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Shirley Yeager     It's early afternoon in Liberion... though the dark skies filled with the imposing sight of a Neuroi Hive and a wall of Neuroi is still an impressive sight to see. The pair of warpgates, one across the sea and one on the land close to the Neuroi infestation, anyone who's ever gotten close to the gate's been shot at. The current remainder of the 363rd is there, Shirley and a few others, hiding away in a bunker, a frown upon the Strike Hare's face. "We have allies coming." she calls to the others, "Ready your strikers. We make our stand today."

    Over the radio, she makes the call, both upon Union radio and a quick stint upon Unaffiliated radios to garner up some assistance. "We should have some soon... I'll go make the opening. Girls, let's do our best, we'll get reunited with the five oh first and we'll come back to eliminate this hive too." With a confirmation nod from the three, all four run over to the air strip, flip into their strikers... and take flight with Shirley making her way to point...

    "All units, in position... we wait for confirmation that the allies have arrived!"
Shigure     Steaming at full power are a pair of IJN Destroyers. Not imposing ships by any standard, but they're fast, and approaching the breach point at full bore. Oddly, to anyone that can see well enough, there's no crew on deck. Not even anyone visible in the bridge or the AA nests, though the latter are obviously functioning, as they move and track thanks to returns from the AA radar spinning atop the bridge mast. A young voice, female, sounds over the 363rd's radio, echoing metallically. "This is Shigure. Yuudachi and I are in position to provide fire support and secure an egress route." Their cannons elevate, the turrets tracking to high angles but holding fire for the moment. They let out resounding clunk clanks as their ammo is changed over to FLAK shells. "Ready to provide flak fire."
Yuna Kagurazaka Flying above the pair of destroyers is one girl in an armored battlesuit. Not a full-body powered suit of armor, per se, but a light bodysuit with boots, gauntlets, and a flight pack, armored in purple and white with some areas of gold-hued crystal. If Shirley's looking closely enough - or any other veterans from the 501st - then they should be able to recognize Yuna Kagurazaka well enough. Elner, Jiina, and Marina are hanging back further - close enough to lend support if need be, or to close with Yuna so that they can form El-Line.

The looming proximity of that hive certainly has Yuna wondering if El-Line might be required, but she stays in Flight Form for now, readying the Matrix Divider - but holding her fire for now. Shirley's got something in mind, so the relative element of surprise might be handy ... assuming of course that the Neuroi don't go through their equivalent of 'hey, who are those guys' and pre-emptively open fire on the new arrivals.

"Yuna Kagurazaka here," the blonde girl in the flying armor transmits. "Just like old times, huh Shirley?" She sounds cheery enough, despite an audible note of worry in her voice - probably typical pre-combat jitters or something.
Evangeline      This war...Evangeline is tired of it. She is tired of the irrationality of her own people. She wants all this meaningless fighting to be over.

     But first, she wants the strike witches trapped in Liberion to be saved, and if there's no way to convince her people otherwise, then she will even help destroy this hive. She tried a few days ago to sneak into Liberion, but the local Neuroi recognized her signals and blocked her path. So, she has been hiding out nearby, waiting for the signal to move in. With Shirley's signal, Evangeline floats out of a nearby seaside cave where she had been running silent. She moves into formation over the Fleet Daughters as they close in, and offers a gentle wave to Yuna.

     "...it is good to see all of you here..." Evangeline says over everyone's radios. "...thank you all for coming to aid us...please do not fire your weapons or otherwise attack until Lieutenant Shirley gives the order...our main mission is to safely extract the 363rd from enemy airspace...hive destruction is a secondary objective...we are to provide a clear path through the Neuroi so that the remaining members of the 363rd can escape, then escort them to safety at the 501st..."

     Everyone probably knew all of that, but Evangeline wants to make sure that things are clear. She doesn't want to lose anyone.
Lexicon     "Let me off up here!"

    A small woman with brown hair stands up in the passenger seat of a military jeep, balancing herself with one hand on the top of the windscreen while the other holds her hat firmly in place. She looks completely normal, and given her petit appearance, might even have been mistaken for one of the local Witches, if not for her outlandish, wintery clothing.

    As instructed the jeep pulls off, remarkably close to the operation, and Lexicon jumps out. "Look, it's none of my business, but this is hardly the place for a little girl.."

    "If you call me 'little girl' one more time," the DCC's voice is cold as ice, "I'll feed you that jeep of yours. I appreciate the ride, but don't be a jackass about it."

    The private winces, puts the jeep in gear, and promptly motors off after pulling a sharp U-turn. Lexicon turns away, shading her eyes as she peers up into the sky, a small frown on her face, "..Looks like I'll have to use a Relay, or I'm not getting up there at all..."
Faruja A certain fuzzball priest has been out of contact for some time. Official reports states vague hints about political unrest, and something about Lucavi.

In other words, the usual. The Inquisition isn't known for being open about anything, or particularly good about letting the Union know where and when it's arriving.

The Inquisition arrives exactly when it pleases and that time just happens to be now. A burst of time magic, a palpable feeling of power, and that flying line of Neuroi advancing from the hive would suddenly find a ball of nuclear magical fire about to burst down upon them. A moment later, and varying bursts of flame, lightning, ice, and more obscure magics rake along the creature's lines.

Not all that far away from the boat ladies and their pop star flying artillery (and company!) there's suddenly a massive dragon, the grey scaled creature very visibly Bahamut to any who've spent time with Faruja. The Inquisitor, as well as a good five mages wearing inquisitorial red, ride the great Esper.

Leaning on his staff, smiling, the rat cues up the local radio.

"Dame Shirley Yeager. My, my, my, do you /ever/ know how to get yourself in quite the mess. But worry not, my dear! For the Inquisition and the Lord are with you, and we shall CLEANSE these knaves that DARE threaten such pious and hearty warriors as you!"

The Burmecian dramatically points towards the wall of Neuroi.

"FLEE BEFORE OUR MIGHT, LEST YE BE CUT DOWN LIKE DOGS, HERETICS!" Faruja's voice is still very, very loud.
Staren     The Star Hawk flies through the gate, briefly visible in its plane-with-arms-and-legs form before just going plane mode and rapidly accelerating to try and fly past the neuroi. Staren takes shots at some with the railgun and volleys of some kind of thin, homing beam weapon, but those are targets of convenience -- his goal is to get past the barricade using sheer speed (up to about mach 2.5 at one atmosphere) and unite with the Strike Witches, so he can expend his arsenal clearing a path and defending them. He /was/ going to just go full missile massacre when he entered, but the sheer size of the Neuroi force here changed his mind about that plan pretty quickly...
Valentha Summers Space ripples around a kilometer from the gathering, bluish energy expanding outwards and DISGORGING A MASSIVE BEAST wreathed in swirling winds that's somehow managing to hit IMPRESSIVELY mobile speeds with those beating wings of its. It's a DRAGON with a 150 feet wingspan!

    Valenthanixa swoops into formation with the Strike Witches.

    "I understand there's a RESCUE to be done here. One calling for... FIREPOWER. A good opportunity to stretch my wings!"
Shirley Yeager     There was the confirmation she needed. Everyone's here and Evangeline's near. And... there's that particular bit of magic she's grown accustomed to, time magic. "Hehe, I know that feeling. Faruja, it's been a while. And Yuna, just like old times!"

    Oh hey, there's Bahamut. And... there is that magical nuke. Looks like Faruja just caused a stir and now it's time for Shirley to do her's. "Gravity's not going to work." she muttered, "Maybe I can impress Faruja with this." the Aura Staff bayonet starts glowing as a verbal chant commences from the Witch. It comes out loud enough over the radio, that it could possibly be... no it /is/ the cue everyone's been waiting for.

    "Time has come, crash upon the wicked! Comet!" there's another large space-time distortion, showing off the epicenter of space almost... and soon enough a rapid stream of FLAMING ROCKS start to bombard the Neuroi, cutting a path to let flyers through and even ships to sail!

    The Flare from Bahamut incinerates quite a few good (?) Neuroi as well, because heresy is abundant here!

    "There's your cue, everyone! GO!"
Shigure     Shigure and Yuudachi both are silent basions of metal beneath Evangeline and Yuna. The pair, if they're hawkeyed enough, might spot glimpses of Equipment Fairies scurrying about, carrying shells ten times their size around like nothing, moving along the deck and ducking into doorways.

    That eerie calm before a coming storm is broken when Faruja brings the rain with magic bolts and elemental blasts... and a FREAKING DRAGON! TWO in fact as Valentha joins the fray.

    Shirley opens the door with that comet swarm, and Shigure's response is immediate. "Check, all guns locked. Flak shells to four foot spread. Time fuses set. All guns, fire for effect." The cannons stagger their fire, the 10cm guns unloading a near constant barrage of explosive flak. Taking care to only fire into tight packs of Neuroi. Air radar pings friendly beacons, marking them for the gunnery crews. Yuudachi, meanwhile, is far more eager. Her equipment tracking the targets, and an almost predatory air emitting from the entire ship as things start to heat up. She's firing while Shigure is reporting her guns are ready. "Lets start a most wonderful party!" she crows, throwing out flak shells like they were free candy. Candy made of pain and death!
Yuna Kagurazaka Faruja's presence comes as a pleasant surprise to Yuna; she actually turns to wave to him when Bahamut brings Faruja and a handful of Inquisitor mages. The other arrivals are noted as well; Yuna hasn't really met Lexicon yet, but Evangeline, Staren (or at least the Star Hawk), and Valentha's dragon form are all familiar from prior incidents. Yuna waves to each of them in turn - and Lexicon as well, for good measure ... and then Shirley casts Comet.

That would be the signal they were waiting for. Yuna levels off, facing ahead again, and accelerates towards the hole that the Comet spell punched through the Neuroi swarm; several blasts from the Matrix Divider precede the blonde's charge, smashing into Neuroi to help widen the opening. As Yuna gets closer, she adds barrages from the rapid-fire pulse blasters concealed in her vambraces. The pulse blasters might not pack enough punch per individual bolt to take out a Neuroi, but at the very least she can inconvenience their regeneration - and if she spots any exposed cores, those cores become a priority target for a focused shot from the Matrix Divider proper.

Just like old times, indeed; Yuna remembers the basics of anti-Neuroi combat as if it was just last week, and she remembers the defensive side as well as the offensive. "Elner, keep monitoring up for power surges - even if you can't tell where the Neuroi are about to shoot, any forewarning we can get is going to help!"

And on that note, she starts throwing evasive maneuvers into her flight path, even if the Neuroi HAVEN'T started shooting back at her yet. It's more challenging for the fact that she knows her allies will be opening fire as well, and she doesn't want to veer into anyone else's attacks.
Faruja Faruja just takes a moment to smell the flowers. Or in this case, time and physics being abused to bring horrific amounts of rocky death down on Neuroi courtesy of a pupil and...now...proper Time Mage. It brings a tear to his eye.

The rat will vehemently deny that single rattish tear.

Yuna's focused shots, the Fleet Girls' guns, Staren's firepower and another dragon amongst them all bring grins to the Inquisitor. It's an impressive show of might. Some of the younger mages seem stunned at the pure ability of Shirley's allies.

The rat waves his cane.

"Now, now, Acolyte. Get up. Let us not be outdone by the good Union!"

Yuna gets a wink and a bow, a cross of the chest in vague directions of those he knows and doesn't know. For now, they've got killing to do.

The mages keep directing magic, and Bahamut flaps over to support Shirley and company! The mage, as mention of assistance is called by the bunny-mage, gives a laugh. He's already glowing that greyish-black. Haste spells will start to settle first on Shirley, then on anyone who gets close enough for the rat to cast on!
Evangeline      Not everyone waited, but at least the ones that didn't wait used a good attack that is sure to cause some confusion. With the warships firing flak shells, Evangeline waits until the first salvo has been fired, then charges in with Yuna. The two dragons get a glance from Evangeline, but she is in battle mode now. If they are allies, they will not be fired upon.

     With Comet and flak clearing a a section of the Neuroi ranks, Evangeline dashes for that area as a bright, sinister red glow builds at the ends of her arms and on the little wings on her legs. And just as Yuna explains about Neuroi's vectoring beam attacks, she fires a salvo of her own. Dozens of beams fire out, arching and bending at angles that should be impossible for a beam as they seek out targets, trying to perforate and destroy as many as she can and expose cores of those she can't.

     But, Evangeline is no more able to detect the locations of enemy Neuroi cores than anyone else, so she is really just guessing based on experience and prior knowledge of typical Neuroi layouts. She spirals and dodges and jukes as she makes her way through the ranks, trying to get a path cleared for the 363rd.

     But...there are a LOT of enemy Neuroi, and each of them packs an armament of beams rivaling or even surpassing Evangeline's. It is probably only thanks to the Warlock incident that Evangeline is able to weather their attacks, her spherical shield of hexagonal energy plates deflecting and splitting beams to lessen their effect.

     "...get out of the way...return to the hive and no one has to be destroyed..." Evangeline radios to her fellow Neuroi. She knows they won't listen, but she has to try.
Lexicon     As action kicks off in the sky, Lexicon's eyes narrow, "Looks like they got started without me." Her free hand reaches out, white light and digitized numbers manifesting around her fingers to form a long, ornate rod with a white gemstone seated at the top. This is raised, and she drives it down into the ground at her feet. Fangs unfold and, immediately, the gem begins to glow with a bright white light. "Better not keep 'em waiting!"

    Breaking away from her device, Lexicon's body is wreathed in pixellated white light and rings of cycling numerical code, a ball of light that leaps up into the sky.

    As the light ball ascends, it shrinks back down to the shape of a girl, silver-haired and crimson-eyed with glowing sigils in her pupils. Floating on square wings of light, she's soon accompanied by armor affixed to her arms and legs, and protective plates hovering shy of her hips. Digitized light surrounds her right hand, extending into the haft of a weapon, and as it completes the silvery-white blade of an axe is projected from the end in a wicked arc.

    "Just because it's a request that landed in my hands doesn't mean I won't go wild on these bastards! Fuckin' around where you don't belong, I'll smash all of you into goo!" Her left hand reaches back to support the axe's handle, and as Lexicon ascends, she hurls herself into a spin, tracing a spiral of silver light up through the defensive Neuroi like an out of control sawblade.
    "TANZERIN TROMBE!"
Valentha Summers That... that is certainly not the sort of dragon Valenthanixa is used to seeing. Not that she sees many others to begin with! But Bahamut gets stared at rather hard out of the corner of her eye, in-between wingbeats. It's a bit ridiculously tough-looking as dragons go, nothing to screw around with.

    Well. The more allies the better. The enemy Neuroi are treated to a most direly BALEFUL gaze. "Then we shall carve a path so deep they will not DARE to regroup."

    And how shall she faciliate this?

    Well, she starts by... VANISHING?!

    Yep. She's gone, in a flash of blue'ish energy!

    ... Only to reappear right in the middle of a group of Neuroi in the distance... and open her maw wide.

    WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

    The sky FILLS with a fire so powerful that were it on land, it would leave molten glass in its wake...
Staren     @emit
    Staren speeds past the Neuroi, slowing as he approaches the Strike Witches. The Star Hawk drops to subsonic speed and deploys its arms and legs again, even offering a wave as it approaches and turns around. "One path, comin' up!"

    He flies along with the Strike Witches. His primary strategy? Using the railgun and missiles (there are so many missiles, though he only has about five dozen that can actually be fired at once, the rest being in smaller salvos from the handheld launcher -- mostly plasma warheads that try to burn the neuroi away in superheated fireballs) to clear a path and to attack any Neuroi coming in for their own attack.

    He also has a couple of backup weapons -- a giant revolver empowered by a god of mad science to great effect against the supernatural that prey on humanity, unfortunately, it's a revolver, so only six shots -- and three missiles with longer range that he can actually fire at the hive. They're not THAT much more powerful than his other missiles, but the Neuroi don't know that, and this might be able to serve as a distraction.
Shirley Yeager     The Neuroi aren't going to take this sitting down. They're taking it by floating. There's no noises but they do start moving quickly, and just like Yuna warned... the entire sky lights up in red beams of light. Lasers. Lasers as far as the eyes can see. Shirley reacts quickly, the red outlined bunnywitch pushing forward a shield of decent proportion, blocking incoming lasers directed towards her and her mage charge. "Nnngh, not going to get past me that easily!"

    Meanwhile, more lasers pop down towards everyone else, thirty here... thirty there, another twenty here... oh and another fifty there! Evangeline, however, gets a good brunt of it, anothsixty lasers coming streaking towards the Allied Neuroi, apparently ignoring or disregarding the message she was trying to send.

    Fortunately, some of those die down as the fire breath from Valenthanixa scorches a good portion of a good number of Neuroi, and Silver Soul's Tanzerin Trombe hacks quite a few of them herself! Evangeline's lasers find their target, though a few seem to dodge them outright, firing back in return. Yuudachi and Shigure both get quite a few lasers directed to their bow and some just try to cut across the water and attempt to strike midships of the two! Yuna also gets quite a few lasers as well, her own pulse blasters doing some damage, knocking some of that black chitin-like stuff and destroying one of them. Staren's own misiles are keeping a path clear, some destroyed, some damaged with nothing showing and some damaged with their core showing too!

    Shirley gives a nod, giving her allies a good chance. "You three go on ahead, the gate should take you to my home base or Njourn. I'll be back. Trust me."

    "Shirley!" "Hey, no, we're not going, not without you!" "Yea, c'mon!"

    "I can't, my allies here are giving us enough cover to get you guys out, I'll retreat with the rest of them, now go, this is an order!" with that commanding shout, something that Shirleys' not shown before, the three give a brief nod... and start streaking towards the Gate, some lasers firing out but meeting shields.
Shigure     The problem with being a fullsized warship. You take a fullsize time to turn and dodge. Lasers cut across the water, vaporizing it in gouts of steam. Metal hulls melt under the strikes, and Shigure's main deck bursts into flame. She yelps, a sound far louder than anything she's made before, apart from that one time during her WMAT run when she was set aflame. "F-Fire amidships... repair crew, contain it, quickly." she says, back to her normal, soft tone, as she keeps attempting to weave around those scarlet tracers, guns still firing, prioritizing any Neuroi that try to block the gate or otherwise intercept the Strike Witches they're here to rescue.

    Yuudachi's not faring much better, though after the first few strikes to her bow section, she transforms, a flash of white light sees a teenage-looking blonde girl with piercing red eyes where the ship ones sailed, much more easily ducking around the lasers as she 'skates' across the waters surface. "I'll fight on with a hammock for a sail if I must!" she crows defiantly, the guns on her rigging still foring flak shells into the Neuroi's midst, though they're smaller in scale, they still hit as hard at full size weapons!
Staren     The Star Hawk's left arm manifests a beam shield to protect itself from some of the lasers, but Staren just can't keep up... Under this heavy bombardment, even his mighty mecha won't last long! The armor plating is swiss cheese, revealing the heavily greebled internal structure, although only someone who's looked closely at a damaged mecha before would notice something off. "Shit..." he curses as he watches his damage indicators rise.

    And now Shirley's staying? "Are you sure about that, Shirley? Girls, we gotta move fast!" He takes a somewhat more agressive stance, blasting ahead! Any time he gets a fix on a Neuroi core, he's quick to follow it up with the railgun or HEAT missiles. He also goes ahead with the distraction attempt, firing the salvo of three larger missiles off towards the hive to see if some Neuroi pull off to deal with that!
Yuna Kagurazaka Yuna expected lasers, of course - but she may not have been expecting THAT MANY LASERS, particularly all at once. She ceases fire and goes into full evasive, dismissing the Matrix Divider and (with a shout of "Shugoseiheki!!!") summoning her kite shield. Sure, the extra weight that the shield adds to her left arm means she won't be as fast, but she'd rather have something to protect herself besides just letting the Light Suit's protective aura take whatever hits she can't dodge ... and with that many lasers, she doesn't imagine that she can dodge all of them. Even 'all of the lasers that are aimed at her'.

This is also the point at which Elner, Jiina, and Marina pull WAY back from the aerial battle. Elner can generate protective barriers, sure, but the robo-faerie doesn't trust its barriers to last long under the Neuroi barrage.

Yuna doesn't figure she can dodge forever, and she's not planning on it; the Neuroi have to let up long enough to recharge, right? Even if it's only a couple of seconds in between beams - one thing she doesn't remember too well is how long they have to 'cycle' between shots, and that's likely dependent on the size of the Neuroi in question. But as she starts to find openings in the laser barrage, she starts shooting again - with the pulse blasters, but also with a pistol that manifests in her hand. It's not quite as powerful as the larger Matrix Divider, but she can focus power into it much the same way to make up the difference ...
Faruja The good news: Shirley, and the various Union folks are doing a fine job of Neuroi-based murder.

The bad: There's tons of the things, and they love their lasers. Giant dragon or not, Bahamut is a big target. And unlike both his riders and the other dragon in the sky? No teleporting here. Instead, the great Lord of Dragons flaps its wings, folds them up and simply takes it all on the wings.

Red lasers lance over the Esper, causing superheated scales to fall and melt into whisps of magic. When the barrage ends, and there's some slackening in the fire of various gathered warriors, the dragon unfolds those wings and flies higher. It's trying to stay well out of range of those missiles. This does mean that most of the mages can't hit with their spells. A few took glancing laser blows, and so they're healing one another. Faruja, for his part, starts casting.

Time and space tremble, and the ranks of the neuroi will soon have a massive Meteor falling upon their heads, smashing into other lasers. It just breaks the thing apart, scattering flaming bits of superheated spacerock everywhere.
Evangeline      Evangeline is being bombarded by beams. She is quick, and that shield keeps her pretty protected. But, despite that, sections of the shield start to fail and pieces of her body are disintegrated and shattered. She is soon missing her legs, then an arm gets blasted off. Despite that, Evangeline keeps going. She moves in close to one of the larger enemy Neuroi and tries to use it as cover from the incoming beams so she has time to regenerate. But, it's a dangerous gambit. One lucky shot or missed step and she could be caught in the powerful beam of a large-type.

     Focusing on regenerating takes away some of Evangeline's attack power. She keeps firing, her beams splitting and vectoring toward nearby targets. Her shield keeps deflecting the shots she can't dodge or that the Neuroi she's using for cover doesn't soak, and when she has regenerated nearly fully once more, she takes off as quickly as she can. She tries to stay with Yuna, focusing fire on Yuna's targets and covering Yuna's back when possible.

     "...we cannot hold off this many for long...if our witches have been extracted we should pull back to the warp gate..." Evangeline radios to all her allies as she keeps firing and keeps getting pummeled by lasers.
Valentha Summers Swarms of lasers come Valenthanixa's way! But she... does nothing to dodge? As they near her... they disperse, slamming into some invisible field. Rippling blue light contends with the Neuroi energies, scattering them and shredding them in a cataclysmic lightshow! The sphere-shaped shield doesn't last long though. The first wave of shots cracks it...

    ... And then the second wave meets a SECOND layer of defense just inches above Valenthanixa's scale, the 'Armor of Ithan'.

    As this defensive spell's about to crack though... the dragon's whole body shimmers blue, and *BLOIPZZZZ!*

    ... She's gone. AGAIN.

    ... And coming to Staren's aid. The dragon swoops through groups going after him, scouring them with a strafe of fire breath!
Lexicon     "You wanna piece of me, bitches?!"

    Coming out of her spin at the apex, Silver Soul twists herself into a dive, with crimson beams sweeping after her. The plasma cleaver is held low, trailing behind her at a low angle. Rather than do her usual thing by tanking countless laser beams with her face, though, the digital divinity dives in amidst the defending Neuroi themselves, skimming along the hull of one of the larger members of the defense force. This forces them to either be pinpoint accurate or risk striking their own ally.

    Not that the DCC is out for a pleasure cruise. White light trails behind her, shed from the blade of her axe and growing more intense as she approaches the Neuroi's bow-most point.

    Rather than shoot past that bow, Lexicon hauls her axe up overhead and, just as she's passing it, she brings it down with a flash of light, "ZERSTORUNG! EEYAH!"

    Her axe blade slams into the large-type Neuroi with all the intent of splitting the vessel like a block of wood.

    Though she doesn't exactly hang around to see what happens. Instead, the white-clad DCC swoops away, hauling her axe up one-handed, "A bunch'a small fry viruses like this just waste everybody's time, call out your boss if you wanna make me break a damn sweat!"
Shirley Yeager     The white light of Silver Soul's axe splits this large neuroi in half... and the core it was holding in half as well, sparking a nice shatter of red before the black hexagonal body shatters into a brilliant white stardust-like bit, floating towards the ground. THough, with Silver Soul's demand, another Neuroi, five times larger than the one that just got split, makes a beeline towards the DCC, with a large red laser being shot towards her! Guess they /DO/ want a piece of Silver Soul.

    Shigure and Yuudachi's own firepower is lent a hand, each shell being shot strikes a Neuroi, blasting it out of the sky! Though the ones that just get shredded, look to regenerate and start firing another small barrage of lasers towards the two kanmusu, another red beam from another giant-type Neuroi streaks across the ocean, trying to shear the ship in half! Yuudachi's own shots nail quite a few that look to get into Staren's way!

    Yuna's own shield gets battered with those lasers, but the return fire from the Galaxy Fraulein Idol nail a few of those Neuroi, blasting off chunks that slowly start regenerating, there's a flash of red though on a couple of them, showing the core to Yuna, giving away its position. Though, lasers still keep up, pulsing with a laser every two seconds to try and dent or destroy that shield!

    With the beams striking Evangeline, some of them seem to break off to go attack other targets, but some just replace them and continue up the barrage towards the traitorous Neuroi. The same giant type that is attacking Silver Soul splits off another beam, thicker than the large or normal type Neuroi, it streaks off towards her rapidly, trying to end her.

    Faruja's own magic continues and that giant meteor breaks from the defensive fire from the lasers, though, not before a few get caught up in the giant rock's crashing into a good stack of them and with the now splintering rock flying off, shards take out a few more, causing some to dissapear in those white streaks with plenty more regenerating from the damage and firing off lasers in return, this time directly towards the Caster themselves.

    Valenthianixa's own shields get broken through but suddenly... no more dragon? Oh wait, there it is. A strafe of fire breath eliminating a few that look poised to attack Staren in the back, probably saving the catboy's life there from direct Neuroi lasers! Though the NEuroi don't take the sudden dissapearance and reappearance with kindness as another set of lasers fire off towards the dragon... and suddenly take an immediate 90 degree turn to try and smash into her!

    Speaking of the catboy, those fixes upon Neuroi cores are proving beneficial, targets being eliminated with railgun shots and missiles, but the salvo of larger missiles being directed to the hive? Oh the Neuori are not going to like that, in fact, they divert a few lasers to destroy those missiles just before impact, the explosion rocking the hive some and causing some damage... and making Staren a very... very large target! A quick bombardment of lasers, about thirty in all with one laser every half second start streaking off towards the armored catboy. Apparently they didn't like that very much.

    Shirley is taking stock of the situation, finally, and with the three witches finally making it through, she gives a brief nod. "All hands, three vip's secured, initiate a retreat and let's get the heck out of here! You guys are right, we don't got the firepower yet for that hive." She does start flying around, tagging those she can get with another Haste spell while mixing it up and tagging a few others with Slow. Soon, there seems to be a ruby barrier in front of the Bunny Mage... and as a laser hits it... it bounces RIGHT BACK to nail the Neuroi that fired it!
Faruja The Burmecian heard the bunny lady. He waits until Staren's away, and then similarly starts throwing out Slow spells en masse. The group of mages doesn't stick around, either, as the massive Bahamut is quick to follow behind with Shirley!

Emphasis on 'behind'. Bahamut is not exactly a fast conveyance. Lasers /do/ smash into scales, though, so they might just be okay aside from one or two mages trying to put out superheated bits of robe-cloth.
Staren     Shirley wants his support for a move on the hive? Well, /maybe/ he could, if he could get away from their fire and shoot the hive with the big sniper railgun...

    Well, maybe he could /have/, if the Neuroi weren't suddenly hitting him with an unrelenting horde of lasers! Fortunately, the witches are clear... and Shirley calls off the attack on the hive. The Star Hawk transforms to fighter mode and accelerates into the warpgate -- He wasn't that far from it, since he was escorting the strike witches... Still, the Star Hawk is getting pretty beat up. It would be raining shrapnel and bits of robot if the Neuroi didn't use some kind of disintigration beams! Fortunately, they haven't focused the beams all on one spot or anything, so it can still function, though it looks kind of like it got chewed up and eaten halfway to the bone by a giant predator...

    Inside the warpgate tunnel, Staren transforms back to humanoid mode and keeps his railgun and missile launcher trained on the warpgate, ready to shoot any Neuroi that come through and be something of a rear guard, at least until Valentha offers to take his place or something...
Shigure     Shigure's fairies have managed to put out the fire, the deck scorched black and some of the superstructure warped from the heat. "Yuudachi, maintain cover fire. We leave last." she transmits to the Land Fit-out blonde... before transforming herself, looking worse for wear, her uniform shredded and burnt along her midriff... And luckily just in time as that massive beam scores through where her ship-form was a moment ago, kicking up a massive cloud of steam as it burns away at the ocean. "Reload, AP shells, maximum elevation. Maintain AA fire until allied units have withdrawn from theatre." She pulls her backpack rigging off, and holds the two cannons skywards. The CLUNK CHAK, as they reload, before firing, spitting out black smoke, and a pair of shells that don't explode in proximity, but instead penetrate the outer shell, and explode after a short travel time inside.

    Yuudachi grins ferally. "You got it Big Sis!" she chirps, "Back to back, just like old times!" she adds, firing into the air almost indiscriminately now, but each shot is designed to leave openings for the others to either disengage, or finish off the target, exposing cores or just outright shredding the Neuroi in question.
Yuna Kagurazaka For a moment, it sounds like they may need to attack the hive - maybe not a full assault, but trying to put enough of a dent in it to allow a smoother escape. The prospect makes Yuna grimace, but she starts plotting out how to help make it happen; the fact is that she'll be vulnerable - and not just her, but the whole Matrix of Light would be together and momentarily defenseless.

It's a major relief when Shirley changes her mind and goes with a straight-up evac. The Light Suit's defensive properties are already being strained, but Yuna zips up and around to try and give the Witches some extra cover with her shield. She doesn't know how much power the other three Witches have left, so she'd rather take a few extra hits than risk *them* taking those shots ... and Yuna is also able to keep shooting at the Neuroi, aiming around the side of Shugoseiheki.

Assuming *she* gets out of here in one piece, Yuna's going to need a solid night's sleep and a good meal or two before she's ready to take the field again. That might not stop her from *trying*, depending on what's going on ...
Evangeline      Evangeline is focusing more and more on defense as laser after laser lances after her. When the retreat is finally called, she starts firing again, but only to clear a way through so she can join Shirley.

     At least, that was the plan. But, as she is dodging a particularly heavy salvo she is surprised by the heavy beam from the large neuroi. She throws all the energy she can into her shield and the beam impacts her hard. Even with her shield, Evangeline is pushed back steadily. Her shield hexagons start to crack, and a high-pitched sound like metal being stressed can be heard from her as pieces of her body start to flake away again.

     "...get everyone out of he-" Evangeline starts to broadcast a message before her shield shatters completely and she is engulfed in the powerful, obliterating red glow of the enemy Neuroi's beam. The black form of her body is visible through the red energy before it disappears...
Valentha Summers More and more lasers sweeep in for Valenthanixa. This time... they strike true, shattering through what was left of her defense. The beams SEAR into dragonflesh, but... as it so happens, her species of dragon is heavily resistant to such temperature extremes and energy. The thick hide proves extraordinarily tough, with the lasers leaving scorch marks... but only a few actually manage to draw draconic blood from wounds and reach muscle. The pain is TREMENDOUS...

    And it comes right as the dragon's murmuring a spell and gathering magical energy.

    Thankfully, wizards are trained for this kind of pain. She could hardly call herself a wizard if she couldn't continue casting with a sword sticking out of her gut!

    Huge bolts of lightning gather around her right foreclaw, filling the air with a screeching noise.

    With one thrust... the power is UNLEASHED.

    Tremendously thick and brilliant bolts of mystical lightning arc out for all the nearby Neuroi in a vaguely cone-shaped pattern, and from that... smaller bolts split off from each target they strike. It's a cacaphony of shocks that seems without end. Dense formations only make matters worse...
Lexicon     "What, leavin'?" Lexicon whirls around in midair at the order, but it's a turn to face the larger Neuroi bearing down on her. She shoves out her hands, the haft of her axe held out between them. The crimson beam impacts this and a defensive shield projected between her hands, scattering in all directions. Baring her teeth, as her barrier cracks, the digital goddess growls. When it shatters and the beam strikes her, Lexicon tumbles out and down, trailing smoke in an arc until she rights herself. A hand thrusts out, her weapon re-forming.

    "Don't fuck around with me!"

    Lexicon hauls her axe up behind herself with both hands, then hurls herself into a spin. As she builds up speed, an aura of white-blue begins to spin up around her in the shape of a tornado.

    "SCHNEESTURM!"

    Mid-spin, Lexicon releases her axe, sending it spinning off into the Neuroi formation. As it travels, it drags the tornado with it, sending shards of ice and snow and biting energy amidst the enemy. Coming to a stop, the DCC twists out of her spin and joins the rear of the retreating formation, "That'll keep 'em busy for a bit."
Shirley Yeager     "Yea, we're leaving White Axe." she yells out towards Silver Soul, "I thank you for coming to assist, you, and everyone else have saved our asses. I'll send payment to you later once we're safe." though with Faruja throwing out Slow spells with his Mage Gang, it does help slow down the rate of fire and their speed to catch up to the group, keeping them at least somewhat occupied and saving Staren from ending up swiss cheese as he retreats towards the gate.

    With Yuna's shooting, it continues to help get some of the Neuroi destroyed but the hive itself continues to throw out more and more... if they stay, they might end up overrun by Neuroi. The Hornet's Nest did get ruffled. But as soon as Evangeline makes the mention of getting out... her signal goes and it causes the Bunny Mage to pause. "E... Evangeline?!" she shouts, quickly casting a Haste spell and doubling back to search the area, shield up and gunfire ringing from her rifle.

    Valenthanixa's own magical energy washes through quite a few Neuroi, destroying most of them and disabling even more, giving Elner the time to scan and show off Evangeline's core location. Without a single word, Shirley dives down and rushes towards the location, picking up the core and flying through the warpgate, "Damnit... Evangeline I'm the one who's gotta protect you, not the other way around!"
Shirley Yeager     Shigure and Yuudachi's anti air fire continues to coat the sky with bullets, more and more Neuroi are blasted to bits, and soon white shards as cores are shattered left, right, center... close and far. "I owe you two some for helping out, didn't expect to see ships turn into girls here, you have my thanks, tell your boss that I'm proud to have you there!"
Shigure     Shigure and Yuudachi both have mantled onto the shore, and have been taking billy bigsteps toward the Warpgate. They stop before the threshold, guns trained skywards until the others are out and safe. They 'hold the door' right up until they start getting overwhelmed, and back off, still shooting, through the gate.
Staren     Staren watches Shirley?! come through the gate. But what's that she's carrying? He gives a slight gasp when his optics zoom in and see she's carrying a Neuroi core. Evangeline...

    Valentha has her own way home, it seems. A moment after Shirley's past him, Staren turns his machine and runs after her.

    He also orders his ship's nanofabber to begin construction of some of those sugar-powdered foamed-metal squares to bring Evangeline in the infirmary.
Evangeline      Evangeline's core is not glowing nearly as brightly as a Neuroi core should, and Elner can probably sense that the energy emissions are nowhere near where they should be. But, once the beautiful rosey-red core is picked up, Evangeline's signal appears again on the radios, though it is mostly soft static. Somewhere in there is a very faint, "...glad...-u are okay..."
Yuna Kagurazaka Normally, seeing one of her friends get killed right in front of her would send Yuna into a screaming fury. How she keeps her head on straight when Evangeline seems to get obliterated -

The shock of it is a big factor; it's not like there's a big explosion or a shattered and lifeless body; the Neuroi girl's form just disappears in that laser, and the moment of confusion mixed with hope is enough to forestall the berserk mode that would normally tend to set in. And by the time she recovers enough that she *might* go ballistic, Elner has already located what seems to be Evangeline's core - right near the warpgate, however that happened.

And Yuna still has Shirley and the other 363rd Witches to cover en route to the warpgate, anyway. Yuna stays in formation, wincing as more lasers strike her kite shield; the Light Suit is very near its limits, but Yuna makes sure the other three Witches are through safe and sound, then passes through the warpgate with Shirley and Evangeline's core. Elner ducks through with them; Jiina and Marina were - as it turns out - already on the side of the warpgate away from the Neuroi.

"Whew ..." Yuna dismisses Shugoseiheki as her boots settle onto the ground. "Everyone's accounted for, nobody left behind ... right?"
Lexicon     On the Gate's other side, Lexicon swings her legs forward and settles down. Her wings disappear in a pixellated flicker and she glances towards Shirley, "'White Axe'? It's Silver Soul, thanks." Eyes closing, she jerks her thumb towards the gate, "Can't stand trash like that waltzin' around like it owns the place, don't worry about payin' me. Bloodying their nose is fine enough for me."

    With a serious frown, she leans forward, squinting those crimson, glowing eyes at the multifaceted Core the Witch cradles, "Sorry 'bout your friend, though. I wasn't close enough to draw that kinda fire." A hand reaches out and, upon her fingertip, an energy projection appears. It resembles a computer's power symbol, glowng white, "You want some energy, kiddo? You did good."

    Waiting on Evangeline's response to the offer, Silver Soul straightens up and glances about. Yuna asks the question already on her mind, and so she merely does a quick mental check of arms and legs (and crystalline cores).

    As the gate shuts down, though, her connection to her Relay is severed, and the girl is enveloped in a silvery white glow. Moments later, a brown-haired, blue-eyed girl stands in her place, the energy mote still floating above her extended fingertip.
Evangeline      Evangeline has no body to reach for that energy mote, but at the offer there is a soft "...yes...thank you..." over the group's radios. A small beam of light emits from the fist-sized multifaceted gem that is Evangeline, and the offered energy mote slowly drains away. The glow from the core intensifies somewhat, but she obviously needs more. Perhaps a good meal of scrap metals will do it.