Super Robot Quest G

1601, 22 November A.D. 2072
Siege of the Yukimura Institute



Not tested, not quite ready, used anyway. If the circumstances were any different, Oscar Tellison would have been annoyed at Major Devin and the engineering team - but as it was, neither he nor Zhang wanted to even think about what would have happened if Perseus wasn't deployed here with a small team.

The Arc Blade crackled as the Perseus swung it in a wide arc, catching a burst of flame from one of the Crocalisks. The flames seemed to dull and arc their path on impact, but that was all - Oscar was already having to shift focus, trusting Xiu Ying to keep at it with the sword arm as he held out the right arm to hold the second Crocalisk at bay. One claw still dug deep into the Perseus's shoulder, with sparks and smoke wafting from the wound as Perseus's hand grasped the other claw. "Back off!" The remaining gunports on the right arm triggered, blasting the Crocalisk in the face and causing it to recoil-

-allowing Oscar to reunite his focus with Xiu Ying as their sword arm slashed downwards, biting deep into the Crocalisk's claw.

Oscar and Xiu Ying immediately yanked the blade away, but acid was already starting to seep into the blade's composition. Remnants of the Arc Blade's electric charge were fighting off most of it, but some damage was still going to linger. Didn't think that part through about fighting kaiju, and it's not like we can install the Spark Caliber. Still, the blade was still functional for the moment and they had one gun left.

Xiu Ying grunted, shaking her left arm around as if she had been the one to personally swing the Arc Blade. The movement was only slightly spoiled by the bulk of the K-Suit she was wearing. "One's still behind us," she grunted, "and one's down a claw."

Oscar's left hand was clenching and unclenching in a similarly sympathetic reaction fed into him by the Man-Machine Interface linked to his own K-Suit, as he replied, "Not looking in great shape ourselves."

"We can take them."

"Yeah, probably." Both pilots grinned, a mix of grim determination and confidence crossing both their minds. "We got this, don't we, Perseus?"

The engine revved in response, and Perseus was already taking a step forward just seconds before either pilot could give the command. As the chipped and worn Arc Blade flashed forwards, the skies above them flashed in fire and alien energies, lighting up the horizon like a fierce thunder cloud.

---

"All hands, this is the bridge!"

The skies in front of the bridge's display port were literally darkened by the masses flying on leather wings, brightened only by the tracers of the Pegasus's point defense systems. Engineering reports showed the last of the Shard ready reserves sliding into place for the gun batteries, readying for a final few salvos as the time to fire ticked down far too slowly for her liking.

"We are diving straight into the Pterawing swarm. Weapons free, and fire at will!"

Words that Diana never expected to hear herself say in her life. But here she was, leading a likely suicidal charge into what was left of the Pterawings. Which was still too damned many, but if Mercury wasn't online, then they might as well just give up now.

Diana's processes were running overtime, her field of vision jumping from point to point as positioning, speed and optimal targeting solutions were constantly uploaded to the human bridge crew's systems. Idly she could sense the onboard security preparing weapons, not taking the chances that the flying monstrosities outside didn't try to force their way aboard if they could throw enough of their spares into the line of fire as ablative armor - another precious microsecond was spared to provide recommended chokepoints and shelters to the brave souls. The point defense rotary cannons were swaying back and forth, no longer concerned with accuracy as much as simply getting something up into the air, shredding more of the Pterawings in droves. Yet despite the tangible difference they were making, there were still more.

'-Batteries 1, 3, 5, ready to fire-!'

Diana's attention fixed forward, seeing the latest rally of the swarm. "Batteries 1, 3, 5, prepare for snap shot volleys on designated targets. Fire!"

Bright red and pink lights flooded the viewport as the forward batteries opened fire, smaller spheres of destructive force shrieking outwards in staggered volleys. A significant number of the horde disintegrated, leathery hide and acid burning away before their very eyes as giant holes were torn through the once cohesive mass. One 'lucky' Pterawing seemed to have made it through that hell - until it collapsed directly onto the prow, one wing still burning as it tried to claw its way to Battery 1-

-until a familiar looking jet shrieked just above the turret, the backwash of its passing sweeping the Pterawing off of the prow and fluttering in irregular circles downwards to earth in a shriek that sounded far more annoyed than anything.

---

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" This - this was definitely different from his usual experiences. Sheol usually never bothered with sending a whole damned army at them! Yet as he screeched past the Pegasus's top layer and sent one of the winged nasties down to earth, Hiroki had a grim grin on his face.

Diving down below the dropship, his radar pinged a bunch of signals - his expert calculation placed it anywhere from 'lots' to 'too many' - chasing after him. Well, fair enough - they had to recognize he was the pilot for Mercury to begin with. But if that was the case…

"Diana, about to try something," he radioed in. "Get ready!" He then accidentally-on-purpose cut off the communicator before banking left, making a large turn as he shifted a lever forward. "Maximum thrust!" The engines' whine took on a higher pitch, and the Aeon particles shone an even brighter blue as he then began to lead the flying kaiju on a merry chase. "C'mon, I'm right here!" he taunted them, seeing the Pterawings bunching up in a nice gaggle. Straightening out his flight path, he again turned on the communicator. "Now's a good time to-"

He immediately pulled the accelerator and twisted the flight stick right, forcing the Falcon Mobile into an incredibly sharp turn that the Ptero-pteri-whatever Diana called them couldn't catch in time - and another bright flash of pink and red light washed past him, momentarily triggering heat hazard warnings on his console as more of the creatures were blasted out of the sky. "A little more warning next time?" a stressed and slightly peeved voice asked.

"Hey, it worked!" Hiroki blinked as spines shot past the viewport. "Uh, mostly." Looking over his shoulder, he saw a few of the survivors chasing after him, probably about as pissed off at him as Diana was. "Give a sec-"

The flyers shuddered as gunfire shredded through them, and a trio of the jets screeched past. One of them was already reconfiguring into mecha form, its fist slamming through another flyer. More of them were forming up behind him, even as others were also momentarily perched on the Pegasus itself, lending their rocket and gunpods to the point defense's constant firing. "Uh, thanks?"

"They'll keep you alive," Diana grumbled, "if they don't get themselves shot down first."

---

"Oh for-!" Ozawa stared at the Yukimura Institute - which was noticeably still standing. Sure, parts of it were on fire, lots of the cannons and infrastructure looked like they were torn apart by the big eggs like they were supposed to, and she was seeing the wreckage of fighter jets and bits of flying warship around, so at least the unit behaviors were behaving like she expected them to.

But there was a distinct lack of burning and wrecked Institute itself! There was a big flying battleship thing, fighter jets (did some of them even have Aeon particles!?) and most of her flying units were dead! She even stepped on a few of them coming here!

And the freaking Falcon Mobile was up there too-okay, that explained the Aeon buildup there. For a moment, she was tempted to grab something and chuck it at the smug prick flying it while he dogfighted with the murders above, but she held herself back. Won't matter if we can actually wreck the Institute like we're supposed to.

Grumbling, she closed her eyes and grit her teeth for another update-

-the murder was greatly depleted, still hounding the flying dagger-

-giant mechanical monsters with big guns pushing their way out of the cordon-!

-and Ozawa gasped as the link was utterly severed. "You're kidding me. They got all of them!? What the hell are those things!?" Ozawa brought back a blurry image of the infiltrators' last collective memory before it all went pear shaped. Plenty of fleshy humans, sure, but there were these big ass power armor stomping around with crew served guns! The infiltrators would have been fine if those weren't there-!

Another shriek that abruptly cut off echoed loudly across the burning fields - and Ozawa felt another presence utterly severed from the neural network.

"You."

Another giant robot - this one looking similar to the ones she'd stomped with the Titanosaur. It was two-vs-one-ing the cracked Eggs, and even though it looked utterly beat up, with gouges deep in its plate and its funky headdress thing partially cut off, she had looked towards it just in time to see it charge with a sword of all things.

And watched as the metal stabbed its way through the Egg's throat. Ozawa could still slightly hear through the other Egg's link a gurgling sound emanating from its throat, the creature's death spasms still swinging wildly at its killer as fire fought with bleeding acid to pour from its maw. The giant robot tore away, pulling its sword back-

-well, okay. Ten percent of it back - the blade snapped with a great crack! as the hilt snapped away from the rest of it, leaving the blade lodged in the throat.

"This would have worked," Ozawa snarled, "if you weren't here!" She was going to have a long discussion with the boss about why she hadn't been warned about this - sure the surgery to improve her took like five years or something so it wasn't like she was keeping up with news but 'oh, by the way, the Union also has giant robots, so watch out for that' never came up in planning-!

She forced herself to calm down, exhaling sharply as she held up a finger. "This is fine," she growled, trying to repeat her words as a calming mantra, "this is fine. It doesn't bother me, it doesn't bother me-"

A scaled fist abruptly slammed into the side of the fleshy cockpit, eliciting an annoyed huff from the Titanosaur. "-IT BOTHERS ME A LOT!"

Her attention turned back towards the Yukimura Institute. Despite the distinct lack of power along most of the grounds, even those weird cannon things (she was sure that was what they were supposed to be, anyways) looked like they were starting to run out of juice. But…that was a lot of Aeon buildup over there…

"I don't have time to deal with you." The command interface momentarily flipped - and a holographic mouse and keyboard superimposed itself as she click-dragged what was left of her forces, right clicking on the EUDF robot. "So they will."

At once, she saw with satisfaction the remaining murder and the remaining Egg immediately began to turn their attention towards the EUDF robot. "Aggressive behavior, direct attack and then move-to-attack move, aaaaand that should do it for now." The controls then receded as the joysticks reemerged, with her scaly hands gripping them tightly. A puff of air from her mouth blew away a few strands of the hair that had managed to survive the transformation into a kaiju (hey, perks of being the old man's intern!) as she shifted the Titanosaur's direction to the real juicy prize.

And this time she received no guff from the Titanosaur as its genetically installed target laid in its sights. "We'll be killin' all the humans when we come!" The Titanosaur roared as Ozawa laughed in glee, as the footpedals spurred the Titanosaur into a purposeful stomp towards its target.

---

"Shit!"/'Shit!" The Perseus threw the remaining hilt of the Arc Blade at the Crocalisk's head, but it was already sprinting towards it. Perseus tried to move around it, but abruptly found the Crocalisk already moving to body block them, its mouth wide open and a blast of fire emerging from its throat. Both pilots instinctively raised the control sticks as Perseus guarded with its arms-

-only to be slammed into by Pterawings from behind. Perseus tried to shift its focus, but then felt its arms heat up significantly, even as more and more claws from above were beginning to slash against the Perseus's back.

Xiu Ying tried to find something, anything to use, but her radar was absolutely cluttered with contacts. "We need-" She winced as one of the swipes dug deep into their left shoulder, and a hydraulic cable was already dangling, spewing hydraulic fluid catching alight from the flames. "-we need a fire support mission-!"

"-we can't take the splash damage!" Oscar retorted. "We have to get clear-!"

"-there's nowhere to go!"

For the first time in the fight, Perseus was locked in place. Frozen. Uncertain as its wills, once united in purpose, could not agree on what to do. It could not move. It could not fight like this, not when it was surrounded by foes with little way to fight back-

Perseus's eyes flared brightly. It could not fight this way. And that was unacceptable. Not when the great prize was charging towards what they swore to protect.

Despite having tried it only once before, the Perseus pressed back against its twin wills. Those-That-Seek - surely they could lend aid-?

"-One! Chimera-One! Or whoever's out there!" Oscar wasn't sure where the idea had come from, but now he was going to kick himself later for not thinking about it when they were panicking. "Perseus needs a hand here! I say again-"

Both of them finally synched their movements as the fire died down, and with a mental command, Xiu Ying triggered the infrastructure panel they were standing on. The hydraulics shuddered to life, as what remaining power hadn't been sucked dry by the Mercury's reactivation sent a signal downwards-

-and Perseus was catapulted over the Crocalisk.

"Change!"/"Change!"

Perseus slammed against the ground once, then twice, before its body began to twist and turn, folding once again into a Buckler as its treaded tires squealed, digging into the remaining earth, fully intent on chasing after the giant kaiju. Its movement was sluggish, and it was not going to push its top speed anytime soon with the cut hydraulic and the damage they've suffered - but it was that or stay inside what was becoming a killzone.

"-say again, this is Perseus!" Xiu Ying continued as Oscar took over the wheel. "We need support!" Already, in the battered and cracked rear view mirrors, she could see the Crocalisk already chasing after them. "Any support!"

She also could have done without seeing the classic message about objects being closer than they appeared.

---

"Diana-!"

"Listening." It was taking more and more concentration for Diana to effectively hijack her way into letting Xiu Ying manipulate what few infrastructure panels were remaining in addition to nursing what little blaster energy or point defense ammo she had left, and her speech was probably a little more terse than she meant it to.

"I've got a plan I'm about to try." That would have sent warning bells blaring in Keiko's mind - but Diana didn't know that at the time. She was as pressed as anyone, and she didn't have the bandwidth to spare for new plans. "But I'm gonna need your help with the Pegasus."

"Will it work?"

"No idea, but it might buy the old man another minute."

Diana would bash her head in the AAR after this. But that was future Diana's problem. The Diana of right friggin' now needed something immediately. "...do it."

---

"Cool." Glancing quickly to the side, Hiroki found the communicator panel and adjusted the dial to the frequency Diana had fed to him. "Hey, pilots!" he called out. "Who wants to join me in doing something stupid?"

The cheers of the pilots as all remaining nine Seekers seamlessly formed up around him for another go was only matched by the exhausted and resigned sigh coming from Diana.

---

Oscar's hand on the wheel twisted left as the Perseus's Phalanx mode was thrown into a power drift, making a wide turn to the left as Xiu Ying was activating as many obstacles as she could find. Traffic blockers. Storm sirens. Anything to momentarily throw off the Crocalisk's chase - not that that would do anything for the damned Pterawings!

More and more of them were throwing themselves in the line of travel, with giant rows of teeth biting against them when they could make contact or diving slashing attacks with their claws. A few of them had even tried to gather enough of a critical mass to lift them!

Thankfully, they far outmassed the Pterawings, and at their present speed they messily found out what happened when vultures tried the same thing with normal cars. But it was growing harder and harder to maintain speed with the damage the Perseus had incurred - oil pressure still mattered, and while they had thankfully managed to 'cauterize' the leaking hydraulics, they were still slowing down-!

"Guys! Think fast!"

Both pilots blinked as they instinctively reconfigured back into the Perseus and presented their good shoulder. The next moment, the Falcon Mobile shrieked over them in the opposite direction, a bright burst of Aeon particles tearing its way through the Pterawings behind them. A moment later, all of the Seekers were right behind them, partially hidden by the stormclouds of contrails firing from their missile ports.

The Pterawings shrieked in anger and pain as more of them disintegrated or were outright frozen, collapsing to the ground and shattering like delicate ice sculptures-

-and suddenly there were no more Pterawings, as they all began to chase after the Falcon Mobile. Xiu Ying was certain she could spy glowing red glares of murderous intent from their eyes as they chased after their hated enemy, not even bothering to pay attention to the Seekers flying after them in mecha mode as they picked off the edges of them and keeping them herded.

"Just leaves this bastard."

Xiu Ying nodded. "We'll make this quick then."

The Crocalisk charged, but this time it was just one on one. And Perseus already knew it could win this one, near thing as it would be.

---

"What now-!?"

Ozawa blinked as she saw the murder flying away from the Union's robot. "No, no, nononononono!" Forcefully pulling the keyboard back up, she tried to redirect them. "You're supposed to-!"

-MERCURYMERCURYMERCURYMERCURY-

"-stopstopstop-!" She then looked up as the Falcon Mobile - she swear she could see the cheeky bastard inside!-fly past her along with the other jets. Then-

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" She didn't notice how the controls reverted as the Titanosaur brought its arms up, Ozawa's entire vision clouded by her own damned units! She couldn't see anything - just flying masses of leather and teeth and they were all screeching around her head! "Get-get away, you're getting in the way-!"

And then she and the Titanosaur felt pain.

Okay, more like a baseball landing on their head. A really, really solid and fast baseball that was bright pink and red.

The fliers all vanished as the light overtook them, and the Titanosaur roared in annoyed pain as Ozawa was forced to look away, the light blinding her momentarily. "Gah! Son of a-!" God, that stung! What the hell was-?

Her vision cleared - and she saw the damned flying battleship. "Okay, just for that-!"

The turrets were clearly preparing for another go - but they came too close this time. Wrenching the left control stick, Ozawa forced the Titanosaur's arm upwards into a massive backhanded swipe, intending on swatting the damned thing from the sky. "GO AWAY!" she roared as she turned her attention back to the Institute, ignoring the pattering of bullet impacts digging against the Titanosaur's skin. She was going to make something go damned right today!

---

"Committing hard turn to starboard!"

"All power to portside engines!"

"We're not going to make it!"

Diana grit her teeth from inside the mainframe as she saw the kaiju's massive arm hurtling towards them with a speed that still seemed somehow slow for its size. The human crew were doing everything they could, but unless something changed, they might well see the whole bridge swatted out of the sky-!

Initiate emergency burn - increase heading to 299 - divert remaining power from turrets to engine-

Diana did every little million and one things she could to help the human crew, but these were odds that a supercomputer could not calculate, not even in realtime-!

Just pray, child. Pray, and have some faith.

Doctor Ignatov's words echoed in her mind, almost incongruously - why would she be thinking about that now!? Yet despite that, in the microseconds that the memory played back before her, she was already subtly shifting from panicking at their oncoming death, to reckoning with the fact that they had objectively done everything they could to slow the kaiju down.

All of the kaiju.

Just one part of that memory bothered her. How do I pray-?

At once, her connection momentarily severed from the rest of the ship. Forcing herself to stay calm despite her processes running at a speed Adriana would have been envious of, she sighed in relief as her connection reasserted itself-

-and winced as she felt the massive arm just barely miss them, but for the sideswipe of its claws that had managed to slam into the rear-portside of the ship in its passing. The crew lurched, thankfully most of them having buckled themselves in or braced themselves against something, but if they were lucky they'd only have to deal with concussions or broken bones after this. The readouts of the ship were an angry, deeper shade of red, and the portside engine was already flickering, online only due to the raw amount of power shoved through its now leaking core-

"This is the bridge!" Diana called out. The crew seemed relieved to her hear voice - and given the sparking, mangled console where she normally appeared, she supposed she couldn't blame them. Yet she surprised herself with her next words: "We are back online - stay with me, and we will make it through this!"

Power to the lights cut off as a wash of emergency red lights flooded the whole of the interior, with firefighters and mechanics momentarily halting operations as they strapped themselves in or helped others who couldn't do so on their own power. "We are setting down for an emergency landing!" Diana would find time to ask Doctor Ignatov about what he meant later. The human crew were all pushing forward, working harder despite the horrible conditions they were in, and not knowing that success was possible anymore. Was this what he meant?

"I say again, all hands prepare for emergency crash landing..!"

---

"Resetting power now, Doc!" Daichi's voice came through the crackling radio. "Mercury's stopped hoggin' all the juice - I think it's as good as we're gonna get!"

"Thank you, Daichi." Rin Yukimura sighed, wiping off sweat from his balding head with a well worn handkerchief that had seen far too much use today. "Miss Diana, are you still with us?" Still waiting for her response, Rin nodded as some basic functions of the central computer began to come back online.

Launch bay: online.

Catapult system: online.

Mercury: 100% charged.

Facility Power: Onli-

At once, all of the lights flooded back into the Institute. The hangar bay surrounding Mercury's frame was…it was an appalling mess. "Good god, George," he muttered to himself, color fleeing from his cheeks despite the horrors he had been inured to by now. "What have you done?" The EUDF's mecha that had so bravely volunteered to help with the defense of Mercury were delicately picking their way through the charnel pit that the area had become. Once ordinary people had become bloodthirsty, mindless zealots controlled by whatever insane directives George had implanted into them, wielding everything from homemade weapons to stolen surplus, to even just newgrown claws or bits of sharpened metal.

And they had all - as far as he could tell at the moment - been killed in their mad charge. All so they could try to kill him. His staff. Keiko. Daichi and his team. Hiroki.

Once again, Rin forced himself to harden his heart, and remind himself that the George Sheol he once knew, and the George Sheol he was now fighting were not the same person. They never would be.

"Doctor!" Keiko's voice came through. "We're doing a sweep with the EUDF's mechs now! Generator is secured - just get Mercury out there!"

"...yes. Of course." Nodding, even though she couldn't see, Rin looked down at the camera interface - at least seeing through the cameras that hadn't been outright destroyed in the fighting. The sight of the EUDF's forces being whittled down, desperately fighting alongside Hiroki who had taken to the Falcon Mobile to buy him time, even knowing how much danger he had put the boy in-

The sight of the dropship by which they had come crashing into the earth, screeches of sparks and metal burrowing deeply against the earth, caused him to clench his fists hard enough to draw blood. "Miss Diana," he muttered, "you fight as hard as anyone of flesh and blood."

Turning towards his staff, he raised his voice, and all signs of frailty disappeared. "Prepare to launch!"

---

The creature was pinned beneath Perseus's foot. Writhing with enough force to shake the earth, it shrieked upwards in defiance, its throat still attempting to conjure more of the foul flames it had spawned into this world with.

With one final downwards motion, Perseus's right fist slammed directly down its maw, its final remaining rounds of ammunition sliding into place.

"GO-!"/"-DOWN!"

Despite already being eaten into by the acidic blood, Perseus fired its weapon one last time - and the resulting explosion disintegrated the kaiju's head, sending flesh and acid exploding around it. The corpse twitched a few more times - but ultimately it stilled, its corpse already beginning to seep more of its blood to disintegrate it.

There was no time to claim its husk as a prize, though.

"Shit. It's almost there."

"Has to be something we can use-!"

Perseus turned its head, one of its glowing eyes cracked and shattered from the fighting - but it could see as clearly as when they had begun. Its twin wills provided all of the vision it needed.

And the mangled remains of the Ones-Who-Seek was mostly dismantled nearby, save for-

"The missile pods! They're still intact!"

"That thing's not gonna feel that-!"

"Better than nothing, we might draw its attention!"

Perseus nodded, and was about to charge towards the fallen warrior, but then it paused, turning its attention to the fallen kaiju.

"Perseus, what-?"

It knelt down. If all they needed to do was to draw the great beast's attention, this one's corpse might be useful for one more thing.

---

Ozawa had suffered through the EUDF roadblocks, the JSDF adjacent roadblocks, the utterly bullshit arrival of new EUDF robots, and let's not forget, the flying goddamned battleship.

She was not happy.

But as the Titanosaur loomed over the Institute directly, well within range to finally stomp the damned nuisance into the ground, she grinned. She was finally, finally going to put these bastards out of business.

Which made her extremely happy.

"Alright," she hummed as she queued up some commands, "time to-"

And then she paused. She couldn't even call what she had just experienced damage, even if they were high explosive and had scarred the scale armor slightly. More like tiny pinpricks, or the feeling of someone who had just had a paper airplane flung at her from behind in the lecture hall.

She slowly turned the Titanosaur around, incredulity rapidly growing into something more visceral.

The EUDF robot stood, freshly fired missile pods being responsible for the pinpricks she had just felt. But in its hand, held high, was the remaining Egg. Or rather, the mangled remains of its head, still bleeding acid even as the robot held it up like a grisly prize.

Ozawa felt a vein pop in her head.

"GO AWAY!" The Titanosaur roared, and the sensation of lighting surging upwards through the kaiju's body intensified. The robot was already trying to dodge away - but the Titanosaur bellowed, and lightning blasted out of its mouth, slamming directly into the robot and forcing it to the ground.

The Titanosaur reached down to grab at the robot. It tried to rise to its feet, but the electric shocks still surging through it was interrupting whatever controls it had - and then the kaiju's claw was gripping tightly. She felt some parts of it give way, and she was fairly certain she wasn't imagining the sounds of something cracking and shattering outside.

"I am sick-!"

The Titanosaur slammed its fist into the ground.

"-and tired-!"

It slammed down again, and significant chunks of the robot's armor was simply crushed in the impact.

"-of you GETTING IN THE WAY!" In a final burst of pique, the Titanosaur's arm swung towards the Institute - and released the robot mid-swing. The robot crashed into the west wing of the Institute, in a crash of collapsing steel, concrete and glass as the building parted like a children's toy set.

"Okay, now where were we!?"

---

"-up. G…get…up!"

Oscar coughed weakly, his senses slowly filtering back to life. Through the normal way, not the Psychic Theater. He could vaguely feel Xiu Ying shaking at him, however weakly - and he could feel the huge gashes in the K-Suit, along with the bits of shrapnel that had once been part of the cockpit sticking out of him like a pinata. "I'm-" he coughed, feeling the distinct taste of blood in his mouth, "-I'm here. How long-?"

"Just half a minute. I think." Then Xiu Ying winced herself - Oscar could see her arm twisted in an angle the human body was not meant to have. "Since when could they do that?"

"Hang…hang on." The Perseus's Man-Machine Interface was already starting to reboot. Which was weird - they hadn't initiated the reboot sequence. But at that moment, the kaiju was still there, and was turning back towards the Institute. "Resynch…ready. You up for this?"

"Have to. I'll complain after we're done."

"Okay." It wasn't, but neither pilot were in a good position to worry about that. "Prepare to-"

And suddenly, there was light.

---

The Yukimura Institute began to shake. The central hall began to unfold, the roof sliding outwards or just outright collapsing where the damage had been done as it extended towards the hangar. The Steeds still on the roof and still firing at the big kaiju had already reconfigured and were driving away to a safe distance.

Hiroki had nearly lost it as he saw the Perseus getting flung into the Institute like a baseball. Those pilots - even Diana - had gotten hurt badly just to give them this chance. But despite everything, that final bit of distraction had been just enough.


And before the kaiju could do anything, an explosion erupted from the central hall -

- and Hiroki grinned as he saw Mercury's frame being launched into the air. They'd gotten the new catapult system working!

"Okay, Diana, Perseus," he growled, shifting the levers into docking mode. "You gave everything you all had for this one shot! Now it's my turn!" A severe, almost manic, grin crossed his face as his eyes narrowed and he lined up the Falcon Mobile.


He twisted the Falcon Mobile one-hundred and eighty degrees, to the point that he was flying upside down. But he wasn't worried. He had done this so many times, he could do this in his sleep.


And he knew in his heart that Mercury wouldn't let him down.

The Falcon Mobile began to fold in on itself. The wings began to fold in on themselves and twist around, forming the face plate. The tail fins folded upwards, forming the head-crest that everyone on this battlefield knew. Hiroki felt the comforting sensation of the cockpit canopy twisting upwards ninety degrees-

-and then power surged in as his old friend's eyes blared to life.


Powerful arms spread outwards, fists clenched, as the body flared to life, a bright blue light cut through the red of the burning fires around him.


All at once, the soothing light of the Aeon particles flared across the battlefield. Hiroki's grin intensified as he felt power surge through his oldest friend's frame. Like everything was going to be okay again.

It was just up to them to make sure that was the case.

"Kaiju! Listen up!" Hiroki's voice projected loudly, almost as if he barely needed the PA system built inside the head. "You can pull all the dirty, underhanded tricks you want! You can hurt us, you can try to kill us! But!"

Mercury took a step forward, and its chest plates began to glow even brighter as the generator began to absorb the ambient Aeon Particles hanging in the air.

"You will never win! You hear me!? As long as Mercury V is here, as long as there's people who believe in Mercury V, you will never win!"

---

---

• [] Perseus - can still fight!
  • [] Not all of the prototype cannons were destroyed. Surely Perseus can still use one of them?
  • [] Focus on rallying the remaining Steeds on the ground. There's enough Seeker wreckage that something could be jury-rigged.
  • [] Withdraw to the Institute. It has done everything it could have been asked and more.
  • [] Write-in
• [] Pegasus
  • The Pegasus has crash landed, and is in no position to assist with the battle further.
• [] 25th Air Wing
  • [] Hunt down what remains of the Pterawings. There aren't many left, mind.
  • [] Assist the Pegasus. Perhaps they can at least get some of it back online in time for the battle.
  • [] Write-in

---