Scene #4065: Post Meridian

Owner	Pose
Morrigan	Vectoring the coordinates of the attacking GTVA bombers leads them a point in the general vicinity of Earth's moon, Luna. The Meridian, all two-kilometers of battleplate and firepower, hangs like a dark shape in front of a basketball-sized backdrop, illuminated purely by its running lights. Around it, like remoras around a shark, hang the rest of its battlegroup. There's enough UEF intel to determine the following: 1. Normally cautious, Cyrus Severanti wouldn't expose himself like this unless he was desperate. 2. The GTD Meridian is an aging Hecate-class destroyer, not built for front-line combat. 3. Her escorts - the Deimos-class GTCV Juarez, the pair of Aeolus-class cruisers GTC Ajax and GTC Essex - lack the killing power of newer warships. 4. Almost all of the Meridian's strikecraft are out on missions. Any returning will be low on fuel and warheads. Therefore, there's no better time for an assault. Mars and Earth are working joint ops for this one with the UEFf Churchill and UEFf Indus and their combined fighter complements. It's a simple idea - defang the Meridian, smash her screen, and then go for the kill. It's going to be one hell of a firestorm, that's for sure. The UEF fleet is just jumping in now, some distance away - and burning full speed towards the destroyer.
Yulia Koslova	Ninety minutes ago, aboard the Neo-Zeon cruiser Salada: Yulia stood at the front of the briefing room, already in her 'normal suit', helmet floating at her side. In front of her were her two fellow pilots and guards, the tall and dark-haired Tuomas and the thin and lighter-haired Sami, their expressions carefully neutral against her growing scowl. "...that's the situation as it stands now. Although officially we remain on a diplomatic mission, it's not clear that the GTVA would recognize that even if we took no action." She paused, then took a deep breath before continuing. "As the commander of this mission, I cannot and will not order anyone to engage in combat. We have no formal relationship with these people, and this is not like a few weeks ago when we were defending a hapless convoy. We'll be following the UEF in an act of aggression against their own enemy." Another pause. "But I personally cannot stand by and watch another force do the same sickening things that the Zabis and the Titans once did. Not if I can help stop them from doing it again. So I'm going." Tuomas and Sami exchanged glances for a long moment, and then almost as one they stood up and turned to face her. "Begging your pardon, Lady Koslova," Tuomas said, his voice stern, "It's our sworn duty as Household Guard to follow and protect you, no matter where you may go." A hint of an impish grin played across Sami's face as he added, "Besides, given the choice between squaring off against an enemy flagship and your angry hus--ahem, the Governor-General, I would rather face the flagship." Yulia took another deep breath, this time in relief, her scowl relenting. "All right, then. Report to the flight deck and prepare to sortie." tNow: Yulia's stomach finally catches up with her several seconds after the Salada transitions out of FTL, though she keeps her mouth shut for several seconds more as she readjusts to normal space. The ship's deck crew is already on the move, her wingmans' Gear Dogas already rumbling into their positions on the launcher. They're not the ones she's concerned about right this moment, though, and when she flicks on her local comm channel, it's to check on their mercenary in the mech beside her. "You all right over there?" she asks of Kotone.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr was down for a week after the last sortie. Her Linker Core nearly shattered in a rage-induced full-out assault on a ship a tenth the size of the one she was angry about losing. She's here now though, slipping through a Warp Gate on the opposite side of the Merridian to the UEF forces. She waits for a few moments, watching the disposition and the UEF going hell-for-leather to get into range. She radios her intent in, then gets a smirk on her face as she calculates vectors, and with a single 'pulse' of magic, launches herself like a kinetic-kill missile to intercept the giant Destroyer. <Master. I am ready to initiate datamining on your command once we infiltrate the ship. I will attempt to guide you to important systems to cripple the vessel. Please, do not over exert yourself again... I doubt the GTVA will be as pleasant an experience as the UEF facilities.> "I gotchya Dee... I'm good... maintain limiter at Mistral Squall. Only release Storm if absolutely necessary." She's coasting along, not using magic and not transmitting on any frequency... lets see if the sensor officers are on the ball to a small, high-speed, meat missile coming at them.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa had been hired on by Neo Zeon to help with protecting thier VIPs she already loaded up in a mobile suit. The Gera Dogas were impressive bts of engineering Kotone though. They could be operated by someone who was not agumented at all, on her world? Something like this would need a cyberjack and an support AI to operate properly in all likelyhood. She was hooked up in a flight suit but was not wearing a helemt, for one very imporant reason four cables snaked out of her neck and were plugged into various points in the cockpit of the mobile suit it had taken a bit to get used to. <<I'm all hooked in and fell, like I am the Hardsuit err Mobile Suit. These things are impressive most peopld don't need agumentation to use these and a Support AI to be honest.>>
Rory White	Not unlike Kotone, Rory White has chosen to... 'sleeve up' in a sense within her own on-loan Mobile Suit. Hers is a bulky mass-production unit roughly 20 meters tall... the same model as Kotone. But in the cockpit? A metal humanoid shell with nothing of value to speak of encasing it. It's wired directly into the machine's computer systems, taking direct control of the controls and skipping the physical aspects entirely. It's taken Rory a bit to get used to moving like this - writing drivers to map her neurology to its motors and limb control the way she liked took a few of them. "Agreeing on the impressive comment! I thought machines like these only existed in vid games and works of fiction. They're too impractical. At least we thought so!" Here she is again, fighting a battle she isn't sure about again. But if Kotone's so certain this is a good idea... well. She's not about to abandon her friend - her friend who has no Ego backup, darnit!
Morrigan	The Meridian has a mild screen of fighters on close support, but not nearly enough to deal with the number of UEF hardware coming at them. The Vilnius, a small cruiser, jumps into the middle of the Tev formation, and quickly finds itself outgunned and overwhelmed. It's going to need support - or someone to take advantage of its distraction and hammer the Meridian's escorting warships. At the same time, Delta Wing - the UEF wing assigned to defang the Meridian's forward beam cannons - is caught by flak and beams, and they begin dropping like flies. If those beams aren't taken out, the mission will end before it truly begins. Somehow, Zephy manages to slip through the flak screen and the bright blue beams that the Meridian is stabbing out to pick off whatever targets it can. The ship is a big, nihilistic thing - all hard angles and heavy grey-brown plate, built for war and nothing else.
Yulia Koslova	"Thank you, and don't look at me, I just live here," Yulia replies with a smirk. Then more seriously, "Listen up, you two. If anything starts going wrong with your setups, then bail and return to the ship. Good luck." The deckplates rumble as the pair of Geara Dogas in front of them are launched into space, followed by a clank of clamps as her own Jagd Doga and Kotone's mech are settled into the launchers immediately thereafter - Rory's immediately follows after them. The deckplates rumble again as the launcher accelerates to fling them out into the void like ancient fighter jets from an aircraft carrier. Once freed, Yulia meets up with the pair of Geara Dogas that are her personal wingman, and together they rush in the direction of the Vilnius to offer support. They're coming in hot and fast, and she wastes no time in bringing her beam gatling gun to bear to hammer volleys towards the ships attackers as they make their approach.
Zephyr Windstar	Being a largely unreactive lump of soft meat flying through space makes for a hard target to track or detect. And it's not until she's well inside the traverse of the defense guns that she activates her flight spell and arrests her momentum, landing on the outer hull of the Destroyer with a resounding CLANG of metal boots slamming into metal hull. "Best way inside?" she asks her Device, turning to watch the streaking tracers of flak shells and the flickering pulses of Anti-fighter beam guns. Divine Wind chimes. <SCANNING FOR OPTIONS. STANDBY.> The mage starts walking along the hull, almost like she were taking a leisurely stroll in a park on Njorun's lower root levels. <AIRLOCK LOCATED. MARKING.> Zephyr grins as the marker shows up in her HUD, and she turns to approach it. Now, this isn't going to just open for her now is it? "Dee, hack the control console and silence any alarm it might trigger... lets try and keep this quiet while we can... I don't want to go loud just yet." <UNDERSTOOD.> If the hack is successful, the Mage slips inside the ship and starts making her way to the closest Terminal. "Begin datamining and start disrupting systems. They'll be on to us soon so I want them as off balance as possible."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is all checked up though Kotone's feed is kinda creepy her eyes are closed like she's asleep but she's clealry paying attention as her Gera Doga launches she feels like she's in spoce herself and it's quite the feeling she's however not letting herself get lost. <<Here we go, you don't mind if I attempt to cripple rather than sink do you? I'll get on info warfare either way.>> The Machine mvoes taking a very living like pattern of movement as she moves in. She doesn't fire but she is looking for wireless systems and other ways she might be able to attack she's also deploying electonic countermeasure right now to cover herself, Rory and Yulia.
Morrigan	The Vilnius fights valiantly but under the guns of the GTCv Juarez, whose emerald beams slash deep and rip through armor, hull and people, it won't last long. Yulia and her wingmen find the GTC Ajax and GTC Essex, smaller cruisers both, who turn from the Vilnius and begin opening up with their flak and anti-fighter beams. The Aeolus-class was designed to kill small targets, and the two of them set about doing just that. The beams miss, leaving retina-searing after images, thanks to Kotone's electronic countermeasures, but even if flak misses it can still be enough to kill! With Delta Wing splashed, it's up to Morrigan, Brie and Kassim to nail the Meridian's forward beams. Missiles ripple out and hammer home against the front of the destroyer. One emitter pops, then the second. With that, the two UEF frigates begin opening fire - landing hit after hit with their railguns against the Meridian. Onboard, the ship shakes with every hit, deep thumps sounding through the hull. It's easy enough to find an open terminal and begin pulling data - but Zephyr might see the subtle sign that her intrusion has been detected! She'll have incoming any minute!
Rory White	The COGNIZANT ODYSSEY comes out of FTL about a minute after Rory deploys with Kotone, though it's tens of kilomters away - close enough for a broad sensor sweep but far enough that firing on it with anything short of lightspeed weapons just won't matter. And with the communications gear provided by a mobile suit, Rory has little trouble maintaining a tacnet with her bigger sensor package. "No telling how effective I'll be, but here goes!" Rory exclaims a bit jitterly. Her suit moves with all the grace of a bored elephant through space, pushed by thrusters. No spirit or polished skill guides her motions, just pure mathematical efficiency. Which is why she targets the Meridian's defenses, opening fire on beam cannons and flak launchers!
Zephyr Windstar	The ship is taking fire, and rocking heavily from the impacts of the UEF ships fire. Divine Wind is extracting data from the terminal and has now established a wireless connection so she doesn't have to be left at the terminal. Shouting voices, and heavy boots clanking on the deckplates further down the corridor alert the Mage to approaching hostiles. "Powered armour huh? This'll be fun." She turns from the Terminal, and steps out into the open hallway. "Divine Wind?" The Device chimes. <YES. AREA MODE!> The Bits flick out and the air inside the hallway becomes very hostile to the approaching Marines. In armour that won't affect their ability to breathe, but the varying pressure and sudden shifts in density would probably throw them off pretty badly.
Yulia Koslova	Mobile suits are named that for a reason, and they jink and weave to avoid the incoming fire as they make their approach. Kotone's jamming is definitely helping in the avoidance department, for which Yulia is grateful. That flak is heavy though, and her purple suit gets peppered across the legs for her trouble. Her wingmen catch some as well. they're smoking and sparking, but for now all of them are fairly intact. Yulia blinks rapidly to try and clear her vision. There's just too much going on around her to risk blind firing, and so she holds for now. Thankfully her faithful haro copilot can still navigate, and continues jerking back and forth to try avoiding the worst of the flak. Tuomas is doing better and snaps off several shots in a strafing pattern as they streak past. Sami meanwhile brings his mech in closer to his leader, laying down fire in her place.
Morrigan	The battle continues. Under fire and unable to respond, the Meridian turns away from the UEF frigates, allowing Rory to open up on weapon batteries that haven't been brought to bear just yet. The Indus hammers the Meridian again and again - at least one shot penetrates straight through. The Churchill has turned into a duel with the Juarez, now seperated from its attending cruisers through the actions of Yulia and her wingmen. The space between the two warships is thick with beam and flak fire and missiles streak from the Churchill's dorsal tubes - explosions blossom to life, and the Juarez comes apart. The Ajax and Essex form a intimidating pair, providing cover to each other as Yulia's group rains fire along their hulls, popping turrets and beam emitters. And, while the cruisers are held up, the Meridian suffers. Unfortunately, it seems like the Meridian is recalling everything it can bring - and these bombers jumping in still have their complement of torpedoes. They burn hard for the Churchill. Inside the Meridian, the ship's klaxons being drowned out over the sound of hideous amounts of fire, Zephyr comes face to face with a trio of GTVA marines - big hulking suits of powered armor, designed to go toe-to-toe with Shivans, vicious creatures who breathe vaccuum and vomit plasma. They lower their weapons and fire, although their first few salvos go wide, they begin to compensate.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is trying to keep moving and as she does so she wheels her bdoy about at this pount she's going to keep that jamming up or they would be very bad for them all. She spins baout as sh contiunes to close in on the enemy ship she's got an idea but she's going to be trying to use the suit's weapons to disable where it can prehaps to go for the engines at the very least she's just trying to put it out of the fight and not sink it, at least that's what she's trying ti di gere even if it might not be the best idea for her...
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr walks along the corridor, smirking a knowing little smirk as the Marines fire and go wide. She wasn't expecting her little diversion to last for long, but it's long enough that she can close the gap. As the three Marines start tightening their aims again, Zephyr activates her flight spell, a quartet of blazing white 'jets' of 'plasma' erupting from her back. <BLITZ STRIKER. MACH PUNCH!> chimes Divine Wind, as the girl seems to vanish suddenly, reappearing right up in the personal space of the central Marine. Her right fist is sheathed in a boiling purple magic plasma that she brings up under the helmet's lower guard, her legs releasing tension to throw her upwards in a twirling uppercut. She then shifts her grip and with another quick twirl, aims to cleave the other two with the glowing blade of her Device's axe-head. Her attacks are brutal, but non-lethal. They'll shatter and destroy the armour, but the guys inside wouldn't take any damage from the attacks themselves, though may get lacerations from broken armour fragments! She doesn't get away scott free herself, though. Several tears and dents show where her defenses have taken hits from those weapons, a trail of blood seeping down a flesh wound on her left thigh, showing under the ragged tear in her Battle Skirt.
Yulia Koslova	Yulia finds herself in the thick of things and her wingmen anxiously checking on her status as her vision clears. "I'm all right!" she answers them, then to prive that, she hefts her gatling gun and begins firing again. That answer was correct when she gave it, but five seconds later things start to fall apart. The flak fire is unrelenting, and her big round shield is being hammered heavily as she tries to deflect the worst of it. Then, one of the Essex's turrets gets a bead on her, and though she tries to jink out of the way, it's not in time. The beam slices across the already weakened leg armor, and as the machine jinks one way, what's left of that limb spins off in another direction. Yulia winces at the alert echoing in her cockpit. "Damage control, Rose!" she shouts at her Haro as she slams on her thrusters to keep herself from spinning off. Her winmen, realizing jusy what's happened, hit their own thrusters in an attempt to cover her while she recovers, bringing in their own more heavily armored shoulders in an attempt to protect themselves as well as her.
Morrigan	A set of heavy UEF fighters roar in, buying Yulia a few moments respite as they open up on the Essex, presenting the wounded Aeolus with a new set of targets. These fighters bear the red markings of Mars. The Meridian is listing hard, fires burning, and the Indus and Churchill continue to send round after round into her belly. Morrigan, Brie and Kassim fall on the bombers that jumped in to harass the Churchill but the frigate takes some bad hits. Towards the rear of the Meridian, Kotone finds herself in a prime position to take out the ship's engines - but it presents her with a problem, if the ship can't jump away, then it'll die here. The UEF isn't stopping for anything, it seems, but it does seem the Meridian is only minutes away from being able to jump clear. It's a hell of a decision to make. Inside the Meridian, Zephyr can feel the ship shudder - that last hit felt like a bad one, a really bad one. Strangely, everything feels floaty... it might take Zephyr a moment to realise that the warship's gravity plating isn't working as well as it should. Still, those three marines are down - floating just above the deck. But can she risk staying any longer?
Zephyr Windstar	The Marines go down, and Zephyr, used to flight as she is, almost playfully hops onto the broken chestplate of one of them. She glares down for a moment, before the Indus transmits to her. "Copy that... Keep clear of the port side aft deck. I'm about to make a hole." What could she mean by that? Well, The Navajas have seen this particular woman in action, so they're probably the most clued up on what she's about to do. <MISTRAL SQUALL. BOMBARDMENT FORM.> chimes Divine Wind, the Bits floating back to orbit around the head of the axe-like Device. "Ragios Razgriz Lethim. I call upon the Great Winds. Parijium, Gralith, Horaph. Deliver unto me a Maelstrom." Energy gathers in the crystal at the head of the haft, and the Bits begin to orbit around, projecting a series of decreasing circles, like a barrel as she aims towards 'outside'. "FIRE!" <MAELSTROM BREAKER!> The lance of magical plasma bursts forth, smashing through metal and superstructure from a direction it wasn't intended to take impacts like that from! Hopefully it'll be enough to punch a hole big enough for her to escape through!
Rory White	It's a hell of a situation. Either just DESTROY them or let them escape? The practical side of Rory can only let the battle play out as it will. She's in no position to offer a good strategy for a capture. For now, she focuses on those bombers! Raking fire across their approach from a beam machine gun! She doesn't necessarily NEED to destroy them, but she's just avoiding shots that are likely to hit cockpits or engines. Overall hull damage that forces them to jump out's fine in her book!
Yulia Koslova	Yulia gets a moment to catch her breath, figuratively and literally, thanks to the UEF cavalry. She'll be sure to thank them later for that in words. Right now, though her thanks will be in actions. Sweat is damping her bangs beneath her helmet, but her breath steadies as she reaches out to jab buttons on her console. "Safety locks released," she murmurs off the checklist, "missiles armed." The purple mecha is forced to lower its shield from where it's been protecting its 'face' - not that the shield is worth much at this point - so she can get a clear missile lock...her target, the Essex's engines. Even if she's not getting any mercy from them, she'd rather deal a crippling than a killing blow if she can. While Sami and Tuomas continue laying down cover fire, she pulls the firing trigger, letting all six missiles fly. "Fire!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has a clear shot but there's no way to capture the ship they will be left to die a slow painful death here. That isn't right eithe she pulls off from her attack run as she makes to try and catchup with Yulia and take care to guard her as bes she can she'll do what she can to back up Yulia however but it's more acting aas interfance for the enemy in getting a clear shot at her.
Morrigan	Between Brie's Navajas and Rory's fire, the battlespace is cleared of any GTVA strikecraft - if any of the Meridian's craft are still out on missions, they're doubtlessly heading elsewhere. The Essex takes withering damage from Yulia's salvo and the engines cut out, leaving the cruiser dead in the water. A few moments afterwards, a set of torpedoes from the Churchill make contact and the Essex is caught in a flash of heat and light, leaving only debris when it clears. Zephyr manages to carve her own exit and get clear with her stolen data, finding a nice front-line seat to the fate of the Meridian. Burning and dying, the Meridian has shell after shell hammered into its guts by the Churchill and Indus, explosions ripping through power relays and ammo stores. Still, she's a big ship, and with her engines active, manages to rip a hole in subspace and jump out. But with damage like that, there's no way she'll be back in the fight for months, maybe even longer - and it sent a clear message to the GTVA, keep more ships to protect your destroyers and stay the hell away from the inner system. It's an acceptable outcome.
Zephyr Windstar	And that's it... the Merridian jumps out, burning and ruined. She'll be out of the fight for a good long while. Zephyr grunts a little... part of her wanted to see it go up like the Akula did, consumed in a flash of radiant heat and blinding energy... but this is better. She looks to her Device, and grips the haft a little firmer, before turning to intersect with the Indus' flightpath. She calls ahead, requesting clearance, and as she gets into range, calls in again asking for a medical team. The flight crews probably do a double-take as a young woman wearing a far-too-bright outfit, seemingly a mix of futuristic and medieval alights on the flight deck, her boots clanking firmly against the deckplates. She looks banged up, some cuts along her legs, one along her right upper arm, and several nasty looking dents in the metal breastplate she's wearing. A testament to the magical protection, if a seemingly normal 'metal' breastplate can turn aside a modern projectile.
Yulia Koslova	Yulia's lip is bleeding from where she bit it trying to keep her mouth clenched shut. She was only trying to cripple the ship, but..but...those missiles weren't hers, it's not her fault but... It's probably pointless, but she scans for escape pods, anyone that might have escaped before the Essex blew. And so a short time later, three very battered mobile suits land in the offered hangar, Yulia's being propped upright by the other two to keep it from falling as they clear the deck. The two wingmen get out first to hop over to their leader's, popping open the pockpit door and climbing inside. A few minutes later, Tuomas guides Yulia out, Sami following with her pink haro cradled in the crook of one arm.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa machine falls back to join up wth Yulia and Rorynow she's feeling a bit uncertain did she make the right call in not sinking the ship which was horribly crippled? She'd not sure but she can sleep tonight or so she hopes.