================================= Repliforce =================================

Message: 14/61                     Posted        Author

Captain's Log: Asskicking Soon     Tue Dec 13    Storm Owl

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        Voiceover.

 

        "Captain's Log, December 13th, 2218. I have received orders from Colonel to begin preparing the Fortress V for relocation to the Neo-Arcadian front lines. Given that our ship facilities are currently heavily intertwined with the efforts of the troops still securing, patrolling, and fortifying Giga City, we have a lot of work ahead of us."

 

        "We have, however, another problem which must be dealt with first. The criminal fleet, west of Giga City in the Pacific, is still present, waiting for their time to attack. The Gesellschaft was confirmed to be involved in another assault, and it is possible that they are waiting for their flagship to return before attacking the Fortress V and Giga City. It is more likely, however, that they are simply waiting for the Fortress V to depart, whereupon they will simply move in and take the city."

 

        "We shall circumvent this by taking the initiative. Once the ship is ready for relocation, we shall intercept and engage the criminal fleet, attempting to destroy or rout them. All crew leaves have been canceled so we may get this ship ready for battle. All defensive systems are now on high alert, and we are prepared to go to action stations on a moment's notice."

 

        "Current estimations are 12 hours for this ship to be prepared to depart. We will then set course for the criminal fleet and destroy it. Storm Owl -out-."

 

==============================================================================

 

[Radio: (B) RF-Secure] Storm Owl transmits, "All hands, we're prepared for departure. Course is laid in for the Bonne pirate fleet. We're going to action stations one."

 

[Radio: (B) RF-Secure] Singularity Shrike transmits, "Understood."

 

[Radio: (B) RF-Secure] Vanishing Gungaroo excitedly. "Can I dwive the Fowtwess?"

 

[Radio: (B) RF-Secure] Lt. Chi transmits, "Acknowledged, sir."

 

[Radio: (B) RF-Secure] Storm Owl transmits, "No you may not."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish grunt.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl makes a mental note.

 

Shield Shellfish (Shell) pages: 'Shield Shellfish's lasers inquire when they will get to shoot something.'

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl transmits, "Approximately thirteen minutes, Corporal."

 

East Pacific Ocean

This is the Eastern Pacific.

 

Ocean.

 

It's wet.

 Contents:                               Contents:                     

 Bola [C]                                Teisel Bonne [Standard] [C]           

 Repliforce Mobile Fortress V <F5> [RF]  Bonne Airship <Gesellschaft> [C]      

 IO Fleet

 

 East <A>:                 Aztlan (Mexico)

 Dive <D>:                 Underneath Central Pacific

 East <PNW>:               Pacific Northwest

 East <C>:                 California

 East <BC>:                Baja California

 East <PA>:                Panama Canal

 Islands <H>:              Hawaii

 South <S>:                Southeast Pacific Ocean

 West <W>:                 West Pacific Ocean

 North <N>:                Northeast Pacific Ocean

 Up <U>:                   Sky Above North Pacific

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish transmits, "..."

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish transmits, "Yes, sir."

 

Singularity Shrike has arrived.

 

Blitzkrieg arrives from the California.

Blitzkrieg has arrived.

 

Bon Bonne arrives from the Pacific Northwest.

Bon Bonne has arrived.

 

Chi has arrived.

 

Shield Shellfish has arrived.

 

Vanishing Gungaroo has arrived.

 

"Action stations one," Storm Owl announces calmly over the shipwide intercom. The mile long Fortress V hasn't been set for an attack since the destruction of Skull Monument in Japan on July 4th of this year. Oh, sure, it had been -under- attack, both by the Neo-Arcadians' Predator-1, and during the siege of Giga City. But this is the first in a while that the ship is going on the offensive, and the crew appears to be looking forward to the chance to letting the behemoth out to kill once more.

        On the bridge of the ship, there's an ordered chaos as reports come in from all over. The bridge is crewed by about fifty Reploids in of itself, and it's a tribute to their skill that they manage to work as a cohesive one. Comm-chatter can be heard from various parts.

        Outside, the Fortress V, along with many Reploid aerial escorts, are currently on a direct course for the enemy fleet. There are picket scouts spread out wide in an attempt to create large enough net to capture at least some of the pirates and criminals. On the Fortress V's outer deck, soldiers are waiting to fend off attacks, or even use their own weaponry to add to the offensive.

 

"Aaaaaaaaah! It feels good to kick back and relax for once. Hey, #12! Is my coffee ready yet?" "Just a moment, Master Teisel!" "This is the life!" Kicking back in his command chair, the eldest Bonne (and somehow IO Fleet Commander), Teisel, relaxes after the events in Robotropolis and the long trip back to the fleet. "At least we won't be seeing any action any time soon, at least until the IO brass see sense and let us take Giga City." "Uuuuh, Master Teeeeeisel..." "Hmmm?" "We MAY have a problem..."

            The IO Fleet is sitting at standby over the Pacific, with scouts, a screen of flying drones, and the destroyers all patrolling around the central body of battleships and carriers. Currently, several scouts have reported the approach of the Fortress V and escort and warning klaxons are going off as the battle fleet at rest rouses to action.

 

         And guess who's walkin' around inside the Gesellschaft for once instead of slacking off in his room like normal? Why, it's Bola!... Where's Klaymoor? Said something about getting more money, last his bro heard...oh well. The cyborg seems to be making his way...

         ...to the break room. Of course, where else would he be going?

 

Among the soldiers on the decks of the fortress V is Chi, standing at the ready, he activates the Masamune with a crackle, energy dancing along the energy blade, he looks upon the fleet of the IOs, and shifts the Masamune so it aims straight, for the energy blasts he can do with the blade.

            The bull does little more then that, as nothing is in range of anything he can do yet.

 

Singularity Shrike has already taken to the skies, his spear at the ready. He can't help but repress a grin...

            This bird was /made/ to fly.

 

Shield Shellfish is hovering along with some of the aerial troops; buzzing about the forefront of the Fortress V, some hundred yards or so above the main deck. Normally she's not big on flying. Shell has discovered, however, that being an aerial troop makes you a very excellent target.

        You'd think this would be a drawback, wouldn't you.

 

        Blitzkrieg was aboard the Gesellschaft for the first time since his being employed by the Bonnes. He was currently standing quietly off to the side of the main bridge where Teisel was. He crossed his arms over his chest and regarded the Servbot that brought to light the approaching F5, but made no other move or noise and instead waited quietly for whatever orders Teisel might give.

 

         "Meanie Stowm Owl...I could have piloted the Fowtwess better and cause more havoc!" The little Gungaroo muttered angrily, from so long he wished he could have piloted the BIG thing, but he was refused. The whole Fortress was preparing itself for the coming battle, running reploids, speaker chatter...the janitor washing the floor. Vanishing was running to his position...well, the one /he/ choose. Orders are not for him, unless they're from Red.

         The small marsupial reached the outer decks of the Fortress, it wasn't the safest place but 'There's No Fun Where It's Safe!' -His personal policy during battles.- He will now take down the enemy fleet...with his boxing glove and their little kangaroo pummeling power! "I'm going to destwoy their pwopellers!!" He liked acting like he was doing the best things ever because he was just that awesome...at least in his head.

 

Storm Owl agrees that Vanishing could have caused more havoc. This is why Owl has his trained professionals do it. "Size and composition of the enemy fleet," Storm Owl requests as he inputs some commands into his armrest mounted computer. A crewmech rattles off a list of enemy ships, whether they're identified, how they're classified, etc. Of note, of course, is the Gesellschaft. "We're approaching their scout screen, sir." Another mech reports.

        The Fortress V and her escorts will likely not be slowed by the scouts. However they're also likely to mostly ignore them in favour of gearing up for the real prize that lays directly behind them. "Firing range in... one minute," a trooper reports. Up ahead, the criminal fleet looms.

         Inside the Gesellschaft is Bon, in the mouth section of the Gesellschaft. Tron's busy or something, so he's making sure the servbots, drones and other get to where they are supposed to go. Infact he's ready to help also! He usually is though, and tramping about the large child looked about for what else he could help with. Oh where is Tron? She's so good at these things!

 

"Baaaaaabuuu!" < Put that over there!, No.. uh there! I meant up... Close enough?"

         Bon continued to direct servbots and drones with equipment all over, looking to where they should go and trying his very best to figure everything out and remember it to help Teisel and Tron. "Baaabuu. Baaaaabuuuu!" He points to a drache. < Get it ready okay? Just in case! >

 

"ALL HANDS! RED ALERT!" In an instant, Teisel is on his feet and shouting orders between sips of his finally-delivered coffee. In response, the Servbot bridge crew rushes about, relaying Teisel's orders and adding warnings, announcements, and notifications of various sorts. "Battlestations, all hands! This is not a drill!" "Aerial assault teams to the launch bay! Fire suppression and medic teams on standby!" "The petting zoo will be closed until further notice!" "Lunch will be served an hour late! Today's featured dish is goat-cheese pizza!"

            Teisel pauses in the act of being dynamic and brave in the face of danger to receive reports from the fleet and direct their deployment. The scouts pull back as the fleet's carriers rush to pump out a cloud of drone units to boost the moderate swarm already deployed. Meanwhile, the battleships jockey for positions to fire upon the approaching force, while the destroyers shift to protect them. In the center of it all, the Gesellschaft looms like a shark...an oddly-shaped, green shark.

 

Tron Bonne has arrived.

 

Chi strikes Bon Bonne with his Big Brother Stare attack.

 

         Bola can't help but peer up at the intercom in the room about 'This is not a drill!'.. but what mostly caught his ear was..the lunch.

         "...aww...Goat Cheese Pizza, /again/?...*sigh*..." this said, Bola 'POOFS' into smoke, re-poofing on the bridge next to Teisel's command chair...floating in the air with scimitar in left hand, and scissor-weapon in the other. He doesn't sound to pleased. "...Alright, alright...you got me up...So, what exactly is the deal...?"

 

And Chi waits still, still out of range of his attacks, ah well, the bull raises the Masamune again, and waits for them to get closer, but right now, he's just a land-based creature, if only Ten was here, then it might be different. He glares at the IO ships flying along, and snorts.

 

Singularity Shrike holds position with the F5 and fleet. While he /wants/ to fly in and start tearin it up, the attack order has not been given yet.

            Granted, Sing's not a soldier's soldier, but he knows when /not/ to jump the gun.

 

Pose Tracker Child <POTC>

============================= East Pacific Ocean =============================

 Name             Idle    Last Pose     Last Action

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 Singularity Shr   1m        1m        

 Chi              16s        2m         Hit Bon Bonne w/ Big Brother Stare.

 Bola              4m        4m        

 Tron Bonne        4s        5m        

 Teisel Bonne      2m        8m        

 Viewing Stands   N/A       16m        

 Bon Bonne        16m       17m        

 Storm Owl         0s       18m        

 Vanishing Gunga   4m       28m        

 Blitzkrieg        3m       28m        

 Shield Shellfis   1m       28m        

=========================== Use +pot/help for Help ===========================

 

        Eeeeexcellent.

        Shield Shellfish pulls out one of her laser rifles; checks and double-checks it as she hovers along. Fresh energy core, targetting reticle clear, safety off, grip clean and sturdy... looks good.

        She then proceeds to triple-check it, before reholstering it. The same procedure is then given to her OTHER laser rifle.

        It's a good thing no direct attack order /has/ been given yet, or Shell would miss it entirely. Now to check the double-barrel rifle, the combat knife, the PBX explosives, and her water jets.

        Never hurts to be careful!

 

         "I should have wepaired my Kangaroo. It would have been so cool and-" Blablabla, Vanishing started bragging at the bad moment again, annoying all the other repliforcers near him. "-and that's why my awmor can resist even /jelly/ assaults! Isn't gweat?!"

         He then start bouncing softly, staring at the coming enemies, grinning much, perhaps a bit too much. "It's just like in Birdie Shooter..you shoot birds!" The marsupial then start making some boxing punching in the air, always not careful and nearly punching others without knowing it. The danger was already there for those near him.

 

        Blitzkrieg remained where he was for a few moments as the IO fleet prepared for its engagement with the despicable Repliforce fleet. His lone optic shifted back and forth across the bridge before finally coming to rest on Teisel and Bola. He waited to see if there were any specific orders from the head man before he went off to one of the docking bays for deployment.

 

        Tron Bonne, working deep within the Lab of the Gesellschaft, looks up at the sudden alarm. She nods, and turns her head to quickly address one of the Servbots in rapid words. She stands then, reaching up to clasp her earring. Her outfit of Pink Dress under Labcoat shimmers, and there is a FLASH, then she stands in her Pirate Regalia. Pink and Black stand out brilliantly. Her hair rises up into its unique style.

        She walks over to a towering dustcloth, and rips it off with a laugh, revealing the towering Gustav. She then swings up and inside... the mecha coming to life even as the launching chute around it registeres her presence.

        "Time to play with the Bonnes, Repliforce."

        Leaning back, she runs her hands over the console before her, then the Gustav LAUNCHES down the tube for the hangar bay below!

 

In range in... 3... 2... 1... "All troopers, you have permission to engage the enemy." Storm Owl looks up from the monitor on his armrest, having given the order that many were apparently quite eager for. "Target the lead ship," Storm Owl says calmly, "Fire ion cannons. Laser batteries on standby." With the push of a button, Repliforce takes the first volley.

        Whichever happens to be the ship closest to the Fortress V (perhaps Teisel doesn't like those guys very much?) may be in trouble. Three of the Fortress V's four ion cannons swivel forward, repeatedly firing massive blue bolts for the alpha strike. The recoil on the weapons is intense, and there's a subtle shaking that can be felt by anyone on board the Fortress V.

 

         And Bon suddenly hears the blaring alarms. And worst of all, the petting zoo will be closed! The only thing that could get worse would be the circus having to leave early! But enough of that. As the alarm, Red Alert was sounded, Bon began to scramble the servbots into the draches and then the drones that could fly from there. While he wasn't that smart, he knew how to run through the alert checks!

         Bon notices, most of all, his sister coming down from the tubes in the Gustav! So that's where she was. Busy as usual. "Baaabuuu!!!" < Okay Numbers 1 through whoever's not on the bridge, let's all go have fun and help Teisel and Tron! > Most of them agreed. Having fun was not something Servbots always get to do.

         And this 'fun' just might include explosives and such. The servbots will probably enjoy it until they possibly get shot out of the sky. Poor things.

 

"Huh? Oh, it's you." Hmmmm, what can Bola do? What can Bola do? In a mass battle situation like this, what are really needed are dependable squad leaders like Tron and Bon. Bola? Well, the last thing Teisel needs is an entire combat group slacking off hardcore. "Er...get out there and make a distraction!"

 

Meanwhile, the foremost battleship in the fleet is fired upon by the Fortress V - a third-class ship, it doesn't stand a chance against Repliforce's behemoth, and toe-to-toe it would be annihilated in no time flat. As part of a fleet, though, it stands a chance - swarms of drones and two AI-controlled destroyers intercept some of the fire, protecting the battleship which...well, goes down, anyway. Them's the breaks, sadly, although at least some of the crew survived. However, the next four ships in the line all begin returning fire on the Fortress V and several hundred drone attackers swarm towards the massive ship to cause what damage they can.

 

        The Gustav turns, looking to Bon, and waves a massive arm, "Come on, Bonbon. Its time to play. Remember Space Invaders, Bonbon? This is the BIG version. The mother ship is incoming though. We got to hurry!" The Gustav turns, and walks into the center of the Hangar Bay. It slams its feet down onto two locking mechanisms at the end of a pair of rails. Tron's eyes sparkle inside the Gustav. "Preparing to Slingshot. Bonbon, keep close. We're playing on the top of the Fleet. Fight who you can."

        The rails under the Gustav's feet hiss, the Gustav facing the open hangar bay doors, then WOOSH!

        The Gustav is ejected out the maw of the Gesellschaft, its arms windmilling as it flies through the air only to land ontop of one of the nearby Pirate Ships, only to spring off for the next one. Already the Gustav's right arm is transforming into a massive cannon, which begins to fire explosive rockets across the wide cap for the Fortress V.

 

[Radio: (B) RF-Secure] Iris transmits, "They're trying to call in reinforcements."

 

And the Masamune is lowered towards the drones, and quickly Chi fires off several blasts of energy towards the drones, hopefully thinning them out somewhat, though, if they get to close to him, of course Chi starts swinging the Masamune in wide arcs towards them, as he cannot hit anything important easily at the moment.

 

[Radio: (B) RF-Secure] Storm Owl transmits, "Understood, Major."

 

         "YAY! Gween light!" Vanishing clearly had an overdose of candies before coming in this battle. It was being hyperactive even for his normal self. Not able to hold himself from trying to punch the enemie flying vehicules from afar...very very far. "Take that. Wed Alert. Owns you! Vanishing will save day! o/~" Not particularly the best thing to see, the Gungaroo was 'singing' a beat as he was giving punches and kicks in the air. Good thing Hulahoop Stallion wasn't in front of him or he'll probably would have end up screaming while falling off the Fortress V's outer decks. Now let's just hope he actually helps instead of just breaking people ears and ruining Red Alert's credibility.

 

Singularity Shrike can be seen zipping between some of the larger drones, drawing fire and such, occassionally throwing black gravitic fire at some of them He looks like he's having a good time.

 

        Blitzkrieg finally departs the Gesselschaft bridge and makes his way down to the docking bays. He doesn't pay much mind to the swarms of drones that he passes but can't help but feel the urge to just start shooting. Then again, he was about to fight some Repliforcers so he could probably wait a little longer. Once he reached the docking bay, he engaged his gravity unit and flew out into the swarm of ships outside while drawing his whip and surveying the chaos.

 

        Eventually, Shield Shellfish finishes quadruple-checking her weapons. A single laser rifle is wielded in her left hand; Shell's learnt the value of having a free hand and a spare weapon later in the fight. As some of the faster first wave of drones approaches, she withdraws tightly within her shell, leaving only a scant foot or two of opening to peer out of. The helmet limits her line of vision anyways, so no harm there.

        Plus, it helps to have such an obvious target in sight -- Shield Shellfish abandons her hovering above the main part of the Fortress V, veering off to the right and heading in a roundabout arc to approach the Gustav from the side.

 

         Finishing telling the servbots and drones what to do, Drache's that were prepared taking off and other drones still leaving. Bon moves himself towards the Gustav, and keeps close. "BAAAABuuu!" < OOOooH! That was a fun game, yeah I remember! > And Bon follows, making sure he's not left behind! Locking on as well, Bon gets ready to be launched off. Unlike Tron though his legs are prepared to stay with the craft. He has so many other things instead he could do!

         "BAaabbbuUUUU!" And then Tron is off. She'll hear. "GOOD LUCK SIS!" Before she leaves, and then is followed by half a Bon. His legs stay there as the lego like body shifts, a large jet platform coming up and then propelling Bon upwards, flying out with the Gustav!

         He doesn't need to land though, and as he flies about, it's clear Bon brought something, his rattle, to help out incase the aliens got too close! The little tyke begins to unload bombs towards the FV and the people on it, missiles and Bon bombs being launched off. And maybe there's a stray servbot on Bon.

         Just in case.

 

Storm Owl's alpha strike did what it had to do. It took down one ship and thinned the ranks slightly. The huge swarm of drones worries Storm Owl far more than the fleet, though. The FV is resistant to Big Things and weak to Small Things. But that's what we have Chi, Shield Shellfish, Vanishing Gungaroo, Singularity Shrike, and a big horde of redshirts to for. None of the crew celebrate the destruction of that first ship, however, as they know there's a long, long way to go.

        The return fire from the four remaining ships, along with the rockets and gatling fire from the Gustav and the bombs from Baby Bonne, pepper the Fortress V's spear-like front, causing the ship to rock and the shields to flare brilliantly against the blue sky. "Shields holding - but barely." someone reports. Although the bridgecrew is shaken, none of the control panels have exploded yet, so it must be early in the episode. The moment they're in range with the secondary weapons, Storm Owl gives the order, and six of the eight large laser batteries begin firing shots towards the four approaching vessels. They're concentrating on one in particular, hoping to destroy the vessels one by one and limit the incoming fire.

 

        The Gustav springs from Pirate Ship to Pirate Ship, sending missile after missile careening out across the expanse toward the Fortress V. The key is: If there are enough projectiles flying at the Fortress V, SOME of them will get through. She hopes, anyway. She begins to see the forces specific to the Fortress V make themselves known. Chi. The annoying Shrike. The Red Alert Kangaroo. Shield Shellfish. She narrows her eyes inside the Gustav.

        "All right, Fortress V... if you want to play... we'll play."

        The Gustav's shoulder opens, revealing a large gatling cannon that rises up. Standing with its missile launching arm raised, the Gustav sends a hail of gatling fire at the Fortress V Defending Forces already emerging to attack the fleet.

        Let Teisel deal with Fleet Combat. Tron intends to take her enemies down face to face.

        Tron winces as the Fortress V maintains its fire, and continues to leap from ship to ship... barely dodging around a massive lance of the Fortress V's main cannon. She grunts, "Thats not good... we got to deal with those cannons.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl transmits, "I need someone to ground the Gustav."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Singularity Shrike transmits, "Done."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish grunt.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl makes a mental note.

 

Shield Shellfish (Shell) pages: LASERS LASERS LASERS.

 

Singularity Shrike gets the order, and rears back an empty hand which flares with black "fire" effects. Sing then hurls a ball of conflicting gravities at the Gustav...

            He was hoping for a rematch.

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Tron Bonne with his Black Hole attack.

 

"Everyone, be careful, but take it to 'em! All ships be careful with your fire - elite squads deployed and advancing on the enemy!" All around Teisel, Servbots rush about trying to help him keep the fleet together. Having gotten over the initial surprise, Teisel is once again sitting in his chair, steepling his fingers and muttering to himself between orders. "THIS time, Owl...THIS time, I've got you! Aha! Ahaha! AhahahaHAHAHAAAAAAA!"

            Outside, Storm's basic strategy is proving effective - the incoming fire from the four battleships can't hope to match what the FV puts out in return, even though three remain relatively unscathed (the fourth is flagging, most of its escort now destroyed). Unfortunately for Repliforce, their real job is to keep the FV busy while the carriers continue to deploy their forces - now a mix of drones and manned aerial fighters. The Gesellschaft continues to brood silently in the background, waiting for something.

 

Hrmm, look at that, something I can hit. And it's shooting in my general direction. He aims the Masamune towards Tron Bonne, and starts to charge it up to fire several shots, one a Tron, and one as several of the drones, say hello to Energy Barrage.

 

Chi strikes Tron Bonne with his Energy Barrage attack.

 

Dr. Gravity has arrived.

 

Botos arrives from the Sky Above North Pacific.

Botos has arrived.

 

        The shrike attacks Gustav head-on. This is perfectly fine by Shield Shellfish -- she isn't nearly as fast as he is, for one thing. And it serves as a welcome distraction while she closes in.

        The bodyguard is within line-of-sight of the giant maroon-and-pink armour; Shell is about to blink in when the Masamune fires upwards as well. Blinking in for a close-range attack may not be the best with so much action going on. Shell withdraws into her protective shell-halves a bit more, considering the nature of the Gustav from a safe distance. Almost idly she fires off at some of the incoming drone swarms to help out; at least until she can get a clear shot in on Tron Bonne.

 

         All the shooting as started, the shaking Fortress made the little marsupial reploid staggers and and slide a bit, bumping into the poor Stallion near the edges, shooting to actually defend the Fortress V.

         *BUNK!*

         "Owch!" it hurted the Gungaroo slightly, nothing big, he was alright. "Sowwy Stal-" He turns his little head to look behind him, seeing no more Stallion. "..where are you?" Bad luck always follow the same persons, and Hulahoop was one of them when Gungaroo was around. The unfortunate Stallion was now making a nice dive toward the water, screaming, off from the Fortress V. All the Repliforcers around Gungaroo slowly turns to him, giving him a blaming stare. Thank to some flying Repliforcers security the Stallion would make it fine. "Uh..he'll be fine.." That probably meant being grounded for another week along with a spanking session again. Bad luck! Now what do the little Vanishing could do? Take Hulahoop's gun and shoot at the drones coming. Perhaps Owl will forgive him from making Hulahoop's life a hell.

 

Storm Owl's ship is in trouble. Not from the four - now mostly three - ships that are engaging it, but from the drone horde. Weaknesses: Small Things. Normally this isn't that big of a deal simply because the ship can counter with its own Small Things. But right now there's enough drones to keep the Repliforce NPC aerials fairly busy. A fierce dogfight between the aerials and the drones is taking place between, over, beside, and under the various airships. They're mostly trying to keep the drones busy so that the Fortress can continue to unload on the four ships in the immediate area. Ironic given that those four ships' have the job of keeping the /Fortress/ busy. Clearly both Teisel and Storm's strategy battleplans can be summed up like such: Waste Time.

        "Forward shields are taking a pounding, sir. We've got breaches throughout the forward grid. Primary hull is taking fire." Storm Owl nods in reply. The FV's drive through the enemy fleet won't be able to last long. Soon they'll have to stop, turn, and mostly remain stationary as they attempt to bring undamaged shields to bear. When this happens, Repliforce will lose their initiative. "Continue concentrating laser battery fire on the damaged pirate ship. Ion cannons, pick the next target and fire." The weaker but more plentiful lasers attempt to down the fourth ship while the heavier but slower ions go for a new target.

 

         And as both of the people went and randomly attacked Tron, the floating Bon child takes a bit of the blaster fire, a few shots striking the heavy armor that protects Bon, flying out of the way of anything that could possibly hurt him! Bon continues on, moving as fast as he could and then spotting who exactly attacked Tron! It was that annoying person before! That mean bird! He was painful though, so He'll just fight the other one. Yep!

         And so while flying towards Chi, Bon prepared a few things, pointing a hand towards Chi. "BAAAABUUU!" The fist clenched as Bon went to protect his older sister! And then a little toy light began to flicker on and off on the fist before it lit up lightly, and then FLEW towards Chi!

         Rocket powered action! The fist would attempt to bash him heavily and then return afterwards, with the same rockets. He's not going to let anyone hurt his sister! Nope! Never! "BAAbbbBBUU!"

 

Bon Bonne strikes Chi with his Flying Fist attack.

 

        Blitzkrieg bobbed and weaved through the swarming drones while trying not to collide with any of the other, larger ships. Now that the fleets were engaged in actual combat, he felt it safe to make his way into the enemy fleet along with the IO drones and not get shot down immediately. That's when he spotted Gungaroo and the subsequent throwing overboard of Stallion. Blitz hovered for a moment as he pondered his next action.

        Finally, he elected to simply move in for the kill and be killed. "Greetings, Repliforce. How are you today?" Blitz said while following through with a great sweep of his whip to remove the legs of any nearby troopers, possibly catching Gungaroo. Such a civil introduction.

 

Blitzkrieg strikes Vanishing Gungaroo with his Generic Melee attack.

 

        The Gustav reels as Singularity Shrike and Chi find their mark. Is massive arms come up, the heavily armored back of its arms absorbing most of the impact. Tron growls, "So, picking on the Princess now, huh?" She narrows her eyes then as the Shellfish makes herself known, slashing through the aerial drones. The Gustav turns, and from the side of the Gustav's head a trio of lasers suddenly lance out. They first pass over Shield, then Chi, then Vanishing, then the Shrike.

        "Okay. If you want to play... WE PLAY!"

        The Gustav's Shoulder Mounted Gatling begins to spray a stream of energy imbued projectiles across the vastness of the battlefield. The flurry of Energetic Lead Death goes for each memeber of the approaching horde, narrowly avoiding Bon as he launches for Chi.

 

Tron Bonne misses Singularity Shrike with her Gustav Gatling Flurry attack.

Tron Bonne strikes Chi with her Gustav Gatling Flurry attack.

Tron Bonne misses Vanishing Gungaroo with her Gustav Gatling Flurry attack.

Tron Bonne strikes Shield Shellfish with her Gustav Gatling Flurry attack.

 

Singularity Shrike snaps a barrel roll to dodge the storm of shots heading his way, as he brings his spear to bear.

            Flying by Tron at pretty high speeds, Sing plays "mailbox baseball" with the Gustav as the mailbox in question.

 

Singularity Shrike misses Tron Bonne with his Fell Swoop attack.

 

Chi is hit by a giant fist, this makes him take a step back, and then he is hit by a flurry of bullets, this attack barely even penetrates his armor. He grabs a drone that happens to be within reach, fighting one of the aerial repliforce NPCs.. and threw it towards Bon Bonne quickly, as he obviously did the most damage to the Bull. This only makes it to the giant baby because of Chi's massive strength.

 

Chi strikes Bon Bonne with his Thrown Object attack.

 

         Many Repliforcers falls on the ground, along with the small marsupial reploid. Vanishing quickly try to get up, staring at Blitz. "Alwight soldier. Keep focusing and shooting the dwones!.." Could it be possible Vanishing could act as areal captain without using the title only to get more ice cream at the Fortress V's cantina? "..because /that/ guy is MINE!" Nope, just egotistic, as always.

         As the other Repliforce soldiers take their position back, shooting at the drones, the little Gungaroo was readying himself to fight with Blitz. "Alwight..I'll be taking you down before you know it!" He takes his small boxing position, bouncing softly giving a few fake punches, hoping to distract Blitz for his real punch.

 

Vanishing Gungaroo strikes Blitzkrieg with his Punch attack.

 

Amidst the blasts of lasers and the chaff of flak cannons, there is a man. A proud man, a wisened man. The battle seems to rage around him, parting out of his way as he stands there on the prow of a small pirate craft. The ship is not menacing, but with his man standing up on there, exposed to the battle that ebbs and swirls around him like a maelstrom, the craft is blessedly not blasted out of the sky. This man is Dr. Gravity.

            He is doing nothing be smoking a cigarette.

 

"Battle report, sir!" Teisel's executive bridge officer, Servbot #1, delivers the report in his high-pitched, cheery voice. "Battleship Tito out of commission. Battleship Jerome reporting heavy damage. Battleships Jackie, Marlon, and Michael all at nearly peak performance." "Excellent! What about the carrier contingent?" "Carriers report two-thirds of the primary assault force deployed and continuing! Reserves being held on standby!" "Alright! Well, well, tubby, not so easy when you've got more than just the Gesellschaft to pick on, eh?"Himutside, the wounded fourth battleship begins to retreat, trying to slip behind its fellows, while the third weathers the attentions of the FV's ion cannons fairly well for the moment. The drone swarm around the FV, although taking heavy losses, fails to thin as the carriers continue to spew more and more attackers into the fray, more and more being the higher grade, gumby-manned fighters.

            Meanwhile, an otherwise textbook battle gets an element of the unusual, as one of the pirate ships (optically camoflaged) slips under the battle lines and approaches the Fortress V from underneath with unknown intentions.

 

        Well, so much for a safe attack. Shell winces just the faintest bit as the gatling sprays across her armour; the energy dissipates without much damage but the projectiles blunt against her armour, collapsing some of the pneumatic lines that keep her systems functioning. Sometimes all that armor can be a real pain to haul around.

        Not like she'll ever get rid of it, though. Come on, you know Shell better than THAT.

        The bodyguard folds both shell-halves in tightly, going for a quick powerbomb -- dropping like a rock underneath the Gustav and most of the main Bonne forces as well. A shoulder-panel pops up and a small, round rocket drops out; spiraling wildly around in the air for a few seconds aimlessly before the pearl-shaped missile zooms off in the direction of the Gustav. Not very accurate, but effective; and it should buy Shell some time as she drops to pull up behind the Gustav in a pincher move.

 

Shield Shellfish strikes Tron Bonne with her Pearl Bomber attack.

 

        Blitzkrieg adjusted his weight and stared at Gungaroo with his featureless face. The burning red eye grew brighter as his synthetic voice chimed in. "So, you think you are capable of defeating me? That is something I look forward to." Just as he finished speaking, he got that punch to the face which he made no reaction to other than to lift his left arm up and level it at Vanishing with hand open and palm out. The palm suddenly split apart and a barrel extended, firing a quick burst.

 

Blitzkrieg strikes Vanishing Gungaroo with his Generic Ranged attack.

 

         The fist comes back to Bon, him crying out happily as Tron blasts the others! And then is hit by a drone, being bashed again by the drone and wobbly regaining control over himself. It dented the paint at least. Look back to Chi, Bon lets out a cry. "BAaaaabuUU!" And then decides that maybe it's time to make use of the larger than life hands that he has, and strength. Why. He was going to make sure these meanies didn't hurt Tron or Teisel again!

         Tron was being taken out by multiple people and Bon couldn't get to them all! So he'll have to make sure the person in front of him wouldn't help the people anymore! Jetting close, Bon has his arms trail behind him, the arms spreading wide as Bon reaches forwards towards Chi. And then his large hands would come into view.

         The desired effect, from this, would end up squishing the meanie between both if his large palms, squishing him! Even if he's too large also. It won't matter! "Baaabuuuu!"

 

Bon Bonne strikes Chi with his Crush Clap attack.

 

        The Gustav turns, its short, powerful legs digging into the rooftop of the ship it stands on. The Gustav SPRINGS up through the air, barely avoiding Singularity Shrike as it lands on another advancing battleship. Tron frowns, noting the state of things. Tron looks from the fleet to the Fortress and back, and nods, "This is going to be interesting. About time the RF got someone who could poke holes at them." Tron is then caught offguard by the speeding Shellfish.

        The explosive pearl SLAMS into the back of the Gustav, Tron wincing as she is jerked in her seat. Her eyes turn to her screens, then open wide as she sees the shells coming for her, as well as Shell herself.

        The Gustav's vents open. Tron gives a mighty yell as Shell comes in range. The Gustav's massive fist comes down on the reinforced roof of the Battleship she is on, the shockwave released from it hoping to drive Shield away from the Gustav and by Tron enough time to regain range.

        "Sorry, Shell. You're nice and all... but BACK OFF!"

 

Tron Bonne strikes Shield Shellfish with her Gustav Shockwave attack.

 

         That counter-attack from Blitz went too fast for Vanishing to react, taking the shot. He just let a small grunt out, looking at the small scorch made by it. His small quickly turns, narrowing his optic at Blitz. "Yes I will! You're no match for me." Quite overconfident as always, probably his main weakness along with his inability to think much during a fight.

         "Let me show you how!" He then start skipping toward Blitz, leaping while doing a small spin. "Twiangle!" The Gungaroo shoots this as he lands, starting to execute his small 'triple-kick' move.

 

Vanishing Gungaroo strikes Blitzkrieg with his Triangle Kick attack.

 

Chi is clapped upon, and he recovers from that quickly, though he is slightly.. thinner. Now that Bon is in range though, he can start doing more damaging things. He swings the blade around in a quick circle, and as it starts to gather energy, Chi snorts some steam, and then he quickly brings the blade down towards Bon.

 

Chi strikes Bon Bonne with his Energized Slash attack.

 

For some unknown reason, Dr. Gravity suddenly exclaims "AFLACK!" though the sound is largely lost in the din of the battle. As is his cigarette, which a blast of wind rips from his opened lips. Dr. Gravity's sorrowful eyes stare at it as it floats downwards, towards the ocean. Dr. Gravity pulls out a second cigarette.

            He holds it out over the ocean. A half a moment later, an Ion Cannon shot blazes past, dangerously close to his outstretched hand.

            Dr. Gravity places the lit cigarette in his lips, and turns to the approaching Gesellchaft. He waves a hand at the deck, and a black hole opens in front of Singularity Shrike suddenly, as the Champion of the Universe's Weakest Force tries to take some of the heat off of Tron.

 

Dr. Gravity lowers his forcefield.

 

Dr. Gravity strikes Singularity Shrike with his Welcome To The Black Hole Survivors Club attack.

 

The Fortress V is swarmed with drones despite the best efforts of the Repliforce aerials. The ship has no realistic chance of shooting them down, so is relying on the troopers outside to deal with it while the shields fend them off. Worse, with the pounding that the ship's forward shields have taken, the initial drive into the enemy fleet has stalled. "All stop," Storm Owl calmly orders, tapping in a few more commands into his console. "Divert 30% main engine power to the defensive systems and ready the grappling lines."

        This 'maneuver' is often known as the Shellfish Maneuver. It involves stopping, taking a stand, putting up all your defenses, and only moving in the least amount needed to rotate every so often. The FV is well equipped for it. A sign of the way things are going, there's an explosion from one of the consoles as it shatters into cheap special effects.

        "Sir, sensors have picked up another ship approaching our ventral arc." Someone reports. Moments later Storm Owl is over at the sensor station looking over the trooper's shoulder. Optically camoflaged? Storm makes a note to thank Shining for his sensor upgrades again and considers. Just what is that reckless Bonne planning? "Ready the grappling lines. Target that ship," Storm Owl says. From under the FV, grapplers that Teisel should be familiar with launch out, trying to snag the mysterious vessel.

 

Botos has disconnected.

 

Singularity Shrike slows a bit as he flies straight /through/ the black hole. It seems as if the distortion doesn't do /too/ much, as Sing's Singularity Generator is already compensation for the difference in gravity. He looks around a bit before seting his sights on Dr. Gravity. He grins.

            He's been /wanting/ to fight this guy. He charges in, before stopping short and taking a swipe with his spear.

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Spear Strike attack.

 

        The barrel retracted back into Blitzkrieg's hand as he lowered his arm and braced himself for the kangaroo's next attack. When it came, it was far stronger than he had anticipated resulting in some painful dents in his arm. Taking a few quick steps back, Blitz brought his right arm up and spun the whip around. "Well done." And with that, he lashed out with the energy-coated bladewhip in an attempt to split Gungaroo open like a dissection.

Blitzkrieg strikes Vanishing Gungaroo with his Dissection attack.

 

The spear bites into Dr. Gravity's chest, but the metal cybernetics underneath the perfectly human-like synthetic flesh does not give way very much. Dr. Gravity puffs on his cigarette for a few moments, clearly unimpressed with the Repliforcer's preformance.

            "You haffinking one chance. Stand down or beink destroyed utterly."

            Black and purple swirls start to form around Singularity, seeking to rip parts off of him and send them to Dr. Gravity.

 

Dr. Gravity strikes Singularity Shrike with his Matter Drain attack.

 

Dr. Gravity drains energy from Singularity Shrike.

 

        Shell's armour grants her the advantage of dropping like a rock -- within seconds she's got enough distance between herself and the Gustav to start trying to pull around and get behind the massive ride armour. But Singularity Shrike is pulled away, all of a sudden -- and the Gustav can drop just as quickly as Shell can. The bodyguard is barely turning her head to glance when the Gustav smashes right into her helmet -- the bodyguard is flying solo, after all. The armor liberally crumples and, stunned out of flight for a few seconds, Shield Shellfish rockets towards the ground.

        Any impending collision is avoided, however; the Gatebot withdraws into the massive Shell she's named for and this time, goes so far as to barely even leave an inch open. Just enough to see out of -- and to blink. Hoverjets kick into full gear as Shield Shellfish disappears mid-plummet to appear several dozen yards up and to the left of the Gustav, looking like a giant ping-pong ball. With two little blue optics peering out of it cautiously.

        She does respond, however, with a single sentence: "Withdraw from this area immediately."

 

Shield Shellfish withdraws into her shell. Look, I'm a pingpong ball!

 

         The child is slashed by the energy slash, crying out and amazed as one of his arms is near torn right off. Looking down to Chi, Bon backs up a bit, holding on tight with his arm to the rattle. Which is now raised. Bon was really hurt too! All he could hope to do was make this meany go away!" And Bon isn't too good either. He's rather hurt from the energy blade, the wounded body of Bon showing it easily.

         And grasping the rattle much like Chi grasped the sword, Bon takes it with both hands, one not working fully, and tries to slam it onto the minotaur's face. IT might be slightly slow due to damage, or the gravity can work for him instead of against him. Anyways, Bon isn't going to just run because he's hurt, nope!

         He's a big boy and he's going to try and make sure than they are safe!

 

Bon Bonne misses Chi with his Rattle Crush attack.

 

         "Awwrrgnh!" The Gungaroo staggered back slightly. That one hurt much. Vanishing's armor had a huge split in his frontal armor, going nearly all the way from his shoulder to his hip. He was holding himself, it did hurt! "Awgn..." He grunted while taking his fighting pose again, trying to bounce slightly. For once, he didn't said anything before rushing to his target. When close enough, he lifted and swept his right fist up, trying to uppercut Blitz. His smaller frame usually helped for that.

 

Vanishing Gungaroo strikes Blitzkrieg with his Uppercut attack.

 

Chi sidesteps the rattle, and spins the Masamune around once more, the pole-arm coming in to hit the young Bonne's other arm as hard as Chi can, which is pretty hard, considering. Though, this energy is slightly more then he has, and his armor starts steaming slightly with the overuse of energy.

Chi strikes Bon Bonne with his Masamune attack.

 

        Blitzkrieg couldn't help but emit a low, gutteral cackle at seeing Gungaroo's hide split open with such ease. "Perhaps you should consider surrender, my friend." He continued to laugh for a moment before his chin met the painful fist of Vanishing. Blitz stumbled back slightly and reached up to rub at his now damaged chin. "Hmm, perhaps I spoke too soon. No matter. This will be over soon enough, win or lose."

        Blitzkrieg suddenly tucked down then and jolted forward, closing the distance between he and his opponent in one brief stride. Once he was up in Vanishing's kool-aid, Blitz rose up and reached out with his left hand quickly in an attempt to grasp hold of the kangaroo's neck and stun him with electricity.

 

"Sir! The Fortress V has stopped!" "Haha! Yes! Yesyesyesyesyesyes! IdiditIdiditIdiditIdidit! ME! Teisel Bonne! IN YOUR FACE, SPACE COYOTE! We've stopped 'em cold, NOW we go for the kill!" Inside the Gesellschaft's bridge, Servbots hoot and holler joyfully at their leader's obvious pleasure. "Alright! Let's GOOOOOOOOO!"

            Two IO battleships now remain where there were once five - a lucky shot caught the third, bringing it down in a spectacular explosion that left little chance of survivors, but with most of its escort still intact and shifting to protect the remaining pair. In the back, the carriers' deployment of further troops has slowed to a trickle as the vast majority of the available force is now in the air or destroyed, and with a dimished front line to hide behind, the distance themselve slightly. The dimished and weakened IO forces are bolstered, however, as now the Gesellschaft surges forward, smelling the kill, and begins firing its own barrage, dwarfing the output of the lesser battleships.

            And under the Fortress V, the brave and valiant (or perhaps just profiteering and slightly nuts) Dola Gang wait in their ship while the FV grapples them, ready for the order from their captain. "Are the grapples dug in?" "Yes mom!" "I TOLD you, call me captain!" "Yes mom!" Sigh. "Alright, activate hull electrification!" "Yes mom!" High voltage surges through the pirate ship's hull as the camoflauge deactivates, with the intention that it shoot back up the grapples to the FV. Brave, brave, slightly crazy Dola Gang - there's hazard pay in it for them.

 

Blitzkrieg strikes Vanishing Gungaroo with his Chokehold attack.

 

Vanishing Gungaroo is temporarily disoriented by Blitzkrieg's Chokehold attack.

 

        The Gustav spins on the back of the warship it stands on, Tron's eyes scanning her screens as the Gustav scans the skies. Then, as Shield Shellfish rises into view once more, then goes into her shell, Tron can only smile. Her voice calls out from the Gustav's speakers, magnified over the sounds of battle, "Sorry, Shield Shellfish. The Fortress V is going down. We've had enough of you... last time was just practice... now you're in for it. You and all the Repliforce."

        "The BONNES rule these skies now!"

        The Gustav SPRINGS from the back of the warship, one massive arm rearing back, a fist swinging around for the protected Shellfish to give her a mighty Whallop!

 

Tron Bonne strikes Shield Shellfish with her Whallop attack.

 

Shield Shellfish's forcefield withstands the attack.

 

Singularity Shrike winces a bit as parts are getting ripped off of him. He concentrates a bit, and puts a stop to that nonsense as he subspaces the spear. He charges in again and thrusts out with his hand, recalling the polearm as he does so. Sing's aiming to have the blade reappear somewhere /inside/ the Doctor's chest.

        "Talk is cheap. Why don't you go home, and spare yourself the whooping?"

 

Singularity Shrike misses Dr. Gravity with his Iaido Pilebunker attack.

 

         The blade heavily impacts on Bon, crying out as the blade slices and dices what's left of Bon's coating. The systems and little things glow red as his damaged arm falls off. Holding the rattle still as he flies off, Bon tries to escape back to the Gesellschaft. There's no more that he could do for now. He doesn't want to make Tron sad either!

         Although he's barely flying as it is. This is bad.

 

Bon Bonne retreats from the area swiftly, leaving him open to pursuit or parting shots from Storm Owl, Blitzkrieg, Demolition Man, Teisel Bonne, Tron Bonne, Chi, Shield Shellfish, Singularity Shrike, Vanishing Gungaroo, and Dr. Gravity.

 

Chi doesn't bother to do anything to the young Bonne as he flees, after all, who could attack a baby who isn't attacking you first? He takes a deep breath, and aims for Tron Bonne, and then, moments later, a torrent of icy breath flies towards the pirate queen.

 

         Vanishing quickly tried to leap out of the way, but he didn't had the time, now grasped by Blitz and being electrocuted. That was by far one of the most painful battle he had, it wasn't fun. He was couching and hacking from the hold, trying to remove Blitz's shocking hands from his neck while wiggling, trying to kick his foe. "Lemme..*cough* go-.." He couldn't say much, if at all.

 

Chi strikes Tron Bonne with his Cold Breath attack.

 

        The gigantic, round shell continues to hover in the air in front of Tron Bonne and the Gustav. Shield Shellfish glares out of it, although within the gigantic protective layer she's trying to tug the largest of her laser rifles off of her back without losing balance. It's a delicate trick, really, considering how cramped the quarters are in there.

        The Gustav's arm strikes the shell... and it doesn't so much as crack. The hinges holding them around Shell's shoulders warp a little, backwards; other than that, it's like hitting a solid wall thrown in the middle of the air. The bodyguard doesn't even flinch.

        "Typical Bonne greed. Thousands of lives on the Fortress V, and you want to destroy them for a bit of fun and profit?"

 

Shield Shellfish forfeits a turn to charge WE.

 

        "Of course, my friend. I shall release you immediately." Blitzkrieg's eye was now an intense burning red, though for what reason remained a mystery. He easily lifted Gungaroo up into the air and held him there for a brief second before slamming him back down into the deck with intense strength. "Forgive the delay. I did not mean to be so sluggish, my friend."

 

Blitzkrieg strikes Vanishing Gungaroo with his Acoustic Chokeslam attack.

 

"Target destroyed!" One of the mechs manning one of the gunnery stations announces. It isn't much, but it does give a surge of pride and renewed vigor for the crew. They show more class and discipline, however, than /some/ people, and don't break out into a cheering match. With the carriers having already deployed and the battleships that were in the way mostly destroyed, the Gesellschaft herself might be the best option.

        Meanwhile, the grappling lines strike true and nail the Dola Gang vessel. Perfect, Storm Owl notes. Ships that are caught like this rarely escape without getting blasted to pieces first. /Unfortunately/, whoever's idea this was - Teisel or the Dola Gang's - it's a pretty good one. The electrical current travels up the grappling line and shorts out the launchers. There's a sick sounding *Thoooooooom* as part of the ship briefly powers down before stabilizing itself again. "Targetting reports 100% destruction of the ventral launchers. Lost every one of 'em." A crewmech reports. "Shields have failed in that sector as well."

        Storm Owl doesn't dwell on the error, though, and marches back to his command chair. See as the guns are losing their charge after this maneuver, and that they need time to reload, he orders, "All weapons, hold fire. Begin charging them up to maximum firepower. Let them come closer." Outside, the FV has stopped shooting.

 

Dr. Gravity avoids this fancy form of impaling with the cleverist of martial arts counters ever concived by the minds of mortal men! He takes a step to the left. The Doctor blows a puff of smoke in Singularity's face in defiance and says, "Your bravado haff been noted." And then pieces start to rip off the ship that the pair stand upon, flying up into the air... and angling downwards at Singularity, seeking to wrap around him and crush him utterly.

 

Singularity Shrike deflects I Stole This From Magneto from Dr. Gravity.

 

        The Gustav, landing hard after attacking Shield Shellfish, is caught by Chi. The Gustav's armor freezes hard as the effect of the breath wears into its armored form... causing the Gustav to be immobile for a few moments. Tron shivers at the cold of it, narrowing her eyes.

        Chi made Bonbon Cry.

        The Gustav rears up, SHATTERING the frosted covering around it(damaging its armor in the process), and calls out to Shield, "If you will excuse me, I need to Fry A Cow. And... No, I don't want to destroy them for Fun and Profit... I want to destroy them because the RF GET IN THE WAY OF THE IO!" The Gustav spins then, its massive hands coming up in front of it. Energy begins to coalesce. Electricity crackles. Between its hands a sphere of emerald light forms. It begins to grow, and grow, and GROW!

        "THIS IS FOR MAKING BONBON CRY!"

        The Gustav's arms slam over its head, as the sphere grows all the way to TWICE the size of the Gustav as it springs skyward, then throwing its arms down and forward, the Full Bonne Sphere is unleashed. Massive in power, the Bonne Sphere is designed as a homing weapon. It moves slowly, but relentlessly... homing in on its target untill it strikes.

 

Tron Bonne strikes Chi with her Bonne Sphere attack.

 

         Now that was called being owned. Vanish slammed on the deck with some cracking sound. His armor was heavily damaged, just like the rest of his system, showed with a few electric spark coming out of the slit that was made earlier. He couldn't fight anymore, that was for sure. "Geez..you didn't had to do it that stwongly.." He was breathing hard, trying to crawl away back into the Fortress V for some cover, hoping the Fortress itself won't end up crashing or something.

 

Vanishing Gungaroo retreats from the area swiftly, leaving him open to pursuit or parting shots from Storm Owl, Tron Bonne, Shield Shellfish, and Singularity Shrike.

 

Singularity Shrike already has his spear /out/, so that just makes it /so/ much easier to easier to employ more martial arts fanciness to knock the debris out of the air. Heck, he even baseball bats some chunks back /at/ the not-so-good Doctor.

        "Not bravado. Determination."

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Generic Ranged attack.

 

Chi is hit by the electric sphere, and that hurts, I can guarantee that, the armor of Chi is damaged a bit, and then the Masamune is brought up, and swung in a large arc, as Chi raises his shield "You'll have a hard time breaking through this." Chi snorts, and then brings the field online.

            Chi swings the Masamune in a wide arc, loosing a wave of golden energy that widens and turns translucent to encircle the minotaur.

 

         Eventually coming in from the outside, Bon Bonne attaches himself to the legs, slowly walking up to the elevator, which took him close to the main control room. Still crying, Bon took some time to himself so that Teisel wouldn't see him crying. He was a big boy! They didn't cry! So he made sure that he wasn't sad anymore before moving towards the control room.

         He'll help Teisel! Or he'll do his best to at least.

 

Dr. Gravity raises his hands up, letting the spare chunks of metal bounce off of him. But he does not seem overly worried by all of this. Quickly, gravity starts to surround Dr. Gravity, protecting him from harm.

 

Dr. Gravity projects a forcefield around himself.

 

        Blitzkrieg jerked his hand slightly to cause a ripple to run through his whip. He watched Vanishing as he made his attempt to flee the area and made no attempt to stop him. He had defeated his opponent and that was all that mattered, aside from causing even more destruction to the Repliforce's flying fortress. But that was something he was not capable of doing and he instead dropped from the area and back into the open skies, pausing there to look for another possible target.

 

Singularity Shrike groans a bit. He recognizes /this/ trick. He should; he's done it enough. However, he's not about to let that stop him overly much. He fires off a flare of black flame at the field, hoping to gauge how much he can disrupt it.

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Black Hole attack.

 

Dr. Gravity's forcefield withstands the attack.

 

Dr. Gravity stands in his protective bubble of gravity, smoking his cigarette calmly.

            Smoke starts to collect at the top of the bubble.

 

Dr. Gravity forfeits a turn to charge WE.

 

Singularity Shrike Sing follows this up with a slash of his spear, as the spear also gives off some of this black fire effect.

            Sing glares at the spear as he does so...this isn't normal...

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Gravity Slash attack.

 

Dr. Gravity's forcefield withstands the attack.

 

"Master Teisel! The Dola Gang reports success of part one! Proceeding to part two!" "Excellent! Tell them to keep up the good work! Helm, report!" "Master Teisel, we're even with the main battle line! Well inside firing arc for all of our weapons!" "Alllright! Weapons, begin charging (Dun! Dun! Dun!) the MAIN CANNON! Report on charge status every ten seconds! Loading bay, deploy Wave M!" Wave M? What's Wave M?

            With a temporary reprieve from the FV's heavy hitters, the Gesellschaft and its companion ships unload mercilessly at the RF flagship. Around and around the ship the smaller-scale battle continues to wage between RF troops and IO drones and fighters, whose losses have slowed but remain continuous. From out of the 'mouth' of the Gesellschaft comes a new threat, however - a yellow, hovering cloud that spreads itself in front of the pirate ship. Those that are close enough can see that it is actually an insect-like swarm of...Bonne Mets! Flying with little propellers, the pack stays close together, impossible to target individually but only as a group.

            And underneath the FV, the now visible Dola ship moves to part two! Shaped uncannily like a roach, the strange pirate ship doesn't begin to fire upon the FV, but instead rushes towards it, apparently trying to reach the ventral hull of the massive ship!

 

Gravity flares as Dr. Gravity's shield holds firmly, taking very little actual damage. But Dr. Gravity's eyes are fixed on the tip of Singularity's weapon.

            "Ha... hahahahaHAHAHAHA! YOU ARE VUN WHO IS SUCCUMBINK TO ZHE DARK SIDE OF GRAVITY!"

 

Dr. Gravity forfeits a turn to charge WE.

 

        Always quick to lose a temper, is Tron Bonne. Shield Shellfish doesn't lose hers too often, and this is a stolid reminder of /why/. The Gustav, suddenly concerned with Chi, has its back turned to Shield Shellfish -- who promptly withdraws from her shell, having wrestled the two-handed laser rifle off her back and into her arms. The blasts are quick and sharp alternating bursts of orange and blue, fired rapidly as the weapon nearly overheats itself in the span of a few mere seconds.

 

        The bodyguard is slightly distracted, however, in doing so; optics flickering over to where the Dola ship has become visible underneath the Fortress V. What could it possibly be up to down there?

 

Shield Shellfish emerges from her shell, a la the 'Birth of Aphrodite' painting. Except with armour. And LASERS.

 

Shield Shellfish strikes Tron Bonne with her Decontamination -- With Lasers attack.

 

Singularity Shrike glares at the Doctor for a moment.

        "The /hell/ you talking about?"

            However, Sing still points an arm at the Irregular, and sprays a mass of plasma shot at him, courtesy of his wrist blaster.

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Scatter Shot attack.

 

Dr. Gravity's forcefield withstands the attack.

 

         And into the command room, after such orders were given, Bon Bonne enters, stomping in slowly as he looks about. "Ba... Babuuu!" Nothing really important, basically that he did his best and that he's there. Bon enters the room, sitting down while heavily damaged, without an arm even, and then look up at the small people all over the place. Bon stands near the window watching the Bonne mets and the other ships fly around, trying to understand what's going on before saying anything else.

 

        The Gustav, after unleashing its massive blast at Chi, lands with a grunt. A broad grin spreads on Tron's face. Oh yes, she LIKED how much damage that did to the massive Cow.

        She's going to have to do it again as soon as his shield faulters. Perhaps with a less powerful varient of the Bonne Sphere, as the major version requires much recharge.

        Spinning on one foot, the Gustav turns for Shield Shellfish... only to be struck across the chest by the Pink Bodyguard. The Gustav's armor, damaged by the cold, groans as the Gustav skids back on the warship it stands on. Gazing up with yellow eyes at Shield Shellfish, "All right, Shield." Tron winces, looking at the Gustav's gauges. ALL of them read near the red.

        Then the Gustav's hands twitch, then open wide. From the center of the hands extends a long, straight length of metal. The metal unfolds... becoming a massive saw blade in each hand.

        "I've been wanting to use these..." The Gustav brings both its arms back, taking a step forward... then HURLS both arms forward, sending the sawblades out underhanded like cricket balls...

        ...or YoYos.

        They are each attached to the Gustav by long energy cords. They WHIR angrilly as they fly for Shield Shellfish!

 

Tron Bonne strikes Shield Shellfish with her Sawblade Yoyos attack.

 

The shield still holds. Dr. Gravity is a Gravity Master, it is likely that shield will hold for some time at this rate.

            "Zhere are zhose zhat vould considerink zhe t'inks I do viff gravity to be... unnatural." Dr. Gravity puffs on his cigarette, letting more smoke float to the top of the bubble. "But viff sufficient control over gravity... vun can do anyt'ink. Anyt'ink at all. Includink protectink zhe vuns zhat you love." Dr. Gravity gestures back to the beleagured Fortress V. "Even brinkink zhe dead back to liff. I haff done zhis t'ink... I knowink how."

            Dr. Gravity reaches his hand out. "Join me, Singularity Shrike... and togazzer vhe vill unlock all vhe secrets of gravity and be powerfull beyond measure!"

 

Dr. Gravity forfeits a turn to charge WE.

 

        After flying haphazardly through the skies and killing what few Repliforce fliers he could, Blitzkrieg finally found his way to where his boss, Tron Bonne, was fighting against two RFers. He had to do his best to assist his employer and so dove low to avoid detection. He then ascended rapidly into the air and came up behind Shield in an attempt to follow Tron's attack with one of his own. Specifically, a kick to the back of the head.

 

Blitzkrieg misses Shield Shellfish with his Sonic Kick attack.

 

Bonne Mets. Fantastic. More than one pair of optics widen on the bridge as the viewscreen is filled with visions of the little buggers. The Repliforce aerials had been dealing with the rest of the drones alright, but with this new wave, they're in a lot of trouble.

        On the bridge, Storm Owl's a-cookin' something up. Don't you a-worry. Again leaving his command chair, Storm Owl is over by the gunnery crews, speaking in a rapid pace with them. "Once we have full power ag-" interruption so the bridge can shake "-we will have two main targets. The ship approaching from below, and the Gesellschaft. The battleships are no match for us any longer, and carriers have completed their usefulness to the enemy." The crewmechs are nodding as they get the ultra-quick briefing.

        Outside, the Fortress V continues to receive the pounding. The best shields in the world versus a formidable array of guns. The laser light show is nearly blinding as energy strikes energy. Everyone on the bridge is timing this one right. The Dola Gang vessel continues to approach without return fire... approach... approach... there! The moment they're in the perfect spot, the Fortress V, guns fully reloaded and recharged, launches another alpha strike upon the enemy. With the Gesellschaft approaching from one side and the Dola Gang from another, all weapons are able to be brought to bear equally on both ships. At this range, Storm is confident that the Dola Gang will be in trouble. But Teisel? He probably has some more tricks beyond the Mets.

 

Chi, being a somewhat good-natured fellow, returns the arm of Bon Bonne, to toss it back onto their ship, carefully, and then, it's Retreat! He runs the fastest he can back inside, which is not very fast, considering how big he is, and he's limping, limp limp limp.

 

Chi retreats from the area swiftly, leaving him open to pursuit or parting shots from Storm Owl, Demolition Man, Teisel Bonne, Tron Bonne, Shield Shellfish, Singularity Shrike, and Vanishing Gungaroo.

 

Singularity Shrike ponders this for a moment, as he regards the Doctor for a moment.

            There's a bit of doubt in those eyes of his...

            That doesn't mean he's doing nothing else, however. He's ramping up his generator.

        "What's so 'dark' about it, then?"

 

Singularity Shrike forfeits a turn to charge WE.

 

Dr. Gravity pauses a moment. "...because... iz a Force. Haff light side and dark side. Iz simple like that."

 

Dr. Gravity forfeits a turn to charge WE.

 

Singularity Shrike takes that in.

        "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

Sing's body flares with black fire, as the bird charges at Dr. Gravity bodily.

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Singularity Slam attack.

 

Dr. Gravity's forcefield withstands the attack.

 

Shield Shellfish is slightly distracted; however, she still remembers to reholster the laser rifle as soon as she can confirm a direct hit on the Gustav and the energy battery starts to flag out. No sense wasting a good weapon by accidentally dropping it from hundreds of feet up in the air.

        Tron Bonne speaking gives Shell time to prepare for the saws -- although she doesn't expect them to actually be FLUNG at her -- especially not with the energy cords. Dodging to one side means that the opposite blade revs into the point of Shield Shellfish between her neck and shoulder, slicing raggedly through six inches of armour to get to the (comparatively) softer Shell underneath. Shell's left arm twitches and goes limp as the main servos are cut. Instead of dodging to the other side, which would likely cause even more damage as the cord-bound blades return to the Gustav, Shell clamps her feet together and drops sharply. The sawblades are yanked from her shoulder as half a ton of armor meets the forces of GRAVITY. It also brings into sudden vision Blitzkrieg, whom Shell did not even notice as she dodged initially. The bodyguard actually goes so far as to frown. This will take some planning. She's dropping anyways, so --

        Both shell-halves disconnect from the Gatebot's sides with two solid THUDS. They hover individually in the air for a second as Shield Shellfish continues in a heartstopping plumment towards the earth -- and then they begin individual flight patterns, one careening for the Gustav's shoulder-cannon and the other towards Blitzkrieg.

        She better get both of those back, or it's gonna be a messy landing.

 

Shield Shellfish strikes Tron Bonne with her Double Shell Toss attack.

Shield Shellfish strikes Blitzkrieg with her Double Shell Toss attack.

 

"Heeey! Bon! You okay?" Of course he's okay - he the Nerpium Kid! "Quick, take over controlling those Mets! Keep them between us the the Fortress V and push the button when they fire, okay? Whoa, hang on!"

 

Outside, the Gesellschaft seems to be in trouble as the FV lets them have it, and unlike the other battleships, the great green fish doesn't have an escort to protect it...except those Mets, who, curiously, haven't even fired yet. Instead, at the instant the FV fires, they spread into a grid-like formation across the front of the Gesellschaft, with a green energy barrier spread between them that soaks the hits from the ion cannons. Er, well, mostly. Turns out, Teisel spent weeks replacing the weapon systems of every one of those Mets with a small shield generator. The drain on the coffee reserves alone from that project have the Bonnes' financial books looking not-so-hot at the moment.

            The Dola Gang, however, is not so lucky. Their ship, although fast and much smaller than your average pirate ship, can't hope to evade such an assault and take a partial hit that overloads their minimal shields and sends them spinning towards the ocean. Maybe they'll be okay? In any case, whatever Part Two was, Storm will never know now, the big meanie!

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Jet Stingray transmits, "Jet here. Is the Stingray needed for something or no?"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl transmits, "Yes. Deploy and destroy the Bonne Met drones and assist our combatants."

 

The force of the impact sends Dr. Gravity over the edge of the skyship, he plummets down towards the sea far below. A large paff of cigarette smoke rises, an indication that Dr. Gravity's shield has failed him, finally.

            But with a burst of gravity, there Dr. Gravity is, hanging in the air over the ship again. The crew has evacuated already, on Dr. Gravity's orders. He has plans for this vessel.

            "So be it, Gravity Knight. Vhe Fortress V is insignifigant next to zhe power of gravity... NOW! VITNESS ZHE POWER OF ZHE DARK SIDE OF GRAVITY!"

            Dr. Gravity snaps his fingers, and the small IO craft is subjected to a black hole, a wyrmhole, a white dwarf, a nova, an abyssal singularity, and a thrown rock, ALL AT ONCE. It explodes, possibly with Singularity still on it.

 

Dr. Gravity lowers his forcefield.

 

Dr. Gravity misses Singularity Shrike with his E-bay Doomsday Device attack.

 

Jet Stingray has arrived.

 

Singularity Shrike is already in motion, following up the charge. This is a /good/ thing as the move gets him clear of the ship which just exploded.

        "Close, but no cigar, Doc!"

Sing pulls his free hand to his side, and the flames erupt once more. He charges the Doctor, and attempts to graze him with that hand.

            If he hits, the results will be...explosive.

 

Singularity Shrike misses Dr. Gravity with his Event Horizon attack.

 

Dr. Gravity watches as Singularity narrowly evades his super-mega-ultra blast of final gravity. He reaches his hand outwards, giving the incoming bird a sort of twisted 'hi-five'. Yes, he accepts that palm dead on. Gravity washes over his form, hiding him from view.

            Until Dr. Gravity starts to absorb the gravity.

"Yes... give in to zhe dark side... fuel me viff your anger, your fear, your aggression! BY ZHE POWER OF GREYBEAGLE... I AM..."

            There is a blinding flash of light as Dr. Gravity appears and the horror of all horrors appears.

            "KARATE SNOOPY AND THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING KARATE SNOOPY IS BEATING PEOPLE UP WHEN I HIT THEM."

            Karate Snoopy punches downwards, hard.

 

Dr. Gravity changes into his Karate Snoopy armor.

 

Dr. Gravity misses Singularity Shrike with his Ultimate Unstoppable Finishing Blow Attack attack.

 

         Looking over, Bon nods. "Baaaabbbuuu." < I'm alright. Yep! > Or at least he says that. He wants to be known for being a big boy and crying, yep! And then looking at the mets, Bon thinks for a second. They all look like him, so they must all want to help him too! Well. Help Teisel and Tron. And taking control, rather gently, Bon begins to give them orders. He has to press the button when the guys fire! What a great job! "Baaabuu!" < Thanks Teisel. I promise I'll do it! > And there he watches until they fire.

         With a hand on the control to help as soon as he needs to. Yay!

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Singularity Shrike transmits, "You've /got/ to be kiiding me."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Vanishing Gungaroo transmits, "Kidding you? About what?"

 

        The Sawblade Yoyos spin back into the Gustav's hands as they disengage from Shield Shellfish... only to have the Gustav and Tron's eyes open wide at the flying Halfshell coming RIGHT for her.

        She tries to dodge, but the impact SLAMS her back, SHATTERING more of the cold-damaged armor... and Tron's face is visible sitting inside. Her eyes are wide, staring out of the hold to the sky beyond. She winces, noticing that NOW would be a good time to withdraw.

        Dispite Chi being such a tempting target, The Gustav turns, digging in its massive feet, and LAUNCHES airborne. Its goal is a Drache flying rapidly past. The Gustav's arm snaps out, grabbing for the Drache to be carried away for the Gesellschaft.

        Tron knows when to withdraw. That time is now.

        "Next time, Shield Shellfish! NEXT TIME!"

 

Tron Bonne retreats from the area swiftly, leaving her open to pursuit or parting shots from Jet Stingray, Storm Owl, Shield Shellfish, Singularity Shrike, and Vanishing Gungaroo.

 

Singularity Shrike stops short of the downward punch, allowing it to pass in front of him, as he looks at Gravity with a look of disbelief.

        "You've /got/ to be kidding me."

Sing then attempts to pin Snoopy much like a shrike would pin small vertebrates to thorns like food.

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Butterfly Pin attack.

 

        Blitzkrieg was a little dismayed that his attempt to sneak attack the shellfish failed. He was especially dismayed by it when Shield's response was to painfully smash his body with her freaking shell. The large android jolted backwards against the impact and clutched the area that hurt the most, namely his left arm. "Hmm... perhaps things are not as easy as they appeared. Oh well." Blitz then brought his right arm up and lashed the whip violently, sending it down at Shield's falling form to try and wrap it around her and constrain her movements.

 

Blitzkrieg strikes Shield Shellfish with his Envelop attack.

 

Shield Shellfish is temporarily disoriented by Blitzkrieg's Envelop attack.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Singularity Shrike transmits, "This guy is fast, and kinda strong, and gravity powered..."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Singularity Shrike transmits, "...is this what fighting me is like?"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish grunt.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl makes a mental note.

 

Chi joins the Storm Owl on the bridge of fortress V successfully, he then leans against the wall, and checks the damage, let's see.. damaged leg, severely damaged armor, and.. Chi snorts angrily, part of my horn broke off! Arg!

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Vanishing Gungaroo transmits, "I'm fast and stwong too. I could take something to make gwavity and fight you when I'll be better. Then you'll see?"

 

Storm Owl would indeed like to know what Part Two was going to be, if only for future reference. But finding out is something that they'll have to wait until next time for. At least the electrified grappling hooks trick won't work on them again. "Target to in ventral arc disabled and... downed, sir. I think we got them. Gesellschaft's still holding. The Mets have formed a barrier of some sort."

        Storm, still standing, demands, "I need a scan of the barrier." There's frantic pressing of buttons until finally someone says, "Two-way barrier. They seem to have it operating so that it rises only when we fire, and lowers when they do." Without pausing he snaps, "Chi, I need you at tactical. Assist with the gunner-crews." Storm Owl then thinks to himself for a plan. He pulls in all of his military knowledge that he's accumulated with his 15 years of commanding airships for this one. Finally, it comes to him. Storm Owl speaks.

        "What if we reconfigured the forward laser batteries to emit an inverse-tachyon field that would confuse the sensors on the Bonne Mets by overloading their sensor nodes long enough for the ion cannons, charged with gamma particles, to punch through and hit the Gesellschaft?" A crewmech stares at him for a moment before exclaiming, "Like putting too much air in a balloon!"

        Moments later, the plan is put into action. The laser batteries fire off a disrupting burst of firepower towards the shields, trying to knock it down just long enough to get in another volley from the ion cannons. Will this last ditch plan work?

 

Shield Shellfish is falling like a rock. Both shellhalves strike true, and their guided systems bring them spiralling back towards the falling bodyguard; but not before Blitzkrieg manages to whip her and snare the bodyguard around the waist. While her arms are free, both laser rifles are wrapped around, stuck in their holsters. Shell grits her teeth and grabs at the whip as she's yanked away from the shell-halves; they fly in a wide arc. It'll be a few seconds until they can home in again.

        In the MEANTIME, Blitzkrieg is now holding a minimum of 1000 pounds of angry shellfish. Let's see how long his arms last!

 

Karate Snoopy is not joking, not even as he is pinned to throns in the middle of the air. "THE BEST PART ABOUT BEING KARATE SNOOPY IS BEATING PEOPLE UP AFTER THEY DODGE ATTACKS THAT THEY SHOULDN'T!" And with that, Karate Snoopy leaps (in mid-air, mind you) up at Singularity again, fingertips first.

 

Dr. Gravity strikes Singularity Shrike with his Spear Hand Strike attack.

 

Chi nods and takes up the post assigned to him quietly, with a soft grunt, similarly to one of Shields grunts, only it's more of a grunt of pain. And then, the Chi fades into background, helping the gunner-crews.

 

Singularity Shrike tries to dodge, but is a bit too slow. He takes the strike in the side, causing an impressive looking dent.

He attempts to slow Snoopy down a bit with some messy gravity...

 

Singularity Shrike strikes Dr. Gravity with his Gravity Trap attack.

 

Dr. Gravity is temporarily disoriented by Singularity Shrike's Gravity Trap attack.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Singularity Shrike transmits, "I take it back, I think he's stronger than I am...I could use a hand over here."

 

        Blitzkrieg's lone optic darted to the side and watched as Tron retreated from the area. At least she had managed to escape intact, but Blitz's survival remained to be seen. He returned his attention to the surprisingly heavy Shield, which he jerked around a bit. "My my, you're quite fat, madam. Perhaps you should consider a weight loss plan? I hear a trim figure is pleasing to the eye, both male and female." And with that, he jerked the whip as hard as he could to rip it free from her body and release her.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "A hand I would gladly offer, had it the strength to back it."

 

Blitzkrieg strikes Shield Shellfish with his Eviscerate attack.

 

The barrier of golden energy shatters into millions of motes of light that swiftly fade away.

 

Karate Snoopy stops, appalled by the mass of MESSY GRAVITY that he's in. Somewhere deep inside, Dr. Gravity is screaming in rage, though his wordless cries of damnation go unheard because Karate Snoopy is currently out and about.

 

Singularity Shrike takes a moment to catch his breath.

            He's out of juice, and that's not a good thing...

 

Singularity Shrike forfeits a turn to charge WE.

 

         And then Bon watches, looking at the at the giant laser cannons and blinking. "BAAAABUU!" < Ooooh pretttty! > He looks towards the large blasts and then presses the button. Unfortunately Bon doesn't exactly stop, putting the shield up as the beam that's supposed to punch through it fires. Which might or might not be good.

         To him though, he's helping! Alot! Maybe. Maybe it'll stay up, but the mets themselves create a large amount of barrier energy, the Gessellschaft's weapon systems shutting off for the moment, so they don't fire into the barrier.

Karate Snoopy reasserts control and regains dominance over Dr. Gravity. Still inexplicable floating there in thin air because the ship that they were fighting on was blown up three or so poses ago, the beagle launches forwards, knee first.

 

Dr. Gravity strikes Singularity Shrike with his Knee Kick attack.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Singularity Shrike transmits, "Pulling back..."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl transmits, "Confirmed."

 

Singularity Shrike takes the knee in the stomach, and coughs up a mess of mechfluid. Warning signals go off in his field of vision, and Sing decides not to push his luck any further than he has.

        "We'll finish this later..."

 

Singularity Shrike retreats from the area swiftly, leaving him open to pursuit or parting shots from Jet Stingray and Storm Owl.

 

Karate Snoopy hangs there in the air, victorious. "THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING KARATE SNOOPY IS..."

            There is a bright flash of light, as Dr. Gravity returns to the field of battle.

            "...everyt'ink."

 

Shield Shellfish is yanked around by Blitzkrieg's whip; it digs into the armour around her waist, one of the few areas on her body /not/ covered in six inches of steel and titanium and Gate only knows what else. Shell's failed arm is twitching horribly; the other is getting strained from the effort of trying to keep relatively balanced as Blitzkrieg tosses her around. Finally the whip is yanked loose and Shell resumes her plummet to the earth --

        And disappears with a soft *fzztPOP*. She reappears several hundred yards in the air, going into a clever tuck-and-roll maneuver. Both shell-halves that she tossed have come full circle again and SLAM into the bodyguard's sides as she straightens out of the final roll. The hoverjets pull her to a sharp stop; it hurts, but it's worth it to get her hoverjets back. Another soft *fzztPOP*...

        Shell appears less than a foot behind Blitzkrieg, one shell-half already held overhead in both hands. She leans forward and mutters something into the android's 'ear'.

        Then she tries to deck the hell out of him.

 

You overhear Shield Shellfish mutter to Blitzkrieg: 'My mother says I'm beautiful.'.

 

Shield Shellfish strikes Blitzkrieg with her Mama Said Knock You Out attack.

 

"Bonne Met-shield successful! They've got enough energy for three or four more volleys of that intensity!" "Awesome! Keep it up, Bon! Weapons, report on charging of the main cannon!" "At 110 percent and holding! Ready to fire on command!" "Keep building! Divert auxiliary power and propulsion directly to the main cannon!" "Master Teisel!" "Just DO it!"

Outside, the IO drone/fighter force is significantly dimished through attrition. Likewise, the battleships are beginning to flag as they take hits from secondary fire. Looks like it may be boiling down to just the flagships at this point. Once again, the Met Shield activates to protect the Gesellschaft, and as the disrupting blast hits it, the Met formation begins to waver, warping the collective shield so that as the ion volley hits it, it shatters, scattering the Met swarm everywhere. Um...whoa.

 

"Deploy? But it's an air battle thingy."

            "Storm said he wanted you out. Get out there."

            "If Storm Owl asked you to shoot yourself in the head would you?"

            "If he said so, I would... With a tear that my love for him could never be fullfilled."

            "You're my PDA with a nice AI. That's a little creepy."

            "So is my... Jet, don't leave me aloneeeeeeeeee!"

            Putting down the datapad that scares him so, Jet opens up the hatch of the F5, flying out into the wild blue yonder to see where he is needed.

 

        Blitzkrieg had no ear but he heard Shell's words quite clearly. He also felt the punch quite clearly as well, his head jerking forward from the impact though showing no noticable damage from it. He slowly turned to face the Gatebot and coughed loudly. He had no mouth to gush mechfluid from but the black liquid was trickling out of his various wounds. "I said nothing of beauty, madam, but rather that you weigh an excessive amount."

        It was now or never, the deciding moment for Blitzkrieg. He brought his arms to the side while clenching his fists. "Do give your mother my compliments." He then let out a loud growling scream as dozens of claw-tipped tubes errupted from his torso and flew towards the shellfish looking to pierce her hide and suck her vital fluids and whatnot violently from her body.

 

Blitzkrieg strikes Shield Shellfish with his Gesundheit attack.

 

Blitzkrieg drains energy from Shield Shellfish.

 

Once again, tachyon save the day! It must be nearing the end of the episode. With the shields down, there's that ray of hope for the Repliforcers. Storm has to admit that twice now Teisel's unorthodox planning has worked. Once with the electrified grappling hook maneuver, and once with the Bonne shield Mets. The Fortress V has suffered damage along its hull, most notably on the underside and front. Thus, Storm Owl begins barking out orders again. "New course, bearing 270 mark 003." Slowly the Fortress V begins turrrrrning to the left, bringing its right side to bear against the Bonne ship. "Divert all shield power to the starboard shields." Storm Owl orders. Sure that means that the remaining battleships and drones will be able to take some free shots, but at this point it's that massive charge they're detecting from the Gesellschaft that they're worrying about. There's a bright flare of energy as the shields power up facing the Bonne ship. Meanwhile, both laser batteries and ion cannons are aiming for the Gesellschaft, trying to knock out that main weapon.

 

Shield Shellfish flips a coin in the air and it comes down tails.

 

         Bon meanwhile, watches the Bonne mets scatter! That's not right. He tries to get control again, but they don't react as well, floating around like they weren't doing anything. Maybe they are tired? Bon just watches, with his remaining arm trying to get them to group again! Poor guys.

 

Tron Bonne changes into her Tron Bonne armor.

 

        Tron Bonne, emerging onto the Bridge, is clean and immaculate(She obviously took the time to appear her best after stowing the Gustav). She looks out on the field of battle. She gazes out at the battle, and smiles, "Its going well, We're seriously damaging them." Tron steps over to the Weapons Console, sliding onto it.

        Her hands to run over the controls.

        "Time for me to take over targeting." Tron smiles a VERY evil smile... and once she claims control of some of the weapons systems of the Gesellschaft, some of the blasts from the Gesellschaft's lesser guns become more accurate and piercing.

        "Good job out there, Bonbon. You took on Chi like a VERY big boy. He's a very scary cow... I mean, he even turns into Guardian Mobius!" Tron shakes her head, "He's just very, very painful to fight."

 

The Gesellschaft bridge shudders as they begin to take fire. "Master Teisel, they're reinforcing the shields facing us!" "HA! We'll see how effective that is against the main cannon! Weapons?!" "Nearing 150 percent, Master Teisel! It'll blow out the cannon if you fire this overcharged!" "I know that! Tactical, ship status!" "They're aiming for the cannon!" "Helm, keep us moving!" "Aye aye!" "We're at 150!" Dramatic pause and heroic pose! "FI~RE!"

            Harrying the FV throughout the battle, suddenly the IO forces seem to scatter, having received warning and not wanting to be anywhere in range. The Gesellschaft takes hits all across its front and even a minor graze to the cannon itself, but the beast continues to charge until finally it releases, firing a Bonne Sphere nearly a quarter of the size of the Gesellschaft itself and sends it hurtling towards the FV, disintigrating anything unlucky enough to get caught in its path and even distorting the air around it. Upon firing, the Bonne Skull-shaped cannon array itself explodes - looks like they won't be firing that again for a while.

            The IO/pirate fleet itself begins to retreat immediately before the cannon fires. Looks like this may be it, either way.

 

Dr. Gravity vanishes in a puff of gravity.

 

Dr. Gravity retreats from the area swiftly, leaving him open to pursuit or parting shots from Jet Stingray, Storm Owl, Singularity Shrike, and Vanishing Gungaroo.

 

        Blitzkrieg, compared to oh, say, Blade Dancer, looks relatively normal. One wouldn't expect to be TENTACLED from him.

        Shield Shellfish's insides are highly pressurized; pneumatics and hydraulic lines everywhere to help move about the half-ton of armour she wears, besides those gigantic shell-halves. While larger weapons would have trouble piercing her armour, Shell's already taken a fair amount of damage from the Gustav; her ruined arm, the shrapnel wounds, and the tiny vents she's equipped with to make use of her water systems. The claw-tipped tubes cause utter havoc to Shell's internals and the bodyguard is visibly nearly destroyed because of them. Sliced mechfluid lines bleed wildly; her hover-engines begin to spark and smoke as the fuel is disrupted.

        But while this battle is important, and Shield Shellfish has willingly thrown herself into the line of fire hundreds of times in her short life, she also knows when it's time to stop the fight. Usually she doesn't choose that option out of sheer stubbornness. But the Bonnes are the enemy here; not Blitzkrieg. Shell is worn-out and outdone; fighting herself into unconsciousness would mean a long hard drop to the ground, an unnecessary one. And the Bonnes are scattering, hoepfully.

        Shield Shellfish curls up within her protective shell; dropping like a rock out of the skies towards the ground in an effort to escape Blitzkrieg's assault. She doesn't give an inch; she'll have to blink blindly out of here, and it makes her teeth grit with the effort. But it's what a good soldier would do.

 

Shield Shellfish retreats from the area swiftly, leaving her open to pursuit or parting shots from Jet Stingray, Storm Owl, and Singularity Shrike.

 

         Bon perks up, happy that Tron says those things! And he continues, however, to do make sure as little met casualties occur as possibly, moving the little things all over the place to avoid the lasers and blasts and such. They were cute and harmless, they didn't deserve to be blasted to smithereens!

         And so there they going, spinning around while the others continue on the battle!

 

        Blitzkrieg straightens himself to his full height as the various tubes return to their positions within his abdomen, fluid still dripping from their ends. He places his whip within its compartment on his arm and watches quietly as Shield makes an attempt to escape. "It was a pleasure, madam." He then turned and made his way back towards the Gesellschaft, rather thankful that he was not obliterated in the massive energy beam. Hopefully no one else would be shooting at him so he could land safely within the confines of the Gesellschaft's docking bay.

 

Blitzkrieg retreats from the area swiftly, leaving him open to pursuit or parting shots from Jet Stingray, Storm Owl, Teisel Bonne, Tron Bonne, Chi, Shield Shellfish, Singularity Shrike, Vanishing Gungaroo, and Dr. Gravity.

 

Chi misses Blitzkrieg with his Big Brother Stare attack.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish grunt.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish transmits, "Withdrawing."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl makes a mental note, but he can already guess what conclusion he'll come to.

 

"The drones are moving off..." one of the troopers reports. Every single person on the bridge knows what that means, and they grab onto the nearest railing or their stations for dear life. This is not the dramatic posing of Teisel, but the professional, but worried actions of Storm Owl's crew. Even as the inevitable comes, Storm Owl is still giving out orders, "Lieutenant Chi, take control of the starboard grappling lines to see if we can keep them from their eventual withd---"

        There's sudden silence as the terrible energy blast is launched and everyone braces for it. Then there is chaos as the mile long flagship shakes. The reinforced shields from that sector dampen the blast, somewhat, but the remaining force is enough to strip off the entire outer hull on the starboard side, exposing over twenty decks to the ocean air. There's a slight pause, where one might think this is it, however a fireball suddenly erupts from the damaged area, taking with it the ion cannon and two laser batteries on that side.

        Storm Owl, with a wounded but still functional ship, would love to give chase to the Gesellschaft. But the ship is in Shellfish maneuver mode, and even out of it is no match for the Bonne ship's speed and acceleration. There are several more shots from the laser cannons as the ship turns to slowly face the retreating ship, but they're just desperate attempts to get one last kill on the enemy fleet.

 

        Tron Bonne runs her hands over the controls, wincing at the shudder that goes through the Gesellschaft, "Teisel. I'm deploying the Cloudbank. Seeding the Clouds with Metal Flakes to prevent Radar as well."

        The Gesellschaft rumbles, and great vents on its sides open... and from them begin to pour thick, dark clouds. Into those clouds pours tiny shimmering metal flakes that are polarized so each spec makes radar very difficult around it.

 

Dr. Gravity changes into his Dr. Gravity armor.

 

"Direct hit! We got them!" "HaHA! Ahahahahaha! Eat THAT, do-gooders! That'll teach you to interrupt my relaxation time!" Teisel briefly breaks into a little victory dance that is best left to the imagination before turning his attention back to the job at hand. "Precisely my thoughts, Tron. Full dispersal! Try to cover as much of the fleet as you can! Full reverse! Let them suck on that for a bit, eh?"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Cortana transmits, "The fleet? Were there any repairs to be done?"

 

         Bon watches Tron and Teisel, returning the Bonne mets, those that aren't sadly shot down or destroyed back into the ship. It was like some kind of game! He thinks he did well though, and they are retreating instead of exploding, which is always good! So it's a victory to Bon! "Baabbuuu!" < Good good Teisel, Tron! You both did so good! >

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Vanishing Gungaroo transmits, "To me!"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl transmits, "Extensive repairs will be required to both ship and crew."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Shield Shellfish grunt.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Vanishing Gungaroo transmits, "And sis."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl... you know.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Cortana transmits, "When I get back from this visit, I'll get on it like fangirls on Zero!"

 

Jet Stingray merely flies out and sees that... The bad guys are running away. "Man, I guess I am that good. I show up and everyone flees," Jet offers as he rubs the back of his head. Of course, he holds out a Repliforce rifle, just ready to take a few shots of there are any mets that are about.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "Why am I afraid of that comment?"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Storm Owl transmits, "That... means that you will be working hard, Corporal?"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Cortana transmits, "Yes, sir!"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Jet Stingray transmits, "...Because Zero fan girls are scary, Chi. As scary as the Vile fangirls."

 

        Tron looks to Bon, and smiles warmly. She rises then, walking directly over to him and gives him a very warm hug, "So did you, Bonbon. Very good job!"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Vanishing Gungaroo transmits, "You shouldn't, mister. Cowtana is gweat."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "I didn't say she wasn't I said I fear the like fangirls on Zero comment."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Cortana transmits, "Well, it is kind of scary to witness."

 

        Blitzkrieg returns himself to the bridge of the Gesellschaft after making sure he was no longer leaking copious amounts of fluid. It wouldn't be nice to get mech-blood all over such a nice bridge! Once he arrived at the bridge, he crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat. "I managed to dispatch two of the Repliforces. Terribly sorry that I could not do more to assist you." The 'you' referred to all three of the Bonnes, whether they were listening or not.

 

Teisel Bonne gives his final instructions to the bridge crew. "Ten mile tactical retreat. Send out scouts, have them let us know when the Fortress V moves off, then send rescue and salvages crews." Okay, back to the celebrating! "Tron! Bon! You guys were great! Ahahaha! We're! SO! Awesome!" Family hugs all around!

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Vanishing Gungaroo transmits, "Why? They're ugly?"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "No, they swarm."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Cortana transmits, "I measured their screeches at over 75 decibels!"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "I'm glad I do not have fangirls."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Cortana transmits, "Hm - I haven't heard your voice before. Someone who came back, or new?"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "Came back."

 

         Bon is then hugged, despite the rather heavy damage on his frame and the loss of his arm. Well. Left arm. He hugs Tron back with an arm, lightly. "Babuuuu!" < Thanks sis! >

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Vanishing Gungaroo happily. "It's my baby sitter's brother!"

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "Yes, I am Chi, it is a pleasure to meet you Miss."

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Cortana transmits, "Oh, neat! Corporal Cortana, sir."

 

Storm Owl is still grateful for Jet's arrival, even if he was too late to gun down the evil Bonnes. The Fortress V can only watch as the clouds are dispersed. Clouds aren't an issue, but the radar jamming fragments and other equipment is solid. It's a moot point anyhow since the FV is too slow at accelerating to chase after them. "Damage control teams to the affected decks." A quick damage readout shows that the ship's critical systems are still functional, so that's a small blessing. The FV will remain here to conduct immediate repairs before setting course to Neo-Arcadia. At least that criminal fleet has had much of its teeth removed.

 

[Radio: (A) RF-Chat] Lt. Chi transmits, "Well met Corporal."

 

        When Blitzkrieg arrives, Tron looks to him and winces, giving Teisel and Bon one quick snug. She INSTANTLY she slips from the group-hugs and pulls out a medical kit, and walks right over to him. She quickly moves to stabilize him. An E-Tank is profered. Tools are spun into skilled hands.

        Tron goes to work.

 

Tron Bonne effects some minor repair work on Blitzkrieg.

 

        Blitzkrieg accepted the E-Tank from Tron and regarded it for a moment. Sadly, he had no mouth with which to ingest the substance. "Thank you, Miss Tron, but that isn't necessary. I am quite alright." In reality, he had sustained quite a bit of internal damage and was actually pleased to be recieving quality repair work for a change instead of 'back alley' work.

 

        Tron obtains the E-Tank from Blitzkrieg, eyes him and it briefly, then shakes her head. She pops it open, then pours it over Blitzkrieg's head, "Maybe, maybe not, Blitz..." The liquid energy soaks into Blitz's wounds, and through cracks and seems. It works just as well when its applied as an Oil. "You're part of the Crew, Blitz, and I ALWAYS look after our crew. Even if I need to talk to you about Certain Ninjas." Tron smiles sweetly up at Blitzkrieg.

 

        Team Bonne is Blasting Off AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!

        -ting-

 

        "Hmm, I had not considered such an application." Blitzkrieg said this mostly to himself as he rubbed his chin roughly and pondered Tron's words. It was unusual to be considered a valuable, or not useless, part of the team for Blitz as he was used to the Yakuza form of thinking. "Thank you, Miss Tron. It is... nice to be part of such a 'crew'." He decided not to say anything about the certain ninjas.

 

================================= Repliforce =================================

Message: 14/63                     Posted        Author

Captain's Log: Asskicking Over     Thu Dec 15    Storm Owl

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        Voiceover. You can imagine a slow moving flyby of the Fortress V in your mind. It is damaged, particularly along its starboard side where the outer armour has been stripped away.

 

        "Captain's log, December 15th, 2218. Our battle with the Irregular Overlord fleet went as expected. There were heavy casualties on both sides. At precisely 1900 hours local ship time we broke through the Irregular Overlord picket scouts and engaged the main fleet. Lieutenant Chi, Lieutenant Singularity Shrike, Corporal Shield Shellfish, and Captain Vanishing Gungaroo led our forces outside the ship."

 

        "We have four confirmed battleship kills on the enemy fleet, as well as damage to other vessels. The Irregular Overlord flagship, the Gesellschaft, was heavily damaged as well, in part due to a suicidal final attack on the Fortress V. All three Bonne Pirates, as well as Blitzkrieg and Dr. Gravity were identified as well. The opposition employed mass amounts of Bonne Mets and drones."

 

        "All grappling lines on the ventral side of the Fortress V was demolished by an electrical feedback along the line. This flaw will be corrected. Furthermore, the Gesellschaft's main cannon destroyed the hull plating along the starboard side of the ship. All three cannons in that sector were destroyed as well. Furthermore, the shield grid is heavily damaged."

 

        The Irregular Overlord fleet is no longer a danger in attacking Giga City. We shall return to Giga City to make repairs over the upcoming Christmas holidays, and then set course for Neo-Arcadia."

 

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================================= Repliforce =================================

Message: 14/64                     Posted        Author

Addition                           Thu Dec 15    Storm Owl

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

        On the starboard side of the Fortress V's bridge tower, someone has painted several new markings. They are next to the circle with the Alpha insignia inside, the circle with the Eta insignia inside, the circle with the Delta insignia inside, the circle with the Beta insignia inside, the silhouette of the Dinotank, the silhouette of the Osprey, and the silhouette of Skull Monument.

 

        The four new sigils are identical: A dark circle within which are two black eyes and a jack o'lantern style mouth; it is the Irregular Overlord insignia. Each of the sigils has a single thin black line striking it out.

 

        As usual, Storm Owl has stated that such behavior is unacceptable, but hasn't ordered an investigation or had anyone remove them.

 

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