LIOH, Startup! (Hel)

GEAR

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#1
August 18th
Dreseden, Germany
Terra Sentinel Flank
8:18 PM


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"Nothing here, either."

Eliza Kruger sighed, and tried to let herself relax. After the past forty-eight hours, it was far from easy. The Dynamic General Guardian walked through the blasted airfield slowly, head moving left to right, fresh smoke still fluttering across its vision. Hardly anything was left, she thought. Those... things... were like locusts. Part of her wanted to call in Ana, to be reassured by her voice - but she shook her head, no.

Hyperion had ordered that she complete this particular task herself. Part of her wondered if it was some kind of loyalty test, despite her never raising her hand against the man(?) for over six months. Was she willing to fight, to die for Terra Sentinel's ideals?

The Ruina were gone now, at least.

Shaking her head and finally flicking off the scanner, she prepared to phone in her report. No survivors, nothing left to salvage - and then stopped as soon as she cleared her throat, feeling her muscles tense as something caught her attention, just barely out of the corner of her eye.

Was that something moving among the smoke?
 

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Mar 23, 2021
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#2
Through the smoke of the battlefield, something was moving. Not some revenant risen from the grave, a demon, nor was it a creature. It came like the wind, one moment it wasn’t there, but it was now just there, standing amidst the destruction before it. The green eye-like sensor penetrating through the smoke.

”Open your eyes, Dimi.”

A familiar yet distant female voice called out to the pilot in dark combat armor, tired and restless. He tried to remember what he was doing the moment before he appeared here, it was all blank as he opened his eyes to the beeping noises on his radar. His eyes would open sharply behind the visor of his cracked helmet as a gasp escaped him, he was on Earth, but not his. He was a far way from where he once was. He would remove the gas mask currently giving him suffocating air, inhaling a large amount of the air inside his cockpit. He would remove his helmet to see clearly, letting his hair fall out of it.

“That thing......... is that another mech?”

The mech would fix its posture as it began to slowly walk forward, the sound of its legs moving would be very audible through the silence of the battlefield. The pistons moving, letting out hot air from a battle far from here. The sun and the flames reflected of its silver and grey paint job, which looked more ridden with holes and cuts the more you looked at it closely.

”Identify yourself!”

The clearly battle damaged mech would bring up a large weapon attached to its right arm, aiming it directly as the enemy power source detected right in front of it.
 

GEAR

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#3
"That's... a Personal Trooper?"

It looks... Different.

The image of Ana's Gespenst involuntarily leapt to the front of Eliza's mind as the towering Super Robot snapped to attention, bringing its arms up. The wind whipped at the frayed remains of its cloak, wrapped about its neck like a scarf. Her orders were to eliminate any unidentified machines, friend or foe... and the last thing she wanted was to incur Hyperion's wrath.

Sorry about this.

"I don't have anything to say to the Ruina!"

Electricity crackled up the Raioh's body, fracturing the earth beneath it as it lowered its head. Within the cockpit, Eliza took a deep breath. Here we go, she thought. My first real battle. Her eyes flicked up at the reassuring logo of System LIOH, hovering in the corner of her HUD. She just hoped it was going to be enough. With nothing else to wait for, the ninja-like machine sprang forward at its target, bright light radiating from the emitters at its feet.

"Impulse shot!"

She slammer her open palm into the ground as she dove, the Raioh's legs scything out in the direction of the newcomer, flinging a pair of blasts comparable in size to those a standard rifle would fire - snapping across the battlefield, aimed to strike the foe's chest and legs, to send it crashing into the hangar behind it. Following through, the Raioh surged forward, continuing to close the gap between them with alarming speed.
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#4
“What the hell!? It’s so big yet it’s so fast!”

The armored pilot was shocked to say the least, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t prepared for such a situation. He had the Beam Ripper on the left arm of the mech activate its beam shield mode to protect itself. He followed that up with the thrusters which weakly responded to the controls, steering him to the left as the mech hovered for only a short amount of time before touching the ground again. He was very much a sitting duck in this state, the thrusters on the mech were still adjusting to the atmosphere and needed to recalibrate for more effective use. But seeing the RaiOh charging towards him, the pilot could only think that this was the end for him, but he would still fight until he had nothing left but his teeth to fight with.

”Do you think you can dodge this?”

The missile bays on the large weapon would open, firing out a volley of missiles at RaiOh, accompanied by a cascade of Gatling gun fire from the bottom part of the weapon. He would attempt to shoot right ahead of the RaiOh’s path as it darted through the battlefield.
 

GEAR

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#5
Eliza scowled as the plasma shots splattered against the unknown PT's shield, already fighting the knee-jerk reflex to jerk the controls ahead. Instead she weaved her body away, the Rioh nimbly darting to its left as gatling fire clattered against its knees and shins, leaving scores and pits - but not anything sufficient enough to halt its movement. The Super Robot's leg lashed out - and a plasma bolt slammed into the missiles, meeting them midair as it somersaulted away - but a handful of the cloud cleared the blast, impacting the Raioh's shoulder, causing to lose its balance in mid-spin.


HIT REGISTERED
COMPENSATING... DONE.
Even as she fought the urge to black out, without warning the Raioh righted itself in midair, landing expertly in a crouch and darting forward. Her lungs felt like they were on fire - but also her focus tightening, her pain lessening. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she lifted her arms, bolts of red lightning lashing across the Raioh's forearms as two red lights glowed ominously.

(This is... LIOH!)

With a roar, she slammed her fists down - and a wave of plasma erupted from the arm guards, surging across the earth towards the unknown with the intent of ensnaring, lashing about its form. If it were to connect, Eliza would whip her arms inward, snapping her foe towards her through the air with the contemptuous ease only a true Super Robot could manage.
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#6
As the had PT fired off volley after volley of high velocity rounds, a message would appear on the side of the screen, giving an all green status to the thrusters. After seeing the Super Robot in front of him readying for another attack, the pilot engaged the thrusters and jetted off to the side and into the air. This was in order to avoid the surge energy that was trailing towards him from the ground. Seeing as his opponent took some time to push forward with their attack, he decided to opt for an aggressive attack pattern.

“It’s fast......... but not when attacking. I’ll have to hit it at the right moment.”


”The moment when I’m faster.”

He would purge the large Frame Rifle on its right arm just behind one of the ruined hangars for safe keeping. The pilot had opted to stay in the air as it would mean he could decipher what other moves he could plan for so that he could create an opportunity to riposte. For now, he would draw two revolvers that had special barrels. They sparked with electrical energy, pulsing blue every so often. He took aim, attempting to hit the waist unit to disable the legs.

”Let’s go, Ritter! Rail Cannon!”

The mech’s eyes would light up as it fired off the revolvers in each hand, a sharp sting of electricity moved through the barrels as a projectile exited them at high velocity. The Ritter would move about after each shot it made, used in order to avoid any aerial attacks as it darted left and right.
 

GEAR

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#7
"Missed?"

Eliza gasped as the Personal Trooper took off, the fountain of energy beneath it tearing at the pavement, illuminating its features in brilliant white. There wasn't an exact match for it in the database, but LIOH was learning as quick as she was, and she could feel the weight shifting under her arms as it adjusted its load appropriately. Despite the major difference in size, it packed a punch - something, she thought, she should have learned from Ana.

(She really makes this look easy.)

"Nothing for it. Going in!"

The Raioh thundered towards the rising Ritter, feet little more than a blur as it left a trail of after-images in its wake. The twin railgun shots lashed out, but hit only empty air as the nimble Super Robot darted to his left, leaving them to puncture a distant fuel tank, sending it up in a flaming explosion in the background. As soon as it entered range, the machine spun, bringing one leg up in a vicious snap-kick aimed to crumple the Ritter's left arm before it could gain any further altitude, followed up by an immediate second strike from the same limb aimed at his left thigh.

To add to the attack, the Raioh's left hand shot out - and another jet of plasma issued forth from the emitter on its knuckle from close range, aiming to ensnare the foe as it attempted a counterattack with a burst of lightning that was all too appropriate for its name,
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#8
“I’ve got you now, Beam Ripper!”

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The circular part that created the energy shield then shined with a great amount of energy, creating a circular beam around itself before cutting right into the RaiOh’s armor as it went right for the kick. The beam blade had dug into the armor and the weapon had disconnected from the arm as it turned into remote segments which then quickly wrapped around the RaiOh’s leg, causing it to be bound there. The Ritter would soon back away as not to get hit by the incoming plasma attack from the fist.

”I’ll end this quick. Sorry brother, I’m borrowing your moves.”

The Ritter’s eyes would flash green as its generator whirred, turning itself up to 11 as it prepared for a powerful attack.

“Sequence: Full Metal Rampage, begin!”

With the RaiOh firmly in place, the Ritter would let off a continuous volley of the revolver shots onto the RaiOh. Firing at both the waist and chest unit. It would then keep the revolvers on its side skirts before drawing a large blade which it then split into two swords that activated their own beam blades.

“Zweihander, double mode!“

The Ritter would begin to charge right towards the RaiOh. As it approached, it’s blades would swing wildly at it, beginning with a right downward swing, followed by a left downward swing until it began to pile up on multiple attacks, one after the other.

”HAAAAAAAAA!”

<I’m going to live through this, I won’t let them all die for nothing. I CAN’T!>

As the Ritter had finished its wild swings, it would combine the swords into one once again before attempting to thrust the sword through the chest unit of the RaiOh.
 

GEAR

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#9
Tracking target.
Detecting increase in output.
Counter-attacking.

As the Raioh's kick slammed home, the beam shield emitters lashed out about its foot, attempting to hold it - but the sheer difference in size and power was just too much. The Super Robot lunged back - and the would-be lasso shattered apart, nothing more than a slight hindrance that left burning scores about it's leg. As it did so, the plasma emitters about its legs began to crackle as they extended, filling the air with electricity that rippled across the Raioh's body. The twin revolvers came up before her, as though in slow motion... and Eliza gave a slow exhale.

Concentrate.

"I'll show you..."

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"What a Super Robot can really do!"
Crouching, the Raioh suddenly leapt high into the sky, letting the gunfire from below only graze its chassis. Clouds burst against its body as it hurtled up into the night sky, cresting the cloud bank, as its body was framed against the moon. Angling itself, the Special aimed its feet directly towards the Ritter-

And flew.

Boosters about its ankles ignited, joining those on its back, carrying the Raioh down, down like a crashing thunderbolt, the wind whipping at its scarf as it blurred, the shrieking of the air and burning of ozone melding into a screech that was like a knife being driven across the underbelly of the heavens. The Zwiehander came down-

"Lightning Fall!"

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An earth shattering explosion ripped through the air, the Raioh's kick striking with the force of a falling bomb in a genuine demonstration of a Dynamic General Guardian's strength, with easily enough force to shear limbs and flay armor from even a fellow Super Robot, the smoke and flames that burst from the impact masking it momentarily from view - as well as whatever damage might have been sustained, though the tactile feedback on the Ritter would have registered that its strike had, at least, connected with something.
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#10
“Shit!”

When Ritter went for the thrust attack with its Zweihander, the RaiOh would land it devastating kick attack on the Ritter’s shoulder, tearing it lose from the torso. But that didn’t mean it was over just yet, as the large sword still managed to graze against the side of the RaiOh’s arm and right into the abdominal area of the mech, all right before the arm came flying off the Ritter, its side getting torn to pieces as well. Because of the force that had impacted it, it began to rapidly fall to the ground.

“Ghhhhhh!”

The pilot inside was taking a large amount of Gs as the Ritter descended rapidly before falling right on top of the roof of an old hangar. The roof collapsed but managed to break the mech’s fall a small bit. The pilot had grit his teeth throughout the whole ordeal, feeling the mech slam the ground and subsequently his body as well. The segments of the Beam Ripper returned to the arm unit as they followed the Ritter down to the ground.

”Rerouting power to thrusters. Come on.....”

The pilot would reroute power to its thrusters as it used them to help the mech stand upright, looking even worse for wear than it did when it first appeared. Dimidas was getting desperate, he couldn’t just stay here and die, he had to do something, anything, just to survive. That’s when he got an idea, he attempted to patch into the radio of the opponent he was currently facing, just to see if he could try and establish a conversation.
 

GEAR

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#11
As the smoke cleared, and the sword lashed out in fury - there was a sharp, sudden crackling noise. The Raioh emerged, at the bottom of the crater, plasma from its wrist emitters crackling about the beam blade of the Zweihander as it held it in place. The Super Robot's eyes glowed, as within the cockpit Eliza's chest heaved. Her lungs burned, her muscles likewise, her small yet lithe frame shaking from the exertion as she panted.

Her eyes slid down to where the Ritter's strikes had hit her prevously. The leg of the Raioh sparked and whirred unnaturally, bright red lines being drawn across it on her HUD. The way the frame squeezed her leg in the same place only added to the sense of pain that was now shooting through it. Had she twisted something? Even after all that training with Ana?

Maybe I overdid it, she thought anxiously. The Raioh released the weapon, taking a step back - but kept its arms up in a defensive pose, ready for any sudden movement. What was she supposed to do? Hyperion would want their head, no matter who they were. As she pondered the situation, the communicator trilled an alert, causing her to glance up as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

He wants to talk?

Her eyes went once again to the damaged leg. Muscle fibers weren't going to be easy to fix, and of all the things to break... She might as well give it a chance.

"Well? Ready to throw in the towel?" She said over the Raioh's loudspeakers, trying to sound more confident than she actually felt.

"Whoever you're with doesn't matter. If you're an enemy of Terra Sentinel... I'll shoot you down."
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#12
He would raise an eyebrow, he didn’t know what exactly Terra Sentinel was. It was simply a strange and unfamiliar name. But nonetheles, he was the one shooting in the dark right now. He knew absolutely nothing about the world he was just thrust into. He would speak back on the speakers of the Ritter, seeing as whoever the pilot of this mech was didn’t want a face to face conversation. His voice was garbled as the damaged speakers magnified his voice.

“Maybe if you could calm down a bit, I can explain myself better. My name is.......”

The pilot would think for a second. No one knew him here, but that didn’t mean someone responsible for bringing him here might, so he decided to go with an alias he used before when he joined the military of his Earth’s government.

”Agravain Corbyn. And who exactly are you? What is Terra Sentinel?”

He didn’t want to appear confrontational, that would be a death sentence for him at the moment. So he had to at the very least speak in a peaceful way. He would let whoever this was control the conversation.
 
Nov 12, 2018
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#13
WARNING | WARNING | WARNING
GRAVITATIONAL QUAKE DETECTED
MAGNITUDE: ABNORMAL
WAVE SIGNATURE: UNKNOWN

This progression of events was altered, and the sky itself pealed, resonating as if struck on a hundred frequencies at once. The air began to split and tear - molecules forced aside by the mass emerging amongst them in a supersonic shockwave - threatening to crumple the airfield's remaining structures. The sound itself overwhelmed anything the ongoing battle could have produced, maxing out the external sensors of the machines below in a single screaming impact.

The flash of luminescence that followed the initial explosion coiled and roared like a mandelbulb flame, fractaling and splitting until it petered out into nothingness.

A faster-than-light jump. Only the great warships of this world or another could produce this effect, and the alternative, somehow, was far, far worse.

"Suboptimal," the enclosed voice whispered. "Even with the T-Link System..."

Now, they would see it.

The unit that emerged from the dimensional vortex was an alien distortion of a traditional mobile weapon, and worse, visibly scarred by its journey. Half of its insectoid, abnormal face had melted like plastic, compromised material flowing down its spiny, jagged body. Its right arm had been reduced to a molten, fractured stump, still sparking from damaged, unseen conduits. The thorned, bizarre abdomen that seemed to take the place of the machine's legs stretched out behind the rest of its form, seemingly untouched by whatever forces had ravaged the construct's visage.

And then, impossibly, despite its seemingly injured state -

"T-Link System, Full Contact. Antenora. Follow my will."

The machine moved, left arm shifting to match the Raioh's position.

"Target. Dynamic General Guardian."

Six points of light materialized around the Antenora's outstretched hand, converging a mere heartbeat later. The resulting waterfall of yellow-green light shaped itself into a piercing lance that streaked forwards with massive force, aimed to pulverize the Raioh with a single, brutal shot.

No matter the ultimate result, the earth below would blaze.
 

GEAR

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#14
"Eliza Kruger. I'm..."

The young woman floundered for words, bringing a hand up to her lips as she thought through the events of the past year. She wasn't a soldier. That much she knew, even if Hyperion was determined to treat her like one. Had she really fallen so far?

"...a scientist." She concluded at length, perhaps less certainly than she might have preferred.

"You really don't know Terra Sentinel?"

In-credulousness seeped into her tone. For a few tense moments, the giant Super Robot stood over the damaged Personal Trooper. Eliza mulled over a hundred different possibilities in her mind, and eventually... closed her eyes. Maybe, she thought, that was the purpose of this after all. She'd managed to avoid bloodying her hands thus far, for better or worse.

This man was the sacrifice to ensure her loyalty.

"Sorry." She said, quietly. Plasma crackled along the Raioh's arm as it raised slowly into the air, preparing to bring the blow that would end the traveler's life.

"I... have my orders. I'll make it quick."

Beep.


(...? A gravitational anomaly?)

Eliza's hand paused in mid motion as a pulse of energy swept over the area. The prickling sensation on the back of her neck, the slight taste of blood in her mouth, the stinging of the eyes... Yes, she'd become long accustomed to this sensation. But here? Now? The signs of-

A Dimensional Quake!

The Raioh crouched instinctively as the was a detonation of sound and energy, instinctively putting its hand out protectively towards the Ritter as its head turned left and right. Where? Where were they? Her heart pounded even faster in her chest - how many times had she lived through this in a controlled environment, watching some abomination be dragged across the threshold between worlds? It had been months since the last major incursion, so... why here? Why now?

As the dust began to settle, she blinked in surprise at the grey, mismatched form that had emerged before her. Nothing came up on any of her sensors - not even a positive reading on a power source. Something about its thorny, asymmetrical features made her instinctively recoil, but the scientist within her was fascinated beyond reason, to the point where she hesitated to even move.

They've done it, part of her thought almost deleriously.

A conventional spatial transfer.

Were they with the Institute?

She opened her mouth to speak, but one of the thing's hands came up, fingers snarling together as the space around it began to warp. She barely had the time to suck in her breath, legs finally reacting as the smart body gave up on the stupid brain-

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And in the end, it was instinct alone that saved her life.

"AAAAAAAAGHH!"

The Raioh desperately leaned to its right, attempting to dive out of the way - and felt its wounded leg buckle underneath it, causing it to stumble at the crucial second. The Antenora's beam smashed into its chest with all the force of a pneumatic piledriver, catapulting it backward with such force that it went careening through the next building entirely as its right shoulder was splintered violently under the drill-like spear of power, the one-handed nature of the blast causing it to twist just very slightly away from its intended target: the Raioh's beating heart.

For a minute or two, it simply lay where it had fallen, eyes flickering, Eliza fighting to stay conscious as her eyes were fixed on the distant, severed forearm of the Raioh, lying in the scorched path of flame that she had been driven to. She tried to open her mouth, but only felt blood spilling from between her lips. A mechanical voice filled the cockpit, and she felt the controls beginning to move on their own.

Pilot life signs: Critical.
Combat effectiveness: Compromised.
Disengaging.
ASRS, Activate.

The Raioh's back thrusters flared to life suddenly, sending it smashing out of the building and into the distance, ASRS dome cloaking its form in light even as it vomited black smoke in all directions. Within the cockpit, Eliza undid the restraints... and sank to her knees, letting LIOH take over as she grit her teeth.

Damn it all. I'm sorry, Ana
.

Her fist slammed into the floor of the cockpit, even the sudden appearance of the Antenora momentarily forgotten as she felt tears forming in the corners of her eyes

"I'm still..." She whispered, lowering her head into her hands as the battlefield disappeared from view.

"...too weak."
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#15
“A scientist, huh? Remind me of one of my friends.”

He somewhat gleefully replied until the RaiOh raised an arm to attack him, mentioning she was on orders to kill him. The Ritter would raise the one arm it had left and held out a beam rifle, aimed directly at the chest unit. He had sensed the doubt in her voice, much like his scientist friend who also very much doubted himself all the time. His voice became somber, serious, like a wise man speaking to a child.

”Maybe you should ask yourself why you are doing this. Don’t make a jump towards decisions you may regret without knowing the whole picture. I know a few people who were like that, myself included for a time. So don’t go making that mistake right now.”

The suddenly the ground shook, a gravitational shockwave rippled through the Earth. There was only one sensation he felt that was exactly like this, the advent of firing a gravity weapon. Except, this was different, different from what he had come to expect. The Ritter had stumbled to the ground, falling on its back as the battle damaged chassis could no longer take punishment of any kind. As the mechanical monstrosity appeared before them, Agravain was seemingly in shock, the fact that a mech emitting such powerful waves of energy was surprising him to say the least. Before he could think, the RaiOh was blasted away and out of his view. As he saw it went flying, he gave out a shout that would still be heard through their comms.

”Eliza! Tch, bollocks.”

He would aim up at the towering mech as he assumed it would be coming to try and kill him next. But if Eliza was still conscious, he at least wanted to offer someone like her a path to escape. Someone who still had no path in life to call her own.

”Run, Eliza! Run and leave me!”

Agravain was about ready to accept his fate, he awaited for death’s cold embrace to come for him as well as it had for his entire world. He fired the beam rifle repeatedly at the torso and head of the mech towering over him. The least that he wanted to do before going out was to at least help someone realize what they are truly doing. Psychologically, it already felt like he was going to slip into the endless abyss of death, where he would meet his fallen comrades and his lover.
 
Nov 12, 2018
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#16
The Antenora stood still, a monolith against the smoke-blackened sky - unmoving, unrelenting, unnervingly nonreactive. Even as the Raioh was hurled away in a shower of flame and ruined metal, its gaze failed to shift, and its outstretched arm remained, fingers now clenched in a razor-sharp half-claw. More alarmingly, the damage it had sustained from its partially botched jump was beginning to heal, jagged spurts of grey-white material beginning to erupt from within its wounds. Already, the machine's right stump was beginning to reform, the upper arm taking shape from a cancerous outcrop of material.

"Ah," the pilot said, and his ecstatic voice resonated, reaching the Ritter's cockpit without the aid of a communications link.

"She tasted of light."

The machine's sensors shifted ever so slightly as Agravain tugged on his triggers, and the Ritter's frantic blasts splashed uselessly against a gossamer veil of darkened light. The enforced wall of distorted space-time vanished a moment later, leaving the residual energy to disperse into the surrounding air.

"Now, now."

As if dismissing the fallen Personal Trooper, the Antenora idly waved its remaining arm, and the four protrusions atop its elbow unfurled, jettisoned out into open air with a dull clank. Each only finished unfolding once they were free of their berths, revealing a mono-eyed form suspended below a half-coiled shell. Almost crustacean in form, they hovered idly for only a moment, awaiting commands - one which they received almost immediately afterwards.

"Please."

The quartet of drones fired, azure rays of light aimed to intersect with the Wildschwein's handheld rifle.

"I have sullied my hands enough today. We are not enemies."
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#17
As the machine in front of him regenerated as if nothing happened, Agravain became shocked with horror. Not to mention the fact that it shrugged off all his shots like they were nothing. How could a machine like that even exist? It was beyond his comprehension to even think that self-regenerating mechs such as this could exist while also possessing powerful force fields.

Agravain gritted his teeth as he attempted to fire a charged shot at the mech before him until the drones cut his beam rifle into pieces. It promptly fell to the ground, the whirr of energy dissipating. Once the pilot of the Antenora spoke, Agravain got his head straight and made a reply through the speakers of the mech.

”How exactly are you not my enemy? You sound like a cheesy Bond villain still in the middle of plotting how to take over the world. Which is to say you sound like the most horseshit villain in existence.”

He said such words with a lot of sarcasm, he wasn’t exactly one for people who viewed themselves as high and mighty such as whoever this pilot was. He smirked and reminisced a bit about watching that movie with a person significant to him. She surely knew a lot more than him in that subject matter though. He was very clearly not having any of his shit unless he would explain things to him.

”Well, if you are a Bond villain, maybe go ahead and tell me what exactly is going on here?”
 
Nov 12, 2018
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#18
There was no immediate reply, as if Agravain's words had actually reached the pilot of the mysterious machine. Then, the voice returned - audibly calmer, the uneasy tinge of power gone mad subsiding beneath another, chillier front.

"Terra Sentinel are backing me into a wall, and I deemed this necessary. With all due respect, I only intended to kill her. She's an enemy, after all - but I won't pretend to understand how you soldiers think. First and foremost, I am Jericho. That's the only name of mine that matters."

The Antenora shifted, withdrawing its outstretched arm. The buglike remote weapons it had previously deployed moved with their parent limb, and one by one, they returned to their original slots with ordered haste. All the while, the machine's armor continued to reshape itself, gaps closing almost seamlessly as crystalline structures reasserted themselves over exposed frame and ruined internals.

"You, on the other hand - "

The hovering machine's gaze finally lowered, embedded sensors meeting the Ritter's external cameras.

"You're curious. Your Personal Trooper doesn't have a place in our database. On the other hand, you can't be Terra Sentinel - "

Two possible conclusions left.

"And it's too complex to be a salvaged prototype customized to fit your own tastes."

The Antenora's eyes seemed to narrow, and it peered closer, gradually descending closer to the battle-ruined earth below. The voice resumed moments later, following up on its previous statement with just the slightest hint of inquisitorial intent.

"You are not from this... iteration. That would explain your lacking knowledge of current geopolitics, and it would also explain why you would willingly appear in the middle of a warzone - you didn't. You're not outfitted for proper trans-dimensional jumps? Then why make the leap in the first place? No, that's obvious - your world made significant process in Mobile Weapons architecture and design, which would indicate that you've reached the same period as we have - "

"The crisis point," he finished, taking an audible moment to process each individual word as they left his lips. "I will be honest - this is poor timing by any measure."

A moment of silence passed, and Jericho relaxed, allowing himself to sit back within his unfamiliar cockpit.

"...I'll admit that my previous demeanor came across as distasteful. However, I am no soldier. I know nothing of shedding blood, risking life, or personal sacrifice in the name of a greater ideal. I only pilot this machine because I am the only one who can, and only when I absolutely have to."

"Still, you must understand - the mere possibility that I was able to activate this mobile weapon is cause for celebration, to say nothing of the fact that it was ultimately capable of executing a spatial transfer. This is the future. This is hope. If I can complete these designs, these paths, then humanity can finally be placed beneath a unified aegis, and the threats that would have us trampled beneath our own soil could be brought to an end. If you have any sense - any willingness to protect life, then we will not be opponents. This is neither the time nor the place for things to get worse."
 
Mar 23, 2021
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#19
Agravain had a somewhat uneasy feeling after hearing how easily he was deciphered. And as the man stated, he was no soldier, he was very clearly a leader of some kind. His hunch on the Bond villain thing probably wasn’t that far off, but when the man began to speak more about unifying humanity, that got his attention.

”So what you are telling me is that you want me on your side? Alright then, seeing as you’re knowledgeable enough and seeing as I have nowhere else to go, you have me sold. At least until we can discuss things in a different place better suited for talking.

He would open up the cockpit of his mech, the chest unit swinging a hatch open as an armored soldier stood up from the downed machine. His hair would wave a bit in the wind as he looked up at the mech towering over him. The metal on his armor was reflecting the moonlight sky, gleaming like that of a knight’s armor. The scales visible on his chin and lower jaw had a lot of dirt stuck in them, even if they were a dark black, it was still quite in need of cleaning. He had very clearly been through quite a bit before having ended up where he is now.

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”Seeing as you figured out where I’m from, I suppose I should at least give you my proper name.”

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“My name is Dimidas Corbyn. It is nice to meet you, Jericho......”

He would trail off a bit as he ended his sentence. The green eye-like sensors on the Ritter would flicker a bit before shutting down, the image of a defeated and tired soldier simply coming to mind to anyone who might have seen the scene from a distance. Upon this Personal Trooper, lied the fate of a dead and forgotten world and time. It’s burden has proven to be too heavy for now.

Soon, the man will be reborn. The man who was once the Black Wild Hunter of Phantom Trigger. Born anew into this world called L’Isola.
 
Nov 12, 2018
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#20
...White noise. Audible silence. That was the impression that Dimidas received up until the moment that the Antenora's link fizzled out, leaving him standing alone. Something about Dimidas had given Jericho pause - whether it was his appearance or something else was information he would not receive.

That pause, however, moved on to unheard conversation.

"My enigma," the Antenora's pilot whispered. "Tell me of your pain."

The response was almost immediate - the regeneration process was almost complete. It was impossible to hold back the faint smile in response; the Antenora's crystalline armoring could function without risking an overclock of the internal drives after all. All in all, it was a definite improvement on Lasmunamium's tendency to go berserk when "overfed", so to speak, even when managing the dataflow of the alien material's underlying structure could often be a literally mind-numbing chore for his novice Psychodriver abilities.

In the end, the All-in-One might have been more valuable.

A shame it hadn't survived to the present.

"Retrieval teams," he continued, allowing his consciousness to slip away into the incomprehensible workings of his machine's internals. "Time Lag correction plus-minus four mikes. No recoverable materiel - except one Personal Trooper with the accompanying pilot. Point is safe."

The communications spiralled out and away, transmitted along covert channels. In a few hours, a team would arrive at the airfield's shattered remains, salvage operators and EOT technicians mixed with Personal Troopers and their supporting vessels. The Ritter's savaged body would be hauled away, to be refurbished and rearmed for future use. After all, in spite of its damaged state, the pilot was the crucial element, and -

"This one might be worth something."

Cutting off the thread to static, Jericho reached back out, lightly grasping the very edge of Corbyn's mind.

"...So it is," he finally responded, voice betraying the slightest hint of weariness. "Rest."

"I will have need of you."