The Hottest Flame

In a bubble deep within the burning flames of the sun, twenty-three black, crackling orbs of various sizes appear, expand, and then dissipate, leaving behind twenty-three mobile suits and mobile armors of various shapes, sizes, and configurations. Green, red, and golden particles mist from some, while others maintain their position via judicious application of their more conventional thrusters.

One simply lands heavily on one of the large, metallic platforms filling the area, Takashi grunting as the Refined Grandine lands slightly badly, sending a jolt through his cockpit. Another jolt goes through his head, as one of the other denizens of the mobile armor registers her displeasure with the bad landing. “Stupid Takashi! Be more gentle!”

“Ow… it’s not like I had a chance to look before we appeared here. Where are we, anyways…?” Takashi peers at the main viewscreen, shading his eyes a bit. Except where the battered black metal of various platforms floating in space cast shadows, burning fire is all that can be seen, in every direction, a raging inferno that, by all reason, should be incinerating every single person nearby.

Takashi doesn’t get much time to consider, however, as, seemingly simultaneously, the many pilots that have been unceremoniously dumped into this strange space all leap into action, beams, bullets and missiles streaking back and forth across the strange bubble.

23 Remaining

Navi Sahalin presses her lips together, her face a mask of concentration as she feels through the Devil Doga’s systems with her mind. The psycommu interface is still somewhat unfamiliar to her, as are the sensations of the various hostiles nearby. The Devil Doga pulls back, rising up towards the top of the impromptu arena, and with the mental flick of a switch, hatches pop open all across the massive containers attached to the flanks of the Devil Doga, one Bug after another flinging itself out, with a repeated ratcheting noise as the simple catapult mechanisms within rapidly deploy more than a hundred Bugs, a malignant cloud spreading out from the Devil Doga and descending upon the other combatants.

Navi himself, however, doesn’t get the opportunity to direct them further, as the Zodiac fires both of it’s main cannons simultaneously, the incredibly powerful and concentrated beams smashing through the Devil Doga’s beam barrier. Even with a large portion of the beam’s energy deflected by the I-field, more than enough remains to stab completely through the Devil Doga’s core, which explodes in flames and shrapnel, incinerating a few of the nearest Bugs. However, even with their former master destroyed, the Bugs remain active, much to Gavin Chamber’s displeasure.

“Huh? Those things are still active? That shouldn’t be possible… we blew the base unit away!” A look of annoyance covers Gavin’s face, abruptly replaced by one of alarm, as a substantial portion of the swarm appears to be vectoring in on what is obviously the largest target in the area. “Oh, crap… Emily, here they come…!”

The Zodiac splits apart into two Zoans, and each quickly thrusts away from it’s partner, blazing away vigorously at the swarm of Bugs rushing towards them. The tiny objects are difficult targets, however, and while the firepower brought to bear is certainly making an impact, neither Emily nor Gavin get a chance to see how well they’ll do at close range, as Gavin’s Zoan is suddenly hit by a blast from Randasan’s mega beam launcher. The hit isn’t a deathblow, but it’s more than enough to send the mobile armor veering off-course, fire erupting from the wound as the Bugs close in and activate their beam cutters, swarming over the mobile armor’s hull and slicing it quickly and efficiently into so much junk. Randasan doesn’t have time to gloat, Stephen smirking inside his cockpit as the Freedom ripple-fires all of it’s weapons in an amazing display of firepower that blasts Randasan, the second half of the Zodiac, and dozens of Bugs into scrap metal in short order.

“Heh… that was easy.” Stephen lowers his beam rifles as the Strike Freedom’s DRAGOONs redock, and then, siezed by a sudden fit of paranoia, looks about him. Fortunately, there are no more enemies in the immediate area, though he can see flashes and explosions nearby as the other combatants shoot at each other and the many, many remaining Bugs.

19 Remaining

Takashi’s face is a mask of concentration as he selects one target after another, the Grandine’s antiaircraft beam cannons blazing away vigorously, narrowly missing the Arios and the ART-1 Powered as they engage in an intricate aerial duel. “Damn… they’re too fast, I can’t hit them from here!” The Grandine shakes as a large beam from the Empruss slams into it, energy crackling away from it’s deflection barrier and back at the Empruss, which simply engages it’s own GN Field to stop the shot, then arcs around and underneath the platform, which suddenly shudders, a beam punching through the surface near the Refined Grandine. A sweatdrop appears on Takashi’s face as more and more holes appear over the next few seconds. “Well, only one thing to do then…!” The Refined Grandine’s float system engages, and it accelerates towards the end of the platform, and leaps into open air! Takashi ignores the sudden burst of screaming behind him and carefully manipulates the float system as the immense mobile armor is tugged downwards towards another platform. “Let’s see… a little to the left… gotcha!” With a tremendous crash, the green mobile armor lands directly atop the unfortunate Ekaterina and her Silver Bullet, turning it into something resembling a quarter left on the train tracks. A second crash sounds as the Griepe Shuivan slams into the Refined Grandine from behind, quickly slicing off two legs, before hastily swivelling to stop a massive barrage from the Alpha Aziel. Unfortunately, Maximillan fails to move in time, and as Takashi frantically manipulates the controls, the Refined Grandine tips forward and smashes directly into the lightweight mobile suit, pinning it to the ground. “Wh– get off of me, you idiot!” The Griepe Shuivan stabs into the Refine Grandine with a beam lance, but even as he reaches the cockpit, Takashi’s fist slams into a button labelled “MODE SELECT”, and the Refined Grandine’s main cannon fires, exploding both units with a point blank photon particle torpedo.

Boris smirks as he surveys the wreckage, his funnels hovering protectively about him, and then turns to look for new prey. “So much easier when they just kill each other.”

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the Huckebein, Infinite Justice, Reborn, and Neo Totuga all furiously trade shots. Two of the Slave Totugas drift without power, victims of the Huckebein and one of the Infinite Justice’s boomerangs, but the others are laying down a barrage of fire as the other three mobile suits evade as best they can, all while blazing away at each other. Derek lands a solid blow to Marlin’s left leg with his long rifle, but in return the Huckebein loses it’s head as a stray Bug slashes through it. The Bug in turn is eradicated by a shot from the Infinite Justice’s beam rifle, and six more that tackle the red mobile suit abruptly are torn to pieces as the Infinite Justice suddenly sprouts beam blades from every concievable surface and rapidly dispatches it’s attackers.

No one recieves time to rest, however, as Rico Antares and his Idhra Gundam burst up through a platform and stab the Huckebein right in the back with a beam saber, then kicks it towards the Infinite Justice. Hikaru is quick to pull back from the exploding mobile suit, but not quick enough to dodge the GN Fangs from the Reborn that slam into his mobile suit and tear it to pieces.

Even as the Infinite Justice explodes, Rico zips through the cloud of debris, the Idhra moving so fast that it simply seems to blur, beam sabers lancing out for the Reborn. Marlin proves ready however, and in a flash of red as he engages Trans-Am, he disappears from Rico’s sight for a second, the Reborn transforming into cannon mode. Rico slashes away the first egner whip to draw near him, but Marlin takes the chance to move into point blank range, firing the second metallic claw and scoring a solid hit. Electricity pulses through the systems of the Idhra as Rico frantically yanks on the controls, screaming in pain and rage, but his eyes widen as he notices something– the egner whip seems to be carrying him farther and farther away from the Reborn, and… is it getting a little warm in his cockpit?

Marlin laughs as the claw plunges through the force field surrounding the area, sending the Idhra and his other egner whip both plunging into the flames of the Sun, where both are incinerated instantaneously. “You know, I wasn’t really sure that would work…” he mutters to himself, then shrugs, disabling Trans-Am to conserve his particles and jetting off to seek new victims.

Alfredo, concealed along with the real Neo Totuga beneath a nearby platform, decides that discretion is the better part of valor, and does likewise, hoping to stumble upon easier prey.

14 Remaining

Wes Boyd smirks as he holds up the Arche Drei by it’s head and slams his beam saber through the cockpit, cutting off the stream of curses from his radio abruptly. Nearby, a shout of “JUSTICE KIIIIICK~!” sounds as the ART-1 Powered engages it’s thrusters, it’s left foot glowing visibly as it slams into the Neue Ziel’s head, carving it’s way down through the large mobile armor’s yellow body. The blow isn’t severe enough to slice the mobile armor in half, but it is enough to nail the cockpit, and the yellow mobile armor simply crashes into a platform and begins to burn, Kakugo landing picturesquely and posing briefly. This pause proves to be a bad idea, however, as Wes springs upon the unfortunate would-be hero, cackling as he hoses the ART-1 Powered down with a barrage of grenades from the Siren’s arms, shaking around Kakugo inside her cockpit like a maraca. Before he can move on to a more interesting method of finishing his victim off, however, a red-orange beam slams into Kakguo’s mobile suit, which explodes a second later as Wes leaps backwards with inhuman reflexes. His eyes narrow as they fall upon the Final Destiny, which quickly retargets and fires again. The shot isn’t even in the same county as Wes, however, who has transformed the Siren to mobile armor form and jetted around the attack, returning fire with a barrage from his shoulder beam cannons that riddles the left side of the Final Destiny’s body. Hastily discarding his beam cannon as it explodes, Heremes grabs a beam boomerang and flings it at the Siren, which twists around the weapon in a graceful maneuver more reticent of a bird than the Siren’s chunky mobile armor form. A pink beam suddenly pierces the Final Destiny from behind, from a party unknown, and as the mobile suit explodes, Wes quickly curves away to gain some cover, several more beams coming close enough to his mobile suit to scorch the paint.

10 remaining

Roland and Stephen fight back to back as they blaze away at the swarm of Bugs that have descended on them, attracted by Roland’s long-range handiwork. Stephen’s taken some damage– he’s short one arm, a wing, and a chunk of his left leg, whereas Roland’s cockpit has a slash through it, though fortunately not deep enough to do more than damage Roland’s screens. While Stephen’s accuracy seems diminished, Roland is hardly affected at all– he calmly shoots down one Bug after another with his rifle folded into rapid mode and a pistol in the Cherudim’s other hands, his shield bits blocking anything that gets too close to him.

Eventually, the last of the swarm of Bugs falls, and before Stephen can react, Roland spins the Cherudim with lightning speed and fires his pistol several times into Stephen’s backpack, disabling it and setting the Strike Freedom adrift.

“Sorry, Stephen, but only one man can win this…” With a grin, Roland prods the Strike Freedom, sending it floating slowly away from him towards one of the nearby platforms. It doesn’t get far, however, before the Arios’s flight mode zips past in Trans-Am, bisecting the Freedom at the waist and causing it to explode. “…huh. Oh well.”

Roland’s eyes narrow as Maev’s pursuer zips past him, also in Trans-Am– the considerably worse for wear Reborn, covered with scorch marks an arm and all of it’s fin fangs. While the Arios is quite fast in mobile armor mode, it just can’t compete with the Reborns’ huge output, and Marlin finally gets close enough to pump the Arios full of orange beams, causing it to spiral out of control and explode in a shower of green GN particles. Exhausted of most of it’s power, the Reborn disables it’s Trans-Am system once more, and Marlin hastily scoots for cover, narrowly escaping several beams sent his way by Roland. Unfortunately, beneath the nearest platform he comes face to face with Alfredo Rocco, who wastes no time in unleashing a furious beatdown on the heavily damaged Reborn, literally tearing it limb from limb, even as Marlin retaliates with his own beam saber, slicing large chunks off of the Neo Totuga.

The impromptu brawl between the two is interrupted by a blast from the Terror Regenerate’s hyper impulse cannon, which vaporizes the Reborn, the Neo Totuga, and the entire platform the two mobile suits are fighting near, sending debris scattering through the immediate area and flushing out Boris Smirnov, who hastily maneuvers to avoid the Empruss, which dives in to strafe him with it’s beam weapons. Both mobile armors blaze away at each other, beam weapons flashing back and forth, but it proves a stalemate, at least until Boris manages to land a shot from one of his funnels to the Empruss’s port wing as Janus drops his GN Field to fire again. Before he can right himself, Kane Sariento lunges out of a nearby cloud of debris and jams a beam saber into the main body of the mobile armor from behind, then fires his beam rifle several times at close range, causing the white mobile armor to brew up in a large explosion that pushes his mobile suit away.

Surprisingly, the Regenerate is the next to fall; Esperanza is so busy trying to line up a shot on Roland that she doesn’t notice the Siren sneaking up behind her. She does notice the Regenerate’s cockpit pod being ripped from the rear of the gigantic mobile suit, and also the noise of her cockpit being torn open by Wes, who cackles with glee as he reaches in to scoop his prize out, sending Esperanza screaming into the void as he flicks her body towards the barrier of the arena and, in less than a minute, the all-consuming flames of the Sun.

Boris immediately fires his main cannon at Wes, but Wes uses the Terror Regenerate for cover, though the explosion scorches and gouges at the Siren’s armor. “Now I’ve got y–” Kane leaps from cover again, slashing down at Wes, but Wes easily evades the blow and grabs the Astraea, tearing the prototpye GN Blade off of the unfortunate mobile suit’s arm and then flinging it like a javelin into the head of the Alpha Aziel, instantly killing Boris.

3 Remaining

Wes pays the price for his games this time, as Kane fires his beam rifle into one of the Siren’s binders at point blank– even with his reflexes, Wes can’t evade fast enough, and he hastily jettisons the binder as it explodes. “Bad move, kid, but you’re gonna pay for th–” A pink beam slams into the other binder, and Wes makes a ‘tch’ noise as he ejects it, his radio crackling.

“Wes Body, I’ve found you…!” The Cherudim approaches, guns blazing, and Wes hastily tosses the Astraea into it’s path, where it soaks up a beam intended for the Siren and explodes. Wes’s Siren blazes out of the explosion, directly towards the Cherudim, but Roland’s been waiting, and the Siren recieves a full barrage of GN Missiles that impact all over it’s body, which quickly begins to swell as the missiles do their work.

Remaining undaunted, Wes opens the cockpit and leaps into open space, even as the Siren explodes behind him. The explosion, combined with his own escape belt, allows him to rapidly close the distance to the Cherudim, almost before Roland can react, and he draws a long knife, pulling himself partways into the cockpit, slamming it into Roland’s chest–

Unfortunately, almost is not quite fast enough, and Roland empties an entire magazine from his service arm into Wes’s face and chest, knocking him out of the cockpit. Metallic threads wave and writhe around the wounds, rapidly beginning to repair the damage, but Roland doesn’t give Wes any time at all, rapidly bringing his GN pistol up and smashing the blade along the bottom into his psychopathic opponent, tearing him to pieces.

Outcome:

Roland Hauser wins
Second place: Wes Boyd
Third Place: Kane Sairento