Eve of Crisis (Bio, Tar)

[GEAR]

Ana's blast from the Mega Buster Cannon caught one of the Axios unaware, blowing away the lower half of the unit completely, leaving it to awkwardly tumble to the sand, a hissing wreck. Strangely, no pilot emerged from it to escape, despite the clear danger.

The remaining Axios, undeterred, continued their advance - until they were sufficiently halted by the spray of Prisca's gatling cannon, causing them to to halt and crouch, weary of closing the gap any further. Supporting fire from the Tripoli and the two remaining MP Huckebeins joined her effort, clearly grateful to follow her lead - and she was rewarded by seeing one of the Axios blown apart by one of the Rhinoceros' main guns. The victory was short lived, however, as a lance of fire from one of the Sniper PTs burned into the Tripoli's batteries, scything apart the barrel, and causing a chain of small explosions to ripple across the battleship's surface.

Meanwhile, Eliza was chewing her lower lip and thinking of where to start, when Ana's communication interrupted her thoughts, causing the Special to glance down at the diminuitive machine.

"T-throw you?" She stammered, unsure of how serious the woman was.

Memories of being picked last in gym class, of tripping while rounding bases into a faceful of dirt, and holding the bat upside down flooded Eliza's thoughts... but regardless, she picked up Ana's Gespenst in the Chaos Leo's claws, delicately. In the distance, she picked out the form of the sniper Huckebein, thanks to Alica's expert spotting... and licked her lips. This, she thought, was what specialized Motion Patterns were for, as she selected the unorthodox motion for the Special's movements.

The Chaos Leo gently curled the Gespenst into a crouch... and then, its face guard clamped down, as Dimensional flames erupted from its shoulders and mane, filling it with power. Standing on one foot, it reached back with the hand containing the Gespenst, shoulder twisting as it did to turn the black machine in fast circles, until it was only a blur - like the biggest baseball pitcher in history.

Oh, right, she remembered. Times like these, there was something else important you were supposed to do:

Yell.

"UWWOOOOOAAAAAH!"

The Chaos leo's foot stomped forward, discharging energy that instantly turned the sand below into multi-colored glass. Tendrils of energy lashed out behind it, making it light up across the battlefield. Bullets from the Axios sent its way simply melted away, or peeled off in the face of the display of power.

"ULTIMATE! DIMENSION! SPLITTEEEEEER!"

It's hand blurred as it finally lashed forward.

"DEEEYEAAAAGH!"

With a crack like thunder, the Special hurled the supercharged Gespenst like a missile, a bolt of Dimensional energy that cut through the sky like a spear towards it's unlucky target - the Huckebein among the ruins.

 

[XekuZwei]

It was all Anastasiya could do to hold on for dear life as the Chaos Leo spun her in a wide arc, armored fingers grasping the battle armor's shins to keep herself curled into a compact ball. Narrowing her eyes against the sight of the outside world as it seemed to gyrate around her with rapidly increasing velocity, the woman briefly wondered if she had made a terrible mistake. The EOT in the armor was compensating for the rotational forces and could protect her from being turned into a meatbag milkshake, but it couldn't prevent Eliza from accidentally smearing her across a rock...

And then, with a tremendous bellow from the platinum-haired woman the Gespenst was released. It hurtled through the air like a stone from a sling, sent careening directly toward one of the sniping Huckebeins on a rocket ride of dimensional energy. Anastasiya couldn't hold back a guffaw at the yelling and name of the 'attack', the whole performance being so far-removed from what she'd so far seen from Eliza. "Attagirl! Now watch this!"

Energy seemed to burst from the Gespenst's every joint and seam as it unfolded itself in mid-air, the ball of dimensional power that encapsulated it flaring even brighter. It flipped around as she extended her right leg, flying foot-first toward the sniper; that cloud of free-flowing energy was spontaneously drawn to the leading limb and wrapped the battlesuit's right boot in a blinding sheath of energy.

"Ultimate..."

Artificial lightning lanced out from the machine's foot in every direction, arcing to and fro across the terrain and leaving ragged lines of glass in the sand. The Huckebein fired in vain, the beam from its rifle striking true only to be deflected, arced away by the concentrated field of energy around its target.

"...Gespenst...!"

A blazing column of rocket thrust burst from the rear of the Gespenst as its own thrusters were overclocked to far beyond their intended specifications, enhancing even further the incredible velocity imparted to it by the Chaos Leo. There was no time left to evade for either party, not at these speeds.

"...KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"

Anastasiya slammed into the unfortunate Huckebein with a degree of force far beyond what her three-ton machine should have been capable of either achieving or surviving. The Trooper's torso crumpled like tinfoil as reinforced frame and armor caved in around the point of impact. The power behind the blow was enough to send it flying, Gespenst along for the ride, backwards to smash unceremoniously into a half-ruined wall. A colossal cloud of dirt, dust, and sand billowed up around the duo, obscuring the aftermath of the collision from the rest of the field.

 

[Tarsier]

Briefly stumbling from the destruction of the Tripoli's turret, Prisca exploited the sniper's recharge time. Removing the stand from her Huckebein's back and attaching the beam cannon to it, she embedded it into the ground, positioned to suppress the sniper occupying the cliff. As she retrieved the rifle mounted across the rear skirt, she watched Anastasiya soar towards the ruined watchtower. With the group split up, she made a quick decision to follow after; while staying closer to the Tripoli would be preferable, her Huckebein would be able to catch up the fastest.

Reactivating the hover jets, she reported, "Emplacement is ready. I'm moving to cover the Gespenst." Able to move faster thanks to the lightened load, Prisca began scanning the terrain, firing short bursts towards the Axio squads as she advanced towards the coast. Briefly taking cover to replace the emptied magazine, she contacted Eliza to order, "Stay close to the Tripoli. I can't cover you from this far away." With the rifle loaded, she continued towards the coast, increasingly wary of her surroundings.

 

[GEAR]

The remaining Sniper PT paused, briefly distracted by the sudden obliteration of its partner unit, causing it to crouch down under Prisca's suppressing fire. A whistling in the air prompted it to peer up briefly - as a round from the Tripoli's remaining battery smashed into its position, courtesy of the Huckebein's expert guidance, causing smoke to billow out the plateau. Her attack on the Axios hit home - one of the machines took a hit directly to its chest unit, causing it to shudder and collapse, black fumes emerging from its exhaust ports. Perhaps it had suffered some form of mechanical error?

After a few moments, the Sniper PT emerged from the smoke - its right arm now gone, and with it, the lethal sniper rifle. It burst away on its thruster arrays, clearly attempting to flee the battlefield - but was cut down by the two vengeful Mass Production Huckebeins, their Rectangle Launchers blasting apart the offending machine in a fiery explosion that lit up the whole plateau.

As Prisca moved towards the coast, a glimmer on the horizon would have immediately caught her eye. Something was coming towards them over the waves at high speed - at first glance it appeared to be one unit, but zooming in with her camera would reveal-

A sudden blast of electric blue hurtled past her Huckebein, just barely missing the Tripoli, illuminating its form briefly. The scent of burning ozone filled the air, as the forms of the attackers became clear...

A blue and silver humanoid machine stood atop a large, red fighter-jet like machine. In its hand it clasped a long-barreled rifle, currently with steam escaping its barrel, the fading sunlight gleaming off several mirror-like surfaces on its body. There was no doubt that it was the very one that had appeared in the briefing video.

"You missed."
"It's called a warning shot." - The humanoid replaced the rifle on its rear skirt armor, dropping into a crouch as its pilot - an older man, it sounded like - conversed privately with the fighter's - a younger, more monotone woman's voice.
"We're not murderers."
"Success of the mission would be statistically higher with fewer enemies."
"Well, I'm in charge, and I say we're doing it this way."
"The illogical way?"
"The right way."
"Acknowledged."
"That's what I like to hear! Orphes, Lyras, engaging!"

With that, the blue-and-silver machine leapt off its accompanying craft, into the shallows below, its thrusters carrying it forward towards the coast - and straight for Prisca.

Ultimate X had arrived.

Meanwhile, Eliza was ecstatic at the result of her maneuver with Ana, the Special excitedly shaking its claws as its face guard opened, revealing its face once more as steam poured from its shoulders.

"I-I did it!" She gasped aloud; "Did you see that? I actually hit-"

Her excited stammering was cut short as machinegun rounds peppered her machine, causing her to give a slight yelp, the Chaos Leo covering its face with its hands. Within the cockpit, Eliza gave a sheepish groan - perhaps it was a bit too early to celebrate after all. Giving a grunt of aggravation, she gripped the controls, urging the machine into the thick of the fray.

"Take this! Saber Claw!"

The Chaos Leo bounded forward, swinging an arm towards the Axios - and three gleaming, clawed talons shot out on impossibly long cables, aiming to puncture all three machines in mid-advance.

For Ana, however, things were about to become... A bit more interesting.

As the Gespenst rose from the rubble, among the ruined Sniper PT's crushed remains... Ana's HUD would have chirped an unusual, garbled warning, one that did not come from the suit's usual sensors - but one rooted in System XN's connection to them. It indicated that something in the immediate vicinity... Had changed, somehow - a dimensional transference. Someone - or something - had shifted the space around them, just ever-so-slightly...

But what?

 

[Tarsier]

Her attention captured by the beam scorching past her, Prisca landed and turned to face the source, forced to leave Ana on her own until the enemy's reinforcements were subdued. Zooming in and recognizing the Personal Trooper from the recordings, it was clear that the previous intelligence was useless, from the rifle it had just stowed. With the machine already approaching, standing her ground was her only option until she knew more or had support. Broadcasting a message directed at the Unknown X machine, she said, "Unidentified Personal Trooper, you are entering a combat area. Withdraw immediately or you will be treated as hostile."

As Prisca delivered the warning, she began to scan across the enemy machine, searching for any hidden equipment and recording its actions. However, any detailed analysis was interrupted by the two machines separating; concentrating on one enemy would leave her too vulnerable to the other, something made worse by their advantage in range. Bracing the rifle against the Huckebein's waist, and preparing to activate the shield on the other arm, she watched them and waited for their attack to begin.

 

[XekuZwei]

"Ngh, c'mon..." With a boorish grunt and no small effort, Anastasia wrenched her armored boot free of where it had become embedded in the Huckebein's collapsed chestplate. Seemed as though the Chaos Leo had imparted quite a bit of extra force to the attack in the form of both velocity and the supplemental dimensional energy that had been drawn in. She glanced around the wreckage of the fallen foe, swiping a hand in front of the Gespenst's visor in vain in an attempt to improve her visibility.

"Aha. There you are." Its former owner a crumpled heap, the beam-type sniper rifle lay discarded a short distance away. If it was anything like the modular weapons she had experience with, it was powered independently of the machine that wielded it. And that meant that she could turn it against their ambushers. There was, of course, a minor size discrepancy; she was just considering the best way to heft the gun up so as to use the fallen wall of the ruins like a bipod when the Gespenst's systems chirped a decidedly unexpected warning.

Outlaw Star OST 1 - Fear

Anastasia froze. A spatial disturbance? Not even Ultimate X should have technology capable of generating the same type of dimensional signature as System XN. Yet someone, or something, had just violated the space in her immediate vicinity by doing just that. The woman's gaze shifted across her field of vision, slowly, methodically, but the roiling cloud of dust that she herself had kicked up still remained, obscuring all. She strained her ears, trying to tune out the high-pitched keen of beam weapons and the low thump of projectiles from the battle that still raged around her...no, around them.

The Gespenst's left hand curled into a fist, arcs of plasma like man-made lightning beginning to jump erratically between the plasma stakes it wore on the same arm as they charged with tremendous energy. Anastasia waited, tensed, for any sign of movement in the dust.

I know you're there, you bastard. Come and get me.

 

[GEAR]

"Does that ever actually work?"

A man's voice crackled over the intercom with a dry chuckle as the Orphes bore down on Prisca's Huckebein. The Special was like a bolt of greased lightning, easily ducking and weaving about the fire rained down on it by the Tripoli. As it did, it's wrist flicked ever-so-slightly - almost undetectably, at least to a normal pilot - and a trio of thin energy picks lashed out expertly in Prisca's direction, aiming for the left shoulder of her unit. The man hadn't even slowed his charge, and in moments, he would be right on top of her.

The Lyras, thankfully, was being kept occupied elsewhere. It hovered close to the ground for a mere moment - before twin blasts of energy lashed out, smashing into the area around the Chaos Leo, fresh with the junked remains of the last Axios, as it cowered behind its claws. Eliza gave a girlish yelp as the plasma cannons scorched her machine's arms, leaving their surfaces charred black. The Special's mane rippled - and it sent a spray of exploding projectiles into the sky, causing the Lyras to bank sharply away from the ship as the air churned around it. The mass-production Huckebeins followed suit, peppering the fighter with fire, keeping it from completing its strafing run.

"Terrorist scum...!" Spat Eliza as she began to lumber towards Prisca, trying to get between her and the charging Orphes before it was too late.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Ana's intuition would prove correct. The stones at her feet began to tremble somewhat, as the wind picked up. This... Was no ordinary breeze, however. It increased in speed dramatically, whipping the earth with blinding speed, tearing at the world around her, as though she had been placed at the center of a hurricane. Just as quickly, however, the flash-storm stopped-

And then... She was no longer alone.

Something was now hunched over the crumbling ruins above, perched on the lip of the concrete like an all-too-living gargoyle, it's back to the sun. It was almost... insectoid in appearance, yet it had a distinctly human figure and size, its body covered in white, chitinous armor plates interspaced with glimmering, reflective purple and gold surfaces, their textures suggestive of coiled, biomechanical musculature. It's shoulders were adorned with long, golden, mothlike wings, ones that settled in as it landed, like a great cloak. Its predatory head terminated in a long pair of bladed appendages, almost like antennae, beneath which a pair of small, reflective eyes like amethyst stones leered at the Gespenst from between the gaps in its armor.

It's "face" adjusted slightly, the "mandibles" that made up the front armor plates opening slightly, as the.... thing... emitted a strange, eerie hiss, like gas escaping its container.

"Kssskieeee…"

 

[XekuZwei]

Instinct born of drilled-in combat training led Anastasia to drop into a defensive crouch as the sand began to swirl violently around her, arms raised close to her chest to protect her vulnerable squishy bits. Driven by a howling wind that was anything but natural, the cyclone persisted for only moments before clearing - and revealing the *thing* responsible.

"I don't know what the hell you are..." the woman growled, centering her gaze on the bizarre insectoid foe, "...but we're gonna find out." The targetting reticle that lay in the middle of her visor shifted from white to red, and a low tone sounded in her ears to announce a positive target lock. "Split missile!"

Two projectiles erupted from the Gespenst's backpack in response to the voice command, rocketing toward the buglike machine only to burst into a dense spray of needle-like kinetic penetrators midway between the units.

 

[Tarsier]

Barely able to detect the thrown darts, Prisca activated the beam shield, adjusting it to intercept. Unable to block them all, one was able to pierce into its target. Alert messages in the cockpit reported that the spare emitter stored inside the shoulder had been disabled by the attack, though the battery hadn't detonated.

Left increasingly nervous at the undetectable armaments, Prisca continued reciting the useless orders, raising her voice and hoping to stall for time. "Surrender immediately and you will not be harmed. This is your final warning." As she spoke, she began comparing the enemy PT's speed to her Huckebein's, and preparing what little of a plan she could. Her machine was too lightly armed to win a direct fight; all she could think of was to break out of melee and hope his sensors couldn't penetrate the smoke from her grenades.

 

[GEAR]

"Hmph."

As artillery fire impacted the ground beside the Orphes, a cloud of mud-flecked dust was kicked up, briefly obscuring it from view-

And then, it vanished, leaving behind only a few twinkling particles.

For Prisca Charname, the next few seconds might have felt like an eternity, as proximity alarms blared, the deep-blue machine materializing almost directly behind her. In its right hand, it expertly spun one of the laser-like picks, twisting it into a reverse-grip, raising it high over her shoulder - Too fast, too close. Not even the Huckebeins could have tracked it.

"In the end... Just a doll-"
"GRAAAAAGH!"

The man's voice was cut short by the sudden roar of Eliza's voice over the intercom. The battered Chaos Leo slammed into the Orphes before it could drive it's deadly instrument home, tackling it away in a blast of flaming dimensional energy. The Orphes reacted immediately, jamming the pick down into the Special's shoulder - but even damaged as it was, the thick armor was more than enough to prevent any serious damage as Eliza tightened it's grip, crushing the hip armor of the Ultimate X machine as it was carried away.

"Prisca! SHOOT!" - Her voice came in loud and clear as she screamed back at Prisca:

"STOP THINKING AND SHOOT!"

In the distance, the Lyras, now free of the shrapnel storm, had managed to return to its attack vector - it cut through the clouds, and the twin cannons lashed out once more. This time, they found their mark in a far more appealing target, scything down one of the Mass Production Huckebeins as it paused to reload, the machine tumbling off the Tripoli before detonating. The Rhinoceros class, clearly tired of being little more than a sitting duck, had begun to trundle forward, anti-aircraft batteries blazing as it spat death into the skies, trying to keep the agile armor at bay.

"Kshhiiieee…!"

Meanwhile, Ana's attack on the uninvited guest did not go unanswered.

As the missiles closed in, it sprung from its perch with supernatural speed, Ana's assault pulverizing the remaining building apart in a spray of dust and destruction. In the air, its wings spread out, and it clasped its hands together, forming a long, spear-like weapon out of crackling energy that blistered to life against the fading light - before plunging down towards Ana, slashing down at her face with its new armament.

It gave no warning, no indication of its intent - nothing. Its features radiated only ice-cold hostility, but the pulse of System XN remained steady, offering what information it could... Was it possible, then, that the device had attracted this creature? Or was it mere coincidence?

 

[XekuZwei]

Son of a - !

Anastasiya cursed under her breath as the insectoid opponent dove toward her Gespenst, cleanly evading the split missiles as they littered the landscape with a further layer of rubble. That it had managed to somehow nullify the attack was not entirely surprising, but the tremendous speed with which it evaded caught her off-guard. The battlesuit's left arm whipped up in response to the diving strike on instinct, the blazing spear slamming home against the plasma stakes mounted there that still crackled with their own potent energy.

Before, the fading light to its back had obscured many of the finer points of her foe's striking appearance. But now, face-to-face, the terrible details were uncomfortably clear, from mandibled jaw to chitinous hide to glimmering wings. The creature - and creature was the word that jumped to mind far more readily than machine - gave no indication of its intent, yet its frightful, inhuman visage still somehow managed to convey a clear and calculated hostility. System XN continued to chirp in her ear, a beeping rhythm that indicated her opposite's possession of otherworldly dimensional energy while data scrolled steadily through her peripheral as the computer parsed what information it could on this mystery enemy.

Anastasiya, however, had no intention of sitting idly by as it performed its analysis. She twisted her left arm with vigor, intending to trap the beast's polearm by wedging it between the trio of plasma stakes; the Gespenst's right hand lashed out in concert, reaching to grasp at the bug-mech in search of a handhold among the multitude of ridged armor plates that sheathed its torso.

Her primarily melee weapons otherwise occupied, Ana went for the first counterattack that came to mind: grab the bastard and deliver unto its glossy cranium a thunderous headbutt.

 

[Tarsier]

Panicking when she lost sight of the enemy, Prisca set the Huckebein's thrusters to full power. The heat immediately overwhelmed the cooling systems as it dashed forward, alarms drowning out the comms. Shutting them down before they could damage any other equipment, the Huckebein was forced to roll across the sand, tumbling through the last remnants of the dust cloud. Dazed, Prisca fumbled for the controls, struggling to stay conscious after the impact.

With the PT rising into kneeling, her attention was taken by Eliza's orders; responding to her, she reported, "Understood, providing support." Firing the rifle with one hand, the Huckebein reached for its grenades with the other. Retrieving one, she allowed a second to fall to the ground, arming it to detonate if either remaining hostile entered its range. The other was set to manual detonation and thrown towards the blue machine, exploding at a range where Prisca estimated that damage to the Chaos Leo would be minimal.

 

[GEAR]

Prisca's bullets launched out at the Chaos Leo and the Orphes as the two rolled and grappled over the sands - and found a target in the extended leg of the Orphes, smashing apart the mirrored armor plates around the machine's knees and ankles. Her grenade detonated between the two as they tussled, and a cloud of smoke was cast briefly over the fracas, leaving the result uncertain. As she watched, the remaining Axios - sure enough - lumbered into range of the thrown grenade as they attempted to flank her, their leg units collapsing out from under them, before they were summarily finished off by a rain of fire from the Tripoli and its sole remaining Huckebein.

After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the smoke cleared, revealing the Chaos Leo having pinned the Orphes to the ground, raising a glowing claw wickedly as it prepared to execute the terrrorist. Within the cockpit, Eliza gave a wolfish grin as her hand flexed on the trigger, savoring the moment.

"This'll finish-!" she began to rasp before an alert blared in her ear, causing her to glance up-

Moments before a bright blue blast of energy smashed into the face of the Chaos Leo, atomizing it completely, causing it to stagger back in shock... and crumble to the floor, Eliza giving a surprised shriek as it did. The Lyras swerved against the clouds, steam furrowing out from its twin barrels as it surveyed the situation.

"You're a lifesaver." Said the Orphes pilot as it staggered to its feet. With a blast of energy, it leaped up into the sky, and landed on the back of the Lyras as it swung by, the two of them beginning to pull away only shortly after their entrance.

"Captain... We should retreat. There's no way we can retrieve the cargo with you in that shape."
"Sorry. I got reckless."

The creature's spear snapped down against the plasma stakes, sending sparks scattering in every direction that illuminated the features of the combatants - one of hard angles and folded steel, and the other smooth, organic, and insectoid. Undeterred, it dropped into a crouch, and whirled the weapon around for a second strike - but Ana's hand suddenly found purchase in an unlikely place. The hand of the Gespenst grasped onto one of the long tendril-like protrusions on the creature's head, causing it to let out a warning shriek before Ana's forehead connected with its own.

There was a wet, gristly, crunch in Ana's ears as the monster was cannonballed back from the force of the impact. In her palm, the (now severed) appendage dripped a silvery liquid, like mercury, torn at the base where it connected to the thing's forehead. The interloper slammed bodily into a decayed wall of concrete, which cracked on impact, and slouched against the wall, giving wet, gurgling clicks as it reached up to grasp its cratered face, half of which was now a mess of broken carapace, blood, and the liquid from earlier, which flowed out in a small tide from inbetween its fingers, forming a sanguine pool on the asphalt below.

Perhaps it had simply underestimated the speed at which the Gespenst was able to move, and was used to hunting larger, more slower prey? Whatever the reason, it seemed stunned only briefly - Giving a guttural screech, it suddenly twisted, energy crackling across its spear arm, as it bodily hurled its weapon at Ana like a javelin, sending it soaring through the air like a missile, aimed to punch clean through the Gespenst's chest.

 

[XekuZwei]

Anastasiya's Gespenst teetered to and fro a few steps, its pilot slightly punch-drunk in the wake of her vigorous application of forehead. "Yeah! You like...ugh...", a pained groan cutting short her trash-talking, the big woman took a moment to dispel the last of the stars in her vision with a vigorous shake of the head, "...you like that?!" The battlesuit hadn't totally shielded her from getting a solid thump to the skull, but it was intensely satisfying to see her foe in a far worse state. Yet even with a countenance of which half had been reduced to raw gore, the beast was making to rise and continue opposing their efforts.

She tossed aside the thing's severed antennae with disgust, drawing a bright splash of silver ichor across the sand. It seemed to be recovering rapidly. Lacking the fallen Huckebein's height advantage, Ana had only limited visibility of the rest of the battle; it was imperative that she rejoin the others as quickly as possible. And that meant finishing this unexpected beast before it could waylay her for even longer. It was time to squash this bug. And here, out of sight, she could bring out her most guarded technology without fear of reprisal.

The Gespenst's left arm cocked back, held low by its side and tensed by rippling muscle and potent servo alike. The staccato chirp in Ana's ear became a solid rising tone as the battlesuit siphoned energy from System XN. Though not as vibrant as the Chaos Leo's earlier display, excess power seemed to seep from the Gespenst's frame as well, licking tendrils of purple-black dimensional force weeping from beneath armor plates and along joints. Could the creature sense it? Perhaps. Would that be enough to save it? She hoped not. Ana planted one foot forward as her enemy rose, a coiled spring ready to strike.

"XN..."

The beast hurled its lance, a bolt of dimensional lightning that threatened to end Anastasiya once and for all. She met its keening cry with a cry of her own, voice bellowing out from the Gespenst on external speakers and comms alike.

"...MAGNUM!"

There was a thunderous crack as the Gespenst - for just a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of second - ceased to exist in their reality, the sound produced by the change in air pressure as the spot which it had stood suddenly became a vacuum which the atmosphere rushed to fill. For a moment, Anastasiya was enveloped by a bizarre and inexplicable landscape of ever-shifting color and form, shielded only by the prodigious energies of System XN: a truly alien place, the guts of a dimension outside of her own. The System formed a tunnel through which she was flung as though catapulted by a colossal slingshot, a one-way, one-lane road that led directly to her destination...her insect-like opponent. But to the outside observer, she and her machine were gone so briefly that they appeared not to have left at all, simply vanishing from one location and appearing in another instantaneously.

And so the snap of displaced air as the Gespenst appeared was overlapped almost indistinguishably with that of its departure, and the echoes of its pilot's words still hung in the air. The beast's javelin coursed through the space she had vacated, smashing uselessly into the terrain. The battlesuit twisted at the waist even as it emerged from other-dimensional space, left arm swinging in to deliver a brutal gut punch backed up by an explosive energy discharge courtesy of the plasma stakes.

 

[Tarsier]

With the last detected hostiles neutralized, Prisca disarmed her remaining grenade, retrieving and reattaching it to the holder. After confirming that the Chaos Leo had subdued the enemy Mobile Weapon, she raised her PT onto its feet, taking the brief moment of safety to diagnose the damage her Huckebein had suffered while Eliza prepared to finish off the helpless pilot; a moment that the red aircraft would interrupt.

Unable to target the grounded machine before it was able to reunite with its partner, Prisca instead fired at the retreating pair while moving towards her incapacitated ally, shield powering on. With the targets quickly escaping the weapons maximum range, she attempted to contact Eliza while replacing the magazine. "Kreuger, do you read me? Is your machine still mobile?"

 

[GEAR]

Valkyria's javelin screamed through the air towards its foe. The creature noted, with some satisfaction, that while the armored suit had been faster than it had anticipated, it was still far too slow to avoid this killing strike. It had been surprised at the pilot's swiftness before, but ultimately, the two were of no comparison... The Vor Cell saw to that, at the very least.

But then...

The impossible happened.

The Gespenst winked out of existence. The creature balked, whipping its head back and forth. How, it thought, could this have happened? System XN was a relic, something mothballed and disused that nevertheless needed to be dealt with - it wasn't supposed to be capable of this! As it turned its bloodied gaze back, the sudden haze of space contorting in front of it appeared as if in slow motion, the Gespenst's form suddenly reasserting itself with terrifying speed. In fact, it thought very briefly - too much speed.

Anastasia's plasma stakes buried themselves directly into the stomach of the creature, hoisting it up high as it screamed in hatred and agony, claws digging into the Gespenst's armored forearm in a last, desperate attempt to save its life. As it was held towards the sun, for only a brief second, Ana might have caught a glimpse, behind the creature's ruined faceplate... Of a single, distinctly human eye, staring in insane hatred and utter, inexplicable contempt, as though it was looking directly through the visor at her.

"XN... MAGNUM!"

The powerful plasma stakes rocketed out with a hiss of pneumatic steam, punching clean through the thin shell with a force that could shatter armor plating. Arcs of luminous plasma shot all across it's body, causing it to contort with a final, inhuman screech - before it exploded violently in a spray of gore and viscera, sending a smattering of off-white exoskeleton and oily ichor in all directions, courtesy of the most potent bug-zapper ever designed.

---

Eliza offered no immediate response to Prisca's response, picking her helmeted head up from the dashboard groggily. She reached up and removed it, the large crack running down its surface proof enough that it had saved her life. As she grit her teeth and tried to stop the world from spinning around her, the Chaos Leo's remaining sensors went wild.

"Now what?" She rasped, opening the machine's hatch as she stepped out, squinting in the eerie twilight, as above...

The world churned.

The skies swirled unnaturally, curdling into a vicious spiral as an eerie light began to flicker beyond the clouds. The air became thick with the static cling of latent dimensional energy, a prickling on the back of the neck, a metallic taste in her throat - She had felt these a thousand times before in the labs... But never anything like this. Bolts of arcane lightning danced through the skies, reality itself giving a treacherous groan as a powerful, unseen force anchored itself to an errant flap, the tiniest of breaches into the world of order that they knew... and heaved.

In the sky, the Moon made its presence known, glittering with a sickly green glow that rose in intensity until it was so bright, it was like a miniature sun. Unnatural, kaleidoscopic light, refracted through what could only be the purest of Dimensional Energy, punched through the clouds in rays that were like spears from God, stabbing down into the earth. Where they landed, a horrible roaring occurred, like the sound of a thousand glass windows breaking, all at once, the very planet itself warping under the tremendous power manifesting itself from above.

All around them, the world began to fracture before their very eyes. The Orphes and Lyras, themselves powerless, could only skim away over the sea, seemingly attempting to outrun the devastation. The Tripoli had ground to a halt, its Huckebein escort dropping to the earth to attempt to salvage Eliza's machine, perhaps the only one of the group not paying much in the ways of attention to the splitting of the heavens.

Eliza Kruger covered her eyes against the radiance, shielding her face as the brightness intensified, unable to do anything - anything but scream in terror as the wrath of the Moon thrust down upon the Earth, like a great blade of vengeance - with themselves at the epicenter.

"Aaah! AAAAAAAH!"

Light - terrible, emerald light, covered the world... And everything faded into white.

The event that would be known forevermore in the annals of mankind, known as the Sundering... had begun.​