now the crew of the scarlet comets find themselves inside the place where the rest of the salvage crew have taken the best parts...
lyka: great! now we're trapped in here with no way out...
ensis: not to mention that they busted up one of the arms of the psycho gundam so that's not good...but why do they want haro...
lyka: they're all crazy! they worship their cogitators like they're gods or something...
ensis: i still can't understand why would they want to worship machines as if they're techno-barbarians...
...they looked at the crew whom Akari trusted the lives of her own men as they tried to figure out what to do for the time being...
ensis: wait we have just enough salvaged leagues of votann parts?
lyka: yeah...so what do you expect?
ensis: we are going to repair my mobile suit to go past the time to wait them out, and hopefully Akari and Lascia might be able to be alive at this point...
...lyka just rolled her eyes in annoyance, but she seemed to understand for a bit at least...
lyka; ok, then you go ahead and play tech priestess, and to what you do best there, while i try to go do something, and hopefully we can get ourselves out of here!
...the caninid now left to go look for something to do while Ensis tried to repair the psycho Gundam that technically lost an arm during the battle between them and the unknown, for now, enemy kisa ketlingr...
ensis: the right arm is a total bust but...the beam gun is intact, better save that, and put a beam saber on that one...
...she can't stop getting the feeling of the time she met Kisa as if Haro has more importance than she originally had thought, but she doesn't give it any more thought as she is now being helped by the desperate crew of the scarlet comets to have the arm fixed with whatever parts are available at the time, to adapt the scrapped votann parts...
meanwhile elsewhere, akari pov:
now managing to land the two ships somewhere on the Mad Core where the captain of the rogue trader ship Akari Noah and former Ambot controller Lascia are able to set foot on the planet with not much issues, aside from Lascia's whining because the plan to go ahead to land on the planet might backfire where they are now trying to protect the ships...from a certain girl who is going along with her "little partner" for a bit of "greeting their neighbors"...
akari: i got to admit it, your mobile suit, titan, whatever it is, it's both fast and powerful...
kisa: heh heh...nya?...i guess that's true for Nekomataro here...
lascia: captain! We can't fight her any much longer...
akari: i guess you are right on that one...hey kisa, it looks like you're a strong pilot, so you wanna go join my crew?
kisa; hhmm~nya! ...well lemme think about it, i guess the only way i could go with you is to destroy the mad core since everyone else would hate me...
akari: i guess it is sad since they're not really gods...even though they are that impressive, to begin with...
kisa; well you see kinda grew up here you know?
Lascia; captain! we can't-
...kisa simply got annoyed with him as she swung her large hammer to silence him just out for the fun of it...
akari: lascia!...ok what do you want?
kisa: i wanted your friend's little iron-kin buddy...
akari: meaning?
kisa: ...and by doing just that, I'll be able to get off this rock!
akari: i don't get you...why don't you just call for a-
kisa: you idiot! they won't be sailing here anytime soon!
akari: well that's just sad you know...
kisa: i can't leave everyone i know behind just for nothing!
akari: you are a felinid abhuman, you do not belong here...
kisa; but i did belong here! aaaarrgghh!!...
...she swung her hammer to where that attack was parried by the Valkyria buster sword in time, with both weapons clashing against each other, but before the next strike kisa simply took this as a successful attempt to escape the two...
Lascia: she got away...dammit, i was too slow and too weak!
Akari: don't be...she'll be back...i have the feeling, so she'll be back...
...they watch on as the hulking giant of votann design now runs off into the darkness, to who knows where it could reappear next on the face of the planet...
ensis pov:
now able to build up a new arm for the psycho gundam, only to, unfortunately, focus on it being more orientated on the offensive, by sacrificing the already defunct mobile suit fingers...as she is now preparing to break right on through to the blockade that lyka has made out of the destroyed bodies and
ensis: ok! now testing out the new arm, the ok beam gun is now stronger than the usual damage output check, the beam saber is now directly connected to the generator for stronger strikes check, and implanted void shields on the other arm are similar to the beam saber check...manipulator cables check!...everyone! I'm going to break us all out of here!
lyka: huh? what's going on here?
crew: oh ensis is gonna fight our way out of here!
crew; it's pretty amazing that she's not even a tech priestess of the Martian mechanicum, I didn't even know that people from the dark history were that good with tech!
...the confused like now looked on as she watched Ensis who is inside of the now customized Psycho Gundam with her testing out the new gimmicks that she has gotten for herself from the scrap pile...
ensis: lyka! we're getting out of here with everyone else, so hop on inside Luka!
...lyka soon got herself excited to finally get herself out of there, knowing that Ensis is now able to repair the minimum amount to get the psycho Gundam's arms running...as she now saw that is now on a full tank of fuel for the generator and electricity...
...as a powerful blast from the high mega buster now made it clear to everyone that they were going to escape from the abandoned warehouse that everyone was so tired of being trapped inside of had finally gotten their wish with the spare parts still up to what the captain needed...
lyka: alright! i hope that the new arms aren't that of a bust...
ensis: the void shield generators can't protect me from close-ranged attacks, but I can attack with the new beam bayonette until we can get back to the ship...
lyka: you heard her, we gotta move!
ensis: alright stay close if you don't want to die...[haro please don't get captured]...
...now the warhround-mastiff titan and the psycho gundam now led the way out of there where they are now expecting kisa ketlingr to return to where they are and start hiding them both down just to get to haro...as Ensis now gets on the loudspeaker while standing on top of a tall building...
ensis: kisa ketlingr! remember that i have what you wanted, but i will only give it to you after the fight!
...she waited out for a bit only to learn that the felinid girl had been watching them...
kisa: i hear you, and this planet's a small place you know...
ensis: ... I've prepared myself to fight...and i am not scared of you anymore!
...the felinid girl just smirked knowing that she might as well be the last remaining living thing in the whole planet despite its status as a dead world...
kisa; very well then!
...she hit the building that Ensis was standing on where she activated the thrusters to avoid it from collapsing on top of her...
ensis: not so fast!
...she thought of a kind of complex beam attack, as something happened, where a couple of disk-like objects now came flying out of hidden compartments being propelled by small but strong thrusters that are able to make it float in the air...
kisa: huh? that's new...
...and then followed with the lower forearms now shot out of everywhere as soon she can even imagine attacking from...
Kisa: n-no fair!...
ensis; you attacked me with an army of mobile dolls in other words that is fair enough!
...her thick armor, combined with the void shields was just as strong enough to hold back the beam attacks that were coming from almost all sides, mostly from the front with an opening barrage to keep her occupied by going into the defensive...where she is now off to kneeling one knee...
kisa: nya~! h-how many secret weapons do you even have hidden in there!?
ensis: i have cable-guided arms and incoms... being controlled by the quasi-psycho communications systems...
kisa: psycho!?...
ensis: i am being fair in this fight...knowing how the levels of technology in this era are now unable to fight on the level i am using...
kisa; then in that case...activating void shields!
...the felinid now activated the jotun-ironkin's own void shields where the edge that ensis' own beam attacks started to fade away as Kisa now lifted her hammer and charged into battle...where ensis now made her Gundam move over with its thrusters to make it perform a powerful jump across to the next building, that is then followed by another barrage of beam attacks...
ensis: i will defeat you with everything that i got in my gundam!...
kisa: then in that case...
...she snapped her fingers where she now had a couple of ironkin waiting in the shadow in a similar fashion to ambush her as if she planned it, where Ensis now saw that she is tn surrounded where she was now using her beam bayonet's beam saber to hack and slash her way past, to just to find a way to get back to kisa for a much more fair fight on even ground...
ensis: huh?
...where Ensis now is starting to sense a powerful sensation coming from even deeper into the settlement as she follows it, with her initiating the thrusters of the psycho gundam where Kisa now gave chase...
Lisa: ok now where do you think you're going!?
...she followed suit, and she is now trying to defend herself with beam rounds aimed directly at her as she had her void shields up... lyka is now lagging behind to escort the salvage crew of the already backfired plan to get some spare parts, where she is now ripping and tearing right through the ironkin of the mad core...
lyka: right folks! this is our only way out of here!
...she clawed her way to then be glad that a job that could take hours was being done in reduced minutes, where she is escorting their escape, in the form of the two ships...where she pummeled and threw down some of them down to who knows where they might have fallen into from the deep abyss below...with her leaving Ensis since she trusted her plan to do something...
ensis: tell me...why are you trying to protect something that has fallen?
kisa: you won't even understand even if i told you!?
ensis: it's because you can't save anyone, and the AI can't do anything...
kisa: that's right, it can't do anything!
ensis: and i was told that you people send your souls into a kind of metaverse when they die...so it is now time to send them all into...a "real" afterlife!
...she ran up close to where Ensis was running off to, where she soon came into contact with some more of the iron-kin, and their designs were now more and more older, larger, topheavy, and even outdated from the looks of the ones that are large enough to stand a chance against the psycho gundam...
...where they all lacked the common domed heads that the much younger models are roaming around the planet's surface...where they all approach the intruder as they open fire when they see Kisa chasing after even deeper into the planet's core...with them being able to gun down the Gundam's main thrusters, with ensis retaliating in using her wire-guided arms and incoms via the quasi-psycommu, as beams now shot them down, and some other are swiftly cut down to size with the beam saber...
ensis: out of my way!...this is the only way for any of you to move forward toward the future!
...as she charged towards with her now dropping down to where the large exposed core it supposed to be, as she now is gone with her just about to use what was left of the psycho gundam to destroy the ancestral core...with her being stopped dead in her tracks, by kisa ketlingr herself...
kisa: i'm not gonna let you kill everyone i know!
ensis: i'm not killing them... I'm sending them to an actual afterlife!
kisa: then you will have to get past me then!
ensis: so be it...and i challenge you to a duel!
...she raised a red flag pulled out a beam saber and ignited her beam bayonet as their weapons clashed, by the edge of the large hole that leads directly into the planet's core, where Kisa was able to position her hammer to block the two beam sabers in time...as ensis has the incoms to be deployed and to open fire immediately...
kisa: aaaarghh!!
...where she and her jotun-ironkin now stumbled back trying to protect the head or lack thereof...
ensis: now!
...where she then in an attempt to take down the opponent that she is facing on the dead planet that is only housing the iron-kin and only one felinid girl, as Ensis now is aiming to have the beam sabers to target the gaps in between the thick armor plating that nekomatako is using as a walking shield...
kisa; so!...you're using the gaps in between my armor to kill me!
ensis: that is the flaw...and this is what the gundams specialize in...anti-mobile suit warefare...
...she continued her attacks, draining and squeezing up almost all forms of performance that the psycho Gundam had to offer to fight Kisa and her jotun iron-kin...
ensis: ...and i will create a world that can let everyone sleep peacefully knowing that they can't rely on the past to make fears that define their realities!
kisa: wh-what're you talking about!?
...the girl and her Gundam are now facing off against the likes of the jotun-ironkin where ensis is now able to just barely survive against the giant hammer...
ensis: tsk!
kisa; almost there!...i will finally save this place once and for all!
ensis: over my dead body, i will not trade a friend that has the ability to restore my memories!
...he was about to attack again with her beam saber...only for something to come in between them, as that thing soon came in the form of a giant sword...
ensis: an ahab reactor signal?
???: so this is where you are...so much for taking so long, and it looks like you are having a familiar face by your side...
ensis: akari!...
akari: well sorry for the wait, i just had to find out that the ship has the ability to track something called"minovsky particles" just to help track you down...and also this is a small planet my the way...
ensis: that's a relief...but you have to help me to keep her busy, so i can destroy the ancestor core!
akari: but isn't that in the core of the planet!? are you insane...i have to go through the trouble in finding you!
ensis: no, not exactly...
...she can see that the core is so close since she has been chased all the way down there by Kisa and Nekomataro, she now nodded knowing that she has to trust her judgment in fights just like this one...
ensis: i still can't understand why i am so good in fighting inside of mobile suits...but i want to help people too...
akari: go for it then...i'll keep her and cath palug busy...
ensis: but i want to finish it myself...
akari: hey you have the firepower to finish the job!...so go already!
ensis: ok!
...the helmwige reincar now stood there with the Valkyria Buster sword against something that i quite equal in design and weight class...
akari: you heard the girl, those people needed to go to an actual afterlife not some digital world for boys and girls!
kisa: raaaaghhh!!!! leave my friends and family alone!
...she swung her hammer when Akari now stood in her way and she parried that strike with her mobile suit's sword...this gives Ensis the perfect opening to drop down into the hole that has been opened ever since the planet was attacked...
kisa: no!...
...where Kisa soon caught up with that plan she tackled the helmwige reincar to follow the psycho gundam into the hole in a mad dashing beeline into the core of the planet, where this "anscestral core" is laying in dormancy...
kisa; i am not going to let you kill everyone!
...as she leaped up in pursuit of the Gundam that is making a total freefall into it as she raised her hammer up to where she crashed into the back of the left arm of the Gundam, decapitating it off of it, forcing the ensis to use the other one, and the incoms...as she engaged the thrusters to slow down the descent...
kisa: so i guess that i can do that too!
...she flipped a switch in her cockpit to where the jotun-ironkin too had slowed down its descent into the planet's core with some sort of tech found inside...
kisa: and so this is where we end things!...and i have activated the anti-gravity tech, so we can do this as fairly as possible!
...ensis sat there in the mostly still-intact psycho gundam where he just activated the beam bayonette, where she came charging fort with the incoms opening fire right at heras she now came hurtling back, and she came back with even more energy...
ensis: ...!?
...as kisa disengaged her hammer in order to lose the dead weight and engaged the void shields to get up to ensis with her gundam... Akari watched on with horror at the sight of the battle during the freefall between the psycho Gundam who was losing its skirt armor and extra thrusters, where it was trying to get a good swing against the nekomataro, especially the gaps in between the armor plating...
kisa: again with the armor sniping against my !?... Now let's cut you down to size!
...she punched the gundam squarely, giving her the advantage over the fact that she had disabled the beam saber, but failed to account for the still-functioning arm punching her back...
ensis: ok punch her with the arm, and then next use the leg!
...as she then followed up by kicking the jotun-ironkin on the lower abdomen...where this is the final exchange until they both hit the bottom of the deep abyss to the core of the planet that is seemingly replaced by an artificial intellegence that has gone mad and insane...where the two giants are both able to avoid from being turned into scrap metal, as well the same goes for their pilots who are both alive and well...
ensis: i-i'm still alive...
kisa: big deal...the grav-tech allowed me to survive the fall...
ensis: my psycho-gundam is a space-dedicated mobile suit so the thrusters are the reason i'm able to be alive...
kisa; look your badly damaged...so just hand over your little buddy so i can replace the votann and so we can get on with our lives!
ensis: that's sad...you let a non-living thing define your reality...then i will destroy the source of the fighting once and for all...
...she engaged the incoms and the one remaining cable arm, where she put the thrusters on full blast...
kisa; so that is how you wanna play it then...
...she puts the machine's own hydraulics on full blast to perform a similar thing, as they both are hell-bent on have the other killed or unable to keep on fighting, as they both prepared to punch each other, where kisa is able to catch ensis' fist...
kisa: you will not defeat me!
...as she is now cackling inside of the cockpit of her jotun-ironkin, where a voice starts to get to her...
???: kisa enough...i believe that this is the only way for you to live on ...
kisa; k-kottr!? what are you doing!?
kottr: i am warning you...let the visitor win, she is telling you the truth, it is definitely sad to watch you try to restore the votan's anscestral core with a small machine that serves companionship to another...
kisa; wait, i can't lose now...
kottr: remember the time i was looking for a pilot and i adopted you when you were little?
...these words resonated with the young felinid as she then remembered what made her start her mad crusade on the planet...
flashback, kisa pov:
in the ruins of a small crashed gothic ship holding imperial designs, where a squad of ironkin, and kin in armored space suits investigating the wreckage of the downed ship, is where the jotun-ironkin looking for a suitable pilot is treading into an isolated part of the ship looking for survivors, is now seeing a young girl with long hair and cat ears...
kisa; d-don't hurt me!...i-i'm kisa by the way!
kottr: nice to meet you kisa...they call me kottr, and experimental ironkin called a jotun-ironkin...
...she is now adopted by the machine right there and now, as where a few years later as the girl now became friends with the machine who has vouched for her safety among the kin of the leages of votann, the "swarm" came, and the kin of flesh and blood now are dying one by one where they are now forced into feeding themselves into the machine to save themselves a horrific and grotesque fate...
kisa: wh-what is everyone doing!?
kottr: they are sacrificing themselves to prevent their flesh from being abused and used for malicious intentions...i apollogize, but this is nature...
kisa; why!?
...she watched on as the flash and blood of the kin, are all being force-fed into the votann's core, as the once azur blue core now turned into a crimson red as the votann has now became driven insane by the sorrowful memories...and as for both kottr and the young kisa...
kisa; then in that case...- but by destroying the votann you-
kottr: i will be permanently deleted, i sensed sincerity with the girl's words to please trust her judgment...
kisa; no no no...no!!
kottr: then will you believe in the me that believes in you?
kisa: alright...i will trust you...
...she now shows a glimmer of hope knowing that her lifelong friend and mentor is choosing to sacrifice himself to help her to learn to grow up and embrace the future...
ensis pov:
...now using the one remaining arm to hold onto the jotun-ironkin's giant fist, ensis is now seeing a weakness from within, as she now managed to break free from the grip, then proceeded to punch the machine with almost everything that she has, failing to notice that a soft glow is powering up the attack...
...where the glowing mobile suit psycho gundam is now able to destroy the arm of the jotun-iron kin's artillery-orientated arm with ease...
ensis; after all, we are only human...and we should just let nature take its course...
...she watched on as the light died down, to the sight of the jotun-ironkin that was losing an arm and almost half of the upper torso heavily damaged from the attack...
ensis: it is now over...i won, you lost...
kisa: i guess so...so fair is fair...
...the victor now stood up knowing that the Gundam was on the verge of being destroyed from the battle, and was going to explode any minute, she used what was left of the psycho gundam's power reserves...
ensis: ok there is just enough energy for one last blast...
...she deployed the incoms, and aimed the high mega buster towards the core of the planet that had been replaced by the ancestral core of that the votann...as she now expended the gundam's remaining energy and rerouted almost everything to the weapons, where a giant hole now is drilling it's way at the metallic armor...only for her shock to show that it is still intact, sparing the most sensitive parts form the burst of beam energy...where she ejected herself out of the gundam before it exploded in a bright azur-tourqoise energy that softly flowed right on past the chamber where they are battling in...as the souls of the dead can be seen once more...
lascia pov:
now assisting the salvage crew of the red comets back inside, seeing that Lyka and the crew driving the jeeps with the spare parts to have the mobile suits repaired with...
lyka: we're back, and we've got a gift for you!
lascia: huh, what is that thing?
...he sees the sight of a big blue mobile suit not too similar to that of the kampfer, as she is carrying something on the back of the warhound as she pummels down the iron-kin that are in the way with the pair of iron nails that are on the titan...
lyka: we found this thing on our way...
lascia; a zaku?...
lyka; well the crew who hopped inside said its name...so it's no zaku boy! no Zaku!
lascia: so what is it then?
lyka: well it's written in low-gothic..it's reads as "xeku" with. capital "X"!!
lascia: a xeku huh?
...she motioned for the trailer to get back inside, as the boy who is said to come from all the way from necromunda is now seeing what could be used to replace his zaku 4, that same one that was destroyed during an encounter with kisa kettlingr...
...where the destroyed wreckage of the Zaku 4's salvageable parts and what is left of its body frame i now being stored inside of the scarlet comet for spare parts for the need of repairs...
lascia: alright, bring it inside...[but what is that thing doing all the way out here?]
...he sat there to wait out for the captain, who had gone out of her way to look for ensis...
ensis pov:
now with the outer plating sheered right off of the votann's ancestral core, where the quasi-psycommu is now resonating with e archaic machine, as the long dead souls who have transfered themselves into a digital afterlife...
ensis: what in the world...so this is the miracle that happened in the dark history...
...as an army of apparitions can be seen all facing toward Kisa's and kottr's general direction, but she cannot hear what they are saying, where they are using the Gundam's quasi-psycommu as a medium to communicate with her for one last time...
kisa; you you all are saying is that i shouldn't just live in the past...
...the apparitions slowly started to disappear one by one with them starting to fade away, with the Gundam starting to lose power from its generator just to create this miracle...where kisa left the equally damaged jotun-ironkin as its AI had been deleted due to it being born from the votann that she has been protecting for so long almost her known life, where she is now seeing that the psycommu system has created another miracle where it has somehow become able to cure the madness that is has been suffering for so long by shutting it down...where the minds and souls who are all inside of it can be in a state of true peace by being a part of a "true" afterlife...
ensis: so this is the mythical rumor about the psycommus that I've read about from haro...
...now she looked at kisa as she was sitting right beside her with the intent to want to kill her now long gone, just like her friend who has gone along with the votann...
kisa: what was that thing?
ensis: oh that? That is the psycommu reaching its powerful zenith...it just rarely happens...but if only. iknew on how it works...
...the two girls sat there, where they are now started to befriend eachother...
kisa; so what did you do to it?
ensis: i followed the light in my human heart...and gave them the final form of mercy...
kisa; o-oh...i guess so...
...the felinid girl now saw a wound on her cheek, as she instinctively licked it as a sign of trust, where a few hours later they soon met up with akari and co. in their mobile weapons to come to fetch them both up, only to find them sleeping together on the metallic floor...
akari: oh~! i guess i was right!
lyka: eh!?...b-but she's mine!
akari: i guess they do look adorable together...ok, let's go so we can take a break...
...they all left with the psycho gundam and the jotun-ironkin now getting carried off with the hopes of having them fixed up, and ready for the next fight...where the core that was once glowing red, then turned blue...
TIMESKIP WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY, KISA LICKING LYKA...
now waking up inside of the ship where the felinid girl now is seeing just about everyone who she has met up to now...
akari: i guess that you had quite a big drop...after ensis used some sort of miracle with the gundam...
kisa; i guess i really did...wait! where's ensis?
akari: she's fixing up the mobile suits and using whatever spare parts to upgrade Lyka's warhound and repairing your Mobile Suit!...
kisa: oh...that...but why-
akari: i don't know what ensis has in there...but she somehow knew what is in that heart of yours...
...the captain of the rouge traders fleet now smiled...
kisa: is the offer to come join your crew still hot on the table?
akari: well as if i knew you wouldn't ask! Of course, you can come and join my crew!...but try to now try to steal haro again...
...she too smiled, where she hopped off to where ensis, wanting to thank her for her saving her from herself and her unhealthy obsession to save the core by stealing haro... where she doesn't know the miracle was powerful enough to reboot completely from the ground up to possibly reincarnate the votann entirely, creating a new individual...
continued: