RP: Setareh Wing [Four] Take On Me

Whaizat Jungle

"Right."

The wing was reeling a bit from the suddenness of the flanking attack. Mox still seemed to be in pretty good shape. Irfan was down. Shaanti was a precious cinnamon roll to be protected at all costs. (Uh...) And Zoren was barking out orders, Shaanti coordinating, they were recovering. They still had this. Regrettable loss aside (Mox would surely recite the most terrible and self-indulgent poetry at Irfan's funeral, all full of paeans to butts not pursued), they could still pull this out.

Shaanti launched that volley, and moved left. Mox, as directed, moved right. Their shield remained the foremost focus, keeping the angles to cover space, keeping their frontward face as faced towards the bulk of the drones as they could. Flashy, no, but disciplined and quite devoted to providing cover to their teammates. Peeling out for that rightward flank, Mox waited again for opportunities, the Phantoma Needles buzzing fore and back: they may not have provided intense punch at long distance, but they made Mox an impossible-to-ignore quantity whenever they pulled close to a foe. Like a buzzsaw. Hopefully that let the people better-suited to shooting take better shots.

Jungle

Shaanti flanked left, pulling back slightly to give himself breathing room, as well as keeping clear of the smol one's (uh...) needles. As the drones shifted their attention to Mox's onslaught, Shaanti recharged his sniper cannon and began sending out precision fire on what remained of the horde.

If a cloud of needles didn't get them, a concentrated death-beam would.

Hopefully, they would pass this area soon. They were already down a member. Somehow, Irfan had managed to destroy her VANDR during a training session.

No time to think about that. Fight now, recuperate later.

With Zoren's order to attack, Altair launched himself into the air with a bound of Hawk's legs. He burst past the drones and sprayed them down with fire before activating his VT drivers, which shifted into blade form as he span in a kick, intending for the bladed legs to slice through one or two.

Above Matai

The orbital defense control master slipped through a small tolling station in the planet of Hlarai's structured net of sorts that kept everyone going into Hlarai in check. The operator at the station's controls was sweating profusely and once the control master was out of the room the operator manned, he opened up an encrypted and secure comm to a New Veyrin ship about to slip out of MASC and arrive near the planet.

In what seemed like long moments of getting past the planet's gravitational sphere and entered the station's docking pod. The operator opened the gates for them and nodded them through.

A sleeper agent, this operator was working for the cause of disassociating with the Commonwealth and utilizing the resources in and around the Iruotl system solely. They were effectively trying to cause a severing of the Iruotl System's inhabitants of their energy sources. And Setareh Wing couldn't let them get away with that.

Reflections of the Stars Garden
Matai

The frames had soon filtered out of the civilian-looking ship that had only just gotten through the atmosphere of Hlarai and were flying down to their target. Twenty of them came down from the sky and people ducked as they noticed them. One frame put a hand out to touch a waterfall. The water splashed against the mecha and caused the frame operator to remove their hand and continue to draw nearer to their mark.

Whaizat Jungle

The drones were the first to respond to the threat in Matai before klaxons could be heard distantly coming from the base. Naak slowed to a halt in a millisecond and was calling out over comms, hoping the FIOMNI was listening.

"Ishtar?!" Was all Naak said at first before she continued while changing course and setting the coordinates for the base in everyone's NI, "What is going on?"

Ishtar was listening, always listening. It was both her job and pleasure to eavesdrop in an otherwise boring profession as a FIOMNI not taking part in wartime exercises. Her physical shell had been nestled in a large, cushioned chair eyeballing a large cache of candy on a table whilst maintaining a vigil through the various networks, sensor webs and communications hubs of local space. Naak's frantic call caused her to cease her lusting after enough sugar to induce a coma. Perking up, Ishtar responded.

"Standby," Ishtar primly said as she sifted through the mountains of data currently flitting through the secured networks. Most of it was just run of the mill reports, financial information and other bits of data. She gave a squawk of surprise then, "Foreign entities have been detected in Matai's local airspace." she sent a sample video of what she'd 'seen' through her feeds. Fifteen to twenty had been her rough estimate. "How did they slip past orbital control?!" the AI seemed to ask herself as she became all the more flustered as she made to identify them. "I've identified them as Republic Frames. This. . . in such numbers?" her synthesized voice trailed off then.

Jungle

Shaanti heard the echoing wail of sirens in the distance. It could have been part of the training exercise, he told himself, to create a "fog of war" effect that the recruits would have to push through. But something in his gut told him that he needed to be worried.

He went with his gut.

"Setareh, we must halt this exercise immediately! Something is wrong!" he hailed to his wingmates over the comms. The last training drone, still programmed to fight, splattered him with paint, and the Curdatl deftly raised his left arm and slagged it.

"Lanranr, there is a commotion back at base. Should we investigate?" he asked Naak. He starred back in the direction of the base, with his trademark look of focus, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed at the sudden interruption of what was to be a fun day of training.

"I agree." Altair responded, "we also need to keep the trainees safe. If you can handle whatever is going on I'll escort them to the base."

He transformed and hovered in humanoid mode, looking at a map of the route back to the base. The jungle was just too good of a place for ambushed for them to risk sending the trainees back, and there were plenty of RAEVR pilots.

Whaizat Jungle

At first, Karuah thought that the retreat of the drones was their realization of her good positioning, but when the alarms sounded, she quickly pulled Saeid to a halt and looked around. Orders were not clear yet, but they would likely go into battle, however, amoung them were those not yet out of training. She almost gave them orders but stopped herself and spoke to Naak instead. "What should we do about the trainees? Should we send them back to defend the HQ?"

Whaizat Jungle

Zoren froze as the drones moved away, and then the klaxons sounded. "This isn't good..." He voiced to himself. As he listened in and was mortified by what he heard... Internal Security Affairs was gonna lose their minds at this massive breach, and Zoren knew as an SOF operative, he was going to have to report to command. He cursed loudly in his cockpit.

"Boss, we need to engage as soon as possible. I would advise all Raevrs should transform and begin counter attacking. Get them off balance and allows the rest of the wing to flank the force. We need to act fast!" He advised over a private channel.

Whaizat Jungle

"Wait, what about me!?"

Irfan struggled to get Lucidity to stand up, the machine's damaged boosters ensuring all she could do was struggle in the low trees. Grunting, the short-haired butt-fanatic growled and shook her machine, bumping it between two of the trees nearby as she tried to override the damage done. Each loud thunk to the right earned a hiss of boosters, earning more vigor that made her look like she was trying to shake her Haidan's butt. Thump after thump, as the group left her behind, had finally got Irfan to yell over the comms.

"Just. Fly!"

Feeding overrides through to the machine, she grabbed the controls and pushed, the machine's damaged boosters humming loudly as the VANDR attempted to once more return to the air. One of her main boosters had a micro-detonation, fire spilling backwards with the exhaust as it tore through wood debris that had been lodged inside. The other only needed the roaring life of the damaged to sputter itself back into power, the dented and paint plastered machine finally launching off the ground and upward after her companions with a squeal of joy over the comms.

"Yeeeees~! Good Lucy! I'm going to get you a rad paintjob for not breaking down on me!"

Returning to formation, albeit very far behind thanks to the shaky nature of the battered machine, Irfan began preparing the machine once more for battle situations. While she was normally one to push her luck and go the extra mile, her place in the group with her lovely machine was in the back. The Eyr Ranr's kicks was going to be pushing Lucidity beyond its recommended operation status, to test if the machine's VI had the spirit to guide the organic harmony into functional long enough to be useful in the defense of Matai.

She was going to have to be the group's butt.

Whaizat Jungle

“Vaybalri Khorvash, Vaybalri Ekia, and Senbalri Sanjaya please assist the wing by taking back the trainees. Ishtar, can you find out where the trajectory of their attack is? Join up immediately in your Sahti! Vaybalri Ekata, we will be going to where the threat is- Matai. We’re going there now, Setareh! Raevrs transform into fighters! Form up. Above the tree line! Let’s go!”

She flew up above the trees and her knee was higher than her hip line, foot on the same level as her other leg’s knee. The Hlaraian sun sparkled and shone out over her frame, Victory. She then shot out with her GE Lift Ring System on her joints, towards Matai.

Looking longingly at her how forgone afternoon of bellychurning amount of sugary goodness. Likely someone would come and either clear it out, or indulge themselves. Ishtar wrote a hasty note declaring that it was hers. And set her Nohman guards to watch over it before beating a hasty run to the hangars. As she ran, bubblegum pink hair whipping behind her, the FIOMNI tried to extrapolate the course of the enemy frames. She wouldn't come to any conclusions due to the erratic behavior of the units until she'd donned her Linksuit. With her lips forming an 'Oh' of surprise she almost went into a fit of hysterics.

"They're heading for an Ivuori-run Opera House within the city's central, downtown area. I've checked the guest lists and it would appear several board members of Solan are in attendance!" it was then that she flailed as a Machinist helped set her into the cockpit of her Sahti. Fluid began to fill the cockpit's interior, submerging her as her entry ports connected, and synced with the VCANIOS system. Once synced, the Frame hummed to life, the GE-Lifter systems causing the suit to begin to hover as various scaffolding and walkways were retracted from the unit's proximity. In its fighter mode, the Sahti slowly hovered its way out of the hangar, the Lifter Rings were fed more power as the Frame lifted itself in VTOL fashion before finally taking off with a sharp crack of acceleration.

Jungle

Shaanti looked around to his wingmates. Things were going to shit pretty fast. There was no time for pep-talks or briefings. Only action. Oddly enough, the curdatl found that he liked it this way.

With a shrug, he prepped Archer to follow his commander.

"Saints guide you, Mox." he said to the smaller ivuory who had been his unofficial "partner" for the operation, before rocketing gracefully into the sky with his Haidan. He smoothly fell in slightly behind and to the right of Naak, bringing up his cloak and charging his sniper cannon.

"Archer in position." he informed her.

...this had all gone wrong so quickly Mox had no idea what to make of it. An attack in the middle of a training exercise? What could possibly have prepared them for that, other than every work of military fiction they'd ever been exposed to?

"And you, Shaanti," Mox replied almost automatically. Their attention seemed torn.

Sonatine's vector shield dropped, her fangs drew back to their nesting places along the edges of the physical material of the ATA. No longer a training exercise, this was, it seemed, to be Mox' first battle. They'd have been lying if they said they weren't suddenly full of nerves and a little bit nauseous. Fortunately, nobody asked them, so they didn't have to lie. Their target was Matai. Mox brought their shroud online again, and fell in formation.

(Perhaps it was a good day to die?)

Whaizat Jungle

When she heard that the trainees would be taken back, Karuah was relieved, the Wing could focus fully on the fight ahead. As for her own orders, she quickly moved above the tree line and transformed as instructed, speeding after the Wing commander.

Inside the cockpit, she spoke softly to her AI assistant. "Saeid, rearrange priorities. Place Target identification at the top, we do not want to hurt civilians or hit our own team."

The was a hum of confirmation as the frame worked to redo it's processing priorities.

Whaizat Jungle Outskirts

Busted up as her Haidan might have been, Irfan gave off a chortle as her machine broke above the trees with the rest of the team. While she couldn't transform, she was definitely content to continue holding the rear of the wing's formation with her beastly machine. It didn't need but one shot! She was definitely glad to still have a fully functional squad, however, since they could feed simplistic data across their networks and ensure her VI-assisted craft was going to get all the data it might have normally missed out on.

"Lucidity, priming!" Irfan tapped a few more buttons as the machine readied its arsenal, dragging low briefly before a powerful spurt of its engines sent it soaring skyward a bit more. She had to let the craft lean backwards as a fleeing airship zoomed by, performing a sloppy backflip to right herself.

"Oof~... this will be tough."

Whaizat Jungle

Zoren nodded. "Roger, Boss." The doctor said as his Raevr shot upwards into the sky. As he cleared the trees, Enigma quickly transformed into ARMS mode and Zoren made his way near the front of the formation.

"Enigma, prepare a full missile barrage. If the missiles miss their target and can't move on to a new one, set them to self destruct. We don't want any collateral damage." Zoren ordered, as he checked his shocklance cannons.

"Copy that Doc." Engima replied.

"Let's show these fools what happens when you piss us off..." Zoren growled.

Whaizat Jungle

Naak called out, "We're going to act as auxiliary support for the time being. Until they really need us, keep a backseat! Vanguard already patrol that area of the city, remember!"

Matai

The wing flew to the borders of Matai and Naak said, "Fly high and do not engage." They flew over the buildings and soon a sight was to be seen outside of the central portion of the downtown area. There were monolithic buildings with cascading falls of water sheathed in vines. The mist of the water floated outwards, draping the buildings in a foggy terrain. The landscape was much like the trees of the jungle they had only just been in. Around the buildings weaved the VANDR and the frames of the New Veyrin Republic. The types were not immediately apparent as the frames moved throughout the waterfall-clad buildings.

To Ishtar, Naak spoke, "Ishtar, what frames are we looking at? What is the local Vanguard running into at the opera house?" Naak said to the wing, "I want us to not deal with these conflicts. We need to get directly to the opera house! Make your way over the city and do not engage. The opera house is where they need us most!"

The FIOMNI probed with her active sensors, Vector Wave showed MASC Drive signatures similar in capability to that of the VANDR, capable of Vector Transitions. RADAR allowed her to see the number of Frames, while other equipment allowed her to gauge mass, size and other minutiae. It was enough to send a quiver down her spine as she coasted along in the upper atmosphere. "A mixture of automated and piloted units. The piloted Frames are extremely dangerous." Automated imperatives urged her to guard the Solanii VIPs at the Opera House, others demanded she engage the enemy.

"Local Vanguard Units are dealing with mainly a few automated Frames with some of the piloted units enroute, but they are trying to evacuate the attendees and surrounding structures of people foremost."

Matai Airspace

"Affirmative." Shaanti replied to Naak and, still cloaked, shot higher into the sky. Higher and higher he went, until the panicking civilians below were but ants scurrying about the city streets.

Does this not remind you of the story you once told me?

"It does." Shaanti replied to Archer. Indeed, this was a scene straight out of his dream. Shaanti flew high above the opera house, watching the battle raging below with a sense of tranquility as he began to draw a bead on a target.

The Archer on the hill. Efficient, and unseen.