The Star Army's purchase was enormous. Enough to fund the company for another several years. The board was overjoyed. When the SAoY asked for an Origin facility to be built in the Ketsurui Military Sector, Aerin was all too happy to comply, getting her own ship, and even a few others ready. One of the MAPs was requisitioned, to aid in the construction of this new base. An escort of three Jinkan and a Justicar were also called upon, and the journey began. Five ships working their fold bubbles in Unison to tow the Behemoth MAP made their way from Dawn Station to the KMS, a 230 Lightyear journey. The first seven hours of the journey were uneventful, the small group skirting enemy positions and managing to make it to just about the edge of the KMS, near Northgate, when suddenly-

***

"Tira, why aren't we in Hyperspace?" Aerin asked, blinking at the view of stars around her, as opposed to the warped space of a fold bubble. She sat in her command chair, reading the display, and something caught her eye; four blips at the edge of sensors, beginning to close in on the small cluster that comprised of the Origin group. Thinking fast, Aerin tapped her fingers on her chair's armrest. "Roke, would you inform Security and Miss Sarri's team to board the new Kylies? we may need them. Reynold, Inform the Crimshaw to power up their frames." With an Affirmative from both the Ship's computer and the Wepcomm officer, Aerin tried to hail the ships, hoping them to be friendly.

A shot into the formation, luckily missing from the extreme range, informed her they were not. "Hope, Ake, Cashew, Deploy HLT's. Bull, move to the rear of the formation. Crimshaw, be ready to act as fire support for the armor team once they are ready." Staring at the large HUD, Aerin muttered "This is it."

RAIDER RUN #1, KMS CHAOS! START!

A somewhat pretty Geshrin was leaning against the armor bay's wall, taking care to light up a cigarette with a match. Some people said it was better lit up with matches anyways, but she couldn't tell, didn't care. She got the matches for free. Just as she lit up the little fella, the ship's computer told her to dress up. Roke, was it? What a killjoy it was. Omitsu glanced back and forward to see who was watching, and somehow, someway, took a drag long enough to turn half the cigarette to ashes. The brunette held the smoke in for a blink before doing something unexpected; she let it out towards the ceiling in a giant gray ring. Ohh! That's something! she thought, appreciating her work. A pleasant buzz was going on in her head as she 'field dressed' the cigarette by snuffing out the glowing cherry in her palm. The rest of the half gone cigarette went into a pocket for later. As she wiggled into her Kylie, she couldn't help but ask, albeit gruffly, "Boss, you have any idea who we're up against? Camellia?" Omitsu had to admit, she may have been the F***ing New Girl around here, but she just couldn't get a fix on what kind of person her superior was.

Camellia entered the armor bay, wearing the standard Origin uniforms, when she arrived she noticed the armors being fielded and smiled some as she walked over to them.

"I guess there were some of these babies left over after all." She said as she admired one of the unused suits of combat armor. After giving the inside a glance, she signed in relief as she looked around the armor deck and found a spare flight suit. After a moment is spent finding a place to change, Camellia returns and claims a Kylie for herself to use.

The four enemy ships closed in on the group of Origin ships, witholding their fire until they were close enough to get positive locks on their enemies. Having identified them as non Star Army vessels, the cocky pilots of the Mishhuvurthyar ships came in close, probably an attempt to terrify the group, as well as show off that they were powerful enough to be that close.

It was one of the worst Ideas a Mishhu had ever had. Holding back the Positron weapons, Aerin ordered all ships to fire their HLT's. In a volley of 162 HLT's each firing four shots, a considerable amount of energy was shot towards the disgusting pink ships. As soon as that happened, the mishhu realized what was up and figured these were not easy pickings. As Shields weathered into nothing from the point-blank volley, the Mishhu ships began to maneuver, firing any weapons they could bring to bear on the enemy who they now recognized as having sharp teeth. As the Origin ships began to attempt to didge the scattered enemy fire, the four ships each dumped ten Ripper PA out of their Power Armor bays, who began a blitz toward the ships. AA turrets from the Raider and Crimshaw opened up, and the Crimshaw's two Mecha bays opened up, revealing six powered frames who began acting like AA turrets themselves, never straying far from the Crimshaw.

****

Aerin's voice suddenly flooded the Raider's armor bay. "All Power Armors, Launch immediately, enemy suits have been deployed, we need them gone!"

Rita Gomez, the security lieutenant, Called out "You heard the boss! once the doors are open, Be ready to fight!" The rest of the security personnel echoed "Yes Sir!" across the bay, putting their helmets on and ready to go.

Natalia and Jal Donned Kylie suits, then looked over to their Leader, Camellia. "Ma'am, We got called to go out. We're at your call during the battle, Okay?" Natalia told the Geshrin, Jal nodding along with her.

No helping hand for the new girl huh? That was fine with her. They were all probably a bunch of elitist rich kids anyways. At the very least, they were letting Omitsu play with their toys. She currently felt like puking at those thoughts. "Yes, Sir!" she cried out with the others. She noticed that some of the others were a little shocked by her deeper voice, and may have shifted away. Pricks. If that's how they were playing, then she wasn't going to try and do anything super for the day; follow the leader, give help until they die, and then rinse and repeat would be perfect for now. She started to tail behind this 'Lida'. Close, but not too close. Now. the brunette thought, Show me your moves.

Camellia looked at the two who were going to be her wingmates. Memories of her last armored sortie flooding back to her. She poined an armored finger to Jen.

"You're left," she then pointed to Natalia, "you're right. Your two main roles are to provide suppressive fire and preventing pincer maneuvers. You two got it?" She ask as she smoothed her bangs back over her head, clipped them there and exposed her covered eye to be of a different color then the one she normally shows, though only a glimpse is seen since she donned her kylie helmet in short order. "Let's go."

"Yes Ma'am!" Natalia and Jal answered Camellia in unison. They both donned their own helmets, getting ready to go and forming up behind their leader as ordered. Even if this wasn't exactly what they had signed up for, it was similar to previous jobs, and they knew what they were doing. Separated by several Meters, they could see the Security team readying themselves, all six suited up and rearing to go.

Then the bay door opened, splitting down the center and sliding outwards, the Magcon field initiated, keeping atmosphere within the armor bay. "Now!" Rita called over the Comms, starting her engines and boosting out of the armor bay, her team in tow. Almost immediately they were fired upon, the 15 rippers from the nearest ship closing in as quickly as possible. The security team opened up, each doing their thing with a wingmate, three pairs helping to cover one another.

Lances of white light pierced the vacuum as Omitsu jinked in every direction she could think of. At the same time, she scanned through the nightmarish mishmash that was war. Where the hell was that person she was following? There! Lida was already firing her shoulder mounted gun, and staying the hell away from incoming. Still bobbling every which way, Omitsu slowly, carefully lined up a single shot and fired. The 50 millimeter projectile hurtled downrange at hypersonic speeds. The result? She hit the Ripper in the foot. The foot! Before she could even curse, she happened to have even more misfortune; two Rippers were descending right at her. Their weapons spat, and she gladly got out of the way.

The Rippers weren't going to give up though, obviously; they were very persistent. The distance rapidly closed as Omitsu struggled to evade their fire, and at the same time, fire off her own weapons. The brunette quickly oriented most of her maneuvers around the closest Ripper, moving so that the second was blocked out by it's girth. It's getting closer! Closer! It was too close to dodge the forearm guns, and she suddenly took smattering across her field, sending her spinning. Omitsu could only see a big blur hurtling at her, and all she could do was stick her arms out to stop it. She flailed out her Aether sabers wildly.

The flailing and spinning managed to do nothing for Omitsu, except possibly save her life. Or perhaps the ripper pilot's error did that. In any case, the Mishhu Armor flew straight past Omitsu, doing nothing, but remaining unharmed. It was quickly set upon by Olivia Yates, whose Aether beam claws tore into the armors shields and sufficiently distracted it from Omitsu. However, the New girl wasn't out of the woods Yet. Two more Rippers were soon upon her, firing their forearm weapons upon her, the horrible aim barely glancing off her shields, doing negligible damage.

This time, the Geshrin had time to swear. Shit! There's no end to them! Omitsu's shields flared as the poorly aimed shots popped around her. Her propulsion kicked in, sending her back and away from the fire, trying to evade the white streams, and occasionally darting as they fired the heavier weapons. She had 15 shots left in her helix, plus a few spare ones; she bounced away from another white beam, and let off a carefully aimed three round burst just as the tracers caught up to her, nipping away at Omitsu's protective field.

Omitsu's shots were dead on, impacting on the ripper's shields and knocking them down, however, she did no damage to the actual armor. The two Rippers moved in on the security team member, Igniting their Aether sabers and rushing in for a head on attack. Lida suddenly appeared out of nowhere, coming to help her wing mate. She tackled the still-shielded Ripper head on, both armors' shields disappearing in a flash of Aether-fueled destruction, the two armors spinning off, in a deadlock, leaving Omitsu the shield less enemy.

Omitsu smiled to herself. I'll have to say thanks later. she thought quickly. The newbie quickly pressed her advantage, holding her ground and only moving erratically to dodge incoming fire. She link fired both her rail gun and forearm projector at the incoming Ripper, trying to get a good 'sweep' over its hulking form. As it got closer, and closer still, she clenched her left fist; if it lived through that hellfire, she was going to knock it up hard with her saber.

The Jinking threw off Omitsu's aim, making her rounds fly wide, doing absolutely nothing, while the Ripper continued to charge. Thanks to Omitsu's shields still being active, the Aether saber blasted the bubble away before fizzling out short of killing Omitsu, whose own Aether beam swords flung wildly useless. The two armors collided, the moving ripper throwing Omitsu's kylie backwards, heavily knocking the pilot inside, who became very rattled from the hit.

She flew back, could barely see anything, other than that damned Mishhu Ripper. Omitsu randomly grabbed at her belt, hoping her fingers would grab something deadly. Less than blink later, she launched both her drones, one to each side, hopefully hooking around to fire at its juicy back. Meanwhile, with her poor aim, she couldn't get a bead with the cannon, and opened up with one of her forearm guns, saving the other up for a close encounter. If I'm lucky enough to live that long...

Omitsu's delirious actions turned out to be a good idea, the drones distracting the Ripper long enough for her Aether beam projectors to blast off the Mishhu's shoulder-mounted Aether cannon, while breaking the two apart. In the meantime, Lida managed to pry herself free of the Ripper she was fighting, Kicking at it and boosting backwards away from it. The ripper, whose brainslave pilot was slightly disoriented from the sudden hit, veered off in an incorrect direction, giving Lida time to go closer to her troubled wing mate, firing her forearm cannons along the way to keep the enemy at bay.

Her drones chiseled away at the thick hide, with one on the left going for the forearm, and the other, re-orientating to fire straight down and onto the head and shoulders. Another white torrent came towards the Ripper she was fighting; it was all or nothing with this one! Omitsu fired everything she had at the ripper. Both her forearms lit afire as her rail gun boomed several times. The rounds the Geshrin had left in her gun counted down to nine, then five, then three. Down to three! Die already, damn it! she raged.

While the firepower blown into the ripper suddenly was quite exceptional, it just wasn't enough. The ripper's armor began flaking and falling off, holes appearing all over, and obvious damage could be seen as enough firepower to destroy most anything came from Omitsu's Kylie. But it wasn't enough. The ripper simply charged, firing its rail gun and forearm cannons, bashing Omitsu's armor in retaliation. The Ripper charged, Thrusting its Deactivated Aether saber (now simply an extremely strong, sharp piece of metal) Straight into Omitsu's stomach. One final shot from a Drone drilled through the last bit of armor, killing the Brainslave inside. Omitsu's armor immediately did whatever it could to keep its pilot alive, sending medicines and materials through to quarantine the small hole through the middle of the armor, but it was obvious there was only so much it could do. Omitsu was alive. barely. The other ripper quickly regained himself, charging back at Lida, whose shield-less status forced her to junk and juke, trying to dodge the shots. Aether blasts flashed past, singing the Kylie's armor from near-misses Worrying her a great deal "Omitsu, If you're not too busy I might need a little help here!" She called over the radio.

It hurt. It hurts so much. the poor urchin thought. It hurt as much as much as say, well, she couldn't remember what it was. Could she? She did. She so wish she didn't. She just wished she could go to sleep, but it all kept her up at nights, still. And even now, what she remembered wouldn't let her sleep. Not in the slightest. The numerous, bloody scissors buried in her parents' bodies. "Oh god not again." she spoke aloud. She looked away from the dead Ripper's face. Ripper. What a fitting name. It really ripped her a new one. Still, the other, who was it again? Still, the voice kept calling for her help. She had to do something. But I can't move. I'm stuck. Omitsu thought, looking at the metal protruding out of her. The call became more annoying, and she started to wonder what she was doing here anyways. Ripper? "Oh god, Lida!" Omitsu's beam saber came online, and cut away the blade so she could move more freely. The dead Ripper's front was completely ruined, but its back should still have something worth using for protection. She painfully pulled it over, pressing her chest into its ruined front, steadying herself in the process. Omitsu only had one shot left in her cannon's magazine. She had to make it count, she had to! Her eyes squinted as things started to become blurry, all she could see left were the crosshairs over the Ripper. She fired. The force had Omitsu fall asleep on the job; sadly, it wasn't the first time either.

The Shot went wide. Partially due to Omitsu's movement, jostling the saber ripped her armor more, which is the reason she fell unconscious so quickly. But, It helped. the sudden warning on the Ripper's system made it juke, Giving Lida a chance, which she took, shooting away her foe's shoulder weapons and saber, not quite de-toothing it, but helping quite a bit. still, the Ripper came at Lida, Punching her armor as hard as it could, the bits of saber left forcing part of the Kylie in on its pilot, injuring her. She fought back, Igniting her Aether beam swords, she charged, smashing into the enemy armor and tearing its arms off. While not dead, the ripper was suddenly useless. Then two more came. But before they came, Omitsu's AIES noted its pilot's unconsciousness, and activated a program that automatically flew Omitsu back to the Raider. Not dead for now, she did, however, need immediate attention.

END