Z
Zack
ON> Planet 188604, just outside the city of Osman
The city of Osman was in a panic.
Its army was fractured, several thousand men dug in shallow trenches were defending the city from attack on one front, and trying to put out a series of fires spreading out on the other.
The city was sandwiched between a large, green body of water on one side that was filled with a thick, green algae... and a mountain on the other that provided some protection against the harsh wind.
The army attacking from the front had a large number of soldiers on foot, and a several thousand strong force of house mounted cavalry charging toward their blue coated opponents. Cannon and musket fire was filling the air, and as all of this was going on, a pair of small freighters had taken up position far above the battle...
"OK! This looks like the biggest two gangs on the planet. REMEMBER We want to terrorize them into submission, not just kill every last one of them. Errowyn and anyone who wants to stay up here should help keep an eye on the battle below.... Maybe blow up those cannons. I doubt their weapons can hurt us but don't get too cocky" Uso said, she was suited up in one of the Impulse power armors, an SMG taped to her back, another taped to her left leg, and ammo taped here and there.
"Look for commander types, grab em, bring em somewhere we can talk to them. Maybe get them on our side, but leave no doubt that we're the biggest, baddest, things on this planet now."
Uso had also attached speakers to the top of her helmet... and with a quick tap she turned them on.
"ALRIGHT THEN! LETS GO SHOOT SOMETHING!"
Without wasting any more time, Uso would jump out the lower hatch of the Freighter!
First off the F6 was Ragnarok and Cyrus. All decked out in their PAs and ran towards the fighting. Cyrus opened up the comms. "We will go start some chaos in town with the minimum amount of force and max amount of show." He said as his troops all ran put in coordinated fashion.
Next one to walk out the ship was Raphael cycling his AMR-1 Anti material rifle. He had painted his armor jet black and accented with crimson. He opened his wings as he walked and began to hover. "Lets see what happens when I descend into the middle of the battle." He said shooting off into the sky.
Meanwhile, on the other ship, Haruhi set her ship to hover, systems on standby autopilot and climbed into the power armor Uso had provided for her. It had been delivered on their mid journey detour to shake off possible pursuers. It was an old battered and beat up armor covered in rust and scorch marks and dents, that Uso had fitted a padded cockpit into the chest cavity. Miniature displays and system readouts were there for her, as well as a mini spine connection for her to plug into. But, the best thing, is that the armor had tons of empty space, empty space that was now crammed full of candy bars for Haruhi to nom on when she got bored. This tickled the tiny neko to no end as she wiggled her way into the small cockpit and plugged in.
"Time to go make things go boom!" she grinned as she picked up the big person weapons she had been provided with and attached them to their storage hard points before engaging the armor's counter grav and floating out the airlock to join the others! (Haruhi's adventure continued here)
Once the troops had disembarked from the freighter, She flew the ship back in space, leaving Haruhi to give overwatch to the troops that left the F6. Once she had the F6 in stable orbit about the planet. She darted to her small cabin and climbed into her flight suit which can double as a space suit. She exited the ship via an airlock and made her way to the top of the F6 where her Kawarine was at. She carefully unsecured one end of the cbles and then gently nudged her Kawarime away from the F6. Soon she was climbing into the cockpit of her fighter. She ran a quick checks and soon had it powered up and ready for action. She connected up life support and connected to the Kawarime through her SPINE. One last check on the F6. She used thrusters to get distance from the F6. Then kicking in her aether power plant and main thrusters.
The Kawarime dove, streaking past Raphael as he rose into the sky, from the Heavens like an Avenging Angel upon the battle raging below. Streaks of aether cannon fire from the two nose cannons lanced out, hitting the Cannons on one side, yet her other aether cannon drew a line in the ground and hitting anyone that crossed her path. Her Aether turbines whining at a high angry pitch as she streaked over the two battling armies. She had friendlies highlighted on her HUD to avoid them.
There was a loud crack as Uso made a perfect super-hero landing, kicking up the wet, muddy, surface of the planet as the rest of the team followed in behind her. Almost immediately musket balls were bouncing off the back of her armor from the blue coated soldiers... and in front of her was a large spread of several thousand soldier in various uniforms, many riding horses. Those on foot would stop to take aim with their muskets, while the rest would ride towards them, pulling out their pistols and taking shots. There was barely any time for them to register what was happening before Uso responded, using her pack's thrusters to charge forward and deliver an uppercut to the nearest soldier on horseback, the force sending a large cloud of blood and what remained of his body up into the air, raining chunks down on the nearest soldiers.
The armies cannons began to sight in on the new comers, before simply evaporating in a flash of light, the loud explosions following shortly after as the Kawarime dove past, wiping out both side's artillery in mere moments. From her perch high above the battlefield Errowyn could see the massive charge begin to falter as the soldiers started to see the new threat, each individual trying to process what was going on for themselves without the aid of modern communications gear.
Raphael was hovering silently high above the fight. As he had flew pass, he dropped small microphones on both sides. His suit had then begun the process of deciphering their language. His suit chimed as it cracked the code and soon was ready to translate anything he said. He activated his mics and patched into everyone elses suits as well, so his voice was propelled from multiple direction. Just from the panicked shouts he could almost recognize the language. It was Trade, or at least had words that sounded very close to it. It wouldn't be hard to figure out the missing pieces, even without a compuer.
"ENOUGH!" He yelled as his black and crimson armor slowly descended from the sky. He hovered directly between all of the combatants. "Lay down your arms, or bring upon the wraith of the gods!" He called.
Errowyn listening on the command team frequencies, hearing Raphael give the ultimatum, She dove to the ground firing to raise a cloud of mud fast drying into dirt clods that rained down on the combatants of the planet. But not even coming close to Raphael, giving him a more God like presence and screamed over head of her ship parting the air, then a few seconds laters came roaring of the Aether turbines giving chase, leaving a wake of rising dust like a boat cutting through water at high speeds.
Raphael looked down upon them all. "You have disgraced us! Your bickering and fighting have forced us to leave our homes in the heavens to restore order to your wayward world."
Cyrus took Raphaels cue and had Ragnarok take up positions around Raph and Uso. They stood in perfect military fashion. Being relieved once the earth had settled to the ground, making it as if they appeared at Uso's side acting upon Raph's unspoken command. Cyrus knelt and commanded the others to do the same. "Oh mighty Empress Uso, please command me and your loyal soldiers. Shall we spare these mortals or shall we make an example of these fools?" He asked bowing his head deeply awaiting Uso's word. Raphael descended as well, kneeling down a bowing his head. "Have you need of your angel of death mistress?" Raphael asked.
Errowyn listening in on the action below brought her Kawarime down to hover above them and slowly spun in a circle to add more to the illusion of Uso power at her command. Having a taste of her firepower that reached out beyond their range of weaponry.
"Huh?" Uso asked as she punched the head off another soldier, grabbing his musket at the same time and using it like a spear, throwing it at a soldier charging on horseback, "Yes! GO DO THE THING! Keep blowing them up until they realize they need to surrender. Errowyn, have a look around, let us know if you see anything that looks like a general on either side. We want to grab as many in-charge people as possible."
Soldiers were certainly still shooting at them from both sides, the small metal bullets continually impacting their armor from all directions, but their weapons weren't strong enough to do any real damage. Instead it just sounded like they were in a weak hail storm. Of course, while the other soldiers on the ground couldn't react as quickly as modern soldiers, they were slowly starting to get the picture. Soldiers charging on horseback were pulling out sticks of TNT, lighting them with the muzzle flash of their guns and riding up towards the group in order to toss the sticks towards the power armored soldiers.
The soldiers that were on foot were starting to panic. Some would continue to shoot at the power armored soldiers, loading their muskets quickly to keep up the rate of fire. Others were dropping their guns and hiding against the ground while still others turned tail and ran!
Meanwhile on the other side of the battle, the blue coated soldiers were being rally'd, thousands of men were grouping up in the trench closest to the power armored soldiers and had established a firing line, sending a large volume of ineffective fire towards the Ragnarok soldiers.
Cyrus stood and pulled out his man cannons. "To hell with this shit! Ragnarok! OPEN FIRE!" He ordered as he began firing away with his pistols at the closet squad of soldiers. He began charging towards the combatants who had just launched a volley at them. As he did he kept firing away, until he reached their trenches, where he began dropping grenades.
Raphael sighed, and rose into the air. He looked towards the other side of the hill at the approaching cavalry and began picking them off with his Sniper rifle. The fact that it was an anti material rifle meant that every shot didn't stop until it burred in the ground behind them. His bullets tore threw multiple soldiers that were approaching, many of who just lit their TNT.
When the first pings of projectiles off her hull, the natives were not buying it. Errowyn open up with Aether cannons into the crowd of soldiers over the heads of the teams on the ground into the rank and file of the massed troops. Cutting them down in a rain Aether cannon fire. She rose her Kawarime out of the Muskets range of either side, cutting swaths of the troops down, leaving behind charred bodies of once were living being. Man or animal wasn't spared as she began to be more selective in her shots.
Her Kawarime clanged as it shuddered and visibly wobbled by a lucky shot from one of the old gunpowder cannons balls smacking into the hull. Errowyn howled at the infusion of reading as she commanded her Kawarime to climb for higher altitude. She ran scan and caught the puff of smoke from a cannon or two she had missed in her first run. She spun her Kawarine onto the target and once target lock was registered, she demolished the cannon, crew and its meager supply of gunpowder and cannon balls.
She spotted an area on the side of the hill, high above the plains of battle and out of range of the cannons. She radioed Cyrus and Raphel the location of what was the Command Field Headquarters of one of the Armies on the plain of battle below. Seeing stacks of barrels of gunpowder, she smiled and sent Aether cannon fire right into the barrels of gunpowder. The explosion sent cloud of debris, earth, smoke and flame high into the sky. The Blast concussion toppled over neatly stacked supplies and tore at the nearby tents as burning materials rained down on the supplies. Secondary and Tertiary explosion erupted among the supplies as flame leaped for the sky along with more debris, leaving behind devastation and the wounded. Craters where gunpowder and explosive once were stored.
Ace ran after Cyrus into the trench shooting all the way there. "Wow! First an entire gang and now an army glad I signed up!" Ace then vaulted out of the trench and ran into the closest enemy doing what he did best beating the hell out of people in a close quarters battle. After he became tired of hitting people with the butt of his rifle he decided to use his knife while picking up speed. He cut down enemies as quickly as he got to them turning into a blur on the battle field he felt a couple of wounds but he would worry about those later. He had noticed the pilot of the other crew and he had thought about how small she had looked. It must have been scary to have seen everyone in the Ragnarok crew rush by he had thought to talk to her but decided to do it later. He would talk with her after he finished fighting if he wasn't heavily wounded or dead that is. "Hey Cyrus are their any other friendlies out there I'll try and make my way to them." Ace said over the coms. "Also if anyone finds a terminal let me know i can have Aries raid it for info on these guys."
"Thanks Erro, I'll head that way now," Uso said, covering the distance to the headquarters situated on the hill with a few quick rocket powered jumps. Her Impulse powered armor would land with a heavy crash in the center of the camp, small fires spread all over the place from Errowyn's last volley of fire. Right in the middle of the camp was a rather ornate jacket along with a flag, "Damnit.... Someone got smart and is trying to blend in with the rank and file... look for someone without a jacket that should be wearing a jacket... probably running away from this hill somewhere." Uso said, her eyes slowly scanning the area. One of the remaining rebel soldiers would emerge from hiding in one of the craters, bravely taking a shot right at Uso.
"Well.... you're dead." She said, picking up a cannon ball and walking over to the poor man...
...
*CRUNCH!*
Cyrus and Ace would see the ranks of the soldiers in the trench start to thin out. Their bullets finding their mark in soldier after soldier... Of course, there were THOUSANDS of them there. They didn't have enough bullets to kill them all. When Ace reached the firing line he was met with a wall of bayonets... that simply bent when they hit his powered armor. He could hear the sharp 'clang' of metal on metal, and see the panicked look on their faces. In mere moments the firing line started to dissolve, men starting to back off, then drop their weapons in an outright rout, turning their backs and fleeing in all directions from the armored soldiers. Those that remained seemed resigned to their fate They both could see the cold calculations going on in their eyes. There was no escape after all, only a question of when they would be gunned down.
About a dozen men rushed them both, jumping onto their power armors, trying to hold onto the arms and shoulders as best they could.
Then someone lit their remaining bundle of TNT, rushing straight for Ace!
Raphael had much better luck, his shots quickly finding their mark. A hundred man cavalry charge quickly becoming a 90 man charge.... then 80.... Explosions started going off as the dropped sticks of TnT began exploding, the remaining mounted soldiers turning tail and scattering. Unlike the soldiers in blue, these soldiers seemed less disciplined, and less ready to die for their cause.
And above it all Errowyn could see the progress of the battle. The power armors had landed right in the thick of it. Slowly the entire battlefront was starting to understand what was going on. It started in the center, and just radiated outwards, soldiers dropping their weapons and fleeing in all directions, scattering to the winds. Her shots had all found their marks, leaving bright, glowing puddles of metal steel where cannons used to be. The secondary explosions kicking up dirt and flame. The city that the blue soldiers were defending already looked like it had been damaged, but now the fires were starting to rage out of control, small embers burning around the city starting to grow and join together into larger fires, spreading from wood and stone building to wood and stone building.
"Hey Errowyn!" Uso shouted again, "Mind hitting the ones trying to escape? Try and pin them down so they stop moving... we're going to want an audience later," The cannon ball in Uso's hand was slick with blood... as she looked up at the fight zooming over head, and then down towards the soldiers running about.
Holy shit, was all Corgan could think as he jumped out of the ship in a suit of Impulse Powered Armor. He landed on his feet with a thump and checked that his weapons were still there. His HHG was taped to the right hip of the armor and a shotgun taped to his back, with a magazine for his shotgun taped to his chest. Muskets? Cannons? He had heard their armaments were primitive but hearing about it was different than seeing it. He almost laughed. As planned, he ran forward with the rest of Ragnarok to engage the natives.
He didn't exactly enjoy the theatrics and he sure as hell didn't like bowing to a Nekovalkyrja. Of course, this one didn't seem so bad, but she also had hired them to subjugate a whole planet. That was another thing he wasn't thrilled about, but he was wearing Power Armor and getting paid, so he couldn't really complain. Not to mention the whole badassness of their entrance which appealed to both the Nepleslian and ID-SOL in him.
The order to open fire came and he shrugged. Time to show these guys some real firepower, he thought. He followed Cyrus into the trenches with Ace and pulled his Styrling Auto Twelve from his back. Then he started firing 12 gauge buckshot at anyone stupid enough to get close to them.
The slick battle scarred Kawarime streaked across the skies, Circling over the battlefield, laying down surgical Aether Cannon fire when one of the ground Mercs got bogged down. Errowyn vaporized the man with the TNT rushing toward Ace, but the TNT exploded from the heat of the Aether energy. Several shots Aether cannon fire missed Ace by whiskers, taking out several of those trying to gang up on him. She heard Uso orders and gave chase after them to herd them back to the field of battle. Those that were determined to make it, either died or got lucky and made it to the cover of the woods that would lessen the effects of her Aether Cannons. She wasn't going to waste her missiles to flush them out. Not till she had a serious connections to get replacements.
Seeing the Aether energy hit the man running at him Ace looked up to the sky for a split second to thank god for the air support. "Thanks for the assist Miss." He said over the comm to the pilot of the ship Errowyn he thought her name was. She was a good pilot he would admit that and he would definitely talk to her later but now he needed to finish this he was getting paid after all. Hearing the order to obtain prisoners Ace sprinted after the 2 nearest soldiers that looked important catching up to them easily and snatching them by their collars. "I liked to have a friendly chat with you two. Don't worry I won't kill you don't like killing anyhow." He started back to the ships.
Errowyn smiled softly at thanks from one the group of Mercs she hauled halfway across space to probably meet his doom on some forgotten planet. But not on her watch while she had the means to provide as much protection mortally possible. She rained terror from the sky with impunity, leaving many of the native dead in smoking ruins to litter about the vast field of battle. Groups of Natives from both sides were beginning to see the light of just simply surrendering. First it was a few, then more and more joining those that threw their weapons to the ground and formed a group with a someones bloodstained white t-shirt as a flag of surrender. Those blue gather with those in blue on side and on the other side, the mix-matched of the other group. For they both now had a common enemy that came out of the sky.
Cyrus threw punches at the enemy soldiers trying to hold him down, only to see them get vaporized. He glanced up at the that cute pilot that had flown by. "Thank ya Hellcat!" he called jumping to his feet. He watched run after the men and catch them. He smiled, "Damn fine work Ace, get that pair out of the combat zone asap." He said turning to get back to work. He activated comms. "Hellcat, Cyrus, clear me a path up to that command group! Corgan, on me! Let's take thses guys down!" He called firing away as he began charging towards the enemy.
"Ten-four sir already on it." Ace than began to go at a speed that probably was uncomfortable for his two 'passengers'."Hey...umm..Uso was it? Yea well anyways I have a pretty important looking pair here heading back to the ships with them now." Ace took a closer look at the two and saw that they were a young boy and a woman. "Man your a young chap huh buddy?"
Raphael let out a wolfish grin as his rounds plowed through the enemy soldiers. He continued firing, only stopping for a second to reload. As the enemy charge began to scatter, he looked up towards the enemy commanders. He popped several grenades and threw them at the charging enemy. He then flew into the air towards the sun as fast as he could Spreading his wings as he reached his set altitude. "All units, out of my strike zone!" He called as he turned toward the enemy's command unit and began to fall... fast. As he fell, he put his rifle on his back and drew two submachine guns. He felt the air rush around him as he broke the sound barrier sending out a thunder clap as he hit the ground with considerable force. Raph then procceded to fire at the combatants guarding the leaders.
Corgan watched Ace take off with two prisoners. So far he hadn't really run into much resistance. The air support was very effective, and Raphael and Uso were drawing most of their fire as far as he could tell. He nodded at Cyrus and followed, taking shots at a few soldiers who were stubbornly resisting. Obviously not all of these people were smart enough to know when they had no chance whatsoever. Granted, the guys throwing TNT did concern him a bit.
Sighing softly seeing the a large group of native soldier waiting on ambush for Cyrus and those with him in a trench to wide to jump. ~~This is gonna cost ya Uso!~~ She thought to herself and sent a hellfire anti-ship missile streaking ahead of Cyrus and his group. Right into the native troops huddled in a large group to await the beasts from the stars.
The missile launch and streaked toward it intended target and exploded with the fury unleashed, sending massive amounts of earth, parts of smouldering bodies, smoke, and fames high into the air
Ace reached the ships and deposited the guest there and tied them down. "Sorry bout this but cann't have you two running off." The boy was sobbing hard which worried Ace. "Whats wrong buddy you can tell me I'll try to help." "M...My lilttle sis was...with me at the castle we're relatives t..to the head politician and I..I'm worried about her. The castle is on fi..fire now and she m..might still be in there. P..please help her shes only eight years old...Please I'll do anything." The boy was clearly delirious at this point. "What holy shit. No..I-I'm just like those pirates that killed my parents. Wait she might still be alive." Ace turned on his comms "Hey I'm heading to the castle now gonna recover a princess got the prince here right now so someone might want to see to him." And Ace was off pushing the suit to its limits as he rushed to get to the castle hoping to make it in time. As he soared over the city, he'd see that the fires from earlier were starting to spread. Large swaths of the wooden and stone builders had caught on fire, the small embers turning into large flames. Some people were desperately throwing sand onto the fires to try and snuff them out, while others were fleeing entirely. There didn't seem to be much that looked like a castle... at least not when compared to the towering stone structures from fantasy books. The closest thing that matched it was a two story building, the only one of its kind in the area, with heavy stone walls and numerous wood and stone structures inside. He could easily see where doorways and hatches led downward, no doubt into cellars or other parts of the structure. It had a certain air of authority about it, gardens out in the open, candles along the interior of the walls, even lamp posts. It may have even looked nice if much of it wasn't already on fire, thick black smoke billowing out from the underground. There were guards too... some even took aim at Ace, but no one had the guts to fire on him.
"If she's cute I'd like to meet her!" Uso sent back to Ace, pausing for a moment before adding, "Actually, bring anyone of importance back, even if they are ugly!"
Uso chuckled to herself a bit, watching as Errowyn made short work of just about everything.
~Well shit... that was a good shot. Guess I should start calling her Hellcat now~ she thought to herself watching her favorite pilot-for-hire rack up some impressive kills. ~Oh fuck, she used the missiles!~ "HEY HELLCAT! GO EASY ON THE EXPENSIVE STUFF I'M ON A BUDGET!"
When Corgan entered the trench along with Cyrus they had been met by soldiers ready to make a defiant last stand. Explosives had been prepared, guns readied, knives frantically used to try and make some headway...
When Corgan and Cyrus had emptied their first magazines there was little left besides chunks of meat and tattered blue cloth.
The soldiers near them may have been professionals, but no one on this planet had seen such devastation dolled out so quickly. Those that needed a moment to think would see Raphael dive past, a sonic book knocking many to the ground, explosions and gunfire erupting in all directions. At this point there were now only two types of soldiers, those that were running for their lives, and those that hoped laying on the ground would let them survive. The rebel faction of soldiers, or at least the ones with horses, were scattering in all directions, doing their best to escape the area on horseback while the soldiers in blue coats began to flee out of the trench and into the city, leaving behind their weapons, ammo, and equipment.
It wouldn't be hard for Corgan, Raphael, and Cyrus to see the large tent, filled with fat soldiers that had more shiney buttons on their uniforms than the rest. These officers watched, their mouths gaping, as they saw what a fully automatic shotgun could do to a group of people without body armor. One by one they would snap back to reality, quickly turning tail and running back into the city.
"I sware, you guys better be finding and capturing leader types for me!" Uso snapped, annoyed that she had let her quarry get away. She was looking around for something that seemed like a rebel leader.... but no one quite seemed to match that description.
Ace could feel the heat of the flames as he had worked his way to the castle he was sweating his butt off in the armor. "Hey you two could you help me out here I'm trying to save people here." He said gesturing to the two guards pointing guns held in shaky hands at him. "Look fellas I don't want to hurt you and you don't want to die right so then help me with what I want and you can live to see another day or shppt at me and watch me bend those rifle into shapes you didn't know they could be bent into." The guards lowered their weapons. "Good now where is the royals around here?" The guards shaky reply was "Th-their in the m-main ch-chamber." "Thanks." Ace said then was off in a flash he knew enough about castles to know that the main chambers would lie in the center.
Deciding to go for a shock factor Ace ploughed through the wall of the room emerging on the other side to a hail of bullets he simply just sent a powered stomp into the floor sending everyone else off their feet. "Now don't try anything funny or I might get angry." He could see two politicians and one had a rifle in his hands. "Hello you two we already have your son so if you don't want him to die your going to come with me."
"Never in your wildest dreams demon begone from here." The man snarled at him
"Woah bud no need to get angry and besides there is nothing that you have that could possibly hurt me."
"Then what about this." The man said and then proceeded to shoot both himself and the other.
"Shit!! Hey Uso the top dogs just committed suicide I'll try and retrieve the princess." Over hearing what Ace had said the guards all began to fire at Ace yelling something about protecting the final heir till their last or something. "Man you guys are annoying well don't say I didn't warn you." Ace then began a long and bloody search for the princess every room he searched was always full of guards who either shot at him on sight or pleaded for their lives at his feet. He tried to just knock out the stragglers but ended up killing most of them. Getting annoyed at having to hold back so much and still killing a lot he just started going full out. He eventually found the princess well more like she found him. She witnessed him rip the spine out of some poor fellow and immediately started screaming bloody murder and calling him a monster or demon what ever it was and it hit Ace hard but he didn't show it. "Hey there lil girl I've been looking for you Ace then picked her up and carried her over his shoulder as he started back to the ships again. "Targets acquired people wrap up what your doing we have royalty as guest and I'd hate to make them wait." Ace made it back in no time at all he then untied the prince and the Captain. "Don't try anything funny." Ace then made sure that they didn't have any weapons on them before finally taking off his armor. "You guys must be hungry here I'll get something for you."
The boy was startled "Wait your human?!"
"Yes I'm bloody human kid and ow turn down the volume that hurts my ears."
"Ugh... dead leader types, great.... Drag what you got over to us... I guess we'll set up right in the middle of the field and do the 'work for us or die' bit there." Uso said over the comms to Ace.
"Hey...umm Uso lets not at least not on the boy and his sis. The two already have enough to deal with. Could you umm... leave them to me perhaps?"
Meanwhile the boy and his sister looked terrified. Their family and many of the people they knew hda recently died in front of their eyes either at the hands of the other soldiers, or at the hands of the metal men who were still rampaging around the city. The boy would look up at the now helmet less soldier holding him hostage and add, "I don't want to die..."
Seeing the kid look so worried Ace decided to grab a seat and talk to him. "Look kid I'm not gonna kill and I don't think any of the others will either and if they do then I'll stop them so your fine so just calm down ok." Ace gave the kid a warm smile hoping that it would help soothe the kid. "I'm a mercenary not a soldier I do what I'm paid for. Plus I already told you I don't like killing much."
Errowyn flew above the battle field ready to respond when the ground troops needed support from her craft could provide. She would have to bring the F6 Freighter to the planet pretty soon to where the other ship was parked. She made lazy circles and herding those natives to the central group of those that surrendered in the interest of returning to family. The smarter natives that fled, taking to the woods she would let go and not waste her time in chasing them down to draw her away from Mercenary group she was supporting.
"Nice work... you coulda earned the call sign 'sheepdog' if you wanted," Uso commented on the all hands channel, watching as the soldiers who fled away from the city were ground down by the fighter craft's fire, their numbers turning back, confused, not knowing where to go.
Raphael dark helmet scanned the area finding the fat commanders in the command tent. As he entered the tent, they started to protest until Raph grabbed two of them and placed them both in sleeper holds. They squirmed until they both passed out from oxygen deprivation. "This is Raphael. I have two important looking POWs. Evacuating from the AO." He stated as he hefted the two and walked out of the tent.
Cyrus ran past the explosions and past the rest of the enemies defenses to find the other armies command unit. He pointed his hand cannons at the leader and the second in command. "Hands up!" He called as he slowly moved closer to pat them down. As he did he found knives and pistols on their person. He threw the weapons away and bound the pairs arms behind their back. "This is Cyrus, I have POWs as well. Right behind you Raph." He said placing his guns to their backs. "Walk!"
Corgan reloaded his shotgun and followed Cyrus into the tent, making sure no one could sneak up on him. He didn't know if any of these guys were crazy enough to try a suicide bombing on them. Better not to take their chances on whether or not TNT could damage their armor. "Hello there, gentlemen. I would listen to the man if I were you." He said to the two Cyrus was aiming at.
"RIGHT, LINE EM UP!" Uso shouted over the all hands channel, switching over to the external speakers she had mounted on her suit's helmet. She would give the soldiers plenty of time to get everyone side by side, the boy and the sister that Ace found, the four soldiers that Raphael and Cyrus located.
It wouldn't be long before all six were lined up in-front of her,
"SO GREAT NEWS!" She shouted over the speakers, "I NEED HELP RUNNING THIS PLACE, AND YOU GUYS WANNA LIVE. SO HOW ABOUT IT? HELP ME RUN THIS PLACE AND LIVE WELL?" She would look at the boy that Ace found... he seemed to be the best dressed... and then over at the fattest soldier that Cyrus had brought... no doubt a general of some type. She would pull the two SMGs off her armor that she had taped in place, tossing one to each of her chosen.
Quietly the boy and the general would look at the guns, and then over at each other... for a brief moment sharing a solemn nod.
The general was quite firm in his resolve, picking up the weapon with steady hands.
The young boy nervously doing the same.
*BABABABABABABAAM....CLICK*
Uso's armor was riddled with bullets, leaving small dents all over the front. She was, unfortunitly for them, otherwise intact.
"Ballsy.... *CRUNCH!*" Uso brought her fist down ontop of the general's head, practically crushing it down into his chest. She then picked up his SMG, reloaded the magazine, and tossed it over to the next one in line. She then walked over to the kid, lifted up her fist, and hesitated for a moment.
"Uso! That's enough" Haruhi called over the commlink to their leader. "He doesn't know any better. I think he's learned his lesson by watching what you just did to their general" she explained quickly, stepping up beside Uso, ready to grab the boy and pull him out of thee way. "What better candidate to work for us than someone who saw our power and survived to tell the tale about it rather than people who were not even here to see what happened and are just relying on second hand rumors?"
Seeing that both armies were in disarray and fighting had came to a stop and both side were surrendering to the newcomers to the battle that didn't choose any side, but decimated both equally. Plus with the craft in the sky that even their best cannons couldn't harm nor reach after the one lucky hit. Those that were not dead or dying, tossed their weapons in piles and moved away from them to sit on the ground amidst the carnage that they had started between themselves and the newcomers had rudely interrupted. The fight had gone out of them. Those that were unlucky not being able to escape. Formed up neatly as you pleased and in single file marched forward to pile their muskets in neat stacks as if they were stacking logs then in the next pile came the gunpowder flasks. The last pile were the bags of bullets. They marched past the Mercenaries and sat down in neat orderly ranks Blue coats in one group and the ragtags in another group. Those that had horses, hobbled and picketed them in neat rows, before joining the file to add their muskets, powder and balls to the growing stacks. Then joined up with their respective units, under the watchful eyes of the Mercenary group that Uso had hired.
Ace seeing what Uso was about to do had put himself in between her and the boy. "Sorry but I promised him something and I keep my promises." "Hey kid could you hand me the gun." The boy shaken from what he just witnessed didn't respond or even move. "Oh Jesus kid here." Ace then took the gun and handed it to Uso. "Leave the boy and his sis to me I'll handle them and take responsibility for their actions."
Raphael did as he was told and lined them up. He was worried what Uso was about to do, and he was right. As the general that he and Cyrus captured had his head caved in, Raph jumped into action. He grabbed the fist that was held up in the air. He opened a channel to only him and Uso. "Baby, what the fuck was that! You need to back off and let the one who was trained to do this handle it." He said gently pushing her back. "Remember our talk on our first date? This is not how you become the ruler of the planet. You have to gain their trust and use that trust to your advantage..." He said dropping his hand. "Let me handle this? Please darlin?"
Cyrus remained quiet as this all went down. But, once the man lost his head and Ace jumped in to save the young man and his sister Cyrus stepped next to Ace. He grunted."I am with you kid. We will protect these two. They don't deserve this..." He said crossing his arms defiantly as Raph talked with Uso.
The city of Osman was in a panic.
Its army was fractured, several thousand men dug in shallow trenches were defending the city from attack on one front, and trying to put out a series of fires spreading out on the other.
The city was sandwiched between a large, green body of water on one side that was filled with a thick, green algae... and a mountain on the other that provided some protection against the harsh wind.
The army attacking from the front had a large number of soldiers on foot, and a several thousand strong force of house mounted cavalry charging toward their blue coated opponents. Cannon and musket fire was filling the air, and as all of this was going on, a pair of small freighters had taken up position far above the battle...
"OK! This looks like the biggest two gangs on the planet. REMEMBER We want to terrorize them into submission, not just kill every last one of them. Errowyn and anyone who wants to stay up here should help keep an eye on the battle below.... Maybe blow up those cannons. I doubt their weapons can hurt us but don't get too cocky" Uso said, she was suited up in one of the Impulse power armors, an SMG taped to her back, another taped to her left leg, and ammo taped here and there.
"Look for commander types, grab em, bring em somewhere we can talk to them. Maybe get them on our side, but leave no doubt that we're the biggest, baddest, things on this planet now."
Uso had also attached speakers to the top of her helmet... and with a quick tap she turned them on.
"ALRIGHT THEN! LETS GO SHOOT SOMETHING!"
Without wasting any more time, Uso would jump out the lower hatch of the Freighter!
First off the F6 was Ragnarok and Cyrus. All decked out in their PAs and ran towards the fighting. Cyrus opened up the comms. "We will go start some chaos in town with the minimum amount of force and max amount of show." He said as his troops all ran put in coordinated fashion.
Next one to walk out the ship was Raphael cycling his AMR-1 Anti material rifle. He had painted his armor jet black and accented with crimson. He opened his wings as he walked and began to hover. "Lets see what happens when I descend into the middle of the battle." He said shooting off into the sky.
Meanwhile, on the other ship, Haruhi set her ship to hover, systems on standby autopilot and climbed into the power armor Uso had provided for her. It had been delivered on their mid journey detour to shake off possible pursuers. It was an old battered and beat up armor covered in rust and scorch marks and dents, that Uso had fitted a padded cockpit into the chest cavity. Miniature displays and system readouts were there for her, as well as a mini spine connection for her to plug into. But, the best thing, is that the armor had tons of empty space, empty space that was now crammed full of candy bars for Haruhi to nom on when she got bored. This tickled the tiny neko to no end as she wiggled her way into the small cockpit and plugged in.
"Time to go make things go boom!" she grinned as she picked up the big person weapons she had been provided with and attached them to their storage hard points before engaging the armor's counter grav and floating out the airlock to join the others! (Haruhi's adventure continued here)
Once the troops had disembarked from the freighter, She flew the ship back in space, leaving Haruhi to give overwatch to the troops that left the F6. Once she had the F6 in stable orbit about the planet. She darted to her small cabin and climbed into her flight suit which can double as a space suit. She exited the ship via an airlock and made her way to the top of the F6 where her Kawarine was at. She carefully unsecured one end of the cbles and then gently nudged her Kawarime away from the F6. Soon she was climbing into the cockpit of her fighter. She ran a quick checks and soon had it powered up and ready for action. She connected up life support and connected to the Kawarime through her SPINE. One last check on the F6. She used thrusters to get distance from the F6. Then kicking in her aether power plant and main thrusters.
The Kawarime dove, streaking past Raphael as he rose into the sky, from the Heavens like an Avenging Angel upon the battle raging below. Streaks of aether cannon fire from the two nose cannons lanced out, hitting the Cannons on one side, yet her other aether cannon drew a line in the ground and hitting anyone that crossed her path. Her Aether turbines whining at a high angry pitch as she streaked over the two battling armies. She had friendlies highlighted on her HUD to avoid them.
There was a loud crack as Uso made a perfect super-hero landing, kicking up the wet, muddy, surface of the planet as the rest of the team followed in behind her. Almost immediately musket balls were bouncing off the back of her armor from the blue coated soldiers... and in front of her was a large spread of several thousand soldier in various uniforms, many riding horses. Those on foot would stop to take aim with their muskets, while the rest would ride towards them, pulling out their pistols and taking shots. There was barely any time for them to register what was happening before Uso responded, using her pack's thrusters to charge forward and deliver an uppercut to the nearest soldier on horseback, the force sending a large cloud of blood and what remained of his body up into the air, raining chunks down on the nearest soldiers.
The armies cannons began to sight in on the new comers, before simply evaporating in a flash of light, the loud explosions following shortly after as the Kawarime dove past, wiping out both side's artillery in mere moments. From her perch high above the battlefield Errowyn could see the massive charge begin to falter as the soldiers started to see the new threat, each individual trying to process what was going on for themselves without the aid of modern communications gear.
Raphael was hovering silently high above the fight. As he had flew pass, he dropped small microphones on both sides. His suit had then begun the process of deciphering their language. His suit chimed as it cracked the code and soon was ready to translate anything he said. He activated his mics and patched into everyone elses suits as well, so his voice was propelled from multiple direction. Just from the panicked shouts he could almost recognize the language. It was Trade, or at least had words that sounded very close to it. It wouldn't be hard to figure out the missing pieces, even without a compuer.
"ENOUGH!" He yelled as his black and crimson armor slowly descended from the sky. He hovered directly between all of the combatants. "Lay down your arms, or bring upon the wraith of the gods!" He called.
Errowyn listening on the command team frequencies, hearing Raphael give the ultimatum, She dove to the ground firing to raise a cloud of mud fast drying into dirt clods that rained down on the combatants of the planet. But not even coming close to Raphael, giving him a more God like presence and screamed over head of her ship parting the air, then a few seconds laters came roaring of the Aether turbines giving chase, leaving a wake of rising dust like a boat cutting through water at high speeds.
Raphael looked down upon them all. "You have disgraced us! Your bickering and fighting have forced us to leave our homes in the heavens to restore order to your wayward world."
Cyrus took Raphaels cue and had Ragnarok take up positions around Raph and Uso. They stood in perfect military fashion. Being relieved once the earth had settled to the ground, making it as if they appeared at Uso's side acting upon Raph's unspoken command. Cyrus knelt and commanded the others to do the same. "Oh mighty Empress Uso, please command me and your loyal soldiers. Shall we spare these mortals or shall we make an example of these fools?" He asked bowing his head deeply awaiting Uso's word. Raphael descended as well, kneeling down a bowing his head. "Have you need of your angel of death mistress?" Raphael asked.
Errowyn listening in on the action below brought her Kawarime down to hover above them and slowly spun in a circle to add more to the illusion of Uso power at her command. Having a taste of her firepower that reached out beyond their range of weaponry.
"Huh?" Uso asked as she punched the head off another soldier, grabbing his musket at the same time and using it like a spear, throwing it at a soldier charging on horseback, "Yes! GO DO THE THING! Keep blowing them up until they realize they need to surrender. Errowyn, have a look around, let us know if you see anything that looks like a general on either side. We want to grab as many in-charge people as possible."
Soldiers were certainly still shooting at them from both sides, the small metal bullets continually impacting their armor from all directions, but their weapons weren't strong enough to do any real damage. Instead it just sounded like they were in a weak hail storm. Of course, while the other soldiers on the ground couldn't react as quickly as modern soldiers, they were slowly starting to get the picture. Soldiers charging on horseback were pulling out sticks of TNT, lighting them with the muzzle flash of their guns and riding up towards the group in order to toss the sticks towards the power armored soldiers.
The soldiers that were on foot were starting to panic. Some would continue to shoot at the power armored soldiers, loading their muskets quickly to keep up the rate of fire. Others were dropping their guns and hiding against the ground while still others turned tail and ran!
Meanwhile on the other side of the battle, the blue coated soldiers were being rally'd, thousands of men were grouping up in the trench closest to the power armored soldiers and had established a firing line, sending a large volume of ineffective fire towards the Ragnarok soldiers.
Cyrus stood and pulled out his man cannons. "To hell with this shit! Ragnarok! OPEN FIRE!" He ordered as he began firing away with his pistols at the closet squad of soldiers. He began charging towards the combatants who had just launched a volley at them. As he did he kept firing away, until he reached their trenches, where he began dropping grenades.
Raphael sighed, and rose into the air. He looked towards the other side of the hill at the approaching cavalry and began picking them off with his Sniper rifle. The fact that it was an anti material rifle meant that every shot didn't stop until it burred in the ground behind them. His bullets tore threw multiple soldiers that were approaching, many of who just lit their TNT.
When the first pings of projectiles off her hull, the natives were not buying it. Errowyn open up with Aether cannons into the crowd of soldiers over the heads of the teams on the ground into the rank and file of the massed troops. Cutting them down in a rain Aether cannon fire. She rose her Kawarime out of the Muskets range of either side, cutting swaths of the troops down, leaving behind charred bodies of once were living being. Man or animal wasn't spared as she began to be more selective in her shots.
Her Kawarime clanged as it shuddered and visibly wobbled by a lucky shot from one of the old gunpowder cannons balls smacking into the hull. Errowyn howled at the infusion of reading as she commanded her Kawarime to climb for higher altitude. She ran scan and caught the puff of smoke from a cannon or two she had missed in her first run. She spun her Kawarine onto the target and once target lock was registered, she demolished the cannon, crew and its meager supply of gunpowder and cannon balls.
She spotted an area on the side of the hill, high above the plains of battle and out of range of the cannons. She radioed Cyrus and Raphel the location of what was the Command Field Headquarters of one of the Armies on the plain of battle below. Seeing stacks of barrels of gunpowder, she smiled and sent Aether cannon fire right into the barrels of gunpowder. The explosion sent cloud of debris, earth, smoke and flame high into the sky. The Blast concussion toppled over neatly stacked supplies and tore at the nearby tents as burning materials rained down on the supplies. Secondary and Tertiary explosion erupted among the supplies as flame leaped for the sky along with more debris, leaving behind devastation and the wounded. Craters where gunpowder and explosive once were stored.
Ace ran after Cyrus into the trench shooting all the way there. "Wow! First an entire gang and now an army glad I signed up!" Ace then vaulted out of the trench and ran into the closest enemy doing what he did best beating the hell out of people in a close quarters battle. After he became tired of hitting people with the butt of his rifle he decided to use his knife while picking up speed. He cut down enemies as quickly as he got to them turning into a blur on the battle field he felt a couple of wounds but he would worry about those later. He had noticed the pilot of the other crew and he had thought about how small she had looked. It must have been scary to have seen everyone in the Ragnarok crew rush by he had thought to talk to her but decided to do it later. He would talk with her after he finished fighting if he wasn't heavily wounded or dead that is. "Hey Cyrus are their any other friendlies out there I'll try and make my way to them." Ace said over the coms. "Also if anyone finds a terminal let me know i can have Aries raid it for info on these guys."
"Thanks Erro, I'll head that way now," Uso said, covering the distance to the headquarters situated on the hill with a few quick rocket powered jumps. Her Impulse powered armor would land with a heavy crash in the center of the camp, small fires spread all over the place from Errowyn's last volley of fire. Right in the middle of the camp was a rather ornate jacket along with a flag, "Damnit.... Someone got smart and is trying to blend in with the rank and file... look for someone without a jacket that should be wearing a jacket... probably running away from this hill somewhere." Uso said, her eyes slowly scanning the area. One of the remaining rebel soldiers would emerge from hiding in one of the craters, bravely taking a shot right at Uso.
"Well.... you're dead." She said, picking up a cannon ball and walking over to the poor man...
...
*CRUNCH!*
Cyrus and Ace would see the ranks of the soldiers in the trench start to thin out. Their bullets finding their mark in soldier after soldier... Of course, there were THOUSANDS of them there. They didn't have enough bullets to kill them all. When Ace reached the firing line he was met with a wall of bayonets... that simply bent when they hit his powered armor. He could hear the sharp 'clang' of metal on metal, and see the panicked look on their faces. In mere moments the firing line started to dissolve, men starting to back off, then drop their weapons in an outright rout, turning their backs and fleeing in all directions from the armored soldiers. Those that remained seemed resigned to their fate They both could see the cold calculations going on in their eyes. There was no escape after all, only a question of when they would be gunned down.
About a dozen men rushed them both, jumping onto their power armors, trying to hold onto the arms and shoulders as best they could.
Then someone lit their remaining bundle of TNT, rushing straight for Ace!
Raphael had much better luck, his shots quickly finding their mark. A hundred man cavalry charge quickly becoming a 90 man charge.... then 80.... Explosions started going off as the dropped sticks of TnT began exploding, the remaining mounted soldiers turning tail and scattering. Unlike the soldiers in blue, these soldiers seemed less disciplined, and less ready to die for their cause.
And above it all Errowyn could see the progress of the battle. The power armors had landed right in the thick of it. Slowly the entire battlefront was starting to understand what was going on. It started in the center, and just radiated outwards, soldiers dropping their weapons and fleeing in all directions, scattering to the winds. Her shots had all found their marks, leaving bright, glowing puddles of metal steel where cannons used to be. The secondary explosions kicking up dirt and flame. The city that the blue soldiers were defending already looked like it had been damaged, but now the fires were starting to rage out of control, small embers burning around the city starting to grow and join together into larger fires, spreading from wood and stone building to wood and stone building.
"Hey Errowyn!" Uso shouted again, "Mind hitting the ones trying to escape? Try and pin them down so they stop moving... we're going to want an audience later," The cannon ball in Uso's hand was slick with blood... as she looked up at the fight zooming over head, and then down towards the soldiers running about.
Holy shit, was all Corgan could think as he jumped out of the ship in a suit of Impulse Powered Armor. He landed on his feet with a thump and checked that his weapons were still there. His HHG was taped to the right hip of the armor and a shotgun taped to his back, with a magazine for his shotgun taped to his chest. Muskets? Cannons? He had heard their armaments were primitive but hearing about it was different than seeing it. He almost laughed. As planned, he ran forward with the rest of Ragnarok to engage the natives.
He didn't exactly enjoy the theatrics and he sure as hell didn't like bowing to a Nekovalkyrja. Of course, this one didn't seem so bad, but she also had hired them to subjugate a whole planet. That was another thing he wasn't thrilled about, but he was wearing Power Armor and getting paid, so he couldn't really complain. Not to mention the whole badassness of their entrance which appealed to both the Nepleslian and ID-SOL in him.
The order to open fire came and he shrugged. Time to show these guys some real firepower, he thought. He followed Cyrus into the trenches with Ace and pulled his Styrling Auto Twelve from his back. Then he started firing 12 gauge buckshot at anyone stupid enough to get close to them.
The slick battle scarred Kawarime streaked across the skies, Circling over the battlefield, laying down surgical Aether Cannon fire when one of the ground Mercs got bogged down. Errowyn vaporized the man with the TNT rushing toward Ace, but the TNT exploded from the heat of the Aether energy. Several shots Aether cannon fire missed Ace by whiskers, taking out several of those trying to gang up on him. She heard Uso orders and gave chase after them to herd them back to the field of battle. Those that were determined to make it, either died or got lucky and made it to the cover of the woods that would lessen the effects of her Aether Cannons. She wasn't going to waste her missiles to flush them out. Not till she had a serious connections to get replacements.
Seeing the Aether energy hit the man running at him Ace looked up to the sky for a split second to thank god for the air support. "Thanks for the assist Miss." He said over the comm to the pilot of the ship Errowyn he thought her name was. She was a good pilot he would admit that and he would definitely talk to her later but now he needed to finish this he was getting paid after all. Hearing the order to obtain prisoners Ace sprinted after the 2 nearest soldiers that looked important catching up to them easily and snatching them by their collars. "I liked to have a friendly chat with you two. Don't worry I won't kill you don't like killing anyhow." He started back to the ships.
Errowyn smiled softly at thanks from one the group of Mercs she hauled halfway across space to probably meet his doom on some forgotten planet. But not on her watch while she had the means to provide as much protection mortally possible. She rained terror from the sky with impunity, leaving many of the native dead in smoking ruins to litter about the vast field of battle. Groups of Natives from both sides were beginning to see the light of just simply surrendering. First it was a few, then more and more joining those that threw their weapons to the ground and formed a group with a someones bloodstained white t-shirt as a flag of surrender. Those blue gather with those in blue on side and on the other side, the mix-matched of the other group. For they both now had a common enemy that came out of the sky.
Cyrus threw punches at the enemy soldiers trying to hold him down, only to see them get vaporized. He glanced up at the that cute pilot that had flown by. "Thank ya Hellcat!" he called jumping to his feet. He watched run after the men and catch them. He smiled, "Damn fine work Ace, get that pair out of the combat zone asap." He said turning to get back to work. He activated comms. "Hellcat, Cyrus, clear me a path up to that command group! Corgan, on me! Let's take thses guys down!" He called firing away as he began charging towards the enemy.
"Ten-four sir already on it." Ace than began to go at a speed that probably was uncomfortable for his two 'passengers'."Hey...umm..Uso was it? Yea well anyways I have a pretty important looking pair here heading back to the ships with them now." Ace took a closer look at the two and saw that they were a young boy and a woman. "Man your a young chap huh buddy?"
Raphael let out a wolfish grin as his rounds plowed through the enemy soldiers. He continued firing, only stopping for a second to reload. As the enemy charge began to scatter, he looked up towards the enemy commanders. He popped several grenades and threw them at the charging enemy. He then flew into the air towards the sun as fast as he could Spreading his wings as he reached his set altitude. "All units, out of my strike zone!" He called as he turned toward the enemy's command unit and began to fall... fast. As he fell, he put his rifle on his back and drew two submachine guns. He felt the air rush around him as he broke the sound barrier sending out a thunder clap as he hit the ground with considerable force. Raph then procceded to fire at the combatants guarding the leaders.
Corgan watched Ace take off with two prisoners. So far he hadn't really run into much resistance. The air support was very effective, and Raphael and Uso were drawing most of their fire as far as he could tell. He nodded at Cyrus and followed, taking shots at a few soldiers who were stubbornly resisting. Obviously not all of these people were smart enough to know when they had no chance whatsoever. Granted, the guys throwing TNT did concern him a bit.
Sighing softly seeing the a large group of native soldier waiting on ambush for Cyrus and those with him in a trench to wide to jump. ~~This is gonna cost ya Uso!~~ She thought to herself and sent a hellfire anti-ship missile streaking ahead of Cyrus and his group. Right into the native troops huddled in a large group to await the beasts from the stars.
The missile launch and streaked toward it intended target and exploded with the fury unleashed, sending massive amounts of earth, parts of smouldering bodies, smoke, and fames high into the air
Ace reached the ships and deposited the guest there and tied them down. "Sorry bout this but cann't have you two running off." The boy was sobbing hard which worried Ace. "Whats wrong buddy you can tell me I'll try to help." "M...My lilttle sis was...with me at the castle we're relatives t..to the head politician and I..I'm worried about her. The castle is on fi..fire now and she m..might still be in there. P..please help her shes only eight years old...Please I'll do anything." The boy was clearly delirious at this point. "What holy shit. No..I-I'm just like those pirates that killed my parents. Wait she might still be alive." Ace turned on his comms "Hey I'm heading to the castle now gonna recover a princess got the prince here right now so someone might want to see to him." And Ace was off pushing the suit to its limits as he rushed to get to the castle hoping to make it in time. As he soared over the city, he'd see that the fires from earlier were starting to spread. Large swaths of the wooden and stone builders had caught on fire, the small embers turning into large flames. Some people were desperately throwing sand onto the fires to try and snuff them out, while others were fleeing entirely. There didn't seem to be much that looked like a castle... at least not when compared to the towering stone structures from fantasy books. The closest thing that matched it was a two story building, the only one of its kind in the area, with heavy stone walls and numerous wood and stone structures inside. He could easily see where doorways and hatches led downward, no doubt into cellars or other parts of the structure. It had a certain air of authority about it, gardens out in the open, candles along the interior of the walls, even lamp posts. It may have even looked nice if much of it wasn't already on fire, thick black smoke billowing out from the underground. There were guards too... some even took aim at Ace, but no one had the guts to fire on him.
"If she's cute I'd like to meet her!" Uso sent back to Ace, pausing for a moment before adding, "Actually, bring anyone of importance back, even if they are ugly!"
Uso chuckled to herself a bit, watching as Errowyn made short work of just about everything.
~Well shit... that was a good shot. Guess I should start calling her Hellcat now~ she thought to herself watching her favorite pilot-for-hire rack up some impressive kills. ~Oh fuck, she used the missiles!~ "HEY HELLCAT! GO EASY ON THE EXPENSIVE STUFF I'M ON A BUDGET!"
When Corgan entered the trench along with Cyrus they had been met by soldiers ready to make a defiant last stand. Explosives had been prepared, guns readied, knives frantically used to try and make some headway...
When Corgan and Cyrus had emptied their first magazines there was little left besides chunks of meat and tattered blue cloth.
The soldiers near them may have been professionals, but no one on this planet had seen such devastation dolled out so quickly. Those that needed a moment to think would see Raphael dive past, a sonic book knocking many to the ground, explosions and gunfire erupting in all directions. At this point there were now only two types of soldiers, those that were running for their lives, and those that hoped laying on the ground would let them survive. The rebel faction of soldiers, or at least the ones with horses, were scattering in all directions, doing their best to escape the area on horseback while the soldiers in blue coats began to flee out of the trench and into the city, leaving behind their weapons, ammo, and equipment.
It wouldn't be hard for Corgan, Raphael, and Cyrus to see the large tent, filled with fat soldiers that had more shiney buttons on their uniforms than the rest. These officers watched, their mouths gaping, as they saw what a fully automatic shotgun could do to a group of people without body armor. One by one they would snap back to reality, quickly turning tail and running back into the city.
"I sware, you guys better be finding and capturing leader types for me!" Uso snapped, annoyed that she had let her quarry get away. She was looking around for something that seemed like a rebel leader.... but no one quite seemed to match that description.
Ace could feel the heat of the flames as he had worked his way to the castle he was sweating his butt off in the armor. "Hey you two could you help me out here I'm trying to save people here." He said gesturing to the two guards pointing guns held in shaky hands at him. "Look fellas I don't want to hurt you and you don't want to die right so then help me with what I want and you can live to see another day or shppt at me and watch me bend those rifle into shapes you didn't know they could be bent into." The guards lowered their weapons. "Good now where is the royals around here?" The guards shaky reply was "Th-their in the m-main ch-chamber." "Thanks." Ace said then was off in a flash he knew enough about castles to know that the main chambers would lie in the center.
Deciding to go for a shock factor Ace ploughed through the wall of the room emerging on the other side to a hail of bullets he simply just sent a powered stomp into the floor sending everyone else off their feet. "Now don't try anything funny or I might get angry." He could see two politicians and one had a rifle in his hands. "Hello you two we already have your son so if you don't want him to die your going to come with me."
"Never in your wildest dreams demon begone from here." The man snarled at him
"Woah bud no need to get angry and besides there is nothing that you have that could possibly hurt me."
"Then what about this." The man said and then proceeded to shoot both himself and the other.
"Shit!! Hey Uso the top dogs just committed suicide I'll try and retrieve the princess." Over hearing what Ace had said the guards all began to fire at Ace yelling something about protecting the final heir till their last or something. "Man you guys are annoying well don't say I didn't warn you." Ace then began a long and bloody search for the princess every room he searched was always full of guards who either shot at him on sight or pleaded for their lives at his feet. He tried to just knock out the stragglers but ended up killing most of them. Getting annoyed at having to hold back so much and still killing a lot he just started going full out. He eventually found the princess well more like she found him. She witnessed him rip the spine out of some poor fellow and immediately started screaming bloody murder and calling him a monster or demon what ever it was and it hit Ace hard but he didn't show it. "Hey there lil girl I've been looking for you Ace then picked her up and carried her over his shoulder as he started back to the ships again. "Targets acquired people wrap up what your doing we have royalty as guest and I'd hate to make them wait." Ace made it back in no time at all he then untied the prince and the Captain. "Don't try anything funny." Ace then made sure that they didn't have any weapons on them before finally taking off his armor. "You guys must be hungry here I'll get something for you."
The boy was startled "Wait your human?!"
"Yes I'm bloody human kid and ow turn down the volume that hurts my ears."
"Ugh... dead leader types, great.... Drag what you got over to us... I guess we'll set up right in the middle of the field and do the 'work for us or die' bit there." Uso said over the comms to Ace.
"Hey...umm Uso lets not at least not on the boy and his sis. The two already have enough to deal with. Could you umm... leave them to me perhaps?"
Meanwhile the boy and his sister looked terrified. Their family and many of the people they knew hda recently died in front of their eyes either at the hands of the other soldiers, or at the hands of the metal men who were still rampaging around the city. The boy would look up at the now helmet less soldier holding him hostage and add, "I don't want to die..."
Seeing the kid look so worried Ace decided to grab a seat and talk to him. "Look kid I'm not gonna kill and I don't think any of the others will either and if they do then I'll stop them so your fine so just calm down ok." Ace gave the kid a warm smile hoping that it would help soothe the kid. "I'm a mercenary not a soldier I do what I'm paid for. Plus I already told you I don't like killing much."
Errowyn flew above the battle field ready to respond when the ground troops needed support from her craft could provide. She would have to bring the F6 Freighter to the planet pretty soon to where the other ship was parked. She made lazy circles and herding those natives to the central group of those that surrendered in the interest of returning to family. The smarter natives that fled, taking to the woods she would let go and not waste her time in chasing them down to draw her away from Mercenary group she was supporting.
"Nice work... you coulda earned the call sign 'sheepdog' if you wanted," Uso commented on the all hands channel, watching as the soldiers who fled away from the city were ground down by the fighter craft's fire, their numbers turning back, confused, not knowing where to go.
Raphael dark helmet scanned the area finding the fat commanders in the command tent. As he entered the tent, they started to protest until Raph grabbed two of them and placed them both in sleeper holds. They squirmed until they both passed out from oxygen deprivation. "This is Raphael. I have two important looking POWs. Evacuating from the AO." He stated as he hefted the two and walked out of the tent.
Cyrus ran past the explosions and past the rest of the enemies defenses to find the other armies command unit. He pointed his hand cannons at the leader and the second in command. "Hands up!" He called as he slowly moved closer to pat them down. As he did he found knives and pistols on their person. He threw the weapons away and bound the pairs arms behind their back. "This is Cyrus, I have POWs as well. Right behind you Raph." He said placing his guns to their backs. "Walk!"
Corgan reloaded his shotgun and followed Cyrus into the tent, making sure no one could sneak up on him. He didn't know if any of these guys were crazy enough to try a suicide bombing on them. Better not to take their chances on whether or not TNT could damage their armor. "Hello there, gentlemen. I would listen to the man if I were you." He said to the two Cyrus was aiming at.
"RIGHT, LINE EM UP!" Uso shouted over the all hands channel, switching over to the external speakers she had mounted on her suit's helmet. She would give the soldiers plenty of time to get everyone side by side, the boy and the sister that Ace found, the four soldiers that Raphael and Cyrus located.
It wouldn't be long before all six were lined up in-front of her,
"SO GREAT NEWS!" She shouted over the speakers, "I NEED HELP RUNNING THIS PLACE, AND YOU GUYS WANNA LIVE. SO HOW ABOUT IT? HELP ME RUN THIS PLACE AND LIVE WELL?" She would look at the boy that Ace found... he seemed to be the best dressed... and then over at the fattest soldier that Cyrus had brought... no doubt a general of some type. She would pull the two SMGs off her armor that she had taped in place, tossing one to each of her chosen.
Quietly the boy and the general would look at the guns, and then over at each other... for a brief moment sharing a solemn nod.
The general was quite firm in his resolve, picking up the weapon with steady hands.
The young boy nervously doing the same.
*BABABABABABABAAM....CLICK*
Uso's armor was riddled with bullets, leaving small dents all over the front. She was, unfortunitly for them, otherwise intact.
"Ballsy.... *CRUNCH!*" Uso brought her fist down ontop of the general's head, practically crushing it down into his chest. She then picked up his SMG, reloaded the magazine, and tossed it over to the next one in line. She then walked over to the kid, lifted up her fist, and hesitated for a moment.
"Uso! That's enough" Haruhi called over the commlink to their leader. "He doesn't know any better. I think he's learned his lesson by watching what you just did to their general" she explained quickly, stepping up beside Uso, ready to grab the boy and pull him out of thee way. "What better candidate to work for us than someone who saw our power and survived to tell the tale about it rather than people who were not even here to see what happened and are just relying on second hand rumors?"
Seeing that both armies were in disarray and fighting had came to a stop and both side were surrendering to the newcomers to the battle that didn't choose any side, but decimated both equally. Plus with the craft in the sky that even their best cannons couldn't harm nor reach after the one lucky hit. Those that were not dead or dying, tossed their weapons in piles and moved away from them to sit on the ground amidst the carnage that they had started between themselves and the newcomers had rudely interrupted. The fight had gone out of them. Those that were unlucky not being able to escape. Formed up neatly as you pleased and in single file marched forward to pile their muskets in neat stacks as if they were stacking logs then in the next pile came the gunpowder flasks. The last pile were the bags of bullets. They marched past the Mercenaries and sat down in neat orderly ranks Blue coats in one group and the ragtags in another group. Those that had horses, hobbled and picketed them in neat rows, before joining the file to add their muskets, powder and balls to the growing stacks. Then joined up with their respective units, under the watchful eyes of the Mercenary group that Uso had hired.
Ace seeing what Uso was about to do had put himself in between her and the boy. "Sorry but I promised him something and I keep my promises." "Hey kid could you hand me the gun." The boy shaken from what he just witnessed didn't respond or even move. "Oh Jesus kid here." Ace then took the gun and handed it to Uso. "Leave the boy and his sis to me I'll handle them and take responsibility for their actions."
Raphael did as he was told and lined them up. He was worried what Uso was about to do, and he was right. As the general that he and Cyrus captured had his head caved in, Raph jumped into action. He grabbed the fist that was held up in the air. He opened a channel to only him and Uso. "Baby, what the fuck was that! You need to back off and let the one who was trained to do this handle it." He said gently pushing her back. "Remember our talk on our first date? This is not how you become the ruler of the planet. You have to gain their trust and use that trust to your advantage..." He said dropping his hand. "Let me handle this? Please darlin?"
Cyrus remained quiet as this all went down. But, once the man lost his head and Ace jumped in to save the young man and his sister Cyrus stepped next to Ace. He grunted."I am with you kid. We will protect these two. They don't deserve this..." He said crossing his arms defiantly as Raph talked with Uso.
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