The girl plops down to the ground and braces herself as they line up. She splays her feet out and folds one hand behind her while the other she raises up. When the force floods out, her palm comes to meet it, and for a moment it seems like she'll be able to take it.

But ultimately, this is still trying to stop a rampaging bus with her bare hand on only two feet, and she's sent skidding back along the dirt, leaving deep traces beneath her boots. Though she manages to remain standing, a testament to her skill and power!

"Whew... your gear is pretty good, Seshat," Fia chimes, dusting her crimson coat off.

Checking on the Ra's equipment, there's some feedback - they held together, but if she intends on having them use that feature any more often than once in a while, she'll need to outfit them with some sort of heat exchanger or capacitor to be able to survive the resulting equivalent force. The shoulder joints took a bit of a buckling, though they held together.

"A speeding train without the engine running." She rubs at her hand, looking it over. "If they kept pushing they probably could have sent me out further. But if I hadn't known it was coming, I might have ended up across the highway, so, they're good guns." She chuckles.

"Favourite movie? Hmm... I've seen a lot of movies." Given she saw the birth of cinema, that's saying something. "Secret of Nimh, probably."

The mechanics of shards and how they choose powers remains mysterious, if not incalculable. But, with Ishte at her side, just maybe, Seshat can figure it out.

"You clearly haven't lived," Fia quips, arms crossed as she resumes floating a couple inches off the ground. "Nah, not really, but more seriously, I really recommend it. There's a lot of parallels with impacted and seeded, too. It spoke to me a lot," she explains.


'I am a horrible judge of character at the best of times and I lack empathy,' Ishte responds. 'So I may be off-base. Hayasaya seems honourable to me and I feel I can trust him. But Syali gives me a feeling of danger, but I am not sure why.'

Could simply be that he'd be dangerous in battle, or something about his shard. Though when he made Night's Host, he was quite the proponent of cleaning up what the governments couldn't, so it might just be his strictness.

For now, everyone is accounted for, and she doesn't detect enemy movement within or around the perimeter of their base. She can see some of the cottages in the woods within the impact zone, along with a fair bit of forest.

"Probably back to Bhutan... I have some graves to visit. After that, I'm not sure." She tucks her hands behind her back. "It might depend on how much traction Aline's little operation manages to get. If she does well, I might just moves in perpetuity there, at least while I'm needed.

"If not, I'll need to figure myself out."

"There's a what?" She leans forwards to look at the tablet, eyes growing wide. "...I'm not even mad, that guy draws me looking awesome.

"Not that I'd do it. Don't think I could go back to a regimented setup with a commander hovering over me. And the nearest YPA program from my home country is Japan."

"You'll get some prestige if this goes well. Can use that to leverage your entry into any team - governmental, like the GRF or IPA, or independent, like Night's Host or Wetzstein.

"There's always the indies, too."

Likely that all of it would remain 'functional,' just without that strange synaptic energy that allows her creations to process. If that could be replicated, then everything should still work.

Probably best to just not die today.

Ms. Lafaille turns to her and the hologram of Seshat's rendition of Ishte, intrigued. The blue themed girl, from eyes to hair to bodysuit, with the neutral face. She'd be cute, if she learned how to smell genuinely.

"Mh... I would not want to insult Syali, but he is a strong proponent of the status quo. That people are happier when they are safe, and don't have to worry about things that don't affect them. This... entire affair will change a lot about how we view the world, and what people may end up knowing. Syali is not happy about that.

"If your friend is perceptive about such things, she may be picking up on that. ...but I do not believe he'll be a danger to her or us."

"And you." She smiles at her.

--

Showtime. 15 minutes until impact.

In three groups, they've already left the base under cover of trees, accompanied by people troops and kitty troops, and each one with two - or one, in Hayasaya's case - sharded commander. She's with La Lame Argentée and Ishte, taking the north side.

Scouting runs - and her scarabs - have confirmed most of the intel so far. There aren't that many of them to begin with, and they don't look like they're powerhouses or well known villains or anything like that - but, of course, Liberation is xenophobic to anything that isn't impacted or seeded, so they all do have superpowers of some kind, and they are mostly keeping aware of their sixes.

"The moment they detect the shard and begin to move," Aline points out. "Is the moment we converge towards the middle of their formation. Quick, and decisive."

"Yes. Anyone who is hit by the impact cannot be secured and kept safe unless we defeat them," Hayasaya says over scarab-comm (since it uses a bandwidth that is less detectable than radio.)

"Also a reminder that Cedilla is here, and the biggest threat," Fia points out. "If you don't have a superpower, engage with one who does. We'll try to corner him so your Ra's can lasso him. Laser him if necessary."

Unlike most energy projectionists who just transfer heat, noise or plasma, she transmits data in low bands. It's just a little thing, but it's apparently unusual - and useful.

"Roger that," comes Fia's response.

"Yes, he will be. But he can't risk going too early or he gives away its position. At the end of the day, the race is on." Aline notes, keeping her eyes trained up on the sky.

Ishte gives her hand a squeeze in turn, and with Seshat's help for translation, begins to count. "Twenty to event. Fifteen. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two... Ameilik is here."

Getting to see an impact in person from inception and beyond is quite interesting. It doesn't fall as with gravity - It simply appears in the middle of the sky, a little meteorite of golden light, something vaguely solid looking to be inside. Then goes on an erratic falling course, not affected by wind or logic, occasionally even going back up or horizontally before it finally seems to hone on where it wants to go and rushes for it, disappearing behind tree cover.

Strange. There aren't any houses there.

It hasn't even hit that Aline is calling "Go!" into the comms. Wetzstein soldiers charge out to the ring of Liberation, along with Aline and the north squad of Ras, Sekhmets and Basts. Someone tosses some sort of fireball at Silverblade as she's leaping, but she seems to flicker sideways, leaving a silvery trail of crystaline mist that bisects the fire, leaving it harmless.

SRI would pay good money for that footage.

"I will, though I do not see or sense him."

Lame Argentée dashes forwards through another flame and uses her walls to surround the hapless pyromancer in the deadly stuff, forcing him to not move lest he gets himself gutted. The young man opts to stand down instead, as Wetzstein troops step in to surround him.

Energy lassos from Ra's do quick work of yanking some others off their feet all over the place, or are gunned down by stun shots. The Basts don't really even need to get into melee, acting as buffers instead.

Fia was right - they're Liberation would-be's. Teenage and young adult zealots under common cause, rather than soldiers or trained troops. They're routing under the far more experienced and well choreographed assault.

One of the scarabs near Fia nearly gets clipped by something, managing to lower its elevation just enough to avoid it (though it was aimed at Fia, who also dodges it.) It was a tree trunk, apparently, and turning around, she gets to see Ken Cedilla once more. Rather than his little Hawaiian vest and jeans from last time, he's in a military looking uniform, with the Liberation logo on the breast.

"He's here - western front. I'm engaging," Fia warns. "Ra's: look for your opportunities. Basts; don't hit my keister, but light him up when you can."

Then the little bicentennial vampire girl and the number one terrorist meet in melee, and it's sheer insanity. A palm strike that should have turned his ribcage to dust barely makes him flinch, while Fia ducks down beneath a huge fist that goes fast enough to shake the trees around it.

Whenever Fia seems to gain the upper hand, Cedilla seems to just redouble in effort or gets a second wind - at which point he's just stronger and faster, and begins to pressure back. The vampire girl manages to stay in there, her training in martial arts and her natural grace and alacrity keeping her safe, but even Cedilla's brawling becomes dangerous if you fight like you're a constantly accelerating monorail.

Hayasaya hovers near the periphery, keeping his hand on his scabbard while he waits for his own opportunity.

Eventually, she does take a hit, and it's really all it takes - shaking the ground and a boot to the stomach, and Fia goes flying through a pile of trees.

Several golden spectral knives come flying at him from Hayasaya, stabbing through his legs and arms. They shatter shortly after, but it slows him down enough that her converging Ras find their opening.

It's like trying to hold down a bear. The energy lassos about him and they pull their lines taught, forming a circle surrounding him. Mobile granite and strong joints give the soldiers an edge, especially with five of them, but he growls and begins to pull with his limbs. Rock joints make complaining noises and they have to adjust themselves on their feet.

One part of her can imagine a pile of ashes where a man used to be. Another part of her compares the kinetic energy from those beams plus what Fia threw at him and is making a mathematical analysis of just how much power she'd need to not incinerate him.

One Ra is yanked off her feet, though Hayasaya tosses some sort of energy blade at her, the golden light 'sewing' her to the ground. He pulls her back down and she regains her footing. But they're buckling.

If his will to proceed is as legendary as it seems to be, he should be okay (ish) right?

Given there's still gunfire and strange sounds coming from elsewhere in the woods, the battle isn't quite finished. She'll have to make the decision, or come up with an alternative stratagem to keep him off his feet.

It's a genius move, and one that sure beats blasting him to bits.

Being unable to brace himself against the ground removes a large percentage of his strength. He can still pull with his arms and legs, but he doesn't have anywhere near as much ability - especially being covered in scarabs and beams of energy slowing him down.

She does lose a couple of scarabs - he manages to grab and toss them aside. Most that are hit manage to regain their flight patterns and return to the fray, but a couple end up embedded into the sides of trees. But between being battered down by stun-batons, forced to fly, and energy whips, eventually even he starts to falter.

The scarabs can't keep this up forever, and it's sapping energy. But then, a little energy fox hops up ontop of a Ra's head, then across to where Cedilla is. All of her scarabs are forcibly removed and sent skittering for purchase and flight. It breaks the energy beams... and yet, Cedilla floats on, frozen in place with a scowl on his face, with a blue aura around him.

Ishte puts a hand on her arm and gives her a little smile. "I cannot answer that question for you." She looks down at the walker's cannon. "But I do feel like you've done the right decision in a time of crisis. I find you impressive for that."

Seeing the faces of everyone present as they converge in on Cedilla's containment, she can tell she's not the only one who feels like this is off, that it's not what they expected - or even should be. Fia has recovered, though her clothes are ripped in several places and she still has twigs in her hair, but she seems to be standing.

"Shibe?" His frown turns into a light smile. "The prodigal sister is with you now, is she? Hm. You can tell her I left him at home."