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Starbound Flotilla	It is generally accepted that the End of the Line began that day.     But before we understand how, we should first understand how the Line began. It is a story that has been told among the Line since it began, but it is the answer to a question that has existed for thousands of years.     There once was a band of Unstoppable Warriors. Blessed by their Treasure, they roamed the world, unable to be defeated. For thousands of years, they roamed, and were never struck down. Nor did they tire, nor did they die. They were Unstoppable. There once was an Immovable Kingdom. Blessed by their treasure, they stood steadfast through wars, through famine, through drought, and through turmoil. Their citizens never experienced great want. Their nobles were never usurped or plagued by corruption. Their positive ideals of peace, understanding, and freedom were never changed.     One day, the home world of the Unstoppable Warriors unified. One day, the home world of the Immovable Kingdom unified. One day, the former was sent to end the latter. Neither Treasure could bear to surrender. What was unstoppable could not be stopped. What was immovable could not be moved. These were facts and absolutes.     What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Both stop moving -- unstoppably. In a "normal" universe, this would mean suddenly "moving" closer to the center of the universe at a rate precisely matching the spin and expansion rate of the universe itself. In the Multiverse, it meant something different: Moving in a direction precisely perpendicular to the axis of the rotation of the superplanet, ever westward, completing its circle once per rotation of the vast multiverse planet. And that is now the Line was formed.     For twenty long years, every nation near it threw themselves into its vast societal meat grinder. They sought the twin Treasures with such hunger that they uprooted their entire nation and took the entire society on the road. Bathed in the heat and light of the plasma trail the Treasure left behind, they each changed, accelerating faster and faster. They began to fight for fuel and parts, for space and speed, and eventually for the divine right to grasp the Treasure. After over twenty years, one victor reigned: The Empress of the Holy Combustion Empire. But her Empire soon fractured. A slave revolution that began on the Line's southern end, started by a low-born man known as the Engine King, split it in half.     Now, the heretic Engine King seeks to destroy the Treasure, to annihilate its components to prevent the terrible civilization hazard it presents; he believes it bends and twists the minds of leaders in dangerous  ways, and many of the Watch agree. The bodycount of the Line rather supports him. The Empress of Holy Combustion and her High Priestess seek to stop him, and take the treasure, restoring its beneficial properties in harmless ways to the people, and there's growing noise that the Concord may support them... possibly. The Paladins remain caught in the middle, seeing some merits to both, as do some of the Concord themselves. The situation is complicated. In an uneasy alliance, they have defeated and passed the Guardian of Third Gear, the Saint of Glass, who was captured by Zwei. There was no such guardian of Fourth Gear, but that doesn't mean that the Merging will go without bloodshed.     That is what happened before any faction or outsider arrived at Fourth Gear, where the Line breaks the light barrier and begins approaching the impossible-to-measure speeds of Fifth Gear. What happened when they arrived is what historians agree started the cascading series of events that ended the Line as it is known.     Let's see what happened.
Starbound Flotilla	THE LINE     FOURTH GEAR     The Linerunner remains available for those who have been along here, but tensions are getting high. There's a lot of space aboard the three-story-tall super-tank, even with its heavy rocketry at the back, its enchanted hood ornament at the front, and its new, fancier features necessary to merge to Fourth Gear: Filtering shields to prevent the physical (dangerous) and psychological (intensely dangerous) effects of walking around on an open-top deck of a ship moving past the speed of light. While one can probably survive a while without such barriers, it's best to have one. The Treasure has passed by to the north recently, searing a thin white line that expands to a dangerous cloud of plasma, forming a powerful storm that buffets those who are merging, necessitating some shielding or some rather intense grit.     The Flotilla are accelerating their craft, the Linerunner, towards Fourth Gear, which is causing the environment to warp in strange and colorful ways as the doppeler effect soon turns into a light-barrier. The rolling hills of diamond that mark Third Gear are soon warping visually and geometrically into an area defined more by the process of passing by than the materials doing that passing. Things too far away are starting to become visually bent. Outside, things appear more like a void with a road streaking across it, where the world around is bent to the middle of where the road heads to the horizon. One might recognize it as the effects of traveling at the speed of light. One might also recognize it as similar to "highway hypnosis".     What's visible most of all as the Flotilla (and whoever else may be using their own vehicles) is the Engine King's southern capital Fuel Ark, the Refinery. This is a place that lives up to its name. Everything about it is mechanical, and so much of it seems dedicated to fuel. The cargo receiving structure that's almost as large as the Southern Reaches town of Daggum the group visited in Second Gear is operated almost entirely with huge hydraulics, moving its structures to receive. The Linerunner's escort targets, Hexane's train and the Hylotl fuelship, have merged as well, deploying their own filters, and are already heading there. The rest of the place is full of massive tanks, huge garages, vast hangars, and titanic residential blocks put together in a way that seems retrofitted to give people MORE space rather than LESS. The site has the brutally utilitarian echo of a place that used to be dedicated to purpose rather than people, but which has been changed to give people more comfort over the last few years.     It's likely that what happens next will happen as the Linerunner and other vehicles accompanying it through hover-momentum start trying to dock.
Gilgamesh	All Treasures in the world belong to Gilgamesh.      This is not hyperbole. In a time long ago, when the world was young and full of Mystery, when gods and devils walked the world openly, Gilgamesh was made for the purpose of rule. At that time, he gathered to himself all the myriad treasures from all the myriad corners of the world. He walked the sands of still-cooling Africa, climbed the mountains of unbound Asia, slew the dragons in warm France. In the age before titans he stood above them all, gathered to himself all the great relics of the world, and threw them into a vault that to this day remains the stuff of legend, a vault filled with all the world's riches and all the world's legends and all the worlds glories. It is a monument not only to his ego, but to his civilization, the civilization he ruled as a perfect, gods-given King; within the bounds of that treasury are artifacts of such surpassing glory that the modern age would weep to look upon them and know what it lost. If Gilgamesh did not own a thing, it was not worth owning.      Gilgamesh is not here to execute the law. Gilgamesh is not here to intervene in a vast, cosmic societal meat grinder. He could not care less if the mortals of the world slew each other. The country of Multi-Vars is unfathomably, disgustingly vast, and frankly, the King of Heroes is of the opinion that a few billion less of them would probably do them all some good. Names lost screaming into the void, empty lives drifting without purpose or glory, *statistics* are not tragedy to him. If a man dies and he does not know his name, is Gilgamesh depleted? Of course not.      Numbers. Sickening, immense numbers. Numbers ought only go so high for money. No, Gilgamesh is not here to protect numbers.      Gilgamesh is here to claim his Treasures.      They are probably his. If they aren't his, they will either become his if they are worth owning, or they will be discarded and forgotten. Such is the uncompromising way of the King who stands between Men and Gods.      The King does not skulk or sneak. He is not a thief, looking to steal. That would be nonsense. He could not steal what is his, and if it wasn't his, then he would claim it by right, not pilfer it away in the shadows without honor.      No, Gilgamesh, King Heroes, King of Uruk, Who Is Wise To All Things And Knows The Name Of All The Countries Of The World, Who Sits Atop Babylon, Tigris Clutched In His Right Hand And Euphrates In His Left, did what any sensible stupidly wealthy creature would do in his situation.      He called a cab.      The First Hero now sits shotgun in a flying cab that in *no way* should be making this flight, a cabbie sitting at his side gunning his cab in ways that are in *no way* safe, beeling towards this Treasure. He seems more real than the utilitarian world around him, as if his existence is at war with existence itself, as if he realizes that he should not be and yet fights that with every moment of every breath. He shines with a glory that ordinary mortals dream of, an addictive gold that flows from his existence and leads the rank-and-file nameless to grasp at it like paupers grasping the hem of a rich man's robe hoping against hope for one moment of mercy.      There is no mercy in the King's eyes.      There is only one thing reflected in those red eyes that see all things.      A video of a dog doing jumping jacks on Youtube, and his feet swung up on the dashboard.      It's a really talented dog.
Leyanne	Leyanne is crazy. This has been noted. It's for that reason that the insane mouse steps up to the very front of the ship, through the shield. After engaging magnetic boots, she carefully perches herself on the front of the figurehead does the Titanic thing for a while. She flips up her faceplate to feel the superluminal 'wind' in her face, her arms spread wide as she takes in the experience of being barefaced to this... crazy environment at this kind of speed. When she returns to the deck, where her new Fourth Gear Certified bike can be found, she's got a few cuts on her face, and the fur of that area is looking a little... ragged, as if some of the strands have been torn away. Buuut she's got a big, shit-eating grin, so it's clear that she enjoyed it, at the very least. As she settles into the saddle of the long-forked hoverbike, she looks over to Corona, pointing off into the distance. "D'ya see the size of that chicken?"
Corona Arclite	Time to go see the Refinery! Being the engineer she is Corona's been waiting for this leg of the trip ever since it was explained by the Engine King. Of course there was also that she agreed to help with the logistics needs of his push towards the Treasure, but there was her own mechanical curiousity as well. That and she couldn't plan more thoroughly without seeing what she would have to work with on the fuel and materials front, beyond the 'superliminal nitro' comparison that came up previously. She may be an eccentric inventor, but this was too important to not have some solid numbers to work from. More immeadiately interesting though as the move to merge with Fourth Gear. Which was a perfect oppritunity to test out both the modifications to her vehicle, and the super awesome -and- practical goggles she picked up at the machine shop. The main difference to the Boom Buggy was it's wheels had been replaced with a quad of hoverjet pods, and a second set of rocket engins in addition to it's original boosters jutting out of the back in a peculiar protusion of brass and brimsteel cones. Internal mechanical modifications that no one is really going to care to hear the technobabble about have also been made to get up to speed. Driven just as much by Corona's utter grit as a Southern Fried Genius and engineer as it is those oversized thrusters. The goggles on the other hand proved to be a boon. Not only does the headsup nature of it's display of all the mechanical readouts of her vehicle mean she doesn't have to take her eyes off the 'road' ahead of her, but their nature of being lenses and workings made of the local super-materials helps somewhat filter out the weird visual effect of pushing closer and closer to the event point of light speed. "Pff. You should see the chickens on Brimsteel," she retorts with a snicker. Granted, those 'chickens' are more like alien cockatrices, but we're not gonna tell anyone else that.
Dexter Arkwright	Dexter is probably not a very popular person aboard the Linerunner since he announced his decision to go against destroying the Treasure, wanting to claim it for its super cool Treasure-ness and potential power instead. He's mostly kept to himself, though he hasn't ignored anyone who has approached him to just socialize, though his own proactive socialization has primarily between towards either Albert, Moonfin, Pavo, or George if they seemed open to such at any time, just casual chatting about he mission and where to go forward. Also some admiration of the Linerunner in general - the trip gave him time to explore the deck a little and get ready for when they'd reach the Fuel Ark. And now, they're there. The adventure capitalist is in his fancy high-tech flight suit, fishbowl helmet sealed over his head, as he examines the strange effects in the horizon and eyes the massive capital. Dexter fires up his thrusters, preparing to disembark as soon as they dock, because there might be a conflict and he doesn't want to start one yet. It'd be rude to the Flotilla, who have been pretty gracious hosts.
Orchid	All things being equal, Orchid would prefer a peaceful resolution to the Line, where something is done to stop the state of the two treasures interacting. She doesn't expect things to STAY peaceful, but she also doesn't trust the treasures. Absolute, conceptual artifacts yield FUBAR things like the Line, and the Unstoppable Force sounds like it can only be used as a weapon.      In any case, Orchid is with the others aboard the Linerunner, going over some plans for sensor and relay placement. "Are we here already?" she asks, as people are moving around her. "Gotta admit, I'm in this more for the challenge of logistics," she mentions, rising to her feet.
Riva Banari	Riva doesn't look away as the world warps and twists about them, distorting as she gets to experience lightspeed for the first time in her life. Riding on Hexane's train, she looks out over the swirling, shifted road before them. "Wooooooooow." She breathes, smiling. "That looks AMAZING." With a grin, she moves forward on the train and leans forward, staring out in fascination. That said, she doesn't do anything ridiculous. She looks over at the Refinery as they begin to dock, and she whistles. "Wow, so this is the fuel enrichment place?" She asks. "Looks like there's a lot of science that goes into this kind of speed, huh? And magic, I guess." There's a pause as she spies the cab beginning to drive through at ridiculous speeds. "..." She squints. "Is it just me, or is that a cab over there?"
Kupot	The Sleipner is a mighty machine. It seems to adapt just fine to the shielding and improved speed. It also provides a LOT of armor, since the driver diminuitive in the seat. He is an expert at the controls, however. The newest Watch Recruit, from a world 'in that part of the multiverse where there's a ton of those fucking Final Fantasy places'. It isn't his first time acting in this sort of situation. And the normally dour moogle cannot keep his head into a cool line of constant readiness. Because going this fast IS really cool.
Staren	Staren isn't really sure what to do now. He came here following the Starbound Flotilla, just to investigate the strange physics of this place. Then he heard about the Empress and the Engine King. As he understands it, the Holy Empress's religion worships speed and wants the Line to continue grinding civilizations up. And the Engine King wants to destroy the Treasure... but has a really questionable idea about how to do it. Making physics take notice so the treasure will explode in a puff of logic? Physics is what happens, not what *should* happen.     Ideally, Staren would like to use the treasure's power for the good of all, but he doesn't see a path. Right now, most likely, he expects the Engine King's plan to fail, and then the factions in this conflict will reorganize, and perhaps then taking the treasure will be practical. And if the Engine King's plan actually works?     The knowledge of how he did it will be incredibly valuable.     In a way it's win-win. But in another way, it's left Staren in an awkward position, with no true 'side' to firmly back.     Right now, though? He's supporting the Starbound Flotilla, and he's giving the Engine King a chance, and so are they, so.     As they prepare to merge to 4th gear, the Star Hawk stands on the deck, souped up for superspeed maneuvering if it comes to it, though he expects to basically function as a mobile deck turret.     As always the acceleration process is simply facinating to watch.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang's been working on Bumblebee, fitting things to it to survive Fourth Gear and still be a practical combat mount. Once the Linerunner and its escort convoy merge, the blonde mounts up, putting her helmet on and settling into the saddle. "Firebrand deploying." she calls over local radio, dropping out of the hangar and kicking the hover system on with a deep thrum from the Dust Engine as it powers the bolted on systems.     Yang is still sporting a leg brace and has her torso bandaged up, but her arm appears no longer broken as she maneuvers the bike. She flips the visor down to bring the filters in, and falls into formation beside the giant super-tank.
Zwei	<<Reaching maximum point of energy decay after the last Line revolution.>> ||Then radiation scattering beyond this point is no longer work-efficient. Thus, neither is waiting.|| <<Over three hundred megaCombustions though. It's a qaudratic scalar. The rotational period being ten times slower at this distance upped the actual dosage by ten thousand.>> ||Mega . . . Combustions?|| <<Yeah it's kinda lame isn't it? At least I thought so after I 'said' it. Was supposed to be tongue in cheek. Need a better fake unit name for it.>> ||Confirming full saturation of sample hyperglass components.|| <<MegaLines? MegaSegments?>> ||Acceleration-oriented polyphasic technocyte activity has continued to scale in line with the previous eight revolution.|| <<MegaPasses? MegaLaps?>> ||Extrapolated cortical activity is still below the standard originally observed before extraction, but it should be sufficient for simple speed matching and special relativity calculation.|| <<MegaWarps? MegaPlaids?>> ||MegaFasts.|| <<Oh that one's good!>> ||Engaging Velocity Kit radiation core. Reaction with Erchius engine in three, two, one.||     Those who make it to the Refinery don't only get their first glimpse of what the stupid world of theoretical post-luminal velocity looks like. That's the surprising part -the twist that one normally wouldn't expect. Coming here, there's something much more ordinary that anyone should anticipate if they can tear their eyes away from the warped scenery they aren't designed to take in anyways. The 'getting what they were asking for by coming here' part of the trip. The part that should be expected by those few weirdos paying attention to the lore. Specifically: the part where the Engine King's arch-nemesis attacks.
Zwei	Being in Fourth Gear is hardly a guarantee of safety no matter how impressive it is. The Speed Empires go even beyond this, and so it's only natural that the reach of their war extends this far as well. That said, that doesn't make it any more comprehensible when some of the flattened hyperglass of the passing terrain visually 'melts' and blobs off, like a globe from a lava lamp. An inconsistent mass of rippling silver and prism light rotates up into the airspace above and behind the Refinery, shifting gamma-wards when approaching and micro-wards when falling back, seemingly performing attitude adjustment in a weird, psychedelic way.     It might be hard to recognize as anything but some trick or phenomenon of the area, like a desert mirage or a following pod of dolphins, until it really starts to gain speed more consistently and fall fully into the Refinery's inertial 'bubble'. At that point however, it's only just visible as a convoluted mass of glass and diamond even larger than the 'mecha' used by the Saint of Glass before, with a long, streaming 'tail' of machinery, and lit by its own seizure-inducing array of giant rocket thrusters that refract through its own structure into eye-hurting rainbow halos.     There is no forthcoming explanation, dramatic speech, issuing of utimatum or terms, or any attempt to make sense of it, before several score sections of the refinery explode from attacks that had happened a split second /before/ the light reaches anyone's eyes, like the visual equivalent of a supersonic bullet. Wide swathes of engineering space, stockpiles, crew quarters, life support, radiation shielding, and similar are hit all at once; just about anything that doesn't either destroy fuel or directly compromise the Refinery's ability to maintain speed in the short term seems to be a target.     There is a noise after though. Not a Hyotl samurai challenge though. More like a long, shrill, eerie, animalistic shriek, like a wildcat screaming through a glass megaphone. <<Is it supposed to roar? I don't think it is.>> ||Within expected parameters.|| <<That's /cool as hell/!>>
Yang Xiao Long	Yang winces at the discombobulated mass of glass and hate as it comes flickering into view. Then, a split second later, it roars and parts of the Refinery explode. "I think it already broke the Refinery." she says over radio, shifting position and gunning the engine on her junker-hoverbike. "Firebrand, Engaging." She closes distance, shifting position and rearing up to bring her gauntlets to bear, loosing off a 'beat rush' of explosive bolts as she starts to circle around the monster.
Starbound Flotilla	The Refinery is detonated at several key segments. Some of the key hangars and garages actually manage to /dodge/ the impacts with insane mechanical shifts as the rest of the detonations happen, and many of the residential zones blacken rather than collapse, but by the time the light reaches the eyes of the observers it's clear that this isn't a good situation. One of its heavy hover-thrusters is suffering damage. The main Garage Palace is substantially battered. The Engine King himself is already deploying; his massive Dragster Throne, the super-charged gleaming golden hot-rod of the gods themselves, has ejected hard from the rear section of the Garage Palace and taken to the road, its exhaust pipes belching columns of fire, its huge wheels kicking up a spray of hyperglass and megadiamond in the terrain.     The Saint of Glass is with Zwei, using his own Velocity Gear to assault. "The parts you need are at his 'Garage Palace'. Strike fast, but be warned, I expect he'll try to close his forces around you and strike you down in pursuit, rather than keeping you from taking the equipment to begin with. He's a dangerous man, even for you. I can see the intruders here; do you want them convinced?" The mecha-samurai glances to his hyperglass blade. "I have a poor history in convincing them."
Kupot	Kupot actually has no idea what this thing is. Is this supposed to be happening? Is this someone on their side? No, it can't be. Regardless. Only one thing matters here. That thing is destroying people. Leaning forward, Kupot guns the engine towards the train. The magitech engine sounds like a beast as it builds up into a charge towards the massive glass menace. Yet, Kupot fails to actually draw his sword. Instead, he does his best simply to thrust himself into some sort of interposition, hand on the katana, one hand on the control of the bike, swerving it to stay in that interposition. Waiting, those solid black bug domes watching.
Gilgamesh	The dog video ends. There are several other videos that Gilgamesh could click over to, but he's pretty sure he's seen all of them, and frankly he always liked cats more. He's about to go swipe to a cat video (he has mastered the strange magic of Y'toob and its swiping in record time, he is certain) when he chances to look up and see both Yang and Kupot on their bikes. The King of Heroes spins the Box in his hand for a moment, then takes a picture of both of them and drags them to a very special...folder? Archive? Whatever, modern words are weird, STOREHOUSE. A very special storehouse.      It is labelled, in all caps, with no spaces, IWANTTHAT.      "This will be rescued to the realm of Anu?" He says to the driver, gesturing at the Box. The driver leans over for a moment - a dangerous, suicidal prospect at the speed of light, but hey, the King asked - and looks up at the King with puzzlement on his face. The King's brow twitches slightly.      They sit in silence for a moment. The driver eventually leans forward and clicks on the radio. Some space ethnic music starts playing to fill the silence. Gilgamesh's brow twitches again.      At last, the driver says, "Yes, Majesty. If you press this button on your touchscreen it will be saved to the cloud."      "Ah, good. Good work, clay doll. I will give you more gold once we have claimed my Treasure." Gilgamesh presses a button and sends the folder off to the cloud.      Then there is superluminality. It is not unlike the Truth of the World, something natural beyond the barrier of human thought, and Gilgamesh watches it approvingly. It is not a realm meant for human existence, a roiling chaos, a madness, something outside mortal ken. That pleases him. There should be things outside mortal ken. Gods forbid men learn all the things Gilgamesh knows, and lose their drive to push forward, and collapse under their own arrogant weight.      The glass horror is also something Gilgamesh understands perfectly well. Treasures have guardians. Heroes slay monsters to claim Treasures. A great Monster for a great Treasure. This is sensible. This is logical.      On the other hand...      On the other hand, this is a competition. There are rules to competitions, and the chief of all of those rules is that the winner takes all, and that second place is simply a fancy word for first loser.      The King of Heroes steps onto the top of the cab. His makeshift robe flows around him like fine silk though it be made of patches from military organizations. He brushes aside a lock of golden hair, uninterested in the lightspeed madness around him.      The King of Heroes snaps his fingers.      Superluminality ripples around him. Weapons emerge from all around him. He steps forward, still standing atop the speeding cab as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world, radiant and glorious.      "Know that I am Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, who stands atop Babylon. All the Treasures of the world belong to me. All that is worth owning belongs to me."      The King crosses his arms. "You who would steal and destroy that which belongs to me, pay heed. I am the King made by Heaven to rule. Step aside, or be cast aside, and leave me to what is mine."      He is not talking to the dragon.      He is talking to You, The Heroes, over his phone.
Corona Arclite	There's the Refinery!... And to complete lack of surprise (due to her tendancy to be paranoid about such things) of Corona that it is under attack. If it was an attempt to attack before they arrived or specifically timed to such, it doesn't really matter in the long run. It's trouble, and trouble has a tendancy of cropping up when least wanted. But there's no need to tell her twice where to go. Or once, for that matter. Corona wrenches hard on the wheel and the hover-buggy veers sideways, pods shifting to project their steam-exhaust at vectors to keep the drifting turn under control at even such rediculous speeds, and reorient towards the damaged hover-thruster as it takes off again when Corona slams down on the throttle even farther. Blue-green flames roar out of the cluster of thrusters in the back, bleeding out even more speed. As if it wasn't already going too rediculous to comprehend fast to get onto Fourth Gear in the first place. Damage can be repaired, but if the whole Refinery crashes, it denys them the very resources they need to make the final push for the Treasure regardless of who's helping who. "Y'all deal with the attack, Ah'll do somethin' about the damage so we don't lose the entire thing!" The engineer knows exactly where she needs to be.
Dexter Arkwright	As the giant glass monster attacks, Dexter is making lift-off. That thing is...awe-inspiring. Something with its own mind (he assumes), of that size, forcing its will on the world. According to his philosophy, it kind of has the right to. Though while Dexter's considering whose side to join...he spots the Saint of Glass. He doesn't quite like him, but the blonde's learned that they have the same goal, and so, he flies off to the Saint of Glass's direction, as well as the direction of the giant glass dragon. For a moment, he might be looking like he's going to attack. Until Dexter sends a radio transmission, and suddenly turns around mid-flight so that he's facing the refinery. <"Hey! Don't shoot me, we're on the same side! I refuse to let these cowards destroy the treasure just because they don't have the strength to obtain it"> To prove he's honest, he flies alongside them, drawing a revolver and firing at any of the Engine King's men, sending ricochet shots and guessing against the wind and speed to try and take them down. He doesn't shoot at the others, yet. First he wants to make sure he'll be taken up on this offer.
Leyanne	Leyanne watches for a moment, scowling deeply at what she's seeing. "Mother puss-bucket..." she mutters, firing her bike into life. It's more of a hover-trike, with long, Easy Rider forks off the front. Pulling the nose up in a wheelie, she practically hops it up into a hover before pulling off the deck, bringing her faceplate - and filters - down. She peels out after Yang, bringing her weapons systems online before Skrat, her other bike's AI, reports the damage to the structures of the refinery - mainly a thruster. "Fuckit." She mutters, banking around to follow Corona. She's a pretty decent fixer herself, and it's always good to have two of them there. They can watch eachothers backs when they fix things.
Orchid	It's not her favorite part of the job, but it's still a part she can do still. Orchid has arms full of tools for a reason. The logic is relatively simple for her; the Refinery is, among other things, filled with people, people that don't deserve to die because of a fight they had little choice in. So as Corcona turns her buggy towards the damaged portion, Orchid drops her keyboard and makes a dash-jump towards it. She shifts her hands to 'industrial clamp' mode mid-air, grabbing onto the back of the hover-buggy, getting her feet under her as she holds on tight.
Starbound Flotilla	ORCHID, LEYANNE and CORONA ARCLITE quickly move towards the hover-engine. Between them they ought to have more than enough information-gathering and mechanical knowledge skills to recognize the problems in the fuel flow, the exhaust emission, and the damaged electronics in need of reboots; if they can stay near it and work on it from a matched speed, they're able to get the hover-engine mostly working. As long as they don't refrain from action, they can get it active in a snap! At least one will need to stay there to keep it functioning if it suffers any more significant damage, though! The entire Refinery can now do some proper evasive maneuvers, maneuvers it gets into quite quickly. If someone wants to get aboard the city, they ought to take that thing down again fast!
Starbound Flotilla	The massive Dragster Throne lives up to its name. The huge seat needs a huge vehicle, and the thing's like a monster truck in its hot-rodded glory. Even as far up as Gil is, the motorhead's wet dream can respond. The open top thing bares its king's massive pompadour, heavy black leather jacket, and rough, sharp features. He's a classic greaser, a hot-rodder, a pure man of the people and man of the steel. "You think you're the first king to get his mind bent Line-ways Clyde? Nobody's a boss boss when they're getting clutched by the Treasure. This is the only way we can do this. That thing needs to be gone. Come on, snakes, let's rattle."     The King slams open the fuel lines. His exhaust pipes blast columns of fire around Gil, and ports open up all along the thing to unleash high-intensity firearms fury. It's within Gil's ability to neutralize, but it's surprisingly dense; this is a king who has raced his heart out for his people. Gil can fully keep his attention, though, preventing him from using that on Zwei or the dragon, or keeping Team Combustion from getting what it might need to reach Fifth Gear, which may be their intent.
Starbound Flotilla	The velocity beast has struck hard here, and the Engine King's men are responding in kind. Their heavy weaponry is menacing, loading massive megadiamond rounds that are ready to lash out in heavy blasts against it. Even such a fast creature is likely to suffer badly when fired on by hyperglass cannons wielding such intense rounds! Unfortunately, they're having a problem. Dexter has assaulted them badly! By flying parallel with the beast and using his smaller firearm, he's been easily able to neutralize the gun crews of the Refinery, causing the patterns of blasts to be much easier for the thing to dodge. The Saint of Glass can be found near him, giving him a tense, distrustful, but... approving nod. Take what allies you can get. He moves to assist Dexter!     Unfortunately, it looks like Kupot's there to tank incoming damage. As the Velocity Beast continues, Dexter can prevent the Refinery from firing on it, but Kupot may have the opportunity to intercept the strikes from the Velocity Beast! Depending on how he can defend, its assault might yet be disrupted, putting the conflict between the two at a stalemate.
Corona Arclite	People seem to like riding on the outside of the buggy. Fortunately it's people that aren't just organic meatbags most of the time. With all the structural metal and greebles there's plenty of protrusions for Orchid to grab onto that seem to serve no other purpose than to be there. As the hover-buggy moves in on the truster Corona takes care of the keeping pace matter, extending the collection scoop she replaced the front drill with to serve as a moving scaffolding. Then locks the throttle of her own vehicle in place.... By shoving a large cinderblock against the pedal with her foot, before unbuckling and starting to climb out of the rig. "Take the wheel, Hopalong." As she climbs out her mechanical jackalope companion drops into the driver's suit to serve as a sort of 'auto-pilot'. Good thing she wore her magnetic boots still, though her ponytail and loose ends of clothing are still flapping about behind her as she climbs down towards the scoop platform. "Tarnation, they did a number on her... Find whatever ya can and fix it. Don't gotta be purdy, just keep it runnin' and stable.... Iffen one of ya two know more 'bout electronics, that'd be great." She'll deal with that fuel leak and make sure the hover-thruster keeps getting power.
Starbound Flotilla	GENERAL STATUS UPDATE: The Hover-Thruster is captured by ORCHID, CORONA and LEYANNE The Dragster Throne is "captured" by GILGAMESH The Velocity Beast is CONTESTED between DEXTER and KUPOT The Garage Palace is UNCAPTURED
Leyanne	Leyanne slides her bike neatly up next to the hover-buggy. "Skrat! Remote-link, hold station!" She shouts into her radio, giving control to her Martian bike's AI, as he sits on the deck unable to travel at these speeds, because his wheels would explode. With her bike under control, she stands up on the seat and hops up onto the engine casing, engaging her own mag-boots to lock on and help with the repairs. She works on some of the electronics side of things -giving way if Orchid knows more, leaning over the engine to adjust pieces on the still-spinning turbine's hub, using her cybernetics to match its rotation with her hand to tighten bolts.
Zwei	As far as Zwei goes, Weiss handles socializing still, but is basically just a hologram for the moment. She just doesn't have the capability to stay between the Saint of Glass and the horrible thing Zwei had created, alongside Asche, so most of the power cycling has been given over to the carbon black terror that can actually keep up in this arena, largely lending over scanning and calculation architecture to correct for the 'light barrier'. Weiss keeps up communications with the Saint of Glass in the meantime.     <<"Oh. That's because they're stupid. Don't feel bad~">> she says. <<"Most of the ones the Flotilla Captains brought along are the type to only understand punching -who is punching whom and who is punching harder than whom. There's no sense trying to use reason or logic or ethics on them. Pick an easy target or two and get some well earned revenge I say!">>     She also handles taking a very interesting call. <<"You can assume the turncoats are honest though. They aren't the type who'd do something clever if it involved presenting the idea they might have been wrong at one point.">> The hologram from the Saint's communicator looks at Gilgamesh. <<"I'll admit I don't really know what his deal is, but shots are divided by bodies soooo let him have this one? It sounds like the others have history with him, so fifty fifty odds he's either one of those villain-types or he just happened to have an opinion.">> The glass hellkite screeches almost as if on cue. <<"Also I didn't a hundred percent test what the Infestation did to that thing's spinal reflex so it might be best to just let it do its thing.">>     Whatever it is, it can't be /too/ smart, since the huge, serpentine, glassy thing just smoothly decreases altitude directly into a slew of Yang's Dust bolts blasting along its length fit to leave a long row of smashed craters and elicit a warped, droning roar. Where the glass shatters though, it bleeds, it doesn't stay broken for long; millions of tiny, writhing, hair-like tendrils of some semi-organic material unfurl from underneath and stitch it back together, sealing it off under a crystal scar.     It turns its attention on her in a vague sense, but a lack of clear face or eyes or even head in the huge mess of diamond wings, vents, thrusters, and spines make it dimly felt more than visible. Something that /might/ be a mouth opens at its front, showing off rippling white heat from a deeper core within, and then fires back with a volley of flickering, insubstantial white 'fireballs' whose visual image deceptively lags behind the real thing, hitting back with a saturation bombardment. It makes no effort to spare or target Kupot in particular when he jumps into the fray.     Peeling off from that standoff, Asche lands on the deck of the Refinery mostly via slamming his talons into the surface rather than relying fully on the electromagnets. He begins forcing his way towards the Engine King's stash via bursts of intense thruster output and physically clawing the terrain while the bizarre monstrosity terrorizes the rest. Where the first round of cannon blasts take glittering chunks off its length, more of those fibrous, semi-metallic growths snatch up shards and reconfigure the area. A broken 'vertabrae' disappears in an explosive cloud, and then an additional back thruster grows right out of it, aiding the creature in dodging.
Kupot	>Squelch Gilgamesh. >Adjust for Hyperluminosity. One moment, Kupot is just driving there. >Shift detected. The swing comes. Faster than one can watch. The first fireball doesn't strike. Then a wave of brightness eclipses the bike. When it clears, Kupot's face sets into a solid mask of determination. His foot pushes down and jerks the bike, and it too is moving rapidly around the outside of the refinery. But Dexter is making things worse. The Sleipner suddenly lashes out. Kupot slams his hand down into the road, using his sword to deflect a light show, and the actual bike to block one of Dexter's shots, but it puts a heavy hole into the bike.
Staren	Staren's not /exactly/ on the King's side... but those attacking the refinery are endangering innocent people!     The last thing anyone needed, of course, was for Gilgamesh to show up. Staren doesn't think he can take him down, though -- if a guy like that hasn't been killed by upstart heroes yet, he must actually be pretty damn skilled. And fighting him early would just be showing his hand. When the end for Gilgamesh comes, it's got to be sudden and fast and with minimal chance of failure. Getting his /attention/ before then can only cause trouble, and would be better to avoid.     Besides, there's a giant monster, and as the guy with a giant robot he's kind of on giant monster duty.     For the moment, Staren keeps his machine standing atop the linerunner, and lifts its right arm to point at the distant glass serpent. A gun port opens and a stream of (relative to Staren's frame of reference) hypersonic slugs pours out, aiming to stop the beast a little piece at a time. Staren's not trying more complicated weapons until he's observed how the speed affects these.
Orchid	"I-ow!" Orchid winces, pushing herself through the pain. "I can deal with the electrical parts." Of course, nothing has hit her. But all the sparking is making things noisy in the EM spectrum, which is actively painful to her. While she is managing it, she may have left some fingerprints in the metal of Corona's buggy. Yeah, it's a clamp for lifting engine blocks.      The flip side of the pain is that Orchid can sense exactly where the electrical system is going wrong, and with her multi-tool arms is ripping panels off, and cutting shorts cleanly where breakers have failed to trip.
Starbound Flotilla	With Kupot and Yang now assaulting the beast, they're having a harder time assaulting the Refinery. While this means Kupot and Yang now have to deal with it, every second they keep the beast's attention on them is another second that the Refinery can use to evacuate people to inner decks, which means their goal here is being accomplished, even if it means getting into a big brawl with the big beast! Now Staren's joined in too; some of Dexter's efforts are being overwhelmed! Luckily, he's got a fresh chance to keep one of those fighters properly occupied.
Riva Banari	"I really should have expected to see you go for the throne." Riva says from behind Gilgamesh. She doesn't bother hiding her approach, much like Gilgamesh doesn't hide his. Mostly, it's because Riva is mediocre at stealth more than any kind of innate attraction or supernatural charisma or having fabulosu wealth. "Seems like your kind of thing." A moment later, a sweeping lash of the anchor-like Ajoran Cross strikes out at Gilgamesh from behind, attempting to drive one end into his gut as she yanks back on a line of Anima, trying to force the man to confront her. "But every king has their defenders, right? And you gotta get past them first."
Starbound Flotilla	Corona deals with power, Orchid deals with electrical subsystems, and Leyanne deals with exhaust and turbine management, and together, the thre UNCONTESTED Team Engine combatants manage to effectively seal the deal. The engine's going quick! With the freshly restored maneuvering, and the ongoing capture of the VELOCITY BEAST nearby, the main body of the Fuel Ark is unlikely to suffer too much more damage! Nobody's come to re-assault the hover-engine for now, and it looks like Yang and Staren are effectively keeping the beast's attention off it, meaning that the HOVER-ENGINE is now SECURED!
Starbound Flotilla	GENERAL STATUS UPDATE: The Hover-Thruster is SECURED by ORCHID, CORONA and LEYANNE The Dragster Throne is contested between GILGAMESH and RIVA The Velocity Beast is CONTESTED between DEXTER and KUPOT, capturing by STAREN and YANG. The Garage Palace is assaulted by ZWEI.
Corona Arclite	Right now it's a good thing Corona put all that efforting into chatting up the residents of the Line and learning what she could of the way they do things. But actually getting her hands on some of the machinery, seeing up close how it's built to withstand velocities that technically shouldn't be possible for something this size? Even an experienced engineer like her is a bit awestruck. Just not so much to keep from doing her job. Business first, gushing over impractical yet functional mechanics later... Oh, so THAT is how they keep fuel flowing relative to hyper velocity speeds.... Good to note for later application...
Dexter Arkwright	As Dexter gets the nod, the Saint of Glass gets a thumbs up. As the Engine King's men go down, Dexter speed-reloads his revolver, though Kupot ends up blocking bullets with his motorcycle, and that leads Dexter to decide to head in his direction. Continuing to fly forward, he speaks up, narrowing his eyes under the helmet. "Aren't you a little short to be swinging a sword like that?" Wow, Dexter, rude. With the revolver reloaded, Dexter aims it and fires it into the air, trying to work those bullets through the speed to fly into the moogle at rapid speeds and force him away from confronting the Velocity Beast. "Anyways, get out of here! This is the only chance I'll give you, because I'm nice like that!"
Gilgamesh	The huge vehicle is impressive. Gilgamesh takes a moment, as it speeds towards him, to take a picture with the magic of the Box and send it also to the Realm of Anu. So convenient. Perhaps too convenient. Hm, would such a thing destroy his memory? Would over-reliance on such a tool render him, Gilgamesh, who knows all the countries of the world, unable to name simple things?      Modernity. How *sinister* its draw!      The Dragster Throne comes racing towards him. Fire roars out in hyperluminal space, flames flash-frying the air around the King of Heroes. Gilgamesh steps into it like a madman, the flames roaring, the bullets roaring, the world screaming around him.      The Gate of Babylon yawns wide. The bullets are met by swords, countless, endless swords. Spears. Axes. Hammers. Blades. Stranger weapons still, drills and polearms and macuahuitls and all the weapons of all the cultures of the world pour forth from the ripples around him. They cut through bullets and slash apart fire. They do not put out the fire - they cleave through it down the middle, peeling it apart like a banana struck by a knife going a thousand miles per hour. The King of Heroes has enough swords and more to meet the attack on his person from the Engine King. He has not even broken his stride on the taxi.      "Fool. That you cannot conceive of a reason to possess something of worth other than madness speaks to your self-serving self-righteousness. You want to be rid of it? Then I will take it and you will never see it again."      Gilgamesh's stride picks up a bit as the cab swerves. He doesn't wobble. In the slightest. His poise is impeccable. "You do not want to be rid of it. You do not want it to be destroyed out of some righteous desire."      His eyes flash. "You want to be /right/."      Gilgamesh spreads his arms and laughs as the world howls around him, as the rain of weapons starts pushing the stream of bullets and fire *back*. "You want to be a hero. You want to raise your empty morals in the cup of victory and call to them that you are the hero who saved them from the doom of greed. You want to be the one to claim the prize so that you can hoist it above your head and smash it to the ground for all to see."      "It cannot be taken away from you. That would not be victory. It cannot be taken from your world and stuffed into a treasury. That would not be victory. You could not live with being second best. You, and you alone, must save them."      "But do not worry." Gilgamesh's eyes flash. "I will not force you to live with it. I mercifully grant you death, false king."      Gilgamesh is about to do *something* when the Ajoran Cross flashes in the back of his vision. He swerves to the side, moving to grab the blade out of the air; this does not work great. The blade carves into perfect flesh, wrapping around flawless hand and drawing divine blood. Even his blood is beautiful. Even his blood is flawless. His other hand catches the blade meant for his gut mere inches away from it, the point just barely scraping the edge of that literally godly body.      The King's eyes meet Riva. The stream of weapons holding down the firepower is unabated, still hammering against the Engine King's assault without the King of Heroes' attention.      His lips curl into a smile.      "Guards," Gilgamesh says slowly, "Are for show."      "I am the only King. And I protect myself."      "Gate of..."      "Babylon."      Amidst the unceasing stream of blades, another set of ripples opens directly under Riva. Blades come shooting up from below as the top of the cab becomes a very, very dangerous place to be. "Go on! Show me those weak modern convictions! Show me a heart that wants justice without knowing its shape! Show me one who would destroy something desirable for the sake of being right!"      "Entertain your King!"
Leyanne	Leyanne is also kind of in awe of the technology. "Fuckin' look at this shit." she says to Corona. "This hub should be tearing itself apart from the centrepetal force of its own mass. I could learn so much from just the wreckage of one of these things..." she grins. "Tell me what you find out, yeah?" With that, the mouse is gone - hopping back into her bike's saddle and guns the throttle. She dares to be stupid, swerving wildly around the battlefield as she burns towards the Garage Palace, ready to assist the engine King's people there.
Corona Arclite	"Preferably not the wreckage of this one!" Corona retorts to Tiny with a bit of a snicker. "Maybe they have a scrapyard we can hit up later." She is content to stay with the thruster and make sure the repairs keep working.... As it also means she can poke around some more and study it.
Starbound Flotilla	Oh goodness yes. Not only does Zwei find the Garage Palace, they also find the many men and women who guard it feverishly. Opening fire with heavy weapons, they do their best to slow Asche down without hesitating to bring out high-power weapons that seem best suited to a massive metal man. They're enough to slow Zwei down and give Asche reason not to ignore them, but it's not an Elite threat. When he gets into the Garage Palace, the wide, sweeping interiors let Asche have clear view of stacks of engine parts, heavy piping for fuels, and tremendous blueprints and designs for more advanced Dragster Thrones.     In here, a short scan can recognize what appears to be a plain, normal eight-cylinder engine, stuck in a massive containment and testing system. A longer scan can identify durasteel, megadiamond, densinium, and violium compounds within. A properly focused examination finds that this engine is capable of sustaining and producing force equal or greater to many capital ship FTL drives, when fed fuel of sufficiently high density.     Whether or not Asche does any of that scanning, the Saint of Glass has joined to assist. "That is our target. Take whatever else you find of use." The Saint certainly is, taking old Holy Combustion Empire records and holy texts en-mass from the palace interior.
Orchid	While Corona is making sure the device is working, Orchid has shifted to making sure the structure is sound. She's got powerful hands and welders hidden in her arms, so is making sure the cracks in the beams are closed, at least for the moment. She's also making sure that there is enough cover that Corona won't be exposed to a random sniper shot. "Yeah, yeah, we'll be first in line to fix this one after the fight," she says with a smile. "Just be sure to survive!" she also bids Tiny.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang pulls back on the controls after grabbing them again, she's trying to 'hop' over the incoming shots, but the visual lag leaves her completely flat footed as the blasts strike before the image hits, sending her bike spinning away and almost leaving the field zone of the convoy, which would have been disasterous to a completely unshielded ghetto-hoverbike.     She turns back gunning the engine and closing back in, her Aura flaring brightly though she's already clearly lagging in the stamina department. Fighting wounded isn't recommended, mmkay?     The approach is swift, and she 'slides' under the snake-monster and uppercuts a few times, aiming kinetic bursts against the underside, her fists not connecting, but the bursts of Dust-energy lashing out in a short-ranged cone all the same.
Kupot	Kupot's head doesn't turn away from the beast. It's one of the benefits of the eye pieces, you can't SEE Kupot tracking you out of the corner of his eye. The bullet travels downward towards Kupot, who is busy focusing on the crystal drake for the moment. Then a flurry of black comes from the motorcycle. Kupot rockets himself upward from the seat. The bullet comes down, sliding across the blade. Two furrows appear in his jacket as he travels for the flying Dexter with his sword still in the prepared position. "No one should have that much power." The blade whips out cleanly.
Riva Banari	As the golden light flares under Riva, she braces herself. She's seen what happens before. She's seen what it does to others. And the murderous blades rip up into her, she finds herself flayed by powerful treasures that she can't even spare the time to name, let alone properly defend against them. Her flesh is shredded from the blades, the wounds immediately trying to close, drawing upon her energy to do so. It doesn't help much. What people don't tell you about regeneration is that it often hurts more than just taking the hit. When you regenerate, your body actively fights against going into shock and reconstitutes nerves that were just destroyed a moment before. And nerves being nerves, they're going to continue shrieking that Something Is Wrong. Not that Riva needs the help, what with the incandescent pain. However, she throws herself out of the stream, using the anchor-like cross to slam into the window as a grapple and swing /below/ the cab as she is dragged along with it, monkeyiung about on the thing while she bleeds. "Yeah, you're pretty capable of protecting yourself. I've decided to help protect him. Isn't it the right of a King to judge though? Either way, I've got a job to do. Hope you didn't like this cab." A moment later, Riva pulls out her shotgun, onehanding it as she pushes it up under the cab and fires at Gilgamesh through the floor with a salvo of slugs.
Starbound Flotilla	The Gates of Babylon are a good match for the fire and metal. The Engine King's engine roars like a feral wolf, and his weapons heat up. His grip on his steering wheel goes white-knuckled. "So what, nosebleed? I want to be a hero because I want be the cubes I care about. I've seen enough people miserable under the bad news that was in charge before, I want it gone. I'm not here for power for its own sake, I'm here to be something for the scooch and the slodge that I've seen deserve better." His eyes gleam with bursts of fire and his gunshots -- a little less occupied by the Gates of Babylon -- now can support his allies more, trying to take down that massive Velocity Beast, instead of being overwhelmed by the deep projectile well of the Gate.     "My point isn't power. The hell's the point of a kingdom? You're radioactive for a lifetime, but what do you do with it? I'd rather burn an empire with the Line if it meant the people under me got a life that back to Fat City instead of this hellhole rut. I've seen the bad news that goes after that Treasure and not one of them ever got a palm on it without putting their heel on someone, so anyone comes for that, I'll have 'em eat street hot and fresh!" He shifts gears on his machine, pulling away from the fight with Gil and moving to interfere with the monster, since the THRONE is now contested!     Riva probably saw a little, subtle glance and grateful nod. Thank goodness for her! It manages to be both very cool and very regal.
Dexter Arkwright	Kupot slices the bullet across the blade, which Dexter actually finds super cool. But he's fighting this guy! As the swordsman comes flying forth with his retort, the blade slices into Dexter's suit. The suit is durable, but not incredibly, and it strikes into Dexter's side, injuring him and starting to cut through the material. "Agh!" Dexter pulls back in flight, moving to maneuver to the side and away from being attacked again too easily, taking a moment to take a breather. And then, with speed, Dexter moves to fly back in at Kupot instead of firing again, raising his empty fist, balling it up, and moving to slam it straight into him. This means he's going into close combat range and can be more easily hit by the sword, though hopefully his general superhumanity can help him throw a mighty punch. Dexter shouts out while he's doing so. "Says who? You? A bunch of people who are incapable of taking power for themselves, so they deny it from those who /can/ obtain it? As people, we have the right to push forward and grant ourselves our wishes. We just need to be able to put forward the might to do it!"
Zwei	There's nobody to put a show on for here. The Saint of Glass marching alongside Asche is Zwei's sole company, and the understanding between them is that the Engine King is an enemy they're at war with, which simplifies matters considerably. Asche advances relentlessly on the Garage Palace, occasionally demonstrating why his design doesn't go all the way to full giant mecha by taking cover behind transport machinery, cargo piles, and electrical infrastructure when the emplaced cannons are pointed his way, but mostly by launching himself from point to point with physical leaps and thruster blasts, gripping and boosting off of the terrain both vertically and horizontally to cross the deck in only a handful of fast, erratic, unnerving motions.     Anyone who turns a weapon on him, whether they actually fire it or not, he responds in kind, punching airbursting shells into ranks of personnel, firing kinetic penetrators straight through hardened cover, and firing miniature missiles in ones and twos at mounted weapons with 360 degree awareness, responding to and eliminating threats in a wide area around him even shortly before they appear. Though he is being efficient about it, and using low 'cost' ordnance, it still constitutes dumping a lot of ammunition to knock the front door down, rather than taking things slowly and cautiously.     When he reaches the actual Garage Palace itself and steps inside, he powers down some of his weapon systems, and in a patch of air suddenly shifted for /normalcy/, Weiss pops out of nowhere in mid-stride, walking into the tech chamber and taking over the job of scanning everything. She zeroes in on the V8 almost immediately, recording as much as she possibly can about it even when looking at it were it the prettiest glass unicorn she'd ever seen in a shop window. ||"You indicated that the Engine King would allow his equipment to be taken easily with the intention of intercepting its carrier when they next attempt to leave, correct?"|| <<The coordinate banding here is /garbage/ remember?>> ||It doesn't matter if it is.||
Zwei	Outside, the horrid thing that Zwei had brought along is doing its work in a way that could be called 'admirable' if it wasn't so alarming. Staren's railgun rounds soak into it as though they were hitting water rather than glass, causing spiderline cracks and fissures more along the lines of ripples, before the smashed slugs sink beneath the surface and disappear into some opaque inner mass of frosted, darker crystal. After a full salvo, twin points near the creature's 'head' bulge and warp much like a blown glass bubble, and then split and elongate into 'tines', crackling with the same shimmering mirage of radiation as its rocket-powered wings. In a split second, scores of light-lagged slugs come back at /him/, fired tiny megadiamonds from weird 'railguns' now grown out of the creature's glassy/metallic flesh.     Yang gets right underneath it and gives it exactly the kind of uppercut she was hoping for. The velocity beast's carapace is thick but oddly soft, and cracks and bleeds easily, like the soft shell of a newly born arthropod. A smaller set of pectoral thruster-wings, almost line fins, are blown off completely in bloody ribbons. The flesh she spots underneath is the same translucent colour as the rest, but looks more like a colony of coral or fungus or something crawling and enmeshed and unearthly. No sooner has she wounded it than that grotesque inside warps again, and a pair of huge, triple jointed, upside-down 'legs' erupt from its underside and unfold into a configuration that lets it sink claws into the deck. Given that leverage, thruster vents along the length of its tail fire up, and at least a ton of solid -if bloody- glass is swung sidelong at Yang with rocket propulsion!
Starbound Flotilla	Getting to the Garage Palace means Leyanne will need to ramp off of a falling piece of wreckage, stylishly hop up onto the massive Ark at high speed, and then swerve around the garages and hangars to get in. Thankfully, her lack of attacking means the Engine King's men don't get in her way; she has a straight shot for the Garage Palace, where Zwei and the Saint of Glass in his new armor have just now made it! She'll get a fancy opportunity to actually ramp straight into the palace through a stained-glass window directly into the same garage chamber Zwei's in, on that sweet buke, in fact; better hop in there, because the team of Zwei and the Saint of Glass seem to be after something inside, a heavy V8 engine that just exudes an atmosphere of power.
Kupot	Kupot has no method of flight. It's just him the motorcycle and Dexter. Both arms come back in and Kupot has the sheath in his other hand, using it to pin the arm and deflect most of the blow into the might of one shoulder. This puts him right damn close to Dexter. Still, Kupot is using measured careful movements. There is no true vehemence in his attacks. They are like directed careful bolts of lightning, striking rapidly. "Being capable doesn't make you tempered to kupo it." "Then, kupo, it is my right to deny you." He slams both arms to either side again, slashing downward for Dexter's chest, and plummeting downward. He lands neatly on the Sleipner.
Leyanne	Leyanne takes every opportunity to ramp off things, perform bike tricks, and all that jazz she can get. Not that there's much of an audience. Still, she's got a plan for a dramatic - and effective - entrance. She bursts through the window actually completely separated from the hovertrike, having pushed off from it after lining up her shot through some of the clearer panels of glass. She drops to the hangar floor, already working on assembling a heavy weapon. Her hover trike continues its course fairly ballistically, the power to the drive cut so it slams down on the deck, hopefully between Zwei and the Saint, and explodes. If nothing else, it'll give them an explosion to walk out of dramatically.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang lets out a whoop of triumph.. just before she's sideswiped by the giant, bloody mass of tail. She guns the engine, but too little, too late, getting knocked clean off the vehicle and into a divider wall, crashing into a heap as her bike slams down onto the deck and skids to a stop.     Yang is down for a long time, pinned under some debris her impact brought down on her... and then it explodes, her Aura launching the piece of wall out at the Velocity Beast, picking herself up on her wounded leg. She's angry, but her old wounds are slowing down the usual agile brawler assault she would normally go into.     Following the debris being launched, comes a volley of explosive bolts, more potent but less accurate than before.
Dexter Arkwright	"Show me that you can, then!" Dexter shouts out, right before that sword comes slashing down. It hits incredibly cleanly, managing to slice through Dexter's suit at the apex of the slash and wound him, making a big weakspot in his suit and drawing a bit of blood, though luckily for Dexter, who isn't personally superhuman in any way, it's not life-threatening. The thrusters keep him flying even as he screams out in pain, and pulls back, holstering his revolver and drawing a pistol. This is the pistol with the megadiamond bullets, with their characteristic of 'marketed as unstoppable'. They're probably not actually unstoppable, but they likely hurt like hell, and Dexter's relying on that. He fires a bullet behind Kupot towards the refinery, moving to ricochet it off a surface...and try and hit the moogle in the back if he can with a powerful bullet. "Take this!"
Gilgamesh	The cabbie has a moment of surprise as his cab is blown open from the bottom in mid-flight. The King of Heroes does not care a whit, but he does care that he just got *shot*. The bullets crash across his skin, cutting and piercing into perfect flesh. Blood rolls down his face and his cheeks. That hurt.      It *hurt*.      This is good. It would not be proper if it did not hurt. Smashing insects has never appealed to the King. It is the filthy work of a commoner. Let commoners crush insects. The King exists to fight monsters and the worthy.      It is his prerogative and his pleasure to do so.      Divine blood drips onto the cab's roof as the King steps forward to look down the hole. "I did not. But my compliments. I respect those who do their jobs without complaint. Such is a timeless virtue."      Then the Engine King speaks. He speaks of high-minded idealism - of burning an empire to protect the people under him. It's a compelling argument, and one Gilgamesh can at least sympathize with. He, too, would set the world ablaze for Babylon. But there is one difference.      And he sees it, and he starts laughing, the fingers of his right hand against his head as Riva dangles under the broken cab that's already starting to spin out of control.      "Good, good! You would burn empires for your people! A worthy sentiment! So too would I! So too *have* I! But there again is your self-righteousness! Your fragile, pitiful conviction!"      "In this world you can obtain nothing without crushing someone else. If you would burn empires, if you would flatten all those who crush the dreams of others beneath their heel, then the first to burn should be your own!"      "Listen up, you mongrels of this comfortable age." Gilgamesh's fingers snap again, and the barrage of the Gate ceases. The weapons vanish. This is probably not a good thing. "I will rip asunder your stupidity and lay bare true morality."      The world of superluminality ripples. Gilgamesh's eyes gleam.      For the sight of all these vehicles has reminded him of something.      Long ago there was a boat. It was a legendary boat made by an ancient hero, a boat that was made to spare humankind being swallowed by the waters of the flood. That hero's name was Ziusudra of Shuruppak. The boat was known as The Preserver of Life. It was a great ark made to save mankind not only from the Flood, but from the monsters that dwelled within the water.      And it was armed to the fucking teeth.      The ancient Babylonian vessel emerges from the Gate. It is massive and dark, so dark that the rays of the sun cannot touch it. It exudes an aura of darkness as it emerges from the Gate, pulling up next to the cabbie so that the King of Heroes might daintily step onto it. Two hundred feet long, two hundred feet high, two hundred feet wide, it bristles with ancient cannons of stone and crystal, red lines that match the tattoos on Gilgamesh thrumming through every piece of it.      It is an ancient Babylonian spaceship and it is opening fire on Riva, the cabbie, and the Engine King. Over the bombardment of ancient Babylonian laser beams Gilgamesh laughs.      "This is what it means to claim something! To be willing to set fire to an empire to pleasure yourself and your people! It means being strong enough to do what you wish, and crushing those who stand against you under your foot! None worth living have not done so! Not one soul who lives a peaceful life can attain anything without conflict!"      "Show me! Show me your hypocrisy! Bare it wide for me to drink and pleasure like the finest beers of Uruk! In exchange I will show you one fragment of the might that lived in an age where all understood that there is no such thing as one who pursues his dreams without sacrificing others!"
Staren	Huh. So it's not glass, it's a liquid? This won't affect his primary plan, but it's still good to know.     When the tines form, Staren gets ready to dodge -- They look suspiciously like a Wave Motion Tuning Fork. But he dodges too soon, giving the monster the split-second it needs to adjust and fire! Hyperglass(?) slugs rip into the mecha and keep going, sending the mecha reeling as unidentifiable and warped mechanical bits and pieces tear free from the exit wound. It is, however, a giant robot, and as there's just so much of it, even that traumatic damage isn't enough to stop it!     Probably can't take many more hits like that, though.     Since the glass dragon's appearance, he's been charging. He needed the railgun shots to check so he wouldn't waste this next shot, but now? It's time: The right shoulder pack unfolds into a massive sniper railrifle, longer than the Star Hawk is tall. Since Staren can't use the stabilization pylons on the deck, he drops his machine to one knee instead. The right hand holds the foregrip and he takes aim, lining the reticle up with a part of the glass beast far from Yang. Magic and technology set the shell on its course -- Normally there'd be a horizontal pillar of fire from tearing through the air resistance, but who knows what visual effects will happen here? The end result is the same, though: A projectile that hits with incredible kinetic energy, penetrates the target, and then nanoseconds later the magic explosive inside goes off!     That's what giant monsters get.
Kupot	>Trackling projectile. Kupot lands down on the bike, red warning lights in the cybernetic hud. He shifts and turns the bike as the bullet bounces off the road. The Sleipner growls as it skids in a turn. It growls. Kupot brings the sheath up in a block. The sheath EXPLODES, sending the bullet into the side of his chest. The dermal plating absorbs the blow, but only enough to keep it from puncturing a lung. Blood flows and pain lancing out from the spot. When he looks up, a spark comes across his eye. "Very well." Kupot grabs his katana. "Ancient arts. Give me strength." An orange glow spreads out from the katana's hilt where a small sphere gleams. GERMAN SUPLEX The moogle rockets up from the motorcycle again. For a single moment, for a single second as he reaches to grab Dexter from behind, he has infinite strength. Infinite torque. Physics are defied as he tries to drag Dexter to the ground to slam him in, shoulder and back first.
Starbound Flotilla	The Saint of Glass' reflexes are sharp as a knife, and the incoming motorcycle's detonation means an abrupt swipe of the katana to blunt the damage from the explosion, by /cutting it in half/. Still, the glass on the surface of his Velocity Gear crackles. "You again. I had hoped you would see reason. I thought that showing you the heat and the light of the Line's Treasure would grant you what you needed to know to make the right choice. I see now that I should have used that time to crush your blasphemous windpipe, rat." He says, pointing the hyperglass katana at Leyanne. "Do not interfere. The King's heresy has taken what is not rightfully his, and we take it back."     He moves in fast, despite the damage, intent on a heavy slice from the side, like a flash-stepping samurai! He's trying to end this /fast/, shit! Leyanne better hit that incoming two-person-tall mecha-suit with a HARSH attack to drive him off, because his chosen slice is clearly meant to go all-in from the start!
Dexter Arkwright	As Kupot gets hit, Dexter grins underneath his suit. He doesn't expect what's coming next. As the sword glows, he narrows his eyes a little, expecting some sort of energy with the sword or something... But not a German Suplex. Kupot manages to snag Dexter with strength far beyond that of the young man's suit, and slam him straight into the ground. The shock of the strike reverberates into the suit - it blocks a lot of it, but not enough. The rest goes through the suit, shaking into Dexter's bones, possibly cracking something, He yelps in pain, prone in the lock against the ground for several moments. And then, Dexter forces himself to keep fighting. Spite from the pain fires up, and he moves to force himself to turn around and start wailing on the moogle. Superpowered punches are thrown at Kupot's face, flurry after flurry after flurry, with striking speed. They're just regular punches from a technical standpoint, but backed by the suit's power to be something more. "You'll pay for that, you little rat!" Dexter actually ducks at one point so that he can get closer into Kupot's face and chest and all that with the punches.
Riva Banari	Riva is caught between a clash of Kings. She is not a King. She is not even famous. Far from it, in fact. It's her place to be unspoken, to shun fame and attention, because such things get in the way of her job. Even if she wants it, if all eyes are upon her, she can't accomplish what she needs to do most. And what she does most is bleed. The cab begins spinning out of control, and Riva fights to keep from crashing with the thing. Thankfully, Gilgamesh throws her a bone by having the cab pull up to the ANCIENT BABYLONIAN SPACESHIP. "WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT?!" She exclaims, her eyes round as she witnesses but one of the ancient treasures that Gilgamesh (Killgamesh?) holds. That surprise doesn't help much as she gets a broadside, the burning beams scorching her in a flash of light and destruction. A lesser person would have been vaporized. She isn't that lucky. The massive magical reinforcement around Riva keeps the blast from simply obliterating her. That is not to say that it doesn't almost kill her as she pulls herself up and flops to one side, grimacing as she struggles back to her feet in the face of the intense firepower that Gilgamesh can bring to bear. She catches the Engine King's nod, and she gives a thumbsup in return to the pompadoured man, smiling weakly through the pain. She can't let herself crumble before it. Not yet. At the same time, she can't hold pacing anymore. She's going to have to put everything into this. "You're not wrong." Riva replies. "Sorry, I'm not one for grand speeches. But you're not really talking to me now, are you? But even so... There's still good people out there. People worth fighting for. We just disagree on things, that's all." She hoists the Cross on a shoulder and twists, spinning around and hurling it high into the air over Gilgamesh. She immediately rushes forward, her senses crimson as her body screams at her to just lie down and let it end. But she can't allow that. "Do you have enough treasures, King of Bank?" She yells at the man as she fires her shotgun again and again, Anima-infused bullets blasting for Gilgamesh again as she hits a long slide, attempting to crash through his position with a heavy impact. But it doesn't end there. As she tosses aside her empty gun, she bursts upwards in a golden blast of light, meeting the anchor-like Ajoran Cross in the air and coming down with a blast of destructive force. "LET'S GO!"
Leyanne	Leyanne is still fixing up her heavy weapon as the Saint dodges her blast. "You know." she comments "I don't actually /care/ what happens to the treasure. I just want it stopped from causing any more damage to the Multiverse." SHe's about to say more, perhaps actually attempting to reason with the Saint, how she's got their attention. But she lets him speak. And he says the R-word. The martian snarls, not managing to finish assembling her heavy gun; instead, she uses the heavy wrench she's using to fit it together as a mace, bringing it up to block. "Momma. Didn't. Raise. No. STINKIN. RAT!" she snarls, just going absolutely ballistic. She attacks without regard to defense, getting several slashes and quite nasty cuts, but every time she gets a chance, that big heavy wrench is swung for his face. Nowhere else, just that faceplate. She literally wants to stove the Saint's face in, and she goes all out to do it. If she has to get skewered to get a good hit in? She takes it.
Zwei	Anchored to the deck, the Velocity Beast is no longer in the primary position it was to dodge something like the gradually more infamous Anti-Wireless gun. Using its weird backwards legs to tail whip Yang into the next century, it isn't even in any position to dodge on its feet. When the Star Hawk takes its stance, the Velocity Beast seems to recognize /something/ is going on, turning its profile headlong to Staren and revving up to advance, but the constant corona of white fire and scattered rainbows that surrounds it has only just flashed hot and loud to accelerate when the magitech slug hits.     The result is surreal, but perhaps symbolic of the place they find themselves in. The Anti-Wireless Railgun stops its target dead in its tracks, but the Velocity Beast had just started to advance with such force that the slug failed to push it back at all. It effectively stands completely still, with the insane shockwave of the impact and subsequent internal blast redirected into the machinery around its feet and exploding outwards in all other directions instead, like some sort of kinetic grounding rod. The shot splits straight down its middle, bores all the way down to its core, and then blows up hard enough to send multiple tons of thrusters and wings cracking and tumbling away on the outside like spring icicles, shedding huge quantities of the creature's bulk, and leaving behind only the bare skeleton of its former shape. Deep into the wound channel, Staren can see a pulsing mass of metallic brain tissue suspended inside a jar of purple liquid Echius, hooked into a nest of diamond flesh and glass nerves.     It doesn't kill it though, and that's a huge, huge problem. He'd destroyed most of its bodymass, but in doing so, culled most of the haphazardly evolved traits it'd gained to get here. Exposed to the Line's radiation over and over again, mutating into a faster and faster shape each time, the Velocity Beast's design has now just faced its first 'extinction event', leaving behind only the most optimally placed appendages, the most solidly built core structure, the hardest parts of its carapace, and even as it has lost thrust, it has also lost tons of poorly planned weight at the same time -weight holding it back.     When that grotesque deep-sea microcolony-looking stuff inside seals its gaping wounds back up again, allowing Erchius to pump in its veins a while longer, the Velocity Beast is now smaller, sleeker, and more aerodynamic. Four 'wing pods' blaze with elegant, fractally spaced plumes of white fire at a steady burn. Its tall, relatively slender legs and oddly curved joints and talons balance it on the deck almost crane-like. Its body no longer trails off into the distance like that of a snake, but terminates as a proper 'tail' fitted with dozens of tiny maneuvering boosters. Its forward torso has broken down to something approaching an eyeless head-lump on a flexible neck, mirrored and polarized like a fighter pilot helmet visor.     When Yang comes furiously running at it, dumping twice the fire and anger she had before its way, it moves like a completely different creature, sprouting a pair of pectoral and a single dorsal vernier from the last of its injuries, and leaping into a freakish, kite-like twirl that swerves through and around her hail of fire, as if the current itself were guiding it along. Gliding past her, its backwards claws grow white hot and sweep down on her head, followed up by its tail, with the same kind of heat that radiates from the glassed landscape around the fuel ark.     It rockets all the way up to Staren before he can reload, looking to clamp its claws down on his mecha's shoulders, and then from that perch, melt him under a constant, pouring stream of plasma radiation vomited from its furnace-mouth over the cockpit, almost like slagging him with pure FTL exhaust.
Kupot	Kupot's hands are free from the suplex. The Sleipner turns around and returns for them as Kupot rapidly defends himself. THe first blow catches him hard in the eye, cracking the plate. But he brings up the hilt of his sword again. Each blow gets deflected to either side, pushing it so that it rolls wrong, catching Kupot only just slightly. But it is still painful, blow after blow raining down. It's like punching a sand bag. Each blow hits against the skin with dermal plating underneath. Too much. And this fight is not saving any people. He brings his small legs up underneath him and pushes upward, shoving Dexter back and grabbing his bike at the same time to swing up to it.
Yang Xiao Long	And with that, realization dawns on Yang's face. Red eyes fade back to lilac as the monster effectively teleports behind her. All that's missing is the declaration of already being dead. Her Aura flares, but the strike lands true, sending the blonde sprawling with cauterized slashes across her back, the tail swipe aiding in knocking the brawler out for the count.
Starbound Flotilla	"Daddy-o, I'm not here for a peace walk to the finish line. You want me to tell you you're wrong, you're not about to hear it." The Engine King mutters, pulling out a switch-comb and adjusting his pompadour. "You want hypocrisy? Goddamn right I'm a hypocrite. I'll put a long knife in a dozen short guts to save the skin of just one slodge of mine. I'll burn the lives down of any noble or officer in the North that thinks he can make anyone under him lay a patch for the west. But you better not shoot low, I'm not riding Shetlands here. I'll clue you to what I'll do if I need to, and you better not ice it, Clyde, because you're only going to hear it once, so cut your gas."     "I'd spill the blood of the world if it meant us slaves got a good hit of sunshine. We don't want that Treasure because we don't need it. If there's gonna be haves and have-nots, then I'll just as happily make what the haves put their palms on be something not as hot. But you know, one bit of hypocrisy that's close, but it's not. I'll spill some of my own too. You gotta burn all you can if you're going to make the day a little brighter for your people." He tosses away his switch-comb and flicks out a switch-knife, then draws it across a palm, dripping a steady stream of blood into something on his dashboard. Something linked to his engine? And that blood -- why does it /glow white/ so much?     "Think fast, King. You're in my nation. Better agitate gravel." He slams his palm onto the mechanism he was dripping his own blood into. His NITRO BLEED is activated; the flames of the Dragster Throne's exhaust go crimson, and lines of blood mark it. The roar of the engine turns from something like a wolf to something like a scream, and the body of the massive "car" bulges with growing superchargers, pushing out of the chassis like cancer. The car begins to dart around the battlefield, drifting and twirling like a dancer, trying to use superior maneuvering over the babylonian craft's firepower, and even ramping off of chunks of passing FTL terrain to try to slam brutally into it between bursts of crimson fire and heavy bullets.     The Throne is the weight of his leadership and it shows. The people on the Fuel Ark that are still seeing what's happening can be heard cheering on their king with fervor, screaming; some of them have even done little cuts on their own palms in some kind of solidarity gesture that they seem to do of their own accord. At the very least, the Engine King has no hesitation in putting down whatever proof of /self/ that the King of Heroes needs.     Of course, the bulging frame of the car isn't terribly well-armored against the impacts, and they tear away chunks of the metal, exposing fuel lines and spilling oil, but the glory of a good golden throne is hardly tarnished by battle-damage, though the performance soon is.
Starbound Flotilla	Slash, slash, slash, slash. Each time the Samurai zips by, he suffers a crashing blow to the head, crunching through glass and provoking grunts of pain. His biggest slice comes with a heavy, somewhat disoriented roar, before suffering a harsh, concussing blow. It's a lot less damage than it took to drive him off the last time, but right now, he's also grabbed a few ancient scrolls and other suchlike that he wants to preserve, and can't afford to ante up more of his stakes. "Ghhhh... Damn you, you'll pay for this blasphemy when the Empress has the Treasure!" He has to rocket back and away, retreating from combat, but hopefully he's given Zwei a moment to finish grabbing that key superluminal V8!
Staren	Is that... Erchius? And a /brain/?! Staren wonders if it's a person's or an animal's... either way, if it was forced into this, that's very disturbing...     More immediately disturbing is that it seems to be full of vim and vigor despite what he just did to it. There's no time to wonder about the fascinating kinetic grounding effect it displayed.     And Yang's down for the count too. Damn!     He tries to get away, but he's too slow! The glass dragon...fly's? claws dig into his mecha's shoulders, and it starts breathing fire over the cockpit... how the hell does it know where the cockpit is?! Is it a person's brain in there after all?     He's gonna have to call it quits now. If the dragonfly wants to keep fighting, he will make that a problem.     Countless tiny bits and pieces whir and turn and reconfigure in a blur, as the mecha reforms into a jet plane (The armored plating over the cockpit canopy remains deployed -- Staren doesn't need to see out when he has cameras) and the Captain's enhancements kick in. Good thing too, because without Erchius's inertial dampening effect, he'd immediately kill himself with physics!     Whether it's being flattened against the mech or burned by thrusters, it's gonna have a bad time. To add injury to more injury, the sniper railgun vents a cloud of superheated coolant right into it before compacting again.     Staren flies out of Fourth Gear, out of the Line. Hopefully Erchius can get him back to civilization one way or another.
Gilgamesh	But the real horror is the shadows beneath.      From the water emerge leviathans. Lightspeed monsters. Horrors of the world of the Flood. Some echo of Tiamat's children, some image of the world of the Flood brought screaming forward into modernity by the power of the King of Heroes. They have too few eyes and too many teeth, too few hands and too may tentacles and too many claws and too many mouths. They are chthonic things that pulse and undulate from the chaos of the ancient world that the Preserver of Life once sailed upon. They rise up to strike at the Engine King and at Riva, at hated humans recognized in the echo of myth brought forward by Uruk's Majesty. They rise up and crest out of the flowing chaos to smash into the Dragster Throne, they swim over the ship and swipe at Riva.      The King of Heroes walks forward.      "This, the Preserver of Life," Gilgamesh says, in the tone of an excitable child showing off his new Transmeta action figure to friends on the playground, "Its wood is stained with the waters of the Flood. And in those waters lie memories of the world beyond the borders of the world."      "What do you think? This is the strength you face." Gilgamesh spreads his arms and smiles. "This is a fraction of the strength you face. Don't you want to give up and let me take this Treasure away? Your people will benefit too. It will sit in the Gate of Babylon like all other things in the world worth owning, and you will have the privilege of knowing that you faced the man who knows all the countries of the world and came up worthy in his eyes."      The storm howls around him. There's a flash of lightning. His eyes glint in the light. And the smile on his face is almost friendly.      And almost lonely.
Gilgamesh	The Cross whirls in Riva's hands. It dances, slashes, as she fires, as she runs, as she rains destruction down on the King of Uruk. Were he not two-thirds god he would be dead, beaten to death on the deck of his wooden spaceship. Shells tear chunks of flesh off his body. Golden light flares at the end of the anchor-like cross, and it comes crashing down upon his shoulders, hard enough to knock him backwards. There is the nasty sound of something cracking.      The King of Heroes rises. Even bloody and missing chunks of his flesh, with shells lodged in his body, he is glorious to behold. Even marring cannot truly marr him; the scars, the damage, makes him more perfect, evoking the beauty of a soldier who came home from war after spending himself on the battlefield, of a parent who fought valiantly to protect their child, of a man who ran into a burning building to save a child. But then of course that is so. For it is written. It has been written for five thousand years.      When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Shamash the glorious sun endowed him with beauty, Adad the god of storm endowed him with courage, the great gods made his beauty perfect, surpassing all others, terrifying like a great wild bull. Two thirds they made him god and one third man. Shamash the glorious sun has given favours to Gilgamesh, and Anu of the Heavens, and Enlil, and Ea the wise has given him deep understanding. No one has ever prevailed against him; he is as strong as a star from heaven.      There can be no doubt. This is the courage and beauty of that purpose-build King. This is a terrifying beauty like that of a great wild bull. This is a man whose strength is like that of a star from heaven.      The King cracks his neck.      This is Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes, in all his majesty.      The Dragster Throne roars, and the Preserver of Life meets it with a fury almost alive. Where a moment ago there was distant, apathetic scorn in the eyes of the King there is now something new, flickering beneath the rolling blood as he pushes his arm back into its socket after the terrifying assault from Riva, as his ship attacks on its own against the fire and bullets. The ship is heavy, and takes the assault with the craftsmanship of the ancient world; its wood is like thick starlit metal, and each smash of the Dragster Throne dents it but does not force it down. It is a thing that survived leviathans.      But it is not the throne that has brought about that look in the eyes of the King.      There is no more mockery. There is no more loud speech, no more proclamation. As the King strides forward aboard the Preserver of Life there is respect flickering in his eyes.      He has heard something he likes. He has seen offerings he appreciates.      This is no longer crushing rats.      "Good," the King says, "You are worthy of my full attentions. I would not even deign to look upon you any longer if you were not willing to slit another's throat for your own. I would gain no pleasure from crushing an empty soul wearing an echo of my name."      "But you, King of Engines, and you, Riva Banari."      "You are worthy of my respect."      The King raises his hand to the speeding heavens. "And that means that you are worthy of my full might."      "Preserver of Life ~"      The ship suddenly surges with an absolutely colossal amount of mana. Power *flows* through the ship, palpable, physical magical power of such enormity that even the Engine King can feel it, even people with *no* magical senses can feel it. Gilgamesh brings his hand down.      "ERIDU GENESIS!"      And the world begins to flood.      The flood is superluminal. It bends and blueshifts. It warps and weaves. The water is no mere water but chaos unending, the chaos that drove the great king Ziusudra to rise above the world with his chosen people and wait beyond its borders until the gods restored order. The water smashes, crashes, undulates. It hammers. It waves. It swallows.
Orchid	But suddenly, as he turns to run, the most evil thing POSSIBLE happens to him, as his computer is invaded by a spirit of PURE EVIL!      "You look like you're trying to get away from a fight! Can I help?"      Well, no, not really, but it would have been funny if it had happened.
Dexter Arkwright	Dexter's blows are deflected, and in the end, he's shoved back so Kupot can retreat. Dexter doesn't pursue him, taking the time to nurse his wounds and finally land for a few moments. He's going to allow the giant glass dragon to finish fighting, and then fly up as the Saint of Glass retreats, sending him contact information. There's a note in there. <"Hey! I know you broke my arm and I broke your arm, but we have the same goal. Let me know how I can help and you've got me by your side for sure. Can't let these people destroy the Treasure, right?">
Zwei	Weiss glances over her shoulder from examining the super artifact V8. The gesture is almost solely superficial, but it lets her say: <<"Really? As in, seriously? I can't look away for five seconds without one of you popping up like a weed. Don't you ever get tired of this?">>     The exponentially more ludicrous amount of carnage happening outside courtesy of Dexter hopping sides and Gilgamesh . . . existing, has already outscaled the initial parameters for clean sweeping everything not nailed down in the Garage Palace, and Zwei is more than aware of the Velocity Beast's rather unregulated evolution happening in that selfsame crucible, given it had been a loose cannon distraction along the lines of what counts as 'McGuyvering' to a post-matter asshole space ghost.     Considering what they'd stumbled on by coming here though, Zwei has more than what they'd come for right at their fingertips. Turning her back on Leyanne and the Saint of Glass completely, Weiss unfolding a tiny energy cutter from one wrist and begins slicing through all the bolts and cables securing the engine as if brushing away flies, which then begins to tinge hue /corrected/ colours rather than blueshift or redshift as it usually is everywhere else. Teleport stealing it is. Just like those nanomachines. And that nuke. And a lot of things actually.     It's Asche who steps in the way as the Saint retreats, body blocking Leyanne with fifteen feet of lightly scarred plating so dense, dark, and devoid of any sign of manufacturing, that it gives off the impression of a demonic presence carved in carbon effigy, rather than any kind of machine or power suit built by hands and tools. His whole torso rotates around 180 degrees to face her, the red optical slit in his 'helmet' like a blood red spotlight on her. In his shadow, his arm swings out of her blind spot by pivoting the opposite way its semi-humanoid construction suggests, just breaking the sound barrier with a low, percussive boom before it strikes.     ||"Correct."|| The Armiger intones to the martian, in a voice not even meant to resemble human, instead more evocative of something speaking through a radio currently melting in the critical core of a nuclear reactor. ||"You more accurately resemble a cockroach."|| Where his colossal, armoured, multi-taloned fist achieves that momentary sonic boom, Asche's wrist produces the built-in multi-weapon in an instant, and discharges a massive burst of totally unfocused plasma, not focusing it as a bolt or beam, but just letting it explode at point blank.
Starbound Flotilla	It's true that the massive lightspeed flood is unfamiliar to the Line. Sure, the Line passes through, over, or near several oceans, that's just a statistical guarantee, but after several years of constant passage, it has long carved a valley of blasted carbon to limit its flooding the Line. So as the flood rushes over the superluminal space, it menaces all of them. The Fuel Ark, at least, has enough hover-engines, especially with the repairs, to coast over it, surging over the waves like another ark. Well, it is one, after all.     The Dragster Throne has no such luck. It does not fly; it is a car, and while it can ramp, it cannot do so off of water. Or can it? As waves crash around it, as monsters slam into it, he slams back, impacting one and using is massive body to... Spin his car out, twisting and twirling. He winds up upside down, slamming against the flood, bouncing like a skipped stone over it, before his car bounces off of one of those waves and slams -- this time right-side-up -- onto the deck of the Fuel Ark.     His wheels lay down rubber as they skid over the surface, the engines bulging less as the thing slows. "Hhhh... As long as that Treasure's around, someone will be after it. We can't get to it in the Line, so they take whole empires on the road, and make slaves of the people they need. Your Gate of Babylon would be another Line. Another thing for empires to slam their heads into. Another thing for people like mine to die breaking open. I can't give up on my people. Part of me. Might as well cut out my hand or my heart. That's how a king is, isn't it? Least I could do is stick to my guns and face what you've got for me. Doesn't matter if I lose, long as I die the way I lived." His greaser lingo has evaporated for just a moment. "Open fire. Make him hit the road, or put him in it." His battered throne heads off back for the Palace, while the guns of the Fuel Ark turn on the enemy Ark. He has to retreat for now, but moreover, he has to go see what's going on at the Palace. Zwei will have just another little bit of time to get out of there...
Zwei	When Yang goes down, or more precisely, when Yang stops /moving/, the Velocity Beast seems to be content to completely ignore her. It is fixated on Staren, and on turning him into a bubbling puddle of molten metal and consuming all the fuel in his machine. Even through a camera, rather than a half-human eye, the light plays such bizarre tricks that the feed of the monster on the canopy is almost nothing but seizure-grade morphic strobing fit for a trippy music visualizer, until those cameras boil away.     When Staren transforms and flies off, or more precisely, when Staren /speeds up/, the Beast gives chase, fixing its own wings into a semi-V pattern and expelling a billowing plume of prismatic fire in accelerating after him. It is way, way, way faster, and within seconds it has the ability to loose a torrent of light-lag fireballs at his rear again, which weirdly curve and bend with the curvature of the Line's gravitic drag in a way that seems like homing in on him, but it can only attack for a short time before the defensive coolant blast hits it in the face and sends it spinning away, driving it off and back into the slipstream blur around the Refinery for now.
Leyanne	Leyanne growls "Don't you get tired of shitting on folks, and making assuption?" Leyanne retorts. "Fuckin' idiots, I don't care about the treasure. Steal it, destroy it, just get it the fuck off the megaplanet where it's- gack!" She's cut off by the arm unfolding to catch her in the side of the head. Normal beings would be snapped in twain by such an impact, considering the velocity, or beheaded. But there's not really a lot in Leyanne's head for it to damage, and what she does have in there is protected by a metal-plated skull. It makes a satisfying *clank* as it impacts, bowling her across the floor. She dives and scampers for cover as the plasma washes out of the other gun, ending up in cover behind a very huge, very heavy engine of some kind. She just calls out over the top of it "IGNORANT ASSHOLES!"
Riva Banari	The King is wounded, but even in his wounded her carries himself with majesty. Riva can see the source of that unshakable demeanor. How many gifts can one being bear? How many treasures can one demigod possess? She fights for the Engine King, fights despite his flaws... Or perhaps /because/ of his flaws. He is not deluded enough to turn himself away from the choices he made to get this far. The prices he had to pay. And because he didn't, they remain meaningful. They both seem to understand that, and so does Riva. He declares Riva is worthy of his respect. It's nice to know that, but that doesn't mean that what comes next is any less horrifying. He calls forth the legend around his conveyance, the Noble Phantasm crashing forward as the ocean of chaos hammers forward. Riva, for her part, slams the Cross down, planting herself in desperation as a golden barrier rises before her. Impenetrable. Unmovable... Or so she'd wish. The impact of the Flood crashes into the shield, parting around her and establishing a moment of protection in the overwhelming power.... Until the creatures come. The black limbs strike out, piercing the beleagured shield and ripping at her. It becomes the beginning as the barrier fails, Riva falling back and shfieking as she, too, begins to be washed away in the tide of black. Darkness bears teeth and claws and she is torn, shredded by things unknowable. Eventually, however, the tide recedes, and Riva is left on one knee. Not destroyed. Not dead. On a knee, bleeding copiously from the intense wounds she has received. Because to stand against the tide, to face inevitability, to fight the unfightable and unknowable... This is her purpose. She doesn't give a speech. She doesn't beg. She doesn't grovel. "It's not over yet." She states, simply. It is self-evident because she Is. She continues to live. She continues to exist. And as long as the light burns within her, that will continue unending through untold pain and suffering and horror. And so she steps forward. One step. And then another. And another... And then she is charging once more, building momentum as she crashes back towards the King of Heroes. There's no finesse. There's no complicated art. Her weapon burns bright as she simply pushes every ounce of her energy into her weapon, the Anima Circuits searing with eye-scorching light. Wounds rip back open as the energy that heals her is dedicated utterly to ending this in a single blow, because the time is past for a war of attrition. She can't afford to wait any longer. With a single defiant yell, she leaps high, bringing up the Cross... And then she brings it right down onto the deck of the ship, not even hitting Gilgamesh directly with the strike. The massive shockwave of golden honey-colored light that blasts outwards, however, might be a different issue.
Staren	Technically, he's slowing down, not speeding up! Then again, everything is relative. Staren grows relatively concerned as the camera melts away. There are other cameras, but damn this thing is determined to fight him even if it means being pulled farther and farther away from 4th Gear...     By the time it leaves, the cockpit armor has mostly melted away, exposing the canopy which is thankfully still made of something much more resilient than glass or plastic.     The Star Hawk rises into the wild blue yonder, below it an unfamiliar landscape. Yeah, hopefully Erchius can get him out of this.
Gilgamesh	As usual, the King of Heroes pays no heed to the little clay dolls scrabbling about amidst the floodwaters he has unleashed. He said it himself - a man who would not step on the throat of others is barely a man at all. The Preserver of Life roars its laser cannons back at the Fuel Ark, the ancient Ark against the modern as the floodwaters rage. The monsters fade - they were never there to begin with - but the water, that's real, that's true and factual chaos sloshing about at hyperluminal velocities.      Gilgamesh watches the Engine King go and chuckles. "The Gate of Babylon has been such for all time. I cannot count the number of fools who have crashed against my treasury in the hope of plundering it. And yet none ever have. Nor will any. For I am Gilgamesh, King of all under Heaven. Think you I do not know that all will covet what lies in my treasury? Think you I do not realize that countries will go to war?"      "Fool, I do not want it to safeguard it. I do not want it for its power. I do not even want it for its value."      Gilgamesh opens his hand. "I want it because all things worth owning belong to me by right, and I am taking back what is mine, and that is all there is to it. What good is something of value if it is not worth fighting for? What is the worth of a Treasure without an adventure behind it?"      "Make me leave? Slay me? Better than you have tried. I will rain down destruction upon your people, for you have many to shield, and I have but me to support."      The guns of the Preserver open fire again, cutting swathes of hyperspeed light through the sky. They flare with red light as Riva shines gold. She pours the light of her soul into the weapon, and brings it down towards the ship.      The King of Heroes catches it in one hand.      The attack meant for the Preserver of Life pours into and out of him. Every inch of him shines with an invasive gold that is not his. He bites his lip to avoid screaming, presses his foot down against the wood to avoid falling. He is radiant for an instant with a radiance that is not his own as his insides are assaulted by the golden shine of Riva Banari's invasive, destructive Anima, the power of her self in the palm of his hand.      But he is Gilgamesh. And it has been true since the beginning of time that no ego in all the world is as mighty. Riva's Anima meets the soul of the King, and the soul of the King is itself pure and untamed glory. He wrenches aside the cross in one hand.      "You have earned my respect," the King says, his mouth full of blood that reflects the world in perfect beauty, as if blood could have value simply due to the person it comes from, "And the king you have allied with has fled the field to hide behind his people in a shameful act, leaving them to fight a battle he should have died in. For all that he spoke, the lives of his people will fall before the Preserver of Life, and he will blame me and shriek for vengeance to hide the pain of the knowledge that in the end they were but tools."      "You have fought well. You have distinguished yourself. You have shown honor and bravery, Riva Banari, and for this I show you my respect. Lay down your weapons and walk away from the Preserver of Life."
Gilgamesh	And suddenly the world ripples around Riva, and there are countless weapons pointed at her from all sides. The Gate of Babylon opens its maw and shows Riva the arsenal of the King once again. "I grant you safe passage in the name of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk. Walk from this place and leave me to my Treasure. It will lie in my vault, never seen again by unworthy hands, never to cause suffering to the innocent but only thieves and fools who would crash against me and be broken like the waves upon the shore."      "And you can see," Gilgamesh's eyes flash as the blades of the Gate extrude, "That I am well-equipped to deal with all the fool thieves of the world who would die at my hands."      "This day the field is mine. Go back to your king. Tell him of my displeasure, that in the end he would have his people fight me rather than face my power. Tell him of my fury, that one who calls himself a king would not stand at the front of his army and die for his beliefs. And tell him of my mercy - that I let you walk, and that I will offer the same for him, knowing that the Treasure he seeks to destroy will be safe for all time."      "For no one," Gilgamesh's eyes are hard and cruel, "Has ever stolen from the Gate of Babylon."