trying to soften it up. "Are none of these battleships working? I get the feeling we could use their firepower against this thing." he says as he matches pace above Nova.
Septette Arcubielle	There are two reasons why Septette doesn't stop to ask for tactical advice out of the warpgate. The first is, frankly, arrogance: she doubts they have any more solid strategies than she could come up with. The second is that time is lives: it's chewing through loyalist marines at a truly alarming pace! There's no banter or cameraderie out of the gate- she isn't even wearing her customary shawl, all blades and bones and business. Right out of the gate, she twines her fingers around a shimmering thread and snaps it under tension, disappearing into thin air with a quiet pop. She reappears hundreds of feet in the air above the hovering titan and plummets down towards it, reaching terminal velocity just before slamming into its cockpit with the force of a car crash. Her curved blade comes down, trying to gouge or mar the glass! Of course, given how heavy the enormous machine is, she likely doesn't inflict serious damage before springing back off and plummeting down to the battlefield below- but hopefully that's drawn its attention away from the squishier soldiers, if only for a moment.
Kotone Yamakawa	It seems they now have the location go where to go and things are going to be pretty serious. General Davis needs to be stopped and she also knows it's time to bring some heavy firepower today with her. She's brought a machine of her own with her, it's a power armour of some sort. To a Terran it might look like the Goliath had a child with a power suit. Kotone is currently inside the massive suit and it's carrying some heavy weapons with it, she knows this is going to be a hell of a fight. <<This is the best I could do for additional firepower. It's not a battleship but should be better than what I can do normally...>> Kotone's machine is also carrying some sort of large calibre weapon in one of it's two giant scale hands. OOC the suit. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/95/85/a3/9585a3265f28756d7ab063b0cabccb10.jpg
Nova Terra	Nova looks a little relieved to see reinforcements showing up. Although her general expression is still pretty concerned. She nods as people begin to join her charge forward towards the large machine, "Thanks for coming." She nods in response to Will, answering both him and Rory, "The Xanthos is a prototype mobile weapon, designed to take and dish out some serious trouble." In apparent agreement with most of them here, she says, "Getting inside is probably our best bet at bringing it down... Along with Davis." As Kotone shows up, Nova glances over the machine for a moment before nodding, "Every bit helps!" The battle is not going well for the Dominion's forces, more and more of their soldiers falling to the mobile fortress as their weapons fail to deal much in the way of real damage. As Bahamut indicates, it's a shame that the docked battlecruisers currently appear non-operational, as surely they could help turn the tide. Nova shakes her head sadly, "They're down for maintenance, or lacking crews." So it looks like it will fall to Nova and the other elites to deal with the Xanthos. It's at this point that Nova gets within range of the mobile weapon and orders to her forces, "Open fire!" As her troops begin their attack, Nova joins in. She fires her canister rifle, the bullet streaking towards the Xanthos. It strikes... But simply ricochets off the heavy armour. A little annoyed, Nova tries again, but with much the same result. Now she understands why the Dominion forces haven't been able to take it down yet. George will encounter much the same issue as he gets in close and attaches to the Xanthos. His drill meets the heavy armour, starting to scratch it away. Rough estimates would suggest it'd take a couple of hours to drill through. Hopefully he brought some entertainment to pass the time! Septette meanwhile is able to scratch the transparent material at the bridge front, but it's strong and thick, so as expected is not breached. Nova ducks behind an exhaust port in the platform for cover as she radios, "Reigel! How are we supposed to fight this thing?" As the radio conversation goes on, the Xanthos turns around to face the newly arrived forces. Its right weapon aims and there's a brief flash of light from its barrel as the railgun fires. The solid projectile streaks towards the gathered group of elites and Nova's forces. The result explosion is pretty large, a number of the troops caught in the blast. Nova ducks from the resulting rain of debris, before responding, "Alright... Focus fire on that railgun!" Nova rises once more, beginning to run. She makes her way up a ramp to a higher section as she starts firing on the indicated weapon.
Bahamut	The attack is well aimed, and it is perhaps only the fact that Bahamut is off the deck that saves him from a direct hit. He roars as he is blasted upward, smoke curling from his wings and tail. He almost crashes back to the platform before he manages to catch himself and land with at least some control. He growls, then launches into the air again, charging right at that railgun. Usually he is awed by such things, but when such a thing attempts to destroy you the awe wears off pretty quickly. He wouldn't mind having one of those, though. With his claws bared he pounces the weapon's barrel like an eagle pouncing its prey. He aims for the barrel, hoping to render the weapon useless and to keep out of the way for anyone aiming at the hardpoint. That doesn't stop him from trying to simply rend and tear the weapon from its mount.
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace blitzes Skrat out of the way of the initial volley, and then spends a few moments out of the thing's line of sight. She stops the bike and engages its holographic flag. At first it displays the Martian flag, though that quickly changes as Leyanne types out a message, muttering to herself as she does so. "'General... Davies... is the Zerg's... bitch!' Yeah, that should do it." Nothing Leyanne has in her armoury right now can even dent that thing... but distractions? Oh, distractions she can do. As soon as the flag is displaying the message, she sets it to colour change between red and gold. With that done, she guns the throttle and bursts out of cover, with the message flying proudly behind and above her. She turns, launching herself off a some fallen debris to get the angle to spray fire across the cockpit of the Xanthos, all in an attempt to get Davies' attention - and anger directed her way. As soon as it looks like she's done that, the mouse goes all-out evasive, attempting to stay clear of friendly troops.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is going to make notes about who not to shoot, she'll move out and her Armed Suit does something that Kotone is pretty much known for now, it cloeaks and stalkes out seeking out the Xanthos hopefully she can somewhat side step things to get close to a good shot, and one she'll use her big bore rail gun the armore carries to fire shots at the Xanathos looking for any joints, weapon mounts or anything else she might be able to fo some level of damage on as she chases after it. Then comes the call to focus fire on the rail gun? So that's what she does she opens fire chaning from joint hunting, she'll keep firing while on the move. <<We pick apart it's exposed systems>>
William Pauwel	Yeah, if only there were a couple of technically inclined Elites puttering around the battlefield like a bunch of out-of-place tools. Wait! Will is already diverging from the rest of the team, taking a hard right that largely sees him avoid the worst of the Xanthos' heavy artillery-- while simultaneously taking a significantly larger proportion of the small arms file. He hisses a series of castrated half-curses as bullets whizz overhead and pulses of crimson energy pound into the black, thermally-resistant plate underneath his outfit. Owing in large part to being a single small target, though, Will... largely makes it through to his destination in one piece. His destination being... ...That Battlecruiser. Will grins and leaps up and onto the hull, a grappling line lancing out of his off-arm and into the vessel's armor. He leaps, surging up and overtop of the vessel to try and figure out a decent way in to somewhere close to its engineering section. ...Wait. "HEY NOVA," Will yells into the comms as he races down the outer hull. "Where do these things keep all their important machine-y bits!? Y'all got a blueprint fer me?"
Yang Xiao Long	Yang guns the engine, surging forwards as they railgun tracks into the main group. "SCATTER!" she bellows, ducking low as the blast wave catches up with her. "Damn it." She pushes the engine and heads towards a ramp, building speed then mantling up. She taps a few controls before firing her gauntlets down, using the momentum and the blast of her gauntlets to launch herself at the massive construct. Just like Septette and George, she grabs onto some exposed bit of the armour, and begins climbing up, using her gauntlets to launch herself past smooth segments, and 'wallrunning' with momentum. She mantles up to something that looks important, and grabs onto something. She ratchets her other arm back, and with a rapidfire series of punches, fires electric bolts into the exposed wiring and machinery. "I. HOPE. YOU'RE. HUNGRY!" she bellows.
Septette Arcubielle	"You all take the railgun- I have a plan," the little warbot yells over her shoulder as she darts back into the fray! She cuts down as many DoM marines as she can manage without diverting from her beeline towards the Xanthos, effectively carving a thin path through their ranks with surgically-aimed strikes. "I can't protect you against those kinds of munitions anyway!" Even if it didn't blast her apart, she wouldn't do much to slow a slug like that down at all. Instead, she fearlessly dashes under its body, where- hopefully- it won't be able to do much to attack her. The withering heat and pressure from those thrusters might slag lesser machines, but with the aid of cooling and reinforcing enchantments, Septette's chassis withstands it even as she begins to glow a frightening red. In fact, she leaps up inside the thruster, fighting against the howling airflow to clamber inside! There's no way for a rocket to function unless it has an open connection to internal fuel tanks somewhere- and that means that in this howling, scorching firestorm there's a chink in the armor. If Septette's able to find any such thing, she'll embed her armblade in it as deep as it'll go and chill it and the surrounding metal to near-absolute-zero in an attempt to shatter the thruster via thermal shock, or even detonate its fuel supply. Ideally, that'll bring it crashing to ground- but if she can cripple its maneuverability, that'll be almost as good!
Rory White	What with everyone's efforts largely just glancing off, Rory is realizing the group's in a pickle. She's never ENCOUNTERED armor this thick. Her integrated Matter Manipulator thrums and in a matter of moments, the robo-lioness has equipped an Engineering Frame of custom design - a big harness of jump jets and various ports and attachments! She LEAP-JETS right off the platform and into space, maneuvering with calculated precision for the Xanthos. Her plan is honestly quite simple. Get in close, and then dump her ENTIRE Engineering Nanoswarm on the hull, and let it start just ripping a hole into it molecule by molecule. Not that she'll stay there and watch it happen! No, she'll magnetically clamp to the hull and go charging around looking for anything that she might be able to sabotage!
Starbound Flotilla	George can't get much of a good grip with the drills; he can get something a little better with the magnetic functions of his grappling hooks, but the hook part itself sure can't. He at least was out of the way of that gargantuan railgun shot, which is fortunate because even with the mecha's armor it's probable he would have suffered some massive damage. He tries to launch and grapple his way up the body of the thing using a series of jet-assisted reelings that bring him towards the railgun, hoping to dive towards... Not the barrel, but the rear base segment. Little known fact of railguns: They produce tremendous repulsive force between the rails, as the currents in each rail run in opposite directions. And so, if enough damage is created on the railgun that's /perpendicular/ to the line between each rail, it will overstress the railgun and make charging it into a self-damaging action. He's hopeful that he can make it there and dig in with massive drill-punch swipes near the opposite end of this from the one Bahamut is attacking. He's also hopeful that he can avoid having the entire thing explosively electromagnetically "backblast" him with insanely damaging magnetic force before he can deal enough damage to escape.
Nova Terra	Some trimmed down plans of the Terran Battlecruiser are sent to Will to assist with his attempt. They help to guide him to the engineering section, where he can access a control to fire the ship's legendary Yamato Cannon. Unfortunately the ship is going to need powering up before it can begin the charging process. And the sounds of fighting onboard the ship are starting to get closer. On the bridge of the Xanthos, the situation is rather calm despite the chaos outside. Davis is sitting in the centre chair, commanding the Xanthos's movements. One of her officers reports, "General, it appears we have company! It's the Ghost who escaped our control, along with the elites that have been helping her." Davis replies, "Of course it is... We'll handle them." As the message from Leyanne begins to display in the air, Davis's eyebrow twitches for a moment. But she maintains her composure as she says, "Activate the speakers." Speakers on the Xanthos's exterior crackle to life and Davis's voice booms out across the battlefield, "Attention elites. This is an internal Dominion affair. You have no right to interfere. Disengage immediately." Bahamut's claws easily cleave into the more vulnerable railgun barrel, beginning to rip the large structure to pieces. He is joined by the drill punches from George, who is working the rear of the weapon. Yang also pitches in, her punches opening up part of the railgun's interior for her to fire her electric bolts into. Soon the large weapon begins to short out in places. Rory's nanites take root, beginning to eat away at a section of the Xanthos's heavy armour. It's not an instantaneous effect though. It's going to take some time to eat through, but that might come in handy in the future! Septette's plan is INSANE. The heat being pumped out by those thrusters must be incredible and she's willingly climbing into them. But for all its insaneness, the plan proves effective. The sudden changes in temperature cause a fault in the thruster, the resulting explosion blowing out the exhaust section and likely launching Septette hard into the space platform below. Inside the bridge, Davis feels the shake, "What was that?" A bridge officer reports, "Thruster four has been disabled." Davis hmphs, "Understood. Increase output on the other three." The Xanthos's movements have been reduced slightly, but it's not crashing down like Septette had hoped. Looking out the windows of the bridge, Davis finally gets sick of that damn message and says, "Target that one with the railgun." The Xanthos turns towards the evasive Leyanne, the railgun beginning to charge up. However as it does so, the energy arcing across it quickly begins to build... Now's probably a good time to get clear guys. As within a few moments, the railgun arm suddenly explodes in an impressive display of light and fire. The force of the explosion is enough to visibly knock the Xanthos to the side. As the smoke disperses, the interior of the mobile fortress can be seen through the resulting damage. Nova begins moving, starting to run for the edge of the raised section she's on. And with a psi-assisted leap (the lower gravity helps too!) she soars towards the Xanthos. She reaches out, grabbing hold of an exposed girder, blasted out by the weapon explosion. Pulling herself up, she jumps through the opening into the interior. The Xanthos interior is not exactly spacious. Especially the section that is near the opening, which is primarily used for maintenance. Exposed pipes, electrical wiring and gears can be seen all around. Although none look so integral to the machine's functions that damaging them is likely to have any serious impact. Better to focus on reaching the bridge.
Nova Terra	Unfortunately the intrusion has not gone unnoticed, judging by the sounds of clanging coming from one of the adjacent corridors. A voice, presumably from a soldier serving Davis, echoes down the hall, "The breach is in this section. Stay alert!" The sound of their footsteps indicate the Marines are getting closer. Meanwhile the battle outside still wages. Having lost its railgun, the Xanthos switches to unleashing the weapon on its other side. The large flamethrower lights up as it launches its massive wave of fire towards Leyanne. But not just her as the mounted weapon swings around to catch the other elites still fighting it from outside.
Nova Terra	Kotone's own railgun joins in in putting holes into the Xanthos's own version, helping to assist with piling on the damage before it finally explodes.
Bahamut	As it becomes clear the weapon is overloading, Bahamut leaps away with a grin. His wings catch him and he soars around the prototype as it is rocked by the explosion. "Excellent work, my friends!" he calls to Yang and George, and when the chatter on the comms makes what happened to the thruster clear...he burst out laughing. "I would agree that is insane, if I did not know that Miss Septette is a machine and would not have done something like that if it did not have a high probability of success." he says, then grins. "...no. It was still insane." he adds, then as he circles back around he heads for the hole in the Xanthos. Hopefully it and the machine are big enough for him! The gyro on his back is spinning at a moderate rate and crackles every now and then with gold-white electricity.
Rory White	Rory decides to RESPOND to this broadcast with an unencrypted wide-band radio message. "We shall not. Your irresponsible, selfish actions have destroyed lives and strained peace treaties. As a Commonwealth Paladin and as an Argonaut, I deem your possession of any military authority completely unacceptable, and soon to be rectified. Do not speak to us about RIGHTS in such a manner. Unleashing feral Zerg on an unsuspecting colony proves you have no grasp of what RIGHTS even are." Detecting progress elsewhere on the hull from her ship's sensors, Rory diverts her plunge across the hull and towards the demolished railgun. Her claws have latched on via van der waals forces if magnetics weren't sufficient, and so she deftly maneuvers along the hull regardless of gravity. ....And from there? She dives straight on in through the sparking hull and molten slag, and RUSHES in at maximum speed. She's not going to stay out in the open though! Oh no. Rory will look for ANY sort of cover she can hide behind!
Yang Xiao Long	Yang sees the shorting out in the railgun, and wisely gets out of dodge. She lets go of the thing she was holding onto, and launches herself across the way, ducking behind some armour plate as the railgun self destructs. She grins. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" she caws, then launches herself up and over, into the breach. She starts moving, not really aiming for anything apart from being a REALLY BIG AND LOUD DISTRACTION, so Nova and the others can get closer to General Bitchtits without being discovered. "HEY BOYS! Who wants to party?! I've got plenty of ammo for all of ya!" she crows merrily, as she starts brawling through the corridors.
William Pauwel	WILL GETS EQUIPPED WITH: A MAP!! No seriously that's more helpful than you can possibly imagine, these battlecruisers are gigantic. Fortunately, everything Will could possibly need to do exactly what it is he needs to do is down in engineering. Unfortunately, there's a whole bunch of fighting between here and there, and Will has no real choice but to go through. ...Or through the unusually spacious vents that are often so common on Terran installations. Will picks the latter. He emerges closer to his destination and significantly more covered in cobwebs. Also, in the middle of a firefight between helpfully color coordinated marines. "Ah," Will says, half-emerged from a duct as the gunfire stops and half the soldiers involved turn to stare at this weird cowboy-looking motherfucker interrupting their war-making. "Uh," he coughs, then turns and fires at the ones who aren't in Dominion Blue. "For the Dominion!?" Yeah. That's the ticket. Incidentally, he's firing STUNNING, ELECTROMAGNETIC CRAZINESS SHOTS. That should help turn the tide and let the ~friendly marines~ get in the firing solutions they need. Hopefully it doesn't also mean Will's getting his skull ventilated today. That'd be bad. He already replaced his arms this month.
Septette Arcubielle	The sudden eruption as the thruster fails sends Septette hurtling into the platform below, though she makes a valiant effort to cling to the inside of the thruster's casing! She slams into the ground with a nasty-sounding crunch, neatly creating her own personal crater. She holds up a hand to the light for a moment- it's glowing an unsettling orange like a stove's heating element, but seems otherwise intact. She rises from the impromptu shallow grave, shaking off the rubble and quenching her searing-hot body before sprinting to the secondary thruster on the same side. "It had four points of support- now it's got three! Two's not a stable system anymore- everyone inside, hold on tight!" The output- and risk- is significantly higher this time, but her tactics are refined by experience. A 'shield' of magical ice materializes on her left arm as she leaps up towards the next thruster- it vaporizes in under a second, but the vapor itself provides an insulative shield against the onslaught of plasma. As it dissipates a crackling electric glyph takes its place, distorting the brunt of the flames around her with an electromagnetic bubble. That falters, too... But by then, she's within stabbing range! Her armblade jams into the last port's mirror image, then glows blue as it 'freezes' and attempts to shatter the metal. "Brace for crash!"
Starbound Flotilla	"Actually!" George calls out, trying to leap back away from the dangerous railgun as it begins shorting out. "I /do/ have a right to interfere! If you'd just step out of the giant warmachine, I can show you my meddler's authorization, my interloping permit, and my license to obtrude!" His air-jets give him a hovering glide as he mutters under his breath, "Don't fire yet, don't fire yet, don't fire yet-- Aw SHIT!" And there goes a MASSIVE blast, washing fire and pressure over George's mecha and the unsealed cockpit within, provoking a pained shout; much of the armor is ablated or slagged badly. He crashes down to the deck, his machine rolling until it manages to slam back onto its feet. He deploys a heavy barrier shield veryh abruptly, held like a riot shield, to try to staunch the flow of fire over his mecha's body, but it fizzles out soon; he's just not as good at that as Seft or Albert tend to be. "Fuck! Fuck fuck, it burns!" He turns his whole mecha back to block some of that heat with its back, to keep it from seeping into the cockpit, before a gap in the flamethrower gives him room and time to breathe. "Alright, cool, so all the heavy hitters get to go inside and I'm out here getting cooked to a tasteless well-done. Next time I'm not even calling in the Starstrider, I'm just going to say I don't have one." He rambles in a constant ongoing poor joke. "Great, time to be distracting. What's the thing you yell at war hawks to make 'em really distracted again..." He tries to surge in again, trying to dive close enough that Davis won't fire on him with the flamethrower. "HEY!" He calls out. "Look at me! I support diverting budget from military spending to social welfare programs! The military-industrial complex should get defused by prohibiting defense industries from lobbying legislators! Your whole military family was a bunch of number-crunching pencil-pushing easy-bribe-oven over-lobbied self-serving hawks foisting war for greed 'cause of getting fooled no-problem by a bunch'a political nepotists!" He's tried to leap onto the back of the flamethrower and just start repeatedly smashing his drill into whatever fuel conduits or tanks he can find while he basically shotguns insults to Davis as hard and as fast as he can, to try to rile the group up and keep them constantly distracted from any and all forms of more level-ehaded response to the breach. Boy though, he sure does hate drawing the aggro, considering he's a lot less resilient than most here.
Kotone Yamakawa	Many of her companions are dealing with trying to get in such as Septette's bold but very insane plan to get inside. Others also enact their own plans while she helps take out one of it's guns. She'll keep her machine moving, reloading and firing, all to keep this super weapon's attention focused on her and others who are outside so the interior teams can do their own actions to hinder this rather crazy war machine. Then again with the Zerg and Protoss? That such a weapon system might actually be needed. She checks her hud and keeps tabs on her own ammo counts and with that she keeps on shooting. "Over here General!"
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace grins a little, hearing Rory and the others say what needs to be said. She ducks into cover and ponders what to write... insults to ancestry she's really not good at. Ehhh fuckit! She decides not to write a message and settles for being fast, irritating, and taking out as many of Davis' troops as she can. As the blue-armoured troopers clash with their brown-armoured counterparts, Leyanne attacks from the flanks, Skrat's onboard machine-guns blasting to take down anything in her path as she makes evasive turns, avoiding (most) enemy firepower and - oh, shit, is that a flamethrower it's chasing her with now? That's not good, fur is flammable! After leading Davis' aim across her own troops, Leyanne circles around behind the machine, lauching off a ramp to get a good angle on the pipework leading to the back of the flamethrower. She brings up the Mark-19, trusting Skrat to keep himself stable as the bike arcs through the air, letting her land two or three good hits in the mechanism. Of course, landing one-handed with a heavy automatic grenade launcher on the handlebars is an interesting challenge, but... despite nearly losing it, the mouse remains in the saddle.
Nova Terra	Will brightly decides to drop down into the middle of a firefight between Marines. They are briefly confused, but then things turn bad for the men in brown. Assisted by the stunning shots, the non-traitorous Marines are able to gun down their former comrades. After the Defenders have fallen, one of the Marines turns to Will, "The Admiral has informed us of the plan. We will attempt to delay the enemy. Good luck!" The Marine squad runs off, leaving Will alone in the large engine room. Sounds of battle soon start up again further down the hallway. Now it's just a matter of getting the generator out of standby mode and charging the big gun! Septette once more braves the heat of the Xanthos's thrusters. Surely she'll end up looking like someone left a Baguette in the oven for too long!? But however she comes out of it, her attempts in once more successful. Though this time there is less of an explosion as the thruster simply putters out. Free of the devestatingly hot flames, Septette may just notice a maintenance hatch just beyond the thruster's exhaust. Interesting~ On the bridge, Davis feels the Xanthos start to tilt to the side, "Status!?" An officers replies in panic, "Thruster three is losing output! We can't maintain flight!" Sure enough, the Xanthos is starting to tilt, one side falling from lack of thrust. The large machine slides to the side, bottom armour soon scraping across the space platform before it finally crashes into the side of a raised section, jolting to a halt. Davis is frowning at this point, both because of the failing Xanthos systems and the words from Rory and George. She responds on the same channel, plus also still booming over the speakers, "You have no idea what you have gotten yourselves into. Valerian Mengsk was complicit in the murder of his father, Emperor Arcturus Mengsk! That boy has brought weakness to the Dominion and we will not serve him! New leadership is required." Moving around behind the now downed Xanthos is a good idea, as it means they're out of the firing arc of its flamethrower. It also gives them a good angle on the large weapon's weaker components. The fuel pipes leading into the flamethrower are targeted by George, Leyanne and Kotone. The drill punches begin to put holes in the large tubes, as do the railgun shots from Kotone's heavy weapon. Fuel begins to spray out, coating the flamethrower's rear section. It's the ramped shot from Leyanne that finishes it, the grenades striking the large weapon and igniting the fuel. Fire quickly spreads, giving George only a moments notice before it finally reaches the damaged pipes... BOOOOOOOM! The explosion engulfs that upper section of the Xanthos, the forward remains of the flamethrower simply crashing to the ground. Davis's officer reports, "Flamethrower destroyed!" Davis grunts in annoyance, "Get missile locks!" On the top of the large back section of the Xanthos, missile ports slide open. A barrage of the guided weapons launches upwards, arcing over before starting to streak down towards George, Leyanne and Kotone. Inside, the infiltration team will feel the explosion of the flamethrower. Thankfully though they entered from the opposite side of the large war machine, so aren't caught in the blast. There's not a whole lot of room in the corridor, but large pipes do present good cover for both Rory and Nova. However, Yang chooses not to take advantage of such cover. And poor Bahamut is simply too large, his body taking up most of the corridor. Thankfully there's still enough room for him to battle. Or alternatively act as a shield. The Marines inside this part of the Xanthos come around a corner to spot the group. One of them calls out, "Fire!" They raise their gauss rifles, which begin to spit out those spike rounds in high quantities.
Nova Terra	Meanwhile, Rory's nanites continue to eat away at a section of the Xanthos's heavy armour.
Nova Terra	Yang is able to barrel down the corridor, busting through the group of firing Marines. She then turns down another corridor, starting to head away. The squad commander orders some of his troops, "Follow her! We can't let them reach the bridge!" Some of the Marines break off, beginning to chase down Yang, firing at her from behind. This thankfully has the effect of reducing weapons fire on the rest of the infiltration team.
Bahamut	Living shield is pretty much what Bahamut is build for, and he crouches down to give as much moving cover as he can while they move down the corridor. He grunts and growls as shots impact his thick hide. Ricochets bounce around from glancing hits, shallow furrows are left by solid hits. He keeps his arms up to shield his head as he moves. He lashes out with his powerful claws at anything or anyone that he gets close to and like a juggernaut pushes back the enemy as they make their way toward the command center. And as he hears the conversation over the comms and loudspeaker, he growls. "Your methods seem even worse. Sacrificing innocent lives and spreading the influence of an intrinsically destructive force simply to cast the Dominion in a negative light and to further line your own pockets with gold? Do not pretend you are some noble soul, fighting for justice and honor!" He practically roars that last part and pushes forward even more fervently. "As such a defender myself, I recognize corruption and selfishness when I see it! Stand down or be destroyed!!"
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace blinks as Skrat bleeps at her, indicating that there's a missile vectoring in on her. Scratch that, make that several. Ooohboy. The mouse pours on the power, trying to put as much crap between herself and the incoming missiles as possible. Unfortunately it's not quite enough, the mouse's juking and jinking preventing the missiles from hitting her directly, but... the third missile is close enough to blast her from the saddle. She lands heavily, bouncing and rolling several times before slamming back-first into a support pillar, hard enough to take it out and cause the catwalk to collapse ontop of her bike. She picks herself up, slowly, grunting in pain before lifting up her big Mk-19 grenade launcher and resuming the fight, trying to thin the numbers of Defender troops, now her mobility is... not quite so mobile.
Rory White	Rory finds some of the large pipes and flattens her body behind against one. Being a machine, she doesn't need to fidget or move in any way, or breathe, which does help with letting her focus at the matter at hand without exposing herself first thing. Said matter at hand is actually to open her maw and-- And out comes five silver-black orbs covered in lights and grooves. The moment these hit the ground they come to life, beginning to ROLL ON THEIR OWN. They swerve out with the group and start merrily bowling down the hallway amidst the chaos towards the Marines. And as they do? As they do, they shine red lights, which begin to flash. And they beep. BEEP..... BEEP......BEEP...BEEP...BEEP..BEEP..BEEP..BEEP..BEEP.BEEP.BEEP.BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!! Buuuut.... they don't explode. No. If they manage to GET that far, they just sort of bump into boots and keep beeping insistently. Rory's hoping that all attention will be on THEM, people mistaking them for bombs, allowing the insectile drone skittering quietly along the ceiling and searching for the nearest service panel that might give access to the ship's network to go unnoticed!
Yang Xiao Long	Yang giggles. "That's it boys, come play with me for a bit!" she chirps, ducking down a side hall and continuing to lead them on a merry little chase. Once she's gotten far enough away, she rounds another corner, then turns back to surprise the first Marine with a punch to the faceplate. Her gauntlet fires a split second after her fist connects, firing a kinetic burst into the marine's face.
Kotone Yamakawa	The Armed Suit is a heavy weapon on Kotone's world, made to be between the Combat Cyborg and the heavy tank in terms of ground combat. This means it's armor is pretty beefy by local standards. This is what saves her as several of the missiles get past the chaff Kotone launches and does some serious damage to the suiit, but she's still moving and better she's done some serious damage fgrom the looks of thing with helping in taking down the weapon. She keeps up the fire but damage warnings are going off for her now as she goes. 5R "You do this to your own people?! From what I saw of his old man he'd leave entire colonies to die." She keeps going and hopes the taunting will contiune to lure her into shooting her again.
Starbound Flotilla	This time, at least, George is ready to disengage from the flamethrower, leaping away and making sure to be at a substantial distance as the rush of fire consumes the upper body of the Xanthos, gliding back down to the ground. This is an unfortunate thing to do, though. "Shit, shit, shit..." George mutters and grunts as the missiles come down. His entire mecha moves with a sort of flow and grace that's entirely unexpected for a large cargo-loading thing like that, but while it can keep him from suffering direct impacts, it can't keep him from suffering the splash damage as the projectiles slam into the ground near him, buffeting him with high pressure and high heat. "If you're gonna decapitate this thing, do it /fast/ please!" He calls out. "I'm getting the boat rocked a little too hard for my tastes out here!" And then he swaps to speaker comms. "Well hey! Must not have been that strong if he got /fuckin' murdered/, huh?!" He shouts, moving to strafe. "Must'a been a weak-ass dude, right? Maybe being complicit with a murder like that's just fine, huh? Why don't you get outta your prototype, come down here and square up if the Arcturus ways are so hard!" He just keeps blind-firing antagonism. Hearing that sort of petty chatter from someone with the gruff voice of someone well past middle age is weird. Now that the thing is more immobile, the missile locks are something he can deal with a bit better by diving under and between its thrusters. "Come on! You can't /really/ think people are gonna support some guy so /weak/ and so /stupid/ he got ganked straight off the throne, right?" And on one of those rushes, he tries to latch on with his grappling hook and do a massive, absurd swing straight up, intending to crash onto the Xanthos somewhere near those missile ports with a heavy downward drill-first smash!
Septette Arcubielle	As hot as the sun? THE SUN? There are stars in the sky that couldn't singe a hair on her head! But this... this did something. Though she's cooled back down, Septette's arm hitches from heat-warping as she tries to climb up to the maintenance door inside the thruster, eliciting a grimace. She can't feel pain in a direct sense, but every material injury she suffers costs hours of repairs, precious and limited arcane components, and lives because she was laid up instead of in the field. Her ethical calculus said taking this monstrosity down more efficiently was worth that cost. Who is she to disagree with that? She stops, clinging to the wall with her foot-talons, to jam her fingers into the socket and forcibly shave the ball-joint back into shape with grim determination. Then she pulls herself up and kicks in the maintenance door... A few moments later, there's a sound like a very large can being opened near Yang's location, followed by a man's scream and a series of crunching noises. A DoM marine gets thrown around the corner, badly mangled, followed by Septette peeking around it. Her face is blackened with soot and ash, but she seems essentially combat-ready. "Yang. Let's hit the bridge together. They're getting chewed up out there." Then she turns on her heel and- barring further marine interference- heads in the general direction of the Xanthos's command center!
William Pauwel	This is the unpleasant business of war. Will grimaces at the bloodsplatter that had, moments ago, been a platoon of rebellious marines. He nods at the apparent commander in charge and waves the group off. "Good luck, y'all! I'll see about gettin' some of the internal defenses online while I'm doin' all this." What's 'all this?' Well, first thing's first. He needs to get the main reactor back online. Will hops to it, bringing up the rough schematics he was provided and immediately hightailing it to something called a 'Colossus Reactor.' It's not hard to tell which that is- its name is highly representative of its outward appearance. Will expresses his appreciation for high-end energy technology with a long, shrill whistle. He presses his mechanical hand to the thing's outer casing, feeling the dull, rhythmic thrum of a massive plasma containment coil on standby. Standby, not off. He races up a set of maintenance catwalks to a command console and starts tapping through the interface, only to be confronted with a loading bar. Primary Reignition [\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|] 2% Will groans and clambers /further/ up the reactor, racing to what appears to be a maintenance panel. Will grunts, prying the thing open with his mechanical limbs before recoiling away from the massive flash of heat that blasts out from the warming reactor core. Alarms begin to wail at the possible loss of fuel containment, but Will wastes little time in doing what needs to be done. He points his gun at the dimly glowing fusion furnace and pulls the trigger. An injected gout of energized plasma surges into the Battlecruiser's reactor core. Will turns his face away, watching down below at that progress indicator bar. It... races up. 25%. 50%. 80.%. Primary Reignition [_______________] 99% Will pulls his gun back and slams the panel shut, leaping down just in time to either see the reactor explode or finish charging. He really hopes it's the latter. He really does not want to die today.
Nova Terra	The Defenders traitors are definitely having their numbers thinned. The combined efforts of the Dominion troops and Leyanne are quickly reducing their numbers. Where at the start it had been a stalemate, the battle has definitely turned in favour of the Dominion military. There are several cheers from nearby Marines in blue as one of Leyanne's grenades rolls up to the side of a Siege Tank and blows a hole in the side. Kotone's shot dig into the side of the back-mounted missile launcher, digging in and ripping apart internals. George joins in from above, his drill ripping through the much softer structure of the weapon. On the Xanthos bridge, things are getting more hectic as one officer reports, "Missile launchers are reporting failures!" Davis continues to keep her focus on those fighting outside, "Launch the fighters!" From the top of the Xanthos, two bay doors slide open. From within, a dozen of small fighters burst out of the large machine's interior. They quickly turn over and split up into three groups. Homing in on Kotone, Leyanne and George each, they begin to make flybys on the three, unloading their burst lasers on them. Inside the Xanthos, Yang manages to catch the first Marine chasing her off guard. Her first smashes through his faceplate and into his face, the sound of bone crunching easily heard as he falls backwards to the ground. The Marine immediately behind him charges, bring his rifle up to try and return the favour by smashing the butt of the large weapon into Yang's face. The third marine meanwhile drops his rifle, drawing a large knife (Marine-scale!). He manoeuvres around is fellow, trying to drive the blade into Yang from another angle. The other Marines fighting the infiltration team are quickly back-peddling as they keep up the constant fire on Bahamut. One of them complains, "It's not going down!" Another quickly calls out, "GRENADES!" The Marine's briefly stop firing, scattering to avoid the resulting explosions... Of which there are none. Rory's little drone is able to wiggle its way past the distracted Marines, soon finding an access point where it can connect to the Xanthos's systems. It is going to take a short time to break through the digital defenses though. Confusion is quickly replaced by pain as Bahamut is able to use the resulting pause in fire to cross the distance to them. His claws begin to slice through their armour and they begin to retreat, running from the large behemoth. Only one makes it away though, dashing down the corridor. Nova begins to following Bahamut and the Marine in retreat, saying to the dragon and lioness, "The bridge should be that way!" Following the retreating Marine will eventually lead to the main bridge doors. They're defended though by a collection of Marines, the heavier Marauders, and a few previously unseen units in equally heavy armour, but coloured in orange. The path that Yang and Septette follow after dealing with their problems also leads here, combining at the end. Seeing the elites beginning to trickle in, the bridge defenders open fire. Spike rounds and grenades are unleashed from the Marines and Marauders respectively. Meanwhile the ones in orange armour raise their arms, unleashing long waves of flames from the weapons on the end. Meanwhile on the battlecruiser, Will is definitely playing with fire. But he's successful, the large reactor humming to life. Systems begin to come online across the large battlecruiser, interior and exterior lights flickering to life. The ship begins to wake. Unfortunately, as it does so a computerized voice reports, "Plasma transfer system integrity has been compromised. Critical failure in two minutes. Emergency shutdown recommended." Will better get started on targeting and charging the main cannon!
Yang Xiao Long	Yang takes the strike to the face, a burst of yellow light expanding from the impact point, sending her backwards down the hall, out of the way of the third marine. She backflips, kipping herself back onto her feet as she skids to a stop from the momentum. The blonde brawler's eyes are obscured by her hair, a little blood trickling down her face from the impact. "Heh, that was pretty good..." she lifts her chin, showing the now red eyes where lilac once were. "Let me show you my serious side." she adds darkly. A kinetic burst buckles the hallway walls, and the blonde suddenly appears in front of the two Marines. She slams a fist into the chest of the gunbutt one, then first the kinetic shell point blank to fire her arm backwards. She spins quickly and smashes her elbow into the knife Marine, firing again to try to buckle his chestplate into his body. "I'll let you boys in on a secret." she says, draping her arms around their bulky shoulders. "The more you hit me, the stronger I hit back~." She then brings their helmeted heads together. Hard.
William Pauwel	Will is already on his way to getting the targetting system up and running when suddenly-- Oh. Ohhhh well that's probably not good. Ha ha ha haaaaa. Hm. That's /probably/ not his fault. He didn't point his gun anywhere near a plasma transfer system! But it's probably not a good thing either. Will taps manically on the consoles he has available to him and rapidly begins the process of locking in a firing solution and rerouting power to the main gun, only-- Well. Just like with the reactor, the gun isn't exactly quick to charge. It needs some time. More time than what he's got. Will nearly bites his metal thumb before remembering that that's probably bad for his teeth. Instead, his fingers fly manically across the keypads, rerouting power here and opening conduits there. Finally, he seems satisfied and... Takes a few steps to the right to reroute the excess plasma that /would/ otherwise be overloading the reactor straight into forging the miniature sun at the heart of the Yamato Cannon. Outside, the hammerhead portion of the battlecruiser begins to shift and transform. Armor plates slide away from an enormous aperture that seems, when fully unfolded, to take up a volume larger than its housing. The reason for that is apparent as layers of metal unfold into a vast array of containment coils which immediately begin coruscating with crimson energies. Arcs of power leap from the coils to the collection of superheated vapor at the heart of the battlecruiser's main gun. "Hey Nova," Will yells as the sirens scream, one hand over a button that says 'EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN' and another over a brighter, shinier button that reads 'FIRE.' "We're ready to go here! Firin' on yer mark! But y'all better hurry up and tell me 'fore this place gets dangerous on me! We got a plasma transfer error-- I can save the reactor, but only iff'n I can vent the buildup through the cannon and use the cooldown period to make th' necessary repairs. You all ready!?"
Septette Arcubielle	When the bridge welcoming party opens fire, Septette immediately dashes in, aiming to take the brunt of the marines' and 'marauders' aggro... only to mistakenly anticipate being hit by a grenade and get immediately set on fire! Compared to the thrusters, this is pretty tame, but it's still being on fire- she can't see a thing while the napalm-like flames engulf her face! Fortunately, it doesn't seem she needs to. Operating on the last known position of one of those orange-suited marauders, she lurches forward, grabs the firebat's wrist, and pulls him into an armor-busting knee to the chest, followed swiftly by a decapitating strike. That keeps her busy and productive long enough for the flames to go out- and for her to take a look out the bridge window at the charging Yamato cannon! Can Will aim? Has he ever needed to aim with his magic talky gun, or does it aim for him? Oh god, are they about to get wave-motion-gunned by a complete novice? "Yep," she says in a deeply resigned tone as she knees another marine through the helmet. "Yep, we're ready."
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace ducks behind cover as the fighters dash overhead, hooking her grenade launcher onto its backback mount and instead picking up the missle launcher that's been blasted off a Goliath. "Skrat! You still got eyes?" She calls out to her buried bike. Hearing an affirmative bleep, she grins, picking up the missile launcher from a downed Goliath. She peers at it a moment, frowns, pulling a wire from her belt. She plugs it into her neck, then into the gun. Data feed from Skrat... handshake complete... "Seeker is live..." She mutters, tracking one of the trios of fighters. She targets the central one. "I have tone." She opens fire, hoping to take down at least one more with the blast. They really shouldn't fly so close together.
Rory White	GOOD! The insectile drone finds a service panel and JAMS its adaptive scorpion-tail into the cables. Thankfully, Rory has already taken some time to brush up on Terran computer technology and basic protocols. In no time, her little drone attempts to intercept all the signals going through the node, spoof an authenticated component of the ship's system... She's going to have a hard time gaining full privileges and taking active CONTROL of systems, so while working on that she does something completely different. SIGNALS are generated and sent to the bridge, as spoofed devices all over the Xanthos begin to report critical failures, hull breaches, unauthorized entry and every other kind of distracting alarm or red alert she can throw up to effectively Fog of War the bridge in SCREAMING ALARMS and misinformation!
Bahamut	Bahamut roars in victory as he breaks the Defenders' line in the corridor thanks to Rory's distraction, then growls menacingly as the lone survivor runs for the bridge. He continues that way, running on all fours as quickly as he can. His armored hide is smoldering from all the hits, and there are multiple cracks and gashes on his body. But, he is pretty tough himself and pushes on to the main doors. When he sees the heavy armor at the door he quickly thrusts his hands forward and the area around the main door explodes in pure, searing energy as he unleashes a Flare spell before he charges. It might not be wise to charge headlong toward armored troops like that, but it is the dragon's way. Claws that seem as though they must be adamantine slice into the nearest orange armor when he gets close, and he takes it apart as quickly as he can before he moves to the next. But, even Bahamut can only take so much before he starts to weaken, and the big metal dragon is starting to drag just a bit, panting from the effort and injury. On the plus side, the golden gyro on his back is spinning and crackling with so much energy that if the Yamato Cannon -doesn't- finish things then the Mega Flare could likely mop up anything that is left. Of course, he is somewhat concerned in the back of his head that they are currently onboard the craft that Will is going to fire upon. He doesn't know the Yamato Cannon, but all indications are that it is pretty powerful. Might be fun to clash his Mega Flare against one sometime. If he survives this. He chuckles lightly as he hears Septette. "As ready as we shall ever be."
Starbound Flotilla	"Oh fuck's /sakes/." George mutters as the fighters rush him. A squad of five! His mecha's meant for melee, not downing incoming fighters! He clambers up the broken segment of missile launcher, grabbing the top of it and swiping his mecha's arms at oncoming fighters. Somewhere, someone on the ground may have a flash of recognition that the giant, bulky form hanging by one arm from the top of a large structure and swiping at fighters that assault it with flybys is a familiar look. But luckily, George is well savvy enough to avert the inevitable fate of the circumstantially linked scenario. Suddenly, he launches a pair of grappling hooks, trying to impact the hulls of two of those smaller fighters, and George LEAPS off! His mecha is damned heavy, and he intends to make use of that, dragging the pair down to the deck and using them as a way to get some distance between him and the incoming plasma shot that Will is about to unload, or any of the explosive results of what the interior fighters can pull off!
William Pauwel	'Go for it?' GO FOR IT. "GOIN' FOR IT!" Will yells, sliding a pair of tinted safety goggles down over his eyes. He leans, slamming his fist into that big, bright, candy-red button. "HERE WE GOOOOO!" The lights on the outside of the ship flicker and flash. Plasma conduits surge with primed fuel into the protoplasmic sphere at the heart of the Yamato Cannon's power coils. Power readings across three of Will's terminals spike and oscillate wildly as light builds to a blinding glare at the vessel's beating, thermonuclear heart. Will turns, grabbing hold of a pair of oversized joysticks. He leans them from side to side. On the outside of the ship, a set of small maneuvering thrusters all across the battlecruiser's hull begin to fire, tearing the vessel loose of several of its moorings with the snap of steel cables. It's a miracle that the cranes holding the thing upright don't shear apart under the strain-- or maybe Will planned for it? Who could say? Not Will. Will is busy trying to make doubly sure that the front end of the battlecruiser is lined up with the enormous target downrange while the gun at the center of the thing is already going through its firing sequence. Final corrections complete, Will rears back and kicks a lever that is attached to something called 'primary inertial compensator.' What's that do? That's the thrustery bits on the front of the 'hammerhead' that make sure that the Yamato Gun disgorging a miniature star's worth of nuclear fuel doesn't send the entire ship spiralling into the abyss of space. He remembers to engage that handy safety mechanism right on time, too. The Yamato Gun blazes with barely-contained energy. At last, the firing mechanism engages-- an enormous cylinder surges down its track, slamming into the back end of an enormous piezoelectric plate. A ripple tears across the surface of the protostar as the magnetic confinement system triggers a finely tuned breach down through a series of massive accelerator coils. There's a flash of light like the rising of a dozen suns as the cannon finally fires, unleashing a torrent of power nearly unparalleled in the Koprulu sector. Down in the belly of the beast, Will stares in quiet admiration for just long enough to capture the image in his memory forever. ...Before he realizes that he has about a minute to try and jury rig a fix to the plasma transport system before cooldown finishes and the thing fires back up again.
Kotone Yamakawa	The battle wages on with the Defenders anmd it's going pretty well or so she thinks. She scores more hits getting the machine's missile launcher and she keeps moving. Davis launcehs the fighters and she'll move to try and shoot thees things down as she keeps her machine moving but some more hits are made and more damage is adding up even as Kotone finds rivers of molent armour flowing off the machines from teh hits. Trying to keep their attention here as long as I can." Then Will does his crazey stunt oh lord his cxrazy stunt is going to be let lose as the Yamato cannon is made ready. <<Looks like they are gtting more pissed wait what is tha...." A wave motion gun, an actual honest to god wave motion gun is mounted on that ship and it's firing.
Nova Terra	Suddenly having their chests compressed by the caved in armour, the two Marines fighting Yang quickly lose their stamina. Falling to their knees as they look at Yang helplessly... But then they can look no more as their heads are smashed together, helmets crumpling under the impact and knocking the two out. Yang stands triumphantly over them! Now, what's this about a giant cannon? Septette comes dashing in from the other direction, immediately drawing attention from some of the Defenders. The Firebat is probably a little confused as to why Septette's head hasn't been turned into charcoal at this range. Unfortunately he's not confused for much longer as Septette's strike cuts through his helmet and neck in quick succession, the large armored man going limp as the flames teter off. The rest of those defending the bridge door are in chaos as a large dragon goes berserk within their group. Marines find themselves being sliced up, the other Firebat exploding as his fuel tanks are compromised, the blast just adding to the damage Bahamut is tanking. Marauders try to smash him with their large weapons, the close quarters making it hard to use their grenades. But they are likewise smashed in return, armour caving in from the dragon's blows. Of course, Bahamut is still aware of what's about to come. On the bridge of the Xanthos, Davis can hear the fighting happening just outside. It's clear now that she's not going to win this. So in one final act of vengence, she orders, "Activate the Vulcan Blaster." Outside, Leyanne's able to salvage a launcher, aiming the weapon at the group of fighters currently making a run on her. The missiles launch forth, streaking through the air towards the group. They explode in the air, catching the two at the front. The two behind swerve to avoid, but accidentally end up colliding with each other and going crashing down to the space platform's surface. The fighters engaging George aren't that large, built as needed to fit inside the Xanthos. So they don't have the thrust to carry his large mech for long, getting pulled down towards the ground as he uses them to escape the Xanthos. As he comes crashing down, the fighters are unable to recover from the downward dive they found themselves in, smashing head first into the platform and exploding. The others back off for a moment, giving George breathing room. Kotone's shots initially go a little wide as the small fighters swerve to evade. However with their light armour it only takes one and soon enough Kotone gets that one. A fighter gets a hole through it, systems disrupted it crashes down to the platform. Another explodes as its meagre reactor is struck. The other two break off to join up with those remaining fighters. With a brief moment to breath, the three fighting the Xanthos outside may notice a large weapon port on the front of the machine slide open. Beneath there is a large emitter. It starts glowing with light as it charges. Clearly an energy weapon, it's not immediately aimed at any of the elites, the Xanthos immobilized. However, a good portion of the Dominion military are probably in its firing arc and judging by it's size, it's going to be a big blast. Back on the bridge, Davis waits in anticipation of the Vulcan Blaster's firing. That is until things start going haywire, screens all over the bridge beginning to report system failures, as do the officers manning them. Amidst the chaos, Davis calls out, "What about the Vulcan!?" An officer reports, "It's also down!" Not actually true, but how is he supposed to know that? The weapon remains in the charged status. It's at this point that the battlecruiser's Yamato Cannon fires. The massive blast of energy streaks away from the large ship, quickly heading towards the Xanthos. It strikes the disabled machine with a brilliant flash of light, right where Rory's nanites had been weakening the armour. The interior of the Xanthos EXPLODES.
Nova Terra	The Yamato Cannon shot had breached the middle of the Xanthos, almost blowing the machine in half. Numerous secondary explosions rock the large machine's exterior, including the large laser cannon which is engulfed by the very energy it had charged. Its structure appears to be collapsing in on the large hole in its centre mass. Moments pass and soon those on the inside will realise they're still alive. The interior is thoroughly trashed, with numerous fires raging unhindered. Bits and pieces of the ceiling above the infiltration team are collapsing, debris falling. A few of the Marines that had survived the blast are crushed, leaving the bridge doors undefended. Nova stands from where she had fallen. Now is probably a good time to get clear of the wreck, before something worse happens. But Nova has other ideas as she approaches the bridge doors, grim determination on her face. She forces the disabled doors open with her mind, revealing the bridge. It's thoroughly wrecked, numerous officers slumped over their broken consoles or lieing on the floor dead. It would seem the only person left alive is Davis, sitting in her chair. She's bleeding from some shrapnel in her side, but it doesn't look immediately life threatening.
Leyanne	Leyanne Mace is just celebrating her successful hit when the Yamato Gun fires. The sheer noise that it's putting out, across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, causes the mouse's knees to buckle. She drops the missile launcher and crumples into a little ball, her hands over her antennae for the duration of the shot, and indeed for a good minute or two afterwards. When she stands, she moves slowly, still covering her antennae. "...ow..." she mutters, experiencing the electromagnetic equivalent of ringing ears. She looks around for ways to help, and finding the fighters down, she moves instead to provide medical attention to any blue-armoured Terrans she can find.
Rory White	Since Rory has a view of what's happening OUTSIDE courtesy of her distant ship, she can easily detect the Yamato Cannon's charge and predict when it's about to fire. And calculate how long it will take her to evacuate and clear various potential blast radiuses. ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! She decides to book it after realizing there is NO POINT in getting further control of the ship when it's about to get blasted by a much bigger ship. She leaves the hacking drone behind and just stands up and SPRINTS on all fours out the breach and jump-jets back towards the platform! Inwardly, she flinches at the devastation visible once the brilliant flash from the Yamato Cannon fades. ".... There is never a clean answer to people who have chosen to be unreasonable." She laments, seating herself on her rump in a small show of depression. "Another big waste of engineering and lives. All that, because of... 'honor.'" She just doesn't get it. The moment of panic over with, she gets up and starts bounding towards the Dominion forces, hoping to administer medical aid to anyone who needs it.
Bahamut	Since they have a moment before the Yamato Cannon actually fires, Bahamut takes the time to cast his Wall spell on anyone who remains near him. As the rush of the Yamato explosion reaches them, it is dulled somewhat by the protective spell. He sees Rory go, but destroying this thing was really only a secondary objective. He stays, ready to assist Nova with capturing the enemy, General Davis. Of course, when the door opens it becomes clear that Davis and her crew are in no condition to fight. Bahamut stalks into the bridge, a low and rumbling growl rolling from him. He would like nothing more than to arrest and imprison Davis himself, but this is Nova's operation and she deserves the honor. "We should not linger long. In my experience creations such as this manage to maintain core integrity for a few moments after such damage, but not long." he advises Nova, then looks around for Septette and Yang. "Are you ladies alright?"
Yang Xiao Long	Yang staggers as the entire battlestation rocks. She braces, tumbling as the floor buckles out underneath her, and ending up suspended over the large open hole that's now punched through the middle of the machine. She makes sure she's got a good foothold on the exposed support struts, then launches herself back into the hallway, making her way back to the others. "Dust and Fire that was a big blast... everyone okay?" she asks as she rounds the corner to the others, seeing the devastation. The blonde is battered and beaten up, small cuts on her exposed skin and a few bits of cloth missing in strategically non-vital areas, showing more lacerations beneath... but she's otherwise looking okay. "Okay then Nova... what's the plan here?"
Septette Arcubielle	As the immediate danger of the Yamato cannon passes, Septette smooths out her cloak and tries her darndest to pretend like she wasn't just bracing for impact from the orbital gun from hell. Of course she had faith. William Pauwel is a deeply trustworthy and reliable person, yes. A good friend would never doubt him. She makes a mental note to ask someone to double-check that battlecruiser's reactor anyway. "Don't patronize me, squishy," she answers Bahamut her shoulder in a tone that isn't entirely venomous. Okay, there's a tiny bit of venom. But it's less than 100% venom by weight. "Worry about yourself." The concerned looks she gives Yang and Nova makes a hypocrite out of her, though. Finally, she slips up alongside Nova as the ghost silently confronts Davis. Like the devil on her shoulder, she says in a quiet voice: "How much do you trust her future prison guards, Agent Terra?" And then just... lets those words settle for a moment.
Starbound Flotilla	George slams to the ground in the heavy mechasuit. The fighters, at least, are something that more qualified people -- people with actual guns and such on-hand -- can deal with, at least the remaining three. George has survived and done what he could, and that's about as much as he's got his own investment in this. So now is time to get clear of the wreck, it seems! ...Well, sure, but only after George harvests a few of the chunks of neosteel that have been ripped out of the body of that thing by the explosions and various accumulated damage. Then, he'll get his distance. You know, casually lighting the cigarette in his cockpit, dramatically walking his battered and slagged mecha away from this dock area, and dramatically keeping his back to the damaged Xanthos. You know, /proper/ safety protocol. He's sure his more important link there, Septette, will be fine in there.
William Pauwel	Excuse you, Septette Arcubielle. William Pauwel's technical prowess is unparalleled. He can do no wrong, when it comes to machines, probably!! Will sighs as he creeps back into his temporary station. Distantly, he can register the humm of well-adjusted machines creeping back into something resembling ordinary operation. With the excess fuel discharged, he was able to take advantage of the temporary cooldown period to work out a bypass for the plasma transmission. With that taken care of, the rest of the fix was a matter of replacing worn out or defective parts with spares (which were already at the ready!) and restarting the standard fuel transfer loop. Now, it's all over but the mopping up. A pang of guilt reverberates through Will's conscience. In doing all this, how many had he doomed to die? He tightens his lips and leans over to reactivate the battlecruiser's internal defenses-- after, of course, registering himself as part of the engineering crew for the purposes of getting out of here later. But, for now... Will kind of wants a break for a bit.
Nova Terra	The Xanthos a wreck, their leader's status unknown, and completely outnumbered, the remaining Defenders of Man stop fighting, laying down their weapons. Cheers go up from the victorious Dominion troops. And soon enough orders come down to begin rounding them up. There are many injured. The Dominion is already sending its medics to treat them, the angels of mercy in their white armour using their trauma kits and medical lasers to help heal the injured. Of course, additional help is always welcomed as Leyanne and Rory offer it. Inside the bridge of the Xanthos, Nova moves around to face Davis silently. The General looks back defiantly, despite her injury and situation of being surrounded by several elites. Davis starts, "November Terra. I knew your family when you were a child. We were all part of the same circles back then. The same side." Nova doesn't seem moved by this revelation, simply saying, "The past doesn't matter..." Davis eyes the Ghost, "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that what you're going to do is the right thing. But if you do this... You'll be no better than me." A last ditched effort to save her life. Nova keeps her eyes on Davis even as she listens to the others around her. Bahamut suggesting they leave soon. Yang clearly backing Nova up. And Septette making a good point. "You're right." Really, she could be responding to any of them at that point... But then Nova scowls at Davis, "Go to hell." Davis starts to scream in obvious pain as she clutches at her head. She struggles against the invisible force, before finally going still and slumping into her chair. Blood leaks from her ears, eyes and nose. It's fairly obvious she's dead. "Let's go." Nova starts to leave the bridge, to find a way out of the wreck and somewhere with safer footing and less ceiling falling.
Bahamut	Bahamut snorts lightly at Septette. "Patronizing implies that I am not concerned for your health. You may be well-made, but no one is indestructible." he says. He frowns a bit as Septette offers that advice to Nova...and a low growl escapes him as Nova agrees. But, regardless of law and order, Justice has been done. He is not truly angry, just concerned that this will end up galvanizing the Defenders of Man somehow. He snorts again, then turns and heads for the nearest exit of the Xanthos. "You should not have killed her in such a way. Execution without a proper trial is at the heart of many fears that lead to citizens distrusting governments. And without her confession, as unlikely as she would have been to give it, the Defenders may yet spin this in their favor." With his peace said, Bahamut leaves the Xanthos and asks over the comms, "Does anyone know the status of this battleship's reactor? It is highly unlikely to be stable after so much damage." He says this as he flies away from it, carrying any of the boarding team who wish to be carried.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa takes a few fighters out and they go down she however is pulling back as she sees the Yamato Gun firing off. She does not know what's going to happen with the super weapon firing she's trying to get clear but then it does not fire, soon a massive explosion goes off, and several warning go off as Kotone moves to stumble back away from blast as heer damaged power armor beholds the aftermath. She finds out Nova just offed Davis, all the intel to further Defenders of man die with her and she died for her cause, there's not much else she can say and she's going to have some hell to pay from her superiors but nothing can be done about that now.