• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

RP: Bahram Wing [Bahram Wing Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Status
Not open for further replies.

Exhack

Inactive Member
(Seven Minutes Before: viewtopic.php?f=100&t=3827&p=54768#p54768 )

ON>
Fal Drudis Spaceport, Mazerin
Malakai 1, 935
04: 25, Commonwealth Standard Time


The blowing winds of Mazerin signaled nothing, but the waning away of the idle time spent on the top of the terminal. Mu'Tasim turned to the rest of the group, somewhat ignorant of their previous actions. He seemed cheery, the altitude and coldness have less effect on him.

Zalus snuggled back into the seat of his VANDR and opened a link to the other pilots. "Well today is shaping up to be a great day! Did anyone else thought they were supposed to dismount as well? It was kinda cold out there..."

"Nope, the cold would be a tad too much for me." Mu'Tasim said with a ring to his tone. "Though, Ruh says, 'All our actions are building blocks for tomorrow."

Alia rolled her eyes as Mu'Tasim used one of his many sayings. "Do you keep a little book of sayings on you Mu?"

Zalus laughed, "I'm pretty sure the book isn't small my dear. I would venture to call it a tome."

Famasir pointed to his head, and Mu'Tasim replied, "As said by Paralov, 'The mind is the biggest book of all'."

"Well, Mu'Tasim is a Temple Guard, and Steward of our chapel back at our base. I wouldn't put it past him not to read passages from the Book of Dreams, or pick up on little sayings here, or there." Amari commented as she leaned back in her seat, adjusting the jacket she wore.

"True, though, I'm sure you've had some witty saying yourself, Ms. Al-Sumed. You seem like a rather clever lady, at least, to me." Mu'Tasim chuckled, Famasir turning in response to his words, facing the support ship.

Zalus shift slightly in his seat and looked out over the horizon. "We have a nice view up here don't we? Quick my Cleric friend do you have a saying to describe the beauty of a view like this?"

Mu'Tasim looked out over at the horizon as well, and thought for a moment. "Hmm... Yetsava says, 'Beauty is in every thing, though, we never see the true beauty of any thing until we trully see for what it is.'"

Zalus smiled and nodded his head. "Very apropriate sir. Do you search for these sayings or do you just come across them in your studies?"

Amari inclined her head as she saw the VANDR turn about to face the ship. "There is also the ancient Saali saying of "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It more or less means each person's definition of beauty is different."

"I just come across them, similarly as a Amari said. It's all just wisdom of the past, that guides our future." Mu'Tasim said to Zalus, then looked back at Amari, "But you see, understanding those sayings," he looked back at Zalus again, "Is also important."

"So you want us to understand the medium in the message, because otherwise the content would be lost?" Alia muttered, threading her fingers and enclining in her pilot seat.

Amari tilted her head to the side, placing it on Alia's shoulder as she more or less cuddled against the woman for a little warmth. "You can learn from your past misdeeds, and those of others. Or their triumphs. Even in the worse of times there is something to be learned, one simply has to look for the meaning."

Zalus cut it.

"Yes, exactly right! Otherwise, you may give false people may call you an idiot for saying the wrong thing." Mu'Tasim said with a triumphant tone.

"For instance I learned never to drink and then try to replace a cooling manifold.."

"Yes... Zalus..." The Guard said, Famasir bringing a hand to it's chin. "That 'would' be one of those moments... Tell me, how well went your examinations for induction into the Vanguard?"

Zalus scrached his head and looked up. "Well... I think I was in the top 75% of my class. I think. Didn't do too bad I don't belive. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, friend, just wondering a few things." Mu'Tasim said, and the looked down at the terminal floor. The snow around him and some of the other members had melted a little bit, causing slush to form around them. "I wonder how it's going down there..."

"We haven't heard Laiz fire, nor calls for backup as of yet." Amari supplied.

"Mm! True, so it is good to assume things are going well." Mu'Tasim said cheerfully, "Though, it does confuse me as to why the Marranr would not take advantage of my infantry experience and have me help guard the unit."

“Incoming, incoming!” Famasir called out over the communications of the wing, as a large white canister, armored in a thick layer of smooth opaque Agridinn crashed onto the platform and rolled. Small flaps had somehow been torn off the sides as it had come down, and a cloud of loose, glowing blue particles scattered around the landing pad and terminal. Communications and sensors went haywire, before suddenly giving no signal and no reply.

The silhouettes of eleven 'Soono' units had been registered before the sudden blackout, and three were already in view.

Malik had been unlucky, targeted by the first of the four serpentine figures that loomed overhead, and before he had been able to reactivate his shields and weapons, was suddenly peppered in laser fire. Armor caught aflame and burst into small puffs of pungent vapor as Shamshir was torn apart by the repeating laser fire of three units, as a third began charging the larger laser cannon in its lower body to finish him off quickly.

Meanwhile, Zalus and Savitar came under fire, but their properly active VANDR automatically raised their arms and activated their Vector Barriers to absorb the incoming fire of the seven remaining enemies. This instinctive response on the part of the frames was done as a reflex by their VCANIOS cores, followed by a curt 'sorry' and a full diagnostic of available weapons and systems. Missiles and heavy particle cannons were locked because the lack of sensors made the usage of those weapons a liability, but lasers and melee options were allowed. As well, their sublight jump capabilities were cut down to a mere five hundred meters, because they had only basic optical scanning capability.

"Malik!" Mu'Tasim yelled, seeing his comrade getting torn at, and took quick note of the charging shot. The Temple Guard rushed to the soldiers aid, charging his shields and moving in the way of their aim. He began charging his cannons in attempt to fight them off. "Return fire! Return fire!" Mu'Tasim barked over the communications array.

Zalus shot up in his seat and grabbed the controls. His heart was racing and he tried his best to steady himself. "Why did no one see this shit coming?!" Zalus fired upon the Soono that was closest to him and started To look for adequate cover for Nara to hide behind.

Amari flinched at the bright flashes, loud bangs and whines of the weapons fire. Not to mention the sudden yelling over the comms. The good doctor did the only thing she COULD do in the present situation, putting the heads of her two counter parts down to avoid notice, and contact the other members of their team. "This is Al-Sumed! Hostiles have dropped on to our position and Malik has taken extreme damage, I repeat, hostiles have dropped on to our position, use extreme caution!" With that, she closed down the comms, and fingered the handle to her medical kit, knowing it would be entirely too foolish to rush out there now with so much laser fire flying around to try and get to the heavily damaged VANDR.

Mu'Tasim succeeded in defending Malik from the attack, but the enemy's beam blasy struck his VANDR squarely in the shoulder, the resulting explosion as his LCPA capacitor was overloaded, hurling himself and the frame he was guarding off the edge of the platform. Three of the mecha dived after them, one latching around Famasir's left leg and the others piling around it, as they began to fall down the hundred and twenty floors of air, steam and snow that stood between the two repulsed runners and an unpleasant landing.

----

Zalus would be able to pick up on the flashes of light and small explosions that went off as he slid for cover behind a large stack of industrial crates, but was not at an angle where he would be able to get a clear view of what had happened. Nara warned its pilot that his cover would be comprised in less than twenty seconds, but did not offer any alternatives to the current solution because of a lack of sensor data to create a solution from.

Zalus focused on any target he could could get a clean lane of fire on and started counting in his head. When he reached 15 he darted out from behind the cover towards anything else that might be used as cover.

The boxes reduced to a mess of ash and warped metal flimsily covering his VANDR's back, it was little surprise that Nara was struck with several weak beam hits when it fled, the blasts thankfully mitigated by the unit's superior shields. Panicking, the frame's VCANIOS suggested he take the battle into the air, to avoid any further damages to the platform and present him with better maneuvering room. It calculated that the odds were fairly good that the enemy 'Soono' were also fighting blind, without sensors or communications.

"Oh thank god something's going on." Was the first thought in Savitar's mind when his sensors registered an enemy presence. But they were coming up too fast to be appropriately countered and he repositioned himself to brace for it. When Malik and subsequently Mu shot off to go do battle he just groaned. "Idiots, both of them." he sighed and paused, activating his vector shroud for some stealth and followed them out at a bit of a distance. "Hm." He said and noticed the bad situation. "tch" He let out over the com and angled down and charged up his own shockbites. When he was within range, he unleashed the weapon fire, trying to knock the Soono's off of the others, while attempting to maintain his stealth.

The Shockbites, though charged did not fire, as the weapons lock imposed by his VCANIOS could not be overridden without the license of his commanding officer or a skillful mechanist, and neither had the capacity to do so with the heavy jamming caused by the particle canister. Amongst a list of jargon about safety regulations in urban environments and what might be considered
psionic chiding, Shiva reminded him about how the jamming seemed to have started with the arrival of the canister the the particles it was emitting.

A nondescript synthetic female voice came over inside of the digital dream projected by the VANDR, quiet and unemotional. "Suggest REPULSOR BURST and BEAM LASER Subweapons."

"Hn." Savitar growled and rolled his eyes. "Shiva, you don't have to give me the safety regulations and all that. I know why they're locked out. Activate repulsor bust and try to get a lock on the enemies immediately threatening the platform and fire the CELB's and LEMB in succession." He instructed the NI. "That should clear the road a bit."

Zalus spun around and jumped into the air. He tried his best to keep the Soono's in his frount arc and asked Nara to rout rear sheilding to the weapons array. Hopefully it would allow his shots to pack a bit more punch. "Nara feel free to dodge anything that might cause you some pain.


Shiva pointed up at the eleven Soono that up in the air, and fired off a burst of 52 laser beams from its forward batteries, using all four multi-beam and single beam lasers. This immediately carved up the nearest unit, tearing through its shields and causing it to experince a large number of systems failures as conduits were ruptured by the intense increase in temperature in certain sections of its body. The unit tumble to the ground, releasing a small plume of gray smoke from several gaping holes in the chest and arms. The remaining units were not struck as hard as Shiva had focused fired to be more efficient, but each felt a small drain in shield capacity.

The attack also provided a sufficiently flashy display to draw all the fire away from Zalus' Nara, allowing him a free run on the enemy Soono. Within a few moments, he was within arm's reach and when it panicked and attempted to flee, none of the other units seemed to respond, instead focusing their attention on the frame that had fired on them before. They began showering his unit in a hail of short-lived purple beams, to deal with the only VANDR on visual sensors.

When asked to reroute power, Nara seemed perplexed, but sent some of the power output from the rear vectors of the conformal shields to the wrist and shin-mounted laser cannons to lower their re-cycle time. Output was not increased, but the increase of power to those sections allowed them to operate more efficiently.

Savitar reacted by dodging backward and then up into the air to avoid them, doing his best to dodge what he could to take the least amount of damage. "Shiva, can you calculate if there's any lag at all between their attacks?" He asked the NI, holding off on firing to let the shield recharge to defend against the incoming attacks better. He attempted to bring up what was known about the Soono's systems and capabilities to try and figure out their armor and structure. "They're limited as we are so that evens the field some, now to pinpoint when they're vulnerable. What do you suggest Shiva?"

Zalus slashed into the Soono when he was with-in range . He was hopeing to kill the pilot of the armour so he would have a nice large piece of cover in the air. Nara also unloaded a volley of laser fire into the Soono's chest before Zalus's strike.

"Soono-type maneuvering thrusters (on hips) are not properly covered by shields." Shiva replied curtly.

Nara's CIVWS sword penetrated deeply into the left torso of the unit with a spurt of reddish-black ichor spewing from the gouge, causing the arm on that side to become limp and hang at an unnatural angle. The laser fire only compounded the damages, causing the entire unit to lose power as the reactor shut itself down to avoid a core meltdown. Zalus had not killed the pilot, as his VCANIOS informed him on his HUD that the cockpit of salvaged Soono were located at the top of the serpentine lower body.

Three of the black-painted frames had finally spotted Zalus, only noticing the blue and gold Erla VANDR as it tore their comrade apart, and finally turned to attack him, two of them firing of their hand lasers as a third lunged at him with both hands whirring loudly as the gyrated and glowing with the same fields which had been able to damage the EV's sword out in the icy plains on their first encounter. Savitar was not much luckier as he being pursued by the other two units left, only barely able to dodge between the large laser bursts fired off intermittently by his pursuers. One eventually clipped his right arm, causing the shield capacitor lodge in it to fail and become inoperable.

Savitar grunted some and fled into the chaff cloud and used it to his advantage and activated the vector shroud to nearly vanish into the cloud in an attempt to lose his pursuers for a moment. "Shiva, active the MRS." Savitar said as he had it fire off a burst from his left hand to produce an ERP cloud over the Soono units that were after him. His aim was to confuse them for a moment while he repositioned to attack their thrusters better.

Zalus grabbed the immobile Soono by the neck held it up as a shield while firing upon the charging Soono. "Damnit Nara we don't what the same thing to happen again girl." Zalus focused his fire upon the side of the frame with the glowing hand that would most likely hurt Nara.

PAUSE
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

RESUME

The remaining three Soono bearing down on on Savitar continued to fire on him even as his shield systems warped the light around his unit, causing it to become nearly invisible. Not only did they have no effective means of tracking him visually, bu they would also be negatively affected by the increase in ECM activity and the suddenly ERP pulse that struck them caused their aim to be poor and uncoordinated, with a single shot grazing his shields without any substantial drain. In their confusion, they were unable to notice the frame runner flank them.

The sight of his makeshift shield had been enough to make the two shooters to cease after no more than a second, instead changing their tactics to attack him head on in melee. The one that was already closing in to attack had used his defensive tactics to encircle him, moving around to attack his rear cockpit pod. Nara sent out a warning signal, stating that he would not be able to defend himself without letting go of the heavy mass that had already severely gimped his maneuverability.

Savitar would smirk in his cockpit and maneuvered into position and orbiting around them. He quickly accelerated in a rush, using his CIVS in its long sword configuration to execute a slash attack on their thrusters, attempting to get them all in one hit, attacking one with his left and the other with his leg, finishing with a stab on the third.

Zalus threw the immobile Soono at the first charger and then jumped next to him and slash at the reactor as the Soono was occupied by the large distraction on his lap. Zalus then quickly asked Nara to fix the rerouted sheilds for close combat.

Organic alloys lined in a field of high energy particles cut across carbon allotrope armor, slicing the thrusters, and causing the already panicked Soono to whirl around awkwardly. Out of the six thruster units on three units, Savitar had managed to slice through five, leaving two units crippled and a third only barely able to counterattack. Although able to remain airborne, the units had lost the ability to move around now with the relative agility they had displayed earlier.

Even as it had lost its left arm from a swift stab, the third Soono fired off a burst of laser fire at near point blank range, and made a curved dash at Shiva, while the other two attempted to compensate for the damages. It swung out with its glowing fist, pushing the VANDR's guard open long enough for it to deploy the heavy laser cannon buried in the lower body.

Savitar, anticipating something like that, and did his best to parry the attack and grinned, rolling his VANDR around the arm to the outside and and attempted to stab it through the back in the small of it. Aiming upward to pierce the cockpit hopefully. He was trying to keep one Soono between him and the other two if he could, to give him some options to avoid any other incoming fire. If he could score a disabling hit on this one, Savitar would try to sling it toward the others or use it as a shield.

The unit banked to the left to avoid his downed comrade, but was sufficiently distracted to take the full brunt of Zalu's attack, causing it to fall to the ground with a heavy crash as his slash severed a large number of power conduits going out from the reactor unit. The other two had closed in, however, and made swipes at the blue-clad VANDR's shoulders, aiming to disable his CIVWS.

Nara chided Zalus for disobeying environmental regulations by attacking a nuclear-powered enemy unit's reactor on an inhabited planet, but logged the requested changes and began working through the alterations to the organoid powered frame's power grid, restoring energy to the clusters in the back area's shields.

The Soono he attacked deflected the hit and grappled his sword, causing the bizarre hand weapons it wielded to inflict molecular burns on his right CIVWS and cause a small loss in the biomass density of that weapon. The other two, able to maneuver to some extent, charged at him full force and tackled into his VANDR's chest, in a strike that rattled him even with the heavy inertial dampening offered by his KORD system.

"Shiva, Firee the LEMBs and CELB." Savitar said calmly and twisted his CIVWS and attempted to pull it back, aiming to blast all of them at point blank range. He wasn't bothered by the shock and infact it just made him laugh wildly. "Is that all you really got? I've been roughed up worse from wipe outs in the desert!" He cackled to himself.

Zalus masc jumped back away from the two other Soono's and unloaded on them with his laser cannons and then jumped back next to the weaker one and slashed at his pilot and shoulder. He then jumped away and apologized to Nara about the reactor shot.

Because of his evasive maneuvering using his MASC Drive, the enemy Soono missed its attack and plowed a glowing fist into the empty air, and took the two laser blasts to the upper torso. The resulting impact sheared large portions of the armor away, causing large portions of the internal chassis to be exposed until large plumes of smoke erupted from inside. Power surges began to go off on the inside of the unit, until a small series of explosions resounded inside of the chest area, flinging the unit off the platform as it lost power, and all ability to stabilize itself. The unit he slashed at next seemed to have been ready for his next attack, only evading the attack enough to take the blade to its thin midsection, and retaliated by plunging both arms into both of Nara's shoulders, cutting through armor and shielding, and burning the internal areas of the chassis.

The MASC Jump caused the already damaged arms to be lost as the VANDR retreated, but the unit that had claimed them was already crippled as the particles emitted by Nara's CIVWS burned out its electronics. The VANDR, although terribly wounded, accepted the apology and reminded its pilot of the last Soono in view.

Shiva's beam attacks cut through one of the Soono that had tackled it, shearing it at the waist and burning the torso into a mess of shattered diamond nanorod armor and fused chassis materials. The lower body plunged into the spaceport bellow without a word, vanishing into the thick clouding of the falling snow. The other took a glancing blow, burning large chunks out of the left arm's armored shoulder, but without serious enough damages to cripple the unit. Using the recharge cycle of the CELB arrays to its advantage, it spun around, sweeping across Shiva's chest with both charged fists.

In the distance, Savitar would detect the charge signature of the Soono charging up its heavy laser cannon.

"Do they ever lay off those things?!" Savitar grunted and fired ERP spray at it and shot backward. "Shiva can you triangulate where that Soono is charging up it's main weapon?" He requested of the system. "One you're able to, fire the LEMB's at it in focused fire. But if you can't, turn those on that last Soono there." He said, and grabbed the chunk of the torso of the previously destroyed Soono and hurled it at the one that'd attacked his chest and hoped the impact would damage it.

Zalus quickly looked side to side at the missing arms in shock. "OH you SOVA- Nara I'm sorry! lets deal with this asshole and then get you fixed up hun." Zalus grew out his foot blades and unloaded on the soono with the shin laser array.

“Confirmed. One thirty degrees right, twenty degrees u-” Shiva replied, cutting off form a moment as the laser blast clipped it across the antenna crest adorning its head. Although hit, the unit did not bother to continue to give audio cues to the target's whearabouts, and instead fed Savitar a lock on the target somewhere above his left shoulder.

Armor buckled, warped and burst apart under the unrelenting assault Nara presented to the Soono that had disarmed it, as one lucky blast pieced an exposed conduit in the chest, causing the entire upper body to burst into flames, fission apart and causing the already damaged arms of the power frame to be ripped away. Luckily, Zalus had averted a breach of the nuclear reactor, as the safeties in the mecha had caused it to seal the powerplant system when its power grid had become compromised.

“That was lucky.” Nara piped in quietly.

Zalus Sighed and looked around for the next target. "Well hun I wasn't going to get that bastard get away with hurting you. But That Soono going nuclear would have been bad..."

What remained now on the platform were a pair of Soono, the gunner that had managed to land a lucky shot on Savitar, and a another, rather pristine unit that loomed over the four other runners of Bahram Wing, and a fifth unknown figure that matched the description of the pop idol they were to protect. To make the jump across the platform roof like this might very well be impossible, as well,because of the continuing release of particles that made a safe MASC jump that far off impossible in these conditions.

Zalus Flew hard towards the one Soono that was standing over the others. He held off his fire until there was no chance of the others getting hit in the cross fire.

Savitar turned up and unleashed the barrage of laser fire, sending the ribbons of energy streaking in a homing arc toward the source of the shot that damaged his armor then turned and followed that up with a secondary one from the remaining Cembs if at all possible. "I'm sorry about that Shiva, what do you say we trash that sonuvadungbettle?" he asked enthusiastically.

Zalus Sighed and looked at the burning wreak of the Soono he just destroyed and then sighed. "Well hun I wasn't going to let that bastard hurt you and get away from it. But if he HAD gone critical on us that would have been bad." Zalus then swung around and looked down at the two remaining Soonos. He flew hard towards the one Soono that was attacking the ground that had gone inside.

The Soono that Savitar attacked strafed out of the main of his laser fire, its still partially functional shields taking what little struck it before they where snuffed out. The enemy Soono replied with another two heavy laser blasts, and began to pull away, firing wildly to cover its escape.

As Zalus charged, he would be met by a whirring hand, spraying out a torrent of pulsed beam fire from its rotating hand array in Nara's exact direction, almost as if the unit had been prepared for such an attack. However, it did not move, and instead shot across the tall window panes that stretched above it, separating it from the main of the terminus structure. Snow and ice mixed with small grains of glass that had been splashed away by the intense heat, but cooled by the chilly air of the spaceport washed over the five bellow, striking them in a thin sheet of mixed transparent solids. It appeared to be a warning shot, denoting how it now held them as hostages.

As the wash of melt and frost came over them, Serhan merely blinked and glanced at his companions. "When Zalus attacks that Soono, I want you to run. Mehta, Sitari." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shut his helmet off, adjusting the battery pack on his Laiz Carbine. " Make sure that Storhan and our charge make it to Paralovi."

MiSHARA seemed incensed for a moment, but noting the gravity of the situation, half-muttered something along the lines of "I have a name...".

Savitar strafed back as well, dancing around the counter attacks and checked his MASC jumping abilities. "Shiva, is it possible to MASC Jump in short bursts in a zigzag pattern to close the distance," he asked the AI, "based on the trajectories?"

Zalus paused and drifted to the side while he brought up his shields. "Savitar I need your help. Distract the Soono that is near the others. Don't fire on him unless you fire high you might hit them. I'll take care of him you just need to keep him occupied while I close with him."

Ducking instinctively as the glass and snow showered above them, the desert born girl grimaced at the fact that not only were things looking grim, but now it was going to be cold. "Yes, Marranr," Reovan replied with a short nod as she kept her eyes locked on the battle going on. At the very least, getting back in Jarita meant that she'd be warm. "Pleasant dreams," she half whispered as she got ready to bolt back to where her VANDR awaited.

"Don't forget you can use your vector shroud for stealth too." Savitar responded to Zalus as he worked to avoid the erratic attacks. It was easier to due to that nature, the enemy didn't seem to be aiming anymore really. Or get between him and the others." He suggested.

Shiva seemed to have made a long pause as it processed the request, and seemed to make a humming noise that might have been accompanied by a nod if it had a conventional humanoid body. "Confirmed. Short bursts will wear down the drive faster, but those kinds of patterns can be sustained for up to thirty seconds at the cost of severe power drain for two minutes as the capacitor banks recharge."

"Understood." Savitar said and began the motion, masc jumping diagonally uptward the soono in question then stopped then jumped up in the opposite direction in two long jumps, activating his melee weapon in the longsword form. He'd try to use his surprise to attack the main weapon of the soono to attempt to cause it to backfire onto the wielder of it. Savitar would use the other forearm mounted weapon to take hard stab at the cockpit as well.

The Soono seemed to finally lose its patience as Zalus practically ignored its attack by gliding along and putting up his defenses, and finally boosted forward, making a swift swipe at Nara's already dented and perforated torso. This would allow previous halted Runners the window of opportunity the get into their VANDR quickly, something that Serhan and Zus capitalized on immediately,...

Savitar's attacking from the side of it, not directly in front of the main weapon.

Zalusf lew back and tried his best to keep some distance between him and the Soono, firing at the enemy Frame's arms. "Savitar get over here and help me!"

Zus shook off the particles of Ice and granulated glass in mild annoyance after the 'warning shot, Muttering something about the Soono pilot's mother, and clenching her fist around her Laiz pistol, when suddenly the Soono was distracted and gave them a window of Opportunity. "Sorry.. Uh miss" the young Eyr Ranr apologized to MiSHARA as she tugged the NI Pop-star towards Paralovi, hopping into the VANDR and pulling her charge into the cockpit as well, closing it up and plugging in. "I'll keep you safe" the obviously angered girl said, trying to make MiSHARA feel safe, while starting up Paralovi, getting ready to retreat to parts safer than where they were.

PAUSE
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

'Ismat sprinted toward her VANDR, stowing away the pistol as she went. It would be like throwing a few pebbles at a tank for the current situation. Things certainly weren't turning out very well, what with the surprise attack and all, and she hoped once the few that were out of their VANDR were back in said machine that things would take a turn for the better.

Just please no more surprises!
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

"Well... I wish you all the best on protecting my life?" Ninlil responded to Zus nervously, glancing out through the increasingly narrowing gap between herself and the world outside Paralovi as the cockpit hatch was shut. The synthetic Iroma glanced at her silently as the cockpit became filled with fluid, and therefore, became inadequate for speech.

A message seemed to come in from the VANDR's communications systems, and were fed to Zus directly. "Uhm... and I'm not quite sure how to say this, but surveillance satellites seem to indicate there's another four of those snake-y machines incoming." The message was spoken in the pop idol's voice, with a slight synth ring. In spite of the severity of the situation, she seemed to put quite a flourish in her words. "Your partners are in a tight spot too... so you might want to warn them!"

----

Reovan and 'Ismat's VANDR came online, but the high amounts of charged particles being released by the canister that had been dropped on the meant that they were unable to form a direct link with whatever communications systems Ninlil was patched into, and not have the courtesy of receiving early warning for the quartet of gaunt mechanical shadows that began to make their approach towards them.

However, the current saturation of particles in the air had dropped to a level where local communications had become possible again.

----

Under the beam attacks by Zalus' severely damaged mecha, the enemy Soono soon found itself lacking both of its arms, it's shields too weakened to protect severely damaged arms. Embers and orange fluids burst out from the gaping wounds beneath the enemy frame's elbows, as it was sent reeling back from the attack.

Despite his target's attempts at evasion, Savitar still managed to connect, cleaving the Soono's waspish waist in twain as his blade slid through the materials like a box cutter shearing cardboard. Although it might have continued to fight, the immense loss of biomass and shock to the mecha's power train and nervous system were sufficient to cause both halves to plummet to the ground, lifeless and crackling with charged particles as fluid poured from the cuts at both halves.

----

There was a pounding on the dome cockpit of the Liftracer, followed by a radio signal coming in. "Khiyai, and whoever is in there with you! Take off now and alert the control tower to scramble their HazCon teams, or this place it going to turn into a death trap!" Anik barked, an audible strain and rasp in her voice. "Whatever they used to jam communications is starting to make me sick and my hazardous emissions sensor is going a bit haywire... and this place has civilians we need to protect."

"Wait... Anik?!?" Khiyai exclaimed, pressing her face to the side where the infantrywoman had begun to bang away. "We'll... aaah! Get inside before you die!" Her voice began to become weak. "We'll definitely do it..."

----

Slowed by the wind, snow and battle going on overhead, Serhan was the last to reach his mecha.

As the hatch of his cockpit sealed itself shut, the chamber surrounding the Ivuori Frame Officer filled up with orange fluid, filling his lungs and drenching the skin of his face and neck. The systems of his VANDR came online, but where only beginning to boot up as his three newly suited-in subordinates where already ready to fight. Apparently, his NI did not consider the current situation severe enough to consume a Zaiflar for an emergency start up, leaving him useless as his wing were left to fend for themselves.

For the first time in ages, he felt genuinely angry about something, and wanted to strike something despite his ability to move being overridden. "Saints dammit! People are going to die if I can't do anything!"
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

"Herdtitan dung!" Zus swore, or at least would have, if she could speak and wasn't plugged into Paralovi. The machine, in an attempt to be polite to Ninlil, translated it to "Okay" for her convenience. Over the radio, Zus called Reovan and 'Ismat "Uhh, guys, Ninlil says there's four more Soonos on their way outside the particle cloud. you might want to get out of the cloud before they get here. I'm hightailing it, Someone cover me!"

And with that, the young Eyr Ranr turned tail and ran, first accelerating towards the terminal building, before boosting up and over it, asking Paralovi to do terrain following and head towards the nearest military base. Hopefully she would be able to make it; perhaps when away from the particle cloud, she would try to make a longer distance MASC jump.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

'Let's go Rina!' 'Ismat told her VANDR, taking off as quickly as possible. She started to prepare her weapons, forming blades on the feet of the VANDR, and katars for the hands, as well as charging the shockbite cannons. Her VANDR manuevered in the air, following after Paralovi backwards. This was to help cover Zus and Ninlil, as well as to get herself out of the horrible cloud of junk in the hair.

Where were those Soonos coming from?
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Savitar's Soono enemy was finished with and Zalus was still having a problem, he paused for a moment to take in the situation. Both were heavily damaged and the Soono missing it's arm units meaning there was no worry of melee weapons but it probably still had it's lasers. He'd activate his Vector Shroud to stealth Shiva and tried to maneuver behind the broken Soono and tried to target it's thrusters and attempted to get in close. If successful, he'd drop the shroud and quickly take a backstab attempt to try and pierce the cockpit.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Alia quickly opened the cockpit hatch and helped Khiyai pull Anik inside before closing it again. "Amari, you get ready to inform the tower about the particle cloud." She said as she did a quick prep for relaunching the liftracer for flight.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Zalus started to fall back towards the three new VANDR's that were starting up and provided covering fire. "Get up so we can get the hell out of here! Nara's got no arms and she's seen better days." Zalus fell in with the flight as they took off away from the platform. He fired upon any viable targets with his remaining laser arrays.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

As he moved to support his wingmates, Zalus would notice a large builup in power coming from the center of the Soono's chest, followed by a purse that arced across his left shoulder, depleting the remainder of his shields in a single shot, but just barely grazing the extremity of Nara's left hip. Although it had a clear shot at Zalus, something had ruined the opportunity.

The power conduits exposed where the armor had been shredded or blown away went dark, and the frame's biomechanical body went limp. Savitar's blade pierced the cockpit cleanly, the torrent of particles that lined the weapon sterilizing the chamber inside, and annihilating it occupant. The frame slid off the blade and hit the ground with a thunderous crash.

----

The four frames chased after the single VANDR that broke away, their tubular insectoid figures dissolving mid-air as they engaged camouflage systems. But as the last of the group that had attacked the platform where finished off, the two of them broke formation to deal with Savitar and 'Ismat, while the remainder continued their pursuit through the falling snow.

Although the local data network was in disarray, the battle had not gone unnoticed, and already, civilian M1-1b's marked in security staff and Astral News Distribution markers had moved to surround the area around the canister, while some of the surrounding terminals were evacuated. There was clearly some sort of incident going on, but the particle field generated by the pod that had been dropped was making it difficult to assess the situation. The thick blizzard that had begun to come down made visual observation difficult, while the jamming was sufficient that their scans all yielded uncertain or clearly incorrect data returns.

A perimeter was erected, and for the instant, the staff could only remain prepared for whatever might happen next.

----

"Careful, they're using thermoptic camouflage and one of them seems to have a heavy particle cannon!" Ninlil chimed in on Zus as the two of them made their getaway. Although Zus would no longer be able to see it on her face, the clear concern for her own life was evident enough in the pop idol's voice.

"Incoming!"

Parolovi sensed a buildup of charged particles to its rear similar to that of the Erla VANDR's LCPA, and that it was being pursued by a modified Soono unit! It was unable to match the specific reactor signature and thruster emissions to any on record, but the frame was close enough to the basic layout of the frames encountered earlier that it was an obvious enemy.

----

Just as she rose out of the cloud and began to regain sensors functionality, 'Ismat's Rina felt the crash of a gyrating fist straight into its armored head, a scant half-meter in front of the cockpit pod. The attack had not dealt any serious damage, as the fist appeared to not have been powered, but the blow was sufficient in delivering a message. That a more overt attempt on her life could have been possible.

The frame remained still in the air for a moment and activated it's loudspeakers to communicate.

"Listen, we only want that damn singer, so just stay outta this and you'll live, flyboy."

----

"Ananta, behind you!" Serhan called out on communications, his calm tone taking on a sharp ring of alarm. He was too far away, and the movement had been too fast for him to react, or do much more than say something to startle his subordinate.

"You bastard Vanguards!"

Although Savitar had managed to kill the remaining Soono pilot, he faced an awkwardly placed charged jap by an enemy that had burst onto the briefly inactive battlefield, that caught Shiva in the left side of the torso, but otherwise did little more than cause his shield capacitors to drop a small amount.

The Soono continued to move, sliding past into full view. The frame was clearly modified to be more heavily armored, and it appeared to have a pair of cannons strapped to its back.

Serhan attempted to move to attack, but was immediately pinned down by weapons fire coming down from above, and was forced to defend himself with his shields and boost up after the source of the attack, going around to flank it.

He seemed to speak in a tone that would be accompanied with a grim or stoic nod, and headed up out of the cloud. "You'll have to take care of him alone. I'll have to deal with whoever is targeting from above before I can intervene."
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

"Saints Damn it!" Zus swore as Paralovi and Ninlil reminded her of the coming charge. "Paralovi, Charge up everything we got and get ready with the vector barrier. We need to be bale to take their hit then hit them back harder. I don't think we can exactly avoid this" As she communicated with the VANDR, she zig-zagged erratically every which way, throwing in a short MASC jump ever few zags.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

'Ismat nearly cursed at the sudden attack. She didn't like being blind, and was glad she wasn't now.

"Ha, flyboy? The least you could do is use the right gender! Oh, and you're not getting... her." She was a bit stumped as to what pronoun to use for MiSHARA/Ninlil.

With that, 'Ismat had Rina opened up with PASD missiles, firing 2 salvos, in a large spread, to attempt to limit the enemy Soono's movement. As soon as the missiles were let loose, she MASC jumped to the flank of the Soono to fire her shockbites.

She readied her Vector Barrier Guards to defend against any counter attack.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Savitar acked as the sudden new enemy scored a glancing blow on his shield and tracked the new opponent visually until it left the field of view. "Shiva, from that attack can you take a guess at it's direction?" he requested of the NI and MASC jumped back a short distance and released a barrage of lasers into the area he was just in, a short one to try and score against the new enemy. That way he could damage it and mark it somehow. "You guys must be absolutely RABID fanboys to some singer." Savitar taunted the enemy to try and goad him into revealing himself.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Zalus watched as the new Soonos engaged his wing mates. He slowed down and dropped in altitude. He shrugged and flexed his hands. "Well Nara looks like there is no rest for us yet... Activate vector shroud, We are going to go help Savitar." Zalus flew in low and fast towards the Soono that was engaging Savitar. Zalus looked for any opportunity to score a kill shot and was ready to take it.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

With laser bursts darting around her as she fled, Zus would quite suddenly feel and see an immense discharge of particles arc underneath her and extend out several kilometers into the horizon and lasted for several seconds, followed by a slight scattering of the beam's phosphorescent remains. Paralovi matched the blast to something that would have been generated by an LCPA, but a large magnitude more intense, and deflected much of the incoming fired aimed at it.

But the action of using her MASC Drive so aggressively was already taxing Zus' unit, and warning began to pop up about heat buildup and power train wear. Her VANDR acknowledged that it was probably worth avoiding that attack.

The enemy unit stopped moving for a moment, and began to cycle of charging again, preparing to bring its terrible weapon to bear.

----

"Ya can't get angry at a guy for assuming you're all guys until he sees vidfiles, lass." The Soono pilot replied in a dour, sheepish voice, as he immediately strafed left and fired a burst of laser fire to knock out some of the incoming volley of missiles. But it wasn't enough, and a large number of the missiles impacted into his shields, blinding him to Rina's follow-up attack. After charging for a few seconds, the Shockbite blew through his depleted shields and took the head of his unit clean off.

The Soono fell through the air, like a limp marionette.

"It's too bad I lost my head like that. But..."

As debris and dust cleared from the Soono's paneling, it became increasingly evident that the mecha was still online. Perhaps the most noticeable hint to this was the missile racks on the back of the modified frame being deployed, and firing out a volley of PASD-size micromissiles that numbered in the hundreds. Having deployed its payload, it began to before pulling back up in an upwards spiral pattern, firing both of its wrist laser cannons in 'Ismat's direction.

"... we've been picking up on some of the weaknesses of the old model, Vannie."

----

"I could care less if that NI core was lodged in your anus. I'm ripping it out of that blasphemous Solanii shell anyway, or wherever you Commonwealth pigs put it!"

The Soono touched down on the ground only long enough to push off with the end of its extended lower body and brough out the pair of heavy linear autocannons that were docked on its back and began to fire at Savitar and Zalus to force them to back away. Even though they were invisible at a glance because of the light-bending properties of their vector shroud, the faint outlines and small distortion profile were enough for the enemy runner to have an idea of where they were.

Ferrous cored diamond nanorod coated slugs rained down in both directions, causing small holes and dings on the terminal platform surface and gouging out large gaps in supply containers and service drones that fell into the crossfire.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Zalus pushed hard to the right to dodge the on coming fire. "Nara I'm sorry!" Zalus fired all he had back at the Soono. He then braced for the impact of rounds that he was certain were going to tear into his frame.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Zus Decided to change tactics, throwing up another curse. She fired her PASD's and LCPA's as well as the shockbites, trying to do as much damage as she could with a concentrated effort on the enemy frame. As soon as her volley was expended, she took the longest MASC jump Parolovi could safely handle, and continued to flee toward the nearest base.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

"Gimmie a target!" Reovan shouted, to 'Ismat, to the NI. Anyone. "Nightmares," she swore under her breath and Jarita charged for a short range MASC jump at one of the remaining Soonos, blades forming on her arms and legs as space compressed between the VANDR frame and it's target. As she went in for attack, she readied the MASC drive for a second jump. This one to follow Zus's lead.

Strike, then jump away and leave a cloud of missiles to cover her tactical retreat.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

"That's... a lot of missiles you got there." 'Ismat blinked at the wall of death coming at her. 'Nice upgrades too....'

The VIA operative simply used a MASC jump to get behind the Soono, as well as the swarm of micro-missiles. She then followed the Soono up, to then attempt a stab of one of the katar-shaped 'Divine Fists' into the core of the enemy. Rina's CELBs also activated on the thighs of the VANDR, to either cut apart the Soono, or at least restrict its movement.
 
Re: [Phase One: Mission 2] Blind Flight, Fight

Nara was ripped into by the high penetration rounds of the modified Soono's autocannon fire, dozens of rounds impacting the remainder of the chassis in a matter of seconds. The powered frame's legs were flayed off by the force of the assault, and the torso was perforated. His reactor had given out and the lines connecting his capacitors to the power train had been destroyed by the numerous power surges that followed. The only systems that even had a semblance of functionality where those attached to the unit's bioelectrics... and the escape pod.

But the hail of fire had ended as quickly as it had begun, and the enemy had quickly diverted its attention to Shiva when Nara was put out of comission.

----

Having anticipated Zus' counterattack, the enemy evaded the sublight blast of particles, fired out its own particle cannon in an arc across the incomming projectiles, destroying the volley that Zus fired and grazing her rear shields as the absolute range of the enemy's attack had been reached.

“Uwaa! How do you people live doing this every day!?!” Ninlil exclaimed in horror as she felt th Paralovi rattle a little as it was struck. The NI let out a small giggle, and squirmed about in the cockpit, trying to get a better spot without shaking up Zus' pseudo-comatose body. "Now then... I remember the automated air defenses for this province being a few kilometers south of where we are...

...and I think it might be an easy way of shaking this guy off my... erm, our tail!"

----

"It's not all I have!"

As 'Ismat's 'Divine Fist' weapons stabbed into the torso armor, Rina would notice small abnormalities, as the front sheet was far too malleable and it had struck a second, harder layer of armor underneath. It all became clear as the additional plating on top was ejected and detonated, separating the unknown enemy from the VIA operative's grasp and causing her burst of CELB fire to miss as she lost track of the target.

"Man, I really wish that Temple Guard hadn't ruined my VANDR, or this fight would have ended much earlier." He barked out on his loudspeakers in a deep, rough voice, firing a loose burst of pulsed laser fire in Rina's direction.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top