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RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Five - Divided] Mall Mayhem

"Oh, right," said Aya. It was in some ways easy to forget what Kuroneko had been through, and the state they had found her in. She quietly resolved to make a better effort to tolerate some of Kuroneko's odder discussions.

Tulip's choice of store was at once bizarre and emblematic of the NMX Neko. If she had been a more cerebral sort, Aya might have been tempted to try to draw conclusions from it. However, that didn't change the fact that they were there to do a job.

Sif's quick discussion of Tulip's formidable capabilities didn't do much to buoy Aya's spirits about her prospects if they should run into her again. The idea that Tulip might once have been worse was an alien one - it was more than a little difficult to envision such an incarnation of her.

The blue skinned Neko's attention was drawn first by the ammunition, and then by the big cannon. She seemed to perk up immediately. Darting over, she began to examine it. Though it wasn't in fantastic shape, it seemed like it would work well enough - albeit with some assembly required. However, her enthusiasm was not to last as she remembered a certain limitation.

"I would ask if I could use it, but I've still got both of my missile pods..." Aya sounded dejected at the realization. Shrugging, she added, "Oh well."

Dimitri shivered a bit at hearing their description of Tulip.He was not all too comfortable with the idea what someone that proficient was set on coming after them. However hearing that she seemed to be more sane than she was before was even less comforting. "You're saying that she could be even more dangerous than she was before now?"

He did not notice what kind of place they stood in front of until they actually began to walk inside. He hesitated only a moment, taken back by the sheer directness of and sudden shift in the ambiance but it had little more effect than that on him. Once they got to the goods though his attention soon went to them. Dimitri first looked to see if there were any spare magazines for the rifle or if the rounds were just loose. He turned his attention to the canon afterwards. "You don't want the canon Aya? It's not exactly my forte. Besides I can take the missiles here, they should be pretty useful." As he said that he started to load look through the missiles and take count of what was there.

"Oh my~ Someone needs to take that weapon though," Kuroneko remarked. "I know I don't want it!"

It appeared that neither one of the two wanted to take the weapon. And neither did the Saucy-Neko. Kuroneko likely wanted to keep looking like a lost, random grunt, as the cannon was usually offered to more advanced troopers. Knowing how their enemy was at this point, they likely all knew each other by name. Whatever the reason though, somebody had to bring it along for the much needed firepower, and it wasn't going to be Sif either - it just wasn't practical. She already had four equivalent cannons, and actually even looked just too dainty to actually mount it. Speaking of the little devil of course,

"Dimitri, you should take the cannon and support Aya with accurate fire. We are supposed to be rescuing you anyways, so you should be a bit further back, and safer when taking into consideration our original mission parameters," the Mini-Neko remarked, pausing briefly to start assembling the pieces of the cannon. It didn't last long though, as she spoke again with a tone of utter seriousness. "It would also compensate for your lost Tanto as well."

Kuroneko fought hard to fight back snickers and giggles, the armored hand of her Reaper pressing against the helmet in a futile attempt to close her mouth.

"Um..." Thankfully, Sif's no-nonsense suggestion broke the deadlock. Aya still felt some disappointment over not getting to play with heavy weaponry (or technically more heavy weaponry), but what Sif said made sense. Stifling her own giggling, the blue skinned Neko stepped out of Dimitri's way. "It's all yours. I can't wait to see the look on that idiot's face..."

Dimitri scratched his head, he understood what Sif said but he didn't really feel right being saved. He knew though that he wasn't even half as good as someone like Sif but he still wanted to look a little dependable. "I can do support fire. I'll need some help getting the thing on though." He still felt like he was being protected, but he realized without the sensors in the suit to assist aiming, his cybernetic eyes probably had a better chance of getting a read on a target.

As the Mini-Neko assembled the weapon, she remarked, "Of course you do," rather bluntly. "You don't have to just snipe however - it may leave you isolated if we become spread out during a fight. Remember, you can also use it for assault with three round bursts, just like how Tulip did to me." Sif briefly turned around from her work, and pointed to the wrist-wide hole in her head. Interestingly enough, the edges were no longer rough, and were smoothing over as it seemed to close.

While components were put into place and the outer shell was being locked, both Dimitri and Aya had plenty of Mini-Missiles to choose from as well. The small, smart-seeking projectiles were just as tiny as their name implied, being perhaps less than half of Sif's height and roughly the size of a roll of coins, but slightly wider. These could be easily slipped into their own mini-missile pods with ease, though, this meant discarding any missiles of a different type to have it work normally. Like most, the suits merely primed and launched the things at other things and didn't worry about what kind of missile they were. If they were going to mix ammo, they needed to manually input into their AIES which missile was which.

Kuroneko soon sauntered up to Aya, and held out a spare LASR for her. "You'll likely be needing this soon," she began to explain. "This planet was invaded before Origin Industries ever opened up here, sooooo...you're not going to find ammo for that rifle unless you manage to loot some friendlies that happen to have it." With this, she was all too right - the Megamart they were going to was clear evidence of that, as it would have usually been another Orimart. Would it be selling Origin items? It was hard to tell. And, if they got into another fight, she was going to run out of ammunition, and fast.

The 'ka-klunk' of something big and heavy noted Sif finishing up the weapon - an ammunition drum, roughly the size of a large can of instant coffee but a bit longer, was what housed the 50mm rounds. "You'll only have the 18 shots in here," the Mini-Neko began to explain, holding up the cannon " - unless you wish to carry one of the other ammunition drums with you by putting it at the nook of your back. You don't have an alternate weapon to your rifle besides this, so that should be no concern." Still holding the weapon, Sif walked around him and practically slammed the young man in the back!

'KA-KLUNK!!!' went the clamps. Mounted on a mechanical armature at his back, the weapon was ready for use.
 
"I think I will bring along some extra ammo" Dimitri responded as Sif slammed the cannon onto his back, nearling knocking him over. "Hopefully I wont need more than 18..but better safe than sorry." He picked up an extra set of ammo and stored it on his back. He decided that he could use a bit of shuffling of his own missiles. He sorted things out and set it up so that he had one rack full of offensive missles. However the second rack which he had to individually ID to his OS, was half full of MFMA and the other half was offensive missiles.

Once he was set up he moved around a bit just to make sure nothing was loose and get used to the extra weight. It was nothing for his powerarmor but he had to adjust his gait to make sure that he didn't make noise once again. "I think I'm set to go."

Aya looked at the mini-missiles, trying to decide whether to give up some of her own compliment of munitions or simply decline. On the one hand, she felt that she would need all the firepower that she could get. However, as things stood she had precious little margin for error... it wasn't a difficult choice to make in the end. "Oh, thanks," she said, taking the LASR (and ammunition for the weapon). She put down the ASGR (though not before removing the SLAG) and the empty magazines nearby. It had definitely served her well, but there was no guarantee that she would have enough ammo for what awaited them. Aya then connected the SLAG to the LASR.

The young Neko disconnected her left missile pod, letting it fall to the floor. Turning back around, she picked it up and opened the covering plate. Giving the back of the weapon a judicious smack, Aya tried to avoid pointing it straight downward as the pod reluctantly spat out its compliment of missiles. "I think I'll take the countermeasures. With what we're up against, I'll need them."

As she spoke, she picked up the relevant mini-missiles and fed them into the pod's firing tubes, making sure that she hadn't inserted them incorrectly. With that done, she said, "Anyone mind helping me reconnect this thing?"

Sif nodded to Dimitri before picking at the hole in her chest, seemingly out of boredom, while the Orange Haired Neko's helmet nodded with enthusiasm. "Of course - let me help you tie up!" Moving around behind Aya, she slammed the launcher on much like Sif had done before, engaging the weapon's locking mechanisms. Aya was left standing for a moment however, as she was still being held by the Neko for a little bit too long. "Sif?" she began. "Hora, hora - do we still have to hit it onto them, or did they update the system since the first units? They look different," Kuroneko asked, pointing at the weapon's base.

Sif was quiet for a moment herself, but admitted, "No, not anymore." They were doing it out of old habit.

"Haaa...that was silly," Kuroneko sighed. Sif 'looked' them all once over, before starting to depart out the back, making use of the maintenance ways again. Before she passed through the threshold however, the Taii was quick to pick up on this. "Oh? What's wrong Red? You don't like the front?" The Sylph turned around to answer,

"Yes. I'm suspicious of anything that's taller than me," promting a moment of confusion, then a giggle from the other Neko as she understood. With that, her camouflage activated as she made her way into the back passage, then out first. "The sniper's nest, or watch, or whatever you want to call it, is actually a...what do you call it?" She suddenly asked. "It's like a walkway, but across a bridge from one half of the mall's third level, to the other half?" After thinking for a moment, she decided, "I will simply call it a bridge," with resolve. Bringing up a map in their display, she showed them how it looked - the third level wasn't as large as the other two lower ones in terms of shopping space, simply because it featured a garden. Yet, the Megamart which they would ultimately make their way to, did occupy portions of all three.

Their ultimate goal, wrecking as much stuff as possible - asides from coming out alive - was the Megamart, and in their way was the sniper's roost overlooking the rest.

Sif's Sylph stopped just before rounding a corner and turned to look at them all. "If you step around, you can see where they're hiding, but you won't see them, even though the bridge is covered with nothing but a framework and glass," she remarked about the overpass. "We have multiple options...but to be honest, I'm uncertain what course to take. I'm feeling a little - " The Sylph's thermoptic camouflage suddenly deactivated as the pilot pod slid out, its tiny hatch opening as Sif suddenly appeared.

And mini-vomited over the side.

Meanwhile, somewhere, an enemy Neko found a chocolate on the ground, and showed it to her boss. Sharp, devlish eyes appraised the candy from every angle. And found a small bite mark, too small to be from any normal person, and too neat to be made from some vermin. She knew it could only be one person that could have done this.

For the squad, as they watched their Mini-Neko throw up, the still air of the mall shouted "SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIF!"

Tulip's rage was endless.

"I hate...Cherry Creme," Sif moaned, slumped over the side of her Sylph's pilot pod.
 
The force of Kuroneko's hit made Aya stumble slightly, though she quickly recovered. The revelation that that particular procedure was no longer necessary made Aya again acutely aware of the fact that Kuroneko had been out of the loop for quite some time. During the short period of time she had, Aya manually input the missile load-out into her AIES - she knew that she'd probably forget if she didn't do it right away.

She followed the rest of the squad through the maintenance corridor and outside. Aya activated her own camouflage as she examined the map that was brought up on the dispay. This was going to be challenging - especially if they played their hand too soon.

Matters abruptly took a turn for the worse as Sif's pilot pod exited the Sylph just in time for Sif to empty her stomach contents over the side. Aya simply stood there, her mind taking a moment to figure out what was happening - something not helped by Tulip's furious cry. It took Sif's comment to snap her out of it.

"S-Sif? Are you okay?" Aya ventured nearer, the fact that she too had eaten some of the chocolate at the back of her mind. Had it somehow been contaminated? Perhaps she was being paranoid, but considering the sometimes disturbing behaviour of the NMX she wouldn't have put it past them to do it...

Dimitri wondered about why Sif slammed the cannon down on his shoulder if she knew it wasn't needed. He assuemd it was habit but in the back of his mind he marked it down as her messing with the new guy. After everyone was situated he followed them out, reactivating his camo. He looked over the map when it was shown, thinking about their apporoach. "Should we move up to the third floor and then approach? Or approach from below?"

Before his question could be answered though the Slyph deactivated it's camo and Sif popped out to throw up. Which took the Nepleslian by surprise his first thought much like Aya's was if Sif had been poisoned or something of the like. However that angered roar that was Tulip only made his suspisions worse. He didn't know what happened but he knew it wasn't good.

"Uuuuugh...she's coming," Sif moaned, still slumped over the side of her pilot pod.

Kuroneko was quick to pick up the ball, and figure out what to be done. "Ok, Sif, stay in cover - we can handle the rest of them easily," she asked her old friend. Turning to look at the other two, the Reaper clad Neko laid out her idea. "What I'm thinking is that I'll start walking up and deactivate my camo - they'll raise me on the comms and I'll lure them out. At the same time, you two take up positions to ambush them, and we'll wipe them out, ok?" she explained. "Just remember, these are snipers, so they're bound to at least have one Cannon with them."

Turning to Dimitri, she added, "A single round is powerful enough to pierce the barriers and hit the armor, but it'll bounce - the second will collapse them completely and still do a bit of damage while the third has a really good chance of killing if it hits close enough to the earlier impacts. Otherwise, you might have to give them a fourth, or shake some pepper on with your rifle, got that?" To Aya however, she pointed specifically at her Mini-Missile Launcher on her shoulder. "Your countermeasures get rid of incoming missiles normally, but you can still pound a power armor with them anyways to stun them - use that to set up your kill, or get yourself out of a sticky spot!"

"Now move!" the woman ordered, rounding the corner as Sif dragged herself into her suit, and vanished. Kuroneko's own active camouflage deactivated as she walked down the main halls, and she gestured with her hand - Friendly, One. The overpass was above them, two levels up and almost a hundred meters away, so Dimitri and Aya had a ways to go. However, Kuroneko was going to do her best to lure them out, or at the worst, distract them.

It seemed that Kuroneko's skills hadn't atrophied much - if Aya didn't know any better, she could have sworn that she had never missed a single day in the Star Army. She listened quietly, nodding once or twice when appropriate. When the briefing ended, the Neko looked for the nearest stairs or escalator. Looking over at Dimitri as she began moving, she said, "How's this sound: I stun 'em with a volley from the countermeasures, then you hit them with the cannon?"

She kept up a swift pace, worried that they wouldn't necessarily have long before Kuroneko's ruse was uncovered - that and Tulip was still on the prowl. Undoubtedly she would turn up just when they least needed it - that seemed to be becoming almost a maxim of their time in the mall. She tried to get up to the third floor for two simple reasons: firstly, it would allow her to get a good bead on the bad guys. Secondly, her mini-missiles wouldn't have to waste energy climbing - the less fuel they had to burn for travelling, the better.

Taking note of Kuroneko's instructions Dimitri nodded, it was moments like this that made Dimitri wish he had a digital brain, he'd be able to program the cannon's details into his eyes for a better shot. Unfortunatly he was going to have to just go with his instincts. He gave another nod to Aya's question as well. "I don't know how many will be there, but I'll try to thin the numbers. I'll be using the burst, so I should land all three on target, but I don't know if it'll be close enough for kills." He moved to get into place for a good shot, heading to the second floor. He'd have gone to the third, but with Kuroneko on the first he felt he'd need to get there quickly if anything happened. Once he got a good sight line he settled down behind a cart or the like and took aim at where the snipers should be.
 
"It's going to be your call how to do things as you two go along. And Dimitri, don't - " A laser fell on her chest.

"Hey, what's up?" a bored voice came over their comms, the enemy's own communications laser activating. The Tiger-Haired Neko was broadcasting what she was receiving to the others, so that they knew just what was going on. Just by listening to those first few words, it was easy to tell that whoever it was had little to nothing to do besides sit and watch, and then watch some more. All while staying invisible, and quiet. It was most likely the most unwanted position Tulip had to offer - or most wanted, depending on how one thought of it all.

"Didn't you hear that earlier?" Kuroneko shot back, a slight panic in her voice.

"You mean that scream? Just what was that anyways?" the enemy asked. "It's got some of us scared - as if the mall's haunted! Bunch of soft, easy, Yamataian schoolgirls is what they are," she bitterly remarked. It didn't seem that whoever this was, was entirely fond of the others with her. While Kuroneko had them distracted, all likely bunching up to see the new Reaper-Messenger turn up, Dimitri and Aya began to move into position.

"H-hey, just because I'm scared of ghosts!" No, whoever this enemy was, she was simply picking on her teammates, as girlish giggles floated across their tight beam comms. For Nepleslians, hearing the sound of a woman's voice on the battlefield, and so many, was completely and utterly abnormal. Strongly surreal. But for Yamataians, it had been normal for almost thirty years. Just thirty years. It was no longer strange, but a novel reality - more years had to pass for it to become just another day of course.

"If you don't get moving, you're going to be a ghost soon - Tulip's pissed!" Kuroneko spoke over the comms, her act of worry and fear hitting the nail on the head. "We gotta get back and rejoin the others; she wants to go out and take out a pair of the oldschool Nekos," she started to explain, just a little bit. By now, Dimitri was able to start lining up his shots as their Taii's comms began to identify each enemy, one by one, before finally coming up with a total of four. Aya was moving in a hurry herself, since she needed to get a good position a little closer to make sure her missiles fell on target.

"Old school? How old school?" a third young woman's voice chimed in.

"Sif and Kuroneko Old-School." That got their attention, as the enemy commander quickly barked out orders - in moments, they leaped out of the smashed open side of the overpass and moved quickly among cover like disciplined soldiers in hulking, spiked armor. This made getting shots more difficult, but they weren't actively taking cover at all, as Kuroneko stood there, waiting for them, her impatience and nervousness apparent in how she moved. The refusal to stay still and her fiddling with her weapons - that and more added to the masquerade that Kuroneko lured them in with.

"How are the others doing? How the hell did Kuroneko get loose? Did they take down anyone yet?" The one at the forefront leading them asked.

"Yeah, it's not going well at all," Kuroneko added, her voice sad, bitter and frustrated as they began to close into 50 meters "Tulip's in a rage over losing her sniper team."

The sniper team's leader stopped in her tracks while in the open, confused. "Huh?"

Aya pounded up the stairway, listening to Kuroneko and the enemy team. The older Neko's ability to sell herself as one of their adversaries never ceased to amaze Aya. She would have to use this time in the best manner possible. If nothing else, Kuroneko was the one risking her neck here if everything went wrong.

Once she reached the third floor, the blue skinned Nekovalkyrja slowed her pace as she stalked her prey. The last thing she needed was the targets getting spooked or worse. Finally in position, she came to a stop. And the hesitation was all that she needed. Aya ripple fired five mini-missiles each from her pods at the leader, firing a round from her SLAG as well to maximise confusion and the damage to the NMX sniper team. Now she was relying on Dimitri to follow through...

Dimitri carefully watched as Kuroneko spoke with the sniper team. He was getting as much knowledge as he could about these girls to figure out who to take out in what order. Four targets wasn't so bad, especially since they planned to take one out right off the bat. He kept his focus on the commander once they were marked, figuring they would be the best target and it seemed Aya agreed.

As the rockets passed in front of Dimitri's line of sight his cybernetic eyes quickly estimated the trajectory as heading for the commander. He quickly sighted his shot, already having the barrel on the commander and fired a three round burst with the 50mm cannon. He wanted to take note of the recoil and line up a better shot but he didn't have time to go with more than intuition based on feeling before starting to aim at another squad member.

The launch of missiles immediately had them turn on a dime towards the source as they instinctively leaped for cover, still cloaked by their thermoptic camouflage - the commander herself let off her own anti-missiles as she saw the group streaking in at her, but the 'BLAM-BLAM-BLAM' of Dimitri's cannon quickly added to the noise as he found an angle on her. The Nepleslian had simply looked at the target as the targeting reticule fell onto her and wanted to fire before the cannon started to kick like a mule - it recoiled hard, jumping back at each shot, but the cross-hair remained steady as the weapon compensated.

Missiles exploded in the air as missiles met missiles, the grenade landing among them to scatter some of their cover and shake the Reapers, but his shots landed. The enemy commander's barriers flared with light as the massive slugs pounded into her - sparks flew as they literally shoved their way through the shields with brute force, bouncing off her chest plate. But the beating knocked her around, the third one landing off target to smash cleanly into her right shoulder, breaking the suit's joint and snapping the limb underneath with a sickening, wet crunch of bone and flesh as she fell down behind cover. Clutching her ruined limb, she still managed to yell, "SNIPER!" Dimitri and Aya's cover was literally shredded as the three other enemies opened fire with their own rifles, two aiming for the young man and one at Aya.

Another cracking boom took a large chunk straight out of Dimitri's cover, as another 50mm boomed. "That's the one! You'll want to take her down without destroying that gun!~" Kuroneko spoke over their comms to the two. Though they were supposed to be invisible to the naked eye and their sensors, the smoke and dust from all the explosions revealed their ghostly silhouettes while the Taii lit them on their heads up display. One was hiding behind an upturned statue, it's semblance unrecognizable now, while another - across from Aya - was inside a candy store behind the main counter. The enemy squad leader herself was behind a shattered kiosk, its assortment of goods, including her rifle, scattered around the floor, just out of her safe reach.

But the one with the cannon, was out of Aya's line of sight, somewhere underneath her and across from Dimitri - she was still cloaked, and turned off her broadcast to hide. The enemy were suppressing Dimitri and Aya's current positions the best they could with their bursts of automatic fire - with even Kuroneko pouring some fire at Aya - but they were still out of sight. "You two should try relocating. And Dimitri-chan, try a single shot at a head next maybe, hmm?~"

It seemed like she was enjoying herself too much with this.
 
Dimitri still had his cloak on but he felt it was probably best not to just rush like it was nothing. So before his cover got too damaged he fired two standard offensive missiles at the commander. He did not expect them to hit but the missiles should draw their attention enough that when he stood and swiftly moved to relocate himself they wouldn't notice the fluctuations from the camo.

He moved himself to a location at their flank behind another kiosk where he could look down at the opposition with ease. He was not sure where the sniper had gone too but hopefully they weren't looking this way. He took a knee once more and started to line up a shot on the commander, this time aiming for the head and firing a single shot. He wasn't normally the kind of person to kick someone while they're down but he wanted to make sure no back up was called.

The enemy leader was quick - but not quick enough. At the very least, she didn't pose an immediate threat. That was not true, however, of her comrades, who immediately reacted to Aya and Dimitri's ambush with a withering torrent of fire. Aya cursed under her breath, already on the move as Kuroneko gave her advice. Things hadn't quite gone according to plan, but when had she ever been lucky enough for that to happen?

She darted to a different position behind a pillar, trying to get closer to the enemy in the candy store. Once she came to a halt, she peeked out of cover and fired another grenade from her SLAG at the store, followed up by a burst of LASR fire in an attempt to catch her target if they tried to make a hasty exit.

With telemetry from Kuroneko, the young man was able to fire his missiles while out of their line of sight, the projectiles arcing up from his calf launchers and over the edge before plunging down. Just as he predicted, the enemy commander managed to fire off her own countermeasure missiles again as she lay there, desperately curling up against cover. With his move though, it was rendered useless as he got directly on their flanks - the cannon on his shoulder, like a perched peregrine, trumpeted again as it shook his shoulder, the shell splattering the woman's head across the pavement as the entire helmet gave way, its bloody pieces scattered.

"NOO!"

Another cannon boomed as a young woman screamed in horror - Dimitri felt himself punched squarely in the chest before he retreated quickly enough, knocking him off his feet and out of sight. Several LASRs opened fire on his position, shifting away from Aya as they focused on him. The shallow crater in his armor, the edges slightly melted, was still hot and molten, but rapidly cooling. But thanks to this, his thermoptic camo was disrupted for the time being.

Meanwhile, Aya was more lucky - her grenade launched into the candy store exploded, sending hot, sticky sweets flying in every direction. Peering through the dust, she could see that melted candy peppered the enemy hiding in there, sprinkling her with sweet confectioneries and ruining her camouflage. Briefly staring at herself in shock, the candy speckled silhouette in the dust turned and ran deeper into the store to hide herself!

"There she is! Right there in that store!" Kuroneko cheered, still shooting at Aya before ducking behind cover to reload. Up on their Heads Up Display, a pet store was marked as the sniper's hiding spot.

Dimitri was knocked on his back and groaned, holding his chest. He did not expect any of them to respond so quickly before he could hide again. He stayed low so they couldn't see him, and since he was above he crawled his way around to a new location while he recovered. He kept an eye on the signals on radar as he moved about heading further around. "Kuro what's the line of sight like from inside the store? Can you get us an estimate of where they can see so we can attack from other locations?"

Aya barely noticed the weight of fire falling slightly, staring hard at the candy store as though she could kill her opponent through an act of sheer will. At least she now had a proper eye on her target. Leaving her own cover behind, Aya charged after her, activating her Daisy's thrusters to help close the gap. However, she did not enter the store, instead opting to stop behind a kiosk nearby.

Over the comms, Kuroneko's voice was raised as she fired another burst at Aya, the rounds hitting a little too close for comfort, "A little cluttered in that pet shop - she's taking as much cover as possible and is a ways back inside to limit any angles on her," the Tiger-Haired Neko replied to Dimitri. "It limits her field of vision too though, so maybe you should try just staying out of her line of sight while we clean up the others!~" she happily suggested. The young man successfully moved about, unseen by the enemy into his new spot, affording him the valuable time he needed to recover his barriers

As Kuroneko eventually reloaded however, Aya made a daring move; her thrusters briefly flared as she leaped into the fray, landing in between the enemy in the first floor, and the riflewoman in the candystore. As she moved into cover under her cloak, she could hear over the enemy comms one of them yelling, "She's right there somewhere!" A flashing muzzle appeared just a few meters away - Aya could only watch as the gunfire literally sawed through cover, the line of destruction coming right at her as she hid!

But the firing stopped a heartbeat as soon as it started. All of it. "Crossfire! Hold fire, they can't see us either! Let's move out of the killzone. And don't start sensors yet or they'll pick up our pings," this other Neko started to order the rest over the comms Kuroneko had tapped. "Let's slip out of here and hit them," she added, the group obediently falling silent and carefully moving out of the area. On their displays, both Aya and Dimitri could see them all clearly highlighted.

The remaining enemy Reaper in the center was creeping back to Kuroneko's position as quietly as she could, each step taken by her marked silhouette made with care as she steered clear of rubble that could give her away. Meanwhile, the image of the one in the candy store could be seen through the walls as she desperately tried to scrub the melted candy off her suit behind cover. "Damnit - I'm rebooting the camo suite," she sourly remarked, the system restarting as the bits were accounted for as part of the power armor she wore.

Meanwhile, the sniper of the enemy squad was nowhere to be seen.

In all the prior chaos, it seemed they had already forgotten the confusing last words that Kuroneko had said to their late squad leader as one of them addressed her. "New girl - where's the closest backup we got in this bigass mall?" The Star Army soldiers only got a brief look at its exterior, but now that they were inside, just that statement alone added to a conclusion that was already likely forming in their minds. This place? It was massive.

"Back where Tulip's at - she's having everyone gather up so we don't get picked up. Good bunch it did us," Kuroneko sourly remarked to her over the comms. As she said this, the Reaper in the candy shop started to fizzle and fade off of their displays. The last any of them saw of her, was the woman reaching out to quietly turn a doorknob. Having moved through them so much already, the first thing that came to the Star Army troops' minds was the access ways in the back of stores. She was trying to slip away and rejoin her teammate.

"Crud, alright. Let's move quietly - and keep covering us with that Fifty. Don't reply!"
 
Aya flinched involuntarily as the gunfire ripped its way through her cover like it wasn't even there. She tensed again, preparing to make a dash for another position... but the gun fell silent unexpectedly. Thankfully, it seemed that the NMX didn't have much of a stomach for a fight. Aya hoped that Kuroneko would be able to maintain a signal - she didn't want to have to hunt down her enemies one by one. Particularly in a sprawling complex like this...

The abrupt disappearance of the sniper was worrying. Tulip nailing Sif with a burst from her cannon was still fresh in the Star Army Nekovalkyrja's mind, and she wished to avoid a repeat performance. Seeing her quarry slip into the access ways, Aya smirked slightly. Oh no you don't...

As quietly as she could to avoid spooking the NMX still roving about, Aya left her position and moved to follow her opponent, pausing occasionally to ensure that nobody was getting wise to her stalking.

Dimitri made sure his shields were back in full order before moving. He was about to fire down on everyone when he noticed everything go silent. He decided not to fire and just wait, listening to the chatter that Kuroneko was feeding them. He was thankful that Kuroneko could feed the locations over to them.

He noticed Aya go after the straggler so he decided he should take the time to follow the others lead by Kuro. He wanted a good shot maybe when they start to let their guard down a little. However he had to keep careful watch on their location, he did not want them ending up near Tulip when his cannon went off.

As Aya moved into the depths of tthe candy store, careful not to step on the scattered sweets, her eyes finally found what she was looking for. The all too familiar access way into the dark. The Neko's display still didn't show the enemy power armor though - whatever network they were using was cut off from Kuroneko now with that combination of concrete and incessant jamming. She'd have to rely on her own senses should she successfully track and find her target.

The sound of carbonized sugar being scraped off of armor perked Aya's ears. She was in there, somewhere.

Meanwhile, Dimitri was in an odd position - down below him, the Neko with Kuroneko was easily in his sights. If he practically leaned over the railings of the second story to shoot down on her. But, there was the third enemy, and she was nowhere to be found. The hit that landed squarely on his chest was still hurting, and was definitely starting to bruise over. If his shields were any weaker, or the shot placed at some spot a little more thin...he was lucky not to have broken bones. He needed to be careful.

"This shit sucks. Tulip writing you guys off, and sending me anyways - no offense," Kuroneko grumbled while 'slicing the pie', carefully peering around the corner with her rifle. Her impersonation was impeccable, but it only brought to mind Sif. This was all to likely why she was promoted, and the latter remained as nothing more than higher ranking infantry.

"SERIOUSLY?" A groan came over the comms. "...Yeah, you're telling me. At least you knew," the enemy Reaper sourly replied, moving past her to take the lead as soon as Kuroneko motioned it looked clear. "She should be coming out back here somewhere I think," she added, the words starting to fill with static for Aya as she moved in deeper.

Dimitri was very tempted to just fire on the unsuspecting group but he was very cautious of the sniper. She was able to return fire on him almost immediately before and with very good aim so he didn't want to take any risk and revealing himself. He needed a way to flush her out without showing himself. He knew that the sniper had to cover them however so he looked around looking for some good cover where you can get an overwatch on the group.

Aya trod her way down the passage slowly and deliberately. Now that she no longer enjoyed the advantage Kuroneko's datalink offered, the importance of seeing her opponent before she did had only increased. Aya stopped as she heard the quiet scraping. Where are you now...? she wondered, trying to ascertain the direction of the sound. Admittedly there weren't many places the NMX soldier could have gone, but Aya wasn't going to just barge in there and hope for the best.

Kuroneko's mutterings had almost assumed a strange quality, disconnected as they were from the situation Aya now found herself in. For a split second, Aya wondered how long Kuroneko could keep this up...

Up in Dimitri's level, there was a lot to be seen - from his overlook, the young man could take in many of the sights. The many stores were abandoned mid-use, seemingly as they always were on this world, but now with many more holes that they hadn't had before. Down below, between the stores to either side, were the many vendors and islands which the enemy squad had previously used for cover. Amongst them was a refreshment stand off to one side, not too far away from the pet shop, and several plants for decoration, perhaps the only real survivors here. As he stood watch over Kuroneko and the enemy she was hiding with, his ears would perk at the sound of a foam cup falling over.

Aya however, managed to silently move down the passage. The faint noise of the Reaper's scratching had stopped, but the faint trail of melted or burnt candies left behind guided her down the path. It lead the way around a corner - a possibly dangerous position if the enemy was just waiting for her. However, her catlike ears could pick up a voice, muffled by a helmet as its wearer spoke, scared and desperate. "En? En? Where are you? Please, are you there? Where am I supposed to go?" Despite whispering it as quietly as she could, Aya could hear the pleading tone before the other woman stopped and moved on. The closer she got, the more careful she had to be.

Outside, over Dimitr's comm's, the young man could see the one with Kuroneko send a message through her own link. 'What's taking her so long? They're probably moving in or something at this rate

'I don't know, but we should move - ' Kuroneko's reply began, suddenly cut off.

'No. I am not leaving her behind like...like bait.' In general, the average soldier never got to listen to their enemies like this. With the advent of stealth systems such as the ones they have, and a good ally like Kuroneko or even Sif however, they were getting something that was incredibly rare in war.

''Just a little ways, for better cover,' the Orange-Black haired Neko replied, urging the enemy along. As Dimitri stood up there at the corner of the second level, he came to realize something. The sniper had to definitely move away from her previous position if she was to keep Kuroneko and her squadmate in sight, let alone provide support fire from wherever he was at. Not only that, but they had to have guessed he was likely on the second floor somewhere. Kuroneko only managed to move the Reaper further along the wall under him, and was standing right next to one of the "Employees Only" doors - an access way, right into where Aya was likely at somewhere.

Aya followed the trail closely, still halting occasionally to maintain situational awareness. Eventually, she came to a corner. Her LASR's safety was already off, and so she simply couched it against her shoulder. She was just about to turn the corner when she heard a voice. Suddenly, Aya didn't feel like a cunning hunter anymore. Perhaps the woman was a newbie, like herself, or she was afraid of dingy spaces like the access way...

The Neko tried to push those thoughts out of her mind. Focus on the mission. It was almost like a mantra. By the time she had managed to psych herself up to turn the corner, the voice had already fallen silent - and the woman had widened the gap. Fearing that getting too close would alert her, Aya hung back.

Dimitri turned at hearing the sound of the cup fall too the ground. He knew they probably wouldn't stay there for long so he didn't look at the exact position, but rather for if he could see any slight distortions caused by the cloaking systems of the suit. Considering his position and the direction they were heading he knew that the sniper would have to move, and that would be his best chance to find them.

He wanted to inform Aya that the group was getting closer to her, but with Kuro transmitting the locations she should be aware of the situation, and he didn't have to risk his position being given up as he began to move slowly heading a little closer to where that cup was.

Something crunched underfoot - the carbonized remains of a Leeche Gumi. Now that she had rounded the corner, the long, narrow corridor ahead of her in its place seemed to freeze in utter silence. Did the enemy hear this? Freeze in place as well? Not one sound could be heard, until the faint voices came over her comms. They were buzzing with static again the scarce bits of chatter between Kuroneko and the enemy she was duping telling her what she needed to know the most. Behind that door, was the both of them, and between herself and them was the power armor she had been hunting.

It all boiled down to this moment, right here, right now. And possibly, whoever shot first.

Meanwhile, Dimitri's eyes moved across the view below him, and fell on the one thing that gave him a clue. There, on the ground, was a cup, still slowly rolling - with his suit's optics, he could even see a small hole poked into it. Here, in this dead mall, the air was still and stale. It had to have been her, possibly even one of her spikes as she moved by, too close to notice the sharp, jutting detail threatening to prod one of them over. He still couldn't find her, not yet.

And somewhere ahead of Aya, the sound of heavy, armored boots started slamming against the cement as a cloaked Reaper began a dead sprint.
 
Aya cursed her bad luck as she stepped on the charred sweet. In the silence it seemed like it was as loud as a thunderclap. It seemed impossible that her adversary hadn't heard the noise...

Her suspicions were confirmed as she heard a Reaper's boots thumping against the hard floor. Aya bit back a curse as she peered down her LASR's sights. In some ways it was a futile gesture - it wasn't like she could see the damn thing - but it was almost a reflex. Aiming at a point roughly where the Reaper's head should have been if she was dead ahead, Aya opened fire. She was unsure she could cut down the Reaper before it reached the door, but she was unlikely to get an opportunity like this again.

Dimitri used his eyes to trace the cup back to where it came from or the likely area at least. Though he had know way of knowing if she had left already this was the only way he could start. He primed his missiles and set two to fire without a lock. He did not know if this would work but this was his only option at this point and hearing Aya open fire told him now was the time.

Ducking behind cover he fired off the two missiles so that they would arc and head for the general area the cup came from. He stayed behind cover so that the smoke lingering around his suit wouldn't be seen, but was only there a moment before moving to the other side of the cover and pointing his rifle and canon in the direction the missiles were heading waiting to see any kind of indication of fire to get a hold of the sniper's position and retaliate.

The dark, unwelcoming passageway suddenly lit up as the muzzle of her rifle flashed, spitting out a string of hot bullets. Her first burst practically went wide, only one of the shots nicking the enemy power armor's barriers, causing them to flash in response. She managed to quickly adjust her aim and let loose an entire stream in an attempt to hose down the fleeing enemy, but with a smash, the entire passageway flooded with light. Her display lit up for a split second before compensating, but Aya only saw the scurrying legs of the enemy as she scrambled away.

Immediately, a LASR was stuck around the corner, blind firing down the hallway at Aya!

Meanwhile, Dimitri could hear the gunfire start underneath him, and to his three o'clock. His mini-missiles arced out of his cover and into the stand at his 12, annihilating it in a pair of concussive blasts. He hit nothing, but the carbonated drinks spurted like geysers, spraying droplets of the colorful fluids everywhere. In a split second, he could see several of the droplets raining down suddenly cling to the air a few meters away. Flushed out of her cover and in a panic, the enemy Sniper Reaper opened up with her LASR, cutting across the second level to try and suppresss him as she made her way to cover.

"Suppress it - I'm killing that sniper bitch!" the enemy next to Kuroneko yelled, the Tiger-Neko leaning her gun around the corner to 'suppress' Aya, the datalink coming back online pointing that out clearly. The friendly fire arced up too high however, but still let the armor she was stalking only moments before catch her breath.

"It's gone!" Kuroneko yelled, the candy smeared Reaper next to her suddenly fearful again as its head looked up from where it panted. Before anything else could be said, the one that was originally with Kuroneko leaped up a level with her thrusters and landed just a few meters away from Dimitri. "

ENOUGH!" Braving her own ally's fire, she let loose a long burst. It cut across where she guessed the young man was in a desperate bid to flush him out once and for all.

Dimitri was ready for the moment he spotted the enemy to retaliate, so once the beverage started to cling to her suit he was able to get one shot off in her direction, it wasn't the most well placed shot but at least enough to maybe stun her. Either way he ducked down afterwards, his armor had taken too many hits to risk another.

He smirked to himself though as he heard the anger from the new acting commander. They didn't know that he knew where they were, so he switched to the 3 round burst as she made her way up. He already knew which side she was coming from thanks Kuro keeping tabs on them. So the moment that she landed he fired a three round burst squarely at her, followed by a single missile to finish the job.

Unfortunately for Aya, her attempt to cut down the Reaper failed miserably. Even worse, she had back-up... or so it seemed, until the data-link reestablished itself and indicated that her assailant was Kuroneko. At least I wasn't too trigger happy... thought Aya. The Neko had almost fired a grenade from her SLAG to flush out her target.

How could she coax the Reaper out of cover? The question rattled around in her brain like a burst of LASR fire. Suddenly, she got an idea - she wasn't sure if it would work or not, but it was better than nothing.

Aya yelped out loud, like she had been hit, and made a big show of making more noise than normal as though part of her Daisy had locked up as she pulled back to the corner on her side of the hallway. Hopefully, Kuroneko would figure out what she was doing and she could tempt the Reaper into trying to finish her off.

The key word being, of course, "trying".

Dimitri's snap shot was rewarded with a splash of hot sparks. The round forced its way through the protective field and hit hard against the Sniper Reaper's collar, just an inch or two from the neck, failing to penetrate the armor! It tumbled back from the shock and was forced into cover, just in time for him to turn to the other. As the muzzle of the flashing gun swept across his chest, barriers flashing from the impacts, the shoulder-mounted cannon boomed. The triple round burst collapsed barriers, damaged armor and pierced the enemy inside the suit. Just as she tumbled over the rail, the missile streaked out and exploded - he could hear the heavy thump of several hundred pounds worth of armor smashing into the ground.

And just then, Aya screamed.

"She's down - rush in there, our asses are bare out here!" Kuroneko yelled at the other Reaper. With a quick glance of panic at her smoldering friend in the ground - tiles shattered under the fall - she grabbed her rifle. Heavy bootfalls sounded through the passage as the power armor charged, its weight slamming into the ground with each stomp as it barreled in after the Star Army Neko! "If you're going to do something, do it now!" the Tiger Neko warned her!

Aya felt some of the tension in her stomach slacken as she realized that the enemy had fallen for it hook, line and sinker - with a little encouragement from Kuroneko, that is. Resisting the urge to leave cover immediately, Aya waited a moment before springing out from behind the corner, LASR raised. As soon as she acquired her target, Aya squeezed hard on the trigger.

Dimitri managed to catch the second Reaper off guard and hearing the sound of it slam down to the ground was a good sign, it meant he at least scored a hit. He was not sure however if they were dead. However he decided to engage the sniper since their barrier would probably be recovering right now. Seeing that the cover wasn't exactly the flimsiest of structures he began firing his LSAR down at the sniper to keep them down, moving around to get a better angle in the process.

As Aya leaned out of cover and fired, the charging Reaper replied in kind - the tracers lanced out and licked at their barriers like flames, arcing away from each other as their barriers held. But more fire poured into the passageway in front of Aya! Another LASR joined its staccato 'ratta-tat-tat' with theirs as the Reaper's barriers quickly collapsed. As the rounds bit into armor plates, the woman inside managed to turn back and look at Kuroneko, only to collapse onto the floor with a heavy thud as a hole-ridden pile.

Meanwhile, Dimitri's fire quickly suppressed the stunned sniper as she hid behind the masonry. Plants that once lived were shredded into dust as the places where people sat simply crumbled under the barrage of bullets. He shot at every single little peek he got at the Reaper's compromised camouflage until he couldn't see anything - the particles of broken brick and stone and dead life floated up into the air like a screen. Whatever damage he managed to do, he couldn't tell. He wasn't even sure if it was still there, but one thing was certain.

It wasn't there anymore.

With only one hostile left, Kuroneko quickly got onto the ground and played dead, a faint groan escaping her lips before she spoke. Aya could see her grasping her waist - the wound from their brush with Tulip had stopped bleeding, but hadn't healed. Far from it. "This isn't good," she worried over Aya and Dimitri's comms. "The most dangerous one is still out there! You need to find her, and kill her, because if you can't, she'll either warn the others or stalk us!" the Neko warned them, her voice growing faint. "We'll have to keep moving if you can't kill her fast enough..."

Dimitri noticed that the sniper had already gotten away by time he got in position for a shot. "She's on the run. Kuro, Aya, how are thing on your end?" He hopped down, trying to land relatively soft on the ground not wanting to make too much noise and give away his position. "The sniper is probably going to head for back up."

Aya breathed a sigh of relief as the Reaper crumpled to the ground, the sound of it hitting the hard floor carrying a sort of finality. She was denied the opportunity to relax, however, as she noticed that Kuroneko's injury hadn't healed yet - and there was still another hostile out there...

"I'm doing okay, it's Kuro I'm worried about," replied Aya, approaching the far end of the corridor hesitantly. She half-expected the enemy sniper to have her in her sights as she came closer to the door. "She's still got that wound. It could be more serious than we first thought. And as for that stupid sniper... I guess we'll have to pin her down. Great."

"If you can find her," a familiar, apathetic voice cut in. Over their displays, the silhouette of a familiar armor appeared, as Sif transmitted to them. "Watching what Black was transmitting to me, it is obvious that neither of you are familiar with making proper use of your stealth," she sourly remarked, a hint of irritation in her voice. "At least both of you are still alive despite the impacts." Pausing, they could see her colored outline moving an arm up to the helmet's chin as though the Mini-Neko were in thought, her Sylph mirroring the motion.

"She hasn't run away, not yet - I think she wants to kill both of you, very badly in fact," Sif added. "Black, I'll see what I can teach these two, while you rest."

"Hai~" Kuroneko replied, moving a little so she was laying down in a more comfortable position. With Sif back in action, the chances of them dying dropped drastically, until she spoke again.

"Right now, she has initiative - she's most likely set up somewhere after rebooting her camouflage, and is waiting for you two to move. The mall is dead quiet, so she'll be listening for any noises you two will make when moving." The prognosis was not comforting, and, if Sif were a doctor, she'd be one with a horrible bedside manner. "If you insist on engaging her, one of you needs to make a little more noise than the other to draw her attention. Ideally, she's coaxed to shoot, and misses."

"What if they don't want to fight?" Kuroneko asked.

"Hush. You're dead, remember?" Sif quickly answered that question however - she already knew the answer. "Then you two withdraw however you see fit, which for novices like these two, is the right thing to do. Typically, combat between stealthed combatants like this relies on one side locating the other before they are found themselves," she began. "This is done by active sensors, which will also reveal your own location, or by carefully searching through...archaic means. Listening. Watching. Things like that. Neither Dimitri or Aya seem to be skilled enough to attempt the assault at this point."

"Hora, hora," Kuroneko cut in - 'Look, look, she said. "I still have my comms. I could pretend I'm still alive and ask her to help. We can just leave it to those two to plan something out, and use that how they'd like," the Taii helpfully suggested. Just judging from Sif's outline, the way she crossed her arms over her waist, she didn't like it.

"That's cheating though..." she muttered. The Sylph's attention turned to them, its head looking at them both. "Well?"

Sif's voice was at once a welcoming sound and a foreboding one to Aya. The implication that both her and Dimitri were incompetent made the Neko wince, but considering the duo's performance it wasn't an unfair comment to make. And it seemed that Sif was thankfully more interested in forging them into effective soldiers than tearing down their self-esteem (even if one often felt like a side effect of the latter).

Aya listened intently to the Mini-Neko's advice, as well as Kuroneko's interjections. She ran her hands over her LASR uncertainly. It felt like there were so many options open to them that she couldn't even figure out where to begin. And the pressure to get it right was immense. Aya suddenly gained an inkling of what it might be like to be in command of a military unit...

"Ma'am, if we withdraw then how can we proceed further? We still need to take out those jammers, don't we...?" The question was directed to Sif. Aya spoke hesitantly, as though she were reaching into the jaws of a particularly vicious predator.

Dimitri felt a bit more at ease when he heard Sif's voice over the comm system, well at least until he remembered how direct Sif was. He wanted to say something about not being used to stealth combat but that wouldn't change that they were doing poorly right now. He took a breath to settle himself and check his ammo to make sure he wasn't too low as he listened to Sif's advice.

"This soldier doesn't know that we know the location of jammers. They must think that we're after them." As he spoke he looked in the direction they would have to head to get to the jammer to see what the path was like. "If we could get past without being detected, we could move on to the jammer while she either waits for us or calls back up."

If Aya had reached into the mouth of a 'particularly vicious predator', then said predator decided to cough up the little boy it swallowed with annoyance. "If we withdraw, we simply go somewhere that the enemy isn't and proceed through there. We're not in some game for children where the dungeon is as straight as a ramen noodle," she replied, grumbling a little. "And, truth be told, our objective actually was to go after them - as a sniper unit, they had to have had a high-powered weapon that was capable of partially piercing shields. You two needed those, and only one of you has such a weapon," Sif continued, gesturing to Dimitri.

"That's right," Kuroneko quickly added. "If anything, we still don't know where the devices are. Just that they are holed up in the Megamart, which is likely where one of them is. Even if that isn't, we can always ruin their goodies so they can't use them." From her spot on the floor, the Reaper clad Neko continued, "Really, we're in the dark, and so are they - a jammer's only good when a smaller force is trying to hold off a larger one. But right now? It's one small force against another. They can't even call for backup if they have it, and neither can we."

"Which means we can all just ignore this one and continue on if either of you two feel your inexperience is too great to combat her," Sif cut in, her words critical of their skill. "Also, make up your minds - she's likely up to something at least.

Elsewhere

Despite feeling angry - outright furious at losing her friends - she felt lonely. And bored. Being a sniper, sitting still all day, not moving, or at the very most just crawling, was boring. And right now? She was waiting, hoping she'd be able to pick one up and pop their heads like the way they killed her squad leader when she was down. The Neko absolutely hated the Star Army - they were honestly no better than the Mishhu she served, she knew that. She just wished she could kill all of them. But for now, she waited for these ones to come into her sights. The Star Army came first - she'd worry about her Overlords later.

The Fireteam

"We don't have all day," Sif added.

Aya had been wracking her brains for the past several minutes. Kuroneko's injury remained a pressing factor in her thoughts - she knew that time was running out, and yet nothing was coming for her.

Wait a second... Inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning.

"Ma'am, I think I've got a plan," began Aya. She looked directly at Kuroneko. "You said that you can use your comms to call the sniper for help, right? What if you do that to draw her out of hiding whilst we wait to ambush her?"

It was a bit of a long shot - particularly with Sif's withering analysis of her and Dimitri's performance - but she was willing to try just about anything.

"We need to get her to do something. She's on radio silence so she's giving off practically no signal. Unless we get her to fire or trip or talk we might never find her." He noticed how low his ammo was for his shoulder canon and while there were still a few shots left he didn't want to have to reload at a crucial moment so he started to switch out his magazine and just keep the other to not waste bullets.

"I was hoping for something that you'd be able to do more regularly, but considering the fact that you're all desperate, this will do," Sif sourly remarked. Kuroneko decided to lay down on her side and clutch her stomach, but as soon as she was done, there was silence. Silence, which Sif quickly broke. "Well? Get into positions. Choose some spots to ambush her from - you know where she'll try to get to, or at least overwatch when she makes her move," the Mini-Neko sharply pointed out.

Aya didn't need much prodding before she ventured forth. A quick glance at her surroundings revealed a fire exit. Aya felt instinctively that the higher she could get, the better - aside from the fact the sniper would also be seeking out these places, they might not be expecting an assailant from above rather than below.

Opening the door as surreptitiously as she could, the Neko sprinted up a flight of stairs. She didn't know how long she had. Perhaps the sniper was being cautious. Or maybe - concerned for her comrade - she was making her way over with all haste. Finally she got to the top of the stairs, and slipped out of the floor's fire exit silently.

Stalking over to a balcony, she kept low and waited.

Though Dimitri had a powerful shoulder canon he wasn't sure if his target would show up on sensors or not when he had his shot, he might have to rely on his eyes to find her location. As such he moved back up to the second floor almost directly above to get a clear view of Kuro and the area around her. At this distance he was fairly confident he could see the distortions caused by optical camo when it moves, and hopefully the target couldn't dogde at this distance.
 
"Ok, time to get started!" Kuroneko spoke, hyping herself up. Clutching herself and making sure she was looking like she was wounded, the older Neko started her broadcast. "H-help. Is...someone out there? Anyone?" she practically choked over the comms. "I think. Think they left. Please, please be alive. Anybody," the Taii softly moaned. It sounded so genuine, they couldn't help feeling worried too. With the way it tugged at them, it begged the question of just how often she did moan like that before they rescued her. It was a question they had to bury however. From his vantage point from before, practically right on top of their bait, Dimitri could hear faint, muffled footsteps below him - directly against the wall somewhere as the enemy power armor tried to move in.

At this angle, he wouldn't be able to hit her unless he leaned right over.

Aya, meanwhile, could see Dimitri clearly from her own vantage point and the area below him. She couldn't hear anything from this range, and there wasn't anything down there to see either. If it weren't for her uplink, she wouldn't even have been able to tell where her teammate was at either. What the Neko could see though, was Dimitri's outline, traced by her HUD as he moved with caution. The way he did move, gingerly and trying to peer down over the rail...it was near him!

Dimitri heard the footsteps and tensed up just slightly. He had to restrain himself from shooting just yet, this could very well be their only chance so he had to make sure it was a good shot. His ears trained in on the sound of footsteps as his mind slowly cleared, focusing everything on his next few shots.

Aya squinted at the scene in front of her, trying to spot anything out of the norm. So far, nothing. Her eyes were naturally drawn to the glowing outline of Dimitri, which created a slightly surreal "sketch" effect as he moved.

Some movement on the lower area caught her attention. It took a second for her to process what she was seeing, but when it clicked she felt the familiar pre-combat tension. The Nekovalkyrja tried to remain stock still, worrying that any movement would spook the sniper.

"Dimitri, she's right below you," she said over comms. "Be very careful, I'm not sure how much she'll be able to see."

Even with what Aya had told him, he never was able to draw a bead on her. His ears pricked up, straining to hear her, and could barely make out the soft steps the enemy made. In the zone, he zeroed in on her rough location - somewhere just 15 feet below him - but couldn't get it exact enough that he'd be able to hit with the first shot. Frustration practically flooded over the comms. "You can just back off and let her get to Kuroneko - it's a narrow passageway," Sif suddenly hissed over the comms. "If either of you try and shoot now, she might get away. Aya's rifle will hit her shields and light her up, but that doesn't mean she won't flee into the store directly below Dimitri before he can hit her with the cannon. Then neither of you can hit her," the seven inch tall woman pointed out. "Talk to each other and make your call fast - she's about to either go around the corner, or go into the store to get into the access way from there."

"I think the bleeding's stopped. It's so...quiet. I'm scared. I don't know if anyone's even listening anymore," Kuroneko added over their comms, her voice cracking into the edge of tears.

The tension dissolved into slight frustration as Aya realized that it was going to be nigh on impossible to set up a shot now. Sif made her displeasure with the pair's performance known - though not without offering some more advice. The decision was relatively easy for Aya to make.

"I don't think we're going to be able to get a shot from up here," she said, already making her way back to the fire exit. "Let's try returning to the ground floor and taking a step back..."

She was wondering if this was just going to be a repeat of her previous attempt to spring an ambush. It certainly seemed to be heading in that direction, with the fumbling of her opportunities.

Dimitri let out a soft sigh under his breath to let the tension go with him and relax himself a little "I know, I know," he spoke softly in response to what was said as he got up from his position and began moving prioritizing being quiet over anything else and slowly making his way to the fire escape and then down it.

"Aya, did you pick up any of the MFMA countermeasure missiles? I think I have a bit of a plan. I don't know if my shot is going to be able to take her down or not, but we can follow it up with MFMA missiles; one or two should be enough. Since they emit a lot of heat and electromagnetic waves, if we can actually hit her with one, it should distract her sensors long enough for us to get out of the line of fire if she manages to survive the shot."

Down below them, silent footsteps became hurried ones as they rushed over to Kuroneko. "Hey, I'm right here," a ghost whispered over to the Neko. Kneeling down, she quickly appraised the Reaper. "Your suit sealed - that's good. I don't know if they're still around, so reactivate your camo. I'll get you out of here. Can you stand?" she asked, the words being transferred over to both Dimitri and Aya's headsets for them to listen in. Straining, Kuroneko began to bring herself up on shaky legs as her camouflage activated, cloaking her.

"I think. I bled a lot, and it's squishing in here - am I making noise when I move?" she asked, shaking from the supposed blood loss.

"No - get your arm over my shoulder, and let's move. Quietly!" the young woman whispered to her.

"Good enough for me. But let's get into the proper position first," Aya spoke over the comms By this point she had made her way back down to the ground floor. Slowly, she opened the door and took a peak to ensure the coast was clear. It wouldn't do to ruin their plan because of a poorly timed movement. Once she was satisfied, Aya slipped out of the fire exit and moved toward the nearest cover, trying to keep an eye on Kuroneko (and hence the sniper) as much as she could.

"Let's do that then, once we're in position get your missiles ready." He let Aya head out first, but he waited to make sure things were clear once more before heading out after her. He made sure to move to separate cover as well. They had the advantage in numbers right now, so grouping up to where they could be taken out in one attack was just foolish. After he found suitable cover he began lining up his shot in the walkway.

As the two moved, they could tell that both Kuroneko and the enemy emerged from the access way. Just as they had heard over their comms moments ago, the Neko had her arm tossed over the spiked shoulders of the enemy Reaper. Neither could be seen, and their location wasn't being broadcast to avoid raising suspicion, but they were going very slowly. Not only to stay as quiet as possible, but due to Kuroneko being 'wounded'. Most importantly though, was that the plates of their armor rubbed and clanked together from time to time. Though muffled and faint, it was there.

"If you're going to switch over to active sensors, now would be the time to do it," Sif remarked.
 
Dimitri carefully pointed himself in the direction of the sound of metal scraping against metal though he would have a fairly easy shot at the distance they're at, he wanted to make sure he didn't shoot Kuro by mistake, so he aligned himself to give himself the most time possible to pick out which was which once he triggered his active sensors.

Once he had himself lined up suitably he raised his hand to begin a countdown, he did not want to risk the sniper hearing them after all. As the countdown hit one he triggered his active sensors to get a better read out of their positioning. He tried to make out quickly who was carrying who, and thus which one was Kuro before anyone had a chance to react and once he had it, he pulled the trigger on his shoulder mounted canon firing a triple burst at the sniper’s chest.

Aya had also taken aim by this point. As Dimitri painted the enemy with his sensors Aya did likewise, using the updated telemetry to fire a salvo of countermeasure missiles when the count-down hit zero. She followed up with a burst of LASR fire. Not wishing to stick around to see what would happen, she scrambled to her feet and ran to another piece of cover.

Sensors going active and lighting up their target, they fired.

Heavy cannon rounds tore into the enemy power armor's shields, sparks and light flying across their surface as the shells forced their way through. All three rounds smashed into the thinner armor plates at the back as a small blast sent fragments flying, the reactor releasing its miniature sun as it was breached. Windows shattered from the concussion as missiles streaked in, pummeling and stunning the already crippled Reaper before its legs were cut out from underneath it by a burst of rifle fire. Before the dust even settled, their ears pricked at the sound of someone gagging, coughing up blood - she couldn't even scream.

"Slowpokes," Sif grumbled, the daintily girlish red power armor appearing from thin air. Prancing over on light feet, she reached down and unlocked the cannon on the torn, fallen enemy's back before brutally wrenching it up and off. As Kuroneko quietly got up and stood to the side, oddly quiet, the Mini-Neko tossed the large weapon over to Aya. It was easily over a meter long, with an ammunition canister roughly the size of a gallon-jug of milk. One that was half empty, with only 9 rounds left. "Put it on, and let's go," she ordered them about, the hole faced Sylph already walking off and vanishing from sight like a ghost. On their HUDs, a marker appeared showing them where they needed to go - The Megamart.

Too weak to cry, they could hear the downed enemy struggle to take in bubbling breaths as she was trapped in her armored coffin.

For a brief, awful moment Aya worried that they had engaged in an act of supreme overkill. Such fears turned out to be unfounded - though the ruined Reaper lay on the floor, her cannon was still thankfully intact, not to mention Kuroneko still being alright. Releasing the breath that she hadn't even realized she was holding, Aya caught the cannon and ammunition canister. Releasing one of her missile pods, she attached the cannon and loaded it - albeit not without a lot of stretching and fumbling as she tried to perform the awkward operation.

With that done, she reactivated her Active Camouflage and followed Sif, trying to ignore the ragged gasps of the Reaper. She was half-tempted to put the NMX Neko out of her misery, but Sif probably wouldn't have approved. Sorry... Even though she knew the Neko wouldn't have been able to see her, she gave her an apologetic shrug.

Dimitri took a moment to collect himself after the attack, and tried not to look directly at the NMX Neko that now lie before them. The first thing he did though was hand Aya his spare magazine for his canon. "It's about half used, but I don't think that one should be full either." After that he let out a sigh and loosened up some starting to follow after Sif, but paused at realizing something "Should we leave her? What if she calls her allies?"

"Yes, leave her," Sif tersely replied. "The jamming in the area works both ways, and if they find her still alive, they'll need to treat her. Even Tulip isn't so needlessly cruel - she'll realize it is demoralizing to the rest of her soldiers if they simply abandon that Neko," she explained.

"My, I hope I don't ever have to do that again," Kuroneko sighed, the ragged breathing of the maimed enemy soldier well out of earshot. "It's horrible. And a turnoff," the older Neko quickly added as they walked. Again, the mall was quiet. By now, they were growing used to its appearance as well. The shops quickly closed and neatly awaiting their owners' return, or perhaps stopped mid-day as thoguh the people and power had just vanished were now familiar sights. The shock simply wore off as they became desensitized to the repeated vistas over and over again.

"I'm already a few hundred meters ahead of you all," Sif spoke, ignoring her old teamate's griping. Though broadcast systems were jammed, such as radio and the like, line of sight systems such as laser comms weren't. The Mini-Neko took advantage of this, and was already well ahead. "Three forty two meters ahead of your current position, you'll see the Megamart somewhere between your one and two o'clock around the corner. It's another twenty-five from there," she added.

"Now, wait just a minute!" Kuroneko sharply cut in, heat rising in her voice. "I honestly don't know how, how...experienced these two are, but it's obvious they're relatively green! Give us a few moments!" Before Sif could even object, the cloaked Reaper's silhouette turned around and placed her hands on her hips as Kuroneko leaned forward in her armor. Stern, like a mother, she asked them, "So, how are you two feeling? It's almost like I was only asked once how I was feeling when I was their prisoner, so I know it's something precious to talk about if you're up to it."

Dimitri scratched his head some, despite wearing a helmet. He felt a little awkward being asked how he felt in such a situation, especially by someone who technically outranks him. "Umm...honestly, I feel calmer than I would've ever thought. I might even have been disgusted with myself if I had not been through this first hand."

Aya walked in silence. She found that what had previously been unsettling was now little more than an idle curiosity. The Star Army Neko had mostly been afraid of the unknown, and now that she had spent some time in here her wariness had started to drop off.

She slowed as Sif began talking, but Kuroneko's interjection snapped her out of her focus. It was nice to know that she cared about their welfare. It took her a moment to formulate a response. "Well... I think I'm okay. But while I was hiding I overheard them, and I didn't expect the NMX Nekos to sound so much like... um... us. Does that make sense?" Her tone was uncertain, almost sheepish. Hopefully Kuroneko understood where she was coming from.

It was impossible to see Kuroneko's expression - the looted Reaper armor just didn't have the same little luxuries as the Daisy series of suits did after all. But even then, they could see her contemplating what they said; the silhouette of her helmeted head had tilted to the side ever so slightly, as a hand idly reached up to where her lips would have been in thought. "You've been through it before? That's good - I suppose as long as it doesn't bother you, that's alright. I'm no shrink after all," the older Neko replied to the young man. To Aya however, she told them something a little more unexpected.

"It does. The Neko are us. Just fighting for those monsters. Even those things are surprising," Kuroneko began to explain. She walked over to a small stand, signs displaying advertisements and offers to receive various periodicals - its shelves were still stocked with magazines for those who liked the feel of paper in their hands. "One I was with for some time, I remember it liked to read newspapers every Sunday morning." The way she shared it, they could all hear the disbelief and confusion in her voice. "Nevermind that it could have gotten that intel from their feeds. It had to have a newspaper. Every single Sunday morning." Even after all this time, they could tell it still shocked the Taii. She shrugged. "Well, I'm glad I was just worrying over nothing!" her cheery words smiled at them.

"Are you done yet?" Sif's adorably annoyed voice trickled over the comms. "They barracaded this place too, so I can't tell what's inside," she added. Looking at the young man and woman in front of her, Kuroneko couldn't help but ask,

"Are we?"
 
Dimitri looked around the area to get a feel for what was going on and then shrugged. "I'd like to know a little more about everyone, but I'm not sure if now is the time or if Sif is up for it. But do you all have hobbies or anything? I work on cars and other terrestrial vehicles personally."

Aya simply soaked in what Kuroneko had said. It was comforting to know that she had been through a similar experience, and if she could manage it, well, then the young Neko could too. She had been about to say that she was ready when Dimitri cut in."Hobbies, huh? I like to keep fit."

"I'll go scout them, since there's no point in hurrying up if we don't know what we're up against anyways," Sif sourly remarked, hearing the other two replying to Kuroneko. As much as the Mini-Neko found all this mushy-gushy stuff absurd, it did have a tactical use, as she pointed out herself. At the same time, the Taii in front of them nodded in her stolen enemy armor, its face surprisingly expressive in comparison to the Star Army models. Unlike theirs, it had various features across the entire helmet, including 'eyes' in the form of goggle style lenses hidden in the depression of its own sockets.

"Sif isn't so bad, and she'll talk even if she doesn't want to in most cases," Kuroneko told the two grunts in front of her. "If she's still the same Neko I knew back when, she'd still be actually nice." Leaning in closer, the Reaper in front of them brought a hand up to its mouth as she whispered, "Though, don't let her hear that!~" Scratching the armored chin of her suit, the tiger haired Neko thought over what they both asked. "Well, I don't think screwing counts as a hobby anymore given my circumstances, but I remember Sif and I liked to cosplay when we were both little," Kuroneko offered.

Aya studied the reaction of Kuroneko. Her pilfered Reaper somehow managed to get across emotion far better than any of the squad's Daisies. She wasn't sure if she envied it or not, so the blue skinned Nekovalkyrja simply filed it under "for further consideration".

She almost did a double-take as the Taii mentioned that Sif was actually pleasant, and that the pair of them had cosplayed. It seemed like she had popped out of an alternate dimension and was describing a Sif entirely alien to the one they knew. "Really?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.

Dimitri took a moment to process the notion that Sif was at one point nice, but such a character with Sif's dimunitive frame could only be associated with a child in teh man's mind. He would never admit that he just pictured Sif driving around in a RC car trying to show off her 'skills' to other kids at a playground, and he was glad nekos couldn't read minds. After all he didn't plan on being a Santo-Hei for the enteirty of his life. Knowing now that the two officer Neko liked to cosplay was a bit of a surprise as well. "Cosplay...that's the thing where you dress up right?"

"Hora, hora - isn't it obvious she's more the happy, adorable type?" Kuroneko answered them both, firing at them a mind-bending question of her own. "Since we were so small, costumes were easier to fabricate from the ship, since they took up a lot less resources," she began to explain. "I don't know if she still likes to though. A lot of time's passed, and I can't even do it with her anymore without really going out of my way." Gently crossing her armored arms over her waist in thought, she added, "I remember the Captain of the ship we were on thought that we were all so cute dressed up that we were allowed to helm the ship for the day. Sif really got into that."

Dressed up in her sailor fuku and with her hair done up in a girlish manner, a seven inch tall Sif sat in a captain's chair many, many sizes too large for her with a giddy smile. "Ship forward, one half power!" the tiny girl ordered the helmswoman, dramatically pointing her finger forward. Off to her side, a Kuroneko much, much smaller than either of them had ever seen, and with ponytails no less, stood in the helmswoman's chair as she saluted,

"Aye, aye skipper!" Hopping from the seat, she landed on the console and hop-scotched across a few volumetric buttons before running over to the side and pushing the throttle forward. "Ship forward, one half power, at the ready!

"Engage!"

"Those were very different days," Kuroneko fondly sighed as she finished retelling the story to the two. "It's a shame they didn't last."

Aya had to resist the urge to squeal in delight as she listened to Kuroneko. The mental image she got was too cute! Regaining her composure, she mulled over the older Neko's words. "Do you know why she acts so serious all the time, then? I'm not doubting you, but she hasn't really struck me as the "lollipops and rainbows" type... did something happen?"

An awkward pause.

"Um...that is, if you wanna talk about it. I understand if you don't, seeing as it might be a sensitive subject and all," Aya uncomfortably added.

Dimitri looked towards Aya after hearing her question. He was wondering something similar as well. He had heard stories of the military making people less social, but it seemed like Sif was a very drastic case of it if that was so. "I'd like to know too if you don't mind sharing." He had a slight smile on his lips as well; thinking about the narration Kuro gave forced him to hold back a few chuckles.

"Because I realized immortality makes us weak," Sif's soured voice answered Aya's question over their comms. Despite only having Kuroneko with them physically, their Miniature Squad Leader was still part of the conversation. "Once it's taken away, most of us find we have nothing after that. No backup plan. No practiced skills. No tested tactics. All since the training wasn't taken seriously enough," she began to coldly explain. "After all, why try hard? You'll be back in time for the next one," Sif mockingly reasoned. "You two may not realize it, but your immortality only goes as far as the mothership's. The moment she dies, and the Soul Savior Pod with her, we're stripped of it."

A gaggle of girls excitedly chattered to each other as they got ready to launch. Looking forward to the fight and wiping the floor with their new enemy, everyone was giddy - Yui told them it wouldn't take long at all to wipe out this Menace. After all, killing 'wizards' and dragons on some backwater was boring! As the ship closed in, klaxons blared as the Neko all rushed to their giant mechs, the pilots themselves only reaching halfway up the calf if they stood on their tip toes. But, in they went, hopping, jumping and flying up the pretty, girly shaped machines.

The pilots were 'Mini'. Practically seven inches tall, and using 'suits' which had the height, shape and appearance of a schoolgirl in some very stylized power-armor cosplay.

The bay opening, launching, Sif grinned as she got ready to blow stuff up, only to see a horrific, confusing nightmare in front of her. Explosions, energy beams, missiles, ships, power armor and wrecks and more literally drowned them the moment they left their mothership. Missiles streaked into Sif's wingmate and fragged her instantly, while another was literally splattered as a ship maneuvered through the tight confines of the brawl, desperate to flee its pursuer. And before she could even fire her weapons for the very first time in a real fight, her home went up in a fireball. Without her, there was no way Sif would ever see them again.

Unless she joined them too.

"That is why I do not tolerate incompetence. Either you will die, or someone will die for you. And, no matter what you were lead to believe during recruitment or birth and training, a permanent death is still a reality," Sif explained, her voice nothing more than frozen helium.
 
Aya had been so caught up in her conversation with Kuroneko and Dimitri that she had all but forgotten about Sif's presence. The diminutive Mini-Neko quickly reminded her of that fact. The Star Army Neko's joviality was quickly forgotten as her superior set out just why she was the way she was. It wasn't a pretty picture by any means, and it was one that Aya instinctively recoiled from.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," she said lamely. "I hope I wasn't bringing up painful memories..."

Dimitri frowned at hearing that story; such a thing was common in war, but it always hurt to hear about it. "Yeah..it's nice they found a way to bring their soldiers back, but it still hurts to get shot. And whatever they bring back when they revive me is the me from the past, not the me from now. It's not like it's really a second life for me." Feeling things were getting a little grim though he decided to try to lighten the mood a little. "I mean, just imagine, if you started dating someone after your back up, but then died before you could back up again. You'd come back with a lover you didn't know about."

Sif let out an unladylike grunt.

"Digital memories keep the memories we deem important completely spotless, right down to the smallest itch we have while only fading the rest. Right up until we reach out for them. It will always be painful," the Mini-Neko bitterly explained to Aya. There was literally no way to lessen this - a normal human had the luxury of even the worst moments of their lives fading away, but not Nekovalkyrja. Yes, they could have a hard time remembering if they were feeling lazy, but the important memories were always there. As were the unimportant ones, or even the ones they didn't want. However, when she heard Dimitri speak up next though, they all heard something inexplicable. Something that they all perhaps thought impossible. It was small at first, sounding like another grunt or snort, but quickly built up into something else entirely.

Sif had giggled, then laughed. Laughed like a little girl, her voice full of mirth.

Recovering, she explained why. "That's a lot more common than you'd think, since getting an ST update isn't as regular as anyone would like, and even then, nobody likes to. Baka!" Pausing for a moment, she thought it over. "Considering his length in service, I am certain Nakamura-Juni is familiar with a few of the better stories - I recall one involved a recently revived man returning to his room, only to find a harem of girls waiting, and no clue why." Still distant and out of sight, she mulled over the young man's remarks a little more before snorting again. "Us? Found out how to Soul Transfer? I suppose taking it from the Elysians counts as it being 'found'," her voice seemed to amusedly grin at them all.

"Hora, my Sif is still alive under all that ice!" Kuroneko happily exclaimed, pretending to clap her hands together in delight.

"Don't get overzealous with that blowtorch - the mountainside might just avalanche on you," the Mini-Neko replied, deadpan. A brief silence fell, but before they could say anything else, Sif quickly chimed in. "Hide. Now." Moments passed, the silence deafening as it stretched on and on, but soon enough, they could hear something moving. Something closing in on their position.

As Sif talked, Aya realized that perhaps being a Neko wasn't all incredible abilities and no downsides whatsoever. Dimitri's attempt to lighten the mood was met with a smile from Aya. "Well, let's hope that we're never in that position!"

She would have continued chattering away if not for Sif's order to hide - the urgency of which was emphasized by the mysterious sounds coming toward them. Looking around frantically, her eyes clamped upon a nearby store which had been left unsecured. Moving as quickly as stealth would allow, she dived inside and tried to find something to hide behind.

Dimitri was a bit taken back by Sif's laughter; he did not expect that from her, but hearing her laugh relaxed him a bit as well. "So she isn't a robot after all." he thought to himself as he smirked lightly. He would've said something more but he heard Sif's orders to hide.

Seeing Aya go one way to hide, he went the other, heading into a near by store, this way they could flank someone and they wouldn't both be taken out at the same time. Once inside the store he hid near a window and crouched down, readying he weapons.

As they all hid, the faint sounds of hurried footsteps came to their ears. The air itself seemed to move and ripple as unseen forms streamed by. Concealed and holding still, they couldn't get a count on now many foes that passed by, but they could easily tell that they were severely outnumbered. Muffled voices could be heard as the enemy excitedly chattered amongst themselves, like whispers from the dark.

"...four of them."

" - Tulip."

" - them all."

"...Revenge!"

And as quickly as they came, they were gone, the storm passing over the fireteam. "Amateurs. The helmets can't silence everything that's said if they're loud about it," Sif sourly pointed out to them. It even seemed like the Mini-Neko was angry at the enemy for being less than competent. In fact, it seemed like she was pissed at anyone that was less than competent. "The three of you, get over here. The base is wide open, since they're apparently putting everything into finding and killing us all."
 
Aya held her breath, as though the invisible shapes could somehow hear even the quietest of actions. It was deeply unsettling to listen in on an enemy that seemed intent on ripping them from limb to limb if they could find them. Thankfully, they were blissfully unaware of the group's presence. Sif's comment made a smirk return to Aya's face. Good to know we're not the only ones she watches for mistakes...

She didn't have to be told twice to regroup with Sif. Taking one last look to make sure that there weren't any stragglers, Aya stalked over to Sif's position.

Dimitri tensed up as the NMX Neko all stormed through the mall, he could feel the pressure even without getting a good look at them. If they were caught now they'd be lucky to be killed swiftly. Hearing Sif on the comms though it took him a while to respond, but when he did it was soft and barely audible, he was whispering despite the distance "Will there base really be open?" He was hesitant but he began his slow approach to teh rest of the team, making sure he left no hints to his location.

An angry "Mmmmmm!" came from Sif at Dimitri's question.

When they arrived, they could see the familiar, yet always different appearance of a barricaded entrance. Random items, all tossed together, even including a few cars stacked on top of one another, fortified the position making it particularly formidable to take for anyone without enough high explosives to blow it apart. But at the small entrance to the side, a door opened, Sif's battered, hole ridden armor appearing to lead them in. "Get what you need quickly you two." In this Megamart, with shelves stocked with goods as far as the eye can see, the store had been turned into a gun and ammo laden wonderland, the weapons from the store itself or taken by force "And Kuroneko?" she asked, attracting the Tiger haired Neko's attention.

A Havoc Main Battle Tank topped it all, sitting on a pedestal as the crowning piece.

"Get in the tank. We're blowing this place as soon as you all get your gear."

Aya whistled softly under her breath. Obviously the people who had been holed up in here had been here for quite some time, and had the defenses to match. Of course, it mattered little if you left your back-door wide open. The blue skinned Neko skulked after Sif. Once inside, she couldn't help but let out a gasp of surprise - and glee. It looked like they had hit the mother-lode!

She dashed from aisle to aisle, grabbing extra ammunition for her mini-missile launchers, LASR & SLAG, and cannon. Aya felt almost giddy with the array of firepower they had stumbled upon. It seemed like things could only go up, and up, and up.

Once she had pilfered all of the ammunition she could carry, Aya clambered inside the Havoc MBT. "This is gonna be so cool!" she exclaimed, her big grin practically audible in her voice.

Dimitri looked around quickly once inside the store, it was obvious that he was getting nervous, even without his face being plainly visable. This situation was starting to get a lot like back home, the very thing he ran away from.

After seeing that the area was clear, the first thing he did was restock all his LASR, SLAG and the shoulder canon, making sure they were all full and had spare ammunition as well. Afterwards he moved to refill his mini-missiles, making sure to load a few countermeasures as well.

As he was heading out something caught his attention and he stopped looking it over and then picked it up after putting his rifle on his back. It was a SFR-01 rocket launcher, and along with it were 3 HEAT rockets and 2 thermobarics. it was a little bit of effort to carry it all but hearing that they were taking a tank he felt like he could handle it, so he headed out with his new toy.

While the other members of the team loaded up, Kuroneko unloaded. Her Reaper power armor opening up, the Neko clambered out. Clad in nothing but the tattered remains of her old-school Type-30A uniform, she tossed her flamboyant hair out as she sauntered over to the tank. With so little on her - even the form fitting thermaplast that followed every curve of her chest was partialy dissolved - the Neko might as well have been wearing a bikini and sarong. "Well boys and girls, time to get on the pain train!" she grinned, sitting atop the massive armored vehicle like a booth-babe at a military expo. Popping the driver's hatch open, she easily slipped in, her mane of black and orange striped hair slinking after her like a sleek snake.

"Kuroneko is well capable of operating the vehicle on her own, but if you two decide to crew it as well, you'll have to leave your heavy weapons on the bustle rack at the back of the turret, outside," Sif explained. She had busily been going about, laying explosive charges around this main base, but was now out of sight in the car-shop the Megamart had - sparks were flying as she was working on something. "The two of us can cover you long enough for your weapons to be grabbed, should the need arise however. But the risk is still there, that you'll be caught without it."

"Hora! With you and me together again Sif, they'll be fine! Let them have their fun!" the Taii-Neko hollered out of the tank's hatch. Out of the workshop, the sparks and welding stopped. Into their view, Sif steppd forward, several new plates of glistening silver crudely welded over red to patch the horrible rents in her armor. They weren't in any way well done, with bumpy and rough welds but the melded metal bonds were sturdy, and the plates tough.

"If you two are ready, let's get started," Sif remarked, idly tossing a small item up and down in her hand.

The detonator.
 
"Whoops." Aya sheepishly slipped out of the tank and popped off her cannon, putting it on the bustle rack. With that done, she dropped back into the tank and began to familiarise herself with the interior. Suddenly she wasn't sure this was such a great idea. "Um... this is the first time I've ever done this. Can you give me some pointers?" The embarrassment was palpable as she peeped back out of the hatch. Her eyes were immediately drawn to Sif's patchwork, makeshift armor. She looked somewhat like how Aya would imagine a scavenger after the apocalypse.

Dimitri couldn't carry all the shells for his rocket launcher in hand anyway, and the tank gun would have a lot more punch than conventional rounds. "Hmm Yeah I guess I might as well hop on in." He put his heavier stuff on the rack and climbed into the tank, or at least he would've but Aya was coming back up so he pulled back. "You don't know how to operate a tank Aya?" He said that as if it was one of the strangest things ever, after all, terrestrial vehicles was his specialty.

As the blue skinned Neko sat there in the first seat she found, Kuroneko's head popped up from in between her legs. "Well, I guess that depends on what you wanna do, right?" she asked, peeking out from the driver's compartment and into the turret basket. The tiger-haired Neko was holding a printed manual in her hands as she sat in the reclined driver's seat, flipping through the pages as she went. "Honestly, I haven't done this before either! But it looks simple enough," Kuroneko mused to them both, turning more pages. "It looks like you can either control the turret, which has the main gun, and a coaxial autocannons, or the commander's station, which has two autocannons and some sort of active defense system with lasers and electricity on the hull."

A pair of chairs, parked within the small, cramped confines of the turret marked the two stations she referred to - the commander's was to the right, and back, while the gunner's was to the left and forward. Each had very similar consoles, but were also easy to grasp in function, given that all the buttons were labled as well.

And who could screw up a joystick?

Aya squeaked in surprise as Kuroneko suddenly materialized out of thin air. Scooting back in the chair a little, she listened to what the older, more experienced Nekovalkyrja had to say. It took her precisely 0.003 seconds to decide what she wanted to do. "I'm gonna take control of the turret, if you don't mind..." She got out of her seat and clambered over to the gunner's station. Now that Kuroneko had managed to find the manual - quite where she had found it was a mystery - the controls didn't seem as intimidating as they used to be.

Of course, it helped that the various controls and instruments were all labelled, but Aya wasn't about to admit that.

Dimitri climbed into the commanders seat after Aya sat down and then glanced around. "Yeah..okay.." He nodded to himself as he took in the surroundings. "Aya, make sure to turn off your power armor's targeting systems. your console has a targeting assist already built in and it was made for people to pilot out of armor. Also it has an autoloader, but you can only shoot about once every five seconds. You have 8 round magazines, and once it's out you've got about 15 seconds till it's reloaded...but this is a coil gun, so hitting with it in atmosphere shouldn't be too hard." He checked over his own console now making sure everything was in working order and that he had good visibility, he wanted to make sure he could see everything that was going on.

"Hurrah! We're ready to go Sif, all systems are online!" Kuroneko cheered.

"And the shields too?" the Mini-Neko asked, her power armor vanishing as she rapidly moved to the store's front.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" the Taii wondered, scratching her chin.

"Because you're going to sit there and shoot through the smoke, while I spot them all," she explained. Before any of them could even protest, they could all hear a frantic 'click-click-click-click' as Sif frantically, childishly mashed the detonator button over and over again. The entire Megamart was engulfed in flames as exposions chained through its entire width, the showy incendiaries destroying the various goods but keeping the structure itself intact.

Off in the distance, Tulip swore as she roared at the team she lead. "Get back there you cunts! We're gonna fuck whoever just messed with our turf extra hard! MOVE IT!"

Sif however, just shrugged as she idly tossed the detonator aside. "They'll be coming at any moment. If you haven't already, que up your ammo and load up your first shells," she remarked.

Dimitri was not expecting Sif to detonate the explosions while they where still in the midst of them, and the swearing could just barely be heard through the comms over the booming sound. There was something about pay back in there too, but it was all in Nepleslian, and not Yamataian, obviously it was reflexive. But despite all his swearing he was getting his gun loaded and ready, according to the system it was loaded with ML1-T3s, an armor piercing incendiary round. "Should put a few rounds between that psycho bitch Tulip's legs."

"Gotcha," said Aya, doing as Dimitri advised. She adjusted her seating position, trying to get comfortable. And then the world seemed to catch fire as Sif finally pressed the detonator. If she had been outside, she would have flinched as the heat and light rolled over her, but in the armoured hull of the tank she couldn't have felt safer.

Aya noted that the current magazine loaded in the main gun contained a mixture of ML1-T6 "Beehive" rounds and ML1-T1 APFSDS. If nothing else, it was a good start. Her coaxial autocannon contained the same rounds as Dimitri's - ML1-T3 ammunition. Aya felt pumped for the coming fight, even if Dimitri's earlier exclamations in Nepleslian were little more than gibberish to her. She selected the Beehive rounds first, as those would probably be best for fighting off infantry - even those in powered armor. "Leave some for me!"

Flicking the load toggle, Dimitri could faintly hear the ammunition belts above clink and slide into place, locking into the dual autocannons. The rasping sound of metal over metal, like a pair of massive shotguns being cocked, could be heard even in the hull as the bolts of the weapons automatically cycled. Large, fat slugs slammed into the chamber as the guns locked and loaded themselves. Meanwhile, the moment Aya reached out and put her finger against the touch screen, the tank seemed to really come to life.

Clanking could be heard from deep behind the two as they sat in the turret, heavy metal parts whirring as they rotated about. And before they knew it, a small hatch popped up and open as a pair of guide arms reached out to the cannon's open chamber. A massive shell, half a meter long, slammed into the gun as a mechanical arm drove it home, swiftly withdrawing as the breech slammed shut!

"They're here."

On the tank's electronic displays, possibly over a dozen enemies popped up on their display as Sif relayed to them what she saw. Though they themselves couldn't see through all the smoke and fire, their outlines were clear as day through all the burning shelves and displays of the store. Several Reapers, weapons raised, were going to brave through the firestorm and find whatever clues they could get, as well as salvage whatever arms still remained.

"Fire!~~<3" Kuroneko cheered them on!

There was something satisfyingly kinetic about the metallic clicking, clanking and other sounds that reverberated through the tank's interior. At the very least, it only further boosted Aya's confidence in the fighting machine she was now at the controls of - or more accurately, one of the controls.

As Sif spoke, the vivid outlines of a group of Reapers flashed on to her station's display. Almost experimentally, Aya laid her coaxial autocannon's sights on the lead Reaper and pulled the trigger, sweeping from left to right in an attempt to catch all of the enemy in a deadly hail of bullets.

Dimitri let Aya handle the forward group of enemies right now and rotated his gun around to scan teh area, he wanted to make sure they weren't getting surrounded, he did trust Sif, but the enemy coud've split up once inside which Sif wouldn't see. "Try keeping your fire tight, these guns aren't much different than what our armor uses, and if you can get them all to bunch together best to finish them with a round front the main canon all at once."

The enemy immediately scattered or went to ground the moment Aya opened up with her autocannon - the big, heavy rounds smashed into crackling energy shields but bounced off as the lone gun raked their ranks. "An autocannon?" one of them wondered. "This'll be easy!" Already, the enemy power armors were laying down a torrent of metal hail into the firestorm at the autocannon's source to try and suppress the unseen shooter, advancing on the store and reaching its wrecked doors in a leapfrog fashion.

Tulip herself though, furrowed her brow as she thought hard. She didn't pay much attention to autocannons, since they had better guns, and weren't easily power armor portable either. But what did have the things? Thinking about it, her eyes suddenly widened in horror. "GET OUT OF THERE NOW!"

"FIRE!" Sif commanded!

Aya felt slightly foolish, having already made a simple error this early into the engagement. However, she wasn't about to make the same mistake. Moving with a new sense of urgency as Sif barked her order, she traversed the turret to point at a gaggle of Reapers as they moved up. Trying to lock on to the target, this time she fired the main gun, hoping to shred them in a single blast.

"Sayonara," she murmured under her breath.

Dimitri didn't see anyone else wandering around around the tank, so he turned his attention forward again, ready to take out any survivors after the main canon smoke has cleared. "Kuro, they probably are going to start encircling us once they realize it's a tank, so be ready to gun it out of here."

Air rippled as the cannon boomed, the hypersonic shell effortlessly passing through the flaming debris in front of them - as it neared, still spinning, sparks seemed to run across its entire length as panels flew off to reveal its inner workings. Like a clockwork machine, it peeled itself apart from the inside out as rows upon rows of neatly stacked needles were dispersed around it. The four Reaper fire team that was moving up hesitated as they were shouted at before suddenly vanishing in a crashing hail of splinters and dust. As it cleared, they could all see the power armors were riddled from head to toe with light armor piercing needles, profusely bleeding from their joints as they struggled to gather their wits from the horrific daze.

"Start shooting! Finish them off Dimitri, Aya!" Sif shouted at them. "What are you doing, just sitting there waiting for them to run away!?" the Mini-Neko shouted into their ears like a lioness!

"Don't worry, I'll watch the flanks with the cameras - just kill as many of them as you can before we have to move!" Kuroneko called up to the other two.

Aya watched, mesmerized, as the shell streaked out of the cannon. She barely felt the recoil as it rocked the tank. The shell, meanwhile, behaved exactly as designed - it ripped through the debris like it wasn't even there, and the injuries it inflicted were grisly to behold. Aya was shaken out of her own stupor by Sif's sharp, fierce commands. One quick selection of another beehive round later, Aya was already training her coaxial autocannon on the nearest Reaper. She let loose a long, uninterrupted burst. Once she was sure that Reaper wasn't going to get up again, she then did the same with the next, in a methodical, steady fashion.

Dimitri trained his gun on the still dazed and confused reapers and then pulled the trigger, letting the top gun finally have some action. The barrels began hurling their armor piercing slugs in rapid succession. "I know I know!" He said in reply to both Kuro and Sif, obviously more outspoken now that he was doing something he was used to. He kept the fire focused on one Reaper at a time as well, as if he was trying to pin them to the ground with the incendiaries.

Tracers leaped out of the raging inferno of The Megamart, the three streams of heavy, fat rounds finding their stunned, maimed marks. Smashing into armor with their hardened cores, sparks flew as the wounded Reapers were pummeled into the ground, splashing the ground red as limbs were taken off by lucky shots into their joints. Even then, the enemy wasn't cowed. Realizing what they were up against, the Reapers spread out and started to charge, their thrusters flaring as several of them took to zig-zagging flight.

"They're closing in fast!" Kuroneko shouted up at the other two.

Before they could act, several powerful beams rained down on the enemy power armors before a Red Comet streaked into the scene. Her fire spread out amongst several targets, the Sylph failed to kill the enemy, but quickly drove them back. "It's Sif!" As though it was her call, the dainty power armor leaped into action - the air boomed as she flickered out of sight and appeared again right in front of another Reaper in a plume of thruster wash. Standing on her toe, she delivered a spinning kick like a ballerina, sending the enemy power armor up and over before leaping away. Flashing in and out so quickly, attacking them, she couldn't kill the enemy, but they were forced back by her sheer aggression, buying enough time for the tank's autoloader to pop open as the ramming arm slammed the next round into the breech.

"Sif, the cannon's up!" At the Taii's warning, Sif darted away, clearing them for another shot!

Aya gulped as she saw the Reapers begin to charge. She wasn't sure she could fire quickly enough to stop even one of them, never mind all of them at once.

And then Sif intervened. Acting with seemingly preternatural speed, it looked like she beat her foes with contemptuous ease. It made Aya's earlier drag-out brawl look like the work of a child. The azure skinned Neko couldn't stop herself from gaping at the spectacle, her mind going completely and utterly blank as she watched the Mini-Neko take on opponents who didn't just have a size advantage but a numbers advantage and win effortlessly.

The autoloader's insistent clattering snapped her back to the present. "I'm on it!" she exclaimed, fixing one of the Reapers in her sights and locking on. Aya depressed the trigger and waited for the tank to jerk under the impact of recoil once more.

Dimitri was rather surprised to see Sif's armor move about so quickly and not only that, but fight at such a speed. He had cybernetically altered eyes and a reflex arc, and he thought just his driving was impressive, but that couldn't be compared to this. "Is she a fighter pilot or something?"

His attention was brought back to his work once Kuro shouted that the canon was ready to fire again. He didn't have much in teh way of power to take out shielded opponents but that didn't stop him. He decided to lay down some heavy suppressing fire, try to saturate their shields before the main round could hit.

With their enemies at a disadvantage, already blind from the concealing fire and smoke, their fire only whittled and chipped at their massive war machine. Even if they somehow did manage to break through, over fourty tons of tank had something to say to them - meanwhile, they were free to fire back with Sif's help. The cannon boomed, the flames and smoke briefly shunted away from the force before they reignited. Inside the Havoc MBT, the huge breech of the cannon recoiled back, briefly cutting off Aya from Dimitri before she dialed in an Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot. The machine rumbled as its internal carousel started to rotate, switching from the beehive rounds to the next.

The Reapers, wary of the tank's wide-area firepower, had spread out; only one of them was in Aya's sights as she fired. The shotgun-blast like swarm of metal needles rained on the armor in an instant, collapsing her shields and riddling the armor over every single inch of its body. Concealed behind the wall of fire, the crew of the tank couldn't see that she was already choking on her own blood, clutching her throat from the numerous wounds to the suit's neck ring. Nor the metal needles piercing the eyes of her helmet. This meant that Dimitri's suppressing fire mercilessly cut her down quickly, the armor piercing autocannon shells blasting through flimsy freezers and shelves to get to them all.

As Sif leaped from enemy to enemy, forcing them back but avoiding the time commitment needed to killing them, she successfully kept the tank clear of infantry. But an alarm quickly showed up not just on her HUD, but the Havoc Tank's displays as well - a High Energy Contact was moving in fast!

"Everyone. I won't be able to protect the tank anymore," Sif warned them. Already, her drones, moments ago suppressing the enemy, were docking on her dainty armor. "You're at a disadvantage indoors. You need to flee." In an instant, a streak crashed into the ground before the Mall - a sleek, womanly form had crashed into the marble floors on her feet and ominously stood there.

"Siiiiiiif!~ It's time we had a party!~~~~<3" Tulip's voice rang out. Standing there in the flames, the dainty Sylph turned its head back to look at them all.

"Go. Now." Sif's form dashed forward in a wash of thruster fire as energy blasts lanced out from her palms. Tulip's Mindy effortlessly dodged up and to the side as the two immediately went for the kill, the air cracking as they made dashes beyond the speed of sound. The tank itself suddenly came to life as Kuroneko floored the accelerator, the electric motors giving the war machine instant torque. Like a speeding Rhino, the Havoc charged through the store at fourty miles per hour, smashing through burning debris with its horn leveled at anyone that dared to challenge it.

Exploding through the Megamart's front, the Tiger Haired Neko aggressively turned at a corner, the tank's tough treads power sliding across the polished marble cracking under its weight before it sped off. "They're going to be chasing us! Keep them off our backs!" she shouted. Right on cue, several contacts showed up on the MBT's sensors as several thrusters kicked into gear in pursuit.
 
Dimitri was still providing suppression fire when he heard Tulip's voice over the battlefield; it still sent chills down his spine every time. He began to wonder if this double barreled machine gun was enough, and that maybe he should grab the rocket launcher at the back. He did stand up to try to open the lid and reach for it but Kuroneko took off, causing him to fall back into his seat.

He just watched her driving, still in a bit of a panic and daze. However once he was told that there were hostiles behind them he snapped back to focus and turned the guns at the top to face the rear. "They're stupid enough to chase right after us and not ambush us?" He chuckled a little at that as he centered to guns on the pursuers and began firing in bursts, knowing they would try to waste his ammo if he went full auto.

Aya was blissfully unaware of the damage wrought by the beehive round. Perhaps that was just as well, as she was again distracted by Sif's fancy footwork... and then the warning. Aya registered confusion at first, and then alarm. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

The question of just what was causing the warning quickly resolved itself, and Aya's heart sank as she realized it was Tulip. If anyone could cause them problems - even in a tank - it would be her. And then Sif told them to go - seemingly without her. The blue skinned Neko opened her mouth to object, but stopped short of actually voicing her concern.

Sif knew what to do - though hopefully it wouldn't be the death of her.

Aya's mind shifted gears almost as quickly as the tank did when Kuroneko - and the MBT's sensors - notified them of incoming contacts. Aya rapidly brought the turret around to face them, and taking aim at the nearest one, she fired the main gun. Hopefully an APSDS round would make them reconsider their pursuit!

As the 40 plus ton vehicle moved like a horse at full gallop, its dual autocannons started hammering away at the Power Armors in hot pursuit. Dimitri practically ended up eating his words as they were immediately surrounded by the suits in mid-flight. Faster and more nimble, they were hailed on as their Light Armor Service Rifles opened up. The 'Ratta-Tat-Tat' of the weapon quickly bled together as a dozen of the weapons opened up at once, the sound turning into a furious buzzsaw. The three of them could literally watch as the armor piercing bullets collided against the energy shields of their furiously charging tank, the rounds crackling with electricity as they were literally bent away from the vehicle.

The turret swiveled around with shocking speed as Aya brought the main 125mm Gauss Cannon to bear and fired. Out of the barrel, a metal cylinder speared along its length by a metal rod came hurtling out, the can splitting along its sides and peeling away to reveal the finned arrow of depleted uranium. Which hurtled through one of the enemy Reapers' shields and sent her skipping away like a stone. All faster than the eye could even see. At the same time, Dimitri's dual autocannons rapidly beat down the energy shields of another flying after their tank - as she tried to dodge the stream of shells, her power armor swerved into the mall's structure and vanished in a cloud of masonry and stone.

But a yellow light came on in the tank and started flashing, fast.

"Dimitri, that's your autocannon!" Kuroneko yelled back from deep in the driver's pit. "It says there's extra ammo in the tank's magazine stores - grab that and link the current belt and new one together before you slap it into place." As though it were listening, a hydraulic door in the back of the turret compartment slid open to reveal several cans of ammo, all holding belts of shells thicker than his thumb. And further back, several rounds of the main gun rounds, jostling in their auto-loading racks. If the tank was penetrated now, while the magazine was open, they'd die in the explosion.

Aya bit back the urge to curse as she saw the enemy not just catch up with the tank, but surround it to boot! Thankfully, the sabot round performed admirably and took one of the Reapers out of the fight with more than a little violence. Relief coursed through her - the Neko had been almost certain that she would have missed. But they weren't out of the woods yet, not by a long shot.

The impromptu gunner dialled in another APFSDS round, listening to the racket produced by the autoloader as it went to work in cold, methodical fashion. That was one advantage of such systems, she supposed - they never got overexcited or anxious. For lack of any other recourse to take, she tried to acquire a lock on another Reaper. She also opened up with her coaxial autocannon.

Dimitri did not expect his autocannon to run out of ammo so soon, especially now but that just told him how many shots he was wasting. "Damn of all times" He muttered to himself as he followed Kuro's instructions and tried to reload both guns quickly, linking the belts together on the left gun first. "Hey Aya, Kuro I've got an idea. These are Flechette rounds right?" He did a quick check to see if there were any obstructions before grabbing another belt for the right gun. "Let's get up to full speed, and then stop as quickly as we can, maybe they'll fly past us enough that we can open fire with the main cannon and catch them all in the blast." He clipped in the second belt as he said that and checked it, then went to close the ammo storage.

The tank's turret swiveled about as a stream of fire was let loose like a hose - the enemy power armors moved to dodge, as the tracer fire chased after them. Explosions erupted across the Megamall's shops in the drive-by-autocannoning as rounds missed, but energy barriers flickered and flashed when they swept across one like a paintbrush. The impact of the heavy tungsten cores and high explosive charges bursting across her swatted the flying power armor like a fly. Aya could make out the puff of shattering glass and breaking stone as the enemy armor crashed into the building as they sped away, just as the autoloader's ramp leaped forward, the arm slamming another round into the breach.

Dimitri's autocannons whirred as they drew in the fresh belts he fed them, the rounds clinking together as they were drawn up. With the bolts clacking to automatically chamber their rounds, he was ready. "Whatever you're doing, do it fast! Tulip and Sif are coming in at us again!" their driver yelled. Right on their sensor screen, the red blip came speeding in - before they knew it, tremors ran through the tank as their energy shields drained and some armor was boiled away. The Mindy was jinking back and forward erratically through the air, dodging the Sylph's shots, yet with her shoulder mounted aether cannons focused on the tank.

"Go get her girls! I just need a few of you to stay on the tank with me!" Tulip yelled out, a lusty, perverse thirst in her voice. Turning mid-air, the Mindy raised a forearm, her personal barriers dropping as a powerful linear shield sprang to life. Sif's drones fired on her, but the particle beams literally curved off of the shimmering surface when they hit. Massed LASR fire quickly drove the red Sylph back as several of the Reapers flew after her, chasing the power armor piloting Mini-Neko away.

"Hurry up!" Kuroneko's voice yelled at them again.
 
"Sounds like a plan!" called Aya, selecting a flechette round to be loaded. Aya watched intently as the hostile power armor was casually swept aside like a leaf carried on a wind of steel and fire. Again she found herself not quite able to pull her eyes away from the scene. Her trance lasted for only a second - if that - before the autoloader completed loading.

Before her emotions had even begun to settle, Kuroneko's warning made Aya's heart leap into her throat yet again. The red blip barely registered before the tank juddered under the hammer blow of a hit. Aya watched with ever rising tension as Tulip and Sif did battle. Silently - fervently - the blue skinned Neko hoped that the Slyph would score a lucky disabling hit, but it was not to be. They seemed perfectly matched, almost reflections of each other.

She was already traversing the turret as Kuroneko's voice cut through the din of battle. Aya didn't need to think about which powered armor she would target. Only one mattered at this moment in time. Settling her crosshairs over Tulip - and trying to rake her with autocannon fire as she did so - she waited for Kuroneko to execute her part of the plan. She tried to keep the crosshairs on the Mindy, hoping that she wouldn't lose sight of her. Aya held her breath, and waited to pull the trigger and the thump of the main gun as it delivered its deadly ordinance.

Dimitri smirked hearing his guns come back to life after reloading them. "You heard her Kuro!" He began firing at the power armors that flitted about around the tank, even though he knew he would get a better shot soon he had to keep them thinking that they would continue to run, so he couldn't let up the pressure.

At hearing the signals from the sensors that Sif and Tulip were approaching he tensed up some for a moment forgetting about conservation, but quickly eased off the triggers to make sure he was firing smart. He badly wanted to fire on Tulip, especially when the shield dropped to just a forward shield, but he restrained himself and continued to play the roll of the cornered mouse, waiting until the tank finally stopped before letting the flunkies taste lead.

Inside the tank, hydraulics pumped and servomotors whirred as its turret swiveled like a top, rapidly snapping around to bring its main gun to bear on Tulip. The air rippled as a fireball blossomed, the windows nearby being blown apart by the wake - a heavy thunk on the tank's hull announced Tulip landing. "Dammit! I can see her feet in front of my periscopes! Guys, GET HER OFF PLEASE!!!" Kuroneko's voice cried out in panic. The air inside suddenly got warmer as they could hear the muffled noise of armor boiling and dripping away.

"Dammit, I gotta lean over to get it in there!~" Tulip exclaimed, now beginning to kneel down and bend over so she could properly fire directly into the turret ring.

"Those Reapers - I'm hitting the breaks!" The treads on the forty ton plus monster suddenly locked in place before the Tiger Haired Neko slammed them into reverse, instantly stopping, just as the autoloader brought the beehive round to bear. Horror washed up and down Kuroneko's spine as she watched the Reapers try and break as their over-active thrusters overtook the tank.

"Phew, I almost got thrown off!" Tulip exclaimed, now straddling the main gun between her Mindy's legs.

Dimitri had planned on putting his attention on the group of NMX armor, but with Tulip getting on the tank things got a bit more complicated. "Aya focus on the group for now." As he said that he began firing at her while she was still on top of the turret at first, firing several rounds at her back side. "Off my tank bitch!"

After they stopped he was expecting Tulip to be thrown as well but it was never that easy with her and she still manged to stay on. He growled and activated the speakers. "I hate clingy women!" With that he leveled the guns on Tulip, aiming at her head to avoid hitting the main gun and began to fire.

Aya yelped in surprise as Tulip alighted upon the tank. Worse still, she was now attacking one of the areas where the armor was thinner. On the plus side, Tulip's gaggle of Reapers fell hook, line and sinker for the ploy. "On it!" called Aya, targeting the centre of the enemy group as she opened fire. The next round selected for loading was a APFSDS shell.

Hopefully Dimitri's attempts to fend off the insane Neko would bear fruit - Aya really didn't relish the idea of having to fight Tulip in close quarters, much less the interior of the tank.

"Hahahaha! I'm not clinging onto you yeee~et!~~" She gleefully chimed. Dimitri's dual autocannon fire streamed to either side of her as Tulip held her ground on the cannon she straddled. Giggling like a little girl, the young man watched as the enemy Mindy simply loosened her grip and rolled to the side, clinging onto the underbelly of the main gun as a shield from his wrath. When Aya squeezed the trigger, the cannon boomed again - two of the enemy Reapers were turned into pin-cushions as some of the small armor piercing needles pierced their joints, but two more managed to dodge. "Oh, you just fired your load!"

"You're gunna pay for that!" another voice outside yelled. A pair of heavy thunks sent a reverberation quaking through the hull as the two Reapers took Tulip's lead and landed right on the turret. The young man swiveled his turret around, only to stare straight down the muzzle of its LASR before the screen cut to static. "Quick, open up this can!" As they sat there in the tank, hail rained down on the hatches as they slowly started to deform.

"Switch to your backup Dimitri!" Kuroneko yelled up at him, the switch's light blinking.

Dimitri growled when the camera was shot out not recalling the back up until Kuro herself said something about it. He quickly switched over to it and surveyed the situation for just a moment. "I said get off my tank!"

He turned the canon quickly to point the barrels at one of the Neko standing on the tank and squeezed the trigger letting loose a stream of hot metal.

At first, Aya panicked as the enemy Reapers began hammering away at the hatches. Having to deal with Tulip in a confined space would be bad enough, but having to do it when she was backed up by two of her cronies would be even worse! She took a deep breath. Come on, you can do this!

Her first course of action was simple enough. Aya spun the turret at top speed, violently waving the main gun up and down as she did so in a valiant attempt to dislodge the unwelcome hitch hikers. The sight would have been comical if it wasn't a life and death struggle. She also depressed the trigger for her coaxial. No point in not going overboard, after all.

As Tulip clung to the barrel of the main gun, she laughed, "I'm riding your cannon Aya! Whut you gunna do about it huh?!" At the same time, a blade of pure white exploded out of her Mindy's wrist, a solid hurricane of energy forming as the very air atomized against the Aether.

Inside the tank, Kuroneko screamed as it bit into her compartment.

"Make me!" a young woman yelled back at Dimitri. Busy with shooting the armored hatch open, the dual autocannons twitched up and aimed right at the one nearest of the two. Hammering away, the arcs of fire streaked towards the enemy power armor and past her to either side - for the briefest of moments, the young man could see her helmet look up at him, the two staring at each other in absolute horror. Dimitri on realizing she was between his two guns, and her, realizing that she was right between his streams of fire.

Right at that moment, Aya spun the turret around as fast as she could, the hydraulics and electric motors whirring to life. Snapping about fast enough to make a full 360 in just a few seconds, the barrel whipped up and down to shake her off like she was a massive baseball sized bug that landed on someone's panicking, flailing arm. "Gyaa! Stop that or I can't get in and r*** you all!" Tulip yelled at them, her Aether blade vanishing for safety's sake. At the same time, Dimitri was already bringing his autocannons to bear, chasing the two power armors on top of the turret around as they struggled to stay out of his way.

And then stumbled as autocannon rounds slammed into their energy barriers, both losing their footing as the entire turret under their feet spun like a disco-ball. The two stumbled and fell off of the tank, vanishing in the blurring background as the tank sped. Aya's coaxial finally opened up, right in the middle of a swing and hammered into Tulip's energy barriers, sending her flying off.

Only for a hand to lash out and grab onto the rear bustle rack and backflip right onto the top of Dimitri's remote-turret. Pirouetting like a ballerina, she laughed, both of her wrists bursting into white, unholy fire. "Time to finish this!"

Only for a lance of light to hit her right in the hips and send her tumbling off with the others.

"I'm landing on your tank," Sif's voice came over the comms, her voice sounding particularly tired.

"Oh, I'll show you what I'm gonna do..." Aya hoped that Kuroneko would be alright, but her only choice was to follow through with her plan of spinning the turret. A confident smile spread across her face as she saw her gamble pay off - one that disappeared just as quickly as Tulip got back on top of the tank like a particularly unwanted guest that just wouldn't take the hint. "Dimitri!" she called out, afraid that Tulip was going to rip open his remote-turret and eviscerate the man within the tank.

She never got a chance. Sif made a triumphant reappearance, sending Tulip tumbling off the tank. Though she wasn't sure about Sif's state, Aya still blurted out, "Ma'am, you're alright! Listen, I think the Taii might be injured..."

Dimitri had to work quite a bit on the NMX Neko to get them off the turret, but he felt rather triumphant once he has managed it, only wishing he could've turned the turret fast enough to see them hit the ground. There were more important things however, and he quickly turned his attention to Tulip with the cannons, just in time to see Aya knock her away as well. "Yeah! That's what a-!"

His celebration was cut short by the sound of something latching onto the back of the tank, quickly directing the cameras there he got a glimpse of Tulip holding on still before she jumped back onto the tank. He couldn't get her with the canons now she was standing on them after all. He was about to make the foolish decision to go up there and fight her when he noticed her getting knocked off just before she started to tear into the tank.

He sighed and sat back down as he soon had confirmation where the aid came from. "Thank's Sif, you saved us there."

"No, I got lucky and shook the armors on me," Sif replied, walking across the top of the turret before a thunk announced her feet landing on the upper hull. "Kuroneko?" she asked, knuckles rapping on the driver's hatch. She waited still, but there wasn't a sound from the black streaked redhead outside of the turret bustle. It was right about then that they started to smell something horrible. Charred human flesh and burned hair was something that was completely unforgettable and distinct from anywhere else. Even with their helmets on, that didn't mean the air supply was always closed. Sif struck again at the driver's hatch. "Kuroneko. You're scaring me," she spoke again, more firmly this time.

But even then, the tank kept charging forward.

"H-hang on," a haggard voice came from within the tank. Looking forward, the Mall's front entrance was rapidly coming into view. Sif laid herself down flat, just as the speeding tank smashed through the doors. The massive war machine was practically flying as the ground under it dropped and gave way to stairs. Crashing down into the asphalt, the entire thing bouncing up as it suspension sprung back, it kept on going. "We'll make it out of this city and back to Star Army's lines with this baby," Kuroneko spoke up from the driver's station. "I bet we'll make it in no time at - "

A white lance of light shot out from the mall and streamed across the massive parking lot before splashing into still weakened energy barriers. Before Kuroneko knew what was going on, several more followed up and popped the protective bubble. The horrific sound of metal tearing and grinding apart screeched through the entire crew compartment as the forty plus ton tank suddenly whipped about as its left track was shredded from fire. Both Dimitri and Aya were slammed against the inside of the turret while Sif was tossed away like a ragdoll. It literally did a power slide and drifted to a stop as road-wheels gouged into pavement and tore away, their more vulnerable side armor exposed to the shooter from the mall.

The last working tracks gripped the black asphalt and brought the far thicker front armor to face the mall shooters, but not before a 50mm cannon shell tore through the side of the turret's armor with a shower of sparks and fragments. The massive cannon shell struck Aya in the side of her backplate and bounced off, clipping Dimitri's shoulder plate and struck hard against the side of his chest armor before ricocheting right into the right side of their compartment. Embedded there, the shell glowed a bright orange as it cooled into a red and then became dull gray.

Roughly 500 meters away, Tulip stood at the front of the mall, the barrel of her Aether cannon still glowing from having shot off their tracks. And backed up by a dozen of her troops, many of them armed with the hard hitting 50.

With Sif nowhere to be seen.
 
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Dimitri was thrown about inside the compartment as the tank was battered by heavy armaments from the ambushing NMX soldiers. Before he had any chance to respond a 50mm shell bounced off his shoulder and chest knocking the wind out of him briefly.

He had to take a moment to catch his breath and pull himself back to his senses. "Is everyone still hanging in there?" He leaned over and decided to check on Kuroneko, she wasn't sounding too good before they got caught and with shots penetrating the armor now he needed to figure out her condition to see what plans could be made.

"Sif you there too?" He said over his comms, he hadn't checked the cameras yet to see where she was, but he knew she was on top of the tank only moments ago.

Aya had been just about to relax when the tank came under intense fire. She slammed into the sides of the crew compartment, her head spinning. She had scarcely begun to regain her wits when another round lanced through the turret armor and deflected off her backplate, jerking her forward to smash head first into the forward bulkhead. At first, Aya didn't do anything - she was too dazed.

Eventually, she forced herself to regain her bearings. "Ugh, my head..." she murmured, clutching her helmet with one hand. Thankfully, it didn't seem she had sustained any serious injuries. More pressingly, she realized, Tulip and her cronies had caught up with them - and they were likely to try to finish off the stricken tank.

"Dimitri, we need to take out Tulip!" The status of Dimitri, Kuroneko, and Sif were all in the back of her mind, but Aya felt that if they didn't at least get a reprieve it quickly wouldn't matter. Frantically, she tried to slew the main gun - she hoped it was still operational - to aim at Tulip. Aya then depressed the triggers for both the main gun and the coaxial weapon, praying that the APFSDS round she had loaded earlier was going to be able to hit the insane Neko - or failing that, one of her comrades.

A "Not really," half-moaned out from the driver's compartment. It wasn't until Dimitri leaned down in the turret basket to get a good look at her that he saw how far the injuries went - the Aether had literally boiled away the paint in the entire area that she had cut into, but that wasn't Kuroneko herself. Her entire left side was burned until it was red covered in black char. Just from seeing her from a half top-down view of her reclined seat, that most of her hair was simply gone, and the fingers of her left hand were starting to crumble as they clutched the wheel. "I know I'm ugly, but don't throw up, kay? There's enough of a mess as it is in here," she wryly remarked, tired but still playful.

The tank's last remaining set of treads bit into pavement as her good foot pushed the pedal and brought the thinner side armor of the vehicle away from the mall. With their far heavier front facing their enemies, they stood a far better chance. "I feel like a doll - I got thrown off the tank and am embedded in a few cars," Sif's voice drifted over the comms. "Take Aya's lead - open fire already!" The moment she said that, the Gunner-Neko had brought the gun to bear.

Right as Tulip's pupils turned into pinpricks at the turret's movement.

What looked like a solid depleted uranium arrow piercing a soda can lengthwise erupted out of the barrel, only for the aluminum sheath or 'sabot' to fall off like petals of a flower mid-flight. Out of its cradle, the hardened metal 'flechette' hurled through the air at hypersonic speeds, breaking the sound barrier several times over as it carried the force of an SUV breaking escape velocity. Right past Tulip's Mindy - she had already moved off to the side and into cover. The round 'merely' melted its way through a few miles worth of reinforced concrete Megamall and punched through the other side.

Even if it were a beehive round, she would have still been a step ahead of them.

"Nyah-nyah! Missed me! HAHAHA!"

At that, Tulip stepped out of cover again to point her finger at the tank. In this moment, as every single gun and rifle aimed at them, it felt as though her finger carried the authority of the devil's daughter herself. The remaining power armors with the enemy Neko opened fire, the constant impacts of automatic fire bouncing off the hull like a furious hail, while the heavier two-inch wide cannon shells smashed themselves against the hull and bounced, ringing their tank like a bell while leaving deep gouges and craters.

Ones that started adding up on top of each other quickly as the armor started to glow a dull red.

Aya growled in frustration as the sabot round missed. Hopefully, the tank's hull could take the maelstrom of enemy fire for just a while longer. She quickly selected a HEI round and waited for the autoloader to perform its task. "I've got a plan. Dimitri, could you suppress them?"

The Star Army Neko fired a stream of coax at the enemy positions, trying to force them back into cover. Releasing the trigger, she elevated the main gun and took aim not at the Reapers, nor Tulip's frustratingly elusive Mindy... but the roof of the Mega Mall. She fired the main gun.

Dimitri sat back up in his chair after the main canon fired and glanced to Aya.

"Suppress unbridled lust and violence with only dual machinegun? Wont be the crazies thing I did today." He turned the top gun towards the NMX and fired, spreading his shots out and trying to cut off their movement to keep them from getting away from where they were already. He noticed the main canon raise and smirked getting what Aya was thinking, or at least a little.

"Sif, the rocket launcher on the back rack has three HEAT shells. Grab it and help bring the house down."

The moment the autoloader slammed the next shell into the cannon's breach, Aya already had the shell sent screaming downrange and into the Megamall. The Star Army of Yamatai didn't put much stock in large bore cannons and explosive shells, but the moment this tank fired, it proved its worth; concrete and rebar came tumbling down over some of the enemies as a small mushroom cloud ominously loomed over them all. The blast would have leveled a small apartment building, but with the sheer size of the Megamall, and how spread out the enemy power armors were, it was only the first step. It would have only sapped the powerful defensive barriers of a power armor, but the buildings were nowhere near as tough.

The dual autocannons were considered obsolete by many, since they only did as much damage to a power armor as a rifle sized platform like a LASR, but as Dimitri doggedly hammered away, the shells penetrated through walls to hit armors in cover and detonated across the scene in lines of fiery blossoms. Something the LASR couldn't claim to do. Chunks of the mall fell under the assault, forcing the enemy Reaper's to fall back and take cover as they were suppressed or dodge the dangerously deteriorating building they were in.

Again on their displays within the tank, alarms went off - a high energy signature appeared from somewhere in the mall, just as a white lance stabbed at them. Armor instantly disintegrated at the slightest touch with the ivory glow, the surrounding metal melting and boiling away from the glare. Tulip rapidly followed up the first shot with several more, knocking out sensors across the vehicle before the Autocannon beside Aya burst into sheetmetal and bolts. The autoloader brought up another shell, but stopped midway through as the ram-rod failed to send it home into the breach.

Right beside Aya and Dimitri sat this shell, the autoloader's magazine held open as it malfunctioned.

"I just got free - you buried the launcher and it's missiles under your two gauss cannons," Sif sourly remarked, hefting the relatively crude weapon she just managed to fish out. "How is the vehicle holding up?" she asked.

"Kuro, do you think you can climb under into here? The front armor wont last much longer after another one of those." Dimitri kept his guns on the Neko's as best he could, there wasn't much more he could do now that the sensors had been shot out he only had basic cameras.

"That aether canon is getting really annoying...why don't we have one of those!?" He complained over the coms as he tried to find something that was still working with his free hand, just one sensor to trace back that canon.

Aya was about to pump a fist in victory when the warning came up on her sensors. She braced herself for impact - no way was she going to let herself get rattled around this time. As the piercing glow subsided, Aya noted that the baleful blast from Tulip's aether cannon wrought tremendous destruction - most of her sensors were knocked out, and the diagnostics on one of her touchscreens displayed the coaxial autocannon in an angry red.

The familiar click-clack of the autocannon seized up mid-flow, dying away to be replaced with an ominous silence. Slowly - as though she feared moving too quickly would cause it to detonate - Aya turned to see the shell sitting in the loading tray. Realizing the danger everyone was in, the Neko bit back a curse and leaned over, ramming the HEI shell into the cannon. She wasn't confident that this would be enough to "wake up" the autoloader, but at this stage she just wanted to do something.

Using her own basic sights, the Neko tried again to take aim at the building. "We lost most of our sensors and my autocannon, and the autoloader is only intermittently reliable - if we can't get this done soon, I'm not sure that the tank will still be in a working state."

Turning in her seat, Kuroneko showed him her right side, untouched by Tulip's blade.

"Just make sure you go down swinging," she told him. At that moment, Aya had curled her fingers into a fist and shoved it right up the rear of the shell, forcing it forward along the two metal guide rods and slammed it into the breach. Just as she was about to fire, another voice cut in again as Sif spoke up.

"I found the launcher and the other rockets - you two need to cover me, for just a few seconds," the Neko told them. "I"m going after her myself to finish this."

When Dimitri fell back to his station again and hit the zoom on his basic optics, he could still see muzzle flashes as shells struck the tank. Firing it again, the belts of his gun blurred by as they were consumed by the weapon and spat out, punching through cover to strike the overly confident or start to bury the rest. With her remaining weapon operational again, Aya was quick to find the spot with as many of the enemy power armors clustered close together as possible and fired again. This time, the entire right half of the front collapsed as several of their guns fell silent, the power armors buried alive as their pilots struggled to climb out.

Just as the recoil jammed the already damaged turret ring, keeping it from turning.

Right then, a second high energy signature showed up on their displays, this time right on top of the tank. In an instant, it parted as they watched Sif streak away towards the mall. Carrying the rocket launcher in one hand and the backpack of warheads tied to her waist, she wasted no time in firing it as quickly as she could load. Blasts peppered the shattered front of the Megamall as the enemy Reapers dug themselves out and got ready to fire again, only to be struck by the Sylph's barrage of rockets and energy pulses. Ammunition spent, the launcher was tossed aside as she vanished into the interior with her drones right behind her.

Right as thunderous fire rained from the sky into the Mega Mall - overhead, a Plumeria was descending through the raining skies as its Anti-Aircraft cannons opened fire, the remaining front structure finally collapsing in on itself under the whithering assault. Enemy fire stopped pelting the tank as the ship continued forward, the darkened clouds returning as rain took its place. Inside, they could hear the armor hissing as the water instantly vaporized on contact, the three crew members still sitting there there in the dying machine.

Somehow alive.

"Understood!" Aya hoped that Sif could finish off the depraved Neko once and for all. The enemy power armors being buried under the right half of the mall's front facade almost seemed like an encouraging sign. Less encouraging, however, was the diagnostic update notifying her of the jammed turret. The tank was immobilized, and so unless the enemy obliged her by walking into her sights the main gun was as good as useless now.

She watched as the Sylph made its journey, silently praying that she'd pull through. Just then, the stirring - and more than a little intimidating - sight of a Plumeria came into view, the ship making its presence known in a deadly fashion. Enemy fire slackened, and then dropped away entirely, leaving Aya, her thoughts, and the other impromptu crew alone.

"We... made it," murmured Aya, sounding it out as though the mere statement of the fact would somehow unravel all of their hard fighting. It almost felt unreal. But a new concern hitched in her mind. "But what about Sif? She was in the Mega Mall too."

Dimitri did not stop the top mounted gun and kept the fire going to suppress the NMX Nekos. He did not have the firepower like the main turret to collapse the building so he could only keep his sights on the armor and try to lure them into the falling rubble as Aya and Sif tried to bring the building down on them.

When Sif made her move to head into the building itself, he was feeling rather confident about their victory. Having emptied another belt of ammunition on both sides he quickly opened the hatch and pulled himself out, grabbing his rifle and positioning himself behind the tank.

Before he could fire though there was a roar of much higher caliber weapons fire as streaks of light rained on the MegaMall, quickly collapsing it under it's might. Dimitri soon found himself cheering, and jeering at any NMX that somehow managed to survive the collapse by luck. However his celebration was cut short by Aya's comments of Sif "Shit...she was..Sif are you in there!?" He shouted over the comm line trying to get her attention.

Inside the tank, they could only hear the hissing-pop as water sprinkled onto the tank's hull, the droplets either vaporizing in an instant, or hovering above the metallic surface as their own evaporation into steam kept them afloat. But even then, it was faint. Dull. Almost quiet in the dead machine - as it was a show model, the tritium fuel for the reactor was running out as the lights shifted, bathing the interior in a dark red. They could both hear Kuroneko's breathing.

Though she hadn't said a word, that alone told them that she was fine for now.

From Sif, there was no reply. However, their radios started to speak into their ears as contacts began to show up on the Tank's dimming displays, closing in from behind. "This the Star Army of Yamatai - unknown vehicle, identify yourself," a voice spoke up.

The near silence was starting to become worrying rather than soothing. Aya found herself fidgeting with her hands, hoping that Sif's voice would break the silence with a caustic comment. But it never came. The light inside the tank hull turned an ominous shade of red. Aya took some small comfort from the fact that Kuroneko was stable. And then the contacts showed up, just as a new voice came over the radio.

She paused, uncertain how to respond for a brief moment. "This is Santô Hei Miyamoto Aya of Squad 13, Fifth Fleet First Division, Fourth Company, Second Platoon. I am with two other soldiers of the Star Army of Yamatai. We... commandeered this vehicle, but we've taken casualties and the tank is totally wrecked. We were under the command of Jôtô Heisho Si - Nishizaki, but she entered the mall to fight an enemy officer just before you arrived. I... I don't know if she's alright." Her concern was palpable over the radio.

A pause.

"Sorry for dumping that on you, we've just been through a lot," she finished lamely.

Dimitri moved to the front of the tank as Aya spoke to the officers on the other side of the radio and opened the driver compartment to get Kuro out. "One of us is a type 29 that was captured by the NMX, she's severely injured as well." He looked her over first to make sure of the situation and if she was in a condition to be moved he would pull Kuro out gently and try to do whatever he could to help her condition.

He went back to the in squad communications though and called Sif once more "Sif, now's not the tiem to be doing that silent thing, we've got a Plumeria out here. Where you got them or not just fall back."

"Copy that - we'll start sweeping the area and clear it of hostiles. One of my medics will be there shortly. You'll be alright. Just sit tight until another vehicle comes up for extraction," the woman's voice crackled over the comms. As she said that, the contacts on the tank's display fanned out and moved past the vehicle, a single dot on the sensors falling behind to make its way to the disabled vehicle. At the same time, Dimitri could see her too - another Daisy, but with a woven belt pack emblazoned with a red cross.

Running up to him as he opened the driver's hatch, the woman asked, "Can you all hop out? How bad is she?"

"Very hungry," a familiar voice grumbled from under the hatch. Looking down at Kuroneko, they could see that the left side of her body had been horrifically burned to the point that she was blackened and charred into unrecognizably. Her eye on that side had literally popped out of its socket even. But for all that horror, Kuroneko's right side was still mostly intact. The expression she gave was none at all, as the Neko stared straight through them all. "Also...I'm a Twenty Seven. Not a Twenty Nine." A faint smile tugged at the right corner of her lips, the other half being immobile. "I thought you figured that already. After all we've been through," she added, reaching her good arm up to him.

Though Dimitri had cued the comms to try and reach Sif, they remained silent as the other squad made its way closer and closer to the ruined mall-front, weapons drawn. Aya, out of the cracked view ports and periscopes, the cameras no longer working, could see them advancing through the sea of abandoned cars while Dimitri saw them do so personally.

Aya thought about thanking the mysterious woman, but decided against it. She could thank her in person soon enough. She simply sat there, waiting patiently like a prisoner waiting to be taken from their cell. The Neko could see a pair of boots dead ahead, but she didn't dare get her hopes up. When the soldier made her request, Aya slowly opened up her hatch and clambered out. She had to look away as she finally saw Kuroneko's marred features.

Dimitri was formerly a thug before he came to Yamatai, he had seen his fair share of violence but nothing as bad as Kuro's current condition. He would've thrown up if he was not forcing it back with all his being. These kind of wounds would surely cause death if she were not in fact one of Yamatai's NH models, so Dimitri's concern much outweighed his thoughts of disgust. "Alright a 27 then." He took her hand as she raised it, smiling behind his helmet. "I never was good telling the difference, so when we get back you can tell me all the differences okay Kuro?"

His eyes left her briefly to see what the reinforcement squad moved, but they had more than enough to deal with any stragglers that remained. There was no need for him to go to assist so he kept his attention on Kuro. Even if there was a medic there to look after her, he was raised to not leave a comrade when they were in such a condition.

Lifting her up and out, all three of them could hear the distinct, faint sound of charcoal crumbling. "That's good. Just sit her up at the side of the tank against the turret, sort of like how she was sitting inside," the medic explained, reaching into her pack. Bringing out what looked like a collapsed beach umbrella, minus the cloth, she jammed its end into the dirt. "Cobbled together volumetric canopy. We won't be seen," the medic explained, reaching into her bags again to bring out a sack of clear ruby red hemosynthetic fluid. Just as she started the infusion, their comms started to chatter again.

"Those of you at the tank that are still combat capable, could you come up to the Mega Mall?" the officer from earlier asked. "We might just need the extra firepower."

Just as Kuroneko's lone good hand tore into a Type 30 Field Ration and pulled out a ham and cheese sandwich, she stopped mid-bite. "Don't forget your cannons - you both left them in the bustle rack," the Tiger-Haired Neko reminded the two. "And don't worry about me - go help them find Sif." It was hard to though. Even when she spoke, they could see that even the inside of her mouth wasn't entirely spared from the Aetheric burns she had taken.

Aya shuddered as she heard the sound. It only emphasized the severity of the injuries Kuroneko had taken - and the luck she had in surviving. She did as the medic asked and helped prop Kuroneko up on the tank's side. The medic's calm demeanor and patient explanations helped Aya feel less on edge. However, the SAOY officer's sudden request seized Aya's attention. What's going on? she wondered. "Yes, ma'am," she said to Kuroneko, feeling less confident than she sounded. But at least the older Neko was now in good hands - and she didn't seem to be in immediate danger of dying.

Quickly, she hopped up on to the turret and leaned forward to collect her cannon and its ammunition from the bustle rack. Once she had it connected, she said to Dimitri, "Do you think...?"

She left the obvious implication unsaid.

Dimitri assisted in getting Kuroneko out of the tank as well, being careful as possible. If he could he'd have stayed till he was sure Kuro was at least stable, but the situation wouldn't allow it. The officers from teh reinforcement team were calling for him and Aya to help support. He stood slowly and sighed, Kuroneko was giving advice even in her current condition so there was no way he could just neglect his duty.

He moved to teh back of the tank to get his own equipment and turned to Aya as she spoke up. "I'm sure it's just a precaution. Even if she somehow was alive, she shouldn't be putting up much of a fight after getting caught up in that." As he spoke he attached his own cannon and made sure the systems were working appropriately.

"Geeze, you guys were lucky," one of the Daisies nearby remarked. Looking over the tank they were in, the armored vehicle had taken all sorts of punishment from every which way. "You're really lucky they didn't have more heavy arms like the shoulder cannons," she remarked. Though the entirety of its surface was pockmarked by small arms fire most likely from the LASR, some spots to the point of having started to soften from the sheer amount of impacts and heat, it was clear that the cannons were what did the most damage. From outside, they could all see craters as wide as a fist, the shells embedded in the armor. But with the one round that made it through the turret's side, they could clearly look right into the interior.

"Come on, this way," the Squad Leader beckoned them. Getting ready to leave the canopy, her own Daisy activated its camouflage as she strode out. Making sure to get clear of the vehicle enough so that any onlookers wouldn't be able to pinpoint the medic and Kuroneko, her thrusters briefly flared to life, boosting her in a series of massive long-jumps to the entrance where she waited for Dimitri and Aya to follow. Already, the rest of her squad was scanning the rubble under them.

"There's a good handful of them that are still alive but buried ma'am. Do we dig them out?" one of the other Daisies asked the Squad Leader.

"No. Leave them here for now - get ready to move in." Turning to Dimitri and Aya she asked, "Can either of you tell us who your fireteam leader was, and what we're dealing with in there?"

Dimitri brought his armor's cloaking system online and followed out after the rest of the Daisies. Hearing that some where still alive gave him hope that Sif could still be in there and alive, jsut with damaged communications systems. "Umm Sif..can't remember her last name at the moment, I'm actually a rescuee that just got picked up here. As for inside..there is a sniper at least, I don't know how many men Tulip had but judging by their attitudes most of them probably got buried."

"Yeah, we were," said Aya as she surveyed the damage. Now that she could get a better look at it, she was intensely grateful that the tank had held up as well as it did. And, for that matter, that the NMX Nekos didn't manage to get more lucky shots in. Turning her attention to the squad leader, she followed her lead and activated her own active camouflage. Boosting after the Daisy, she spared a glance at the rubble. She felt bad for them - being buried under rubble would be a horrible way to die - but it was tempered by the knowledge that they had been shooting at their squad just minutes earlier.

"Our fireteam leader was Nishizaki Sif. The commander of the enemy forces here seems to be an expert at setting up ambushes, and she had an aether cannon too. I don't know if she's still alive, but she's not to be underestimated - even if she is insane," explained Aya. She knew that she hadn't even covered half of it, but the mere possibility of having to fight Tulip put her on edge. That in turn made it hard to think critically.

The squad leader stopped in her tracks.

"Tulip? You said Tulip?!" the woman exclaimed. "How are you still - forget it. Squad!" she shouted to the rest of her soldiers. "Hard kill! We're dealing with Tulip, but Sif the Scarlet is on her ass - we need to get in there and give her backup. I want us moving fast, silent and deadly like a fat Nepleslian's fart, got that?" The initial dismay that Dimitri and Aya saw ripple through this other squad at the mention of Tulip turned into a grim resolve as their leader did her best to work them up into a fervor. It all brought to question just how long Sif and Tulip had been active, and why they were so well known in this fleet however.

"Move out!"

At her order, the unseen squad spread out and pushed into the Mega Mall, where once again, everything was eerily silent. The damage that the rampaging tank had left behind was distinct, its treads biting into the marble floor, but new damage was already obvious - the penetrating burns from both Sif and Tulip's weapons could be seen everywhere, all leading down and to the left around the corner.

Towards a certain foodcourt they both knew well.
 
Aya blinked behind her helmet. Obviously this was far from the first time the SAOY had to deal with this madwoman - and if the squad leader's comment was any indicator, few lived to tell the tale. Hopefully, Dimitri, Kuroneko, and herself would join that select few. It was no surprise, then, that she had to get her squad pumped up for what was coming next.

The blue skinned Nekovalkyrja trailed behind the squad leader, quietly taking in the mall. It had been difficult to tell the true scale of the destruction the tank had wrought during its hasty escape whilst they were on the move, but now that she could take it in (almost) at her leisure, it was far more obvious. What was less obvious was who had come out on top of the duel between Sif and Tulip.

The first indicator Aya had of where the force was going was a gnawing sense of deja vu. It suddenly clicked, and she pondered the implications. However, she decided it was probably just coincidence rather than any intentional plan on either combatant's part.

Dimitri did not know how to take the squad leader's response to hearing about Tulip's involvement in all this. One one hand he was little proud for surviving an encounter with someone that made a whole squad tremble, but on the other he was just more worried about Sif who was taking her on.

He followed after the group, making sure his weapons were ready to fire at a moment's notice as he looked around, taking in the scenery and gathering as much information as he could. He could not hear any weapon's fire so they either were far away or in a stand off, but the damage from their exchange was making it clear which direction they went.

"It looks like they're heading for the food court" The young man whispered over the com system, making a slow approach in that direction.

As they neared, the two could see that things weren't as they left it.

The familiar bullet holes were still left behind, with the occasional gaping gaps gouged out by a certain someone's cannon, but the new scars were everywhere. Coming in, they could see that the entire concourse was practically in flames. Fire retardant materials burned slowly around where beams of energy had seared their way clean through dozens of rooms, while ragged slashes across the floor, ceiling and walls marked where Tulip had to have been. Perhaps chasing or being chased by Sif, lashing out frantically in a crazed rage. And despite all this carnage, there wasn't any sign of either.

No high energy signature, no weapons fire, no psychotic ranting or flat snarking.

Until, unmistakably, a frying pan dropped onto the floor in one of the eateries.

It seemed that the battle had taken on an entirely new intensity as it reached the concourse. Even after all that she had witnessed, Aya was still taken aback by the carnage. It seemed impossible for the fight to have not been ended right here and now. Aya proceeded cautiously, keeping a steady look out as she did so.

The clatter of the frying pan made Aya spin on her feet to face the direction of the unexpected noise. "I think that one of them is over there," she said. A brief second later, she added unhelpfully, "Let's hope it's Sif..."

Dimitri was in awe at the damage that had been done to teh area. Their fight before involved many suits firing back and forwards and even a fair share of struggles, yet just two people alone managed to do much more damage and in less time, just how intense was their fight? He could only imagine and even then it seemed more like something out of a movie than what was before him.

The sound of the pan hitting the floor caused him to snap around in that direction, barely stopping himself from shouting out a "Who's there." He wasn't sure if the fight was really over yet, he did not want to reveal his location and get caught in the crossfire, so he kept his mouth shut and carefully moved over.

Keeping silent, the other squad's leader gestured to the others with her hands, her silhouette visible through their suit uplinks. Though it was tempting to give the orders verbally, the muffled words could still be heard through their helmets, and telepathy risked them accidentally talking. The fluidity of it was, in this case, a possible danger. As the squad fanned out to take good firing positions, Dimitri and Aya found themselves advancing with the squad leader and two others. Here, the damage hadn't been too severe, meaning that the fight didn't end here.

This was likely just where the victor had gone.

Passing through the small sea of tables and chairs, some of the plastic trays laden with food that had gone bad - or even taken on a life of its own in the absence of humanity - still remained. But as they finally cleared the tables and decorative paper barriers, their eyes quickly spotted something amiss. Scorched red and patched with crudely welded metal, it was now cleanly punched through, the penetrating shot having simply melted straight through Sif's helmet.

It simply lay abandoned on the floor in front of the ramen store.

Having followed with the others Dimitri was not the first to see what was there, but he was rather shocked to see what he did. Sif's helmet; for a moment he had thought maybe her head had been taken with it, but he had to remind himself that she was a mini type. She could easily still be alive but he was not sure how her systems would hold out without the head unit.

Very tempted to turn on his active rader, he resisted the urge and kept to the passive as he looked around trying to see if he could find any signs that might indicate where Sif went from there, scuff marks, metal fragments, anything really.

Aya stalked forward, trying to minimize the noise her armor made as she moved. She was surprised that the plastic trays and their contents had managed to survive both the initial and latest skirmish intact, but that was rapidly becoming the least notable thing to happen today.

Sif's helmet seemed almost like a makeshift tombstone for whoever had lost this particular battle - and Aya couldn't rule out the loser being Sif. With her heart in her throat, she slowed almost to a crawl and approached the ramen store from an angle, weapon raised.

Working forward, entering it through the upraised portion of the counter, the two could hear the ripping of flesh and smacking of lips as whoever it was ate. It sounded almost animalistic, practically like when they had first found Kuroneko. Whoever it was, had to be wounded and doing this to regenerate their wounds the same way the Taii they had rescued had been doing as they had left. Stacking up with the squad leader behind the cash register and right in front of the open doorway, the squad leader raised her hand, with three fingers raised.

Then two.

One.

Moving forward, fast and silent with weapons raised, they rounded the corner. What they saw had translucent, ruby red flesh. Bloody, and purely hemosynthetic in nature. The bone underneath it was blurry and difficult to fully make out, but it was there. Supporting armor just as red and bloody as its head. Finally sensing them, this thing turned, only to look at them with its eyeless skull, the contents of its meal visible through its semi-formed and see-through cheeks.

Sif's Sylph was holding a bowl of ramen in one hand, and chopsticks in another.

Aya almost couldn't stand the wait, but she forced herself to move only on the squad leader's signal. The sight that greeted her on the other side of the corner was hideously macabre, almost like an evil spirit given half-formed flesh. Aya had to fight the urge to vomit, and even then she dry heaved once before she could get her revulsion under control.

The figure was wearing a Sylph; it looked like Sif had survived after all, unless Tulip had somehow managed to strip her corpse and - No, she mentally chided herself. Don't invent problems.

She simply stood there, ready to act if need be.

The sounds of tearing flesh did not bring any pleasant images to Dimitri's mind, he was sure that things were about to get rather gruesome, but he had to follow, even if what he was about to see was going to be the last thing he wanted to see.

The figure was something out of a horror film, bloody masses of unnatural flesh glinting in the light to reveal pearl white bone. The only conclusion Dimitri could make was that it was some kind of monster. He raised his rifle, ready to fire, but before he did he noticed the armor was one he had seen quite a bit recently. It was Sif's, and she was eating noodles in the most gluttonous way possible, but at least it was not some beast of the battle field.

He sighed and lowered his shoulders relaxing at that, just shaking his head lightly.

Standing there, the crimson skulled sylph simply stared at them with eyeless sockets as the chopsticks in its armored hand picked up a bunch of noodles. Tilting its head back, the monstrosity opened its lipless mouth to take in the food before chewing, the entire process far too visible from behind the red hemosynth that made up its flesh. It seemed to ignore them however, and kept on eating, the next item it grabbed from the bowl being a large steak that haphazardly leaned over the rim.

"You do realize that isn't me, right?" a familiar voice spoke up.

In the corner of the room, sat a seven inch tall woman atop a power armor's mini-missile launcher nestled in between jars of spice on a kitchen shelf. Its hatch was open and pointed at them all as she sat next to a makeshift trigger of loose wires and a TV remote. Eying them as she bit into a piece of meat, skewered onto a toothpick and hilariously massive in comparison to herself, she chewed as her armor chewed as well.

"Whaht?" Sif asked, her mouth full.

Aya stared at the Sylph for a few seconds longer, trying to suppress a shudder and mostly succeeding. Sif's voice cut through the air like a knife, making Aya jump in surprise. Her gaze shifted from the Sylph, to Sif, to the Sylph, and back to Sif. Her confusion was evident even through the impassive armor.

"Wait, if that isn't you, then what is... it?" She pointed at the Sylph by way of explanation.

Honestly, Aya was relieved that Sif seemed to be okay, but that didn't make this any less bizarre or unsettling.

Dimitri was rather disturbed by the image in front of him and that the figure just continued to eat with such a lifeless expression. But hearing Sif speak up from the side he turned quickly to see and was now rather confused. He had the same question as Aya but did not feel the need to repeat, only to add on to it

"And why is it eating?"

"My Sylph," the Mini-Neko flatly answered them. "And because it was damaged," she added.

"Wait, what about...Tulip?" the squad leader asked, the uplink between their suits allowing Dimitri and Aya to see her face. And how she simply stared at the Sylph as it ate, eyes following the tips of its chopsticks up and down from bowl to mouth and bowl again. "Is...is the area clear?" the purple eyed Neko asked, mesmerized in horror at what she was looking at.

"I was getting to that," Sif blandly replied, dipping her meat-on-a-stick into a small bowl of Worcestershire sauce. Taking her time to then take another bite out of her food, then chew, clearly enjoying her steak and then swallowing, she continued, "It turns out that Tulip is scared of zombies." Again, she dipped it, this time, into some tangy BIG AL STEAK SAUCE from Nepleslia. Needless to say, the Mini-Neko felt that she didn't need to elaborate on it. By this point however, the Sylph had now tilted it head back all the way as it poured the remaining contents of the ramen bowl into its mouth and simply chugged the broth, the journey down its throat clearly visible through translucent flesh before the armored collar cut it all off from view.

Slowly and methodically, it turned to get itself some more.

"Oh," said Aya lamely, feeling rather foolish for not figuring it out herself. It seemed like she and Dimitri were not the only people disturbed by the Sylph, as the squad leader was also watching in perverse fascination as it ate.

The revelation that Tulip of all people was terrified of zombies almost made Aya double-take. It seemed exceedingly unlikely, but whatever got results...

"So, um, what now?" asked Aya.

Dimitri listened and just nodded lightly not even sure what to make of all this. "Honestly...zombie or not...I would be afraid of that thing." He looked around for a place to sit and try to relax some.

"A medic is tending to Kuroneko, I think she'll be okay." With all the man's worries taken care of he coudl feel the energy seeping from his body as the tension left him.

With that last word however, Sif stopped her uncaring eating of her steak to properly look at them. Even as pale, white and colorless flesh began to horrifyingly grow over the head of her Sylph, the expression she wore was solely focused on them.

"Arigatou," she softly answered them all.
 
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