Phoenix

Despite being one of the best players around, Monika was quick to refer Hitomi to Melanie. Admittedly, Melanie had come to mind first, but Hitomi didn't know exactly how well known the girl was, or more importantly, how much of an impact on the arcade she could have right this moment. Her fans couldn't all be in the area, right? Not that it would take that many for what they needed. A hundred was more than enough and even small time streamers tended to have a few thousand fans behind them. Before Hitomi could articulate her thoughts on the matter, Melanie closed the gaps and got on LunaTicks. Oh boy, Hitomi was not ready for this ... "Er- ... hurry, everyone! You're going to want to see this up close!" She could only hope her forced smile wasn't on camera or anything, otherwise her quip could be considered half decent.

The Stratus Arcade was positively packed when Team Odyssey and their tryouts arrived, and that was just the main floor. Everywhere Hitomi looked there were people, simpods, and more traditional arcade machines, and given how many floors of the underground complex the arcade took up, Battlenet's own gaming center might have actually been the better call. Hitomi could only hope that Motherloader had managed to secure at least a few machines or simpods for them, but it wasn't looking like that was the case. Stratus was a fairly large arcade due to its megasims, the 22nd Century gamer's wet-dream, so maybe things were just crowded around this particular entrance. Maybe. Either way, there couldn't be one head short of a thousand people in this place. "I'm going to see if Motherloader's even here," Hitomi said, knowing she'd never find him by just standing on her toes and looking around. "Hey, where are you?" she tried to use his Battlenet profile to contact him directly ... and it worked. "Beebs? I'm at the arcade. You guys made it here yet? I've got a big surprise for you." Hitomi frowned. She hadn't come to know this guy for his good surprises, only the obnoxious ones. Like those annoying little nicknames he kept using, or the fact that he could just pop up out of the Aether whenever, wherever. "You know how Stratus has seven megasims?" Of course she did. That was part of the reason Stratus took up around ten floors. The megasims were capable of rendering full sized frames around special simpods and putting on quite the spectacle. It was more for the audience than the pilot, but there was something about actually piloting a frame that made it exhilarating, even if it was fake. Come to think of it, Motherloader getting one of those reserved was a pleasant surprise. Hitomi couldn't imagine him having reserved one of those without foul play involved. "Um, how?" "Told'em the girl from the stage is going to put on an even bigger show here at Stratus. Still had to pay the premium, but these drones look pretty excited, so don't take too long getting over here. You're on Sim #2." #2 seemed appropriate somehow. Hitomi wasn't looking forward to being bathed in the spotlight yet again, but she had already resigned herself to it. Between being Felix's student, attracting at least two very high profile players into the tryouts, and trying to help put Linus on the map, fame was inevitable. Best to just embrace it. There was still the matter of everyone else they'd brought with them. It was technically possible for them to play from their phones, other gadgets, or even from a smartglass display, but that was just dumb. This was an arcade. They should be able to get their hands on some hefty controls and be able to give their best showing, too. "Okay, I'm extremely grateful you pulled that off, but did you find anything for the rest of our group? I wasn't expecting everyone to be able to get on all at once, but ..." "Sorry, Beebs. Out of bribe funds, but why not make it part of the big show? 'Team Odyssey recruiting the best of the best to beat up Battlenet's Soldaat hordes!' Their new campaign's comin' out tomorrow so it's open season on those mono-eyed knuckleheads. That's the route I'd go." A new campaign? Hitomi hadn't even finished the last one ... granted, these days a campaign on a game as large as Frame Ops was something only someone with no life could experience to the fullest. Too many routes, too many things to discover and collect ... it was all just too much. Maybe if she had six straight months and could get by without any sleep. All this content was free for official Battlenet players, so the new scenarios would be waiting for her on her system around midnight tonight, assuming Motherloader had the release date right. Not much to think about really. Motherloader did have a point; the momentum gained from Matsuo's shenanigans had worked out pretty well for them. Maybe they should push ahead just a bit further for the sake of getting everyone on those machines and making the most out of this. It could actually work, but the idea could use just a bit more of ... something. "Give me a second ..." Hitomi turned to Linus and the tryouts. "Okay, Motherloader got megasim two reserved and wants me to use that. I guess the idea is to convince the people here to give the rest of us some spots so we can all go in at once. On that note, Keizerin! You're famous, right? We could definitely use your help here. I'm sure people want to see an Aeon rank clean house, even if we do just wind up fighting a bunch of Soldaats. In fact, if anyone thinks they can get people more interested in watching us as a group, that would be a huge help."

(Fluff eventually) Hannah shifts into plane mode! Brant moves to 11,19 and attacks Sacarian Mook #10 with Shield MIssiles! Hannah supports with AA Missiles!

(Redacted due to Alkaev related things)

(Fluff in following post, probably) Firmia (Tonya) moves the Avalon up 1 and left 5 spaces and attacks the entrapped Sacarian Mook #1 with Avalon Funnels! Brant supports with the Regalia's Funnels!

The IV case gave Megumi the signal when it had set up a line, and from there it was just a matter of setting up the transfusion. Olivia had the blood, so they were ready to begin. "She's stable, but that could change once I get started, so don't relax just yet." It took all of ten seconds to get the donated blood linked up inside the SIEG tank, and once Megumi got confirmation that the transfusion was underway, she took a deep breathe, and took control of the tank's instruments. "Alright, let's remove the first-aid mess ..." The chest was the more grievous and more important of the wounds, so Megumi started there. Plucking away at the stanched areas eventually drew blood, which oozed into the SIEG itself. The filtration system would take care of some of it, but another tool with a nozzle was quick to clear up the doctor's view of the wound as she continued to work. Christina's vitals only dipped for a few moments, which was frankly better than expected. The bleeding itself had slowed significantly by the time the wound was plucked clean, which meant it was time for the difficult part ... reconstruction. Of course, it couldn't be that easy to get what she was looking for. If they couldn't beat ANF encryption at this level, then they still had a long way to go, but Galatea's followup suggestion wasn't a bad one. In fact finding the individual or group behind these nigh uncrackable records would open up a few interesting options if the sassy AI succeeded. As for the information Firmia was after in the chaos of this skirmish ... that might require a different approach, maybe even ... "Go ahead, Galatea. Stephanie, you can go ahead and help Jessica with the analysis. I'm going to try a different approach for now." Tonya glanced back at the captain's chair, again. "You have a workaround? Something the androids couldn't figure out?" Firmia grimaced. Yes and no, but the one option she did have felt so ... poorly timed, so one track, that it was a little embarrassing to consider. Firmia convinced herself that this was just important enough to make a quick call. "Not something they couldn't figure out, but I'm not sure this is even a good idea. I'm hoping ... mrgh. Just keep us on course for the Riese." Just as Firmia was about to make that call, the Reign took a hit that would have given the Alkaev a heart attack a few weeks ago. She gripped the hand rests of her chair and tried to decide whether to keep on the offense, or call the Reign back for emergency repairs. Given their momentum, the latter wasn't the best option, but it took a moment to fight back the urge to recall the Reign. "Hannah, Galatea, be careful! The Reign can't take the kind of damage the Mantle could!" Speaking of the Mantle, Firmia was awestruck when she saw Bonner and Lynx successfully navigate the Sacarian equivalent of a funnel storm. They made it through without a scratch, showing once again just how capable the AMS units were in the right hands. Hopefully Hannah's corrections for the way these Sacarians fought would see her through the inevitable next pass. In the meantime, the Mantle team had the right idea, take the pressure off of Hannah and Galatea. Marcia already had that Sacarian locked in for all weapons, and so the Alkaev wouldn't need to work even half as hard to lay down accurate fire. "I'll show you how a real TK fights! Funnels!" As the Avalon's funnels raced out to attack their mark, Firmia realized that they were just about out of time with Jessica's shenanigans. She couldn't check in right now, but if that was the case, the Riese was about to become extremely vulnerable ... Brant was worried, but they still had much bigger problems than the Artemis' T-link. For now it was best to get set up for an attack run, and while Brant was seeing to that, Jessica and Kim brought a gripping conclusion to Gaal'Bathy's existence, ending her in a two pronged attack that left behind nothing but raining debris. He was glad to know these aliens were quite beatable, even if it took a warship to secure the kill. That just meant they had more research to do between engagements. Avalon moves 6 spaces to the left side of the map and attacks Sacarian Git #7 with AV Funnels!

Brant moves to 16-20 (Other stuff in next post)

Olivia was already seeing to the blood units, and the SIEG tank was easily handled by just one person ... probably part of the reason the ANF saw fit to under staff the infirmary. That just left one job that wasn't just a glorified take on 'stand there and watch.' It was 'stand there and watch very carefully.' "Tambre, keep and eye on the battle for me. If anyone gets injured, you need to carefully walk them through first-aid procedures." Also praying they got through this in one piece couldn't hurt. The ship was literally a sitting duck, and some very powerful mobile suits were buzzing around out there. Vultures ... Christina was out now and the SIEG tank was nearly full, so it was time to whip out the medical implements. "Once the surgery's finished, all we need to do for a while is monitor everyone. As long as our side wins, things should go smoothly." Even as she was speaking, Megumi had taken control of the SIEG tank's internal instruments. She did some final checks and tried to reacquaint her hands with their fine metal extensions. The doctor wanted that first unit of blood set up before she started picking away the hardened foam keeping Christina's wounds sealed. In preparation, Megumi deployed an IV case, which gently clamped down over Christina's right wrist. Nina's blood would be delivered via this device once it was placed into the SIEG tank and run through the line into the IV case. The case itself was autonomously searching for a good vein and preparing to complete the connection between patient and machine. Christina wouldn't feel a thing. The Ceres vanished, just like every other high powered Apotheosis unit they had been too slow to bring down in the past. Jessica didn't even seem to know what was being installed in her own machines ... though Firmia was much more inclined to just let that one go, if only because no senior officer in any military in the world could be expected to be that omniscient, man or machine. Delegation wasn't some luxury officers had, it was an absolute necessity. The outcome here was still frustrating as all hell, though! "Argh! Of course it got away!" Firmia brought her fist down hard on her right armrest. There was no time to waste and they had to refocus themselves. "All AMS teams, get to the Riese now! Artemis, stay with us and focus down one target at a time!" The report from Stephanie came back, and the android's suspicions were shared by the wary captain. The ANF was ill advised not to cover up something like that as best they could. If this really was the same group, then these petty criminals were getting what they deserved. Firmia just hoped they got it a little bit slower going forward, and that Soor'kan would get too invested to come and finish off the Riese. With Jessica's supposed three minutes almost up, protecting the ship would be even more difficult. "Thank you, Stephanie. It's not conclusive on its own, but it's exactly what I was looking for. Send everything to my tablet with any other thoughts you have on it. Then I want you and Jessica to keep an eye on those Mark IIIs and the Sacarian machine they're fighting from the Avalon's sensors. We probably won't have to fight the Mark IIIs today, but assume we will later on." They definitely had to fight Soor'kan at some point, but Firmia wanted to be prepared for any eventuality. "Planning to take back those mobile suits?" Tonya winced from the helm. "Or just doing the whole asset denial thing? This is going to be the nastiest debriefing of all time, isn't it ..." "I don't care." Firmia huffed. Then she had a thought. "H-hold on, Stephanie, I've got a different job I need you for right now. Leave the threat analysis to Jessica- ..." Better to start calling the one she liked Jess and the other one Jessica come to think of it. "You might need Galatea's help," this wasn't the time to call Vance, so she would just have to apologize for hacking the database if they pulled that off, "but if there's any way you can find the real report from that facility, I need you to send that to me, too. What's most important now are the casualties, official or hidden. I'll take care of the rest." Tonya wasn't sure what good a casualty report would do, but ... Firmia and her body counting. What else was new? The anger in the area that followed the Ceres' disappearance was downright tangible, and Brant would be lying if he denied his own contribution. Unless she was smart enough to pull a final disappearing act, the next time they saw Avery would be on a completely different battlefield. It would have been better to end her here and now, but it looked like they would have to clean up that traitor's mess first. A clean sweep of all the woman's belongings, a thorough examination of the Artemis in particular, but all of the mobile suits, and so on. It was a big mess, and the repairs to the Riese herself went without saying. From the sound of things, Kim wasn't going to disengage the T-link until it was either too late, or it became too big of a burden in the fight. "Kim, just don't push yourself. We're not even halfway done here." Admittedly downing the Luna felt like a major step toward ending the battle, even though that unit had been fighting alone. They had quite the ways to go if they were going to bring a favorable end to this nightmare, and this time Central's forces weren't here to back them up. Firmia casts Attune (Dreams) on Kim!

The Luna issue got settled faster than Firmia expected, but with Jessica too busy to put up much of a fight, she suspected it wouldn't be too hard. She didn't really buy Gefalscht's explanation on the androids, but with Hannah and even Kazue joining the debate, things got even weirder. The Alkaev agreed that if they had to choose between the Reign being out of action temporarily, and the Crescent, she'd prefer the latter. Submerging in this fight was meant to be an option, not unavoidable. As for Kazue escorting Vera, Hannah seemed okay with the idea. Both captains were beside themselves ... "Wh-" Firmia wanted to know why Jessica was asking her, but that was obvious. It was Hannah or Kazue. This could definitely work to Firmia's advantage, though. "Have the sergeant and the Riese's androids work together." Foolproof, or hopefully Veraproof. "If THAT isn't enough, then I refuse to believe there's any way of taking Vera alive." "Avery, again?" Brant winced. The sooner they returned her bullets to her the better. "Remember, you're down a copilot right now, so stay in contact with us. If things start getting really bad, shut down the T-link." Wouldn't want to have to fish a comatose Seung-Min out of the ocean. As for shutting down the T-link, well she was certainly good enough to manage without it, but it would definitely put her at an even steeper disadvantage against the Sacarians.

"We're still getting readings, but no complications so far," Megumi said, relieved Olivia was back. Bennet and Tambre were like a pair of literal hands. She preferred having both around. She actually preferred pairs of things in general now that her thoughts had drifted there; two decoys, two gun closets, two main weapons, two bottles of rectified spirits within arms' reach ... Maybe it was because of her older sisters. The mind expressed itself in some very subtle ways ... The readings Megumi got back from the SIEG tank's instruments were ... in that irritating gray area. Better than Christina being overall in the red, but definitely in dangerous territory with the surgery ahead of and not behind her. Since she needed those wounds closed properly, and the blood of her own clone offered the least risk, an RBC transfusion was an easy decision, one the doctor had been leaning toward even before checking her patient's vitals more closely. "Yes, you can definitely help," Megumi nodded at Nina. "Bennet, I'll need a unit from Nina to start. Just one. We'll have time for more if it's needed, but Christina is going to lose more blood while I'm operating and is probably going to slip into the red briefly, so we'll need to be ready for that." Once the first aid blocks were removed, Christina would start bleeding again, so best to be ready for that. One unit should be enough as long as Megumi was fast, which she generally was. Better to have it prepped in advance all the same. Firmia was doing her best alright, frustration and multiple factors of concern aside. Finding out as much as she could about Abigail's crew before they had to deal with what was left of them face to face was important, though. It was good to not have to put that search off, and the Alkaev was thankful to her more recent androids for taking on that burden. "One moment, Hannah ..." Jessica's concerns were warranted, but still annoying. Firmia didn't see why they needed Hannah specifically for this, and the offer to 'let her' have her pick of the salvage was just downright insulting. Her drones were hauling that wreck up; it was doomed otherwise and therefore hers. She didn't care much for the pilot inside, but the Riese's mechanics couldn't get on this salvaging business right away. Avery was a traitor on the run, Buck and Ignatius would have their hands full after the battle with mobile suit repairs, and the Riese was one blunder away from sinking. If they were going to move Vera to a fancy lockbox then that was fine, but they should be able to do it with the overwhelming muscle they already had on hand. "First of all, the Luna's mine; once the dust settles, we're taking it to the Avalon. Second, why on earth do you need Hannah when you have three other androids on the Riese?" Surely three of Hannah's sisters working together could get Vera to a secure cell without any trouble. If they couldn't, then what was the point of having them? Wasn't the threat Vera posed in close quarters and Hannah's ability to not only survive but drive the fake samurai back the main driving force behind assigning androids to both ships? They should come to the Avalon to get upgraded along with Jessica and Stephanie if they couldn't handle Apotheosis' best. And possibly stick around ... the Alkaev's preference for a monopoly on the androids was far from gone. "If they're not helping with the repairs, send them to the hangar. We can't afford to have them sitting this out." The details were still being worked out, but the drones had already broken the surface and were quietly moving toward the Riese ahead of the Avalon. The further away they got, the more uncomfortable Firmia felt. Only having six drones available, and seeing all of them working on the same laborious task reminded her of how vulnerable they were in skirmishes like these. Nullify the speed factor and they were fairly easy to knock out, and she could easily imagine a potshot from Soor'Kan, taken in a moment of irritation, atomizing the lot of them and dropping the Luna hulk right back into the water. "Hannah, escort the Luna to the Riese but don't dock, yet. We're ... deciding how to deal with Vera." By that point, Firmia had bumped up the transmission to the main line between the Heion Riese and the Avalon so Hannah would easily catch the rest of the exchange. Rage was all the rage today, but it was more than justified, especially in Chris' case. They had been betrayed, ambushed by the most powerful enemies they had ever seen, and now had to tackle both problems while waiting for more news on Christina's condition. For once, Brant really liked the idea of a nice tall drink after this was over, though mainly he was just hoping to be able to relax. While not physically exhausted, mentally there was a lot keeping the mind occupied: the Sacarian menace, catching the Ceres while they still could, Christina, the Riese, the now thoroughly pummeled Luna and its pilot. The overbearing telekinetic presence of the Sacarians in particular might even be the worst of it. It almost felt like an unseen battle was going on in the mental realm that Brant could only experience the physical effects of, and could only fight back against subconsciously. "Captain, are we free to engage the Ceres?" "From the usual distance," Firmia replied, a gentle reminder not to get reckless and trip over their own momentum, "Don't get too far ahead of the Avalon." "Right ... also ..." Brant's sudden shift in attention didn't make it back to Firmia. The transmission ended before that. "Is the Artemis ...?" He didn't notice the funnels at first, but he did notice Kim's reaction to them as she reined the antsy weapons in. Hopefully it wasn't more sabotage courtesy of Avery ... "Kim, is everything alright? We still have to deal with the Ceres and the Sacarians."

Well ... if Felix wanted to take on some of the load too, along with his own fans, Hitomi definitely wasn't going to stop him. The introductions were short but there were still a lot of them to get through. "Alright, let's speed things up so we can head down to the arcade!" The last plan was fine and all, but after dealing with a huge crowd up on stage as well as Motherloader, Hitomi really wanted to get back into her comfort zone, the actual game. Felix had to take a lot of questions along the way, both from Team Odyssey hopefuls, as well as his own fans, but by cutting the line in half, he'd still saved them some time figuring out which players to bring to the arcade with them. She hadn't been expecting it but it was only a couple of minutes into the latest approach to interviewing players that the troublemakers started to rear their mischievous heads. One guy actually tried to recruit Hitomi onto his team; he wasn't here to try out for Odyssey at all. It was inevitable once enough people got a look at the team's stats. Gold wasn't really stage worthy. The perception that caused with some players was really beginning to sting. After stonewalling an attempt to poach her from the team, Hitomi met 'Motherloader 2.0.' What was with these really reputable players coming along to try and take over? This one was Aether tier and had recently left a different team, so he could probably back up his bluster better than Motherloader could, but he was even worse than that guy. Taller, too. He was certain Team Odyssey would reach Aeon tier this year with him--of course--as the team leader, and he was willing to challenge anyone on the team for the position at the arcade. Thankfully he was also more attentive than Motherloader and realized right away that no one at the table was going to budge with an aggressive proposal/challenge like that, and he made room for the next person in Hitomi's line. That was the only good news out of that one. He didn't back off before inviting himself to the arcade, aiming to prove he was just what Team Odyssey needed. "Okay, who's next?" Hitomi could do nothing to hide her wariness, but she was still smiling ... a nervous, pleading smile. No more jerks. Please?

It should have been a relief to see the Luna hit the water like it had, but with the Sacarians still going strong, it was too early for anything of the sort. The drones already had their orders--retrieve whichever mobile suit went down first--and all six of them transformed and dove into the ocean after the Artemis. Rather than keeping pace with the original MK.III, the drones took advantage of their size and disproportionate thrust, racing beneath the Luna's ravaged frame and latching onto it one by one, each new grip slowing the defeated's descent into hell. On the Avalon's bridge, Firmia's gaze shifted toward Soor'Kan for a moment. "The Artemis needs to get back up here ... ... Tonya, get us to the Riese. Right now. I don't know how long we have until those stolen suits are wiped out, but we have to take advantage of this." "What happens if Top Cat comes after us, next?" Tonya glanced over her shoulder toward the captain's chair. "As a last resort, we'll dive ... assuming we still can. I'll leave the call on when to do that to you," Firmia said with grim resignation. The Luna had been on defense this whole time, which meant for the most part, they weren't much better off than before, and they were still out of position. "Avalon here," Firmia addressed the Riese crew on their main channel, hoping to keep the Sacarians and interlopers out of the loop for a few more moments, "The Luna is down and we're moving to engage the Ceres and the Sacarians with you." To her own crew she said, "Good job, everyone. No, great job. There's still more to do, but we needed this. The whole war effort needed this." The Luna hit the water. Done and done. It was somewhat concerning to see the Artemis diving in after, but if Vera was still alive in there, she wouldn't last long at crush depth. No mobile suit could. At least that menace was finally neutralized, though what would become of the wreckage was anyone's guess. For a brief moment, Brant was struck by an almost terrifying thought. It was the thought of that green barrier Apotheosis employed so liberally. If Vera decided to self destruct right when Kim reached her, there wouldn't be anything they could do. The only thing that could prevent that was the woman's own sense of honor, or the Luna being damaged beyond any sort of internal operations. Brant wouldn't even consider the latter if Carlos hadn't been sitting in the Avalon's brig, and the Regina hadn't been fully salvaged by the ANF. Focusing on the sinking Luna and diving Artemis, it was clear that Vera wasn't necessarily about to attempt anything. Her actions were deliberate and forceful on the whole, and there was none of that sort of tension building. Here was hoping ... Brant's eyes immediately shifted to the Ceres. "Payback time?" he asked his copilot, his voice admittedly indicating that he was on the fence, himself. Brant was a little disoriented from the fighting thus far and could definitely use a minute to recenter himself. The severity of emotions in the air, the timing and positioning involved in fighting Vera alone, it was all draining. The Regalia could handle plenty more action, so that wasn't stopping them.

"Thank you, Captain." They were cleared to operate. If the infirmary wasn't going to be shaking like a maraca then it came down to the doctor and the SIEG tank's own instruments, and both of those were as good and ready as they could be. "Bennet better get back here soon. I'm going to get set up and close these wounds, Tambre. Be ready for anything." "Huh?" Firmia was expecting to hear back from Jessica or Stephanie, or maybe even Galatea. Instead she heard a familiar but lower pitched ... Hannah? Like usual she unconsciously set to work on that oddity in the background and just focused on the information Hannah was giving her. Apparently these machines were sister units to the Artemis, none truly identical. It probably wouldn't matter if Soor'Kan was just going to blow them all away, but in case the Sacarians didn't win this, it was useful intel. "Thanks, Hannah. Alright, new orders for you two," Firmia addressed Jessica and Stephanie, "Search everywhere. News articles, satellite data, casualty reports. Find any ANF bases that weren't hit by Apotheosis and send them to my console." And then it sort of just clicked ... Hannah's voice was deeper, but not completely different. That wasn't radio interference; the signal was way too strong for that. No, it had to be Hannah's own doing. What was she up to? The Alkaev had a feeling. Not a bad or good feeling, just a feeling. "We're out of position," Brant grimaced toward Chris, "but take the funnels anyway and shoot Vera or shoot anything that gets too close. Firmia, we're ready for the next pass." "Good because we're out of time! Blast her! Everyone!" The Alkaev's command transcended the airwaves and the Avalon's funnels encircled the Luna admist a torrent of weapons fire and dealt yet another series of blows to the machine. That was when the Artemis rushed in to finish things, Firmia's drones sticking close but out of the way. "If we can't put that thing down after all this ..." Brant carefully timed his missile launch, making sure they would get through without being caught up in the flurry of plasma shots destined for the same target ... Firmia activates Dreams->Fury, move to 23,26/19,22 and attacks Vera with Avalon Funnels! Brant activates Strike and Snipe, then moves to 22,21 and attacks Vera with Shield Missile!

And the ship was shaking. Again. As long as they weren't hit too hard, or at a bad moment, Megumi was still confident she could save Christina. Still, with the ship under fire, it might be best to ride out the battle before doing anything delicate. Christina was going into the SIEG tank now; no backing away from that if they wanted to avoid complications, but between the gentle but very noticeable swaying of the Riese in the ocean waters and whatever the hell just hit them, any delicate procedures could lead to fresh injuries. It only took a moment to move Christina over to the SIEG tank and place her inside. Megumi quickly set the patient up with a breathing mask, securing it, and then starting the main sequence. "Try to relax," Megumi instructed, closing up the tank as the lukewarm SIEG solution began to gently flow into the capsule, "You're probably going to have some visitors when you wake up, so just look forward to that." That was it, then. Once Christina was fully submerged, she would be fully anesthetized--via her breathing mask--and her wounds would begin to heal. Without that surgery the doctor had planned, the healing would be somewhat limited, and the severed tissues and scarring would run deep, potentially affecting Christina's muscles and internal organs. "I'll just have to be careful," Megumi murmured to herself, opting to start the surgery now rather than putting it off. She was on the clock now that the SIEG was involved. "Captain, it's Doctor Amparo. Christina's out of immediate danger, but I need to operate on her if she's going to make a full recovery. A blood transfusion might also be necessary, but if it's possible, could you ... I don't know, send me some kind of warning if you think the ship is about to take another hit? A blinking light or something? I don't want to add to her injuries." Having to watch the Riese take a direct hit from the Sacarians while the shields were offline was frustrating, almost as frustrating as seeing the Luna start its retreat toward the larger group of enemies. Was anything going to go right today? Anything at all? ... anything? Firmia could only hope that the ANF machines approaching were ready to assist, but she quickly realized that if not for some very bad timing, they could potentially be fighting them instead. The back and forth over the open channel was ridiculous. "They're Abigail's old team? And a girlfriend? What's ..." Firmia quickly opened a direct line to the Regalia. "Brant, tell me you're hearing this!" "Wish I wasn't," Brant coolly replied, "but at least they're on our side." For now, Firmia shook her head, the thoughts in the back of her mind putting together a somewhat grim picture of the aftermath of this battle. "It's not that simple, especially not for me. Keep focusing on the Luna for now-" Soor'Kan had moved from the Riese to Abigail's crew in the blink of an eye, and Firmia had just enough time to focus in on the exchange before one of them was completely destroyed. Firmia felt several different emotions in herself in that moment, chief among them, disappointment. These people came out of nowhere and the first thing they do is lose one of their own, along with their composure. The fact that they had ANF machines could only mean one thing, that they were stolen, stolen and then joyridden out of an ANF base somewhere amidst smoke, rubble, and dead soldiers. They came to strong arm or fight the Riese, not the Sacarians, so they weren't really allies, and they certainly weren't ready for the struggle they had just barged into. "We need to be quick here ..." Brant's voice came back over the bridge's comms. "Do not go over there. The only ones we're protecting are the Riese and ourselves." Firmia leaned back in the captain's chair, frustrated. An admittedly dark thought came to her: Wouldn't it be convenient if Soor'Kan shot them all down but took too long, giving her side the advantage? It was extremely unlikely, and better for these people to survive for now and dilute the enemy's fighting strength, than for Soor'Kan to sink the Riese. If some of them did survive that monster, Firmia knew that they still had a new issue to deal with. She had to get a head start on this, somehow. "Jessica, Stephanie, it's the captain. Galatea's busy right now so I need you two to connect to our sensor network and the ANF's database and try to figure out where those ANF machines came from. If I could get the name of the base they were stationed at and any news from there ... that would be nice." She ended with a heavy sigh and turned her attention back toward the battle. "We're not letting the Luna escape," she addressed her own MS teams, "Run her down so we can finally end this." Focus on the Luna. There was so much more going on, though. Still, Brant didn't have the slightest inclination to help out their so called reinforcements. Unlike Firmia, whom he figured was going to complicate things over the stolen mobile suits, unlike her, he'd been on Colony One himself. He knew what kind of destruction these people were partly to blame for by teaming up with Vera and Apotheosis. And for what, to hurt the ANF? Moreover, from the sound of things, they were here for Abigail, and to shoot down anyone that got in their way. Brant was working strictly on orders right now, so unless the situation changed dramatically, their reinforcements would have to find a way to deal with Soor'Kan on their own. As Brant moved the Regalia to intercept and attack the Luna again, he realized something. He'd been here before. Colony One. There was the Luna, and Vera trying to escape now that things had turned against her. There was Seung-Min, fighting like hell to prevent it. There was Hannah, determined to bring Vera down, bare hands if necessary. There was the Riese, so close but so far and unable to render full assistance. Jessica was in there. Abigail was out here in the ocean. And there were her people, the ones that had teamed up with Vera initially. It really felt like the cast was all gathered here for one last encore. "Heh ... we've come full circle. Need to get it right, this time."

"I always use player names in-game," Hitomi explained, leaning forward slightly, "but 'Zeke' is neat, so I'll use that the rest of the time." With how to address him settled, Hitomi focused on the assets issue she'd asked him about. The Sable Order didn't sound too bad off asset-wise. Sure, some teams had NPC armies essentially stockpiled, but with how Battlenet handled NPCs right now, once a collection got big enough, it was hard to lose even a quarter of it in regular matches ... almost like actual wealth in a sense. "I heard mini-fig," the 'mech', "One-two punch," the two tanks, "experienced drivers," the NPCs, "a backup frame you know how to use, and some supply runners~ That's great. I don't know what kind of bundle we're getting now that the warships are here, but I didn't see any mechs or tanks being offered." Naturally, since it was all about the frames most of the time. "Anyway, you should definitely head down to the arcade with us once we finish up here, Zeke. Your old team's Sable Order, sooo ..." Hitomi glanced over to Linus, "... well we know where to look for clips so we're good and so are you." That line wasn't looking so good, though. Hitomi didn't know how long this was going to take but she knew how long it could take if they couldn't adapt to the volume.

Bennet was going? She could at least help get Christina into the SIEG tank, first ... "Tambre come and help me transfer her into the tank. Christina, patching up these wounds is going to be a little intense so I'm going to have to put you under for a while." Normally she wouldn't bother stating the obvious so seriously, but ... well ... no matter what Megumi did, if the Riese was taken out here, Christina wouldn't ever realize what had happened. Maybe that would make her one of the lucky ones, but Megumi didn't think so. It was terrifying to be put to sleep and not know whether or not you'd ever wake up again. With her group closing in on the Luna along with the Artemis, Firmia was hopeful they could down that monster once and for all. There was always the chance it would simply teleport from the field again. If that happened this time, Firmia had no doubt the next time they encountered Vera, the cyborg would be waiting for them at Apotheosis' base. That was the last thing they needed. Anyone they could kill off here and now wouldn't be around to confront them in the final battle. Somehow, they had to pin the Luna down and destroy it. To the Alkaev's surprise, Chris yelled at Vera in the middle of this whole mess. She also smacked the Luna with a funnel, but that was a footnote compared to what was actually said. The threats, the righteous fury, the promise of overwhelming retribution, it all hit very close to home. Chris' idea of justice was clearly 'an eye for an eye' with a bit of salt for flavor, but it still wasn't that far removed from Firmia. The Alkaev simply felt that the best way to protect her loved ones was to make the notion of harming them so unwise, so stupidly dangerous for the offender and everyone around them, that no one would even consider it, and might even set someone straight for mentioning it. That kind of thing involved building up a reputation like Dima's, unfortunately. While not a kindred spirit, Firmia definitely understood Chris' feelings in this one instance. "Avalon," Brant radioed the bridge, "We're all engaging! Let'em have it!" Time to converge and crush that fake samurai. Firmia thrust out her hand toward the Luna and grit her teeth! "FIRE!!!" This was eerily familiar. Chris knew enough about Apotheosis' personnel to really rattle them when she wanted to. They wouldn't always be able to pull that off, but for now, the best way to take Vera down was to throw her off balance. Smashing funnels into the Luna's head wasn't a bad move, either ... "Heh, I'm going to ask Sasha about high explosives when we get back. One of these days, a funnel needs to blow up in someone's face when you hit them with it." Just then, Kim came through and delivered some shocking news about Christina. She hadn't been killed, after all. If she'd made it to the infirmary, then Brant wasn't worried. Despite how depressed Doctor Amparo was, she wasn't going to let that affect her work in a crisis. That didn't make Brant any less angry with Avery, of course. He'd kill her on the spot if she were unlucky enough to run into him, but right now, the only way to overcome this ambush was to stay as level headed as possible, and hit their objectives hard and fast. "Thanks, Kim. We really needed to hear that. The doctor's got this, but she'll have an easier time if we keep the Riese intact, so let's do it." "Avalon, we're all engaging! Let'em have it!" Brant casts Strike, Snipe, transforms the Regalia, moves to 22,25 and attacks the Luna with the Hyper Beam Rifle! Avalon supports with Dual Beam Cannons! Firmia casts Alert and has Marcia attack the Luna with the Avalon's Dual Beam Cannons!

"She's doing surprisingly well, actually," Megumi replied, thinking to some of the other injuries she'd treated as a combat medic. When you've kept someone alive with two holes in their chest, having to deal with just one hole in that area was significantly easier. That said, time to properly address the leg situation. After that they could place her in the SIEG tank and then barring any freakish complications, she ought to be in the clear. Megumi made a mental note to pass on the news to the bridge for a tactical morale boost when Olivia's suggested blood donor came up. They not only had the same blood type; they had the same blood in all but origin. As a clone herself, Megumi knew the theoretical benefits of that sort of arrangement, though the idea of sharing blood with Michelle as well as her own sisters was about as unappealing to her as it got. With Sarah and Ellen, though ... it was one of the little things that brought them a bit closer together. As for doing the same sort of thing here, they had some synthetic blood for emergencies like these, but transfusions were inherently risky. The clones were essentially the same person with different minds and experiences, so Olivia's suggestion of using Nina for the transfusion had the doctor's support. The chances of something going wrong were as low as they could be. Megumi wasn't certain they needed to do a transfusion yet, hence having Valerie keep an eye on the patient's vitals, but once she was stable, a hemoglobin level check would let them know. "Alright, Tambre, get Nina up here. I don't think she was assigned to any of the mobile suits, so she should be around here somewhere." Glancing at Olivia again, the doctor said, "Hold her steady for me. This one's not a through and through so there're at least fragments inside I need to get out." Megumi was pleasantly surprised to find the bullet in tact. It was deformed from the impact, but having to only dislodge one piece saved them a great deal of time, and Megumi was able to fill the ballistic cavity in inside a minute. "And we're ready." "Should I bring us in?" Tonya asked, looking back at Firmia in the captain's chair, "We're a bit far out right now"--admittedly as intended--"... also there's a duel or something between us and the Riese." Firmia winced at the Artemis and the Luna. The Heion Riese was staring down a bunch of Praxes and the Ceres, and the Avalon crew was far out of position. It wasn't all bad, but they had to move right now if they were going to seize any sort of advantage for their side. The Alkaev's immediate thoughts were to focus down the Luna before it had a chance to destroy or heavily damage the Artemis. They would need all the firepower they could get to force back the Sacarians, after all. No one had time for this dueling nonsense today. "Alright move us closer to the Riese but don't put us right next to the ship or obstruct Jessica's line of fire. We need to be far enough out of the way to react if they spread out or call in more units. Marcia, charge up our cannons and target the Luna. We're going to destroy it right here and now or at least force it to retreat while we move in to help the Riese." All the while, Firmia couldn't help but wonder if they could actually pull this off in their current situation. She realized that if they couldn't, they had no business attacking Apotheosis' main base, and she personally had no business trying to affect any meaningful change in the world. "Riese pilots, this is Captain Alkaev. We're moving to flank the Sacarians and we're bringing the Artemis back with us. Hold on until we're close enough to help." Her bird's eye view of the battlefield on her tablet was just plain irritating. It was hard to tell what the Sacarians intended with the Ceres, if anything, but that unit was surrounded. Jessica hadn't been able to prevent them from escaping the ship itself, but they still had a chance to rectify that mistake and all the ones leading up to it. Firmia had some reservations about trying while they were still mostly on defense, but the Riese pilots had managed some reckless--and more importantly similar--maneuvers in the past. They could do it if they were quick enough. "See if you can knock out the Ceres before it escapes, but don't risk the Riese to do it. Jessica will help like always, but she's got her hands full, so hurry." "Kim, it's Firmia. We need you fighting the Sacarians so use any opening you can to destroy the Luna and then fall in. We have to end this before they start focusing on the Riese. Avalon MS teams," Firmia switched over to her crew's main channel, "This is an order! Take out the Luna! Don't hold anything back! Marcia, fire at will!" Brant could only hope Christina was alright ... or even alive. It just didn't seem likely unless she'd gotten very lucky. It seemed like no matter how well they performed in this battle, there was a tragedy ready and waiting for them when the dust settled. Come on, Megumi ... work your doctor magic ... As for something to shoot ... "You wanted to rip Avery a new one, right? Then let's--" Brant paused when Firmia's transmission came through. "Avalon MS teams, this is an order! Take out the Luna! Don't hold anything back!" They were focusing on the Luna, first? Brant supposed with how far out they were, it would be stupid to just rush into the main event and hope the Artemis managed by itself. Seung-Min shouldn't have to fight alone, again ... "Okay, we know exactly where to aim ..." And apparently so did the Avalon's drones. They were all taking off from the Avalon's hull and flying steadily toward the Artemis in a loose formation.

"You did a good job getting her to us as quickly as you did," Megumi offered what praise she could before Buck bolted. She doubted anyone would be feeling better about all of this until Christina was up and walking around, again. Even then, they still had some traitorous moles to deal with. On close examination, it looked like Christina may have been lungshot; she never would have woken up again if she'd been hit anywhere worse. Since she was the only patient to worry about right now, the doctor decided to focus on prepping her patient for the waiting SIEG tank. One of the advantages of not having to do any triage was that she could perform a more advanced surgery to completely erase those gunshot wounds instead of just closing them up. There was something quite sinister about all of this. Megumi couldn't help but frown as she mentally assembled a picture of what had happened to Christina. A gunshot wound to the back that would leave her in this condition? Another shot to the leg? If Avery had been in a position to kill Christina, why didn't she just do it? It wasn't a question of poor aim if she'd gotten the jump on this perpetual damsel in distress. Did she want her victim to suffer and die like this? The Avery they knew was definitely a ruse, and she was definitely gone, replaced by someone downright despicable. "This is going to be pretty uncomfortable, so brace yourself," Megumi warned, preparing to apply that fast acting hemostatic foam to the chest wound, first in the front, and then in the back. That was when the Riese made a hard landing in the water, though it felt more like they'd been parked over a large bomb that just went off. The doctor didn't know if they'd collided with something or been hit with a powerful attack, at first. She also couldn't focus on it, right now. First, the foam. Fortunately for Christina, the type Megumi was using would partially numb the wounds as well, providing some minor relief. After that, she would check the leg wound more closely and repeat the procedure. First she made sure there weren't any obvious fragments or the like inside the chest wound. "Captain, please get a handle on things up there ... alright, Bennet, help me get her onto her good side. Tambre, keep an eye on her vitals and let me know if she needs a transfusion." They weren't that slow, but the patient had already lost quite a lot of blood, so it might prove necessary. They were out of time. Firmia could feel it, and judging by Jessica's transmission, the Luna was going to have a good deal to do with it. When Hannah requested orders, Firmia quickly replied, "We're back on defense. Keep them from attacking the Riese and look for an opening to force them back." Their only chance of turning this around was to wait for the enemy to make a mistake. All of these attacks they were throwing out just weren't amounting to much ... As if that wasn't bad enough, Firmia's calm was completely eradicated by what happened next. "Hello, humans," Firmia heard the voice not from the comms but from much closer to home, "I'm going to give the lot of you one chance to surrender, and return my pet to me. Any resistance will be met with your swift, and unpleasant death. Do I make myself clear?" Fury. That was the emotion that began to well up in Firmia as the Sacarians made their demands. Between the sudden but inevitable betrayals aboard the Riese and this foreign feline forcing his way into her mind, she was at wit's end. She couldn't see beyond the next three minutes anymore, and her one thought was on the killing stroke. How to do it, how to finally skin one of these animals and string up their carcass for the rest of their kind to tremble at. How? Jessica spoke for the group and rejected the offer to surrender, naturally. "Prepare to die then, foolish humans." Fury ... Because the Avalon's T-Link was still active, the six drones that were operational were thoroughly confused, aiming their compact beam rifles toward the enemy group and then quickly lowering them, again, and again, and again. They received combined 'attack' and 'standby' commands continuously as Firmia furiously pondered their options with her full and murderous intent behind each and every thought. A couple of them even transformed to try and fly over to battle and then just as quickly changed back and landed. It was a confused mess of AIs all trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. All of the Avalon's active funnels were similarly affected, and being directly controlled by the Alkaev's intentions, they rattled violently in their docks on the outer hull of the ship. The situation in the hangar was even worse, with all of the standby funnels starting to shake themselves loose from their racks. A few of them flew through the hangar like projectiles and crashed into equipment and bulkheads, forcing Sasha and the mechanics to find cover. The shaking from the funnels docked near the bridge sent small tremors throughout the front of the ship. That, along with a very uncomfortable feeling in her own head caused Tonya to scan the bridge. At first, she thought the Sacarians were shaking the ship up as a warning, but she quickly realized that all the T-Linked equipment on board was reacting to Firmia, at least everything they had bothered to leave turned on. It probably wouldn't work, but Tonya tried to help Firmia calm down. "Captain, we need you coordinating the Riese's defense. Try to stay focused, alright?" If Firmia was suffering from the same headache she was, Tonya couldn't blame her for being in such a bad mood. Pretty much nothing was going right at the moment, and she had to pilot the ship like this on top of that? These space cats could go straight to hell. "Show me how ..." Firmia murmured to herself, her eyes wild and taking in everything around her, "... how to break them." "Breaking them is fine but let's try to survive too, alright?" Tonya forced a smile. "Captain, what's going on up there?" That was Sasha's voice on the ship's main channel, "The funnels were going crazy. I had to use an override command to shut them all down." "Don't worry about it, Sasha," Tonya answered him, "We're sorting things out on our end. Shutting them off was the right call so you should be fine, now." "Still a pretty big mess," Sasha noted bitterly, "They were loose when I sent the command so now we've got a couple dozen of them just rolling around the hangar." "I'll keep the maneuvers gentle," Tonya promised, and closed the channel. "The Riese just touched down, Captain. That's one way to put it ..." "Have to focus ..." Brant couldn't decide what was worse, having the Sacarians showing up, seeing the Artemis get taken off the front lines yet again, or watching helplessly as the Riese crash landed in the ocean just seconds later. There were plenty of other terrible things happening right now, of course. The probability that Christina had been murdered by Avery was just too high for any kind of optimism, and Brant could feel the shifts in both Firmia's and Chris' auras. Their respective berserk buttons had been pressed and pressed hard. There was also some panic inside the Avalon that Brant thought might be due to hearing the Sacarians' demands, but it felt even more urgent than that. Even the Avalon's drones were acting strange, like they couldn't make up their minds on whether or not to join the battle. Was Firmia losing control of the T-Link on top of everything else going on? "I guess our target's still the Ceres, but we can't let the reinforcements surround us," Brant said, mostly to himself as the Regalia's funnels sprang to life. Toolkit, not a coffin. Time to see if they could take out enough enemies to force a retreat. While it would be better from a strategic perspective to wipe them out here, Brant didn't feel they were in a position to commit to that kind of attrition battle. If they lost the Riese, the ANF wouldn't be able to press forward to land the finishing blow on Apotheosis. The Avalon couldn't carry all of the mobile suits that would be left behind even if they did survive the battle ... and if they lost the Avalon ... well, someone had to keep their rage at bay, so best not to dwell on that. For now, the Avalon wasn't likely to take much concentrated fire, so they had a chance to turn this situation around if they protected the Riese.

Up next was Ezekiel Fuller. Neither of the monikers Sable nor Sirius rung any bells for Hitomi on their own, but the 'Sable Order' sounded vaguely familiar. When it came to the professional teams, she actually cared enough to pay attention to any names or feats that stood out, and she preferred watching gaming broadcasts to other shows. Still, that exposed her to hundreds of different teams and few of them stood out without ridiculous gimmicks. "I'm Hitomi Moto. BB works just fine though--" minus any of Motherloader's cheeky tweaks--"Co-founder of Team Odyssey." She had to admit that when Ezekiel mentioned his experience as a team lead, it made her slightly nervous again; she thought back to the message Motherloader had sent Odyssey and how 'obnoxious team leady' it read. Although she was a co-founder of the team, Hitomi didn't consider herself much of a leader in practice. Linus had the luxury of actually calling shots since he could fight at any range, but Hitomi was always focused on getting enemy attention. She decided then and there to give their platinum ranked hopeful the benefit of the doubt, especially since he didn't stop at the team lead part. He'd also mentioned team management, which was potentially obnoxious but different from an actual command position, and PR, which might come in handy ... Hitomi doubted her father could keep getting away with shamelessly promoting his daughter's team. And then there were the team assets. Hitomi could only smile apologetically at first. "Our first season was a little rough and our play time was low, so we only placed gold, but things will be infinitely better this year." The fact that higher ranked players were even lining up in this cafe was enough assurance for her, but even without a lot of interested players, Hitomi planned to improve to the point where Team Odyssey could qualify for and win the championship this year. A tall order, but if the team was willing to shoot that high, then anyone standing in the way was in trouble. "What kind of assets do you have?"

There was the unlucky patient Megumi had been waiting for. Christina was going to wind up in a SIEG tank however this first phase turned out, but the doctor needed to stabilize her, first. Remove the projectiles too, if they hadn't passed clean through. Thankfully, they were ready to go, the doctor even having gotten out of her coat and donning a mask and gloves for these 'damage control' surgeries she was about to perform. "Over here," Megumi indicated the closest bed available and tried to get a good look at the wounds while they brought her over. What the doctor noticed first was that Christina was at least partially awake, still. This should be 'fun' ... "We have to stop running into each other like this," Megumi groaned at Christina. "I need you two," she eyed Makoto and Caroline, "to tell me everything you can. How much blood has she lost, has she been conscious this whole time, how's her breathing, etcetera." "Dammit, destroy the Ceres! Hurry!" Firmia couldn't stand the fact that the Riese's oldest machine was enduring all of this. Apparently they had been upgrading their escape vehicle in secret. Firmia couldn't help but imagine how much more annoying it would be if something like an assault tank equipped with oversized floaties was pulling the same stunt. The Alkaev did feel completely vindicated now, however. The way she'd conducted herself aboard the Riese had been harsh at times, but hindsight was her friend, and she was definitely going to take advantage of this disastrous learning experience. Despite being right not to trust Avery, FIrmia couldn't shake the feeling that they were running out of time to take down the traitor(s), and that had her on the edge of her seat, right now. "Should we try the main guns?" Tonya asked, shrugging from the helm. Oh so tempting, but ... "The mobile suits have to bring the Ceres down," Firmia sighed, "There's too much risk of friendly fire if we start shooting from over here ... and no, I'm not having everyone get clear for us--" not that they would-- "That's just the kind of opening the Ceres needs to break away. We just have to hope they can handle this ..." "I'll keep us at this range until the Riese lands then." Once the Regalia was off the catapult and able to take in the surrounding battlefield, it became clear that at least one of the moles was already escaping. "Whoa ..." From a single glance it seemed like whatever damage done to the Riese crew had been severe. "Christina ..." Between the fact that the Artemis was going completely berserk and Brant not being able to sense Seung-Min's copilot, it was obvious that Christina was incapacitated ... or worse. Something else that was bothering him was the fact that the Ceres was the machine Avery had chosen to use to escape from the ANF in. Had Astin really not noticed what was going on? Maybe, but it felt more likely to Brant that Astin was the other mole. Everything they had ever done and said in front of him suddenly had to be reframed, and it was really disappointing to think about. "See if you can get a hold of your sisters, but be ready with the funnels. We're going to help them out," Brant said, arming the Regalia's hyper beam rifle. The Ceres was shrugging off way more than usual, so Brant doubted they would accomplish much, but until the situation changed, their primary objective was the capture or destruction of the Ceres. Well, according to Firmia, it was strictly a destruction target, but the situation could still change at the drop of a hat.

Rachel agreed to the doctor's plan and then got to it. That was around the time Abigail barged into the infirmary ready to blow away the Riese's former head mechanic ... or anyone else that made a wrong move. She'd calmed down and rightly assessed the situation by the time Megumi stood up to say anything. The doctor had been about to suggest Abigail stick around momentarily, but Olivia reminded them both that the pilots were supposed to be getting ready to launch. Megumi had forgotten about that in the sudden rush to save Christina. The Artemis probably wasn't going anywhere for the moment ... "I know the infirmary seems like an easy target, but as long as I get a slight warning, we can hold the fort here," Megumi assured Abigail, "I'm more worried about the hanger and the mobile suits, actually. If you're launching with the others please be careful." The head mechanic on the Riese was one of the traitors after all, which meant ... well, it meant all sorts of bogus was potentially coming down the pike. A mole was one thing, but the woman coordinating all of the mechanics and overseeing a project or two of her own? What a kick in the shins. Speaking of kicks, a small warning beeped from the doctor's console. All she could see at first when she glanced back at it was that the Artemis was sending pilot data to the infirmary. Was Seung-Min preparing to take off? Without her copilot? Didn't she need Christina for something involving the T-Link? Moreover, if there was one suit Megumi expected to go up in flames the moment someone put the keys in the ignition so to speak, it was the Artemis ... or maybe it was being stolen? Seriously what in the hell was going on right now? Three minutes was certainly better than two. Firmia almost thought she could actually think of a way out of this Luna and moles mess in that time frame. Unfortunately, she had some hefty jobs of her own, right now. Keep the Avalon from being shot down. Protect the Riese. Keep her own crew under control. Coordinate the Riese pilots. She had no idea how that last one was going to go, but the first three were paramount. As much as Firmia wanted to inquire about the pilots and how to get them to listen to an irritable seventeen year old, she just couldn't bring herself to do so. If Jessica could hunker down and focus on keeping things running on her end, Firmia could do the same on hers. "Alright. We'll take care of things out here." Galatea was lodging her usual complaints, but Firmia was fairly used to them by now. "I believe in you, Galatea. If you're feeling overworked though, have Jessica and Stephanie link up in the processor suite and take some of the load off. That's one of the benefits of us not having to hunt down any moles on our own ship." Firmia hoped to keep it that way. Coincidentally, they did have an Apotheosis lieutenant on board, though he was secure in the brig--and bored as all get out, Firmia imagined. The ANF had never asked her to hand Carlos over, and Firmia wasn't offering, so there he stayed. Just as well, being honest with herself, if the Alkaev was going to learn how to truly forgive people without just killing them off, Carlos wasn't a bad place to start. She pitied the man for the situation he'd wound up in despite him being responsible for many of the names on the memorial wall, and that definitely helped address some of the anger. It was an odd purpose for keeping a prisoner like him around, but it wasn't a bad one. Firmia did not want to turn into a murderous psychopath like some of her ancestors. Hannah wasted no time in moving over to the launch lift opposite the one the Regalia was taking, and heading out. It looked like the Mantle would be the last one out today. It was a shame they couldn't really chat about Hannah's experience with the Reign; between Chris' concerns and the intel Firmia and Galatea were passing on, the situation seemed pretty bad. The Regalia's T-Link wasn't giving him a clear enough picture from here. He knew he should be cautious, and maybe a tad worried right now, but he really didn't know to what degree. The two ships were so far removed from one another that nothing really felt real until he was physically present there. Chris couldn't tell what was going on either, but the mere fact that she wasn't gung ho like usual made Brant wonder if his future sisters-in-law were in danger. "The Regalia's our toolkit, not our coffin. We'll be alright. Let's just make sure the Riese and the people on it are, too." By then they were facing the end of the catapult and the door had opened for them. Rather than just hearing about it, they were about to get an eyeful of the Riese's situation from the outside.

Having received Rachel's message just after Jessica's, Megumi was definitely dubious about heading down. There were more than enough elevators, but that was actually the problem. If she headed down and didn't catch the group moving Christina up to the infirmary, she would have wasted the trip and not even arrive back at the infirmary until after they did. It might have been worth the risk if Christina wasn't the only one that had been shot, but that wasn't information she could confirm just yet, so she turned and headed back into the infirmary. "Rachel, this is Doctor Amparo," Megumi spoke into the comm on her desk once she arrived, "We still need you down there; do a full sweep of the area after they head up. There might be other casualties we don't know about, so please be thorough." An android on each deck meant they might still be able to catch Avery, but Megumi couldn't be sure given how things were playing out so far. If the moles had an escape plan, they were running out of time to head them off ... "They're bringing Christina to us and I don't want to run around in circles," Megumi informed Olivia and Valerie, "so we'll focus on setting up here." Megumi considered having either Olivia or Valerie get on the comms and try to use the androids to track down and deliver anymore casualties to the infirmary, but decided to spare both the potential frustration that came with playing dispatch. So Jessica's only idea on such short notice was to sacrifice the shields for buoyancy ... essentially, and even that would only buy the engineers enough time to diagnose the problem. Since it was internal sabotage, Firmia doubted her drones could assist with the repairs. She'd also need hundreds to even begin holding the ship up on the surface and they currently only had six that were fully operational. The Avalon could operate underwater and try to give the Riese enough of a push for Jessica to safely divert more power, but not only would the Avalon's main guns be severely weakened and heavily obscured down there, the Riese would only have real protection from the mobile suits back on the surface, which Firmia doubted would be enough all in all. Ultimately they'd likely lose both ships that way, with the Riese's sudden plunge damaging the Avalon and dragging it down to crush depth before Tonya could free them. So the drones and the Avalon as direct assistance just weren't viable. Firmia sighed. With no good alternatives coming to mind, they were going with Jessica's plan. "Galatea, you're getting all of this, right? Keep the MS teams and the hangar informed of all of this. Any medium's fine." She went to the ship's open channel just long enough to give the crew the go ahead. "All MS teams, the situation is now critical. Launch immediately, set up a defensive perimeter, and wait for further orders." Returning to her direct line with Jessica, she said, "So, two minutes until everything starts falling apart. I'll figure something out by then ... but ... this isn't something you can make up for. We're in this situation because of the 'old' Captain Gefalscht, so blame her for all of this. The new Captain Gefalscht just needs to worry about fixing this mess and making sure it doesn't happen again. By the way, Jessica ... don't let the moles escape. The most I could do is send our drones after them, but they aren't combat ready." The Alkaev wanted to address the Riese pilots too, given what Jessica had told her, but decided to wait until at least a few of them were in the field. The Regalia team had barely had time to suit up before they were ordered to launch. It was kind of sad that their peace streak was finally over. It seemed like they were back to being ambushed by Apotheosis. Another thing that might take some getting used to was seeing the Reign outfitted for combat, and knowing that Hannah and Galatea were at the controls. Brant had some ideas when the news reached him, but actually seeing how AIs could handle that machine would be something else completely. He just hoped they didn't lean too heavily on their experience with the Mantle. Likewise, Brant hoped Bonner and Lynx would handle the machine well. It was the slowest of the AMS units, so it was also the most user friendly, but if they got pinned down by enemy fire, that would work against them. Lynx was also stuck without a T-Link for a couple more days and could only do regular ... copilot stuff. A shame, really. Brant got the Regalia moving from its dock the very second the hatch closed, not wanting to hold up the Reign a moment longer than necessary. Since all the AMS units were docked in their usual places, Hannah and Galatea would be the last ones out more or less every time there was a full sortie. Not ideal but the Reign had been acting as a salvage unit until recently, and there was no reason to change positions with the Mantle simply due to launch order. They would just have to be quick or let the Reign squeeze through to the launch lift ahead of them depending on the situation. "Merlin to the bridge, we're heading out now. Don't wait too long for that update, okay? Not sure what we're dealing with today ..." "The Riese is in the middle of an emergency landing due to sabotage," Firmia muttered back to the Regalia and the other Avalon MS, "the Luna is probably coming too, so be ready."

So it was M Day. The M stood for Mole, obviously. No one else would be in a position to shoot Christina. Why was she always the one to wind up ...? Not important right this moment, Megumi decided, calling over to her minions as she checked over her pistol. "Christina is down; gunshot. Get everything here ready, including a SIEG tank, just in case. Buck, if you can't move her easily then stay put for now and put pressure on her wounds. I'll be there soon." They really ought to use one of the androids for this, even though it'd be a bit of a rough ride. It'd be a fast ride and that was the whole idea. There was one other thing. If Buck and Christina stayed put then they were less likely to run into their attacker again. Megumi always carried a firearm, but since she was heading that way, she wanted to be prepared in case she ran into any hostiles. Hopefully she'd find the android Jessica had assigned to the area and be able to use her to haul Christina back to the infirmary. Firmia appreciated being updated. She did not appreciate being put on hold. Not one to waste time, less occupied of the captains took a moment to set a few things in motion on her own vessel. "All MS teams prepare for immediate launch. I repeat, ALL MS teams prepare for immediate launch." She wished she was joking, but chances were that today, for the first time since Great Lake Base, the Regalia, Mantle, and Reign would all be fighting together. Without even checking her feed, Firmia also sent a mental command to the drones back in the hangar, and they began racing toward the launch lifts. All they had to do was standby in case Firmia needed them to race out into the field and retrieve something, but they had to get into position ahead of the mobile suits, otherwise they would muddy up the launches and slow everything down. When Jessica came back on the line, she had some actual news ... most of it bad. They were out of time to identify and detain the other moles, and apparently one of them had the Riese coming down out here over the water? Definitely Avery, then. Firmia's other suspect was Thorvald, due to how vulnerable his family was, and how easily any potential Apotheosis operatives in the ANF command structure could reach them. If not him then probably one of the outcast types, but that intel was on the way, so Firmia didn't have to figure any of that out on her own, now. What interested the Avalon's captain more was the Riese's lack of shielding. Had the ship been thoroughly sabotaged or was Jessica doing something complicated involving the shields? Firmia had the beginnings of an idea for helping the Riese expedite its repairs, but it was almost too much for her in the moment, hearing Jessica's sudden plea to protect the Riese. It was like something out of a dream, almost surreal, though not a situation the Alkaev really longed for. Yes, she did want Jessica's leniency to finally get her into trouble ... but this ... something about the real thing just felt off to Firmia. Just as well that all she could feel in herself right now was urgency and irritation. That meant she could do her part without any inner conflict. "Alright, calm down and focus on the Riese. We'll keep the MS teams organized and protect the ship. I need all the information you can forward, though." If Jessica was putting her on hold, then she probably wasn't one with the Riese just yet and could probably only handle so much brain work. Having some other minds focused on this could only improve and increase their options in response to this sudden but inevitable betrayal.

The Kids Are Alright (Part 2/2 3) Bigger Better Bonds A call? From someone other than Cheryl? It was Buck from the look of things. Megumi's first and only guess was a medical emergency in the hangar area. There were a lot of ways someone's day could get ruined down there due to carelessness on someone's part. She hoped it was something else, but ... "Doctor Amparo here. Is someone hurt, Buck?" Firmia normally wouldn't be wearing her SKIN suit on the bridge outside of a combat situation, but when the call from the Riese came, she was in the middle of some testing with the mechanics and some of the activated drones. She was essentially testing commands sent through the T-Link to the drones. Rather than controlling them directly like funnels, she would send orders of varying complexity and let the drones figure out the optimal way to handle any given task. Firmia tried not to laugh whenever one of the drones bumped into something or lost its balance. Rather than a complete program, Brant had opted for something similar to a learning program for these AIs. They would continue to make silly errors starting out, but something about it was endearing. More importantly, they had a shared database here on the ship. No two drones would make the same error, and no unique error would ever be made twice. There were six completed drones, and so there were six avenues of learning for the collective. Galatea was also able to upload anything specific they would need to avoid any 'fatal' errors in judgment. All in all, the program was coming along swiftly, and Firmia at least felt comfortable sending them out as a salvage team. The young captain let her tablet lie face up in her lap as she activated the comm at her seat. "Thank you, Flores." She connected and hoped it was nothing serious, yet. Firmia rather enjoyed running these T-Link tests, and would like to get back to it as soon if she could. "Captain Alkaev here ..." Firmia mentally crossed her fingers, but she doubted the situation was still normal. It almost couldn't be if the bridge was being contacted directly ...

Was wearing them fine? Brant didn't mind, but would Abigail be fine with her wearing those? Or did it not even matter if that's what she wanted to do? Probably better not to worry about it. "Thanks for accepting them," Brant said, offering a classic thumbs up.