Army of Five

"Neo-ShogunMan is the name of your leader!?" Djinni replied with a loud voice after she got the answer from the nameless grunt, "Toe-to-toe, you say? Hah! He won't even get past my bullets!" Shifting her attention from the random Navi to the rest of the battlefield, she instantly aimed her floating weaponry towards the remaining archers she could spot. But she then noticed Broadside's projectiles ending the lifeline of the ranged threats. "You're being pummeled into the floor by a hand full of Navis!" Djinni yelled at the Neo-Shogun army, "You all talk big for such small fri-"

She instantly stopped as she saw the beams of colored light beam down from the sky, having to slide to the side to dodge one of them and instantly peered down at the ground to see the results. Color-coded enemies. Djinni frowned at the sight and just listened to them with only fifty percent of interest. The first to exclaim her name, however, awakened Djinni's interest and she widened her eyes while realizing what kind of scene she was looking at. "Aren't the color coded ones usually the heroes?" she asked herself and stared at ther companions, then shook her head with a sigh. The third one exclaimed her name as well, causing Djinni to notice the pattern. But unfortunately the fourth shattered the pattern Djinni had found. She sighed and shrugged with her hands lifted into the air, but then a spark awakened in her programming as she heard the second line of the green-clad ninja.

"Excuse me..." she muttered to herself, turning her eyes towards the back of the one called Yasu. "EXCUSE ME...!" she yelled out loud at Yasu, then pulled her guns from the air into her hands again, "That JUGGERNAUT happens to be my BEST FRIEND." Djinni's charcoal eyes started to glow with an eerie red color while behind her appeared the silhouette of a moon which gradually colored itself more crimson. As both the moon and Djinni's eyes reached their completion, the light shone down on the entire battlefield and started to increase the heat of the panels below the feet of the soldiers. In the begin the moon had cast Djinni's shadow on the floor, but gradually the light began to pierce Djinni's body in an all-compassing effect and the panels started to boil with molten metal before vanishing in a stream of lava surfacing from below it. "Drown, you ingrates!" Djinni bellowed angrily while she tossed her handguns in a fit of frustration at the four ninjas, but they vanished in a conjured circle of flames resembling a crosshair. "Fhyre, I'm counting on you!"

Fhyre was still hanging from Djinni's leg, admittedly bored with his positioning and all he could do was stare at the others from afar due to the lack of a ranged attack. Hearing his mistress mention 'counting on him' made him realize that it was his time to finally do something again. Eagerly he rubbed his two hands together, keeping the third on Djinni's leg, and just followed Djinni's lead.

Without warning Djinni took a dive towards the ninjas while also heading for the crosshair that had been made by herself. Holding one arm ahead of herself, she stuck it into the crosshair in the instant of a second and then shattered the circle which in turn revealed her arm again and in her hand a giant rifle which would be the result of fusing her two handguns together. She took the front end with her other hand and aimed at Yasu, while still flying towards them. From the corner of her eye Djinni suddenly noticed a projectile headed for the same target she had focused on and after investigating further up the tower, she could see Validus before he took his other weapon to shoot smaller targets. Realizing this was the point to strike, she pulled the trigger and shot a swift bullet bigger than a regular one that could certainly punch a fierce hole in something. Although the release of the bullet had momentairily stopped Djinni's advances, she immediately flew after the bullet and set her sights on Yasu.

Working against the wind, Fhyre had placed one hand higher on Djinni's legs and started to work his way higher towards her head. Next one of his hands landed on Djinni's hips, then one around her waist and, while avoiding the danger zone, he placed another hand on her shoulder, quickly placing another on Djinni's other shoulder. He held his remaining right hand close to the top of the Navi's head, ready to perform his mission.

The weapon that had rested in Djinni's hands in the flight vanished in the shape of red energy flowing into the rubies on the back of her hands. "Come play with me instead, bitch!" Djinni yelled and held her hands in front of her ready to pounce Yasu and take her to the ground in a genuine catfight.

Just before any impact would occur, Fhyre launched himself off of Djinni due to the speed of the Navi's flight and moved his three hands menacingly at Yasu's katana in an attempt to pull it out of her hands.

Djinni.EXE [Fire/Cursor] [AirShoes/FloatShoes]
1. Red Moon [Lava Full Stage; 4 TCD] @ Entire Stage.
2. Buster Charge.
3. Prominence Bullet [50 FIRE; 1 NC Uninstall; 1 Charge Burner; 3 TCD] @ Yasu.
4. Attempt to tackle Yasu to/into the ground.

Fhyre.SP [Fire/Shield]
1. Attempt to disarm Yasu from her katana.
Broadside lowered his weapon arm. The archers had been silenced by his attack, but his armor had taken a beating. The arrows fired by the archers had pierced through the thin plating, and now were now sticking out of his armor all over the place like needles stuck in a pin cushion. The big mecha Navi began shedding the damaged plates, arrows and all, just as the four Generals jacked in. The new layer of armor plating solidified into being at the same time as the four enemy custom Navis did the same. Strangely, Broadside's own battle damage seemed to repair itself almost as a continuation of the armor's self repair process. He had no idea how this was possible, but wasn't going to question it.

"Oh look," Nadia began in an impudent tone while standing on Broadside's left shoulder. "it's the fan service brigade."

"Called that one." Ro mumbled in appreciative agreement from his position of Broadside's right shoulder.

"Heh. What are they gonna do in those skimpy outfits? They provide no tactical advantages."

Ro turned to look at Nadia, and arched an eyebrow wordlessly at her as the army of spearmen cheered like fans at a rock concert. Between roars from the crowd, he added: "You were saying?"

"That I'd be a more effective leader wearing a china dress, apparently." Nadia grumbled just before the next round of cheering began.

A moment later, and the Navi identified as General Yasu declared Broadside as the Neo-Shogunate army's primary target. Not if I have any say in the matter.... Broadside's Aegis Defense system cycled up the shield generators, and immediately projected a defensive barrier around the mecha Navi as if responding to the sudden threat. One of those Navis is a ninja, and another is a sorceress. Beware teleportation.

Broadside conceded that there might just be some truth to that random thought, and activated the GrabStop chip that resided in his memory banks. The only sign that he had done this was the unexplained appearance of two brackets with a quartet of question marks next to his HP indicator. No fancy graphics heralded the setting of the trap. Too, there wasn't anything special or unique to indicate what kind of trap it was. Just the [????] to indicate one existed, and nothing more. The low key nature of this chip could be useful in future strategic planning. I'll ha--

Broadside's thoughts were interrupted as Djinni suddenly yelled 'EXCUSE ME...!' at the enemy. His previous frown turned into a quiet smile as he listened to her rant at Yasu. Best friend... I have never been called that before. A few moments later, and the lava burning at his feet turned that quiet smile into a lopsided grimace. On the one hand, he was quite happy to be considered a friend. On the other, he was not particularly happy about literally suffering from friendly fire. Broadside deployed his Tower Shield in an effort to defend himself from enemy attacks he was no longer certain he could withstand now that his HP was dropping.

"Yeah..." Nadia said as she holstered her handguns. "So..." Nadia began as a Guard Rifle materialized in her hands, "I was thinkin we take aughtta take these shareware Navis out."

"That'll do wonders for their morale." Ro said as he took aim at a Neo-Shogunate spearman, and fired a couple of Meason energy bolts at the Navi.

"Agreed." Broadside said absently while considering the pros and cons of changing the terrain to something that didn't burn his feet. He quickly reasoned it was probably more of an issue for the Neo-Shogunate than himself, and decided a better course of action would be to just deal with them wholesale. And deal with them now. He opened a communication link with his PET, and did something unprecedented: He sent activated battlechip data back to the PET.

"That's the idea." Nadia said with a predatory grin as she opened a datalink to Ro. "Mind tryin to refresh your shield for me?" Ro did as he was told, and a copy of his Riot Shield appeared on Nadia's left forearm. "Thanks."

"No problem," the Guard SP replied as he leveled his rifle at one of the spearmen trying to climb the tower. "Hi there." He pulled the trigger, and sent two Meason energy bolts flying through the air towards the target; one after another.

Nadia again accessed the channel through which battlechip data transmitted from the PET to Broadside, and was a bit surprised to see data flowing the opposite direction. Before she could ask what in the Undernet was going on, the freakish data flow stopped, and a fresh TwinFang1 came down the pipeline. She smiled, snagged the data, and downloaded it into her own memory bank. Once Nadia had the chip data, she made a quick request of her Navi master: "Yo, Broadside. You've got a lot of power to burn. Mind sparing me a few megawatts?"

Broadside quietly fulfilled her request by dumping some of the excess generator output into his armor. Nadia drew upon the current, and began feeding it into her weapon and command link protocols. She then took the TwinFang1's data, and divided the attack data in half. She then transmitted half of it to Ro, and barked her first ever attack command: "Ro, get ready to pick a chick, and fry her with a plasma bolt. Call it. Dee or Vee."

"Vee." Ro replied as he switched targets.

"Ready." The two took aim at their respective targets, switched firing modes from standard to railgun, and... "FIRE!"[/i][b] At Nadia's command, the two SPs pulled the triggers on their rifles. A pair of rail-fired projectiles lanced their way through the air between gun and target at speeds approaching C. The projectiles were small, and each left a double helix streamer of smashed subatomic particles in the projectile's wake no wider than an inch or two. The quickly fading trails of their passage, and the effect they had at their destination was the only indicator they had been fired. The projectiles themselves moved far too fast to detect in flight. The drawback was how hard it was to sight the weapons properly while they charged to fire....

----

Meanwhile, in the skies above the battlefield, a Guardian class remote weapon platform materialized at extremely high altitude and began falling towards the ground as Guardians usually did. However, this time things were different.... The Guardian was covered in a shell of externally docked H/Ks, and as it fell, the H/Ks separated from the Guardian host. The top-like Guardian opened up, and arrested its descent while still at a very high altitude above the field with the dozen H/Ks forming a lose grouping around the spinning platform. And it wasn't alone. One after another, more and more Guardians appeared in the sky; each bringing a dozen fresh H/Ks with them. In this manner the number of remote weapon platforms multiplied like crazy until the last of the twelve Guardians fell into a hover hundreds of meters above the battlefield.

The Guardians scanned the face of the battlefield from their position, and began assembling a firing plan based on the criteria they had downloaded from the PET. Criteria Broadside had written and uploaded along with the battlechip data the armada of remotes was now armed with. And according to the criteria they had, the twelved nodal control units divided the field into sectors, and assigned each group to deal with a single sector. Next, instead of picking out hostile targets to aim at, the Guardians began looking for people and structures designated as friendlies. Once they had located each of the Navis, SPs, and the tower specifically designated as friendly, they locked those targets and a small area around each as no-fire-zones. The guardians kept the friendlies locked-on, and watched them carefully. They kept their movements updated in as close to real-time as possible to avoid hitting them. Anything in the air was also listed as a non-target, and wouldn't be fired upon.

As for everything else....

The over one hundred Hunter/Killer remote weapon systems turned as one to point straight down at the ground. The front 2/3rds of each remote opened to reveal a 4-way split beam cannon. They all charged up, and began firing charged particle blasts as fast as their internal generators would cycle. Every grind square -- every panel -- would be blasted twice before the planetary bombardment ended.

First the ground, and now the heavens, conspired to annihilate the Neo-Shogun Army.

----Summary----
--Broadside-- [25 HP Barrier, 20 HP Casing, GrabStop Trap] (Equip: Tower Shield(6))
-- Refresh Armor: 20 HP Casing on Broadside
-- Aegis Defense EX: Project 25 HP Barrier on Broadside
1: Activate GrabStop (Trap VS Teleport: Stun All Enemeis)
-- AddElec: TwinFang1 (Nadia)
2: Towering Guard: (Block up to 6 Attacks/Hits, Side Effect: Slow, 3 TCD)
-- AddBreak: ElecReel1
3: ElecReel1 @ Neo-Shogunate, except Yasu & Friendly Zones (90 Elec + To-All-Ground) [+Break]
4: ElecReel1 @ Neo-Shogunate, except Yasu & Friendly Zones (90 Elec + To-All-Ground)

--Ro-- (Equip: ElecKnife(6)/G.R., Shield(1)R)
-- Type-E Riot Shield (1 Hit Shield)
-- Reinforce @ Type-E Riot Shield (+1)
1: Double Meason Shot @ Neo-Shogunate (10 Elec x 2 Shots)
2: Double Meason Shot @ Neo-Shogunate (10 Elec x 2 Shots)

--Nadia-- [5 HP Barrier] (Equip: G.R., Shield(2)R)
-- Datapull: Riot Shield
-- Datapull: Guard Rifle
1: Plasma TwinFang1 @ Dee & Vee (70 [Elec] x 2 Targets)

---Signatures---
Towering Guard: Activated
Missile Barrage L: Ready
Missile Barrage R: Ready
Bunker Buster MK-II: Ready
The hectic battle against the Neo-Shogun Army raged on beneath the guard tower, where Eternalis and Validus were set up. Rhea scaled up the side to join him as Eternalis distributed healing amongst his allies. He then set up a timebomb and went to work against Lee, who had announced herself earlier as a "Flame Samurai." Something seemed to malfunction with Lee's plans and as she started to leap from her position, a bolt of lightning shot down and stunned her in place. The same happened to Yasu, who shrugged it off irritably. The bolts made it very easy for Eternalis to get off his shots against Lee; in no time flat, he seemed to have reduced her vitality to nearly nothing, despite the soldiers' desperate attempts to stop the attacks.

The soldiers could only do so much, though, coping with both a rain of attacks from Broadside and a lava stage activated by Djinni. Soldiers began to walk on fallen soldiers' bodies as unfortunate men sunk into the lava terrain. "D-Dammit! These tactics are brutal!" one man cried out in a shaken voice, trying to progress towards the guard tower. Another horrified voice cried out following his: "Lee has fallen! They got her!" he roared. This caused a huge commotion among the troops, flinging them further into panic. The few soldiers who were now climbing the tower in an attempt to reach safety were quickly deflected off by those occupying it.

Unfortunately, Lee was not fully gotten. The StopGrab had affected the army, but not interrupted her approach to the tower, and she quickly boarded the platform before those inside could stop her. Dripping with lava and leaking data from her many wounds, the navi brandished her halberd. "Opponents of the Neo-Shogun Empire! Face the wrath of my blade!" she huffed out, thrusting her drill blade into Eternalis and splattering his blue navi juice all over the tower. Ripping it further into him, she slung the unfortunate navi into Validus, making the sniper lose his shot and injuring them both. "The battlefield may count me dead, but as you can see, I am very much alive!"

"Quit panicking, men! You're making fools of yourselves!" Yasu growled out in genuine anger, demanding authority over the army. "Lee's messed up. Dee, commence your strategy to the best of your ability. Vee, let's go with the formation we practiced!" she called out. She had her eyes set on Broadside as the ninja and she each activated their shadow chips, nullifying most of the damage that would be dealt to them. However, as Yasu turned around, she came face to face with the rapidly descending Djinni. A shot and full-weighted tackle brought her from the shoulders of the soldiers, effectively uprooting her attention from Broadside.

Rhea's bomb had taken down Lee's men and removed the threat of that general's approach, but her attack against Dee was less effective. A shield set up by the sorceress deflected her boomerang's force back at her as a shockwave, knocking her back. The blade passed through the shadowed generals without phasing them. As Dee's shield fell, however, Rhea saw the sorceress escape off to the right from behind it. An aquaneedle flew out from the position, punishing her further. A haughty laugh rang out from the crowd following the attack. "Hohoho! You all are so ignorant and cocky! Let Sorceress Dee of the Neo-Shogun Empire put you in your proper place!" her voice chimed out from the crowd.

Undisturbed by the many attacks that had passed through her, Vee continued to run forward and targetted Broadside. She let loose a zapring, attempting to stun him, but the attack simply bounced off of his tremendous shield. Building her determination, the ninja threw a huge volley of nine kunai towards the giant robot. The daggers pierced through his defenses, knocking aside shields and casings until he was once again left exposed.

Djinni held Yasu down in the lava; the ronin's katana began to glow green, but just as it did, Fhyre disarmed her. The ronin looked like she could never smile, but there was a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. "You're a good fighter, hitting me even despite my strategy. You could even have a good future in our army," the general muttered. Her eyes widened. Djinni felt a huge thud in her stomach as Yasu nearly reached her fist through her flesh, pummeling into her ribs with a force that seemed beyond what her sword must have been capable of. "When you decide to join us, let's first talk about strategy." As Djinni's body floated away, trying to avoid Yasu's death grip, the ronin reached out and hit the cracking ribs again. As data streamed out from the wound, she gave the genie navi one more blow across the head to knock her unconscious.

Rising to her feet and ignoring to the best of her ability the sting of the lava, Yasu raised her fist into the air and called out. "Our numbers are thinning, but so are theirs! Everyone focus your attacks and we'll come out victoriously! Do not disappoint our shogun!" she urged them all. This time, however, they did not respond. Those that remained were at best focusing on their duties and self survival and at worst running for their lives.

The lingering effects of Broadside's GrabStop still seemed to be on the army, as they all moved sluggishly.

--At Archer Tower (3 moves away from valley)--

Countbomb: 50 HP (on tower) (2 turns left)
Archer Tower A: 150 HP (in lava)
Archer Tower B: DESTROYED
Archer Tower C: DESTROYED
Archer Tower D: DESTROYED

Eternalis: 20 HP (in tower)
Aurora: 40 HP (junctioned to Eternalis)
Rhea: 30 HP (in tower)
Validus: 120 HP (in tower)
Broadside: 165 HP
Ro: 70 HP (1 hit shield)
Nadia: 40 HP (5 HP barrier, 2 hit shield)

---Surrounding Tower (3/4 surrounded, back still open)--

Near-Infinite Amount of Navis: ??? HP (1 action stun to each navi)
Yasu: 220 HP (in lava) (max HP down 100) (1 action stun)
Dee: 100 HP (standing on soldiers) (invisible) (1 decoy active) (1 action stun)
Lee: 1 HP (in tower) (1 action stun)
Vee-chan(?): 140 HP (standing on soldiers) (1 action stun)

---In Valley---

Djinni: EJO'd (lose 500 zenny)
Fhyre: EJO'd

Terrain: 70% Lava, 30% Soldiers w/ Lava

----Morale----
Archers have withdrawn!
Soldiers are demoralized from Lee's fall and loss of troops! Morale is very low!
Lee has nearly fallen! Dee and Vee feel successful. Yasu is motivated. Morale is average.
Commander has not yet entered the battlefield...

Quote (Lee)

"The battlefield may count me dead, but as you can see, I am very much alive!"


"It's time we fixed that." Ro said as he brought his rifle to bear and fired two shots upon the Navi assaulting his allies at the top of the tower.

----

Broadside watched as the army was decimated by the surprisingly effective mixture of lava and bombardment. He made a mental note to explore the possibilities of similar tactics in the future, but with a terrain form that didn't burn his feet.... The only problem was most of the weapon systems he employed on a regular basis obliterated terrain. That probably explained why Broadside had never really viewed terrain as a tactical consideration before now, as easily broken things rarely stayed a factor for very long in his experience.

Speaking of which... Broadside grimaced as his defenses were battered down easily by a barrage of kunai. Even more depressing, the Navi that had shredded his defenses was moving through the rain of particle blasts without sustaining any damage at all. He recognized the defense she was employing that allowed her to do this as Shadow. It would take sword blows to harm the enemy, and the big Navi knew he didn't have an effective means to produce that damage against this opponent. The observed differences in speed and agility between himself and Vee would allow her to avoid being drawn into a face-to-face melee combat situation, effectively rendering the ninja General immune to Broadside in a Shadowed state. Someone else smaller and faster among his allies would have to deal with her.... a thought that did not make Broadside very happy, but at the same time thankful he had allies in the first place.

And that's when Broadside's sensors told him one of his allies was in serious trouble. Djinni's HP reading suddenly and very rapidly dropped. Her signal flickered at 1 HP as Broadside's visual sensors shifted their focus in her direction... just in time to see Djinni's floating form dissolve and her signal disappear as she EJO'd in response to an attack from the Navi that stood below her. Broadside zoomed in on this Navi, and quickly identified her as Ya-s-... The entry in his memory was quickly edited, and the Navi's name became Priority Target 1. To go with her-- its new and auspicious title, the Priority Target 1 now had the Rules of Engagement altered just for it.... The old objective of Combat until E.J.O. or Surrender was now replaced with the objective of [DELETE], which appeared in bloody red text over the targeting-box-turned-crosshair that marked Priority Target 1.

Broadside's weapon arm, still configured to fire large bore cannon rounds, accepted the Magnum1 data as it elevated to point at Priority Target 1. The weapon had fully processed the data into something it could use by the time the cannon's barrel came into line with Broadside's currently stunned target... The Magnum fired with an impressive discharge of flame and a thunderous boom, accompanied by an equally impressive earth shattering explosion at the attack's destination with no perceivable flight time whatsoever. With an anti-climactic mechanical clank, the weapon arm ejected a spent cannon shell the size of a trashcan.

Nadia pointed her rifle at where she'd last seen Yasu, and fired a single Meason bolt into the smoky haze. She'd seen Djinni get taken out, and wasn't about to leave Yasu's termination to chance. If she somehow survived the Magnum attack, and the lava didn't finish her off, hopefully the rifle shot would. "And good riddance."

Broadside, meanwhile, activated the advanced fire control systems of his missile batteries and began scanning for another target. Before, Broadside was willing to just break their resolve by EJO-ing those who would attack his allies, and allowing the rest to surrender or withdraw from what he considered a fairly pointless engagement. Now that they had slain an ally, the battle was personal, and he wished to crush the Neo-Shogunate and all they supposedly stood for. If their cause had had any meaning, diplomacy would have been employed prior to open hostilities. It hadn't. And now that Broadside's missile targeting and FCS systems had picked out a new target the rest of his sensors couldn't even see, another Neo-Shogunate Navi was about to experience the Mecha Navi's vengeful wrath as an impressive salvo of plasma warhead missiles launched from the racks....

Broadside's automated defenses were only now beginning to hit their timed cycle.

----

Nadia, meanwhile, received data for a DBLBeam1 directly from the PET. Before she could ask what the deal was with getting chip data directly, Jared's voice came over the dedicated communication link. "Nadia, transfer the DBLBeam1 I just sent you to Rhea."

Nadia's eyebrows went up as she lowered her rifle. "Sure thing, boss." She quickly located Rhea, and established a connection. Funny. This has the same general feel to it as establishing a command link to Broadside. I wonder if all Navigators are like this. Nadia gave a mental shrug, and transmitted the chip to the purple Navi without taking her eyes off of her enemies. She then closed the connection, and waited.

----Summary----
--Broadside--
1: Magnum1 @ Yasu (120 Fire + Break + Panel Break)
2: Missile Barrage R @ Dee (5 Elec x 20 Missiles + Homing Attack + Seeking + Blast1, Side Effect: Slow, 4 TCD) [x2 VS Aqua]
3: ----
4: ----

--Ro-- (Equip: ElecKnife(6)/G.R., Shield(1)R)
1: Double Meason Shot @ Lee (10 Elec x 2 Shots)
2: ----

--Nadia-- [5 HP Barrier] (Equip: G.R., Shield(2)R)
1: Meason Shot @ Yasu (10 Elec x 1 Shot)
-- T.C.T.: DBLBeam1 to Rhea

---Signatures---
Towering Guard: 3 TCD
Missile Barrage L: Ready
Missile Barrage R: Activated
Bunker Buster MK-II: Ready
A wounded general now stood in front of Eternalis, exposed skin dripping with blue and red, the former courtesy of his powerful aquatic cannonade. Wearing a chestplate and armored skirt, Superbly Destructive Blazing Dynamo Lee pointed her halberd at Eternalis and drove the blade through his armor. A mechanical whirring could be heard as the blade of the battlechip data smashed the front of his armor and churned the inside of his core.

"AaaaaaaaaaaAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"[i][/i]

Eternalis began to grip the blade that was currently drilling into him, screaming all the while of the intense pain wrecking through his chest armor. Linked to his systems, Aurora also felt the pain, although only to a lesser extent. Her screams were only heard in the Navi's mind, left unheard. Discord rattled through the tower as splatters of the Navi's semi-liquid body flew everywhere inside the tower and outside as well. Where the jelly-like substance fell, it vibrated slightly, as if coming to life, and then dissolved into clear liquid.

Harke looked on the scene in horror through his laptop screen. From his analysis program, he determined that process after process in Eternalis' systems were being shut down to prevent permanent damage. Health integrity was dropping dangerously to a critical level, although the Undershirt Custom wasn't triggered just yet. He grabbed the PET attached to the port beside him, and talked to its microphone.

"Et, you okay?! Et!!"

The other side was silent, as Eternalis was flung towards Validus, and rolled to a side limply. His yellow eyes flickered for a bit, dimmed into unconsciousness and melted into the formless head of water. His body was propped up against a wall inside the tower, the gaping hole in his chest leaking bluestuff all over the place. The head also had a rather large opening at its lower end, which made almost half the head sag down, looking rather creepily like a huge slack jaw.

---

A voice in the expanse of whitespace. A girl's voice, slightly sobbing, and frantic, sounding like she was desperately tries to talk to someone. Nothing could be seen in the blank expanse, except for two figures, blank and featureless, except for their voices. One lying down, and the other kneeling, its hands reaching out for the other's limp arms and shaking them.

"Wake up! Wake up!! Don't leave me! Don't leave me alone!!"

Then, another blank figure entered the whitespace from seemingly nowhere, and touched the kneeling figure's shoulder. The kneeling figure turned its head in alarm, but the newcomer raised her hand in a sign of peace. As it spoke, the voice of a woman poured out. Though the woman's voice sounded a lot more mature, there was a hint of mockery about it, perhaps a bit of snideness.

"He's out for the moment, child."
Some more sobbing, then, "H-he'll come back, right? Right?"
"He probably will, I've seen him before. Things are pretty hectic out there, though."
"...Out there?"
"You know where out there is. You've got the controls, don't you?
"Y-Yes... Yes I d-do."

The kneeling figure stopped sobbing, and drew a hand to wipe away unseen tears. It stood up, nodded its thanks to the sudden advisor, and walked off somewhere. Pointing a palm towards empty space caused an unseen wall to slide open. A control console, complete with floating chair, appeared out of the recess in the white wall. The figure took a seat, and began to get to work. The newcomer chuckled and walked over behind the console's seat, and crossed its arms, prepared to play the role of silent observer. It was not the time for takeover just yet...

"R-Request-ting... T-Tempor-rary Adminis-strator P-Permission..."

---

After just a few seconds, Eternalis' eyes began to dimly flicker back on, hesitating for a moment before glowing into full yellow glory. Half-lidded at first, Aurora looked through the Navi's unconscious eyes, somewhat familiar with the overridden interface. She clenched his fists, which had begun to reform after some minor patching-up. She put up a hand to Eternalis' heavily-wounded chest, and felt that the armor had regenerated somewhat with a temporary substitute. It wasn't perfect, as the blue semi-liquid was still leaking from a few holes, but it had to do. The huge slack jaw from before had quietly disappeared from sight, as well, but there still was an unsightly line across the formless face where it had been.

She stood up from the position Eternalis was in earlier, struggling a little, as the body-type of a typical human female was completely and utterly different from Eternalis' constantly shifting watery composition. She stared at Lee, who was practically on her last threads of life. She was about to figure out a strategy to finish her off, and-

Quote (Ro)

"It's time we fixed that."

-just like that, two energy bolts were fired from Ro's Guard Rifle. Aurora stood stunned for a while, before turning to her savior. Nodding slightly, she expressed her gratitude.

"Thank you, Ro." ... Her speech was now that of her Navi's. How rather strange a feeling, that she should be saying those words instead of him.

"Et, are you okay? Et!!"

Aurora had completely forgotten about Harke at this point, and reacted with mild surprise. "Harke!"

"Oh, god, Et. I thought you were- ahhh..."

"I'm, uh, fine, Harke. How about you.. send me some chips."

Harke was taken a bit aback, but he shrugged it off. It was a big battle, he shouldn't get distracted. "You don't look-" he received a glare for that, "...of course. Um, from what I can see, you should target the yellow-black wearing ninja-girl next... Vee, from what the readout says."

"Understood. What do you think would be enough to take her out?"

"Boomerang, I think. She's very likely to be an electrical element. Aurora should give you the necessary overclock to raise its power enough to bring her down to size."

Aurora chuckled mentally, then nodded. "Send it down."

With her legs now steadied from a little experience, she attempted to utilize the battlechip data. Holding up an arm, she willed the semi-liquid into formation. The blue-jelly substance flowed freely from the hand she put up, curving into the iconic shape of the Boomerang. Thick sides allowed her to grip it, while a razor-sharp ice edge formed on the larger of the Boomerang's sides. Testing its weight, Aurora scanned the battlefield for the aforementioned "Vee". She found the petite kunai-wearing Navi soon enough.

"...Got her."

With a deathly shine shown in her eyes, Aurora grasped the edge of the Boomerang tightly, and wound up for a throw. A smallish roar prefaced the attack before the sharp throwing weapon was launched, whizzing through the air at top speed, leaving a trail of cooled vapor behind it.

===[ [color=cornflowerblue]Eternalis.EXE[/color] ]===
==[ [color=orange]Aurora.SP[/color] ]==

[*] Influx Aegis @ Self (Heal 15 x2)
[1] Boomerang1 @ Vee-chan(?) (Wood 60 + Null 20) [x2 Elemental?]
-- Strengthen 20 @ Boomerang1
[2] --
[3] --
[4] --
[5] --

===[ [b]TURNSPLICE START[/b] ]===
"What th-"

Before Validus could move, his rifle scope caught the sight of a blue object flying straight... for him. With a silent curse, he braced himself for the impact, and caught the full brunt of the navi's weight crashing into him, throwing him off balance. Still, it wasn't as painful as getting shot at like the last time he fought with Lightman. Quickly shoving the navi aside, he checked the surroundings for any enemy troops, before turning his attention back at Eternalis.

That was a really, REALLY bad wound. The halberd had left a really bad mark on the navi, and worst of all, Validus didn't have any recovery chips. Then the support program that followed Eternalis arrived, and began to take care of Eternalis's wounds. "Keep him alive, there's nothing worse than a dead ally." Validus whispered to Aurora before turning his attention back at the battle itself.

Things were really, really messy. If there was anything that could sum up the current mission, it was a SNAFU'D situation. He scanned his surroundings from the tower. Lee had taken a rather nasty beating, but still stood. Yasu didn't even look fazed, and...

Did Djinni just get EJO'd?

And was that Rhea getting hit with an aquaneedle?

Something inside Validus flared up. An angry emotion. The team hadn't really bonded deeply, and Validus hardly knew Djinni or any of the others for that matter, but the display of his allies getting wounded was something that seriously irked him to no end. His calm demeanor suddenly shattered, Validus's eyepiece went berserk, the calm, tactical display on it suddenly changed to "KILL MAIM BURN KILL MAIM BURN"

...Something wasn't right. This wasn't how he usually feels, but Validus dismissed it for the moment. For now, his entire thoughts were focused on getting rid of the enemy generals. The enemy was demoralized now, let's see how much more demoralized they will be when they find their precious princesses dead in a heap.

"Captain, requesting the markcannon we received from a trade earlier. Give me the cannon chip as well." Validus said as he pulled the rifle up again, taking a clear aim at the Ninja-like Vee, who was standing on top of a group of soldiers. She moved slowly now, excellent. It made a chance for a killing shot.

"...Validus? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, captain. Send me the chip."

Not wanting to argue, especially at this critical moment, Tsujsa slotted in the Markcannon as well as the regular cannon chip into the PET. Validus's rifle morphed into a longer, more streamlined weapon with a better magnifying scope. "Validus to all allies," The navi said on a frequency only his allies could hear, "I'm engaging the one they call Vee-chan. Distract the others so I can get a clear killing shot."

With that said, he brought the scope targeting Vee's head, and let loose a thunderous shot as the cannon shell fired from his rifle. He cocked the rifle as a spent shell casing ejected from the rifle, and squeezed the trigger again, firing another shot, although it left with a less louder boom, with a lighter caliber of a cannon shell.

Summary of Attacks:
1. MarkCannon - Vee - 70DMG
2. Cannon - Vee - 40 DMG
3. Turnsplice
It was an amazing thing how she was easily getting counterattacked by a group of hardly-clad Navis. Bracing at the retaliation shockwave, it was all Rhea could do to keep herself from flying off the tower; however, what was lacking was Camillia's voice. The purple swordsNavi did not possess the ability to perform human-like outbursts of pain as she assessed the damage. It wasn't that bad... as of yet. The petite didn't have time to wonder on her operator's non-responsiveness, however. Something was up, but Rhea cannot afford the chance to lose her concentration in this battle... was what she wanted to think.

Until she saw the sorceress Navi emerged into her view, realizing too late that the enemy general was launching an attack.

Dee's aquaneedle flew at her, and all Rhea managed was raise her left arm in an attempt to minimize the damage done. There was an unrealistic thud that sent Rhea skidding a few more inches from her previous position, and the purple Navi opened her squinted eyes to survey the situation. The needle pierced through both her armguard and shoulder plate, smoke rising in tiny amounts from the stark temperature contrast between the magical (data?) icicle and her mechanical components.

Deftly using her swordarm to dislodge the aquaneedle from her shoulder, Rhea observed the ice before breaking it out of her gaping arm, turning curiously towards Nadia's direction. The coordinator for the gargantuan Navi... was sending her chip data?

Rather than thinking, Rhea opted for full trust in the .SP and immediately launched the data into her activation module, watching the color code on her visual communication screen flashing a random blue and red, as if in a roulette. She assessed the battle situation thus far; the enemy morale was significantly lower now, but most of her ally's not in top-notch condition, either. Djinni, the fire Navi, had EJO'd some while ago-- lost amongst the mass of lava and soldiers in the valley. Eternalis was not in entirely good shape, and the only thing saving Broadside was his thick armor plating.

Rhea sort of wished for those heavily fortified gear for herself, now.

But eh, what was she to say? Rhea wasn't in a top-notch condition, herself. Finding a location to load another process from her systems, she let the data run itself in a quick troubleshooting session. The armor plating was still missing from where she was hit, but at least it was restored to a certain degree of functionality again.

Seeing how Validus was aiming all his sniper abilities at the one named Vee, however, Rhea sort of knew who she needed to target next.


[Rhea.EXE]
===========
Summary of actions:
1) DBLBeam1 (from Nadia) - Random - 40DMG Null to all enemies / 30 Heal to all allies
2) Troubleshooting - 1TCD - Self - Heal 30
3) --- Turnsplice ---
4) --- Turnsplice ---

Cooldown:
Parried Charge: 1 turn Remaining
Fury: 1 turn Remaining
Lull of Battle: 1 turn Remaining
Fueled for action by the fall of Djinni, the remaining four navis focused their actions upon recovery and extermination of the greatest remaining threats. Broadside began the attack, expending his magnum ammo to fire a tremendous blast in Yasu's direction as vengeance for his fallen ally; Nadia backed him up with her meason shot. Yasu, however, seemed to have already freed herself from the stun. Concentrating on attack, Yasu managed to dodge only Nadia's attack and not Broadside's. She vanished into a huge, dark cloud, until suddenly a whip of wind and pink petals burst from the smoke. The petals flew over the four navis, but had no obvious effect at first. Slowly, however, they began to feel drowsier, as if the energy was being drained from them...

Yasu had barely survived the attack, but the lava she was still sunk in was too much for her. "Unforgivable... I'm disgracing my shogun like this," she thought to herself before vanishing beneath the lava.

Lee spun her halberd above her head menacingly glaring down Eternalis. "A warrior like me isn't going to be kept down! Dragon Reb-!" she started, then stopped as two shots from Ro pierced her chest from behind, smashing against the wooden floor as they emerged from the wounds. "N-No way... This is... stupid..." she complained, falling wounded over the back rail of the tower before she had a chance to unleash her technique.

Dee sniped off the countbomb with a well placed aquaneedle, seeing what a threat it posed to the army if it went off. She readied a cannon next, confident in her invisibility to protect her, but invisibility and tricks were completely useless in the face of an enormous missile barrage. "Crap!" was the only word that she managed to get out before the missile rain engulfed her.

Vee hadn't had time to take account of the damage so far due to the volley of attacks that she was now facing. She closed her eyes as the attacks approached and then, in a burst of speed, flipped her way through all three of them. Moving forward and jumping on to the tower's ledge, she faced the navis with a passive glare. She then unleashed a tremendous burst of electricity, spreading from navi to navi and injuring all. Rhea and Eternalis managed to survive the attack only through the grace of possessing an undershirt.

Between more soldiers dying as they sank into lava and three out of four generals now being defeated, the soldiers went into mass retreat, jacking out of the net as fast as they could. A rain of Doublebeams hitting every enemy encouraged even more to flee. Vee was actually the only enemy left.

..."Son of a bitch," came a soft whisper from the navi. Oddly, she now raised her hands into the air and dropped her kunai, as if indicating surrender. Was there a reason she hadn't simply jacked out like the others? It was up to the remaining navis whether they wanted to find out or not.

--At Archer Tower (3 moves away from valley)--

Countbomb: DESTROYED
Archer Tower A: 60 HP (in lava)
Archer Tower B: DESTROYED
Archer Tower C: DESTROYED
Archer Tower D: DESTROYED

Eternalis: 1 HP (in tower) (sleep next turn)
Aurora: 40 HP (junctioned to Eternalis)
Rhea: 1 HP (in tower) (sleep next turn)
Validus: 60 HP (in tower) (sleep next turn)
Broadside: 165 HP (sleep next turn)
Ro: 70 HP (1 hit shield)
Nadia: 40 HP (5 HP barrier, 2 hit shield)

---Surrounding Tower (3/4 surrounded, back still open)--

Near-Infinite Amount of Navis: LEFT!
Yasu: EJO'd
Dee: EJO'd
Lee: EJO'd
Vee-chan(?): 100 HP (in tower)

---In Valley---

Djinni: EJO'd
Fhyre: EJO'd

Terrain: 100% Lava

----Morale----
Archers have withdrawn!
Soldiers are completely demoralized! Soldiers have withdrawn!
Only Vee is left. The general's morale is pretty much non-existent!
Commander has not yet entered the battlefield...
Validus pulled up the rifle to face the enemy general that was standing in his sights right now, only to realize he was feeling absurdly sleepy. His anger from earlier slowly subsiding as every piece of coding in him was yelling out in protest to shut down due to the massive error and lag in his systems. His vision now blurred as he tried to aim the rifle at the enemy.

God damn, his vision was blurry. His revolver shook unsteadily as he tried o get a clear bead on the ninja, but it was completely useless. His eyes grew heavier as time passed. He needed to act now, and if the previous events have shown, Vee could easily dismember him if he dropped into slumber now, making the whole thing even more complicated as it is right now. A plan formed in his head as his senses reached critical shutdown.

Validus only sent a simple private message to his operator: Zapring. Not even knowing what the hell his navi was trying to pull, Tsujsa complied and a zapring was sent into the PET. However, for some reason, the weapon refused to morph from it's original shape, showing no signs of any changes whatsoever.

Pretending that he was finally knocked out, he let himself fall, slightly, but the rifle kept it's sights on the target. Linking the eyepiece with the rifle's scope-camera, he locked onto the enemy, and then fired. A ring of electric energy burst forth from the cannon's barrel, aimed dead for the enemy.

And with that, Validus let himself fall into sleep. The rest was now up to the other two of his comrades...

SUMMARY:
(CURSOR ABILITY ACTIVATE) - SNIPE - Imbue Seeking to Shot
3. Zapring - Stun, Seeking - Vee - 40 DMG
After she threw the boomerang, Aurora watched as the general merely leapt through it and a couple of rounds from Validus with ease. She cursed mentally as Vee began her deft climb up onto the tower's ledge. Before she could react, not a few megawatts of electrical energy immediately forced their way through Aurora's borrowed body. Naturally, this was quite the attack, and Aurora shrieked as the shock went through the semi-liquid body and wrecked her composure.

The force of the attack blew Aurora back towards the wall where she had just gotten up from before. One of her eyes twitched, residual shocks still coursing through the tubes and armor that made up Eternalis' armor. It was getting tough, she knew. Thanks to her temporary control over Eternalis' body, she could withstand more damage than in her original body. However, she was definitely not used to it, and she struggled to get back up. Her legs felt like they were going liquid, even though they already were.

I-I can't... can't give up! Not yet!!

She clenched her fists, as Eternalis' body shuddered to keep standing. It would never do for her to pass out now, not after they had gone this far. Then, her saving grace appeared: an orange visor appeared in front of Eternalis' eyes, with the words written across the middle:

> Temporary Administrator Permission Revoked.
> Cause: Primary Master Reboot


She breathed a sigh of relief as her control facets disappeared to be replaced in the hands of her Navi, who quickly came up in their shared mental space.

Uuuuurgh... Aurora? What were you doing with the master controls? You're injured!
N-Nothing... just- *cough* a little tired...
Aurora? What did you do? You're not-
I think I'd like to take a little rest, Elly. Could you let me?
Y-Yes, but-
Thanks, Elly. You're the best, show that bitch who's- ah!
Aurora!
Good night...

The visor promptly disappeared as Eternalis reassumed control over his body. The Aqua Navi felt lethargic, but he thought it was merely his extended vacation from consciousness. He looked at Rhea's heavily wounded body, with some of the metal armor on his ally beginning to chip off. Eternalis noticed with little surprise that underneath was not human skin, as her face was, but only mechanical workings. "Rhea..." he said, before directing his restorative processes to the girl, saving only little for himself.

Eternalis then examined his SP's processes. Most hadn't taken much of a hit as he did, but Aurora's personality core was truly racked to pieces. He hesitated for a bit before placing her in a temporary dormant mode and releasing her from her conjoined form with him. He glanced at his black gloves as they disappeared in a faint glow of light, which flowed to a small corner of the tower's insides to revert back to her original form. Her face looked serene as she slept peacefully without another thought.

Rest well, my dear....

Then, opening his private communication with Harke, he promptly requested, "Sword." His operator quickly replied, "Don't do anything hasty, Et. Be careful," and slotted in the chip. Shortly after, Eternalis activated the battlechip, and directed the water from his arm-output into a flowing blue ice sword. He gripped the hilt tightly, and leered at the General named Vee. He drew up the blade to his eyes, and watched the reflection of the light from outside filter in and reflect off of it, allowing him a glance of his own face. Then, without taking his eyes off Vee, he replied to her motion of surrender. "I don't think so, General."

Then, raising his voice, he barked, "Rhea, Momograve!"

Without caring to see if she responded, Eternalis lunged towards the ninja, sword in hand. His yellow eyes turned slightly red as he felt time slow down. Each step was a thud on his boots, his cold, uncovered hands holding the hilt of his weapon in a vicegrip. He uttered a savage war cry as the sword sang through the air towards Vee's midsection in a powerful slash. After that, he turned mid-run, his boots complaining on the sudden impulsive forces. Another slash, directed towards the general's neck.

Now, all that was left was to discover whether his gamble had paid off. If not, then he would have to find some way of defending himself, though options were limited. He was getting unusually tired, though... maybe a little nap...

===[ [color=cornflowerblue]Eternalis.EXE[/color] ]===
==[ [color=orange]Aurora.SP[/color] ]==

[1] --
[*] Influx Aegis @ Allies (Heal 15 x3)
-- Self: Heal 15
-- Rhea: Heal 30
[2] Unjunction Aurora.SP
[*] GMO Shift - [Core: Aurora]
[3] Sword @ Vee-chan(?) (Null 80 + Slashing) [5/6]
[4] Sword @ Vee-chan(?) (Null 80 + Slashing) [4/6]
[5] Dodge/Defend with Sword if necessary

===[ [b]TURNSPLICE OVER[/b] ]===
[[Forgive my post size. Squeezing it out so that I won't drag everyone down.]]

It was silent. Dead silent. That would be the soundless visualisation of her audio communication burning out from the surge of electricity. Rhea, in this slow-moving, dead-silent world, watched with odd rationality at her vulnerability to deletion, saved only by the undershirt program. There was, unsurprisingly, no response from her operator; and did not hear a word from Eternalis as he barked his order.

She did see the sword in his hand, however, and somehow figured it out.

And almost as if it was thought-provoked, a Sword chip came into her systems without question, and Rhea put it to work. The purple swordsNavi then let her instincts guide her broken body across the tower towards the surrendering General. It was getting a bit too late for her to pull back; she thirst for revenge, the sweet feeling of pulling a blade across another entity. She gave a quick jump charge at Vee, making sure she did not collide with her partner as she drew the blade in an diagonal upwards fashion at the sole enemy left on the tower. Rhea's arm now raised high up in the air, her left hand free, she used it to attempt to backhand at Vee's face. Taking a few quick step backwards, she moved out of range.

One damage, indeed.


[Rhea.EXE]
===========
Summary of actions:
3) Sword [6/6] - 80DMG, Slashing - Vee-chan(?)
4) One Damage?! - 1DMG, Slashing, Break, Strengthen 39, 2TCD - Vee-chan(?)
Passive) Swordplay - Dodge after two slash-attacks
Broadside's defenses finally cycled and restored themselves. As they did so, he activated the MetalZone chip that just appeared in his memory banks... And not a moment too soon, as his systems were in the process of shutting down. "Ro, evacuate to the tower."

The SP nodded, kicked on his jump jets, and took a flying leap from Broadside's shoulder to the wooden tower. Once he landed, he deactivated his riot shield, and cycled a fresh instance of the shield's defenses into place, complete with reinforcement.

Broadside, meanwhile, reached up to his left shoulder, grabbed Nadia, and plucked her from where she stood. "Is this really necessary?" Broadside didn't respond to her question, as it was becoming increasingly difficult to focus at all. He sat his hand upon the ground, and then opened it.

Nadia stepped off, turned around, and looked up. Her Navi master was beginning to fall over in an uncontrolled fashion.... "Jay Tee, or whatever you name is, switch his GMO, quick!" An overly large shadow crept across her person as Broadside proceeded to fall in her direction.

Jared chuckled over the com-link as he selected Broadside's other GMO from the graphic override menu. His Navi changed from a falling structure to a passed out Navi in guard armor. Nadia caught him before he face planted into the hard metal surface, and sighed in relief at not having been crushed to death. "Thanks, umm..."

"Jared." the Netopian managed between fits of laughter.

"Yeah, that." Nadia said absently as she wondered to herself what she was supposed to be doing now.

----Summary----
--Broadside-- [20 HP Casing]
-- Refresh Armor: 20 HP Casing on Broadside
-- Aegis Defense EX: Project 25 HP Barrier on Broadside
3: MetalZone (Large Area Metal Terrain Change)
4: Set Nadia on the ground. (RP)

--Ro-- [25 HPBarrier] (Equip: ElecKnife(6)/G.R., Shield(2)R)
2: Jump to Tower (Movement)
-- Type-E Riot Shield (1 Hit Shield)
-- Reinforce @ Type-E Riot Shield (+1)

--Nadia-- [5 HP Barrier] (Equip: G.R., Shield(2)R)
N/A

---Signatures---
Towering Guard: 3 TCD
Missile Barrage L: Ready
Missile Barrage R: Activated
Bunker Buster MK-II: Ready
Vee's eyebrows rose as she realize that the enemy navis really had no intention of taking her in alive. "Son of a bitch, son of a bitch, son of a..." she repeated constantly, devoting the rest of her abilities to trying to dodge. Even after escaping Eternalis' attacks, she fell prey to a zapring, which restricted her movements. Rhea then cut through the ninja with a falling strike, causing data to begin leaking out of her side. "Those idiots... I told them that the surrender was dumb-!" she coughed bitterly, then fell to her knees and ejected.

Silence. The battlefield was now empty apart from broken wood, rubble, one badly injured guard tower, and the four surviving navis (along with their SPs).

The commander never showed up.

--At Archer Tower (3 moves away from valley)--

Countbomb: DESTROYED
Archer Tower A: 60 HP (in lava)
Archer Tower B: DESTROYED
Archer Tower C: DESTROYED
Archer Tower D: DESTROYED

Eternalis: 16 HP (in tower) (sleep next turn)
Aurora: 40 HP
Rhea: 31 HP (in tower) (sleep next turn)
Validus: 60 HP (in tower) (sleep next turn)
Broadside: 165 HP (sleep next turn) (20 HP casing) (25 HP barrier)
Ro: 70 HP (2 hit shield)
Nadia: 40 HP (5 HP barrier, 2 hit shield)

---Surrounding Tower--

Near-Infinite Amount of Navis: LEFT!
Yasu: EJO'd
Dee: EJO'd
Lee: EJO'd
Vee-chan(?): EJO'd

---In Valley---

Djinni: EJO'd
Fhyre: EJO'd

Terrain: 100% Metal

----Morale----
Archers have withdrawn!
Soldiers are completely demoralized! Soldiers have withdrawn!
All generals eliminated!
Commander has chosen to avoid the battle.

--BATTLE COMPLETE--

Eternalis gets: 1750z, Bubstar1, 140 bugfrags
Rhea gets: 1500z, Drillarm1
Validus gets: 1500z, Shadow1
Broadside gets: 2000z, Elecreel1, 200 bugfrags

STATIC FXP: 24 for all (including EJO'd)
BONUS FXP:
- Broadside gets +3 FXP for HARDCORE TANKING.
- Eternalis gets +3 FXP for HEALING BROS.
- +2 FXP for all for TEARS OF BRONESS: MASSACRE following Djinni's death.
- -1 FXP to Djinni for use of lava terrain in allied range.
As Rhea's sword strikes caught Vee in her surrender, Eternalis merely watched as his sight grew more and more blurry by the second. His liquid legs felt weak and unsupported, and he fell to his knees just as the general had, dropping into the pool of data that had leaked from Vee's side. The feeling of lethargy was overpowering: he couldn't do anything to power through it. All he knew was that all the soldiers were gone, and that Rhea had executed the last of the generals.

"Good night..." said Eternalis as his yellow eyes flickered once again out of consciousness.

Just as Eternalis' lights went out, Aurora recovered from her short nap. The makeshift nature of her sudden temporary override had taken its toll on her, and even now, her systems were still recovering. Opening her eyes, she was surprised to find that she was not currently in mental-space, as she had been before, but instead lying in the archer tower. Sitting up, she shook her head to clear her headache and looked around. Her eyes lingered around on everyone before seeing Eternalis' fallen form.

Her eyes widened as she stood up quickly and leapt to the Navi's side, and was relieved to find Eternalis still breathing. She tried shaking him into waking, without success. Trying to pick up the aqua Navi did no good either, for she felt the weight too heavy to burden. Instead, she opened up the private operator link, and requested the jack-out sequence. Before their forms disappeared in the light, Aurora glanced over at Ro and smiled.

"Thanks again for the help."

[Jacking out]
Ro stood up from his landing as Vee EJO'd from the network. He was about to comment on that when he saw the Navi, Rhea, start to fall over. Ro ran over and caught the falling Navi, barely. He found himself having to put a lot more effort into it than previously expected, and finally had to settle for just setting the purple Navi down before his arms fell off. Geez, girl, you are way heavier than you look. Not that I will ever say that out loud.... Sorta reminds me of the Chief.

A quick look around, and Ro realized it wasn't just Rhea.... Every Navi present was comatose. Ro sighed as he reached up and tapped the red dot on his right ear cover. "Yo, Nadia. Everyone but Aurora's out like a light up here. How's the Chief doing?"

"Now? He's awake."

"....Now? He was out cold too?"

"Yeah. Shaking him didn't work, so.... I slugged him."

"You would." Ro face palmed and began laughing quietly to himself. The image of Nadia hauling off and slugging Broadside in an attempt to wake the Navi up was all too easy to picture. "Okay. So what's the plan?"

"Stay there, we're on our way up."

"Roger." Ro said as he cut the link. He looked up as Aurora thanked him, but didn't get a chance to reply as she and Eternalis jacked out. Ro stood up again as he heard the tell tale sound of suit boosters flaring for a jump, and looked over to the edge of the tower expectantly. Broadside and Nadia popped up into view, and landed on the platform one after the other. Sure enough, there was a nice big red hand print on Broadside's face. Nadia really had let the Navi have it.

The Navi took one look at the scene, and said "Guard the tower until they wake up."

The two SPs nodded, and the three of them took up sentry positions around the top of the tower. Each of them was now armed with a Guard Rifle, a Riot Shield, and had some form of personal defense besides. They weren't taking any chances. The commander hadn't shown up...

That didn't mean he wouldn't.
Not realizing that she had caused a certain SP some troubles, Rhea got up from her place soon after the effects wore off. She blinked a few times without acknowledgement, emulating the characteristics of a human waking up from deep sleep.

Someone was missing.

Quickly looking about, she failed to identify the whereabouts of Eternalis. Was he done for by Vee? ... Did they finish the general off? There were so many questions left unanswered in her processing that she froze in her position, unmoving for a moment. When she finally finished rearranging her memory banks, she recollected the past few minutes' happenings, almost like a video playback in her head.

Rhea's sword had indeed connected with the general, and had effectively removed her from the battlefield-- and the recording pretty much ended there. That was to say that she sunk like a rock onto the wooden tower. Then Eternalis fell, as well-- there was a distinct blue also falling along with herself.

... Why wasn't there a hole in the tower floor, though?

Turning to Ro, she looked at the .SP briefly before realizing that there was another form lying cozily across the tower. Recognizing it as Validus, Navi to the cousin of her operator, Rhea nodded to Ro in acknowledgement before moving to the cursor Navi.

Her boot gently prodded at the form, as if urging it to get up soundlessly.
Validus found himself waking up due to a kick from the side by Rhea. Painful, sure, but it had at least jolted him awake. The navi's visor rebooted itself as he stood up, his head completely disoriented and his vision slightly blurred. He found his rifle lying a few inches away from him, and picked it up. A few scratches here and there. It was in one piece, but good lord was it going to take some time to polish it back to it's original gleam.

He brought himself to sit upright. His legs still fell asleep, so he didn't bother to stand up for the moment. He scanned the surrounding area. The whole battlefield was totally barren: cooled lava sat on one side, former banners of the "Neo-Shogun Empire" were now burning, as if driving the point home that the empire itself was done for, and the tower he was on now look really, REALLY unstable. Validus shook his head, best get his butt moving before the whole tower itself crumbles.

Eternalis wasn't anywhere to be seen, he must've jacked out right after the battle, reasoned Validus. A quick scan also saw Broadside and his comrades guarding the area around the entire battlefield. He made a note to himself to thank Broadside later on, and also to inquire more on his mechanical form and it's capabilities. Hell, without the behemoth, there certainly won't be a victory in the beginning for this whole battle.

The blue colored finally raised himself up, and brushed the debris off his shoulders, before turning to face Rhea. "Well, that certainly could've gone a hell lot better, eh?" He said with a slight smile at Rhea, with one hand rubbing the area where he had been kicked. He lifted his free hand in a fist-like gesture and pointed it at Rhea, as if awaiting for an acknowledgment to his gesture.
Rhea blinked a few times, not comprehending the gesture. Seeing how he was waiting for her response, however, she just mimicked Validus's movement obediently, though she was in a bad shape from all the action.

"You wish for me to punch you, Validus?" she inquired inquisitively, head tilted slightly to the side in curiosity.
"What? Nonono- I'm doing a brofist gesture! you know, like a congratulatory gesture?" Validus suddenly explained as he was taken aback by the question, nearly losing his balance.

"You're weird, you know that?" Validus said, but then gave a chortle. "But that just makes it a hell lot more interesting." He added as he rubbed Rhea's head. Although with that smoothness he wasn't even sure would it mess it up in the first place.
Ro spoke to Broadside over his helmet communicator when Rhea stirred next to him. "They're awake, Chief."

Broadside nodded absently. No-one had come to attack them while they were vulnerable, and it didn't seem like anyone from the battle had chosen to hang around either. The battle itself had also seemed extremely pointless from his own perspective. For what reason would an army of thousands of Navis amass to do battle with them over a small section of the network such as this? For what reason had they chosen violence over negotiation? True, Broadside was himself a Navi constructed for combat, server defense even, but that did not make him ignorant of the ways of politics and diplomacy. The use of force was merely an extension of the two, or the result of failure, depending upon one's perspective.

What was the GNA withholding from them?

You're thinking about this far too much. a random thought chided.

Perhaps. But he still wanted answers. The body count for this battle was blown too far out of proportion to simply brush aside casually. To get answers, one must first have clues to base questions upon, and that meant...

"Ro. Nadia. Help me search the field for artifacts left behind by enemy soldiers." Broadside requested suddenly.

"Okay.... like what?"

"Weapons, armor, ammunition, documents, and any other unusual items of interest a normal Navi could have carried."

"Got it, Chief."

"Roger that."

With that, the two SPs climbed down the tower and began searching the field. Broadside, meanwhile, searched the top of the tower for the moment. He would join his SPs in the field shortly, but first... "No hostiles have appeared since the fall of General Vee, and the remainder have withdrawn. It would appear we have attained victory." Broadside reported to the other two Navis before his attention returned to searching his surroundings.

----Summary----
Broadside: Search Tower
Ro: Search Field
Nadia: Search Field