[IC] Hearts of Metal: A Giant Robot/Mecha RP

[Penultimate_Pi]

The passing months were harsh, unaided by the sudden turn of events that had occurred behind her back. Yeshua's incessant debilitating behavior and Koehler's own brand of protective impulsiveness clashes, nearing getting the latter killed. That was nothing to say about the strange actions and demoralizing behavior of Yeshua towards some of the other pilots prior, especially Elora, it seemed. Once the guilty, yet lying cadet was brought up and tried, Lorenzo tipped the scales some and instead enacted some sort of cranial experiment on Yeshua, hoping to cull his sociopathic tendencies manually.

Nevertheless the other cadets didn't take it well, least of all Koehler. After the announcement, Elora ran off and spent the rest of her day alone, crying; as much as Lora wanted to help, she wasn't sure of what she could say about Yeshua, like what happened with Ryan. Koehler was also punished for his aggression, playing 'assistant' to Sergeant Ken (whom reminder Lora of someone that she couldn't quite put her finger on). In some form of compensation, though, he got to refurbish his Frame into a new model.

Lora herself, meanwhile, was quite disconnected from most everyone else. It probably wasn't healthy or necessary, but she wanted to take advantage of the isolation for meditation and other mental strengthening. She would often sit alone in her bunk to perform her breathing exercises, played a passive but attentive role in the lectures, focused hard on the art of the Star Fist (which she became rather good at). To say she was spending her time attempting to do anything but train herself was obviously wrong. There were even times she would pace out to the hangar, trot along the catwalks to reach the Caliburn, merely to stand there at stare at it. Judge it. Determine what exactly lay within that she could conquer.

Needless to say, Lora's prowess in the simulations improved. Her already above-average Synchro Rate ensured she was the first to reach 100% hard synchronization potential, and she did everything in her power to keep it there throughout the simulations. In fact, she was in one of the trainer chambers right now, taking a virtual Caliburn out on another test run in a virtual solo mission. She had insisted, in recent times, to crank up the difficulty of the sims higher than the cadets would typically be given. Though Lora never yet managed to actually complete one of those solo missions emblazoned with additional difficulty, the experience seemed to speak volumes with her.

After failing yet again in this hard mission sim, Lora was ejected from the system where she pulled herself out of the harness. The local operator present was happy to help, but Lora declined the offer as usual. This time, she had actually to make progress in the mission, but had gotten triple-teamed again by the Cruxi mechs after being pinned down by artillery.

The ace pilot and junior officer yet continued to keep to herself, pacing down the corridors en route to the hangar again. Noboyd could say for sure why she did this, but Lora knew. Those noises, those whisperings at the edges of her consciousness - they couldn't be fragment of her own imagination. They were there, and they weren't from her. It had to be the machine, the advanced control AI built into the Framewerk to sustain and translate the pilot's actions into its own. As their synchronization grew, the Frame aligned with her more and more until their minds were fusing together.

Or so she theorized, anyway. Not that she had attempted to put this into words for anyone yet.

Less than an hour later, Lora could be found standing at the catwalk stationed around the Caliburn, leaning on the handrail to observe the Framewerk. It was inanimate as ever while Lora was outside it, but she tried to think that she could still resonate with it somehow. Belief in such spiritual mojo wasn't very tactful for a scientific operation dependent on some of humanity's most advanced technologies yet, but it was one of the blocks Lora was raised upon. It hadn't meant to survive the trip through basic training and the depths of the XJ9 program, but here it was now.

Her thoughts drifted back to her brother. After all this time, Lora hadn't even sent so much as a message to him. How was he holding up through all of this? Surely, he didn't think poorly of her for not responding for a while?

[Ariamis]

Lorenzo nodded when Mai finished speaking, his eyes looking at the distance. "Yes...that must be the same specimen, then. Fascinating that they are attempting to contact us, even if it's a failure on their part." The old man lined up the papers. "Still, they are but bloodthirsty xenos, and we will wipe them away from the galaxy if we must; even if they are negotiating for peace, I'll never yield." He paused to stuff the papers into his suitcase while listening to Mai some more. "Yes, those are definitely all possibilities. Shame that your vision couldn't go into any details about the exact context of the Cruxi attempting oral transferring of information." Lorenzo was about to add more to his comment when the device in his pocket rang. He took the call.

"Lorenzo here. Why are you-" He managed to say before the pupils in his eyes widened. "I see. Send Ritsu the details. She knows these brats better than I do. You'll get your child soldiers, Cain." He put the phone in his pocket, picked up his suitcase, and took a couple of steps away. However, before he left to his office, he turned back at Mai and stared with cold eyes.

"Judgement Day is upon you."

---

A couple of hours later, the Framewerk pilots were called to the briefing hall by Lieutenant Ritsu and report to her for duty; it was clear in her strict voice over the loudspeakers that this wasn't a drill.

Once the pilots were gathered, Ritsu activated the hologram and began talking. It showed a planet with its outer edges surrounded by green blips and a lot more red blips.

"Lord Commander Cain has issued an order of deployment for Squad Sigma. The Cruxi have set their sights on Leviticus IX, a colony planet of about ten billion population and one of the most important sources of human industry, and a splinter fleet has headed it's way."
The hologram zoomed in on one of the colonies.
"The Cruxi have a pattern to their invasion in that they always target the largest colonies first, regardless of the amount of resistance. This means their most likely targets will be these two colonies. Joppa, which has a population of 700 million, is located on the northern hemisphere of the planet, while Troas, with a population of one billion and two hundred million, is located on the southern hemisphere. Squad Sigma has been ordered to protect these two colonies and to eliminate any Cruxi invaders on sight. To succeed in this mission, you must split into two units. Officer Reynolds, you have the responsibility of picking the correct pilots for the units together with Junior Officer Shinkai. Both units require specialists in long-range warfare and close-range specialists to support them, since our reports indicate that the Cruxi's newest war machine, code-named Mist, is believed to be in the splinter fleet's arsenal and possibly deployed in one of the two colonies."

Ritsu changed the hologram what seemed to be a representation of a gas giant.
"Mist is reported to be capable of attacking in a 360-degree radius in both vertical and horizontal axis, emitting some kind of radiation-based wave that bypasses Framewerk armor and liquefies the pilot inside when placed under any kind of threat or danger. However, thanks to Squad Beta's honorable sacrifice, we have found out two weaknesses to this weapon; it doesn't differentiate between ally and enemy, and that it's limited to a maximum of medium-range in Framewerk weapon ranges. In addition to Mist, there are also believed to be a large number of regular Cruxi war machines. Their numbers dwindled since their assault on Gomorrah VI, but they still hold an advantage in numbers, so extreme caution is mandatory. NOAH will arrive to pick you up in a couple of days, but it won't leave orbit, so you will have to fly your Framewerks beyond the planet's atmosphere and dock in. It'll go just like we practiced a hundred times in VR; dock in, wait for the signal, and then jump and perform the orbital landing. However," Ritsu suddenly turned even more tense.
"This mission won't be anything like we have trained in simulations. This will be a real invasion of real Cruxi, and they will really try to kill you. But we won't let them. Look alive, and stay frosty, soldiers, cause we're going to give those alien sons of bitches hell!

Ritsu changed the hologram back to Leviticus IX.
"Any questions?"

[DarkRecon]

After listening to the situation and mission at hand, Mai raised her hand to ask questions. Of course, keeping it professional, she spoke in her "drone" voice.

"Ma'am. I do have a few. What is the current casuality count with this new unit? Has it ONLY attacked military targets or has it already caused civilian casualties? This new weapon seems like it could easily..."fly" into any resident zone and just vaporize everyone before anyone could react...basically, what "Recon" or Intelligence data so far has been gathered on this new unit? And is there more than one? Plus, you said it's prone to "friendly fire". Are the current Cruxi forces..."aggressive" to the point where they'd sacrifice whole groups just to lure one or two frameworks into the MIST's attack radius?"

[ArkmageddonCat]

Alyssa hurried to the briefing hall when she heard the call to report for duty, beginning to feel anxiety swelling up inside as she quickly took her seat. Soon enough, the mission briefing began...Lieutenant Ritsu explained the mission objectives and additional information through the aid of holograms, and as Alyssa listened she only grew more afraid. They can just...vaporize us?! She thought, growing more and more worried. Then Ristu explained the weapon's weaknesses, and Alyssa began to calm down a little bit. Okay...so maybe it should be fine...I just have to take as many of them out as I can, before they get in range, to protect the rest of us... She thought...calmly, at first, but then she gradually began to worry about the responsibility that it would place on her.

Alyssa continued to think about what would happen as Ritsu finished speaking and asked for questions, going over the drop and recovery procedures in her head. She wasn't one to ask questions after a lecture, as everyone else would usually ask whatever she might want to know. She could only hope they were all going to be ready for this battle, and only time was going to tell.

[Pox]

Paris phased through and sat at the front, waiting for the mission brief to be over.
He had studied way too much on the Cruxi, that he practically new most of what was being said. He looked at Alyssa, he couldn't remember the last time they talked, it wasn't long ago, for sure... Paris has a crush on her, so he would go out of his way to talk to her. Yet he has been busy, he lost track of time. He still remembers back when he was a bit more of a passive, unknown mystery.
Paris tends to keep a smile on himself everyday, yet when he's alone he turns that happiness into somber.

Paris is lost, he's trying to find himself... he's angry that Alyssa, might become a liability, not in her capabilities on the battle-field, but because she might just be able to spike Paris, make him forget about whats going on. She had certainly already had her around her fingertips, even she didn't know it... Paris was struck, he hadn't felt this way in a very, very long time. Paris realized how many Cruxi he could stun at the same time. His thoughts were scattered. Paris felt he should give a pep talk before they go out to battle.

[redbaron1234]

Krista looked at the image of the Mist. This was going to be a difficult fight. Their armor was largely useless, so they would have to rely on their speed to stay alive. Their melee attackers would be forced to stay away, which was unfortunate since they they were the fastest. The Anzu might be the ideal for this fight, but there was only one of it. She would have to strategize with Lora as to how they wanted to split the teams.

Krista raised her hand. "Do we have any idea what the 'fire rate' of this wave is and if we can see the wave being emitted? Additionally, what types of weaponry can hit it? It looks like a ball of gas..."

[Penultimate_Pi]

Already, even though they were only halfway through the program, Squad Sigma was being deployed for a mission - one of utmost importance, it seemed. The Cruxi were attacking another planet, but the catch was that there were one of two major colonies that the Cruxi could attack first; therefore, Sigma would have to split into two strategic groups to defend both areas.

And then there was the matter of their new weapon, Mist, a giant orb that emitted pilot-destroying radiation at medium range. Supporting it was a large unit of Cruxi mechs, mostly the regular type, it seemed. It was notable that Mist could harm friend and foe alike, but it was a reasonable guess that it wouldn't be fired if there was a majority of their units at risk for it. But then again, these Cruxi were a very unpredictable race... who knew what they would sacrifice just to win a battle?

Lora's hand went up. Allowing Krista to take her question regarding the weapon's weaknesses, Lora added upon her first question, "Yes, could you go into detail about Mist's firing systems? In what situations does it fire? Is there any sort of warning to when it fires? How exactly is this radiation wave used?" If the squad knew more about how Mist worked, they could find some way to work around or exploit the weapon's firing systems to avoid risk. Meanwhile, Lora was beginning to map out where each team member would be applied to...

[Ariamis]

Lieutenant Ritsu took a sip of her caffeine solution and changed the hologram back to Mist, the lethal entity that was the focus of the questions coming from the pilots. Her eyes bored into the spherical form, and followed the squiggly color lines that traced across its surface. She answered with a nod when Mai spoke up.

"Ma'am. I do have a few. What is the current casuality count with this new unit? Has it ONLY attacked military targets or has it already caused civilian casualties? This new weapon seems like it could easily..."fly" into any resident zone and just vaporize everyone before anyone could react...basically, what "Recon" or Intelligence data so far has been gathered on this new unit? And is there more than one? Plus, you said it's prone to "friendly fire". Are the current Cruxi forces..."aggressive" to the point where they'd sacrifice whole groups just to lure one or two frameworks into the MIST's attack radius?"

@DarkRecon

Ritsu answered with a tense tone, sometimes checking her device. "Only one Framewerk pilot out of Squad Beta survived the encounter; the other seven were KIA. Mist also caused civilian casualties in its immediate radius. Considering the aliens' bizarre attitude towards colonies, it may be the reason we haven't seen more of these things. They may be more willing to destroy them now that we have shown some resistance." Ritsu took another sip.

"The intelligence we have is based on the report the survivor of Squad Beta, Cadet Koski, filed in. We could have gotten a more thorough foundation to work with if the information specialist for Beta survived, but we'll just have to work with what we got. For all we know the Cruxi may have mass-produced them and plan to fill the planet's surface with the abominations, so prepare for immediate abortion of the mission just in case. Let's see..." Ritsu took a look at her device. "The other Cruxi actively avoided the unit and kept their distance, but they also worked in tandem with it; they flanked our units and forced them into Mist's range. It's like the damn things can read each other's thoughts. Anyway, next question."

Krista raised her hand. "Do we have any idea what the 'fire rate' of this wave is and if we can see the wave being emitted? Additionally, what types of weaponry can hit it? It looks like a ball of gas..."

@redbaron1234

Ritsu had one of her hands rest on her thigh. "Squad Beta was reported to have attacked Mist at irregular timing at various ranges, and it responded every time with immediate activation. The only visible effect the wave causes seem to be shimmering in the air, so keep an eye out for that. Kinetic weaponry is confirmed to be ineffective against Mist, which isn't that strange considering their love for energy shields. Energy weapons on the other hand punched holes into it, but by that point most of Beta was wiped out and they failed to completely eliminate it."

Lora's hand went up. Allowing Krista to take her question regarding the weapon's weaknesses, Lora added upon her first question, "Yes, could you go into detail about Mist's firing systems? In what situations does it fire? Is there any sort of warning to when it fires? How exactly is this radiation wave used?"

@Penultimate_Pi

The Liutenant quickly wrote something on her device before she answered. "Mist seems to operate mostly on reaction; it didn't activate unprovoked when engaging Squad Beta. However, don't assume it can't open fire on it's own. Take it down as fast as you can and we'll never have to find out. As for it's weapon, what I've briefed is all that is currently confirmed. Once again, as a reminder, exercise extreme caution when engaging the enemy. Any independent action against Mist is strictly forbidden."

She waited for a moment to check that there were no more questions, and then spoke again with more emotion to her words:
"To sum it up; Keep your distance, and don't let the Cruxi corral you like cattle. Get your marksmen firing, and keep the aliens off their backs. You're the very best humanity has to offer! You're not going to let an extraterrestrial fart get the better of you!"

Ritsu then cleared her throat, and threw her gaze at Krista and Lora. "So, have the squad leaders come to a decision on the composition of the units?"

[Cassowarysaur]

The river ran deep and fast against the steady rocks. Yeshua squatted on the edge of its ridge, his feet planted firmly on the rock. He didn't move and only stared at the rushing white water, moving like it was on fire. Instead it only threw moisture at his young face.

He couldn't see his reflection.

The boy stood up, wiping off any wet patches off his trousers. He dipped down and yanked the blazer which he now wore. It was emblazoned with the logo of the facility. While not appearing too flashy, it emitted a very professional but causal air.

It stunk of fish.

He fell over a pile of dead salmon, the greasy and decomposing flesh wiping down his ankles. He kicked one of the unluckier corpses back into the water. His eyes fell down to the awful stain, unaware of the equally disgusting smell. He hadn't been afraid of much. The salmon chunks stuck to his cuffs, even when he shook his leg violently and without control. He knew what to do.

While he was ankle deep in the rapids, he saw a familiar silhouette in the distance. Its brown outline and wet nose gave away its identity. He couldn't miss what a beautiful creature it was. A spooky shadow cast over the rather small creature until it was right on top of it; a fluffy case of snow-white and charcoal-black feathers burnt through the trees, its claws wrapping deep into the bear cub's flesh. The bear squealed for its parent, still in the burrow. By the time the thunderous steps of the mother had broken the ground and shattered the leaves of the trees, the Eagle had laboriously flew to two hundred feet in the air. Its massive wings flapped with each steady beat, a weightlifter with his prize. The bear had given up screaming and now took in the gorgeous view.

The corpse smashed against the ground, bouncing slightly before rolling into the river. Rushing air followed. It eyes span out of its sockets and organs shot out of its mouth.

The Eagle followed downstream the bloody house of broken bones. The mother had not moved from its removed perch at the edge of the forest. It took five minutes for it to escape back into the darkness. A crackle filled the air. Lightning erupted from Yeshua's mouth, scorching the grass in front of him and evaporating the water. Nobody heard him laughing.

Stepping out of the cold water, he came to the conclusion that his trousers should be soaked rather than stinking. He had learnt this from the faces of the officers. They had not been impressed before, which Yeshua hoped wouldn't happen. He didn't want anyone to be sad, because that made him sad. This is what Abba told him and he believed him. Unquestioning loyalty was akin to worship, but his God was benign. His God saved him and would save him. If only he was nicer.

Yeshua didn't wipe the smile off his face as he finally arrived to the meeting, an extremely long and meandering trail of moisture behind him. He had an Eagle feather still placed on his shoulder. No notice had been taken of it. He saluted and didn't apologise.

[Ariamis]

"Yes, ma'm," Krista answered. "Unit A under my command is going to include Cadets Camden, Koehler and Paris, while Junior Officer Shinkai will lead Cadets Horowitz, Liu'un, Twilight and Ramirez in unit B."

"Both of these units include the skills required for the operation?" Ritsu asked. You could tell she testing to see if the decision was carefully thought out.

"Affirmative ma'm," Lora now answered. "Both units are fully capable of securing the colonies and repelling the Cruxi."

"Very well then. Looks like I don't need to make adjustments, so we will go with these. Attention, Squad Sigma! Deployment begins in T-minus 42 hours, so prepare for that. I suggest using the time to brush up on your piloting skills and adjust your machines. Dismissed."

As the pilots spread out, Elora took a look at Yeshua, and shivered. Koehler assured her that whatever happened between the two of them wasn't her fault, but she still couldn't help but feel responsible for what kind of person he became. As cruel and self-absorbed as he was when they first met, he didn't deserve what happened to him. Nobody would deserve that. And now they were going to be thrust into a war.

Elora's hands started shaking; she was scared of going into battle. She turned around and saw Mai leaving the hall, and at first wanted to ask her about how she felt about fighting, but she remembered how she responded the last time she asked for advice on suppressing her fears like she seemed to do:

"That life style would mentally drive you to death. Stop crying. At least you're still human. I'm not."

Mai

Elora, with her head hanging low, decided to do as the Lieutenant suggested and practice the landing simulation she still had trouble with; she had a bad habit of freezing up when she looked down and saw the immeasurable distance they had to drop down. It was another phobia in the meek girl's long list that she wanted to overcome.

[knighthawk]

To be honest, Romeo was a bit sad that Krista didn't include him in her group, they had done rather well in the arena and certainly thought that would carry over. He sighed and let it go for now. They hadn't had much time together since the promotion and he understood why. Maybe its just teenage hormones, but he would have sworn they were fighting for humanity, not against aliens. So why promote isolation?

He was probably just as bad. The last sixty days had been spent making adjustments to his framewerk. His lack of even a midrange weapon was part of his failure in the arena, even with the on-site-acquisition of the rifle, he didnt have the experience needed for it to be practical beyond the most basic of training. The last two months had been spent at the rifle range to bulk up his skillset while trying to determine his best weapon to use.

Due to his quick and closing style, long range was clearly out. That left mid and close range to focus on. His whips were his best weapon in close and grapple range so that left midrange fire support. He had been working on something more than 'pray and spray', he needed something with wide spread but more power. He had gone over various automatic shotgun designs and grenade launcher ideas. But to him it seemed more prudent to have a reliable weapon and adjustable amunition. That is where he came up with the plan for the 'redbloom', a series of thermite lances packed in the shape of flechette rounds, The design was for the solid but thin core to act as a matchstick to light the thermite casing around it, providing a needle puncture, followed by a firecracker to melt the area around it. SInce thermite is self-oxidizing, it could be used in sea, air or space. not to mention that the hard projectile also had thermal energy to attack their shields on two fronts.

As brilliant as this idea was, he still hadn't heard any clearance for the weapon. So he was currently relying on the approval for explosive rounds like komodo tried to use on him. An automatic shotgun with 'pellets' of smaller explosives, they used to make missiles called 'blockbusters' with the same design to rain thousands of hand grenades on the enemy forces in carpet bombings. Without any crxi to test it on, all he could do is hope things went well.

[color=f6989d]"Liviticus 9 'On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. He said to Aaron, "Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the Lord. Then say to the Israelites: ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb—both a year old and without defect—for a burnt offering, and an ox[b] and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the Lord, together with a grain offering mixed with olive oil. For today the Lord will appear to you.’ ”[/color]

[Pox]

Paris had quickly shot off... he was too busy to worry about a briefing that he had already known about and had already prepared for. His extensive knowledge over everything that has been given to him, and his fellow cadets was rather large. They didn't expect you to read upon the brief notes before the brief, yet Paris always did things ahead of time. Paris crept back into his little workshop area inside the hangar bay, right beside Zeus. He had been working on ideas for different alterations to Zeus, minor attachments and de-attachments, to suit different areas, and different missions.

Paris wasn't just a pilot, throughout his training he didn't just pilot Zeus, he worked on upgrading him and helped with the design, to best fit himself. Right now, he was working on making a slight offensive use for his H.E.F.F (High Energy, Force Field.) which was a mobile shield that used magnetic energy to form around Zeus or the framewerks selected target. The way the so on so force field is created is through the manipulation of plasma alongside hexagonal magnets that spread out in a spherical radius around the user/target, any projectile albeit physical or energy, is flung back and depending on the angle, the direction of the projectile can be flung directly back at it's target, sometimes. The main purpose is to keep the cruxi from touching Zeus and Allies... it has a fail-safe that doesn't do much but turning off the shield, when the energy of certain non-physical projectiles hit the shield, a portion is absorbed. The shield can only absorb a certain amount of energy. The development of this fail-safe has been slowly advancing, and Paris is waiting for Lorenzo to approve this upgrade, which allows for an offensive burst when the fail-safe is activated... as some sort of 'last-stand' capability. Paris sent in an application form for Frame-Updates recently and is waiting for the tick of approval to completely manufacture the design. After Paris had organised his little workshop behind Zeus, he decided to go train some more in the VR... get some practice in and loosen up for the mission, he was pumped and wanted to feel the grooves of the cockpit once more. He wanted to get inside!

[DarkRecon]

As Elora walked, Mai seemed to suddenly appear next to her as she walked along. Mai, over the two months, had decided to work on her "lack of presence" a bit to see if it could help in situations where stealth was required. After all, she seemed to go unnoticed during the mock battle all for one pilot. And said pilot was not amonst the Sigma team.

"...Elora...calm down...don't cry...", Mai droned.

But then, she started talking more "normal" than "monotone" or "drone" like when she then said this.

"If you need help, I'll help train you until we deploy...would that be ok with you?"

[LHG100]

Koehler, at 'Dismissed', began to move back to his quarters to train his close-quarters capability. While walking out, he pondered on the members of his unit. Camden, Krista, Paris, and himself. He thought on Paris a bit more.

Whenever Alyssa was close to Paris, he could swear he was acting strangely. Love-struck? Had a little bit of a crush? That was a distinct possibility. She was pretty cute. Seemed to be Paris' 'type'. While walking he quietly maneuvered towards Camden and spoke, also changing his direction. "Hey, care to have a private conversation? Would you please come with me towards that little silent room? I just want to talk about the squad in general is all."

That, and he was going to notify her, if it would be okay. Who knows, perhaps she thinks Paris is a cute guy as well. Koehler might not 'get any' but he might as well help his buddies out. His friend. Koehler wouldn't even be mentally fit to 'get any' on any meaningful level for a long while anyway. He was a bit broken. He knew this.

He sort of wondered whether he would die on the field, and if he should. This really was surreal, being trained as a soldier. Aren't soldiers just tools, to be discarded? Would any of them be able to live normal lives after this? Yeshua couldn't. Koehler couldn't.

Maybe he won't, but he'll do his damnedest to make sure the others had that chance. Yeah, that's something Koehler can do.

[Ariamis]

"...Elora...calm down...don't cry...", Mai droned.

@DarkRecon

"I wasn't going to. I'm just a bit nervous, that's all." Elora's excuses came out pathetic and transparent, and she knew it too. The shorter girl's steps picked up a bit as she wanted to keep pace with Mai's efficient rhythm.

But then, she started talking more "normal" than "monotone" or "drone" like when she then said this.

"If you need help, I'll help train you until we deploy...would that be ok with you?"

@DarkRecon

"Oh, how did you-" Elora was about to respond, but then interrupted herself with a couple of blinks "Uhhh, never mind. Sure, if you don't mind using your time like that. I know how much you value it. I was thinking of going through the landing maneuver. Do you know how to..." She continued speaking with a bit more courage as the two of them stepped into VR.

---

The following day and a half seemed to drag forever as the pilots anticipated their coming battle. Some sought company and to share their thoughts with others on the subject, while others toiled alone, and tinkered with their Framewerks or completed virtual missions repeatedly.
It was time for the final adjustments to the war machines, and after a long time, answers finally came on application forms that were sent to Lorenzo weeks ago.

Romeo's requested idea for the Redbloom weapon system was approved, and it would be equipped on Rose's empty arm. Even if the experimental weapon turned out to have flaws such as unwieldiness and only working in oxygenized atmospheres, it was still quite a feat from Solaire's engineers to finish the weapon on time. Orion's application form was also approved, and the fail-safe modification to his Framewerk's defensive system was added. There were still some incompatibility issues with the primarily dissipation-based systems, but the desired rate of 100% absorption upon deactivation was accomplished.

With these final changes made to the Framewerks, it was only a matter of time when the fated day came:

"All units, relocate to NOAH."

The alarms rung out over the base and an unknown man's voice rang out through the entire facility that was bustling with soldiers and other personnel as they prepared to leave. The facility's entire force of several hundred million men emptied out into troopships and larger dropships as the soldiers, vehicles and other machinery was hauled off into the sky, where an ominous sight could be seen.
The sun was blotted out by a massive object in the sky that seemed to cast the entire world into darkness under it's shadow; NOAH, one of the only Jericho-class battleships, arrived with a rumble that shook the very earth. It could have easily been called one of humanity's most ambitious, if not greatest, constructs in a more peaceful age, but in the present time it was seen as but a necessity for combating the rapidly-evolving enemy they were up against.

It was time to board the Ark and survive the flood that would wipe humanity from the face of the earth.