Kyras Chuckled, even as he gunned down the incoming craft. He didn't even have to be accurate, the sheer colume of shots he output made it so at least a few of the devastating laser blasts tore the crafts to shreds. Why was he laughing? Because he had been busy in the months since Jieorrick. He had created more than a few canoptek wraiths, wraiths that were now free in the ship. If they wanted to board it, fine. The Wraiths would have plenty of fun.
"Tyran, Kelley, we have a Berserker group out there, codenamed Sentinel and Crow. Marking on IFF now." Several FRAMEs or at least mechas appeared green friendlies on the radar and map of the area, and Kelley pinged his acknowledgement back to command. Then the unthinkable happened, the Angel of Faith readied its main cannon, and a voice rang out. "You lowlifes! Do you not see the superiority of pure humans!? WITNESS OUR MIGHT!" The massive weapon fired. On Earth. Just as Kelley moved to attack the massive ship, an exploding kick to his mid section knocked the wind out of him. A Pugilist had attacked Fate's Edge in the stomach, and the comm linked opened. "Ohhh, poor baby FRAME pilot just saw his cradle blow up! Hah! You're pathetic, the entire UTC should just DIE!" The explosive fist came as expected after the initial attack, flying at Fate's Edge's head. Kelley grabbed the attacking arm and crushed it slightly before tossing the FRAME in a judo move away from his own. Then the rider saw the unthinkable: the Angel of Faith was going to fire again. Fate's Edge got into the charge position, aimed straight at the massive flagship. Kelley ran through the calculations faster than he had ever done anything in his mind. No, there wasn't enough time. He's not going to make it. He looked at Veronica at one of the screens and said. "Veronica, cut the line to the explosives to Kilat's FRAME." The SOUL nodded. "Done." Kelley gave Veronica a sad smile, then as she realized that something was wrong he replied. "Good." With a thought he sent the SOUL straight into Pinpoint Meteor and another moment later severed that connection between Fate's Edge and Morain's FRAME. Kelley opened an indirect line to the bridge, allowing everyone there to hear and see him on one of the main screens. "Morain, I'm sorry." With that he cut the connection and blasted as much power as he could into all of the rear thrusters. In the blink of the eye Fate's Edge disappeared, and the laser from the Angel fired. The rebel Admiral on that bridge laughed, only to see that something was blocking the laser from reaching earth. "WHAT? WHAT IS THIS?" He watched as the green laser shot straight into Fate's Edge, and the FRAME taking the entire brunt of the strike. One of the operator on the bridge reported back to him. "Sir! It seems one of the UTC FRAMEs flew into the beam's path sir!" The Admiral shook with anger, before spitting out a command. "Full power! Blast that speck of scrap out of our way!" The laser intensified, and Kelley felt a mini sun burning into his chest. "ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed into the empty chamber, unawared that a black substance was slowly encasing his rider's armor. The green laser thickened, then the space around Fate's Edge detonated, the very void exploded in a mega explosion outwards, with a blinding light shining from there illuminating all the ships in the area. OOC: Want to see Morain's reaction first before the carnage begins.
< @WanderingJester > "Morain, I'm sorry" With those words, Her confidence was shattered. Her composure lost. On the bridge of the Super-Carrier StarRunner, Gunnery Officer Morain Dereso gave her second, Gunner Michelle Williams, in charge of her station. Then, she ran. "Damnit Loran, WHY!?" She had to get to her FRAME. She had to. It didn't matter they were boarded, as she ran through the corridors of the carrier. She would pummel her way through any unfortunate enough to survive Kyras' wraiths and get in her way. {Veronica! VERONICA! What's he doing! Damnit! Why!?} She roared through data-speak. She was focused on only one thing: getting to Loran. She knew the Zodiac system. That much feedback would drive him insane, if he didn't die. And based on the workouts she had been seeing, it was quite possible he couldn't die. [You still know what to do] < @Xanxas > Of course, all good things must come to an end, as did Kyras' rampage when a Corvette's Light Cannon shell hit him square in the chest, damaging propulsion systems and throwing him backwards off the Carrier. [RESULTS: Medium Wound - Mobility Hampered]
"Lets Clear them a line to help them out." Sentinel said as she saw the beam hit Africa. "Damn Splinter seems to be aiming on destroying the earth. How Ironic They wan't it so bad there firing on it." Sentinel said as she began clearing the position around her and crow with her auto cannon. she could see a one of the UTC mechs heading off of the Corvette. "Hey Crow what do you think the best way for taking out That Cannon there using to bombard the earth and the UTC's fleet?" Sentinel asked as she saw another Frame heading straight towards it to be only get hit by it and explode. Fosters face filled one of her eyes. "Sentinel That thing can cut through ships I don't know if getting close to that ship would be a good idea." Foster said being connected to sentinel had its advantage knowing her. "Yeah It Can do that that's why it needs to go out for good. Think there's a way into there ship or a way to take out there engines to make there Rear vulnerable? If we can get a hit in there reactor we can send them Sky high." she said laughingly imaging the ship along with its crew being blown to bits. Still it would leave the fleet in a bad position unless they got out of its range. She looked to one of the boarding craft heading towards the StarRunner and took aim with her PPC to take it out sending it craning towards the Boarder. Results 3 dead swordsmen 2 rifle men 1 attempt to knock out a boarder. OOC what position would me and crow be from the The others and Kyras?
"Watch yourself, Rider." Those words crackled over his comlink. Ragnar said " Dont you worry lad! I have him covered. And we are fine." " Excuse Ragnar Sergeant. He can be a real pain in the ass at times. But he is a loyal companion. Thank you for the intervention and I welcome the aid. " At that moment a immensely bright laser burrowed itself on the planet below. With a flash of light Vesk knew hundreds of thousands of people were wiped out instantly. Shock was overtaking his mind for a few seconds. " Snap out of it lad. There is time to grief later. Now it is time for vengeance Sergeant I have the means of getting close to that damned ship. And can send a surprise into that giant laser. Or do you have another plan? I am more then happy to follow orders at this point. Pfah orders lad? Since when do we follow them! " Ragnars deep voice chuckled over the comlink.
< @Vulpas > OOC: You and Crow are in the middle of the Melee, the center of the battle. The StarRunner, her FRAMEs and Kyras are approaching from the "west" currently 300 Meters away. Earth is behind "south" 1200 meters away. Kelley and the Angel of Faith are "North" about 700 Meters away, along with the fleet that is 500 Meters away "North" Crow was silent for a while as he vaporized incoming Mecha before replying: "Nix has determined that, even if we could get past her shields, the Angel has armor to thick to damage with our current weaponry. Direct or Indirect confrontation is inadvisable... Damn Splinter!" Meanwhile, Sentinel's PPC shot blew directly through a Boarding boat, although many had already attached themselves. All around her, bewildered UTC troopers were falling back, getting cut down or blasted apart by a never-ending wave of Splinter Reinforcements. It seemed the best course of action may be to regroup with the approaching Super-Carrier and make a stand with her crew. Especially considering the fact that a dual-sword-wielding FRAME had just passed by Crow and managed a clean hit on Sentinel, slicing through her back armor and scrambling her targeting systems. [ RESULTS: Medium wound - Targeting scrambled ] [ 1 Sword-FRAME (Boss) ; Make a strike, try to regroup or do something else you want to do. ] < @Vikingvesk > "Negative on that, Rider. Thorough scans of that Flagship indicate Non-UTC shielding that is extremely difficult to breach. Not that it would matter if we could, that hull is too thick for our weapons to do any significant damage. At this point we are better off lending close support to the StarRunner." All this was stated even as the Sergeant's FRAME, Titan Killer, spun around, ripping a Splinter mecha apart with every shot of his railcannons. "Not my greatest idea of fun, either. but it is the most appropriate action to take at this time." "I hereby temporarily transfer you under my command. What is your name Rider?" Asks Sergeant Gorgon even as he leads Vesk towards the battle raging around the Super-Carrier.
" Veskander is the name sir. And this is my frame whipcord and my soul Ragnar. Greetings sergeant Gorgon a bearded gruff looking SOUL said. I agree he is a bit rough around the edges. But he is a great asset and my most loyal brother " Veskander followed the Sergeant towards the Super-Carrier. Keeping his eyes open for enemy troops to let his whip slide in. At the same time they started moving he reversed the polarity of his shield so that projectiles would be launched back at anyone who dared to shoot at them.
OOC: Feel free to emote Veronica any way you choose @BadDo9 I'm just setting up where she is and responding to Morain (for now), but I'll be focusing on Kelley's situation right now. Sorry @Xanxas for jacking your style for a moment. Feel free to listen to Ultron talking below to set the mood (the voice is actually quite similar to what I had in mind). -Veronica- {Veronica! VERONICA! What's he doing! Damnit! Why!?} Veronica was a mess. A flood of emotions was washing over the SOUL. Shock, sadness, helplessness. She cried as she sat helplessly on the floor of Pinpoint meteor. Suddenly Morain's message came through, and Veronica hiccuped, startled. [Morain! Mr. Kelley locked me out of Fate's Edge! I'm in Pinpoint Meteor now, he's-he's gone and blocked their super weapon himself. And-and...] The SOUL broke down crying again, overwhelmed by self-pity and sorrow. -Loren Kelley (?)- When the smoke and debris started to clear, the Admiral of the Angel of Faith laughed on his bridge. "You see? No one can stop this ship! We have the most powerful weapon in this side of the galaxy! And we'll-" His eyes nearly bulged out of his head as the fallout from the explosion cleared, and his words died almost as quickly as his confidence. "we'll..." Every hand on the bridge, in fact everyone who had witness the explosion was rendered speechless by what they saw on the visual sensors. Fate's Edge floated where the laser had struck it, limp but very much intact. The only visible damage at all was that name of the FRAME was burned off the armor outside, but the armor underneath looked untouched. Inside the rider's chamber, all the lights were off, except a single red light between the feet of Kelley's form. The entirety of Kelley's rider armor was now covered with the black substance now, from his boots to every last inch of his helmet. Where his face mask shown his face was now fully pitch black. The light at his feet blinked a few times, then spread to the rest of the chamber, activating FRAME's systems one by one. Just as this was happening, the black substance began forming itself into ragged robes that covered the exterior of the rider's armor. The wavy fabric like clothing covered Kelley's limp form as a hood flowed over his helmet, and when it finally shaded the helmet, a laughter was emitted from Kelley. But this wasn't his good nature laugh or his geninue one that Morain coaxes out of him from time to time. This one was distorted, inhumane, terrifying. A comms channel was opened up on the international channels from the FRAME to every mecha, every ship, and every platform capable with receiving communication externally. Even the lifepods from destroyed ships received the communication. The hooded rider looked up, and instead of Kelley's face, a skull prodcasted from the black helmet's surface. It stopped laughing, and spoke with the distorted voice that mixed the monsters from nightmares of children with that of a malfunctioning SOUL. "And what have that power brought you Admiral? Have you seized the power that the gods controlled? Or have you finally broken the chains of time that steadily drags you to your death? Have you Admiral? Have any of you with this incessant fighting?" The hooded reaper looked forward, and the rebel Admiral froze, feeling it stare into his soul. "We are all bound by these chains, inescapable, eternal, ever dragging us in the course of events that are already in motion and that we are powerless to stop. We are all helpless prisoners, chained down and letting things like fate and destiny and karma push and pull us in different directions, as helpless as all those people that you have just killed on the planet below admiral. And now those chains have dragged you here, at my harvest, too paralyzed to even beg for mercy." Fate's Edge activated, but all the lights on it turned off. Only the red light from its visor remained. "I am death and all chains lead to me." The FRAME pulled out its whip sword and shaped it, crooked and bent but solid as it locked in. It ripped the detachable laser sword out from its left arm and connected it to the power source at the end of the crooked whip, forcing more power into it to over the charge the blade, somehow manipulating it into a curved shape. The laser scythe extended from the right arm of Fate's Edge, as it got ready to charge the Angel of Faith. The admiral, seeing this, finally snaps out of it. He bellowed at the nearest hands on the bridge. "PREPARE TO FIRE THE LASER AGAIN! NOW!" The hand looked at him helplessly. "But sir! It did no damag-" "JUST DO IT!" "Aye sir!" The massive green laser began to power up and locked on to Fate's Edge. The Reaper spoke again. "Now you will all die." The Admiral screamed at the entire bridge. "FIRE!" Just as the laser was about to fire again, the Reaper blasted its rear thrusters, pushing the FRAME at superhuman speed at the massive flag ship. The laser scythe came down, and the Reaper reappeared behind the Angel of Faith. Every eye in the vicinity watched in shock and awe as nothing happened at first, then half of the ship began to slide away from the other half, perfectly cut down the middle vertically before a series of explosions consumed it. The Reaper was already moving, sliding in and out of visions at all the nearby troopers, cutting them apart with its scythe. If one were to slow time so that the human eye can see it, one would see that this was not the single stroke charge that allow Kelley to cut apart tens of hundreds of mecha at once with one swing and boost. Instead the Reaper stopped in front of each and every trooper and FRAME near the flag ship, slicing it apart with super natural speed, and then moving to the next one and repeating the process. This happened so fast, that the other captains, both of UTC and the rebels, couldn't give any commands before snapping out of their shock momentarily, and by then all of the mechas around the destroyed flagship were mere corpses of metal and flesh. OOC: RESULTS: Main rebel flagship along with all mechas aboard and deployed from it destroyed. Kelley consumed by the Reaper and Fate's Edge transformed.
< @Xanxas @Vulpas @Vikingvesk > [Feel free to react however you want to Kelley's actions, but I would not recommend approaching him if you value your life] "All Riders... return to base. Riders Vesk, Sentinel, Crow, you are all welcome aboard as well." < @WanderingJester > Helmsman Fero was the first to speak up upon the bridge of the StarRunner. "Commander...? I recommend... stopping here?" Commander Yilli was shaking. "Agreed, helmsman. Belay forward course." She was honestly scared, nothing she had ever been since becoming a commander of the UTC. She didn't know what to do for the first time in any combat situation. -------------------------------------------------- Morain was now in the gunnery station, running full speed towards her hangar. {Veronica! Start Pinpoint Meteor!} She yelled with her data-speak. [Sis? Wh-] {There's no time! We're going out there to save Loran!} Meanwhile, she opened a line to the Reaper/Kelley: "Loran! LORAN! Snap out of it! You needn't let it control you! Please! Let it go and come back to us!" She was settled in to her FRAME, but there was still a long ride down through the elevator before she could deploy. ---------------------------------------------------- The Splinter forces were now in complete disarray. Ships began jumping out of system, most leaving their Troopers behind. Of course, they panicked. One trooper gave a general call to the rest of them: "Look! It's only one FRAME! If we work together, we can beat it!" Yelled the oh-so-wrong Splinter Pilot. But that didn't stop them. All guns trained on Kelley, from mecha rifles to railguns to laser cannons, and all fired in one salvo with a whole swarm of rockets. Meanwhile, every type of close-combat charged him. Meanwhile, Ioren Kilat ignores the order to return to base, and also begins a trek towards Kelley. Surely this was a trick, and Kelley could be talked out of it. Foolish boy. [You know what to do, but I'll say it anyway. Respond to Morain while you eliminate the Splinter, than begin the charge towards Ioren, speaking to him if you want.]
Watching the ghastly scene unfold Veskander could do nothing else but stare for a moment. That frame just destroyed the most powerful ship of the splinter fleet. In a moment. After being hit by that monstrous laser. " Laddy .. I sense .. nothing good at this moment. I do not say this often but we should make our retreat. I agree with you there Ragnar. Lets go to the Super-Carier" The image played in his head over and over and over again. He thought the FRAME to be obliterated by the laser. And there it was. Almost not wounded. Covered in black .. he did not even know where to begin. Suddenly his com was screeching with the voice of that .. Thing .. Yes Thing he could not make anything else out of it And then it went so fast. In the blink of an eye the enemy ship was gone. " Command this is Veskader. What in the name of the gods is that thing?! "
