RP Fall of Himiko Ch.1: Desperation

[Rizzo]

Planet Himiko
Air Battle

Enemy aircraft began to fall as the Rikugun century began the assault. Missiles, teleport, gunfire, rinse and repeat. The confident pilots were the baddest guys in the fight before having an angry rifleman appear inside their ships! In moments the engagement had turned as Kuvexian PA troops jumped out of their transport ships and into the fray. The skies were in a chaos of aether fire, but the operation had only just begun. Matsuvo's guns blazed in all directions as Rikun blasted outwards from the confines of another burning transport in the heat of battle. The two centuries of Rikugun fought the more numerous Kuvexian invaders tooth and nail for every inch of airspace, their efforts slowly losing effect as the enemy reorganized. All the while a speck appeared in the distance high in the sky.

On the ground, people civilians had begun to gather by the waterside, led there by officers and strangers in various powered suits, mecha, and vehicles. These escorts began pooling by the coastline with nowhere to go until the water began to tremble. With mighty splashing and the roar of engines emerged a white and blue Caravan heavy freighter flanked by two broadsword-class cruisers and a variety of other civilian ships breaching the waters surface in formation. The intense buzzing of large graviton projectors reverberated through the air and steam to hold the immense waves back from crashing into the shore as they siddled upto the coast, doors opening to begin loading refugees.

"This is Captain Sampson White of Blue Caribou," the great ship's captainannounce over loudspeakers, "please board quickly in an orderly fashion, we are the final evacuation." While most refugees would have been trampling each other as they rushed inside Capt. White could greatly appreciate the Yamataian culture's effect on their society as the people began boarding in an alarmingly fast, but safe manner leaving no one injured in the process of boarding. Capt. White turned to a cluster of computer screens labeled 'Tac-Com' with an office note.
"Capt. White to Star Adder and Stone Anthem, launch fighters and cover the evacuation. Keep the enemy cruiser busy and away!"


Garage

"Form a defen-" Masumi's words were cut off as Rixxicor and Graxlat soldiers stormed the garage. Masumi would have none of it, quickly firing a missile at the feet of the rear-most Graxlat in heavy armor. The blast rattled everyone but the armor-clad Menelik, the brrrt of his shoulder mounted minigun echoing though the structure as he took the opportunity to suppress the swarm of bugs who surely wished they chose a better entry point. Anju's rearview mirrors had exposed the flanking group climbing inside from behind them. With a step as smooth as butter she slid up in the seat of her car, gun in hand and ammo piercing the wall into the clever bugs. In a moment the garage had become an echoing cacophony of gunfire and screeching as weapons from handguns to tank-mounted autocannons traded ammo dangerously.

After 30 seconds of fast, brutal close combat the group's ammunition and energy was fading as the numerically greater force kept on coming, this time with Elifirn swiftly positioning to box them into a wall and succeeding at it. With the tank out of commission, cars perforated, and missile launcher spent the group was cornered and ever Thad's gore covered gun-blade hadn't the tricks to get out, until heard through the radio...

"Be advised, Convoy 14, we have survivors under heavy fire in the garage located at 28th and Maple. Nine-Ten?"
"Ten-Four, last stop. Engaging hostiles!"
Laser fire began to pour through cement walls as a Bulldog light mecha outside demonstrated his fire-controller's ability to target through light materials and sweep streets. In but a moment the coast was clear and a battle-scarred URSA came screeching to a halt, four PMCs in FSC Powered suits rushing out to bring them in. "Quickly, get in, we gotta go! MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!" one yelled as another opened fire at a surviving Elefirn commando. not a moment after they loaded into the large truck packed with refugees the tires screeched across the pavement as the vehicle launched into motion with an eight wheel burnout. The driver has one task left.
"Hurry up, 14! We're airborne in 30!"

The huge vehicle bounced and swayed as it deftly navigated the streets leading back to the ship, its wide stature clipping buildings, signs, and cars and not missing a beat as it followed its allied mecha leapt into the air and into a passing cargo ships waiting doors. "Godspeed, 14," the mecha pilot signed off as his ride out departed. "Full power to the engine! I'm puttin' the hammer down," the driver radioed, "Caribou, Convoy 14 here. I'm Comin' in hot. Clear the loading bay and set up the net!" The driver never missed a beat as they Bludgeoned through one obstacle after another to finally get to the pier with the open bay door at the end. The ship, however, was pulling away. "Caribou Control here, you are not going to make it, the captain has ordered our immediate departure!"

"You keep those doors open, Ya' hear! I'm comin' in!!!" The driver yelled, pressing the throttle to the floor and flipping a trio of switches. Smoke began to drift about the passenger compartment as the generator pushed well past its safe limit and power was shunted into the eight electric motors, more than voiding the warranty.
70.. 80.. 90.. 100..
The whine of the electric motors resonated through the hull. Heat from the generator warmed the interior.
105... 110... 115... 120....... 124.....
Officially the fastest an URSA will ever move, with smoke streaming off the glowing red motors.

The driver eyed the end of the pier, its edge drawing closer and the ship getting further. Spotting the best remaining spit of curb and handrails not completely smashed by the edge of the cargo ship's ramp he lined the speeding vehicle precisely and prepared to cut the generator. "Driver here, prepare to brace on my mark," The driver instructed over the intercom. "BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!" he yelled as they smashed across the knee high curb.

The URSA bounced ever so slightly up, it weight more than carrying their velocity. The front wheels of the truck made it with the center of the chassis striking the bottom of the door and sending the vehicle careening across the bay floor, tumbling through the awaiting net and slamming into another already parked URSA. Upside-down and smoking they'd arrived, all passengers injured but alive as the ship began to rise. Severely injured with the cab crushed in only an inch away from his face the driver signed off, "Convoy 14 here... I'm back."

 

[Rizzo]

Planet Himiko
Air Battle(Candon Vs. Reaper)

In the skies above two armored figures danced a vicious dance of death. Bolts of aether streaked about as they soared through the air in a violent series of abrupt turns, stopping and accelerating aggressively as each killer attempted to line up a kill. To a human they were nothing more than a blur of speed and flashing guns.

Left and right, Candon jinked as he’d known he’d lost. Reaper was going to win the engagement, but confident he was that he’d survive. Where anyone else would have been done for Candon had a distinct advantage here.
They wanted him alive.

With a last ditch effort to avoid the incoming fire Candon braked hard in an effort to turn down a building-lined street but it was too late. Reaper’s hand grasped around the jaw of his helmet, his momentum entirely unbroken, and slammed Candon into the cement exterior wall of a bank. His ears rang and his vision went black as the primer-white M2-2D ricocheted off of the hard surface and crashed through the doors of a pharmacy. As the ringing subsided from the injured man's ears he would know that the gunfire had never stopped. The screams of a dying soldier will most often go unheard from within their helmets. An experienced soldier such as he knew that the screams filling the air were not a part of the chaos of battle, it was slaughter. He now know exactly which Patriot he was dealing with.

His injured body stirred, but to no avail as pain seared through him. He'd known for a while now that his self healing abilities had been slowing down. Perhaps I'm getting old he'd reasoned, though at the back of his mind always knowing that isn't how it worked. Under body enveloping pain he laid there with the dark veil of impaired vision creeped away, and slowly he could see an image of a very frightened little girl coming into view. Her little hands shook has she gripped tightly a plush toy of a local breed of terrier, an ugly looking dog wit a stocky build and short snout. Candon couldn't help but relate. But her eyes, they were not in terror but rather hope, for here she beheld her savior, a White Knight here to save the day!

Any faith in the soldier must have diminished greatly as The Reaper strode casually into the pharmacy and sent Candon sailing through the air with a half-hearted kick to the chest that sent him crashing through the ceiling over the pharmacist's counter. "She wont let me kill you, Torēsu, but no one expected you to came willingly," he chided, "you always fought to the bitter end, no one would expect you uninjured."
Candon ignore his condescension. The man he was dealing with had been unhinged for years, there was no talking his way out of this. Bottle by bottle he read labels, tossing the unfavorable ones with abjection while setting others beside him. "Its been a while Gladius. Glad to see you're still just cheap dog of war, it suits you," he taunted breathlessly between gulps of water from the canteen he'd brought in his detached pack, "give me a minute and I'll finish that fight, you know, the one you ran from a few years back?"
All the while thinking, 'Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me.'

The Reaper shook his head, he definitely remembered. "In a Mindy? Torēsu, don't be a fool, your helmet is in tiny pieces scattered about the street. You wouldn't even have shields," the towering Elysian lectured, "it wouldn't even be a fight!"
Candon's meager strength was quickly being supplemented by a enough pharmaceuticals to kill a Kodian. His ability to ignore pain was coming back under his control as well, the previous loss of it a very, alarming problem but, of course, I must be getting old...
Sliding the sports styled SACOS over his eyes he now had eye protection and an improvised HUD. It was time to face the fight, then get a medic.
"As a courtesy, I want you to know that when I come out there I am going to kill you, not hurt you, not arrest you, kill you.. dead... understand?”

The Reaper laughed softly with an air of absolute superiority, "Do your worst."
"Okay.. Honey, I need you to close your eyes and cover your ears."
"Say what?" the black armored figure cocked his head and looked about only just realizing the child cowering in the corner, following the instruction. A blast came from Reaper's face as a gravitational punch of mecha killing proportions to sent him flying through the brick walls of the legal firm across the street. "Good job, kid," Candon complimented, dropping a bottle of vitamin gummies at her feet, "Wait here."

Reaper stepped out from his new hole, helmet sparking and fractured, smoke drifting out of the air vents on its 'mouth'. He pulled it off, gasping for clean air but never missed a beat as he drew the aether scythe from over his shoulder, leaping forward as he swung down on Candon's head. His aim proved amiss as Candon narrowly sidestepped the raging warrior, his beautifully chiseled face coming inched from Candon's. He grabbed the shaft of the aether scythe and delivered another graviton infused punch to the man's stomach. One could be sure that the attorneys formerly working across the street would legally advise Reaper that all further gravity bending punches referred to herein will be simply referred to as 'punches' as he was now launched back into the legal snake pit. The hunted had now become the hunter and he was relentless. Candon knew the man all too well, an excellent pilot and gunman but couldn't brawl without a weapon. Steam was purged from the forearm graviton projectors as they readied for continued use, his armored fists free of any deformation as his conformal shielding remained localized over his arms.

The Elysian archangel was enraged, yet knew when he'd been beat seeing his iconic weapon now plainly residing in his rival's hand his pride was shattered. Reemerging from the building he took to the skies to fight another day, swearing even more vengeance on his life long rival as his eyes teared from the rushing wind. Candon could follow but he didn't care for personal vengeance. He wanted the head of the snake, not a deranged high-society outcast. "Matsuvo, I'm relaying a target, its Reaper," he announced, seemingly to himself as he watched the disgraced angel fly away, "take him." Four streams of aether converged on the unshielded target, and The Reaper was no more.

 

[Rizzo]

Planet Himiko
Outside Drug Store

Looking to the sky it was now becoming more and more obvious that the husk of a ship that was falling to the ground was indeed falling on the very same ground he was standing on. "Let's go, Kid. It's time to leave," he called to the young girl behind him who knelt by the discarded helmet of the now deceased Reaper. She picked it up as her small feet stepped quickly across the cracked pavement as she ran to her protector. Telepathically accessing the battle net Candon was connected to Jinja Emi, his request for evac unnecessary as she was already on the way. The thunderous roar of starship engines shook the ground as the massive freighters evacuating civilians by the port rose into the air and the pounding main guns of the Broadsword cruisers fell silent. While hardly a quiet scene, its a known fact of battle that when the largest weapons fall silent it's a bad sign, and yet he felt a danger even greater than the crashing battleship. His anxiety rising, he turned from his view of the sky to where the girl had been, only to find an uninvited guest.

"Why did you kill him, Torēsu?" spoke a dark-haired woman in a helmetless Mindy 2D-1A, Reaper's helmet in her grasp.

The aether scythe dropped from Candon's hand as an endless wave of shock swept his psyche. Deep was the woman's scolding voice, its speaker unmistakable as it reduced him to a childlike mental state. Feelings of familiarity clashed with confusion. Of all the people he'd suspected to see from his Patriot days he was absolutely sure she would not be one. Conflict burned within his heart as the urge to run to her with arms held out and sending a crushing wave of gravity at her fought each other in a duel that left him speechless for all but one weakly spoken word.
"Mom?"

A casual flip of her A-line bob hair cut accompanied by a roll of her eyes made the point better than any offensive gesture ever could. It was Sana.
"You knew he wouldn't kill you, but- whatever. He was always a liability, had his own ideas of how my orders were intended to be carried out," she rambled, shaking her head casually. Even with a massive wreck bearing down on the city and estranged son in her sight Sana's entire demeanor remained entirely nonchalant.
"Come with me-"
"Why should I," he demanded, voice quiet and sinister, "Where have you been? I thought you were dead, we all did..."
Even through the sounds of barely distant battle an unmistakable silence hung in the air. Sana remained silent, face stoic.
"Dad killed himself!" He shouted furiously, "now here I find you years later attacking our own people?! Answer me!! Why!?!"

"Our people," Sana sneered, "I'm not a part of their society any more than you are. You've figured it out by now, right? The sickness? First it's just noticing out of place shadows, then you're being told its just PTSD from being another dog of war, and before you know it they're saying your soul is fragmented and there's simply nothing we can do to cure it! Psh Right, I'm supposed to just believe that our creators can't fix us. So I got to thinking, our ST data, all it is is code. Billions of lines of code that make binary and even trinary look like cave paintings. Sure it starts from a much simpler template but once a Neko life is created and forms its own identity, just forget about trying to rewrite it. Then one day while we were really drunk I slipped into some kind of trance. My body was unconscious but my mind was on full display.. I could see my own code, Candon! And eventually, I learned to fix the damages too!"

"The first time it happened to me I was using combat stims, I know what you mean," Candon replied tersely, "Where did you go? Why did you leave us?"

"My sweet Torēsu," Sana addressed sweetly, "you couldn't understand at the time and Howard- ugh, he just couldn't stop trying to fix me!"

Candon's emotion traced the finest edge between pity and rage, both swelling up inside of him like the winds of a rising storm. One way or another he knew this wasn't going to end with words. His fists clenched as he coldly asked, "Sana.. Where is the child?"

Laughter, the kind that mean schoolgirls used to shame their peers into updating their outdated clothing was the first response she had to offer, as if the question's absurdity was so obvious the entire world already knew before him. "The child- is me," Sana exclaimed between breathes before tossing back the bottle of vitamin gummies as she began pacing, "This sickness isn't all bad, I've learned it has some perks. I replaced your memory of seeing me with that little girl as it was happening and you had no idea. Yamatai wont help us Torēsu, but I can teach you how to turn our death sentence into the gift that makes me the Empress of the Yamataian Star Empire and you, Taisho of the Star Army of Yamatai and we can take it out from under the Kuvexians greedy little hands"

Sana ceased her pacing to make her final appeal.
"Come with me, my son. We can be legends among our people."

"Oh... so now they're 'our people?" Candon teased sadly, his rage passing, "Mom, listen to yourself. This isn't right and it isn't you. We never wanted to rule anyone. I'm not going with the Kuvvies and neither should you. We can figure out our condition together, just like old times." He opened his clenched hand, offering it to his mother, "let's go home."

The wild expression on Sana's face dropped as the realization that her son would not support the completely reasonable idea of world domination set in. "I see," she resigned indignantly, "if that's the way it has to be then I suppose you leave me no choice."
With a downward nod of her head a telepathic connection of unprecedented intensity had thrust Candon's nervous system into disarray, the warrior dropped like a brick onto his face as his limbs spasmed in seizure. A searing pain coursed throughout his brain as if liquid fire had been poured into his skull, all the while his consciousness retreated into the depths of his mind.


Candon's Mind

As the sight of his eyes faded away it was promptly replaced by blue illuminated numbers, letters, and symbols the likes of which he'd never seen before. They continued to fill his plane of sight from all directions as the cluster of unintelligible data steadily shrank. Despite having never seen such an overwhelming data stream he began to notice distinct patterns which started to form pictures, each image comprised of hundreds of thousands of tiny characters. So great was their familiarity that he couldn't possibly ignore them. They were memories, or more specific HIS memory. The sum of all his knowledge, ideologies, personality traits. So beautiful was the sight of his very source of sentience sliding into view until the entirety of his essence had come to rest in sight. like a broken hall of mirrors it came to appear as a sphere of shattered glass. The endless partitioning of his mind over the years to stave off his impending madness had left so many neural pathways blocked it genuinely surprised him to have made it so far.

A layer of code enveloped the enormous ball of data, images of past defeats and harm forming their streams of information.
Suddenly, a jolt of searing pain flashed across this protective barrier forming images of his mother. Candon had a bad feeling that he knew what was happening.

 

[Rizzo]

It sound so close, yet as if from a great distance, the commanding voice of Jinja Emi through a Mindy's speaker followed by the pleasant brrrrt on an aether gatling rifle. He always found it strange that her rifle fired just a bit slower than the standard model, but who in SAINT was standard? They'd all loved the aether suppressor and the gatling rifle was fast to fire even at half its firerate. A mental image of whatever poor soul was being cut in half saddened him. His mother had done this, taken his ability to move even slightly. His eyes fixated on the shattered pavement he lay on, glimmers of the strange code now streaming slowly and without the coherent pattern they'd previously had.
"Suites, we need to leave now!" he heard Jinja shout between bursts of bunfire, "move or die you worthless soldier! On your feet!"

Candon struggled against his paralysis to no avail. Again he pushed himself, weakness staying his hand until his fingers twitched ever so slightly. Memories of his family destroyed lit a fire in his eyes. Memories of his commitment to defend Yamatai burned through his weakened limbs. Memories of his dear Masumi invigorated his heart.
"I- won't- die here," he wheezed, hands balling into fists. Focusing on the stray lines of code, he turned his own psionic abilities on himself and willed the code to return to order, "I won't- die- here." One line at a time the shattered code began to re-adhere, the colossal mess of his soul fighting against the damage to who he was and who he would be until it was just enough. Rising to his knees he took view of his surroundings. The falling Dawn Hammer had arrived and the time to leave was now. Jinja caught his attention as she fell back to the large Nozomi class scout ship she commanded. "Move it!" she shouted again as she and her personal SOFT laid down heavy covering fire on Sana and Rolland who were also retreating from the fight.

With a quick flash of his M2-2d's distortion drive his catapulted himself toward the opening, but it was too little too late. As the ship began to take off. The blank face of Jinja's Mindy had somehow changed it's expression from one of stoic reserve to panic as she instantly reached out to catch him. Their armored gauntlets caught hold of each other and she pulled him up into the closing blast door as the ship rocketed away from the doomed city. "Suites, what the hell is wrong with you?!" she shouted, her concern slipping past the usual mask of ruthless efficiency. In that moment the call of 'brace for impact' rang out over the intercoms.

Outside the ship, the Dawn Hammer lived up to its name, blasting through the invading cruiser and crashing just beyond the city's limits with the force of a nuclear explosion, it's shock wave leveling nearly every building, less the ones reinforced by Zesu. In a flash the capital city of planet Himiko was merely a closed chapter in history.

The ship rocked and bounded violently as the blast chased them down for seconds that felt like hours until it suddenly stopped and the intercom cracked to life with heavy breathing from the captain, "We made it.. we're in orbit. The rest of the fleet is here, and more Kuvexian ships are arriving. We'll be forming up and jumping out shortly.. That was way too close."

Jinja, who'd been holding Candon in place by a hole in his chestplate, removed her helmet. "Now that we're clear, explain. What happened back there?"
Candon rolled slightly, "I'll show you." Jinja's NSP barked out 2 heavy bursts causing the room of soldiers to visibly jump, turning one at a time to see what he'd shot at in the back corner of the armor bay. A robot with the appearance of a mechanical dog limped helplessly from the damage caused before two operatives tackled it, pinning to crippled invader. "That's Kiba and it's incredibly dangerous, it can cloak and would've hacked our system," he wheezed, exhausted, "Jinja, it's Sana. She's back, but she's lost her mind. She working with the Kuvies to depose the empress! What's worse is she hit me with some kind of psionic attack and had been using her psionics to infiltrate our defenses here using this ability."

Jinja shook her head, "no, that is not possible. We have the tech to block that out. Any PA we field is immune to that."
Candon closed his eyes and exhaled, "not if it's coming through our command network. That is how she did it here, straight from Radiotown in orbit. They bombed the building to cover their tracks but I know my mother and I know how she thinks. This was a test drive for something bigger, and we would always go MUCH bigger. Our plan was to regroup with the Izanagi and they made sure to get Kiba onboard prior to withdrawing.. If she hits the Izanagi with this she could do this to millions of Neko and Minkan at a time across the entire empire without us even knowing."

"I see," Jinja considered, "that explains why our other operatives here were seeing reports that made no sense and sabotage without any trace of the saboture.. They must have been using the engineers like puppets. But Candon, you were kicking ass down there before she arrived. What exactly did she do to you?"
Candon looked her in the eyes, "her and I both have ST Fragmentation. She knew that and she made it worse." Her face dropped, realizing what he was saying, "and your last usable ST?" "I don't know." Jinja rose to her feet, the operatives in the room standing to attention. "You heard it here, spooks. Listen up, I am placing a gag order on each of you. You will all be debriefed by myself and the director. If others were to discover this they might attempt to duplicate this attack in the future. Therefore no one else is to know of this plot against our empire. We are going to find this traitor and we are going to eliminate her once and for all along with her compatriots. For Yamatai!"
"Hei," was the response of the gathered operatives, Candon included.

"Do you really wish to be a part of this?" she asked him sternly. Rising to his feet he answered, "and miss my grand finale? Never."