RP [Strays] The Century War

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

RP Date

YE 45

RP Location

Freehold Factory

The virtual meeting room buzzed with anticipation as representatives from some of the 81 largest groups of power over the husk of Freehold Factory convened. It was a crucial gathering, for two prominent factions, Shasta No Sekai and William Fance's Salvage Emporium, sought to secure the support of other groups in their respective endeavors in the ongoing conflict for the corpse of the freespacer outpost. The holographic projections of the participants filled the room in the nuetral virtual space, their avatars representing a diverse array of species and organizations.

"Aye hereby call teh order teh ninty-seventh meeting of freehold powahs." Spark-Five-Five intoned, the virtual avatar of the massive freespacer knight resembling his physical form outside the polysentience as the almost eight foot hulking beheamoth of armor somehow housing a biological form that was somehow a type-two underneath.

"Aye, as ye well know 'm Spark 55-5132-2729; Leader of teh Knights O' Spark."

The meeting was called to order, and the large chair that Spark sat, an esteemed representative of a a rare freespacer mercenary group with ties to the old free state, welcomed everyone. "All of ye, esteemed groups, we gather here today to discuss the proposals put forth by teh Shasta No Sekai corporation and teh William Fance's Salvage Emporium. Both groups seek ye support, and it is our duty to assess their plans and determine the best course of action for freeholds future."

The combination of Keije Archeletta and Alpha Beta; The father of the SnS corporation leader and of the the Mad Mutants seven Pledias and its lead mercenary commader appeared, represented by their holographic avatars in the form of the Yamatain man and the small hovering Fairy of lights, stood confidently on one side.

On the other side, William Fance, a greasy nepleslian buisnessman in his nice suit, projected an air of confidence. It did not go unnoticed that his avatar lacked roughly fifty pounds of bodyfat. While Keije and the Fairy were humble and quietly respectful, Bill Fance never missed a chance to hear the sound of his own voice. "My good free-folk! Our vision is to create a collaborative salvage empire, as you know! Leveraging our collective expertise and resources. By joining forces today, we can pool our knowledge, expand our reach, and embark on expeditions to uncover hidden treasures across the sector and beyond! Together, we can create an investment capital empire to rebuild freehold to be even greater than it was before!"

Bill Fancy perhapse did not know, or did not care that he was making a fool of himself. The freespacers didnt care for long winded speeches but instead on actions and deeds.

"We ask the one known as Bill-Fancy what use those of us who do not interact with the Nepleslian state or others what currency will serve us?" A representative from one of the couple motherships in system still loitering for the past couple years before they moved to the great rift queried. "We are not the Viridian Array. We do not trade and seek no interaction after the genocide of our people. This deal means little to us whereas the mutant female promises infrastructure and much needed critical parts for our home."

"Ah, well you see, My f-" William Fance started before another spoke up over him as a towering form loomed like a mountain.

"DAVIS ALLIANCE CREDITS WILL NOT REBUILD THE ANTI-AETHER ARRAY!" it intoned as one of the massive Automata leaned, its concerns of a renewed interest by Yamatai apparent.

"Money can buy ships. Can by stations and supplies already built faster than we can bootstrap them ourselves." One of the spacer ghosts hummed in Fance' defense. "Even if you do not like the vessels of Origin Industries shipyards can build our own vessels new for monetary trades."

Several other groups chimed in with their own concerns and an argument started for several minutes from the chunk Nepleslians statements until the virtual space vibrated with agitation as Spark rose.

"Enuff." He bellowed, pointing a massive mace that crackled with holographic electricity at some of the more vocal groups. "Elder Keiji, Mistah Fancy-man say what ye mean teh say; No sugah coatings or fancy words. The time of the free folk does not come so cheaply to call us here every time ye ground dwellers want te chat wit us."

At the reference of cheapness William Fance opened his mouth to speak before the massive freespacer silenced him with a look.

"My corporation seeks the expulsion of Shasta No Sekai from Freehold factory." Bill Fancy spoke first, his hands clasped behind him. "Allow my group to be the sole authority on the salvage rights of Freehold; The Mad Mutant has driven no less than six of the larger salvage corporations from freehold in the past three years and has drastically brought the refurbishment of freehold behind by decades. They are rash, wreckless brigands here to play and not contribute to the restoration."

"And what have ye to say, Keiji?" Spark asked, genuine sounding curiosity in his tone as Bill Fancy smirked, as the many groups present clearly sided with him having chosen to stay and at least participate in the sector after the war instead of flee after the fall of the IWI and the genocide. Moguls like Fance' were instrumental in the repair and refurbishment of many of their vessels and asked for little but concessions in return for moments like this where the very literal and rare to lawyering freespacers could easily be manuevered.

It was not Keiji who stepped forwards but instead the fairy with a black-purple blacklight glow as she fluttered several feet forwards.

"My lady wants for little." The fairy chimed with the sound of bells as she zipped forwards. "She is Lycosades air and started her endeavors with Lycos daughter. That alone is our consent that should trump all of these concerns."

"Lycosade rules over freehold no longer." William pointed out, the fairy floating just feet away from him.

A few avatars disappeared then, as a silent buzz transpired across the meeting as data passed by the polysentience.

"She sided with the Viridian Array and has long since abandoned Freehold. We are the ones who here now. Enough of this, my good freespacers the time to decide is now!"

A few more still winked out, their curiocity sated while more and more seemed to shift ever so slightly to side with the buisnessman while a couple at least held their neutrality or moved from the side of Abbie and Keiji and over to Bill Fancy not wanting to back a losing horse.

In a close contest, some groups pledged their support to Shasta No Sekai, recognizing the corporation's proven success and the vision of its charismatic leader. Many more aligned themselves with William Fance's Salvage Emporium, enticed by the possibilities of an expansive salvage network. A few remained undecided, opting to observe the unfolding developments before committing to either faction. When all present had stopped shifting a good ten of the representative groups were behind Bill Fance which considering how rarely any of the groups where united and how many simply left or remained undecided was a practical majority vote.

Backing the Mad Mutants camp were Crowes' Militants, a group of former Osman automata who made pilgrimage to Lycosades former home in search of her abandoned labs. Harlequin Mothership, the smallest mothership in the system and only recently returned to the Kikyo sector two years hence. And the Data Ghost, A single but powerful spacer apparition existing solely within the Polysentience that loitered at what it considered a safe distance from Relay Moon where it observed one of the Spacer Macro AI from a distance trying to gleam its calculations.

Bill Fance looked like the cat that got the cream as he openly grinned in malice at the mutant campe.

"Elder Keiji, Little Alpha Beta" Spark rumbled as he took control of the meeting once more. "Freehold has spoken."

Bill Fancy laughed then, appearing to take a step forwards towards them even as his avatar remained in place. "You lose, Archeletta."

Keiji Archeletta looked as worn as always as he shook his head sadly at the man before turning towards the leader of the Knights of Spark and offered a polite bow of respect which was answered with a curt nod back before the two SnS leaders disappeared from the virtual space to the sounds of Bill Fancys guffawing.

Million Bell


Keiji Archeletta removed the mindware link cable from the back of his neck as he sat up and rubbed his eyelids with the back of his hands. Standing before him where six of his daughters Pledias, Military drone soldiers inhabited by six specific Fairy AI with a seventh rising from where she sat now that her AI had re-inhabited its body. Each wore an overly intricate old-fasioned maids dress with included white apron and embroidered fluffy skirt.

around them hundreds or perhapse thousands of lights flittered about agitated on the ceiling and about the conerence room considerately dim awaiting the results of the meeting even as the head maid and military commander of the Strays looked to Keiji for confirmation.

With a nod containing all the solemnity he could muster, almost all at once, considering the millisecond timejacking that the Fairys operated at the seven maids collapsed into empty husks ontop of one another and almost every fairy winked out as the almost imperceptible mirage nanites they had been made of drifted to the floor, and all over his terminals keyboard like impossible to clean grains of sand and glitter that could not sway his fell mood.

"I didn't want it to have to come to this, William." He sighed ruefully as he leaned back in his chair before taking a sip of lukewarm coffee from a mug on his desk before spitting it out when the grit of mirage nanites floated on top his the back of his throat.

In orbit above freehold and hundreds of miles from the Million Bell factory Commander-Type drones inhabited by Fairys activated from their rally positions.

Alpha Beta herself stood in a fresh body devoid of her mistresses beautiful dress she had been gifted as she stood on a dune and appraised the speck in the distance. Around her hundreds of drone soldiers emerged from where they had been half buried in the glass sands and dug out crates of weapons and ordinance. From her tactical map douzens of other commander types came online just like her as her sisters checked in from their own positions as a slow noose began to appear around a cluster of red icons at its center.

With her backdoor into the meeting hall still open she could tell Bill Fancy was still gloating to his backers. Inside the Fae from whence she piloted her current body the image of a young girl with long purple-black hair in a dress the same color smiles a gap-toothed grin as one of her sisters handed her body a laser rifle.

"Its time, Right?!" The tinny bell-like voice of one of her sisters asked, the intimidating-looking soldier body she piloted rocking back and forth on her heels. Others in her proximity also yipped and bounced and sang and danced despite the lack of oxyogen or sound on freehold she could hear their excitement as the Warfairy herself face split in a too-wide grin as her teeth visibly shapened and her eyes narrowed down to pinpricks as she jacked her timeframe; The inensity of her presence in the fae demanding all others take heed as she uttered a single word with the weight of absolution.

"Ẃ̷͉̳̣͔̦̺͔̞̪͕͙̟̯̈͜ą̷̧̛̭̟̰͕͎͔̜͍̘̞͔̝̃͆͒̏̏͊̑́̄͗̽̂͆̓͑̐͒̍ṙ̷̡̰̙̫̞̘̜̻͍̩͍̪͉́̎̈̿"

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Freehold Factory - The Dunes

There were exactly one hundred members of The Strays; The security forces of the Shasta No Sekai corporation.

Except that was blatantly false for many reasons.

Strays died and arrived daily was the easy answer to avoid any actual complications. Poor roster management, not counting the thousands of Fairy that routinely controlled drones, The Terror Wolves themselves whose numbers were unknown for reasons closer to neglect than actual mystery; The number was higher than one hundred but for simplicity's sake and for making it seem rather illustrious of a group to be a part of!

Of the Strays there was the mechanized-arm of the group; The Terror Wolves of Freehold. Those daring do who fought and piloted the Mechanized weapons platforms of the corporation had started out as simple equipment movers before being upgraded to hunters of Deathcrawlers and finally into a semi-coherent militarized force.

The Terror Wolves of the Strays operated in loose groups of mechs often called a Lance that could range anywhere from three to a douzen mechs of various sizes.

One such Lance was positioned on the top a rough dune some thirty miles south of Bill Fancys' big factory. It, of course, had a name, but nobody knew or cared enough to know. Even so far it was visible from leagues the facility was so large it spanned miles in every direction including up as was apparent when a large cargo-hauler starship likely a kilomiter in length descended from the skies and seemed no larger to the grand work of industry than if it was a small shuttle even as its descent thrusters bathed a platform uselessly in flames as it slowed to land.

Their mechs stored in a large deployed pod safe from the elements down behind the dune In the strange perpetual twilight of the freespacer moon where the light came from an aurora of radiation, the stars, and distant nebula is seemed offensively bright with all the spotlights, flashing warning lights for aircraft, and the fires burning from funnels like never-ending jet plumes. The pilots stood on top of the dune of glittering shards of glass as fine as coarse sand. Around them solar winds whipped up fine grains of aether-formed glass that buffeted their pilot jumpsuits; Each one keeping them moderately safe from the radiation, pressure, lack of atmosphere, and hazzardous elements.


One of them pulled up the hood and mask of his suit, exposing pale and dusky gray feathers and a hazzard-yellow beak as he leaned over and hacked a generous glob of something into the glass sands even as visible sparks of pink static electricity from the highly ionized surroundings danced across the side of the mutants face and beak until he pulled the hood back down, adjusted his mask, and took a deep breath of recycled oxyogen on his suit that transfered over the shared proximity comm of the other pilots.



"Bleh!" The avian mutant known as "Chips" cleared his throat with a bit too much enthusiasm before turning away from the distant factory and to the other pilots as the three-foot mutie looked up in most cases at them even as his machine-tinted voice was distorted through the comms after a long period of intense staring.

"So..." He trailed, voice oddly what one might expect a parrot or raven with a greater grasp of speech might attain as his hooded head cocked visibly at a normally impossible for others 90-degree angle as the mutant appraised them. "Which one of you is ronnie again? Hard to tell with the suits is all..."

There was a pause as everyone looked amongst themselves, with a degree of curious pointing.

"Reggie?"

Still nothing.

"R-... Rhodney?" He started before pausing, clearly running out of R-sounding names. When nobody answered still he threw his hands up in defeat before pointing at one of them.

"You!" He half ordered, half accused. "Your name, Stray!"

"Oh, Why didnt you say so earlier." A slow, dopey voice answered back over the comms.

"Names Ronnie, Mr.Chips." The male voice answered causing a silent stare that seemed to bore through his suit. If looks could kill, Ronnie would have already been dead.

"Didnt I?" Chips accused.

"Nah, you asked ifin I was Rico sounded to me. Didnt want to speak up if one of thems was Rico." The man pointed to the other pilots.

"Oh, Sorry then!" Chips squawked, sounding surprisingly convinced before pointing at the next person and then the next one by one. "Be clear then. What's' ye names just incase you each forgot!"

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Luk blinked slowly, the giant lizard-mutant had been promised by the nice lady in the metal box promised him food. After giving it to him-a large pack of sweet circles, he felt a lurch, and then was given a pat on the back followed by a "Welcome aboard." Ignoring her in favor of the food-he wolfed it down as he sat on the floor of the box. Unfortunately, it hadn't been enough to quell the grumbling in his belly. Afterward, Luk had found himself standing...wherever this was listing to this 'Chips' spoke. He plodded forwards, shuffling past the birdie as and lunged forward-taking a massive bite out of a long, shiny thing-the sound of rending metal and sparking electronics echoing around them.

"Me...Luk..." He said slowly between the crunch of metal bits and flecks of metal flying out between bites. The mutant swallowed, then took another, ripping a series of wires and tubes from....whatever it was.

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - The Dunes

Huthang kept his breathing even and deep, having no desire to remove the helmet of his pilot suit and expose himself to the particle-rich air. The mutant knew he'd be oozing in seconds and the last thing he wanted was to get coated in the crap shifting underfoot that the solar winds were whipping up into the air. There was also no way he was taking the goggles off until he was well away from the bright sky. That was just asking to be blinded, let alone having to deal with the head-splitting migraine that would surely follow.

He restrained a snort of amusement at the idiocy taking place around him, wondering if his life expectancy was about to drastically shorten. At least it looked like things would be amusing while it lasted. Still, Huthang knew himself well enough that once the fighting started, his concern would not lay with his fellow Strays, but rather with the enemy and how best he might send them kicking and screaming to hell.

Wait, had that mutant just... yes, yes he had. Huthang supposed that they should all be grateful that the giant lizard had chosen to chomp down on... whatever that was, and not on the avian mutant named after a common food item. It was impressive that Luk could not only chew on the metallic mass, but also presumably digest such. Huthang supposed that if they needed to dispose of any evidence or inconvenient corpses, a ready-made disposal unit had just presented itself. With another snort of amusement, he took a step forward.

"Charming... My name is Huthang." the words went out over the proximity comm, his already unpleasant voice made worse by the electrical distortion. He made sure to tap a hand to his chest so the others could see who was talking, just in case the step forward hadn't been a sufficient hint.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

"...Gingerbread... House... Gingerbread... House..." A particularly spidery four-armed creature spoke, as if pondering a joke that might go with that punchline. Clearly without a military bone in their body, they were just sat cross-legged in the caustic dirt, observing the gigantic lizard man devour metal plate like it was pre-meal breadsticks... In the spider's hands they grasped at a shard of silica- Some bomb-fused dust- and found that the red-amber crust really was quite brittle and crumbly.

Maybe the radiation made the metal that way too?...

A stifling feeling. Cold sweat. Shortness of breath made them remember the suit they were wearing, and the claustrophobia it rubbed into their nerves.

Stomach grumbled even over the churning winds. They stood up clumsily, bow-legged, like they had done something gross inside their suit. Might still puke yet, but who's betting? Just needed to concentrate... concentrate...

Okay, why was the bird man pointing at her?... Reflexively, they batted their eye and stuck out their tongue, as if acting cute ever worked, even if they weren't wearing a mask...

The taller fellow in the specialised goggles introducing themselves, that was the only prompt to what they were supposed to do...

How dare the bird! How dare he point! How dare he demand her jump through hoops! Idiot! Bastard! Nobody lumps her grace of the four blessed claws in with these plebeians so lightly!

"G-ginge-... I'm... I-I'm Yamog..." She whispered, gossamer voice the epitome of sheepishness and shy manners.

Then she turned away and lied on her side. For a little rest.

 

[club24]

Emmathyst had been standing with the other lot, and for the most part towering over them though it was hard to tell with the lizard looking fella, dressed in her slightly customised pilot jumpsuit to emulate her home atmosphere while away from her home the digger was starting to feel like she might be out of her depth with these folk. The saurian had no qualms with majority of mutants she'd met in her life but, this group seemed a little jagged even for her.

Hearing them introduce themselves one after the other Emma saw an opening after that, spiderly looking lass, couple too many limbs.

Raising a clawed hand briefly Emma spoke up "Name's Caver, we'll leave it at that for now, Delsurian if anyone here wasn't sure, digger by trade."

"N who'a you mate? Mini boss-man ur what."

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes

"A-okay! So we got..." Chips paused, pointing a gloved finger at each of them in turn as he listed off.

"Luke."
"Poontang"
"Ginger"
"And Carver."

"Not really what I would have chosen for names for ye but i'm not ye mums. Thats between her and whatever local deities ye motherly sorts send their taxes too. And, Yup, Am' Chips; Ye boss. When you survive enough sorties that little Abbigail says you're a boss then; you're a boss."

Chips finalized their little introductions and moved on with a little kick at the glass sands causing motes of shimmering glass to take to the air and fall back down like glitter in a snowglobe around him. Turning back to look at the distant factory he harumphed.

"So the skinny is that-that over there is big-ol-bill-fancy' main squeeze here on freehold." He pointed at the factory, the smoke and firewash of the descended starship slowly washing out around it seemingly harmless. "Bill Fancy is one of them ruthless business types; You know the sort that lends money to his folks and then charges them interest and stuff!

Anyhow Billy-boy is her most magnificent mutantships chief competitor here on freehold. They don't dig a lot of the same tunnels as us but the ones they do connect to a lot of the same tech vaults as us and its caused a bit of bad blood every time one of the Pledias needs to get into a skirmish with fancy' boys down in the tunnels.

It don't matter much. What does matter is Bill Fancy has been riling up some of the larger local groups and even one of the motherships about us and Shani here on freehold; He wants to be the king of the hill and just like Mr.Keiji and Abbie knew he would, the greedy bastard just threw the gauntlet down not even an hour ago and within a few days we gon have a mothership over Millionbell makin sure we pack our stuff and git."

Chips let the statement sit for a long moment before continuing.

"So Abbigial and Shani's pops knew this was coming and have a bit of simply lawyerin to get us off the hook; If Bill Fancy and his factory aint around no more then his claim loses all its ground. Thats where we come in!"

"We gon blow up that big thing?" Ronnie mumbled aloud, causing a flapping hand gesture from Chips in return.

"What, No! If we can get away with it the Pledias are going to try to storm and capture the factory it's like four times bigger than any of ours after all. No we just gotta poke the hornets nest and get Bill Fancys' goons after us and in the open so our side doesnt damage anything and the Pledias can get ground troops inside from the other side."

Looking out over the massive stretch of glass sands there was a very obvious problem to such a plan... While there where some rolling dunes the entire 30-mile stretch was nearly flat sands with no actual cover or escape. Sensing this, Chips spoke up again.

"Now I know what ye thinkin. But soon as Fancys' mercs take the field we zip and skedaddle on out and let the rest of the Terror Wolves do the fighting. And how do we do what the profesionals call an ex-fil-trationing you might ask? Well simple, Thats how!"

Pointing behind them in the distance where there was not one before a massive storm wall of glass sand billowed miles on either side and a hundred meters tall. Almost obsidian black it glimmered as arcs of static electricity shimmered up and across it as it rolled forwards and in their direction.

"Seeing that flash-storm a-comming most of that factory is going to be buttoned up real tight-like in preparation and there shouldn't be hardly anybody outside. If we're lucky and that ship aint loaded or unloaded yet it might stay grounded and some of the girls can cap-it. More to that storm than meets the eye too but that's a suprise for you newbies; You're gonna like It I swear.

Shouldnt take more than fourty minutes or so to reach the target so before we mount up, Any questions 'fore we go perform some corporate warfare or anybody gotta pee first? Actually don't do that last part the combination of hot and cold and static and micro grains of glass... Maybe wait till we're back in the pod for that first!"

 

[Primitive Polygon]

"So... our job is eat the rich..." Yamog squirmed from their position in the dirt, ending up cross-legged and facing directly away. One of the low-flying, particularly shiny moons was just passing behind a cluster of skeletonized buildings in the distance... Couldn't post a photo to social media right now though, the signal here sucked.

"Can I ask what the rules are for... loot?" The spider seemed a bit more confident when not looking at them. Truth was, Mr.Chips might look like a puppet from a children's thing to everybody else, but creatures with a giant beak were kind of the natural enemies of creatures with one giant eye. She found him terrifying. "I know you said we are runnin' away, but you know... Might not get a chance to ask later... Plans dun' changin... Is Abby wannin' to keep the 'ole lot to 'erself is she?..."

There was a sideways glance at the robust-looking lizard lady. Craver, wasn't it?... If they really had a mining machine, that means they'd also be the best equipped for carrying stuff off...

Of course with the thick lenses of the environment mask on it just looked like Yamog was staring creepily, no matter how alluringly their fluttered their off-model features.

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - The Dunes

The quality of the Strays' communication equipment must be considerably worse than Huthang had initially surmised for the avian mutant to have so horribly misheard his name. Regardless, his initial impulse to correct that mistake was swallowed as Chips went on to brief the squad as to the details of the mission. Huthang thought he recognised who the avian mutant was referencing, although Chips hadn't shown the best track record with regards to names. What was important was that this Bill Fancy was threatening the Mutant Queen.

That was a death sentence, as far as Huthang was concerned and he would happily carry out its execution.

"So, we go in and draw the enemy out. Then retreat towards the storm, just slow enough to keep Fancy's bully boys after us. Then use the storm to escape. Sounds simple enough" Huthang snorted, not even wanting to guess just how many ways a plan that simple could go so wrong. He was sure that he would know in just a few hours time. "Guessing we won't have time to set up any traps or ambush points to fall back to?" He decided to hold off on any more questions until Chips had had the chance to answer that and the other query as to the possibility of 'asset acquisition' as Huthang had once heard looting politely described as.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes

"Guess that aint a bad one. You woulda found out sooner or later not that its no secret; Salvage is a three-way split. If you are the contributing factor to the death, destruction, or disabling of something, you, as the primary are entitled to one third of its value in salvage or if ye stumble on something worth salvaging it's the same. Next the rest of the lance gets second pick on it, and the rest goes to the corporation.

But it dun mean you can just shoot anything. Theres rules in all this fighting stuff for some reason people like to cherry pick when they matter. Ye cant just shoot some bloke and take his wallet or car, noooo! Its gotta be a legitimate salvage target such as a vehicle, mecha, craft, or powered armor.

And it dont mean you can just run up in that ship over there fancy just landed neither. Captures got different rules and are dispensed by the corporation in its value.

Plus some things is just too important or expensive to call dibs on. For instance if ye somehow crippled that their ship ye might think of writing your name on its reactor but in reality old'man Keiji or one of the execs' is likely to confiscate it and pay us off a monetary exchange or the like meaning that ship would go to the corporation as property and once its legally registered as corporation property with the Neps then we get paid some big-bucks!"

"If ye ever unsure ye Fairy got pre-registered lists of salvage and value of most of what we've come across the past couple'o years. And if not they're pretty quick on doing the math on whats-what. By the time you kill something she'll have convened with her sisters in the lance and they will go over everything to decide who contributed to deserving the kill.

As for little Abigail... Eh..." Chips paused, rubbing the back of his environmental hood and mask. "Ye gotta remember these fairys is still kids at heart despite them being so smart. Abbys a bit fickle, she might disregard a whole deathcrawler iffin ye manage to disable it and let us keep the two-thirds and other times might overrule a claim on something simple and claim it entirely for the corp.

Her and the R&D eggheads got a whole list of priority salvage. Some of it makes sense if we use it in our frames or in some of the corps stuff, and other might make no sense or be real common anywhere but on freehold so its important enough here to just pay us off for gyros and macguffins and the like. If ye see something and aint sure ask ye fairy or she might just tell you outright if its important."


"Iffin that's all this partys waitin on us to start it so go mount up!" Chips squawked as he bounded in the low gravity down the dune and to the large building-sized container and up the massive vehicle ramp inside.

Mech Bay

Inside the mech drop capsule was an array of covered bays and cradles each holding a massive machine. Holding each in place with taught struts most were kneeling or inactive and waiting to be piloted. Some had cockpits where their pilots might enter through, others hatches or latches sealing them in.

Each one, however, had the same cockpit layout with the same amount of pedals, screens, and joysticks. Upon entering and strapping into a harness from each of their corporation-issued power gloves their fairy was connected to then connected in turn to the minor Fae conduit in each mech. With a vibration and hum, they activated the energy-cell matrix in their mechs and beneath their seats the energy cell generators whined to life as screens flickered on and the seemingly endless rows and planks of buttons and switches flashed on.

Maps, data, layouts and readouts came to life as each fairy inhabited a small screen in the upper corner of each cockpit. Transparent screens with glowing HUD elements cycled colors as the mech across from them each had an Icon with its pilots name in green above it and they knew they saw theirs above in turn.

Weapons thrummed with incredible and barely restrained power as energy barrels strata began to glow on their sides or from the business-end and lenses clicked and firing modes where cycled. Likewise missile bays opened or deployed before closing again and the many loaded types of Macromissiles and in some cases, Mega Macromissiles scrolled by on screens from simple star-paint marking rounds to plasma warheads and cluster rockets.

When the startup was complete the cradles unhinged and fell away as mechs rose on their feet or their treads became unstuck as each fairy released the machine to manual control right as the bay door closed behind their frames and a new one opened up to the outside. Artificial lighting was replaced with the dark but sparkling landscape of freehold factory once again but from a much high perspective as each machine stomped or rolled out and away from their bays. Now exposed to the outside their cockpits dimmed slightly to filter out the sparkling glass sands of the dunes and the optics in their suits bathed the dark and red into a brighter teal-blue color as low-light optics enhanced their surroundings.

"Form up!" Chips voice sounded through the comms in their headsets as his Highwayman mech stomped out last. The medium-class mech wasnt necessarily larger than most of the other mechs in height, but it was significantly broader and more bulky with much more armor and visibly numerous weapons as it stomped up to the top of the dune with its chicken-walker legs making short work of the elevation like it was nothing but a few stairs and its torso turned in a 360-degree arc completely around once to take in its surroundings.

"We move in a simple diagonal line formation since matching speeds might be a bit much for you lot now. Im at the front and the rest of you lot follow behind me and to the left about twenty meters each. Ye fairy will course-correct you on your HUD if you get to far out of formation so pay attention to her path she marks on ye HUD. Our path is going to be one big U-shape where we get to within a kilometer of the factory or closer if nobody notices us by then, take some potshots at the place and then hightail it out before their security can pin us down.

Fancys' boys are practically made of money from what I was briefed. They gonna have gunship shuttles, Powered armor, tanks most like, and from what the scouts saw at least two mecha of uknown make; The yammie sort of mecha where it's lookin like a big bloke and not propper mechs like we got. Ronnie you gonna be the star player on most of those with ye flyswatter so you gonna stay in the back, when they start chasing us you let your fairy keep the frame moving on course while you turn ye chasis all the way behind ye and start smacking whatever you can out of the sky as we bolt before they can catch up to us. If worst comes to worst we dump all our mirage nanites for cover but each of us got a limited supply and they dont work well on the move so conserve them until needed, heard?"

"Roger, Chips!" Ronnie yopped.

"How'd you know what my first name was?" Chips, apparently named Roger asked, a note of shock in his tone.

Glass Sands - 5km From Target

close to forty minutes later and an uneventful stomping and grinding through and over dunes later the lance was caught between two massive sights.

Behind them, towering a mile into the sky and more was the dark sandstorm just a few miles behind them and closing like a massive slow-moving tidal wave the size of the sky.

Ahead of them was the target factory; So much larger in person each mech might as well be the size of a man next to a starship it was miles across on either side and elevated on a massive platform base a kilomiter around it with many ramps large enough for a starship-sized vehicle to roll down that led further up into the rising teirs of the factory like a massive blocky pyramid. Massive spires and funnels twisted with scaffolding and supports each large enough that any of their mechs could run across on either side and not collide at all. The factory was an imposing example of industry and up-close it just got larger and larger to the point that the actual starship on one of the landing pads likely being a kilomiter in length might as well be a toy in comparison.
Sofar, however, they had gone unnoticed despite the shuttles zipping around it and even some vehicles in the open riding towards it all likely trying to get inside somewhere before the storm. Some storms in this part of freehold with the larger grains of aetheric-formed glass could and would cut a man apart if caught in the open so it was a calculated response to see just about the entire staff of what was likely thousands making a B-line inside.
With the storm as their backdrop the lance might as well be invisible from the front.

Things appeared to be going smoothly and each pilot was quickly acclimating to their frames from the trip and within minutes they would be able to make a simple turn, fire a few shots, and run back the way they came.

At least until from the left corner of each cockpit an icon appeared and each fairy in unison cried out a single word in their tinny bell-like voices.

"Contact!" Each one shouted as the icon appeared. Just peaking over the dunes it disappeared a moment later while their HUDs tracked its predicted location. At three kilometers out it was beyond most of their visual range but close enough and travelling in a course that would eventually intersect their own.

"Snacks says it looked like a deathcrawler bout three klicks out." Chips passed on his own Fairys data over the comms. as his Highwayman changed its course to the northwest in the direction of the new contact.

"Lance, we are moving to intercept. Dee-Tees are heavily armored and despite being simple their guns can tear apart any of our mechs if you aint careful. We cant risk letting the factory pick up its signal, they glow on scans like a torch. And we cant have the risk of it trapping us between it and the fancys' mercs on our way out. We kill it now and fast and if we aint been noticed by then double-time it to make up the lost ground, prepare for combat!"

 

[Commissar Farzi]

The mech jostled Luk as he tried to keep it steady-his stomach churning as the machine's awkward gait shook the whole cockpit. Deathcrawler...while not exactly bright, even he knew what death meant. "Death...crawls?" He inquired, struggling to keep the machine upright. A slight titter of laughter sounded in his ear. "No, Luck," A tiny winged woman showed herself in his HUD-Wayfinder, as she'd introduced herself, "It's a rolly-thingy, makes machines like ours go boom!" A ding, followed by the bright image of a cookie appeared on the map. "Head to the big sweet thing-lots of yummies there."

As he (attempted) to direct the machine, with the Fairy making minor adjustments to keep him on cores, she sounded through the Fey to her fellow AI's in the rest of the lance. "Love this guy-easy to motivate-just show him a cookie and he makes a beeline towards it."

 

[Primitive Polygon]

"You are letting your squishy fly the mech? Why!?" A static-laden voice responded to Luk's fairy, dour and mocking. Deimos was always a vindictive spirit, and hadn't bothered to physically manifest at all. They simply took over the Pitohui and sent it lurching towards the target, bounding ahead fast and low, like a skulking vulture on fast forward.

Yamog hadn't really questioned the action, sitting cross-legged in the pilot seat with a blank look of focused concentration. She didn't even have her eye open.

Deft fingers scrawled across the tablet menu for activating the mech's radiation array, but Deimos interfered by changing it to the hacker comlink's slider bar menu. She didn't consider it meddling. She felt like she and the machine were in sync.

"Spider, Spider... I am gazing out with my inner voice..." Yamog's haunting tone that didn't really need to be broadcast over the team coms. "It will find you soon."

There was a pulsing, storm-like quality to the signal it put out, a result of the Yamog trying not to make their movements obvious to the enemy.

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands, 5km South of Fancy's Factory

In response to Chip's retasking of the lance towards the possible enemy deathcrawler, Titania immediately projected the altered course on the Heads Up Display. Huthang could see the Highwayman ahead of him shift course towards the northwest, turning away from the pyramid of Bill Fancy's Factory that was gargantuan even when still five kilometres away. He smoothly shifted the controls to turn his mech, the treads spinning slightly out of sync to change his direction. The mutant couldn't do the math, but his gut feeling was that staying in the current formation with his Avatar of Lyco was a mistake. After years of pulling off ambushes and surviving the aftermath in the depths of Funky City by listening to his gut, Huthang saw no reason to ignore his instincts now.

"Titania, assuming we broke formation and headed south-west, what are the odds we can catch this potential deathcrawler with its pants down?" The mutant could almost see the manoeuvre in his mind - the rest of the lance could accelerate, distracting the enemy unit. That should buy Huthang time to get in-close where he could use the magnetic grapples and jump jets to rapidly approach the enemy and disable any offensive capability. It also made sense to him to have the slowest of the mechs at the southern side of the engagement, to reduce the odds of Fancy's Boys from catching the lance when they bravely ran away.

"Calculating. Conferring with Faerie Cloud. Consensus. Given Avatar of Lyco's performance data, suggested course of action is viable." The image of the faerie in the upper corner of his display smiled and clapped her hands. "Let's go, Huthang!"

Activating his comms gear and trying to ignore his lance-mates disturbing transmissions, Huthang spoke to the avian mutant leading the lance. "Mr. Chips. My Avatar of Lyco is the slowest of our mechs and designed for close-range engagements. I suggest that I temporarily detach from formation and head south-west to try and flank the enemy target while it focuses on the rest of you. The positioning of my mech further south will also allow the rest of the lance to move away from Fancy's Boy's more quickly." His piece said, the mutant awaited the reply.

 

[club24]

Emma looked at her fire-ant sitting in the mech bay, seeing it in person vs when she was given the instruction manual was a completely different experience and now they were going to be fighting right out of the gate, though she was looking for a good excuse to kick some tin can booty. Climbing aboard the scrappy mech it was practically oozing with lethal substances, the Delsaurian made a toothy grin and patted the side of the cockpit before strapping herself in and flicking on the various HUD and sensor systems.

"Well Caver, took you long enough, I almost decided to fly this thing out there myself and do your job."

The snide comment courtesy of Oynx, Emma's faerie played in the pilots earpiece as she got herself seated and ready for the drop. The Delsaurian digger shook her head and flipped off the monitor in the top of the cockpit getting a huff in response.

"So Oynx, is everything on schedule? The team will be deploying shortly and I don't want to be left behind, so lets hurry-it up missy!" Emmathyst barked orders as she did her own final pre-checks. The Faerie seemed to look around inside it's monitor as though looking at its own set of data before giving a thumbs up and a smile.

This is where the fun begins

Emma listened to the others as they came up with plans, fought with faeries and such and decided she'd simply be ready for whatever orders came from Chips, she was no strategist or tactician, Emma was the muscle and for now decided she'd follow orders.

"Let me know when we're smacking this thing around, my Fire-Ant is ready to go and I'm itching for a fight."

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Glass Sands

"Gonna 'Frank the Flank', Eh?" Chips squawked through the comms to Huthang, the lance already pulling at a different angle to the eldritch gentleman as slowly the rest of the mechs began to gain more and more distance from each other in a wider line as even still unseen target fixation took over.

"Ye, fine go ahead. But don't try to wrestle it; Deathcrawlers have a fixed gun but if they catch you in the open ye toast as a bagel. Not only that but they thick and tough and got more torque and weight than you. Best course of action for any of you is not to take em head on; You get on its sides and take shots at their treadwells, they're tough but if you can damage even one on its side then you can slow it down enough to stay in its blindspot at take the others down.

A mobility-kill DC is good salvage if you come back to it later, and the fairys like to dissimilate any simple AI like its some kind of delicacy. Not only that but its rangefinder is a good haul for some mechs if you can get it intact and its Yama-Dura armor is better than our thorium-durrandium plate and are worth their weight for medium and heavy mechs especially if it aint damaged.

The big thing to look out for though is if its piloted or aware. The DC' have a simple AI and wander freehold enmass; Ol'Lycosade has factories of these things that one slips out of from time to time and if anyone ever finds one are often very contested treasure troves. But sometimes they's piloted too, At least one group of Tech Scum have access to one of the Deathcrawler factories and joyride them out like this; If its one of them you can expect the DC to perform erratically and unpredictably unlike with its AI so watch out for funny business!"

Within minutes as Chips spoke the lance had spread apart and made an almost parallel line that curved ever so slightly inwards with Huthang at the far end on one side and Ronnie in his Flyswatter on the other. With two of the more inefficient mechs for the task on the flanks easily an entire kilomiter from one end of the C to the next they closed the distance to within just under a kilometer until the only thing that separated them from their target was a series of rising dunes for which the Deathcrawler should be scaling on the other side going almost towards them.

"Ok!" Chips came in as their mechs hit the dune and slowed from the elevation. "Huthang and Ronnie go around and see if you cant hit it from behind, if its high up on the dune and turns around to face you its gun wont be able to elevate enough and will have to descend to get a shot; Thats when the rest of us break through the top of the dune and ranger-it from above! Be careful not to take it head-on!"

And just like that, less than three Kilometers from the factory and with a storm hot on their heels several mechs began climbing the dune with effort.

Huthang on the flanks made better progress at its base and could easily go around the dune as it shrunk the further along he went. After several hundred meters it curved enough that the rest of the lance was no longer in sight and got low enough that were his mech as tall as one like Yamogs he may very well have been able to see over it.

Coming around his Lyco turned its treads slowly as some five hundred meters ahead of him the target Deathcrawler was almost three quarters up the dune as its own four treads bit deep into the sand falling out from under it but was making stead progress.

Almost a Kilomiter away he could have almost missed the blazing Inferno that was Ronnies' Flyswatter mech if the second Deathcrawler at the base of the dune they had not picked up had not missed its Energy Cell matrix and the light mech went off with the force of a 5,000lb Bomb and blew glittering glass sands in all directions as the energy cell matrix turned the entire area briefly into a disco ball like effect.

If the near lack of atmosphere of the freespacer moon and the high pressure and low gravity the only sound inside Huthangs mech was a sound similar to hail as glass sands plinked off of his mech and cockpit. Slowly, as one deathcrawler clearly ahead of his lance to make it to the top continued to climb the other at the bottom of the dune began kicking up glass as it turned towards Huthang.

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands
Approximately 3km South of Fancy's Factory

As he listened to the avian mutant's advice, Huthang began to understand exactly why Mr. Chips had been put in charge. Clearly, he knew how things worked and the eldritch mutant suspected that it might just be a smart investment of his time to learn as much as he could from the lance's leader. It would certainly enable Huthang to better serve Shasta and, by extension, the Queen Mutant herself - which made such knowledge beyond valuable to him.

"Affirmative, moving to flanking possition." Huthang smoothly followed the navigational markers Titania was uploading to his HUD, trusting in his faerie to get him in position with much more efficiency than he himself would manage. The Avatar of Lyco still felt a little sluggish to the mutant and perhaps, after the mission, it would be worth spending some time in the cockpit to see if the feedback controls could be tweaked to better suit him. It was certainly something to keep in mind, anyway.

Coming around the base of the dune, Huthang finally laid eyes upon the target and a quick check of a secondary monitor carrying a technical readout of the potential contact confirmed that 'Hostile One' was indeed a Deathcrawler. Judging from its rate of climb, the mutant could tell that it would crest the dune before the rest of the Strays and only Ronnie or himself could do anything about it.

"Aww, nuts." "Oh, poop!" Both the mutant and his faerie uttered in unison as they discovered the previously unknown, second Deathcrawler now labelled as 'Hostile Twe' at the base of the dune and, perhaps more importantly, the burning chassis of Ronnie's Flyswatter. Any forming thoughts of possibly rescuing the Stray or his fighting machine were summarily rendered moot when the Deathcrawler reached out and set the Shasta Mech off like a massive bomb.

"Damn it!" "Aww, not Ronnie!" Again the pair spoke in unison but the time for commentary was swiftly stolen as the murderous Deathcrawler, clearly hungry for more Stray blood, began to turn towards the Avatar of Lyco. As his body's stress levels spiked, Huthang felt his focus narrow, almost like he was back in the depths below Funky City, hunting those who would hunt mutants. The mutant instantly put aside his feelings, submerging himself into instincts long honed in the deep dark. With a snarl, he damned the odds and chose his strategy.

"Titania, warn the other faeries. Release two mirage canisters. Program the first to appear as the Lyco but ten metres closer to Hostile Two and slowly moving forward. Use the second to camouflage us as best you can. As soon as both are up, move us at maximum speed further around behind the targets. Stand by to trigger the reactive armor plates for when the Mirage fails." Even as he gave the Faerie AI her commands, Huthang was busy locking his weapons on their targets. The mutant had no illusion that he could take the two ground vehicles by his lonesome, but he had to save the Strays from taking a Deathcrawler to the face.

The AI got to work, happily multitasking. One facet prepped and dumped a data packet containing updated target information on the Deathcrawlers and poor Ronnie's Flyswatter into the network she shared with the other faerie's. Another two were dedicated to programming the mirage nanites as instructed. A third was fully subsumed within the mech's motive control systems, ready to move the Avatar of Lyco. Yet another was busy monitoring Titania's partner, helping correct the targeting and control errors Huthang was making. Titania nodded to herself, she would do all she could to bring them out the other side of this - alive and, preferably, healthy.

Selecting the two Sunbursts loaded in his missile tubes, Huthang would fire first at Hostile Two, located at the base of the dune before adjusting to launch the second warhead at the Deathcrawler at the top. If his judgement was sound, that would also leave his Hyper Laser nicely lined up to take a few dozen shots at the sand in front of Hostile One. With any luck, that would cause Hostile One to pause or perhaps turn away. Regardless, it should provide a warning to the rest of the Strays that danger was close. Huthang just had to hope that the defensive measures he had ordered Titania to undertake would keep them safe from Hostile Two, even if only for a few seconds.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands
About 750 meters South East of Huthang

Given that Yamog was barely interacting with the piloting controls, leaving everything to the assertive fairy Deimos, it actually let them use their full focus on passively absorbing information from the sensors and data network. They were watching the blips and echoes ripple on the screen, several paces before Huthang even confirmed them as Death Crawlers.

"This is... a spider of a wrong kind, hurm..."

Lapis-hue bare feet slid back into their space boots on the pedals, and then lightly, as if waking a sleeping kitten, the monoeyed mutant finally placed their fingers onto the control sticks.

"...Deimos, my guardian, my sweet steel colossus, I implore you... Shall we... shine the light of entropy upon this fell creature?"

"Shut the hell up you crazy disgusting bitch! I hate you!... But also, yeah, sure."

The sensation of a Pitohui mecha bursting into full running gait was not to be underestimated. The top speed was nothing approaching a hover vehicle, but it could immediately lunge fast and low like a raptor, feet scooping through the sand with a terrific thundering stride. It pushed all the blood in Yamog's body into her head, giving them tunnel vision with a distinct scarlet hue.

She started firing the twined machineguns at the Deathcrawler approaching the top of the dunes first- Mostly because it was the first that came into view.

The tracers rippled and pinged as the pilot leaned towards offending pixels, and bore their teeth- The rounds weren't exploding off of energy shields, but snaking away from solid armour!- Reflexively, her thumbs pushed up the covers on her joysticks and opened up the Pitohui's beautiful, lethal wings of vibrant orange.

"Decay, decay... Let his holy light bring your cursed form back into the dust..."

...

She was actually too far away to be effective. Idiot didn't read the manual.

The infra-red glare and radio waves might have put a giant sun spot in the middle of it's field of vision, if it was looking at her, though.

 

[Commissar Farzi]

A particularly nast jolt sent Luk forward, nearly spilling him out of his seat as the mech did its best impression of a pair of booze runners ramping a hill as they attempted to outrun the cops across a mountain road. "This...dumb..." He grunted as forced himself back into the pilot's chair as Wayfinder did the necessary course corrections to keep him on track "It's alright big guy," She replied in a comforting tone, "We're almost there, just hang on!"

Spotting the second Deathcrawler she immediate primed the hyperlaser, and placed a running chicken sprite over it on his hud. "Pull the trigger Luk-get some tasty tasty chicken!" The big lizard mutant obliged, sending a brilliant beam down range at the deadly machine even as his payload of missiles streaked toward it...

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

Dunes

Two canisters on the sides of Huthangs Lyco opened at the ends and near instantly the invisible mirage nanites gushed out and came to life taking form as they exploded outwards several dozen meters on either side of him, darkened, and obscured into a spreading thick cloud of smoke to block the tanks view of him.

Likewise, he could see darker spots in the smoke pulling in different directions no doubt mimicking the rough size of his mech as decoys. The smoke did not blind him from his targets, however. As being not actual smoke but controlled nanites his Fairy could easy see through it and kept his target locked as he fired.

There was a parting of the nanites briefly that closed instantly as a high-velocity round passed through one of the decoys and disappeared into the distance at the same moment he fired his macromissiles and then moved. When he came out the other side dozens of meters from where he started the Deathcrawler was stock-still as the entire front, top, and parts of the sides were painted a glowing yellow-green.

It was not destroyed in any way as evident from the occasional shiting of the barrel, or jolt of the treads but the Deathcrawler was essentially blind and either its AI or crew were stumped or unsure what to do next. His second missile had hit just offside of the second deathcrawler up the dune and painted part of its right body and tread well, as well as a lot of the dune to its right.

It was the perfect angle to see when Yamogs Pitohui came to the top of the dune, shooting-star machineguns bathing the front of the tank in sparks before the mech first did not slow, overextended, and tipped forwards at a fatal angle down the dune. Jumpjet thrusters on the bottom and backsides of the mech flared to life and fury as the mechs legs were bathed in jetwash and smoke pillowed behind it as it went from tripping down the dune to being righted even as it hit the dune feet-first with enough force to push the suspension and jostle Yamog around violently from side to side as her mech came to a halt just behind and to the left of the deathcrawler climbing the dune by about ten meters. With her hands off the joystick trigger there was the sound of hydraulic movements as her mechs macrowave pannels folded back against the fuselag of the mech.

At near the same time Luk in his Dynamiteon creasted at speed and at a better angle started down the dune at a diagonal route as his hyper-lasers spun and rapid fire bolts of blue energy bathed into the tanks armor and occasionally off of it as it painted a zig-zagging line down the turret and flank until he too was passed the tank and continuing down the dune, unable to turn without tripping up his mech until reaching the bottom where the other deathcrawler was still idle.

Finally Emma and Chips made it to the top of the dune but did not descend it as the top of the dune exploded and caved in slightly as the Deathcrawler fired. Going in oposite dirrections from one another Chips moved off to the side until he was diagonal and vertical of the tank.

Two of the weapons under the fuselage glowed with intense light as the two heavy lasers burned eight bolts of energy within a single second combined into the side of the turret which after glowed with intense heat and was half-melted in two spots as the deathcrawler stopped climbing as its treads stopped and slowly began drifting down the sand now that its treads no longer bit into the dune.

There was no explosion. No cookoff of sign that Chips has actually killed the tank. But his lasers had melted something important inside even if they hadn't completely burned through being either a pilot of electronics or even the AI itself.

His chassis moved and the mech angled its weapons down at the other idle tank but did not fire.

"Aint never thought of blinding its optics like that, who dun it?!" Chips squawked over the comms, his mech shifting slightly to look at the still smouldering crater that was Ronnies mech before adding a curse of "Balls."

"That's gonna pickle the cucumber we're about to be in a bit. One of you make sure you disable the second one propper before it figured out what to do and bites us in the arse; Take out its optics or break the treads with sustained fire. Snacks says Hubbie gets the credit for that one down there, and this'uns up here is my kill and i'll be sellin my share back to the corp 'less the AI is intact for Snacks to eat."

"Fore we head out have ye fairys' check for any diagnostic damage and while they do; Who wants to tell me what we did wrong and what we did right?"

 

[iaincarter]

Freehold Factory - Glass Sands
Approximately 3km South of Fancy's Factory

Sat in the cockpit of his Avatar of Lyco, Huthang took deep, shuddering breaths as the adrenaline rush of the sudden outbreak of violence slowly eased off. The mutant could feel himself sweating, the thick ooze slowly running down his face and body to pool at the edges of the seals within his piloting suit. He just knew he would need a thorough hosing down once the lance was able to retreat somewhere that was both a) safe and b) supplied with sufficient water. The mech pilot also suspected he'd need to spend a while cleaning and airing out his suit.

Of course, he took no small satisfaction in knowing that he stood a much better chance of making it that far than he had had only seconds beforehand. In fact, Huthang was still somewhat disbelieving that his desperate tactics had worked as well as they had. Maybe his old hunting instincts would find more use in the mech cockpit than he had originally thought. Speaking of, it was time to ensure his prey was actually dead and not just acting the part. Shaking the tension out of his hands, the mutant brought his sights down to the deathcrawler at the base of the dune and triggered a burst of his hyper laser, carefully targeting the optical sensors before tracking down and across the tracks of the starpaint-splashed enemy unit. Sure, Chips had said one or the other, but at least this way Huthang could be sure it was out of the fight for good.

Nodding to himself, he flicked his eyes up to the display panel showing his faerie AI. "You did good, Titania. Please run a diagnostic check for damage and anything else you think worth checking." He nodded distractedly at Titania's "You betcha, Huthang!", already considering the last of Chips' orders. Well, there was the easy responses - for the good, they had mostly survived and were still mostly mission capable. For the bad, they lost Ronnie and came far too close to losing more of the lance. Huthang thought a little more, not wanting to give an ill-considered response, before opening his comm channel to the lance.

"Well, we neutralised the enemy and mostly survived but we lost a mech and a pilot, which threatens the mission because it was our primary anti-air unit." Huthang took a moment to consider. "Our main weakness was not knowing what we faced." It didn't occur to the mutant that perhaps this sort of scenario was the reason that most combative units and organisations invested a disproportionally large amount of time on training its members, rather than covering the bare minimum and throwing them straight into combat.