trans_9 | Invasion: Endgame

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Invasion: Endgame

The crew's fight was desperate and valiant, though their foe seemed unstoppable - the Ohm were unrelenting, tireless, and without number. For every one that fell, three appeared to take their place. As a handful of brave fighters made a final, last-hope strike against the Node in the hopes that it would throw the Ohm into disarray and save this planet for destruction - and as the Node lashed out at them with its hidden might - victory seemed a faint hope at best.

Then in an instant, it all stopped.

On the ground, in the air and in the skies above the planet, the battle suddenly paused. The Ohm ceased their attack, and the crew would get the odd sensation that they were now being watched - no, observed ... and assessed. Before, the Ohm had just been fighting the crew, but now? Now, there was the distinct sensation that the Ohm were aware of them in a way they hadn't been before.

And without any further notification, the legions of Ohm turned all at the same time, as if guided by one singular consciousness, and moved to depart. Their land forces skittered away, and the Shrikes flew into the sky as they returned to their massive carrier ships.

The battle for Zokez II was over as abruptly as it had started.

The crew had fought tooth-and-nail to defend the innocent residents and tourists of the resort world, and to their credit had been able to buy time and space to allow many of them to evacuate to safety. Whoever had not yet been safely evacuated would surely be rescued in the days to come ... in that sense, it was a small victory but a victory nonetheless.

But that was the only victory. The once-idyllic resort world lies ruined, its surface left tainted and scarred by the Ohm. The tropical paradise burns in its death throes, the smoke and fires visible from orbit. Nor will it ever get the chance to heal - the Ohm are not retreating after having being beaten back, but rather seem to be leaving out of their own accord. It may not be the next day, or the next week, or the next month, but it is certain they will return in greater force.

And then this peaceful paradise will be wholly consumed. Until its final death, it will be abandoned and left to rot.

Stacy sends the Observation Deck back down to the planet for her crew. It is time to return home, to nurse their wounds and rest from the battle - to take solace in whatever small victory they can claim. It is time to return to the Bleed - to Stacy's mission.

There is still a duty ahead of the crew ... but now, it seems, the Ohm know they're coming.

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That... was...

They were spared. They didn't win, they didn't survive.... they were spared. Leon will process that later, though. For now, there was some business to handle.

«All injured crew members are to report back to the ship immediately. If you need someone to come get you, let us know. Everyone else, search for survivors and salvage what equipment you can.»

Jaime sits with his back against a console, catching his breath, holding his head.

Towards the end, something odd had happened, something...had felt wrong with his mind, and then the scarab had rejected it, shoved it out. Now his brain felt slimy in a way he couldn't explain, even though the scarab reassured him that no intrusion had occurred.

Cassie had been waiting for the end to come. She tried to push herself up from where she was lying on ground but all she got from the effort was a shooting pain all through her body. With one shove she managed to push herself onto her back and looked around her.

The Ohm were... leaving? Were they still going to destroy this universe?

She tried to stand, or at least sit up, but it was too much. For now she lay flat on her back, staring up at the sky. She'd get up, really she would, she just needed a minute.

Well that was a great way to end a vacation.

"[Stature? Stature! Where are you?!]"

The voice over her comm ring was strangely static-y, but recognizable as belonging to a very worried Jonas.

Cassie had just closed her eyes- only for a second- but now she opened them.

«...Jonas?»

"[Cassie!]" Even through the static, Jonas' relief was nearly tangible. "[Are you all right? Can you tell me where you are?]"

Guess he didn't totally hate her.

Why did her brain feel like goo?

...Trying so hard to focus...

«I don't know. I was near that- what did Cargn call it...»

"[Just give me landmarks. I will find you. But please keep talking.]"

«I don't see anything but the sky. Hurts to move. I was so stupid. Forgot to watch my back.» She tried pushing herself up again, this time managing long enough to get a decent look around. «O.K., I was thrown farther than I thought. I-» And then she started laughing. Then stopped because, ow, that hurt. «I'm by a strip club.»

"[I will find you. I swear, I will.]" Jonas said soothingly. "[Can you see the name of the strip club? There are...several in the general area.]"

Well, Zokez II was a pleasure planet...

«That's an understatement. It's Gallumbits.» She had to keep from laughing some more but the tone, at least, carried through.

"[Found it. I will be right there. Try not to move too much until I get there, I do not want you getting any more hurt than you already are.]"

A beat.

"[I am glad that you are safe.]"

«Me too.» Meaning she was glad he was safe over her but she was too tired at the moment to make that distinction.

When Jonas did find Cassie, he'd see her flat out, pressed against the ground, several feet larger than her normal size. She had a few scratches, but her plantsuit was mostly intact, covering bruises that, when connected together, might as well have covered her whole body. It was something of a minor miracle, combined with her training, that she hadn't managed to break anything.

But what really might stand out, on second glance, was the blood- all Ohm- and the bits of brain matter still staining her hands. The fight hadn't just been dirty, it had been brutal.

She wasn't the only one. Jonas was also rather banged up, in spite of his phasing abilities. He had managed not to get shot in the head or have his arm ripped off, but he was going to need to find a way to repair the acid-pitting down his left side. He paused just long enough to disguise that fact with a hologram before stepping into Cassie's range of sight. There was no hiding the slight crackle of his damaged vocal circuits, though.

He knelt next to her and took hold of her hand with his right (undamaged) one, scanning her for worse injuries first with his own systems and then with his omnicomm.

"[Cassie, I am here.]"

"Jonas." She smiled and tried to sit up.

Internally there was quite a bit of bruising and swelling from her organs being slammed around. Fortunately, any internal bleeding was minor but she would definitely need to be checked out by a doctor.

"Are you O.K.?" She had thought the crackling of his voice over the comms was just some kind of static, but now that he was here she didn't see any reason for there to be any problem.

Jonas hesitated for a moment -- this was not his place. He should...he should have gone and gotten Nate instead of coming here by himself, he was probably worried about Cassie too. And she was probably worried about him too, considering what Stacy had called them out on earlier.

That announcement seemed like such a long time ago now.

He helped her sit up, but did not meet her eyes.

"[I will be fine,]" he said, his voice still crackly with static. "[Do not trouble yourself. I do not see any broken bones or too much internal bleeding, but we should get you checked out by an actual doctor sooner rather than later. Do you think you can walk? If not, I can carry you.]"

Cassie wasn't really the type to admit she couldn't do something but even now she had to relent. "I don't know if I can. And you don't sound fine. What happened?" The fact that he couldn't look at her- well that stung but she deserved it. It was such a stupid thing to do. And Jonas had been so good to her- even now she couldn't really provide a good justification for what she'd done. Not even to herself.

"[I was involved in fighting and I am a little damaged. I have had much worse, you do not need to worry about it,]" Jonas said, then quickly changed the subject back to her. "[Do you think you could return to your natural size? It would be easier for me to carry you if you were a little smaller.]"

"Just- just give me a minute." She'd done a lot of size changing all at once. She took a deep breath. Ow. "How damaged? What happened?"

"[Take as long as you need,]" Jonas said, sitting back on his heels. He suppressed a sigh at Cassie's continued questioning. "[I was tagged by acid while covering someone. I sustained some superficial damage, some of which damaged my vocal circuits. I will be just fine.]"

Slowly, very slowly, Cassie started shrinking back to normal size.

"Can I see?" It was only fair, he had scanned her.

...Of course, it might not be so fair in that she really had no right to ask considering she'd dumped him for someone else.

"[It looks worse than it is, and I see no reason to add to your current distress,]" Jonas said in a tone that conveyed total disinterest in continuing this vein of the conversation. Perhaps he was not being "fair", but he had not been the one only semi-conscious when she approached.

...And the fact that she had dumped him for his twin brother certainly did not help matters.

"I- O.K."

Cassie sped up the shrinking process a little until she finally reached her normal size. Her eyes started to roll back into her head for a moment until her body jerked herself to stay awake. Yeah, that had to look good.

"Sorry, I'm O.K."

When her eyes started to roll back, Jonas immediately reached out to catch and support her. He did not let her go when she steadied herself, instead shifting position so that he could get an arm under hers.

"[I am going to carry you back to the ship,]" he said in a voice that refused argument.

"O.K., O.K.," Cassie repeated, leaning into him. "You're right." And then she paused. "Jonas, I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

He put his damaged arm underneath her knees and lifted her up.

"[If you could put your arms around my neck?]" he asked. He definitely did not want to drop her, nor did slinging her over his shoulder seem like a good idea.

...Of course, the bridal-style carry was rather inappropriate.

"[You do not need to apologize,]" he said, not meeting her eyes. "[I made it clear that I did not want to be a substitute, and you did not want a substitute either.]"

See? That sounded perfectly logical.

As awkward as it was, Cassie put her arms around his neck. Now she just had to keep herself from pressing up against him and falling asleep because oh, she was tired. "Jonas," She said softly. "You aren't, and were never a substitute. And you deserve someone ten times better than me."

"[I know that I am not a substitute,]" Jonas said. Then, because that had come out sounding harsher than he meant it to, "[but thank you for saying so.]"

He began to pick his way through the wreckage, considering shifting back into something more like his original, more Iron Lad-like shape under the hologram so that he could fly without becoming intangible and dropping Cassie.

Cassie was silent. Between the pain, the haze her head was in, and just the awkward, it was hard to think of what to say. Or rather how to say it. But, maybe because her brain wasn't operating on all cylinders, this was the one time where her inhibitions were down enough to say what she needed to say.

"I understand that you don't want to see me but with this... Ohm thing... I was hoping we could be friends. I've missed you." Which was true. She hadn't seen him in what felt like forever.

"[Of course we can be friends,]" Jonas said. "[That was always my eventual intention. I believe that I can accelerate the recovery process, given the circumstances.]"

Yzak's GOUF was intact ... mostly. Other than the scratches, dents and various battle-made marks over its body, the shield was now gone from one too many moves to push attacking Ohm back. It's left arm (as well as one of its Slayer Whips) was missing from the elbow-joint. As for Yzak himself, he could feel his head pounding from too many knock-arounds in the cockpit. When he finally had a moment to rest, he realized how much the battle had taken out of him. But overall, he was okay - this was nothing a day or two of taking it easy wouldn't fix.

But there was a bigger problem. Why did the Ohm just leave? As much as Yzak was ready to fight as much as he could for even the smallest chance of victory, he could tell that they were no match for them. They certainly weren't retreating because they felt as though they were at a large disadvantage. If the battle had waged for any longer, they could very well have been completely wiped out. So why?

That was a question that would haunt Yzak long after the injured were healed and the mobile suits repaired. He stayed in position, white mecha floating in space and facing outward, toward the direction the Ohm had left, just in case they decided to attack once more. Once they were gone, Yzak turned his mobile suit around on what little power it had remaining and headed back to Stacy.

There was no question that they hadn't won - they'd been spared. And they might well have lost, with the damage done to their ships and MS. The Freedom was still in mostly-fighting condition, though it had lost several of its DRAGOON drones and had taken a few hits that had scored the Phase Shift armor - but Kira knew he was lucky.

"How's your GOUF?"

"Still in one piece ... more or less. It's going need some in repairs, though." Even though Yzak was grateful for the fact that they were still alive, the concept of being spared ... he hated it. Snapping out of that train of thought, he realized just who he was talking to.

"But it's still fine! You look like you got lucky."

"I think they all will," Kira answered, his mind flashing back to Shinn's inert Destiny being towed from the battle.

"Mm, maybe. It helped that I was able to block most of the hits with a beam shield. We should look into equipping the rest of the suits with them."

It wasn't that he didn't notice your tone of voice, Yzak, he just chose to ignore it.

"There are a lot of things we need to update these with," he replied. They had held their own, that's for sure, but after having an actual experience, Yzak realized more than ever that more advanced technology would be needed in order to get any further than that.

A thought crossed his mind.

"You. You were on Stacy before we showed up, weren't you? Did you have to fight these bastards before?"

He shook his head. "No. I don't know if anyone on the ship had... not before now."

"It's hard to imagine that's what we're up against."

Nanashi was exhausted, suffering from a decent amount of blood-loss again, and because of her relentless attacks on the Ohm, the wound in her abdomen had ceased it's healing process in favour of keeping her skin healed to minimize blood loss.

Her sword was dinged and dented, and would definitely need repair, at the very least. Her cloak was tattered and shredded, though at least that would fix itself.

And she desperately needed a new dress.

But that did not keep her from chasing down the retreating Ohm with fury as they began their retreat.
No. That was wrong. This was no retreat. Not one out of desperation at least. This was strategic.
The Ohm would be returning with re-enforcements. Still, that meant that they had come decently close to endangering their forces at least.

But why had no one taken out those carrier ships? Next time that is what they would have to spend time on, even if it meant letting more children die on that planet, if they could trap a group of forces on a planet... It could mean that they could completely wipe out at least a large group of Ohm. Still, that begged the question- How many of the Ohm are there in total?

She'd stayed away from the final fight to help in the medbay, but it hadn't stopped her from hearing the play by play from the others about that fight, and it seemed that no one had won. The Ohm stepped back to gather information, so their assault, for the moment, has ceased. That should have been good news, but she doubted anyone thought so. She didn't even think so.

She'd taken a break from medbay a moment to walk about the place, bending the water a little where she could, but not with urgency anymore. She was tired, thoroughly tired, and bending all day had made her look worse for wear. The fire and fight had left her clothing tattered in places, her hair was hanging limp, and her spirits were low, very low. Even with all of the people helped and the fight fought, the Ohm would be back. This wasn't a victory...it wasn't even a stalemate. It was just the end of the fight and they were settling for it. Now all the despair the others had felt, that she tried to beat back from them came in droves, and she wrapped her arms around herself.

Arha, beaten down. Billy, Sasami, Nura...so many people injured. And they hadn't even won. The Ohm would return and raze this place. Throughout all of this, she wanted HIM, wished he was here, and that wasn't going to happen.

She wished for his strength right now.

When she heard the message from Leon, she nodded to herself and turned to go back to medbay. She could do this. She would keep looking after people there, and eventually make her way back to the ship.

But she needed to find Sokka. That was more important than anything.

He'd survived.

Stripped of his flight gear, the civvies he'd worn underneath now rumpled and soaked with sweat, Jamie started across the hangar in a sort of daze. There would probably be a debriefing soon, some business to attend to, but for now he had a moment to breathe and reflect on what all'd gone down. Without really realizing it he'd made his way to his Zoid, was standing beside its claw in the shade of its massive blue bulk. He reached up to touch the silver talons and stared at his shaking hand.

He'd survived.

There'd been times during the battle that he hadn't been sure he would, but here he was, alive and in one piece.

And, more importantly, in one mind.

There'd been fear and horror and brushes with death, and the roaring vacuum of terrified oblivion had been ever-present in the back of his brain the entire time, but he'd come out of it on his own, without losing his proverbial shit and being reduced to a gibbering wreck. He'd held his own, even without Wild Eagle around to take over if he panicked. A corner of his mouth twitched up in an expression that was more grimace than smile, a snarl of defiance that would have looked more at home on his alter's face than on Jamie's.

See that, you son of a bitch, I don't need you. I never needed you, and I'm glad y -

The longer Jamie had been aboard Stacy, the more he'd seen and heard from the other crew members, the harder it had been for him to maintain his suspicion that the ship and her masters were lying about the Ohm. In the wake of the attack, such skepticism was nearly impossible.

The Ohm were real. He'd finally seen them with his own eyes. And he believed, now, that they had killed everyone he'd ever known or loved.

It was all too easy, having seen the smoldering ruins of the island-speckled planet below, to envision the island he'd lived on for three years in similar straits, awash with flames, people screaming, running, fighting, dying. And when the Ohm had finished there, they would move on to the worlds of everyone who'd been on the island, to Zi, to the space colonies, to the many, many different Earths that had existed. And their collective populations would all die.

He was shaking all over now and his heart was pounding so hard he could feel his jaw twitch. Jamie braced both arms against the Geno's claw, lowering his head to stare at the floor of the hangar.

They were all dead.

But he'd survived.

Abruptly, Jamie vomited down the side of his Zoid's foot.

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Invasion: Endgame

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