imperial_stage | Colony Drop

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char aznable

Colony Drop

Who: Char, the forces of Zeon (any or all of you who want to contribute), whatever allies decided to show up on short notice, and Viridi's minions as NPCed by her mun
What: Defending Zeon from Viridi's Reset Bomb
When: Dawn on July 2
Where: The skies above Zeon and the sea to the west of Zeon
Warnings: It's a combat log

Aboard the Rewloola - and surrounding it with every airship Char could muster in an hour - Zeon's defense forces array themselves on the predicted course of the nature goddess's meteoric wrath. Higher than anyone normally travels, all guns, bows, arrows, and anything else they could conceivably throw at the incoming Reset Bomb were trained up and westward. Char himself is ready with rifle and Nightingale, as much as those would even help - at the very least he could defend his artillery from any breakaway rocks or defending nature spirits.

"All ships," Char says, his words transcribed into signal flags to communicate with the other airship commanders even as he speaks over his Crystal to his higher-ranking soldiers. "We've sighted the meteor approaching at high speed from the west. All units are to move toward it at full speed and come about once it is within one half mile. Attempt to match speeds with it or safely enter its wake to maintain fire for as long as possible. We have about five minutes on target to destroy it, starting in two from this point. You are to do everything in your ability to grind it into dust before it strikes our homeland. Sieg Zeon!"

That curt set of instructions finished, Char gives to command to his captain to begin the all-ahead-full charge toward the interception point, all the while glaring up at the falling star. Nothing like this will happen to Zeon on his watch, even if he has to create a miracle with his own hands. That's what people like Zeon's do.

((Subthreads finished, go ahead and post to them. Threads below happen in chronological order, though there may be overlap if needed.))

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"Ultramarines, you know what to do!" They nod, already lining up their bolters on the bomb, one posthuman hero for each point, as their bolters make the roaring bark which has become so characteristic of Garviel and his brothers since the Holy Grail war.

Garviel himself engages the flame-headed creature, firing one-handed at him while the other hand brandishes a chainsword, obviously challenging him.

Garviel is largely ignored for now. As his soldiers begin to shoot, Captain Flare flings its cape wide, expanding the cloth impossibly. From within its starry depths, something begins to stir...

Among the fire, a few shots of concentrated light particles lance forth. Athrun is back a little further on the deck, holding his "new" weapon -- his gun had been modified to shoot light magic specifically for this operation.

"Let's keep firing! We need to take him down quickly!"

Garviel pours on the firepower, hammering shots at Flare, swapping magazines on occasion in order to keep himself from running dry of the mana-charged munitions that he uses to slay the foes of Humanity and the Emperor.

A large number of the shots fired at the World's Most Adorable Superhero are absorbed. They simply vanish into the cloak, almost as if it isn't a piece of clothing, but rather, a doorway.

...It soon becomes very clear where that doorway leads as a meteor shower erupts from Captain Flare's cape to smash against the ship. Though much smaller than the Reset Bomb, they're, well. Still meteors.

Captain Flare hasn't escaped unscathed, though - it doesn't show any damage, but it's clear that it's slowed down significantly. More and more shots make it through to strike the Reset Bomb. But it would continue to defend the bomb to the bitter end.

9 minutes.

Athrun raises his shield to block. He could just tank the meteorites with Phase Shift, but he didn't want to lose more prana than he could afford. Despite that, a few did hit Athrun's armor, and simply bounced off without doing damage -- though they did throw up a ton of sparks.

Once the meteor shower dies down, Athrun takes a more careful aim at Flare. Deliberately trying to avoid hitting the cape, Athrun shoots.

[ Loken stands implacable against the meteors, no phase shift, just hard ceramite, adamantine, and flesh impelled by iron will underneath. His armor acquires even more scars and burns at the meteors slam into his shoulder plates, chest, and helm. And he returns fire, keeping the pressure on ]

"...Those were meteors. Hunks of rock three times your size traveling 70 kilometers a second? Someone's cheating here, and it isn't me."

Viridi's commentary aside, the meteors are enough to block Garviel's fire for as long as they continue to shoot forth from the cape. But even the largest meteor shower couldn't go on forever, and soon enough, Flare is wrapping himself back up in the warm and comfortable celestial cloth.

Athrun's shot pierces through the skies, as accurate as if guided by the hand of a goddess herself [stop helping them palutena!!] And on the moment of impact... Captain Flare simply vanishes.

7 minutes.

The bomb is open to attack.

"Perhaps you should have looked into what we were developing instead of simply its side effects!" Athrun begins opening fire on the rock with his gun, though it's more to test the strength of the weak points. He's got enough mana left for a maximum of two shots from the Scylla, and he doesn't want to end up pouring everything into one shot when half a full-power shot's strength would suffice.

"Sons of Ultramar! Unleash hell!"

Garviel's marines stand up from their positions in cover and blaze away with their bolters, one engaging each weak point. It is almost like he had this in mind, bringing a single combat squad.

Unfortunately for the attackers, the Reset Bomb chooses that moment to begin to bank towards the left, rendering three of the five weak points inaccessible. Down below, the isles of Zeon are beginning to come into view as tiny, white dots in the ocean. It seems the meteor is adjusting itself towards its final location. Unless the ship rapidly readjusts position or an individual flies off to do solo battle, the other three points are physically blocked by the bulk of the meteor.

The two points that can still be engaged from the side will explode after about thirty seconds of fire in a brilliant flash of light.

6 minutes.

Of course, it was more than possible to attack at least one of those points from a point on the hull of the Rewloola, even if they weren't visible from the deck. Fortunately, the commander of this operation was dumb enough to take a flying leap over the side earlier, and now he's clinging to the side with one hand, both feet, and a dagger wedged in the planks of the hull.

It's doubly fortunate he hung onto his saber, too, as he's now using it to blast away at the hidden weak spots with its magical energy blades. He can only focus one or two at a time dangling thousands of feet in the air above the sea, but when all he has to do is slam them into the target, that's all he needs.

"Athrun! Cecil!" he shouts, hoping his Crystal has chosen this moment to hear his words, as he has no hands free. "Get those morons at the helms moving around the rock! We need all weapons on those weak points!"

Well, if they didn't hear him, hopefully they would figure it out immediately.

"What the--"

Well, THAT was a hell of a surprise. Athrun had to actually take a moment to remind himself that he'd just been given an order.

"Yes, sir!" Fortunately there was a pipe for communicating with the bridge nearby, so he shouted those orders into it. Once that was done, he ran back to the bow, hoping he could get a clear shot.

[ Garviel and his crew just keep pouring it on from their present locations on the deck, bolters unleashing white bursts of deadly energy as they churn through cartridges. ]

Huh. These creatures gave cockroaches a good run for their money. Viridi refrains from snarky commentary, given that they were getting down to the wire here.

Char's single shots are much slower and much less effective than an entire battalion of soldiers unloading their weaponry into the bomb. Still, either he gets off a lucky shot at some unseen weak point of the weak point or the conservation of ninjutsu is briefly in effect here. 5 minutes to go and the third point explodes in a blast of smoke.

The ship begins to turn. For a full minute, all that can be heard is the sound of Garviel's crew futilely shooting at the impenetrable bulk of the meteor. And though Char continues to plug away, the final two just don't seem to want to budge.

Behind the attackers on deck, a flame-headed superhero steps forth from the dimension beyond his cape and flings it open wide. A sneak attack from behind. The meteor shower strikes from the back without any warning whatsoever.

4 minutes.

Char eventually gives up on blasting away at the meteor as it spins, unable to maintain focus. With the skill of a man who's spent too much of his life aboard a ship, he uses his dagger and the hilt of his sword to help him scramble up the side of the Rewloola, hauling himself up level with the deck just in time to have a premonition of Captain Flare's sneak attack and keep his head down, then clamber onto the deck itself and fling a half-dozen energy blades at the bastard so that everyone else on deck could focus on the Bomb.

Athrun had no chance to brace himself this time, so the meteorite knocked him over in a burst of sparks. He was unhurt, though, so he quickly climbed back up and whirled around. He put his gun away and activated a beam blade, then leaped at Flare.

[ Loken and all of his troopers are flattened against the deck, unbraced and unprepared for the meteors from behind. They growl, all of them angered by the attack that seems without honor. ]

The final attack alone had nearly exhausted Flare. The superhero vanishes in a burst of smoke as even the first assault proves past what it can bear.

3 minutes.

The ship has banked enough to correctly align itself with the meteorite. All those remaining standing on deck open fire, and with the weakening from Char's shots, it isn't long before the fourth and final weak points are dispatched. The Reset Bomb shudders along its downward path as the front of it slowly detaches, falls away, and plummets down into the ocean, barely missing clipping the airship as it goes.

Within the bomb is a mass of vines and entangled trees... And deep within, gleaming a lustrous green, the core. The explosive power of the bomb and where the magic that imbued it with its special properties was held.

2 minutes to detonation. Last chance.

"Rockets, cannons, catapults, fire everything on that point now!" Char shouts, throwing everything he can reach toward the core - bolts from his sword, his other bomb, and shots from any handgun or rifle he can grab from passing gunners, who in turn follow his orders and unload every single piece of ordnance remaining on the ship at the center of the Bomb, other ships following suit and pouring on more damage from their own firing angles.

Well, there was no point holding back at this juncture. Athrun extended his arms and spread his feet, gathering energy into the receiver on his chest. This last shot would leave him with no mana to power his armor, but that wouldn't be an issue at this point. A huge blast of concentrated light fired from the part on the chest, aimed with skilled precision toward the core.

Once the blast dissipated, Athrun hunched over, an elbow propping him up on his knee. The armor's red faded away, leaving it a dull gray.

"Three-quarters down. I should've gotten involved sooner, it seems."

Palutena grinned, raising a hand. "Miracle of mana!"

And then, a large charge of energy coursed through Athrun's armor, along with that of a fair number of Loken's forces.

"If you need this next charge... Well, now you'll have it!"

[god stop cheating Palutena!!!]

"Everyone on the ship gives it their all. But it's too late. The Reset Bomb restores Zeon to its original state and all the airships crash into the ocean."

The wishful thinking echoes in Palutena's ears just as the final charge from Athrun is released. Again, with unerring accuracy, it bursts straight through the center of the viridian core.

...The core shatters. ...But nothing seems to happen.

1 minute.

A full ten seconds after the core is destroyed, the Reset Bomb shudders... and slows. ...How is it possible? But it slows, indeed, and with a cacophonous groaning, the entire thing begins to shed. Layers after layers of rock... then thorns and forests and wood... then the core itself, bursting into a million brilliant green shards.

It all very slowly crashes down into the ocean, a full mile still from the shore of Zeon.

"NO!"

"Viridi gives it her best. But it's too slow. The Reset Bomb is destroyed, and humanity is one step closer to stopping her."

Troll harder, Palutena?

"Aaaaaugh! You are so going at the top of my to-kill list!"

So much for not having one.

"Do you know how long these things take to grow?! I'm going to have to reorganize my entire plan! ...And don't blame me when the ocean is a miasma of industrial waste and dead fish!"

Every last one of Viridi's troops will take to the air and depart. Humanity has won this battle... for now.

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infinitejustice - 2012-07-10 04:03 (UTC) - Expand

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thirdtimesthechar - 2012-07-10 04:33 (UTC) - Expand

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