Koehler looked as the Black Komodo seemed to have went dumb or something, was Miles wearing his plug-suit? ...He probably wasn't. Was he having a concussion in there? The others (mainly Elora) began to speak and it was now obvious Miles was disabled for the fight. "Uhh... Uhh.. is... is anyone else freaking out?! What is this? I can't fucking think straight in this thing, what the hell is happening? Wh-what-... Ah fuck it! I'm thinking too hard."

"I... where the hell are the others? Who do you think I should be hitting? Hmm... Uhm... where'd that one- the Caliburn- is that still around?", his Frame looks around, just as oddly confused as its' pilot. He began to think, God DAMNIT, what's happening to me? Wh-why is everything so hazy? Nothing makes sense right now! Too much is happening....

Koehler saw Elora begin flying off, something about a trap? "Eaaaugh... is anyone else feeling like complete and utter shit right now? Damn, it's... I'm going crazy! This sucks!, Koehler complained while following Elora. "Nothing is..", is all he let out. Soon, they arrived at 'Zone C', and Koehler was still suffering from this strange, clouded feeling. Shit happened, is all Koehler could say to himself, when Elora said that Ryan is trapped, in great distress. "Uhh... yeah... I.. I can handle that!". Koehler had a spout of 'Ohh now I get it' when he realized mines were everywhere and something exploded. Koehler hovered over the mines with Elora, and soon flew over to above Ryan, still in his dreamlike state, barely aware of anything else.

He then quietly noticed the Caliburn, yet decided to try and get Ryan out first. He grabbed Ryans' werk by the shoulders and tried to use its' boosters to help get him off the ground. "...Elora... don't you have little lasers on your drone? Cut him out...", he soon realized. Koehler suddenly screamed.

"GOD DAMNIT LET ME GET A HOLD OF MYSELF!". He dropped Ryan, wildly shook his head, and breathed in and out, slowly. "Why's that happen anyway? Does anyone else do that stupid shit?" He stopped regulating himself,"ugh... Sorry... for y'know, geeking out...Don't do drugs, kids. That's what happens!", he joked, mainly to himself. Fucking drugs.

@Penultimate_Pi

Damn-! Lora seethed in witness of the shot's yield. The particle cannon had easily taken off the lower end of Macabre's free arm off, but at the current standings it did little to impede the foe otherwise. With thrusters and sword arm still well intact, the ultra-light Frame lunged forth to hack at Caliburn. This wasn't going to get much batter anytime soon, Lora dreaded...

Regardless of the threat, Caliburn stood its ground, raising the shield in anticipation of Macabre's melee assault. The flurry of Visceral's slashes hit harder, the shield's reinforced armor plating unable to withstand the ferocity of each slash. As Caliburn's guard was broken by the over-sized katana, so too was the left arm on which the shield was mounted. Tit for tat, then- until Ryan followed up with a jarring knee strike that slammed Lora's Framewerk in the torso, pushing them both a few meters.

Somewhere below the two dueling machines, one of the glue mines detonated.

Lora was surprised and slightly horrified when the Framewerk's legs were unable to move as she commanded. The skirmish must have set off one of the mine, which now left Calibunr at a yet greater disadvantage to the more agile swordfighter. That thought, however, only lasted until she too realized that Ryan was stuck in the same trap, struggling to move and break free from the sticky substance. It left Lora with mere sweat-laden moments on how to proceed, fighting an enemy that still has a serious weapon superiority over her. How could she ever turn the tides to her favor...?

Her left arm was crippled, which meant she had no chance of stopping that blade. The secondary weapons system would take to long to arm, even if it would be effective at this point. She was able to use the Lighstriker like a blade or spear, but that risked ruining the weapon for the rest of the battle (never mind the fact that Visceral was far stronger anyways). That only left the missile system, but the missiles were weak, not suited for fighting a typical Framewerk.

Two blips zoned in on where Lora and Ryan were held down, and Lora realized she had to act now. Left little better option, the pilot gunned down the trigger button for both launchers, sending six missiles rocketing toward the opposite Frame. Against Macabre's ultra-light armor, perhaps this truly was her best chance yet.

He did it! He managed to get his vines around the legs and even up the arms long enough to give her the shot and she took it. The werk rocked from the blow and shut down. Suddenly his vines spasmed and released the frame. Synchronism drop? No, wireless hacking from one of the bullets? No, but great idea!

"Diagnostique!"

Apparently he had been remote accessed but not hacked, a failsafe installed to prevent accidental collateral damage. In moments his arms were his own again as Komodo plummeted to the earth when Archer chimed on his com with a few others.

"Thanks for the help."

"Oui, Merci. So, What say we four team for the now and we can ro-sham-bo for the winner? Just to irk the commanders. I think Diver would tell us what we are going to choose before us."

As he spoke, he followed after komodo but not at the breakneck speed, he used the height to his advantage to scan for activity in other areas. There seemed to be quite a bit, not to exclude a frame rising from the ocean with flaming fists. When he touched down, scanned the fallen warrior before drawing the chainsword from Komodo. It was broken, but it would be useful as the rifle from the one before. He hefted the gun from his thigh and put the broken sword in its place.

He spoke as he coasted over to archer to be beside her, trying to keep her protected as best he could.
"Anyone not wanting to fight, ten second immunity. Anyone who wants to fight, we count down to one together."
@redbaron1234

As the smoke cleared, the green-ish energy from the Setsuka's hands continued to glow, indicating that the T system was still in effect.

One thing that troubled and even relieved Mai was her "lack of presence". Even in her framework, it just seemed that she frequently get's ignored...well not entirely. The big mouth Miles acknowledged her presence before this whole thing started but now, he was most likely in the infirmary...

That's when Mai heard the open comm link chatter about, of all inefficient things, a ten second rule since it seemed the alliances were over now that the field of battle got narrowed down some.

"...inefficient...do you think the Cruxi will give you that kind of an honorable battle?", Mai droned on the open channel.

But then, she stated this.

"...but acting like this will surely single me out...so...I accept your terms", she then droned.

Now, she had to make another choice...go to Zone D to get out of the "Recon Drone's" sight or go back to Zone B and use the pilliars as cover to force hand-to-hand and close quarters battles. Obviously, D would be the choice but that'll draw all sorts of attention on her since all the other pilots would know that she could use the underground tunnels to possibly pop out of anywhere and ambush unsuspecting pilots.

But there was a part of her...for some reason, she wanted to at least challenge one of these pilots...something that NEVER crossed her mind since she was trained to win...to kill...by any means necessary..."fair play" was something her old Framework division heavily frowned upon.

"...I accept anyone ready to risk their life against me...", Mai droned and thrusted off immedately, heading for Zone B.

"Oui, Merci. So, What say we four team for the now and we can ro-sham-bo for the winner? Just to irk the commanders. I think Diver would tell us what we are going to choose before us."

Krista watched as the Komodo fell out of the Rose's grasp and land on the ground below.

"Ouch. I hope he's alright," she thought.

The Rose coasted over to the Archer before settling between the Archer and the other Werks. Romeo's voice came over the communications channels.
"Anyone not wanting to fight, ten second immunity. Anyone who wants to fight, we count down to one together."

Krista could tell that it was directed at the group. She opened a line to Romeo. "I don't think Command is going to let the battle be decided by rock-paper-scissors, but I do appreciate the reprieve. I want to head over to Zone E, but I want to know what you are thinking."

Romeo smiled as he could still control his facial muscled while till paralyzed from the neck down in his pod. He had gotten the opportunity for vengeance early in and felt better for it. Now he could keep archer safe without distraction and who would it be to open a private link now than her at that moment.

"I don't think Command is going to let the battle be decided by rock-paper-scissors, but I do appreciate the reprieve. I want to head over to Zone E, but I want to know what you are thinking."

I think that as long as we keep together, we can take on the universe. I would prefer the plains as we have clear field of vision in all directions. But. If YOU want to go to E, then WE go to E.

Krista an affirmative noise. "Alright then, I'll leave first. Cover me please." She had the Archer head away from the group while keeping the Archer's main gun pointed in their general direction. Activating the Archer's thrusters, Krista flies into Zone G and lands at the base of the massive piliar. She turns the Archer around and places it to her back. "Romeo, I am waiting for you in Zone G. I'll try to cover you while you get over here."

@Elitestpotato

"Uhh, I'll try," Elora responded to Koehler's order as Diver flew closer to Macabre. "But I think you should forfeit, you don't sound-" She then backed away by instinct when Caliburn opened fire on on the other stuck Framewerk. She could have taken that attack in place of Ryan, but her meek nature took over her. The two were now about to free themselves from the trap, so Elora had to act fast if she wanted to save him. There wasn't much time for him left; his Framewerk wasn't supposed to take any damage, and it was a miracle Macabre was even functional at this point. She heard the announcement, but ignored it, too swept up in the moment to realize that could have had been something for her to consider.

She thrust around to Caliburn's backside, and activated her drones' scanning routine again. She typed on the keyboard like a maniac; her fingers nailed lines of code on the program while her eyes darted back and forth on the screen. She came up with the idea of bypassing repetitive data already collected when the Black Komodo's data was processed and repurposing the scanning to only take data unique to the Caliburn model.

She collected the data in a new record time, and as she was transmitting this data to Ryan and Koehler she was already executing offensive mode on her drones: the moment they finished scanning, the disc-like objects extended laser turrets from their insides and began firing on Caliburn. They were mildly effective, comparable to mosquito bites on a human, but they came in a mass swarm of shots, and thus sure to distract even the most focused of pilots. Then Elora raised up Diver's ABR and revved it up just as the Caliburn freed itself from the glue. The Framewerk aimed it at one of the three weak points she discovered on the mighty giant, which was a joint between the Caliburn's chassis and the thruster systems. Elora bit her tongue, and opened fire.

@LHG100

Koehler, still feeling really goddamn strange, went over his options. Thinking, he really, really should forfeit... "Fff... What the hell is wrong with me?!". It's almost like his damn psyche was slowly killing itself behind his back. Is something wrong with the neural systems of his werk? "Goddamnit command! I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING! What the hell is this? Is this a joke? Give me a reading damnit, what the hell is wrong with my Werk? Is something wrong with me?". Hnng... It was getting painful to think. No matter, he's had worse trips. "Give me something command, while you get your HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES, I'll be trying to continue anyway!...Fuck..."

Koehler flew off, not even saying goodbye to Elora, and went for the Tower. Hopefully, at the top, he could get his bearings. ...Well, and if someone was already there, he'll have to just punch their shit repeatedly. ...What if he just made the tower fall over? That'd be hilarious! A nice big thump could get his mind out of the gutter it was in. Maybe. He paid no heed to anything else, still sort of in his confused, half-broken state.

...Wait, what the fuck was he doing? He said he'd help Elora, he should help Elora! Right? Oh wow, he really had no idea what he was doing! Fuck, he really should just forfeit. "...Hah...heheheheheh! Goddamn Elora, you really are smart aren't you? I should forfeit, I can't continue! I forfeit! I forfeit! Heh... I forfeit..." His Werk simply stopped its' engines and glided, falling face-first into the base of the tower, the pain being relayed to Koehlers' own head.

Koehler then turned his Framewerk until it faced skyward, sitting, resting its' back on the Tower. He watched as Elora and the others did battle. He told himself what he thought of the situation, "...God damn Harold you really are that pathetic...", then burst into a short, quiet fit of laughter. With slowly regaining composure, he wondered "What's wrong with me?"

Roxy and Diver closed in on the trapped pair of Frames, and Lora was now certain she was in big trouble. Her missile storm was enough to blast Macabre's meager armor apart, but it did little to actually cripple the Frame, and she had no time to wait for the launchers to reload. In the meanwhile, Diver was able to easily collect all sorts of integral data of Caliburn she could use to her advantage-

No, wait, what was Koehler doing? Flicking a channel switch, Lora heard the mumblings and outbursts of a raving man. What had happened to Roxy's pilot? Had he hit his head silly, or just smuggled in some illicit substances and suffering the consequences? Lora wasn't given the time contemplate that, as she was all too quickly assaulted by a barrage of lasers from behind, rocking the Frame and sending jolts up the control harness.

The voices returned, for but a moment. Incomprehensible as ever, but she thought she could recognize something...

Desperate to gain some control back into her hands, Lora growled out with a determined sneer and gunned Caliburn's thrusters. Blowing off several drones behind her, the knightly Framewerk struggled against the pool of goo at her feet. A haphazard slash from Visceral hacked apart the plating on her right arm, igniting another grunt of pain and reducing the arm's functions to basic movements, at best.

As Macabre tried to boost away, though, Caliburn attempted pursuit by boosting forward in a full-power shoulder charge. If she could at least run into Macabre to knock it off-balance, she could follow with a last-resort Lightstriker slash to try and take Ryan down with her.

And then Elora, behind her all this time, took the shot. Off the original mark ever so slightly, but not by enough to matter. One, and then several more cannon-grade bullets mashed into the broad side of Caliburn's back, pelting at the main thrusters. The glue finally degraded and gave way, and with a violent sputter, the normally controlled burners erupted in rocketing flames - an explosive force that threw Caliburn forward somewhat, but offered far less actual acceleration otherwise.

Battered and crumbling, but not done yet, Lora held the throttle open, committing to her previous plan. Any attempt to use the thrusters after this would prove disastrous, but that wasn't her concern. She would fight to her very last as she was meant to.

@Cassowarysaur:

Yeshua has kept a low profile up to this moment, watching the others in zone A as they took down the Black Komodo. It was clear to him that if he should have taken his stand in equal ground with them he would have also been crushed like him. But Miles' arrogance turned out favorable to him: he provided an ample distraction while he took aim with his high-accuracy rifle, having his thrusters activated at low power to provide stability in water: it wasn't enough propulsion to lift Anzu out of the water, but enough to keep him still; an unconventional use for them, but ingenious for the pious pilot.

Soon he spotted a proper moment to strike out, and it would be against the other long-range Framewerk out of them, Archer. It made sense to pick out Krista out of the two who still lingered in zone A; Romeo didn't have any ranged weapons for all he knew, and thus placed him in lower priority for now. Yeshua took his time aiming for the Archer's cannon, making sure the bullet would pierce the very base of the weapon and cause it to malfunction: with her long-range cannon destroyed, he could then focus on her buddy Rose and his melee-based fighting style. With a silent prayer, Yeshua squeezed the trigger, and took the shot.

After he took the shot, Anzû dove into the water, swam to the other side and ran out of the water and into zone E, the Broken Hills. The area provides cover better suited for him than zone B would have, with broken monuments scattered all around, not to mention hills for uneven terrain. The Framewerk lied down behind a fallen pillar and rested his high-accuracy rifle on top of it, his sensors set to alternate between the lake and the top of the tower now that he was out of range of the two. He could hardly be seen in the zone, but he also didn't know from what direction they would come in. This was his best chance at coming out on top in this battle, while the majority of other Framwerks were on the other side of the arena. It was going to be 2-against-1, but he did what he could to tip the odds in his favor, and fight to the very end. He wasn't going to back down at this point.

@knighthawk

Apparently everyone else had their own agendas to attend to as Diver and Roxas went their own ways.

"Alright then, I'll leave first. Cover me please. Romeo, I am waiting for you in Zone G. I'll try to cover you while you get over here."

He pinged an acknowledgement to her screen of a thumbs up rather than speak as a speed of thought transmission. He took a crouched position with gun ready as he tried to survey the area for threats. He was grateful that she had managed to make it to the base of the tower unmolested before he began his flight after her like a game of leapfrog.

That is when the shot rang out. He had been so busy looking for mechs, he had forgotten there was more than one sniper in the game. By the time his regular systems tried to process a projectile path, the vicinity of the snipers position near the beach was vacant. Sadly this would have to do for now as his frame had no such specialties.

He landed his frame beside hers and activated his right arm's shield as he kept the rifle in his left hand to try and protect her. His eyes wandered to the forfeited frame and pondered his unused weapon over the single burst he had with his rifle, but no, there was a difference between taking from the fallen and robbing from the weak.

Archer, are you alright?

Mai was hiding amonst the pillars in Zone B but it seemed she was ignored yet again. But this also proved that they weren't all just a bunch or rookies just thrown into their respected frameworks.

They did have inefficient "quirks" but...she also knew why they were chosen for this. They all, in their own ways, have things that Mai lacked. Things that she was trained to think were useless in a battle.

Emotion. Drive. Synenergy.

Mai was simply taught to obey orders, never question anything, always train...always...always...

Once again, Mai shook her head before returning her attention to the battles raging around her. Still hidden, she decided that no one was going to accept her challenge despite her better judgement on making such an inefficient statement. But now she was wondering something else.

...are...they...are they "rubbing off" on me?...Am...am I acutally STARTING to be influenced by these...people?...NO NO NO! INEFFICIENT!

Unfortunately for Mai, this is where she started to act reckless. Breaking cover from Zone B, she then moved to Zone G. There she stopped, jumped and thrusted upwards to the top of the tower. She would then started scanning the surrounding area's for the frameworks currently in combat.

Her T system still active, her hands glowed as she began anaylzing the combat situations around her.

* * * * * * * * * *

"...odd...what's Mai doing?", a scientist on Mai's maintience team said as they watched from the docking bay feeds.

"I've never seen her get this aggressive before", another says.

"Then again, I never thought Mai would actually "talk" to the other pilots on an open comm link", an engineer states.

"...huh...I wonder...with that spike in the syncho rate before, I wonder if that...opened some doors for her...", the "senior" member then adds.

"O-Okay. Just stay right there." When Koehler actually listened to Elora's pleading despite his delirious condition and forfeited out of the match, Elora sighed. She did slightly regret losing a teammate, she couldn't deny that, but she cared more about the well-being of her new comrades and possible friends. She did not want him to push himself too far, like what happened with Alexei. She shook the sad thoughts from her head and opened up the Command channel.
"Diver to Command, do you read me? Cadet Koehler requires medical attention. He seems to have some kind of delirium. Please."

Once Elora got a response, she looked at the map, and gasped when she saw Macabre knocked a far distance. The battle was turning uglier by the second: despite Elora's attempt at subduing the powerful Frame, Lora still kept pushing herself, and actually managed to perform the charging tackle on Ryan and his Macabre. Her thrusters shorted out with heavy black smoke from that move, unusable for the rest of the fight, but the resulting impact was enough to crack Macabre's torso. The Framewerk first attempted to stand, but doubled over, it's extremely light structure compromised to the point that it couldn't support itself any more. Then with a loud, metal-screeching noise, the Frame's upper body dislocated from it's lower body and bent from the lack of support when it took a few steps forward.

"Oh no...Ryan...I..I'll...." Elora's voice wavered, and then she lowered her head. She opened up a voice channel with Lora. "You may think I'm helpless without my friends...but you're wrong! I'll avenge my friends!" With a snapping of fingers, Elora programmed the Data Drones to focus their fire on the Caliburn's second weakpoint: the heels of her feet. With that much laser fire thrown at them, even from a weak source like her Drones, was sure to heat up the joints to the point they would bend due to the Framewerk's massive weight, and break under her, causing the entire Frame to fall down. Diver then rounded up to the front of the Caliburn, and fired her ABR at the third and final weakpoint of the Caliburn: the armpits. Elora's objective was to disable her weapon-arm by shooting into the armpit, where the armor was thinnest, and disable the entire appendage.

---

"What are you doing, Cadet Koehler? Get back in there and fight like a man, dammit!" Lorenzo ordered through the microphone. "If you think you can just sit the mock battle through-"

"Professor, I think there's more to his situation than apparent cowardice." Ritsu slightly moved her index finger towards the lower deck, where personnel were making reports on his condition. "His readings have turned abnormal, likely caused by an external chemical reaction. Cause seems to be narcotics taken after the physical examination, but before the briefing."

"..." Lorenzo was quiet, but his tomato-red face and lip-biting teeth told more than enough about his reaction.
He pressed another red button, and Roxy turned limp with his systems shutting down while it was leaning on the tower.

"I'm going to kick that drug-snorting junkie out of my project faster than you can-"

"Uhh, sir, not to interrupt, but these aforementioned narcotics, they also affected his Synchro Rate. In fact, they resulted in a positive rise."

"Move!" Lorenzo stepped down to the lower deck and shoved the scientist off of his station, and leaned on the monitor that showed a graph of Koehler's Synchronization Rate. Ritsu followed behind. "Maybe we could keep pilot Koehler around for a while longer, if only to properly research the...unexpected qualities of his consumed substances."

Lorenzo grumbled, but then nodded when he went back to his seat in the upper deck. "His use of narcotics will be heavily monitored, and when there's any signs of drug abuse or violent reactions he'll be kicked out."

"Of course, Professor."

Lorenzo sighed, and was about to return back to his observation when another report came in: "Sir, Macabre has taken critical damage. His chassis is ripping in half!"

Without saying a single word, Lorenzo deactivated the Macabre, and the Framewerk fell down, its two separate halves hitting the ground at separate times. Lorenzo went back to watching the monitors with clasped fingers, more miffed than previously.

@Penultimate_Pi

Koehler could only laugh at the order, a sort of demented, quiet giggle. "Keheheheheh... if only you knew.". The muffled laughter turned into a small amount of crying before Harold got over himself. "I'm seeing shit! I'm seeing shit, captain!".
Indeed, the 'recovering' drug addict was seeing some things. Flashbacks and memories of his darker moments turned ever more real as his mind tried to recover itself from going through whatever happened.

Withdrawals, beating people senseless for no reasonable purpose, facing the sheer disappointment and negligence from his family and friends, him actually killing someone, or something once or twice... It was getting too much for him to just sit there and take it. He hit himself as hard as he could to try and give himself blessed unconsciousness, but to no avail. He tried to stop the vivid imagery by disconnecting himself, but he couldn't, for some damn reason.

It's almost like he wanted to face his own sins... "I'm a WRECK! I don't deserve to be here!", he said, mainly to himself. Roxy barely nudged to just try and hold itself, attempting to copy its' pilots' scared and feeble position. Of course, it was immediately stopped by the locking system in place. He mumbled apologies to Elora, Stukov, Miles, and all of the others (including his 'handlers') for being so pathetic.

The attack provided a different result than Lora had anticipated, partly due to the malfunction of her thrusters; the lighter frame was shoved hard into Zone B, the torso cracking and creaking hard. A few seconds passed, and Macabre tried to regain composure... only for the whole frame to split in half at the waist, the chunks disabling as they hit the ground.

Unfortunately, Lora's own troubles were compounding. Visceral had ended up lodged in Caliburn's gut - perhaps an opportunity for a weapon, if both the Framewerk's arms were not nigh-paralyzed. That blast from the main thrusters had left them shot, and the whole body had suffered so much armor damage the harness was locking up. A quick diagnostic revealed that not even the secondary weapons system was operational, as the thruster malfunction and Diver's laser blasts had done a number on the guns.

Lora was getting a major headache. She struggled in the control harness, trying to get her poor wreck of a machine moving. A comms channel opened, and a decisively less-timid Elora spoke up:
"You may think I'm helpless without my friends...but you're wrong! I'll avenge my friends!"

The pilot shook her head, groaning in mild agony. "Is this how it's going to be-!?" The young lady panted out, unaware of whatever channels she had open. "I'm supposed to give it my all- fight with everything I have! I couldn't even get a chance-..."

The laser drones opened fire on the Frame's ankles, unforgiving to Lora's drama. Ravaged and ruined, Caliburn had little capacity to avoid Diver's strategy. The right leg gave out first, and as the larger Frame tried to move away, it instead tripped and crumpled to one knee, caught in a defeated kneel. The Frame's displays were blaring red along Lora's cope of vision, and her muscles ached with strain trying to wrestle control back into Caliburn. Sweat burned down her face, her brain hurt, the sounds replaced with angry blares of the alarm...

That was the problem with Synchronization. For as long as a pilot was given complete control over their machine, so too were they given the strain of trying to control it as it fell apart. As the ratio climbed, so too did the chances that a pilot would die with their Framewerk.

Diver pulled around and took aim with its rifle. Any more damage, and Caliburn was going to be seriously crippled. Lora finally came to realize the danger, and so quickly (if ruefully) moved to pull her emergency release cord. "So be it. You win. Manual override: eject," Lora firmly announced, and moments later she was pulled away from the cockpit. The back of Caliburn's neck blew open, and from it an emergency capsule was launched.

The safety pod flew through the air like a valuable missile, before it deployed a lining of air cushions. It bounced once... twice... then grounded down to a grisly stop among the disturbed earth of Zone C. The pilot within had strains of every kind weighing upon her; carefully, gradually, she began to slow down. To control her breathing...

Breathe in-... hold... breathe out... breathe in-...

@Cassowarysaur:

Yeshua kept quiet inside Anzu as the Framewerk stood still and surveyed the tower and lake through the scope of the high-accuracy rifle. He expected Archer, or at the very least Rose, to chase after him, and he tensed up while reloading the rifle as the waiting continued. There wasn't a possibility of either of them circling around the tower, since the rest of the opposition were fighting there. Unaware of the situation around him, he actually gave a thought to Elora and her reconnaissance skills, which would have had amazing utility as the function of a spotter for a sniper like him. Still, he made his decision of fighting this battle alone, and he wouldn't back out of that and cry out for help at this point. He trusted higher powers to have fair judgement over his destiny, whether it was victory, or defeat.

As Yeshua's thoughts devolved into theological branches, he snapped awake when a Framewerk showed up at the top of the tower in zone G. However, it was neither Archer, nor Rose, but someone else entirely: Setsuka, piloted by the mysterious Mai Twilight. It wouldn't take long for her to spot Anzu from atop the tower, he thought, and would probably attack him the very first chance she got, as was expected of her. So, Yeshua, having little time to assess the situation, had Anzu aim for Setsuka's head with the high-accuracy rifle, hoping to shut down her sensors, and pulled the trigger.

@knighthawk

Krista barely saw the Anzu out of the corner of her vision before it took it's shot. She didn't even have the time to activate the Hornets Nest system before the concussive force of impact sent her for a loop. Several indicators on her HUD told her that the shot had hit the base of the weapon. Several of the important subsystems were in critical condition, and it was a miracle that it hadn't been completely taken off. She managed to stop the Archer from stumbling around and looked over towards where the shot had came from. All she saw was the settling wake from where the Anzu had fired from, and possibly another wake from where something had either entered or emerged from the lake's opposite shore.

Romeo's voice came through with concern as the Rose landed nearby and put up a barrier. "Archer, are you alright?"

For her part, Krista had managed to shake off most of the dizziness from the shot. She took a moment to go through all the warning and alerts on her HUD. "I'm fine personally, but I think my main cannon is pretty much dead. Some sort of power conduit has been hit so the actuators and heating elements are operating at a fraction of normal capacity. On top of that, my fire control system keeps randomly cutting in and out and I can't fire the gun when the fire control system is offline. If there is a silver lining on this it's that my accelerator coils are mostly functional."

Krista had always relied on the Archer's heavy armor and big gun to get her through fights, and it was becoming clear that those might not be enough. Her main offensive weapon would only work 50% of the time at best, so she couldn't rely on it. She had only a vague inkling of where the Anzu had gone, north, and her money would be that Yeshua was already setting up another ambush. If the Anzu's weapon could do this much damage to the Archer's heavily armored hide, she could only wonder what it would do to the Rose or any of the other Framewerks.

Heart racing, Krista started to talk to herself as much as Romeo as she puzzled out what to do next. "I can't take the Anzu right now. He definitely is going to be waiting for us to come around that corner to blast us, and that rifle can definitely take either of us out in a shot..." If it weren't for the fact that she was already on edge looking out for new threats, she probably wouldn't have noticed the Setsuka fly out of the rough terrain of Zone B and land on the top of the Zone G tower. Mai seemed to be trying to get a better view of the battlefield. It was a little odd though, as Zone B provided excellence cover, as projectiles couldn't travel far in that maze of stone. It made no sense to leave that terrain and engage her in the open unless there was some way to take advantage of- Krista's stomach dropped with realization.

"Romeo I think Mai's trying to get a shot off at my weakened armor. I need to get to cover!" despite her best efforts, nervous panic crept into Krista's voice. The choice of where to go was simple. To the east was the Lake, which was a wide open area where she knew the Anzu had been. The only way to take cover in there would be to dive into the lake, and then it would be a simple matter of waiting for her to resurface. To the west was a veritable forest of stone pillars. It might restrict her movement greatly but it would make it difficult for Mai to get a clear shot. Heck, simply moving away from the tower would prevent the Setsuka from having a straight shot down at the Archer's back. "I'm heading to Zone B to try and keep Mai from having a clean shot."

Without even waiting for Romeo to reply, Krista scrambled towards Zone B. The Archer's large bulk prevented it from utilizing many of the narrower corridors, but at least she had some cover from the tower. In there. It wasn't until she heard the sharp report of the Anzu's rifle that she stopped. She couldn't see what it had done to the Setsuka, but Krista was silently glad that the Yeshua had engaged Mai before Mai had the opportunity to engage the Archer or the Rose. As she waited for the Rose to catch up, Krista noted that there was still another Framewerk in here with her. With the immediate panic over, she berated herself for leaping without looking.

Mai was scanning around. For one, she did spot the Rose and Archer frameworks in Zone B...and perhaps it was just hyper awareness, her training or even dumb luck...when she turned to scan around Zone E...and she just saw the Anzu-

That's when half of the Satsuka's head was blown off. Mai had tried to at least move but all she managed to do was prevent the shot from hitting the head dead center. Mai herself felt pain but ignored it. For better or worse, her other framework division trained her for that kind of pain tolerance. Sensor damage was rather obvious now but she wasn't completely blind.

"...this is Seven...engaging target...", Mai droned on the open comm link and immedately thrusted off of the tower in Zone G and continued into Zone E.

As she entered, she saw the Anzu and did two things. She fired a green-ish energy blast from the palms of the Setsuka's hands. Two shots...one from the left hand and one from the right. Not caring if the shots hit, she then took cover, kneeling the Setsuka behind a broken pillar.

"I'm fine personally, but I think my main cannon is pretty much dead. Some sort of power conduit has been hit so the actuators and heating elements are operating at a fraction of normal capacity. On top of that, my fire control system keeps randomly cutting in and out and I can't fire the gun when the fire control system is offline. If there is a silver lining on this it's that my accelerator coils are mostly functional. I can't take the Anzu right now. He definitely is going to be waiting for us to come around that corner to blast us, and that rifle can definitely take either of us out in a shot...Romeo I think Mai's trying to get a shot off at my weakened armor. I need to get to cover!" I'm heading to Zone B to try and keep Mai from having a clean shot."

His synchronization rates had increased as he engages in acts of protection, but dip back down when forced into direct conflicts, a holdover from the desires to protect his people from the true enemy they were training for, for protecting the memory of his brother, the one he couldn't save. For the moment it was a simple thing, protect Archer, and as the numbers lessened, the job became easier and harder at the same time.

He saw the sniper frame take off for perceived protection only to watch the pod launch of an escaping pilot launch from the same area. clearly that meant the war was not over and she needed his protection all the more. One full burst of automatic fire and then back to primary combat. In the forest of stones, his reach melee will be of great use and there had to be more to her than just a single gun.

The thoughts about his gun had given him an odd idea froma n old image from an arms factory now long out of business, but it was still an idea he put to the side of his mind to work on as he took himself to the same path as Archer took, making a higher arc at a slower pace to get a better visual of the terrain below as well as once again provide false data for anyone else who chose to watch his approach.

"Don't get lost in here without me."

For the moment he was willing to bid vigilant patience One arm shielded and the other arm leveling machine gun for the next threat. Sadly that was most likely going to be Diver, a conflict he hoped to avoid and let another take her out so he would be spared any damage to their friendship.