Scene #502: Impromptu Raid for Parts!

Owner	Pose
Fuki	Daylight hours, mid afternoon. Not the best time to do a raid but a blitz raid is better than nothing at all. In the sky, a dubious looking wooden airship is in the sky and descending out into a field near the towering factory that, in interesting sense, is not putting out any pollution at all. Loud sirens are coming from the cement-fenced factory, filling the secluded area in Spring with alert noises. Meanwhile, on the descending airship. "Alright, I know this might sound petty but it's going to be a simple distract, smash, grab, run. I have need of a lot of material here and that's why I have you all here, with the capability of moving large amounts of material quick." Fuki grins on top of her coeurl, Keesha. "I'll need Faora and Nox with me. Soundwave, if you can, make sure NO one gets to the airship that isn't Confederate aligned. Gaius, I need you to make sure that no one else gets us." The airship makes a loud landing nearby, the ship opening its drawbridge to allow the passengers inside to depart. "Let's see if we can make this quick, they've seen us or at least the airship, so we will probably encounter resistance. I have no qualms about what you need to do to get the job done."
Gaius Van Baelsar	Gaius partly wondered why he even agreed to this, perhaps out of sheer curious notion to what some other members of the Confederacy would run and honestly right now his men are a bit scattered dealing with several issues at once. Besides, after his armor had been repaired and what he heard that the Eorzean papers are writing regarding them being /allies/ with those savage beast men-- he could use a bit of muscle flexing. Yet when he gets on board the ancient Airship, it causes him to be bemused behind his full face helm. If he was given some time, he could easily probably figure out how it operated, given wooden airships were... laughable in his mind to the massive transporters and Dreadnaught class Airships of metal that the Garlean's themselves used but yet-- there was.. something very majestic about old style things. Much how a person still loves an old sailing shop, that is how Gaius sees this airship. A marvel onto itself... Yet when the Airship lands, he is not bothered by its rough landing and he moves with simple ease as the drawbridge door lowers down. His black armor seeming to absorb any light and the gold trim glimmering slightly. The deep crimson red cloth leather stood out against the armor and the small orbs on his helm's horns swayed ever so slightly. "It shall be done." He tells Fuki at her orders and seeming to give no concern for the beast she rides on. As he steps off, he then raises his gauntlet cannon to the skies and fires three times into the air. The shots go up high before they explode in a spark of red light.. a flare of some kind-- but a flare for what?
General Zod	The lithe woman dressed in black armor with an opaque helmet/forcefield thing with a black cape (Apparently the Kryptonians of 20,000 years ago /really/ liked black), simply steps off the airship. "Acknowledged, Lieutenant." she says simply, taking in the scene through cold blue eyes behind the skull-like face of the helmet.
Staren	Trouble! In Paradise! Wait, no, Paradise is like, the next quadrant over. This is Spring. Thanks to: The Easter Bunny. Well, Staren heard Snake and Santa fight every year so sure, why not. And that trouble is that an /airship/ is attacking a factory that assembles pure air and water into building materials. Huh. Staren wonders if maybe it is a literal weather factory like they have in Equestria. Maybe they make clouds people can touch? That would be cool! But right /now/... The more pressing matter, as Staren speeds through the air in what appears to be a souped-up F-14 at twice the speed of sound, is who is /attacking/ it? He suspects he'll find out soon enough. <<Attention, burglars!>> Staren announces over the radio. <<This is the Union. Leave now and it won't be worth our time to persue you. But if you don't, you /will/ be stopped by force.>>
Nox	A smash and grab. Simple enough, if yes, somewhat petty. What exactly there could possibly be to grab in this particular factory, is up in the air. Fuki hadn't exactly made the nature of her objective here especially clear, but then that wasn't the reason Nox had come along was it? Aside from fostering relationships with allies he would surely be coming to depend upon sooner or later, finding out is half the fun! As he never touches the ground, the xelor casually floats down the opened ramp as a nothing more than a formality, taking a deep, likewise superfluous breath of fresh, spring air. A few dozen noxines trail behind him; the miniscule, insectoid drones small enough that even Fuki could step over one, but each one faintly glowing with their full battery charge. "Getting done things quickly is something of a specialty of mine. As long as you can find what you came for, I doubt we'll have any issues." A wireless command has half of his noxines buzzing on ahead, splitting up so they can approach the factory perimeter from different sides. They immediately begin taking video footage, routing it back to their master while their scouting net develops. Of course, they couldn't possibly fail to catch Staren's entrance. "Ahaha. That was prompt now wasn't it? Whatever we're here for must at least be somewhat important if the Union has already deployed against us."
Soundwave	This is the first time Soundwave or his agents have joined a Confederate mission, much less a mission with non-Cybertronians, so the experience is bound to be... enlightening. Regardless, the usual expectations and roles appear to be universal, and that is enough for the Decepticon to at least remain alert instead of unduly wary. Frenzy, Rumble, and Ravage have remained relatively well-behaved for the duration of the trip, none of them leaving Soundwave's side. They clearly had no desire to incur the wrath of their 'keeper' nor look bad in front of a bunch of organics. Soundwave himself remains kneeled on one knee-joint, dead-center on the Airship's main deck. It is not only the best place for a being of his size to stay en-route, but also to ensure maximum visibility on the airship itself. His head inclines briefly to Fuki in acknowledgement of her orders. "-As you command.-" He nods down to the three agents around him, who split off in different directions upon the silent order. Rumble heads to the front, Frenzy towards the back, and Ravage bounds off the gangplank to stand guard on the other side. Soundwave presses a button on his shoulder as the front panel of his chestplate swings open, intoning, "-Laserbeak. Buzzsaw. Initiate aerial surveillance.-" Two microcassettes eject from within the Decepticon's chest and transform into robotic birds. Laserbeak, the red-and-black one, arcs high above the airship while Buzzsaw, the yellow-and-black one, dips low to circle around the airship's hull.
Twilight Sparkle	After hitching a ride in Staren's flying machine, Twilight teleports out and onto the top of the factory. Then, a sparkling ring of purple-white travels upward over her form from her forelegs, then down along her body, leaving her Harmony Armor in its wake, complete with a large golden tiara. The wind whips up around her as a large book appears beside her and her horn starts to glow while the book begins to rotate quickly, its pages opened toward the invaders. Then, there is a burst of energy from both her horn and the book, the backlash from the blast causing her mane and tail to whip about wildly. But, this is not an attack. It is a spell she learned from her older brother! A translucent purple shield bubble forms around the entire factory. It looks pretty tough, but it's only one unicorn. "I'll try to protect the factory as long as possible!" Twilight radios to her allies.
Abstractum.Net	Silent Black, today, resides in its default scythe form, its light red fire trailing in wisps off of Fuki's back where it's attached magnetically. "We've got speed and surprise. I'm sure we can do this quick. No trouble, even from resistance..." The scythe starts, before suddenly assuming a more aggressive posture, the blade shifting to curl protectively around Fuki's shoulder.
Vervi	The Star Hawk isn't the only thing flying through in response to Confederate presence approaching this factory. The craft is a split-hull jet fighter, swept back wings, oversized engines trailing blue thrust, and a ... seat in the center with Vervi perched on it, her hands wrapped around motercycle-like controls. The seat itself has a similar feel. Like a bike crossed with a jet and made in miniature. Of course, that's the transformable Vehicle type Abstractum, Maverick, she's sitting in. Tugging on the controls, she brings herself and her Abstractum into a roll that puts her in formation above and slightly behind the Starhawk, though the size difference is ridiculous comparing one fighter jet to the other.
Abstractum.Net	"You know," Eureka is on Staren's own hand as usual, and speaking rather casually to him. "They never take that offer, but I feel better having made it. Maybe they will one day." The gauntlet says. "I will be ready to engage, in any case." There's a soft blue glow from the eye now. "Powering Strife Drives."
Abstractum.Net	Maverick is psyching itself up the entire way in, and also trying to psyche Vervi up, which may have less of an effect. "We're gonna run these guys right out of the air! Oh man, there's an airship. You wanna try some strafing runs, Vervi? This could be INTENSE! I wanna go up against some huge craft with some real anti-air, you could tear things up with these photon emitters!"
Fuki	Fuki's sitting regally upon Keesha's head, petting both her Abstractum and Keesha's head with a smug grin on her face. "Break down that barrier. We're getting in there." and a light pause, "Oh how I wish I had a megaphone. I'd taunt them so hard, they'd come back for a second taunting." she pulls Silent Black off her back and smiles, slipping the mask in front of her face. "Silent Black, power up please. And let's show them something new we've learned." Keesha allows for a loud roar to send a message "FUKI HERE! WE TAKE FACTORY!" could be heard frmo the broken translation from the Coeurls call, her whiskers flinging upwards to shoot warning Thundara's at the oncoming flying craft with no intention to hit. "Gaius, break down the barrier, Nox with me. We're going in as soon as a hole is made."
Abstractum.Net	"Right away. Powering Strife Drives." Silent Black says, assuming its predatory posture. Fire washes off of its edge in sudden waves, softly licking its hard-edged contours. This blade is vicious! The slices that come from it next will undoubtedly rend what comes under them.
Gaius Van Baelsar	When Staren and others starts to arrive, Gaius pulls out his gunsword and points toward those on the ground, but he notes the radio comm from Staren in the skies. "Then if it is by force you desire, then force it shall be. Because the skies in which you fly in," He motions his sword up at the F-14. "..are not safe from my grasp." His sword slowly pans to the other flying machine(s). "You best hope your machines is stronger then a dragon clad in steel.." He then brings down his Gunblade and those black void eye lens only watch the F-14. Then he watches as Twilight Sparkle raises up a force field over the factory, "..and your magic is mightier then my own resolve.." It isn't long till there is a rumble in the air and with the sun, it soon becomes apparent why. Following in the three flare signals comes a massive several mile long black metal airship. (Look DA), there are several things coming out from its side and along side its aft ports are two other Airship transports that are moving in at a faster clip. The things that are moving out from the Dreadnought are those of Magitek Juggernaughts, which start to fill the sky. The move over at quick clips of speed making their very presence known to all. Fuki did ask for a distraction-- and Gaius was indeed delivering one-- a very big one. As one of the Dreadnaughts swoops by, he raises up his hand and catches the one of the handle bars, allowing it to raise him up into the sky, before he flips himself up on the platform. He keeps his gunblade at ready and observes all before him. When Fuki gives orders to break down the Barrier, he cants his head gently before transmitting to her, "I think the term here is.. already a step ahead." When the smaller Airships get in line the machine guns at the front come around as they hover in the air and then unleash a gatling gun of bullets that explode with blue bursts of magical energy right at the forcefield.
Soundwave	Soundwave barely acknowledges the various Union members appearing and calling out their warnings, as still as a metal statue. But he sees everything, hears even more, and his shoulder-struts noticeably relax as he mentally shifts gears in preparation for the battlefield. "-Defensive positions,-" he rumbles, and his Minicassette agents shift as one to maintain their zones of fire to protect the airship. None open fire, not yet, but they are fully prepared. As Gaius' Dreadnaught moves in to attack Twilight Sparkle's barrier, Soundwave rises to his full height of 30-feet as his laser rifle appears in his hands. He does not move beyond that, though, not to aim at any of the Union nor even to change where he stands on the airship's deck. But he is watching, he is listening, he is ready all the same.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight Sparkle stands firm as that airship descends toward her. She's fought aircraft before! ...of course, that one wasn't so big. The purple pony winces as those bullets start pelting her shield, causing shimmers of energy all over the targeted side. But, so far, none are able to penetrate. The shield stands, and Twilight stands beneath it, determined not to let the factory be invaded. "I don't know what you guys want with this factory, but this is a Union holding! And I'm not going to let you hurt people just to build some more machines to hurt more people!" Twilight calls out from within her barrier. Her horn glows more brightly for a few moments, then a wave of energy travels along the surface of the barrier before a beam of energy fires toward Gaius's airship. The purple energy beam is only as broad as Twilight herself, but it is much like a cannon shot as far as what damage it might cause.
Vervi	"No, Maverick," Vervi asserts, "We have other things that need our attention. Staren has heavier weapons and more missiles. We..." She pulls on the controls, banking sharply away into a dive to drop her altitude, "...have a different target!" That target is the Couerl and, more importantly, the shinki riding it. Descending at such a sharp angle, wind screaming over her wings, Vervi shouts, "Give me bombs! At thirty meters, drop 'em while I try to make sure we don't crash!" She'll leave the actual bombing run to Maverick while focusing on making sure she doesn't transform herself and her Abstractum into a pile of twisted wreckage.
Staren	"Good luck!" wishes Staren before Twilight teleports out. He nods to Eureka, tapping it with his fingers just behind the gem. "Yeah, well, you never know... cartridge." He slides the TIER I ADJUDICATOR cartridge into Eureka, even though if anyone were still in the cockpit it would look like the cartridge would have to be embedding into his arm for that to work. Fuki confirms her identity. In response, Staren fires a missile ahead. Futuristic high-explosive -- He's not trying to destroy the wooden airship, but if it isn't tougher than it looks, it will hopefully be damaged enough to cause the feds problems. It's probably tougher than it looks, isn't it. Gaius is challenging him. "Hmph. Let's do this!" Staren grins... and then the sun is blocked out by a miles-long airship. "Oh COME ON, not this FRIKKING giant vehicle nonsense again!" There's a lesson to learn here, and that lesson is to always carry a tacnuke even if you're totally not expecting to run into anything giant that day. And then Staren smiles. Yeah, it took everything he had to seriously /damage/ a borg cube. Does /this/ thing have the same ridiculous defenses? He supposes he'll see. But Gaius is already opening fire on the shield! "Oh no you don't!" The 'F-14', such as it resembles, turns, flying to intercept the path of the bullets. "Eureka! Reinforce my beam shield!" In a blur of tiny moving parts, the fighter transforms into a 40ft tall metal humanoid, flying on thrusters in its feet and back. It raises its left arm in front of it, and an energy shield expands out from it. "Rotate the plasma missiles for maximum light! Try to blind them!" Staren repidly lines up reticles in his vision with the magic machinegun turrets, launching a volley of missiles to spread out and attack them. /Ideally/, they'd just blow up the nearby turrets... but Staren suspects things won't go ideally, so he hopes he can blind them too!
Abstractum.Net	The photon construct emitters on Maverick light up. "Close enough!" The enthusiastic dual-type Abstractum declares. "Powering Strife Drives and the Strike Driver now!" And down they go! "Don't worry, I'll handle the aiming!" The machine's emitters flash, brightly, as four bright constructs suddenly appear, dropping from above. Maverick is yelling enthusiastically throughout the dive. "Barrier Driver." The scythe in Fuki's hands is already doing everything it can. Red, hard-like holography suddenly appears to interpose itself between Fuki and the shots. Three of them are halted, their scorching blast radius limited to stunning or jostling, but the fourth is gonna get past that shield, shattering it! Fuki will have to deal with that final photonic explosive on her own.
Nox	A unicorn creating a magic barrier, some sort of futuristic aircraft, and an even smaller one following the first. The noxines are picking it up alright. Every little detail. Their master seems content to wait and see, hovering close by the couerl and its little rider just in case one of the unionites were to break off. Fortunately that doesn't appear to be the case. Gaius seems to have brought more than enough to keep all three of them busy. "My my, that's a little bit excessive for a factory raid don't you think? Why that ship itself is already bigger than our target! No need to show off, we're all friends here!" Nox's laughter mixes in with the roar of the first gunshots, momentarily blotted out by the sound of Twilight Sparkle's return fire. Then, as it turns out, one of the unionites actually isn't concerned with the fleet of aerial targets bearing down on them. The most dimunitive of their opposition, immediately targeting Fuki from the get-go. It's a tenuous connection, but being the same size, Nox assumes that the two must originate from the same place, and thus probably already have a history with each other. Either that, or somehow the enemy has been informed that only Fuki knows what everyone is here for, and thus is already making the most practical move to end the raid before it begins. Neither possibility is particularly good, and so the xelor swivels on the spot, pointing towards Vervi's craft as his capacitors silently prepare a spell. Only for Fuki herself to cut him off. Probably thinking of the same problem he did, the shinki seems to have transmitted him a list of very specific components and materials, all of which can apparently be gathered in the northwest quadrant of the building. Nox watches the divebomb in motion with a moment of impassivity, before deciding against expending his energy when Fuki seems to be so sure she can handle this particular opponent alone. He disappears from the spot with an electric fizzle and a wash of blue static, leaving Fuki alone with her pet and her adversary. He reappears a few hundred feet straight up in the air where he can get a better view of the unfolding aerial battle, though it appears as if he feels participating is beneath him. Ever so stingy about the use of his magic, he focuses on the only target that is absolutely necessary to remove to achieve mission success. A circular aperture opens up in the palm of his hand, coalescing a bubble of blue-white light with an electronic whine. Extending his arm towards where Twilight Sparkle stands atop the factory, he lets loose a bolt of super-compressed space, glowing brightly from the way it twists and refracts the light passing through it. The instant it hits the shield, it violently comes apart, mirroring the effects of an exceptionally powerful explosion, simply without the smoke. Looking on with mixed interest, he fires another one to follow the first, and then a third on top of that, confirming impact between each firing so as to make sure he doesn't waste one on an already collapsing barrier.
Gaius Van Baelsar	The smaller Airships are indeed focusing on the Forcefield, which the missiles come, the airships try to pull up slightly. The missiles slam against the hull of the smaller airships, but some time of barrier seems to be giving them a mild protection from the explosive force. Communications from the Garleans in the area are quiet chattery as the coordinate together. Including orders coming down the line to continue fire on the shields. As for the much larger airship, it brings the anti-air cannons to bare, several of them at that. Including opening up several side ports. Within those side ports contain, well, you guessed it-- Ceruleum fueled missiles-- which Ceruleum is highly explosive and tends to be the the very 'blood' of Magitek itself-- and just makes for great explosives really. The Cannons open fire as shells ring through the sky toward Staren's aircraft rocking the very air with thunderous roars, before then several of the warheads open fire and rain down at high velocity of speeds. Though the bays close as soon has the missiles are fired, but the cannons continue to roar across the area.
Fuki	Fuki and Keesha look up, a smile upon the face behind the mask. "Ah, Maverick and Vervi." she stands up, Keesha crouches and bolts off. "Hmm, good aim." Fuki holds on tight to the running Coeurl as the barrier intercepts three of them, the fourth smashes in and sets the Shinki and some of the Coeurl's fur on fire. "Keesha, Blizzard. Then turn around and try to aim your fire at them." The Coeurls' whiskers wash over with a blue aura and ice washes over the Shinki and Mount, cleansing them of the fire. "Ohgodcold..." whispered out.. "Alright, power up fully, Silent Black. And Lance time. Mounted combat area!" Upon waiting for Silent Black to do its thing, Keesha skids around and a red aura washes over the whiskers before gouts of fire are spewed out towards Vervi and her Abstractum. Fuki's eyes narrow from under that mask, "Silent Black, it was Versus Paradigm right? Any way to engage it now?"
Abstractum.Net	"Cartridge installing." Eureka says, in a monotoned voice, as Staren activates the Psyber-cartridge's function of TURNING OFF FRIENDLY FIRE. "Barrier Driver." The gauntlet says - and it's now on the exterior hand of the mecha, somehow! How does THAT work?! There's a soft blue glow to the beam shield now. Staren's not a Red type, so it's not a high level of resistance, but it should help a little! "Rotating." And now the plasma missiles, as they streak in mid-air, flicker and change. First some kind of magical fireball, then some kind of magitech ballista shots, then what look like giant kunai with crimson red paper tied to them. Where these giant blades land, their explosion manifests in light instead of burning explosive. It might have a little more of a stun effect! Possibly. This is a bit of a stretch for the gauntlet. This all occurred before Gaius' pose, but wasn't immediately relevant to him. Good info for Staren though!
Abstractum.Net	"Form: Vulpine Reaper." There's an intense flash of bright red light that washes over Fuki, and when it's gone, her form has shifted substantially. Fox-like fur lines the gauntlet-like portions of her arms, and the thinner parts of her legs. Her fox mask is substantially more aggressive-looking, and bears a pair of glowing white eyes now. A bushy fox-tail is present, but menacing; it looks as if it can be used offensively against flesh when dragged along the surface. A dreadful-looking pair of claws have come into existance along her fingers. The scythe itself takes on a vulpine aesthetic, with animalistic teeth at its blade-edge. All over her, additional plates on her armor resolve into existance. "VERSUS PARADIGM ALIGNED." Both Maverick and Silent Black say at once. "Ohohoho, we're COOKING WITH GAS NOW!!" The flying Abstractum roars with enthusiasm as its shields blunt the burning of the blast (though the kinetic impact still rocks the craft viciously, and the pilot on it). Meanwhile, Silent Black is folding and mechanically shifting as the blade flares out and extends down its length, turning it into a perfect implement for cavalry jousting!
Staren	The ships turn out to be /shielded/, of course, so his missiles -- err, exploding kunai?? don't do what he hoped. Maybe the light will affect them some... or at least keep them unaware of what he's going to do next. Staren is focusing on blocking the machinegun fire. This limits his options when it comes to dodging -- He moves a bit, raising the right arm and firing a stream of hypersonic metal from the gatling railgun as he tries to shoot the incoming missiles down, but no good -- they /explode/ against the Star Hawk, knocking it around a bit and leaving very obvious dents and cracked armor... but it is, after all, a dozens-of-tons war machine souped up with more advanced technology than most of the Multiverse. It can take a few hits. It needs to dish /out/ a few more, though! Time to make things /tricky/. "Good job, Eureka! Now... Rotate the projectiles headed for Twi's shield to be nonmagical!" That will reduce their effectiveness against the shield spell! As for Staren... The Star Hawk changes, into a plane-with-arms-and-legs configuration (Though the cockpit canopy is now covered by solid metal armor) and flies up towards the large airship. Staren stops focusing on blocking attacks, dodging and weaving and rolling around the cannonfire... at the last moment, the Star Hawk's shield deactivates and two mecha-scale plasma sabers pop into its hands -- it tries to stab and slash at the weapons ports, in hopes of disabling the missiles and cannons in this section, at least!
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight winces and yelps with each hit to her barrier. It holds through Nox's attacks, but after the last there are signs of stress along the shield. Cracks start to form, manifesting as lines of blue in a shatter-pattern along the surface of the purple shield. Twilight looks tired after holding up to that attack. She's sweating visible and panting from the effort, but her expression is no less determined. "G-go away! We won't let you get in here!" she shouts loudly before another pulse of magic travels along the shield before firing a purple energy beam at Nox. Again, it isn't so much a laser attack as a long distance punch. Or kick. Like if a large horse kicked you with all its might.
Vervi	Vervi closes one eye, the flame washing over Maverick's shield shaking her in her seat. The tiny robot lets out a little noise of effort, casting a glance downward as she wheels Maverick around, observing the transformation. That's new. It immediately tells her, also, that she can do the same sort of thing with Maverick. Alls he has to do is get better with him. Help him grow. But that has to come later. For now, faito. "Come on, Maverick," Vervi pulls on the controls, inciting the mechanism's transformation into its robotic power armor form, wrapped around her body and limbs in midair. She also cuts her thrust, quite suddenly dropping. "You called it a strike driver, right? Well, let's get to striking!" As she drops, Vervi rears back one giant robot hand, curling the fingrs into a blocky fist, which she thrusts forward when she gets close enough in an attempt to use her weight and her giant robot armor fist to just outright deck Fuki's feline mount right on top of the head.
Gaius Van Baelsar	Getting to the missiles is the hard part on the massive Dreadnought, as the metal panels have already come back down, but the cannons on the other hand do get taken out by the beam saber. What Staren will realize as his beam saber cuts and attempts to cut, is that the metal made from the airship is extremely dense. It doesn't want to break easily nor get cut. It takes the beating and keeps on ticking! As Staren stays in tight, a good deal of the weapon systems don't work at this range, but there is one thing the Airship can do that many of its wooden ancestors could not. Turn on a dime-- given the thing is, after all-- hovering. The massive Dreadnought starts to turn itself away, bringing about some of the machine gun turrets it has to bare, including a few more cannons that just go to rain terror on the Star Hawk at close range. The bullets fly by rapidly and the cannons continue to sound off in the air with more thunderous explosions. Gaius for his part is actually taking a flight right back to the Dreadnought during this, where he looks toward the window and with a flicker of blue light teleports right inside. Which he is standing right at his position of command of the beast. Including his sights already moving over to the tactical board that hovers there in the air like a holographic display and listening to all his crew sound off info as it comes in. His hands come to clasp behind his backside, as he looks over to one of his men on the bridge. "Inform the Juggernaughts to get ready to move into position for strafe on port.. have the others continue to run along ground to give aid where needed." "Yes, My lord!"
Abstractum.Net	Eureka strains with effort. "Ghhhhh..." It starts. "Aligning Rotation paradigms..." Nox's next shots will have an ALIEN FORCE now exerted on them! It is trying to assail his volley and force it to manifest in an entirely different manner. It's trying to force the compressed space attacks to change form, and turn into... Something more modern-day and mundane! Missiles, maybe? It's a closer approximation. But that might not be what it hits.
Fuki	Today, a leopard may be punched but Keesha's no ordinary leopard. "Keesha. Blizzara." she smiled behind that mask, and now that the Shinki's on the ground... she eyes Silent Black and the lance form. Lances thrust. They thrust good. A toothed lance. Perfect for stabbing. Fuki hops off the Coeurl as the punch smacks right into the poor beast, "Sorry, Keesha, take one for the team..." as a blast of ice encircles the Coeurl from her whiskers. Meanwhile, Fuki's still in the air. A kick of her thrusters, in reverse, and down she goes quickly, aiming to impale the VerVietta and the Hot BLood Abstractum with a really awkward DFA attack. Or maybe she's doign this to look cool. "Maybe I should have downloaded that mounted combat manual..."
Staren	Kaboom! Cannon and magic machinegun fire rains down on the Star Hawk. More cracks appear, and shards fall off, raining down into the air below. But the Star Hawk has plenty of fight in it yet! It's already close to the Dreadnaught... even as it starts to turn away, that's already proved something: That he /can/ get close! He flies along the side of the Dreadnaught, up close, ready to stab again -- but instead, one of his under-wing missile packs opens, and each time he comes up to a cannon, one of the missiles launches out into the weapon port. Hopefully, 30' fireballs of superheated, ionized atoms will really mess something up inside the ship!
Nox	Smoke and fireballs? No that is exactly the /opposite/ of what those bolts should have done. Something is fiddling with Nox's magic and it is making him very displeased. Where did it come from?! There wasn't any obvious trail leading back to the caster, and as far as he knows it could be any one of the three unionites present, never mind the fact that he doesn't know a thing about abstractum. There is little time to think however, because the plucky little unicorn seems to have taken it upon herself to try and fight back. How annoying. With someone interfering with his spellcraft, he decides against using spatial distortion to redirect the attack. The instant before the beam hits, Nox conjures his own barrier with a whining, electrical crack, resembling a series of enmeshed gears drawn onto the air in luminous blue. The impact rocks him backwards; the barrier meant to absorb magical attacks rather than kinetic impacts, but ultimately it manages to hold, fading as the beam does leaving nothing but a hiss and the smell of ozone. A frown is going on under Nox's mask. He'd depleted three times as much energy defending against that attack than he had actually intended to. Better deal with the unicorn quick. Nox disappears again, flickering into a blurry afterimage as he vanishes from the spot, zipping straight up to the edge of Twilight Sparkle's forcefield in the blink of an eye. In the intervening split second between teleport initiation and teleport end, he seems to have procured a lengthy weapon that appears equal part sword and clock hand. Bringing it down on the cracked barrier with an overhand arc, a vertical wave of light flashes through the air, indicating where space has been folded into a two-dimensional shearing plane, aiming to split the forcefield neatly in two. After all, nobody should be able to interfere with a melee attack. "Brave, but you are trying my patience, little . . ." He kind of drifts off there. What do you call a purple pony in polite conversation? "Girl" just sounds weird.
Abstractum.Net	"HoooooohhhhhYYYEEEEEAAAAAAAHH!!" The mecha Abstractum that has unfolded goes into FULL ENTHUSIASM as it punches a leopard in the face. The shockwave from the strike kicks out a powerful wave of wind and force! It's like getting hit by a train. The burning red light surrounding Maverick's arm protects it, and Vervi within, from the brunt of the blizzara, though frost shows up in some of those joints. "THAT WAS AMAZING--" It starts, before suddenly Fuki plunges down. "Ah crap." It says, as its torso is suddenly pierced right through! The shields SHATTER immediately under Fuki's ABSURD levels of Abstractum power, but the Abstractum itself managed to move Vervi's body out of the way! Mmmmostly. She'll have to come up with another element to the dodge in order to fully avoid damage, or she might suffer some anyway! But luckily, Fuki's left stuck in close-quarters. "Ghhhhh, manifestation at 80% already! VERVI! I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SAY WORDS SO AWESOME. LET'S WRESTLE A JOUSTING NINJA AFTER PUNCHING THIS LEOPARD."
Gaius Van Baelsar	One of the missiles that Staren fires goes right in and the explosion inside the cannon does happen. The on board system automatically closes off the weapon from the rest of the ship. Maintenance crews are being dispatched to that area quickly to get either the cannon repaired-- which wont happen-- or get it swapped out. As for the other cannons the missiles don't exactly make impact as intended and the armor of the Dreadnaught actually keeps them protected for the most part, cause the metal of the cannon to be scorched by the heat, but still operational. Conversations of the cannon going out and the others being serviced are barked out across the bridge. The coordinates of where the Star Hawk is is also rambled off quickly and several other things are given out. Gaius Van Baelsar though, continues to stand calmly where he is. His hands relaxed and his posture never seeming to change, even at the on the fact his Airship's flaw is being used. "..The location of the Juggernauts?" "They are approaching now, My Lord." Staren may notice behind him several of the Magitek Juggernauts are moving in. There bodies are like large cylinders and they have not only a few cannons on them, but racks of machine guns, which they use to open fire with rounds and rounds of shells coming right at the more high tech machine. There 'bird' like feet barely touching the Dreadnaught as they go to move in on angle with the Star hawk, for if it moves-- so will they-- and if he charges at them, they will leap aside.
Vervi	While Maverick takes steps to at least ensure Vervi's body isn't badly pierced, the tip of that lance does scrape past her side before it punches through the power armor's back. It's enough to make the tiny pilot wince, one eye closed, glowering at Fuki through her protective blue visor with the HUD projecting on it. "You're a lot stronger, huh... But don't think I'm gonna give up just because of that! Come on, Maverick!" One hand reaches forward, wrapping around the lance speared through the mecha's body in an effort to make it that much more difficult to remove. The other reaches up and back. From the armor's backside, a panel opens up to deploy the hilt of her sword, which she draws out. The blade projects along the reinforcing spine, and she brings this down in a swift overhead chop on Fuki while hopefully keeping the nindroid in place via pinning her weapon. "HYAH!"
Staren	"Hang in there, Eureka..." Staren encourages, when he hears his Abstractum straining. "Tch..." Staren frowns at the armor stopping his missiles. And then ridiculous-looking walking towers fly up to shoot at Staren. He's so surprised by their appearance that he dodges too slowly -- more armor is chipped away. "What is this nonsense. Those have no right flying." Staren glances down. That guy is trying to melee the shield. Well, he knows Twilight can handle herself. He looks back at the Juggernauts. And grins. "Let's fix that. Cancel the other Rotation... Rotate their flight magic into something I can target! Bonus points if you can do a flimsy rotor or a turbine I can just chuck something in!"
Abstractum.Net	"Let's do it! HYAH!!" The dual-type Abstractum calls out in unison with Vervi, baring its energy blade. The brilliant red light that suddenly runs along it comes down hard! But Silent Black projects its own Barrier up, holding against it, just for a few seconds... Meanwhile, Silent Black is heating up and its teeth are churning viciously within Maverick, whose roar of battle is getting bits of pain to it. Fuki and Vervi, like this, are locked together, set in a cycle of damage! The burning red light blasts through both ends of the impalement and rocks the surrounding area with shockwaves of power, and the pilot is likely exposed to at least a little of that. Meanwhile, after a moment holding, Silent Black's barrier cracks under the force of Vervi's overhand strike, letting in a leack of searing heat and force, and the blade's power is scoring blasts of ash over the ground under the pair. The two shinkis' willpower are going to be directly drawn on in this VERSUS PARADIGM! In this engagement, Fuki has the raw power advantage, but Vervi hs the tactical! And now they're stuck with a SHEER WILLPOWER BATTLE, completely decided by who backs down from the pain and exertion first! Whichever one relents is going to likely be blasted away by sudden explosive force that's building up between the two.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight hmphs and smirks lightly as her beam impacts Nox's shield. But, that smirk lasts only a moment as Nox zigs and zags and teleports down. Then...he's right at the shield and wielding something that looks pretty dangerous. And when Nox swings, the sword breaks open a small section of the shield. Plenty large enough for an average sized person to get through. Twilight cries out as her shield is broken open, then mmphs before trying to reinforce the shield. The damaged section starts to close up, but Twilight is clearly tired now. As a last ditch effort to keep them out, Twilight's book floats down to the damaged area, and starts rotating rapidly before firing a beam of pure energy right through that hole. Unlike the others, this one -is- a searing energy beam.
Twilight Sparkle	"You may call me Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight calls out as her beam fires. "But, 'girl' is appropriate!" she adds.
Abstractum.Net	"It really is nonsense." Eureka says, with its own soft strain. "Fantastically dangerous nonsense though. Canceling the Rotation. I'll do what I can. Aligning Rotation paradigms." And the gauntlet reaches out to grasp at the concepts within the foes! It's hard to get multiple enemies, though! What happens next may depend on the structure and concepts. If these have enough integrity of concept, Eureka will wind up trying to rotate the entire massive things! The gauntlet might not get all of them, and in fact may only be able to handle a few of the group! But what it tries to do is change their form to an equivalent in another genre. Trying to not let Staren down, it tries to go for a more steampunk genre, but who knows what they'll end up with that! If it can get JUST the flight magitech systems, though, it's going to try to convert them into something more modern. Turbines, probably! Something a little more exposed, easier to understand and target, hopefully.
Nox	A tinny, metallic chuckle emanates from behind Nox's mask as Twilight Sparkle's barrier splinters and fractures. It's like hitting a ball of solid glass with a hammer, just short of actually shattering it. The instant the hole opens up, the noxines are already pouring through, having had plenty of time to catch up during the initial struggle. Dozens of tiny, winged drones go buzzing into the breach, filling the air with their mechanical chittering and chirruping. Nox himself begins floating through after them, physically pushing aside the edges of the forcefield as it tries to close in around him. Only at the last second does he notice the book. Thinking quickly, he hurls his sword straight at it like a javelin, aiming to skewer it straight through the spine, only for it to be knocked aside by the blast of energy and embed itself point first in the roof instead. The beam instead catches him head on, repulsing him back through the other side of the protective dome with a yell of frustration. Backflipping one, he throws his arms out and comes to a sudden halt, instantly fixing himself in mid-air. "Twilight Sparkle. An unusual name to say the least." Dusting off his chestplate, now scorched brown and black by the direct hit, Nox folds his hands behind his back again, as if totally prepared to sit outside the forcefield and wait for the unicorn to tire herself out. "I don't think I'll be forgetting it any time soon, but unfortunately, I don't have much time to play around today. You see, I'm on a very strict schedule, and as much as I'd love to get to know you, my time is precious." The sword stuck in the factory roof lets off a faint pulse of energy, and then the next instant, Nox is inside; teleporting straight through the barrier that had been keeping him out so effectively until now. The weapon is obviously to blame, though Twilight obviously doesn't know of Zenith's unique properties. Stopping just long enough to wrech his sword free of its resting place, he snaps an arm out towards Twilight Sparkle and fires off a wave of unstable temporal acceleration, exciting the air particles for meters around into an explosive conflagration of raw plasma, easily melting through the structure beneath. Apparently he doesn't intend to stay and fight it out with the unicorn. Nox is nothing if not punctual, and he had promised to deliver Fuki's specified materials within a very strict timeframe. He zaps through the hole in the factory wall and the swarm of noxines follow behind him; the steady drone of insect wings echoing around the interior.
Fuki	Fuki lets out a loud 'hnngh' as the energy blade smashes into the shield, holding for now. Fuki continues to press the lance deep into the other Abstractum, twisting it around to try and injure as much as she can, letting the teeth eat and gnaw and smash into whatever they can get into. "I WILL NOT LET GO!" she shouts, as the sound of the barrier cracking and the smash of blade into body makes the Ninja Shinki emit a loud scream, if that was burning resolve or just plain burning, we'll let that figure out itself. Fuki stares at Vervi through the cockpit, her ferocious mask bearing its teeth at her, "Meet the Lance, Vervi... you might... be able to do something like this... late in the future! She continues to twist the lance and tug and press it in to grind out as much as possible. "But thanks for getting me ... close!"
Vervi	When Silent Black's fangs start chewing into Maverick, it also starts pulling out pieces of Vervi from where the lance grazed her side, tearing away bits of her casing. Within the cockpit, she flinches. There's a wet noise and then faintly green jelly leaks out around the wound, a sign that Vervi's coolant system has been ruptured. Jelly leaks out of the armor, running down the forward-extended leg. She winces again, baring her teeth, her posture faltering from the damage as Fuki grinds that sinister weapon through her armor and against her body, "Nnngh...!" One eye squeezed closed, she mutters, "We have to push through this... If I can't succeed here, there's no way I could protect Master..!" One foot, shaking, lifts and then slams back down, the stance more firm. She leans forward into the clash, ignoring the mounting damage and pushing all of her strength into her arms and her blade. Teeth bared, she roars a single phrase at the tops of her tiny lungs. "--I WON'T LOSE!"
Gaius Van Baelsar	The aura brought from the world causes a bit of conflict as the Gauntlet is outstretched to alter the shape of the Juggernauts, though one apparently is far weaker then the others by the multiverse auric field. That One juggernaut suddenly gains hovering thrusters on a gryoscope level, almost giving it a far more advance look then what it should perhaps be. The lines along it glow a bright blue and nearly pulsate and the stray bullets become that of near lasers. But Staren at least now can see the weakness and is able to take aim on at least one of them. Focus fire anyone?
Staren	"Nice! One at a time is all we need!" Staren fires bursts of railgun fire at the turbines, charging the juggernaut and trying to slash one with his beam saber. If that works... once the flight is crippled, the Rotation can be dropped and they can go for the next one! Clearing the air!
Abstractum.Net	Silent Black shuts off the failing barrier and allows Fuki to take the brunt of Vervi's assault, as requested! And then the lance's offensive force PEAKS, suddenly like an inferno and a wild animal in the suit. "Ghhhh... All power to the strike... I won't let you down, Fuki!!" The lance calls out, grunting, intensely, with effort and pain in the armor. Then Vervi's clash comes down with sudden, MASSIVE force! Her willpower skyrockets due to her motive, and Maverick's blade gushes with vivid red fire! The ensuing shockwave is entirely inappropriate for six-inch dolls; you'd think a BOMB went off right here! The blast of red light, scorching heat, and force crack the earth asunder, kicking up rubble and creating an impact crater under the shinkis' feet. It's enough force to dislodge Fuki with a HUGE SLAM, likely causing lacerations and tossing her away when it happens. The sheer power might even create another crater where she lands! Maverick, meanwhile, is left at 60% integrity and with a giant, gaping hole in its torso. Its enthusiasm actually seems a bit curbed as its heavy breathing pants and races.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight lets out a sigh of relief as Nox is pushed back through the barrier. But, her victory is short-lived. The little pony's eyes widen as Nox simply teleports in this time. "H-hey!" Twilight exclaims raggedly before covering her face with her a foreleg as Nox melts the roof in. With the factory compromised, Twilight stops holding up the shield, then leaps down into the factory. She lands a bit unsteadily, obviously tired from holding up such a powerful spell for so long. "St-...pant...stop!" she says to Nox before her horn glows and beams of metal from the already compromised roof fly down, then try to wrap themselves around Nox.
Gaius Van Baelsar	While Staren was focusing the Juggernauts the Dreadnought was moving herself around. Staren may notice once the Juggernaughts fly away-- even after he shoots down the one that they are scattering. The reason becomes very clear when he realizes that the Dreadnought was not only facing him, but a massive cannon has come to bare near the bottom that /wasn't/ there before. It has a massive barrel and energy can be seen charging up at the tip of it. Within one of the men at the helm of the weapon systems slides up slider bars while saying calmly. Even as most of the power to the ship as been drawn to the weapon itself by this point, "Magitek Cannon at full charge." The Imperial Legatus then lowers his arms at last and motions his hand forward as he says with a commanding tone, "Open fire. Full Power!" The Magitek Cannon then unleashes a massive redish-white beam of energy right at the Starhawk, aiming to not only engulf it in the massive beam of energy, but even ram across the country side in a wake of massive devastation with one heck of a explosion that follows it.
Nox	Well on one hand, at least Twilight isn't getting the usual act of the villain looking down his nose at her and declaring that she isn't worth the time. It actually seems as if Nox has absolutely zero interest in fighting her unless she is directly impeding his progress, not even going so far as to affirm whether or not she had survived the plasma blast. Despite the fact that he seems to teleport about as often as someone breathes, the hum of metallic wings makes him rather easy to find, giving Twilight Sparkle a pinpoint location to aim for. The place he seems to have chosen is the plant at the very end of multiple production lines that begins the process of sorting, packaging and storing the manufactured goods for transport. The noxines are already busy here, expending their batteries in circular, mid-air spirals that draw shimmering, oval shaped portals onto the surface of the air. With several of these gates open at once, Nox seems to be conducting the theft of materials in the same way one would conduct a band; with a whole lot of hand waving. Telekinetic movements pluck crystals, wire, vials of liquid, sealed canisters, and all shapes and sizes of gears off of the assembly lines, all of them constructed in some manner as to render them see-through. He's halfway through pillaging the contents of the factory before several pieces of i-beam suddenly smash themselves around him, bending like newspaper blown against a lamp post. "Very funny." He doesn't sound even close to laughing. The buzzing of the noxines rises to a menacing chorus of beating wings; little glowing bugs rising in cloud to glare at Twilight Sparkle with their shutter eyes. "A valiant effort. After coming all this way, I'm sure your superiors would entirely understand were you to concede a victory to me. I doubt they would hang someone of your considerable talents out to dry, little mage. However . . ." Another sound like a high voltage wire being cut down. Nox's shape fizzles like cyan static, punctuating the most pointless teleport ever; reappearing on the exact same spot, but turned 180 degrees to face the unicorn. Of course, the effect of disappearing for a moment means that the metal wrapped around him predictably falls to the floor with a lot of loud clattering and banging. ". . . I'm not certain what else you expected but that." A handful of Noxines break off from their hovering cluster, rushing Twilight like a bunch of very angry bees. Rather than brandishing stingers however, the lead drone detonates its stored energy in a violent explosion, and the blast causes all the ones near it to go off in a daisy chain of fireballs.
Staren	Staren only glances at the falling Juggernaut before turning to the next. Then he realizes the battleship has turned its front towards him. He realizes what /that/ means. The Star Hawk turns around. The cannon's opening? Perfect. He'll fire missiles right into-- The blast just cuts through the missiles like nothing. "Oh, F--" The Star Hawk blurs and reconfigures as it tries to dance aside and readies its shield, but really, against something of this power, that won't help. The massive red blast fills part of the sky... And then at last, the Star Hawk falls out of it at an angle, slamming into the ground and skidding for awhile. The shield destroyed. The armor blackened all over, sections missing here and there. Staren's HUD fills with warnings. He's glad he's a robot right now. Being tossed about might have been rather unpleasant in a soft organic body. He glances at the warnings, dismisses them, and slowly, jerkily but with motion smoothing out by the second as power is rerouted around damaged components, the Star Hawk rises to one knee. The right shoulder pack opens. Unfolds a barrel as long as the whole mech is tall. The shoulder-mounted sniper railgun rotates into position, one of the mecha's hands taking a foregrip and aiming. CHARGING... 50% The reticle moves over the distant ship. It /does/ make a nice, big target. CHARGING... 90% Now Staren knows where its primary weapon is. Time to see just how strong that armor is... "Eureka! Ready Strike Drive... boost this as much as you can!" CHARGING... 100% The capacitors, charged with several seconds of fusion reactor array power, dump it all in a fraction of a second to propel a warhead to several times the speed of sound. Enchantments placed on the magitech weapon imbue the projectile with increased accuracy and impact power, on top of the massive kinetic energy. There's a CRACK as it enters the atmosphere, and a burst of thruster power is needed to keep the Star Hawk from falling over. The projectile screams through the air, crossing the distance in a fraction of second on a pillar of fire as the air around it is superheated. A laser mounted on the tip fires, just before impact, trying to weaken shields or armor before the collision, which itself will hopefully tear a hole at least several meters into the ship. And that's when the magic explosive inside goes off, roiling elemental mana of fire and water mixing and reacting explosively! Yeah. That should take this airship down a peg. Staren hopes.
Fuki	"I know you won't!" Fuki replies to her Abstractum, snarling behind that mask as she grips it tight.. until Fuki looks up and the blade crashes into her with the force of a large bomb, sending the Shinki flying from the newly made crater with Silent Black in tow, landing a good yardage away in another crater, trails of greenish fluid flying from the ninja-shinki. Fuki lies in the crater for a minute... eyes flaring open as her system reboots into a reckless mode. She floats up, wobbling a bit from the sheer damage that last impact has given her. "Now you know the true power of Versus..." she muttered, possibly being heard or not, until the Shinki's wings flare out and thrusters kick on, sending the lance wielding Shinki in full force towards the mecha-wearing Shinki, stabbing once... twice... and with a third, to lift the Shinki over her head and slam right into the ground!
Gaius Van Baelsar	The Dreadnought holds steady, even as Staren opens up with a massive attack in reply. The blast fires up and an explosion from it rocks the area, the flames consume around the curvature of the Dreadnought, but when the smoke and flames clear, though some armor bits come crashing down to the ground below and a few sparks can be seen for just a few moments, the Dreadnought continues to hold steady and a barrier around the Magitek Cannon and around the bridge window flickers with a blue hexagon glow. The armor around it though has been burnt off, thus the pieces that fall, but yet she still stands in her glory of the power that is the Garlean Empire. Staren then may get a comm from Gaius about then, "I applaud you for your attempt and your machine is well designed to survive. An oversight that will be amended in the future." The Dreadnought's cannons along the side and some on the bottom come to bare and start to rain down terror on were the Starhawk is, one shell after another, after another.
Vervi	"Maverick, come on!" Vervi shouts the order, rather than responding to the abstractum's gushing about the power she'd just unleashed through it. As Fuki comes roaring her way, she kicks off the ground where she'd dug in, activating her armor's thrusters as well to hurl herself backward. This way, rather than trying to soak the full impact of the ninja shinki's lance, she's making it more difficult for Silent Black to get purchase, which should make it easier for Maverick to defend. She's also not going to make it easy, though. With that lance jabbing at her, Vervi thrusts her arms out to either side, exposing the wing-mounted photon pods so they can start dropping mines in her wake, filling the air behind the two shinki with explosions across the factory's front courtyard.
Staren	Shell after shell rains down on the Star Hawk. It stumbles as it tries to rise... one shell catches the arm just right, blowing it apart. It can't fire the massive railgun again, as it's knocked out of position and the barrel bent. "You... will... not... get away so easily!" The mecha draws a /revolver/, like a massive Colt Peacemaker engraved with a triple-M monogram, with its remaining hand, taking aim at the distant ship and firing. Each shot fires two four-inch shells, one behind the other, enhanced with the mad science of a god of inspiration and madness. It may not be enough. But if nothing else, the Dreadnaught's repair crew will /remember this day/.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight's ears lay back as Nox points out the flaw in her tactic. "It was more meant as a delay tactic." she says. And it seemed as likely to stick as any other tactic. She is trying to catch her breath as Nox speaks, but then...exploding chain of little bugs! Twilight cries out as she is hit several times before her magic goes to work again. She tries to push the chain of bugs backward so that as they continue to explode they will both stop exploding her and start exploding Nox. Then, she collapses onto her belly, her purple coat and armor scorched in several places. Even if Nox doesn't attack her again, she doesn't look like she'll be able to do much more.
Gaius Van Baelsar	Remember those two other airships? They actually maneuver themselves at last in time to actually get in the way of pistol shots as they are fired. The bullets clip against the armor of the two smaller airships as flood lights from them flare down on Staren's Starhawk. They hover there for a moment, even as one of the bullets take out the flood lights causing a spark of shards to fill the air. The shots that do get past, impact the already damaged armor, knocking a few more plates free which go colliding down into the very ground. A whine up could be heard from the two smaller airships before they open fire with the machines guns right down on the Starhawk below, looking to tear it up with further lead.
Abstractum.Net	Each massive jabbing lunge emits a titanic wave of red energy behind Vervi. The mecha suffers several more glancing strikes that carge huge gashes into it. The huge waves of fire and force that come out of the body of the mecha come from the shockwaves of force running through it, and they tear huge trenches in the ground below. The thrusters on the mecha that Fuki's striking at flare red and blast harshly, though, and those photon emitters dropping mines are leaving craters in their wake, the energy projectiles trying to tear at Fuki's body as she rushes past them, maybe even throwing her off! But with Vervi jet-dashing like this, and Fuki's strength MASSIVELY boosted, lifting the mecha is easy, as is slamming it down; the mecha seems about as damaged as Fuki! Oh MAN. When it impacts the ground, it's with another shockwave that cracks the ground in spiderweb lines that spread several yards away.
Staren	The Star Hawk shakes this way and that as more weapons fire comes in... when the attacks finally stop, it collapses on the ground with a great THUD. Plates of armor and one arm missing. Weapons bent or broken. Armor and internals riddled with holes. It simply can't /function/ anymore. Staren seethes. "...Next time, Eureka, next time." <<Twilight,>> he radios, <<I'm going to be getting out of here shortly, if you can still teleport.>> And indeed... once the smaller airships have flown away, or made it clear they're not going anywhere, the Star Hawk slowly rises. Ignoring any further bullets that fly into its structure, tearing apart motors and electronic muscles. /It shouldn't be able to move/. Of course, that is why Staren animated it as a golem as well. Of course, able to move and able to fight are two different things. It lumbers towards the warpgate. If Twilight's unable to reach it right now, Staren teleports out to pick her up. "We tried. We'll... I don't know. Somehow, we'll have to be stronger next time."
Nox	"Oh? Well then I suppose it succeeded. You've already delayed me more than enough however, and I am growing very /tired/ of it." Nox raises his voice for the first time today; metal shielding sliding out over the lenses in his mask to give the impression of an angry glare. "From the footage outside, it seems this operation is just about over. I've hit just about everything on the list, so I would say this operation has gone pretty well. I'll make sure to study up on your curious abilities later, perhaps starting with that grimoire of yours, but for now it would be in your best interests to-" The sudden surge of high-energy explosive coming Nox's way cuts him off completely. The noxines are powerful suicide weapons when employed as such, even with most of their internal energy spent as they are now, but tiny little bugs are pretty easy to send flying backward with any significant amount of force, and a handful of them still milliseconds away from exploding land dangerously close to the xelor before going off. His position is momentarily drowned out in cerulean flames, the fireballs blossoming in strangely fluid and artistic ways. For a second it looks as if he might have been wiped out, but then the sound of the explosion stops completely, and is replaced with nothing but eerie, dead silence. Very faintly, Twilight Sparkle can make out the sound of ticking, like someone had discarded a pocketwatch by her ear. Along with their sound, the detonations in progress appear to have stopped as well; pieces of flying shrapnel suspended in mid air, trailing frozen flames and hanging smoke like something out of a high budget action film. Nox's silhouette materializes from the front of the cloud; shattered pieces of armour drifting off of him as he moves as testament to how close the unicorn had actually come to blowing him up. Only when his feet are literally floating a foot away from his nose does the explosion resume, blowing a dramatic, fiery breeze at his back. "As I was saying, it would be in your best interests to stay there. I would rather not use up any more energy than I've already spent today, but I can't guarantee your safety if you come after me again." Waving to the drones behind him, the portals close up one after the other. He waits only long enough for the last few pieces of material to go through. The haul is a little skimpy thanks to all this meddling, but it should be enough for what Fuki needs, and far more than someone could carry out by truck.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight Sparkle slowly gets back to her feet, but by the time she does, Nox is already gone. She sighs heavily, then in a flash of magic teleports over to join Staren, watching the airships withdraw, no doubt loaded with their ill-gotten gains. "We are strong, Staren." she says, limping her way toward his mech. "But, we were not very well prepared. If we had been able to organize a better defense..." she says before joining him in the cockpit again. "Let's go home."
Gaius Van Baelsar	The Dreadnought nor its two airships open fire on Staren when he retreats, instead they just hover there waiting. When word is given all the Juggernauts return to their bays and the two airships are the last things to go dock. Soon the Dreadnought aims its cannons down on the fallen pieces of armor with blue shells that fire down at the scarps, igniting them on flame and burning them down to nothing but metal ash before taking off to where-ever Gaius may be heading off to next.
Fuki	The sight of the wave of red brings a smile to the overdriven Fubuki model, each one of those three stabs were trying to destroy. The last one to throw and slam the other Shinki into the ground is met with crater making photon mines around the Shinki, it looks to make Fuki not give up, despite the blasts causing chunks of the Vulpine Reaver armor to fall off and more deep cuts to spew out more coolant. Fuki backs away a bit, panting heavily, twirling the lance now as she readies one last stance... "Silent Black... what can you give me...." she mutters, breathing heavily, body battered and dead set on finishing this before she retreats.
Vervi	When Fuki backs off, Vervi halts herself and brings both herself and her Abstractum to a hover about a foot off the ground. The sword is lifted, braced in both hands while the shinki mutters to her armor, "She's gonna prepare something. Some trump card. Something we won't expect." Glancing down, she mutters, "We have to stop her before she can get that ready. Give me all your speed. And at the last second, put all that energy into power." Without even waiting for an affirmative, Vervi hurls herself into motion, transforming from Armor to Jet form mid-dash to close the distance on Fuki as rapidly as possible. And once she's in the ninja shinki's face, re-converting to Armor form, sword raised overhead and coming down in an arc with all of her strength behind it, backed by a wordless shout behind that downward cleave.
Abstractum.Net	The lance spins and then flares with an abrupt rush of red fire. "Everything I have." Silent Black replies, firmly, to Fuki. The building whir of power within it suddenly blasts forward as it undergoes a process quite similar to what Fuki found it doing in the WMAT. "FERAL DRIVE MODIFIER. FERAL GORGE-RUSH." And with that, the lance splits wide, branching into a multi-part mass that comes to meet Vervi's rocket-powered overhead assault firmly and head-on. The wave of force that rips out of the point of contact shakes the factory nearby. The rapid jabs and stabs into Vervi's mecha are matched by the lances crumbing under the assault. In a direct fight, Vervi might have lost this due to Fuki's sheer overwhelming power, but she got in before Silent Black could really spin up, and already had the wound advantage.... The impact on Fuki could be enoigh to knock her away, presumably back towards her ship. But those dozens of mini-lances were rushing forwards; they'll be giving much more COMPREHENSIVE mecha body-damage, and trying to drive Vervi away and give Fuki space.
Fuki	Distance is good... Fuki nods at her Abstractum. "Good... good, I trust you." She listens to her Abstractum, the Feral Drive Modifier... and suddenly, lance turns into many... many smaller lances. Defensive as well as offensive, she tries to help aim the lances where they need to go, INTO Vervi, but with Vervi already up in her personal space of doom, the impact does indeed launch the Shinki away, a blast crater from the sheer force of impact is left in her wake. Keesha's on the move, tracing the Shinki's body in air before moving into the spot to let the Shinki land on PUNCHED LEOPARD fur, the poor Coeurl's jaw is dislodged and dangling some, a snarl.. "N... no, Keesha. Ship.. Now." she mutters, this time... retreating towards the ship. "That... was so much fun..." she whispered towards Silent Black.. "Let's... do that again wtih Maverick... Oh she'll be such the person to protect the Union's General."
Vervi	Oh, Vervi sees that lance spinning up in a way she recognizes from before, only last time it was SICKLES and KNIVES and for some reason this time it's a lot more terrifying even tough a spear is a relatively more mundane and less inherently sinister weapon. She certainly spots Silent Black's transformation, but she's already far too committed to the blitz attack to pull out of it now, and so she simply weathers through it in her descent. Spears gouge into armor, tearing holes through the Abstractum as well as further damaging the shinki inside it. That wordless shout becomes a defiant roar that lasts all the way through the barrage until that enormous sword slams into the ground with its explosive force. And then she just crouches there, damage sparking, steam hissing from the ruptures in her coolant system. She pants, puffs of steam escaping her mouth in unsteady breaths. "...We're still standing, but I feel like we lost," she murmurs. Very slowly, painfully, the girl hauls herself to her feet, wrenching Maverick's sword from where it had embedded itself, so that she can watch Fuki's retreat, "...Maverick. We have to get stronger."