Super Robot Quest G

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1542, 20 June 2073
Outskirts of Legio-Galbinus Enclave

"-excusemesorry-!"

Breakneck ever so slightly sidestepped around the projectile coming from Frankie's launcher, his head tilting to get around the supercompressed energy propelling the blast forwards. Even if everything around him was moving in slow motion, caked in what felt like photoelectric mirrors, he'd long since learned from hard-won experience that everything still moved in his accelerated perception - and it was the projectiles you didn't notice moving towards you that would do you in.

"-comingthroughNailheadjustasecond-!"

Nailhead's form shuddered as the Predasaur's massive tail slammed into his body, the engineer's single monocular eye widening in surprise at the sheer impact of the facsimile of the earth-kaiju creatures. Breakneck's response was to perform a slide similar to what the humans did in one of their 'baseball' rituals, narrowly avoiding the tail's swing.

"-andallofyoudontneedtheseanymore-!"

Breakneck plucked some of the weapons from the remaining Free Brother Drones, disassembling the power sources from the proper blasters, and simply thwacking the ones with the weld jobs or those with simple bludgeoning instruments. Don't overstay your welcome here, let go at the moment of impact-!

And then he saw the one other individual moving at a relatively normal speed compared to him. Highway had since reconfigured back into mecha mode, though rather than outright running the spinners on his feet were acting as impromptu skates. He saw his path crossing Cavalier, and the Free Brother's fist slammed into the scout's faceplate before moving on, not even waiting to see how the physical impact was already translating into the younger Kaus being blasted from his feet. His attention was already on the newest combatant -

'Defend Beowulf and let him deal with the Predasaur.'

Well, Galbinus couldn't have been clearer than that.

"No you don't!" Breakneck's hand grappled Highway's, and moved to throw him over his shoulder. It almost worked - save for the fact his enemy's hands were already morphing into tendrils, wrapping around Breakneck and pulling him into the air and along for the ride, well away from the Beowulf's form that slowly was reconfiguring from Jackal mode -

- and the mirror film overlaid over reality shattered into a million pieces as everything around them began to move at normal speeds again. As he and Highway impacted the ground, he could see Nailhead being thrown into the air from the Predasaur's tail from the corner of his optics. The Drones he'd passed by pulled their trigger fingers on weapons they were no longer holding - right as Frankie's blast slammed into them, scattering them and leaving them scrambling for weapons along the ground that no longer functioned.

For the first time in awhile, Breakneck was stationary, just trying to get back onto his feet. He could spy Highway doing the same, even if the Kaus's form was already starting to shudder from the implanted Kinetic module. "Threw your fortunes in with Tyrannous, did you?" he asked calmly, as if they were still the colleagues they once were.

"He made a better offer than the Council," came the brusque reply. "What's working under their rules ever gotten you?"

"Peace of processing power," Breakneck replied instantly. Already the world was starting to shimmer once again, his own Kinetic module spinning rapidly in place. "You weren't so much a bully like this before, Highway."

"Better to be a bullythanthevictim-"

Breakneck's module activated a split second after Highway's - but that was already enough to put him on the backfoot as time slowed around them again.

---

"Holy-!"

Richard had to forcibly lean Beowulf back right as the head unit emerged, just in time to avoid the snapping teeth of the Predasaur. "Okay, that's one way to start the fight!" Beowulf was already taking steps back - but the Predasaur's maw was already snapping forwards again, raw brute force parting the ground like an excavator.

Beowulf abruptly found the light snuffed from its surroundings as the Predasaur's maw had encompassed its form, and Richard wrenched the controls upwards, forcing Beowulf's hands to lift upwards. Even through the zirvitium lining, Richard felt several semis' worth of weight drop onto his shoulders, his shoulders shaking as if he were personally bearing the weight himself. "Not good, not good. A little help-!"

"Callaghan, on your right!"

Beowulf was bowled over forcibly as Charlie's massive form slammed into him, breaking shards of the Predasaur's teeth as they both stumbled out of the way. A moment later, a funnel of supercharged flames shot out through the clenched (and chipped) teeth of the Predasaur, with smoke emerging from its nostrils as it shook its head in frustration.

"Ow. Thanks."

"Yeah. Ow. No worries."

Both mecha got to their feet and immediately dove again out of the way as a massive foot stomped deeply into the earth where they had just been standing. Beowulf brought up its blaster - thank you, Zulu and Dr. McCullough - and bright red blasts of energy slammed against the Predasaur's flank, digging small gouges into the metallic hide, right as Charlie was slamming his fists against the hind legs that were keeping the Preadasaur standing.

All that seemed to do was piss it off if the earth shattering roar was any indication.

Richard didn't even see the tail slam into him. The deceptively quick T-Rex's tail smashed against Beowulf, sending it crashing through several copses of trees in a shower of splinters and uprooted dirt as its leg simply kicked back against Charlie in a similar treatment.

As he stared upwards, Richard flinched even through the polarized screen as one of Frankie's supercharged blasts flew directly overhead, presumably towards the Predasaur. "Richard, come on." Iris's alt-form skidded to a halt next to him as she reconfigured, and her surprisingly strong frame pushed him at least up to a sitting position. "The fight isn't over."

"Power inadequate." Architect's dry voice joined in from behind Iris. "Need sufficiently greater power to deal with metallic equivalent of kaiju." The engineer let loose another stream of his sub-blaster, warning off several of the bolder Drones from coming too close - at least before two blurs shimmered past, and the Drones abruptly collapsed sans head units. "Kind thanks, Breakneck."

"Funny you mention that," Richard grumbled. The Beowulf's optics flared as it stared towards the direction of the Shepherd. The C-Crystal embedded in his K-Suit flared brightly in time with the Beowulf's optics, all but overpowering the HUDs' lights in the cockpit. "This is Callaghan! Initiate Knight Combination!"

---

"You're in the way!"

Cavalier plowed through what he thought had been the remaining Drones. His fist smashed through the chest unit of one, then gripped something inside as leverage to throw it over his shoulder into more of its fellows. But wherever he turned - his leg idly reconfigured momentarily inwards to avoid an errant blast from the most recent arrival - the Free Brothers were just all too happy to throw even more of them into the fray as scrap metal.

They can't keep making more of them like this, can they?

"Frankie!" Cavalier snapped. "How're we lookin'?"

"Juuuust a sec-" Cavalier momentarily shut down his optical feed as explosive energy barreled its way through the most recent batch of Drones trying to desperately place themselves in between Cavalier and Bandit's rapidly fleeing sustainment bed. "I'm out," he announced. "I kinda need to diversify, I think."

"Big gun only gets you so far, mech," Cavalier gibed back as he began 'pursuing.' The whole 'let Bandit get away' plan kind of rankled with him a bit, but Galbinus and the humans at DFRI seemed to have something particular in mind, so he'd just have to trust that this would work. But they had to make it convincing that they didn't want to let him go.

Not too hard when I don't, actually.

"Scrapheap!"

What followed was, perhaps, not Cavalier's finest moment. What was supposed to happen was that he was supposed to crest the mount, all dramatic like with his Concussion Blaster. He'd even gotten the primary star's position in the sky just right - okay, that was a happy accident, but still.

Instead, he was abruptly blasted back over the lip of the ridge, all accompanied to Crackdown's cackling laughter. "Ow."

"Next time, lawmech!" As Cavalier got to his feet, he swore that if the grin on the crazy Kaus's face grew any further, his faceplate would split open and reveal a smaller head like those weird human dolls that Jess had shown him. "We've got places to be!"

"And be quick about it." Scrapheap's voice echoed loudly as the Borer's engines began to rev up, the sound of grinding gears already starting to dig deep into the earth. "We are well behind as is."

"What, gonna leave your pet behind?" Cavalier growled. He snap fired a Concussion blast, but Crackdown had already reconfigured his torso out of the way, twisting and turning his body in ways that made Cavalier uncomfortable just to look at.

"I can always build more." With that, the hatch to the Borer closed shut right as a red and blue speck of motion snuck inside -

And Cavalier for the umpteenth time that day had to shield his optics from yet another explosion. What seemed like the first half of the whole Borer simply burst into spouts of fire and debris as the back half detached, the explosion all but collapsing the tunnel behind it and sealing their egress point shut.

"Hey-" Frankie caught up to him finally, fighting to catch his breath. "-hey, sorry, just got here, did we-?" The younger mech then paused, and looked at the debris. "Oh."

A flurry of vibrating dust later, Breakneck skidded to a halt, already collapsing to his knees as his hand pressed against an openly gouged and sparking wound clearly dealt by Highway.

"Yeah." Cavalier grumbled as Frankie immediately broke out his engineering tools. "I hate it when they do that." Nevermind the fact that the mission was technically accomplished.

---

"They 'got away,' Galbinus."

"Good." Galbinus saw Herald nodding slightly as the tactical overlay updated - and it was clear by now that aside from the Predasaur and the debris of the Borer drill tank that Scrapheap had somehow managed to put together, a handful of Drones had simply been left behind. Charlie had already backed off from fighting Scrapheap's kaiju imitation, and was joining Tracker in intimidating the remaining Drones to surrender. Perhaps Devin can find some use for them.

"Beowulf Fenrir is online!" Delphi's normally calm voice had broken out into a veneer of excitement. He found it hard to blame the young Oracle Matrix - the Timberwolf and the Foxhound were already formidable opponents, and Devin's engineers had found a way to merge the two in much the same way Dr. Ignatov had managed to create Axiom. In a storm of erupting debris with electricity arcing betwixt them and great pillars of fire, the flight module overlaid itself over the chest and back. A bright red jewel emerged from the forehead, blaring brightly as the combined energies scattered -

- and immediately was greeted with the massive, multi-lighted fist smashing into the Predasaur's jaw, sending it colliding into the ground in the first truly struck blow since Scrapheap had unleashed it. Growling, the Predasaur used the momentum to stumble back onto its feet, and leapt directly at Beowulf Fenrir.

Callaghan's response as the Beowulf raised its arms to fend off the beast's bites and hold its writhing form in place was for the mighty engines mounted on its back to fire in a bright burst of blue fire, sending his extended knee to directly impact against the beast's chest.

"Axiom's involvement: unnecessary," Herald commented.

"We still need to end this now," Patch chimed in. The skeletal medical technician frowned, and at his gesturing Herald overlaid the technical readouts - and more importantly the projected structural stability of the creature. "It appears as if it will simply overload its reactor in an effort to keep going through brute force, or perhaps self-destruct if it sees no other option."

"Concur," Herald agreed. "Delphi: assessment?"

"Right here." The reactor was surprisingly emitting a smaller signal than one would expect for a creature of this size - but Galbinus mused that since higher brain functions beyond the bestial were not included, perhaps it would suffice for raw aggression. He would ask Patch later if the topic came back up. "One good hit will finish it off!"

---

"Easier said than done!" Even as he complained, however, Richard couldn't recall feeling quite so powerful as he did now. Fenrir responded as strength matched strength - and in some cases overpowered it.

Once again catching the creature's charge, he felt Beowulf's fingers dig into the protective metal as he fired his boosters again, momentarily lifting the both of them into the air. "Wish we made specific weapons for this mode before we came out!" he grumbled, still feeling the strain of lifting a practical tyrannosaurus brought to life in a metal shell. "Just gotta - make - do!"

With one final burst of energy as the engines began to redline from the strain, Fenrir let go of the beast and gravity got its claws on it instead. "Shock Cannons!" Once mounted exclusively on the Foxhound, the cannon mounts emerged from their new positions on the shoulder ports. "Rapid fire!"

A practical storm of electrified energy blasted after the falling Predasaur - but its impact was undetermined as it collided with the ground, obscuring it momentarily in a cloud of dust. The Shock Cannons shut off in response to Richard's perceived lack of need for them now, electric arcs fading from within the barrel. "These things have a bigger punch than they used to, though," he muttered, the C-Crystal pulsing slightly with light. "Delphi?"

"You'll need to finish it off-"

Delphi's assessment was cut off by a blast of fire plowing through the dust storm. The descending form of Fenrir twisted out of the way, only to face a heavily distorted scream of rage and pain from within the dust storm. The Predasaur was shuddering from the electric blasts shorting out some of its critical joints, and its maw was now heavily disfigured and showing the truth of a jagged and rent machine, its failing circuits and its disfigured optics still committed to their only purpose: to kill.

"Then let's finish it," Richard said with far more calm than he felt. The C-Crystal pulsed far more rapidly as he weighed his options. Though nothing specifically for the Fenrir was fully updated...it was weak enough that he was confident he could kill it now.

---

How do you finish it off?

[] Arc Blade
[] Arc Cannon
[] Blazing Fists