RP: 188604 [AdVenture Capital] 11 : B7R-604

[ArsenicJohn]

Corgan sat in the Commander's seat of an Origin Main Battle Tank. Since his Power Armor wouldn't exactly fit in the tank, he wore Styrling-Muur Armor, the helmet sitting in his lap. A blonde Nepleslian woman in similar armor, Lieutenant O'Brien, was in the gunner's seat. The driver was a middle-aged man with a cigar in his mouth, although it was impossible to see him from the driver's seat. He wore a red shirt with Aethersperm written in stylized letters.

The tank followed behind Uso's APC. Corgan watched the information coming in on the volumetric display. He wasn't concerned about the other tanks, just the Rixxikor that were probably coming. If everything went okay the drones wouldn't matter. He just assumed they belonged to the local police or something. But what was the deal with the guy in the shuttle? "Uso, something is wrong here." He said. Everything looked okay on the surface, but this was just too easy.

 

[Samanthia]

'5' :: System B7R-604 - Outer Edge -

Errowyn ignored the insults and barbs sent her way over the radio waves. She prepped for the extraction of M-A Dove before she would jump out to head back to 188604. She watched the two Colony ships and one disgorging bunch of drop pods.

She watch Spacecase make a jump. Wondering what he was up to. What ever it was it wasn't going to be pretty. She maneuvered her Kawarime and began slowly building up speed to see if Spacecase needed some back up. Otherwise she would pull off to wait for the rest of group to rejoin them in space.

 

[Zack]

ON> Cavallon

"... yeaaaah..." Uso said, tapping her fingers against her shotgun as she looked at the rather poor fitting suit their 'target' was wearing. "... I agree, lets go. Get Flynn on the line and have the transport ready."

Alex would feel slightly numb as Uso spoke, like she was a world away. The U-1 would cradle its assult rifle against its shoulder, taking aim just like it was a person, the rifle pointing towards their target.

*BOOM*

It only needed one round, turning the man and the ill-fitted suit into a spray of pink mist. Alex was shocked, both the mecha and his body were moving on their own...The U-1 then aiming slightly upwards at the people across the street. They only had moments to process what had happened, most still in the process of turning towards that loud sound.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Three more people were turned to mist in an instant, large holes carved into the buildings behind them. The loud noises soon joined by screams as people processed what was going on and started running.

Corgan stared at the scene in front of him in disbelief. The driver of the tank, a veteran of the war with the NMX, threw the tank into reverse, trying to find some cover. "What the hell?" He yelled into his headset. "Alex, stand down!" He tried to raise Flynn on the comms. "Flynn, Alex just opened fire on civilians! Someone must be controlling his frame, if that's even possible. He's not the kind of guy that just kills people randomly." Corgan remembered that Alex could hear him, and if Alex could, maybe the person controlling his frame could too. He turned off his communicator.

"O'Brien, shoot Alex's U-1. Try to immobilize it. Don't hit the cockpit." He ordered. The tank's main gun turned towards the U-1 mech as it started walking sideways, trying to stay out from infront of the cannon, tracking its movements without even turning its head to look at it. With practiced ease it kept shooting, its weapon steadily firing. Alex tring to fight whatever was controlling him, but able only to watch in anguish as he slaughtered and attacked bystanders.

"ALE-" Uso started to shout, the U-1 simply giving the APC she was on a strong kick as it continued to fire into the crowd of people, the drones above turning on their lights to give better illumination tot he whole scene as the APC was flipped onto its side, Uso droping her shotgun and firing her shoulder-rockets, slamming into the wall a bit hard... even for her... to avoid getting crushed by the APC as it rolled over entirely.

"Shit. Fire!" Corgan screamed and the gun fired, sending a HEAT round into the U-1's right leg, the round exploding against the shield, the intense heat jet slicing through the barrier, and then through the sensitive material of the mecha's leg.

It took Sarena a moment or two to realize that the shots being fired weren't a sign that there was something dangerous in the area... aside from the U-1s. A moment more, and she decided she didn't feel like shooting civilians or camera drones, even with peer pressure. She turned away to try to help rescue Uso, and panicked when she found only more explosions, firing an accidental shot at something she couldn't identify before falling over.

The U-1 would cast a sidelong glance at Sarena, barely breaking stride as it finished unloading its first Magazine. With practiced ease it would release, the Mecha's hand catching the empty magazine and tossing it over at the nearby Tank. Even with a shredded leg, the U-1 was able to reload, its attention turned towards Corgan's tank as it aimed off to the side with its assault rifle, blind firing into the nearest building.

*BRAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA*

On fully-automatic mode, the assult rifle quickly tore out large chunks from the closest building, leaving a large gash in the side where exposed rooms, pipes, and people were caught.

Corgan saw the magazine fly towards the tank ducked down into the tank's cupola. O'Brien tried to get a clear shot at the U-1's leg. She wanted to take the leg off, hoping that the mech would drop to the ground. The Lieutenant didn't hesitate to fire this time, shattering Alex's shield along with his mecha's leg.

All Corgan could really do was launch a smoke particle cloud to obscure the mech's vision and sensors. The driver tried to get the tank out of Alex's line of sight, or at least give him a moving target.

At this point whatever had been controlling Alex ceased to exert influence over him, and the U-1 fell to its knees, rifle tumbling from his hands.

Once Sarena had recovered from her U-1's sudden pratfall--at least mentally--she saw her cohort tearing into a storefront in a less shocked and more unfavorable light. Without bothering to stand up, she aimed her plasma rifle to shoot.

 

[Zack]

"Alex,"

Vier's voice would come over the cockpit if the U-1, just as sensation returned to Alex's hands.

"I will need further access to the U-1's systems. Please grant my AI control Authority. Modify your shields to block the following bands and configure jamming equipment to do the same. The remote control signal has been cut off but I can not keep jamming it with the equipment on board the White Rabbit."


---

Uso's body ended up flying right into a car, crumpling the door and leaving her in a heap. The soldiers in the flipped APC were already starting to disembark, opening the rear hatch and coughing, "CORGAN! WHAT DO WE DO?!"

 

[Blizzard]

Cavallon - Hangar

"Shit." Flynn sighed, seemingly too calm for the situation. With his cigar barely begun, he stood and walked to the Dove, climbing up the ramp and into the cockpit. He sat, holding his cigar between his teeth, and began to lock down the ship. Chuck curled up on the floor behind him. Outside, all exterior hatches closed and sealed. Next, Flynn moved to the command chair and powered up the ship's anti-armor turrets.

The plan was simple. If whoever was out there knew about Uso and her crew, they knew about the Dove, and would probably come to make sure they couldn't escape the planet. Sit tight, stay quiet, make it look like the ship was uninhabited, then boom. Unleash hell with the turrets.

He took another drag from his cigar and began waiting.

Rule Number Four of Smuggling: Never abandon the job.

 

[Alex Hart]

Alex was shellshocked. What had just happened? Why had his body and that of the mecha moved of their own accord? Why had he been powerless to stop whatever had caused this?

All he could do at the moment was offer a shakey "I understand." to Vier and follow her instructions. He felt sick to his stomach.

 

[Zack]

Cavallon

The smoke from Corgan's tank would start to diffuse through the area, making it very hard for anyone to see any great distance. Sirens started up somewhere off in the distance acompanied by flashing red and blue lights. It was hard to tell just how far off they were but they were getting closer.

"...hhihhhhkhkhh...." Uso forced some air over her lips, but was having a hard time turning it into speech. Everything hurt... her internal organs felt like jelly. Her communications equipment seemed to have survived... but her shotgun was no where to be seen.

With some effort she started pulling herself together, sucking back in some of her blood that had begun to pool around her, focusing on piecing her organs back together.

"hhggkk.... KAKC... OK!" Sucsess! Working lungs!, "What the shit guys?"

"Alex was being remote controled. The signal has been jammed, and the U-1 is back under his control." Vier replied on the all hands channel. "I suggest we maintain the shields and jamming fields around the U-1 until we can safely deal with whatever remote-control system has been installed. However that will make the U-1 very visible."

Uso would slowly get up, her body poping and snaping uncomfortably. It was not hard for her to peice together what happened.

"Van Banning popped a remote control into Alex's head while he was at the Hexagon, then sent us here to what? Make us look bad?... Justify her taking over maybe... Get Raph, Werner and Cyrus. Have them get her under control."

Uso would look around, stumbling forward, one arm holding her stomach, trying to keep everything as in place as possible as she healed and tried to find the others in the smoke screen.

"Corgi, New boobs, We need to get back to the ship."

"Flynn, you ready to earn some hazard pay?"

"Alex..." Uso paused for a bit, "... We have to get out of here first. We will worry about what happened later."


---


B7R604 - SPACE

Spacecase's ship would reappear somewhere close to being inbetween the Rixxikor ships, the wild rabit passing nearby at high speed as it continued to lead the Rixx ships on a distracting chase. Weapons fire would be passing by them.

Then a bright flash at the edge of the system.

Two ships appeared, each a deep metallic blue with an elongated diamond shape. At the rear of the ship the diamond was cut off, an exenstive array of floating pannels rotated in a circle, with additional, longer pannels floating further out from the ship. At the center of this configuration was a single point of intensely bright light that began to expand as the ships started moving towards the planet.

The Rixxikor response was fast, "WE WILL COME BACK FOR YOU! STAY THERE AND WE WILL KILL YOU NEXT!" the lead colony ship shouted, as they turned toward the oncoming craft, finally sending out their smaller fighters, balls of metal sheets, engines, and weapons that started streaking out of their colony ships and toward the newcomers.

 

[Blizzard]

Cavallon - Hangar

Okay, so change of plans! Now it was time to dip. From the command chair, Flynn began startup procedures. The Dove began to hum to life as the reactors came online. Flynn double and triple checked that FTL was ready before hailing Uso.

"Of course. I have the engines running, and I'll lower the cargo bay floors when I see you guys coming down the tunnel. Gotta keep an eye out for any new surprises. Once everyone's aboard we'll be ready for takeoff."

 

[Navian]

Cavallon

Though she was incredulous, Sarena still didn't see anything to shoot now that she'd disarmed Alex, as tempting as it was to blast away at the cameras. She didn't want to stay in the middle of a combat zone, much less one where her wingman has committed a terrible atrocity, so she reminded herself that no one outside her own crew knew who she was or that she'd been there, stood up her U-1, and returned to the drop ship at a panicked run, repeatedly telling herself that everything that happened was somebody else's problem to deal with, and hoping desperately that no one else found out that she'd been at the scene... especially her mother.

 

[Alex Hart]

Alex popped the cockpit open and spilled out onto the ground, the fresh air a boon to him as it soothed his sickened body. He retched as images of the bloodshed he had been powerless to prevent himself from causing flashed before his eyes. The last meal he had eaten spilled up from his gut and onto the ground nearby.

His mind reeled as it readjusted itself to being in control of his body again. Some subconscious instinct caused him to direct the U-1 to pick him up in its hands and bring him with it back to the ship.

 

[Blizzard]

Cavallon - Hangar

Flynn puffed his cigar and began going through launch procedures. No doubt a bystander had called the local law enforcement by now. He did not want to deal with cops so soon after going legit.

"Let's go, people." he urged calmly on the all hands channel. "Average police response time is ten minutes, and the clock's ticking."

 

[Samanthia]

'5' : B7R604 - SPACE

Errowyn looked in the direction of the sensor reading that drew her attention to the new comers. She ran the ships through onboard ship recognition system to determine who the new comers were. It seamed to really rile up the Rixxikor to expend their fighters and to ignore them. She heard their radio broadcast. The incoming ships looked to be SAoY in design.

She scanned the IFF to determined if the new ships were friendly or a new threat. But with the Rixxikor fighter squadron having launched towards the newest threat, pretty much left the Colony Ships open for her to make their lives even more miserable.

 

[Ace]

The Eternal Pilgrim, Bridge

Spacecase wasn't going to sit around while the Rixx were distracted. "Does anyone know if the newcomers are friendly?"
He turned his ship to face the original Rixx ship and fired. "Hey Bug brain you really think I'm going to sit her and wait for you!? I'm gonna take you down then get out of here." Spacecase hoped his attempt to aggravate the Rixx would work. He then called back his reamaining Junkers to the ship and set coordinates for an emergency FTL jump.

 

[ArsenicJohn]

Cavallon Massacre Site

When Corgan saw that the U-1 was no longer moving, he ordered the driver to stop. He turned his communicator back on by tapping his ear. "Get on the tank, let's get back to the ship. Leave the APC, we can get another one." He commanded the soldiers who escaped the vehicle. The seven guys climbed onto the tank. "Uso, want a ride?" Corgan asked. The tank pulled up beside her and stopped, giving her a chance to get on.

He noticed that he actually cared about Uso's survival. Wow, first time I've ever actually given a shit about Uso, he thought. Guess it's because she's given me a home. The Nepleslian realized. He wanted to pay her back by keeping her alive. "Can anyone tell me what in the fuck just happened?" He demanded as the tank sped off towards the ship.

 

[Zack]

Cavallon - Tunnel

Uso would make a short, rocket-powered hop to get up onto the tank, and then lay down on the front, "Alex barely likes killing people who are shooting at him. This is probably mind control and probably Van Banning. She's got the most to gain from putting us in a shit situation." Uso replied.

"Lets focus on getting to the ship. Then out of this system. THEN Van Banning..."

Uso would catch sight of Alex sitting in his mecha's hand, walking slowly back down the tunnel. "GET BACK IN THE ROBOT ALEX!"

At the midway point of the tunnel, the three tanks that the group had passed earlier were starting to move, taking position one beside the other to block off the path to Flynn's ship. They had turned on flashing red and blue lights as well, matching the lights approaching from the other side.

"Great..." Uso said, turning on the all hands channel, "Lets take that side tunnel up to the surface. Alex, Newboobs, go see what's up there.

Flynn, Can you pick us up from the surface?"

Cavallon - Hanger

The small flying ships that had gone out to fight the Rixxikor seemed to be hurridly returning to their hiding spots. The hanger once again filling with activity... though it certainly looked more like a retreat than an effort to stop Flynn.

However, it seemed that someone finally put two and two together... Flynn could see some of the ground crew pointing at his ship... no doubt now having heard of the incident that happened in the city. Some of them went running towards the nearby soldiers for help, another ran towards Flynn's ship,

"SHUT YOUR SHIP DOWN NOW!"

Cavallon - Surface

Up through the small side tunnel was an exit to the surface... a lush jungle with the occational winding ribbon of road stretching through it. The sound of guns and cannons could be heard going off nearby. Rixxikor were haphazardly wandering around, occationally shooting at anything they felt like... putting holes in buildings, cars, and occationally people.... while the locals seemed to be taking a more miticulous approach of sweeping the area in small groups.

Falling from the Sky were Rixxikor war machines, Each having a single mechanical leg in the center, and a massive bulk of armor and weapons haphazardly attached to the sides. As it landed, it would kneel down, becoming a small bunker, with Rixxikor shooting out of portholes or turning turrets towards the locals.

And at the same time, the local's Indigo mecha was doing its best to destroy the Rixx as they landed. Its knife-like legs easily cutting into the forest canopy as it dashed between Rixxikor portable-forts, piercing into them with its lance like arms and sending a jet of plasma into the interior to burn them out.

B7R604 - SPACE

"BAH! WE ARE NOT TALKING TO YOU RIGHT NOW SPACETRASH!"

One of the Rixx shouted back, "WE KILL YOU NEXT!"

As the Rixxikor's small craft approached the new comers, a large, bright, wave would pulse outward from the first of the new ships, the Aether-Shock-Blast quickly vaporizing many of the small ships... with the few stragglers being cut apart by zig-zagging beams coming from the core of the second ship.



The new ships then made a simple transmission, a white hair'd elysian woman speaking to every ship in the system.

"Your ships our in our no-fly zone. Disable your engines and submit to impound and inspection. Otherwise we will have to treat you as hostile."


"Lets focus on helping the Dove escape. The Rixxikor seem busy, and the ground team could use some help." Vier replied, highlighting the ground-team's location on the planet for Spacecase and Errowyn.

 

[Blizzard]

Cavallon - Hangar

Flynn smiled a little. Just like old times. He reached forward and hit a button on his console. Music began blaring from the Dove's internal and external speakers.

"SHUT YOUR SHIP DOWN NOW!"

"No." he answered coolly and lifted the ship off the ground. As soon as the landing gear were fully retracted, he gunned the throttle and blasted out of the hangar with a mighty roar. Up ahead, coming straight at him, were more of the boxy troop transports. Thinking impulsively, Flynn glanced up at the light canopy that obscured the canyon from the air. He looked for what seemed to be the lightest cover, then pulled up on the stick, crashing straight through the light brush. His shields probably took the worst of it.

Cavallon - Tunnel
View attachment 7509

The new ships then made a simple transmission, a white hair'd elysian woman speaking to every ship in the system.

"Your ships our in our no-fly zone. Disable your engines and submit to impound and inspection. Otherwise we will have to treat you as hostile."

[/B][/B]

Flynn rolled his eyes. Typical Elysian Navy. He rose straight into the air, becoming visible in the distant sky to Uso's crew, and probably confusing the hell out of some Rixxikor when the sound of Wagner reached their ears. When he was high enough, Flynn once again pulled back on the stick to loop around and scream towards the surface. He leveled out and lined himself up for a strafing run.

"Hellcat, Wild Rabbit, Eternal Pilgrim. Forget the bugs. The Elysians will handle them. Right now I need you to come down and cover me while I pick up the ground team."

Flynn activated the ship's anti-armor cannons, which let loose on any hostiles near the landing zone. Flynn also used his two plasma cannons on the front of the cockpit to take out anything unlucky enough to enter his cross-hairs. Flynn screamed over the ground team's heads, keeping his altitude low and speed high to avoid anti-ship fire from the ground. Then, he banked the ship around and doubled back, lowering his landing gear and reducing the throttle. A testament to his military training, Flynn came down quickly and flawlessly on one of the roads despite the chaos. The cargo ramps were lowering before the three landing legs had touched the dirt. The side passenger ramp lowered to the ground, and there stood Flynn, cigar between his teeth, revolver in hand, slinging anti-PA rounds into the brush while using the ship as cover.

"COME ON PEOPLE! MOVE IT! IT IS TIME TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Flynn shouted over the noise at Uso and the mercenaries. The Dove's four turrets continued laying down covering fire.

 

[Alex Hart]

Alex's mind was elsewhere as Uso spoke to him. Replayed in his mind was the scene that he had been helpless to prevent. His limbs moving of their own accord, the U-1 opening fire, the feeling of cold and numbness. His brain heard her instructions and obeyed, but he felt a need to escape, to run from the scene. As he got back into the cockpit he boosted himself away from the rest of the group in fighter form, reaching the edge of space before plummeting back down to the surface, coincidentally nearby where Indigo was fighting the Rixxor craft.

 

[Navian]

Sarena also transformed her U-1 into its fighter mode--but she did it while still in the tunnel, ahead of Alex, before he was back in the cockpit. Her plan was much simpler, and not diverted by the tanks forming up in her path--she moved over them, and toward the hangar, as fast as she could.

Even so, between the transformation time and the obstructions in her path, there wasn't enough time to reach Flynn before his ship lifted out of the hangar, and Sarena's plan didn't account for not having a cargo bay to catch her...

 

[ArsenicJohn]

Road to the Dove

Corgan had buttoned up after nearly being decapitated by the U-1's magazine. The tank turned onto the side tunnel and up the road towards the Dove. With the people on the side of the tank, the main gun couldn't turn much or they could be knocked off or worse. The two mini-missile launchers and the twin Gauss cannon turret could do some damage. Corgan could get a lock on ten of the Rixxikor bunkers from his console. He had enough ammunition in the mini-missile launcher to hit each of the enemy bunkers twice. That would at least cut down their numbers. His conscience wouldn't let him sit here and watch the bugs massacre people. "Everyone, keep your heads down," Corgan growled into his headset.

The driver kept the tank moving forward at top speed. Corgan set his targets and unleashed nearly every missile he had in the two launchers. He saved the last four just in case something else came up. After finishing with the missiles Corgan remotely turned the turret on the Rixxikor bunkers he hadn't been able to target. He started blowing holes in the nearest bunkers with a huge grin on his face. "Fuck you, bugs!" He yelled over the sound of gunfire.

 

[Zack]

Cavallon - Hanger

Sarena's U-1 would skirt right between the tanks and the ceiling of the tunnel, all the while machine gun fire ripped into the underside of the craft. Her shields had taken a beating... but so far the physical parts of the craft were intact.

She would reach the massive hanger built into the cliff side shortly after the Dove had left. The large, open, area filled with soldiers returning from the surface... some of which started shooting at her U-1, the shields easily able to withstand the small arms fire. There was a lot of movement here, and it was certainly hard to see everything that was going on. The only way out now was forward, out of the hanger bay doors that were still open and into the canyon they had entered in through.




Cavallon - Surface
Between Corgan's missiles and the Dove's turrets, the surface was starting to turn into a real firestorm. The Rixxikor bunker-things would fire a stream of plasma-bolts at Corgan's missiles. Their point defense fire seemingly ineffective against the fast moving weapons, the missile showering the bunkers in fast-moving explosive fragments. Some of the bunkers igniting and going up in a loud "WOMPF" of flame

This was followed shortly by all of those point-defense bolts crashing back down to the planet as gravity took hold of them, explosions falling all over the nearby Jungle.

Even the Dove's cannons contributed! As individual Rixx started to converge on the ship, those cannons would end up blowing the Rixx... and much of the trees next to them... away! The patchwork of fires starting to grow rapidly.

One of the Rixxikor bunkers would turn towards the dove, making a powerful rocket-assisted leap into the air, turning its underside towards the Dove and extending the single massive claw on the underside, looking to smash into the top of the transport!




B7R604 - Alex


Alex had gotten some distance between himself and what was going on. From this high up it was very hard to see anything besides the pristine jungle of this recently terraformed world.

As he got closer, it was much easier to see the increasing amount of heavy weapons fire from the Rixxikor bunkers. Even more of the bunker-claws seemed to be falling from the sky, each 4-5 times the size of the U-1, rockets on the underside helping control their decent as they picked choice landing areas, eager to come in close enough to the local forces to fight, but not so close as to get shot at right away.

He could make out the Dove, trying to load up the ground crew.

He could also make out the Indigo, the lance-armed mecha still plowing through Rixxikor bunkers as fast as it could. The mecha having a similar glowing white ball hovering right behind it much like the Elysian ships, rotating panels helping collect energy from this open-reactor and funneling out through the vehicle's lances. The much larger mecha clearly noticed Alex as well, turning its lances towards him for just a moment, only for a Rixxikor bunker-claw to grab ahold and drag the mecha off its steady footing!