World Tree MUSH

    It's a warm day in the city ruins... Giant boars and moose frolick, Machine Lifeforms amble about aimlessly with no real goal in their strange robotic lives, and all is quiet in this world with no humans...
    2B and 9S are currently in the Machine Village, a village of pacifist Machine Lifeforms led by Pascal, a gentle and knowledgable Machine Lifeform that manages the small collective of peaceful machines.
    "We brought the oil you requested." 2B says, conversing stiffly with Pascal, still a little disbelieving that Machines can be truly peaceful. 9S is just looking baffled at the whole exchange, rubbing the back of his neck. But Jackass and the Android Resistance leader both vouched for him and even said that they regularly trade for supplies with the village, so here they are.
    "Oh that's wonderful!" Pascal chirps. "Thank you so much, this oil really helps out around here... If you could be so kind as to send Jackass our thanks and tell her I'll send over those filters she asked for tomorrow."

    "Work, dammit! C'mon, gimme a coke already!" Dante is heard shouting, currently shaking a poor vending machine after having put a -ludicrous- amount of change in the slot. He's gonna be like this for a while, unless something happens.

  Lucatiel is here. She's actually been here for some time, having happened across the area for entirely unrelated reasons, which absolutely did not boil down to being lost.

  The fencer is leaning against a nearby building with her arms folded. A magnificent brimmed hat with a jutting black plume from its brim covers part of the person's face. The rest is covered by a brazen mask in the shape of a trim-bearded man, with stylised features. Silk shirt, black leather cuirass, leather leggings and boots complete the ensemble. Rapier at the hip, cavalry greatsword and buckler over her shoulder. Oh, and a blonde braid hanging out from beneath the back of the hat brim.

  For now, she waits, saying nothing, watching the transaction and the growing gathering.

    Uni wanders into the village, giving Dante a tap on the shoulder. "Those don't work, or they're concealed transport pods for the androids.." she mentions as she passes, heading toward 2B, 9S and Pascal. "Pascal, I got those spare parts you wanted. There were some hostile machines in the area." she says to the Machine leader, summoning a box from her inventory labeled 'PARTS' in big red stencil lettering.

    Right behind Dante, a staticky portal opens up and out comes Emily, in the form of a YoRHa type-S unit with a uniform the color of a Machine Lifeform's rusty body, projecting holograms of twintails which go down to her ankles. Oh, and she has no blindfold, revealing her usual glowing purple eyes. "Yeah," she says cheerfully. "And even if they did work, I believe we've already covered what kind of state drinks are likely to be in after ten thousand years."

    Someone here is gawking and gaping like a tourist. But in Hyouka's defense, she's never seen truly nonhostile machines before? 'Dumb enough to be tricked into not fighting', sure, but outright friendly? "This is kinda nice," the faux-elven woman declares, hands in her pockets. "They're actually kinda cute when they're not trying to kill us." However, someone has to be the voice of parano- reason, and that someone proves to be the AI companion built into her body. "Nevertheless, Hyouka, for security's sake, your wireless receivers will remain disabled for the time being."

    Hyouka shrugs, giving a little sigh in the process. "Sure, I guess." Oh hey, there's 2B and 9S. "Ah, there you two are. How long did you say you've known about this place?"

    In a world like this, there's a lot to be repaired. Josuke has been setting aside time on days off of school to try to repair a little bit of the infrastructure. Maybe there aren't any humans here, but the machines that don't want to kill everything that isn't them can use some of the old stuff once it's been repaired to its former state. And where better to find things to repair that can be used than the Machine village itself? So Josuke is there now.

    He's in that mostly brown outfit he wears -- the sweater, slacks, gloves, and dress shoes are brown and the turtleneck under the sweater is lime-green. And hitching a ride on his shoulder is Roberta the Bright Feather, who is interested in learning about a culture of robots!

    "Hi there!" he offers in a happy chirp as he notices people either arriving or having been there for a while, raising a hand to wave in greeting to the group at large. Mostly people he knows, from the looks of things... either people he knows from here, or people he knows from elsewhere. So of course he's going to be friendly. He usually is, but now he has more reason to be.

    2B and 9S stiiiifflly turn their necks to face Dante, staring at the red-clad demon hunter incredulously as he putzes with the vending machine. "That's uh..." 9S begins to say, before Uni beats him to the explanation.
    "We've known for a little while now." 2B replies to Hyouka. "Still debating wheter or not to report them to YoRHa high command, but for the time being they've been... Helpful." She sounds like she's trying to be professional, but there's something just beneath her usual level of ice wall that she doesn't seem comfortable about fully escaping as she gives Emily a curt nod in greeting.
    "Oh man, Josuke!" 9S says, already making his way over to initiate the obnoxiously long and complex human handshake ritual that he is one hundred percent certain is the means by which humans greet each other.
    He never makes it before the skies seem to... Darken... Grey clouds overcast the entirety of the machine village, seeming to suck the color out of everything as he approaches.
    And then there's the sudden tremor of what feels like an earthquake and the roiling sounds of explosions in the distance... Back toward the city ruins.
    "Wh-whuh?" 9S blurts.
    "Kh...!" 2B grunts as she manages to maintain her footing where other Machine Lifeforms topple over from the quake.
    With a BEEP BEEP, Pod 153, 9S' pod floats to the center of the group, displaying a holo screen. On that holo screen is a woman with silver hair, wearing a veil. A YoRHa operator.
    "Operator 21O, do you read me? Operator to 9S: I have bad news and I have good news. Bad first: We've confirmed the presence of two Goliath-class heavy weapon enemies."
    "... Two of them?" 9S says shocked.
    "Now the good news," the operator continues smoothly. "We've used your previous Goliath combat data to analyze the enemy and it seems we have identified a weakness. Command has modified a firing unit based on this new intel. It's been installed on a pair of flight units that are heading your way. Check your map data. Operator out."
    "Thanks operator! 2B! Command is deploying new flight units for us. They've just sent the coordinates."
    "On it." 2B replies already starting to move before she pauses.
    "This isn't your fight, we can't ask any of you to join us." She says to the group at large, earning a shocked jolt from Pascal.
    "But you'll both be killed if you go alone!"

    Uni waves to Josuke, setting the parts box down for Pascal. She gives a nod to Emily, and eyes Hyouka up briefly, and Lucatiel too. She knows the latter pair only tangentally from other encounters...

    And then the world starts to shudder. She keeps her footing, with a grunt of effort... and listens in on the Operator's call to 9S. 2B's assertion earns a frown. "Asking or not, I'm not going to let you go this alone. Get to your weapons. Pascal, evacuate the village temporarily, head for the Resistance camp and tell Jackass what's happening. If they have anything that can help, we'll need it."

    Uni then glances at her partner, just arriving on her jetpack. "Bravette, recon mode, get high give me a sitrep and link everyone together on tacnet."

    Uni then digs into her Inventory, and tosses headsets towards Josuke, Dante, Lucatiel and Hyouka. "Put these on, Bravette will handle local comms so we can coordinate. They're two-way radios with a little eyepiece for data telemetry. I got them from a tech-store in one of the hightech Blossoms."

    Uni then turns back to 2B. "Two Goliaths. Sounds like something massive, I should get serious from the start."

    With that she holds a hand out, and a power symbol alights on her fingers. "ACCESS!" she intones, before pressing the symbol into her chest. A burst of light leaves Black Sister hovering a foot or so off the ground where Uni once stood, white hairdrills flowing in the jetwash from her flight pack, and the large black shell of her railcannon floating beside her.

>> GAME >> Uni spends an Edge for: Transforming to Black Sister

It isn't until 2B and 9S step forward that the masked fencer pushes off from the wall. She shucks off a glove, slips a hand under the mask, and issues a piercing, commanding whistle. Replacing her glove, she reaches up to draw the cavalry greatsword with a ringing of steel, carrying it easily one-handed as she steps out into the open. The sound of distant hoofbeats resolve into the gallop of an approaching horse; and a gorgeous dapple-grey bursts into view by leaping over a low outcropping of rock. His hooves strike the earth with a thud as he rushes straight for the masked fencer.

She takes a lunging step forward, grabs the reins left-handed, and swings herself aboard in a single fluid movement. She catches the headset en route, shoving a hand up under her mask to wedge it into place. The hand withdraws immediately to crouch over Naruiel's neck, urging the stallion on with a kick of his ribs.

Understood, she says, over the thunder of hooves and the creak of leather harness. It's a woman's voice, albeit hard and low, and echoing bizarrely within the confines of the mask.

The horse is reined up not far from 9S and 2B, rearing up and whinnying; the fencer stands in the stirrups and raises the greatsword aloft one-handed. (That is a very big sword.)

"This cause is worthy enough for me, for the moment. I will accompany you," she says. "My name is Lucatiel of Mirrah, and my sword is always ready."

    Well, this just got... incredibly dangerous. A pair of goliath classes is just a tad intimidating. Hyouka frowns, already moving to fall into step, when... 2B stops? And... and warns them.

    Hyouka's brow furrows.

    The cyborg slowly, deliberately lifts up a hand, reaches over, and...

    Bonk. Right on the top of 2B's head.

    "Oi. Don't insult us. You know us better than that by now." Her gauntlets are already starting to snap, click, clank and whir into place, lines of cyan mana lighting up along each. "This isn't even the first goliath class problem I've had to deal with, you know? I haven't forgotten the factory. If you need help, just ask Big Sis Hyouka for help."

    She reaches one massive hand up to catch the headset from Uni, and almost throws it back- until DARGN chimes in, "Hyouka. I'm not turning on our comms if we have an external set we can use."

    What follows is rather comical. Two hands each almost as big as Hyouka's torso, carefully trying to manipulate a radio headset into place. Her hair is a little messy by the time she's done.

    Dante is about to get all huffy and pouty about the lack of snack machines around here, but the presence of Goliath class machines starts to get his attention.

    "FIrst no snacks, now giant frickin' robots...at least I got something to vent on." He snarls, before suddenly enveloping his body in demonic energies. His body becomes insectoid, hands become claws, and a face becomes a snarling death mask as he adopts Devil Trigger. Wings sprout from the Son of Sparda's back, and Dante lets out an animalistic howl. "You better believe I ain't leavin' so soon." He says, voice adopting an echoing growl.

    With that, he takes off into the air. "Now let's go get these guys!"

>> GAME >> Dante spends an Edge for: Big honkin' robots need big honkin devils.

    Emily waves to Josuke and Hyouka as they arrive. "These Machines don't seem to be connected to the Network," she tells the latter. "I mean, trust me when I say I have my own reasons to hate the Machines, but, these ones, uh ... they're ... uh ..."

    She furrows her brow at the sudden ... change of scenery, and rises off the ground to avoid the quake. She listens to 21O's transmission with an unreadable expression. Then she projects a hologram of an image of two gray kittens with the text "Two Of Them" beneath it.

    She shrugs. "As I was saying, 2B." She glances around at all and sundry, looks up at Uni, then says, "Releasing capacitor seals 3 and 2." She's surrounded by the three familiar auras, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent; the first two shatter, and the third one fades. In a swirl of silvery nanomachines, she transforms into a robot which looks like a smaller version of a YoRHa flight unit, but much more rounded, and with brighter purple running lights.

    She pings 2B and 9S's pods and Bravette for tactical data; her own tactical data is markedly more crude. "I can vouch for Lucatiel, having been on the receiving end of her before," she remarks dryly. "... Dante, I'd say settle down, but, uh. Heh. You just keep on doing what you're doing, bro." She sounds slightly impressed at the Devil Trigger transformation.

    "9S, hey there!" Josuke greets. Yes! Overly-complicated human handshake ritual! Obnoxious? Maybe to some. Josuke seems to be enthusiastic about it and amused by it, so there's that. Just one of those weird human things, one can suppose. Unfortunately, the earthquake quite rudely interrupts this ritual! "Whoa!" Josuke staggers, barely keeping his footing. Roberta squeaks and almost falls off Josuke's shoulder, though he catches her before she does fall completely off. "Oops... you okay, Roberta?"

    "Yeah," Robeta replies, reclaiming her place. Though a flash of light later and she's fully-armored, and capable of flight on her own! Which the utilizes.

    The announcement gets a frown from Josuke -- Goliath units? "...Explains the earthquake," he replies quietly.

    Pascal's objection isn't even out of its electronic mouth good before Josuke's offering, "Don't worry, I'm not gonna let anything happen to them," he promises. 2B gets a nod. "I'm supposed to be fixing this world up. These things mean to break it, right?" He smacks one fist into the other. "So it's simple -- I gotta break them."

    And then Uni's tossing headsets out; Josuke catches one. "Thanks!" he replies, putting the headset into place. "What's the local frequency? Roberta, you tune to it too, all right?"

    "Right!" Roberta agrees. She will tune to the local frequency Uni's using as well. It'll help to keep them in touch without interference. Shouting over a battlefield can only do so much for communication.

    He steps back a bit as Dante changes and flies up. It's surprising, but he does not have time to stare right now. Not that he could even if he did -- Dante's flying too fast! He has no such transformation or transportation methods, so he's on ground duty!

    2B gets... Bonked. It's an act that makes the android's blindfold visor flutter slightly with her slow and owlish blinking behind it.
    'Big sis Hyouka???' The Battle unit mouths silently, turning to look at her Scanner partner, before she regains her composure and clears her throat. "Why am I not surprised you're the one trying to fix everything." She muses at Josuke before heaving a theatric sigh, "Fine, help us get to those flight units." She concedes.
    "OPENING A CHANNEL." Pod 042 announces as Lucatiel goes storming off towards the city ruins, 2B and 9S are already turning to follow suit as their Pods relay field telemetry to everyone's headsets and the shinkis; a map of the local area, two large blips... And a multitide of smaller blips all around the large ones as the Androids are off.
    "I'll do what I can here." Pascal says affirmatively to Uni while the androids book it. Even without horses, at a full tilt sprint, 2B isn't left TOO far behind in Lucatiel's dust, though 9S lags a bit.
    Breaking out of the Machine Village doesn't take long, as the clouds overhead seem to make the world even more grey, dust and debris cloud the air from buildings being stomped apart, two massive silhouttes darkening the skies- machines as big as the tallest buildings in the city, stomping between them. Smaller machines swarming in droves at their feet. This is going to be an uphill battle to be certain as 2B clutches at the sword hovering over her back.
    "The flight units should be on the roof of that building up ahead." 9S says pinging a building PAST one of the great machines. "It'll be dangerous, but we're not getting anywhere without going through that machine's legs."

    Emily glides after the group, slow enough to stick by everyone else. She turns her entire form towards 2B as she announces their destination. "Hmmm." She then turns back and regards the giant machines for a moment. "On it, coach!" Wait, on what?

    She barrels forward, firing bolts of golden light at the machines on the ground; she doesn't do much damage, since it seems she can only manifest up to five bolts at once. But then she shoots into the sky, accompanied by a hologram of a banner trailing behind her with the text "Hey Look A Distraction", and starts buzzing around the two giant Machines. Her goal is plain: she's going to be as highly-visible and distracting as she can, so that the Machines' attention is turned away from the surface.

    "I'll distract them while you suit up." informs Black Sister. She glances to Emily and makes a 'come on then' tilt of her head before she forms a barrier, presses her feet against it and launches herself off at speed toward the blips. <Comm check. Hawkeye to all points are you receiving?> she says into her own radio. Bravette helpfully links to Roberta and assists in funneling relevant info to those who need it, linking her sensors to the PODs for wider coverage. <<Eyes on. Two Goliaths, multiple smaller units. Heading 312 at 40, uploading intercept marker.>>

    Bravette pings a 'waypoint' to the network, a large glowing pillar that people can see through the eyepiece, or hangs in the air for those natively attached to the tacnet. <<Flight Unit location confirmed. Waypoint added. Advise, hostile small units are in the way, marking them on your HUD.>>

    Uni takes up an airborne station, and levels her railcannon at the lead Goliath, charging a shot and opening fire to get its attention. "EX Multiblaster. Mode: Brave!" The pulsed blue beam lances out, raking across the Goliath's path, though the unstable nature of the attack likely means it does little actual damage from that range.

The Elite Knight of Mirrah races towards rather than away from the Goliaths. Her horse's hooves tear up clods of turf, dodging through city streets and vaulting any obstacles beneath his hooves. Lucatiel crouches low over his neck, the plume of her hat and the tabard of her regalia whipping in the wind.

Naruiel gets close enough to dodge in and between the machines swarming at the Goliath's feet. He screams, rearing and plunging, slashing with his teeth and kicking at any machine that gets too close. Lucatiel is laying about with her sword, as well, swinging the brutally heavy blade with practised, surgical precision. Naruiel's path takes him closer to the legs, and his whistling challenge is piercing over the din.

When she's close enough, Lucatiel scrambles up and atop the saddle, and then leaps for the nearest part she can seize, swinging herself up and aboard with a grunt. Quick movements and swinging advances are meant to carry her up to a place with better hand-holds, but it's hard; the thing's steps are nearly enough to shake her loose.

    Hyouka is close behind 2B and 9S, giving Pascal little more than a huge-handed wave as they go. She is, impressively, able to keep up with 2B quite readily - but when they come to a pair of goliath-sized impediments in the path to the flight units they'll need, that speed doesn't mean a whole lot. "...Fastest way is through, hm? I think I can manage that."

    Mana floods either of Hyouka's gauntlets, and a noticeable flow of cold air begins to roll off them. She hurls herself into the fray not long after Lucateil passes, but her goal isn't getting onboard - she's trying to smash open a path for the android duo, laying into any machine in reach with magic-enhanced gauntlet smashes.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> Trying to clear a path.

    Josuke gives a sheepish look to 2B when she notes that he's the one fixing stuff. It'll make sense if he explains it, he's sure... but right now there isn't time for a full explanation.

    The teen doesn't have a method of transportation as-such. In fact, he'd probably be left in the dust if he tried to just hoof it. So he's going via Crazy Diamond Air! That is, he's going to manifest the Stand, have it hurl him forward, then when he's about to fall out of the air, re-manifest his Stand (since he'll have been hurled out of effective range of the Stand's previous position) to catch him and start the process over. Sort of like playing leapfrog with himself.

    Though instead of trying to distract the Goliath units -- there are enough people on that -- Josuke joins Hyouka in turning to the machines on the ground. Crazy Diamond will aim to just tear into the hostile machines, seeking to remove their threat from the battle with fast flurries of punches!

    Hooking into the comms channel via phone, after sifting through a mess of apps unwisely downloaded, Dante is able to get in touch with the others. "Dante here," his voice rumbles on the comm, "I've got eyes on one of those goliaths. I'm gonna go kick its ass." With that, the half-devil speeds towards one of the machines, fearlessly charging towards the mech.

    His wings send him flying, each flap causing little sonic booms as he holds out Rebellion, jousting with the metal titan. Size matters not, a wise man once said, and Dante's not at all interested in second-guessing a psychic muppet.

    On it? What is Emily on? 2B is about to speak when the Eudaemon breaks off and darts ahead, soon joined by Black Sister as the two seek to make diversions of themselves for the androids and rest of the group still on the ground.
    And for the group on the ground there are... A lot of machines to slogh through. But for beings made of metal, they are pummelled by horse hooves and cut down by sword as easily as anything else as Lucatiel leaps from her saddle and latches onto the great Goliath, holding on and clambering for all her might! Does it notice her? Does it care that she's leapt upon it? The giant machine makes no sign of either as it trudges inexorably through the city.
     2B and 9S immediately slide into a basic battle formation behind Hyouka and Josuke, the pair of them turning into a veritable wall of FIST to cover the androids as 9S points out the building.
    "In there!" He calls out and the two make their way towards the entrance, already rushing up the stairwell as the first of the great machines rears its massive digger-machine arms back and tries to swat Emily, Uni, and Dante out of the sky with monstrously powerful, but slow coming blows.

    There's this movie that Dante REALLY likes, something about an Empire striking back. There was a battle on the snow planet, and there was the old green gremlin dude...it's a whole thing. Point is, he's reminded of this movie, and he looks around for the nearest steel cable, something like suspension wires for a bridge. Eventually he grabs one, wrapping it around his sword before hurling the blade as hard as he can manage. The sword and cable embed themselves into the machine's leg, and Dante grabs the other end of the cable as he begins to wrap the wire around the machine's legs.

    See, that movie DID give him ideas!

    Hyouka's not as inexperienced as she used to be, but Josuke's still definitely got more fight experience on her, despite his young age - and that's not including the natural Joestar talent for brawling. Still, she has a way to make up for it; she's as tough and powerful as a Stand in and of herself, and when she swings her fists, they come complete with bursts of ice magic. For every flurry of blows from Crazy Diamond, there's just two or three from Hyouka, but she makes each swing of a FISTEAU count.

    When 2B and 9S go tearing into a building and start climbing up, however, the cyborg has other ideas. "I'll go up top, meet you halfway down!" The machines are probably expecting the group to come charging in from above - so an attack from above and behind will have the advantage of surprise. Quickly, Hyouka begins leaping and jumping up the side, using her powerful, massive hands to dig into the wall and make her own handholds... and, admittedly, there's a few flails and near-slips on the way up.

    It only takes a few seconds for her to make her fumbling way to the top, however, and as soon as she's up there, she starts trying to work her way down, and smash through any machines in the way.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> Pincer maneuver!

    Black Sister jukes over the swipe, inverting and firing at the spinning buckets as they pass. "Their armour's too strong for my blaster." She then spots Dante going for the legs with cables. "That's a pretty good idea. <Strix, grab some cables. Go for the legs, we have to slow them down so the others can get to that weakpoint.> she radios to Emily, dropping altitude and grabbing up some more cables, mimicing Dante with trying to wrap the cables around the legs on the Goliath.

    Emily isn't actually paying as much attention as she probably should. Sure, she has one eye on the tactical readout, but at the moment, she's focused on having fun just annoying the Goliaths. She does notice what Dante's doing, and snickers, swooping around the Goliath in front of her.

    Then she notices that there's a great big arm swinging uncomfortably close to her, and she lets out a squawk of alarm over the radio, right before she gets clipped. She spins through the air, one of her mechanical arms broken off and pinwheeling away before disintegrating into nanomachines that fly back to her.

    She wobbles in midair for a moment. "Releasing final capacitor seal," she announces, and the pearlescent aura appears and shatters. One more swirl of nanomachines, and she changes into a dark black spiky armor thing with six limbs resembling sword-blades, and six glowing purple eyes in two vertical rows.

    "Right!" she answers Uni. She flies towards the ground in search of cables; in the process, she starts firing pellets of light which vaguely resemble the shots fired by YoRHa's pods, but which are slightly larger and clearly have a different composition if anyone scans them.

The Elite Knight of Mirrah climbs quickly, eventually sheathing the greatsword to scale faster. Every time the Goliath moves, every time the massive thing takes a ponderous step, it shakes with nearly enough force to send the knight flying.

The masked fencer is made of some determined stuff, though. Blonde braid flying behind her, Lucatiel forces her way up, using anything she can that looks remotely like something she can grip. Where is she going? What is she planning on doing? Going for high ground, it looks like, and looking for something vulnerable to attack.

    It's chaos. Dante starts tying the legs of the Goliath- soon joined by Black Sister in their attempt to bind the legs and trip up the great machine, bringing it to... A grinding halt. Once the cables are taut enough around the Goliath's legs that it can move no more without risk of falling flat on its face, the thing halts dead in its tracks, Emily's fire scoring marks and dents into its armored hide while Lucatiel will find her climbing much easier now that the thing isn't moving.
    What makes things less easy for Lucatiel are the smaller machines riding the big one, opening fire on the Elite Knight with energy spheres as she progresses...
    The Goliath's... OPENS ITS FACE, a torrent of energy shooting out in a wave of energy spheres it tries to fire at Dane, Uni, and Emily.
    The building itself is empty... No Machine Lifeforms inside, but by the time Hyouka meets up with 9S and 2B on their way up-- the wall explodes.
    The SECOND Goliath just punched the wall out entirely.
    "Damn it!" 2B snarls, Pod opening fire on the great machine as they get to the roof and strap into their flight units.
    "Hyouka hold on this is gonna be a hell of a ride!" 9S says, black flight unit scooping up the cyborg in its arms as the two take off and proceeds to drop her on top of the second Machine Lifeform. Where countless others are waiting for her on the Goliath's blocky roof.

    Black Sister presses her feet against another magic seal, launching herself clear of the Goliath in case it topples. When it doesn't, she looks up as the mechanical cracking of the things face unfolding into a torrent of incoming balls of energy. "Okay, who ordered the extra large Bullet Hell section?" she grouses, ducking and weaving through the spheres, but takes a couple to the face, causing her flight system to sputter and spray sparks as something important goes pop.

    "Ah, that was kind of disappointing," Hyouka calls out as she comes jogging down the stairs. "I was planning to hit them from behind, but there's no one-"

    SMASH.

    The language Hyouka speaks for the next two seconds seems to be a dialogue of shockanese, but she quickly returns to coherency and falls back into a run with the androids up to the roof. She's standing on the edge of the rooftop, contemplating just how she'll play the Engels-climbing game, when 9S shouts something from behind her. "-huh? Hold on to wh-AaaAaAAaaaA?!"

    When Hyouka lands, it's a roll into a stumble into a wobble. "...that was... quite a ride," she mutters shakily. "I'm certain these machines would like to hear all about it," DARGN replies in a deadpan. Hyouka's head snaps up - and she just BARELY avoids a swing from a beefier model. "Hey, I just got off an unexpected flight, it's rude to just jump all over me, you know?" Hyouka replies, already swinging an icy fist straight into the machine's center of mass.

    Emily starts transmitting tactical data, labeled 'Projected Flight Path Over Next 2 Seconds', which appears on the eyepieces or HUDs of anyone who looks towards her. She's planning ahead with a sort of autopilot, it seems, and incorporating everyone else's tactical feed into planning ahead invasion. "Yeah, I was gonna say!" she answers Uni. "To quote an LPer, 'paging danmaku to this thread, because that is too many lasers!'" And said autopilot takes her zigging and zagging through the stream of energy spheres. "OHGODS no this was a bad idea I mean uh --"

    She keeps going, though. Evidently, she's going somewhere with this. "In any event, it's too smart to fall over," she says. "Or, not 'smart', these Machines don't seem to think-as-such, you know what I mean." She grabs a cable, and starts flying towards the second Goliath. "Still, immobility is useful."

    Her projected flight path turns into a squiggly line around the Goliath's legs.

    "WAAAaaaAAAaaaAAAaaaAAAaaaAAAA!" goes Emily as she zips around the Machine's legs, before she releases the cable and starts flying back upward again and cancels the flight-path transmission. "... Okay, that was a dumb idea, even for me. Not doing that again."

The Goliath's legs are bound, and the moment's delay needed to scale further up the machine's torso is one Lucatiel doesn't waste. The masked woman swings her way up, finally reaching a relatively safe place to stand.

Oh. Hello. There are other machines, here.

Energy fire punches into the Elite Knight before she has a chance to react. Bolts tear through the sleeve of her silk shirt, drawing a burnt weal and a snarl of pain; one glancing off the steel bossing of the buckler she suddenly brandishes, winging away and burning a sizzling hole in the ground far below.

She wastes no time in advancing on the machinery. Wind rips at the plume in her hat, but it hold steady, fluttering like a banner. The buckler is replaced with the cavalry greatsword in the time it takes to blink, and Lucatiel rushes the assortment of machines. She lays about like a demon -- relying on speed and sheer aggression to match the numbers she's facing.

She is, despite what must be painful wounds and exertion, utterly silent in her pursuit aside from her breath sawing behind the mask.

    Dante throws Emily a salute as they cross paths, then Dante begins to try and stop the machine in place. Drawing his pistols, Dante then begins to soar higher, peppering the side of the goliath with a hailstorm of lead. He's not too sure if this thing is feeling anything, but his guns are capable of anything at this rate.

    He starts to go towards the giant's face, peppering it with bullets there. "C'mon, don't make me beg! DIE!"

    Josuke is slowly reducing the machines on the ground to scrap. And once he's done that? It's time to 'fix' them, since they still have some use in this fight.

    Note, however, the airquotes around 'fix'. Because what he's actually trying to do is 'fix' a whole bunch of them into a big metal ball of scrap metal by purposely botching the fix! Why is he doing that? Because he can then use his Stand to HURL the massive ball of scrap at the thing's legs!

    And Lucatiel... Goes on a rampage. The Elite Knight of Mirrah reaches the platform at midsection of the Machine only to be confronted by so many smaller machines and she does not quail in their face. No, she fights admirably amid the horde, cutting down Machines in swathes as they come for her. And on the other Machine Hyouka is proving to do much the same, wailing on machines as they come.
    Emily zooms through the second Goliath's legs, it swats and shoot at her but she's too fast, tangling up the second walker in a mass of cables that brings it to a halt while Dante opens fire on the beast Machine's face, earning a snarl and a monoton of "KILL... KILL... KILL...!"
    2B and 9S take to the air proper, unloading a swathe of missiles, vulcan, and laser fire on he first machine, 9S swooping low.
    "Get on!" He calls out to Lucatiel before Josuke launches his scrap ball at its legs. And if she chooses to leap onto the Flight Unit, the Scanner will snatch her up in its arms and swoop her down to plop her back in the saddle of her horse just as Josuke's scrap ball slams the Goliath in the legs and... Makes it topple.
    "KILL... KILL... KILL!" It bellows all the way down, slamming face first into the ground hard enough to shake it as it starts to crackle with electricity.
    "-- Shit! Everyone evacuate now!" 2B calls over the comms, voice voice rising noticeably beyond her usual stoic tone. "It's going to self destruct!"

    "Oh. That's bad."

    Dante dives down to retrieve Rebellion, ripping it free from the Goliath's leg, before he takes off as fast as possible. Tough as he is, the son of Sparda isn't stronger than explosions sadly. So he decides for once, discretion is the better part of valor. He travels through the air, wings flapping furiously to get him to the minimum safe distance.

    "'Don't make me beg: die'?" says Emily. "That's ... the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, whilst also being totally badass. In other words, the most Dante thing I've --" She pauses as 2B makes that announcement. "-- shit. Okay, right! Here I go again!"

    She takes a deep breath, then lets out a yell of exertion as staticky portals start opening up near everyone not being carried by a YoRHa flight unit. The other end seems to be in a different part of the city. Emily herself flies through one of them and lands heavily on one knee. "Everyone, haul ass!" she shouts hoarsely.

    Smash, slam, ow, stagger, smash, punch, punch, flail, stumble, punch- Wait, what did 2B just say?! "O-oh... oh dear. Um, uh-" The cyborg starts looking around in a near panic, trying to figure out something, anything she can do to get clear of a self-destructing behemoth of a machine. There's... not a lot of options. "I, uh... crap, I'll have to jump! DARGN, everything we've got into impact compensation!"

    She doesn't even wait for a response. She breaks into a run, then jumps as far and as forcefully as she can... about the exact instant a portal opens up right in front of her. "WAAH-?!" Those waiting on the other end of the portals are gifted with the sight of a black-and-skin-tone blur going hurtling out of a portal at freeway speeds, across a street, and right into an ancient clothing shop full of half-disintegrated clothing and approximately a cubic ton of mannequins. "-AAAAAAAAA-" Crashthudrumblethump.

    When she comes stumbling back out, one arm is quite literally stuck through the torso of a mannequin, right up to her shoulder. "W-what just...?"

    "Strike!" Josuke proclaims as the scrap ball hits the Goliath in the legs. Though his victory is short-lived -- 2B's announcement gets his attention real quick. "Roberta!" he calls through the comm. "Get away from that thing quickly!"

    Fortunately Emily's opening portals! "Thanks, Emily!" he offers through the comm, and then runs through the nearest portal to him, making sure that Roberta is with him. On the other side, he says over the comm, "Is everyone clear yet?"

Lucatiel rages through the front line of the machines closest to her, wedging her boots into the cabling that forms the limbs, bracing herself just long enough to swing the massive sword with both hands and the line of her back powering the blow. It crunches and bites deep into what it doesn't knock away.

She swings at one after another, using the wild momentum of such a large weapon to her advantage and ravaging the ranks in a silent spree.

Suddenly there is a 9S in her personal space. Lucatiel turns with a bright, brassy snarl of challenge as the sword levels to point at him, lowering immediately once she recognises him as an ally.

No sooner does that happen than she's scooped up and dropped onto Naruiel's saddle. "My thanks!"

A tug at the reins and he rears, whistling and thrashing his hooves in the air, once, before dropping. A mighty kick sends him lunging forward, tearing gouts of earth with his hooves. Lucatiel crouches low over his neck as before, one hand on the reins and balanced on Naruiel's neck; the other holding her hat down.

HEY, WINSTON. PEDAL FASTER!

    "Whoah whoah whoah hey that's dangerous!" 9S bleats when he has a sword levelled at him! But once it's lowered and Lucatiel is on her horse, both he and 2B take off at top speed to get out of the minimum safe distance range.
    Before there's a bright flash of white light, and the earth shakes once again.
    It's a long moment before everything calms down, but the self destruct of the first Machine wiped out most if not all of the smaller Machines, and caught the other Goliath in its blast radius, reducing it to rubble. ... And much of the buildings around it to rubble.
    Actually there is now a massive crater where the Machine toppled, revealing a great crack and crevasse that leads deep into the earth.
    It's now that the Pods blare with alarm klaxons.

    WARNING /!\ WARNING /!\ WARNING /!\ WARNING /!\ WARNING

    "Wh-what?" 9S whispers.
    "... Not possible." 2B Mutters.

    Meanwhile... Up in YoRHa Command, at the Bunker, in space, YoRHa Commander's eyes widen.

    "Unbelievable. The aliens who haven't revealed themselves in hundreds of years... Were hiding underground?"

    "Guys, I think a whole new can of worms just opened up..." 9S mumbles over the comms, just as YoRHa Commander breaks through 2B and 9S' band, audible to everyone around:

    "YoRHA! This is your commander. For the first time in centuries we have intercepted a signal belonging to the aliens. These are the creatures that are in direct command of the Machine Lifeforms on this planet. If we can destroy them we can end this long and arduous war once and for all. Our intel team is hard at work attempting to analyze the source of the signal, but we're not there yet. We need more data. All YoRHa units are ordered to prioritize data collection above all else. We can't let this chance slip through our fingers. ... Glory to Mankind."

    Dante makes it through the portal, just as they land on the other side. He de-triggers, sliding along the earth hard enough to leave a trench in the ground, and he's only stopped by a tree. He dusts himself off, stowing Rebellion, and he overhears the messages he's getting. "Huh...guess shit just got real."

    Emily exhales with relief, and closes the portals once everyone's gotten to safety. "Right, then!" she says. "Reapplying all capacitor seals." The three auras reconstruct themselves and fade, before she changes into her "default" form of an auburn-haired woman in her thirties in a midnight-blue business suit. Just with glowing purple eyes and four arms.

    When the Pods blare that announcement, she breaks into a wide grin. "Well, then!" she says, rubbing all four of her hands together. A glowing white flower materializes in her hear. "This is good." Her eyes turn into pitch black voids as her smile widens beyond what is supposed to be possible for a human. "This is very good."

    "A... aliens?" Hyouka blinks owlishly, still trying to dislodge her arm from the mannequin it's embedded through. Tug, tug. "We might have to fight aliens now? That's... actually that sounds pretty interesting. You can sign me up."

    Josuke winces at the explosions, covering his eyes -- that's bright! Roberta seeks shelter from possible blowback in Josuke's sweater, briefly. "Nngh... I hope everyone got clear..." he mutters. He moves to start locating the rest of them who went through the portals at this.

    But then just as things seem like they're about to settle down... more bad news! Or is that GOOD news? Could be either one. But if they're the ones controlling the signals, then... maybe there's a way to put an end to it all!

    He nods, and offers, "Yeah, I'll help as much as I can. Does anyone even know why they're sending these things to kill everything up here anyway?"