+}Crouching Cruxi, Hidden Thunder{+[Days after the Apple Vs Mango Simulation]
Once again Aurora found herself standing outside the VR stations. This time with much more trepidation than the last. This time she had the understanding that XJ9’s VR was different, somehow, and the nightmares to prove it.
Which is why she was nervous. Her goal here was simple, driven by curiosity, she wanted to see this ‘Theoretical Frame’ for herself. But still, she wondered if it was worth it. She let out a humorless huff, as truly it didn’t matter in the end.
She wouldn’t be able to let it go without knowing. Not if this theory could be made real, and if it would help eradicate the Cruxi. And there was only one way for her to know.
After a grounding breath Aurora climbed into the Station. And prepared herself for pain.
A while ago, she had requested Lorenzo to take the challenge he had given to the squad the other day. The old man raised an eyebrow. “Alone, and with a dedicated Backliner Framewerk? Very well then,” he answered, and he hobbled with Liisa to the VR room.
“Now then, normally you would need to beat me to win. However, to make this slightly more fair for you as a lone challenger,” Lorenzo spoke with a grin, “to win, all you need to do is survive for thirty seconds” (OOC: three rounds). “Of course, the same rules for desertion apply here, so you can’t just run away the entire fight. Not that I think you would run even if you could, Cadet Briars. Now then, best of luck to ya, lassie…You’re going to need it, heh!”
And with that, he climbed into his VR pod, leading back to the moment Aurora prepared herself before plugging in.
‘Thirty seconds' Aurora repeated to herself as she swiftly brought Sleepy online. It wasn’t a lot of time, in fact it was a damningly short amount of time. Which told her something at least. The Professor was confident that defeating the Cruxi Fister wouldn’t be possible within that time frame. Which she assumed meant that this theoretical Frame was sturdier than Mother Goose. She couldn’t run, which meant it was faster as well.
The only thing she might be able to count on was Sleepy being more heavily armed. But seeing as her opponent was expecting it to take multiple Frames working in concert to win, she doubted that advantage as well.
‘I am going to ‘die’ again today.’ She thought with a grimace.
‘I wonder how many times he will let me attempt this? And if it will be enough to piss Sleepy off as well.’She shrugged the ponderings off. She would learn soon enough.
Aurora dove into the virtual reality, and found herself in the cockpit of Sleeping Thunder once again, locked and loaded. It was a forlorn world this time, a grey desert overcast by an orange, sunset sky speckled with ominous monuments of black stone.
“Now then, time to count down!” Lorenzo’s voice could be heard in the intercoms.
“Ready, set, go!”
And with that, Lorenzo’s voice turned quiet in the comms. Her opponent could not be seen within range of Sleepy’s sensors. However, Aurora, even from the cockpit, could feel a slight tremble… And as it grew closer, she realized it was the quake of two legs stomping through the landscape.
And the quakes were heading straight towards her.
She was quick to begin. Charging straight forward was a guaranteed death sentence, running away was desertion, so death and then disqualification, and staying still was just a slow death.
‘The joys of solo back-lining’Sleppy’s lack of speed was another point to consider, but her starting position did at least give her an option that was still usable.
[Dash Movement (2)15 -> (2)13]One of the rare benefits of Sleepy's now archaic construction was the fact that they were just as fast laterally, as they were forwards and backwards. Letting Aurora max the throttle to move sideways, aiming for some degree of cover, while also keeping her eyes pointed in the known direction of her target.
She set the Particle Cannon to spool up the first charge. Though she doubted she would be able to get a full charge for it before she needed to fire it. In addition she also set the Moonbreaker to charge, and loaded in a ABAP round.
Part of her wondered if she should start prepping for a Thunderfall activation as well. Since it was her Ace in the hole, and there was no guarantee she’d get the chance to prepare it later. But at the same time it didn’t feel worth it. Sleepy didn’t feel particularly inclined to it, and she didn’t feel up to arguing with them.
Still, she wouldn’t cede initiative without doing something. Even if it was mostly symbolic.
[Automated Targeting System - Artillery cannons(Titan Shell): Attacking location (T14)]It was her fastest, widest range, explosive, as close to the optimal path the Cruxi Fister would take to reach her. Launched for the longest air time she could give the shells. If she was lucky, she might score a glancing blow. Or delay the Frame for a moment so she might line up a better shot.
Sleepy Thunder prepared for the duel, and a Titan shell whistled into the distance, exploding with a great kaboom. Then, from the rising smoke cloud, a humongous shadow could be seen, before the cloud dissipated, revealing Aurora’s opponent:
The machine was gigantic, surpassing even a Super Heavy in size, with armor plating interlocked and designed to leave no gaps in between, looking sturdier than Carbonox. Yet, unlike Mother Goose, who had to strain itself to move fast, the Cruxi Fister sprinted across the battlefield like a human the size of a Framewerk, moving so fast even Super Light Framewerks would not be able to catch up. Aurora, knowing how large the average VR simulated arena would be, and how the combatants were usually placed symmetrically at the start, realized that it had an absolutely insane dashing Speed.
“I see you!” Lorenzo taunted over the comms as it spotted Sleepy from behind a small monolith, and the Cruxi Fister began running: it’s hands went flat as they moved in rhythm with the legs, making for a cutting image of a running athlete, it’s pastel color scheme clashing with the dull-colored dunes it bounded over.
There was a moment of anticipation as she saw movement through the smoke. A swell of possibility of what it could be that the Professor saw as a theoretical goal for Framewerk. And when the simulated sun shone onto the Crixi Fister for Aurora to see it. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
Artistically, it was well designed, though there was little recourse for the color choice in her mind. It did seem to carry an echo of mockery, but she couldn’t place why. But its very artistry denied any possibility to glean something about the possible technical inner workings of it. It was too ‘perfectly’ built.
Still she eased up on the throttle, and triggered the hover suspension regardless of the supersized frame barreling towards her. As even without the sensor’s tracking its rapidly dwindling distance Aurora knew she had no chance of actually escaping it. None of the Frames onboard the Solaire did.
[Hover Movement (2)13 -> (2)12]She toggled the comms system as she lined up her shots. They were likely the only two she would be able to fire off after all. Might as well make them count.
“I have to admit to some disappointment at this theoretical frame of yours Professor.”Both cannons dropped into direct mode, APHE Shell’s loaded, as she zeroed in on the Cruxi’s Fister’s knees.
“I had been expecting to see more than a toy writ large. As making an impossibly fast, strong, and durable Frame within a simulation is child's work.”Sleepy’s A.T.S. zeroed in on the follow up target as well, MoonBreaker at center mass, just above the pelvis. If this worked, she would have a small window to follow up with more attacks. The spooling Particle Cannon and a payload of missiles were her next best bet at cracking into her target. But otherwise she would be taken out swiftly.
“But I suppose it is true that some boys never grow up, and some theories should remain unvoiced.”She ran the numbers one last time before she pulled the trigger. The spare seconds were not truly wasted, for all that they were precious, it would allow the enemy Frame to enter Sleepy’s range.
“Shame.”[Artillery cannons(APHE Shell): Attacking Cruxi Fister (V)13][Automated Targeting System - Moonbreaker(AB-AP): Attacking Cruxi Fister (V)13]Lorenzo could be heard scoffing over comms. “Oh-ho? Trying to engage in psychological warfare, Cadet Briars? That won’t work against the Cruxi!” He spoke out, as he kept running in a straight line, The Sleeping Thunder, using the A.T.S, timed shots with the Artillery Mortars, sending deadly APHE shells right toward the pink menace. “Shoot as much as you like, you can’t stop my-WAH!?” The APHE shells, designed for the greatest stopping power among heavy armaments, successfully struck the Cruxi Fister right on the knees: while they failed to penetrate the armor, leaving heavy dents in the plating, they did succeed in causing the Frame to teeter on one leg as the shot leg was knocked back before landing. At the same time, Sleeping Thunder delivered a Moonbreaker shot right at the abdomen: once again, while a shot this powerful was capable of punching through even heavy armor, it only left a dent on the incredibly durable Frame. Yet, the second strike was enough to cause the Framewerk to trip and fall to the ground, causing a major earthquake.
“Gosh darnit!” Lorenzo cursed over the comms! “Oh, my frail knees! Now you’ve done it!” Crux Fister rose up on one shaky knee. “You’ve made me show my secret weapon!”
And brought its forearm forward, holding it steady with the other.
“ROCKET FIST!”
And then, with a loud exploding sound, the fist was shot out with the force of a battleship cannon. Assisted by a rocket motor in the wrist, the fist reached Sleeping Thunder. Fortunately, it failed to make a direct hit. However, it smashed right through the Frame’s side, taking out the front right and center right legs as well as the right Artillery Mortar and right Gatling Gun.
The Frame, unable to fully support itself, now tilted diagonally towards the right, the hover mode now required to keep up mobility.
“Hah! Didn’t think I would have a ranged weapon, did ya lassie?” Lorenzo taunted over comms: he seemed to be getting into the fight, sounding almost giddy about it. The fist then curved upwards and made a U-turn, heading back towards the Cruxi Fister as it stood back up.
Aurora had ten seconds left.
“Rocket fists, a laser cannon in the chest, and a super reactor for a last minute stand.” Aurora would reply, her tone dry and unimpressed.
“A toy, as I said.”Pain lanced up and down her right leg, her right side, and her back. Synchronized echo from the crippling blow dealt to Sleepy. It lent an edge to her disappointment, gave it teeth, both for her and Sleepy if the rumbling of the engines were anything to go by. Her opponent wasn’t a Pilot, not truly. And it showed. Yet he would strut around in his fantasy and claim to be above them.
It was time for her final gambit. But the fear of loss wasn’t so sharp anymore, she had seen all she would care to see. So, she let the A.T.S zero in her first shot. The Fister’s arm, open for a moment longer as the Rocket Fist came in to re-dock.
[Particle Cannon(two turn charge): Attacking Cruxi Fister (Y)12]“And Cruxi aren’t worth wasting air on. So, you should know I mean it when I say; I expected better of you.”Throttle down, and Sleepy would limp away, not that it could go far, but maybe it would be far enough.
[Hover Movement (2)12 -> (2)11]Behind the building, barely, but they were. Shielded from view for a moment, one might expect her to hide. Possibly force her way into the building for even more cover. But neither she nor Sleepy were the type to go quietly. So there was one last step to her play.
With deft hands, she toggled the switches needed to remove the restrictions, hit the buttons required to override the safeties. And then pulled the trigger to unleash their parting show. It wouldn’t be enough to significantly damage the enemy, she knew this. But she tripped him with well placed shots, so now it was time to see if she could stagger him by sheer volume of them.
And if really lucky blind him.
Thunder wouldn’t fall, but at least it could still rumble with spite.
[Automated Targeting System + Flash in the Dark: Dragon Wing Missiles x16 (high-explosive): Attacking Cruxi Fister (Y)12]The Particle Cannon shot screaming through the air, the beam of incandescent light having been targeted at yet another weak point that the Professor had overlooked when making his ultimate Framewerk: the open arm socket just as the Rocket Fist was about to dock in. While the Frame’s outer armor plating was absurd in how much damage it could take, the inside was less impregnable, and the forearm was destroyed, leaving it a black stump with circuitry hanging out.
“WAAAH! Why you little-!” He shook his free fist at Aurora, who scuttled behind the monument.
“You can’t hide from me, Briars!” Lorenzo was now furious, and crouched down, before it launched itself into the air, the earth itself cracking from the force. However, that was when Aurora, having gotten a lock on to Cruxi Fister, unleashed her final fireworks: a barrage of missiles shot out in droves, the missiles twisting and turning as they aimed at the pink Frame mid-drop. The timer counted down the last seconds:
[Five]
[Four]
“Ngh! Good show, Cadet!”
The missiles crashed on the pink Frame violently, denting and burning the armor plating. But then, the armor finally began to yield in the face of such an onslaught, and a couple of missiles cracked the right ankle joint of the Framewerk, causing it to hang loose from the joint.
[Three]
Sleeping Thunder had proved that the Cruxi Fister was not invincible, that it could be beaten.
[Two]
“But it ends here!”
[One]
The Cruxi Fister, like a professional wrestler, lifted the free arm, and performed an elbow drop right on Sleeping Thunder’s core. And just like that, Aurora was disconnected, and back in the VR room.
It took a minute of pained grunting and panting from Lorenzo before he managed to climb out of his VR pod: he was sweating, with a pale face and shaking even more violently than usual. Liisa immediately gave him a vial, and he gulped it down.
“You failed, Cadet. But I gotta say,” Lorenzo began coughing mid-sentence, before he regained his breath, “you did better than I expected. That arm shot was pretty clever. Still, a deal’s a deal: I’m using this fight in my lecture materials.”
Aurora’s exit from the VR was, by contrast, much more serene. Not to mention a far cry from her first exit several days ago. All that happened once she opened her eyes was she took in a shocked breath. Yes, she needed a moment to calm her heart, but she was free of her station and standing easily, long before the Professor was up and ambulatory.
“By all means, Professor. It was the price of admission after all. I must confess to some curiosity as to what sort of lesson you are planning on framing this exercise around.” She would state calmly. If one didn’t know better she would seem to be unfazed by the VR, but her right knee shook slightly and breathing burned as it pulled at her side.
But pain was a constant friend to Aurora by now, and she knew this pain would fade soon enough.
“I can see some moments being valuable for emphasizing tactical awareness, but overall the shortness of our engagement limits what can be said I’d imagine.” She would shrug. There wasn’t anything she was ashamed of in this showing to be worried about. If anything she felt that the Professor had more to be ashamed about. He made novice mistakes, she felt, due to his blustering over confidence.
“If you will indulge me, are there any actual blueprints for that Frame? Or just the theoretical mock up in the simulator?” She would go on to ask. Curious yes, but skeptically so. It wouldn’t be hard to guess she wasn’t impressed by the Cruxi Fister. Even had she not belittled it during the match.
“There is a blueprint, “ Lorenzo answered with a grin. “Even theoretical models need to be designed. Unfortunately, the Frame is not fit for production. The Rocket Fist, while a marvelous idea in concept, is not practical. Also, the combination of armor and speed would be astronomical in costs, not to mention requiring a very high synchronization rate to use. But it works well for stress testing Frame capabilities, not to mention giving a glimpse to what we might be able to achieve in the future.”
She withheld her scoff at the professor’s words and instead just smiled politely. She was tempted to just leave it at that, when a thought occurred to her. She glanced around for a moment, noting the relative privacy that they had. Before turning back to the Professor.
“If you are trying to expand the horizons of Framewerks, I’m surprised that you are still working with humanoid limitations. I understand that most of my Godmother’s work hadn't been saved, but she had long since concluded that for mundane usage humanoid Frames were sufficient.” She would say, crossing her arms as she spoke.
“But for pushing boundaries non-human builds had vastly more potential. While she had found that the Synchronization lags behind at first, higher rating became much more common once a Pilot had gotten properly accustomed to thinking outside human limitations.”She doubted she needed to explain much of what she was talking about, after all if the man before her didn’t have access to the data she was referring to no one in XJ9 would.
“Your Cruxi Fister, seems to have fallen to just those sorts of limitations.”Lorenzo stroked his beard in contemplation. “Indeed, a non-humanoid Frame does lend itself to those with imagination… Unfortunately, most pilots lack such mental flexibility, myself included. That is why most Frames these days are based on the Homo Sapiens path of evolution.” He nodded, as he then glanced at Aurora with his one eye. “...Still, your Godmother was truly a genius, to have laid the foundation for what Framewerks would eventually become, even at such a primitive time when they still didn’t understand how to preserve people, let alone Frames. Your hexapod Friend is the last of its kind from a once glorious time.” He grabbed the walking cane offered to him by Liisa. “Well, I'll be going now. Plenty of work still for an old man like me. You can get back to your tinkering…”
He turned away, and placed the foot of his cane on the floor with gusto.
“Princess.”
Aurora let out a huff, but she couldn’t help the small, sad smile.
“Professor.” She would say with a soft bow of her head as the elder made his way elsewhere. She doubted she would ever find it within herself to actually enjoy his company, but she couldn’t help but understand him at times either.
And at the very least he respected Aurora's Godmother, so he had some taste. Buried that it might be.
With a shake of her head she made her way back to the VR station she had been stationed for the exhibition match. It was only a few moments of work to pull up the local recording of the sim she had just gone through. She skimmed through it, only slowing down at the end as she pulled up the exact time stamp of her defeat.
“Twenty nine point five…” She mused aloud.
“Half a second between your ideal theory and my current reality.” She would stand there for a long moment, before she chuckled. Closing out the menu she turned to leave herself.
She hadn’t gotten when she had come for, but neither did she end up leaving as disappointed as she had expected to be. There was a vast world of possibility with a half second after all, and if nothing else she had some ideas of how to bridge that gap. And to her, that made it all worth it in the end.
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