Exhaustion

[a_linear_mind]

[With the events at Aidoneus Island concluded, Strahlend has somehow managed to limp it's way back to Fort Alhambra. Once again the machine came back in critical condition despite this being the first time it had been active in months. To make matters worse, there's now a large hole in the roof over where the machine usually stood, thanks to Willis learning that he could activate the machine remotely no matter where he was and the Unity Group was down another Gespenst. The pilot himself is not doing much better, thanks to his usual complete disregard for his own well-being while in combat. He practically falls out of the cockpit of his machine with the side of his head busted open and one of his arms dangling lifelessly in the air. Bits of metal and crystals were still embedded in him but all of these injuries were of course being taken care of by the nanomachines in his system while his machine began to repair itself as well.]

What a long day...

The Fleet Protected By God pt. 2

[prismphantom]

[So.  Who's up for more bad news after that stuff with Septuagint and the SSR?]

I hate to say this, but we might not have seen the last of that thing.  Or at least the last of its kind.

Elma?




Thank you Miss Selena.  When I actually got the chance to analyze them, the energy signatures from the Zehirut that we fought alongside the SSR seemed familiar to me.  It seemed odd at first since we've battled many Balmarian machines but nothing captured the same kind of aesthetic as the "Zehirut"...

But then I remembered the Balmarian/Zentraedi fleet battle Selena and I stumbled on!  The one where the Aerogators somehow fielded a machine that single-handedly turned the tide of the battle in a single instant... like what happened according to Kup's story when the Decepticons fought another fleet!



Meaning there's quite likely another one of those things waiting for us inside of the fleet's flagship.  And inside every other Balmarian flagship as well.

Lovely time for us to lose funding, isn't it?

The Adjudicator

[srwu_npc3]

[1 - combat log, taking place during the mission]
It's a joint Unity Group-SSR operation to take back Aidoneous Island from crystalline Chimaera that took it over. The attack force is split into several teams to make sure the strike is swift and enemy is dealt with swiftly. However there are difficulties... as soon as you reach the island, it turns out its defense systems are still active - and they treat you as hostiles!

And that's just the start of it. In the middle of a fight, Meteor-3 - the artifact meteor still floating above Aidoneous Island, cracks open, revealing its new crystalline form - the Balmarian space probe Septuagint. You can't reach it though, you have your own problems...

As Septuagint releases a group of Vayyikras that attack everything on the island! Fight for your lives - and fortunately, you are not alone!


"You may be strong, but I'm more handsome! Boost Knuckle!"
Irm's Grungust knocks one of the birdlike enemies back, with a group of Adeles moving in to provide support fire.


"Not exactly the foe I expected to fight today..."

The SSR are here, and they're on your side. Adeles (one of them pilotted by the guy above), FDX Team and their Gesterbens, even a few white Gespenst TTs. Today, and hopefully not only today, you fight together - as allies.

"Argh! You assholes are pissing me off! You want to die so badly? Come! I'll send you straight to hell! What the hell was that? Do you even know what a real attack looks like?!"

Oh yeah, and one of your allies is filling up the shared comm frequency with loud cursing and screaming while dodging enemy attacks frantically - and fighting back with a truly ridiculous amount of gunfire. That unit design... isn't that an AHSMB?

(Enemies:
Ghosts and non-descript unmanned autogun turrets, quickly replaced by...
Vayyikra Bens - large but surprisingly fast yet durable miniboss-level enemies. They are armed with optical beam cannons, melee slashers, and gun slaves (bits). Lots and lots of gun slaves.)

[2]
The fight is finally over. Septuagint turned into its humanoid form - Zehirut, but it too was destroyed after a fierce battle. SSR members - including Viletta Vadim, Woolf Enneacle, Rand Travis and Amara Barton, were genuinely grateful and happy that they could work at your side, not against it. SSR's Lee Linjun also has words of encouragement to everyone.


"I just received congratulations from a few of our sponsors. The president of Russia, the Prime Minister of Argentina... all of them extend their thanks towards SSR."

"As well as a few representatives of the ESUN membership countries. It looks like they were torn on whether support Unity Group or SSR, and this operation finally shifted the scales. We may expect more funding from now on."

"And it looks like more are to follow, considering our track record."

The track record in question is easy to discover with only a little bit of research. It looks like recently, SSR was on a roll. Not just responding to threats as they appear, but doing their own operations to push various threats back. Balmarians, Zentradi, peacekeeping operations all around the non-ESUN locations of the globe...


"That Linjun guy wasn't lying. Looks like a few countries withdrew their sponsorship very recently."

Is this a sign of things to come?