5tar
Active Member
ON: 3 LY from Halna System - Asteroid Field: "Rogue"
From the Senbu's august command deck, the battle was unfolding into quite the spectacle. The constant flow of incoming and outgoing information streamed through the bridge. So far the situation looked like this: the YSS Makka and most of the Gold Wing was currently engaged with the second and third Vampire patrol craft, one-half AU from the bow of the Anri. The fifth team of the Gold Wing squadron was opening attacks on the first Vampire vessel, which was still in the vicinity of the YSS Watcher. Then, at this point, the five teams that made up the Obsidian Wing were now flying in formation to engage in the skirmish just outside the Senbu. As for the Pride Wing, their small unit was moving in towards the Vampire that was tagged as Alpha, the same one that Gold Wing team five was attacking.
"Vampire craft Bravo and Charlie are deploying power armor," one of the sensors operators announced in the massive command bay, making her voice loud enough to be heard over the loud buzz. On the screen ahead, the hatches in the back of the two ships were open and a constant stream of what looked like heavily-bodied machines with long arms and vicious looking points all over its body. "Armors identified as NRM Ze-M4-01a; they're Crooked Demons sir!" the same sensor's officer reported soon after. There was a tally of twelve deployed and the number was growing.
The vampire patrol craft designated Alpha, the one that the Pride Wing was approaching, began a quick burst of speed to get around the Watcher, using its point defense cannons on the pursuers. The Gold Wing fifth team, all equipped with Sylph wing packs were quick and agile, making them a hard target for the Vampire's firing systems. The Pride Wing, however, was going to have to break formation or take the blunt of the fire, being the easier targets of the bunch.
All of the Pride Wing's tactical HUDs changed objective priorities, the new orders handed down from command were to move on that ship. The vessel it self became highlighted in the Pride's view—a light red hue appeared on the ship and it became outlined. "We have our new orders, guys, let's take it out quickly so we can get to the Watcher!" Kuriko commanded over the communications, hoping that the quicker they took care of this, the quicker they could get inside and help whatever survivors there were... if there were any. No, don't think like that... there's bound to be some survivors! The nervous leader renewed her confidence, but the slip in thought was too long—suddenly, a green beam followed up by a series of three misses fired from the vampire contacted hard into the lead Mindy.
"Kuriko is hit, I repeat: Kuriko is down!" Hiroko screamed over communications. She rapidly moved in-between the shots and rushed to grab her fallen comrade. The swift samurai-like reflexes took over and with a rush of adrenaline and protective emotions. The Yamataian didn't even stop, she continued with armored Neko in her arms and weaved in and out through the fire and towards safety. "I'm disengaging, she needs immediate medical attention!"
Aaah! Kuriko-heisho. I didn't think I would have to do this so soon, Chikako thought to herself, gritting her teeth. "Ishida, Hara. Recover Kuriko and provide fire support against missiles and drones," the Neko said sternly into the wing's communications, so as to remind them that there was still a chain of command. "Everyone else, on me. We have our orders."
With Chikako’s orders, Hara paused in his chase and fought internally for just that moment. Just a few more seconds and he could have gotten his chance to test out his new Mindy on that ship. But Kuriko was down; he broke off but not without leaving the enemy a present. Hara released his lock and a sudden barrage of mini-missiles sped off from his unit and quickly moved in on the agile Vampire. "Orders received, moving to escort!" Then with that, the group began it's long way back to the Senbu, trying to avoid the main battle happening in the middle of things.
Masako didn't stop, even as Kuriko went down, she shifted her targeting and paid attention to her HUD to detect incoming attacks and shot after the Vampire. She aimed to continue her mission after taking notice that Kuriko was getting recovered by the others, seeing as that she'd be taken care of. Masako was moving with determination and using one of the forearm projectors in it's shield mode to try and deflect incoming fire.
Sakaki witnessed her leader go down and was about to aid when orders came down. She then closed her eyes and continued forward on a new projected flight path. These losses this early in the fight are great, and with Ishida-hei and Shifuda-heisho gone, we may be at a disadvantage, unless… she thought to herself before focusing her visual sensors toward the Ikazuchi no Yari, ”Ueda-Heisho, what are your orders?
No longer constrained by any of the numerous hair ornaments she wore, a tuft of bangs fell into Ageha’s field of view. She didn't notice them at all as the red flashing lights on her console held her attention. The Yamataian girl didn't even have time to think or worry. Shifuda-heisho was down and Ueda-heisho had taken over. "Be on your guard, targets Bravo and Charlie have launched Crooked Demon power armors," she informed the second-in-command of the Pride Wing. Two seconds later, the specs for the NRM Ze-M4-01a armors were among the files awaiting her attention
"We're going to group teleport onto Alpha's hull and evade their CIWS and the first wave of enemy units." Chikako raised her rifle and pointed it at Vampire-class that was designated “Alpha.” She began feeding the coordinates to the remaining two armors by her side and began charging up her teleport pack. "We'll then cripple their engines and enter through the vehicle ramp. We'll end up right in front of it, so it might turn into a two-way ambush. Understood?"
”Hai, Ueda-heisho,” replied Sakaki as she tensed up for combat and the suspense of making it to teleport range. All she needed was the go signal from her commander.
"This is the Tategami, like I said before we'll take your wounded. Just continue on your path and adjust your trajectory by a bearing of point-seven-two," the Captain of the smaller Senbu escort ship contacted the Pride Wing as they continued their long range support making periodic attacks on the Alpha Vampire. The trio of Pride moved quickly to unload off their wounded, accepted quickly into the tiny launch bay.
Kuriko, at this point, was gaining consciousness; the blow from that last missile had knocked her offline for a few moments. Her fuzzy vision took a moment to clear up, but when it did she could see that she was still in her unit, only almost all of her systems were offline or damaged.
The Alpha craft continued on its lead in the chase, firing back again and again on the pursuers. The fifth team were now caught up enough to be in a better range for attacking the surface targets. Masako's charge continued and a few shots reflected off her shield which she held steadily ahead of her. Sasaki's calm mind slipped her over and under on her flight path, moving fluidly through the fire. Their new leader for the moment, Chikako, was also keeping up with the unit and just as she was hit with a grazing shot from one of the ship's pods her unit alerted her that the wing's packs were ready to go.
Kuriko clambered onto the floor of the launch bay. I can't stop now, Kuriko thought as she practically crawled out of her armor. Kuriko's vision still went blurry a little as she looked around for another Mindy. I have to go out there, Kuriko muttered as she made her way toward the Mindy and started to open it up. "Tategami, I need one of your Mindys. I hope you don't mind if I borrow it," Kuriko said before glancing back over her shoulder at her armor. Sumimasen, Sigmund, Kuriko thought before turning around and stepping back into the borrowed armor. "AIES, upload as much data as possible from Sigmund before connecting me with Pride Wing's Mindy units," Kuriko instructed as the unit booted.
"That's okay, but I'm afraid we're going to have to request one of your pilots. If those Demons get to us, we have no defense for boarders," the male Taii commander of the Tategami responded to Kuriko. The ship was running on a little more than a skeleton crew as the Taisa didn't have enough time to allocate any more men to the two escort ships.
"Shifuda-Heisho!" Hara hesitantly called out, watching as she prepared to get back into the fray. "Are you sure you can still fight in your state? Don't be hasty..." He would make no attempt to argue with his leader, but it wouldn't hurt to make an, admittedly feeble, attempt at stopping her.
"I'll be fine. If we don't hurry people will die," Kuriko responded as she felt the armor seal up. Kuriko's mind fled her momentarily as she thought of who to assign. "Hiroko, provide the Tategami with protection. Hara, you're with me. We're going to do a direct jump into objective Alpha's bridge to assist Masako," Kuriko responded as she stepped off of the armor rack and grabbed a Space Plasma Rifle and sticking it on her shoulder rack and a LASR-SLAG in her hand.
"Roger that, Heisho," Hara replied dutifully as he began to charge his teleportation unit.
After having received confirmation from Hara, Kuriko initiated her teleportation module and jumped directly onto the bridge of the enemy vessel. "Masako, support is inbound," Kuriko said just before she blinked out of existence.
"Pride Wing, initiate teleport! Follow my lead," Chikako said, activating her teleportation pack to warp her unit to the preset-location, relative to Alpha's constantly changing position. As she emerged, she docked her LASR on her hip and activated her forearm projector's sword function, preparing to attack the engine the moment the others arrived.
Masako kept going until she was within range of the Alpha ship, utilizing her AIES to keep track of her destination keeping the Alpha's changing position in mind. The moment she was within range of it, she activated her teleport unit to warp onto the bridge of the Vampire with her rifle leveled and ready to go.
”Hai, Ueda-heisho, initiating teleport,” replied Sakaki as she took a second of stillness so her jump would not require one of her capacitors. Once the jump was complete she connected the gun to her suit and gave covering fire for her commander, who seemed to be in the lead of cutting though the hull. ”Ueda-heisho, it seems Masako ended up on the bridge, shall I support her when you are done?” she asked mentally over the comms, her suit already locking a position to support her sister-in-arms.
"Take out the left engine, then lean next to the ramp. We'll go in together," Chikako communicated, charging to butcher the right STL engine with her forearm-projected blade. "Masako, take out their AI core and open up the door ASAP."
Just as Chikako exited her teleport behind the vehicle storage, she was faced with a split-second decision. She was now in the way of an exiting Artemis Spacy Fighter; there were a set of five now exiting into the battlefield and on a collision course for her armor. The pilot inside was caught off guard, it seemed like he was too surprised to veer anywhere.
"…" Chikako wordlessly screamed as she changed her objectives, moving up and forward just enough so that she wouldn't be impaled and closing to attack one of them. The Heisho then rapidly brought down her left arm, aiming to crash her Zesuaium-coated ellipsoid shield near the cockpit to anchor herself onto it. "You're a year too late if you think I'll freeze up because you're built differently!
Sakaki had a split second decision as well after teleporting right after Chi, she had her blade charging up at the time and could only duck under the incoming ship while attempting to cut from the bottom with the blade sword. She then turned to fire but hesitated when seeing her commander being close to the fighter craft.
Simultaneously with Kuriko’s message, Masako exited into the bridge as the commotion happened out in the back of the Vampire. The Mindy exited with a mighty blast of unstable atmosphere and transpheric emissions, the crew on the bridge was knocked around but three of the members were unharmed. It seemed the one sitting in the commander's chair; the pilot and another member of the crew maybe a visiting pilot were all in highly modified AIR2 power armor. "Oh shi—" the armored unit by the door said in surprise as they quickly raised their rifle to attack, but Masako still had the element of surprise. The three were flatfooted.
Masako pulled up her rifle and unloaded two plasma shots aimed at the head of the AIR2's of the commander and pilot using both hands to steady the weapon to enhance her aim and turned her single gauss cannon on the last firing a volley of four shots from it.
Just as Masako's shots dug deep into the commander's armor, the gauss slugs finished off the surprised pilot just in behind the captain’s chair. An unexpected death-grip caused the AIR2 in behind to lock on the trigger. The assault rifle began spouting off a line of plasma up across Masako's unit and then fell to the floor with the AIR2 and pilot, but the rifle continued to fire for a few seconds longer into the floor until the battery was expended. The ship's pilot, however, had a chance to act before she could turn to him, and instead of shooting at her, his hand slammed down on a large red button that was protected by a shield of clear metal. That's just when Hara and Kuriko made their exit on to the bridge, just in time to hear a voice say in Nepleslian, "If I'm going down, you imperialist fuckers are coming with me!"
"I take it we came at a bad time," Kuriko commented over the speaker of the Mindy before opening fire on the armor. "Someone tell me that's not what I think it is," Kuriko said over the comms. "Prep for rapid retreat!" Kuriko sent both her and Chikako's team. "Life might get really interesting—really fast!"
How typical. The bad guys, realizing their imminent death, hit the big red button. Hara frowned. "I bet it's the self-destruct. 100 KS," he said quietly, following suit and firing on their enemies.
The last man left was taken down on the bridge, and now the ship's space-fighters were completely out of the vessel, with one carrying an extra passenger attached to his hull. The last act by the Vampire's pilot started to go off, the ship jettisoned a large thick armored box and a series of small explosions started in the rear of the ship.
"Time to go," Kuriko muttered. "Teleport to the watchers landing bay," Kuriko said to Masako and Hara. "You need to get out of the ship, it's about to self destruct. My team and I are teleporting to the Watcher now," Kuriko sent to Chikako before turning to Hara. "Do you mind if I grab a ride from you? My pack is still kinda wasted."
"Time to go!" Masako said over the comm and made use of her capacitor to teleport off the self-detonating ship to get a safe distance away from it, following Kuriko's orders. Privately, she was displeased with the dents rendered by the AIR2's plasma shots, though she kept it to herself.
"Not at all, Heisho. Let's get out of here," he replied, grabbing hold of Kuriko and charging his teleportation module. Once ready, he pinpointed his jump to the Watcher’s landing bay.
"Understood," Chikako replied, taking a quick scan of her location to know where she was. Now retrieving her LASR and getting a targeting lock on the surrounding starfighter's engines, her armor unleashed a burst of AP rounds. Not forgetting about the one carrying her, she reactivated her forearm projector blade and disengaging her shield from the fighter's hull, slid down the middle of the craft's top with her blade ramming straight down into it, stopping past the engines. All the while she had been charging her back unit and would teleport to the defined location on the Watcher as soon as it was ready. "Sakaki, teleport to the coordinates I send you, ASAP."
“Kuriko-san?” Sakaki half blurted out when she heard the Pride commander's voice. Though thankfully her honed Neko senses kicked in and had Tsukihime quickly plot a spot that would be far away enough, and clear of obstacles before teleporting out after saying “Hai.”
"This is Ittô Heisho Sugimoto of Gold team zero-five. Pride Wing, continue on with your mission we will engage these fighters," the lead Mindy of the lone Gold Wing squad fighting beside the Pride Wing called out to the squad leads. The five dragonfly configured units moved in behind the fighters as they were quickly moving to the safety of their other Vampire ships.
Chikako was rapidly heading for the main battle; the fast fighters were able to move the length of the 1/4th AU strategic zones in moments. Her rounds found their mark, but could only do so much against the heavy armor protecting the critical point even with the AP rounds, though visually it did look like she left quite a mark. But her intergalactic surfboard was a much easier target, the blade did wonders on the machine making a long gash along the body of the small craft and incredibly damaging it, then before she got to see the result of her handy work she teleported out to meet up with the rest of the unit.
After her quick teleport getaway, Sakaki recovered and began another teleport to the coordinates sent to her before her quick action. After doing so and meeting up with the rest she said calmly, despite the recent ordeal, “Welcome back Shifuda-heisho, and welcome to the battle Sotomura-hei.”
To be continued...
From the Senbu's august command deck, the battle was unfolding into quite the spectacle. The constant flow of incoming and outgoing information streamed through the bridge. So far the situation looked like this: the YSS Makka and most of the Gold Wing was currently engaged with the second and third Vampire patrol craft, one-half AU from the bow of the Anri. The fifth team of the Gold Wing squadron was opening attacks on the first Vampire vessel, which was still in the vicinity of the YSS Watcher. Then, at this point, the five teams that made up the Obsidian Wing were now flying in formation to engage in the skirmish just outside the Senbu. As for the Pride Wing, their small unit was moving in towards the Vampire that was tagged as Alpha, the same one that Gold Wing team five was attacking.
"Vampire craft Bravo and Charlie are deploying power armor," one of the sensors operators announced in the massive command bay, making her voice loud enough to be heard over the loud buzz. On the screen ahead, the hatches in the back of the two ships were open and a constant stream of what looked like heavily-bodied machines with long arms and vicious looking points all over its body. "Armors identified as NRM Ze-M4-01a; they're Crooked Demons sir!" the same sensor's officer reported soon after. There was a tally of twelve deployed and the number was growing.
The vampire patrol craft designated Alpha, the one that the Pride Wing was approaching, began a quick burst of speed to get around the Watcher, using its point defense cannons on the pursuers. The Gold Wing fifth team, all equipped with Sylph wing packs were quick and agile, making them a hard target for the Vampire's firing systems. The Pride Wing, however, was going to have to break formation or take the blunt of the fire, being the easier targets of the bunch.
All of the Pride Wing's tactical HUDs changed objective priorities, the new orders handed down from command were to move on that ship. The vessel it self became highlighted in the Pride's view—a light red hue appeared on the ship and it became outlined. "We have our new orders, guys, let's take it out quickly so we can get to the Watcher!" Kuriko commanded over the communications, hoping that the quicker they took care of this, the quicker they could get inside and help whatever survivors there were... if there were any. No, don't think like that... there's bound to be some survivors! The nervous leader renewed her confidence, but the slip in thought was too long—suddenly, a green beam followed up by a series of three misses fired from the vampire contacted hard into the lead Mindy.
"Kuriko is hit, I repeat: Kuriko is down!" Hiroko screamed over communications. She rapidly moved in-between the shots and rushed to grab her fallen comrade. The swift samurai-like reflexes took over and with a rush of adrenaline and protective emotions. The Yamataian didn't even stop, she continued with armored Neko in her arms and weaved in and out through the fire and towards safety. "I'm disengaging, she needs immediate medical attention!"
Aaah! Kuriko-heisho. I didn't think I would have to do this so soon, Chikako thought to herself, gritting her teeth. "Ishida, Hara. Recover Kuriko and provide fire support against missiles and drones," the Neko said sternly into the wing's communications, so as to remind them that there was still a chain of command. "Everyone else, on me. We have our orders."
With Chikako’s orders, Hara paused in his chase and fought internally for just that moment. Just a few more seconds and he could have gotten his chance to test out his new Mindy on that ship. But Kuriko was down; he broke off but not without leaving the enemy a present. Hara released his lock and a sudden barrage of mini-missiles sped off from his unit and quickly moved in on the agile Vampire. "Orders received, moving to escort!" Then with that, the group began it's long way back to the Senbu, trying to avoid the main battle happening in the middle of things.
Masako didn't stop, even as Kuriko went down, she shifted her targeting and paid attention to her HUD to detect incoming attacks and shot after the Vampire. She aimed to continue her mission after taking notice that Kuriko was getting recovered by the others, seeing as that she'd be taken care of. Masako was moving with determination and using one of the forearm projectors in it's shield mode to try and deflect incoming fire.
Sakaki witnessed her leader go down and was about to aid when orders came down. She then closed her eyes and continued forward on a new projected flight path. These losses this early in the fight are great, and with Ishida-hei and Shifuda-heisho gone, we may be at a disadvantage, unless… she thought to herself before focusing her visual sensors toward the Ikazuchi no Yari, ”Ueda-Heisho, what are your orders?
No longer constrained by any of the numerous hair ornaments she wore, a tuft of bangs fell into Ageha’s field of view. She didn't notice them at all as the red flashing lights on her console held her attention. The Yamataian girl didn't even have time to think or worry. Shifuda-heisho was down and Ueda-heisho had taken over. "Be on your guard, targets Bravo and Charlie have launched Crooked Demon power armors," she informed the second-in-command of the Pride Wing. Two seconds later, the specs for the NRM Ze-M4-01a armors were among the files awaiting her attention
"We're going to group teleport onto Alpha's hull and evade their CIWS and the first wave of enemy units." Chikako raised her rifle and pointed it at Vampire-class that was designated “Alpha.” She began feeding the coordinates to the remaining two armors by her side and began charging up her teleport pack. "We'll then cripple their engines and enter through the vehicle ramp. We'll end up right in front of it, so it might turn into a two-way ambush. Understood?"
”Hai, Ueda-heisho,” replied Sakaki as she tensed up for combat and the suspense of making it to teleport range. All she needed was the go signal from her commander.
"This is the Tategami, like I said before we'll take your wounded. Just continue on your path and adjust your trajectory by a bearing of point-seven-two," the Captain of the smaller Senbu escort ship contacted the Pride Wing as they continued their long range support making periodic attacks on the Alpha Vampire. The trio of Pride moved quickly to unload off their wounded, accepted quickly into the tiny launch bay.
Kuriko, at this point, was gaining consciousness; the blow from that last missile had knocked her offline for a few moments. Her fuzzy vision took a moment to clear up, but when it did she could see that she was still in her unit, only almost all of her systems were offline or damaged.
The Alpha craft continued on its lead in the chase, firing back again and again on the pursuers. The fifth team were now caught up enough to be in a better range for attacking the surface targets. Masako's charge continued and a few shots reflected off her shield which she held steadily ahead of her. Sasaki's calm mind slipped her over and under on her flight path, moving fluidly through the fire. Their new leader for the moment, Chikako, was also keeping up with the unit and just as she was hit with a grazing shot from one of the ship's pods her unit alerted her that the wing's packs were ready to go.
Kuriko clambered onto the floor of the launch bay. I can't stop now, Kuriko thought as she practically crawled out of her armor. Kuriko's vision still went blurry a little as she looked around for another Mindy. I have to go out there, Kuriko muttered as she made her way toward the Mindy and started to open it up. "Tategami, I need one of your Mindys. I hope you don't mind if I borrow it," Kuriko said before glancing back over her shoulder at her armor. Sumimasen, Sigmund, Kuriko thought before turning around and stepping back into the borrowed armor. "AIES, upload as much data as possible from Sigmund before connecting me with Pride Wing's Mindy units," Kuriko instructed as the unit booted.
"That's okay, but I'm afraid we're going to have to request one of your pilots. If those Demons get to us, we have no defense for boarders," the male Taii commander of the Tategami responded to Kuriko. The ship was running on a little more than a skeleton crew as the Taisa didn't have enough time to allocate any more men to the two escort ships.
"Shifuda-Heisho!" Hara hesitantly called out, watching as she prepared to get back into the fray. "Are you sure you can still fight in your state? Don't be hasty..." He would make no attempt to argue with his leader, but it wouldn't hurt to make an, admittedly feeble, attempt at stopping her.
"I'll be fine. If we don't hurry people will die," Kuriko responded as she felt the armor seal up. Kuriko's mind fled her momentarily as she thought of who to assign. "Hiroko, provide the Tategami with protection. Hara, you're with me. We're going to do a direct jump into objective Alpha's bridge to assist Masako," Kuriko responded as she stepped off of the armor rack and grabbed a Space Plasma Rifle and sticking it on her shoulder rack and a LASR-SLAG in her hand.
"Roger that, Heisho," Hara replied dutifully as he began to charge his teleportation unit.
After having received confirmation from Hara, Kuriko initiated her teleportation module and jumped directly onto the bridge of the enemy vessel. "Masako, support is inbound," Kuriko said just before she blinked out of existence.
"Pride Wing, initiate teleport! Follow my lead," Chikako said, activating her teleportation pack to warp her unit to the preset-location, relative to Alpha's constantly changing position. As she emerged, she docked her LASR on her hip and activated her forearm projector's sword function, preparing to attack the engine the moment the others arrived.
Masako kept going until she was within range of the Alpha ship, utilizing her AIES to keep track of her destination keeping the Alpha's changing position in mind. The moment she was within range of it, she activated her teleport unit to warp onto the bridge of the Vampire with her rifle leveled and ready to go.
”Hai, Ueda-heisho, initiating teleport,” replied Sakaki as she took a second of stillness so her jump would not require one of her capacitors. Once the jump was complete she connected the gun to her suit and gave covering fire for her commander, who seemed to be in the lead of cutting though the hull. ”Ueda-heisho, it seems Masako ended up on the bridge, shall I support her when you are done?” she asked mentally over the comms, her suit already locking a position to support her sister-in-arms.
"Take out the left engine, then lean next to the ramp. We'll go in together," Chikako communicated, charging to butcher the right STL engine with her forearm-projected blade. "Masako, take out their AI core and open up the door ASAP."
Just as Chikako exited her teleport behind the vehicle storage, she was faced with a split-second decision. She was now in the way of an exiting Artemis Spacy Fighter; there were a set of five now exiting into the battlefield and on a collision course for her armor. The pilot inside was caught off guard, it seemed like he was too surprised to veer anywhere.
"…" Chikako wordlessly screamed as she changed her objectives, moving up and forward just enough so that she wouldn't be impaled and closing to attack one of them. The Heisho then rapidly brought down her left arm, aiming to crash her Zesuaium-coated ellipsoid shield near the cockpit to anchor herself onto it. "You're a year too late if you think I'll freeze up because you're built differently!
Sakaki had a split second decision as well after teleporting right after Chi, she had her blade charging up at the time and could only duck under the incoming ship while attempting to cut from the bottom with the blade sword. She then turned to fire but hesitated when seeing her commander being close to the fighter craft.
Simultaneously with Kuriko’s message, Masako exited into the bridge as the commotion happened out in the back of the Vampire. The Mindy exited with a mighty blast of unstable atmosphere and transpheric emissions, the crew on the bridge was knocked around but three of the members were unharmed. It seemed the one sitting in the commander's chair; the pilot and another member of the crew maybe a visiting pilot were all in highly modified AIR2 power armor. "Oh shi—" the armored unit by the door said in surprise as they quickly raised their rifle to attack, but Masako still had the element of surprise. The three were flatfooted.
Masako pulled up her rifle and unloaded two plasma shots aimed at the head of the AIR2's of the commander and pilot using both hands to steady the weapon to enhance her aim and turned her single gauss cannon on the last firing a volley of four shots from it.
Just as Masako's shots dug deep into the commander's armor, the gauss slugs finished off the surprised pilot just in behind the captain’s chair. An unexpected death-grip caused the AIR2 in behind to lock on the trigger. The assault rifle began spouting off a line of plasma up across Masako's unit and then fell to the floor with the AIR2 and pilot, but the rifle continued to fire for a few seconds longer into the floor until the battery was expended. The ship's pilot, however, had a chance to act before she could turn to him, and instead of shooting at her, his hand slammed down on a large red button that was protected by a shield of clear metal. That's just when Hara and Kuriko made their exit on to the bridge, just in time to hear a voice say in Nepleslian, "If I'm going down, you imperialist fuckers are coming with me!"
"I take it we came at a bad time," Kuriko commented over the speaker of the Mindy before opening fire on the armor. "Someone tell me that's not what I think it is," Kuriko said over the comms. "Prep for rapid retreat!" Kuriko sent both her and Chikako's team. "Life might get really interesting—really fast!"
How typical. The bad guys, realizing their imminent death, hit the big red button. Hara frowned. "I bet it's the self-destruct. 100 KS," he said quietly, following suit and firing on their enemies.
The last man left was taken down on the bridge, and now the ship's space-fighters were completely out of the vessel, with one carrying an extra passenger attached to his hull. The last act by the Vampire's pilot started to go off, the ship jettisoned a large thick armored box and a series of small explosions started in the rear of the ship.
"Time to go," Kuriko muttered. "Teleport to the watchers landing bay," Kuriko said to Masako and Hara. "You need to get out of the ship, it's about to self destruct. My team and I are teleporting to the Watcher now," Kuriko sent to Chikako before turning to Hara. "Do you mind if I grab a ride from you? My pack is still kinda wasted."
"Time to go!" Masako said over the comm and made use of her capacitor to teleport off the self-detonating ship to get a safe distance away from it, following Kuriko's orders. Privately, she was displeased with the dents rendered by the AIR2's plasma shots, though she kept it to herself.
"Not at all, Heisho. Let's get out of here," he replied, grabbing hold of Kuriko and charging his teleportation module. Once ready, he pinpointed his jump to the Watcher’s landing bay.
"Understood," Chikako replied, taking a quick scan of her location to know where she was. Now retrieving her LASR and getting a targeting lock on the surrounding starfighter's engines, her armor unleashed a burst of AP rounds. Not forgetting about the one carrying her, she reactivated her forearm projector blade and disengaging her shield from the fighter's hull, slid down the middle of the craft's top with her blade ramming straight down into it, stopping past the engines. All the while she had been charging her back unit and would teleport to the defined location on the Watcher as soon as it was ready. "Sakaki, teleport to the coordinates I send you, ASAP."
“Kuriko-san?” Sakaki half blurted out when she heard the Pride commander's voice. Though thankfully her honed Neko senses kicked in and had Tsukihime quickly plot a spot that would be far away enough, and clear of obstacles before teleporting out after saying “Hai.”
"This is Ittô Heisho Sugimoto of Gold team zero-five. Pride Wing, continue on with your mission we will engage these fighters," the lead Mindy of the lone Gold Wing squad fighting beside the Pride Wing called out to the squad leads. The five dragonfly configured units moved in behind the fighters as they were quickly moving to the safety of their other Vampire ships.
Chikako was rapidly heading for the main battle; the fast fighters were able to move the length of the 1/4th AU strategic zones in moments. Her rounds found their mark, but could only do so much against the heavy armor protecting the critical point even with the AP rounds, though visually it did look like she left quite a mark. But her intergalactic surfboard was a much easier target, the blade did wonders on the machine making a long gash along the body of the small craft and incredibly damaging it, then before she got to see the result of her handy work she teleported out to meet up with the rest of the unit.
After her quick teleport getaway, Sakaki recovered and began another teleport to the coordinates sent to her before her quick action. After doing so and meeting up with the rest she said calmly, despite the recent ordeal, “Welcome back Shifuda-heisho, and welcome to the battle Sotomura-hei.”
To be continued...
