Order of the Seven Stars

[Hunter]

Order of the Seven Stars

Gjallarhorn is the savior that pulled the world out of the brink during the calamity wars. They fought and nearly exterminated the menace of mobile armors from known existence. Mobile armors were soulless death machines which brought humanity to its’ knees during the calamity wars. Hero’s who vanquished these mighty foes were rewarded the highest honor within Gjallarhorn, the Order of the Seven Stars. Do  you have what takes to echo the achievements of these heroic titans? 

 

Gabriel looked at the description with a scowl on his face. Ever since his meeting with the mystery sniper he had been in a bad mood. He didn’t feel like playing into their hands, on the other hand he was missing the rush of combat. He needed to do something legit, to feel validated again, to feel worthy of Ardent Exia.

While some missions could be described as hard or challenging, others were in a class of their own, downright suicidal even. Of course there was a rendition of this mission on the old GBN, but this new one, well he hadn’t heard good things about it. Supposedly no one had beaten the challenge yet. For Gabriel’s mood,  It was right up his alley.

The diver selected the join button and he as put in a que to see if anyone else would be up for the task. As he waited, he checked over his armaments. True Exia was largely armed with beam weaponry, so he took the precaution to load up two extra GN blades the normal Exia would carry in 7 swords mode. It would make him more bulky but the trade off should be worth the risk. 

He was so lost in his thoughts, that Gabriel almost didn’t realize the mission had started. “Crap.” He chided himself, “I didn’t even see who I’m teamed up with!” The scene before him was carnage incarnate. Ardent Exia stood in the abandoned streets of a huge city. Tall buildings cut up the terrain into grids, with gray skies threatening to rain at any moment. If it wasn’t for the radio chatter (which he was ignoring) the whole scene would have been eerily quiet. Unidentifiable mobile suit remains were scattered in the streets like body parts from a slasher film, with thick oil seeping from their limbs like blood. 

A flash of lightning made Gabriel jerk in surprise but as he turned to look at the source his eyes grew in alarm. In the distance an area of mountains bordered the city, and on the rim of one of the mountains was the great beast Hashmal. The bird like mecha tilted its’s head up to screech out a roar, and despite its great distance the pink lightning of a beam blast, blindly glanced into the city. Buildings erupted into gray dust and tumbled down, creating a thick fog like smoke, hiding the terrifying beast from sight. 

Gabriel gripped his controls tighter as uneasiness grew over him. “What did I sign up for…” he muttered to himself. Movement caused him to look to his side and see a friendly mobile suit. “Oh thank goodness!” He sighed as he turned his comm on to hail the friendly. Before he could even say hello a black dog like creature pounced into the mobile suit, followed by another, then another. The swarm of Plumas crashes into the mech drowning it with attacks. The friendly pilot screamed out in terror begging for help. Gabriel yelled out, though he didn’t know if it was from fear or rage, and charged in towards the pile. He slashed out with his GN sword to start bashing away the smaller drones. “Crap! We can’t be a man down already!” Even as he swiped his blade through the little mecha, he knew he was too late. He got a handful of them with his sword but more and more kept coming. “If I stay here they’ll over take me too…” he reluctantly fired his thrusters to take flight and hovered away from the plumas as they proceeded to tear their fresh kill apart, greedily “chewing” the limbs of the mech and draining its’ fluids. 

One thing became clear to Gabriel as he retreated, “this isn’t going to be easy…” he darted between buildings looking for more allies. “Anyone out there? We lost an ally already!” He called out frantically. Fear was settling over him and he didn’t like the feeling. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by Roromi

[FrostyFoster 457]

The main lobby of GBN was filled to the brim with crazy looking cosplayers and animal people as Dave walked around. That was the fun part of GBN for most players. You could look however you wanted to, but Dave was perfectly fine with just looking like Dave. Ironically, the bland man with a white T-shirt and jeans stood out in the crowd as he looked through the the mission list, seeing if he could find a mission that would just give him something to do. It didn't take long to find a mission that was starting to become quite popular in the game. Order of the Seven Stars began to get a reputation of being one of the most difficult challenges in all of GBN. In fact, no one had ever beaten it.

"Hm. Okay." CLICK! 

Wherever he was transported to, the place had seen better days. Noticing the Hashmal immediately, he saw the mobile armor utterly decimating the landscape. "Alright." Said Dave as he walked toward the machine, not even worrying about speed or any of his teammates currently. He decided not to wait and try this mission with his Force, the Baka Brawlers, knowing that only their Grandmaster would stand a chance against the metal beast. He wasn't even paying attention as to who was even on his team right now while The Astaroth Smackdown's feet crunched down on debris. "Doesn't matter." He thought while black metal creatures watched him. Dave didn't really care if they won or lost. 

Suddenly, four of the Plumas pounced at the neutral diver, but Dave didn't care. He pulled up on the controls and turned around, grabbing two of the vicious enemies in the Astaroth's hands. He then quickly turned off the thrusters, angling his legs at the other two. They didn't see it coming when he crashed down on them, sandwiching the two between him and the ground. Dave looked at the two squirming in his hands, mashing them together into a mishmash of oil and metal parts. That wasn't the end of their attack though, as many more began to attack the IBO custom. Dave stared down, clicking two buttons on the control pad. The hands above the regular ones tightened, creating a "double fist" of two stacked appendages. The diver thought back to when he told his crew about his Astraroth's gimmick.

"You gotta say it loudly when you do it!" Josh Duncan clinched his fists and began to punch the air "FOUR FISTS!!!!" Dave blinked and didn't react to the stupidity. "No. That's fine."

The fists flew into some of the Plumas, pulverizing a couple of them in the process. The sheer strength of the hands began to push back the machines, all without the Gunpla moving from its spot. Eventually, the enemy had enough, opting to go kill some other poor mobile suit. Dave's comms blared as one of his teammates flew near him. “Anyone out there? We lost an ally already!” Dave heard as he ignited his engines, flying toward the white Exia.

"Hello." 

[Hunter]

Through the dust the a figure of absurd colors slowly took shape. Yellow and maroon slowly collated into an IBO variant, which Gabriel couldn’t recall at that moment. What he did see was the machine punching its’ way past plumas. Gabriel responded to the simple greeting with, “I’m glad I’m not alone!” As the two suits met up more plumas seemed to stream towards the duo. Gabriel slashed past unique machine to split the crown of one of the minion machines charging them. “Looks like we got a entire maze of these monsters between us and the mobile armor!” Gabriel noted as he fought the urge to pull out his beam pistol to fire ineffective shots. “Is your suit only effective at close ranges?” He asked blindly as the plumas slowed down in consistency, offering them a small reprieve.

Gabriel was still feeling flustered between his recent defeat and the sudden intensity of this challenge. At the moment he was playing much like his old self, and he hated it. He felt like he couldn’t get the upper hand, he was barely prepared, and there was perhaps a literal army between him and the desired goal. As his insecurities grew, the wave of plumas all together stopped, offering an eerie pause to the action. Still he looked around cautiously as he waited to hear from his new companion. 

[FrostyFoster 457]

Three Plumas jumped off the roof of one of the broken buildings near the Smackdown, attempting to catch the yellow Gunpla off-guard. At first, it looked like they'd connect with the machine, but Dave was beginning the figure out their patterns as they would stop and start moving. Once they got dangerously close, the diver stepped to the right, pointing his right fist at the three. With all his might, the fist pushed the three into each other, smacking the wall in the process. The crushed parts mixed together with the wall's materials, creating a large crack.

"Yes." Dave finally responded to his teammate, swiping the Gunpla's arm back to remove some of the oil. He knew the other player was right. The amount of Pluma's in the area were substantial. Whoever else was on the team was likely destroyed, meaning they didn't have much of a chance to even get to the Hashmal if they tried to defeat the mobile armor's minion. The Astaroth blasted upward in the air, attempting to get as much distance between the massive group and himself. Seeing the mission's goal in sight, he began his assault forward, knowing in the back of his head that the tiny machines would follow suit.

"Ignore them." Dave uttered. "Get to the Hashmal." It was easier said than done... 

[Hunter]

The way the oddly color Gundam dealt with the Plumas was impressive. Seeing the manner in which the stranger dealt with the drones made Gabriel feel self conscious. If I could just get out of this rut… the diver’s voice cut through his thoughts, “Ignore them. Get to the Hashmal.” But even as Gabriel saw the IBO variant lift off higher he knew that was a bad idea. 

The Hashmal slowly stomped towards the city and by now was in the outskirts. Like bizarre mechanical dinosaur it turned to regard Dave along with another trio of flying Gundams. Its’ response was absolute, it opened its’ beak and shrilled our another angry screech. The pink beam reached out at some closer targets before sweeping its’ attack towards Dave.

Gabriel knew that IBO units were resistant to beams but the sheer power of the attack would be sure enough to dazzle. He growled and pushed his throttle to rush underneath his strange ally and began attacking the Plumas in the streets. Just as he was about to slash down one of the drones landed on top of his Exia pushing his unit into the ground. “Damnit!” He yelled, he should have seen that coming. The pluma reach in to bit the left metallic shoulder of his Gundam. His screen flashed a warning about damage. Another Pluma tackled into him pushing the Ardent Exia into the side of a building, completely stopping his charge. Dust and debris flew around wildly from the impact. Another warning on his display, Gabriel was seeing red. 

Is this how this ends? One defeat? One utter humiliation and I’m reduced to a bumbling mess? Just then his thoughts flashed to Meer, to her breaking up with him in a GBN lobby with all their friends watching from the opposite end of lobby. A pluma bit into the chest armor, trying to tear the plating away. Just like how she ripped my heart out… “how she humiliated me…” he finished aloud. It was then his fingers relaxed, it wasn’t that the tension was gone exactly, he just felt… in control. 

“Trans Am…” Hunter commanded, and he flared his output to shoot back into the sky just above the building lines. The Plumas shedded off of him taking scraps of armor but ultimately sparing him major damage. He just as carefully deactivated the Trans Am suspecting it could be handy later. His eyes darted around for the friendly Gundam. “Astaroth are you there?” He called out as he looked around calmly. “We can’t fly directly there…” he cautioned, his tone more confident now.  Hunter studied the streets and wondered how they might lead them to the lumbering mobile armor.

[FrostyFoster 457]

If Dave hadn’t been using an IBO Gunpla, he would’ve been toast. Instead, the machine was only slightly toasted, muting the yellow and maroon colors of the Smackdown. He COULD keep pushing toward the large mobile armor, but even the Astaroth couldn’t survive an attack like that multiple times.

“Can’t go upward.” He thought while landing his Gunpla on top of a nearby building. The bland man glanced all around the map, hoping to find some way to get to the Hashmal. Most areas were covered with Plumas. All except one hole in the outskirts.

A tunnel, used for a nearby road, was dug out of the hills. “Must go downward.” He uttered while flying toward the opening, hoping the mobile armor would be distracted with some other poor souls. He knew the Exia’s pilot had skill though, knowing that he could be useful in his plan.

The tunnel was a very tight squeeze, definitely not meant for a mobile suit. Barely getting inside, he listened for the steps of the machine, taking different paths to find the best route. This was all while he’d punch the roof of the tunnel, hoping his plot would come to fruition.

Suddenly, Dave’s luck ran out. A substantial amount of Plumas began to catch up with him on both sides, leaving no way out to leave without major damage or the destruction of the Astaroth. Still far from the Hashmal, he had to rely on the other pilot.

Using his four fists, Dave slammed up at the roof, creating massive cracks all around him. “Exia. Get it closer to your position, but keep him in the outskirts.” Pointing his arms at each group, he had to buy himself some time. “Don’t use Trans-Am yet. You’ll know when.”

[Hunter]

Hunter scrunched his face as the Astaroth seemingly burrowed into the earth. His confusion was short lived as the Diver told him to essentially “Lure the enemy in and be ready.” All without Trans Am, he mused as he debated on what to do. He fired his thrusters to land on a roof of a building which offered him a temporary view of the great Hashmal as it lumbered just outside of the city. “I’ll see what I can do Astaroth….” hunter calmly responded. 

He knew time was of the essence so he decided simply to act. He leveled his GN Pistol at the mobile armor and fired a shot off at the “bird’s” head. Sure enough the blast simply splattered off Hashmal’s nanofilament armor, but the result was favorable. Hashmal reared its’ head and sorta squawked as it turned it’s attention to Hunter. Unlike the Astaroth, Hunter didn’t have nanofilament. He fired his thrusters and took to the air, he took advantage of his GN drive to juke Exia in a pattern that would have been more difficult for traditional thrusters. Hashmal was entranced as it moved it’s beak towards him, following his movements, trying to lock on to him. It took a step his direction.

“Come on your dumb bird!” Hunter growled and he took another pot shot, daring the “angel” to return fire with its’ more significant weapon. “What’s the matter can’t lock on to me?” 

He almost ate his words as the unholy screech ripped through the air along with the pink beam. He dived just in time but the blast seemed to trace after him for an uncomfortable length of time. He ducked down between buildings just as the blast shot out past him. He almost regretted the course. Plumas jumped up at the Exia like hungry dogs, bashing into his feet. He flipped out the GN blade and swiped down blindly at one that happened to cling onto his foot, armor shredding off along with the falling Pluma. At this rate I’ll be flying just a frame, he thought as he reversed course back into the newly created valley from Hashmal’s blast. He fired a shot at the beast as if saying, “hey over here!” The mobile armor took another step his way and he knew it was starting to work. “Now if only I can stay alive long enough for the Astaroth Diver to make his plan work!” He growled as he jerked to avoid more incoming fire. A little closer and I’ll have to worry about that nasty tail…

[FrostyFoster 457]

Plumas began their attempt at dog-piling the Smackdown, but they were having little success. With each swing at one side, the little machines wold try to take advantage of this. By the time they reached the Astaroth though, it was already turned and punching towards them. Dave repeated this method many times over, but eventually things were starting to get sloppy. A misplaced foot, a weirdly angled punch, each mistake led to damage being taken.

Eventually, a few Plumas came at just the wrong time for him, grabbing the right arm of the gunpla. He pushed it into the wall of the tunnel, but it was too late. Parts of the armor were being "chewed" off quickly. He knew that he had to buy more time for the plan to work though. The steps of the Hashmal weren't loud enough to tell Dave that it was close. Four Plumas attached themselves to the legs, doing the same thing as the arm chewers. "100% power to the left arm." Dave uttered as he slid a couple buttons up with his finger. While the mobile armor wasn't completely in position, he could still make it work.

The Hashmal took another step, feeling a jolt underneath it. The ground began to shake and crumble around the mobile armor as it lost it's footing. The left leg of the machine slid down the demolished land, using it's right leg to claw into a much safer area. Dave knew it'd be difficult for the machine to regain it's footing behind the rubble, due to its size, but it wasn't impossible. The diver watched the screen of the battle from the inside of the dimly lit cockpit. He was out of the battle, so his colleague would have to be fast in order to take advantage of the opportunity.  

[Roromi 421]

The blade of the tail weapon whipped across the Exia’s chest, knocking him back against a building. “Damnit!” Hunter hissed as his suit absorbed a hit from the blunt end of the weapon. It had a surprising amount for force for being so nimble. He knew that if the blade struck it would be damning if not fatal. As the tail cocked up to strike at his cockpit, there wasn’t anything he could do. A streak of lightning flickered from the storm clouds and for a heartbeat he though he was defeated again. But to his amazement the blade missed and was lodged into the building next to him, trying to help support the massive weight of the mobile armor. 

Now, it has to be now! He realized and he didn’t hesitate, “Trans am!” He roared and grabbed one of his GN swords with his right hand. He brought exia around to slash down and sever the cable connection the tail, it was a clean cut and the monster roared all the louder as it struggled in the makeshift landslide. It cocked its head to shoot him with its beam but Hunter responded by throwing the GN sword with tremendous force from the same hand. The weapon spun end over end to thud into the head of the “angel”. The force knocked the head back just in time to make it shoot its’ dangerous beam into the sky, over the building Hunter was by. He then launched Exia at full speed, his GN blade snapped out on the right side, and the other GN sword in his left hand. Before Hashmal could level the beam back down at him he was at its’ throat with his left GN sword shearing down the side of the mobile armor. He pushed the blade deeply into the armor of the beast. He raised his blade to slash down but was whipped away from the tail nub. The blade was gone so it was more of a bashing instrument but it still hit him hard, knocking him to the ground. The timer was ticking for his trans am so he didn’t hesitate and he forced Exia to bounce back up from being face down on the ground. His timing was coincidental as Hashmal wildly thrashed around and slammed a foot down where he was. His escape wasn’t without cost, the force of his ascent mixed with the claw coming down severed his left arm cleanly. GN particles bled out from the open wound in a spray. “Not yet!” Hunter yelled defiantly, as he shot back to stab his GN blade deeply into the belly of the Mobile Armor. 

The beast convulsed widely as it threatened to tear his other arm along with the blade free but Hunter tried to use the force to swipe the blade cleanly up. The tension gave as the blade ran free and he pushed the controls to dodge the flailing tail. His GN particles were bleeding faster thanks to his missing arm. He was nearly knocked senseless once more as the tail whipped around and smacked into his legs hard. He responded by slashed down with the GN blade and drew a line down the joint that connected one of the legs. 

Hashmal responded by screeching and knocking him sideways, causing him to loose his grip on the GN Blade. He hit the ground right beneath the mobile armor and it turned its’ maw to glare down at him. The mouth burned pink, ready for a decisive shriek. Hunter’s trans am gave out at that moment and he realized he was running out of tricks. Error messages blinked at him all over and he was certain the legs were out of commission from the thrashing the tail did on him. His particles were dangerously low. “Come at me!” He roared as he fearlessly pushed the throttle to maximum output. His mobile shuttered and obeyed and with the last bit of effort he reached out to grab the growing brightness from Hashmal’s mouth. 

The Ardent Exia had one last trick to play, he had giving it the same arms the Destiny was equipped with, the palm of his mobile suit glowed and the Palma Fiocina activated, using the last bit of his energy. He grasped the beak of Hashmal, matching the terrible light from the mobile armor with his own. The entire area flashed a terrible pink light. For a long moment Hunter’s display was washed out and after a moment it darkened. It displayed mechanical parts sprawled out everywhere. There was silence, and all he could hear was his exasperated breathing. Before he could purse his lips to ask a simple text floated on his screen. 

Victory

He couldn’t believe it, he looked around and looked at the utter damage done to his suit. The screen flickered and he was back in the lobby. He got a message and he opened it.

Congratulations, you have proven your valor and have earned the prestigious honor of Order of the Seven Stars. You and your teammates have been compensated accordingly.

He checked his balance and he locked his jaw, it was more credits than he had ever accumulated, he could probably afford two force nests with the amount that was showing to him. He shook his head after a long moment and with a grin he opened his messenger to send a note to the Astaroth.

Good work, you kept your cool and showed me to do the same. I hope you got the same award I did. In any case I have no need for this many credits. Hope you enjoy.

He didn’t sign it but rather, sent it anonymously Gabriel wasn’t one to not give credit where it wasn’t due. He gave the mystery pilot half of what he was given, not knowing or caring if the Astaroth diver got the same amount already or not.