The Rostosov's guns were simply too much for the Phantom Zero and in the end, the lighter frame buckled under the sheer weight of armor-piercing projectiles. Each half-ton of furious steel impacted with the hatred of a god, the armor too thin and easily defeated. Sparks flashed in slow motion at points of impact, before the fuses burnt up and the penetrating hits unleashed their high-explosive playload. There was a scream, that of a woman's, as she died with her mech in a grand fireball.

But Harold did not hear her. The glory of destruction was simply too loud, and spared no room for the whimpers of human suffering.

"Target down!" he said, still on the private comms, while fluidly tracing the crosshairs and his guns to the massive newcomer black mech whose first salvo completely missed the Rostosov. It impacted behind Harold's machine to cast a huge plume of dust and dirt that oddly gave the Frame an ominous, dirty aura. There was indeed no better raiment for something whose entire purpose was to kill, kill and kill again. "Engaging the next target!"

It was a big target. Perhaps a bit too big, he thought. His forehead was now fully wet with adrenaline-laced sweat. His decision was a quick one:

"Firing missiles!"

MK. I CRUISE MISSILE - SELECTED MODE: SACLOS - FIRING

TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING - FIRING

A single cruise missile whose warhead weighed nearly four tons lanced from the Rostosov's shoulder then. At the same moment, Harold's beloved autocannons resumed playing its destructive orchestra.

One wing down, "Damn," Zim thought as he slammed the frame into the dirt. It wasn't out of commission yet, but at least bought some time to try and deal with what ever else was happening, "I Thought those armored wings would be stronger then that, but it did it's job."

With only a moment to think of his options Zim assessed the situation. Roger was incapacitated by the rose thing, and the lightning dude floating over the water was charging another attack. We got lucky last time and his own team mate got in the line of fire. What were the chances of him targeting Roger and hitting the rose? Pretty slim. In fact, odds where that Black Star was the target. Best bet was to attempt to evade and to try and get Roger free.

Zim turned Black Star now towards the rose. "Alright, can we get another one?" He asked the Framewerk before he once again pushed the machine forward. His attempt now was going to be to try and slice off the vine arm that was holding Rogers 'Werk hostage and starting to burrow through the armor. If the angle was right, he would hope to do more then that and cleave through the main body of the unit. Hopefully freed up, Roger would be able to put his gun to use against the lightning dude floating over the water. Even if he once again completely missed the scythe swing he would put his weight into the attack, attempting to at least knock the dumb thing over. Even if that put all three of them in a pile, Zim hoped that it would buy them a reprisal from the lightning bolt that was soon to come because of the proximity to its compatriot.

"KYYYAAAAAAAH!" Sigma screamed, the empathic feedback ripping her apart with waves of pain in her leg and torso. She winced, tears welling up again, gasping for air. Her glare focused on the strange mech that had dragged her down. She was going to stab her.

I got too cocky! She panicked slightly, trying to flail to counter the obviously dangerous melee attack. And then before the eyes, the mech was ripped off. Sigma stood there, stunned. Her brain took a moment to process what was happening. She was paralyzed with fear.

The Sköll greeted her. She couldn't even react to the gruesome fate of Delta, she had to get out. As if on cue, her jetpack started. Avoid avoid avoid. Nope nope nope nope. She thought mentally, as she tried to escape to no avail.

A second time she screamed, feeling the monstrous grip on her head as well as the framewerk. Her ears were ringing, barely registering what Irina was saying. But she could remember the taunts. The acceleration. How she was made to look. She was toying with her. Trembling, she flicked her communications once more. Was it the general channel? The team channel? She couldn't think. Too much numbness and pain. She didn't even know what her synch rate was.

"I'm sorry people. Looks like I'm the first victim. I took one down and the artillery is not a problem anymore, but I'm pinned by the Sköll."

She sniffled. Stupid tears were getting in the way.

Is this the end? Am I defective product like Delta, or Alpha? Sigma pondered briefly, still overlooking the battlefield with her demonic companion keeping her as a toy. Will I get cake? Ariin said so.

Ariin. Elora.

Lora, the loud cute girl, Katya, Harold the idiot, the other two guys...

I don't want it to end too soon. I don't want to be a burden to them.

Her hand clenched into a fist, wiping her tears.

Determination.

"I...I have one thing to add." Sigma said, her voice trembling, but soon becoming icy and aloof like when they first met. Her optics focused on the Sköll. There was no way she could take this beast on combat. It was just too fast, too armed, and too skillfully piloted. The only thing she had was heavier armor weighing her down, and a thruster she couldn't...

Wait.

"Don't go gentle into that good night..."Her hand reached for the jetpack core. Crushing it. Making it explode. The shockwave hurt like hell, and Sigma almost passed out.

Please be harmed! Please don't dodge this!Sigma prayed, as she in a last ditch effort unslung her rifle once more with her remaining hand, trying to shoot with her last willpower into the Sköll.

And her consciousness abandoned her.

Ariin could see it, Irina rising out of the pit the zone over, he dropped to a knee and aimed. That fucking bitch better not hurt her, I'll guy her like a street urchin. He said, he thought of his little sister being held like that no doubt sacred and in pain. He locked his target and waited, he didn't want to hit Sigma but honestly right now it was his best chance to hit her. That's when he heard Sigma over the radio, damn near made him call out to her, his middle sister was the same age as her now.

He watched in shock as Sigma broke free, the explosion was impressive as she tried to shoot the Skroll. Ariin was pissed, hurting, and frankly fed up with this game. He he fired his first volley then second, then third. Six slugs from long range targeted right for the Skroll. If Sigma's explosion hadn't dazed her enough and they all missed, well she would close the distance and then he would probably go next. He didn't care, Irina had hurt one of his team mates he needed Paladin to stand his ground and put this bitch on ice. He spoke on the open channel. "HEY! Irina, pick on someone your own age or are sacred of fighting a real frame!"

He taunted over the radio, swapping to the team channel he spoke to his team mates, his voice was soft as if he already had evaluated that if this failed he was out of the game. "I'm drawing Irina in... If those shot didn't get her I might be able to buy some time with my armor and shield. Work together, help each other... We can't lose, we owe Sigma a win she just gave us a fighting chance." He told them as he got up off a knee and raised his shield, holding his position he scanned for Irina, praying Sigma's sacrifice and his own timed attack might have brought down the monster they were up against, he doubt he defeat Skroll through.

As Caretaker communicated her intent to help, Lora forced herself to simmer down, seeing as she clearly wasn't going to be making progress by herself in any case. Still, she couldn't help but fume at the hot mess she and the other cadets had been plunged into.

You're being too critical, someone might say, but Lora couldn't help it. This was a young girl who had suffered through the pains of war, who had been forced to grow up when she all too suddenly became the oldest of her family. Thus far, her only foray into adulthood had been the induction to this experimental, intense soldier program. Lora had got it in her mind that it would truly help her- she could save lives, destroy the Cruxi, and return to Mitch ready to take responsibility.

Unfortunately, becoming a soldier had nothing to do with becoming mature and adult-like; the process served to train one to discard their humanity, to abandon emotion and morals when it would benefit the world you fought for. Still, Lora went along blindly, convincing herself that she could well and truly help people with the efforts she would process and execute here.

Some help she was, so far.

Harold was quick enough to rebuff Lora's angry remark of the open comms, his voice returning in a slightly clearer and hopefully private channel. Dynasty's pilot initially gave no response, for she had been doing nothing but waiting to be free from her grave of concrete. With another grunt, Lora laid into the controls with a better synch ratio, and this time got a passable result: the flight burners opened to full throttle, making the Framewerk raise from the rubble stock upright to spread a fine mist of particulate rock.

On the open communication channel came the choked sacrificial words of Sigma as Dynasty prepared to enter the action again, followed soon by Ariin's furious response. Closing that and taking a hold of the private channel Rostosov opened, Lora heard the pilot preparing to let loose with his heavy weaponry, as well as Paladin announcing his intent to draw Irina towards himself. Irina... the ace Framewerk pilot the cadets were expected to face. Lora grit her teeth with the revelation unfolding before her: Eiswolf had just been downed by the superior fighter, leaving her Frame in the company of two of her heavy-class teammates.

Speaking of them...

With another fierce punch into the joysticks, Dynasty leaned forward and let the thrusters carry the machine onward. Renewed vigor and rocket boosters carried the Framewerk out of the dust cloud and gradually accelerating to a heightened cruise speed. Her target: the regalia-clad pearl Framewerk hoisting itself from the ground, armed with sword and shield and ready to pick up where it left off inadvertently. "Paladin, Dynasty is engaging on your left!" Lora bleated over the private line as she almost fell into firing range of the enemy.

Dynasty tilted back in flight, quickly slowing itself to a dull hover as the humanoid machine swung the dual blaster cannons up to bear. Within moments she had acquired the target in her crosshairs (thanks in part to Emperor's sheer size), and without a moment to spare, the cadet pilot systematically pulled the triggers. A bolt of intense energy slammed into the otherwise pristine shell of the royal-themed machine, and then another bolt soon followed. Every second that passed saw three more blasts leave Lora's barrels and enter the enemy frame with the ferocity of a mortar, the recoil nearly pushing Dynasty back were it not for the flight burners.

Watching as Dynasty broke free form it prison Katya felt her resolve become renewed as a feeling of satisfying pleasure washed over her for successfully helping the trapped mech. Katya's sync starting to climb back up to it normal levels as the feeling of satisfaction drowned the feeling of fear in her gut. The young woman completely forgetting about being afraid of being killed by powerful artillery fire. Deep down that attacked still plagued her but for now the girl mind was able to ignore the thoughts. The feeling also caused her to consciously ignore Sigma's words her mind too busy basking in the pleasurable feeling and burying the negative feeling in her gut. But Katya heard them and those words along with her feeling come to plague Katya once things had stetted down and she had time to process everything.

Katya watched as Dynasty left the zone thinking it was time she did the same. Even if she didn't have lot of fire power she had to give everything she had taking out the enemy. Manipulating Caretakers controls Kayta began to make her advance into the mystery zone as quickly as Caretaker could carry her. Upon reaching the zone Katya continued to advance until reaching her Marker Light maximum effective range. Normally she would of stated her actions of the comm's, stating she was moving into to provided covering fire but with comms being a trap she kept silent hoping her team mates where at least partly watching their sensors and would see her coming and if they needed her help would contact her.

She took aim at the first mech that wasn't apart of team sigma and after a second for her targeting computer to lock on Katya pressed down on the trigger a blot of bright neon blue light came surging out of the her rifle. Quickly followed by another three, Katya firing her rifle as quickly as she could. The only limiting factor being how quick she could pressed down on the trigger after each shot.

It was difficult to decide what to make of the situation Team Sigma found themselves in. Terrible and fortunate things seemed to occur almost alternately of each other.

The Mock Battle turned out not to be against each other, but versus another team. But these guys had numerical superiority. Luckily Elora and Sigma managed to gain informational and strategic control of the area quickly, which gave everyone a much needed context to the battlefield. But turned out the communications system was rigged so the other team knew what was being planned the whole time. However, it seemed like almost all the other cadets are such poor pilots that they kill themselves faster than they dealt any sort of damage to Σ Framewerks. But their team leader was a super ace that is nigh untouchable. These events occurred in such rapid succession that the dominant emotion among most of the Σ pilots appeared to be confusion.

This was not the case with Roger Rooney. Well, he was confused, but his dominant emotion at the very moment was pain. Having a thorny whip squeezing your midsection was one of the less pleasant sensations he had felt in the past few months. Whoever decided that having a higher synch rate with your Framewerk meant feeling more pain from attacks was an asshole. It was probably Lorenzo too.

Even in his thorn-riddled state, it was abundantly clear that the framewerk charging the lightning bolt shouldn't be allowed to fire it off. Luckily, a gun (usually) didn't need to be charged, and his gun didn't even need to be aimed with a great degree of accuracy due to its targeting computer. Even if Black Star didn't free him, Roger would do his best to rotate Yeager so it faced the electric Framewerk, and pump it full of lead.

As Zim requested Black Star to obey in the critical task of rescuing Yeager from the floral embrace of the rose Framewerk, he barely felt a presence of some kind from deep within the black machine; it felt somehow familiar, and Zim saw that his synchronization rate spiked to 60%. Black Star lifted the cumbersome Thermal Scythe to its side, and with a determined charge swept horizontally. The rose Framewerk responded by releasing Yeager and crouching down, its rose petals on its head and arms extending to form a shield. However, the shield's weakness to heat proved to be the Frame's undoing, as the Thermal Scythe burned through the defences, and cleaved the Frame's upper body in two with a mighty strike. One female scream later, the Frame's beautiful rose petals scattered to the wind, and its uprooted existence withered and fell down to the fertile earth; The universe had never seen gardening of this scale before.

Yeager, once freed from its green prison, took the opportunity to counter against the electrified Frame, and shot at it with its machinegun. While the weapon was unable to damage the moderate armor of the Frame, it staggered and wobbled on the water as a result. It touched the water accidentally, and electricity violently surged through the Frame, causing it to miss as it threw the lightning bolt. It hit the water right before it, and the high voltage of the blast caused both the pilot to scream and an internal part of the Framewerk to explode and ignite, causing its torso to burn as it dropped down to the water, sinking to the depths.

However, the fight was far from over, as the sword-shaped Frame climbed up from the sand and clicked in furious fashion, seemingly out for revenge. It charged behind Black Star, punched the back of the Frame, and then unleashed the Stake-Driver on its fist. The attack blew a hole through the Frame's torso, and messages of critical damage flared on Zim's screen.

---

Elsewhere, in the command deck of Solaire, one of the bridge personnel reported to Lorenzo: "Sir, the Black Star's system are failing!" Lorenzo shrugged its shoulders in response. "Well, it was only a matter of time. Good night, Zero..." He pushed a red button on his remote, and in that instant the Black Star shut down completely, turning limp as it was held upright by the fist piercing it. Ritsu looked sternly at the screen, tapping her holster out of habit. Hang in there, Sigma squad.

---

While Rostosov's gatling weaponry were effective against light opponents, they only bounced and ricocheted off the enemy Framewerk's wide body, failing to cause any notable damage. However, Rostosov's cruise missile locked onto the black behemoth, and the earth shook as the high-yield explosive punched through the layered armor and created a gaping hole on the adversary's shoulder. The machine audibly clanged and growled in response, and continued shooting at Rostosov; this time the full volley was showered over the other heavyweight. Bullets coated with the rage of lightning screamed as they made their mark, but even the most powerful automatic kinetic weapon on Solaire only dented the front armor of the Rostosov at best. But the clash of colossi took a turn for the worse for the Sigma side: Rostosov's twin gatling cannons didn't prove as durable, and they twisted and churned under the weather of the storm of death until a warning display came to Harold's screen that informed that the primary weapons system was lost due to major damage, the barrels too full of holes and bent to shoot anything. Harold then saw that the other enemy Frame recovered, and charged straight at him. It seemed that all hope was lost...

Until Dynasty charged in, and brought its blasters to bear on the brute. The white Frame brought up its sper powered shield, but too late; a salvo already landed on it, and though the Frame absorbed both shock and kinetic damage like a sponge, it was also a Frame weak to heat, and the white luster of its chest was charred black by the hard light of the energy bolts, melting it away. In response, it bellowed with the sound of grinding gears, and unleashed its Imperator system; the Frame created a field around it that drew in all ammunition and Frames inside it, though it was interrupted before Rostosov was in range.

Katya attempted to follow behind, but just as she reached the border of zone C an explosion erupted right before her feet. She looked up, and saw a gray Framewerk fall down from the tower as it shot another round from its Hellstorm Cannon. It landed on Caretaker's leg, reducing her movement speed to a cautious walk as a result. In response, she shot the marker shots on the enemy the moment he landed between her and her comrades with a tumbling roll before it quickly stood up, unable to pass past it.

Elora, just moments before, noticed that the gray Framewerk flew up to the tower from the Broken Hills, where it seemingly stumbled. Elora was scared; this was the first time she was this close to a real enemy unit; virtual enemies were static, like videogame characters, but this was observing and moving like a real, living pilot was controlling it. However, her resolve grew when she realized the thing didn't spot her invisible Logic Gate, and she proceeded to initiate a scanning protocol as she's trained. Her fingers turned red and bruied as they tried to keep up with the rapid typing Elora did in her attempt at collecting and transmitting the data as fast as she could. She sighed in relief once she was done, happy to have performed the procedure so quickly, and reported: "Data transmitted of enemy unit You should now see statistics and weak points of the unit."

However, her joy turned to dread as she realized the enemy Frame shot at Caretaker. She decided to put an immediate stop to it, and tackled the thing from behind, causing it to fall from the tower. It was then that she realized that the cloaking device was easily disrupted by physical damage, and it sizzled off, causing the egg Frame to be visible again. "Uh-oh..." Elora yelped.

---

"You saw that? Your little friend got skewered like karja!" Irina taunted her younger duplicate as she hovered over the Abyss, lifting the Eiswolf's head purposefully towards the lake, before turning it around to the Mystery Zone. "And another one is about to be crushed between a rock and a hard place!"

"I...I have one thing to add."

"Hmm? What could itty bitty Siggy piggy have to add or subtract?"

"Don't go gentle into that good night..."

"Hah! What's that-OH YOU SLUT!" Irina screamed out as she saw what Sigma did; with a baseball athlete's finesse, Sköll spun and threw Eiswolf towards the Mystery Zone just as it was about to explode, leaving her unscathed. "Close, but no cigar, bisque bitch! You can't touch this!"

But then, Irina's smug grin turned into a grimace as she now realized what Sigma's true plan was; Sköll lifted up MORS, her trusty sword that glew with a purple light, attempting to parry the high-powered shot. It split into two when it made contact with the sword instead of reflecting, and hit the sides of her lower body. While it only dented her armor due to being a glancing hit with its power split in half, it still hurt Irina as if she was the recipient of the attack herself, causing her to recoil. She held onto that rifle all this time? Spunky kid... She looked as Eiswolf crashed, and was subsequently disabled. It was exactly then that Paladin unleashed the Pompey's full might on her, but with disappointing results; most of the shots were missed due to the Emperor's Imperator field, but one did manage to hit Skäll on her thrusters, causing her to lose altitude. "Oh, you boys want some of this? Then come and get it!" She spotted a lone silly-looking Framewerk floating close to the tower, and stabbed the round exterior with her sword as she landed on top of the tower, causing Elora to scream in both pain and fear. Her nose started bleeding, a sign of the girl's high symbiosis with the machine. "Uughh...please don't hurt me!" She pleaded, but Irina only laughed in response as she used one hand to take a shot at Paladin, hitting it straight on the head and causing it to be slightly caved in by the sheer force of the weapon. Critical damage messages sprayed out to Ariin; they informed him that the visual sensors were lost, rendering it blind as the visual feed only showed static. Despite this, Lorenzo deemed the machine to still be capable to fight and didn't deactivate it. "Maybe the Cadet can hit Irina again while blinded...or it accidentally destroys the allies around it! Either way, this is going to be entertaining."

Irina swung Logic Gate around and finally threw it, causing it to land on zone A with a loud crash. The little girl seemed to be in catatonic shock inside, and whimpered even as critical damage messages blared out. I was useless...I didn't get a full scan of that, so I can't submit it... However, she remembered Ariin's warm smile, Harold's encouraging praise, and the trust that the others seemed to have in her. While she first thought she only had data to contribute to her team, she now understood that she had so much more to give: a courage to fight that only fear of death may awaken. She stumbled up from her seat, and activated the Combat Analyzer. She stil had one last submission to send, and she sniffed with a pout as she finished combining the inefficient data of Sköll combined with the tempalte of data she acquired from the Frame designated as Black Komodo. She pressed the send button only mere seconds before Lorenzo deactivated Logic Gate, causing the cockpit to darken. She dropped back to her back, and stared at the ceiling. She didn't manage to send a report of confirmation, but she believed that the contents of her data, which was the approximate data of Sköll, conveyed her feelings more than any word could have.

It was like the entire world shook when the enemy's rounds finally made their mark. Sparks flashed as metal was rent, crumpled and holed. Terrible sounds of groaning armor plate surrounded the grimacing Harold. Suddenly, the visual display flickered off, and then on. For an instant, his synch rate was 0%, before coming back at 43% and rising. What the hell just happened? He cursed as he saw that system tags that were supposed to be green were flashing red or orange. At the bottom-left corner of his HUD, warnings abounded in red. Redundant electronic sirens blared from unseen speakers. His map was empty while the software rebooted itself.

WARNING! PRT. TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING FEED SYSTEM FAILURE
WARNING! PRT. TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING HYDRAULICS FAILURE
WARNING! STB. TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING OBSTRUCTION IN NO. 3 BARREL
WARNING! STB. TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING OBSTRUCTION IN NO. 1 BARREL
WARNING! STB. TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING FEED SYSTEM FAILURE
WARNING! STB. TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING OBSTRUCTION IN NO. 2 BARREL
WARNING! STB. TYPE 2500 MODEL 3 41CM GATLING MODULE NOT FOUND

"Module not- what the hell are you," he looked to the right. "Holy shit!"

It was gone. What was left of the gatling system there was splayed out like some kind of macabre, blackened flower. A shell had detonated inside the barrel as it was firing. But in a morbid comedic display, the stump could still move in response to his input. This was not the case for the other chain gun, as it looked quite alright, except that it was stubbornly pointed limp to the ground. Hydraulic fluids, colored red, looked much like blood as they oozed down its burn marks and shell holes before dripping down onto the scarred terrain. It was faint, but Harold could swear that there was a pain in his arms too.

And there was a message then, coming from the Logic Gate. It was text and images however, so he waved it off - he had no time to read; Elora could wait. A drop of sweat was threatening to pour into his eye and he rubbed it away with too much force than necessary. He thought for a split-second, before making another important decision.

The mode was SACLOS - Semi-Automatic Command to Line Of Sight. The recoil from the Type 2500's had been shaking the Rostosov, but it was more or less steady now with only impacting return fire to contend with. His Framewerk was beaten, bloodied and no longer had working arms, but it was not yet totally helpless. Harold cast his reply:

MK. I CRUISE MISSILE - SELECTED MODE: SACLOS - FIRING

"God damn it!"

Another missile. This time, and with his entire concentration, he was focusing the targeting dot specifically on the Black Komodo's chest. The pilot, he reasoned, should be there.

"Firing missile!" he spat again in the private channel.

Ariin coughed as he looked at his sensors no visual feed, alarms were blaring and he noted that he hadn't taken her down. Irina was still out their probably saving him for later, or just thinking he was dead. He swapped to the team channel groaning. "All visual's are down on the Paladin. I can't see anything over here, I think I might have damaged Irina some but unable to tell. I'm locking down and holding position. If anyone's getting this either ping the target the on my map or send my targeting angles. I can still shoot." He told them as he locked down his shield, turning right enough to where he would face the tower the last place he saw Irina.

He now watched the map display Elora had provided them watching the dots his guns angle measurements and targeting system were still up, they were tied into the weapon itself. He took a deep breath and then a terrible idea popped into his head. He could open the top of the cock he was tall enough he'd be able to see out of it and shoot... Of course that would be him personally at great risk. If she fired at his cockpit it would be lethal, yet he couldn't just leave them out their, most his Frame was behind the shield now anyway. He just have to make it quick, or he probably wouldn't make it.

He sat up a little as the top of his Frame opened up just enough for him see. He laid the gun on top of the shield and then smiled, their she was on top of the tower... Throwing Elora. Sigma was one thing, Elora was another, he over charged the gun six volleys, twelve rounds at this bitch. 'I'm probably next anyway' he thought as he put the gun on her then he received Elora's targeting data, he was proud of her it wasn't much but it was enough to tell his the Pompey's sensors to only fire Frame in her shape. In truth he was locked to her now unable to fight anyone on anything else. Once he put the gun on her and system was primed he started to close the hatch, as six thumps rocked the Paladin. The twelve rounds tore towards her from behind, from a Frame she thought she had destroyed.

Doing this however had put a lot of stress on the gun, he opened it's ventral hatches and waited for it cool now. Either she would fly down here and finish him off or he would here his teammates yelling in victory. He just waited, ready to be beaten, to send a fair well to his squad as he shut his eyes and hummed a lullaby he remember his mother used to sing to him. He wondered how Elora and Sigma were doing, he hoped alright he'd get them both something nice after this... Well he might steal something nice for Elora and bake Sigma a cake strawberry cake... maybe a good vanilla or cream cheese icing to go on it? Which would she prefer, he asked himself in truth trying to ignore the reality of what was more than likely he last moments on the field.

Serah felt that hit one the barrier, getting a slight sting in the shoulder. Her feedback sensors reported minimal damage, but Atty's global status was now in the yellow. One of the thrusters was jammed though, so flying was out of the question. Not unless she wanted to crash into everything. Luckily for the girl, Ariin had covered her with a full volley of his main weapons straight onto the gun wielding frame. Her congratulations were silent because of her communications having been purposefully shut off, but Paladin could have still seen Atty giving them a thumbs up with their back turned to them. Serah braced herself with her blade, having completely missed Harold's rescue on the sword. But then a stinging pain surged through Serah's head. "Ngh~?! A-Atty...?" she muttered, as her synchronization was suddenly fluctuating all over the place. "Atty, what's wrong?!" she frantically asked right before her attention was pulled away by the raging battle. Harold had taken on another heavy frame in a one-to-one bullet hell standoff, pumping the other frame full of lead. But alas, the thing proved to be durable, and Rostosov's guns not so much.

Serah's attention was pulled away from that fight when suddenly she lost status of a frame. Eiswolf, to be precise. And then Black Star. Her eyes widened, realizing they were taken out already. "N-No way..." Serah mumbled, when shortly after a third signal followed. Logic Gate. One by one, every frame was being mutilated. And judging by what happened to the other cadets... "I-It..." Serah stammered, starting to breathe heavily. Red lights were beginning to flare up, and Atty's synchronization was getting dangerously low. The girl thought they were dead already.

"And what are you doing, getting upset?" a little voice rang in the bluenette's head. It was if time stopped around her for just those few moments. "You don't deserve it. That's only reserved for others." the little impish voice continued, and Serah grit her teeth. "R-Right... I don't deserve it..." she muttered, her entire head becoming blank. Her emotions all but faded into the void, and a forced smile crept across Serah's lips. "I can't get upset. A lonely girl like me should have smiles for everyone, right?" she cheerfully spoke, and an artificial happiness crept up in her chest. She looked up to the feedback from her camera, seeing a white frame pass her by just now. Atty's hand clutched tighter around the sword, and a second one soon followed. Serah's mind was a complete blank right now, nothing occupying it except for the battle and Atty. "Let's go, Atty~!" she cheerfully spoke to her framewerk, turning around and dashing to the stark white opponent. AA-XOTRY leaped forward to stab it straight through the middle, intending to skewer it on the edge of the energy blade..

"Zim!" Roger shouted in his cockpit, where nobody else could hear him. With his communications more or less shut off for awhile now, he was in the dark about the situation except for around him. Ariin and Harold's struggle, Sigma's near kamikaze attack, Elora's last message, he didn't know any of it. Right now it would be just two giant robots fighting it out by a big ass lake mano y mano. Well it was probably a chick piloting it since every pilot on Team Irina seemed to be female so far.

"I can't allow myself to get close to that Framewerk, its stake is too dangerous for me to take head on. I should keep my distance and use my machinegun, is probably what that bastard is thinking my thought process is. Well sorry babe, Yeager and I aren't any good at going backwards anyway! C'mon Yeager, help me out. We can't let some punk outdo us."

That Frame was fast, probably faster going forward than Yeager was going back, but the reverse was almost certainly just as true. And although its stake was dangerous, there was one range where it wouldn't be able to close the distance and use it.

The second part of this idiotic plan Rooney had set his heart one relied on the comparative sizes of the two Framewerks. That Frame was tiny and light. His was nearly a heavyweight. It wouldn't be surprising if Yeager was many times heavier than its opponent. His machinegun probably would do too much good, but something else would.

Roger's hands squeezed white around the controls of the machine. His teeth creaked with the pressure his jaw was applying to them. It was now or never. If he fucked this up, he would be toast. And even if he didn't fuck it up, he still might die. Roger faced down his opponent, his heart doing its damned best to break out of his chest so it could escape before it could be part of this plan. With a mighty roar that nobody would hear, Roger turned his Overboosters up to maximum and used his and Yeager's body as a battering ram/humanoid missile on the enemy Framewerk.

Again it happened too quick for Katya one second she was moving towards the main battle the next her mech rocked as a an explosion detonated right before her. The force of the detonation nearly knocking Caretaker of it feet.
Looking to see where it came from seeing a mech atop the tower of power. Katya was going to stop and try to shoot it when she noticed it started to fall and fired.
"Shit!" she exclaimed as she worked as she worked the controls hoping to avoid getting shot. Her efforts though were fruitless as the round impacted her left leg. Alarms flashed at her and filled her cockpit with there unpleasant noise alerting her the that left leg had taken damage.

Looking at her mechs status she sighed in relief, finding luck was at least somewhat on her side as the was still usable. but now every step sound like metal grinding on metal. A sound that was meant something had broken, but not circuital to the use of the leg. Her armor had done its job and stop the leg being destroyed but in turn the legs internal works where now mostly exposed the armor having nearly all been blown off in the two shots. Another hit would most likely cripple the leg or destroy it.
"Dam you! I just had that leg serviced." she muttered now annoyed knowing she should have been watching her surroundings better maybe then she might have noticed the mech a top the tower and avoided getting hit.

Seeing the gray mech standing in front of her block her path to the other. She needed to get past this mech and assist the others, or at least use them for protection. Out here on her own she was a sitting duck to any larger or better armed mechs the enemy had. But with her left leg damaged she movement speed was limited until she could get drone on it which in the middle of a fight was simply not a good idea. The drone themselves not able to take much punishment.
"I have to fight it. If I want to get past and help the others I need to take this prick out." she thought look looking at her rifles read out to check its energy level. Only to discover she had it "Marker mode."
"Crap I forgot to switch it over to the damaging shots. Stupid Katya." She berated herself for such a rookie mistake, then again mistake play out to her advantage given now the target was marked she could easily use her drones explosive function to try and do some damage. That he was lit up like a Christmas tree on her sensors and anyone else near by. But the mistake in future she needed to avoid or it might just get her killed.

Tapping on her weapons control panel she flicked the rifle into "combat mode". In response to the command the rifle gave a threatening hum. This time when she shot at it would actually do more then mark him. Watching the enemy carefully Katya prepped four drones for detonation. Once given the commanded to detonate the power supply would started feedback on itself and after a minute KABOOM the drone would explode the only problem was she had to stay close to do it as she needed to keep control of the drones. Although that wasn't an issue she doubted she could get away form this foe even if she tried.
She raised her rifle at the enemy mech, aiming only by the cross-hare on her view screen she didn't have time to what for her targeting computer and at this range it should hard to miss. The mech don't look like a mobile type so it shouldn't be hard to hit it.

It was then her view of the mech blurred for a second as points on it body became highlight as weak points by her mech computer. A message appearing across the left side of her view screen that she could now see the mech weak point and the mech statistics. Katya only really noting the armaments finding them a little worrying. At range she had little chance against and at melee range she'd be out gunned. But she had no choice but to get in close and try by enough time for her drones to explode on it weak points. The plan depended though on getting in close and Caretaker having enough durability left to keep the mech busy until her drones exploded. Would it work? Katya didn't know but she saw it as her only chance to achieve victory over this foe.

Firing a shot off Katya made Caretaker move forward with as much speed as the mech could make it muster. All the while firing at the enemy mech for total 2 or 3 more shots. She planned to get into melee range to guarantee her drones could deploy hoping the Gray mech chain sword would mean the pilot wouldn't try to avoid her. Even if she couldn't get into melee range she only needed to close the gap.
While doing this she opened up her drone hanger doors and four EDEN drone quickly climbed out. Leaping towards the enemy mech the second Katya got close. Landing on it or if missing or out range scurrying to it as quickly as they could. Latching on if they reached with magnetic feet their power supplies starting to overload. Causing the drones to start sparking as they moved into position on the mechs weak points.

Meanwhile Katya if she got in to melee range would try to use her rifle to block chain sword best she could or if she could reach would simple keep firing quickly as she could. Either way she hope the drones would reach and explode with enough force to damage the mech. Otherwise she all she could do was fight until the bitter end. The young woman while afraid of dying would refuse to go down without a fight.

This Frame was a tough one, for sure. The high-yield energy bolts did practically nothing to shake the Emperor, even less so when it erected it's great shield; Dynasty was lucky, then, to have managed to get in a single volley before that, the intense heat of her shots melting away at the less-durable armor. Lora's enemy let out a mechanical roar in response to this incursion, a certain glow seeming to materialize around it's outline.

-WARNING: EXTREME ATTRACTION FIELD DETECTED-

"What?!" Dynasty's pilot exclaimed at this automated alert, just as she began to feel the entire Frame pull forward under the influence of the magnetic power. Lora leaned the machine back further, attempting to overpower the effects of the Imperator system. The effort only staved off the inevitable, the process of being dragged into Emperor's reach merely made longer. Too much mass, she thought, and quickly prepared to discard one of the Blaster Cannons in order to escape the machine's range.

The cadet got a bit distracted, however, by the carnage that too quickly unfolded around her. Rostosov's twin gatling guns had been turned into slag, forcing him to turn to his cruise missiles as his only source of attack. Caretaker had become entangled in a conflict with the dark-colored heavy Framewerk still remaining. Logic Gate was discovered, and had been deftly thrown aside by Irina's top-of-the-line war machine; the same weapon had caved in Paladin's head, leaving him to make a vain blind attack simply based on Elora's targeting data. The tables were quickly turning back on Squad Sigma, and with everyone struck as they were-

No, not everyone. Dynasty was still fully functional, and if Irina had any sense, she would take the Framewerk's head right off it's shoulders any moment now. But if their objective was to beat as many of them as possible, then Lora would push Dynasty until it could move no further. She took note of Logic Gate's incomplete data packet, trying to keep an eye on Sköll's blip on the radar...

Lora came back into focus when something clipped the heel of her Framewerk- the beheaded remains of a black and gold body, still holding a similarly-made sword, being dragged in by the Imperator system. The very sight of the weapon, and how it attempted to cleave Paladin in twain, gave Lora a devilish and risky idea.

"Excuse me-" Lora apologized halfheartedly to the long-deceased pilot as she planted Dynasty's foot into Phantom Zero's already concave chest. She lightly tossed her right-handed Blaster Cannon aside with a multi-ton thump on the earth, and with her newly freed hand grabbed onto the Blade of Hope. "I'm going to borrow this." Lora pulled back on the stick, forcing Dynasty to awkwardly wrench away the sword from Phantom Zero's deceased hands. In the fallen Framewerk's final act, Lora's mecha opened the burners again and heaved with it's stomping foot, sending the tremendous corpse towards Emperor like a worthless, gruesome projectile.

With one of her big bulky weapons gone, Dynasty was bought a bit more time in exchange: the lesser weight and mass gave the thrusters a bit more use against Emperor's magnetic pull. Lora still couldn't escape, but if this went as intended, then she wouldn't need to. Yet, Dynasty had never used a sword before, and the new weapon as such felt obviously unfamiliar in Lora's controls. Not being designed to wield anything but one or two of her blasters, Lora felt her synch rate actively dip as she attempted to test the heft of the Blade of Hope.

With only moments left to spare, the pilot forced herself to discard her inhibitions to this plan, and simply have faith in her Framewerk. "Come on, Dynasty," she spoke to herself again, this time coaxing the tremendous machine around her to work in her favor, "We have to give it all we've got. Nothing but our very best-!"

Lora lined up the remaining blaster to the approaching Emperor's head, and opened fire. Knowing the enemy would not be taken off-guard this time, she let loose a couple more suppressing blasts in the general area, and then switched gears. Dynasty suddenly reversed direction, only having to thrust forward on low power due to the magnetic attraction doing half the work. In the split-seconds Lora had, she leaned in forward with the left shoulder and reared back with her right.

As she was about to make impact, Dynasty tossed its whole body to the left, swinging both weapons in quick succession- the blunt end of the Blaster Cannon to knock away Emperor's shield, and then the Blade of Hope to slash into Emperor's damaged torso. Even if the sword lacked the power it normally had in Phantom Zero's grip, it had to do something. And as the smashing and screaming of metal on metal practically deafened Lora in her cockpit, as Dynasty's weight followed through and carried the Framewerk well past it's regal enemy- Lora could only hope the effort would be enough.

'What was that?' Zim thought for just a moment. No time to wonder about it now, it was the middle of combat. Whatever it was, that feeling as if an old friend were sitting in the cockpit with him, or a reassuring pat on the shoulder from a compatriot. Whatever it was, it was fleeting as Zim pushed the thought from his mind to focus on the task at hand. His Sync rate was through the roof, nearly double what he usually managed to pull.

With a gratifying swing Zim and Blackstar slide the thermal blade through the flower power framewerk defenses and freed Yaeger. Victory never looked so beautiful as the defenses shattered into millions of flower petals. The victory was short lived, however.

Still unsure as to whether it was a mistake or not, the Framewerk that Zim didn't dispatch now came back while Zim was occupied. Faster then Zim could respond he too found himself dispatched. Through the heightened sync rate Zim too felt the sharp stabbing pain of of the impaling fist shoot through his internal organs. His immediate response was to grab his stomach where the spike protruded. Blackstar mimicked, grabbing hold of the spike with both hands. Zim was in too much pain to do anything with it, the shock had caused him to drop the scythe. Blackstar slouched to his knees as the alarms and warning bells went off on Zims HUD, his sync rate plummeted and so did he. He coughed up blood against the display as he blacked out.

No wait, Zim was still conscious, it was just the cockpit that had turned back. The last little bit of life was about to flicker out of the council in front of him and Zim reached out to the red light, putting his hand near it he whispered through the pain, as a whisper was all he could muster through his sync damaged abdomen. "Thanks, partner."

The last light faded after a momentary increase in intensity, as if acknowledging his words and finally everything went total black inside the cockpit. Or maybe Zim really did finally black out from the pain.

The sharp-legged Frame threw Black Star's pierced chassis aside, and was about to charge, but hesitated when Yeager suddenly activated it's overboosters, and with the highest acceleration possible; a suicidal move. The enemy pilot didn't even have a chance to blink before Yeager tackled the enemy, accompanied by the sound barrier breaking as Yeager went past the speed of sound, and the two flew straight towards the Tower of Power. The collision was enough to shake the tower, despite being designed to endure a nuclear blast, and in the resulting impact both Framewerks broke, with the enemy's thin limbs squashed and twisted and Yeager's upper body bent from shoulder to shoulder backwards, resutling in a view of the sky for Rooney, who was promptly knocked unconscious while bleeding from his forehead, having endured enough forces that even the plugsuit was not enough to protect him. Lorenzo didn't even blink when he disabled the fast Frame after its one last dash.

Caretaker attempted to close the distance between itself and the Black Komodo even while crippled, and it turned out as ineffective as one could have guessed: It dodged Caretaker's rifle shots while easily keeping the distance between them, and destroyed the drone cluster with sweeps of its chainsword, ripping them to metallic shreds. At the same time, it started charging it's deadly Tri-Lazer, as could be seen by the three guns protruding from its shoulder glowing brighter and brighter. However, just as it was about to unleash its ace in the hole it was suddenly struck with Rostosov's cruise missile. The detonation overloaded the Tri-Lazer, and Black Komodo was disintegrated by the energy discharge, causing Caretaker to fall over from the shockwave, unable to get up due to the lost leg.

The Emperor held up its shield, and defended against Dynasty's blaster shots. It was then that Lora made a bold move; it picked up the Blade of Hope, a symbol of courage and determination, and despite the Framewerk's rejecting of the weapon she swung it straight at its melted midsection where its armor was weakest, delivering justice with a blue flame. She was not alone in this moment of magnitude; Serah used the Imperator field's magnetic pull combined with her thrusters to propel itself at high speed against the enemy, and the two edges clashed as they pierced the enemy simultaneously. The Emperor suddenly turned limp, its pilot seemingly killed, and fell once again, this time for good.

The Black Framewerk was seemingly infuriated, and unleashed a salvo of electrified high-penetration slugs from its over-sized gun straight at Atty; the Framewerk would have been ripped apart at that instant were it not for the wing barriers that managed to absorb some of the salvo before they were also overloaded, not unlike what happened between Rostosov and the previous wielder of the Blade of Hope. Atty's armor was rent, it's thrusters destroyed and most systems informing of being close to shutting down, but still capable of fighting for just a couple of minutes more.

Paladin, despite having been blinded, continued to fight as Ariin believed in Elora's data and himself, and made the most insane of maneuvers; he actually opened the hatch of his Framewerk and looked up at the ace Framewerk who was about to take another shot at him, quite realistically killing him right then and there if it wasn't for the awe-inspiring barrage that he unleashed with Pompey, causing it to overheat to the point of partially melting, beyond use. Irina was prepared for the six shots that she already saw coming, and jumped, but she was still struck by a couple of the shots; one glanced off her right shoulder causing a fracture on the armor that travelled down the arm, and another got Sköll's GAR. The weapon's form was broken and contorted as a result.

"Aargh! Now you're gonna get it!" Irina screamed in comms, and Sköll threw the weapon away.
She decided it was time to draw upon Sköll's true potential, and activated the Frame's special ability, Sword of Terra. The Frame drew MORS from it's back with the grace and agility of a ninja, and proceeded to cut down Paladin's durable armor with speed that was difficult to follow with the naked eye; the blade was handled with inhuman swiftness that should have been impossible by the laws of physics, but Irina showed off how capable she was. Paladin's legs first fell separately to the ground, followed by the torso, arms, and finally the head. Lorenzo chuckled at the sight, and deactivated Paladin. "You go, girl. Hee hee heh!"

Irina then pointed her sword straight at Rostosov, and Irina laughed in the comms. "You're next, Knight's Cross. Oh, I've been waiting to whack around a war hero. Even the thought makes me hot!" Then, she flipped through the air in a somersault, about to make more fillet with the expertise of a master chef. It all came down to the next few seconds whether Team Sigma would win or lose, with the battle coming to a climax.

The pointed sword gleamed with a devilish flourish under the harsh sunlight. The black frame's pilot was bold enough to taunt him, and her mech's pose was abhorrently arrogant among the craters and the ruin of Zone C.

"You're next, Knight's Cross," her voice was like frostbite to Harold's ears. "Oh, I've been waiting to whack around a war hero. Even the thought makes me hot!"

"Fuck you!" Harold spat back over the radio. "I fought the Aliens and I survived. You can't do shit to me!"

Of course, he knew just how screwed he was. His autocannons were destroyed, Paladin had fallen in the most horrifying way at the hands of the women before him, and something happened at Zone G - he didn't know what, but it shook the Earth like nothing else. His map had less blue dots flashing, too. One by one, his comrades were being felled, but he wasn't aware of the exact hows and whys. Such was the chaos and sheer swiftness of the battle. He was surprised himself. So much had happened in so little time.

When he saw the Sköll jump up with the intent to skewer him, Harold did not run. He stood his ground, and even crouched the Rostosov down a bit, to underline his determination.

"You can't kill me," he growled. This was his third and last missile.

MK. I CRUISE MISSILE - SELECTED MODE: SACLOS - FIRING

"YOU CAN'T KILL ME!"

Serah felt the shocks of impact rock her body somewhat, wincing at the enormous amount of G-forces created from it. Soon after she had Atty stab its blade straight through the middle of that white frame, she felt it going limp. Its then that Serah also noticed someone else on the other side, Dynasty. It'd yanked off the blade off of that other melee framewerk from before, jamming it right in alongside Serah to guarantee that kill. "Hm~!" the girl gleefully hummed to herself, knowing that she worked together with one of her allies to take something bigger than her down. Then something caught Serah's eye on one of the holographic screens inside the control panel. Two, actually. The first was Yaeger's signal being lost, and the second was a volley launched straight at her. "Atty!" she screamed, quickly pulling up both wings to intercept its fire whilst ignoring how the framewerk's blade was still stuck inside the now-dead target. They did their job well enough, drawing in most of the fire...

...But then both barriers shattered like glass. At that very moment, time slowed down to a crawl for Serah. Her brain took their time to process what was going on. A hail of armor-piercing slugs was firing towards a frail, light body. The girl's very own Atty. "Sorry, Atty-" she managed to conjure up in thought, right as the volley of slugs punched their way through every single one off Atty's systems. "IAAAAA!!" she screamed as every fiber of her body stung in pain, her sharing every twang of pain AA-XOTRY felt. The moment seemed to last an endless amount of time, and the framewerk got almost completely destroyed in the meanwhile. Once it ended, visible smoke rose from Atty as its right arm hung limp, and head was down. Serah needed a few moments to recover herself, eyes wide open as she still felt the aftershocks of that intense feeling she'd just gotten.

The girl lowered her head back down to the screens, with her eyes having gone completely blurry and her hands numb. She grit her teeth, feeling a throbbing pain rattle around in her skull. She seriously wanted to blank out, just fainting inside of the cockpit. And for a little while, it looked like she would. But then, through the blur her eyes, she felt something. It wasn't right for her to faint just yet. As her vision returned, little by little, she took in the sight of all systems being red... But not down. "...You'd... Still hold on for me?" Serah asked her own machine in surprise, and now an actual smile of relief crossed her face. "...Thank you..." she mused, pulling herself back into her seat.

Everything hurt. It took Serah a miracle of willpower to even get upright, let alone scan the battlefield once more. Paladin was gone. Caretaker was down. And Sköll was about to finish off someone else. Serah grit her teeth again. "no..." they mused. "No...!" she mused again, a little bit louder this time. She focused all of her concentration into Atty's left arm, trying to wrangle the blade out of the white framewerk. "I won't allow it..." Serah stabilized, though anger was starting to overflow her. "Atty... Please... Hold out, just this little bit longer!" she begged silently. The framewerk pulled out its blade and took one step back, then clutched their arm tightly around the energy blade. With the last of its might, it swung once to fire off an energy sickle at where Irina jumped, trying to catch her mid-air. Serah had put in all of the current energy of that blade into that swing, so the sickle was supposed to be larger than normal if fate smiled upon the girl. But that was probably everything Atty was capable of, with all other systems failing rapidly and Serah finally blacking out from the pain.

Everything was going so fast- Lora just barely managed to recover from her tumble into Emperor to notice Atty, her unexpected partner-in-crime, falling just short of being ripped entirely to shreds. Explosions and crashes rang out, and the blips on the radar were disappearing in quick succession, leaving only a handful of still-standing Framewerks within Zone C.

"You're next, Knight's Cross. Oh, I've been waiting to whack around a war hero. Even the thought makes me hot!"

Crazy bitch, Lora insulted Irina in her head. Even if it was just an act for the fight, getting that excited over such a prospect would probably have any other person put in a mental ward. As much as she willed Dynasty to help, though, she had her own fish left to fry: the other remaining enemy Framewerk, codename Daemon, lay operational and within range. If Lora didn't stop the monster here, he would likely shoot down the cadet as she tried to go for Sköll. Lucky, it had the pre-baked disadvantage of that gaping hole in its shoulder...

"Atty!" Lora opened a channel with Serah as quickly as her fingers could fly, "If you can still move, go for Irina while she's distracted! I'm taking down this titan-!" It seemed selfish, but Dynasty now remained the most functional of Squad Sigma right now, and she couldn't afford to let the enemy support Irina in the end here.

Praying that Serah would still hear her out, Lora pushed Dynasty on, veins bulging on her skin and her eyes tearing up with strain. Immediately she let loose with the Blaster Cannon again, aiming for the oversize machine's appropriately-oversize gun. Lora leaned harshly into the controls, sweeping Dynasty back and forth in as best of a serpentine pattern as her lower synchronization could manage in order to avoid fire. Even as the blaster and the burners both threatened to overheat from the stress, the cadet pushed on vigorously. As the distance between the two machines shrunk, Dynasty's right shoulder leaned forward in preparation to swing the Blade of Hope-

Moments before she could, however, the box mounted behind the right shoulder opened up, letting loose a salvo of HEMP missiles. The ballistic buckshot assaulted the enemy machine's head and shoulders at the close range, intending to disable or at the very least distract the Framewerk's senses long enough to let her next move go uninterrupted.

With a last all-out burst from her flight burners, Dynasty leaped up into the air in a stiff mimicry of Sköll's own jumping slash. The pilot let out a furious kiai as she unleashed an overhead swing on the Daemon's exposed shoulder mechanisms, as if she could diagonally bisect the beast with a single slash of the cyan-wreathed Blade of Hope.

It seemed hopeless. Where Katya's thoughts as watched the gray mech keep its distant form her no matter how hard she tried to get in close. He left leg was simply to damaged and was slowing her down too much to allow her enough speed to get in close. To also make matter worse it seemed she couldn't even hit the thing with her rifle. But Katya wasn't going to give up she had already made up her min not matter what she would fight for as long as Caretaker still had the capacity to do so. But even that didn't stop her sync rate form dipping down as each shot missed or as her drone got torn to little pieces. This situation reminding Katya the first time she faced of against her instructor who also easily out maneuvered her attempts to attack him.

When she saw what looked to be a large energy weapon on it shoulder starting to glow Katya was sure that any moment now this fight would be over although with her on the losing side. Sure enough a moment later the battle was over, but not in the way Katya was expecting. As the gray mech charged it weapon it was struck by the missile causing the weapon to overload. Anything beyond that Katya didn't see as the shock wave knocked Caretaker off its feet and destroyed her mechs left leg. Damaging the rest of the mech already battered armor to a circuital point. The forces of the shock wave threw Katya back in the cockpit, even as she tried to brace for impact the lose of the leg caused the mech to land on its right side and Katya to slam her head into a control panel. The young woman watching as her cockpit slipped into the darkness as the overseer of this mock battle shut her mech down remotely. As her systems went offline Katya slipped into unconscious. Uttering a weak thank you to her mech just as she passed out.