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What y’all think of snow white?


Badass. Love it.
Oh crap... have I seriously been misspelling Taurus this whole time in my IC posts? Apparently I've been spelling it as Tauros... which I guess means we're hunting for mobile suits shaped like a Pokemon. LOL
@Crimson Lion@Shiyonichi
Riku POV

Riku couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. It worked, all of it. He managed to time the escape and give the Mobile Armor an explosive send off to boot. He really needed to cut back on the risky tactics before one of them got him eliminated.

“Get back on board and use the catapult to launch towards the base..."

He listened to the entire communication and, despite no one being able to see it, Riku nodded in agreement. "Yeah, makes sense to me. But as long as I'm docking back into the Yamato, give me just a moment to switch Gunplas again. Whatever their last defense is, I get the feeling I'll be more helpful with the Manticore's loadout than with a single katana." The Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki was a powerful build, no doubt. In fact Riku could confidently say it was his strongest Gunpla at present. But as he just alluded to, it was limited to only the Izanagi as its sole weapon. And while that sword was very special, any opponent worth their salt would observe that it was a bit of a one-trick pony and likely prepare to counter it accordingly, "Besides," Riku added, "I think I just figured out a way to make the Manticore usable in the air."

While docked with the Yamato, Riku went to work on his idea. The first thing he did was switch off controls for the Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki and then switched back over to the Manticore. Once that was done, he told Haro to hold off on launching him until he gave the okay. After that, he used the Manticore itself to look around the hanger bay of the Yamato. The Gunplas were all there, including the Gundam Maxter and - more importantly - its rocket-powered Shield/Surfboard. Perfect. Riku used the Manticore to reach over and take the armament from the unmanned Gunpla, "Sorry Maxter, I need to borrow this for a bit..." he whispered as he brought the object over to be mounted onto the catapult. After this, he had the Manticore step up onto the board and its feet became magnetically locked into place.

"Okay, Haro, launch me whenever you're ready." he said, having now noticed Blade launching within a new white Gunpla. Was that perhaps the little project he had been working on? It certainly looked impressive enough, so it was a shame Riku wouldn't get see what it could do for himself.

"The Unyielding Metal Soldier," Riku announced as he watched his catapult hatch open up, "Manticore, move out!" and just like that, he was launched back into the fray. As soon as the gunpla left the catapult he fired up the surfboard rocket and gave his teammates a good look at the plan he had had in mind. Thanks to the Maxter's board, the Manticore could now more or less be maneuvered like a full on flying unit.

"Sorry for the wait Kai," Riku said to Kai over the comms, "but I'm ready to wrap this up if you are." and then took it upon himself to take point in the flight toward the enemy base. He figured with his current setup, he likely had longer range scanners than Kai and could therefore get a head start on scanning for their targets, the Taurus suits.

When they found themselves taking fire from two enemy Gunpla, Riku banked to his right and rolled himself out of the line of fire. As he long he kept his movement and momentum going he could avoid most shots with relative ease. The challenge was going to be putting himself in a position to shoot back. Depending on which weapon he wanted to use, it might require him to fly directly toward an enemy to line up a shot, which would of course put him in danger of taking a shot from them in kind. So for now, Riku simply prepped the tripod missile launchers on the Manticore's legs, as those wouldn't require him to alter his trajectory to fire. In short, he could circle around them and pelt them with volleys of missile fire while remaining relatively safe and out of reach above, "Feel free to charge in, Kai, I'll cover you from here!" he told Kai over the comms while he locked onto both the Full Armor and Zaku Cannon. As soon as he saw Kai make a move, he let loose a volley of his own. Six missiles, three homing in on each gunpla. Now they'd have to choose. Focus on evading the missiles, or defending against Kai's attacks. Either way, they were in for a bad time.

@Crimson Lion
Chisato and Yuna POV

Two females hurriedly made their way to the entrance of Kishimoto Arcade. One was a teenager, in the same age range as the Team Imagine Victory members. And the other one was older, in her early 40's. The younger of the two appeared to be in a bigger rush, as she was practically dragging the older woman behind her, "Come on, Chisato-san! Hurry, or we'll miss it!" she said with an excitable tone that elicited an amused chuckle from the older woman.

"Okay, okay, I'm right behind you, Yuna-chan." she said as they walked through the door. It looked like the first round had already started. They were indeed late, but at least they'd get to see the conclusion of the round. They had to look around a moment, but soon spotted the person they were supposed to look for and meet with, "Ah, there he is. Takenori-san!" she called out, while Yuna was waving at him to get his attention. In another minute, the two found themselves watching the Tournament from the same vantage point that he was.

"So... how's he doing?" asked Chisato. She was referring to her son, Riku. She usually tried to go to the build competitions he had signed himself up for, but this was the first official tournament she'd ever watched him battle in, "And the rest of the team, of course." she also said, making sure not to leave out any of Riku's new friends.

"He's probably fine." said Yuna, not looking too worried. She was their neighbor, her and her parents lived in the apartment directly above Chisato and Riku. Both Chisato and her parents often worked late, so during those times she had a habit of taking it upon herself to cook dinner for herself and Riku. The two had become pretty good friends thanks to these interactions. And when he started building Gunpla, she became curious enough to ask him to teach how to build as well. She didn't do battles or anything, that just wasn't her cup of tea. But the designs and colors and flashy moves all looked amazing, so clearly she was at least captivated by the sport even if she lacked the desire to take part herself, "I'm more excited to see that new 'trump card' of his in action. The way he talked it up, it sounded like he had cooked up something amazing."

Takenori would recall that Riku told him the previous day that these two would be coming to watch them that day, and that he told them to look for Takenori and join up with him.
Oh, I just figured out how we can make the Manticore fly for this battle! I'm thinking I can just have it ride on the Maxter's surfboard shield.
@mattmanganon I think I'd be interested in joining. Not sure about the human character yet but I rather dig the Coronamon line if it's allowed.
@Crimson Lion

The mobile armor's next movement told Riku all he needed to know. The pilot was out of options and was opting to try and deliberately crash them all to the ground, "Naoki, disengage! She's trying to take us down with her!" he warned his teammate over the comms. But unfortunately, as long as the Mobile Armor's propulsion system still worked, she'd just keep trying to ram them. That left Riku with one option to end this for good... and he wasn't particularly fond of the idea. He was gonna have to get close again, and try to kill her power-plant in order to disable her propulsion system. Of course that meant that he would be in danger of being dragged down with her if he couldn't pull out fast enough once the damage was done.

"Go ahead and check on Kai's status, Naoki... I'll finish this one off myself." Riku finally said over the comms. He really wasn't thrilled about this plan, but it was the only feasible one he could pull off. The Shin Musha made another lunge for the Apsaras II. Given that it was actively trying to ram them, it wouldn't be hard for him to aim his strike where he wanted. He pointed the blade straight ahead of him, aiming for a thrust right into the underside of the Mobile Armor. This particular model was able to fly due to a special propulsion system powered by its Minovsky Fusion Reactor. The reactor itself would be located behind the protective armor of the machine, but would require a direct connection to the propulsion surface in order to power the Minovsky Craft System currently keeping it afloat.

Riku's plan was surprisingly simple. If he could wedge his blade deep enough through the underside, there was a chance the blade would penetrate the reactor's I-field. This would cause it to start feeding energy directly to the sword, where the energy absorbing hilt awaited to collect a percentage of the excess energy. The combination of Izanagi's draining effect along with the leak the blade would cause in the reactor would theoretically drain the Apsaras II of it's remaining power, and pretty rapidly. The trick was that Riku needed to get himself out of there before he could be dragged down by the plummeting machine.

And he really only had one surefire way to accomplish the last part. He needed the Izanagi to absorb enough particles from the reactor to use one more Shining Flash. Hopefully this only took a few seconds, but those few second would be rather dangerous in this particular scenario. Still, once he had collected enough energy, he made the blade once again glow with red particle energy, producing an outer aura around it to enhance its length and cutting power, "...S-Shining Flash!" Riku put as much power has he could spare into making the Gunpla fly back upwards, while the rest of the excess energy went into the Shining Flash. If he calculated this right, the empowered blade would cut its way up through the Mobile Armor thanks to being supercharged by the Shining Flash. If all went well, this would get Riku out of danger and potentially slice the mobile armor in two to finish it off for good.
@FalloutJack

While listening to Niko's response and his subsequent suggestion thereafter, Han had appeared to take a knee. His eyes were closed in thought, and while he very much paid attention to what he was hearing, his finger began to write something in the red Martian sand. Letters that would spell words, and words that would eventually form one of those Haikus that Han had enjoyed composing so much:

Blood soaks the red sand,
Foes await beyond the wall,
Our path, uncertain...


This was far from the first Haiku he had composed while traveling with Niko. In fact, Niko had likely heard or seen several of them on their trip here alone. But none of them had been quite this... ominous. Most of them were about the things Han saw and did, either in the past tense or in the present tense. This one was different, instead describing something that was about to happen in the future tense.

But in just a matter of a few moments, the winds blew away the haiku written in the sand. And once it did, as if waiting for such a cue, Han returned to his feet. His eyes opened once more and looked to his newfound partner with agreement and intent, "I'm ready when you are."
In case anyone's curious:

"Tenkagomen Kogane no Samurai" roughly translates to: The Golden Samurai Authorized by Providence.

And "mairu!" translates to: going forth!
@Crimson Lion@Shiyonichi

Riku was spending the remaining time figuring out how best to utilize the Manticore's loadout for the mission at hand. He'd already planned to use the sniper kit to survey the area and try to locate the Taurus suits. Beyond that his plan was to be the one to destroy the Taurus units while Naoki and Kai dealt with the enemy team. After this, Riku could then turn his attention to providing squad support to both his teammates by providing them cover fire from a distance. Yes, that sounded like the best way to go about-

“Warning, Warning, Enemy Approaching!!!”

That was the harbinger of things to come. Immediately afterward, Naoki reported an incoming Apsaras II. A moment later, Kai confirmed there was enemy units shooting up at them from the forests and that he would descend to the ground to deal with them. That meant it was up to Riku and Naoki to dispatch the Mobile Armor. But there was a problem. The Manticore was not optimized for aerial combat at all. It could handle space and the ground, but high altitude aerial zones like this would be a no-go. He had no other option, Riku would have to switch to one of his other Gunpla. Thankfully the Manticore hadn't launched from its catapult yet, so Riku still had time to get it off there and trade it for another Gunpla without wasting too much time.

"Naoki," Riku said over comms as he hurriedly made the preparations for the Gunpla swap, "The Manticore's a no-go for aerial combat. I'm switching to one of my other builds instead. I have a plan, but it might be a bit risky. Just keep the I-Field up and wait for me. When I put my plan in plan motion, it will give you an opportunity to shoot back with whatever you've got. You'll know the opportunity when you see it."

By this point, Riku had already removed the Manitcore from his GP Base. He swiftly, but carefully, replaced it with the GP Base for the Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki. Truth be told, it too was better suited for ground combat. But thanks to it partially being a Hayku Shiki it still had plenty of atmospheric flight capability. This in fact was one of the builds Riku could say with confidence that he had nearly perfected, since it was capable of combat in space, the air, or on the ground.

"Tenkagomen Kogane no Samurai!" Riku said when the Gunpla was secured to the catapult, "Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki, mairu!" and with that, the Gunpla launched from the catapult and out into the combat zone.

Outside, Riku finally emerged from the Yamato's catapult bay. But he wasn't piloting his Manticore as he had originally planned. Instead he was piloting one of the other Gunpla he had brought with him. It was no less than a shining golden samurai appearing to bear design motifs of a Musha Gundam and Hyaku Shiki. It's golden coloring was also a strong indicator of the Anti-Beam Coating the Gunpla's armor was coated with.

After launching, Riku maneuvered to stand on the bridge of the Yamato nearby where Naoki's Gunpla stood. The SMHS almost glistened in the sunlight with its golden armor, "She's going to fire any moment now. When I move from here, I need you to lower the I-Field to allow me through it. And make sure Haro keeps the Yamato steady. No sudden evasive movements. Like I said, my plan's a little risky, but if we pull it off we can render that Mobile Armor practically useless." during this, Riku had been watching the Apsaras II very intently. Keeping an especially close eye on its mega particle cannon. As soon as he spotted the telltale glow of its shot beginning to fire, his Gunpla shot forward without any warning, right toward the I-Field and the Mobile Armor beyond it.

He really hoped Naoki trusted him and would lower the I-Field. If he had to cut through it or navigate around it, then Riku would never reach his intended destination in time. If the I-Field lowered, the Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki would launch itself off from the tip of the Yamato's bow. It flew straight into the trajectory of the incoming mega particle cannon beam, the gunpla's hand reaching for the hilt of Izanagi. Like something out of a futuristic samurai film, the Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki drew its weapon in an iaido-inspired attack and brought the blade into the line of fire of the incoming beam.

Truth be told, the Shin Musha Hyaku Shiki had never deflected a beam of this magnitude before. And Riku suspected a full deflection of this beam was likely not possible. But the blade could do more than deflect beams, it could also slice through them as well and that was what Riku was counting on. The beam from the mega particle cannon would hit the edge of Izanagi's blade, resulting in the beam becoming split into two. The resulting split beams would each veer off at opposite angles, and as long as Haro had kept the Yamato on its current heading, they would miss the ship entirely - albeit barely. However, all of this would only work if Naoki and Haro had followed his instructions.

Assuming it all did work, Riku wasted no time with making his follow up. He continued flying toward the Apsaras II. With its mega particle cannon fired, it needed to recharge. And unless its pilot had bothered to customize it with additional armaments, then it would be unable to shoot at Riku as he made his move. He let the blade of Izanagi glow with whatever amount of particle energy it had absorbed from slicing the mega particle beam. It probably wasn't anywhere near full power, but it would be enough to suit Riku's purposes, "Secret Technique! Shining FLASH!" Riku cried out, unsure where the sudden need for theatrics had come from. But nevertheless, his charged up sword was brought down for a powerful slash aimed for Mobile Armor's mega particle cannon. If this worked, the weapon would become too damaged to keep firing.

Hopefully, Naoki also saw the opening created by Riku's risky maneuver, as it would render the Mobile Armor wide open for a follow up attack from him and his Fantastic GM.
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